He mentions in several places, as a sign of the great favour shown him by Francis I., the fact that he had received a most friendly autograph letter from the king. Such a letter has indeed been found among papers relating to Erasmus at Basel. How much it may have meant the reader may judge for himself:
"Cher et bon amy. Nous avons donne charge a notre cher et bien ame messire Claude Cantiuncula, present porteur, de vous dire et declairer aucunes choses de par nous, desquelles vous prions tres affectueusment le croyre, et y adjouster entiere foy, comme feriez a notre propre personne. Cher et bon amy, notre Seigneur vous ait en sa garde.
"Escript a Sainct Germain en Laye le 7me jour de juillet.
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[In Erasmus' hand], "Hec rex scripsit propria manu." | "Je vous avertys que sy vous voules venyr que vous seres le byen venu "Francoys. "Robertet." |
It has been usual to explain his reluctance to attach himself anywhere at this time, by certain obligations towards the young King Charles I. of Spain, later the Emperor Charles V., arising from his appointment to a counsellor's position in the royal household. That some such office was given him in or about the year 1516 is quite certain; but that he was ever asked for his advice may be doubted, and his own complaints would indicate that he never received any considerable emoluments from his office. A letter to the imperial counsellor Carondiletus in 1524 throws light upon both the French call and the imperial pension.[114]
"To reply at once to your letter and that of the Lady Margaret, I will say in few words that it is not merely smoke that the French are showing. On the contrary, some time ago, when Poncher, Bishop of Paris, was the French ambassador at Brussels, before Charles was emperor, he offered me in his own name, over and above the king's bounty, four hundred crowns besides all expenses, promising me also that my leisure and my freedom of movement should be undisturbed.... The reason why the king of France called me so many times he explained by his messenger. He had determined to establish at Paris a College of the Three Languages, such as there is at Louvain, and he wanted me to be the head of it. I excused myself, however, remembering how much enmity and trouble I had borne there from some theologians on the score of the Busleiden College. Yet my servant, when he came back from France, reported on certain information that a treasury order for a thousand pounds was ready and waiting for me there.
"I have not so far been much of a burden on the treasury of my prince, for my pension has only once been paid therefrom. It has been procured by another process, without any expense to the treasury. It costs me a great deal to live here, especially on account of my frequent illnesses—though indeed I am in other ways not at all a good manager with money. I have already contracted a good many debts, so that, even if my health would permit me to leave, perhaps my creditors would not. I should, therefore, be very glad, if it can be done, to have the pension for at least one year paid over to this messenger, to relieve my immediate necessity. I send a letter of the emperor, making the same request."
Again in 1525 he writes[115]:
"By the first of September there will be due me eight hundred gold florins, the payment, that is, of four years. I don't see what good I am to get out of this delay unless perchance I am to need money in the Elysian Fields."
And once more in 1527 to Laurinus[116]: