Erasmus and the Age of Reformation

This biography sometimes seems so objective that you cannot unerstand if Huizinga likes Erasmus or not. It is a good thing though.

Also, this is quite an actualization of Erasmus. The book explains why Erasmus was important in his days, why he's interesting to a reader of the XX (and XXI!) century.

Johan Huizinga was a 20th-century Dutch historian who taught for 27 years at Leiden University in the Netherlands. His book is a concise biography of Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam, the Dutch humanist who influenced the major actors of the Reformation. Huizinga persuasively argues that Erasmus’s character flaws of moderation and evocativeness did not match the times and prevented him from being viewed by history as a hero of the age.

tThis biography gave me a greater understanding of Erasmus’s life and times and dispelled some faulty assumptions I had formed about him. For instance, while Erasmus took holy orders as a young man, his stint as a monk was brief. He gained release from his vows to be ordained into the secular clergy; however, he never served as a parish priest. Erasmus was an academic and prolific author who was affiliated with the universities in Louvain, Basle, and Freiburg, yet Huizinga does not present any evidence that he taught students.

tErasmus’s legacy is that of a humanist author, Latinist writer, and classics scholar. His admonition to “go back to the sources” is the summation of Christian humanism. It is remarkable that Erasmus was the first academic to critically examine the Latin interpretation of the Greek New Testament by the Vulgate, determine there were significant errors, and produce a new version of the New Testament with critical notes. The Vulgate was prepared in the 4th century by Erasmus’s hero, Jerome, but its translation from Greek to Latin apparently had gone unchallenged for 1200 years. In reading about Erasmus’s experience with printers, especially Johannes Froben in Basle, I was reminded of Andrew Pettegree’s book, Brand Luther, that tells of Luther’s similar experiences with publishing in the early days of the printing press.

tWhile a solid introduction into the life and times of Erasmus, the biography leaves several aspects of his life unanswered. Most notably, Erasmus’s personal finances and the economics of the Holy Roman Empire, France, and England during this period. The reader is told that Erasmus suffered from chronic financial worry all his life, but no detail is given on how he financed his living and extensive travels. I enjoyed the book and have recommended it to a group I am traveling with to Basle this summer.

I believe the original title was simply Erasmus of Rotterdam, which gives a better sense of the contents. This is a straightforward biography without much historical context. To me that's a shame; I would have loved to have a book that functioned as a sequel to The Autumn of the Middle Ages. I don't feel like this measures up to Huizinga's other well-known work, but it's a satisfying and somewhat informative read on its own merits.

I appreciated the inclusion of selected letters by Erasmus. He's someone whom I'd like to explore further, but my real priority now is to read a good general history of the Reformation.

It is always fun to read a biography from historians of the first decades of the twentieth century, and Huizinga's biography is no exception. There is something about that free flowing narrative so common to those scholars. My favourite part was the inclusion of doodles made by Erasmus in the margin of a manuscript.

Huizinga's interpretation of Erasmus as a rationalist who was not strong or pious enough is no longer considered authoritative, yet still a good read.

Well written and included information I had not seen in other books - especially regarding Erasmus's travels throughout Europe.

I have no idea why I read this book. I was searching for books referencing the Protestant Reformation and immigration to America on Gutenburg.org and this book surfaced. Once I had read a few paragraph I was drawn into the narrative. Huizinga's connection to his subject is clear but is neither one of idolization or disputation. He treats Erasmus with great respect but exposes his many flaws. The life of an itinerant scholar and reluctant monk was something that I have never encountered and found it fascinating. Great read!

I remember as a young boy reading about Erasmus in a high school history class. It was the word humanist that impressed me so much about him. It seemed to me to be something worthy of being. As I grew older, I expanded that to consider myself a "universalist." I wanted to include all other life and then even non-living things. Reading about Erasmus it was not quite the same thing as what I believe, but it certainly was a start to a better world.

Summary: An elegantly written biography of Desiderius Erasmus describing his life, thought and character as a scholar who hoped to awaken "good learning" and to bring about a purified Catholic church, and the tensions resulting from being caught between Reformers and Catholic hierarchy.

It is surprising to me how few biographies I can find of Desiderius Erasmus in online searches, and most of these older works. The good news is that Huizinga's very readable account of Erasmus' life is available in either low cost reprints or for free digitally due to its passing into the public domain. There are also free versions of many of Erasmus' works in various digital formats. I found the edition that was the basis of this review in the bargain shelves of my local used book store. If you want to readable introduction to the life of Erasmus, this is a great place to start to understand the life of this humanist scholar overshadowed in some ways by the Reformers.
We learn about the early life of this out-of-wedlock son of a Catholic priest, forced by poverty to take monastic vows. Yet from early on it was clear that Erasmus was a scholar, not a monk, who found a way through the Bishop of Cambrai for whom he served as secretary, to pursue theological studies at the University of Paris in 1495. Huizinga portrays a man who was something of a rolling stone, moving between England, Paris, Louvain, Italy, and Basle in search of patrons, peace, and publishers. He would be a restless man all his life. He works for a time with the famed Aldus Manutius (after whom the Aldus font is named) and later collaborates with Johan Froben in the publication of a number of his later works including his Greek and Latin version of the New Testament. During one of his travels, he pens In Praise of Folly, the work for which he is most famous. He also assembles a collection of adages in Latin (Adagia) that serves as a compendium of the best of the ancient classics.

Huizinga shows us a scholar deeply committed to the value of "good learning", believing the recovery of the classic texts along with careful biblical scholarship would result in a Catholic church purified from the accretions of the centuries. There is a brief, shining moment, around 1517, where profits from publications, renown of scholarship, and sympathies with many other reformers brought him into the limelight at the same time as he is finally released from his monastic vows. All too briefly does he enjoy the life of scholarship, pleasant conversation, and freedom from want.

Soon he is chased from Louvain by those objecting to his efforts toward a purified church. He is courted by Luther and the Reformers only to keep his distance and eventually and reluctantly engage Luther in a dispute over the freedom versus bondage of the will. As he grows older he writes against the excesses of both the humanists (in Ciceronianus) and against the Reformers.

As I commented in my post on "The Challenge of the 'Third Way,' " Erasmus fault was that he was a moderate, who preferred quiet to a fight. He was not an ideologue, but one who cared for clarity in expression, careful scholarship, and purity of morality. Huizinga traces this out in successive chapters on Erasmus' thought and character. For many years, Catholics thought he had given too much aid and comfort to the Reformers. Protestants thought him a sell out, who remained loyal to the church he never wanted to leave. Yet to the last he was a scholar, returning to Basle to wrap up his affairs, entrusting his scholarly legacy to the house of Froben to publish his complete works. And it is as a scholar in the humanist tradition that he is most remembered.

More recent scholarship has raised questions about Erasmus sexuality, particularly his relationship with Servatius and his dismissal as tutor of Thomas Gray. Huizinga, a scholar in an age less concerned with matters sexual and more open to the expressions of spiritual friendship in letters, raises no questions about such things.

Huizinga also provides us with a selection of his letters. Two stand out. One is his letter to Servatius, arguing for why he should not return to the monastic length at such length that I suspect Servatius gave in to gain relief. The second is a finely drawn verbal portrait of Thomas More. We see his early correspondence with Luther, and the later deterioration of the relationship.

So, for both style and substance, I would highly recommend this biography. It leaves one wondering about the might-have-beens of what would have occurred had Erasmus not been overshadowed by Luther, Calvin, and others. My own hunch is that in the end, he would have been opposed and simply withdraw as was his want, and little would be changed. As it was, he refused to "lead the charge", leaving this to Luther and the Catholic hierarchy in turn. If he had influence at all, it was through his translation of the New Testament, used by Luther for a vernacular translation and through his other scholarly works, works that enriched individual minds rather than galvanized movements.