For the last half-century, as the Encyclopaedia and Voltaire gained ground in France, the monks had been dinning into the ears of the good people of Milan that to learn to read, or for that matter to learn anything at all was a great waste of labour, and that by paying one's exact tithe to one's parish priest and faithfully reporting to him all one's little misdeeds, one was practically certain of having a good place in Paradise.
Joan den berrogeita hamar urtean, Frantzian Entziklopedia eta Voltaire loratzen ari ziren heinean, Milango herri zintzoari deiadarka arituak zitzaizkion fraideak: alfer-alferrik zebiltzala irakurtzen edo beste edozer gauza egiten ikasi nahian, aski baitzuten apaizari hamarrena zorrotz-zorrotz ordaindu eta bekatu txiki guztiak hari zintzo-zintzo esatea, nork bere lekutxo ederra paradisuan