e a very good Proficiency: He is said to have
had so happy a Memory, as to be able to repeat all _Terence_ and
_Horace_ by Heart. The Plague at that Time raging violently at
_Daventer_, carry'd off his Mother, when _Erasmus_ was about thirteen
Years of Age; which Contagion increasing more and more every Day, having
swept away the whole Family where he boarded, he returned Home. His
Father _Gerard_ hearing of the Death of his Wife, was so concern'd at
it, that he grew melancholy upon it, fell sick, and died soon after,
neither of them being much above forty Years of Age. He assign'd to his
Son _Erasmus_ three Guardians, whom he esteem'd as trusty Friends, the
Principal of whom was _Peter Winkel_, the Schoolmaster of _Goude_. The
Substance that he left for his Education, had been sufficient for that
Purpose, if his Guardians had discharg'd their Trust faithfully. By them
he was remov'd to _Boisleduc_, tho' he was at that Time fit to have gone
to the University. But the Trustees were against sending him to the
University, because they had design'd him for a Monastick Life. Here he
liv'd (or, as he himself says, rather lost three Years) in a
_Franciscan_ Convent, where one _Rombold_ taught Humanity, who was
exceedingly taken with the pregnant Parts of the Youth, and began to
sollicit him to take the Habit upon him, and become one of their Order.
_Erasmus_ excused himself, alledging the Rawness and Unexperiencedness
of his Age. The Plague spreading in these Parts, and after he had
struggled a whole Year with an Ague, he went Home to his Guardians,
having by this Time furnished himself with an indifferent good Style, by
daily reading the best Authors. One of his Guardians was carried off by
the Plague; the other two not having manag'd his Fortune with the
greatest Care, began to contrive how they might fix him in some
Monastery. _Erasmus_ still languishing under this Indisposition, tho' he
had no Aversion to the Severities of a pious Life, yet he had an
Aversion for a Monastery, and therefore desired Time to consider of the
Matter. In the mean Time his Guardians employ'd Persons to sollicit him,
by fair Speeches, and the Menaces of what he must expect, if he did not
comply, to bring him over. In this Interim they found out a Place for
him in _Sion_, a College of Canons Regulars near _Delft_, which was the
principal House belonging to that Chapter. When the Day came that
_Erasmus_ was to give his final Answer, he fairly told the