Desiderius Erasmus

Desiderius Erasmus was born in Rotterdam, the son of a priest, and was orphaned young. He was educated at schools of the Brethren of the Common Life and entered a monastery of Augustinian canons, where he was ordained a priest, but he found monastic life confining and left to study in Paris. He became the most famous scholar in Europe, writing in elegant Latin and traveling among England, France, Italy, Switzerland and the Low Countries. A friend of Thomas More, he wrote The Praise of Folly in More's house in 1509, a satire in which Folly mocks the vanity of scholars, monks and princes. In 1516 he published the first printed Greek New Testament, with a fresh Latin translation, urging that the Scriptures be read by ordinary people in their own languages. He called for reform of the church through learning and simple piety. Many said that Erasmus laid the egg that Luther hatched, but he would not break with Rome, and in 1524 he debated Luther in his book On Free Will. He died in Basel in 1536.

Desiderius Erasmus is also an author in the library: author page and works.

Faith: Catholic humanist whose works the Catholic Church placed on the Index of Forbidden Books. Source: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy