. He wrinkled his nose and said with a
scornful gesture: 'If any man wishes to serve Christ altogether, let him
go into a monastery and enter a religious order.' I answered that St.
Paul said that true religion consisted in the offices of
charity--charity consisting in doing our best to help our neighbours.
This he rejected as an ignorant remark. 'Look,' said he, 'we have
forsaken everything: in this is perfection.' 'That man has not forsaken
everything,' said I, 'who, when he could help very many by his labours,
refuses to undertake a duty because it is regarded as humble.' And with
that, to prevent a quarrel arising, I let the man go. There you have the
dialogue. You see the Scotist philosophy! Once again, farewell.

X. TO SERVATIUS ROGER

Hammes Castle [near Calais],

8 July 1514

To the Reverend Father Servatius, many greetings:

... Most humane father, your letter has at last reached me, after
passing through many hands, when I had already left England, and it has
afforded me unbelievable delight, as it still breathes your old
affection for me. However, I shall answer briefly, as I am writing just
after the journey, and shall reply in particular on those matters which
are, as you write, strictly to the point. Men's thoughts are so varied,
'to each his own bird-song', that it is impossible to satisfy everyone.
My own feelings are that I want to follow what is best to do, God is my
witness. Those feelings which I had in my youth have been corrected
partly by age, partly by experience of the world. I have never intended
to change my mode of life or my habit--not that I liked them, but to
avoid scandal. You are aware that I was not so much led as driven to
this mode of life by the obstinate determination of my guardians and the
wrongful urgings of others, and that afterwards, when I realized that
this kind of life was quite unsuited to me (for not all things suit all
men), I was held back by Cornelius of Woerden's reproaches and by a
certain boyish sense of shame. I was never able to endure fasting,
through some peculiarity of my constitution. Once roused from sleep I
could never fall asleep again for several hours. I was so drawn towards
literature, which is not practised in the monastery, that I do not doubt
that if I had chanced on some free mode of life I could have been
numbered not merely among the happy but even among the good.

So, when I realized that I was by no means fit for this mode of life,
that