34. Francis I.
CHAPTER XXXIV. Francis I. (1515-1547)
The next king was the cousin of Louis XII., who had married his daughter. Francis I. was at this time a young man — handsome, brave, gay, fond of war, glory, and amusement. Louis XII. had always been afraid that when Francis came to be king he would disturb the arrangements which Louis had made for governing the kingdom, and would think only of his own amusement, not of the good of the country. He used to say, "That bouncing boy will spoil everything." The father of Francis was dead; his mother, a very clever, but not a wise or good woman, spoilt him completely. She thought him the greatest man in the world, and helped him to take his own way in everything. She used to call him "my peaceful Cæsar" before he had fought any battle, and as soon as he had won one victory, "my glorious, triumphant Cæsar." Francis had also a sister named Margaret, who loved him as well as his mother did, but who was an excellent woman, and whose advice was always for his good and the country's. She wrote poetry, and was fond of all learned men; she often persuaded Francis I. to protect people who were hated for having a different religious belief from their neighbours. She could often persuade Francis to do as she wished, when he would not listen to any one else.
The reign of Francis I. is a very important time, not only in the history of France, but in the history of the whole world. Two men lived at that time, both of whom gave much trouble to the French king, and, though they were not Frenchmen, made so much change in the affairs of all Europe, that I must say a little about each of them. The first I shall mention was the young prince who, soon after Francis began his reign, became King of Spain. He was the grandson of the Emperor of Germany, and when his grandfather died two years later, wished to be emperor in his place. The Emperor was chosen by seven of the chief princes in Germany, and the King of Spain hoped to be able to persuade them to choose him, though he was only eighteen, and had not then showed any signs of being likely to become a specially wise or brave king. Francis also wished to be Emperor, and made friends with several of the electors, as the princes were called who had the right of choosing or electing the Emperor.
Others, however, took the side of the Spanish king, whose name was Charles, and after he and Francis had both said all they could, and made handsome presents to the electors, each trying to persuade them to be on his side, it was settled that Charles would be most likely to make a good emperor, and he was solemnly invited to come and govern Germany, to his great joy and Francis's deep disappointment. Charles, known as Charles V., had now far more land belonging to him than any other prince in Europe. Spain was his, and Germany and Austria, and the country which is now Holland and Belgium, and a good deal of land in the west, where first Columbus, and then other sailors and soldiers from Spain, had discovered and conquered islands in the seas near America, and at last part of America itself, for the Spanish kings.
Charles gave Austria to his brother, but all the rest of the empire he kept for himself. As he grew older, his neighbours began to grow more and more afraid of him. Seeing him so much stronger than they, they feared he might wish to grow stronger still, and take their lands from them. However, he had too much to do in his own country to attack other people of his own accord. His empire was too large to be ruled easily, disturbances were always rising up in one or another part of it, and if Charles had not been active, industrious, and very clever, he could never have kept it all under his rule through his lifetime as he did. He was a thoughtful, grave, and prudent young man, very different in every way from the gay, cheerful Francis, who cared more for war and amusement than for anything else. Francis, all through his reign, had to be on his watch against Charles V.; they had three wars together, and on the whole, Charles had the best of the struggle.
The other man who made himself important in Europe at this time was a very different person from the great emperor and the gay French king. He was a German monk, and his name was Martin Luther. This was the man who first taught the faith which is now believed by all Protestants; and pointed out the mistakes and evils that had grown up among the believers of the faith which, till then, had been held by almost all Christians. Half the countries of Europe gave up their old beliefs to follow what he taught, and in some countries his followers are still called Lutherans, after his name. There were several important differences between the old and the new ideas. The one which has most to do with history was the different way of thinking about the Pope.
The Pope, to begin with, had been only Bishop of Rome, and one of four bishops who were over all the others, and were all four very important people. But in time the other three bishops were forgotten, and became no greater than all the others, while the Bishop of Rome was more and more looked up to, and treated with respect, first by all Italy, then by all Europe. He was called Pope, which means father, and was a common name at that time for many bishops; but the Bishop of Rome was the only one who has kept it till the present time. In early days the Pope chose all the other chief bishops in all the countries of Europe, settled all religious disputes, and had the power of excommunicating kings and laying countries under an interdict.
As his power grew greater, the people in distant countries began to respect him more and more, and by degrees the idea grew up that the Pope was the wisest and best man in the world. Then people began to think that he was so wise and good that he could never make a mistake or do anything wrong. This was partly because Rome, where the Pope lived, (was) the home of the strongest and wisest people that had ever been known, and the people in the other countries of Europe were wild and ignorant, and understood little about religious matters. When they grew wiser and became as strong and important as the Italians, they (left off believing) so much in the wisdom and goodness of the Pope.
But still the popes had held their power for so many years, that it would have been a difficult thing to turn the people against them, if they had used their great power well. But in the time of Martin Luther they had come to use it in many ways very ill. The Pope, at that time, was in great want of money, as he often was, and he had many plans for getting some. He had often asked for it from the clergy in the different countries of Europe. The kings of such countries did not like the clergy to pay away great sums to the popes, because less money was left for the bishops to give them when they wanted it for wars or any other purpose. The kings and popes had often had great disputes as to whether all the clergy were the subjects of the Pope, or whether each was the subject of the king in whose country he lived, as happens with other people.
But just at this time the Pope had a plan for making the common people give him money. It had always been thought that the Pope had the power of settling who was good and who was bad. If any one wrote a book which was thought wicked, it was sent to the Pope for him to say whether people were to be allowed to read it or not. If any one had displeased the Pope, he was punished by excommunication, as has been already described; besides all the unpleasant things which happened to the excommunicated person in this life, it was thought that if the Pope did not at last forgive him, he would be punished in another world after his death. Any one who had been forgiven for a sin by the Pope believed that he should be forgiven by God. It was next said that after people were dead the prayers of the Pope were still useful for them, and people paid him sums of money to persuade him to say these prayers for their relations. A man was sent through Germany, in the reign of Francis, with pardons ready printed on paper. (Any one) who paid him a certain sum of money could have one of these pardons from the Pope, either for something wrong they had done themselves, or for some sin of some of their friends, or they could buy the Pope's prayers for the soul of any one who was dead. It made many people extremely angry to see this being done. The Pope was now thinking only of making money for himself, and not at of whether what he was teaching people was right and true, for forgiveness is not a thing that can be bought; and after a man is dead, the Pope knows no more than any one else what God may do with the soul He alone has created.
Many people spoke and wrote against selling the pardons, but the man who spoke most and was listened to most was Martin Luther. He had been a monk, and had been taught everything that was then believed to be true about the best way to please God and live a good life, as well as about the power of the Pope; but he was not satisfied with what he was taught, and saw reasons for thinking that his teachers made mistakes. He explained his own ideas first in giving his reasons for disliking the sale of pardons, and he went on to teach and to write books about what people ought to believe, and about the wickedness of the Pope and his court. Every one listened to him, many people were pleased, many were furious, and there were wars and disturbances, for many years, and all through the greater part of Europe, while one nation after another was deciding the question whether they should think as they had always been taught to do before, and submit to the Pope as they had done, or whether they should resist the Pope and accept the new ideas which Luther taught, and which, by degrees, more and more people came to think were the true ones.
I cannot explain here the difference between what Luther thought and what the Pope and his clergy thought. It was almost the same difference there is now between the people called Roman Catholics and those called Protestants. Some Protestants now think just what Luther thought, and others nearly the same. Some people agreed with Luther in disliking the great power of the Pope, and thinking that it ought to be stopped, without agreeing to his other opinions, (and becoming) Protestants.
Francis of France was one of these. The Popes had never had the same power in France that they had in some other countries. The king often resisted them, and the French clergy often took the side of their king.
Many of Luther's (friends) came into France to teach there, and in some parts they found friends, in others enemies. Their enemies, some of whom were bishops and people in power, were so angry with them that they would have put many of the Protestant teachers to death, if Margaret, Francis's sister, had not helped them, and persuaded the king to treat them well. Some of the people listened to them and became reformers, which was the name first given to those who agreed with Luther's ideas, because they wished to reform, that is make better, the people about them and themselves. The king, however, and the greater number of his subjects went on believing the old teaching, as they had done before. Francis had not much time to think about such things, for he was very often at war; and when not, was amusing himself, buying pictures or building fine palaces, and he did not care to spend time in thinking quietly about serious subjects. It was less trouble to him, of course, to go on with his old ideas than to think about changing them; and this he did, and had his children brought up in them as well.
When some of the people in a town became reformers, there were sure to be disputes and often fights between them and their fellow-townsmen. For one thing, Luther's followers were made angry by the little statues and images before which people in those days were accustomed to say their prayers; and they often broke or spoilt them by way of showing that they were only statues and images. The Roman Catholics, for their part, were made extremely angry when the Protestants did any harm to the images about which they cared so much, and there were fights in the streets in which people often lost their lives. Francis always took the side of those who defended the images, and when a special favourite of the people's had been pulled down, the king went in great state to set up another in its place, and punished very cruelly the people who had (hurt) it. On the other hand, he did what he could to prevent the people who believed in the new ideas from being ill-treated by their neighbours so long as they lived quietly.
But the worst act of his reign was the way in which he ill-treated a set of people who had found out for themselves a form of belief, much like that which Martin Luther taught.
In some of the valleys of the Alps lived a tribe of people known as the Vandois. They had been driven into the mountains by the Albigensian wars in the reign of Philip Augustus.
There they and their children had lived for nearly four hundred years without being disturbed by any one; but with a different belief from that of their neighbours, the people who lived in one of the southern provinces of France. They were quiet and industrious, so that the great lords in the country near protected and employed them, and at last some of them came down to live in the land at the foot of the Alps, where they built two towns and thirty villages, planted trees, sowed grain and fruit, and brought up cattle, till they made their little corner one of the most fertile parts of the province. These people had made friends with the reformers, whose opinions were so nearly the same as their own.
Francis at one time had sent messengers to find out what they did believe and what sort of life they led, and the account of them was so good that for some time they were not disturbed.
At last, however, the bishops, who were his friends, and the Emperor, with whom he had just made a peace, began reminding him of these heretics, and telling him that they would do some harm to the country if they were allowed to go on living as they had done. The king allowed himself to be persuaded; he wrote to the governor of the province and told him to clear it entirely of the heretics. Several bands of fierce soldiers were sent against the poor Vaudois, who had no means of helping themselves, and who did not even know that the king was angry with them. When the soldiers came to the nearest villages they set them on fire, and put to death every one they found in them, men, women, and children alike.
The Vaudois in other villages seeing this, fled into the woods; the soldiers, when they came up, burned the villages, cut down the fruit-trees, spoiled the crops, and killed any of the people whom they could find. This happened all through the country; the people were killed in horrible ways; village after village, and the two towns were burned. In one of the towns was found a young man who was an idiot, and had stayed behind, when (every one) in their senses had fled for safety. He was shot. In the other town several inhabitants were found; they gave up the town, and a promise was made that their lives should be spared; but as they were heretics the promise was broken, and they were all put to death. The women of the town were shut up in a barn and burned. More than three thousand people were killed, and others had wandered off into the woods.
A law was made that no food or shelter was to be given to a Vaudois, so that numbers of them died of hunger, others made their way into other countries, and some were caught by their enemies and put to death, or carried off to serve in the French armies. This treatment of the Vaudois is worse than anything else which happened in Francis's reign. It is an example of the way in which stronger men often behaved to weaker, who thought differently from them about religious questions. Unhappily, there are many such examples in French history. This chapter has been more about the Reformation than about the special events in the reign of Francis, who must therefore have another chapter to himself.
