Cod Streuth

by Bamber Gascoigne

Jacques le Balleur was distracted from his writing by the shrunken head of his predecessor spiked on a rod before him. There was room on that rod for his head too, but just now the savages had given him a large tobacco leaf to write upon. They revered writing. Jacques was soon to learn what else they revered when, tied naked to a stake with a mask over his head, he met, instead of the expected instrument of brutal execution, a plethora of female hands caressing his body. Thus did the extraordinary reign of the French Calvinist Jacques le Balleur begin among the Tupinili cannibals of Brazil in 1560, as recorded in his ‘Monthly Reports’ on tobacco leaves. Addressing both his god and a future generation which would marvel at his good luck, Jacques outlines his role as a patriarch, Professor of both Theology and Language, and inheritor of an extensive harem. He owed it all to Rabelais. Having arrived in their midst with only ten pages left of his miniature four-volume complete works of the lascivious author, Jacques was astonished to discover that the Tupinilis mistook this remnant for the Bible they had been promised. He didn’t disillusion them, rather accepted it as God’s purpose to have preserved for him a document so closely aligned to the interests and customs of his captors. How this led to the formation of a Rabelaisian Parliament, the enactment of an orgiastic Passion Play, and a man’s life and death struggle to become a cuckold is to be discovered in the remarkable pages of COD STREUTH. How conkers in a bag were used to calculate age and fruits in a bowl to demonstrate the Royal Testiculatory Ability, and how a comet came to blaze in the sky presaging tribal doom - these are but a few of the unveiled mysteries that will leave the reader spellbound. Nowhere has Calvinist met cannibal, religion met Rabelais, or history met its match with more entertaining consequences than in Bamber Gascoigne’s hilariously imaginative theological extravaganza.

181 pages, Paperback

First published January 12, 1987

About the author

Bamber Gascoigne is an Eton and Cambridge educated television presenter and author. He was for several years a drama critic for the "Spectator" and the "Observer", and has written a number of books on theatre, art and cultural history.

He came to fame as the presenter of the popular television quiz show, University Challenge (1962 - 1987) and subsequently wrote and presented a 13-part TV series, "The Christians" (1977), from which he also wrote a bestselling book. Gascoigne has remained a well-known figure for his television presenting and his books on history.

Reviews

[Insert name here · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a somewhat strange satire in which a Calvinist flees to Brazil to escape religious persecution and accidentally starts a religion based on ten bawdy pages from Rabelais. I'm not quite sure what to make of it--it is like nothing else I have ever read. It's a bit absurd. I liked it a lot.