letter he complains that "by mutually warming each other we feel the cold less."

Besides this trait of littleness, a certain amount of megalomania had grown up in him, which time was strengthening rather than diminishing. We have seen him claiming at Deventer to know more than his teachers; and now at the College of Montaigu he makes the same assertion, describing his teachers there as men of "the most rotten brains, the most barbarous conversation, the dullest intellects, the most barren learning, the coarsest manners, the most spiteful tongues, and the blackest hearts." 18 We are here strongly reminded of a similar outburst on the part of another famous neurasthenic, Edward Gibbon, author of the History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, who felt it incumbent on himself to besmirch the characters of his teachers and the sort of learning taught at Magdalen College, Oxford, during his residence there.

I spent fourteen months [he says] at Magdalen College, the most idle and unprofitable of my whole life; the reader will pronounce between the school and the scholar; but I cannot affect to believe that nature had disqualified me for all literary pursuits. . . . The fellows of my time were decent easy men, who supinely enjoyed the gifts of the founder. . . . From the toil of reading, or thinking, or writing, they had absolved their conscience; and the first shoots of learning and ingenuity withered on the ground, without yielding any fruits to the owner or the public. . . Their conversation stagnated in a round of college business, Tory politics, personal anecdotes, and private scandal; their dull and deep potations excused the brisk intemperance of youth. . . .

This is so deliciously Erasmian that my attention has been called to other remarkable similarities between these two famous men which are irrelevant here. That his strictures were bitterly resented is evident from the numerous replies which they elicited. For fuller details the following may be consulted: A Word or two in Vindication of the University of Oxford and of Magdalen College in particular, from the Posthumous Aspersions of Mr. Gibbon. But every genius is an aristocrat, full of contempt for the common herd. He measures men by his own standard and finds them lacking. Hence he is impatient with their shortcomings and despises them in his heart. He is, moreover, not always successful in hiding his feelings towards them; and the result is that his contempt is answered with hatred. All this is especially true in the case of Erasmus, as we shall have many occasions to point out. Now, the College of Montaigu was not entirely devoted to the killing of its students; and Erasmus evidently found intellectual equivalents for the lack of physical comforts. We know that he delivered a course of sermons there On the Praises of the Saints, which he considered worthy of preservation. So, too, his reputation as a scholar had begun to extend beyond the college walls; and throughout the Uni17 Ibid., 238. See the Ichthyophagia.

18

20

19

versity circles his name was being mentioned as that of a man from whom much might be expected. Hector Boece, who had been permitted by his patron Bishop Elphinstone to attend this same College of Montaigu, has nothing to say in its dispraise, but testifies to the growing celebrity of Erasmus by calling him one of the learned men of Collège Montaigu. As a matter of fact, he won many useful friends, among them the celebrated Robert Gaguin, who, being a much older man, was able to give him the benefit of his ripe experience. Gaguin was of French descent, but born in Flanders. Like Erasmus he was educated in a monastic school, and afterwards became a monk in the Trinitarian Order, of which he was later General. He won his degree of Doctor of Canon Law at the University of Paris in 1480, just as our Erasmus was trying to do, and this too was a bond of interest between the two scholars. He had a remarkable career as diplomatist, having been sent on embassies to Italy, Germany, Spain, and England. Allen says that he took a leading part in the introduction of printing into Paris, and was Dean of the Faculty of Canon Law in the University. His greatest work is the Compendium de origine et gestis Francorum, published in 1495. Erasmus prepared himself for his introduction to Gaguin by writing a hendecasyllabic poem in which he lauds Gaguin to the skies, and sent this with a long letter couched in his most Ciceronian Latin. It would seem that Gaguin had passed the period of life when flattery is pleasing, for in his reply, he very gently chides his young friend for being too fulsome.

. I do not hinder others from passing on me any judgment they see fit. But it is disagreeable to me to have you pour the full flood of your oratory into the little stream of my merits; to endow me with the integrity of [C. Scipio] Nasica and the splendor of Nestor's eloquence, when I am only a pupil, and still learning. Do you wish me to tell you how I feel about it, Erasmus? . . . I wish that you would be more chary in writing my praises, and not let your pen run riot; not that praise makes me blush, but that praise given when undeserved is really flattery or falsehood. I am telling you the truth. As far as I can judge from your letter and your poem, I consider you a scholar, for which reason I desire your friendship just as much as you desire mine. Similarity of tastes is a bond of affection. So, if you consider that there has fallen to my share anything of learning and education, I freely proclaim that the entrance to my heart and affection is open to you, just as my doors are open to my friends. Lay aside all pretense of blandishment, and come with an open mind. Though you may think that you have a high opinion of me, retain your freedom of judgment; if not forget me entirely."1

19 Was there from 1492 to 1498, and acted there as regent or professor. See D. N. B., art. "Boece," for other interesting details. The name is variously spelled Boice, Boece, and Boyce.

20 Boece, Aberdon. episcop. vitæ, p. 88. Ed. Moir, 1894.

31 Eras. Ep. 43.

What Gaguin objected to was very evident in the early letters of Erasmus; and coming from an older man to a young one, from an older writer to one with less experience, it was well applied, and made an impression not easily forgot. Erasmus' second letter pleased Gaguin very much, and he did not hesitate to say so. In addition to this, he allowed Erasmus to write for his book on the history of the Franks, which was then on the press, a complimentary letter, which was inserted at the end of the work, a high honor for a young writer in those days. It is our personal opinion that it was through Gaguin, with his large acquaintance in university circles, that Erasmus first met Andrelini, and possibly Mountjoy and the other young Englishmen who were afterwards to become such close friends. So we must account Erasmus fortunate in having met, so early in his Parisian career, this fine old man, who combined a thorough knowledge of men and their motives with an unselfish love of the younger race of writers by whom he was surrounded. And it was real and lasting help that he sought to give them; for commenting on the Antibarbari which Erasmus had sent for his perusal he counseled him as follows:

You propose a subject conceived with much conciseness; you subdivide it very well, and you treat it with great talent. You connect your ideas very aptly, and you embellish them beautifully, nor is there any lack of the vigorous reasoning of Carneades. One thing, Erasmus, I know you will take in good part from a friend. You drag out the introduction a little too far, and perhaps someone may find fault with Batt's playing the first part, for without an interlocutor, he would be rather long-winded. For a lengthy dialogue is pleasing which refreshes and delights the listener by a frequent change of speakers. But do not take my judgment in the matter; consult those who are skilled in dialogue. They differ on certain points and subdivisions frequently, while on uninterrupted speeches they are rarely at variance. Plato himself among the Greeks, among the Latins Cicero and many other later writers, will be models for you. But I would be an absurd mentor for you if I were to try to add beauty to Venus. It will suffice if you eliminate what is redundant, and supply what is lacking.

99 22

Another friend whose acquaintance Erasmus made at this time we have already mentioned in Hector Boece. Boece's patron was the celebrated Bishop Elphinstone, founder of King's College, Aberdeen, who was just then interested in introducing the art of printing into Scotland. As we have seen, Gaguin took an important part in introducing the same art into Paris; so, when we find Erasmus enjoying the friendship of Boece and Gaguin at the same period and in the same city, we naturally conclude that the latter two were old acquaintances into whose fellowship Erasmus had been admitted. It is also probable that, on account of their diplomatic associations, Elphinstone and Gaguin were intimate friends of long standing. In any case, Boece was an admirer of Erasmus, and had importuned him for copies of his writings, which 22 Ibid., 46.

subtle flattery, we all know, is sweetest incense to budding authors. So Erasmus replied in jocund vein:

What do you mean by so many captious letters? What does such temerity indicate? You write exigently, you threaten, you revile, and finally you denounce open war on me unless I shall send you some of my poems. See how unjust you are, who ask me for what I have not. Indeed, I swear by all that is holy that I was never interested in such things; and if I indulged the muse when a boy I left all that in my native country. For I did not dare to bring to this celebrated University of Paris, where I see that the most finished writers in every kind of literature flourish, any of my barbarous, and stupid, and strange-sounding poems. But you will not believe me, and will suspect me of still writing poetry. You rascal, who made you think that I was a poet? For you constantly in your letters call me by that title of poet which was once so dignified and honorable but now, on account of the crass ignorance of many, is become so hateful.

Then he goes on in a lengthy epistle to show what in his estimation true poetry should be, and winds up, as we expected, by sending to his friend the offspring of his muse, adding ingenuously:

If you are looking for the solid rather than the ambitious, I hope that you will not despise these poems of mine too much. But, good gracious, I almost forgot to impress upon you what I most desired. If you love me at all, show these trifles to no one.. Farewell."

So, with friends like these, and with the privilege of Gaguin's house and library, his year in the College of Montaigu could not have been so woeful as he depicts it. He had established solid connections with a great many of the most important and influential members of the literary circles both in and out of the University, and had also, which was equally valuable to him, seized that opportunity to show them the mettle that was in him.

CHAPTER VI

STUDIES AT THE UNIVERSITY; FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES: PATRONAGE

At this time he fell so ill that he had to leave the College of Montaigu and return to the Bishop's hospitable mansion, where he was most kindly received and nursed back to health again. After this he made a short visit to Steyn, where he took counsel with his superiors for the future. According to his own testimony they advised him to return to Paris and continue his studies. He probably painted Collège Montaigu in such lurid colors that they made some sort of provision for him, sufficient at least so that he was no longer obliged to live there. It is likely also that conditions were then laid down for his future guidance, one of which must have been that he was to strive for a degree in Theology. This would be an honor for the monastery as well as for himself. It is regrettable that none of the letters that passed between him and the Prior of Steyn at this time has been preserved; but we fortunately have several to his old friend and fellow-monk Nicholas Werner, whom the reader may remember as having helped Erasmus with good advice in the stormy days which preceded his exit from the monastery. He writes to Brother Nicholas, after his return to Paris, as follows:

I hope and trust that you are all well; as for myself, I feel fine, thank God. If anyone has hitherto been in doubt as to whether I really valued my theological studies, let facts speak for themselves. I may be talking somewhat boastfully, but it does not become Erasmus to conceal anything from his most affectionate father. By chance recently I met some English nobles, all men of the greatest influence. The other day there came to me a certain young and very wealthy priest, who had refused a bishopric because he felt himself to be not sufficiently well educated. Nevertheless he was to be renominated to the see by the king within a year, although he possessed an annual income of more than two thousand crowns, without any bishopric. When he heard of my literary accomplishments, he very zealously began to pay court to me and even to pay me great honor and respect; for he dwelt in the same house with me for some time. He offered me a hundred crowns if I would tutor him for a year; he offered me a benefice to fall out within a few months; and he desired to lend me three hundred crowns to be repaid from the receipts of the benefice, if I needed them to prepare myself for the filling of the position. By the acceptance of this benefice I should have gained the good will of all the English of this city, had I so desired, and through them of all England; for