Editing Erasmus (section)

==Life and career==
Erasmus's almost 70 years may be divided into quarters.{{refn|group=note|Vollerthun and Richardson suggest three phases, grouping the first two quarters for their purposes.<ref name=vollerthun>{{cite book |last1=Vollerthun |first1=Ursula |last2=Richardson |first2=James L. |title=The Idea of International Society: Erasmus, Vitoria, Gentili and Grotius |date=31 August 2017 |doi=10.1017/9781108264945.005}}</ref>{{rp|31}} }}

* First was his [[medieval]] Dutch childhood, ending with his being orphaned and impoverished; 
* Second, his struggling years as [[Canon (title)|a canon]] (a kind of semi-monk), a clerk, a priest, a failing and sickly university student, a would-be poet, and a tutor; 
* Third, his flourishing but peripatetic [[High Renaissance]] years of increasing focus and literary productivity following his 1499 contact with a reformist English circle notably [[John Colet]] and [[Thomas More]], then with radical French Franciscan Jean Vitrier (or Voirier),{{refn|group=note|Colet and Vitrier were "two of the deepest influences on his life."<ref name=cwe23>{{cite book |title=Literary and Educational Writings, 1 and 2: Volume 1: Antibarbari / Parabolae. Volume 2: De copia / De ratione studii, Volume 23–24 |date=1978 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |doi=10.3138/9781442676695 |jstor=10.3138/9781442676695 |isbn=978-0-8020-5395-4  |last1=Erasmus |first1=Desideriushg |volume=23-24 }}</ref>{{rp|11}} }} and later with the Greek-speaking Aldine New Academy in Venice; and 
* Fourth, his financially more secure [[Reformation]] years near the [[Black Forest]]: as a prime influencer of European thought through his New Testament and increasing public opposition to aspects of Lutheranism, first in [[Basel]] and then as a Catholic religious refugee in [[Freiburg]].

===Early life===
Desiderius Erasmus is reported to have been born in [[Rotterdam]] on 27 or 28 October ("the vigil of Simon and Jude")<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Olin |first1=John |title=Introduction: Erasmus, a Biographical Sketch |journal=Christian Humanism and the Reformation |date=23 October 2020 |pages=1–38 |doi=10.1515/9780823295289-004|isbn=978-0-8232-9528-9 }}</ref> in the late 1460s. 
He was named<ref group=note>''Erasmus'' was his [[baptismal name]], given after [[Erasmus of Formia]]e. ''Desiderius'' was an adopted additional name, which he used from 1496. The ''Roterodamus'' was a scholarly name meaning "from Rotterdam", though the Latin toponymic adjective would be {{lang|la|Roterdamensis}}.</ref> after [[Erasmus of Formia]]e, whom Erasmus' father Gerard (Gerardus Helye)<ref name="new"/> personally favored.<ref>{{Cite journal|title = Due codici scritti da 'Gerardus Helye' padre di Erasmo|journal= Italia Medioevale e Umanistica|volume= 26 |pages= 215–55, esp. 238–39|last = Avarucci|first = Giuseppe|year = 1983|language=it}}</ref><ref>Huizinga, ''Erasmus'', pp. 4 and 6 (Dutch-language version)</ref> Although associated closely with Rotterdam, he lived there for only four years, never to return afterwards.
[[File:Rotterdam standbeeld Erasmus.jpg|thumb|left|upright=.8|[[Statue of Erasmus]] in Rotterdam. Gilded bronze statue by [[Hendrick de Keyser]] (1622), replacing a stone (1557), and a wooden (1549).]]

The year of Erasmus' birth is unclear: in later life he calculated his age as if born in 1466, but frequently his remembered age at major events actually implies 1469.<ref name=vredeveld>{{ cite periodical| first=Harry | last=Vredeveld | title=The Ages of Erasmus and the Year of his Birth | magazine=Renaissance Quarterly | volume= 46| number= 4 | date=Winter 1993|pages= 754–809 |jstor= 3039022}}</ref><ref name=demolen/>{{rp|8}} (This article currently gives 1466 as the birth year.<ref name="seop2009" >{{cite encyclopedia | url= http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2009/entries/erasmus/#LifWor | title= Desiderius Erasmus | publisher= [[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]] | encyclopedia= Winter 2009 Edition | last= Nauert | first= Charles | access-date= 2012-02-10 | archive-date= 19 July 2023 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20230719091924/https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2009/entries/erasmus/#LifWor | url-status= live }}</ref><ref name="gleason1979">{{ cite periodical| last= Gleason | first=John B. |title=The Birth Dates of John Colet and Erasmus of Rotterdam: Fresh Documentary Evidence|magazine= Renaissance Quarterly|publisher= The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Renaissance Society of America|volume= 32|number= 1 |date=Spring 1979| pages= 73–76 |jstor= 2859872}}</ref> To handle this disagreement, ages are given first based on 1469, then in parentheses based on 1466: e.g., "20 (or 23)".) Furthermore, many details of his early life must be gleaned from a fictionalized third-person account he wrote in 1516 (published in 1529) in a letter to a fictitious Papal secretary, Lambertus Grunnius ("Mr. Grunt").<ref name=epistles/>

His parents could not be legally married: his father, Gerard, was a Catholic priest<ref name="ReferenceA">Cornelius Augustijn, ''Erasmus: His life, work and influence'', University of Toronto, 1991</ref> who may have spent up to six years in the 1450s or 60s in Italy as a scribe and scholar.<ref name=mansfield/>{{rp|196}} His mother was Margaretha Rogerius (Latinized form of Dutch surname Rutgers),<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05510b.htm |title=Catholic Encyclopedia |access-date=1 May 2023 |archive-date=1 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230501114617/https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05510b.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> the daughter of a doctor from [[Zevenbergen]]. She may have been Gerard's housekeeper.<ref name="ReferenceA"/><ref>The 19th-century novel ''[[The Cloister and the Hearth]]'', by [[Charles Reade]], is an account of the lives of Erasmus's parents.</ref> 
Although he was born out of wedlock, Erasmus was cared for by his parents, with a loving household and the best education, until their early deaths from [[Black Death|the bubonic plague]] in 1483. His only sibling Peter might have been born in 1463, and some writers suggest Margaret was a widow and Peter was the half-brother of Erasmus; Erasmus on the other hand called him his brother.<ref name=demolen/> There were legal and social restrictions on the careers and opportunities open to the children of unwed parents.

Erasmus' own story, in the possibly forged 1524 ''{{lang|la|Compendium vitae Erasmi}}'' was along the lines that his parents were engaged, with the formal marriage blocked by his relatives (presumably a young widow or unmarried mother with a child was not an advantageous match); his father went to Italy to study Latin and Greek, and the relatives misled Gerard that Margaretha had died, on which news grieving Gerard romantically took Holy Orders, only to find on his return that Margaretha was alive; many scholars dispute this account.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Grendler |first1=Paul F. |title=In Praise of Erasmus |journal=The Wilson Quarterly |date=1983 |volume=7 |issue=2 |pages=88–101 |jstor=40256471  |issn=0363-3276}}</ref>

In 1471 his father became the vice-curate of the small town of [[Woerden]] (where young Erasmus may have attended the local vernacular school to learn to read and write) and in 1476 was promoted to vice-curate of [[Gouda, South Holland|Gouda]].<ref name=new>{{cite journal |last1=Goudriaan |first1=Koen |title=New Evidence on Erasmus' Youth |journal=Erasmus Studies |date=6 September 2019 |volume=39 |issue=2 |pages=184–216 |doi=10.1163/18749275-03902002|hdl=1871.1/2eb41bd4-6929-41be-a984-94747300015a |s2cid=203519815 |url=https://research.vu.nl/en/publications/2eb41bd4-6929-41be-a984-94747300015a |hdl-access=free}}</ref>

Erasmus was given the highest education available to a young commoner of his day, in a series of private, monastic or semi-monastic schools. In 1476, at the age of 6 (or 9), his family moved to Gouda and he started at the school of Pieter Winckel,<ref name=new/> who later became his guardian (and, perhaps, squandered Erasmus and Peter's inheritance.) Historians who date his birth in 1466 have Erasmus in Utrecht at the choir school at this period.<ref name=miller>{{cite journal |last1=Miller |first1=Clement A. |title=Erasmus on Music |journal=The Musical Quarterly |date=1966 |volume=52 |issue=3 |pages=332–349 |doi=10.1093/mq/LII.3.332 |jstor=3085961  |issn=0027-4631}}</ref>

In 1478, at the age of 9 (or 12), he and his older brother Peter were sent to one of the best Latin schools in the Netherlands, located at [[Deventer]] and owned by the chapter clergy of the [[Lebuïnuskerk]] (St. Lebuin's Church).<ref name="seop2009" />{{refn|group=note|This school was not run by the [[Brethren of the Common Life]], but one of the teaches was a brother.<ref name=post/>}} A notable previous student was [[Thomas à Kempis]]. Towards the end of his stay there the curriculum was renewed by the new principal of the school, [[Alexander Hegius]], a correspondent of pioneering rhetorician [[Rudolphus Agricola]]. For the first time in Europe north of the Alps, Greek was taught at a lower level than a university<ref>{{cite web |title=Alexander Hegius |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alexander-Hegius |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |access-date=1 May 2023 |archive-date=1 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230501113852/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alexander-Hegius |url-status=live }}</ref>  and this is where he began learning it.<ref>Peter Nissen: ''Geloven in de Lage landen; scharniermomenten in de geschiedenis van het Christendom''. Davidsfonds/Leuven, 2004.</ref><!-- pagenumber? --> His education there ended when plague struck the city about 1483,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Roosen |first1=Joris |title=The Black Death and recurring plague during the late Middle Ages in the County of Hainaut: Differential impact and diverging recovery |date=2020 |isbn=978-94-6416-146-5 |page=174 |url=https://dspace.library.uu.nl/bitstream/handle/1874/399979/dissertatie-joris%20roosen-full%20-%205f744c300d822.pdf?sequence=1 |access-date=20 July 2023 |archive-date=20 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230720142520/https://dspace.library.uu.nl/bitstream/handle/1874/399979/dissertatie-joris%20roosen-full%20-%205f744c300d822.pdf?sequence=1 |url-status=live }}</ref> and his mother, who had moved to provide a home for her sons, died from the infection; then his father. Following the death of his parents, as well as 20 fellow students at his school,<ref name=demolen/> he moved back to his ''{{lang|la|patria}}'' (Rotterdam?)<ref name=new/> where he was supported by Berthe de Heyden,<ref name=":7">DeMolen, Richard L. (1976),p.13</ref> a compassionate widow.<ref name=demolen>{{cite journal |last1=DeMolen |first1=Richard L. |title=Erasmus as Adolescent: "Shipwrecked am I, and lost, 'mid waters chill'": Erasmus to Sister Elisabeth |journal=Bibliothèque d'Humanisme et Renaissance |date=1976 |volume=38 |issue=1 |pages=7–25 |jstor=20675524  |issn=0006-1999}}</ref> 
[[File:Hieronymus Bosch - Triptych of Temptation of St Anthony - WGA2585.jpg|thumb|centre|475px|[[Hieronymous Bosch]], ''[[Triptych of the Temptation of St. Anthony|Temptation of St Anthony]]'', triptych (c. 1501), painted in [['s-Hertogenbosch]], later owned by his friend [[Damião de Gois]] ]]
In 1484, around the age 14 (or 17), he and his brother went to a cheaper<ref>{{cite web |last1=Cartwright |first1=Mark |title=Desiderius Erasmus |url=https://www.worldhistory.org/Desiderius_Erasmus/ |website=World History Encyclopedia |language=en |access-date=13 December 2023 |archive-date=14 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240114053700/https://www.worldhistory.org/Desiderius_Erasmus/ |url-status=live }}</ref> grammar school or seminary at [['s-Hertogenbosch]] run by the [[Brethren of the Common Life]]:<ref>DeMolen, Richard L. (1976).pp.10–11</ref><ref group=note>Painter [[Hieronymous Bosch]] lived nearby, on the marketplace, at this time.</ref> Erasmus' ''Epistle to Grunnius'' (see above) satirizes them as the "Collationary Brethren"<ref name="epistles"/> who select and sort boys for monkhood. He was exposed there to the [[Devotio moderna]] movement and the Brethren's famous book ''[[The Imitation of Christ]]'' but resented the harsh rules and strict methods of the religious brothers and educators.<ref name="seop2009" /> The two brothers made an agreement that they would resist the clergy but attend the university;<ref name=":7" /> Erasmus longed to study in Italy, the birthplace of Latin, and have a degree from an Italian university.<ref name=vredeveld/>{{rp|804}} Instead, Peter left for the [[Canon regular#Canons Regular of Saint Augustine|Augustinian]] canonry in [[Stein, South Holland|Stein]], which left Erasmus feeling betrayed.<ref name=":7" /> Around this time he wrote forlornly to his friend Elizabeth de Heyden "Shipwrecked am I, and lost, 'mid waters chill'."<ref name=demolen/> He suffered [[Quartan fever]] for over a year. Eventually Erasmus moved to the same abbey as a postulant in or before 1487,<ref name=new/> around the age of 16 (or 19.)<ref group=note>"Poverty stricken, suffering from quartan fever, and pressurized by his guardians"{{cite web |last1=Juhász |first1=Gergely |title=The Making of Erasmus's New Testament and Its English Connections |url=https://www.academia.edu/48868408 |website=Sparks and Lustrous Words: Literary Walks, Cultural Pilgrimages |date=1 January 2019 |access-date=23 May 2024 |archive-date=9 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230909092023/https://www.academia.edu/48868408 |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Vows, ordination and canonry experience===
[[File:Erasmus(buste).jpg|thumb|upright=.8|Bust by [[Hildo Krop]] (1950) in [[Gouda, South Holland|Gouda]], where Erasmus spent his youth]]
Poverty<ref name="cmsmlw"/> had forced the sickly, bookish, teenaged orphan Erasmus into the consecrated life, entering the novitiate in 1487<ref name="xivxv">{{citation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PoCY-z-mhTcC |title=Collected Works of Erasmus: Poems |editor=Harry Vredeveld |others=Translated by Clarence H. Miller |publisher=University of Toronto Press |year=1993 |isbn=978-0-8020-2867-9 |pages=xiv–xv}}</ref> at the [[canonry]] at rural [[Stein, South Holland|Stein]], very near [[Gouda, South Holland]]: the ''Chapter of Sion'' community<ref group=note>Canons regular of St Augustine, Chapter of Sion (or Syon), ''Emmaus'' house, Stein (or Steyn).</ref> largely borrowed its rule from the larger monkish [[Congregation of Windesheim]] who had historical associations with the [[Brethren of the Common Life]], but also with the notable pastoral, mystical<ref>{{cite book |last1=Harmless |first1=William |title=Mystics |date=19 December 2007 |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195300383.003.0001}}</ref>{{rp|ch1}} and anti-speculative [[Scholasticism#Post-scholasticism|post-scholastic]] theologians [[Jean Gerson]]<ref name=books/>{{rp|315}} and [[Gabriel Biel]]: positions associated also with Erasmus.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=De Lang |first1=Marijke H. |title=Jean Gerson's Harmony of the Gospels (1420) |journal=Nederlands Archief voor Kerkgeschiedenis / Dutch Review of Church History |date=1991 |volume=71 |issue=1 |pages=37–49 |doi=10.1163/002820391X00023 |jstor=24009392  |issn=0028-2030}}</ref>{{rp|46-48}} In 1488–1490, the surrounding region was plundered badly by armies fighting the [[Squire Francis War]] of succession and then suffered a famine.<ref name=vredeveld/>{{rp|759}} Erasmus professed his vows as a [[Canon regular]] of St. Augustine{{refn|group=note|This is a non-mendicant order of clerics which followed the looser Rule of St Augustine, who do not withdraw from the world, and who take a vow of Stability binding them to a House in addition to the usual Poverty (common life, simplicity), Chastity and Obedience. Erasmus described the Canons Regular as "an order midway between monks and (secular priests) [...] amphibians, like the beaver [...] and the crocodile". Also "for the so-called Canons formerly were not monks, and now they are an intermediate class: monks where it is an advantage to be so; not monks where it is not".<ref name=demolen1/>

The kind of world-involved, devout, scholarly, loyal, humanistic, non-monkish, non-mendicant, non-ceremonial, voluntaristic religious order without notions of spiritual perfection that may have suited Erasmus better arose soon after his death, perhaps in response to the ethos Erasmus shared: notably the [[Jesuits]], [[Oratory of Saint Philip Neri|Oratorians]]<ref>{{cite thesis |last1=Danyluk |first1=Katharine |title=Imitations of Christ: Ignatius of Loyola, Philip Neri and the influence of the ''Devotio Moderna'' |date=10 September 2018 |publisher=University of Wales Trinity Saint David |url=https://repository.uwtsd.ac.uk/id/eprint/1710/ |access-date=5 January 2024 |type=masters |language=en |archive-date=5 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240105001112/https://repository.uwtsd.ac.uk/id/eprint/1710/ |url-status=live }}</ref>{{rp|52}} and subsequent congregations such as the [[Redemptorists]]. For the Ursalines, Barnabites, etc. "these associations were not conceived by their founders as 'religious orders', but as spiritual companies mostly
composed of both lay and religious folk ... Similarly to the teachings of humanists like Erasmus and of the ''devotio moderna'', these ... associations did not emphasise the institutional aspect of religious life."<ref name=Mazzonis>{{cite journal |last1=Mazzonis |first1=Querciolo |title=Reforming Christianity in early sixteenth-century Italy: the Barnabites, the Somaschans, the Ursulines, and the hospitals for the incurables |journal=Archivium Hibernicum |date=2018 |volume=71 |pages=244–272 |jstor=48564991  |issn=0044-8745}}</ref>}} there in late 1488 at age 19 (or 22).<ref name="xivxv"/> 

Historian Fr. Aiden Gasquet later wrote: "One thing, however, would seem to be quite clear; he could never have had any vocation for the religious life. His whole subsequent history shows this unmistakably."<ref name=gasquet>{{cite book |last1=Gasquet |first1=Francis Aidan |title=The Eve of the Reformation. Studies in the Religious Life and Thought of the English people in the Period Preceding the Rejection of the Roman jurisdiction by Henry VIII |date=1900 |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/50328/pg50328-images.html#CHAPTER_VI |language=en}}</ref>  But according to one Catholic biographer, Erasmus had a spiritual awakening at the monastery.<ref name=spirituality>{{cite book |last1=Molen |first1=Richard L. de |title=The spirituality of Erasmus of Rotterdam |date=1987 |publisher=De Graaf |location=Nieuwkoop |isbn=978-90-6004-392-9}}</ref>

Certain abuses in [[religious order]]s were among the chief objects of his later calls to reform the Western Church from within, particularly coerced or tricked recruitment of immature boys (the fictionalized account in the ''Letter to Grunnius'' calls them "victims of Dominic and Francis and Benedict"): Erasmus felt he had belonged to this class, joining "voluntarily but not freely" and so considered himself, if not morally bound by his vows, certainly legally, socially and honour- bound to keep them, yet to look for his true vocation.<ref name=demolen1>{{cite journal |last1=Demolen |first1=Richard L. |title=Erasmus' Commitment to the Canons Regular of St. Augustine |journal=Renaissance Quarterly |date=1973 |volume=26 |issue=4 |pages=437–443 |doi=10.2307/2859495|jstor=2859495 |s2cid=163219853 }}</ref>{{rp|439}}

While at Stein, 18-(or 21-)year-old Erasmus fell in unrequited love, forming what he called a "passionate attachment" ({{langx|la|fervidos amores}}), with a fellow canon, Servatius Rogerus,<ref group=note>[[Diarmaid MacCulloch]] (2003). ''[[Reformation: A History]]''. p. 95. MacCulloch has a footnote "There has been much modern embarrassment and obfuscation on Erasmus and Rogerus, but see the sensible comment in J. Huizinga, ''Erasmus of Rotterdam'' (London, 1952), pp. 11–12, and from Geoffrey Nutuall, ''Journal of Ecclesiastical History'' 26 (1975), 403"
<br/>
In Huizinga's view: "Out of the letters to Servatius there rises the picture of an Erasmus whom we shall never find again—a young man of more than feminine sensitiveness; of a languishing need for sentimental friendship. [...]This exuberant friendship accords quite well with the times and the person. [...] Sentimental friendships were as much in vogue in secular circles during the fifteenth century as towards the end of the eighteenth century. Each court had its pairs of friends, who dressed alike, and shared room, bed, and heart. Nor was this cult of fervent friendship restricted to the sphere of aristocratic life. It was among the specific characteristics of the ''devotio moderna''."</ref> and wrote a series of love letters{{refn|group=note|
However, note that such crushes or bromances may not have been scandalous at the time: the [[Cistercian]] [[Aelred of Rievaulx]]'s influential book [[Aelred of Rievaulx#De spirituali amicitia|On Spiritual Friendship]] put intense adolescent and early-adult friendships between monks as natural and useful steps towards "spiritual friendships", following [[Augustine]]. <br/>The correct direction of passionate love was also a feature of the spirituality of the [[School of Saint Victor|Victorine]] canons regular, notably in Richard of St Victor's ''On the Four Degrees of Violent Love''<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kraebel |first1=Andrew |title=Richard of St. Victor, On the Four Degrees of Violent Love |journal=Victorine Texts in Translation |date=2011 |volume=2 |url=https://www.academia.edu/1563989}}</ref> <br/>Huizinga (p.12) notes "To observe one another with sympathy, to watch and note each other's inner life, was a customary and approved occupation among the Brethren of the Common Life and the Windesheim monks."}}<ref>Forrest Tyler Stevens, "Erasmus's 'Tigress': The Language of Friendship, Pleasure, and the Renaissance Letter". ''Queering the Renaissance'', Duke University Press, 1994</ref> in which he called Rogerus "half my soul",{{refn|group=note|Erasmus used similar expressions in letters to other friends at the time.<ref name=demolen/>{{rp|17}}<br/>D. F. S. Thomson found two other similar contemporary examples of humanist monks using similar florid idiom in their letters. {{cite journal |last1=Thomson |first1=D.F.S. |title=Erasmus as a poet in the context of northern humanism |journal=De Gulden Passer |date=1969 |volume=47 |pages=187–210 |url=https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/_gul005196901_01/_gul005196901_01_0011.php |language=nl}} <br/>Historian Julian Haseldine has noted that medieval monks used charged expressions of friendship with the same emotional content regardless of how well-known the person was to them: so this language was sometimes "instrumental" rather than "affective." However, in this case we have Erasmus' own attestation of the genuine rather than formal fondness. {{cite journal |last1=Haseldine |first1=Julian |title=Medieval Male Friendship Networks |url=https://www.york.ac.uk/borthwick/publications/monastic-research-bulletin/ |journal=The Monastic Review Bulletin |date=2006 |issue=12}} p.19. }} writing that "it was not for the sake of reward or out of a desire for any favour that I have wooed you both unhappily and relentlessly. What is it then? Why, that you love him who loves you."<ref>''Collected Works of Erasmus'', vol. 1, p. 12 ([[Toronto]]: University of Toronto Press, 1974)</ref><ref group=note>Erasmus editor Harry Vredeveld argues that the letters are "surely expressions of true friendship", citing what Erasmus wrote in his ''Letter to Grunnius'' about an earlier teenage infatuation with a "Cantellius": "It is not uncommon at [that] age to conceive passionate attachments [''fervidos amores''] for some of your companions". However, he  allows "That these same letters, which run the gamut of love's emotions, are undoubtedly also literary exercises—rhetorical {{lang|el|progymnasmata}}—is by no means a contradiction of this."{{citation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PoCY-z-mhTcC |title=Collected Works of Erasmus: Poems |editor=Harry Vredeveld |others=Translated by Clarence H. Miller |publisher=University of Toronto Press |year=1993 |isbn=978-0-8020-2867-9 |page=xv}}</ref> This correspondence contrasts with the generally detached and much more restrained attitude he usually showed in his later life, though he had a capacity to form and maintain deep male friendships,<ref group=note>But also a capacity to feel betrayal sharply, as with his brother Peter, "Cantellius", Aleander, and Dorp.</ref> such as with [[Thomas More#Personality according to Erasmus|More]], Colet, and Ammonio.<ref group=note name=lost>The biographer J.J. Mangan commented of his time living with [[Andrea Ammonio]] in England "to some extent Erasmus thereby realized the dream of his youth, which was to live together with some choice literary spirit with whom he might share his thoughts and aspiration". Quoted in J. K. Sowards, ''The Two Lost Years of Erasmus: Summary, Review, and Speculation'', Studies in the Renaissance, Vol. 9 (1962), p. 174.</ref> No mentions or sexual accusations were ever made of Erasmus during his lifetime. His works notably [[#On the Institution of Christian Marriage (1526)|praise]] moderate sexual desire in marriage between men and women.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Erasmus |first=Desiderius |date=May 23, 2009 |title=Collected Works of Erasmus: Paraphrases on the Epistles to the Corinthians, Ephesians, Philippans, Colossians, and Thessalonians, Volume 43 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-1-4426-9177-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m8mB_FILtngC&q=Condemns |access-date=7 August 2023 |archive-date=11 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230811154549/https://books.google.com/books?id=m8mB_FILtngC&q=Condemns |url-status=live }}</ref>

{{Side box |metadata=No | above = '''Circle of Latin Secretaries'''| text = 
[[Juan de Vergara]]{{•}}Pietro Carmeliano<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sutton |first1=Anne F. |last2=Visser-Fuchs |first2=Livia |title=Richard III's books: ideals and reality in the life and library of a medieval prince |date=1997 |publisher=Sutton publ |location=Stroud |isbn=0-7509-1406-8}}{{rp|376}}</ref>{{•}}[[Guillaume Budé]]{{•}}[[Pietro Bembo]]{{•}}[[Jacopo Sadoleto]]{{•}}[[Richard Pace]]{{•}}[[Andrea Ammonio]]{{•}}[[Hieronymus Emser]]{{•}}[[Cornelius Grapheus]]{{•}}[[Johannes Secundus]]{{•}}[[Juan de Valdés]], [[Alfonso de Valdés]]{{•}}[[Peter Vannes]]{{•}}[[Pieter Gillis]]{{•}}[[Gentian Hervetus]]{{•}}[[Jan Łaski]]{{•}}[[Germain de Brie]]{{•}}Pierre Barbier{{•}}Lambert Grunnius (fictitious)<ref name=epistles>{{cite book |last1=Erasmus |first1=Desiderius |last2=Nichols |first2=Francis Norgan |title=The Epistles of Erasmus: from his earliest letters to his fifty-first year arranged in order of time |date=1901–1918 |publisher=London: Longmans, Green |url=https://archive.org/details/epistlesoferasmu02erasuoft/page/336/mode/2up?view=theater}}</ref>{{rp|337}}
<br/>Latin Secretaries became a significant part of Erasmus' later network of correspondents and friends.{{refn|group=note|The position of Latin Secretary to some great churchman or prince had a long and distinguished history: [[Jerome]] had been the Latin Secretary for [[Pope Damasus I]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kuhner |first1=John Byron |title=The Vatican's Latinist |journal=The New Criterion |date=2017 |volume=25 |issue=7 |url=https://newcriterion.com/issues/2017/3/the-vaticans-latinist |language=en |access-date=3 March 2024 |archive-date=6 June 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170606033349/http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/The-Vatican-s-Latinist-8618 |url-status=live }}</ref> The position was important but not lucrative, unless a stepping-stone to other offices. 
}} }}

He was [[Holy orders in the Catholic Church|ordained]] to the [[Catholic priesthood]] either on 25 April 1492,<ref name="cmsmlw">[[Galli, Mark]], and Olsen, Ted. ''131 Christians Everyone Should Know''. Nashville: Holman Reference, 2000, p. 343.</ref> or 25 April 1495, at age 25 (or 28).{{refn|group=note|25 was the minimum age under canon law to be ordained a priest. However, Gouda church records do not support the 1492 year given by his first biographer, and 1495 has been suggested as more plausible.<ref name=new/> A man whose biological parents had never married could only become a priest by first joining a religious order or by receiving a [[papal dispensation]], and could not hold a [[Benefice#Middle Ages|benefice]] without a dispensation.}} Either way, he did not actively work as a choir priest for very long,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Erasmus|first=Desiderius|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0eHvizkUHZEC&q=wiki&pg=PR9|title=Collected Works of Erasmus: Spiritualia|date=1989|publisher=University of Toronto Press|isbn=978-0-8020-2656-9}}</ref> though his many works on confession and penance suggests experience of dispensing them.

===Disengagement===
In 1493, his prior arranged for him to leave the Stein house<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Desiderius Erasmus, Dutch Renaissance humanist, Catholic priest and theologian (1466–1536) |url=https://www.1902encyclopedia.com/E/ERA/desiderius-erasmus.html |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |edition=10th |year=1902 |via=www.1902encyclopedia.com |access-date=13 December 2023 |archive-date=13 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231213115442/https://www.1902encyclopedia.com/E/ERA/desiderius-erasmus.html |url-status=live }}</ref> and move to Brabant,{{refn|group=note|Also in Cambrai diocese at the time may have been Europe's foremost composer, the priest [[Josquin des Prez]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kostrzewski |first1=Brett Andrew |title=Josquin des Prez and forms of the motet, ca. 1500 |date=2023 |hdl=2144/47081 |url=https://hdl.handle.net/2144/47081}}</ref> Erasmus wrote little about music, however he did in 1497 write a notable elergy for the composer [[Johannes Ockeghem]] ''Ergone conticuit, In Johannem Okegi, Musicorum principem, Naenia'', who had been born and ordained in the Cambrai diocese, which was later set to music by Cambrai composer [[Johannes Lupi]].<ref name=miller/>}} to take up the post of Latin Secretary to the ambitious [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cambrai|Bishop of Cambrai]], Henry of Bergen, on account of his great skill in Latin and his reputation as a man of letters.<ref>{{cite book |title=The University in Medieval Life, 1179–1499 |first=Hunt |last=Janin |edition=illustrated |publisher=McFarland |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-7864-5201-9 |page=159 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uhzV368KRDMC}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=uhzV368KRDMC&pg=PA159 Extract of page 159]</ref>{{refn|group=note|This was his entry to the European network of Latin secretaries, who were usually humanists, and so to their career path:  a promising secretary could be appointed tutor to some aristocratic boy, when that boy reached power they were frequent kept on as a trusted counselor, and finally moved over to some dignified administrative role.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Allen |first1=Grace |title=Mirrors for secretaries: the tradition of advice literature and the presence of classical political theory in Italian secretarial treatises |journal=Laboratoire Italien |date=24 October 2019 |issue=23 |doi=10.4000/laboratoireitalien.3742|doi-access=free }}</ref>}}  Following this, he went to Paris to study theology. His status as priest, latinist and student, and his habit of being far away, afforded a measure of disengagement from the Stein canonry.

From 1500, he avoided returning to the canonry at Stein even insisting the diet and hours would kill him,<ref group=note>Erasmus suffered severe food intolerances, including to fish, beer and many wines, which formed much of the diet of Northern European monks, and caused his antipathy to fasts. "My heart is Catholic, but my stomach is Lutheran." (''Epistles'')</ref> though he did stay with other Augustinian communities and at monasteries of other orders in his travels. Rogerus, who became prior at Stein in 1504, and Erasmus corresponded over the years, with Rogerus demanding Erasmus return after his studies were complete. Nevertheless, the library of the canonry<ref group=note>The canonry burnt down in 1549 and the canons moved to Gouda. {{cite journal |last1=Klein |first1=Jan Willem |last2=Simoni |first2=Anna E. C. |title=Once more the manuscripts of Stein monastery and the copyists of the Erasmiana manuscripts |journal=Quaerendo |date=1994 |volume=24 |issue=1 |pages=39–46 |doi=10.1163/157006994X00117}}</ref>  ended up with by far the largest collection of Erasmus' publications in the Gouda region.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Klein |first1=Jan Willem |title=Copyist B of the Erasmiana Manuscripts in Gouda Identified |journal=Quaerendo |date=21 June 2018 |volume=48 |issue=2 |pages=95–105 |doi=10.1163/15700690-12341402|s2cid=165911603 }}</ref>

In 1505, [[Pope Julius II]] granted a [[Dispensation (canon law)|dispensation]]<ref name="EHR 1910">{{cite journal |last1=Allen |first1=P. S. |title=A Dispensation of Julius II for Erasmus |journal=The English Historical Review |date=1910 |volume=XXV |issue=XCVII |pages=123–125 |doi=10.1093/ehr/XXV.XCVII.123}}</ref> from the vow of poverty to the extent of allowing Erasmus to hold certain benefices, and from the control and [[#Clothing|habit]] of his [[Canon regular#Reforms|order]], though he remained a priest and, formally, an Augustinian canon regular<ref group=note>Dispensed of his vows of [https://www.belmontabbey.org.uk/monastic-vows  stability and obedience] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190606163431/https://www.belmontabbey.org.uk/monastic-vows |date=6 June 2019 }} from his obligations "by the constitutions and ordinances, also by statutes and customs of the monastery of Stein in Holland", quoted in J. K. Sowards, ''The Two Lost Years of Erasmus: Summary, Review, and Speculation'', Studies in the Renaissance, Vol. 9 (1962), p. 174. Erasmus continued to report occasionally to the prior, who disputed the validity of the 1505 dispensation.</ref> the rest his life.<ref name=demolen1/> In 1517, [[Pope Leo X]] granted legal dispensations for Erasmus' ''defects of natality''<ref group=note>Undispensed illegitimacy had various effects under canon law: if a man's<!--no need for gender neutral language since all women were excluded--> biological parents had never married, he could not be ordained a secular priest, unless he became a canon or regular monk, or to hold [[benefices]]; but any or all of these disabilities could be removed by a papal dispensation. {{cite journal |last1=Clarke |first1=Peter |title=New sources for the history of the religious life: the registers of the Apostolic Penitentiary |journal=Monastic Research Bulletin |date=2005 |volume=11}} This canon law, in effect since the Council of [[Poitiers]] (1078), was intended to prevent kings appointing their illegitimate children as abbots and bishops. In practice, dispensations were frequently given: Erasmus' student, the teenage [[Alexander Stewart (archbishop of St Andrews)|Alexander Stewart]] was the illegitimate child of the Scottish king and, by papal dispensation, Archbishop of St Andrews.</ref> and confirmed the previous dispensation, allowing the 48-(or 51-)year-old his independence<ref name="EHR 1910"/> but still, as a canon, capable of holding office as a prior or abbot.<ref name=demolen1/> Indeed, in 1535, incoming Pope [[Paul III]] appointed him Provost of the "Canons of Deventer" (i.e., the semi-monastic [[Brethren of the Common Life]] chapter, which had long resisted titles such as Provost,<ref name=post>{{cite book |last1=Post |first1=R. R. |title=The Modern Devotion: Confrontation with Reformation and Humanism |date=1 January 1968 |doi=10.1163/9789004477155_019}}</ref> and/or perhaps the canons of the [[Lebuïnuskerk, Deventer|Grote or Lebuïnuskerk]]):<ref name=starnes>{{cite journal |last1=Starnes |first1=D. T. |title=A Heroic Poem on the Death of Sir Thomas More—by D. Erasmus of Rotterdam |journal=Studies in English |date=1929 |issue=9 |pages=69–81 |jstor=20779398 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20779398 |issn=2158-7957}}</ref> this may also have been related to his intended return to the Low Countries. In 1525, Pope [[Clement VII]] granted, for health reasons, a dispensation to eat meat and dairy in Lent and on fast days.<ref name=letter16>{{cite book |last1=Erasmus |first1=Desiderius |title=The Correspondence of Erasmus: Letters 2204–2356 (August 1529 – July 1530) |date=1974 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-1-4426-6833-1 |language=en}}</ref>{{rp|410}} 
{{clear}}1501
{{Horizontal timeline

|from=1465
|to=1540
|inc=10

|row1=note 
|row1-2-at=1466
|row1-2-lift=-1em
|row1-2-shift=-1em
|row1-2-text=Birth?
|row1-21-at=1469
|row1-3-at=1484
|row1-3-text=Orphaned
|row1-3-lift=-1em 
|row1-3-shift=-5em
|row1-4-at=1488
|row1-4-text=Vows 
|row1-4-lift=-1em
|row1-4-shift=-2em
|row1-5-at=1492
|row1-5-text=Ordained?
|row1-5-lift=-1em
|row1-5-shift=-1em
|row1-51-at=1495
|row1-6-at=1505
|row1-6-text=Julius II 
|row1-6-lift=-0.2em 
|row1-61-at=1505
|row1-61-text=Dispensations 
|row1-61-lift=-1.2em 
|row1-61-shift=-0.4em 
|row1-7-at=1517
|row1-7-text=Leo X
|row1-7-lift=-0.2em 
|row1-8-at=1525
|row1-8-text=Clement VII
|row1-8-lift=-0.2em  
|row1-9-at=1536
|row1-9-text=Death 
|row1-9-shift=-4em
|row1-9-lift=-1.2em

|row2=timeline
|row2-height=1.6em
|row2-bordertop= 1px solid #000;
|row2-colour=white

|row2-1-to=1466

|row2-2-from=1466
|row2-2-to=1495
|row2-2-text=Netherlands
|row2-2-colour=#7FFF00

|row2-3-from=1495
|row2-3-to=1506
|row2-3-text=France
|row2-3-colour=#FFDEAD

|row2-6-from=1506
|row2-6-to=1509
|row2-6-text=Italy

|row2-7-from=1510
|row2-7-to=1515
|row2-7-text=England
|row2-7-colour=#7FFFD4

|row2-8-from=1515
|row2-8-to=1521 
|row2-8-text=Brabant
|row2-8-colour=#7FFF00

|row2-9-from=1521
|row2-9-to=1529
|row2-9-text=Basel 
|row2-9-colour=#00BFFF

|row2-10-from=1529
|row2-10-to=1535
|row2-10-text=Freiburg

|row3=timeline
|row3-height=1.6em
|row3-bordertop= 1px solid #000;
|row3-colour=white
|row3-1-from=1466
|row3-1-to=1483

|row3-2-from=1483
|row3-2-to=1487
|row3-2-text=Brabant
|row3-2-colour=#7FFF00

|row3-3-from=1487
|row3-3-to=1493

|row3-4-from=1493
|row3-4-to=1495
|row3-4-text=Brabant
|row3-4-colour=#7FFF00

|row3-5-from=1495
|row3-5-to=1499

|row3-12-from=1499
|row3-12-to=1500
|row3-12-text=England
|row3-12-colour=#7FFFD4

|row3-13-from=1501
|row3-13-to=1502

|row3-14-from=1502
|row3-14-to=1504
|row3-14-text=Brabant
|row3-14-colour=#7FFF00

|row3-15-from=1504
|row3-15-to=1505

|row3-16-from=1505
|row3-16-to=1506
|row3-16-text=England
|row3-16-colour=#7FFFD4

|row3-17-from=1507 
|row3-17-to=1511

|row3-18-from=1511 
|row3-18-to=1512
|row3-18-text=France
|row3-18-colour=#FFDEAD

|row3-19-from=1512 
|row3-19-to=1514

|row3-20-from=1514 
|row3-20-to=1515
|row3-20-text=Basel
|row3-20-colour=#00BFFF

|row3-21-from=1515 
|row3-21-to=1516
|row3-21-text=Basel
|row3-21-colour=#00BFFF

|row3-22-from=1516
|row3-22-to=1517
|row3-22-text=England
|row3-22-colour=#7FFFD4

|row3-23-from=1517 
|row3-23-to=1518

|row3-24-from=1518
|row3-24-to=1519 
|row3-24-text=Basel
|row3-24-colour=#00BFFF

|row3-25-from=1519
|row3-25-to=1520

|row3-26-from=1520
|row3-26-to=1521 
|row3-26-text=England
|row3-26-colour=#7FFFD4

|row3-27-from=1521
|row3-27-to=1535

|row3-28-from=1536
|row3-28-to=1536
|row3-28-text=Basel 
|row3-28-colour=#00BFFF

|row4=scale
|axis-nudge=-0.75em
|caption='''Life timeline'''

}}

===Travels===

{{routemap
| title = Cities and routes of Erasmus
| legend = no
| map = Walsingham~~ ! !\\eKHSTa\\\\ ~~
Oxford, Cambridge~~ ! !KBHFa\\BHF\\\\ ~~ 
~~ ! !KRWl\KRW+lr\KRWr\\\\ ~~ 
London~~ ! !\BHF\\\\\ ~~ 
Reading~~! !KBHFaq\ABZgr\\\\\~~
Canterbury~~ ~~ ! !\eHST\\\\\fKBHFa~~Deventer 
~~ ~~ ! !\uWASSER\\\\\fBHF~~Woerden
Calais~~ ~~ ! !\eHST\\\\fKBHFaq\fHST!~fKHSTeq~~Stein, Gouda
~~ ! !\ABZgl\STRq\STRq\STR+r\\fHST!~fENDE ~~Rotterdam
St Omer ! !\BHF\\\STR\\fBHF ~~'s-Hertogenbosch
Cambrai/Bergen ~~ ! !\ABZgl+l\BHFq\BHFq\ABZqlr+lr\BHFq\fSTRr~~Brussels, Antwerp 
Paris ~~ ! !\BHF\\\BHF\\~~Louvain
Orléans ~~ ! !\BHF\\\ABZgl\STRq\STR+r
Lyon~~ ~~ ! !\eKHSTe\nSTR+r\\eHST\\ueHST~~ ~~Liège, Cologne ~~
~~ ~~ ! !\\exnSTR!~nCONTf\\STRl\STRgq\TEEeq!~ueHST~~ ~~Mainz ~~
Turin~~ ~~! !\eKBHFa\nSTRr\\\\ueHST ~~ Strasbourg
Bologna~~ ! !\BHF\nSTR2+r\\\\uBHF~~Freiburg im Breisgau 
~~ ! !KRW+l\KRWlr\KRW+r\nSTR2+4\\eKHSTaq\KBHFeq!~uBHF ~~ ~~ Besançon, Basel<sup> †</sup>
Florence, Ferrara~~ ~~ ! !eHST\\eHST\\nSTRl+4\nCONTfq\ueKHSTe~~Konstanz
Siena,~~ Padua ~~! !eHST\\BHF\\\\~~
Rome,~~ Venice ~~! !eBHF\\KBHFe\\\\
Cumae~~ ~~! !eKHSTe\\\\\\ ~~
| footnote = {{ubli|Green: early life|Dark circles: residence|Thin line: alpine crossings|Red and green lines: horseback, carriage|Blue lines: Rhine and English Channel}}
}}

Erasmus traveled widely and regularly, for reasons of poverty, "escape"<ref name=maarten/>{{rp|154}} from his [[Stein, South Holland|Stein]] canonry (to [[Cambrai]]), education (to [[Paris]], [[Turin]]), escape from the [[sweating sickness]] plague (to [[Orléans]]), employment (to [[England]]),  searching libraries for manuscripts, writing ([[Duchy of Brabant|Brabant]]), royal counsel ([[Cologne]]), patronage, tutoring and chaperoning (North [[Italy]]), networking ([[Rome]]), seeing books through printing in person ([[Paris]], [[Venice]], [[Louvain]], [[Basel]]), and avoiding the persecution of religious fanatics (to [[Freiburg]]). He enjoyed horseback riding.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/hcc7/hcc7.ii.iv.xii.html|title=Philip Schaff: History of the Christian Church, Volume VII. Modern Christianity. The German Reformation – Christian Classics Ethereal Library|website=ccel.org|access-date=2 December 2023|archive-date=21 June 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230621060839/https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/hcc7/hcc7.ii.iv.xii.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

====Paris====
In 1495 with Bishop Henry's consent and a stipend, Erasmus went on to study at the [[University of Paris]]  in the [[Collège de Montaigu]], a centre of reforming zeal,<ref group=note>Subsequent students included Ignatius of Loyola, Noël Béda, Jean Calvin, and John Knox.</ref> under the direction of the [[ascetic]] [[Jan Standonck]], of whose rigors he complained.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Andrews |first1=Edward D. |last2=Lightfoot |first2=J.B. |last3=Kenyon |first3=Frederic G. |title=The Revisions of the English Holy Bible: Misunderstandings and Misconceptions about the English Bible Translations |date=2022 |publisher=Christian Publishing House |isbn=979-8-3521-2418-5}}</ref> The university was then the chief seat of [[Scholasticism|Scholastic]] learning but already coming under the influence of [[Renaissance]] humanism.<ref>{{cite thesis |last1=Lundberg |first1=Christa |title=Apostolic theology and humanism at the University of Paris, 1490–1540 |date=16 February 2022 |publisher=Apollo – University of Cambridge Repository |doi=10.17863/CAM.81488 |language=en}}</ref> For instance, Erasmus became an intimate friend of an Italian humanist [[Publio Fausto Andrelini]], poet and "professor of humanity" in Paris.{{Cn|date=April 2025}}

During this time, Erasmus developed a deep aversion to exclusive or excessive [[Aristotelianism]] and [[Scholasticism]]<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ptaszyński |first1=Maciej |title=Theologians and Their Bellies: The Erasmian Epithet Theologaster during the Reformation |journal=Erasmus Studies |date=8 October 2021 |volume=41 |issue=2 |pages=200–229 |doi=10.1163/18749275-04102001 |s2cid=240246657 |issn=1874-9275 |doi-access=free }}</ref> and started finding work as a tutor/chaperone to visiting English and Scottish aristocrats, most importantly in his life [[William Blount, 4th Baron Mountjoy]].  There is no record of him graduating.

====First visit to England (1499–1500)====
{{Side box |metadata=No
 | above = '''English circle'''.<ref name=circle>{{cite ODNB |last1=Baker House |first1=Simon |title=Erasmus circle in England |url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-96813 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/96813 |access-date=20 July 2023}}</ref>
 | text = {{hlist|[[Thomas More]]|[[John Colet]]|[[Thomas Linacre]]|[[William Grocyn]]|[[William Lily (grammarian)|William Lily]]|[[Andrea Ammonio]]|[[Juan Luis Vives]]|[[Cuthbert Tunstall]] |[[Henry Bullock]]|[[Thomas Lupset]]|[[Richard Foxe]]|[[Christopher Urswick]]|[[Robert Aldrich (bishop)|Robert Aldrich]]|[[Richard Whitford]]|[[Lorenzo Campeggio]]|[[Richard Reynolds (martyr)|Richard Reynolds]]|[[Polydore Vergil]]}}
''Patrons'': {{hlist|class=inline|[[William Blount, 4th Baron Mountjoy|William Blount]]|[[William Warham]]|[[John Fisher]]| [[John Longland]]|[[Margaret Beaufort]]|[[Catherine of Aragon]]}}<br />
"I can truly say that no place in the world has given me so many friends—true, learned, helpful, and illustrious friends—as the single city of London." Letter to Colet, 1509<ref name=gasquet/>
}}
Erasmus stayed in England at least three times.<ref group=note>Some of these visits were interrupted by trips back to Europe.{{citation needed|date=July 2023}}</ref> In between he had periods studying in Paris, Orléans, Leuven and other cities.

In 1499 he was invited to England by Blount, who offered to accompany him on his trip to England.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Treu |first=Erwin |title=Die Bildnisse des Erasmus von Rotterdam |publisher=Gute Schriften Basel |year=1959 |pages=6–7 |language=de}}</ref> His six months in England was fruitful in the making of lifelong friendships with the leaders of English thought in the days of King [[Henry VIII]].

During his first visit to England in 1499, he stayed for two months at the [[University of Oxford]], at [[St Mary's College, Oxford|St Mary's College]], the college for Augustinian canons, where he befriended the leading Greek scholars [[Thomas Linacre]], [[William Grocyn]] and [[William Lily (grammarian)|William Lily]]. Erasmus was particularly impressed by the Bible teaching of [[John Colet]], who pursued a preaching style more akin to the [[church fathers]] than the [[Scholastics]]. Through the influence of the humanist John Colet, his interests turned towards [[patristic]] theology.<ref name=":3" /> Other distinctive features of Colet's thought that may have influenced Erasmus are his pacifism,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Adams |first1=Robert Pardee |title=Pacifism in the English Renaissance, 1497–1530: John Colet, Erasmus, Thomas More and J. L. Vives |date=1937 |publisher=University of Chicago |language=en}}</ref> reform-mindedness,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Harper-Bill |first1=Christopher |title=Dean Colet's Convocation Sermon and the Pre-Reformation Church in England |journal=History |date=1988 |volume=73 |issue=238 |pages=191–210 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-229X.1988.tb02151.x |jstor=24413851  |issn=0018-2648}}</ref> anti-Scholasticism and pastoral esteem for the sacrament of Confession.<ref name=tracy/>{{rp|94}}

This prompted him, upon his return from England to Paris, to intensively study the Greek language, which would enable him to study patristic theology on a more profound level.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Giese |first1=Rachel |title=Erasmus' Greek Studies |journal=The Classical Journal |date=1934 |volume=29 |issue=7 |pages=517–526 |jstor=3290377  |issn=0009-8353}}</ref>{{rp|518}}

Erasmus also became [[Thomas More#Personality according to Erasmus|fast friends]] with [[Thomas More]], a young law student considering becoming a monk, whose thought (e.g., on conscience and equity) had been influenced by 14th century French theologian [[Jean Gerson]],<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Suzanne |first1=Hélène |title=Conscience in the Early Renaissance: the case of Erasmus, Luther and Thomas More |journal=Moreana |date=December 2014 |volume=51  |issue=3–4 (197–198) |pages=231–244 |doi=10.3366/more.2014.51.3-4.13 |language=en |issn=0047-8105}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Masur-Matusevich |first1=Yelena |title=Le père du siècle: the early modern reception of Jean Gerson (1363-1429) theological authority between Middle Ages and early modern era |date=2023 |publisher=Brepols |location=Turnhout |isbn=978-2-503-60225-7}}</ref> and whose intellect had been developed by his powerful patron Cardinal [[John Morton (cardinal)|John Morton]] (d. 1500) who had famously attempted reforms of English monasteries.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gairdner |first1=James |title=Archbishop Morton and St. Albans |journal=The English Historical Review |date=1909 |volume=24 |issue=93 |pages=91–96 |doi=10.1093/ehr/XXIV.XCIII.91 |jstor=550277  |issn=0013-8266}}</ref>

Erasmus left London with a full purse from his generous friends, to allow him to complete his studies. However, he had been provided with bad legal advice by his friends: the English customs officials confiscated all the gold and silver, leaving him with nothing except a night fever that lasted several months.

====France and Brabant====
{{Side box |metadata=No
 | above = '''French circle''' 
 | text = {{hlist|class=inline|Jean Vitrier (or Vourier)|Jacob/James Batt|[[Publio Fausto Andrelini]]|[[Josse Bade]]|[[Louis de Berquin]] |[[Robert Fisher (priest)|Robert Fisher]]|[[Richard Whitford]]|[[Guillaume Budé]]|[[Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset|Thomas Grey]]|[[Hector Boece]]|[[Robert Gaguin]]|Christopher Fisher}}<br />
''Opponents'': Noël Béda (or Bédier)<br />
''Patrons'': Bishop Henry of Bergen,[[Thomas Grey, 1st Marquess of Dorset|Thomas Grey]], [[Anna van Borselen|Lady of Veere]] 
}}

Following his first trip to England, Erasmus returned first to poverty in Paris, where he started to compile the ''Adagio'' for his students, then to Orléans to escape the plague, and then to semi-monastic life, scholarly studies and writing in France, notably at the Benedictine [[Abbey of Saint Bertin]] at St Omer (1501,1502) where he wrote the initial version of the ''Enchiridion'' (''[[Handbook of the Christian Knight]]''). A particular influence was his encounter in 1501 with Jean (Jehan) Vitrier, a radical Franciscan who consolidated Erasmus' thoughts against excessive valorization of monasticism,<ref name=tracy>{{cite book |last1=Tracy |first1=James D. |title=Erasmus, the Growth of a Mind |date=1972 |publisher=Librairie Droz |isbn=978-2-600-03041-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RqvtT9d522IC&q=%22Jean+Voirier%22+++erasmus |language=en |access-date=26 November 2023 |archive-date=28 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231128035505/https://books.google.com/books?id=RqvtT9d522IC&q=%22Jean+Voirier%22+++erasmus |url-status=live }}</ref>{{rp|94,95}} ceremonialism{{efn|group=note|According to theologian Thomas Scheck, "In the fuller context of the ''Ratio'' the 'ceremonies' Erasmus criticizes are not the liturgical rites of the Church, but the special devotions and prescriptions added to them, particularly those related to food and clothing, which became binding in particular religious orders and more generally, under threat of excommunication and even eternal punishment."<ref name=scheck1>{{cite journal |last1=Scheck |first1=Thomas P. |title=Mark Vessey (ed.), Erasmus on Literature: His Ratio or 'System' of 1518/1519 (Review) |journal=Moreana |date=June 2022 |volume=59 |issue=1 |pages=141–148 |doi=10.3366/more.2022.0119|s2cid=248601520 }}</ref>}} and fasting{{efn|group=note|"We ﬁnd in the New Testament that fasting was observed by Christians and praised by the apostles, but I do not remember reading that it was prescribed with certain rites. These things are not mentioned so that any ceremonies that the church has instituted concerning clothing, fasting or similar matters should be despised, but to show that Christ and his apostles were more concerned with things pertaining to salvation."<ref name=scheck1/>}} in a kind of conversion experience,<ref name=mansfield/>{{rp|213,219}}  and introduced him to [[Origen]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Erasmus |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Erasmus-Dutch-humanist |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |language=en |date=23 October 2023 |access-date=22 April 2023 |archive-date=26 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190426032309/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Erasmus-Dutch-humanist |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1502, Erasmus went to Brabant, ultimately to the university at Louvain. In 1504 he was hired by the leaders of the Brabantian "Provincial States" to deliver one of his few public speeches, a very long formal [[panegyric]] for [[Philip I of Castile|Philip "the Fair"]], Duke of Burgundy and later King of Castille: the first half being the conventional extravagant praise, but the second half being a strong treatment of the miseries of war, the need for neutrality and conciliation (with the neighbours France and England),<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Tinelli |first1=Elisa |title=Erasmus' Panegyricus ad Philippum Austriae ducem (1504) |journal=Lectio |date=January 2018 |volume=7 |pages=445–464 |doi=10.1484/M.LECTIO-EB.5.116073|isbn=978-2-503-58077-7 }}</ref> and the excellence of peaceful rulers: that real courage in a leader was not to wage war but to put a bridle on greed, etc.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Emerton |first1=Ephraim |author-link=Ephraim Emerton |title=Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam |date=25 July 2020 |orig-date=1899 |publisher=BoD – Books on Demand |isbn=978-3-7523-4313-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EBLzDwAAQBAJ |language=en}}</ref>{{rp|71}} This was later published as ''Panegyricus''. Erasmus then returned to Paris in 1504.

====Second visit to England (1505–1506)====
[[File:Hans Holbein d. J. - Erasmus - Louvre.jpg|thumb|Erasmus by [[Hans Holbein the Younger]]. [[Louvre]], Paris]]
For Erasmus' second visit, he spent over a year staying at recently married [[Thomas More]]'s house, now a lawyer and Member of Parliament, honing his translation skills.<ref name=circle/>

Erasmus preferred to live the life of an independent scholar and made a conscious effort to avoid any actions or formal ties that might inhibit his individual freedom.<ref name=":5">Treu, Erwin (1959), p.8</ref> In England Erasmus was approached with prominent offices but he declined them all, until the [[King Henry VII|King]] himself offered his support.<ref name=":5" /> He was inclined, but eventually did not accept and longed for a stay in Italy.<ref name=":5" />

====Italy====
{{Side box |metadata=No
 | above = '''Italian circle''' 
 | text = {{hlist|class=inline|[[Aldus Manutius]]|[[Giulio Camillo]]|[[Aleander]]|[[Alexander Stewart (archbishop of St Andrews)|Alexander Stewart]]|[[Pietro Bembo]]|[[Paulus Bombasius|Bombasius]]|[[Marcus Musurus]]|[[Janus Lascaris]]|[[Giles of Viterbo]]|[[Egnazio]]|[[Germain de Brie]]|[[Ferry Carondelet]]|Urbano Valeriani|[[Tommaso Inghirami]]|Scipio Carteromachus|[[Domenico Grimani]]}}<br />
''Opponents'': {{hlist|class=inline|[[Alberto III Pio, Prince of Carpi|Alberto Pío]]|[[Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda|Sepúlveda]]}}<br />
''Patrons'': Popes [[Leo X]], [[Adrian VI]], [[Clement VII]], [[Paul III]],  King [[James IV]]
}}

In 1506 he was able to accompany and tutor the sons of the [[Physician to the King|personal physician]] of the English King through Italy to Bologna.<ref name=":5" />

His discovery en route at [[Park Abbey]] of [[Lorenzo Valla]]'s ''New Testament Notes'' was a major event in his career and prompted Erasmus to study the New Testament using [[philology]].<ref>{{cite journal
 | last=Anderson
 | first=Marvin
 | title=Erasmus the Exegete
 | journal=Concordia Theeological Monthly
 | volume=40
 | issue=11
 | year=1969
 | pages=722–46
}}</ref>

In 1506 they passed through Turin and he arranged to be awarded the degree of [[Doctor of Divinity|Doctor of Sacred Theology]] ({{lang|la|Sacra Theologia}})<ref name=van>{{cite book |last1=van Herwaarden |first1=Jan |title=Between Saint James and Erasmus: Studies in Late-Medieval Religious Life – Devotion and Pilgrimage in the Netherlands |date=1 January 2003 |doi=10.1163/9789004473676_024|s2cid=239956783 }}</ref>{{rp|638}} from the [[University of Turin]]<ref name=":5" /> {{lang|la|[[per saltum]]}}<ref>{{cite book |last1=Grendler |first1=Paul F. |chapter=How to Get a Degree in Fifteen Days: Erasmus' Doctorate of Theology from the University of Turin |title=Renaissance Education Between Religion and Politics |date=23 August 2024 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-003-55390-8 |edition=1st |doi=10.4324/9781003553908  |language=en}}</ref> at age 37 (or 40). Erasmus stayed tutoring in Bologna for a year;{{refn|group=note|He made friends with aristocrat Mark Laurin, future Dean of Bruges.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Chapter Xxiii: Ii. Students |journal=Humanistica Lovaniensia |date=1955 |volume=13 |pages=116–218 |jstor=23973448 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23973448 |issn=0774-2908}}</ref>{{rp|185}} }} in the winter, Erasmus was present when [[Pope Julius II]] entered victorious into the conquered Bologna which he had besieged before.<ref name=":5" />

[[File: Book printed by Aldus Manutius-Horace.jpg|thumb|Book printed and illuminated at the [[Aldine Press]], Venice (1501): [[Horace]], ''Works'']]
Erasmus travelled on to Venice, working on an expanded version of his Adagia at the [[Aldine Press]] of the famous printer [[Aldus Manutius]], advised him which manuscripts to publish,<ref>Murray, Stuart (2009). ''The library: an illustrated history''. Chicago: ALA Editions</ref>  and was an honorary member of the graecophone Aldine "New Academy" ({{langx|el|Neakadêmia (Νεακαδημία)}}).<ref>Treu, Erwin (1959), pp.8–9.</ref> From Aldus he learned the in-person workflow that made him productive at Froben: making last-minute changes, and immediately checking and correcting printed page proofs as soon as the ink had dried. Aldus wrote that Erasmus could do twice as much work in a given time as any other man he had ever met.<ref name=gasquet/>

In 1507, according to his letters, he studied advanced Greek in Padua with the Venetian natural philosopher, [[Giulio Camillo]].<ref>H.M. Allen (1937). ''Opus Epistolarum Des. Erasmi Roterdami''. Oxford University Press. Ep. 3032: 219–22; 2682: 8–13.</ref> He found employment tutoring and escorting Scottish nobleman [[Alexander Stewart (archbishop of St Andrews)|Alexander Stewart]], the 24-year old Archbishop of St Andrews, through Padua, Florence, and Siena,{{refn|group=note|He movingly remembers later how Alexander would play the monochord, recorder or lute in the afternoon after studies.<ref>Shire, Helena M., Stewart Style ''1513–1542'', Tuckwell, (1996), 126–27, quoting Phillips, M. M., ''The Adages of Erasmus'' Cambridge (1964), 305–307.</ref>}} Erasmus made it to Rome in 1509, visiting some notable libraries and cardinals, but having a less active association with Italian scholars than might have been expected.

In 1509, William Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Lord Mountjoy lured him back to England, now ruled by what was hoped would be a wise and benevolent king ([[Henry VIII]]) educated by humanists. Warham and Mountjoy sent Erasmus £10 to cover his expenses on the journey.<ref>Massing, ''Fatal Discord'' (2018), p. 159</ref> On his trip over the Alps via Splügen Pass, and down the Rhine toward England, Erasmus began to compose ''The Praise of Folly''.<ref>Massing, ''Fatal Discord'' (2018), p. 160</ref>

====Third visit to England (1510–1515)====
[[File:Sir Thomas More, by Hans Holbein the Younger.jpg|thumb|upright=.8|[[Thomas More|Sir Thomas More]], by [[Hans Holbein the Younger]]. According to their friend [[Richard Whitford]], Erasmus and More were "so alike in wit, manners, affections, and pursuits, that no pair of twins could be found more so."<ref>{{cite DNB|wstitle= Whitford, Richard |volume= 61 |last= Bayne |first= Ronald |author-link= |pages= 125-127 |year= |short=1}}</ref>]]
In 1510, Erasmus arrived at More's bustling house, was confined to bed to recover from his recurrent illness, and wrote ''The Praise of Folly'', which was to be a best-seller. More was at that time the [[undersheriff]] of the [[City of London]]. His wife Jane died, aged 21, in 1511, and More quickly [[Alice More|remarrried]]. 

After his glorious reception in Italy, Erasmus had returned broke and jobless,{{refn|group=note|Even in good times, Erasmus had a "frequent inability to understand the details of his own finances" which caused him disappointment and suspicion.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Correspondence of Erasmus |url=https://utorontopress.com/9781487501990/the-correspondence-of-erasmus/ |website=University of Toronto Press |language=en-CA |access-date=23 May 2024 |archive-date=17 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240117101146/https://utorontopress.com/9781487501990/the-correspondence-of-erasmus/ |url-status=live }}</ref> His finances as late as 1530 have been described as "bewilderingly complicated" with multiple small income sources being managed with varying degrees of promptness by different associates in different countries.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Erasmus |first1=Desiderius |title=The correspondence of Erasmus. Letters 2357 to 2471 August 1530 – March 1531 |translator-first=Charles |translator-last=Fantazzi |editor-first=James M. |editor-last=Estes |date=2016 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |location=Toronto, Buffalo, London |isbn=978-1-4426-4878-4}}</ref>{{rp|2404}} }} with strained relations with former friends and benefactors on the continent, and he regretted leaving Italy, despite being horrified by papal warfare. There is a gap in his usually voluminous correspondence: his so-called "two lost years", perhaps due to self-censorship of dangerous or disgruntled opinions;<ref name=lost group=note /> he shared lodgings with his friend [[Andrea Ammonio]] (Latin secretary to Mountjoy, and the next year, to Henry VIII, who had been lodging in Thomas More's large and welcoming household but did not get on with the new wife<ref>{{cite web |last1=Baker-Smith |first1=Dominic |title=Thomas More |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archIves/fall2021/entries/thomas-more/#LifWor |website=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |date=19 March 2014}}</ref>) provided at the London [[Austin Friars]]' compound, skipping out after a disagreement with the friars over rent that caused bad blood.{{refn| group=note| Erasmus claimed the blind poet laureate friar [[Bernard André]], the former tutor of Prince Arthur, had promised to cover the rent. {{cite journal |last1=Roth |first1=F. |title=A History of the English Austin Friars (continuation) |journal=Augustiniana |date=1965 |volume=15 |jstor=44992025 |issn=0004-8003 |page=624}} It may also show the practical difficulty of being dispensed from wearing the habit of his order without being entirely dispensed from his vow of poverty: indeed, Erasmus had said his order of Augustinian Canons regular were priests when that suited and monks when that suited.<ref name=demolen/> }}

He assisted his friend John Colet by authoring Greek textbooks and securing members of staff for the newly established [[St Paul's School, London|St Paul's School]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=History and Archives |url=https://www.stpaulsschool.org.uk/about/history |website=St. Paul's School |access-date=16 January 2019 |archive-date=16 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190116200822/https://www.stpaulsschool.org.uk/about/history |url-status=live }}</ref> and was in contact when Colet gave his notorious 1512 [[John Colet#Colet's convocation sermon (1512)|Convocation sermon]] which called for a reformation of ecclesiastical affairs.<ref name=Seebohm>{{cite book |last1=Seebohm |first1=Frederic |title=The Oxford Reformers. John Colet, Erasmus and Thomas More |date=1869 |publisher=Longmans, Green and Co. |edition=3rd |url=https://reformationchurch.org.uk/book_oxford-reformers_seebohm.php |access-date=17 December 2023 |archive-date=17 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231217121512/https://reformationchurch.org.uk/book_oxford-reformers_seebohm.php |url-status=live }}</ref>{{rp|230–250}} At Colet's instigation, Erasmus started work on {{lang|la|De copia}}.

In 1511, the [[University of Cambridge]]'s chancellor, [[John Fisher]], arranged for Erasmus to be (or to study to prepare to be) the [[Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity]], though whether he actually was accepted for it or took it up is contested by historians.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=van Kooten |first1=George |last2=Payne |first2=Matthew |last3=Rex |first3=Richard |last4=Bloemendal |first4=Jan |title=Erasmus' Cambridge Years (1511–1514): The Execution of Erasmus' Christian Humanist Programme, His Epitaph for Lady Margaret's Tomb in Westminster Abbey (1512), and His Failed Attempt to Obtain the Lady Margaret's Professorship in the Face of Scholastic Opposition |journal=Erasmus Studies |date=6 March 2024 |volume=44 |issue=1 |pages=33–102 |doi=10.1163/18749275-04401002|doi-access=free }}</ref> He studied and taught Greek and researched and lectured on [[Jerome]].<ref name=circle/>{{refn|group=note|He wrote to Servatius Rogerus, the prior at Stein, to justify his jobs: "I do not aim at becoming rich, so long as I possess just enough means to provide for my health and free time for my studies and to ensure that I am a burden to none."<ref name=cheng_davies>{{cite journal |last1=Cheng-Davies |first1=Tania |title=Erasmian Perspectives on Copyright: Justifying a Right to Research |journal=Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series |date=1 May 2023 |url=https://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/research/94 |access-date=7 January 2024 |archive-date=7 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240107234956/https://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/research/94/ |url-status=live }}</ref>}}

Erasmus mainly stayed at [[Queens' College]] while lecturing at the university,<ref>{{cite web|last=Askin|first=Lindsey|title=Erasmus and Queens' College, Cambridge|date=12 July 2013|url=http://queenslib.wordpress.com/2013/07/12/erasmus-and-queens-college/|website=Queens' Old Library Books Blog|access-date=8 March 2014|archive-date=19 July 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230719070807/https://queenslib.wordpress.com/2013/07/12/erasmus-and-queens-college/|url-status=live}}</ref> between 1511 and 1515.<ref group=note>It is reported that the commission of theologians Henry VIII assembled to identify the errors of Luther was made up of three of Erasmus' former students: [[Henry Bullock]], Humphrey Walkden and John Watson.{{cite thesis |last1=Schofield |first1=John |title=The lost Reformation: Why Lutheranism failed in England during the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI |degree=PhD |date=2003 |publisher=Newcastle University |hdl=10443/596 |url=http://theses.ncl.ac.uk/jspui/handle/10443/596 |language=en |page=28}}</ref> Erasmus' rooms were located in the "{{serif|I}}" staircase of Old Court.<ref>{{acad|id=ERSS465D|name=Erasmus, Desiderius}}</ref> Despite a chronic shortage of money, he succeeded in mastering Greek by an intensive, day-and-night study of three years, taught by [[Thomas Linacre]], continuously begging in letters that his friends send him books and money for teachers.<ref>Huizinga, Dutch edition, pp. 52–53.</ref>

Erasmus suffered from poor health and was especially concerned with heating, clean air, ventilation, draughts, fresh food and unspoiled wine: he complained about the draughtiness of English buildings.<ref>{{cite web |title=Erasmus, Life in 16th Century England |website=World Civilizations |url=https://wwnorton.com/college/history/ralph/workbook/ralprs22.htm |access-date=3 December 2023 |archive-date=4 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230404001238/https://wwnorton.com/college/history/ralph/workbook/ralprs22.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> He complained that Queens' College could not supply him with enough decent wine<ref group=note>"Beer does not suit me either, and the wine is horrible." {{cite book |last1=Froud |first1=J. A. |title=Life and Letters of Erasmus |date=1896 |publisher=Scribner and Sons |page=112}}</ref> (wine was the Renaissance medicine for gallstones, from which Erasmus suffered).<ref>{{multiref2|1={{cite book |last1=Seltman |first1=Charles |title=Wine In The Ancient World |date=1957 |url=https://archive.org/details/dli.venugopal.697 |language=English }}|2={{cite journal |last1=Taylor |first1=Fred M. |title=Thomas Linacre: Humanist, Physician, Priest |journal=The Linacre Quarterly |date=February 2021 |volume=88 |issue=1 |pages=9–13 |doi=10.1177/0024363920968427|doi-access=free |pmid=33487740 |pmc=7804502 }}|3={{cite journal |last1=Herbert |first1=Amanda |title=Bibulous Erasmus |url=https://recipes.hypotheses.org/10239 |website=The Recipes Project |date=23 January 2018 |doi=10.58079/td2u |access-date=22 June 2023 |archive-date=22 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230622013545/https://recipes.hypotheses.org/10239 |url-status=live }}}}</ref> As Queens' was an unusually humanist-leaning institution in the 16th century, [[Queens' College, Cambridge#Old Court|Queens' College Old Library]] still houses many first editions of Erasmus's publications, many of which were acquired during that period by bequest or purchase, including Erasmus's New Testament translation, which is signed by friend and Polish religious reformer [[Jan Łaski]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Old Library Collections|website=Queens' Rare Book and Special Collections|url=http://www.queens.cam.ac.uk/student-information/library-archives/collections |publisher=Queens' College, Cambridge |access-date=8 March 2014|archive-date=13 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131213000139/http://www.queens.cam.ac.uk/student-information/library-archives/collections}}</ref>

By this time More was a judge on the poorman's equity court ([[Master of Requests (England)|Master of Requests]]) and a [[Privy Counsellor]].

====Flanders and Brabant====
{{Side box |metadata=No
 | above = '''Burgundy/Louvain circle''' 
 | text = {{hlist|class=inline|[[Adrian of Utrecht]]|[[Pieter Gillis]]|[[Martinus Dorpius|Martin Dorp]]|[[Hieronymus van Busleyden]]|[[Albrecht Dürer]]|[[Dirk Martens]]|[[Nicolas Cleynaerts]]|[[Cornelius Grapheus]]|Jan van Borssele|Jean de Neve|[[Richard Sampson]]|[http://dantiscus.ibi.uw.edu.pl/?f=personDetails&person=163 Mark Laurijn]<ref>{{cite journal |title=Bruges Friends |journal=Humanistica Lovaniensia |date=1961 |volume=16 |pages=85–428 |jstor=23973159 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23973159 |issn=0774-2908}}</ref>}}<br />
''Opponents'': {{hlist|class=inline|[[Jacobs Latomus]]|[[Edward Lee (bishop)|Edward Lee]]|[[Ulrich von Hutten]]|{{ill|Nicolaas Baechem|nl}} (Egmondanus)}}<br />
''Patrons'': [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles V]]
}}

His residence at Leuven, where he lectured at the [[Old University of Leuven|University]], exposed Erasmus to much criticism from those ascetics, academics and clerics hostile to the principles of [[Ad fontes#Counter views|literary]] and religious reform to which he was devoting his life.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rummel |first1=Erika |title=Erasmus and the Louvain Theologians – a Strategy of Defense |journal=Nederlands Archief voor Kerkgeschiedenis / Dutch Review of Church History |date=1990 |volume=70 |issue=1 |pages=2–12 |doi=10.1163/002820390X00024 |jstor=24009249  |issn=0028-2030}}</ref> In 1514, ''en route'' to Basel, he made the acquaintance of [[Hermannus Buschius]], [[Ulrich von Hutten]] and [[Johann Reuchlin]] who introduced him to the Hebrew language in Mainz.<ref>{{Cite web |editor-last=Seidel Menchi |editor-first=S. |title=Opera Omnia Desiderii Erasmi – Erasmus, Opera Omnia |url=https://brill.com/display/serial/ASD |access-date=2022-12-21 |website=Brill |pages=50–51 |language=en}}</ref> In 1514, he suffered a fall from his horse and injured his back.

[[File:Quinten Massijs - Portret van Peter Gilles.JPG|thumb|[[Quinten Matsys]] – Portrait of Peter Gillis or Gilles (1517), half of a diptych with a portrait of Erasmus below, painted as a gift from them for [[Thomas More]].<ref name=kaminska />]]
Erasmus may have made several other short visits to England or English territory while living in Brabant.<ref name=circle/> Happily for Erasmus, More and Tunstall were posted in Brussels or Antwerp on government missions around 1516, More for six months, Tunstall for longer. Their circle include [[Pieter Gillis]] of Antwerp, in whose house [[Thomas More]]'s wrote [[Utopia (More book)|''Utopia'']] (1516) with Erasmus' encouragement,{{refn|group=note|Historians have speculated that Erasmus passed on to More an early version of [[Bartholome de las Casas]]' {{lang|la|Memoria}} which More used for ''Utopia'', due to 33 specific similarities of ideas, and that the fictional character Raphael Hythloday is de las Casas.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Varacalli |first1=Thomas |title=The Thomism of Bartolomé de Las Casas and the Indians of the New World |journal=LSU Doctoral Dissertations |date=1 January 2016 |doi=10.31390/gradschool_dissertations.1664 |url=https://repository.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/1664 |access-date=12 January 2024 |archive-date=12 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240112041335/https://repository.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/1664/ |url-status=live }}</ref>{{rp|45}} Coincidentally, de las Casas' nemesis [[Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda|Sepúlveda]], arguing for the natural slavery of American Indians, had previously been Erasmus' opponent as well, initially supporting the anti-decadence of Erasmus' ''Ciceronians'' but then finding heresy in his translations and works. Another theory is that Raphael Hythloday is Erasmus himself.<ref name=maarten>{{cite journal |last1=Vermeir |first1=Maarten M. K. |title=Brabantia: decoding the main characters of Utopia |journal=Moreana |date=June 2012 |volume=49 (Number 187- |issue=1–2 |pages=151–182 |doi=10.3366/more.2012.49.1-2.9}}</ref>}} Erasmus editing and perhaps even contributing fragments.<ref name="researchgate.net">{{cite journal |last1=Dungen |first1=Peter van den |title=Erasmus: The 16th Century's Pioneer of Peace Education and a Culture of Peace |journal=Journal of East Asia and International Law |date=30 November 2009 |volume=2 |issue=2 |page=5 |doi=10.14330/jeail.2009.2.2.05 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/291216079 |access-date=28 July 2023|hdl=10454/5003 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> His old Cambridge friend [[Richard Sampson]] was [[vicar general]] running the nearby [[diocese of Tournai]], recently under [[Battle of the Spurs|English control]] and governed by his former pupil [[William Blount]].<ref>{{cite web |title=William Blount (4º B. Mountjoy) |url=http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/Bios/WilliamBlount(4BMountjoy).htm |website=Tudor Place}}</ref>

In 1516, Erasmus accepted an honorary position as a Councillor to [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles V]] with an annuity of 200 guilders (over US$100,000{{cn|date=May 2025}}), rarely paid,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=De Landtsheer |first1=Jeanine |title=On Good Government: Erasmus's Institutio Principis Christiani versus Lipsius's Politica |journal=The Reception of Erasmus in the Early Modern Period |date=1 January 2013 |pages=179–208 |doi=10.1163/9789004255630_009|isbn=978-90-04-25563-0 |url=https://lirias.kuleuven.be/handle/123456789/418743 }}</ref> and tutored Charles' brother, the teenage future Holy Roman Emperor [[Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor|Ferdinand of Hapsburg]].

In 1516, Erasmus published the first edition of his scholarly Latin-Greek [[Novum Instrumentum omne|New Testament]] with annotations, his complete works of Jerome, and ''[[The Education of a Christian Prince]]'' ({{lang|la|Institutio principis Christiani}}) for Charles and Ferdinand.

In 1517, he supported the foundation at the university of the [[Collegium Trilingue]] for the study of [[Hebrew]], Latin, and Greek<ref name=tracy_low/>{{rp|s1.14.14}}—after the model of [[Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros|Cisneros]]' College of the Three Languages at the [[Complutense University of Madrid#History|University of Alcalá]]—financed by his late friend [[Hieronymus van Busleyden]]'s will.<ref>{{cite web |title=500 years Collegium Trilingue |url=https://expo.bib.kuleuven.be/exhibits/show/500-years-collegium-trilingue/formation-of-the-collegium-tri |website=expo.bib.kuleuven.be |language=en}}</ref> On being asked by [[Jean Le Sauvage]], former Chancellor of Brabant and now Chancellor of Burgundy, Erasmus wrote ''[[Works of Erasmus#The Complaint of Peace (1517)|The Complaint of Peace]]''. 

In 1517, his great friend Ammonio died in England of the [[Sweating Sickness]]. In 1518, Erasmus was diagnosed with [[Bubonic plague|the plague]]; despite the danger, he was taken in and cared for in the home of his Flemish friend and publisher [[Dirk Martens]] in [[Antwerp]] for a month and recovered.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Feys |first1=Xander |title=Mourning an Oenophile: A Forgotten Mock Epitaph for Dirk Martens by Erasmus |journal=Erasmus Studies |date=6 March 2024 |volume=44 |issue=1 |pages=103–113 |doi=10.1163/18749275-04401001}}</ref>

By 1518, he reported to [[Paulus Bombasius]] that his income was over 300 ducats{{refn|group=note|Italian gold [[florin]]s and Venetian gold [[ducat]]s, Dutch silver [[Dutch guilder#1500–1560: Spanish Netherlands|guilder]]s had similar values. However, there is no single modern equivalent exchange rate.<ref>{{cite web |title=Measuring Worth – Purchasing Power of the Pound |url=https://www.measuringworth.com/calculators/ukcompare/ }}</ref>}} per year (over US$150,000) without including patronage.<ref name=letters594/>{{rp|350}} By 1522 he reported his annual income as 400 gold florins<ref name=ron2/>{{rp|50}} (over US$200,000{{cn|date=May 2025}}).

[[File:British - Field of the Cloth of Gold - Google Art Project.jpg|centre|thumb|upright=2.2|The [[Field of the Cloth of Gold]], showing King [[Henry VIII]] arriving at left. The figure on horseback with raised sword ahead of Henry VIII is [[Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset]], a former pupil of Erasmus.]]
In 1520 he was present at the [[Field of the Cloth of Gold]] with [[Guillaume Budé]], probably his last meetings with [[Thomas More#Personality according to Erasmus|Thomas More]]<ref name=soward>{{cite journal |last1=Sowards |first1=J. K. |title=Erasmus and the Education of Women |journal=The Sixteenth Century Journal |date=1982 |volume=13 |issue=4 |pages=77–89 |doi=10.2307/2540011 |jstor=2540011 |s2cid=166057335  |issn=0361-0160}}</ref> and [[William Warham]]. His friend [[Richard Pace]] gave the main sermon to the kings.<ref>{{cite web |title=Field of the Cloth of Gold 1520 |url=https://www.thebritishmonarchy.co.uk/post/field-of-the-cloth-of-gold-1520 |website=The British Monarchy |language=en |date=25 March 2024}}</ref> His friends and former students and old correspondents were the incoming political elite, and he had risen with them.<ref group=note name=kings>By 1524, his disciples included, in his words, "the (Holy Roman) Emperor, the Kings of England, France, and Denmark, Prince Ferdinand of Germany, the Cardinal of England, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and more princes, more bishops, more learned and honourable men than I can name, not only in England, Flanders, France, and Germany, but even in Poland and Hungary..." quoted in {{cite web |last1=Trevor-Roper |first1=Hugh |title=Erasmus |url=https://www.pro-europa.eu/europe/trevor-roper-hugh-erasmus/ |website=Pro Europa |date=30 July 2020 |access-date=29 December 2023 |archive-date=29 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231229081301/https://www.pro-europa.eu/europe/trevor-roper-hugh-erasmus/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

He stayed in various locations including Anderlecht (near Brussels) in the summer of 1521.<ref>{{cite web |title=Erasmus House, Anderlecht |date=14 February 2016 |url=https://theculturetrip.com/europe/belgium/articles/the-erasmus-house-a-historical-cultural-complex-not-to-be-missed/ |access-date=30 April 2023 |archive-date=30 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230430162903/https://theculturetrip.com/europe/belgium/articles/the-erasmus-house-a-historical-cultural-complex-not-to-be-missed/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

====Basel (1521–1529)====
{{Side box |metadata=No
 | above = '''Swiss circle<ref name=serikoff/>{{rp|56,63}}''' 
 | text = {{hlist|[[Johannes Froben]]|[[Hieronymus Froben]]|[[Beatus Rhenanus]]|[[Bonifacius Amerbach]]|Bruno Amerbach|[[Hans Holbein the Younger]]|[[Johann Faber]]|[[Simon Grynaeus]]|[[Sebastian Brandt]]|[[Wolfgang Capito]]|[[Damião de Góis]]|Gilbert Cousin|Jakob Näf|{{ill|Augustin Mair|de|Augustinus Marius}}}}<br />
''Opponents'': [[Johannes Oecolampadius|Œcolampadius]]<br />
''Patrons'':  [[Counts of Dammartin#House of Vergy|Antoine I. de Vergy]], [[Christoph von Utenheim]]
}}
[[File:Cognatus-erasmus.tiff|thumbnail|Desiderius Erasmus dictating to his ammenuensis Gilbert Cousin or Cognatus. From a book by Cousin, and itself claimed to be based on fresco in Cousin's house in [[Nozeroy]], Burgundy. Engraving possibly by {{ill|Claude Luc|fr|Claude Luc}}. ]] 
From 1514, Erasmus regularly traveled to [[Basel]] to coordinate the printing of his books with [[Froben]]. He developed a lasting association with the great Basel publisher [[Johann Froben]] and later his son [[Hieronymus Froben]] (Erasmus' [[godson]]) who together published over 200 works with Erasmus,<ref name=":8">{{Cite book|last=Müller|first=Christian|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vU5tQgAACAAJ|title=Hans Holbein the Younger: The Basel Years, 1515–1532|publisher=[[Prestel]]|year=2006|isbn=978-3-7913-3580-3|page=296|language=en}}</ref> working with expert scholar-correctors who went on to illustrious careers.<ref name=serikoff/>

His initial interest in Froben's operation was aroused by his discovery of the printer's folio edition of the {{lang|la|Adagiorum Chiliades tres}} ([[Adagia]]) (1513).<ref>Bloch Eileen M. (April 1965). "Erasmus and the Froben Press". ''Library Quarterly'' 35: 109–120.</ref> Froben's work was notable for using the new [[Roman type]] (rather than [[blackletter]]) and Aldine-like Italic and Greek fonts, as well as elegant layouts using borders and fancy capitals;<ref name=serikoff/>{{rp|59}} [[Hans Holbein the Younger]] cut several woodblock capitals for Erasmus' editions. The printing of many his books was supervised by his Alsatian friend, the Greek scholar [[Beatus Rhenanus]].{{refn|group=note| Rhenanus shared many humanist contacts from Paris and Strassburg: a former student of [[Publio Fausto Andrelini|Andrelini]], friend of the Amerbach family, colleague of [[Sebastian Brant]] etc. He had learned printing in Paris with [[Robert Estienne]]. He was a mentor of [[Martin Bucer#Early years (1491–1523)|Martin Bucer]], who further developed several of Erasmus' ideas.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Schirrmacher |first1=Thomas |title=Advocate of love – Martin Bucer as theologian and pastor: achieving unity through listening to the scriptures and to each other: Martin Bucer's theological and practical agenda as a challenge to evangelicals today |date=2017 |publisher=Verlag für Kultur und Wissenschaft |location=Bonn |isbn=978-3-86269-058-9 |edition=2nd}}</ref>}}

In 1521 he settled in Basel.<ref>{{cite web |title=Portrait of Erasmus of Rotterdam (Hans Holbein the Younger) |url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1895-0122-843 |website=print |publisher=British Museum |access-date=17 July 2023 |archive-date=17 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230717224100/https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1895-0122-843 |url-status=live }} Quoting G. Bartrum, ''German Renaissance Prints 1490–1550'', BM exh. cat. 1995, no. 238.</ref> He was weary of the controversies and hostility at Louvain, and feared being dragged further into the Lutheran controversy.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Erasmus |first1=Desiderius |title=The Correspondence of Erasmus: Letters 1252–1355 (1522–1523) |date=31 December 1989 |doi=10.3138/9781442680944|isbn=978-1-4426-8094-4 }}</ref> He agreed to be the Froben press' literary superintendent writing dedications and prefaces<ref name=gasquet/> for an annuity and profit share.<ref name=cheng_davies/> Apart from Froben's production team, he had his own household{{refn|group=note|Froben had bought Erasmus his own house {{lang|de|"Zur alten Treu"}} in 1521 and fitted it with Erasmus' required fireplace.<ref>{{cite web |title=Altbasel – Erasmus in Basel |url=https://altbasel.ch/fragen/erasmus_in_basel.html |website=altbasel.ch |access-date=8 January 2024 |archive-date=8 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240108002558/https://altbasel.ch/fragen/erasmus_in_basel.html |url-status=live }}</ref>}} with a formidable housekeeper, stable of horses, and up to eight boarders or paid servants who acted as assistants, correctors, amanuenses, dining companions, international couriers, and carers.<ref name=blair>{{cite journal |last1=Blair |first1=Ann |title=Erasmus and His Amanuenses |journal=Erasmus Studies |date=13 March 2019 |volume=39 |issue=1 |pages=22–49 |doi=10.1163/18749275-03901011|s2cid=171933331 |url=http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:41473796 }}</ref> It was his habit to sit at times by a ground-floor window, to make it easier to see and be seen by strolling humanists for chatting.<ref name=tracey_sponge>Introductory Note in {{cite journal |last1=Tracey |first1=James |title=The Sponge of Erasmus against the Aspersions of Hutten/ Spongia adversus aspergines Hutteni |journal=Controversies |date=31 December 2010 |pages=1–146 |doi=10.3138/9781442660076-002 |publisher=University of Toronto Press|isbn=978-1-4426-6007-6 }}</ref>

In collaboration with Froben and his team, the scope and ambition of Erasmus' ''Annotations'', Erasmus' long-researched project of philological notes of the New Testament along the lines of Valla's ''Adnotations'', had grown to also include a lightly revised Latin Vulgate, then the Greek text, then several edifying essays on methodology, then a highly revised Vulgate—all bundled as his {{lang|la|[[Novum Instrumentum omne|Novum testamentum omne]]}} and pirated individually throughout Europe— then finally his amplified  ''Paraphrases''.

In 1522, Erasmus' compatriot, former teacher (c. 1502) and friend from the University of Louvain unexpectedly became [[Pope Adrian VI]],{{refn|group=note|Adrian's election was engineered by reformer Cardinal [[Thomas Cajetan]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pastor |first1=Ludwig |title=The History of the Popes, from the Close of the Middle Ages |date=1923}}</ref> the leading Thomist of his age, who had become a friendly correspondent of Erasmus and had moved to bibliocentrism, progressively producing his own commentaries on the New Testament and most of the Old. Erasmus was initially sceptical of Cajetan, blaming him for taking a too-hard line against Luther; however, he was won over in 1521 after reading Cajetan's works on the Eucharist, Confession and invocation of the saints.<ref name=seaver>{{cite journal |last1=Seaver |first1=William |title=Cardinal Cajetan Renaissance Man |journal=Dominicana |year=1959 |volume=44 |issue=4 |url=https://www.dominicanajournal.org/wp-content/files/old-journal-archive/vol44/no4/dominicanav44n4cardinalcajetanrenaissanceman.pdf |access-date=4 May 2024 |archive-date=13 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240513013157/https://www.dominicanajournal.org/wp-content/files/old-journal-archive/vol44/no4/dominicanav44n4cardinalcajetanrenaissanceman.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>{{rp|357}} In 1530, Cajetan proposed that concessions be made to Germany to allow communion under both kinds and married clergy, in full sympathy with Erasmus' spirit of mediation. }} after having served as Regent (and/or Grand Inquisitor) of Spain for six years. Like Erasmus and Luther, he had been influenced by the Brethren of the Common Life. He tried to entice Erasmus to Rome. His reforms of the [[Roman Curia]] which he hoped would meet the objections of many Lutherans were stymied (party because the Holy See was broke), though re-worked at the Council of Trent, and he died in 1523.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Geurts |first1=Twan |title=Pope Adrian VI, the 'Barbarian From the North' Who Wanted to Reform the Vatican |url=https://www.the-low-countries.com/article/pope-adrian-vi-the-barbarian-from-the-north-who-wanted-to-reform-the-vatican |website=The Low Countries |date=17 October 2022 |language=en |access-date=23 May 2024 |archive-date=12 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240112091254/https://www.the-low-countries.com/article/pope-adrian-vi-the-barbarian-from-the-north-who-wanted-to-reform-the-vatican |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:Pop adrian VI.JPG|thumb|left|Pope Adrian VI]]
As the popular and nationalist responses to Luther gathered momentum, the social disorders, which Erasmus dreaded and Luther disassociated himself from, began to appear, including the [[German Peasants' War]] (1524–1525), the [[Anabaptist]] insurrections in Germany and in the Low Countries, iconoclasm, and the radicalisation of peasants across Europe. If these were the outcomes of reform, Erasmus was thankful that he had kept out of it. Yet he was ever more bitterly accused of having started the whole "tragedy" (as Erasmus dubbed the matter).<ref group=note>"When the Lutheran tragedy ({{Langx|la|Lutheranae tragoediae }}) opened, and all the world applauded, I advised my friends to stand aloof. I thought it would end in bloodshed", Letter to Alberto Pío, 1525, in e.g., {{cite book |url=https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Life_and_letters_of_Erasmus_(IA_cu31924026502793).pdf |last=Froude |first=James Anthony |title=Life and Letters of Erasmus |year=1894 |location=New York |publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons |page=322}}</ref>

In 1523, he provided financial support to the impoverished and disgraced former Latin Secretary of Antwerp [[Cornelius Grapheus]], on his release from the newly introduced Inquisition.<ref name=hirsch/>{{rp|558}} In 1525, a former student of Erasmus who had served at Erasmus' father's former church at Woerden, [[Jan de Bakker]] (Pistorius) was the first  priest to be executed as a heretic in the Netherlands. In 1529, his French translator and friend [[Louis de Berquin]] was burnt in Paris, following his condemnation as an anti-Rome heretic by the [[College of Sorbonne|Sorbonne]] theologians.

====Freiburg (1529–1535)====
Following sudden, violent, iconoclastic rioting in early 1529{{refn|group=note|"In a few hours, they cleansed churches of idolatry by smashing statues, rood-screens, lights, altar paintings – everything they could lay their hands on, including Hans Holbein the Younger's work. [...] the hang-man lit nine ﬁres in front of the Minster [...] It was, [a witness] lamented, as though these objects 'had been public heretics'. [...] Nowhere else was the destruction by Christian activists so unexpected, violent, swift and complete."<ref name=rublack>{{cite book |last1=Rublack |first1=Ulinka |title=Reformation Europe |date=2017 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-60354-7 |pages=92–123 |edition=2 |chapter=People and Networks in the Age of the Reformations|doi=10.1017/9781139087728.005 }}</ref>{{rp|96}}}} led by [[Johannes Oecolampadius|Œcolampadius]] his former assistant, in which elected Catholic councilmen were deposed, the city of Basel definitely adopted the Reformation—finally banning the Catholic Mass on 1 April 1529.<ref>{{multiref2|1={{cite web |title=Erasmus – Dutch Humanist, Protestant Challenge |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Erasmus-Dutch-humanist/The-Protestant-challenge |website=www.britannica.com |language=en |access-date=21 June 2023 |archive-date=21 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230621053941/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Erasmus-Dutch-humanist/The-Protestant-challenge |url-status=live }}  | 2={{cite book |last1=Schaff |first1=Philip |title=The Reformation in Basel. Oecolampadius. History of the Christian Church, Volume VIII: Modern Christianity. The Swiss Reformation |url=https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/hcc8/hcc8.iv.iv.iii.html |access-date=21 June 2023 |archive-date=21 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230621062226/https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/hcc8/hcc8.iv.iv.iii.html |url-status=live }} }}</ref> 
 
Erasmus, in company with other Basel Catholic priests including Bishop {{ill|Augustin Mair|de|Augustinus Marius}}, left Basel on 13 April 1529<ref group=note>Prominent reformers like [[Oecolampadius]] urged him to stay. However, Campion, ''Erasmus and Switzerland'', op. cit., p. 26, says that Œcolampadius wanted to drive Erasmus from the city.</ref> and departed by ship to the Catholic university town of [[Freiburg im Breisgau]] to be under the protection of his former student, [[Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor|Archduke Ferdinand of Austria]].<ref name=mansfield/>{{rp|210}} Erasmus wrote somewhat dramatically to Thomas More of his frail condition at the time: "I preferred to risk my life rather than appear to approve a programme like theirs. There was some hope of a return to moderation."<ref>2211 / To Thomas More, Freiburg, 5 September 1529, {{cite journal |title=Letters 2803 to 2939. Part 2 |journal=The Correspondence of Erasmus |date=31 December 2020 |pages=151–302 |doi=10.3138/9781487532833-005|isbn=978-1-4875-3283-3 |s2cid=240975375 }}</ref>

[[File:Damiao de gois-albertina.png|thumb|[[Damião de Góis]]]]
In Spring early 1530 Erasmus was bedridden for three months with an intensely painful infection, likely carbunculosis, that, unusually for him, left him too ill to work.<ref name="letters16"/>{{rp|411}} He declined to attend the [[Diet of Augsburg]] to which both the Bishop of Augsburg and the Papal legate Campeggio had invited him, and he expressed doubt on non-theological grounds, to Campeggio and Melanchthon, that reconciliation was then possible: he wrote to Campeggio, "I can discern no way out of this enormous tragedy unless God suddenly appears like a {{lang|la|deus ex machina}} and changes the hearts of men";<ref name=letters16>{{cite journal |title=Letters 2803 to 2939. Part 2 |journal=The Correspondence of Erasmus |date=31 December 2020 |pages=151–302 |doi=10.3138/9781487532833-005|isbn=978-1-4875-3283-3 |s2cid=240975375 }}</ref>{{rp|331}} and later, "What upsets me is not so much their teaching, especially Luther's, as the fact that, under the pre-text of the gospel, I see a class of men emerging whom I find repugnant from every point of view."<ref name=letters16/>{{rp|367}}

He stayed for two years on the top floor of [[the Whale House]],<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Wilson |first=Derek |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cM2GAQAACAAJ |title=Hans Holbein: Portrait of an Unknown Man |date=1996 |publisher= Phoenix Giant|isbn=978-0297 815617 |pages=161–162 |language=en}}</ref> then following another rent dispute{{refn|group=note|He spent the first two years in Freiburg as a guest of the city in the unfinished mansion {{lang|de|{{ill|Haus zum Walfisch|de}}}} and was indignant when an attempt was made to charge back-rent: he paid this rent, and that of another refugee from Basel in his house, his fellow [[Augustinian Canon]] Bishop {{ill|Augustin Mair|de|Augustinus Marius}}, the humanist preacher who had led the efforts in Basel to resist Œcolampadius. Emerton (1889), p.449. }} bought and refurbished a house of his own, where he took in scholar/assistants as table-boarders<ref>Emerton (1889), ''op cit'' p442</ref> such as Cornelius Grapheus' friend [[Damião de Góis]], some of them fleeing persecution.

Despite increasing frailty{{refn|group=note|His arthritic gout<ref>{{cite journal |title=Erasmus' Illnesses in His Final Years (1533–6) |journal=The Correspondence of Erasmus |date=31 December 2020 |pages=335–339 |doi=10.3138/9781487532833-007|isbn=978-1-4875-3283-3 |s2cid=240920541 }}</ref> kept him housebound and unable to write: "Even on Easter Day I said mass in my bedroom." Letter to Nicolaus Olahus (1534)}} Erasmus continued to work productively, notably on a new ''magnum opus'', his manual on preaching ''[[Ecclesiastes]]'', and his small book on preparing for death. His boarder for five months, the Portuguese scholar/diplomat [[Damião de Góis]],<ref name=hirsch>{{cite journal |last1=Hirsch |first1=Elisabeth Feist |title=The Friendship of Erasmus and Damiâo De Goes |journal=Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society |date=1951 |volume=95 |issue=5 |pages=556–568 |jstor=3143242  |issn=0003-049X}}</ref> worked on his lobbying on the plight of the [[Sámi people|Sámi]] in Sweden and on the Ethiopian church, and stimulated<ref name=herwaarden/>{{rp|82}} Erasmus' increasing awareness of foreign missions.{{refn|group=note|De Góis then proceeded to Padua, meeting with the humanist cardinals Bembo and Sadeleto, and with Ignatius of Loyola. He had previously dined with Luther and Melanchthon, and met Bucer.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bell |first1=Aubrey F. G. |title=Damião de Goes, a Portuguese Humanist |journal=Hispanic Review |date=1941 |volume=9 |issue=2 |pages=243–251 |doi=10.2307/470220 |jstor=470220  |issn=0018-2176}}</ref>}}

There are no extant letters between More and Erasmus from the start of More's period as Lord Chancellor until his resignation (1529–1532), almost to the day. Erasmus wrote several  important non-political works under the surprising patronage of [[Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire|Thomas Bolyn]]: his {{lang|la|Ennaratio triplex in Psalmum XXII}} or ''Triple Commentary on Psalm 23'' (1529); <!-- Editors note: 22? 23? different counting systems from Catholic and Protestant psalters, please don't correct--> his catechism to counter Luther {{lang|la|Explanatio Symboli}} or ''[[A Playne and Godly Exposition or Declaration of the Commune Crede]]'' (1533) which sold out in three hours at the Frankfurt Book Fair; and {{lang|la|Praeparatio ad mortem}} or ''Preparation for Death'' (1534), which would be one of Erasmus' most popular and most hijacked works.<ref name=mackay>{{cite thesis |last1=Mackay |first1=Lauren |title=The life and career of Thomas Boleyn (1477–1539): courtier, ambassador, and statesman |date=2019 |publisher=University of Newcastle |hdl=1959.13/1397919 |url=http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1397919 |language=en}}</ref><ref group=note>The last was released at the time of Henry VIII and Anne Bolyn's wedding; Erasmus appended a statement that indicated he opposed the marriage. Erasmus outlived Anne and her brother by two months.</ref>

===Fates of friends===
[[File:William Warham.jpg|thumb|[[William Warham]], Archbishop of Canterbury]]
[[File:Cuthbert Tunstall (1474–1559), Bishop of Durham (Auckland Castle).jpg|thumb|[[Cuthbert Tunstall]], Bishop of Durham]]
In the 1530s, life became more dangerous for Spanish Erasmians when Erasmus' protector, the Inquisitor General [[Alonso Manrique de Lara]] fell out of favour with the royal court and lost power within his own organization to friar-theologians. In 1532 Erasmus' friend, ''[[converso]]'' [[Juan de Vergara]] ([[Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros|Cisneros]]' Latin secretary who had worked on the [[Complutensian Polyglot]] and published [[Stunica]]'s criticism of Erasmus) was arrested by the Spanish Inquisition and had to be ransomed from them by the humanist Archbishop of Toledo [[Alonso III Fonseca]], also a correspondent of Erasmus', who had previously rescued [[Ignatius of Loyola]] from them.<ref name=ingram/>{{rp|80}}<!-- Oops lost citation-book on early Jesuits <ref group=note>Loyola later in life similarly rescued several people from prison during their inquisition process.</ref> -->

There was a generational change in the Catholic hierarchy. In 1530, the reforming French bishop [[Guillaume Briçonnet (bishop of Meaux)|Guillaume Briçonnet]] died.  In 1532 his beloved long-time mentor English Primate [[William Warham|Warham]] died of old age,{{refn|group=note|Erasmus writing a moving letter to William Blount's teenaged son [[Charles Blount, 5th Baron Mountjoy|Charles]] about Warham: "I wrote this in sorrow and grief, my mind totally devastated… We had made a vow to die together; he had promised a common grave…I am held back here half-alive, still owing the debt from the vow I had made, which …I will soon pay. …Instead, even time, which is supposed to cure even the most grievous sorrows, merely makes this wound more and more painful. What more can I say? I feel that I am being called. I will be glad to die here together with that incomparable and irrevocable patron of mine, provided I am allowed, by the mercy of Christ, to live there together with him."<ref name=scheck1/>{{rp|86}} }} as did reforming cardinal [[Giles of Viterbo]] and Swiss bishop [[Hugo von Hohenlandenberg]]. In 1534 his distrusted protector [[Clement VII]] (the "inclement Clement"<ref name=bietenholz>{{cite book |last1=Bietenholz |first1=Peter G. |title=History and Biography in the Work of Erasmus of Rotterdam |date=1966 |publisher=Librairie Droz |location=Geneva}}</ref>{{rp|72}}) died, his recent Italian ally Cardinal [[Thomas Cajetan|Cajetan]] (widely tipped as the next pope) died, and his old ally Cardinal [[Lorenzo Campeggio|Campeggio]] retired.

As more friends died (in 1533, his friend [[Pieter Gillis]]; in 1534, [[William Blount, 4th Baron Mountjoy|William Blount]]; in early 1536, [[Catherine of Aragon]] and [[Richard Pace]];) and as Luther and some Lutherans and some powerful Catholic theologians renewed their personal attacks on Erasmus, his letters are increasingly focused on concerns on the status of friendships and safety as he considered moving from bland Freiburg despite his health.<ref group=note>"I am so weary of this region[...]I feel that there is a conspiracy to kill me[...]Many hope for war." Letter to Erasmus Schets (1534)</ref>

In 1535, Erasmus' friends [[Thomas More]], Bishop [[John Fisher]] and the [[Bridgettines|Brigittine]] monk [[Richard Reynolds (martyr)|Richard Reynolds]]{{refn|group=note|In the ''Expositio Fidelis'', Erasmus recounts "Included with the Carthusians was the Brigittine monk Reynolds, a man of angelic features and angelic character and possessed of sound judgment, as I discovered through the conversations I had with him when I was in England in the company of Cardinal Campeggi."<ref name=correspondence/>{{rp|611}}  }} were executed as pro-Rome traitors by [[Henry VIII]], who Erasmus and More had first met as a boy. Despite illness Erasmus wrote the [[Thomas More#Personality according to Erasmus|first biography]] of More (and Fisher), the short, anonymous ''Expositio Fidelis'', which Froben published, at the instigation of de Góis.<ref name=hirsch/>

After Erasmus' time, numerous of Erasmus' translators later met similar fates at the hands of Anglican, Catholic and Reformed sectarians and autocrats: including [[Margaret Pole]], [[William Tyndale]], [[Michael Servetus]]. Others, such as Charles V's Latin secretary [[Juan de Valdés]], fled and died in self-exile.

Erasmus' friend and collaborator Bishop [[Cuthbert Tunstall]] eventually died in prison under Elizabeth I for refusing the [[Oath of Supremacy]]. Erasmus' correspondent Bishop [[Stephen Gardiner]], who he had known as a teenaged student in Paris and Cambridge,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Allen |first1=Amanda |title=Flesh, Blood, and Puffed-Up Livers: The Theological, Political, and Social Contexts behind the 1550–1551 Written Eucharistic Debate between Thomas Cranmer and Stephen Gardiner |date=1 January 2014 |doi=10.31390/gradschool_dissertations.401 |url=https://repository.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/401 |access-date=23 May 2024 |archive-date=29 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240329133536/https://repository.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/401/ |url-status=live }}</ref> was later imprisoned in the [[Tower of London]] for five years under [[Edward VI]] for impeding Protestantism.{{refn|group=note|During which he occupied himself copying out quotations from Erasmus' ''Adages'' ''etc'' and formally complaining about the protestantized English translation of Erasmus' ''Paraphrases of the New Testament''.<ref>{{cite web |title=(Prison) Note(book)s Toward a History of Boredom |url=https://www.jhiblog.org/2016/10/03/prison-notebooks-toward-a-history-of-boredom/ |website=JHI Blog |access-date=23 May 2024 |archive-date=18 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240118001622/https://www.jhiblog.org/2016/10/03/prison-notebooks-toward-a-history-of-boredom/ |url-status=live }}</ref>}}  Damião de Góis was tried before the Portuguese Inquisition at age 72,<ref name=hirsch/> detained almost ''incommunicado'', finally exiled to a monastery, and on release perhaps murdered.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Ruth |first1=Jeffrey S. |title=Lisbon in the Renaissance: Author Damiao de Gois |url=http://www.italicapress.com/index108.html |website=www.italicapress.com}}</ref> His amanuensis Gilbert Cousin died in prison at age 66, shortly after being arrested on the personal order of Pope [[Pius V]].<ref name=blair/>

===Death in Basel===
[[File:Erasmus grafsteen Münster van Bazel.JPG|thumb|upright=.8|Epitaph for Erasmus in the [[Basel Minster]]. The stone is marked with historical graffiti, including that of [[Johannes Crucius]].]]
When his strength began to fail, he finally decided to accept an invitation by [[Mary of Hungary (governor of the Netherlands)|Queen Mary of Hungary, Regent of the Netherlands]] (sister of his former student Archduke Ferdinand I and Emperor Charles V), to move from Freiburg to [[Duchy of Brabant|Brabant]]. In 1535, he moved back to the Froben compound in [[Basel]] in preparation ([[Oecolampadius|Œcolampadius]] having died, and private practice of his religion now possible) and saw his last major works such as [[Ecclesiastes of Erasmus|Ecclesiastes]] through publication, though he grew more frail.

On July 12, 1536, he died from an attack of [[dysentery]].<ref>{{CathEncy|wstitle= Desiderius Erasmus}}</ref> "The most famous scholar of his day died in peaceful prosperity and in the company of celebrated and responsible friends."<ref>{{cite web |title=Erasmus and His Books (Publisher's material) |url=https://utorontopress.com/9780802038760/erasmus-and-his-books/ |website=University of Toronto Press |access-date=30 April 2024 |language=en-CA |archive-date=30 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240430053946/https://utorontopress.com/9780802038760/erasmus-and-his-books/ |url-status=live }}</ref> His last words, as recorded by his friend and biographer [[Beatus Rhenanus]], were apparently "Lord, put an end to it" ({{langx|la|domine fac finem}}, the same last words as Melanchthon)<ref name=kurasawa>{{cite journal |last1=Kusukawa |first1=Sachiko |title=Nineteenth-Annual Bainton Lecture |journal=Erasmus of Rotterdam Society Yearbook |date=2003 |volume=23 |issue=1 |pages=1–24 |doi=10.1163/187492703X00036}}</ref> then  "Dear God" ({{langx|nl|Lieve God}}).<ref>Huizinga, Dutch edition, p. 202.</ref>

He had remained loyal to Roman Catholicism,<ref name="Hoffmann 1989">{{cite journal |last=Hoffmann |first=Manfred |date=Summer 1989 |title=Faith and Piety in Erasmus's Thought |journal=[[Sixteenth Century Journal]] |publisher=[[Truman State University Press]] |volume=20 |issue=2 |pages=241–258 |doi=10.2307/2540661 |jstor=2540661|s2cid=166213471 }}</ref> but biographers have disagreed whether to treat him as an insider or an outsider.{{refn |group=note |name="Church 1924"|Contrast the "outsider" interpretation of Huizinga "He tried to remain in the fold of the old [Roman] Church, after having damaged it seriously, and renounced the [Protestant] Reformation, and to a certain extent even Humanism, after having furthered both with all his strength." [[Johan Huizinga]], ''Erasmus and the Age of Reformation'' (tr. F. Hopman and Barbara Flower; New York: Harper and Row, 1924), p. 190.  with the "insider" interpretation of [[Francis Aidan Gasquet]] "He was a reformer in the best sense, as so many far-seeing and spiritual-minded churchmen of those days were. He desired to better and beautify and perfect the system he found in vogue, and he had the courage of his convictions to point out what he thought stood in need of change and improvement, but he was no iconoclast; he had no desire to pull down or root up or destroy under the plea of improvement. That he remained to the last the friend of Popes and bishops and other orthodox churchmen, is the best evidence, over and above his own words, that his real sentiments were not misunderstood by men who had the interests of the Church at heart, and who looked upon him as true and loyal, if perhaps a somewhat eccentric and caustic son of Holy Church. Even in his last sickness he received from the Pope proof of his esteem, for he was given a benefice of considerable value."<ref name=gasquet/>{{rp|200}} }} He may not have received or had the opportunity to receive the [[last rites]] of the Catholic Church;<ref group=note>This assertion is contradicted by Gonzalo Ponce de Leon speaking in 1595 at the Roman [[Index Librorum Prohibitorum|Congregation of the Index]] on the (mostly successful) de-prohibition of Erasmus' works said that he died "as a Catholic having received the sacraments." {{cite journal |last1=Menchi |first1=Silvana Seidel |title=Sixteenth-Annual Bainton Lecture |journal=Erasmus of Rotterdam Society Yearbook |date=2000 |volume=20 |issue=1 |page=30 |doi=10.1163/187492700X00048}}</ref> the contemporary reports of his death do not mention whether he asked for a Catholic priest or not,{{refn|group=note|According to historian Jan van Herwaarden, it is consistent with Erasmus' view that outward signs were not important; what mattered is the believer's direct relationship with God.  However, van Herwaarden states that "he did not dismiss the rites and sacraments out of hand but asserted a dying person could achieve a state of salvation without the priestly rites, provided their faith and spirit were attuned to God" (i.e., maintaining being in a [[:wikt:state of grace|State of Grace]]) noting Erasmus' stipulation that this was "as the (Catholic) Church believes."<ref>
{{citation
 |author= Jan Van Herwaarden
 |title= Between Saint James and Erasmus: Studies in Late Medieval Religious Life
 |location= Leiden |publisher= Brill|year= 2003
 |pages= 529–530 |isbn= 978-90-04-12984-9
}}
</ref> }} if any were secretly or privately in Basel.

He was buried with great ceremony in the [[Basel Minster]] (the former cathedral). The Protestant city authorities remarkably allowed his funeral to be an ecumenical Catholic [[requiem Mass]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Campion |first1=Edmund |title=Erasmus and Switzerland |journal=Swiss American Historical Society |date=2003 |volume=39 |issue=3 |url=https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1412&context=sahs_review |access-date=21 June 2023 |archive-date=21 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230621055018/https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1412&context=sahs_review |url-status=live }}</ref>

Erasmus had received dispensations (from Ferdinand Archduke of Austria, and from Emperor Charles V in 1530) to make a will rather than have his wealth revert to his order (the Chapter of Sion), or to the state, and had long pre-sold most of his personal library of almost 500 books to Polish humanist Jan Łaski.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Żantuan |first1=Konstanty |title=Erasmus and the Cracow Humanists: The Purchase of His Library by Łaski |journal=The Polish Review |date=1965 |volume=10 |issue=2 |pages=3–36 |jstor=25776600  |issn=0032-2970}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Vale |first1=Malcolm |title=Erasmus and his Books, by Egbertus van Gulik, tr. J.C. Grayson, ed. James K. McConica and Johannes Trapman |journal=The English Historical Review |date=6 November 2020 |volume=135 |issue=575 |pages=1016–1018 |doi=10.1093/ehr/ceaa149}}</ref> 
As his heir or executor he instated [[Bonifacius Amerbach]] to give seed money<ref group=note>"He left a small fortune, in trusts for the benefit of the aged and infirm, the education of young men of promise, and as marriage portions for deserving young women – nothing, however, for Masses for the repose of his soul." {{cite journal |last1=Kerr |first1=Fergus |title=Comment: Erasmus |journal=New Blackfriars |date=2005 |volume=86 |issue=1003 |pages=257–258 |doi=10.1111/j.0028-4289.2005.00081.x |jstor=43250928  |issn=0028-4289}}</ref> to students and the needy.{{refn|group=note|'After the payment of all outstanding claims, the sum in the hands of Bonifacius and the two Basel executors amounted to 5,000 florins. This sum was invested in a loan to the duchy of Württemberg that yielded an annual income of 250 florins. The greater part of this sum became a fund to provide scholarships for students at the University of Basel (in theology, law, and medicine); the rest went into a fund devoted to the assistance of the poor."<ref name=correspondence>{{cite book |last1=Erasmus |first1=Desiderius |editor-first1=James M. |editor-first2=Alexander |editor-last1=Estes |editor-last2=Dalzell |title=The Correspondence of Erasmus: Letters 2940 to 3141, Volume 21 |date=31 December 2021 |doi=10.3138/9781487536695|isbn=978-1-4875-3669-5 }}</ref> In [[Florin|modern terms]], 5000 florins could be between US$500,000 and US$5,000,000; 250 florins could be between $25,000 and $250,000}} One of the eventual recipients was the impoverished Protestant humanist [[Sebastian Castellio]], who had fled from Geneva to Basel, who subsequently translated the Bible into Latin and French, and who worked for the repair of the breach and divide of Western Christianity in its Catholic, Anabaptist, and Protestant branches.<ref>{{cite book|title=Sebastian Castellio, 1515–1563; Humanist and Defender of Religious Toleration in a Confessional Age; Translated and Edited by Bruce Gordon  |last=Guggisbert |first=Hans |year=2003 |publisher=Ashgate Publishing Limited|location=Hants England; Burlington, Vermont, USA |isbn=0-7546-3019-6}}</ref>