n it meant the Netherlands. It is curious
to trace how by degrees his feelings regarding Holland, made up of
disgust and attachment, are transferred to the Low Countries in general.
'In my youth', he says in 1535, repeating himself, 'I did not write for
Italians but for Hollanders, the people of Brabant and Flemings.' So
they now all share the reputation of bluntness. To Louvain is applied
what formerly was said of Holland: there are too many compotations;
nothing can be done without a drinking bout. Nowhere, he repeatedly
complains, is there so little sense of the _bonae literae_, nowhere is
study so despised as in the Netherlands, and nowhere are there more
cavillers and slanderers. But also his affection has expanded. When
Longolius of Brabant plays the Frenchman, Erasmus is vexed: 'I devoted
nearly three days to Longolius; he was uncommonly pleasing, except only
that he is too French, whereas it is well known that he is one of
us'.[4] When Charles V has obtained the crown of Spain, Erasmus notes:
'a singular stroke of luck, but I pray that it may also prove a blessing
to the fatherland, and not only to the prince'. When his strength was
beginning to fail he began to think more and more of returning to his
native country. 'King Ferdinand invites me, with large promises, to come
to Vienna,' he writes from Basle, 1 October 1528, 'but nowhere would it
please me better to rest than in Brabant.'

[Illustration: V. Doodles by Erasmus in the margin of one of his
manuscripts.]

[Illustration: VI. A manuscript page of Erasmus]

FOOTNOTES:

[4] Allen No. 1026.4, cf. 914, intr. p. 473. Later Erasmus was made to
believe that Longolius was a Hollander, cf. LBE. 1507 A.

CHAPTER VI

THEOLOGICAL ASPIRATIONS

1501

At Tournehem: 1501--The restoration of theology now the aim of
his life--He learns Greek--John Vitrier--_Enchiridion Militis
Christiani_

The lean years continued with Erasmus. His livelihood remained
uncertain, and he had no fixed abode. It is remarkable that, in spite of
his precarious means of support, his movements were ever guided rather
by the care for his health than for his sustenance, and his studies
rather by his burning desire to penetrate to the purest sources of
knowledge than by his advantage. Repeatedly the fear of the plague
drives him on: in 1500 from Paris to Orleans, where he first lodges with
Augustine Caminade; but when one of the latter's boarders falls ill,
Erasmus m