nt to the lowest provost to accept any place or pension from any
lord, under pain of suspension from their office or loss of their salary.
The annual Mercurials (Wednesday-meetings) became, in the supreme courts,
a general and standing usage. The expenses of the law were reduced. In
1501, Louis XII. instituted at Aix in Provence a new parliament; in 1499
the court of exchequer a Rouen, hitherto a supreme but movable and
temporary court became a fixed and permanent court, which afterwards
received under Francis I., the title of parliament. Being convinced
before long, by facts themselves, that these reforms were seriously meant
by their author, and were practically effective, the people conceived, in
consequence, towards the king and the magistrates a general sentiment of
gratitude and respect. In 1570 Louis made a journey from Paris to Lyons
by Champaigne and Burgundy; and "wherever he passed," says St. Gelais"
men and women assembled from all parts, and ran after him for three or
four leagues. And when they were able to touch his mule, or his robe, or
anything that was his, they kissed their hands . . . with as great
devotion as they would have shown to a reliquary. And the Burgundians
showed as much enthusiasm as the real old French."

Louis XII.'s private life also contributed to win for him, we will not
say the respect and admiration, but the good will of the public. He was
not, like Louis IX., a model of austerity and sanctity; but after the
licentious court of Charles VII., the coarse habits of Louis XI., and the
easy morals of Charles VIII., the French public was not exacting. Louis
XII. was thrice married. His first wife, Joan, daughter of Louis XI.,
was an excellent and worthy princess, but ugly, ungraceful, and
hump-backed. He had been almost forced to marry her, and he had no child
by her. On ascending the throne, he begged Pope Alexander VI. to annul
his marriage; the negotiation was anything but honorable, either to the
king or to the pope; and the pope granted his bull in consideration of
the favors shown to his unworthy son, Caesar Borgia, by the king. Joan
alone behaved with a virtuous as well as modest pride, and ended her life
in sanctity within a convent at Bourges, being wholly devoted to pious
works, regarded by the people as a saint, spoken of by bold preachers as
a martyr, and "still the true and legitimate Queen of France," and
treated at a distance with profound respect by the king