Page:English Historical Review Volume 35.djvu/33

 1920 ERASMUS 25 was ever more truly himself — himself in the personality which he revealed to the world, in the special work which he undertook and the rich ability with which he wrought it to the end.^ But to consider him as one who was a Lutheran at heart, and yet dared not to be such in deed, is surely wrong. From first to last he was the product and pupil of the Common Lot, a scholar whose mind was not cast in the mould of Luther and was not cast in the mould of Leo. His was rather the mind of the more modern world, modern in its humour, modern in its gentleness, in its love of sound learning and of good letters. Yet modern as was his mind, he failed to estimate aright the new force of public opinion which the medieval world had not to reckon with. But he was the richest product of the older world. The paradox seems to suggest what our political philosophers and our religious leaders sometimes dare to hint, that either we are more medieval than we thought, or that the medieval world was more modern than we think. J. P. Whitney. party, and never will so long as God preserves my understanding ' : Ep. 1224 (a. 1532). And again he says he will be abundantly satisfied, if he himself satisfies good men, and above all, satisfies Christ (Ep. 1227). His boldness joined to reserve is seen in the ' Inquiry concerning Truth ' {Colloquies) where ' he brings in the person of a Lutheran that there may be a more easy agreement betwixt them, in that they agree in the chief articles of the orthodox religion, although I have not added the remaining part of the inquiry, because of the nature of the times ' : Preface, a. 152G. In a letter to a Bohemian nobleman (Ep. 563) he says he accepts the papal authority and thinks the pax)acy entitled to respect, although he will not inquire how its authority has been gained. Here again we have that combination of respect for authority and of regard for private j udgement which is so typical of Erasmus. There is an interesting chapter on Erasmus and the Bohemian Brethren in Allen's Age of Erasmus, a paper originally read at the International Historical Congress of 1913.
 * ■ Erasmus writes : ' I am all alone, because I have never attached myself to any