Erasmus needs to leave the monastery in Stein. As Erasmus is a brilliant writer but does not have any diplomas he decides to go to Paris to study at Sorbonne Université.
In Paris Erasmus begins to be known amongst the bigger audience, as he contributes to the latest book of Robert Gauguin, at that time the most important representative of the new literature in Northern Europe.
Paris was very similar to Den Bosch. The philosophy and theology lectures at the College de Montaignu, were a disaster and boring! And life was one of poverty: bad food and there were rats in the kitchen, the hallways and even in the bedrooms.
To make some money Erasmus was tutoring upperclass boys, but at one point he had to give it up since someone cast a bad light on his teaching. Through one of his protegees Erasmus is able to cross the Channel to England a few years later and he will find his calling there.