[1040] The popular view of the priesthood is well summed up by Erasmus in the following dialogue: “Cocles, Cur mavis sacerdotium quam uxorem?—Pamphagus, Quia mihi placet otium. Arridet Epicurea vita.—Co. At mea sententia suavius vivunt, quibus est lepida puella domi, quam complectantur, quoties libet.—Pam. Sed adde, nonnunquam quum non libet. Amo voluptatem perpetuam. Qui ducit uxorem, uno mense felix est: cui contingit optimum sacerdotium, in omnem usque vitam fruitur gaudio.—Co. Sed tristis est solitudo, adeo ut nec Adam suaviter victurus fuerit in Paradiso nisi deus illi adjunxisset Evam.—Pam. Non deerit Eva cui sit opulentum sacerdotium,” etc.—Erasmi Colloq. de Captandis Sacerdotiis.
It is, however, perhaps, in the “Encomium Moriæ” that he gives fullest rein to his bitter satire. His own sad experience of conventual life gave him special opportunity of declaiming against the monks “qui se vulgo religiosos ac monachos appellant, utroque falsissimo cognomine, quum et bona pars istorum longissime absit a religione, et nulli magis omnibus locis sint obvii.” Their habit, their observances, their discipline, their ignorance, idleness, vices, are recounted at great length and with the most stinging ridicule, and he makes Folly dismiss them with the contemptuous valediction, “Verum ego istos histriones, tam ingratos beneficiorum meorum dissimulatores quam improbos simulatores pietatis libenter relinquo.” The secular priesthood, the bishops, and even the pope himself, are treated with little more respect, and every class of the ecclesiastical body is stigmatized as endeavoring to thrust upon others the care of the flock and industrious only in shearing the sheep.
The “Encomium Moriæ” had an immediate and immense success. Numberless editions were required to supply the avidity of the learned, and it was immediately translated into almost every language of Europe for the benefit of the unlearned. It appeared in 1509; the Colloquies in 1516.—When these works had produced their result, their dangerous tendencies were discovered, and they enjoyed the honor of being included in the first Index Expurgatorius (App. Concil. Trident). Cardinal Caraffa, indeed, in 1538, had urged upon Paul III. the propriety of excluding the Colloquies from use in schools as a text-book for students.—Concil. de Emend. Eccles. (Le Plat, Monument. Concil. Trident. II. 602).
[1041] The “Epistolæ Obscurorum Virorum” was certainly published before 1516, probably in 1515 (Ebert, Bibliog. Dict. s. v.).—It is equally severe upon the monks—“Tunc ille dixit: ego distinguo de monachis, quia accipiuntur tribus modis. Primo, pro sanctis et utilibus, sed illi sunt in cœlo. Secundo, pro nec utilibus nec inutilibus, et illi sunt picti in ecclesia. Tertio modo pro illis qui adhuc vivunt, et illi multis nocent, etiam non sunt sancti, quia ita superbi sunt sicut unus sæcularium. Et ita libenter habent pecunias et pulchras mulieres,” etc. And again, “Ubi enim diabolus pervenire vel aliquid officere non potest, ibi semper mittit unam malam antiquam vetulam vel unum monachum.”
[1042] De Vanitate Scientiarum cap. lxi., lxii., lxiv.
[1043] Orat. in Comit. Augustan. (Freher. et Struv. II. 702.)
[1044] Bartholini Comment. de Comit. Augustens. ann. 1518 (Senckenberg. Selecta Juris T. IV. pp. 669-70).
[1045] Rymer, Fœdera XIII. 586-7.
[1046] Even in this, Luther was by no means the first. Erasmus had exposed the wickedness of the system with fully as much fervor in the “Encomium Moriæ.”—“Hic mihi puta negotiator aliquis, aut miles, aut judex, abjecto ex tot rapinis unico nummulo, universam vitæ Lernam semel expurgatam putat, totque perjuria, tot libidines, tot ebrietates, tot rixas, tot cædes, tot imposturas, tot perfidias, tot proditiones existimat velut ex pacto redimi, et ita redimi ut jam liceat ad novum scelerum orbem de integro reverti.”—And in the “Epistolæ Obscurorum Vivorum” the falseness of its promises was unflinchingly asserted.
[1047] Ranke, Reformation in Germany, B. II. chap. 3.