PART II. ed lady Mar fessor. hopes as a Greek. grammar of Chrysoloras, but has had but few hearers. CHAP. V. 'Perhaps,' the poor sanguine scholar goes on to say, 'I shall have a larger gathering when I begin the grammar of Theodorus; it is also possible that I shall undertake a lecture in theology'. The lectureship to which he refers is no other than that recently founded by the lady Margaret, and in this respect his hopes were realised; for he was not only ap- He is appointpointed lady Margaret professor, but was re-elected at the garet's proexpiration of the first two years and continued to fill the post during the period of his residence. But with respect to his Failure of his Greek class he was doomed to almost complete disappoint- teacher of ment. The elaborate treatise by Theodorus possessed no more attractions for Cambridge students than the more elementary manual by Chrysoloras. In fact, it is evident from Erasmus's own occasional observations, that the few students who were disposed to occupy themselves with Greek learning were not sons of wealthy families, but comparatively poor men seeking to add to their store of marketable knowledge, and of course totally unable to shew their appreciation of his services after the fashion of lord Mountjoy, Grey, and the young archbishop of St. Andrews. Erasmus had looked forward to receiving handsome presents, and appears to have stipulated for no fees. He was accordingly chagrined beyond measure, when his pupils literally interpreted his courteous refusals of the ordinary payments, and, if they learnt but little, paid less. I see no prospect,' he says, in another His account letter to his friend Colet, of making money, for how can I pointments. demand it of men with empty pockets, inasmuch as I am not without some sense of shame; and was born, moreover, with 1 Hactenus prælegimus Chrysoloræ grammaticen, sed paucis; fortassis frequentiori auditorio Theodori grammaticam auspicabimur; fortassis et theologicam lectionem suscipiemus, nam id nunc agitur.' Opera, III 110. See also supra, pp. 392 and 430. 2 Fisher, Funeral Sermon for the Countess of Richmond (ed. Baker and Hymers), p. 63. 3 It is most probable that his profession, as an Augustinian canon, rendered it difficult for him to teach openly for gain, without incurring of his disap PART II. the whole ap than real. CHAP. V. Mercury entirely unpropitious'. 'The gain is too contemptible to be worth taking into account',' he writes somewhat later to Ammonius; while in a third letter, he seems to imply that he might get pupils if he were disposed to tout for them. At one time he had quite resolved to leave for London, but the plague had broken out there, and he was also detained at Cambridge by the hopes of shortly receiving some thirty nobles which he had earned. Then the plague travelled on to the university; most of the students dispersed, His failure on and his hopes of pupils grew fainter than ever. If indeed we parent rather were to form our conclusions respecting Erasmus's success at Cambridge, solely from his own statements during the period of his residence, we should infer that his projects were attended by unredeemed failure. It is only when we turn to note the eventful changes that followed upon his teaching, long after his voice was no longer heard from the professorial chair, that we perceive that his exertions were really productive of important and lasting results. And not only this: even during his stay, his own pecuniary loss proved the world's His literary great gain. Disappointed in the class-room, he took refuge in resident. his study; and to his labours there, the men of his generation were indebted for his two most notable achievements,the Novum Instrumentum and his edition of Jerome. By the one he directly paved the way for the Reformation; by labours while Their vast importance. 1 'De quæstu nihil video, quid enim auferam a nudis, homo nec improbus et Mercurio irato natus.' Ibid. II 109. 2 Quæstus minor est quam ut me moveat.' Ibid. 1 110. 3 Tum quæstus video nonnihil si quis ardelionem possit agere.' Ibid. III 112. 4 Londini non minus sævit pestis, quam isthic Mars. Itaque Cantabrigiæ nos tenemus, quotidie circumspectantes ut commode avolemus. Sed non datur opportunitas. Et retinent triginta nobiles quos ad Michaelis exspecto.' To Ammonius, Ibid. I 109. 5 To the latter work he applied himself with more than usual ardour: Ad Hieronymum emendandum et scholiis illustrandum, ita mihi fervet animus, ut afflatus a Deo quopiam mihi videar. Jam pene totum emendavi collatione multorum ac veterum exemplarium. Atque id ago incredibili meo sumptu.' To the same, Ibid. To these labours we may add a collation of certain manuscripts of Seneca's writings,-'Porro Cantabrigim nacti veteres aliquot codices, adgressi sumus Senecam oratorem, magnis quidem laboribus nostris, sed quorum editio parum feliciter cesserit.' The manuscript was entrusted to a friend and lost. Jortin (Appendix), II 424. Cooper (Annals, 1 282) mentions a short treatise, De Conscribendis Epistolis, as both written and printed by Erasmus during his residence; but the work had certainly been written long before: see Jortin, 1 15; Knight, p. 87. PART II. the other he guided the student of his age to that juster CHAP. V. estimate of the value and authority of medieval theologians, which so largely, though less immediately, conduced to the same great revolution. In brief, we cannot perhaps better express the importance and significance of his work, than when we say that the new Margaret professor,—whom, during the greater part of his residence at Cambridge, we may picture to ourselves as thus toiling away in his chamber, high up in the south-west tower of the first court of Queens' College, was mostly engaged in investigations the result of which was to be the eventual consignment to neglect and oblivion of nearly nine-tenths of the literature on which the theologians in the university around him looked with most reverence and regard. any collision with the Cam gians. It is certainly a remarkable circumstance that holding, as he did, those decided opinions to which he had a few years before given expression in his letter to Christopher Fisher, the papal prothonotary at Paris,-a letter of which Von der Hardt speaks as 'a presage of the Reformation',' and described by Mr Seebohm as an assertion of the grammarian's rights in relation to theology,'-Erasmus, notwith- No record of standing, appears to have succeeded in avoiding anything on his part approaching to a collision with the opposite party during the bridge theolotime that he filled the professorial chair. We can hardly suppose that, in the discharge of his office, he made any attempt to conceal his views,-especially when we remember how those views began to operate soon after he had quitted the university; it is equally difficult to believe that, with his habitual want of reticence', he could have managed to steer clear of such questions in his more familiar intercourse. Very soon after he had taken up his residence at Queens' College, we find him intimating in a letter to Colet, that he by Colet." Hist. Litt. Reformationis, p. 4. Mr Seebohm gives some account of the letter in his Oxford Reformers, pp. 97-8. The letter is also translated at length by Müller, Leben des Erasmus, pp. 247-59. 2Ut ingenue quod verum est fatear, sum natura propensior ad jocos quam fortasse deceat, et linguæ libe- Forewarned CHAP. V. was beginning to be aware of the presence in the university PART II of a certain class of men respecting whom his friend had Fisher. forewarned him'. They were probably men of the same intolerant character as those who, a few years later, at one of the colleges, prohibited the introduction of his edition of the New Testament. That their opposition was not more demonstrative during his stay, is perhaps to be attributed to Protected by the influence of Fisher. The latter indeed was at this time almost omnipotent at Cambridge; he had been regularly re-elected chancellor, at the expiration of each term of office, ever since his first election; and it would have been perhaps impossible to find, in an equal degree, in any one of his contemporaries, at once that moderation, integrity of life, and disinterestedness of purpose, which left the bigot no fault to find, and that liberality of sentiment and earnest desire for reform, which conciliated far bolder and more advanced thinkers. Over Erasmus, whose wandering career had not, by his own ingenuous confession, been altogether free from reproach, a character so saintly and yet so sympathising exercised a kind of spell. Of all the men whom he ever His admira- knew, Fisher seems to have most inspired his reverence and Fisher's cha- regard. To Fisher's influence he attributes all that is most hopeful and encouraging in the university; to Fisher Cambridge was indebted for the peaceful introduction of the study of Greek3, and for that salutary effort on behalf of theological learning, the lady Margaret professorship, to which he had himself been appointed; he praises with special emphasis the design of the lady Margaret preachership, as opposed to the prevailing artificial style of pulpit oratory; of Fisher himself, he observes that he preserved the golden mean,-neither adhering doggedly to the ancient learning, nor siding with those who were wishing to set all tradi tion of racter. PART II Erasmus on tional studies aside'; he describes him as one in whom were CHAP. V. united the highest attainments and the most blameless character, and in whom every virtue that became a bishop was combined in an extraordinary degree. On the other hand, it Influence of is equally evident that Fisher was not less influenced, though Fisher. in a different manner, by his successor in the professorial chair. Of the moderation which Erasmus so much admired in his patron, he was himself a conspicuous example. The good bishop took heart in his advocacy of the new learning, when he found the foremost scholar of the age not less ready to denounce the profanity of the Italian sceptics than the degeneracy of the mendicant orders, and able both to discuss with masterly discrimination the merits of classical authors and to recognise the real value of the writings of St. Thomas or St. Jerome. The various evidence indeed which we find of their interchange of opinion on such subjects, would seem to indicate that Erasmus's influence over Fisher, and through Fisher over Cambridge at large, was far greater and more enduring than their respective biographers would lead us to suppose. In their views with respect to the necessity for a thorough reform in the prevailing style of preaching, they were so far at unison, that Fisher, as we have already noted, could think of no one better qualified than Erasmus to prepare a manual of the preacher's art. After Erasmus had left Cambridge we find Fisher writing to tell him that he had, on his recommendation, bought and read Agricola's De Inventione, and only regretted that he had not himself had the benefit of Agricola's instruction in his youth, for he had never read anything at once so elegant and masterly. Under the same influence again Fisher was led to conceive 1 Lewis, Life of Fisher, 1 12. 2 Vir unus vere episcopus, vere theologus.' Letter to Vives (A. D. 1521), Opera, III 690. Vir omnium episcopalium virtutum genere cumulatissimus.' Letter to cardinal Grymanus (A.D. 1515), Ibid. 1 142. pietate doctrinaque singulari.' Letter to cardinal St. George (A.D. 1515), Ibid. 1 145. 3 See supra, p. 439. 4 See supra, p. 412. Vir 5 'Perlegimus, Erasme, his diebus Rodolphi Agricolæ Dialecticam: venalem enim eam reperimus inter bibliopolas...... Paucis dicam, nihil unquam, quantum ad artem illam pertinet, legimus jucundius et eruditius, ita singula quidem puncta expressisse videtur." Utinam juvenis præceptorem illum fuissem nactus! Mallem id profecto, neque sane mentior, quam archiepiscopatum aliquem.' Opera, ш 1813. |