HEROES OF THE REFORMATION. I.--Martin Luther (1483-1546). THE HERO OF THE REFORMATION. By Henry Eyster Jacobs, D.D., LL.D. II.--Philip Melanchthon (1497-1560). THE PROTESTANT PRECEPTOR OF GERMANY. By James William Richard, D.D. III.--Desiderius Erasmus (1467-1536). THE HUMANIST IN THE SERVICE OF THE REFORMATION. By Ephraim Emerton, Ph.D. G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS NEW YORK AND LONDON _Heroes of the Reformation_ EDITED BY Samuel Macauley Jackson PROFESSOR OF CHURCH HISTORY, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY Διαιρέσεις χαρισμάτων, τὸ δὲ αὐτὸ πνεῦμα. DIVERSITIES OF GIFTS, BUT THE SAME SPIRIT. DESIDERIUS ERASMUS [Illustration] [Illustration: PORTRAIT OF ERASMUS BY HOLBEIN. ORIGINAL IN THE LOUVRE.] DESIDERIUS ERASMUS OF ROTTERDAM BY EPHRAIM EMERTON, PH.D. WINN PROFESSOR OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY O Erasme Roterodame, wo wiltu bleiben? Sieh, was vermag die ungerecht tyranney der weltlichen gewahlt, der macht der finsternuss? Hör, du ritter Christi, reith hervor neben den herrn Christum, beschüz die wahrheit, erlang der martärer cron. A. DÜRER'S DIARY, 1521. G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS NEW YORK AND LONDON The Knickerbocker Press 1899 COPYRIGHT, 1899 BY G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS Entered at Stationers' Hall, London The Knickerbocker Press, New York PREFACE A complete and satisfactory life of Erasmus of Rotterdam still remains to be written. Its author will have to be a thorough student of the classic literatures, a theologian familiar with every form of Christian speculation, a historian, to whom the complicated movement of the Reformation is altogether intelligible, an educator, a moralist, and a man of humour. Only to such a person--if such there ever were--could the writing of this life be a wholly congenial task. The subject has been approached by different writers from all the points of view indicated, but no biography has yet shown the whole range or value of Erasmus' varied activities.