It was not sufficient for the papal janissaries to make war in the plain, they must carry it to the higher ground. Was not the king a friend of Erasmus? If he should declare himself a patron of the Greek and Latin Testament, what an awful calamity!... After having agitated the cloisters, towns, and universities, they resolved to protest against it boldly, even in Henry's presence. They thought: "If he is won, all is won." It happened one day that a certain theologian (whose name is not given) having to preach in his turn before the king, he declaimed violently against the _Greek_ language and its new interpreters. Pace, the king's secretary, was present, and turning his eyes on Henry, observed him smiling good humouredly.[277] On leaving the church, every one began to exclaim against the preacher. "Bring the priest to me," said the king; and then turning to More, he added: "You shall defend the Greek cause against him, and I will listen to the disputation." The literary tribunal was soon formed, but the sovereign's order had taken away all the priest's courage. He came forward trembling, fell on his knees, and with clasped hands exclaimed: "I know not what spirit impelled me." "A spirit of madness," said the king, "and not the spirit of Jesus Christ."[278] He then added: "Have you ever read Erasmus?" "No, Sire." "Away with you then, you are a blockhead." "And yet," said the preacher in confusion, "I remember to have read something about _Moria_," (Erasmus's treatise on _Folly_).--"A subject, your majesty, that ought to be very familiar to him," wickedly interrupted Pace. The _obscurant_ could say nothing in his justification. "I am not altogether opposed to the Greek," he added at last, "seeing that it is derived from the Hebrew."[279] This was greeted with a general laugh, and the king impatiently ordered the monk to leave the room, and never appear before him again. [277] Pacæus in regem conjecit oculos.....Is mox Pacæo suaviter arrisit. Erasm. Ep. p. 914. [278] Tum rex: ut qui inquit, spiritus iste non erat Christi sed stultitiæ. Ibid. [279] Græcis, inquit, literis non perinde sum infensus, quod originem habeant ex lingua hebraica. Ibid. p. 347. [Sidenote: LABOURS OF ERASMUS.] Erasmus was astonished at these discussions. He had imagined the season to be most favourable. "Every thing looks peaceful," he had said to himself; "now is the time to launch my Greek Testament into the learned world."[280] As well might the sun rise upon the earth, and no one see it! At that very hour God was raising up a monk at Wittemberg who would lift the trumpet to his lips, and proclaim the new day. "Wretch that I am!" exclaimed the timid scholar, beating his breast, "who could have forseen this horrible tempest!"[281] [280] Erant tempora tranquilla. (Erasm. Ep. 911.) The times were tranquil. [281] Quis enim suspicaturus erat hanc fatalem tempestatem exorituram in orbe? Erasm. Ep. 911.