Desiderius Erasmus
- This is a preview of the essay.
To view the full text you must login!
Desiderius Erasmus was a humanist scholar at a time when the church was corrupt, there were few new ideas, and the interest in change was little to none. Throughout his life, Erasmus worked toward the rekindling of Europe's demand for new thoughts and new morals. He accomplished this through his many books, documents, and teachings that he spread throughout Europe. Erasmus also set the stage for Martin Luther's reformation of the church, and Erasmus might just have done it himself if Martin Luther's 95 theses hadn't beaten him to it. Erasmus is now proclaimed by experts to be "the greatest scholar of his age" (Williams 149). He was also the most influential person of 500-1800 because he managed to bring back an interest in learning and he set the stage for the reformation of the most powerful institution in the world.
Erasmus was born in Rotterdam on October 27, 1469. There is much controversy over the actual year in which he was born because he was the illegitimate son of a physician's daughter and a man who later became a monk. This put a foul taste in his mouth from the start, and Erasmus "seldom mentions [his childhood] without bitterness" (Faludy 1). The first school he attended was called the "Brothers of the Common Life...