posed with all the energy of his nature the violence of the peasantry, and the lawlessness and licentiousness of the anabaptists. Between 1526 and 1529 he prepared a new church service, under the patronage of the Elector, and with the aid of Melancthon and other members of the Saxon Church. His intolerance of the Swiss was little inferior to that of the Papacy. In 1530 his place at the diet of Augsberg was occupied by Melancthon. The sentence pronounced against Luther, whereby he was declared a heretic, being still suspended over him, he in 1537 wrote the Smalcaldic articles. In 1545 he refused any participation of his party in the Council of Trent. On the 18th February, 1546, he died. Luther's complete works appeared in 1826 at Erlangen, in 60 volumes.

RABELAIS, FRANCOIS-1483-1553.*

He who would estimate men aright, must contrast them with others of their own time. Those who are inclined to judge Luther harshly, and accuse him of coarseness and bitterness of language, should make a careful study of Rabelais-his Gargantua and his Pantagruel. Born in the same year as Luther, at Chinon, in Touraine, like Luther, Rabelais became a monk, and in time was equally disgusted with the gross ignorance, the superstition, the irreverence, the immorality of the times, and, above all, with the extravagant pretensions of Rome. Like Luther, though in a different manner, he endeavoured to reform his age. He called fiction and satire to his aid. We are told that he entered the Franciscan order at Fontenay-le Comte, and that the absence there of all true learning disgusting him, induced him to give vent to his satirical humour, which, added, it is said, to some youthful indiscretion, drew upon him the hatred of the monks; that, with the permission

*The matter of this sketch is derived from "The Works of Rabelais," published by Chatto and Windus, Piccadilly; and Bohn's edition of "The Works of Francois Rabelais," 1863.

of Clement VII., he entered the Benedictine order about the year 1523; that he shortly after went to Montpellier as a secular priest; that he afterwards studied medicine, obtained the degree of doctor, and taught and practised the medical profession; that like Luther, notwithstanding his ridicule of the clergy and his bitter attacks on the Church, he had believers in high places, the Cardinal du Bellay being among his warm and constant friends. Nothing is more unjust or absurd than to suppose, as some profess to believe, that even in those days there were not many in the Church as much shocked at its condition as those who stand out conspicuously as the exponents of its abuses. The fact that Luther, Rabelais, and many of those who publicly and privately aided them, were members of the Church, proves that the desire for reform came from within, though in some instances it was advanced by those who left the Church. Rabelais was a parish priest at Meudon at the date of his death, 1553.

Boileau calls him la raison en masque, and Rousseau le gentil maitre Francois, though Voltaire, strange to say, and possibly without reason, censures the Gargantua and the Pantagruel. The spirit and language of the period, and not the real taste of Rabelais, must bear the burden of blame for language, for the use of which in these days no adequate excuse could be offered. The grosser portions, which are here omitted, are, however, not the less instructive to those who desire to become familiar with the actual life of the period. When reading Rabelais, it is well to bear in mind that he was, as we are told and have no reason to doubt, a conscientious teacher of his people; that it was his delight to instruct the children of his parish in sacred music; that his house was the resort of the learned; that his medical skill was ever employed in the service of his parish; and that his purse was always open to the needy.

The following are a few extracts from his works :—

"By the faith of a Christian,' said Eudemon, 'I am highly transported when I consider what an honest fellow this monk

is, for he makes us all merry. How is it, then, that they exclude the monks from all good companies; calling them feast troublers, as the bees drive away the drones from their hives?' 'Hereunto,' answered Gargantua, 'there is nothing so true as that the frock and cowl draw to them the opprobries, injuries, and maledictions of the world, just as the wind called Cecias attracts the clouds. The peremptory reason is because they eat the turd of the world, that is to say, they feed upon the sins of the people, and as a noisome thing they are cast into the privies, that is, the convents and abbeys, separated from civil conversation, as the privies and retreats of a house are; but if you conceive how an ape in a family is always mocked and provokingly incensed, you shall easily apprehend how monks are shunned of all men, both young and old; the ape keeps not the house as a dog doth; he draws not in the plough as the ox; he yields neither milk nor wool as the sheep; he carrieth no burthen as a horse doth! That which he doth is only to spoil and defile all, which is the cause wherefore he hath of all men mocks, frumperies, and bastinadoes.

666

After the same manner a monk (I mean those little, idle, lazy monks) doth not labour and work as do the peasant and artificer; doth not ward and defend the country as doth the soldier; cureth not the sick and diseased as the physician doth; doth neither preach nor teach as do the evangelical doctors and schoolmasters; doth not import commodities and things necessary for the commonwealth as the merchant doth; therefore is it that by and of all men they are hooted at, hated, and abhorred.' 'Yea, but,' said Grangousier, 'they pray to God for us.' 'Nothing less,' answered Gargantua; 'true it is, with a tingle-tangle jangling of bells they trouble and disquiet all their neighbours about them.' 'Right,' said the monk, ‘a mass, a matine, a vesper well rung is half said. They mumble out great store of legends and psalms, by them not at all understood; they say many paternosters, interlarded with ave maries,' without thinking upon or apprehending the meaning

of what it is they say, which, truly, I call mocking of God, and not prayers. But, so help them God, as they pray for us, and not for being afraid to lose their victuals, their manchets, and good fat pottage. All true Christians, of all estates and conditions, in all places and at all times, send up their prayers to God, and the Spirit prayeth and intercedeth for them, and God is gracious to them. Now such a one is our good Friar John; therefore every man desireth to have him in his company. He is no bigot; he is not for division; he is an honest heart, plain, resolute, good fellow; he travels, he labours, he defends the oppressed, comforts the afflicted, helps the needy, and keeps the close of the Abbey . . . (Book I., Chap. XL.)

"Then,' said Grangousier, 'go your ways, poor men, in the name of God the Creator, to whom I pray to guide you perpetually; and henceforward be not so ready to undertake these idle and unprofitable journeys (pilgrimages). Look to your families, labour every man in his vocation, instruct your children, and live as the good Apostle, St. Paul, directeth you. In doing whereof, God, His angels and saints, will guard and protect you, and no evil or plague at any time shall befall you.'

"Then Gargantua led them into the hall to take their refection; but the pilgrims did nothing but sigh, and said to Gargantua, 'O how happy is that land which hath such a man for their Lord! We have been more edified and instructed by the talk which he hath had with us than by all the sermons that ever were preached in our town.' 'This is,' said Gargantua, 'that which Plato saith (lib. v. De Republ.) ::- "Those commonwealths are happy whose rulers philosophise, and whose philosophers rule."' Then caused he their wallets to be filled with victuals, and their bottles with wine, and gave unto each of them a horse to ease them upon their way, together with some pence to live upon." (Book I., Chap. XLV.)

TABLE-TALK IN PRAISE OF THE DECRETALS.-Now topers, pray observe that while Homenas was saying his dry mass,

three collectors, or licensed beggars of the church, each of them with a large basin, went round among the people, saying, with a loud voice, "Pray remember the blessed men who have seen his face." As we came out of the temple, they brought their basins brim-full of Papimany chink to Homenas, who told us that it was plentiful to feast with; and that, of this contribution and voluntary tax, one part should be laid out in good drinking, another in good eating, and the remainder in both, according to an admirable exposition hidden in a corner of their holy decretals; which was performed to a T, and that at a noted tavern not much unlike that of Will's at Amiens. Believe me, we tickled it off there with copious cramming and numerous swillings.

I made two notable observations at that dinner; the one, that there was not one dish served up, whether of cabrittas, capons, hogs (of which latter there is great plenty in Papimany), pigeons, conies, leverets, turkeys, or others, without abundance of magistral stuffing; the other, that every course, and the fruit also, was served up by unmarried females of the place, tight lasses, I'll assure you, waggish, fair, good-conditioned and comely. They were clad all in fine, long, white albes, with two girts; their hair interwoven with narrow tape and purple ribbon, stuck with roses, gilly-flowers, marjoram, daffidown-dillies, thyme, and other sweet flowers.

At every cadence they invited us to drink and bang it about, dropping us neat and gentle courtsies; nor was the sight of them unwelcome to all the company; and as for Friar John, he leered on them side-ways, like a cur that steals a capon. When the first course was taken off, the females melodiously sang us an epode in the praise of the sacrosanct decretals; and then the second course being served up, Homenas, joyful and cheery, said to one of the she-butlers, "Light here, Clerica." Immediately one of the girls brought him a tall-boy brim-full of extravagant wine. He took fast hold of it, and fetching a deep sigh, said to Pantagruel, "My lord, and you, my good