Colloquies of Erasmus, Volume I. by Desiderius Erasmus
page 39 of 655 (05%)
page 39 of 655 (05%)
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would afford him Relief, sold his House, and went again to _Basil_, to
the House of _Frobenius_; but he had not been there above nine Months before his Gout violently assaulted him, and his strength having gradually decay'd, he was seized with a Dysentery, under which having laboured for a Month, it at last overcame him, and he died at the House of _Jerome Frobenius_, the son of _John_ the famous Printer, the 12th of _July_ 1536, about Midnight, being about seventy Years of Age: After his last retreat to _Basil_, he went seldom abroad; and for some of the last Months stirred not out of his Chamber. He retained a sound Mind, even to the last Moments of his Life; and, as a certain Author saith, bid Farewell to the World, and passed into the State of another Life, after the Manner of a Protestant, without the Papistical Ceremonies of Rosaries, Crosses, Confession, Absolution, or receiving the transubstantiated Wafer, and in one Word, not desiring to have any of the _Romish_ Superstitions administered, but according to the true Tenor of the Gospel, taking Sanctuary in nothing but the Mercies of God in Christ. And finding himself near Death, he gave many Testimonies of Piety and Christian Hope in God's Mercy, and oftentimes cry'd out in the _German_ Language, _Liever Godt_, _i.e._ dear God; often repeating, O Jesus have Mercy on me! O Lord, deliver me! Lord, put an End to my Misery! Lord, have Mercy upon me. In his last Will, he made the celebrated Lawyer _Bonifacius Amerbachius_ his Executor, bequeathing the greatest Part of his Substance to charitable Uses; as for the Maintenance of such as were poor and disabled through Age or Sickness; for the Marrying of poor young Virgins, to keep them from Temptations to Unchastity; for the maintaining hopeful Students in the University, and such like charitable Uses. In the overseeing of his Will, he join'd with _Amerbachius_, two others, _Jerome Frobenius_, and _Nicholas Episcopius_, who were his |
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