The ''Handbook of a Christian Knight'' ( lat, Enchiridion militis Christiani), sometimes translated as ''The Manual of a Christian Knight'' or ''The Handbook of the Christian Soldier'', is a work written by Dutch scholar
Erasmus of Rotterdam
Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (; ; English: Erasmus of Rotterdam or Erasmus;''Erasmus'' was his baptismal name, given after St. Erasmus of Formiae. ''Desiderius'' was an adopted additional name, which he used from 1496. The ''Roterodamus'' w ...
in 1501, and was first published in English in 1533 by
William Tyndale
William Tyndale (; sometimes spelled ''Tynsdale'', ''Tindall'', ''Tindill'', ''Tyndall''; – ) was an English biblical scholar and linguist who became a leading figure in the Protestant Reformation in the years leading up to his execu ...
.
During a stay in
Tournehem, a castle near
Saint-Omer
Saint-Omer (; vls, Sint-Omaars) is a commune and sub-prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais department in France.
It is west-northwest of Lille on the railway to Calais, and is located in the Artois province. The town is named after Saint Audoma ...
in the north of modern-day France, Erasmus encountered an uncivilized, yet friendly
soldier
A soldier is a person who is a member of an army. A soldier can be a conscripted or volunteer enlisted person, a non-commissioned officer, or an officer.
Etymology
The word ''soldier'' derives from the Middle English word , from Old French ...
who was an acquaintance of
Battus, Erasmus' close friend. On the request of the soldier's pious wife, who felt slighted by her husband's behaviour, Battus asked Erasmus to write a text which would convince the soldier of the necessity of mending his ways, which he did. The resulting work was eventually re-drafted by Erasmus and expanded into the ''Enchiridion militis Christiani''. The ''Enchiridion'' is an appeal on Christians to act in accordance with the Christian faith rather than merely performing the necessary rites. It became one of Erasmus' most influential works.
''Enchiridion'' makes reference to the
Pauline "spiritual armor" metaphor, which in the 16th century only gained in popularity as a result of Erasmus' work. Interpreting the famous German artwork ''
Knight, Death and Devil'' scholars believe the image of the knight (shown attired in physical armor) can be interpreted from an Erasmian viewpoint to represent the knight who is able to vanquish his enemies by ignoring them "in his pursuit of Christian virtue".
See also
Online Library of Liberty, Full text available online in HTML and PDF
Footnotes
Bibliography
* J. Huizinga, ''Erasmus''. Haarlem 1924 (Dutch, reprint of 1947)
1503 books
16th-century Christian texts
Books by Desiderius Erasmus
Chivalry
16th-century Latin books
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