Erasmus Against War
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- Clean text
- Extent:
- ~16,000 words · 76 passages
Cite this work
- APAErasmus. (n.d.). Erasmus Against War. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/erasmus/erasmus-against-war
- MLAErasmus. "Erasmus Against War." SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/erasmus/erasmus-against-war.
- ChicagoErasmus. Erasmus Against War. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/erasmus/erasmus-against-war.
What it is about
Dulce bellum inexpertis: war is sweet to those who have not tried it.
Context and history
It began as a note on a proverb in the Adagia and grew into a full treatise against war. The title is a Greek proverb; what Erasmus does is turn it against the princes who decide on war without going to it. An English translation. Erasmus's Latin, which is what should be cited, is in the catalogue only in the anthology of epistles.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
It is both an elegant proverb, and among all others, by the writings of many excellent authors, full often and solemnly used, Dulce bellum inexpertis, that is to say, War is sweet to them that know it not. There be some things among mortal men's businesses, in the which how great danger and hurt there is, a man cannot perceive till he make a proof. The love and friendship of a great man is sweet to them that be not expert: he that hath had thereof experience, is afraid. It seemeth to be a gay and a glorious thing, to strut up and down among the nobles of the court, and to be occupied in the king's business; but old men, to whom that thing by long experience is well known, do gladly abstain themselves from such felicity. It seemeth a pleasant thing to be in love with a young damsel; but that is unto them that have not yet perceived how much grief and bitterness is in such love. So after this manner of fashion, this proverb may be applied to every business that is adjoined with great peril and with many evils: the which no man will take on hand, but he that is young and wanteth experience of things. Aristotle, in his book of Rhetoric, showeth the cause why youth is more bold, and contrariwise old age more fearful: for unto young men lack of experience is cause of great boldness, and to the other, experience of many griefs engendereth fear and doubting. Then if there be anything in the world that should be taken in hand with fear and doubting, yea, that ought by all manner of means to be fled, to be withstood with prayer, and to be clean avoided, verily it is war; than which nothing is either more wicked, or more wretched, or that more farther destroyeth, or that never hand cleaveth sorer to, or doth more hurt, or is more horrible, and briefly to speak, nothing doth worse become a man (I will not say a Christian man) than war. And yet it is a wonder to speak of, how nowadays in every place, how lightly, a
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