It is evident that Erasmus had little faith in the Diet. He writes to John Rinckius[187]:
"Friends have written me what is going on at the Diet. Certain main propositions have been made: First, that the Germans shall furnish troops against the Turks. Second, that the differences of doctrine shall be remedied, if possible, without bloodshed. Third, that the complaints of those who feel themselves wronged shall be heard. To accomplish all this an ecumenical council of three years would hardly suffice. What will be the issue I know not. Unless God takes a hand in the game, I see no way out of it. If the final decision is not agreed to by all the provinces, the end will be revolution."
Then follows a minute description of his recent illness and again allusions to his personal troubles.
"I have now for some time been anxious to go hence to some other place. This town is fine enough, but not very populous, remote from a river, well suited for study, an awfully dear place, the people not particularly hospitable, they say, though so far no one has given me any great annoyance. But I see nowhere a quiet haven. I shall have to hold out here until the outcome of the Diet is known. Some are predicting that action will be taken first about pecuniary burdens, and that the question of heresy will be postponed to a general council, and that the priests, bishops, monks, and abbots who have been turned out and plundered will be put off with words."
It is evident that Erasmus saw clearly the danger of the imperial position. His shrewd sense told him that Charles was very far from grasping the real extent of the German resistance. He writes to Campeggio[188]:
"If the emperor is merely frightening his opponents by threats, I can only applaud his forethought; but if he is really seeking a war, I do not want to be a bird of evil omen, but my mind shudders as often as I look at the condition of things which I think will appear if war breaks out. This trouble is very widely spread. I know that the emperor has great power; but not all nations recognise his authority. Even the Germans recognise it on certain conditions, so that they rather rule than obey; for they prefer to command rather than be subservient. Besides it is evident that the emperor's lands are greatly exhausted by continual military expeditions. The flame of war is just now stirred up in Friesland; its prince is said to have professed the Gospel of Luther. Many states between the Eastern countries and Denmark are in the same condition and the chain of evils stretches from there as far as Switzerland.
"If the sects could be tolerated under certain conditions (as the Bohemians pretend), it would, I admit, be a grievous misfortune, but one more endurable than war. In this condition of things there is nowhere I would rather be than in Italy, but the fates will have it otherwise."
No more clever summary of the situation than this can be imagined; and yet the only practical suggestion in it, that some principle of toleration for the sects might be discovered is a complete denial of everything for which Erasmus pretended to stand. It would have been a recognition of the right of revolution, and that was the one horror which haunted all his dreams.
Indeed it was the irony of fate that the man who had spent his early manhood in open attacks upon the Roman system, and his maturer years in trying to make his peace with Rome, should now in his old age find his really virulent critics on the side of the ancient faith. The "sects," as he always contemptuously called them, were quite content with the actual service he had done them and were only too eager to claim him for their own. The one orthodox fold, in which he steadfastly protested he belonged, was continually producing men who made his life a burden with their reproaches.
As long as the Diet at Augsburg lasted, Erasmus continued to assure his correspondents that he was under the orders of the emperor not to leave Freiburg as he had intended to do. Then the winter began and with it the ravages of the plague, "nova lues, formerly peculiar to Britain, but suddenly spreading over all nations." Why he should have been detained at Freiburg against his will he gives no intimation, and, indeed, the whole story, appearing in letter after letter, seems to show only his annual restlessness and desire to say why he did not do something different from what he was doing. At one moment he thinks he must go to France to get some wine. They say it is a dreadful thing to die of hunger, but he really believes it is worse to die of thirst. He really must get some drinkable wine.