Amerbach-Froben
Jerome to be sent to the binders and equipped with his arms and
adornments.

Later in the year the enthusiastic Eobanus of Hesse appeared in
Louvain. He had come from Erfurt where he was teaching, and the main
purpose of his journey was to see Erasmus. His _Hodoeporicon_,
printed on his return, describes his course in detail. With a young
companion, John Werter, also from Erfurt, he entered Louvain in the
evening. Next morning early they sent in their 'callow' verses to the
great man, and followed shortly themselves. Erasmus came down to greet
them at the door with a kindly welcome, and Eobanus describes a
banquet to which he invited them, entertaining them with serious talk
and light-hearted jest. But it was at no light cost to Erasmus' time:
for when his admirers left five days later, he had been cajoled into
writing six letters of compliment, two to the travellers themselves
and four more to friends at Gotha and Erfurt. But this was not the
only cost. Eobanus imbued others of the Erfurt circle with his
hero-worship; and next year came two more, Jonas and Schalbe, to
trouble Erasmus' leisure, when he was taking a spring holiday at
Antwerp, 'by the sea', and to bear off more letters to Erfurt. The
spirit that animated these visitors is shown in a letter of John
Turzo, bishop of Breslau, a man of Erasmus' own age. In 1518 Ursinus
Velius, the disappointed secretary of the Cardinal of Gurk, had become
canon of Breslau on Turzo's presentation; and had doubtless talked to
his patron of Erasmus' attractive gifts. 'I am most eager to visit
you' wrote the Bishop, from Breslau. 'If ever I had heard that you
were anywhere within a week's journey from here, I should have rushed
over at once: indeed I would have gone as far as Belgium, if only the
business of my office allowed. The men of Cadiz who journeyed to Rome
to see Livy were not more eager.'

A picture of the interruptions to which Erasmus was exposed is given
in a preface written in Froben's name for the new edition of Erasmus'
_Epigrammata_ combined with More's and with the _Utopia_, March 1518.
'Most of these verses' Froben is made to say 'were written not for
publication, but to give pleasure to friends; to whom he is always
very obliging. When he was here bringing out his New Testament and
Jerome, heavens! how he worked! toiling away untiringly day after day.
Never was any one more overwhelmed in composition; and yet certain
great persons thought th