ctions, so that they will make
mention of my beneficence towards them'. But why do I pick out a few
trifling examples from so many important ones, when I have on my side
the venerable authority of the papal Curia? There is a Curial Decree[33]
still extant in the Decretals, ordaining that persons should be
appointed in the chief academies (as they were then) capable of giving
accurate instruction in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin literature, since, as
they believed, the Scriptures could not be understood, far less
discussed, without this knowledge. This most sound and most holy decree
we so far neglect that we are perfectly satisfied with the most
elementary knowledge of the Latin language, being apparently convinced
that everything can be extracted from Duns Scotus, as it were from a
cornucopia.

For myself I do not fight with men of this sort; each man to his taste,
as far as I am concerned; let the old man marry the old woman. It is my
delight to set foot on the path into which Jerome and the splendid host
of so many ancients summon me; so help me God, I would sooner be mad
with them than as sane as you like with the mob of modern theologians.
Besides I am attempting an arduous and, so to say, Phaethontean task--to
do my best to restore the works of Jerome, which have been partly
corrupted by those half-learned persons, and are partly--owing to the
lack of knowledge of antiquities and of Greek literature--forgotten or
mangled or mutilated or at least full of mistakes and monstrosities; not
merely to restore them but to elucidate them with commentaries, so that
each reader will acknowledge to himself that the great Jerome,
considered by the ecclesiastical world as the most perfect in both
branches of learning, the sacred and the profane, can indeed be read by
all, but can only be understood by the most learned. As I am working
hard on this design and see that I must in the first place acquire
Greek, I have decided to study for some months under a Greek
teacher,[34] a real Greek, no, twice a Greek, always hungry,[35] who
charges an immoderate fee for his lessons. Farewell.

VI. TO WILLIAM WARHAM[36]

London, 24 January [1506]

To the Reverend Father in Christ, William, Archbishop of Canterbury,
Primate of England, many greetings from Erasmus of Rotterdam, Canon of
the Order of St. Augustine:

... Having made up my mind, most illustrious prelate, to translate the
Greek authors and by so doing to revive or, if you will,