IX-5 Ordinis noni tomus quintus: Controversies with Noel Beda

This volume contains the polemic against Natalis Beda, syndic of the University of Paris. Unlike most of Erasmus’ apologies, it does not concern the edition of the Novum Instrumentum, Erasmus’ new Latin translation of and commentary on the Greek text of the New Testament. It is rather a fourfold defence of (parts of) Erasmus’ highly popular paraphrases on the New Testament (published between 1517 and 1524) and as such is the most voluminous of Erasmus’ polemics against any of his Roman Catholic adversaries (only the Hyperaspistes in two books against Martin Luther is somewhat longer). After two preliminary responses (Divinationes, Elenchus), Erasmus wrote the main part of the polemic, Supputationes, published in March 1527, in no more than a month.