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Erasmus of Rotterdam, baptized Desidério Erasmus, was born on October 28, 1466, in the city of Rotterdam. Dutch theologian and writer, he dedicated his entire life to the cause of internal reform of the Catholic Church. His dream was a united spiritual Europe, with a common language that would bring all people together. Son of a religious man and a bourgeoisie woman, he dedicated his life to theology, attending the Augustinian Monks Seminary. Later, however, he criticized monastic life, the clergy, and the Church.
Acclaimed Prince of Humanists, he was considered the greatest figure of Christian humanism. Humanists no longer accepted the values and ways of being and living of the Middle Ages. The source of these authors' aspirations was the cultural production of Greco-Roman antiquity.
In 1492 he was consecrated a priest, even though he criticized monastic life and the characteristics that he considered negative for the Catholic Church. In 1495, Erasmus got a scholarship to Paris and entered the famous College of Montaigu, attached to the Sorbonne. There he studied to obtain a doctorate in theology. Dissatisfied with the hostility towards innovative ideas coming from Italy, he abandoned the course. He started teaching seeking his independence.
His anti-clericalism manifested itself in the form of a scathing criticism of the religious life of his time, more specifically, of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, particularly the Roman curia. Humanists also disparaged the medieval scholasticism so widespread in their time. They preferred practical subjects, related to society and civic life, than the philosophical and rationalist discussions that had taken over European universities.
Dedicated to reading the classics, he became one of the most cultured men of the time. For him, pagans like Cicero and Socrates deserved the name of saints much more than many Christians canonized by the Pope. “Saint Socrates, pray for us,” was his famous motto.
Healthy is education without religious control
Like other humanists, Erasmus believed that the moral advancement of humanity was possible through education. For him, moral conduct should be a kind of test of truth in matters of doctrine. For this reason, he is seen more as a moral reformer than a doctrinal one.
Even though his life as a teacher was short, education remained a lifelong interest and a central theme in his writings (see especially Margolin 1995). Erasmus trusted in the potential of human beings to seek improvement which, in his view, was a result of the acceptance of free will. The power of will was preponderant in creation over nature. Therefore, it was the duty of parents and teachers to ensure that children fulfilled their potential, and of adults to live up to it.
Erasmus advocated the end of religious dominance in education. He defended knowledge of the classics as well as the autonomy of knowledge in relation to religion. He believed that the best way to solve the Church's problems was a gentler rebirth through the purifying benefits of education, knowledge, and prayer. These ideas were revealed in chapter 1504 of his book Enchiridion Militis Christiani (Christian Soldier's Handbook).
His disagreements with theological dogmatism began early, still in Paris, at Montaigu College. Like other humanists, he opposed the obscurantism and intolerance of religious orders, becoming one of the central figures of Humanism in the Renaissance.
Erasmus's liberalizing stance removed him finally from all dogmatism and led him to a moderate reformist position, in which he made room for tolerance as the only viable basis for transforming the church.
Precursor of Church reform
In 1499, in England, he met Thomas More, and they became lifelong friends. He studied Greek at Oxford and became friends with the humanist John Colet. Erasmus devised, together with Thomas More and Colet, the project to restore theology, with new editions of sacred texts, from Greek and Latin.
Colet accelerated Erasmus's ambition to be a “primitive theologian,” one who would expound the Scriptures not in the argumentative manner of the scholastics, but in the manner of St. Jerome and other Church Fathers, who lived at a time when the classical art of rhetoric was still understood and practiced. He returned to the continent with a Latin copy of the Epistles of St. Paul and the conviction that “ancient theology” required mastery of Greek.
In 1500 he published Adages, a collection of Latin quotations and proverbs. For the time, the work represented the ultimate in popular literature and made the author's name famous.
His wandering life took him back to Paris, where he dedicated himself to the study of the New Testament. He returned to England in 1505. In 1506, already in Italy, he obtained “papal dispensation from obedience to the customs and statutes of the Convent of Steyn”. In Rome, he frequented the intellectual circle of Pope Julius II, but confessed that he was horrified by the Pope's triumphal entry into Bologna. Convinced that the bellicose Julius II was Caesar's successor and not Christ's and with the expansion of papal power, he felt the need for reform in the church.
Erasmus's greatest theological contribution and the true spark of what would become the Protestant Reformation was, certainly, the publication of his edition of the New Testament in Greek, in 1516. He intended, with it, to replace Jerome's. However, his ambition to become a revived Jerome was thwarted by the Council of Trent which, in 1559, condemned the Latin translation. Even so, he achieved immortality in that his edition of the Greek text was the basis for different Protestant translations and became known as the Textus Receptus.
Erasmus's edition was marketed by Johann Froben, its publisher, as the first published Greek edition. Erasmus expressed, in the preface to the work, that he wanted every person to have the chance to read the Bible.
Although it is considered the first modern edition of the New Testament in that language, it was preceded by a bilingual (Greek and Latin) edition of the entire Bible, which was printed two years earlier and became known as the Complutensian Polyglot.
His effort to publish the New Testament in the original language arose because of the humanist influences that existed at the time. This Renaissance movement, which began in Italy, fueled enthusiasm for the study of classical art. For this reason, there was a peculiar interest in “returning to the sources,” prioritizing literary works in their original language.
It was he who, possibly, contributed most to laying the foundations of the Protestant Reformation movement. While he gave significant impetus to the study of the Bible, he also exposed monastic fanaticism and ignorance, as well as ecclesiastical abuses.
Despite this, he never declared himself a reformer in the Protestant sense of the term. He even announced “war” against Luther. Although he continued to disagree with Rome in many respects, he did not dissociate himself from it. His desire was a reform within the church and the papacy.
Erasmus anticipated in his literary works several concepts that would later be considered typical principles of the Protestant Reformation, such as religious individualism; that is, the notion that true religion consists in inner devotion and not in external symbols of ceremonies and rituals.
Due to his positions in relation to the Church, he acquired enemies on both sides, which brought him bitterness at various times in his life. However, none of this stopped him from becoming highly respected throughout Europe. His life, works and theological opinions are necessary objects of study for anyone who wishes to know more deeply the origins of the Protestant Reformation.
Erasmus versus Luther
Erasmus' relationship with the Lutheran Reformation was complex. At first, he was in favor of changes in the church and sympathized with the criticisms made of it by the radical reformer Martin Luther. He also disagreed with those who, besides Luther, emphasized the dependence of human will on the divine will. In 1524, he published his famous essay on free will De Libero Animal (Of Free Will), opposing Luther, for whom people did not freely choose their salvation, but were the subjects of predestination. Luther responded with violence, and this caused a rift between them.
The work was written when Erasmus was in Basel, Switzerland, living there since 1521. The city became a hotbed of radical reformers to the point that Catholic worship was banned there. In 1529, he moved to Friborg, Germany, where he worked at the Catholic university. He returned to Basel in 1535.
Erasmus did not attach much importance to Luther's 95 theses nailed to the door of a church, but he agreed with the criticism of the sale of indulgences. In many of his works, he had already formulated Luther's convictions, contrary to the mechanical practice of rites and the fetishistic cult of saints and relics, which replace religion based on piety.
Erasmus passionately believed in the Bible and revered it as divine revelation. For him, Scripture was the true source of theology and devotion. However, he lacked a deeper understanding of sin and grace. These doctrines occupied Luther's thought more closely. In fact, Erasmus and Luther differed in several aspects. “Erasmus was eighteen years older than Luther and was at the height of his fame when the reformer began his work. He differed from Luther as Jerome differed from Augustine […]. Erasmus was a scholar, Luther a reformer; the first was absorbed in literature, the other in religion. Erasmus aimed at enlightenment, Luther at reconstruction. The first developed the intellect of an educated person; the second touched the hearts of the people. Erasmus fought for freedom of thought; Luther, for freedom of conscience” (History of the Christian Church, v. 7, p. 412).
Praise of Madness
Installed in the house of his friend Thomas Morus, in London, he wrote, in 1509, In Praise of Madness. The work presents a criticism made in an ironic, yet objective and direct way, to the customs of the Christian faith preached by the Catholic Church of the time, without attacking anyone personally. Erasmus presents Madness as a goddess who calls herself responsible for the delights that human beings wish to obtain in the world. And it is Madness who speaks in his name, who puts herself in an unassailable position and allows him all his audacity.
Outraged by the pagan luxury of the Pope's cities, where open criticism could lead to burning, Erasmus used madness to denounce all these abuses. He said: How many material treasures would the holy fathers abandon, if judgment one day took possession of their spirit? Without a doubt, In Praise of Madness is a masterpiece. It was published in 1511 and dedicated to his friend Thomas More.
Life as a professional academic
While in Paris, Erasmus became known as an excellent scholar and speaker. One of his students, William Blunt, Baron Montjoy, granted him a pension, allowing him to adopt the life of an independent scholar, from city-to-city teaching, lecturing, and corresponding with some of Europe's most brilliant thinkers.
Erasmus died without understanding many truths that would be restored during the following centuries. As the Bible mentions in Proverbs 4:18, the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until the perfect day. Although he was a great scholar and became the great expression of Christian humanism at the time, he also had his limitations. However, it is not possible to measure the value of his contribution, especially that of his publication of the Greek New Testament.
Works by Erasmus of Rotterdam
Erasmus was a wise and avid reader. He wrote several literary, philosophical, and religious works, of which the following stand out:
Christian Knight's Handbook
Praise of Madness
The Christian Fathers
Family Colloquia
The Navigations of the Ancients
Preparation for Death
Although many scholars do not consider Erasmus to be a reformer in the strictest sense of the term, his influence on several reformers cannot be denied. His interest in the arts and classical languages, as well as his emphasis on education as a means of overcoming the low morality of his day, markedly influenced the theology of the Reformers and their message that each person should know the Bible for himself.
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