Erasmus
Erasmus
Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (27 October 1466 – 12 July 1536), known as Erasmus of Rotterdam, or simply Erasmus, was a Dutch Renaissance humanist, Catholic priest, social critic, teacher, and theologian. He was most widely known for his critical and satirical writings. He attempted to reform the Church and because of that, was prosecuted by many people. I am going to consider for and against his deeds and make my own judgement.
Most of the opinions differ. Erasmus became humanist because of his education and morality. He was an intelligent and strong-minded person. He travelled a lot, so that he became a European scholar with huge knowledge of classical literature.
Erasmus believed that education could change the world and I strongly agree with him. In his work “Adages” (1500) he aimed to make classical learning opened to a public and more than 800 sayings in Latin and Greek were explained, which means that he really tried to achieve the goal of reflecting every aspect of the Christian humanism. Later, he created “New Testament in Greek” (1516), which was the first work available in Greek, not in Latin, with lots of notes and explanations, in cosequence of, all public got a great opportunity to access this testament and become more educated.
He lived as a devout Christian, but was concerned with the corruption that had spread through the religious positions of the Church. However, Erasmus believed that religious revolt led directly to anarchy; therefore he took the side of neither the Pope, nor the reform radical, Martin Luther. As a result, both parties, Romanists and Luther, were against him. In his “Handbook of a Christian soldier” (1503), he proclaimes the idea to restore the Church and make it more simple. The aim of this book was to educate: ‘to set down a kind of summary of a guide to living, so that, equipped with it, you may gain a mind worthy of Christ’.
The most famous Erasmus’s work is “Praise of Folly” (1511). In all his criticism
Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (27 October 1466 – 12 July 1536), known as Erasmus of Rotterdam, or simply Erasmus, was a Dutch Renaissance humanist, Catholic priest, social critic, teacher, and theologian. He was most widely known for his critical and satirical writings. He attempted to reform the Church and because of that, was prosecuted by many people. I am going to consider for and against his deeds and make my own judgement.
Most of the opinions differ. Erasmus became humanist because of his education and morality. He was an intelligent and strong-minded person. He travelled a lot, so that he became a European scholar with huge knowledge of classical literature.
Erasmus believed that education could change the world and I strongly agree with him. In his work “Adages” (1500) he aimed to make classical learning opened to a public and more than 800 sayings in Latin and Greek were explained, which means that he really tried to achieve the goal of reflecting every aspect of the Christian humanism. Later, he created “New Testament in Greek” (1516), which was the first work available in Greek, not in Latin, with lots of notes and explanations, in cosequence of, all public got a great opportunity to access this testament and become more educated.
He lived as a devout Christian, but was concerned with the corruption that had spread through the religious positions of the Church. However, Erasmus believed that religious revolt led directly to anarchy; therefore he took the side of neither the Pope, nor the reform radical, Martin Luther. As a result, both parties, Romanists and Luther, were against him. In his “Handbook of a Christian soldier” (1503), he proclaimes the idea to restore the Church and make it more simple. The aim of this book was to educate: ‘to set down a kind of summary of a guide to living, so that, equipped with it, you may gain a mind worthy of Christ’.
The most famous Erasmus’s work is “Praise of Folly” (1511). In all his criticism
Bibliography: “AQA History AS” “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desiderius_Erasmus”