Erasmus

Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (/ˌdɛzɪˈdɪəriəs ɪˈræzməs/; Dutch: [ˌdeːziˈdeːriʏs eˈrɑsmʏs]; English: Erasmus of Rotterdam or Erasmus;[note 1] 28 October 1466 – 12 July 1536) was a Dutch philosopher and Catholic theologian who is considered one of the greatest scholars of the Northern Renaissance.[2][3][4]

Erasmus
Portrait of Erasmus of Rotterdam (1523) by Hans Holbein the Younger
Born	c. 28 October 1466 Rotterdam or Gouda, Burgundian Netherlands, Holy Roman Empire
Died	12 July 1536(1536-07-12) (aged 69) Basel, Old Swiss Confederacy
Other names	Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus Erasmus of Rotterdam
Academic background
Education	Queens' College, Cambridge University of Paris University of Turin (DD, 1506)
Academic advisors	Paulus Bombasius and Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples (epistolary correspondents)
Influences	Epicureanism Cicero Socrates Plato Aristotle Augustine of Hippo Thomas Aquinas Jerome[1] Dante Giovanni Pico della Mirandola John Colet Alexander Hegius Jan Standonck
Academic work
Era	Renaissance philosophy 16th-century philosophy
School or tradition	Christian philosophy Renaissance humanism
Institutions	University of Leuven
Notable students	Damião de Góis
Main interests	Philosophy of religion Criticism of Protestantism Political philosophy Philosophy of education Philology
Notable works	In Praise of Folly Handbook of a Christian Knight On Civility in Children Julius Excluded The Education of a Christian Prince
Notable ideas	Syncretism Erasmian pronunciation
Influenced	Thomas More John Fisher Pius V Peter Canisius Robert Bellarmine Ignatius of Loyola Francis Xavier Philip Neri Charles Borromeo Teresa of Ávila Francis De Sales Martin Luther Henry VIII John Calvin Huldrych Zwingli William Tyndale Jacob Milich Wolfgang Capito John Colet John Milton John Henry Newman
Ecclesiastical career
Religion	Christianity
Church	Catholic Church
Ordained	25 April 1492

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A Catholic priest, he was an important figure in classical scholarship who wrote in a spontaneous and natural Latin style.[5] Among humanists he was given the sobriquet "Prince of the Humanists", and has been called "the crowning glory of the Christian humanists".[6] Using humanist techniques for working on texts, he prepared important new Latin and Greek editions of the New Testament, which raised questions that would be influential in the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. He also wrote On Free Will,[7] In Praise of Folly, Handbook of a Christian Knight, On Civility in Children, Copia: Foundations of the Abundant Style and many other works.

Erasmus lived against the backdrop of the growing European religious Reformation. He remained a member of the Catholic Church all his life, remaining committed to reforming the Church and its clerics' abuses from within.[8][9] He also held to the doctrine of synergism, which some Reformers (Calvinists) rejected in favor of the doctrine of monergism. His middle-road (via media) approach disappointed, and even angered, scholars in both camps.

Erasmus died suddenly in Basel in 1536 while preparing to return to Brabant and was buried in Basel Muenster, the former cathedral of the city.[10]