Editing François Rabelais (section)

=== Travel to Italy ===
[[File:Château de Beauregard - Cardinal Jean du Bellay.jpg|thumb|left|Rabelais' three trips to Rome were under the protection of [[Jean du Bellay]].|alt=Portrait of cardinal Jean du Bellay]]

No clear evidence establishes when Jean du Bellay and Rabelais met. Nevertheless, when du Bellay was sent to Rome in January 1534 to convince Pope Clément VII not to excommunicate [[Henry VIII of England|Henry VIII]], he was accompanied by Rabelais, who worked as his secretary and personal physician until his return in April. During his stay, Rabelais found the city fascinating and decided to bring out a new edition of [[Bartolomeo Marliani]]'s ''Topographia antiqua Romae'' with Sebastien Gryphe in Lyon.{{sfn|Huchon|2011|pp=196–197}}<ref>{{Cite book|title=Topographia antiqua Romae |publisher=Sebastien Gryphe |year=1534 |last=Marliani |first=Bartolomeo |editor-last=Rabelais |editor-first=François |language=la |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JHqUc_0UpbUC}}</ref> 

Rabelais quietly left the Hôtel Dieu de Lyon on 13 February 1535 after receiving his salary, disappearing until August 1535 as a result of the tumultuous [[Affair of the Placards]], which led Francis I to issue an edict forbidding all printing in France. Only the influence of the du Bellays allowed the printing presses to run again.{{sfn|Huchon|2011|pp=201–203}} In May, Jean du Bellay was named cardinal, and still with a diplomatic mission for Francis I, had Rabelais join him in Rome. During this time, Rabelais was also working for Geoffroy d'Estissac's interests and maintained a correspondence with him through diplomatic channels (under royal seal as far as Poitiers). Three letters from Rabelais have survived.{{sfn|Huchon|2011|pp=226–229}} On 17 January 1536, Paul III issued a [[papal brief]] authorizing Rabelais to join a Benedictine monastery and practice medicine, as long as he refrained from surgery.{{sfn|Huchon|2011|p=236}} Jean du Bellay having been named the abbot ''in commendam'' of the [[Saint-Maur Abbey]], Rabelais arranged to be assigned there, knowing that the monks were to become [[secular clergy]] the following year.<ref name="Lesellier-1938" />

[[File:Rabelaismaisonmetz.jpg|thumb|upright|The house of François Rabelais in [[Metz]]]]
In 1540, Rabelais lived for a short time in [[Turin]] as part of the household of du Bellay's brother, [[Guillaume du Bellay|Guillaume]].{{sfn|Demerson|1986|p=17}} It was at this time that his two children were legitimized by Paul III, the same year that his third child (Théodule) died in Lyon at the age of two.<ref name="Lesellier-1938" /> Rabelais also spent some time lying low, under periodic threat of being condemned of [[heresy]] depending upon the health of his various protectors. In 1543, both ''Gargantua'' and ''Pantagruel'' were condemned by the [[College of Sorbonne|Sorbonne]], then a theological college.{{sfn|Febvre|1942|pp=111–15, 128–32}} Only the protection of du Bellay saved Rabelais after the condemnation of his novel by the Sorbonne. In June 1543 Rabelais became a [[Master of Requests (France)|Master of Requests]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1= Marichal |first1= Robert |year= 1948| title=Rabelais fût il Maître des Requêtes?|journal=Bibliothèque d'Humanisme et Renaissance|volume=10|pages=169–78, at p. 169|jstor=20673434}}</ref> Between 1545 and 1547 François Rabelais lived in [[Metz]], then a [[free imperial city]] and a republic, to escape the condemnation by the [[University of Paris]]. In 1547, he became [[curate]] of [[Saint-Christophe-du-Jambet]] in [[Maine (province)|Maine]] and of [[Meudon]] near Paris.

With support from members of the prominent [[du Bellay family]], Rabelais had received approval from [[Francis I of France|King Francis&nbsp;I]] to continue to publish his collection on 19 September 1545 for six years.{{sfn|Huchon|2011|p=296}} However, on 31 December 1546, the ''Tiers Livre'' joined the Sorbonne's list of banned books.{{sfn|Huchon|2011|p=311}} After the king's death in 1547, the academic élite frowned upon Rabelais, and the Paris [[Parlement]] suspended the sale of The Fourth Book, published in 1552,{{sfn|Boulenger|1978|p=xx}}<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Lefranc|first=Abel|date=1929|title=Rabelais, la Sorbonne et le Parlement en 1552 (partie 1)|url=http://www.persee.fr/doc/crai_0065-0536_1929_num_73_4_75794|journal=Comptes Rendus des Séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres|volume=73|page=276}}</ref> despite Henry II having accorded him the royal privilege. This suspension proved ineffective, for the time being, as the king reiterated his support for the book.{{sfn|Screech|1979|pp=321–322}}

Rabelais resigned from the curacy in January 1553 and died in Paris later that year.{{sfn|Boulenger|1978|pp=xx–xxi, xix–xx}}{{efn|Traditionally, the death date of Rabelais has been given as 9 April 1553<ref name="birthdate">{{cite web| url= https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb11920939s| archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20200427180754/https://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb11920939s |title= Notice de personne| website= Bnf.fr| archivedate= 2020-04-27}}</ref> but the discovery of a notarial document (concerning his brother) places Rabelais' death before 14 March 1553.<ref>{{harvnb|Huchon|2011|p=24}}: "il est maintenant établi que Rabelais mourut avant le 14 mars 1553, comme le prouve la pièce notariale [...] qui instaure comme légataire [...] son frère Jamet, marchand à Chinon."</ref>}}