note, are the most heart-felt* prayers of the faithful congre- gation for the coming of Christ in the flesh. But you, who excel me in acumen of judgment and in wealth of learning, consider whether the author did not wish those refrains to point out that the psalms were choral,' like that eclogue of Virgil* which says, I forget how many times :
Ducite ab urbe domum, mea carmina, ducite Daphnim. . . . You now know as much as I do. Farewell and pray for me. From the monastery.
Brother Martin Luder, Augustinian.
9, GEORGE SPALATIN TO JOHN LANG AT ERFURT. K. Krause: Epistolae aliquot (Einladungsschrift . . . Zerbst), 1883, p. 3- March 3 (iSiS)-*
. . . Please commend me to Dr. Martin. For I think so much of him as a most learned and upright man, and, what is extremely rare, one of such acumen in judging that I wish to be entirely his friend as well as yours and of all learned men. Farewell, excellent brother, and remember me in your prayers, and also remember our Reuchlin laboring against the hatred and intolerable malignity of evil men, or rather of cacodemons^ Farewell again. I read your letter hastily. Chir Erasmus* has returned as amiable as one stuffed with plenty.
^"Suspiriosissixnas"; Luther certainly means something like the translation given, although the word he uses, both in classical and medieral Latin, properly means "asthmatic/* "sighing."
- The word that Luther uses here, and two other places in the letter, "interstallares"
is found neither in Harper's classical nor in Du Cange's medieval Latin dictionary. Whether he was thinking of the word "intercalares,** as the first editor suggests, or not, the meaning is perfectly clear from the context.
^he eighth.
- This letter is dated by Krause and Enders (I 13) 1514, but the true date is
given by the sentence "Erasmus noster rediit quam amabilis ut qui stipatus tsta copia.*' Erasmus returned from a five-year sojourn in England in July, I5i4f *n<l in the following December Schurer published at Strassburg a new edition of his De Copia, to which Erasmus prefaced a most amiable letter (c/. P. S. Allen: Opus Epistolarum Erasmi, i. p. xvii, ii. pp. 7, 17). Spalatin makes a punning reference to this work, which he doubtless sent with the letter (tita).
ftGreek.
- Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam (October 38, 1466- July 12, 1536). the most
noted scholar of the day, attended school at Deventer 1475-84. at Hertogenbusch 1484-6, entered the monastery of Augustinian Canons at Stein i486, professed 1488, studied at Paris 1495-9, visited England I499-X5oo, xsos-x5o6 and X509-14: Italy 1506-9; lived at Louvain 1514-31, Basle i5ai-8, Freiburg in Breisgau iS'S-js*
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