Part 10 (2/2)

He is not only restless, but also precipitate Helped by an incomparably retentive and capacious memory he writes at haphazard He never becomes anacoluthic; his talent is too refined and sure for that; but he does repeat himself and is unnecessarily circu,' he says He compares his publications to parturitions, nay, to abortions He does not select his subjects, he tu once taken up a subject he finishes without intermission For years he has read only _tuer finds ti, and to work so as to please himself On that account he envied Budaeus

'Do not publish too hastily,' More warns hiht in inexactitudes' Erasmus knows it: he will correct all later, he will ever have to revise and to polish everything He hates the labour of revising and correcting, but he submits to it, and works passionately, 'in the treadmill of Basle', and, he says, finishes the work of six years in eight months

In that recklessness and precipitation hich Erasain one of the unsolved contradictions of his being He _is_ precipitate and careless; he _wants_ to be careful and cautious; his mind drives him to be the first, his nature restrains him, but usually only after the word has been written and published The result is a continual inter of explosion and reserve

The way in which Erasmus always tries to shi+rk definite statements irritates us How carefully he always tries to represent the _Colloquies_, in which he had spontaneously revealed socommitted to paper to please his friends They are onlyis said in the matters of faith, it is not I who say it, is it?

As often as he censures classes or offices in the _Adagia_, princes above all, he warns the readers not to regard his words as aimed at particular persons

Erasmus was a master of reserve He knew, even when he held definite views, how to avoid direct decisions, not only frouity of human issues

Eras a liar, he says, he was corporeally affected As a boy he already violently disliked art of whom he tells in the _Colloquies_ That this reaction of aversion is genuine is not contradicted by the fact that we catch Erasmus himself in untruths

Inconsistencies, flattery, pieces of cunning, white lies, serious suppression of facts, simulated sentiments of respect or sorrow--they may all be pointed out in his letters He once disavowed his deepest conviction for a gratuity frootry He requested his best friend Batt to tell lies in his behalf

He ue, for fear of the consequences, even to More, and always in such a way as to avoid saying outright, 'I did not write it' Those who know other humanists, and kno frequently and ihtly of Eras his lifetime he did not escape punishment for his eternal reserve, his proficiency in semi-conclusions and veiled truths, insinuations and slanderous allusions The accusation of perfidy was often cast in his teeth, soed in bringing suspicion upon others,' Edward Lee exclaieneral censor, and condemn what you have hardly ever tasted? How dare you despise all but yourself? Falsely and insultingly do you expose your antagonist in the _Colloquia_' Lee quotes the spiteful passage referring to himself, and then exclaims: 'Now from these words the world may come to know its divine, its censor, its modest and sincere author, that Erasmian diffidence, earnest, decency and honesty! Eras the words ”false accusations” You say: if I was consciously guilty of the smallest of all his (Lee's) false accusations, I should not dare to approach the Lord's table!--O e another, a servant who stands or falls before his Lord?'

This was the first violent attack fro of 1520, when the le which Luther's action had unchained kept the world in ever greater suspense Six months later followed the first serious reproaches on the part of radical refory-headed knight, anted to see Luther's cause triumph as the national cause of Germany, turns to Erasmus, whom, at one time, he had enthusiastically acclaient appeal not to forsake the cause of the reformation or to compromise it 'You have shown yourself fearful in the affair of Reuchlin; now in that of Luther you do your utether averse froh we know better Do not disown us You kno triumphantly certain letters of yours are circulated, in which, to protect yourself from suspicion, you rather meanly fasten it on othersIf you are now afraid to incur a little hostility for _my_ sake, concede me at least that you will not allow yourself, out of fear for another, to be tempted to renounce me; rather be silent about me'

Those were bitter reproaches In the man who had to s them there was a puny Erasmus who deserved those reproaches, who took offence at them, but did not take them to heart, who continued to act with prudent reserve till Hutten's friendshi+p was turned to hatred In hireat Erasmus who kne, under the passion and infatuation hich the parties coht, and the Love he hoped would subdue the world, were obscured; who knew the God whoh to take sides Let us try ever to see of that great Erasmus as much as the petty one permits

FOOTNOTES:

[15] Cf the letter to Beatus Rhenanus, pp 227-8

[16] Ad 2001 LB II, 717B, 77 c 58A On the book which Erasford Castle, we read in Greek: The Labours of Hercules

CHAPTER XV

AT LOUVAIN

1517-18

Erasmus at Louvain, 1517--He expects the renovation of the Church as the fruit of good learning--Controversy with Lefevre d'etaples--Second journey to Basle, 1518--He revises the edition of the New Testaards the opposition of conservative theology

When Erasmus established hiue presenties were at hand 'I fear', he writes in Septeht about here, if God's favour and the piety and wisdom of princes do not concern thereat change would assuarded his removal as merely temporary It was only to last 'till we shall have seen which place of residence is best fit for old age, which is already knocking' There is so but quiet and liberty, and who through his own restlessness, and his inability not to concern himself about other people, never found a really fixed abode or true independence Erasmus is one of those people who always seem to say: tomorrow, tomorrow! I must first deal with this, and thenAs soon as he shall be ready with the new edition of the New Testament and shall have extricated hiical controversies, in which he finds hiainst his wish, he will sleep, hide hi for himself and the Muses' But that time never came

Where to live when he shall be free? Spain, to which Cardinal Ximenes called him, did not appeal to him From Gerland the servitude which was required of him there revolted him But in the Netherlands themselves, he did not feel at his ease, either: 'Here I ah I desired it ever so ' Yet he reood friends in the University of Louvain At first he put up with his old host Johannes Paludanus, Rhetor of the University, whose house he exchanged that sue of the Lily

Martin Dorp, a Dutched froood as of great importance to Erasmus, because of the iical faculty And lastly, though his old patron, Adrian of Utrecht, afterwards Pope, had by that tinities, his influence had not diminished in consequence, but rather increased; for just about that time he had been reat complaisance by the Louvain divines

Their leader, the vice-chancellor of the University, Jean Briard of Ath, repeatedly expressed his approval of the edition of the New Testareat satisfaction Soon Erasical faculty Yet he did not feel at his ease areat deal less congenial to hilish scholars Here he felt a spirit which he did not understand and distrusted in consequence