1. To Willem Hermans, letter 83 : 40–43, in Allen, 1 : 217 (CWE 1 : 168), to More, letter 114 : 5–7, in Allen, 1 : 206 (CWE 1 : 227), my italics; for “ad cutem vsque pugnandi” CWE has “until I draw blood.” For the story of how More tricked Erasmus into composing a poem in honor of England for your Prince Henry (the future Henry VIII), see Allen, 1 : 6, lines 9–27 (CWE 9 : 299–300).

2. Letter 3042 : 36–38, in Allen, 11 : 207; Ad Exhortationem Alberti Pii Responsio, LB 9 : 1100A; letter 1956 : 8–42, in Allen, 7 : 336–337; letter 1956 describes also a dinner hosted by a clerical dignitary: before the meal a servant offered a “quite long” grace, including “the Kyrie Eleison, the Our Father, the De Profundis,” adding as an afterthought, just as Erasmus believed the prayer was about to end, “and by the blessed bowels of the Virgin Mary.” “That,” commented Erasmus, “was just what we needed, the blessed bowels of the Virgin.”

3. Letter 1804 : 285–287, in Allen, 7 : 13, referring to Christiani Matrimonii Institutio (Instruction for Christian Matrimony); for a similar blunder, see his references to the monopolies that “corrupted” Portugal’s overseas empire: to King Jo;atao III, letter 1800 : 34–41, in Allen, 7 : 484; as he later learned (letter 2370 : 8–15, in Allen, 9 : 20), the king was not pleased by this description of the royal monopoly on spices imported from the Indies.

4. Letter 1973 : 1–11, in Allen, 7 : 360; letter 3100 : 49–83, in Allen, 11 : 289–290.

5. Letter 1334 : 98–100, 570–587, in Allen, 5 : 175, 185 (CWE 9 : 248, 263), my italics; at the words in italics CWE translates commode as “properly” and fratrum as “of others.”

6. Hans Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method, trans. Joel Weinsheimer and David G. Marshall, 2d ed. (New York, 1989), and George Steiner, Real Presences: Is There Anything in What We Say? (Chicago, 1989) (I borrow this use of “courtesy” from Steiner), are discussed in James D. Tracy, “ Bonae Literae, Philosophia Christiana, and Dissimilitudo Reconsidered: Erasmus among the Critics,” in Hilmar Pabel, ed., Erasmus’s Vision of the Church, Sixteenth Century Essays and Studies, vol. 33 (St. Louis, 1995), 1–40.

7. Marjorie Boyle’s analysis of the Erasmus-Luther debate turns on the distinction between Erasmus’s use of civility as a debating strategy and Luther’s righteous jeremiad: Rhetoric and Reform: Erasmus’s Civil Dispute with Luther (Cambridge, Mass., 1983).

8. See the passage from the Enchiridion cited above, chapter 3, note 47.

9. Erasmus to Melanchthon, letter 1496 : 1–3, in Allen, 5 : 544 (CWE 10 : 377–378), “though [your letter] was addressed to Pellikan, it looked as though you thought I should read it.”

10. Letter 1992 : 57–88, in Allen, 7 : 385–386, Erasmus gives his reasons for not acknowledging a letter seemingly in his hand which Eppendorf claimed Erasmus had written to Duke George of Saxony five years earlier.

11. The Catholic theologian Johann Cochlaeus to Erasmus, letter 2120 : 93–108, in Allen, 8 : 84: from Dresden, he has sent Erasmus’s letter to Melanchthon on to Wittenberg without opening it.

12. See the preface to Erasmus’s Opus Epistolarum of 1529, letter 2203 : 8–12, in Allen, 8 : 249, Erasmus has chosen not to remove from the collection letters from good friends who have since become mortal enemies.

13. Erasmus to Antoine Brugnard, 27 October 1524, letter 1510 : 68–71, in Allen, 5 : 571 (CWE 10 : 412): “as for promising [Pope] Adrian a plan for extinguishing the Lutheran conflagration to such a tune that it will not easily be rekindled, Phallicus [Guillaume Farel] takes this to mean that I wish to extinguish the Gospel.” Both Allen and CWE take this to be a reference to letter 1352 (discussed above, chapter 12, note 19), not published until 1529, which would mean that Erasmus’s worst critics in Basel somehow had access to this highly sensitive letter.

14. See above, my chapter 11, note 39.

15. Letter 3052 : 1–13, in Allen, 11 : 224–225. In long-established court usage, “letters patent” were for all to see, “letters close” for a particular addressee.

16. Letter 2188 : 23–50, in Allen, 8 : 210–211; letter 2874 : 32–37, in Allen, 10 : 310; letter 2846 : 124–152, in Allen, 10 : 275. See also above, chapter 3, note 22.

17. Letter 1684; letter 1804 : 260–267, in Allen, 7 : 13; Vives to Erasmus, letter 1836 : 15–32, in Allen, 7 : 83–84.

18. See my chapter 9, note 3, above.

19. To Cornelis Grapheus, whose orthodoxy had been called into question, letter 2114 : 2–19, in Allen, 8 : 74–75; letter 1782 : 46–49, in Allen, 7 : 457.

20. To Bombace, 23 September 1521, letter 1236 : 184–186, in Allen, 4 : 587 (CWE 8 : 308), published in the Epistolae ad Diversos, dated 31 August 1521.

21. Letter 1263 : 12–22, in Allen, 5 : 27 (CWE 9 : 38–39); the Axiomata is edited by Wallace K. Ferguson, Opuscula Erasmi (The Hague, 1933), 336–337 (CWE 71 : 106–107).

22. Letter 1301 : 32–45, in Allen, 5 : 92 (CWE 9 : 131). The reference is to the words of “Gaspar” in Confabulatio Pia (“The Whole Duty of Youth”), published with the March 1522 Colloquia. In a subsequent edition of the Colloquia later that same year, Erasmus added a passage in which the two speakers, Gaspar and Erasmus, interpret the words that had given offense just as he does in this letter.

23. De Libero Arbitrio, LB 10 : 1253E; Hyperaspistes II, LB 10 : 1454DE; Luther, De Servo Arbitrio, in Luthers Werke (Weimar), 18 : 736.

24. Letter 1823 : 6–14, in Allen, 7 : 70; letter 2615 : 182–185, in Allen, 9 : 450; on Julius Exclusus, see above, my chapter 6, note 2. For other examples of dissimulatio, see my chapter 9, note 15, and my introduction to Part III, note 12.

25. Brunfels to Erasmus, letter 1406 : 27–34, in Allen, 4 : 369 (CWE 10 : 138); Capito to Erasmus, letter 1374 : 36–62, in Allen, 5 : 304 (CWE 10 : 46); Botzheim to Erasmus, letter 1335.5–35, in Allen, 5 : 193–194 (CWE 9 : 276).

26. Adversus Debacchationes Sutoris, LB 9 : 770B; see above, this chapter, note 13; Supputationes Errorum in Censuris Beddae, LB 9 : 558D (for Erasmus’s proposal, resembling the rite of Confirmation as later practiced in both Catholic and Protestant churches, Paraphrasis in Matthaeum [Basel, 1522], sig. A6); Hyperaspistes II, LB 10 : 1440D, cf. 1418AC, 1425DE.

27. Letter 2037 : 126–128, in Allen, 7 : 463.

28. Spongia adversus Aspergines Hutteni, LB 5 : 1639F–1640A; Erasmus to Bucer, letter 2615 : 227–252, in Allen, 9 : 451; letter 2126 : 192–213, in Allen, 8 : 95, referring to the 1526 Treaty of Madrid; and Erasmus to Beda, letter 1581 : 139–143, in Allen, 6 : 91.

29. Letter 1581 : 146–148, 692–708, in Allen, 6 : 91, 104 (CWE 11 : 157–158).

30. Letter 1581 : 295–303, in Allen, 6 : 94 (CWE 11 : 141); letters 2666–2676, an exchange between Erasmus and Pelargus, in Allen, 10 : 43–49.

31. On revisions of the Colloquia, letter 1296 : 23–25, in Allen, 5 : 80 (CWE 9 : 115), and above, this chapter, note 22; on revisions of the Paraphrases, letter 1746 : 18–19, in Allen, 6 : 405; on the Epistolae Floridae, letter 2615 : 31–41, in Allen, 9 : 446.

32. Letter 2443 : 58–61, in Allen, 9 : 159, see also letter 2315 : 297–300, in Allen, 8 : 435. To see why Erasmus responded so differently to the criticisms of Beda and Sadoleto, compare letter 1579 (the preface to Beda’s Apologia against Erasmus) with letter 2272, from Sadoleto.

33. Spongia, LB 10 : 1660DE; cf. Apologia adversus Debacchationes Sutoris, LB 9 : 806AD.

34. Hyperaspistes II, LB 10 : 1382E, cf. 1353BC, and 1478CD: “Quanquam autem Deus subito potest hominem alium reddere, tamen imitans naturam paulatim fingit formatque novam Spiritus creaturam” (“Although God is able to make man suddenly different, nonetheless, following nature, He gradually makes and forms the new creature of the Spirit”).

35. Letter 2615, cited above, my chapter 10, note 31; letter 2443 : 314–316, in Allen, 9 : 165.

36. Letter 1550 : 27–30, in Allen, 6 : 27 (CWE 11 : 41); letter 1581 : 42–44, in Allen, 6 : 89 (CWE 11 : 132), my italics. In letter 1550 CWE translates circumspectis as “wise.” For Freiburg theologian Ambrosius Pelargus Erasmus in his earlier works had not been circumspect enough, for “some things are hastily said and not rightly considered, other things are not said with due circumspection [incircumspectius].”