Page 591 [591]
OCR
1514 | 596 289. To WILLIAM QONELL. Farrago p. 168. London. F, p. 310: HN: Lond. vi. 36: LB. 170. (e. April 1514.) [Prior to Ep. 292.] ERASMVS GONELLO SVO S. D. MvLris modis haec tempora nos affligunt, mi Gonelle. Pestis hic passim scintillat, mox vti videtur saeuitura. Bellum imminet, malorum omnium oceanus. Nos priuata etiam quaedam incommoda discruciant, praeterquam quod nuper exortus est mihi nouus genius malus, bestiola quaedam perpusilla quidem, sed quae tantum habeat 5 veneni vt prae hoc vipera, quin et seps, veneno vacare videatur. Rogo vti per Vuatsonum ad nos scribas ; et quid agat meus Pegasus significes, imo quid valeas ipse, quid hospes tuus humanissimus, quid materfamilias, omnis bonitatis exemplar. Fac diligenter salutes Greanum commissarium, communem amicum vel, vt verius dicam, 10 patronum., Bene vale. Londini, [Anno m.p.xv.] 290,5 From JomN REUCHLIN. Deventer MS. 91. f° 153 v°. Frankfort. LB. App. 5. April 1514. [The date is fixed by the events mentioned. The letter must be placed in the first half of the month, since on the 2oth Reuchlin was at Stuttgart and on the 25th at Augsburg. For the events of the Reuchlin controversy there is an admirable chronological summary in Bocking?s Epist. Obscurorum Virorum, vol. ii. pp. 117-156. It appears from Ep. g00 that Erasmus had exchanged letters with Reuchlin, whilst in England. John Reuchlin (22 Feb. 1455-30 June 1522) of Pfortzheim, the champion of Hebrew learning. He began his University career at Freiburg on 19 May 1470, but soon went to Paris, where in 1473 he was attempting to learn Greek from the pupils of Gregory of Tiferno (RE. 171). In 1474 he went to Basle, where he studied Greek more effectually under Andronicus Contoblacas, and became B.A. 1475, M.A. 1477; and made the acquaintance of John Amorbach. About 1478 he went back to Paris to become a pupil of Hermonymus, but was obliged to abandon Greek for the law; taking his LL.B. at Orleans 1479, becoming Licentiate at Poitiers 14 June 1481, and receiving the Doctor’s degree at Tübingen in the same year. He then passed under the patronage of Eberhard of Würtemberg ; for whom he went to Italy in 1482 and 1490. In 1492 he was raised by the Emperor to the nobility ; and about the same time began to study Hebrew. On his patron’s death he was ejected from Wirtemberg in 1496, and went at Dalberg’s invitation to Heidelberg; and soon afterwards received patronage from Philip, Count Palatine, by whom he was sent to Rome in 1498. He returned to Stuttgart in 1499, and remained there for twenty years, serving as Triumvir in the Swabian League 1502-13. When the armies of the League entered Stuttgart in 1519 he retired to Ingolstadt, and dwelt for two years with Eck; but he returned again to Stuttgart in 1521 and taught at Tübingen, as Professor of Greek and Hebrew, until his death. See Trith.’,’; his life by Geiger; RE; ADB ; also Creighton, vol. v.] II. Anno m.D.xv add. H. 4. genius] Cf. Ep. 292. 23 n. 002
