Desiderius Erasmus

Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466-1536), Dutch writer, scholar, and humanist, the chief interpreter in northern Europe of the intellectual currents of the Renaissance.

Erasmus was born on October 27, in about 1466, in Rotterdam, the illegitimate son of a priest, Roger Gerard, and a doctor's daughter. He went to strict monastic schools in Deventer and 's-Hertogenbosch and, after his father's death, became an Augustinian canon at Steyn. He was ordained a priest in 1492 and, while employed by the Bishop of Cambrai, studied Scholastic philosophy and Greek at the University of Paris. Finding religious life uncongenial, he sought secular employment, and later received papal dispensation to live and dress as a secular scholar.

Beginning in 1499, Erasmus moved restlessly from city to city working as a tutor and lecturer and constantly writing and searching out ancient manuscripts. He maintained a voluminous correspondence—more than 1,500 of his letters remain—with some of the most important personages of his time. During four trips to England, Erasmus became friends with such scholars of the new humanistic learning as John Colet, founder of St Paul's School in London; Thomas Linacre, founder of the Royal College of Physicians; Thomas More, author and lord chancellor of England; and William Grocyn, lecturer in Greek at Oxford. He himself taught Greek at Cambridge. Through these associations Erasmus helped establish Humanism in England, especially the application of classical studies to Christian learning. While in Italy he took a doctorate at the University of Turin and became a friend to the Venetian publisher Aldus Manutius. In the Swiss city of Basel, he was a friend of and editor for the publisher Johann Froben. Erasmus died in Basel on July 12, 1536.

Erasmus's works display vast erudition and elegant Latin style, usually leavened with tolerance and wit. His Adagia (Adages, 1500; enlarged 1508), a collection of Latin proverbs, established his scholarly reputation. Most of his other early works attack corrupt Church practices and the rationalist Scholasticism developed by churchmen. The Manuell of the Cristen Knyght (1503; trans. 1533) and the famous satire The Praise of Folie (1509; trans. 1549), dedicated to More, both advocate a return to simple Christian ethics. His Greek New Testament (1516), based on new manuscripts, with critical notes and a new Latin translation, was a more accurate version than the Latin Vulgate. Because these works influenced religious reformers of the time, Erasmus is called the father of the Reformation.

Erasmus expounded enlightened educational views in De Ratione Studii (On the Method of Study, 1511) and De Pueris Satim ac Liberaliter Instituendis (On Teaching Children Firmly but Kindly, 1529). He held that elementary Latin and basic Christianity should be taught at home before the start of formal schooling at the age of seven. Latin was to be taught first as conversation, later as grammar, a method similar to present-day teaching techniques. Equally advanced were his advocacy of physical education, criticism of severe discipline, and insistence on arousing the interest of pupils.

In 1517, when the Reformation had become a burning issue under the vehement leadership of Martin Luther, Erasmus's intellectual life took a new direction. He had always been admired and feared as a critic; now he became an apologist, not really trusted by either Roman Catholics or Reformers, always refusing to take sides. He remained a Roman Catholic although he frequently associated with the Reformers. His continuing assaults on the evils and errors of the Church authorities and on superstition in his Colloquia (Colloquies, 1518) subjected him to the accusation that he was a Lutheran, a charge he vehemently denied. He was also accused of concealing his true opinions for fear of the consequences. To counter this, Erasmus wrote a complete declaration of his theological position, De Libero Arbitrio (On the Freedom of the Will, 1524), which contains a brilliant attack on Luther. A counter-attack by Luther elicited a final polemic by Erasmus, Hyperaspistes (1526). Meanwhile he was producing, with the publisher Froben, numerous scholarly editions of the works of the Church fathers.

Although Erasmus is often regarded as a precursor of the Reformation, and his works were later listed in the Index of Forbidden Books by the Council of Trent, his war against ignorance and superstition was prompted by his convictions as a humanist rather than as a theologian. After his death his works were banned by the Catholic Church and denounced by many Protestants, but they prompted the toleration practised in the Netherlands and the writings of Voltaire, Anatole France, Bertrand Russell, and others. He was not a religious reformer, as were Martin Luther and John Calvin, nor was he inclined to participate in theological discussions. He was purely a man of letters, and as a humanist he was at the forefront of his age. There is an Erasmus University in Rotterdam and the European Union's network for academic exchanges among its member states is also called ERASMUS in his honour.