[When Erasmus became famous, a friend of his early days at Steyn, Servatius Rogerus, who had now risen to be Prior, wrote to him reproaching him for having abandoned the dress of his order and urging him to return to the monastery. The letter reached Erasmus in July 1514, when he was on his way to Basel and was staying a few days at Hammes Castle, an important military post in the English dominion near Calais, of which his old patron, Lord Mountjoy, was lieutenant. In reply Erasmus wrote an 'apologia pro vita sua', giving an account of himself and stating his reasons for the belief that he could make better use of his talents if he remained free. It is an important and confidential document; and Erasmus therefore never published it. But copies of it were being circulated in manuscript many years before his death.]

17. Cornelius, of Woerden, to the north of Gouda, was a school-friend of Erasmus. He had entered the monastery of Steyn and persuaded Erasmus to follow his example.

24. QUARUM ISTIC NULLUS USUS] This must not be taken to mean that good learning was unknown to the monastery; for Erasmus read a great deal in the classics at Steyn; but that a monastery was not a suitable home for a scholar.

40. ANNUM PROBATIONIS] The constitutions of the Augustinian Order provided that a novice could not make his profession as a Canon until he had completed his sixteenth year and had passed at least a year and a day in probation.

74. CALCULO] Stone in the bladder.

84. CONFRATRES] Brother belonging to the same order.

100. CONCANONICOS] fellow-canons. The word is appropriate here as Steyn was a house of Augustinian canons.

104. SOLONIS] Cf. IV. 21 n.

Pythagoras (cf. VII. 7 n.) travelled in Egypt and the East in search of knowledge, and ultimately settled in Magna Graecia. By birth he was a native of Samos.

Plato (c. 429-347) after the death of Socrates in 399 travelled in Egypt,
Sicily, and Magna Graecia.

120. HIC IPSE] Leo X, who was Pope 1513-21.

135. ELEEMOSYNARIO] almoner. Wolsey (c. 1475-1530) now held this post, and was also Bishop of Lincoln.

136. REGINA] Catharine of Aragon.

145. SACERDOTIUM] The living of Aldington in Kent was given to Erasmus by Warham in March 1512. It was worth £33 6_s_. 8_d_. yearly; but after a few months Erasmus was allowed to resign, an annual pension of £20 being charged on the living and paid to him.

175. Erasmus' De Copia, first published in July 1512, was a treatise designed to assist the beginner in Latin composition by supplying him with variety of words and abundance of phrases.

178. CASTIGAVI] 'I have produced a critical edition of.'

180. OBELIS] The critical marks [Symbols: obelus, obelus] used to denote suspected passages in texts.

IUGULAVI] 'I have disposed of', lit. 'have cut their throats'.

201. CULTU CANONICORUM] The proper dress of an Augustinian canon consisted of a 'tunica candida cum linea toga sub nigro pallio. Tegumentum a scapulis impositum cervicem totumque contegit caput'.

215. THESAURARII FILIOS] Matthias and Mark Lauweryn, sons of the Archduke Philip's Treasurer; who were studying at Bologna in 1507. Mark afterwards became an intimate friend of Erasmus.

218. Julius II was Pope, 1503-13.

228. admonitus sum is followed here first by a statement and then by a piece of advice.

251. APUD MONACHAS ALIQUAS] Convents of nuns require a resident priest to conduct their services. These posts, the work of which was light, were usually given to monks advanced in years. Servatius himself in later life retired in this way to a convent of Augustinian nuns near Leiden.

253. NIHIL MOROR] The technical formula of dismissal, either of persons receiving an audience, or of an accused person when the charge against him is withdrawn. Then, by transference, 'I do not detain to make inquiries about,' 'I do not care about.'

268. PASCHA] Easter, 16 April 1514. In calculating dates the Romans reckoned inclusively, so that the tertius dies is Tuesday.