Desiderius Erasmus
1466 CE–1536 CE · Rotterdam (Gouda)
Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam (c. 1466–1536) was the foremost Christian humanist of the Northern Renaissance, whose career spanned the Low Countries, England, France, Italy, and Switzerland. His 1516 Greek–Latin New Testament (Novum Instrumentum omne) placed the original text before European scholars for the first time in print, providing the philological foundation on which Luther, Tyndale, and subsequent Reformers built their vernacular translations. His satirical masterpiece In Praise of Folly (Moriae Encomium, written 1509, first printed 1511) skewered clerical corruption and scholastic pedantry while remaining within the Catholic tradition. Erasmus advocated for an "inner religion" grounded in scripture and the Church Fathers rather than externals, but refused to break with Rome, earning him the charge of cowardice from Lutherans and suspicion of heresy from conservatives. His edition of the patristic corpus — Jerome, Augustine, Origen, Chrysostom, and others — shaped Catholic humanist education for generations.
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Rotterdam (Gouda)Netherlands
What they did here
Born in Rotterdam (some sources say Gouda) around 1466–1469 as the illegitimate son of a priest; educated at Deventer under the Brethren of the Common Life before entering the Augustinian Canons Regular monastery at Steyn, near Gouda, where he remained approximately 1485–1492 and was ordained priest.
About Rotterdam (Gouda)
Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, the birthplace of the humanist Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466), 'Erasmus of Rotterdam'. He was schooled in the region, including at Gouda.
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