A.D. 1514.

Rhenanus.

them thoroughly for the work he wished them to con- CHAP. X. tinue after he was gone. And the three brothers Amerbach did not belie their father's hopes. They had inherited a double portion of his spirit.1 Froben, too, Froben. had caught the old printer's mantle, and worked like him, for love, and not for gain.2 Others had gathered round so bright a nucleus. There was Beatus Rhe- Beatus nanus, a young scholar of great ability and wealth, whose gentle loving nature endeared him to his intimate companions. He, too, had caught the spirit of reviving learning, and thought it not beneath his dignity to undertake the duties of corrector of the press in Froben's printing-office. Gerard Lystrius, a youth brought up Lystrius. to the medical profession, with no mean knowledge both of Greek and Hebrew, had also thrown in his lot with them.4

introduced

to Froben

Such was the little circle of choice friends into which Erasmus Sapidus, without betraying who he was, introduced the incognito stranger who had just arrived in Basle, who, addressing and his himself at once to Froben, presented letters from friends. Erasmus, with whom he said that he was most closely · intimate, and from whom he had the fullest commission to treat with reference to the printing of his works, so that Froben might regard whatever arrangement he might make with him as though it had been made with

2

Epist. dccccxxii. Eras. Op. iii. pp. 1054, 1055.

1 Eras. Op. iii. p. 1249; and see | name); and especially the prefatory Epist. clxxiv. Erasmus to Leo X. p. letter from Erasmus to Beatus 154, C and D. Rhenanus, prefixed to 'Enarratio in Primum Psalmum, Beatus vir,' &c. Louvain, 1515. There is also a mention of him worth consulting in Du Pin's Ecclesiastical Writers, iii. p. 399.

3 See the Life of Beatus Rhenanus, by John Sturmius, 'Vita clarissi6 morum Historicorum.' Buderi, 1740, pp. 53–62; and Eras. Op. iii. pp. 154, C, &c. (see Index under his

4 Eras. Op. iii. p. 222, E; and the letter to Wimphelingus.

CHAP. X. Erasmus himself. Finding still that he was undiscovered, A.D 1514. and wishing to slide easily from under his incognito, he soon added drily that Erasmus and he were 'so alike 'that to see one was to have seen the other!' Froben then, to his great amusement, discovered who the stranger was. He was received with open arms. His bills at the inn were forthwith paid, and himself, servant, horses, and baggage transferred to the home of Froben's father-in-law, there to enjoy the luxuries of private hospitality.

Erasmus

at work in

Froben's printing office.

When it was known in the city that Erasmus had arrived, he was besieged by doctors and deans, rectors of the University, poets-laureate, invitations to dine, and every kind of attention which the men of Basle could give to so illustrious a stranger.

But Erasmus had come back to Basle not to be lionised, but to push on with his work. He was gratified; and, indeed, he told his friends, almost put to the blush by the honours with which he had been received; but finding their constant attentions to interfere greatly with his daily labours at Froben's office, he was obliged to request that he might be left to himself.1

At Froben's office he found everything prepared to his hand. The train was already laid for the publication of St. Jerome. Beatus Rhenanus and the three brothers Amerbach were ready to throw themselves heart and soul into the work. The latter undertook to share the labour of collating and transcribing portions which Erasmus had not yet completed, and so the ponderous craft got fairly under weigh. By the end of

1 Erasmus to Mountjoy, Epist. clxxxii., and the letter above mentioned to Wimphelingus.

August, he was thoroughly immersed in types and CHAP. X. proof-sheets, and, to use his own expression, no less A.D. 1514. busy in superintending his little enterprise than the Emperor in his war with Venice.1

2

Thus he could report well of his journey and his present home to his English friends. He felt that he had done right in coming to Basle, but, none the less on that account, that his true home was in the hearts of these same English friends. In his letters to them he Writes to his English expressed his longing to return. His late ill-fortune friends. in England he had always set down to the war, which had turned the thoughts of the nation and the liberality of patrons into other channels, and he hoped that now, perhaps, the war being over, a better state of things might reign in England, and better fortunes be in store for the poor scholar.

What Colet thought of this and things in general, how clouds and storms seemed gathering round him, may be learned from his reply to his friend's letter, brief as was his wont, but touchingly graphic in its little details about himself and his own life during these passing months. He was already preparing to resign his preferments, and building a house within the secluded precincts of the Charterhouse at Sheene near Richmond, wherein, with a few bosom friends, he hoped to spend the rest of his days in peace, unmolested by his evil genius, the Bishop of London.

Colet to Erasmus.3

'Dearest Erasmus--I have received your letter writ

CHAP. X.

A.D. 1515.

6

6

'ten from Basle, 3 Cal. Sept. I am glad to know where you are, and in what clime you are living. I am glad, too, that you are well. See that you perform 'the vow which you say you made to St. Paul. That 'so much was made of you at Maintz, as you tell me, 'I can easily believe. I am glad you intend to return 'to us some day. But I am not very hopeful about it. As to any better fortune for you, I don't know what to say. I don't know, because those who have the ' means have not the will, and those who have the will 6 have not the means. All your friends here are well. 'The Archbishop of Canterbury keeps as kindly disposed 6 as ever. The Bishop of Lincoln [Wolsey] now reigns "Archbishop of York!" The Bishop of London never ceases to harass me. Every day I look forward to my • retirement and retreat with the Carthusians. My Fitzjames.nest is nearly finished. When you come back to us, 'so far as I can conjecture, you will find me there, "“mortuus mundo." Take care of your health, and 'let me know where you go to. Farewell.-From London, Oct. 20 (1514).'

Colet still harassed

by Bishop

II. ERASMUS RETURNS TO ENGLAND-HIS SATIRE UPON

KINGS (1515).

Erasmus had at first intended to remain at Basle till the Ides of March (1515), and then, in compliance with the invitation of his Italian friends, to spend a few weeks in Italy.1 But after working six or eight months at Froben's office, he was no longer inclined to carry out the project; and so, a new edition of the 'Adagia' being wellnigh completed, and the ponderous folios of

1 Epist. ad Wimphelingum.

arrives in

Jerome proceeding to satisfaction, under the good CHAP. X. auspices of the brothers Amerbach, when spring came A.D. 1515. round Erasmus took sudden flight from Basle, and Erasmus turned up, not in Italy, but in England. Safely ar- England. rived in London, he was obliged to do his best, by the discreet use of his pen, to excuse to his friends at Rome this slight upon their favours.

He wrote, therefore, elegant and flattering letters to the Cardinal Grimanus, the Cardinal St. George, and Pope Leo,1 describing the labours in which he was engaged, the noble assistance which the little fraternity at Basle were giving, and which could not have been got in Italy nor anywhere else; alluding in flattering terms to the advantages offered at Rome, and the kindness he had there received on his former visit; but describing in still more glowing terms the love and generosity of his friends in England, and declaring 'with that frankness which it becomes a German to use,' that England was his adopted country, and the chosen • home of his old age.'2 He also took the opportunity of strongly urging the two cardinals to use their utmost influence in aid of the cause of Reuchlin. He told them Supports how grieved he was, in common with all the learned of Reuchmen of Germany, that these frivolous and vexatious lin. proceedings should have been taken against a man venerable both on account of age and service, who ought now in his declining years to be peacefully wearing his well-earned laurels. And lastly, in his letter to the Pope, Erasmus took occasion to express his hatred of the wars in which Europe had been recently involved, and

1 Epist. clxvii. clxviii. and clxxiv. 2 Eras. Op. iii. p. 141, C and D.

the cause