quantulum abest, quo minus

Latin Learning Latin
1

After listing several wars in Europe, a sixteenth-century commentator writes

  • quantulum ergo abest, quo minus universus orbis Christianus bello a se ipse dissideat, et suo quod dici solet gladio iuguletur?

which must mean something like

  • What little is left, then, before the whole Christian world is divided against itself and, as it is said, slaughtered by its own sword?

but what literally does “quantulum abest, quo minus” mean?

2

“What little is absent [not “is left”] by which the less …”
Quantulum is a diminutive of quantum, and quo minus (often written as one word) is conventionally used of what is prevented or hindered, with subjunctive. So this means “How little stands in the way of the entire Xn world being at odds with itself!” I expect it’s to be read as an exclamation rather than a question.

3

Ah. Thanks!