Le 5 mars 1535, les représentants de la Ville de Lyon prennent une #délibération consulaire dans laquelle ils décident de remplacer François #Rabelais dans ses fonctions de #médecin à l'Hôtel-Dieu de #Lyon, du fait de ses absences répétées.
Voici donc sous vos yeux ébahis la lettre de #licenciement
de Rabelais, conservée aux #ArchivesDeLyon sous la cote BB 55 (abîmée par un dégât des eaux ancien).
Today in Labor History January 17, 1536: Francois Rabelais was absolved of apostasy by Pope Paul III and allowed to resume his medical practice. Rabelais was a physician, writer, Catholic monk and Greek scholar. He published “Pantagruel” in 1532. He later incorporated it into his larger work, “Gargantua and Pantagruel,” which satirized the nobility, the church, the legal system, explorers, machismo and pretty much all that was sacred to the French ruling elite. Consequently, he was persecuted much of his life. His last will stated: “I have nothing. I owe a great deal. The rest I leave to the poor.”
One of my favorite passages: The FURREED Law-Cats are most terrible and dreadful monsters; they devour little children, and trample over marble stones. Pray tell me, noble topers, do they not deserve to have their snouts slit? The hair of their hides doesn’t grow outward, but inwards… They have claws so very strong, long, and sharp that nothing can get from ‘em what is once fast between their clutches... Among ‘em reigns the sixth essence; by the means of which they gripe all, devour all, burn all, draw all, hang all, quarter all, behead all, murder all, imprison all, waste all and ruin all, without the least notice of right and wrong; for among them vice is called virtue; wickedness, piety; treason, loyalty; robbery, justice. Plunder is their motto, and all this they do because they dare; their authority is sovereign and irrefragable.
“A child is a fire to be lit, not a vase to be filled” –Rabelais