Sitting, resting, thinking and reading!
Aren't those the most important tools of any scholar?
Desiderius Erasmus was one of the greatest intellectuals of the Renaissance,
a period of renewed interest in Greco-Roman antiquity.
As a humanist, he wanted to make religion more human, improve education,
and refine the study of Latin.
Erasmus came to Leuven for two separate study periods.
The first visit was from 1502 to 1504, when Leuven was one of the most important
Northern European cities for the circulation of humanist documents.
During this first stay in Leuven, Erasmus spent time improving his Greek so that he could
study ancient Christian texts in the original language.
In 1504, he made an important discovery in the library of Park Abbey – just outside Leuven.
He found a critical commentary on the New Testament by the Italian humanist
Lorenzo Valla, who had written it in 1499.
Valla critiqued the Latin translation of the New Testament that was approved by the Church.
He found that it differed on some important points from the original Greek text.
Erasmus decided to publish the work again,
but this time with his own commentary.
This angered a lot of people – both in Leuven and elsewhere –
and it was particularly disliked among theologians.
People feared that he was trying to change the word of God according to his own intellectual insights,
and this made him very unpopular in some circles...