"If any there be, who cannot love Erasmus because he is a feeble Christian, let him think of me as he will. I cannot be other than I am. If any man has from Christ greater gifts of the Spirit and is sure of himself, let him use them for the glory of Christ. Meanwhile it is more to my mind to follow a more humble and a safer way. I cannot help hating dissension and loving peace and harmony. I see how obscure all human affairs are. I see how much easier it is to stir up confusion than to allay it. I have learned how many are the devices of Satan. I should not dare to trust my own spirit in all things and I am far from being able to pronounce with certainty on the spirit of another. I would that all might strive together for the triumph of Christ and the peace of the Gospel, and that without violence, but in truth and reason, we might take counsel both for the dignity of the priesthood and for the liberty of the people, whom our Lord Jesus desired to be free. To those who go about to this end to the best of their ability Erasmus shall not be wanting. But if anyone desires to throw everything into confusion, he shall not have me either for a leader or a companion. These people claim for themselves the working of the Spirit. Well, let people on whom the divine spirit has breathed jump with good hopes into the ranks of the prophets. That Spirit has not yet seized upon me; when it does, then perhaps I too shall be counted as Saul among the prophets." In this long letter, written obviously with a view to publication, we have epitomised, as Erasmus himself wished it to appear, the story of his leaving Louvain and his attitude toward the chief questions of the great reform. Nothing that we can add would be more significant than the concluding paragraph. If only all men could see both sides of every question as he did, and would join with him in pious exhortation to everyone else to be good, he would be delighted to be their leader and companion. This is only one of those numerous "ifs"--though an unusually large one--by which Erasmus so often saved himself in difficult places. It meant simply that he did not propose to commit himself at all. The Laurinus letter was the reply to numerous criticisms against the course of Erasmus in the years between 1520 and 1523, years in which the various aspects of the great reform movement were becoming more and more clearly defined. We discern in it with great distinctness the view of Erasmus taken by the leading spirits of the Lutheran party.