e very patient with the folk theater for its satires on
the clergy, the church, and religion. They heeded only attacks on "the
faith." "We are astonished to meet, in a time which we always think of
as crushed under authority, with such incredibly bold expressions
against the papacy, the episcopate, chivalry, and the most revered
doctrines of religion such as paradise, hell, etc."[2112] Lenient
suggests as reasons the divisions and factions in church and state and
the current contempt for popular poetry. In the fifteenth century, in
France, the popular drama expressed the class envy of the poor against
the rich. In the mystery play _Job_ (1478) the "Pasteur" says: "The
great lords have all the goods. The poor people have nothing but pain
and adversity. Who would not be irritated [at such a state of things]?"
The passion plays of the Rhine valley followed those of France. Those
of the fourteenth century lacked the rude jests and ghoulish interest of
those of France in the fifteenth. The street public never tired of the
horrors of executions, or of the low gaiety of funerals, etc. The "sot"
first appeared in the _Passion de Troyes_ at the end of the fifteenth
century. He was long popular.[2113]

+658. Fictitious literature.+ Fictitious literature, after printing
became common, was greatly increased, especially in Italy and Spain.
Through the dialogued story it led up to the drama. At the end of the
fifteenth century F. de Rojas wrote a dialogued story, _Calisto e
Meliboea_, about two distressed lovers. The heroine is Celestina, a
bawd who helped them out of their troubles. The book is generally named
after her, and she became a fixed character in drama and fiction. The
noble bawd, however, is an artificial creation of literature and never
could be a biolog. It is not true enough. The Spaniards also developed a
new form of the mystery play,--the _autos sacramentales_. These plays
represented some Scriptural incident, but the roles were taken by
allegorical figures. They were regularly represented on the festival of
Corpus Christi, in the afternoon, on the public square. They satisfied
the taste of the people for religiosity, if not religion. Machiavelli
(1469-1527) wrote a story, _Mandragore_, which in its day enjoyed great
popularity. A man in Paris heard of the beauty of a lady at Florence. He
went to the latter place to see her and fell in love with her. Her
husband was an imbecile who greatly desired a child. He persuade