thought) are addressed in the prompt's XML-style tags.

* *Self-Correction on "Lidiam regulam":* "Lydian rule" is a specific idiom for a standard of measurement. I'll translate it as "Lydian touchstone" or "standard." * *Self-Correction on "stultam reddiderit":* "made foolish the wisdom of this world." (1 Cor 1:20). * *Self-Correction on "idiotis":* In 16th-century Latin, this means "unlearned" or "common people," not "idiots" in the modern sense. I will use "common folk" or "unlearned" and add a note. * *Self-Correction on "parvulis":* "Little ones" (children/humble). * *Greek:* <margin>καινὴν κτίσιν</margin> -> "new creation" (Galatians 6:15). * *Catchword:* "dis" (starts "discrepat" or similar on the next page, but I'll note it). * Structure: 1.

THE EXHORTATION OF DESIDERIUS ERASMUS OF ROTTERDAM

...ways, for those who are persuaded that this doctrine—as is truly the case—came not from Egypt or Syria, but from heaven itself? Why do we not all think this way? It must be a new and wonderful kind of Philosophy, since He who was God became man to deliver it to mortals; He who was immortal became mortal; He who was in the heart of the Father descended to earth. It must be something great and by no means trivial, whatever it is, that such an admirable author came to teach after so many families of excellent Philosophers and so many distinguished Prophets. Why do we not investigate, inquire into, and examine every detail here with a pious curiosity?

Especially since this kind of wisdom is so excellent—having once made the entire wisdom of this world look foolish—it may be drawn from these few books as if from the clearest springs. This is accomplished with far less trouble than learning the Aristotelian doctrine from so many thorny volumes and from such immense, conflicting commentaries of interpreters—not to mention how much greater the fruit is. For here, there is no necessity for you to approach equipped with so many anxious academic disciplines.

The travel-provisions are simple and ready for anyone; only see to it that you bring a pious and ready mind, and above all, one endowed with simple and pure faith.

Only be teachable, and you have already progressed far in this Philosophy. It provides its own teacher, the Spirit, who imparts Himself to no one more willingly than to simple minds. Other disciplines, besides promising a false happiness, actually repel the talents of many people by the very difficulty of their precepts.

This Philosophy accommodates itself to everyone equally; it lowers itself to the "little ones" A reference to the humble or children, following Matthew 11:25., attuning itself to their measure, nourishing them with milk, carrying them, warming them, sustaining them, and doing everything until we grow up in Christ.

Yet, while it does not fail the lowest, it is also a source of wonder to the highest. Indeed, the further you progress into its riches, the further you are removed by its majesty.

It is small to the small, and more than great to the great. It rejects no age, no sex, no fortune, and no condition of life.

The sun itself is not as common and accessible to all as the doctrine of Christ is. It shuts no one out at all, unless someone shuts himself out through his own envy.

For I strongly disagree with those who are unwilling for the Divine Scriptures to be translated into the common tongue and read by the unlearned original: idiotis; in this context, it refers to those without formal academic training rather than "idiots" in the modern sense., as if Christ taught things so convoluted that they could scarcely be understood by a few Theologians, or as if the protection of the Christian religion lay in its being unknown.

Perhaps it is better to hide the mysteries of kings. But Christ desires His mysteries to be published as widely as possible. I would wish that all simple women might read the Gospel and the Epistles of Paul.

And I wish that these were translated into all the languages of all people, so that they might be read and known not only by the Scots and Irish, but also by the Turks and Saracens Erasmus uses "Saracens" as a general historical term for Muslims..

Certainly, the first step is to know them in some way. Granted, many might laugh, but some would be captured by them.

I wish the farmer might sing something from hence at his plow, that the weaver might hum something from hence to the movement of his shuttle, and that the traveler might lighten the weariness of his journey with stories of this kind.

Let the conversations of all Christians be drawn from these. For we are generally such as our daily conversations are.

Let each person attain what he can; let each express what he can. Let the one who is behind not envy the one ahead; let the one who is ahead invite the one following, and not despair of him.

Why do we restrict a profession common to everyone to just a few? For it is not consistent—since Baptism is equally common to all Christians (in which the first profession of Christian Philosophy is made) and since the other sacraments and the reward of immortality belong equally to all—that the doctrines alone should be relegated to those few whom the common people today call "Theologians" or "Monks." Yet even though these men are a tiny portion of the population that bears the Christian name, I wish they themselves were more like what they are called.

For I fear that among Theologians, one might find those who are far from their title—that is, who speak of earthly rather than divine things. And among Monks, who profess the poverty of Christ and contempt for the world, you will find more than the world itself.

To me, he is truly a Theologian who teaches—not with artfully twisted syllogisms, but with his disposition, his very look and eyes, and his very life—that riches are to be despised; that a Christian must not trust in the protections of this world, but must depend entirely on Heaven; that an injury must not be retaliated; that we must pray well for those who curse us and deserve well of those who deserve ill of us; that all good people should be loved and cherished equally as members of the same body, and the wicked tolerated if they cannot be corrected; that those stripped of their goods, those driven from their possessions, and those who mourn are blessed and not to be pitied; and that death is even to be desired by the pious, as it is nothing other than a passage to immortality. If anyone, inspired by the Spirit of Christ, preaches these and similar things, emphasizes them, and encourages, invites, and animates people toward them—he, at last, is truly a Theologian, even if he were a ditch-digger or a weaver. If someone displays these truths in his actual behavior, he is indeed a great teacher.

Another person, perhaps even a non-Christian, might dispute more subtly the way in which Angels understand things; but to persuade us to live an angelic life here, pure from all stains—that is the true duty of a Christian Theologian.

But if someone protests that these things are "thick" and "ignorant," I would answer nothing else but that Christ taught these "thick" things above all, and the Apostles emphasized them. These things, however "ignorant" they seem, have produced for us so many genuine Christians and so many swarms of distinguished martyrs.

This Philosophy, unlettered as it seems to them, has drawn the greatest Princes of the world, so many kingdoms, and so many nations under its laws—something that no force of tyrants and no erudition of Philosophers could achieve.

Nor do I object if they want to speak that other "wisdom" among the perfect.

But certainly, the humble common folk of Christians may console themselves with this: whether the Apostles knew those academic subtleties, let others decide; they certainly did not teach them.

If Princes performed these "common" things according to their station; if priests emphasized them in their sermons; if schoolmasters instilled them in children rather than that "erudite" stuff drawn from the springs of Aristotle and Averroes Averroes was a 12th-century Islamic philosopher whose commentaries on Aristotle were central to medieval Scholasticism.—the Christian world would not be in such an uproar from almost perpetual wars everywhere, nor would everything burn with such insane zeal for amassing riches by hook or by crook, nor would sacred and profane matters alike echo with so many lawsuits everywhere.

Finally, we would differ by more than just titles and ceremonies from those who do not profess the Philosophy of Christ.

Indeed, the task of either restoring or increasing the Christian religion lies chiefly in these three orders of men: in Princes and the magistrates who act in their stead; in Bishops and their vicars, the priests; and in those who instruct the youth, who are at an age that follows whatever it is taught.

If it should happen that, setting aside their own private business, they conspired from the heart toward Christ, we would surely see emerge in not so many years a true, as Paul says, new creation original: kainēn ktisin (Greek)—a race of Christians everywhere who would represent the Philosophy of Christ not only in ceremonies and logical propositions, but in their very hearts and entire lives.

By these arms, the enemies of the Christian name would be enticed to the faith of Christ far more quickly than by threats or weapons. Though we may join all protections together, nothing is more powerful than truth itself.

Is someone not a Platonist if they haven't read Plato's books? And is one a Theologian—not to mention a Christian—who has not read the writings of Christ? "Whoever loves me," He said, "keeps my words": He himself prescribed this mark.

Therefore, if we are truly Christians from the heart, if we truly believe He was sent from heaven to teach us what the wisdom of Philosophers could not, and if we truly expect from Him what no Princes, however wealthy, can give—why is anything more important to us than His writings?

Why does anything at all seem "erudite" which disagrees with His decrees? Why do we permit ourselves the same—or I might almost say more—liberty with these adorable writings than secular interpreters permit themselves with the laws of Caesar or the books of physicians? It is as if we were engaged in a trivial matter: we comment, distort, and involve whatever comes into our heads.

We drag down celestial doctrines to our own lives, as if they were a Lydian touchstone original: Lidiam regulam; a metaphor for a standard of measurement or judgment.; and while in every way...