§ 72. ERASMUS AND THE REFORMATION. 423
words and matter, and his words were deeds. Melanchthon was an improved Erasmus on the side of evangelical truth.
It is easy to see how far two men so differently constituted could go together, and where and when they had to part. So long as the Reformation moved within the church, Erasmus sympathized with it. But when Luther, who had at first as little notion of leaving the Catholic Church, burnt the Pope’s bull and the decretals, and with them the bridge behind him, Erasmus shrank back, and feared that the remedy was worse than the evil. His very breadth of culture and irresolution became his weakness; while Luther’s narrowness and determination were his strength. In times of war, neutrality is impossible, and we must join one of the two contending armies. Erasmus was for unity and peace, and dreaded a split of the church as the greatest calamity ; and yet he never ceased to rebuke the abuses. It was his misfortune, rather than his fault, that he could not side with the Reformation. We must believe his assertion that his conscience kept him from the cause of the Lutherans. At the same time he was concerned for his personal comfort and literary supremacy, and anxious to retain the friendship of his hierarchical and royal patrons. He wished to be a spectator, but not an actor in “the Lutheran tragedy.”
Erasmus hailed the young Melanchthon with enthusiastic praise of his precocious genius and learning, and continued to respect him even after his breach with Luther. He stood in friendly correspondence with Zwingli, who revered him as the prince of humanists. He employed Cicolampadius as his assistant, and spoke highly, though evasively, of his book on the eucharist. He was not displeased with Luther’s attacks on indulgences and monasticism, and wrote to Zwingli that he had taught nearly every thing that Luther teaches, but without his coarseness and paradoxes! In a
1 “Videor mthi fere omnia docuisse que docet Lutherus, nisi quod non tam
atrociter, quodque abstinui a quibusdam cenigmatibus et paradozis.” In Zwingli’s Opera, ed. Schuler and Schulthess, vol. VII. 310.
424 THE GERMAN REFORMATION. A.D. 1517 To 1530.
letter of reply, dated Louvain, May 30, 1519, he courteously but cautiously and condescendingly accepted Luther’s compliments and friendship, but advised him to moderate his tone, and to imitate Paul, who abolished the law by allegorical interpretation; at the same time he frankly admitted that he had not read his books, except portions of the commentary on the Psalms,! and that he considered it his duty to keep neutral, in order to do the more for the revival of letters. In conclusion he expressed the wish: “May the Lord Jesus grant you daily more of his spirit for his glory and the general good.” 2
So far, then, he objected not so much to the matter as to the manner of Luther, whose plebeian violence and roughness offended his cultured taste. But there was a deeper difference. He could not appreciate his cardinal doctrine of justification by faith alone, and took offence at the denial of free-will and human merit. He held the Catholic views on these subjects. He wished a reform of the discipline, but not of the faith, of the church, and cared little for dogmatic controversies.
His gradual alienation may be seen in the following extracts from his letters.
To Albrecht, Cardinal-Archbishop of Mainz, he wrote from Louvain, Nov. 1, 1519:—
‘* Permit me to say that I have never had any thing to do either with the affair of Reuchlin or with the cause of Luther. I have never taken any interest in the Cabbala or the Talmud. Those virulent contentions between
1 After the bull of excommunication, it required special permission to read the books of the heretic. In a letter to Bombasius, Sept. 23, 1521, Erasmus says that he begged Jerome Aleander for permission, but was denied unless he were to obtain it in express words from the Pope. Drummond, II. 85 sq.
2 Eras., Epist. 427. See the first letter of Luther (March 28, 1519), the reply of Erasmus (May 30), and a second letter of Luther (April, 1524), and the reply of Erasmus (May 5), in Latin in Er. Epist., in German in Walch, vol. XVIII., 1944 sqq., and in the Appendix to Miiller’s Hrasmus, pp. 385- 395. The two letters of Luther to Erasmus are also given in Latin by . De Wette, I. 247-249, and II. 498-501.