Selections from Erasmus: Principally from his Epistles Part 17

548. UT CONFESSIONEM] Cf. ll. 133 seq.

563. ANSIS OMNIBUS] Like a vessel made with handles on all sides, i.e.

more than are necessary: 'at all points.'

570, 1. AD TERNIONES] into groups of three, in a _Breviloquium dictorum Christi_. Mr. Lupton instances the three words to Mary Magdalene in John 20. 15-7. Cf. also l. 619.

574. CULTUM ECCLESIASTIc.u.m] public celebration of Divine Service.

598. EPISCOPO] Rich. Fitzjames, Bp. of London, 1506-22.

605. COLLEGII] The canons and other ecclesiastical officers together const.i.tuted St. Paul's a 'collegiate church'.

606. QUIRITABANTUR] 'lamented.' The verb is commonly active; but the deponent form is cited by a grammarian from Varro.

608. ORIENTATE MONASTERIUM] Mr. Lupton shows that St. Paul's was in old times a monastery; and suggests that Erasmus, whose information probably came from Colet, was thinking of a king of the East Saxons, who took the religious habit there. The name Eastminster seems, however, to have been applied not to St. Paul's, but to an abbey near the Tower.

615. CANTUARIENSEM] Warham: see XXII and XXIII.

619. ILLUD EX EVANGELIO] John 21. 15-7.

635. PACEM] Cf. Cic. _Fam_. 6. 6. 5.

636. ID ... TEMPORIS] This attack on Colet may be dated in Lent of either 1512 or 1513; for in each year preparations were being made for a war with France. It is not clear what interval of time is meant by Erasmus to have elapsed between this and the attack mentioned in ll. 655 seq. about Easter 1513.

637. MINORITAE DUO] Edmund Birkhead, Bishop of St. Asaph 15 April 1513--died April 1518)--cf. l. 687--and Henry Standish who succeeded him in the see.

639. IN POETAS] because Colet allowed cla.s.sical Latin poetry to be read in his new school. The Church had always discouraged the study of the poets of antiquity, on the ground of the immoral character of many of their writings.

656. PASCHA] Easter, 27 March 1513. This incident can only be placed in 1513: because the expedition of 1512 started in the summer.

657. PARASCEVES] Good Friday: Gk. [Greek: Paraskeuae], the day of preparation before the sabbath of the Pa.s.sover.

666. CONSISTERET] _consistere_ means 'to take a stand with a person', 'to agree.' This impersonal use is not cla.s.sical.

669. IULIOS] As Mr. Lupton points out, there can hardly fail to be an allusion here, not only to Julius Caesar, but also to the warlike Pope Julius II (1503-1513); whom Erasmus had seen entering Bologna as a conqueror in 1506 (cf. XXI. 26 n.). Similarly the name Alexander suggests not only 'the great Emathian conqueror', but Pope Alexander VI (l. 165 n.).

672. VELUT AD BUBONEM] _sc_. aves. Owls are frequently teased by flocks of small birds.

696. PRAEBIBIT] A compliment in days when poisoned cups were not unknown.

703. LUPI ... HIANTES] 'Dicebatur si quis re multum sperata multumque appet.i.ta frustratus discederet. Aiunt enim lupum praedae inhiantem rictu late diducto accurrere: qua si frustretur, obambulare hiantem.' Erasmus, _Adagia_.

715. IN EO GENERE] As a friar.

723. IN CANONEM] into the catalogue of martyrs and saints, i.e. to canonize.

XXV

[An anecdote of Colet related in a letter written in 1523 to give a sketch of a friend lately dead. The date of the incident is uncertain; but Erasmus' description of himself in l. 22 as 'hominem infelicissimum'

points rather to the year 1506, when he was still struggling and had not as yet obtained the leisure he desired for his studies.]

4. DE LANA CAPRINA] Cf. Hor. _Ep_. 1. 18. 15, 6:

Alter rixatur de lana saepe caprina, Propugnat nugis armatus.

'a (tali) eventu natum apparet, contentiose decertantibus duobus utrum lanas haberet caper an setas.' Erasmus, _Adagia_.

DE ASINI ... UMBRA] 'de re nihili.' Erasmus, _Adagia_.

7. GUILHELMUM] Warham; see XXII and XXIII.

9. ENOHIRIDIO] Cf. X. 54 n.

XXVI

[A sketch of Thomas More, sent in reply to a request from Ulrich von Hutten, the celebrated German knight; written in 1519.

Thomas More (1477 or 1478-1535) was the son of Sir John More (c.

1453-1530), knight, and afterwards Judge of the King's Bench. He was a friend of Erasmus' earliest months in England (see V). Henry VII attached him to his court and sent him on many emba.s.sies, and he afterwards filled numerous offices; being Under-sheriff of London, Privy Councillor, Treasurer of the Exchequer, Speaker of the House of Commons, and in 1529 Lord Chancellor in succession to Wolsey. This office he resigned in 1532, feeling himself in opposition to Henry's ecclesiastical policy; and this opposition cost him his life.

He married in 1505 Jane Colt; and shortly after her death, probably in 1511, Alice Middleton.]

29. Apelles was a Greek painter of the fourth century B.C. Alexander the Great thought so highly of him that he would allow no one else to paint his portrait.

30. FULVII RUTUBAEQUE] The names of gladiators (cf. Hor. _Sat_. 2. 7.

96); who are taken here as types of the unskilled.

35. LEGATIO] i.e. if either More or Hutten should be sent on an emba.s.sy, which would bring them together.

66. OVIDIUS] _A._ _A_. l. 509 seqq.

67, 8. E CULMO] 'e culmo perspicitur spica demessa: etiam in sene apparet cuiusmodi fuerit iuvenis.' Erasmus, _Adagia_.

81. MOS] The custom of the loving-cup.

120. HESIODO] _Op_. 713:

[Greek: Maede poluxeinon maed' axeinon kaleesthai.]

141. 'Though he was young of years, yet would he at Christmastide suddenly sometimes step in among the players, and, never studying for the matter, make a part of his own there presently among them, which made the lookers-on more sport than all the players beside.' _Life of More_, by W.

Roper, his son-in-law.