The conflation of these two figures is not only made possible by virtue of Despayre's association with the "unthrifty" vice of sloth, but also, and more importantly, because he justifies that vice through the deployment of sophistical adoxography. Beyond each orator's espousal of "ease," Belial and Despayre share a "rhetorical virtuosity" in the language they use to question divine purposes and manipulate their auditors through a variety of strategies often aimed at inverting the natural relationship between the "noble" and the "ignoble" – the very definition of adoxography.