Erasmus was at Deventer from 1475 to 1484, and when he left, had learnt from Johannes Sinthius (Syntheim) and Alexander Hegius, who had come as headmaster in 1483, the love of letters which was the ruling passion of his life.
But Erasmus could not be content with the Bible in Latin.
The common man, to whom the diet of Augsburg alludes, had, long been raising his voice against the " parsons " (Pfaffen); the men of letters, Brand, Erasmus, Reuchlin, and above all Ulrich von Hutten, contributed, each in their way, to discredit the Roman Curia; and lastly, a new type of theology, represented chiefly by Martin Luther, threatened to sweep away the very foundations of the papal monarchy.
These he defended with great ability, but with so much heat that Erasmus joined in demanding his expulsion from the city.
There he continued his literary and scientific labours, enjoying congenial intercourse with such men as Matthew Boulton, James Keir, James Watt and Erasmus Darwin at the periodical dinners of the Lunar Society.
