The history of the popes, from the close of the middle ages : drawn ...

1
HISTORY OF THE POPES.
of the six thousand Swiss mercenaries, the half of whose
pay he undertook to provide.*
Francis I. had no idea of carrying out what he thus
pledged himself to do. For a long time he had been lending
a willing ear to those who advised him to weaken, as far
as possible, the Papal power in Italy. He did not intend
that either the portion of the Neapolitan coast or the
Duchy of Ferrara should fall to the Pope's share ; on the
contrary, the French Court planned the complete dismem-
berment of the States of the Church. After Leo X. had
helped with the conquest of Naples, the strip of sea-coast
mentioned in the agreement was to be given to Venice.
At the same time the Medici ascendancy in Florence was
to be overthrown, and the separation of Bologna, Perugia,
and the Romagna from the States of the Church effected by
placing them under the rule of different small dynasties.f
The details of these projects were only very partially known
to Leo X., but he suspected double-dealing on the part of
the French King, and fought him with his own weapons.
Nearly at the same time as the Pope was carrying on
these secret transactions with Saint-Marceau, he was
negotiating with the Emperor's representative ; in fact a
repetition was going on of the double-dealing policy of
January, 1519.+ On the nth of December, 1520, Leo X.
exchanged with Manuel a written assurance that for three
months neither party had concluded any agreement
contrary to the interests of the other, and that he would
not do so during the next three months. This pledge
* Eidgenoss. Abschiede, IV., i, 10 seq., 14; Sanuto, XXX., 26;
Reichstagsakten, II., 62-63, "• i-
t Cf. the interesting treatise of G. Salles, Un traitre au XVI^
si^cle, Clement Champion, valet de chambre de Francois T", in the
Revue d. quest, hist., 1900, II., 56 seq.
\ See Vol. VII. of this work, p. 271.