Enchiridion militis christiani, which was written in 1501 andfirst published in1503.^18 The title is often translated into English as theHandbook of the
Christian Knight. In the preface to theEnchiridion, Erasmus addresses his
text to an unnamed‘friend at court’and notes that he has written the book as a
‘summary guide to living, so that, equipped with it, you might attain to a state
of mind worthy of Christ’.^19 Erasmus then goes on to state:‘the life of mortals
is nothing else but an unremitting warfare’.^20 He notes that the wordenchir-
idioncan mean‘dagger’or‘small sword’as well as‘handbook’. The clever
double meaning of the title clearly indicates that he intends his work to be used
as a weapon of spiritual warfare as well as a guidebook to ethics, doctrine, or
morality.^21 But, of course, it is only a small dagger, not the sword, which is the
word of God (cf. Hebrews 4:12).
TheEnchiridionwould prove to be one of the most popular books of its era,
with dozens of editions printed in more than six different languages within
just thefirst quarter of the sixteenth century.^22 Fifteen years after its initial
publication, Erasmus reflected at greater length on his purpose for writing
theEnchiridionin a letter to Paul Volz, the abbot of Hugshofen, which
would be published as the preface to the Froben edition of 1518 and subse-
quent editions. While confessing that he wrote theEnchiridion‘to please no
one but myself and one quite uneducated private friend’, Erasmus expresses
some relief that it has been‘approved by you [Volz] and others like you; for
being yourselves endowed with pious learning and with learned piety, I know
that you would approve of nothing that is not equally pious and learned’.^23
Clearly, the mutually reinforcing‘pious learning and learned piety’ is a
defining characteristic of theEnchiridion.
Erasmus’s interests in piety and learning were not disembodied; they were
connected to very real concerns of his time. In particular, the Turks were
threatening the eastern borders of the Holy Roman Empire when Erasmus
wrote his letter to Volz. For Erasmus, the solution to the Turkish threat was not
found in physical warfare, however, but in spiritual warfare that would restore
the most important aspects of the faith, and thereby transform Christians into
irresistible witnesses to the Turks. He writes:‘We shall have found the most
(^18) Charles Fantazzi, introductory notes,The Handbook of the Christian Soldier(Enchiridion
militis christiani), trans. and annotated by Charles Fantazzi in theThe Collected Works of
Erasmus(CWE), ed. John W. O’Malley, vol. 116 (Toronto: Toronto University Press, 1988),
3 – 4. Unless otherwise indicated, all citations from theEnchiridionwill be from this source.
(^19) Erasmus,Enchiridion24. (^20) Erasmus,Enchiridion24.
(^21) Erasmus,Enchiridion38. See also Anne M. O’Donnell,‘Rhetoric and Style in Erasmus’
Enchiridion militis Christiani’,Studies in Philology77/1 (1980), 26.
(^22) Fantazzi, introductory notes,CWE, vol. 116, 4–7. The popularity of theEnchiridion
suggests that contemporaries would not have agreed with Heiko Oberman’s description of it
as‘the dullest book in the history of piety’, as cited in Cornelius Augustijn,Erasmus: His Life and
Influence(Toronto: Toronto University Press, 1991), 44.
(^23) Erasmus,CWE, vol. 116, 73.
Erasmus, Christian Humanism, and Spiritual Warfare 123