very great intimacy with the Saintly Sisters, that the irrefutable proof
of his chastity was that he stank. That stinking of St. Jerome, which is
not a veritable article of faith in the Church, is, however, an object of
pious belief; and my readers will very gladly assent to it.

When the Christian clergy wishes to form a body of doctrines to be
submitted to by all the common people it thinks that by separating its
interests and those of the common people as far as possible it must
tighten those ropes by which it binds its fellow citizens. Also the Pope
who was the most jealous of ecclesiastical power and the one who abused
it most, Hildebrand, rigorously prohibited the marriage of priests and
enunciated the most terrible warnings against those who did not retain
their celibacy. However, although neither priests nor monks were
permitted to marry, the epithet "virgins" cannot be justly applied to all
priests and all monks without exception. Nor shall I repeat here the
naughty pleasantries of Erasmus, of Boccaccio, and all the others,
against the monks; without doubt maliciousness has developed more
"satyrical" traits that they have brought out; beyond that, I have
nothing to say.




VI.

Alors une vielle. . . .
Finally an old woman . . .

The question here has to do with a procurers or go-between. That
profession has gradually fallen into discredit by I know not what