The Praise of Folly Study Guide

Desiderius Erasmus was a Dutch philosopher, scholar, and theologian, known in his time as the “Prince of the Humanists.” He was born in Rotterdam in the Netherlands in 1466. As the illegitimate son of a priest, he was afforded access to the best education available at the time and attended a series of religious institutions. After being ordained as a priest in 1492, he became the secretary the Bishop of Cambrai in 1495. Soon after, he was given permission to study in Paris, where he established himself as a skilled classicist and scholar, winning him the attention of Lord Mountjoy, an English nobleman. Mountjoy eventually hired Erasmus as a personal tutor in Latin, and Erasmus moved to England, a journey which led to several notable connections, chief among them Thomas More. Though often impoverished, Erasmus’s reputation continued to grow, allowing him to travel extensively across Europe, continuing his studies and enjoying residencies at several distinguished institutions. Among his accomplishments, he masterfully translated a large number Greek and Latin works, published a series of classics textbooks, and wrote several popular scholarly works. Of these works, Adages and The Praise of Folly were most popular. Though a lifelong Catholic, Erasmus often criticized the Roman Catholic Church in his works—particularly The Praise of Folly—making him a controversial figure. In fact, his polemics against the Church were and are often cited as a major influence on the Protestant Reformation, though he personally disavowed any connection to the movement. He published his last work, Ecclesiastes, in 1535, after moving to the Netherlands at the invitation of the Queen of Hungary. He died a year later in 1536 in Basel.

Erasmus was born toward the end of the so-called Crises of the Middle Ages, a period during the 14th and 15th centuries characterized by famine, plague, war, and social unrest in Europe. Though devastating, this dark period paved the way for the Northern Renaissance, an era defined by the decline of the Roman Catholic Church and the rise of secular institutions and beliefs. Perhaps the most influential of these beliefs was Renaissance humanism, a worldview that emphasized the importance of humanity as opposed to religion. Among other things, the rise of humanism led to a cultural reinvestment in classical texts as opposed to theological ones and looking to science and philosophy for answers that religion had previously provided. A devoted Catholic who was educated in—and would later become a figurehead of—humanism, Erasmus existed at the intersection of these competing forces. While he remained a Catholic for his entire life, much of his written work involved applying the ideas of humanism to critique and reimagine Christianity and the Roman Catholic Church. He saw the church as corrupt and overly materialistic and advocated instead for a more modest and inward form of piety. The Praise of Folly many be read as a product of these historical influences. With its focus on the hypocrisy and corruption of the church, its humanist appeals for human happiness, and its deep engagement with classical texts, the work reflects the culture of Erasmus’s world and the changing ideological forces at play within it.

In many aspects, The Praise of Folly is representative of and distinct from Erasmus’s larger body of work. Published in 1511, it came after a series of works which, while thematically consistent with Folly, lack its fictional inventiveness and flair. Erasmus’s 1508 collection of classical sayings, Adages, for instance, shares The Praise of Folly’s engagement to classical forms and texts, but it is more academic in its form. One of Erasmus’ earlier pieces is Enchiridion for the Christian Soldier, a manual written about what Christianity required of an ordinary person. Its focus on Christianity and its vision of ordinary people being spiritual equals to the religious elite draw obvious ties to The Praise of Folly. The Praise of Folly shares some similarities with earlier texts, as well, the Greek satirist Lucian’s Lover of Lies being a prime example. As a work of comic dialogue—a genre Lucian invented—Lover of Lies employs the very form which Erasmus himself uses in The Praise of Folly, nearly serving as a template. The Praise of Folly was also influential on later works, particularly in the genre of satire. Johnathon Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, for instance, has often been cited as a spiritual descendent of The Praise of Folly, as has Thomas More’s Utopia, a classically inspired satire with a scathing critique of English society.