Editing Erasmus (section)

====Personal reform====
Erasmus expressed much of his reform program in terms of the proper attitude towards the [[sacraments]] and their ramifications:<ref>{{cite book |last1=Payne |first1=John B. |title=Erasmus: His Theology of the Sacraments |date=1970 |publisher=Knox |language=en}}</ref> notably for the underappreciated sacraments of Baptism and Marriage (see ''[[#On the Institution of Christian Marriage (1526)|On the Institution of Christian Marriage]]'') considered as vocations more than events;{{refn|group=note|
In marriage, Erasmus' two significant innovations, according to historian Nathan Ron, were that "matrimony can and should be a joyous bond, and that this goal can be achieved by a relationship between spouses based on mutuality, conversation, and persuasion."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ron |first1=Nathan |chapter=Erasmus on the Education and Nature of Women |title=Erasmus: intellectual of the 16th century |date=2021 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=Cham |doi=10.1007/978-3-030-79860-4_4 |doi-broken-date=1 November 2024 |isbn=978-3-030-79859-8 |url=https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-79860-4 |chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-79860-4_4 |pages=37–47 |access-date=1 January 2024 |archive-date=1 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240101133933/https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-79860-4 |url-status=live }}</ref>{{rp|4:43}} }} and for the mysterious Eucharist, pragmatic Confession, the dangerous [[Last Rites]] (writing ''On the Preparation for Death''),<ref group=note>According to historian Thomas Tentler, few Christians from his century gave as much emphasis as Erasmus to a pious attitude to death: the terrors of death are "closely connected to guilt from sin and fear of punishment" the antidote to which is first "trust in Christ and His ability to forgive sins", avoiding (Lutheran) boastful pride, then a loving, undespairing life lived with appropriate penitence. The priests' focus in the Last Rites should be comfort and hope. {{cite journal |last1=Tentler |first1=Thomas N. |title=Forgiveness and Consolation in the Religious Thought of Erasmus |journal=Studies in the Renaissance |date=1965 |volume=12 |pages=110–133 |doi=10.2307/2857071 |jstor=2857071  |issn=0081-8658}}</ref> and the pastoral Holy Orders (see ''[[#The Preacher (1536)|Ecclesiastes]]'').<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Tylenda |first1=Joseph N. |title=Book Review: Erasmus: His Theology of the Sacraments |journal=Theological Studies |date=December 1971 |volume=32 |issue=4 |pages=694–696 |doi=10.1177/004056397103200415|s2cid=170334683 }}</ref> Historians have noted that Erasmus commended the benefits of immersive, docile scripture-reading in sacramental terms.{{refn|group=note| name=sider2020|"It is because Christ is in the pages of the bible that we meet him as a living person. As we read these pages we absorb his presence, we become one with him." Robert Sider<ref name=sider2020>{{cite journal |last1=Sider |first1=Robert |editor-first1=Robert D. |editor-last1=Sider |title=Erasmus on the New Testament |journal=Erasmus Studies |date=31 December 2020 |doi=10.3138/9781487533250|isbn=978-1-4875-3325-0 |s2cid=241298542 }}</ref>}}

=====Sacraments=====
[[File:Johannes Oecolampadius by Asper.jpg|thumb|''Johannes Œcolampadius'' by Asper (1550)]]
A test of the Reformation was the doctrine of the sacraments, and the crux of this question was the observance of the [[Eucharist]]. Erasmus was concerned that the [[sacramentarian]]s, headed by [[Johannes Oecolampadius|Œcolampadius]] of Basel, were claiming Erasmus held views similar to their own in order to try to claim him for their schismatic and "erroneous" movement. When the Mass was finally banned in Basel in 1529, Erasmus immediately abandoned the city, as did the other expelled Catholic clergy.

In 1530, Erasmus published a [[list of editiones principes in Latin|new edition]] of the orthodox treatise of [[Algerus]] against the heretic [[Berengar of Tours]] in the eleventh century. He added a dedication, affirming his belief in the reality of the Body of Christ after consecration in the Eucharist, commonly referred to as [[transubstantiation]]. However, Erasmus found the scholastic formulation of transubstantiation to stretch language past its breaking point.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Praise-of-Folly-by-Erasmus|title = Praise of Folly &#124; work by Erasmus |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica}}</ref>

By and large, the miraculous real change that interested Erasmus, the author, more than that of the bread is the transformation in the humble partaker.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Williams |first1=David |title=Sacramental Reading: Foxe's Book of Actes and Milton's Fifth Gospel |journal=The Communion of the Book |date=15 November 2022 |pages=157–228 |doi=10.1515/9780228015857-009|isbn=978-0-2280-1585-7 }}</ref>{{rp|211}} Erasmus wrote several notable pastoral books and pamphlets on sacraments, always looking through rather than at the rituals or forms:{{refn|group=note|On confession "he differed from Luther and Wycliffe as much as he differed from mainstream conservative theology in deferring any question of how the sacrament worked in favour of its creating a moral development in the penitent."<ref name=marquis/>{{rp|54}} }} 

*on marriage and wise matches, 
*preparation for confession and the need for pastoral encouragement by priests (whose primary duty was to shepherd, not just to consecrate/absolve),<ref name=marquis/>{{rp|73}}  
*preparation for death and the need to assuage fear, 
*training and helping the preaching duties of priests under bishops, 
*baptism and the need for that faithful to own the baptismal vows made for them.