{"id":212,"date":"2020-06-05T22:28:55","date_gmt":"2020-06-05T22:28:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/histonaut.com\/?p=212"},"modified":"2020-06-05T22:32:23","modified_gmt":"2020-06-05T22:32:23","slug":"desiderius-erasmus-adages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/histonaut.com\/index.php\/2020\/06\/05\/desiderius-erasmus-adages\/","title":{"rendered":"Desiderius Erasmus, Adages"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Desiderius Erasmus c.1520<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In his work Adages<\/em> (1515) the famous Dutch humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam explains the meaning of numerous Greek and Latin proverbs using the examples taken from his own times. These comments provide the Christian moralist with an excellent opportunity to criticize the sins and exactions of secular and clerical authorities of the 16th<\/sup> century Europe. In his interpretation an ancient saying \u201cA mortuo tributum exigere<\/em>\u201d (i.e. to require payment from the dead) becomes an occasion to blame limitless greed of feudal rulers and shameless cupidity of Catholic clergy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Erasmus\u2019s\nindignation and wrath against powerful oppressors are in striking contrast with\nhis sympathy and compassion to the wretched and poor, to simple peasants and\nlaborers. Obviously, he criticizes social flaws from the positions of Christian\nmoral. For instance, speaking about feudal rulers Erasmus blames not only their\navidity but their sinful arrogance as well \u2013 \u201cNow the great lords arrogate\neverything to themselves, as if they alone were men or rather gods\u201d.  He qualifies as extortion \u201call these tithes\nand taxes\u201d which \u201cgnaw away the livelihood of the poor\u201d. In his protest against\nfeudal oppression Erasmus goes even farther calling the rulers and their agents\n\u201cthese rascally harpies\u201d and the nobles for him are \u201crather the bandits\u201d. He is\ndeeply outraged by \u201cthe greed of these people\u201d which outstrips the power of\nwords\u201d and knows \u201cno measure and no limit\u201d. The great humanist is revolted by\nthe feudal wars which suck \u201cthe very marrow out of the bones of the unhappy\npopulation\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            But Erasmus\u2019s\nindignation reaches its climax when he describes shameful practices of Catholic\nclergy violating the Biblical precepts. \u201cThey harass the miserable peasantry\u201c\nby their tithes, they baptize, marry, confess, consecrate, say religious\nservices or bury only for money, nothing is free of charge. Moreover, remissions\nof sins called indulgences are freely sold to everyone ready to pay. But the\nworst thing is that corrupted Church does not fulfill \u201cthe real duty of\npriesthood, that of teaching the people\u201d. Erasmus uses the authority of the\nBible to demonstrate how shameful for the clergy is to require payment for the\nright of burial from every Christian. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            In\nother words, Erasmus\u2019s comments to this ancient proverb can be easily\nconsidered as a passionate anti-feudal and anticlerical declaration which is\nonly missing a call to subversion of existing social order. Clearly formulated\ncriticism of feudal oppression contributed to further development of humanist\nideas of liberty and equality which became the banner of the new class of\nbourgeoisie in its struggle for influence and power. From this point of view\nErasmus can be considered as a predecessor of French Enlightenment which prepared\nthe soil for the final fall of Absolutism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            The great humanist strongly blames\nCatholic clergy for its deviation from Biblical commandments. He considers the\nBible as the main source of moral and religious authority. The same point of\nview was adopted later by the leaders of Protestantism.  Erasmus\u2019s opposition to the Catholic Church\ncorruption was also shared by the adepts of Protestantism. In such a way his angry\narguments against the exactions of Catholic priests helped to found a new\nreligious movement based on purified Christian principles and values.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            In\nconclusion, we can say that Erasmus of Rotterdam was an audacious opponent of\nthe most revolting flaws of feudalism and Catholicism. His passionate criticism\ncan be considered as a valuable historical testimony on the one hand and as an\nimportant contribution to the development of the free European thinking on the\nother. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bibliography:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mann Phillips, Margaret, Erasmus on his times: a shortened version of the “Adages” of\nErasmus<\/em>, Cambridge University press, 1967. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Desiderius Erasmus c.1520 In his work Adages (1515) the famous Dutch humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam explains the meaning of numerous Greek and Latin proverbs using the examples taken from his own times. These comments provide the Christian moralist with an excellent opportunity to criticize the sins and exactions of secular and clerical authorities of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":213,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/histonaut.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/desiderius-erasmus.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9td7q-3q","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/histonaut.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/histonaut.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/histonaut.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/histonaut.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/histonaut.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/histonaut.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":216,"href":"https:\/\/histonaut.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212\/revisions\/216"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/histonaut.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/histonaut.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/histonaut.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/histonaut.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}