she was a woman of good character and a tender mother. Scaliger, who never knew her, assailed her character with a vile epithet, as did also Eppendorff, in venting their spleen against Erasmus; but we may safely assume that her character had nothing in it of common looseness. After Gerard's return from Rome there was no resumption of their former relationship, but she devoted herself like any good mother to her maternal duties, so that Erasmus was able to say at the only time when he ever mentioned her that she was "of honorable manners and of edifying life." And judging Gerard and Margaret by what we know of their individual characteristics, we may attribute their failure to resume their former relations as much to Margaret as to Gerard. For we must conclude, from her tender care and solicitude in bringing up her children, that she was a true mother, sincere, and probably devout. In any case, she lived an unsullied life from that time to the day of her death thirteen years afterwards. Gerard too, in spite of the levity of his disposition, which had caused him to be nicknamed "the facetious," was a good father to his boys and maintained them and their mother honorably, assisting the latter both by money and advice in the education of their children.

CHAPTER II

EARLY SCHOOL DAYS: THE LETTER TO GRUNNIUS

At the desire of Gerard, the mother sent Erasmus to a school in Gouda kept by one Peter Winkel. Between Winkel and his pupil there was no sort of mutual attraction, so that the lad did poorly under his tuition; in consequence of which the parents shortly sent him to Utrecht, where by the father's influence he was received as a chorister. Here he stayed until he was nine years old, getting the sort of instruction which was customary in the cathedral schools at that time. After he had completed his ninth year (and here we still see the guiding hand of the father), he was sent under the care of his mother to the monastic school at Deventer. This was a celebrated school presided over by famous men, and of which we must speak at some length, since it was here that he received the first real mental training that was afterwards so powerfully to influence his whole life. This school was kept by the Fratres Collationarii or Brothers of the Common Life, an order of then comparatively recent origin, founded by the celebrated Gerard Groot; and it will suffice us to state now succinctly, as a sufficient guarantee of the high character of the scholarship and the religious influences of the school, that it was here that the immortal Thomas à Kempis spent his tenderest years, from sixteen to twenty-one, and here that he laid the foundation of his admirable learning and piety. Groot, the founder, was filled with the true apostolic spirit; and, gathering around him a band of young men, he pledged them to aid each other in leading a Christian life, to perfect themselves in the knowledge of the Scriptures, to copy and spread to others the truths of the Bible, and to help all with whom they came in contact to advance along the road to perfection. Their first community was formed at Deventer. The members were free from many of the rules that existed in other communities, although they followed of their own free will the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Property was held in common for the use of all, and their motto was "Love one another." Although they worked as copyists, their most important task was the teaching of the young; and it may be truly said that this Order had vindicated its right to live, by reason of the crowds of ardent youths whom it had sheltered, educated, and trained for the service and enlightenment of their fellows in the world.

Erasmus, in his letter to Grunnius, speaks rather slightingly of these Fratres Collationarii, as being poorly equipped to teach youth. The truth probably is that the mind of Erasmus was precocious, and he was impatient at the methodical and somewhat labored progress of his teachers. He states as much in that letter, as we shall presently see.

However, we can most of us look back to similar conditions in our own schooldays, when, in our overweening conceit, we felt at times that we could easily teach our teachers. Erasmus is not quite fair to these old instructors of his. In his letter to John Botzheim he says that, when he was a boy of twelve, he saw Rudolph Agricola at the school in Deventer.1 Now what was the great man doing in that school where the teachers were so ignorant that one of the pupils knew more than they about the studies they were teaching? And what was Alexander Hegius doing there at the head of such an institution, he who had been a pupil of the great Greek scholar Agricola? And Sintheim, who was the sub-rector and a famous scholar too-why was he wasting his time in this solitude, where the brothers spent their days in saying Mass and reading their breviaries?

2

He

We are forced to quote Erasmus against himself on this point. says that he was under the care of these Brothers for about six and a half years, during which period he went through the whole course of logic, physics, metaphysics, and morals, besides being so well versed in Horace and Terence that he could recite them by heart. He had also made a beginning in Greek, which in those days was an almost unknown study. Evidently Erasmus felt that in this petition to the Pope, from which we are quoting, he must "draw a long bow" at all hazards, since he deemed it thus necessary to disparage his ancient teachers.*

It may be well at this point to give a translation of this famous petition, which is constantly quoted by every biographer, but, with one exception, never given in its entirety, most probably on account of its extreme length. But as it gives many details of that part of his youth which we are now considering and which we can learn from no other source, we must of necessity suffer its prolixity on account of its importance, feeling that a perusal of this unique document will amply repay us for the time spent in the task.

Erasmus of Rotterdam to Lambert Grunnius, Papal Secretary:

Greeting. Hitherto, most learned Lambert, although besought by many, I have taken pleasure in refraining from the prosecution of this kind of suit; nor have I been a source of trouble to any of my friends. But now a singular sense of duty has made me depart from my ancient custom, and has caused me to take upon myself the task of defending a client, and to trouble you, a most friendly man, about the trouble of a friend. Wherefore I ask you this first service, that you deign to familiarize yourself with the whole chain of events. Indeed, I am confident that, if I ask this, you will both 1"Rudolphus Agricola primus omnium aurulam quandam melioris literaturæ nobis inuexit ex Italia, quem mihi puero, ferme duodecim annos nato, Dauentriæ videre contigit." (Eras. Ep. I.)

"Quum bonam diei partem cogantur precum et operarum pensis impendere, non video quo pacto valeant liberaliter instituere pueritiam." (Eras. Ep. 447.) Eras. Ep. 447.

Their seminaries were numerous, as he says; and Pennington in his Life of Erasmus mistakes the meaning of Erasmus completely when he translates the latter's qui nusquam gentium non nidulantes by the phrase, who not having a home anywhere.

approve of my offices in the matter and bestow your own, not only on account of our friendship, by favor of which I know you would deny me nothing, but also on account of the merits of the case itself. For it is not a question of a trifle, of mere "goat's wool," as the expression is, but concerns the welfare of an individual of most gifted character, who, in the fullness of life, will perish mortally unless we come to his assistance. Would that this whole affair were as well known to you as to me, for I well know that with three words I should have gained my case. Nevertheless, I will

paint the whole matter for you so conscientiously that there shall be lacking nothing (or at least as little as possible) which is necessary to your proper understanding of it.

He whose cause I plead has since boyhood been known to me so intimately that I scarcely know myself better; and many of the facts which pertain to this suit I have not merely heard tell of, but have seen with my own eyes. So keen are the humiliating circumstances of the affair that I myself can scarcely relate them without tears; nor do I think that you, who are by nature so kind, will be able to read them with dry eyes. But that, my Grunnius, is true Christian kindness, not only to rejoice with the happy, but to weep with the sorrowful. I know, dear friend, that you are well acquainted with, and especially dislike, the dishonesty of certain Pharisees who, like those mentioned in the Gospel, go about not only by land and sea, but through all the palaces of rulers, through all the homes of the wealthy, through all the schools, and through all the taverns, in order to decoy into their net some proselyte, setting their traps with incredible arts for the innocence of boys and girls; and well they know the years that are most suitable to injustice and deception, that they may lead them into the kind of life whence, once ensnared, they are unable to extricate themselves; than which type of slavery there is none more miserable. For the slave bought at auction can so please his master that he may be freed from his bondage. Therefore I shall not too long detain you by dwelling on things well known, for the world is everywhere full of their schemings. Where is the boy of notable talent, high birth, or wealth, whom they have not insidiously allured, for whom they have not spread their nets, whom they have not entrapped with their deceits?—and this frequently without the knowledge, and sometimes against the will, of the parents. Although this is worse than any kidnapping, yet these pretenders even dare to adorn the deed with an honorable appellation. "You must fly to Christ," they say, "even though you trample your parents underfoot: against the influence of the Divine Spirit the authority of parents avails not." As if, forsooth, Satan could not dwell even among the monks, or as if all who receive the cowl are breathed upon by the spirit of Christ, although by far the greatest number are led thereto by stupidity, ignorance, desperation, or a desire for ease and the hope of being fed. That God commands children to obey their parents is beyond controversy; while what spirit it is that urges a man to become a

monk is not known even to him who is so led. Here you see what a vast field of commonplace opens up to us; but I may not linger there, although everyone's ears are burning with the daily complaints of the entrapped ones. I do not wish to find fault with any Order, nor will I defend those who, having heedlessly thrown themselves into the ditch, finish worse what they have started badly enough, by taking refuge, not in liberty, but in a license to sin. Moreover, in such a dissimilarity of bodies and temperaments, the same conditions do not suit everybody; nor can anything more unfortunate happen to persons of especial talent than that they should be induced by craft or propelled by force into a state of life from which they cannot extricate themselves. For the happiness of men is founded on this: that everyone may apply himself to that for which he is by nature best constituted. Now to compel some to celibacy or to the monastic life will turn out no more happily than if you were to lead an ass to the Olympic games or an ox to a wrestling bout, as the proverb has it.

Let this suffice as preface. Now hear at the same time the misfortune of a fine young man and the detestable criminality of these kidnappers. And here again, I beseech you, lend me your close attention, for I most earnestly desire that you approve with your own judgment what I am doing. For mere complaisance is often displeasing; but what is done with judgment is always gratifying. Two brothers there were, Florentius, and his elder, Antonius. While they were still boys they lost their mother; and their father, dying soon after, left a property, small indeed, but which would have abundantly sufficed for finishing their education, had not the rapacity of their relations, who surrounded the dying man, made that little less. For of the ready money which he had about him at that time not a penny was left. What remained in real estate, however, or was secured to them in writing, and hence not so easily to be seized by the claws of these harpies, would have been sufficient for their education in the liberal arts, had not a great part of it been lost by the carelessness of their guardians. You well know how few people there are who are conscientiously vigilant in other people's affairs. Their guardians, however, had set their minds on having them brought up in a monastery, esteeming it a marvel of parental kindness on their part if they thus provided them with a maintenance. Towards this, already so inclined by their own wish, they were urged by a certain prior, an arrogant man, who enjoyed a considerable reputation for piety, especially in that under him, as schoolmaster, they had learned in childhood the first rudiments of grammar. This latter was generally held to be a man of pious and upright life: that is, he was free from gambling, impurity, extravagance, drunkenness, and other infamous vices; but he was a man wholly selfish and amazingly penurious, nor preëminent in anything in popular opinion, nor even approving literary attainments, save such as he himself had scantily and with great difficulty acquired. For when Florentius, now a boy of fourteen, wrote him a some