The author affirmed that none might exercise the functions of the priesthood if he was not sound in body, or if any of his members had been amputated, and asking apropos of this, if a castrated man could be ordained a priest, he answered his own question, "No, unless he carries upon him, reduced to powder, the parts which are wanting." He added, however, that Cardinal Tolet did not admit this interpretation, which nevertheless had been universally adopted.
Durtal, amused, read on.

Now du Moulin was debating with himself the point whether it was necessary to interdict abbes ravaged by lechery.
And in answer he cited himself the melancholy glose of Canon Maximianus, who, in his Distinction 81, sighs, "It is commonly said that none ought to be deposed from his charge for fornication, in view of the fact that few can be found exempt from this vice." "Why! You here ?" said Des Hermies, entering.

"What are you reading?
_The anatomy of the mass ?_ Oh, it's a poor thing, for Protestants.

I am just about distracted.

Oh, my friend, what brutes those people are," and like a man with a great weight on his chest he unburdened himself.
"Yes, I have just come from a consultation with those whom the journals characterize as 'princes of science.' For a quarter of an hour I have had to listen to the most contradictory opinions.