Desiderius Erasmus (1466 – 1536) was a Dutch Christian humanist and a main figure of northern Renaissance. He was very critical with some practices and abuses perpetrated by the Catholic Church, but he never supported the principles of Luther's Reformation. He highlighted the need for a reform but he continued recognizing the Pope and other religious authorities, in opposition to protestantism with rejects the legitimacy of church leaders and focuses principally on faith. Therefore his reformist approach was denominated Via Media.
Erasmus opposed the abussive practice generalized in the Catholic Church of selling indulgences. Basically people were spending money in paying for the removal of their sins and to guarantee that they would go to heaven after death. Like many other Christian scholars Erasmus critized this practice and stated that the power of grating pardon is only in the hands of God.
