Desiderius Erasmus, 1466-1536
Erasmus was the most important leader of European Humanism. His ideas were key in both the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Reformation.
Life
Born in 1466 in Rotterdam Erasmus was the illegitimate son of priest. He was educated at Deventer, the foremost Humanist centre for education in Europe, in the Netherlands. He was pushed into becoming a monk and became an Augustinian at Steyn. He hated it though and left in 1494 to become a bishop's secretary.
Then moved to Paris as a candidate for Doctor of Theology at the university there. Visited England in 1499:
Back to
Paris to study
Greek. Returns briefly to
England in 1505. Journeys to
Italy, witnessed the return of
Pope Julius II from a triumphant victory. Julius was a keen
warrior and was also very
extravagant. Erasmus was deeply shocked:
Was Pope Julius the successor of Jesus Christ or of Julius Caesar?
On yet another journey to
Rome the sight of
Bull fights in
St Peter's Square gave Erasmus more cause for worry.
Writings
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Oration of Peace and Discord - A plea for peace.
Nothing is more agreeable than peace, nothing is more frightful than war.The fields are rich with harvests, the meadows with cattle, the sea with fish. Why does this not suffice us? Tears start as one views the calamities of our time. Harvests are burned, women are abused, virgins violated, wives abducted, no one is safe from this tiger of violence.
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Adages - published in 1500. Quotations from classical Roman authors to illustrate advantages of Latin style and thought.
"In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king."
"Doctoring is better first than last"
"From head to heel"
"Wings on one's feet"
"Fortune favours the brave"
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Enchiridion Militis Christiani - Published in 1503. Handbook of a Christian Soldier. Arguing for a simplified Christian life, practical good deeds rather than rituals. This became the mouthpiece of Catholic reform. Emphasised the need for imitation of Christ in the gentler virtues.
Monasticism is not holiness but a kind of life that can be useful or useless depending on a person's temperament or disposition. I neither recommend it nor do I condemn it. You accuse and utter your sins to a priest, which is a man: take heed how you accuse and utter them before God, for to accuse them before him is to hate them inwardly. You believe by chance all your sins and offences will be washed away at once with a little paper or parchment sealed with wax, with a little money of images of wax offered, with going on a little pilgrimage. You are utterly deceived and clean out of the way!
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Encomium Moriae - In Praise of Folly. Published in 1509. Very popular satire mocking the church.
The happiness of these people is most nearly approached by those who are popularly called "Religious" or "Monks". Both names are false, since most of the are a long way removed from religion, and wherever you go these so-called solitaries are the people you're likely to meet. I don't believe any life would be more wretched than theirs if I didn't come to their aid in many ways. The whole tribe is so universally loathed that even a chance of meetings is thought to be ill-omened - and yet they are gloriously self-satisfied. In the first place, they believe it's the highest form of piety to be so uneducated that they can't even read. Then when they bray like donkeys in church repeating by rote the psalms they haven't even understood, they imagine they are charming the ears of the heavenly audience with infinite delight. Many of them too make a good living out of their squalor and beggary, bellowing for bread from door to door, and indeed making a nuisance of themselves in every inn, carriage of board, to the great loss of all the other beggars. This is the way in which these smooth individuals, in all their filth and ignorance, their boorish and shameless behaviour, claim to bring back the apostles into our midst.
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Julius Exclusus - Published in 1513. A satire after the death of Pope Julius II in which the Pope fails to enter Heaven. In this quote the Pope explains why he should enter Heaven.
The invincible Julius ought not to answer a beggarly fisherman. However, you shall know who and what I am. I have done more for the church and Christ than any Pope before me. I have set all the princes of Europe by the ears. I have torn up treaties, kept great armies in the field, I have covered Rome with palaces. And I have done it all myself, too. I owe nothing to my birth, for I don't know who my father was; nothing to learning , for I have none; nothing to youth, for I was old when I began; nothing to popularity, for I was hated all round. Spite of fortune, spite of Gods and men I achieved all that I have told you in a few years, and I left work enough cut out for my successors to last ten years longer. This is the modest truth, and my friends at Rome call me more a God than a man.
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Treatise on Prayer - Published 1519
To whom shall we pray? To God. But how shall a miserable little creature like man come before Him in whose presence angels tremble? Shall I lift myself up and talk with Him who inhabits eternity? Yet the publican cried unto him and was heard?.
How shall we pray? Nor interminably. If you are going through a round of prayers, you might as well be rolling rocks like Sisyphus. Don't bellow like a soldier, or croon like a singer?.
Prayers should not be tedious. Pray that rulers should be given wisdom not victory in war. Pray not for one king, but for all. Pray for the Turks, that they be given mercy not destruction.
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The Colloquies - Published in 1519. Treatise on philosophy and education.
The wicked Life of Soldiers is here reprehended, and
shewn to be very miserable: That War is Confusion, and
a Sink of all manner of Vices, in as much as in it there is
no Distinction made betwixt Things sacred and profane.
The hope of Plunder allures many to become Soldiers.
The Impieties of a Military Life are here laid open, by
this Confession of a Soldier, that Youth may be put out
of Conceit of going into the Army.
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Treatise on Marriage - Published in 1521.
Marriage is the most appropriate of all unions because it is based on nature, law and religion. It should be for life - any marriage which is capable of being dissolved, never was marriage at all?.
Because marriage is for life, it should not be entered into lightly, but soberly. Marriage should be with the consent of parents, but they should not force the unwilling. Never let your daughter marry a leper or a syphilitic, nor give her to a dissolute knight, better a solid farmer.
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Discourse on Free Will - Published in 1524.
By freedom of the will I understand the power whereby a man can apply himself to or turn away from that which leads unto eternal salvation. It is within out power to turn towards or away from grace just as it is our pleasure to open or close our eyes against the light; for it is incompatible with the infinite love of our God that a man's striving with all his might for grace should be frustrated. I like the sentiments of those who attribute a little to the freedom of the will, the most, however, to grace.
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Translations of the Bible - Eramus produced numerous translations of the Bible using both original Greek and Hebrew versions. A preface from one of his translations follows.
I wish that all women might read the gospel, and the Epistles of Paul. I wish that they might be translated into all tongues of all people, so that no only the Scots and the Irish, but also the Turk and the Saracen might read and understand. I wish the countryman might sing them at his plough, the weaver chant them at his loom, the traveller beguile with them the weariness of his journey. Only a very few can be learned but all can be Christian, all can be devout, and - I shall boldly add - all can be theologians.
Beliefs