Secret Courage W. Zeitler [PIANO]
Order of Chivalry: Truth W. Zeitler
During the Reformation, while both sides where going at it, there were dissenting voices who sought a peaceful resolution.
One of the most prominent was Erasmus (1466 – 1536), a Dutch philosopher and Catholic theologian who is considered one of the greatest scholars of the northern Renaissance. As a Catholic priest, he was an important figure in classical scholarship who wrote in a pure Latin style, and has been called “the crowning glory of the Christian humanists”. Erasmus was also a Greek scholar who edited and published the first Greek New Testament, which Luther used to translate the New Testament into German. Erasmus’ “Manual of a Christian Knight” was published by William Tyndale, who did the first translation of the New Testament into English — also using Erasmus’ Greek edition. (It was illegal for him to do so, and Tyndale was burned at the stake.)
Born in 1466 in Rotterdam, this illegitimate son of a priest and his concubine was named after St. Erasmus. After both parents died of the plague, Erasmus was sent to a Latin school age 8 to 15. Here Erasmus learned of Devotio Moderna, a movement of religious reform focusing on apostolic simplicity, separation from the sinful world, and Christ as the great example of obedience. Poverty led Erasmus to enter the Augustinian monastery in 1487. He took monastic vows age 22, and was ordained a priest age 26. Erasmus was allowed to leave the monastery and pursue studies at the University of Paris, and later at Oxford where he studied Greek intensively.
Erasmus believed the Catholic Church with its corruption and deadness could be spiritually reformed by a return to its roots in the Bible — hence his Greek New Testament. He believed this Greek text with his new Latin translation was indeed a new instrument for the revival of Christian spirituality, going back to the biblical source of the faith. He also published important editions of works by the fathers of the early church, including Jerome, Chrysostom, Origin, Irenaeus, Ambrose, Augustine, and Basil. In contrast with medieval scholastic philosophy based on Aristotelian logic, which only the educated could comprehend, Erasmus believed the philosophy of Christ was for all.
The Protestant Reformation began in the year following the publication of his edition of the Greek New Testament (1516). The issues between the Catholic Church and the growing Protestant movement had become so clear that few could escape the summons to join the debate. Erasmus, at the height of his literary fame, was inevitably called upon to take sides, but partisanship was foreign to his nature. Despite all his criticism of clerical corruption and abuses within the Catholic Church, which lasted for years and was also directed towards many of the Church’s basic doctrines, Erasmus shunned the Reformation movement along with its most radical and reactionary offshoots and sided with neither party.
Noting Luther’s criticism of the Catholic Church, Erasmus described him as “a mighty trumpet of gospel truth” while agreeing, “It is clear that many of the reforms for which Luther calls are urgently needed.” He had great respect for Luther, and Luther spoke with admiration of Erasmus’s superior learning. In their early correspondence, Luther expressed boundless admiration for all Erasmus had done in the cause of a sound and reasonable Christianity and urged him to join the Lutheran cause. Erasmus declined to commit himself, arguing that to do so would endanger his position as a leader in the movement for pure scholarship which he regarded as his purpose in life. Only as an independent scholar could he hope to influence the reform of religion. When Erasmus hesitated to support him, the straightforward Luther became angry that Erasmus was avoiding the responsibility, due either to cowardice or a lack of purpose. However, any hesitancy on the part of Erasmus stemmed, not from lack of courage or conviction, but rather from a concern over the mounting disorder and violence of the reform movement. In 1524 he wrote:
I know nothing of your [Protestant] church; at the very least it contains people who will, I fear, overturn the whole system and drive the princes into using force to restrain good men and bad alike. The gospel, the word of God, faith, Christ, and Holy Spirit — these words are always on their lips; look at their lives and they speak quite another language.
Erasmus was proven right by the Thirty Years War (1618-1648, between Catholics and Protestants) — which if measured by percentage of the total population who perished, was deadlier than either World War.
Erasmus died of dysentery age 70.