Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1903-02-26
CHAPTER VIII.

A WORD WITH DOM GREGORY.
1t is thousand pities that the ma
terials for building up a practical pre-
sentiment of the real life-story of Mas
ter Francois Villon are so slight, that
in the historical sense they might al
most be said to be non-existent We
know, indeed, little of Master Fran
co.'s early days, partly from some con-
fessions which must at all times be
interpreted with liberal sense of hui
NOR and CLOSED with an infinite deal
of good nature, and partly from stray
records made by those who do not
seem to have held the vagrant poet
Very warm in their hearts. But of his
life in those days of which this chron-
icle deals. there is little to find where
there is much to seek.
The silence of Commines may be ex-
planned in thousand way, possibly
professional jealousy of one minister
for another, who in so short a space OF
time did SO much and SO we'll, possibly
ignorance of the real facts of the case
for it is fairly certain that King Louis
kept his jape and Its sequel very much
to himself possibly because Commines
felt that his cold spirit was scarcely
equal to the proper recording of so
Whimsical and oriental AN adventure.
Good Master Clement Marot, when
| he took 1T upon himself, generations
after our poet was dust and ashes, to
edit our poets Writings said much in
praise of the singer but said little, no
doubt because he knew little, of the
poets life.
And the great creator of Pantagruel
and Cargantua. the immeasurable AL
cofri5i3s Master, whom the world loves
or hates as Rabelais, in what he con-
trihutea TO our knowledge of Francois
Nll.on has only-to use q weather.
worn and moss grown phrase-made
| confusion yet worse confounded.
We should be at deadlock, indeed
| IL it were not for Poitou and it's Abbey
OF Bonnie Ayenture, whose library is
luckily rich in historical manuscripts
OF the period, and richest of all in that
| priceless manuscript OF Dom Gregory
which, treating in general of the &C.
clesiastical history of Poitou in the
fifteenth century, dealt so particularly
and so literally with the life of Mas
| ter Francois Nillon, because Master
Francois Nillon in his old age was sc
excellent patron of the church. We
say dealt advisedly, for time has treat
ed somewhat scurvily the fair skins
OF parchment upon which the good
Dom Gregory recorded his thoughts
and opinions at considerable length as
the rich setting of the facts, too few
| In number, with which he condescend-
ed to enlighten posterity. Many pieces
OF parchment are missing from the roll
of his record, and, unhappily, the
4 greatest gap in the story is precisely
! at that point where our hero found
himself so suddenly and SO strangely
taken into favor by his king, and sc
suddenly and SO strangely smiled upor
by his mistress. We have indeed some
admirable homiletics of the worth,
friar's in praise of the conduct anG
! carriage of Master Francois Villon al
| the time of his unexpected exaltation
| After a gracious invocation of many
saints and angels, the very elect OF
/ the company of heaven, Dom Gregory
in fine spirit of rectitude, proceeds tc
applaud the count of Montcorbier fol
the high example he set to his fellow
/ men. Here, in effect says the worthy
| churchman, was man who, having
| passed the flower of his life in suualol
and all manner of capabilities, still
kept in sense the whiteness of his
soul and allowed the brightness of tho
celestial flame to burn, family indeed
but unextinguished, on the altar of his
heart. How many men, asks Don
Gregory, glowing with a pious gratiti.
cation, how many men who in humility
have dreamed that they might under
screner stars and happier auspices d.
great deeds and win honorable honors
would, II put TO the proof, show them.
selves as splendid in prosperity a.
they dreamed themselves in adversely
Master Francois Niiion. he goes on tt
say, is the loveliest example known Il
him OF Il man, who, having always be
lieved in himself with great belief
did, on being put to the test prove tha
his belief was founded, not on tn,
4 shifting sands of vanity and vain glory
but on the solid granite of good faitl
and the inestimable doctrines of tn,
| church.
From all this we gather dimly, as on
discerns objects in q mist, that Mas
ter Francois Willon, as count of Mont
ccrbier, proved himself to be little les
than equal to the high opinion of him
self which he had confided all un
Willingly into the ear of his mas
4 querading sovereign. Eut the page
in which Dom Gregory sets forth a