Part 121 (1/2)

DIVINITY OF KINGS

Royal absolutism formed a natural development of the old belief in the divinity of kings. Many primitive peoples regard their headmen and chiefs as holy and give to them the control of peace and war, of life and death.

Oriental rulers in antiquity bore a sacred character. Even in the lifetime of an Egyptian Pharaoh temples were erected to him and offerings were made to his sacred majesty. The Hebrew monarch was the Lord's anointed, and his person was holy. The h.e.l.lenistic kings of the East and the Roman emperors received divine honors from their adoring subjects. An element of sanct.i.ty also attached to medieval sovereigns, who, at their coronation, were anointed with a magic oil, girt with a sacred sword, and given a supernatural banner. Even Shakespeare could speak of the divinity which ”doth hedge a king.” [2]

”Not all the water in the rough rude sea Can wash the balm off from an anointed king; The breath of worldly men cannot depose The deputy elected by the Lord.” [3]

DIVINE RIGHT AFTER THE REFORMATION

The Reformation tended to emphasize the sacred character of kings.h.i.+p. The reformers set up the authority of the State against the authority of the Church, which they rejected and condemned. Providence, they argued, had never sanctioned the Papacy, but Providence had really ordained the State and had placed over it a king whom it was a religious duty to obey. Even those who were not reformers distorted the Christian idea that government has a divine basis to represent kings as G.o.d's vicegerents upon earth, as in fact earthly deities.

BOSSUET ON DIVINE RIGHT

The theory of divine right received its fullest expression in a famous book [4] written by Bossuet, a learned French bishop of the seventeenth century. A hereditary monarchy, declared Bossuet, is the most ancient and natural, the strongest and most efficient, of all forms of government.

Royal power emanates from G.o.d; hence the person of the king is sacred and it is sacrilege to conspire against him. His authority is absolute and autocratic. No man may rightfully resist the king's commands; his subjects owe him obedience in all matters. To the violence of a king the people can oppose only respectful remonstrances and prayers for his conversion. A king, to be sure, ought not to be a tyrant, but he can be one in perfect security. ”As in G.o.d are united all perfection and every virtue, so all the power of all the individuals in a community is united in the person of the king.”

242. THE ABSOLUTISM OF LOUIS XIV, 1661-1715 A.D.

CARDINAL RICHELIEU

France in the seventeenth century furnished the best example of an absolute monarchy supported by pretensions to divine right. French absolutism owed most of all to Cardinal Richelieu, [5] the chief minister of Louis XIII. Though a man of poor physique and in weak health, he possessed such strength of will, together with such thorough understanding of politics, that he was able to dominate the king and through the king to govern France for eighteen years (1624-1642 A.D.).

POLICIES OF RICHELIEU

Richelieu's foreign policy led to his intervention on the side of the Protestants at a decisive moment in the Thirty Years' War. The great cardinal, however, did not live to see the triumph of his measures in the Peace of Westphalia, which humiliated the Hapsburgs and raised France to the first place among the states of western Europe. Richelieu's domestic policy--to make the French king supreme--was equally successful. Though the n.o.bles were still rich and influential, Richelieu beat down their opposition by forbidding the practice of duelling, that last remnant of private warfare, by ordering many castles to be blown up with gunpowder, and by bringing rebellious dukes and counts to the scaffold. Henceforth the n.o.bles were no longer feudal lords but only courtiers.

CARDINAL MAZARIN

Richelieu died in 1642 A.D., and the next year Louis XIII, the master whom he had served so faithfully, also pa.s.sed away. The new ruler, Louis XIV, was only a child, and the management of affairs for a second period of eighteen years pa.s.sed into the hands of Cardinal Mazarin. Though an Italian by birth, he became a naturalized Frenchman and carried out Richelieu's policies. Against the Hapsburgs Mazarin continued the great war which Richelieu had begun and brought it to a satisfactory conclusion.

The Peace of Westphalia was Mazarin's greatest triumph. He also crushed a formidable uprising against the crown, on the part of discontented n.o.bles.

Having achieved all this, the cardinal could truly say that ”if his language was not French, his heart was,” His death in 1661 A.D. found the royal authority more firmly established than ever before.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CARDINAL MAZARIN A miniature by Pet.i.tot, in the South Kensington Museum, London.]

LOUIS XIV, THE MAN

Louis XIV, who now in his twenty-third year took up the reins of government, ranks among the ablest of French monarchs. He was a man of handsome presence, slightly below the middle height, with a prominent nose and abundant hair, which he allowed to fall over his shoulders. In manner he was dignified, reserved, courteous, and as majestic, it is said, in his dressing-gown as in his robes of state. A contemporary wrote that he would have been every inch a king, ”even if he had been born under the roof of a beggar.” Louis possessed much natural intelligence, a retentive memory, and great capacity for work. It must be added, however, that his general education had been much neglected, and that throughout his life he remained ignorant and superst.i.tious. Vanity formed a striking trait in the character of Louis. He accepted the most fulsome compliments and delighted to be known as the ”Grand Monarch” and the ”Sun-king.”

[Ill.u.s.tration: LOUIS XIV A portrait by J. Gale, in the Sutherland Collection, London.]

COURT OF LOUIS XIV AT VERSAILLES

Louis gathered around him a magnificent court, which he located at Versailles, near Paris. Here a whole royal city, with palaces, parks, groves, and fountains, sprang into being at his fiat. Here the ”Grand Monarch” lived surrounded by crowds of fawning courtiers. The French n.o.bles now spent little time on their country estates; they preferred to remain at Versailles in attendance on the king, to whose favor they owed offices, pensions, and honors. The king's countenance, it was said, is the courtier's supreme felicity; ”he pa.s.ses his life looking on it and within sight of it.”

[Ill.u.s.tration: VERSAILLES The view shows the rear of the palace a part of the gardens and the grand stairway leading to the Fountain of Latona. The palace now forms a magnificent picture gallery of French historical scenes and personages while the park with its many fine fountains is a place of holiday resort for Parisians. It is estimated that Louis XIV spent one hundred million dollars on the buildings and grounds of Versailles.]

LOUIS XIV, THE KING

Louis taught and put into practice the doctrine of divine right. In his memoirs he declares that the king is G.o.d's representative and for his actions is answerable to G.o.d alone. The famous saying, ”I am the State,”

[6] though not uttered by Louis, accurately expressed his conviction that in him was embodied the power and greatness of France. Few monarchs have tried harder to justify their despotic rule. He was fond of gaiety and sport, but he never permitted himself to be turned away from the punctual discharge of his royal duties. Until the close of his reign--the longest in the annals of Europe--Louis devoted from five to nine hours a day to what he called the ”trade of a king.”