Desiderius Erasmus, a freemason “avant la lettre!”
The Loge is named after this Dutch renaissance Humanist as the most reputed scholar of northern Renaissance “in the kingdom of the blind. The one-eyed man is king”. Or “the summit of happiness is reached when a person is ready to be what he is” were ideas that made Erasmus immortal. He was admired by his many enemies and despised by those who admired him.
Although he was never a leader nor a warrior and even not a great philosopher, he left an eternal imprint in the history, especially amongst inspirers of Luther’s Reformation. He fought for intelligence and knowledge above dogma and for individual dignity. Freedom of mind and expression as well as honesty in word and behavior made him a defender of tolerance and acting assertively but always nonviolent for his ideas.
In one word: Erasmus is an inspirer par excellence for Freemasonry.