ERASMUS AND HIS BOOKS.
1467-1536.
IT is convenient to make in this place such further reference as is
pertinent to my subject to the literary undertakings of Erasmus, of
whom I have before spoken as perhaps the most typical author of his
time. In popularity, as far as popularity is to be gauged by extent of
circulation, his books were excelled only by the writings of Luther,
while the range of their distribution--that is, the extent of the
territory reached and the variety of the circles of readers by whom
they were welcomed--must have been much in advance of anything attained
by the writings of Luther. The direct influence of these last was, for
a long time at least, limited to Germany and to the Low Countries,
while their principal sale was in the common tongue and among the
masses of the people. The writings of Erasmus, in their original Latin
form, found their way in the first place to the educated circles of the
upper classes, and to the more liberal minded of the ecclesiastics,
while the versions in the vernacular which speedily followed, in both
authorised and unauthorised editions, were taken up with cordial
appreciation by all classes of readers throughout Europe.
It is undoubtedly the case that, while Erasmus always refused to take
sides with the Protestants and held himself to be a dutiful son of the
Catholic Church, the influence of his writings was a most important
factor in bringing about the conditions that made the Reformation
possible. Drummond speaks of the _Praise of Folly_ as “the first
decisive trumpet-blast summoning the friends of right and learning
to gird on their armour, and heralding the advance of that reforming
spirit with which the Papal power was destined ere long to engage in
deadly and terrible encounter.”[94] It would, however, be outside of
the plan of this study to go into the question of the relations of
Erasmus to the Reformation, a theme which has been treated with full
knowledge and excellent critical judgment in the scholarly biography of
Mr. Drummond, and more recently, with less thoroughness, but with no
little force and suggestiveness, in the brilliant biographical study of
Mr. Froude.
The following are the dates of the more important events in the career
of the man who is to be described, not only as a great scholar but as
the most successful and influential author of his age. He was born in
Rotterdam in 1467, seventeen years after Gutenberg had printed his
first book. He was placed as a boy at the school carried on at Deventer
by the Brothers of Common Life. The interest taken by this fraternity
in the multiplication and circulation of literature, and the importance
of its publishing undertakings both during the manuscript period and
after the beginning of printing, have already been noted.
In 1485, when he was eighteen years old, Erasmus took vows as a monk
of the Order of S. Augustine (the same Order to which, later, Luther
belonged), vows from which a number of years afterwards he was released
by Pope Leo X. In 1492, through the favour of the Bishop of Cambray,
he was enabled to pass some years at the University of Paris, which,
though at that time not a little degenerated, was still the leading
university of Europe. In 1498, Erasmus made his first visit to
England, where he remained nearly two years, chiefly in Oxford, and
where he was at once brought into relations with a number of famous
men, some of whom became valued friends, such as Thomas Linacre,
William Grocyn, John Colet, and Sir Thomas More. In 1500, Erasmus,
then again in Paris, published the first edition of the _Adagia_, a
collection of proverbs, which became in its subsequent and enlarged
issues a very different work from the first small volume.
In 1506, Erasmus made his first visit to Italy, and received at Bologna
the degree of Doctor of Divinity. He remained at Venice, in the house
of the publisher Aldus, until 1509, and published through Aldus, in
1508, the enlarged edition of the _Adagia_. In the latter part of 1509
he is again in England, living with his friend More, and publishes the
famous satire, _The Praise of Folly_ (_Encomium Moriæ_).
In 1514, Erasmus makes his first sojourn in Basel, and begins the
intimacy with Froben which was to continue during the lifetime of the
latter. In 1516, he prints, in Basel, _The New Testament_ in Greek and
Latin; this was the first time the complete Greek text had been put
into type.[95] In 1517, Erasmus takes up his residence for a time at
the University of Louvain, and during the two or three years following,
devotes much earnest correspondence to the Lutheran controversies. He
is still at Louvain in 1520, but in 1521, at the time of the Diet of
Worms, he removes to Basel, where he takes up his abode with his good
friend Froben, with whom he remains until Froben’s death in 1527. In
1529, he moves to Friburg, but in 1534, he returns to Basel, where he
died in 1536.
The _Adagia_, the first of the books of Erasmus which brought him
into fame, was originally printed in Paris in 1500. Drummond is of
opinion that this first edition was put together hurriedly for the
purpose of recruiting the exhausted finances of its author by means
of a publication which was “sure to sell.”[96] It seems evident that
Erasmus considered the receipts from its sale important, but he
fails to mention the amount actually realised or the nature of the
several publishing arrangements under which it was published. Several
references give the impression, however, that the author himself
retained the ownership of his Paris edition. He writes in 1504 to
Colet, Dean of St. Paul’s, asking the Dean to look up for him the
matter of one hundred copies of the _Adagia_ sent to London three years
back, for “which he had received no returns.” He understands the copies
have all been sold, and concludes, not unnaturally, that “somebody must
have got the money.”[97] He makes no later reference to the business,
and we may therefore hope that the books were finally paid for.
While it is certain that Erasmus secured considerable sums for the
sale of the _Adagia_, and, later, from the _Encomium Moriæ_, it is
equally clear that during all the earlier portion of his life he
was in continued need of money, and in addition to accepting with
expectant gratitude presents from various friends, he found occasion
for frequent applications for gifts to other friends and to possible
patrons. From the point of view of to-day, many of these letters appear
to be seriously lacking in the dignity and self-respect which ought to
have characterised a great author and an intellectual leader. It would
however be very absurd to arrive at a judgment in the matter from the
standpoint of the nineteenth century, when from the vantage-ground of
an assured copyright protection, authors are able to dictate terms
to publishers and readers. In applying to people of wealth for means
with which to continue or extend his studies, Erasmus feels evidently
that he is asking help not so much for himself personally, as for
the literature and scholarship of which he is the representative.
It is an appeal for the endowment of research. He appears also to
have possessed no capacity for keeping a balance-sheet, or for a
business-like management of his resources, and when money did come into
his hands, it disappeared very rapidly. It is to be remembered that
while he was willing to beg, and was ready for the sake of financial
aid to write flattering letters to possible patrons, he appears never
to have been willing to sacrifice for the favour of such patrons any
measure of conviction or of consistency. On various occasions he put
to one side opportunities for gain or for advancement which involved
as conditions what seemed to him to be a sacrifice of personal
independence or of honestly held opinions. In fact, excepting in this
matter of subsidies from patrons, Erasmus may fairly claim to have
shown in his career, under very great pressure from various quarters,
a clear-headed, well-balanced and courageous independence of opinion
and of action that was most exceptional at a time when theological
partisanship was bitter to the point of ferocity. It is also to be
borne in mind that when, through the satisfactory management of his
literary undertakings on the part, first of Aldus, and later and most
importantly, of his good friend Froben, Erasmus began to secure from
his writings an assured income, the disagreeable subsidy suggestions
disappear from his correspondence, although he is still very ready
to accept _honoraria_ from appreciative friends. It is certainly not
a little to the credit of both Erasmus and his publisher, that there
is no single instance in the long correspondence of an application
to Froben for moneys, either as “advances” or as loans, or a single
complaint about inadequacy of payments. In fact, as specified later,
Erasmus criticises Froben for undue liberality to himself.
The first journey to Italy would probably not have been undertaken (or
at least not at that time) if it had not been for the friendly help
of the Lady of Vere. Froude doubtless, however, sacrifices (and not
for the first time) accuracy of statement to dramatic antithesis when
he writes: “Without Mæcenas we might have had no _Odes_ or _Satires_
from Horace; without the Duke of Lerma we should have had no _Don
Quixote_; without the Duke of Weimar we might have had no _Faust_;
without the Lady of Vere there would have been no _New Testament_, no
_Moriæ_, no _Colloquies_.” This is a kind of _reductio ad absurdum_, an
attempt to make the production of men of creative power depend upon,
instead of being merely furthered by, the help of their patrons. But
Froude probably does not mean to be taken seriously. He goes on to
say: “The patronage system may not be the best, but it is better than
leaving genius to be smothered or debased by misery, and when genius
is taught that life depends on pleasing the readers at the shilling
book-stalls, it may be smothered that way too, for all that I can see
to the contrary.”[98] It is not easy to understand to what book-stall
influences Froude refers, although we can recall certain strictures of
Freeman to the effect that Froude himself attempted to debase history
to the level of the readers of “shilling shockers.”
The Paris edition of the _Adagia_ is not the work in the form in which
it is now known. When Erasmus, in 1507, took up his abode for a time
with Aldus in Venice, he re-wrote and greatly enlarged the book to
such an extent as almost entirely to change its character. He tells
us that for a large proportion of the new material he was indebted
to the suggestions and to the magnificent library of Aldus.[99] He
had, he goes on to say, brought with him to Venice little more than a
confused mass of materials derived from authors already in print. Aldus
and his associates, Laskaris, Marcus Musurus, Aleander, and some even
whose names were not known to Erasmus, placed at his disposal many
valuable manuscripts which had not before come into print. The number
of proverbs collected now amounted to thirty-five hundred, and a vast
mass of learning, drawn from the most varied sources, was thus given
to the world. Erasmus writes with candid appreciation of the generous
encouragement given to a foreigner, in this and his other literary
undertakings, by the Italian publisher and his associates.
The motto used by Aldus under his famous emblem of the dolphin and
the anchor, _festina lente_, was borrowed from a coin by the Emperor
Vespasian, with whom as well as with Augustus, this saying was a
great favourite. Erasmus writes in 1508: “If some deity friendly to
literature will but favour the truly royal vows of Aldus, I can promise
that within a few years the studious will possess, by his work alone,
all the good authors there are in the four languages, Latin, Greek,
Hebrew, and Chaldee, in a complete and accurate form, and no one need
have any lack of literary material. And then we shall see how many
excellent manuscripts there are still hidden, which are either kept
back through ignorance, or which are suppressed, owing to the ambition
of certain persons who care for nothing except that they may be thought
the only wise men. Then, too, we shall know with what prodigious errors
existing texts abound which are now considered tolerably correct....
The library of Ptolemy,” he adds, “was contained within the walls of a
house, but Aldus is constructing a library which shall have no limits
but those of the world.”[100]
In the same volume of his correspondence, Erasmus speaks of himself as
having surpassed Hercules, who was unable to grapple with two monsters
at once, whereas he has not only brought out at the same time the
great edition of _S. Jerome_ and the enlarged edition of the _Adagia_,
but in so doing has overcome the greatest enemy of the works of man,
Time, which is devouring its own offspring.[101] In its expanded and
final form, the _Adagia_ fills one of the eleven folio volumes which
constitute the set of the works of Erasmus. Drummond speaks of it as
“a monument of vast learning ... and a rich repository of anecdotes,
quotations, and historical and biographical sketches.... It formed
an introduction to the Greek and Latin classics, and it furnished
eloquent declamations against kings and monks, war and priestcraft. It
served the purpose of a dictionary and a grammar, a common-place book,
a journal, and a book of travels all in one.”[102] Froude says that
“through the _Adagia_ can be traced the spirit of Lucian, so like was
the Europe of the fifteenth century to the Europe of the second.”[103]
The divines were outspoken in their indignation. They said (again
to quote Froude) that the Proverbs of Solomon were enough, without
adding the Proverbs of Erasmus. The revised edition of the _Adagia_
was reprinted by Froben in 1513, from the text of Aldus, in an edition
rivalling that of Aldus in the beauty of its typography. The two
publishers appear to have made a friendly arrangement with each other
and with Erasmus to divide between them the market for the writings of
their famous friend.
The _Praise of Folly_ (_Encomium Moriæ_), the book which exceeded
the _Adagia_ in its final popularity, and which is possibly the only
work of Erasmus that continues to be read, three centuries after his
death, was written in 1509. Erasmus was at the time again in England,
living in the family of his friend, Sir Thomas More. He mentions in
the preface that the plan of the work had taken shape in his mind as
he was riding across the Alps on his way from Venice to London, and
that it had then occurred to him how odd it was that the wisest and
wittiest man he knew should have a name which in Greek signified a
fool. In another letter, Erasmus gives a somewhat different account,
saying that the first suggestion of the book came from More, and that
it was, in part at least, based upon More’s conversations with him
at Chelsea.[104] I find record of an edition of this book, which is
probably the first, printed in Strasburg in 1511 (three years earlier
than the issue in Basel) by a printer named Schürer. The text was
revised and added to before the printing in Basel and in Paris. It does
not appear what relations, if any, the author had with the printer
Schürer, whose name was not again associated with his writings.
The Froben edition, printed in Basel in 1514, included a commentary
by Gerard Listrius, a physician of Basel and a trusted friend of
Erasmus. The book was reprinted several times by Froben, one of the
editions containing the famous illustrations by Holbein. Authorised
editions were also published by Aldus in Venice, and by Badius in
Paris, while unauthorised issues of the Latin original appeared in
Cologne, Lyons, Salamanca, and elsewhere. A number of translations
appeared in different parts of Europe, the majority of which were
probably unauthorised, although on this point trustworthy information
does not exist. In its various forms it possibly secured a larger sale
than any book, except the Bible, that had as yet been printed. Erasmus
was able to write that kings, bishops, archbishops, and cardinals
were delighted with it, and Leo X. read it through from beginning
to end.[105] Drummond sums up the volume as “containing in a short
compass the author’s whole philosophy of man, all that he ever wrote
on the abuses of his times, on the superstitions of monks and the
pride of kings;... abounding in wit and eloquence and displaying great
knowledge of the world and keen observation of men and things, it has
its deep and serious meanings beneath the light satire.” One result
of the publication of the _Praise of Folly_ was the prohibition of
the writings of Erasmus in many of the universities, including Paris,
Louvain, Oxford, and Cambridge, where the ecclesiastical influence
controlled. “See what comes of Greek,” cried the clergy.[106]
Drummond assigns as an important reason for the departure of Erasmus
from England in 1514, the fact that the Press of England was at the
time too far behind the Press of the Continent to permit of the
satisfactory printing of important works. The reputation of the
scholarly work done by Froben, and the news that he was at work on an
edition of _S. Jerome_, had reached England, and were the means of
directing Erasmus to Basel and of bringing about an association that
proved of no little importance for both author and publisher. It was on
the journey that he met Sebastian Brandt, author of one of the famous
works of the century, _The Ship of Fools_, Wimpfelingus, Listrius, who
wrote a commentary on the _Praise of Folly_, and Beatus Rhenanus, who
became a life-long friend.
On arriving at Basel, Erasmus plunged at once into the work of Froben’s
publishing office. During his first year in Basel, in addition to
revising his _Encomium Moriæ_, and preparing for the press successive
editions of the _Adagia_ and the _De Copia_ (Book of Similes), he gave
arduous labour to the _S. Jerome_, the investment in which he shared
with Froben, and to another great undertaking, a complete edition
of the works of Seneca. He also began a series of translations from
Plutarch, and, a little later, undertook the editorial work on the
Froben edition of the New Testament. In 1515, while on a third visit to
England, Erasmus wrote his treatise on the _Education of a Christian
Prince_ (_Institutio Principis Christiani_), which was printed by
Froben in the year following. The prince on whose behalf the essay had
been prepared, and to whom it was dedicated, was Charles of Austria,
the Arch-duke of Burgundy, then a lad of fifteen, who was afterwards
known to history as the Emperor Charles V. Erasmus had visited
Brussels in 1513, and, while there, had been appointed a Councillor to
the young prince. The treatise is spoken of by biographers as sound in
counsel and wholesome in tone, but as possessing no very distinctive
importance, and Erasmus himself speaks slightingly of it. The essay
written by Erasmus for the guidance of the future emperor will
naturally be compared with the more famous treatise of Machiavelli,
_The Prince_, which was composed at about the same time, probably in
1516. _The Prince_ was prepared for the private use of Lorenzo de’
Medici, and was not designed for publication. It was put into print
in Florence about 1520, and despite the harsh criticisms that have
been brought upon it for what in modern times would be termed its
“Machiavellian” morality, it is to-day, nearly four centuries after its
publication, considered as belonging to the world’s literature.
In 1515, Erasmus took time from his literary work to interest himself
in behalf of his friend, the learned and high-minded Reuchlin, the
greatest Hebrew scholar of the age. Reuchlin had fallen under the
persecution of the Dominicans, led by the ignorant and bigoted
Hochstraten, for his opposition to the diabolical proposal to destroy
all existing Hebrew literature, the Scriptures alone excepted. He
had defended himself in a book entitled _The Eyeglass_ (_Speculum
Oculare_), and on a mandate being issued by Hochstraten to burn this,
Reuchlin had appealed from the Inquisition to the Pope.[107] The Bishop
of Speyer, to whom Leo committed the case, gave judgment in favour of
Reuchlin, and imposed on his enemies perpetual silence, a sentence
which proved difficult of execution. Reuchlin was condemned by the
Universities of Mayence, Erfurt, Louvain, and Paris, although there
were at the time professorships of Hebrew both in Louvain and in Paris.
The matter, in some fashion, was again brought before the Pope. Erasmus
made an earnest and eloquent appeal to the Pope on behalf of his
friend, and the support of the Emperor Maximilian was also secured for
the aged scholar who had done so much to bring honour upon the cause
of learning in Germany and in Europe. The Pope finally confirmed the
previous decision in favour of Reuchlin, a decision which rescued from
the status of heresy, in which it had been placed by the Dominicans
and the learned Faculties of the universities above specified, the
language of the Hebrew Scriptures and the literature of the chosen
people of God. Reuchlin’s books were rescued from the ban and their
learned author was saved from the risk of the stake. He continued to
teach Hebrew in Tübingen and in Ingolstadt, and published in 1520, in
Stuttgart, the first Hebrew Dictionary issued in Germany. In the appeal
made to the Pope by Erasmus, he is shrewd enough to emphasise the
importance of the collaboration rendered by Reuchlin in the preparation
of the _S. Jerome_, a work which had been fitly spoken of as an
enormous service rendered to the Church, and which the Pope himself had
specially commended.
The edition of the New Testament, edited by Erasmus at the instance
of Froben, was based in part upon the previous labours of Laurentius
Valla, to whom must be given the honour of having been the first to
attempt a revision of the text by a comparison of authorities. In
fact, some time before beginning work on his New Testament, Erasmus
had edited for Froben a volume containing the annotations of Valla.
In April, 1515, Beatus Rhenanus writes to Erasmus from Basel: “Froben
wants you to place in his hands your proposed edition of the New
Testament, and promises that he will give for your work as much as
anybody.”[108] A sentence so worded, written by one literary man
to another, has quite a modern sound, giving the impression that
several publishers were prepared at this time to bid against each
other for the editorial service of the first scholar of Europe. As a
fact, however, such a work as was projected could at this time have
been undertaken in but three or four places, while only two or three
publishers possessed the knowledge, the enterprise, or the plant
requisite for its production. The New Testament with the Erasmian notes
might have been printed in Paris, as far as the facilities for Greek
type were concerned, but the influence of the Theological Faculty of
the Sorbonne was entirely unfavourable to the presentation to the
public of any critical or analytical work on the Scriptures, and it
was very difficult, if not impracticable, for a university publisher
to handle successfully a work in the department of theology, of
which the Sorbonne disapproved. Koberger of Nuremberg had publishing
facilities adequate for such an undertaking, but Koberger appears to
have associated himself with the more conservative group of Catholic
scholars, and to this group the Testament of Erasmus, with its critical
notes, seemed to be a very dangerous innovation.
The result showed that there was ground for their misgivings, as the
Testament of Erasmus was to prove of most vital service to the cause of
the Reformation, although the learned editor himself was at the time
regarded with suspicion, if not with enmity, by the larger number of
Protestant leaders. There remained the Press of Aldus; the Venetian
would unquestionably have been very ready to take charge of the book,
and his Press possessed at the time larger facilities for the printing
of Greek than could be offered by Froben, or than existed outside of
Venice. Erasmus appears, however, to have decided that for the purposes
of this work Basel was a better centre of distribution than Venice,
and it was doubtless the case that a much larger circle of readers
could be looked for in Switzerland, Germany, and other regions to be
conveniently reached from Basel, than was to be found in the market
more immediately at the command of Venice.
Notwithstanding the very large investment of skilled labour and of
money that the New Testament called for, the publication proved
a financial success. A second edition was required within three
years, making a total printing, up to 1519, of 3300 folio copies.
In this second edition the text was largely altered and the volume
was fortified with a papal brief, a copy of the Nicene creed, and an
engraving of the Trinity, which ought, as Drummond remarks, to have
proved effectual in protecting the work against charges of heresy.
Above the letter of the Pope is printed a quaint device, a woodcut
representing the victorious Germans under Arminius overthrowing the
legions of Varus, and accompanied by an inscription, _Tandem, vipera,
Sibillare desiste_. The insertion of this German device with its motto
was probably the work of the printer. The purport of it could hardly be
considered as complimentary to an Italian Pope. Froude, in commenting
upon the great popular interest in the book, says that 100,000 copies
were speedily sold in France alone,[109] but I can find no evidence
in the records of the printing of any such number, and I think that
Froude must have been misled by some general reference to its wide
distribution.
There is not space here to consider the long series of controversies
provoked by the publication of the Testament of Erasmus, a volume which
undoubtedly contained the first text approximating to correctness that
Europe had as yet known. As before stated, the text was utilised by
Luther as the basis of his own all-important German version, although
in the bitterness of the disappointment on the part of the Lutherans
that they had not secured the adherence of the great scholar, they
appear never to have made any very specific acknowledgment of the
enormous service rendered to the cause of the Reformation, as well
by his scholarship as by his courage. On the side of the Church, the
murmurings were many and soon became bitter. Accusations were heard
of heresy and Arianism. Erasmus had departed from the version of the
Vulgate, and had substituted comparatively pure Latin for the monastic
barbarisms, and he had even, it was said, charged the Apostles with
writing bad Greek. He had had the temerity to correct a number of
texts in such a way as materially to alter their meaning, and he had
omitted altogether the testimony of the “Three Witnesses” in the first
Epistle of John. This unfortunate verse, after being accepted by the
Protestants on the strength of its retention by Luther, and of the
later and more scholarly authority of the editors of the King James
version, was finally condemned as an interpolation by the revisers
under Victoria, who were thus in a position, after an interval of three
and a half centuries, to bear testimony to the accurate scholarship and
the editorial boldness of Erasmus. It is to be regretted, on the ground
of the consistency of Erasmus, that he was induced, in a later edition,
to restore this text (I John, v. 7).
That Erasmus did possess the courage of his convictions was evidenced
by the character of the notes appended to the volume. I have space
for but a single instance. In commenting upon the famous text, Matt.
xvi. 18, “Upon this rock will I build my church,” he takes occasion to
deny altogether the primacy of Peter, and to express his surprise that
words undoubtedly meant to apply to all Christians should have been
interpreted as applying exclusively to the Roman Pontiff; and this is
said, it should be remembered, in a volume dedicated to the Pope.[110]
In 1524, Erasmus completed his _Paraphrase of the New Testament_,
which was also printed by Froben. Drummond speaks of this book as of
no great intrinsic importance, but says further, that no other of his
productions gave such universal satisfaction, or so entirely escaped
criticism. An English version was printed in London under the authority
of the author, and the work was so highly appreciated in England that
a copy was ordered to be placed in every parish church beside the
Bible.[111]
It had been the hope of Erasmus that the reformation of the Church, the
necessity for which he so fully recognised, was to be brought about by
the advancement of sound learning and the diffusion of the Scriptures.
By this means, as he believed, the superstitions of the monks and their
followers would be dissipated, the corruptions of the Church would be
purged, and the unity of christendom be preserved. To the production of
literature planned to further this great purpose, Erasmus had devoted
a lifetime of arduous and scholarly toil, and to his books he added
the influence of an enormous and far-reaching correspondence. It was
also to the initiation and inspiration of Erasmus that must be credited
not a few of the great undertakings of his earnest friend Froben,
“the publisher of high ideals,” undertakings which, with hardly an
exception, had for their purpose the enlightenment and development of
a perplexed world. The final work of the Reformation was to be done
under other leaders than Erasmus, and the results were to be brought
about by other means than the publication of correct texts, scholarly
commentaries, or even of satires upon monkish abuses. But the wit,
learning, and intellectual force of Erasmus, brought to bear, in part
through his correspondence, and in part through the Presses of Froben,
Badius, and Aldus, exerted a wider influence and played a much greater
part in the long contest against the rule of monkish superstition than
was understood at the time, or than has, in fact, been fully recognised
until a comparatively recent period.
In 1519, Erasmus completed for Froben an edition of _Cyprian_, planned
as a companion to the _Jerome_, and an edition of Cicero’s _Offices_,
a book which, as before mentioned, the list of no scholarly publisher
could be without. In 1518, Froben published for his friend the
_Familiar Colloquies_, which became, next to the _Praise of Folly_, the
best known work of Erasmus, and which is accepted by his biographers,
as expressing, perhaps more directly and comprehensively than any other
of his writings, his personal opinions, prejudices, feelings, and
preferences. Drummond says of it: “The established fame of the author,
the intrinsic merits of the work itself, its adaptation to the times,
the pungent epigrams which glittered on every page, and, perhaps not
least, the suspicions of heresy which began to be whispered round,
all contributed to secure for it an immense circulation.”[112] Froude
writes: “The _Colloquies_ are pictures of his own mind, pictures of men
and things which show the hand of an artist in the highest sense, never
spiteful, never malicious, always delightful and amusing, and finished
photographs of the world in which the author lived and moved.”[113] The
book was translated into nearly every European tongue. The authorised
editions were many and profitable, and the unauthorised, still more
numerous. One printer in Paris took advantage of a report that the
University was about to condemn the work, to print no less than
twenty-four thousand copies.[114] From this edition the author appears
to have derived no advantage. He bears patiently enough the financial
injury caused by the unauthorised issues, but becomes justly indignant
when a Dominican friar publishes an “expurgated edition” from which are
eliminated or “corrected” the passages bearing hardly upon the monks,
of which there were not a few. The work was finally condemned by the
Sorbonne, and it had the honour, somewhat later, of being placed by the
Inquisition in the first class of prohibited books.[115]
In 1523, Erasmus published through Froben the first complete edition of
the writings of S. Hilary, a work which, owing to the great corruption
of the manuscript, cost him, as he tells us, enormous labour, and which
was also for the publisher a very costly undertaking. The account
books of Froben have, unfortunately, not been preserved, but it is
probable from the references in his correspondence, that the _Hilary_,
undertaken at the instance of Erasmus, brought upon him a loss. This
was followed in the same year by an enlarged edition of his _Method of
True Theology_, in which Erasmus draws a laboured comparison between
the pains of authors and those of mothers, remarking that some of the
former are like bears, which bring forth mere lumps of flesh and then
are compelled to lick their cubs into shape.[116]
In 1524, Erasmus published his famous treatise on _Free Will_, in which
he defined clearly his relations to the Lutheran movement. In so far as
this movement represented a protest and revolt against the many abuses
that had crept into the Church, Erasmus had found himself in cordial
sympathy with it, and, in fact, by no one had these abuses been set
forth more graphically and more boldly than by himself. His criticism
of the corruption and the evils of the Romanists had been so keen and
so unsparing that the Protestants could not understand why he did not
join hands with their leaders and break altogether with Rome. Erasmus
was prevented from taking this course by two considerations: he did
believe in a Church Universal, and he did not believe in the Lutheran
doctrines. Condemned as a heretic by many of the Roman ecclesiastics,
he was stamped by the Protestants as a coward and a time-server. To
the student of to-day, it would appear that the course taken by him was
the result of honest and consistent conviction, and gave evidence of a
higher and more discriminating courage than would have been evidenced
by an acceptance of the cardinal’s hat that was waiting for him in
Rome, or of the leadership in a popular cause which was proffered from
Wittenberg. The treatise on _Free Will_ was the statement of Erasmus of
the grounds on which he was unable to accept the conclusions of Luther.
In 1526, the Dean and Faculty of the Theological School of Paris
came together to consider the erroneous, scandalous, and impious
propositions contained in the book by Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam,
called _Familiar Colloquies_, and decided that the reading of the
same should be prohibited. The prime mover in this censure was the
Chancellor Bedier, who was for many years the persistent opponent of
the liberal-minded publisher, Robert Estienne. The writings of Erasmus
had secured a considerable circulation in Spain, the editions which
were sold there being at the outset supplied from Basel and from
Paris. Later, unauthorised issues of the Latin version were printed in
Salamanca, and the _Enchiridion_ and the _Colloquies_ were both printed
also in Spanish translations. The Dominicans and Franciscans attacked
furiously both the books and their author, but the authority of the
Archbishop of Seville, directed probably by the favourable influence of
the Emperor, was sufficient for a quarter of a century to prevent the
books from being formally condemned. Their titles finally appear in the
_Index_ of the Inquisition in 1550 (see the chapter on Plantin).
In 1527, there came to Erasmus a great loss in the death of his
trusted friend Froben. “I bore with calmness the death of my brother,”
writes Erasmus, “but I cannot endure the loss of Froben. He was a true
friend, so simple and sincere, that even if he had wished to conceal
anything, it was so repugnant to his nature that he would have found
it impossible, so ready to do good to all that he was glad to confer
a favour even where it was not desired, which made him an easy prey
to thieves and impostors.... To me his kindness was unbounded. What
plots would he not lay, what occasions would he not seek, to force some
present, upon me! nor did I ever see him better pleased than when he
had prevailed upon me, either by artifice or by entreaties, to accept
one ... nor did I ever find more use for my rhetoric than to invent
pretexts for declining the munificence of my publisher without giving
umbrage to my friend: for I could not bear to see him disappointed....
He paid bills for me before I suspected it, nor could he be prevailed
upon by any entreaties to take back the money ... and this kind of
contest went on between us continually ... but I am sure all his
family will bear witness that I availed myself of his kindness very
moderately. Whatever labours I undertook for him I undertook for the
love of learning. Considering that he gave up his whole life to the
advancement of such labours, avoiding no fatigue by day or night, but
esteeming it a sufficient gain if a good author came into the hands of
the public with due dignity, how could I prey upon a man thus minded?
Sometimes, when he showed to me and to other friends the first pages
of some great author, how he danced for joy, how his face beamed with
triumph! You would have thought he was already reaping in the greatest
abundance the fruits of his labours and expected no other reward....
Within these few years, how many volumes, and in what noble type, have
issued from Froben’s office.... He has refrained from having anything
to do with controversial tracts, from which no small profits have been
made by others, lest he should bring useful learning into disrepute....
He was bent on printing _Augustine_ to equal the splendour of the
_Jerome_, notwithstanding the discouragements of myself and other
friends, and he was wont to say that he desired no longer life than
would suffice to finish _Augustine_, of which he saw the completion
of the first and second volumes only. It was a pious wish, and the
spirit by which he was animated was deserving of immortality.... He
leaves wife, children, friends, the whole city, all who knew him or
his work, bitterly to lament his loss.... Gratitude demands that we
give our hearty support to the printing-office of Froben, which is to
be continued, so that what he has so well begun may ever improve and
develop.”[117] This letter is certainly most honourable both to the
writer and to the man whose faithful work is thus commemorated, and the
friendship between the two men forms an interesting and characteristic
episode in the long history of the relations of publishers and authors.
The later productions from the pen of Erasmus may be briefly noted:
A treatise on the Confessional, which appeared in 1524, and which,
with characteristic boldness, contains a scathing exposure of the
evils of the institution; an exposition of the Lord’s Prayer, printed
at about the same date; a series of devotional addresses and brief
commentaries, in 1524 and 1525; a treatise on the use and abuse of the
tongue, in 1525; the _Institution of Christian Matrimony_, in 1526;
the _Christian Widow_, in 1527, written in compliment to Maria, sister
of Charles V., whose husband, the King of Bohemia, had been killed
shortly before; an edition of _Irenæus_, in 1526 (_Irenæus_ had not
before been printed, and the work of Erasmus had, therefore, to be done
from manuscripts); an edition of _Ambrose_, in four volumes, in 1527;
an essay on the correct pronunciation of Latin and Greek, in 1528; an
edition of _Seneca_ (of whom he speaks as a pagan saint), in 1529; the
concluding volumes of the great _S. Augustine_, in the same year; the
works of S. Chrysostom, in 1530 (this contains a Latin translation
and a memoir); the _Apopthegms of the Ancients_, in eight books, in
1531; the works of S. Basil, in 1532; and, finally, _Ecclesiastes_, a
treatise on the preacher, in 1534. This was the last book completed
by the busy scholar, but his correspondence continued active until
his death, which occurred in July, 1536. A number of the larger works
mentioned in the above brief summary, such as the _S. Augustine_ and
the _S. Chrysostom_, were prepared for the press with the co-operation
of others, but even these represented very considerable labour on the
part of the responsible editor, and it is not easy to understand how,
dyspeptic invalid that he was, he was able to find the time and the
strength for such continuous and such arduous labour. Nearly all of the
books of the last nine years were printed in the Froben Press, which
was being successfully carried on by Jerome Froben, the eldest son of
its founder, with the aid of his friend Boniface Amerbach. Erasmus had,
in 1529, on the ground of the increasing bitterness of the Protestant
feeling in Basel, given up with no little regret his home in that city,
and had removed to Friburg. His intercourse with the Frobens continued
unbroken, however, and Jerome Froben was with him at the time of his
death.
I have given a fuller reference to the literary undertakings of
Erasmus than might seem to be warranted by the general purpose and
proportion of my narrative. I had, however, thought it desirable to
present with some detail the record of the publishing relations of
some representative author of the time, and the career of Erasmus
rendered him, on a number of grounds, the most distinctive author for
my purpose. His commanding position and world-wide celebrity as a
scholar, his relations with men of note and of learning in Protestant
as well as Catholic circles, the wide circulation secured for his
writings, a circulation absolutely without precedent in the history of
the world’s literature, and, finally, his close association with the
most famous publishers of their time, two of whom, Aldus and Froben,
must take rank with the most famous publishers of any time--all these
considerations unite to make the experience of Erasmus, as an author,
one of exceptional interest in the history of publishing undertakings.
To the above summary must be added the important detail that Erasmus
was the first author, after the invention of printing, to secure a
large and continued return from the sales of his writings. From the
time of Gutenberg on, payments had been made by publishers to the
scholarly editors whose services were utilised in preparing for the
press the editions of the classics and the Fathers, to whose works the
earlier publishing undertakings were with rare exceptions restricted.
There is record also of the publication before the close of the
fifteenth century and early in the sixteenth, chiefly in Paris, of
occasional volumes of original writings. Few of these, however, were
addressed to what we should call the general public, and before the
time of Erasmus there is no record of an author’s making money by the
sale of original productions. While the correspondence and diaries of
Erasmus have been preserved, I find no mention of any accounts, and,
in fact, he was not the kind of a man who would have been likely to
trouble himself with such details as account-books. Unfortunately,
the records of Froben’s business have disappeared, and we have no
means of ascertaining the precise amounts paid to Erasmus by his
publishers, either for his editorial services or for royalties on
his books. Drummond is, however, of opinion that these receipts were
very considerable. Erasmus spent from year to year considerable sums
in journeys, in books and manuscripts, and in other ways, although
during the years of his sojourn in the house of Froben, his actual
living expenses must have been moderate. He had no property, the small
inheritance from his father having been dissipated by his guardians.
In addition to the income from his books, he had, after 1507, a pension
of sixty pounds settled on him by Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury;
there was, for a time at least, a pension from Lord Mountjoy; and a
pension of some smaller amount (I have not been able to find the exact
figures) from the Emperor Charles V. after 1523. Froude estimates his
income from pensions in 1529 at four hundred florins.[118] He also
received from time to time various presents of money from his wealthy
English friends, such as Colet, More, Warham, and the Lady of Vere, and
from Popes Leo X., Adrian VI., and Clement VII. According to Froude, he
had no capacity for taking care of money, and however much he received,
he was always in need. In his earlier years he found occasion, in
fact, to write not a few applications for money, in a style of appeal
which strikes the reader of to-day as entirely unbefitting for a man
of his character, education, and intellectual distinction. It was,
indeed, not until his association with Froben had made clear to him
that his writings possessed commercial value, that he was able to
shake off the feeling of dependence upon the purses of patrons. With
his earlier books, his first thought appears to have been to utilise
the appreciation of them by his friends as a means of securing gifts.
After Froben had shown him that by proper management the books could
be made to secure from the appreciation of the public at large good
returns for the author, the letters of Erasmus became free from the
repeated suggestions concerning gifts and financial aid which formed a
disagreeable feature of much of the earlier correspondence.
It was not the least of the important services rendered by Froben that
he was able to further the development of a spirit of independence on
the part of the greatest author of his time, and to rescue him from the
demoralising influences of literary patronage.
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