into the genius of antiquity, and felt at home there. He calls Venice the most magnificent city of
the world. But the lovely scenery of Italy, and the majestic grandeur of the Alps, seem to have made
no more impression upon his mind than upon that of Luther; at least, he does not speak of it.
After he returned from his last visit to England, he spent his time alternately at Brussels,
Antwerp, and Louvain (1515–1521). He often visited Basel, and made this ancient city of republican
Switzerland, on the boundaries between France and Germany, his permanent home in 1521. There
he lived several years as editor and adviser of his friend and publisher, John Froben, who raised
his press to the first rank in Europe. Basel was neutral till 1529, when the Reformation was
introduced. It suited his position and taste. He liked the climate and the society. The bishop of Basel
and the magistrate treated him with the greatest consideration. The university was then in its glory.
He was not one of the public teachers, but enjoyed the intercourse of Wyttenbach, Capito, Glarean,
Pellican, Amerbach. "I am here," he wrote to a friend, "as in the most agreeable museum of many
and very eminent scholars. Everybody knows Latin and Greek, most of them also Hebrew. The
one excels in history, the other in theology; one is well versed in mathematics, another in antiquities,
a third in jurisprudence. You know how rarely we meet with such a combination. I at least never
found it before. Besides these literary advantages, what candor, hospitality, and harmony prevail
here everywhere! You would swear that all had but one heart and one soul."
The fame of Erasmus brought on an extensive correspondence. His letters and books had
the widest circulation. The "Praise of Folly" passed through seven editions in a few months, and
through at least twenty-seven editions during his lifetime. Of his "Colloquies," a bookseller in Paris
printed twenty-four thousand copies. His journeys were triumphal processions. Deputations received
him in the larger cities with addresses of welcome. He was treated like a prince. Scholars, bishops,
cardinals, kings, and popes paid him homage, sent him presents, or gave him pensions. He was
offered by the Cardinal of Sion, besides a handsome board, the liberal sum of five hundred ducats
annually, if he would live with him in Rome. He was in high favor with Pope Julius II. and Leo
X., who patronized liberal learning. The former released him from his monastic vows; the latter
invited him to Rome, and would have given him any thing if he had consented to remain. Adrian
VI. asked his counsel how to deal with the Lutheran heresy (1523). Clement VII., in reply to a
letter, sent him a present of two hundred florins. Paul III. offered him a cardinal’s hat to reward
him for his attack on Luther (1536), but he declined it on account of old age.
The humanists were loudest in his praise, and almost worshiped him. Eoban Hesse, the
prince of Latin poets of the time, called him a "divine being," and made a pilgrimage on foot from
Erfurt to Holland to see him face to face. Justus Jonas did the same. Zwingli visited him in Basel,
and before going to sleep used to read some pages of his writings. To receive a letter from him was
a good fortune, and to have a personal interview with him was an event. A man even less vain than
Erasmus could not have escaped the bad effect of such hero-worship. But it was partly neutralized
by the detractions of his enemies, who were numerous and unsparing. Among these were Stunica
and Caranza of Spain, Edward Lee of England, the Prince of Carpi, Cardinal Aleander, the leaders
of scholastic divinity of Louvain and Paris, and the whole crowd of ignorant monks.
His later years were disturbed by the death of his dearest and kindest friend, John Froben
(1527), to whose memory he paid a most noble tribute in one of his letters; and still more by the
progress of the Reformation in his own neighborhood. The optimism of his youth and manhood
gave way to a gloomy, discontented pessimism. The Lutheran tragedy, he said, gave him more pain
than the stone which tortured him. "It is part of my unhappy fate, that my old age has fallen on
tuis.
(Tuis.)
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