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76-653: Desiderius Erasmus was a Christian humanist and reformer, in the sense of checking clerical abuses, honoring inner piety , considering reason as meaningful in theology as in other ways. He also promoted the notion that Christianity must remain under one church, both theologically and literally, under the body of the Catholic Church . Since his time, irenicism has postulated removing conflicts between different Christian creeds by way of mediation and gradual amalgamation of theological differences. Erasmus wrote extensively on topics related generally to peace, and an irenic approach

152-430: A latitudinarian position in theology, derived from a review of church history. Anthony Milton writes: [Ecumenical historians] have tended to assume the existence of an irenical 'essentialism' in which the association of Christian unity with peace, toleration and ecumenism is presupposed. [...] In fact, most thinkers of this period accepted that religious unity was a good idea, in the same way that they believed that sin

228-748: A peace treaty ending the Eighty Years' War that was not part of the Peace of Westphalia. Münster had been, since its re-Catholicism in 1535, a strictly mono-denominational community. It housed the Chapter of the Prince-Bishopric of Münster . Only Roman Catholic worship was permitted, while Calvinism and Lutheranism were prohibited. Sweden preferred to negotiate with the Holy Roman Empire in Osnabrück, which

304-409: A "passionate attachment" ( Latin : fervidos amores ), with a fellow canon, Servatius Rogerus, and wrote a series of love letters in which he called Rogerus "half my soul", writing that "it was not for the sake of reward or out of a desire for any favour that I have wooed you both unhappily and relentlessly. What is it then? Why, that you love him who loves you." This correspondence contrasts with

380-532: A Christian Knight , On Civility in Children , Copia: Foundations of the Abundant Style and many other popular and pedagogical works. Erasmus lived against the backdrop of the growing European religious reformations . He developed a biblical humanistic theology in which he advocated the religious and civil necessity both of peaceable concord and of pastoral tolerance on matters of indifference . He remained

456-659: A deep aversion to exclusive or excessive Aristotelianism and Scholasticism and started finding work as a tutor/chaperone to visiting English and Scottish aristocrats. There is no record of him graduating. Patrons : William Blount  • William Warham  • John Fisher  • John Longland  • Margaret Beaufort  • Catherine of Aragon Erasmus stayed in England at least three times. In between he had periods studying in Paris, Orléans, Leuven and other cities. In 1499 he

532-411: A disagreement with the friars over rent that caused bad blood. He assisted his friend John Colet by authoring Greek textbooks and securing members of staff for the newly established St Paul's School and was in contact when Colet gave his notorious 1512 Convocation sermon which called for a reformation of ecclesiastical affairs. At Colet's instigation, Erasmus started work on De copia . In 1511,

608-494: A full purse from his generous friends, to allow him to complete his studies. However, he had been provided with bad legal advice by his friends: the English Customs officials confiscated all the gold and silver, leaving him with nothing except a night fever that lasted several months. Opponents : Noël Béda (or Bédier) Following his first trip to England, Erasmus returned first to poverty in Paris, where he started to compile

684-527: A given time as any other man he had ever met. In 1507, according to his letters, he studied advanced Greek in Padua with the Venetian natural philosopher, Giulio Camillo . He found employment tutoring and escorting Scottish nobleman Alexander Stewart , the 24-year old Archbishop of St Andrews, through Padua, Florence, and Siena Erasmus made it to Rome in 1509, visiting some notable libraries and cardinals, but having

760-550: A heavy toll in money and lives. The Eighty Years' War was a prolonged struggle for the independence of the Protestant-majority Dutch Republic (the modern Netherlands), supported by Protestant-majority England, against Catholic-dominated Spain and Portugal. The Thirty Years' War was the most deadly of the European wars of religion , centred on the Holy Roman Empire. The war, which developed into four phases, included

836-577: A kind of conversion experience, and introduced him to Origen . In 1502, Erasmus went to Brabant, ultimately to the university at Louvain. In 1504 he was hired by the leaders of the Brabantian "Provincial States" to deliver one of his few public speeches, a very long formal panegyric for the Philip "the Fair" , Duke of Burgundy and later King of Castille: the first half being the conventional extravagant praise, but

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912-691: A large number of domestic and foreign players, siding either with the Catholic League or the Protestant Union (later Heilbronn League ). The Peace of Prague (1635) ended most religious aspects of the war, and the French–Habsburg rivalry took over prominence. With between 4.5 million and 8 million dead in the Thirty Years' War alone, and decades of constant warfare, the need for peace became increasingly clear. Peace negotiations between France and

988-454: A less active association with Italian scholars than might have been expected. In 1509, William Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Lord Mountjoy lured him back to England, now ruled by what was hoped would be a wise and benevolent king ( Henry VIII ) educated by humanists. Warham and Mountjoy sent Erasmus £10 to cover his expenses on the journey. On his trip over the Alps via Splügen Pass, and down

1064-507: A member of the Catholic Church all his life, remaining committed to reforming the church from within. He promoted the traditional doctrine of synergism , which some prominent reformers such as Martin Luther and John Calvin rejected in favor of the doctrine of monergism . His influential middle-road approach disappointed, and even angered, partisans in both camps. Erasmus's almost 70 years may be divided into quarters. Desiderius Erasmus

1140-480: A proposed reconciliation of Lutherans and Calvinists. Irenical has become a commonly used adjective to design an idealist and pacific conception, such as the democratic peace theory . False irenicism or false eirenism is an expression used in certain 20th-century documents of the Catholic Church to criticize attempts at ecumenism that would allow Catholic doctrine to be distorted or clouded. Documents using

1216-729: A spontaneous, copious and natural Latin style. As a Catholic priest developing humanist techniques for working on texts, he prepared pioneering new Latin and Greek scholarly editions of the New Testament and of the Church Fathers , with annotations and commentary that were immediately and vitally influential in both the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Reformation . He also wrote On Free Will , The Praise of Folly , The Complaint of Peace , Handbook of

1292-622: A stipend, Erasmus went on to study at the University of Paris in the Collège de Montaigu , a centre of reforming zeal, under the direction of the ascetic Jan Standonck , of whose rigors he complained. The university was then the chief seat of Scholastic learning but already coming under the influence of Renaissance humanism. For instance, Erasmus became an intimate friend of an Italian humanist Publio Fausto Andrelini , poet and "professor of humanity" in Paris. During this time, Erasmus developed

1368-478: A year staying at recently married Thomas More 's house, now a lawyer and Member of Parliament, honing his translation skills. Erasmus preferred to live the life of an independent scholar and made a conscious effort to avoid any actions or formal ties that might inhibit his individual freedom. In England Erasmus was approached with prominent offices but he declined them all, until the King himself offered his support. He

1444-509: A year. Eventually Erasmus moved to the same abbey as a postulant in or before 1487, around the age of 16 (or 19.) Poverty had forced the sickly, bookish, teenaged orphan Erasmus into the consecrated life, entering the novitiate in 1487 at the canonry at rural Stein , very near Gouda, South Holland : the Chapter of Sion community largely borrowed its rule from the larger monkish Congregation of Windesheim who had historical associations with

1520-421: Is part of the texture of his thought, both on theology and in relation to politics: Despite the frequency and severity of polemics directed against him, Erasmus continued ... to practice a kind of discourse that is critical and ironic, yet modest and irenic. Certain important irenic contributions from Erasmus helped to further the humanist consideration of themes of peace and religious conciliation; these included

1596-597: Is reported to have been born in Rotterdam on 27 or 28 October ("the vigil of Simon and Jude") in the late 1460s. He was named after Erasmus of Formiae , whom Erasmus' father Gerard (Gerardus Helye) personally favored. Although associated closely with Rotterdam, he lived there for only four years, never to return afterwards. The year of Erasmus' birth is unclear: in later life he calculated his age as if born in 1466, but frequently his remembered age at major events actually implies 1469. (This article currently gives 1466 as

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1672-473: Is signed by friend and Polish religious reformer Jan Łaski . By this time More was a judge on the poorman's equity court ( Master of Requests ) and a Privy Counsellor . Opponents : Latomus  • Edward Lee  • Ulrich von Hutten  • Nicolaas Baechem (Egmondanus) Peace of Westphalia The Peace of Westphalia ( German : Westfälischer Friede , pronounced [vɛstˈfɛːlɪʃɐ ˈfʁiːdə] )

1748-644: Is the collective name for two peace treaties signed in October 1648 in the Westphalian cities of Osnabrück and Münster . They ended the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) and brought peace to the Holy Roman Empire , closing a calamitous period of European history that killed approximately eight million people. Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III , the kingdoms of France and Sweden , and their respective allies among

1824-421: Is where he began learning it. His education there ended when plague struck the city about 1483, and his mother, who had moved to provide a home for her sons, died from the infection; then his father. Following the death of his parents, as well as 20 fellow students at his school, he moved back to his patria (Rotterdam?) where he was supported by Berthe de Heyden, a compassionate widow. In 1484, around

1900-790: The Adagio for his students, then to Orléans to escape the plague, and then to semi-monastic life, scholarly studies and writing in France, notably at the Benedictine Abbey of Saint Bertin at St Omer (1501,1502) where he wrote the initial version of the Enchiridion ( Handbook of the Christian Knight .) A particular influence was his encounter in 1501 with Jean (Jehan) Vitrier, a radical Franciscan who consolidated Erasmus' thoughts against excessive valorization of monasticism, ceremonialism and fasting in

1976-757: The Brethren of the Common Life , but also with the notable pastoral, mystical and anti-speculative post-scholastic theologians Jean Gerson and Gabriel Biel : positions associated also with Erasmus. In 1488–1490, the surrounding region was plundered badly by armies fighting the Squire Francis War of succession and then suffered a famine. Erasmus professed his vows as a Canon regular of St. Augustine there in late 1488 at age 19 (or 22). Historian Fr. Aiden Gasquet later wrote: "One thing, however, would seem to be quite clear; he could never have had any vocation for

2052-820: The Document on Human Fraternity joint declaration of Pope Francis and Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb , and of Pope Benedict XVI 's reported request for the Catholic church to participate in celebrations of the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation in 2017. Desiderius Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus ( / ˌ d ɛ z ɪ ˈ d ɪər i ə s ɪ ˈ r æ z m ə s / DEZ -i- DEER -ee-əs irr- AZ -məs ; Dutch: [ˌdeːziˈdeːrijʏs eːˈrɑsmʏs] ; 28 October c. 1466 – 12 July 1536), commonly known in English as Erasmus of Rotterdam or simply Erasmus ,

2128-571: The Habsburg Emperor began in Cologne in 1636. These negotiations were initially blocked by Cardinal Richelieu of France, who insisted on the inclusion of all his allies, whether fully sovereign countries or states within the Holy Roman Empire . In Hamburg , Sweden, France, and the Holy Roman Empire negotiated a preliminary peace in December 1641. They declared that the preparations of Cologne and

2204-461: The Inquisitio de fide (1524), arguing against the papal opinion that Martin Luther was a heretic, and De sarcienda ecclesiae concordia (1533). Erasmus had close associates sharing his views ( Julius von Pflug , Christoph von Stadion , Jakob Ziegler and Jan Łaski ) and was followed on the Catholic side by George Cassander and Georg Witzel . The influence of Erasmus was, however, limited, by

2280-694: The Treaty of Münster and the Treaty of Osnabrück. These treaties ended the Thirty Years' War in the Holy Roman Empire, with the Habsburgs (rulers of Austria and Spain) and their Catholic allies on one side, battling the Protestant powers (Sweden and certain Holy Roman principalities) allied with France (though Catholic, strongly anti-Habsburg under King Louis XIV ). Several scholars of international relations have identified

2356-513: The University of Cambridge 's chancellor, John Fisher , arranged for Erasmus to be (or to study to prepare to be) the Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity , though whether he actually was accepted for it or took it up is contested by historians. He studied and taught Greek and researched and lectured on Jerome . Erasmus mainly stayed at Queens' College while lecturing at the university, between 1511 and 1515. Erasmus' rooms were located in

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2432-533: The papal brief Zelo Domus Dei . The main tenets of the Peace of Westphalia were: The treaties did not entirely end conflicts arising out of the Thirty Years' War. Fighting continued between France and Spain until the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659. The Dutch-Portuguese War that had begun during the Iberian Union between Spain and Portugal , as part of the Eighty Years' War, went on until 1663. Nevertheless,

2508-454: The sweating sickness plague (to Orléans ), employment (to England ), searching libraries for manuscripts, writing ( Brabant ), royal counsel ( Cologne ), patronage, tutoring and chaperoning (North Italy ), networking ( Rome ), seeing books through printing in person ( Paris , Venice , Louvain , Basel ), and avoiding the persecution of religious fanatics (to Freiburg ). He enjoyed horseback riding. In 1495 with Bishop Henry's consent and

2584-437: The " I " staircase of Old Court. Despite a chronic shortage of money, he succeeded in mastering Greek by an intensive, day-and-night study of three years, taught by Thomas Linacre , continuously begging in letters that his friends send him books and money for teachers. Erasmus suffered from poor health and was especially concerned with heating, clean air, ventilation, draughts, fresh food and unspoiled wine: he complained about

2660-586: The English Protestant religious factions, and prove an irenicon . The Greek ἐιρηνικόν ( eirenikon ) or peace proposal is also seen as irenicum in its Latin version. An irenic literature developed, relating to divisions within Protestantism, particularly in the twenty years after the Peace of Westphalia . Examples marked out by title are: Isaac Newton wrote an Irenicum (unpublished manuscript); it supported

2736-634: The French politique statesman Michel de l'Hôpital and reformer Sebastian Castellio . Irenic movements were influential in the 17th century, and irenicism, for example in the form of Gottfried Leibniz 's efforts to reunite Catholics and Protestants, is in some ways a forerunner to the more modern ecumenical movements. The 1589 Examen pacifique de la doctrine des Huguenots by Henry Constable proved influential, for example on Christopher Potter and William Forbes . Richard Montagu admired Cassander and Andreas Fricius . The 1628 Syllabus aliquot synodorum

2812-448: The Gouda region. In 1505, Pope Julius II granted a dispensation from the vow of poverty to the extent of allowing Erasmus to hold certain benefices, and from the control and habit of his order , though he remained a priest and, formally, an Augustinian canon regular the rest his life. In 1517, Pope Leo X granted legal dispensations for Erasmus' defects of natality and confirmed

2888-542: The Greek language, which would enable him to study theology on a more profound level. Erasmus also became fast friends with Thomas More , a young law student considering becoming a monk, whose thought (e.g., on conscience and equity) had been influenced by 14th century French theologian Jean Gerson , and whose intellect had been developed by his powerful patron Cardinal John Morton (d. 1500) who had famously attempted reforms of English monasteries. Erasmus left London with

2964-458: The Peace of Westphalia as the origin of principles crucial to modern international relations, collectively known as Westphalian sovereignty . However, some historians have argued against this, suggesting that such views emerged during the nineteenth and twentieth century in relation to concerns about sovereignty during that time. Europe had been battered by both the Thirty Years' War and the overlapping Eighty Years' War (begun c. 1568), exacting

3040-456: The Peace of Westphalia did settle many outstanding European issues of the time. Some scholars of international relations have identified the Peace of Westphalia as the origin of principles crucial to modern international relations , including the inviolability of borders and non-interference in the domestic affairs of sovereign states. This system became known in the literature as Westphalian sovereignty . Most modern historians have challenged

3116-511: The Protestant tradition; to the arguments of Gallicanism being welcomed but also treated as particularly insidious; and an irenist such as Francis a Sancta Clara being attacked strongly by firm Calvinists . The handful of Protestant writers who were convinced in their irenic approach to Catholics included William Covell and Thomas Dove . James I of England thought that the Bible translation he commissioned might effect some reconciliation between

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3192-603: The Rhine toward England, Erasmus began to compose The Praise of Folly . In 1510, Erasmus arrived at More's bustling house, was confined to bed to recover from his recurrent illness, and wrote The Praise of Folly , which was to be a best-seller. More was at that time the undersheriff of the City of London . After his glorious reception in Italy, Erasmus had returned broke and jobless, with strained relations with former friends and benefactors on

3268-699: The Stein house and take up the post of Latin Secretary to the ambitious Bishop of Cambrai , Henry of Bergen, on account of his great skill in Latin and his reputation as a man of letters. He was ordained to the Catholic priesthood either on 25 April 1492, or 25 April 1495, at age 25 (or 28.) Either way, he did not actively work as a choir priest for very long, though his many works on confession and penance suggests experience of dispensing them. From 1500, he avoided returning to

3344-541: The Treaty of Hamburg were preliminaries of an overall peace agreement. The main peace negotiations took place in Westphalia , in the neighbouring cities of Münster and Osnabrück . Both cities were maintained as neutral and demilitarized zones for the negotiations. In Münster, negotiations took place between the Holy Roman Empire and France, as well as between the Dutch Republic and Spain who on 30 January 1648 signed

3420-532: The age 14 (or 17), he and his brother went to a cheaper grammar school or seminary at 's-Hertogenbosch run by the Brethren of the Common Life : Erasmus' Epistle to Grunnius satirizes them as the "Collationary Brethren" who select and sort boys for monkhood. He was exposed there to the Devotio moderna movement and the Brethren's famous book The Imitation of Christ but resented the harsh rules and strict methods of

3496-553: The age of 6 (or 9), his family moved to Gouda and he started at the school of Pieter Winckel, who later became his guardian (and, perhaps, squandered Erasmus and Peter's inheritance.) Historians who date his birth in 1466 have Erasmus in Utrecht at the choir school at this period. In 1478, at the age of 9 (or 12), he and his older brother Peter were sent to one of the best Latin schools in the Netherlands, located at Deventer and owned by

3572-456: The association of this system with the Peace of Westphalia, calling it the 'Westphalian myth'. They have challenged the view that the modern European states system originated with the Westphalian treaties. The treaties do not contain anything in their text about religious freedom, sovereignty, or balance of power that can be construed as international law principles. Constitutional arrangements of

3648-421: The birth year. To handle this disagreement, ages are given first based on 1469, then in parentheses based on 1466: e.g., "20 (or 23)".) Furthermore, many details of his early life must be gleaned from a fictionalized third-person account he wrote in 1516 (published in 1529) in a letter to a fictitious Papal secretary, Lambertus Grunnius ("Mr. Grunt"). His parents could not be legally married: his father, Gerard,

3724-412: The bubonic plague in 1483. His only sibling Peter might have been born in 1463, and some writers suggest Margaret was a widow and Peter was the half-brother of Erasmus; Erasmus on the other hand called him his brother. There were legal and social restrictions on the careers and opportunities open to the children of unwed parents. Erasmus' own story, in the possibly forged 1524 Compendium vitae Erasmi

3800-447: The canonry at Stein even insisting the diet and hours would kill him, though he did stay with other Augustinian communities and at monasteries of other orders in his travels. Rogerus, who became prior at Stein in 1504, and Erasmus corresponded over the years, with Rogerus demanding Erasmus return after his studies were complete. Nevertheless, the library of the canonry ended up with by far the largest collection of Erasmus' publications in

3876-509: The chapter clergy of the Lebuïnuskerk (St. Lebuin's Church). A notable previous student was Thomas à Kempis . Towards the end of his stay there the curriculum was renewed by the new principal of the school, Alexander Hegius , a correspondent of pioneering rhetorician Rudolphus Agricola . For the first time in Europe north of the Alps, Greek was taught at a lower level than a university and this

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3952-495: The continent, and he regretted leaving Italy, despite being horrified by papal warfare. There is a gap in his usually voluminous correspondence: his so-called "two lost years", perhaps due to self-censorship of dangerous or disgruntled opinions; he shared lodgings with his friend Andrea Ammonio (Latin secretary to Mountjoy, and the next year, to Henry VIII) provided at the London Austin Friars ' compound, skipping out after

4028-522: The degree of Doctor of Sacred Theology ( Sacra Theologia ) from the University of Turin per saltum at age 37 (or 40.) Erasmus stayed tutoring in Bologna for a year; in the winter, Erasmus was present when Pope Julius II entered victorious into the conquered Bologna which he had besieged before. Erasmus travelled on to Venice, working on an expanded version of his Adagia at the Aldine Press of

4104-548: The draughtiness of English buildings. He complained that Queens' College could not supply him with enough decent wine (wine was the Renaissance medicine for gallstones, from which Erasmus suffered). As Queens' was an unusually humanist-leaning institution in the 16th century, Queens' College Old Library still houses many first editions of Erasmus's publications, many of which were acquired during that period by bequest or purchase, including Erasmus's New Testament translation, which

4180-441: The famous printer Aldus Manutius , advised him which manuscripts to publish, and was an honorary member of the graecophone Aldine "New Academy" ( Greek : Neakadêmia (Νεακαδημία) ). From Aldus he learned the in-person workflow that made him productive at Froben: making last-minute changes, and immediately checking and correcting printed page proofs as soon as the ink had dried. Aldus wrote that Erasmus could do twice as much work in

4256-419: The generally detached and much more restrained attitude he usually showed in his later life, though he had a capacity to form and maintain deep male friendships, such as with More , Colet, and Ammonio. No mentions or sexual accusations were ever made of Erasmus during his lifetime. His works notably praise moderate sexual desire in marriage between men and women. In 1493, his prior arranged for him to leave

4332-459: The interests of 140 Imperial States, and 27 interest groups representing 38 groups. Two separate treaties constituted the peace settlement: The power asserted by Ferdinand III was stripped from him and returned to the rulers of the Imperial States . The rulers of the Imperial States could again choose their own official religions. Catholics and Lutherans were redefined as equal before

4408-466: The law, and Calvinism was given legal recognition as an official religion. The independence of the Dutch Republic, which practiced religious toleration, also provided a safe haven for European Jews. The Holy See was very displeased at the settlement, with Pope Innocent X calling it "null, void, invalid, iniquitous, unjust, damnable, reprobate, inane, empty of meaning and effect for all time" in

4484-480: The previous dispensation, allowing the 48-(or 51-)year-old his independence but still, as a canon, capable of holding office as a prior or abbot. In 1525, Pope Clement VII granted, for health reasons, a dispensation to eat meat and dairy in Lent and on fast days. Erasmus traveled widely and regularly, for reasons of poverty, "escape" from his Stein canonry (to Cambrai ), education (to Paris , Turin ), escape from

4560-451: The princes of the Holy Roman Empire, participated in the treaties. The negotiation process was lengthy and complex. Talks took place in two cities, because each side wanted to meet on territory under its own control. A total of 109 delegations arrived to represent the belligerent states, but not all delegations were present at the same time. Two treaties were signed to end the war in the Empire:

4636-600: The religious brothers and educators. The two brothers made an agreement that they would resist the clergy but attend the university; Erasmus longed to study in Italy, the birthplace of Latin, and have a degree from an Italian university. Instead, Peter left for the Augustinian canonry in Stein , which left Erasmus feeling betrayed. Around this time he wrote forlornly to his friend Elizabeth de Heyden "Shipwrecked am I, and lost, 'mid waters chill'." He suffered Quartan fever for over

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4712-913: The religious life. His whole subsequent history shows this unmistakably." But according to one Catholic biographer, Erasmus had a spiritual awakening at the monastery. Certain abuses in religious orders were among the chief objects of his later calls to reform the Western Church from within, particularly coerced or tricked recruitment of immature boys (the fictionalized account in the Letter to Grunnius calls them "victims of Dominic and Francis and Benedict"): Erasmus felt he had belonged to this class, joining "voluntarily but not freely" and so considered himself, if not morally bound by his vows, certainly legally, socially and honour- bound to keep them, yet to look for his true vocation. While at Stein, 18-(or 21-)year-old Erasmus fell in unrequited love, forming what he called

4788-402: The second half being a strong treatment of the miseries of war, the need for neutrality and concilliation (with the neighbours France and England), and the excellence of peaceful rulers: that real courage in a leader was not to wage war but to put a bridle on greed, etc. This was later published as Panegyricus . Erasmus then returned to Paris in 1504. For Erasmus' second visit, he spent over

4864-504: The term include the encyclical letter Humani generis , promulgated by Pope Pius XII in 1950, Pope Paul VI 's encyclical letter, Ecclesiam Suam , the Second Vatican Council 's 1964 Decree on Ecumenism , Unitatis Redintegratio , Pope John Paul II 's Ut unum sint , and his 1984 post-synodal apostolic exhortation, Reconciliatio et paenitentia . Modern positive examples of Catholic non-false irenicism can be seen in

4940-446: The virtual exclusion of his works from countries such as France, from 1525, at least in the open; though they did appear in numerous forms and translations. James Hutton speaks of "the surreptitious manner in which Erasmus' peace propaganda reached the French public." Franciscus Junius published in 1593 Le paisible Chrestien arguing for religious tolerance and Ecumenism . He addressed Philip II of Spain , using arguments taken from

5016-433: Was a Catholic priest who may have spent up to six years in the 1450s or 60s in Italy as a scribe and scholar. His mother was Margaretha Rogerius (Latinized form of Dutch surname Rutgers), the daughter of a doctor from Zevenbergen . She may have been Gerard's housekeeper. Although he was born out of wedlock, Erasmus was cared for by his parents, with a loving household and the best education, until their early deaths from

5092-476: Was a Dutch Christian humanist , Catholic priest and theologian , educationalist , satirist , and philosopher . Through his vast number of translations, books, essays, prayers and letters, he is considered one of the most influential thinkers of the Northern Renaissance and one of the major figures of Dutch and Western culture. Erasmus was an important figure in classical scholarship who wrote in

5168-441: Was a bad idea. The problem was that, of course, different people wanted irenicism on different terms. [...] Different interpretations of irenicism could have direct political implications, making the rhetoric of Christian unity an important tool in the political conflicts of the period. It is in that light that he comments on the irenists' succession: Erasmus, Cassander, Jacob Acontius , Grotius, then John Dury, who spent much time on

5244-637: Was a bibliography of the literature of religious concord, compiled by Jean Hotman, Marquis de Villers-St-Paul decades earlier, and seen into print by Hugo Grotius using the pseudonym "Theodosius Irenaeus," with a preface by Matthias Bernegger . It was typical enough, however, for moderate and even irenical writers on the Catholic side to find in this period that their arguments were turned back against Catholicism. This style of arguing developed in England from Thomas Bell and particularly Thomas Morton . It led to Thomas James mining Marcantonio de Dominis and Paolo Sarpi , and making efforts to claim Witzel for

5320-411: Was alive; many scholars dispute this account. In 1471 his father became the vice-curate of the small town of Woerden (where young Erasmus may have attended the local vernacular school to learn to read and write) and in 1476 was promoted to vice-curate of Gouda . Erasmus was given the highest education available to a young man of his day, in a series of monastic or semi-monastic schools. In 1476, at

5396-404: Was along the lines that his parents were engaged, with the formal marriage blocked by his relatives (presumably a young widow or unmarried mother with a child was not an advantageous match); his father went to Italy to study Latin and Greek, and the relatives misled Gerard that Margaretha had died, on which news grieving Gerard romantically took Holy Orders, only to find on his return that Margaretha

5472-497: Was controlled by Protestant forces. Osnabrück was a bi-denominational Lutheran and Catholic city, with two Lutheran churches and two Catholic churches. The city council was exclusively Lutheran, and the burghers mostly so, but the city also housed the Catholic Chapter of the Prince-Bishopric of Osnabrück and had many other Catholic inhabitants. Osnabrück had been subjugated by troops of the Catholic League from 1628 to 1633 and

5548-599: Was inclined, but eventually did not accept and longed for a stay in Italy. Opponents : Alberto Pío , Sepúlveda In 1506 he was able to accompany and tutor the sons of the personal physician of the English King through Italy to Bologna. His discovery en route of Lorenzo Valla 's New Testament Notes was a major event in his career and prompted Erasmus to study the New Testament using philology . In 1506 they passed through Turin and he arranged to be awarded

5624-409: Was invited to England by William Blount, 4th Baron Mountjoy , who offered to accompany him on his trip to England. His time in England was fruitful in the making of lifelong friendships with the leaders of English thought in the days of King Henry VIII . During his first visit to England in 1499, he studied or taught at the University of Oxford . There is no record of him gaining any degree. Erasmus

5700-559: Was particularly impressed by the Bible teaching of John Colet , who pursued a style more akin to the church fathers than the Scholastics . Through the influence of the humanist John Colet, his interests turned towards theology. Other distinctive features of Colet's thought that may have influenced Erasmus are his pacifism, reform-mindedness, anti-Scholasticism and pastoral esteem for the sacrament of Confession. This prompted him, upon his return from England to Paris, to intensively study

5776-409: Was then taken by Lutheran Sweden. The peace negotiations had no exact beginning or end, because the 109 delegations never met in a plenary session. Instead, various delegations arrived between 1643 and 1646 and left between 1647 and 1649. The largest number of diplomats were present between January 1646 and July 1647. Delegations had been sent by 16 European states, 66 Imperial States representing

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