The complicated sixteenth century

The sixteenth (16th) century presents a complicated, at times unnerving, and at other times invigorating sense of Church history.

16th century Characters include:

• Ignatius Loyolla
• Charles V
• Erasmus
• St. Thomas More
• Martin Luther

Erasmus

Considered a great figure in the northern Renaisance Humanism movement, Erasmus is complicated. Above all else, he opposed "scholisticism," thus St, Thomas Aquinas, although not by name, attacking, instead, Aquinas' heirs, the Scholastics. He wrote popular but scathing satires and critiques about the Scholastics and priests, and wrote, with both brilliance and borderline irreverance.

While sharing the spirit of reform and humanism that moved Luther and others into the break with the Church, Erasmus rejected the doctrine of

This article, Desiderius Erasmus | Catholic Answers Encyclopedia, offers a critical view of Erasmus and his humanism, which aligned him with Martin Luther in many respects. Erasmus never rejected the Church and, by the end of his life, he had distanced himself from Luther. Erasmus's close friend, (Saint) Thomas More shared 16th century humanistic views, but never strayed from orthodoxy. We may assume that More grounded Erasmus from

Erasmus' influence upon Loyolla

see

• ERASMUS, IGNATIUS LOYOLA, AND ORTHODOXY on JSTOR
• Handbook of a Christian Knight | work by Erasmus | Britannica