e convents and
monasteries, or denounced more unsparingly the unfaithfulness and
impurity of the parish clergy, and the simony pervading alike all grades
of the hierarchy. His censure was the more effective because he spoke
in sorrow rather than in anger.[124] John Gerson, his contemporary and
friend, who reached the eminent position of chancellor of the
university, was not less bold in stigmatizing the same evils, while the
weight of his authority was even greater. So far, however, was he from
grasping the nature and need of a substantial renovation of the existing
religious belief, that to his influence in no inconsiderable measure was
due the perfidious condemnation and execution of the great Bohemian
forerunner of the Reformation, John Huss. The student of mediaeval
history may be inclined to smile at the subtilties of scholastic
distinctions, but he is also compelled to lament the fact that the death
of a _Realist_ was greeted with demonstrations of evident satisfaction
by a philosopher belonging to the opposite school of the
_Nominalists_.[125]

[Sidenote: Jean Bouchet's "Deploration."]

A century elapsed between the time of Nicholas de Clemangis and Gerson
and the almost simultaneous appearance of Ulrich Zwingle in Switzerland
and Martin Luther in Germany. During this long interval of expectation
the voice of remonstrance was not altogether silent. A few earnest men
refused to suppress the indignation they felt at the sight of the
impiety that had invaded the sacred precincts of the church. Among the
last of those whose words have come down to us was Jean Bouchet, a
native of Poitiers. In 1512, only five years before the publication of
the theses of the reformer of Wittemberg, he gave to the world a poem
not devoid of historical interest, though possessed of little poetic
merit, entitled "_La Deploration de l'Eglise militante_."[126] In this
spirited lament it is the church herself that addresses the
hierarchy--pontiff, cardinals, patriarchs, bishops, and others--as well
as kings and secular dignitaries. She complains of the great injuries
and molestations she endures. The practice of simony has converted a
temple into a loathsome stable. Science and learning are no longer
necessary for the candidate for ecclesiastical preferment; a hundred
crowns in hand will serve his purpose much better, no matter how bad his
moral character may be. As for his qualifications, he is full well
provided if he can manage the hou