I. 4.

"Greece had traversed the Alps, and settled Learning in the

among his countrymen." Between the years 1403 and 1506 more than ten universities had been founded on German soil, and improved courses of literature had been established in Daventer, Kempten, Alkmaar, Munster, Heidleberg, Worms, and various other teutonic towns. Between the years 1455 and 1536, more than

TWENTY-TWO MILLIONS NINE HUNDRED AND

THIRTY-TWO THOUSAND volumes had issued

from various presses. In all the southern and most of the northern parts of Europe, literature, and all the arts and sciences were cultivated with ardour, and there was an universal tendency to a new and better order of things.

It should be added, that through the whole of the period which we have been considering, the progress of science equalled that of literature; what advances arithmetic, algebra, and geometry had made, before the beginning of the sixteenth century, is shown by the treatises, upon all those subjects, of Lucas Pacciolus, or Lucas de Burgo, a Franciscan friar, printed in 1470, 1476, 1481, 1487 and 1491; these multiplied impressions show the ardour of the public in those times for scientific lore.

* Recherches sur les Bibliothèques, p. 180.

Middle Ages.

CHAPTER II.

FROM THE BIRTH OF ERASMUS, TILL HIS FIRST JOURNEY TO PARIS.

1. Birth of Erasmus.

2. Sent to a School at Daventer.

3. Professed in a Convent of Austin Friars at Stein. 4. Resides with Herman, Bishop of Cambrai,-released by his Superiours from monastic duty and observances, and is ordained Priest.

1467-1496. Et. 1-29.

HELIAS and CATHERINE, both of respectable families in Tergau near Roterdam, had ten sons; Gerard was the youngest of them except one. He received a good education, and was versed in classical literature; his wit and festive disposition procured for him the appellation of "the facetious Gerard." He fell deeply in love with Margaret, the daughter of a physician of Sevenbergen; and, after a promise of marriage, had by her a son, called Anthony. Two years after this time, Margaret was again with child by Gerard: it gave great concern to his family, particularly as they perceived that Gerard was immoderately attached to her. With a view to

wean him from her, they endeavoured to force him into holy orders. To avoid their importunities he withdrew from Tergau, leaving behind him a letter, in which he bade them a formal farewell, and assured them that, while they should persist in their desire of forcing him into the ecclesiastical state, they should not see his face. After some wanderings, he settled in Rome, and began to gain a decent livelihood by copying books; for, although the art of printing had been discovered some years before this time, printed books were yet so scarce, that the transcription of manuscripts continued to furnish many with employment. He also was engaged, but on a small scale, in the trade of a bookseller: In the midst of his labours, he found time to perfect himself in the Greek and Latin languages.

II. 1.

From the Birth

of Erasmus till

his visit to Paris.

1. Margaret, on being deserted by Gerard, repaired to Roterdam,* and there gave Erasmus to the world, on the 28th of October, in the year 1467, or about that year; for Erasmus himself did not exactly know the year of his birth. As soon as she recovered from her lying-in, she returned with her child to Tergau; but Catherine

* M. de Burigni, (Vie d' Erasme, Vol. i. p. 8), says, that "in the front of a small house in that town the following "verse is engraved,-Hæc est parva Domus, Magnus quâ "natus Erasmus."

CHAP. II. 1467-1496. Et. 1-29.

the mother of Gerard took charge of the infant.
The brothers of Gerard, having discovered that
he was at Rome, and persisting in their views of
dissolving the connection between him and
Margaret, sent him word that Margaret was
dead. He was afflicted at the information, and
soon afterwards embraced the ecclesiastical state.
At no distant period, he returned to Tergau, and
was surprised to find Margaret alive; he did
not renew his connection with her, but adhered
to his ecclesiastical engagements, and was or-
dained priest.
He provided for the subsistence
of Margaret and her two children. In the con-
troversies, in which Erasmus was afterwards en-
gaged, too many of his adversaries disgraced
themselves by reproaching him with the circum-
stance of his birth, and aggravated it's supposed
blemish by many fictions. The real fact was
never denied by Erasmus; but he justly contended
that his illegitimacy, although it might be his
misfortune, could not be his crime.

He was first called Gerard. He latinized this name by the word "Desiderius," and took the surname of Erasmus, to which, from the place of his birth, he added Roterodamus. Critics have observed, that he would with more propriety have styled himself Roterodamius, or Roterodamensis. He himself intimated, that the idiom of grammar required that he should have

called himself Erasmius instead of Erasmus II. 1.

;

From the Birth

his first visit to

Paris.

and, in conformity with this notion, he gave the of Erasmus till name of Erasmius to a son of Froben, the celebrated printer, when he stood godfather to that child. Desiderius may be construed, "The Desired;" it answers to the French name Didier. The word "Erasmus " is derived from the Greek, and may be construed "The Amiable." All the biographers of Erasmus allow, that from the time of his birth the conduct of his mother was irreproachable. Gerard, his father, put him to a small school at Tergau. It has been said that, at first, so far from discovering a taste for literature or an aptitude for its acquisition, he was thought a dull and heavy boy; the schoolmasters in Holland long held him forth as an example of what perseverance might atchieve, even by capacities apparently most discouraging. He was taught music, and was for some time employed in churches as a chorister. At this period, music was cultivated in no part of the world so much as in the Netherlands, but the manner of teaching it was inconceivably operose : Bayle suggests, on this ground, that the supposed slowness of Erasmus in acquiring learning, must be referred to want of success in his musical exercises. It may, however, be supposed that he obtained some musical reputation, as he was engaged as a singing boy in the cathedral of

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