of 
C ariczzture 
and 
Gratqfgue 
CHAPTER 
XIX. 
THE SATIRICAL LITERATURE or THE SIXTEENTH  
-MAcA1zoN1c PQETRY.-THE EPISTOLJE OBSURORUM v1Ro1wM.- 
RABELA1s.-coun-r OF THE QUEEN or NAVARRE, AND rrs LITERARY 
CIRCLE; BONAVENTURE mas PER1ERs.-HENRI ETIENNE.-THE usus, 
AND rrs SATIREZ THE "SATYRE M1';N1PP1'2E." 
THE fixteenth century, efpecially on the Continent, was a period of that 
fort of violent agitation which is moft favourable to the growth of 
fatire. Society was breaking up, and going through a conrfe of decom- 
polition, and it prefented to the view on every Iide fpectacles which pro- 
voked the mockery, perhaps more than the indignation, of lool-Iers-on. 
Even the clergy had learnt to laugh at themfelves, and alinoft at their own 
religion; and people who thought or reflected were gradually feparating 
into two cla1i'es-thofe who caft all religion from them, and rulhed into a 
jeering fcepticifm, and thofe who entered feriouily and with refolution into 
the work of reformation. The latter found molt encouragement among 
the Teutonic nations, while the fceptical element appears to have had its 
birth in Italy, and even in Rome itfelf, where, among popes and cardinals, 
religion had degenerated into empty forms. 
At forne period towards the clofe of the fifteenth century, a mutilated 
ancient ftatue was accidentally dug up in Rome, and it was erected on a 
pedeltal in a place not far from the Urfini Palace. Oppofite it itood the 
{hop ofa fhoemaker, named Pafquillo, or Pafquino, the latter being the form 
molt commonly adopted at a later period. This Pafquillo was notorious 
as a facetious fellow, and his {hop was ufually crowded by people who 
went there to tell tales and hear news; and, as no other name had been 
invented