Page:Biographical and critical studies by James Thomson ("B.V.").djvu/33

 RABELAIS 17 admission, on the ground that he remained under the censure of the Church for apostasy, the bulls of abso- lution being cancelled by his non-compliance with their conditions. Accordingly, he had to address another application to the Pope, which, like the first, is extant, for confirmation of the previous absolution and indulgences. As it was recommended by the cardinal, and supported by friends in Rome, it seems to have been granted without difficulty ; and Rabelais, assuming the Benedictine habit, installed himself, with his books and scientific instruments, in the said convent of St. Maur, where, more than a century after his death, his room was still shown to strangers, as was also, at Montpellier, the house he had lived in. He loved this residence, which, in his epistle to Car- dinal de Chastillon, he terms " Paradise of salubrity, amenity, serenity, commodity, delights, and all honest pleasures of agriculture and country life." The Car- dinal du Bellay, who also liked the place, equally favourable for study and health, erected a magnificent mansion there in the Italian style, adorned with sculptures and surrounded by gardens; and Rabe- lais was always a welcome guest. But he was not the man to confine himself to the convent when the Papal brief gave him permission to practise medicine, as a work of charity, wherever he pleased. He kept travel- ling about, sojourning now in one town, now in another ; he visited the friends of his youth, Antoine Ardillon at Fontenay-le-Comte, Geofifroi d'Estissac at Leguge or I'Ermenaud, Jean Bouchet at Poitiers, Andre Tiraqueau at Bordeaux, where he had been appointed Councillor to the Parliament. He frequently stayed a while at Chinon, where he still had relatives.