Part 12 (2/2)

ERASMUS AT BASLE

1521-9

Basle his dwelling-place for nearly eight years: 1521-9--Political thought of Eras princes and government--New editions of several Fathers--The _Colloquia_--Controversies with Stunica, Beda, etc--Quarrel with Hutten--Eppendorff

It is only towards the evening of life that the picture of Eraso down to posterity Only at Basle--delivered fro to enlist him, transplanted from an environment of haters and opponents at Louvain to a circle of friends, kindred spirits, helpers and admirers, emancipated froreat, unrey to the work that was dear to him--did he become Holbein's Erasmus In those late years he approaches most closely to the ideal of his personal life

He did not think that there were still fifteen years in store for hi before, in fact, since he becaeafter 1517

He now felt practically independent as to money matters Many years had passed before he could say that But peace of mind did not come with competence It never came He never became truly placid and serene, as Holbein's picture seems to represent him He was always too ht of hihly at home He still speaks repeatedly of a reland, or back to the Netherlands Physical rest, at any rate, which was not in hiht years he now re for six

Erasmus at Basle is a man whose ideals of the world and society have failed hie of peace and light, in which he had believed as late as 1517? What of his trust in good will and rational insight, in which he wrote the _Institutio Principis Christiani_ for the youthful Charles V? To Erasmus all the weal of state and society had always been hten those two he at one tireat renovation himself From the moment when he saw that the conflict would lead to an exasperated struggle he refused any longer to be anything but a spectator As an actor in the great ecclesiastical coe

But he does not give up his ideal 'Let us resist,' he concludes an Epistle about gospel philosophy, 'not by taunts and threats, not by force of arentleness and tolerance' Towards the close of his life, he prays: 'If Thou, O God, deignst to renew that Holy Spirit in the hearts of all, then also will those external disasters cease Bring order to this chaos, Lord Jesus, let Thy Spirit spread over these waters of sadly troubled dogmas'

Concord, peace, sense of duty and kindliness, were all valued highly by Erasmus; yet he rarely saw them realized in practical life He becomes disillusioned After the short spell of political optimism he never speaks of the tie, he says--and again, the inable

In vain had he alritten in the cause of peace: _Querela pacis_, the coe _Dulce bellum inexpertis_, war is sweet to those who have not known it, _Oratio de pace et discordia_, and hly of his pacifistic labours: 'that polygraph, who never leaves off persecuting war by means of his pen', thus he nate hi to a tradition noted by Melanchthon, Pope Julius is said to have called him before him in connection with his advice about the ith Venice,[18] and to have re on the concerns of princes: 'You do not understand those things!'

Erasmus had, in spite of a certain innate moderation, a wholly non-political mind He lived too ht too navely of the corrigibility of overnood administration were extremely pri ethical bias, very revolutionary at botto the practical inferences His friendshi+p with political and juridical thinkers, as More, Budaeus and Zasius, had not changed hiht, did not exist for him Economic probleratuitously and iood prince has all that loving citizens possess' The unemployed should be simply driven away We feel in closer contact with the world of facts when he enu of towns, building of bridges, halls, and streets, draining of pools, shi+fting of river-beds, the diking and reclamation of moors It is the Netherlander who speaks here, and at the sa away is a fundaue politicians like Erase princes very severely, since they take thes Eraseneral Fro time expected peace in Church and State They had disappointed hie than from political experience of his own tiia_ he often reverts to princes, their task and their neglect of duty, without everspecial princes

'There are those who sow the seeds of dissension between their townshi+ps in order to fleece the poor unhindered and to satisfy their gluttony by the hunger of innocent citizens' In the adage _Scarabeus aquilale as the great cruel robber and persecutor In another, _Aut regem aut fatuum nasci oportere_, and in _Dulce bellum inexpertis_ he utters his frequently quoted dictum: 'The people found and develop towns, the folly of princes devastates them' 'The princes conspire with the Pope, and perhaps with the Turk, against the happiness of the people,' he writes to Colet in 1518

He was an acade fron to Eras the _Utopia_ 'Bad monarchs should perhaps be suffered now and then The remedy should not be tried' It may be doubted whether Erasmus exercised much real influence on his conteainst princes One would fain believe that his ardent love of peace and bitter arraignment of the madness of war had some effect They have undoubtedly spread pacific sentiments in the broad circles of intellectuals who read Erasmus, but unfortunately the history of the sixteenth century shows little evidence that such sentiments bore fruit in actual practice However this th was not in these political declamations He could never be a leader of men with their passions and their harsh interests

His life-work lay elsewhere Now, at Basle, though tormented more and more frequently by his painful complaint which he had already carried for so many years, he could devote hireat task he had set hi up of the pure sources of Christianity, the exposition of the truth of the Gospel in all the simple comprehensibility in which he saw it In a broad stream flowed the editions of the Fathers, of classic authors, the new editions of the New Testaether with Paraphrases of the New Testaical, ical treatises In 1522 he was ill for months on end; yet in that year Arnobius and the third edition of the New Testament succeeded Cyprian, whom he had already annotated at Louvain and edited in 1520, closely followed by Hilary in 1523 and next by a new edition of Jeroustine, 1528-9, and a Latin translation of Chrysostom in 1530 The rapid succession of these comprehensive works proves that the as done as Erasmus alorked: hastily, with an extraordinary power of concentration and a surprising command of his mnemonic faculty, but without severe criticisy requires in such editions

Neither the polemical Erasmus nor the witty humorist had been lost in the erudite divine and the disillusioned reforladly have dispensed with, but not the humorist, for many treasures of literature But the two are linked inseparably as the _Colloquies_ prove

What was said about the _Moria_ may be repeated here: if in the literature of the world only the _Colloquies_ and the _Moria_ have reht Not in the sense that in literature only Erashtest and most readable works were preserved, whereas the ponderous theological erudition was silently relegated to the shelves of libraries It was indeed Erasmus's best work that was kept alive in the _Moria_ and the _Colloquies_ With these his sparkling wit has charn to the Erasmus of the _Colloquies_ his just and lofty place in that brilliant constellation of sixteenth-century followers of Dene, Cervantes, and Ben Jonson!

When Erasave the _Colloquies_ their definite forenesis At first they had been no more than _Familiarium colloquiorum formulae_, models of colloquial Latin conversation, written at Paris before 1500, for the use of his pupils Augustine Ca Erasenius, had collected thee within a li been dead when one Laot froh then already Erasmus's trusted friend, had it printed at once without the latter's knowledge That was in 1518 Erasmus was justly offended at it, the more so as the book was full of slovenly blunders and solecisms So he at once prepared a better edition himself, published by Maertensz at Louvain in 1519 At that tiue, the nucleus of the later _Convivium profanum_ The rest were formulae of etiquette and short talks But already in this form it was, apart from its usefulness to latinists, so full of happy wit and humorous invention that it became very popular Even before 1522 it had appeared in twenty-five editions, ne, Cracow, Deventer, Leipzig, London, Vienna, Mayence

At Basle Erasmus himself revised an edition which was published in March 1522 by Froben, dedicated to the latter's six-year-old son, the author's Godchild, Johannes Erasmius Froben Soon after he did ues, afterwards four, and again six, were added to the _Fored to _Familiarium colloquioruroith each new edition: a rich and ues, each a masterpiece of literary forhtness, vivacity and fluent Latin; each one a finished one-act play From that year on, the stream of editions and translations flowed almost uninterruptedly for two centuries

Eras of its acuteness and freshness when, so ain set foot in the field of satire

As to form, the _Colloquies_ are less confessedly satirical than the _Moria_ With its telling subject, the _Praise of Folly_, the latter at once introduces itself as a satire: whereas, at first sight, the _Colloquies_ enre-pieces But as to the contents, they are more satirical, at least more directly so The _Moria_, as a satire, is philosophical and general; the _Colloquia_ are up to date and special At the saative elements In the _Moria_ Erasmus's own ideal dwells unexpressed behind the representation; in the _Colloquia_ he continually and clearly puts it in the foreground On this account they for all the jests and mockery, a profoundly serious moral treatise and are closely akin to the _Enchiridion militis Christiani_

What Erasmus really demanded of the world and of mankind, how he pictured to himself that passionately desired, purified Christian society of good morals, fervent faith, simplicity and moderation, kindliness, toleration and peace--this we can nowhere else find so clearly and well-expressed as in the _Colloquia_ In these last fifteen years of his life Erasmatic disquisitions, the topics he broached in the _Enchiridion_: the exposition of sieneral Christian conduct; untrae of redeesis_, _De esu carniuua_, _Institutio christiani matrimonii_, _Vidua christiana_, _Ecclesiastes_

But, to far larger nue was contained in the _Colloquies_