Desiderius “Erasmus” Roterodamus and the
Renaissance
Brooke McCoy
Renaissance significance on society
The renaissance gave way to enlightenment and rebirth. This period of time allowed a break off
from the past medieval era. To scholars and philosophers, it was largely a time of the revival
of classical learning and wisdom after a long period of cultural decline. With an increased
interest in class Greek and Roman culture art, music, and philosophy experienced the most
noticeable changes. The invention of the printing press led to books being more widely
available, which encouraged an increase in literacy. Politically, the period of the Renaissance
saw a growth in the power of individual monarchs and rulers. In Italy, the various princes
and dukes who ruled the many states into which Italy was divided were very powerful.
Machiavelli's book The Prince gave counsel on how to be a glorious and powerful ruler. Over
all, the Renaissance led to a society with a greater focus on the man’s potential.
Erasmus
Erasmus was born at Gouda, a city in the
Netherlands, on October 27, 1466.
Originally, he was called Gerrit Gerritszoon
(Dutch for Gerard Gerardson). Erasmus
later changed his name to Desiderius, which
means “desired one” in Latin. Both of his
parents died of the plague when Erasmus
was about fifteen. His guardians pressured
him into attending the monastery at
Emmaus. Erasmus hated his time in the
church and wrote about it as one of the
worst periods of his life.
Erasmus
Erasmus was one of the greatest scholars of the
renaissance time. He was a Dutch writer, scholar
and humanist. Erasmus adopted a pure Latin
style commonly shared by many Renaissance
humanist writers. He was a prolific writer and
exerted such great influence during his time that
he was called "The Prince of the Humanists.“ As a
Christian Humanist his goal was to promote
basic Christian values. Erasmus claimed that
men are ‘made human’ through education – a
claim who’s echoes we find from as early as
Aristotle and into the enlightenment, whose
earliest traces are sourced from Descartes’
Discourse on Method, published a full century
after Erasmus’ death.
Erasmus
Erasmus was a potent factor in the
educational movement of his time.
Beginning in 1499, Erasmus moved
from city to city working as a tutor
and lecturer, constantly searching
out ancient manuscripts and writing.
He translated and edited many
classical and early Christian works
and also published a critical edition
of the Greek text of the New
Testament which drew on newly
available sources and was immensely
influential.
Erasmus
The Dutch humanist contributed to the
Renaissance by revising ancient works
and translating them into Greek and
Latin such as the Bible. Erasmus also
contributed to the Reformation by calling
for reform in the Church through his
various satirical works. He contended
with the reformer Martin Luther (14831546), emphasizing the importance of
free will in human actions against
Luther’s belief in the absolute bondage of
the will to sin. Erasmus died in Basel in
Switzerland on 12 July 1536.
Humanism Quotes by Erasmus
“I consider as lovers of books not those who keep their books hidden in their store-chests and never handle
them, but those who, by nightly as well as daily use thumb them, batter them, wear them out, who fill out
all the margins with annotations of many kinds, and who prefer the marks of a fault they have erased to
a neat copy full of faults.”
“There are some people who live in a dream world, and there are some who face reality; and then there are
those who turn one into the other.”
“When I get a little money, I buy books; and if any is left, I buy food and clothes.”
“Great abundance of riches cannot be gathered and kept by any man without sin.”
“A good portion of speaking will consist in knowing how to lie.”
“He who allows oppression shares the crime.”
“Give light, and the darkness will disappear of itself.”
“In the country of the blind, the one eyed man is king.”
Major Works of Erasmus
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The Colloquies vol. 1
The Colloquies vol. 2
The Complaint of Peace
In Praise of Folly
A Discussion of Free Will
The Manual of a Christian Knight
• The Works of Vicesimus Knox, vol. 5
Praise of Folly
Praise of Folly, written to amuse his friend Sir
Thomas More, is Erasmus’s best-known
work. Its dazzling mixture of fantasy and
satire is narrated by a personification of
Folly, dressed as a jester, who celebrates
youth, pleasure, drunkenness and sexual
desire, and goes on to lambast human
pretensions, foibles and frailties, to mock
theologians and monks and to praise the
‘folly’ of simple Christian piety. Erasmus’s
wit, wordplay and wisdom made the book
an instant success, but it also attracted
what may have been sales-boosting
criticism.
Praise of Folly
Throughout the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries the Church encountered much
criticism from reformers. Thus, the famous humanist, Erasmus, wrote his Praise of Folly to
expose the secular ambitions of bishops and monks, the foolish speculations of theologians,
and the excessive reliance which common people had on pilgrimages, festivals, relics, and
other aids to devotion.
Praise of Folly
A satire employed to attack superstition and the
abuse of doctrine within the Catholic Church.
Erasmus used the personification of Folly to
satirize different people, groups, and the
Catholic Church. Folly (the essay's central
character) praises herself endlessly, arguing
that life would be dull and distasteful without
her. Of earthly existence, Folly pompously
states, "you'll find nothing frolic or fortunate
that it owes not to me." Folly speaks directly of
Christianity, regarding its religious authority
and practices.
A Discussion of Free Will
Erasmus' earlier, more positive evaluation of
human nature was the basis for his discussion
of a topic of major philosophical interest, the
freedom of the human will, which became the
central issue in a conflict that began in
September 1524 when he published A
Discussion of Free Will, in which he directly
attacked a central doctrine of Martin Luther's
theology, his assertion in his defense against
the papal bull of excommunication that
contrary to the opinion of scholastic
theologians, the human will after Adam's sin
was so disordered that it was unfree, unable
through its own power to make even the
slightest positive response to God's saving
grace, unable to do anything that was not a
sin.
Colloquies
Erasmus criticized the monks and church leaders for
taking vows of poverty and then not honoring
them. Colloquia, better known as Colloquies,
gained him even more hostility from the Church. In
this work, Erasmus continued to assault erroneous
Church practices. Much concerned with religious
humanism, Erasmus deftly wielded his gift of
writing as an instrument of peace. He was
renowned for his pacifist views, which he
poignantly enumerates in Against War. He felt that
war was senseless since it only caused destruction
and death. Those who engaged in war he rebuked
as having no greater morality than beasts.
Although he scorned human warfare, he excused
killing in the animal kingdom. He believed God
equipped mankind with the capacity for love,
empathy, and kindness: virtues which were not
displayed during times of war.
The Spirit of The Renaissance
The Renaissance was a period of great change. One of the greatest
scholars of this time was Desiderius Erasmus. He contributed to the
Renaissance by revising ancient works and translating them into
Greek and Latin. During his lifetime, Erasmus also contributed to the
Reformation by calling for reform in the Church through his various
satirical works such as Praise of Folly. Erasmus was the dominant
figure of the early humanist movement. As the foremost of the German
humanists, he worked constantly and effectually for the spread of the
new learning, which imparted to the education of the Renaissance
period, its content and spirit.
Works Cited
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http://www.egs.edu/library/desiderius-erasmus/biography/
http://www.biography.com/people/erasmus-21291705
http://www.mrrena.com/misc/erasmus.php
http://www.lordsandladies.org/erasmus.htm
http://www.rsm.nl/about-rsm/facts-figures/desiderius-erasmus/
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05510b.htm
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/erasmus/
http://www.notablebiographies.com/Du-Fi/Erasmus-Desiderius.html
http://ahistoryofthepresentananthology.blogspot.com/2013/02/placeholder.html
http://library.usask.ca/archives/images/publishedworks/rarebooks_onlinefeatures/illustrating_moveable_type/erasmi_roterodami.jpg