"A text therefore you have, that has now by everyone been received" (emphasis added): the words from the Elzevier 1633 edition, in Latin, from which the term "Textus receptus" was derived
Erasmus lived against the backdrop of the growing European religiousreformations. He developed a biblical humanistic theology in which he advocated the religious and civil necessity both of peaceable concord and of pastoral tolerance onmatters of indifference. He remained a member of theCatholic Church all his life, remaining committed to reforming the church from within. He promoted what he understood as the traditional doctrine ofsynergism, which some prominent reformers such asMartin Luther andJohn Calvin rejected in favour of the doctrine ofmonergism. His influential middle-road approach disappointed, and even angered, partisans in both camps.[note 2]
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, his writings accounted for 10–20% of book sales in Europe.[4] "Undoubtedly he was the most read author of his age."[5]: 608 His vast number of Latin and Greek publications included translations, paraphrases, letters, textbooks, plays for schoolboys, commentary, poems, liturgies, satires, sermons, and prayers. A large number of his later works were defences of his earlier work from attacks by Catholic and Protestant theological and literary opponents.
TheCatalogue of the Works of Erasmus (2023)[6] runs to 444 entries (120 pages), almost all from the latter half of his life. He usually wrote books in particular classical literary genres with their different rhetorical conventions: complaint, diatribe, dialogue, encomium, epistle, commentary, liturgy, sermon, etc. His letter toUlrich von Hutten onThomas More's household has been called "the first real biography in the real modern sense."[7]
From his youth, Erasmus had been a voracious writer. Erasmus wrote or answered up to 40 letters per day,[8] usually waking early in the morning and writing them in his own hand. He did not work after dinner. His writing method (recommended inDe copia andDe ratione studii)[9] was to make notes on whatever he was reading, categorised by theme: he carted thesecommonplaces in boxes that accompanied him. When assembling a new book, he would go through the topics and cross out commonplace notes as he used them. This catalogue of research notes allowed him to rapidly create books, though woven from the same topics. Towards the end of his life, as he lost dexterity, he employed secretaries or amanuenses who performed the assembly or transcription, re-wrote his writing, and in his last decade, recorded his dictation; letters were usually in his own hand, unless formal. For much of his career he wrote standing at a desk, as shown inDürer's portrait.
In the second half of his life, Erasmus worked on New Testament studies in a project that eventually saw his intended detailed Annotations on the New Testament (modeled on a work byLorenzo Valla) expand with a revised Vulgate recension, his own new Latin translation, an accompanying Greek text, essays justifying his approach, and lengthyParaphrases of the entire New Testament exceptRevelation.
These went through multiple revisions and editions, and progressively involved many leading scholars and introduced several readings which were taken up by Protestant and Catholic reformers. Other publishers, such as Erasmus's earlier collaboratorAldine Press in Venice, immediately brought out their own editions, sometimes with their own corrections, and sometimes without the Annotations, or the Latin, or the Greek. Up to 300,000 copies of the various editions appear to have been printed in Erasmus's lifetime.[10]
Erasmus denied he was making a critical edition: "I certainly did not undertake this task [of revising the New Testament] to provide a standard from which it would not be possible to diverge, but to make a substantial contribution both to the correction and to the understanding of the sacred books."[12]: 385 He also later wrote to several Protestant and Catholic friends and critics, notably to his friend Pope Adrian, that "(to be quite frank) had I known that a generation such as this would appear, I should either not have written at all some things that I have written or should have written them differently."[12]: 384
on subjects of humanist interest:[13] "Three areas preoccupied Erasmus as a writer: language arts, education, and biblical studies. [...]All of his works served as models of style. [...]He pioneered the principles of textual criticism."[14] and
on pastoral subjects: "to Christians in the various stages of lives:[...]for the young, for married couples, for widows," the dying, clergy, theologians, religious, princes, partakers of sacraments, etc.[15]: 58
He is noted for his extensive scholarly editions of theNew Testament in Latin and Greek, and the complete works of numerousChurch Fathers. These formed the basis of the so-calledTextus Receptus Protestant bibles. His editions of Greek and Roman moralists and rhetoricians such asPlutarch,Ovid,Ptolemy,Lucian,Seneca andCicero re-introduced their broader thought to the West.
The only works with enduring popularity in modern time are his satires and semi-satires:The Praise of Folly,Julius Excluded from Heaven andThe Complaint of Peace. However, his other works, such as his several thousand letters, continue to be a vital source of information to historians of numerous disciplines.
Erasmus's almost 70 years may be divided into quarters.[note 3]
First was hismedieval Dutch childhood, ending with his being orphaned and impoverished;
Second, his struggling years asa canon (a kind of semi-monk), a clerk, a priest, a failing and sickly university student, a would-be poet, and a tutor;
Third, his flourishing but peripateticHigh Renaissance years of increasing focus and literary productivity following his 1499 contact with a reformist English circle notablyJohn Colet andThomas More, then with radical French Franciscan Jean Vitrier (or Voirier),[note 4] and later with the Greek-speaking Aldine New Academy in Venice; engaging with leading intellectuals and reform-minded churchmen of the West; and
Fourth, his financially more secureReformation years first inBasel and then as a Catholic religious refugee inFreiburg: as a prime influencer of European thought through hisNew Testament projects and increasing public opposition to aspects ofLutheranism, in direct correspondence with kings and popes.
Desiderius Erasmus is reported to have been born inRotterdam on 27 or 28 October ("the vigil of Simon and Jude")[18] in the late 1460s. He was named[note 5] afterErasmus of Formiae, whom Erasmus's father Gerard (Gerardus Helye)[19] personally favored.[20][21] Although associated closely with Rotterdam, he lived there for only four years, never to return afterwards.
The year of Erasmus's birth is unclear: in later life he calculated his age as if born in 1466, but frequently his remembered age at major events actually implies 1469.[22][23]: 8 (This article currently gives 1466 as the birth year.[24][25] To handle this disagreement, ages are given first based on 1469, then in parentheses based on 1466: e.g., "20 (or 23)".) Furthermore, many details of his early life must be gleaned from a fictionalized third-person account he wrote in 1516 (published in 1529) in a letter to a fictitious Papal secretary, Lambertus Grunnius ("Mr. Grunt").[26]
His parents could not be legally married: his father, Gerard, was a Catholic priest[27] who may have spent up to six years in the 1450s or 60s in Italy as a scribe and scholar.[28]: 196 His mother was Margaretha Rogerius (Latinized form of Dutch surname Rutgers),[29] the daughter of a doctor fromZevenbergen. She may have been Gerard's housekeeper.[27][30] Although he was born out of wedlock, Erasmus was cared for by his parents, with a loving household and the best education, until their early deaths fromthe bubonic plague in 1483. His only sibling Peter might have been born in 1463, and some writers suggest Margaret was a widow and Peter was the half-brother of Erasmus; Erasmus on the other hand called him his brother.[23] There were legal and social restrictions on the careers and opportunities open to the children of unwed parents.
Erasmus's own story, in the possibly forged 1524Compendium vitae Erasmi was along the lines that his parents were engaged, with the formal marriage blocked by his relatives (presumably a young widow or unmarried mother with a child was not an advantageous match); his father went to Italy to study Latin and Greek, and the relatives misled Gerard that Margaretha had died, on which news grieving Gerard romantically took Holy Orders, only to find on his return that Margaretha was alive; many scholars dispute this account.[31]
In 1471 his father became the vice-curate of the small town ofWoerden (where young Erasmus may have attended the local vernacular school to learn to read and write) and in 1476 was promoted to vice-curate ofGouda.[19]
Erasmus was given the highest education available to a young commoner of his day, in a series of private, monastic or semi-monastic schools. In 1476, at the age of 6 (or 9), his family moved to Gouda and he started at the school of Pieter Winckel,[19] who later became his guardian (and, perhaps, squandered Erasmus and Peter's inheritance.) Historians who date his birth in 1466 have Erasmus in Utrecht at the choir school at this period.[32]
In 1478, at the age of 9 (or 12), he and his older brother Peter were sent to one of the best Latin schools in the Netherlands, located atDeventer and owned by the chapter clergy of theLebuïnuskerk (St. Lebuin's Church).[24][note 6] A notable previous student wasThomas à Kempis. Towards the end of his stay there the curriculum was renewed by the new principal of the school,Alexander Hegius, a correspondent of pioneering rhetoricianRudolphus Agricola. For the first time in Europe north of the Alps, Greek was taught at a lower level than a university[34] and this is where he began learning it.[35] His education there ended when plague struck the city about 1483,[36] and his mother, who had moved to provide a home for her sons, died from the infection; then his father. Following the death of his parents, as well as 20 fellow students at his school,[23] he moved back to hispatria (Rotterdam?)[19] where he was supported by Berthe de Heyden,[37] a compassionate widow.[23]
In 1484, around the age 14 (or 17), he and his brother went to a cheaper[38] grammar school or seminary at's-Hertogenbosch run by theBrethren of the Common Life:[39][note 7] Erasmus'sEpistle to Grunnius (see above) satirises them as the "Collationary Brethren"[26] who select and sort boys for monkhood. He was exposed there to theDevotio moderna movement and the Brethren's famous bookThe Imitation of Christ but resented the harsh rules and strict methods of the religious brothers and educators.[24] The two brothers made an agreement that they would resist the clergy but attend the university;[37] Erasmus longed to study in Italy, the birthplace of Latin, and have a degree from an Italian university.[22]: 804 Instead, Peter left for theAugustinian canonry inStein, which left Erasmus feeling betrayed.[37] Around this time he wrote forlornly to his friend Elizabeth de Heyden "Shipwrecked am I, and lost, 'mid waters chill'."[23] He sufferedquartan fever for over a year. Eventually Erasmus moved to the same abbey as a postulant in or before 1487,[19] around the age of 16 (or 19.)[note 8]
Bust byHildo Krop (1950) inGouda, where Erasmus spent his youth
Poverty[40] had forced the sickly, bookish, teenaged orphan Erasmus into the consecrated life, entering the novitiate in 1487[41] at thecanonry at ruralStein, very nearGouda, South Holland: theChapter of Sion community[note 9] largely borrowed its rule from the larger monkishCongregation of Windesheim who had historical associations with theBrethren of the Common Life, but also with the notable pastoral, mystical[42]: ch1 and anti-speculativepost-scholastic theologiansJean Gerson[43]: 315 andGabriel Biel: positions associated also with Erasmus.[44]: 46–48 In 1488–1490, the surrounding region was plundered badly by armies fighting theSquire Francis War of succession and then suffered a famine.[22]: 759 Erasmus professed his vows as aCanon regular of St. Augustine[note 10] there in late 1488 at age 19 (or 22).[41]
Historian Fr. Aiden Gasquet later wrote: "One thing, however, would seem to be quite clear; he could never have had any vocation for the religious life. His whole subsequent history shows this unmistakably."[8] But according to one Catholic biographer, Erasmus had a spiritual awakening at the monastery.[48]
Certain abuses inreligious orders were among the chief objects of his later calls to reform the Western Church from within, particularly coerced or tricked recruitment of immature boys (the fictionalised account in theLetter to Grunnius calls them "victims of Dominic and Francis and Benedict"): Erasmus felt he had belonged to this class, joining "voluntarily but not freely" and so considered himself, if not morally bound by his vows, certainly legally, socially and honour- bound to keep them, yet to look for his true vocation.[45]: 439
While at Stein, 18-(or 21-)year-old Erasmus fell in unrequited love, forming what he called a "passionate attachment" (Latin:fervidos amores), with a fellow canon, Servatius Rogerus,[note 11] and wrote a series of love letters[note 12][50] in which he called Rogerus "half my soul",[note 13] writing that "it was not for the sake of reward or out of a desire for any favour that I have wooed you both unhappily and relentlessly. What is it then? Why, that you love him who loves you."[51][note 14] This correspondence contrasts with the generally detached and much more restrained attitude he usually showed in his later life, though he had a capacity to form and maintain deep male friendships,[note 15] such as withMore, Colet, and Ammonio.[note 16] No mentions or sexual accusations were ever made of Erasmus during his lifetime. His works notablypraise moderate sexual desire in marriage between men and women.[52]
He wasordained to theCatholic priesthood either on 25 April 1492,[40] or 25 April 1495, at age 25 (or 28).[note 18] Either way, he did not actively work as a choir priest for very long,[55] though his many works on confession and penance suggests experience of dispensing them.
In 1493, his prior arranged for him to leave the Stein house[56] and move to Brabant,[note 19] to take up the post of Latin Secretary to the ambitiousBishop of Cambrai, Henry of Bergen, on account of his great skill in Latin and his reputation as a man of letters.[58][note 20] Following this, he went to Paris to study theology. His status as priest, latinist and student, and his habit of being far away, afforded a measure of disengagement from the Stein canonry.
From 1500, he avoided returning to the canonry at Stein even insisting the diet and hours would kill him,[note 21] though he did stay with other Augustinian communities and at monasteries of other orders in his travels. Rogerus, who became prior at Stein in 1504, and Erasmus corresponded over the years, with Rogerus demanding Erasmus return after his studies were complete. Nevertheless, the library of the canonry[note 22] ended up with by far the largest collection of Erasmus's publications in the Gouda region.[60]
In 1505,Pope Julius II granted adispensation[61] from the vow of poverty to the extent of allowing Erasmus to hold certain benefices, and from the control andhabit of hisorder, though he remained a priest and, formally, an Augustinian canon regular[note 23] the rest his life.[45] In 1517,Pope Leo X granted legal dispensations for Erasmus'sdefects of natality[note 24] and confirmed the previous dispensation, allowing the 48-(or 51-)year-old his independence[61] but still, as a canon, capable of holding office as a prior or abbot.[45] Indeed, in 1535, incoming PopePaul III appointed him Provost of the "Canons of Deventer" (i.e., the semi-monasticBrethren of the Common Life chapter, which had long resisted titles such as Provost,[33] and/or perhaps the canons of theGrote or Lebuïnuskerk):[62] this may also have been related to his intended return to the Low Countries. In 1525, PopeClement VII granted, for health reasons, a dispensation to eat meat and dairy in Lent and on fast days.[63]: 410
He received dispensations (from Ferdinand Archduke of Austria, and from Emperor Charles V in 1530) to make a will rather than have his wealth revert to his order (the Chapter of Sion) or to the state.
Erasmus travelled widely and regularly, for reasons of poverty, "escape"[64]: 154 from hisStein canonry (toCambrai), education (to Paris,Turin), escape from thesweating sickness plague (toOrléans), employment (to England), searching libraries for manuscripts, writing (Brabant), royal counsel (Cologne), patronage, tutoring and chaperoning (North Italy), networking (Rome), seeing books through printing in person (Paris,Venice,Louvain,Basel), and avoiding the persecution of religious fanatics (toFreiburg). He enjoyed horseback riding.[65]
During this time, Erasmus developed a deep aversion to exclusive or excessiveAristotelianism andScholasticism[68] and started finding work as a tutor/chaperone to visiting English and Scottish aristocrats, most importantly in his lifeWilliam Blount, 4th Baron Mountjoy. There is no record of him graduating.
"I can truly say that no place in the world has given me so many friends—true, learned, helpful, and illustrious friends—as the single city of London." Letter to Colet, 1509[8]
Erasmus stayed in England at least three times.[note 26] In between he had periods studying in Paris, Orléans, Leuven and other cities.
In 1499 he was invited to England by Blount, who offered to accompany him on his trip to England.[70] His six months in England was fruitful in the making of lifelong friendships with the leaders of English thought in the days of KingHenry VIII.
During his first visit to England in 1499, he stayed for two months at theUniversity of Oxford, atSt Mary's College, the college for Augustinian canons, where he befriended the leading Greek scholarsThomas Linacre,William Grocyn andWilliam Lily. Erasmus was particularly impressed by the Bible teaching of the humanistJohn Colet, who pursued a preaching style more akin to thechurch fathers than theScholastics. Through the influence of Colet, his interests turned towardspatristic theology.[70] Other distinctive features of Colet's thought that may have influenced Erasmus are his pacifism,[71] reform-mindedness,[72] anti-Scholasticism and pastoral esteem for the sacrament of Confession.[73]: 94
This prompted him, upon his return from England to Paris, to intensively study the Greek language, which would enable him to study patristic theology on a more profound level.[74]: 518
Erasmus also becamefast friends withThomas More, a young law student considering becoming a monk, whose thought (e.g., on conscience and equity) had been influenced by 14th century French theologianJean Gerson,[75][76] and whose intellect had been developed by his powerful patron CardinalJohn Morton (d. 1500) who had famously attempted reforms of English monasteries.[77]
Erasmus left London with a full purse from his generous friends, to allow him to complete his studies. However, he had been provided with bad legal advice by his friends: the English customs officials confiscated all the gold and silver, leaving him with nothing except a night fever that lasted several months.
Following his first trip to England, Erasmus returned first to poverty in Paris, where he started to compile theAdagio for his students, then to Orléans to escape the plague, and then to semi-monastic life, scholarly studies and writing in France, notably at the BenedictineAbbey of Saint Bertin at St Omer (1501,1502) where he wrote the initial version of theEnchiridion (Handbook of the Christian Knight). A particular influence was his encounter in 1501 with Jean (Jehan) Vitrier, a radical Franciscan who consolidated Erasmus's thoughts against excessive valorisation of monasticism,[73]: 94, 95 ceremonialism[note 27] and fasting[note 28] in a kind of conversion experience,[28]: 213, 219 and introduced him toOrigen.[79]
In 1502, Erasmus went to Brabant, ultimately to the university at Louvain. In 1504 he was hired by the leaders of the Brabantian "Provincial States" to deliver one of his few public speeches, a very long formalpanegyric forPhilip "the Fair", Duke of Burgundy and later King of Castille: the first half being the conventional extravagant praise, but the second half being a strong treatment of the miseries of war, the need for neutrality and conciliation (with the neighbours France and England),[80] and the excellence of peaceful rulers: that real courage in a leader was not to wage war but to put a bridle on greed, etc.[81]: 71 This was later published asPanegyricus. Erasmus then returned to Paris in 1504.
For Erasmus's second visit, he spent over a year staying at recently marriedThomas More's house, now a lawyer and Member of Parliament, honing his translation skills.[69]
Erasmus preferred to live the life of an independent scholar and made a conscious effort to avoid any actions or formal ties that might inhibit his individual freedom.[82] In England Erasmus was approached with prominent offices but he declined them all, until theKing himself offered his support.[82] He was inclined, but eventually did not accept and longed for a stay in Italy.[82]
In 1506 he was able to accompany and tutor the sons of thepersonal physician of the English King through Italy to Bologna.[82]
His discovery en route atPark Abbey ofLorenzo Valla'sNew Testament Notes was a major event in his career and prompted Erasmus to study the New Testament usingphilology.[83]
In 1506 they passed through Turin and he arranged to be awarded the degree ofDoctor of Sacred Theology (Sacra Theologia, the highest theological degree, conferring theius docendi right to teach theology anywhere),[84]: 638 from theUniversity of Turin[82]per saltum[85] at age 37 (or 40). Erasmus stayed tutoring in Bologna for a year;[note 29] in the winter, Erasmus was present whenPope Julius II entered victorious into the conquered Bologna which he had besieged before.[82]
Book printed and illuminated at theAldine Press, Venice (1501):Horace,Works
Erasmus travelled on to Venice, working on an expanded version of his Adagia at theAldine Press of the famous printerAldus Manutius, advised him which manuscripts to publish,[87] and was an honorary member of the graecophone Aldine "New Academy" (Greek:Neakadêmia (Νεακαδημία)).[88] From Aldus he learned the in-person workflow that made him productive at Froben: making last-minute changes, and immediately checking and correcting printed page proofs as soon as the ink had dried. Aldus wrote that Erasmus could do twice as much work in a given time as any other man he had ever met.[8]
In 1507, according to his letters, he studied advanced Greek in Padua with the Venetian natural philosopher,Giulio Camillo.[89] He found employment tutoring and escorting Scottish noblemanAlexander Stewart, the 24-year-old Archbishop of St Andrews, through Padua, Florence, and Siena,[note 30] Erasmus made it to Rome in 1509, visiting three times and seeking the acquaintance of some notable librarians and cardinals, but having a less active association with Italian scholars; one notable minor friendship was with CardinalGiovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici who later became Pope Leo X and a leading supporter of Erasmus's Biblical program.[91]
In 1509, William Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Lord Mountjoy lured him back to England, now ruled by what was hoped would be a wise and benevolent king (Henry VIII) educated by humanists. Warham and Mountjoy sent Erasmus £10 to cover his expenses on the journey.[92] On his trip over the Alps via Splügen Pass, and down the Rhine toward England, Erasmus began to composeThe Praise of Folly.[93]
In 1510, Erasmus arrived at More's bustling house, was confined to bed to recover from his recurrent illness, and wroteThe Praise of Folly, which was to be a best-seller. More was at that time theundersheriff of theCity of London. His wife Jane died, aged 21, in 1511, and More quicklyremarrried.
After his glorious reception in Italy, Erasmus had returned broke and jobless,[note 31] with strained relations with former friends and benefactors on the continent, and he regretted leaving Italy, despite being horrified by papal warfare. There is a gap in his usually voluminous correspondence: his so-called "two lost years", perhaps due to self-censorship of dangerous or disgruntled opinions;[note 16] he shared lodgings with his friendAndrea Ammonio (Latin secretary to Mountjoy, and the next year, to Henry VIII, who had been lodging in Thomas More's large and welcoming household but did not get on with the new wife[97]) provided at the LondonAustin Friars' compound, skipping out after a disagreement with the friars over rent that caused bad blood.[note 32]
He assisted his friend John Colet by authoring Greek textbooks and securing members of staff for the newly establishedSt Paul's School[98] and was in contact when Colet gave his notorious 1512Convocation sermon which called for a reformation of ecclesiastical affairs.[99]: 230–250 At Colet's instigation, Erasmus started work onDe copia.
Erasmus mainly stayed atQueens' College while lecturing at the university,[102] between 1511 and 1515.[note 34] Erasmus's rooms were located in the "I" staircase of Old Court.[103] Despite a chronic shortage of money, he succeeded in mastering Greek by an intensive, day-and-night study of three years, taught byThomas Linacre, continuously begging in letters that his friends send him books and money for teachers.[104]
Erasmus suffered from poor health and was especially concerned with heating, clean air, ventilation, draughts, fresh food and unspoiled wine: he complained about the draughtiness of English buildings.[105] He complained that Queens' College could not supply him with enough decent wine[note 35] (wine was the Renaissance medicine for gallstones, from which Erasmus suffered).[106] As Queens' was an unusually humanist-leaning institution in the 16th century,Queens' College Old Library still houses many first editions of Erasmus's publications, many of which were acquired during that period by bequest or purchase, including Erasmus's New Testament translation, which is signed by friend and Polish religious reformerJan Łaski.[107]
His residence at Leuven, where he lectured at theUniversity, exposed Erasmus to much criticism from those ascetics, academics and clerics hostile to the principles ofliterary and religious reform to which he was devoting his life.[109] In 1514,en route to Basel, he made the acquaintance ofHermannus Buschius,Ulrich von Hutten andJohann Reuchlin who introduced him to the Hebrew language in Mainz.[110] In 1514, he suffered a fall from his horse and injured his back.
Quinten Matsys – Portrait of Peter Gillis or Gilles (1517), half of a diptych with a portrait of Erasmus below, painted as a gift from them forThomas More.[111]
Erasmus may have made several other short visits to England or English territory while living in Brabant.[69] Happily for Erasmus, More and Tunstall were posted in Brussels or Antwerp on government missions around 1516, More for six months, Tunstall for longer. Their circle includePieter Gillis of Antwerp, in whose houseThomas More's wroteUtopia (1516) with Erasmus's encouragement,[note 36] Erasmus editing and perhaps even contributing fragments.[113] His old Cambridge friendRichard Sampson wasvicar general running the nearbydiocese of Tournai, recently underEnglish control and governed by his former pupilWilliam Blount.[114]
In 1516, Erasmus accepted an honorary position as a Councillor toCharles V with an annuity of 200 guilders (over US$100,000[citation needed]), rarely paid,[115] and tutored Charles' brother, the teenage future Holy Roman EmperorFerdinand of Hapsburg.
In 1516, Erasmus published the first edition of his scholarly Latin-GreekNew Testament with annotations, his complete works of Jerome, andThe Education of a Christian Prince (Institutio principis Christiani) for Charles and Ferdinand.
In 1517, his great friend Ammonio died in England of theSweating Sickness. In 1518, Erasmus was diagnosed withthe plague; despite the danger, he was taken in and cared for in the home of his Flemish friend and publisherDirk Martens in Antwerp for a month and recovered.[118]
By 1518, he reported toPaulus Bombasius that his income was over 300 ducats[note 37] per year (over US$150,000) without including patronage.[120]: 350 By 1522 he reported his annual income as 400 gold florins[121]: 50 (over US$200,000[citation needed]).
Desiderius Erasmus dictating to his ammenuensis Gilbert Cousin or Cognatus. From a book by Cousin, and itself claimed to be based on fresco in Cousin's house inNozeroy, Burgundy. Engraving possibly byClaude Luc [fr].
From 1514, Erasmus regularly travelled toBasel to coordinate the printing of his books withFroben. He developed a lasting association with the great Basel publisherJohann Froben and later his sonHieronymus Froben (Erasmus'sgodson) who together published over 200 works with Erasmus,[126] working with expert scholar-correctors who went on to illustrious careers.[125]
His initial interest in Froben's operation was aroused by his discovery of the printer's folio edition of theAdagiorum Chiliades tres (Adagia) (1513).[127] Froben's work was notable for using the newRoman type (rather thanblackletter) and Aldine-like Italic and Greek fonts, as well as elegant layouts using borders and fancy capitals;[125]: 59 Hans Holbein the Younger cut several woodblock capitals for Erasmus's editions. The printing of many his books was supervised by his Alsatian friend, the Greek scholarBeatus Rhenanus.[note 39]
In 1521 he settled in Basel.[129] He was weary of the controversies and hostility at Louvain, and feared being dragged further into the Lutheran controversy.[130] He agreed to be the Froben press' literary superintendent writing dedications and prefaces[8] for an annuity and profit share.[101] Apart from Froben's production team, he had his own household[note 40] with a formidable housekeeper, stable of horses, and up to eight boarders or paid servants who acted as assistants, correctors, amanuenses, dining companions, international couriers, and carers.[132] It was his habit to sit at times by a ground-floor window, to make it easier to see and be seen by strolling humanists for chatting.[133]
In collaboration with Froben and his team, the scope and ambition of Erasmus'sAnnotations, Erasmus's long-researched project of philological notes of the New Testament along the lines of Valla'sAdnotations, had grown to also include a lightly revised Latin Vulgate, then the Greek text, then several edifying essays on methodology, then a highly revised Vulgate—all bundled as hisNovum testamentum omne and pirated individually throughout Europe— then finally his amplifiedParaphrases.
In 1522, Erasmus's compatriot, former teacher (c. 1502) and friend from the University of Louvain unexpectedly becamePope Adrian VI,[note 41] after having served as Regent (and/or Grand Inquisitor) of Spain for six years. Like Erasmus and Luther, he had been influenced by the Brethren of the Common Life. He tried to entice Erasmus to Rome. His reforms of theRoman Curia which he hoped would meet the objections of many Lutherans were stymied (partly because the Holy See was broke), though re-worked at the Council of Trent, and he died in 1523.[136]
Pope Adrian VI
As the popular and nationalist responses to Luther gathered momentum, the social disorders, which Erasmus dreaded and Luther disassociated himself from, began to appear, including theGerman Peasants' War (1524–1525), theAnabaptist insurrections in Germany and in the Low Countries, iconoclasm, and the radicalisation of peasants across Europe. If these were the outcomes of reform, Erasmus was thankful that he had kept out of it. Yet he was ever more bitterly accused of having started the whole "tragedy" (as Erasmus dubbed the matter).[note 42]
In 1523, he provided financial support to the impoverished and disgraced former Latin Secretary of AntwerpCornelius Grapheus, on his release from the newly introduced Inquisition.[137]: 558 In 1525, a former student of Erasmus who had served at Erasmus's father's former church at Woerden,Jan de Bakker (Pistorius) was the first priest to be executed as a heretic in the Netherlands. In 1529, his French translator and friendLouis de Berquin was burnt in Paris, following his condemnation as an anti-Rome heretic by theSorbonne theologians.
Following sudden, violent, iconoclastic rioting in early 1529[note 43] led byŒcolampadius his former assistant, in which elected Catholic councilmen were deposed, the city of Basel definitely adopted the Reformation—finally banning the Catholic Mass on 1 April 1529.[139]
Erasmus, in company with other Basel Catholic priests including BishopAugustin Mair [de], left Basel on 13 April 1529[note 44] and departed by ship to the Catholic university town ofFreiburg im Breisgau to be under the protection of his former student,Archduke Ferdinand of Austria.[28]: 210 Erasmus wrote somewhat dramatically to Thomas More of his frail condition at the time: "I preferred to risk my life rather than appear to approve a programme like theirs. There was some hope of a return to moderation."[140]
In Spring early 1530 Erasmus was bedridden for three months with an intensely painful infection, likely carbunculosis, that, unusually for him, left him too ill to work.[141]: 411 He declined to attend theDiet of Augsburg to which both the Bishop of Augsburg and the Papal legate Campeggio had invited him, and he expressed doubt on non-theological grounds, to Campeggio and Melanchthon, that reconciliation was then possible: he wrote to Campeggio, "I can discern no way out of this enormous tragedy unless God suddenly appears like adeus ex machina and changes the hearts of men";[141]: 331 and later, "What upsets me is not so much their teaching, especially Luther's, as the fact that, under the pre-text of the gospel, I see a class of men emerging whom I find repugnant from every point of view."[141]: 367
He stayed for two years on the top floor ofthe Whale House,[142] then following another rent dispute[note 45] bought and refurbished a house of his own, where he took in scholar/assistants as table-boarders[143] such as Cornelius Grapheus' friendDamião de Góis, some of them fleeing persecution.
Despite increasing frailty[note 46] Erasmus continued to work productively, notably on a newmagnum opus, his manual on preachingEcclesiastes, and his small book on preparing for death. His boarder for five months, the Portuguese scholar/diplomatDamião de Góis,[137] worked on his lobbying on the plight of theSámi in Sweden and on the Ethiopian church, and stimulated[145]: 82 Erasmus's increasing awareness of foreign missions.[note 47]
There are no extant letters between More and Erasmus from the start of More's period as Lord Chancellor until his resignation (1529–1532), almost to the day. Erasmus wrote several important non-political works under the surprising patronage ofThomas Bolyn: hisEnnaratio triplex in Psalmum XXII orTriple Commentary on Psalm 23 (1529); his catechism to counter LutherExplanatio Symboli orA Playne and Godly Exposition or Declaration of the Commune Crede (1533) which sold out in three hours at the Frankfurt Book Fair; andPraeparatio ad mortem orPreparation for Death (1534), which would be one of Erasmus's most popular and most hijacked works.[147][note 48]
In the 1530s, life became more dangerous for Spanish Erasmians when Erasmus's protector, the Inquisitor GeneralAlonso Manrique de Lara fell out of favour with the royal court and lost power within his own organisation to friar-theologians. In 1532 Erasmus's friend,conversoJuan de Vergara (Cisneros' Latin secretary who had worked on theComplutensian Polyglot and publishedStunica's criticism of Erasmus) was arrested by the Spanish Inquisition and had to be ransomed from them by the humanist Archbishop of ToledoAlonso III Fonseca, also a correspondent of Erasmus', who had previously rescuedIgnatius of Loyola from them.[148]: 80
There was a generational change in the Catholic hierarchy. In 1530, the reforming French bishopGuillaume Briçonnet died. In 1532 his beloved long-time mentor English PrimateWarham died of old age,[note 49] as did reforming cardinalGiles of Viterbo and Swiss bishopHugo von Hohenlandenberg. In 1534 his distrusted protectorClement VII (the "inclement Clement"[149]: 72 ) died, his recent Italian ally CardinalCajetan (widely tipped as the next pope) died, and his old ally CardinalCampeggio retired.
As more friends died (in 1533, his friendPieter Gillis; in 1534,William Blount; in early 1536,Catherine of Aragon andRichard Pace;) and as Luther and some Lutherans and some powerful Catholic theologians renewed their personal attacks on Erasmus, his letters are increasingly focused on concerns on the status of friendships and safety as he considered moving from bland Freiburg despite his health.[note 50]
In 1535, Erasmus's friendsThomas More, BishopJohn Fisher and theBrigittine monkRichard Reynolds[note 51] were executed as pro-Rome traitors byHenry VIII, who Erasmus (with More) had first met as a boy and had corresponded with each other numerous times over the years. Despite illness Erasmus wrote thefirst biography of More (and Fisher), the short, anonymousExpositio Fidelis, which Froben published, at the instigation of de Góis.[137] He called them the 'new martyrs' of Christendom slain by 'another Herod.'[151]: 124
After Erasmus's time, numerous of Erasmus's translators later met similar fates at the hands of Anglican, Catholic and Reformed sectarians and autocrats: includingMargaret Pole,William Tyndale,Michael Servetus. Others, such as Charles V's Latin secretaryJuan de Valdés, fled and died in self-exile.
Erasmus's friend and collaborator BishopCuthbert Tunstall eventually died in prison under Elizabeth I for finally refusing theOath of Supremacy. Erasmus's correspondent BishopStephen Gardiner, who he had known as a teenaged student in Paris and Cambridge,[152] was later imprisoned in theTower of London for five years underEdward VI for impeding Protestantism.[note 52] Damião de Góis was tried before the Portuguese Inquisition at age 72,[137] detained almostincommunicado, finally exiled to a monastery, and on release perhaps murdered.[154] His amanuensis Gilbert Cousin died in prison at age 66, shortly after being arrested on the personal order of PopePius V.[132]
Epitaph for Erasmus in theBasel Minster. The stone is marked with historical graffiti, including that ofJohannes Crucius.
When his strength began to fail, he finally decided to accept an invitation byQueen Mary of Hungary, Regent of the Netherlands (sister of his former student Archduke Ferdinand I and Emperor Charles V), to move from Freiburg toBrabant. In 1535, he moved back to the Froben compound inBasel in preparation (Œcolampadius having died, and private practice of his religion now possible) and saw his last major works such asEcclesiastes through publication, though he grew more frail.
On 12 July 1536, he died from an attack ofdysentery.[155] "The most famous scholar of his day died in peaceful prosperity and in the company of celebrated and responsible friends."[156] His last words, as recorded by his friend and biographerBeatus Rhenanus, were apparently "Lord, put an end to it" (Latin:domine fac finem, the same last words as Melanchthon)[157] then "Dear God" (Dutch:Lieve God).[158]
He had remained loyal to Roman Catholicism,[159] but biographers have disagreed whether to treat him as an insider or an outsider.[note 53] He may not have received or had the opportunity to receive thelast rites of the Catholic Church;[note 54] the contemporary reports of his death do not mention whether he asked for a Catholic priest or not,[note 55] if any were secretly or privately in Basel.
He was buried with great ceremony in theBasel Minster (the former cathedral). The Protestant city authorities remarkably allowed his funeral to be an ecumenical Catholicrequiem Mass.[161]
Erasmus had received dispensations (from Ferdinand Archduke of Austria, and from Emperor Charles V in 1530) to make a will rather than have his wealth revert to his order (the Chapter of Sion), or to the state, and had long pre-sold most of his personal library of almost 500 books to Polish humanist Jan Łaski.[162][163] As his heir or executor he instatedBonifacius Amerbach to give scholarships to local students and the needy.[note 56] One of the eventual recipients was the impoverished Protestant humanistSebastian Castellio, who had fled from Geneva to Basel, who subsequently translated the Bible into Latin and French, and who worked for the repair of the breach and divide of Western Christianity in its Catholic, Anabaptist, and Protestant branches.[164] As well as those 5,000 florins,[note 57] up to 2,000 florins had long been held in Brabant by friends, andGoclenius was appointed to administer that charity.[note 58]
Biographers, such asJohan Huizinga, frequently draw connections between many of Erasmus's convictions and his early biography: esteem for the married state and appropriate marriages, support for priestly marriage, concern for improving marriage prospects for women, opposition to inconsiderate rules (notably, institutional dietary rules), a desire to make education engaging for the participants, interest in classical languages, horror of poverty and spiritual hopelessness, distaste for friars begging when they could study or work, unwillingness to be under the direct control of authorities, laicism, the need for those in authority to act in the best interest of their charges, a prizing of mercy and peace, an anger over unnecessary war, especially between avaricious princes, an awareness of mortality, the wisdom of avoiding danger,[note 59] etc.
More than any other Renaissance figure, the humanist from the Low Countries was committed to the goal of building an alternative to medieval civilisation...As a rule, the ancient elements were essential to him, whereas he tended to discard most “recent” (that is, medieval) phenomena as superfluous or harmful.
— István Bejczy,Erasmus and the Middle Ages[165]: xii
Erasmus had a distinctive manner of thinking, a Catholic historian suggests: one that is capacious in its perception, agile in its judgements, and unsettling in its irony with "a deep and abiding commitment to human flourishing".[166] "In all spheres, his outlook was essentially pastoral."[28]: 225 He was an "incurable idealist".[note 60]
Erasmus has been called a seminal rather than a consistent or systematic thinker,[167] notably averse to over-extending from the specific to the general, who nevertheless should be taken very seriously as apastoral[note 61] and rhetorical theologian, with a philological and historical approach—rather than a metaphysical approach—to interpreting Scripture[169][note 62] and interested in theliteral and tropological senses.[28]: 145 French theologian Louis Bouyer commented, "Erasmus was to be one of those who can get no edification from exegesis where they suspect some misinterpretation."[170]
A theologian has written of "Erasmus' preparedness completely to satisfy no-one but himself".[171] He has been called moderate, judicious and constructive even when being critical or when mocking extremes;[172][note 63] but thin-skinned against slanders of heterodoxy.[note 64]
Erasmus often wrote in a highly ironical idiom,[166] especially in his letters,[note 65] which makes them prone to different interpretations when taken literally rather than ironically.
Ulrich von Hutten claimed that Erasmus was secretly a Lutheran; Erasmus chided him saying that von Hutten had not detected the irony in his public letters enough.[133]: 27
Antagonistic scholar J. W. Williams denies that Erasmus's letter to Ammonius, "let your own interests be your standard in all things", was in apparent jest, as claimed by those more sympathetic to Erasmus.[173]
Erasmus's aphoristic quote on the persecution of Reuchlin, "If it is Christian to hate Jews, we are all abundantly Christians here", is taken literally by Theodor Dunkelgrün[174]: 320 and Harry S. May[175] as being approving of such hatred; the alternative view would be that it was sardonic and challenging.
He frequently wrote about controversial subjects using thedialogue to avoid direct statements clearly attributable to himself.[note 66] For Martin Luther, he was an eel,[176] slippery, evasive and impossible to capture.
Erasmus's literary theory of "copiousness" endorses a large stockpile of richadages,analogies,tropes and symbolic figures, which leads to compressed communication of complex ideas (between those educated in the stockpile) but some of which, to modern sensibilities, may promote, rather than play off,stereotypes.
Erasmus's lengthy collections of proverbs, theAdagia, established a vocabulary he and his contemporaries then used extensively and habitually: according to philosopher Heinz Kimmerle,[177] it is necessary to know the explanations of various proverbs given by Erasmus'sAdages to adequately understand many passages in Erasmus's and Luther's written debate on free will (see below).[178]
When Erasmus wrote of 'Judaism', he most frequently (though not always) was not referring to Jews:[note 67] instead he referred to those Catholic Christians of his time, especially in the monastic lifestyle, who mistakenly promoted excessive external ritualism over interior piety, by analogy withSecond Temple Judaism.
"Judaism I call not Jewish impiety, but prescriptions about external things, such as food, fasting, clothes, which to a certain degree resemble the rituals of the Jews."[179]
Erasmus's counter-accusation to Spanish friars of "Judaizing" may have been particularly sharp and bold, given the prominent role that some friars with theSpanish Inquisition were playing in the lethal persecution of someconversos.[note 68]
Terence J. Martin identifies an "Erasmian pattern" that the supposed (by the reader) otherness (of Turks, Lapplanders, Indians, Amerindians,[note 69] Jews, and even women and heretics) "provides afoil against which the failures of Christian culture can be exposed and criticized."[181]
In a 1518 letter toJohn Fisher, Erasmus wrote: "The cunning of princes and the effrontery of the Roman curia can go no further; and it looks as though the state of the common people would soon be such that the tyranny of the Grand Turk would be more bearable."[120]: 70
InDe bello Turcico, Erasmus personifies that we should "kill the Turk, not the man.[...] If we really want to heave the Turks from our necks, we must first expel from our hearts a more loathsome race of Turks: avarice, ambition, the craving for power, self-satisfaction, impiety, extravagance, the love of pleasure, deceitfulness, anger, hatred, envy."[note 70]
Peace, peaceableness, and peacemaking, in all spheres from the domestic to the religious to the political, were central distinctives of Erasmus's writing on Christian living and his mystical theology:[182] "the sum and summary of our religion is peace and unanimity"[note 71] At theNativity of Jesus "the angels sang not the glories of war, nor a song of triumph, but a hymn of peace":[183]
He (Christ) conquered by gentleness; He conquered by kindness; he conquered by truth itself. [...] Long ago, he was called God of Powers, the 'Lord of Hosts/Armies'; for us he is called 'God of Peace'.
Erasmus was not an absolutepacifist but promoted politicalpacificism and religiousIrenicism.[184] Notable writings on irenicism includeDe Concordia,On the War with the Turks,The Education of a Christian Prince,On Restoring the Concord of the Church, andThe Complaint of Peace. Erasmus's ecclesiology of peacemaking held that the church authorities[note 73] had a divine mandate to settle religious disputes,[note 74] in an as non-excluding way as possible,[note 75] including by the preferably-minimaldevelopment of doctrine.
In the latter, Lady Peace insists on peace as the crux of Christian life and for understanding Christ:
"I give you my peace, I leave you my peace" (John 14:27). You hear what he leaves his people? Not horses, bodyguards, empire or riches – none of these. What then? He gives peace, leaves peace – peace with friends, peace with enemies.
A historian has called him "The 16th Century's Pioneer of Peace Education and a Culture of Peace".[note 76]
Erasmus's emphasis on peacemaking reflects a typical pre-occupation ofmedieval lay spirituality as historian John Bossy (as summarised by Eamon Duffy) puts it: "medieval Christianity had been fundamentally concerned with the creation and maintenance of peace in a violent world. 'Christianity' in medieval Europe denoted neither an ideology nor an institution, but a community of believers whose religious ideal—constantly aspired to if seldom attained—was peace and mutual love."[187]
Historians have written that "references to conflict run like a red thread through the writings of Erasmus".[16]: 34 Erasmus had a simple view of the renaissance state, where ultimately warfare was determined by single individuals: sovereign rulers (i.e. pope, emperor, king, duke, etc.) with malformed ambitions;[188] so directing sovereigns towards inter-Christendom pacifism was thus a key practical prescription for peace, which in turn required a new curriculum for educating princes that did not encourage vainglorious milititarism.[189]: 58 [note 77]
Erasmus had experienced war as a child and was particularly concerned about wars between Christian kings, who should be brothers and not start wars; a theme in his bookThe Education of a Christian Prince. HisAdages included "War is sweet to those who have never tasted it" (Dulce bellum inexpertis fromPindar's Greek).[note 78]
He promoted and was present at theField of Cloth of Gold,[191] and his wide-rangingcorrespondence frequently related to issues of peacemaking.[note 79] He saw a key role of the Church in peacemaking by arbitration[193] and mediation,[16]: 50 and the office of the Pope was necessary to rein in tyrannical princes and bishops.[8]: 195
He questioned the practical usefulness and abuses[note 80] ofjust war theory, further limiting it to feasible defensive actions with popular support and that "war should never be undertaken unless, as a last resort, it cannot be avoided".[194] Appeasement should be considered.[188] Defeat should be endured rather than fighting to the end. In hisAdages he discusses (common translation) "A disadvantageous peace is better than a just war", which owes toCicero and John Colet's "Better an unjust peace than the justest war." Expansionism could not be justified.[note 81] Taxes to pay for war should cause the least possible hardship on the poor.[121]: 20
He hated sedition as, often, an excuse or cause of oppression.
Erasmus was highly critical of the warlike way of important European princes of his era, including some princes of the church.[note 82] He described these princes as corrupt and greedy. Erasmus believed that these princes "collude in a game, of which the outcome is to exhaust and oppress the commonwealth".[116]: s1.7.4 He spoke more freely about this matter in letters sent to his friends likeThomas More,Beatus Rhenanus andAdrianus Barlandus: a particular target of his criticisms was the EmperorMaximilian I, whom Erasmus blamed for allegedly preventing the Netherlands from signing a peace treaty withGuelders[195] and other schemes to cause wars to extract money from his subjects.[note 83]
One of his approaches was to send and publish congratulatory and lionising letters to princes who, though in a position of strength, negotiated peace with neighbours, such as KingSigismund I the Old of Poland in 1527.[145]: 75
Erasmus "constantly and consistently" opposed the mooted idea of a Christian "universal monarch" with an over-extended empire who could supposedly defeat the Ottoman forces: such universalism did not "hold any promise of generating less conflict than the existing political plurality"; instead, advocating concord between princes, both temporal and spiritual.[16]: 44, 45 The spiritual princes, by their arbitration and mediation do not "threaten political plurality, but acts as its defender."[16]: 50
He referred to his irenical disposition in the Preface toOn Free Will as a "secret inclination of nature" that would make him even prefer the views of theSceptics over intolerant assertions, though he sharply distinguishedadiaphora from what was uncontentiously explicit in theNew Testament or absolutely mandated byChurch teaching.[196] Concord demanded unity and assent: Erasmus was anti-sectarian[note 84] as well as non-sectarian.[197] To follow the law of love, our intellects must be humble and friendly when making any assertions: he called contention "earthly, beastly, demonic"[198]: 739 and a good-enough reason to reject a teacher or their followers. In Melanchthon's view, Erasmus taught charity, not faith.[157]: 10 The centrality of Christian concord to Erasmus's theology contrasted with the insistence ofMartin Luther and, for example, later EnglishPuritans, that (Protestant) truth naturally would create discord and opposition.[199]: 219
Portrait of Erasmus, after Quinten Massijs (1517)
Certain works of Erasmus laid a foundation for religious toleration of private opinions andecumenism. For example, inDe libero arbitrio, opposing particular views of Martin Luther, Erasmus noted that religious disputants should be temperate in their language "because in this way the truth, which is often lost amidst too much wrangling may be more surely perceived". Gary Remer writes, "LikeCicero, Erasmus concludes that truth is furthered by a more harmonious relationship between interlocutors."[200]
In a letter to CardinalLorenzo Campeggio, Erasmus lobbied diplomatically for toleration: "If the sects could be tolerated under certain conditions (as the Bohemians pretend), it would, I admit, be a grievous misfortune, but one more endurable than war."[201]: 447 But the same dedication to avoiding conflict and bloodshed should be shown by those tempted to join (anti-popist) sects:
Perhaps evil rulers should sometimes be tolerated. We owe some respect to the memory of those whose places we think of them as occupying. Their titles have some claim on us. We should not seek to put matters right if there is a real possibility that the cure may prove worse than the disease.
Erasmus had been privately involved in early attempts to protect Luther and his sympathisers from charges ofheresy.[note 2] Erasmus wroteInquisitio de fide to say that the Lutherans (of 1523) were not formally heretics: he pushed back against the willingness of some theologians to cry heresy fast in order to enforce their views in universities and at inquisitions.
For Erasmus, punishable heresy had to involve fractiously, dangerously, and publicly agitating against essential doctrines relating to Christ (i.e., blasphemy), with malice, depravity, obstinacy.[note 85] As with StTheodore the Studite,[204] Erasmus was against the death penalty merely for private or peaceable heresy or for dissent on non-essentials: "It is better to cure a sick man than to kill him."[205] The Church, he said, has the duty to protect believers and convert or heal heretics; he invoked Jesus'parable of the wheat and tares.[28]: 200
Erasmus'spacificism included a particular dislike for sedition, which caused warfare:
It was the duty of the leaders of this (reforming) movement, if Christ was their goal, to refrain not only from vice, but even from every appearance of evil; and to offer not the slightest stumbling block to the Gospel, studiously avoiding even practices which, although allowed, are yet not expedient. Above all they should have guarded against all sedition.
Erasmus allowed the death penalty against violent seditionists to prevent bloodshed and war: he allowed that the state has the right to execute those who are a necessary danger to public order—whether heretic or orthodox—but noted (e.g., toNatalis Beda) thatAugustine had been against the execution of even violentDonatists: Johannes Trapman states that Erasmus's endorsement of suppression of the Anabaptists springs from their refusal to heed magistrates and the criminal violence of theMünster rebellion, not because of their heretical views on baptism.[203] Despite these concessions to state power, Erasmus suggested that religious persecution could still be challenged as inexpedient (ineffective).[207]
Most of his political writing focused on peace withinChristendom with almost a sole focus on Europe. In 1516, Erasmus wrote, "It is the part of a Christian prince to regard no one as an outsider unless he is a nonbeliever, and even on them he should inflict no harm", which entails not attacking outsiders, not taking their riches, not subjecting them to political rule, no forced conversions, and keeping promises made to them.[16]: 50, 51
In common with his times,[208] Erasmus regarded the Jewish and Islamic religions as Christian heresies (and therefore competitors to orthodox Christianity) rather than separate religions, using the inclusive termhalf-Christian for the latter.[note 86]
However, there is a wide range of scholarly opinion on the extent and nature ofantisemitic andanti-Muslim prejudice in his writings: historian Nathan Ron has found his writing to be harsh and racial in its implications, with contempt and hostility to Islam.[210]
In his last decade, he involved himself in thepublic policy debate on war with theOttoman Empire, which was then invadingWestern Europe, notably in his bookOn the war against the Turks (1530), as the "reckless and extravagant"[211] Pope Leo X had in previous decades promoted going on the offensive with a new crusade.[note 87] Erasmus reworked Luther's rhetoric that the invading Turks represent God's judgement of decadent Christendom, but without Luther's fatalism: Erasmus not only accused Western leaders of kingdom-threatening hypocrisy, he reworked a remedy already decreed by theFifth Council of the Lateran: anti-expansionist moral reforms by Europe's disunited leaders as a necessary unitive political step before any aggressive warfare against the Ottoman threat, reforms which might themselves, if sincere, prevent both the internecine and foreign warfare.[145][note 88]
Erasmus perceived and championed strongHellenistic rather than exclusively Hebraic influences on theintellectual milieux of Jesus, Paul, and the early church: "If only the Christian church did not attach so much importance to the Old Testament!"[note 89] Perhaps the only Jewish book he published was his loose translation of the first century Hellenistic-JudaicOn the Sovereignty of Reason, better known as4 Maccabees.[214]
Erasmus's pervasive anti-ceremonialism treated the early Church debates on circumcision, food, and special days as manifestations of cultural chauvinism by the initial Jewish Christians in Antioch.[note 90]
While many humanists, fromPico della Mirandola toJohannes Reuchlin, were intrigued by Jewish mysticism, Erasmus came to dislike it: "I see them as a nation full of most tedious fabrications, who spread a kind of fog over everything, Talmud, Cabbala, Tetragrammaton, Gates of Light, words, words, words. I would rather have Christ mixed up with Scotus than with that rubbish of theirs."[120]: 347
In hisParaphrase on Romans, Erasmus voiced, as Paul, the "secret" that in the end times, "all of the Israelites will be restored to salvation" and accept Christ as their Messiah, "although now part of them have fallen away from it".[215]
Several scholars have identifiedcases where Erasmus's comments appear to go beyond theologicalanti-Judaism into slurs or approving certainanti-semitic policies, though there is some controversy.
On the subject of slavery, Erasmus characteristically treated it in passing under the topic of tyranny: Christians were not allowed to be tyrants, which slave-owning required, but especially not to be the masters of other Christians.[216] Erasmus had various other piecemeal arguments against slavery: for example, that it was not legitimate to enslave people taken in an unjust war; but it was not a subject that occupied him. However, his belief that "nature created all men free" (and slavery was imposed) was a rejection of Aristotle's category of natural slaves.[180]
Erasmus promoted the idea that a prince rules with the consent of his people, notably in his bookThe Education of a Christian Prince (and, through More, in the bookUtopia, which proposed a "republic completely lacking sovereignty"[217]). He may have been influenced by theBrabantine custom of an incoming ruler being officially told of his duties and welcomed:[64] theJoyous Entry was a kind of contract. A monarchy should not be absolute: it should be "checked and diluted with a mixture of aristocracy and democracy to prevent it ever breaking out into tyranny".[24] The same considerations applied to church princes.
Erasmus contrasts the Christian Prince with the Tyrant, who has no love from the people, will be surrounded by flatterers, and can expect no loyalty or peace. Unspoken in Erasmus's views may have been the idea that the people can remove a tyrant; however, espousing this explicitly could expose people to capital charges of sedition or treason. Erasmus typically limited his political discussion to what could be couched as personal faith and morality by or between Christians, his business as a doctor of theology.
Erasmus expressed much of his reform program in terms of the proper attitude towards thesacraments and their ramifications:[218] notably for the underappreciated sacraments of Baptism and Marriage (seeOn the Institution of Christian Marriage) considered as vocations more than events;[note 91] and for the mysterious Eucharist, pragmatic Confession, the dangerousLast Rites (writingOn the Preparation for Death),[note 92] and the pastoral Holy Orders (seeEcclesiastes).[220] Historians have noted that Erasmus's commendation of the benefits of immersive, docile scripture-reading is put in sacramental terms.[note 93]
Johannes Œcolampadius by Asper (1550)
A test of the Reformation was the doctrine of the sacraments, and the crux of this question was the observance of theEucharist. Erasmus was concerned that thesacramentarians, headed byŒcolampadius of Basel, were claiming Erasmus held views similar to their own to try to claim him for their schismatic and "erroneous" movement. When the Mass was finally banned in Basel in 1529, Erasmus immediately abandoned the city, as did the other expelled Catholic clergy.
In 1530, Erasmus published anew edition of the orthodox treatise ofAlgerus against the hereticBerengar of Tours in the eleventh century. He added a dedication, affirming his belief in the reality of the Body of Christ after consecration in the Eucharist, commonly referred to astransubstantiation. Erasmus seems to have suspected that the scholastic formulation of transubstantiation stretched language past its breaking point,[222] however he noted that even if transubstantiation were not true, as some Protestants has started to claim, it should not be a cause of preventing people with traditional views from worshipping (latria) God in theHost, as the divinity of God is everywhere present.[223]
By and large, the miraculous real change that interested Erasmus, the author, more than that of the bread is the transformation in the humble partaker.[224]: 211 Erasmus wrote several notable pastoral books and pamphlets on sacraments, always looking through rather than at the rituals or forms:[note 94]
on marriage and wise matches,
preparation for confession and the need for pastoral encouragement by priests (whose primary duty was to shepherd, not just to consecrate/absolve),[225]: 73
preparation for death and the need to assuage fear,
training and helping the preaching duties of priests under bishops,
baptism and the need for that faithful to own the baptismal vows made for them.
Albrecht Dürer,Portrait of Erasmus, sketch: black chalk on paper, 1520
TheProtestant Reformation began in the year following the publication of hispathbreaking edition of theNew Testament in Latin and Greek (1516). The issues between the reforming and reactionary tendencies of thechurch, from whichProtestantism later emerged, had become so clear that many intellectuals and churchmen could not escape the summons to join the debate.
According to historian C. Scott Dixon, Erasmus not only criticised church failings but questioned many of his Church's basic teachings;[note 95] however, according to biographer Erika Rummel, "Erasmus was aiming at the correction of abuses rather than at doctrinal innovation or institutional change."[note 96]
In theologian Louis Bouyer's interpretation,[170] Erasmus's agenda was "to reform the Church from within by a renewal of biblical theology, based on philological study of the New Testament text, and supported by a knowledge of patristics, itself renewed by the same methods. The final object of it all was to nourish [...] chiefly moral and spiritual reform".[note 97]
At the height of his literary fame, Erasmus was called upon to take one side, but public partisanship was foreign to his beliefs, nature, and habits. Despite all hiscriticism of clerical corruption and abuses within the Western Church,[note 98] especially at first he sided unambiguously with neither Luther nor the anti-Lutherans publicly (though in private he lobbied assiduously against extremism from both parties), but eventually shunned the breakaway Protestant Reformation movements along with their mostradical offshoots.[159]
I have constantly declared, in countless letters, booklets, and personalstatements, that I do not want to be involved with either party.
— Erasmus,Spongia (1523)
The world had laughed at his satire,The Praise of Folly, but few had interfered with his activities. He believed that his work had commended itself to the religious world's best minds and dominant powers. Erasmus chose to write in Latin (and Greek), the languages of scholars. He did not build a large body of supporters among the unlettered; his critiques reached a small but elite audience.[228]
Reacting from his own experiences, Erasmus came to believe that monastic life and institutions no longer served the positive spiritual or social purpose they once may have:[230]: 669 in theEnchiridion he controversially put it "Monkishness is not piety."[note 99] At this time, it was better to live as "a monk in the world" than in the monastery.[note 100]
Many of his works contain diatribes against supposed monastic corruption and careerism, particularly against the mendicant friars (Franciscans and Dominicans). These orders also typically ran the university's Scholastic theology programs, from whose ranks came his most dangerous enemies. The more some attacked him, the more offensive he became about what he saw as their political influence and materialistic opportunism.
Alastor, an evil spirit: "They are a certain Sort of Animals in black and white Vestments, Ash-colour'd Coats, and various other Dresses, that are always hovering about the Courts of Princes, and [to each side] are continually instilling into their Ears the Love of War, and exhorting the Nobility and common People to it, haranguing them in their Sermons, that it is a just, holy and religious War. [...]"
Charon: "[...] What do they get out of it?"
Alastor: "Because they get more by those that die, than those that live. There are last Wills and Testaments, Funeral Obsequies, Bulls, and a great many other Articles of no despicable Profit. And in the last Place, they had rather live in a Camp, than in their Cells. War breeds a great many Bishops, who were not thought good for any Thing in a Time of Peace."
— Erasmus, "Charon",Colloquies
He was scandalised by superstitions (such as that if a person were buried in a Franciscan habit, they would go directly to heaven),[note 101] crime,[231] and child novices. He advocated various reforms, including a ban on taking orders until the 30th year; the closure of corrupt and smaller monasteries; respect for bishops; requiring work, not begging (reflecting the practice of his own order ofAugustinian Canons); the downplaying of monastic hours, fasts and ceremonies; and a less mendacious approach to gullible pilgrims and tenants.
However, he was not in favour of speedy closures of monasteries, nor of closing larger reformed monasteries with important libraries: in his account of his pilgrimage to Walsingham, he noted that the funds extracted from pilgrims typically supported houses for the poor and elderly.[232]
These ideas widely influenced his generation of humanists, both Catholic and Protestant,[233]: 152 and the lurid hyperbolic attacks in his half-satireThe Praise of Folly were later treated by Protestants as objective reports of near-universal corruption.[234] Furthermore, "what is said over a glass of wine, ought not to be remembered and written down as a serious statement of belief", such as his proposal to marry all monks to all nuns or to send them all away to fight the Turks and colonise new islands.[8]
He believed the only vow necessary for Christians should be the vow of baptism, and others such as the vows of theevangelical counsels, while admirable in intent and content, were now mainly counter-productive.
However, Erasmus frequently commended theevangelical counsels for all believers, and with more than lip service: for example, the first adage of his reputation-establishingAdagia was "Between friends all is common", where he tied common ownership (such as practised by his order's style of poverty) with the teachings of classical philosophers and Christ.[235]
His main Catholic opposition was from scholars in the mendicant orders. He purported that "Saint Francis came lately to me in a dream and thanked me for chastising them."[236] After his lifetime, scholars of mendicant orders have sometimes disputed Erasmus as hyperbolic and ill-informed. A 20th-centuryBenedictine scholar wrote of him as "all sail and no rudder".[135]: 357
Erasmus noted the rich sound of England's basses, he criticised the excessively-virtuosic treble verses and he did not believe the complexEnglish Votive Style to be spiritually edifying as a result.[237][238]
"In templis ubique plurimum est organorum, multus est cantus; sed ea musicae ratio, ut magis ad voluptatem aurium quam ad pietatem animorum composita videatur. [...] Pueri, ut voculas exercent, in clamores prorumpunt, et voces tremulae, et flexiones sursum ac deorsum, quae nihil aliud agunt quam adulterant verba, ut non intelligas quid canatur."
["In churches everywhere, there is a great deal of organ music and much singing; but the style of this music seems designed more to delight the ears than to inspire piety. [...] Boys, exercising their little voices, break out into shouts, with tremulous tones and undulating inflections up and down, doing nothing but distort the words so that you cannot understand what is being sung."]
The early reformers built their theology on Erasmus's philological analyses of specific verses in the New Testament: repentance over penance (the basis of the first thesis of the Luther's95 Theses), justification by imputation, grace as favour or clemency, faith as hoping trust,[239] human transformation over reformation, congregation over church, mystery over sacrament, etc. In Erasmus's view, they went too far, downplayed Sacred Tradition such as Patristic interpretations, and irresponsibly fomented bloodshed.
Erasmus was one of many scandalised by the sale of indulgences to fund Pope Leo X's projects. His view, given in a 1518 letter toJohn Colet, was less theological than political: "The Roman curia has abandoned any sense of shame. What could be more shameless than these constant indulgences? And now they put up war against the Turks as a pretext, when their aim really is to drive the Spaniards from Naples."[120]
Erasmus and Luther impacted each other greatly. Each had misgivings about each other from the beginning (Erasmus on Luther's rash and antagonistic character, Luther on Erasmus's focus on morality rather than grace) but strategically agreed not to be negative about the other in public.
Noting Luther's criticisms of corruption in the Church, Erasmus described Luther to Pope Leo X as "a mighty trumpet of gospel truth" while agreeing, "It is clear that many of the reforms for which Luther calls" (e.g., on the sale of indulgences) "are urgently needed."[240] However, behind the scenes Erasmus forbade his publisher Froben from handling the works of Luther[125]: 64 and tried to keep the reform movement focused on institutional rather than theological issues, yet he also privately wrote to authorities to prevent Luther's persecution. In the words of one historian, "at this earlier period he was more concerned with the fate of Luther than his theology."[241]
In 1520, Erasmus wrote that "Luther ought to be answered and not crushed."[242] However, the publication of Luther'sOn the Babylonian Captivity of the Church (October 1520),[243] which largely repudiated Church teaching on sacraments,[225]: 82 and his subsequent bellicosity drained Erasmus's and many humanists' sympathy, even more as Christians became partisans and the partisans took to violence.
Luther hoped for his cooperation in a work which seemed only the natural outcome of Erasmus's own,[note 102] and spoke with admiration of Erasmus's superior learning. In their early correspondence, Luther expressed boundless admiration for all Erasmus had done in the cause of a sound and reasonable Christianity and urged him to join the Lutheran party. Erasmus declined to commit himself, arguing his usual "small target" excuse, that to do so would endanger the cause ofbonae litterae[note 103][245] which he regarded as one of his purposes in life. Only as an independent scholar could he hope to influence the reform of religion. When Erasmus declined to support him, the "straightforward" Luther became angered that Erasmus was avoiding the responsibility due either to cowardice or a lack of purpose.
However, any hesitancy on the part of Erasmus may have stemmed not from lack of courage or conviction, but rather from a concern over the mounting disorder and violence of the reform movement. ToPhilip Melanchthon in 1524 he wrote:
I know nothing of your church; at the very least it contains people who will, I fear, overturn the whole system and drive the princes into using force to restrain good men and bad alike. The gospel, the word of God, faith, Christ, and Holy Spirit – these words are always on their lips; look at their lives and they speak quite another language.[246]
Erasmus attempted various distinctions to escape accusations of Lutheranism: for example for the claim that he emphasized faith to the exclusion of charity he wrote "[My paraphrases] do not offer even the tiniest support to the Lutheran heresy, since my propositions [faith alone suffices without merits] speak of those who are purified by baptism, whereas Luther speaks of the good works of adults after baptism."[247]: 341
Catholic theologian George Chantraine notes that, where Luther quotes Luke 11:21 "He that is not with me is against me", Erasmus takes Mark 9:40 "For he that is not against us, is on our part."[248]: 86
Though he sought to remain accommodative in doctrinal disputes, each side accused him of siding with the other, perhaps because of his perceived influence and what they regarded as his dissembling neutrality,[note 104] which he regarded as peacemakingaccommodation:
I detest dissension because it goes both against the teachings of Christ and against a secret inclination of nature. I doubt that either side in the dispute can be suppressed without grave loss.
By 1523, and first suggested in a letter from Henry VIII, Erasmus had been convinced that Luther's ideas on necessity/free will were a subject of core disagreement deserving a public airing, and strategised with friends and correspondents[249] on how to respond with proper moderation[250] without making the situation worse for all, especially for the humanist reform agenda. He eventually chose acampaign that involved an irenical 'dialogue'The Inquisition of Faith, a positive, evangelical model sermonOn the Measureless Mercy of God, and a gently critical 'diatribe'On Free Will.
The publication of his brief bookOn Free Will initiated what has been called "The greatest debate of that era",[251] which still has ramifications today.[252] They bypassed discussion on reforms which they both agreed on in general, and instead dealt with authority and biblical justifications ofsynergism versusmonergism in relation to salvation.
Erasmus replied to this in his lengthy two-volumeHyperaspistes and other works, which Luther ignored. Apart from the perceived moral failings among followers of the Reformers—an important sign for Erasmus—he also dreaded any change in doctrine, citing the long history of the Church as a bulwark against innovation. He put the matter bluntly to Luther:
We are dealing with this: Would a stable mind depart from the opinion handed down by so many men famous for holiness and miracles, depart from the decisions of the Church, and commit our souls to the faith of someone like you who has sprung up just now with a few followers, although the leading men of your flock do not agree either with you or among themselves – indeed though you do not even agree with yourself, since in this sameAssertion[253] you say one thing in the beginning and something else later on, recanting what you said before.
Continuing his chastisement of Luther – and undoubtedly put off by the notion of there being "no pure interpretation of Scripture anywhere but in Wittenberg"[255] – Erasmus touches upon another important point of the controversy:
You stipulate that we should not ask for or accept anything but Holy Scripture, but you do it in such a way as to require that we permit you to be its sole interpreter, renouncing all others. Thus the victory will be yours if we allow you to be not the steward but the lord of Holy Scripture.
In 1529, Erasmus wrote "An epistle against those who falsely boast they are Evangelicals" toGerardus Geldenhouwer (former Bishop of Utrecht, also schooled at Deventer).
You declaim bitterly against the luxury of priests, the ambition of bishops, the tyranny of the Roman Pontiff, and the babbling of the sophists; against our prayers, fasts, and Masses; and you are not content to retrench the abuses that may be in these things, but must needs abolish them entirely.[257]
Here Erasmus complains of the doctrines and morals of the Reformers, applying the same critique he had made about public Scholastic disputations:
Look around on this 'Evangelical' generation,[258] and observe whether among them less indulgence is given to luxury, lust, or avarice, than among those whom you so detest. Show me any one person who by that Gospel has been reclaimed from drunkenness to sobriety, from fury and passion to meekness, from avarice to liberality, from reviling to well-speaking, from wantonness to modesty. I will show you a great many who have become worse through following it. [...] The solemn prayers of the Church are abolished, but now there are very many who never pray at all. [...]
I have never entered their conventicles, but I have sometimes seen them returning from their sermons, the countenances of all of them displaying rage, and wonderful ferocity, as though they were animated by the evil spirit. [...]
Who ever beheld in their meetings any one of them shedding tears, smiting his breast, or grieving for his sins? [...] Confession to the priest is abolished, but very few now confess to God. [...] They have fled from Judaism that they may become Epicureans.
— Epistola contra quosdam qui se falso iactant evangelicos.[259]
According to historian Christopher Ocker, the early reformers "needed tools that let their theological distinctions pose as commonplaces in a textual theology; [...] Erasmus provided the tools", but this tendentious distinction-making, reminiscent of the recent excesses of Scholasticism to Erasmus's eyes, "was precisely what Erasmus disliked about Luther" and "Protestant polemicists".[260]
Erasmus wrote books against aspects of the teaching, impacts or threats of several other Reformers:[261]
However, Erasmus maintained friendly relations with other Protestants, notably the irenicMelanchthon andAlbrecht Dürer.
A common accusation, supposedly started by antagonistic monk-theologians,[note 105] made Erasmus responsible for Martin Luther and the Reformation: "Erasmus laid the egg, and Luther hatched it." Erasmus wittily dismissed the charge, claiming that Luther had "hatched a different bird entirely".[262] Erasmus-readerPeter Canisius commented: "Certainly there was no lack of eggs for Luther to hatch."[263][note 106]
Erasmus has a problematic standing in the history of philosophy: whether he should be called a philosopher at all,[note 107] (as, indeed, some question whether he should be considered a theologian either[28]: 205 ). Erasmus deemed himself to be a rhetorician (rhetoric being the art of argumentation to find what was most probably true on questions where logic could not provide certainty)[note 108] or grammarian rather than a philosopher.[264]: 66 He was particularly influenced by satirist and rhetoricianLucian.[note 109] Erasmus's writings shifted "an intellectual culture from logical disputation about things to quarrels about texts, contexts, and words".[265]
A Sceptic is not someone who doesn't care to know what is true or false ... but rather someone who does not make a final decision easily or fight to the death for his own opinion, but rather accepts as probable what someone else accepts as certain ... I explicitly exclude from Scepticism whatever is set forth in Sacred Scripture or whatever has been handed down to us by the authority of the Church.
Historian Kirk Essary has noted that from his earliest to last works Erasmus "regularly denounced the Stoics as specifically unchristian in their hardline position and advocacy ofapatheia": warm affection and an appropriately fiery heart being inalienable parts of human sincerity;[278]: 17 however, historian Ross Dealy sees Erasmus's decrial of other non-gentle "perverse affections" as having Stoical roots.[269]
FollowingRufinus' translation ofOrigen's commentary onRomans, Erasmus wrote in terms of a tri-partite nature of man, with the soul (animus) as the seat of free will: choosing the spirit (spiritus) over the warring flesh/carnality (carnis) creates right order.[279]
The body is purely material; the spirit is purely divine; the soul ... is tossed back and forward between the two according to whether it resists or gives way to the temptations of the flesh. The spirit makes us gods; the body makes us beasts; the soul makes us men.
Erasmus also put it that the mind (anima) should act a ruler over the body (corpus) and the spirit, which he used to provide political analogies: correct rule (by the prince=mind) produces peace in the body and the body politic.[279]
According to theologianGeorge van Kooten, Erasmus was the first modern scholar "to note the similarities between Plato'sSymposium and John's Gospel", first in theEnchiridion then in theAdagia, pre-dating other scholarly interest by 400 years.[280][281]
He usually eschewed metaphysical, epistemological and logical philosophy as found inAristotle:[note 114] in particular the curriculum and systematic methods of the post-Aquinas Schoolmen (Scholastics)[note 115] and what he regarded as their frigid, counter-productiveAristoteleanism:[note 116] "What has Aristotle to do with Christ?"[285][note 117]
They can deal with any text of scripture as with a nose of wax, and knead it into what shape best suits their interest.
Erasmus held that academics must avoid philosophical factionalism as an offence against Christian concord, to "make the whole world Christian".[287]: 851 "Men are drawn to Godliness by a thousand means."[260] Indeed, Erasmus warned that Scholastic philosophy actually could distract participants from their proper focus on immediate morality,[note 118][note 119] unless used moderately,[note 120] and by "excluding the Platonists from their commentaries, they strangle the beauty of revelation."[note 121] "They are windbags blown up with Aristotle, sausages stuffed with a mass of theoretical definitions, conclusions, and propositions."[289]Duns Scotus, or his uninspiring proponents, generally came off even worse than Aquinas, nevertheless, despite his biting sharp comments, Erasmus paraded that he did not reject any medieval theologians totally, merely that he was championing the return to the fresh springs.[260]
Nevertheless, church historianErnst Kohls [de] has commented on a certain closeness of Erasmus's thought toThomas Aquinas', despite Erasmus's scepticism about runaway Aristotelianism[17]: 9 and his methodological dislike of collections of disconnected sentences for quotation. Ultimately, Erasmus personally owned Aquinas'Summa theologiae, theCatena aurea and his commentary on Paul's epistles.[43]
Everything in the pagan world that was valiantly done, brilliantly said, ingeniously thought, diligently transmitted, had been prepared by Christ for his society.
(Not to be confused with his Italian contemporaryChrysostom Javelli'sPhilosophia Christiana.)
Erasmus approachedclassical philosophers theologically and rhetorically: their value was in how they pre-saged, explained or amplified the unique teachings of Christ (particularly the Sermon on the Mount[28]: 117 ): thephilosophia Christi.[note 122][note 123]
A great part of the teaching of Christ is to be found in some of the philosophers, particularly Socrates, Diogenes and Epictetus. But Christ taught it much more fully, and exemplified it better ...
— Erasmus,Paraclesis
In fact, he said, Christ was "the very father of philosophy" (Anti-Barbieri).[note 124] His characteristic combination of a Hellenic-informed Jesus whose teaching emphasis was on inter-personal relations more than abstract spiritual truths has been criticized e.g. by a view "however, Erasmus sought only what was human in the Sermon on the Mount, just as he found what was Christian in the moral philosophy of the Stoics."[291]
In works such as hisEnchiridion,The Education of a Christian Prince and theColloquies, Erasmus developed his idea of thephilosophia Christi, a life lived according to the teachings of Jesus taken as a spiritual-ethical-social-political-legal[290] philosophy:[note 125]
Christ the heavenly teacher has founded a new people on earth, ... Having eyes without guile, these folk know no spite or envy; having freely castrated themselves, and aiming at a life of angels while in the flesh, they know no unchaste lust; they know not divorce, since there is no evil they will not endure or turn to the good; they have not the use of oaths, since they neither distrust nor deceive anyone; they know not the hunger for money, since their treasure is in heaven, nor do they itch for empty glory, since they refer all things to the glory of Christ.…these are the new teachings of our founder, such as no school of philosophy has ever brought forth.
— Erasmus,Method of True Theology
In philosopher Étienne Gilson's summary: "the quite precise goal he pursues is to reject Greek philosophy outside of Christianity, into which the Middle Ages introduced Greek philosophy with the risk of corrupting this Christian Wisdom."[293]
Useful "philosophy" needed to be limited to (or re-defined as) the practical and moral:
You must realize that 'philosopher' does not mean someone who is clever at dialectics or science but someone who rejects illusory appearance and undauntedly seeks out and follows what is true and good. Being a philosopher is in practice the same as being a Christian; only the terminology is different.
Three key distinctive features of the spirituality Erasmus proposed areaccommodation, inverbation, andscopus christi.[note 126]
In the view of literary historian Chester Chapin, Erasmus's tendency of thought was "towards cautiousdulcification of the traditional [Catholic] view".[note 127]
Historian Manfred Hoffmann has described accommodation as "the single most important concept in Erasmus'shermeneutic".[note 128]
For Erasmus, accommodation is a universal concept:[note 75] humans must accommodate each other, must accommodate the church andvice versa, and must take as their model how Christ accommodated the disciples in his interactions with them, and accommodated humans in hisincarnation; which in turn merely reflects the eternal mutual accommodation within theTrinity. And the primary mechanism of accommodation is language,[note 129]: 6 which mediates between reality and abstraction, which allows disputes of all kinds to be resolved and the gospel to be transmitted:[296] in his New Testament, Erasmus notably translated the Greeklogos inJohn 1:1 "In the beginning was the Word" more like "In the beginning was Speech:[297] using Latinsermo (discourse, conversation, language) notverbum (word) emphasizing the dynamic and interpersonal communication rather than static principle:[note 130] "Christ incarnate as the eloquent oration of God":[209] "He is called Speech [sermo], because through him God, who in his own nature cannot be comprehended by any reasoning, wished to become known to us."[275]: 45
Following Paul, Quintillian (apte diecere[clarification needed]) and Gregory the Great'sPastoral Care, Erasmus wrote that the orator, preacher or teacher must "adapt their discourse to the characteristics of their audience"; this made pastoral care the "art of arts".[15]: 64 Erasmus wrote that most of his original works, from satires to paraphrases, were essentially the same themes packaged for different audiences.
In this light, Erasmus's ability to have friendly correspondence with bothThomas More andThomas Bolyn,[147] and with bothPhilip Melanchthon andPope Adrian VI, can be seen as outworkings of his theology, rather than slippery insincerity[note 65] or flattery of potential patrons. Similarly, it shows the theological basis of hispacificism, and his view of ecclesiastical authorities—from priests like himself to Church Councils—as necessary mediating peace-brokers.
For Erasmus, further to accommodating humans in his Incarnation, Christ accommodated humans by a kind ofinverbation through text:[note 133] we now knowing the resurrection, Christ is revealed by the Gospels in a way that we can know him better by reading him[note 134] than those who actually heard him speak;[note 135] this will or may transform us.[note 136]
Since the Gospels become in effect like sacraments,[302][note 137] for Erasmus reading them becomes a form of prayer[note 93] which is spoiled by taking single sentences in isolation and using them as syllogisms.[note 138] Instead, learning to understand the context, genres and literary expression in the New Testament becomes a spiritual more than academic exercise.[296] Erasmus's has been called rhetorical theology (theologia rhetorica).[226]: 32 [note 139]
Scopus is the unifying reference point, the navigation goal, or the organising principle of topics.[note 140] According to his assistant-turned-foe, Œcolampadius, Erasmus's rule was"nihil in sacris literis praeter Christum quaerendum" ("nothing is to be sought in the sacred letters but Christ").[307]: 269
What Erasmus contributes [...] is a counsel of restraint in metaphysical speculation, an accent on the revelatory breadth of the eternal Word of God, and an invitation to think of Christ incarnate as the eloquent oration of God. But the central impulse [...] is the affirmation of the full incarnation of Christ in human existence [...] for the transformation of human life. With that, the ethical capstone of Erasmus' reflections on Christ centers on the responsibility to imitate Christ's love for others, and thus for advancing the cause of peace in personal and social life.
— Terrence J. Martin,The Christology of Erasmus[209]
In Hoffmann's words, for Erasmus "Christ is thescopus of everything": "the focus in which both dimensions of reality, the human and the divine, intersect" and so He himself is the hermeneutical principle of scripture": "the middle is the medium, the medium is the mediator, the mediator is the reconciler".[296]: 9 In Erasmus's earlyEnchiridion[note 141]: 82 he had given thisscopus in typical medieval terms of an ascent of being to God (vertical), but from the mid-1510s life he moved to an analogy of Copernican planetary circling around Christ the centre (horizontal) or Columbian navigation towards a destination.[28]: 135
One effect is that scriptural interpretation must be done starting with the teachings and interactions of Jesus in theGospels,[308]: 78 with theSermon on the Mount serving as the starting point,[note 142][198] and arguably with theBeatitudes and theLord's Prayer at the head of the queue.[citation needed] This privileges peacemaking, mercy, meekness,[note 143] purity of heart, hungering after righteousness, poverty of spirit, etc. as the unassailable core of Christianity and piety and true theology.[note 144]
The Sermon on the Mount provides the axioms on which every legitimate theology must be built, as well as the ethics governing theological discourse, and the rules for validating theological products; Erasmus'sphilosophia christi treats the primary and initial teaching of Jesus in the first Gospel as a theological methodology.[note 145]
For example, "peacemaking" is a possible topic in any Christian theology; but for Erasmus, from the Beatitude, it must be a starting, reference and ending point when discussing all other theological notions, such as church authority, the Trinity, etc. Moreover, Christian theology must only bedone in a peacemaking fashion for peacemaking purposes; and any theology that promotes division and warmongering is thereby anti-Christian.[note 146]
Another important concept to Erasmus was "the Folly of the Cross"[28]: 119 (whichThe Praise of Folly explored):[note 147] the view that Truth belongs to the exuberant, perhaps ecstatic,[28]: 140 world of what is foolish, strange, unexpected[311] and evensuperficially repellent to us, rather than to the frigid worlds which intricate scholasticdialectical andsyllogistic philosophical argument all too often generated;[note 148] this produced in Erasmus a profound disinterest in hyper-rationality,[note 149] and an emphasis on verbal, rhetorical, mystical, pastoral and personal/political moral concerns instead.
Several scholars have suggested Erasmus wrote as an evangelist not an academic theologian.[note 150] Even "theology was to be metamorphic speech, converting persons to Christ".[275]: 49 Erasmus did not conceive of Christianity as fundamentally an intellectual system:
Yet these ancient fathers were they who confuted both the Jews and Heathens [...]; they confuted them (I say), yet by their lives and miracles, rather than by words and syllogisms; and the persons they thus proselyted were downright honest, well meaning people, such as understood plain sense better than any artificial pomp of reasoning [...]
Historian William McCuaig commented "I have never read a work by him on any subject that was not at bottom a piece of evangelical literature."[313]
We may distinguish four different lines of work, parallel with each other, and complementary. First, the establishing and critical elucidation of thebiblical texts; alongside it, the editions of the greatpatristic commentators; then, theexegetical works properly so called, in which these two fundamental researches yield their fruit; and finally, themethodological works, which in their first state constitute a sort of preface to the various other studies, but which—in return—were nourished and enlarged by them as they went along.
Apart from these programmatic works, Erasmus also produce a number of prayers, sermons, essays, masses and poems for specific benefactors and occasions, often on topics where Erasmus and his benefactor agreed. His thought was particularly influenced byOrigen.[note 151]
He often set himself the challenge of formulating positive, moderate, non-superstitious versions of contemporary Catholic practices that might be more acceptable both to scandalised Catholics and Protestants of good will: the better attitudes to the sacraments, saints, Mary, indulgences, statues, scriptural ignorance and fanciful Biblical interpretation, prayer, dietary fasts, external ceremonialism, authority, vows, docility, submission to Rome, etc. For example, in hisPaean in Honour of the Virgin Mary (1503) Erasmus elaborated his theme that the Incarnation had been hinted far and wide, which could impact the theology of the fate of the remote unbaptised and grace, and the place of classical philosophy:[316]
You are assuredly the Woman of renown: both heaven and earth and the succession of all the ages uniquely join to celebrate your praise in a musical concord. [...]
During the centuries of the previous age the oracles of the gentiles spoke of you in obscure riddles. Egyptian prophecies, Apollo's tripod, the Sibylline books, gave hints of you. The mouths of learned poets predicted your coming in oracles they did not understand. [...]
Both the Old and the New Testament, like two cherubim with wings joined and unanimous voices, repeatedly sing your praise. [...]
Thus indeed have writers religiously vied to proclaim you, on the one hand inspired prophets, on the other eloquent Doctors of the church, both filled with the same spirit, as the former foretold your coming in joyful oracles before your birth and the latter heaped prayerful praise on you when you appeared.
— Erasmus,Paean in Honour of the Virgin Mary (1503)[316]
Erasmus was given the sobriquet "Prince of the Humanists", and has been called "the crowning glory of theChristian humanists".[318] He has also been called "the most illustrious rhetorician and educationalist of the Renaissance".[319]
By the 1570s, "Everyone had assimilated Erasmus to one extent or another."
However, at times he has been viciously criticised, his works suppressed, his expertise corralled, his writings misinterpreted, his thought demonised, and his legacy marginalised.[citation needed] He was never judged and declared a heretic by the Catholic Church,during his lifetime orafter: asemi-secret trial in Vallodolid Spain, in 1527 found him not to be a heretic, and he was sponsored and protected byPopes and Bishops.
Erasmus was a quite sickly man and frequently worked from his sickbed. As a teenager he contractedQuartan fever, a non-lethal type of malaria which recurred numerous times for the rest of his life: he attributed his survival to the intercession ofSt Genevieve.[320] His digestion gave him trouble: he was intolerant of fish, beer and some wines, which were the standard diet for members of religious orders; he eventually died following an attack of dysentery.
In Cambridge he was ill, possibly with the Englishsweating sickness. He suffered kidney stones from his time in Venice and, in late life, with gout[321] In 1514, he suffered a fall from his horse and injured his back.
In 1528 he suffered recurrent episodes of the stone, "from which he almost died."[322]In 1529 his self-removal from Basel was delayed because of headcold and fever.[323] In 1530 while travelling he suffered some near-fatal illness which several doctors diagnosed asthe plague (which had killed his parents) but several others diagnosed as not the plague.[324]
Various illnesses have been diagnosed of the skeletons claimed to be his, including pustulotic arthro-osteitis,[325]syphilis oryaws. Other doctors have diagnosed from his written descriptions ailments such as rheumatoid arthritis, enteric rheumatism[326] and spondylarthritis.[327]
VisitationMomento mori, painter unknown, c.1500, juxtaposing pregnancy and death, with four Augustinan canons regular of the Chapter (Abbey) of Sion. Left, with a little lion behind him, isSt Jerome; right, holding a heart, isSt Augustine.Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam[328]
Until Erasmus received his 1505 and 1517 Papal dispensations to wear clerical garb, Erasmus wore versions of the localhabit of his order, theCanons regular of St Augustine, Chapter of Sion, which varied by region and house, unless travelling: in general, a white or perhaps blackcassock with linen and lace choirrochet for liturgical contexts, or otherwise with whitesarotium (scarf) (over left shoulder), oralmuce (cape), perhaps with an asymmetrical black cope of cloth or sheepskin (Latin:cacullae) or long black cloak.[329]
From 1505, and certainly after 1517, he dressed as a scholar-priest.[330] He preferred warm and soft garments: according to one source, he arranged for his clothing to be stuffed with fur to protect him against the cold, and his habit counted with a collar of fur which usually covered his nape.[330]
All Erasmus's portraits show him wearing a knitted scholar's bonnet.[331]
Signet rings of Erasmus of Rotterdam: Amerbach Kabinett
Erasmus chose the Roman god of borders and boundariesTerminus as a personal symbol[332] and had asignet ring with aherm he thought depicted Terminus carved into acarnelian.[332] The herm was presented to him in Rome by his studentAlexander Stewart and in reality depicted the Greek godDionysus.[333] The ring was also depicted in a portrait of his by the Flemish painterQuentin Matsys.[332]
The herm became part of the Erasmus branding at Froben, and is on his tombstone.[335]: 215 In the early 1530s, Erasmus was portrayed as Terminus by Hans Holbein the Younger.[334]
The diamond ring Erasmus wears in the famous Holbein portrait was a gift from his long-time friend and corespondent, CardinalLorenzo Campeggio, as a "memorial of our friendship" ("amicitiae nostrae noμνημόσυνον").[336]
Quinten Metsys (Massijs), medal commissioned by Desiderius Erasmus. 1519, bronze, 105 mm
He choseConcedo Nulli (Lat.I concede to no-one) as his personal motto.[337] The obverse of the medal by Quintin Matsys featured the Terminus herm. Mottoes on medals, along the circumference, included "A better picture of Erasmus is shown in his writing",[338] and "Contemplate the end of a long life" andHorace's "Death is the ultimate boundary of things,"[335]: 215 which re-casts the motto as amemento mori. There were anachronistic claims that his motto was a favourable nod to Luther's "Here I stand" which Erasmus denied.[339]
Portrait of Desiderius Erasmus byAlbrecht Dürer, 1526, engraved inNuremberg, GermanyCommemorative coins or medals of Erasmus by Göbel, Georg Wilhelm (1790)
Erasmus frequently gifted portraits and medals with his image to friends and patrons.
Hans Holbein painted him at least three times and perhaps as many as seven, some of the Holbein portraits of Erasmus surviving only in copies by other artists. Holbein's three profile portraits – two (nearly identical) profile portraits and one three-quarters-view portrait – were all painted in the same year, 1523. Erasmus used the Holbein portraits as gifts for his friends in England, such asWilliam Warham, the Archbishop of Canterbury. (Writing in a letter to Warham regarding the gift portrait, Erasmus quipped that "he might have something of Erasmus should God call him from this place.") Erasmus spoke favourably of Holbein as an artist and person but was later critical, accusing him of sponging off various patrons whom Erasmus had recommended, for purposes more of monetary gain than artistic endeavour. There were scores of copies of these portraits made in Erasmus's time. Holbein's 1532 profile woodcut was particularly lauded by those who knew Erasmus.[111]: 129
Albrecht Dürer also produced portraits of Erasmus, whom he met three times, in the form of anengraving of 1526 and a preliminary charcoal sketch. Concerning the former Erasmus was unimpressed, declaring it an unfavorable likeness of him, perhaps because around 1525 he was suffering severely from kidney stones.[111]: 129 Nevertheless, Erasmus and Dürer maintained a close friendship, with Dürer going so far as to solicit Erasmus's support for the Lutheran cause, which Erasmus politely declined. Erasmus wrote a glowingencomium about the artist, likening him to famous Greek painter of antiquityApelles. Erasmus was deeply affected by his death in 1528.
Quentin Matsys produced the earliest known portraits of Erasmus, including an oil painting from life in 1517[340] (which had to be delayed as Erasmus's pain distorted his face)[111]: 131 and a medal in 1519.[341]
In 1622,Hendrick de Keyser cast astatue of Erasmus in (gilt) bronze replacing an earlier stone version from 1557, itself replacing a wooden one of 1549, possibly a gift from the City of Basel. This was set up in the public square in Rotterdam, and today may be found outside theSt. Lawrence Church. It is the oldest bronze statue in the Netherlands.[342]
In 1790, Georg Wilhelm Göbel struck commemorative medals.'
Canterbury Cathedral, England has a statue of Erasmus on the North Face, placed in 1870.
The Whitechapel Gallery in London has a weathervane depicting Erasmus riding back-to-front on a horse, byRodney Graham in 2009.[343]
Interest in developments of visual arts or artists is notably absent in Erasmus's writing, despite moving in circles where he shared friends and patron with famous artists: for example, in Venice Erasmus's friendGiulio Camillo worked withTitian. Erasmus was personal friends of Hans Holbein and Albrecht Dürer.
Renaissance composerBenedictus Appenzeller wrote a five-part motetPlangite Pierides (Lament on the Death of Erasmus)[344] over acantus firmusCecidit corona capitis nostri (Lam. 5:16), score available Open Source.[345] Appenzeller was part of the court of dowager QueenMary of Hungary, whose invitation in 1535 of haven in Brabant Erasmus had contingently accepted the year before his death. It has been recorded several times: byKonrad Ruhland withCapella Antiqua München and byJordi Savall withLa Capella Reial De Catalunya
The Savall recordingErasmus – Praise of Folly is a program of 16th century music, notablyla folia, and recitation of famous excerpts from Erasmus, Luther, etc. and released in multiple European languages.
In the play, More is just about to be made Lord Chancellor; visiting famous poet Erasmus is meeting him for the first time; judge More plays a merry trick ("I’ll see if great Erasmus can distinguish merit and outward ceremony") by disguising a rough servant as himself; he pretends to be the porter and speaks Latin to Erasmus outside; Erasmus launches into a Latin speech directed to the fake More, but repeatedly questions that this could, in fact, be More; More reveals himself; they bond over mirth and love of poetry:
More: Thus you see, My loving learned friends, how far respect Waits often on the ceremonious train Of base illiterate wealth, whilst men of schools, Shrouded in poverty, are counted fools. Pardon, thou reverent German, I have mixed So slight a jest to the fair entertainment Of thy most worthy self; ... Erasmus: Study should be the saddest time of life. The rest a sport exempt from thought of strife.[346]
The originalErasmus Programme scholarships enable European students to spend up to a year of their university courses in a university in another European country, commemorating Erasmus's impulse to travel.
The European Union cites the successorErasmus+ programme as a "key achievement": "Almost 640,000 people studied, trained or volunteered abroad in 2020."[347]
The parallelErasmus Mundus project is aimed at attracting non-European students to study in Europe.
TheErasmus Prize is one of Europe's foremost recognitions for culture, society or social science. It was won by Wikipedia in 2015.
The Erasmus Lectures are an annual lecture on religious subjects, given by prominent Christian (mainly Catholic) and Jewish intellectuals,[348] most notably byJoseph Ratzinger in 1988.[349]
A peer-reviewed annual scholarly journalErasmus Studies has been produced since 1981.[350]
Queens' College,Cambridge, has an Erasmus Tower,[356] Erasmus Building[357] and an Erasmus Room.[358] Until the early 20th century, Queens' College used to have a corkscrew that was purported to be "Erasmus's corkscrew", which was a third of a metre long; as of 1987, the college still had what it calls "Erasmus's chair".[359]
In 1928, the site of Erasmus's grave was dug up, and a body identified in the bones and examined.[330] In 1974, remains were dug up in a slightly different location, accompanied by an Erasmus medal. Both remains have been claimed to be Erasmus'. However, it is possible neither is.[360] The first bones were taller than expected and syphilitic; the second fitted the reported size and age but were accidentally smashed during photography.[339]
^"Erasmus charged the reading world with a style which, though far from correct [Ciceronian] Latin, is the most delightful which the Renaissance has left us. [...] Erasmus's Latin was a living and spoken tongue."Encyclopedia Britannica[3]
^abErasmus was criticised for initially being unwilling to take sides publicly, or to see some aspects of truth or pride in both sides, on many issues. He preferred to participate in controversies he generated himself, rather than the controversies of others. He invoked a story fromCassiodorus, where the monkSaint Telemachus entered the arena of the Roman stadium to separate fighting gladiators, but was stoned by the crowd.[202]
^Vollerthun and Richardson suggest three phases, grouping the first two-quarters for their purposes.[16]: 31
^Colet and Vitrier were "two of the deepest influences on his life."[17]: 11
^Erasmus was hisbaptismal name, given afterErasmus of Formiae.Desiderius was an adopted additional name, which he used from 1496. TheRoterodamus was a scholarly name meaning "from Rotterdam", though the Latin toponymic adjective would beRoterdamensis.
^PainterHieronymous Bosch lived nearby, on the marketplace, at this time.
^"Poverty stricken, suffering from quartan fever, and pressurized by his guardians"Juhász, Gergely (1 January 2019)."The Making of Erasmus's New Testament and Its English Connections".Sparks and Lustrous Words: Literary Walks, Cultural Pilgrimages.Archived from the original on 9 September 2023. Retrieved23 May 2024.
^Canons regular of St Augustine, Chapter of Sion (or Syon),Emmaus house, Stein (or Steyn).
^This is a non-mendicant order of clerics which followed the looser Rule of St Augustine, who do not withdraw from the world, and who take a vow of Stability binding them to a House in addition to the usual Poverty (common life, simplicity), Chastity and Obedience. Erasmus described the Canons Regular as "an order midway between monks and (secular priests) [...] amphibians, like the beaver [...] and the crocodile". Also "for the so-called Canons formerly were not monks, and now they are an intermediate class: monks where it is an advantage to be so; not monks where it is not".[45]The kind of world-involved, devout, scholarly, loyal, humanistic, non-monkish, non-mendicant, non-ceremonial, voluntaristic religious order without notions of spiritual perfection that may have suited Erasmus better arose soon after his death, perhaps in response to the ethos Erasmus shared: notably theJesuits,Oratorians[46]: 52 and subsequent congregations such as theRedemptorists. For the Ursalines, Barnabites, etc. "these associations were not conceived by their founders as 'religious orders', but as spiritual companies mostlycomposed of both lay and religious folk ... Similarly to the teachings of humanists like Erasmus and of thedevotio moderna, these ... associations did not emphasise the institutional aspect of religious life."[47]
^Diarmaid MacCulloch (2003).Reformation: A History. p. 95. MacCulloch has a footnote "There has been much modern embarrassment and obfuscation on Erasmus and Rogerus, but see the sensible comment in J. Huizinga,Erasmus of Rotterdam (London, 1952), pp. 11–12, and from Geoffrey Nutuall,Journal of Ecclesiastical History 26 (1975), 403" In Huizinga's view: "Out of the letters to Servatius there rises the picture of an Erasmus whom we shall never find again—a young man of more than feminine sensitiveness; of a languishing need for sentimental friendship. [...]This exuberant friendship accords quite well with the times and the person. [...] Sentimental friendships were as much in vogue in secular circles during the fifteenth century as towards the end of the eighteenth century. Each court had its pairs of friends, who dressed alike, and shared room, bed, and heart. Nor was this cult of fervent friendship restricted to the sphere of aristocratic life. It was among the specific characteristics of thedevotio moderna."
^However, note that such crushes or bromances may not have been scandalous at the time: theCistercianAelred of Rievaulx's influential bookOn Spiritual Friendship put intense adolescent and early-adult friendships between monks as natural and useful steps towards "spiritual friendships", followingAugustine. The correct direction of passionate love was also a feature of the spirituality of theVictorine canons regular, notably in Richard of St Victor'sOn the Four Degrees of Violent Love[49] Huizinga (p.12) notes "To observe one another with sympathy, to watch and note each other's inner life, was a customary and approved occupation among the Brethren of the Common Life and the Windesheim monks."
^Erasmus used similar expressions in letters to other friends at the time.[23]: 17 D. F. S. Thomson found two other similar contemporary examples of humanist monks using similar florid idiom in their letters.Thomson, D.F.S. (1969)."Erasmus as a poet in the context of northern humanism".De Gulden Passer (in Dutch).47:187–210. Historian Julian Haseldine has noted that medieval monks used charged expressions of friendship with the same emotional content regardless of how well-known the person was to them: so this language was sometimes "instrumental" rather than "affective." However, in this case we have Erasmus's own attestation of the genuine rather than formal fondness.Haseldine, Julian (2006)."Medieval Male Friendship Networks".The Monastic Review Bulletin (12). p. 19.
^Erasmus editor Harry Vredeveld argues that the letters are "surely expressions of true friendship", citing what Erasmus wrote in hisLetter to Grunnius about an earlier teenage infatuation with a "Cantellius": "It is not uncommon at [that] age to conceive passionate attachments [fervidos amores] for some of your companions". However, he allows "That these same letters, which run the gamut of love's emotions, are undoubtedly also literary exercises—rhetoricalprogymnasmata—is by no means a contradiction of this."Harry Vredeveld, ed. (1993),Collected Works of Erasmus: Poems, Translated by Clarence H. Miller, University of Toronto Press, p. xv,ISBN978-0-8020-2867-9
^But also a capacity to feel betrayal sharply, as with his brother Peter, "Cantellius", Aleander, and Dorp.
^abThe biographer J.J. Mangan commented of his time living withAndrea Ammonio in England "to some extent Erasmus thereby realized the dream of his youth, which was to live together with some choice literary spirit with whom he might share his thoughts and aspiration". Quoted in J. K. Sowards,The Two Lost Years of Erasmus: Summary, Review, and Speculation, Studies in the Renaissance, Vol. 9 (1962), p. 174.
^The position of Latin Secretary to some great churchman or prince had a long and distinguished history:Jerome had been the Latin Secretary forPope Damasus I.[54] The position was important but not lucrative, unless a stepping-stone to other offices.
^25 was the minimum age under canon law to be ordained a priest. However, Gouda church records do not support the 1492 year given by his first biographer, and 1495 has been suggested as more plausible.[19] A man whose biological parents had never married could only become a priest by first joining a religious order or by receiving apapal dispensation, and could not hold abenefice without a dispensation.
^Also in Cambrai diocese at the time may have been Europe's foremost composer, the priestJosquin des Prez.[57] Erasmus wrote little about music, however he did in 1497 write a notable elergy for the composerJohannes OckeghemErgone conticuit, In Johannem Okegi, Musicorum principem, Naenia, who had been born and ordained in the Cambrai diocese, which was later set to music by Cambrai composerJohannes Lupi.[32]
^This was his entry to the European network of Latin secretaries, who were usually humanists, and so to their career path: a promising secretary could be appointed tutor to some aristocratic boy, when that boy reached power they were frequent kept on as a trusted counselor, and finally moved over to some dignified administrative role.[59]
^Erasmus suffered severe food intolerances, including to fish, beer and many wines, which formed much of the diet of Northern European monks, and caused his antipathy to fasts. "My heart is Catholic, but my stomach is Lutheran." (Epistles)
^The canonry burnt down in 1549 and the canons moved to Gouda.Klein, Jan Willem; Simoni, Anna E. C. (1994). "Once more the manuscripts of Stein monastery and the copyists of the Erasmiana manuscripts".Quaerendo.24 (1):39–46.doi:10.1163/157006994X00117.
^Dispensed of his vows ofstability and obedienceArchived 6 June 2019 at theWayback Machine from his obligations "by the constitutions and ordinances, also by statutes and customs of the monastery of Stein in Holland", quoted in J. K. Sowards,The Two Lost Years of Erasmus: Summary, Review, and Speculation, Studies in the Renaissance, Vol. 9 (1962), p. 174. Erasmus continued to report occasionally to the prior, who disputed the validity of the 1505 dispensation.
^Undispensed illegitimacy had various effects under canon law: if a man's biological parents had never married, he could not be ordained a secular priest, unless he became a canon or regular monk, or to holdbenefices; but any or all of these disabilities could be removed by a papal dispensation.Clarke, Peter (2005). "New sources for the history of the religious life: the registers of the Apostolic Penitentiary".Monastic Research Bulletin.11. This canon law, in effect since the Council ofPoitiers (1078), was intended to prevent kings appointing their illegitimate children as abbots and bishops. In practice, dispensations were frequently given: Erasmus's student, the teenageAlexander Stewart was the illegitimate child of the Scottish king and, by papal dispensation, Archbishop of St Andrews.
^Subsequent students included Ignatius of Loyola, Noël Béda, Jean Calvin, and John Knox.
^Some of these visits were interrupted by trips back to Europe.[citation needed]
^According to theologian Thomas Scheck, "In the fuller context of theRatio the 'ceremonies' Erasmus criticizes are not the liturgical rites of the Church, but the special devotions and prescriptions added to them, particularly those related to food and clothing, which became binding in particular religious orders and more generally, under threat of excommunication and even eternal punishment."[78]
^"We find in the New Testament that fasting was observed by Christians and praised by the apostles, but I do not remember reading that it was prescribed with certain rites. These things are not mentioned so that any ceremonies that the church has instituted concerning clothing, fasting or similar matters should be despised, but to show that Christ and his apostles were more concerned with things pertaining to salvation."[78]
^He made friends with aristocrat Mark Laurin, future Dean of Bruges.[86]: 185
^He movingly remembers later how Alexander would play the monochord, recorder or lute in the afternoon after studies.[90]
^Even in good times, Erasmus had a "frequent inability to understand the details of his own finances" which caused him disappointment and suspicion.[95] His finances as late as 1530 have been described as "bewilderingly complicated" with multiple small income sources being managed with varying degrees of promptness by different associates in different countries.[96]: 2404
^ Erasmus claimed the blind poet laureate friarBernard André, the former tutor of Prince Arthur, had promised to cover the rent.Roth, F. (1965). "A History of the English Austin Friars (continuation)".Augustiniana.15: 624.ISSN0004-8003.JSTOR44992025. It may also show the practical difficulty of being dispensed from wearing the habit of his order without being entirely dispensed from his vow of poverty: indeed, Erasmus had said his order of Augustinian Canons regular were priests when that suited and monks when that suited.[23]
^He wrote to Servatius Rogerus, the prior at Stein, to justify his jobs: "I do not aim at becoming rich, so long as I possess just enough means to provide for my health and free time for my studies and to ensure that I am a burden to none."[101]
^"Beer does not suit me either, and the wine is horrible."Froud, J. A. (1896).Life and Letters of Erasmus. Scribner and Sons. p. 112.
^Historians have speculated that Erasmus passed on to More an early version ofBartholome de las Casas'Memoria which More used forUtopia, due to 33 specific similarities of ideas, and that the fictional character Raphael Hythloday is de las Casas.[112]: 45 Coincidentally, de las Casas' nemesisSepúlveda, arguing for the natural slavery of American Indians, had previously been Erasmus's opponent as well, initially supporting the anti-decadence of Erasmus'sCiceronians but then finding heresy in his translations and works. Another theory is that Raphael Hythloday is Erasmus himself.[64]
^Italian goldflorins and Venetian goldducats, Dutch silverguilders had similar values. However, there is no single modern equivalent exchange rate.[119]
^By 1524, his disciples included, in his words, "the (Holy Roman) Emperor, the Kings of England, France, and Denmark, Prince Ferdinand of Germany, the Cardinal of England, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and more princes, more bishops, more learned and honourable men than I can name, not only in England, Flanders, France, and Germany, but even in Poland and Hungary..." quoted inTrevor-Roper, Hugh (30 July 2020)."Erasmus".Pro Europa.Archived from the original on 29 December 2023. Retrieved29 December 2023.
^ Rhenanus shared many humanist contacts from Paris and Strassburg: a former student ofAndrelini, friend of the Amerbach family, colleague ofSebastian Brant etc. He had learned printing in Paris withRobert Estienne. He was a mentor ofMartin Bucer, who further developed several of Erasmus's ideas.[128]
^Froben had bought Erasmus his own house"Zur alten Treu" in 1521 and fitted it with Erasmus's required fireplace.[131]
^Adrian's election was engineered by reformer CardinalThomas Cajetan,[134] the leading Thomist of his age, who had become a friendly correspondent of Erasmus and had moved to bibliocentrism, progressively producing his own commentaries on the New Testament and most of the Old. Erasmus was initially sceptical of Cajetan, blaming him for taking a too-hard line against Luther; however, he was won over in 1521 after reading Cajetan's works on the Eucharist, Confession and invocation of the saints.[135]: 357 In 1530, Cajetan proposed that concessions be made to Germany to allow communion under both kinds and married clergy, in full sympathy with Erasmus's spirit of mediation.
^"When the Lutheran tragedy (Latin:Lutheranae tragoediae) opened, and all the world applauded, I advised my friends to stand aloof. I thought it would end in bloodshed", Letter to Alberto Pío, 1525, in e.g.,Froude, James Anthony (1894).Life and Letters of Erasmus(PDF). New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. p. 322.
^"In a few hours, they cleansed churches of idolatry by smashing statues, rood-screens, lights, altar paintings – everything they could lay their hands on, including Hans Holbein the Younger's work. [...] the hang-man lit nine fires in front of the Minster [...] It was, [a witness] lamented, as though these objects 'had been public heretics'. [...] Nowhere else was the destruction by Christian activists so unexpected, violent, swift and complete."[138]: 96
^Prominent reformers likeOecolampadius urged him to stay. However, Campion,Erasmus and Switzerland, op. cit., p. 26, says that Œcolampadius wanted to drive Erasmus from the city.
^He spent the first two years in Freiburg as a guest of the city in the unfinished mansionHaus zum Walfisch [de] and was indignant when an attempt was made to charge back-rent: he paid this rent, and that of another refugee from Basel in his house, his fellowAugustinian Canon BishopAugustin Mair [de], the humanist preacher who had led the efforts in Basel to resist Œcolampadius. Emerton (1889), p.449.
^His arthritic gout[144] kept him housebound and unable to write: "Even on Easter Day I said mass in my bedroom." Letter to Nicolaus Olahus (1534)
^De Góis then proceeded to Padua, meeting with the humanist cardinals Bembo and Sadeleto, and with Ignatius of Loyola. He had previously dined with Luther and Melanchthon, and met Bucer.[146]
^The last was released at the time of Henry VIII and Anne Bolyn's wedding; Erasmus appended a statement that indicated he opposed the marriage. Erasmus outlived Anne and her brother by two months.
^Erasmus writing a moving letter to William Blount's teenaged sonCharles about Warham: "I wrote this in sorrow and grief, my mind totally devastated… We had made a vow to die together; he had promised a common grave…I am held back here half-alive, still owing the debt from the vow I had made, which …I will soon pay. …Instead, even time, which is supposed to cure even the most grievous sorrows, merely makes this wound more and more painful. What more can I say? I feel that I am being called. I will be glad to die here together with that incomparable and irrevocable patron of mine, provided I am allowed, by the mercy of Christ, to live there together with him."[78]: 86
^"I am so weary of this region[...]I feel that there is a conspiracy to kill me[...]Many hope for war." Letter to Erasmus Schets (1534)
^In theExpositio Fidelis, Erasmus recounts "Included with the Carthusians was the Brigittine monk Reynolds, a man of angelic features and angelic character and possessed of sound judgment, as I discovered through the conversations I had with him when I was in England in the company of Cardinal Campeggi."[150]: 611
^During which he occupied himself copying out quotations from Erasmus'sAdagesetc and formally complaining about the protestantised English translation of Erasmus'sParaphrases of the New Testament.[153]
^Contrast the "outsider" interpretation of Huizinga "He tried to remain in the fold of the old [Roman] Church, after having damaged it seriously, and renounced the [Protestant] Reformation, and to a certain extent even Humanism, after having furthered both with all his strength."Johan Huizinga,Erasmus and the Age of Reformation (tr. F. Hopman and Barbara Flower; New York: Harper and Row, 1924), p. 190. with the "insider" interpretation ofFrancis Aidan Gasquet "He was a reformer in the best sense, as so many far-seeing and spiritual-minded churchmen of those days were. He desired to better and beautify and perfect the system he found in vogue, and he had the courage of his convictions to point out what he thought stood in need of change and improvement, but he was no iconoclast; he had no desire to pull down or root up or destroy under the plea of improvement. That he remained to the last the friend of Popes and bishops and other orthodox churchmen, is the best evidence, over and above his own words, that his real sentiments were not misunderstood by men who had the interests of the Church at heart, and who looked upon him as true and loyal, if perhaps a somewhat eccentric and caustic son of Holy Church. Even in his last sickness he received from the Pope proof of his esteem, for he was given a benefice of considerable value."[8]: 200
^This assertion is contradicted by Gonzalo Ponce de Leon speaking in 1595 at the RomanCongregation of the Index on the (mostly successful) de-prohibition of Erasmus's works said that he died "as a Catholic having received the sacraments."Menchi, Silvana Seidel (2000). "Sixteenth-Annual Bainton Lecture".Erasmus of Rotterdam Society Yearbook.20 (1): 30.doi:10.1163/187492700X00048.
^According to historian Jan van Herwaarden, it is consistent with Erasmus's view that outward signs were not important; what mattered is the believer's direct relationship with God. However, van Herwaarden states that "he did not dismiss the rites and sacraments out of hand but asserted a dying person could achieve a state of salvation without the priestly rites, provided their faith and spirit were attuned to God" (i.e., maintaining being in aState of Grace) noting Erasmus's stipulation that this was "as the (Catholic) Church believes."[160]
^"He left a small fortune, in trusts for the benefit of the aged and infirm, the education of young men of promise, and as marriage portions for deserving young women – nothing, however, for Masses for the repose of his soul."Kerr, Fergus (2005). "Comment: Erasmus".New Blackfriars.86 (1003):257–258.doi:10.1111/j.0028-4289.2005.00081.x.ISSN0028-4289.JSTOR43250928.
^'After the payment of all outstanding claims, the sum in the hands of Bonifacius and the two Basel executors amounted to 5,000 florins. This sum was invested in a loan to the duchy of Württemberg that yielded an annual income of 250 florins. The greater part of this sum became a fund to provide scholarships for students at the University of Basel (in theology, law, and medicine); the rest went into a fund devoted to the assistance of the poor."[150] Inmodern terms, 5000 florins could be between US$500,000 and US$5,000,000; 250 florins could be between $25,000 and $250,000
^With the unusual condition that no funds be given to residents of Germany. P.P.J.L. van Peteghem, "Erasmus’ Last Will, the Holy Roman Empire and the Low Countries"Sperna Weiland, Jan (1988).Erasmus of Rotterdam: The Man and the Scholar. Proceedings of the Symposium Held at the Erasmus University, Rotterdam, 9-11 November 1986 (1st ed.). Boston: BRILL.ISBN9789004618633.
^His earliest work,De contemptu mundi, recommended that a friend become a monk for reason of spiritual safety: he who loves danger will perish in it.[33]: 665
^According to historian István Bejczy "Erasmus preferred, like many an incurable idealist, to project his optimistic expectations into the future: the effects of Christian humanism in the field of piety were only somewhat postponed through the opposition of monks and theologians on the one hand and Protestant troublemakers on the other, but history would definitely bring improvement on all fronts—partly as the outcome of a natural process but mainly because God would have it so and even used his detractors to this end. One day Christian civilisation would gather in all fruits of history."[165]
^Historian Kirk Essary comments "Reading the work (Exomologesis), one is reminded that Erasmus remains underrated for his psychological insights in general and that he is perhaps overlooked as a pastoral theologian."[168]
^For Erasmus, "dogmatics do not exist for themselves; they take on meaning only when they issue, on the one hand, in the exegesis of scripture and, on the other, in moral action" according to Manfred Hoffmann'sErkenntnis und Verwirklichung der wahren Theologie nach Erasmus von Rotterdam (1972).[28]: 137
^However, "his wit can be gentle; it can break out into bitterness. In controversy, resentments and anxieties can get loose, countermanding the Christian imperative of love to which he was devoted and which runs as aleitmotiv through all his writings." Mansfield[28]: 230
^"So thin- skinned that a fly would draw blood". Albert Pio, quoted inEncyclopedia Britannica.[3]
^abHis mode of expression made him "slippery like a snake", according to Luther,Visser, Arnoud (2017). "Irreverent Reading: Martin Luther as Annotator of Erasmus".The Sixteenth Century Journal.48 (1):87–109.doi:10.1086/SCJ4801005.hdl:1874/348917.S2CID31540853.)
^"[...] of all Renaissance writers, Erasmus is the one who prefers the dialogue, with its avoidance of dogmatism, it balance and swing of debate, its insistence of friendship and communication."[17]: 7
^For Markish, Erasmus's "theological opposition to a form of religious thought which he identified with Judaism was not translated into crude prejudice against actual Jews", to the extent that Erasmus could be described as 'a-semitic' rather than 'anti-semitic'."Erasmus of Rotterdam".Jewish Virtual Library. AICE.Archived from the original on 15 July 2023. Retrieved15 July 2023.
^Historian Kevin Ingram suggests "Theconversos also clearly reveled in Erasmus's comparison, in theEnchiridion, of Old-Christians mired in ceremonial practice to Pharisees who had forgotten the true message of Judaism, a statement they used as a counter-punch against Old-Christian accusations ofconverso Judaizing. Theconversos conveniently ignored the anti-semitic aspect of Erasmus's statement."[148]: 71
^"Erasmus discussed Amerindians and their way of life only as a tool, an analogy or parable, for those issues that consistently preoccupied his mind, namely the mores of the Christian Church."[180]
^Erasmus,De bello Turcico, cited by Ron, Nathan,The Non-Cosmopolitan Erasmus: An Examination of his Turkophobic/Islamophobic Rhetoric,op. cit. p 99: Ron takes this as an affirmation by Erasmus of the low nature of Turks; the alternative view would take it as a negative foil (applying the model of the parable ofThe Mote and the Beam) where the prejudice isappropriated to subvert it.
^Summa nostrae religionis pax est et unanimitas. Erasmus continued: "This can hardly remain the case unless we define as few matters as possible and leave each individual's judgement free on many questions."Erasmus (1523).Letter to Carondelet: The Preface to His Edition of St. Hilary. Note that the use ofsumma is perhaps also a backhanded reference to thescholasticsumma, which he upbraided for their moral and spiritual uselessness.Surtz, Edward L. (1950). "'Oxford Reformers' and Scholasticism".Studies in Philology.47 (4):547–556.JSTOR4172947.
^"Latin:Vicit mansuetudine, vicit beneficentia". R. Sider translatesvicit as "he prevailed":Sider, Robert D. (31 December 2019). "A System or Method of Arriving by a Short Cut at True Theology by Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam".The New Testament Scholarship of Erasmus:479–713.doi:10.3138/9781487510206-020.ISBN978-1-4875-1020-6.S2CID198585078.
^Bruce Mansfield summarises historian Georg Gebhart's view: "While recognizing the teaching authority, but not the primacy, of Councils, Erasmus adopted a moderaTe Papalism, papal authority itself being essentially pastoral."[28]: 132
^This was not a naive or far-fetched role: historian Timothy Martin notes that in France around year 1000 "The influence of the Church, which was led by local bishops, who were often members of the region's nobility, became pivotal in restraining the rampant fighting between knights and the pillaging of Church lands and the peasantry. Several examples show that it was the bishop, backed by abbots and sacred relics, preaching a warning of eternal damnation for violators, that most often compelled the local warlords and knights into submission."[185]
^ab"This sense of our restricted capacity to handle truth is a basic corollary of his humanism and it provides the grounds for his appeal for toleration. ... Erasmus is less concerned about errors in doctrine than about the mental intransigence with which they may be upheld or opposed. This is not to say that he is indifferent to error, but priority goes to the preservation of a community, the body of Christ".[202]
^If any single individual in the modern world can be credited with "the invention of peace", the honour belongs to Erasmus rather than Kant whose essay on perpetual peace was published nearly three centuries later.[opinion][113]
^One of the first princely curricula to be influenced was that of the teenage Prince Henry, laterHenry VIII.[189]
^"The argument ofBellum is governed by three favourite themes that recur in other works of Erasmus. First, war is naturally wrong [...] Second, Christianity forbids war [...] Third, 'just cause' in war will be claimed by both sides and will be next to impossible to determine fairly: hence, the traditional criteria of the just war are nonfunctional."[190]
^"Desiderius Erasmus, Thomas More and John Colet [...] between them in the first three decades of the sixteenth century, ushered in not only humanism – an ethically sanctioned guide for practical, humanitarian ways of living in society – but also the formation of a group that might be called a 'peace movement'."[192]
^"I do not deny that I wrote some harsh things in order to deter the Christians from the madness of war, because I saw that these wars, which we witnessed for too many years, are the source of the biggest part of evils which damage Christendom. Therefore, it was necessary to come forward not only against these deeds, which are clearly criminal, but also against other actions, which are almost impossible to do without committing many crimes." Apology against Albert Pío[184]: 11
^"Erasmus and Vives ruled out conquests and annexation of territories."[180]
^Erasmus was not out of step with opinion within the church: ArchbishopBernard II Zinni ofSplit speaking at theFifth Council of the Lateran (1512) denounced princes as the most guilty of ambition, luxury and a desire for domination. Bernard proposed that reformation must primarily involve ending war and schism.Minnich, Nelson H. (1969). "Concepts of Reform Proposed at the Fifth Lateran Council".Archivum Historiae Pontificiae.7:163–251.ISSN0066-6785.JSTOR23563707.
^James D. Tracy notes that mistrust of the Habsburg government in the general population (partially due to the fact Maximilian and his grandsonCharles V were absentee rulers, the secret nature of diplomacy and other circumstances) was widespread, but it is notable that intellectuals like Erasmus and Barlandus also accepted the allegations.[116]: 94, 95
^"I have made my support of the church sufficiently clear [...] The only thing in which I take pride is that I have never committed myself to any sect." Erasmus, Letter to Georgius Agricola (1534)
^Historian Johannes Trapman notes "But who are in fact heretics? According to Erasmus not somebody who doubts a minor doctrinal point or even errs in some article. [...] For the protection of the commonwealth [...] heretics who are not only blasphemous but also seditious deserve the death penalty."[203]: 23 Erasmus commended that the punishment of the early church for heresy was excommunication.
^"... in large part half-Christian and perhaps nearer to true Christianity than most of our own folk."Letter to Paul Volz[209]: 32
^"... the goal ofDe bello Turcico was to warn Christians and the Church of moral deterioration and to exhort them to change their ways. ... Erasmus' objection to crusades was by no means an overall opposition to fighting the Turks. Rather, Erasmus harshly condemned embezzlement and corrupt fundraising, and the Church's involvement in such nefarious activities, and regarded them as inseparable from waging a crusade."Ron, Nathan (1 January 2020)."The Non-Cosmopolitan Erasmus: An Examination of his Turkophobic/Islamophobic Rhetoric".Akademik Tarih ve Düşünce Dergisi (Academic Journal of History and Idea). pp. 97,98
^The idea that European peace and order was a precondition for successful crusades has a longer history: Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont in 1095 called for the re-enacting of theTruce of God for domestic peace.[212]: 111–112
^"If only the Christian church did not attach so much importance to the Old Testament! It is a thing of shadows, given us for a time."Ep 798 p. 305.[213] For Erasmus, "the relative importance we should ascribe to the different books of the Bible" accorded to how much "they bring us more or less directly to knowledge of (Christ)", which gave priority to the New Testament and the Gospels in particular.[170] "To Erasmus, Judaism was obsolete. To Reuchlin, something of Judaism remained of continuing value to Christianity."[174]
^"The Jews" (i.e. the earliest Jewish Christians in Antioch) "because of a certain human tendency, desire(d) to force their own rites upon everyone, clearly in order under this pretext to enhance their own importance. For each one wishes that the things which he himself has taught should appear as outstanding." Erasmus,Paraphrase of Romans and Galatians[171]: 321
^In marriage, Erasmus's two significant innovations, according to historian Nathan Ron, were that "matrimony can and should be a joyous bond, and that this goal can be achieved by a relationship between spouses based on mutuality, conversation, and persuasion."[219]: 4:43
^According to historian Thomas Tentler, few Christians from his century gave as much emphasis as Erasmus to a pious attitude to death: the terrors of death are "closely connected to guilt from sin and fear of punishment" the antidote to which is first "trust in Christ and His ability to forgive sins", avoiding (Lutheran) boastful pride, then a loving, undespairing life lived with appropriate penitence. The priests' focus in the Last Rites should be comfort and hope.Tentler, Thomas N. (1965). "Forgiveness and Consolation in the Religious Thought of Erasmus".Studies in the Renaissance.12:110–133.doi:10.2307/2857071.ISSN0081-8658.JSTOR2857071.
^ab"It is because Christ is in the pages of the bible that we meet him as a living person. As we read these pages we absorb his presence, we become one with him." Robert Sider[221]
^On confession "he differed from Luther and Wycliffe as much as he differed from mainstream conservative theology in deferring any question of how the sacrament worked in favour of its creating a moral development in the penitent."[225]: 54
^"Erasmus had beencriticizing the Catholic church for years before thereformers emerged, and not just pointing up its failings but questioning many of its basic teachings. He was the author of a series of publications, including aGreek edition of the New Testament (1516), which laid the foundations for a model of Christianity that called for a pared-down, internalized style of religiosity focused on Scripture rather than the elaborate, and incessant, outward rituals of themedieval church. Erasmus was not a forerunner in the sense that he conceived or defended ideas that later made up the substance of the Reformation thought. [...] It is enough that some of his ideas merged with the later Reformation message."Dixon, C. Scott (2012).Contesting the Reformation.Wiley-Blackwell. p. 60.ISBN978-1-4051-1323-6.
^"Unlike Luther, he accepted papal primacy and the teaching authority of the church and did not discount human tradition. The reforms proposed by Erasmus were in the social rather than the doctrinal realm. His principal aim was to foster piety and to deepen spirituality."[226]: 37
^"Rigorously scientific biblical study must sustain an effort to renew the interior life, and the interior life must itself be at once the agent and the beneficiary of a renewal of the whole of Christian society." This went beyond thedevotio moderna, which "was a spirituality of teachers"m
^Writer Gregory Wolfe notes however "For Erasmus, the narrative of decline is a form of despair, a failure to believe that the tradition can and will generate new life."[227]
^monachatus non-est pietas, "Being a monk is not piety", but he adds "but a way of life that may be useful or not useful according to each man's physical make-up and disposition".[226]: 36
^DeMolen claims: "It is important to recall that Erasmus remained a member of the Austin Canons all his life. His lifestyle harmonized with the spirit of the Austin Canons even though he lived outside their monastic walls."[45] Erasmus represents the anti-Observantist wing of the canons regular who believed that the charism of their orders required them to be more externally focussed (on pastoral, missionary, scholarly, charitable and sacramental works) and correspondingly de-focussed on monastic severity and ceremonialism.
^"In the first years of the Reformation many thought that Luther was only carrying out the program of Erasmus, and this was the opinion of those strict Catholics who from the outset of the great conflict included Erasmus in their attacks on Luther."Catholic Encyclopedia
^An expression Erasmus coined.Bonae connotes more than just good, but also moral, honest and brave literature. Suchsound learning encompassed both sacred literature (Latin:sacrae litterae), namely patristic writings and sacred scriptures (Latin:sacrae scripturae), and profane literature (Latin:prophanae litterae) by classical pagan authors.[244]
^Future cardinalAleander, his former friend and roommate at theAldine Press, wrote "The poison of Erasmus has a much more dangerous effect than that of Luther".Catholic Encyclopedia
^Namely Egmondanus, the Louvain Carmelite Nicolaas Baechem.[260]
^For Craig R. Thompson, Erasmus cannot be called philosopher in the technical sense, since he disdained formal logic and metaphysics and cared only for moral philosophy. Similarly, John Monfasani reminds us that Erasmus never claimed to be a philosopher, was not trained as a philosopher, and wrote no explicit works of philosophy, although he repeatedly engaged in controversies that crossed the boundary from philosophy to theology. His relation to philosophy bears further scrutiny.MacPhail, Eric."Desiderius Erasmus (1468?—1536)".Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.Archived from the original on 17 August 2010. Retrieved28 July 2023.
^"Humanists regarded it (rhetoric) as a practical way to investigate questions on which dialectical argumentation based on logic had proved unable to produce certitude. Rhetoric was the procedure to be used in pursuit of conclusions that could not be proved beyond doubt but were the most probable choice among the alternatives explored."Nauert, Charles."Desiderius Erasmus".plato.stanford.edu.
^"According to Erasmus, Lucian's laughter is the most appropriate instrument to guide pupils towards moral seriousness because it is the denial of every peremptory and dogmatic point of view and, therefore, the image of a joyfulpietas ("true religion ought to be the most cheerful thing in the world";De recta pronuntiatione, CWE 26, 385). By teaching the relativity of communicative situations and the variability of temperaments, the laughter resulting from the art of rhetoric comes to resemble the most sincere content of Christian morality, based on tolerance and loving persuasion."Bacchi, Elisa (2019)."Hercules, Silenus and the Fly: Lucian's Rhetorical Paradoxes in Erasmus' Ethics".Philosophical Readings Online Journal of Philosophy.CI (2).Archived from the original on 1 November 2023. Retrieved20 October 2023.
^According to historian Jamie Gianoutsos, Erasmus was not cherry-picking, in the way of St Augustine's 'spoiling the Egyptians', i.e., acquiring what is valuable from the pagan heritage for the benefit of Christianity. "Erasmus, in contrast, had expressed reserve and even cautious criticism for Augustine's views while betraying great enthusiasm for St Jerome and his metaphor of the freeman who marries the captive slave to obtain her freedom. Christianity [...] had wed itself to the classical heritage to enhance and liberate it (i.e., that heritage) from its pagan ethos".[266]
^Baker-Smith, Dominic (1994). "Uses of Plato by Erasmus and More".Platonism and the English Imagination. pp. 86–99.doi:10.1017/CBO9780511553806.010.ISBN978-0-521-40308-5. p. 92:Erasmus does not engage with Plato as a philosopher, at least not in any rigorous sense, but rather as a rhetorician of spiritual experience, the instigator of a metaphorical system which coheres effectively with Pauline Christianity.
^"Despite a lack of formal philosophical training and an antipathy to medievalscholasticism, Erasmus possessed not only a certain familiarity withThomas Aquinas, but also close knowledge ofPlato andAristotle. Erasmus' interest in some Platonic motifs is well known. But the most consistent philosophical theme in Erasmus' writings from his earliest to his latest was that of theEpicurean goal of peace of mind,ataraxia. Erasmus, in fact, combined Christianity with a nuanced Epicurean morality. This Epicureanism, when combined in turn with a commitment to theconsensus Ecclesiae as well as with an allergy to dogmatic formulations and an appreciation of theGreek Fathers, ultimately rendered Erasmus alien toLuther andProtestantism though they agreed on much." Abstract ofMonfasani, John (2012). "Twenty-fifth Annual Margaret Mann Phillips Lecture: Erasmus and the Philosophers".Erasmus of Rotterdam Society Yearbook.32 (1):47–68.doi:10.1163/18749275-00000005.
^Historian Fritz Caspari quipped thatMachiavelli "appears as a sceptic whose premise is the badness of man", while Erasmus is a sceptic whose general premise is "man is or can be made good".[276]
^In theAdagia, Erasmus quotes Aristotle 304 times, "making extensive use of the moral, philosophical, political, and rhetorical writings as well as those on natural philosophy, while completely shunning the logical works that formed the basis for scholastic philosophy".Mann Phillips, Margaret (1964).The 'Adages' of Erasmus. A Study with Translations. Cambridge University Press. Cited byTraninger, Anita (25 January 2023). "Erasmus and the Philosophers".A Companion to Erasmus. pp. 45–67.doi:10.1163/9789004539686_005.ISBN978-90-04-53968-6.
^"However learned the works of those men may be, however 'subtle' and, if it please them, however 'seraphic', it must still be admitted that the Gospels and Epistles are the supreme authority." Erasmus,Paraclesis, cited by Sider[283]
^Erasmus followed the tradition of proto-humanistPetrarch, summarised as: "Aristotle was spiritually deficient, because although he could define virtue, his words lacked the power to motivate men to lead virtuous lives. It was not possible to know God adequately in this life, but it was possible to love him, which made virtue far more important than knowledge."[284]: 39
^A narrowing ofTertullian's "What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?"
^Rice puts it "Philosophy is felt to be a veil of pretense over an unethical reality ... pious disquisitions cannot excuse immorality."Rice, Eugene F. (1950). "Erasmus and the Religious Tradition, 1495–1499".Journal of the History of Ideas.11 (4):387–411.doi:10.2307/2707589.ISSN0022-5037.JSTOR2707589.
^"For I am ready to swear that Epimenides came to life again in Scotus."Erasmus to Thomas Grey Nichols, ep. 59; Allen, ep 64
^"LikeJean Gerson before him, he recommended that (scholastic method) be practised with greater moderation and that it be complemented by the new philological and patristic knowledge that was becoming available."[288]: 26
^"I find that in comparison with the Fathers of the Church our present-day theologians are a pathetic group. Most of them lack the elegance, the charm of language, and the style of the Fathers. Content with Aristotle, they treat the mysteries of revelation in the tangled fashion of the logician. Excluding the Platonists from their commentaries, they strangle the beauty of revelation."Enchiridion, Erasmus, cited byMarkos, Louis A. (April 2007). "The Enchiridion of Erasmus".Theology Today.64 (1): 86.doi:10.1177/004057360706400109.S2CID171469828.
^"Why don't we all reflect: this must be a marvelous and new philosophy since, in order to reveal it to mortals, he who was God became man".Erasmus (1516).Paraclesis(PDF).Archived(PDF) from the original on 11 August 2023. Retrieved11 August 2023.
^A Lutheran view: "Philosophia christiana as taught by Erasmus has never been factual reality; wherever it wasphilosophia, it was notchristiana; wherever it waschristiana, it was notphilosophia."Karl Barth[290]: 1559
^Philosopher Étienne Gilson has noted "Confronted with the same failure of philosophy to rise above the order of formal logic,John of Salisbury between 1150 and 1180,Nicolas of Autrecourt andPetrach in 1360, Erasmus of Rotterdam around 1490, spontaneously conceived a similar method to save Christian faith", i.e. a sceptical-about-scholasticismad-fontes religious moralism promoting peace and charity.[292]: 102–107
^Accommodation andscopus christi were ideas significant later, in Calvin's theology.[294]: 231, 131
^For example, "It is likely that Erasmus rejected the traditional view of Hell as a place of real, material fire. But although he probably conceived of it as a place of mental rather than physical torment, ... Erasmus does not appear to reject the eternality of Hell."[295]
^Furthermore, "the roleallegory plays in Erasmus'exegesis isanalogous to the crucial place accommodation obtains in his theology".[296]: 7 )
^"We see Erasmus' hermeneutic as governed by the idea of language as mediation [...] The dynamics of mediation, central as it is in Erasmus' hermeneutic, informed all aspects of his world view."Hoffmann, Manfred (1994).Rhetoric and Theology(PDF). University of Toronto.ISBN978-0-8020-0579-3.Archived(PDF) from the original on 23 February 2024. Retrieved23 February 2024.
^"Just as the Word of Godis the image of the Father, so too, human speech is a certain image of the human mind, which is the most wondrous and powerful thing man has."[298]: 27
^"The saintly versatility with which Christ and Paul accommodate their message to their imperfect hearers is one of the highest expressions of their charity, which desires the salvation of all men."[248]
^Erasmus quoted "I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some." (Cor. 9:22, RSV).[15]: 55
^"The gospel text for Erasmus, and many others, possessed 'the capacity to transform our inner self by the presence of God as incarnated in the text' (or 'inverbation')".[check quotation syntax]Leushuis, Reinier (3 July 2017). "Emotion and Imitation: The Jesus Figure in Erasmus's Gospel Paraphrases".Reformation.22 (2):82–101.doi:10.1080/13574175.2017.1387967.S2CID171463846.: 93
^Not a novel idea: seeDuns Scotus' "For as there is no place in which it is more proper to seek Thee than in Thy words, so is there no place where Thou art more clearly discovered than in Thy words. For therein Thou abidest, and thither Thou leadest all who seek and love Thee."[301]: ch2
^Mansfield[28]: 166 summarises Robert Kleinhan that "In contrast to contemporary theologies which centred on grace (Luther) or church and sacraments (the Council of Trent), Erasmus' theology 'stressed the acquisition of peace through the virtue obtainable by union with Christ through meditation upon the documents of the early church's witness to him.'"
^For Erica Rummel "In content, Erasmian theology is characterized by a twin emphasis on inner piety and on the word as mediator between God and the believer."[226]
^Margaret O'Rourke Boyle sees it as "The text was real presence."[275]: 49 However, this may go too far: "The Christian Faith does not recognize either inlibration or inverbation".[303]
^"Erasmus insists in theRatio that in the process of interpreting a passage from Scripture it is essential to consider not only what was said but also by whom and to whom it was said, with which words, at what time, on what occasion, and what preceded and followed it."[15]: 65 In this regard, monk Thomas Merton commented that Erasmus saw the scriptures as books of prophecy not philosophy.[304]: 137
^This was a fine-grained extension of the medieval theory ofmodus procedendi, associated withAlexander of Hales andBonaventure, that each biblical book requires a different mode of proceeding as history, law, lyric, etc.[305]
^Scopus comes from Origen and was also picked up by Melanchthon.[306]
^"Erasmus is so thoroughly, radically Christ-centered in his understanding of both Christian faith and practice that if we overlook or downplay this key aspect of his character and vision, we not only do him a grave disservice but we almost completely misunderstand him."Markos, Louis A. (April 2007). "The Enchiridion of Erasmus".Theology Today.64 (1):80–88.doi:10.1177/004057360706400109.S2CID171469828.
^According to philosopher John Smith "The core of his theological thought he traced back to Christ's Sermon on the Mount, rather than Paul."[309]
^Historical theologian Carl Meyer writes "Because the Scriptures are the genuine oracles of God, welling forth from the deepest recesses of the divine mind, Erasmus said they should be approached with reverence. Humility and veneration are needed to find the secret chambers of eternal wisdom. 'Stoop to enter', Erasmus warned, 'else you might bump your head and bounce back!'"[198]: 738
^According to historian Emily Alianello, "ThroughoutEcclesiastes, Erasmus seeks to orient his theories of preaching around 'the simplicity of Christ's teaching and example'. Consequently, preaching is not for engaging in controversy, but for bringing salvation, moving the congregation to a moral life and building community through concord."[310]: 71
^I.e., Erasmus's method is that Jesus' primary teachings are not things you (whether lay person or theologian) interpret in the light of everything else (particularly some novel, post-patristic theological schema, even if ostensibly biblically coherent), but what you base your interpretation of everything else on.
^This is quite contrary to Luther's privileging of his scheme of justification, its associated verses ofRomans andGalatians, and his prizing of vehement assertions and insults. Erica Rummel notes "The similarities between his and Luther's thought were of course superficial."[226]: 36
^As with many of his individual works, readingThe Praise of Folly in isolation from his other works may give an idea of Erasmus's priorities different to that given by broader reading, even though he sometimes claimed to be re-presenting essentially the same thoughts in different genres.
^This was a long-recognized tendency: indeedAquinas wrote in the Preface to hisSumma Theologiae that "students in this science have not seldom been hampered by what they have found written by other authors, partly on account of the multiplication of useless questions, articles, and arguments"[312]
^"Erasmus saw the scholastic exercise, in its high intellectualism, as fundamentally wrong-headed."[28]: 148
^Historian William McCuaig wrote "I will however defend the view that for the historian evangelism is the category to which Erasmus should rightly be assigned."[313] Historian Hilmar Pabel wrote "an essential aspect of Erasmus' life's work [was] ... his participation in the responsibility of the bishops and all pastors to win souls for Christ."[15]: 54
^"Without denying the presence of theological mistakes in Origen's corpus, Erasmus felt that an irenic attitude toward Origen was more helpful to the Church than one of censorious criticism. Erasmus believed that Origen had seen further into the mind of St Paul than Augustine had done."[315]
^However, Shakespeare's soliloqy introduction to this scene against aggrandizement gives the comedy a serious intent.
^ab"Erasmus".Encyclopædia Britannica (9th ed.) – via Wikisource.
^Galli, Mark, and Olsen, TED (conference).131 Christians Everyone Should Know. Nashville: Holman Reference, 2000, 343.
^Nellen, Henk; Bloemendal, Jan (2016). "Erasmus's Biblical Project: Some Thoughts and Observations on Its Scope, Its Impact in the Sixteenth Century and Reception in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries".Church History and Religious Culture.96 (4):595–635.doi:10.1163/18712428-09604006.ISSN1871-241X.JSTOR26382868.
^abErasmus, Desiderius (31 December 2019). Sider, Robert D. (ed.).The New Testament Scholarship of Erasmus: An introduction with Erasmus' Preface and Ancillary Writings.doi:10.3138/9781487510206.ISBN978-1-4875-1020-6.
^abcdePabel, Hilmar M. (1995). "Promoting the Business of the Gospel: Erasmus' Contribution to Pastoral Ministry".Erasmus of Rotterdam Society Yearbook.15 (1):53–70.doi:10.1163/187492795X00053.
^abcdefVollerthun, Ursula; Richardson, James L. (31 August 2017).The Idea of International Society: Erasmus, Vitoria, Gentili and Grotius.doi:10.1017/9781108264945.005.
^Avarucci, Giuseppe (1983). "Due codici scritti da 'Gerardus Helye' padre di Erasmo".Italia Medioevale e Umanistica (in Italian).26:215–55, esp. 238–39.
^Huizinga,Erasmus, pp. 4 and 6 (Dutch-language version)
^abcVredeveld, Harry (Winter 1993). "The Ages of Erasmus and the Year of his Birth".Renaissance Quarterly. Vol. 46, no. 4. pp. 754–809.JSTOR3039022.
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^Gleason, John B. (Spring 1979). "The Birth Dates of John Colet and Erasmus of Rotterdam: Fresh Documentary Evidence".Renaissance Quarterly. Vol. 32, no. 1. The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Renaissance Society of America. pp. 73–76.JSTOR2859872.
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^De Lang, Marijke H. (1991). "Jean Gerson's Harmony of the Gospels (1420)".Nederlands Archief voor Kerkgeschiedenis / Dutch Review of Church History.71 (1):37–49.doi:10.1163/002820391X00023.ISSN0028-2030.JSTOR24009392.
^Mazzonis, Querciolo (2018). "Reforming Christianity in early sixteenth-century Italy: the Barnabites, the Somaschans, the Ursulines, and the hospitals for the incurables".Archivium Hibernicum.71:244–272.ISSN0044-8745.JSTOR48564991.
^Molen, Richard L. de (1987).The spirituality of Erasmus of Rotterdam. Nieuwkoop: De Graaf.ISBN978-90-6004-392-9.
^Forrest Tyler Stevens, "Erasmus's 'Tigress': The Language of Friendship, Pleasure, and the Renaissance Letter".Queering the Renaissance, Duke University Press, 1994
^Collected Works of Erasmus, vol. 1, p. 12 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1974)
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^Kuhner, John Byron (2017)."The Vatican's Latinist".The New Criterion.25 (7).Archived from the original on 6 June 2017. Retrieved3 March 2024.
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^Andrews, Edward D.; Lightfoot, J.B.; Kenyon, Frederic G. (2022).The Revisions of the English Holy Bible: Misunderstandings and Misconceptions about the English Bible Translations. Christian Publishing House.ISBN979-8-3521-2418-5.
^Lundberg, Christa (16 February 2022).Apostolic theology and humanism at the University of Paris, 1490–1540 (Thesis). Apollo – University of Cambridge Repository.doi:10.17863/CAM.81488.
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Dodds, Gregory D. (2010).Exploiting Erasmus: The Erasmian Legacy and Religious Change in Early Modern England. Toronto: University of Toronto Press
Furey, Constance M. (2009).Erasmus, Contarini, and the Religious Republic of Letters. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press
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Ron, Nathan (2019).Erasmus and the "Other": On Turks, Jews, and Indigenous Peoples. Palgrave Macmillan Cham
Ron, Nathan (2021).Erasmus: Intellectual of the 16th Century. Palgrave Macmillan Cham
Quinones, Ricardo J. (2010).Erasmus and Voltaire: Why They Still Matter. University of Toronto Press, 240 pp. Draws parallels between the two thinkers as voices of moderation with relevance today.
Winters, Adam. (2005).Erasmus' Doctrine of Free Will. Jackson, TN: Union University Press.
Collected Works of Erasmus (U of Toronto Press, 1974–2023). 84/86 volumes published as of mid 2023; see U. Toronto Press, in English translation
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Rabil, Albert (2001). "Erasmus: Recent Critical Editions and Translations".Renaissance Quarterly.54 (1):246–251.doi:10.2307/1262226.ISSN0034-4338.JSTOR1262226.S2CID163450283. Discusses both the Toronto translation and the entirely separate Latin edition published in Amsterdam since 1969
Desiderius Erasmus:"War is sweet to those who have no experience of it ..." – Protest against Violence and War (Publication series: Exhibitions on the History of Nonviolent Resistance, No. 1, Editors:Christian Bartolf, Dominique Miething). Berlin: Freie Universität Berlin, 2022.PDF
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