In 1524, Erasmus published his famous treatise on _Free Will_, in which he defined clearly his relations to the Lutheran movement. In so far as this movement represented a protest and revolt against the many abuses that had crept into the Church, Erasmus had found himself in cordial sympathy with it, and, in fact, by no one had these abuses been set forth more graphically and more boldly than by himself. His criticism of the corruption and the evils of the Romanists had been so keen and so unsparing that the Protestants could not understand why he did not join hands with their leaders and break altogether with Rome. Erasmus was prevented from taking this course by two considerations: he did believe in a Church Universal, and he did not believe in the Lutheran doctrines. Condemned as a heretic by many of the Roman ecclesiastics, he was stamped by the Protestants as a coward and a time-server. To the student of to-day, it would appear that the course taken by him was the result of honest and consistent conviction, and gave evidence of a higher and more discriminating courage than would have been evidenced by an acceptance of the cardinal’s hat that was waiting for him in Rome, or of the leadership in a popular cause which was proffered from Wittenberg. The treatise on _Free Will_ was the statement of Erasmus of the grounds on which he was unable to accept the conclusions of Luther. In 1526, the Dean and Faculty of the Theological School of Paris came together to consider the erroneous, scandalous, and impious propositions contained in the book by Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam, called _Familiar Colloquies_, and decided that the reading of the same should be prohibited. The prime mover in this censure was the Chancellor Bedier, who was for many years the persistent opponent of the liberal-minded publisher, Robert Estienne. The writings of Erasmus had secured a considerable circulation in Spain, the editions which were sold there being at the outset supplied from Basel and from Paris. Later, unauthorised issues of the Latin version were printed in Salamanca, and the _Enchiridion_ and the _Colloquies_ were both printed also in Spanish translations. The Dominicans and Franciscans attacked furiously both the books and their author, but the authority of the Archbishop of Seville, directed probably by the favourable influence of the Emperor, was sufficient for a quarter of a century to prevent the books from being formally condemned. Their titles finally appear in the _Index_ of the Inquisition in 1550 (see the chapter on Plantin).