In "The City of God", Augustine elsewhere refers to "crepitus cymbalorum", the clang of cymbals. Medical jargon gives the name "crepitus" to the creaking or popping noises made by the joints. The is "pēdere". Voltaire, in a passage of his "Philosophical Dictionary" devoted to changing conceptions of deity, alludes to a number of real or alleged Roman deities of a less exalted status:  Through these passages, the noun "Crepitus" moves from a common noun to a proper noun. Previous authorities had only claimed that the ancient polytheists, whether Egyptian or Roman, worshipped a god of intestinal noises. Perhaps in Burton's mention, and certainly in Voltaire, "Crepitus" is the name of a god of flatulence. Baudelaire criticised both the need of religion and the mediocrity of neopagan artists in a text entitled "L'École païenne" ("The Pagan School"):  Relying on Voltaire's account, Gustave Flaubert put a memorable speech into the mouth of the alleged deity Crepitus in "The Temptation of Saint Anthony":  While Flaubert learned from his friend Fréderic Baudry, who in turn had consulted Alfred Maury, that "poor little Deus Crepitus does not exist; it's a modern invention," he liked his text so much that he left him in. While it is unlikely that the god Crepitus ever existed, the scene from Aristophanes is genuine; in "The Clouds" Athenians compare thunder to the sound of celestial flatulence.