Erasmo de Róterdam (1528) Manual del caballero cristiano

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".

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 {{christianity-book-stub

See also

Footnotes

Bibliography