Collected Works of Erasmus

Erasmus' humanistic approach to theology and biblical exegesis presented a shocking challenge to the theologians at the University of Paris, which had been dominated by scholastic theology for centuries. He engaged in a decade-long controversy over his theological, exegetical, and ethical positions with the Theological Faculty, and especially with their director, Noël Béda. This volume—which translates this crucial quarrel from Latin for the first time—details the formal, wide-ranging attack on Erasmus' theories printed by the faculty in 1531, along with his two replies. Erasmus published his first rebuttal in the spring of 1532, and that fall issued a second edition with substantial revisions and lengthy additions to his original text. With an extensive introduction and detailed commentary by Clarence H. Miller and James K. Farge, this volume highlights the differences between the humanist and scholastic views of genuine theology more fully and extensively than most of Erasmus' other polemical works. Volume 82 of the Collected Works of Erasmus series.