Note 1470 — XXIX. THE POST-TRIDENTINE CHURCH.

Du Fail, whose high official position in the Parlement of Rennes precludes the supposition of any tendency to Calvinism, devotes one of his discourses (Contes et Discours d’Eutrapel No. xx.) to the evils entailed by celibacy on the church and on society, quoting the exclamation of Cardinal Contarini to Velly the French ambassador, “O quæ mala attulit in ecclesia cœlibatus ille!” It is true that such stories as “Frater Fecisti” are not historical documents, yet they have their value as indicating the drift of public feeling and the convictions forced upon the minds of the people by the irregularities of the clerical profession. The same lesson is taught by Boccaccio, Piers Ploughman, Chaucer, Poggio, the Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles, and all the other records of the interior life of the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries.