Erasmus?

[HabemusFrancis]

I wonder what the Churche’s position on Erasmus is.

It seems he was a renaissance philosopher and friend of St. Thomas Moore’s, but at the time was condemned by both protestants and Catholics alike. Is anyone aware of his writings?

 

[dmar198]

I wonder what the Churche’s position on Erasmus is.

It seems he was a renaissance philosopher and friend of St. Thomas Moore’s, but at the time was condemned by both protestants and Catholics alike. Is anyone aware of his writings?

Erasmus was a Catholic renaissance figure who lived at the same as Luther and Calvin and so got caught up in the Reformation. He thought that reforming the Church was a good idea, but didn’t want to sacrifice the Church’s doctrines, and he remained Catholic. He argued with Luther over the doctrine of free will and composed several books defending that particular Catholic doctrine, but theology wasn’t his strong suit…he thought indulgences were a “small-t tradition,” for example, and agreed with Luther that they should be abolished. He was a really cool Catholic though and is an interesting example of a “moderate” position between the reformers and the counter-reformers.

Interesting fact: Erasmus wanted to get the Bible translated into English (so did St. Thomas More) and to help with that project he compiled a new edition of the New Testament in the original Greek and his edition was the one used by the translators of the King James Bible.

 

[Rete]

I don’t much like him because of some of his views and his role in laying the groundwork for the Protestant revolt. He did realize what was happening and stepped back from it, but it was too late for him to exert his influence he once had over those joining in the revolt. He never did have the occasion to take a moral stand and lay his life down for the Church like St. Thomas More did, who similarly gave early support to so-called reformers. It’s not that I think he did these things intentionally, but I don’t see any text composed by Erasmus whereby he acknowledged the mistakes and apologized for his early support of that clique within the Humanist movement that later prosecuted the Protestant revolt. Maybe I am overly harsh, but the impact of that revolt was to shatter Christendom. Our civilization paid a heavy cost.

The real heroes were the figures of the Counter-Reformation, like St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa of Avilla, St. Ignatius, St. Francis-Xavier, etc.

If you want a good example of an strong Catholic academic on par with Erasmus, then look no further than Johann Eck.