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History and Evolution:
By William E. Steinman:
Part 64, Rabelais:
June 14, 2004:
It's time for some comic relief. For that we can look at François Rabelais (1494-1553). He was a French humanist, physician, Priest, and a comic genius of literature. His masterpiece was a set of four novels which he named Gargantua and Pantagruel.
Rabelais was living through some oppressive times in France and much of what he did put him at risk with the Holy Fathers. He was a humanist and associated with other humanists in the Franciscan order. He also studied Greek when it was considered to be a heretical language by the local church leaders. You got to know that kind of stuff would not go down well with the orthodox big shots. They were so serious they took his Greek books away. He avoided further trouble by obtaining a dispensation from Pope Clement VII. That got him moved to the Benedictine order under Bishop Geoffroy d'Estissac.
He did not like the Benedictine order so he broke his vows and skipped out to the University of Montpellier to study medicine. He graduated quickly and began lecturing on the works of ancient Greek physicians. He also rewrote Hippocrates' Aphorisms and Galen's Art of Raising Children. He also had time to father two children by an unknown woman. They got their father's name and Pope Paul IV made them legitimate. How nice!
Rabelais went to Narbonne to practice medicine but moved on quickly when he obtained an appointment to the hospital of Lyon, the Hôtel-Dieu, in 1532. There he began to write and found his inherent talent. He was, as they say, a natural. His first work was a pamphlet written anonymously. He gave it a true French excessively cumbersome title, Les Grandes et inestimables cronicques du grant et énorme géant Gargantua. Whatever that means the pamphlet was well received. He was on his way.
He next tried his hand at novel writing under a pen name. He was still into verbose titles. He called it The Horrible and Terrifying Deeds and Words of the Renowned Pantagruel, King of the Dipsodes. The short name we use for the book is Pantagruel which means huge being, like Titan or Gargantuan. This work was also a hit in France where his type of humor and word play had never been done before. He and France discovered his genius as a great storyteller. He used clever invented characters to poke fun at the sophistry of the French and made them laugh at themselves.
Of course the novel was condemned by the big shots at the Sorbonne in Paris. It was labeled obscene. The Sorbonne was the university of Paris where Scholasticism held sway. Being condemned, then as now, failed to hurt the popularity of a book. Capitalizing on his new found success, Rabelais followed with another novel which he called Pantagrueline Prognostication. This was a ripping parody of the almanacs and astrological nonsense that was becoming popular at the time.
Rabelais also traveled to the extent that he lost his job at the Lyon hospital. They replaced him with a more dependable person. We can guess that did not dismay Rabelais unduly. Before he got canned he published a serious book, Topographia antiquae Romae,, Bartolomeo Marliani's description of Rome. He then went back to what he did best. He wrote The Inestimable Life of the Great Gargantua. In that, he again ridiculed, mocked, and satirized everything in sight. He was not afraid to take shots at the big shots, including the Holy Roman emperor, Charles V.
After that, Rabelais stopped publishing for a while and concentrated on being physician to Cardinal Jean du Bellay and his brother, Guillaume. The du Bellays were well placed members of a prominent french family. Jean was one of the chief counsellors of King Francis I of France. He was also a protector of humanists and religious reformers. Rabelais did well to come under his wing. By virtue of that protection, Rabelais was able to get pope Paul III to forgive his indiscretion when he skipped out on the Benedictine order. The pope freed him from censure and allowed him to reenter the order.
Lucky Rabelais. He was able to enter the order at Saint-Maur-les-Fossés. The abbot there happened to be his protector Cardinal Jean du Bellay. A few months later the convent was secularized and Rabelais became, of all things, a secular priest. Therein he was authorized to practice medicine. He moved right up in the medical world, receiving a doctorate from Montpellier.
Later, in 1542, Rabelais traveled to the Piedmont with Guillaume. Unfortunately, Guillaume died in 1543 and Rabelais lost an important protector. Bed enough, but another protector Geoffroy d'Estissac kicked off at the same time. With that, the Parliament of Paris and the Sorbonne promptly condemned his books. That was serious and could have meant doom for Rabelais. He did the prudent thing and begged the protection of the Queen of Navarre who happened to be the King's sister. For that, Rabelais dedicated his third Pantagruel book to her, Third Book of the Heroic Deeds and Words of the Noble Pantagruel. It was a good satire and it was immediately condemned for heresy by the Sorbonne. Again Rabelais showed prudence and skipped town. He went to Metz where he remained until 1547.
It seems prudence was his strong suite. In 1547 Rabelais again sought the protection of Cardinal Jean du Bellay as his physician. He traveled Europe with the cardinal an delivered an incomplete version of his fourth Pantagruel book to his printer. This was published even though it ended in the middle of a sentence. Later. in 1552 Rabelais was able to complete the fourth book and republish it. He called it the Fourth Book of the Heroic Deeds and Words of the Noble Pantagruel. Of course, it was also condemned and banned.
These holy big shots, it seems , had nothing better to do that
read and condemn works of art. Because of his protectors, Rabelais
was never punished for his alleged heresies. In fact, his powerful
friends had the bans lifted almost a quickly as they were pronounced.
Along the way he wrote other books, but he will always be best
know for his four Pantagruel novels. He died in Paris in 1553
and was buried in Saint-Paul-des-Champs.
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