 Pietas does not depend on learning. Faith is the only prerequisite. This is the conclusion Erasmus offers in The Praise of Folly. He begins his satire showing off his classical learning and ends it paradoxically by praising the devout fool. Those who scorn the world are considered fools or madmen by the majority of people, Erasmus says, but they will inherit God’s kingdom and in their ecstasy “feel some foretaste and savour of the reward to come” (CWE 27: 152).