The genesis of Rabelais' conception of progress illustrates the coming to terms of two divergent points of view in the sixteenth century, the humanists' belief in the past and the artisans' belief in the future. That a belief in the progress of knowledge played a significant role in the thought of certain fifteenth and sixteenth century precursors of the scientific movement has been well established. It seems equally certain that the idea of progress, though increasingly common among men who were engaged in the practical arts, had little appeal for most of the humanists of the time of Erasmus and before, preoccupied as they were with classical learning as the ne plus ultra. By the end of the sixteenth century the progressive view, which had received its main impetus from the side of the technological writers, had become part of the intellectual equipment of many classically educated men, and the scientific movement, heralded by Bacon and exemplified by Gilbert and Galileo, was in full swing.