Desiderius Erasmus

Desiderius Erasmus was the illegitimate son of a Dutch priest who escaped his monastery for scholarship and became the most famous man of letters in Europe, corresponding with kings and popes, editing the Greek New Testament, and refusing every offer of a fixed post. The Praise of Folly, written, he said, in a few days at Thomas More’s house in 1509 and dedicated to him, has Folly praise herself and, in passing, expose the whole of Christendom. He wanted the Church reformed from within, and when Luther split it he refused to follow, and was attacked by both sides. Luther said he laid the egg that Luther hatched.