ERASMUS, DESIDERIUS

ERASMUS, DESIDERIUS (1466?–1536), Dutch humanist. The illegitimate son of a priest, Erasmus was born in Rotterdam c. 1466. After the premature death of his parents, his guardians persuaded him to enter an Augustinian monastery. On his request he was sent to the Collège de Montaigu in Paris in 1495, but he developed a strong distaste for the Scholastic brand of theology taught there and focused on the humanities instead. In 1499 he undertook the first of four journeys to England. The patronage of important men, foremost among them William Warham, archbishop of Canterbury (c. 1450–1532), and the friendship of Thomas More (1478–1535) and John Colet (1467?–1519) opened doors for him and stimulated his interest in classical sources and biblical studies. Over the next two decades he made a name for himself through his collection of classical proverbs (Adages, first version 1500) and his elegant translations from the Greek (Euripides, Lucian, Plutarch, etc.). His jeu d'esprit, The Praise of Folly (Encomium Moriae; 1511), was an international bestseller and remains in print to the present day. From 1506 to 1509, Erasmus traveled in Italy, where he was awarded a doctorate in theology at the University of Turin (per saltum, that is, without the requisite examinations) and worked as a corrector for the famous Venetian printer Aldo Manuzio. After the accession of Henry VIII in 1509, he left for England and taught at the University of Cambridge, but he returned to the Continent when the hoped-for royal patronage was not forthcoming.

Two church benefices, which he converted into pensions, and an appointment as councillor to Prince Charles (later Emperor Charles V) gave him a certain measure of financial and scholarly independence. For Charles's guidance, Erasmus wrote an essay on statecraft, The Education of a Christian Prince (1516), as well as two position papers on war against the Turks and ways of ending the religious strife between Catholics and Protestants. Like Luther, Erasmus suggested that the Turks were the scourge of God and that spiritual reform must precede military action. His plan for peace among the religious factions rested on the idea of negotiation and compromise and the assumption that a future general synod would be able to formulate mutually acceptable doctrinal positions. To indicate that his advice was spiritual as much as political, Erasmus incorporated the pieces into Psalm commentaries (1530 and 1533). His position as councillor made it imperative for Erasmus to live in the Low Countries. From 1517 to 1521 he therefore resided in Louvain. After Charles's departure for Spain, he settled in Basel.

Erasmus's biblical studies aroused the opposition of conservative theologians. They objected to his application of the humanistic philological method to Scripture and protested against his plan to emend the Vulgate, then widely regarded as St. Jerome's translation, written with papal authorization and under divine guidance. Erasmus had now collated numerous biblical manuscripts and studied the textual citations and exegesis of Greek and Latin fathers. He edited and translated a number of patristic works (Jerome, Augustine, Chrysostom, Origen, Theophylactus, and others). The most important fruit of his studies, however, was a critical Greek and Latin edition of the New Testament and annotations explaining the textual changes he proposed. First published by Johann Froben in Basel in 1516, the work went through five editions in Erasmus's lifetime. The annotations more than tripled in volume as Erasmus incorporated ongoing research and answered the attacks of Catholic theologians. According to his critics, Erasmus's changes laid the groundwork for heterodox interpretations and gave support to the Lutherans.

Erasmus initially sympathized with the reformers, but he withdrew his support after 1521 when it became apparent that their teaching was schismatic. The saying current at the time, "Erasmus laid the egg that Luther hatched," reflects the fact that Erasmus sharply criticized the Catholic hierarchy in such works as The Praise of Folly and the Colloquies (first version 1518). His call for inner piety rather than external compliance with ceremonies, first formulated in The Handbook of the Christian Soldier (1503), and his emphasis on Scripture and the fathers created the impression that he shared Luther's platform. He differed sharply from Luther, however, in calling only for a reform of abuses and initiating no change in doctrine. As his polemic with the reformer in 1524 over the question of free will clearly showed, Erasmus respected the traditions of the church and accepted its teaching authority. Although he voiced doubts about certain doctrinal points, for example, the divine institution of the sacrament of penance, he expressly subjected his views to the verdict of the church. Erasmus's approach to doctrinal questions may be described as "Catholic skepticism." He examined the evidence on both sides but relied on consensus and tradition as decision-making tools if the evidence was inconclusive. Schism therefore presented an epistemological challenge to Erasmus. Not surprisingly, he concentrated all his efforts on promoting a peaceful solution to the religious debate. Pacifism was also the watchword of The Education of a Christian Prince and the essays The Complaint of Peace (1517) and War Is Sweet to Inexperienced Men (1515). Erasmus's moderate and humane attitude earned him the enmity of partisans in both religious camps, who denounced him as a hypocrite and fence sitter. The decade before his death in 1536 was accordingly dominated by apologiae in which he attempted to justify his writings and protested against their retrointerpretation as "Lutheran."

Erasmus's contemporaries were uncertain how to classify him professionally. Many correspondents addressed him as "theologian," but the emphasis shifted in the mid-1520s. Philipp Melanchthon (1497–1560) famously contrasted Erasmus with Luther. In his opinion the latter was a true theologian, the former merely a humanist who taught good style and polite manners. The Louvain theologian Frans Titelmans flatly declared that "Erasmian" was synonymous with "humanistic." After the Council of Trent (1545–1563), the Catholic Church placed Erasmus's works on the Index of Prohibited Books; in Protestant countries, his textbooks (for example, Copia, 1512; On Writing Letters, 1522) and his anthologies continued to be used in schools, but it was clear that Erasmus now served only as a style model.

Interest in Erasmus revived during the Enlightenment when he was praised for his rationalism. In the literature of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries Erasmus is most often seen as a protagonist of pacifism. Such interpretations, however, present an unduly simplified version of Erasmus's ideas. His socalled rationalism does not meet modern criteria. It is tempered by religious sentiments and qualified by an unquestioning belief in the church. His pacifism is similarly misrepresented by writers who ignore its epistemological basis and reduce it to social concerns. Christian humanism, or as Erasmus himself called it, docta pietas ('learned piety'), remains the best term to describe the ideal he admired and indeed exemplified.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Source

Erasmus, Desiderius. The Collected Works of Erasmus. 22 vols. to date. Toronto, 1974–.

Secondary Sources

Augustijn, Cornelis. Erasmus: His Life, Works, and Influence. Translated by J. C. Grayson. Toronto, 1991.

Rummel, Erika. The Confessionalization of Humanism. New York, 2000.

——. Erasmus and His Catholic Critics. Nieuwkoop, Netherlands, 1989.

Tracy, James. Erasmus of the Low Countries. Berkeley, 1996.

ERIKA RUMMEL

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