Desiderius Erasmus

Abstract Great Dutch humanist, scholar, and priest, Desiderius Erasmus (1459–1536) applied new philological methods to biblical texts, producing the Novum Instrumentum in 1516, an annotated Greek text of the New Testament with a revision of the Vulgate (the standard Latin translation by St Jerome). Erasmus diligently revised this work, Wnding many supporters in the Church, and many opponents, notably Gregory Martin, later translator of the Rheims New Testament (1582). Moreover, contributing to the great controversy over Luther’s doctrine of predestination, Erasmus aYrmed the freedom of the will in De libero arbitrio (On Free Will, 1524) and Hyperaspistes (1526). He wrote schoolbooks for Europe and urged reform of the clergy and of church practices (see fiction).