Erasmus, Desiderius

Erasmus, Desiderius (c.1467–1536), the great Dutch humanist, came more than once to England, where he was welcomed by the great scholars of the day, More, Colet, and Grocyn, and was induced by Fisher to lecture at Cambridge on Greek from 1511 to 1514. His principal works include a new edition of the Greek New Testament (1516), followed by Latin paraphrases (1517–24); Encomium Moriae (The Praise of Folly, 1511, a satire written at the suggestion of More, principally directed against theologians and Church dignitaries); Institutio Christiani Principis (Education of a Christian Prince); the vivid and entertaining Colloquia and letters furnishing autobiographical detail and pictures of contemporary life, which were drawn upon by C. Reade in The Cloister and the Hearth and by Sir W. Scott in Anne of Geierstein. His many editions and translations of the Bible, early Christian authors, and the classics revolutionized European literary culture. Erasmus prepared the way for the Reformation by his writings. With the movement itself he sympathized at first, but he refused to intervene either for or against Luther at the time of the Diet of Worms, although invoked by both sides. He urged moderation on both and disclaimed sympathy with Luther's violence and extreme conclusions, and at a later stage (1524, in his tract on ‘Free Will’) entered into controversy with him.