Editing Erasmus (section)

===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.