This essay examines the growth and evolution of Erasmus’ correspondence with German humanists. The Netherlandish humanist had virtually no contact with Germans before 1514, but from that point on, epistolary exchanges with Germans comprised about 40 % of his overall correspondence. A series of maps based on that correspondence illustrates how his contacts with Germans changed from a concentration along the Upper Rhine to spread throughout German-speaking lands and beyond. Up through the mid-1520s, Erasmus corresponded with Germany’s most outspoken young humanists, many of whom also supported Luther. By 1525, though, the epistolary network of German humanists had divided into Protestant and Catholic components, and Erasmus belonged to the latter. Prominent among his later correspondents were the Roman Catholic political and social elite in Germany, but Erasmus also stayed in contact with Basel friends who remained loyal to Rome.
Erasmus did not set out a formal theory of shame, yet he developed a subtle and wide-ranging engagement with the emotion across his corpus, most prominently in the Adagia , his pedagogical texts, his letters, and his translation of Plutarch’s Περὶ δυσωπίας ( De vitiosa verecundia ). Situated within ancient and medieval debates on aidōs and pudor / verecundia , Erasmus adopts a conception of shame as a passion tied to fear of dishonor that may function as a quasi-virtue when regulated by conscience. Building on this inheritance, he participates in broader Renaissance discussions of emotion and character formation, most notably in the Adagia and his educational writings. In the former work, Erasmus catalogues and subtly reframes classical topoi on shame’s physiology, moral ambivalence, and relation to honor, fear, and necessity. In the educational writings, he recasts shame as a pedagogical instrument capable, ‘in its right measure’, of encouraging voluntary right action and cultivating decorum. Alongside this theoretical engagement, Erasmus also maps these distinctions onto his own self-understanding and self-presentation. His correspondence draws on the rhetoric of shame—largely understood as (over)bashfulness and persistent self-dissatisfaction—to fashion a persona of modesty and self-critique, with varied rhetorical and practical effects. More pointedly, Plutarch’s notion of δυσωπία , elaborated in his short essay Περὶ δυσωπίας and deliberately included in Erasmus’ Plutarch collection, furnishes Erasmus with both a technical vocabulary and a diagnostic lens for interpreting his own character and decisions. Read together, these texts shed light on Erasmus’ moral psychology of shame and on the role it plays in early modern humanist self-fashioning.
This article traces the complicated textual history of the Libellus proverbiorum , a small collection of classical proverbs compiled by the Anglo-Italian scholar Polydore Vergil between 1498 and 1550. Vergil’s Proverbs has long lived in the shadow of Erasmus’ more famous Adages , a problem which led Vergil to attack Erasmus in print in 1521. This article, however, argues for the importance of treating the Proverbs on its own terms, as well as thinking about its broader place in the ‘Erasmian republic of letters’. It offers a more comprehensive survey of the Proverbs in print and demonstrates how Vergil attempted to manage its text and reputation while living in England. It challenges the notion that Vergil and Erasmus can easily be described as ‘friends’, proposing instead that the Proverbs remained a vehicle for the two men’s rivalry, scholarly self-fashioning and the articulation of distinct visions of Christian humanism.
This article traces the complicated textual history of the Libel UnderlineKeyboard shortcut Ctrl+Ulus proverbiorum, a small collection of classical proverbs compiled by the Anglo-Italian scholar Polydore Vergil between 1498 and 1550. Vergil's Proverbs has long lived in the shadow of Erasmus' more famous Adages, a problem which led Vergil to attack Erasmus in print in 1521. This article, however, argues for the importance of treating the Proverbs on its own terms, as well as thinking about its broader place in the `Erasmian republic of letters'. It offers a more comprehensive survey of the Proverbs in print and demonstrates how Vergil attempted to manage its text and reputation while living in England. It challenges the notion that Vergil and Erasmus can easily be described as `friends,proposing instead that the Proverbs remained a vehicle for the two men's rivalry, scholarly self-fashioning and the articulation of distinct visions of Christian humanism.
This essay examines the growth and evolution of Erasmus' correspondence with German humanists. The Netherlandish humanist had virtually no contact with Germans before 1514, but from that point on, epistolary exchanges with Germans comprised about 40% of his overall correspondence. A series of maps based on that correspondence illustrates how his contacts with Germans changed from a concentration along the Upper Rhine to spread throughout German-speaking lands and beyond. Up through the mid-1520s, Erasmus corresponded with Germany's most outspoken young humanists, many of whom also supported Luther. By 1525, though, the epistolary network of German humanists had divided into Protestant and Catholic components, and Erasmus belonged to the latter. Prominent among his later correspondents were the Roman Catholic political and social elite in Germany, but Erasmus also stayed in contact with Basel friends who remained loyal to Rome.
The twentieth century saw recurring debate over what Archbishop Thomas Cranmer meant by placing John 6:63 (as the verse is now numbered) on the frontispiece of his Defence of the True and Catholike Doctrine of the Sacrament of the Body and Bloud of our Saviour Christ (1550), his major work on the Eucharist. This paper surveys approaches to John 6 printed during the first half of the reign of Edward VI in order to better determine a plausible interpretive range for Cranmer’s choice of Biblical text. Especially close attention is paid to Erasmus of Rotterdam’s Enchiridion and New Testament Paraphrases. In his Injunctions of 1547, Edward VI directed all clergy to own and study the Paraphrases. All parishes were to purchase and make it available for public reading as well. As the author of an “official” confessional text for the Edwardine Church of England, Erasmus can helpfully elucidate Eucharistic debate in England, and the views of Archbishop Cranmer in particular.
This essay is an analysis of John Colet’s thought about marriage in his manuscript treatise De sacramentis. Colet’s assessment of marriage was famously very harsh, condemning it as a reproachable concession for the weak. The essay argues that this condemnation should be read in the light of the complex protological setting elaborated in the treatise, which shows relevant Patristic models. The essay proposes a comparison with Erasmus, arguing that the difference between the two thinkers on this point lies in a different, broader understanding of the metaphoric level, ecclesiology, and reform.
The life and influence of Erasmus of Rotterdam clearly showed how international Europe was during the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Even in remote Scotland, a place Erasmus never visited, he both influenced the direction of Scotland and was influenced himself by the northern nation on the Isle of Great Britain. By 1500, Scotland had three universities, but they focused less on graduate level study, so many Scots intellectuals traveled to Europe where they met Erasmus and/or were influenced by his ideas. In addition, James IV was Scotland’s first truly Renaissance king who, on becoming impressed with the work of Erasmus partially through these Scottish scholars, hired the Dutch humanist as a tutor for his illegitimate sons, including the Archbishop of St. Andrews. Through these connections, Erasmian humanism spread in Scotland, and Erasmus himself adjusted his own writings on war due to the Scottish Battle of Flodden. Even after his death, Erasmus continued to influence Scotland through intellectual developments, particularly in regard to political theory. This article delves deeply into the connections and influences between Scotland and Erasmus in the sixteenth century.
The life and influence of Erasmus of Rotterdam clearly showed how international Europe was during the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Even in remote Scotland, a place Erasmus never visited, he both influenced the direction of Scotland and was influenced himself by the northern nation on the Isle of Great Britain. By 1500, Scotland had three universities, but they focused less on graduate level study, so many Scots intellectuals traveled to Europe where they met Erasmus and/or were influenced by his ideas. In addition, James IV was Scotland's first truly Renaissance king who, on becoming impressed with the work of Erasmus partially through these Scottish scholars, hired the Dutch humanist as a tutor for his illegitimate sons, including the Archbishop of St. Andrews. Through these connections, Erasmian humanism spread in Scotland, and Erasmus himself adjusted his own writings on war due to the Scottish Battle of Flodden. Even after his death, Erasmus continued to influence Scotland through intellectual developments, particularly in regard to political theory. This article delves deeply into the connections and influences between Scotland and Erasmus in the sixteenth century.
This essay is an analysis of John Colet's thought about marriage in his manuscript treatise De sacramentis. Colet's assessment of marriage was famously very harsh, condemning it as a reproachable concession for the weak. The essay argues that this condemnation should be read in the light of the complex protological setting elaborated in the treatise, which shows relevant Patristic models. The essay proposes a comparison with Erasmus, arguing that the difference between the two thinkers on this point lies in a different, broader understanding of the metaphoric level, ecclesiology, and reform.
The twentieth century saw recurring debate over what Archbishop Thomas Cranmer meant by placing John 6:63 (as the verse is now numbered) on the frontispiece of his Defence of the True and Catholike Doctrine of the Sacrament of the Body and Bloud of our Saviour Christ (155O), his major work on the Eucharist. This paper surveys approaches to John 6 printed during the first half of the reign of Edward VI in order to better determine a plausible interpretive range for Cranmer's choice of Biblical text. Especially close attention is paid to Erasmus of Rotterdam's Enchiridion and New Testament Paraphrases. In his Injunctions of 1547, Edward VI directed all clergy to own and study the Paraphrases. All parishes were to purchase and make it available for public reading as well. As the author of an "official" confessional text for the Edwardine Church of England, Erasmus can helpfully elucidate Eucharistic debate in England, and the views of Archbishop Cranmer in particular.
It is perhaps surprising to see the name and legacy of Erasmus embroiled in the party politics of late Stuart England. What did either the Whigs or the Tories have in common with Erasmus? In fact, authors from both incipient parties saw significant advantage in claiming Erasmus as a respected authority for key elements of their own agendas. They also sought to use the reputation and writings of Erasmus to support their competing interpretations of the English past. In 1685, Tories saw the moderation and tolerance of the English Erasmian legacy as a model that could build support for the Catholic James H. Whigs, meanwhile, sought to undermine this argument by portraying Erasmus as anti-Catholic, anti-papal, and anti-authoritarian. Both factions understood that history was the foundation for legitimacy and that public perceptions about the nature of the English Reformation and the Elizabethan settlement could determine the success or failure of their competing visions for the future of England. Claiming Erasmus, both believed, was important for the acceptance of the rival stories they each sought to tell.
In the spring of 1509, Erasmus travelled from Rome to Naples with his sixteen-year-old pupil Alexander Stewart, Archbishop of St Andrews and son of the king of Scotland. They visited the cave of the Sibyl at Cumae, according to Beatus Rhenanus. `What the Sibyl said,Johan Huizinga comments eerily, `we will never know'. This essay analyses Erasmus' writings on sibylline texts and oracles, and his effusive memoirs of Alexander, who died at the Battle of Flodden in 1513. It examines the artistic vogue for Sibyls in Italy, including Michelangelo, and Erasmus' relations with Cardinal Riario (Michelangelo's patron) and his circle. By comparing the homosocial world of tutors and pupils, with the homoerotic culture of antiquities, it opens up a last unmentionable area of Erasmian biography: the luminous, ardent, secretive world of erotic love.
The aim of this paper is to recount the events surrounding the Conference of Valladolid and their impact on Spanish Erasmianism, as reflected in the writings of one of the period's lesser-known actors, Juan Maldonado. The paper begins by recovering several of Maldonado's lost letters (rediscovered as part of this research in a composite manuscript at the Spanish National Library) and contextualizing them in the period in order to expand and enhance our existing knowledge of the relationship between Maldonado, Erasmus, and the core group of Erasmians at the court of Charles v. The study continues with a meticulous examination of the transformation in Maldonado's stance toward Erasmus in the 1530s and, in particular, his most decisively anti-Erasmian work, Praxis sive de lectione Erasmi. The paper is accompanied by one appendix: a letter sent by Maldonado to his patron, Diego Osorio, detailing the confrontation between the Benedictine monk Alonso Ruiz de Virues and the Dominican Diego de Vitoria just prior to the Conference of Valladolid. The accompanying article includes an annotated edition of Praxis, translated into English for the first time.
