ERASMUS, DESIDERIES, one of the most vigorous promoters of the reformation, was 11. at Rotterdam, 28th Oct., 1467. He was the illegitimate son of a Dutchman named Gheraerd, or Garrit, by the daughter of a physician. In accordance with the fashion among scholars of his time, he changed the name Gheraerd into its Latin and Greek equivalents Desiderins Erasmus (more correctly Erasmius)—meaning desired, loved. 'Till his 9th year, E. was a chorister in the cathedral at Utrecht. He was then sent to school at Deventer, where his talents began to display themselves in so brilliant a manner, that it was even then predicted that he would one day be the most learned man of his time. After the death of his parents, whom he lost at the age of 14, his guardians :determined on bringing him up to a religious life, and—with the intention, it is said. of sharing his small patrimony among themselves—in his 17th year, placed him in the monastery of Emaus, near Gouda. From this constrained manner of life, however, he was released by the bishop of Cambray. After having taken priest's orders in 1492, he went to Paris, to perfect himself in theology and the humane sciences. Here he sup ported himself in a somewhat precarious manner, by giving private lectures, and in .1497, accompanied some Englishmen, who had been his pupils, to England, where he was well received by the king. He, however, soon returned to Paris, and in 1506, to 'enrich his knowledge, visited Italy. At Turin, he took the degree of D.D. Shortly .after, he applied to the pope for a dispensation from his monastic vows, which was During the course of his journey, he visited Venice, Parma, Rome, and other interesting cities, in company with his pupil, Alexander Stuart, a natural son of James IV. of Scotland, who, along with his father, was afterwards slain at the battle of Flodden. At Rome, the most brilliant prospects were held out to him. Cardinal Grimani, a famous lover of learning in that day, offered, out of his admiration for E. to make !him " partaker of his house and fortunes." Other eminent men vied with E., in showing respect to the young scholar, among whom may be mentioned John de' Medici, :afterwards Leo X., cardinal Raphael of St. George, and Giles of Viterbo, gen. of the Augustines. The pope (Julius II.) also offered hint a place among Isis penitentiaries, an office of considerable consequence, and, it would appear, a " step to the highest pre ferments in that court." E., who had always an eye to the main chance, regretted, at a later period of his life, that he had not accepted the offers held out to him in Rome, but meanwhile, having pledged himself to return to England, where also he had many friends, he set out for that country in 1509, after the accession of Henry VIII. In several of the cities through which lie passed he met with friends and patrons, who wished him to settle amongst them, but as Henry was a correspondent of his, E. was induced to cherish the highest hopes of personal favor from that monarch, and could not be pre vailed on to stay for more than a very brief period. Ile had no sooner, however, arrived in England than he found out his mistake. At first, he lodged with sir Thomas More, and during his stay with him composed his Encomium Iforia, or Praise of Folly, the purpose of which is to expose all kinds of fools, but especially those who flourished in the church, not sparing the pope himself. For a short time he filled the office of
professor of Greek at Oxford, but on the whole was very scantily supplied with the means of subsistence. In 1514, he returned disappointed to the continent, and resided chiefly at Basel, where he died, 12th July, 1536. E.'s extensive and profound learning was equaled by his refined taste and brilliant wit. A natural love of independence and quiet made him prefer a life of learned leisure and retirement to one of greater publicity; nevertheless, the readiness with which he assumed the character of an adroit man of the world, brought upon him the hostility of many of the nobler spirits of his time. He was no hero, and he knew it. He frankly confesses that "he had no inclination to die for the sake of the truth." Luther, in whom the soul and courage of the apostle Paul seemed to be revived, overwhelmed him with reproaches for his cowardice in regard to the reformation. But we must not forget that E. by his mental constitution was averse to enthusiasm. He was a scholar and a critic, not a preacher or iconoclast, and he was at least honest enough to abstain from denouncing the opinions of Luther, though he disapproved strongly of his violent language. Besides, there was a tincture of rationalism in the great Dutchman, which probably helped to chill his love of mere Lutheranism. But his services in the cause of science were great and lasting, and-his writings are still esteemed for the importance of the subjects treated of, and their classical style. Besides editing several of the ancient authors, and various philological and theological writings, he prepared the earliest edition of the Greek Testament, which appeared at Basel in 1516. This is reckoned by some his greatest work. Michaelis says that perhaps there never existed an abler editor of the New Testament, and that E. possessed in the highest degree natural abilities, profound learning, a readiness in detecting errors, with every qualification that is requisite to produce critical sagacity. His best known work, however, is his Colloquia, a masterpiece. Of all his writings, this has exercised the greatest influence. The first edition appeared in 1522. but did not please E., who issued a second during the same year. A third appeared in 1524. This book, which was meant, according to Erasmus, only to make youths better Latin ists and better men, was condemned by the Sorbonne, prohibited in France, and burned in Spain. No one who takes up the book will wonder at its condemnation. It contains the most virulent and satirical onslaughts on monks, cloister-life, festivals, pilgrimages, etc., but it is disfigured by lewd and unchaste passages, which are wholly inexcusable. The work has been translated into almost all the modern languages. His Encomium Horia, or Praise of Folly, has been already mentioned. It was published in the original, with a German translation, and illustrations by Holbein, by W. G. Becker (Basel, 1780). E. himself superintended an edition of his works, published by Frobenius in Basel. The most complete edition is that of Leclerc (10 vols., Leyden, 1603-6). The life of E. has been written in French by Burigny (2 vols., Paris, 1758), in German by Muller (Hamburg, 1828), and in English by Knight (Cambridge, 1726, and Drummond (2 vols., 1873).