ERASMUS, PRINCE OF HUMANISTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22468, 11 July 1936, Page 1 (Supplement)

ERASMUS, PRINCE OF HUMANISTS

jpOUR hundred years ago, on July 11, 1536, there passed away at Basel, in Switzerland, a scholar whose name has shone with undimnied lustre until the present time. Of all the learned men whose names are associated with the Renaissance of the early sixteenth century, none outshines that of Desiderius Erasmus. He holds an undisputed place in the front rank of the eminent •scholars who helped to set Europe free from the darkness of the Middle Apes and to usher in the new era of light and liberty. His scholarship was of the finest type; his literary industry was unsurpassed; his zeal for learning was ardent and unceasing; his intellect was capacious and versatile; and his works served to mould the thought of his own and later times; to an amazing degree. AYe do well to honour his memory. Association with England .Air. H. A. L. Fisher, capable historian thus describes him: Of humble parentage and born out of wedlock, he lived the life of a wandering scholar untrammelled by ties of civic or national patriotism, and owning no allopiance save to the republic of learning and the Christian Church. Ho combined the steady flow of the student with the (greatest fluencv and abundance of the man or letters and the capacity for friendship which is the mark of the true humanist. His wit was light, animated and sparkling; his dialectical resource copious and refined; Ills l,atinity conspicuous for easy and nervous eloquence; and in the history of Kuropean letters he occupies the unique position of a satirist, a writer of devotional manuals and a pioneer of linguistic and Biblical research. The association of Erasmus with England was intimate and rich in benefit alike to himself and to the friends he formed among our people. He was attracted to our universities bv the reputation for scholarship that many of our most learned men had attained. " I have found in Oxford." he writes, "so much polish and learning that now 1 hardly care about going to Italy at all. save for the sake of having been there. YS hen I listen to mv friend Colet it seems like listening to 1 lato himself. Who does not wonder at the wide range of Grocyn's knowledge. What can be more searching, deep and refined than the judgment of Linacre. When did Nature mould a temper more l/entle, endearing and happy than the temper of Thomas MoreOn April 1, 1506, he wrote: " 1 am still in London, Ml() st welcome, as it seems, to the urea test and most learned of the whole country. There are in London five or six men who are accurate scholars in both tongues such as 1 think even Italy itself does not at present possess. He found a congenial friend and a bountiful patron in Warhani, Archbishop of Canterbury, to whom he dedicated his great edition of the ( ,works of S t Jerome. He became the first J rofossor of Greek at Cambridge, an ofliro that lie held for three years (lolU]o]3). , Zeal lor Knowledge Educationists have alwavs regarded Erasmus as holding a premier place among the great teachers oi the world. Monroe, in his " History of Education." refers to him as the most efiective humanist and educator of all the centuries and quotes Professor Jebb s judgment that " of a 1 scholars who lave popularised scholarly literatuio, Erasmus was the most brilliant the man whose aim was the loftiest and who produced the most lasting efiect over the widest area. ( The master-passion of Erasmus lite wis to dispel the darkness of ignorance and to diffuse the light of knowledge. His supreme aim was to make

Versatile Scholarship

By H. H. DRIVER

the mental wealth of the ancient world current in modern times. To' this end lie published editions of the Greek and Latin classics, compiled Greek and Latin grammars and text-books, and urged the necessity for new and better methods of tuition. In his youth he had known the meagreness of the monastic schools, and all through his later life lie strove to make education more liberal and rational. The cause of Christianity found in Erasmus a redoubtable champion. Although he failed to take the loading part in the Reformation for which his rare abilities qualified him, be yet by his zeal for the New Learning aided greatly the movement by which the tyranny of medieval scholasticism was broken. In his most popular book, " The Praise of Folly," Folly (as J. 11. Green says) " mounts a pulpit in cap and bells, and pelts with her satire the absurdities of the world around her, the superstition of the monks, the pedantry of the grammarian, the dogmatism of the doctors of the schools, the selfishness and tyranny of kings." The little book was widely circulated and everywhere created laughter. It not only afforded amusement; it also went far to banish the absurdities on which it poured merited ridicule. Assault on Error But playful satire was not the only weapon Erasmus wielded. He had a keener blade still with which to attack error. He knew that the best way to scatter ignorance was to circulate knowledge, and he made the best use of the printing press. He edited the works of St. Jerome, the great scholar to whom the world owed the Vulgate Version of the New Testament which for ten centuries had been the supreme standard of the Christian faith.

This great work he dedicated to Archbishop Warham of Canterbury, in tonus that claimed the spirit of inquiry to be superior to all the pretensions of authority. He said, " Synods and decrees and even councils are by no means in any judgment the fittest modes of repressing error, unless truth depends simply on authority. But, on the contrary, the more dogmas there are, the more fruitful is the ground in producing heresies. Never was the Christian faith purer or more tindefiled than when the world was content with a single creed and that the shortest creed we have." Won Undying Fame The finest contribution Erasmus made to the Christian Church was his edition of the New Testament in Greek with his own Latin version and with notes of great value. This famous piece of work, dedicated to Pope Leo X., was issued in 1516, six years before Luther's German version was published. By it Erasmus won undying fame and led the long list of scholars who have since wrought with unresting industry to produce as perfect an edition as possible of the sacred Gospel.

He laid the foundation on which all true Biblical criticism lias since been built. He collated the manuscripts to which ho had access, but the earlier codices were not available to him, so that his edition has been superseded by such more accurate texts as Nestle's, Westcott and Holt's, and the text used by the revisers ot the Authorised Version. I3ut nothing can rob Erasmus of the unique distinction of producing the first printed edition of the New Testament in the language in which it was originally written.

His desire to make the sacred text available to all who could read it was viewed with grave disapproval by conservative divines, and even a Cambridge College decree declared that his edition should never enter its precincts, but ho claimed that all men ■should have free access to the priceless volume.