oreigners visiting these regions north of the Scheldt and the Meuse
laughed at the rude manners and the deep drinking of the inhabitants,
but they also mentioned their sincere piety. These countries were
already, what they have ever remained, somewhat contemplative and
self-contained, better adapted for speculating on the world and for
reproving it than for astonishing it with dazzling wit.

* * * * *

Rotterdam and Gouda, situated upward of twelve miles apart in the lowest
region of Holland, an extremely watery region, were not among the first
towns of the county. They were small country towns, ranking after
Dordrecht, Haarlem, Leyden, and rapidly rising Amsterdam. They were not
centres of culture. Erasmus was born at Rotterdam on 27 October, most
probably in the year 1466. The illegitimacy of his birth has thrown a
veil of mystery over his descent and kinship. It is possible that
Erasmus himself learned the circumstances of his coming into the world
only in his later years. Acutely sensitive to the taint in his origin,
he did more to veil the secret than to reveal it. The picture which he
painted of it in his ripe age was romantic and pathetic. He imagined
that his father when a young man made love to a girl, a physician's
daughter, in the hope of marrying her. The parents and brothers of the
young fellow, indignant, tried to persuade him to take holy orders. The
young man fled before the child was born. He went to Rome and made a
living by copying. His relations sent him false tidings that his beloved
had died; out of grief he became a priest and devoted himself to
religion altogether. Returned to his native country he discovered the
deceit. He abstained from all contact with her whom he now could no
longer marry, but took great pains to give his son a liberal education.
The mother continued to care for the child, till an early death took her
from him. The father soon followed her to the grave. To Erasmus's
recollection he was only twelve or thirteen years old when his mother
died. It seems to be practically certain that her death did not occur
before 1483, when, therefore, he was already seventeen years old. His
sense of chronology was always remarkably ill developed.

Unfortunately it is beyond doubt that Erasmus himself knew, or had
known, that not all particulars of this version were correct. In all
probability his father was already a priest at the time of the
relationship to whi