12. The Complaint of Peace (1521) by Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536)



Portrait of Erasmus by the German-Swiss painter Hans Holbein the Younger (c.1497-1543), in the collection of the National Gallery. Thanks to Erasmus’ recommendation, Holbein visited England where he was appointed King’s Painter under Henry VIII.   Image credit: Wikipedia

Born in Rotterdam, Erasmus was a Dutch philosopher and Catholic theologian who is considered to be one of the greatest scholars of his time. He prepared important new Latin and Greek editions of the New Testament which influenced thinkers of the Protestant Reformation. By the time his Complaint of Peace was published, originally written in Latin, he had produced satirical works such as In Praise of Folly (1509). His Julius Excluded from Heaven (1514) was a satire of Pope Julius II whom Erasmus attacked for leading armies in full armour. The Querela Pacis, to give the work its Latin title, portrays, through the character of Peace, a world plagued not only by wars but by strife and dissension in all areas of life:    


 

A 1641 edition of the Querela Pacis. Image credit: Internet archive. From the collection of the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Den Haag

‘God made man unarmed. But anger and revenge have mended the work of God, and furnished his hands with weapons invented in hell. Christians attack christians with engines of destruction, fabricated by the devil, A cannon! a mortar! no human being could have devised them originally; they must have been suggested by the evil one. Nature, indeed, has armed lions with teeth and claws, and bulls with horns; but whoever saw them go in bodies to use their arms for mutual destruction? What man ever saw so small a number as even ten lions congregated to fight ten bulls, and drawn up in battle array? But how often have twenty thousand christians met an equal number on the same plain, all prepared to shoot each other, through the heart, or to plunge the sword or bayonet through each other's bowels. So little account do they make of hurting their brethren, that they have not the smallest scruple to spill every drop of blood in their bodies. Beasts of the forest; your contests are at least excusable, and sometimes amiable; ye fight only when driven to madness by hunger, or to defend your young ones; but as for those who call themselves your lords, (men and christians) the faintest shadow of an affront is sufficient to involve them in all the horrors of premeditated war.’



Logo of the Erasmus Programme showing the programme's namesake of Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam

The name of Erasmus lives on in the Erasmus programme, created in 1986 to encourage student exchanges. Along with the allusion to this great European scholar the name stands for ‘European Community Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students’. Over nine million young people have participated. Britain is no longer a member of the scheme.

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