Note 425 — Chapter V · RELIGIOUS INFLUENCE

This was before Luther, or independently of him. Erasmus pleasantly scoffs at prayers to the Virgin or to St. Christopher, and is convinced that the vows of sailors during a tempest are to be traced simply to paganism, the ancient worship of Venus, “Star of the Seas.” He has glorified the Virgin in cold but elegantly rhetorical verses, in which the Styx, Phlegethon, Helicon, and the Castalian fount proclaim the new spirit. While in former days Louis XI., for the slightest tribulation, struck a medal to the Virgin or went on a pilgrimage, neither Louis XII. nor Francis I., who will not be regarded as Lutherans, had any such idea; in an extreme case, Louis XII. pays his vows direct in the Holy Eucharist. Sannazaro, who remained faithful to the Virgin, declared himself of Spanish descent.