4 ERASMUS January From 1476 to 1482, six of the most susceptible years of life, from the age of nine to fifteen, first at Deventer, with its traditions and its occasional visits from Zinthius and Rudolph Agricola,^ and afterwards at Bois-le-Duc, with its memories of days when it could count 2,000 scholars, Erasmus was under the power of this system .^ A simple living piety, a mysticism which never lost hold upon practical life, inspired it, and its motto was that * liberty of spirit was the greatest good in the spiritual life '. About minute points the founder cared not to speculate, and on many secondary matters (I will only instance confession and pilgrimages) the tone of thought was independent. Things were judged more by their practical value than by the weight of custom that lay behind them. It is curious that the brothers were often called after St. Jerome — ^the Father for whom Erasmus had formed a special liking at an early stage ; ^ — and the Father, upon whose biblical labours and theological position Erasmus endeavoured to form himself, was their patron saint. And it should not be forgotten that the brotherhood had been attacked (at the Council of Constance, for instance) by the monastic orders, especially by the Dominicans, for belonging to no special order. An attempted rule, that of the Canons of the Common Lot, had shown little stability, and the brethren — Tertiaries, so to speak — were only semi-monastic at most. If the monks criticized them, they in their turn had a keen eye for the failings of the Regulars, and here again their influence upon Erasmus was greater, perhaps, than he supposed. It is true that the express opinion of Erasmus in his letter to Grunnius * disparages their schools, representing them as mei« traps for monasteries. The letter was, however, written with a special bias and was meant to influence Leo X towards releasing him from the troublesome obligation to wear his ' habit ' or for some even greater privilege. Quite apart from this, it is very medieval view of plagiarism : writers used preceding works freely without any pre- judice against doing so and without any idea of a writer's moral copyright. This was the case with writers of chronicles and also with theologians. What Thomas says of himself need only mean that he compiled or copied the work with the idea of rendering it useful. * See Allen, i. 581. ' For the dates of Erasmus's school life see Allen, i. 584 ; Nichols, i. 17 f.
- There is a useful note on Erasmus and St. Jerome in Allen, ii. 210, as complete
as most of this writer's admirable work is. As early as June 1489 (see Ep. 22, Allen, i. 103) Erasmus says he had read St. Jerome's letters and copied them out; and this field of study was never neglected onwards down to 1512. The correspondence with Cornelius Gerard is most important : see Allen, i. 586-7 ; Nichols, i. 75. For Erasmus's imitation of Jerome, Nichols, i. 87.
- See Ep. 447, Allen, ii. 291-3 n. ; Nichols, i. 20f. and ii, ch. xxx. Erasmus wished
to hold benefices and therefore he needed dispensation on account of his birth, but he wished to say little of this. He had a dispensation from his* habit ', but this may have applied only to Italy. He may have outstepped its provisions, but probably he nished to be safeguarded against an enforced return to Stein.
