165. IUBILAEO] The faithful were encouraged to make pilgrimage to Rome in years of Jubilee, those that did so receiving the Jubilee Indulgence. The offerings made in return for these became so fruitful a source of revenue that successive Popes were tempted to reduce the interval at which Jubilees recurred from a hundred years to fifty, then to thirty-three, and finally Paul II (1464-1471) to twenty-five. Erasmus' statement may be an incorrect attribution to Alexander VI (1493-1503) of the action of Paul II in halving the period of fifty years; or it may be an allusion to the custom of celebrating the Jubilee outside Rome in the second year. In any case the Jubilee of 1500 is referred to here. The practice also grew up of selling the Jubilee Indulgence away from Rome; and bishops used to purchase the rights in their own dioceses for a fixed sum, afterwards reimbursing themselves by collecting what they could through their own agents. 169. SORTEM] principal; the sum given by the bishop for the right to sell indulgences. 182. SIMONIACI] Cf. Acts 8. 18 seq. The sin of selling spiritual privileges was called simony. 188. AFFIXA EST] to the doors of the principal church, or to some equally public place. 195. EPISCOPUM MORINENSEM] The Bishop of Terouenne, whose title, _Morinensis_, was derived from the coincidence of his diocese with the territory of the Morini in classical times. 199. AURI SACRA FAMES] Cf. Verg. _Aen_. 3. 56, 7. 201. COLLEGERANT] _sc_. accusatores. 222. THYNNUM] a tunny-fish caught in their nets, i.e. a rich person from whom gifts might be extracted. 231. GUARDIANUM] Warden; the regular title of the head of a Franciscan community. 244. HUNC] The new warden; _qui cupiebant_ being his former companions. 246. SUBOLESCERET] 'grew up'; i.e. came to be. 249. VIRGINUM] Cf. XVI. 251 n. 261. GEMMEUM] Probably an allusion to the resemblance between _Vitrarius_ and _Vitrum_. The vernacular form of his name is not known. Mr. Lupton conjectures Vitrier; or perhaps it was Vitré. 269. STOICUM] used to denote a morose fellow. The Stoics were a school of Greek philosophers, founded by Zeno in the third century B.C. They practised great austerity of life. 275. PATER] Sir Henry Colet, Kt., was Lord Mayor of London in 1486 and again in 1495. 285. SCHOLASTICAE] of the 'schoolmen', Scotus, Aquinas, &c., who taught philosophy in the mediaeval universities. 287. SEPTEM ARTIUM] A course of education introduced in the sixth century. It was divided into the _trivium_, grammar, logic, and rhetoric; and the _quadrivium_, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. 290. Plotinus (died 262 A.D.) was the Founder of Neo-Platonism; which he taught in Rome. 296. DIONYSIO] The reference here is to some philosophical writings, which in the Middle Ages were regarded as the work of Dionysius the Areopagite, who is mentioned in Acts 17. 34 as a pupil of St. Paul. They are now attributed to an unknown writer in the fifth century A.D.