[A letter written in 1521 from Anderlecht, a suburb of Brussels, to Jodocus Jonas, a member of the University of Erfurt, and afterwards one of the followers of Luther. Jonas had asked for a sketch of the life of Colet, who had died on 16 Sept. 1519; and Erasmus in reply sent this letter, to convey some impression of the man to whom he felt himself to owe so much. With it he coupled a slighter sketch of another friend, also dead, in whose character he traced much the same features as he had admired in Colet. Very little is known of Vitrarius beyond the information contained in this letter; without which our knowledge of Colet and also of Henry VIII—the 'divine young king', as he was often called in these early years—would not be so full as it is.]

2. PAUCIS] sc. verbis.

17. ORDINIS FRANCISCANI] The order of friars founded by St. Francis of Assisi (1182-1226).

18. ADOLESCENS INCIDERAT] Here and in l. 38 Erasmus is clearly thinking of the circumstances under which he himself had embraced the monastic life (see p. 8[*]). His strong bias against monasticism, which is very evident throughout this piece, often makes him unjust in his representations of it.

[* At the beginning of LIFE OF ERASMUS. Transcriptor.]

27. SCOTICAS ARGUTIAS] An unflattering allusion to the philosophy of John Duns Scotus (the Scot), who was one of the leaders of mediaeval thought; fl. 1300.

30. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan (died 397) was—with Jerome, Leo, and Gregory—one of the four great Doctors of the Latin Church. Cyprian (died 257) was also one of the Latin Fathers.

50. OFFENDICULO] Cf. 1 Cor. 8. 9.

55. UNGUES] Cf. Juv. 7. 232.

56. DEDISSES] A conditional clause; the condition being expressed by placing the verb first, without si. Cf. Verg, Aen. 6. 31 'Partem opere in tanto, sineret dolor, Icare, haberes'; or in English such forms as 'Give him an inch, he will take an ell'.

68. DIVIDEBAT] Mr. Lupton, who has edited this letter, gives an example of this chilling method of division and subdivision, from a sermon on the Son of the Widow of Nain. 'Death is first divided into (1) the natural, (2) the sinful, (3) the spiritual, (4) the eternal. Of these 1 is further classified as (a) general, (b) dreadful, (c) fearful, (d) terrible. 2 is next compared to 1 in respect of four common instruments of natural death, that is to say, (e) the sword, (f) fire, (g) missiles, (h) water; and so on, to the end. This is no exaggerated specimen.'

81. Thomas of Aquino (1225-1274) was, like Duns Scotus, one of the leading mediaeval philosophers.

Durandus (c. 1230-1296) was a French writer on canon law and liturgical questions.

IURIS UTRIUSQUE] Cf. XXII. 8 n.

83. CENTONES] cento is lit. a patchwork, such as a quilt. The term was then applied to a kind of composition which came into fashion in later classical times and was very popular in the Middle Ages. It was made by stringing together detached lines and parts of lines from an author into a complete whole with a definite subject. Such centos were often made from Vergil and on Christian themes; but the term is probably used here for collections of texts from the Bible or the Fathers.

118. Ghisbertus was town-physician of St. Omer and a friend of Erasmus.

119. UTRIUSQUE SCHOLAE] 'of each party, or class.'

122. VIRTUTES] The Vulgate word, which in the English Bible is regularly translated 'mighty works'.

143. SODALI] As a safeguard against scandal the Franciscan rule prescribed that no brother should go outside the monastery without another brother as companion.

152. HILARI DATORE] Cf. 2 Cor. 9. 7.

154. Antony of Bergen, Abbot of St. Bertin's at St. Omer, was brother of the Bishop of Cambray, Henry of Bergen, to whom Erasmus had been secretary on leaving Steyn. This incident occurred in 1502, the only year in which Erasmus was at St. Bertin's in Lent.

157. QUADRAGESIMAE] Lent, the first day of which was roughly the fortieth before Easter. Cf. Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima Sundays; where the calculation is again only approximate.

163. OMITTERES] Si must be understood from nisi faceres.

165. IUBILAEO] The faithful were encouraged to make pilgrimage to Rome in years of Jubilee, those that did so receiving the Jubilee Indulgence. The offerings made in return for these became so fruitful a source of revenue that successive Popes were tempted to reduce the interval at which Jubilees recurred from a hundred years to fifty, then to thirty-three, and finally Paul II (1464-1471) to twenty-five. Erasmus' statement may be an incorrect attribution to Alexander VI (1493-1503) of the action of Paul II in halving the period of fifty years; or it may be an allusion to the custom of celebrating the Jubilee outside Rome in the second year. In any case the Jubilee of 1500 is referred to here. The practice also grew up of selling the Jubilee Indulgence away from Rome; and bishops used to purchase the rights in their own dioceses for a fixed sum, afterwards reimbursing themselves by collecting what they could through their own agents.

169. SORTEM] principal; the sum given by the bishop for the right to sell indulgences.

182. SIMONIACI] Cf. Acts 8. 18 seq. The sin of selling spiritual privileges was called simony.

188. AFFIXA EST] to the doors of the principal church, or to some equally public place.

195. EPISCOPUM MORINENSEM] The Bishop of Terouenne, whose title, Morinensis, was derived from the coincidence of his diocese with the territory of the Morini in classical times.

199. AURI SACRA FAMES] Cf. Verg. Aen. 3. 56, 7.

201. COLLEGERANT] sc. accusatores.

222. THYNNUM] a tunny-fish caught in their nets, i.e. a rich person from whom gifts might be extracted.

231. GUARDIANUM] Warden; the regular title of the head of a Franciscan community.

244. HUNC] The new warden; qui cupiebant being his former companions.

246. SUBOLESCERET] 'grew up'; i.e. came to be.

249. VIRGINUM] Cf. XVI. 251 n.

261. GEMMEUM] Probably an allusion to the resemblance between Vitrarius and Vitrum. The vernacular form of his name is not known. Mr. Lupton conjectures Vitrier; or perhaps it was VitrÉ.

269. STOICUM] used to denote a morose fellow. The Stoics were a school of Greek philosophers, founded by Zeno in the third century B.C. They practised great austerity of life.

275. PATER] Sir Henry Colet, Kt., was Lord Mayor of London in 1486 and again in 1495.

285. SCHOLASTICAE] of the 'schoolmen', Scotus, Aquinas, &c., who taught philosophy in the mediaeval universities.

287. SEPTEM ARTIUM] A course of education introduced in the sixth century. It was divided into the trivium, grammar, logic, and rhetoric; and the quadrivium, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy.

290. Plotinus (died 262 A.D.) was the Founder of Neo-Platonism; which he taught in Rome.

296. DIONYSIO] The reference here is to some philosophical writings, which in the Middle Ages were regarded as the work of Dionysius the Areopagite, who is mentioned in Acts 17. 34 as a pupil of St. Paul. They are now attributed to an unknown writer in the fifth century A.D.

303. Dante (1265-1321) and Petrarch (1304-1374) are evidently mentioned here as masters of Italian poetry, not for their work as forerunners of the Renaissance. Mr. Lupton conjectures with probability that Gower (c. 1325-1408) and Chaucer (c. 1340-1400) are the English poets intended.

309. ENARRAVIT] 'lectured on'.

316. CODICIBUS] manuscripts or printed copies of the Epistles to refer to.

319. DOCTORIS TITULUS] Cf. X. 23 n.

324. COLLEGIO] Chapter.

337. SYMBOLUM FIDEI] the Creed.

366. Erasmus describes a visit with Colet to Canterbury in the Peregrinatio religionis ergo, one of the Colloquia.

383. St. Paul's School was founded in 1510-1.

389. PRIMUS INGRESSUS] The portion of the room first entered.

CATECHUMENOS] A Greek word denoting candidates for admission to the Christian religion, who were undergoing instruction before baptism: here, pupils just entered.

399. REM DIVINAM] Divine service, with the mass; cf. ll. 551 seq.

437. PARADOXIS] 'unusual.'

438. PROCELLIS] Cf. ll. 597 seq.

449. PUERO] Probably here 'a servant'.

459, 60. SUMPTO … PUSILLO] This substantival use of a neuter adjective is confined in classical Latin to the nominative and accusative cases.

474. ALTERAM … PARTEM] sc. epistolae; i.e. the sketch of Colet.

489. HUNC] The person intended here must be not Scotus but Aquinas, who is the author of the Catena Aurea, a continuous commentary on the Gospels. This violation of the ordinary rule that hic refers to the nearer of two persons mentioned is necessitated by the appropriation of ille to Colet.

493. AFFECTUUM] Mr. Lupton translates 'unction'.

511. DECIDIT] 'settled,' 'left.'

516. APUD ITALOS] Mr. Seebohm, Oxford Reformers, 3rd ed. p. 22, conjectures that these Italian monks may have been Savonarola and his companions.

519. GERMANOS] Mr. Lupton conjectures that the Order of the Brethren of the Common Life, founded at Deventer by Gerard Groot in 1384, may be here intended. If this is correct, there is significance in the use of residerent, marking Colet's opinion, instead of resident; which would make the statement Erasmus' own: for Erasmus had been for two years at a school kept by the Brethren in Hertogenbosch and had not a high opinion of them.

542. COLLEGIA] Colet's censure of the colleges in the English universities must apply to the older institutions founded before the Renaissance. Erasmus is probably recalling here some utterance of the days before the foundation of Christ's (1506) and St. John's (1516) at Cambridge, and Corpus Christi (1516) at Oxford.

544. SCHOLIS PUBLICIS] Mr. Lupton rightly interprets this of the 'schools' at the universities, in which public lectures were given; and shows that as the lecturer had to hire the 'school' for his lecture, the competition for fees would necessarily be keen. Cf. also l. 576. The term is also used at this period for a school maintained publicly by a town.

548. UT CONFESSIONEM] Cf. ll. 133 seq.

563. ANSIS OMNIBUS] Like a vessel made with handles on all sides, i.e. more than are necessary: 'at all points.'

570, 1. AD TERNIONES] into groups of three, in a Breviloquium dictorum Christi. Mr. Lupton instances the three words to Mary Magdalene in John 20. 15-7. Cf. also l. 619.

574. CULTUM ECCLESIASTICUM] public celebration of Divine Service.

598. EPISCOPO] Rich. Fitzjames, Bp. of London, 1506-22.

605. COLLEGII] The canons and other ecclesiastical officers together constituted St. Paul's a 'collegiate church'.

606. QUIRITABANTUR] 'lamented.' The verb is commonly active; but the deponent form is cited by a grammarian from Varro.

608. ORIENTATE MONASTERIUM] Mr. Lupton shows that St. Paul's was in old times a monastery; and suggests that Erasmus, whose information probably came from Colet, was thinking of a king of the East Saxons, who took the religious habit there. The name Eastminster seems, however, to have been applied not to St. Paul's, but to an abbey near the Tower.

615. CANTUARIENSEM] Warham: see XXII and XXIII.

619. ILLUD EX EVANGELIO] John 21. 15-7.

635. PACEM] Cf. Cic. Fam. 6. 6. 5.

636. ID … TEMPORIS] This attack on Colet may be dated in Lent of either 1512 or 1513; for in each year preparations were being made for a war with France. It is not clear what interval of time is meant by Erasmus to have elapsed between this and the attack mentioned in ll. 655 seq. about Easter 1513.

637. MINORITAE DUO] Edmund Birkhead, Bishop of St. Asaph 15 April 1513—died April 1518)—cf. l. 687—and Henry Standish who succeeded him in the see.

639. IN POETAS] because Colet allowed classical Latin poetry to be read in his new school. The Church had always discouraged the study of the poets of antiquity, on the ground of the immoral character of many of their writings.

656. PASCHA] Easter, 27 March 1513. This incident can only be placed in 1513: because the expedition of 1512 started in the summer.

657. PARASCEVES] Good Friday: Gk. [Greek: Paraskeuae], the day of preparation before the sabbath of the Passover.

666. CONSISTERET] consistere means 'to take a stand with a person', 'to agree.' This impersonal use is not classical.

669. IULIOS] As Mr. Lupton points out, there can hardly fail to be an allusion here, not only to Julius Caesar, but also to the warlike Pope Julius II (1503-1513); whom Erasmus had seen entering Bologna as a conqueror in 1506 (cf. XXI. 26 n.). Similarly the name Alexander suggests not only 'the great Emathian conqueror', but Pope Alexander VI (l. 165 n.).

672. VELUT AD BUBONEM] sc. aves. Owls are frequently teased by flocks of small birds.

696. PRAEBIBIT] A compliment in days when poisoned cups were not unknown.

703. LUPI … HIANTES] 'Dicebatur si quis re multum sperata multumque appetita frustratus discederet. Aiunt enim lupum praedae inhiantem rictu late diducto accurrere: qua si frustretur, obambulare hiantem.' Erasmus, Adagia.

715. IN EO GENERE] As a friar.

723. IN CANONEM] into the catalogue of martyrs and saints, i.e. to canonize.