Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

CHAP. IV.

I have made these quotations, and thus endeavoured A.D. 1505. to put the reader in possession of the contents of this little volume, which More in his seclusion was translating, because I think they throw some light upon the current in which his thoughts were moving, and because, whilst the name of Pico is known to fame as that lightened of a great linguist and most precocious genius, his enlightened piety and the extent of the influence of his heroic example have scarcely been appreciated.

Pico's en

piety.

the Neo

Platonic philosophers of

This little book, indeed, has a special significance in relation to the history of the Oxford Reformers. Whatever doubt may rest upon the direct connection between their views and those of Savonarola, there is here in More's translation of these writings of a disciple of Savonarola, another indirect connection between them and that little knot of earnest Christian men in Italy of which Savonarola was the most conspicuous. Position of The extracts made and translated by More from Pico's writings may also help us to recognise in the Neo-Platonic philosophers of Florence, by whose writFlorence. ings Colet had been so profoundly influenced, a vein of earnest Christian feeling of which it may be that we know too little. Like their predecessors of a thousand years before, they stood between the old world and the new. They were the men who, when the learning of the old Pagan world was restored to light, and backed against the dogmatic creed of priest-ridden degraded Christendom, built a bridge, as it were, between Christian and Pagan thought. That their bridge was frail and insecure it may be, but, to a great extent, it served its end. A passage was effected by it from the Pagan to the Christian shore. Ficino, the representative Neo-Platonist, who, as has been seen, had aided in its building, had

himself passed over it. Savonarola too had crossed CHAP. IV. it. Pico had crossed it. It is true that these men may, A.D. 1505, to some extent, have Platonised Christianity in becoming Christian; but it will be recognised at once that the earnest Christian feeling found by More in Pico, so to speak, rose far above his Platonism.

That the life and writings of such a man should have awakened in his breast something of hero-worship1 is, therefore, not surprising. That he should have singled out these passages, and taken the trouble to translate them, is some proof that he admired Pico's practical piety more than his Neo-Platonic speculations; that he shared with Colet those yearnings for practical Christian reform with which Colet had returned from Italy ten years before. That a few years after this translation should be published and issued in English in More's More calls name was further proof of it. For here was a book a 'man of not only in its drift and spirit boldly taking Colet's side God.' against the Schoolmen, and in favour of the study of Scripture and the Oriental languages, but as boldly holding up Savonarola as 'a preacher, as well in cunning 'as in holiness of living, most famous,'- a holy man

6

[ocr errors]

' a man of God '2_in the teeth of the fact that he had been denounced by the Pope as a son of blasphemy ' and perdition,' excommunicated, tortured, and, refusing to abjure, hung and burned as a heretic! 3

Savonarola

And if the fire of hero-worship for Pico had lit Colet's up something of heroism in More's heart-something

1 Stapleton, ed. 1612, p. 162. | Library, 276, c. 27, Pico, &c., 4° Cresacre More's Life of Sir T. More, P. 27.

2 Sir T. More's Works, p. 9. 3 There is a copy of this translation of More's in the British Museum

London, 1510.' This is probably the original edition. More may have waited till Henry VIII.'s accession before daring to publish it.

influence

on More.

CHAP. IV. which yearned for the battle of life, and not for the AD. 1505. rest of the cloister-so the living example of Colet was ready to feed the flame into strength and steadiness.

More marries under

Colet's advice.

A.D.

1500-5.

Erasmus

had not forgotten Colet.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

The result was that, in 1505,1 in spite of early disappointments, and, it is said, under Colet's advice and direction,' 2 More married Jane Colt, of New Hall in Essex, took a house in Bucklersbury, and gave up for ever all longings for monastic life.

V. HOW IT HAD FARED WITH ERASMUS (1500–5).

Soon after Colet's elevation to the dignities of Doctor and Dean, a letter of congratulation arrived from Erasmus.

Colet had written no letter to him, and had almost lost sight of him during these years. It would seem that, after his departure from Oxford, Colet had given up all hopes of his aid. Nor had any other kindred soul risen up to take that place in fellow-work beside him, which at one time he had hoped the great scholar might have filled.

But Erasmus on his side had not forgotten Colet. His intercourse with Colet at Oxford had changed the current of his thoughts, and the course of his life. Colet little knew by what slow and painful steps he had been preparing to redeem the promise he had made on leaving Oxford.

We left him making the best of his way to Dover,

1 This date of More's marriage is the date given in the register contained on the Burford family picture; and as it is in no way dependent on the other dates, probably it rested upon some family tradition

or record. It is confirmed by the age of Margaret Roper on the Basle sketch-22 in 1528. Vide supra, p. 149, n. 1.

2 Cresacre More's Life of Sir T. More, p. 39.

A.D.

with his purse full of golden crowns, kindly bestowed CHAP. IV. by his English friends in order that he might now carry out his long-cherished intention of going to Italy. But 1500–5. the Fates had decreed against him. King Henry VII. had already reached the avaricious period of his life and reign. Under cover of an old obsolete statute, he had given orders to the Custom House officers to stop the exportation of all precious metals, and the Custom House officers in their turn, construing their instructions strictly to the letter, had seized upon Erasmus's purse- The legal full of golden crowns, and relieved him of the burden, Erasmus for the benefit of the King's exchequer. The poor scholar proceeded without them to cross to Boulogne.

He was a bad sailor, and the hardships of travel soon told upon his health. He was heart-sick also; as well he might be, for this unlucky loss of his purse had utterly disconcerted once more his long-cherished plans. On his arrival at Paris, after a wretched and dangerous journey, he was taken ill, and recovered only to bear his bitter disappointment as best he could. Before he had yet recovered from his illness he wrote this touching letter to Arnold, the young legal friend of More, with whom a few weeks before he and More had visited the Royal nursery.

Erasmus to Arnold.3

'Salve, mi Arnolde. Now for six weeks I having been suffering much from a nocturnal ague, of a lingering

1 Erasmus Botzhemo: Catalogus Omnium Erasmi Lucubrationum: Basil, 1523.

2

[blocks in formation]

Epist. lxxxi. He arrived at in the Leyden edition, 1490, and

M

robbery of

at Dover.

A.D. 1500-5.

Erasmus

gives up

going to Italy.

[ocr errors]

'me.

.CHAP. IV. kind but of daily recurrence, and it has nearly killed I am not yet free from the disease, but still 'somewhat better. I don't yet live again, but some 'hope of life dawns upon me. You ask me to tell you my plans. Take this only, to begin with: To mortify all hope of myself to the world, I dash my hopes. I long for "nothing more than to give myself rest, in which I might live wholly to God alone, weep away the sins of a 'careless life, devote myself to the study of the Holy Scriptures, either read somewhat or write. This I 'cannot do in a monastery or college. One could not 'be more delicate than I am; my health will bear 'neither vigils, nor fasts, nor any disturbance, even when 'at its best. Here, where I live in such luxury, I often fall 'ill; what should I do amid the labours of college life?

Cost of going to Italy.

'I had determined to go to Italy this year, and to 'work at theology some months at Bologna; also there 'to take the degree of Doctor; then in the year of 'Jubilee to visit Rome; which done, to return to my 'friends and then to settle down. But I am afraid that 'these things that I would, I shall not be able to accom'plish. I fear, in the first place, that my health would 'not stand such a journey and the heat of the climate. 'Lastly, I reckon that I could not go to Italy, nor live 'there, without great expense. It costs a good deal also 'to prepare for a degree. And the Bishop of Cambray 'gives very sparingly. He altogether loves more libe'rally than he gives, and promises everything much

in the edition of 1521, p. 264, | Arnold' in Epist. xxix. (Paris, 12 M.LXXXIX. (sic), but it evidently April) and a repetition in it of much was written shortly after the illness that is said in this letter respecting of Erasmus at Paris in the spring of Erasmus's illness and intention of vi1500. See also the mention of siting Italy. See also Epist. dii. App.

« AnteriorContinuar »