ERASMUS, Desiderius, was born at Roterdam on the 28th of October 1467.^[1. Bayle, Dictionaire Historique et Critique, tom. ii. p. 1091. Several biographers refer the birth of Erasmus to the year 1465; but the inscription of his statue at Roterdam assigns the date of 1467. ] His father, who bore the name of Gerard, was an inhabitant of Tergou; his mother, named Margaret, was the daughter of Peter, a physician of Sevenbergen. He had an elder brother, called Peter, but their parents were never married, though a promise of marriage is said to have preceded their intercourse. The brothers of Gerard, who was a young man of wit and gaiety, endeavoured to secure his patrimony by compelling him to become an ecclesiastic. Finding himself very uncomfortable in his own country, he went to Rome, where he employed himself in transcribing ancient authors; for the recent invention of printing had not entirely superseded this more slow and expensive method of multiplying copies of books. In the mean time, his relations sent him a false account of Margaret’s death; and his grief for her supposed loss led him to adopt a resolution to which he could not be impelled by their importunities. Having taken orders, he returned to Holland, and found that she was still alive; but he could not now fulfil his promise of marrying her, and she never would marry another, nor did she continue to cohabit with him after he became a priest. He did not neglect the education of a son who was destined to reflect so much lustre on the age and nation to which he belonged. The boy was sent to school when he was only four years old; and, when he was still very young, his musical voice procured him a place among the choiris-ters in the cathedral church of Utrecht. At the age of nine he was removed to the school of Deventer, where his master was Alexander Hegius, and one of his school-fellows was Adrianus Florentius, who continued to be his friend when he was long afterwards elevated to the papal chair, under the name of Adrian the Sixth. At this early period, he exhibited uncommon powers of memory; and it has been said, perhaps with some degree of exaggeration, that he could repeat all Terence and Horace. His affectionate mother, who had likewise fixed her residence at Deventer, died of the plague when he was about thirteen; and his father, deeply affected with her loss, speedily followed her to the grave. They had both of them attained the age of about forty.

Gerard had recommended his hopeful son to the care of [7:9:354]Peter Winckel, master of the school of Gouda, and to that of other two guardians, but they all seem to have been alike unworthy of such a trust; for with the view of dividing his slender patrimony among themselves, they agreed to urge upon him the necessity of embracing the monastic state. They accordingly compelled him to betake himself to a convent of friars at Bois le Duc in Brabant, where, as he has himself stated, he lost three years of his existence. No artifice or persuasion could at first induce him to become a friar, nor did any length of time subdue his utter repugnance to a monastic life. Even at this early period, as has been well remarked, he could discern that religion was the thing least regarded in religious houses. He was afterwards placed in the convent of Sion near Delft; and having next been removed to that of Stein near Tergou, he reluctantly submitted to pass his year of probation, and to take the vows as a canon regular of St Augustin. His brother, who had likewise been devoted to the monastic profession, made an abrupt retreat from his convent, and led a profligate and dissolute life; but Erasmus, though he also quitted his monastic state, to which, as Du Pin observes, “he had no inward vocation,” conducted himself with sobriety, and prosecuted his studies with great assiduity. In 1490 he left the monastery to reside in the household of Henry de Bergues, bishop of Cambray; and in 1492 he was ordained priest by the bishop of U trecht. He had quitted the convent with the consent of the bishop, of the prior, and of the general of the order. He wore the habit as long as he conveniently could; but when he resided in Italy he was obliged to lay it aside, on account of its resemblance to the dress of those who attended persons infected with the plague. From Julius the Second he obtained permission to wear it or not, according to his own convenience, but on condition of still bearing some mark of his order; and from the same pope, or from his successor Leo the Tenth, he obtained an absolution from his monastic vows. For the name of Gerardi he had substituted that of Erasmus, as bearing a more classical form, with the same signification. This name is of a Greek origin, though its proper form is Erasmius; and, prefixing a Latin name of similar import, he adopted the appellation of Desiderius Erasmus, instead of Gerard Gerardi.

In the year 1496 he was prosecuting his studies in the university of Paris, where he became a member of the College of Montaigu, and was led to contract a friendship with our learned countryman Hector Boyce, afterwards principal of King’s College, Aberdeen. The bishop of Cambray, who was more liberal of his promises than of his money, had undertaken to assist him with a small pension; but as he excited hopes which were never realized, Erasmus was left to the usual expedients of a scholar placed in such circumstances. He laboured very diligently to increase his own stock of learning, and endeavoured to earn his subsistence by taking private pupils: thus he gradually established a high reputation, and secured the friendship of individuals distinguished by their rank and influence, as well as by their talents and learning. One of his pupils was Lord Montjoy, in whom he found a steady friend, and who afterwards bestowed upon him an annual pension of a hundred crowns. It was apparently through his connexion with this young nobleman that he was induced to visit England. The plague drove him from Paris in the year 1497; and after passing through the Netherlands, where he was kindly treated by the marchioness of Vere in the castle of Tornenhens, he proceeded to London and Oxford. He now formed an acquaintance with John Colet, afterwards dean of St Paul’s, and with Thomas Linacre, William Grocyn, and William Latimer, three individuals who each contributed to promote among their countrymen a more general taste for the elegancies of classical literature. He is said to have resided for some time in St Mary’s College, Oxford; but not long afterwards we again find him at Paris, and he likewise appears to have visited Orleans. His Enchiridion Militis Christiani he had begun in 1494, at the castle of Tornenhens, but it was not completed till after an interval of several years. This little book became very popular, and was translated into various languages. An English version, ascribed to Tindall, was printed by Wynkyn de Worde in 1533.^[2. This was soon followed by another edition, printed by John Byddell, and bearing the following title: “Enchiridion ĭlilitis Christiani, whiche may be called in Englysshe the hansom Weapon of a Christen Knvght; replenvshed with many goodly and godly preceptes: made by the famous clerke Erasmus of Roterdame, and newly corrected and imprinted.” Lond. 1534, 8vo. Many Englist translations from Erasmus are mentioned in Mr Lowndes’s Bibliographer’s Manual of English Literature, vol. ii. p. 673. ] About the same period he was preparing one of his most elaborate works, the Adagia, first printed at Paris in 1500, and was strenuously applying himself to the study of the Greek language. He mentions to one of his correspondents, that as soon as he could get any money, he would first purchase books, and afterwards clothes. He had already published several of his smaller tracts, and had laid the foundation of that celebrity which long continued to increase, and which that of very few modern scholars has exceeded. He had not however secured any adequate provision; and as he lived somewhat precariously, and wandered from one place to another, he was too frequently compelled to solicit the bounty of those to whom fortune had been more propitious.

It appears from his correspondence that he was occasionally residing in Paris in 1504 and the two succeeding years. To the study of the Greek language, to which he closely applied for the space of three years, he was induced to add that of the Hebrew; but, as Dr Jortin has remarked, “he soon grew tired of the attempt, in all probability for want of proper instructors and helps; else he did things infinitely harder than it is to learn Hebrew.” The necessity of taking pupils interfered with his own plans of study, and prevented him from executing some literary projects which he had now formed. In 1506 he again made his appearance in England, and is then supposed to have visited Cambridge. During the same year, he returned to Paris, and took with him the sons of J. Baptista Boeria, first physician to Henry the Seventh. He next directed his course towards Italy; and while he was prosecuting his journey on horseback, he composed a poem on the infirmities of old age, and addressed it to William Cope, another physician. Although he had not completed his fortieth year, he considered himself as already numbered with the aged. His constitution had never been vigorous; and he was subject to various distempers, which his habits of unremitting application to study did not contribute to alleviate. At an earlier period of life, he had expressed some anxiety to visit Italy, in order to take a doctor’s degree; which, as hé was sufficiently aware, makes one neither better nor wiser; “but it must be done,” says he, “if a man would be esteemed in the world.” He accordingly took the degree of D. D. in the university of Turin. Having resided about fifteen months at Bologna, when he superintended the education of Boeria’s two sons, he afterw ards went to Venice, and there published a third edition of his Adages. He spent a winter at Padua, and repaired to Rome in the ensuing year. At Venice he contracted an acquaintance with Marcus Musurus and Scipio Carteromachus, who taught the Greek language at Padua and Bologna; an he availed himself of so favourable an opportunity of ob-taming[7:9:355] a solution of some of the difficulties which had occurred to him in the explication of Greek proverbs. It was at this period that he became the tutor of Alexander Stewart, a natural son of James the Fourth, by Margaret the daughter of Archibald Boyd of Bonshaw. His pupil, who was a youth of an amiable disposition and of promising talents, had been sent to the continent under the direction of Sir Thomas Halkerton, and, having travelled through France, became a student in the university of Padua; but it was at Sienna that he studied grammar and rhetoric under Erasmus, who has left a very pleasing account of his character, and who affectionately bewailed his premature death. At a very early age, he became archbishop of St Andrews, and obtained in commendam the abbacy of Dunfermline and the priorship of Coldingham. To these ecclesiastical preferments he added the office of lord chancellor; but having accompanied his father in the unfortunate expedition to England, he was slain, along with other warlike churchmen, at the battle of Floddon-field, before he had completed the twentieth year of his age.^[3. Crawfurd’s Lives of the Officers of State, p. 59. Edinb. 1726, fol. ]

Erasmus experienced a gracious reception from the pope and some of the cardinals, but Rome had not sufficient attractions for a person of his disposition. We again find him in England about the beginning of the year 1510. On his arrival, he took up his abode with Thomas More, who was then a young man, and who afterwards rose to great eminence. It was at this period that he composed one of his most popular works, Stultitiae Laudatio, or the Praise of Folly, which has been translated into all or most of the cultivated languages of Europe. In this lucubration, which he dedicated to his friend More, he treated the pope and the court of Rome with but little ceremony; so that, as Dr Knight has observed, “he was never after this looked upon as a true son of the church.” The king, before the death of his father, had addressed a very friendly letter to Erasmus when he was in Italy, and he now received him with courtesy, although it does not appear that he ever bestowed upon him any very substantial proofs of kindness. To the king, as well as to Cardinal Wolsey, he owns himself indebted, not for magnificent benefits, but for magnificent promises. His chief patron was William Warham, archbishop of Canterbury, and chancellor of the kingdom; who, besides many occasional gratuities, bestoaved upon him a living worth about a hundred nobles, the rectory of Aldington, near Ashford in Kent.^[4. Knight’s Life of Erasmus, p. 154. See Dr Middleton’s Free Inquiry, p. cxxvi. ] This however he speedily resigned, reserving to himself a yearly pension of twenty pounds; to which the archbishop added an equal sum from his own purse. He was invited to Cambridge by Dr Fisher, bishop of Rochester, president of Queen’s College, and chancellor of the university, who entertained him in his own house, and procured him the appointment of Lady Margaret’s professor of divinity, and that of Greek professor. Of these offices however, the honour appears to have exceeded the emoluments, nor did he long continue his residence at Cambridge. In the Greek chair he was succeeded by Richard Croke, who had previously taught that language in the university of Leipzig. His treatment in England reflects no particular credit on the character of those who had the chief distribution of ecclesiastical preferments. The king, though capable of perceiving his merit, had not sufficient generosity to reward it; and the lordly churchmen reserved their best benefices mr those who had other recommendations to their protection and favour. He has himself stated that if the promises made to him had been realized, he would have spent the remainder of his days in England; but having been invited to Brabant, to the court of Charles archduke of Austria, he again returned to the Netherlands, where he appears to have been residing in the beginning of the year 1514. With the honorary title of counsellor to that prince, he obtained an annual pension of two hundred florins, which, if it had been regularly paid, would have placed him in circumstances sufficiently easy. He was presented to a canonry at Courtray, but this he likewise resigned, reserving to himself a pension out of its yearly revenue.

He had for some time been laboriously employed in preparing an edition of the Greek Testament; and in the course of the same year ∙he proceeded to Basel, for the purpose of printing it at the celebrated press of Froben. He likewise carried with him the epistles of St Jerom, illustrated with his notes, and some other books intended for publication. To the writings of this father he had devoted much attention, and, on his arrival, he was therefore gratified to find that an edition of his works had already been sent to the press. His edition of the New Testament was first printed in 1516; and other editions issued from the same press in 1519, 1522, and 1527. At Basel he now spent several months, much to his satisfaction, and was particularly gratified with the reception which he experienced from the bishop of that see. Returning to the Netherlands, he learned that Charles, who afterwards became emperor of Germany, had nominated him to a vacant bishopric in Sicily, supposing it to be at his own disposal; and, finding the right of nomination belonged to the pope, that he had solicited this preferment for Erasmus. But the recommendation, which perhaps was not very urgent, failed to produce any effect; nor did he hear of any effort to procure him a bishopric, where the patronage was more free from entanglement. In the year 1515, he appears to have paid another visit to Basel, and likewise to England. To this country he made another excursion in 1517. Of the domestic habits of the English, he has drawn a picture which now seems not a little antiquated. The plague, from which that country was scarcely ever free, and the sweating sickness, he partly ascribes to the incommodious form and bad exposition of the houses, to the filthiness of the streets, and to the sluttishness within doors. “The floors,” says he, “are commonly of clay, strewed with rushes, under which lies unmolested an ancient collection of beer, grease, fragments, bones, spittle, excrements of dogs and cats, and every thing that is nasty.”

Francis the First had invited him to fix his residence in France, and had promised him a benefice of a thousand livres; but of this offer he could not be induced to avail himself. He still lingered in the Netherlands; and we find him occasionally residing at Louvain, the seat of a university which was long conspicuous for the bigotry of its theologians, some of whom had appeared as his professed antagonists.^[5. Beatus Rhenanus mentions his having taught at Louvain. “Docuit Lovanii, Cantabrigiae in Anglia, Lutetiae etiam privatim, i theologiae dedit juvenis operam.” Erasmus, in his short account of his own life, has stated that he went to Louvain after he first returned from England. ] An event of great moment in the history of mankind was now impending. In the memorable year 1517, the reformation of religion in Germany began by Luther’s bold and decided opposition to the scandalous traffic in indulgencies; one of the most corrupt practices of a most corrupt church. From this beginning, apparently trivial, arose many important events; and although Erasmus did not possess the undaunted spirit of a genuine reformer, his writings were not without considerable influence in preparing the way for those salutary changes which [7:9:356]now began to take place. The edge of his wit and ridicule was very sharply directed against monastic ignorance and grimace, against the vain observances which were so generally substituted for real piety.^[6. Dr Robertson has remarked that “there was hardly any opinion or practice of the Romish church which Luther endeavoured to reform, but what had been previously animadverted upon by Erasmus, and had afforded him subject either of censure or raillery. (Hist, of Charles V. vol. ii. p. 142.) See likewise Archdeacon Blackburne’s Confessional, p. 409. The worthy archdeacon describes Erasmus as “one of the most illustrious characters in all history.” ] Many of his publications had a powerful tendency to promote a critical knowledge of the Scriptures and of ecclesiastical antiquity, and consequently were opposed, though indirectly, to the cause of popery. But he never had the courage to avow his adherence to the cause of reformation; and he himself admitted that he was not endowed with the spirit of a martyr.^[7. J. A. Fabricius has written a tract on the religion of Erasmus, which may be found in his Opusculorum historicο-criticο-literariorum Sylloge, p. 357. Hamb. 1738, 4to. ] He was sufficiently ready to condemn the heat and violence of the German reformer: but the task undertaken by Luther was not to be executed by a man of a cool and balancing disposition; and without a large portion of his unflinching impetuosity and undaunted resolution, his disputation and his preaching would, to all human appearance, have been utterly unavailing. No sudden and beneficial change in the affairs of mankind will ever be effected by those who, like Erasmus of Roterdam, keep themselves aloof from all danger, and recommend gentleness and moderation to others, when they have to contend against temporal power, fortified by inveterate prejudice, and roused by the most intense feelings of selfishness.^[8. “As the man,” says Dr Paley, “who attacks a flourishing establishment writes with a halter round his neck, few ever will be found to attempt alterations but men of more spirit than prudence, of more sincerity than caution, of warm, eager, and impetuous tempers; consequently, of we are to wait for improvement till the cool, the calm, the discreet part of mankind begin it, till churc governors solicit, or ministers of state propose it—I will venture to pronounce that (without His interposition with whom nothingimpossible) we may remain as we are till the renovation of all things.” (Sermons and Tracts, p 43.) ] He was however very far from approving of the violent proceedings of Luther’s adversaries. In the year 1520, he was consulted at Cologn by Frederick elector of Saxony, and gave a very favourable opinion of the reformer. Luther, he remarked, has been guilty of two offences; he has touched the crown of the pope and the bellies of the monks. He added, in a more serious strain, that he had justly censured many abuses and errors, which it was necessary to reform and correct; that his doctrine was essentially right, but that it had not been delivered with a proper temper, and with due moderation. Although his conduct did not fully satisfy the Lutherans, it still less satisfied the papists. The publication of his Colloquia did not contribute to recommend the author to the genuine sons of the Romish church: it exposed him to new accusations of laughing at indulgencies, of disregarding auricular confession, and of deriding the pious use of fish, instead of flesh, on certain appointed days. This book, the most popular of all his performances, was published at Basel: an impression, said to consist of twenty-four thousand copies, was printed in 1527 by Coli-net at Paris, and dispersed with amazing rapidity. The sale was promoted by a rumour, which is supposed to have been circulated by the printer, that the work was on the point of being suppressed. During the preceding year, the theological faculty of Paris had censured it as a book in which the fasts and abstinences of the church are slighted, the suffrages of the holy virgin and the saints are derided, virginity is placed below matrimony, Christians arc discouraged from a monastic life, and grammatical is preferred to theological erudition. In the year 1549 a provincial council, held at Cologn, condemned the Colloquies of Erasmus as unfit to be read in schools.

The latter years of his life he spent in Switzerland, chiefly at Basel and Friburg. In the summer of 1522 he paid a visit to Constance, professing an intention of repairing to Rome, for the purpose of waiting upon his old school-fellow the new pope; but to one of his correspondents he mentions that he had fallen sick at the former city, and was deterred by rumours of war from prosecuting his journey. It is however more than probable that he had no great inclination to proceed. Adrian offered him a good deanery, which he did not think it advisable to accept; for he apparently considered it in the light of a retaining fee from the pope. In Switzerland he had many friends, and was only prevented from liking the country by the suffocating heat of the stoves, and the bad quality of the wine. Being subject to the stone and gravel, he found the new and acid beverage unsuitable to his constitution, and was obliged to procure wine from Burgundy. As he kept two servants and two horses, it may be inferred that he was enabled to live in sufficient comfort.

Ulrich von Hutteň, a distinguished adherent of Luther, passing through the city of Basel in 1522, solicited an interview, which the caution of Erasmus prevented him from granting.^[9. See Schubart’s Leben und Charakter Ulrichs von Hutten, S. 131. zweit. Ausg. Leipzig 1817, 8vo. ] A slight of this nature was more than sufficient to rouse the vehement indignation of the German knight, who speedily discharged his spleen in a publication entitled “Ulrici ab Hutten cum Erasmo Roterodamo, Presbytero, Theologo, Expostulatio.” This satirical effusion was followed by the “Spongia Erasmi adversus Ad-spergines Hutteni.” Hutten’s insolence and ferocity were blamed by Melanchthon, and by Luther himself.

In the year 1523, Adrian was succeeded in the papal chair by Clement the Seventh, who sent Erasmus an honourable epistle, accompanied with a donation of two hundred florins. After many solicitations from different quarters, he was at length induced to write against Luther, but not on a subject which involved the chief points of debate between the protestants and papists. His tract De Libero Arbitrio was printed in the year 1524. “Luther,” says Dr Jortin, “was an admirer of Augustin, and, like the Thomists, held a physical predetermination, which entirely subverts human liberty, and which, under the pretence of making the creature dependent upon the Creator, deprives it of all active powers, so that it can do nothing without being necessarily determined by the influence of God. If there was any difference between Luther and the Thomists of the church of Rome, it was this, that Luther spake more simply and sincerely and openly than they; for he absolutely denied that there was any such thing as free-will, whilst they admitted it in words. This perhaps deceived Erasmus, who imagined that he was only disputing against Luther, whilst he was really disputing as much against Thomas Aquinas and his followers, as against the reformer. Be that as it will, Erasmus makes many good remarks against the sentiment which he opposes, and justly insists upon it, that the human will co-operates with the grace or assistance of God.”^[10. Jortin’s Life of Erasmus, vol. i. p. 335. b l a ’ ] In 1525 Luther returned an answer, in a treatise De Servo Arbitrio, where his antagonist is treated with much scorn and contempt. Erasmus immediately replied in the first part of his Hyperas- [7:9:357]pistes, and the second part appeared in the year 1527; but, upon the whole, he appears to have had no reason to congratulate himself on the issue of the controversy.

About this period, Erasmus prepared various other works. In 1525 he published “Lingua, opus novum, et hisce temporibus aptissimum.” In 1528 he published, in one volume, two of the most conspicuous of his literary compositions. The first bears the title, “De recta Latini Graecique Sermonis Pronuntiatione Dialogus ;” the second, “Dialogus cui titulus, Ciceronianus, sive de optimo Genere Dicendi.” Both these works were printed at Basel. His dialogue on the pronunciation of the classical languages excited much attention, and occasioned much controversy.^[11. Of this famous controversy a detailed account may be found in the Foreign Quarterly Review, vol. xiii. p. 60. ] The pronunciation of Greek which then prevailed, was in some countries denominated the Reuchlinian, from its having been adopted by Reuchlin, who died in the year 1521, after having been chiefly instrumental in the introduction of classical learning into Germany. It essentially coincided with the pronunciation of the modern Greeks. In the copious grammar of Scot,^[12. Alexander Scot, LL. D. was a native of Scotland, but he appears to have spent the greatest part of his life in France, and to have exercised the functions of a judge at Carpentras. “Alexander Scotus Aberdonensis, magni nominis, sed majoris meriti, utriusque linguae peritus, juris civilis scientia in paucis clarus, Carpentoractensis praefectus juri dicundo, quo in munere non minorem integritatus quam eruditionis famam acquisivit.” (Dempsteri Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Scotorum, p. 664.) We use the third edition of his Universa Grammatica Groeca. Lugduni, 1614, 8vo. This is not the only work which Scot published. ] first printed in the year 1593, we still find the same system recommended. To the letter β he assigns the name of vita, to ζ of zita, to η of ita, to ô of thita. According to this system, the vowels r l , ι, υ, and the diphthongs ε∕, οι, have no variety of sound, but ought to be pronounced as the French pronounce the letter i. Thus τη, r ∣ , rv, th, toi, have one and the same sound, instead of five distinct sounds. This however is not the only peculiarity of the system. Reuchlin’s mode of pronunciation was almost entirely supplanted by that of Erasmus, although several learned men have at a much more recent period endeavoured to restore the old method. In his other ingenious dialogue, the Ciceronianus, he ridicules some modern scholars, chiefly Italians, who studiously rejected every word or phrase which had not been sanctioned by the authority of Cicero. Of the dead and the living he speaks with his usual freedom; nor did this publication contribute to diminish the number of his enemies. It was attacked with great ferocity by Julius Caesar Scaliger, who writes in a style by no means Ciceronian.

In the year 1529, after the mass had been abolished at Basel, he removed to Friburg, where he purchased a house, and repaired it at considerable expense. In 1533 he published at Antwerp a treatise bearing the title of “Liber de sarcienda Ecclesiae Concordia.” On the same subject, he has introduced many suggestions into his epistles; but the peace of the church was not to be patched up by any expedients which Erasmus was capable of devising. His “Ecclesiastes, sive de Ratione Concionandi,” appeared in 1535; and while it was printing at Basel, he returned to that city, and there he completed his earthly pilgrimage. On the accession of Paul the Third, a design was entertained of elevating Erasmus to the rank of a cardinal; but he had never been ambitious of ecclesiastical dignities, and now the state of his health was such as to deprive all sublunary honours of their usual attractions. The pope nominated him provost of the college of canons at Devenir; but already considering himself as standing on the verge of the grave, he declined an office which he probably would not have accepted in the vigour of his life. He >ad left Friburg in a bad state of health, nor were his ma-adies alleviated by his removal to Basel. He became worse during the summer, and for about a month was afflicted with dysentery. Disregarding those formal and minute devotions which he had so much derided in the monks, he fervently implored the mercy of God through Jesus Christ; and retaining his reason unimpaired till his last moments, he calmly expired on the 12th of July 1536, when he had nearly completed the sixty-ninth year of his age. A great concourse of people attended his funeral in the cathedral church of Basel. By his will, dated in the month of February, he bequeathed handsome legacies to several of his friends, and directed the residue of his property to be distributed by his executors, in relieving the poor and the sick, in marrying young women, and in assisting young men, such as they should judge to be necessitous and deserving.

Erasmus, though somewhat low in stature, was well formed, and had an easy and genteel air, nor was he slovenly or negligent in his apparel. He had a fair complexion, with grey eyes, and, during his youth, his hair was of a pale yellow. He had a cheerful countenance, with a low voice, and a pleasing elocution. He was a steady friend, and an agreeable companion; and indeed if his conversation displayed any portion of the wit and vivacity which distinguish his writings, his society could not fail of being delightful. Ardently devoted to letters, he kept his mind uncontaminated with that avarice and ambition by which churchmen have in too many instances been secularized. In disseminating a love of elegant letters among his contemporaries, he had no small influence, and equally conspicuous were his merits as a theologian. For the lifeless formalities of scholastic theology he had little respect, and less relish; but by his labours on the New Testament, and more especially by his publication and elucidations of the original text, he gave a new impulse to the students of that age, and directed their minds to a more edifying species of knowledge. To him belongs the honour of being the earliest editor of the Greek Testament; for although the Alcala edition, inserted in the Polyglot Bible, bears the imprint of 1514, it was not published till the year 1522. Of his paraphrase of the New Testament, an English translation was printed at an early period;^[13. Lond. 1548-9, 2 vols. fol. The translation was executed by Miles Coverdale, Nicholas Udall, John Olde, and others. See Dr Dibdin’s Typographical Antiquities, vol. iii. p. 491. ] and so high was the estimation in which it was held, that a copy of it was directed to be placed in every parish-church in the kingdom.^[14. Burnet’s History of the Reformation, vol. ii. p. 27. ] The works of the ancient fathers of the church he had studied with much assiduity. To editions of Irenaeus, Chrysostom, Cyprian, Hilary, Ambrose, Jerom, Augustin, and Arnobius the younger, he contributed more or less aid; and he translated particular treatises of Origen, Athanasius, Basil, and Chrysostom. His labours likewise served to render the writings of the ancient classics more accessible. Of the Geography of Ptolomy, the Greek text was first edited by Erasmus. He published editions of Livy, Seneca, Suetonius, and other authors; and if he seldom added notes, his prefaces were considered as no small recommendation. He translated into verse the Hecuba and Iphigenia of Euripides, and into prose detached works of Galen, Plutarch, Lucian, and Libanius. The labours of Erasmus were multifarious, and his compositions are very numerous; for our scanty limits have only afforded us an opportunity of specifying the more remarkable. An ample and elegant edition of his works [7:9:358]was published by Lc Clerc, to whom we are likewise indebted for a discriminating account of the author’s life and character.^[15. . Desiderii Erasmi Opera omnia emendatiora et auctiora. Lugd. Bat. 1703-6, 10 tom. fol. Le Clerc’s account of Erasmus, chiefly derived from his letters, may be found in the Bibliothèque Choisie, tom. v. p. 145, tom. vi. p. 7∙ His other biographers are numθr° us, ' and we shall mention the most considerable lives which have appeared in a separate form. Knight’s Life of Erasmus, more particular-τ ∙i ha lξ. art of it which he s P ent ιn En g land · Cambridge, 1726, 8vo. Burigny, Vie d’Erasme. Paris, 1757, 2 tom. 12mo. Jod∏^τ?θι Erasrnus * London, 1758-60, 2 vols. 4to. Hess’s Erasmus von lloterdam nach seinem Leben und Schriften. Zürich, 179 » T; ii 8V i°tt i ð e Bur ’# n y’ s w θ⅛ a German translation, with corrections and additions, was published by Professor He∏κθ∙ Halle und Helmstadt, 1782, 2 Bde. 8vo. Dr Knight’s work had been translated into the same language by Theodor Arnold. L eι P" zig, 1735, 8vo. 0 ft j ]

Dr Jortin has remarked that “the style of Erasmus is that of a man who had a strong memory, a natural eloquence, a lively fancy, and a ready invention, who composed with great facility and rapidity, and who did not care for the trouble of revising and correcting; who had spent all his days in reading, writing, and talking Latin; for he seems to have had no turn for modern languages, and perhaps he had almost forgotten his mother tongue. His style therefore is always unaffected, easy, copious, fluent, and clear, but not always perfectly pure, and strictly classical. He hath been censured, as a dealer in barbarisms, by persons who not only had not hall of his abilities and erudition, but who did not even write Latin half so well as he. His verses are plainly the compositions of one who had much learning and good sense, and who understood prosody, or the technical part of poetry, but who had not an equal elegance of taste, and an ear for poetical numbers. So that upon the whole he is rather a versifier than a poet, and is not to be ranked amongst the Italian poets of those days, Sannazarius, Fracastorius, Vida, &c. many of whom wrote better than any of the ancients, except Lucretius, Virgil, Horace, and a few more.” (x.)