The introduction of cocoa into Europe, indeed, as well as its cultivation for the European market, is due rather to the Jesuit missionaries than to the explorers of the Western Hemisphere. It was the monks, too, who about 1661 made it known in France. It is curious, therefore, to notice the contest that at one time raged among ecclesiastics as to whether it was lawful to make use of chocolate in Lent; whether it was to be regarded as food or drink. A consensus of opinion on the subject, published in Venice in 1748, states that
"Among the first Probabilist Theologians who undertook to write entire Treatises and to collect all the possible reasons as to whether the Indian beverage (chocolate) could agree with European fasting, was Father Tommaso Hurtado. He employed the whole of the Tenth Treatise of the second volume of the 'Moral Resolutions' printed in 1651, and added thereto an Appendix of more chapters.
"Father Diana found reason for acquitting the consciences of those who, in time of fasting, should drink chocolate. Father Hurtado, more courageous withal, and more benign than Diana, does not speak of this treatise in order to investigate the law; the nature of
