Stung by Luther’s Remarks - 1526
Erasmus was wounded by Luther’s attitude.
Introduction
Erasmus had been calling for reform in the church and satirizing its errors for at least two decades before Luther posted his ninety-five theses. Because Erasmus was one of the greatest scholars of the age and also brilliantly witty, all parties desired his backing. Luther sought it, too. For his part Erasmus urged Frederick the Wise to protect the German monk. Erasmus felt that a peaceable spirit was a key Christian virtue; and when in doubt about a doctrine, he did not care to assert it vigorously. Luther felt Erasmus did not go far enough toward reform. He attacked him sharply, especially over their differences regarding free will, issuing a stinging polemic called De Servo Arbitrio (The Bondage of the Will). On this day, April 11, 1526, Erasmus responded with a wounded letter.
Quote
“And what has all this to do with the subject—all this facetious abuse, these slanderous lies, charging me with atheism, Epicureanism, skepticism in articles of the Christian profession, blasphemy, and what not—besides many other points on which I am silent? I take these charges the less hardly, because in all this there is nothing to make my conscience disturb me….How far you have given way to me the facts themselves show—so many palpable crimes do you fasten on me; while my Diatribe was not even intended to stir up those matters which the world itself knows of.
“….But it does not matter what happens to us two, least of all to myself who must shortly go hence, even if the whole world were applauding us: it is this that distresses me, and all the best spirits with me, that with that arrogant, impudent, seditious temperament of yours you are shattering the whole globe in ruinous discord, exposing good men and lovers of good learning to certain frenzied Pharisees, arming for revolt the wicked and the revolutionary, and in short so carrying on the cause of the Gospel as to throw all things sacred and profane into chaos…What you owe me, and in what coin you have repaid me—I do not go into that. All that is a private matter; it is the public disaster which distresses me, and the irremediable confusion of everything, for which we have to thank only your uncontrolled nature….I would have wished you a better mind, were you not so delighted with your own. Wish me what you will, only not your mind, unless God has changed it for you.”
Huizinga, Johan. Erasmus and the Age of Reformation.