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Erasmus' adage, Dulce bellum inexpertis [Sweet is war to those who have not tried it], which first appeared in the 1515 edition, is followed by a long digression on war and peace. ' The argument is highly structured, and seems to be based on an appeal to prehistory and known historical fact, but it is actually founded on two assumptions that shape much of Erasmus' work : the dignity of man and the utter simplicity of Christian truth. The warlike man is viewed as returning to the status of a beast, and the political process that leads to war as a distortion of the message of Christ. Man, both physically and intellectually, is predisposed to peace and attains dignity through love, friendship, and kindness. Mercenaries, hypocritical clergy, and grasping princes interpret the message of Christian love to forward their own ends, and move man to a state lower than barbarism. Erasmus' commentary on the proverb contains, in the germ, everything he was to say about war in later works (including the Colloquies and The Complaint of Peace) ; it is based on the principles of humanism (particularly Christian humanism), rather than on arguments addressed to the specific issue of war. There is a divergence between the real implications and the stated aims of the essay, and a further divergence between the arguments presented and the proverb in question. The proverb is an appeal to experience, the argument an appeal to assumptions about man's nature and the Christian's relationship to his Savior. Erasmus' inability to reconcile humanistic ideals with experiential truth is at the heart of his ambivalent attitude toward war, as I shall attempt to show. 2
A number of critics have claimed that Erasmus is inconsistent in his attitude toward war. Thus José A. Fernández questions the master's credibility by quoting his own words :
Are Christians permitted to wage war ? Erasmus' answer is unmistakable : « There are those who judge that the right to wage war is absolutely prohibited to Christians ; to my understanding this opinion is too absurd to deserve refutation. » 3
Fernández is quoting from a little-known work, A Most Practical Deliberation About Waging War With the Turks (actually a letter to the jurist John Rinek, hereafter...