This document bears date the last day of July, 1512, so that Erasmus was unquestionably well provided for from that day on. The date of his first induction into the parish was March 22, 1511, and as he thus had a right to the whole income of the place during a year and a third, there is no reason why he should not have had a tidy sum to his credit.
The letters of Erasmus during this English visit are few and give but little insight into his way of life. The most interesting of them are those written from Cambridge to another foreigner, an Italian, Andreas Ammonius, who, like himself, had wandered to England to seek his fortune, and had become a Latin secretary to the young King Henry VIII. In addition to this function he appears later as holding some papal commission in England. With this cheerful and practical specimen of the gay Italian Humanism of the day our scholar corresponded with great freedom. Ammonius was not troubled by Erasmus' dread of place-holding, and was frankly enjoying the sunshine of the court. He seems to have advised Erasmus to try his fortune also in London. Erasmus replies:
"As for your serious advice that I should pay my court to Fortune, I acknowledge the true and friendly counsel, and I will try it, though my mind rebels against it most strongly and predicts no good and happy outcome. If I had exposed myself to the risks of Fortune I should have put myself under the laws of a game, and, if I had got beaten, should be making the best of it, knowing, as I do, that this is just Fortune's trick, to set up some and restore others as she pleases. But I thought I had provided myself against having anything to do with this wanton mistress, since Mountjoy had brought me into harbour and into a settled thing. Nor does the kindness of Fortune towards others, no matter how unworthy, trouble me one particle, so help me God! The success of you and the like of you brings me a real and uncommon pleasure. Even if I were compelled to go into a calculation of my merits, my present fortune would seem beyond my deserts, for I measure myself by my own foot and not by your praises."
Little inclined as Erasmus was to try his hand at court, it was not for lack of theories as to how one might best get on there. He gives Ammonius the benefit of them in this classic passage[90]:
"Now then I, the sow, will proceed to teach Minerva; but, since you forbid it, I will not philosophise too much. The first thing is, give your forehead such a rubbing that you will never blush at anything. Mix yourself in everybody's business. Elbow aside everyone you can. Love no one and hate no one with your whole heart, but measure all things by your own advantage. Let the whole ordering of your life be turned to this one aim. Give nothing without hope of a return; agree to all things with all men. 'But,' you say, 'these are commonplaces.' Well, then, since you insist upon it, I will give you a special piece of advice, but in your ear, mind you. You know the jealousy of these Britons; make use of it for your own good. Ride two horses at once. Hire various suitors to keep at you. Threaten to leave and begin to pack up. Show letters calling you away with great promises; take yourself off somewhere, that absence may sharpen their desire for you."
This is a very exact description of Erasmus' own tactics in the Battus days, and continues to fit his action very well whenever he was considering a change of residence.
In 1511 he writes to Ammonius:
"If you have any trustworthy news, I wish you would let me know it. I want especially to hear whether Julius is really playing Julius, and whether Christ keeps up his ancient custom of specially trying with the storms of adverse fortune those whom he desires to make specially his own."
Writing from Queen's College in August, 1511, he says:
"I am sending you some letters which I have written to Bombasius [his learned friend, we remember, in Bologna]. As to myself I have nothing new to write, save that the journey was most uncomfortable and that my health is so far very dubious on account of that over-exertion. I expect to make a somewhat longer stay in this college, but as yet I have not given much of myself to my hearers, desiring to look out for my health. The beer in this place I don't like at all and the wine is far from satisfactory. If you can order me a flagon of Greek wine, the very best you can find, you will make your Erasmus happy, but let it be very far from sweet. Don't worry about the money; I will pay in advance if you like."