Erasmus of Rotterdam is commonly regarded as the key public intellectual of the early decades of the 16th century. He has been given the sobriquet "Prince of the Humanists", and has been called "the crowning glory of the Christian humanists".[1] He has also been called "the most illustrious rhetorician and educationalist of the Renaissance".[2]
His reputation and the interpretations of his work have varied over time and by community. Many Catholics now recognize him as a sardonic but loyal reformer within the Church with an evangelical and pastoral spirituality that emphasized peace and mercy, while many Protestants approve of his initial support for (and, in part, inspiration of) Luther's initial ideas and the groundwork he laid for the future Reformation, especially in biblical scholarship.
However, at times he has been viciously criticized from all sides, his works suppressed, his expertise corralled, his writings misinterpreted, his thought demonized, and his legacy marginalized. Common characterizations are that, despite his lauded progressiveness, he could or should have gone further, or that, despite his claimed conservatism, he rashly went too far.
- ^ Latourette, Kenneth Scott. A History of Christianity. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1953, p. 661.
- ^ Laytam, Miles J.J. (2007). The Medium was the Message: Classical Rhetoric and the Materiality of Language from Empedocles to Shakespeare (PDF). English Dept, University of York. p. 81. Retrieved 26 July 2023.