Desiderius Erasmus
Desiderius Erasmus is considered one of the greatest minds in history; he was a humanist scholar, a theologian, a writer, a teacher, and, as he put it, "a citizen of the world." His reputation during his lifetime reached the loftiest heights and sunk to unexpected lows during the Lutheran crisis. His published texts and numerous letters figure among the most seminal works of Western culture. As the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy puts it, Erasmus was "the most famous and...