Controversies.

Though rightly dubbed "the prince of humanists," Erasmus spent much - perhaps most - of his time and energy in theological controversies during the years just preceding and then following the publication (and various editions) of his New Testament translation, paraphrases, and annotations. The volume under review is the first of fourteen in the Collected Works of Erasmus series that will be devoted to controversies in which Erasmus was engaged. The way for them has been prepared by Erika Rummel in her recent two-volume study Erasmus and His Catholic Critics (1989).

Timing is everything, as has often been said, and Erasmus might well have considered himself unfortunate in this respect. Just as he had achieved the pinnacle of his fame as a humanist and as a scholar of the New Testament, Luther burst onto the scene. Erasmus, as J. K. Sowards makes clear in his masterful introduction to this volume, was having enough trouble with the theologians of Louvain, among whom he lived between 1500 and 1504 and again between 1517 and 1521, before Luther's appearance. But the acrimony that followed in Luther's wake caused Erasmus to leave the city forever. He did not, however, leave behind the controversies engendered there. Issues, as Sowards points out, to which Erasmus had responded (consistently) many times continued to resurface; they simply would not go away.

This volume will be of great value to those interested in the on-going debate over Erasmus' relation to the Protestant Reformation. The tracts translated here precede by a few years and then include the early years of the Reformation, during which Erasmus believed that Luther's cause and his own (that of "good letters") were the same. Soward's interpretation supports the view that Erasmus' Brief Notes, written for Luther's prince, Frederick the Wise, was critical in Frederick's support for Luther at a moment when he was extremely vulnerable. Nonetheless, Erasmus distanced himself from Luther early on, as the translations in this volume also make clear. His real hope, according to Sowards, was to find some way to mediate between Luther and his opponents. But interpretations of this "moment" in Erasmus' life are endless.

Translated here are Erasmus' Letter to Dorp, Apology against the Dialogue of Latomus, Defence of the Declamation on Marriage, Acts of The University of Louvain against Luther Brief Notes of Erasmus for the Cause of Luther, Minute Composed for the Peace of the Church, and Manifest Lies. Except for the Letter to Dorp and the Brief Notes, this volume is the first modern translation into English of the texts included.

If Erasmus was unfortunate in his own time he has been very fortunate in ours. The complete translation of his works has had to wait until the late twentieth century, but it has been undertaken by editors and translators who are making available his writings in volumes that will never be superseded, either in accuracy of translation or in the critical apparatus accompanying the translations. This particular volume, with translators and editors of the caliber of R. A. B. Mynors, D. F. S. Thomson, Martin Lowry, Charles Fantazzi, and Erika Rummel, in addition to the volume editor Sowards, is superbly done. And the years it covers, critical in the history of European culture, will surely make this one of the most widely read of the volumes to be devoted to the controversies.

Albert Rabil, Jr. STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK, COLLEGE AT OLD WESTBURY