* * * * * CONTENTS LIFE OF ERASMUS I. AN ORDINATION EXAMINATION II. A DOMESTIC AFFRAY (55 : 47) III. A WINTER JOURNEY (88 : 82) IV. AN ENGLISH COUNTRY-HOUSE (103 : 98) V. A VISIT TO COURT (I. p. 6 : i. p. 201) VI. ERASMUS AT OXFORD (115 : 104) VII. AN OXFORD DINNER PARTY (116 : 105) VIII. LEARNING IN ENGLAND (118 : 110) IX. A JOURNEY TO PARIS (119 : 122) X. ERASMUS RENDERS ACCOUNT OF HIMSELF TO COLET (181 : 180) XI. A VISIT TO LAMBETH (I. pp. 4-5 : i. p.393) XII. A LETTER TO ALDUS (207 : 204) XIII. AN INTERVIEW WITH GRIMANI ( :i. p. 461) XIV. A CONVERSATION AT CAMBRIDGE (237 : 231) XV. AN ENCOUNTER WITH CANOSSA XVI. ERASMUS' APOLOGIA PRO VITA SUA (296 : 290) XVII. ERASMUS' RECEPTION AT BASEL (305 : 298) XVIII. BISHOP FISHER (457 : 446) XIX. A JOURNEY FROM BASEL TO LOUVAIN (867 : ) XX. ENGLISH UNIVERSITIES (965 : ) XXI. AN EXPLOSION AT BASEL XXII. ARCHBISHOP WARHAM. I XXIII. ARCHBISHOP WARHAM. II XXIV. THE LIVES OF VITRARIUS AND COLET XXV. COLET AND HIS KINSMAN XXVI. THOMAS MORE ( :585B) XXVII. A DISHONEST LONDONER XXVIII. THE CONDITION OF ENGLISH HOUSES XXIX. FISHER'S STUDY AT ROCHESTER NOTES VOCABULARY LIST OF PLACE-NAMES (Of the figures in brackets, the first give the references to my _Opus Epistolarum Erasmi_, the second to the late Mr. F. M. Nichols' _Epistles of Erasmus_.) * * * * * LIFE OF ERASMUS Erasmus of Rotterdam was born on October 27, probably in 1466. His father belonged to Gouda, a little town near Rotterdam, and after some schooling there and an interval during which he was a chorister in Utrecht Cathedral, Erasmus was sent to Deventer, to the principal school in the town, which was attached to St. Lebuin's Church. The renewed interest in classical learning which had begun in Italy in the fourteenth century had as yet been scarcely felt in Northern Europe, and education was still dominated by the requirements of Philosophy and Theology, which were regarded as the highest branches of knowledge. A very high degree of subtlety in thought and argument had been reached, and in order that the youthful student might be fitted to enter this arena, it was necessary that he should be trained from the outset in its requirements. In the schools, in consequence, little attention was paid to the form in which thought was expressed, provided that the thought was correct: in marked contrast to the classical ideal, which emphasized the importance of expression, in just appreciation of the fact that thought expressed in obscure or inadequate words, fails to reach the human mind. The mediaeval position had been the outcome of a reaction against the spirit of later classical times, which had sacrificed matter to form. And now the pendulum was swinging back again in a new attempt to adjust the rival claims.