Desiderius Erasmus

Born: 1466, Rotterdam, the Netherlands Died: 1536, Basel, Switzerland

Major Works: Adages (1500), Enchiridion (1504), Praise of Folly (1509), The Education of a Christian Prince (1516), Novum instrumentum (1506) Major Ideas: Perfectibility is intrinsic in human beings. Intrinsic perfectibility implies the power of self-determination and moral achievement. The exemplar of moral achievement is Jesus Christ, whose life of humility, patience, and love is open for all Christians to imitate. Interior piety, scriptural exegesis, and study of classical and patristic writings are necessary in the imitation of Christ. Imitating the life of Jesus Christ is a philosophy, the "philosophia Christi," which ought to inspire secular and religious leaders to govern with compassion for the wellbeing of all Christian people.

Desiderius Erasmus was a man for his times in his humanistic interest in ancient writers and concern for revitalizing Christianity in the spirit of devotio moderna. Ultimately, however, he proved to be outside of his time; his call for moderation and compassion was drowned out by the raucous cries of reformers and rebels who regarded the middle path as cowardly. Erasmus dedicated his life to cultivating the mind for a rational program of action and the heart for generosity and tolerance. His abiding compassion was nurtured early in his studies; from 1478 to 1483, Erasmus attended the school at Deventer that Gerard Groote had founded, establishing there the devotio moderna that encouraged inner piety, a personal relationship with God, and reliance on the Bible for moral and spiritual guidance. Groote had also founded the Brethren of the Common Life, a lay congregation that was committed to education and living out the ideals of devotio moderna. The years that Erasmus spent at Deventer, which is known as the seedbed of Dutch humanism, obviously left their mark; throughout his life Erasmus remained true to the ideal of a simple, interiorized Christianity in the face of religious practices that fomented superstition, bigotry, and fanaticism, and a

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church that gave high marks to blind adherence to doctrine and empty exterior piety. These early years also introduced Erasm us to Latin, whetting his appetite for the study of classical literature that he would pursue in the monastery of the Augustinian Canons at Steyn, where he entered in 1487. The life of the monk did not attract Erasmus, but for a young man who could not afford to go to a university, the monastery had its advantages. Erasmus was not to remain enclosed, however; the year following his ordination in 1492, he left the monastery to accept the post of secretary to the Bishop of Cambray, Henry of Bergen. With his departure from monastic life, Erasmus embarked on the career of a Peripatetic humanist in search of a patron, which took him to the most celebrated universities of Europe and England. Change of patronage was not necessarily Erasmus's preferred course, and he often bemoaned the financial uncertainties that forced him to seek yet another protector. Frail of constitution and emotionally vulnerable, Erasmus's life was one of hardship. Yet in one respect he did not waver; his commitment to evangelical humanism was his polestar. His comprehensive knowledge of the classics as well as familiarity with classical languages, which enabled him to develop as a stylist in Latin such as to rival the eminent writers among the ancients, always served the larger goal of encouraging growth in the moral life and interiorized Christianity. The spirit of evangelical humanism informs all of Erasmus's writings beginning with the popular Adages, the number of some 800 proverbs in the first edition eventually being increased to more than 5,000 Drawn from Greek and Latin texts, and to a lesser extent from the Bible, the proverbs collected by Erasmus probe the human condition, providing a basis on which to build the edifice of self-knowledge that is necessary for the Christian in search of moral excellence. Erasmus's humanism extended to the study of the church fathers as well as to the ancients. In the Enchiridion, the Greek word for a poniard and a manual, Erasmus adds the authority of Jerome, Ambrose, Augustine and Origen to that of classical orators, poets, and philosophers in order to fashion a program for a Christian life centered on the example of Jesus Christ. In a letter to the humanist John Colet, Erasmus explained that he had written the Enchiridion to persuade followers of external ceremonies and observances to true inner piety; he regarded his work as an act of piety. Not only does Erasmus advocate interiorized Christianity on the individual level but he expands his evangelical message to include nations whose foremost concern ought to be social harmony and peace among themselves In his admiration for Origen, Erasmus was influenced by the Greek Father's Neoplatonism, and his program of interior piety was further indebted to the Neoplatonism that he encountered among such humanists as Pico della Mir andola and John Vitrier. Praise of Folly The note of Neoplatonism rings true in the evangelical humanism of Erasmus's most famous work, Praise of Folly. Although Erasmus himself did not regard the work as his

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masterpiece, its popularity in his time and the fact that in the large corpus of Erasmian writings it is the only text that has survived with its appeal intact secures for it first place. The hallmarks of Erasmus the humanist are instantly recognizable: mastery of the ancients, scriptural exegesis, criticism of contemporary religious practices, call to the inner life. There is the additional attraction of the satirical mode, probably inspired by the second-century Greek wit Lucian, by which Erasmus mediates the themes of Christian piety. Praise of Folly is no exercise in satire. The text is a complex interfacing of at least four voices, rather like a Bach fugue, each identifiable in turn and deftly played one against the other. Were the explicit mockery of the first voice (Folly's as she introduces herself as humanity's principal benefactor along with such attendants as Self-Love and Flattery) to remain in the same key, Erasmus would have exhausted his parody in brief time and fallen short of the spiritual heights he exhorts Christians to attain. The light-hearted tone gives way suddenly when, less than midway through the text, Erasmus shows not the fun of folly in the illusions that allow society to function but its cruelty, as old men and women, shorn of their illusions, are depicted in grotesque, aging bodies, pursuing the pleasures of the young. These voices play in counterpoint until gaity and cruelty are stilled by Erasmus's serious pronouncements against the abuses and pretensions of those in positions of authority, both secular and religious. No one is safe from Erasmus's attack: theologian and monk, cardinal, pontiff, king and courtier- none escapes criticism. The theologians he contrasts with the apostles, who made no such stupid distinctions as between infused and acquired charity or actual and sanctifying grace but who taught charity and grace through the example of their lives. Theologians waste their time in the schools with such nonsense, although "they believe that just as in the poets Atlas holds up the sky on his shoulders, they sup port the entire Church on the props of their syllogisms and without them it would collapse." If Christ is the positive example for pious Christians, the monks are the negative ones, for their concern is not to be like Christ but only to be unlike each other. Nor do bishops, cardinals, and pontiffs offer better models for the Christian who would turn inward to cultivate the virtues of humility and charity. Bishops play the overseer only with respect to their revenues; cardinals put ambition for wealth and prestige above inner riches; and pontiffs glory in war rather than the cross. The picture that Erasmus paints of the Church is dreary at best. He does nothing to soften the blows of his frontal attack on the corruption of religion, nor does he hide behind the skirts of Folly. Indeed, the figure of Folly serves his criticism well. As a parody of herself, Folly entices the reader with bantering humor to scrutinize himself and society, setting up the reader, as it were, for the harshness of Erasmus's voice when he summons Christian leaders to an accounting of their ways. Were Praise of Folly to end on this note of harsh criticism, Erasmus's program of Christian humanism would be incomplete. Satire is the material with which he constructs his edifice of Christian humanism, but the spirit that lights and warms the building is revealed only in the concluding pages as Erasmus evokes for our moral and spiritual edification the person of the good fool.

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In the little people--children, women, simpletons, fishermen--Erasmus seeks his good fool, the one who embraces the cross and who, like Jesus Christ, submits to its folly. For who in their right mind--the mind in accord with the values of worldly wealth, power, and prestige-would choose poverty, suffering, and self-sacrifice? Yet, Erasmus reminds his audience, if men and women are to embrace Christianity, they must do so with heart rather than mind, becoming foolish in the eyes of the world. Like Jesus who suffered the ignominy of crucifixion, Christians are to clasp the cross, imitating their Lord in patience, humility, and compassion. Prizes for the Christian do not come in the form of money or high office, but there is in this lifetime a supreme reward, which is a kind of madness. In describing divine madness in the last chapter of Praise of Folly, Erasmus raises the vision of the Christian life far above the dirt and stench of the fools of hypocrisy and self-love. In a Neoplatonic flight of the spirit, he shows the soul absorbed in the supreme Mind, delighting in the ineffable goodness of God, and savoring a foretaste of the eternal reward. The souls who taste spiritual delights experience a kind of madness. Fools for Christ, they taste divine folly. In an ingenious play on the meaning of folly, Erasmus thus strips the worldly of their illusions, exposing them for the bad fools they are and pleads eloquently for the life of the good fool, the person who embraces the folly of the cross. The scholarly apparatus that supports the message of Christian piety in Praise of Folly is clearly visible in subsequent works, notably in Erasmus's Greek version of the New Testament and the edition of Saint Jerome's letters. Erasmus shared the concern of contemporary humanists that ordinary Christians have access to the New Testament so as to avoid the superstition that corrupted the ignorant masses. Applying modern exegetical techniques, Erasmus produced a text in Greek that pointed up the errors in the Latin Vulgate, which had been the official text of Scripture since the fourth century. The effect of the Greek text was to call into question the authority of the Church as mediator of the relationship of God and human beings; Erasmus envisioned a literate Christian populace who would derive immediate guidance from Scripture, thus taking upon themselves responsibility for their moral perfectibility and, to a great extent, salvation of their souls. A similar intent informs his work on Saint Jerome, whom the Brethren of the Common Life revered as their patron. As Erasmus sought to reform Christian life through study of ancient literature and Scripture, so he saw in Jerome a precursor in his dedication to learning and interior piety. By 1516, when both the Novum Testamentum and Jerome's letters were published, Erasmus was at the height of his popularity. The most acclaimed humanist of the day, he was honored by monarch and pope; Charles V, whose education was based on Erasmian principles, was eager to claim the celebrated humanist, but to no avail. Invited to the newly established but already brilliant university at Alcala de Henares, Erasmus confided to his friend, Thomas More, that Spain held no attraction for him. The invitation was, however, a pledge of distinction for Erasmus, and had the ensuing years been as beneficent as the emperor who preferred the invitation, Erasmus's later years would have been less painful. Events were not to grace Erasmus with the peace for which he longed. Added to the continuing uncertainties about money was the threat of schism in the Christian world. Even

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though he continued to compose masterly commentaries on the Christian life, inspired by the classics and Scripture, his spirit was unsettled and his mind distracted by the religious controversies that erupted around him. Against his will, he was drawn' into the arena, answering Luther's position on grace' and free will with a disquisition on free will in 1524. Relying on the combined authority of Scripture, tradition, and reason, Erasmus defended his stance on free will, reaffirming his belief in moral 'autonomy for the individual as well as his fidelity to the Catholic church. Erasmus could neither find a place for himself in the Europe of his day nor make one, for he was both within his age and outside of it. True to the humanistic impulse of the sixteenth century, Erasmus believed in the power of rational persuasion, but his very commitment to reason rendered him powerless against the forces of intolerance, fear, and dissension that ultimately ruled the day. Although his plea for moderation and enlightened piety was stilled by voices competing for power at the expense of charity, to those who value rational discourse refined in the crucible of learning and compassion, Erasmus was then and remains today an exemplary human being. Further Reading Bainton, Roland H. Erasmus of Christendom. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1969. A classic study on Erasmus's life and work, the author's account is comprehensive and insightful. DeMolen, Richard L., ed. Essays on the Works of Erasmus. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1978. The variety of emphases in the essays reflects the range and depth of Erasmian thought. Huizinga, John A. Erasmus and the Age of Reformation. New York: Harper & Row, 1957. A thoroughly readable portrait of Erasmus the humanist beleaguered by religious controversy. Levi, A. H. T. "Introduction" to Praise of Folly. Translated by Betty Radice. New York: Penguin Books, 1971. The author concisely explains Erasmus's humanism within a complex of tradition and innovation in philosophy. Spitz, Lewis W. The Religious Renaissance of the German Humanists. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1963. A fine study of Erasmus, Neoplatonism, and the devotio moderna. __________________ This article is by Mary E. Giles, and is taken from Great Thinkers of the Western World, Annual 1999 p129. COPYRIGHT HarperCollins Publishers 1999.

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