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"Men should become familiar with reading classical authors to be happier and more just." With quotes like these we are going to follow the humanist footprint of Erasmus of Rotterdam (Rotterdam 1466- Basel 1536), philosopher and theologian of the Augustinian order, who was a professor at Cambridge.
He received his doctorate in Bologna. He met Aldo Manucio and the editor Froben of Basel. He was a great scholar and follower of the classics. He explained: "I have guides to follow. In poetry, Maron, Horace, Nason, Juvenal, Martial, Claudianus, Persius, Lucanus, Tibullus and Propertius. In prose, Tullius, Quintilian, Sallust and Terence. For elegance, Lorenzo Valla ".
He is known in a special way for his book The Praise of Madness, with a burlesque tone, a satire on the follies of men where the goddess of madness scathingly criticizes the customs of the time, especially the clergy. Some edition is titled In Praise of Stupidity.
The book serves to channel the conscious discredit and institutional pomp of Christianity. He states that "sanity is to madness as reason is to passion." This book had great influence on literature and moralists. It was illustrated by great artists such as Holbein the Younger. It is dedicated to Thomas More.
He intended to create a "Christian philosophy" based on reason, which encompassed ethics, logic, and metaphysics, while proposing a profound reform of the clergy and a renewal of the Church based on the practice of human virtues, drinking from the original sources such as the Word of God and the Fathers of the Church.
Erasmus prepared the Protestant Reformation with his ideas. But he did not agree with Luther. He did not adhere to the Protestant Reformation and fought it with his Diatribe on Free Will.
1. Regarding culture, he believes that any culture that values itself should have an educational system. He defends culture as the only tool against barbarism and peace as the only objective that must be shared by an advanced society.
2. For Erasmus, the practice of religion must be illuminated by the original sources: the Word of God and the Fathers of the Church.
3. All war is execrable because all war is a denial of the message of Christ. If there is no just war there can be no just "holy war." Christianity spread by word, not by force and war. If we want to bring the Turks to the religion of Christ, let us first be Christians ourselves.
4. He was a defender of free will, tolerance, reading the classics and the United States of Europe and constant study.
5. He was the first to promote a United States of Europe under the sign of common civilization and culture, a universal culture, exemplary for its creativity.
It is a concept closely linked to that of the Renaissance and covers four meanings:
Renaissanceists were Machiavelli, Thomas More, Erasmus of Rotterdam, Francisco Suárez, Montaigne, Paracelsus, Servetus, Vesalius, Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo. It was a breath of fresh air for the history of thought.
In the Renaissance the concepts of man, artist, literary and pictorial themes, existential concerns and sense of the body evolved. The man was before "misery of the human condition" and becomes a "role model." The characters in the paintings were rarely identifiable.
In the Renaissance, well-known figures, portraits and self-portraits appear. Gabriele d'Annunzio's comment on Giorgione is interesting in this regard:
"His name is not inscribed in any work and many do not recognize any true work of his. However, all Venetian art seems illuminated by his revelation."
The literature dealt with the lives of saints (hagiographies) and became biographies and autobiographies. The fundamental concern in the Middle Ages was salvation, eternity and heavenly glory. The Renaissance includes fame, posterity and earthly glory.
The body from being "despicable prison of the soul" becomes something that cannot be renounced. The absolute truth that man seeks becomes that possible error is inherent to man.
