ce. In
1517 he greeted the new Bishop of Utrecht, Philip of Burgundy, with a
'Complaint of Peace cast forth from all lands', _Querela Pacis vndique
profligatae_. And besides these direct invocations, in his other
writings, his pen frequently returns upon the same high argument. For
a brief period in his life it seemed as though peace might come back.
Maximilian's death in 1519 followed by Charles' election to the Empire
placed the sovereignty of Western and Central Europe in the hands of
three young men, who were chivalrous and impressionable, Henry and
Francis and Charles: only the year before they had been treating for
universal peace. If they would really act in concord, it seemed as
though the Golden Age might return, and Christendom show a united face
against the watchful and unwearying Turk. But though the sky was
clear, the weather was what Oxfordshire folk call foxy. Strife of
nations, strife of creeds cannot in a moment be allayed. Suddenly the
little clouds upon the horizon swelled up and covered the heaven with
the darkness of night; and before the dawn broke into new hope,
Erasmus had laid down his pen for ever, and was at rest from his
service to the Prince of Peace.

VI

FORCE AND FRAUD

As you stand on the Piazza dei Signori at Verona, at one side rises
the massive red-brick tower of the Scaliger palace, lofty, castellated
at its top, with here and there a small window, deep set in the old
masonry, and the light that is allowed to pass inwards, grudgingly
crossed by bars of rusty iron--a place of defence and perhaps of
tyranny, within which life is secure indeed, but grim and sombre.
Opposite, in an angle of the square, stands a very different building,
the Palazzo del Consiglio. It has only two storeys, but each of these
is high and airy; above is a fine chamber, through whose ample windows
streams in the sun; below is a pleasant loggia, supported by slender
columns. Marble cornices and balustrades give a sense of richness, and
the wall-spaces are bright with painting and ornament. The spacious
galleries invite to enjoyment, to pace their length in free
light-hearted talk, or to stand and watch the life moving below, with
the sense of gay predominance that the advantage of height confers.

The two buildings typify most aptly the ages to which they belong: the
contrast between them is as the gulf between the Middle Ages and the
Renaissance. Step back in thought to the twelfth century, and we