hat he had once sworn it,
he would keep, even though life and his own intelligence would not have
taught him to prefer the old faith to every new doctrine, whether it
emanated from Luther, from Calvin, or from Zwingli.

For a short time Erasmus found no answer to this statement, and Wolf's
old nurse, who herself clung to the Protestants from complete conviction,
and had listened attentively to his words, urged her young
co-religionist, by all sorts of signs, to respect his friend's decision.

The confession of his schoolmate had not been entirely without effect
upon the young theologian. The name of "mother" also filled him with
reverence.

True, his birth had cost his own mother her life, but he had long
possessed a distinct idea of her nature and being, and had given her
precisely the same position which, in the early days of his school life,
the Virgin Mary had occupied.

To induce another to break a vow made to his mother would have been
sinful. But a brief reflection changed his mind.

Were there not circumstances in which the Bible itself commanded a man to
leave father and mother? Had not Jesus Christ made the surrender of every
old relation and the following after him the duty of those who were to
become his disciples? What was the meaning of the words the Saviour had
uttered to his august mother, "Woman, what have I to do with thee?"
except it was commanded to turn even from the mother when religion was at
stake?

Many another passage of Scripture had strengthened the courage of the
young Bible student when at last, with a look of intelligence, he pledged
Wolf, and remarking, "How could I venture the attempt to lead you to
break so sacred an oath?" instantly brought forward every plea that a son
who, in religious matters, followed a different path from his mother
could allege in his justification.

A short time before, in Brussels, Wolf had seen a superior of the new
Society of Jesus, whose members were now appearing everywhere as
defenders of the violently assailed papacy, seek to win back to
Catholicism the son of evangelical parents with the very same arguments.
He told his friend this, and also expressed the belief that the Jesuit,
too, had spoken in good faith.

Erasmus shrugged his shoulders, saying "Doubtless there are many mansions
in our Father's house, but who will blame us if we left the dilapidated
old one, where our liberty was restricted and our consciences were
burdened, and preferred t