Erasmus ( 1466-1536) was born at Rotterdam. * He was illegitimate, and invented a
romantically untrue account of the circumstances of his birth. In fact, his father was a priest, a
man of some learning, with a knowledge of Greek. His parents died before he was grown up,
and his guardians (apparently because they had embezzled his money) cajoled him into
becoming a monk at the monastery of Steyr, a step which he regretted all the rest of his life.
One of his guardians was a school-master, but knew less Latin than Erasmus already knew as a
school-boy; in reply to a Latin epistle from the boy, the school-master wrote: "If you should
write again so elegantly, please to add a commentary.''
In 1493, he became secretary to the bishop of Cambrai, who was Chancellor of the Order of the
Golden Fleece. This gave him the opportunity to leave the monastery and travel, though not to
Italy, as he had hoped. His knowledge of Greek was as yet very slight, but he was a highly
accomplished Latinist; he particularly admired Lorenzo Valla, on account of his book on the
elegancies of the Latin language. He considered latinity quite compatible with true devotion,
and instanced Augustine and Jerome--forgetting, apparently, the dream in which Our Lord
denounced the latter for reading Cicero.
He was for a time at the University of Paris, but found nothing there that was of profit to
himself. The university had had its great days, from the beginning of scholasticism to Gerson
and the conciliar movement, but now the old disputes had become arid. Thomists and Scotists,
who jointly were called the Ancients, disputed against Occamists, who were called the
Terminists, or Moderns. At last, in 1482, they were reconciled, and made common cause
against the humanists, who were making headway in Paris outside university circles. Erasmus
hated the scholastics, whom he regarded as superannuated and antiquated. He mentioned in a
letter that, as he wanted to obtain the doctor's degree, he tried to say nothing either graceful or
witty. He did not really like any philosophy, not even Plato and Aristotle, though they, being
ancients, had to be spoken of with respect.
In 1499 he made his first visit to England, where he liked the fashion of kissing girls. In
England he made friends with Colet and More, who encouraged him to undertake serious work
rather than
* As regards the life of Erasmus, I have mainly followed the excellent biography by
Huizinga.