“Erasmus fought every fanaticism, whether in the religious, national, or ideological sphere, as the born and sworn destroyer of all understanding. He hated them all, the obstinate and narrow-minded, whether in priestly robes or professorial gowns, the blinkered thinkers and zealots of every class and race who everywhere demand blind obedience to their own opinion and contemptuously call every other view heresy or villainy. Just as he never wanted to force his own views on anyone, he resisted with determination anyone forcing any religious or political creed upon him. Independence of thought was self-evident to him, and this free spirit always saw a crippling of the world’s divine diversity whenever someone, whether from pulpit or lectern, stood up and spoke of his own personal truth as if it were a message God had whispered into his ear and his alone.” – Stefan Zweig, Triumph and Tragedy of Erasmus of Rotterdam (1934)