What are some comparisons and contrasts between Erasmus of Rotterdam and Martin Luther in their attitudes and roles to the reform of the Catholic...

Both
Erasmus and Luther were acutely aware of the many problems with which the later Medieval Church
was beset. They understood just how deeply corrupt the institution had become over the
centuries; how it was infested from top to bottom with every conceivable vice and how it had
largely forfeited its right to moral leadership among Christians. The Church, which was supposed
to be the physical expression of the Christian community, was in a truly sorry state, and
something needed to be done to purge it of its numerous abuses.

The question
was: How was this to be achieved? And it was in answering this question that real differences
between Luther and Erasmus emerged. Initially, Luther, like Erasmus, had wanted to reform the
Church's abuses from within. But the heavy-handed response of the Pope and the Church leadership
to his criticisms led him to the realization that the Church was beyond redemption and that a
new Christian Church, based solely upon the authority of the Bible, was...