ERASMUS, who occasionally assumed the prænomen of Desiderius, was born at Rotterdam, about A. D. 1467; and received the early part of his education at an illustrious school, at Daventer, where Alexander Hegius was his master, and Adrianus Florentius, afterward Pope Adrian IV., was his school-fellow. At the age of thirteen he lost his parents; his mother by the plague, and his father by grief for her death. The three guardians to whose care he was left by his father proved dishonourable and base; and in order to rob him of his patrimony, determined to make him a monk, for which purpose they forced him into a convent of friars, at Balduc, in Brabant; from whence he was removed to another, at Sion, near Delft, and thence to a third, at Stein, near Torgau. His aversion to the monastic state induced him to resist their attempts for some years; but at length, overcome by their unwearied endeavours, he entered among the regular canons, and made his profession in 1486.

He did not, however, remain long in the monastery, for in 1490 he was received into the family of Henry à Bergis, archbishop of Cambray; and subsequently obtained leave from Julius II., and then from Leo X., to lay aside the habit of the order, and to quit the monastic profession.

From the time that Erasmus quitted his convent to the period when he published his New Testament, he resided chiefly in England and France, and occasionally visiting Italy. In every country he indefatigably pursued his studies, obtaining a precarious subsistence from the generosity of his literary friends, the emoluments of instruction, and the publication of several of his minor productions. For several years his mind was occupied with a design of publishing the works of Jerome, but especially of printing an edition of the Greek Testament, with notes. Early in 1515 he received proposals from Froben, the celebrated printer of Basil, to reside in that city, and become the editor of a Greek Testament. The proposal according with his own previous intention, he removed to Basil, and edited both the Greek Testament and the works of Jerome, which respectively appeared in the year 1516.

This edition of the GREEK TESTAMENT Erasmus accompanied with a Latin Version; and Various Readings, selected from several MSS., the works of the fathers, and the Vulgate. It was printed in folio, in two columns, with the notes at the end; and reprinted in 1519, 1522, 1527, and 1535. The publication of the New Testament raised a host of enemies against Erasmus, some of whom censured his temerity, while others laboured to affix the stigma of

inaccuracy and heresy upon him; and one of the colleges at Cambridge forbade it to be brought within its walls! Many of his adversaries strove to have it placed among the prohibited works, but the dedication to Leo X., with the approbation of it expressed by that pontiff, and especially his brief annexed to the later editions, prevented for a time the accomplishment of the malicious intentions of the Spanish, and other monkish divines. His edition of Jerome, and several of his other works, met with a severer fate, and were not only placed in the Indices Expurgatorii, as works to be corrected and purged, but, in some instances, were condemned to the flames.

The liberal and enlightened manner in which Erasmus, in the prefatory discourses prefixed to his New Testament, recommended and defended vernacular translations, and the universal perusal of the sacred volume, placed him among the warmest advocates for the circulation of the Scriptures. His Preface, Paraclesis, and Apologia, deserve to be read and studied by every lover of the Bible, and probably greatly aided the Reformation, and subsequent diffusion of Scriptural truth. The following brief extracts will give an idea of his manner of reasoning :

"I differ exceedingly from those who object to the Scriptures being translated into the vernacular tongues, and read by the illiterate: as if Christ had taught so obscurely, that none could understand him but a few theologians: or as if the Christian religion depended upon being kept secret. The mysteries of kings ought, perhaps, to be concealed, but the mystery of Christ strenuously urges publication. I would have even the meanest of women to read the Gospels, and Epistles of St. Paul; and I wish that the Scriptures might be translated into all languages, that they might be known and read, not only by the Irish and Scots, but also by Saracens and Turks. Assuredly, the first step is to make them known. For this very purpose, though many might ridicule, and others might frown, I wish the husbandman might repeat them at his plough, the weaver sing them at his loom, the traveller beguile the tediousness of the way by the entertainment of their stories, and the general discourse of all Christians be concerning them, since what we are in ourselves, such we almost constantly are in our common conversation."

"Letters, written by those we love and esteem, are preserved, and prized, and carried about with us, and read again and again; and yet there are thousands of Christians who, although otherwise learned, never once, in the whole of their life, read the books con

taining the Gospels and Epistles. Mohammedans violently defend their opinions; and Jews, from their infancy, learn the precepts of Moses; but why are we not equally decisive in favour of Christ? They who profess the institute of Benedict, adopt, and learn, and follow a rule written by a man nearly illiterate. They who are of the order of Augustine, are well versed in the rule of its author. The Franciscans adore the traditions of Francis, possess themselves of them, and carry them with them to every part of the world. nor ever think themselves safe but when they have the book in their bosom. And why should they attribute more to rules written by men, than Christians in general to RULES which Christ has delivered to all; and into which all have been equally initiated by baptism."

Soon after the publication of his Greek Testament, Erasmus commenced a series of paraphrases on the New Testament, forming an extensive supplement to the notes accompanying the Greek. His Paraphrase of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans was dedicated to Cardinal Dominic Grimani, who was himself a man of erudition, and translated into Italian a treatise of St. Chrysostom: his library, next to that of the pope, was at that time the most considerable in Rome; and contained eight thousand volumes. The dedication is dated A. 1517. In 1519 he dedicated his Paraphrase of St. Paul's Epistles to the Corinthians to the prince Cardinal de Marca. In the same year he dedicated his Paraphrase of St. Paul's Epistles to the Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians, to Cardinal Campegius; and his Paraphrase of St. Paul's Epistles to Timothy, to Titus, and to Philemon, to Philip of Burgundy, archbishop of Utrecht. His Paraphrase of the Epistles of St. James and St. John, and of the Epistle to the Hebrews, he dedicated, in 1520, to Cardinal Matthew, who had exhorted him to undertake the paraphrase of these Epistles. In 1522 he dedicated his Paraphrase of St. Matthew to Charles V., and closed his dedication with an excellent admonition to this young emperor, in which he reminds him, that "all wars, however justly undertaken, or however moderately conducted, are always followed by a train of calamities and sufferings." In his preface to this paraphrase, he exhorts the laity and the common people to read and study the Scriptures, which ought, as he says, to lie open to all well-disposed people, and to be translated into all modern languages.

In 1523 Erasmus dedicated his Paraphrase of St. Luke to Henry VIII., king of England. He tells the king, that Charles V. * Erasmi Nov. Test., Paraclesis. Basil, 1516, fol.

and Ferdinand, and Christiern of Denmark, and Queen Catharine, were readers of the Holy Scriptures. He also draws an argument for the truth of Christianity from its successful propagation, and its salutary effects.

The Paraphrase of St. John was dedicated to Ferdinand, brother of the emperor Charles V. In the dedication Erasmus gives Ferdinand a great character; and exhorts him to persevere in his good dispositions, and offers him excellent advice. At the end of the paraphrase is an epistle to the reader, recommending to him piety, and dissuading him from superstition. The Paraphrase of the Acts of the Apostles, Erasmus dedicated to Pope Clement VII. in 1524. The Paraphrase of St. Mark, which, in 1521, he had inscribed to Cardinal Matthew, he dedicated in 1533 to Francis I., king of France. In his dedication he exhorts Christian princes to peace, and pacific dispositions; and observes, with pleasure, what a demand there was for the New Testament, and how many thou sand copies were sold every year. The Paraphrase of the Epistles of St. Peter and of St. Jude he dedicated to Cardinal Wolsey; and after complimenting the cardinal, informs him that he has no favours to solicit, besides the cardinal's countenance and approbation. The Paraphrase of St. Paul's Epistles to the Galatians appears to have been published without any particular dedication. Erasmus published no paraphrase of the Revelation. These paraphrases were afterward collected, and published, together with his other works. The best edition is that by Le Clerc, printed at Leyden, 1703, eleven vols. fol. Besides the paraphrase of the New Testament, he also published paraphrases, or discourses, on some of the Psalms. His discourse on the first Psalm was dedicated by him, in 1515, to Beatus Rhenanus, a learned and pacific man, one of the correctors of Froben's press. In the dedication he exhorts all persons to read the Scriptures, which (as he afterward affirmed in his other writings) ought to be translated into vulgar tongues, and put into the hands of the vulgar: he also exhorts the common people not to have an implicit faith in their teachers, nor to suffer themselves to be led by the nose like bears.

The bold and satirical manner in which Erasmus attacked the corruptions of the Romish Church and clergy, not only in his Biblical works, but in his numerous other writings, exposed him to the hatred and malicious machinations of a host of enemies, who regarded him as one of the most dangerous and powerful opponents of the Roman Catholic hierarchy and doctrines. His works were exclaimed against as disseminating heretical opinions, and placed

in the Indices Expurgatorii as dangerous to be read; and himself only escaped the punishment of heretical pravity, by the influence of his friends, and the cowardly dissimulation of some parts of his conduct. For though possessed of an enlightened mind, a correct judgment, and uncommon learning, he unfortunately had neither piety nor firmness enough to become a martyr to the truth; nor to meet the fiery zeal of his adversaries with the intrepidity of a reformer. It was this fear of suffering which most probably occasioned his opposition to Luther, with whom the monks ranked him, for "Erasmus," said they, "laid the egg, and Luther hatched it."

Erasmus continued writing and publishing to the very close of his life, occasionally satirizing the monks, exposing the absurdities of many of the doctrines of his church, and defending the advocates of reformation and truth. In the last year of his life he published his discourse, or commentary, on the fourteenth Psalm, which he entitled, "Of the Purity of the Christian Church," consisting of allegorical interpretations, and moral reflections upon the text. He also republished his letters, adding several received from the emperor, and other princes, and from men in the highest stations; and remarks, that while revising them, he had found that within the space of ten years many of his best friends and old correspondents were dead, which caused him to meditate on the shortness and uncertainty of human life. He intended to have revised and printed the "Works of Origen," adding a few short notes; but before it was completed he was called away by death; and the work was published after his decease, with a preface, by Beatus Rhenanus.

About a month before his death he was seized with a dysentery, which his feeble frame, already weakened by disease, was unable to sustain, and which proved mortal on the 12th of July, 1536. The last of his days were spent in constantly imploring the mercy of Almighty God, and of Jesus Christ, without speaking of those Catholic ceremonies which he had so frequently blamed in the monks. He was buried in the cathedral church of Basil, or, as it is generally called, Bâsle.

In his person he was low of stature, well shaped, of a fair complexion, cheerful countenance, low voice, and agreeable elocution; neat and decent in his apparel; and a pleasant companion.*

The unprecedented circulation of the anti-monastic writings of Erasmus, and the repeated editions of his New Testament, created

Jortin's Life of Erasmus, passim.