And responsive to that sentiment Erasmus writes that he is going to angle for a few New Year's presents before leaving Cambridge:

I am preparing some baits for New Year's day, although I fear it will be trouble wasted. And what a University it is! There is not a person in it that can be found to write tolerably at any price. . . . I have still seven or eight days to sweat in this workhouse, and then we will foregather at our ease and pleasure.

14

But Ammonius continues to complain of his hard lot, and says in his next letter:

I know that you give me good advice when you tell me that it is necessary to bear our troubles bravely. But I wish you would show me how, providing you do not begin to philosophize."

To this Erasmus made the answer which has been frequently quoted against him:

May the Muses cease to love me, my Andreas, if I have exaggerated your good fortune in the least. I am speaking from my heart. I was very violently brought to bed on the Feast of the Conception, and gave birth to several stones. Will you add this also to the other reasons why I am fortunate? Do not be too importunate with his Lordship of Winchester.

You ask my advice as to how best to bear your troubles bravely. Come, I will teach you what you know better than I, nor, since you object, will I begin philosophizing Firstly, put on a bold front, and never be ashamed of anything. Then, mix freely in other people's affairs. Push everybody out of your way. Neither love nor hate anyone inordinately, but measure everything according to your own interests. To that end let all the aims of your life be directed. Part with nothing, unless you expect to receive it back with interest; and flatter everyone in all things. But these are commonplaces, you will say. Come then, if you will have it so, here is a private counsel, which I will whisper into your ear. You are aware of the jealous vanity of the English; make use of it for your own advantage. Ride two horses at once. Employ several people to solicit the privilege of extending favors to you. Threaten to leave, and prepare for departing. Exhibit letters wherein you are invited to go somewhere else for flattering considerations. Take yourself off occasionally, so that in your absence they will miss

you.1

This is very cold-blooded advice, and would be incredible were it not given to us in his own words, and most secretly. What shall we call it-consummate hypocrisy, calculating ingratitude, feigned respect, intolerable selfishness, or disgusting insincerity? Perhaps it was a combination of all these base qualities.

But we have dwelt long enough on the unpleasant characteristics of 14 Ibid., 246, 248. 1. Ibid., 250.

15 Ibid., 249.

Erasmus, and will turn to more agreeable topics. He had not lost sight of his possible sources of revenue on the continent, and we find him corresponding with Jerome Busleiden of Mechlin, Robert Guibé, Bishop of Nantes, and his old friend Antony of Bergen. His letter to the latter would be well worth reproducing here had we the time, since it is principally concerned with denouncing the war which was impending between Pope Julius II, who wished to clear Italy of the French invaders (for they held a great deal of the northern part), and Louis XII of France, who refused to be thus driven out. The German Empire, England, Scotland, Spain, and several of the independent Italian states had ranged themselves on either side, and the war that was imminent showed likelihood of becoming a real world war. Henry VIII of England had joined the Holy League against France on November 13th, of this year 1511; so that Erasmus, in common with all England, was much disturbed at the prospect. To see Henry in an alliance with Pope Julius, his bête noire, was more than he could stand with equanimity; so he took occasion, in this letter to the Abbot, to express his abhorrence of this war and all wars generally. In this epistle, which he afterwards expanded into a long essay and published under the title of Dulce bellum inexpertis as one of his Adages, we see him at his best because he was sincere. He showed the folly of war as it had never before been described, and pointed out that this favorite pastime of kings was ungodly, unnatural, and eventually unprofitable to all concerned.

His next letters are all dated from London; so we surmise that, after waiting to see what New Year's Day might bring him in the line of presents from his Cambridge friends, he left the University and hied to London to arrange his affairs there, and to speak with his various patrons face to face. He and Ammonius both deemed this the better and more promising plan for drawing financial assistance.

While here, he was invited to accompany Bishop Fisher to the Lateran Council which had been summoned by Pope Julius. This aged Pontiff had shown himself such a good general in his efforts to drive the French invaders out of Italy, making use of both his military and his spiritual weapons, that Louis XII and his ally the Emperor Maximilian decided to copy the Pope's tactics and have recourse to weapons spiritual likewise. For this purpose they had persuaded a few of the Cardinals who were not Italians, or who were, for various reasons, not in sympathy with the Pope, to convene a Council of the Church at Pisa, to which Council Julius was summoned to appear as a public delinquent. To see his authority thus set at defiance and himself mocked was no doubt very irritating to the aged and haughty Pontiff; but as the Council opened with only seven Cardinals and a few bishops present, and as even the clergy of Pisa declined to take part in the proceedings. and closed the doors of the cathedral against them, he felt that he could afford to smile at their attempts. However, they adjourned to Milan, then held by the French king, and there began to issue their decrees. To offset this Pope Julius appointed a General Council to be convened at Rome, which was called the Council of Lateran from the church in

which its deliberations were held, and which he opened in person with great solemnity on May 3, 1512. This was the Council to which Bishop Fisher had been summoned, and to which he had invited Erasmus to accompany him. The Pope had given timely notice to the refractory Cardinals to return to their obedience, and then he very astutely proceeded to form new alliances. He established what was known as the Holy League, consisting of the King of Aragon, the Venetian Republic, and King Henry VIII of England. After many vicissitudes of fortune, the Pope and his allies at last got the upper hand of Louis XII's general, La Jalisse, and either drove him out or forced him to withdraw his troops from the Milanese territory with great slaughter.

Why Bishop Fisher did not attend the Council is not known. It was summoned to assemble in November, 1512, but assembled in the previous May as we have stated, and Bishop Fisher was not a member of the second embassy of bishops then appointed.

On the 19th of February following we find Erasmus back again at Cambridge, much as he disliked it. It is probable that the duties for which he had been engaged had served to recall him. But this time he did not stay long, for he returned to London on March 26th to arrange for taking over the parish of Aldington in Kent, with which benefice he had been presented a few days previously by his good friend Archbishop Warham. We have an extract from a letter written on the part of the Archbishop to Erasmus back in 1509 or thereabouts, when he was in Italy, which reads to the following effect:

I desire you to consent to accept from me one hundred and fifty nobles on your arrival here, the condition being that you will agree to spend the rest of your life in England, with the privilege of visiting your native country and your other friends at opportune times.

17

This was only a scrap from a letter the rest of which is lost. From this time forward Erasmus looked to the Archbishop as his principal hope and stay; and it is from this time that he began to speak about a benefice as being among the things that he might possibly receive. Hence we may surmise that it was this prospective benefice which was held out to him as an inducement to settle in England, and that the presents of cash were intended to carry him along until the aforesaid benefice fell out. It was undoubtedly for this reason that Ammonius used to call him fortunate, not so much, we may assume, on account of his actual condition, but because of his prospects. At last the expected and long desired event occurred; for on March 22, 1512, he was appointed rector of the parish of Aldington in Kent, a place about sixty miles from London. The annual value of this living was about thirty-six pounds, six shillings, eight pence, a very large sum for those days. We copy the quaint document certifying his appointment from the transcription as it appears in Vischer.'

18

18 Erasmiana, p. 9.

I William, by divine permission, Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of all England, and Legate to the Apostolic See, to our beloved in Christ the administrator of the parish of Aldington, or to any suitable custodian whatsoever, health, grace, and benediction:

Whereas, out of our regard for him we have conferred on our beloved son Erasmus of Rotterdam the parish church of Aldington in our diocese of Canterbury, through its free resignation into our hands by Master John Alen, doctor of canon and civil law, its last incumbent, and by us declared vacant and rightfully at our disposal; and have canonically appointed him rector of the same, with all its rights and appurtenances:

Therefore, we request and order you, enjoining it on you strongly, to induct, cause to be inducted, and to defend when inducted, so far as you are able, the same Erasmus, or his administrator in his name, into the real and corporal possession of the said church, and into all its rights and appurtenances :

And what you shall have performed in the premises, you shall duly certify unto us whenever you shall be properly required. In witness thereof our seal is appended to the present instru

ment.

Given at our palace of Lambeth, the twenty-second day of the month of March, in the year of our Lord fifteen hundred and eleven. and of our translation hither the ninth.

CHAPTER XXIV

ENGLAND: BENEFICE OF ALDINGTON; NEW WRITINGS

The income from this benefice was very welcome, but the duties attendant on the position of parish priest were not as acceptable; so with due regard to the canonical law governing such cases he proceeded at once to secure substitutes to perform his functions in the parish, while he still continued his literary and professorial work at London and Cambridge. About three months afterwards he resigned the position with the permission of Archbishop Warham, who covenanted with him and his successor in the parish, John Thornton, Prior of St. Martin's at Dover, that in consideration of such resignation Erasmus should be permitted to draw by way of pension twenty pounds from said living annually, half to be paid at Michaelmas, and half at Lady Day. By this transaction the Archbishop fulfilled his promise of a benefice to Erasmus, and at the same time relieved him of its obligations. Since we are going to comment on the reasons actuating the Archbishop in giving Erasmus this living, and the motives influencing Erasmus in accepting it and then almost immediately resigning it, we shall transcribe from the document of authorization given by the Archbishop to Erasmus as much as is necessary for our purpose.'

I William, by divine permission Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of all England, and Legate of the Apostolic See, desire for you health in the Lord and entire confidence in these presents:

We have brought, and desire to bring to the knowledge of you all and several by these presents, that although from that time when first by the providence of God, albeit unworthy, we were promoted to the dignity of the Archbishopric of Canterbury, we have never had in mind to make any church subject to us pay a tax or charge it with the payment of a pension by our authority, but it has ever been our care that we should leave all our churches to our successors as free and immune from pensions as we have received them from our predecessors; nevertheless, moved by the innumerable virtues of Erasmus of Rotterdam, a man of the most consummate achievement in Latin and Greek, who like a bright star illuminates our times by his learning and eloquence, we have decided in this case to recede somewhat from our custom. And it should not seem strange to anyone that we have thought proper to change somewhat from our former custom in behalf of a man so remarkThe original document is kept in the University of Basle, and has been reproduced in his Erasmiana by Prof. Wilhelm Vischer.