Part 13 (2/2)

In conformity with his method and with his evident purpose to vindicate authority and tradition, this tiument that Scripture teaches, doctors affirm, philosophers prove, and huement of free will the ter What would be the sense of the teachings, reproofs, admonitions of Scripture (Ti to mere and inevitable necessity? To what purpose is obedience praised, if for good and evil works we are equally but tools to God, as the hatchet to the carpenter?

And if this were so, it would be dangerous to reveal such a doctrine to the multitude, for morality is dependent on the consciousness of freedoonist with disgust and conte his reply, however, he suppressed these feelings outwardly and observed the rules of courtesy But his inward anger is revealed in the contents itself of _De servo arbitrio_ (_On the Will not free_) For here he really did what Eras to heal a dislocatedat it in the opposite direction More fiercely than ever before, his for inferences of his burning faith Without any reserve he now accepted all the extremes of absolute determinism In order to confute indeterminism in explicit terms, he was now forced to have recourse to those pri to express the inexpressible: God's tills, which do not coincide, God's 'eternal hatred of mankind, a hatred not only on account of demerits and the works of free will, but a hatred that existed even before the world was created', and thatbeast, stands in the middle between God and the devil and which isable toriders If anywhere, Luther's doctrine in _De Servo Arbitrio_ ious conceptions

But it was Luther who here stood on the rockbed of a profound and mystic faith in which the absolute conscience of the eternal pervades all In hilow of God's majesty, for him each human co-operation to attain to salvation was a profanation of God's glory Erasmus's mind after all did not truly _live_ in the ideas which were here disputed, of sin and grace, of redelory of God as the final cause of all that is

Was, then, Erasht at the core? Perhaps Dr Murray rightly reedy is not the conflict between right and wrong, but the conflict between right and right The combat of Luther and Erasement is forced to halt and has to accept an equivalence, nay, a coation

And this fact, that they here were fighting ords and metaphors in a sphere beyond that of what may be known and expressed, was understood by Erasmus Erasmus, the man of the fine shades, for whoed, called a Proteus by Luther; Luther the man of over-emphatic expression about all matters

The Dutchman, who sees the sea, was opposed to the German, who looks out on mountain tops

'This is quite true that we cannot speak of God but with inadequate words' 'Many problems should be deferred, not to the oeculass and the darkness having been taken ae shall see God face to face' 'What is free of error?'

'There are in sacred literature certain sanctuaries into which God has not willed that we should penetrate further'

The Catholic Church had on the point of free will reserved to itself soht proviso, left a little elbow-roorace Erasmus conceived that liberty in a considerably broader spirit Luther absolutely denied it The opinion of contemporaries was at first too le as such: they applauded Erasmus, because he struck boldly at Luther, or the other way about, according to their sympathies

Not only Vives applauded Erasmus, but also more orthodox Catholics such as Sadolet The Ger, for the most part, to break with the ancient Church, were moved by Erasmus's attack to turn their backs still more upon Luther: Mutianus, Zasius, and Pirckheimer Even Melanchthon inclined to Erasmus's standpoint Others, like Capito, once a zealous supporter, noashed their hands of hiument was completely to take Luther's side

It is worth while to quote the opinion of a contemporary Catholic scholar about the relations of Erasmus and Luther 'Erasmus,' says F X

Kiefl,[19] 'with his concept of free, unspoiled hun to the Church than Luther He only cohty scepticisy upbraided his and the misery of the Church of Christ in such a way that his readers could not help laughing, instead of bringing his charges, with deep sighs, as beseemed before God'

The _Hyperaspistes_, a voluain addressed Luther, was nothing but an epilogue, which need not be discussed here at length

Erasmus had thus, at last, openly taken sides For, apart fromatical point at issue itself, the most important part about _De libero arbitrio_ was that in it he had expressly turned against the individual religious conceptions and had spoken in favour of the authority and tradition of the Church He always regarded himself as a Catholic 'Neither death nor life shall draw me from the communion of the Catholic Church,' he writes in 1522, and in the _Hyperaspistes_ in 1526: 'I have never been an apostate from the Catholic Church I know that in this Church, which you call the Papist Church, there are many who displease me, but such I also see in your Church One bears more easily the evils to which one is accustomed Therefore I bear with this Church, until I shall see a better, and it cannot help bearing with me, until I shall myself be better And he does not sail badly who steers a middle course between two several evils'

But was it possible to keep to that course? On either side people turned away from him 'I who, forreat hero, Prince of letters, Sun of studies, Maintainer of true theology, anored, or represented in quite different colours,' he writes How one!

A sufficient nuht and hoped as Erasate, especially byinfluence of his h church dignitaries, nobles, students, and civil istrates were his correspondents The Bishop of Basle himself, Christopher of Utenheim, was a man after Erasmus's heart A zealous advocate of humanisy of his bishopric by means of synodal statutes, without much success; afterwards he had called scholars like Oecolareat struggle began, which was soon to carry away Oecolampadius and Capito much further than the Bishop of Basle or Erasmus approved In 1522 Erasmus addressed the bishop in a treatise _De interdicto esu carniu Meat_) This was one of the last occasions on which he directly opposed the established order

The bishop, however, could no longer control the movement A considerable number of the commonalty of Basle and the majority of the council, were already on the side of radical Reformation About a year after Erasmus, Johannes Oecolampadius, whose first residence at Basle had also coincided with his (at that time he had helped Erasmus with Hebrew for the edition of the New Testa the resistance to the old order there In 1523 the council appointed him professor of Holy Scripture in the University; at the same time four Catholic professors lost their places

He succeeded in obtaining general per

Soon a far itator, the impetuous Guillaume Farel, also arrived for active work at Basle and in the environs He is the man ill afterwards reforh at first Oecolaan to introduce novelties into the church service with caution, Erasmus saw these innovations with alarm

Especially the fanaticism of Farel, whom he hated bitterly It was these ht possible: a compromise His lambent spirit, which never fully decided in favour of a definite opinion, had, with regard to radually fixed on a half-conservativehis deepest conviction, he tried to remain faithful to the Church In 1524 he had expressed his sentiesis_ (_On the Way to confess_) He accepts it halfway: if not instituted by Christ or the Apostles, it was, in any case, by the Fathers It should be piously preserved Confession is of excellent use, though, at tireat evil In this way he tries 'to adree with nor to assail'

the deniers, 'though inclining to the side of the believers'

In the long list of his poleradually finds opportunities to define his views somewhat; circumstantially, for instance, in the answers to Alberto Pio, of 1525 and 1529 Subsequently it is always done in the foria_, whether he is attacked for the _Colloquia_, for the _Moria_, Jero else At last he recapitulates his views to some extent in _De amabili Ecclesiae concordia_ (_On the Amiable Concord of the Church_), of 1533, which, however, ranks hardly anyhis reformatory endeavours

Onard to cereer , which he had always abhorred, for the veneration of relics and for Church festivals He does not want to abolish the worshi+p of the Saints: it no longer entails danger of idolatry He is even willing to adery out of life deprives it of its highest pleasure; we often discern es than we conceive fro Christ's substantial presence in the sacrament of the altar he holds fast to the Catholic view, but without fervour, only on the ground of the Church's consensus, and because he cannot believe that Christ, who is truth and love, would have suffered His bride to cling so long to so horrid an error as to worshi+p a crust of bread instead of Hiht, at need, accept Oecolampadius's view