nably the Canterbury Tales, dating from the end of his career. Chaucer’s stories are told in sparkling verse instead of prose, and they are recounted by people of all different classes- from a chivalric knight to a dedicated university student to a thieving miller. Each character tells a story that is particularly illustrative of his or her own occupation and outlook on the world. By this device Chaucer is able to create a highly diverse “human comedy.” His range is frank, witty, and lusty as the Italian, he is sometimes more profound. ~‘Desiderius Erasmus, Dutch humanist and theologian, was known as “the prince of the Christian humanist.” Erasmus was extraordinarily learned and witty. He excelled in irony and created dazzling verbal effects, and coined puns. Erasmus propagated what he called the “philosophy of Christ.” He published three different categories: clever satire meant to show people the error of their ways, serious moral treaties meant to offer guidance toward proper Christian behavior, and scholarly editions of basic Christian texts. The most widely read of Erasmus work, is from the first category- The Praise of Folly. In which he pilloried scholastic pedantry and dogmatism as well as the ignorance and superstitious credulity of the masses.A twenty-six-year-old French Protestant named John Calvin, who had fled to the Swiss city of Basel to escape religious persecution. He published the first version of his Institutes of the Christian Religion, a work that was soon to prove the most influential systematic formation of Protestant theology ever written. Calvin’s Geneva appeared as a beacon of thoroughgoing Protestantism to thousands throughout Europe. The resultingspread and conversion of Calvinism, lead to the hardening forces of Catholicism to head off any furthering Protestant advances. The result, united Christendom became mired in bloody religious wars for decades afte...
