not known when Erasmus left the monastery of Steyn, nor is it clear why he left it . . . But the real cause of his departure must be sought in his own mind. The causes listed by himself were contributing factors, they influenced his mind. He was expected to mortify and crucify his own will and personality; that he refused to do..."

A few months later and after having taken priestly orders, Erasmus went to Paris, supplied with funds by the Bishop. He lived in Paris until 1498 and pursued his studies at the College Montaigu. The new studies of the Renaissance had as yet made but little way in Paris, but Montaigu, above every other college, was still fast in the bonds of scholasticism. To Erasmus, therefore, whose constitution was delicate to fragility and who from the very outset seems to have been awake to the intellectual revolution that had come upon Europe, all his surroundings in Paris at this time were in the highest degree distasteful. To the end of his life he never forgot his experience at Montaigu.

After this Erasmus gained a livelihood by instructing private pupils. Amongst these pupils were several English young men living together in a home under the guard of an old mentor, who later refused Erasmus entrance to the house. But why? Probably because Erasmus, now being at the age of 31 years fell in love again with a young Englishman named Thomas Grey. An extraordinarily long and excited letter written by Erasmus to Thomas Grey in 1497 mentions a moving event. What actually happened is not clear but it is certain that this refusal brought Erasmus to a bursting point of rage and indignation so wild, so malicious that he must have been sorely hurt. He did not refer further to the nature of the incident and said nothing about its causes. Very likely this event was something delicate about which Erasmus felt shame, preferring to remain silent. Noting the accent of exaggerated and very sentimental friendship in this letter we may suppose that the relationship between Erasmus and Grey was a homosexual connection.

A second of those pupils, Lord Mountjoy, deserves special mention as he always remained one of Erasmus' best friends and most generous patrons. It was on the invitation of Lord Mountjoy that Erasmus, probably in 1498, paid his first visit to England. Through the influence of Colet his contempt for the schoolmen was intensified and his thoughts set on the consecration of his studies to a more rational conception of religious truth. During this visit he also began his famous friendship with Sir Thomas More, through whom on the present occasion he was introduced to Prince Henry (afterwards King Henry VIII), then only a boy of nine. In Thomas More's house in Bucklersbury, Erasmus wrote in the course of a week the witty satire and most widely read of his works entitled ENCOMIUM MORIAE, or "Praise of Folly." In this satire, biting in its sarcasm at the expense of kings and churchmen, written in the full maturity of his powers, we have Erasmus in his happiest and most distinctive vein as the man of letters and the general critic of men and things. Seven editions of this work were issued within a few months.

Erasmus has generally been considered as a forerunner of the Reformation. He was as well acquainted with the Pope (Adrianus VI being a Dutchman) as with Dr. Martin Luther. But Erasmus used to say that he would be willing to be a martyr for Christ's sake, if God would give him the strength, but not for Luther's sake. In the eyes of Erasmus, Luther was not civilized enough, and, besides, Erasmus did not have the mind of a martyr. On July 12, 1536, after nearly a month's attack of dysentery, he died, retaining to the last his gay and genial humor.

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