Erasmus's Beloved Research Paper

Beloved. This word has a deep meaning behind it, but it does not hold great significance until it is in the hands of someone with the capability to use it. Erasmus was this someone. With his name having the literal meaning of “beloved” this word was embodied off of Erasmus, affecting all of Northern Europe. Erasmus was a man of astonishing intellect and was one of Europe's greatest thinkers. Even though Erasmus was a man of great wisdom, this was not what made him dearly loved. Rather, the movement he created in Europe did so. Through reforming the Catholic Church, writing educational books, or simply bringing people closer to the truth of Christianity, he was a man with the beloved intent to fix a corrupted worldview lingering through the

Erasmus greatly influenced the educational worldview of the Renaissance as a scholar. Throughout his life, Erasmus was an opinion maker. His thoughts were best classified under “Christian Humanism,” a philosophy of life, combining Christian thought with classical traditions. He embraced the humanistic belief in an individual’s capacity for self-improvement and the fundamental role of education. The thrust of Erasmus’ educational program was the promotion of the “philosophy of Christ” (Rummel). Furthermore, in Erasmus's work the De Copia, which is a rhetoric textbook where Erasmus instructs how to write in a more embellishing style, and gives a variety of speech and writings. In this textbook, he gives helpful exercises on developing a rich and full speech of writing (Sanders). Erasmus

First and foremost, In Praise of Folly was one of Erasmus’s most prominent books and was a satire attacking the Roman Catholic religion. Where he criticizes many popular Catholic Church practices through the personification of Folly. This book explores the ideas that all humans worship Folly with the argument that her main worshipers include those associated with the Catholic Church. For instance, monks, priests, theologians, popes, and cardinals (“BookRags”). Erasmus believes that the Christian religion bears aspects of folly as well. As he states in In Praise of Folly, "The entire Christian religion seems to bear a certain natural affinity to folly, and to relate far less clearly to wisdom" (Erasmus). Erasmus was a influential theologian and well-known Christian. Even though, he saw that even his own religion holds many corruptions because of the association Christianity has with the Catholic Church. Early in his life, Erasmus was advised to become a monk, but, soon enough, he exposed the corruptions that were involved in the monastery. Erasmus wrote, A monk may be a glutton, a drunkard, a whoremonger, an ignorant, stupid, malignant, envious brute, but he has broken no vow, he is within his holy obedience ” (Short Studies on Great Subjects). Erasmus tried to embrace being in a monastery, but the complications that monks embodied had him reject his time as a monk.