Editing Erasmus (section)

===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>