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The Northern Renaissance - Document Packet

Queslionlsy; . What ore some of the crificisms of the clergy made by Erasmus in this document?r What did Erosmus feel were the problems of the Papacy of his day?

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....The next to these qre another sort of broinsick fools, who style themselves monks ond ofreligious orders, though they assume both titles very unjustly; for os to the lost, they hove very littlereligion in them; ond os to the former, the etymology of the word monk implieq a solitariness, or beingolone; whereos they ore so thick abroad thot we connot pass any street or alley without meeting them.Now f connot imogine what one de-gree of men would be more hopelessly wretched, if f did not stondtheir friend, and buoy them up in thct loke of rnisery, which by the engragements of c holy vow theyhave voluntorily immerged themselves in. But when this sort of men ore so unwelcome to others, osthst the very sight of them is thought ominous, I yet nake them highly in love with themselves, andfond adrnirers of their own hoppiness. The first sfep whereunto they esteem o profound ignoronce,thinking carml knowledge a grent enemy to their spirituol welfare, ond seern confidenf of becominggreater proficients in divine mysferies the less they are poisoned with ony humon leorning. Theyimogine thot they bear a sweet consort with the heavenly choir, when they tone out their daily tolly ofpsalms. which they rehearse only by rote, without permitting their understonding or affections to 9oolong with their voice.

Among these some mcke o good profitable trode of beggary, going obout from house to house,not like the opostles, to breok, but to beg, ther bread; nqy, thrust into all public-houses, corne oboardthe possoge-boots, get into the froveling wagons, ond omit no opportunity of time or ploce for Ihecraving people's chority; doing o great deal of injury to common highwqy beggars by interloping in theirtroffic of alms, And when they are thus voluntarily poor. destitute, not provided with two coats, norwif h ony money in their purse, they have the impudence to pretetld thot they imitate the firstdisciples, whom their master expressly sent out in such on equipoge.

ft is pretty to observe how they regulote oll their octions as it were by weight ond meosure toso exqct o proportion, os if the whole loss of their religion depended upon the omission of the leostpunctilio. Thus they must be very critical in the precise number of knots to the tying on of theirsandols; whot distinct colours their respective hobits, and what stuff mcde of; how broad ond longtheir girdles; how big, ond in whot foshion, their hoods; whether their bold crowns be to o hoir's-breodth of the right cut; how mony hours they must sleep, at what minute rise to proyers, and so on.

And these severol customs are altered cccording to the humours of differerft persons ond places.While they are sworn to the superstifious observonce of these trif les, they do not only despise ollothers. but ore very inciinabie to faii out among themselves; for though they moke profession of onopostolic chority, yet they will pick o guarrel, and be implocably passionote for such poor provocations,os the girting on a coot the wrong way, f or the wearing of clothes o little too darkish coloured or anysuch nicety not worth the speoking of.

....Now as to the popes of Rome, who pretend themselves Christ's vicars. if they would butimitote his exemplory life, in the being employed in on unintermitted course of preoching; in the beingattended with poverty, nqkedness, hunger, snd a conternpt of this world; if they did but consider theimport of lhe word pope, which signif ies a father: or tf they did but practice their surnome of most

holy, whot order or degrees of men would be in o worse condition? There would be then no suchvigorous making of porties, ond buying of votes, in fhe conclave upon a vaconcy of thot See: ond thosewho by bribery, or other indirect courses, should get themselves elected, would never secLlr e theirsitting firm in the chair by pistol, poison, force, ond violence.

How much of their pleosure would be obqted if they were but e-ndowed with one dram ofwisdom? Wisdom, did f soy? My, with one groin of thot solt which our Soviour bid thern not lose thesovour of. All their riches, all their honour. their jurisdictions, their Peter's potrimony, their affices,their dispensotions, their licences, their indulgences, their long troin and ottendonts (see in how shorto compass f hove obbrevioted all their marketing of religion); in o word, oll their perquisites would beforfeited and lost; and in their room would succeed wotchings, fostings, tears, prayers, sermons, hordstudies, repenting sighs, ond o thousond such like severe penolties: ncy, whot's yet more deploroble, itwould then follow, thot all their clerks, cmonuenses, notories, advocstes, proctors, secrefories, theoffices of grooms, ostlers, serving-men, pimps (ond somewhat else, which for modesty's sake f shollnot mention); in short, all these troops of ottendonts, which depend on his holiness, would oll tose theirseveral employments. This indeed would be hord, but what yet remoins would be more dreadful: theway Heod af the Church, the spirituol prince, would then be brought frorn all his splendour to the poorequipage of o scrip cnd staff.

But all this is upon the supposition only that they understood what circum$onces they areplaced in: whereos now, by o wholesome neglecl of thinking, they live os well as heort con wish:whatever of toil and drudgery belongs to their officethot they assign over to St. Peter, or St. Poul,who have time enough to mind it; but if there be any thing of pleasure ond grandeur, that they assumeto themselves, os being hereunto called: so thot by my influenceno sort of people live more to theirown ease ond content. They think to satisfy thot Moster they pretend to serve, our Lord ond Soviour,with their greqt stote ond mognif icence, with the ceremonies of instollments, with the f itles of?everertce and holiness, ond with exercising their Episcopol function only in blessing and cursing. Theworking of nirscles is old ond ouf-dated; to teach thepeople is too loborious; to interpret scripture isto invode the prerogative of the schoolmen: to proy is too idle: to shed teors is cowordly ond unmanly;to fost is too meon ond sordid; to be eosy ond familior is beneoth the grandeur of him, who, withoutbeing sued to ond ill-treoted. will scorce give princes fhe honor of kissing his toe; finolly, to die farreligion is too self-denying: and to be crucified os their Lord of Life, is bose ond ignominious.

Their only weopons ought to be fhose of the Spirit; ond of these indeed they are mightyliberol, as of their interdicts, their suspensiorr, their denunciations, their aggravotions, their greoferand lesser excommunicctions, ond their roorirg bulls, thot fright whomever they orethunderedagoinst; and these most holy fothers never issue them ouf more freguently than ogainst those, who, atthe instigotion of the devil, and not having thefenr of 6odbeforetheir eyes,do feloniously ondmaliciously aftempt to lessen cnd impair 5t. Peter's potrimony: and though thot apostle tells ourSovior in the gospel, in the name of oll the other disciples, we have left cll, ond followed you, yet theychallenge os his inheritonce, fields, towns, treasures, ond large dominions; for the defe-nding whereof ,

inf lamed with o holy zeal, they fight with fire and sword, fo the greot loss ond effusion of Christionblood, thinking they are opostolicol mointoiners of Christ's spouse, the church, when they hovemurcjereci oiisuch as ihey coll her enemies: though inaeed the church hos no enemies more bioociy oncityrannical than such impious popes, who give dispemafiors for the not precching of Christ; evocuatethe moin eff ect ond design of our redemption by their pecuniory bribes and soles; sdulterate thegospel by their forced interpretations, ond undermining troditions; ond lostly, by their lusts andwickedness grieve the Holy Spirit, ond make their Sovior's wounds to bleed onew.

SOURCE: Desiderius Erasmus, In Praise of Folly, 15O9.

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Qlrestionls;: . Since Utopians worked only six-hour doys, whot did they do with their leisure time?. Whot ore some of lhe moral/economic/sociallpoliticol value-s of More's Utopio?. What role does religion play in Utopion life?. What is the Utopion vievt of sickness ond a "good" death?. Whot do they consider fo be o "bod deoth"? Why?

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. - - To understond their way of lif e fully we must look at one point more carefully. They olloto@r,andyoumightthinkthotoscorcityofessentialgoodswouldresult.Actuollytheir working hours aresufficient to provide not only on obundonce, but evenasuperobundonce of ollthe necessities ond conveniences of lif e. You will easily undersiond this if you consider how lorge oport of the population in other countries is idle. fn the first place, the women (ond they qre holf thewhole populotion) usuolly do not work, or rf they do, their hr.rsbands lie snoring. Secondly, there is themultitude of priests and so-colled religious men, as rurmerous os they ore idle. Add to these oll therich men, especiolly greot londlords, who ore commonly colled well-born ond noble. Add theirhenchrnen, the whole f lock of swaggering bullies. Reckon in with these the strong ond h.rsty beggars,who 9o obout feigning some diseoseto excuse their loziness. You willfind thot actualnumber ofworkers who supply the reeds of monkind is much smqller than you would think. And now consider howfew of the-se workers ora employed in reolly necessqry work. Because we meosure values by money, wehove to corry on many superfluous trodes to support luxury ond wontonness. ff the mult;tude of ourworkers produced only whot men need for good living, there would be such an cbundonce of goods thatprices would go down and workmen wouid prosper. You ccn easily imogine how little time woulci beenough to produce the goods fhot mon's needs ond convenience demond (ond his pleosure too if it weretrue ond nofural pleasure), if only the workers in useless trodes were placed in worthwhile occupationsand all the idlers who longuish in slofh but eof twice as much as loborers were put to work on usefultasks.

THEIR,IAORAL PHILOSOPM/

The Utopiens wonder that fhere is ony mon who delights in the faint gleom of c little gern whenhe con look at some star or even the sun itself. They morvel thof there is any mon so foolish ss tothink himself the nobler becouse of the fine texfure of his woolen clothing. No matter how f ine thethreod, o sheep once wore it, ond the she-ep was a sheep still for all its wearing it. They wonder fhotgold, so useless o thing in itself , is everywhere so highly esteemed that man himself, through whom e

ond by whose use it obfains its value, should be less revered thon it. And they do not understand whyo blockheod with no more broins thon a post, and bod as well os stupid, should have morry wise and goodmen serving him. only becouse he hoppens fo ourt a great sum of gold" If he should lose all his moneyto some ufterly worthless fellow in his household, either by some chance or by a legol trick (which conproduce chonges os great as chonce does), he would soon become one of this fellow's servonts, osthough he belonged to the money and wos bound to follow its fortune. . . .

The Utopions have obsorbed these and similor attitudes porf ly from their education, f or they arebrought up omidst customs ond institutions guite opposed fo such folly. They hove olso acquired thesenotions from their leorning ond literoture. . . .

fn their morol philosophy,they argue much as we do. They consider whct things are truly 9ood, sboth for the body and the mind, and whether it is proper to coll external things good or only the gifts

of the mind. They inguire info the nature of virtue and pleasure. But their chief concern is obouthumsn hoppiness, whether it consists of one fhing or of marry. They seem much inclined to the viewthot oll or most of human hoppiness lies in pleasure. And whot may seem sfronge, they seek supportfor their pleasure philosophy from religion, which is serious ond stern, somewhot severe and

forbidding. For fhey never discuss hoppiness without combining the rationol principles of philosophywith principles taken from religion. They think orry inguiry eoncerning true hoppiness wesk onddefective unless it is based on religion.

The religious principles are'th*e: thot the soul of mon is immortol ond by divine beneficence has

been ordoinedfor hoppiness; and ofter this life therearerewards appointed for our virtues ond good

works ond punishment f or our sins. They think thot olthough these beliefs belong to religion, it is in e

occordance with recson thot they be held ond ocknowledged. They do not hesitote to ossert thot ifthese wererejected, no one would be so stupid as not to discern thot he oughf to seek pleosureregordless of right ond wrong. . . . For what con one hope for after life without pleasure, thot is,after a miserable life,if there is no reword after dq*gth?

The Utopians do not believe that there is hoppiness in oll pleosures, but only in good ond honestpleosures. To such, they believe, our nature is drown as to its highest good by virtue itself. Theopposite point of view is that hoppiness consists of virtue olone.

they defrne virtue as living occording fo nature. . . . they conclude that nature herselfprescribes a lif e of joy (that is, of pleosure) os the gool of life. Thof is what they meon by soying thotvirtue is livirg occording to nafure. And os noture bids us mutuolly to moke our lives merry onddelightful, so she also bids us agcin ond again not to destroy or diminish other people's pleasure inseeking our own. . . .

Thus ofter weighirtg the motter carefully, they conclude thot all our ocfions, ond omong these ourvirtues, ultimately look toword pleosure ond happiness os their end. They coll pleasure all the octs ondstotes of body or mind in which mon naturolly delights. But they include in their concept of pleasureonly those oppetites to which nature leods us. And they maintain that nature leads us only to thedelights opproved by righf reoson as well cs by the senses, that is, only those delights by which weneither injure others, nor lose a greater pleosure for c less, nor suffer for loter. Those ottrsctionswhich ore inconsistent with nature and which men coll delights only by the emptiest of f ictions (os ifmen could change their noture by chonging their name), these things they soy diminish happinessrother thon increose it. For men whose minds orefilled up with a folse ideo of pleosure have no roomlefl for true pleosures cnd genuine delight. . . .

The Wopions . . . discriminate severol kinds of true pleosures, some belonging to the mind, othersto the body. Those of lhe mind ore knonledge and the delight which comes from contemplotion of thetruth; olso the pleosont recollection of a well-spent life ond the ossured hope of future well-being.

They divide bodily pleasures into two sorts. The first kind is fhat which fills the senses withimmediote pleosure. This occurs when the body's parts Gre renewed ond refreshed by food and drink,or when some excess in the body is dischorged, as in bowel movements, procreation, or rubbing cndscrotching some itch.

There fs o second kind of bodily pleosure thot neither repoirs nor relieves our bodies, but excitesour ser.ses wifh some hidden buf unmistakobie force anei furns them inwarciiy upon ihemseives. Suchis the pleesure thct comes from music.

Another form of bodily pleosure consists of a guiet. sound condition of the body, its gereral well-being when disturbed by no disecse. This condilion in itself gives inward pleasure, though it is notexcited by orqrthing exfernol. Although it affects the senses less strongly than the obvioussotisfoction of eating and drinking,yet mony count this the gruter pleosure. Most of the Utopianssoy that this is tha foundstion of all pleasures, since if olone mokes o calm ond desirable condition. ffit is lacking,there is no chance for ony other pleasure. Mere absence of poin they call insensibility,

not pleosure, unless it is a state of heolth.fn times post they carried on a vigorous controversy os fo whether assured and tranquil heolth is

reolly o plasure, since it only makes itself felt when it is threotened by iis opposite. Today they ollag?ee that heolth is the greatest of all bodily pleasures. . . .

Of oll the pleasures they especially embroce those of the mind, for they esteem them mosthighly, thinking they arise from the exercise of the virtu€s ond from the consciousness of a good life.Among bodily pleosures they give firsf plcce to health. They hold that the pleosure of eating anddrinking and all other delights af the body ore desirable only as they mcintain heolth. They are notdelightful in themselves, but only os they resist the encroachments of sickness. A wise man thinks itbetter to word off sickness thon to seek medicine, and to overcome troubles rsther thqn to seekcomfort. 5o it is better to reject these pleosures of sense than to be captivcted by them. ff cnyrnon thinks he is hoppy in the midst of these plecsures, then he must confess thot he would be thehappiest of men if he should spend his whole life in on unending round of hunger, thirst, itching,followed by eating, drinking, scrctching ond rubbing. Who connot see thot such a life is not only vile.but miseroble? . . . So the Utopions think pleosures of this sort are not to be highly volued, except in

so for os they ore necessary to life. . . .

These ore their ideas of virtue ond pleasure, ond they think that humon reoson con find nonetnuer, uniess some heovenly revelotion should inspire more sublime ideas in men. f have no time toconsider whether they are right in these views or not, nor do f think it necessary, as f onf undertookto give on account of their customs, not to defend them. Whatever the volidity of these principles, fom sure that nowhere is there o more excellent people or a hoppier commonwealth.

THEIR CARE OF THE 5ICK AND EUTHANASIA

The sick, as f have soid, they fend carefully, omitting no medicine or food that will restorethem to heolth. They relieve those who suffer from some incuroble disease by sitting ond talking withthem qnd by ollevioting their poin in every possible woy. But if o person suffers from o diser.se. which ois both incurable ond continuolly excrucioting, the priests ond mogistrates come ond urge him to mokethe decision not to nourish such o painful disease ony longer. He is now unegualto ollthe duties oflif e, a burden to himself ond fo others. having reolly outlived himself. They tell him not to hesitote todie when life is such o torment, but in confidence of abetter life after deoth, to deliver himself fromthe scourge cnd imprisonment of living, or let others releose him. This, they scy, he would do wisely,for by death he would lose nothing but sufferirE. Since he would be octirg on the odvice of thepriasts, who are the interpreters of 6od's will, he would oC rightly and virtuously. Those whc oremoved by these arguments either storve themselves to deafh of their own occord or through the aidof on opiote die painlessf. If o mon is not persuoded fo this counse, they do nof force him to itagainst his will, nor do they lessen their care of him. To choose death under these circumstances ishonoroble. But they dishonor o mcn who takes his own life without the approvol of the priasts ond .senate. They consider him unworthy of decent buriol ond throw his body unburied ond disgruced into oditch.