Part 14 (2/2)

Oecolampadius desired this, too Relations between him and Erasmus were precarious Erasht of the i e in a convent, he had expressly justified that step towards Eras vows And now they saw each other again at Basle, in 1522: Oecola left the monastery, a convinced adherent and apostle of the new doctrine; Erasreat spectator which he wished to be Erasressed, retreateda ave some moderate advice to the council, which ain

The old bishop, who for soer resided in his town, in 1527 requested the chapter to relieve him of his office, and died shortly afterwards Then events moved very quickly After Berne had, meanwhile, reformed itself in 1528, Oecolampadius demanded a decision also for Basle Since the close of 1528 the town had been on the verge of civil war A popular rising put an end to the resistance of the Council and cleared it of Catholic members; and in February 1529 the old service was prohibited, the ies were removed from the churches, the convents abolished, and the University suspended Oecolampadius became the first minister in the 'Munster' and leader of the Basle church, for which he soon drew up a reformatory ordinance The new bishop re

[Illustration: XXIII ERASMUS'S RESIDENCE AT FREIBURG, 1529-31]

The moment of departure had now come for Erasmus His position at Basle in 1529 somewhat resembled, but in a reversed sense, the one at Louvain in 1521 Then the Catholics wanted to avail theelicals would fain have kept him at Basle

For his nathen the position of reformed Basle; on the one hand, because, as people reasoned, if he were not of the sao; on the other hand, because his figure see uard his independence that Erasreat wrench this tie and invalidism had made the restless man a stay-at-home As he foresaw trouble from the side of the municipality, he asked Archduke Ferdinand--who for his brother Charles V governed the German empire and just then presided over the Diet of Speyer--to send him a safe conduct for the whole empire and an invitation, moreover, to co As place of refuge he had selected the not far distant town of Freiburg iovernment of the Austrian house, and where he, therefore, need not be afraid of such a turn of affairs as that at Basle It was, moreover, a juncture at which the iain to be gaining ground rapidly

Erasmus would not or could not keep his departure a secret He sent the most precious of his possessions in advance, and when this had drawn attention to his plan, he purposely invited Oecolampadius to a farewell talk The reformer declared his sincere friendshi+p for Erasranted hi the town, and, when it proved too late for that, to persuade him to return later

They took leave with a handshake Erase, but the Council would not allow this: he had to start froe A numerous croitnessed his embarkation, 13 April 1529 Some friends were there to see him off No unfavourable de convinced him that, in spite of all, he was still the celebrated and admired prince of letters The Council placed at his disposal the large, though unfinished, house built for the Ey offered hi by means of a yearly allowance For the rest he considered Freiburg by no means a permanent place of abode 'I have resolved to remain here this winter and then to fly with the ss to the place whither God shall calloffered

The climate, to which he was so sensitive, turned out better than he expected, and the position of the toas extre to France, should circu down the Rhine back to the Netherlands, whither ht a house at Freiburg

The old Eras, ever more tormented by his painful malady, much more disillusioned than when he left Louvain in 1521, of reat ecclesiastical strife, will only be fully revealed to us when his correspondence with Boniface Amerbach, the friend whom he left behind at Basle--a correspondence not found complete in the older collections--has been edited by Dr Allen's care Froleaned, in point of knowledge of his daily habits and thoughts, as from these very years

Work went on without a break in that great scholar's workshop where he directs his famuli, who hunt manuscripts for him, and then copy and examine them, and whence he sends forth his letters all over Europe In the series of editions of the Fathers followed Basil and new editions of Chrysostomented by the works of Aristotle He revised and republished the _Colloquies_ three es_ and the New Testas of afrom his pen

Froed

'Pseudevangelici', he contuht have been a corypheus in Luther's church,' he writes in 1528, 'but I preferred to incur the hatred of all Ger separate from the community of the Church' The authorities should have paid a little less attention at first to Luther's proceedings; then the fire would never have spread so violently He had always urged theologians to let minor concerns which only contain an appearance of piety rest, and to turn to the sources of Scripture Noas too late Towns and countries united ever ainst the Reformation 'If, what I pray may never happen,' he writes to Sadolet in 1530, 'you should see horrible commotions of the world arise, not so fatal for Germany as for the Church, then remember Erasmus prophesied it' To Beatus Rhenanus he frequently said that, had he known that an age like theirs was cos, or would not have written theelical people, have they becoreed? Show ed froentle creature, from a miser into a liberal person, fro I will show you many who have becoes out of the churches and abolishedbetter come instead? 'I have never entered their churches, but I have seen the the sermon, as if inspired by an evil spirit, the faces of all showing a curious wrath and ferocity, and there was no one except one old man who saluted uished persons'

He hated that spirit of absolute assuredness so inseparably bound up with the reforli and Bucerbut a man and cannot co the reformed to whom Erasmus in his heart of hearts was lians with their rigid dogmatism: the Anabaptists He rejected the doctrine from which they derived their name, and abhorred the anarchic element in them He remained far too much the ular believers But he was not blind to the sincerity of their moral aspirations and sympathized with their dislike of brute force and the patience hich they bore persecution 'They are praised more than all others for the innocence of their life,' he writes in 1529 Just in the last part of his life cas of the fanatic Anabaptists; it goes without saying that Erasmus speaks of it only with horror

One of the best historians of the Reformation, Walter Kohler, calls Erasmus one of the spiritual fathers of Anabaptism And certain it is that in its later, peaceful development it has important traits in coe free will, a certain rationalistic trend, a dislike of an exclusive conception of a Church

It seems possible to prove that the South German Anabaptist Hans Denk derived opinions directly from Erasmus For a considerable part, however, this community of ideas ious consciousness in the Netherlands, whence Eras, and where Anabaptism found such a receptive soil

Erasmus was certainly never aware of these connections

So Erasmus's altered attitude towards the old and the new Church is shown by what follows

The reproach he had for at the advocates of conservatism that they hated the _bonae literae_, so dear to hielical party

'Wherever Lutherisuished

Why else,' he continues, using a remarkable sophism, 'are Luther and Melanchthon coently to the love of letters?' 'Just co with that of Louvain or Paris! Printers say that before this Gospel came they used to dispose of 3,000 volumes more quickly than now of 600 A sure proof that studies flourish!+'