Note 1046 — XXV. THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY.

Even in this, Luther was by no means the first. Erasmus had exposed the wickedness of the system with fully as much fervor in the “Encomium Moriæ.”—“Hic mihi puta negotiator aliquis, aut miles, aut judex, abjecto ex tot rapinis unico nummulo, universam vitæ Lernam semel expurgatam putat, totque perjuria, tot libidines, tot ebrietates, tot rixas, tot cædes, tot imposturas, tot perfidias, tot proditiones existimat velut ex pacto redimi, et ita redimi ut jam liceat ad novum scelerum orbem de integro reverti.”—And in the “Epistolæ Obscurorum Vivorum” the falseness of its promises was unflinchingly asserted.