How Did Erasmus Lose Both A Humanist And A Man Of The Church

“The Reformation: Erasmus of Rotterdam”
Desiderius Erasmus was born October 28th, 1466 in the city of Rotterdam, Netherlands. Desiderius was a devout Dutch Catholic priest, Professor, Humanist, and theologist. Desiderius lost both of his parents at an early age due to the plague. Desiderius was sent to a Monastery in his youth by relatives. Even though orphaned in his younger years, Desiderius still attended college and obtained the best education that was offered to him. Later in his life and writings, Erasmus criticized the education, handing off, and handling that children experienced at boarding schools. He believed that teachers should have a more “humane” approach to teaching the youth. Believing that if you push them to succeed early
Throughout his book, Erasmus focused on spreading older knowledge that would promote better understanding to the people. “Erasmus was both a humanist and a man of the church.” (Introduction, Erasmus of the Low Countries) “He cared passionately about the moral and religious renewal that in his mind was advanced by his editions of the Greek New Testament, the Church Fathers, and the Greco-Roman classics.” (Introduction, Erasmus of the Low Countries) Also in 1517, Erasmus supported the foundation of the Collegium Trilingual that was based on the study of three languages. The three languages are Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. This was established after the model of the College of the Three Languages at the University of Alcala. Before the “College of the Three Languages” was founded, Desiderius did spend three rigorous years, night and day learning Greek. After this, Erasmus was able to stay out of too much public scrutiny until 1522. In 1522, Erasmus moves to Basel, to get away from King Charles V pressure for him to write against Luther and his beliefs. In 1523, Desiderius did send his ideas on ending religious Schism to Pope Adrian VI. Unfortunately, he did not get a reply. All these works are reasons why Desiderius Erasmus is said to have been one of the most important figures in the Reformation, even though he officially never joined the
A lot of people would say yes, that he did. When he acknowledges that the church needed reform, Martin interpreted it in his own way. I do understand why people say he “planted the seed” for Martin Luther and I agree. The two theologist agreed with each other up until they realized they had different point of views on Salvation. Erasmus believed that you could be saved by performing good deeds. Consequently, Martin Luther believed that salvation could only be obtained through the grace of God. Martin once said, “Christians should be exhorted to seek earnestly to follow Christ, their Head, through penalties, deaths, hells. And let them thus be more confident of entering heaven through many tribulations rather than through fake assurance of peace.” (pg. 124. All Things Made New: The Reformation and Its Legacy) By “fake assurance of peace” he means when the church would pre-sale tickets into heaven. Now, I do agree that Martin’s view on that point is correct, and I would assume that Erasmus would feel the same. Erasmus however, did not like confrontation. “Finding in Luther’s doctrine much to admire and much to condemn, Erasmus sought to justify both dimensions of his reaction to the Saxon reformer by making distinctions where Luther himself would admit no distinction. On the one hand, Luther challenged Erasmus to recognize that the Bible was