Erasmus of Rotterdam (B. 107; M., Holl. 105; S.M.S. 102)

One of the greatest humanists who ever lived Erasmus Desiderius of Rotterdam (circa 1466-1536) was a European intellectual who had studied in Paris and lived in Italy, the Netherlands, England, Switzerland and Germany. Throughout a long and active life he corresponded with more than five hundred men of the highest importance in the world of politics and philosophy, and his advice on all kinds of subjects was eagerly sought, if not always followed. Although he remained a Roman Catholic he was critical of what he considered the excesses of the Roman Catholic Church, and using humanist techniques he prepared important new Latin and Greek editions of the New Testament which raised questions that would be influential in the Reformation. Indeed, the Catholic Counter-Reformation movement often condemned Erasmus as having 'laid the egg that hatched the Reformation.'