The works of the Dutch humanist Desiderius Erasmus, often titled In Praise of Folly, Erasmus' seminal pre-Reformation essay examines aspects of Church teaching as well as aspects of the cult that Erasmus deems worthy of the sharp satire he uses Erasmus was relentless in his criticism of pedantry, sophistry and demagogy among both clerical figures than secular.The rediscovery of Aristotle and the birth of humanism in the RenaissanceThe influence of Erasmus on humanism in this period was so great that it ensured that Northern Renaissance humanism was labeled Erasmian. A movement which, unlike its Italian counterpart and predecessor, would place faith and piety at the center of theology and would place great emphasis on ad Fontes, on the sources of Christian theology and on biblical and patristic sources (Parrish article)Erasmus, while generally focusing his criticisms on the elites of European society, he also speaks of the importance of education with particular regard to how education is the best way to combat the pervasiveness of public opinion, which he criticizes with particular venom in The abbot and the learned woman.'for With all its brilliant rhetorical fanfare, the proem of Folly is a reworking of a thoroughly medieval topos, the rebirth and nature of nature and man in spring. (Clarence H MillerThe historian Johan Huizinga, in his Erasmus and the Age of the Reformation, recognized Erasmus' desire for simplicity: he found society, and above all religious life, full of practices, ceremonies, traditions and conceptions, from which the Spirit he seemed to have distanced himself... He doesn't reject them completely, what disgusts him is that so often they are performed without understanding and without right feeling. But for him... half of the paper... half has become truly profound". you might ask, however, if Erasmus was only profound when he was witty. Yet the work of Erasmus that most profoundly shaped the mind of the Western world was the one that is consulted today by only a handful of historical specialists edition of the New Testament in Greek that served as the basis for major vernacular translations. The joking tone, attack on theologians, and satire on widely practiced religious observances provoked a reaction of shocked hostility during his lifetime. for the most part Erasmus is not concerned with the lives and religious observances of the masses, he particularly criticizes the cult of the Virgin Mary to the extent that she is as important, or even more important than Erasmus claims some believe, than Jesus himself (chapter 41)