t poverty amongst the oppressed serfs. The Church was becoming increasingly corrupt, greedy rulers were waging wars throughout Europe to fulfill their own petty ambitions and the renaissance was causing a cultural uprising. Resultantly Utopia was a product of religious, social and cultural upheaval.
As Erasmus once claimed in The Praise of Folly (1511), "contemporary pontiffs instead of being the vicars of Christ, had become the deadliest enemies of the Church, striving ceaselessly after wealth, honours, and countless pleasures, even stooping to fight with fire and sword to preser
...