Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam

by Ephraim Emerton

"But see," he cries, "the perverse and ungrateful ill-will of some men. They do not trust to writings and arguments, but attack me with slanderous tricks. Whatever books come out in these days, in which anybody is too free with his pranks, they put it upon me. There appeared the Nemo—for that is the name of a certain silly book; they charged me with it and would have made out their case if the angry author had not appeared and claimed his work for himself. There came out certain foolish letters and there were plenty of people to say I had helped to write them. Finally there came—I know not with what parentage—a work of Martin Luther, an author as unknown to me as the most unknown person in the world; I have not yet read the book through and yet at the very beginning they kept saying it was my work, the truth being that not one stroke in it is mine."

He begs Campeggio to contradict these scandalous lies, and to rest assured that he never has written and never will write books of this sort. The cardinal's reply was as friendly and reassuring as could be wished, but may interest us especially because it makes no direct reference to the Lutheran movement.

To Pope Leo Erasmus wrote in regard to the second edition of his New Testament.[126] The first edition had been, he says, well received by all but very few. His description of these few critics is highly characteristic:

"Some are too stupid to be convinced by reasonable argument; some too conceited to be willing to learn better; some too obstinate to give up their position, bad though it be; some too old to hope ever to do anything worth doing; some so ambitious that they cannot bear to seem to have been ignorant of anything; but all are men of such a kind, that it is not worth while to try for their approval. Indeed that was a clever saying of Seneca: 'There are people by whom it is better to be abused than praised.'

"Among these people there is scarce one who has read my books. They were afraid for their power, some even for their gain, if the world should begin to grow wiser. What they themselves really think I know not, but they try to make the uneducated crowd believe that a knowledge of the languages and what they call good letters are opposed to the study of theology, whereas there is no science to which they are a greater help and adornment. These men, born under the wrath of the Muses and the Graces, are fighting ceaselessly against learning, which in these our days is just rising to greater fruitfulness. Their chief hope of victory is in slanderous trickery. If they come out in books they simply betray their folly and ignorance. If they are met by reasoning, the evident truth overcomes them at once. So they confine themselves to making an uproar with the ignorant mob and among foolish women, who are easy to impose upon, especially under the pretext of religion, which these people are wonderfully clever in assuming. They put forth terrible words—'heresy!' 'Antichrist!' They keep declaring that the Christian religion is in danger and already toppling over, and pretend that they are holding it up on their shoulders; and in all these hateful charges they mingle the names of the languages and of polite literature. These horrible things, they say, have sprung from 'poetry'—for so they call whatever belongs to elegant learning—that is, whatever they themselves do not understand. Such nonsense as this they do not hesitate to blather out in public sermons, and then ask to be called heralds of apostolic doctrine! They abuse the name of the Roman pontiff and of the Roman see, a thing sacred to everyone, as it ought to be.

"By these trickeries they are preparing to assault the cause of letters, now just beginning to flourish, and also that purified theology which is learning to know once more its own true sources. Nothing is left untried; every sort of calumny is thought out against those by whose work these studies seem to be growing; and among these they reckon me. Now, how much of importance I have contributed I know not, but surely I have striven with all my might to kindle men from those chilling argumentations in which they had so long been frozen up, to zeal for a theology which should be at once more pure and more serious. And that this labour has so far not been in vain I perceive from this, that certain persons are furious against me, who cannot value anything which they are not able to teach and are ashamed to learn. But, trusting to Christ as my witness, whom my writings above all would guard, to the judgment of your Holiness, to my own sense of right, and the approval of so many distinguished men, I have always disregarded the yelpings of these people. Whatever little talent I have, it has been, once for all, dedicated to Christ; it shall serve his glory alone; it shall serve the Roman Church, the prince of that Church, but especially your Holiness, to whom I owe more than my whole duty.

"I might, if I had listened to other arguments, have been advanced to wealth and dignities; I can prove by the most solemn testimony that what I am saying is true. But this seemed to me a greater reward; I preferred to serve the glory of Christ, rather than my own. From a boy I have made it my care never to write anything irreligious or scurrilous or against authority. Or if I formerly chattered away a little too freely, after the habit of youth, certainly nothing becomes my present age but serious and holy things. No one was ever made one hair the blacker or the less religious by my writings; no disturbance has ever arisen or ever shall arise on my account. No malice of my accusers shall ever overcome this fixed determination of my mind. Let others see to it what they write; I am not judging the slave of another; let every man stand or fall to his own master. My only grief is that through the bitter controversies of some persons the peace of learning and of the Christian commonwealth is being endangered."

Here he seems to shift his ground from the attacks of the men of darkness to the Lutheran "tragedy."

"The affair seems no longer to be conducted with the weapons of argument, but the battle rages with violent abuse on both sides; biting pamphlets are the weapons and the uproar is swelling into madness, with mutual maledictions. There is no one, unless he were more than man, who does not sometimes slip, but these human lapses, if they are of such sort that we cannot wink at them, ought to be corrected with Christian charity. Now they are turning to evil even that which is rightly spoken, often that which they do not understand. With bitter words they make raw sores which might have been healed by Christian gentleness; they alienate by harshness men whom they might have kept by kindness. The word 'heresy' is straightway in their mouths, if at any point they differ or wish to seem to differ. If anything does not exactly suit them, they raise seditious cries among the rude and untaught people. These things, springing from slight beginnings, have often kindled a widespread conflagration, and it comes to pass that an evil, overlooked at first as of small account, increasing little by little, finally bursts forth into a serious disturbance of the peace of Christendom. Great praise is due to those excellent kings who have quieted the very beginnings of these dissensions, as Henry VIII. in England, and Francis I. in France. In Germany, because that country is divided up among so many little kings, the same cannot be done. Among us, since we have but just acquired our prince [Charles V. was elected emperor, June 28, 1519], great and excellent as he is, yet he is so far removed that, up to the present time, certain men are exciting tumults without reproof. I think, therefore, that your Holiness would be acting most acceptably to Christ if you should impose silence upon such contentions as these and should do for the whole Christian world what Henry and Francis have done, each for his own kingdom. Your piety is bringing the most powerful kings into harmony; it remains for you, by the same means, to restore to learning the peace which is its due. This will come to pass, if by your order they who cannot speak shall cease their babbling against polite learning, and they who have no tongues for blessing shall cease cursing those who are devoted to the tongues."