Correspondence of Erasmus : Letters 2082 to 2203

This volume contains the surviving correspondence of Erasmus for the first seven months of 1529. For nearly eight years he had lived happily and productively in Basel. In the winter of 1528-9, however, the Swiss version of the Lutheran Reformation triumphed in the city, destroying the liberal-reformist atmosphere Erasmus had found so congenial. Unwilling to live in a place where Catholic doctrine and practice were officially proscribed, Erasmus resettled in the quiet, reliably Catholic university town of Freiburg im Breisgau,

Despite the turmoil of moving, Erasmus managed to complete the new Froben editions of Seneca and St Augustine, both monumental projects that had been underway for years. He also found time to engage in controversy with his conservative Catholic critics, as well as to write a long letter lamenting the execution for heresy of his friend Louis de Berquin at Paris.

Volume 15 of the Collected Works of Erasmus series.

Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536), a Dutch humanist, Catholic priest, and scholar, was one of the most influential Renaissance figures. A professor of divinity and Greek, Erasmus wrote, taught, and travelled, meeting with Europe’s foremost scholars. Erasmus was a prolific author, writing on both ecclesiastic and general human interest subjects.

James M. Estes is professor emeritus of history at Victoria College, University of Toronto.

Alexander Dalzell is professor emeritus of classics at the University of Toronto (Trinity College).