Editing Erasmus (section)

====Politics====
Erasmus promoted the idea that a prince rules with the consent of his people, notably in his book ''[[The Education of a Christian Prince]]'' (and, through More, in the book [[Utopia (book)|''Utopia'']], which proposed a "republic completely lacking sovereignty"<ref name=mayer>{{cite journal |last1=Mayer |first1=T. F. |title=Tournai and Tyranny: Imperial Kingship and Critical Humanism |journal=The Historical Journal |date=1991 |volume=34 |issue=2 |pages=257–277 |doi=10.1017/S0018246X00014138 |jstor=2639498 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2639498 |issn=0018-246X}}</ref>). He may have been influenced by the [[Brabant]]ine custom of an incoming ruler being officially told of his duties and welcomed:<ref name=maarten/> the [[Joyous Entry of 1356|Joyous Entry]] was a kind of contract. A monarchy should not be absolute: it should be "checked and diluted with a mixture of aristocracy and democracy to prevent it ever breaking out into tyranny".<ref name="seop2009" /> The same considerations applied to church princes.

Erasmus contrasts the Christian Prince with the Tyrant, who has no love from the people, will be surrounded by flatterers, and can expect no loyalty or peace. Unspoken in Erasmus' views may have been the idea that the people can remove a tyrant; however, espousing this explicitly could expose people to capital charges of sedition or treason. Erasmus typically limited his political discussion to what could be couched as personal faith and morality by or between Christians, his business as a ''magister'' of theology.