Desiderius Erasmus Research Paper

He spent a great amount of his life devoted to teaching. When working in the clergy, the pope allowed him to travel to France, where he became a scholar. One of his students gave him some money so he could become a, “scholar moving from city to city tutoring, lecturing and corresponding with some of the most brilliant thinkers of Europe” (Erasmus Biography, biography.com) This made him a humanist because one of the most important parts of humanism was education. Even while traveling, he wrote many works, furthering his teaching. In the summer of 1511, Erasmus went to “teach at Cambridge and lecture in theology.” (Erasmus Biography, biography.com) Teaching at Cambridge made Desiderius a great humanist. There, he taught theology and Greek. Even though he spent much of his time writing, he was even willing to provide private lessons to assist his students’

Erasmus ridiculed those who thought this way, a tactic he used skillfully in order to gain more followers. He published a book named Encomium Moriae, translated as The Praise of Folly. The book was originally created to amuse Erasmus’s friend, Thomas More. The book includes a bantering tone and clearly attacks theologians of this time period. The mere thought of this book angered the priests and of course, this did not stop Erasmus from spreading his statements of ridicule across the lands of which he travelled. It did not take long for Erasmus to target Pope Julius II, nicknamed “The Fearsome Pope” and “The Warrior Pope”. Erasmus produced a skit that was created to ridicule Pope Julius II to all extents; it was named Iulias exclusus. Soon after Pope Julius II’s death, the skit spread like wild fire amongst the communities, quickly becoming the hot topic of various cities. The Roman Curia of the Holy See were very displeased with Erasmus and his actions. The Curia acted in the name of Pope Julius II, so when they learned of Erasmus’s cruel jokes, they longed for Erasmus to stop his nonsense and spend the rest of his days in remorseful piety (Manchester 126).

39. What special gift did Erasmus possess which gave him a great influence upon the upper and middle

Literature . He lived in a time when romanticism was becoming a way of thinking

Martin Luther was a German professor of theology at Wittensberg. He later left his studies to peruse monkhood. In doing this, Luther had a lot of time to think about his relationship with God and realize the flaws in the church. Luther disagreed with many teachings/ ideas of the Roman Church, which he than acted upon. He strongly disputed the idea that one can obtain freedom from God 's punishment for committing sin by purchasing an expensive piece of paper from the church called an Indulgence. He wrote all about the usefulness of indulgences in community in a very sarcastic tone in Theses Ninety-Five in 1517. Although demanded, Luther refused to rid of his writings at the request of Pope Charles V.

Martin Luther’s Concerning Christian Liberty and Desiderius Erasmus’ The Praise of Folly are about the different lines of attack on the Catholic Church. Martin Luther was a North German Augustinian friar, a Catholic priest, and a professor of theology who protested the abuses in the Church and called for reform. Erasmus was German by birth, interested in acts of good, wanted to find common factors between reason and Christianity, focused on the bible in its original papal form, believed in human correct ability, and did not believe in original sin. He highly criticized the Catholic Church at this time and called for reform, as well. They both attacked the Roman Catholic Church in their works; however, Martin Luther wanted reformation in practice and doctrine, while Erasmus wanted a moral reformation in the Church. Concerning Christian Liberty and The Praise of Folly were written in the early 1500’s and they both focused on the subject area of religion.

Edgar Allan Poe, was somebody who did more than just write to entertain the readers, he

Northern Renaissance humanists placed more emphasis on early Christian history and works than their Italian counterparts. They studied the Holy Scriptures and the works of several early church fathers, such as Augustine and Jerome. They believed that the Christian church was much simpler than the church of their time. They were also noted for their reform program, in which they believed that they need to change the humans in order to improve society. Erasmus, a famous humanist, wrote that he “would [prefer] that even the lowliest women read the Gospels and the Pauline Epistles.” (Spielvogel 337). His quote reflected the attitude of many Christian humanists at that time. Christian humanists support the use of education since they believed

“Desiderius Eramus of the Netherlands was the most prominent of the Christian humanist” (“Humanism” 1). Eramus was famous and known as the prince of Humanist. He wrote the New Testament in both Greek editions and Latin editions (“Renaissance Humanism”3). “Eramus became famous all over Europe, living mostly in Holland, England, and Italy. While being compassionate to Martin Luther’s criticism of the Catholic Church, Eramus never forsaken Catholicism (“Renaissance Humanism”3). “Eramus refused the educational methods of the University of Paris as well as worked for the enhancement of modern-day civilization by means of criticizing the troubles of the day judged next to Christian knowledge” (“Humanism” 1). Eramus was born in Rotterdam Netherlands, in 1466. At nine years old he went to school at Deventar ran by a humanist named Hegius. Eramus went there and studied theology. Eramus first major was called “Enchiridian Militis Christian”, which came out in 1502. This book was about true religion and piety, while throwing some criticism at the church. To pursue his studies, Eramus was spurred by poverty to enter a monastic order in 1486 (Melton 1). Eramus tried to fight for his rights with the churches. Ermaus argued for reformation, that wouldn’t bother the leader of the church. He disagreed with Luther’s excommunication, but Eramus

Erasmus wrote to awaken the church from only going through the motions. He says that the monks and Papacy at the time were conducting church services and practices as if they were conducting a mathematical problem (Erasmus, Praise of Folly, 155). An example of Erasmus issue with the Papacy was that they were “twisting the gospels to serve their earthly appetites” (Erasmus, The Handbook of the Christian Soldier, 139). Erasmus’s goal is to get rid of the rituals, practices, and wrongdoing that had been happening within the church. Erasmus writes that the monks and Pope’s, as well as Christian’s in general should “correct the erring gently, teach the ignorant, lift up the fallen, console the downhearted, and support the needy” (Erasmus, The Handbook of the Christian Soldier,150). Erasmus used satire as a way of telling the Catholic Church of the wrongdoing of the church. An example of this is done by a story about Pope Julius who is trying to get into heaven, but is told that he is a devil (Erasmus, Julius Excluded from Heaven, 216).

Many current day medical practices can be traced back to the core concepts of four Roman physicians. Although the Romans were less sophisticated, they discovered and formulated several techniques that are still being used today such as neurostimulation, the cleansing of wounds, the workings of arteries and veins, and pregnancy/childbirth. Roman medicine was primarily influenced by the works of Aulus Cornelius Celsus, Scribonius Largus, Galen of Pergamon, and Soranus of Ephesus.

Born in 1483 to a family of peasant origins (his father worked in a copper mine in the Mansfeld region), Martin Luther was admitted in 1505 to the Augustinian convent of Erfurt, where his intellectual qualities were quickly noticed. Ordained a priest two years later, he was appointed to teach philosophy. Later, he taught biblical theology at the University of Wittenberg, where he became a doctor of

Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini was a humanist from Italy who later became a pope. In 1450 he said that reading and learning from others in the past was crucial. According to him the most important things in school were philosophy and writing.(doc 1). He believed that reading and writing were very important and of high value. In 1528 Baldassare Castiglione wrote from a similar

Martin Luther was born at Eisleben in Saxony. Since his father was a miner, it was a great distress on him to send Martin to school and then to the University of Erfurt. There is where he earned his master's degree at the young age of twenty-one. (Erikson, 39) Although his father wished him to study law, Martin, after being terribly frightened in a thunderstorm, vowed to become a friar. In

Erasmus believes in the need of a universal language, both in verse and prose. He was well versed in Latin and in Greek. Erasmus and Thomas More were both staunch Catholics, opposed the reformation  as proposed by Martin Luther but thought the church needed 'adjustments'.  Erasmus differed from some of More's ideas, for instance he believed in free will of the individual,  whereas More did not. They all advocated social reform and were interested in improvement for society. Erasmus thought science unworthy of a gentleman. "Erasmus appeared as a responsible and constructive critic of society. He attacked the superstition and formalism of late medieval religion, offering in their place a simple piety that could appeal to all levels of society."(Wilcox)