1825; Ad. Müller, Hamburg, 1828 (Leben des E. v. Rotterdam ... Eine gekrönte Preisschrift;
comp. the excellent review of Ullmann in the "Studien und Kritiken," 1829, No. I.); Glasius
(prize essay in Dutch), The Hague, 1850; Stichart (Er. v. Rotterd., seine Stellung zur Kirche
und zu den Kirchl. Bewegungen seiner Zeit), Leipz. 1870; Durand de Laur (Erasme, précurseur
et initiateur de l’esprit moderne), Par. 1873, 2 vols.; R. B. Drummond (Erasmus, his Life and
Character), Lond. 1873, 2 vols.; G. Feugère (Er., étude sur sa vie et ses ouvrages), Par. 1874;
Pennington, Lond. 1875; Milman (in Savonarola, Erasmus, and other Essays), Lond. 1870;
Nisard, Rénaissance et réforme, Paris, 1877.—Also Woker: De Erasmi Rotterodami studiis
irenicis. Paderborn, 1872. W. Vischer: Erasmiana. Programm zur Rectoratsfeier der Univers.
Basel. Basel, 1876. "Erasmus" in Ersch and Gruber, vol. XXXVI. (by Erhard); in the "Allg.
Deutsche Biogr." VI. 160–180 (by Kämmel); in Herzog,1 IV. 114–121 (by Hagenbach), and
in Herzog,2 IV. 278–290 (by R. Stähelin); in the "Encycl. Brit.," 9th ed., VIII. 512–518.
Schlottmann: Erasmus redivivus, Hal. 1883. Comp. Lit. in § 72.
The quarrel between King Henry and Luther was the occasion of a far more serious controversy
and open breach between Erasmus and the Reformation. This involved a separation of humanism
from Protestantism.
The Position of Erasmus.
Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam^499 (1466–1536) was the king among scholars in the early
part of the sixteenth century. He combined native genius, classical and biblical learning, lively
imagination, keen wit, and refined taste. He was the most cultivated man of his age, and the admired
leader of scholastic Europe from Germany to Italy and Spain, from England to Hungary. The visible
unity of the Catholic Church, and the easy interchange of ideas through the medium of one learned
language, explain in part his unique position. No man before or since acquired such undisputed
sovereignty in the republic of letters. No such sovereignty is possible nowadays when distinguished
scholars are far more numerous, and when the Church is divided into hostile camps.^500
Erasmus shines in the front rank of the humanists and forerunners of the Reformation, on
the dividing line between the middle ages and modern times. His great mission was to revive the
spirit of classical and Christian antiquity, and to make it a reforming power within the church. He
cleared the way for a work of construction which required stronger hands than his. He had no
creative and no organizing power. The first period of his life till 1524 was progressive and
reformatory; the second, till his death, 1536, was conservative and reactionary.
He did more than any of his contemporaries to prepare the church for the Reformation by
the impulse he gave to classical, biblical, and patristic studies, and by his satirical exposures of
ecclesiastical abuses and monastic ignorance and bigotry. But he stopped half way, and after a
period of, hesitation he openly declared war against Luther, thereby injuring both his own reputation
and the progress of the movement among scholars. He was a reformer against reform, and in league
(^499) His double name is a Latin and Greek translation of his father’s Christian name Gerard (Roger), or Gerhard = Gernhaber or
Liebhaber,i.e., Beloved, in mediaeval Latin Desiderius, in Greek Erasmus, or rather Erasmius from ̓ΕράσμιοςLovely. He found out the
mistake when he became familiar with Greek, and accordlingly gave his godson, the son of his publisher Froben, the name John Erasmius
(Erasmiolus). In dedicating to him an improved edition of his Colloquies (1524), he calls this book "ἐράσμιον, the delight of the Muses
who foster sacred things." " He was equally unfortunate in the additional epithet Roterodamus, instead of Roterodamensis. But he was
innocent of both mistakes.
(^500) Drummond (II. 337) calls Erasmus "the greatest luminary of his age, the greatest scholar of any age." But his learning embraced
only the literature in the Greek and Latin languages.