Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus ( ; ; 28 October c. 1466 – 12 July 1536), commonly known in English as Erasmus of Rotterdam or simply Erasmus, was a Dutch humanist, Catholic theologian, and pioneering philologist and educationalist. He was, through his writings and translations, one of the most influential scholars of the Northern Renaissance and a major figure of Western culture.
Erasmus was an important figure in Renaissance classical scholarship who wrote in a spontaneous, copious and correct but natural Latin style. there in late 1488 at age 19 (or 22).
Historian Fr. Aiden Gasquet later wrote: "One thing, however, would seem to be quite clear; he could never have had any vocation for the religious life. His whole subsequent history shows this unmistakably."
But according to one Catholic biographer, Erasmus had a spiritual awakening at the monastery.
Certain abuses in religious orders were among the chief objects of his later calls to reform the Western Church from within, particularly coerced or tricked recruitment of immature boys (the fictionalised account in the Letter to Grunnius calls them "victims of Dominic and Francis and Benedict"): Erasmus felt he had belonged to this class, joining "voluntarily but not freely" and so considered himself, if not morally bound by his vows, certainly legally, socially and honour-bound to keep them, yet to look for his true vocation.
While at Stein, 18-(or 21-)year-old Erasmus formed what he called a "passionate attachment" (), with a fellow canon, Servatius Rogerus, and wrote a series of love letters in which he called Rogerus "half my soul", writing that "it was not for the sake of reward or out of a desire for any favour that I have wooed you both unhappily and relentlessly. What is it then? Why, that you love him who loves you."
This correspondence contrasts with the generally detached and much more restrained attitude he usually showed in his later life, though he had a capacity to form and maintain deep male friendships, such as with More, Colet, and Ammonio.
No mentions or sexual accusations were ever made of Erasmus during his lifetime. His works notably praise moderate sexual desire in marriage between men and women.
He was ordained to the Catholic priesthood either on 25 April 1492, or 25 April 1495, at age 25 (or 28).
There are no extant letters between More and Erasmus from the start of More's period as Lord Chancellor until his resignation (1529–1532), almost to the day. Erasmus wrote several important non-political works under the surprising patronage of Thomas Bolyn: his or Triple Commentary on Psalm 23 (1529); <!-- Editors note: 22? 23? different counting systems from Catholic and Protestant psalters, please don't correct--> his catechism to counter Luther or A Playne and Godly Exposition or Declaration of the Commune Crede (1533) which sold out in three hours at the Frankfurt Book Fair; and or Preparation for Death (1534), which would be one of Erasmus's most popular and most hijacked works.
Fates of friends
thumb|[[William Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury]]
thumb|[[Cuthbert Tunstall, Bishop of Durham]]
In the 1530s, life became more dangerous for Spanish Erasmians when Erasmus's protector, the Inquisitor General Alonso Manrique de Lara fell out of favour with the royal court and lost power within his own organisation to friar-theologians. In 1532 Erasmus's friend, converso Juan de Vergara (Cisneros' Latin secretary who had worked on the Complutensian Polyglot and published Stunica's criticism of Erasmus) was arrested by the Spanish Inquisition and had to be ransomed from them by the humanist Archbishop of Toledo Alonso III Fonseca, also a correspondent of Erasmus', who had previously rescued Ignatius of Loyola from them. -->
There was a generational change in the Catholic hierarchy. In 1530, the reforming French bishop Guillaume Briçonnet died. In 1532 his beloved long-time mentor English Primate Warham died of old age,