View source for De libero Arbitrio Diatribe sive Colatio

{{Short description|Book by Erasmus}}
{{other uses|Free Will (disambiguation)}}
{{Infobox book|<!-- See [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Novels]] or [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Books]] -->
| name              = On the Freedom of the Will
| title_orig        = De Libero Arbitrio
| translator        = 
| image             = De libero arbitrio diatribe 1524 title page.png
| caption           = Title page of first edition printed in Basel
| author            = [[Erasmus]]
| illustrator       = 
| cover_artist      = 
| country           = 
| language          = [[Latin]]
| series            = 
| genre             = [[Philosophy]], [[Theology]]
| publisher         = [[Johann Froben]]
| release_date      = September 1524
| english_release_date = 
| media_type        = 
| pages             = 
| isbn              = 
| preceded_by       = Assertio omnium articulorum M. Lutheri per bullam Leonis X
| followed_by       = [[On the Bondage of the Will]]
}}
{{Catholic philosophy}}
{{italic title}}
'''''{{Lang|la|De libero arbitrio diatribe sive collatio}}''''' (literally ''Of free will: Discourses or Comparisons'') is the [[Latin]] title of a [[polemical]] work written by [[Desiderius Erasmus]] of Rotterdam in 1524.<ref>{{cite book|author=Desiderius Erasmus|title=De Libero Arbitrio Diatribe, Sive Collatio, Desiderij Erasmi Roterodami|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SVlnAAAAcAAJ|year=1524|publisher=Apvd Ioannem Beb.}}</ref> It is commonly called ''The Freedom of the Will'' or ''On Free Will'' in English. It was written to call out [[Martin Luther]]'s revival of [[John Wycliffe]]'s teaching that "everything happens by absolute necessity".

Erasmus' civil but deliberately provocative book mixes evangelical concerns that God has revealed himself as merciful not arbitrary ("nobody should despair of forgiveness by a God who is by nature most merciful" I.5.) and the conclusion in the ''Epilogue'' that where there are scriptures both in favour and against, theologians should moderate their opinions or hold them moderately: dogma is created by the church not theologians.<ref name=kinney>{{cite journal |last1=Kinney |first1=Daniel |title=Georges Chantraine, S.J ., Erasme et Luther: Libre et serf arbitre, etude Historique et Theologique. Paris : Éditions Lethielleux / Presses Universitaires de Namur, 1981. XLV + 503 pp. in-8°. 270 Fr |journal=Moreana |date=February 1983 |volume=20 (Number 77) |issue=1 |pages=85–88 |doi=10.3366/more.1983.20.1.22}}</ref>{{rp|86}} In his view, a gently held [[synergism]] mediates the scriptural passages best, and moderates the exaggerations of both [[Pelagianism|Pelagius]] (humans meriting or not requiring grace for salvation) and [[Manichaeism|Manichaeus]] (two Gods: one good, one bad). 

In response, Luther wrote his important work ''[[On the Bondage of the Will]]'' (1525), against which Erasmus in turn wrote the two-volume book ''Hyperaspistes'' (1526, 1528), which Luther did not respond to.
==Background==
''{{Lang|la|De libero arbitrio diatribe sive collatio}}'' was nominally written to refute a specific teaching of [[Martin Luther]], on the question of [[free will]].<ref group=note>"Erasmus says that his prefatory remarks pertain to the controversy at hand more than the body of his work. It is more important that he instill moderation in his readers than he make the particular case for free will."   {{cite journal |last1=McCutcheon |first1=Robert R. |title=The Missing Dialogue Concerning the Will Between Erasmus and Luther |journal=Renaissance and Reformation / Renaissance et Réforme |date=1997 |volume=21 |issue=1 |pages=35–47 |doi=10.33137/rr.v33i1.11324 |jstor=43465106 |issn=0034-429X|doi-access=free }}</ref> Luther had become increasingly aggressive in his attacks on the [[Roman Catholic Church]] to well beyond [[irenicism|irenical]] Erasmus' reformist agenda.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rummel |first1=Erika |title=Desiderius Erasmus |date=2021 |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/erasmus/}}</ref>{{refn|group=note|Historian Volker Leppin noted "anti-Catholicism does not lie at the root of Reformation, even if later on it obviously became part of the whole Reformation framework."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Leppin |first1=Volker |title=Setting Luther into His Historical Place: My Quarrels with the German Orthodoxy in Luther Research |journal=The Sixteenth Century Journal |date=2017 |volume=48 |issue=4 |pages=927–943 |doi=10.1086/SCJ4804009 |jstor=44817117 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44817117 |issn=0361-0160|url-access=subscription }}</ref>}}

One of the propositions ascribed to Luther and anathemized by [[Pope Leo X]]'s bull ''[[Exsurge Domine|Exsurge domine]]'' (1520) was that "''Free will after sin is a matter of title only; and as long as one does what is in him, one sins mortally.''"<ref>{{cite web |last1=Pope Leo X |title=Exsurge Domine |url=https://www.papalencyclicals.net/Leo10/l10exdom.htm |website=Papal Encyclicals |language=en |date=15 June 1520}}</ref>

Luther responded, publishing his Latin ''Assertio omnium articulorum'' which included the statement "''God effects the evil deeds of the impious''"<ref name=ruokanen>{{cite book |last1=Ruokanen |first1=Miikka |title=Trinitarian Grace in Martin Luther's the Bondage of the Will |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=10 |edition=2021}}</ref> as part of the [[John Wycliff|Wycliffian]] claim that "''everything happens by pure necessity'',"<ref group=note>{{langx|la|esse omnia absoluta et necessaria}}</ref> so denying free will. (For the popular German version of this work, Luther sanitized his text for Article 36 to remove the arguments that "God is the cause not only of good deeds in man but also of sins, and that there is no natural power of the human will to direct man's actions either for good or for bad."<ref name=scheckfish>{{cite journal |last1=Scheck |first1=Thomas P. |title=Bishop John Fisher's Response To Martin Luther |journal=Franciscan Studies |date=2013 |volume=71 |pages=463–509 |jstor=43855981 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43855981 |issn=0080-5459}}</ref>{{rp|485}})

Erasmus' mentor Bishop [[John Fisher]] published a detailed response to the Latin version's arguments as ''Confutation of the Lutheran Assertion'' in 1523.

Erasmus decided necessity/free will was a subject of core disagreement deserving a public airing, and strategized for several years with friends and correspondents<ref>{{cite web |last1=Emerton |first1=Ephraim |title=Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/47517/47517-h/47517-h.htm#FNanchor_152 |website=Project Guttenberg |access-date=30 April 2023}}</ref> on how to respond with proper moderation<ref>{{cite book |last1=Alfsvåg |first1=Knut |title=The Identity of Theology (Dissertation) |date=October 1995 |pages=6, 7 |url=https://www.alfsvag.com/onewebmedia/IdentityofTheology.pdf}}</ref> without making the situation worse for all, especially for the rigorous [[renaissance_humanism|humanist]] classicist/biblicist/patristic [[ad fontes|reform agenda]] of "{{lang|la|bonae litterae}}".<ref>{{cite book |chapter=Erasmus and the Latin Classics |title=Collected Works of Erasmus: Volume 7: De virtute / Oratio funebris / Encomium medicinae / De puero / Tyrannicida / Ovid / Prudentis / Galen / Lingua|date=31 December 1989 |pages=xxxiv–l |doi=10.3138/9781442676688-003}}</ref> He sent the draft to English King Henry VIII for comments, and received a note from Pope Clement VII encouraging publication, and a letter came from Martin Luther recommending he kept silent.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Mantravadi |first1=Amy |title=The Two Erasmuses (Part 2) |url=https://www.modernreformation.org/resources/essays/the-two-erasmuses-part-2 |website=www.modernreformation.org |language=en}}</ref>

[[File:Erasmus, Roundel, 1532, by Hans Holbein (Kunstmuseum Basel).png|thumb|[[Portrait of Erasmus of Rotterdam|Portrait of Erasmus]] by [[Hans Holbein the Younger]]]]
Erasmus' eventual [[irenical]] strategy had three prongs:<ref group=note>He had adopted a similar strategy the previous year, where the collequy ''[[Colloquies#Amicitia (Friendship)|Amicitia]]'' presented his positive thoughts on friendship while the ''[[Erasmus#A Sponge to wipe away the Spray of Hutten (1523)|Spongia]]'' dealt with negative, specific issues mentioning individuals.</ref>

* first, a dialogue ''[[Colloquies#Inquisitio de fide (Inquisition of faith)|Inquisitio de fide]]'' to turn down the general heat and danger, and to set the stage for calm debate, which asked the question of whether Lutherans were heretics and, because they accepted the Creed, proposed that Lutherans must not be classed as heretics;<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kleinhans |first1=Robert |title=Luther and Erasmus, Another Perspective |journal=Church History |date=December 1970 |volume=39 |issue=4 |page=460|doi=10.2307/3162926 |jstor=3162926 |s2cid=162208956 }}</ref>
* second, six months later, a small book ''On Free Will'' addressed as much to issues of limits of authority, discourse, biblical interpretation, as to free choice of humans in the things of God;
* third, published the same day as ''On Free Will'', a small book ''De immensa misericordia dei'' (''On the Immense Mercy of God''),<ref name=mercy>{{cite journal |last1=Erasmus |title=A Sermon on the Immense Mercy of God / Concio de immensa Dei misericordia |journal=Spiritualia and Pastoralia |date=31 December 1998 |pages=69–140 |doi=10.3138/9781442680128-003|isbn=978-1-4426-8012-8 }}</ref> written ostensibly as a model sermon which provided Erasmus' positive alternative to Luther's idea in a non-controversial genre,{{refn|group=note|Erasmus further removed some polemical material on the request of Bishop [[Christoph von Utenheim]], the beloved Bishop of Basel.<ref name=mercy/>{{rp|70}} }} without mentioning him.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Fallica |first1=Maria |title=Erasmus and the Lady of Loreto: The Virgin, the Bride, and the Progress of the Church |journal=Erasmus Studies |date=23 October 2023 |volume=43 |issue=2 |pages=119–140 |doi=10.1163/18749275-04302002|doi-access=free |hdl=11573/1692738 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>{{refn|group=note|Erasmus did not approve of the language of merit being used for our human response to grace. The 1547 English translation has "Now if there be nothing here that thou mayst ascribe to thy merits, then glorify the mercy of God, worship the mercy of God, embrace and kiss the mercy of God."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Marc’hadour |first1=Germain |title=Erasmus' Sermon on The Mercy of God and its English Versions |journal=Moreana |date=December 1995 |volume=32 (Number 123- |issue=3–4 |pages=97–116 |doi=10.3366/more.1995.32.3-4.14}}</ref>}} It set up that God was not arbitrary, against the claims of predestination; notably it sets "mercy" as a synonym for all kinds of grace, allowing a far broader range of scriptures to be applied than those that used the term "grace":<ref group=note>We might say that Erasmus proposed ''sola misericordia'' instead of ''[[sola gratia]]''.</ref> "What is the grace of God, if not the mercy of God?"{{refn|group=note|"For the moment, to help you understand the full breadth of the Lord's immense mercy, you should know that in Holy Writ the word 'mercy' sometimes implies munificence, sometimes prevenient grace, or elevating grace, and quite often consoling grace; elsewhere it implies medicinal grace, but very often pardoning grace, or even punishing grace."<ref name=mercy/>{{rp|72,91,102}} }} (It also warns the audience against [[Manicheeism]], which proposed two Gods, the just but not equally good God of the Old Testament, and the good but not equally just God of the New.)<ref name=mercy/>{{rp|117}}

===Terminology===
* [[Synergism]] is the idea that adult salvation or justification involves some sort of unequal co-operation (noting that the ''co-'' does not connote equality of the parties, God's grace always being in some way prior and unearned.) This is the view that Erasmus believes explains scripture and tradition better in ''On Free Will''. One version of this is the doctrine of [[prevenient grace]] associated with [[Augustine]], who taught that without grace the will is captive.
* [[Monergism]] is the idea that God brings about an individual's salvation or justification regardless of their co-operation. This is the view associated with the early leaders of the Reformation such as [[Martin Luther]]. One version of this is the doctrine of [[irresistible grace]] associated with [[John Calvin]].
* [[Semi-Pelagianism]] is the idea that the commencement of conversion is a free choice, with grace supervening only later. 
* [[Pelagianism]] is the idea that humans have free will to achieve perfection. In some popular Protestant views (such as this [https://www.gotquestions.org/synergism-and-salvation.html website]<ref>{{cite web |last1=Houdman |first1=Michael |title=Synergism and Salvation |url=https://www.gotquestions.org/synergism-and-salvation.html |website=Got Questions |access-date=18 June 2025}}</ref> ) synergism, semi-Pelagianism and Pelagianism reduce to effectively the same position, which is that humankind is basically good.

==Content==
A scholar has commented: "''De Libero Arbitrio'' is clear in what it opposes, less so in what it affirms"<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Tracy |first1=James |title=Two Erasmuses, Two Luthers: Erasmus' Strategy in Defense of ''De Libero Arbitrio'' |journal=Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte |date=1987 |volume=78 |issue=jg |page=38 |doi=10.14315/arg-1987-jg03|s2cid=171005154 }}</ref> about free will. However, another has commented that "The most important and lasting legacy of Erasmus' theology was its nuance":<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kroeker |first1=Greta Grace |title=Erasmus the Theologian |journal=Church History and Religious Culture |date=2016 |volume=96 |issue=4 |pages=498–515 |doi=10.1163/18712428-09604002 |jstor=26382864 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26382864 |access-date=18 September 2023 |issn=1871-241X|url-access=subscription }}</ref> what is being strongly affirmed is not free choice ''per se'' but a [[hermeneutic]]. Because of his irenical [[Scholasticism|anti-Scholasticism]],<ref group=note>His ''philosophia Christiani'' "demonstrates the combination of Biblical precepts and the wisdom of ancient scholars without referring back to the medieval scholastic tradition." {{cite journal |last1=Wolf |first1=Erik |title=Religion and Right in the Philosophia Christriana of Erasmus from Rotterdam |journal=UC Law Journal |date=1 January 1978 |volume=29 |issue=6 |pages=1535 |url=https://repository.uclawsf.edu/hastings_law_journal/vol29/iss6/11/ |issn=0017-8322}}</ref> Erasmus attempted to argue without dogmatism, over-systematization, insult or much appeal to Scholastic methods.<ref group=note>"Erasmus’ tract…is a showpiece of his methodology. He begins his argumentation in the classic skeptical fashion by collating scriptural evidence for and against the concept of free will and demonstrating that there is no consensus and no rational way of resolving the resulting dilemma." {{cite web |last1=Rummel |first1=Erika |last2=MacPhail |first2=Eric |title=Desiderius Erasmus |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/erasmus/ |website=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University |access-date=25 August 2023 |date=2021}}</ref>

The conclusions Erasmus reached also drew upon a large array of notable authorities, including, from the Patristic period, Origen, John Chrysostom, Ambrose, Jerome, and Augustine, in addition to many leading Scholastic authors, such as Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus. He also engaged with recent thought on the state of the question, including the perspectives of the ''via moderna'' school and of Lorenzo Valla, whose ideas he rejected.

===Preface===
Erasmus' thesis was not simply in favour of undogmatic synergism,<ref group=note>Erasmus also expressed this view in 1499's ''Prayer of Erasmus of Rotterdam to the Son of the Virgin, Jesus'' as "It is a great thing, I know, that a wretched worm asks of Thee, not only beyond his merits, but beyond human prayers and human understanding.... Therefore, not for my merits, which are none or evil, but by thyself, I beseech Thee. . . " {{cite journal |last1=Rice |first1=Eugene F. |title=Erasmus and the Religious Tradition, 1495-1499 |journal=Journal of the History of Ideas |date=1950 |volume=11 |issue=4 |pages=387–411 |doi=10.2307/2707589 |jstor=2707589 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2707589 |issn=0022-5037|url-access=subscription }}</ref> but that Luther's assertive theology was not grounded and bounded adequately, as can be seen from the headings of the Preface:<ref name=rupp>{{cite book |last1=Rupp and Watson |title=Luther and Erasmus: Freewill and Salvation |date= January 1969|publisher=Westminster John Knox Press |location= |isbn=0-664-24158-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IU_8JDjxL34C&pg=PR11|access-date=7 May 2023}}</ref>

# Luther's supposed infallibility
# Objectivity and scepticism
# Having an open mind
# Difficulties in the scripture 
# Essence of Christian piety
# Man's limited capacity to know
# Unsuitability of Luther's teachings

Luther's response to these (ignoring the first point) had the headings: Assertions in Christianity; No liberty to be a sceptic; Clarity of scriptures; Crucial issue: Knowing free will; Foreknowledge of God; Tyranny of Laws; the Christian's peace; Christian liberty; Spontenaity of necessitated acts; Grace and free will.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Winter |first1=Ernst |title=Erasmus - Luther: Discourse on Free Will |date=1961 |publisher=Continuum |location=New York |url=https://spot.colorado.edu/~pasnau/4020/luther.pdf |access-date=7 May 2023}}</ref>

For Erasmus, the heart of the issue was not theology but the role of prudence in limiting what can be claimed theologically: "what a loophole the publication of this opinion would open to godlessness among innumerable people."<ref name=remer>{{cite journal |last1=Remer |first1=Gary |title=Rhetoric and the Erasmian Defence of Religious Toleration |journal=History of Political Thought |date=1989 |volume=10 |issue=3 |pages=377–403 |jstor=44797141 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44797141 |issn=0143-781X}}</ref>

Erasmus asserted that over-definition of doctrine (whether by Church Councils or by Luther's assertions) historically leads to violence and more schism or heresy. The mentality and mechanisms of heretic-hunting were encouraged, not relieved, by adding to the articles of faith (such as requiring belief for or against free will), this hunting then requiring terrors and threats.<ref name="The Literary Culture of the Reforma">{{cite book |last1=Cummings |first1=Brian |title=The Literary Culture of the Reformation |date=5 December 2002 |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198187356.003.0005}}</ref>{{rp|154}} Erasmus' extremely tentative affirmation (of synergism) comes from these reflections: not only is any nasty disputation un-Christian, but the assertion of extra doctrines promotes, in effect, evil.<ref name="The Literary Culture of the Reforma"/> Later opposing commenters interpreted this as that Erasmus loved Peace more than Truth.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Westminster Review |date=1867 |publisher=J.M. Mason |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TmkyAQAAMAAJ |language=en}}</ref>{{rp|564}}

He found no justification in consensus or history for Luther's idea on necessity, except for [[Manichaeus]] and [[John Wycliff]].

He suggested that his (and, implicitly, Luther's) own preferences might owe to personality more than to other sources. These were "red rags to a bull" for Luther.<ref group=note>"which he must have guessed would provoke Luther to reply, in his ''De servo arbitrio'', with such vehemence that no reconciliation of views was possible." {{cite journal |last1=Kerr |first1=Fergus |title=Comment: Erasmus |journal=New Blackfriars |date=2005 |volume=86 |issue=1003 |pages=257–258 |doi=10.1111/j.0028-4289.2005.00081.x |jstor=43250928 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43250928 |issn=0028-4289|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

===Free Will===
Erasmus adopted an unusual definition of Free Will: the ability of an individual to turn themselves to the things of God. So this included not only conversion but more general daily moments.<ref name=rupp />

In his response, Luther split his definition of Free Will to cover on the one hand moral things—where he allowed free choice to operate— and on the other hand conversion issues—where predestination was the proper explanation to the necessary exclusion of free choice.<ref name=rupp />

===Synergism and Causation===
Erasmus explains [[prevenient grace]] by the analogy of a pre-toddler, too weak to walk on his own yet. His parent shows the child an apple as an incentive, and supports the child as the child takes steps towards the apple. But the child could not have raised himself without the parent's lifting, nor seen the apple without the parent's showing, nor have stepped without the parent's support, nor grasped the apple unless the parent put it into his small hands. So the child owes everything to the parent, yet the child has not done nothing. (s57)

===Pan-Biblical Evidence===
Erasmus took his evidence not so much from one explicit Bible passage, but also from the innumerable passages that command humans to do things.<ref group=note>"Gerhard O. Forde represents Erasmus’ method as a “box score” method, whereas Luther might rely on just “one passage” to convince of truth." {{cite journal |last1=Pekham |first1=John |title=An Investigation of Luther's View of the Bondage of the Will with Implications for Soteriology and Theodicy |journal=Journal of the Adventist Theological Society |date=2007 |volume=18 |issue=2 |url=https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/jats/vol18/iss2/7 |access-date=20 October 2023}}</ref>{{rp|761}} In view of the dozens of passages analyzed "So it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that there is in us a will that can turn one way or the other."<ref name=kimmerle/> God, being neither mad nor cruel, would not command humans to do things that are completely impossible: believing or converting is one.<ref group=note>That Erasmus preferred to use patristic, scriptural and rhetorical arguments does not mean that dialectical [[Scholasticism|Scholastic]] conclusions were different: e.g. Thomas Aquinas' [[Summa Theologica]] "Man has free-will: otherwise counsels, exhortations, commands, prohibitions, rewards, and punishments would be in vain."  Q.83 Art 1  {{cite web |title=SUMMA THEOLOGIAE: Free-will (Prima Pars, Q. 83) |url=https://www.newadvent.org/summa/1083.htm |website=www.newadvent.org}}</ref> These commands make no sense without free-will:<ref name=rupp/> the justice of God requires natural justice: humans cannot be held responsible if they have no choice.<ref name="The Literary Culture of the Reforma"/>

As far as God is concerned, Luther's view was that God can do anything (voluntarism), even logically impossible things (which appear to us as paradoxes), and that they are good because God did them ([[Nominalism#Medieval philosophy|nominalism]]);  while Erasmus' view is that God really is good (realism) and nothing bad can be ascribed to him.

===Foreknowledge and predestination===
In part, the disputation between Erasmus and Luther came down to differences of opinion regarding the doctrines of [[theodicy|divine justice]] and divine [[omniscience]] and [[omnipotence]]. While Luther and many of his fellow reformers prioritized the control and power which God held over creation, Erasmus prioritized the justice and liberality of God toward humankind.

Luther and other reformers proposed that humanity was stripped of free will by [[sin]] and that divine [[predestination]] ruled all activity within the mortal realm. They held that God was completely omniscient and omnipotent; that anything which happened had to be the result of God's explicit will, and that God's foreknowledge of events in fact brought the events into being.

Erasmus however argued that foreknowledge did not equal predestination. Instead, Erasmus compared God to an [[astronomer]] who knows that a [[solar eclipse]] is going to occur. The astronomer's foreknowledge does nothing to ''cause'' the eclipse—rather his knowledge of what is to come proceeds from an intimate familiarity with the workings of the cosmos. Erasmus held that, as the creator of both the cosmos and mankind, God was so intimately familiar with his creations that he was capable of perfectly predicting events which were to come, even if they were contrary to God's explicit will. He cited biblical examples of God offering prophetic warnings of impending disasters which were contingent on human repentance, as in the case of the prophet [[Jonah]] and the people of [[Nineveh]].

===Free will and the problem of evil===
{{see also|Problem of evil}}
If humans had no free will, Erasmus argued, then God's commandments and warnings would be vain; and if sinful acts (and the calamities which followed them) were in fact the result of God's predestination, then that would make God a cruel tyrant who punished his creations for sins he had forced them to commit. Rather, Erasmus insisted, God had endowed humanity with free will, valued that trait in humans, and rewarded or punished them according to their own choices between good and evil. He argued that the vast majority of the biblical texts either implicitly or explicitly supported this view, and that [[divine grace]] was the means by which humans became aware of God, as well as the force which sustained and motivated humans as they sought of their own free will to follow God's laws.

===Erasmus's conclusion===
Erasmus ultimately concluded that God was ''capable'' of interfering in many things (human nature included) but chose not to do so; thus God could be said to be responsible for many things because he allowed them to occur (or not occur), without having been actively involved in them.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}}<!-- who says this ??-->  In no way should God be said to be the cause of evil which Luther had said in his Latin ''Assertio''.<ref name=scheckfish/>

Erasmus notes that there are many passages in Scripture "which seem to set forth free choice" but also that "others seem to take it wholly away."<ref name=kimmerle>{{cite journal |last1=Kimmerle |first1=Heinz |title=The Arguments of Erasmus in His Debate with Luther about Free Will |journal=Scriptura, Geist, Wirkung |date=8 April 2024 |pages=97–108 |doi=10.1515/9783111315348-006}}</ref>
Because the issue came down to broadest biblical interpretation (i.e., [[Total Depravity]], etc.), rather than dispute over individual passages or philosophy, Erasmus held that the safe approach was to favour the historical interpretation of the church—in this case [[synergism]]—over that of a novel individual.

==Aftermath==
Luther's response to Erasmus came a year later in 1525's ''[[On the Bondage of the Will]]'', which Luther himself later considered one of his best pieces of theological writing.<ref group=note>"It is one of his most vigorous and profound books, full of grand ideas and shocking exaggerations, that border on Manichaeism and fatalism." {{cite book |last1=Schaff |first1=Philip |title=History of the Christian Church, Volume VII. ch 73 |url=https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/hcc7/hcc7.ii.iv.xiv.html |access-date=5 August 2023}}</ref> Other writers are repelled by it.<ref group=note>"From beginning to end his work, for all its positive features, is a torrent of
invective. (Luther says) The Diatribe (''On free Will'') sleeps, snores, is drunk, does not know what it is saying, etc. Its author is an atheist, Lucian himself, a Proteus, etc.{{cite journal |last1=Augustijn |first1=Cornelis |title=Twentieth-Annual Birthday Lecture: Erasmus as Apologist: The Hyperaspistes II |journal=Erasmus of Rotterdam Society Yearbook |date=2001 |volume=21 |issue=1 |pages=1–13 |doi=10.1163/187492701X00038}}</ref>{{rp|6}}

===Hyperaspistes===
{{See also|On the Bondage of the Will#Erasmus' rebuttal}}
In early 1526, Erasmus replied immediately with the first part of his two-volume ''Hyperaspistes''; this first volume concerned biblical interpretation. The second, larger volume was a longer and more complex work which received comparatively little popular or scholarly awareness;<ref group=note>For example, it was not available English until 1999. {{cite journal |last1=Augustijn |first1=Cornelis |title=Twentieth-Annual Birthday Lecture: Erasmus as Lecture: Birthday Apologist: The Hyperaspistes II |journal=Erasmus of Rotterdam Society Yearbook |date=2001 |volume=21 |issue=1 |pages=1–13 |doi=10.1163/187492701X00038}}</ref> the second volume concerned free will, with paragraph by paragraph rebuttal of Luther. Erasmus regarded Luther's doctrine of [[total depravity]] as an exaggeration, and noted that an inclination to evil did not exist in Jesus nor in [[Immaculate Conception|his mother]]. [https://doi.org/10.14315/arg-1987-jg03]

{{Blockquote | source=Erasmus, ''Hyperaspistes II'' |text="What the Church reads with profit when written by Augustine, Luther ruins with atrocious words and hyperboles,...(like)...the absolute necessity of all things."}}

As with John Fisher's ''Confutation'', Luther did not respond to the ''Hyperaspistes''.<ref name=scheckfish/>{{rp|509}}

===On Grace===
In 1528, Erasmus produced his [[editio princeps]] of [[Faustus of Riez]] book ''On Grace'' from the mid to late 400s. Faustus "teaches that God’s grace always encourages, precedes and helps our will; and whatever free will alone will have acquired by virtue of the labour of a pious mercy is not our merit, but grace’s gift."<ref name=franceschini>{{cite journal |last1=Franceschini |first1=Chiara |title="Erasmus and Faustus of Riez's De gratia" |journal=Rivista di Storia del Cristianesimo |date=1 January 2014 |volume=XI |issue=2 |pages=367–390 |url=https://www.academia.edu/35244712 |access-date=23 March 2024}}</ref>{{rp|375}}

===Catholic and Protestant===
Erasmus and Luther's debate had great impact, with Catholic writers including Erasmus placing an increased emphasis on grace and faith (i.e. what God does rather than how humans should respond), while many Protestants,<ref group=note>"Was Lutheranism Lutheran? When it crystallized in the [[Formula of Concord]] ... it rejected the logic of predestinationism implied in Luther's ''Bondage of the Will''.{{cite journal |last1=MacCulloch |first1=Diarmaid |title=2. Protestantism in Mainland Europe: New Directions |journal=Renaissance Quarterly |date=2006 |volume=59 |issue=3 |pages=698–706 |doi=10.1353/ren.2008.0404|s2cid=162265932 }}</ref> notably Luther's second-in-command [[Philip Melancthon]], and the later [[Arminianism#Conversion of man|Arminians]] (such as [[Wesleyans]]) adopted aspects of Erasmus' view. Some historians have even said that "the spread of Lutheranism was checked by Luther’s antagonizing (of) Erasmus and the humanists."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Eckert |first1=Otto J. |title=Luther and the Reformation |date=1955 |url=http://essays.wisluthsem.org:8080/bitstream/handle/123456789/1262/EckertReformation.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |access-date=18 October 2023}}</ref>{{rp|7}}

American/German Reformed encyclopaedist [[Philip Schaff]] summarized it:   "[[Melanchthon]], no doubt in part under the influence of this controversy, abandoned his early predestinarianism as a [[Stoicism|Stoic]] error (1535), and adopted the synergistic theory. Luther allowed this change without adopting it himself, and abstained from further discussion of these mysteries. The [[Formula of Concord]] re-asserted in the strongest terms Luther’s doctrine of the slavery of the human will, but weakened his doctrine of predestination, and assumed a middle ground between late Augustinianism and semi-Pelagianism. In like manner the Roman Catholic Church, while retaining the greatest reverence for St. Augustin and endorsing his anthropology, never sanctioned his views on total depravity and unconditional predestination, but condemned them, indirectly, in the [[Jansenists]]." Even Luther, in a late work, "reaffirmed the distinction of the secret and revealed will of God, which we are unable to harmonize, but for this reason he deems it safest to adhere to the revealed will and to avoid speculations on the impenetrable mysteries of the hidden will": the avoidance of speculation and dogmatic assertions on ''adiophora'' being core points in Erasmus' ''On Free Will.'' <ref>{{cite book |last1=Schaff |first1=Philip |title=History of the Christian Church, Volume VII. ch73 |url=https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/hcc7/hcc7.ii.iv.xiv.html}}</ref> where so-called "semi-Pelagianism" here includes [[synergism]].

The Sixth Session (1549), Chapter V of the [[Council of Trent]] [[Justification (theology)#Catholic Church|defined]] a form of [[synergism]] similar to Erasmus'.<ref>{{cite web |title=General Council of Trent: Sixth Session |url=https://www.papalencyclicals.net/councils/trent/sixth-session.htm |website=Papal Encylicals Online |date=13 January 1547 |publisher=Holy See |access-date=30 April 2023}}</ref> 

Dutch theologian [[Jacob Arminius]] developed a softer form of [[Calvinism]] by adapting a version of Erasmus' infant-and-apple analogy: Arminius' analogy for the gift of faith was "a rich man gives a poor and famishing beggar alms by which he may be able to sustain himself and his family. Does it cease to be a pure, undiluted gift because the beggar extends his hand for receiving?" This formulation perhaps re-casts Erasmus' positive requirement for co-operation (itself an effect of [[prevenient grace]]) as a negative requirement of being ready and not refusing.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Stanglin |first1=Keith D. |last2=McCall |first2=Thomas H. |title=Jacob Arminius: Theologian of Grace |date=15 November 2012 |publisher=OUP USA |isbn=978-0-19-975567-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gQS6fa_r9CoC |language=en}}</ref>{{rp|116}}

In 1999 the Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation (later joined by many other Protestant denominations) made a [[Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification]] on a common understanding of [[Justification (theology)|justification]], concluding that the theological positions mutually anathematized at the time of the Reformation were not, in fact, held by the churches.

A 2017 survey of U.S. Protestants found that fewer than half accepted a view similar to Luther's ''[[sola fide]],'' including in "white mainline churches" <ref>{{cite web |title=U.S. Protestants Are Not Defined by Reformation-Era Controversies 500 Years Later |url=https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2017/08/31/u-s-protestants-are-not-defined-by-reformation-era-controversies-500-years-later/ |website=Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project |access-date=5 August 2023 |date=31 August 2017}}</ref>

==Translations==
*''Luther and Erasmus: Free Will and Salvation'', translated and edited by E. Gordon Rupp, Philip S. Watson (Philadelphia, The Westminster Press, 1969)
*''The Battle over Free Will''.  Edited, with notes, by Clarence H. Miller. Translated by Clarence H. Miller and Peter Macardle. (Hackett Publishing, 2012)
*''Discourse on Free Will'' by [[Ernst Florian Winter|Ernst F. Winter]] (Continuum International Publishing, 2005)

== Notes ==
{{Reflist|group=note}}

==References==
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{{Desiderius Erasmus}}

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[[Category:16th-century books in Latin]]
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