Erasmus
<p ><b>Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus</b> (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English" title="Help:IPA for English" >/</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >ˌ</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >d</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >ɛ</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >z</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >ɪ</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >ˈ</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >d</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >ɪər</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >i</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >ə</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >s</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" > </a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >ɪ</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >ˈ</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >r</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >æ</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >z</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >m</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >ə</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key" title="Help:IPA for English" >s</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English" title="Help:IPA for English" >/</a>; 27 October<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desiderius_Erasmus#cite_note-1" >[1]</a></sup> 1466 – 12 July 1536), known as <b>Erasmus of Rotterdam</b>, or simply <b>Erasmus</b>, was a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seventeen_Provinces" title="Seventeen Provinces" >Dutch</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance_humanist" title="Renaissance humanist" class="mw-redirect" >Renaissance humanist</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Catholic_Church" title="Roman Catholic Church" class="mw-redirect" >Catholic</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_priest" title="Catholic priest" class="mw-redirect" >priest</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_critic" title="Social critic" class="mw-redirect" >social critic</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teacher" title="Teacher" >teacher</a>, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theologian" title="Theologian" class="mw-redirect" >theologian</a>.
Erasmus was a classical scholar who wrote in a pure <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_language" title="Latin language" class="mw-redirect" >Latin</a> style. Amongst humanists, he enjoyed the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sobriquet" title="Sobriquet" >sobriquet</a> "Prince of the Humanists"; he has been called "the crowning glory of the Christian humanists".<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desiderius_Erasmus#cite_note-2" >[2]</a></sup> Using humanist techniques for working on texts, he prepared important new <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulgate" title="Vulgate" >Latin</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_Greek" title="Biblical Greek" class="mw-redirect" >Greek</a> editions of the New Testament. These raised questions that would be influential in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protestant_Reformation" title="Protestant Reformation" >Protestant Reformation</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counter-Reformation" title="Counter-Reformation" >Catholic Counter-Reformation</a>. He also wrote <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_libero_arbitrio_diatribe_sive_collatio" title="De libero arbitrio diatribe sive collatio" >On Free Will</a>,</i><sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desiderius_Erasmus#cite_note-3" >[3]</a></sup> <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Praise_of_Folly" title="The Praise of Folly" >The Praise of Folly</a></i>, <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handbook_of_a_Christian_Knight" title="Handbook of a Christian Knight" >Handbook of a Christian Knight</a></i>, <i>On Civility in Children</i>, <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copia:_Foundations_of_the_Abundant_Style" title="Copia: Foundations of the Abundant Style" >Copia: Foundations of the Abundant Style</a></i>, <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Excluded_from_Heaven" title="Julius Excluded from Heaven" >Julius Exclusus</a></i>, and many other works.
Erasmus lived against the backdrop of the growing European religious <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reformation" title="Reformation" class="mw-redirect" >Reformation</a>; but while he was critical of the abuses within the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church" title="Catholic Church" >Church</a> and called for reform, he kept his distance from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther" title="Martin Luther" >Luther</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melanchthon" title="Melanchthon" class="mw-redirect" >Melanchthon</a> and continued to recognise the authority of the pope. Erasmus emphasized a middle way, with a deep respect for traditional faith, piety and grace, and rejected Luther's emphasis on faith alone. Erasmus therefore remained a member of the Catholic Church all his life.<sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desiderius_Erasmus#cite_note-4" >[4]</a></sup> Erasmus remained committed to reforming the Church and its clerics' abuses from within. He also held to Catholic doctrines such as that of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_will" title="Free will" >free will</a>, which some Reformers rejected in favour of the doctrine of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predestination" title="Predestination" >predestination</a>. His middle road approach disappointed and even angered scholars in both camps.
Erasmus died suddenly in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basel" title="Basel" >Basel</a> in 1536 while preparing to return to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duchy_of_Brabant" title="Duchy of Brabant" >Brabant</a>, and was buried in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basel_Minster" title="Basel Minster" >Basel Minster</a>, the former <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral" title="Cathedral" >cathedral</a> of the city.<sup id="cite_ref-Church_1924_5-0" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desiderius_Erasmus#cite_note-Church_1924-5" >[5]</a></sup> A bronze statue of him was erected in his city of birth in 1622, replacing an earlier work in stone.
<a href="http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Erasmus" class="extiw" title="wikt:Erasmus" >Erasmus</a> was his <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baptismal_name" title="Baptismal name" class="mw-redirect" >baptismal name</a>, given after <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Erasmus" title="St. Erasmus" class="mw-redirect" >St. Erasmus of Formiae</a>. <a href="http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Desiderius" class="extiw" title="wikt:Desiderius" >Desiderius</a> was a self-adopted additional name, which he used from 1496. The <i>Roterodamus</i> in his scholarly name is the Latinized adjectival form for the city of Rotterdam.</p>
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