Note 724 — Chapter XIV · (continued 2)

“Origines de la réforme,” 2, Paris, 1909, p. 439, whence what precedes is also taken. The author’s opinion here quoted is the more remarkable owing to the fact, that in this chapter on “Christian Humanism,” he unduly magnifies both it and its followers, for instance, Erasmus. He writes on p. 441: “Presque partout l’humanisme se montrera l’adversaire du mouvement (de Luther) dont il sera la première victime. C’est qu’entre le principe fondamental de la réforme et celui de l’humanisme il y a un abîme. Ce dernier n’entendait pas seulement rester catholique, il l’était, et par sa soumission à l’unité extérieure et par sa doctrine de la liberté, et par un esprit d’équilibre et de mesure si conforme aux habitudes de pensée et de vie du catholicisme.” The first sentence, to dwell only upon this, makes out the opposition of Humanism to the Reformation to have been far more general than was the case, and speaks inaccurately of Humanism as its first victim. The first victim was the Catholic faith and practice throughout a large part of Europe, for the preservation of which the Humanists failed to show sufficient zeal. It is true that they met with a bitter retribution for their share in paving the way for the catastrophe, in the destruction of much they had done which perished in the storm which submerged scholarship. Erasmus twice asserts his conviction: “Ubicunque regnat Lutheranismus, ibi litterarum est interitus” (“Opp.,” 3, col. 1139; 10, col. 1618), and often repeats the same in other words. See present work, vol. v., xxxv. 3.