capacity. On his part he had left no opportunity unused to make himself known to the outer world. He had sent copies of his youthful productions to all those whose influence he sought to gain; among others, to Alexander Hegius and Bartholomæus of Cologne, two able German scholars, the former of whom had been his preceptor at Deventer; also to Englebert Schut of Leyden, a celebrated Dutch writer whom he propitiated with a poem. Some of his effusions had also been carried by a friendly hand to Utrecht, and Allen surmises that the reason was to win the favor of the bishop of that city, David of Burgundy, who was the ecclesiastical superior of the diocese in which Steyn was situated.1°

17

How it was finally brought about that he was to go as private secretary to the Bishop of Cambrai, Henry of Bergen, we are not exactly able to say, but we are permitted to conjecture that his fame as a Latin scholar had traveled far and wide, and it was this accomplishment of his which made the Bishop of Cambrai offer him the position aforesaid. In the Compendium, he says that "he had become known to the Bishop of Cambrai by chance." 1? This happened at a time when the Bishop was contemplating a trip to Rome, where he was expecting a Cardinal's hat. Needless to say, Erasmus jumped at the offer and hastened to obtain the necessary permission from his own bishop, as well as the consent of his Provincial and Superior. As this whole affair was a very unusual departure from the accustomed order of things, and as it might arouse petty jealousies among the rest of the brethren, strict secrecy was enjoined on Erasmus; and not even to his bosom friends Herman and Servatius was he permitted to divulge his anticipations. Indeed, Herman reproached him with this secrecy in no measured terms, and some little jealousy is evident in his first letter to Erasmus after the latter's departure from Steyn. He states succinctly that he had urged, begged, and besought the Prior that permission might be given him to accompany Erasmus, but was refused. Upon this refusal he became very angry and used some harsh terms to the Prior, all of which is very natural and very boyish. Then he goes on to say:

I cannot get over my surprise that you not only consulted no one about your departure, but that you did not even tell me what you had in mind; though to do the former might argue prudence, yet the latter would certainly evince some sort of kindness towards me. However, you seem to have acted neither as a prudent man nor as a friend. But still your many acts of kindness towards me plainly show the love you bear me, while your wonderful learning and your many other good qualities satisfactorily demonstrate your prudence. Whence I conclude that you kept the matter secret because you feared that I might be an impediment to you if I knew of it beforehand. I cannot tell you how eager I am to see you back, Erasmus (for with whom may I live more largely?), provided your return shall be for your own interests and honor. What troubles you have 16 Ibid., 28, 11. 18-27, and notes. 17 Ibid., II, 11. 94-5.

escaped none knows better than I, who am now tossed about in the same commotions. I often congratulate you on your good fortune in having extricated yourself from them. I sustain myself with the examples of great men. I keep before my eyes the undeserved prison of that noble man Socrates, and I reflect on the harsh servitude of the great Plato himself. So I live wholly for literature, and so, with the aid of a little philosophy, I not only forget my troubles, but can even laugh at them. But how are you getting along there? Do things suit you? Well enough? Is everything as you thought it would be, or as you would wish it to be? Farewell.'

18

Depressed and lonely after the departure of Erasmus, and just a little piqued and jealous at his success, Herman appears very human in the note of discontent in this letter. But he had a sunny disposition and bore what tribulations he had to bear with far more equanimity than his friend ever could.1o

Erasmus must have felt some natural regret on leaving Steyn, where he had spent five pregnant years, whose influence on his future life is incalculable. Herman wrote a poem on the occasion, the first verse of which runs as follows:

At nunc sors nos diuellit, tibi quod bene vortat,
Sors peracerba mihi,

Me sine solus abis, tu Rheni frigora et Alpes
Me sine solus adis,

Italiam, Italiam lætus penetrabis amœnam.

And so he was started on his way to become Latin secretary to the Bishop of Cambrai, to which office was probably added that of chaplain, for we find that the Bishop of Utrecht ordained him a priest before dismissing him to his brother of Cambrai. He was ordained on April 25, 1492, being then not quite twenty-six years old; and thus he parted with the old life at Steyn to launch his career on the great ocean of the world at about the same time that Columbus was fitting out his caravels at Palos.

18 Ibid., 33.

19 Allen in his prefatory notes to Eras. Ep. 33 gives interesting details of the after life of William Herman.

CHAPTER V

SECRETARY TO THE BISHOP OF CAMBRAI; MATRICULATION AT THE UNIVERSITY OF PARIS

The Bishop kept him about his person, using his talents where he could and permitting him to continue his beloved studies in his leisure hours. The Bishop seems to have appreciated him very much, as we find that he took him with him to his ancestral home at Bergen-op-Zoom. This visit was productive of much good for Erasmus, as it was here that he first made the acquaintance of James Batt, who was destined to be of great service to him in the immediate future.

And here it might be well to say something_about the Bishop of Cambrai, Erasmus' earliest patron. Henry of Bergen was the eldest surviving son of the hereditary lord of Bergen-op-Zoom. His elder brother Philip had fallen with his sovereign Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy and Brabant, on the field of Nancy fifteen years before. Of several younger brothers, John, who succeeded the Bishop in 1502 as lord of Bergen, was for many years a prominent figure at the court of Brussels; and Anthony, who became a close friend of Erasmus, was Abbot of the great monastery of St. Bertin at St. Omer. So we can easily see that Erasmus had fallen in with powerful and influential friends; and we shall also see that he made the utmost use of his position with them to advance his own interests and further his own ambitions, purposes in themselves entirely laudable if pursued in a grateful and appreciative spirit.

Few details of his life with the Bishop have come down to us, but we can glean from hints in his letters that Erasmus had a very high regard for his patron, who seems to have been no ordinary man. Besides his position as a member of a noble and powerful house in Brabant, and in addition to his occupancy of the important bishopric of Cambrai, he was a man of sound education and high character. His scholarship had been crowned with the degree of Doctor of Laws, and he had held the weighty office of Abbot of St. Denis-en-Broqueroie. In 1493 he received the honor of Chancellor of the Golden Fleece, the highest post in the order next that of the king, who was hereditary Grand Master. His position as Chancellor made him the greatest dignitary of the Burgundian court; while in his position as bishop he performed the marriage ceremony for Philip the Fair and Joanna of Spain, the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, besides officiating at many other royal functions. He was sent on an embassy to England in 1498, and was prominent in other public and honorable positions. With such a man for his patron the future of our young monk was secure, and he was probably for a time very happy. He was living in a learned and

intellectual circle, surrounded with the evidences of dignity and wealth and performing duties of a congenial nature. One of his new friends was James Anthonisz, the Vicar-General of the diocese, who had just written his work, De praecellentia potestatis imperatoriae, and with whom he lived on terms of friendly intercourse. Another friend was a canon of the Cathedral, and preceptor to Philip, Archduke of Burgundy, whom he used to style "my very uncommon friend." This friendship was brought about by William Herman, for he writes to the Canon as follows:

You have there Erasmus, the most learned man of our age; but I had better say nothing, lest I may seem to be deceived through my regard for him. I enjoyed the closest intimacy with him while it was possible; and there is nothing more grievous to me than the loss of his company. The Bishop of Cambrai, that patron of literature, has taken him under his care. Therefore, if you wish to cultivate the friendship of so learned, sincere, solid, and withal pleasant a man, believe me, you will derive a great measure of enjoyment therefrom.1

2

But undoubtedly the best and most serviceable friend whom he met while in attendance on the Bishop at Bergen was James Batt, whom we have already mentioned. He was born in Bergen, and had studied at the University of Paris. Returning to his native place, he had become principal of the High School, but gave this up to become Town Clerk, which post he held when Erasmus came to Bergen. Never was there a more devoted, energetic, self-sacrificing friend than Batt; and never was there a more patient, abused, flattered, cajoled, wheedled, but always faithful and willing, victim. His acquirements early attracted the attention of Erasmus, and he used to praise him most enthusiastically. Writing to Adolphus of Veere, of whom more hereafter, he congratulates him on having had such a preceptor as James Batt, "a man of rare abilities in all that pertains to philosophy and Platonic learning, a person of exquisite culture, as remarkable for the uprightness of his life as for the elegance of his conversation." He sounded his praises so highly to William Herman at Steyn that the latter was filled with a consuming desire to know him; and to that end wrote him a letter filled with fulsome adjectives, in which he urged that any friend of Erasmus was by that very fact a friend of his, and asked for the privilege of his friendship, saying somewhat vaingloriously that he would make not only the present, but also the future, generations aware of their mutual affection. Then he indited to him an ode, which "Declares his extraordinary affection for James Batt, a most upright man, who was secretary of the Town Council of Bergen, and having learned of his character from Erasmus, who at that time lived in close intimacy with him. how ardent was his desire of seeing the man, let this Ode testify." The plague having begun to rage in Bergen, and probably also at Brussels, Erasmus was permitted by the Bishop to retire to Halsteren, 1 Eras. Ep. 38, 11. 70-76.

Eras.. De virtute amplectenda.

Eras. Ep. 35, 1. 127.

Sylua odarum, ode 4: title.

where the latter evidently had a country residence. There he set himself in real earnest to the task of finishing his work which he had entitled the Antibarbari, and on which he had from time to time been hitherto engaged. Writing to his friend Cornelius Gerard, he says:

You ask me what I am doing. I have in hand a literary work which I have long been threatening to finish, so I am working on it while rusticating here, but what it will amount to I do not know. My intention is to complete it in two parts. The first part will be occupied mostly in refuting the silly reasonings of the barbarians [it is thus Erasmus used to style all those who were disposed to belittle the importance of the study of the ancient classics], and in the second part I will make you and other learned men of your kind speak in the praise of literature. So, since the glory of it will be common to us both, it is proper that the labor should also be common. If, therefore, you have read anything (for what is there that you have not read?) which you think pertains to this subject, that is, wherein the pursuit of literature is blamed or praised, I pray you send it to me, and generously share it with me for old friendship's sake."

But suddenly the sky of his happiness is overcast, and he is called upon to bear one of the severest disappointments of his life. The Bishop announced that the visit to Italy was to be cancelled. So in a moment all his dreams and visions of seeing sunny Italy, and all that such a visit means to the scholar of every age and every clime, vanished in the dim distance. This sudden frustration of his hopes was hard to bear, for there was nothing of the heroic about our Erasmus, and he became very much depressed. The cause of this abrupt change in the Bishop's plans is somewhat obscure. Erasmus says that it was a lack of money; but it is in the famous Compendium that he says it, and the present writer regards that document somewhat doubtfully, it being in his opinion an instrument written solely for the purpose of making obscure things more so. It does not seem probable that the Lord Bishop of Cambrai, with all his magnificence and worldly dignities, his position at the court of Burgundy, his friendship with Philip the Fair and consequently his opportunity to obtain the assistance of the Spanish court, could have failed to obtain the coveted hat, had only a few thousand ducats stood in the way. Nor must we forget that his position of Chancellor of the Order of the Golden Fleece, of which a king was Grand Master, and whose membership was at that time limited.

Allen says that to amuse his leisure at Halsteren the Antibarbari was revised and cast into the form of a dialogue, the opening scene of which is doubtless drawn, according to Erasmus' frequent custom, from life. In it Herman comes on a visit to Erasmus and meets Batt for the first time, an incident which is possibly substantiated by the conversation with Batt which Herman records in Ep. 38. The scene is laid in the spring, the Burgomaster and Town-physician come over from Bergen to take part in the dialogue; their names, William Conrad and John, are mentioned, and facts of Batt's previous life are given in a way which imparts an air of reality to the narrative. Idem, 37. See also Vol. I, App. V. Vide supra.