
Narratives of Peace in Religious Discourses - Perspectives from Europe and the Mediterranean in the Early Modern Era - Ludovico Battista
The Ambiguities of Erasmus’ Religious Peace: A Reading of De amabili ecclesiae concordia (1533)
Narratives of Peace in Religious Discourses - Perspectives from Europe and the Mediterranean in the Early Modern Era - Ludovico Battista
Ludovico Battista [+ ]
Sapienza University of Rome
Description
The article offers an analysis of Erasmus’s De sarcienda Ecclesiae concordia and aims to show how the theme of religious concord is not simply an expression of a neutral and conciliatory position, but—particularly in reference to the biblical episode of Moses and the punishment of Korah—hides an anti-Lutheran key. The ideological exaltation of the “concordia” is a way of neutralizing the effects of the Reformation, that is, of reintegrating them into the Catholic context and thus challenging Luther for the leadership of a process of Church reform. This interpretation would later be verified following the reception that Erasmus’s text would have among some Catholic controversialists, such as Cochlaeus and Nausea.