And also, we must remember that it was the custom for the unlearned to poke fun at the scholars, hence all professions felt the satiric lash. * * * * * At the table of Pope Alexander the sixth, the company debated one day, if it were advantageous to a state to have physicians in it? The greater part held not; and alleged, as a reason, that Rome had passed her first, and best, six hundred years without them. But the pope said, he was not of that opinion, _for were there no physicians, the multitude of mankind would be so great, that the world could not contain them_. * * * * * A Biscayan clergyman, a follower of the cardinal Don Pedro Gonzales de Mendoza, pulled one day a pistol out of his pocket. The cardinal saw him, and reproved him, saying, “That it was indecent for a clergyman to carry arms.” The Biscayan answered, “Most reverend lord, I do not carry arms to hurt any man, but to defend myself against the dogs of this country, which are remarkable for fierceness.” The cardinal said, “I can tell you a charm against dogs. You need only repeat any verse of the gospel of St. John.” The Biscayan replied, _Yes, my lord, but that does not apply in every case, for many of our dogs do not understand Latin_. * * * * * The same cardinal said of the monks, who, by shaving the top and under part of the head, form a crown of hair around, that they had crowns which the most ambitious would not envy. * * * * * A bishop sent a present of six capons to brother Bernaldino Palomo, but the servant who carried them stole one. _Tell his lordship_, said Palomo, _that I kiss his hands for the five capons.--Do you kiss his hands for the other_. * * * * * Juan de Ayala, lord of the town of Cabolla, slew a crane. His cook, when he dressed it, gave a leg to his mistress. When it was served up, Juan said, Where is the other leg? The cook answered, Cranes have but one leg. The day following, Juan took his cook to the chace with him, and perceiving a flock of cranes, which, as usual with that bird, all stood upon one leg, the cook said, Your worship sees the truth of what I said. Juan riding up to the birds called, _Ox, Ox, Ox_. The cranes being startled, put down the other leg: and Juan said, See, you knave, have they two legs or one? The cook answered, _Body of me, sir, had you called Ox, Ox, to the one you dined on yesterday it would have produced its other leg too_. * * * * *