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A desire to bring about change through persuasion and education
Erasmus’s social and educational messages are as valid today as they were 500 years ago, writes GORDON PARSONS
Portrait of Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam at 59 painted by Hans Holbein the Younger in 1523
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Erasmus of Rotterdam
By William Barker
Reaktion Books £16.95
GENERAL readers attracted to William Barker’s beautifully presented, relatively short, succinctly styled new biography of Erasmus, recognised as the quintessential, European intellectual of the late medieval period, will discover a figure unquestionably more celebrated than known.
His historical reputation has been popularly upstaged by that of Martin Luther, a much more theatrical figure. Although sharing many of the latter’s criticisms of the corrupt doctrines and practical behaviour of the ruling Catholic hierarchy, he found Luther’s belief in predestination fundamentally in conflict with his own faith in human free will.
Luther’s aggressive temperament and violently combative style through which he pursued his religious revolution was inimical to Erasmus’s desire to bring about change through persuasion and essentially education.
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