During his lifetime Erasmus was one of the most controversial figures of Renaissance and Reformation Europe. In the 450 years since his death his reputation has undergone a series of fluctuations that reflect the attitudes of successive periods in European, and eventually North American, theological and social thought.

Mansfield aims to relate changing interpretations of Erasmus to the historical contexts and experiences of those who wrote about him. He explores the influences in turn of the Enlightenment, romanticism, religious revival, and the emergence of liberalism.

In the...