ly. We also see, in the middle of the thirteenth century,
St. Thomas Aquinas, who was considered an authority in questions of dogma
and of faith, ranking poultry amongst species of aquatic origin.

Eventually, this palpable error was abandoned; but when the Church forbade
Christians the use of poultry on fast days, it made an exception, out of
consideration for the ancient prejudice, in favour of teal, widgeon,
moor-hens, and also two or three kinds of small amphibious quadrupeds.
Hence probably arose the general and absurd beliefs concerning the origin
of teal, which some said sprung from the rotten wood of old ships, others
from the fruits of a tree, or the gum on fir-trees, whilst others thought
they came from a fresh-water shell analogous to that of the oyster and
mussel.

As far back as modern history can be traced, we find that a similar mode
of fattening poultry was employed then as now, and was one which the Gauls
must have learnt from the Romans. Amongst the charges in the households
of the kings of France one item was that which concerned the
poultry-house, and which, according to an edict of St. Louis in 1261,
bears the name of _poulaillier_. At a subsequent period this name was
given to breeders and dealers in poultry (Fig. 92).

The "Menagier" tells as that, as is the present practice, chickens were
fattened by depriving them of light and liberty, and gorging them with
succulent food. Amongst the poultry yards in repute at that time, the
author mentions that of Hesdin, a property of the Dukes of Luxemburg, in
Artois; that of the King, at the Hotel Saint-Pol, Rue Saint-Antoine,
Paris; that of Master Hugues Aubriot, provost of Paris; and that of
Charlot, no doubt a bourgeois of that name, who also gave his name to an
ancient street in that quarter called the Marais.

[Illustration: Fig. 92.--The Poulterer, drawn and engraved in the
Sixteenth Century, by J. Amman.]

_Capons_ are frequently mentioned in poems of the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries; but the name of the _poularde_ does not occur until the
sixteenth.

We know that under the Roman rule, the Gauls carried on a considerable
trade in fattened geese. This trade ceased when Gaul passed to new
masters; but the breeding of geese continued to be carefully attended to.
For many centuries geese were more highly prized than any other
description of poultry, and Charlemagne ordered that his domains should
be well stocked with flocks of geese, which were