[307] Alfonso Fernandez, Archdeacon of Alcor, to Erasmus: Palencia, Nov. 27, 1527. Life and Writings of Juan de Valdès, by Benjamin Wiffen: London, Quaritch, 1865, p. 41.
[308] The above is an abridged translation from the Enchiridion, ed. Argent. June, 1516, pp. 7, 8, which, being published before the Lutheran controversy commenced, is probably a reprint of the earlier editions. The editions of 1515 are the earliest that I have seen.
[309] This letter was republished in the edition of some letters of Erasmus printed at Basle, 1521, p. 221, and see also Eras. Op. iii. Epist. ciii.
[310] Letter to Fox, Bishop of Winchester. London, Cal. Jan. 1506. Eras. Op. i. p. 214.
[311] Erasmus’s letter to Botzhem, Catalogus, &c. Basle, 1523, leaf b, 3.
[312] Eras. Op. iii. p. 475, D.
[313] The epigrams have no dates, and it is impossible, therefore, to say positively which of them were written during this period. The following translation of one of them from Cayley’s Life of Sir Thomas More, vol. i. p. 270 (with this reservation as to its date), may be taken as a sample:—
A squall arose; the vessel’s tossed;
The sailors fear their lives are lost.
‘Our sins, our sins,’ dismayed they cry,
‘Have wrought this fatal destiny!’
A monk it chanced was of the crew,
And round him to confess they drew.
Yet still the restless ship is tossed,
And still they fear their lives are lost.
One sailor, keener than the rest,
Cries, ‘With our sins she’s still oppress’d;
Heave out that monk, who bears them all,
And then full well she’ll ride the squall.’
So said, so done; with one accord
They threw the caitiff overboard.
And now the bark before the gale
Scuds with light hull and easy sail.
Learn hence the weight of sin to know,
With which a ship could scarcely go.
[For the Latin, see Epigrammata Thomæ Mori, Basilæ, 1520, pp. 72, 73.]
[314] E. g.:—