In 1527, there came to Erasmus a great loss in the death of his trusted friend Froben. “I bore with calmness the death of my brother,” writes Erasmus, “but I cannot endure the loss of Froben. He was a true friend, so simple and sincere, that even if he had wished to conceal anything, it was so repugnant to his nature that he would have found it impossible, so ready to do good to all that he was glad to confer a favour even where it was not desired, which made him an easy prey to thieves and impostors.... To me his kindness was unbounded. What plots would he not lay, what occasions would he not seek, to force some present, upon me! nor did I ever see him better pleased than when he had prevailed upon me, either by artifice or by entreaties, to accept one ... nor did I ever find more use for my rhetoric than to invent pretexts for declining the munificence of my publisher without giving umbrage to my friend: for I could not bear to see him disappointed.... He paid bills for me before I suspected it, nor could he be prevailed upon by any entreaties to take back the money ... and this kind of contest went on between us continually ... but I am sure all his family will bear witness that I availed myself of his kindness very moderately. Whatever labours I undertook for him I undertook for the love of learning. Considering that he gave up his whole life to the advancement of such labours, avoiding no fatigue by day or night, but esteeming it a sufficient gain if a good author came into the hands of the public with due dignity, how could I prey upon a man thus minded? Sometimes, when he showed to me and to other friends the first pages of some great author, how he danced for joy, how his face beamed with triumph! You would have thought he was already reaping in the greatest abundance the fruits of his labours and expected no other reward.... Within these few years, how many volumes, and in what noble type, have issued from Froben’s office.... He has refrained from having anything to do with controversial tracts, from which no small profits have been made by others, lest he should bring useful learning into disrepute.... He was bent on printing _Augustine_ to equal the splendour of the _Jerome_, notwithstanding the discouragements of myself and other friends, and he was wont to say that he desired no longer life than would suffice to finish _Augustine_, of which he saw the completion of the first and second volumes only. It was a pious wish, and the spirit by which he was animated was deserving of immortality.... He leaves wife, children, friends, the whole city, all who knew him or his work, bitterly to lament his loss.... Gratitude demands that we give our hearty support to the printing-office of Froben, which is to be continued, so that what he has so well begun may ever improve and develop.”[117] This letter is certainly most honourable both to the writer and to the man whose faithful work is thus commemorated, and the