Human folly was a common theme in late medieval northern humanism. Philosophers and preachers lamented how the foolish nature of humanity allowed them to be distracted by the physical pleasures of this world at the price of eternal salvation. The allegory of the Ship of Fools implied that all of humanity, no matter what their station in life, was in the same boat together without a pilot or a rudder. This website of an exhibition at Glasgow University gives an idea of how prevalent the theme was in early sixteenth-century literature.
