[A letter written in 1516 at the close of a visit to England, when Erasmus was preparing to settle in the Netherlands. Reuchlin, to whom it is addressed, was the first Hebrew scholar in Europe at this time. The testimony in the final paragraph to the progress of learning in England is valuable, inasmuch as it is not written to an Englishman.]

3. ROFFENSIS] John Fisher (c. 1459-1535) had been a constant patron to Erasmus. He had been confessor to the Lady Margaret Tudor, mother of Henry VII; and through his influence she had used her wealth to endow learning, founding Professorships of Divinity at Oxford and Cambridge, and two colleges—Christ's in 1506 and St. John's which was opened in 1516—at Cambridge. Fisher became Bishop of Rochester and Chancellor of Cambridge in 1504, and was President of Queens' College, Cambridge, 1505-8.

7. PRO MEA VIRILI] sc. parte.

12. VENANTUR] It was evidently considered quite decorous for a bishop to hunt. Warham's abstinence from the chase, which is commended in XXII and XXIII, was clearly exceptional.

28. CALAMORUM NILOTICORUM] pens made from the reeds that grow on the banks of the Nile. Reed-pens from Cyprus were also in demand at this time.

30. POSSIS] Si … sunt is not the protasis.

38. AD MEAM EPISTOLAM] in which Erasmus asked permission to dedicate his edition of Jerome to the Pope. It was dated 21 May 1515 from London; and Leo's reply 10 July 1515 from Rome.

44. UTERQUE CARDINALIS] Grimani and another, to whom Erasmus had written on the same subject.

46. Pace (c. 1482-1536), a scholar and diplomatist, who succeeded Colet as Dean of St. Paul's in 1519, and was now ambassador (oratorem gerere).

49. ET HIERONYMUM] as well as the New Testament. Jerome was dedicated to Warham.

51. CAROLUS] The young prince Charles, who afterwards succeeded his grandfather Ferdinand as king of Spain in 1517, and his grandfather Maximilian as the Emperor Charles V in 1519. He was now governing the Netherlands.

PRAEBENDAM] A canonry at Courtray.

55. ARCHIEPISCOPUS] Warham.

57. OMNIA SUA] Cf. XXIII. 24.

70. PHILIPPUM] Probably Melanchthon (1497-1560), who was Reuchlin's great-nephew. Erasmus evidently wished that he should be sent to St. John's.