Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus
Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus was born in Rotterdam in the year 1467 and died in 1536. He was a Dutch Renaisssance humanist, Catholic priest, teacher, social critic and theologian. He is my hero, because he was different and thought very different about things, like humanism, and because he traveled a lot and has seen many countries in which he made a lot of friends. He was also always eager to learn more and more, which I admire a lot. In Rotterdam a lot of buildings are named after him, like the Erasmus University and the Erasmus bridge.
Erasmus was the illicit son of a priest. He was always kind of mysterious about his childhood and where he was from.
In 1488 he was, forced by his caretakers, an intern in the ‘Augustijner’ monastery, which was in ‘Stein’. In 1492 he was blessed to priest by bishop Jan van Tiel in ‘de Dom van Utrecht’. From there on he was bound to the spiritual life, but it also created opportunity’s for him to study abroad. In 1495 he started a theology study in Paris. He traveled a lot and because he met a lot of people he ended up in Cambridge, England, where he met de son of the king of England and Thomas More, who was known for being a humanist and a jurist.
After that, Erasmus went back to Paris from where he in 1506 left to Italy for three years. He stayed in Turin where he became doctor in theology and in Venice where he worked with printer Aldus Manutius who published his ‘Adagia’.
When he was done in Italy, he went back to the North and wrote his famous work ‘Lof der Zotheid’ in 1511, while staying with his friend Thomas More in England. This very famous work from the Renaissance is a satire that can be considered as one of the most influential works of the Western culture. In this work ‘de Zotheid’ shines a light on diverse human foolishnesses. Monarchs, clerical autorothies, scientists and merchants are critisized.
From 1514 to 1516 Erasmus stayed in Basel after meeting printer Froben who printed several works he wrote. In 1516 he moved back to the Netherlands and was named counseler by Karel V. He lived in Antwerp, Bruges, Louvain and Mechlin.
When the church fell apart in catholicism and protestant he got forced to pick a side in Leuven. He refused and in 1521 he went back to Basel, which felt like home to him. A lot of his works are printed in Basel. In 1529 however, he left Basel and went to the German Freiburg im Breisgau. In 1535 he went back to the Swiss Basel where he died in 1536 at the age of almost 70. His grave is located in the Domchurch in Basel.
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