Julius Excluded from Heaven (Latin : Iulius exclusus e coelis, IE) is a dialogue that was written in 1514, commonly attributed to the Dutch humanist and theologian Desiderius Erasmus. It involves Pope Julius II, who died a year earlier, trying to persuade Saint Peter to allow him to enter Heaven by using the same tactics he applied when alive. The dialogue is also supplemented by a "Genius" (his guardian angel) who makes wry comments about the pope and his deeds.
The dialogue begins with a drunken Pope Julius II trying to open the gate of heaven with the key to his secret money-chest. He is accompanied by his Genius, his guardian angel. Behind him are the soldiers who died in his military campaigns, whom he promised would go to heaven regardless of their deeds. Peter denies him passage, even when Julius threatens him with his army and papal bulls of excommunication, and when this fails, questions what right Peter has to deny him when he did not accomplish half of what Julius did in his own life. Peter is indifferent to such boasting, so Julius then goes into a lengthy explanation of his deeds and justifies his sins, ranging from simony to pederasty, with the fact that the pope has the authority to excuse any sin. Seeing that Julius is incapable of remorse, Peter drives him and his army away from Heaven. The dialogue ends with Julius plotting to create his own paradise, from which he intends to eventually conquer Heaven.
Erasmus is usually credited as the author of the dialogue. Another suggested author is Richard Pace.
It is assumed that a first draft of the IE was provided to Thomas Lupset by Erasmus in summer 1514. [1] Lupset then left for Rome with the IE, where Ulrich von Hutten got hold of the IE and copied it. [1] In a letter of 1519, Erasmus admitted to Cardinal Lorenzo Campeggio that he was in possession of the IE five years ago, which would mean at the time of the earliest knowledge of it. [2] He sometimes implied that he did not write it, but modern scholarship generally overrides this with internal evidence, lack of a credible alternative author when the copies of Bonifacius Amerbach of 1516 and one of von Hutten are examined against each other. [1] Thomas More writes in a letter on 15 December 1516 [2] [3] that he has gotten hold of a copy of the dialogue in Erasmus' handwriting, and asks Erasmus what to do with it. [3] It is thought that Erasmus made evasive comments to avoid losing allies and to avoid retribution from his enemies and the Inquisition. A more logical conclusion, however, is that he denied authorship because it would be equated to a slap in the face to his patron Pope Leo X, who legitimized Erasmus's birth by means of papal dispensation in 1517.
Still, the dialogue was very popular and was reprinted many times in pamphlets. It was praised by Martin Luther to be "so learned, and so ingenious, that is, so entirely Erasmian, that it makes the reader laugh at the vices of the church, over which every true Christian ought rather to groan." [ citation needed ]
It is very apparent, however, that Erasmus highly disliked Julius II because he felt he did not embody the characteristics of a vicar of Christ. He was shocked by Julius II's personal leadership of armies in full armour and what he felt was the work of a worldly, unscrupulous and ambitious man. These thoughts were clearly implied in his more famous satirical work, The Praise of Folly . A fierce spat over its authorship arose when Ulrich von Hutten, one of the promoters of Erasmus' authorship, visited Basel in winter 1523 and Erasmus refused to receive him for six weeks. He appealed to the conscience of his former friend, but to no avail. [4]
Ulrich von Hutten is described as one of the main promoters of Erasmus authorship and also to be responsible for the print of its first edition in 1517. [5] According to Helmut Claus, Peter Schöffer the Youngers printshop was the location of its print, but Schöffer omitted both his name and the printshops location. [5]
Albert of Brandenburg was a German cardinal, elector, Archbishop of Mainz from 1514 to 1545, and Archbishop of Magdeburg from 1513 to 1545.
Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus, commonly known in English as Erasmus of Rotterdam or Erasmus, was a Dutch Christian humanist, Catholic priest and theologian, educationalist, satirist, and philosopher. Through his vast number of translations, books, essays, prayers and letters, he is considered one of the most influential thinkers of the Northern Renaissance and one of the major figures of Dutch and Western culture.
Franz von Sickingen was a knight of the Holy Roman Empire who, with Ulrich von Hutten, led the so-called "Knights' War," and was one of the most notable figures of the early period of the Protestant Reformation. Sickingen is posthumously known as "the last knight", an epithet he shared with his contemporaries Chevalier de Bayard and Emperor Maximilian.
Richard Pace was an English clergyman and diplomat of the Tudor period.
Ulrich von Hutten was a German knight, scholar, poet and satirist, who later became a follower of Martin Luther and a Protestant reformer.
Johann Froben, in Latin: Johannes Frobenius, was a famous printer, publisher and learned Renaissance humanist in Basel. He was a close friend of Erasmus and cooperated closely with Hans Holbein the Younger. He made Basel one of the world's leading centres of the book trade. He passed his printing business on to his son, Hieronymus, and grandson, Ambrosius Frobenius.
Marcus Musurus was a Greek scholar and philosopher born in Candia, Venetian Crete.
The Education of a Christian Prince is a Renaissance "how-to" book for princes, by Desiderius Erasmus, which advises the reader on how to be a good Christian prince. The book was dedicated to Prince Charles, who later became Habsburg Emperor Charles V.
The Epistolæ Obscurorum Virorum was a celebrated collection of satirical Latin letters which appeared 1515–1519 in Hagenau, Germany. They support the German Humanist scholar Johann Reuchlin and mock the doctrines and modes of living of the scholastics and monks, mainly by pretending to be letters from fanatic Christian theologians discussing various topics. They tell each other stories about their lovers, give senseless recommendations, boast about their successes, meanwhile covering other topics such as whether all Jewish books should be burned as un-Christian or not. The are prone to quote the Bible along with Latin poetry, often mistakenly or in ill-suited context.
Otto Brunfels was a German theologian and botanist. Carl von Linné listed him among the "Fathers of Botany".
Dirk Martens was a printer and editor in the County of Flanders. He published over fifty books by Erasmus and the very first edition of Thomas More's Utopia. He was the first to print Greek and Hebrew characters in the Netherlands. In 1856 a statue of Martens was erected on the main square of the town of his birth, Aalst.
Codex Basiliensis A. N. IV. 1, known as Minuscule 2, ε 1214, is a Greek minuscule manuscript of the New Testament, written on parchment. Using the study of comparative writing styles (palaeography), it has been dated to the 11th or 12th century. The manuscript has complex contents. It is one of several Greek New Testament manuscripts housed at the Basel University Library, all of which take their name from the Latin adjective for Basel.
Novum Instrumentum Omne, later titled Novum Testamentum Omne, was a series of bilingual Latin-Greek New Testaments with substantial scholarly annotations, and the first printed New Testament of the Greek to be published. They were prepared by Desiderius Erasmus (1466–1536) in consultation with leading scholars, and printed by Johann Froben (1460–1527) of Basel.
Henry Bullock was an English clergyman, academic and humanist, a friend of Erasmus and a correspondent of his in the period 1516 to 1518.
Tommaso Inghirami was a Renaissance humanist and orator. He was prefect of the Vatican Library for several years and secretary of the Fifth Lateran Council.
Sisto Gara della Rovere, also known as Sisto Franciotti della Rovere, was an Italian Roman Catholic bishop and cardinal.
Paulus Bombasius, or Paolo Bombace (1476–1527) was a prefect of the Vatican Library.
Henk Jan de Jonge was an author and professor emeritus of New Testament at Leiden University. He wrote on the history of early Christian traditions and specialized in the history of New Testament scholarship in the early modern period.
Johannes Schott was a book printer from Strasbourg. He printed a large number of books, including tracts from Martin Luther and other Reformers. He was a well-educated man, who had relationships with some of the leading humanists of his time. His press also was one of the first to be able to print chiaroscuro woodcuts.
Desiderius Erasmus was the most popular, most printed and arguably most influential author of the early Sixteenth Century, read in all nations in the West and frequently translated. By the 1530s, the writings of Erasmus accounted for 10 to 20 percent of all book sales in Europe. "Undoubtedly he was the most read author of his age."
| Original works |
|  |
|---|---|---|
| Translations |
| |
| Related topics | ||
