The reasons given for its condemnation are various. Some
state that the author, a friend of Clement Marot, intended to preach by
the use of allegories the Reformed religion. Others say that it was
directed against the manners and conduct of some members of the Court.
Whether Morin's request was granted I know not, nor whether Desperiers
shared his imprisonment. At any rate, the author died in 1544 from an
attack of frenzy.
Another famous printer at Paris in the sixteenth century was Christian
Wechel, who published a large number of works. He was persecuted for
publishing a book of Erasmus entitled _De esu interdicto carnium_, and
some declare that he fell into grievous poverty, being cursed by God for
printing an impious book. Thus one writer says that "in the year 1530
arose this abortive child of hell, who wrote a book against the Divine
Justice in favour of infants dying without baptism, and several have
wisely observed that the ruin of Christian Wechel and his labours fell out
as a punishment for his presses and characters being employed in such an
infamous work." However, there is reason to believe that the book was not
so "impious," expressing only the pious hope that the souls of such
infants might not be lost, and also that no great "curse" fell upon the
printer, and that his poverty was apocryphal. At any rate, his son Andrew
was a very flourishing printer; but he too was persecuted for his
religious opinions, and narrowly escaped destruction in the Massacre of
St.
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