The Correspondence of Erasmus

Volume 18 in the Collected Works of Erasmus series covers the period from 1 April 1531 to 30 March 1532. The most persistent theme in the letters is the fear, to which Erasmus had long been prey, that the religious strife in Germany and Switzerland would eventually lead to armed conflict.

His Catholic and Evangelical critics continued to annoy him. In June 1531 Erasmus published his final apologia against Alberto Pio, who had accused him of being the source of the Lutheran heresy. Though Erasmus’ public controversy with the Strasbourg theologians had come to an end in 1530, he wrote a long letter to Martin Bucer emphasizing his doctrinal differences with the Strasbourgers and his low estimate of their moral character. Erasmus’ financial affairs also figure prominently in the letters between him and his friend, the banker Erasmus Schets. The letters between them are testimony to his impatience with people who owed him money, his frequent inability to understand the details of his own finances, and his quickness to assume that people he trusted were cheating him.

Volume 18 of the Collected Works of Erasmus series