d got
rid of the matter by writing to Lee that he had not been able to get
hold of his conclusions and therefore could not make use of them. But
his youthful critic had not put up with being slighted so, and worked
out his objections in a more circumstantial treatise.

[Illustration: XVII. VIEW OF BASLE, 1548]

Thus Erasmus set out for Basle once more in May 1518. He had been
obliged to ask all his English friends (of whom Ammonius had been taken
from him by death in 1517) for support to defray the expenses of the
journey; he kept holding out to them the prospect that, after his work
was finished, he would return to England. In a letter to Martin Lypsius,
as he was going up the Rhine, he answered Lee's criticism, which had
irritated him extremely. In revising his edition he not only took it but
little into account, but ventured, moreover, this time to print his own
translation of the New Testament of 1506 without any alterations. At the
same time he obtained for the new edition a letter of approval from the
Pope, a redoubtable weapon against his cavillers.

At Basle Erasmus worked again like a horse in a treadmill. But he was
really in his element. Even before the second edition of the New
Testament, the _Enchiridion_ and the _Institutio Principis Christiani_
were reprinted by Froben. On his return journey, Erasmus, whose work had
been hampered all through the summer by indisposition, and who had, on
that account, been unable to finish it, fell seriously ill. He reached
Louvain with difficulty (21 September 1518). It might be the pestilence,
and Erasmus, ever much afraid of contagion himself, now took all
precautions to safeguard his friends against it. He avoided his quarters
in the College of the Lily, and found shelter with his most trusted
friend, Dirck Maertensz, the printer. But in spite of rumours of the
plague and his warnings, first Dorp and afterwards also Ath came, at
once, to visit him. Evidently the Louvain professors did not mean so
badly by him, after all.

[Illustration: XVIII. Title-page of the New Testament printed by Froben
in 1520]

But the differences between Erasmus and the Louvain faculty were deeply
rooted. Lee, hurt by the little attention paid by Erasmus to his
objections, prepared a new critique, but kept it from Erasmus, for the
present, which irritated the latter and made him nervous. In the
meantime a new opponent arose. Directly after his return to Louvain,
Erasmus had taken much tro