this age was Luther; but many writers assert that Erasmus was his predecessor, and there was a common saying in Germany that Erasmus[1] laid the egg, and Luther hatched it[2]. Erasmus was born in Holland; his birth was illegitimate, and he was baptized by the name of Gerard, which he afterwards changed to the Greek name Erasmus—in Latin, Desiderius[3]. At an early age he was received among the Regular Canons of St. Augustin, and made his religious profession; but, weary of a religious life, and regretting having made his vows, he left the cloister and lived in the world, having, it is supposed, obtained a Papal dispensation. He would certainly have conferred a benefit on the age he lived in, had he confined himself to literature alone; but he was not satisfied without writing on theological matters, interpreting the Scriptures, and finding fault with the Fathers; hence, as Noel Alexander says of him, the more works he wrote the more errors he published. He travelled to many Universities, and was always honourably received, on account of his learning; but a great many doubted of his faith, on account of the obscure way he wrote concerning the dogma of religion; hence, some of the Innovators, friends of Erasmus, often availed themselves of his authority, though he frequently endeavoured to clear himself from the imputation of favouring them, especially in a letter he wrote to Cardinal Campeggio[4].
2. A great contest at that time was going on in Germany, between the Rhetoricians and Theologians. The Rhetoricians upbraided the Theologians with their ignorance, and the barbarism of the terms they used. The Theologians, on the other hand, abused the Rhetoricians for the impropriety and profaneness of the language they used in the explanation of the Divine Mysteries. Erasmus, who took the lead among the Rhetoricians, began by deriding, first, the style, and, next, the arguments of the Theologians; he called their theology Judaism, and said that the proper understanding of ecclesiastical science depended altogether on erudition and the knowledge of languages. Many writers openly charge Erasmus with heresy: he explained everything just as it pleased himself, says Victorinus[5], and vitiated everything he explained. Albert Pico, Prince of Carpi, a man of great learning[6], and a strenuous opponent of the errors of Erasmus, assures us that he called the Invocation of the Blessed Virgin and the saints idolatry; condemned monasteries and ridiculed the Religious, calling them actors and cheats, and condemned their vows and rules; was opposed to the celibacy of the clergy, and turned into mockery Papal indulgences, relics of saints, feasts and fasts, and auricular confession; asserts that by Faith alone man is justified[7], and even
