1466 was the year Desiderius Erasmus was born in Rotterdam, Holland during the Northern Renaissance. Later in Erasmus’ life he wrote a book entitled The Praise of Folly, where four contradicting characters gruesomely illustrate the reality of life during the Northern Renaissance. The invention of the Printing Press, created in 1440 by Johannes Gutenberg, brought a rise of education and literacy rates, and the spread of Erasmus’ book. The people began to question and challenge a great deal of beliefs after the middles ages brought death and despair. The people of the Renaissance incorporated aspects of classical western civilizations, due to their past successes. Desiderius Erasmus’ schooling and traveling brought him knowledge about the classics, …show more content…
Erasmus’ humanist passion and drive to replenish Christianity made him a man of his time. however, his urge of temperance and sympathy proved him to be ahead of his time (129). The amount of dedication Erasmus gave to changes within the church left a true impact both in his time and in future eras. He was able to correct the corruption of the church and have the followers of the church personalize their religion and relationship with God. Further, the liberal tradition of European culture was partially sculpted by Erasmus. Erasmus’ choice to translate and publish the Bible from Latin into Greek, had a later influence on Dutch translations. Erasmus was open to change within the church and his drive for the truth within lead to liberal traditions in Europe. After the book was published the church’s only option was to use liberal judgement if they wanted to keep their followers. Then, Erasmus sparked inspiration within other individuals by rewriting the New testament in Greek. The church had control over what information of the Bible was told to their followers because it was not translated into their language. However, when it was rendered into Greek, they were then able to create their own opinions about the religion and the traditions of the church. Separately, Erasmus inspired Martin Luther and William Tyndale. Both in which ended up translating the bible into German and English. Further, “Erasmus expressed confidence in the potential of human beings for self-improvement, a corollary of his acceptance of free will. He believed in the preponderance of nurture over nature, given the power of the will.” Erasmus had a new belief that people had the power to decide whether they were going to to heaven or hell. People were and are able to make their own opinions about religion because of the step Erasmus took to allow them to read the bible