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The Literary Conventions of Erasmus' Education of a Christian Prince: Advice and Aphorism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Richard F. Hardin
Richard F. Hardin*
Affiliation:
The University of Kansas
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Extract

The advent of the great autocrats of the sixteenth century—Francis I, Charles V, and Henry VIII—was a source of concern and perplexity to many sensitive observers of that age, a reaction that was more than the mere aversion to magnificence that Hans Baron saw motivating an earlier civic humanism. The sixteenth century brought with it a series of disastrous wars and an expansion of monarchies the likes of which the preceding century had not known. The Holy Roman Empire came to include, at least nominally, a vast area of Europe from Austria to the Netherlands; the ambitious Francis I had designs on Italy and the Netherlands; Henry VIII was pursuing the reconquest of France.

Type
Research Article
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 35 , Issue 2 , Summer 1982 , pp. 151 - 163
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1982

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References

1 “Franciscan Poverty and Civic Wealth as Factors in the Rise of Humanistic Thought,” Speculum, 13 (1938), 15.

2 Epigrammata (Basel, 1518), p. 263. I give translation and original in all cases where the translation is my own. This epigram is not given in the collection cited in n. 36. When quoting early texts, I have expanded abbreviations and modernized the use of i/j and u/v.

3 Eli Sobel, rev. of Herding, Otto and Stupperich, Robert, eds., Die Humanisten in ihrer politischen und sozialen Umwelt (Boppard, 1976), in RQ, 31 (1978), p. 197.Google Scholar See, in the collection reviwed, Halkin, Léon, “Erasme et la politique des rois,” pp. 109–118.Google Scholar

3 Utopia, trans. Robert M. Adams (New York, 1975), p. 29.

5 Huizinga, Johan, Erasmus and the Age of the Reformation, trans. Hopman, F. (1924; rpt. New York, 1957), p. 153.Google Scholar

6 Preface to Suetonius, , in Collected Works of Erasmus, gen. ed., Thompson, Craig R. (Toronto, 1974.), IV, 383 Google Scholar (abbreviated as CWE).

7 L'essor de la philosophic politique au XVIe siècle, 3rd ed., De Petrarque à Descartes, 19 (1969), p. 87.

8 Erasmi Opera Omnia (Amsterdam and Oxford), IV, i (1974), pp. 97-130, cited as “Herding, ed.” My summary in this paragraph refers especially to pp. 97-107 and 118-130. The introduction in Born, L. K., trans., The Education of a Christian Prince (New York, 1936), pp. 3–130 Google Scholar, is chiefly about sources and analogues. For a good recent study of Erasmus’ political ideas see Tracy, James, The Politics of Erasmus: A Pacifist Intellectual and His Political Milieu (Toronto, 1978).Google Scholar

9 Allen, P. S., Erasmi Epistolae, 12 vols. (Oxford, 1906-58), No. 334.Google Scholar

10 “In Enchiridio simliciter Christianae vitae formam tradidimus. In libello De principis institutione palam admonemus quibus rebus principem oporteat esse instructum. In Panegyrico sub laudis praetextu hoc ipsum tamen agimus oblique quod illic egimus aperta fronte. Nec aliud agitur in Moria sub specie lusus quam actum est in Enchiridio” (Allen, No. 337).

11 Hexter, J. H., The Vision of Politics on the Eve of the Reformation (New York, 1973), p. 215.Google Scholar On the history of advice literature see Gilbert, Allan, Machiavelli's “Prince” and Its Forerunners (Durham, N.C., 1948).Google Scholar

12 Bergen, Henry, ed., Fall of Princes, E.E.T.S., e.s. 121-124 (London, 1923-1927), 121, xx.Google Scholar

13 Isocrates, Loeb ed., trans. George Norlin (1928; rpt. London, 1966), I, 151 (par. 20).

14 Praise of Folly in The Essential Erasmus, trans. John P. Dolan (New York, 1964), p. 102.

15 Herding ed., p. 136: “Institutio Principis Christiani per Erasmum Rotterodamum aphorismis digesta quo minus onerosa sit lectio.” Cf. Born, p. 137.

16 Opera Omnia, 10 vols. (Leyden, 1703), hereafter cited as LB.

17 See Vickers, Brian, Francis Bacon and Renaissance Prose (Cambridge, 1968), pp. 60–95 Google Scholar, the source for the remarks on the form in this paragraph.

18 LB, IV, 87-88: “Proin ex optimis quibusque auctoribus collegi: quae Graeci vocant Apophthegmata, hoc est, egregie dicta, quod viderem non aliud argumenti genus Principi, praesertim juveni, magis accommodum. Sunt illa quidem scitu dignissima, quae Philosophi de moribus, de Republica administranda, deque bello gerendo literis prodiderunt. Sed quoto cuique vel privato tantum est otii, ut apud Platonem Socraticarum argutationum, ironiarum & Isagogarum ambages ac labyrinthos evolvere vacet? Aristoteles autem copiose quidem scripsit de moribus, sed Philosophis scripsisse videtur, non Principi… . At ei qui ditioni nascitur statim expedienda virtus est, non per otium disputanda. Restat Historia, quae quoniam res praeclare secusve gestas velut in tabula spectandas repraesentat, nee id absque voluptate, magnatibus viris aptior esse videtur: sed hic ut infinitam voluminum vim Principi vacet evolvere, quis possit meminisse? Atqui quemadmodum ii qui certant in palaestra, certos quosdam prehendendi elabendique modos ad manum habent: ita qui in pads bellique negotiis versantur certas rationes in promptu habere convenit, quibus admoneantur, quid pro re nata sit facto opus, quid non.”

19 Prince Philip was to read the book, “explaining and translating it” three hours a day (Born, pp. 28-29 and n. 17).

20 Hexter, , The Vision of Politics, pp. 84–85.Google Scholar

21 E.g., Mesnard, L'essor; Skinner, Quentin, The Foundations of Modern Political Thought (Cambridge, 1978).Google Scholar

22 Herding ed., p. 136: “Ubi receptum est sufragiis ascisci principem, illic non perinde spectandae sunt maiorum imagines, sive species corporis aut proccritas, quod a barbaris nonnullis olim ineptissime factitatum legimus atque indoles animi mansueta placidaque, sedatum ac minime praeceps ingenium nee ita concitatum, ut periculum sit, ne accedente fortunae licentia erumpat in tyrannidem et admonentem aut consulentem non ferat, nec rursus ita lentum, ut cuiuslibet arbitrio quovis duci sese patiatur.” For all its cumbersomeness, the translation is more accurate than Born's, which renders “ubi” as temporal, loses the “not so much … as” sense of “non perinde … atque,” and reads “indoles animi mansueta placidaque” as referring to the barbarian practice: “When a prince is to be chosen by election it is not at all appropriate to look to the images of his forefathers, to consider his physical appearance, his height of stature (which we read that some barbarians once most stupidly did) and to seek a quiet and placid trend of spirit. Seek rather a nature staid, in no way rash, and not so excitable that there is a danger of his developing into a tyrant under the license of good fortune and casting aside all regard for advisors and counselors. Yet have a care that he be not so weak as to be turned now this way and that by whomever he meets” (Born, p. 139). I wish to acknowledge Professor Oliver Phillips’ grammatical assistance on this point.

23 Adagia, trans. Phillips, Margaret Mann as Erasmus on His Times: A Shortened Version of the Adages of Erasmus (Cambridge, 1967), p. 40.Google Scholar

24 Herding ed., p. 136: “Caeterum ubi nascitur princeps, non eligitur, quod et olim apud barbaros aliquot nationes fieri solitum testatur Aristoteles et nostris temporibus ubique fere receptum est, ibi praecipue boni principis spes a recta pendet institutione, quam hoc diligentiorem etiam adhiberi conveniet, ut quod suffragiorum iuri detractum est, id elucendi studio pensetur.”

25 “The Godly Feast,” in The Colloquies of Erasmus, trans. Craig R. Thompson (Chicago, 1965), p. 58 (Eusebius speaking).

26 Herding ed., p. 166: “Deus ipse, ne coactis imperaret, et angelis et hominibus liberum dedit arbitrium, quo splendidius et angustius redderet imperium suum. Et quisquam hoc nomine sibi magnus videtur, quod metu adactis civibus ceu pecudibus imperet?”

27 L'essor, p. 96.

28 “Isokrates, Erasmus, und die Institutio,” in Dauer und Wandel der Geschichte: Aspekte Europäische Vergangenheit. Festgabe für Kurt von Raumer, eds. Rudolf Vierhaus and Manfred Botzenhart (Münster, 1966), p. 132.

29 Herding ed., p. 145: “Cogita, quaeso, quam sit absurdum gemmis auro purpura satellito reliquisque corporis ornamentis, ceris et imaginibus planeque bonis non tuis omneis tanto intervallo superare, veris animi bonis multis e media fece plebis inferiorem conspici.”

30 “Scarabeus aquilam quaerit,” Adagia, trans, cit., pp. 50-51.

31 LB, VI, 635 (Romans 13. 1): “non dixit, omnes Principes ordinatos a Deo, sed potestatem: quemadmodum matrimonium est a Deo, sed non omnes conjuges jungit Deus.”

32 See Herding ed.: “Ne putaris te Christum …” (pp. 147-48); “Nullius pestelentiae … ” (p. 149); “Hoc interest inter principem et tyrannum … ” (pp. 152-53); “Deusipse…” (p. 166).

33 Mesnard, , L'essor, p. 124 Google Scholar: “Érasme rejette précisément l'idée d'une souverainté véritable”—referring especially to this aphorism, Herding, ed., p. 164: “Cogitato semper dominum imperium regnum maiestatem potentiam ethnicorum esse vocabula, non Christianorum; Christianum imperium nihil aliud esse quam administrationem quam beneficentiam quam custodiam.” (“Know always that lord, sovereignty, kingdom, majesty and power are pagan, not Christian words. Christian sovereignty is nothing else than helping, kindness, protecting.”)

34 Preface to Suetonius, , CWE, IV, 381.Google Scholar

35 “Dulce bellum inexpertis,” Adagia, trans, cit., p. 131; cf. Aristotle, , Politics, 3, 10.Google Scholar

36 Herding ed., p. 216: “Bona pars imperii consensus estpopuli, ea res primo reges peperit.”

37 More, , History of King Richard III and Selections from the English and Latin Poems, ed. Sylvester, R. S. (New Haven, 1976), trans. Bradner, L. and Lynch, C. A., pp. 142–143.Google Scholar