Page:The whole familiar colloquies of Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam.djvu/389

THE SERAPHIC FUNERAL. 385 our age who will have it that a man is justified only by faith, without the help of good works; but it is the greatest privilege in the world to be saved by a garment without faith. Th. Do not mistake me, Phila- cous ; I do not say simply without faith, but with this faith of believ- ing, that the things I have told you were promised by our Saviour to the patriarch St. Francis. Ph. But will this garment save a Turk 1 Th. It would save the devil himself if he would but suffer it to be put on him, and could but believe this revelation. Ph. Well, thou hast won me for ever ; but I have a scruple or two more that I would desire you to clear up for me. Th. Let me hear them. Ph. I have heard that St. Francis has said his order was of evangelical institution. Th. True. Ph. Now, I thought that all Christians had professed the rule of the gospel ; but if the Franciscans' order be a gospel one, then all Christians ought to be Franciscans, and Christ himself, his apostles, and the Virgin-mother at the head of them. Th. It would be so, indeed, unless St. Francis had added some things to the gospel of Christ, Ph. What things are they 1 Th. An ash-coloured garment, an hempen girdle, and naked feet. Ph. Well, then, by these marks we may know an evangelical Christian from a Franciscan, may we ? Th. But they differ too in the point of touching money. Ph. But, as I am informed, St. Francis forbids the receiving of it, not the touching of it ; but the owner, or the proctor, the creditor, the heir, or the proxy does commonly receive it ; and though he draws it over with his glove on, and does not touch it, nevertheless he is said to receive it. Whence, then, came this new interpretation, that not to receive it is not to touch it 1 Th. This was the interpretation of pope Benedict. Ph. But not as a pope, but only as a Franciscan. And then, again, do not the most strict of the order take money in a clout, when it is given them in their pilgrimages 1 Th. They do in a case of necessity. Ph. But a man should rather die than violate so superevangelical a rule. And then, do they not receive money everywhere by their officers ] Th. Why should they not, and that thousands and thousands too, as they do frequently 1 Ph. But the rule says, not by themselves nor by anybody else. Th. Well, but they do not touch it. Ph. Oh, ridicu- lous ! if the touch be impious they touch it by others. Th. But that is the act and deed of the proctors, not their own. Ph. Is it not so ? Let him try it that has a mind to it.

Th. We never read that Christ touched money. Ph. Suppose it, though it is very probable that when he was a youth he might buy oil, and vinegar, and salads for his father; but Peter and Paul, without all controversy, touched it. The virtue consists in the contempt of money, and not in the non-touching of it. It is much more dangerous to touch wine than to touch money; why are they not afraid of that ? Th. Because St. Francis did not forbid it. Ph. Do they not readily enough offer their hands, which they keep soft with idleness and white with washes, to pretty wenches ] But, bless me ! if you offer them a piece of money to look upon and see if it be good, how do they start back and cross themselves ! Is not this an evangelical nicety 1 In truth, I believe St. Francis, as illiterate as he was, was never so silly as to have absolutely forbidden all touching of money. And if that were his opinion, to how great a danger did he expose his followers in commanding them to go barefoot 1 for it is scarce possible but that one