The Praise of Folly - Classics Club Author:Desiderius Erasmus In the opinion of most modern critics, the volume that did more than almost any other to cause the spiritual rebellion known as the Reformation, The Praise of Folly, by Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam, with a Short Life of the Author by Hendrik Willem van Loon of rotterdam who also illustrated the book. It would seem that no one in his senses wo... more »uld have dared to write this revolutionary volume at a moment when the Inquisitor was in his heyday, and when no one was safe from the spiritual suppression of the sixteenth century. Yet Erasmus did write it, and even His Holiness the Pope expressed unalloyed delight while reading these devastating pages.« less