Erasmus, the Dutch Humanist, 15th century

What would St. Jerome say could he see the Virgin’s milk exhibited for money, with as much honor paid to it as the consecrated body of Christ; the miraculous oil; the portions of the true cross, enough if they were collected to freight a large ship? Here we have the hood of St. Francis, there Our Lady’s petticoat or St. Anne’s comb, or St. Thomas of Canterbury’s shoes; not presented as innocent aids to religion, but as the substance of religion itself—and all through the avarice of priests and the hypocrisy of monks playing on the credulity [naïveté] of the people. . . .