._ March 1527

To the most skilled physician Theophrastus of Einsiedeln, etc.,
greetings:

... It is not incongruous to wish continued spiritual health to the
medical man through whom God gives us physical health. I wonder how you
know me so thoroughly, having seen me once only. I recognize how very
true are your dark sayings, not by the art of medicine, which I have
never learned, but from my own wretched sensations. I have felt pains in
the region of the liver in the past, and could not divine the source of
the trouble. I have seen the fat from the kidneys in my water many years
ago. Your third point[101] I do not quite understand, nevertheless it
appears to be convincing.

As I told you, I have no time for the next few days to be doctored, or
to be ill, or to die, so overwhelmed am I with scholarly work. But if
there is anything which can alleviate the trouble without weakening the
body, I beg you to inform me. If you will be so good as to explain at
greater length your very concise and more than laconic notes, and
prescribe other remedies which I can take until I am free, I cannot
promise you a fee to match your art or the trouble you have taken, but I
do at least promise you a grateful heart.

You have resurrected Froben[102], that is, my other half: if you restore
me also, you will have restored both of us by treating each of us
singly. May we have the good fortune to keep you in Basle!

I fear you may not be able to read this letter dashed off immediately
[after receiving yours]. Farewell.

Erasmus of Rotterdam, by his own hand.

XIX. TO MARTIN BUCER[103]

Basle, 11 November 1527

Best greetings:

You plead the cause of Capito with some rhetorical skill; but I see
that, eloquent advocate as you are otherwise, you are not sufficiently
well equipped to undertake his defence. Were I to advance my battle-line
of conjectures and proofs, you would realize that you had to devise a
different speech. But I have had too much of squabbling, and do not
easily bestir myself against men whom I once sincerely loved. What the
Knight of Eppendorff[104] ventures or does not venture to do is his
concern; only that he returns too frequently to this game. I shall not
involve Capito in the drama unless he involves himself again; let him
not think me such a fool as not to know what is in question. But I have
written myself on these matters. Furthermore, as to your pleading your
own cause and that of your church, I think