Erasmus from Rotterdam

Do you know that the Erasmus+ programme is named after Erasmus of Rotterdam? Erasmus is considered one of the greatest figures of European humanism: he travelled throughout Europe, trying to assert his dream of a united humanity from common cultural roots. 

He was a philosopher and christian scholar. In 1506 he graduated as Doctor of Divinity at the University of Turin. You can still find the commemorative plaque.

In his most famous work, L’Elogio della Follia, the criticisms to the Catholic Church, then taken up by the Lutherans, are contained.
The imaginary protagonist is Madness that exposes all the lies and falsehoods through which men hide the evil of the world. Through satire and sarcasm Erasmus shows the moral decadence of the society of his time, starting with the corruption and immorality of the clergy, the theological and scholastic presumption and the conviction that some outward signs of religiosity are sufficient to earn Paradise.

For Erasmus violence and oppression must always be opposed to the weapon of 'The discursive reason”: peace is not only the absence of war, but also the exercise of moral virtue.

Erasmus proposed to create a European unity capable of ensuring peace, a real application of the humanistic and Christian spirit.