granting of indulgences and trafficking in dispensations and papal bulls repressed: who would not object to have ceremonies simplified, and solid piety inculcated; who would like to insist on the sacred Scriptures as the true and only basis of authoritative teaching, and would not give to scholastic conclusions and the mere opinions of schools the force of an infallible oracle. With those who think thus, says Erasmus, "if (as is the case) there is no compact on my part, certainly my old friendly feeling for them remains cemented by the bond of learning, even if I do not agree with them in all these things."

But, he continues, it is not among these well-wishers of reform that von Hutten and Luther will find their support. This is to be found among the "unlettered people without any judgment; among those who are impure in their own lives, and detractors of men ; amongst those who are headstrong and ungovernable. These are they who are so favourable to Luther's cause that they neither know nor care to examine what Luther teaches. They only have the Gospel on their lips; they neglect prayer and the Sacraments; they eat what they like; and they live to curse the Roman Pontiff. These are the Lutherans." From such material spring forth tumults that cannot be put down. "It is generally in their cups," adds Erasmus, "that the Evangelical league is recruited." They are too stupid to see whither they are drifting, and "with such a type of mankind I have no wish to have anything to do." Some make the Gospel but the pretext for theft and rapine; and "there are some who, having squandered or lost all their own property, pretend to be Lutherans in order to be able to help themselves to the wealth of others." Von Hutten wants me, says Erasmus, to come to them. "To whom? To those who are good and actuated by the true Gospel teaching? I would willingly fly to them if any one will point them out. If he knew of any Lutherans, who in place of wine, prostitutes, and dice, have at any time delighted in holy reading and conversation; of any

who never cheat or neglect to pay their debts, but are ready to give to the needy; of any who look on injuries done to them as favours, who bless those who curse them -if he can show me such people, he may count on me as an associate. Lutherans, I see; but followers of the Gospel, I can discover few or none.”

Von Hutten had, in his attack, with much bitterness condemned Erasmus for not renouncing connection with those who had written strongly against Luther. Erasmus refused to entertain the notion. "There is," he says, "the reverend Father John, Bishop of Rochester. He has written a big volume against Luther. For a long period that man has been my very special friend and most constant patron. Does von Hutten seriously want me to break with him, because he has sharpened his pen in writing against Luther? Long before Luther was thought of," he says, "I enjoyed the friendship of many learned men. Of these, some in later years took Luther's side, but on that account I have not renounced outwardly my friendship for them. Some of these have changed their views and now do not think much of Luther, still I do not cease to regard them as my friends."

Towards the close of his reply, Erasmus returns to the question of the Pope. Von Hutten had charged him with inconsistency in his views, and Erasmus replies, "He who most desires to see the apostolic character manifested in the Pope is most in his favour." It may be that one can hate the individual and approve of the office. Whoever is favourable to, and defends, bad Popes, does not honour the office. He (Erasmus) has been found fault with for saying that the authority of the Pope has been followed by the Christian world for very many ages. What he wrote is true, and as long as the work of Christ is done it may be followed for ever. Luther wants people to take his ipse dixit and authority, but he (Erasmus) would prefer to take that of the Pope. "Even if the supremacy of the Pope as not established by Christ, still it would be

expedient that there should be one ruler possessing full authority over others, but which authority no doubt should be free from all idea of tyranny.

Because I have criticised certain points in the See of Rome, I have not for that reason ever departed from it. Who would not uphold the dignity of one who, by manifesting the virtues of the Gospel, represents Christ to us?" The paradoxes of Luther are not worth dying for. "There is no question of articles of faith, but of such matters as 'Whether the supremacy of the Roman Pontiff was established by Christ:''whether cardinals are necessary to the Christian Church:' whether confession is de jure divino :' 'whether bishops can make their laws binding under pain of mortal sin: whether free will is necessary for salvation:' 'whether faith alone assures salvation,' &c. If Christ gave him grace," Erasmus hopes that "he would be a martyr for His truth, but he has no desire whatever to be one for Luther."

This last point was immediately taken up by the Lutherans. Von Hutten, as it has already been said, had died before the publication of the Spongia, and the reply to Erasmus was undertaken by Otto Brunfels. He rejected Erasmus's suggestion that nearly all that the Lutherans were fighting for were matters of opinion. They were matters of faith, he says, and no uncertainty could be admitted on this point. In order to make the matter clear, he enumerates a great number of tenets of Lutheranism which they hold to as matters of revealed certainty. For instance that Christ is the only head of the Church; that the Church has no corporate existence; that the mass is no sacrifice; that justification comes by faith alone; that our works are sins and cannot justify; that good men cannot sin; that there are only two Sacraments; that the Pope's traditions are heretical and against Scripture; that the religious state is from the devil; and several score more of similar points more or less important.

That Erasmus's views upon the necessity of the Papacy

"In

expressed in the Spongia were not inconsistent with his previous position there is ample evidence in his letters, to which he himself appeals. Replying, for example, to one who had written to him deploring the religious differences in Bohemia, Erasmus declares that, in his opinion, it is needful for unity that there should be one head. If the prince is tyrannical, he should be reduced to order by the teaching and authority of the Roman Pontiff. If the bishop play the tyrant, there is still the authority of the Roman Pontiff, who is the dispenser of the authority and the Vicar of Christ. He may not please all, but who that really rules can expect to do that? my opinion," he adds, "those who reject the Pope are more in error than those who demand the Eucharist under two kinds." Personally, he would have allowed this, although he thinks that, as most Christians have now the other custom, those who demand it as a necessity are unreasonable and to be greatly blamed. Above all others, he reprobates the position of those who refuse to obey, speak of the Pope as Antichrist, and the Roman Church as a "harlot" because there have been bad Popes. There have been bad cardinals and bishops, bad priests and princes, and on this ground we ought not to obey bishop or pastor or king or ruler.1 In the same letter he rebukes those who desire to sweep away vestments and ceremonies on the plea that they may not have been used in apostolic times.

"I

Later on, in another letter, he complained that people call him a favourer of Luther. This is quite untrue. would prefer," he says, "to have Luther corrected rather than destroyed; then I should prefer that it should be done without any great social tumults. Christ I acknowledge; Luther I know not. I acknowledge the Roman Church, which, in my opinion, is Catholic. I praise those

'Ep. 478.

who are on the side of the Roman Pontiff, who is supported by every good man.”

Again, the following year, writing on the subject of the invocation of Papal authority against Luther, he says: "I do not question the origin of that authority, which is most certainly just, as in ancient times from among many priests equal in office one was chosen as the bishop; so now from the bishops it is necessary to make choice of one Pontiff, not merely to prevent discords, but to temper the tyrannical exercise of authority on the part of the other bishops and secular princes." a

The publication of Erasmus's book against Luther and of his reply to von Hutten made little change, however, in the adverse feeling manifested against him by those who were most busily engaged in combating the spread of Lutheran opinions. As he wrote to King Henry VIII., the noisy tumults and discords made him long for the end of life, when he might hope at least to find peace. Luckily for him, he still retained the confidence of the Pope and some of the best churchmen in Europe. Had he not done So, the very violence of the attack against his good name might have driven him out of the Church in spite of himself. Kind words, he more than once said, would have done more for the cause of peace in the Church than all the biting sarcasm and unmeasured invective that was launched against Luther, and those who, like Erasmus, either were, or were supposed to be, associated with his cause. Luther was not delicate about the choice of his language when he had an enemy to pelt, but some of the preachers and pamphlet-writers on the orthodox side. were his match in this respect. In this way Erasmus puts the responsibility for "the tragedy" of Lutheranism upon the theologians, and in part especially upon the Dominicans and Carmelites. "Ass," "pig," "sow,' heretic," "antichrist," and "pest of the world," are terms named by

99.66

1

Ep. 501.

2

* Ep. 563.

3 Ep. 600.