The English Historical Review NO. CXXXVIL— JANUARY 1920 Erasmus To have been the foremost of scholars when scholarship knew no division of tongues, to have welded into one the oldest of sciences and the newest of knowledge, to have been appealed to, and reviled by, both parties in the greatest of struggles, was in itself a mighty achievement. This is what Erasmus ^ did as he ' Among the biographies of Erasmus, that by R. B. Drummond (2 volumes, 1873) is the most thorough and valuable, although needing correction on one or two points of later research and in the view of the theology of Erasmus. Of older English lives those by Knight (1726) and Jortin (2 volumes, 1758-62), especially the latter with many quota- tions in volume ii from Erasmus's works (including the Jvliiis Exclusus), are useful. In volume i Jortin summarizes the letters under yearly dates. The German and French lives are not more useful than the English, but the French treat the literary side of his life better. H. Durand de Laur, Srasme, precurseur et initiaieur de Vesprit modcrne (2 volumes, Paris, 1872), is a considerable work, the title of which is significant. E. Emer- ton, Deaiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam (New York, 1 899) , is traditional in its views and has a small but careful bibliography. The article on Erasmus in Bayle's Dictionary, written with spirit, is still interesting. There is a useful essay on Erasmus by Milman, who was well able to estimate his work. Froude's Life and Letters of Erasmus (1894) is a study by one who appreciated his literary side, but the historical side is open to the same kind of criticism as Froude's other works. The standard edition by Le Clerc (in 10 volumes, Leyden, 1703-6) is superseded for the letters down to June 1519 by Jlr. P. S. Allen's most scholarly and model work. Opus Epistolarum Dcs. Erasmi Roterodami, vols, i-iii (1906, 1910, 1913) : the notes and appendices give an immense amount of information not only about Erasmus himself but about his correspondents and the people mentioned. The same can be said of Mr. Nichols's Epistles of Erasmu.1, translated into English, of the letters down to December 1518 (3 volumes, 190 904, 1918). Seebohm's Ox/ord! Reformers (3rd cd., 1887), dealing with the fellow work of Colet, Erasmus, and More, broke up a new field, and summarizes the theological work of Erasmus : the main points of criticism are spoken of in this article. There is a chapter (vol. i, ch. x) in Brewer's Reign of Henry VIII (2 volumes, 1884), a chapter (iii) in Lord Acton's Lectures on Modern History, and an article by Dean Hutton in the Quarterly Review (October 1905). The Cambridge Modern History (vol. i, The Renaissance) has a chapter (xvii) by Dr. M. R. James which brings in Erasmus. A bibliography of Erasmus's own writings is given in the Oxford Reformers and of the subject generally in Allen's Opus Epistolarum Des. Erasmi (already men- tioned). A. Richter's Erasmus- Studien (Dresden, 1891) and Nolhac, Erasmc en Italic (2nd ed., Paris, 1898), are most useful, although all their discussions are utilized by Allen and by Nichols. VOL. XXXV. — NO. CXXXVII. B
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