Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/715

ERASMUS 703 he was treated with great regard by Pope Ju- lius II., who gave him a dispensation from his monastic vows. Shortly after the accession of Henry VIII. he returned to England. On the journey thither he composed his Morice En- comium, "Praise of Folly," in many respects his most remarkable work. On his arrival he was received by his friend More, was pre- sented with a living by the archbishop of Can- terbury, which he resigned for a pension of 20, and accepted professorships of theology and Greek at Cambridge. In 15 14 he returned to the continent at the invitation of the arch- duke Charles, afterward Charles V., from whom he received the appointment of council- lor, with a small salary. This sinecure allowed him to reside where he chose, and he after- ward employed his time almost wholly with literary pursuits, correspondence, theological, polemical, and satirical writing, and with edi- tions and translations of many of the less known Greek and Roman classics. With Reuch- lin, his only rival as a linguist, he carried. on a spirited controversy concerning Greek pro- nunciation; and the theory which he main- tained has until the present century been generally received in the schools of Europe. With Luther his dispute was still sharper. The monk of Wittenberg was at first a warm friend and admirer of the great scholar ; but finding that Erasmus was not ready to adopt the extreme tenets of the reformers, he at first expostulated with, then ridiculed, and then denounced his former friend as a time-server, a coward, and a foe to true religion. Erasmus was equally unfriendly to the monastic habits and to the subtleties of the scholastic divinity, and exercised his wit on both of these ; but he had no love for theological quarrels, and no wish to draw upon himself unpopularity or persecution. He welcomed the reformation as a movement of free thought, but deprecated its excesses. He disliked all dogmatism, as well as all extravagance in religious rhetoric, and would have the reformers confine themselves to the open vices of the monks and clergy, leaving aside the possible errors in doctrine. His middle course in regard to the reformation brought upon him the censure of zealots in both parties. In 1521 he had taken up his residence in Basel, where he was presently called on to mediate between the Catholic magistrates and the rising Protestant party. His moderate counsels satisfied neither side. The insurrec- tion of February, 1529, completed the over- throw of the authorities ; the Roman Catholic religion was definitely prohibited in the city, and all who had opposed the new doctrine were compelled to depart. Though Erasmus had already been condemned as a heretic by the college of the Sorbonne, he could not endure the society of the men in power, and went to Freiburg, where he remained from 1529 to 1535. In vain did the Catholic party try to win him back to full communion, and in vain did the reformers attack him by jest and sar- 301 VOL. vi. 45 casm. He answered the libels of Geldenhauer by pungent rejoinders, he evaded the summons to the diet at Augsburg, and his "Retracta- tions," though promised, were never published. He declined more than one tempting offer, and, while he was not unwilling to accept additions to his scanty income, did not care to obscure his literary fame by the more imposing dignity of a place in the sacred college. In 1535 he returned to Basel, where an attack of gout compelled him to remain, and where he died in the arms of his friends. His last days were cheered by the friendly visits and messages of distinguished men both of the Protestant and of the Catholic party. His death was lament- ed as a public calamity ; a long procession of magistrates and students followed his funeral ; and the bequest of his whole property to the aged, the poor, and the orphan seemed to justify the monument which was erected to him in the cathedral at Basel, and which still remains the chief object of interest in that edifice. Erasmus was small in stature, with light hair and light blue. eyes. IJis portrait by Holbein represents his look as sickly and his face as thin and wrinkled. He was fond of luxurious living, but unable from physical weakness to gratify his appetites. His timidity was excessive. He dreaded to stay in the neighborhood of any contagious disease, and, in spite of his rationalistic tendencies, was fre- quently haunted by superstitious fears. He had a fine native humor, a keen enjoyment of witty discourse, and an accurate eye for every form of beauty. His taste was as refined as his knowledge was prodigious. He was versed in all the studies of his age ; in most of them he excelled. His reading was various, but not desultory. His treatises were finished produc- tions, and their style is always clear, flowing; and eloquent. Erasmus aided the reformation rather as a scholar and critic than as a thinker or reason er. He exposed the abuses of the convents and the inconsistencies of the scho- lastic theology, but he produced no new creed and argued in favor of no heretical doctrine. His defence of the right of reason against au- thority was weak and evasive. But he revived the study of the Scriptures in their original tongue, affirmed the superior value of early Christian testimonies, and gave an impulse to Biblical and patristic investigations. He was the most gifted and industrious pioneer of modern scholarship. Erasmus published in 1516 the first printed edition of the Greek Testament from manuscripts, which has been regarded as his greatest work. His complete works, with a biography, were published after his death by Beatus Rhenanus (9 vols. fol., Basel, 1540-'41). Another more complete edition was published at Leyden by Le Clerc (10 vols. fol., 1703-'6). Of the Colloquia^ his most famous work, a great number of editions have been published ; the best is that of Amster- dam (1 650). The Morice Encomium also passed through a great number of editions; it was