Erasmus of Rotterdam and Diego López de Zúñiga: a long and harsh polemic

Abstract

The controversy which engaged Erasmus of Rotterdam and Diego López de Zúñiga was one of the longest and harshest. What had been at the onset a philological controversy stemming from the Latin version of the New Testament made by Erasmus rapidly evolved into a bitter dispute fought on theological and moral grounds. The ultimate cause of the controversy pertained to Erasmus’s adoption of the philological methods established by the humanists for the study and thorough understanding of the Bible. This wasn’t merely a theoretical question: his aim was opening the way for a form of piety more in tune with the times, allowing Christians to approach biblical texts without heeding excessively the doctrinal worries of the moment.