“I had,” says that most learned Jesuit, in his 12th Letter, “a great desire to see and converse with Grotius.  We have been long together, and very intimate.  He is, as far as I can judge, a good man, and possesses great candour.  I do not think him far from becoming a Catholic, after the example of Holstenius as you hoped.  I shall neglect nothing in my power to reconcile him to Christ, and put him in the way of salvation."[069]

[Sidenote:  His Project of Religious Pacification.]

[Sidenote:  CHAP.  XII.]

[Sidenote:  XII. 3.  His Project of Religious Pacification.]

[Sidenote:  CHAP.  XII.]

As Grotius lays so much stress on the pacific labours of Erasmus, Wicelius, Cassander and Casaubon, we shall briefly mention, in the present chapter, the labours of the three first:  Casaubon’s we shall notice, in the second appendix to this work.

[Sidenote:  XII. 3.  His Project of Religious Pacification.]

[Sidenote:  CHAP.  XII.] It appears that Erasmus had it in contemplation to compose three dialogues, upon the important subject of religious pacification:  the speakers were to have been Luther, under the name of Thrasimacus, and a Catholic divine, under that of Eubolus.  In the first dialogue, they were to have discussed the proper methods of terminating the religious controversies of the times; in the second, to have investigated what were the points in controversy, the belief of which was essential to a member of the church of Christ; in the third, they were to have inquired what were the best means to procure a good understanding between the contending parties, and to effect their union.  It is to be lamented that Erasmus did not execute his design.  His general sentiments appear in his Paraphrase upon the 83d Psalm; they are expressed with great wisdom and moderation.[071]

[Sidenote:  XII. 3.  His Project of Religious Pacification.]

Wicelius,—­who is next mentioned by Grotius, had been professed in a religious order:  had quitted it, and embraced Lutheranism:  he afterwards forsook that communion, and returned to the Catholic:  upon this, he was appointed to a curacy; and, in the discharge of his functions, obtained general esteem:  he was much regarded by the Emperors Ferdinand and Maximilian.  In 1537, he published at Leipsic a Latin work, “On the method of procuring Religious Concord,—­Methodus Concordiae Ecclesiasticae.”  He addressed it to the pope, to all sovereigns, bishops, doctors, and generally to all christians, exhorting them to peace, and to desist from contention.  He assumed in it, that the true religion had been preserved in the Catholic church; but he allows that modern doctors had involved it in numerous scholastic subtleties, unknown to antiquity.  He complains that on one hand the reformers left nothing untouched; that, on the other, the scholastics would retain every abuse, and every superfluity:  Wisdom, he thought, lay between them; the reformers should have respected what antiquity consecrated; the Catholics should have abandoned modern doctrines and modern practices to the discretion of individuals.