Editing Erasmus (section)

===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>