The Colloquies were written to instruct by amusing. They touch upon every class of society and upon every vice and weakness of human nature. Some are sparkling with humour, some are too plainly didactic to be very amusing, and some, especially the later ones, are downright dull. As in the Praise of Folly, the sermon is heard through all the rush of words and no one of these tales is quite without its moral lesson. The subjects most welcome to Erasmus' satire are of course the extravagances of monks and schoolmen and the superstitions of religion. We have already quoted freely from some of the more important for the knowledge of the writer's own life. A brief survey of one or two of the more widely popular will indicate the great range of interest and the keen human desire which commended them to so large a circle of readers.
In The Abbot and the Learned Lady we have one of several proofs that Erasmus regarded the education of women as desirable and profitable to the community. The abbot reproves the lady because he finds Latin books in her chamber. French or German he could bear with, but not Latin.
"Abbot. 'I have sixty-two monks at home, but you will never find a book in my chamber.' Magdalia. 'That's a fine lookout for your monks.' Ab. 'I can stand books, but not Latin ones.' Mag. 'Why so?' Ab. 'Because that tongue is not suited to women.' Mag. 'I should like to know why.' Ab. 'Because it is far from helpful in maintaining their purity.' Mag. 'Do those French books, then, full of idle tales, make for purity?' Ab. 'Then there is another thing.' Mag. 'Well, out with it, whatever it is.' Ab. 'They are safer from the priests if they know no Latin.' Mag. 'Oh! but there is least danger of all from that quarter according to your practice, for you do all you can to keep from knowing Latin.' Ab. 'People in general are of my mind because it is such a rare and unusual thing for a woman to know Latin.' Mag. 'Don't talk to me of the people, the very worst source of good actions—nor of custom, the mistress of all evils. Let us accustom ourselves to what is good, then what was formerly unusual will become usual, what was rude will become polished, and what was unbecoming will grow to be fitting.' ... Mag. 'What think you of the Virgin Mother?' Ab. 'Most highly.' Mag. 'Was she not versed in books?' Ab. 'Quite so, but not in these books.' Mag. 'What, then, did she use to read?' Ab. 'The Canonical Hours.' Mag. 'According to what form?' Ab. 'That of the Benedictine order.'"
The Youth and the Harlot brings us to perhaps the best illustration of that freedom of language which was the most common charge against the Colloquies. The argument is one employed previously by the Saxon nun Roswitha in the tenth century in her comedy Paphnutius. An edition of Roswitha had been published at Nuremberg in 1501, so that Erasmus may well have taken his model at first-hand. The conversation is of the slipperiest, and yet the impression conveyed is not that of immoral or even of unmoral writing. It is simply the baldest "realism" of treatment, and the issue is distinctly a moral one. As in Roswitha the erring woman is won to virtue by the Christian faith, so here she is reformed by arguments of a more practical sort. The dig at the monks is not lacking. The youth has been on a journey to Rome:
"Sophronius. 'I journeyed with an honest man and by his advice I took with me not a bottle but a book, the New Testament translated by Erasmus.' Lucretia. 'Erasmus! why they say he is a heretic and a half!' Soph. 'Has his name got into this place too?' Luc. 'No one is better known here.' Soph. 'Have you ever seen him?' Luc. 'Never; but I should like to see him. I have heard so many bad things about him.' Soph. 'From bad men, I dare say.' Luc. 'Oh, no! from most reverend men.' Soph. 'Who are they?' Luc. 'Oh! it won't do to say.' Soph. 'Why not?' Luc. 'Because if you should blab and they should hear it, I should lose a great part of my gains.' Soph. 'Don't be afraid. I am mum as a stone.' Luc. 'Put down your ear.' Soph. 'Stupid! Why need we whisper when we are alone? Doesn't God hear us?... Well, by the eternal God! you are a pious harlot to help along Mendicants by your charity!'"
The Colloquies became the especial object of attack from all who cared to assail the reputation of Erasmus. Typical was the action of the Paris theological tribunal, the Sorbonne, which in 1526 condemned the book as dangerous to the morals of the young, and worse still as containing the same errors as the works of Arius, Wiclif, the Waldensians, and Luther. In presenting their case to the supreme court, the "Parlement" of Paris, for its action, the theologians of the Sorbonne review the steps already taken by the spiritual authorities toward the suppression of the Colloquies. They had done what they could, but now demand the aid of the temporal powers. King Francis I. appears to have opposed the action of the Parlement, and it was not until 1528 that the University as a body condemned the book and forbade its students to read it.
Equally unfavourable was Luther's judgment of the Colloquies. In his Table-Talk he refers frequently to them as the most offensive to him of all Erasmus' writings.[168]