Desiderius Erasmus

Desiderius Erasmus was an early reformer and was born in the late 1460’s in Holland. He was a son of a priest and had excellent education given to him. Unfortunately his amazing education ended right about when his parents died from the plague (that happened in 1483).

So now he was a poor orphan, but despite that he decided to join the church and become a priest. He did so at age 25. While he was with the church he was working on a way to unify the translations of the Greek and Latin New Testaments. One important note about his writings is that he only wrote in Greek or Latin. This did not gravitate towards the people of the land but mostly the scholars. So because of that, he did not get much of a following on his writings.

Another early reformer was Martin Luther. He was working on the Reformation while Erasmus was around. Therefore, he asked Erasmus to join him in the process. Erasmus did agree with Luther’s ways because he thought that the church did need reforming but then said no to the offer. Erasmus looked at this Reformation thinking that it was going to bring more harm than good.

So when Erasmus was continuing on with his life, he decided to ignore all the arguments going on and try to stay away from them. One thing that Erasmus and Luther disagreed on was the will of man. Erasmus was a humanist and thought that man was free to make their own choices, while Luther thought that man cannot make their own good decisions without the grace of God. That was not the only thing they disagreed on. 

Both of them had different views on Transubstantiation. Transubstantiation is the belief in the Catholic Church that in the process of communion the bread and wine is the literal blood and body of Christ. Erasmus completely agreed with the Catholic Church’s opinion on that. Luther on the other hand, did not agree with this at all.

Later, in 1536 Erasmus then decided to leave the land he was living in and move. Unfortunately, before he could even move he died. He was given a great burial ceremony by the Catholic Church. Unlike some other scholars, Erasmus decided to stay with the Church even though he thought there were some errors within it.