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582 APPENDIX II
In the year 1484 Deventer was again visited by the plague. Hegius
writes to Agricola" on 17 Dec. (1484) that in the summer twenty
of his pupils had died of the disease and many had been driven away,
but that the school had now recovered its numbers. This is clearly
the visitation which induced Erasmus’ father to recall the two boys
to Gouda; his mother, howeyer, probably fell a victim, as Kimmel
suggests, to the outbreak of 1483, since it seems that the boys did
not leave Deventer immediately after her death. On the question
of the date of his departure from Deventer Erasmus himself throws
some light in an answer“ sent to a correspondent who claimed to
have been his contemporary in the school: ‘Cum ego Dauentria
discederem, nondum fluuius qui vrbem praeterfluit ponte iunctus
erat.’ To illustrate this Revius* quotes a manuscript to show that
the bridge was begun on 1 Aug. 1482 and opened to traffic on
16 March 1483; and thus there is an obvious contradiction to the
date given above. But the care with which the town of Deventer
has cherished its archives enables the difficulty to be disposed of.
The accounts of the bridge contractor are still to be seen preserved
in their original form on seventeen folio pages; and they run from
15 June 1482 to 1487. It is clear, therefore, that the bridge must
have been opened to traffic before it was actually completed; and
with work upon it still going on in 1484 Erasmus’ description of it
as unfinished is quite justified.
In the summer of 1484 Erasmus must have been nearly eighteen,
if he was really born in 1466, an age at which he might well describe
himself as ‘iam satis maturus Academiae,’ since it was customary
then for boys to enter universities between the ages of thirteen and
sixteen“, It is remarkable too that if he had been nine years in the
school, he should not have progressed beyond the third class‘, even
allowing for the early inaptitude for learning to which he refers.
An explanation may perhaps be found in the suggestion that the
residence as a chorister at Utrecht came in the middle of, instead of
preceding, his school time at Deventer. Nine is an early age for
a boys singing-days to be done; and such an interruption might
well have prevented him from reaching the top of the school.
Soon after Erasmus’ return home his father died, and for a
short time the two boys were engaged in a struggle with their
guardians, who in perhaps genuine zeal urged them to enter a
monastery“. A compromise was effected, and instead of being sent
as Erasmus wished to a university, they were allowed to continue
their studies at Hertogenbosch in another school conducted by the
38 Hegii Dialogi, ed. Ja. Faber,
Deventer, R. Paffraet, 31 Dec. 1503,
fo. Ot v°. The date 1484 is arrived
at from comparison with Agricola’s
letters, especially Agric.® 16 ; see EHR.
Apr. 1906.
D Où Gi P. 321:
# Lond. v. 32, LB. 405, written on
17 April 1519.
# Daventria illustrata, p. 128. These
dates have been incorrectly quoted
as 1481 and 2 by Dr. Richter, whom
Mr. Nichols follows.
4 Rashdall, Universities of Europe in
the Middle Ages, ii. 604. In the Insii¬
tutio Christiani Matrimonii (LB. v. 715 F)
Erasmus states that a boy could obtain
his Master’s degree and become a
schoolmaster by sixteen.
FT, Zons SIVIT
4 A novice might enter an Augus¬
tinian house at fourteen ; for other re¬
quirements of the Order see Ep. 296.
33 0.