steer, sweat and dispute and struggle’.^59 Erasmus writes that there were other
sileniin history, but the greatest of all was Christ, who should be imitated by
all Christians, since he displayed‘in such humility, what grandeur! In such
poverty, such riches! In such weakness, what immeasurable strength! In such
shame, what glory! In such labours, what utter peace!’^60 Christ chose the
invisible and supernatural over the visible and natural as‘the only pattern
that pleased him, and which he set before the eyes of his disciples and
friends—that is to say, Christians’. What Christ has demonstrated, however,
is more than simply a pattern; it represents an all-compassing philosophy,
a world view, the only one that can lead to true happiness:‘he chose that
philosophy in particular, which is utterly different from the rules of the
philosophers and from the doctrine of the world; that philosophy which
alone of all others really does bring what everyone is trying to get in some
way or another—happiness’.^61
Erasmus sadly notes that while othersilenihave followed this philosophy of
Christ, such as John the Baptist, the apostles, and the great bishops of old, in
his day the opposite prevails, with external splendour and inner poverty, as
‘the greater part of mankind are like the Sileni inside out’.^62
The inside-out Sileni that represented a particular target for Erasmus’s
scorn were people in positions of authority—either secular or spiritual—who
lied or manipulated and spun the truth to perpetuate their own agenda and
hang onto power.
The spiritual warrior, as a follower of thephilosophia Christiand therefore a
true disciple of Christ, ignores the transitory and instead focuses on proclaim-
ing the truth and what is permanent, invisible, and supernatural. He or she
becomes, in effect, a Silenus, as Erasmus writes:
Here then lies the difference between the follower of the world and the follower of
Christ; thefirst admires and chases after the worthless things which strike the eye
at once, while the second strives only for the things which are least obvious at a
glance, and furthest from the physical world—and the rest he passes over
altogether, or holds them lightly, judging everything by its inner value.^63Erasmus further refines his definition of thephilosophia Christiin thePara-
clesis, the preface to his Greek and Latin edition of the New Testament,
published by Froben in 1516.^64 Erasmus writes that he hopes that through
reading the Scriptures, which his edition of the New Testament has now made
possible,‘a true and... genuine race of Christians everywhere emerge, a people
who would restore the philosophy of Christ not in ceremonies alone and in
(^59) Erasmus,Sileni Alcibiades78. (^60) Erasmus,Sileni Alcibiades 79 – 80.
(^61) Erasmus,Sileni Alcibiades80. (^62) Erasmus,Sileni Alcibiades81.
(^63) Erasmus,Sileni Alcibiades84.
(^64) Introduction to theParaclesis,inChristian Humanism and the Reformation: Selected
Writings of Erasmus, ed. and trans. John C. Olin (New York: Harper & Row, 1965), 92.
130 Darren M. Provost