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The puys were pious literary societies in the north of France from the thirteenth century till modern times. Most of them were in honor of the Virgin. The one at Dieppe was dedicated to her assumption, the one at Amiens to her purification, the one at Rouen to her immaculate conception. At first the puys were more religious than literary. Later they became more literary than religious. Some became wholly secular literary academies. The puys encouraged the art of poetry by crowning the victors in poetic contests held according to their rules. The contests were arranged and conducted by a president chosen for one year and called prince or less often maistre. The membership was drawn from the clergy, the officials, and the bourgeois. The puys interest us on account of their acknowledged influence upon the German meistersänger and the French rhétoriqueurs, especially in the development of ballad poetry.