New editions of works of Erasmus.
The second edition of the New Testament will require a separate notice by-and-by. A new and corrected edition of More’s ‘Utopia’ was already in hand, and waiting only for a letter which Budæus was writing to be prefixed to it.[694] A new edition of the ‘Institutio Principis Christiani’ was also to come forth from the press of Froben.[695]
It might seem hopeless to put forth works such as these, expressing views so far in advance of the practices of the times, but the fact that new editions were so rapidly called for proved that they were eagerly read. In the same letter in which Erasmus ridiculed to More the projected expedition against the Turks, and spoke of the violence of the German press and the satire which had just appeared, ‘Julius de Cœlo exclusus,’ he spoke of his having seen another edition of the ‘Utopia’ just printed at Paris.[696]
In the previous year, 1517, Froben had printed a sixth edition of the ‘Adagia,’ which had now expanded into a thick folio volume, and become a receptacle for the views of Erasmus on many chance subjects. In this edition he had expressed his indignant feelings against the political anarchy and Papal scandals of the period, and he told More to look particularly at what he had written on the adage, ‘Ut fici oculis incumbunt;’[697] in which was an allusion to the ‘insatiable avarice, unbridled lust, most pernicious cruelty, and great tyranny’ of princes; and to the evil influence of those ecclesiastics who, ever ready to do the dirty work of princes and popes, abetted and mixed themselves up with the worst scandals.[698] And again it is remarkable to find how rapidly this ponderous edition of the ‘Adagia’ must have been sold to admit of another following in 1520, still further increased in bulk—a large folio volume of nearly 800 pages.
Collections of letters printed.
Letter to Volzius.
In addition to these reprints, two separate collections of some of his letters were printed by Froben in 1518,[699] evidently intended to aid in spreading more widely those plain-spoken views on various subjects which he had expressed in his private letters to his friends during the last few years. Another edition was also called for of the ‘Enchiridion;’ and Erasmus, on his arrival at Basle, burning as well he might with increased indignation against the scandals of the times, wrote a new preface, in the form of a letter to Volzius, the Abbot of a monastery at Schelestadt—a letter which, containing in almost every line of it pointed allusion to passing events, was eagerly devoured by thinking men all over Europe, and passed through several editions in a very short space of time.
It was a letter in which he repeated the conviction which he had learned twenty years before from Colet, that the true Christian creed was exceedingly simple, adapted not for the learned alone, but for all men.
And upon this ground he defended the simplicity of his little handy-book, contrasting it with the ‘Summa’ of Aquinas. ‘Let the great doctors, which must needs be but few in comparison with other men, study and busy themselves in those great volumes.’ The ‘unlearned and rude multitude, which Christ died for, ought to be provided for also.’ ‘Christ would that the way should be plain and open to every man,’ and therefore, we ourselves ought to endeavour, with all ‘our strength to make it as easy as can be.’[700]
He then alluded to the war against the Turks, and hinted that it would be better to try to convert them. Do we wonder, he urged, that Christianity does not spread? that we cannot convert the Turks? What is the use of laying before them the ponderous tomes of the Schoolmen, full of ‘thorny and cumbrous and inextricably subtle imaginations of instants, formalities, quiddities,’ and the like? We ought to place before them the simple philosophy of Christ contained in the Gospels and Apostolic Epistles, simplifying even their phraseology; giving them in fact the pith of them in as simple and clear a form as possible. And of what use would even this be if our lives belied our creed? They must see that we ourselves are servants and imitators of Jesus Christ, that we do not covet anything of theirs for ourselves, but that we desire their salvation and the glory of Christ. This was the true, pure, and powerful theology which in olden time subjected to Christ the pride of philosophers and the sceptres of kings.
Erasmus then, after a passing censure of the scandals brought upon Christianity by the warlike policy of priests and princes, the sale of indulgences, and so forth, proceeded to criticise the religion of modern monks, their reliance on ceremonies, their degeneracy, and worldliness.