these evil times when quarrels and riots prevail everywhere." "This new gospel," he writes in another
letter, "is producing a new set of men so impudent, hypocritical, and abusive, such liars and
sycophants, who agree neither with one another nor with anybody else, so universally offensive
and seditious, such madmen and ranters, and in short so utterly distasteful to me that if I knew of
any city in which I should be free from them, I would remove there at once." His last letters are
full of such useless lamentations. He had the mortification to see Protestantism triumph in a
tumultuous way in Basel, through the labors of Oecolampadius, his former friend and associate. It
is pleasant, however, and creditable to him, that his last interview with the reformer was friendly
and cordial. The authorities of the city left him undisturbed. But he reluctantly moved to the Roman
Catholic city of Freiburg in Baden (1529), wishing that Basel might enjoy every blessing, and never
receive a sadder guest than he.^505 He bought a house in Freiburg, lived there six years, and was
treated with every demonstration of respect, but did not feel happy, and yielded to the solicitations
of the Queen Regent of the Netherlands to return to his native land.
On his way he stopped in Basel in the house of Jerome Froben, August, 1535, and attended
to the publication of Origen. It was his last work. He fell sick, and died in his seventieth year, July
12, 1536, of his old enemies, the stone and the gout, to which was added dysentery. He retained
his consciousness and genial humor to the last. When his three friends, Amerbach, Froben, and
Episcopius, visited him on his death-bed, he reminded them of Job’s three comforters, and playfully
asked them about the torn garments, and the ashes that should be sprinkled on their heads. He died
without a priest or any ceremonial of the Church (in wretched monastic Latin: "sine crux, sine lux,
sine Deus"), but invoking the mercy of Christ. His last words, repeated again and again, were, "O
Jesus, have mercy; Lord, deliver me; Lord, make an end; Lord, have mercy upon me!"^506
In his will, dated Feb. 12, 1536, he left his valuables to Froben, Rhenanus, and other friends,
and the rest to the aged and poor and for the education of young men of promise.^507 The funeral
was attended by distinguished men of both parties. He lies buried in the Protestant cathedral of
Basel, where his memory is cherished.
Erasmus was of small stature, but well formed. He had a delicate constitution, an irritable
temperament, fair skin, blonde hair, wrinkled forehead, blue eyes, and pleasant voice. His face had
an expression of thoughtfulness and quiet studiousness.^508 In his behavior he combined dignity and
grace. "His manners and conversation," says Beatus Rhenanus, "were polished, affable, and even
charming."
He talked and wrote in Latin, the universal language of scholars in mediaeval Europe. He
handled it as a living language, with ease, elegance, and effect, though not with classical correctness.
His style was Ciceronian, but modified by the ecclesiastical vocabulary of Jerome. In his dialogue
(^505) He dictated these lines to his friend Amerbach on departing:
"Jam Basilea vale! qua non urbs altera multis
Annis exhibuit gratius hospitium.
Hinc precor omnia laeta tibi, simul illud,
ErasmoHospes uti ne unquam tristior adveniat."
(^506) "O Jesu, misericordia; Domine, libera me; Domine, fac finem; Domine, miserere mei;" and in German or Dutch, Lieber God
(Gott)!—Beatus Rhenanus, in Vita Er.
(^507) Drummond, II. 338-340, gives the document in full.
(^508) See the interesting description of his face by Lavater in his Physiognomik, quoted by Ad. Müller, p. 108, and Hagenbach, K. Gesch.,
III. 50. There are several portraits of him,—by Matsys (1517), Dürer (1523), and, the best, by Holbein who painted him repeatedly at
Basel.