The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Age of Erasmus, by P. S. Allen

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Title: The Age of Erasmus
Lectures Delivered in the Universities of Oxford and London

Author: P. S. Allen

Release Date: May 10, 2005 [EBook #15810]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

LONDON EDINBURGH GLASGOW NEW YORK
TORONTO MELBOURNE BOMBAY

HUMPHREY MILFORD M.A.
PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITY

* * * * *

THE
AGE OF ERASMUS

LECTURES DELIVERED IN THE UNIVERSITIES
OF OXFORD AND LONDON

BY

P.S. ALLEN, M.A.

FELLOW OF MERTON COLLEGE, OXFORD

OXFORD
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
1914

* * * * *

CONTENTS

I. THE ADWERT ACADEMY
II. SCHOOLS
III. MONASTERIES
IV. UNIVERSITIES
V. ERASMUS' LIFE-WORK
VI. FORCE AND FRAUD
VII. PRIVATE LIFE AND MANNERS
VIII. THE POINT OF VIEW
IX. PILGRIMAGES
X. THE TRANSALPINE RENAISSANCE
XI. ERASMUS AND THE BOHEMIAN BRETHREN

* * * * *

I

THE ADWERT ACADEMY

The importance of biography for the study of history can hardly be
overrated. In a sense it is true that history should be like the law
and 'care not about very small things'; concerning itself not so much
with individual personality as with fundamental causes affecting the
rise and fall of nations or the development of mental outlook from one
age to another. But even if this be conceded, we still must not forget
that the course of history is worked out by individuals, who, in spite
of the accidental condensation that the needs of human life thrust
upon them, are isolated at the last and alone--for no man may deliver
his brother. In consequence, it is only in periods when the stream of
persona