ERA 
lie made a number of anatomical difcoveries, which have 
been confirmed by modern obfervations. He was an ene¬ 
my to blood-letting ; and in medical practice he preferred 
fimples of the milder kind, and taken from the vegetable 
kingdom. He was an enemy to empiricifm, and held, 
that a diforder could not be cured without a knowledge 
of its caufe. Erafifixatus wrote a number of books, all 
which have peridied ; but many of his opinions are re¬ 
corded by Galen and Caelius. He founded a fe£t which 
was fubfifting in the time of Galen. 
ERAS'MUS, [from Gr. amiable; lovely.] 
A proper name of men. 
ERAS'MUS (Defiderius), a perfon eminent for 
learning, born at Rotterdam in 1467. He was fent to 
fchool at Deventer when nine years of age, and foon ex¬ 
hibited quick parts, and particularly that drength of me¬ 
mory which is fo efiential to a fcholar. He was left an 
orphan in the care of three guardians, who agreed to 
bring him up to a religious life, in order the more eafily 
to embezzle his fmall patrimony. In conformity with 
the pedantic tade then prevailing among men of letters, 
of a (Turning names of Greek or Latin etymology, he tranf- 
lated his family name of Gerard, fignifying amiable, into 
the equivalent ones of Defiderius in Latin, and Erafmus in 
Greek. He ufed both of thefe ; but the latter became 
his perpetual appellation. His conftitution was delicate, 
and ill fuited to monadic auderities, nor were his tades 
and fentiments better accommodated to the monkidt pro- 
feflion; he therefore, with permidion of his fuperiors, 
accepted, in his twenty-third year, an invitation to refide 
with the archbifhop of Cambray. Thence he went to 
Paris, and became a dudent in the college of Montaigne. 
For his fupport he gave private lectures ; but he pad’ed 
fome years of his life in that penury which dinnilated him 
to great exertions, and gave him thofe habits of indudry 
which raided him to eminence. Among his pupils at 
Paris were fome Engliflimen, whofe liberality induced him 
to vifit their country. He was in England in 1497, where 
he contracted many valuable frienddiips. The works by 
which he was fird known were of the philological kind, 
calculated to adid dudents in the learned languages. Of 
thefe were his De Copia Verborum & Rerum, De Ratione Con- 
fcribendi Epifiolas, and many others. In 1503, he printed 
at Louvain fome works of the theological kind, particu¬ 
larly his Enchiridon Militis Chrifliani, a kind of manual of 
practical religion, written with a manly and rational fpirit, 
much fuperior to the punctilious devotion of the cloider. 
It underwent fome cenfure from the monks, but was much 
read, and was tranfiated into feveral modern languages. 
About this time too, he prefixed to a trandation of feveral 
dialogues of Lucian, a dedication, in which he freely ex- 
pofed the legendary fables of the early Chridians. In his 
fortieth year he vilited Italy, took his doctor’s degree at 
Turin, and daid about a year at Bologna ; thence he went 
to Venice, and printed an improved edition of his Adagies; 
he fpent the winter of 1508 at Padua, and went to Rome 
the year following. He received a preding invitation to 
England from Henry VIII. who had contracted a friend- 
d)ip for him while prince. He accepted the invitation, 
and came over at the beginning of 1510, and was in great 
favour with the king and Wolfey. He fird lodged with 
fir Thomas More, and amufed himfelf with writing his 
Moria Encomium ; or, Praife of Folly : a facetious and fa- 
tirical compofition, which became popular. At the re- 
qued of Fifher bidiop of Rocheder, chancellor of Cam¬ 
bridge, Erafmus went to that univerfity, and read leCtures 
in Greek and divinity. A living was conferred upon him, 
and he received prefents from many of his patrons ; but, 
upon the whole, his expectations in this kingdom were 
not gratified. Hereturned to the Low Countries in 1514, 
and viiiting the court of the archduke Charles (afterwards 
Charles V.), was created nominal counfellor to that 
prince, with a dipend. He paid a vifit to the town of 
Bafil, where he formed that intimacy witli the learned 
family of Amberbach, and with the printer Froben, 
ERA 891 
which induced him to fpend his latter days in that place. 
In 1516, his New Tedament, in Greek and Latin, with 
notes, was publidied at Bafil, and was received with great 
avidity by all who were defir.ous of dudying theology in 
its original and genuine fources. It was dedicated to 
pope Leo X. His edition of St. Jerom alfo appeared 
this year, dedicated to his excellent and generous patron 
archbiihop Warham. An ofter was made to him on the 
part of Francis I. to fettle in France ; but his connections 
with Charles V. induced him to decline it. Among the 
meritorious fentiments of Erafmus may be reckoned his 
perpetual oppofition to war, which he thought fcarcely 
lawful to a Chridian. He has dwelt upon this topic in 
many of his works, efpecially in his eloquent Querela Pads , 
printed in 1517. 
The commencement of the reformation under Luther 
was the mod trying circumdance in the life of Erafmus. 
No man had done fo much as he to^diferedit the frauds 
and fuperditionsof popery, and to place Chridianity upon 
its proper foundation. The monks were fo fenlible of 
this, that they were ufed to fay, “ Erafmus laid the egg, 
and Luther hatched it.” Yet there were feveral reafons 
which prevented him from joining the reformers. He was 
likewife offended with the rtidenefs, vulgarity, and con¬ 
tempt of polite literature, which charaCferiled fome of the 
clafs. Yet he did enough to merit the eternal gratitude 
of all candid friends to light and liberty, by the example 
he never ceafed to give of free enquiry, and the perpetual 
war he waged againd perfecution, ignorance, and bigotry. 
For fome years Erafmus treated Luther with great de¬ 
ference, and in his letters to various perfons defended his 
character and applauded his intentions. In procefs of 
time, however, Erafmus, irritated at fome attacks upon 
him by the zealous reformers, took his part among the 
defenders of the church of Rome. 
In 1522, he publidied the mod popular of his works, 
his Colloquies, which, though apparently intended for the 
indruCtion of youth in the Latin language, and commenc¬ 
ing with dialogues of great fimplicity, abound in folid 
and liberal fentiments on the mod important topics, and 
attack the prevalent fuperditions with ferious argument 
and humorous farcafm. After having been long urged 
by his catholic friends and patrons to W'rite againd Lu¬ 
ther, he at length, with manifed unwillingnefs, undertook 
the talk, and in 1524 publidied his treatife De Libero Ar- 
bitrio. As in this work he profeffedly attacked only Lu¬ 
ther’s opinion concerning prededination, it might be fup- 
pofed that he did not mean to condemn his dilfent from 
the church of Rome in other points. In 1528, he pub¬ 
lidied his dialogue, entitled Ciceronianus, one of the mod 
lively and ingenious of his compofitions. In the fame year 
he alfo publidied his learned treatife De. ReEia Latini Gra- 
dque Sermonis Pronuntiatione ; and thus feems to have been 
defirous of diverting his mind from the dangerous dif- 
putes of theology. He continued his learned labours 
without intermillion, though under the preflure of many 
infirmities; and clofely attended the printing of his trea¬ 
tife, Ecclefafes; or, On the Manner of Preaching. At 
this time there was an intention at Rome to add Erafmus 
to the college of cardinals; but it was now too late to 
burthen him with fo fplendid a promotion. His health 
had rapidly declined ; a dyfentery exhauded his remain¬ 
ing firength ; and he calmly expired on July 12, 1536, at 
the age of fixty-nine, in the arms of his deared friends, 
who were protedants, and after having preferred pious. 
addredes to God and Chrid, to all the dying ceremonials 
enjoined by the Romifh ritual. His body was interred 
with great funeral folemnity in the cathedral church of 
Bafil, where his tomb is dill to be feen. His works were 
collecled and publidied by Froben, in nine volumes folio, 
ERAS'MUS, a mountain of the idund Ceylon : thirty 
miles north-wed of Trincomalee. 
ERAS'TI ANS, J. a religious faftion, which arofe in 
England during the time of the civil wars in 1647, thus, 
called from their leader Thomas Eraftus, whofe didin- 
1 guilhing 
