CHAPTER IV Erasmus and MoreIN northern countries the Renaissance began later than in Italy, and soon became entangled with
the Reformation. But there was a brief period, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, during
which the new learning was being vigorously disseminated in France, England, and Germany,
without having become involved in theological controversy. This northern Renaissance was in
many ways very different from that of Italy. It was not anarchic or amoral; on the contrary, it was
associated with piety and public virtue. It was much interested in applying standards of
scholarship to the Bible, and in obtaining a more accurate text than that of the Vulgate. It was less
brilliant and more solid than its Italian progenitor, less concerned with personal display of
learning, and more anxious to spread learning as widely as possible.
Two men, Erasmus and Sir Thomas More, will serve as exemplars of the northern Renaissance.
They were close friends, and had much in common. Both were learned, though More less so than
Erasmus; both despised the scholastic philosophy; both aimed at ecclesiastical reform from
within, but deplored the Protestant schism when it came; both were witty, humourous, and highly
skilled writers. Before Luther's revolt, they were leaders of thought, but after it the world was too
violent, on both sides, for men of their type. More suffered martyrdom, and Erasmus sank into
ineffectiveness.
Neither Erasmus nor More was a philosopher in the strict sense of the word. My reason for
speaking of them is that they illustrate the temper of a pre-revolutionary age, when there is a
widespread demand for moderate reform, and timid men have not yet been frightened into reaction
by extremists. They exemplify also the dislike of everything systematic in theology or philosophy
which characterized the reaction against scholasticism.