Edward Lee: Erasmus’ English Foe
Shortly after Edward Lee arrived in Europe he found himself embroiled in a bitter dispute with one of the era’s most famous intellectuals. He was soon reviled across the Continent.
In early 1520 a small pamphlet was printed in Paris by a little-known English student. At first sight the book looked innocuous. The text offered a set of technical notes on a recent edition of the New Testament, a subject of growing interest to scholars in the period. By the end of the year, however, its author Edward Lee was one of the most reviled men in Renaissance Europe. Poems, letters, and dialogues were published across the Continent depicting him as a ‘braggart’ and a ‘condemned dog’ and threatening him with physical violence. How had Lee achieved such notoriety?
An Englishman abroad
Edward Lee was born in Kent in 1482 and lived a rather unremarkable life as a priest until the age of 35. In 1517, however, he made the decision to visit the small university town of Louvain, a few miles east of Brussels.
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