Why did Erasmus call himself Erasmus of Rotterdam, according to Diarmaid MacCulloch on In Our Time?

Diarmaid MacCulloch says the title was a piece of self-invention. Nobody knows whether Erasmus was born in Rotterdam or in Gouda, and he kept his early life vague because he was the son of a priest, which made him a non-person in 15th-century Europe. Having no status, he built a new identity and lived as a citizen of Europe with no real home.

• His family placed him in an Augustinian monastery at Stein, which he hated.
• He left by becoming secretary to the bishop of Cambrai, since bishops wanted humanists who wrote elegant Latin, and he never went back.

Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on In Our Time (2026-10-19). Read the whole episode summary →

▸More from this episode