E-SOURCE 13.3
King Louis’s Piety
King Louis IX of France (1214-1270), later known as St. Louis, was another example of the internal spiritual transformation of Christian life in the central Middle Ages. Beyond being pious at court, Louis was a great builder of Churches and took part in multiple crusades. He also persecuted Jews in his kingdom and vigorously sought to stamp out heresies and expand the medieval Inquisition.
As you read, consider these questions:
1) What does King Louis’s behavior tell you about medieval piety? Does his behavior differ at all from that of St. Francis?
2) King Louis uses his powers as king to enforce a kind of piety based on his own interpretation of Christianity. What might it imply about medieval piety that
Louis’s spirituality did not lead him to question his own legitimacy as King?
JOINVILLE, SAINT LOUIS, KING OF FRANCE (c. 1305)
After the king’s return from beyond sea, he lived so devoutly, that he never afterwards wore furs of different colors, or minnever, nor scarlet cloth, nor gilt stirrups or spurs; his dress was of camlet, and of a dark blue cloth; the linings of his coverlids and garments were of doeskin or hares-legs.
When rich men’s minstrels entered the hall, after the repast, bringing with them their viols, he waited to hear grace, until the minstrel had finished his chant, then he rose,

and the priests who said grace stood before him. When we were at his court in a private way, he used to sit at the foot of his bed, and when the Franciscans and Dominicans who where there spoke of a book that would give him pleasure, he would say to them: “ You shall not read to me, for, after eating, there is no book so pleasant as quolibets” that is, that everyone should say what he likes. When men of quality dined with him, he made himself agreeable to them.
The king so loved God and His sweet Mother, that whomsoever he was able to convict of having uttered an indecent word or vile oath touching God and His Mother he caused to be severely punished. For instance, I saw a goldsmith at Caesarea placed by his orders on a ladder, in shirt and drawers, with a pig’s entrails round his neck, and in such quantity that they reached to his nose. And I have heard that since our return from beyond the sea he ordered a burgess of Paris to be branded on the nose and under-lip for the same offence; but I did not see that. And the sainted king said: “I would consent to be marked with a hot iron, on condition that all profane oaths were banished from my kingdom.”
I was twenty-two years in his company without ever having heard him swear by God, His
Mother, or His saints; but when he wished to affirm anything, he would say, “Truly, it was so,” or “Truly, it shall be so.”
Never did I hear him name the devil, except in some book in which it was proper to name him, or in the life of the saints to whom the book alluded. And it is a great disgrace to the kingdom of France, and to the king when he suffers it, that one can hardly speak without saying “ The devil take it!” And it is a great sin of speech when one devotes to the devil a man or woman who are given to God from the moment they are

baptized. In the Joinville household, whoso utters such a word receives a box on the ears or a slap on the face, and bad language is thus almost entirely suppressed.
He asked me if I washed the feet of the poor on Holy Thursday, and I answered,
“No,” for it did not seem to me a right thing to do. He said that I ought not to hold the poor in scorn, for God had made them. “Would you then do unwillingly yourself what the
King of England does, who washes the feet of lepers and kisses them?”
Before he lay down in his bed he had his children brought to him, and related to them the actions of good kings and emperors, and told them to take example by such men. And he likewise related to them the actions of bad princes, who, by their luxury, rapine, and avarice, had lost their kingdoms. “And I remind you of these things,” said he,
“that you may keep yourself from them, so that God be not angered against you.” He made them learn their prayers to Our Lady, and made them repeat their Hours twice a day, to accustom them to hear their Hours when they should come to govern their lands.
The king was such a bountiful almoner that wherever he went through his kingdom, he made donations to poor churches, lazaretti, town-halls, hospitals, and men and women of gentle blood reduced to poverty. Every day he fed a multitude of poor people, without reckoning those who dined in his chamber; and many a time I have seen him cut bread for them and pour them out drink.
In his time were built several abbeys; to wit, Royaumont, St. Antoine-lez-Paris,
Lys, Maubuisson, and several other monasteries of Dominicans and Franciscans. He built the Hotel-Dieu at Pontoise and at Vernon, the home for the blind at Paris, and the abbey

of Franciscan sisters at St. Cloud, which his sister, Madame Isabelle, founded with his permission.
When any benefices of the holy Church lapsed to him, before he bestowed them he consulted worthy persons, both those connected with religion and laics; and when he had taken counsel he bestowed these benefices conscientiously, loyally, and according to
God. He would never give a benefice to any clerk until he had renounced whatever other benefices he might possess. In every town of his kingdom where he had never before been, he went to the Dominicans and Franciscans, if there were any, to obtain their prayers.
From his very childhood the king took pity on the poor and afflicted; and the custom was that, wherever the king went, a hundred and twenty poor persons should every day have an abundant meal in his house of bread, wine, and meat, or fish. In Lent and Advent the number of the poor was increased; and several times it happened that the king waited upon them and placed food before them, and carved for them, and gave them money with his own hand when they went away. Particularly at the great vigils of solemn festivals he waited upon the poor, as above related, before he himself eat or drank anything. Besides all that, he had every day to dine and sup with him old men and cripples, to whom he gave of the same dishes that he himself partook of; and when they had eaten they carried away a certain sum in money. In addition to all that, the king bestowed every day such large and munificent donations upon poor friars, poor hospitals, poor sick persons, poor communities, poor gentlemen, poor dames and damsels of gentle blood, upon women in reduced circumstances, poor widows, women lying-in, and upon poor people who, through sickness or old age, were unable to work or follow their trade,

that it is well nigh impossible to reckon up the amount. So that we may say of him that he was happier than Titus, Emperor of Rome, of whom the ancient writers relate that he was greatly afflicted and disconcerted when a day passed in which he had not performed some good deed. From the time he came to govern his realm and began to know himself, he commenced building churches and religious houses, among which the abbey of
Royaumont excels all others in beauty and grandeur. He erected several Hotels Dieu, that of Paris, that of Pontoise, that of Compiegne, that of Vernon, and conferred upon them much land. He gave authority to his mother to found the abbey of Lys, near Melun-sur-
Seine, and that near Pontoise, named Maubuisson. And he caused to be built the Home for the Blind, near Paris, for the benefit of the blind people of the city of Paris, and made them a chapel wherein to hear God’s worship. The good king ordered the erection of the monastery of the Chartreux without the walls of Paris, and assigned sufficient lands to the monks who were there and served our Lord.
A short time afterwards he built another house without the walls of Paris on the road to St. Denis, which was called the Maison des Filles-Dieu, and placed in it a great number of women who, through poverty, had incurred the sin of wantonness, and gave them 400 livres a-year for their support. In several other parts of his kingdom he built houses for nuns, and gave lands to maintain them, and commanded them to receive such women as were willing to pledge themselves to live chastely. Some of his intimates murmured at his giving such large alms, and at his spending so much money; and he replied, “I would rather that the excess of the great expenditure I make should be made in alms for the love of God than in pomp or vain glory.”

Source: The Sire De Joinville, Saint Louis, King of France , trans. James Hutton (London:
Sampson Low, Marston, And Company, 1892), 199, 205 - 207, 208 - 210. Text modified by Phillip C. Adamo.