Erasmus' Traces

episode 2: Italy

I give in to no one
Concedo nulli

The meaning of life and the relationship between man and God are central in this episode, which is set in Italy, the cradle of humanism and the heart of the Roman Catholic Church. Where Erasmus found a version of Christianity in which splendour, superstition, greed and regulations were the determining factors. He on the other hand pleaded for a religion of the mind and of freedom: 'What is forced cannot be honest, and only that which is voluntary, is agreeable to Christ'. Erasmus tried to formulate a 'Third Way' between dogma and reformation.