Life of Erasmus

Life of Erasmus

Erasmus of Rotterdam was born on October 27, probably in 1466. His

father belonged to Gouda, a little town near Rotterdam, and after some

schooling there and an interval during which he was a chorister in

Utrecht Cathedral, Erasmus was sent to Deventer, to the principal

school in the town, which was attached to St. Lebuin's Church. The

renewed interest in classical learning which had begun in Italy in the

fourteenth century had as yet been scarcely felt in Northern Europe,

and education was still dominated by the requirements of Philosophy

and Theology, which were regarded as the highest branches of

knowledge. A very high degree of subtlety in thought and argument had

been reached, and in order that the youthful student might be fitted

to enter this arena, it was necessary that he should be trained from

the outset in its requirements. In the schools, in consequence, little

attention was paid to the form in which thought was expressed,

provided that the thought was correct: in marked contrast to the

classical ideal, which emphasized the importance of expression, in

just appreciation of the fact that thought expressed in obscure or

inadequate words, fails to reach the human mind. The mediaeval

position had been the outcome of a reaction against the spirit of

later classical times, which had sacrificed matter to form. And now

the pendulum was swinging back again in a new attempt to adjust the

rival claims.

The education which Erasmus received at Deventer was still in thraldom

to the mediaeval ideal. Greek was practically unknown, and in Latin

all that was required of the studen...

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final shape they are a series of lively dialogues in which characters,

often thinly disguised, discuss the burning questions of the day with

lightness and humour. In all subsequent times they have been a

favourite book for school reading; and some of Shakespeare's lines are

an echo of Erasmus.

In 1529 religious dissension drove him from Basel and he took refuge

at Freiburg in the Breisgau, which was still untouched by the

Reformation. There he worked on, in the intervals of severe illness;

his courage never failed him and he was comforted by the affection of

his friends. In 1535 he returned again to Basel, to be at hand in the

printing of a work on preaching, the Ecclesiastes, to which he had

given his recent efforts; and there death, which for twelve years had

not seemed far away, overtook him on July 12, 1536.