Radical Erasmus

How radical is Erasmus? His books were condemned in the Papal index, but he was also regarded as unorthodox by the heretics. Luther called him rex amphibologus, a title which might well have amused Erasmus, although he also increasingly regarded Luther as a loose cannon, destroying any realistic chance of reform or peace.

Ever since, historians down to modern times have themselves divided on the question. For Dutch and English radicals of the seventeenth century he is a forerunner, an Enlightenment hero before his time. Yet the slur of fence-sitting and ambivalence has never left him.

This paper addresses Erasmus on the question of heresy, arguing that Erasmus is an instinctive radical who is also adept at the performance of conformism. He is a pacifist while not adhering to irenicism, relishing controversy often with parties who previously were close to him.

Above all, he is sensitive to the complex meanings of heresy, a word which means “choice” in ancient Greek, and is therefore close to a basic term in epistemology, but which became the defining term in the definition of orthodoxy.