Editing Erasmus (section)

====Third visit to England (1510–1515)====
[[File:Sir Thomas More, by Hans Holbein the Younger.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|[[Thomas More|Sir Thomas More]], by [[Hans Holbein the Younger]]. According to their friend [[Richard Whitford]], Erasmus and More were "so alike in wit, manners, affections, and pursuits, that no pair of twins could be found more so."<ref>{{cite DNB|wstitle= Whitford, Richard |volume= 61 |last= Bayne |first= Ronald |author-link= |pages= 125-127 |year= |short=1}}</ref>]]
In 1510, Erasmus arrived at More's bustling house, was confined to bed to recover from his recurrent illness, and wrote ''The Praise of Folly'', which was to be a best-seller. More was at that time the [[undersheriff]] of the [[City of London]]. His wife Jane died, aged 21, in 1511, and More quickly [[Alice More|remarrried]]. 

After his glorious reception in Italy, Erasmus had returned broke and jobless,{{refn|group=note|Even in good times, Erasmus had a "frequent inability to understand the details of his own finances" which caused him disappointment and suspicion.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Correspondence of Erasmus |url=https://utorontopress.com/9781487501990/the-correspondence-of-erasmus/ |website=University of Toronto Press |language=en-CA |access-date=23 May 2024 |archive-date=17 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240117101146/https://utorontopress.com/9781487501990/the-correspondence-of-erasmus/ |url-status=live }}</ref> His finances as late as 1530 have been described as "bewilderingly complicated" with multiple small income sources being managed with varying degrees of promptness by different associates in different countries.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Erasmus |first1=Desiderius |title=The correspondence of Erasmus. Letters 2357 to 2471 August 1530 – March 1531 |translator-first=Charles |translator-last=Fantazzi |editor-first=James M. |editor-last=Estes |date=2016 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |location=Toronto, Buffalo, London |isbn=978-1-4426-4878-4}}</ref>{{rp|2404}} }} with strained relations with former friends and benefactors on the continent, and he regretted leaving Italy, despite being horrified by papal warfare. There is a gap in his usually voluminous correspondence: his so-called "two lost years", perhaps due to self-censorship of dangerous or disgruntled opinions;<ref name=lost group=note /> he shared lodgings with his friend [[Andrea Ammonio]] (Latin secretary to Mountjoy, and the next year, to Henry VIII, who had been lodging in Thomas More's large and welcoming household but did not get on with the new wife<ref>{{cite web |last1=Baker-Smith |first1=Dominic |title=Thomas More |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archIves/fall2021/entries/thomas-more/#LifWor |website=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |date=19 March 2014}}</ref>) provided at the London [[Austin Friars]]' compound, skipping out after a disagreement with the friars over rent that caused bad blood.{{refn| group=note| Erasmus claimed the blind poet laureate friar [[Bernard André]], the former tutor of Prince Arthur, had promised to cover the rent. {{cite journal |last1=Roth |first1=F. |title=A History of the English Austin Friars (continuation) |journal=Augustiniana |date=1965 |volume=15 |jstor=44992025 |issn=0004-8003 |page=624}} It may also show the practical difficulty of being dispensed from wearing the habit of his order without being entirely dispensed from his vow of poverty: indeed, Erasmus had said his order of Augustinian Canons regular were priests when that suited and monks when that suited.<ref name=demolen/> }}

He assisted his friend John Colet by authoring Greek textbooks and securing members of staff for the newly established [[St Paul's School, London|St Paul's School]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=History and Archives |url=https://www.stpaulsschool.org.uk/about/history |website=St. Paul's School |access-date=16 January 2019 |archive-date=16 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190116200822/https://www.stpaulsschool.org.uk/about/history |url-status=live }}</ref> and was in contact when Colet gave his notorious 1512 [[John Colet#Colet's convocation sermon (1512)|Convocation sermon]] which called for a reformation of ecclesiastical affairs.<ref name=Seebohm>{{cite book |last1=Seebohm |first1=Frederic |title=The Oxford Reformers. John Colet, Erasmus and Thomas More |date=1869 |publisher=Longmans, Green and Co. |edition=3rd |url=https://reformationchurch.org.uk/book_oxford-reformers_seebohm.php |access-date=17 December 2023 |archive-date=17 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231217121512/https://reformationchurch.org.uk/book_oxford-reformers_seebohm.php |url-status=live }}</ref>{{rp|230–250}} At Colet's instigation, Erasmus started work on {{lang|la|De copia}}.

In 1511, the [[University of Cambridge]]'s chancellor, [[John Fisher]], arranged for Erasmus to be (or to study to prepare to be) the [[Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity]], though whether he actually was accepted for it or took it up is contested by historians.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=van Kooten |first1=George |last2=Payne |first2=Matthew |last3=Rex |first3=Richard |last4=Bloemendal |first4=Jan |title=Erasmus' Cambridge Years (1511–1514): The Execution of Erasmus' Christian Humanist Programme, His Epitaph for Lady Margaret's Tomb in Westminster Abbey (1512), and His Failed Attempt to Obtain the Lady Margaret's Professorship in the Face of Scholastic Opposition |journal=Erasmus Studies |date=6 March 2024 |volume=44 |issue=1 |pages=33–102 |doi=10.1163/18749275-04401002|doi-access=free }}</ref> He studied and taught Greek and researched and lectured on [[Jerome]].<ref name=circle/>{{refn|group=note|He wrote to Servatius Rogerus, the prior at Stein, to justify his jobs: "I do not aim at becoming rich, so long as I possess just enough means to provide for my health and free time for my studies and to ensure that I am a burden to none."<ref name=cheng_davies>{{cite journal |last1=Cheng-Davies |first1=Tania |title=Erasmian Perspectives on Copyright: Justifying a Right to Research |journal=Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series |date=1 May 2023 |url=https://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/research/94 |access-date=7 January 2024 |archive-date=7 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240107234956/https://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/research/94/ |url-status=live }}</ref>}}

Erasmus mainly stayed at [[Queens' College]] while lecturing at the university,<ref>{{cite web|last=Askin|first=Lindsey|title=Erasmus and Queens' College, Cambridge|date=12 July 2013|url=http://queenslib.wordpress.com/2013/07/12/erasmus-and-queens-college/|website=Queens' Old Library Books Blog|access-date=8 March 2014|archive-date=19 July 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230719070807/https://queenslib.wordpress.com/2013/07/12/erasmus-and-queens-college/|url-status=live}}</ref> between 1511 and 1515.<ref group=note>It is reported that the commission of theologians Henry VIII assembled to identify the errors of Luther was made up of three of Erasmus' former students: [[Henry Bullock]], Humphrey Walkden and John Watson.{{cite thesis |last1=Schofield |first1=John |title=The lost Reformation: Why Lutheranism failed in England during the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI |degree=PhD |date=2003 |publisher=Newcastle University |hdl=10443/596 |url=http://theses.ncl.ac.uk/jspui/handle/10443/596 |language=en |page=28}}</ref> Erasmus' rooms were located in the "{{serif|I}}" staircase of Old Court.<ref>{{acad|id=ERSS465D|name=Erasmus, Desiderius}}</ref> Despite a chronic shortage of money, he succeeded in mastering Greek by an intensive, day-and-night study of three years, taught by [[Thomas Linacre]], continuously begging in letters that his friends send him books and money for teachers.<ref>Huizinga, Dutch edition, pp. 52–53.</ref>

Erasmus suffered from poor health and was especially concerned with heating, clean air, ventilation, draughts, fresh food and unspoiled wine: he complained about the draughtiness of English buildings.<ref>{{cite web |title=Erasmus, Life in 16th Century England |website=World Civilizations |url=https://wwnorton.com/college/history/ralph/workbook/ralprs22.htm |access-date=3 December 2023 |archive-date=4 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230404001238/https://wwnorton.com/college/history/ralph/workbook/ralprs22.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> He complained that Queens' College could not supply him with enough decent wine<ref group=note>"Beer does not suit me either, and the wine is horrible." {{cite book |last1=Froud |first1=J. A. |title=Life and Letters of Erasmus |date=1896 |publisher=Scribner and Sons |page=112}}</ref> (wine was the Renaissance medicine for gallstones, from which Erasmus suffered).<ref>{{multiref2|1={{cite book |last1=Seltman |first1=Charles |title=Wine In The Ancient World |date=1957 |url=https://archive.org/details/dli.venugopal.697 |language=English }}|2={{cite journal |last1=Taylor |first1=Fred M. |title=Thomas Linacre: Humanist, Physician, Priest |journal=The Linacre Quarterly |date=February 2021 |volume=88 |issue=1 |pages=9–13 |doi=10.1177/0024363920968427|doi-access=free |pmid=33487740 |pmc=7804502 }}|3={{cite journal |last1=Herbert |first1=Amanda |title=Bibulous Erasmus |url=https://recipes.hypotheses.org/10239 |website=The Recipes Project |date=23 January 2018 |doi=10.58079/td2u |access-date=22 June 2023 |archive-date=22 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230622013545/https://recipes.hypotheses.org/10239 |url-status=live }}}}</ref> As Queens' was an unusually humanist-leaning institution in the 16th century, [[Queens' College, Cambridge#Old Court|Queens' College Old Library]] still houses many first editions of Erasmus's publications, many of which were acquired during that period by bequest or purchase, including Erasmus's New Testament translation, which is signed by friend and Polish religious reformer [[Jan Łaski]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Old Library Collections|website=Queens' Rare Book and Special Collections|url=http://www.queens.cam.ac.uk/student-information/library-archives/collections |publisher=Queens' College, Cambridge |access-date=8 March 2014|archive-date=13 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131213000139/http://www.queens.cam.ac.uk/student-information/library-archives/collections}}</ref>

By this time More was a judge on the poorman's equity court ([[Master of Requests (England)|Master of Requests]]) and a [[Privy Counsellor]].