c. 1466-1536. Dutch scholar and humanist; the
most influential of Renaissance thinkers, he
taught and studied all over Europe and was a
prolific writer. His pioneer translation of
the Greek New Testament 1516 exposed the
Vulgate as a second-hand document. Although
opposed to dogmatism and abuse of church
power, he remained impartial during Martin
Luther's conflict with the pope. Erasmus was
born in Rotterdam, and as a youth he was a
monk in an Augustinian monastery near Gouda.
After becoming a priest, he went to study in
Paris 1495. He paid the first of a number of
visits to England 1499, where he met the
physician Thomas Linacre, the politician
Thomas More, and the Bible interpreter John
Colet, and for a time was professor of
divinity and Greek at Cambridge University.
He edited the writings of St Jerome, and
published Colloquia (dialogues on
contemporary subjects) in 1519. In 1521 he
went to Basel, Switzerland, where he edited
the writings of the early Christian leaders.