I Am Louis XIV

The children could still remain calm in front of the king. Although their red faces had already betrayed their excitement, as soon as they left the sight of the king and ministers, they couldn't wait to discuss it. The eldest princess's shout was the clearest. , she was doted on by her father, suffered almost no setbacks, and was even more courageous than the Crown Prince; the Crown Prince's voice was as calm and gentle as his actions; when the Duke of Colonna spoke, he also lost his previous gloom and became eager and lively. As for the princess, although her tone was as gentle and peaceful as before, it could be heard that her little heart was jumping for joy.

Louis lowered his head and listened until the sound of the children's footsteps gradually disappeared. He glanced at the prince's brother and ministers beside him, "There is another person," he said, "When he comes, we can continue with the rest of the schedule."

That person is Cardinal Lariviere. His current status is as embarrassing as the Archbishop of Canterbury in England, because although France is called the eldest daughter of God, it is definitely a period of rebellion for the Roman Church. A rebellious woman for three hundred years, the Roman Church received threats rather than support from France a long time ago - and after the arrival of the Sun King, the prestige of the Roman Church was further reduced. This king even threatened the princes in the country. If we cannot endure it, how can we endure the church’s kingdom within a kingdom?

But even the Roman Church had to surrender to this king. No matter what else, Louis XIV is now the most powerful Catholic king - the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I whom the church relied on before was, in the final analysis, just the Archduke of Austria. , and there are already enough Protestant electors in the Holy Roman Empire. Needless to say, England, Hungary, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway... The Catholic territories are not as many as people think, so although they are angry, the Roman Church still wants to thank Louis Louis XIV captured the Netherlands, which was a Protestant country. Of course, if Louis XIV was willing to force the Protestants to convert or expel them...the church could also forget about it.

But as soon as Larivère heard the subject of this meeting, he knew that the plan of the Roman Church could not succeed.

Because the theme of this conference is education. Louis XIV has been concerned about domestic education issues since he was a child. He also asked Mr. Bishop Mazarin. It has to be said that in this regard, the princes of the Holy Roman Empire were ahead of the French. In the second half of the sixth century, the Principality of Widimburg and the Principality of Saxony promulgated compulsory education laws, and the Principality of Weimar promulgated similar laws in the early seventeenth century. The law stipulated that boys and girls aged six to twelve years old Children must go to school and must not miss even one day throughout the year except for religious holidays - although this part of the law is difficult to implement, after all, when people have to worry about food, clothing and even shelter today, they will not care about tomorrow. Whether children can learn a word or solve a math problem; and the shortage of teachers is also a big problem. In cities, priests or businessmen can also serve as teachers, but in the countryside there are many teachers' professions (not a bad sentence) , they are most likely to be tailors, cattle herders, or old mercenaries. Generally speaking, the people responsible for establishing the school do not know how to choose, and can only let those eloquent guys do the trick. Some of them can only teach children simple reading and writing, some can teach them to recognize numbers, and some can just talk and brag about their past "achievements". They punish the children as they please and let these little brats do it for themselves. live, or blackmail their parents.

This kind of situation is not uncommon in France, so Louis XIV only popularized primary and secondary education in Versailles for the time being. Because the king and his cronies often traveled between Versailles and Paris, and teachers' salaries were also very high, so for the time being it was still There were no disturbing situations, and what was produced in these schools was the "new army" that people saw, loyal, intelligent, brave and strong.

As the assets of the Netherlands and Flanders were gradually converted from merchants into gold and silver coins and flowed into the national treasury, and after the Dutch colonies were divided, each country paid money to France separately in accordance with the Treaty of Versailles. Even though Louis paid money to France at the same time, The army (150,000 standing troops) and the navy allocate funds to support domestic education projects - the four art academies overseen by the children are one of them, and the popularization of primary and even secondary education that Louis has always hoped to launch is a top priority. Heavy.

But this issue involves the part that Bishop Larivère least wants to see, and that is the Huguenots - Huguenots are the name of the Protestants in France, and to the Roman Church They are also hateful heretics. In this regard, the Roman Church certainly hopes that Louis XIV will act like the former Queen Mother Catherine Medici, that is, to cause another massacre.

But the most important reason that allowed Louis to tolerate this group of heretics was the educational resources of the Huguenots - because from the beginning, the Huguenots used education as a sword and shield to challenge the Catholic Church in France. , as far as the King's Secret Service inquired, before they were ordered to close, the Huguenots had a total of thirty-two colleges and eight universities, teaching their own language, reading, writing, mathematics and poetry, although there were inevitably Catechism and other religious courses, but these teachers are real teachers. They have experience and teaching materials, and their educational philosophy has many overlaps with Louis. Regardless of gender, there are grades and classes, and there are exams every month. .

I don’t know how this kind of systematic education is any better than the previous church schools that mainly focused on religious education.

Speaking of which, there are also schools founded by the Jesuits in France. In addition to teaching the traditional seven arts, there are also teaching contents involving physics, natural science and chemistry. The problem is that they advocate too much classicism, rarely accept new things, and deliberately Guiding students toward absolute blind obedience and obedience to Catholicism and the Roman Church - for Louis XIV, this was an intolerable sin, even greater than the treasonous behavior of the Huguenots.

In addition, the Jesuits have also rejected the king's request for them to open primary school courses. Of course, to this group of stubborn idiots, children under the age of ten are all a group of unteachable animals.

Bishop Lariviere could only shake his head at this. These Jesuit priests probably didn't know that their king must do something once he wanted to do it.

Sure enough, the king had determined that as long as the Huguenots were willing to hand over their teachers and teaching materials and obey the king's arrangements, they could live their lives peacefully in the Orleans area while maintaining their beliefs. Let Mr. Chambolance convey it to the Huguenots in other places-if they insist on living in the original place, it is not impossible. After all, the original Nantes Edict allowed them to live in La Rochelle and Monttoux. Bon and Nimes maintained their beliefs, but if there were religious riots, the king would not only withdraw the Edict of Nantes, but also regard them as treason.

The same was true if they wished to escape, for the king now had sufficient troops to keep an eye on them, and the military power of the Huguenots had been outlawed long ago.

And since the fall of Flanders and the Netherlands, they have fewer places to go.

But you have to say that they stayed in three places in La Rochelle-in fact, it should be said in two places, because Nîmes has almost no Huguenots anymore-but they had to obey the Catholic Church's holiday It's okay to make arrangements and pay the tithe, but when they are surrounded by Catholics, their life will become very difficult.

No wonder a converted Christian said that it is difficult to disobey a priest when he has an executioner behind him, or a king's army of one hundred thousand men.

Now, Louis XIV gave them a choice, which was to move to Orleans, where there was a special area where the residents had the same faith as them, where they could continue their lives without converting or converting. to do hard labor, if only they would be teachers in the king's schools...

"Are you saying that in addition to literature and science, there are schools for craftsmen?" Bishop Lariviere asked cautiously. He is a man who is neither smart nor stupid. He is not smart. It was because he was stupid enough to compete with Prince Conti and the Queen Mother's confessor for the position of cardinal. To say it was not stupid, but because he decisively accepted the olive branch offered by the then very young king.

Now it was impossible for him to point fingers at the king's decision, or to violate it. He only hesitated for a moment and did not raise any objection to this issue.

"Were these schools first opened in Orleans?" asked the Prince of Conti.

"You can say that," Louis said, "because it belongs to my dearest brother." The Duke of Orleans immediately stood up and saluted: "I believe he can control his own territory." And the Duke of Orleans' territory is very vast. ——That’s why the Duke of Orleans was able to make waves in the past, and now the king can also divide them into three parts belonging to the Catholics (who were once loyal to Gaston), the Huguenots and the wizards, to ensure that they will The last strength is consumed in mutual restraint.

"What's more," Louis XIV said, "In addition to the elementary schools, secondary schools and universities that I will open, I do not want to have other similar private schools in France."

Bishop Larivière moved uneasily. The meaning of this sentence was clear. It was addressed to him. Since the schools of the Huguenots had been ordered to close, the king was referring to schools other than those of the Jesuits. What else could it be?

But he also went to the King's School in Versailles - everyone who has seen it knows why the King values ​​education so much, not even secondary schools and universities. Think about it, these children start learning how to teach when they are six or seven years old. Loyal to the king, when they grow up, will they still be like the mob in Paris who were incited to attack the palace?

There will not be two suns hanging in the sky. This thought suddenly appeared in Bishop Lariviere's head - the Sun King does not allow any existence to be on an equal footing with him and dilute his people's hearts, even if that existence is a saint and God.

Louis XIV casually ordered tea or coffee, and then turned to the next topic, which was the school curriculum. Some religious courses may be retained, but not many. Elementary schools will be simple. Reading, writing, arithmetic; there are many contents that the king wants to add to secondary schools - physics, chemistry, astronomy, nature, law...history, geography, etc., as for Greek and Latin, which are required in Jesuit schools The courses were directly canceled by the king, which was of little benefit to the development of France.

As for university courses, the king proposed that there should be professional divisions, just like art colleges are divided into painting and sculpture, drama, music and dance. When people choose colleges, they also choose their future careers, rather than as in the past, The children of doctors are doctors, the children of businessmen are businessmen, and the children of lawyers are lawyers... Children can choose their own career according to their talents and interests.

"This is really a genius idea," Prince Conti quickly complimented: "I once wanted to be a trumpet player."

"I can let you blow the trumpet before every banquet (note 1)," Louis said jokingly: "But before that, you have to do one thing for me."

"Please give me your instructions." Mr. Colbert said with his head held high. He no longer had a daughter to marry, so he was naturally undaunted. So he heard Louis XIV say: "I need you to help me review a case." This textbook, gentlemen, I trust you, I believe you can ensure that the textbook is complete, detailed and safe."

Colbert suddenly stood up his few hairs alertly, almost lifting up his wig - compared to Prince Conti, who was vowing to do this thing perfectly, he spoke with a voice so thin that it was almost audible. The missing voice asked: "A textbook?"

"Well," the king said, "from primary school to secondary school." Then he heard a "clunk", and Mr. Colbert fainted immediately after hearing his answer.

The king glanced at the Duke of Orleans next to him: "I'm not in that hurry."

——————

Similarly, after realizing what a heavy, tedious and responsible job the king had entrusted to them, Prince Conti also seemed to have left his soul (probably not coming back in a short time), and the Duke of Orleans snickered. Let Bangtang take them to the small hall to rest for a while. He and the king still have some work to do.

It took several minutes for Prince Conte to finally calm down under the comfort of hot chocolate and cream cake. He suddenly let out a cry, startling Colbert, and was accused of being too impolite by Prince Conde who was walking into the waiting room. and stupidity.

Before Prince Conti could say anything to his brother who looked hesitant, Prince Conde walked in.

The third group of people has changed in the Venus Hall, but this time it is no longer ministers, but generals.

From the Prince of Condé on down, there were the Duke of Luxembourg, Viscount Turenne and several other officers who had won merit for themselves on the battlefield. The king glanced at them and said bluntly: "I want to build a Military Academy.”