Desiderius Erasmus

Erasmus was born in Rotterdam around 1466 and raised, after his parents died, in the care of religious houses; he took holy orders but never settled into the life of a monk. He studied in Paris and then moved restlessly between England, Italy, and the Rhineland, living by his pen and by the patronage of friends.

He produced a corrected edition of the Greek New Testament and translations and commentaries that sent scholars back to the original texts, and he wrote satires — above all In Praise of Folly — that mocked the ignorance and corruption he found among churchmen and princes alike. His Adages and his letters made him the most famous scholar in Europe.

He refused to join the Protestant Reformation, arguing for reform from within and for a faith centered on the simple teaching of Christ, and the quarrel with Luther over free will troubled him for years. He died in Basel in 1536, and the humanist program he embodied shaped schools and scholarship for generations.

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