In the footsteps of Erasmus - Deventer

Fortunately Erasmus experienced that things could be quite different. When his mother takes him and his older brother to a far away center of culture, the concept of 'education' gets a completely different meaning for Erasmus.

Deventer, as one of the Hanseatic cities, was connected with many other cities in northern Europe. It was a city where new ideas were shaped, in a new way of living. Deventer was also the city where the new Italian Language and literature appeared, via the northern city of Groningen. It was the city where children were educated for the very first time. Erasmus ended up at a school where there was room for a more passionate way of teaching Latin.

After 5 years in Deventer, in which first his father and later his mother passed away, Erasmus and his brother move back to Gouda and eventually are sent to a school in Den Bosch.

This only feeds the resentment in Erasmus: the resentment for everything average and inferior, the resentment against the monks and their poor lifes, the resentment against the barbaric ignorance at school, the resentment against the poverty of mind that seems omnipresent.
What bothers Erasmus most is that superstition and injustice are represented in the educational system in which there seems to be only room for a deplorable level of knowledge. The ignorance that is the result, does not contribute in any way to a healthy education that lifts up people above themselves.

After this experience in the monastery in Den Bosch, the return to the monastery of Stein - close to Gouda - is a very attractive alternative. In this monastery at least there were books and study facilities. Erasmus enjoys the company of like minded friends and fellow monks, who share the same interest as he does: literature. A view on the beautiful world that once was, the world of literature, poetry and Latin.

In Stein Erasmus flourishes but dies in a way as well. He writes a lot of personal letters to his fellow monk Servaas Rogier.
Were these letters stylistic exercises or were they love letters? One thing is clear: Erasmus gets rejected and will never again show his vulnerability in his writing as much as he did during the time he stayed in Stein. He will proclaim his opinion, he will conquer the highest powers and he will make himself vulnerable by defending his vision on religion, politics and society. But never again will he show his personal feelings.