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590 APPENDIX V may also have received instruction from Michael of Pavia # In the scantiness of information for this period the following passage also may be quoted”, in which Erasmus is speaking of possession by evil spirits: ‘ Mirum est autem quod hic de vna virgine narrat Hieronymus; sed aetate nostra rem vidimus multo prodigiosiorem in frequenti virginum monasterio, quod est in Hannonia, vulgo dictum Keynout®. Ea res non mediocriter torquebat humanissimum praesulem et vere patrem, episcopum Cameracensem Henricum, inter inelytos illos Berganae stirpis heroas tum natu maximum. Nam apud hunc id temporis admodum iuuenis viuebam. Quae gymnasia vir ille super hac re non consuluit? Quos non adduxit quos existimasset vel eruditione pollere vel sanctimonia? Nemo non stupefactus discessit. Nec prius extinctum est hoc malum quam extinctis ad vnam virginibus, quae fuerant a daemone correptae.’ A full narrative of this ‘diabolical pestilence’ which broke out at Easter r491, and lasted for six or seven years, is given by Molinet”. The Bishop visited the convent on 17 April 1491 to inquire into the trouble. Another glimpse of this period is given in a letter from a certain | William of Louvain, an inmate of the Augustinian priory of Groenendael? in the forest of Zonia near Brussels, written to Martin Lypsius in 1522 or 3, which substantiates the early interest in Augustine of which Erasmus speaks in 1518”. ‘His libris (Augustini) Erasmus noster olim summe delectatus est, cum aetate adhuc iuuenis Bruxella venisset nostram inuisere vallem, et potissimum, vti reor, bibliothecam. Qua perlustrata istos ex omnibus elegit libros, quibus tanto inhaerebat studio vt noctibus quoque eos ad cubiculum sibi pro quiete deputatum ferret. Mirabantur nostri, vt a senioribus audiui, et paene ridebant hominem, quod illos ferme solos amplecteretur codices caeterisque praeferret omnibus, nempe ignari quid ipsum in illis tantopere delectaret ®’ It may be noted that the Bishop of Cambray was one of the benefactors of Groenendael. It is possible also that Erasmus was drawn thither by a monk of Bergen, Daniel Petri, who afterwards became prior, 1523-1534, and in that position showed himself a patron of learning and considerably enlarged the library. For fuller details about this period Mr. Nichols’ vol. i. chap. 3 may be consulted. I do not agree with his conjecture that Erasmus had met Batt before going to Bergen. APPENDIX VI ERASMUS AT CAMBRIDGE IN 1506 Tue records of Cambridge show that Erasmus paid a visit to that University in the year 1505-6, but of his stay there not much is the Auctarium (D) was printed. For See GO. iii. 167. Bollart see GC. iii. 267. ? 234 ; see also Massaeus’ Chronica, 2 Ep. 85. Ion. 1540, p. 268. * From the Scholia on Jerome, Opera, 28 See Sanderus, Chorographia Sacra 1516, vol. i, f. 110 v°. Brabantiae, ii. 16-40. * Quesnoi (Quercetum), an Augus- *” Cf. Lond. ii. 26, LB. 376. tinian convent dedicated to St. Eliza- °° Horawitz, Hrasmus uv. Mart. Lypsius, beth. Itlay tothe SE. of Valenciennes. p- 114.
