Erasmus and a Pilgrimage for Religion's Sake

The early modern christian humanist, Erasmus, was a famous theologian who questioned the traditions of the church and the rituals of christianity in many of his writings. His works were later looked up to for inspiration by Luther and his contemporaries. In his colloquy, Pilgrimage for Religion's Sake, Erasmus' views on the traditions of the catholic church can easily be discerned from his generous use of satire. In this colloquy, Erasmus uses a conversation between two christians to point out the practices that he believes are useless and wrong in order to promote reform in the church. The first practice that Erasmus attacks is pilgrimage. In the colloquy, Menedemus finds Ogygias who nobody has seen for years and asks him about where he was. Ogygias then recounts his pilgrimage to a specific statue of Mary all the way in England. Menedemus, representing the thoughts of Erasmus, asks Ogygias how that statue of Mary is different that any other statue of the Virgin Mary that one could find anywhere in Europe. By doing so, Erasmus is questioning the purpose of going on a pilgrimage. His argument is that going to far away locations in order to pray at a specific site is pointless because the divine are omnipotent and can listen to one pray from any location. In addition, Erasmus also criticizes the praying to saints for pointless or unlawful help. In a letter that was supposedly written by the Virgin Mary she says that so many people pray for pointless things that it is impossible to fulfill everyones needs and that those people who's needs she cannot fulfill end up believing less in the power of Mary. Erasmus' thoughts about Catholic traditions and theological ideas are firmly represented in this Colloquy.