Gilberti Cognati Nozereni aliquot epistolae

MOST ILLUSTRIOUS AND MOST LEARNED MAN, MASTER MARTIN BORRHAUS, to be observed by me among my elders, Gilbert Cousin of Nozeroy sends many greetings.

A decorative drop cap letter E featuring floral and foliate motifs.SUCH IS THE PRESENT condition of the times, most learned Borrhaeus, that I desire to be counted at least among the second rank of men: namely, that since I cannot advise myself, I might at least obey those who advise rightly. I see that it happens to me almost as it does with my fatherland, what happens to husbands with scolding and not very agreeable wives: whether I want to or not, I am forced to say, I can neither live with you nor without you. There are many reasons for staying: first of all the smoke of the fatherland a classical allusion to the longing for one's home, parents, friends, and possessions not to be disregarded; then the annual income arising from a prebend, which would not be paid to an absentee. Finally, it is not at all clear where one ought to move, especially with affairs everywhere in the world in such turmoil. From Germany, the nurse of my studies, a certain ennui boredom/weariness keeps me away, contriving I know not what evil; and the health of this little body, as well as the priest-status and my parents, deny me the power to move further. Otherwise, I would have long since pondered, having proclaimed it to my friends, moving to either Gaul or Italy. On the other hand, there are many things that make me anxious about staying here. I see everywhere a wonderful conspiracy of ptochōn beggars and inverted Sileni a reference to the Sileni of Alcibiades, a metaphor for things that appear base on the outside but contain divinity within; here used ironically to describe hypocrites against me, striving with the greatest effort to drive me out of this region, or, as they would prefer, out of the world, and to destroy me from the very root, as they say. They do this because they hear that I was a disciple and secretary to Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam; they blame me for the fact that in this age, his works are not held in as high esteem as they once were, but have fallen into contempt. I marvel that there are those who thus rave against a man who served studies well, from whom, even if they received a benefit, they were never offended by a word. And this plague seems to have affected none more than the ptochos beggar, the rude kind of men. Eventually, it will appear (as I hope) that the deinon ekeinou Erasmou dreadful work of that Erasmus was neither slothful nor useless to the Church of God. He still has today pontiffs, bishops, and monarchs favoring him; he satisfies the leaders and all the heads of the Christian profession. Those noisy cowled-ones, jackdaws, magpies, crows, and unlearned men in caps, bloodthirsty and rapacious, cannot be satisfied by any reason. Such impotent hatred was born from causes for which they ought rather to have loved him, if indeed kuste megata the great secrets