A Comparison of Rabelais's Ideas on Intellectual, Religious, and Social Freedom with those of Montaigne, Calvin, and Marguerite de Navarre

(From the Introduction)

The characteristic intellectual manifestation of the Renaissance in France was the spirit of free inquiry, of revolt against traditional authority. In other words, it was the assertion of the freedom of man and of the rights of the individual. For this reason the sixteenth century marks a great change in all the provinces of the intellectual life. Here can be seen the full advent of the Italian Renaissance with its spirit of intense liberty and originality.