Toward the end of his life, marked by countless recriminations and accusations, he turned into a Stinkstiefel (grouch, grumbler) while living in exile in Freiburg.
Red Baron collected all the information about Erasmus's stay in Freiburg from 1517 to 1521 on his history page and has already written one blog. Here is another titled Erasmus in Freiburg.
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Langereis‘ book cover shows a painting by ©Neel Korteweg,
Amsterdam 2012. Erasmus in a poppy shirt. Acrylic on linen 100/85 cm |
My readers may remember my blog about Wieland's biography. Red Baron is fascinated by the lives of prominent personalities of the past, particularly when they met other prominent contemporaries of their time. The descriptions of those encounters bring back the past.
So it was with Erasmus who gave a welcoming speech for Philip the Fair in Brussels, met Kings Henry VII and VIII of England, and wrote letters to popes such as Leo X.
As the illegitimate child of a priest, Erasmus was not destined for such a future. He was not entitled to receive ecclesiastical ordination. The flaw of his damnable birth runs like a red thread through his life.
In a Compendium*, Erasmus euphemistically reports disguising its origin that his father, Gerard, was destined by his parents to lead a consecrated life, but he fell in love with Margareta, the daughter of a doctor. When Gerard's parents refused to consent to the intended marriage, the son ran away, leaving behind a farewell letter adorned with the symbol of the marital handshake, "Farewell, never to be seen again."
*A brief description of his childhood
Gerard went to Italy to study law without a degree. He earned his living as an excellent copyist with manuscripts of essential authors. He received a letter from his parents while he was in Italy with the news that his lover Margareta had died. Grief-stricken, he became a priest. From then on, he dedicated his life body and soul to the faith. When Gerard later returned home, he found Margaret alive and well. She had given birth to a child of his: Erasmus. Priest Gerard "never touched Margareta again."
And Gerard did not abandon his child. On the contrary, he gave his son a good
education.
However, new research has revealed that Erasmus was only conceived long after Gerard had returned from his Italian study trip to Holland. Erasmus was, therefore, the son of a priest. Worse still, Gerard and Margareta lived in concubinage, and Erasmus had a brother, Pieter, who was three years older.
Erasmus was about 13 years old when his mother died of the plague, and his father followed shortly after. His guardian placed the boy in a boarding school. His relatives then forced him into a monastery run by the Augustinian canons. As a canon, Erasmus was ordained a priest in 1492. He secretly legalized this ordination in 1516 following correspondence with Pope Leo X.
However, new research has revealed that Erasmus was only conceived long after Gerard had returned from his Italian study trip to Holland. Erasmus was, therefore, the son of a priest. Worse still, Gerard and Margareta lived in concubinage, and Erasmus had a brother, Pieter, who was three years older.
Erasmus was about 13 years old when his mother died of the plague, and his father followed shortly after. His guardian placed the boy in a boarding school. His relatives then forced him into a monastery run by the Augustinian canons. As a canon, Erasmus was ordained a priest in 1492. He secretly legalized this ordination in 1516 following correspondence with Pope Leo X.
As a schoolboy, Erasmus decided to become a writer and, while studying in Paris, wrote the proverbial dictionary Adagia, which became a bestseller.
Another famous work is the satire Moriae encomium, "Praise of Folly," where not he but the personized Folly denounces ecclesiastical and secular grievances. To learn more, consult my blog about the opera titled The Folly.
Above all Erasmus's works, the Novum Instrumentum stands out. It is an entirely new translation of the New Testament into Latin from original Greek sources. Red Baron once attended a lecture and wrote a blog about the Novum Instrumentum, but there is more to report in another blog.
The young, culture-loving Medici Pope Leo X was delighted when the world-famous author dedicated him this famous Novum Instrumentum. In return, Erasmus asked Leo for a favor, which the pope delivered when Erasmus was in London.
On Good Friday 1516, Leo's special representative
Andrea Ammonio
absolved his friend Erasmus in a strictly closed ceremony in his private
chapel and granted the Dutch humanist a triple papal dispensation.
Erasmus' unholy origins were thus finally a thing of the past.
Henry VIII and Cardinal Thomas Wolsey then granted him an audience. Erasmus was told that they had in mind an annual income for him from a benefit yet to be determined.
Fiddlesticks, because the second common thread running through Erasmus' life is his lack of money. In a letter to his friend Guillaume Budé in Paris in 1501, he wrote, "I am married to Mrs. Poverty, and unfortunately she is so infatuated with me that I simply cannot drive her away, no matter how nasty I am with this woman."
His friend wrote back that Erasmus should cherish his wife, Poverty, because there would be no literature without her love. Budé also knew this woman, but he lovingly referred to her as his muse, not his curse.
Budé's answer is still practiced at universities where assistants to professors sometimes work for starvation wages. When asked about this, one professor said, "Hungry birds sing beautifully."
Erasmus's financial situation changed dramatically when he settled in Basel in 1521 to work for his favorite printer, Johann Froben. He labored tirelessly as an author, editor, and canvasser for five, six, and, when the Frankfurt book fairs were back on the doorstep, seven printing presses at the same time, single-handedly delivering manuscripts. Erasmus made sure that Froben could print around twenty new and old of his bestselling titles every year. Froben earned a fortune.
In December 1521, Froben bought Erasmus a house and "remunerated"* him with 200 gold pieces a year.
*Royalties were unknown, but pirate printing was standard at the time
Henry VIII and Cardinal Thomas Wolsey then granted him an audience. Erasmus was told that they had in mind an annual income for him from a benefit yet to be determined.
Fiddlesticks, because the second common thread running through Erasmus' life is his lack of money. In a letter to his friend Guillaume Budé in Paris in 1501, he wrote, "I am married to Mrs. Poverty, and unfortunately she is so infatuated with me that I simply cannot drive her away, no matter how nasty I am with this woman."
His friend wrote back that Erasmus should cherish his wife, Poverty, because there would be no literature without her love. Budé also knew this woman, but he lovingly referred to her as his muse, not his curse.
Budé's answer is still practiced at universities where assistants to professors sometimes work for starvation wages. When asked about this, one professor said, "Hungry birds sing beautifully."
Erasmus's financial situation changed dramatically when he settled in Basel in 1521 to work for his favorite printer, Johann Froben. He labored tirelessly as an author, editor, and canvasser for five, six, and, when the Frankfurt book fairs were back on the doorstep, seven printing presses at the same time, single-handedly delivering manuscripts. Erasmus made sure that Froben could print around twenty new and old of his bestselling titles every year. Froben earned a fortune.
In December 1521, Froben bought Erasmus a house and "remunerated"* him with 200 gold pieces a year.
*Royalties were unknown, but pirate printing was standard at the time
Now, Erasmus supported young talents even more and remained in
correspondence with many of them. "It is really clever to move into a room
with a barber if you want to learn the local language," Erasmus wrote with
amusement to one of his former students in Paris, who had reported that he
wanted to work on his French. "But it would be even smarter to look for a
sweetheart because a French girl would be better for his French than
thirty teachers," added the Nestor in Basel very humanely.
This reminds me of the saying, "The best way to learn a foreign language is with a long-haired dictionary."
To Erasmus' great gratitude, the jovial publisher provided a further two hundred Rhenish gold pieces in 1526 to buy a city garden, which the star author had longed for for years.
But at the beginning of 1529, this good life ended. On February 9, the day before Ash Wednesday, when the Great Lent was to begin, a devastating iconoclasm took place in Basel with the approval of a reformist council majority and under the protection of an armed militia that occupied the market square with rows of cannons.
Erasmus recalls as an eyewitness: "Nothing of the statues was left intact, neither in the churches, nor in the vestibules, nor in the cloisters, nor in the monasteries. What there was of painted pictures was covered with a whitewash of lime; what was inflammable was thrown on the pyre; what was not was smashed piece by piece. Neither value nor art convinced them to spare anything. On Ash Wednesday, the iconoclasts set fire to a pyre of destroyed works of art on Münsterplatz."
As the riots against the followers of the Old Faith intensified, Erasmus fled Basel in April 1529 to the Catholic city of Freiburg. He lived there until 1535, when he returned to Basel, where he died on July 12, 1536.
After Erasmus's death, his considerable legacy became known as an efficient international subsidy system for gifted students needing a scholarship. They flocked to Basel from far-flung corners to enroll at the university.
Today's European Erasmus Foundation builds on this.
*
This reminds me of the saying, "The best way to learn a foreign language is with a long-haired dictionary."
To Erasmus' great gratitude, the jovial publisher provided a further two hundred Rhenish gold pieces in 1526 to buy a city garden, which the star author had longed for for years.
But at the beginning of 1529, this good life ended. On February 9, the day before Ash Wednesday, when the Great Lent was to begin, a devastating iconoclasm took place in Basel with the approval of a reformist council majority and under the protection of an armed militia that occupied the market square with rows of cannons.
Erasmus recalls as an eyewitness: "Nothing of the statues was left intact, neither in the churches, nor in the vestibules, nor in the cloisters, nor in the monasteries. What there was of painted pictures was covered with a whitewash of lime; what was inflammable was thrown on the pyre; what was not was smashed piece by piece. Neither value nor art convinced them to spare anything. On Ash Wednesday, the iconoclasts set fire to a pyre of destroyed works of art on Münsterplatz."
As the riots against the followers of the Old Faith intensified, Erasmus fled Basel in April 1529 to the Catholic city of Freiburg. He lived there until 1535, when he returned to Basel, where he died on July 12, 1536.
After Erasmus's death, his considerable legacy became known as an efficient international subsidy system for gifted students needing a scholarship. They flocked to Basel from far-flung corners to enroll at the university.
Today's European Erasmus Foundation builds on this.
*
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