636. ID … TEMPORIS] This attack on Colet may be dated in Lent of either 1512 or 1513; for in each year preparations were being made for a war with France. It is not clear what interval of time is meant by Erasmus to have elapsed between this and the attack mentioned in ll. 655 seq. about Easter 1513.
637. MINORITAE DUO] Edmund Birkhead, Bishop of St. Asaph 15 April 1513—died April 1518)—cf. l. 687—and Henry Standish who succeeded him in the see.
639. IN POETAS] because Colet allowed classical Latin poetry to be read in his new school. The Church had always discouraged the study of the poets of antiquity, on the ground of the immoral character of many of their writings.
656. PASCHA] Easter, 27 March 1513. This incident can only be placed in 1513: because the expedition of 1512 started in the summer.
657. PARASCEVES] Good Friday: Gk. [Greek: Paraskeuae], the day of preparation before the sabbath of the Passover.
666. CONSISTERET] consistere means 'to take a stand with a person', 'to agree.' This impersonal use is not classical.
669. IULIOS] As Mr. Lupton points out, there can hardly fail to be an allusion here, not only to Julius Caesar, but also to the warlike Pope Julius II (1503-1513); whom Erasmus had seen entering Bologna as a conqueror in 1506 (cf. XXI. 26 n.). Similarly the name Alexander suggests not only 'the great Emathian conqueror', but Pope Alexander VI (l. 165 n.).
672. VELUT AD BUBONEM] sc. aves. Owls are frequently teased by flocks of small birds.
696. PRAEBIBIT] A compliment in days when poisoned cups were not unknown.
703. LUPI … HIANTES] 'Dicebatur si quis re multum sperata multumque appetita frustratus discederet. Aiunt enim lupum praedae inhiantem rictu late diducto accurrere: qua si frustretur, obambulare hiantem.' Erasmus, Adagia.