on one occasion, to the Nuncio, that
he might be compelled to follow the example Henry the Eighth, of
England, had set him, and permit the spread of the "Lutheran" religion
in France, the astute prelate replied: "Sire, to speak with all
frankness, you would be the first to repent your rash step. Your loss
would be greater than the Pope's; for _a new religion established in the
midst of a people involves nothing short of a change of prince_."[219]
And the same author that records this incident tells us that Francis
hated the Lutheran "heresy," and used to say that this, like every other
new sect, tended more to the destruction of kingdoms than to the
edification of souls.[220] Nor must it be overlooked that Francis
doubtless felt strongly confirmed in his persuasion, by the rash and
disorderly acts of some restless and inconsiderate spirits such as are
wont eagerly to embrace any new belief. Not the peasants' insurrections
in Germany alone, but as well the excesses of the iconoclasts, and the
imprudence of the authors of the famous placards of 1534, although their
acts were distinctly repudiated by the vast majority of the French
reformers, inflicted irretrievable damage, by furnishing plausible
arguments to those who accused the Protestants of being authors or
abettors of riot and confusion.

[Sidenote: His loose morals.]

A second reason of the early estrangement of Francis from the "new
doctrines" has more frequently been overlooked. The rigid code of morals
which the reformers established, and which John Calvin attempted to make
in Geneva the law of the state, repelled a prince who, though twice
married and both times to women devoted to his interests and faithful to
their vows, treated his lawful wives with open neglect, and preferred to
consort with perfidious mistresses, who sold to the enemy for money his
confidential disclosures--a prince who, not satisfied with introducing
excesses until then unheard of among his nobles, was not ashamed to
bestow the royal bounty upon the professed head of the degraded women
whom he allowed to accompany the court from place to place.[221]

[Sidenote: His anxiety to obtain the support of the Pope.]

If to these two motives we add a third--the desire of the king to avail
himself of the important influence of the Roman pontiff upon the
politics of Europe--we shall be at no loss to account for the singular
fact that the brother of Margaret of Angouleme, in spite of his sister's