ABSTRACT
Generations of schoolboys, not least in England, used to study the Colloquies of Erasmus when learning their Latin. They are presented by Erasmus as a textbook. They begin with simple lists of useful and elegant phrases - greetings and suchlike. Swiftly they move on to those witty dialogues which expound a subtle humanist Christianity and expose superstition and doltishness to ridicule. They propagate a laughing religion, as effectively then as now. Many interested in Christian laughter may not yet have read any of them. That can be put right: a taste of a mere passage or two from them will go a long way towards giving anyone who needs it an idea of how far a priest can go in laughing at error within the Church and what is meant by the gospel according to Lucian.
