Books Fatal to Their AuthorsDitchfield, P. H. (Peter Hampson)
History
Books Fatal to Their Authors
Ditchfield, P. H. (Peter Hampson)
Authors; Prohibited books
complained of being employed in such follies. His refusal aroused the
ire of the Queen; her courtiers eagerly took up the cry, and "conjurer,"
"necromancer," etc., were the complimentary terms which were freely
applied to the former favourite. Agrippa fled to the court of Margaret
of Austria, the governor of the Netherlands under Charles V., and was
appointed the Emperor's historiographer. He wrote a history of the
reign of that monarch, and during the life of Margaret he continued his
prosperous career, and at her death he delivered an eloquent funeral
oration.
But troubles were in store for the illustrious author. In 1530 he
published a work, _De Incertitudine et Vanitate Scientiarum et Artium,
atque Excellentiâ Verbi Dei Dedamatio_ (Antwerp). His severe satire upon
scholasticism and its professors roused the anger of those whom with
scathing words he castigated. The Professors of the University of
Louvain declared that they detected forty-three errors in the book; and
Agrippa was forced to defend himself against their attacks in a
little book published at Leyden, entitled _Apologia pro defencione
Declamationis de Vanitate Scientiarum contra Theologistes Lovanienses_.
In spite of such powerful friends as the Papal Legate, Cardinal
Campeggio, and Cardinal de la Marck, Prince Bishop of Liège, Agrippa was
vilified by his opponents, and imprisoned at Brussels in 1531. The
fury against his book continued to rage, and its author declares in
his Epistles: "When I brought out my book for the purpose of exciting
sluggish minds to the study of sound learning, and to provide some new
arguments for these monks to discuss in their assemblies, they repaid
this kindness by rousing common hostility against me; and now by
suggestions, from their pulpits, in public meetings, before mixed
multitudes, with great clamourings they declaim against me; they rage
with passion, and there is no impiety, no heresy, no disgrace which
they do not charge me with, with wonderful gesticulations--namely, with
clapping of fingers, with hands outstretched and then suddenly drawn
back, with gnashing of teeth, by raging, by spitting, by scratching
their heads, by gnawing their nails, by stamping with their feet, they
rage like madmen, and omit no kind of lunatic behaviour by means of
which they may arouse the hatred and anger of both prince and people
against me."
The book was examined by the Inquisition and placed by the Council of
Trent on the list of prohibited works, amongst the heretical books of
the first class. Erasmus, however, spoke very highly of it, and declared
it to be "the work of a man of sparkling intellect, of varied reading
and good memory, who always blames bad things, and praises the good."
Schelhorn declares that the book is remarkable for the brilliant
learning displayed in it, and for the very weighty testimony which it
bears against the errors and faults of the time.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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