th disgust," he confessed
to Ber, "I see the cause of Christianity approaching a condition that I
should be very unwilling to have it reach . . . While we are
quarreling over the booty the victory will slip through our fingers.
It is the old story of private interests destroying the commonwealth."
Erasmus first expressed the opinion, often maintained since, that
Europe was experiencing a gradual revival both of Christian piety and
of sound learning, when Luther's boisterous attack plunged the world
into a tumult in which both were lost sight of. On March 30, 1527, he
wrote to Maldonato:

I brought it about that sound learning, which among
the Italians and especially among the Romans savored of
nothing but pure paganism, began nobly to celebrate
Christ, in whom we ought to boast as the sole author of
both wisdom and happiness if we are true Christians. . . .
I always avoided the character of a dogmatist, except
in certain _obiter dicta_ which seemed to me conducive
to correct studies and against the preposterous judgments
of men.

In the same letter he tells how hard he had fought the obscurantists,
and adds: "While we were waging a fairly equal battle against these
monsters, behold {107} Luther suddenly arose and threw the apple of
Discord into the world."

In short, Erasmus left the Reformers not because they were too liberal,
but because they were too conservative, and because he disapproved of
violent methods. His gentle temperament, not without a touch of
timidity, made him abhor the tumult and trust to the voice of
persuasion. In failing to secure the support of the humanists
Protestantism lost heavily, and especially abandoned its chance to
become the party of progress. Luther himself was not only disappointed
in the disaffection of Erasmus, but was sincerely rebelled by his
rationalism. A man who could have the least doubt about a doctrine was
to him "an Arian, an atheist, and a skeptic." He went so far as to say
that the great Dutch scholar's primary object in publishing the Greek
New Testament was to make readers doubtful about the text, and that the
chief end of his _Colloquies_ was to mock all piety. Erasmus, whose
services to letters were the most distinguished and whose ideal of
Christianity was the loveliest, has suffered far too much in being
judged by his relation to the Reformation. By a great Catholic[1] he
has been called "the glory of the priesthood and the shame," by