Durant W. The Reformation. A History of European Civilization from Wyclif to Calvin: 1300-1564
Подождите немного. Документ загружается.
1499, if not in 1497, Vespucci, sailing with Alonso de Ojeda, explored
the coast of Venezuela. In 1500, shortly after Cabral's accidental
discovery of Brazil, Vicente Pinzon, who had commanded the Nina on
Columbus's first voyage, explored the Brazilian coast and discovered
the Amazon. In 1513 Vasco Nunez de Balboa sighted the Pacific, and
Ponce de Leon, dreaming of a fountain of youth, discovered Florida.
The discoveries begun by Henry the Navigator, advanced by Vasco da
Gama, culminating in Columbus, and rounded out by Magellan effected
the greatest commercial revolution in history before the coming of the
airplane. The opening of the western and southern seas to navigation
and trade ended the Mediterranean epoch in the history of
civilization, and began the Atlantic era. As more and more of
America's gold came to Spain, economic decline progressed in the
Mediterranean states, and even in those South German cities which,
like Augsburg and Nuremberg, had been commercially tied with Italy.
The Atlantic nations found in the New World an outlet for their
surplus population, their reserve energy, and their criminals, and
developed there avid markets for European goods. Industry was
stimulated in Western Europe, and demanded the mechanical
inventions, and better forms of power, that made the Industrial
Revolution. New plants came from America to enrich European
agriculture- the potato, tomato, artichoke, squash, maize. The
influx of gold and silver raised prices, encouraged manufacturers,
harassed workers, creditors, and feudal lords, and generated and
ruined Spain's dream of dominating the world.
The moral and mental effects of the explorations rivaled the
economic and political results. Christianity was spread over a vast
hemisphere, so that the Roman Catholic Church gained more adherents in
the New World than the Reformation took from her in the Old. The
Spanish and Portuguese languages were given to Latin America, and
produced there vigorous independent literatures. European morals
were not improved by the discoveries; the lawless brutality of the
colonists flowed back to Europe with returning seamen and settlers,
and brought an intensification of violence and sexual irregularity.
The European intellect was powerfully moved by the revelation of so
many peoples, customs, and cults; the dogmas of the great religions
suffered by mutual attrition; and even while Protestants and Catholics
raised their hostile certainties to ruinous wars, those certitudes
were melting away into the doubts and consequent tolerance of the
Enlightenment.
Above all, a pride of achievement inspired the human mind just
when Copernicus was about to reduce the cosmic importance of the earth
and its inhabitants. Men felt that the world of matter had been
conquered by the courage of the human mind. The medieval motto for
Gibraltar- ne plus ultra - was denied by abbreviation; it became
now plus ultra - more beyond. All limits were removed; all the
world was open; everything seemed possible. Now, with a bold and
optimistic surge, modern history began.
CHAPTER XIV: Erasmus the Forerunner: 1469-1517
I. THE EDUCATION OF A HUMANIST
-
THE greatest of the humanists was born in or near Rotterdam in
1466 or 1469, the second and natural son of Gerard, a clerk in minor
orders, and of Margaret, the widowed daughter of a physician.
Apparently the father became a priest shortly after this
contretemps. We do not know how the boy came by the fond name of
Desiderius Erasmus, meaning the desired beloved. His first teachers
taught him to read and write Dutch, but when he went to study with the
Brethren of the Common Life at Deventer he was fined for speaking
his native tongue; there Latin was the piece de resistance, and
piety was as rigorous as discipline. Nevertheless the Brethren
encouraged the study of selected pagan classics, and Erasmus began
at Deventer to acquire his astonishing command of the Latin language
and literature.
About 1484 both his parents died. The father left a modest estate to
his two sons, but their guardians absorbed most of it, and steered the
youths into a monastic career as one requiring no patrimony at all.
They protested, wishing to go to a university; finally they were
persuaded- Erasmus, we are told, by the promise of access to many
books. The older son accepted his fate, and rose to be (Erasmus
reported) strenuus compotor nec scortator ignavus - "a mighty toper
and no mean fornicator." `06141 Desiderius took vows as an Augustinian
canon in the priory of Emmaus at Steyn. He tried hard to like monastic
life, even wrote an essay De contemptu mundi to convince himself
that a monastery was just the place for a lad of avid spirit and
queasy stomach. But his stomach complained of fasts and turned at
the smell of fish; the vow of obedience proved yet more irksome than
that of chastity; and perhaps the monastic library ran short on
classics. The kindly prior took pity on him, and lent him as secretary
to Henry of Bergen, Bishop of Cambrai. Erasmus now (1492) accepted
ordination as a priest.
But wherever he was he had one foot elsewhere. `06142 He envied
the young men who had gone on from their local schooling to
universities. Paris exuded an aroma of learning and lust that could
intoxicate keen senses across great distances. After some years of
able service, Desiderius induced the Bishop to send him to the
University of Paris, armed with just enough money to survive. He
listened impatiently to lectures, but consumed the libraries. He
attended plays and parties, and occasionally explored feminine
charms; `06143 he remarks, in one of his Colloquies, that the most
pleasant way of learning French was from the filles de
joie. `06144 Nevertheless his strongest passion was for literature,
the musical magic of words opening the door to a world of
imagination and delight. He taught himself Greek; in time the Athens
of Plato and Euripides, Zeno and Epicurus became as familiar to him as
the Rome of Cicero, Horace, and Seneca; and both cities were almost as
real to him as the left bank of the Seine. Seneca seemed to him as
good a Christian as St. Paul, and a much better stylist (a point on
which, perhaps, his taste was not quite sound). Wandering at will
through the centuries, he discovered Lorenzo Valla, the Neapolitan
Voltaire; he relished the elegant Latin and reckless audacity with
which Valla had flayed the forgery of the "Donation of Constantine,"
had noted serious errors in the Vulgate, and had debated whether
epicureanism might not be the wisest modus vivendi; Erasmus
himself would later startle theologians, and comfort some cardinals,
by seeking to reconcile Epicurus and Christ. `06145 Echoes of Duns
Scotus and Ockham still resounded in Paris; nominalism was in the
ascendant, and threatened such basic doctrines as transubstantiation
and the Trinity. These escapades of thought damaged the young priest's
orthodoxy, leaving him not much more than a profound admiration for
the ethics of Christ.
His addiction to books was almost as expensive as a vice. To add
to his allowance he gave private instruction to younger students,
and went to live with one of them. Even so he had not enough to be
comfortable. He importuned the Bishop of Cambrai: "My skin and my
purse both need filling- the one with flesh, the other with coins. Act
with your usual kindness"; `06146 to which the Bishop responded with
his usual moderation. One pupil, the Lord of Vere, invited him to
his castle at Tournehem in Flanders; Erasmus was charmed to find in
Lady Anne of Vere a patroness of genius; she recognized this condition
in him, and helped him with a gift, which was soon consumed. Another
rich pupil, Mountjoy, took him to England (1499). There, in the
great country houses of the aristocracy, the harassed scholar found
a realm of refined pleasure that turned his monastic past into a
shuddering memory. He reported his progress to a friend in Paris, in
one of those innumerable, inimitable letters that are now his most
living monument:
-
We are getting on. If you are wise you too will fly over here.... If
you only knew the blessings of Britain!... To take one attraction
out of many: there are nymphs here with divine features, so gentle and
kind.... Moreover, there is a fashion that cannot be commended enough.
Wherever you go you are received on all hands with kisses; when you
leave you are dismissed with kisses; if you go back your salutes are
returned to you.... Wherever a meeting takes place there are salutes
in abundance; wherever you turn you are never without them. O Faustus!
if you had once tasted how soft and fragrant those lips are, you would
wish to be a traveler, not for ten years, like Solon, but for your
whole life in England. `06147
-
At Mountjoy's house in Greenwich Erasmus met Thomas More, then
only twenty-two, yet distinguished enough to secure the scholar an
introduction to the future Henry VIII. At Oxford he was almost as
charmed by the informal companionship of students and faculty as he
had been by the embraces of country-house divinities. There he learned
to love John Colet, who, though "assertor and champion of the old
theology," astonished his time by practicing Christianity. Erasmus was
impressed by the progress of humanism in England:
-
When I hear my Colet I seem to be listening to Plato himself. In
Grocyn who does not marvel at such a perfect world of learning? What
can be more acute, profound, and delicate than the judgment of
Linacre? What has nature ever created more gentle, sweet, and happy
than the genius of Thomas More? `06148
-
These men influenced Erasmus profoundly for his betterment. From a
vain and flighty youth, drunk with the wine of the classics and the
ambrosia of women, he was transformed into an earnest and
painstaking scholar, anxious not merely for shillings and renown,
but for some lasting and beneficent achievement. When he left
England (January 1500) he had formed his resolve to study and edit the
Greek text of the New Testament as the distilled essence of that
real Christianity which, in the judgment of reformers and humanists
alike, had been overlaid and concealed by the dogmas and accretions of
centuries.
His pleasant memory of this first visit to England was darkened by
the final hour. At Dover, passing through the customs, the money
that his English friends had given him, amounting to some L20
($2,000?), was confiscated by the authorities, as the English law
forbade the export of gold or silver. More, not yet a great lawyer,
had mistakenly advised him that the prohibition applied only to
English currency; and Erasmus had changed the pounds into French
coins. Neither his stumbling English nor his prancing Latin availed to
deflect the avid orthodoxy of the law; and Erasmus embarked for France
practically penniless. "I suffered shipwreck," he said, "before I went
to sea." `06149
II. THE PERIPATETIC
-
Stationing himself for a few months in Paris, he published his first
significant work, Collectanea adagiorum, a collection of 818
adages or quotations, mostly from classical authors. The revival of
learning- i.e., of ancient literature- had set a fashion of adorning
one's opinions with a snatch from some Greek or Latin author; we see
the custom in extreme form in Montaigne's Essays and Burton's
Anatomy of Melancholy; it lingered into the eighteenth century in
the forensic oratory of England. Erasmus accompanied each adage with a
brief comment, usually pointed to current interest and salted with
satiric wit; so, he observed, "priests are said in Scripture to devour
the sins of the people; and they find sins so hard to digest that they
must have the best wine to wash them down." `061410 The book was a
boon to writers and speakers; it sold so well that for a year
Erasmus could feed himself unaided. Moreover, Archbishop Warham,
relishing the book despite its barbs, sent the author a gift of
money and offered him a benefice in England; Erasmus, however, was not
prepared to abandon the Continent for an island. In the next eight
years he published several revisions of the Adagia, expanding it
to 3,260 entries. Sixty editions appeared in his lifetime;
translations were issued from the original Latin into English, French,
Italian, German, and Dutch; altogether it was among the "best sellers"
of its time.
Even so the proceeds were meager; and food was not enough. Pinched
for pounds, Erasmus wrote (December 12, 1500) to his friend James
Batt, who was tutoring a son of the Lady Anne of Vere, asking him to
-
point out to her how much more credit I shall do her by my
learning than the other divines whom she maintains. They preach
ordinary sermons; I write what will live forever. They, with their
silly rubbish, are heard in one or two churches; my works will be read
by all who know Latin and Greek in every country in the world. Such
unlearned ecclesiastics abound everywhere; men like me are scarcely
found in many centuries. Repeat all this to her unless you are too
superstitious to tell a few fibs for a friend. `061411
-
When this approach failed, he wrote again in January, suggesting
that Batt tell the lady that Erasmus was losing his eyesight, and
adding: "Send me four or five gold pieces of your own, which you
will recover out of the Lady's money." `061412 As Batt did not enter
this trap, Erasmus wrote directly to the lady, comparing her with
the noblest heroines of history and the fairest concubines of Solomon,
and predicting for her an eternity of fame. `061413 To this ultimate
vanity she succumbed; Erasmus received a substantial gift, and
recovered his eyesight. The custom of the time forgave a writer for
begging aid from patrons, since publishers were not yet equipped to
sustain even widely read authors. Erasmus could have had benefices,
episcopacies, even, later, a cardinal's hat; he refused such offers
time and again in order to remain a "free lance," intellectually
fetterless. He preferred to beg in freedom rather than decay in bonds.
In 1502, fleeing plague, Erasmus moved to Louvain. Adrian of
Utrecht, head of the university, offered him a professorship;
Erasmus declined. Returning to Paris, he settled down to earn his
living by his pen- one of the earliest modern attempts at that
reckless enterprise. He translated Cicero's Offices, Euripides'
Hecuba, and Lucian's Dialogues. Doubtless this jolly skeptic
shared in forming Erasmus' mind and style. In 1504 Erasmus wrote to
a friend:
-
Good heavens! with what humor, with what rapidity does Lucian deal
his blows, turning everything to ridicule, and letting nothing pass
without a touch of mockery. His hardest strokes are aimed at the
philosophers... on account of their supernatural assumptions, and at
the Stoics for their intolerable arrogance.... He uses no less liberty
in deriding the gods, whence the surname of atheist was bestowed
upon him- an honorable distinction coming from the impious and
superstitious. `061414
-
On a second visit to England (1505-06) he joined Colet in a
pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Thomas a Becket at Canterbury.
Describing this trip under fictitious names in one of his
Colloquies, he told how "Gratian" (Colet) offended their monastic
guide by suggesting that some of the wealth that adorned the cathedral
might be used to alleviate poverty in Canterbury; how the monk
showed them milk that had really come from the Virgin's breast, and
"an amazing quantity of bones," all of which had to be kissed
reverently; how Gratian balked at kissing an old shoe that Becket
was said to have worn; and how, as a climactic favor and a sacred
souvenir the guide offered Gratian a cloth allegedly used by the saint
to wipe his brow and blow his nose, and still showing evidences
thereof, whereat Gratian grimaced and rebelled. The two humanists,
mourning for humanity, returned to London. `061415
Good fortune came to Erasmus there. Henry VII's physician was
sending two sons to Italy; Erasmus was engaged to accompany them as
"general guide and supervisor." He stayed with the lads at Bologna for
a year, devouring the libraries, and adding daily to his fame for
learning, Latinity, and wit. Till this time he had worn the garb of an
Augustinian canon- black robe, mantle, and cowl, and a white hood
usually carried on the arm; now (1506) he discarded these for the less
conspicuous dress of a secular priest, and claimed to have received
permission for this change from Pope Julius II, then in Bologna as a
military conqueror. For reasons unknown to us he returned to England
in 1506, and lectured on Greek at Cambridge. But in 1508 we find him
again in Italy- preparing an enlarged edition of his Adagia for
the press of Aldus Manutius in Venice. Passing on to Rome (1509), he
was charmed by the easy life, fine manners, and intellectual
cultivation of the cardinals. He was amused- as Luther, in Rome the
year before, had been shocked- by the inroads that pagan themes and
ways had made in the capital of Christendom. What offended Erasmus
more was the martial policy, ardor, and pursuits of Julius II; there
he agreed with Luther; but he agreed also with the cardinals, who
warmly approved the frequent absences of the pugnacious Pope. They
welcomed Erasmus to their social gatherings, and offered him some
ecclesiastical sinecure if he would settle in Rome.
Just as he was learning to love the Eternal City, Mountjoy sent
him word that Henry VII had died, that the friend of the humanists had
become Henry VIII, and that all doors and preferments would now be
open to Erasmus if he would come back to England. And along with
Mountjoy's letter came one from Henry VIII himself:
-
Our acquaintance began when I was a boy. The regard which I then
learned to feel for you has been increased by the honorable mention
you have made of me in your writings, and by the use to which you have
applied your talents in the advancement of Christian truth. So far you
have borne your burden alone; give me now the pleasure of assisting
and protecting you so far as my power extends.... Your welfare is
precious to us all.... I propose therefore that you abandon all
thought of settling elsewhere. Come to England, and assure yourself of
a hearty welcome. You shall name your own terms; they shall be as
liberal and honorable as you please. I recollect that you once said
that when you were tired of wandering you would make this country
the home of your old age. I beseech you, by all that is holy, and
good, carry out this promise of yours. We have not now to learn the
value of either your acquirements or your advice. We shall regard your
presence among us as the most precious possession that we have.... You
require your leisure for yourself; we shall ask nothing of you save to
make our realm your home.... Come to me, therefore, my dear Erasmus,
and let your presence be your answer to my invitation. `061416
-
How could so courteous and generous an invitation be refused? Even
if Rome made him a cardinal, Erasmus' tongue would be tied; in
England, surrounded by influential friends and protected by a powerful
king, he might write more freely and yet be safe. Half reluctantly
he bade farewell to the humanists of Rome, to the great palaces and
libraries, to the cardinals who had favored him. He made his way again
over the Alps, and to Paris, and to England.
III. THE SATIRIST
-
He stayed there five years, and in all that time he received from
the King nothing more than an occasional salutation. Was Henry too
busy with foreign relations or domestic relatives? Erasmus waited
and fretted. Mountjoy came to the rescue with a gift; Warham dowered
him with the revenues of a parish in Kent; and John Fisher, Bishop
of Rochester and Chancellor of Cambridge University, appointed him
professor of Greek at L13 ($1,300) a year. To raise this income to the
maintenance of a servant and a horse, Erasmus dedicated his
publications to his friends, who responded ever inadequately.
In the first year of this third sojourn in England, and in the
home of Thomas More, Erasmus wrote in seven days his most famous book,
The Praise of Folly. Its Latinized Greek title, Encomium Moriae,
was a pun on More's name, but moros was Greek for fool, and
moria for folly. Erasmus kept the work in manuscript for two
years, then went briefly to Paris to have it printed (1511). Forty
editions were published in his lifetime; there were a dozen
translations; Rabelais devoured it; as late as 1632 Milton found it
"in everyone's hand" at Cambridge.
Moria in Erasmus' use meant not only folly, absurdity,
ignorance, and stupidity, but impulse, instinct, emotion, and
unlettered simplicity, as against wisdom, reason, calculation,
intellect. The whole human race, we are reminded, owes its existence
to folly, for what is so absurd as the male's polymorphous pursuit
of the female, his feverish idealization of her flesh, his goatish
passion for copulation? What man in his senses would pay for such
detumescence with the lifelong bondage of monogamy? What woman in
her senses would pay for it with the pains and tribulations of
motherhood? Is it not ridiculous that humanity should be the
accidental by-product of this mutual attrition? If men and women
paused to reason, all would be lost. `061417
This illustrates the necessity of folly, and the foolishness of
wisdom. Would bravery exist if reason ruled? `061418 Would happiness
be possible?- or was Ecclesiastes right in believing that "he that
increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow, and in much wisdom is much
grief"? Who would be happy if he knew the future? Fortunately
science and philosophy are failures, are ignored by the people, and do
no great damage to the vital ignorance of the race. The astronomers
"will give you to a hair's breadth the dimensions of the sun, moon,
and stars, as easily as they would do that of a flagon or a pipkin,"
but "nature laughs at their puny conjectures." `061419 The
philosophers confound the confused and darken the obscure; they lavish
time and wit upon logical and metaphysical subtleties with no result
but wind; we should send them, rather than our soldiers, against the
Turks, who would retreat in terror before such bewildering
verbosity. `061420 The physicians are no better; "their whole art as
now practiced is one incorporated compound of imposture and
craft." `061421 As for the theologians, they
-
will tell you to a tittle all the successive proceedings of
Omnipotence in the creation of the universe; they will explain the
precise manner of original sin being derived from our first parents;