A Brief History of Humanism

The understanding of scripture was very much at issue once umanists like erasmus and lefere applied their philological and textual skills to the bible itself. This project was very controversial, since humanist expertes were not seen as a sufficient qualification for understanding the word of god. The reformers also held that this was a book for all christians, not only an elite brotherhood of priests. If scripture is straightforward enough to be suitable for the everyday believer, then the humanists should be able to interpret it without having studied theology for years at a university. Luther duly welcomed the work of erasmus. He himself was no humanist, though he learned some greek and