Part 19 (1/2)

I could never find words to express what coht about here They cannot even now eradicate from their minds the most false suspicion that your works were composed with my aid, and that I am the standard-bearer of this party, as they call it They thought that they had found a handle ith to crush good learning--which they y, a thing they value far above Christ--and at the sa some influence on the revival of studies

The whole affair was conducted with such cla that, had I not been present and witnessed, nay, _felt_ all this, I should never have taken any ians could act so ue And yet the poison of this evil beginning with a few has spread so far abroad that a great part of this University was running mad with the infection of this not uncommon disease

I declared that you were quite unknown to ly neither approved nor disapproved of anything in them I only warned them not to cla yet read your books: this reatest weight

Further I begged them to consider also whether it were expedient to traduce before a mixed multitude viehich were more properly refuted in books or discussed between educated persons, particularly as the author's way of life was extolled by one and all I failed miserably; up to this day they continue to rave in their insinuating, nay, slanderous disputations How often have we agreed to make peace! How often have they stirred up new commotions from some rashly conceived shred of suspicion! And these ians are not liked in Court circles here; this too they put down to reatly These men put no trust in books, their hope of victory is based on cunning alone I disdain theht They are beco a little milder towards yourself They fear my pen, because of their bad conscience; and I would indeed paint them in their true colours, as they deserve, did not Christ's teaching and example summon me elsewhere Wild beasts can be tamed by kindness, which land, and they in the highest positions, who think very well of your writings Here, too, there are people, ae, who favour your followers As for me, I keep myself as far as possible neutral, the better to assist the neering of good learning; and it see courteousness than by violence It was thus that Christ brought the world under His sway, and thus that Paul s allegorically It is wiser to cry out against those who abuse the Popes' authority than against the Popes themselves: and I think that we should act in the sas As for the schools, we should not so much reject thes are too generally accepted to be suddenly eradicated froue with repeated and efficacious proofs and not make positive assertions The poisonous contentions of certain persons are better ignored than refuted We antly or in a party spirit: this I believe is pleasing to the spirit of Christ Meanwhile we er, hatred or as are apt to lie in wait for us in theyou to do this, but only to continue doing what you are doing I have looked into your Cohted with theood At Ante have the Prior of the Monastery,[79] a Christian without spot, who loves you exceedingly, an old pupil of yours as he says He is al Christ: the others preach huain

I have written to Melanchthon The Lord Jesus ilory and the good of all I had not your letter at hand riting this

XV TO ULRICH HUTTEN[80]

Antwerp, 23 July 1519

To the illustrious knight Ulrich Hutten, greetings:

As to your demand for a complete portrait, as it were, of More, would that I could execute it with a perfection to match the intensity of your desire! It will be a pleasure, for me as well, to dwell for a space on the contemplation of by far the sweetest friend of all But in the first place, it is not given to every ifts And then I wonder whether he will tolerate being depicted by an indifferent artist; for I think it no less a task to portray More than it would be to portray Alexander the Great or Achilles, and they were noof immortality than he is Such a subject requires in short the pencil of an Apelles; but I fear that I aladiators[81] than Apelles Nevertheless, I shall try to sketch you an ie rather than a full portrait of the wholeassociation with him in his home has made this possible If ever you meet him on some embassy you will then for the first time understand how unskilled an artist you have chosen for this co me of jealousy or blindness, that out of so ht or recorded by in with that side of More of which you know nothing, in height and stature he is not tall, nor again noticeably short, but there is such sy to be desired here He has a fair skin, his coh far froh His hair is of a darkish blond, or if you will, a lightish brown, his beard scanty, his eyes bluish grey, with flecks here and there: this usually denotes a happy nature and is also thought attractive by the English, whereas we are more taken by dark eyes It is said that no type of eyes is less subject to defects His expression corresponds to his character, always showing a pleasant and friendly gaiety, and rather set in a s look; and, to speak honestly, better suited to h far reht shoulder seeher than the left, particularly when he is walking: this is not natural to him but due to force of habit, liketo strike one in the rest of his body; only his hands are somewhat clumsy, but only when compared with the rest of his appearance

He has always fro to do with personal adorns which according to Ovid's teaching should be the sole care of men One can tell even now, from his appearance inh when I first came to know him he was not more than three and twenty years old, for he is now barely forty[82]

His health is not soan honourable citizen, subject to no, or at least very few, diseases: there is every prospect of his living long, as he has a father of great age[83]--but a wondrously fresh and green old age I have never yet seen anyone less fastidious in his choice of food Until he grew up he liked water to drink; in this he took after his father But so as to avoid irritating anyone over this, he would deceive his co from a pewter pot ale that was very nearly all water, often pure water Wine--the custooblet--he would often sip with his lips, not to give the appearance of disliking it, and at the same time to accustom himself to common ways He preferred beef, salt fish, and bread of the second quality, well risen, to the foods coarded as delicacies: otherwise he was by no means averse to all sources of innocent pleasure, even to the appetite He has always had a great liking for s His voice is neither strong nor at all weak, but easily audible, by no means soft or melodious, but the voice of a clear speaker; for he seehts in every kind of music His speech is wonderfully clear and distinct, with no trace of haste or hesitation

He likes to dress siold chains, excepting where it would not be decent not to wear thee how careless he is of the forood manners He neither insists on these from any, nor does he anxiously force theh he knows thee in the ood part of one's time in suchlike inanities

Formerly he disliked Court life and the company of princes, for the reason that he has always had a peculiar loathing for tyranny, just as he has always loved equality (Now you will hardly find any court so modest that has not about it much noisy ostentation, dissi quite free of any kind of tyranny) Indeed it was only with great difficulty that he could be dragged into the Court of Henry VIII, although nothingthan this prince could be desired He is by nature soladly takes advantage of leisure when it comes his way, none is more careful or patient whenever business demands it

He seems born and created for friendshi+p, which he cultivates most sincerely and fosters most steadfastly He is not one to be afraid of the 'abundance of friends' which Hesiod does not approve; he is ready to enter into friendly relations with any He is in no way fastidious in choosing friends, acco them If he chances on anyone whose defects he cannot mend, he disradually dissolving the friendshi+p Whenever he finds any sincere and suited to his disposition he so delights in their company and conversation that he appears to aames hich the ordinary run of men of rank are used to kill time Furthermore, while he is soent in looking after his friends' affairs Need I continue? Should anyone want a finished example of true friendshi+p he could not do better than seek it in More

In social intercourse he is of so rare a courtesy and charm of ladden, no subject so forbidding that he does not dispel the tediuht seem born for this, but in his jokes he has never descended to buffoonery, and has never loved the biting jest As a youth he both composed and acted in little comedies

Any witty reainst hienious flavour As a result he wrote epigrahted particularly in Lucian; indeed he was responsible forthe camel dance

In hu he coravest ent and educated norant and foolish, he enjoys their folly He is not put out by perfect fools, and suits his For wo but jests and merriment You could say he was a second Deorean philosopher who saunters through theon the uproar of buyers and sellers None is less guided by the opinion of the herd, but again none is less res of hu the appearance, characters and behaviour of various creatures; accordingly there is almost no kind of bird which he does not keep at his home, and various other animals not commonly found, such as apes, foxes, ferrets, weasels and their like

Added to this, he eagerly buys anything foreign or otherorth looking at which comes his way, and he has the whole house stocked with these objects, so that wherever the visitor looks there is so to detain him; and his own pleasure is renehenever he sees others enjoying these sights

When he was of an age for it, he was not averse to love-affairs with young wo the love that was offered to that which he must chase after, and was more drawn by spiritual than by physical intercourse

He had devoured classical literature from his earliest years As a lad he applied himself to the study of Greek literature and philosophy; his father, so far froood and sensible man), deprived hiarded as disowned, because he see his father's studies--the father's profession is English jurisprudence This profession is quite unconnected with true learning, but in Britain those who have arded, and this is there considered the most suitable road to fain to this branch of study It is said that none can becoh the young s not unreasonably revolted fro the scholastic disciplines he worked at the laith such success that none was ants, and heelse, so quick and powerful was his intellect

He also devotedthe ecclesiastical writers He lectured publicly to a crowded audience on Augustine's _City of God_ while still little more than a lad; and priests and elderly men were neither sorry nor ashamed to learn sacred ave his wholehis and prayer, and other like preliminary exercises; in which matter he was far more sensible than most of those who rashly hurl the previously made any trial of the himself to thisfor a wife He therefore chose to be a chaste husband rather than an unchaste priest

Still, he ood family, but still untrained--she had always lived in the country with her parents and sisters--so that he could better fashi+on her to his oays He had her taught literature and made her skilled in all kinds of music; and he had really almost made her such as he would have cared to spend all his life with, had not an untiirl, but after she had borne hiaret, Alice[85] and Cecily, and one boy, John He would not endure to live long a er, although his friends counselled otherwise Within a few months of his wife's death he married a ,[86] more for the care of the household than for his pleasure, as she was not precisely beautiful nor, as he jokingly says hiirl, but a keen and watchful housewife;[87] horeeably as if she were a ets so much obedience from his wife by stern orders as he does by jests and cajolery How could he fail to do so, after having induced a woe, also by no means a docile character, and lastly most attentive to her business, to learn to play the cithern, the lute, the monochord and the recorders, and perform a daily prescribed exercise in this at her husband's wish?

[Illustration: XXIX SIR THOMAS MORE AND HIS FAMILY, 1527]