[914]'Nascitur Erasmus Roterodamus anno 1467, Octob.
die 27, horâ 16, 30´: poli elevatio 54° 0´'—
'Mercurius, Venus, Luna et Leo conjuncti, praesertim
in ascendente, faciunt oratores doctissimos. Talis ex parte
fuit constitutio Erasmi Roterodami, cujus judicium gravissimum,
ingenium acutissimum, et oratio copiosissima, ex
scriptis editis eruditissimis, omnibus nota est. Habuit
enim Mercurium cum Venere in horoscopo, in signo aereo
Libram, et Jovem trigono radio Mercurium et Venerem
intuentem'—
Obiit anno Domini MDXXXVI, mense Julii—vide praefationem de obitu Erasmi ante Epistolas, impressas Antverpiae MDXLV.
[915]Erasmus Roterodamus was like to have been a bishop—vide Epistolas.
[916]Desiderius Erasmus, Roterodamus:—
His name was 'Gerard Gerard,' which he translated into 'Desiderius Erasmus.'
He wasbegot(as they say)behind dores—vide an Italian booke in 8vo.de famosi Bastardi: vide Anton. PosseviniApparatus. His father (as he says in his life, writt by himselfe) was the tenth and youngest son of his grandfather: who was therfore designed to be dedicated toGod.—'Pater Gerardus cum Margareta (medici cujusdam Petri filia), spe conjugii (et sunt qui intercessisse verba dicunt), vixit.'
His father tooke great care to send him to an excellent schoole, which was at Dusseldorf, in Cleveland. He was a tender chitt, and his mother would not entruste him at board[917], but tooke a house there, and made him cordialls, etc.—from John Pell, D.D.
He loved not fish, though borne in a fish towne—from Sir George Ent, M.D.
He studied sometime in Queens Colledge in Cambridge: his chamber was over the water. Quaere Mr. Paschal more particularly; and if a fellowe: he[918]had his study when a young scholar here.
'The staires which rise up to his studie at Queens Colledge in Cambridge doe bring first into two of the fairest chambers in the ancient building; in one of them, which lookes into the hall and chiefe court, the Vice-President kept in my time; in that adjoyning, it was my fortune to be, when fellow. The chambers over are good lodgeing roomes; and to one of them is a square turret adjoyning, in the upper part of which is that study of Erasmus; and over it leades. To that belongs the best prospect about the colledge, viz. upon the river, into the corne-fields, and countrey adjoyning, etc.; ☞ so that it might very well consist with the civility of the House tothat great man (who was no fellow, and I think stayed not long there) to let him have that study. His keeping roome might be either the Vice-President's, or, to be neer to him, the next; the room for his servitor that above, over it, and through it he might goe to that studie, which for the height, and neatnesse, and prospect, might easily take his phancy.' This from Mr. Andrew Paschal, Rector of Chedzoy in Somerset, June 15, 1680.
He mentions his being there in one of his Epistles, and
blames the beere there. One, long since, wrote, in the
margent of the booke in
He had the parsonage (quaere value) of Aldington in Kent, which is about 3 degrees perhaps a healthier place then Dr. Pell's parsonage in Essex. I wonder they could not find for him[919]better preferment; but I see that the Sun and Aries being in the second house[920], he was not borne to be a rich man.
He built a schoole at Roterdam, and endowed it, and ordered the institution[921]. Sir George Ent was educated there. A statue in brasse is erected to his memory on the bridge in Roterdam.
'The last five bookes of Livy nowe extant, found by Symon Grinaeus in the library of a monastery over against the citie of Wormbs, are dedicated by Erasmus Roterodamus unto Charles the son of William lord Montjoy in the reigne of Henry the eight of famous memory, king of England, etc.'—Philemon Holland's translation.
Sir Charles Blount, of Maple-Durham, in com. Oxon. (neer Reding), was his scholar (in his Epistles there are some to him), and desired Erasmus to doe him the favour[922]to sitt for his picture, and he did so, and it is an excellent piece: which picture my cosen John Danvers, of Baynton (Wilts), haz: his wive's grandmother was Sir Charles Blount's daughter or grand-daughter. 'Twas pitty such ararity should have been aliend from the family, but the issue male is lately extinct. I will sometime or other endeavour to gett it for Oxford Library.
They were wont to say that Erasmus was interpendent between Heaven and Hell, till, about the year 1655 (quaere Dr. Pell), the Conclave at Rome damned him for a heretique, after he had been dead ... yeares.
Vita Erasmi, Erasmo autore, is before his Colloquia, printed at Amstelodam. MDCXLIV. But there is a good account of his life, and also of his death, scil. at Basil, and where buried, before his Colloquies printed at London.
His deepest divinity is where a man would least expect it: viz. in his Colloquies in a Dialogue between a Butcher and a Fishmonger, Ἰχθυοφαγία.
Colloquia: dedicated 'optimae spei puero Johanni Erasmio Frobenio.'
Liber utilissimus de conscribendis epistolis: dedicated 'ad Nicolaum Beraldum.'
Liber Adagiorum.
Verborum Copia.
Epistolae.
Exhortatio ad pacem ecclesiasticam.
Paraphrasis in quatuor Evangelistas.
Matth.—dedicated Carolo, Imperatori.Joan.—dedicated Ferdinando, Catholico.Lucas—to Henr. 8, Rex Angl.Marcus—to Francisc. I, Gall. Rex.
Matth.—dedicated Carolo, Imperatori.
Joan.—dedicated Ferdinando, Catholico.
Lucas—to Henr. 8, Rex Angl.
Marcus—to Francisc. I, Gall. Rex.
Novum Testamentum transtulit: memorandum—Henry Standish, bishop of St. Asaph, wrote a booke against his Translation on the New Testament; vide Sir Richard Baker'sChronicle(Henry VIII).
If my memorie failes me not, I have read in the first edition of Sir Richard Baker'sChronicle(quaere) that the Syntaxis in our English Grammar was writt by Erasmus.
Memorandum:—Julius Scaliger contested with Erasmus, but gott nothing by it, for, as Fuller sayth, he was likea badger, that never bitt but he made his teeth meet. He was the Πρόδρομος of our knowledge, and the man that made the rough and untrodden wayes smooth and passable[923].