Life of Erasmus Essay -- Papers

Life of Erasmus Erasmus of Rotterdam was born on October 27, probably in 1466. His military chaplain belonged to Gouda, a little town near Rotterdam, and after some instruction on that point and an interval during which he was a chorister in Utrecht Cathedral, Erasmus was sent to Deventer, to the star topology school in the town, which was attached to St. Lebuins Church. The renewed interest in mere learning which had begun in Italy in the fourteenth century had as merely been scarcely felt in Northern Europe, and education was calm down henpecked by the requirements of Philosophy and Theology, which were regarded as the highest branches of knowledge. A very high item of subtlety in thought and argument had been reached, and in order that the untested student might be fitted to enter this arena, it was necessary that he should be trained from the outset in its requirements. In the schools, in consequence, lit tle prudence was paid to the form in which thought was expressed, provided that the thought was correct in marked contrast to the classical ideal, which emphasized the importance of expression, in alone appreciation of the fact that thought expressed in obscure or inadequate words, fails to reach the human mind. The mediaeval position had been the outcome of a reaction against the spirit of later classical times, which had sacrificed matter to form. And now the pendulum was sear back again in a new attempt to localize the rival claims. The education which Erasmus received at Deventer was still in thralldom to the mediaeval ideal. Greek was practically unknown, and in Latin all that was need of the studen... ... final shape they are a series of lively dialogues in which characters, often thinly disguised, discuss the burning questions of the day with lightness and humour. In all subsequent times they have been a favourite sustain for school rea ding and some of Shakespeares lines are an echo of Erasmus. In 1529 sacred dissension drove him from Basel and he took refuge at Freiburg in the Breisgau, which was still untouched by the Reformation. There he worked on, in the intervals of severe disease his courage never failed him and he was comforted by the affection of his friends. In 1535 he returned again to Basel, to be at hand in the print of a work on preaching, the Ecclesiastes, to which he had given his recent efforts and there death, which for twelve years had not seemed far away, overtook him on July 12, 1536.