Desiderius Erasmus, 1466?–1536

Desiderius Erasmus, one of the greatest scholars of all time, was truly a Renaissance man and was called the Prince of the Humanists.  His best-known work is his satire The Praise of Folly (1509), which criticized the vanity of humankind, the pride of the aristocratic classes, and especially the abuses currently being perpetrated by the Roman Catholic church.  His philosophy emphasized church reform, pacifism, tolerance, and the unity of European culture.