. ULRICH VON HUTTEN]

Hutten, knight and humanist, the enthusiastic herald of a national
German uplift, the ardent hater of papacy and supporter of Luther, was
certainly a hot-head and perhaps somewhat of a muddle-head. He had
applauded Erasmus when the latter still seemed to be the coming man and
had afterwards besought him to take Luther's side. Erasmus had soon
discovered that this noisy partisan might compromise him. Had not one of
Hutten's rash satires been ascribed to him, Erasmus? There came a time
when Hutten could no longer abide Erasmus. His knightly instinct reacted
on the very weaknesses of Erasmus's character: the fear of committing
himself and the inclination to repudiate a supporter in time of danger.
Erasmus knew that weakness himself: 'Not all have strength enough for
martyrdom,' he writes to Richard Pace in 1521. 'I fear that I shall, in
case it results in a tumult, follow St. Peter's example.' But this
acknowledgement does not discharge him from the burden of Hutten's
reproaches which he flung at him in fiery language in 1523. In this
quarrel Erasmus's own fame pays the penalty of his fault. For nowhere
does he show himself so undignified and puny as in that 'Sponge against
Hutten's mire', which the latter did not live to read. Hutten,
disillusioned and forsaken, died at an early age in 1523, and Erasmus
did not scruple to publish the venomous pamphlet against his former
friend after his demise.

Hutten, however, was avenged upon Erasmus living. One of his adherents,
Henry of Eppendorff, inherited Hutten's bitter disgust with Erasmus and
persecuted him for years. Getting hold of one of Erasmus's letters in
which he was denounced, he continually threatened him with an action for
defamation of character. Eppendorff's hostility so thoroughly
exasperated Erasmus that he fancied he could detect his machinations and
spies everywhere even after the actual persecution had long ceased.

FOOTNOTES:

[18] Melanchthon, _Opera, Corpus Reformatorum_, XII 266, where he refers
to _Querela pacis_, which, however, was not written before 1517; _vide_
A. 603 and I p. 37.10.

CHAPTER XVIII

CONTROVERSY WITH LUTHER AND GROWING CONSERVATISM

1524-6

Erasmus persuaded to write against Luther--_De Libero Arbitrio_:
1524--Luther's answer: _De Servo Arbitrio_--Erasmus's
indefiniteness contrasted with Luther's extreme rigour--Erasmus
henceforth on the side of conservatism--The Bishop of Basle and