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Erasmus and the Fathers: Their Practical Value

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Robert Peters
Robert Peters
Affiliation:
Lecturer in History, Northwestern Polytechnic, London, England
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Extract

“Indeed to lay in a state of ancient knowledge the studious master must go straight to the Greeks: to Aristotle, Theophrastus, Plotinus: to Origen, Chrysostom, Basil. Of the Latin Fathers, Ambrose will be found the most fertile in classical allusions: Jerome has the greatest command of the Scriptures.” Thus does Erasmus assess the Fathers in 1514, in the second edition of De Ratione Studii. They are a group of ancient writers coming within the horizon of those who enthusiastically “searched out, read and discovered the Greek and Roman literary classics in the two centuries between the death of Dante and the death of Machiavelli.”

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 36 , Issue 3 , September 1967 , pp. 254 - 261
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1967

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References

1. Harbison, E. Harris, The Christian Scholar in the Age of the Reformation (New York, 1956), 32.Google Scholar

2. Desiderii Erasmii Roterdami, OPEBA OMNIA, … Lugduni Batavorum, 1703–06 (hereafter LB), Tome V 1704, 857.

3. Ibid.

4. Groce, D., “Le Patristique en Erasimé,” in Festgabe Lortz II, (Freiburg, 1957), 249.Google Scholar

5. LB, V, 83.

6. DIVI IBENAII… Basilicam MDXXVI, Sig. a3a.

7. S. HIERONYMI OPERUM … Tomus Primus … Basileae MDXVI, sig. a2a.

8. Ibid., sig. a2b.

9. Ibid., “… tum episcopi prophanam dictionem magis coepissent amplecti, q[ua] ab apostlis traditum docendi munus, mox universa docendi provincia….”

10. Ibid., sig a2b.

11. Opera Bivi CAECILII CTPRIANI … Basileae … MDXX.

12. Greenslade, S. L., The English Reformers and the Fathers of the Church (Oxford, 1960), 12–13.Google Scholar

13. Opera… CYPRIANI, Sig. a3a.

14. E.g. Unio Dissidentium (Basle, 1537 ed.) Sig, Ee2b, Zz5b, may be cited as one of numerous examples. Oecolampadius was another who quoted from these editions.

15. Allen, P. S., Erasmus (Oxford, 1934), 49.Google Scholar

16. Renaudet, A., Études Erasmiennes (Paris, 1939), 35.Google Scholar

17. Bardenhewer, O., Patrologie, Eng. tr. (Freiburg, 1908), 260.Google Scholar

18. ATHANASI… Opera (Strasbourg, 1522), title page.

19. ATHANASII… Opera, Sig; a2a.

20. Patrology, J. Quasten, III (Utrecht, 1959), 39.Google Scholar I also owe this point to Professor F. L. Cross, Oxford.

21. Theoprylacti ARCHEPISCOPE BULGARIAE, IN OMNES D. PAULI EPISTOLAS ENARBATIONES… Christophoro Porsena Romano Interpreti… 1528.

22. Quite evidently there was a good deal of confusion prevailing at this time concerning the authorship of these works—eg. Unio Dissidentium (Basle, 1537 ed.) Big Xb, and elsewhere attributes to Athanasius the authorship of these works, yet the compiler was well aware of enarrationes by Theophylact, and made use of them. He had to turn the pages containing those attributed to Athanasius in order to reach those correctly attributed to Theophylact.

23. Bardenhewer, , Op. cit., 404.Google Scholar

24. Benaudet, . Op. cit., 35.Google Scholar

25. Allen, , Opus Epistolarum Des. Erasmi Roterdamii T. V. (Oxford, 1928) Ep 1334.Google Scholar

26. D. HILARII…, Basilicam MDXXIII, Sig: *2a - *7a

27. DIVI IRENAII…, Sig: a2a.

28. Ibid.

29. Ibid: Sig a2b.

30. LB, VIII, 326.

31. See Panzor, G. V., Annales Typographici, VI (Nuremberg, 1798), No. 774.Google Scholar

32. LB, VIII, 2–6.

33. For a discussion on the history of the “rehabilitation” of Origen, see Wind, B., “The Revival of Origen,” in Studies in Art and Literature for Belle da Costa Green, ed. Miner, D. (Princeton 1954), 424ffGoogle Scholar; also Walker, D. P., “Origène en France,” in Courants religieux et humanisme a la fin due XVe et au début XVIe siècle (Paris 1959), 109f.Google Scholar