ERASMUS, or one of the most cele brated scholars of his age, was born at Rotterdam on the 28th of October 1467 ; and though doomed to struggle, from his birth, with all the disadvantages of poverty and obscurity, yet, by the sole aid of his talents and applica tion, he acquired the favour and protection of the most distinguished personages of that eventful period in which he lived. He was the natural son of Gerard, a native of Tergou, by Margaret, the daughter of a physician in Sevenbergen, whom his father intended to marry; but, being deceived by a report of her death, he became dis gusted with the world, and took orders in the church. When little more than four years of age, Erasmus was so remarkable for his musical voice, that he acted as chorister in the cathedral of Utrecht ; and when he had attained his ninth year, he was sent to a school at Daven ter, where he made great progress in learning, and pos sessed so excellent a memory, that lie was able to repeat the greater part of Terence and Horace. At thirteen years of age, he was deprived of both his parents ; and his guardians, with a view to embezzle his little patri mony, forced him into a monastery. His constitution, which was naturally delicate, rendering him unable to bear the watchings and other austerities of the monastic life, and his whole sentiments and temper being equally averse from the habits of the profession, he accepted, in his 23d year, an invitation from Henry a Borgis, Bishop of Cambray, in whose family he admits that he wanted for nothing, but from whose patronage he derived very little assistance. In 1496, he went to study at Paris, where. he supported himself by instructing a few pupils in private, and where the literary exertions, to which he was compelled by his necessities, greatly contributed to his future eminence. By the friendship of some of his pupils, who were the sons of Englishmen, and particu larly of ‘Villiam Lord Mountjoy, who afterwards allow ed him an annual pension of a hundred crowns, he visit ed England in I497, and formed an acquaintance with the most eminent literary characters of that country. Du ring the succeeding ten years, he seems to have frequent ly changed his place of residence, and to have visited various parts of France, England, and the low Countries. He was most stationary, however, in Paris, where he em ployed himself in the study of the Greek language, and in the composition of his early publications. He com plains, in his epistles, that the want of money prevented him, about this time, from finishing many of his treati ses, and compelled him to spend much of his time in reading lectures to young students. He received, how ever, frequent donations from his friends and patrons, particularly from Anne Bersala, Marchioness of Ure, whom he often addressed in letters of the most compli mentary style, and to whom he made known his pecuni ary wants with very little delicacy. About the begin ning of the year 1507, he went to Italy, in order to take a doctor's degree, which, he observes, " makes one nei ther better nor wiser, but must be done, if a man would be esteemed by the world." Having resided about a year in Florence, he proceeded to Venice, where he pub lished a third edition of his Adages ; and, after spend ing a short time at Padau, he arrived in Rome in 1509. At this time, he was acting as tutor to Alexander, Archhishop of St Andrews, natural son of James IV., of whom he draws a very high character, and who was afterwards slain, with his father, at the battle of Flodden Field. At Rome, he at first experienced the most fltatering- attentions, and received several advantageous offers to induce him to settle in that capital; but at length he seems to have questioned the sincerity of his Italian friends, and, in his '6Praise of Folly," which he wrote soon after, expressly complains of the neglect with which he was treated by the papal court. He gladly ac cepted, therefore, the invitations of Henry VIII. and of his former pupil, Lord Mountjoy, to return to England, where he continued a considerable time in great favour with the King, with Wolsey, with Wark ham Archbishop of Canterbury, with Sir Thomas More, and many other nobles and prelates of distinction. Invited to Cambridge by Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, he was promoted suc cessively to the divinity and to the Greek professorship ; and continued to teach publicly in that university for the space of four years. Though he received many va luable donations, and derived several small annual pen sions frern the liberality of his patrons, or from the liv illgs with which he was presented, he was always in poverty, and always importuning his friends for pecunia ry assistance. Either from want of economy, or from the infirm state of his health, which required many in dulgences, or from his satirical disposition, which aliena ted the affections of his admirers, he found himself un able to subsist in England; and, in 1514, he removed to Germany, where he was appointed nominal counsellor to Charles, Archduke of Austria, with an annual stipend of 200 florins. From the period of his publishing the " Praise of Folly," he was no longer considered as a true son of the church ; and his incessant invectives against the monastic orders drew upon him the bitterest persecutions from that quarter. In order to shelter him ..elf from their slanders and machinations, he petitioned and procured from Pope Leo X. a dispensation, in due form, from the vow which he had reluctantly made in his youth among the regular canons. In 1516, he publish ed and dedicated to Leo his edition of the New Testa ment in Greek and Latin, with notes, a work which had long occupied his chief attention, and which, while it drew upon him the censures of ignorant and envious critics, was highly valued by all who were capable of aprecia ting its merits. About the same time he produced, and inscribed to Archbishop Warkam, an edition of the works of Jerome, whom he professed, in rather exag gerated terms, to hold in the greatest estimation, as an author and a theologian. He received the most pressing invitations from Francis I. to settle in his dominions; but dreading the envy of the French literati, and the perse cutions of the Doctors of the Sorbonne, and being un willing to forsake possessions for promises, he retained preferments under the Emperor. In 1517, he revisited England, and was very courteously received by the king and by Cardinal Wolsey ; but, though he declined their offers to provide for him in that kingdom, he mentioned to one of his friends, that his English revenues constitu ted his chief support. In the same year he published a work entitled Qucrela Path, in which, with much sound ness of reasoning, power of eloquence, and freedom of sentiment, he expostulates with the sovereigns of the world upon the atrocities of war, and pronounces all hostilities which are not strictly defensive, to be unlaw ful and unchristian. A benevolent project for a con
gress of princes at Catnbray, who should enter into mu tual engagements for the preservation of peace, having been unhappily thwarted by the arts of interested per sons, Erasmus wrote his " Complaint of Peace," at the request of John Sylvagius, chancellor of Burgundy, who had been a zealous promoter of the plan. (The work was dedicated to Philip of Burgundy, Archbishop of Utrecht, who expressed his approbation, by offering the author a benefice, and presenting him ith a valuable sapphire ring, which he requested him to wear for his sake.) During the six succeeding years, he resided chiefly at Louvain ; and, by the commencement of the Reformation under Luther, was involved in new difficul ties and disputes. Hitherto, he had often experienced the enmity of the scolastic divines, and of the monastic orders, whose absurdities and immoralities lie had so openly assailed in his writings : but he found no difficulty in parrying their attacks, and preserving the favour of the most zealous Catholic princes and prelates. But, as the struggles between the Romanists and Reformers be came more serious, it required his utmost exertion of ingenuity and caution to preserve at once consistency of sentiment, and security from persecution. Both in con versation, and from the press, he had been accustomed to inveigh against many of those errors in doctrine, and superstitions in worship, which disgraced the church of Rome. Some of these he ably confuted by the utmost solidity of argument and force of eloquence ; while he directed against others those weapons of ridicule and sarcasm, which he was able to wield with such irresisti ble effect. Nor did he spare even the character of the ecclesiastics ; but, with the greatest ability and most ex quisite raillery, exposed to the world their spiritual do mination, their impious frauds, their ambition, avarice, and luxurious excesses. Scarcely did one of those opi nions and practices, which Luther afterwards attempted to reform, escape the animadversions of his pen ; and, as his writings were read with universal admiration, they contributed, in no small degree, to the progress of the Reformation: "Luther," it was said, " hatched the egg which Erasmus had laid." Nor was he merely the forerunner of the great reformer; but, for some time after Luther had commenced his career, he acted as his admirer and auxiliary ; applauded his conduct, and ex pressed hopes of his success ; recommended moderation in his measures, but encouraged him to proceed ; vindi cated his character to the dignitaries of the church, con demned the spirit of his adversaries, and always insisted that his books should be answered by reasoning, instead of being suppressed by authority. In several of his publications, he openly concurred with him in denoun cing the obscure and unedifying systems of the school divines, and calling the attention of mankind to the stu dy of the Sacred Scriptures, as the only standard of re ligious truth. In his celebrated 6, Colloquies," particu larly, which he published in 1522, he directs his severest strokes against the monks and their superstitions; and so manifest was its reforming tendency, that the Faculty of Theology at Paris, and afterwards a provincial coun cil at Cologne, denounced it as " a wicked book, the pe rusal of which should be forbidden to all, especially to the young, and which ought, if possible, to be entirely suppressed." But, though he entertained so great a similarity of sentiment with the reformers, he was pre vented, by a variety of circumstances, from decidedly espousing their cause. His extreme love of peace ren dered him averse from those measures of direct opposi tion to the church, which had become necessary, and flattered him with the delusive hope of a gradual refor mation by gentler methods. His excessive deference for persons of high station, his intimate acquaintance with the more learned ecclesiastics, and his love of the literary reputation which lie had acquired among them, kept him from embracing a party, to which his patrons and friends were personally adverse. His dread of losing the pensions and other emoluments, which he derived from the Catholic princes and prelates, may be supposed to have had a considerable influence on his conduct. His natural timidity of 'mind particularly disqualified him for encountering persecution ; and, by his own con fession, would have induced him to consult his personal safety, however much he had approved the sentiments and measures of the reformers. " It is true," he writes to his friend Richard Pace, dean of St Paul's, "Luther hath given its many a wholesome doctrine, and many a good counsel ; and I wish lie had not defeated the effect of them by his intolerable faults. But, had he written any thing in the most unexceptionable manner, I had no inclination to die for the sake of truth. Every man hath not the courage requisite to make a martyr ; and I am afraid, were I put to the trial, I should imitate St Peter." There is no reason, indeed, to suppose, that those mo tives, powerful as must have been their influence upon such a feeble temper as he possessed, engaged him either to act or write in direct opposition to his con science ; but they may have biassed his judgment, while he was unconscious of their operation, and may serve to palliate, while they cannot excuse, the unworthy conceal ment and concession of his opinions, by which he endea voured to ensure his tranquillity. While he embraced every opportunity, in his epistles, to disclaim all connec tion with Luther, lie was equally anxious to evade the repeated attempts which were made to engage him in a controversy with the reformer; and, on one occasion, when exhorted by Mountjoy to repel the accusations of heresy with which he was assailed, by taking up his pen in defence of the church, he frankly replied, " Nothing is more easy than to call Luther a blockhead ; nothing less easy than to prove him one ; at least so it seems to me." At length, partly irritated by the reproaches of the more zealous reformers, and partly apprehensive of incurring the displeasure of the court of Rome, he pro ceeded first to repress his own zeal against the abuses in the church ; then to assume the character of a mediator between the contending parties; then to censure the im petuosity of Luther's proceedings; and finally, to enter the lists as his antagonist.