when talking on the
subject, one of the two must needs be created anew by God after the
pattern of the other, before they could agree. For, whilst the most
Christian king is reluctant to assume the burden of great thoughts or
undertakings, and devotes himself much to the chase or to his own
pleasures, the emperor never thinks of anything but business and
aggrandizement; and, whereas the most Christian king is simple, open,
and very liberal, and quite sufficiently inclined to defer to the
judgment and counsel of others, the emperor is reserved, parsimonious,
and obstinate in his opinions, governing by himself, rather than through
any one else."[217]

This diversity of temperament and disposition had ample scope for
manifestation during the protracted wars waged by the two monarchs with
each other. Fit representative of the race to which he belonged, Francis
was bold, adventurous, and almost resistless in the impetuosity of a
first assault. But he soon tired of his undertakings, and relinquished
to the cooler and more calculating Charles the solid fruits of
victory.[218]

[Sidenote: Francis's religious convictions.]

Of the possession of deep religious convictions I do not know that
Francis has left any satisfactory evidence. That he was not strongly
attached to the Roman church, that he thoroughly despised the ignorant
monks, whose dissolute lives he well knew, that he had no extraordinary
esteem for the Pope, all this is clear enough from many incidents of his
life. It would even appear that, at one or two points, he might have
been pleased to witness such a reformation of the church as could be
effected without disturbing the existing order. To this he was the more
inclined, that he found almost all the men distinguished for their
learning arrayed on the side of the "new doctrines," as they were
styled, while the pretorian legion of the papacy was headed by the
opponents of letters.

[Sidenote: His fear of innovation.]

It will be found, however, that several circumstances tended to
counteract or reverse the king's favorable prepossessions. Not least
influential was a pernicious sentiment studiously instilled in his mind
by those whose material interests were all on the side of the
maintenance of the existing system--_that a change of religion
necessarily involves a change of government_. We shall hear much during
the century of this lying political axiom. When Francis, in his
irritation at the Pope, suggested,