I Am Louis XIV

   Chapter 133 What people will see five hundred years later

Bontang was Louis's first attendant and the head of the palace. It can be said that among the servants of the court, he was the undisputed prime minister. At some point, even the king's dragoons and musketeers had to obey his orders. , he accompanied the king for fifteen years, from the time Louis was an ignorant child, to now, a real king, Bontang loves and respects him, and can let Bontang say such words, it can be said that Louis is true A little too much.

In fact, there are indeed many documents in the secret library of the Church of Rome that may not be made public for thousands of years. These documents range from the commentaries on the fragments of the Bible collected everywhere, to the Church and various forces-including not Limited to those so-called pagans and sorcerers, the transactions between dark creatures vary, and there are some humiliating or uproar peace contracts or deeds, such as this document signed by Louis XIV and the Roman Church It was also rightfully included in it, and centuries later, when French scholars petitioned the Church of Rome to present a real Sun King Louis XIV, the priests of the Church of Rome could almost say With a cold smile, he threw the extremely well-preserved piece of vellum in front of them.

Clement VIII, of course, would not have had such great foresight. The reason why he asked the priests to keep this document as long as possible was so that everyone who had the right to enter here could see France with their own eyes. How shameless and condescending the king of men is.

In the middle of the sixteenth century, good paper was already available, but for orthodox documents, especially those related to the church, people still used parchment or vellum. Even after more than three feet, there is still no trace of seams and sticking. It is a complete sheet. Even after hundreds of years, it is still elastic and has a smooth surface. And it is a long-lasting, non-fading iron gall ink. The ink is mixed with gum, so that the writing is so thick that it looks like it will be uncovered at any time, but these writings describe how King Louis XIV of France was a greedy person. At the same time, it also revealed the weakness of the Roman church at that time - it is difficult to say whether the willingness of the Roman church to expose this precious document to the public this time has something to do with the new round of papal elections, because at this time the highest voice is Bishop Batty from Siena, whose surname is Chigi.

Even after hundreds of years, when Clement VIII is mentioned, the people of the church can't help but feel ashamed, because with him, the Roman church broke many firsts, even Boniface VIII. The face of the church was so dry and silent - the French scholars didn't care, they put on clean protective clothing, soft-soled shoes, and entered the heart of Rome. In a large room where the temperature and humidity were kept constant, they could only feel the light, but could not see the source of the light, they waited for a while, and a priest walked into the room with a dark glass box in his hands, and they were separated from the priest. With a huge table, the priest put the box on the table, opened it, and carefully took out the vellum with gloved hands—it had been rolled up in a cylinder because it had been kept between two boards. The vellum has long since become flat, and from the edge of the vellum, the traces of the dark red and almost black sealing wax are clearly visible.

As soon as they saw the writing on it, these scholars couldn't help but let out a low and excited cry. There are many handwritten manuscripts left in the world by Louis XIV, the Sun King, especially his children, whether they were born in wedlock or out of wedlock. When a child is born, he will receive a gift from his father and a handwritten blessing note on his birthday every year. Most of these notes are cherished and kept. Even today, they are often displayed at family gatherings of the descendants of the Sun King. , and a very small part was donated to the museum because of extinction. Everyone can see the profound and beautiful handwriting of the Sun King.

Scholars were even more familiar with this handwriting, literally better than their own, so seeing only one initial capital letter, they were sure that it was indeed the handwriting of Louis XIV, and then they spoke in unison He whispered softly, "It's really French!" In the era of François with a big nose, the French people's nationalism showed signs of rising, far surpassing their beliefs, and it reached its peak in the era of Louis XIV. When the people of Europa were still using Latin as their lingua franca, and letters were written in Latin, the letter from King Louis XIV of France to Pope Clement VIII was already in French.

The rows are slightly inclined, but they are as slender and flexible as the spring vines. The beautiful handwriting is lined up on the apricot yellow paper. Except for the capital letters at the beginning, the other letters are not fancy, but have An awe-inspiring and arrogant aura, "At that time the Sun King..." a scholar couldn't help but say.

   "Twenty-three," said another scholar.

   "Young man," said the third scholar, "King." Then he added that it was not until the priest gave a reproachful hiss that they began to take their duties as scholars and researchers seriously.

  Five demands were made by Louis XIV after a hypocritical tribute to the Pope in his routine.

Article 1: He asked the Pope to hand over the gangsters who attacked the king's envoys and family members, that is, the Marquis of Crake and his party. The leader of these people is the brother of Pope Clement VIII. Brother, of course he couldn't let his brother die, so everyone knows that after this peace treaty was signed, the Pope's brother was expelled from Rome, and the Corsicans who participated in the two battles, All were sentenced to hanging or beheading.

Article 2: The king asked that the papal guard must be disarmed - in fact the papal guard was disarmed, and the subsequent popes never established the guard again. It was not until three hundred years later that the Pope in Rome was in the First World War. , the Guard was re-established as needed for the security of the Vatican.

Article 3: The Church of Rome must apologise to the King of France for this, and it is not a brief, forgettable, or private ceremony, and a papal envoy must leave for Paris, and at the Louvre in Paris, In the eyes of many envoys and dignitaries, they bowed down to the king, as the representative of the Pope, to this venerable majesty. In addition, in Rome, a stele must be erected on which the entire incident and the principal's confession must be written.

The stele, which originally stood on the west side of the Pope's Palace, at the end of the porch of St. Peter's Basilica, is nowhere to be found, and although it is valuable as a historical witness, church officials insist that it was the first During the World War, it was destroyed by artillery fire. But now, the document proves that it did exist, and the king also specifically stated the requirements for the size and font of the stele.

Article 4: The Church of Rome shall return Castelot and Roncigliona to the Duke of Parma, and Cormaggio to the Duke of Modena or to compensate him for the damages he suffered - scholars immediately clamored Get up, because the descendant of the Duke of Parma still claims that he owns the two cities, and he does keep the relevant certificates. As for Cormaggio, fortunately, the Duke of Modena still took the compensation in the end. Otherwise, the current Italian government will definitely have to deal with the big problems brought to them by the Roman Church.

And this fourth article is also the reason why the Roman Church denounced Louis XIV, the Sun King, as shameless. The French coveted the Italian peninsula can be traced back to the Gallic period, and their ancestors were still doing things for the Romans. When mercenaries, but Louis XIV, the boy who had been in power for less than five years, dared to claim to be the protector of the various Italian princes, and intended to make this a reality rather than a vain profit of words - make To the dismay of the church, he did.

To say that alone, it may not make Clement VIII annoyed to protect this document like an ancient Bible. What annoys him most is that whether it is the Duke of Parma or the Duke of Modenay (they are both are Italian princes, the previous cities are also in Italy, and they were all territories of the Papal States), all tacitly agreed to this, and because of these two things, gave the French a lot of money - yes, mind you , everyone, the point is here! Louis XIV of France suppressed Pope Clement VIII in Castel Sant'Angelo and did not dare to move, while threatening him to hand over the territory of the Papal State. Of course, the French king also knew very well that his army could not stay there forever. Italy, so his envoys opened a bounty meeting semi-openly - to put it simply, to ask everyone in Italy if there is anything that requires the Pope's approval, if so, the Duke of Luxembourg and his king are very Generous, I am very willing to ask the Pope about this on your behalf, and I can also obtain a satisfactory answer for you, as long as you pay a little vulgar gold...

  Although this practice has caused many people to secretly criticize or laugh, there are still warriors - namely the Duke of Parma and the Duke of Modena. It is said that the donations they took out were no less than the ransom paid by the Pope for himself.

The fifth is the ransom, the king of France cheekily wrote that because of the mistakes made by the vile men of the papal guard, he was compelled to send his envoys and the faithful who protected them to Italy to inquire of the venerable Holy Father In this matter, although he did not think that the Holy Father would be involved in this matter, it was an indisputable fact that the matter started because of this. In this case, he believed that the Holy Father would definitely feel sad because of this. In order to alleviate this sadness and relieve God The guilt of the spokesperson on earth, he asked the Roman church to bear all the costs of the battle, or the armed procession, and the mental damage fee - as for why there is such a thing as a mental damage fee, it is because the king of France is such a pious one Man, such a saint, had to accept the terrible fact that his envoys were expelled from Rome by the church, and that he had to send an army to surround Rome, and had been unable to sleep and eat normally for several days, so...

He wanted to hold many Masses to calm his heart. Although when the Mass was held, where it was held, and who would preside over it, he did not mention a word in the letter, but in order not to make the Holy Father think too much, the Church of Rome only All you need is money and a cardinal’s shawl—the king even graciously said that if the church couldn’t get the money for a while, it could be repaid with the obligations and taxes owed by the priests and monks to the church.

   "A new word!" said one of the scholars, almost can't help laughing, mental damage fee, this word was born from here, and has been used by many kings since then, as long as they think they are shameless enough.

   "More importantly," said the second scholar, "from this time on, the Sun King Louis XIV was consciously taxing priests and monks."

"Yes, he may have started thinking about it a few years ago. The brother of Clement VIII gave him a good excuse. If he directly collects taxes from the religious people in the country, he will definitely be counterattacked and retaliated. In the name of the church..."

   "I think someone smart should see it."

   "Maybe the king can't solve this problem, but he can definitely solve the wise man." The scholars laughed. The church people on one side were very embarrassed, because someone in the church did see it, but he soon encountered a reasonable accident, and it was not the conspiracy of the French king, but Clement VIII had to take it upon himself. The guilt, because he had not yet thought of visiting Paris or Avignon.

  ———

The discussion of   500 years later is not clear to the young Guo and Bontang. While surprised at the king's whimsy, Bontang wonders if this can completely free the king from the doubts of the French church people.

The question of taxation in France is about to be mentioned here. The pride of the French king is not groundless. When the king of England had to fight with the members of parliament over the issue of taxation, the king of France had already obtained the freedom to levy taxes because of the Hundred Years War. The power of the French domestic tax is not only many and complex, many of which are for the service of war, and when the war is really about to start, the king will temporarily increase taxes, or worse, borrow money from domestic bankers, and then use the future The tax of the king is mortgaged - that is, the well-known tax package system. It seems to be a very beneficial and easy thing for the king to hand over all the taxes of a region to one person - because the tax collection process is exempted. A lot of work and worries, and enough money to meet your own or your country's needs.

   Just like any official who has bought an official position, in order to ensure that his loan will not be wasted, or that he cannot get enough benefits, those taxpayers will do their best to exploit those poor people who need to pay taxes.

But the nobles at that time did not have to pay most of the taxes, and then the religious officials the king targeted, those priests and monks, only had to pay a donation every few years, even if it was several million livres each time. , but relative to what they should really pay, it is only a drop in the bucket.

  Who then pulls the heavy chariot of France?

   civilians, only civilians.

   (end of this chapter)