II. ERASMUS AND THE PAPAL AMBASSADOR (1514).
Erasmus had other opportunities of speaking out his mind about the war.
Erasmus dines with Ammonius and the Papal Ambassador in disguise.
There was a rumour afloat that a Papal ambassador had arrived in England—a Cardinal in disguise. It happened that Erasmus was invited to dine with his friend Ammonius. He went as a man goes to the house of an intimate friend, without ceremony, and expecting to dine with him alone. He found, however, another guest at his friend’s table—a man in a long robe, his hair bound up in a net, and with a single servant attending him. Erasmus, after saluting his friend, eyed the stranger with some curiosity. Struck by the military sternness of the man’s look, he asked of Ammonius in Greek, ‘Who is he?’ He replied, also in Greek, ‘A great merchant.’ ‘I thought so,’ said Erasmus; and caring to take no further notice of him, they sat down to table, the stranger taking precedence. Erasmus chatted with Ammonius as though they had been alone, and, amongst other things, happened to ask him whether the rumour was true that an ambassador had come from Leo X. to negotiate a peace between England and France. ‘The Pope,’ he continued, ‘did not take me into his councils; but if he had I should not have advised him to propose a peace.’ ‘Why?’ asked Ammonius. ‘Because it would not be wise to talk about peace,’ replied Erasmus. ‘Why?’ ‘Because a peace cannot be negotiated all at once; and in the meantime, while the monarchs are treating about the conditions, the soldiers, at the very thought of peace, will be incited to far worse projects than in war itself; whereas by a truce the hands of the soldiery maybe tied at once. I should propose a truce of three years, in order that the terms might be arranged of a really permanent treaty of peace.’ Ammonius assented, and said that he thought this was what the ambassador was trying to do. ‘Is he a Cardinal?’ asked Erasmus. ‘What made you think he was?’ said the other. ‘The Italians say so.’ ‘And how do they know?’ asked Ammonias, again fencing with Erasmus’s question. ‘Is it true that he is a Cardinal?’ repeated Erasmus by-and-bye, as though he meant to have a straightforward answer. ‘His spirit is the spirit of a Cardinal,’ evasively replied Ammonius, brought to bay by the direct question. ‘It is something,’ observed Erasmus, smiling, ‘to have a Cardinal’s spirit!’
The stranger all this time had remained silent, drinking in this conversation between the two friends.
At last he made an observation or two in Italian, mixing in a Latin word now and then, as an intelligent merchant might be expected to do. Seeing that Erasmus took no notice of what he said, he turned round, and in Latin observed, ‘I wonder you should care to live in this barbarous nation, unless you choose rather to be all alone here than first at Rome.’
Erasmus astonished and somewhat nettled to hear a merchant talk in this way, with disdainful dryness replied that he was living in a country in which there was a very great number of men distinguished for their learning. He had rather hold the last place among these than be nowhere at Rome.
Ammonius, seeing the awkward turn that things were taking, and that Erasmus in his present humour might probably, as he sometimes did, speak his mind rather more plainly than might be desirable, interposed, and, to prevent further perplexity, suggested that they should adjourn to the garden.[472]
Erasmus found out afterwards that the merchant stranger with whom he had had this singular brush was the Pope’s ambassador himself—Cardinal Canossa!
III. PARTING INTERCOURSE BETWEEN ERASMUS AND COLET (1514).