NOTE I.
“Vicious Habits of the Religious Probationers.” [p. 195].
The Spanish satirical novel, “Fray Gerundio de Campazas,” contains a lively picture of the adventures of a Novice. It was written by Padre Isla, a Jesuit, for the purpose of checking the foppery and absurdity of the popular preachers. Cervantes himself could not boast of greater success in banishing the books of Chivalry than Isla in shaming the friars out of the affected and often profane concetti, which, in his time, were mistaken for pulpit eloquence. But the Inquisition could not endure that her great props, the religious orders, should be exposed, in any of their members, to the shafts of ridicule; and Fray Gerundio was prohibited.