🧵 View Thread
🧵 Thread (7 tweets)
TIL about Erasmus – (probably well known to Europeans, there's a student exchange named after him) – one of the most prolific men of letters in the 1500s, corresponding with literally hundreds of people. he was born out of wedlock, both of his parents died in the plague... https://t.co/msUcui2O6H
he became a catholic priest like his father, studied at monastic schools, was probably gay, was offered the post of secretary to a Bishop on account of his skill in Latin and his reputation as a man of letters... studied at the university of Paris, taught at Oxford...
he urged internal reform of the Catholic Church, was good friends with Thomas More (Utopia), lauded as "Prince of the Humanists", famously argued with Martin Luther on the subject of free will, travelled widely across Europe, died of dysentery at 69
the man wrote *thousands* of letters, getting replies from Pope Adrian VI, Pope Leo X, Henry VIII... a bastard child who was orphaned at 17! https://t.co/S1dEACYQfK
Erasmus worked at Aldus’s print shop and they became good friends https://t.co/RxddrvHqod
