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Erasmus

Also called: Desiderius Erasmus, Erasmus of Rotterdam

Humanist from Rotterdam in the Netherlands who satirised the corruption of the Church in The Praise of Folly and published the Greek New Testament

Born the illegitimate son of a priest and orphaned young, he entered a monastery but found monastic life stifling. Moving between Paris, England, Italy and Basel and corresponding with scholars and princes across Europe, he became known as the “prince of humanists”. He wrote The Praise of Folly while staying at the house of his friend Thomas More. Carried by the printing press, his books were among the best-sellers of the age. He wanted the Church reformed but opposed dividing it, and debated free will with Luther.

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1 related event

  1. 1
    1432 – 1516Northern Renaissance and Erasmusauthor

    The Renaissance north of the Alps, beginning with 15th-century Flemish painting, developed into a Christian humanism that called for a return to Scripture and the early Church, and Erasmus satirised the Church in The Praise of Folly (1511).

Themes this person appears in

  • Late Medieval Europe and the Renaissance1077 – 1517

    From Canossa to the eve of the Reformation — papal power at its height and in decline, towns and parliaments, royal power growing through the Hundred Years’ War and the Black Death, and the Renaissance and printing