Page:The whole familiar colloquies of Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam.djvu/12

 viii PREFACE. unjustly they do this will appear more evidently when I shall have shewn the great profitableness of some Colloquies : to emit so many sentences intermixed with jests; so many pleasant stories, and the natures of so many things worthy to be taken notice of. In the Colloquy concerning Visiting of Holy Places, the super- stitious and immoderate affection of some is restrained, who think it to be the chiefest piety to have visited Jerusalem ; and thither do old bishops run over so great tracts of land and sea, leaving their charge, which they should rather have taken care of. .Thither also do princes run, leaving their families and their dominions. Thither do husbands run, leaving their wives and children at home, whose manners and chastity it were necessary to have been guai'ded by them. Thither do young men and women run, with the hazard of their manners and integrity. And some go the second time, ay, do nothing else all their life-long ; and in the meantime the pretence of religion is made the excuse for their superstition, inconstancy, folly, and rashness ; and he that deserts his family contrary to the doctrine of St. Paul bears away the bell for sanctimony, and thinks himself completely religious. Paul (1 Tim. v. 8) boldly says, " But if any provide not for his own, and especially those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel." And yet Paul in this place seems to speak of widows that neglect their children and grandchildren, and that under pretence of religion, while they give themselves up to the service of the church. What would he say of husbands who leave their tender children and young wives, and that in a poor condition, to take a journey to Jeru- salem ] I will produce but one example out of many, and not so long ago but that the grandchildren are still living, whom the great damage they sustained does not suffer to forget what was done. A certain great man took a resolution to pay a visit to Jerusalem be- fore he died, with a religious intent, indeed, but not well advised. Having set in order the affairs of his possessions, he committed the care and custody of his lady, who was big with child, of his towns and castles, to an archbishop as to a father. As soon as the news arrived that the man was dead in his pilgrimage, the archbishop, instead of acting the part of a father, played the robber, seized all the dead man's possessions, and besieged a strong, well-defended castle, into which the lady, great with child, had fled ; and having taken it by storm, lest any one should survive who might revenge the heinous fact, the lady great with child, together with her infant, was run through and died. Would it not have been a pious deed to have dissuaded this man from so dangerous and unnecessary a journey ? How many examples of this kind there are to be found, I leave others to judge. In the meantime, to say nothing of the chai'ges, which, though I grant they be not entirely lost, yet there is no wise man but will confess that they might have been laid out to far better purpose. But then, as to the religion of making such visits, St. Jerome commends Hilarion in that, though he was a native of Palestine and dwelt in Palestine, yet he never went to see Jerusalem, though it was so near, but once, lest he might seem to despise holy places. If Hilarion was deservedly commended because, being so near, he forbore going to visit Jei-usalem, lest he should seem to shut up God in a narrow compass, and went thither but once, and that by reason of the nearness of the place, lest he might give offence