Evening Star Newspaper, July 5, 1936, Page 15

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C ., JULY 5, 1936—PART ONE. -0 How Good Is Your Memory for Names, News and Faces? These Pictures Appeared in The Star During the Last Week. How Against the Correct Name an printing press in all Europe, although World Marks Death Anniversary : rany documentsonce sontiard o be Of Erasmus, Greatest Publicist Apostle of Intellectual Freedom Ex- panded Intellectual Horizons of Europe in Critical Age. BY JESSIE FANT EVANS. liant school days at Deventer, his ordi- E MODERNS properly look nation as a priest and his admission upon the offerings of our to the University of Paris, the rise daily press productions with of Erasmus was like that of a meteor their staffs of news writer: eolumnists and editorial scribes as mo- ' of learning. tivators of the public mind. acress the sky of the European world we are apt as well to view the printed 'opinion of his day has continued un- publicizing of ideas as a comparatively dimmed despite the passage of what recent development. In reality, Eras- will be 469 years this month. mus, Dutch-born scholar of the Middle | Ages, the anniversary of whose death in Switzerland over 400 years ago this coming July 12 is being marked throughout the classical world because he stimulated the public mind of his day to a broader conception of scholar- ship, was the pre-Renalssance grand- sire of all publicists. His portrait by his fellow Hollander and contemporary, Holbein, is almost as famous as is the distinguished sub- Ject himself. More and more clearly as the cen- turies have passed has it become evi- dent that the great gift which Erasmus stressed to a world unaccustomed to it was that of intellectual freedom. In common with our modern press cor- respondents it was his aim to hold the With a mind as sensitive to the needs of his time as a photographer’s lens is to current effects of light and shade in our twentieth century, it is small wonder that with Frasmus the desire to humanize the diffusion of knowledge became the incentive of his life. In its pursuit he has been ranked | by many as the leading man of letters in Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire. His first notable work was the trans- The shinning influence | As such that he wielded in forming the public the products of Erasmus’ facile pen, it :hfls been discovered were only edited | by him for the Forben press. Paraphrased New Testament. At one time Erasmus’ paraphrasing of the New Testament was so popular and was considered of such value in | interpreting the Bible that a copy of | it was provided beside the Bible in most of the parish churches of Eng- land. It is even claimed that certain of Shakespeare’s lines are reminiscences of those from Erasmus. His “Asagio.” now no longer valuable in our day of lexicons and dicticnaries, was for many years a boon to those | who were studying the classics. The sons of the physician to Henry VIII were among the pupils and bene- factors of Erasmus. Through them he became the friend of Sir Thomas More and of Latimer. He has the ear of Oxford and of Cambridge because of his connection with Cambridge for a limited time as a professor of Divinity and Greek. Yet, teaching was not primarily his forte. Rather was his the gift that could inspire others from the teacher's | chair and the talent that could en-| | lighten others by means of the writ- ten word. | Erasmus was a aew type of crusader | | 1ation of the Greek Testament and its |in the world—a crusader who With | | publication in print when printing Was | reason as his sword and buckler and still a little known art. Then came his association with Froben, struggling to maintain his printing press. Through the pertici- a pen instead of a sword stirred the academic world of his time to more humanized thought along social, re- | tigious and educational lines. His “Colloquia” published in 1519 | pation of Erasmus in the activities of accomplished just this, although it dialogues, many times witty and humorous like our own Ben Franklin | with his “Poor Richard’s Almanac,” he reached out to those who wére not scholars but who could understand the | purport of his reasoning. “Praise of Folly.” In the “Praise of Folly,” too, Erasmus | | caught the public mind and motivated | it. In the jargon of our day, “he knew | his stuff,” always being wise enough | |to realize that continuous and un- | varied censure of the accepted easily | degenerates into ineffective abuse un- less interlarded with sufficient humor to lessen the sting of the blow. Had Erasmus lived in our genera- | ! tion he would have been an eagerly sought for after luncheon and dinner speaker, for in addition to being witty and wise he had the gift of poking fun at himself. Never of a particu- larly robust constitution, digestive | idiosyncrasies during the later years |of his life made certain foods ana- | | thema to him, particularly fish in any form. So, he was wont to remark this connection, “My heart is Catholic but my stomach is Lutheran.” He was a great liberalizing educa- tional factor in fighting the battle of !sound learning and plam common sense against the classical obscurists. The purists and the pedants, with their criticisms as to occasional in- accuracies and what they were felt were too hastily drawn conclusions, disturbed him so little that he has | many times been considered vain, un- duly impressionable and too easily susceptible to current needs. Be that | scholarships which should not only State dignitaries, | the past to those of his own genera- place of reason as a guide in all ques- tions religious and political. Visited Many Countries. His intellectual curiosity went hand in hand with an itching geographical foot that led him into the aroused centers of learning throughout the| European world. He knew intimately | current thinking in his native Holland Switzerland. It was his pleasure dur- | ing what we would now call “speaking tours” to enjoy traveling incognito. His delight in Sir Thomas More's be- wilderment incident to their first meet- ing under such circumstances was| unbounded when Sir Thomas More, | after a long conversation, remarked, | “You are either Erasmus or the devil.” | The genius of Erasmus was not dis- tinctively creative. He left no original | work to rank among the masterpieces of the world. Yet, because he was the humanitarian classic publicist of his age, he was in the truest sense a | great educator whose influence in his own time was incalcuable. As the foremost intermediary be- tween the age of Greek scholarship and the humanists of the Latin Ren- aissance, he translated the ideals of tion in terms that they could under- stand, and for this service alone de- | serves to be remembered in all ages. Even in his last will and testament Erasmus not only showed thought for his less fortunate fellows and an interest in furthering the pursuit of trust for the aged and infirm, and % and in England, France, Italy and| ‘, B Well Do You Remember Them and the Incidents They Illustrated? Try to Recall the Name of the Individual or Scene Pictured. Then Check Your Choice d Answer That Will Be Found Under “Answers” on Paage B-4. PI(K ME UP OR it vors ron “LANDON 44— Three princesses in the court of Queen Clarke County, who is Miss Agnes Page Mitchell. They are to right): Miss Frances Van Deventer, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. G. Van Deventer of Boyce; Miss Jane Cary Randolph, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. B. O'F. Randolph of Millwood, and Miss Marguaretta Whiting, daughter of Mrs. Frank B. Whiting and the late Judge Whiting of Berryville, Srectal Dispatch to The Star ERRYVILLE, Clarke County is preparing a | si cepted invitations to attend as this county, counted &s one of Virginia's mallest, celebrates its 100th birthday hearty welcome to some 2,000 | anniversary. guests and former residents | knowledge, but did so in what would , that will be present at the Clarke year's be the most thoroughly approved man- | County centennial celebration open- | ner of today, by leaving legacies in ing here Wednesday. An imposing list of national and | Queen Clarke County, Miss Gov. Senator Glass, who introduced this Winchester Apple Blossom Festival queen to & radio audignce over a Washington station. will crown Agnes Page Mitchell, at impressive corona- Idmlnguished citizen, will act in an | official capacity as host to the visiting | guests, while Gov. Peery will represent the State. Representative A. Willis | Robertson of the seventh Virginia dis- trict will deliver the charge to the knights in & jousting tournament Sat- | urcay. | The program will officially begin ‘wuh the coronation of the queen, | which will be followed by the initial performance of a pageant depicting the historical progress of Clarke County from the time of the first set tlers to the pr t day. A cast of about 500 will portray these events. Thursday at 11 am., the local U. D. C. will plant a tree at the Gra Episcopal Church in memory of the visit of Gen. Robert E. Lee when he attended services there while ene camped outside of Berryville on his way to Gettysburg. At 8 pm, & esentation of the pagean will be staged A base ball game Friday afternoon at 2:30; re-presentation of the pageant, and the queen's ball at 10 p.m., will compiete that day’s gram, while on Sa 2:30, the jousting to held Home-coming services in all the churches will be held Sunday. During the entire celebration, a museum of historical relics of the county will be open in the Berryville High School. The qu and her court of prin- cesses will reign over the entire affair Princesses already named to the cour include Miss Margaretta Whiting Miss Frances Van Deventer, Miss Ja Cary Randolph and Miss Eleano:r Withers, from this county; Mis Margaret Virginia Cather of Win- ::;r:;:‘::"ln‘t}fr;:’:flf;;‘é“:’i‘f:sé;‘; |the Froben printing establishment, it | will not live as a great piece of origi- | as it may, apparently he never swerved | further the education of young men, Georze C. Peery and Senators Carter | tion exercises Wednesday at 7:45 p.m. | chester, and Miss Elizabeth Campbeil to the public at large through the me- easlly became the most important|nal research work. Ia a seres of | from his own belief in the sovereign but of young girls of promise. Glass and Harry F. Byrd, have ac Senator Byrd, the county's most 'of Frederick County. dium of his writings. Nor in all history 1s there a more striking instance of a successful “contact man” influencing the academic world of his time toward wider mental horizons by the skill of his pen and the charm of his wit and personality. Erasmus Born in 1467. While the exact date of his birth is uncertain, it is generally estimated as occuring during the year 1467 or a quarter of a century before Christopher Columbus and his daring fellow voy- agers made their crossing of an “ocean blue” and changed the course of world history. During a life spent in Holland, Prance, England and Italy, despite the fact that he was seldom connected for any considerable length of time with the great universities of learning, Eras- mus was the intellectual Christopher Columbus of his era who made possible the Renaissance. it is even said of him by his biog- raphers that he “laid the egg which Luther hatched” when the Reforma- tion came about, although the ideals of Erasmus and Luther were irrecon- ciliable. Despite the fact that Erasmus was an intimate associate of Luther’s and in no wise in accord with the abuses prevalent in the church at that time he resisted a partisanship whith would have made him an ally of Luther's. Erasmus, with his detached and inquir- ing viewpoint, was simply not the type of thinker who was willing to force re- forms by fanatical appeal to the pas- sions and prejudices of men or to be- lieve that by such partisan means great objectives could be achieved properly. It has also been said of him that not once during ail the violent mental convulsions of his period, did he loose his intellectual balance or become a trimmer, for the reasonableness of his nature could never forswear-a funda- mental belief with him to the effect that reform must be guided by knowl- edge and by reason alone. Charles Reede’s international classic, *The Cloister and the Hearth,” dear to the hearts of successive generations of boys and girls and their elders, gives a remarkable picture of the lives and times of the parents of Erasmus that fair-haired, low, dis- tinctly spoken blue-eyed Dutch boy born out of wedlock, who was destined in his time to become Europe's most beloved and versatile scholar and in- fluential man of letters. Few Books Existed. In Erasmus’ youth few if any school books existed. To get a more vivid impression of that age we must set him against the background of his era when printing had only just come into vogue and pupils crowded about their masters as best they could, copy- ing haphazardly whatever fell from their lips. Sometimes it would be chapters in grammar, rules of syntax or passages of Latin at random, in that period of world history when the Latin language was still a living one. 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