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19 - Erasmus and the Age of Reformation by Johan Huizinga · Erasmus and the Age of Reformation

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  Speaker 1: Chapter nineteen of Erasmus and the Age of Reformation. This
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  Speaker 1: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
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  Speaker 1: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox dot org. Erasmus and the Age of Reformation by
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  Speaker 1: Johann Hausinger, translated by Frederic kihan Hoffmann, Chapter nineteen. At
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  Speaker 1: War with Humanists and Reformers fifteen twenty eight nine, Erasmus
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  Speaker 1: turns against the excesses of humanism, its paganism, and pedantic
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  Speaker 1: classicism Ciceronianus, fifteen twenty eight. It brings him new enemies
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  Speaker 1: the Reformation carried through at Basel. He emigrates to Freibourg
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  Speaker 1: fifteen twenty nine his view concerning the results of the Reformation.
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  Speaker 1: Nothing is more characteristic of the independence which Erasmus reserved
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  Speaker 1: for himself regarding all movements of his time, then the
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  Speaker 1: fact that he also joined issue in the camp of
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  Speaker 1: the humanists. In fifteen twenty eight they were published by Robin,
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  Speaker 1: the chief of the firm of Johannes. Robin had just died.
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  Speaker 1: Two dialogs in one volume from Erasmus's hand, one about
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  Speaker 1: the correct pronunciation of Latin and Greek, and one entitled
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  Speaker 1: Ciceronianus or on the Best diction i e. In Writing
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  Speaker 1: and Speaking Latin. Both were proofs that Erasmus had lost
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  Speaker 1: nothing of his liveliness and wit. The former treatise was
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  Speaker 1: purely philological, and as such has had great influence. The
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  Speaker 1: other was satirical as well. It had a long history.
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  Speaker 1: Erasmus had always regarded classical studies as the panacee of civilization,
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  Speaker 1: provided they were made serviceable to pure Christianity. His sincere
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  Speaker 1: ethical feeling made him recoil from the obscenity of a
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  Speaker 1: poggio and the immorality of the early Italian humanists. At
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  Speaker 1: the same time, his delicate and natural taste told him
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  Speaker 1: that e pedantic and servile imitation of antique models could
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  Speaker 1: never produce the desired result. Erasmus knew Latin too well
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  Speaker 1: to be strictly classical. His Latin was alive and required freedom.
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  Speaker 1: In his early works we find taunts about the over
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  Speaker 1: precise Latin purists. One had declared a newly found fragment
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  Speaker 1: of Cicero to be thoroughly barbaric. Quote Among all sorts
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  Speaker 1: of others, none are so insufferable to me as those
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  Speaker 1: apes of Cicero end quote. In spite of the great
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  Speaker 1: expectations he cherished of classical studies for pure Christianity, he
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  Speaker 1: saw one danger quote that under the cloak of reviving
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  Speaker 1: ancielcient literature, paganism tries to rear its head, as there
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  Speaker 1: are those among Christians who acknowledge Christ only in name,
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  Speaker 1: but inwardly breathe heathenism. Quote this he writes in fifteen
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  Speaker 1: seventeen to Capito. In Italy, scholars devote themselves too exclusively
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  Speaker 1: and into pagan guise, to bonail literae. He considered it
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  Speaker 1: his special task to assist in bringing it about that
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  Speaker 1: those Bonnai literai quote with which the Italians have thus
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  Speaker 1: far been almost pagan, shall get used to speaking of
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  Speaker 1: Christ end quote. How it must have vexed Erasmus that
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  Speaker 1: in Italy, of all countries, he was, at the same
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  Speaker 1: time and in one breath, charged with heresy and questioned
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  Speaker 1: in respect to his knowledge and integrity as a scholar.
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  Speaker 1: Italians accused him of plagiarism and trickery. He complained of
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  Speaker 1: it to Aleander, who he thought had a hand in it.
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  Speaker 1: In a letter of thirteen fifteen twenty seven to a
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  Speaker 1: professor at Toledo we find the iboche of this Ciceronianus.
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  Speaker 1: In addition to the haters of classic studies, for the
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  Speaker 1: sake of orthodox believe, writes Erasmus, lately another and new
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  Speaker 1: sort of enemies has broken from their ambush. These are
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  Speaker 1: troubled that the Bonai literae speak of Christ as though
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  Speaker 1: nothing can be elegant. But what is pagan? To their ears?
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  Speaker 1: Jupiter Optimus Maximus sounds more pleasant than Jesus Cristus ridemp tormundi,
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  Speaker 1: and Patres conscripti more agreeable than Sancti apostoli. They accounted
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  Speaker 1: a greater dishonor to be no Ciceronian than no Christian.
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  Speaker 1: As if Cicero, if he should now come to life again,
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  Speaker 1: would not speak of Christian things, in other words, than
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  Speaker 1: in his time he spoke of his own religion. What
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  Speaker 1: is the sense of this hateful swaggering with the name Ciceronian,
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  Speaker 1: I will tell you briefly in your ear. With that
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  Speaker 1: pearl powder, they cover the paganism that is dearer to
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  Speaker 1: them than the glory of Christ. To Erasmus, Cicero's style
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  Speaker 1: is by no means the ideal one. He prefers something
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  Speaker 1: more solid succinct, vigorous, less polished, more manly. He who
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  Speaker 1: sometimes has to write a book in a day has
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  Speaker 1: no time to polish his style, often not even to
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  Speaker 1: read it over quote, what do I care for an
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  Speaker 1: empty dish of words? Ten words here and there, mumped
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  Speaker 1: from Cicero, I want all Cicero's spirit. Quote These are
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  Speaker 1: apes at whom one may laugh. For Far more serious
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  Speaker 1: than these things are the tumults of the so called
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  Speaker 1: new Gospel to which he next proceeds in this letter.
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  Speaker 1: And so, in the midst of all his polemics and
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  Speaker 1: bitter vindication, he allowed himself once more the pleasure of
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  Speaker 1: giving the reins to his love of scuffing. But, as
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  Speaker 1: in Themia and Colloquia, ennobled by an almost passionate sincerity
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  Speaker 1: of Christian disposition and a natural sense of measure, the
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  Speaker 1: Ciceronianus is a masterpiece of ready, many sided knowledge, of
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  Speaker 1: convincing eloquence, and of easy handling of a wealth of arguments.
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  Speaker 1: With splendid quiet and yet lively breadth. Flows the long
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  Speaker 1: conversation between Beauliforus representing Erasmus's opinions, Hypologus the interested inquirer,
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  Speaker 1: and Nazapunus, the zealous Ciceronian who, to preserve a perfect
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  Speaker 1: purity of mind breakfasts of ten currents. Erasmus, in drawing Nazopanus,
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  Speaker 1: has evidently, in the main alluded to one who could
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  Speaker 1: no longer reply, Christopher Longolius, who had died in fifteen
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  Speaker 1: twenty two. The core of the Ciceronianus is where Erasmus
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  Speaker 1: points out the danger to Christian faith of a too
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  Speaker 1: zealous Classicism. He exclaims urgently, it is paganism, Believe me, Nazopanus,
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  Speaker 1: it is paganism that charms our ear and our soul
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  Speaker 1: in such things where Christians in name alone end quote.
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  Speaker 1: Why does a classic broverb sound better to us than
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  Speaker 1: a quotation from the Bible? Corcorum interrolera she queed among
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  Speaker 1: the vegetables better than soul among the prophets. As a
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  Speaker 1: sample of the absurdity of Ciceronianism, he gives a translation
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  Speaker 1: of a dogmatic sentence in classical language optimi maximi que
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  Speaker 1: jovis interpris akpilius servator rex euxtawatum responsa exolimpo devolavit in
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  Speaker 1: terrace for Jesus Christ, the word and the son of
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  Speaker 1: the Eternal Father came into the world according to the
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  Speaker 1: prophets most humanists wrote indeed in that style. Was Erasmus
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  Speaker 1: aware that he here attacked his own past? After all?
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  Speaker 1: Was it not exactly the same thing which he had done,
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  Speaker 1: to the indignation of his opponents when translating Logos by
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  Speaker 1: sermon instead of wherbum. Had he not himself desired that
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  Speaker 1: in the church heymns the mer should be corrected not
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  Speaker 1: to mention his own classical odes and paeans to marry
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  Speaker 1: and the saints. And was his warning against the partiality
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  Speaker 1: for classic proverbs and turns applicable to anything more than
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  Speaker 1: to the adagia. We here see the age at Erasmus
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  Speaker 1: on the path of reaction, which might eventually have led
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  Speaker 1: him far from humanism. In his combat with humanistic purism,
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  Speaker 1: he foreshadows a Christian Puritanism. As always, his mockery procured
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  Speaker 1: him a new flood of invectus, bambo and satelete. The
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  Speaker 1: masters of pure Latin could afford to smile at it,
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  Speaker 1: but the impetuous Julius Caesar Scalagher violently inveighed against him,
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  Speaker 1: especially to avenge Longolius's memory Erasmus's perpetual feeling of being
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  Speaker 1: persecuted get fresh food. He again thought that Aleander was
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  Speaker 1: at the bottom of it. The Italians set the Imperial
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  Speaker 1: court against me, he writes in fifteen thirty. A year later,
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  Speaker 1: a quiet again, he writes, jestingly, upon my word, I
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  Speaker 1: am going to change my style after Buddeus's model, and
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  Speaker 1: to become a Ciceronian, according to the example of Satelett
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  Speaker 1: and Bambo. But even near the close of his life
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  Speaker 1: he was engaged in a new contest with Italians because
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  Speaker 1: he had heard their national pride quote. They rage at
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  Speaker 1: me on all sides, with slenderous libels, as at the
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  Speaker 1: enemy of Italy and Cicero end There were, as he
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  Speaker 1: had set himself, other difficulties touching him more closely. Conditions
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  Speaker 1: at Basil had for years been developing in a direction
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  Speaker 1: which distressed and alarmed him. When he established himself there
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  Speaker 1: in fifteen twenty one, it might still have seemed to
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  Speaker 1: him as if the Bishop Old Christopher of Uttenheim, a
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  Speaker 1: great admirer of Erasmus and a man after his heart,
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  Speaker 1: would succeed in effecting a reformation at Basel as he
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  Speaker 1: desired it abolishing acknowledged abuses, but remaining within the fold
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  Speaker 1: of the church. In that very year fifteen twenty one, however,
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  Speaker 1: the emancipation of the municipality from the bishop's power it
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  Speaker 1: had been in progress since Basil in fifteen o one
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  Speaker 1: had joined the Swiss Confederacy, was consummated. Henceforth the council
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  Speaker 1: was number one. No longer exclusively made up of aristocratic elements.
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  Speaker 1: In Vain, did the bishop ally himself with his colleagues
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  Speaker 1: of Constance and Lausanne to maintain Catholicism in the town.
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  Speaker 1: The new creed got more and more the upper hand. When, however,
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  Speaker 1: in fifteen twenty five it had come to open tumults
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  Speaker 1: against the Catholic service, the council became more cautious and
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  Speaker 1: tried to reform more heedfully. Oikolampadius desired this too. Relations
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  Speaker 1: between him and Erasmus were precarious. Erasmus himself had at
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  Speaker 1: one time directed the religious thought of the impulsive, sensitive,
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  Speaker 1: restless young man. When he had, in fifteen twenty suddenly
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  Speaker 1: sought refuge in a convent, he had expressly justified that
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  Speaker 1: step towards Erasmus, the condemner of binding vows and now
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  Speaker 1: they saw each other again at Basil in fifteen twenty two. Ecolampadius,
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  Speaker 1: having left the monastery a convinced adherent and apostle of
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  Speaker 1: the new doctrine, Erasmus the great Spectator, which he wished
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  Speaker 1: to be. Erasmus treated his old coadjutor coolly, and as
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  Speaker 1: the latter progressed, retreated more and more. Yet he kept
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  Speaker 1: steering a middle course, and in fifteen twenty five gave
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  Speaker 1: some moderate advice to the council, which means while had
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  Speaker 1: turned more Catholic again. The old bishop, who for some
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  Speaker 1: years had no longer resided in his town, in fifteen
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  Speaker 1: twenty seven, requested the chapter to relieve him of his office,
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  Speaker 1: and died shortly afterwards. Then events moved very quickly. After
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  Speaker 1: Baern had meanwhile reformed itself. In fifteen twenty eight, Eucolampadius
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  Speaker 1: demanded a decision also for Basil. Since the close of
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  Speaker 1: fifteen twenty eight, the town had been on the verge
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  Speaker 1: of civil war. A popular rising put an end to
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  Speaker 1: the resistance of the council and cleared it of Catholic members,
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  Speaker 1: and in February fifteen twenty nine the old service was
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  Speaker 1: prohibited the images were removed from the churches, the convents abolished,
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  Speaker 1: and the university suspended. Eucolampadius became the first minister in
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  Speaker 1: the Minster and leader of the Basil Church, for which
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  Speaker 1: he soon drew up a reformatory ordinance. The new bishop
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  Speaker 1: remained at parent tri and the chapter removed to a
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  Speaker 1: Thai book. The moment of departure had now come for Erasmus.
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  Speaker 1: His position at Basil in fifteen twenty nine somewhat resembled,
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  Speaker 1: but in a reversed sense, the one at Louvain in
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  Speaker 1: fifteen twenty one. Then the Catholics wanted to avail themselves
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  Speaker 1: of his services against Luther. Now, the Evangelicals would fain
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  Speaker 1: have kept him at Basel, for his name was still
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  Speaker 1: a banner. His presence would strengthen the position of reformed
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  Speaker 1: Basel on the one hand, because, as people reasoned, if
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  Speaker 1: he were not of the same mind as the reformers,
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  Speaker 1: he would have left the town long ago. On the
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  Speaker 1: other hand, because his figures seemed to guarantee moderation and
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  Speaker 1: might attract many hesitating minds. It it was therefore, again,
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  Speaker 1: to save guard his independence, that Erasmus changed his residence.
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  Speaker 1: It was a great range. This time, old age and
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  Speaker 1: in validism had made the restless man a stay at home.
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  Speaker 1: As he foresaw trouble from the side of the municipality,
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  Speaker 1: he asked Archduke Ferdinand, who for his brother Charles the Fifth,
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  Speaker 1: governed the German Empire and just then presided over the
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  Speaker 1: Diet of Spaye, to send him a safe conduct for
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  Speaker 1: the whole Empire, and an invitation moreover to come to court,
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  Speaker 1: which he did not dream of accepting. As a place
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  Speaker 1: of refuge, he had selected the not far distant town
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  Speaker 1: of Freibourg m Preiscau, which was directly under the strict
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  Speaker 1: government of the Austrian House, and where he therefore need
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  Speaker 1: not be afraid of such a turn of affairs as
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  Speaker 1: that at Pasel. It was, moreover a juncture at which
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  Speaker 1: the Imperial authority and the Catholic cause in Germany seemed
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  Speaker 1: again to be gaining ground rapidly. Erasmus would not or
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  Speaker 1: could not keep his departure's secret. He sent the most
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  Speaker 1: precious of his possessions in advance, and when this had
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  Speaker 1: drawn attention to his plan, he purposely invited Oiko Lampadius
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  Speaker 1: to a farewell talk. The reformer declared his sincere friendship
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  Speaker 1: for Erasmus, which the latter did not decline, provided he
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  Speaker 1: granted him to differ on certain points of dogma or
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  Speaker 1: Calampadius tried to keep him from leaving the town, and
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  Speaker 1: when it proved too late for that to persuade him
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  Speaker 1: to return later, they took leave with a handshake. Erasmus
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  Speaker 1: had desired to join his boat at a distant landing stage,
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  Speaker 1: but the council would not allow this. He had to
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  Speaker 1: start from the usual place near the Rhine Bridge. A
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  Speaker 1: numerous rout witnessed his embarkation thirteen April fifteen twenty nine.
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  Speaker 1: Some friends were there to see him off. No unfavorable
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  Speaker 1: demonstration occurred. His reception at Frybook convinced him that, in
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  Speaker 1: spite of all, it was still this celebrated and admired
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  Speaker 1: Prince of Letters. The council placed at his disposal the large,
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  Speaker 1: though unfinished house built for the Emperor. Maximilian, himself a
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  Speaker 1: professor of theology, offered him his garden. Anthony Fuga had
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  Speaker 1: tried to draw him to Auxbog by means of a
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  Speaker 1: yearly allowance for the rest. He considered Frybok By no
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  Speaker 1: means a permanent place of abode. I have resolved to
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  Speaker 1: remain here this winter, and then to fly with the
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  Speaker 1: swallows to the place whether God shall call me end.
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  Speaker 1: But he soon recognized the great advantage which Frybok offered.
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  Speaker 1: The climate to which he was so sensitive turned out
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  Speaker 1: better than he expected, and the position of the town
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  Speaker 1: was extremely favorable for emigrating to France should circumstances require this,
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  Speaker 1: or for dropping down the Rhine back to the Netherlands,
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  Speaker 1: whither many always called him. In fifteen thirty one he
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  Speaker 1: bought a house at Fryburg. The old Erasmus at Freiburg,
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  Speaker 1: even more tormented by his painful malady, much more disillusioned
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  Speaker 1: than when he left Louvain in fifteen twenty one. Of
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  Speaker 1: more confirmed views as to the great ecclesiastical strife will
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  Speaker 1: only be fully revealed to us when his correspondence with
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  Speaker 1: Boniface Ahmbach, the friend whom he left behind at Basel,
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  Speaker 1: a correspondence not found complete in the older collections, has
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  Speaker 1: been edited by doctor Allan Skerr. From no period of
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  Speaker 1: Erasmus's life, it seems, may so much be gleaned in
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  Speaker 1: point of knowledge of his days habits and thoughts. As
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  Speaker 1: from these very years, work went on without a break
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  Speaker 1: in that great scholar's workshop, where he directs his family,
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  Speaker 1: who hunt manuscripts for him, and then copy and examine them.
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  Speaker 1: And whence he sends forth his letters all over Europe.
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  Speaker 1: In the series of editions of the Fathers followed Basil
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  Speaker 1: and the new editions of Chrysostom and Cyprian. His editions
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  Speaker 1: of classic authors were augmented by the works of Aristotle.
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  Speaker 1: He revised and republished the Colloquius three more times, the
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  Speaker 1: Adages and the New Testament once more. Occasional writings of
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  Speaker 1: a moral or political theological nature kept flowing from his pen.
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  Speaker 1: From the cause of the Reformation, he was now quite
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  Speaker 1: estranged pseudo Ewangailichim, he contumiluously calls the Reformed. I might
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  Speaker 1: have been a Coryphaeus in Luther's church, he writes in
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  Speaker 1: fifteen twenty eight, but I preferred to incur the hatred
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  Speaker 1: of all Germany to being separate from the community of
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  Speaker 1: the church. End quote. The authority should have paid a
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  Speaker 1: little less attention at first to Luther's proceedings, then the
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  Speaker 1: fire would never have spread so violently. He had always
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  Speaker 1: urged theologians to let minor concerns, which only contain an
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  Speaker 1: appearance of piety, rest, and to turn to the sources
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  Speaker 1: of scripture. Now it was too late. Towns and countries
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  Speaker 1: united ever more closely for or against the Reformation. If
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  Speaker 1: what a pray may never happen, he writes to satelettin
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  Speaker 1: fifteen thirty, you should see horrible commotions of the world arise,
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  Speaker 1: not so fatal for Germany as for the church. And
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  Speaker 1: remember Erasmus prophsed it end quote to Biatus Renanus. He
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  Speaker 1: frequently said that had he known that an age like
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  Speaker 1: theirs was coming, he would never have written many things,
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  Speaker 1: or would not have written them as he had. Just look,
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  Speaker 1: he exclaims, at the evangelical people. Have they become any better?
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  Speaker 1: Do they yield less to luxury, lust and greed? Show
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  Speaker 1: me a man whom that Gospel has changed from a
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  Speaker 1: toper to a temperate man, from a brute to a
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  Speaker 1: gentle creature, from a miser to a liberal person, from
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  Speaker 1: a shameless to a chaste being. I will show you
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  Speaker 1: many who have become even worse than they were now.
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  Speaker 1: They have thrown the images out of the churches, an
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  Speaker 1: abolished mass his thinking of Basil especially, has anything better
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  Speaker 1: come instead. I have never entered their churches, but I
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  Speaker 1: have seen them return from hearing the sermon as if
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  Speaker 1: inspired by an evil spirit, the faces of all showing
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  Speaker 1: a curious wrath and ferocity. And there was no one
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  Speaker 1: except one old man who saluted me properly when I
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  Speaker 1: passed in the company of some distinguished persons end quote.
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  Speaker 1: He hated that spirit of absolute assuredness so inseparably bound
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  Speaker 1: up with the reformers quote swingly, and butser may be
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  Speaker 1: inspired by the spirit. Erasmus, from himself, is nothing but
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  Speaker 1: a man, and cannot comprehend what is of the spirit
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  Speaker 1: end quote. There was a group among the Reforms to
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  Speaker 1: whom Erasmus, in his heart of hearts, was more nearly
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  Speaker 1: akin than to the Lutherans or its vingliants with their
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  Speaker 1: rigid dogmatism, the Anabaptists. He rejected the doctrine from which
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  Speaker 1: they derived their name and abhorred the anarchic element in them.
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  Speaker 1: He remained far to me much the manner of spiritual
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  Speaker 1: decorum to identify himself with these irregular believers, But he
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  Speaker 1: was not blind to the sincerity of their moral aspirations
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  Speaker 1: and sympathized with their dislike of brute force and the
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  Speaker 1: patience with which they pore persecution. The are praised more
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  Speaker 1: than all others for the innocence of their life. He
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  Speaker 1: writes in fifteen twenty nine, just in the last part
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  Speaker 1: of his life came the episode of the vile and
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  Speaker 1: revolutionary proceedings of the fanatic Anabaptists. It goes without saying
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  Speaker 1: that Erasmus speaks of it only with horror. One of
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  Speaker 1: the best historians of the Reformation, Balta Curle, calls Erasmus
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  Speaker 1: one of the spiritual fathers of Anabaptism. And it is
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  Speaker 1: certain that in its later peaceful development, it has important
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: traits in common with Erasmus, a tendency to acknowledge free will,
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: a certain rationalistic trend, it dislike of an exclusive conception
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: of a church. It seems possible to prove that the
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: South German Anabaptist Hans Dengk derived opinions directly from Erasmus.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: For a considerable part, However, this community of ideas must
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: no doubt have been based on peculiarities of religious consciousness
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: in the Netherlands. Whence Erasmus Sprang and where anabaptism found
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: such a receptive soil. Erasmus was certainly never aware of
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: these connections. Some remarkable evidence regarding Erasmus's altered added to towards
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: the old and the New Church is shown by what
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: follows the reproach. He had formerly so often flung at
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: the advocates of conservatism that they hated the bonnaillterae so
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: dear to him and wanted to stifle them. He now
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: uses against the Evangelical party. Wherever Lutherism is dominant, the
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: study of literature is extinguished. Why else, he continues, using
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: a remarkable sophism. Are Luther and Melanchthon compelled to call
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: back the people so urgently to the love of letters?
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: Just compare the University of Wittenberg to that of Lauvain
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: or Paris. Printers say that before this gospel came, they
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: used to dispose of three thousand volumes more quickly than
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: now of six hundred, a sure proof that studies flourish.
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: End of Chapter nineteen