[725] K. Gillert, “Briefwechsel des Konrad Mutianus,” Halle, 1890, p. 300.
[726] Cp. G. Kawerau in W. Möller, “Lehrbuch der Kirchengesch.,” 3³, 1907, p. 63.
[727] From Aleander’s account in Balan, “Monumenta ref. Luth.,” p. 100 (cp. pp. 55, 79, 81); cp. Janssen, “Hist. of the German People” (Engl. trans.), 3, p. 16. Erasmus, in the above letter, dated August 26, 1528, and addressed to Christoph v. Stadion, describes Aleander and his intimate friend the Prince of Carpi as the originators of the charge, that, by his denial of dogma, he had been the cause of Lutheranism: “Cuius vanissimi rumoris præcipuus auctor fuit Hieronymus Aleander, homo, ut nihil aliud dicam, non superstitiose verax. Eiusdem sententiæ videtur Albertus Carporum princeps, Aleandro iunctissimus magisque simillimus.”
[728] Hermelink, “Die religiösen Reformbestrebungen des deutschen Humanismus,” Tübingen, 1908. We may also mention here that Joh. v. Walter, in his edition of the “Diatribe” p. xxiii., criticises Zickendraht (“Der Streit zwischen Erasmus und Luther,” etc., see below), “who lays too much stress on the sceptical utterances of Erasmus [in the ‘Diatribe’].”
[729] On March 1, 1517, “Briefwechsel,” 3, p. 88. See present work, vol. i., p. 43.
[730] “Neque est ut timeam casurum me, nisi mutem sententiam.”
[731] On May 28, 1522, “Briefwechsel,” 3, p. 375.
[732] “Opp.,” 3, col. 809.
[733] Köstlin-Kawerau, 1, p. 656 f. In the note on p. 790 it is pointed out that the passage in question does not refer to any work by Erasmus. A. Freitag, in the introduction to his reprint of the book, “De servo arbitrio,” Weim. ed., 18, p. 577, says: “The words of Erasmus, in his letter to L. Vives on Ascension Day, 1527: ‘perdidimus liberum arbitrium,’ do not refer to the work, ‘De libero arbitrio.’” The jesting words used by Erasmus in a letter to Auerbach, dated December 10, 1524, which have also been quoted in support of the legend (“Profecto nunc habere desii liberum arbitrium, posteaquam emisi in vulgus”), only mean that, even had he so desired, it was now impossible to withdraw a book already published. He wrote in exactly the same sense to King Henry VIII on September 6, 1524: “iacta est alea, exiit in lucem libellus de libero arbitrio.”
[734] “Briefwechsel,” 4, p. 319, “about April 15,” 1524.