_Influence of Poetry in promoting the Reformation._――As the {375} influence which the poets and satirists of the age had upon the Reformation, is a subject curious in itself, and to which little attention has been paid, the following illustrations of what has been generally stated in the text, may not be unacceptable to some readers. Dante, Petrarch, Boccacio, and other Italian writers, by descanting on the ambition, luxury, and scandalous manners of the clergy, had contributed greatly to lessen the veneration in which they had been long held, and to produce in the minds of men a conviction of the necessity of a reformation. “There was,” says John Gerson, chancellor of the university of Paris, “one called Johannes Meldinensis, who wrote a book called the Romaunt of the Rose, which book, if I only had, and that there were no more in the world, I would rather burn it than take five hundred pounds for the same; and if I thought the author thereof did not repent of that book before he died, I would no more pray for him, than I would for Judas that betrayed Christ.” Catal. MSS. in Adv. Lib. The writings of Chaucer, and especially those of Langland, had the same effect in England, When the religious struggle had actually commenced, and become hot, a diversion, by no means inconsiderable, was made in favour of the reformers by the satirists and poets of the age. A pantomime, intended to degrade the court of Rome and the clergy, was acted before Charles V. at the Augsburg assembly. Lud. Fabricius de Ludis Scenicis, p. 231. Gerdesii Historia Evangel. Renovat. tom. ii. Docum. No. vii. p. 48. In 1524, a tragedy was acted at Paris, in the presence of Francis I., in which the success of Luther was represented, and the pope and cardinals were ridiculed, by kindling a fire, which all their efforts could not extinguish. Jacob. Burchard. de Vita Ulrici Hutteni, pars ii. 293, pars iii. p. 296. Gerdes. Hist. iv. 315. As late as 1561, the pope’s ambassador complained to the queen mother of France, that the young king, Charles IX., had assisted at a show, in which he had counterfeited a friar. Letters of the cardinal de St Croix, prefixed to Aymons, Synodes Nationaux de France, tom. i. p. 7‒11. In Switzerland, Nic. Manuel wrote certain comedies of this description in the year 1522, which were published under the title of Fastnachts Spielen, at Berne, in 1525. Gerdes. ii. 451. There were similar compositions in Holland. Brand’s Hist. of the Reformation, i. 127, 128. {376} Lond. 1720. And also in England. Burnet’s Hist. of the Reform. i. 318. Nasmith, Catal. Libr. Manuscr. Colleg. Corporis Christi, p. 93.