ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS 205
which are justly cried out against, and, if your Holiness desires to
know what the roots are to which 1 refer, send persons whom you can
trust to every part of Latin Christendom. Let them consult the
wisest men that they can find in the different countries and you will
soon know.
You say to me u Come to Rome, Write a book against Luther.
Declare war against Ms party.)}
Come to Rome ? Tell a crab to fly. The crab will say " Give
me wings." I say " Give me back my youth and strength."
Portrait of Erasmus by Sir Thomas More
You adjure me to beware of Erasmus. Gratitude for your concern
for my soul obliges me to thank you for your alarms. It is my
duty also to point out to you that you are yourself walking among
precipices. . . .
Erasmus has published volumes more full of wisdom than any
which Europe has seen for ages. You have turned to poison what
to others has brought only health. I read with real sorrow your
intemperate railing at such a man. You defame his character. You
call him a vagabond. You say he is a heretic, a schismatic, a fore-
runner of Antichrist.
Before you were a priest you had candour and charity ; now that
you have become a monk some devil has possession of you. You
say you do not give him these names yourself. You pretend that he
is so described by Almighty God. Are you not ashamed to bring in
God when you are doing the devil's work in slandering your neigh-
bour ? God has revealed it, you pretend, to someone that you know.
I am not to be frightened by an idiot's dreams.
I knew you once an innocent and affectionate youth: why are
you now charged with spite and malice ? You complain of Erasmus's
satire and you yourself worry him like a dog. Take all the hard
things he has said of anyone. It is a handful of dust to the pyramid
of invective which you have piled over a man who was once kind to
you. Is a boy like you to fall foul of what the Vicar of Christ ap-
proves ? Is the head of the Christian Church, speaking from the
citadel of faith, to give a book his sanction, and is it to be befouled
by the dirty tongue of an obscure little monk ? Erasmus, forsooth,
does not know Scripture ! He has studied Scripture for more years
than you have been alive. You yourself quote Scripture like a rogue
in a play. . . .
Erasmus is the dearest friend that I have. You claim him a
vagabond because he has moved from place to place to carry on his
work. A saint, I suppose, must remain fixed like a sponge or an
oyster. You forget your own mendicants. They wander wide
enough, and you think them the holiest of mankind. Jerome
travelled far, the Apostles travelled far.
Look into your own heart. You, for sooth, are never angry,
never puffed up, never seek your own glory* My friend, the more