Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- INTRODUCTION
- 1 THE STATE OF LAY DEVOTION IN THE LATE MIDDLE AGES
- 2 ERASMUS AS CRITIC OF LATE MEDIEVAL PIETY
- 3 EARLY REFORMERS AND THE QUESTION OF IDOLATRY
- 4 ICONOCLASM, REVOLUTION, AND THE REFORMATION IN SWITZERLAND AND GENEVA, 1527–1536
- 5 HUMANISM AND REFORM IN FRANCE: THE SEEDS OF CALVINISM
- 6 JOHN CALVIN'S ATTACK ON IDOLATRY
- 7 CALVIN AGAINST THE NICODEMITES
- 8 FROM ICONOCLASM TO REVOLUTION: THE POLITICAL DIMENSIONS OF THE WAR AGAINST IDOLATRY
- CONCLUSION
- Index
2 - ERASMUS AS CRITIC OF LATE MEDIEVAL PIETY
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- INTRODUCTION
- 1 THE STATE OF LAY DEVOTION IN THE LATE MIDDLE AGES
- 2 ERASMUS AS CRITIC OF LATE MEDIEVAL PIETY
- 3 EARLY REFORMERS AND THE QUESTION OF IDOLATRY
- 4 ICONOCLASM, REVOLUTION, AND THE REFORMATION IN SWITZERLAND AND GENEVA, 1527–1536
- 5 HUMANISM AND REFORM IN FRANCE: THE SEEDS OF CALVINISM
- 6 JOHN CALVIN'S ATTACK ON IDOLATRY
- 7 CALVIN AGAINST THE NICODEMITES
- 8 FROM ICONOCLASM TO REVOLUTION: THE POLITICAL DIMENSIONS OF THE WAR AGAINST IDOLATRY
- CONCLUSION
- Index
Summary
When the city of Basel erupted into a violent iconoclastic riot in February 1529, Erasmus remarked in one of his letters: “I am greatly surprised that the images performed no miracle to save themselves; formerly the saints worked frequent prodigies for much smaller offenses.” Unlike the pilgrims at Tallard, the great humanist had difficulty believing in the power of images. In fact, few men in Europe had done as much to discredit the materialism of medieval piety as had Erasmus. When Guillaume Farel rejected everything his childhood pilgrimage stood for, his decision was formed, to a large extent, by ideas that can be traced directly to Erasmus.
One of the most hackneyed aphorisms concerning the relationship between humanism and the Reformation is that which blames Erasmus for laying the egg that Luther hatched. Risking all the dangers that attend the stretching of metaphors, I think it is possible to say that Erasmus laid more than one egg; and that those hatched in succession by Karlstadt, Zwingli, Farel, and Calvin resembled their parent more closely in some respects than Luther's ever did.
Regarding the issue of worship, or piety, a clear line can be traced between Erasmus and the Reformed tradition. Though Erasmus, the sardonic pacifist, could not stomach the “virulence” of Protestant iconoclasts, he was at heart in agreement with some of their basic assumptions regarding worship.
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- Chapter
- Information
- War against the IdolsThe Reformation of Worship from Erasmus to Calvin, pp. 28 - 53Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1986