Shakespeare’s poetry to music in the Ital-
ian style; Thomas Tallis and William Byrd
also experimented in musical form and
style. Edmund Spenser glorified the Tudor
dynasty in his epic poem The Faerie
Queene. The theater was brought to new
heights by William Shakespeare, Christo-
pher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, and many oth-
ers. The thorough knowledge of history
and classical literature reflected in their
plays demonstrated the broad humanistic
education that was now widely available to
English students. In the field of natural
philosophy, Sir Francis Bacon made an im-
portant contribution with his concepts of
the scientific method.
England still faced serious threats from
the continent. England’s support of Prot-
estant rebels in the Netherlands prompted
the Spanish king, Philip II, to send a pow-
erful armada of warships to invade and
conquer England. The Spanish Armada
was turned away in 1588 by storms and
outmaneuvered by skilled English naviga-
tors. In the meantime, England was join-
ing the era of exploration, sending ships
to North America to search for a north-
west passage to Asia and establishing
American colonies after the turn of the
seventeenth century. These voyages ex-
panded the kingdom’s trade and stimu-
lated its economy, as chartered companies
such as the East India Company, the Hud-
son Bay Company, and the Muscovy Com-
pany set up operations in Asia, North
America, and Russia.
SEEALSO: Bacon, Francis; Elizabeth I;
Henry VIII; Marlowe, Christopher; Mil-
ton, John; Shakespeare, William
Erasmus, Desiderius ........................
(ca. 1466–1536)
A scholar, theologian, and linguist of the
Netherlands, whose ideas on the Bible and
the Catholic Church attempted to recon-
cile the skepticism of humanists, the rebel-
lion of Protestants, and the doctrines of
the Catholic Church. Born in Rotterdam,
he was the illegitimate son of Roger Ger-
ard, a priest, and the daughter of a physi-
cian. He was educated in a religious com-
munity known as the Brethren of the
Common Life. After the death of his par-
ents during a plague epidemic in 1483 he
entered a monastery, but found the strict
vows and poverty of a monk’s life not to
his liking. His ability as a scholar and lin-
guist spread his name in the Low Coun-
tries, and he won an appointment as a sec-
retary to the bishop of Cambrai, who sent
Erasmus to study at the College de Mon-
tague in Paris. Erasmus was ordained as a
priest in 1492 but spent the rest of his life
writing, publishing, and in intellectual de-
bate with hundreds of scholars, humanists,
and princes throughout Europe.
After completing his studies, Erasmus
traveled to England in 1499 to gain the
friendship of scholars such as Sir Thomas
More and churchmen such as the arch-
bishop of Canterbury. His bookAdages,
published in 1500, collected classical writ-
ings and proverbs, while he also published
translations from ancient Greek sources
including the plays of Euripides and the
short biographies of Plutarch. Under the
influence of English humanists, Erasmus
wroteHandbook of the Militant Christian
in 1503, calling for Christian believers to
return to the simple piety of the apostles
and followers of Christ.
As a young man Erasmus also made
several voyages to Italy, where he was
awarded an honorary doctorate from the
University of Turin and where he worked
as an editor for a Venetian printing house.
Dismayed by the wars Pope Julius II was
carrying out to conquer cities for the Pa-Erasmus, Desiderius