"a Cardinal's hat when he will.

Mother of

"God! he fhall wear it on his fhoulders then ; " for I will leave him never a head to fet it on.”

Henry was foon afterwards as good as his word, and fent to the block one of the most virtuous and upright prelates that his kingdom had ever produced. The Bishop met his fate with the conftancy and refignation of a martyr.

Charles the Fifth, on hearing of the death of this Prelate, told Sir Thomas Ellyot, the King of England's Ambassador at his Court, that in killing Bishop Fisher, his master had killed at one blow all the Bishops of England: "For," added he, "the Bishop was fuch an one, as for all pur"poses I think the King had not the like again "in his realme, neither yet was he to be matched "throughout all Chriftendom."

ERASMUS.

THIS great man defcribes a custom prevalent in England in his time among the females, the discontinuance of which, as the British ladies have most affuredly gained great attractions fince

the

t

the days of Erafmus, ftrangers, no less than natives, must most truly lament.

"Ex Angliâ, 1449.

*

"Sunt hic in Angliâ nymphæ divinis vul« tibus, blandæ, faciles. Eft præterea mos nun

*The English," fays Mr. Barry, in his excellent work upon the Obstructions to the Arts in England, " have been "remarked for the beauty of their form even fo early as

the time of Gregory the Great, and it was one of the "motives for fending Austin the Monk amongst them. "Our women also we shall but slightly mention, for it would "bear too much the appearance of an infult over others, 66 were we to do but half justice to their elegant arrange"ment of proportions and beautiful delicate carnations.”

"There is a delicate peachy bloom of complexion very "common in England (which is the fource of an infinite "truly picturesque variety, as it follows the directions and "the paffions of the mind) that is rarely and but partially "to be met with anywhere else, except in the fancied defcriptions of the Greek and Latin poets."

The celebrated Roger Afcham, in one of his letters from Augsburg, thus fpeaks of the English:

“England need fear no outward enemies; the lusty lads verelie be in England. I have seen on a Sunday more “likelie men walking in St. Paul's Church, than I ever yet "faw in Augufta, where lieth an Emperor with a garrison, "three Kings, a Queen, three Princes, a number of Dukes, " &c."

"nium ofculis receperis, five difcedas aliquò, "ofculis dimitteris. Redis, redduntur fuavia ; "venitur ad te, propinantur fuavia; difceditur "abs te, dividuntur bafia; occurritur alicui, "bafiatur affatim; deniquequocunque te moveas, "fuaviorum plena funt omnia."

Luther in his "Table-Talk" fpeaks thus of this great scholar and elegant writer :

"Erafmus was ftained and poifoned at Rome "and at Venice with Epicureifm. He praises "the Arians more than the Papists. But.

amongst all his blunted darts I can endure <c none less than his Catechifm, in which he "teaches nothing certain; he only makes young "perfons err and defpair. His principal doctrine "is, that we must carry ourselves according to “the times, and as the proverb says, We must "hang the cloak according to the wind. Eraf

mus only looked to himself, to easy and plea"fant days. Erafmus is an enemy to true reli"gion; a picture and image of an Epicure and " of Lucian."

When the portrait of Erafmus was one day fhewn to Luther, he faid, "Were I to look like this picture, I fhould be the greatest knave in the world."

Luther

Luther had a perfonal diflike to Erafmus. They differed in opinion respecting free-will. At the beginning of the difputes between the Papists and the Proteftants, Luther had done every thing in his power to bring him over to his opinion, and according to Boffuet had written fome very fervile letters to him for that purpose. At first Erafmus favoured the fentiments of Luther; but when he found the fchifm between the two Churches openly declared, he withdrew from Luther, and wrote against him with his usual moderation. Luther anfwered with extreme violence; and Erasmus in one of his letters to

Melancthon fays, "I really thought that Lu"ther's marriage would have foftened him a

little. It is very hard for a man of my mode"ration, and of my years, to be obliged to write "against a favage beaft and furious wild boar.'

Erafmus, in another letter to Melancthon, fpeaks of Luther's excefs of vehemence, and gives a folution of it. "What fhocks me the "moft in Luther is, that whatever opinion he "undertakes to defend, he pushes it to the ut"moft. And when he is told of this, inftead " of becoming more moderate he goes on still "farther, and feems to have a great pleasure to hurry on to a greater extremity. I know his difpofition from his writings as well as if I was living with him. He is of an ardent and impetuous

66

66

petuous spirit. You fee in every thing that *he does an Achilles, whofe anger is not to be "fubdued. Add to all this, his great fuccefs,

the favourable opinion of mankind, and the "applauses of the great Theatre of the World, there is furely fufficient to spoil a man of the moft modeft difpofition,"

Malichias fays of Erafmus, "that he used to rife early, and give up his mornings to study "and to writing; then, in imitation of the An"tients, make a late dinner, and afterwards give "himself up to the company of his friends, or "take a walk with them, and in converfation

chat pleafantly and chearfully with them, or repeat those sentences which, taken down in writing from his mouth by some of them, have "fince appeared with the title of his Familiar "Colloquies."

Erafmus had fo great an averfion to fish, that he could not even bear the smell of it: this made the Papifts fay, that Erafmus had not only a Lutheran difpofition, but a Lutheran ftomach...

The memory of Erafmus was held in fuch veneration even by fovereigns, that Philip the Second of Spain, Mary Queen of Hungary, and many Princes in their train, who were at Rotter

dam