Spiritualia and Pastoralia: Disputatiuncula de taedio, pavore, tristicia Iesu / Concio de immensa Dei misericordia / Modus orandi Deum / Explanatio ... ad mortem

499 Pages·1998·27.37 MB·English

by  Desiderius Erasmus

COLLECTED WORKS OF ERASMUS
VOLUME 70
Albrecht Diirer (1471-1528) Christ on the Mount of Olives. Etching.
By permission of the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
gift of Mrs George Khuner, 1968 (68.793.1)
COLLECTED WORKS OF
ERASMUS
SPIRITUALIA and PASTORALIA
DISPUTATIUNCULA DE TAEDIO, PAVORE,
TRISTICIA IESU
CONCIO DE IMMENSA DEI MISERICORDIA
MODUS ORANDI DEUM
EXPLANATIO SYMBOLI APOSTOLORUM
DE PRAEPARATIONE AD MORTEM
edited by John W. O'Malley
University of Toronto Press
Toronto / Buffalo / London
The research and publication costs of the
Collected Works of Erasmus are supported by
University of Toronto Press.
© University of Toronto Press 1998
Toronto / Buffalo / London
Printed in Canada
ISBN 0-8020-4309-7
Printed on acid-free paper
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Erasmus, Desiderius, d. 1536
[Works]
Collected works of Erasmus
Partial contents: v. 70. Spiritualia and Pastoralia.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8020-4309-7 (v. 70)
i. Erasmus, Desiderius, d. 1536. i. Title.
PA85OO1974 876'.O4 C74-oo6326-x rev
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance
to its publishing programme of the Canada Council and the Ontario Arts Council.
Collected Works of Erasmus
The aim of the Collected Works of Erasmus
is to make available an accurate, readable English text
of Erasmus' correspondence and his
other principal writings. The edition is planned
and directed by an Editorial Board, an Executive Committee,
and an Advisory Committee.
EDITORIAL BOARD
Alexander Dalzell, University of Toronto
James M. Estes, University of Toronto
Charles Fantazzi, University of Windsor
James K. Farge, Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies
John N. Grant, University of Toronto
Paul F. Grendler, University of Toronto
James K. McConica, Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, Chairman
John O'Malley, Weston Jesuit School of Theology
Mechtilde O'Mara, University of Toronto
Jane E. Phillips, University of Kentucky
Erika Rummel, Wilfrid Laurier University
R.J. Schoeck, Lawrence, Kansas
Robert D. Sider, Dickinson College
James D. Tracy, University of Minnesota
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Alexander Dalzell, University of Toronto
James M. Estes, University of Toronto
Charles Fantazzi, University of Windsor
Paul F. Grendler, University of Toronto
Bill Harnum, University of Toronto Press
James K. McConica, Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies
George Meadows, University of Toronto Press
Mechtilde O'Mara, University of Toronto
Jane E. Phillips, University of Kentucky
Erika Rummel, Wilfrid Laurier University
R.J. Schoeck, Lawrence, Kansas
R.M. Schoeffel, University of Toronto Press, Chairman
Robert D. Sider, Dickinson College
James D. Tracy, University of Minnesota
ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Maria Cytowska, University of Warsaw
Anthony Graf ton, Princeton University
Otto Herding, Universitat Freiburg
Jozef IJsewijn, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
Robert M. Kingdon, University of Wisconsin
Paul Oskar Kristeller, Columbia University
Maurice Lebel, Universite Laval
Jean-Claude Margolin, Centre d'etudes superieures de la
Renaissance de Tours
Bruce M. Metzger, Princeton Theological Seminary
Clarence H. Miller, Saint Louis University
Heiko A. Oberman, University of Arizona
John Rowlands, The British Museum
J.S.G. Simmons, Oxford University
John Tedeschi, University of Wisconsin
J. Trapman, Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie
van Wetenschappen
J.B. Trapp, Warburg Institute
Contents
Introduction
by John W. O'Malley
ix
A Short Debate Concerning
the Distress, Alarm, and Sorrow of Jesus
Disputatiuncula de taedio, pavore, tristicia lesu
translated and annotated by Michael J. Heath
i
A Sermon on the Immense Mercy of God
Concio de immensa Dei misericordia
translated and annotated by Michael J. Heath
69
On Praying to God / Modus orandi Deum
translated and annotated by John N. Grant
141
An Explanation of the Apostles' Creed
Explanatio symboli apostolorum sive catechismus
translated by Louis A. Perraud
annotated by Laurel Carrington
231
Preparing for Death / De praeparatione ad mortem
translated and annotated by John N. Grant
389
Works Frequently Cited
45i
Short-Title Forms for Erasmus' Works
455
Index
459
Introduction
The five pieces contained in this volume are among the twenty that the edi-
tors of CWE have selected for inclusion in the series of spiritual and pastoral
works, spiritualia and pastoralia. The basis for this category is Erasmus' fa-
mous enclosure with his letter to Hector Boece of 15 March 1530, in which
he listed his writings and divided them into nine ordines.1 The fifth ordo con-
tained the works pertaining to pietas, the starting-point for our designation.
For further discussion of the issues raised by the category, I refer the reader
to the pertinent pages of my general introduction to this series, CWE 66 ix-xii.
That introduction is presupposed as background for what I have to say
here, and I urge the reader to consult it. By editorial decision it was meant
to serve for all the volumes of the series and to deal in a general way with
the wide variety of questions connected with these twenty pieces and with
Erasmian pietas. Its arguments will not be repeated for the present volume.
Towards the end of that introduction, I dealt briefly but in somewhat
more detail with the three works contained in volume 66. I indicated that
similar treatments would introduce the works in the subsequent volumes
of the series, and such a treatment is what I will undertake for the five in
this volume. These five works, except for their pertaining to the spiritualia
and pastoralia, have no special reason for being grouped together here and
appear in CWE 70 simply for reasons of editorial convenience. They are ar-
ranged in chronological order according to the year of the editio princeps.
With the exception of the 'Sermon on Mercy/ they appear here in English
for the first time in modern translations.
A few general observations may be made about them. As do so many of
the other works in this series, they represent the 'Erasmus nobody knows/
Despite the huge surge of interest in Erasmus in the past thirty years, since
the observance of the five hundredth anniversary of his birth in 1969, they
i Allen Ep 2283. See also CWE 24 694-702.