Desiderius Erasmus

Erasmus was the leading humanist of northern Europe and refused to join either side of the Reformation. Born in Rotterdam around 1466, the illegitimate son of a priest, he was orphaned by plague and pushed into an Augustinian monastery, which he detested and left as soon as a bishop's secretaryship offered an escape. He studied in Paris in poverty, visited England in 1499, where he met Thomas More and John Colet, and spent his life moving between Louvain, Cambridge, Basel and Freiburg, supported by patrons and by the sales of his books. He was among the first writers to live from print. His Adages, a collection of classical proverbs with commentary, went through edition after edition and gave Europe phrases still in use. In Praise of Folly, written in a week at More's house in 1509, is a mock encomium in which Folly praises herself and, in doing so, mocks scholastic theologians, monks, indulgence-sellers and popes. His most consequential work was scholarly. His Greek New Testament of 1516, printed with a fresh Latin translation alongside, showed that the Vulgate contained mistranslations on which doctrines rested. Luther used it, and the phrase circulated that Erasmus laid the egg that Luther hatched. He wanted reform from within, disliked Luther's certainty and his violence of language, and in 1524 broke with him over free will — Luther replying with The Bondage of the Will. Both sides then attacked him. He died at Basel in 1536. He remained a Catholic priest to the end and was buried in the Protestant cathedral of the city he died in.

• Lived: 1466 CE – 1536 CE
• Nationality: Dutch
• Roles: humanist, theologian, writer, philosopher