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II ie ie 48 LETTERS OF ERASMUS [1524 honesta studia. Graece et Latine pulchre calluit. Quin et in iuris peritia non vulgariter profecerat. Nam Roma tunc doctis viris mire floruit. Audiuit Guarinum. Omnes auctores sua manu descripserat, Parentes, vbi resciscunt eum esse Romae, scripserunt illi puellam, cuius matrimonium ambierat, esse vita defunctam. Id ille credens prae moerore factus est presbyter, totumque animum ad religionem applicuit. Reuersus domum comperit fraudem. Nec illa tamen 29 vnquam post voluit nubere, nec ille vnquam tetigit eam. Puerum autem curauit liberaliter educandum et vix quatuor annos egressum misit in ludum litterarium. Ac primis annis minimum proficiebat in litteris illis inamoenis, quibus natus non erat. Vbi nonum ageret annum, misit Dauentriam ; mater sequuta est, custos et curatrix tenerae aetatis. Ea schola tunc adhuc erat barbara (prae35 legebatur Pater meus ; exigebantur tempora ; praelegebatur Ebrardus, et Ioannes de Garlandia); nisi quod Alexander Hegius et Zinthius coeperant aliquid melioris litteraturae inuehere. Tandem ex pueris collusoribus, qui grandiores natu audiebant Zinthium, primum cepit odorem melioris doctrinae ; post aliquoties audiuit Hegium, sed non 4o nisi diebus festis quibus legebat omnibus. Hic peruenit ad classem tertiam ; tum pestis vehementer ibi sacuiens sustulit matrem, relicto filio iam annum decimum tertium agente. Quum pestis indies magis ac magis incrudesceret, tota domo in qua agebat desolata reuersus 39 23. tune O: tum a. 32. in om. a. 34. et curatrix 0: curatrixque a, tune 0: tum a. 35. prelegebantur a. 36. Zintheus a. 39. doctrinae a : literature 0. 24. Audiuit Guarinum] This must was printed at Deventer (R. Pafraet) refer to the younger Guarino at in 1488, and other works on gramFerrara. Cf. p. 107. mar. Cf. p. 106, and see Butzbach, 32. litteris illis inamoenis] Ruelens’ p. 242, and Ruelens, p. xi. suggestion (p. v) that this refers to 39. post] In his last year at Deventer, education in the vernacular is con- 1483-4; see App. 2. In later times firmed by the phrase ‘literaeamoenio- Hegius taught in the lower classes res, applied to the classical studies also; for Butzbach, who entered the at Louvain University. See G. school in 1498, in the eighth class, Moring’s Vita Hadriani Sexti, Louvain, learned the rudiments of grammar 1536, f°. B? v°. Bayle suggests music. from him. Butzbach, p. 240. 34. praelegebatur Pater meus] In Adag. 339 Erasmus speaks of Merula found this passage inexplic- Hegius as his teacher, and states that able. Mr. Nichols’ interpretation he learnt the elements of Latin and seems convincing ; that Pater meus was Greek at Deventer. In the Spongia a concord set for declension in the written about this time, he says, how- ` school Latin grammar, and tempora the ever, ‘ Alexandro Hegio . . . ego sane tenses of the verb. minimum debebam’ (LB. x. 1666 A.). 36. Zinthius] John Sinthis or 40. classem tertiam] the first class Synthen (+a. Dec. 1498), one of the beingthe highest. Butzbach, pp. 217,8 brethren at Deventer, where he was warden of the solarium publicum domus clericorum and taught in the school. In conjunction with Hegius he wrote commentaries on the Doctrinale of Alexander (p. 123), the first of which 41. sustulit matrem] From here down to seruato tamen habitu (1. 100) the narrativeisadapted with additionsfrom Lond. xxiv. 5, LB. App. 442 (Autumn . 1516), a few sentences being incorporated almost word for word.
