DESIDERIUS ERASMUS

(c. 1465-1536)

RASMUS was a scholar and theologian of profound learning, who, as a rule, condensed his thought either too much or

too little to be classed with essayists. His "Adages," which are now more read than his more labored productions, have a reason for their vitality in such vigorous sentences as this: "The people build cities; princes pull them down; the industry of the citizens creates wealth for rapacious lords to plunder; plebeian magistrates pass good laws for kings to violate; the people love peace, but their rulers stir up war." The same spirit governs "The Praises of Folly," - a work in which, while he never completely attains the essayist's method, he opens the way for the most effective work of Swift. The book is a bitter satire in which the Goddess of Folly praises priests, popes, kings, and nobles as her special friends and eulogizes them for all possible virtues. Those who read any chapter of it will understand why Erasmus was called "the glory of the priesthood and the shame." His learning was so great and his refusal to follow Luther so important in the politics of the time, that the incessant attacks made upon him could not be pushed to the last extreme, but he was "one of the best abused men who ever lived," and it is said that his quarrels would fill a volume. He was not a bad-natured man or an ascetic, however, for he loved good red wine and bad puns. Early in his career he attacked the University of Paris because, while a student there, he accumulated vermin from its filthy buildings more easily than learning from its professors, and he illustrated the same habit of fearless and often brutal criticism during his whole life. But he lived in a brutal time which badly needed his work. Hardly any one else has done as much for modern civilization as he. He was born at Rotterdam, probably October 28th, 1465. He was an illegitimate son, and to this disadvantage the disadvantage of poverty was added to compell him to greatness. His father, Gerhard de Praet, died when Erasmus was thirteen years old, and the provision left for the boy's education was embezzled by his guardians. Having no other means of getting an education, he began to study for the priesthood; and the Bishop of Cambray sent him to the University of Paris. He became the leading classical scholar of Northern Europe, and he used his knowledge with high intelligence to force northern Europe away from