Part 18 (1/2)

But eable, but even betterthem Passion for money has never affected me I am quite untouched by the thirst for fah I was forence and drunkenness I have ever loathed and avoided But whenever I thought of returning to your society, I remembered the jealousy of many, the contempt of all, the conversations how dull, how foolish, how un-Christlike, the feasts how unclerical! In short the whole way of life, from which if you remove the ritual, I do not see what remains that one could desire Lastly I ree, disease and hard work, as a result of which I should fail to satisfy you and kill myself For several years now I have been subject to the stone, a severe and deadly illness, and for several years I have drunk nothing but wine, and not all kinds of wine at that, owing to my disease; I cannot endure all kinds of food nor indeed all climates The illness is very liable to recur and deimen; and I know the cli, not to mention your ways So, had I come back to you, all I would have achieved would have been to bring trouble on you and death on reat part of happiness to die amid one's fellow-brethren? This belief deceives and imposes not on you alone but on nearly everyone Weand on certain little rituals We think a es his white dress for black, or his cowl for a cap, or occasionally moves from place to place I should dare to say that Christian piety has suffered great dah it may be that their first introduction was due to pious zeal They then gradually increased and divided into thousands of distinctions; this was helped by a papal authority which was too lax and easy-going in many cases What more defiled or more impious than these lax rituals? And if you turn to those that are cohly commended, apart froe of Christ one finds in them It is these on which they preen thee and condemn others How much more in conformity with the spirit of Christ to consider the whole Christian world one hoard all men as one's fellow-monks and fellow-brethren, to hold the sacrament of Baptism as the supreme rite, and not to consider where one lives but hoell one lives! You want e also suggests But the travellings of Solon, Pythagoras and Plato are praised; and the Apostles, too, anderers, in particular Paul St Jerome also was a monk now in Rome, now in Syria, now in Antioch, now here, now there, and even in his old age pursued literary studies

But I aree; yet I have never ue or for reasons of study or health, and wherever I have lived (I shall say this of antly perhaps, but truthfully) I have been cohly commended and praised by the most praised There is no land, neither Spain nor Italy nor Gerland nor Scotland, which does not summon me to partake of its hospitality And if I am not liked by all (which is not hest places of all At Rome there was no cardinal who did not welcoe,[50] the Cardinal of Bologna,[51]

Cardinal Grimani, the Cardinal of Nantes,[52] and the present Pope,[53]

not toAnd this honour was not a tribute to wealth, which even now I neither possess nor desire; nor to aer; but solely to learning, which our countryland there is no bishop who is not glad to be greeted by me, who does not desirehimself, a little before his father's death, when I was in Italy, wrote a most affectionate letter to me with his own hand, and now too speaks often of me in the reet him he welcomes me most courteously and looks atit plain that his feelings for me are as friendly as his speeches And he has often commissioned his Alht to take me as her tutor Everyone knows that, if I were prepared to live even a few months at Court, he would heap on me as many benefices as I cared for; but I putThe Archbishop of Canterbury, the Priood and learned man, could not treat me with more affection were I his father or brother And that youof nearly 100 nobles, which afterwards at nation; in addition he has given h I never asked for anything He gave me 150 nobles in one day I received ifts Mountjoy, a baron of the realivesand the Bishop of Lincoln, who has great influence through the King, land, Oxford and Caht Greek and sacred literature for several , and have resolved always to do this There are colleges here so religious, and of such ious life, could you see them In London there is John Colet, Dean of St Paul's, who has coreatly respected by all He is so fond of me, as all know, that he prefers my company above all others'; I do not mention many others, lest I doubly vex you with

Now to say so of h which not a few confess themselves inspired to the study of piety; I ood which has co I do not knohether you have seen the _Adagia_,[56] printed by Aldus It is not a theological work, but ; at least it cost hts I have published a work _De rerum verborumque copia_,[57] dedicated to my friend Colet, very useful for those who desire to speak in public; but all these are despised by those who despise all good learning During the last two years, apart from much else, I have e as false and spurious and explaining the obscure passages with notes I have corrected the whole of the New Testament from collations of the Greek and ancient manuscripts, and have annotated es, not without soun commentaries on the _Epistles_ of St Paul, which I shall complete when I have published these For I have resolved to live and die in the study of the Scriptures I make these my work and my leisure Men of consequence say that I can do what others cannot in this field; in your h I have been intirave and learned men, here and in Italy and France, I have not yet found anyone who advised ht this the better course Nay, even Nicholas Werner of blessed memory, your predecessor, would always dissuademe to attach myself rather to some bishop; he would add that he knew my mind and his little brothers' ways: those were the words he used, in the vernacular In the life I live now I see what I should avoid, but do not see ould be a better course

It now remains to satisfy you on the question of my dress I have always up to noorn the canon's dress, and when I was at Louvain I obtained permission from the Bishop of Utrecht to wear a linen scapular instead of a coarment, and a black capuce instead of a black cloak, after the Parisian custo the earing a black gar black, with a scapular, to avoid giving offence by any unusual dress Afterwards the plague broke out at Bologna, and there those who nurse the sick of the plague custo from the shoulder--these avoid contact with people

Consequently when one day I went to call on a learned friend so to set about me, and would have done so, had not a certain ain the next day, when I was on my way to visit the Treasurer's sons, they rushed at eons from all directions and attacked ood men I concealed my scapular, and obtained a dispensation froious dress or not, as seearb; and in this document he condoned any previous offences in the arb, lest the change cause offence to anyone On land I decided to weara friend of excellent repute for his learning and mode of life and showed him the dress I had decided to wear; I asked hiland He approved, so I appeared in public in this dress I was at once warned by other friends that this dress could not be tolerated in England, that I had better conceal it I did so; and as it cannot be concealed without causing scandal if it is eventually discovered, I stored it away in a box, and up to now have taken advantage of the Papal dispensation received formerly Ecclesiastical law excoious habit so as to move more freely in secular society I put it off under co killed; and likewise under coland, because it was not tolerated there, although ain noould cause e itself

There you have an account of e even this present mode of life, if I see a better

But I do not see what I a will not agree withat one away as a youth--I shall return a valetudinarian; I shall be exposed to the contehest I shall exchangeme a place where I can live with an excellent income, as you write, I cannot conjecture what this can be, unless perhaps you intend to placesome co to serve kings nor archbishops I want no pay; I have no desire for riches, if only I have h to provide for my health andanyone I e could discuss these things together face to face; it cannot be done in a letter conveniently or safely Your letter, although it was sent by most reliable persons, went so far astray that if I had not accidentally come to this castle I should never have seen it; and many people had looked at it before I received it So do notsecret unless you know for certain where I aer I am now on my way to Germany, that is, Basle, to have my works published, and this winter I shall perhaps be in Rome On my return journey I shall see to it that we meet and talk so journey Farewell, once my sweetest comrade, now my esteemed father

XI TO WOLFGANG FABRICIUS CAPITO[58]

Antwerp, 26 February 1516/17

To the distinguished theologian Wolfgang Fabricius Capito of Hagenau, skilled in the three languages, greetings:

Now that I see that theFrancis of France, Charles the Catholic King, King Henry of England and the Emperor Maximilian have drastically cut down all warlike preparations and concluded a firm and, I hope, unbreakable treaty of peace, I feel entitled to hope with confidence that not only the , purified of corruption, and the fine disciplines will revive and blosso prosecuted with equal zeal in different parts of the world, in Roland by King Henry VIII, hiFrancis, a man as it were born for this task, who besides offers splendid rewards to attract and enticefrom all parts, in Germany by many excellent princes and bishops and above all by the Ee of all these wars, has resolved to find rest in the arts of peace: a resolve at once e and more fortunate for Christendom It is to these men's piety then that e it that all over the world, as if on a given signal, splendid talents are stirring and awakening and conspiring together to revive the best learning For what else is this but a conspiracy, when all these great scholars fro themselves and set about this noble task, not merely with enthusiasm but with a fair measure of success, so that we have an ale once enuine for reduced al taken up and cultivated by the Scots, the Danes and the Irish As for medicine, how many champions has she found! Nicholas Leonicenus[60]

in Rome, Ambrose Leo of Nola[61] at Venice, William Cop[62] and John Ruell[63] in France, and Tho revived in Paris by William Budaeus[64] and in Germany by Ulrich Zasius,[65] mathey there was more to do, for up till now its professors have alood learning, norance the ious pretext, so that the ignorant herd is persuaded by theion if anyone proceeds to attack their barbarism; for they prefer to wail for help to the uneducated er of their ignorance on any point coo well as soon as the knowledge of the three languages [Greek, Latin and Hebrew] becoun to be The hu; I know not whether I have contributed anything of value; at all events I have infuriated those who do not want the world to come to its senses, so that it seems as if h I have not undertaken the work in the belief that, I could teach anything nificent, but I wanted to open a road for others, destined to attereater ease ascend the shi+ning heights without running into so ence of mine is not disdained by the honest and learned, and none complain of it but a few so stupid that they are hissed off the stage by even ordinary persons of any intelligence Here not long ago someone complained tearfully before the people, in a sermon of course, that it was all over with the Scriptures and the theologians who had hitherto upheld the Christian faith on their shoulders, now that men had arisen to emend the Holy Gospel and the very words of Our Lord: just as if I was rebuking Matthew or Luke instead of those whose ignorance or negligence had corrupted what they wrote correctly In England one or two persons co that _I_ should dare to teach a great ed what St

Jero it!

Yet those who snarl out suchlike dirges, which any laundryreat theologiansNot that I want the kind of theology which is custoned to oblivion; I wish it to be rendered more trustworthy and

It will not weaken the authority of the Scriptures or theologians if certain passages hitherto considered corrupt are henceforth read in an ees are more correctly understood on which up till now the ians have entertained delusions: no, it will give greater weight to their authority, theof the Scriptures I have sustained the shock of the first , which Terence calls the sharpest One doubt still troublespaganis Christians there are those who acknowledge Christ in name only, but in their hearts are Gentiles; or that with the renascence of Hebrew studies Judaism may seek to use this opportunity of revival; and there can be nothingof Christ than this plague This is the nature of huood has ever so flourished but so itself I could wish that those dreary quibblings could be either done aith or at least cease to be the sole activity of theologians, and that the simplicity and purity of Christ could penetrate deeply into the ht to pass if with the help provided by the three languages we exercise our minds in the actual sources But I pray that we raver error Recently several pa of unadulterated Judaism

XII TO THOMAS MORE

Louvain, 5 March 1518

To his friend More, greeting:

First of all I ask you to entrust to the bearer, my servant John, any letters of mine or yours which you consider fit for publication with the alteration of soes; I am simply compelled to publish my letters whether I like it or not Send off the lad so that he returns here as quickly as possible If you discover that Urswick is ill-disposed towards me perhaps he should not be troubled; otherwise, help me in the matter of a horse--I shall need one just nohen I ao to Basle or Venice, chiefly for the purpose of bringing out the New Testament[67] Such is my fate, dear More I shall enact this part of'for rows daily worse, aluise are so all-powerful, and no one herefriars It is unendurable when ood

At Basle they ant preface added by Budaeus the excuse for the delay over your Utopia They have now received it and have started on the work Then Froben's father-in-law Lachner died But Froben's press will be sweating over our studies none the less I have not yet had a chance of seeing Linacre's _Therapeutice_,[68] through soainst me Inquire courteously of Lupset on the Appendix[69] to my _Copia_ and send it

The Pope and the princes are up to soainst the Turks Wretched Turks! May we Christians not be too cruel! Even wives are affected All es of twenty-six and fifty will be compelled to take up arms

Meanwhile the Pope forbids the wives of e in pleasure at hoold or any jewellery, e or drink wine, and must fast every other day, that God ed in this cruel war If there are men tied at home by necessary business, their wives must none the less observe the same rules as they would have had to observe if their husbands had gone to the war They are to sleep in the saiven meanwhile until this terrible war reaches a successful conclusion under Christ's favour I know that these enactments will irritate wives who do not sufficiently ponder the ih I know that your wife, sensible as she is, and obedient in regard to a lad to obey

I send Pace's paences_,[70] and the _Proposal for Undertaking a War against the Turks_,[71] as I suspect that they have not yet reached England They write frouates of Paradise[72] has now been printed; they do not add the author's name