The Correspondence of Erasmus: Letters 1252-1355 (1522-1523)

517 Pages·1989·29.96 MB·English

by  Desiderius Erasmus

COLLECTED WORKS OF ERASMUS
VOLUME 9
Erasmus
Hans Holbein the Younger, 1523
Offentliche Kunstsammlung Basel, Kunstmuseum
THE CORRESPONDENCE OF
ERASMUS
LETTERS 1252 TO 1355
1522 TO 1523
translated by R.A.B. Mynors
annotated by James M. Estes
University of Toronto Press
Toronto / Buffalo / London
The research and publication costs of the
Collected Works of Erasmus are supported by the
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
The publication costs are also assisted by
University of Toronto Press.
www.utppublishing.com
©University of Toronto Press 1989
Toronto / Buffalo / London
Printed in Canada
ISBN 0-8020-2604-4
Printed on acid-free paper
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Erasmus, Desiderius, d. 1536.
[Works]
Collected works of Erasmus
Includes index.
Partial contents: v. 9. the correspondence of Erasmus:
letters 1252 to 1355, 1522 to 1523 / translated by R. A.B. Mynors;
annotated by James M. Estes.
ISBN 0-8020-2604-4 (v. 9)
1. Erasmus, Desiderius, d. 1536. I. Title.
PA8500 1974 876'.04 C74-6326-X rev
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
Anthony T. Grafton, Princeton University
Paul F. Grendler, University of Toronto
James K. McConica, University of Toronto, Chairman
Erika Rummel, University of Toronto, Executive Assistant
Robert D. Sider, Dickinson College
J.K. Sowards, Wichita State University
G.M. Story, Memorial University of Newfoundland
Craig R. Thompson, University of Pennsylvania
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Harald Bohne, University of Toronto Press
Alexander Dalzell, University of Toronto
James M. Estes, University of Toronto
Charles Fantazzi, University of Windsor
Anthony T. Grafton, Princeton University
Paul F. Grendler, University of Toronto
James K. McConica, University of Toronto
Ian Montagnes, University of Toronto Press
R.J. Schoeck, Universität Trier
R.M. Schoeffel, University of Toronto Press, Chairman
Robert D. Sider, Dickinson College
J.K. Sowards, Wichita State University
G.M. Story, Memorial University of Newfoundland
Craig R. Thompson, University of Pennsylvania
Prudence Tracy, University of Toronto Press
ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Danilo Aguzzi-Barbagli, University of British Columbia
Maria Cytowska, University of Warsaw
O.B. Hardison jr, Georgetown University
Otto Herding, Universität Freiburg
Jozef IJsewijn, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
Robert M. Kingdon, University of Wisconsin
Paul Oskar Kristeller, Columbia University
Maurice Lebel, Université Laval
Jean-Claude Margolin, Centre d'études supérieures de la
Renaissance de Tours
Bruce M. Metzger, Princeton Theological Seminary
Clarence H. Miller, St Louis University
Heiko A. Oberman, University of Arizona
John Rowlands, British Library
J.S.G. Simmons, Oxford University
John Tedeschi, University of Wisconsin
J. Trapman, Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie
van Wetenschappen
J.B. Trapp, Warburg Institute
Contents
Illustrations
viii
Preface
ix
Map showing the principal places mentioned in volume 9
xix
LETTERS 1252 TO 1355
1
Table of Correspondents
460
Works Frequently Cited
463
Short-Title Forms for Erasmus' Works
466
Index
471
Illustrations
Erasmus
frontispiece
Erasmus Paraphrasis in Mattheum title-page
7
Jakob Ziegler
25
Autograph letter from Willibald Pirckheimer
to Erasmus, Ep 1265
42
Letter from Erasmus to Duke George of Saxony, Ep 1283
88
Huldrych Zwingli
184
Pope Adrian vi
204
Erasmus Paraphrasis in loannem title-page
230
Erasmus' edition of the works of St Hilary of Poitiers,
dedicatory preface
244
Erasmus Catalogus lucubrationum title-page
292
Diego Lopez Zuniga
Erasmi Roterodami blasphemiae et impietates title-page
330
The hands of Erasmus
396
Preface
When Erasmus wrote the first letter in this volume, which covers the period
January 1522-March 1523, he was in the third month of a sojourn in Basel
that was to last, with only brief interruptions, until April 1529. He had
decided to leave Louvain and go to Basel in part because he was weary of
controversy with the Louvain theologians, in part because he wanted to see
the annotations to his third edition of the New Testament through Froben's
press, and most of all because he feared that pressure from the imperial
court, which had been back in the Netherlands since May 1521, would force
him to take a public stand against Luther.1 His original intention had
apparently been to return to Brabant in the spring of 1522.2 But it was
difficult for him to leave Basel, a city with important attractions and
advantages. It contained many good friends, the legacy of his earlier stay
there in 1514-16. It was not involved in the war between Charles v and
Francis I that had broken out in 1521. Most of all, in religious matters it had a
liberal-reformist atmosphere congenial to a man of Erasmus' views and was
still years away from decisive adherence to the Reformation. On the other
hand, the local wine had an adverse effect on Erasmus' health,3 and the
summer of 1522 saw a prolonged uproar caused by the antics of some
adherents of the Reformation.4 So Erasmus was for a time determined to go
elsewhere. But an attempted trip to Rome in the autumn had to be aborted
because of a bad attack of the stone at Constance and also because of reports
of the dangers of the journey.5 Similarly, plans to migrate to France early in
1523 were abandoned partly because Erasmus' health improved with the aid
of some imported Burgundy wine but mostly because his hopes for an early
1 See Epp 1242 introduction, 1302:11-16, 1342:57, 105-10, and Allen Ep
2792:13-23.
2 Ep 1257:12
3 Ep 1311:22, 34-5
4 See Ep 1293 n8.
5 Ep 1319:11-16