[695] It is of a portion of the work (described briefly in volume i., p. 386) which had then appeared, that Erasmus writes: “Vehementer arrident et spero magnam utilitatem allaturos” (col. 445). How ready he was to express approval of any work of which a copy was presented to him is shown by his reply to the Bohemian Brethren in 1511, who had sent him one of their several confessions of faith founded on the new interpretation of Holy Scripture: Of what he had “read in their book,” he writes, he had “thoroughly approved and trusted that the rest was equally correct”; from any public approval he preferred, however, to abstain in order not to have his writings censured by the Papists, but to “preserve his reputation and strength unimpaired for the general good.” Janssen, “Hist. of the German People” (Engl. trans.), 3, p. 20 f.
[696] The letter is also to be found in “Luthers Briefwechsel,” 2, p. 66 ff.
[697] “Opp.,” 3, col. 514. In his complaints concerning the disorders of the Church he says, for instance: “Mundus oneratus est ... tyrannide fratrum mendicantium”; and then “in sacris concionibus minimum audiri de Christo, de potestate pontificis et de opinionibus recentium fere omnia”; in short: “nihil est corruptius ne apud Turcas quidem.”
[698] Luther to Lang, January 26, 1520, “Briefwechsel,” 2, p. 305: “egregia epistola, ubi me egregie tutatur, ita tamen, ut nihil minus quam me tutari videatur, sicut solet pro dexteritate sua.”
[699] F. O. Stichart, “Erasmus von Rotterdam,” Leipzig, 1870, p. 325, Kawerau, ibid., p. 10.
[700] On August 31, 1521, “Zwinglii Opp.,” 7, p. 310. Cp. Janssen, “Hist. of the German People,” Engl. trans., 3, p. 17, where the assertion that Erasmus had won over Pellicanus and Capito to the Zwinglian doctrine of the Last Supper is said to be utterly false. Though Erasmus declares that he never forsook the teaching of the Church on this point, Melanchthon nevertheless says that he was the actual originator of the Zwinglian denial of Christ’s presence in the Sacrament. Melanchthon to Camerarius, July 26, 1529, “Corp. ref.,” 1, p. 1083: “Nostri inimici illum [Erasmum] amant, qui multorum dogmatum semina in suis libris sparsit, quæ fortasse longe graviores tumultus aliquando excitatura fuerant, nisi Lutherus exortus esset ac studia hominum alio traxisset. Tota illa tragædia, περὶ δειπνου κυριακοῦ, ab ipso nata videri potest.”
[701] Cp. Fel. Gess, “Akten und Briefe zur Kirchenpolitik Herzog Georgs,” 1 p. 354.
[702] To Spalatin, July 6, 1520, cp. Stähelin, “Theol. Realenzyklopädie,” 5³, p. 442.
[703] “Opp.,” 3, col. 639 seq.
[704] Ibid., col. 713, 742.