§ 71. ERASMUS. 417
without him. In conclusion Erasmus, rather irreverently, quotes Scripture proofs in praise of folly. Pope Leo X. read and enjoyed the book from beginning to end. Holbein illustrated it with humorous pictures, which are still preserved in Basel.
In his equally popular “ Colloquies” (Colloquia Familiaria), begun in 1519, and enlarged in numerous editions, Erasmus aims to make better scholars and better men, as he says in his dedication to John Erasmius Froben (the son of his friend and publisher).' He gives instruction for Latin conversation, describes the good and bad manners of the times, and ventilates his views on a variety of interesting topics, such as courtesy in saluting, rash vows, a soldier’s. life, scholastic studies, the profane feast, a lover and maiden, the virgin opposed to matrimony, the penitent virgin, the uneasy wife, the shipwreck, rich beggars, the alchemist, etc. The **Colloquies ” are, next to the “ Praise of Folly,” his most characteristic work, and, like it, abound in delicate humor, keen irony, biting satire. He pays a glowing tribute to Cicero, and calls him “sanctum illud pectus afflatum celeste numine ;” and in the same conversation occurs the famous passage already referred to, ** Sancte Socrates, ora pro nobis.” He shows his sympathy with the cause of Reuchlin in the dialogue Apotheosis Reuchlini Capnionis, by describing a vision in which the persecuted Hebrew scholar (who died June 22, 1522) was welcomed in heaven by St. Jerome, and, without leave of the Pope, enrolled in the number of saints. But during Reuchlin’s life he had kept neutral in the Domini-
1 The work which appeared in 1518 under this title, with a preface of Rhenanus, was disclaimed by Erasmus, except some portions which he had dictated more than twenty years previously to a pupil in Paris by way of amusement. Hecompared it to an ass in a lion’s skin. The Colloquia are printed in Opera, I. 624-908. I have an edition cum notis selectis variorum accurante Corn. Schrevelio. Lugd., Bat. Bailey’s translation, London, 1724, republished 1878, reproduces in racy colloquial English the idiomatic and proverbial Latinisms of the original.
418 THE GERMAN REFORMATION. A.D. 1517 To 1530.
can quarrel about Reuchlin’s orthodoxy. He is very severe on “the coarse, over-fed monks,” and indulges too freely in insinuations which offend modern taste.! He attacks war, which he hated even more than monkery; and in his decription of a reckless, extravagant, debauched, sick, poor and wretched soldier, he took unchristian revenge of Ulrich von Hutten after his miserable death. In the dialogue, “Unequal Marriage,” he paints him in the darkest colors as an abandoned roué. He gives an amusing description of a German inn, which makes one thankful for the progress of modern civilization. The bedrooms, he says, are rightly so called ; for they contain nothing but a bed; and the cleanliness is on a par with the rest of the establishment and the adjoining stable. The “Ichthyophagia” is a dialogue between a butcher and a fishmonger, and exposes the Pharisaical tendency to strain out a gnat and to swallow a camel, and to lay heavy burdens on others. “ Would they might eat nothing but garlic who imposed these fish-days upon us!” ‘ Would they might starve to death who force the necessity of fasting upon free men!” The form of the dialogue furnished the author a door of escape from the charge of heresy, for he could not be held responsible for the sentiments of fictitious characters; moreover, he said, his object was to teach Latin, not theology. Nevertheless, the Sorbonne condemned the “ Colloquies,” and the Inquisition placed them in the first class of prohibited books.
1 Jn the dialogue Virgo μισόγαμος, the maiden Catharine, who had resolved to become a nun, is advised by her lover Eubulus that she may keep her chastity more safely at home; for the monks were by no means all ‘‘eunuchs,”’ but often do all they can to deserve their name “ fathers.”’ (‘‘ Patres vocantur, ac frequenter efficiunt, ut hoc nomen vere competat in ipsos.’’) She is also told that ‘‘all are not virgins who wear the veil, unless there be many in our days who share the pecular privilege of the Virgin Mary, of being a virgin after childbirth.”” The maiden admits the force of her lover’s arguments, but refuses to be convinced. In the colloquy that follows, entitled Virgo penitens, she acknowledges the wisdom of the advice when it was too late. She had scarcely been twelve days in the nunnery before she
entreated her mother, and then her father, to take her home if they wished to save her life.