Of these Ten Colloquies, my favorites were "Charon" and "The Funeral." His satire is clever and sometimes just as relevant today as it was back in the 15th and 16th centuries. Erasmus believed that if there is such a thing as a just war, it is one fought in self-defense after one's country has been invaded, much like Ukraine's defense against Russian invasion. But he thought "just" wars seldom occurred. Erasmus was a humanist and a Christian and these ideologies influenced his arguments in each colloquy. Apparently his political enemies did not appreciate his form of humor as he tended to attack many religious theologies, particularly in the Godly Feast. In The Funeral, he disparages the pride of the rich; he compares the extravagance of a rich man's funeral to that of the simplicity of that of a poor man's. Charon the ferryman debates with the avenging spirit, Alastor about the volume of souls he's having to ferry along the river Styx. According to Alastor, "If you want to make money, you have to spend money." Yet what good is money in the afterlife? Alastor also states: "People mutter that it's outrageous for human affairs to be turned topsy-turvy on the personal grudges or ambitions of two or three men." Such is how wars are waged.

Historical primary document. Wonderfully insightful. A must read for any student of the Christian Reformation.

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Cannius. ... now it's time for you to begin changing from brute to man.
Polyphemus. You do well to warn me, for prophets these days declare the end of the world is at hand.
Cannius. All the more reason to hurry.
Polyphemus. I await the hand of Christ.
Cannius. See that you are pliant material for his hand! But where do they get the notion that the end of the world is near?
Polyphemus. They say it's because men are behaving just as they did before the Flood overwhelmed them. They feast, drink, stuff themselves, marry and are given in marriage, whore, buy, sell, pay and charge interest, build buildings. Kings make war, priests are zealous to increase their wealth, theologians invent syllogisms, monks roam through the world, the commons riot, Erasmus writes colloquies. In short, no calamity is lacking: hunger, thirst, robbery, war, plague, sedition, poverty. Doesn't this prove human affairs are at an end?
Cannius. Is this mass of woes, what worries you most?
Polyphemus. Guess.
Cannius. That your purse is full of cobwebs.
Polyphemus. Damned if you haven't hit it! -- Just now I'm on my way back from a drinking party. Some other time, when I'm more sober, I'll argue with you about the Gospel, if you like.
Cannius. When shall I see you sober?
Polyphemus. When I'm sober.
Cannius. When will you be so?
Polyphemus. When you see me so. Meantime, my dear Cannius, good luck.

Interesting look at the Renaissance/Reformation times. I enjoy Erasmus' use of irony to make some of the points that got him into trouble and got this book on the Index of prohibited books.