and Roman philosophers, and shows that the end of all human effort is Christ, and that the way to
Christ is faith abounding in good works. In a later edition he added a defense, with a sharp attack
on the scholastic theology contrasted with the plain, practical teaching of Christ and the apostles.
The book was condemned by the Sorbonne as heretical.
In the tract on the Confessional (1524), he enumerates the advantages and the perils of that
institution which may be perverted into a means of propagating vice by suggesting it to young and
inexperienced penitents. He leaves, on the whole, the impression that the confessional does more
harm than good.
In the book on the Tongue (1525), he eloquently describes, and illustrates with many
anecdotes, its use and abuse. After its publication he wrote to his friends, "Erasmus will henceforth
be mute, having parted with his tongue."
But a year after appeared his book on the Institution of Christian Matrimony (1526),
dedicated to Queen Catherine of England. It contains the views of an unmarried man on the choice
of a mate, the duties of parents, and the education of children. He justly blames Tertullian and
Jerome (he might have included all the fathers) for their extravagant laudation of celibacy, and
suggests doubts on the sacramental character of marriage.
One of his last works was a Catechism on the Apostles’ Creed, the Decalogue, and the
Lord’s Prayer, which he dedicated to the father of the unfortunate Anne Boleyn. For the same
nobleman he wrote a short devotional work on preparation for death.
§ 72. Erasmus and the Reformation.
I. Erasmus: De Libero Arbitrio diatribe (1524), in Opera ed. Lugd. IX. Pars I. 1215 sqq., in Walch,
XVIII. Hyperaspistae diatribes libri duo contra Servum Arbitr. M. Lutheri, in 2 parts (1526 and
1527), in Opera IX. Pars II. 1249 sqq., and in Walch, XVIII.
Luther: De Servo Arbitrio ad Erasmum Roterodamun, Wittembergae, 1525. On the last p. of
the first ed. before me is the date "Mense Decembri, Anno MDXXV." German in Walch,
XVIII. Erl. ed. Opera Lat. VII. 113 sqq. Letters of Luther to Erasmus and about Erasmus
in Walch, XVIII., and in De Wette, I. pp. 39, 52, 87, 247; II. 49; III. 427; IV, 497.
II. Chlebus: Erasmus und Luther, in "Zeitschr. f. Hist. Theol.," 1845. Döllinger in his Die
Reformation, 1846, vol. i. pp. 1–20. Kerker: Er. u. sein Theol. Standpunkt, in the "Theol.
Quartalschrift," 1859. D. F. Strauss: Ulrich von Hutten, 4th ed. Bonn, 1878, pp. 448–484,
511–514, and passim. Plitt: Erasmus in s. Stellung zur Reformation, Leipz., in the "Zeitschrift
f. Hist. Theol.," 1866, No. III. Rud. Stähelin: Eras. Stellung z. Reformation, Basel, 1873 (35
pp.; comp. his art. In Herzog2, quoted in § 71). Froude: Times of Erasmus and Luther. Three
Lect., delivered at Newcastle, 1867 (in the first series of his "Short Studies on Great Subjects,"
New York ed., 1873, pp. 37–127), brilliant but inaccurate, and silent on the free-will controversy.
Drummond: Erasmus, etc., 1873, vol. II. chs. xiii.-xv. E. Walter: Erasmus und Melanchthon,
Bernburg, 1879. A. Gilly: Erasme de Rotterd., sa situation en face de l’église et de la libre
pensée, Arras, 1879. Comp. also Kattenbusch: Luther’s Lehre vom unfreien Willen, Göttingen,
1875, and Köstlin: Luther’s Theologie, vol. II. 32–55.
Erasmus was eighteen years older than Luther, and stood at the height of his fame when the
reformer began his work. He differed from him as Jerome differed from Augustin, or Eusebius