his202 speech

I have turned my entire attention to Greek. The first thing I shall do, as soon as the money arrives, is to buy some Greek authors; after that, I shall buy clothes.

It is an unscrupulous intellect that does not pay to antiquity its due reverence.


The habit does not make the monk.

They say that the AntiChrist will be born of a monk and a nun. If so, there must already be thousands of AntiChrists.

Women, can't live with them, can't live without them.

Education is of far greater importance than heredity in forming character.

Everybody hates a prodigy, detests an old head on young shoulders.

"[The Militant Christian] that wonderful little masterpiece of good sense and deep faith" p.6 Erasmus and the Northern Renaissance, Mann Philips, Margaret.

"...and as his whole childhood and adolescence was spent in this atmosphere, in contact with an ideal of life which roused his opposition at the time but had its deep effect on his character, it is important to examine for a moment the nature of this movement.'

P. 14-15, Ibid.

Living a monastic life yet still bound to the world. Bound by no eternal vows but associated by a common ideal of simplicity and poverty.

'A revulsion from the sterile intellectual disputes of late-medieval philosophy, a reorientation towards practical piety and the teaching of the Bible'

P. 15, Ibid.

'This, then, was a predominant note in the early education of Erasmus - a deep distrust of reliance on the powers of the reasoning intellect. A strange beginning for a humanist of the Renaissance!' P. 16, Ibid

'In later life the influence of this early teaching shows itself in his thought'

P. 16, Ibid.



Good afternoon Dr. Bosciero and fellow colleagues. Today Chris, Damian and I will be discussing the life and times of Erasmus. He was without a doubt, a very insightful, intelligent and interesting scholar of the 15th and 16th centuries, respectively. He is famously referred to as the 'Prince of the Humanists' and the 'crowning glory of the Christian humanists'. He has certainly earned these titles. His work, The Militant Christian, is a 'wonderful little masterpiece of good sense and deep faith' according to the very knowledgeable, Margaret Mann Philips.

Erasmus was a part of an unconventional family. He was born out of wedlock on the 27th or 28th of October, in Rotterdam, Holland, in either the year 1466 or 1469, most scholars would lean towards the former date as it coincides well with a history of his life - yet this still does not entirely discount the former theory. His parents both died young.


Erasmus was lucky enough to be educated in a series of monastic or semi-monastic schools. Here the love of scripture was planted and would grow and flourish in his life. The most famous school he went to was run by the Brethren of the Common Life which was a community of both male and female monks living together in a simple fashion dedicating themselves to knowledge and truth found in the practical piety and teaching of the Bible. Erasmus founds himself bored and bitter at schools like Deventer and Bois-de-Luc. Where he was forced to sit and endure hours of cumbersome and eventually unimportant Latin study. Margaret Mann Philips suggests that Erasmus was 'a bright boy with an inkling of better things, impatiently scornful of a method of instruction which offered nothing but false etymologies and diffuse definitions of terms, when what he pined for was to be introduced to poetry and history and thought, the great storehouse of untouched treasure to which Latin was the golden key. Yet instead of learning 'pure' Latin - which was the key, as Margaret Mann Philips explicated - the schools taught incorrent and time wasting versified grammars of Latin which were in fashion at the time. In spite of all this, Erasmus still managed to find inspiration through the more scholarly of his teachers. A story exists which describes Sintheim, a scholarly man of intellect, embracing the boy and inspiring him with the words "Courage, Erasmus, one day you will reach the highest peak of learning,". Such a scene may seem a bit cliché however it does fit in with the context. During these years of formation Erasmus toyed with two very important ideologies, the first one being recommended by Thomas a Kempis. This ideology argued for the humble striving after the good life. Whilst the second ideology, argued for by the Italian humanists, was centred around the exaltation of knowledge. Erasmus is known for such quotes as:

Concealed talent brings no reputation.

Do not be guilty of possessing a library of learned books while lacking learning yourself.

Don't give your advice before you are called upon.

Education is of far greater importance than heredity in forming character.

Everybody hates a prodigy, detests an old head on young shoulders.

And perhaps these wise words were formed during his time as a young man contemplating the ideological beliefs of knowledge which were affronting his desires at the time. Soon enough Erasmus had formed his own understanding and belief in himself, he called described it as an overpowering instinct; his destiny was clear to him and he knew that there was no turning from it (p. 18). Whether or not Erasmus truly knew his own destiny is hard to say, however, another quote by Erasmus explicates the courage and self-belief he held within him:

He said,

Believe that you have it, and you have it!

And so this would explain why Erasmus felt sure in saying such outlandish things like claiming he knew his own destiny for example; it is not an everyday occurrence that a young man may claim monumental attributes which only God's may possess and gets away with it. Such a feat pays tribute to the profound effect Erasmus has had on the reformation.

During this time, when Erasmus was a hot-headed young academic with a distinct taste for truth and knowledge, he travelled around Europe to different schools and places of academia. He was constantly finding such places too old and traditional for his liking and he would constantly refer to his time spent at these places as 'time wasted' (P.21). Even so, this did not deter him at all and he continued travelling, reading, writing and spending time with other academics of the period. On one trip to England he encountered John Colet - a man who was well known for his special way of interpreting the scripture - it was a very 'pure' way in the sense that he had learned the language of the ancients, Greek, and so he used this to interpret the very early editions of the scriptures. To him, the translated books were tainted by thoughts and ideologies which interrupted or even scarred the pure and beautiful knowledge which was once found within the pages. Erasmus was struck by this belief and upon returning from England he set out to learn Greek so he may to come to a pure understanding of the scriptures. This scenario has very deep humanist themes running through it. The thirst for knowledge. The way the ancients are held in such high esteem and the disenchantment with the contemporary authorities of the time. Erasmus truly did earn his title as the Prince of the Humanists. It took him three years and countless days and nights of study to learn Greek - to make the feat even more fantastic is the fact that he embarked on this quest for knowledge whilst remaining impoverished. Compare that to a wealthy student these days who still can't seem to make the grades and you get a pretty clear idea of just how seriously intelligent and hard-working Erasmus was. Perhaps, as well, he was correct in his belief that by remaining impoverished one is able to clear the mind and to focus on important things easily.

This monastic lifestyle that he led forced him to sacrifice many things - including a few different offers of high-paying and influential seats of power. Once again Erasmus' actions explicate clearly just how he was a humanist. I believe that if we compare the aforementioned actions of Erasmus, to those of the wealthy, greedy, and immoral gentlemen who held positions of power in the Church at the time, we may be able to follow the reasoning which Erasmus used in making his decisions. Perhaps he wanted to separate himself from those people who were abusing the power of the Church to shed light on the problems within - and to show that the life of solicitude and impoverishments has as many merits, and perhaps more, than the life of power, money and general wealth. I believe that one is able to make solid connections between the way Erasmus, and other humanists acted, and the way the beatniks and hippies behaved in the 1970's. Both groups, the humanists and the hippies, were moving against the wealthy, corrupt Church that had been unwilling to understand that it needed to make changes within its machinations. Both lifestyles advocated intellectual freedom and the search for truth. Both communities, or bodies of thought, sought to rebel somewhat against the system which was believed to be either oppressing or essentially wrong. At the time of the humanists and at the time of the hippies there were many provocative claims floating around. The authority of the Church was slipping - due to the lax morals of the clergy and the discrepencies between the seemingly outdated forms of devotion and the modern form. Both communities were born out of war, the Italian wars, the Vietnam war, for example. As well as greed, selfishness and irrationality, for example, the high-tax rates of the time. And just as the progression of thought between the beatniks and the hippies is evident, there is also a clear progression of thought which leads to reformation.

When looking at the reformation we shouldn't just think of Martin Luther, as Dr. B said. We should regard the reformation as a complex and tumultuous period extending well before the early 16th century. It was based around the reformist movements which had been occurring since the 11th and 12th centuries, around the questions of the importance, primacy and power of the Papacy. As well as questions about clerical chastity and the ascetic life.

I think it is most important to understand that Erasmus was lucky enough to be able to share his talents, especially his intelligence, with a culture and society that was most definitely ready to accept and understand his ideas. Erasmus was known for his care-free manner in the way in which he critiqued the Church. He was as confident as he was intelligent in the manner in which he did this. He did not feel bad about explicating the theological and philosophical short comings of the Church at the time, many of which were inextricably linked with traditional mediaeval thought, because he approached the problems with the intent of fixing them by appealing to reason. Erasmus never sought to break his fellowship with the Church - he always intended to remain faithful to the Catholic doctrine whilst also staying honest to himself, the people and God. Given that, it leaves a sobering question as to how many other Erasmus' have emerged in society throughout history and have not been given a voice?

I shall leave you with that question as my colleague, Damian, shall explicate an analysis of Erasmus' work, the Militant Christian.