Desiderius Erasmus

Erasmus, Desiderius (c. 1466–1536) Christian humanist and scholar. Born the illegitimate son of a Dutch priest, he was educated by the Brethren of the Common Life. He became an Augustinian canon in 1487 and was ordained in 1492. He soon left for Paris to study at the College of Montaigu. For the next 40 years he lived in various places, including Oxford, Paris, Louvain, Turin, Bologna, Cambridge, Venice, Rome, and finally Basel, where he died. He influenced some of the brightest and most powerful men of his age, including King Henry VIII, Charles V, Archduke Ferdinand, William Blount, the Fourth Baron Mountjoy, Aldus Manutius, Leo X, the Vatican librarian, Tomasso Fedra Inghirami, and St. John Fisher, as well as most of the Protestant Reformers who were trained as humanists.
Erasmus was the most renowned scholar of his age; his intellectual prowess fascinated his friends as well as detractors. He was also the first best-selling author of the new Gutenberg age. His Praise of Folly appeared in 600 editions and the Colloquies in more than 300 editions. He was also a noted biblical scholar, publishing a critical edition of the New Testament based on Greekⁱ manuscripts, a paraphrase of the New Testament, numerous editions of the Greek and Latin Fathers, Adages, a collection of sayings from Greek and Latin classics, and theological works, including Enchiridion Militis Christiani (Handbook of a Christian Knight, 1504).
Although considered a forerunner of Luther, he conducted a running battle with the reformer. His Diatribe De Libero Arbitrio (1524) was an attack against Luther’s position on free will. Luther responded with De Servo Arbitrio (1525) to which Erasmus responded with Hyperaspistes (1526). As a polymath, Erasmus tried to reconcile a number of contradictions within himself. He was a Catholic, Protestant, and humanist rolled into one, although he never left the Catholic Church. He was also a scholar who valued Christian traditions and heritage, but distrusted partisanship for fear of compromising his integrity.

George Thomas Kurian, Nelson's New Christian Dictionary The Authoritative Resource On The Christian World (Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson Pubs., 2001).