1466-1536
Humanist

Dissatisfaction. The illegitimate son of a man who at some point became a priest and his housekeeper, Desiderius Erasmus was born in Rotterdam, Holland. He received a good foundation in classical literature both from his father, who knew some classical Latin, and the Brothers of the Common Life. At age twenty-one he entered a monastery and five years later was ordained a priest. Dissatisfied with life in the monastery, he received permission to leave. He went to the University of Paris to study scholastic theology but soon found that distasteful as well, later making a crack that the University was a place "where the eggs were stale and the theology was staler." Having experienced life as a monk and a theologian and having developed a deep aversion to both lifestyles, Erasmus made monks and theologians the special targets of his biting wit.

Ancient Wisdom...