). He does write a treatise,
though, in 1533, 'On the sweet concord of the Church', like his 'Advice
on the Turks' in the form of an interpretation of a psalm (83). But it
would seem as if the old vivacity of his style and his power of
expression, so long unimpaired, now began to flag. The same remark
applies to an essay 'On the preparation for death', published the same
year. His voice was growing weaker.

During these years he turned his attention chiefly to the completion of
the great work which more than any other represented for him the summing
up and complete exposition of his moral-theological ideas:
_Ecclesiastes_ or, _On the Way to preach_. Erasmus had always regarded
preaching as the most dignified part of an ecclesiastic's duties. As
preachers, he had most highly valued Colet and Vitrarius. As early as
1519 his friend, John Becar of Borselen, urged him to follow up the
_Enchiridion_ of the Christian soldier and the _Institutio_ of the
Christian prince, by the true instruction of the Christian preacher.
'Later, later,' Erasmus had promised him, 'at present I have too much
work, but I hope to undertake it soon.' In 1523 he had already made a
sketch and some notes for it. It was meant for John Fisher, the Bishop
of Rochester, Erasmus's great friend and brother-spirit, who eagerly
looked forward to it and urged the author to finish it. The work
gradually grew into the most voluminous of Erasmus's original writings:
a forest of a work, _operis sylvam_, he calls it himself. In four books
he treated his subject, the art of preaching well and decorously, with
an inexhaustible abundance of examples, illustrations, schemes, etc. But
was it possible that a work, conceived already by the Erasmus of 1519,
and upon which he had been so long engaged, while he himself had
gradually given up the boldness of his earlier years, could still be a
revelation in 1533, as the _Enchiridion_ had been in its day?

_Ecclesiastes_ is the work of a mind fatigued, which no longer sharply
reacts upon the needs of his time. As the result of a correct,
intellectual, tasteful instruction in a suitable manner of preaching, in
accordance with the purity of the Gospel, Erasmus expects to see society
improve. 'The people become more obedient to the authorities, more
respectful towards the law, more peaceable. Between husband and wife
comes greater concord, more perfect faithfulness, greater dislike of
adultery. Servants obey more willingly, artis