Editing Erasmus (section)

====France and Brabant====
{{Side box |metadata=No
 | above = '''French circle''' 
 | text = {{hlist|class=inline|Jean Vitrier (or Vourier)|Jacob/James Batt|[[Publio Fausto Andrelini]]|[[Josse Bade]]|[[Louis de Berquin]] |[[Robert Fisher (priest)|Robert Fisher]]|[[Richard Whitford]]|[[Guillaume Budé]]|[[Thomas Grey, 2nd Marquess of Dorset|Thomas Grey]]|[[Hector Boece]]|[[Robert Gaguin]]|Christopher Fisher}}<br />
''Opponents'': Noël Béda (or Bédier)<br />
''Patrons'': Bishop Henry of Bergen,[[Thomas Grey, 1st Marquess of Dorset|Thomas Grey]], [[Anna van Borselen|Lady of Veere]] 
}}

Following his first trip to England, Erasmus returned first to poverty in Paris, where he started to compile the ''Adagio'' for his students, then to Orléans to escape the plague, and then to semi-monastic life, scholarly studies and writing in France, notably at the Benedictine [[Abbey of Saint Bertin]] at St Omer (1501,1502) where he wrote the initial version of the ''Enchiridion'' (''[[Handbook of the Christian Knight]]''). A particular influence was his encounter in 1501 with Jean (Jehan) Vitrier, a radical Franciscan who consolidated Erasmus' thoughts against excessive valorization of monasticism,<ref name=tracy>{{cite book |last1=Tracy |first1=James D. |title=Erasmus, the Growth of a Mind |date=1972 |publisher=Librairie Droz |isbn=978-2-600-03041-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RqvtT9d522IC&q=%22Jean+Voirier%22+++erasmus |language=en |access-date=26 November 2023 |archive-date=28 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231128035505/https://books.google.com/books?id=RqvtT9d522IC&q=%22Jean+Voirier%22+++erasmus |url-status=live }}</ref>{{rp|94,95}} ceremonialism{{efn|group=note|According to theologian Thomas Scheck, "In the fuller context of the ''Ratio'' the 'ceremonies' Erasmus criticizes are not the liturgical rites of the Church, but the special devotions and prescriptions added to them, particularly those related to food and clothing, which became binding in particular religious orders and more generally, under threat of excommunication and even eternal punishment."<ref name=scheck1>{{cite journal |last1=Scheck |first1=Thomas P. |title=Mark Vessey (ed.), Erasmus on Literature: His Ratio or 'System' of 1518/1519 (Review) |journal=Moreana |date=June 2022 |volume=59 |issue=1 |pages=141–148 |doi=10.3366/more.2022.0119|s2cid=248601520 }}</ref>}} and fasting{{efn|group=note|"We ﬁnd in the New Testament that fasting was observed by Christians and praised by the apostles, but I do not remember reading that it was prescribed with certain rites. These things are not mentioned so that any ceremonies that the church has instituted concerning clothing, fasting or similar matters should be despised, but to show that Christ and his apostles were more concerned with things pertaining to salvation."<ref name=scheck1/>}} in a kind of conversion experience,<ref name=mansfield/>{{rp|213,219}}  and introduced him to [[Origen]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Erasmus |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Erasmus-Dutch-humanist |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |language=en |date=23 October 2023 |access-date=22 April 2023 |archive-date=26 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190426032309/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Erasmus-Dutch-humanist |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1502, Erasmus went to Brabant, ultimately to the university at Louvain. In 1504 he was hired by the leaders of the Brabantian "Provincial States" to deliver one of his few public speeches, a very long formal [[panegyric]] for [[Philip I of Castile|Philip "the Fair"]], Duke of Burgundy and later King of Castille: the first half being the conventional extravagant praise, but the second half being a strong treatment of the miseries of war, the need for neutrality and conciliation (with the neighbours France and England),<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Tinelli |first1=Elisa |title=Erasmus' Panegyricus ad Philippum Austriae ducem (1504) |journal=Lectio |date=January 2018 |volume=7 |pages=445–464 |doi=10.1484/M.LECTIO-EB.5.116073|isbn=978-2-503-58077-7 }}</ref> and the excellence of peaceful rulers: that real courage in a leader was not to wage war but to put a bridle on greed, etc.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Emerton |first1=Ephraim |author-link=Ephraim Emerton |title=Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam |date=25 July 2020 |orig-date=1899 |publisher=BoD – Books on Demand |isbn=978-3-7523-4313-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EBLzDwAAQBAJ |language=en}}</ref>{{rp|71}} This was later published as ''Panegyricus''. Erasmus then returned to Paris in 1504.