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ERASMUS WITH THE BISHOP OF CAMBRAY 589
tion of Italy, which in Ode 2 rouses Herman’s good-natured envy.
When Ode 4 was written, Herman had not yet met Batt. If these
complaints are rightly so interpreted, it follows that the disappoint¬
ment had come before Herman” visit ; and thus either the Antibarbari
must have been composed after the Bishop’s intention was known,
or the events as now depicted must have been somewhat adapted in
a subsequent revision”.
The disappointment about Rome threw Erasmus into depression.
The Bishop was a statesman of position, and the life of a capital and
a court was not favourable to study. His relations, too, with his
patron became less friendly”. In his affliction Batt came to his
aid *, and proposed that he should obtain the Bishop’s leave to go to
the University of Paris, where Batt had himself studied *, a sugges¬
tion which Erasmus afterwards regarded as the beginning of his
good fortune”. Ep. 42 shows Erasmus writing, in the peremptory
tone that marks his later correspondence with the faithful Batt, to
bid his friend use all his influence in the cause. The Bishop assented
and Erasmus made his escape to Paris.
For these events the exterior limits are 25 Apr. 1492 and
Sept. 1495. But the departure from Steyn must be put as late as
possible, to accommodate Snoy’s statement” that Erasmus and
Herman were at Steyn together for ten years. If Ep. 38 is rightly
placed late in 1494, Herman’s visit to Halsteren must be dated in
the spring of that year, and as Herman’s Ode 4, composed before
that, speaks of Erasmus and Batt having been together tempore non
modico, the departure from Steyn cannot well be later than the
summer of 1493, only six years after Erasmus’ entry. This does not
accord precisely with a reminiscence of a visit of Theodoric Coelde, a
Franciscan of Minster, to Bergen, which in a letter of g Aug. 1532%
is said to have taken place nearly forty years before and from the
mention of fire presumably in the autumn or winter; but, as has
been shown", such a reckoning must not be pressed too closely.
The dates suggested can only be conjectural until more evidence is
forthcoming. It is possible that the whole period with the Bishop
was not more than a year, in which case the departure from Steyn
must be placed in 1494 and the visit to Halsteren in the spring of
1495.
Lo little is known of Erasmus life during this time. He was
probably for the most part in attendance on the Bishop; whose
movements, however, I cannot trace in these two years. In one of
the prefaces to Jerome °° Erasmus mentions a certain Peter Santera¬
mus”, a Sicilian, as being one of his companions in the Bishop’s
household ; of another he makes fun in the Adagia™; a third was
William Bollart, afterwards Abbot of St. Amand at Tournay”. He
MODE 18 Lond. xxvii. 5, LB. 1230.
SOS » pp. 2. 26n. and 595, 6.
18 Bp. 159. 24 2° vol. ii (1516), f. 189.
4 Cf, Antibarbari ; LB. x. 1700 r and OP pos.
1726 F-7 A. 22 Adag. 3031.
ABP. r38. 61, 2. *8 Cf. Deventer MS. 91, f. 36 v°. The
18 Rp. 43. sentence was omitted, probably by an
7 Pref. to Herasmi Silua Carminum, oversight, from the letter in which it
1513. occurs (Lond. liii. 18, LB. 353), when