Notes and Queries, Number 04, November 24, 1849 | Page 2

good
honest books--albeit imperfect as all books must be--that we hope at
once to render good service to our national literature, and to show our
sense of genius, learning, and research which have combined to enrich
it by the production of works of such high character and last influence.
* * * * *
NOTES
LATIN EPIGRAM AGAINST LUTHER AND ERASMUS.
Mr. Editor,--Your correspondent "Roterodamus" (pp. 27, 28) asks, I
hope, for the author of the epigram which he quotes, with a view to a

life of his great townsman, Erasmus. Such a book, written by some
competent hand, and in an enlarged and liberal spirit, would be a noble
addition to the literature of Europe. There is no civilised country that
does not feel an interest in the labours and in the fame of Erasmus. I am
able to answer your correspondents question, but it is entirely by
chance. I read the epigram which he quotes several years ago, in a book
of a kind which one would like to see better known in this country--a
typographical or bibliographical history of Douay. It is entitled,
"_Bibliographie Douaisienne, ou Catalogue Historique et Raisonné des
Livres imprimés à Douai depuis l'année 1563 jusqu'a nos jours, avec
des notes bibliographiques et littéraires; Par H.R. Duthilloeul. 8vo.
Douai, 1842_." The 111th book noticed in the volume is entitled,
"_Epigrammata in Hæreticos. Authore Andrea Frusio, Societatis Jesu.
Tres-petit in 8vo. 1596_." The book is stated to contain 251 epigrams,
"aimed," says M. Duthilloeul, "at the heretics and their doctrines. The
author has but one design, which is to render odious and ridiculous, the
lives, persons, and errors of the apostles of the Reformation." He quotes
three of the epigrams, the third being the one your correspondent has
given you. It has this title, "_De Lutheri et Erasmi differentia_," and is
the 209th epigram in the book.
I have never met with a copy of the work of Frusius, nor do I know any
thing of him as an author. The learned writer who pours out a store of
curious learning in the pages of _Gentleman's Magazine_ is more likely
than any body that I know to tell you something about him.
Mons. Duthilloeul quotes another epigram from the same book upon
the _Encomium Moriæ_, but it is too long and too pointless for your
pages. He adds another thing which is more in your way, namely, that a
former possessor of the copy of the work then before him had
expressed his sense of the value of these "epigrammes dévotes" in the
following NOTE:--
"Nollem carere hoe libello auro nequidem contra pensitato."
Perhaps some one who possesses or has access to the book would give
us a complete list of the persons who are the subjects of these
defamatory epigrams. And I may add, as you invite us to put our
queries, Is not Erasmus entitled to the distinction of being regarded as
the author of the work which the largest single edition has ever been
printed and sold? Mr. Hallam mentions that, "in the single year 1527,

Colinæus printed 24,000 copies of the _Colloquies_, all of which were
sold." This is the statement of Moreri. Bayle gives some additional
information. Quoting a letter of Erasmus as his authority, he says, that
Colinæus, who--like the Brussels and American reprinters of our
day--was printing the book at Paris from a Basle edition, entirely
without the concurrence of Erasmus, and without any view of his
participation in the profit, circulated a report that the book was about to
be prohibited by the Holy See. The curiosity of the public was excited.
Every one longed to secure a copy. The enormous edition--for the
whole 24,000 was but one impression--was published
contemporaneously with the report. It was a cheap and elegant book,
and sold as fast as it could be handed over the booksellers counter. As
poor Erasmus had no pecuniary benefit {51} from the edition, he ought
to have the credit which arises from this proof of his extraordinary
popularity. The public, no doubt, enjoyed greatly his calm but pungent
exposure of the absurd practices which were rife around them. That his
humorous satire was felt by its objects, is obvious from this epigram, as
well as from a thousand other evidences.
JOHN BRUCE.
* * * * *
HALLAMS MIDDLE AGES--ALLEGED IGNORANCE OF THE
CLERGY.
Sir,--When reading Hallam's History of the Middle Ages a short time
ago I was startled by the following passage which occurs amongst other
evidences of the ignorance of the clergy during the period subsequent
to the dissolution of the Roman Empire.
"Not one priest in a thousand in Spain about the age of Charlemagne,
could address a common letter of salutation to another."--_Hallam's
Middle Ages_, vol. iii. p. 332.
And for this statement