se his deserving nobles,
should prefer to bestow upon them rich abbeys and priories, rather than
leave these to the monks in their cloisters--monks who, as the monarch
used to say, "were good for nothing but to eat and drink, to frequent
taverns and gamble, to twist cords for the cross-bow, set traps for
ferrets and rabbits, and train linnets to whistle"--men whose idleness
and other vices were so notorious that the expressions, "He is as idle
as a priest or monk," and "Avaricious and lewd as a priest or monk,"
passed into proverbs.[109]

[Sidenote: Aversion to the use of the French language.]

Ecclesiastical teachers themselves so ignorant and corrupt could not be
expected to do much for the elevation of the laity. Of _popularizing_
knowledge, especially religious knowledge, the clergy and their
adherents had little thought. Latin alone was deemed suitable for the
discussion of matters of faith. It was enough to condemn the employment
of French for this purpose, that it could be understood by the people.
For the reformers was reserved the honor of raising the dialect of the
masses to the dignity of a language fit for the highest literary uses,
and of compelling even their antagonists to resort to it in
self-defence, though, it must be confessed, with a very poor grace. So
late as in 1558 we find a leading theologian of the Sorbonne publicly
_apologizing_ for the condescension. "Very dear friend," he writes in
the address to the reader, "I doubt not that, at first sight, you will
regard it as strange and perhaps very wrong that this reply is couched
in the vulgar tongue; _seeing that it would be much more suitable were
it circulated in the Latin rather than the French tongue_, inasmuch as
the subject-matter consists of things greatly concerning Christian
faith, _which require rather to be put in Latin than in French_. Of this
also we have the example of the holy ancient doctors, who were always
accustomed to write against heretics in Latin and not in French."[110]
If such was the avowed repugnance to the use of the language of the
people in the treatment of religious themes, so late as within a year of
the death of Henry the Second, it may readily be conceived how deep the
aversion was a generation earlier, at the first appearance of the
reformation.

[Sidenote: Ignorance of the Holy Scriptures.]

As to acquaintance with the contents of the Holy Scriptures, either in
the original or in translation, there was next to