User:Rick Jelliffe/sandbox/Thought of Erasmus
Thought and views
[edit]Biographers, such as Johan Huizinga, frequently draw connections between many of Erasmus' convictions and his early biography: esteem for the married state and appropriate marriages, support for priestly marriage, concern for improving marriage prospects for females, opposition to inconsiderate rules notably institutional dietary rules, a desire to make education engaging for the participants, interest in classical languages, horror of poverty and spiritual hopelessness, distaste for friars begging when they could study or work, unwillingness to be under the direct control of authorities, laicism, the need for those in authority to act in the best interest of their charges, a prizing of mercy and peace, an anger over unnecessary war especially between avaricious princes, an awareness of mortality, etc.
Manner of thinking
[edit]Erasmus had a distinctive manner of thinking, a Catholic historian suggests: one that is capacious in its perception, agile in its judgments, and unsettling in its irony with "a deep and abiding commitment to human flourishing".[1] "In all spheres, his outlook was essentially pastoral."[2]: 225
Erasmus has been called a seminal rather than a consistent or systematic thinker,[3] notably averse to over-extending from the specific to the general; who nevertheless should be taken very seriously as a pastoral[note 1] and rhetorical theologian, with a philological and historical approach—rather than a metaphysical approach—to interpreting Scripture[5][note 2] and interested in the literal and tropological senses.[2]: 145 French theologian Louis Bouyer commented "Erasmus was to be one of those who can get no edification from exegesis where they suspect some misinterpretation."[6]
A theologian has written of "Erasmus’ preparedness completely to satisfy no-one but himself."[7] He has been called moderate, judicious and constructive even when being critical or when mocking extremes.[8][note 3]
Manner of expression
[edit]Erasmus often wrote in a highly ironical idiom,[1] especially in his letters,[note 4] which makes them prone to different interpretations when taken literally rather than ironically.
- Erasmus himself chided Ulrich von Hutten's claims that Erasmus was a Lutheran, saying that von Hutten had not detected the irony in Erasmus' public letters enough.[9]: 27
- Antagonistic scholar J.W. Williams denies that Erasmus' letter to Ammonius "let your own interests be your standard in all things" was in obvious jest, as claimed by those more sympathetic to Erasmus.[10]
- Erasmus' aphoristic quote on the persecution of Reuchlin "if it is Christian to hate Jews, we are all abundantly Christians here" is taken literally by Theodor Dunkelgrün[11]: 320 as being approving of such hatred; the alternative view would be that it was sardonic and challenging.
Terence J. Martin identifies an "Erasmian pattern" that the supposed (by the reader) otherness (of Turks, Lapplanders, Indians, Jews, and even women and heretics) "provides a foil against which the failures of Christian culture can be exposed and criticized."[12]
- In de bello Turcico, Erasmus metonymizes that we should "kill the Turk, not the man.[...]If we really want to heave the Turks from our necks, we must first expel from our hearts a more loathsome race of Turks: avarice, ambition, the craving for power, self-satisfaction, impiety, extravagance, the love of pleasure, deceitfulness, anger, hatred, envy."[note 5]
Erasmus' literary theory of "copiousness" makes a virtue of utilizing a large stockpile of tropes and symbolic figures, without modern disclaimers of their reality or qualms about the cumulative impact.
- When Erasmus wrote of 'Judaism,' he most frequently (though not always) was not referring to Jews:[note 6] instead he referred to those Catholic Christians of his time, especially in the monastic lifestyle, who mistakenly promoted excessive external ritualism over interior piety, by analogy with Second Temple Judaism.
- "Judaism I call not Jewish impiety, but prescriptions about external things, such as food, fasting, clothes, which to a certain degree resemble the rituals of the Jews."[13]
- Erasmus' counter-accusation to Spanish friars of "Judaizing" may have been particularly sharp and bold, given the prominent role that some friars with the Spanish Inquisition were playing in the lethal persecution of some conversos.[note 7]
Pacifism
[edit]Peace, peaceableness and peacemaking, in all spheres from the domestic to the religious to the political, were central distinctives of Erasmus' writing on Christian living and his mystical theology:[15] "the sum and summary of our religion is peace and unanimity" [note 8] At the Nativity of Jesus "the angels sang not the glories of war, nor a song of triumph, but a hymn of peace.":[16]
He (Christ) conquered by gentleness; He conquered by kindness; he conquered by truth itself
— Method of True Theology, 4 [note 9]: 570
Erasmus was not an absolute Pacifist but promoted political Pacificism and religious Irenicism.[17] Notable writings on irenicism include De Concordia, On the War with the Turks, The Education of a Christian Prince, On Restoring the Concord of the Church, and The Complaint of Peace. Erasmus' ecclesiology of peacemaking held that the church authorities had a divine mandate to settle religious disputes,[note 10] in an as non-excluding way as possible, including by the preferably-minimal development of doctrine.
In the latter, Lady Peace insists on peace as the crux of Christian life and for understanding Christ:
I give you my peace, I leave you my peace" (John 14:27). You hear what he leaves his people? Not horses, bodyguards, empire or riches – none of these. What then? He gives peace, leaves peace – peace with friends, peace with enemies.
— The Complaint of Peace[18]
A historian has called him "The 16th Century's Pioneer of Peace Education and a Culture of Peace".[note 11]
Erasmus' emphasis on peacemaking reflects a typical pre-occupation of medieval lay spirituality as historian John Bossy (as summarized by Eamon Duffy) puts it: "medieval Christianity had been fundamentally concerned with the creation and maintenance of peace in a violent world. “Christianity” in medieval Europe denoted neither an ideology nor an institution, but a community of believers whose religious ideal—constantly aspired to if seldom attained—was peace and mutual love."[20]
War
[edit]Historians have written that "references to conflict run like a red thread through the writings of Erasmus."[21]: 34 Erasmus had experienced war as a child and was particularly concerned about wars between Christian kings, who should be brothers and not start wars; a theme in his book The Education of a Christian Prince. His Adages included "War is sweet to those who have never tasted it" (Dulce bellum inexpertis from Pindar's Greek.)[note 12]
He promoted and was present at the Field of Cloth of Gold,[23] and his wide-ranging correspondence frequently related to issues of peacemaking.[note 13] He saw a key role of the Church in peacemaking by arbitration[25] and mediation,[21]: 50 and the office of the Pope was necessary to rein in tyrannical princes and bishops.[26]: 195
He questioned the practical usefulness and abuses[note 14] of Just War theory, further limiting it to feasible defensive actions with popular support and that "war should never be undertaken unless, as a last resort, it cannot be avoided."[27] In his Adages he discusses (common translation) "A disadvantageous peace is better than a just war", which owes to Cicero and John Colet's "Better an unjust peace than the justest war."
Erasmus was extremely critical of the warlike way of important European princes of his era, including some princes of the church.[note 15] He described these princes as corrupt and greedy. Erasmus believed that these princes "collude in a game, of which the outcome is to exhaust and oppress the commonwealth".[28]: s1.7.4 He spoke more freely about this matter in letters sent to his friends like Thomas More, Beatus Rhenanus and Adrianus Barlandus: a particular target of his criticisms was the Emperor Maximilian I, whom Erasmus blamed for allegedly preventing the Netherlands from signing a peace treaty with Guelders[29] and other schemes to cause wars in order to extract money from his subjects.[note 16]
One of his approaches was to send, and publish, congratulatory and lionizing letters to princes who, though in a position of strength, negotiated peace with neighbours: such as to King Sigismund I the Old of Poland in 1527.[30]: 75
Erasmus "constantly and consistently" opposed the mooted idea of a Christian "universal monarch" with an over-extended empire, who could supposedly defeat the Ottoman forces: such universalism did not "hold any promise of generating less conflict than the existing political plurality;" instead, advocating concord between princes, both temporal and spiritual.[21]: 44, 45 The spiritual princes, by their arbitration and mediation do not "threaten political plurality, but acts as its defender."[21]: 50
Intra-Christian religious toleration
[edit]He referred to his irenical disposition in the Preface to On Free Will as a secret inclination of nature that would make him even prefer the views of the Sceptics over intolerant assertions, though he sharply distinguished adiaphora from what was uncontentiously explicit in the New Testament or absolutely mandated by Church teaching.[31] Concord demanded unity and assent: Erasmus was anti-sectarian[note 17] as well as non-sectarian.[32] To follow the law of love, our intellects must be humble and friendly when making any assertions: he called contention "earthly, beastly, demonic"[33]: 739 and a good-enough reason to reject a teacher or their followers. In Melanchthon's view, Erasmus taught charity not faith.[34]: 10
Certain works of Erasmus laid a foundation for religious toleration of private opinions and ecumenism. For example, in De libero arbitrio, opposing certain views of Martin Luther, Erasmus noted that religious disputants should be temperate in their language, "because in this way the truth, which is often lost amidst too much wrangling may be more surely perceived." Gary Remer writes, "Like Cicero, Erasmus concludes that truth is furthered by a more harmonious relationship between interlocutors."[35]
Erasmus' pacificism included a particular dislike for sedition, which caused warfare:
It was the duty of the leaders of this (reforming) movement, if Christ was their goal, to refrain not only from vice, but even from every appearance of evil; and to offer not the slightest stumbling block to the Gospel, studiously avoiding even practices which, although allowed, are yet not expedient. Above all they should have guarded against all sedition.
— Letter to Martin Bucer[36]
Erasmus had been involved in early attempts to protect Luther and his sympathisers from charges of heresy. Erasmus wrote Inquisitio de fide to limit what should be considered heresy to fractiously agitating against essential doctrines (e.g., those of the Creed), with malice and persistence. As with St Theodore the Studite,[37] Erasmus was against the death penalty merely for private or peaceable heresy, or for dissent on non-essentials: "It is better to cure a sick man than to kill him."[38] The Church has the duty to protect believers and convert or heal heretics; he invoked Jesus' parable of the wheat and tares.[2]: 200
Nevertheless, he allowed the death penalty against violent seditionists, to prevent bloodshed and war: he allowed that the state has the right to execute those who are a necessary danger to public order—whether heretic or orthodox—but noted (e.g., to fr:Noël Béda) that Augustine had been against the execution of even violent Donatists: Johannes Trapman states that Erasmus' endorsement of suppression of the Anabaptists springs from their refusal to heed magistrates and the criminal violence of the Münster rebellion not because of their heretical views on baptism.[39] Despite these concessions to state power, he suggested that religious persecution could still be challenged as inexpedient (ineffective).[40]
In a letter to Cardial Lorenzo Campeggio, Erasmus lobbied diplomatically for toleration: "If the sects could be tolerated under certain conditions (as the Bohemians pretend), it would, I admit, be a grievous misfortune, but one more endurable than war."[citation needed] But the same dedication to avoiding conflict and bloodshed should be shown by those tempted to join (anti-popist) sects:
"Perhaps evil rulers should sometimes be tolerated. We owe some respect to the memory of those whose places we think of them as occupying. Their titles have some claim on us. We should not seek to put matters right if there is a real possibility that the cure may prove worse than the disease."
— Erasmus, The Sileni of Alcibiades (1517)
Jews and Turks
[edit]The focus of most of his political writing was about peace within Christendom with almost a sole focus on Europe. In 1516, Erasmus wrote "it is the part of a Christian prince to regard no one as an outsider unless he is a nonbeliever, and even on them he should inflict no harm", which entails not attacking outsiders, not taking their riches, not subjecting them to political rule, no forced conversions, and keeping promises made to them.[21]: 50, 51
In his last decade, he involved himself in the public policy debate on war with the Ottoman Empire, which was then invading Western Europe, notably in his book On the war against the Turks (1530), as the "reckless and extravagant"[41] Pope Leo X promoted going on the offensive with a new crusade.[note 18] Erasmus re-worked Luther's rhetoric that the invading Turks represent God's judgment of decadent Christendom, but without Luther's fatalism: Erasmus not only accused Western leaders of kingdom-threatening hypocrisy, he proposed a remedy: anti-expansionist moral reforms by Europe's disunited leaders as a necessary unitive political step before any aggressive warfare against the Ottoman threat, reforms which might themselves, if sincere, prevent both the internecine and foreign warfare.[30]
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In common with his times,[42] Erasmus regarded the Jewish and Islamic religions as Christian heresies rather than separate religions, using the inclusive term half-Christian for the latter.[note 19] However, there is a wide range of scholarly opinion on the extent and nature of antisemitic and anti-Moslem prejudice in his writings: Erasmus scholar Shimon Markish wrote that the charge of antisemitism could not be sustained in Erasmus' public writings,[44] however historian Nathan Ron has found his writing to be harsh and racial in its implications, with contempt and hostility to Islam.[45] Biographer James Tracy points to the antisemitic edge in Erasmus' uncharacteristically vituperative comments against Johannes Pfefferkorn during the Reuchlin affair: Erasmus felt Pfefferkorn had personally attacked him.[note 20]
Erasmus claimed not to be personally xenophobic: "For I am of such a nature that I could love even a Jew, were he a pleasant companion and did not spew out blasphemy against Christ"[note 21] however Markish suggests that it is probable Erasmus never actually encountered a (practicing) Jew.[46][note 22]
Erasmus was not vehemently antisemitic in the way of the later post-Catholic Martin Luther; it was not a topic or theme of his public writing. In his Paraphrase on Romans, Erasmus voiced, as Paul, the "secret" that in the end times "all of the Israelites will be restored to salvation," and accept Christ as their Messiah, "although now part of them have fallen away from it."[47]
Erasmus' pervasive anti-ceremonialism treated the early Church debates on circumcision, food and special days as manifestations of a cultural chauvinism by the initial Jewish Christians in Antioch.[note 23] However his translation and publication of the complete works of John Chrysostom included the notorious sermons Adversus Judaeos which go further than deprecating re-judaizing tendencies but set the pattern for later Christian antisemitism by portraying Jews as collectively the murderers of Christ.
Unusually for a Christian theologian of any time, he perceived and championed strong Hellenistic rather than exclusively Hebraic influences on the intellectual milieux of Jesus, Paul, and the early church: "If only the Christian church did not attach so much importance to the Old Testament!"[note 24]
On the subject of slavery, Erasmus characteristically treated it in passing under the topic of tyranny: Christians were not allowed to be tyrants, which slave-owning required, but especially not to be the masters of other Christians.[49] Erasmus had various other piecemeal arguments against slavery: for example, that it was not legitimate to have slaves taken in an unjust war, but it was not a subject that occupied him.
Religious reform
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Personal reform
[edit]Erasmus expressed much of his reform program in terms of the proper attitude towards the sacraments, and their ramifications:[50] notably for the underappreciated sacraments of Baptism and Marriage (see On the Institution of Christian Marriage) considered as vocations more than events;[note 25] and for the mysterious Eucharist, pragmatic Confession, the dangerous Last Rites (writing On the Preparation for Death),[note 26] and the pastoral Holy Orders (see Ecclesiastes.)[52] Historians have noted that Erasmus commended the benefits of immersive, docile scripture-reading in sacramental terms.[note 27]
Sacraments
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A test of the Reformation was the doctrine of the sacraments, and the crux of this question was the observance of the Eucharist. Erasmus was concerned that the sacramentarians, headed by Œcolampadius of Basel, were claiming Erasmus held views similar to their own in order to try to claim him for their schismatic and "erroneous" movement. When the Mass was finally banned in Basel in 1529, Erasmus immediately abandoned the city, as did the other expelled Catholic clergy.
In 1530, Erasmus published a new edition of the orthodox treatise of Algerus against the heretic Berengar of Tours in the eleventh century. He added a dedication, affirming his belief in the reality of the Body of Christ after consecration in the Eucharist, commonly referred to as transubstantiation, though Erasmus found the scholastic formulation of transubstantiation to stretch language past its breaking point.[54]
By and large, the miraculous real change that interested Erasmus the author more than that of the bread is the transformation in the humble partaker.[55]: 211 Erasmus wrote several notable pastoral books or pamphlets on sacraments, always looking through rather than at the rituals or forms: on marriage and wise matches, preparation for confession and the need for pastoral encouragement, preparation for death and the need to assuage fear, training and helping the preaching duties of priests under bishops, baptism and the need for that faithful to own the baptismal vows made for them.
Catholic reform
[edit]Institutional reforms
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The Protestant Reformation began in the year following the publication of his pathbreaking edition of the New Testament in Latin and Greek (1516). The issues between the reforming and reactionary tendencies of the church, from which Protestantism later emerged, had become so clear that many intellectuals and churchmen could not escape the summons to join the debate.
According to historian C. Scott Dixon, Erasmus' not only criticized church failings but questioned many of his Church's basic teachings;[note 28] however, according to biographer Erika Rummel, "Erasmus was aiming at the correction of abuses rather than at doctrinal innovation or institutional change."[note 29]
In theologian Louis Bouyer's interpretation,[6] Erasmus' agenda was "to reform the Church from within by a renewal of biblical theology, based on philological study of the New Testament text, and supported by a knowledge of patristics, itself renewed by the same methods. The final object of it all was to nourish[...]chiefly moral and spiritual reform[...]"[note 30]
Erasmus, at the height of his literary fame, was called upon to take one side, but public partisanship was foreign to his beliefs, his nature and his habits. Despite all his criticism of clerical corruption and abuses within the Western Church,[note 31] especially at first he sided unambiguously with neither Luther nor the anti-Lutherans publicly (though in private he lobbied assiduously against extremism from both parties), but eventually shunned the breakaway Protestant Reformation movements along with their most radical offshoots.[58]
"I have constantly declared, in countless letters, booklets, and personal statements, that I do not want to be involved with either party."
— Erasmus, Spongia (1523)
The world had laughed at his satire, The Praise of Folly, but few had interfered with his activities. He believed that his work so far had commended itself to the best minds and also to the dominant powers in the religious world. Erasmus chose to write in Latin (and Greek), the languages of scholars. He did not build a large body of supporters in the unlettered; his critiques reached a small but elite audience.[59]
Anti-fraternalism
[edit]Reacting from his own experiences, Erasmus came to believe that monastic life and institutions no longer served the positive spiritual or social purpose they once may have:[60]: 669 in the Enchiridion he controversially put it "Monkishness is not piety."[note 32] At this time, it was better to live as "a monk in the world" than in the monastery.[note 33]
Many of his works contain diatribes against supposed monastic corruption and careerism, and particularly against the mendicant friars (Franciscans and Dominicans): these orders also typically ran the university Scholastic theology programs and from whose ranks came his most dangerous enemies. The more some attacked him, the more offensive he became about their influence.
Alastor, an evil spirit: "They are a certain Sort of Animals in black and white Vestments, Ash-colour'd Coats, and various other Dresses, that are always hovering about the Courts of Princes, and [to each side] are continually instilling into their Ears the Love of War, and exhorting the Nobility and common People to it, haranguing them in their Sermons, that it is a just, holy and religious War.[...]"
Charon: "[...]What do they get out of it?"
Alastor: "Because they get more by those that die, than those that live. There are last Wills and Testaments, Funeral Obsequies, Bulls, and a great many other Articles of no despicable Profit. And in the last Place, they had rather live in a Camp, than in their Cells. War breeds a great many Bishops, who were not thought good for any Thing in a Time of Peace."
— Erasmus, "Charon", Colloquies
He was scandalized by superstitions, such as that if you were buried in a Franciscan habit you would go direct to heaven.[note 34] crime[63] and child novices. He advocated various reforms, including a ban on taking orders until the 30th year, the closure of corrupt and smaller monasteries, respect for bishops, requiring work not begging (reflecting the practice of his own order of Augustinian Canons,) the downplaying of monastic hours, fasts and ceremonies, and a less mendacious approach to gullible pilgrims and tenants.
However, he was not in favour of speedy closures of monasteries nor of larger reformed monasteries with important libraries: in his account of his pilgrimage to Walsingham, he noted that the funds extracted from pilgrims typically supported houses for the poor and elderly.[64]
These ideas widely influenced his generation of humanists, both Catholic and Protestant,[65]: 152 and the lurid hyperbolic attacks in his half-satire The Praise of Folly were later treated by Protestants as objective reports of near-universal corruption. Furthermore, "what is said over a glass of wine, ought not to be remembered and written down as a serious statement of belief," such as his proposal to marry all monks to all nuns or to send them all away to fight the Turks and colonize new islands.[26]
He believed the only vow necessary for Christians should be the vow of Baptism, and others such as the vows of the evangelical counsels, while admirable in intent and content, were now mainly counter-productive.
His main Catholic opposition, during had been from scholars in the mendicant orders, and after his lifetime scholars of mendicant orders have disputed Erasmus as hyperbolic and ill-informed. He purported that "Saint Francis came lately to me in a dream and thanked me for chastising them."[66] A 20th century Benedictine scholar wrote of him as "all sail and no rudder."[67]: 357 Erasmus did also have significant support and contact with reform-minded friars, including Franciscans such as Jean Vitrier and Cardinal Cisneros, and Dominicans such as Cardinal Cajetan the former Master of the Order of Preachers.
Protestant reform
[edit]The early reformers built their theology on Erasmus' philological analyses of specific verses in the New Testament: repentance over penance (the basis of the first thesis of the Luther's 95 Theses), justification by imputation, grace as favour or clemency, faith as hoping trust,[68] human transformation over reformation, congregation over church, mystery over sacrament, etc. In Erasmus' view, they went too far, downplayed Sacred Tradition such as Patristic interpretations, and irresponsibly fomented bloodshed.
Increasing disagreement with Luther
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Erasmus and Luther impacted each other greatly. Each had misgivings about each other from the beginning (Erasmus on Luther's rash and antagonistic character, Luther on Erasmus' focus on morality rather than grace) but strategically agreed not to be negative about the other in public.
Noting Luther's criticisms of corruption in the Church, Erasmus described Luther to Pope Leo X as "a mighty trumpet of gospel truth" while agreeing, "It is clear that many of the reforms for which Luther calls" (e.g., the sale of indulgences) "are urgently needed."[69] However, behind the scenes Erasmus forbade his publisher Froben from handling the works of Luther[70]: 64 and tried to keep the reform movement focused on institutional rather than theological issues, yet he also privately wrote to authorities to prevent Luther's persecution. In the words of one historian, "at this earlier period he was more concerned with the fate of Luther than his theology."[71]
In 1520, Erasmus wrote that "Luther ought to be answered and not crushed."[72] However, the publication of Luther's On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church (Oct 1520)[73] and subsequent bellicosity drained Erasmus' and many humanists' sympathy, even more as Christians became partisans and the partisans took to violence.
Luther hoped for his cooperation in a work which seemed only the natural outcome of Erasmus' own,[note 35] and spoke with admiration of Erasmus's superior learning. In their early correspondence, Luther expressed boundless admiration for all Erasmus had done in the cause of a sound and reasonable Christianity and urged him to join the Lutheran party. Erasmus declined to commit himself, arguing his usual "small target" excuse, that to do so would endanger the cause of bonae litterae[note 36][75] which he regarded as one of his purposes in life. Only as an independent scholar could he hope to influence the reform of religion. When Erasmus declined to support him, the "straightforward" Luther became angered that Erasmus was avoiding the responsibility due either to cowardice or a lack of purpose.
However, any hesitancy on the part of Erasmus may have stemmed, not from lack of courage or conviction, but rather from a concern over the mounting disorder and violence of the reform movement. To Philip Melanchthon in 1524 he wrote:
I know nothing of your church; at the very least it contains people who will, I fear, overturn the whole system and drive the princes into using force to restrain good men and bad alike. The gospel, the word of God, faith, Christ, and Holy Spirit – these words are always on their lips; look at their lives and they speak quite another language.[76]
Catholic theologian George Chantraine notes that, where Luther quotes Luke 11:21 "He that is not with me is against me", Erasmus takes Mark 9:40 "For he that is not against us, is on our part."[77]: 86
Though he sought to remain accommodative in doctrinal disputes, each side accused him of siding with the other, perhaps because of his perceived influence and what they regarded as his dissembling neutrality,[note 37] which he regarded as peacemaking accommodation:
I detest dissension because it goes both against the teachings of Christ and against a secret inclination of nature. I doubt that either side in the dispute can be suppressed without grave loss.
— "On Free Will"[69]
Dispute on free will
[edit]By 1523, and first suggested in a letter from Henry VIII, Erasmus had been convinced that Luther's ideas on necessity/free will were a subject of core disagreement deserving a public airing, and strategized with friends and correspondents[78] on how to respond with proper moderation[79] without making the situation worse for all, especially for the humanist reform agenda. He eventually chose a campaign that involved an irenical 'dialogue' "The Inquisition of Faith", a positive, evangelical model sermon "On the Measureless Mercy of God", and a gently critical 'diatribe' "On Free Will."
The publication of his brief book On Free Will initiated what has been called "The greatest debate of that era" [80] which still has ramifications today.[81] They bypassed discussion on reforms which they both agreed on in general, and instead dealt with authority and biblical justifications of synergism versus monergism in relation to salvation.
Luther responded with On the Bondage of the Will (De servo arbitrio) (1525).
Erasmus replied to this in his lengthy two volume Hyperaspistes and other works, which Luther ignored. Apart from the perceived moral failings among followers of the Reformers—an important sign for Erasmus—he also dreaded any change in doctrine, citing the long history of the Church as a bulwark against innovation. He put the matter bluntly to Luther:
We are dealing with this: Would a stable mind depart from the opinion handed down by so many men famous for holiness and miracles, depart from the decisions of the Church, and commit our souls to the faith of someone like you who has sprung up just now with a few followers, although the leading men of your flock do not agree either with you or among themselves – indeed though you do not even agree with yourself, since in this same Assertion[82] you say one thing in the beginning and something else later on, recanting what you said before.
— Hyperaspistes I[83]
Continuing his chastisement of Luther – and undoubtedly put off by the notion of there being "no pure interpretation of Scripture anywhere but in Wittenberg"[84] – Erasmus touches upon another important point of the controversy:
You stipulate that we should not ask for or accept anything but Holy Scripture, but you do it in such a way as to require that we permit you to be its sole interpreter, renouncing all others. Thus the victory will be yours if we allow you to be not the steward but the lord of Holy Scripture.
— Hyperaspistes, Book I[85]
"False evangelicals"
[edit]In 1529, Erasmus wrote "An epistle against those who falsely boast they are Evangelicals" to Gerardus Geldenhouwer (former Bishop of Utrecht, also schooled at Deventer.)
You declaim bitterly against the luxury of priests, the ambition of bishops, the tyranny of the Roman Pontiff, and the babbling of the sophists; against our prayers, fasts, and Masses; and you are not content to retrench the abuses that may be in these things, but must needs abolish them entirely. ...[86]
Here Erasmus complains of the doctrines and morals of the Reformers, applying the same critique he had made about public Scholastic disputations:
Look around on this 'Evangelical' generation,[87] and observe whether amongst them less indulgence is given to luxury, lust, or avarice, than amongst those whom you so detest. Show me any one person who by that Gospel has been reclaimed from drunkenness to sobriety, from fury and passion to meekness, from avarice to liberality, from reviling to well-speaking, from wantonness to modesty. I will show you a great many who have become worse through following it. [...]The solemn prayers of the Church are abolished, but now there are very many who never pray at all. [...]
I have never entered their conventicles, but I have sometimes seen them returning from their sermons, the countenances of all of them displaying rage, and wonderful ferocity, as though they were animated by the evil spirit. [...]
Who ever beheld in their meetings any one of them shedding tears, smiting his breast, or grieving for his sins? [...]Confession to the priest is abolished, but very few now confess to God. [...]They have fled from Judaism that they may become Epicureans.— Epistola contra quosdam qui se falso iactant evangelicos.[88]
Other
[edit]Erasmus wrote books against aspects of the teaching, impacts or threats of several other Reformers:[89]
- Ulrich von Hutten Spongia adversus aspergines Hutteni (1523) see below
- Martin Bucer Responsio ad fratres Inferioris Germaniae ad epistolam apologeticam incerto autoreproditam (1530)
- Heinrich Eppendorf Admonitio adversus mendacium et obstrectationem (1530)
However, Erasmus maintained friendly relations with other Protestants, notably the irenic Melanchthon and Albrecht Duerer.
A common accusation, supposedly started by antagonistic monk-theologians,[note 38] made Erasmus responsible for Martin Luther and the Reformation: "Erasmus laid the egg, and Luther hatched it." Erasmus wittily dismissed the charge, claiming that Luther had "hatched a different bird entirely."[91] Erasmus-reader Peter Canisius commented: "Certainly there was no lack of eggs for Luther to hatch."[92][note 39]
Philosophy and Erasmus
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Erasmus has a problematic standing in the history of philosophy: whether he should be called a philosopher at all,[note 40] (as, indeed, some question whether he should be considered a theologian either.[2]: 205 ) Erasmus deemed himself to be a rhetorician or grammarian rather than a philosopher.[93]: 66 He was particularly influenced by satirist and rhetorician Lucian.[note 41] Erasmus' writings shifted "an intellectual culture from logical disputation about things to quarrels about texts, contexts, and words."[90]
Classical
[edit]Erasmus syncretistically took phrases, ideas and motifs from many classical philosophers to furnish discussions of Christian themes:[note 42] academics have identified aspects of his thought as variously Platonist (duality),[note 43] Cynical (asceticism),[95] [96] Stoic (adiaphora),[97] Epicurean (ataraxia,[note 44] pleasure as virtue),[98] realist/non-voluntarist,[99] and Isocratic (rhetoric, political education, syncretism.)[100]: 19 However, his Christianized version of Epicureanism is regarded as his own.[101]
Erasmus was sympathetic to a kind of epistemological (Ciceronian[102] not Cartesian)[103]: 50 Scepticism:[note 45]
A Sceptic is not someone who doesn't care to know what is true or false…but rather someone who does not make a final decision easily or fight to the death for his own opinion, but rather accepts as probable what someone else accepts as certain…I explicitly exclude from Scepticism whatever is set forth in Sacred Scripture or whatever has been handed down to us by the authority of the Church.
— Erasmus[105]
Historian Kirk Essary has noted that from his earliest to last works Erasmus "regularly denounced the Stoics as specifically unchristian in their hardline position and advocacy of apatheia": warm affection and an appropriately fiery heart being inalienable parts of human sincerity;[106]: 17 however historian Ross Dealy sees Erasmus' decrial of other non-gentle "perverse affections" as having Stoical roots.[97]
Erasmus wrote in terms of a tri-partite nature of man, with the soul the seat of free will:
The body is purely material; the spirit is purely divine; the soul…is tossed back and forwards between the two according to whether it resists or gives way to the temptations of the flesh. The spirit makes us gods; the body makes us beasts; the soul makes us men.
— Erasmus[107]
According to theologian George van Kooten, Erasmus was the first modern scholar "to note the similarities between Plato's Symposium and John's Gospel", first in the Enchiridion then in the Adagia, pre-dating other scholarly interest by 400 years.[108][citation needed]
Anti-scholasticism
[edit]Erasmus did not have a metaphysical bone in his frail body, and had no real feeling for the philosophical concerns of scholastic theology.
— Lewis W Spitz[109]: 70
He eschewed metaphysical, epistemological and logical philosophy as found in Aristotle,[note 46] in particular the curriculum and systematic methods of the post-Aquinas Schoolmen (Scholastics)[note 47] and their frigid, counter-productive Aristoteleanism: "What has Aristotle to do with Christ?"[111]
"They can deal with any text of scripture as with a nose of wax, and knead it into what shape best suits their interest."
Erasmus held that academics must avoid philosophical factionalism, in order to "make the whole world Christian."[113]: 851 Indeed, Erasmus thought that Scholastic philosophy actually distracted participants from their proper focus on immediate morality,[note 48][note 49] unless used moderately.[note 50] And, by "excluding the Platonists from their commentaries, they strangle the beauty of revelation."[note 51] "They are windbags blown up with Aristotle, sausages stuffed with a mass of theoretical definitions, conclusions, and propositions."[115]
Philosophia Christi
[edit](Not to be confused with his Italian contemporary Chrysostom Javelli's Philosophia Christiana.)
Erasmus approached classical philosophers theologically and rhetorically: their value was in how they pre-saged, explained or amplified the unique teachings of Christ (particularly the Sermon on the Mount[2]: 117 ): the philosophia Christi.[note 52][note 53] "A great part of the teaching of Christ is to be found in some of the philosophers, particularly Socrates, Diogenes and Epictetus. But Christ taught it much more fully, and exemplified it better..." (Paraclesis) In fact, Christ was "the very father of philosophy" (Anti-Barbieri.)[note 54]
In works such as his Enchiridion, The Education of a Christian Prince and the Colloquies, Erasmus developed his idea of the philosophia Christi, a life lived according to the teachings of Jesus taken as a spiritual-ethical-social-political-legal[116] philosophy:[note 55]
Christ the heavenly teacher has founded a new people on earth,…Having eyes without guile, these folk know no spite or envy; having freely castrated themselves, and aiming at a life of angels while in the flesh, they know no unchaste lust; they know not divorce, since there is no evil they will not endure or turn to the good; they have not the use of oaths, since they neither distrust nor deceive anyone; they know not the hunger for money, since their treasure is in heaven, nor do they itch for empty glory, since they refer all things to the glory of Christ.…these are the new teachings of our founder, such as no school of philosophy has ever brought forth.
— Erasmus, Method of True Theology
In philosopher Étienne Gilson's summary: "the quite precise goal he pursues is to reject Greek philosophy outside of Christianity, into which the Middle Ages introduced Greek philosophy with the risk of corrupting this Christian Wisdom."[118]
Useful "philosophy" needed to be limited to (or re-defined as) the practical and moral:
You must realize that 'philosopher' does not mean someone who is clever at dialectics or science but someone who rejects illusory appearance and undauntedly seeks out and follows what is true and good. Being a philosopher is in practice the same as being a Christian; only the terminology is different."
— Erasmus, Anti-Barbieri
Theology of Erasmus
[edit]Three key distinctive features of the spirituality Erasmus proposed are accommodation, inverbation, and scopus christi. [note 56]
In the view of literary historian Chester Chapin, Erasmus' tendency of thought was "towards cautious dulcification of the traditional [Catholic] view."[note 57]
Accommodation
[edit]Historian Manfred Hoffmann has described accommodation as "the single most important concept in Erasmus' hermeneutic." [note 58]
For Erasmus, accommodation is a universal concept: humans must accommodate each other, must accommodate the church and vice versa, and must take as their model how Christ accommodated the disciples in his interactions with them, and accommodated humans in his incarnation; which in turn merely reflects the eternal mutual accommodation within the Trinity. And the primary mechanism of accommodation is language,[note 59]: 6 which mediates between reality and abstraction, which allows disputes of all kinds to be resolved and the gospel to be transmitted:[121] in his New Testament, Erasmus notably translated the Greek logos in John 1:1 "In the beginning was the Word" more like "In the beginning was Speech:[122] using Latin sermo (discourse, conversation, language) not verbum (word) emphasizing the dynamic and interpersonal communication rather than static principle: "Christ incarnate as the eloquent oration of God":[43] "He is called Speech [sermo], because through him God, who in his own nature cannot be comprehended by any reasoning, wished to become known to us."[103]: 45
The role models of accommodation[note 60] were Paul,[note 61] that "chameleon"[124]: 385 (or "slippery squid"[125]) and Christ, who was "more mutable than Proteus himself."[124]: 386
Following Paul, Quintillian (apte diecere) and Gregory the Great's Pastoral Care, Erasmus wrote that the orator, preacher or teacher must "adapt their discourse to the characteristics of their audience"; this made pastoral care the "art of arts."[123]: 64 Erasmus wrote that most of his original works, from satires to paraphrases, were essentially the same themes packaged for different audiences.
In this light, Erasmus' ability to have friendly correspondence with both Thomas More and Thomas Bolyn,[126] and with both Philip Melanchthon and Pope Adrian VI, can be seen as outworkings of his theology, rather than slippery insincerity[note 4] or flattery of potential patrons. Similarly, it shows the theological basis of his pacificism, and his view of ecclesiastical authorities—from priests like himself to Church Councils—as necessary mediating peace-brokers.
Inverbation
[edit]For Erasmus, further to accommodating humans in his Incarnation, Christ accommodated humans by a kind of inverbation:[note 62] being captured in the Gospels in a way that one can know him better by reading him (in the awareness of the resurrection) than those who actually heard him speak;[note 63] this will or may transform us.[note 64]
Since the Gospels become in effect like sacraments,[127][note 65] for Erasmus reading them becomes a form of prayer[note 27] which is spoiled by taking single sentences in isolation and using them as syllogisms.[note 66] Instead, learning to understand the context, genres and literary expression in the New Testament becomes a spiritual more than academic exercise.[121] Erasmus' has been called rhetorical theology (theologia rhetorica.)[56]: 32
Scopus christi
[edit]Scopus is the unifying reference point, the navigation goal, or the organizing principle of topics.[note 67] According to his assistant-turned-foe, Œcolampadius, Erasmus's rule was "nihil in sacris literis praeter Christum quaerendum" ("nothing is to be sought in the sacred letters but Christ".)[130]: 269
In Hoffmann's words, for Erasmus "Christ is the scopus of everything": "the focus in which both dimensions of reality, the human and the divine, intersect" and so He himself is the hermeneutical principle of scripture": "the middle is the medium, the medium is the mediator, the mediator is the reconciler."[121]: 9 In Erasmus' early Enchiridion[note 68]: 82 he had given this scopus in typical medieval terms of an ascent of being to God (vertical), but from the mid-1510s life he moved to an analogy of Copernican planetary circling around Christ the centre (horizontal) or Columbian navigation towards a destination.[2]: 135
What Erasmus contributes to discussions of the divinity of Christ is a counsel of restraint in metaphysical speculation, an accent on the revelatory breadth of the eternal Word of God, and an invitation to think of Christ incarnate as the eloquent oration of God. But the central impulse of the Christology of Erasmus is the affirmation of the full incarnation of Christ in human existence, abstaining as much as possible from docetic insulation of the divine from the struggles of human experience, in order to highlight the redemptive capacity of Christ for the transformation of human life. With that, the ethical capstone of Erasmus’ reflections on Christ centers on the responsibility to imitate Christ’s love for others, and thus for advancing the cause of peace in personal and social life.
One effect is that scriptural interpretation must be done starting with the teachings and interactions of Jesus in the Gospels,[131]: 78 with the Sermon on the Mount serving as the starting point,[note 69][33] and arguably with the Beatitudes and the Lord's Prayer at the head of the queue.[citation needed] This privileges peacemaking, mercy, meekness,[note 70] purity of heart, hungering after righteousness, poverty of spirit, etc. as the unassailable core of Christianity and piety and true theology.[note 71]
The Sermon on the Mount provides the axioms on which every legitimate theology must be built, as well as the ethics governing theological discourse, and the rules for validating theological products; Erasmus' philosophia christi treats the primary and initial teaching of Jesus in the first Gospel as a theological methodology.[note 72]
For example, "peacemaking" is a possible topic in any Christian theology; but for Erasmus, from the Beatitude, it must be a starting-, reference- and ending-point when discussing all other theological notions, such as church authority, the Trinity, etc. Moreover, Christian theology must only be done in a peacemaking fashion for peacemaking purposes; and any theology that promotes division and warmongering is thereby anti-Christian. [note 73]
Mystical theology
[edit]Another important concept to Erasmus was "the Folly of the Cross"[2]: 119 (which The Praise of Folly explored):[note 74] the view that Truth belongs to the exuberant, perhaps ecstatic,[2]: 140 world of what is foolish, strange, unexpected[134] and even superficially repellent to us, rather than to the frigid worlds which intricate scholastic dialectical and syllogistic philosophical argument all too often generated;[note 75] this produced in Erasmus a profound disinterest in hyper-rationality,[note 76] and an emphasis on verbal, rhetorical, mystical, pastoral and personal/political moral concerns instead.
Theological writings
[edit]Several scholars have suggested Erasmus wrote as an evangelist not an academic theologian.[note 77] Even "theology was to be metamorphic speech, converting persons to Christ."[103]: 49 Historian William McCuaig commented "I have never read a work by him on any subject that was not at bottom a piece of evangelical literature."[136]
We may distinguish four different lines of work, parallel with each other, and complementary. First, the establishing and critical elucidation of the biblical texts; alongside it, the editions of the great patristic commentators; then, the exegetical works properly so called, in which these two fundamental researches yield their fruit; and finally, the methodological works, which in their first state constitute a sort of preface to the various other studies, but which—in return—were nourished and enlarged by them as they went along.
— Louis Bouyer[6]: 498
Apart from these programmatic works, Erasmus also produce a number of prayers, sermons, essays, masses and poems for specific benefactors and occasions, often on topics where Erasmus and his benefactor agreed.
He often set himself the challenge of formulating positive, moderate, non-superstitious versions of contemporary Catholic practices that might be more acceptable both to scandalized Catholics and Protestants of good will: the better attitudes to the sacraments, saints, Mary, indulgences, statues, scriptural ignorance and fanciful Biblical interpretation, prayer, dietary fasts, external ceremonialism, authority, vows, docility, submission to Rome, etc. For example, in his Paean in Honour of the Virgin Mary (1503) Erasmus elaborated his theme that the Incarnation had been hinted far and wide, which could impact the theology of the fate of the remote unbaptized and grace, and the place of classical philosophy:[137]
"You are assuredly the Woman of renown: both heaven and earth and the succession of all the ages uniquely join to celebrate your praise in a musical concord. [...]
During the centuries of the previous age the oracles of the gentiles spoke of you in obscure riddles. Egyptian prophecies, Apollo’s tripod, the Sibylline books, gave hints of you. The mouths of learned poets predicted your coming in oracles they did not understand. [...]
Both the Old and the New Testament, like two cherubim with wings joined and unanimous voices, repeatedly sing your praise. [...]
Thus indeed have writers religiously vied to proclaim you, on the one hand inspired prophets, on the other eloquent Doctors of the church, both filled with the same spirit, as the former foretold your coming in joyful oracles before your birth and the latter heaped prayerful praise on you when you appeared."
— Erasmus, Paean in Honour of the Virgin Mary (1503)[137]
Legacy and evaluations
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Since the origin of Christianity there have been perhaps only two other men—St Augustine and Voltaire—whose influence can be paralleled with Erasmus.
— W.S. Lily, Renaissance Types[138]
Historian Lewis Spitz identifies four views of Erasmus' character and project:
- "a man of weak character whose timidity and weak will kept him from the consequences of his own premises;"
- "a devotee of reason who followed this natural light through storm and stress to the very end;"
- "as the forerunner of Luther, the John the Baptist of the evangelical revival;" or
- "a man with his own positive reform program, in part critical, for the most part constructive."[109]: 26
Erasmus's reputation and the interpretations of his work have varied over time. Moderate Catholics recognized him as a leading figure in attempts to reform the Church, while Protestants recognized his initial support for (and, in part, inspiration of) Luther's ideas and the groundwork he laid for the future Reformation, especially in biblical scholarship. However, at times he has been viciously criticized, his works suppressed, his expertise corralled, his writings misinterpreted, his thought demonized, and his legacy marginalized.
Erasmus was given the sobriquet "Prince of the Humanists", and has been called "the crowning glory of the Christian humanists".[139] He has also been called "the most illustrious rhetorician and educationalist of the Renaissance".[107]
No man before or since acquired such undisputed sovereignty in the republic of letters[...] The reform which he set in motion went beyond him, and left him behind. In some of his opinions, however, he was ahead of his age, and anticipated a more modern stage of Protestantism. He was as much a forerunner of Rationalism as of the Reformation.
— 71. Erasmus, History of the Christian Church, vol 7, Philip Schaff
French biographer Désiré Nisard characterized him as a lens or focal point: "the whole of the Renaissance in Western Europe in the sixteenth century converged towards him."[107][note 78] However,according to historian Erika Rummel, "Erasmus' role in the dissemination of ideas is therefore less that of a forerunner of the Reformation than that of a synthesizer of many of the currents of thought that fed into the Reformation."[141]: 86
Erasmianism
[edit]
Erasmians: Erasmus frequently mentioned that he did not want office[142] nor to be the founder or figurehead of a sect or movement, despite his vigorous branding and self-promotion.[143] Nevertheless, historians do identify de facto "Erasmians" (ranging from the early Jesuits[note 79] to the early reformers,[144] and both Thomas More and William Tyndale)—Christian humanists who picked up on some or other aspects of Erasmus' agenda.[note 80]
Erasmianism: This has been described as a "more intellectual form of spiritualized Christianity"[146] that is "an undercurrent of religious thought between Catholicism and Lutheranism."[147] It had a notable influence in Spain.[148] : 39 The near election of Reginald Pole as pope in 1546 has been attributed to Erasmianism in the electors.[149] However, a precise definition is not possible;[note 81] it is not, for example, a set of systematic doctrinal propositions.
French historian Jean-Claude Margolin has noted an Erasmian stream in French culture putting "the concrete before the abstract and the ethical before the speculative", though not without noting that it is not clear whether Erasmus influenced the French or vice versa.[2]: 213
Historian W. R. Ward notes that "the direst enemies of theosophy were always Erasmian Catholics and Calvinist Protestants who were trying to get the magic out of Christianity."[150]
Erasmian Reformation: Some historians such as Edward Gibbon and Hugh Trevor-Roper have even claimed an "'Erasmianism after Erasmus,' a secret stream which meandered to and fro across the Catholic/Protestant divide, creating oases of rational thought impartially on either side." For some, this amounted to a third church: or even that "Luther's and Calvin's Reformations were minor affairs" compared to the Reformation of Erasmus and the humanists' which swept away the Middle Ages.[2]: 149
Erasmian liberalism: This has had an enduring run: described by philosopher Edwin Curley[151] that "the spirit of Erasmian liberalism was to emphasize the ethical aspects of Christianity at the expense of the doctrinal, to suspend judgment on many theological issues, and to insist that the faith actually required for salvation was a simple and uncontroversial one."[152]
Erasmus has frequently been described as "proto-liberal"[28]: s.3.12 (both, e.g., in the UK "Lloyd George" sense of liberalism as a form of conservatism that wants moderate but real reform to prevent immoderate and destructive revolution, or the ethical sense of socio-economic Socinianism[153]: 70 )
Protestant historian Roland Bainton is quoted "no-one did more than Erasmus to break down the theory and practice of the medieval variety of intolerance."[152]: 4 Other popular or scholarly writers have suggested that Erasmus' tolerant but idealistic agenda failed,[154][155] certainly at the political level, evidenced by the wars and persecutions of the Protestant Reformation.
Erasmus was also notable for exposing several important historical documents as forgeries or misattributions: including pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, the Gravi de pugna attributed to St Augustine, the Ad Herennium attributed to Cicero, and (by reprinting Lorenzo Valla's work)[156] the Donation of Constantine.
Educationalist
[edit]Erasmus has been variously called an "educator of educators", a "teacher of teachers" and a "professor of professors", but also a "pastor of pastors."[123]: 60
Erasmus is the greatest man we come across in the history of education! (R.R. Bolger) … with greater confidence it can be claimed that Erasmus is the greatest man we come across in the history of education in the sixteenth century. …It may also be claimed that Erasmus was one of the most important champions of women's rights in his century.
— J.K. Sowards [157]
Erasmus was notable for his textbooks, his sense of learning as play, his emphasis on speech skills and promoting early classical-language acquisition).[158]: 15
According to scholar Gerald J. Luhrman, "the system of secondary education, as developed in a number of European countries, is inconceivable without the efforts of humanist educationalists, particularly Erasmus. His ideas in the field of language acquisition were systematized and realized to a large extent in the schools founded by the Jesuits..."[159][note 82] Historian Brian Cummings wrote "for a hundred years Erasmus commanded the curriculum."[161] In the 1540s, Ursulines founded schools in Rezatto, Brescia, "inspired by Erasmus's pedagogical programme..." [note 83]
His system of pronouncing ancient Greek was adopted for teaching in the major Western European nations.
In England, he wrote the first curriculum for St Paul's School and his Latin grammar (written with Lily and Colet) "continued to be used, in adapted form, into the Twentieth Century."[163] Erasmus' curriculum, grammar, pronunciation and de Copia were adopted by the other major grammar schools: Eton, Westminster, Winchester, Canterbury, etc. and the universities[158]: 16, 17
Erasmus "tried to realize a practical goal: a modern education as preparation for administrators from the higher estates."[116]
Erasmus was a key part of the humanist program to get Greek and Hebrew taught at the major Universities, inspired by Cardinal Cisneros' Trilingual College of San Ildefonso/Alcalá (1499/1509) and Bishop John Fisher's establishment of Greek and Hebrew lectures at Cambridge: the Trilingual Colleges at Louvain (1517) and Paris (1530) (where students included Loyola and Calvin)[164] spawned programs in Zurich, Rome, Strasbourg and Oxford (c.1566).[165] He has been described as "an unsuspected superspreader of New Ancient Greek."[note 84]
Historian and Germanist Fritz Caspari saw education as the core of Erasmus' program:
"Erasmus hoped that the education of all individuals, especially of princes and nobles, in the spirit and disciplines of antiquity and Christianity would bring the rational element in them to full fruition. Ratio, reason, was in his mind almost synonymous with "goodness" and "kindness." The rule of reason, achieved through education,would therefore result in men's living together in universal peace and harmony in accord with the lessons of Christ's Sermon on the Mount."
— Frtz Caspari (1941)[104]
Writer
[edit]The popularity of his books is reflected in the number of editions and translations that have appeared since the sixteenth century. Ten columns of the catalogue of the British Library are taken up with the enumeration of the works and their subsequent reprints. The greatest names of the classical and patristic world are among those translated, edited, or annotated by Erasmus, including Ambrose, Aristotle, Augustine,[167] Basil, John Chrysostom, Cicero and Jerome.[168]
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In the Netherlands
[edit]In his native Rotterdam, the Erasmus University Rotterdam, Erasmus Bridge, Erasmus MC and Gymnasium Erasmianum have been named in his honor. Between 1997 and 2009, one of the main metro lines of the city was named Erasmuslijn. The Foundation Erasmus House (Rotterdam),[169] is dedicated to celebrating Erasmus's legacy. Three moments in Erasmus's life are celebrated annually. On 1 April, the city celebrates the publication of his best-known book The Praise of Folly. On 11 July, the Night of Erasmus celebrates the lasting influence of his work. His birthday is celebrated on 28 October.[170]
In Spain
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Erasmus became extraordinarily popular and influential in Spain, including in and around the talent pool (often from converso families) that formed the early Jesuits. There were at least 120 translations, editions, or adaptations of Erasmus' writings between 1520 and 1552,[171] though not The Praise of Folly.
However, Erasmians and their associates faced, at times, extraordinary pushback from the theologians at Salamanca and Vallodolid, for being associated with the alumbrado and illuminist tendencies, with many (notably Ignatius of Loyola, who had lived in the house of publisher Miguel de Eguía at the time the Spanish edition of the Enchiridion was being published)[172]: 175 [note 85] resorting to exile rather than facing the Inquisition, house arrest, imprisonment or worse. However, at times the heads of the Inquisition were themselves Erasmians.
Erasmus faced a notable semi-secret trial in Vallodolid in 1527, attended by numerous bishops, abbots and theologians. Its records still exist. It disbanded without condemning Erasmus as a heretic, as most of his contentious beliefs were regarded as respectable or useful by at least some important bishops, and the fanciful interpretations of the accusers did not stand up to scrutiny.[174]
From the 1530s, historians note the start of a widespread disenchantment with Eradmus' approach: however his ideas and works were still circulating enough that even fifty years later Miguel Cervantes' "Erasmianism" may not have come from him having read any Erasmus directly.[175]: 37, 38
In Poland
[edit]According to historian Howard Louthan "Few regions embraced Erasmus as enthusiastically as Poland, and nowhere else did he have such a concentration of allies positioned at the highest levels of society including the king himself." [note 86]
In England
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Erasmus influenced Catholic and Protestant humanists alike.
Historian Lucy Wooding argues (in Christopher Haigh's paraphrases) that "England nearly had a Catholic Reformation along Erasmian lines –but it was cut short by (Queen) Mary's death and finally torpedoed by the Council of Trent."[note 87] The initial Henrican closure of smaller monasteries followed the Erasmian agenda, which was also shared by Catholic humanists such as Reginald Pole;[65]: 155 however the later violent closures and iconoclasm were far from Erasmus' program.
After reading Erasmus' 1516 New Testament, Thomas Bilney "felt a marvellous comfort and quietness," and won over his Cambridge friends, future notable bishops, Matthew Parker and Hugh Latimer to reformist biblicism.[177]
Both Lutheran Tyndale and his Catholic theological opponent Thomas More are considered Erasmians.[178]: 16 One of William Tyndale's earliest works was his translation of Erasmus' Enchiridion (1522,1533).[179] Following their deaths in 1536, Tyndale's English New Testament and anti-Catholic Preface was often printed (sometimes omitting Tyndale's name) in diglot editions paired with Erasmus' Latin translation and either his Paraclecis or his Preface to the Paraphrase of St Matthew.[145]: 156–168
In the reign of Edward VI, English translations of Erasmus' Paraphrases of the four Gospels[180] were legally required to be chained for public access in every church. Furthermore, all priests below a certain scholastic level were required to have their own copy of the complete Paraphrases of the New Testament.[note 88] This injunction was to an extent frustrated by delays in printing, but it is estimated that as many as 20,000 to 30,000 copies may have been printed between 1548 and 1553.[181]: 361
Erasmus' grammar, Adages, Copia, and other books continued as the core Latin educational material in England for the following centuries. His works and editions (in translation) are regularly connected with William Shakespeare, to Shakespeare's education, inspirations and sources (such as the shipwreck scene in The Tempest.)[182][183][184] The poet-rhetorician martyr Edmund Campion was educated at St Paul's School using Erasmus' textbooks and Latin curriculum.[158]: 15 Daniel Defoe, author of Robinson Crusoe, mentioned he first read of the shipwreck of Aristippus in the English translation of Erasmus' Apophthegmata.[185] Scholars have noted Erasmus' influence on Jonathan Swift, particular that The Praise of Folly seems to have been the literary inspiration for A Tale of a Tub.[186]
Historian of literature Cathy Schrank has written that Erasmus' reputation and status changed over the course of the English "Long Reformation" from "being presented as a proto-Reformer, to problematically orthodox, to irenic martyr."[note 89] For some Restoration Anglicans, both those promoting enforced anti-extremism and latitudinarians, and into the Age of Enlightenment, Erasmus' moderation represented "an alternative to the belligerent Protestantism that characterized English political and social discourse".[188] It has been claimed that William of Orange's Toleration Act (1688) owed to Erasmus' inspiration.[2]: 186
By 1711, English Catholic poet and satirist Alexander Pope pictured Erasmus, following in a sequence of greats from Aristotle, Horace, Homer, Quintillian to Longinusas, ending a millennium of ignorance and superstition:[note 90]
...
Much was believ'd, but little understood,
And to be dull was constru'd to be good;
A second deluge learning thus o'er-run,
And the monks finish'd what the Goths begun.
At length Erasmus, that great injur'd name
(The glory of the priesthood and the shame!)
Stemm'd the wild torrent of a barbarous age,
And drove those holy Vandals off the stage.— Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism[189]
For Enlightenment historian Edward Gibbon, Erasmus was "the father of rational theology."[190]: 157
By 1929, G.K. Chesterton could write "I doubt if any thinking person, of any belief or unbelief, does not wish in his heart that the end of mediaevalism had meant the triumph of the Humanists like Erasmus and More, rather than of the rabid Puritans like Calvin and Knox."[191]: 84
Catholic
[edit]William Warham (Canterbury) • Cuthbert Tunstall (London/Durham) • John Longland (Lincoln) • John Fisher (Rochester) • Albert of Brandenburg (Mainz) • Philip of Burgundy (Utrecht) • Jean de Guise (Lorraine) • Bernard de Cles (Trent) • Alonso de Fonseca (Toledo) • Christoph von Stadion (Augsburg) • Jacopo Sadoleto (Carpentras) • Piotr Tomicki (Cracow) • Andrzej Krzycki (Płock) • Johannes Thurzo (Wrocław) • Stanislaus Thurzo (Olomouc.) • Jan Łaski (Veszprém) • Alonso Manrique de Lara (Seville)
Others correspondents and friends mentioned: Cardinal Lorenzo Campeggio • Vincenzo Pimpinella (Rossano, Calabria) • Balthasar Merklin (Bishop of Hildesheim and Constance) • future cardinal Pietro Bembo • future Bishop of Mâcon and Orléans Pierre du Chastel
In 1529-1530, Erasmus the refugee received numerous invitations to settle in new locations, such as from Hermann von Wied (cardinal-archbishop-elector of Cologne) and Jean Carondelet (archbishop of Palermo) to go to Burgundy.![](http://up.wiki.x.io/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bc/Thomas_van_Aquino_inspireert_zich_op_de_geschriften_van_andere_theologen_Titelpagina_voor_D._Augvstini_et_SS._Patrvm_de_Libero_Arbitrio_Interpres_Thomifticus_Contra_Ianfenitas_%28titel_op_object%29%2C_RP-P-OB-7416.jpg/220px-thumbnail.jpg)
Erasmus was continually protected by popes,[note 92] bishops, inquisitors-general, and Catholic kings[note 93] during his lifetime.[note 94] He was a bishops' man: in constant contact, correspondence, patronage and direction with dozens at any time, and their Latin secretaries: for example, his book On Free Will was squeezed out of him by bishops, and strategized, discussed, vetted (his local bishop got him to remove some polemic material from it, for example[193]: 70 ) and promoted by them.
The following generation of saints and scholars included many influenced by Erasmian humanism or spirituality, notably Ignatius of Loyola,[note 95][195][196][197] Teresa of Ávila,[198][note 96] John of Ávila,[200][201] [note 97] and Angela Merici.[note 98]
However, Erasmus attracted enemies in contemporary theologians in Paris, Louvain, Valladolid, Salamanca and Rome, notably Sepúlveda, Stúñica, Edward Lee,[note 99] Noël Beda (who Erasmus had known in France in the 1490s, but who opposed Greek and Hebrew),[202] as well as Alberto Pío, Prince of Carpi, who read his work with dedicated suspicion. These were theologians, usually from the mendicant orders that were Erasmus' particular target (such as Dominicans, Carmelites and Franciscans), who held a positive "linear view of history" for theology [note 100] that privileged recent late-medieval theology[203] and rejected the ad fontes methodology. Erasmus believed the vehemence of the attacks on Luther was a strategem to blacken humanism (and himself) by association, part of the centuries-long power struggle at the universities between scholastic "theologians" and humanist "poets".[203]: 724 [note 101][note 102]
A particularly powerful opponent of Erasmus was Italian humanist Jerome Aleander, Erasmus' former close friend and bedmate in Venice at the Aldine Press and future cardinal. They fell out over Aleander's violent speech against Luther at the Diet of Worms, and with Aleander's identification of Erasmus as "the great cornerstone of the Lutheran heresy."[91][note 103] They periodically reconciled in warm personal meetings, only to fall into mutual suspicion again when distant.
Erasmus spent considerable effort defending himself in writing, which he could not do after his death.[206] He wrote 35 books defending against accusations by Catholic opponents, and 9 against Protestant opponents: an unanswered accusation of heresy or Nicodemism could cascade into trials and fatal unsafety.
Far from being a maverick in all aspects, several of Erasmus' "distinctive" ideas were entirely mainstream for the time, from the Fifth Council of the Lateran: the need for peace between Catholic princes before a war pushing back the Turks could be attempted (Session 9); the need for formal qualifications of preachers (Session 11) who should "foster everywhere peace and mutual love" rather than false miracles and apocalyptic predictions; the danger of unbalanced philosophical study and questions that promote doubt without attempting resolution (Session 8); the spurious independence of friars from local bishops, and the dereliction of duty by absentee bishops and cardinals.
The Council of Trent further addressed many of the controversies Erasmus had been involved with: including free will, accumulated errors in the Vulgate, and priestly training,[note 104] and followed his call for a renewed positive focus on the Creed. Erasmus' major ethical complaint that a certain kind of scholasticism was "curiositas" (useless, vain speculation) and artificially divisive was endorsed in the 4 December 1563 Decree Concerning Purgatory which recommended the avoidance of speculations and non-essential questions. Trent reduced the number of sequences during the Mass to only four for certain special days: the large numbers and lengths of sequences, especially as found in German and French masses, and the need for verbal clarity were issues Erasmus had raised.[208]
Prohibitions
[edit]![](http://up.wiki.x.io/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cd/Erasmus_censored.png/220px-Erasmus_censored.png)
By the 1560s, there was a marked downturn in reception: at various times and durations, some of Erasmus' works, especially in Protestantized editions, were placed on the various Roman, Dutch, French, Spanish and Mexican[209] Indexes of Prohibited Books, either to not be read, or to be censored and expurgated: each area had different censorship considerations and severity.[210]
Erasmus' work had been translated or reprinted throughout Europe, often with Protestantizing revisions and sectarian prefaces. Sometimes the works of Martin Luther were sold with the name of Erasmus on the cover.
Several of Erasmus' works, including his Paraphrases were banned in the Milanese and Venetian indexes of 1554.[211]
Erasmus' works were to some extent prohibited in England under Queen Mary I, from 1555.[note 105]
For the Roman Index as it emerged at the close of the Council of Trent, Erasmus' works were completely banned (1559), mostly unbanned (1564), completely banned again (1590), and then mostly unbanned again with strategic revisions (1596) by the erratic Indexes of successive Popes.[212] In the 1559 Index, Erasmus was classed with heretics; however Erasmus was never judicially arraigned, tried or convicted of heresy: the censorship rules established by the Council of Trent targeted not only notorious heretics but also those whose writings "excited heresy" (regardless of intent), especially those making Latin translations of the New Testament deemed to vie with (rather than improve or annotate or assist) the Vulgate.
The Colloquies were especially but not universally frowned on for school use, and many of Erasmus' tendentious prefaces and notes to his scholarly editions required adjustment.[213]
In Spain's Index, the translation of the Enchiridion only needed the phrase "Monkishness is not piety" removed to become acceptable. , Despite any Indexes, Charles V had The Education of a Christian Prince, which had been written for him, translated into Spanish for his son Philip II.[214]: 93
By 1896, the Roman Index still listed Erasmus' Colloquia, The Praise of Folly, The Tongue, The Institution of Christian Marriage, and one other as banned, plus particular editions of the Adagia and Paraphrase of Matthew. All other works could be read in suitable expurgated versions.[215]
Because Erasmus' scholarly editions were frequently the only sources of Patristic information in print, the strict bans were often impractical, so theologians worked to produce replacement editions building on, or copying, Erasmus' editions.
The Jesuits received a dispensation from the Roman Inquisitor General to read and use Erasmus' work[92] (not kept on the open shelves of their libraries),[216] as did priests working near Protestant areas such as Francis de Sales.
Post-Tridentine
[edit]Early Dutch Jesuit scholar Peter Canisius, who produced several works superseding Erasmus',[note 106] is known to have read, or used phrases from, Erasmus' New Testament (including the Annotations and Notes) and perhaps the Paraphrases, his Jerome biography and complete works, the Adages, the Copia, and the Colloquies:[note 107] Canisius, having actually read Erasmus, had an ambivalent view on Erasmus that contrasted with the negative line of some of his contemporaries:
Very many people applied also to Erasmus, declaring: 'Either Erasmus speaks like Luther or Luther like Erasmus' (Aut Erasmus Lutherizat, aut Lutherus Erasmizat). And yet, we must say, if we would like to render an honest judgment, that Erasmus and Luther were very different. Erasmus always remained a Catholic. [...]Erasmus criticized religion 'with craft rather than with force', often applying considerable caution and moderation to either his own opinions or errors. [...]Erasmus passed judgment on what he thought required censure and correction in the teaching of theologians and in the Church.
— Peter Canisius, De Maria virgine (1577), p601[note 108]
In contrast, Robert Bellarmine's Controversies mentions Erasmus (as presented by Erasmus' opponent Albert Pío) negatively over 100 times, categorizing him as a "forerunner of the heretics";[218]: 10 though not a heretic.[note 109] [note 110] Alphonsus Ligouri, who also had not read Erasmus, judged that Erasmus "died with the character of an unsound Catholic but not a heretic," putting it all in the context of a dispute between Theologians and Rhetoricians.[note 111]
His patristic scholarship continued to be valued by academics, as were un-controversial parts of his biblical scholarship,[220]: 614, 617 though Catholic biblical scholars started to criticize Erasmus' limited range of manuscripts for his direct New Testament as undermining his premise of correcting the Latin from the "original" Greek.[220]: 622
The Jesuit mission to China, led by Matteo Ricci,[221] adopted the approach of cultural accommodation[222] linked to Erasmus.[note 112] The early Jesuits were exposed to Erasmus at their colleges,[223] and their positioning of Confucius echoed Erasmus' positioning of "Saint" Socrates.[224]: 171
Salesian scholars have noted Erasmus' significant influence on Francis de Sales: "in the approach and the spirit he (de Sales) took to reform his diocese and more importantly on how individual Christians could become better together,"[225] his optimism,[226] civility,[227] gentle anti-militantism that promoted "humility, penance, and asceticism" over sectarian violence,[228] esteem of marriage.[229] and, according to historian Charles Béné, a piety addressed to the laity, the acceptance of mental prayer, and the valuing of pagan wisdom.[2]: 212
A famous 17th century Dominican library featured statues of famous churchmen on one side and of famous "heretics" (in chains) on the other: those foes including the two leading anti-mendicant Catholic voices William of Saint-Amour (fl. 1250) and Erasmus.[230]: 310
By 1690, Erasmus was also, rather perversely, labelled as the forerunner of the heretical tendecies in the Jansenists. [note 113]
From 1648 to 1794 and then 1845 to the present, the mainly-Jesuit Bollandist Society has been progressively publishing Lives of the Saints, in 61 volumes and supplements. Historian John C. Olin notes an accord of approach with the hitherto "unique" method, mixing critical standards and devotional/rhetorical purpose, that Erasmus had laid out in his Life of St Jerome.[160]: 97, 98
By the 1700s, Erasmus' explicit influence on most Catholic thought had largely waned, though the humanist program remained a persistant undercurrent.
Soon after the Vatican I Council, Pope Leo X issued an encyclical Providentisssimus deus (1893)[232] which taught several themes associated with Erasmus: notably that "in those things which do not come under the obligation of faith, the Saints were at liberty to hold divergent opinions, just as we ourselves are"; and that more exegetes, theologians and novices must master the original "Oriental" languages and be trained in Biblical exegesis including philology, quoting Jerome "To be ignorant of the Scripture is not to know Christ": he noted that Pope Clement V had instigated chairs of Oriental Literature in Paris, Bologna, Oxford and Salamanca (carried out in 1317.)[note 114] This was followed by an apostolic letter Vigilantiae studiique (1902)[233] which "warned that attacks on the Church are (now) generally based on linguistic arguments".[234]
Twentieth century
[edit]A historian has written that "a number of Erasmus' modern Catholic critics do not display an accurate knowledge of his writings but misrepresent him, often by relying upon hostile secondary sources," naming Yves Congar as an example.[114]: 39
A major turning point in the popular Catholic appraisal of Erasmus occurred in 1900 with rosy Benedictine historian (and, later, Cardinal) Francis Aidan Gasquet's The Eve of the Reformation which included a whole chapter on Erasmus based on a re-reading of his books and letters. Gasquet wrote "Erasmus, like many of his contemporaries, is often perhaps injudicious in the manner in which he advocated reforms. But when the matter is sifted to the bottom, it will commonly be found that his ideas are just."[note 115]
Over the last century, Erasmus's Catholic reputation has gradually started to be rehabilitated:[note 116] favourable factors may include:
- the increasingly active modern historical and theological scholarship on Erasmus suggested chinks in the traditional partisan characterizations of Erasmus;
- the retirement of the Roman Index librorum prohibitorum in 1966;
![](http://up.wiki.x.io/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/70/John_Fisher_%28painting%29.jpg/220px-John_Fisher_%28painting%29.jpg)
- increased support for a view of Erasmus that portrays him as a conservative[note 117] endorsed by and responsive to the hierarchy[note 118] as much as a maverick, with him voicing and crystallizing mainstream and respectable Catholic thought of his time[note 119] as much as innovating;[note 120] and to an extent resuscitating Victorine (the Canons Regular of St Victor)[236]: 171–174 and Cappadocian and patristic[6]: 501–505 approaches.
- his deep friendships and interactions with three Saint-Martyrs Thomas More,[note 121] John Fisher,[note 122] and Brigittine monk Richard Reynolds.
- his acknowledged or retro-fitted influence on perhaps five Doctors of the Church (Ignatius, Theresa of Ávila, John of Ávila, Canisius, de Sales), the positive normalization of his views in influential new orders such as the Jesuits, Oratorians, Redemptorists, Ursulines[239] and Salesians,[note 123] and an increasing list of exemplary Catholics whose views channel or parallel Erasmus', such as Bartolomé de las Casas' De unico vocationis modo (1537),[240] and De la Salle's Decorum & Civility;[note 124]
- the acceptance of St John Henry Cardinal Newman's "development of doctrine", to some extent a chick hatched from the egg of Erasmus' theological historicism[note 125] and his appeal to tradition (sensus fidei fidelium) on the Eucharist;[2]: 129
- the reinvigouration of patristic ad fontes and a re-surfacing of several ideas associated with Erasmus (but ideas sometimes with a longer, forgotten patrimony, and sometimes from an even more problematic figure than Erasmus)[note 126] by ressourcement and Communio theologians, such as
- Henri de Lubac[note 127]
- Hans Urs von Balthasar, who ranked Erasmus with Augustine, Bonaventure, and Thomas Aquinas as the great theologians/exegetes;[243]
- Oratorian Louis Bouyer, who wrote that the Method of True Theology (or Ratio) of Erasmus "represents, for the first time and in admirable fashion, the use of principles and methods entirely adequate to effect a really fruitful renewal of Catholic faith and theology;"[244]
- Joseph Ratzinger, whose famous Regensberg Address emphasized the fundamental influence of Hellenic philosophy on primitive Christianity.[note 128]
- For theologian George Chantraine, Erasus's so-called skepticism was actually a function of his belief that the Church defined doctrine not individual theologians.[note 129]
- many of his themes are less controversial after being revisited by Popes: for example,
- that all interpretation of Scripture should rest on the literal sense was taught by Pope Benedict XV's Spiritus paracletus (1920), and by Pope Pius XII Divino afflante spiritu (1943), which called for new vernacular translations, and Humani generis (1950);
- his promotion of the recognition of adiaphora and toleration within bounds was taken up, to an extent, by Pope John XXIII: In necessariis unitas, in dubiis libertas, in omnibus caritas;[245][note 130] and
- John Paul II's praise of the divine foolishness in the encyclical Fides et Ratio.[246]
- His kind of emphasis on correct disposition over ceremonialism found support in Pius XXII's Mediator dei (1947) which teaches 23. The worship rendered by the Church to God must be, in its entirety, interior as well as exterior. [...] 24. But the chief element of divine worship must be interior.
- His instrumentalist approach to Christian humanism has been compared to that of John Henry Newman and the personalism of John Paul II,[note 131]: 151–164 but also has been criticized as treating the Church's doctrines merely as aids to piety.[note 132]
The Catholic scholar Thomas Cummings saw parallels between Erasmus' vision of Church reform and the vision of Church reform that succeeded at the Second Vatican Council.[149] Theologian J. Coppens noted the "Erasmian themes" of Lumen Gentium (e.g. para 12), such as the sensus fidei fidelium and the dignity of all the baptized.[2]: 130, 138, 150 Another scholar writes "in our days, especially after Vatican II, Erasmus is more and more regarded as an important defender of the Christian religion."[247] John O'Malley has commented on a certain closeness between Erasmus and Dei Verbum.[note 133]
Historian Lisa Cahill's summary "Official Catholic Social Thought on Nonviolence" notes Erasmus (with Augustine, Aquinas and St Francis of Assisi) as most notable in the development of Catholic peace theory.[note 134]
In 1963, Thomas Merton suggested "If there had been no Luther, Erasmus would now be regarded by everyone as one of the great Doctors of the Catholic Church. I like his directness, his simplicity, and his courage."[249]: 146
Notably, since the 1950s, the Roman Catholic Easter Vigil mass has included a Renewal of Baptismal Promises,[250]: 3, 4 an innovation[251] first proposed[252] by Erasmus in his Paraphrases. [note 135]
In his 1987 collection The Spirituality of Erasmus of Rotterdam historian Richard deMolen, later a Catholic priest, called for Erasmus' canonization.[253]
Protestant
[edit]![](http://up.wiki.x.io/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e3/Zentralbibliothek_Z%C3%BCrich_-_Effigies_praecipuorum_illustrium_atque_praestantium_aliquot_theologorum_-_000008283.jpg/220px-Zentralbibliothek_Z%C3%BCrich_-_Effigies_praecipuorum_illustrium_atque_praestantium_aliquot_theologorum_-_000008283.jpg)
Erasmus' Greek New Testament was the basis of the Textus Receptus bibles, which were used for all Protestant bible translations from 1600 to 1900, notably including the Luther Bible and the King James Version.
Protestant views on Erasmus fluctuated depending on region and period, with continual support in his native Netherlands and in cities of the Upper Rhine area. However, following his death and in the late sixteenth century, many Reformation supporters saw Erasmus's critiques of Luther and lifelong support for the universal Catholic Church as damning, and second-generation Protestants were less vocal in their debts to the great humanist.
Many of the usages fundamental to Luther, Melanchthon and Calvin, such as the forensic imputation of righteousness, grace as divine favour or mercy (rather than a medicine-like substance[note 136] or habit), faith as trust (rather than a persuasion only), "repentance" over "doing penance" (as used by Luther in the first theses of the 95 Theses), owed to Erasmus.[note 137]
Late Luther hated Erasmus: "Erasmus of Rotterdam is the vilest miscreant that ever disgraced the earth...He is a very Caiaphas;" and "Whenever I pray, I pray a curse upon Erasmus."[note 138] He attempted a Biblical analogy to justify his dismissal of Erasmus' thought: "He has done what he was ordained to do: he has introduced the ancient languages, in the place of injurious scholastic studies. He will probably die like Moses in the land of Moab...I would rather he would entirely abstain from explaining and paraphrasing the Scriptures, for he is not up to this work...to lead into the land of promise, is not his business..."[255]
A historian has even said that "the spread of Lutheranism was checked by Luther's antagonizing (of) Erasmus and the humanists."[256]: 7
Erasmus corresponded cordially with Melanchthon until the end.[68] In the view of some theologians or historians, in the decades following Erasmus and Luther's debate on free choice for salvation, Melanchthon himself gradually swang to a position closer to Erasmus' tentative synergism: in 1532 mentioning man's non-rejection of grace as a cause in conversion, and stating it more forcefully in his 1559 Loci.[257] The issue caused a division in early Lutheranism, resolved by the Formula of Concord.[note 139]
Erasmus' reception is also demonstrable among Swiss Protestants in the sixteenth century: he had an indelible influence on the biblical commentaries of, for example, Konrad Pellikan, Heinrich Bullinger, and John Calvin, all of whom used both his annotations on the New Testament and his paraphrases of same in their own New Testament commentaries.[259]
A historian noted "perhaps the most serious blow that Erasmus delivered to Luther and Protestantism he landed indirectly through the person of Ulrich Zwingli."[109] Huldrych Zwingli, the founder of the Reformed tradition, had a conversion experience after reading Erasmus' poem, "Jesus' Lament to Mankind",[260] also titled "The Complaint of Jesus".[261][note 140] Zwingli's moralism, hermeneutics and attitude to patristic authority owe to Erasmus, and contrast with Luther's.[262]
Anabaptist scholars have suggested an 'intellectual dependence'[263] of Anabaptists on Erasmus.[264] According to Dr Kenneth Davis "Erasmus had copious direct and indirect contact with many of the founding leaders of Anabaptism [...] the Anabaptists can best be understood as, apart from their own creativity, a radicalization and Protestantization not of the Magisterial Reformation but of the lay-oriented, ascetic reformation of which Erasmus is the principle mediator."[265]: 292
For evangelical Christianity, Erasmus had a strong influence[266] on Jacob Arminius, whose library featured many books by Erasmus, even though he did not dare name or quote him.[267]: 43, 44
Erasmus' promotion of the recognition of adiaphora and toleration within bounds was taken up by many kinds of Protestants.
Contemporary "radical orthdoxy" theologian John Milbank has been described as Erasmus revivivus: "First, both Milbank and Erasmus emphasize the necessity of linguistic mediation in articulating theological thought.[...]Second, they prefer a rhetorical approach to theology to dialectical one.[...]Third, at the heart of their theology is the mystery of Christ."[268]: 7
Intellectual
[edit]- Literary theorist Hans Urs von Balthasar listed Erasmus in one of three key intellectual "events" in the Germanic age:[269]
- Political journalist Michael Massing has written of the Luther-Erasmus free will debate as creating a fault line in Western thinking: Europe adopted a form of Erasmian humanism while America has been shaped by Luther-inspired individualism.[81]
- By the coming of the Age of Enlightenment, Erasmus increasingly again became a more widely respected cultural symbol and was hailed as an important figure by increasingly broad groups.
- In a letter to a friend, Erasmus once had written: "That you are patriotic will be praised by many and easily forgiven by everyone; but in my opinion it is wiser to treat men and things as though we held this world the common fatherland of all."[270] Erasmus has been called a universalist rather than a nationalist,[271] however he opposed the political universalism of unmanageably large or expansionary empires with "universal monarchs".[note 141]
- Catholic historian Dom David Knowles wrote that a just appreciation of traditional Catholic doctrine was a necessary condition for appreciating Erasmus, "without which many otherwise gifted writers have repeated meaningless platitudes."[65]
- According to two Dutch historians, "his legacy irreversibly inspired researchers to a hermeneutical approach that in the end could not but result in irrefutable attacks on the self-evident complete inerrancy of Holy Writ."[220]: 632
Notes
[edit]- ^ Historian Kirk Essary comments "Reading the work (Exomologesis), one is reminded that Erasmus remains underrated for his psychological insights in general and that he is perhaps overlooked as a pastoral theologian."[4]
- ^ For Erasmus, "dogmatics do not exist for themselves; they take on meaning only when they issue, on the one hand, in the exegesis of scripture and, on the other, in moral action" according to Manfred Hoffmann's Erkenntnis und Verwirklichung der wahren Theologie nach Erasmus von Rotterdam (1972) [2]: 137
- ^ However, "his wit can be gentle; it can break out into bitterness. In controversy, resentments and anxieties can get loose, countermanding the Christian imperative of love to which he was devoted and which runs as a leitmotiv through all his writings." Mansfield [2]: 230
- ^ a b His mode of expression made him "slippery like a snake" according to Luther - Visser, Arnoud (2017). "Irreverent Reading: Martin Luther as Annotator of Erasmus". The Sixteenth Century Journal. 48 (1): 87–109. doi:10.1086/SCJ4801005. hdl:1874/348917. S2CID 31540853.)
- ^ Erasmus, de bello Turcico, apud Ron, Nathan The Non-Cosmopolitan Erasmus: An Examination of his Turkophobic/Islamophobic Rhetoric, op. cit. p 99: Ron takes this as an affirmation by Erasmus of the low nature of Turks; the alternative view would take it as a negative foil (applying the model of the Mote and the Beam) where the prejudice is appropriated in order to subvert it.
- ^ For Markish, Erasmus' "theological opposition to a form of religious thought which he identified with Judaism was not translated into crude prejudice against actual Jews", to the extent that Erasmus could be described as 'a-semitic' rather 'anti-semitic'."Erasmus of Rotterdam". Jewish Virtual Library. AICE. Archived from the original on 15 July 2023. Retrieved 15 July 2023.
- ^ Historian Kevin Ingram suggests "The conversos also clearly reveled in Erasmus’s comparison, in the Enchiridion, of Old-Christians mired in ceremonial practice to Pharisees who had forgotten the true message of Judaism, a statement they used as a counter-punch against Old-Christian accusations of converso Judaizing. The conversos conveniently ignored the anti-semitic aspect of Erasmus’ statement."[14]: 71
- ^ Summa nostrae religionis pax est et unanimated. Erasmus continued: "This can hardly remain the case unless we define as few matters as possible and leave each individual's judgement free on many questions." Erasmus (1523). Letter to Carondelet: The Preface to His Edition of St. Hilary.
Note that the use of summa is perhaps also a backhanded reference to the scholastic summa, which he upbraided for their moral and spiritual uselessness.Surtz, Edward L. (1950). ""Oxford Reformers" and Scholasticism". Studies in Philology. 47 (4): 547–556. JSTOR 4172947. Archived from the original on 19 June 2023. Retrieved 19 June 2023. - ^ "Latin: Vicit mansuetudine, vicit beneficentia" R. Sider translates vicit as "he prevailed" Sider, Robert D. (31 December 2019). "A System or Method of Arriving by a Short Cut at True Theology by Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam". The New Testament Scholarship of Erasmus: 479–713. doi:10.3138/9781487510206-020. ISBN 9781487510206. S2CID 198585078.
- ^ Bruce Mansfield summarizes historian Georg Gebhart's view: "While recognizing the teaching authority, but not the primacy, of Councils, Erasmus adopted a moderate papalism, papal authority itself being essentially pastoral."[2]: 132
- ^ If any single individual in the modern world can be credited with "the invention of peace", the honour belongs to Erasmus rather than Kant whose essay on perpetual peace was published nearly three centuries later.[19]
- ^ "The argument of Bellum is governed by three favorite themes that recur in other works of Erasmus. First, war is naturally wrong[...]Second, Christianity forbids war[...]Third, “just cause” in war will be claimed by both sides and will be next to impossible to determine fairly: hence, the traditional criteria of the just war are nonfunctional."[22]
- ^ "Desiderius Erasmus, Thomas More and John Colet[...]between them in the first three decades of the sixteenth century, ushered in not only humanism – an ethically sanctioned guide for practical, humanitarian ways of living in society – but also the formation of a group that might be called a ‘peace movement’."[24]
- ^ "I do not deny that I wrote some harsh things in order to deter the Christians from the madness of war, because I saw that these wars,which we witnessed for too many years, are the source of the biggest part of evils which damage Christendom. Therefore, it was necessary to come forward not only against these deeds, which are clearly criminal, but also against other actions, which are almost impossible to do without committing many crimes." Apology against Albert Pío [17]: 11
- ^ Erasmus was not out-of-step with opinion within the church: Archbishop Bernard II Zinni of Split speaking at the Fifth Council of the Lateran (1512) denounced princes as the most guilty of ambition, luxury and a desire for domination. Bernard proposed that reformation must primarily involve ending war and schism. Minnich, Nelson H. (1969). "Concepts of Reform Proposed at the Fifth Lateran Council". Archivum Historiae Pontificiae. 7: 163–251. ISSN 0066-6785. JSTOR 23563707. Archived from the original on 1 November 2023. Retrieved 1 November 2023. p. 173,174
- ^ James D.Tracy notes that mistrust of the Habsburg government in the general population (partially due to the fact Maximilian and his grandson Charles V were absentee rulers, the secret nature of diplomacy and other circumstances) was widespread, but it is notable that intellectuals like Erasmus and Barlandus also accepted the allegations.[28]: 94, 95
- ^ "I have made my support of the church sufficiently clear[...]The only thing in which I take pride is that I have never committed myself to any sect." Erasmus, Letter to Georgius Agricola (1534)
- ^ "...the goal of De bello Turcico was to warn Christians and the Church of moral deterioration and to exhort them to change their ways.... Erasmus’ objection to crusades was by no means an overall opposition to fighting the Turks. Rather, Erasmus harshly condemned embezzlement and corrupt fundraising, and the Church's involvement in such nefarious activities, and regarded them as inseparable from waging a crusade." Ron, Nathan (1 January 2020). "The Non-Cosmopolitan Erasmus: An Examination of his Turkophobic/Islamophobic Rhetoric". Akademik Tarih ve Düşünce Dergisi (Academic Journal of History and Idea). pp. 97,98
- ^ "...in large part half-Christian and perhaps nearer to true Christianity than most of our own folk." Letter to Paul Volz[43]: 32
- ^ In the case of the Reuchlin affair, Erasmus sided with Reuchlin, a gentile who advocated Hebrew studies (which Erasmus never undertook seriously himself but promoted) and interaction with Jewish scholars (which Erasmus never felt the professional occasion for) to learn of things such as the kaballa (which Erasmus scorned), against the attacks of Johannes Pfefferkorn, a converted Jew (which Erasmus approved of when sincere) who saw dangers in any re-Judaizing or re-mosaing Christianity (like Erasmus) but who went into fanaticism (which Erasmus abhored), e.g., advocating that Jews be compelled to hear Christian sermons, and that all copies of the Talmud be destroyed; both Reuchlin and Pfefferkorn called out the blood libel.[2]: 223
- ^ "I have never broken off a friendship with anyone because he was either more inclined towards Luther or more against Luther than I was. My disposition is naturally such that I could love even a Jew, provided he were in other respects an agreeable person to live with and friendly, and provided he did not vomit blasphemies against Christ in my hearing. And this courteous approach can, I believe, do more towards ending strife[...]the ties of friendship I do not readily abandon to please anyone." Letter to John Botzheim, quoted in Remer, Gary (1989). "Rhetoric and the Erasmian Defense of Religious Toleration". History of Political Thought. 10 (3): 377.
- ^ Erasmus knew several converted Jews: his doctor Matthais Adrianus, who Erasmus recommended for the Trilingual College, and his doctor Paolo Riccio, a professor of philosophy and imperial physician.Krivatsy, Peter (1973). "Erasmus' Medical Milieu". Bulletin of the History of Medicine. 47 (2): 113–154. ISSN 0007-5140. JSTOR 44447526. PMID 4584234. Archived from the original on 28 July 2023. Retrieved 28 July 2023. Erasmus's Spanish friend Juan Luis Vives came from a conversos family: indeed, his father had been executed as a Judaizer heretic. Erasmus' friendly correspondents Juan de Vergara and Francisco de Vergara similarly came from a conversos family, on their mother's side.
- ^ "The Jews" (i.e. the earliest Jewish Christians in Antioch) "because of a certain human tendency, desire(d) to force their own rites upon everyone, clearly in order under this pretext to enhance their own importance. For each one wishes that the things which he himself has taught should appear as outstanding." Erasmus, Paraphrase of Romans and Galatians[7]: 321
- ^ "If only the Christian church did not attach so much importance to the Old Testament!" Ep 798 p. 305,[48]
For Erasmus, "...the relative importance we should ascribe to the different books of the Bible," accorded to how much "they bring us more or less directly to knowledge of (Christ)": which gave priority to the New Testament and the Gospels in particular.[6]
"To Erasmus, Judaism was obsolete. To Reuchlin, something of Judaism remained of continuing value to Christianity."[11] - ^ In marriage, Erasmus' two significant innovations, according to historian Nathan Ron, were that "matrimony can and should be a joyous bond, and that this goal can be achieved by a relationship between spouses based on mutuality, conversation, and persuasion."[51]: 4:43
- ^ According to historian Thomas Tentler, few Christians from his century gave as much emphasis as Erasmus to a pious attitude to death: the terrors of death are "closely connected to guilt from sin and fear of punishment" the antidote to which is first "trust in Christ and His ability to forgive sins", avoiding (Lutheran) boastful pride, then a loving, undespairing life lived with appropriate penitence. The focus of the Last Rites by priests should be comfort and hope. Tentler, Thomas N. (1965). "Forgiveness and Consolation in the Religious Thought of Erasmus". Studies in the Renaissance. 12: 110–133. doi:10.2307/2857071. ISSN 0081-8658. JSTOR 2857071. Archived from the original on 25 December 2023. Retrieved 25 December 2023.
- ^ a b "It is because Christ is in the pages of the bible that we meet him as a living person. As we read these pages we absorb his presence, we become one with him." Robert Sider[53]
- ^ "Erasmus had been criticizing the Catholic church for years before the reformers emerged, and not just pointing up its failings but questioning many of its basic teachings. He was the author of a series of publications, including a Greek edition of the New Testament (1516), which laid the foundations for a model of Christianity that called for a pared-down, internalized style of religiosity focused on Scripture rather than the elaborate, and incessant, outward rituals of the medieval church. Erasmus was not a forerunner in the sense that he conceived or defended ideas that later made up the substance of the Reformation thought. [...] It is enough that some of his ideas merged with the later Reformation message." Dixon, C. Scott (2012). Contesting the Reformation. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 60. ISBN 978-1-4051-1323-6.
- ^ "Unlike Luther, he accepted papal primacy and the teaching authority of the church and did not discount human tradition. The reforms proposed by Erasmus were in the social rather than the doctrinal realm. His principal aim was to foster piety and to deepen spirituality." [56]: 37
- ^ "Rigorously scientific biblical study must sustain an effort to renew the interior life, and the interior life must itself be at once the agent and the beneficiary of a renewal of the whole of Christian society." This went beyond the devotio moderna, which "was a spirituality of teachers."
- ^ Writer Gregory Wolfe notes however "For Erasmus, the narrative of decline is a form of despair, a failure to believe that the tradition can and will generate new life."[57]
- ^ monachatus non est pietas: Being a monk is not piety but he adds ‘but a way of life that may be useful or not useful according to each man’s physical make-up and disposition’.[56]: 36
- ^ DeMolen claims: "It is important to recall that Erasmus remained a member of the Austin Canons all his life. His lifestyle harmonized with the spirit of the Austin Canons even though he lived outside their monastic walls."[61] Erasmus represents the anti-Observantist wing of the canons regular who believed that the charism of their orders required them to be more externally focussed (on pastoral, missionary, scholarly, charitable and sacramental works) and correspondingly de-focussed on monastic severity and ceremonialism.
- ^ See the collequy Exequiae Seriphicae[62]
- ^ "In the first years of the Reformation many thought that Luther was only carrying out the program of Erasmus, and this was the opinion of those strict Catholics who from the outset of the great conflict included Erasmus in their attacks on Luther." Catholic Encyclopedia
- ^ An expression Erasmus coined. Bonae connotes more than just good, but also moral, honest and brave [1] literature. Such sound learning encompassed both sacred literature (Latin: sacrae litterae), namely patristic writings and sacred scriptures (Latin: sacrae scripturae), and profane literature (Latin: prophanae litterae) by classical pagan authors.[74]
- ^ Future cardinal Aleander, his former friend and roommate at the Aldine Press, wrote "The poison of Erasmus has a much more dangerous effect than that of Luther" Catholic Encyclopedia
- ^ Namely Egmondanus, the Louvain Carmelite Nicolaas Baechem.[90]
- ^ Another commentator: "Erasmus laid the egg that Luther broke" Midmore, Brian (7 February 2007). "The differences between Erasmus and Luther in their approach to reform". Archived from the original on 7 February 2007. Retrieved 3 December 2023.
- ^ For Craig R. Thompson, Erasmus cannot be called philosopher in the technical sense, since he disdained formal logic and metaphysics and cared only for moral philosophy.
Similarly, John Monfasani reminds us that Erasmus never claimed to be a philosopher, was not trained as a philosopher, and wrote no explicit works of philosophy, although he repeatedly engaged in controversies that crossed the boundary from philosophy to theology. His relation to philosophy bears further scrutiny.
MacPhail, Eric. "Desiderius Erasmus (1468?—1536)". Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Archived from the original on 17 August 2010. Retrieved 28 July 2023. - ^ "According to Erasmus, Lucian's laughter is the most appropriate instrument to guide pupils towards moral seriousness because it is the denial of every peremptory and dogmatic point of view and, therefore, the image of a joyful pietas (“true religion ought to be the most cheerful thing in the world”; De recta pronuntiatione, CWE 26, 385). By teaching the relativity of communicative situations and the variability of temperaments, the laughter resulting from the art of rhetoric comes to resemble the most sincere content of Christian morality, based on tolerance and loving persuasion." Bacchi, Elisa (2019). "Hercules, Silenus and the Fly: Lucian's Rhetorical Paradoxes in Erasmus' Ethics". Philosophical Readings Online Journal of Philosophy. CI (2). Archived from the original on 1 November 2023. Retrieved 20 October 2023.
- ^ According to historian Jamie Gianoutsos, Erasmus was not cherry-picking, in the way of St Augustine's 'spoiling the Egyptians,' i.e., acquiring what is valuable from the pagan heritage for the benefit of Christianity. "Erasmus, in contrast, had expressed reserve and even cautious criticism for Augustine's views while betraying great enthusiasm for St Jerome and his metaphor of the freeman who marries the captive slave to obtain her freedom. Christianity[...]had wed itself to the classical heritage to enhance and liberate it (i.e., that heritage) from its pagan ethos[...]"[94]
- ^ Baker-Smith, Dominic (1994). "Uses of Plato by Erasmus and More". Platonism and the English Imagination. pp. 86–99. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511553806.010. ISBN 9780521403085. p. 92:
Erasmus does not engage with Plato as a philosopher, at least not in any rigorous sense, but rather as a rhetorician of spiritual experience, the instigator of a metaphorical system which coheres effectively with Pauline Christianity.
- ^ "Despite a lack of formal philosophical training and an antipathy to medieval scholasticism, Erasmus possessed not only a certain familiarity with Thomas Aquinas, but also close knowledge of Plato and Aristotle. Erasmus’ interest in some Platonic motifs is well known. But the most consistent philosophical theme in Erasmus’ writings from his earliest to his latest was that of the Epicurean goal of peace of mind, ataraxia. Erasmus, in fact, combined Christianity with a nuanced Epicurean morality. This Epicureanism, when combined in turn with a commitment to the consensus Ecclesiae as well as with an allergy to dogmatic formulations and an appreciation of the Greek Fathers, ultimately rendered Erasmus alien to Luther and Protestantism though they agreed on much." Abstract of Monfasani, John (2012). "Twenty-fifth Annual Margaret Mann Phillips Lecture: Erasmus and the Philosophers". Erasmus of Rotterdam Society Yearbook. 32 (1): 47–68. doi:10.1163/18749275-00000005.
- ^ Historian Fritz Caspari quipped that Machiavelli "appears as a sceptic whose premise is the badness of man", while Erasmus is a sceptic whose general premise is "man is or can be made good."[104]
- ^ In the Adagia, Erasmus quotes Aristotle 304 times, "making extensive use of the moral, philosophical, political, and rhetorical writings as well as those on natural philosophy, while completely shunning the logical works that formed the basis for scholastic philosophy" Mann Phillips, Margaret (1964). The 'Adages' of Erasmus. A Study with Translations. Cambridge University Press. apud Traninger, Anita (25 January 2023). "Erasmus and the Philosophers". A Companion to Erasmus. pp. 45–67. doi:10.1163/9789004539686_005. ISBN 9789004539686.
- ^ "However learned the works of those men may be, however ‘subtle’ and, if it please them, however ‘seraphic,’ it must still be admitted that the Gospels and Epistles are the supreme authority." Erasmus, Paraclesis, apud Sider [110]
- ^ Rice puts it "Philosophy is felt to be a veil of pretense over an unethical reality...pious disquisitions cannot excuse immorality." Rice, Eugene F. (1950). "Erasmus and the Religious Tradition, 1495-1499". Journal of the History of Ideas. 11 (4): 387–411. doi:10.2307/2707589. ISSN 0022-5037. JSTOR 2707589. Archived from the original on 30 October 2023. Retrieved 25 October 2023. pp. 402-404
- ^ "For I am ready to swear that Epimenides came to life again in Scotus." Erasmus to Thomas Grey Nichols, ep. 59; Allen, ep 64
- ^ "Like Jean Gerson before him, he recommended that (scholastic method) be practiced with greater moderation and that it be complemented by the new philological and patristic knowledge that was becoming available." [114]: 26
- ^ "I find that in comparison with the Fathers of the Church our present-day theologians are a pathetic group. Most of them lack the elegance, the charm of language, and the style of the Fathers. Content with Aristotle, they treat the mysteries of revelation in the tangled fashion of the logician. Excluding the Platonists from their commentaries, they strangle the beauty of revelation." Enchiridion, Erasmus, apud Markos, Louis A. (April 2007). "The Enchiridion of Erasmus". Theology Today. 64 (1): 80–88. doi:10.1177/004057360706400109. S2CID 171469828. p. 86
- ^ "Why don't we all reflect: this must be a marvelous and new philosophy since, in order to reveal it to mortals, he who was god became man..."Erasmus (1516). Paraclesis (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 11 August 2023. Retrieved 11 August 2023.
- ^ A Lutheran view: "Philosophia christiana as taught by Erasmus has never been factual reality; wherever it was philosophia, it was not christiana; wherever it was christiana, it was not philosophia." Karl Barth[116]: 1559
- ^ Similar to John Wycliffe's statement "the greatest philosopher is none other than Christ."Lahey, Stephen Edmund (1 May 2009). John Wyclif. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195183313.003.0005.
- ^ Philosopher Étienne Gilson has noted "Confronted with the same failure of philosophy to rise above the order of formal logic, John of Salisbury between 1150 and 1180, Nicolas of Autrecourt and Petrach in 1360, Erasmus of Rotterdam around 1490, spontaneously conceived a similar method to save Christian faith," i.e. a sceptical-about-scholasticism ad-fontes religious moralism promoting peace and charity.[117]: 102–107
- ^ Accommodation and scopus christi were ideas significant later, in Calvin's theology.[119]: 231, 131
- ^ For example, "It is likely that Erasmus rejected the traditional view of Hell as a place of real, material fire. But although he probably conceived of it as a place of mental rather than physical torment,...Erasmus does not appear to reject the eternality of Hell."[120]
- ^ Furthermore, "the role allegory plays in Erasmus' exegesis is analogous to the crucial place accommodation obtains in his theology."[121]: 7 )
- ^ "We see Erasmus' hermeneutic as governed by the idea of language as mediation[...]The dynamics of mediation, central as it is in Erasmus' hermeneutic, informed all aspects of his world view."Hoffmann, Manfred (1994). Rhetoric and Theology (PDF). University of Toronto. ISBN 978-0-8020-0579-3. Archived (PDF) from the original on 23 February 2024. Retrieved 23 February 2024.
- ^ "The saintly versatility with which Christ and Paul accommodate their message to their imperfect hearers is one of the highest expressions of their charity, which desires the salvation of all men."[77]
- ^ Erasmus quoted "I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some." ( Cor. 9:22, RSV).[123]: 55
- ^ "The gospel text for Erasmus, and many others, possessed “the capacity to transform our inner self by the presence of God as incarnated in the text (or ‘inverbation’) Leushuis, Reinier (3 July 2017). "Emotion and Imitation: The Jesus Figure in Erasmus's Gospel Paraphrases". Reformation. 22 (2): 82–101. doi:10.1080/13574175.2017.1387967. S2CID 171463846.: 93
- ^ Mansfield[2]: 166 summarizes Robert Kleinhan that "In contrast to contemporary theologies which centred on grace (Luther) or church and sacraments (the Council of Trent), Erasmus' theology 'stressed the acquisition of peace through the virtue obtainable by union with Christ through meditation apon the documents of the early church's witness to him.'"
- ^ For Erica Rummel "In content, Erasmian theology is characterized by a twin emphasis on inner piety and on the word as mediator between God and the believer."[56]
- ^ Margaret O'Rourke Boyle sees it as "The text was real presence."[103]: 49
However, this may go too far: "The Christian Faith does not recognize either inlibration or inverbation"[128] "http://www.christianunity.va/content/unitacristiani/it/cardinal-koch/2018/conferenze/2018-10-30-bible-engagement-in-the-catholic-church-tradition-.html" - ^ "Erasmus insists in the Ratio that in the process of interpreting a passage from Scripture it is essential to consider not only what was said but also by whom and to whom it was said, with which words, at what time, on what occasion, and what preceded and followed it."[123]: 65
- ^ Scopus comes from Origen and was also picked up by Melanchthon. Saarinen, Risto. Luther and the Reading of Scripture in [129]
- ^ "Erasmus is so thoroughly, radically Christ-centered in his understanding of both Christian faith and practice that if we overlook or downplay this key aspect of his character and vision, we not only do him a grave disservice but we almost completely misunderstand him." Markos, Louis A. (April 2007). "The Enchiridion of Erasmus". Theology Today. 64 (1): 80–88. doi:10.1177/004057360706400109. S2CID 171469828.
- ^ According to philosopher John Smith "The core of his theological thought he traced back to Christ’s Sermon on the Mount, rather than Paul."[132]
- ^ Historical theologian Carl Meyer writes "Because the Scriptures are the genuine oracles of God, welling forth from the deepest recesses of the divine mind, Erasmus said they should be approached with reverence. Humility and veneration are needed to find the secret chambers of eternal wisdom. "Stoop to enter," Erasmus warned, "else you might bump your head and bounce back!" [33]: 738
- ^ According to historian Emily Alianello "Throughout Ecclesiastes, Erasmus seeks to orient his theories of preaching around "the simplicity of Christ's teaching and example." Consequent, preaching is not for engaging in controversy, but for bringing salvation, moving the congregation to a moral life and building community through concord."[133]: 71
- ^ I.e., Erasmus' method is that Jesus' primary teachings are not things you (whether lay person or theologian) interpret in the light of everything else (particularly some novel, post-patristic theological schema, even if ostensibly biblically coherent), but what you base your interpretation of everything else on.
- ^ This is quite contrary to Luther's privileging of his scheme of justification, its associated verses of Romans and Galatians, and his prizing of vehement assertions and insults. Erica Rummel notes "The similarities between his and Luther’s thought were of course superficial."[56]: 36
- ^ As with many of his individual works, reading The Praise of Folly in isolation from his other works may give an idea of Erasmus' priorities different to that given by broader reading, even though he sometimes claimed to be re-presenting essentially the same thoughts in different genres.
- ^ This was a long-recognized tendency: indeed Aquinas wrote in the Preface to his Summa Theologiae that "students in this science have not seldom been hampered by what they have found written by other authors, partly on account of the multiplication of useless questions, articles, and arguments"[135]
- ^ "Erasmus saw the scholastic exercise, in its high intellectualism, as fundamentally wrong-headed."[2]: 148
- ^ Historian William McCuaig wrote " I will however defend the view that for the historian evangelism is the category to which Erasmus should rightly be assigned."[136]
Historian Hilmar Pabel wrote "an essential aspect of Erasmus' life's work (was)...his participation in the responsibility of the bishops and all pastors to win souls for Christ."[123]: 54 - ^ An comment mirrored by historian Fr James Kelsey McConica: "Erasmus commanded the allegience of the best minds of his day for a reason. It as his genius to fuse into a single stream of thought the converging currents of the late fifteenth century: humanistic textual scholarship, Florentine neo-Platonism, Netherlands piety of the devotio moderna and the Windesheim reform movement, and the manifold discontents of a middle class suddenly aware of its power and needs." [140]: 14–15
- ^ The Jesuits have been described as intermediaries for the ideas of Erasmus in the Counter-reformation, such as in Ignatius' Spiritual Exercises. Kallendorf, Hilaire (2019). "Quevedo, Reader of Erasmus". La Perinola. 23: 67–84. doi:10.15581/017.23.67-84.
- ^ "Describing Tyndale merely as an Erasmian, however, is not particularly helpful" as, theologically, he followed Luther.[145]
- ^ "As Erasmus himself has taken on more substance, achieved a firmer outline, the notion ("Erasmianism") has become more wraithlike or, at least, more problematic and lacking in definition."[2]: 227
- ^ 20th Century historian John C. Olin recounts that his Latin and Greek education at a Jesuit school in Buffalo, NY "followed substantially the Messina program" set up in 1548 in Sicily by Canesius, et. al, which used Erasmus' non-theological works, such as De copia, his letter-writing guide De conscribendis epistolis, and his Latin syntax De constructione.[160]
- ^ ..."and by Girolamo Miani’s work with children."[162]
- ^ The seven Greek "short pieces by Erasmus may have made a big difference, contributing to bringing about a tipping point in humanist linguistic culture."[166]
- ^ One historian reports that the translation was undertaken at the behest of Ven. Cardinal Cisneros (d. 1517), the Archbishop of Toledo.[173] : 51
- ^ "More than any other figure from western Europe, Erasmus helped shape the intellectual and religious agenda of the Polish kingdom during this period."[176]
- ^ "Even before Henry VIII fell out with the pope, Erasmian humanism had given some English Catholics an evangelical enthusiasm for Scripture and a distaste for popular devotions thought to be superstitious. Catholic evangelicals and moderate Protestants differed little on the authority of Scripture and the roles of faith and works in justification." Haigh, Christopher (June 2002). "Catholicism in Early Modern England: Bossy and Beyond". The Historical Journal. 45 (2): 481–494. doi:10.1017/S0018246X02002479. S2CID 163117077.
- ^ "Euery pryest under a certayne degree in scholes is bounden by the kynges Maiesties most gracious injunctions to have provided by a daye lymited for his owne study and erudicion the whole Paraphrase of D. Erasmus upon the newe testamente both in Latine and Englishe" according to translator John Old or Myles Coverdale.[181]: 361
- ^ "…from the Henrician period, when a nexus of evangelically-minded authors, printers, and publishers worked to co-opt Erasmus as a Reformer; through the early Stuart period, when Erasmus’ colloquies were adapted by Puritan writers, often portraying the “righteous” being derided by the ignorant and ill-informed; to a post-Restoration phase, which commemorated Erasmus as an orthodox figure and proponent of the via media, critiquing the Church from within."[187]
- ^ Pope later wrote of "that excellent example of that great man and great saint, Erasmus, who in the midst of calumny proceeded with all the calmness of innocence, the unrevenging spirit of primitive Christianity!" and in a letter to Jonathan Swift "Yet am I of the Religion of Erasmus, a Catholick; so I live; so I shall die; and hope one day to meet you..."[120]
- ^ publicly acknowledged by Erasmus in letter to Christóbal Mexía (1530))[192]
- ^ "It is a remarkable fact that the attitude of the popes towards Erasmus was never inimical; on the contrary, they exhibited at all times the most complete confidence in him. Paul III even wanted to make him a cardinal," Catholic Encyclopedia
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
kings
was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ For example, in 1527, Pope Clement VII wrote to the Spanish Inquisitor General that he should silence those who attacked Erasmus' non-Lutheran doctrine; and Charles V (King of Spain, King of Germany, King of Sicily, Archduke of Austria, Duke of Brabant, Holy Roman Emperor) wrote to Erasmus his support. Ledo, Jorge (29 March 2018). "Which Praise of Folly Did the Spanish Censors Read?: The Moria de Erasmo Roterodamo (c. 1532–1535) and the Libro del muy illustre y doctíssimo Señor Alberto Pio (1536) on the Eve of Erasmus' Inclusion in the Spanish Index". Erasmus Studies. 38 (1): 64–108. doi:10.1163/18749275-03801004. Erasmus corresponded with a succession of protective Inquisitor Generals of Castille/Spain in the 1510s and 1520s, consulting with them on his work and attacks on it.[14]: 72
- ^ "A.H.T. Levi notes that the preface to Erasmus’s commentary on Matthew’s Gospel, published in 1522, 'contains all the major features of Ignatius’s spirituality embryonically, including the principle of the discretio spirituum (the discernment of the spirits) and, among much else taken by Ignatius, the idea of imaginatively reconstructing the episodes of Jesus’ life for meditative prayer that was to form the body of the Spiritual Exercises.[14]: 94
Ignatius claimed to have given up reading the Enchiridion finding it cold, however historian Moshe Sluhovsky traces an influence on Ignatius' Exercises from Ven. Cardinal Cisneros' posthumous Compendio breve de ejercidos espirituales (1520) on which he in turn traces an influence from Erasmus' Enchiridion. [194] - ^ Spanish scholar Antonio Pérez-Romero has claimed a bias in New World traditionalist Spanish Catholic biographers dealing with "the apparent affinity between St. Teresa and Erasmus": "the traditional castizo line that all alleged foreign influences must be discarded. However, [...] whether St. Teresa was influenced by Erasmus or by pre-Erasmian spirituality is really irrelevant; what matters is that this spirituality went against castizo religiosity."[199]: 72
- ^ John recommended a friend, García Arias, read Erasmus, but to be discrete about it: "What happens in your heart in relation to God, be careful to keep to yourself, as a woman should keep to herself that which occurs in the marriage bed with her husband." (Decades later, Arias was prior of a monastery attacked by the Inquisition for having a cell of secret Lutherans; one of the monks who fled this persecution, Casiodoro de Reina, became a Protestant in exile and translated the Biblia del Oso and works of the irenical Sebastian Castellion.)[14]: 141–143
- ^ "As emerges from Merici’s writings and according to her friends, Angela was well read in spiritual literature (she was familiar with the Scriptures, Augustine, Gregory the Great, Jacopo da Varagine’s Life of Saints, and probably with Domenico Cavalca, Catherine of Siena, The Imitation of Christ, and Erasmus’s writings)..."[162]: 251
- ^ See Erasmus' response titled Apologia by Erasmus of Rotterdam Which Is neither Arrogant nor Biting nor Angry nor Aggressive in Which He Responds to the Two Invectives of Edward Lee- I Shall Not Add What Kind of Invectives: Let the Reader Judge for Himself.
Thomas More, who was old friends with both Erasmus and Lee, wrote to Lee "Not only do all learned men both in Louvain and here disagree with you on each of these points, but the pope, best and greatest of primates, who ought to take precedence over all learned men’s votes, disagrees with you.… For at his pious urging Erasmus obediently undertook that task, which with God’s help he has now performed twice with success, and thereby he has twice earned the pope’s special thanks and approval, as his solemn missives acknowledge."[142]: 97 - ^ "The linear paradigm puts the emphasis on a one-dimensional human history which heads to a point of perfection, where it should come to an end." However, the views of reformers such as Giles of Viterbo tended to a negative linear view of spiritual decay, or was cyclical. Semonian, Narik (2016). Desiderius Erasmus: a spoiler of the Roman Catholic tradition? (Thesis). Leiden University. Retrieved 5 December 2023.
- ^ Erasmus' riposte—against the idea that less biblicism and more scholasticism was the answer—was that Wycliffe, Hus, Luther, Oecolampadius, the Anabaptists, and Hubmaier all were trained in Scholastic theology (as to an extent was he, though he claimed to have slept through the classes, particularly on Scotus): he implied that scholastic training had more caused than prevented any argumentative, doctrinaire, unbalanced, un-historical, distracted and intellectually-proud mindset. This was an implied rebuke also to the antagonistic university Scholastic theologians, to the extent that they exhibited the same mindset.[204]
- ^ Some recent historians have suggested Erasmus may have lost his election to the Lady Margaret's professorship at Cambridge due to this rivalry between scholastics and humanists.[74]
- ^ It was not helped by Erasmus' Ciceronians nor when Erasmus insultingly made Aleander a thinly-disguised character Verpius in his collequy on the miserly Manutius household Opulentia sordida (1531).[205] Erasmus suspected Aleander tried to have him poisoned.[9]: 73
- ^ Erasmus promoted the idea of priestly seminaries, and a historian was written "Erasmus’ contribution to the reform of Catholic preaching at Trent was in fact substantial, though certainly unacknowledged and probably suppressed, and ...(Erasmus' book) Ecclesiastes anticipated and informed Catholic preaching in the inter- and post- Tridentine years."[207]
- ^ Mary herself had a decade earlier translated at least the draft of The Paraphrasis of Erasmus vpon saynt Mathew, translated into Englysh,[181]: 351 so the ban may have been a reaction the addition in the English Paraphrases of Tyndale's version of Luther's Prologue to Romans, and Swiss Protestant Leo Jud's paraphrase of the Book of Revelation, to the editions.[181]: 361
- ^ Catechisms, preaching manuals, works of St Cyril of Alexandria, and a collection of St Jerome intended to counter the anti-monastic spin given in Erasmus'.Donnelly, John (1 January 1981). "Peter Canisius". Shapers of Religious Traditions in Germany, Switzerland, and Poland, 1560-1600. doi:10.2307/j.ctt211qw0c.13.: 142
- ^ Canisius' comment against personal attacks on Reformers "With words like these, we don't cure patients, we make them incurable"[217] re-works Erasmus' "It is better to cure a sick man than to kill him."[38]
- ^ Pabel notes an ambivalent attitude: "After rehearsing the many ways in which Erasmus offended Catholic beliefs about and devotion to Mary, Canisius managed not only to think of Erasmus as more of a friend than a foe of Mary but also, bizarrely, to suggest that Erasmus was still the most distinguished voice in honour of Mary. Then he remembered that Erasmus was responsible for stirring up the controversy about Mary in the first place."
- ^ "As a consultor to the Congregation of the Index, Robert Bellarmine recommended removing Erasmus from the list of heretics of the first class, since he did not consider Erasmus a heretic, despite his errors.""Entries - Erasmus". The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the Jesuits: 11–858. 16 August 2017. doi:10.1017/9781139032780.002.
- ^ Bellarmine himself had books placed on the same Roman Index as Erasmus'. Chapter 2, Blackwell, Richard J. (1991). Galileo, Bellarmine, and the Bible. University of Notre Dame Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctvpg847x. ISBN 9780268010270. JSTOR j.ctvpg847x.
- ^ However, Ligouri re-transmits Albert Pío's libel, which Luther also repeated garbled, but which was denied by Erasmus in his lifetime, that Erasmus' statement "We dare to call the Holy Spirit true God, proceeding from the Father and the Son, something the ancients did not dare to do" as asserting it is rash to call the Holy Spirit God.[219]: ch XI In context, Erasmus' claim concerned the objective historical record, used the language of the Mass about boldness not rashness, affirmed the Trinity and, in retrospect, proposed the development of doctrine.
- ^ "The method of accommodation, central in the missionary activity of Matteo Ricci, has its theological roots in the thought of Thomas Aquinas and Erasmus of Rotterdam" according to the Dean of Studies of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions Criveller, Gianni (28 October 2010). "The Method of 'Accommodation'". Society of Jesus, Chinese Province. IHS. Retrieved 26 December 2023.
- ^ In 1688, a Jansenist book was written to English Catholic King James II, with the argument that in persecuting good Jansenists, the Church was being as wrong-headed as when it denounced critical but loyal Erasmus, blaming sleeping German bishops for the Reformation. Jansenists should be kept in the Church not repelled towards Protestantism. Erasmus' Catholic spirituality was held to be a reliable guide for King James, much to the puzzlement of John Locke, who reviewed the book. A book written in rebuttal saw nothing good in Erasmus' teachings and attacks on orthodoxy.[231]
- ^ There is an oblique reference to the likes of Erasmus, Cajetan, Cisneros, etc: "Nor must we forget how many learned men there were, chiefly among the religious orders, who did excellent work for the Bible between the Council of Vienne and that of Trent; men who, by the employment of modern means and appliances, and by the tribute of their own genius and learning, not only added to the rich stores of ancient times, but prepared the way for the succeeding century, the century which followed the Council of Trent, when it almost seemed that the great age of the Fathers had returned."
- ^ "He may fairly be taken as a type of the critical attitude of mind in which many even of the best and the most loyal Catholics of the day approached the consideration of the serious religious problems which were, at that time, forcing themselves upon the notice of the ecclesiastical authorities. Such men held that the best service a true son of the Church could give to religion was the service of a trained mind, ready to face facts as they were, convinced that the Christian faith had nothing to lose by the fullest light and the freest investigation, but at the same time protesting that they would suffer no suspicion to rest on their entire loyalty of heart to the authority of the teaching Church."[26]
- ^ A centennial analysis of The Catholic Historical Review in 2015 noted repeatedly that the Catholic scholarly interpretation of Erasmus had evolved over the century from a "pre-Enlightenment rationalist" to a "sincere Catholic" and "genuine Christian" thinker.[235]
- ^ Viz. his colleague Giles of Viterbo's comment on internality at the Fifth Lateran Council that "Religion should change men, not men religion" (i.e. doctrine) O'Malley, John W. (September 1967). "Historical Thought and the Reform Crisis of the Early Sixteenth Century". Theological Studies. 28 (3): 531–548. doi:10.1177/004056396702800304. S2CID 147394335.
- ^ Erasmus nearly attended the Fifth Lateran Council: in 1512, Bishop John Fisher invited Erasmus to join his delegation, but Erasmus was prevented by circumstance.Porter, H. C. (26 January 1989). "Fisher and Erasmus". Humanism, Reform and the Reformation: 81–102. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511665813.006. ISBN 9780521340342.
- ^ Such as the Archbishop of Canterbury John Morton's criticisms of corruption in certain abbeys and monasteries.
- ^ Historian Bruce Mansfield notes a 1936 doctoral dissertation Die Stellung des Erasmus von Rotterdam zur scholastischen Methode by a Redemptorist scholar Christian Dolfen that suggested that Erasmus was in fact not anti-Scholastic but wanted it practiced in moderation, as had Jean Gerson, and in any case was against the scholasticism of Duns Scotus not Aquinas.[2]: 11
- ^ "Thomas More was an unflagging apologist for Erasmus for the thirty-six years of their adult lives (1499–1535)."[237]
Erasmus scholar, Fr. Keith McConica notes "The whole meaning of his (More's) reply to Tyndale…is that Erasmianism did not necessarily lead to heresy, and that in itself it was a highly salutary, if tragically unsuccessful attempt to awake the Church to urgent reform."[238] - ^ Scheck 2021, op cit., pits the discernment of one pair of canonized saints (More and Fisher) against another pair (Canesius and Bellarmine), quoting historian Rudolph Padberg "They (More and Fisher) knew Erasmus, they defended him...their assessment of Erasmus weighs more heavily than the assessment of the next generation and of the period of Church revolution, which saw itself compelled to turn all instruments of peace into weapons." R. Padberg, Erasmus als Katechet (Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder, 1956) 18–19
- ^ There are other connections as well: in England in 1505, Erasmus was friendly with then-humanist Gian Pietro Carafa, later co-founder of the Theatines and much later still the Pope who first placed Erasmus; works on the Index.
- ^ Which builds on the genre Erasmus started with De Civilitate Morum Puerilium (1530), including his advice on the social necessity of knowing how to carve meat.[241]
- ^ Erasmus "surpassed his predecessors and contemporaries in his attempts to understand the Christian textual and theological tradition, not as one where we may cast back dogmatic formulations, onto first-century writers who had no notion of them, for example, but as one which developed according to the norms of particular times and places" Essary, Kirk (1 January 2014). "Review, Christine Christ-von Wedel, Erasmus of Rotterdam: Advocate of a New Christianity". Erasmus Studies. doi:10.1163/18749275-03401006.
- ^ "Origen (who was for me, as once for Erasmus, more important than Augustine) became the key to the entire Greek patristics, the early Middle Ages and, indeed, even to Hegel and Karl Barth." Hans Urs von Balthasar, My Work, apud Polanco, Rodrigo (2017). "Understanding Von Balthasar's Trilogy". Theologica Xaveriana. 67 (184): 411–430. doi:10.11144/javeriana.tx67-184.uvbt.
- ^ "De Lubac's preface to G. Chantraine's 'Mystere' et 'Philosophie du Christ' selon Erasmus (1971) presents Erasmus as, above all, a theologian who concentrated on the mysterium, philosophia Christi, and the bond between exegesis and theology. "[2] De Lubac thought Erasmus "bravely tried to relaunch spiritual exegesis at an unpropitious time." Nichols, Aidan (2007). Divine fruitfulness: a guide through Balthasar's theology beyond the trilogy. London: T & T Clark. ISBN 978-0567089335. p67
- ^ Summarized as "The evolution of Greek thought represented by Socrates ‘stands in close analogy’ with the evolution of Old Testament religiosity. Christianity is the result of their actual convergence." Gagné, Renaud (17 September 2020). "Whose Handmaiden? 'Hellenisation' between Philology and Theology". Classical Philology and Theology: 110–125. doi:10.1017/9781108860048.006. ISBN 978-1-108-86004-8. S2CID 224955316.
- ^ In Daniel Kinney's summary: "Erasmus, the servant of piety and gradual regeneration through the humble imitation of Christ, would prefer to play skeptic when it comes to questions of doctrine (like that of free will) which the Church has not settled definitively (Diatribe (On Free Will) 1 a 4), since the actual settling of dogma is outside his competence."[77]: 86
- ^ The phrase was coined after Erasmus' time. A more accurate characterization of Erasmus' views might be that while a certain docility was ideal for laypeople in theological matters, the quid pro quo was that theologians and bishops should keep the defined doctrines to a minimum. For example, see Tracy, James D. (1981). "Erasmus and the Arians: Remarks on the "Consensus Ecclesiae"". The Catholic Historical Review. 67 (1): 1–10. ISSN 0008-8080. JSTOR 25020997. or Cummings, Brian (5 December 2002). The Literary Culture of the Reformation. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198187356.003.0005.: 153
- ^ He believed that "learning and scholarship were a powerful weapon both for the cultivation of personal piety and institutional church reform." Cunningham, Lawrence S. (1 March 2002). The Catholic Heritage: Martyrs, Ascetics, Pilgrims, Warriors, Mystics, Theologians, Artists, Humanists, Activists, Outsiders, and Saints. Wipf and Stock Publishers. ISBN 978-1-57910-897-7.
- ^ Catholic dogmatic theologian Aidan Nichols however notes that, in justice, "for Erasmus himself, the doctrine of redemption (understood as beginning with the incarnation of the Word) remained central as giving the whole world a Christocentric orientation: the goal of all living things is the harmony of all things, and especially human beings, with God, a harmony realized, in principle, in Christ." Nichols, Aidan (28 August 2003). Shape of Catholic Theology: An Introduction To Its Sources, Principles, And History. A&C Black. ISBN 978-0-8264-4360-1. p.313
- ^ Even more important and impressive is how close Erasmus came in the “Paraclesis” to anticipating the teaching in Dei Verbum that Revelation is the revelation of a person." O’Malley, John W. (June 2019). "Theology before the Reformation: Renaissance Humanism and Vatican II". Theological Studies. 80 (2): 256–270. doi:10.1177/0040563919836245.
- ^ He "depicted war as inhuman and unholy, especially deplored violence by those claiming to act in God’s name, and saw peace as so necessary to the blessings of life that war should be avoided at virtually any cost. Although just war theory has historically been the most influential framework for Catholic teaching on the political use of force, it has always been secondary to the Catholic Christian commitment to peace."[248]
- ^ For which he was predictably accused of heresy by his university opponents, who claimed he was inventing a new sacrament.
- ^ Though Gregory Graybill still views Erasmus' view of grace "as metaphysical fuel for good works."[254]: c.54
- ^ According to Lutheran historian Lowell Green, "credit is due Erasmus for providing the terminology of " faith" and "grace" for the Protestant Reformation" as well as "imputation"[68]: 186–188
- ^ Luther, Martin (1857). "The Table Talk of Martin Luther". H. G. Bohn.': 283 (translation: Hazlitt) Also "I hold Erasmus of Rotterdam to be Christ's most bitter enemy." "With Erasmus it is translation and nothing else. He is never in earnest. He is ambiguous and a caviller" apud Armstrong, Dave; Catholicism, Biblical Evidence for (2 February 2017). "Luther's Insults of Erasmus in "Bondage of the Will" & "Table-Talk"". Biblical Evidence for Catholicism.
- ^ Which denied active synergism in II.6, yet seemingly allowed a passive synergism in II.17.[258]
- ^ These sources seem to be referring to the poem titled "Expostulatio Iesu cum homine suapte culpa pereunte", which has been titled in English as "Jesus Expostulating With Man" (in the Latin complete works, page 168), or more literally as "The expostulation of Jesus with mankind, perishing by its own fault" (in the English complete works, pp. 85–9).
- ^ "I have no more liking for the Alexander of the Greek historians, than I have for Homer’s Achilles. Both the one and the other present the worst example of what a sovereign should be [...] that Africa, Europe and Asia should be thrown into confusion, and so many thousands of human beings slaughtered, to please one young madman, whose ambition this solid globe would have failed to satisfy!" Erasmus, Letter to Duke Ernest of Baveria, 1517, apud Vollerthun, [21]
References
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- ^ "Letter of 6 September 1524". Collected Works of Erasmus. Vol. 10. University of Toronto Press. 1992. p. 380. ISBN 0-8020-5976-7.
- ^ a b c Kinney, Daniel (February 1983). "Georges Chantraine, S.J ., Erasme et Luther: Libre et serf arbitre, etude Historique et Theologique. Paris : Éditions Lethielleux / Presses Universitaires de Namur, 1981. XLV + 503 pp. in-8°. 270 Fr". Moreana. 20 (Number 77) (1): 85–88. doi:10.3366/more.1983.20.1.22.
- ^ Emerton, Ephraim. "Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam". Project Guttenberg. Archived from the original on 30 April 2023. Retrieved 30 April 2023.
- ^ Alfsvåg, Knut (October 1995). The Identity of Theology (Dissertation) (PDF). pp. 6, 7.
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- ^ a b Massing, 2022 (publisher's abstract)
- ^ A reference to Luther's Assertio omnium articulorum per bullam Leonis X. novissimam damnatorum (Assertion of all the Articles condemned by the Bull of Leo X, 1520), WA VII.
- ^ Collected Works of Erasmus, Controversies: De Libero Arbitrio / Hyperaspistes I, Peter Macardle, Clarence H. Miller, trans., Charles Trinkhaus, ed., University of Toronto Press, 1999, ISBN 978-0-8020-4317-7 Vol. 76, p. 203
- ^ István Pieter Bejczy (2001). Erasmus and the Middle Ages: The Historical Consciousness of a Christian Humanist. Brill. p. 172. ISBN 90-04-12218-4.
- ^ Hyperaspistes, Book I, Collected Works of Erasmus, Vol. 76, pp. 204–05.
- ^ The Reformers on the Reformation (foreign), London, Burns & Oates, 1881, pp. 13–14. [4] See also Erasmus, Preserved Smith, 1923, Harper & Brothers, pp. 391–92. [5]
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