Erasmus

DESIDERIUS, (e-raz'mūs,) one of the greatest scholars and philosophers of the era of the Reformation, was B. at Rotter dam, 1465 or 1467. He was educated at Utrecht and Dev enter, and in 1486 became a monk at Stein, and subsequently went to Paris, where he taught school for a livelihood; and to England, where, in 1510, he became profe or of Divinity and Greek in Cambridge University. In the same year he published his first literary work, Encomium Moriæ, & biting satire against the abuses of the Church. E. became at once famous; the greatest monarchs of Europe offered him patronage, and the emperor Charles V. conferred on him the title of " royal councillor," with a handsome pension. In about 1520 he took up his residence at Basle, where he published his famous Colloquies, of which 24,000 copies were sold in one year. E., while holding aloof from Luther and the profe ed Reformers, yet proved himself, by his writings and avowed doctrines, an uncompromising opponent of the Church of Rome, in so far as related to the dominant features of its theology and government; and, taken altogether, he must indubitably be considered one of the soundest scholars and most advanced thinkers of his time. D. 1536. [s. 338]