Note 86 — Chapter I · The Early Life of Jean de Dinteville

Desiderius Erasmus was born at Rotterdam in 1467. Famous alike for profound learning and biting wit, no one, perhaps, exercised greater influence than he in preparing the way for the Reformation. Like many of the humanists of his time, especially those of France, he was not, however, prepared to go to the extreme length of secession from Rome, and was therefore blamed by the Lutherans, rather unjustly perhaps, for weakness and half-heartedness. His relations with England, especially with Warham and More, and his portraits by Holbein, are too well known to need more than a passing mention here. It was owing to his introduction that Holbein first came to England, and was received into the house of Sir Thomas More. Erasmus died at Basle in 1536.