Note 1094 — XXV. THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY.
Reading edition
Erasmi Lib. XXXI. Epist. 43.
Notwithstanding the sarcasm, popularly attributed to Erasmus, on the occasion of Luther’s union with Catharine von Bora—that the Reformation had turned out to be a comedy, seeing that it resulted in a marriage—he continued to raise his voice in favor of abolishing the rule of celibacy. Thus he writes, in October, 1525, “Vehementer laudo cœlibatum, sed ut nunc habet sacerdotum ac monachorum vita, præsertim apud Germanos, præstaret indulgeri remedium matrimonii” (Lib. XVIII. Epist. 9). And again, in 1526, “Ego nec sacerdotibus permitto conjugium, nec monachis relaxo vota, ni id fiat ex auctoritate Pontificum, ad ædificationem ecclesiæ non ad destructionem.... In primis optandum esset sacerdotes et monachos castitatem ac cœlestem vitam amplecti. Nunc rebus adeo contaminatis, fortasse levius malum erat eligendum” (Lib. XVIII. Epist. 4).
Yet, in his “Liber de Amabili Ecclesiæ Concordia,” written in 1533 in the hope of reuniting the severed church, while awaiting the promised general council which was to reconcile all things, Erasmus did not hesitate to give utterance to the opinion that those who fell away in heresy or even schism were worse than those who lived impurely in the true faith.