Anatomy of the Mass: Montaigne's "Cannibals"

Author(s): George Hoffmann

Source: PMLA, Vol. 117, No. 2 (Mar., 2002), pp. 207-221
Published by: Modern Language Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/823269
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117.2 ]

Anatomy of the Mass: Montaigne's "Cannibals'

GEORGE HOFFMANN

EARLY EVERYONE WHO HAS PICKED UP "OF CANNIBALS"

("Des cannibales") has been told that Montaigne intended it to
condemn a peculiarly European form of barbarity, practiced on
the "pretext of piety" (155), that had grown prevalent during the struggles
of the Reformation.' Yet this hardly explains the essay's originality, since
similar accusations had in the preceding decades become common fare
among Protestant writers, who frequently charged their Catholic fellow
citizens with "barbarism."2 Adapting recent calls among historians to put
"religion back into the Wars of Religion" (Holt), one might suggest that
"Of Cannibals" is more concerned with the religious dimension of that
conflict than is implied in existing criticism, largely devoted to finding a
place for the essay in subsequent political and anthropological thought.
The outlines of such a reading begin to appear as soon as one appre-
ciates how odd it is that this essay should have become Montaigne's
most famous. Only by its last page does "Of Cannibals" come to seem
GEORGE HOFFMANN is associate profes-
the classic that one recognizes in anthologies. Forgetting his first mus-
sor of French in the Department of Ro-
ings over fabled Atlantis or the golden age of old, Montaigne finally dis-
mance Languages and Literatures at
closes his direct contact with three Brazilian natives in order that the
the University of Michigan. With the
reader
help of a National Endowment for may
the hear them share their views on Renaissance France, creat-
Humanities Fellowship at the ing-however
Newberry briefly-the reversal of perspective that Montesquieu
would
Library, he is studying forms exploit
of reli- nearly a century and a half later in the Lettres persanes.
gious doubt in the Renaissance that
With thelie
celebrated ending pirouette, "All this is not too bad-but what's
outside the tradition of philosophical
the use? They don't wear breeches" ("Tout cela ne vas pas trop mal:
skepticism. His book, Montaigne's Ca-
mais quoy, ils ne portent point de haut de chausses"; 159; 1.31.214a),
reer (Clarendon, 1998), won the Mod-
ern Language Association'sMontaigne
Aldo and seems to anticipate the sarcasm of Swift in returning to a Eu-
ropean perspective
Jeanne Scaglione Prize for French and only to parody its parochial views on natives' nudity.3
Francophone Studies in 1999. The undeniable beauty of this arc from myth to eyewitness account and

? 2002 BY THE MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA 207

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208 Anatomy of the Mass: Montaigne's "Cannibals"
from satire to parody, however, cannot hide trou-
bling inconsistencies in the body of the essay.
First, how can one not be disappointed that
Montaigne feels the need, even if only at the out-
set, to argue over whether the New World is At-
lantis rediscovered, thereby dulling the effect of
the essay's provocative title? Following comes
the most famous page of the essay, in which he
exalts the "original naturalness" of the natives:
"The very words that signify lying, treachery,
dissimulation, avarice, envy, belittling, pardon-
unheard of" ("Les paroles mesmes qui signifient
le mensonge, la trahison, la dissimulation, l'ava-
rice, l'envie, la detraction, le pardon, inouies";
153; 1.31.206-07a). But although this utopian
description would eventually inspire Rousseau's
creation of the noble savage and, more immedi-
ately, serve as the target of irony in the second act
of Shakespeare's Tempest, it runs directly counter
to the rest of the essay, in which Montaigne takes
great pains to demonstrate that the natives have
evolved a highly complex civilization. Are Mon-
taigne's natives primitive or not? This ambiguity
has troubled much of the discussion on this essay
(Lestringant, "Le cannibalisme" [11-12] 34-38;
Touron, La glose 217-21).
Finally, if "Of Cannibals" seems to begin
too slowly, it certainly must end too quickly, for
Montaigne truncates the most interesting part of
the essay, when three Brazilians in Rouen give
their opinion of France. In what one critic re-
cently called an act of "exhibitionistic forget-
ting" (Freccero 78), he claims to have lost an
important part of their answer-"They men-
tioned three things, of which I have forgotten
the third, and I am very sorry for it," adding,
with redundancy that nearly seems to blush on
the page, "but I still remember two of them"
("ils respondirent trois choses, d'ou j'ay perdu
la troisiesme, et en suis bien marry; mais j'en ay
encore deux en memoire"; 159; 1.31.213a). Thus,
Montaigne's most famous essay begins with re-
membering, ends with forgetting, and deliber-
ately frustrates his reader, who is left to wonder
what was the natives' third response.
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PMLA
Montaigne's ideal reader, an active partner
who accepts the work's invitation to skeptical
engagement, does not dismiss the difficulties of
the essay but views its irregularities as stress
lines that indicate another intention at work, per-
haps even as the deliberate traces of a purpose
half-concealed so as to better tease its audience
out of what Montaigne calls the role of the "inat-
tentive reader" ("C'est l'indiligent lecteur qui
pert mon subject, non pas moy"; 761; 3.9.994c).
Such an engagement might take its cue from
Andre Touron, who asks of the natives' missing
reply, "Can it be about anything else but reli-
gion?" ("s'agirait-il d'autre chose que de la re-
ligion?"; La glose 219). Indeed, can it be about
anything else, when nearly every attempt by the
Renaissance to come to terms with the inhabi-
tants of the New World advanced along theolog-
ical lines of thought? Structural and historical
factors lead one to suspect that Montaigne re-
members more about Rouen than he is telling us.
Montaigne organizes the essay in sequences
involving food, war, and religion, evidently pat-
terned on the three orders into which contempo-
raries divided their society: commoners, nobility,
and the clergy. Following this traditional distinc-
tion among producer, priest, and warrior, the dis-
cussion of the cannibals moves from their eating
habits to their religious beliefs and then to their
practice of war. Similarly, Montaigne defines big-
otry as the propensity to believe that one's home-
land possesses "the perfect religion, the perfect
government, the perfect and accomplished man-
ners in all things" ("La est tousjours la parfaicte
religion, la parfaicte police, perfect et accomply
usage de toutes choses"; 152; 1.31.205a). More
striking still, when he reflects on "Of Cannibals"
in the later essay "Of Coaches" ("Des coches"),
he has a group of Peruvians respond to the con-
quistadors according to the same three catego-
ries: "As for their king [...]. As for food [...]. As
for one single God [...] witness my Cannibals"
("Quand a leur Roy [...]. Quant aux vivres [...].
Quant a un seul Dieu [... .] tesmoing mes Can-
nibales"; 695-96; 3.6.911b). Elsewhere he re-
117 2 George Hoffmann 209

verses the French maxim une loi, one moment

unefoi, unofroi
the service that no one wished to
to describe the Brazilians as "without
miss,law, with- of the Host. According to all
the Elevation
accounts,
out king, without religion of any kind" it was the most important point of the
("sans
Mass and the
loy, sans roy, sans relligion quelconque"; time-perhaps the only time-
362;
2.12.49 1c). Thus, when the cannibals comment
when on boisterous parishioners of the
the normally
sixteenth
what they have seen in Rouen, they century turned their undivided atten-
successively
examine two of France's three orders,4
tion toas Touron
the altar. Popular legend held that if one
could the
suggests, expressing their surprise that catchSwiss
a glance of the consecrated bread,
one
of the royal guard obey a child king would
and thatnot die that day; reports tell of some
the
entering
poor do not revolt against the rich. The theestate
first church only for the Elevation, while
of French society, the ecclesiastical others
order, isfrom
ran con-service to service to see as many
elevations
spicuously absent from the cannibals' as possible. A hand bell was rung to
criticism.
To discover what aspect of Christianity
alert the congregation, and many parishes rang
they might have criticized, we need to return
the steeple bells as well so that those confined to
to Rouen of October 1562.5 Onhome
Monday
might atthe
least turn toward the church at the
twenty-sixth, after three monthsright
of siege, the
moment; incense was lit, believers climbed
royal army took the city to reduce
on athe
Protestant
shoulders of their neighbors, and if the
coup. In the mixture of looting, pacification,
priest did not and
raise the Host to the crowd's satis-
tourism that ensued during the following days, might
faction, someone a cry out, "higher, higher,
lift
high point for the boy king Charles IXitand
a bit higher" ("plus haut, elevez-la un peu
mem-
bers of court in attendance would have been the plus haut"; "Elevation"; see also Bossy, Chris-
chance to meet several New World natives-a tianity 67-69). So, as all eyes turned toward
traditional feature of the municipality's wel-
the raised Host in Rouen, we might imagine our
coming committees since the days of Henri II,
Brazilians asking for an explanation of the Eu-
thanks to its heavy trade in the South American
charist's significance and, on learning that it was
dyestuffs cochineal and brazilwood.6 Then Christ's
came body, expressing their astonishment that
the French should eat their God.
Sunday. One would expect France's rex christia-
nissimus, "Roi tres-chretien" (although Protes-
A fanciful scenario, but had the three natives
tants preferred to call him a "tue-chretien," or
received any instruction in the catechism (as had
Christian killer; Discours du massacre a4v),other
to Brazilians brought to France; Lery, His-
have celebrated his victory over the Huguenots
toire 42 and History 179), they could not have
by attending a public Mass. But this Sunday in
missed the irony of the Europeans' condemning
1562 happened to fall on All Saints' Day,cannibalism
the yet practicing theophagy. That the
celebration of the "Church triumphant," one of
parallel between the rites occurred to Montaigne
the four obligatory feast days and a peculiarly
as he wrote his essay has been suggested in pass-
Catholic one that Protestants vigorously re-
ing but bears closer consideration.7 First, the
jected. The service, under the circumstances,
French outpost in the bay of Rio de Janeiro from
would have appeared laden with significance.
which these natives most likely came, named
Fort Coligny after the Protestant admiral, had
Let us entertain, for a moment, the possibil-
ity that the three Brazilian natives accompanied
collapsed only two years earlier because of dis-
the court from the abbey of Saint Ouen, where
putes between Catholic and Huguenot colo-
the king had taken up quarters, to the cathedral in over the presence reelle (real presence) of
nists
the center of the old city. The natives would,Christ
like in the Eucharist. Close in tone, if not
us today, have been struck by the noisinessspirit,
and to "Of Cannibals" were widely circulated
distraction of the church crowd, but thereProtestant
was pamphlets that linked the Huguenots'

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210 PMLA
Anatomy of the Mass: Montaigne's "Cannibals"

persecution to a Catholic predisposition to eating vos fagots pour vous brusle

human flesh: "anthropophagi," cries Theodore de
Beze at the Catholics for "roasting" Protestants,
"yet worse, theophagites, / That as a last resort /
You eat God to strengthen yourselves" ("Chresti-
ens bouillis, roustis [... ] Anthropophages. / Pis
il y a, o Theophages, / Que pour vostre dernier
renfort / Vous mangez dieu comme un refort";
Satyres, poem 5, lines 1601-04).8 Pierre Viret
criticized priests who claimed to eat Christ "as
the Scythians ate their relatives and friends" ("Or
ne puis-je entendre en quelle maniere il y a pu
etre enseveli [en le corps des pretres], s'ils ne
mesmes"; 10).10 The language u
positions of the Roman Rite-f
Body and Blood of Christ [... ]
the priest, broken and crushed b
faithful" ("Corpus et sangui
[...] non solum sacramento sed
bus sacredotum tractari, frang
tibus atteri"; Crehan)-reinfor
suspicion that the Mass moved a
than toward, the sacramental.
began, in their eyes, to resembl
holocausts than the convivial table around which

l'ont mange comme les Scythiens mangeaient
leurs parents et amis"; L'alcumie 78); Henri
Estienne wondered if such theophages were not
worse than anthropophages (14); Innocent Gen-
tillet compared Catholics to the man-eating
Polyphemus (172-74); and Montaigne's old
schoolteacher, George Buchanan, hinted darkly
at "sights more disgraceful / Than the bloody
feast of the Cyclops" ("Portenta conspexit Cy-
the apostles gathered to share a last supper, and
the priest appeared more like those high priests
who conspired to execute the savior than like Je-
sus. Thus, the Roman Rite, in the hands of Prot-
estant polemicists, came to represent a desire to
perpetuate violence on the body of Christ, a
bloodthirstiness that seemed to offer a privileged
window onto the general Catholic temperament.
The three natives' omitted views on Chris-

clopum / Sanguinea dape foediora"; 62; on this,
see Ford). Finally, a satirical topography of the
Roman liturgy holds a special piquancy when
placed beside Montaigne's essay, since it serves
to compare priests consuming the Host to "cer-
tianity, Montaigne's explicit condemnation of
his coreligionists' ferocity, and popular Protes-
tant opinion converge in the implication that the
true cannibals might be France's Catholics.
Once the reader is alerted to similar ironic un-

tain peoples of Brazil named the Cannibals who
eat human flesh"; Catholic pastors surpass even
the most carnivorous of beasts in that they de-
vour "chunks as large as entire quarters, and of
the whole body," a precise allusion to the Fractio,
during which the consecrated bread was torn in
four by the priest, along lines stamped on it in
dercurrents at work in "Of Cannibals," the essay
begins to take on a different cast. For example,
we may now better understand why Montaigne's
opening move seeks to sever all historical ties
between the New World and the Old, be they
through a lost Carthaginian colony or the myth
of Atlantis. His references to Plato and Aristotle

the shape of the cross to recall Christ's mutila- have distracted modern readers from what was

tion.9 Protestant authors like this one generally most crucial to his readers at the time: biblical
considered the Roman Mass not to commemo- accounts of Creation and the Flood. It is difficult

to imagine the extent to which the discovery of

rate Christ's sacrifice so much as to repeat it,
the New World threatened Christian views of
thus aggravating the first sacrilege; the crucifix-
ion neither "can nor should ever be reiterated" history. History, rather than geography, for an
educated public had no trouble accepting the ex-
("lequel sacrifice ne peut, et ne doit jamais estre
reitere"; Viret, Conclusion 3), and noting the
istence of a new landmass (such as had been hy-
Roman Missal's recommendation to burn Holypothesized since antiquity). Europeans were ill
Bread that had been defiled, Viret jeers, "Lightprepared, however, to learn of a new people ra-
cially distinct from the three known groups (Af-
your fires and roast yourselves" ("Allumes donc

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117.2 ] George Hoffmann 211

rican, Asian, and European)fore

descended from
concluding that it must be from Ham.12 The
Noah's three sons, Ham, Shem,relation and Japheth.11 If
of genealogical explanations to "Of Can-
travel between the African-Eurasian continents nibals" receives startling, if retrospective, illu-
and the Americas had only just become possible, mination from a conversation that took place
thanks to the invention of modern navigational outside Paris in the late summer of 1586. At the
devices (antiquity did not know of magnetism German ambassador's residence in Saint-Cloud,
and thus never developed the compass), it ap-
an unknown nobleman identified only as "un
peared improbable to some that Amerindians homme de qualite" caused a stir with the follow-
could be descended from Adam and Eve. ing argument: "In the New World, we have found
Two solutions emerged, and both bear on people, some savage, some not; no one ever trav-
Montaigne's essay. First, a vaguely scientific eled there before those who recently discovered
premonition that the landmasses of the two it; therefore, these peoples were born there by
hemispheres should be equal in size was pressed themselves and are not descended from Adam,
into the service of alleviating doctrinal anxiety as our religion would have us believe, namely
as support for a hypothesis of a land bridge be- that all people are descended from this first
tween the continents. This explains why almost man wrought by the hand of God" ("Aux terres
every sixteenth-century map portrays the Amer- neufves on a trouve des hommes, les un sau-
icas joined to Asia, or very nearly so, by a huge vages, les autres non: personne n'y ajamais passe
terre australe to the south and an arctic land- auparavant ces deriers qui nous l'ont appris, ils
mass to the north, separated only by the narrow y sont donc naiz d'eux-mesmes et ne sont Enfans
detroit d'Anian. Montaigne acknowledges these d'Adam, comme veut nostre creance, que tous les
speculations: the American continent "is not an hommes soyent nez de ce premier homme ou-
island, but a mainland connected with the east vrage de la main de Dieu"; Laval 12v).13
Indies on one side, and elsewhere with the lands What little one can learn about this conver-
under the two poles; or, if it is separated from sation comes from Antoine Mathe de Laval, not
them, it does not deserve to be called an island present at Saint-Cloud but immediately con-
on that account" ("les navigations des modernes sulted in his capacity of royal geographer by the
ont des-ja presque descouvert que ce n'est point ambassador. Laval's indignant response, aimed
une isle, ains terre ferme et continente avec at those "presumptuous Naturalists" who "doubt
l'Inde orientale d'un coste, et avec les terres qui without reason" ("presomptueux Naturalistes";
sont soubs les deux poles d'autre part; ou si elle "douter sans raison"; 13r, 12v), gives a fairly ac-
en est separee, que c'est d'un si petit destroit et curate picture, I believe, of the kind of thinking
intervalle qu'elle ne merite pas d'estre nommee Montaigne implicitly challenges in "Of Canni-
isle pour cela"; 151; 1.31.204a). But in the light bals." Laval proceeds to identify the New World
of his deeply skeptical attitude toward the geo- with Atlantis while at the same time tracing
graphic knowledge of his time, does this "al- the Amerindians' ancestry to Elishah, Japheth's
most revealed" ("presque descouvert") land grandson and Noah's great-grandson, who, hav-
bridge rest on any firmer ground than the theo- ing taken a liking to navigation thanks to his
ries that he proceeds to dismiss as mere "inter- family's experience in the Ark, would have
pretation" by topographers (151-52; 1.31.204a)? landed in the Americas after the Great Flood.
The second solution to the origin of the As if this were not enough, Laval then argues
Amerindians brings us even closer to his purpose. that the peoples of the New World are de-
"From whom are these savages descended?" asks scended from Carthaginian colonists, conclud-
Jean de Lery ("d'ou peuvent estre descendus ing that in every respect they reveal the "traits of
ces sauvages"; History 150; Histoire 419), be- our forebears Adam and Noah" ("marques de

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212 Anatomy of the Mass: Montaigne's "Cannibals" PMLA

nos premiers Parens Adam et Noe"; 18v).14 woman" who populated the New World some-
Montaigne borrows from Urbain Chauveton time in the seventh century of the Common Era
(41-45) a reply to these orthodox affirmations ("un homme et une femme qui refeirent l'hu-
that now rings clear: "it would be an incredible maine race [...] il y a huict cens tant d'ans";
result of a flood to have forced [the New World] 698; 3.6.914b); a quotation that calls the natives
away as far as it is, more than twelve hundred "[m]en fresh sprung from the gods" ("viri a diis
leagues," thus arguing against the connection to recentes"; 153; 1.31.207c), added later to "Of
the Old World that his contemporaries claimed Cannibals," veers even closer to making plain
through Atlantis, before brushing aside their the essay's implication. If the New World na-
second hypothesis, of a colony from Carthage, tives are born outside original sin, then it is clear
originating in the pseudo-Aristotelian Proble- why they do not need a word for "pardon," as he
mata, as not fitting "our new lands any better notes at the close of this passage, since they do
than the other" ("ce seroit un effect incroyable not appear to have experienced the Fall and thus
d'inundation de l'en avoir reculee, comme elle still inhabit their paradise. Or, rather, their "fall"
est, de plus de douze cens lieues [...] cette nar- figuratively and literally comes from contact
ration d'Aristote n'a non plus d'accord avec nos with Christians of the Old World, an event that
terres neufves"; 151; 1.31.204a).15 Montaigne portrays in "Of Coaches" through the
Montaigne mentions the "deluge" twice, and unforgettable image of Pizarro pulling the last
the Great Flood's role in instigating God's le- of the Inca kings from his litter to the ground. In
niency toward humanity, known as the First Cov- any event, the Amerindians stand to gain little
enant, appears to lie close to the heart of this essay. from the Christian missions, launched in earnest
The possibility, for example, that Amerindians are at the time Montaigne wrote this essay. Finally,
not descended from Adam and Eve would hold and perhaps most important, the natives do not
enormous implications for the doctrine of original need to build a redemptive eschatology on the
sin, and this seems the point made by the essay's paradoxical self-sacrifice of their god, along the
second anomaly, the oddly utopian description of lines of the so-called Second Covenant of Je-
the natives. In a study that traces how conjectures sus's crucifixion. As Montaigne points out else-
about the New World's ancestry led to the first where with what starts to sound like slyness,
racial theories and then to the beginnings of mod- their Jesus was able to leave the world without
em ethnology and anthropology, Giuliano Gliozzi suffering a "natural death" ("qui disparut du
has established the existence in the Renaissance monde sans mort naturelle"; 432; 2.12.574b).
of a polygenetic theory of human evolution in the Thus, the entire essay begins to appear a
writings of Paracelsus, Cardano, Cesalpino, and ludic inversion of the High Mass, a transposition
Bruno.16 Although Gliozzi did not know of the of eucharistic rites onto cannibalistic ritual to
conversation at Saint-Cloud, given general specu- radically defamiliarize the paradoxical sacrifice
lation about a non-Adamite origin of the New of god, rather than to god, that lies at the heart of
World inhabitants, Montaigne's praise of his can- Christian belief. The natives make "no use of
nibals' "original naturalness," their "state of pu- wine or wheat" ("nul usage de vin ou de bled";
rity" that "surpasses [...] the golden age," and 153; 1.31.206-07a)? They nevertheless enjoy a
their "naturalness so pure and simple" seems pe- drink that is "made of some root, and is of the
culiarly disingenuous ("naifvete originelle"; "en color of our claret wines. [.. .] In place of bread
telle purete"; "surpasse [. ..] 1'age dore"; "un they use a certain white substance like preserved
nayfvete si pure et simple"; 153; 1.31.206a). coriander" ("Leur breuvage est faict de quelque
Elsewhere, Montaigne alludes without com- racine, et est de la couleur de nos vins clairets.
mentary to indigenous myths of a "man and [...] Au lieu du pain, ils usent d'une certaine

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117.2 George Hoffmann 213

matiere blanche, comme cette

du cher
coriandre confit";
et ces veines, ce sont les vostres, pau-
154; 1.31.207a), which recalls how
vres fols Calvin,
que vous estes; vousBeze,
ne recognoissez
and Lery had discussed substituting native
pas que la substance des membres sta-
de vos ances-
ples so that Communion tres
could be
s'y tient celebrated
encore: in vous y
savourez les bien,
the absence of bread and trouverez
wine.17 Yet
le goust more
de vostre sig-
propre chair"; 158;
1.31.212a;
nificant, consider that in noting, cf. Lery,
"InHistory
place123 of
and Histoire
bread they use a certain white
356-57, substance
and Thevet like
161), words found in none
preserved coriander. I have tried it;
of the descriptions it to
available tastes
Montaigne but
that sound
sweet and a little flat" ("J'en suspiciously
ay taste: le similar
goust to those
en of the
est doux et un peu fade";Qui Pridie1.31.207a),
154; spoken at the Consecration:
Mon- "Take,
taigne is quoting Exodus 16.31, wherein
all of you, and eat of this, manna,
this is my body [...].
commonly seen as a prefiguration
Drink, for this isofmy the Eucha-et man-
blood" ("Accipite,
rist, is described as quasi ducate
semen ex hoc omnes: Hoc EST CORPUS
coriandri, MEUM
"like
coriander seed, white, and [...]
the taste
HIC EST ENIM of it MEUS";
SANGUIS was Crehan).20
like
wafers made with honey."'1 The
This flesh, essay's
these underly-
veins: my body, my blood. No
wonder
ing language of eating and that Montaigne
digestion can exclaim
("eyes that the
big-
ger than our stomachs" ["yeux plus
prisoner's words grands
"do not que
smack of barbarity"
le ventre"], "the mouth of("Invention
the Strait of
qui ne sent Gibraltar"
aucunement la barbarie";
["la bouche du destroit 158;
de1.31.212a):
Gibraltar"], "swal-
they constitute the key exhorta-
tion of the Christian rite.21
lowed up by the Flood" ["engloutis par le del-
uge"], "sands that the sea spews [vomits]
Furthermore, the prisoner'sforth"
rejoinder that
["les sables que la mer vomit
Montaignedevant elle"],
judges so astute and
and that he also, ap-
"our corrupted taste" ["nostre goust
parently, invented corrompu";
himself-"You do not recog-
150-52; 1.31.203a-205a])nize
anticipates the
that the substance of your scene
ancestors' limbs is
of cannibalism that creatively restages
still contained in [this flesh and thesetheveins].
Canon of the Mass in which the Host is conse- Savor them well, you will find in them the taste of
crated. First, Montaigne departs from his your own flesh"-recalls the original meaning of
sources, every one of which depicts the prisoner the term communion. For, as crown of the sacra-
tied at the waist with "his arms free" ("on luy ments, the Eucharist was considered by Protes-
laisse les deux bras a delivre"; Lery, History 122 tants and Catholics to effect the ideal of an
and Histoire 355) to gesture insults or throw eglise-from ecclesia, or community-by join-
rocks at his captors.19 Montaigne omits the rock ing believers into one body. Eating the flesh of a
throwing, and he is the only writer to have the former cannibal (at least according to the bellig-
natives' chief "tie [...] a rope to one of the pris- erent prisoner), like partaking in Jesus's flesh, re-
oner's arms, by the end of which he holds him, a sults in an anacrasis similar to that celebrated by
few steps away [. ..] and he gives his dearest the Salve Salutaris Hostia as the desire "to be in-
friend the other arm to hold in the same way" corporated into Your Body that I may become one
("il attache une corde a l'un des bras du prison- of Your members" ("Quaesumus, omnipotens
nier, par le bout de laquelle il le tient, esloigne Deus, ut inter Eius membra numeremur cuius
de quelques pas [. ..] et donne au plus cher de corpori communicamus et sanguini"; Crehan).22
ses amis l'autre bras a tenir de mesme"; 155; Montaigne seems to play variously on this
1.31.209ac). His arms thus outstretched in a cru- foundational notion of social union, which Bar-
ciform pose, Montaigne's prisoner proceeds to bara Diefendorf describes as "the body social,
say, "This flesh and these veins are your own the body politic, and the body of Christ [ . .] so
[...]. Savor them well" ("Ces muscles, dit-il, closely intertwined as to be inseparable" (48,

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214 Anatomy of the Mass: Montaigne's "Cannibals" PMLA

31-32; cf. 1 Cor. 10.17). Hence, among Mon- sense of its immanence as to make parishioners
taigne's cannibals, the victor gathers an "assem- turn and forgive one another's past offenses. The
bly of his acquaintances" ("assemblee de ses act of cannibalism, on the contrary, serves, as
cognoissans"; 155; 1.31.209a), and, as during the Montaigne underscores, "to betoken an extreme
Communion (the "common union"), all share revenge" ("representer une extreme vengeance";
"en commun" the prisoner's flesh. On the one 155; 1.31.206a; cf. Bossy, "Social History").
hand, the sacrifice of the prisoner acts to bring In this light, he seems to allude to the sec-
the tribe together; on the other, the ceremony is ond effect procured by the Host, namely peace,
predicated on war and extreme divisiveness be- enacted at the Pax by the Holy Kiss ("so that
tween various groups of natives, a division in the there be no dissension within the body"; 1 Cor.
larger social body that is figured in the rending 12.25), an allusion saturated with irony given
of the prisoner's body. how Montaigne devotes the entire essay to
In other words, the ritual's net effect proves war-from the opening invasion of Italy to the
mixed, and in this it rather resembles the role closing siege at Rouen. Nonetheless, the natives'
that Communion played in Europe, bringing lo- idiosyncratic manner of referring to each other
cal parishes together and at the same time fur- as their other "halves" ("moitiez"; 159; 214a)
nishing the single greatest cause of doctrinal suggests they still practice greater social solidar-
contention (the reason, notably, that Luther and ity than the French, riven by economic dispari-
Zwingli separated at the Marburg Colloquy and ties, divided estates, and engraved distinctions of
why the Colloquy at Poissy failed to locate any status (Defaux). If the cannibals appear tainted
common ground on which Huguenots could be by the second sin, human violence against fel-
reconciled with French Catholics). "How many low humans, initiated by Cain's killing of Abel,
quarrels, and how important," Montaigne memo- this might be because, never having learned for-
rably exclaims, "have been produced in the giveness as a consequence of committing the
world by doubt of the meaning of that syllable first fault, they now find themselves with little
Hoc!" ("Combien de querelles et combien im- recourse in face of fratricidal impulses (Quint
portantes a produit au monde le doubte du sens 76; Schaefer 180-82, 187, 197).
de cette syllabe, Hoc!"; 392; 2.12.527a). The Finally, we come to the only other words
very term religion (religio) comes from religare, from the New World that Montaigne gives in di-
to tie or bind together-an etymology Mon- rect discourse, the native love song, "Adder,
taigne learned from Lucretius, who condemns stay; stay, adder, that from the pattern of your
religion for "binding" human freedom in a pas- coloring my sister may draw the fashion and the
sage that Montaigne highlighted in his copy of workmanship of a rich girdle that I may give to
De rerum natura ("religionum animum nodis my love; so that your beauty and your pattern be
exsolvere pergo"; Screech 326). Seemingly in- forever preferred to all other serpents" ("Cou-
spired by Lucretius's pun, he returns religion to leuvre, arreste toy; arreste toy, couleuvre, afin
its literal meaning in the image of the sacrificial que ma sceur tire sur le patron de ta peinture la
prisoner tied up by rope-an emblem of sorts, if faSon et l'ouvrage d'un riche cordon que je
one were needed, of the failed unitarian ideal of puisse donner a m'amie: ainsi soit en tout temps
the church.23 Thus, the most striking irony that ta beaute et ta disposition preferee a tous les au-
emerges from the parallels that Montaigne draws tres serpens"; 158; 1.31.213a). Hardly an effec-
between the two ceremonies can be found in jux- tive illustration of indigenous poetry, let alone of
taposing their purpose. The view of the Host was the highly regarded Anacreontic sort (no won-
supposed to inspire in sixteenth-century congre- der Flaubert would speak mockingly of "hymns
gations such a strong desire for absolution and of barbarians, odes of cannibals" ["hymnes de

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117.2 2 George Hoffmann 215

barbares, odes de cannibales"; 555]), this exam-

atheists say this sort of thing" ("I1 se fust bien
passe d'y mesler la Religion, car elle a d'autres
ple exhibits a manifestly unpoetic quality that
appuys que les opinions & que la Raison mesme
has prompted later writers to rewrite the song,
ayant l'Autorite"; "ceste opinion est heretique et
from Thomas Warton, in "Stay, stay, thou lovely
tres perilleuse"; "Cela ne se dict que par les
fearful snake, / Nor hide thee in yon darksome
brake," to Goethe, in the alliterative and chiastic
Athees"; Courbet and Royer clv-vi).26
"Schlange, halte stille / Halte stille, Schlange."24 Does this reading demonstrate, then, that
Montaigne did not believe? As he puts it,
But perhaps the point of Montaigne's invented
song is not to prove anything about poetry. If the
"[C]lever people observe more things and more
Amerindians have never incurred original sincuriously, but they interpret them" ("les fines
and thus have never been seduced by a reptile gens
in remarquent bien plus curieusement et plus
the Garden, then they have no reason to see inde
a choses, mais il les glosent"; 152; 1.31.205a).
snake anything other than the shiny design on
In the recent book Une sainte horreur, Frank
its back, and they are free to write songs about
Lestringant notes with some surprise that Mon-
such, finding themselves under no obligation taigne
to forgoes the opportunity to comment on
tread on serpents with their heels. Along this sixteenth-century controversies over cannibal-
line of thought, by leaving the reader to contem-
ism and communion; Montaigne, writes Lestrin-
plate the unembarrassed nudity of the natives gant,
as "dodges" ("esquive"; 245). And dodge he
the essay's final image, Montaigne once againmust, if he is to avoid falling into the trap of
seems to cast doubt on whether they have inher-
judging Roman rites with presumption equal to
ited Adam and Eve's sense of shame.25 that with which the Portuguese and French did
Thus, Montaigne exploits the possibility,
Brazilian ones. Dodge he must, if he is to avoid
popularized through Protestant pamphlets, of
either unskeptical criticism or uncritical skepti-
using the conventions of Christian exegesis to
cism. This essay's indirection need not princi-
effects different from those intended. Those
pally appear a rhetorical ploy intended to elude
works were polemical; Montaigne's essay was
religious censorship, but, rather, it may be the
not, at least not overtly. Their authors were re-consequence of a coherent skeptical effort to
formed; Montaigne, at least formally, remainedavoid privileging either a viewpoint that dispar-
a Catholic. Yet they reveal the same tendency toages Roman Christianity or one that applauds it.
treat Catholic symbolism as freely as if it were To state explicitly what "Of Cannibals"
mythological imagery taken from Ovid's Meta-
teases us to think brings us but one step away
morphoses; elsewhere, Montaigne even hintsfrom the kind of genially vicious derision in
that King Midas's touch is analogous to transub-which Agrippa d'Aubigne indulged in "Against
stantiation, "his wine was gold, his bread gold"the Real Presence," an outrageous but by no
("son vin fut or, son pain or"; 434; 2.12.576a). means atypical example of French Protestant
Is this why the essay contains Montaigne's onlysatire:
mention of his Protestant brother, Thomas de
Beauregard, sieur d'Arsac? No wonder that And if you choose to worship a chalice
Laval, who met Montaigne and later annotated a As lodging for your God, you then need
copy of the Essays, wrote in the margin of this To worship either a priest's stomach or his ass,
chapter, "He could have spared mixing religion When the same God lodges or prepares to leave.
into this, for religion has other foundations than What the priest holds in his pocket, up his sleeve,
opinion," adding in brief but revealing notes to And in his codpiece is holy, so, you see,
the "Apology for Ramond Sebond," "This opin- After he has lunched on his God on Sunday
ion is heretical and very dangerous" and "only You should worship his turd on Monday.

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216 Anatomy of the Mass: Montaigne's "Cannibals" PMLA

Et si vous adorez un cyboire pour estre ginning to show the wear of tim
Logis de vostre Dieu, vous debvez, sans mentir, should praise or condemn him
Adorer ou le ventre ou bien le cul d'un Prestre,
accounts of American natives to
Quand ce Dieu mesme y loge et est prest d'en
pose-recently described as his
sortir.
of otherness" (Marchi 45; cf. Abecassis)-
Tout ce que tien le Prestre en sa poche, en sa seems a matter more susceptible to debate than
manche, to demonstration and, as such, better left to the
En sa braguette est sainct et de plus je vous dy tribunal of general consensus. Over thirty years
Qu'en aiant desjeune de son Dieu le dimanche,
ago, Carlo Ginzburg showed how one might
Vous devez adorer son estron du lundy. (345-46)27
find in a semiliterate miller the imagination and
independence of thought one usually reserves
To such scatological extrapolations, Protestant
for a writer like Montaigne (his exact contem-
authors gleefully added others, including ene-
porary). Today, one might propose the reverse,
mas and depictions of the priest's Latin as magi-
cal incantation. Did Christ therefore eat himself
reading Montaigne as if he were Menocchio and
finding in the author's attitude toward certain
at the Last Supper? If the Holy Bread was
points of doctrine responses as scandalously
Christ's body, what did priests do with the skin?
idiosyncratic as the poor miller's cosmos of The
What if the consecrated bread was moldy or
Cheese and the Worms.
crumbs dropped on the altar were eaten by mice?
What are we to make of Montaigne's invita-
or spiders? or worms? What if someone vomited
tion to the reader to participate in a radically sec-
after Communion? Would the priest then be
ular practice of exegesis, a type of reading that
obliged to eat the undigested bread?28 The occa-
sional, rare Catholic controversialist tried to turn
seems to require not the willing suspension of
disbelief but the willing suspension of belief?
the tables, accusing such Protestant literalism as
Lucien Febvre asserted vehemently, and fa-
tantamount to demanding of the Host, "[S]how
mously, that unbelief could not have existed in
yourself in flesh and bones so that we may see
the Renaissance-a dated conviction, retorts Mi-
you and, in eating your flesh, enjoy the taste of a
chel Vovelle: "Unbelief exists" ("L'incroyance
partridge, capons, or woodcock" ("monstre toy
visible en chair et en os que nous te voyons, et
existe"; 203). Need we limit ourselves to the
terms of this debate? Montaigne's nuanced bold-
qu'en mangeant ta chair, elle nous donne le goust
d'une perdrix, chappons ou beccace"; Desire ness argues for the need to explore approaches
24r). But the palm in this match clearly went to to religious culture that replace past yes-no dis-
the Calvinists, as Jeffrey Persels has brilliantly putes over whether individuals believed or did
shown in his study of how taking certain con- not believe with questions about what they be-
sequences of Roman practice to absurd lengths lieved and how and why they believed it. In what
has remained the standard treatment of the sub-
became one of the principal satiric arms of Prot-
estant propaganda ("Cooking"; see also Elwood ject, Mathurin Dreano lists every church Mon-
93-94). Maggie Kilgour has concluded that this taigne visited, every contact he had with a
"Protestant fabrication of the Catholic Black member of the church, and every religious book
Mass" hardly differs from how Europeans vili-he might have read or owned. Noting the fre-
fied the New World "savage" (147). quent questions he put to reformed ministers
If, as Virginia Krause has amusingly re-about the Eucharist during his voyage through
marked, "Of Cannibals" seems these days to beGermany and Switzerland (e.g., Montaigne, Le
the essay that keeps Montaigne in the Europeanjournal 1148; trans. in Frame 893), Dreano ad-
canon, then perhaps it is time he was released duces an argument for Montaigne's Catholicism
from it and from disputes that are already be- using the following logic: "One does not ask

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 117.2 j George Hoffmann 217

from
questions with such insistence unless one Frame's translation of the Essays. All undocumented
takes
translations from the French are mine.
some interest in religious matters" ("L'on n'in-
2 Lery writes, "So let us henceforth no longer abhor so
terroge pas avec cette insistance, si l'on ne prend
very greatly the cruelty of the anthropophagous-that is,
pas quelque interet aux choses de la religion";
man-eating-savages. For since there are some here in our
midst even worse, and more detestable [...]" ("Parquoy
57). Montaigne asks questions; he is interested
qu'on n'haborre plus tant desormais la cruaut6 des sauvages
in religion; therefore, he believes. One finds, in
Anthropophages, c'est a dire, mangeurs d'hommes: car puis
other quarters, those who run the same logic in
qu'il y en a de tels, voire d'autant plus detestables et pires
reverse: Montaigne could not believe;29 au
there-
milieu de nous"; History 132-33; Histoire 228, 230).
fore, he is not interested in religion, andSimilar
he doesstatements can be found in Mainardo (1552) and Du
Verdier (1572), as well as in anonymous pamphlets such as
not ask questions of it. These inferences, op-
the Complainte apologetique (1561), Reveille matin (1574),
posed as images in a mirror, operate on one sidedu massacre (1574), and Le tocsain (1579).
Discours
of a divide, where not only has unbelief become
3 For one of the most cogent studies of the essay's over-
banal but belief is reduced to a matter of adher-
arching movement, see Duval. In general, I am indebted to
the kind of literary-religious criticism that he pioneered in
ence to doctrine and religious culture is flattened
his numerous studies on Rabelais.
into a question of denomination-a legacy, no
4 "[O]ur ways, our splendor, the aspect of a fine city"
doubt, of the wars of Reformation and the con-
("nostre fa9on, nostre pompe, la forme d'une belle ville";
sequent hardening of Counter-Reformation
159;con-
1.31.213a). If the "city" suggests the class of common-

trol over religious practice. But this was ers,

not then
yet "splendor" might refer to nobility; "ways" or
"facon," however, leaves vague any reference to the clergy.
Montaigne's world; he still speaks from a stand-
See the commentary in Tournon, Les essais 597.
point in which faith left room for doubt. His ex-
5 Benedict's Rouen during the Wars of Religion is an invalu-
ploration of radical possibilities did not entail an of
able source information about the city during the conflict.

6 See C'est la deduction du sumptueux ordre; Denis;

outright rejection of faith, as one might assume
Wintroub; and Brunelle 16-17.
today; for between the unknown homme de
7 Antoine Compagnon first suggested this point to me, in a
qualite and an Antoine de Laval, between cur-
conversation in 1995. The connection had briefly been made
sory dismissal and unimaginative orthodoxy,
before:lies
"the cannibals are reflected not only in tyrants, those
the possibility that Montaigne was deeply'people-eaters'
inter- (political attack), but also (religious attack) in
the Catholics, those who eat the living body of Christ" ("les
ested in religion and did not quite believe.
cannibales se refletent non seulement dans les tyrans, ces
'mange-peuples' (attaque politique), mais aussi (attaque re-
ligieuse) dans les catholiques, ceux qui mangent le corps vi-
vant du Christ"; Martin 71-72); "the Eucharistic rite, as
Montaigne might not have been ready to admit, was a subli-
NOTES mated variant [of cannibalism]" (Rawson, "Horror" 3-4; see
also Rawson, "'Indians'" 306). Stegman has more recently
This essay owes its existence to the encouragement offered
begun to study the symbolic dimension of this question.
by colleagues in Boston University's Core Program, Brian
81 thank Jeffrey Persels for pointing me toward this passage.
Jorgenson, Stephanie Nelson, Bill Vance, and Christopher
9 "[C]omme aucuns peuples du Bresil, nommez les Cani-
Ricks. I thank Bill Paulson, Steve Dworkin, Karen James,
bales qui mangent de la chair humaine: ceux-ci doyvent estre
John Lyons, Mary McKinley, and Kandioura Drame for af-
de la race de telles gens, et en doyvent estre descendus. Car ils
fording me the invaluable opportunity to try out earlier ver-
ne mangent autre chose que de la chair humaine, et sont fort
sions of this essay at the University of Michigan, Roanoke
cruels, et ravisseurs comme les Canibales, lesquels prennent
College, and the University of Virginia. Finally, this essay
cest chair, et la mettent en quatre quartiers, ou en trois, et en
owes much to many valuable suggestions offered by Jeff mangent un quartier a chacun morceau: et souvent ils devo-
Persels and Virginia Krause.
rent en un morceau toute ceste masse de chair entiere, meslee
"Je pense qu'il y a plus de barbarie a manger un parmi le sang, et hument le sang tout ensemble, qui fait es-
homme vivant qu'a le manger mort [.. .] sous pretexte de bayr tout le monde, pour ce qu'on n'ajamais veu loups, ni
piete et de religion" (1.31.209a). Unless otherwise noted, ours, ne tygres, ni autre beste quelque cruelle et ravissante
quotations from Montaigne are taken from the Villey- qu'elle soit, qui fist de si gros morceaux que de quartiers tous
Saulnier edition of Les essais and their English versions entiers, et d'un corps entier, comme font ceux-ci" (Escorche-

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218 Anatomy of the Mass: Montaigne's "Cannibals"
Messes 133); "Le Prestre rompt l'hostie (en memoire que le
corps de Jesus fut bless6 et rompu en la croix)" (Auger C4r).
For a commentary on the significance of the Fractio, see
Bossy, "The Mass" 37-51.
10 The charge of "reiterating" the sacrifice of Jesus was
already widespread by the 1530s (Berthoud 287; Lestringant,
Une sainte horreur 76-78).
1 On classical theories of a continent to the west, see
Kelly 275-76. For religious perplexity over New World in-
habitants, see Guicciardini's observation "These voyages
have made it clear that the ancients were deceived in many
ways regarding a knowledge of the earth [...]. They have
given some cause for alarm to interpreters of the Holy
Scriptures" ("Per queste navigazioni si e manifestato essersi
nella cognizione della terra ingannati in molte cose gli an-
tichi [...] ma dato, oltre a ci6, qualche anzieth agli interpreti
della scrittura sacra"; History 182; Storia 132).
12 Montaigne's other major sources for the essay simi-
larly devote significant attention to the question (Gomara 8r,
250r-54r; Chauveton Elr-E5r).
13 For more details on this conversation, see Hoffmann,
"Rites."
14 For Laval's identification of the New World with
"l'Atlantide," see 15r-15v.
15 Laval may have followed the same source that Mon-
taigne used.
16 Gliozzi 306-21,331-47,253-61,268-77. Bodin's refu-
tation of these views at the end of his Methodus adfacilem his-
toriarum cognitionem provides a gauge of their currency, or at
least familiarity, among circles that would have been close to
Montaigne's (334-64). Gliozzi reaches the same conclusion
(334, 270). Reference to the golden age alone was often
enough to suggest such troubling hypotheses (Scaglione 65-
66). See also Guana's suggestions to the same effect (33-34).
17 Lery writes, "[If Jesus Christ] had been in the land of
the savages it is probable that he would have made mention
not only of the drink they use instead of wine, but also of the
root flour they eat instead of bread" ("[Si Jesus Christ] eust
est6 en la terre des sauvages il est vraysemblable qu'il eust
non seulement fait mention du bruvage dont ils usent au lieu
du vin, mais aussi de leur farine de racine qu'ils mangent au
lieu du pain"; History 49; Histoire 194-95). My attention
was first drawn to this by Frisch. Beze had made the same
point in a letter from 1568 ("Beze h [Dudith]") and in De
coena Domini, sec. 155. Beze and Lery appear to have in
mind a letter from Calvin to the French colonists, now lost.
18 Brian Jorgenson first drew my attention to this allu-
sion. See also John 6.41: "I am the bread that came down
from heaven" ("ego sum panis qui de caelo descendi").
Throughout this essay, English versions of biblical quota-
tions are taken from the Oxford Study Bible, and the Latin is
taken from Biblia sacra.
19 See the reproductions collected by Lestringant in his
1992 edition of Histoire d'un voyage fait en la terre de
Bresil-1557 (Lestringant, Histoire, following 150).
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PMLA
20 The biblical text reads, "[A]ccipite et comedite hoc
est corpus meum [...] bibite ex hoc omnes hic est enim san-
guis meus" (Matt. 26.26-28; cf. Mark 14.22-24 and Luke
22.19-20).
21 In a similar vein, Montaigne proceeds to recall Juve-
nal's prehistoric Gascons, who believed that by eating
human flesh, they could "renew their life" ("Produxere ani-
mas"; 155; 1.31.210b); cf. "lodging in themselves and as it
were in their marrow the bodies of their fathers and their re-
mains, bringing them to life in a way and regenerating them
by transmutation into their living flesh by means of diges-
tion" ("logeant en eux mesmes et comme en leurs moelles
les corps de leurs peres et leurs reliques, les vivifiant au-
cunement et regenerant par la transmutation en leur chair
vive au moyen de la digestion"; 438; 2.12.581a).
22 See also "to maintain all faithful Christians in one
body of friendship, peace, and harmony" ("pour conserver
tous les fideles Chrestiens en un corps d'amiti6, et de paix,
et de concorde"; Auger D2v). At least one modern observer
has claimed that the practice of cannibalism enacts a com-
munal coming together analogous to that of the Christian
eucharistic rite (Baztan). On the Eucharist, see Gerrish.
23 These points grew out of suggestions by Todd Reeser
and Virginia Krause.
24 Warton and Goethe are quoted in the Villey-Saulnier
edition of Montaigne's Les essais (1140).
251 thank Jan Miernowski for suggesting this last point.
26 Long believed lost, Laval's copy of the Essays was re-
cently rediscovered, thanks to records of its sale (at Drouot
on 19 May 1967), by Michel Simonin, who graciously
shared with me his findings. For further information on
Laval and his copy, see Hoffmann, "Croiser le fer."
27 See similar pieces in Le chansonnier huguenot-e.g.:
The God that he has made,
The mouth takes it;
The stomach digests it,
The belly pushes it back out,
To the bottom of a latrine!
Le Dieu qu'il faict faire,
La bouche le prend;
Le coeur le digere,
Le ventre le rend,
Au fond de la retrait! (153)
See also Beze, Satyres, and Estienne's scatologic
"th6ochezes," or "God-shitters" (5.1.14). For refo
of scatological imagery in general, see Persel
ened."' In "La souris," Greenblatt quotes Englis
tic satire that avails itself of scatological themes
the fifteenth century (49). No doubt the figure o
the Liturgy, for at the washing of his hands, the
nounced, "Let your Body, Lord, that I have eaten
blood, that I have drunk, inhere to my entrail
tuum, domine, quod sumpsi, et Sanguis, quem
haereat visceribus meis"; Liturgies 84).
117.2 ] George Hoffmann 219

28 "If the body of Jesus comes back WORKS CITED

up and is vomited
by someone sick, and if because of human weakness no
Abecassis, Jack I. "'Des cannibales' et la logique de la re-
one can be found who wants to ingurgitate and take back
presentation de l'alt6rit6 chez Montaigne." Bulletin de la
said vomited body of Jesus Christ, then let this body be
Societe des Amis de Montaigne 7th ser. 29-32 (1992-
burned," and, "furthermore, if the body of Jesus Christ [has]
93): 195-207.
been eaten by mice or spiders [. . .] and if worms are found
Armaingaud,
throughout it, let it be burned" ("si le corps de Jesus Arthur. Montaigne pamphletaire. Paris: Ha-
Christ
chette, 1910.
est remis et vomy d'un malade, si par humaine fragilit6 on
ne trouve personne qui veuille humer Auger,
et Emond. La maniere d'ouir
reprendre ledit la messe avec devotion et
corps de Jesus Christ vomy, que ce corpsfruit
doncspirituel.
du1565. Paris: N. Chesneau, 1571.
Seigneur
soit brusle"; "D'avantage, si le corps de Baztan,
Jesus A. Christ,
Aguirre. "Comunion
estant y canibalismo: Antropolo-
mange de souris ou araignees [.. .] et si gia
ledevers entier
la alimentaci6n: est
Planteamientos." Anthropologica
13-14 (1993): 61-72.
trouv6 en iceluy qu'il soit brusle"; La sentence 25). I base
the identification of La sentence's printer on Rouen
Benedict, Philip. theduring
text's
the Wars of Religion, 1559-
manifest typographic similarities with 1598.
Viret's Conclusion
Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1981.
de la messe, printed the same year and identified
Berthoud, by Marcourt,
Gabrielle. Antoine Ber- rdformateur et pam-
thoud as the work of Jean Saugrain (Antoine Marcourt
phletaire du "Livre des marchans" aux placards de
298). Persels has recently studied Viret's1534.
use of this
Geneva: image
Droz, 1973.
in Les cauteles et canon ("'Mass' "). "He lets himself
Beze, Theodore be [1568?]. Letter 602bis
de. "Beze a [Dudith]."
eaten by rats, spiders, and vermin" ("IIofse laisse manger
Correspondance. Ed. Alain Dufour et al. Vol. 9. Ge-
aux rats, araignees et vermine"; Viret, Conclusion
neva: Droz, 1978.10);
60-61."Your
23 vols. to date. 1960-.
pretty consecrated bread / Will become .Demoldy"
coena Domini. ("Vos-
[Geneva]: R. Estienne, 1559.
tre joly pain benict / Se moysira"; Le chansonnier 168);
. Satyres chrestiennes de la cuisine papale. Geneva:
"worms, mice, spiders, and other animals eat your transub-
C. Badius, 1560.
stantiated bread, which, kept for long, goes bad and rots
Biblia sacra: luxta Vulgatam versionem. Ed. Boniface
on its own" ("le ver, souris, airaignees, et autres animaux
Fischer et al. 1969. 3rd ed. Rev. Robert Weber. Stuttgart:
mangent vostre pain transubstanti6, lequel longuement
Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1983.
garde se corrompt et pourrit de soy-mesmes"; La sentence
Le blason du gobellet. [Lyon, 1562]. Recueil de podsiesfran-
24v); "when they have eaten the flesh and the bones, what
coises des XVe et XVe siecles, morales, facetieuses, histo-
do they do with the skin? [. . .] whether Jesus ate himself
riques. Ed. Anatole de Montaiglon. Vol. 13. Paris: P. Jannet,
[at the Last Supper]?" ("quand ils ont mang6 la chair et les
A. Franck, P. Daffis, 1878.345-50. 13 vols. 1855-78.
os, qu'ils font de la peau? [. . .] si Jesus Christ s'est mange
soi-meme?"; Viret, L'alcumie 79); "ringing Bodin, Jean.
ofMethodfor
bells, the Easy Comprehension of His-
cries,
tory. Trans.
chants, vain ceremonies, candles, incense, Beatrice Reynolds.
costumes, and New York: Columbia
such manner of witchcraft" ("sonneries, hurlements, chan-adfacilem historiarum
UP, 1945. Trans. of Methodus
cognitionem. Paris: M. Le Jeune, 1566.
teries, vaines ceremonies, luminaires, encensements, des-
Bossy, John. Christianity
guisements, et telles manieres de sorcelleries"; in the West, 1400-1700. Oxford:
Viret,
Conclusion 12); "As my entire pledge, Oxford UP, 1985. that / I
I believe
must be given an enema / To flush me out, . "Thebecause
Mass as a Social
I no Institution, 1200-1700."
more have the force / To utter a word Past and Present
against 100 (1983):
Jesus" and 29-61.
"He claims, by the magic / Of the false- .Hildebran /ofThat
"The Social History Confession in the Age of the
Reformation."
Jesus is alive / In his coarse bread" ("Je croy que pourTransactions
touteof the Royal Historical So-
allegeance / Un clystere me faut donner ciety
/ Pour5th ser.vuider,
25 (1975): 21-38.
car
plus n'ay puissance / contre Jesus un mot sonner";
Brunelle, Gayle K. The"I1
Newdit,
World Merchants of Rouen,
par magie / du faux Hildebran [Gregory VII], / Sixteenth
1559-1630. Jesus Century
estreEssays and Studies 16.
en vie / En son pain de bran"; Le chansonnier 144,Century
Kirksville: Sixteenth 148); Jour., 1991.
"It seems to me that it is by magic / That all George.
Buchanan, this is carried
"In colonias brasilienses." George Bu-
out" ("II me semble que par magie / toute
chanan:ceste chose
The Political Poetry.est
Ed. and trans. Paul J. Mc-
regie"; Le blason 347). Ginnis and Arthur H. Williamson. Edinburgh: Lothian,
1995.58-63.
29 Armaingaud comments, "Indeed, at the time when he
composed the Essays and thereafter, heC'est
possessed nodu
la deduction faith"
sumptueux ordre plaisantz spectacles
("En effet, a partir de l'6poque oi il composa les Essais,
et magnifiques il dresses. Rouen: R. Le Hoy,
theatres
n'avait aucune foi"; Montaigne, (Euvres completes
R. du 176).
Gord, and J. du Gord, 1551. L'entree de Henri II a
See also Armaingaud's remarks in Montaigne
Rouen pamphldtaire
1550. Ed. Margaret M. McGowan. New York:
(72, 129). Johnson, 1970.

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