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594,4 FROM BEATUS RHENANUS. Basle. 8 July 1517. Deventer MS. 91, f. 46. LB. App. 146. [The year-date is unquestionable : for a possible correction in the month-date see Ep. 598 introd. | BEATVS RHENANVS ERASMO ROTERODAMO S. D. In his que misisti libens istos iuuarem, si modo nostri non puderet. Scribent per suum a secretis, quo nunc vtuntur formarum emaculatore, quid facturi sint. Lachnerus ad Argent(inense) emporium profectus est. Lodouicus Berus agit Tannis: quo factum est vt hic tabellarius nihil ad te litterarum ab illo ferat. Fuit hiis diebus apud nos Clemens quidam Paleologus Constantinopolitanus, monachus coenobii diuae Catharinae ad montem Sina in Syria. Collegit argentum per Germaniam ex condonationibus Pontificis pro reparatione eius monasterii, quod a Saracenis nescio quid detrimenti superioribus annis passum est. Episcopus interim sepe prandio Frobenius duobus prelis x. istos iuuarem] For the better printing of the Utopia ete.(cf. Ep. 550 introd.). Erasmus had proposed to Froben (cf. Epp. 597. 44,628. 1,732. 1) that he should re-engage the assistance ofiBeatus ; who since the autumn of 1516 (cf. Epp. 460. 14,5 and 575. 44-6) had not been working for him. 2. a secretis] Probably Angst; cf. Ep. 575. 46 n. 4. Tannis} Cf. Ep. 460. 12 n. 6. Paleologus] A letter from Christopher Monetarius to Bruno Amorbach (Basle MS. G. IL. 30. 70) dated Strasburg, 11 July (1517), describes the reception of Paleologus, who had come there from Basle. As he knew no Latin, conversation was difficult ; but Nachtgall (Ep. 302. 16 n.) acted as interpreter. Monetarius finally passed him on to the Bishop of Strasburg. In Aug. 1520 Erasmus commended to Wolsey on a similar errand a Christopher Palaeologus from Mt. Sinai, who is probably the same person, ALLEN III 9. a Saracenis] Frane. Suriano, who visited Sinai, probably in the winter of 1493-4, learnt that the Abbot of St. Catharine’s and several monks had recently been killed by the Arabs ; and this deterred Pietro Casola from going to Sinaï in 1494. See Casola’s Pilgrimage, ed. M. M. Newett, 1907. pp. 345, 385,6. Felix Fabri, Euagatorium, i. 73a, 76b (ed. C. D. Hassler, 1843-9, i. 190, 198), heard a similar rumour at Jaffa in 1483 ; but it was probably false. For the continual oppression of the monastery by the Arabs see, besides Fabri, Arnold von Harff (1497) and Martin von Baumgarten (1507) ; cf. Röhricht, Deutsche Pilgerreisen, 1900. Fabri, ii. 61,2 (ii. 506,7), mentions an earlier visit of a monk from St. Catharine’s, collecting for the same purpose, perhaps in 1484 ; and his own opposition on the ground that the monastery belonged to the Greek Church and owed no allegiance to the Pope. 13. litteris] Ep. 598. où I a
