Praise Of Folly

Adopting again the perspective of the gods looking down upon earth, Folly goes on to catalog the follies of different classes of people and professions: lovers, the gluttonous, the lazy, the financially irresponsible, merchants, spendthrifts and the miserly.

Folly moves on to the learned professions: schoolmasters, grammarians, rhetoricians, dialecticians (experts in logic), poets, and writers of books. All of these professions are notable for their knowledge, pedantry, and flattery, both of themselves and of each other. Lawyers, “the most self-satisfied class of people” (84), are followed closely by philosophers, who are lost in obscure and uncertain theories.

Folly characterizes theologians as “a remarkably supercilious and touchy lot” (86) who love to look down on others less educated than they. They make endlessly fine distinctions, pursue impossibly subtle religious questions, and reinterpret biblical passages and religious doctrine to their own purposes. Theologians use an oversophisticated technical vocabulary to silence disagreement and make their thought more impressive-sounding. They are filled with “self-satisfaction and self-congratulation” (93) and believe that the church’s well-being depends on them alone.