Under the impulse of the Counter-Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church decided to appropriate the most popular among the secular songs of the time and to set them to new lyrics, thus creating so-called “spiritual parodies” that would be more conducive to meditation and more effective for home praying. In parallel emerged a naughty or even licentious literature revelling in stigmatizing the French clergy’s shortcomings, while mocking gently the lascivious aspirations of certain religious congregations.