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580 APPENDIX II accord ; and even the calculation suggested, that he was at Deventer for about five years, is quite at variance with the facts. As Erasmus was a pupil of Hegius, his departure from Deventer cannot be placed earlier than Hegius’ advent as headmaster in 1483, The date of this event has been the subject of much controversy and is usually set much further back; but the year here assigned may be accepted as correct. It is found in an anonymous life of Agricola * written in form of a letter to Melanchthon, by some one who was present when with great emotion Hegius read out before the school the letter announcing Agricola’s death. Confirmation for it is supplied by a letter of Agricola, in which he sends his good wishes to Hegius for his projected opening of the school” at Deventer, but warns him that after the ravages of the plague by which the town has been devastated he will find the school thinly attended. The letter has no date of month or year, but can be placed with reasonable certainty in the autumn of 1483”. There is also evidence to show that a few years earlier Hegius was still See Dillenburger (in Zs. f. das Henricus frater missus a domino Gymnasialwesen, N. F. 4, 1870, pp. 481502), who is misled by accepting Erasmus’ statements as to his own age without question ; also Reichling in Pick’s Monatsschrift, 1877, pp. 286-303. 19 Printed by Dr. Kan in Erasmiani Gymnasii Programma, Rotterdam, 1894, from a MS. in the Imperial Library at Vienna (No. 9058). 2 The date given for this scene in the MS. as printed is 1486; but Agricola died on 27 or 28 Oct. 1485, and the news can hardly have taken over two months to reach Deventer. 21 The name of his predecessor is not known. Egbert ter Beek, Rector of the house of the Brethren of the Common Life at Deventer died on 13 Apr. 1483 (Deventer MS. 12); and from the connexion of the Brethren with the school of St. Lebuin he may have been Rector of this also. See Dumbar, Analecta, i. 162-178, where his death is dated 16 Apr. 2 ‘Quod aperire ludum literarium Dauentriae auspicatus es, vt felix id faustumque tibi eueniat opto. Quanquam non ignorem hanc primam huius negotii frontem parum blande tibi respondere, et locus ipse pestilentia vastatus et proinde horridus et velut abominandus tibi videtur, quodque hinc sequitur, necesse est auditorium tibi infrequens et pene desertum, nedum non celebre et expectatione tua dignum contingere, Agric.? p. 181. Faber of Deventer (Ep. 174) mentions a ‘grassatio pestis’ there, ‘que scuicbat Anno domini 1483.’ Revius, Darentria illustrata, p. 141. 23 Cf. EHR. Apr. 1906. In the same letter Agricola writes: ‘Fuit ad me Bartomagensi ; dedi illi libros meos portandos Heidelbergam, per quem scire velim fueritne allocutus te ex itinere.’ The ‘dominus Bartomagensis’ is clearly John of Dalberg, Agricola’s friend and patron, who had been elected Bp. of Worms in Aug. 1482, and who, in the autumn of that year, had persuaded Agricola to come and teach at Heidelberg (see p. 106). With this may be compared à passage from a letter of Agricola to Theodoric of Plenningen, a member of Dalberg’s household, dated from Groningen, 6 Feb. 1483 : ‘ Venirem ad vos vel inter proximos dies, nisi transportandorum librorum mihi molestia esset’ (Agrie.* 15). We may note also that in the spring of 1483 Henry had by false representations insinuated himself into Dalberg’s confidence, and might well have been sent on the mission here mentioned ; see Morneweg, Johann von Dalberg, 1887, p. 79. Further confirmation may be found in the mention of Agricola as in the service of the town of Groningen (see p. 106). The familiar way in which Henry is spoken of may be contrasted with the passage in which he is introduced to Hegius in the letter of 20 Sept. 1480, and plainly implies a later date. The denial of the rumour that Agricola had been seen at Antwerp perhaps alludes to the proposals made by the town council of Antwerp to Agricola in the autumn of 1482, that he should come and preside over the town-school ; ef. Agricola’s letter to J. Barbiriau (Agric.1 f°. ¢ v°.) dated 1 Nov. (1482). Again Agricola writes on 7 Apr. 1484 to an intimate friend, Antony Liber of
