with the Elector Frederick of Saxony. He was
persuaded to write down the result of that discussion in the form of
twenty-two _Axiomata concerning Luther's cause_. Against his intention
they were printed at once.

Erasmus's hesitation in those days between the repudiation and the
approbation of Luther is not discreditable to him. It is the tragic
defect running through his whole personality: his refusal or inability
ever to draw ultimate conclusions. Had he only been a calculating and
selfish nature, afraid of losing his life, he would long since have
altogether forsaken Luther's cause. It is his misfortune affecting his
fame, that he continually shows his weaknesses, whereas what is great in
him lies deep.

At Cologne Erasmus also met the man with whom, as a promising young
humanist, fourteen years younger than himself, he had, for some months,
shared a room in the house of Aldus's father-in-law, at Venice:
Hieronymus Aleander, now sent to the Emperor as a papal nuncio, to
persuade him to conform his imperial policy to that of the Pope, in the
matter of the great ecclesiastical question, and give effect to the
papal excommunication by the imperial ban.

It must have been somewhat painful for Erasmus that his friend had so
far surpassed him in power and position, and was now called to bring by
diplomatic means the solution which he himself would have liked to see
achieved by ideal harmony, good will and toleration. He had never
trusted Aleander, and was more than ever on his guard against him. As a
humanist, in spite of brilliant gifts, Aleander was by far Erasmus's
inferior, and had never, like him, risen from literature to serious
theological studies; he had simply prospered in the service of Church
magnates (whom Erasmus had given up early). This man was now invested
with the highest mediating powers.

To what degree of exasperation Erasmus's most violent antagonists at
Louvain had now been reduced is seen from the witty and slightly
malicious account he gives Thomas More of his meeting with Egmondanus
before the Rector of the university, who wanted to reconcile them. Still
things did not look so black as Ulrich von Hutten thought, when he wrote
to Erasmus: 'Do you think that you are still safe, now that Luther's
books are burned? Fly, and save yourself for us!'

Ever more emphatic do Erasmus's protestations become that he has nothing
to do with Luther. Long ago he had already requested him not to mention
his na