Desiderius Erasmus

In a period when growing numbers of people were expressing criticism of the Roman Catholic Church, Erasmus agreed with some of their points. But he believed it was better to reform the church from the inside rather than the outside, and he was by no means uncritical. The arrival of printing brought his ideas to a broad readership, through his book In Praise of Folly. This satirical essay criticising bad character traits such as avarice and lust for power was a veiled commentary on society and the Church. When the Protestants ultimately split from Catholicism during the Reformation, Erasmus remained a loyal Catholic. A humanist at heart, he continued to advocate using common sense to resolve differences of opinion.