Desiderius Erasmus, the Great Humanist :: Biography Biographies Essays

Desiderius Erasmus, the Great Humanist Desiderius Erasmus was one of the great humanists. He was welleducated and practice scholasticism. He was also a great writer, who wrotebooks of many types. He is even called the greatest European savant of the16th century (Britannica Macropedia). He was also courageous, as hecriticized the church harshly. It was said by R. C. Trench that Erasmuslaid the egg of the Reformation and Luther hatched it. Erasmus was the illegitimate son of a priest named Gerard. This factwould haunt him for his sinless life. He feared that, if this fact waswidely known, his life would be ruined. Therefore, there has been moreconfusion about his early life. It has been discerned that he as born inGouda, Holland in 1469 and that he had a brother. Erasmus tried to keep allthese facts hidden, mistake modern day historians. He died in 1536. Erasmuss writings included The valuate of Folly, a satire which pointedout major problems in the clergy, saying th at monks were beggars, theclergy was greedy, and that the pope had no resemblance to the Apostles. Healso wrote a short sarcastic skit in which pope Julius II had troublegetting into heaven. In the skit, Pope Julius II is made out to be more ofa Islamic than a Catholic. Writing this had to take considerable courage,for, though the Church was in decline, it still had considerable power. Healso published the Greek rendition of the New Testament in Latin, soEuropeans could read it. Erasmus was a traveller. He lived in many places in Europe at differenttimes. He had lived in Rome, Paris, England, and many other Europeancountries. His worked as a writer, further was dependant on gifts of nobles asmost writers of the time were. In his travels he befriended many humanists. Erasmus became a humanist because of his education. He studied both old-fashioned Greek and Latin. He had tried to be monk and a priest, merely couldnot. He went to Paris where he mastered Latin. He received a good educationthere. This education, combined with his morality, made him a greathumanist. He had both the knowledge and the ethics to criticize the Church(a person who lacked ethics and criticized the Church would be a hypocrite). Surprisingly, Erasmus was both tolerant and a pacifist. He, apparently,picked up these traits when in England.