In Front | Erasmus the Moderate Reformer

I hold Erasmus of Rotterdam to be Christ’s most bitter enemy . . . and the vilest miscreant that ever disgraced the earth . . . Whenever I pray, I pray for a curse upon Erasmus. 

Martin Luther, who spoke these words, openly despised Erasmus (because of his position on salvation), but also called him “one of the most learned men in the whole world.” So when it came time for Luther’s Bible translation, intended to spread the Gospel of Christ, he naturally turned to “Christ’s most bitter enemy” for the most reliable source for his project. 

Erasmus’ authoritative edition of the Bible’s Greek text, in which he harmonized a number of earlier manuscripts, was a landmark of biblical scholarship. Not only Luther, but another Protestant, William Tyndale, would use it when he translated the Bible into his native tongue. 

Erasmus sympathized with the Reformers and lobbied quietly, through private meetings and channels, to save Luther’s life from people who wanted him dead. Ultimately, though, Erasmus refused to stand against the Roman church. This refusal was another source of Luther’s contempt.

In a letter to the Lutheran Reformer Philip Melanchthon, Erasmus explained his position and distanced himself from the Church of the Reformation: 

I know nothing of your church; at the very least it contains people who will, I fear, overturn the whole system and drive the princes into using force to restrain good men and bad alike. The gospel, the word of God, faith, Christ, and Holy Spirit—these words are always on their lips; look at their lives and they speak quite another language.

But Erasmus’ Greek edition didn’t share his personal neutrality. It fueled a new generation of regional translations, and a renewal of theological dialogue, which ultimately fueled the Reformation itself.

Source of Erasmus quote: Desiderius Erasmus, The Correspondence of Erasmus: Letters 1356 to 1534, 1523 to 1524, transl. by R. A. B. Mynors and Alexander Dalzell, 1992, p. 380.

Source of Luther quote: https://www.ccel.org/ccel/luther/tabletalk.v.xxvii.html. Accessed Nov 10, 2020.