(born Oct. 27, 1469, Rotterdam, Holland—died July 12, 1536, Basel, Switz.

)
Dutch priest and humanist, considered the greatest European scholar of the 16th
century. The illegitimate son of a priest and a physician's daughter, he entered a
monastery and was ordained a priest in 1492. He studied at the University of
Paris and traveled throughout Europe, coming under the influence of St. Thomas
More and John Colet. The book that first made him famous was the Adagia
(1500, 1508), an annotated collection of Greek and Latin proverbs. He became
noted for his editions of Classical authors, Church Fathers, and the New
Testament as well as for his own works, including Handbook of a Christian
Knight (1503) and Praise of Folly (1509). Using the philological methods
pioneered by Italian humanists, he helped lay the groundwork for the historical-
critical study of the past. By criticizing ecclesiastical abuses, he encouraged the
growing urge for reform, which found expression both in the Protestant
Reformation and in the Catholic Counter-Reformation. Though he saw much to
admire in Martin Luther, he came under pressure to attack him; he took an
independent stance, rejecting both Luther's doctrine of predestination and the
powers claimed for the papacy