in 
Literature 
and Art. 
343 
The remarkable book called an "Apologie pour Herodote," arofe out 
of an attack upon its writer by the Rornamlis. Henri Eltienne, who was 
known as a {taunch Proteftant, publiihed, at great expenfe, an edition ot 
Herodotus in Greek and Latin, and the zealous Catholics, out of fpite to 
the editor, decried his author, and fpoke of Herodotus as a mere collector 
of montirous and incredible tales. Eltienne, in revenge, publithed what, 
under the form of an apology for Herodotus, was really a violent attack on 
the Romifh church. His argument is that all hiitorians mutt relate tranI'- 
actions which appear to many incredible, and that the events of modern 
times were much more incredible, if they were not known to be true, than 
anything which is recorded by the hiliorian of antiquity. After an intro- 
ductory ditfertation on the light in which we ought to regard the fable of 
the Golden Age, and on the moral character of the ancient peoples, he 
goes on to {how that their depravity was much lefs than that of the middle 
ages and of his own time, indeed of all periods during which people were 
governed by the Church of Rome. Not only did this diffolutenets ot 
morals pervade lay fociety, but the clergy were more vicious even than 
the people, to whom they ought to ferve as an example. A large part 
of the book is filled with anecdotes of the immoral lives of the popilh 
clergy of the fixteenth century, and of their ignorance and bigotry; and 
he defcribes in detail the methods employed by the Romith church to 
keep the mats of the people in ignorance, and to reprehs all attempts at 
inquiry. Out of all this, he lays, had rifen a llhool of atheiiis and 
fcoifers, reprefented by Rabelais and Bonaventure des Periers, both of 
whom he mentions by name. 
As we approach the end of the fixteenth century, the ftruggle of 
parties became more political than religious, but not lefs bitter than 
before. The literature of the age of that celebrated "Ligue," which 
feemed at one time deitined to overthrow the ancient royalty of France, 
confitied chiefly of libellous and abuflve pamphlets, but in the midft of 
them there appeared a work far fuperior to any purely political fatire 
which had yet been feen, and the fame of which has never paffed away. 
Its object was to turn to ridicule the meeting of the Ettates of France, 
convoked by the duke of Mayenne, as leader of the Ligue, and held at 
Paris