To P.S. and H.M. Allen
the author
In dedicating this book to you I feel as though I were offering you a bunch of flowers picked in your own garden. My sole excuse is that you have enclosed the whole field. Nobody nowadays could enter upon the study of Erasmus without walking along the paths of your Opus Epistolarum Erasmus, that model of scholarly editing, and much more than that: a true historical thesaurus of all that appertains to the great spiritual movements of the age of Humanism and of the Reformation. The student of Erasmus feels safe, so long as you guide him with your sure and accurate information; when he comes to the tracts not yet trimmed by your patient labours, he still sees a wilderness before him.
When writing a short life of Erasmus, the chief difficulty is to avoid losing oneself in the immense wealth of subject-matter. It needs continual self-limitation and the omission of things that will scarcely bear omission. You will undoubtedly miss here more than you find. Only by keeping carefully to the point, which means to Erasmus himself, have I been able to meet the requirements of a well-knit composition. A few lines had to suffice for each of the great events which form the background of Erasmus' life. All his friends and foes, so familiar to you, have had to remain in the shadow. Even Thomas More, Peter Gilles, Froben and Beatus Rhenanus could only be touched upon in passing, not to speak of Hutten, Budaeus, Pirkheimer, Beda and so many others.
One thing grieves me: that you are sure to find my opinion of Erasmus too unfavourable. I could only present him as I saw him: still I am ready to admit that, perhaps, after all has been said, your more sympathising judgment must be the truer one, because it is founded on the knowledge and the love of a life-work.
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