suspicion that your works are written with my aid, and that I am, as they call it, the standard-bearer of your party. They think they thus have a good chance to suppress sound learn- ing, which they hate mortally as if it offended the majesty of theology. ... I have testified that you are entirely unknown to me, that I have not read your books and neither approve nor disapprove anything. I only warned them not to vocif- erate against your books without reading them, and not to excite the hatred of the people against them, but to refer them to the judgment of those whose opinion would have most weight. . . .
In England there are men who think well of your writings, and they the very greatest. So do some here, among them the Bishop of Liege.^ I try to keep neutral, so as to help the re-"~] vival of learning as much as I can. And it seems to me that more is accomplished by this civil modesty than by impetuosity. Thus Christ brought the world under his sway. ... It is more expedient to attack those who abuse the authority of the Pope than the Pope himself; and similarly of kings. . . . Wherefore, we must take care not to speak arrogantly or factiously. ... I have looked over your Commentaries on the Psalms,* which pleased me very much.
156. ERASMUS TO JOHN LANG AT ERFURT. Allen, ill 609. Louvain, May 30 (1519).
Reverend Father, do not judge my affection for you by the paucity of the letters I write, for I am so overwhelmed with letters that I hardly have time to read them. I greatly like your Christian soul, inflexible for Christian truth. I hope that Christ will favor your plans, and those of men like you. Here hitherto the papists, united to do their utmost, have
^Eberbard de U Harck, Prince Bishop of Lihge 1506-1538. a member of one of the nott powerful families in Europe. He was made cardinal in Aufust, 1521. Notwtthatandiaf Erasmus' information, he always appears to hare been hostile to the new norement. Luther called him in 1535 '*a most pestilent organ of the deWl." Enders, x. 303.
^ptruHonea in Psalmos, tstg-tsii. The first five Psalms published separately, March 37, is 19* Weimar, t.; Kostlin-Kawerau : Martin Luther (Berlin, 1903), L P' '7S- In October, 1518, Froben had published a volume of Luther's pamphlets ^ich he sent to Erasiona. Enders, i. pp. 420-22. Hollonius to Erasmus, December 5, 15x8. Allen, iiL 445.
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