Theological Origins of Modernity

humanism and the apotheosis of man 95
clined them all, like Petrarch more concerned with his independence than
wealth or prestige. In Florence he was so involved with his work that he
seems not to have met or even known of Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael,
or Machiavelli, who were resident in the city at the time. 83
Aft er the accession of Henry VIII, Erasmus returned to England in
hopes of securing a stipend that would allow him to devote himself to
his literary activities. As he was leaving Italy, he wrote his famous satire
In Praise of Folly, a biting critique of monasticism as well as ecclesiastical
and political institutions. During this stay in England, he lived chiefl y
in Cambridge and served as professor of Divinity and Greek. During
this period he worked on his Greek edition of the New Testament (1516),
which in its own way was as important for the Reformation as Luther’s 95
Th eses (1517). 84
By 1514 Erasmus stood at the pinnacle of his success and was called the
prince of the humanists. Th e widespread admiration for his work was the
result of his success at combining humanitas and pietas into a vital Christian
humanism. 85 He had enemies among the clerics and the monks, but
he also had a great deal of infl uence at the highest levels. In 1515 he was
appointed councilor to Prince Charles, who in the following year became
King of Spain and then in 1519 emperor Charles V. Erasmus moved to Louvain
to be close to the royal court in Brussels and wrote Th e Education of a
Christian Prince (1516) in order to prepare Charles for his new responsibilities.
In 1519 his edition of St. Jerome appeared, as did the fi rst edition of his
Colloquies, which is usually regarded as his masterpiece.
Th e Reformation had a profound eff ect on Erasmus and his role in European
political and intellectual life. With the growing agitation against
the church, life at Louvain became increasingly diffi cult for Erasmus because
of the suspicion that he was a secret supporter of Luther. As a result,
he moved to Basel in 1521, where he remained until 1529, when he moved to
Freiburg in Breisgau, where he died in 1536.
Erasmus, like Colet and many other northern humanists, was committed
to a religion of interior conversion, pacifi sm, and moral ideals. 86 He
rejected scholasticism as well as nominalism. In his Paraphrases he sought
to minimize the role of Christ as priest and sacrifi cial victim and turned
instead to what he called the philosophia Christi, the philosophy of Christ,
arguing for the centrality of inner moral conversion. He believed that interior
piety rather than creedal affi rmation was the core of true religion. In
this respect he combined elements of the humanist tradition with the simplicity
and humility of the devotio moderna, tempering the Promethean