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Handout #146 |
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The militant for peace (Erasmus) |
| Erasmus can also be indignant that a pope
should be a warrior and passionately calls on Christians to make peace.
What is there in common between the helmet and the mitre? Or between the cross and the sword? Between the sacred book of the gospel and the shield? Bishop, you who hold the place of the apostles, how do you dare teach people war. Julius (Pope Julius Il) excluded from Heaven (1514 A.D.) Certain truths approved by some do not cross the sea: certain others do not cross the Alps; finally, others do not get further than the Rhine ... Flags bear the sign of the cross; impious mercenaries, paid to perpetrate murder and brigandage, bear the cross before them, and the cross, which is the one thing that should have dissuaded people from war, becomes its symbol. Mass is said in either camp. Is anything more monstrous? (Peace is speaking) I call on you princes, you priests, you bishops. I call on all you who glory in the title of Christians to conspire with one accord and with all your might against war ...Erasmus, The Plaint of Peace, decried and hunted on all sides by all nations (1517 A.D.). |
