Page:English Historical Review Volume 35.djvu/11

 1920 ERASMUS 3 and some of his teachers belonged to the brethren. This society had an influence, not only upon Erasmus, but upon many others, that deserves especial stress. We very often assume too great a break in passing from medieval education and medieval thought to those of the Reformation age. But after all one age changes very slowly into another, and it is the business of the student to search for continuity and not save himself trouble by postulating revolution or sudden creations. Among the many less perceptible means by which the medieval world moulded the modern was this Brotherhood of the Common Lot. Its work was quiet and directed to form individuals, not to gain great results at once : it was continuous, its members were not, so to speak, always altering their triposes, transforming their schools, or changing their ideals of education ; their work was thorough and it was effective. The connexion of Erasmus with the brotherhood was more than a chronological fact.^ The brotherhood was founded by Gerhard Groot at Deventer about 1380 ; it was inspired by the true spirit of mysticism (a feeling which found its best home in the middle ages) and by the idea of brotherhood which had wrought so many revivals in the same Burgundian lands. From the days of Gerhard onwards love of the Scriptures and of the Fathers — shown by the constant copjdng of manuscripts — was a special feature of its work. Another was the education of the young. Not only at Deventer but also at 's Hertogenbosch (Bois-le-Duc), where Erasmus was afterwards for two years, and at Stein near Gouda, had they some of their celebrated schools. So great was their success that in some places even the girls sang Latin songs in the streets. Nor were their methods dry : the classics themselves were placed in the hands of their pupils, and this was specially done by Alexander Hegius at Deventer. Latin they had conquered and towards Greek they advanced. In the Netherlands and not in Italy is to be sought the true birthplace of the German Renaissance, which was not artistic, was certainly not pagan, but was from first to last practical and educational in its aims, keeping through- out in close touch with theology. If on the side of mysticism it brought forth Thomas a Kempis,^ on the side of learning it brought forth Rudolph Agricola. and even more modern, scholarship is given by the researches of the late Mr. A. F. Leach : see his Schools of Medieval England (1916) and his other publications. Many schools, supposed to be modern, were really medieval foundations, in some cases with a long history. not the author, of the complete Imitatio. The history of the manuscript points (1) to its being a composite work (which is also to be seen from internal evidence) and (2) to its original home being Italy. The background of the discussion is the B 2
 * An interesting analogy for the influence of medieval education upon Reformation,
 * The evidence goes to show that Thomas a Kempis (of Kempen) was the copyist,