Fatal Discord

by Michael Massing

  this passage had become the foundation: Lohse, Short History of Christian Doctrine, 113.

  struck at the cult of the Virgin Mary: Opera Omnia Desiderii Erasmi, 6(5): 458. See also Bentley, Humanists and Holy Writ, 169–170; Rummel, Erasmus’ Annotations, 167–168.

  his handling of 1 John 5:7: Opera Omnia Desiderii Erasmi, 6(10): 540. See also Bentley, Humanists and Holy Writ, 152–153; H. J. de Jonge, “Erasmus and the Comma Johanneum,” Extrait des Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses, 56(4): 381–389, 1980; Grantley McDonald, “Erasmus and the Johannine Comma (1 John 5.7–8),” Bible Translator, 67(1): 42–55, 2016.

  It came at Matthew 3:2: Opera Omnia Desiderii Erasmi, 6(5): 110. See also Bentley Humanists and Holy Writ, 169; C. A. L. Jarrott, “Erasmus’ Biblical Humanism,” Studies in the Renaissance, 17:125–126, 1970; Smith, Erasmus, 167–168; Rummel, Erasmus’ Annotations, 152–153.

  “Christ’s words”: Opera Omnia Desiderii Erasmi, 6(5): 516. See also Rummel, Erasmus’ Annotations, 143.

  In a note to 1 Timothy 1:6: Rummel, Erasmus’ Annotations, 143.

  “was undeniably a saint”: Opera Omnia Desiderii Erasmi, 6(6): 170–174. See also Rummel, Erasmus’ Annotations, 59.

  even sharper toward Aquinas: Rummel, Erasmus’ Annotations, 77–80; Bentley, Humanists and Holy Writ, 175.

  faced a delicate problem: Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 3, 219; Metzger, Text of the New Testament, 99; A. J. Brown, introduction to Opera Omnia Desiderii Erasmi, 6(4): 3–21.

  two presses were devoted full-time: Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 3, 216. Erasmus describes the haste in which the process was carried out in a letter to Guillaume Budé, vol. 3, no. 421 [June 19, 1516], 305–306.

  “among the clanging of the presses”: Quoted in Rummel, Erasmus’ Annotations, 25.

  was “rushed into print”: Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 3, 273.

  a messenger from Duke Ernst: Ibid., 295.

  a Paraclesis: The text is in John C. Olin, ed., Christian Humanism and the Reformation: Selected Writings of Erasmus, 97–108; Platonists, Pythagoreans, 99; “which offer the most certain,” 99; “as if the strength” and “published as openly as possible,” 101; “I would that even the lowliest,” 101; “since it is nothing” and “is indeed truly a theologian,” 102.

  At bottom, the Paraclesis: For an analysis of its importance, see Phillips, Erasmus and the Northern Renaissance, 62–65.

  the New Testament was done: Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 3, 216.

  dedication to Pope Leo X: Ibid., 221–224.

  a milestone in biblical scholarship: Bentley, in Humanists and Holy Writ (193), writes that “in Erasmus’ work, modern New Testament scholarship and scholarly methods took their first great leap forward, and this was perhaps the most enduring of all the legacies Erasmus bequeathed to his cultural heirs.” Coogan, in Erasmus, Lee, and the Correction of the Vulgate (15), calls Erasmus’s New Testament “the greatest achievement of Christian humanism in the Renaissance.” The Cambridge History of the Bible (vol. 2, 493) says that Erasmus “represents that first flowering of New Testament exegesis, based on criticism and philology, through which the Renaissance . . . was to prepare the way for modern exegesis.” And Smith, in Erasmus (159), calls his New Testament “the effective beginning of that philological criticism of the Bible that, after so hard a battle, has at last done so much to free Christendom from the bondage of superstition and of the letter.” See also Marijke H. de Lang, “‘Fidelius, apertius, significantius’: The New Testament Translated and Edited by Erasmus of Rotterdam, 1516,” Bible Translator, 67(1): 5–8, 2016.

  “You have protected your name”: Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 3, no. 409, May 20, 1516, 287–288.

  “all scholars and true Christians”: Ibid., vol. 4, no. 495 [end November 1516], 156–158, and no. 500 [about December 1516], 165.

  the tribute he received from John Colet: Ibid., vol. 3, no. 423, June 20 [1516], 311–313.

  still in the presses: Ibid., vol. 3, 288; vol. 27, introductory note to The Education of a Christian Prince, 200.

  “The number of horses”: Ibid., vol. 3, no. 412 [c. June 3, 1516], 290–293.

  found the Jerome on sale there: Ibid., vol. 4, 94.

  obtain a papal dispensation: Ibid., vol. 4, 188–190.

  received from Thomas More: Ibid., vol. 4, no. 461, September 3 [1516], 66–68.

  had completed The Prince: This work was completed by December 1513 but not published until 1532.

  “Only those who dedicate themselves”: Collected Works of Erasmus, vo. 27, 222; the quality of its schools, 259; Taxation should be kept low, 260–261; “to prevent the wealth,” 261; The penalties for crimes, 266; establish public institutions, 267; boost the economy, 280–281; Rather than undertake costly tours, 260; enlarging his retinue, 261; “this long-standing and terrible mania,” 287.

  Machiavelli had witnessed: Miles J. Unger, Machiavelli: A Biography, 137, 182.

  “A man who strives”: Daniel Donno, trans., The Prince, 62; Ideally, a prince would be both, 66; “a prince must have no other objective,” 59; “characteristic fierceness and haste,” 93; “It is better to be impetuous,” 94. (The translation of the last quotation has been slightly altered for clarity.)

  Everyone lives in one: Paul Turner, trans., Utopia, 70; Everyone farms, 75–76; no wine taverns, 84; no private property, 73; everyone is watched, 84; disapprove of cosmetics, 105; see no value in gems, 87–89; use silver and gold, 86; have no tailors, 75; also have slaves, 101–102.

  had no actual political experience: See Unger, Machiavelli, 221–223.

  would appear in fifteen editions: See Universal Short Title Catalogue (ustc.ac.uk/index.php). Alister E. McGrath, in A Life of John Calvin: A Study in the Shaping of Western Culture (55), notes that in 1515 the Enchiridion suddenly became a cult work.

  A new era of enlightenment: Harbison, in Christian Scholar (88), observes that the years immediately following the appearance of Erasmus’s New Testament “marked the moment of most enraptured hope among a few in Europe that the deep-rooted evils of the day were about to yield before the onslaught of a little company of devoted and enlightened Christian scholars.” Huizinga, in Erasmus (99), writes that Erasmus “had become the international pivot on which the civilization of his age hinged.”

  “Everywhere in all Christendom”: Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 4, no. 450 [c. August 13, 1516], 36.

  “The devotees of literature”: Ibid., vol. 3, no. 399, April 11, 1516, 269.

  Thomas More wrote to warn: Ibid., vol. 4, no. 481, October 31 [1516], 114–117.

  Wolfgang Capito: Ibid., vol. 4, no. 459, September 2, 1516, 58–65.

  was even more flawed: A. J. Brown, in the introduction to Opera Omnia, Desiderii Erasmi, 6(4) (page 7), writes that in the Apocalypse (Revelation), “many readings which had little or no attestation from Greek manuscripts became established in the Textus Receptus, and forms of wording which Erasmus himself had originated were mistakenly accepted as authentic and given the status of divinely inspired scripture.” Many of Erasmus’s textual changes in the Apocalypse, he adds (11), “were of poor quality.” Nonetheless, “it remains true that many other of Erasmus’ textual choices were successful.” He goes on to cite (20–21) fifty passages in Erasmus’s Greek New Testament that seem to have “originated in the mind of Erasmus and did not belong to the text of the original author.”

  the codices on which Erasmus relied: Bentley, Humanists and Holy Writ, 127, 137; Metzger, Text of the New Testament, 102–103; Smith, Erasmus, 163–164.

  hundreds of printer’s errors: H. J. de Jonge, “Novum Testamentum a Nobis Versum,” 409. This article discusses the many deficiencies in Erasmus’s Greek New Testament while arguing that they resulted in part from the fact that Erasmus considered the Greek version of only secondary importance; the Latin version was his priority.

  seems unfair to hold Erasmus: Bentley, Humanists and Holy Writ, 138; Jan Krans, “Deconstructing the Vulgate: Erasmus’ Philological
Work in the Capita and the Soloecismi,” in Wallraff, Basel 1516, 204–205. William M. Combs, in “Erasmus and the Textus Receptus” (Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal, 1: 35–53, Spring 1996), notes that some modern-day fundamentalists contend that the Textus Receptus contains God’s original words; their insistence, in part, derives from the fact that the Textus Receptus was the basis for the King James Version, which many fundamentalists regard as the truest version of the Scriptures.

  came to be known as the Textus Receptus: For the history of this development, see Metzger, Text of the New Testament, 103–106; The Cambridge History of the Bible, vol. 2, 499.

  “the most faulty book I know”: Quoted in Metzger, Text of the New Testament, 99. The scholar is F. H. A. Scrivener.

  a letter from George Spalatin: Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 4, no. 501, December 11, 1516, 165–169.

  Erasmus never replied: It is also possible that Erasmus never received the letter.

  CHAPTER 14: A FRIAR’S CRY

  “Some, like Laurentius Valla”: Luther: Lectures on Romans, 271–272.

  Luther lamented: Ibid., 337; into a “market place,” 339; singled out the All Saints’ Foundation, 350.

  denunciation of “spiritual rulers”: Ibid., 360–361.

  “I must perform my duty”: Ibid., 364.

  Christian law does not set aside: Ibid., 381, 384, 387.

  In his letter to Spalatin: Luther’s Works, vol. 48, no. 9, 23–26.

  wrote to its director, Johann Lang: Ibid., no. 5, May 29, 1516, 14–16. See also Brecht, Martin Luther, 157–160.

  “I have enough useless friars”: Luther’s Works, vol. 48, no. 10, 27–32.

  “My place is here”: Ibid., 31.

  “My life daily approaches”: Quoted in Brecht, Martin Luther, 160.

  say anything about the relics: Hans J. Hillerbrand, ed., The Reformation: A Narrative History Related by Contemporary Observers and Participants, 47–49.

  could bring about a reduction: Bainton, Here I Stand, 53.

  a key source of income: Brecht, Martin Luther, 178; Todd, Luther, 98; Bainton, Here I Stand, 54; Friedenthal, Luther, 140.

  indulgences did not actually: MacCulloch, Reformation, 117–119; Schwiebert, Luther, 303–306.

  Indulgences also gave believers: Boehmer, Road to Reformation, 178–179.

  Luther decided to speak out: Ibid., 176; Bainton, Here I Stand, 54; Schwiebert, Luther, 312–313, 796. It is not clear if Luther gave the sermon at the Castle Church.

  his promise to send Luther: Luther’s Works, vol. 48, 33.

  a new indulgence being offered: For a good description of the indulgence trade, see Friedenthal, Luther, 132–141.

  perfected the art of marketing them: Hillerbrand, Reformation, 43–45; Boehmer, Road to Reformation, 181.

  Don’t you hear: Hillerbrand, Reformation, 42.

  “As soon as the coin”: See Pastor, History of the Popes, vol. 7, 349–350.

  Luther was hearing: Hillerbrand, Reformation, 45–46.

  offered one of the first statements: Luther’s Works, vol. 51, “Sermon on St. Matthew’s Day, Matt. 11: 25–30,” 26–31; “Oh, the dangers of our time!”, 31.

  Tetzel appeared in the towns: Hillerbrand, Reformation, 45–47; Brecht, Martin Luther, 183.

  construction of the new St. Peter’s: Scotti, Basilica, 113–116.

  the man chosen to head the Church: Pastor writes in History of the Popes (vol. 7, 7) that “at this, the most severe crisis which had met her [the Church] in her fifteen hundred years of history, the right ruler was wanting.” Expanding on this (vol. 8, 459), he observes of Leo that “while the tempest was ready to break in which a third part of Europe was to be torn from the chair of St. Peter, he gave himself up with a light and joyous mind and without anxiety to the enjoyments and preoccupations of the world.”

  brought his family’s priceless library: Hibbert, Rome, 151; William Roscoe: The Life and Pontificate of Leo X, vol. 2, 145, 134, 177, 391; Pastor, History of the Popes, vol. 8, chap. 5, “The Renaissance in the Field of Literature,” 183–280.

  a reputation for self-indulgence: Hibbert, Rome, 147; Scotti, Basilica, 116–118; Pastor, History of the Popes, vol. 8, chap. 3, “Personality and Manner of Life of Leo X,” 71–125.

  Carcasses of exotic animals: Hibbert, Rome, 149–150; Roscoe, Life and Pontificate of Leo X, vol. 2, 391; Pastor, History of the Popes, vol. 8, 151.

  Entertainment was provided: Pastor, History of the Popes, vol. 8, 151–154.

  Leo had suffered through: Scotti, Basilica, 118.

  During the nine years: Ibid., 123–124; Lees-Milne, Saint Peter’s, 146–150.

  his favorite artist, Raphael: Pastor, History of the Popes, vol. 8, 359–367; Scotti, Basilica, 126–136; Lees-Milne, Saint Peter’s, 149–150.

  that cost was skyrocketing: Pastor, History of the Popes, vol. 8, 367–368; Scotti, Basilica, 134.

  Leo had frittered it all away: Pastor, History of the Popes, vol. 8, 90–91, 96ff; Scotti, Basilica, 144; Lees-Milne, Saint Peter’s, 153.

  derived from an inventive doctrine: Boehmer, Road to Reformation, 167–179; Friedenthal, Luther, 133ff; Pastor, History of the Popes, vol. 7, 333–343.

  began issuing indulgence letters: For a sample letter, see Hillerbrand, Reformation, 44. See also Boehmer, Road to Reformation, 178–179, 174; Schwiebert, Luther, 305.

  converted their office: Boehmer, Road to Reformation, 174.

  announced the revocation: Pastor, History of the Popes, vol. 7, 329.

  in the authorizing bull: Brecht, Martin Luther, 178–180; Pastor, History of the Popes, vol. 7, 344–345.

  the resentment that was building: For an overview of Rome’s financial exactions and the dissatisfaction they were causing in Germany, see Pastor, History of the Popes, vol. 7, 291–328.

  had one feature: Ibid., 331–332, 343–345.

  Albrecht was not a model candidate: Friedenthal, Luther, 146–147; Brecht, Martin Luther, 179; “Albert of Brandenburg,” in Contemporaries of Erasmus.

  a creative arrangement: Brecht, Martin Luther, 179; Pastor, History of the Popes, vol. 7, 331–332.

  Without Christ’s resurrection: Luther’s Works, vol. 27, 168, 170. See also Fife, Revolt of Martin Luther, 230–231.

  “I follow Erasmus”: Luther’s Works, vol. 27, 402, 212, 315.

  “I am reading our Erasmus”: Ibid., vol. 48, no. 13, March 1, 1517, 40.

  “Our theology and St. Augustine”: Ibid., no. 14, May 18, 1517, 42.

  won over Andreas von Karlstadt: Ronald J. Sider, Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt: The Development of His Thought, 8, 17–18.

  prepared ninety-seven theses: Luther’s Works, vol. 31, “Disputation Against Scholastic Theology,” 9–16.

  a copy of a booklet: Brecht, Martin Luther, 180–182; Hillerbrand, Reformation, 37–41.

  even had a fee schedule: Hillerbrand, Reformation, 39.

  an important discovery: Luther later described this new awareness in a letter to Johann von Staupitz, in Luther’s Works, vol. 48, no. 21, May 30, 1518, 64–70. See also Brecht, Martin Luther, 184–185; Friedenthal, Luther, 105–106. “With what avidity,” The Cambridge History of the Bible observes (vol. 3, 11), “Luther laid hold of this translation to bolster his critique of the penitential system of the Church!” See also David M. Whitford, “Erasmus Openeth the Way Before Luther,” Church History and Religious Culture, 96: 535–540, 2016.

  his most famous document: Luther’s Works, vol. 31, “Ninety-Five Theses, or Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences,” 25–33.

  “Poenitentiam agite, &c”: This is how this phrase reads in the Latin in which Luther wrote it; see Luthers Werke, vol. 1, 233.

  does not have the power to remit any penalties: Thesis no. 5; this power could be applied, no. 8; Nor was there divine authority, no. 27; “When money clinks,” no. 28; it was not consistent, no. 35; Any Christian who is truly repentant, no. 36; Christians should be taught, no. 45; They should also be taught, no. 50; If the need arose,
no. 51; Whereas in the past, nos. 65 and 66; If the pope could indeed, no. 82; Since the pope’s income, no. 86; to suppress them by force, no. 90; his final four theses, nos. 92–95.

  to be printed as a folio sheet: Luther’s Works, vol. 31, 22; the page declared at the top, 25.

  Around noon on October 31, 1517: See, for instance, Schwiebert, Luther, 314–315; Boehmer, Road to Reformation, 184.

  scholars have raised questions: The doubts arise from the fact that Luther himself never spoke about posting the theses on the door. Marius sums up the debate in Martin Luther, 137–139; he concludes that Luther never did post the theses on the door. Among the many others who maintain that he did are Brecht, in Martin Luther (200–202), and Pettegree, in Brand Luther (71–72).

  a letter explaining his actions: Luther’s Works, vol. 48, October 31, 1517, 45–49.

  his own relics collection: Brecht, Martin Luther, 179; Marius, Martin Luther, 129.

  they were printed: Pettegree, Brand Luther, 74–75.

  “as if the angels themselves”: Quoted in Hillerbrand, Reformation, 47.

  “It is a mystery to me”: Ibid., 54.

  CHAPTER 15: FOR THE WANT OF GREEK TYPE

  decided to settle in Louvain: Leuven in Flemish. Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 5, xi; Grant Allen, Cities of Belgium (London: Grant Richards, 1912), 157–159; “Louvain” and “Louvain, Catholic University of,” in The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15th ed.

  the Louvain theology faculty: Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 71, introduction, “Erasmus and the Louvain Circle,” ix–li.

  allotted a spacious room: Halkin, Erasmus, 119.

  few scholars could pass through: Huizinga, Erasmus, 96.

  “It ravished my heart”: Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 5, no. 674, September 17 [1517], 133–134.

  “We are daily expecting”: Ibid., vol. 4, no. 581, May 10, 1517, 348.

  a new form of intimate portraiture: See Willibald Sauerländer, “Germany: When Faces Defied Death,” New York Review of Books, November 24, 2011, 61. The portrait of Erasmus was paired with one of his friend Pieter Gillis—part of a diptych the two men commissioned to send as a gift to their friend Thomas More.