Portrait of Desiderius Erasmus

Desiderius Erasmus

1466 – 1536

Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536) was a Christian, humanist scholar; the first editor of the New Testament; a classicist; and a leading voice in the theological debates of the early Reformation in northern Europe. He contended with the reformer Martin Luther (1483-1546), emphasizing the importance of free will in human actions against Luther’s belief in the absolute bondage of the will to sin.

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