The Correspondence of Erasmus: Letters 1535 to 1657, January-December 1525 Translated by Alexander Dalzell; annotated by Charles G. Nauert, Jr. (review)

444 BOOK REVIEWS professor of English, he is writing on theology and politics apparently without a competent understanding of either one. For example, he refers to God's justice when in fact speaking of God's mercy, confusing the two. This is a grave error. He sees justification by faith alone as something opposed to "an active faith operative through love" (p. 70). He identifies the distinction between religion and politics as that between value and fact, an identification which is anachronistic and, even on its own terms, grossly unfaithful to Tyndale 's thought in particular, and to the Reformation is general. Finally, John Dick's essay on Tyndale's examination of Henry's marriage in Practice ofPrelates is characteristically illuminating. Contributors also include Rudolph Almasy, David Daniell, and John Day. David C. Innes Gordon-Contvell Theological Seminary The Correspondence ofErasmus: Letters 1535 to 1657, January—December 1525. Translated by Alexander Dalzell; annotated by Charles G. Nauert, Jr. [Collected Works of Erasmus, Volume 11.] (Buffalo: University of Toronto Press. 1994. Pp. xxiii, 476. $110.00.) This is Volume 1 1 in the Correspondence series of the Collected Works of Erasmus, the vast project which the University of Toronto Press has been publishing since 1974. It contains 126 letters surviving from the year 1525, 89 of which were written by Erasmus. Their enumeration is that of Allen's ErasmiEpistolae, and they are translated (with one exception) from the Latin text in the first half of Allen's Volume 6. There are a short preface and an extensive index, and the volume is well illustrated. It is a worthy addition to this remarkable publishing enterprise. The year covered by the letters in this volume was a troubled one. Erasmus "sat uneasily at Basel" throughout the year. He still suffered from kidney stones, and the German Peasant War with much of the conflict nearby made travel hazardous. He was also concerned about the spread of Protestant reform in Basel, and at the same time he was under continuing attack by his numerous Catholic antagonists. He was in the unenviable position ofbeing buffeted and maligned by both sides. See, for example, letter 1576. Religious controversy, however, with Erasmus staunchly defending his orthodoxy dominates the correspondence of this fractious time. A very lengthy exchange with the Paris theologian Noël Béda, one of Erasmus' most formidable critics, is a highlight, as is an exchange with Conradus Pellicanus, a former friend and associate turned Protestant reformer. Erasmus' first letter to Pellicanus (letter 1637) is a forthright affirmation of his adherence to Catholic doctrine. After reviewing the ten previous volumes in the Correspondence series for this journal, I must confess that I found the present volume less interesting BOOK REVIEWS 445 than its predecessors. This was due to the somewhat narrow and repetitious focus of so many of its letters. They lacked the variety and range of those gathered in the earlier volumes. It was indeed an unhappy year, and we might note that even Erasmus' scholarly productivity during this time was meager. This is not the whole story of the volume, however. There are some other letters of importance in it, and the whole, to be sure, is a contribution to a broader understanding of the great humanist and his times. We can certainly be grateful for it. John C. Oun Fordham University, Emeritus Davidjoris andDutchAnabaptism, 1524-1543. By Gary K. Waite. (Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press. 1990. Pp. xi, 235. US »32.50; Can.»27.95.) The Anabaptist Writings of DavidJoris, 1535-1543- Translated and edited by Gary K. Waite. [Classics of the Radical Reformation, Volume 7.] (Scottdale , Pennsylvania: Herald Press. 1993. Pp. 345. »3995.) With Waite's biography and his recently published anthology, English-language literature on David Joris has at last reached a presentable standard. To get a historical perspective on Joris, an important sixteenth-century Dutch sect leader, a tactic was needed to avoid becoming lost in the labyrinth of his 240 printed works—most of them written in obscure "spiritual language" for the edification ofhis followers. Roland Bainton did not penetrate far beyond the colorful anticlimax of Joris' career, the years of disguise and comfortable exile in Basel. This is...