"as I have lately seen with the utmost regret in the case of that great man John Reuchlin. For it was fitting and it was time that this man of reverend years should enjoy his noble studies and should be reaping the happiest harvest from the faithful planting of his youthful labours. A man skilled in so many tongues, and in so many kinds of learning, ought to have been able, in this autumn of his days, to pour forth into all the world the rich products of his genius. He ought to have been spurred on by praise, called out by rewards, fired by others' zeal. And I hear that men have arisen—I know not who they are—who, unable of themselves to bring anything great to pass, are seeking for reputation by the basest of methods. Immortal God! what a tumult they have stirred up and on what frivolous grounds! From a little book, a mere letter, which he neither published nor wished to have published, such a storm has arisen! Who would ever have known that he wrote this letter if those fellows had not published it to the world?
"How much better it would have served the cause of peace, supposing he had erred in any way,—as all men do err,—to conceal this, or frankly interpret it, or surely to pardon it out of consideration for the distinguished virtues of the man. I am not saying this because I have found any errors in him; that is for others to decide; but this I will say, that if anyone after the same malicious fashion,—and as the Greeks say, ἀποτόμως, should explore the books of St. Jerome, he would find many a thing very widely differing from the views of our theologians. To what end then was it that a man venerable in years and in letters should for an affair of no moment, be dragged into turmoils of this sort, in which he has now, I believe, lost seven years. Would that he might have spent this labour and this time in furthering the cause of honest study! Instead of this, he, a man worthy of all reward, is involved in vexing quarrels to the great grief and anger of all learned men, and indeed of all Germany. And yet all have hopes that through your assistance, so distinguished a man may be restored to learning and to the world."
This appeal to Rome in behalf of Reuchlin was doubtless a piece of pure friendly service on Erasmus' part. So far the cause of Reuchlin was the cause of sound learning, pure and simple, and appealed therefore powerfully to all Erasmus' sympathies. Later, when the names of Reuchlin and Luther came to be joined together as of allies in one great movement, then we shall find Erasmus hesitating and even declaring himself wholly ignorant of the real questions in dispute. Already, we notice, he carefully avoids the question whether Reuchlin may have erred in any way—that was not his affair.
One other of Erasmus' early Basel acquaintances was Beatus Rhenanus, of Schlettstadt, in Alsatia. Erasmus mentions him to Pope Leo as "a young man of rare learning and the keenest critical scent."
Precisely what was accomplished at Basel during the eight months or so of Erasmus' first visit we cannot say. It seems to have been a period of beginnings. He writes to Ammonius in October:
"I was getting on finely here until they began to heat up their stoves. Jerome is in progress. They have already begun on the New Testament. I cannot stay on account of the intolerable stench of the stoves, and I cannot leave on account of the work that is begun and which cannot possibly be carried through without me.... If my health permits, I shall stay here until Christmas; if not, I shall either return to Brabant or go straight to Rome."
Evidently, in spite of congenial work, carried on under the most favourable conditions, the restless creature was already uneasy and looking about him for chances, which he was quite sure not to improve. If we could take him at his word a hot room was of more account in his plans than the proper completion of his work. Happily his deeds speak loudly in his own defence and we know by the results that he must have been very busy during his first Basel days.
In March, 1515, the dates of his letters show him again in England, for what purpose we do not know. His connection with Cambridge was broken, his pension was secured, he was not, so far as we know, seeking any further employment. Possibly he may have been re-examining manuscripts for his New Testament. It is fairly certain that he was on the continent again by the early summer.
If we follow, even with allowance for palpable errors, the dating of Erasmus' letters we should have to conclude that he was in England for a while in 1516, and again in 1517. Meanwhile he would have been twice in Basel and have spent more or less time at Louvain, Brussels, and elsewhere. Mr. Drummond accepts this result, but, even with Erasmus' restless temper, it seems hardly possible that he could have accomplished the work he did, with the continual interruptions inevitable to such frequent and prolonged journeyings. On the other hand we find it brought up as a charge against him by his critics that he wasted his time in aimless wanderings. He defends himself by declaring that he never undertook a journey without good and sufficient reasons connected with the work of his life.
We shall probably be safe in thinking that Erasmus had a great gift of settling promptly to work and putting other things out of his mind while the spell of work was on him, the marvellous gift of concentration which has made more reputations than the gift of genius. Still, if we consider the peculiar demands of the work of editing texts, the necessity of an apparatus of books, the accumulation of material, all of which ought to be at hand for correction and comparison, the disadvantages of frequent change become more obvious and Erasmus' wanderings are so much the more inexplicable.