Erasmus was Dutch scholar and a great friend of the English humanists. He is considered to be the most learned man in all Europe.
He is not of one country but of all countries. His praise of Folly (1511) acquired immense popularity. Though written in Latin, it was speedily translated into English. It is a merciless satire on the vice, wickedness, folly and corruption, which the author finds prevalent in all section of society form the court downwards. Long calls it “a song of victory for the New Learning, which had driven away vice, ignorance and superstition, the three foes of humanity.”