Footnote 622
From "Journal d'un Bourgeois de Paris": "... and after about eight days [from the arrival of the Duke of Burgundy on April 4th], there came to Paris a Franciscan named Friar Richard, a man of great prudence, learned in prayer, sower of proper doctrine to enlighten his fellow man... The aforesaid Franciscan preached on the following Feast Day of Saint Mark at Boulogne-la-Petite, and such a great number of people were there, as was previously said; and in truth, upon the return from the aforesaid sermon that day the people of Paris were so greatly moved and turned toward piety, that in less than three or four hours you would have seen more than a hundred fires in which the men were burning backgammon and game boards, dice, playing cards, billiard balls and sticks... that day and the next the women burned all their fancy attire, such as padding [for their hats], stuffing, pieces of hide and whalebone that they put in their hats ... the young noblewomen gave up their 'cornes' (a type of large hat) and the trains on their dresses, and great quantities of their ornaments, and truly the ten sermons that he gave at Paris and one at Boulogne turned the people towards piety more than all the preachers who have preached in Paris during a hundred years." (For the original language, see: Michaud & Poujoulat's "Nouvelle Collection des Mémoires pour servir l'Histoire de France", Ser. I Vol. III, pp. 252 - 253).
Copyright © 2003, Allen Williamson. All rights reserved.