In December of the same year in which he wrote his first book against King Henry, Luther
began his important treatise "On the Secular Power, and how far obedience is due to it." He defends
here the divine right and authority of the secular magistrate, and the duty of passive obedience, on
the ground of Matt. 5:39 and Rom. 13:1, but only in temporal affairs. While he forbade the use of
carnal force, he never shrank from telling even his own prince the truth in the plainest manner. He
exercised the freedom of speech and of the press to the fullest extent, both in favor of the Reformation
and against political revolution. The Reformation elevated the state at the expense of the freedom
of the church; while Romanism lowered the dignity of the state to the position of an obedient servant
of the hierarchy.
One wrong does not justify another. Yet those Roman-Catholic historians who make capital
of this humiliating conduct of the Reformer, against his cause, should remember that Cardinal Pole,
whom they magnify as one of the greatest and purest men of that age, in his book on the Unity of
the Church, abused King Henry as violently and more keenly, although he was his king and
benefactor, and had not given him any personal provocation; while Luther wrote in self-defense
only, and was with all his passionate temper a man of kind and generous feelings.
Melanchthon regretted the fierce attack on King Henry; and when the king began to favor
the Reformation, he dedicated to him the revised edition of his theological Loci (1535). He was
twice called to England, but declined.^498
§ 71. Erasmus.
I. Erasmus: Opera omnia, ed. by Beatus Rhenanus, Basil. 1540–41; 8 vols. fol.; best ed. by Clericus
(Le Clerk), Lugd. Bat. 1703–06; 10 tom. in 11 vols. fol. There are several English translations
of his Enchiridion, Encomium, Adagia, Colloquia, and smaller tracts. His most important
theological works are his editions of the Greek Test. (1516, ’19,’ 22,’ 27, ’35, exclusive of more
than thirty reprints), his Annotations and Paraphrases, his Enchiridion Militis Christiani, his
editions of Laur. Valla, Jerome, Augustin, Ambrose, Origen, and other Fathers. His Moriae
Encomium, or Panegyric of Folly (composed 1509), was often edited. His letters are very
important for the literary history of his age. His most popular book is his Colloquies, which
contain the wittiest exposures of the follies and abuses of monkery, fasting, pilgrimages, etc.
English transl. by N. Bailey, Lond. 1724; new ed. with notes by Rev. E. Johnson, 1878, 2 vols.
After 1514 all his works were published by his friend John Froben in Basel.
Comp. Adalb. Horawitz: Erasmus v. Rotterdam und Martinus Lipsius, Wien, 1882; Erasmiana,
several numbers, Wien, 1882–85 (reprinted from the Sitzungsberichte of the Imperial Academy
of Vienna; contains extracts from the correspondence of Er., discovered in a Codex at Louvain,
and in the Codex Rehdigeranus, 254 of the city library at Breslau, founded by Rehdiger).
Horawitz and Hartfelder: Briefwechsel des Beatus Rhenanus, Leipzig, 1886.
II. Biographies of Erasmus by himself and by Beatus Rhenanus, in vol. I. of the ed. of Clericus; by
Pierre Bayle, in his "Dictionnaire" (1696); Knight, Cambr. 1726; Jortin, Lond. 1748, 2 vols.;
1808, 3 vols. (chiefly a summary of the letters of Erasmus with critical comments); Burigny,
Paris, 1757, 2 vols.; Henke, Halle, 1782, 2 vols.; Hess, Zürich, 1789, 2 vols.; Butler, London,
(^498) He wrote in March: "Ego jam alteris literis in Angliam vocor" (Op. II 708).