Abstract
Erasmus demonstrated a favorable attitude toward learned converts from Judaism, such as Paulus Ricius and Matthew Adrian. He also had contacts with scholars—often Erasmians—of converso origin such as Juan de Vergara, Bernardino de Tovar, Juan de Valdes, and Juan Luis Vives. However, Erasmus smeared a few of his rival scholars as being Jews. Thus, to Cardinal Girolamo Aleandro he ascribed a Jewish mother and stated that his appearance and manner of speaking clearly testified that he is a Jew. Such a reference may be defined as racist according to a definition of racism which emphasizes the idea that the characteristics of the “other” are determined by nature and are unalterable and passed on from one generation to the next.
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Notes
- 1.
Markish, Erasmus and the Jews, 112–141; Rummel, Erasmus, 26.
- 2.
CWE, 5, 181; Ep 701: 35–36: “Malim ego incolumi nouo testament vel totum Vetus aboleri quam Christianorum pacem ob Iudeorum pacem rescindi.” See David H, Price, Johannes Reuchlin and the Campaign to Destroy Jewish Books (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), 3, 7.
- 3.
CWE, 5, 348; Ep 798: 25–27: “Atque vtinam Christianorum ecclesia non tantum tribueret Veteri Testamento! quod, cum pro tempore datum vmbris constet, Christianis litteris pene antefertur.” See Price, Johannes Reuchlin and the Campaign to Destroy Jewish Books, 179.
- 4.
Ep 2447—A letter of March 1531 in which Erasmus says: “Heliam non novi…” See also COE, II, 328; Matthew McLean, The Cosmographia of Sebastian Münster (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007), 13, 39–40, 287.
- 5.
Ep 548, 549 (and note), 1160; COE, III, 158–159; Markish, Erasmus and the Jews, 68; Rummel, “Humanists, Jews and Judaism,” 9–10. On Ricius’ scholarship: Bernd Roling, Aristotelische Naturphilosophie und christliche Kabbalah im Werk des Paulus Ritius (Tübingen: Niemeyer, 2007); Wilhelm Schmidt-Biggemann, Geschichte der christlichen Kabbala: 15. und 16. Jahrhundert (Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: frommann-holzboog Verlag, 2012), 209–259.
- 6.
Hating Jews does not necessarily mean not having contact with them or avoiding meeting them. Richard Wagner (1813–1883), the musician and ultra-anti-Semite, may serve as an example. Milton E. Brener, Richard Wagner and the Jews (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2005), 2, writes: “That he was anti-Semitic is undeniable […] Unlike the apocryphal anti-Semite some of whose best friends were Jews, Wagner sometimes seemed to be surrounded by them. At one point, with two Jewish friends living as part of his household, he laconically told his wife that their home would soon be a synagogue.”
- 7.
Bataillon, Erasmo y España, 177–190; Noreña, Juan Luis Vives, 139–141; Ingram, “The Converso Phenomenon and the Issue of Spanish Identity,” 23; COE, III, 383–387 (Vergara), 338–339 (Tovar); COE, II, 325–326 (Lerma): There was no contact between him and Erasmus though Erasmus was informed about him by Vives.
- 8.
Markish, Erasmus and the Jews, 104.
- 9.
Ibid., 105–106. On Zúñiga: COE, II, 348–349; Alejandro Coroleu, “Anti-Erasmianism in Spain,” in Erika Rummel (ed.), Biblical Humanism in the Age of Erasmus (Leiden: Brill, 2008), 74–79. For Aleandro: COE, I, 28–32. For Caravajal: Bataillon, Erasmo y España, 228, 318–328; COE, I, 275–276.
- 10.
Markish, Erasmus and the Jews, 105.
- 11.
On his ancestry, see COE, I, 28. See also Markish, Erasmus and the Jews, 105.
- 12.
Desiderius Erasmus, Erasmi Opuscula: A Supplement to the Opera Omnia, ed. Wallace K. Ferguson (New York: Springer, 2013; originally printed, 1933), 316–317 (lines 2–20): “Venit his diebus Hieronymus Aleander, vir sua opinione longe maximus, non solum propter linguas, quas eximie callet, siquidem Hebraea illi vernacula est […] Nam Iudaeus natus est, quae gens immodice gloriatur de Abraham vetustissimo se originem ducere. An vero baptistatus sit, nescitur. Certum est eum non esse Pharisaeum, quia non credit resurrectionem mortuorum, quoniam viuit perinde atque cum corpore sit totus periturus, adeo nullum a se prauum affectum abstinens. Vsque ad insaniam iracundus est, quauis occasione furens, impotentis arrogantiae, auaritiae inexplebilis, nefandae libidinis et immodicae, summum gloriae mancipium, quamquam mollior quam qui possit elaborato stilo gloriam parare, et peior quam qui vel conetur in argumento honesto. At, ne nesciamus, cessit felicissime simulata defectio ad Christianos. Nactus enim sic est ansam illustrandi Mosi sui et obseurandi Christi gloriam, quae hoc saeculo eoepit reflorescere, flaccescente superstitione et pestiferis hominum traditiunculis.”
- 13.
Erasmus, Erasmi Opuscula, ed. Ferguson, 323–324 (lines 67–73): “[…] gloriosus Hieronymus Aleander, quem publicus rumor, vultus, lingua, fides plane testantur esse Iudaeum, et Iudaei suum agnoscunt. Est hoc in fatis, vt Christiani patiantur a Iudaeis. Sic Iudaeus incitauit Iulium Pontificem Christiani in exitium orbis. Sic Pfeffercorn Coloniae turbauit orbem Christianum. Sic nunc Aleander cognatus Iudae vincit suos maiores, vel ob tres drachmas proditurus rem Euangelicam.” See also Markish, Erasmus and the Jews, 106.
- 14.
- 15.
COE, I, 28. For Erasmus’ references to Aleandro as a Jew (in addition to n. 16, Chapter 3 and notes 1–2, Chapter 4), see also Ep 2578: 31; Penny-Pinching (Opulentia sordida, 1531; ASD I-3, 680: 148), a colloquy in which Aleandro is referred to by Erasmus as “verpius” (over-circumcised). Likewise in Ep 1717: 33 (verpus). See also Markish, Erasmus and the Jews, 190 n. 186.
- 16.
See n. 9, Chapter 1.
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Ron, N. (2019). Learned Converts and Erasmians. In: Erasmus and the “Other”. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24929-8_12
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