Selections from Erasmus: Principally from his Epistles

by Desiderius Erasmus

94. a suffragiis] A suffragan. This form was common in late Latin for the designation of an office; cf. ab epistolis, a secretary; a libellis, a notary; a cubiculis, a poculis.

95. IUVENEM] Richard Masters, appointed in Nov. 1514. He was afterwards involved in the affair of the 'Holy Maid of Kent' and was deprived in 1534.

101. METROPOLITANUS] The title of an archbishop as head of an ecclesiastical province. All the bishops in his province are suffragans to him.

XXIII

5. CONCINNATUS] i.e. compositus.

16. CHARTIS] 'playing-cards.' An Act of 1463 forbade the importation of them into England; Foxe's statutes for C.C.C. Oxford (XX. 10 n.), dated 1517, prohibit the use 'chartarum pictarum (cardas nuncupant)'.

24. COMMUNIONEM] Cf. XVIII. 57-8.

32. PRO MORE REGIONIS] The following extracts from Erasmus' writings show the reputation of the English at this time in the matter of entertainment: 'Angli ostentatores': 'miramur si quis videat frugalem Anglum': 'asscribo Anglis lautas mensas et formam.'

33. VULGARIBUS] sc. cibis.

38. HOLOSERICIS] sc. vestibus. Similarly byssinis ac damascenis, l. 44.