Reformation Reformer Francois Reblais

Let me introduce you to a Reformation reformer that you may not know of – François Rabelais. Who was François Rabelais besides a monk who eventually left the monastery and an author whose books were condemned by many?

Looking at Rabelais' life, we have to wonder about his ideals as a Christian and as a reformer. He entered the Franciscan order of monks and soon after joined the Benedictine order which allowed him more freedom. Eventually, he vacated the monastery completely.  Rabelais left the monastery behind to study medicine and write books. Other reformers left the monasteries in order to enact greater reform, as seen in Erasmus and Luther; but Rabelais was not involved in any obvious reform against the Church. The books written by Rabelais eventually become condemned, which makes one think that they may have been Christian after all, worrying the Church. Or were they just outrageous works of filth?

Uncovering the heart of Rabelais' writing can be difficult due to the complexity of passing through the vulgar portions of his works.  Although these books are full of moral atrocities and have been considered obscene, he does include great criticisms against Church teachings. He was living in a time of great religious controversy, so he used his satirical writings as a careful strategy for working against popes and kings.

Rabelais' most noticeable attack on the Church focuses on the monastery. In Gargantua, the title character builds a monastery for Friar John as a reward for helping him in the war. This in itself is not a problem. The criticism comes in with the organization of the monastery. The motto of the Abbey of Theleme was "Do What You Will!" This is the opposite view of the monastic control that the Church held over their monks at this time. And when you examine the system enacted in the monastery the ruse grows.  They do what they want throughout the day in their own time. There is not someone telling them when, what, and where to do anything. Prayer becomes a private thing done in their own time. There are no walls enclosing the monastery either to keep people in or out because the people in the monastery where allowed to come and go as they pleased. The community within the monastery was not just men but also included women. All of this runs contrary to the contemporary set up of the medieval monastery.

And the members in the monastery were given a humanist education, something important to Rabelais. And they were all also good looking, not the throw aways of society that usually darkened the steps of most monasteries in those days. Rabelais' underlying theme throughout his books comprised the idea that worldly pleasure are a necessary need of human nature.

Subtle offenses of the church pop up in many places throughout his books. In chapter seventeen of Gargantua, Rabelais begins by criticizing the Christianity of the Parisians in a covert manner "For the Parisians are such simpletons, such gapers, and such feckless idiots that a buffoon, a peddler of indulgences, a mule with bells on its collar, or a fiddler at a crossroad will draw a greater crowd than a good preacher of the gospel." Look how he systematically includes the seller of indulgences with his list of other pointless city attractions. Obviously, he can be counted with Luther in his disapproval of the selling of indulgences. His way of expressing this view is not as easily perceived as Luther's treatises against indulgences, but his main statement in this sentence is that the people in this city are more interested in meaningless performances than with what is really important which is learning from a good preacher the way to live a Christian life. This goes to show that he does believe in true Christianity not just the teaching of the Church, which included the selling of indulgences.

The letter from Gargantua in Utopia to Pantagruel, his son, in Paris is one of the most sentimental and culturally important parts in the sequel, Pantagruel. It is amazing to read the opening of this letter and hear the sincere Christian beliefs that Gargantua imparts to his son in his greeting because this is coming from the person, who in the first book, did such offensive things.

He says that God gave him a kind of immortality by the procreation of children (meaning Pantagruel) through a lawful marriage. He then continues by admitting his imperfections in sinning, "although not free from sin, I confess – for we all sin, and continually pray to God to wipe out our sins…" Here we see that he himself is praying to God and asking for forgiveness for sins instead of going to that intermediary, the priest. As Luther would agree, the priest is not necessary for confession. Also, the Church teaches that you have to have enough good works to go to heaven. The lifestyle that Rabelais proclaims through his characters does not seem to be of someone who is afraid of not having done enough good works. By this previous statement, he seems to believe that he can just ask for forgiveness and it is forgiven. In the following paragraph, he exhorts his son to continue to do good, as he says, "…in order to encourage you more strongly to proceed from good to better. For what I write to you at present is not so much in order that you may live in this virtuous manner as that you may rejoice in so living and in so having lived…" Here we see Gargantua promote to his son to do what is right but also to live well and happy. The piousness of the Church at this time taught a stoic Christianity. But what Rabelais is trying to get across, an underlying theme within the whole sequel is that religion can be happy; we can enjoy life and incorporate that into our Christianity.

Rabelais's religion is real and thriving within his works, but it is hidden within the vulgarity of the language. Why he had to incorporate some things considered offensive with his overwhelmingly Christian truths is beyond me. Maybe some things were incorporated as it interested him as a doctor, definitely the descriptions in killing people. Religion and Christianity were very important to Rabelais; he just chose to criticize and reform the Church within his medium of his satirical writing. In many ways, this was wise on his part because he lived to see old age. In France, there were many heretics killed during the time when he was writing. For example, in Paris between November 1534 and January 1535, twenty-two heretics were burnt at the stake. So you can't blame Rabelais for working toward his goals in the manner that he did. His only hope, I'm sure, was that someone would one day see the errors in the Church that he was pointing out. His books may very well contain important reforming issues, but it is also very Rabelaisian, as well, which is a down side for it discourages the reading of his works. By the way, Rabelaisian has now been defined in the dictionary as "characterized by coarse humor or bold caricature." He definitely made an impact on the world.