149. ERASMUS TO THOMAS WOLSEY, CARDINAL
ARCHBISHOP OF YORK
Allen, iii. 587. Antwerp, May 18 (1519).
Thomas Wolsey (1471-1530), the famous statesman and cardinal. His life hy M. Creighton. On the part he took against Luther, cf. Preserved Smith: "Luther and Henry VIIL" English Historical Review, no. c. Erasmus had known him for a long while. Cf, Alleil, op, cit., i. p. 284, etc
. . . They accuse me of writing every hateful book that comes out. You might say that it was the very essence of calumny to confound, as they do, the cause of sound learning with that of Reuchlin and Luther, when really they have nothing to do with each other. . . . Luther is absolutely un- known to me, nor have I had time to read more than a page or two of his books, not because I have not wanted to, but because my other occupations have not given me leisure. And yet J they say that he has been helped by me! If he has written well I deserve no credit, if otherwise no blame, since of his writings not a jot is mine. Anyone who wishes to investigate the matter will find this absolutely true. The man's life is approved by the unanimous consent of all, and the fact that- his character is so upright that even enemies find nothing to slander in it, must considerably prejudice us in his favor. So that even if I had abundant leisure to read the writings of such a man, I would not have the presumption to judge them, although even boys nowadays rashly pronounce this erroneous and that heretical. Moreover, I have sometimes^ been opposed to Luther for fear that he might make hate- | ful the cause of sound learning, which I am unwilling to^ have more burdened than it is; nor has it escaped me that it would be an invidious task to tear down that from which priests and monks reap their best harvest.
First there appeared quite a number of theses on indul- gences; two pamphlets, on confession and on penitence, fol- lowed hard upon them; when I heard that some printers*
^Froben; Erasmus repeats several times that be tried to prerent him printiBg Lather's works. He did not succeed howerer, for Froben brought out a rolume of Luther's works in October, 1518. This included one of the pamphlets men- tioned abore, Sermo de Peniientia (Weimar, i. 317), but not, I think, the other, Instructio pro conf€ssione peccatorum (Weimar, i. 357). Cf. supra, no. 135.
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