"_Sophronius._ 'I journeyed with an honest man and by his advice I took with me not a bottle but a book, the New Testament translated by Erasmus.' _Lucretia._ 'Erasmus! why they say he is a heretic and a half!' _Soph._ 'Has his name got into this place too?' _Luc._ 'No one is better known here.' _Soph._ 'Have you ever seen him?' _Luc._ 'Never; but I should like to see him. I have heard so many bad things about him.' _Soph._ 'From bad men, I dare say.' _Luc._ 'Oh, no! from most reverend men.' _Soph._ 'Who are they?' _Luc._ 'Oh! it won't do to say.' _Soph._ 'Why not?' _Luc._ 'Because if you should blab and they should hear it, I should lose a great part of my gains.' _Soph._ 'Don't be afraid. I am mum as a stone.' _Luc._ 'Put down your ear.' _Soph._ 'Stupid! Why need we whisper when we are alone? Doesn't God hear us?... Well, by the eternal God! you are a pious harlot to help along _Mendicants_ by your charity!'" The Colloquies became the especial object of attack from all who cared to assail the reputation of Erasmus. Typical was the action of the Paris theological tribunal, the Sorbonne, which in 1526 condemned the book as dangerous to the morals of the young, and worse still as containing the same errors as the works of Arius, Wiclif, the Waldensians, and Luther. In presenting their case to the supreme court, the "Parlement" of Paris, for its action, the theologians of the Sorbonne review the steps already taken by the spiritual authorities toward the suppression of the Colloquies. They had done what they could, but now demand the aid of the temporal powers. King Francis I. appears to have opposed the action of the Parlement, and it was not until 1528 that the University as a body condemned the book and forbade its students to read it. [Illustration: TITLE-PAGE TO THE "COLLOQUIES OF ERASMUS," PUBLISHED AT AMSTERDAM, 1693. PORTRAIT OF ERASMUS AND OTHERS.] Equally unfavourable was Luther's judgment of the Colloquies. In his Table-Talk he refers frequently to them as the most offensive to him of all Erasmus' writings.[168] [168] Luther's _Werke_, ed. Walch, xxii., 1612-1630. "If I die I will forbid my children to read his Colloquies, for he says and teaches there many a godless thing, under fictitious names, with intent to assault the Church and the Christian faith. He may laugh and make fun of me and of other men, but let him not make fun of our Lord God! "See now what poison he scatters in his Colloquies among his made-up people, and goes craftily at our youth to poison them."