Though not unduly emphasized, the folly of current superstitions is held up to ridicule.

Some there are who have turned the saints into pagan gods; some who have measured purgatory into years and days and cheat themselves with indulgences against it; some theologians who spend all their time discussing such absurdities as whether God could have redeemed men in the form of a woman, a devil, an ass, a squash or a stone, others who explain the mystery of the Trinity.
In following up his plan for the restoration of a simpler Christianity, Erasmus rightly thought that a return from the barren subtleties of the schoolmen to {58} the primitive sources was essential.

He wished to reduce Christianity to a moral, humanitarian, undogmatic philosophy of life.

His attitude towards dogma was to admit it and to ignore it.
Scientific enlightenment he welcomed more than did either the Catholics or the Reformers, sure that if the Sermon on the Mount survived, Christianity had nothing to fear.

In like manner, while he did not attack the cult and ritual of the church, he never laid any stress on it.