SOURCE: “Papimania, the Blessed Isle: Rabelais's Attitude to the Roman Church,” in Australian Journal of French Studies, Vol. XXXI, No. 3, September-December 1994, pp. 245-58.

In the essay below, Marshall contends that Rabelais's allegorical treatment of Papimania in the Quart Livre reveals his loyalty to the Catholic church while supporting reform of its perceived injustices and corruption.

In the epic journey undertaken by Pantagruel, Friar John, Panurge and their companions, there is a group of islands visited after the encounter with the Sea Monster, the Physetère, which, by the contrasts made between them, appear to deal with the religious divisions of the time. First there are the Sausage nations: the “Suysses […] que le bon Rabelais a surnommez Saulcisses”,¹ which by their generic designation are Reformers; the French Sausages, Andouilles, being Calvinists, the German Boudins, being Lutheran, and the Saulcissons Montigènes, Vaudois. This identification is strengthened by reference to...