in its fresh state, and was not allowed to be
used for cooking purposes. At first, and especially amongst the monks, the
dishes were prepared with oil; but as in some countries oil was apt to
become very expensive, and the supply even to fail totally, animal fat or
lard had to be substituted. At a subsequent period the Church authorised
the use of butter and milk; but on this point, the discipline varied much.
In the fourteenth century, Charles V., King of France, having asked Pope
Gregory XI. for a dispensation to use milk and butter on fast days, in
consequence of the bad state of his health, brought on owing to an attempt
having been made to poison him, the supreme Pontiff required a certificate
from a physician and from the King's confessor. He even then only granted
the dispensation after imposing on that Christian king the repetition of a
certain number of prayers and the performance of certain pious deeds. In
defiance of the severity of ecclesiastical authority, we find, in the
"Journal of a Bourgeois of Paris," that in the unhappy reign of Charles
VI. (1420), "for want of oil, butter was eaten in Lent the same as on
ordinary non-fast days."

In 1491, Queen Anne, Duchess of Brittany, in order to obtain permission
from the Pope to eat butter in Lent, represented that Brittany did not
produce oil, neither did it import it from southern countries. Many
northern provinces adopted necessity as the law, and, having no oil, used
butter; and thence originated that famous toast with slices of bread and
butter, which formed such an important part of Flemish food. These papal
dispensations were, however, only earned at the price of prayers and alms,
and this was the origin of the _troncs pour le beurre_, that is, "alms-box
for butter," which are still to be seen in some of the Flemish churches.

[Illustration: Fig. 97.--The Manufacture of Oil, drawn and engraved by J.
Amman in the Sixteenth Century.]

It is not known when butter was first salted in order to preserve it or to
send it to distant places; but this process, which is so simple and so
natural, dates, no doubt, from very ancient times; it was particularly
practised by the Normans and Bretons, who enclosed the butter in large
earthenware jars, for in the statutes which were given to the fruiterers
of Paris in 1412, mention is made of salt butter in earthenware jars.
Lorraine only exported butter in such jars. The fresh butter most in
request for the table in Paris,