Throughout the years the definition of what it is to be a "faithful Catholic" has been under dispute. There are many different ways to look at this idea, and none can be considered wrong due to the fact that no one really knows. Some say that to be a faithful Catholic one must follow every law that the Church has put in effect, live a life according to the Gospels, and commit good deeds as often as one can. A contrary view of this would be if one believed that Jesus Christ is your savior and lived according to the Gospels, but found that the Church itself has made some errors and feel that you do not have to live according to all of their rules.
A man who believed the second view, and was scrutinized for it was Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam. Erasmus was a brilliant satirist that used his skill of clever mockery to vocalize his disagreement with the problems that were present in the Roman Catholic Church of his time.
Stained glass at St John the Baptist's Anglican Ch...
Desiderius Erasmus (1466/69–1536) in a 1523 port...
Desiderius Erasmus, 1466-1536, Rotterdam Renaissan...Erasmus felt that the church had many changes that were a necessity in order for the religion to grow; along with the fact that he felt some teaching was completely wrong.
Up until the time of publication of Erasmus's book Praise of Folly, there had been little opposition to the Roman Catholic Church; although it was thought, it was almost unheard of to vocalize it. According to most Catholics of this time, writing a book that directly "picks on" that church, and makes light of some subjects that the church regards as being important and correct, would also be known as direct defiance of the Church itself. By not directly stating that the Church is wrong, and using his alternate voice, a female named "Folly",