In the 13th-century love story of Aucassin and Nicolette, Aucassin refused heaven as it was offered to the infirm. "What will I do in heaven? I do not care to go there; I simply want Nicolette, my sweetheart whom I love so tenderly.
Heaven is for...old priests, cripples, the wretched who cough night and day in front of the altars and crypts of churches.... Such are the types that go to heaven. I have nothing in common with them." This voice which celebrates romance and eroticism will be the voice of the great writers of the Renaissance.