Rabelais
FRANÇOIS, a French satirist; born in Chinon, Touraine, about 1483. He was at first a monk, but having been punished for some indecorous 2000 000 FRANCOIS RABELAIS behavior, he quitted the Benedictine order, studied medicine at Montpellier, and for a time practiced as a physician. He subsequently obtained the rectory of Meudon. He was author of several books; but the only one by which he is known is the romance called "The Lives, Heroic Deeds, and Sayings of Gargantua and Pantagruel," an extravagant satire upon monks, priests, popes, and pedants, in which much obscenity and absurdity are blended with learning, wit, and humor. Rabelais was a conscientious teacher of his flock, his purse always open to the needy, and his medical skill was employed in the service of his parish. He died in 1553. RABIES. See HYDROPHOBIA.