ared in 1521, people said that Erasmus
had lent him a hand. In denying the insinuation Erasmus avers that
Henry was quite capable of doing the work himself, and adds that his
own suspicions of Henry's capacity had been dispelled by Mountjoy, who
when tutor to the young prince had preserved rough copies of Latin
letters written by Henry's own hand; and these he produced to convince
the doubter. Erasmus had a double motive in asserting Henry's
authorship, to play the courtier and to avoid provoking Luther; and
Mountjoy, as we have seen, is not above suspicion. But there is some
further evidence in support of them all, prince and patron and
scholar. Pace, Colet's successor at St. Paul's, speaks of hearing
Henry talk Latin quickly and readily; and Giustinian, the Venetian
ambassador, quotes a few remarks made to him by Henry in Latin by way
of greeting. Till more evidence is forthcoming, Erasmus must be let
off on this count with a Not proven.

Another example of scant regard for truth is his disowning of the
_Julius Exclusus_. This was a witty dialogue, in Erasmus' best style,
on the death of Pope Julius II. The Pope is shown arriving at the gate
of heaven, accompanied by his Genius, a sort of guardian angel, and
amazed to find it locked, with no preparation at all for his
reception. His amazement grows when St. Peter at length appears and
makes it plain that the gate is not going to be opened, and that there
is no room in heaven for Julius with his record of wars and other
unchristian deeds; whereupon there is a fine set-to, and each party
receives some hard knocks.

That Erasmus was its author there can be no doubt; for there is
evidence in two directions of the existence of a copy or copies of it
in his handwriting, and we cannot suppose that at that period of his
life, when he regularly had one or more servant-pupils in his employ,
he would have troubled to copy out with his own hand a work of that
length by another. There was nothing very outrageous in the dialogue,
nothing much more than there was in the _Moria_; but it was not the
sort of thing for a man to write who was so closely connected as
Erasmus was with the Papal see, and who wished to stand well with it
in the future. The _Julius_ appeared in print in 1517, of course
anonymously, and Erasmus was pleased with its reception; but he soon
found that people who were not in the secret were attributing it to
him. That would never do; so he set to work to repudia