LETTER I. Zurich, the First of September, 1685.

IT is so common to write Travels, that for one who has seen so little, and as it were in haste, it may look like a presumptuous Affectation to be reckoned among Voyagers, if he attempts to say any thing upon so short a Ramble, and concerning Places so much visited, and by consequence so well [Page 2] known: Yet having had opportunities that do not of­fer themselves to all that travel, and having joyned to those a curiosity almost equal to the advantages I en­joyed, I fancy it will not be an ungrateful Entertain­ment, if I give you some account of those things that pleased me most in the Places through which I have passed: but I will avoid saying such things as occurr in ordinary Books, for which I refer you to the Prints; for as you know that I have no great inclination to co­py what others have said; so a Traveller has not lei­sure nor humour enough for so dull an Employment.

As I came all the way from Paris to Lyons, I was amazed to see so much misery as appeared, not only in Villages, but even in big Towns, where all the marks of an extream Poverty, shewed them [...]elves both in the Buildings, the Cloaths, and almost in the Looks of the Inhabitants. And a general dis-peopling in all the Towns, was a very visible effect of the hardships under which they lay.

I need tell you nothing of the irregular and yet mag­nificent Situation of Lyons, of the noble Rivers that meet there, of the Rock cut from so vast a height for a Prison, of the Carthusians Gardens, of the Town-House, of the Jesuits Colledge and Library, of the fa­mous Nunnery of St. Peter, of the Churches, particu­larly St. Irenees, of the Remnants of the Aqueducts, of the Columns and the old Mosaick in the Abbey Dean: in short, Mr. Spon has given such an account of the Cu­riosities there, that it were a very presumptuous At­tempt to offer to come after him.

The Speech of Claudius ingraven on a Plate of Brass, and set in the end of the low Walk in the Town-house, is one of the noblest Antiquities in the World; by which we see the way of Writing and Pointing in that Age very copiously. The Shield of Silver of twenty two pound weight, in which some Remains of gilding do yet appear, and that seems to represent that gene­rous Action of Scipio's, of restoring a fair Captive to a [Page 3] Celtiberian Prince, is certainly the noblest piece of Plate that is now extant: the embossing of it is so fine and so entire, that it is indeed unvaluable; and if there were an Inscription upon it to put us beyond conje­cture, it were yet much more inestimable.

A great many Inscriptions are to be seen of the late and barbarous Ages, as Bonum Memorium, and Epita­phium hunc. There are twenty three Inscriptions in the Garden of the Fathers of Mercy, but so placed as it shews how little those who possess them do either un­derstand or value them. I shall only give you one, be­cause I made a little Reflection on it, tho' it is not per­haps too well grounded, because none of the Criticks have thought on it.

The Inscription is this, D. M. Et Memoriae AEternae Sutiae Anthidis. Quae vixit Annis XXV. M. XI. DV. Quae dum Nimia pia fuit, facta est Impia: & Attio Pro­batiolo, Cecalius Calistio Conjux & Pater, & sibi vivo ponendum curavit & sub ascia dedicavit. This must be towards the barbarous Age, as appears by the false La­tin in Nimia: But the Inscription seems so extravagant, that a man dedicating a Burial-stone for his Wife and Son, and under which himself was to be laid, with Ceremonies of Religion, should tax his Wife of Im­piety, and give so extraordinary an account of her becoming so through an excess of Piety, that it de­serves some consideration.

It seems the Impiety was publick, otherwise a Hus­band would not have recorded it in such a manner; and it is plain that he thought it rose from an excess of Piety.

I need not examine the Conjectures of others; but will chuse rather to give you my own, and submit it to your censure.

It seems to me, that this Sutia Anthis was a Christi­an; for the Christians, because they would not wor­ship the Gods of the Heathens, nor participate with them in their sacred Rites, were accused both of [Page 4] Atheism and Impiety. This is so often objected, and the Fathers in their Apologies have answered it so of­ten, that it were lost labour to prove it: so this Wife of Cerealius Calistio having turned Christian, it seems he thought he was bound to take some notice of it in the Inscription. But by it he gives a honourable Cha­racter of the Christian Doctrine at the same time that he seems to accuse it; that through an excess of Piety his Wise was carried to it; since a mind seriously pos­sessed with a true sense of Piety could not avoid the falling under a distaste of Paganism, and the becoming Christian.

At Grenoble there is not much to be seen. The learn­ed Mr. Chorier has some Manuscripts of considerable Antiquity. In one of Vegetius de re Militari, there is a clear correction of a Passage that in all the printed Edi­tions is not sense. In the Chapter of the size of the Souldiers, he begins; Scio semper mensuram à Mario Consule exactam: à is in no MS. and Mario Consule is a mistake for trium Cubitorum, for III which are for trium have been read M. and C, which stands for Cubitorum, as appears by all that follows, was by a mistake read Consule; so the true reading of that Passage, is, Scio mensuram trium Cubitorum fuisse semper exactam. He shewed me another MS. of about five or six hundred years old, in which St. John's Revelation is contained, all exemplified in Figures; and after that came Aesop's Fables, likewise all designed in Figures: from which he inferred, that those who designed those two Books valued both equally, and so put them together.

I will not describe the Valley of Dauphine, all to Chambery, nor entertain you with a Landskip of the Country, which deserves a better Pencil than mine, and in which the heighth and rudeness of the Moun­tains that almost shut upon it, together with the beau­ty, the evenness, and fruitfulness of the Valley, that is all along well watered with the River of Liserre, make such an agreeable mixture, that this vast diversity of [Page 5] Objects that do at once fill the Eye, gives it a very en­tertaining Prospect.

Chambery has nothing in it that deserves a long De­scription; and Geneva is too well known to be much insisted on. It is a little State, but it has so many good Constitutions in it, that the greatest may justly learn at it. The Chamber of the Corn has always two years Provision for the City in store, and forces none but the Bakers to buy of it at a taxed price; and so it is both necessary for any Extremities under which the State may fall, and is likewise of great advantage; for it gives a good yearly Income, that has helpt the State to pay near a Million of Debt contracted during the Wars; and the Citizens are not oppressed by it; for every Inhabitant may buy his own Corn as he pleases, only Publick Houses must buy from the Chamber. And if one will compare the faith of Rome and Geneva toge­ther by this particular, he will be enforced to prefer the latter; for if good Works are a strong presumption, if not a sure Indication of a good Faith, then Justice being a good Work of the first form, Geneva will cer­tainly carry it.

At Rome, the Pope buys in all the Corn of the Patri­mony; for none of the Landlords can sell it either to Merchants or Bakers. He buys it at five Crowns their Measure, and even that is slowly and ill paid; so that there was eight hundred thousand Crowns owing upon that score when I was at Rome. In selling this out, the Measure is lessened a fifth part, and the price of the whole is doubled; so that what was bought at five Crowns, is sold out at twelve: and if the Bakers, who are obliged to take a determined quantity of Corn from the Chamber, cannot retail out all that is impo­sed upon them, but are forced to return some part of it back, the Chamber discounts to them only the first price of five Crowns: whereas in Geneva the measure by which they buy and sell is the same; and the Gain is so inconsiderable, that it is very little beyond the [Page 6] common Market price: so that upon the whole mat­ter, the Chamber of the Corn is but the Merchant to the State. But if the Publick makes a moderate Gain by the Corn, that and all the other Revenues of this small Commonwealth are so well employed, that there is no cause of complaint given in the Administration of the publick Purse; which with the advanta es that arise out of the Chamber of the Corn, is about one hundred thousa [...]d Crowns Revenue. But there is much to go out of this: Three hundred Souldiers are payed; an Arsenal is maintained, that in proportion to the State is the greatest in the World; for it con­tains Arms for more men than are in the State: there is a great number of Ministers and Professors, in all twenty four, payed out of it, besides all the publick Charges and Offices of the Government. Every one of the lesser Council of twenty five, having a hundred Crowns, and every Syndic having two hundred Crowns Pension: and after all this come the accidental Char­ges of the Deputies, that they are obliged to send often to Paris, to Savoy, and to Zwitzerland; so that it is very apparent, no man can enrich himself at the Cost of the Publick. And the appointments of the little Council are a very small recompence for the great at­tendance that they are obliged to give the Publick, which is commonly four or five hours a day. The Sa­lary for the Professors and Ministers is indeed small, not above two hundred Crowns; but to ballance this, which was a more competent Provision when it was first set off a hundred and fifty years ago, the price of all things, and the way of living, being now much heightned, those Employments are here held in their due Reputation, and the richest Citizens in the Town breed up their Children so as to qualifie them for those Places: And a Minister that is sutable to his Character, is thought so good a Match, that generally they have such Estates, either by Succession or Marriage, as sup­port them sutably to the rank they hold. And in [Page 7] Geneva there is so great a regulation upon Expences of all sorts, that a small Sum goes a great way. It is a surprising thing, to see so much Learning as one finds in Geneva, not only among those whose Profession ob­liges them to Study, but among the Magistrates and Citizens; and if there are not many men of the first form of Learning among them, yet every body almost here has a good tincture of a learned Education; inso­much that they are Masters of the Latin, they know the Controversies of Religion and History, and they are generally men of good sense.

There is an universal Civility, not only towards Strangers, but towards one another, that reigns all the Town over, and leans to an excess; so that in them one sees a mixture of a French Openness, and an Italian Exactness: there is indeed a little too much of the last.

The publick Justice of the City is quick and good, and more commended than the private Justice of those that deal in Trade: a want of Sincerity is much la­mented by those that know the Town wall. There is no publick Lewdness to [...]lerated, and the disorders of that sort are managed with great address. And not­withstanding their Neighbourhood to the Switzers, drinking is very little known among them. One of the best parts of their Law is the way of selling Estates; which is likewise practised in Switzerland, and is call­ed Subhastation, from the Roman Custom of selling Subhasta. A man that is to buy an Estate agrees with the Owner, and then intimates it to the Government; who order three several Proclamations to be made six Weeks one after another, of the intended Sale, that is to be on such a day: when the day comes, the Credi­tors of the Seller, if they apprehend that the Estate is sold at an under-value, may out-bid the Buyer; but if they do not interpose, the Buyer delivers the money to the State, which upon that gives him his Title to the Estate, which can never be so much as brought [Page 8] under a Debate in Law; and the price is paid into the State, and is by them given either to the Debtors of the Seller, if he owes money, or to the Seller himself.

This Custom prevails likewise in Swisse, where also twelve Years Possession gives a Prescription; so that in no place of the World are the Titles to Estates so secure as here. The Constitution of the Government is the same both in Geneva, and in most of the Cantons. The Sovereignty lies in the Council of Two hundred, and this Council chuses out of its number Twenty five, who are the lesser Council; and the censure of the Twenty five belongs to the great Council: they are chosen by a sort of Ballet; so that it is not known for whom they give their Votes: which is an effectual method to sup­press Factions and Resentments; since in a competition no man can know who voted for him or against him: yet the Election is not so carried, but that the whole Town is in an Intrigue concerning it: for since the be­ing of the little Council leads one to the Sindicat, which is the chief Honour of the State; this Dignity is court­ed here with as active and sollicitous an Ambition, as appears elsewhere for greater matters. The Two hun­dred are chosen and censured by the Twenty five; so that these two Councils, which are both for Life, are checks one upon another. The Magistracy is in the one, and the Sovereignty in the other. The Number of Twenty five is never exceeded in the lesser Council; but for the greater, tho' it passes by the Name of the Council of Two hundred, yet there are commonly eight or ten more: so that notwithstanding the absence or sickness of some of the Number, they may still be able to call together near the full Number. There is another Council besides these two, composed of Sixty, consisting of those of the Two hundred that have borne Offices, such as Auditors, Attorney-Generals, or those that have been in other Employments, which are given for a determinate number of Years: This Court has [Page 9] no Authority, but is called together by the Twenty five, when any extraordinary occasion makes it advi­sable for them to call for a more general Concurrence in the Resolutions that they are about to form. And this Council is of the nature of a Council of State that only gives Advice, but has no power in it self to enforce its Advices. The whole Body of the Burgesses chuses the Sindicks the first Sunday in the Year, and there are some other Elections that do likewise belong to them. The difference between the Burgesses and Ci­tizens is, that the former degree may be bought or gi­ven to Strangers, and they are capable to be of the Two hundred: but none is a Citizen but he that is the Son of a Burgess, and that is born within the Town.

I need say no more of the Constitution of this little Republick: Its chief support is in the firm Alliance that has stood now so long between it and the Cantons of Bern and Zurich; and it is so visibly the Interest of all Switzerland to preserve it as the Key, by which it may be all laid open: that if the Cantons had not for­gotten their Interest so palpably in suffering the French to become Masters of the Franche Comtè, one would think that they would not be capable of suffering Ge­neva to be touch'd: for all that can be done in fortify­ing the Town, can signifie no more, but to put it in case to resist a Surprise or Scalade; since if a Royal Ar­my comes against it to besiege it in form, it is certain, that unless the Switzers come down with a Force able to raise the Siege, those within will be able to make a very short resistance.

From Geneva I went throngh the Country of Vaud or the Valley, and Lausanne, its chief Town, in my way to Bern. The Town of Lausanne is situated on three Hills, so that the whole Town is ascent and descent, and that very steep, chiefly on the side on which the Church stands, which is a very noble Fabrick. The South-wall of the Cross was so split by an Earthquake about thirty years ago, that there was a rent made from [Page 10] top to bottom above a foot wide; which was so closed up ten years after by another Earthquake, that now one only sees where the breach was. This extrava­gant situation of the Town was occasioned by a Legend of some Miracles wrought near the Church: which prevailed so much on the Credulity of that Age, that by it the Church, and so in consequence the Buildings near it, were added to the old Town, which stood on the other Hill, where there was a Town made on the High-way from the Lake into Switzerland, to which the chief Priviledges of the Town, particularly the ju­dicature of Life and Death, do still belong. Between Geneva and this, lies the Lake which at the one end is called the Lake of Geneva, and at the other the Lake of Lausanne. I need not mention the Dimensions of it which are so well known, only in some Places the depth has never been found, for it is more than five hundred Fathom: The banks of the Lake are the beau­tifullest Plots of Ground that can be imagined, for they look as if they had been laid by art: the sloping is so easie and so equal, and the Grounds are so well culti­vated and peopled, that a more delighting Prospect cannot be seen any where: The Lake is well stock'd with excellent Fish; but their Numbers do sensibly decrease, and one sort is quite lost: it is not only to be ascribed to the ravenousness of the Pikes that abound in it, but to another sort of Fish that they call Moutails, which were never taken in the Lake untill within six years last past: they are in the Lake of Neuf-chastel, and some of the other Lakes of Switzerland, and it is likely that by some conveyance under ground they may have come into Channels that fall into the Lake: the Water of the Lake is all clear and fresh. It is not only a great Pond made by the Rhosne that runs into it, but does not pass through it unmix'd, as some Travellers have fondly imagined, because sometimes a soft Gale makes a curling of the Waters in some places, which runs smooth in the places over which that soft breath [Page 11] of Wind does not pa [...]s, the Gale varying its place often. But it is believed that there are also many great Foun­tains all over the Lake: these Springs d [...] very proba­bly flow from some vast Cavities that are in the neigh­bouring Mountains, which are a great Cisterns that discharge themselves in the Valleys which are covered over with Lakes. And on the two sides of the Alps, both North and South, there is so great a number of those little Seas, that it may be easily ghessed they must have vast Sorces that feed so constantly those huge Ponds. And when one considers the height of those Hills, the chain of so many of them together, and their extent both in length and breadth; if at first he thinks of the old Fables of laying one Hill upon the top of another, he will be afterwards apt to imagine, according to the ingenious Conjecture of one that tra­velled over them oftner than once, that these cannot be the primary Productions of the Author of Nature, but are the vast ruines of the first World, which at the Deluge broke here into so many Inequalities.

One Hill not far from Geneva, called Maudit, or Cur­sed, of which one Third is always covered with Snow, is two miles of perpendicular height, according to the Observation of that incomparable Mathematician and Philosopher, Nicolas Fatio Duilier, who at Twenty two Years of Age is already one of the greatest men of his Age, and seems to be born to carry Learning some sizes beyond what it has yet attain'd.

But now I will entertain you a little with the State of Bern, for that Canton alone is above a third part of all Switzerland. I will say nothing of its Beginnings nor History: nor will I enlarge upon the Constitutions which are all well known. It has a Counsel of Two hundred, that goes by that Name, tho' it consists al­most of Three hundred; and another of Twenty five, as Geneva. The chief Magistrates are two Advoyers, who are not annual, as the Sindicks of Geneva, but are for life, and have an Authority not unlike that of the [Page 12] Roman Consuls; each being his Year by turns the Ad­voyer in Office. After them there are the four Ban­nerets, who answer to the Tribunes of the People in Rome: then come the two Bursars or Treasurers, one for the ancient German Territory, the other for the French Territory or the Country of Vaud, and the two last, chosen of the Twenty five, are called the Secrets; for to them all Secrets relating to the State are disco­vered: and they have an Authority of calling the Two hundred together when they think fit, and of accusing those of the Magistracy, the Advoyers themselves not excepted, as they see cause; tho' this falls out seldom.

There are seventy two Bailiages, into which the whole Canton of Bern is divided, and in every one of those there is a Bailiff named by the Council of Two hundred, who must be a Citizen of Bern, and one of the Two hundred, to which Council no man can be chosen till he is married. These Bailiages are Imploy­ments both of Honour and Profit; for the Bailiff is the Governour and Judge in that Jurisdiction: since tho' he has some Assessors who are chosen out of the Baili­age, yet he may by his Authority carry matters which way he will, against all their Opinions: and the Bai­liffs have all the Confiscations and Fines; so that Drinking being so common in the Country, and that producing many Quarrels, the Bailiff makes his advan­tage of all those disorders: and in the six years of his Government according to the quality of his Bailiage, he not only lives by it, but will carry perhaps twenty thousand Crowns with him back to Bern; on which he lives till he can carry another Bailiage; for one is ca­pable of being twice Bailiff: but tho' some have been thrice Bailiffs, this is very extraordinary. The Ex­actions of the Bailiff are the only Impositions or Char­ges to which the Inhabitants are subjected; and these falling only on the Irregularities and Disorders of the more debauched, makes that this Grievance, tho' in some particulas Cases it presses hard, yet is not so uni­versally [Page 13] felt: for a sober and regular man is in no dan­ger. Many in this Canton are as in England, Lords of Castles and Mannors, and have a Jurisdiction an­nexed to their Estates, and name their Magistrate, who is called the Castellan, In matters of small conse­quence there lies no Appeal from him to the Bailiff; but beyond the value of two Pistols an Appeal lies; and no Sentence of Death is executed till it is con­firmed at Bern. There lies also an Appeal from the Bailiff to the Council at Bern. There are many Com­plaints of the injustice of the Bailiffs; but their Law is short and clear, so that a Sute is soon ended: two or three Hearings is the most that even an intricate Sute amounts to, either in the first Instance before the Bai­liff, or in the second Judgment at Bern. The Citizens of Bern consider these Bailiages as their Inheritance, and they are courted in this State, perhaps, with as much Intrigue as was ever used among the Romans in the distribution of their Provinces: and so little sig­nifie the best Regulations when there are intrinsick Diseases in a State, that though there is all possible Precaution used in the Nomination of these Bailiffs, yet that has not preserved this State from falling under so great a mischief by those little Provinces; that as it has already in a great measure corrupted their Mo­rals, so it may, likely, turn in Conclusion to the Ruine of this Republick. All the Electors give their Voices by Ballot; so that they are free from all after-Game in the Nomination of the Person; All the Kin­dred of the Pretenders, even to the remotest degrees, are excluded from Voting, as are also all their Credi­tors; so that none can vote, but those who seem to have no interest in the Issue of the Competition: and yet there is so much Intrigue, and so great Corruption in the distribution of these Imployments, That the whole Business, in which all Bern is ever in motion, is the catching of the best Bailiages, on which a Family will have its Eye for many Years before they fall. For [Page 14] the Counsellors of Bern give a very small share of their Estates to their Children when they marry them: all that they purpose is, to make a Bailiage sure to them: for this they feast and drink, and spare nothing by which they may make sure a sufficient number of Votes: but it is the Chamber of the Bannerets that admits the Pretenders to the Competition. When the Bailiff is chosen, he takes all possible methods to make the best of it he can, and lets few Crimes pass that carry either Confiscations or Fines after them: his Justice also is generally suspected. It is true, those of the Bailiage may complain to the Council at Bern, as the oppressed Provinces did anciently to the Senate of Rome: and there have been severe Judgments against some more exorbitant Bailiffs; yet as Com­plaints are not made, except upon great Occasions, which are not often given by the Bailiffs, so it being the general Interest of the Citizens of Bern to make all possible Advantages of those Imployments, the Cen­sure will be but gentle, except the Complaint is crying.

In Bern there is very little Trade, only what is ne­cessary for the support of the Towns They maintain Professors in the Universities of Bern and Lausanne, the one for the German Territory, which is the anci­ent Canton, and the other for the new Conquest, which is the French. In the former there are about three hundred Parishes, in the other there are but about a hundred and fifty: but in the Benefices of the German side, the ancient Rights of the Incumbents are generally preserved, so that some Benefices are worth a thousand Crowns; whereas in the Pais des Vaud the Provisions are generally from a hundred to two hundred Crowns. It is visible that those of Bern trust more to the Affections and Fidelity of their Subjects, than to the strength of their Walls: for as they have never finished them, so what is built cannot be brought to a regular Fortification; and it is not [Page 15] preserved with any care, nor furnished with Canon; but if they have none on their Ramparts, they have good store in their Arsenal, in which they say there are Arms for forty thousand men.

The Peasants are generally rich, chiefly in the Ger­man side, and are all well armed: they pay no Duties to the Publick; and the Soil is capable of great Culti­vation, in which some succeed so well, that I was shewed some that were by accident at Bern, who, as I was told, had of Estate to the value of a hundred thousand Crowns, but that is not ordinary; yet ten thousand Crowns for a Peasant is no extraordinary matter. They live much on their Milk and Corn, which in some Places, as about Payern, yields an in­crease of fifteen measures after one: they breed many Horses, which bring them in a great deal of money. The worst thing in the Country is the moisture of the Air, which is not only occasioned by the many Lakes that are in it, and the Neighbouring Mountains that are covered with Snow, some all the Summer long, and the rest till Mid-summer; but by the vast quantity of Woods of Fir-trees, which seem to fill very near the half of their Soil; and if these were for the most part rooted out, as they would have much more Soil, so their Air would be much purer; yet till they find either Coal or Turf for their Fewel this cannot be done. I was told that they had found Coal in some Places. If the Coal is conveniently situated, so that by their Lakes and Rivers it can be easily carried over the Country, it may save them a great extent of ground, that as it is covered with Wood, so the Air becomes thereby the more unwholsome.

They have some Fountains of Salt-water; but the making Salt consumes so much Wood, that hitherto it has not turn'd to any Account.

The Men are generally sincere, but heavy: they think it necessary to correct the moisture of the Air with liberal Entertainments, and they are well fur­nished [Page 16] with all necessary Ingredients: for as their Soil produces good Cattel, so their Lakes abound in Fish, and their Woods in Fowl, the Wine is also light and good. The Women are generally employed in their domestick Affairs, and the Wives even of the chief Magistrates of Bern look into all the Concerns of the House and Kitchin as much as the Wives of the mean­est Peasants. Men and Women do not converse pro­miscuously together; and the Women are so much amused with the Management at home, and enter so little into Intrigues, that among them, as an eminent Physician there told me, they know not what Vapours are, which he imputed to the Idleness and Intrigues that abound elsewhere, whereas he said, among them the Blood was cleansed by their Labour, and as that made them sleep well, so they did not amuse them­selves with much thinking, nor did they know what Amours were. The third Adultery is punished with Death, which is also the punishment of the fifth Act of [...]ornication; of which I saw an instance while I was at Bern: for, a Woman who confessed her self guilty of many Whoredoms, and designed to be revenged on some Men that did not furnish her liberally with Mo­ney, was upon that condemned and executed: the manner was solemn; for the Advoyer comes into an open Bench in the middle of the Street, and for the Satisfaction of the People, the whole Process was read, and Sentence was pronounced in the hear­ing of all; the Counsellors both of the great and lesser Council standing about the Advoyer, who after Sentence took the Criminal very gently by the hand, and pray'd for her Soul: and after Execu­tion, there was a Sermon for the Instruction of the People.

The whole State is disposed for War, for every man that can bear Arms is listed, and knows his Post and Arms; and there are Beacons so laid over the Country, that the Signal can run over the whole Can­ton [Page 17] in a night: and their Military Lists are so laid, that every man knows whither he is to come out upon first or second, or not till the general Summons. They assured me at Bern, That upon a general Summons they could bring above eighty thousand Men together. The Men are robust and strong, and capable of great Hardship, and of good Discipline, and have generally an extream sense of Liberty, and a great Love to their Country; but they labour under a want of Officers. And tho' the Subjects of the State are rich, yet the Publick is poor: they can well resist a sudden Invasion of their Country, but they would soon grow weary of a long War: and the Soil requires so much Cultiva­tion, that they could not spare from their Labour the Men that would be necessary to preserve their Country. They were indeed as happy as a People could be, when the Emperour had Alsace on the one hand, and the Spaniards had the Franche Comté on the other; they had no reason to fear their Neighbours: but now that both those Provinces are in the hands of the French, the case is quite altered; for as Basil is every moment in danger from the Garrison of Hunningen, that is but a Canon shot distant from it, so all the Pais de Vaud lies open to the Franche Comté, and has neither fortified Places, nor good Passes to secure it; so that their Error in suffering this to fall into the hands of the French was so gross, that I took some pains to be in­formed concerning it, and will here give you this Ac­count that I had from one who was then in a very emi­nent Post; so that as he certainly knew the Secret, he seemed to speak sincerely to me. He told me that the Duke of Lorrain had often moved in the Councils of War, That the Invasion of France ought to be made on that side in which France lay open, and was very ill fortified: This he repeated often, and it was known in France: so that the King resolved to possess himself of the Comtê, but used that Precaution, that fearing to provoke the Switsers, he offred a Neutrality on that [Page 18] side: but the Spaniards who judged right, that it was as much the interest of the Cantons, as it was theirs, to preserve the Comtè in their hands, refused to consent to it; but they took no care to defend it, and seemed to leave that to the Switsers.

In the mean while the French Money went about very liberally at Bern, and after those that were most likely to make opposition were gained, the French Minister proposed to them the necesity in which his Master found himself engaged to secure himself on that side; but that still he would grant a Neutrallity on their account, if the Spaniards would agree to it; and with this, all the assurances that could be given in words were offered to them, that they should never find the least prejudice from the Neighbourhood of the French, but on the contrary all possible Protection; There was just cause given by the Spaniards to consider them very little in their Deliberation: for they would neither accept of the Neutrality, nor send a consider­able force Force to preserve the Comte, so that it seem'd almost inevitable to give way to the French propo­sition; but one proposed that, which an anbyassed Assembly would certainly have accepted, that they should go themselves and take the Comte, and by so doing they would secure the Neutrality, which was all that the French pretended to desire, and they might easily satisfie the Spaniards and reimburse themselves of the Expence of the Invasion, by restoring the Comtè to them when a General Peace should be made. He laid out the misery to which their Country must be reduced by so powerful a Neighbour, but all was lost labour, so he went out in a rage and published through the Town, that the State was Sold and all was lost. They now see their Error too late, and would repair [...]t, if it were possible, but the truth is, many of the particular Members of this State, do so prey upon the publick, that unless they do with one consent reform those abuses, they will never be in condition to do [Page 19] much: for in many of their Bailiages, of which some are Abbeys, the Bailiffs not only feed on the Subjects, but likewise on the State, and pretend they are so far super-expended, that they discount a great deal of the publick revenue, of which they are the receivers, for their reimbursement: which made Mr. d' Erlack, once say, when one of those accounts was presented, that it was very strange if the Abbey could not feed the Monks. It is true, the power of their Bannerets is so great, that one would think they might redress many Abuses. The City of Bern is divided into four Bodies not unlike our Comp [...]nies of London, which are the Bakers, the Butchers, the Tanners, and the Black­smiths, and every Citizen of Bern does incorporate himself into one of these Societies, which they call Abbeys. For it is likely they were antiently a sort of a Religious Fraternity: every one of these chuses two Bannerets, who bear Office by turns, from Four Years to Four Years, and every one of them has a Bailiage annexed to his Office, which he holds for Life. They carry their Names from the Banners of the several Ab­beys as the Gonfaloniers of Italy: and the Advoyers carry still their Name from the ancient Titles Ecdicus or Ad­vocate, that was the Title of the chief Magistrates of the Towns in the Times of the Roman Emperours. The Chamber of the four Bannerets that bear Office, has a vast power, they examine and pass all Accounts, and they admit all the competitors to any Offices, so that no man can be proposed to the Council of Two Hundred without their Approbation, and this being now the chief Intrigue of their State, they have so absolute an Authority in shutting men out from Em­ployments, that their office, which is for life, is no less considerable than that of the Advoyer, tho' they are inferiour to him in Rank. They manage matters with g [...]eat address, of which this instance was given me in a competition for the Advoyership not long ago: There was one whos [...] temper was violent, that had [Page 20] made it so sure among those who were qualified to vote in it, as being neither of his Kindred nor Alliance, that they believed he would carry it from the other Competitor, whom they favoured; so they set up a third Competitor, whose Kindred were the Persons that were made sure to him, whose Advancement they opposed; and by this means they were all shut out from voting: so that the Election went according to the Design of the Bannerets. The chief Man now in Bern, who was the reigning Advoyer when I was there, is Mr. d' Erlack, Nephew to that Mr. d' Erlack who was Governour of Brisack, and had a Brevet to be a Marshal of France. This is one of the noblest Fa­milies in Bern, that acted a great part in shaking of the Austrian Tyranny; and they have been ever since very much distinguished there from all the rest of their Nobility. The present Head of it is a very extraor­dinary Man; he has a great Authority in his Canton, not only as he is Advoyer, but by the particular esteem which is payed him; for he is thought the wisest and worthiest Man of the State, tho' it is somewhat strange how he should bear such a sway in such a Government, for he neither feasts nor drinks with the rest: He is a Man of great Sobriety and Gravity, very reserved, and behaves himself liker a Minister of State in a Mo­narchy, than a Magistrate in a Popular Government: for one sees in him none of those Arts that seem ne­cessary in such a Government. He has a great Estate, and no Children, so he has no Projects for his Fa­ [...]ily, and does what he can to correct the Abuses of the State, tho' the disease is inveterate, and seems past Cure.

He had a Misfortune in a War that was thirty years ago, in the Year 1656, between the Popish and the Protestant Cantons, the Occasion of which will engage [...] in a short Digression. The Peace of Switzerland is chiefly preserved by a Law agreed on among all the Cantons, that every Canton may make what Regula­tions [Page 21] concerning Religion they think fit, without pre­ [...]udice to the general League. Now the Popish Can­tons have made Laws, That it shall be capital to any to change their Religion; and on a set day every year they go all to Mass, and the Masters of Families swear to continue true to the State, and firm in their Religi­on to their lives end, and so they pretend they punish their falling into Heresie with Death and Confiscation of Goods, because it is a violation of the Faith which is so solemnly sworn. But on the other hand, in the Protestant Cantons such as turn are only obliged to go and live out of the Canton; but for their Estates they still preserve them, and are permitted to sell them. One cannot but observe more of the merciful Spirit of the Gospel in the one than in the other. In two Can­tons, Appenzel and Glaris, both Religions are tollera­ted, and are capable of equal Priviledges; and in some Bailiages that were conquered in common by the Can­tons of Bern and Friburg, in the Wars with Savoy, the two Cantons name the Bailiffs by turns, and both Re­ligions are so equally tollerated, that in the same Church they have both Mass and Sermon, so equally, that on one Sunday the Mass begins and the Sermon follows, the next Sunday the Sermon begins and the Mass comes next, without the least disorder or mur­muring.

But in the year 1656, some of the Canton of Schwitz changing their Religion, and retiring to Zurich, their Estates were confiscated; and some others that had also changed, but had not left the Canton, were taken and beheaded. Zurich demanded the Estates of the Refugies, but instead of granting this, the Canton of Schwitz demanded back their Subjects, that they might proceed against them as Delinquents; and they founded this on a Law, by which the Cantons are ob­liged to deliver up the Criminals of another Canton when they come among them, if they are demanded by the Canton to which they belong: but those of [Page 22] Zurich and Bern thought this was both inhumane and unchristian, tho' the Deputy of Basil was of another mind, and thought that they ought to be delivered up, which extreamly disgusted those of Zurich. Those of Schwitz committed some Insolencies upon the Subjects of Zurich, and refused to give Satisfaction. Upon all which a War followed between the Prote­stant and Popish Cantons. The Cantons of Bern and Zurich raised an Army of Twenty five thousand Men, which was commanded by Mr. d' Erlack, but was dispersed in several Bodies: And the Papists had not above Six thousand, yet they surprised Mr. d' Erlack with a Body not much superiour to theirs: both sides, after a short Engagement, run: The Canon of the Canton of Bern was left in the Field a whole day; at last those of Lucern seeing that none stayed to defend the Canon, carried them off: This loss raised such a Tumult in Bern, that they seemed resolved to sa­crifice Mr. d' Erlack; but he came with such a Pre­sence of Mind, and gave so satisfying an Account of the Misfortune, that the Tumult ceased, and soon after the War ended. Upon this many thought, that tho' the Papists acted cruelly, yet it was according to their Laws, and that no other Canton could pretend to in­terpose or quarrel with those of Schwitz, for what they did upon that occasion. Within these few Years there were some Quarrels like to arise in the Can­ton of Glaris, where it was said the equal Priviledges agreed on to both Religions, were not preserved, but on this occasion the Pope's Nuntio acted a very different Part from that which might have been expected from him: for whereas the Ministers of that Court have been commonly the Incendiaries in all the Disputes that concern Religion, he acted ra­ther the part of a Mediator; and whereas it was visi­ble that the Injustice lay on the side of the Papists, he interposed so effectually with those of Lucern, which is the chief of the Popish Cantons, that the difference was composed.

But to return to Bern, The Buildings have nei­ther great Magnificence nor many Apartments, but they are convenient, and suited to the way of living in the Country. The Streets not only of Bern and the bigger Towns, but even of the smallest Villages, are furnished with Fountains that run continually; which [...]s they are of great use, so they want not their Beauty. The great Church of Bern is a very noble Fabrick: but being built on the top of the Hill on which the Town stands, it seems the ground began to fail; so to support it they have raised a vast Fabrick, which has cost more than the Church it self: for there is a Platform made, which is a Square to which the Church is one side, and the farther side is a vast Wall, fortified with Buttresses about a hundred and fifty foot high. They told me, That all the Ground, down to the bottom of the Hill, was dug into Vaults: This Platform is the chief Walk of the Town, chiefly about Sun-set: and the River underneath presents a very beautiful Prospect; for there is a Cur taken off from it for the Mills, but all along as this Cur goes the Water of Aar runs, over a stoping bank of Stone, which they say was made at a vast Charge, and makes a noble and large Cascade.

The second Church is the Dominicans Chappel, where I saw the famous Hole that went to an Image in the Church, from one of the Cells of the Dominicans; which leads me to set down that Story at some length; for it was one of the most signal Cheats that the World has known: so it falling out about 20 years before the Reformation was received in Bern, it is very probable that it contributed not a little to the preparing of the Spirits of the People to that change. I am the more able to give a particular account of it, because I read the Original Process in the Latin Record signed by the Notaries of the Court of the Delegates that the Pope sent to try the matter. The Record is a hundred and thirty Sheets writ close and of all sides, [Page 24] it being indeed a large Volume: and I found the Printed Accounts so desective, that I was at the pain [...] of reading the whole Process; of which I will give here a true Abstract.

The two famous Orders that had possessed them­selves of the esteem of those dark Ages were engaged in a mighty Rivalry. The Dominicans were the more learned, They were the eminentest Preachers of those Times, and had the Conduct of the Courts of In­quisition, and the other chief Offices in the Church in their hands. But on the other hand, the Franciscans had an outward Appearance of more Severity, a ruder Habit, stricter Rules, and greater Poverty: all which gave them such advantages in the eyes of the simple multitude, as were able to ballance the other Honours of the Dominican Order. In short, The two Orders were engaged in a high Rivalry; but the Devotion towards the Virgin being the prevailing Passion of those Times, the Franciscans upon this had great Ap­vantages. The Dominicans, that are all engaged in the Defence of Thomas Aquinas's Opinions, were thereby obliged to assert that she was born in Original Sin: this was proposed to the People by the Franciscans as no less than Blasphemy; and by this the Dominicans began to lose ground extreamly in the minds of the People, who were strongly prepossessed in favours of the im­maculate Conception.

About the beginning of the fifteenth Century, a Franciscan happened to preach in Francfort, and one Wigand a Dominican coming into the Church, the Cor­delier seeing him, brake out into Exclamations, prai­sing God that he was not of an Order that profaned the Virgin, or that poisoned Princes in the Sacrament, (for a Dominican had poisoned the Emperour Henry the Seventh with the Sacrament.) Wigand being extreamly provoked with this bloody Reproach, gave him the Lye: upon which a Dispute arose, which ended in a Tumult, that had almost cost the Dominican his Life: [Page 25] yet he got away. The whole Order resolved to take their Revenge, and in a Chapter held at Vim [...]sen in the Year 1504. They contrived a method for suppor­ting the Credit of their Order, which was much [...]unk in the Opinion of the People, and for bearing down the Reputation of the Franciscans. Four of the Juncto undertook to manage the Design; for they said since the People were so much dis [...]osed to believe Dreams and Fables, they must dream on their side, and en­deavour to Cheat the People as well as the others had done. They resolved to make Bern the Scene in which the Project should be put in Execution; for they found the People of Bern at that time apt to swallow any thing, and not disposed to make severe enquiries into extraordinary matters. When they had formed their Design, a fit tool presented it self, for one Jetzer came to take their habit as a Lay-brother, who had all the dispositions that was necessary for the execution of their Project: For he was extream simple, and was much inclined to Austerities, so havi [...]g observed his temper well, they began to execute their Project, the very Night after he took the habit, which was on Lady Day 1507. One of the Friers conveyed himself secretly into his Cell, and appe [...]red to him as if he had been in Purgatory, in a strange f [...]ure, and he had [...] Box near his mouth upon which as he blew, fire seem­ed to come out of his mouth. He had al [...]o some Dogs about him that ap [...]eared as his tormentors, in this posture he came near the Frier while he was a Bed, and took up a celebrated Story that they used to tell all their Friers, to beget in them a great d [...]ead at the laying aside their habit, which was, that one of the Order, who was Superiour of their House at Soloturn had gone to Paris, but laying aside his Habit was killed in his Lay-habit. The Frier in the Vizar said he was that person, and was condemned to Purgatory for that Crime; but he added That he might be rescued out of it by his means, and he seconded this with [Page 26] most horrible Cries, expressing the miseries which he suffer'd. The poor Frier (Jetzer) was excessively frighted, but the other advanced and required a pro­mise of him to do that which he should desire of him, in order to the delivering him out of his torment. The frighted Frier promised all that he asked of him, then the other said he knew he was a great Saint, and that his Prayers and Mortifications would prevail, but they must be very great and extraordinary. The whole Monastery must for a week together discipline them­selves with a Whip, and he must lie prostrate in the form of one on a Cross in one of their Chappe [...]s, while Mass was said in the sight of all that should come to­gether to it; and he [...]dded, That if he did this, he should find the [...]ffects of the Love that the B. Virgin did bear him, together with many other extraordina­ry things: and said he would appear again accompani-with two other Spirits, and assured him that all that he did suffer for his d [...]liverance should be most glori­ously rewarded. Morning was no sooner come than the Frier gave an account of this Apparition to the rest of the Convent, who seemed extreamly surprised at it, they all pressed him to undergo the discipline that was enjoyned him, and every one undertook to bear his share, so the poor deluded Frier performed it all exactly in one of the Chappels of their Church: T [...]is drew a vast number of Spectators together, who all considered the poor Frier as a Saint, and in the mean while the four Friers that managed the imposture ma [...] ­nified the Miracle of the Apparition to the Skies in their Sermons. The Friers Confessor was upon the Secret, and by this means they knew all the little pas­sages of the poor Frier's Life, even to his thoughts, which helped them not a little in the Conduct of the matter. The Confessor gave him an Hostie, with a piece of Wood, that was, as he pretended, a true piece of the Cross, and by these he was to fortifie him­self, if any other Apparitions should come to him, [Page 27] since evil Spirits would be certainly chained up by them. The night after that the former Apparition was renewed, and the masqued Frier brought two others with him in such Vizards, that the F [...]ier thought they were Devils indeed. The F [...]ier pre­sented the Hosty to them, which gave them such a check, that he was fully satisfied of the vertue of this Preservative.

The Friar, that pretended he was suffering in Pur­gatory, said so many things to him relating to the se­crets of his Life and Thoughts, which he had from the Confessor, that the poor Friar was fully possessed with the Opinion of the reality of the App [...]rition. In two of these Apparitions, that were both managed in the same manner. the Friar in the Mask talked much of the Dominican Order which he said was excessively dear to the B. Virgin. who knew her self to be con­ceived in original sin, and that the Doctors who taught the contrary were in Purgatory; that the Story of St. Bernard's appearing with a spot on him, for ha­ving opposed himself to the Feast of the Conception, was a Fo [...]gery; but that it was true that some hide­ous Flies had appeared on St Bonaventure's Tomb who taught the contrary: that the B. Virgin abhorred the Cordeliers for making her equal to her Son, that Scotus was damned, whose Canonization the Cordeliers were then soliciting hard at Rome: and that the Town of Bern would be destroyed for harbouring such Plagues within their Walls. When the injoyned Di [...]cipline was fully performed, the Spirit appeared again, and said, He was now delivered out of Purgatory; but be­fore he could be admitted to Heaven he must receive the Sacrament, having died without it, and after that he would say Mass for tho e who had by their great Charities rescued him out of his pains. The Friar fancied the Voice resembled the Priors a little: but he was then so far from suspecting any thing, that he gave no great heed to this suspicion. Some days af­ter [Page 28] this, the same Friar appeared as a Nun all in glory, and told the poor Friar that she was St. Barbara, for whom he had a particular Devotion, and added, that the B. Virgin was so much pleased with his Charity, that she intended to come and visit him. He imme­diately called the Convent together, and gave the rest of the Fri [...]rs an account of this Apparition, which was entertained by them all with great joy; and the Friar languished in desires for the accomplishment of the Promise that St. Barbara had made him. After some days the longed for delusion appeared to him, cloath­ed as the Virgin used to be on the great Feasts, and in­deed in the same Habits: there were about her some Angels, which he afterwards found were the little sta­tues of An [...]els which they set on the Altars on the great Holidays. There was also a pulley fastned in the Room over his head, and a Cord tied to the Angels, that made them rise up in the Air, and flie about the Virgin, which increased the Delusion. The Virgin, after some endearments to himself, extolling the me­rit of his Charity and Discipline, told him, That she was conceived in original sin, and that Pope Julius the Second, that then reigned, was to put an end to the Dispute, and was to abolish the Feast of her Concep­tion, which Sixtus the Fourth had instituted, and that the Friar was to be the Instrument of perswading the Pope of the truth in that matter. She gave him three drops of her Sons Blood, which were th [...]ee tears of Blood that he had shed over Jerusalem; and this signified that she was three hours in original Sin, after which she was, by his mercy, delivered out of that State: for it seems the Dominicans were resolved so to compound the matter, that they should gain the main Point of her Conception in Sin, yet they would com­ply so far with the Reverence for the Virgin, with which the World was possessed, that she should be be­lieved to have remained a very short while in that State. She gave him also five drops of Blood in the [Page 29] form of a Cross, which were Tears of Blood that she had shed while her Son was on the Cross. And, to convince him more fully, she presented an Hosty to him, that appeared as an ordinary Hosty, and of a sudden it appeared to be of a deep red colour. The Cheat of those supposed Visits was often repeated to the abused Friar; at last the Virgin told him that she was to give him such marks of her Son's Love to him, that the matter should be past all doubt. She said, That the five Wounds of St. Lucia and St. Catharine were real Wounds, and that she would also imprint them on him, so she bid him reach his hand: he had no great mind to receive a Favour in which he was to suffer so much: but she forced his hand and struck a Nail through it; the Hole was as big as a Grain of Pease, and he saw the Candle clearly through it: this threw him out of a supposed Transport into a real Agony: but she seemed to touch his Hand, and he thought he smelt an Oyntment with which she anoint­ed it, tho' his Co [...]fessor perswaded him that that was only an Imagination: so the supposed Virgin left him for that time.

The next Night the Apparition returned, and brought some linnen Cloaths, which had some real or imaginary vertue to allay his torment: and the pretended Virgin said, they were some of the linings in which Christ was wrapped, and with that she gave him a soporiferous draught, and while he was fast asleep, the other four Wounds were imprinted on his body in such a manner that he felt no pain.

But in order to the doing of this, the Friars be took themselves to Charms, and the Subprior shewed the rest a Book full of them: but he said that before they could be [...]ffectual they must renounce God: and he not only did this himself, but by a formal Act put in Writ [...]ng, signed with his Blood, he dedicated himself to the D [...]vil: it is true he did not oblige the rest to this, but only to renounce God. The Composition [Page 30] of the Draught was a mixture of some Fountain-water and Chrisme the Hairs of the Eye-brows of a Child, some Quick-silver, some Grains of Incense, somewhat of a [...] Easter Wax-candle, some consecrated Salt, and the Blood of an unbaptized Child. This Composition was a Secret which the Subprior did not communicate to the other Friars. By this the poor Friar, Jetzer was made almost quite insensible. When he was awake and came out of this deep sleep, he felt this wonder­ful Impression on his Body, and now he was ra [...]ished out of measure, and came to fancy himself to be acting all the parts of our Saviour's Passion. He was exposed to the people on the great Altar, to the amazement of the whole Town, and to the no small Mortification of the Franciscans. The Dominicans gave him some other Draughts, that threw him into Convulsions: and when he came out of those, a Voice was heard, which came through that Hole which yet remains and runs from one of the Cells along a great part of the Wall of the Church: for a Friar spoke thro' a Pipe, and at the end of the Hole there was an Image of the Virgins with a little Jesus in her Arms, between whom and his Mother the Voice seemed to come; the Image also seemed to shed Tears: and a Painter had drawn those on her Face so lively, that the People were de­ceived by it. The little Jesus ask'd why she wept; and she said it was because his Honour was given to her, since it was said, That she was born without sin. [...]n conclusion, the Friars did so over-act this Matter, that at last ev'n the poor deluded Frier himself came to discover it, and resolved to quit the Order.

It was in vain to delude him with more Appariti­ons, for he well nigh kill'd a Frier that came to him personating the Virgin in another shape, with a Crown on her Head. He also over-heard the Friers once talk­ing amongst themselves of the Contrivance and Success of the Imposture, so plainly, that he discovered the whole matter, and upon that, as may be easily imagi­ned, [Page 31] he was filled with all the horror with which such a Discovery could inspire him.

The Friers fearing that an Imposture, which was carried on hitherto with so much success, should be quite spoiled, and be turned against them, thought the surest way was to own the whole matter to him, and to engage him to carry on the Cheat. They told him in what esteem he would be, if he continued to support the Reputation that he had acquired, that he would become the chief person of the Order, and in the end they persuaded him to go on with the Impo­sture. But at last they, fearing lest he should disco­ver all, resolved to poyson him: of which he was so apprehensive, that once a Loaf being brought him that was prepared with some Spices, he kept it for some time, and it growing green, he threw it to some young Wolves Whelps that were in the Monastery, who died immediately. His Constitution was also so vigorous, that tho' they gave him Poyson five several times, he was not destroyed by it. They also prest him earnestly to renounce God, which they judg'd necessary, that so their Charms might have their effect on him; but he would never consent to that: at last they forced him to take a poisoned Hosty, which yet he vomited up soon after he had swallowed it down: that failing, they used him so cruelly, whipping him with an iron Chain, and girding him about so strait with it, that to avoid farther torment, he swore to them, in a most imprecating stile, That he would never discover the Secret, but would still carry it on: and so he deluded them, till he found an opportunity of getting out of the Convent, and of throwing him­self into the Hands of the Magistrates, to whom he dis­covered all.

The four Friers were seised on, and put in Prison, and an account of the whole Matter was sent, first to the Bishop of Lausanne and then to Rome; and it may be easily imagined, that the Franciscans took all possi­ble [Page 32] care to have it well examined; and the Bishops of Lausanne and of Zyon, with the Provincial of the Domi­nicans, were appointed to form the Process. The four Friers first excepted to Jetzers Credit, but that was rejected; then being threatned with the Question they put in a long Plea against that: but tho' the Pro­vincial would not consent to that, yet they were put to the Question: some endured it long, but at last they all confessed the whole progress of the Imposture. The Provincial appeared concerned: for tho' Jetzer had opened the whole matter to him, yet he would give no credit to him; on the contrary, he charged him to be obedient to them; and one of the Friers said plain­ly, that he was on the whole Secret, and so he with­drew, but he died some days after at Constance, having poison'd himself, as was believed. The matter lay asleep some time: but a year after that, a Spanish Bi­shop came, authorised with full Powers from Rome, and the whole Cheat being fully proved, the four Friers were solemnly degraded from their Priesthood, and eight days after, it being the last of May 1509, they were burnt in a Meadow on the other side of the River over against the great Church. The place of their Execution was shewed me, as well as the Hole in the Wall thro' which the Voice was conveyed to the Image. It was certainly one of the blackest, and yet the best ca [...]ried on Cheat, that has been ever known; and no doubt had the poo [...] Frier died before the Dis­covery, it had passed down to Posterity as one of the greatest Miracles that ever was; and it gives a shrewd Suspicion, that many of the other Miracles of that Church were of the same nature, but more successfully finished.

I shall not entertain you any farther with the State of Bern, but shall only add one general Remark, which was too visible not to be observed e [...]ery where and of too great [...]mportance n [...]t to d [...]serve a particular Re­flection: it belongs in general to all the Cantons, but [Page 33] I give it here because I had more occasion to make it [...]n Bern, having seen it more, and stayed longer in it than in the other Canton.

Switzerland lies between France and Italy, that are both of them Countries incomparably more rich, and better furnished with all the Pleasures and Conveni­ences of Life than it is; and yet Italy is almost quite dispeopled, and the People in it are reduced to a mi­sery, that can scarce be imagined by those who have not seen it: and France is in a great measure dispeo­pled, and the Inhabitants are reduced to a poverty that appears in all the Marks in which it can shew it self, both in their Houses, Furniture, Cloaths, and Looks.

On the contrary, Switzerland is extream full of peo­ple, and in every place, in the Villages as well as in their Towns, one sees all the Marks he can look for of Plenty and Wealth: Their Houses and Windows are in good case, the High-ways are well maintained, all people are well cloathed, and every one lives at his ease. This Observation surprised me yet more in the Country of the Grisons, who have almost no Soil at all, being situated in Valleys that are almost washed away with the Torrents that fall down from the Hills, and swell their Brooks sometimes so violently and so sud­denly, that in many places the whole Soil is wash­ed away, and yet those Valleys are well peopled, and every one lives happy and at ease, under a gentle Government, whilst other rich and plentiful Countries are reduced to such misery, that as many of the Inha­bitants are forced to change their Seats, so tho [...]e who stay behind can scarce live and pay those grievous Im­positions that are laid upon them. The rude People generally reason very simply when they enter into Speculations of Government; but they feel true, tho' they argue false: so an easie Government, tho' joyn­ed to an ill Soil, and accompanied with great Incon­veniences draws, or at least keeps people in it, where­as [Page 34] a severe Government, tho' in general Idea's it may appear reasonable, drives its Subjects even out of the best and most desirable Seats.

In my way from Bern to this place I passed by Solo-turn, as I came through Fribourg in my way from Lau­sanne to Bern, these are two of the Chief of the Popish Cantons, after Lucerne, and one sees in them a heat and a bigottry beyond what app [...]ars either in France or Italy: long before they come within the Church-doors they kneel down in the Streets when Mass is a saying in it. The Images are extream gross. In the chief Church of Soloturn there is an Image of God the Fa­ther, as an Old man with a great black beard, having our Saviour on his knees, and a Pigeon over his head. Here also begins a devotion at the Ave-Mary-Bell, which is scarce known in France, but it is practised all Italy over: At Noon and at Sun-set the Bell rings, and all say the Ave-Mary; and a short Prayer to the Virgin; but whereas in Italy they content themselves with put­ting off their Hats; in Switzerland they do for the most part kneel down in the Streets, which I saw no where practised in Italy except at Venice, and there it is not commonly done. But notwithstanding this ex­tream bigotry, all the Switzers see their common In­terest so well, that they live in very good understand­ing one with another. This is indeed chiefly owing to the Canton of Lucern, where there is a Spirit in the Government very different from what is in most of the other Popish Cantons: the residence of the Spanish Ambassadour and of the Nuntio in that Town, contributes also much to the preserving it in so good a tem­per it being their interest to unite Switz [...]rland, and by this means the heat and indiscretion of the rest i [...] often moderated. The Jesuits begin to grow as pow­erful in Switzerland as they are elsewhere: they hav [...] a noble Colledge and Chappel situated in the best place of Friburg. It is not long since they were re­ceived at Soloturn, where there was a Revenue o [...] [Page 35] One Thousand Livres a Year set off for the main­tenance of ten of them, with this provi [...]ion, That they should never exceed that number, but where they are once setled they find means to break through all limitations, and they are now become s [...] rich there, that they are raising a Church and Colledge, which will cost before it is finished above F [...]ur hu [...]dred thousand Livres, to which the French Ring gives ten thousand Livres for the frontis-piece: For this being the Canton in which his Ambassadour re­sides, he thought it suteable to his glory to have a monument of his bounty raised by an Order that will never be wanting to [...]latter their ben [...]factors, as long as they find their account in it.

In the same Canton there is an Abbey that has One hundred thousand Livre [...] of Revenue, there is also a very r [...]ch H [...]use of Nuns that wear the Cupu­chins Habit, that as I was told had Sixty thousand Livres of Revenue, and but Sixty Nuns in it, who having thus One t [...]ou [...]and Livre [...] a piece, may live in all p ssible plenty in a Country where a very little money [...]oes a great way. But that which surprises one most at Soloturn, is the grea [...] Fortification that they are building of a Wall about the [...]own, the [...]o­blest and solidest that is any where to be seen: The Stone with which it is faced is a [...]ort of cour [...]e Mar [...]le, but of that higne [...]s, that many Stones are [...]en foot long, and two foot of breadth and thickness: but tho' this will be a Work of vast expence and great Beauty, yet it would signifie little against a great Army that would attack it vigorously. The Wall is finished on the side of the River, on which the Town stand: the Ditch is very broad, and the Counterscarp and Glas [...]er are also finished, and they are working at a Fort on the other side of the River, which they int [...]nd to fortifie in the same manner. This has cost them near two Millions of Livres; and this vast Expence has made them often repent the Undertaking: and it is certain, [Page 36] that a Fortification that is able to resist the Rage o [...] their Peasants in the case of a Rebellion, is all that i [...] needful. This Canton has two Advoyers, as Bern: th [...] little Council consists of Thirty six; they have twelv [...] Bailiages belonging to them, which are very profitable to those that can carry them; they have one Bursar [...] and but one Banneret. All the Cantons have thei [...] Bailiages; but if there are Disorders at Bern in the Choice of their Bailiff [...], there are far greater among the Popish Cantons, where all things are sold, as a Fo­reign Minister that resides there told me, who tho' he knew what my Religion was, did not stick to own frankly to me, That the Catholick Cantons were not near so well governed as the Protestant Cantons. Ju­stice is generally sold among them; and in their Trea­ties with Foreign Princes, they ha [...]e sometimes taken money both from the French and Spanish Ambassadors, and have signed contradictory Articles at the same time.

Baden has nothing in it that is remarkable, except its convenient Situation, which makes it the Seat of the general Diet of the Canton tho' it is not one of them, but is a Bailiage that belongs in common to eight of the ancient Cantons. At last I came to this Place, which as it is the first and most honourable of all the Cantons, so with relation to us it has a prece­dence of a higher Nature, it being the first that re­ceived the Reformation.

This Canton is much less than Bern, yet the Pub­lick is much richer: They reckon that they can bring fifty thousand Men together upon twenty four hours warning: their Subjects live happy; for the Bailiffs here have regulated Appointments, and have only the hundredth Penny of the Fines; so that they are not tempted as those of Bern are, to whom the Fine be­longs entirely, to strain matters against their Subjects; and whereas at Bern the constant Intrigue of the whole Town is concerning their Bailiages, here, on [Page 37] the contrary it is a Service to which the Citizens are bound to submit according to their Constitution, but to which they do not aspire. The Government is al­most the same as at Bern, and the Magistrate that is called the Advoyer at Bern is here called the Bourgo­master. The Revenue of the State is here justly ac­counted for, so tha [...] [...]he publick purse is much richer than at B [...]rn; the Arse [...]al is much better furnished, and the Fortifications are more re [...]ular. There is a gr [...]at Trade stirring here, and as their Lake that is Twenty f [...]ur miles long and about two or three broad, sup [...]lies them well with provisio [...], so their River carrie their Manufacture to the Rhine, from whence it is conveyed as they please. One of their chief Manu [...]acturies is Cr [...]pe, which is in all respects the best I ever saw. I will not describe the Situation of the Town, but shall co tent my self to tell you that it is extream pleasa [...]t, the Country about it is Mounta­nous, and the Winters are hard; for the Lake freezes quite over, only in some places the [...]ce never lies, which is believed a mark that some Springs rise there, which cause that heat; so also in the Lake of Geneva, tho' it is never quite frozen, yet great boards of Ice lie in several parts, but these are never seen in some parts of the Lake, which is supposed to flow from the same Cause.

But to return to Zurich, one sees here the true anci­ent simplicity of the Switzens, not corrupted with Luxry or Vanity, their Women not only do not con­verse familiarly with Men, except th [...]se of their near Kindred, but even on the Streets do not make any returns to the Civility of Strangers; for it is only Strangers th [...]t put off their Hats to Women, but they make no courtesies: and here as in all Switzerland, Women are not saluted, but the Civility is expressed by taking them by the Hand There is one thing singular in the Constitution of Zurich, that is their little Council consists of Fifty Persons, but there sit in [Page 38] it only Twenty five at a time, and so the two halves of this Council, as each of them has his proper Bourgo­master, have also the Government in their hands by turns, and they shift every six Months, at Midsummer and at Christ-Mass. The whole Canton is divided into nine great Baliages, and 21 Castellaneries; in the for­mer the Bailiff resides constantly, but the Castellan who is also one of the great Council, has so little to do that he lives at Zurich, and goes only at some set-times of the Year to do Justice.

The vertue of this Canton has appeared signally in their adhering firmly to the antient Capitulations with the French, and not slackening in any Article, which has been done by all the other Cantons, where Money has a Soveraign infl [...]ence: but here it has never pre­vailed. They have converted the ancient Revenues of the Church, more generally to pious uses than has been done any where else, that I know of. They have many Hospitals well entertained, in one as I was told, there was Six hundred and fifty Poor kept: but as they support the real Charities, which belongs to such Endowments, so they despise that vain magnifi­cence of buildings which is too generally affected else­where; for theirs are very plain, and one of the Government there said to me very sensibly, that they thought it enough to maintain their Poor as Poor, and did not judge it proper to lodge them as Pri [...]ces.

The Dean and Chapter are likewise still continued as a Corporation, and enjoy the Revenues which they had b [...]fore the Reformation, but if they subsist plenti­fully, they labour hard, for they have generally two or three Sermons a day, and at least one: the first b [...] ­gins at Five a Clock in the m [...]rning. For at Geneva, and all Switzerland over there are daily Sermons, which were substituted up [...]n the Reformation to the Mass. But the Sermons are generally too long, and the Preachers have departed from the fi [...]st d [...]sign of these Sermons, which were intended to be an explication [Page 39] of a whole Chapter, and an exhortation upon it, and if this were so contrived that it were in all not above a quarter of an hour long, as it would be heard by the people with less Weariness and more Profit, so it would be a vast advantage to the Preachers; For as it would oblige them to study the Scriptures much, so having once made themselves Masters of the practical parts of the Scripture, such short and simple discourses would cost them less pains, than those more lab [...]ured Sermons do, which consume the greatest part of their time, and too often to very little purpose.

Among the Archives of the Dean and Chapter, there is a vast collection of Letters, written either to Bullinger, or by him; they are bound up, and make a great many Volumes in Folio, and out of these no doubt but one might discover a great many particulars rela­ting to the History of the Reform [...]tion: For as Bullin­ger lived long, so he was much esteemed. He procu­red a very kind reception to be given to some of our English Exiles in Queen Maries Reign, in particular to Sands afterwards. Arch-bishop of York, to Horn after­wards Bishop of Winchester, and to Jewel Bishop of Salisbu [...]y. He gave them Lodgings in the Close, and used them with all possible kindness, and as they pre­sented some Silver Cups to the Colledge, with an In­scription acknowledging the kind reception they had found there, which I savv, so they continued to keep a constant Correspondence with Bullinger, after the happy re-establishment of the Reformation under Queen Elizabeth: Of which I read almost a whole Volume while I was there: Most of them contain only the general News, but some were more importan [...], and relate to the Disputes then on foot, concerning the Habits of the Clergy, which gave the first begin­nings to our unhappy divisions: and by the Letters, of which I read the Originals, it appears that the Bishops preserved the ancient Habits rather in com­pliance with the Queens inclinations, then out of any [Page 40] liking they had to them; so far they were from liking them, that they plainly exprest their dislike of them, Jewel, in a Letter bearing date the Eighth of Fe­bruury, 1566. wishes that the Vestments together with all the other remnants of Popery might be thrown both out of their Churches, and out of the minds of the Peo [...]le, and laments the Queens fixedness to them, so that she would suffer no change to be made. And in January the same year, Sands writes to the same pur­pose, Contenditur de vestibus Papisticis utendis vel non utendis, dabit Deus his quoque finem. Disputes are now on foot concerning the Popish Vestments whether th [...]y should be used or not, but God will put an end to those things. Horn, Bishop of Winchester, went far­ther: for in a Letter, dated the Sixteenth of July 1565. he writes of the Act concerning tha Habits with great regret, and expresses some hopes that, it might be re­pealed, next Session of Parliament, if the Popish Party did not hinder it; and he seems to stand in doubt whether he should conform himself to it or not, upon which he desires Bullinger's Advice. And in many Letters writ on that Subject, it is asserted, That both Cranmer and Ridley intended to procure an Act for abolishing the Habits, and that they only defended their Lawfulness, but not their Fitness; and therefore they blamed private Persons that refused to obey the Laws. Grindal, in a Letter dated the Twenty seventh of August, 1566. writes, That all the Bishops, who had been beyond Sea, had at their Return dealt with the Queen to let the matter of the Habits fall: but she was so prepossessed, that tho' they had all endeavoured to divert her from prosecuting that matter, she conti­nued still inflexible. This had made them resolve to submit to the Laws, and to wait for a fit opportunity to reverse them. He laments the ill effects of the op­position that some had made to them, which extream­ly irritated the Queens Spirit, so than she was now much more heated in those matters than formerly: [Page 41] He also thanks Bullinger for the Letter that he had writ, justifying the lawful use of the Habits, which he says had done great Service Cox, Bishop of Ely, in one of his Letters, laments the Aversion that they found in the Parliament to all the Propositions that were made for the reformation of Abuses. Jewel, in a Letter dated the Two and Twentieth of May 1559, writes, That the Queen refused to be called Head of the Church, and adds, That that Title could not be justly given to any Mortal, it being due only to Christ, and that such Titles had been so much abused by Anti­christ, that they ought not to be any longer continued. On all these Passages I will make no Reflections here: for I set them down only to shew what was the sense of our chief Church-men at that time, concerning those matters, which have since engaged us into such warm and angry Disputes; and this may be no incon­siderable Instruction to one that intends to write the History of that time. The last particular with which I intend to end this Letter, might seem a little too learned, if I were writing to a less knowing Man than your self.

I have taken some pains in my Travels to examine all the Ancient Manuscripts of the New Testament, concerning that doubted Passage of St. John's Epistle, There are three that bear Witness in Heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Spirit, and these three are one. Bul­linger doubted much of it, because he found it not in an ancient Latin Manuscript at Zurich, which seems to be about eight hundred years old; for it is written in that hand that began to be used in harles the Great's time. I turned the Manuscript, and found the Passage was not there: but this was certainly the error or omission of the Copier: for before the General Epistles in that Manuscript, the Preface of St Jerom's is to be found; in which he says, that he was the more exact in that T [...]anslation, that so he might discover the Fraud of the Arrians, who had struck out that Passage con­cerning [Page 42] the Trinity. This Preface is printed in Lira's Bible; but how it came to be left out by Erasmus, in his Edition of that Father's Works, is that of which I can give no Account: for as on the one hand Erasmus's Sincerity ought not to be too rashly censured, so on the other hand, that Preface being in all the Manu­scripts, ancient or modern, of those Bibles that have the other Prefaces in them that I ever yet saw, it is not easie to imagine what made Erasmus not to publish it: and it is in the Manuscript Bibles at Basle, where he printed his Edition of St. Jerom's Works. In the old Manuscript Bible of Geneva, that seems to be above seven hundred Years old, both the Preface and the Passage are extant, but with this difference from the common Editions, that the common Editions set the Verse concerning the Father, the Word, and the Spirit, before that of the Water, the Blood, and the Spirit; which comes after it in this Copy. And that I may in this place end all the Readings I found of this Passage in my Travels, there is a Manuscript in St. Mark's Li­brary in Venice in three Languages, Greek, Latin, and Arabick, that seems not above four hundred Years old, in which this Passage is not in the Greek, but it is in the Latin set after the other three, with a sicut to joyn it to what goes before. And in a Manuscript Latin Bible in the Library of St. Laurence at Florence, both St. Jerom's Preface and this Passage are extant: but this Passage comes after the other, and is pinned to it with a sicut, as is that of Venice; yet sicut is not in the Geneva Manuscript. There are two Greek Ma [...]uscripts of the Epistles at Basle, that seem to be about five hun­dred years old, in neither of which this Passage is to found: they have also an ancient Latin Bible, which is about eight hundred years old; in which tho' St. Je­rom's Prologue is inserted, yet this Passage is wanting. At Strasburg I saw four very ancient Manuscripts of the New Testament in Latin: three of these seemed to be about the time of Charles the Great; but the fourth [Page 43] seemed to be much ancienter, and may belong to the seventh Century: in it neither the Prologue nor the Place is extant; but it is added at the foot of the Page with another hand. In two of the other the Prologue is extant, but the Place is not; only in one of them it is added on the Margent. In the fourth, as the Pro­logue is extrant, so is the Place likewise; but it comes after the Verse of the other three, and is joyned to it thus, Sicut tres sunt in coelo.

It seem'd st [...]ange to me, and it is almost incredible, that in the Vatican Library there are no ancient Latin Bibles, where above all other places they ought to be lookt for; but I saw none above four hundred years old. There is indeed the famous Greek Manuscript of great value, which the Chanoine Shelstrat, that was Library-Keeper, asserted to be One thousand four hun­dred years old, and proved it by the great similitude of the Characters with those that are upon St. Hippolite's Statue, which is so evident, that if his Statue was made about his time, the Antiquity of this Manuscript is not to be disputed. If the Characters are not so fair, and have not all the marks of Antiquity that appears in the King's Manuscript at St. James's, yet this has been much better preserved, and is much more entire. The Passage that has led me into this Digression, is not to be found in the Vatican Manuscript, no more than it is in the Ki [...]g's Manuscript. And with this I will finish my Account of Zurich. The publick Library is very noble: the Hall in which it is placed is large and well contr [...]ved: there is a very handsome Cabinet of Medals; and so I will break off. But when I have gone so much farther that I have gathered materials for another Letter of this Volume, you may look for a second Entertainment, such as it is, from

I told you, that in Bern the Bailiages are given by a sort of a Ballot, which is so managed, that no mans Vote is known: but I must now add, th [...]t since I was first there, they have made a considerable Regulation in the way of voting, when Offices are to be given, which approaches much nearer the Venetian method, and which exposes the Competitors more to chance, and by consequence may put an end to the Intrigues, that are so much in use for obtaining those Imploy­ments. There is a number of Balls put into a Box, equal to the number of those that have right to Vote, and that are present; of these the third part is gilt, and two parts are only silvered; so every one takes out a Ball; but none can vote, except those who have the gilt Balls: so that hereafter a man may have more than two thirds sure, and yet be cast in a Competition.

There is one thing for which the Switzers, in par­ticular those of Bern, cannot be enough commended: they have ever since the Persecution began fi [...]st in France, opened a Sanctuary to such as have retired thither, in so generous and so Christian a manner, that it deserves all the honourable Remembrances that can be made of it: such Ministers and others, that were, at first, condemned in France, for the Affair of the Cevennes, have not only found a kind Reception here, but all the Support that could be expe [...]ed, and indeed much more than could have been in [...]ea [...]on expected. For they have assigned the French Mi [...]sters a Pension of five Crowns a month, if they were unmarried, and have increased it to such as had Wife and Children, so that some h [...]d abov [...] ten Crowns a month pension. They dispersed them over all the Pais de Vaud: but the greatest number s [...]ai [...] at Lau [...]anne and Ve [...]. In order t [...] the supporting of this Ch [...]rge, the Charities of Zu [...]ich and the other neighbouring Protestant States, [Page 45] were brought hither. Not only the Protestant Can­ [...]ons, but the Grisons, and some small Stares that are under the protection of the Cantons, such as Neuf­chastel, S. Gall, and some others that have sent in their Charities to Bern, who dispence them with great discretion, and bear what further charge this relief brings upon them, and in this last total and de­plorable dispersion of those Churches, the whole Country has been animated with such a Spirit of Cha­rity and Compassion, that [...]very Mans house and purse has been opened to the Refugi [...]s that have passed thi­ther in such numbers, that sometimes there have been above Two thousand in Lausanne alone, and of these there were at one time near Two hundred Ministers, and they all met with a kindness and free-heartedness, that lookt more like somewhat of the Primitive Age reviv'd, than the degeneracy of the A [...]e in which we live.

I shall Conclude this Postscript, which is already swell'd to the bigness of a Letter, with a sad Instance of the Anger and Heat that rises among Divines con­cerning matters of very small consequence.

The middle way that Amirald, Daillè, and some others in France took in the matters that were dispu­ted in Holland, concerning the Divine Decrees and the extent of the death of Christ, as it came to be ge­nerally followed in France, so it had some assertors both in Geneva and Switzerland, who denied the im­putation of Adam's Sin, and asserted the Universality of Christ's death, to [...]ether with a sufficient Grace gi­ven to all men, asserting with this a particular and free Decree of Election with an efficacious Grace for those included in it: these came to be called Ʋniversalists, and began to grow very considerable in Geneva: two of the Professors of Divinity there being known to fa­vour those Opinions. Upon this those who adhered strictly to the opposite Doctrine, were inflamed, and the Contention grew to that height, that almost the [Page 46] whole Town came to be concerned, and all were di­vided into parties. If upon this the M [...]gistrate [...] had enjoyned silence to both parties, they had certainly acted wisely: for these are speculations so little cer­tain, and so little essential to Religion, that a diversity of Opinions ought not to be made the occasion of heat or faction. But tho' the party of the Ʋniversa­lists were considerable in Geneva, it was very small in Switzerland, therefore some Divines there, that ad­hered to the Old received Doctrine, dr w up some Articles in which all these Doctrines were [...]ot only condemned, together with some speculations that were asserted concerning Adam's Immortality, and other qualities belonging to the state of Innocency; but because Capel and some oth [...]r Criticks had not only asserted the novelty of the points, but had taken the liberty to correct the reading of the Hebrew; sup­posing that some Errors had been committed by the coppiers of the Bible, both in the vowels and conso­nants, in opposition to this, they cond [...]mned all corrections of the Hebrew Bible, and asserted the Antiquity of the points, or at least of the power and reading according to them, by which tho' they did not engage all to be of Buxtorfs Opinion, as to the An­tiquity of the points, yet they shut the door against all Co [...]rections of the present punctuation. If this consent of Doctrine, for so they termed it, had been made only the standard against which no man might have taught, without incurring Censures, the severity had been more tollerable: but they obliged all such as should be admitted either to the Ministry, or to a Professors Chair to sign sic sentio, so I think, and this being so setled at Bern and Zurich, it was also carried by their authority at Geneva: but for those in Office the Moderator and Clerk signed it in all their Names: and thus they were not contented to make only a Re­gulation in those matters, but they would needs, ac­cording to a maxim that has been so often fatal to the [Page 47] Church, enter into peoples Consciences, and either shut out young-men from Employments, or impose a Test upon them, which perhaps some ha e signed, not without struglings in their Conscience. Yet ome that set on this Test or Consent, are men of such extraor­dinary wor [...]h, that I am confident they have acted in this matter out of a sinc [...]re zeal for that wh [...]ch they believe t [...] be the truth, only I wish they had larger and freer Souls.

The only considerable Tax under which the Swit­zers lie, is, that when Est [...]tes are sold, the fifth part of the Price belongs to the Publick, and all the Abate­ment that the Bailiff can make is to bring it to a sixth part. This they call the Lod, which is derived from Alodium; only there are some Lands that are Frank­alod, which lie not under this Tax: but this falling only on the [...]ellers of Estates, it was thought a just Punishment, and a wise restraint on ill Husbands of their Estates.

I was the more confirmed in the Account I have gi­ven you of the Derivation of Advoyer, wh [...]n I found that in some small Towns in the Canton of Bern the chief Magistrate is still so called; as in Payerne: so that I make no doubt, but as the Ancient Magistrates in the time of the Romans, that were to give an account of the Town, were called Advocates, and afterwards the Judge in Civil Matte s, that was named by the Bi­shops, was called at first Advocate, and afterwards Vi­dam or Vicedominus; so this was the Title that was still continued in Bern, while they were under the Austrian and German Yoke, and was preserved by them when they threw it off.

I have, perhaps, touch'd too slightly the last diffe­rence that was in Switzerland, which related to the Can on of Glaris. In the Canton of Apenzell. as the two Religions are tole [...]ated, so they are separated in different Quarters, those of one Religion have the one half of the Canton, and those of the other Religion [Page 48] have the other half, so they live apart; but in Glaris they are mixt: and now the number of the Papists is become very low: one assured me there were not above two hundred Families of that R [...]ligion, and those are also so poor, that their Necessitie: di [...]pose som [...] of them every day to change thei [...] Religion. The other Popish Cantons seeing the danger of losing their In­terest entirely in that Canton, and being set on by the Intrigues of a Court that has understood well the Policy of imbroiling all other States, made great use of some Complaints that were brought by th [...] Papists of Glaris, as if the prevailing of the other Religion expo­sed them to much injustice and oppression; and upon that they p [...]oposed that the Canton should b equally divided into two halves, as Appenzel was: this was extreamly unjust, since the Papists were not the tenth or perhaps the twentieth pa t of the Canton. It is true it was so situated in the midst of the Popish Can­tons, that the Protestant Can [...]ons could not easily come to their Assistance: but those of Glaris resolved to die rather than suffer this injustice; and the Protestant Cantons resolved to engage in a War with the Popish Cantons if they imposed this matter on their Brethren of Glaris. At last this Temper was found, that in all Sutes of Law between those of different Religions, two Thirds of the Judges should be always of the Religion of the Defendant. But while this Contest was on foot, those, who as is believed, fomented it, if they did not set it on, knew how to make their advantage of the Conjuncture; for then was the Fortification of Huning­hen at the Ports of Basle much advanced, of the impor­tance of whi [...]h they are now very apprehensive when it is too late. There are six Noble Families in Bern, that have still this Priviledge, That when any of them is cho­sen to be of the Council, they take place before all the Ancient Counsellors; whereas all the rest take place according to the Order in which they were chosen to be of the Council.

LETTER II. Millan, the First of October, 1685.

AFter a short stay at Zurich we went down the Lake, where we past under the Bridge at Rip­perswood, which is a very noble Work for such a Coun­trey; the Lake is there, about half a mile broad, the Bridge is about twelve foot broad, but hath no Rails on either side, [...]o that if the wind blows hard, which is no extraordinary thing there, a man is in great danger of being blown into the Lakes: and this same defect I found in almost all the Bridges of Lombardy, which seemed very strange; for since that defence is made upon so small an expence, it was amazing to see Bridges so naked: and that was more surprizing in some places where the Bridges are both high and long: yet I never heard of any Mischief that followed on this, but those are sober Countries where drinking is not much in use. After two days journey we came to Coire which is the chief Town of the Grisons, and where we found a general Diet of the three Leagues sitting, so that having staid ten days there, I came to be informed of a great many particulars concerning those Leagues, which are not commonly known: The Town is but little, and may contain between four and five thousand Souls; it lies in a bottom upon a small brook, that a little below the Town falls into the Rhine. It is environed with Mountains on all hands, so that they have a very short Summer, for the Snow is not melted till May or June; and it began to Snow in September when I was there: On a rising groun [...] at the East-End of the Town is the Cathedral, the [Page 50] Bishop's Pallace, and the Close, where the Dean and six Prebendaries live; all within the Close are Papists, but all the Town are Protestants, and they live pretty Neighbourly together. Above a q [...]arter of a mile high in the Hill one goes up by a steep ascent to S. Lucius Chappel; my Curiosity carryed me thither, tho' I gave no Faith to the Legend of King Lucius, and of his coming so far from home to be the Apostle of the Grisons. His Chappel is a little Vault about ten Foot square, where ther is an Altar, and where Mass is said upon some great Festivites; it is situated under a natu­ral Arch that is in the Rock, which was thought pro­per to be given out to have been the Cell of a Hermit, from it some drops of a small Fountain fall down near the Chappel; the Bishop assured me it had a miracu­lovs vertue for weak ey [...]s, and that it was Oily: but neither Tast nor Feeling could discover to me any Oilyness: I believe it may be very good for the Eyes, as all Rock-water is; but when I offered to shew the good Old Bishop that the legend of Lucius was a Fable in all the parts of it; but most remarkably in that which related to the Grisons; and that we had no Kings in Brittain at that time, but were a Province to the Romans, that no ancient Au [...]hors speak of it, Bede being the first that mentions it; and that the preten­ded Letter to Pope Eleutherius, together with his An­swer, has evident Characters of Forgery in it, all this signified nothing to the Bishop, who assured me that they had a Tradition of that in their Church, and it was inserted in their Breviary which he firmly believ'd. He also told me the other legend of King Lucius's Sister S. Emerita, who was burnt there, an [...] of whose Veil there was yet a considerable remnant reserved among their Relicks; I confess I never saw a Relick so ill disguised, for it is a piece of worn linnen Cloth lately washt, and the burning did not s [...]em to be a month old; and yet when they took it out of the Case to shew it me, there were some there that with great Devotion [Page 51] rub'd their beads upon ir. The Bishop had some Con­tests with his Dean, and being a Prince of the Empire he had proscribed him: the Dean had also behaved himself so insolently, that by an order of the Diet, to which even the Bishop, as was believed, consented, he was put in Prison as he came out of the Cathedral. By the common consent both of the Popish and Pro­testant Communities, a Law was long ago made against Ecclesiastical Immunities: this attempt on the Dean was made four years ago; as soon as he was let out, he went to Rome, and made great Complaints of the Bishop, and it was thought the Popish Party intended to move in the Diet while we were there, for the Re­pealing of that Law, but they did it nor. The foun­dation of the quarrel between the Bishop and Dean, was the Exemptions to which the Dean and Chapter pretended, and upon which the Bishop made some invasion. Upon which I took occasion to shew him the novelty of those Exemptions, and that in the Pri­mitive Church it was believed that the Bishop had the Authority over his Presbyters by a Divine Right; and if it was by a Divine Right, then the Pope could not exempt them from his Obedience: but the Bishop would not carry the matter so high, and contented himself with two maxims; the one was, That the Bishop was Christ's Vicar in his Diocess: and the other was, That what the Pope was in the Catholick-Church, the Bishop was the same in his Diocess.

He was a good natured man, and did not make use of the great Authority that he has over the Papists there, to set them on to live uneasily wth their Neigh­bours of another Religion. That Bishop was anti­ently a great Prince, and the greatest part of the League that carries still the Name of The House of God, belonged to him, tho' I was assured that Pregallia, one of these Communities was a Free-State above Six hundred years ago, and that they have Records yet extant that prove this: The other Communities to [Page 52] this League bought their Liberties from several Bishops some considerable time before the Reformation, of which the Deeds are yet extant: So that it is an im­pudent thing to say, as some have done, That they shook off his Yoke at that time.

The Bishop hath yet reserved a Revenue of about One thousand pound sterling a year, and every one of the Prebendaries hath near Two hundred pound a year. It is not easie to imagine out of what the Riches of this Countrey is raised, for one sees nothing but a tract of vast Mountains that seem barren Rocks, and some little Vallies among them not a mile broad, and the best part of these is washed away by the Rhine, and some Brooks that fall into it: but their we [...]lth consists chiefly in their Hills, which afford much Pasture, and in the hot Months, in which all the Pasture of Italy is generally parched, the Cattle are driven into these Hills, which brings them in a Re­venue of above Two hundred thousand Crowns a year. The Publick is indeed very poor, but particu­l [...]r persons are so rich, that I knew a great many there, who were believed to have Estates to the value of One hundred thousand Crowns, Mr. Schovestein that is accounted the richest man in the Country, is believed to be worth a million, I mean of Livres. The Government here is purely a Common-wealth, for in the Choice of their Magistrates every man that is above sixteen years Old hath his voice, which is also the Constitution of some of the small Cantons. The three Leagues are, the League of the Grisons, that of the House of God, and that of The Ten Ju­risdictions.

They believe that upon the incursions of the Goths and Vandals, as some fled to the Venetian Islands, out of which arose that famous Common-Wealth; so others came and sheltred themselves in those Valleys. They told me of an ancient Inscription lately found, of a Stone where on the one side is graven Omitto [Page 53] Rhetos Indomitos, and ne plus Ʋltra is on the other; which they pretend was made by Julius Caesar; the Stone on which this Inscription is is upon one of their Mountains, but I did not pass that way, so I can make no judgment concerning it. After the first for­ming of this People, they were cast into little States, according to the different Valleys which they inhabi­ted, and in which Justice was administred, and so they fell under the power of some little Princes that became severe Masters; but when they saw the Ex­ample that the Switzers had set them, in shaking off the Austrinn Yoke above two hundred years ago, they likewise combin [...]d to shake off theirs; only some few of those small Princes used their Authority better, and concurred with the People in shaking off the yoke, and so they are still parts of the body; only Halden­stein is an absolute Soveranity, it is about two miles from Coire to the West, on the other side of the Rhine; the whole Territory is about half a mile long at the foot of the Alps, where there is scarce any breadth. The Authority of these Barons was formerly more absolute than it is now, for the Subjects were their Slaves: but to keep together the little Village, they have granted them a power of naming a list for their Magistrates, the person being to be named by the Baron; who hath also the Right of Pardoning, a Right of Coining, and every thing also that belongs to a Soveraign. I saw thss little Prince in Coire, in an Equi­page not suitable to his quality, for he was in all points like a very ordinary Gentleman. There are Three other Baronies that are members of the Diet, and sub­ject to it; the chief belonged to the Arch-Dukes of Inspruck; the other two belong to Mr. Schovenstein and Mr. de M [...]nt, they are the Heads of those Communi­ties of which their Baronies are composed; they name the Magistrates out of the lists that are presen­ted to them by their Subjects; and they have the Right of Pardoning and of Confiscations: That be­longing [Page 54] to the House of Austria is the biggest, it hath five voices in the Diet, and it can raise Twelve hun­dred Men. One Travers bought it of the Emperour in the year 1679. he entred upon the Rights of the ancient Barons, which are specified in an Agreement that past between him and his Peasants, and was con­firmed by the Emperour. Travers made many in­croachments upon the Priviledges of his Subjects, who upon that made their complaints to the league; but Travers would have the matter judged at Inspruck, and the Emperour supported him in this pretension, and sent an Agent to the Diet: I was present when he had his Audience, in whiah there was nothing but general Complemen [...]s: But the Diet stood firm to their Con­stitution, and asserted that the Emperour had no Au­thority to judge in that matter which belonged only to them, so Travers was forced to let his Pretensions fall.

All the other parts of this State are purely Demo­cratical, there are Three different Bodies or Leagues, and every one of these are an intire Government, and the Assembly or Diet of the Three Leagues, is only a Confederacy like the United Provinces or the Cantons: There are Sixty-seven Voices in the general Diet, which are thus divided: the league of the Grisons hath twenty-eight Voices, that of the House of God hath twenty four, and that of the Jurisdictions hath fifteen. The Jurisdictions belonged anciently to the House of Austria, but they having shaken off that Authority, were incorporated into the Diet, but in the last Wars of Germany, the Austrians thought to have brought them again under their yoke, yet they defended their Liberty with so much vigour, that the Austrians it seems thought the Conquest not worth the while, and that it would not quit the cost. They were affrighted by two extraordinary actions; in one Village which was quite abandoned by all the Men belonging to it, who left the Women in it, some hundreds, as I was [Page 55] told, were quartered, and were apprehensive of no danger from their Hostesses; but the Women inten­ded to let their Husbands see that they were capable of contriving and executing a bold design; tho' it must be confest it was a little too rough and barbarous for the Sex: They entred into a Combination to cut the Throats of all the Souldiers at one time; the Woman that proposed this had four lodged with her, and she with her own hands dispatcht them all, and so did all the rest, not one Souldier escaping to carry away the News of so unheard of a Rage. In another place a Body of the Austrians came into a Valley that was quite abandoned, for the Men that had no Arms but their Clubs and Staves, got up to the Mountains; but they took their measures so well, and possessed them­selves so of the Passes, that they came down upon the Souldiers with so much fury, that they defeated them quite, so that very few escaped, and it is cer­tain that the subduing them would have proved a very hard work. It is true they are not in a condi­tion to hold out long, the publick is so poor; so that tho' particular persons are extream rich, yet they have no publick Revenue, but every man is concerned to preserve his Liberty, which is more intire here than in Switzerland, but this often swells too much, and throws them into great convulsion. The league of the Grisons is the first and most ancient, and it is com­posed of eight and twenty Communities, of which there are eighteen Papists, and the rest are Protestants; the Communities of the two Religions live Neigh­bourly together, yet they do not suffer those of ano­ther Religion to live among them, so that every Com­munity is intirely of the same Religion, and if any one changes he must go into another Community. Each Community is an intire State within it self, and all Persons must meet once a year to chuse the Judge and his Assistants, whom they change or continne from year to year as they see cause: There is no difference [Page 56] made between Gentleman and Peasant, and the Te­nant hath a Vote as well as his Landlord, nor dare his Landlord use him ill when he Votes contrary to his Intentions, for the Peasants would [...]ook upon that as a common Quarrel. An Appeal lies from the Judge of the Community to the Assembly of the Leag [...]e, where all matters end; for there lies no Appeal to the gene­ral Diet of the three Leagues, except in matters that concern the conquered Countries, which belong in common to all the three. There is one chosen by the Deputies for the Assembly of the League, who is cal­led the head of the League, that can call them toge­ther as he sees cause, and can likewise bring a cause that hath been once judged, to a second hearing. Ilants is the chief Town of this League, where their Diet meets. The second League is that of the House of God, in which there are four and twenty Commu­nities; the Burgomaster of Coire is always the head of this League: This League is almost wholly Protestant, and the two Valleys of the upper and lower Engedin are pointed out by the Papists, as little less than Can­nibals towards such Catholicks as come among them; but Frier Ssondrato, Nephew to Pope Gregory the four­teenth, whose Mother the Marquess of Borgomaniero, that was in England, hath married, found the con­trary of all this to be true, to his great regret. About eighteen years ago he was believed to have wrought Miracles, and he became so much in love with the Crown of Martyrdom, that he went through the Engedm. not doubting but he would find there that which he desired. His Brother had come sometime before into the Countrey to drink mineral Waters, and was well known to the Gentry, so some of these hearing of the Friers coming, went and waited on him; and he was entertained by them in their Houses and conveyed him through the Countrey; tho' he took all possible ways to provoke them, for he was often railing at their Religion, but to all that they [Page 57] made no answer, only they continued their Civilitie [...] still, which did so inrage the warm Frier, that he went to Bormio, and there (as was believ'd) he died of Grief. An accident fell out five year ago, that the People of the Country esteemed a sort of a Mi­racle. The Papists in their Processions go sometimes out of one Community into another, and when they pass through Protestant Communities they lower the Cross, and give over Singing till they are again upon Popish ground; but then they went on bearing up the Cross, and singing as they went, upon which the Protestants stopt them, and would not suffer them to go on in that manner: they finding that they were not equal in number to the Protestants, sent to a Ca­tholick Community, and desired them to come to their Assistance: Two thousand came, and by all ap­pearance the dispute would have had a bloody issue: for the Protestants were resolved to maintain the Rights of their Community, and the others were no less resolved to force their way: but an extraordinary thick mist arose, and through it the Papists fancied they saw a vast body of men, which was no other then a Wood: but terrified with the appearance of such a Number they retired, and this saved a little Battel that probably would not only have ended in the shedding much Blood, but might have very much disorder'd the whole Constitution and union of their Leagnes.

The Papists of Quality endeavour much to keep their People in order, but they acknowledged to my self, that the Protestants were much peaceabler than the Catholicks. The Jurisdictions have fifteen Votes in the general Diet, yet they are generally called the ten Jurisdictions, and the greater part of them are likewise of the Religion; for upon the general computation of the three Leagues, the Protestants are about two thirds. In their Diets there are three Tables, one in the middle and two on either side, at every Table sits [Page 58] the head of the League and Secretary near him, and from the Table there goes down Benches on both hands for the Deputies from the communities of that league: They hold their Diets by turns in the chief Towns of the s [...]veral Leagues, and it hapened to be the turn of the House of God when I was there, so they met at Coire.

The three Leagues have a conquered Country in Italy divided into three Districts, the Valteline, Cha­vennes, and Bormio. When John Galeasse possessed himself of the Dutchy of Milan, and drove out Barna­bas, Mastinus one of Barnabas's Sons, to whom his Fa­ther had given those three Branches of the Dutchy of Milan, retired to Coire, and being hospitably received and entertained by the Bishop, when he died he gave his Right to those Territories to the Cathedral of Coire: but here was a Title without a force able to make it good. But when the Wars of Italy were on foot, the three Leagues being much courted by both the Crowns, since they were Masters of the Passes by which either the Switzers or Germans could come into Italy, they resolved to lay hold on that opportunity; yet they had not zeal enough for their Bishop to en­gage deep upon his account: so they agreed with him to pay him such a Revenue, and he transferred his Ti­tle to them; and they were so considerable to the Spaniards, that without much ado, they yielded those parcels of the Dutchy of Milan to them, and by this means they are possessed of them. Those Accessions to this State are much better than the principal; for as certainly the Valteline, which is above forty miles long and two broad, is one of the richest Valleys in the World, in which there are three Harvests some years, so the Chavennes and Bormio are much preferable to the best Valleys of the Grisons; yet the engagement that people have to their native homes appears signally here, since the Grisons have not forsaken their Coun­try that they might situate themselves so advantage­ously: [Page 59] but they love their rugged Valleys, and think the safety they enjoy in them beyond the Plea [...]ures of their acquired Dominions, so they govern them by Bailiffs and Podesta's, and other Officers whom they send among them: and all the advantages that they draw from them, is, That the Magistrates whom they send to govern them, do inrich thems [...]l [...]es, as the Bailiffs in Switzerland do. All those Offices go round the several Communities who have the right of Nomi­nation in their turn: but if there is n [...]e of the Com­munity proper for the Employment, a [...] one of ano­ther Community may buy of them the Nomination for that turn, and the Community distribu [...]e among them the money that he gives them The Publick draws nothing out of those Parts, except the Fines, which in some years amounts to no considerable Sum, and ten or twelve thousand Crowns is thought a great deal to be raised out of them in a Year, so that their Subjects live happy and f [...]ee of all Taxes, which made their last Revolt appear the more extraordinary; and it was indeed the effect of a very surprising Bigotry, when a People under the gentlest Yoke in the World, who had no other Gri [...]vance, but that now and then their Magistrates were of another Religion, and that the Protestant Religion was tolerated amongst them, would therefore throw off their Masters, cut the Throats of their Neighbours, and cast themselves into the hands of the Spaniards, who are the terriblest Masters in the World.

But to give a more particular relation of that matter, and to tell the Circumstances which seem a little to les­sen that Rebellion and Massacre. I must give an account of a part of this C [...]nstitution that is very terrible, and which makes the greatest men in it to tremble. The Peasants come sometimes in great Bodies and demand a Chamber of Justice from the general Diet; and they are bound to grant it always when it is thus demanded, which comes about generally once in twenty years: [Page 60] commonly this Tumult of the Peasants is set on by some of the male contented Gentry, and generally there are a great many Sacrifices made. This Court is composed of ten Judges our of every League, and twenty Advocates, who manage such Accusations as are presented to them: this Court is [...]aramount to Law, and acts like a Court of Inquisition; th y give the Question, and do every thing that they think ne­cessary to discover the Truth of such Accusations as are presented to them: and the decisions of this Court can never be brought under a second review, tho' there is an Exception to this; for about a hundred Years ago, one Court of J [...]stice reversed all that another had done: but that is a single Instance The Peasants are in as great a Jealousie of th [...] Spaniards, as the Switzers are of the French, and the good men am [...]ng them are extr [...]am sensible of a great dissolution of Morals that the Spanish Service brings among them; for there is a Grison Regiment kept still in Pay by the Spaniards; there are in it twelve Companies of F [...]fty a-piece, and the Captai [...]s have a thousand Crowns Pay, tho' they are not obliged to attend upon the Service. This is upon the matter a Pension paid under a more decent Name, to the most considerable Men of the Country, and this is shared among them without any distinction of Protestant and Pap [...]st, and is believed to sway their Councils much. The Peasants are apt to take fire, and to believe they are betrayed by those Pensioners of Spain; and when Rumours are blown about among them, they come in great numbers to demand a Cham­ber of Justice. The common question that they give, which is also used all Switzerland over, and in Geneva, is, that th [...]y tye the Hands of the suspected person be­hind his Back, and pull them up to his Head, and so draw them about, by which the Arms, and chiefly the Shoulder-blades, are disjoynted. And when a Per­son put to the Question confesses his Crime, and is up­on that condemned to die, he is obliged to renew [Page 61] his confession upon oath at the place of execution, and if he goes off fr [...]m it then, and saith that his confession was extorted by the violence of the tor­ture, he is put again to the question: for this passes for a maxime that no man must die unless he con­fesseth himself guilty: Generally when the fury of demanding this Chamber is spread among the peo­ple, the Gentry run away and leave the whole mat­ter in the power of the Peasants, for they know not where it will end, and so the Peasa [...]ts being named to be Judges, the Justice go [...]s quick till some sacri­fices appease the rage. Two year ago upon the sale of a common to the Bishop of Como, to which he had an ancient pretension, the Peasants having no more the liberty of the common, were inraged at their Magist ates, and a report was spread abroad, of which the first Author could never be discovered, that the Spaniards had sent a hundred thousand Crowns among them to corrupt all their Magistrates, upon this they were so set on fire, that it was gene­rally thought there would have been many sacrifices made to this fury: but the Gentry hapned to be then so much united, that there was none of them ingaged among the Peasants, or that managed their rage: a Chamber of Justice was granted, but the matter was so ordered that it did not appear that any one was guilty, yet some that had dealt in that tran­saction were sined, not so much for any fault of theirs, as to raise a fonds to pay the expences of the Cham­ber, and because they could not find colour enough to raise so much out of the sines, there was a fine of five hundred Livers laid on every one of the Spanish Companies. I hope this digression will not appear tedious to you, and the rather because you will soon see that it was a little necessary to open the matter of the Rebellion and Massacre in the Val­teline.

In the year 1618. there was a report s [...]t about, that the Spaniards had a treaty on foot to tear away the Valteline fram the leagues, this was supported by the Fort Fuentes, that the Governor of Milan was building upon the Lake of Como, near the Valteline. There was one Ganatz a Minister, but a bloody and perfidious Man, that set on and managed the rage of the Peasants, and there was great reason to suspect some underhand dealing, tho he threw it which way he pleased. A Chamber of Justice was appointed to sit at Tossane, which is a considerable Town twelve miles from Coire, on the way to Italy, near Alta Rhetia, which is a high and small Hill, to which there is no access but on one side, where there are yet the ruines of a Castle and a Church, and which they believe was the Pallace of Rhetus the first Prince of the Countrey: There was severe ju­stice done in this Chamber, a Priest was put to the question, and so ill used that he died in it, which is a crying thing among them. The chief suspicion lay upon one Pianta, who being of one of the best Fa­milies of the Grisons, was then one of the Captains in the Spanish Regiment; he withdrew himself from the storm, but the Peasants led on by Ganatz pursu­ed him so, that at last they found him and hewed him in pieces, Ganatz himself striking the first stroke with an Ax, which was taken up and preserved by his Friends, and four and twenty years after fifty or sixty of his Friends fell upon Ganatz in Coire, and killed him with the same Ax, which they brought along with them, that they might execute their de­sign by the same tool with which their Friend was murthered, Ganatz had during the Wars abandoned both his Religion and Profession, being, indeed, a disgrace to both, and had served first in the Venetian, and then in the Spanish Troops. After the peace was made he became so considerable, being suppor­ted [Page 63] by the Spanish Faction, that he was chosen Governor of Chavennes, and was come over to Coire to a Diet, he being then in so important a charge: but he was so much hated, that tho the murthering of a Magistrate in Office, and at a pub­lick assembly in so terrible a manner ought to have been severely punished, yet no inquiry was made into the crime, nor was any man so much as que­stioned for it. In that Chamber, many that were put to the question confessed enough to hang them, some indured the question and escaped with the loss of the use of their Arm. Those of the Val­teline have made use of this severity, as that which gave the rise to the Massacre, and it is very probable this might have drawn in some, that would have been otherwise more moderate, and that it did like­wise precipitate that barbarous action: yet it was af­terwards found out that the Plot had been formed long before, so that the industry and rage of the Priests managed by Spanish Emissaries, working upon the bigotry of the people was the real cause, and this was only made use of as a pretext to give some more plausible colours to the Massacre, vvhich was executed some months after this Chamber was dissolved. It began while the Protestants were at Church, there were some hundreds destroyed, the rest got all up to the Mountains, and so escaped into the Countrey of the Grisons, and those of Chavennes got likewise up to the Hills, for they are scituated just at the bottom of them.

I shall not prosecure the rest of that War, the French savv of vvhat advantage it vvas to them not to let this pass from Italy into Germany fall into the hands of the Spaniards; so Bassompiere was sent to Madrid, and obtained a promise, that all things should be put in the same state in vvhich they vvere before the year 1618, but vvhen that [Page 64] order vvas sent to the Governour of Milan, it vvas plain he had secret orders to the contrary, for he re­fused to execute it: so a War follovved, in vvhich the Grisons found it vvas not easie for them to sup­port the charge of it, vvithout imploying the assi­stance of the French. But the Spaniards pretended to have no other interest in the affairs of the Valteline then the preservation of the Catholick Religion, and to shevv their sincerity, they put the Countrey into the Pope's hands, knovving that he could not pre­serve it but by their assistance, nor restore it vvith­out securing it from all change of Religion. The French vvillingly undertook the cause of the Grisons, and because the Duke of Rohan vvas like to be the most favourable General, as being of the Religion, he vvas sent to command some forces that mar­ched thither: But he savv that if the French once made themselves Masters of the passes of the Coun­trey, it vvould turn to their ruine, and finding the Grisons reposed an intire confidence in him, he thought it unbecoming him to be an instrument in that vvhich he savv must be fatal to them. The Spaniards seeing the French ingage in the quarrel, and fearing lest they should possess themselves of the pas­ses, offered to restore all the Territory in Italy, for Chavennes and Bormio had likevvise revolted, only the Pretestants got avvay so quick upon the disorders in the Valteline, that they prevented the rage of the Priests. The Spaniards ask'd these conditions, that an Amnesty should be granted for vvhat vvas past, that there should be no exercise of the Pro­testant Religion tolerated in the Countrey, and that even the Bailiffs and other Magistrates of the Religion, that came to be sent into the Valteline, should have no exercise of their Religion, and as for other persons, that none of the Religion might stay above six vveeks at a time in the Countrey. The [Page 65] Duke of Rohan seeing that conditions of so much ad­vantage to the Leagues vvere offered to them, did underhand advise those of the Religion to accept of them, at the same time that he seemed openly to op­pose the treaty set on foot on those terms, and that he might get out of this imployment vvith the less dis­honour, he advised their clapping him up in prison till they had finished their treaty vvith the Spaniards. So that they very gratefully to this day ovvn that they ovve the preservation of their Countrey to the vvise advices of that great Man. Many that vvere of the Religion returned to their Houses and Estates, but the greatest part fearing such another Massacre, have since changed their Religion, others have sold their Estates and left the Country, some stay still and go tvvo or three hours journey to some of the Protestant communities, vvhere they have the exer­cise of the Religion: And tho they may not stay in the Valteline above six weeks at a time, yet they avoid that by going for a day or two out of the Countrey once within that time, nor is that matter at present so severely examined, so that there is a calm among them as to those matters. But when it comes to the turn of the Protestant communities to send one of the Religion to those imployments, he is often much em­barassed by the Bishop of Como, to whose Diocess those Territories belong, for if the Bishop fancies that they do any thing contrary to the Ecclesiastical immunities, he excommunicates them, and tho this may appear a ridiculous thing, since they are already in a worse state by being Hereticks, yet it produces a very sensi­ble effect, for the people that are extreamly supersti­tious, will not after that come near such Magistrates, so that about three years ago a Bailiff found himself obliged to desire to be recalled, tho his time was not out, since being excommunicated he could no longer maintain the Government in his own person,

Among the Grisons the Roman Lavv prevails, mo­dified a little by their Customs. One that vvas a little particular, vvas executed vvhen I vvas there.

A Man that hath an Estate by his Wife, enjoys it after her Death as long as he continues a Widovver, but when he marries again he is bound to divide it among the Children that he had by her. The Justice is short and simple; but it is oft thought that Bribes go here, tho' but meanly in proportion to their Po­verty, as well as in other Places. The married Wo­men here do scarce appear abroad except at Church, but the young Women have more Liberty before they are married. There is such a plenty of all things, by reason of the gentleness of the Government and the industry of the People, that in all the ten days in which I stayed at Coire, I was but once ask'd an Alms in the Streets. There are two Churches in Coire, in the one there is an Organ that joyns with their Voices in the singing of the Psalms; and there was for the honour of the Diet, while we were there, an Anthem sung by a set of Musicians very regularly. In all the Churches both of Switzerland and the Gri­sons, except in this only, the Minister preaches co­vered, but here he is bare-headed. And I observed a particular Devotion used here in saying of the Lord's Prayer, that the Ministers who wear Caps put them off when it was said. The Women here, as in Bern, turn all to the East in time of Prayer, and also in their private Devotions before and after the pub­lick Prayers: many also bow at the Name of Jesus. They Christen discovering the whole Head, and pour­ing the Water on the hind-head, using a trine Asper­sion, which is also the practice of the Switzers. It vvas matter of much Edification, to see the great Numbers both here and all Switzerland over, that come every day to Prayers morning and evening. They give here in the middle of the Prayer a good in­terval [Page 67] of Silence for the private Devotions of the As­sembly. The Schools here go not above Latin. Greek, and Logick: and for the [...]est they send their Children to Zurich or Basil. The Clergy here are very meanly provided: for most part they have nothing but the benevolence of their People: they complained much to me of a great coldness in their People in the mat­ters of Religion, and of a great Corruption in their morals. The Commons are extream insolent, and many Crimes go unpunished if the Persons that com­mit them have either great credit or much money. The poor Ministers here are under a terrible slavery: for the Grisons pretend that in all times they had not only the Patronage of their Churches, but a power to dismiss their Ch [...]rch-men as they saw cause. How it is among the Papists I cannot tell, but the Dean of the Synod of the House of God told me they had an ill custom of ordaining their Ministers without a Title, upon an Examination of their Qualifications and Abi­lities, which took them up generally six or seven hours: and when this Tryal was thus dispatched, if the Person was found qualified, they ordained him; and it was too ordinary for those that were thus or­dained, to endeavour to undermine the Ministers al­ready in Employment, if their people grew disgust­ed at them, or as they became disabled by Age: and often the Interest and Kindred of the Intruder carried the matter against the Incumbent without any colour or pretence; and in that case the Synod was bound to receive the Intruder. In one half of the Country they preach in High Dutch, and in the other half in a corrupt Italian, which they call Ro­manish, that is a mixture of French and Italian. In every League they have a Synod, and as the People chuse their Ministers, so in imitation of the Switzers every Syn [...]d chuses their Antist [...]s or S. perintendant; he is called the Dean among the Grisons, and hath a [Page 66] [...] [Page 67] [...] [Page 68] sort of an Episcopal Power, but he is accountable to the Synod. The Office is for life, but the Synod, upon great cause given, may make a change. The people of this Country are much more lively than the Switzers, and they begin to have some tincture of the Italian Temper. They are extream civil to Strangers; but it seems in all Commonwealths Inn-keepers think they have a right to exact upon Strangers, which one finds here as well as in Holland or in Switzerland.

I shall conclude what I have to say concerning the Grisons, with a very extraordinary Story, which I had both from the Ministers of Coire and several other Gentlemen, that saw in April 1685. about five hun­dred persons of different Sexes and Ages that past through the Town; who gave this account of them­selves. They were the Inhabitants of a Valley in Ti­rol, belonging for the greatest part to the Archbi­shoprick of Saltsburg, but some of them were in the Diocesses of Trent & Bresse; they seemed to be a Rem­nant of the old Waldenses, they worshipped neither Images nor Saints, and they believed the Sacrament was only a commemoration of the Death of Christ; and in many other Points they had their peculiar Opinions different from those of the Church of Rome: they knew nothing neither of Lutherians nor Calvi­nists, and the Grisons. tho' their Neighbours, had never heard of this nearness of theirs to the Prote­stant Religion. They had Mass said among them, but some years since some of the Valley going over Germany to earn somewhat by their labour, hapned to go into the Palatinate, where they were better instructed in ma [...]ters of Religion; and these brought back with them into the Valley the Heidelberg Cate­chism, together with [...]om [...] other German Books, which un over the V [...]lley; and they being before that in a good di [...]position, those Books had such an [Page 69] effect upon them, that they gave over going to Mass any more, and began to worship God in a way more sutable to the Rules set down in Scripture: some of their Priests concurred with them in this happy Change, but others that adhered still to the Mass, went and gave the Archbishop of Saltsburg an account of it: upon which he sent some into the Country to examine the truth of the matter, to exhort them to return to Ma [...]s, and t [...] threaten them with all severi­ty if they continued obstinate: so they seeing a ter­rible Storm ready to break upon them, resolved to abandon their Houses and all they had, rather than sin against their Consciences. And the whole Inha­bitants of the Valley, old and young, Men and Wo­men, to the number of two thousand, divided them­selves into several Bodies: some intended to go to Brandenburgh. others to the Palatinate, and about five hundred took the way of Coire, intending to disperse the [...]elves in Switzerland. The Ministers told me they were much edified with their Simpli­city and Modesty, for a Collection being made for them, they desired only a little Bread to carry them on their way. From Coire we went to Tossane, and from that through the way that is justly called Via Mala. [...]t is through a bottom between two Rocks, through which the Rhine runs but under ground or a great part of the way. The Way is cut out in the middle of the Rock in some places, and in several places the steepness of the Rock being such that a Way could not be cut out, there are beams driven into it, over which, Boards and Earth are laid: this way holds an hour. After that, there is for two hours good way, and we past through two considerable Villages: there is good Lodging in both. From thence there is, for two hours Jour­ney, ter [...]ible Way, almost as bad as the Via Mala: then an hours Journey good way to Splagen, which is a large Village of above two hundred Houses, that [Page 70] are well built, and the Inhabitants seem all to live at their ease, tho' they have no sort of Soil but a little Meadow ground about them. This is the last Pro­testant Church that was in our Way, it was well en­dowed, for the Provision of the Minister was near two hundred Crowns. Those of this Village are the Carriers between Italy and Germany, so they drive a great Trade, for there is here a perpetual Carriage going and coming, and we were told, th [...]t there pass gen [...]rally a hundred Horses through this Town one day with another: and there are above five hundred Carriage-Horse that belong to this Town. From this place we went mounting for three hours, till we got to the top of the Hills, where there is only one great Inn. After that the way was tollerably good for two hours, and for two hours there is a constant descent, which for the most part is as steep as if we were all the while going down Stairs. At the foot of this is a little Village, called Campdolcin, and here we found we were in Italy, both by the vast difference of the Climate; for whereas we were freezing on the other side, the hear of the Sun was uneasie here, and also by the number of the B [...]ggars, tho' it may seem the reverse of what one ought to expect, since the richest Country of Europe is full of B [...]ggars; and the Grisons, that are one of the poorest States, have no Beggars at all. One thing is also strange, that among the Grisons, the rich Wine of the Valteline, after it is carried three days Journey, is sold cheaper than the Wine of other Countries where it grows at the door: but there are no Taxes nor Impositions here. From Campdolcin there is three hours Journey to Chavennes, all in a slow Descent, and in some places the way is extream r [...]gged and stoney. Chavennes is very pleasantly scituated at the very foot of the Mountains: there runs through the Tovvn a pleasant little River. It is nobly built, and hath a great many rich Vineyards about it; and the rebound [Page 71] of the Sun-beams from the Mountains, doth so increase the h [...]ats here, that the soil is as rich here as in any place of Italy. Here one begins to see a Noble Architecture in a great many houses; in short all the marks of a rich Soil and a free Government appear here, The Town stood a little more to the North, about five hundred year ago, but a Slice of the Alps came down upon it, and buried it quite, and at the [...]pper end of the Town there are some Rocks that look like Ruines; about which there hath been a very extraordinary expence to divide them one from ano­ther, and to make them fit places for Forts, and Castles: the marks of the Tools appeared all over the Rock in one place. I measured the breadth of the one from the other, which is twenty foot, the length is four hun­dred and fifty foot, and as we could guess the Rock was two hundred foot high, cut down on both sides in a line as even as a wall; towards the top of one the name Salvius is cut in great Letters a little Gothick. On the tops of those Rocks which are inaccessible, ex­cept on the one side, and to that the ascent is extream uneasie, they had Garrisons [Page 72] during the Wars of the Valteline: there were 1500 in G [...]rrison in that which is in the middle: There falls down frequently slices from the Hills that do [...]x [...]reamly fatten the g [...]ound which they cov [...]r, so that it be­comes frui [...]ful beyond expr [...]ssion, and I saw a Lime tree that was plan [...]ed 38 years ago, in a piece of ground which had been so covered, that was [...]wo fathom, & a half, of compass. On both sides of the River, the Town and the Gardens belonging to it, cover the whole Bottom that lies be­tween the Hills, and at the roots of the Mountains they dig great Cellars, and grot toes, and strike a hole about a foot square, ten or twelve foot into the Hill, which all the Summer long blows a fresh Air into the Cellar, so that the Wine of those Cel­lars drinks almost as cold as if it were in Ice; but this wind-pipe did not blow when I was there, which was towards the end of September: For the Sun opening the pores of the Earth, & rarifying the ex­terior Air, that which is compressed with­in the cavities that are in the Mountains, rushes out with a constant Wind; but when the operation of the Sun is weakned, this course of the Air is less sensible. Be­fore or over those Vaults they build little pleasant Rooms like Summer-houses, and [Page 85] in them they go to Collation generally at night in Summer. I never saw bigger Grapes then grow there, there is one sort bigger then the biggest Da­mascene Plums that we have in England.

There is a sort of Wine he [...]e and in the Valteline, which I never heard named any where else, that is called Aromatick Wine, and as the tast makes one think it must be a composition, for it tasts like a Strong-water drawn off Spices, so its strength being equal to a weak Brandy, disposes one to believe that it cannot be a natural Wine, and yet it is the pure juyce of the Grape without any mixture. The Liquor being singular, I informed my self particu­larly of the way of preparing it: the Grapes are red, tho it drinks white; they let the Grapes hang on the Vines till November that they are extream ripe, then they carry them to their Gar­rets, and set them all upright on their ends by one another for two or three months, then they pick all the Grapes and throw away those in which there is the least appearance of rottenness, so that they press none but sound Grapes: after they are pressed they put the Liquor in an open Vessel, in which it throws up a scum, which they take off twice a day, and when no more scum comes up, which according to the difference of the season is sooner or later, for sometimes the scum comes no more after eight days, and at other times it continues a Fortnight, then they put it in a close Vessel; for the first year it is extream sweet and luscious, but at the end of the year they pierce it a little higher then the middle of the Vessel, almost two thirds from the bottom, and drink it off till it cometh so low, and then every year they fill it up a new: once a year in the month of March it ferments, and cannot be drunk till that is over, which continues a month, but their other Wine ferments not at that time. Madam Salis a [Page 86] Lady of that Country who entertained us three days with a magnificence equal to what can be done in London or Paris, had Wine of this composition that was forty years old, and was so very strong that one could hardly drink above a spoonful, and it tasted high of Spicery, tho she assured me there was not one grain of Spice in it, nor of any other mixture whatsoever. Thus the heat that is in this Wine, becomes a fire and distils it self, throwing up the more spirituous parts of it to the top of the Hogs-Head.

Both here and in the Grisons the meat is very juycy, the Fowl is Excellent, their Roots and Herbs very tastful, but the Fish of their Lakes is beyond any thing I ever saw. They live in a great simplicity as to their habit and furniture, but they have plenty of all things, and are extream Rich, the Family where we were so Nobly Entertained is believed to have about two hundred thousand Crowns: here the Italian custom of one only of a Family that Marries takes place generally. There is a sort of Pots of Stone that is used not only in all the Kitchins here, but almost all Lombardy over, called Lavege, the Stone feels oyly and scaly, so that a scale sticks to ones Finger that touches it, and is somewhat of the nature of a slate, there are but three Mines of it known in these parts, one near Chavennes, another in the Valteline, and the third in the Grisons, but the first is much the best, they generally cut it in the Mine round, of about a foot and a half Diameter, and about a foot and a quarter thick, and they work it in a Mill, where the Chizzels that cut the Stone are driven about by a Wheel that is set a going by VVater, and which is so ordered that he who man­ages the Chizzel, very easily draws forward the VVheel out of the course of the VVater; they turn off first the outward Coat of this Stone till it is [Page 87] exactly smooth, and then they separate one Pot after another by those small and hooked Chizzels, by which they make a nest of Pots all one within another, the outward and biggest being as big as an ordinary Beef-pot, and the inward Pot being no bigger than a small Pipkin; these they arm with hooks and circles of Brass, and so they are served by them in their Kitchins. One of these Stone-pots takes heat and boils sooner than any Pot of Mettle; and whereas the bottoms of Mettle-pots transmit the heat so intirely to the Li­quor within, that they are not insufferably hot, the bottom of this Stone-pot, which is about twice so thick as a Pot of Mettle, burns extreamly; it never cracks, neither gives it any sort of taste to the Liquor that is boiled in it, but if it falls to the ground it is very brittle, yet this is repaired by p [...]ching it up, for they piece their broken Pots so close, tho without any ce­ment, by sowing with Iron-wire the broken Parcels together, that in the holes which they pierce with the Wire, there is not the least breach made, except that which the Wire both makes and sills. The passage to this Mine is very inconvenient, for th [...] must creep into it for near half a mile through a [...] that is so hard that the passage is not above three foot high, and so those that draw out the Stones creep all along upon their Belly, having a Candle fastned in their forehead, and the Stone laid on a sort of Cushion made for it upon their hips: The Stones are common­ly two hundred weight.

But having mentioned some falls of Mountains in those parts, I cannot pass by the extraordinary fate of the Town of Pleurs, that was about a league from Chavennes to the North in the same bottom, but on a ground that is a little more raised: The Town was half the bigness of Chavenness, the number of the In­habitants was about two and twenty hundred p [...]r­sons, but it was much more nobly Built; for besides [Page 88] the great Palace of the Francken, that cost some millions, there were many other Palaces that were built by several rich Factors both of Milan and the other parts of Italy, who liked the scituation and Air, as well as the freedom of the Government of this place, so they used to come hither, during the heats, and here they gave themselves all the Indulgences that a vast wealth could furnish. By one of the Palaces that was a little distant from the Town, which was not overwhelmed with it, one may judge of the rest: It was an out-house of the Family of the Francken, and yet it may compare with many Palaces in Italy, and certainly House and Gardens could not cost so little as one hundred thousand Crowns. The volup­tuousness of this place became very crying, and Ma­d [...]m de Salis, told m [...] that she heard her Mother of­ten relate some passages of a Protestant Ministers Ser­mons, that preached in a little Church, which those of the Religion had there, and warned them often of the terrible judgments of God, which were hanging over their heads, and that he believed would sudden­ly break ou [...] [...]on them. On the 25th of August, 1618: An [...] [...]bitant came and told them to be gone, for he saw the Mountains cleaving, but he was laugh­ed at for his pains: He had a Daughter whom he perswaded to leave all and go with him, but when she was gone out of Town with him, she called to mind that she had not locked the Door of a Room, in which she had some things of value, and so she went back to do that, and was buried with the rest; for at the hour of Supper the Hill fell down and bu­ried the Town and all the Inhabitants, so that not one person escaped: The fall of the Mountains did so fill the Channel of the River, that the first news those of Chavennes had of it was by the failing of their River, for three or four hours there came not a drop of Wa­ter, but the River wrought for it self a new course [Page 89] and returned to them. I could hear no particular cha­racter of the Man who escaped, so I must leave the secret reason of so singular a preservation to the great discovery at the last day of those steps of Divine Pro­vidence that are now so unaccountable. Some of the Family of the Francken got some Miners to work un­der ground, to find out the wealth that was buried in their Palace; for besides their Plate and Furniture there was a great cash and many Jewels in the House: the Miners pretended they could find nothing, but they went to their Countrey of Tirol, and built fine Houses and a great wealth appeared, of which no other visible account could be given but this, that they had found some of that treasure. The chief Factors of Italy have been Grisons, and they told me that as the Trade of Banking began in Lombardy, so that all Europe over a Lombard and a Bank signified the same thing, so the great Bankiers of Lombardy were Gri­sons, and to this day the Grisons drive a great Trade in money; for a Man there of a hundred thousand Crowns Estate, hath not perhaps a third part of this within the Countrey, but puts it out in the neigh­bouring States: And the liberty of the Countrey is such, that the Natives when they have made up E­states elsewhere, are glad to leave even Italy and the best parts of Germany, and to come and live a­mong those Mountains, of which the very sight is enough to fill a Man with horror.

From Chavennes we went for two hours through a plain to the Lake of Chavennes, which is almost round, and is about two mile Diameter. This Lake falls into the Lake of Como over against the Fort Fuentes; when we passed there, the Water was so low that the Boat could not easily get over a Bank that lay between the two Lakes. The Lake of Como is about eight and forty miles long and four broad, it runs between two ranges of Hills: I did not stay [Page 90] long enough in Como to give any description of it, for I thought to have returned that way from a [...]ittle Tour that I made into the Ba [...]ia [...]es that the Switzers have in Italy, of Lugane, Locarmo and Bellinzona: But I took another course, so I saw nothing in Como; the best thing in it is a fine Chappel, which the pre­sent Pope, who is a native of Como is building. From Como we went eight miles to Codelago, which be­longs to the Switzers, and from thence to Lugane we had eight miles of Lake: this Lake doth not run in an even current as the other Lakes that rise under the Alps; but the scituation of the Hills about it throws it into several courses.

The Switzers have here several little Provinces or Baliages, of which during the Wars of Italy, between the Dukes of Milan and the two Crowns in Francis the First, and Charles the Fifths time, they possessed themselves as a pledge for payment of their Arrears, and they were then such considerable Allies, that they made both the Competitors for the Durchy of Milan Court them by turns, and became the peaceable Pos­sessors of almost all that Tract that lies between the Lake of Como, to the Countrey of the V [...]lessii or the Valleys: The Inhabitants here are so well used, they live to free of all Impositions, and the Switzers Go­vernment is so gentle, that h [...]re I must tell you an­other Paradox, this is the worst Countrey, the least Productive, the most exposed to cold, and the least capable of Trade of all Italy, and yet is by far the best peopled of any that I saw in all Italy: There belongs to the Baliage of Lugane alone ninety nine Villages, of which a great many are very large, and all are full of people. The twelve ancient Cantons have their turns of all the Baliages and other Officers here: but when it comes to the turn of those of the Religion, their Bayliffs must be contented with private Devoti­ons in their own House, but can have no publick exer­cises, [Page 91] nor so much as a Minister in their Houses. For here as in the Valteline when the Spaniards confirmed the right of the Cantons to those Territories, they made an express provision, that no Religion except the Popish should be tolerated here; so that the Bayliff who is the Prince often hath not the free Li­berty of his Religion in these parts. The Bayliffs here make their advantages as well as in the other parts of Switzerland, but yet with more caution, for they take great care not to give the natives any distast, tho the miseries to which they see all their Neighbours exposed, and the abundance and liberty in which they live should by all appearance deliver their Masters from any great apprehensions of a re­volt: A geeat many Mechanicks of all sorts live in these parts, who go all Summer long over Italy, and come back hither with what they have gained, and live free of all Taxes.

I was told that some Nephews of Popes, in par­ticular the Barberines had Treated with the Switzers to buy this Country from them, and so to erect it into a principality, and that they had resolved to offer twelve thousand Crowns to the twelve Cantons, but they found it would certainly be rejected, so they made not the proposition to the Diet of the Cantons as they once intended, and it is certain whensoever this Country is brought under a yoke like that which the rest of Italy bears it will be soon abandoned, for there is nothing that draws so many people to live in so ill a soil, when they are in sight of the best soil of Europe, but the easiness of the Government. From Lugane I went to the Lago Maggiore, which is a great and Noble Lake, it is six and fifty miles long, and in most places six miles broad, and a Hundred Fathom deep about the middle of it, it makes a great Bay to the VVestward, and their lies here two Islands called the Borromean [Page 92] Islands, that are certainly the loveliest spots of ground in the VVorld, there is nothing in all Italy that can be compared to them, they have the full view of the Lake, and the ground rises so sweetly in them that nothing can be imagined like the Terrasses here, they belong to two Counts of the Borromean Family. I was only in one of them which belongs to the head of the Family, who is Nephew to the Famous Car­dinal known by the name of S. Carlo: on the VVest-end lies the Palace, which is one of the best of Italy, for the lodgings within, tho the Archi­tecture is but ordinary, there is one Noble apartment above four and twenty foot high, and there is a vast addition making to it, and here is a great Collection of Noble Pictures beyond any thing I saw out of Rome: The whole Island is a Garden except a little corner to the South set off for a Village of about forty little Houses, and because the figure of the Island was not made regular by nature, they have built great Vaults and Portaca's along the Rock, which are all made Grotesque, and so they have brought it to a regular form by laying Earth over those Vaults. There is first a Garden to the East that rises up from the Lake by five rows of Terrasses, on the three sides of the Garden that are watered by the Lake, the Stairs are Noble, the VValls are all covered with Oranges and Citrons, and a more beauti­ful spot of a Garden cannot be seen: There are two buildings in the two corners of this Garden, the one is only a milne for fetching up the VVater, and the other is a noble Summer-house all wainscotted, if I may speak so, with Alabaster and Marble of a fine colour inclining to red, from this Garden one goes in a level to all the rest of the Allies and parterres, Herb-Gardens and Flower-Gardens, in all which there are varieties of Fountains and Arbors, but the great par­terre is a surprizing thing, for as it is well furnished [Page 45] with Statues and Fountains, and is of a vast extent, and justly scituated to the Palace, so at the further­end of it there is a great Mount, that face of it that looks to the Parterre is made like a Theater all full of Fountains and Statues, the height rising up in five several rows, it being about Fifty foot high, and about Fourscore foot in front, and round this Mount answering to the Five rows into which the Theater is divided, there goes as many terrasses of noble walks, the Walls are all as close covered with Oranges and Citrons as any of our Walls in En­gland are with Lawrel; the top of the Mount is Seventy foot long and Forty broad, and here is a vast Cistern into which the Mill plays up the Wa­ter that must furnish all the Fountains: The Foun­tains were not quite finished when I was there, but when all is finished this place will look like an Inchan­ted Island. The freshness of the Air, it being both in a Lake and near the Mountains, the fragrant smell, the beautiful prospect, and the delighting variety that is here makes it such a habitation for Summer, that per­haps the whole World hath nothing like it. From this I went to Sestio, a miserable Village at the end of the Lake, and here I began to feel a mighty change being now in Lombardy, which is certainly the beautifullest Country that can be imagined, the ground lies so even, it is so well watered, so sweetly divided by rows of Trees inclosing every piece of ground of an Acre or two Acres compass, that it cannot be denied that here is a vast extent of soil above Two Hundred miles long, and in many places a Hundred-miles broad, where the whole Country is equal to the loveliest spots in all England or France, it hath all the sweetness that Holland or Flanders have, but with a warmer Sun and a better Air, the Neighbour-hood of the Moun­tains causes a freshness of Air here, that makes the soil the most desirable place to live in that can be seen, if the Government were not so excessively se­vere [Page 46] that there is nothing but poverty over all this rich Country. A Traveller in many places finds al­most nothing, and is so ill furnished, that if he doth not buy provisions in the great Towns, he will be obliged to a very severe Diet, in a Country that he should think flowed with Milk and Honey; but I shall say more of this hereafter. The Lago Maggio­re discharges it self in the River Tesine, which runs with such a force that we went Thirty miles in three hours, having but one Rower, and the Water was no way swelled. From this we went into the Canale, which Francis the first cut from this River to the Town of Milan, which is about Thirty foot broad, and on both its banks there are such provisi­ons to discharge the Water when it rises, to such a height, that it can never be fuller of Water then is intended it should be; it lies also so even that some­times for six miles together one sees the line so ex­act that there is not the least crook; it is Thirty miles long, and is the best advantage that the Town of Milan hath for Water carriage.

I will not entertain you with a long description of this great City, which is one of the noblest in the World, to be an Inland Town that hath no great Court, no commerce either by Sea or any Naviga­ble River, and that is now the Metropolis of a ve­ry small State; for that which is not Mountainous in this state, is not above sixty miles square, and yet it produces a wealth that is surprizing: It paies for an establishment of Seven and Forty Thousand Men, and yet there are not Sixteen Thousand Souldiers effectively in it, so many are eat up by those in whose hands the Government is lodged: But the vastness of the Town, the Nobleness of the Buildings, and a­bove all the surprizing riches of the Churches and Convents are signs of great wealth: The Dome hath nothing to commend it of Architecture, it being built in the rude Go [...]ick manner, but for the vast­ness [Page 47] and riches of the Building, it is equal to any in Italy, S. Peters it self not excepted. It is all marble, both pavement, and Walls both outside and inside, and on the top it is all flagg'd with Marble; and there is the vastest number of niches for Statues of Marble, both within and without, that are any where to be seen. It is true the Statues in some of the ni­ches are not proportioned to the niches themselves; the Frontispiece is not yet made, it is to be all o­ver covered with Statues and bas reliefs; and the Pillars of which there are Four rows in the body of the Church, have each of them Eight niches at the top for so many Statues; and though one would think this Church so full of Statues, that almost e­very Saint hath his statue, yet I was assured they wanted Seven Thousand to finish the design, but these must chiefly belong to the Frontispiece: The Church as I could measure it by walking over it in an equal pace, is Five Hundred foot long, and Two Hundred wide; the Quire is wainschotted and cary­ed in so extraordinary a manner, that I never saw Passion so well expressed in Wood; it contains Six­ty stalls, and they have almost all the Histories of the Gospel represented in them. Just under the Cupulo lies S. Carlo's body, as I was told, in a great case of Cristal of vast value, but I could not come near it; for we were there on two Holy-days, and there was a perpetual crowd about it; and the superstition of the People for his body, is such, that on a Holy-day one runs a hazard that comes near it without doing some reverence. His Canonization cost the Town a Hundred Thousand Crowns, they pretend they have miracles too, for Cardinal Fre­derigo Borromee; but they will not set about his Ca­nonization, the price is so high. The Plate and o­ther presents made to S. Carlo are things of a prodi­gious value; some services for the Altar are all of Gold, some very massie and set with Jewels, others [Page 48] so finely wrought that the fashion is thought equal to the value of the mettle; the Habits and all the other Ornaments for the Function of his Canoniza­tion are all of an incredible Wealth. He was in­deed a Prelate of great merit, and according to the answer that a Frier made to Philip de Comines, when he asked him how they came to qualifie one of the worst of their Princes with the Title of Saint in an Inscription which he read, which was that they gave that Title to all their Benefactors; never Man deserved of a Town this Title so justly as Cardinal Borromee did, for he laid out a prodigious Wealth in Milan, leaving nothing to his Family, but the honour of having produced so great a Man, which is a real temporal Inheritance to it, for as there have been, since that time, two Cardinals of that Family, so it is esteemed a Casa Santa; and e­very time that it produces an Ecclesiastick of any considerable merit, he is sure, if he lives to it, to be raised to this Arch-bishoprick, for if there were one of the Family capable of it, and that did not carry it that alone might dispose the State to a Re­bellion, and he were a bold Man that would ad­venture on a competition with one of this Family. He laid out a great deal on the Dome and consecra­ted it, though the work will not be quite finished yet for some Ages, that being one of the crafts of the Italian Priests never to finish a great design, that so by keeping it still in an unfinisht estate, they may be always drawing great donatives to it, from the superstition of the People. He built the Arch-Bi­shops Palace, which is very noble, and a seminary, a Colledge for the Switzers, several Parish Church­es, and many Convents. In short the whole Town is full of the marks of his Wealth. The riches of the Churches of Milan strike one with amazement, the Building, the Painting, the Altars, and the Plate, and every thing in the Convents, except their Li­braires, [Page 49] are all signs both of great Wealth and o [...] a very powerful superstition, but their Libraires not only here, but all Italy over are scandalous things, the room is often fine and richly adorned, but the Books are few, ill bound, and worse chosen, and the ignorance of the Priests both Secular and Regular is such, that no Man that hath not had occasion to dis­cover it, can easily believe it. The Convent of S. Victor that is without the Town, is by much the richest, it is composed of Canons Regular, called in Italy the Order of Mount Olive, or Olivetan, that of the Bernabites is extream rich, there is a Pulpit and a Confessional all inlaid with Agates of different co­lours, finely spotted Marbles, and of Lapis Lazulis that are thought almost inestimable. S. Laurence has a noble Cupulo, and a Pulpit of the same form with that of the Bernabites. The Jesuits, the Theatines, the Dominicans, and S. Sebastians are very rich. The Cittadel is too well known to need a description, it is very regularly built, and is a most effectual re­straint to keep the Town in order, but it could not stand out against a good Army three days; for it is so little, and so f [...]ll of buildings, that it could not resist a showr of Bombs. The Hospital is indeed a Royal Building, I was told it had Ninety Thousand Crowns Revenue: The old Court is large, and would look noble if it were not for the new Court that is near it, which is Two Hundred and Fifty foot square, and there are three rows of Corridors or Galleries all round the Court, one in every stage ac­cording to the Italian manner, which makes the lodgings very convenient, and gives a Gallery be­fore every door: It is true these take up a great deal of the Building, being ordinarily Eight or Ten foot broad; but then here is an open space that is extream cool on that side where the Sun doth not lie, for it is all open to the Air, the Wall being on­ly supported by Pillars, at the distance of Fifteen or [Page 50] Twenty foot one from another. In this Hospital there are not only Galleries full of Beds on both sides, as is ordinary in all Hospitals; but there are also a great many Chambers in which Persons whose condition was formerly distinguished are treated with a particular care. There is an out-house which is called the Lazarette, that is without the Walls, which belongs to this Hospital, it is an exact quar­ter of a mile square, and there are Three Hundred and Sixty Rooms in it, and a Gallery runs all along before the Chambers, so that as the service is conve­nient, the sick have a covered walk before their Doors. In the middle of this vast square there is an Octangular Chappel, so contrived that the sick from all their Beds may see the elevation of the Ho­stie and adore it: This House is for the Plague or for infectious Feavers, and the Sick that want a freer Air, are also removed hither.

As for the devotions of this place, I saw here the Ambrosian Office, which is distinguished from the Ro­man, both in the Musick which is much simpler, and in some other rites: the Gospel is read in a high Pulpit at the lower end of the Quire, that so it may be heard by all the People, though this is needless, since it is read in a Language that they do not un­derstand; when they go to say high Mass, the Priests comes from the high Altar to the lower-end of the Quire, where the Offertory of the Bread and the Wine is made by some of the Laity, they were Nuns that made it when I was there, I heard a Capucin Preach here; it was the first Sermon I heard in Italy, and I was much surprized at many Comical expres­sions and gestures, but most of all with the conclusi­on; for there being in all the Pulpits of Italy a Cru­cifix on the side of the Pulpit towards the Altar; he, after a long address to it, at last in a forced transport, took it in his Arms and hugged it and kissed it: But I observed that before he kiss'd it; he seeing some dust [Page 51] on it, blew it off very carefully, for I was just under the Pulpit: He entertained it with a long and tender caress, and held it out to the People, and would have forced tears both from himself and them, yet I saw none shed. But if the Sermon in the Morning sur­prized me, I wondred no less at two discourses that I heard in one Church, at the same time, in the af­ternoon; for there were two bodies of Men set down in different places of the Church all covered, and two Lay-men in ordinary habits were entertaining them with discourses of Religion in a Catechetical stile: These were Confrairies, and those were some of the more devout that instructed the rest. This I never saw any where else, so I do not know whether it is peculiar to Milan or not. My Conductor could not speak Latin, and the Italian there is so different from the true Tuscan, which I only knew, that I could not understand him when he was engaged in a long discourse, so I was not clearly informed of this matter; but I am apt to think it might have been some institution of Cardinal Borromees. The Ambro­sian Library founded by Cardinal Frederick Borromee is a very noble Room and well furnished, only it is too full of School-men and Canonists, which are the chief studies of Italy, and it hath too few Books of a more solid and useful learning. One part of the dis­position of the Room was pleasant, there is a great number of Chairs placed all round it at a competent distance from one another, and to every Chair there belongs a Desk with an Ecritoire that hath Pen, Ink, and Paper in it, so that every Man finds tools here for such extracts as he would make. There is a little Room of Manuscripts at the end of the great Gallery, but the Library-keeper knows little of them, a great many of them relate to their Saint Charles. I saw some fragments of Latin Bibles, but none seemed to be above Six Hundred Years old, there are also some fragments of Saint Ambroses works, and of Saint Je­rom's [Page 52] Epistle that are of the same antiquity. I was sorry not to find St. Ambrose's Works intire, that I might have seen whether the Books of the Sacraments are ascribed to him in ancient Copies, for perhaps they belong to a more modern Author.

It is true, in these Books the Doctrine of a sort of a Corporal Presence is asserted in very high expres­sions; but there is one thing mentioned in them, which is stronger against it than all those citations can be for it; for the Author gives us the formal words of the Prayer of Consecration in his time, which he Prefaces with solemnity: Will you know how the change is wrought, hear the Heavenly words? For the Priest saith, but whereas in the present Canon of the Mass, the Prayer of Consecration is for a good part of it very near in the same words with those which he mentions, there is one essential difference, for in the Canon they now pray that the Hosty may be to them the Body and Blood of Christ, (which by the way doth not agree too well with the notion of Transubstantiation, and approacheth more to the Do­ctrine of the Lutherians:) whereas in the Prayer, cited by that Author, the Hosty is said to be the fi­gure of the Body and Blood of Christ: here is the lan­guage of the whole Church of that time, and in the most important part of the divine Office, which sig­nifieth more to me than a Thousand Quotations out of particular Writers, which are but their private opinions: But this is the voice of the whole body in its addresses to God: And it seems the Church of Rome, when the new Doctrine of the Corporal Pre­sence was received, saw that this Prayer of Conse­cration could not consist with it, which made her change such a main part of the Office. This gave me a curiosity every where to search for ancient Offices, but I sound none in the Abbey of St. Germains that seemed older than the times of Charles the Great; so I found none of any great Antiquity in all Italy: [Page 53] Those published by Cardinal Bona, and since by P. Ma­billon, that were brought from Heidelberg, are the most ancient that are in the Vatican; but these seem not to be above Eight hundred Years old: There are none of the ancient Roman Offices now to be seen in the Vatican. I was amazed to find none of any great Antiquity; which made me conclude that either they were destroyed, that so the difference between Ancient and Modern Rituals might not be turned a­gainst that Church, as an undeniable Evidence to prove the Changes that she hath made in divine mat­ters, or that they were so well kept that Hereticks were not to be suffered to look into them. But to return to the Ambrosian Library, there is in it a Ma­nuscript of great Antiquity, though not of such great consequence, which is Ruffinus's Translation of Jose­phus, that is written in the old Roman hand, which is very hard to read. But there is a deed in the curi­ous Collection that Count Mascardo hath made at Ve­rona, which by the date appears to have been written in Theodosius's time, which is the same sort of wri­ting with the Manuscript of Ruffinus, so that it may be reckoned to have been writ in Ruffinus's own time, and this is the most valuable, though the least known curiosity in the whole Library.

I need not say any thing of the curious Works in Crystal that are to be seen in Milan; the greatest quan­tities that are in Europe, are found in the Alps; and are wrought here; but this is too well known to need any further enlargement. It is certain, the Alps have much Wealth shut up in their Rocks, if the Inhabi­tants knew how to search for it: But I heard of no Mines that were wrought except Iron Mines; yet by the colourings, that in many places, the Fountains make, as they run along the Rocks, one sees cause to believe that there are Mines and Minerals shut up within them. Gold hath been often found in the Ri­ver of Arve, that runs by Geneva.

The last Curiosity that I shall mention of the Town of Milan, is the Cabinet of the Chanoine Settala, which is now in his Brothers hands, where there are a great many very valuable things, both of Art and Nature: there is a lump of Ore, in which there is both Gold, Silver, Emeralds, and Diamonds, which was brought from Peru. There are many curious mo­tions where by an unseen Spring, a Ball, after it hath rowled down through many winding descents, is thrown up, and so it seems to be a perpetual motion; This is done in several forms, and is well enough dis­guised to deceive the vulgar. Many motions of little Animals that run about by Springs, are also very pret­ty. There is a Loadstone of a vast force that carries a great Chain: There is also a monstrous Child that was lately born in the Hospital, which is preserved in Spirit of Wine: It is double below, it hath one Breast and Neck, two pair of Ears, a vast Head, and but one Face. As for the Buildings in Milan, they are big and substantial, but they have not much regular or beautiful Architecture: The Governors Palace hath some noble apartments in it: The chief Place of the Town is that of the Homodei, which was built by a Bankier. There is one inconvenience in Milan, which throws down all the pleasure that one can find in it: they have no Glass Windows, so that one is either exposed to the Air, or shut up in a Dungeon: and this so universal, that there is not one house of ten that hath Glass in their Windows: The same defect is in Florence, besides all the small Towns of Italy, which is an effect of their poverty: For what by the oppres­sion of the Government, what by the no less squeezing oppression of their Priests, who drain all the rest of their Wealth that is not eat up by the Prince, to inrich their Churches and Convents, the People here are re­duced to a poverty, that cannot be easily believed by one that sees the Wealth that is in their Churches, and this is going on so constantly in Milan, that it is [Page 55] scarce accountable from whence so vast a treasure can be found; but Purgatory is a fond not easily exhaust­ed. The Wealth of the Milanese consists chiefly in their Silks, and that Trade falls so mightily by the vast Importations that the East-India Companies bring into Europe, that all Italy feels this very sensi­bly, and languishes extreamly by the great fall that is in the Silk-Trade: There is a great magnificence in Milan; the Nobility affect to make a noble appear­ance both in their Cloaths, their Coaches, and their Attendants; and the Women go abroad with more freedom here than in any Town of Italy. And thus I have told you all that hath hitherto occurred to me, that I thought worth your knowledge. I am

IN the account that I gave you of Geneva, I forgot to mention a very extraordinary Person that is there, Mrs. Walkier; her Father is of Shaff House, she lost her sight when she was but a Year old, by being too near a Stove that was very hot: There rests in her Eye so much sight, that she distinguishes Day from Night; and when any Person stands between her and the light she will distinguish by the Head and its dress a Man from a Woman; but when she turns down her Eyes she sees nothing: she hath a vast memory; besides the French that is her natural language, she speakes both High Dutch, Italian and Latine: she hath all the Psalms by heart, in French, and many of them in Dutch and Italian: the understands the Old Philo­sophy well, and is now studying the New: she hath studied the body of Divinity well, and hath the Text of the Scriptures very ready: On all which matters I had long conversations with her; she not only sings well, but she plays rarely on the Organ; and I was told she played on the Violin, but her Violin was out of order. But that which is most of all, is, she writes legibly: in order to her learning to write, her Father [Page 56] who is a worthy Man, and hath such tenderness for her, that he furnisheth her with Masters of all sorts, ordered Letters to be carved in Wood, and she by feel­ing the Characters formed such an Idea of them, that she writes with a Crayon so distinctly, that her wri­ting can be well read, of which I have several Essays. I saw her write, she doth it more nimbly than can be ima­gined; she hath a Machine that holds the Paper, and keeps her always in line. But that which is above all the rest, she is a person of extraordinary Devotion, great resignation to the Will of God, and a profound humility: The Preceptor that the Father kept in the house with her, hath likewise a wonderful faculty of acquiring Tongues. When he came first to Geneva, (for he is of Zurich) he spoke not a word of French, and within Thirteen months he Preacht in French correctly, and with a good accent: He also began to study Italian in the month of November, and before the end of the following February he preacht in Ita­lian; his accent was good, and his stile was florid, which was very extraordinary, for the Italian langu­age is not spoken in Geneva, though the Race of the Italians do keep up still an Italian Church there.

THE THIRD LETTER. Florence the 5th. of November.

I Have now another Month over my head since I writ last to you, and so I know you expect an account of the most considerable things that have occurred to me since my last from Milan. Twenty miles from Milan we past through Lodi a miserable Garrison, though a Frontier Town; but indeed the Frontiers, both of the Spaniards and the Venetians, as well as those of other Princes of Italy, shew that they are not very apprehensive of one another; and when one passes through those places, which are represent­ed in History as places of great strength, capable of resisting a long Siege, he must acknowledge that the sight of them, brings the Idea that he had conceived of them, a great many degrees lower. For Lombardy, which was so long the seat of War, could not stand out a good Army now for so many Days, as it did then for Years. The Garrison of Crema, which is the first of the Venetian Territory, is no better than that of Lodi, only the People in the Venetian Dominion live happier than under the Spaniard.

The Senate sends Podesta's, much like the Bailifs of the Switzers, who order the Justice and the Civil Government of the Jurisdiction assigned them: There is also a Captain General who hath the Military Au­thority in his hands; and these two are checks upon one another, as the Bassa's and the Cadi's are among the Turks. But here in Crema the Town is so small [Page 58] that both these are in one Person. We were there in the time of the Fair, Linnen Cloath and Cheese, which though it goes by the name of Parmesan, is made chiefly in Lodi, are the main Ingredients of the Fair. The magnificence of the Podesta appeared very extra­ordinary, for he went through the Fair with a great train of Coaches, all in his own Livery; and the two Coaches in which he and his Lady ride, were both extraordinary rich: his was a huge Bed-coach, all the out side black Velvet, and a mighty rich Gold fringe, lined with black Damask, flowred with Gold. From Crema it is Thirty miles to Brescia, which is a great Town, and full of Trade and Wealth, here they make the best Barrils for Pistols and Muskets of all Italy: There are great Iron Works near it; but the War with the Turk had occasioned an Order that none be sold without a permission from Venice: They are building a Noble Dome at Brescia: I was shewed a Nunnery there, which is now under a great disgrace, some years ago a new Bishop coming thither, began with the Visitation of that Nunnery: he discovered two Vaults, by one, Men came ordinarily into it: and by another the Nuns that were big went and lay-in of Child-bed: when he was examining the Nuns severely concerning those Vaults, some of them told him, that his own Priests did much worse: He shut up the Nuns, so that those who are professed live still there, but none come to take the Vail: and by this means the House will soon come to an end: The Cittadel lies over the Town on a Rock, and commands it abso­lutely. Both here and in Crema the Towns have be­gun a Complement within these last Ten or Twelve Years to their Podesta's, which is a matter of great Ornament to their Palaces, but will grow to a vast charge, for they erect Statues to their Podesta's: and this being once begun, must be carried on: otherwise those, to whom the like Honour is not done, will resent it as a high affront, and the revenges of the [Page 59] Noble Venetians, are dreadful things their to Subjects. This name of Podesta is very ancient, for in the Roman times, the chief Magistrates of the lesser Towns was called the Potestas, as appears by that of Juveral-Fide­narum Gabiorumve esse potestas.

From Brescia the beauty of Lombardy is a little in­terrupted; for as all the way from Milan to Brescia is as one Garden, so here on the one side we come under the Mountains, and we pass by the Lake of Guarda, which is Forty miles long, and where it is broadest, is Twenty miles broad: The miles indeed, all Lombardy over, are extream short, for I walkt often four or five miles in a walk, and I found a Thousand paces made their common mile; but in Tuscany and the Kingdom of Naples, the mile is Fifteen Hundred pa­ces. We pass through a great Heath for Seven or Eight miles on this side of Verona, which begins to be cultivated. Verona is a vast Town, and much of it well built; there are many rich Churches in it; but there is so little Trade stirring, and so little money going, that it is not easie here to change a Pistol, without taking their coin of base alloy, which doth not pass out of the Veronese; for this seems a strange maxim of the Venetians to suffer those small states, to retain still a coin peculiar to them, which is extream inconvenient for Commerce. The known Antiquity of Verona is the Amphitheater, one of the least of all that the Romans built, but the best preserved, for though most of the great stones of the out-side are pickt out; yet the great flopping Vault on which the rows of the seats are also intire, they are four and forty rows, every row is a foot and half high, and as much in breadth, so that a Man sits conveni­ently in them, under the feet of those of the higher row: and allowing every Man a foot and a half, the whole Amphitheater can hold Twenty three thousand persons. In the Vaults, under the rows of seats, were the Stalls for the Beasts that were presented to enter­tain [Page 60] the Company: the thickness of the building, from the outward Wall to the lowest row of seats, is ninety foot: But this Noble remnant of Antiquity is so of­ten and so copiously described, that I will say no more of it. The next thing of value is the famous Museum Calceolarium, now in the hands of the Count Mascar­do, where there is a whole apartment of Rooms all furnisht with Antiquities and Rarities: There are some old Inscriptions made by two Towns in Africk, to the Honour of M. Crassus: There is a great collection of Medals and Medaillons, and of the Roman Weights, and their Instruments for their Sacrifices, there are many Curiosities of Nature, and a great collection of Pictures, of which many are of Paulo Veronese's hand. There is a noble Garden in Verona that riseth up in Terrasses the whole heigth of a Hill, in which there are many ancient Inscriptions, which belongs to Count Giusto. As we go from Verona to Vincenza which is thirty miles, we return to the beauty of Lombardy, for there is all the way as it were a succession of Gardens, the Ground is better cultivated here than I saw it in any other place of Italy: But the Wine is not good, for at the roots of all their Trees they plant a Vine which grows up winding about the Tree to which it joins; but the Soil is too rich to produce a rich Wine, for that requires a dry ground: There is near the Lake of Guarda a very extraordinary Wine which they call Vino Santo, which drinks like the best sort of Canary, it is not made till Christmas, and from thence it carries the name of Holy Wine, and it is not to be drunk till Midsummer, for it is so long before it is quite wrought clear, but I have not marked down how long it may be kept: We had it there for a groat an English quart, I wondred that they did not Trade with it. All the Cattle of Italy are gray or white, and all their Hogs are black, except in the Bolognese, and there they are red. I will not inquire into the reasons of these things: It is certain Hogs-Flesh [Page 61] in Italy is much better than it is in France and England, whether the truffs on which they feed much in Winter, occasion this or not, I know not, the husks of the pressed Grapes is also a mighty nourish­ment to them; but Cattel of that grayish colour are certainly weaker: The carriage of Italy is generally performed by them, and this is very hard work in Lombardy when it hath rained never so little, for the ground being quite level, and there being no raised High-ways or Cause-ways, the Carts go deep and are hardly drawn.

Vincenza hath still more of its ancient liberty re­served than any of these Towns, as Padua hath less, for it delivered it self to the Venetians, whereas the other disputed long with it, and brought it often very low: one sees the marks of Liberty in Vincenza in the riches of their Palaces and Churches, of which many are newly built: They have a modern Theater made in imitation of the ancient Roman Theaters. Count Valarano's Gardens at the Port of Verona, is the sinest thing of the Town, there is in it a very noble Alley of Oranges and Cttrons, some as big as a Mans body, but those are covered all the Winter long, for in this appears the sensible difference of Lombardy from those parts of Italy, that lies to the South of the Apenins, that here generally they keep their Oranges and Citrons in great Boxes as we do in England, that so they may be lodged in Winter, and defended from the breezes that blow sometimes so sharp from the Alps, that o­therwise they would kill those delicate Plants: where­as in Tuscany they grow as other Trees in their Gar­dens, and in the Kingdom of Naples they grow wild without any care or cultivation. We were at Vin­cenza upon a Holy-day, and there I saw a prepara­tion for a Procession that was to be in the afternoon: I did not wonder at what a French Papist said to me, that he could hardly bear the Religion of Italy, the Idolatry in it was so gross. The statue of the Virgin [Page 62] was of Wood so finely painted, that I thought the Head was Wax, it was richly clad, and had a Crown on its Head, and was set full of Flowers: how they did when it was carried about, I do not know; but in the morning all People run to it and said their Prayers to it, ond kissed the ground before it with all the appearances of devotion.

From Vincenza it is Eighteen miles to Padua all like a Garden; here one sees the decays of a vast City, which was, once, one of the biggest of all Italy; the compass is the same that it was, but there is much uninhabited ground in it, and Houses there go almost for nothing, their Air is extream good, and there is so great a plenty of all things except money, that a little money goes a great way. The University here, though so much supported by the Venetians, that they pay fifty Professors, yet sinks extreamly: there are no Men of any great fame now in it: and the quar­rels among the Students have driven away most of the strangers that used to come and study here, for it is not safe to stir abroad here after Sun set: The number of the Palaces here is incredible, and though the Nobility of Padua is almost quite ruined, yet the beauty of their ancient Palaces shews what they once were. The Venetians have been willing to let the ancient quarrels that were in all those con­quered Cities continue still among them, for while one kills another, and the Children of the other take their revenges afterwards, both comes under the bando by this means, and the Confiscation goes to the Se­nate. At some times of grace when the Senate wants Money, and offers a Pardon to all that will compound for it, the numbers of the guilty Persons are incredible. In Vincenza and the Country that belongs to it, I was assured by Monsieur Patin, that learned Antiquary, that hath been many years a Professor in Padua, that there were Five and thirty thousand pardoned at the last Grace; this I could hardly believe, but he bid me [Page 63] write it down upon his word. The Nobility of Padua and of the other Towns, seem not to see what a profit their quarrels bring to the Venetians, and how they eat out their Families: For one Family in the same Man's time, who was alive while I was there, was redu­ced from Fourteen thousand Ducats revenue to less than Three thousand, by its falling at several times under the bando: But their jealousies and their reven­ges are pursued by them with so much vigor, that when these are in their way, all other things are for­got by them. There is here the remnant of the Am­phitheater, though nothing but the outward Wall stands: There is here, as well as in Milan, an inward Town, called the City, and an outward, without that, called the Burgo; but though there is a Ditch about the City, the great Ditch and Wall goeth a­bout all and Padua is Eight miles in compass; it lies almost round: The publick Hall is the Noblest of I­taly: the Dome is an ancient and mean Building; but the Church of St. Anthony, especially the Holy Cha­pel in it where the Saint lies, is one of the best pie­ces of modern Sculpture; for round the Chapel the chief Miracles in the legend of that Saint are represen­ted in Mezzo rilievo, in a very surprizing manner: The devotion that is paid to this Saint, all Lombardy over, is amazing; he is called by way of excellence il Santo, and the Beggars generally ask Alms for his sake: But among the little, Vows that hang without the Holy Chapel, there is one that is the highest pitch of Blasphemy that can be imagined Exaudit, speaking of the Saint quos non audit & ipse Deus, he hears those whom God himself doth not hear. St. Justina is a Church so well ordered within, the Architecture is so beautiful, it is so well inlightned, and the Cu­pulo's are so advantagiously placed that if the outside answered the inside, it would be one of the best Churches of Italy, but the Building is of Brick, and it hath no Frontispiece, there are many new Altars [Page 64] made as fine as they are Idolatrous, all full of Sta­tues of Marble. This Abby hath a Hundred Thou­sand Ducats of Revenue, and so by its Wealth one may conclude that it belongs to the Benedictine Order. Cardinal Barberigo is Bishop here, he seems to set St. Carlo before him as his pattern; he hath founded a Noble Seminary for the secular Priests; he lives in a constant discipline himself, and endeavours to reform his Clergy all he can; but he is now in ill terms with his Canons, who are all Noble Venetians, and so al­low themselves great liberties, of which they will not be willingly abridged; he is charitable to a high degree, and is in all respects a very extraordinary Man.

In the Venetian Territory, their subjects live easie and happy, if they could be so wise as to give over their quarrels, but though the taxes are not high, they oppress their Tenants so severely, that the Pe­sants live most miserably, yet on all hands round a­bout them, the oppressions being more intollerable, they know not whither to go for ease, whereas on the contrary, the miseries under which their neighbours groan, chiefly those of the Ecclesiastical state, send in an increase of People among them, so that they are well stockt with People, but the Venetians are so jea­lous of their subjects understanding Military matters, which may dispose them to revolt, that they never make any Levies among them for their Wars, this jealousie is the true ground of that maxim, though another is pretended that is more plausible, which is their care of their own People, whom they study to preserve, and therefore they hire Strangers rather than expose their Subjects. It is certain a revolt here were no hard matter to effectuate, for the Garrisons and Fortifications are so slight, that those great Towns could easily shake off their yoke, if it were not for the factions that still reign among them, by which one party would chuse rather to expose the other to the rigor of the Inquisitors than concur with them in as­serting [Page 65] their liberty, and the Inquisitors in such cases proceed so secretly, and yet so effectually that none dares trust another with a secret of such consequence, and the oppressed Nobility of those States retain still so much of their old and unsubdued insolence, and treat such as are under them so cruelly, that the Ve­netian [...] [...]e as secure in those Conquests, as if they had many strong Cittadels and numerous Garrisons spread up and down among them. From Padua down to Venice, all along the River Brent, there are many Pa­laces of the Noble Venetians on both sides of the Ri­ver, built with so great a variety of Architecture, that there is not one of them like another, there is also the like diversity in the laying out of their Gar­dens, and here they retire during the hot months, and some allow themselves all the excesses of dissolute liberty that can possibly be imagined. From Lizza Fucina which is at the mouth of the Brent, we pass for Five or Six miles on the Lagunes or shallows to Venice, these shallows sink of late so much that the preserving Venice still an Island, is like to become as great a charge to the Venetians, as the keeping out the Sea is to the Dutch; for they use all possible in­dustry to cleanse the Channels of their lagunes, and to keep them full of water; and yet many think that the water hath failed so much in this last age, that if it continues to abate at the same rate, within an age or two more, Venice may become apart of the Terra firma. It is certainly the most surprizing sight in the whole World, to see so vast a city, scituated thus in the Sea, and such a number of Islands so u­nited together by Bridges brought to such a regular figure, the Pilotty supplying the want of earth to build on, and all so nobly built, which is of all the things that one can see the most amazing. And though this Republick is much sunk from what it was, both by the great losses they have suffered in their Wars with the Turks, and by the great decay of Trade, yet [Page 66] there is an incredible Wealth, and a vast plenty of all things in this place. I will not offer to describe nei­ther the Church nor the Palace of S. Mark, which are too well known to need a long digression to be made for them. The painting of the Walls and the roofs of the Halls, and publick Rooms in the Palace, are of vast value: Here I saw that Story of Pope A­lexander the III. treading on the neck of the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. The nobleness of the stair-cases, the riches of the Halls, and the beauty of the whole building, are much prejudiced by the beastliness of those that walk along, and that leave their marks behind them, as if this were rather a common house of Office, than so Noble a Palace: And the great Hall, where the whole body of the Nobility meet, in the Great Council, hath nothing but the roof and walls that answers to such an Assembly; for the seats are liker the benches of an Auditory of Schol­lars, than of so glorious a body. When the two sides of this Palace are built as the third, which is the most hid, it will be one of the gloriousest Palaces that the World can shew. The two sides that are most seen, the one facing the square of St. Mark, and the other the great Canale, are only of Brick, the third being all of Marble, but the War of Candy put a stop to the building. St. Mark's Church hath nothing to recommend it, but its great antiquity, and the vast riches of the building, it is dark and low, but the pavement is so rich a Mosaick, and the whole roof is also Mosaick, the outside, and inside are of such ex­cellent Marble, the frontispiece is adorned with so many Pillars of Porphiry and Jasp, and above all with the four Horses of Corinthian Brass, that Tiri­dates brought to Tiberius, which were carried after­wards to Constantinople, and were brought from thence to Venice, and in which the gilding is still very bright, that when all this is considered one doth no where see so much cost brought together. I did not see the [Page 67] Gospel of St. Mark, which is one of the valuablest things of the Treasure; but they do not now open it to strangers, yet Doctor Grandi, a famous Physitian there, told me that, by a particular order, he was suf­fered to open it; he told me it was all writ in Capi­tal Letters, but the characters were so worn out, that though he could discern the ends of some Letters, he could not see enough to help him to distinguish them or to know whether the M. S. was in Greek or Latin. I will not say one word of the Arsenal, for as I saw it in its worst state, the War that is now on foot hav­ing disfurnished a great deal of it, so it hath been of­ten described, and it is known to be the Noblest Ma­gazine, the best ordered, and of the greatest variety that is in the whole World; its true it is all that this State hath, so that if the Magazines of other Princes, which lie spread up and down in the different places of their dominions were gathered together, they would make a much greater shew. The Noblest Con­vent of Venice is that of the Dominicans, called St. John, and S. Paul, the Church, and Chapels are vast­ly rich; there is one of St. Luke's Madona's here as they pretend; the Dormitory is very great; the Room for the Library, and every thing in it, except the Books, is extream fine. But St. George, which is a Convent of the Benedictines in an Isle intirely possessed by them over against the St. Mark's square is much the richest; the Church is well contrived and well adorn­ed; and not only the whole building is very magnifi­cent, but which is more extraordinary at Venice they have a large Garden, and noble walks in it. The Redemptore, and the Salute are two Noble Churches that are the effects of Vows that the Senate made when they were afflicted with the Plague, the latter is much the finer, it is to the Virgin, and the other is only to our Saviour; so naturally doth the devotion of that Church carry it higher for the Mother than the Son: It is true the Salute is later than the other, so [Page 68] no wonder if the Architecture, and the riches exceed that which is more ancient. The School of St. Roch. and the Chapel, and Hall are full of great pieces of Tintorets; a Cena of Paulo Veronese in the Refectory of St. George, and the Picture of St. Peter the Martyr of Titians are the most celebrated pieces of Venice: Duke Pesaro's Tomb in the Frairy is the Noblest I ever saw. But if the riches of all the Convents, and the Parish Churches of Venice amazed me, the fronts es­pecially, many of which are of white Marble, beau­tified with several Statues; the meanness of the Li­brary of St. Mark did no less surprize me. There are in the Antichamber to it, Statues of vast value, and the whole roof of the Library is composed of several pieces of the greatest Masters put in several frames; but the Library hath nothing answerable to the riches of the case, for the Greek Manuscripts are all modern, I turned over a great many, and saw none above Five Hundred Years old: I was indeed told that the last Library-keeper was accused for having conveyed a­way many of their Manuscripts; and that Four Years ago being clapt in Prison for this by the Inquisitors, he, to prevent further severities, poysoned himself. I went to the Convent of the Servi, but I found Father Paul was not in such consideration there, as he is else where: I asked for his Tomb, but they made no ac­count of him, and seemed not to know where it was; it is true the Person to whom I was recommended was not in Venice, so perhaps they refined too much in this matter: I had great discourse with some at Venice concerning the memorials out of which F. Paul drew his History, which are no doubt all pre­served with great care in their Archives, and since the transactions of the Council of Trent, as they are of great importance, so they are become now much con­troverted by the different relations that F. Paul, and Cardinal Pallavicini have given the World of that matter; the only way to put an end to all disputes [Page 69] in matter of fact, is to print the Originals themselves: A Person of great credit at Venice promised to me to do his utmost, to get that proposition set on foot, tho the great exactness that the Government there hath always affected as to the matter of their Archives, is held so sacred that this made him apprehend they would not give way to any such search. The affinity of the matter brings into my mind a long Conversa­tion that I had with a Person of great Eminence at Venice, that as he was long at Constantinople, so was learned far beyond what is to be met with in Italy, he told me he was at Constantinople when the Inquiry into the Doctrine of the Greek Church was set on foot, occasioned by the famous Dispute between Mr. Arnaud and Mr. Claude, he being a zealous Roman Catholick, was dealt with to assist in that business; but being a Man of great Honour and Sincerity, he excused him­self, and said he could not meddle in it: He hath a very low and bad opinion of the Greeks, and he told me that none of their Priests were more inveterate enemies to the Church of Rome, than those that were bred up at Rome; for they to free themselves of the prejudices that their Countrey-men are apt to con­ceive against them, because of their education among the Latines do affect to shew an opposition to the La­tin Church beyond any other Greeks. He told me that he knew the ignorance and corruption of the Greeks was such, that as they did not know the Do­ctrines of their own Church, so a very little Money, or the hope of Protection from any of the Ambassa­dors that come from the West, would prevail with them to sign any that that co [...]ld be desired of them: He added one thing, that though he firmly believed Transubstantiation himself, he did not think they be­lieved it; let them say what they pleased themselves, he took his measures of the Doctrine of their Chu [...]ch, rather from what they did, than from what they said: [Page 70] For their Rites not being changed now for a great many ages were the true Indications of the doctrines received among them; whereas they were both ig­norant of the tradition of their doctrine, and very apt to [...]revaricate when they saw advantages or pro­tection s [...]t before them, therefore he concluded that since they did not adore the Sacrament after the Con­secration, that was an evident sign that they did not believe the corporal presence, and was of a force well able to balance all their subscriptions: He told me he was often scandalized to see them open the bag in which the Sacrament was preserved, and shew it with no sort of respect no more than when they shewed any Manuscript, and he looked on adoration as such a necessary consequence of Transubstantiation, that he could not imagine that the latter was received in a Church that did not practice the former. To this I will add what an eminent Catholick at Paris told me, he said the Originals of those attestations were in too exact and too correct a stile to have been formed in Greece, he assured me they were penned at Paris by one that was a Master of the purity of the Greek tongue. I do not name those Persons because they are yet alive, and this might be a prejudice to them, One of the chief Ornaments of Venice was the famous young Woman that spake five Tongues well, of which the Latin and Greek were two; she passed Doctor of Physick at Padua according to the ordinary forms; but which was beyond all, she was a Person of such ex­traordinary vertue and piety, that she is spoken of as a Saint, she died some months before I came to Venice: she was of the noble Family of the Cornara's, though not of the three chief branches, which are Saint Mauri [...]e, Saint Paul and Calle, who are descen­ded from the three Brothers of the renowned Queen of Cyprus, but the distinction of her Family was Pis­copia. Her extraordinary merit made all People un­willing [Page 71] to remember the blemish of her descent of the one side, for though the Cornara's reckon themselves a size of Nobility beyond all the other Families of Venice, yet her Father having entertained a Gondalier's Daughter so long that he had some Children by her, at last for their sakes Married the Mother, and payed a considerable fine to save the forfeiture of Nobility, which his Children must have undergone, by reason of the meanness of the Mothers birth. The Cornara's carry it so high that many of the Daughters of that Family have made themselves Nuns, because they thought their own name was so Noble that they could not induce themselves to change it with any other, and when lately one of that Family married the Heir of the Sagredo, which is also one of the ancientest Fa­milies that was extream rich, and she had scarce any portion at all, for the Cornara's are now very low, some of their Friends came to wish them joy of so advantagious a match; but they very coldly rejected the complement, and bid the others go and wish the Sagreda joy, since they thought the advantage was wholly of their side.

There are of the truly ancient Noble Families of Venice Four and Twenty yet remaining, and even a­mong these there are twelve that are thought superior to the rest in rank; since the first formation of their Senate they have created many Senators. In their Wars with Genua they conferred that honour on Thirty Families; several of their Generals have had that honour given them as a reward of their service: They have also offered this honour to some Royal Fa­milies: for both the Families of Valois and Bourbon were nobles of Venice, and Henry the III. when he came through Venice from Poland to take possession of the Crown of France, went and sate among them, and drew his ballot as a Noble Venetian; many Popes have procured this honour for their Nephews; Only the [Page 72] Barberines would have the Venetians offer it to them without their asking it, and the Venetians would not give it without the others asked it, and so it stuck at this. But during the War of Candy Cardinal Fran­cis Barberin gave Twelve Thousand Crowns a Year towards the War, and the temper found for making th [...]m Noble Venetians was, that the Queen Mother of France moved the Senate to grant it. In all the Cre­ations of Senators before the last War of Candy, they were free; and the considerations were either great services, or the great dignity of those on whom they bestowed this Honour. Those new Families are di­vided into those that are called Ducal Families, and those that were called simply new Families, the rea­son of the former designation is not rightly under­stood; but one that knew all that related to that con­stitution particularly well gave me a good account of it: That which naturally occurs as the reason of it, is, that all those Families that are called Ducal, have had the Dukedom in their house: But as all the old Families have had the same honour, though they carry not that Title, so some of the new Families have also had it, that yet are not called Ducal. O­thers say that those Families that have had branches, who have been made Dukes, without their being first Procurators of S. Mark, or that have been chosen to that honour, without their pretending to it, are cal­led Ducal: But the true account of this is, that from the Year 1450. to the Year 1620. for a Hundred and Seventy Years there was a combination made among those new Families to preserve the Dukedom still a­mong them: For the old Families carrying it high, and excluding the new Families from the chief Ho­nours, Nineteen of the new Families entred into mu­tual engagements to exclude the ancient Nobility: It is true they made the Dukedom sometimes fall on some of the new Families that were not of this Asso­ciation; [Page 73] but this was more indifferent to them, as long as the ancient Families were shut out, and that it appeared that they bore the chief sway in the Ele­ction. This Combination was a thing known to the very People, though the Inquisitors did all they could to break it, and at least to hide it, so that I never met with it in any of their Authors: But this failed in the Year 1620. when Memmio was chosen Duke, who was descended of one of the ancient Nobility, which was so great a mortification to the case Ducale that one of them (Venniero) hanged himself, by the rage to which that disgrace drove him, yet his Man came into the room in time before he was dead, and cut him down, and he lived long after that in a bet­ter mind. Since that time one of the Bembo's, two of the Cornaro's, and one of the Contrarini's, and the present Prince of the Justiniani, the first of that Fa­mily that hath had that honour, have been Dukes, who are all of the ancient Families: So that this F [...] ­ction is now so intirely buried, that it is not gene­rally known, even in Venice it self, that it was ever amongst them; and thus time and other accidents bring about happy events, which no care nor industry could produce: For that which all the endeavours of the Inquisitors could not compass, was brought about of it self.

It is true, the Factions in Venice, though violent enough in the persons of those who manage them, yet are not derived by them as an inheritance to their Po­sterity, as it was among the Florentines; who though they value themselves as a size of Men much above the Venetians, whom they despise as a phlegmatick and dull race of People, yet shewed how little they understood with all their vivacity, to conduct their state, since by their domestick heats they lost their liberty, which the Venetians have had the wis­dom still to preserve. This Faction of the Case Du­cale [Page 74] was perhaps willing to let the matter fall, for they lost more than they got by it; for the ancient Families in revenge set themselves against them, and excluded them from all the other advantagious im­ployments of the State. For the others being only united in that single point relating to the Dukedom, the ancient Families let them carry it, but in all o­ther Competitions they set up always such Competi­tors against the pretenders that were of the Ducal Fa­milies, that were much more esteemed than these were, so that they shut them out of all the best Offi­ces of the Republick. Such a Faction as this was, [...]f it had been still kept up, might in conclusion have proved fatal to their Liberty. It is indeed a wonder to see, the Dignity of the Duke so much courted, for h [...] is only a prisoner of state, tied up to such rules, so severely r [...]strained and shut up as it were in an apartment of the Palace of St. Mark, that it is not strange to see some of the greatest Families, in par­ticular the Cornara's, decline it. All the Family, if ever so numerous, must retire o [...]t of the Senate, when a Duke is chosen out of it, only one that is next to him of kin sits still, but without a Vote: And the only real Priviledge that the Duke hath, is, that he can of himself, without communicating with the Savii, propose matters, either to the Council of Ten; to the Senate, or to the Great Council; where­as all other propositions must be first offered to the Savii, and examined by them, who have a so [...]t of Tribunitian power to reject what they d [...]slike, and though they cannot hinder the Duke to make a pro­position, yet they can mortifie him when he hath made it: They can h [...]der it to be voted, and after it is voted they can suspend the execution of it till it is examined over again: And a Duke that is of an active Spirit must resolve to endure many of these afflictions, and it is certain that the Savii do some­times [Page 75] affect to shew the greatness of their Autho­rity, and exercise a sort of Tyranny in the reject­ing of Pro [...]ositions when they intend to humble those that make them. Yet the greatest part of the best Families court this Honour of Dukedom ex­treamly; when Segrado was upon the point of being chosen Duke, there was so violent an outcry against it over all Venice, because of the disgrace, that they thought would come on the Republick, if they had a Prince whose Note had miscarried in some unfortunate disorders, the Senate complyed so far with this Aversion, that the People testified, That though the Inquisitors took care to hang or drown many of the chief of the Mutineers, yet they let the design for Sagredo fall: Upon which he was so much disgusted that he retired to a house he had in the Terra firma, and never appeared more at Venice: During which time of his retirement, he writ two Books, the one Memorie Ottomaniche, which is Printed, and he is accounted the best of all the Modern Authors: The other was Memoir [...]s of the Government, and History of Venice, which hath never been Printed; and some say it is too sincere, and too particular, so that it is thought it will be reserved among their Archives. It hath been a sort of maxim now for some time, not to chuse a married Man to be Duke, for the Co­ronation of a Dutchess goes high, and hath cost above Hundred thousand Ducats. Some of the an­cient Families have affected the Title of Prince, and have called their branches Princes of the Blood, and though the Cornara's have done this more than any other, yet others upon the account of some Principalities, that their Ancestors had in the Islands of the Archipelago, have also affected those vain Titles: But the Inquisitors have long ago obliged them to lay aside all those high Titles, [Page 76] and such of them that boast too much of their Blood, find the dislike which that brings on them very sensibly; for whensoever they pretend to any great Employments, they find themselves always excluded. When an Election of Ambassadors was proposed, or of any of the chief Offices, it was wont to be made in those terms, that the Coun­cil must chuse one of its principal Members for such an Employment: But because this lookt like a term of distinction, among the Nobility, they changed it Five and twenty Years ago; and instead of Prin­cipal, they use now the term Honourable, which comprehends the whole body of the Nobility, with­out any distinction. It is at Venice in the Church, as well as in the State, that the Head of the Bo­dy hath a great Title, and particular Honours done him; whereas in the mean while this is a meer Pageantry, and under these big words there is lodg­ed only a light shadow of Authority; for their Bishop has the glorious Title of Patriark, as well as the Duke is called their Prince, and his sere­nity, and hath his name stampt upon their Coin, so the Patriark with all his high Title hath real­ly no Authority: For not only St. Mark's Church is intirely exempted from his jurisdiction, and is immediately subject to the Duke, but his Authority is in all other things so subject to the Senate, and so regulated by them, that he hath no more power than they are pleased to allow him: So that the Senate is as really the supream Governor over all Persons, and in all Causes as the Kings of England have pretended to be in their own Do­minions since the Rrformation: But besides all this, the Clergy of Venice have a very extraordinary sort of exemption, and are a sort of a Body like a Presbytery independent of the Bishop: The Curats are chosen by the Inhabitants of every Parish, and [Page 77] this makes that no Noble Venetian is suffered to pretend to any Curacy, for they think it below that Dignity to suffer one of their Body to en­gage in a Competition with one of a lower Order, and to run the hazard of being rejected.

I was told the manner of those Elections was the most scandalous thing possible, for the several Can­didates appear on the day of election, and set out their own merits, and defame the other pretenders in the foulest language, and in the most scurrilous manner imaginable; the secrets of all their lives are publisht in most reproachful terms, and nothing is so abject and ridiculous that is not put in practice on those oc­casions: There is a sort of an Association among the Curats for judging of their common concerns, and some of the Laity of the several Parishes assist in those Courts, so that here is a real Presbytery. The great libertinage that is so undecently practised by most sorts of people at Venice, extends it self to the Clergy to such a degree, that though ignorance and vice seem the only indelible characters that they carry generally over all Italy, yet those appear here in a much more conspicuous manner than elsewhere, and upon those popular elections all comes out. The Nuns of Venice have been under much scandal for a great while; there are some Monasteries that are as famous for their strictness and exactness to their rules, as others are for the liberties they take; chief­ly those of St. Zachary and St. Lawrence, where none but Noble Venetians are admitted, and where it is not so much as pretended that they have retired for devotion; but it is owned to be done meerly that they might not be too great a charge to their Family: They are not vailed, their neck and breast is bare, and they receive much company: but that which I saw was in a publick Room, in which there were many grills for several Parlors, so that the conversa­tion [Page 78] is very confused, for there being a different com­pany at every grill, and the Italians speaking gene­rally very loud, the noise of so many loud talkers is very disagreeable. The Nuns talk much and very ungracefully, and allow themselves a liberty in rally­ing that other places could not bear. About four years ago the Patriark intended to bring in a reform into those Houses, but the Nuns of St. Lawrence with whom he began, told him plainly they were Noble Venetians, who had chosen that way of life as more convenient for them, but they would not subject themselves to his regulations, yet he came and would shut up their house, so they went to set fire to it; upon which the Senate interposed and or­dered the Patriark to desist. There is no Christian State in the World that hath expressed a jealousie of Churchmens getting into the publick Councels so much as the Venetians, for as a Noble Venetian that goes into Orders, looses thereby his right of going to vote in the great Councel, so when any of them are promoted to be Cardinals, the whole kindred and family must during their lives, withdraw from the great Councel, and are also incapable of all im­ployments: And by a clause which they added when they received the Inquisition, which seemed of no great consequence, they have made it to become a Court absolutely subject to them; for it being pro­vided that the Inquisitors should do nothing but in the presence of such as should be Deputed by the Senate to be the witnesses of their proceedings; those Deputies either will not come but when they think fit, or will not stay longer than they are pleased with their proceedings; so that either their absence or their withdrawing dissolves the Court: for a citati­on cannot be made, a witness cannot be examined, nor the least point of form carried on if the Depu­ties of the Senate are not present: and thus it is, [Page 79] that though there is a Court of Inquisition at Venice, yet there is scarce any person brought into trouble by it, and there are many of the Protestant Religion that live there without any trouble; and though there is a Congregation of them there that hath their exercises of Religion very regularly, yet the Senate gives them no trouble. It is true, the Hosty's not being carried about in Procession, but secretly by the Priest to the Sick, makes that this uneasie discri­mination of Protestant and Papist doth not offer it self here as in other places, for the straitness of the Streets and the Channels through which one must go almost every foot, makes that this could not be done in Venice as it is elsewhere, and from Venice this rule is carried over their whole Territory, tho the like reason doth not hold in the Terra Firma The Venetians are generally ignorant of the mat­ters of Religion to a scandal, and they are as uncon­concerned in them as they are strangers to them, so that all that vast pomp in their Ceremonies and wealth in their Churches is affected rather as a point of magnificence, or a matter of emulation among fa­milies, then that superstition hath here such a power over the Spirits of the people as it hath elsewhere: for the Atheism that is received by many here is the dullest and cursest thing that can be imagined. The young Nobility are so generally corrupted in their Morals, and so given up to a most supine ignorance of all sort of knowledge, that a man cannot easily imagine to what a height this is grown, and for Military Courage there is scarce so much as the am­bition of being thought brave remaining among the greater part of them. It seemed to me a strange thing to see the Broglio so full of graceful young Se­nators and Nobles, when there was so glorious a Wa on foot with the Turks, but instead of being heated in point of honour to hazard their lives, they rather [Page 80] think it an extravagant piece of folly for them to go and hazard it when a little money can hire strangers that do it on such easie terms; and thus their Arms are in the hands of strangers, while they stay at home managing their intrigues in the Broglio, and dissolving their spirits among their Courtisans. And the reputation of their service is of late years so much sunk, that it is very strange to see so many come to a service so decried, where there is so lit­tle care had of the Souldiers, and so little regard had to the Officers; the arrears are so slowly paid, and the rewards are so scantly distributed, that if they do not change their maxims they may come to feel this very sensibly; for as their Subjects are not acquainted with Warlike matters, so their. Nobility have no so [...]t of ambition that way, and strangers are extreamly disgusted. It is chiefly to the conjecture of affairs that they owe their safety, for the feebleness of all their Neighbours, the Turk, the Emperour, the King of Spain, the Pope, and the Duke of Mantua, preserves them from the apprehension of an Invasion, and the quarrels, and the degeneracy of their Sub­jects, save them from the fears of a Revolt, but a formidable Neighbour would put them hard to it. One great occasion of the degeneracy of the Italians, and in particular of the Venetian Nobi­lity, is a maxim that hath been taken up for some considerable time, that for the preservation of their Families, it is fit than only one of a Fa­mily should marry; to which I will not add that it is generally believed that the Wife is in common to the whole Family: By this means the younger Brothers that have appointments for life, and that have no Families that come from them, are not stirred up by any ambition to sig­nalize themselves or to make Families, and so they give way to all the laziness of luxury, and are quite enervated by it.

Whereas the best services done in other States flows from the necessities as well as the aspirings of younger Brothers or their Families, whose blood qualifies them to pretend, as well as their pride and necessi­ties push them on, to acquire first a reputation, and then a fortune: But all this is a mystery to the Ve­netians, who apprehend so much from the active Spi­rits of a necessitous Nobility, that to lay those to sleep, they incourage them in all those things that may blunt and depress their minds, and youth nat [...] ­rally hates Letters as much as it loves pleasure, when it is so far from being restrained, that it is rather pushed on to all the licentiousness of unlimited dis­orders.

Yet I must add one thing, that though Venice, is the place in the whole World where pleasure is most studied, and where the youth have both the greatest Wealth, and the most leisure to pursue it: yet it is the place that I ever saw where true and in­nocent pleasure is the least understood, in which I will make a little digression that perhaps will not be unpleasant. As for the pleasures of friendship or marriage they are strangers to them, for the horri­ble distrust, in which they all live, of one another, makes that it is very rare to find a friend in Italy, but most of all in Venice: and though we have been told of several stories of celebrated friendships there, yet these are now very rare. As for their Wives they are bred to so much ignorance, they converse so little, that they know nothing but the dull supersti­tion on Holy-days in which they stay in the Church­es as long as they can, and so prolong the little li­berty they have of going abroad on those days as Children do their hours of play: They are not im­ployed in their domestick affairs, and generally they understand no sort of work, so that I was told that they were the insipidest creatures imaginable; they are, perhaps, as vitious as in other places; but it is [Page 82] among them down-right lewdness, for they are not drawn into it by the intranglements of amour that inveigle and lead many persons much farther than they imagined or intended at first, but in them the first step without any preamble or preparative, is down-right beastliness. And an Italian that knew the World well, said upon this matter a very lively thing to me, he said their jealousie made them re­strain their Daughters, and their Wives so much, that they could have none of those domestick enter­tainments of Wit, Conversation, and Friendship, that the French or English have at home: It is true those he said hazard a little the honour of their Fa­milies by that liberty, but the Italians by their ex­cessive caution, made that they had none of the true delights of a Married State; and notwithstanding all their uneasie jealousie, they were still in danger of a contraband Nobility, therefore he thought they would do much better to hazard a little, when it would produce a certain satisfaction, then to watch so anxiously, and thereby have an insipid companion instead of a lively Friend, though she might, per­haps, have some ill moments. As for their houses they have nothing convenient at Venice, for the Ar­chitecture is almost all the same, one stair-case, a Hall that runs along the body of the house, and chambers on both hands, but there are no apart­ments, no Closets or Back-stairs; so that in houses that are of an excessive wealth, they have yet no sort of convenience; Their Bedsteads are of Iron, because of the Vermin that their moisture produces, the bottoms are of boards, upon which they lay so many quilts that it is a huge step to get up to them, their great Chairs are all upright without a stop in the back, hard in the bottom, and the wood of the arms is not covered; they mix water with their wine in their Hogsheads, so that for above half the year the wine is either dead or sour, they do not leaven [Page 83] their Bread, so that it is extream heavy, and the Oven is too much heated, so that the crum is as Dough, when the crust is hard as a stone, in all Inns they boil Meat first before it is roasted, and thus, as indeed they make it tender, so it is quite tastless and insipid: And as for their Land-carriage all Lom­bardy over, it is extream inconvenient, for their Coaches are fastned to the pearch, which makes them as uneasie as a Cart: It it true, they begin to have at Rome, and Naples, Coaches that are fastned to a sort of double pearch, that runs round the bot­tom of the Coach of both sides, which are thin that they ply to the motion of the Coach, and are extream easie, but those are not known in Lombardy, and besides this, their Caleshes are open, so that one is exposed to the Sun, and dust in Summer, and to the Weather in Winter: But though they are covered as ours are, on the other side of the Ap­penins, yet I saw none that were covered in Lom­bardy: And thus by an enumeration of many of the innocent pleasures, and conveniences of life, it appears that the Venetians pursue so violently for­bidden pleasures, that they know not how to find out that which is allowable. Their constant pra­ctices in the Broglio is their chief business, where those that are necessitous are pursuing for Employ­ments of advantage, and those that are full of wealth take a sort of pleasure in crossing their pretentions, and in embroiling matters. The walk in which the Nobility tread is left to them, for no others dare walk among them, and they change the side of the square of St. Mark as the Sun, and the Weather di­rects them. Perhaps a derivation that Mr. Patin gave me of Brolio from the Greek Peribolâion, a lit­tle corrupted is not forced; and since they make all their parties, and manage all their intreague in those Walks, I am apt to think that broils, bro­villons and imbroilments are derived from the [Page 84] agitations that are managed in those walks.

As for the last created Nobility of Venice, I came to know some particulars that I have not yet seen in any books, which I suppose will not be unacceptable to you. It is certain that if the Venetians could have foreseen at the beginning of the War of Candy, the vast expence in which the length of it engaged them, they would have abandoned the Isle, rather than have wasted their Treasure, and debased their Nobility. This last was extream sensible to them; for as the dignity of the rank they hold is so much the more e­minent as it is restrained to a small number, so all the best Imployments and Honours of the State be­longing to this body, the admitting such a number into it, as must rise out of Seventy Eight Families, was in effect the sharing their Inheritance among so many adopted Brothers. This had been less Infa­mous if they had communicated that Honour only to the ancient Citizens of Venice, or to the Nobility of those States that they have subdued in the Terra firma; for as there are many Citizens who are as an­cient as the Nobility, only their Ancesto [...]s not hap­ning to be of that Council that assumed the Govern­ment about Four Hundred Years ago, they have not been raised to that Honour, so there had been no In­famy in creating some of them to be of the Nobility. It had been also brought under consultation long ago, upon the reduction of those States in the Terra firma, whether it was not advisable according to the maxims of the ancient Romans to communicate that dignity to some of their chief Families, as being the surest way to give some contentment to those States, it being al­so a real as well as a cheap security, when the chief Families in those Cities, were admitted to a Share in all the Honours of the Republick. It is true some of the Nobility of those States thought they had Honour enough by their birth, and so Zambara of Brescia re­fused to accept an Honour from those that had robbed [Page 85] his Country of its liberty, yet his posterity are now o another mind, for they came and bought in this last sale of honour that which was freely offered to their Ancestor, and was rejected by him. When the Se­nate found it self extreamly pressed for money during the war it was at first proposed that some Families, to the number of Five, might be enobled; they of­fering Sixty Thousand Ducats if they were Venetians, and Seventy Thousand if they were Strangers: There was but one Person that opposed this in the Senate, so it being passed there, was presented to the great Coun­cil; and there it was like to have passed without any difficulty, but one Person opposed it with so much vigor, that though the Duke desired him to give o­ver his opposition, since the necessities of the War required a great supply, yet he persisted still; and though one of the Savii set forth with tears the extre­mities to which the State was reduced, he still insist­ed and fell upon one conceit that turned the whole Council, he said they were not sure if Five Persons could be found that would purchase that honour at such a rate, and then it would be a vast disgrace, to expose the offer of Nobility first to sale, and then to the affront of finding no buyers when it was of­fered to be sold, and by this means he put by the resolution for that time: But then another method was taken that was more honourable, and was of a more extended consequence. Labia was the first that presented a Petition to the great Council, setting forth his merits towards the Republick, and desiring that he might be thought worthy to offer a Hundred Thousand Ducats towards the service of the State; this was understood to be the asking to be made noble at that price. Delfino said he thought every Man might be well judged worthy to offer such an assi­stance to the Publick, and that such as brought that supply might expect a suitable acknowledgment from the Senate, who might afterwards of their own ac­cord [Page 86] bestow that honour on those that expressed so much zeal for the Publick; and this would be too much debased if it were thus bought and sold; but it seems the purchasers had no mind to part with their money, and to leave the reward to the gratitude of the Council, so the Petition was granted in plain terms; and the Nobility so acquired was not only to descend to the Children of him that was enobled, but to his Brothers and the whole Family to such a degree. After Labia a great many more came with the like Petitions, and it was not unpleasant to see in what terms Merchants, that came to buy this Ho­nour set forth their merits, which were that they had taken care to furnish the Republick with such things as were necessary for its preservation. There was a sort of a Triumvirat formed of a Jew, a Greek, and an Italian, who were the Brokers, and found out the Merchants; and at last brought down the price from a Hundred Thousand to Sixty Thousand Ducats, and no other qualifications were required if they had money enough; For when Correge said to the Duke that he was afraid to ask that honour for want of merit, the Duke asked him if he had a Hun­dred Thousand Ducats, and when the other answer­ed the Summ was ready, the Duke told him that was a great merit. At last Seventy Eight purchased this honour to the great regret of Labia; who said that if he had imagined that so many would have fol­lowed him in that demand, he would have bid so high for it that it should have been out of their power to have done it. It is true many of the Purchasers were Ancient and Noble Families, but many others were not only Merchants, but were of the lowest sort of them; who as they had inriched themselves by Trade, did then impoverish themselves by the acquisition of an honour that as it obliged them to give over their Trade, and put them in a higher way of living, so it hath not brought them [Page 87] yet in any advantage to ballance that loss; for they are so much despised, that they are generally ex­cluded when they compete with the ancient Nobi­lity, though this is done with that discretion, that the old Families do not declare always against the new, for that would throw the new into a faction gainst them, which might be a great prejudice to them, for the new are much more numerous than the old.

Another great prejudice that the Republick feels by this great Promotion, is that the chief Families of the Citizens of Venice, who had been long pra­ctised in the affairs of State, and out of whom the Envoyes, the Secretaries of State, and the Chan­cellour that is the head of the Citizens, as well as the Duke is the head of the Nobility, are to be chosen, having purchased the chief Honour of the State there is not now a sufficient number of capable Citizens, left for serving the State in those Employments; but this defect will be redrest with the help of a little time. But if this increase of the Nobility hath lessened the Dignity of the ancient Families, there is a regulation made in this Age that still pre­serves a considerable distinction of Authority in their hands. Crimes against the State, when com­mitted by any of the Nobility, were always judged by the Inquisitors, and the Council of Ten, but all other Crimes were judged by the Council of Forty. But in the Year 1624. one of the Nobles was ac­cused of Peculat committed in one of their Govern­ments, and the Avogadore in the pleading, as he set forth his Crime, called him a Rogue and a Robber: yet though his crimes were manifest, there being but Six and twenty Judges present, Twelve only condemned him, and Fourteen acquitted him; this gave great offence, for though he was acquitted by his Judges, his Crimes were evident; so that his Fame could not be restored: for the Depositions of the Witnesses, and the Avogadores (or the Attorney [Page 88] Generals) Charge were heard by the People; so it was proposed to make a difference between the Nobility and the other Subjects: and since all Trials before the Forty were publick, and the Trials be­fore the Ten were in secret, it seemed fit to remit the Nobility to be tried by the Ten: Some foresaw that this would tend to a Tyranny, and raise the Dignity of the ancient Families, of whom the Coun­cil of Ten is always composed, too high: There­fore they opposed it upon this ground, That since the Council of Forty sent out many Orders to the Governors, it would very much lessen their Autho­rity, if they were not to be the Judges of those who obliged to receive their Orders: But to qua­lify this Opposition, a Proviso was made that re­served to the Council of Forty, a power to Judge of the Obedience that was given to their Orders, but all other Accusations of the Nobility were re­mitted to the Council of Ten: and the body of the Nobility were so pleased with this Distincti­on that was put between them and the other Sub­jects, that they did not see that this did really en­slave them so much the more, and brought them under more danger: since those who judge in secret have a freer scope to their passions, than those whose proceedings are publick, and so are in ef­fect judged by the Publick, which is often a very effectual restraint upon the Judges themselves. But the Council of Ten being generally in the hands of the great Families: Whereas those of all sorts are of the Council of Forty, which was the chief Judica­tory of the State, and is much Ancienter than that of Ten: It had been much more wisely done of them to have been still Judged by the Forty: And if they had thought it for their Honour to have a difference made in the way of judging the Nobility, and the other Subjects, it had been more for their security to have brought their Trials to this, That [Page 89] whereas the Forty Judge all other offenders with open doors, the Nobility should be judged the doors being shut, which is a thing they very much desire now, but without any hope of ever obtain­ing it: For this power of Judging the Nobility is now considered as Right of the Ten, and if any Man would go about to change it, the Inquisitors would be perhaps, very quick with him, as a mover of Sedition, and be, in that case, both Judge, and Party; Yet the Inquisitors being apprehensive of the distast that this might breed in the body of the Nobility, have made a sort of regulation, though it doth not amount to much; which is, that the Nobility shall be Judged before the Council of Ten for atrocious cases, such as matter of State, the robbing the Publick, and other enormous Crimes; but that for all other matters they are to be Judged by the Forty: yet the Council of Ten draws all cases before them, and none dare dispute with them.

But this leads me to say a little to you of that part of this Constitution, which is so much cen­sured by strangers: but is really both the greatest glory, and the chief security of this Republick, which is the unlimited power of Inquisitors, that extends not only to the chief of the Nobility, but to the Duke himself, who is so subject to them, that they may not only give him severe reprimands, but search his Papers, make his Process, and in con­clusion, put him to death without being bound to give an account of their Proceedings, except to the Council of Ten. This is the dread not only of all the Subjects, but of the whole Nobility, and of all that bear Office in the Republick, and makes the greatest among them tremble, and so obligeth them to an exact conduct. But though it is not to be denied that upon some occasions they may have been a little too sudden, particularly in the known story of Foscarini, yet such unjustifiable [Page 90] severities have occurred so seldom, that as the wis­dom of this Body in making and preserving such an Institution, cannot be enough admired, so the dex­trous conduct of those who mannage this vast trust, so as not to force the Body to take it out of their hands, is likewise highly to be wondered at. In short, the insolence, the factions, the revenges, the necessities and ambition that must needs possess a great many Members of so vast a Body as is the No­bility of Venice, must have thrown them often into many fatal Convulsions, if it were not for the dread in which they all stand of this Court: which hath so many spies abroad, chiefly among the Gon­daliers, who cannot fail to discover all the se­cret Commerce of Venice, besides the secret ad­vices that are thrown in at so many of those Ly­ons mouths that are in several places of St. Mark's Palace, within which there are boxes that are under the Keys of the Inquisitors, so that it is scarce pos­sible for a Man to be long in any design against the State, and not to be discovered by them. And when they find any in fault, they are so inexorable, and so quick, as well as severe in their Justice, that the very fear of this is so effectual a restraint, that perhaps the long preservation of Venice, and of its Liberty, is owing to this single piece of their consti­tution: and the Inquisitors are Persons generally so distinguished for their merit who must be all of dif­ferent Families; and their Authority lasts so short a while, that the advantages of this vast Authority that is lodged with them, are constant and visible; whereas the unhappy instances of their being imposed on, an [...] carrying their suspicions too far, are so few, that whe [...] ever the Nobility grows weary of his yoke, and throw it off, one may reckon the Glory and Prosperity of Ve­nice at an end. It was terribly attackt not long ago by Cornaro, when Jerom Cornaro was put to death for his correspondence with Spain; he was not near a [Page 91] kin to the great Family of that name, yet the Fami­ly thought their Honour was so much toucht when one of its remotest branches was condemned of Treason, that they offered a Hundred thousand Crowns to have saved him, and by consequence to have preserved the Family from that Infamy; but though this was not accepted, for he suffered as he well deserved, yet it was so visible that none of the Family were concerned in his Crimes, that it did not at all turn to their prejudice. But upon the first occasion that offered it self after that, to quar­rel with the proceeding of the Inquisitors, they laid hold on it, and aggravated the matter extreamly, and moved for the limiting of their Authority, but the Great Council was wiser than to touch so sacred a part of the Government, so they retained their power very entire, but they manage it with all pos­sible caution; A Forreigner that hath been many years in their Service, told me that the Stories with which strangers were frighted at the Arbitrary pow­er that was rested in those Inquisitors were slight things, in comparison of the advantages that they found from it: And after Eleven Years spent in their service, he said, he never was so much as once sent for to receive a reprimand from them. And if the Nobility, that have any Commerce with strangers, confess it sincerely to the Inquisitors, they are in dan­ger by it; by if they conceal it, or any main cir­cumstances of it, their Process will be soon dispatch­ed. These are the most remarkable things that I could pick up, during my stay at Venice. I have avoided to say any thing relating to their several Councels, Officers, and Judicatories, or to the other parts of their Government, which are to be found in all Books; and the Forms, by which they give Votes by Ballot, are so well known, that it were an abusing of your time to enlarge my self con­cerning them; nor was I sufficiently informed con­cerning [Page 92] the particulars of the Sale of Nobility that is now on foot since this last War with the Turks, which hath made them willing to take up once a­gain this easie way of raising of Money: Nor could I give credit to that of which a Person of great E­minence there assured me, that there was a poy­soner general in Venice, that had a Salary, and was employed by the Inquisitors to dispatch those a­gainst whom a publick proceeding would make too great a noise; this I could not believe, though my Author protested, that the Brother of one that was solicited to accept of the Employment, discove­red it to him. There is no place in the World where strangers live with more freedom and I was amazed to see so little exactness among the Searchers of the Custom-house; for though we had a Mullets load of Trunks and Portmantles, yet none offered to ask us, either coming or going, what we were, or what we carried with us. But the best and Noblest Enter­tainment that Venice afforded while I was there, was the company of Mr. dela Haye the French Ambas­sadour, who as he hath spent his whole life in pub­lick Embassies, so he hath acquired so great a know­ledge of the World, with so true a Judgment, and so obliging a civility, that he may well pass for a Pat­tern; and it is no wonder to see him still engaged in a constant succession of publick Employments; and his Lady is so wonderful a Person, that I pay them both but a very small part of what I owe them, in this acknowledgement, which I judge my self bound to make of their extraordinary civilities to me: and indeed without the advantage of such a rendezvous as I had there, a fortnights stay at Ve­nice had been a very tedious matter: From Venice we went again to Padua; From thence to Rovigo, which is but a small Town, and so to the Po, which divides the Territory of the Republick, from the Ferrarese, which is now the Popes Country, and [Page 93] here one sees what a difference a good and a bad Government makes in a Countrey; for though the Soil is the same on both sides of the River, and the Ferrarese was once one of the beautifullest spots of all Italy, as Ferrara was one of its best Towns, while they had Princes of their own, who for a course of some Ages were Princes of such Eminent virtue, and of so Heroical a Nobleness, that they were really the Fathers of their Country, nothing can be ima­gined more changed than all this is now. The Soil is abandoned, and uncultivated, nor were there hands enough so much as to mow their Grass, which we saw withering in their Meadows to our no small wonder. We were amazed to see so rich a Soil thus forsaken of its Inhabitants, and much more when we passed through that vast Town, which by its extent shews what it was about an Age ago, and is now so much deserted, that there are whole sides of Streets without Inhabitants, and the poverty of the place appears signally in the Churches, which are mean and poorly adorned, for the superstition of Italy is so ravenous, and makes such progress in this Age, that one may justly take the measures of the Wealth of any place from the Churches. The Superstition or Vanity of this Age, is so much be­yond that of the past, though the contrary to this is commonly believed, that all the vast buildings of great Churches or rich Convents, and the sur­prizing Wealth that appears in them on Festival days are the donatives of the present Age; so that it is a vulgar error that some have taken up, who fancy that Superstition is at a stand, if not in a decay, unless it be acknowledged that the craft of the Priests hath opened to them a new method to support their riches, when the old ones of Purga­tory, and Indulgences were become less effectual in an Age of more knowledge, and better enlightned, and that is to engage Men to an emulation and a [Page 94] vanity in enriching their Churches, as much as o­ther Italians have in the inriching ther Palaces, so that as they have a pleasure as well as a vanity in seeing so much dead Wealth in their houses, they have translated the same humour to their Churches: And the vanity of the present Age that believes little or nothing of those contrivances, of Purga­tory, or the like, produceth the same, if not grea­ter effects, in the building and inriching their Churches, and so carries it in expence and prodi­gality from the Superstition of the former Ages that believed every thing. But to return to Ferra­ra, I could not but ask all I saw, how it came, that so rich a Soil was so strangely abandoned, some said the Air was become so unhealthy, that those who stay in it were very short lived; but it is well known that Fourscore Years ago it was well peopled; and the ill Air is occasioned by the want of Inhabitants; for there not being people to drain the ground and to keep the Ditches clean, this makes that there is a great deal of Water that lies on the ground and rots, which infects the Air in the same manner as is observed in that vast and rich, but un­inhabited Champaign of Rome, so that the ill Air is the effect rather than the cause of the dispeopling of the Popes Dominions. The true cause is the se­verity of the Government, and the heavy Taxes, and frequent Confiscations, by which the Nephews of several Popes, as they have devoured many of the Families of Ferrara, so they have driven away many more. And this appears more visibly by the different state, as well as the Constitution of Bologna, which is full of People that abound in Wealth, and as the Soil is extream rich, so it is cultivated with all due care. For Bologna delivered it self to the Popedom upon a capitulation, by which there are many Priviledges reserved to it: Crimes there are only punished in the Persons of [Page 95] those who commit them, but there are no confis­cations of Estates; and though the Authority, in Criminal matters, belongs to the Pope, and is man­aged by a Legate and his Officers, yet the Civil Government, the Magistracy, and the power of Ju­dicature in Civil matters, is entirely in the hands of the State: And by this regulation it is, that as the riches of Bologna amaze a stranger, it neither being on a Navigable River, by which it is not capable of much Trade, nor being the Center of a Sove­raignty where a Court is kept; so the Taxes that the Popes fetch from thence, are so considerable, that he draws much more from this place of Li­berty, than from those where his Authority is un­limited and absolute, but that are by those means al­most quite abandoned; for the greatness of a Prince or State rising from the numbers of the Subjects, those maxims that retain the Subjects, and that draw strang­ers to come among them, are certainly the truest max­ims for advancing the greatness of the Master. And I could not but with much scorn, observe the folly of some Frenchmen, who made use of this argument to shew the greatness of their Nation, that one found many Frenchmen in all places to which one could come, whereas there were no English nor Dutch, nor Swit­zers, and very few Germans: But is just contrary to the right consequence that ought to be drawn from this observation. It is certain, that few leave their Country, and go to settle elsewhere, if they are not pressed with so much uneasiness at home that they cannot well live among their Friends and Kin­red; so that a mild Government drives out no swarms: Whereas it is the sure mark of a severe Government that weakens it self, when many of the Subjects find it so hard to subsist at home, that they are forced to seek that abroad, which they would much rather do in their own Country, if Impositions, and o­ther severities did not force them to change their ha­bitations.

But to return to the wealth of Bologna, it appears in every corner of the Town, and all round it; though its scituation is not very favourable, for it lies at the foot of the Appenins on the North-side, and is extream cold in Winter. The houses are built as at Padua and Bern, so that one walks all the Town over covered under Piazza's; but the walks here are both higher and larger than any where else, there are many Noble Palaces all over the Town, and the Churches, and Convents are incredibly rich; within the Town the richest are the Dominicans, which is the chief house of the Order, where their Founders bo­dy is laid in one of the best Chapels of Italy; and next to them are the Franciscans, the Servites, the Jesuites, and the Canons Regular of St. Salvator. In this last there is a scrowl of the Hebrew Bible, which though it is not the tenth part of the Bible, they fancy to be the whole Bible; and they were made believe by some Jew, that hath no doubt sold it at a high rate, that it was written by Ezrah's own hand, and this hath past long for current; but the Manuscript is only a fine Copy like those that the Jews use in their Synagogues, that may be, perhaps, Three or Four Hundred Years old; that part of it on which I cast my eye was the book of Esther, so by the bulk of the scrowl, I judged it to be the col­lection of those small books of the Old Testament that the Jews set after the Law; but those of the house fancy they have a great treasure in it, and per­haps such Jews as have seen it are willing to laugh at their ignorance, and so suffer them to go on in their error. The chief Church in the Town is St. Petrone's, and there one sees the curious and exact Meridional-line, which that rare Astronomer Cassini laid along a great part of the pavement in a brass Circle; it marks the true point of midday from June to January, and is one of the best performances that perhaps the World ever saw. In the great square [Page 97] before the Church, on the one side of which is the Legates Palace, among other Statues one surprized me much, it was Pope Joans, which is so named by the People of the Town, it is true the Learned Men say it is the Statue of Pope Nicolas the IV. who had indeed a youthly and womanish face. But as I look­ed at this Statue very attentively, through a little prospect that I carried with me, it appeared plainly to have the face of a young Woman, and was very unlike that of Pope Nicolas the IV. which is in St. Maria Maggiore at Rome: For the Statue of that Pope, though it hath no beard, yet hath an age in it that is very much different from the Statue at Bologna. I do not build any thing on this Statue, for I do not believe that Story at all, and I my self saw in En­gland a Manuscript of Martinus Polonus, who is one of the ancient Authors of this matter, which did not seem to be written long after the Author's time; In it this Story is not in the Text, but is added on the margin by another hand. On the Hill above Bolo­gna stands the Monastery of St. Michael in Bosco, which hath a most charming scituation, and prospect, and is one of the best Monasteries in Italy; it hath many Courts, and one that is Cloistered, and is Octangu­lar; which is so nobly painted in Fresco, that it is great pity to see such work exposed to the Air: All was retouched by the famous Guido Reni, yet it is now again much decayed: The Dormitory is very Ma­gnificent; the Chappel is little but very fine, and the Stalls are richly carved. On the other-side of Bo­logna, in the Bottom, the Carthusians have also a ve­ry rich Monastery: Four miles from Bologna there is a Madona of St. Lukes, and because many go thither in great devotion, there is a portico a building, which is already carried on almost half way; it is walled towards the North, but stands on Pillars to the South, and is about Twelve Foot broad, and Fifteen Foot high, which is carried on very vigorously, for in Eight [Page 98] or Ten Years the half is built, so that in a little time, the whole will be very probably finished, and this may prove the b [...]ginning of many such like Portico's in Ita­ly, for things of this kind want only a beginning, and when they are once set on foot they do quickly spread themselves in a Country that is so intirely subdued by superstition and the artifices of their Priests. In Bo­logna they reckon there are Seventy Thousand Persons. I saw not one of the chief glories of this place for the famous Malapighi was out of Town while I was there. I saw a Play there, but the Poesie was so bad, the Farces so rude, and all was so ill acted, that I was not a little amazed to see the Company express so great a satisfaction in that which would have been hiss'd off the Stage either in England or France. From Bologna we go Eight miles in a Plain, and then we engage into that range of Hills that carry the name of Apenins, though that is str [...]ctly given only to one that is the highest: All the way to Florence this track of Hills continues, though there are several bottoms, and some considerable little Towns in them, but all is up-hill and down-hill, and Florence it self is just at the bot­tom of the last Hill. The high-ways all along these Hills are kept in so very good case, that in few of the best Inhabited Countries doth one find the high-ways so well maintained as in those forsaken Mountains; but this is so great a passage that all that are con­cerned in it find their account in the expence they lay out upon it. On the last of these Hills, though in a little bottom, in the midst of a Hill, stands Pratolino, one of the great Dukes Palaces, where the retreat in summer must be very agreeable, for the Air of those Mountains is extream thin and pure. The Gardens in Italy are made at a great cost, the Statues and Foun­tains are very rich and noble, the Grounds are well laid out, and the Walks are long and even: But as they have no Gravel to give them those firm and beau­tiful walks that we have in England, so the constant [Page 99] greenness of the Box doth so much please them, that they preferring the sight to the smell, have their Gar­dens so high sented by plots made within them, that there is no pleasure to walk in them; they also lay their walks so between hedges, that one is much con­fined in them. I saw first in a Garden at Vincenza, that which I found afterwards in many Gardens in Italy, which was extream convenient, there went a course of Water round about the Walls, about a foot from the ground in a channel of stone that went along the side of the Wall; and in this there were-holes so made, that a pipe of white Iron or Wood put to them, conveyed the Water to such plants, as in dry season, needed watering; and a cock, set the Water a running in this course, so that without the trouble of carrying Water, one Person could easily manage the watring of a great Garden. Florence is a beautiful and noble Town, full of great Palaces, rich Churches, and stately Convents. The streets are pav­ed in imitation of the old Roman highways, with great Stone bigger than our common pavement Stone, but much thicker, which are so hollowed in their joinings to one another, that horses find fastning e­nough to their feet: There are many Statues and Foun­tains in the streets, so that in every corner one meets with many agreeable objects. I will not entertain you with a description of the great Dukes Palace and Gardens, or of the old Palace and the Gallery that joins to it, and of the vast Collection of Pictures, Statues, Cabinets, and other curiosities that must needs amaze every one that sees them; the Plate, and in particular the Gold Plate, and the great Coach, are all such extraordinary things that they would require a very copious description; if that had not been done so often, that it were to very little purpose to Copy what others have said; and these things are so exactly seen by every traveller, that I can say nothing that is more particular of these subjects then you will find [Page 100] in the common Itineraries of all Travellers. The great Dome is a magnificent building, but the Fron­tispiece to the great Gate is not yet made. The Cupulo, is after S. Peters, the greatest and highest that I saw in Italy; it is Three Hundred foot high, and of a vast compass, and the whole Architecture of this Fabrick is very singular as well as regular. Only that which was intended to add to its beauty, lessned it very much in my thoughts; for the Walls that are all of Marble being of white and black Marble laid in different figures and orders, looked too like a li­very, and had not that air of nobleness which in my opinion becomes so glorious a Fabrick. The Bapti­stery that stands before it was a Noble Heathen Tem­ple; its Gates of brass are the best of that sort that are in the World: There are so many Histories so well represented in bas reliefs in them, with so much exactness, the work is so natural and yet so fine, that a curious Man could find entertainment for ma­ny days, if he would examine the three Gates of this Temple, with a critical exactness. The Annunciata, S. Marks, S. Croce, and S. Maria Novella, are Church­es of great beauty and vast riches; but the Church and Chappel of S. Laurence exceeds them all as much in the riches within, as it is inferior to them in the out-side which is quite flea'd, if I may so speak, but on design to give it a rich out-side of Marble. In a Chappel within this Church, the Bodies of the great Dukes lie deposited, till the famous Chappel is fi­nished. But I was much scandalized to see Statues with nudities here, which I do not remember to have seen any where else in Churches. I will not offer at a description of the Glorious Chappel, which as it is without doubt the richest piece of building that perhaps the World ever saw, so it goes on so slow­ly, that though there are always many at work, yet it doth not seem to advance proportionably to the number of the hands that are imployed in it. A­mong [Page 101] the Statues that are to be in it, there is one of the Virgins made by Michael Angelo, which represents her grief at the Passion of her Blessed Son, that hath the most life in it of all the Statues I ever saw.

But the famous Library that belongs to this Con­vent, took up more of my time than all the other Cu­riosities of Florence; for here is a collection of many Manuscripts, most of them are Greek, that were ga­thered together by Pope Clement the VII. and given to his Country: There are very few Printed Books mixed with them; and those Books that are there, are so rare, that they are almost as curious as Manu­scripts. I saw some of Virgils Poems in old Capitals. There is a Manuscript in which some parts both of Tacitus and Apeuleius are written, and in one place, one in a different hand hath writ, that he had com­pared those Manuscripts: and he adds a date to this in Olibrius's time, which is above Twelve hundred Years ago. I found some Dipthongs in it cast into one Letter, which surprized me, for I thought that way of writing of them had not been so ancient: but that which pleased me most, was, that the Library-keeper assured me, that one had lately found the fa­mous Epistle of St. Chrisostomes to Cesarius in Greek, in the end of a Volume full of other things, and not among the Manuscripts of that Fathers Books of which they have a great many. He thought he re­membred well the place where the Book stood; so we turned over all the Books that stood near it, but I found it not: He promised to look it out for me, if I came back that way. But I changing my design, and going back another way, could not see the bottom of this. It is true, the Famous Magliabecchi, who is the Great Dukes Library-keeper, and is a Person of most wonderful civility and full of candour, as well as he is learned beyond imagination, assured me that this could be no other than a mistake of the Library-keep­ers; he said such a discovery could not have been [Page 102] made without making so much noise that he must have heard of it. He added there was not one Man in Florence that either understood Greek, or that exa­mined Manuscripts, so that he assured me I could not build on what an Ignorant Library-keeper had told me: So I set down this matter as I found it without building much on it. Florence is much sunk from what it was, for they do not reckon that there are a­bove Fifty thousand Souls in it: and the other States that were once great Republicks, such as Siena and Pisa, while they retained their liberty, are now shrunk almost into nothing: It is certain that all three together are now not so numerous, as any one of them was Two hundred Years ago. Legorn is full of People; and all round Florence there are a great many Villages; but as one goes over Tuscany it ap­pears so dispeopled, that one cannot wonder to find a Country that hath been a Scene of so much action and so many Wars, now so forsaken and so poor, and that in many places the Soil is quite neglected for want of hands to cultivate it: and in other places where there are more People, they look so poor, and their houses are such miserable ruines, that it is scarce ac­countable how there should be so much poverty in so rich a Country, which is all over full of beggars: and here the style of begging was a little altered from what I found in Lombardy; for whereas there they begged for the sake of S. Anthony, here all begged for the Souls that were in Purgatory, and this was the stile in all the other parts of Italy through which I passed. In short, the dispeopling of Tuscany, and most of the Principalities of Italy, but chiefly of the Popes Dominions, which are more abandoned than any other part of Italy, seemed to flow from nothing but the severity of the Government and the great de­cay of Trade: for the greatest Trade of Italy being in Silk, the vast importation of Silks that the East-India Companies bring into Europe, hath quite ruined all [Page 103] those that deal in this manufacture: Yet this is not the chief cause of the dispeopling of those rich Coun­tries, the severity of the Taxes is the true reason: not­withstanding all that decay of Trade, the Taxes are still kept up. Besides this, the vast Wealth of the Convents, where the only People of Italy are to be sound, that live not only at their ease, but in great plenty and luxury, makes many forsake all sort of In­dustry, and seek for a retreation of those seats of pleasure; so that the People do not encrease fast e­nough to make a new Race to come instead of those whom a hard Government drives away. It must needs surprize an unattentive Traveller to see, not on­ly the Venetian Territory; which is indeed a rich Country, but the Baliages of the Switzers, and the Coast of Genoa so full of People, when Tuscany, the Patrimony, and the Kingdom of Naples have so few Inhabitants. In the Coast of Genoua, there is for many miles as it were a constant tract of Towns and Villages, and all those are well peopled, though they have scarce any Soil at all, lying under the Moun­tains that are very barren, and that exposed them to a most uneasie Sun; and that they lie upon a boi­strous Sea that is almost always in a storm, and that affords very few Fish: and yet the gentleness of the Government draws such multitudes thither, and those are so full of Wealth, that Money goes at Two per cent. But on the other hand to ballance this a little, so strange and wild a thing is the nature of Man, at least of Italians, that I was told that the worst People of all Italy, are the Genoeses, and the most generally corrupted in their Morals, as to all sorts of Vice, so that though a severe Government and Slavery are con­trary to the nature of Man, and to human Society, to Justice and Equity; and to that essential equality that Nature hath made among Men: yet on the other hand, all Men cannot bear that ease and liberty that becometh human Nature. The superstition of Italy, [Page 104] and the great wast of Wealth that one sees in their Churches, particularly those prodigious masses of Plate with which their Altars are covered on Holy-days, doth also sink their Trade extreamly; for Sil­ver being in Commerce, what blood is in the Body, when so much of that is dead and circulates no more; it is no wonder if such extravasation (if I may use so long and hard a word) of Silver, occasions a great deadness in Trade. I had almost forgot one Remark that I made in the Hill of the Appenins, just above Flo­rence, that I never saw such tall and big Cypresses as grew over all that Hill, which seemed a little strange, that Tree being apt to be starved by a cold Winter among us, and there the Winters are severe. All the way in Tuscany is very rugged, except on the sides of the Arne. But the uneasiness of the Road is much qualified by the great care that is had of the High­ways, which are all in very good case: The Inns are wretched and ill furnished both for Lodging and Diet. This is the plague of all Italy, when once one hath passed the Appennins: for, except in the great Towns, one really suffers so much that way, that the pleasure of Travelling is much abated by the inconveniences that one meets in every Stage through which he pas­ses. I am

The Fourth Letter. From Rome the Eight of December. 1685.

I Am now in my last stage of my Voyage over Italy, for since my last from Florence, I have not only got hither, but have been in Naples; and have now satisfied my Curiosity so fully, that I in­tend to leave this Place within a day or two, and go to Civita-vecchia, and from thence by Sea to Marseilles, and to avoid an unpleasant Winters Journey over the Alps. It is true I close the sight of Turin, Genoa, and some other Courts: but tho I am told these deserve well the pains of the Journey; yet when one rises from a great Meal, no Delicacies, how much soever they might tempt him at an other time can provoke his appe­tite: so I confess freely that the sight of Naples and Rome, have so fil'd my stomack that way, that the Curiosity of seeing new Places is now very low with me, and indeed these that I have of last seen are such, that Places which at an other time would please me much, would now make but a slight and cold Im­pression.

All the way from Florence, through the Great Duke's Country looked so sad, that I concluded it [Page 2] must be the most dispeopled of all Italy: but indeed, I changed my Note, when I came into the Popes Terriories at Pont Centino, where there was a rich bottom all uncultivated, and not so much as stocked with Cattle: But as I passed from M. Fiascone to Viterbo, this appeared yet more amazing, for a vast Champion Country lay almost quite deserted. And that wide Town which is of so great a compass, hath yet so few Inhabitants, and those look so poor and miserable, that the people in the Ordinary Towns in Scotland, and in its worst places make a better appearance. When I was within a days Journey of Rome, I fancied that the Neighbourhood of so great a City must mend the matt [...]t: but I was much disappointed, for a soil that was so Rich, and lay so sweetly, that it far exceeded any thing I ever saw out of Italy, had neither Inhabitants in it, nor Cattle upon it, to the tenth part of what it could b [...]ar: The surprize that this gave me, encreased upon me as I went out of Rome on its other side, chiefly all the way to Naples, and on the way to Civita-vecchia, for that vast and rich Champion Countrey that runs all along to Terracina, which from Civi­ta-vecchia is above a hundred miles long, and is in many places twelve or twenty miles broad, is aban­doned to such a degree, that as far as ones eye can carry one, there is often not so much as a House to be seen; but on the Hills that are on the North-side of this Valley, and by this dispeopling of the Country, the Air is now become so unwholesome, that it is not safe to be a night in it all the Summer long, for the Water that lies upon many places not being drained, it rots: and in the Summer this produces so many noisom steams, that it is felt even in Rome it self; and if it were not for the breeses that come from the Mountains, the Air would be intollerable: When one sees all this large but vast Countrey from the Hill of Marino twelve miles beyond Rome, he cannot [Page 3] wonder enough at it. In a word, it is the rigour of the Governm [...]nt, that hath driven away the Inhabi­tants, and their being driven away, hath now re­duced it to such a pass, that it is hardly possible to people it: for such as would come to drain and cultivate it, must run a great hazard, and few can resolve on that, when they can hope for no other reward of their Industry, but an uneasie Government. It is the greatest solaecism in Government for the Prince to be Elective, and yet Absolute; for an He­reditary Prince is induced to consider his posterity, and to maintain his people, so that those that come after him may still support the rank which they hold in the World: But an Elective Prince hath nothing of that in his eye, unless he hath a pitch of generosity which is not ordinary among men, and least of all among Italians, who have a passion for their Fami­lies, which is not known in other places: and thus a Pope, who comes in late to this dignity, which by consequence he cannot hope to hold long, doth very naturally turn to those Councels, by which his Family may make all the Hay they can during this Sun-shine: And tho anciently the Cardinals were a check upon the Pope, and a sort of Councel without whom he could do nothing even in Temporals; yet now they have quite lost that; and they have no other share in affairs than that to which the Pope thinks fit to admit them, so that he is the most absolute Prince in Europe. It is true as to Spirituals they retain still a large share, so that in censures and definitions, the Pope can do nothing regularly, without their con­currence; tho it is certain that they have not so good a Title to pretend to that, as to share in the Temporal Principality. For if the Pope drives any thing from St. Peter, all that, is singly in himself, and it is free to him to pr ceed by what method he thinks best; since the Infallibility, according to their pretensions, rests singly in him: Yet because there was not so [Page 4] much to be got by acting Arbitrarily in those matters, and a Summary way of exercising this Authority, might have tempted the World to have enquired too much into the grounds on which it is built; There­fore the Popes have let the Cardinals retain still a share in this Supremacy over the Church, tho they have no claim to it, neither by any Divine nor Ec­clesiastical warrants: But as for the endowments of the See of Rome, to which they may justly lay claim, as being in a manner the Chapter of that See; there is so much to be got by this, that the Popes have en­grossed it wholly to themselves: and thus it is that the Government of this Principality, is very unsteady. Sometimes the Pope's Family are extreamly glorious, and magnificent, at other times, they think of no­thing but of establishing their house: Sometimes the Pope is a man of sense himself; Sometimes he is quite sunk, and as the last Pope was, he become a Child again through old age: Sometimes he hath a parti­cular stifness of temper, with a great slowness of understanding, and an infatiable desire of heaping up wealth, which is the character of him that now Reigns. By this diversity which appears eminently in every new Pontificate that commonly avoids those exc [...]sses that made the former Reign odious, the Councels of the Popedome are weak and disjointed. But if this is sensible to all Europe, with relation to the general concerns of that Body, it is much more visible in the Principality it self, that is subject to so variable a head. There hath been in this Age a succession of four ravenous Reigns, and tho there was a short interruption in the Reign of the Rospi­gliosi, that coming after the Barberins, the Pamphili, and the Ghigi's, did inrich it self: and yet it disor­dered the Revenue by the vast magnificence in which he Reigned, more in twenty nine months time, than any other had done in so many years. The Altieri did, in a most scandalous manner, raise themselves [Page 5] in a very short and dispised Reign, and built one of the Noblest Palaces in Rome. He that Reigns now doth not indeed raise his Family avowedly, but he doth not ease the people of their Taxes: and as there is no magnificence in his Court, nor any publick buildings now carrying on at Rome, so the many vacant Caps, occasion many empty Palaces: and by this means there is so little expence now made at Rome, that it is not possible for the people to live and pay the Taxes, which hath driven, as is believed, almost a fourth part of the Inhabitants out of Rome, during this Pontificate. And as the pre-emption of the Corn makes that there is no profit made by the Owners, out of the cultivation of the Soil, all that going wholly to the Pope, so there are no ways left here of employing one's Mony to any considerable advantage: For the publick Banks, which are all in the Pope's hand, do not pay in effect three per cent tho they pretend to give four per cent of interest. The settlement is indeed four per cent, and this was thought so great an advantage, that actions on the Pope's Bank were bought at a hundred and Sixteen the hundred. But this Pope broke through all this, and d [...]clared he would give all men their Money again, unless they would pay him thirty per cent for the continuing of this Interest; and thus for a hundred Crowns Principal, one not only paid at first one hundred and sixteen; but afterwards thirty, in all one hundred six and forty for the hundred which is almost the half lost: For whensoever the Pope will pay them back their Money, all the rest is lost: And while I am here there is a report that the Pope is Treating with the Genoeses for Money at two per cent and if he gets it on those Terms, then he will pay his Debts; and the Subjects that have put in Money in this Bank, will, by this means lose six and forty per cent, which is almost the half of their Stock. A man of quality at Rome, and an eminent Church-man, [Page 6] who took me likewise for one of their Clergy, because I wore the habit of a Church-man, said that it was a horrible scandal to the whole Christian World, and made one doubt of the Truth of the Christian Religion, to see more oppression and cruelty in their Territory, then was to be found even in Turkey: tho it being in the hands of Christ's Vicar, one should expect to find there the pattern of a mild and gentle Government: and how said he can a man expect to find his Religion here, where the common maxims of Justice and Mercy were not so much as known: And I can never forget the lively reflection that a Roman Prince made to me upon the folly of all those severe Oppressions, which as they drive away the Inhabitants, so they reduce those that are left to such a degeneracy of Spirit by their necessities, that the Spaniards, whose Dominions look so big in the Map, are now brought so low: and if they had kept still the possession they once had of the Ʋnited-Nether­lands, they would signifie no more towards their preservation, than their other Provinces did: which, by their unskilful conduct they have both dispeopled and exhausted: Whereas by their losing those seven Provinces, those States have fallen upon such wise Notions of Government, and have drawn so much Wealth, and such numbers of people together, that Spain it self was now preserved by them, and was saved in this Age by the loss it made of those Pro­vinces in the last: and those States that if they had remained subject to Spain, would have signified little to its support, did that now much more considerably by being Allies, then they could have done if they had shaken off their Yoak.

Indeed, if Spain had been so happy as to have such Viceroys and Governors, as it has now in Nap [...]es, their affairs could not have declined so fast as they have done. The Marquess of Carpi, in his youth in­tended to have taken so severe a revenge of an injury [Page 7] that he thought the late King of Spain did him in an amour, that he designed the blowing him up by Gun­powder, when he was in the Council Chamber: but that crime was discovered in time, and was not only forgiven him in consideration of the greatness of his Family, he being the Son of Don Lewis de Haro: but after that he was made for several years Ambassa­dor in Rome: He is now Viceroy of Naples, and is the only Governor of all the places through which I passed, that is, without exception beloved and esteemed by all sorts of people: for during the few years of his Ministry, he hath redressed such abuses that seemed past cure, and that required an Age to correct them: He hath repressed the insolence of the Spaniards so much at Naples, that the Natives have no occasion to complain of the haughtiness of their Masters: for he proceeds against the Spaniards with no less severity, when they give cause for it, than against the Neapolitans: He hath taken the pay of the Souldiers so immediately into his own care, that they, who before his coming were half naked, and robbed, such as passed on the streets of Naples in day light, are now exactly payed, well disciplined, and so decently cloathed, that it is a pleasure to see them: He examines their Musters also so exactly, that he is sure not to be cheated by false lists: He hath brought the Markets and Weights of Naples to a true exact­ness: And whereas the Bread was generally too light, he has sent for Loaves out of the several places of the Markets and weighed them himself: And by some severe punishment on those that sold the Bread too light, he hath brought this matter to a just regulation: He hath also brought the Courts of Judicature, that were thought generally very corrupt, to reputation aga [...]n, and it is believed, he hath Spies to VVatch in case the Trade of Bribes is found to be still going on: He hath fortified the Palace which was before his time, so much exposed, [Page 8] that it would have been no hard thing to have mad [...] a descent upon it: But the two things that raise his reputation most, are his Extirpating of the Banditi, and the regulation of the Coin, which he hath taken in hand. It is well enough known what a Plague the Banditi have been to the Kingdom, for they go­ing in Troops, not only robbed the Country, but were able to resist an ordinary Body of Souldiers, if they had set on them: These travelled about, seek­ing for Spoyl all the Summer long, but in Winter they were harboured by some of the Neapolitan Bar­rons, who gave them Quarters: And thereby did not only protect their own Lands, but had them as so many Instruments ready to execute their Revenges on their Enemies. This was well known at Naples, and there was a Councel that had the care of the re­ducing the Banditi committed to them, who as they catched some few, and hanged them, so they fined such Barrons as gave them harbour; and it was be­lieved that those Fines amounted to near a hundred and fifty thousand Crowns a year: And thus the Di­sease went on; only now and then there was a little Blood let, which never went to the bottom of the Distemper. But when the present Viceroy entred upon the Government, he resolved to extirpate all the Banditi, and he first let all the Barons under­stand, that if they harboured them any more, a little Fine would not save them: but that he would pro­ceed against them with the utmost severity, and by this means the Banditi could find no Winter Quar­ters: So they betook themselves to some fastnesses among the Hills, and resolved to make good the Passes, and to accommodate themselves the best they could amidst the Mountains. The Viceroy sent a great Body against them, but they defended them­selves for some time vigorously, and in one Sally they killed five hundred men: but at last, seeing that they were like to be hard prest; and that the Viceroy [Page 9] intended to come against them in Person, they ac­cepted of the Terms that he offered them, which was a Pardon for what was past, both as to Life and Gallies, and six pence a day for their entertainment in Prison during Life, or the Viceroys pleasure; and so they rendred themselves. They are kept in a large Prison, and now and then as he sees cause for it, he sends some few of them up and down to serve in Garrisons. And thus, beyond all mens expecta­tion, he finished this matter in a very few months: and the Kingdom of Naples that hath been so long a scene of Pillage and Robbery, is now so much changed, that in no place of Europe do the Subjects enjoy a more entire security, As for the Coin, its as all the other Spanish money, is so subject to clip­ping, that the whole money of Naples is now light, and far below the true Value, so the Viceroy hath re­solved to redress this: He considers that the crying down of money, that passeth upon the Publick cre­dit, is a robbing of those in whose hands the money happens to be when such Proclamations are put out, and therefore he takes a method that is more general, in which every one will bear his share, so that none will be crushed by it. He hath laid some Taxes on the whole Kingdom, and hath got a great many to bring in some Plate to be Coined: And when he hath thus prepared such a quantity, as may serve for the circulation that is necessary, he intends to call in all the old money, and to give out new money for it. Thus doth this Viceroy, set such a Pattern to the other Ministers of the Crown of Spain, that if many would follow it, the State of their affairs would be soon altered.

The Kingdom of Naples is the richest part of all Italy: for the very Mountains that are near the half of the Soil, are fruitful, and produce either Wine or Oyl in great abundance. Apulia is a great Corn Countrey, but is excessive hot, and in some years all [Page 10] is burnt up. The Jesuits are the Proprietors of near the half of Apulia, and they treat their Tenants with the same rigour that the Barons of this King­dom do generally use towards their Farmers; for the Commons here are so miserably oppressed, that in many places they die of hunger, even amidst the great plenty of their best years, for the Corn is ex­ported to Spain: but neither the Spaniards nor the Neapolitans understand Trade so well as to be their own Merchants or Carriers, so that the English do generally carry away the profit of this Trade. The Oyl of this Kingdom is still a vast Trade, and the Manufacture of the Wool and Soap of England, consum [...]s yearly some thousands of Tuns. The Silk Trade is so low that it only serves themselves, but the exportation is inconsiderable: the sloth and lazi­ness of this people renders them incapable of making those advantages of so rich a Soil, that a more indu­strious sort of people would find out: For it amazes a Stranger to see in their little Towns, the whole men of the Town walking in the Market places in their torn Cloaks, and doing nothing; and tho in some big Towns, such as Capua, there is but one Inn, yet even that is so miserable, that the best Room and Bed in it, is so bad, that our Footmen in England would make a grievous out-cry if they were no better lodged: nor is there any thing to be had in them: the Wine is intollerable, the Bread ill baked, no Victuals, except Pigeons, and the Oyl is rotten. In short, except one carries his whole provision from Rome or Naples, he must resolve to endure a good deal of misery in the four days journey that is be­tween those two places. And this is what a Tra­veller, that sees the riches of the soil, cannot com­prehend: but as they have not hands enough for their Soil, so those they have are generally too little em­ployed, that it is no wonder to see their Soil produce so little, that in the midst of all that abundance that [Page 11] Nature hath set before them, they are one of the poorest Nations of Europe. But besides this, which I have named, the vast and dead wealth that is in the hands of the Churchmen, is another evident cause of their misery. One that knew the State of this King­dom well, assured me, that if it were divided into five parts, upon a strict Survey, it would be found that the Churchmen had four parts of the five; which he made out thus, they have in Soil above the half of the whole, which is two and a half: and in Tithes and Gifts and Legacies they have one and a half more: for no man dieth without leaving a consider­able Legacy to some Church or some Convent. The Wealth that one sees in the City of Naples alone, passeth imagination; there are four and twenty Hou­ses of the Order of the Dominicans, of both Sexes, and two and twenty of the Franciscans, seven of the Jesuites, b [...]sides the Convents of the Olivitanes, the Theatines, the Carmelites, the Benedictines, and a­bove all, for scituation and riches, the Carthusians on the top of the Hill that lyeth over the Town. The riches of the Annunciata are prodigious: It is the greatest Hospital in the World, the Revenue is said to be four hundred thousand Crowns a year: the number of the Sick is not so great as at Milan: Yet one convenience for their Sick I observed in their Galleries, which was considerable, that every Bed stood as in an Alcove, and had a Wall on both sides separating it from the Beds on both hands, and as much void space of both sides of the Bed, that the Bed it self took up but half the Room. The young Children that they maintain are so many, that one can hardly believe the numbers that they boast of: for they talk of many thousands that are not seen, but are at Nurse: a great part of the Wealth of this House goeth to the enriching their Church, which will be all over within crusted with inlayings of love­ly Marble, in a great variety and beauty of colours: [Page 12] The Plate that is in the Treasure here and in the Dome (which is but a mean building, because it is ancient, but hath a Noble Chappel, and a vast Trea­sure) and in a great many other Churches are so prodigious, that upon the modest estimate, the Plate of the Churches of Naples amounts to eight millions of Crowns. The new Church of the Je­suits, that of S. John the Apostle, and that of S. Paul are surprizingly rich; the Gilding and Painting that is on the Roofs of those Churches have cost millions: And as there are about a hundred Convents in Na­ples, so every one of these, if it were in another place, would be thought well worth seeing, tho the riches of the greater Convents here, make many of them to be less visited. Every year there is a new Governour of the Annunciata, who perhaps puts in his own Pocket twenty thousand Crowns; and to make some compensation when he goeth out of Of­fice, he giveth a vast piece of Plate to the House, a Statue for a Saint in Silver, or some Coloss of a Candlestick; for several of those Pieces of Plate, are said to be worth ten thousand Crowns; and thus all the Silver of Naples becomes dead and useless: The Jesuits are great Merchants here: their Wine Cellar is a vast Vault, and holds above a thousand Hogs­heads, and the best Wine of Naples is sold by them, yet they do not retail it out so scandalously as the Minims, who live on the great Square before the Vice­roys Palace, and sell out their Wine by retail: They pay no duty, and have extraordinary good Wine, and are in the best place of the Town for this retail. It is true the Neapolitans are no great Drinkers, so the profits of this Tavern are not so great as they would be in colder Countries: for here men go only in for a draught in the mornings, or when they are a thirst. Yet the House groweth extream rich, and hath one of the finest Chappels that is in all Naples; but the Trade seems very unbecoming men of that Profession, [Page 13] and of so strict an Order. The Convents have a very particular Priviledge in this Town; for they may buy all the Houses that lye on either side, till the first street that discontinueth the Houses; and there being scarce a street in Naples in which there is not a Convent; by this means, they may come to buy in the whole Town: And the progress that the wealth of the Clergy makes in this Kingdom, is so visible, that, if there is not some stop put to it, within an Age, they will make themselves Masters of the whole Kingdom: It is an amazing thing to see so profound an ignorance, as Reigns among the Clergy, prevail so effectually, for tho all the Secular Persons here speak of them with all possible scorn, yet they are the Masters of the Spirits of the people. The Women are infinitely superstitious, and give their Husbands no rest, but as they draw from them great presents to the Church. It is true, there are Societies of men at Naples of freer thoughts than can be found in any other place of Italy: The Greek learning begins to flourish there, and the new Philosophy is much Stu­died; and there is an Assembly that is held in D. Jo­seph Valleta's Library (where there is a vast Col­lection of well chosen Books) composed by men that have a right taste of true learning and good sense: They are ill looked on by the C [...]ergy, and repre­sented as a set of Ath [...]ists, and as the spawn of Pom­ponatius's School: But I found no such thing [...]m [...]ng them, for I had the Honour to meet twice or thrice with a considerable number of them, during th [...] short stay that I made among them: There is a l [...]rned Lawyer Francisco Andria that is c [...]nside e [...] as one of the most inquisitive men of the Ass [...]m [...]ly: There is also a Grand-child of the Great Alciat, who is very curious as well as learned. Few Churchmen come in to this att [...]mpt for the reviving of Learning among them: On the contrary, it is plain, that th [...]y dread it above all things. O [...]ly one Eminent Preacher [Page 14] Rinaldi, that is Arch-deacon of Capua, Associates himself with them: He was once of the Jesuites Or­der, but left it; and as that alone served to give a good character of him to me, so upon a long conver­sation with him, I found a great many other things that possessed me with a high value for him. Some Physitians in Naples are brought under the scandal of Atheism, and it is certain, that in Italy, men of search­ing understandings, who have no other Idea of the Christian Religion, but that which they see received among them, are very naturally tempted to disbe­lieve it quite; for they believing it all alike in gross, without distinction, and finding such notorious cheats as appear in many parts of their Religion, are upon that induced to disbelieve the whole. The Preach­ings of the Monks in Naples are terrible things. I saw a Jesuite go in a sort of a Procession, with a great company about him, and calling upon all that he saw, to follow him to a place where a Mounte-bank was selling his Medicines, near whom he took his Room, and entertained the people with a sort of a Farce, till the Mountebank got him to give over; fearing least his action should grow tedious, and dis­perse the comp [...]ny that was brought together. There are no famous Preachers, nor men of any reputation nor learning among the Jesuites: I was told they had not men capable to teach their Schools, and that they were forced to hire Strangers: The Order of the O­ratory hath not that reputation in Italy, that it hath gain [...]d in France, and the little Learning that is among the Clergy in Naples, is among some few Se­cular Priests.

The new method of Molinos doth so much prevail in Naples, that it is believed he hath above twenty thousand followers in this City: And since this hath made some noise in the World, and yet is generally but little understood, I will give you some account of him: He is a Spanish Priest that seems to be but [Page 15] an ordinary Divine, and is certainly a very ill Rea­soner when he undertakes to prove his opinions: He hath writ a Book, which is intituled, Il Guida Spiri­tuale, which is a short abstract of the Mystical Divi­nity; the substance of the whole, is reduced to this, that in our Prayers and other Devotions, the best me­thods are to retire the mind from all gross Images, and so to form an act of Faith, and thereby to present our selves before God, and then to sink into a si­lence and cessation of new acts, and to let God act upon us, and so to follow his conduct: This way he prefers to the multiplication of many new acts, and different forms of Devotion; and he makes small account of corporal austerities, and reduces all the exercises of Religion to this simplicity of mind: He [...]hinks this is not only to be proposed to such as live [...]n Religious Houses, but even to secular persons, and by this he hath proposed a great Reformation of mens minds and manners: He hath many Priests in Italy, but chiefly in Naples, that dispose those who confess [...]hemselves to them, to follow his methods: The Jesuits have set themselves much against this con­duct, as foreseeing that it may much weaken the Empire that Superstition hath over the minds of people, that it may make Religion become a more plain and simple thing, and may also open a door to Enthusiasms: They also pretend, that his conduct [...]s factious and seditious, that this may breed a Schism [...]n the Church. And because he saith in some places of his Book, That the mind may rise up to such a simplicity in its acts, that it may rise in some of its Devotions to God immediately, without contem­plating the Humanity of Christ: they have accused him, as intending to lay a side the Doctrine of Christ's Humanity, tho it is plain that he speaks only of the purity of some single acts: Upon all those heads they have set themselves much against Molinos; and they have also pretended that some of his Disciples, have [Page 16] infused it into their Penitents, that they may go and Communicate as they find themselves disposed, with­out going first to Confession, which they thought weakned much the Yoke, by which the Priests sub­due the Consciences of the people to their Conduct: Yet he was much supported both in the Kingdom of Naples and in Sicily; He had also many friends and followers at Rome. So the Jesuites, as a Provincial of the Order assured me, finding they could not ruine him by their own force, got a great King, that is now extreamly in the Interests of their Order to interpose, and to represent to the Pope the danger of such innovations. It is certain the Pope understands the matter very little, and that he is possessed with a great opinion of Molino's sanctity, yet upon the complaints of some Cardinals, that seconded the zeal of that King, he and some of his followers were clapt in the Inquisition, where they have been now for some months, but they are still well used, which is believed to flow from the good opinion that the Pope hath of him, who saith still, that tho he may have erred, yet he is certainly a good man: Upon this imprisonment, Pasquin said a pleasant thing in one week, one man had been condemned to the Gal­lies for somewhat he had said, another had been hanged for somewhat he had writ, and Molinos was clapt in Prison, whose Doctrine consisted chiefly in this, that men ought to bring their minds to a State of inward quietness, from which the name of Quietisis was given to all his followers: The Pasquinade upon all this, was, Si parliamo, in Galere, si scrivem­mo Impiccati, si stiamo in quiete all' Saint' Officio, e che bisogna fare: If we speak, we are sent to the Gal­lies; if we write, we are hanged: if we stand quiet, we are clapt up in the Inquisition: what must we do then? Yet his Followers at Naples are not daun [...]ed but they believe he will come out of this Trial victo­rious.

The City of Naples, as it is the best scituated, and in the best climate, so it is one of the Noblest Cities of Europe, and if it is not above half as big as Paris or London, yet it hath much more beauty then either of them: the Streets are large and broad, the pave­ment is great and Noble, the Stones being generally above a foot square: and it is full of Palaces and great Buildings: The Town is well supplied by dai­ly Markets, so that provisions are ever fresh and in great plenty, the Wine is the best of Europe, and both the Fish and Flesh is extream good: it is scarce ever cold in Winter, and there is a fresh Air comes both from the Sea and the Mountains in Summer. The Viceroys Palace is no extraordinary Building, only the Stair-case is great: But it is now very rich­ly furnished within, in Pictures and Statues: there are in it some Statues of the Aegyptian Deities of Touchstone, that are of great value: There are no great Antiquities here, only there is an ancient Ro­man Portico that is very Noble, before St. Pauls Church: But without the City near the Church and Hospital of St. Gennaro, that is without the Gates, are the Noble Catacombs; which because they were beyond any thing I saw in Italy, and to which the Catacombs of Rome are not to be compared, and since I do nor find any account of them, in all the Books that I have yet seen concerning Naples, I shall de­scribe them more particularly.

They are vast and long Galleries cut out of the Rock: there are three Stories of them one above another. I was in two of them, but the Rock is fallen in the lowest, so that one cannot go in to it, but I saw the passage to it: These Galleries are ge­nerally about twenty foot broad, and about fifteen foot high: so that they are Noble and spacious places, and not little and narrow as the Catacombs at Rome, which are only three or four foot broad, and five or six foot high. I was made be [...]ieve that [Page 18] these Catacombs of Naples, went into the Rock nine mile long; but for that I have it only by report: yet if that be true, they may perhaps run towards Puzzolo, and so they may have been the burial places of the Towns on that Bay; but of this I have no certainty. I walked indeed a great way, and found Galleries going off in all hands without end, and whereas in the Roman Catacombs there are not above three or four rows of niches that are cut out in the Rock one over another, into which the dead bodies were laid; Here there are generally six or seven rows of those niches, and they are both larger and higher; some niches are for Childrens bodies, and in many places there are in the Floors, as it were great Chests hewn out of the Rock, to lay the bones of the dead as they dried, in them; but I could see no marks either of a cover for th [...]se holes that looked like the bellies of Chests, or of a facing to shut up the niches when a dead body was laid in them; so that it seems they were monstrous unwholesome and stinking places, where some thousands of bodies lay rotting, without any thing to shut in so loathsome a sight, and so odious a smell: For the niches shew plainly that the Bodies were laid in them only wrapt in the dead cloaths, they being too low for Coffins. In some places of the Rock there is as it were a little Chappel hewen out in the Rock, that goes off from the common Gallery, and there are niches all round about; but I saw no marks of any Wall that shut in such places, tho I am apt to think these might be burying places appropriated to particular families. There is in some places on the Walls and Arch, Old Mosaick work, and some Painting, the Colours are fresh, and the manner and Characters are Gothick, which made me conclude that this might have been done by the Normans about six hundred years ago, after they drove out the Saracens: In some places there are Palm-trees painted, and Vines in other [Page 19] places. The freshness of the Colours shews these could not have been done while this place was im­ployed for burying, for the steams and rottenness of the Air, occasioned by so much corruption, must have dissolved both Plaister and Colours. In one place there is a man Painted with a little beard, and Paulus is written by his head: there is another reaching him a Garland, and by his head Laud is written, and this is repeated in another place right over against it. In another place I found a cross Painted, and about the upper part of it these Letters J. C. X. O. and in the lower part N J K A are Painted: A learned Antiquary that went with me, agreed with me that the manner of the Paint­ing and Characters did not seem to be above six hun­dred years old, but neither of us knew what to make of these Letters: The lower seemed to relate to the last word of the Vision, which it is said that Con­stantine saw with the Cross that appeared to him: But tho the first two Letters might be for Jesus, it being ordinary in old Coins and Inscriptions to put a C. for an S. and X. stands for Christ, yet we knew not what to make of the O. unless it were for the Greek Theta, and that the little line in the bosom of the Theta was worn out, and then it stands for Theos; and thus the whose Inscription is, Jesus Christ, God overcometh. Another Picture in the Wall had written over it S. Johannes, which was a cl [...]ar sign of a barbarous Age: In another place there is a Picture high in the Wall, and three Pictures under it, that at top had no Inscription; those below it had these Inscriptions, S. Katharina, S. Agape, and S. Mar­garita; these Letters a [...]e clearly modern, besides that, Margaret and Katherine are modern names, and the addition of ta a little above the S. were manifest Evidences that the highest Antiquity that can be ascribed to this Painting is six hundred years. I saw no more Painting, and I began to grow weary of the [Page 20] darkness, and the thick Air of the place, so I staid not above an hour in the Catacombs. This made me reflect more particularly on the Catacombs of Rome than I had done, I could imagine no reason why so little mention is made of those of Naples, when there is so much said concerning those of Rome; and could give my self no other account of the matter, but that it being a maxim to keep up the reputation of the Roman Catacombs, as the Repositories of the Reliques of the primitive Christians, it would have much lessened their credit, if it had been thought that there were Catacombs far beyond them in all respects, that yet cannot be supposed to have been the work of the primitive Christians; and indeed, nothing seems more evident than that these were the common burying places of the ancient Heathens. One enters into them without the Walls of the Towns, according to the Laws of the twelve Tables, and such are the Catacombs of Rome that I saw, which were those of S. Agnes and S. Sebastian, the entry into them being without the Town; this an­swers the Law, tho in effect they run under it, for in those days when they had not the use of the needle, they could not know which way they car­ried on those works when they were once so far in­gaged under ground as to lose themselves. It is a vain imagination to think that the Christians, in the primitive times, were able to carry on such a work; for as this prodigious digging into such Rocks, must have been a very visible thing by the Mountaines of Rubbish that must have been brought out, and by the vast number of hands that must have been employed in it; so it is absurd to think that they could hold their Assemblies amidst the annoyance of so much cor­ruption. I found the steams so strong, that tho I am as little subject to vapours as most men, yet I had all the day long after I was in them, (which was not near an hour) a confusion, and as it were a boil­ing [Page 21] in my head, that disordered me extreamly; and if there is now so much stagnating Air there, this must have been sensible in a more eminent and in­sufferable manner, while there were vast numbers of bodies rotting in those niches. But besides this im­probability that presents it self from the nature of the thing, I called to mind a passage of a Letter of Cornelius that was Bishop of Rome, after the middle of the third Century, which is preserved by Eusebius in his sixth Book, Chapter 43. in which we have the State of the Church of Rome at that time set forth. There were forty six Presbiters, seven Dea­cons, as many Sub-deacons, and ninety four of the Inferiour Orders of the Clergy among them: there were also fifteen hundred Widows, and other poor maintained out of the publick Charities. It may be reasonably supposed that the numbers of the Chri­stians were as great when this Epistle was writ, as they were at any time before Constantine's dayes; for as this was writ at the end of that long peace, of which both S. Cyprian and Lactantius speak, that had continued above a hundred years; so after this time, there was such a succession of Persecutions that came so thick one upon another, after short intervals of quiet, that we cannot think the numbers of the Christians increased much beyond what they were at this time. Now there are two particulars in this State of the Clergy, upon which one may make a probable estimate of the numbers of the Christians, the one is their poor, which were but fifteen hundred, now upon an exact survey, it will be found that where the poor are well looked to, their number rises generally to be the thirtieth or fortieth part of mankind; and this may be well believed to be the proportion of the poor among the Christians of that Age: For as their Charity was vigorous and tender, so we find Celsus, Julian, Lucian, Porphiry, and others, object this to the Christians of that time, that [Page 22] their Charities to the poor drew vast numbers of the lower sort among them, who made themselves Christi­ans that they might be supplied by their Brethren: So that this being the State of the Christians then, we may reckon the poor the thirtieth part, and so fifteen hundred multiplied by thirty, produce five and forty thousand: And I am the more inclined to think that this rises up near to the full sum of their numbers, by the other Character of the numbers of the Clergy, for as there were forty six Presbyters, so there were ninety four of the inferior Orders, who were by two more then the double of the number of the Priests; and this was in a time in which the care of Souls was more exactly looked after, then it has been in the more corrupted Ages, the Clergy having then really more work on their hands, the instructing of their Catechumenes, the visiting their Sick, and the supporting and comforting the weak, being tasks that required so much application, that in so vast a City as Rome was in those dayes, in which it is pro­bable the Christians were scattered over the City, and mixed in all the parts of it, we make a conjecture that is not ill grounded, when we reckon that every Presbyter had perhaps abou [...] a thousand Souls com­mitted to his care, so this rises to six and forty thou­sand, which comes very near the sum that may be gathered from the other hint, taken from the number of their poor. So that about fifty thousand is the highest [...]ccount to which we can reasonably raise the numbers of the Christians of Rome in that time; and of so many persons, the old, the young, and the women, make more then three fourth parts, so that men that were in condition to work were not above twelve thousand, and by consequence, they were in no condition to undertake and carry on so vast a work. If Cornelius in that Letter speaks of the numbers of the Christians in excessive Terms, and if Tertullian in his Apologetick hath also set out the numbers of the [Page 23] Christians of his time, in a very high strain, that is only to be ascribed to a pompous Eloquence, which disposeth people to magnifie their own party; and we must allow a good deal to a hyperbole that is very natural to all that set forth their forces in general Terms. It is true, it is not so clear when those vast cavities were dug out of the Rocks. We know that when the Laws of the twelve Tables were made, sepulture was then in use: and Rome being then grown to a vast bigness, no doubt they had reposi­tories for their dead; so that since none of the Roman Authors mention any such work, it may not be unrea­sonable to Imagine that these Vaults had been wrought and cut out from the first beginnings of the City, and so th [...] latter Authors had no occasion to take notice of it. It is also certain, that tho burning came to be in use among the Romans, yet they re­turned back to their first custome of burying bodies long before Constantines time; so that it was not the Christian Religion that produced this change: All our modern Writers take it for granted that the change was made in the times of the Antonines; yet there being no Law made concerning it, and nu mention being made in an Age, full of Writers, of any orders that were given for burying places, Velserus's opinion seems more probable, that the custome of burning wore out by degrees, and since we are sure that they once buryed, it is more natural to think that the slaves and the meaner sort of people were still buried, that being a less expence, and a more simple way of bestowing their bodies [...]han burning, which was both pompous and chargeable, and (i [...] there were already burying places prepared) it is much easier to Imagine how the custome of burying grew Universal, without any Law made concerning it.

I could not for some time find out upon what grounds the Modern Criticks take it for granted, that burying began in the times of the Antonines, till I [Page 24] had the happiness to talk of this matter with the learned Gronovius, who seems to be such a Master of all the Antient learning, as if he had the Authors lying alwayes open before him: He told me, that it was certain the change from burning to burying was not made by the Christian Emperours, for Macrobius, (lib. 7. chap. 7.) sayes, in plain terms, that the Cu­stome of burning the Bodies of the Dead was quite worn out in that Age, which is a clear Intimation that it was not laid aside so late as by Constantine, and as there was no Law made by him on that head, so he, and the succeeding Emperours, gave such an entire tolleration to Paganism, admitting those of that Religion to the greatest Imployments, that it is not to be imagined that there was any order given against burning; so that it is clear the Heathens had changed it of their own accord, otherwayes we should have found that among the complaints that they made of the grievances, under which they lay from the Christians; but it is more difficult to fix the time when this change was made. Gronovius shewed me a passage of Phlegons, that mentions the Bodies that were laid in the ground, yet he did not build on that, for it may have relation to the customs of burying that might be elsewhere. And so Petro­nius gives the account of the burial of the Ephesian Matrons Husband: but he made it apparent to me, that burying was commonly practised in Commodus's time; for Xiphilinus tells us, that in Pertinax's time the friends of those whom Commodus had ordered to be put to Dea [...]h, had dug up their Bodies, some bringing out only some parts of them, and others raising their entire Bodies. The same Author also tells us, that Pertinax buried Commodus's Body, and so saved it from the rage of the peop [...]e, and here is a positive Evidence, that burying was the common pra [...]tise of that time. It is true, it is very probable that as we see some of the Roman Families continued [Page 25] to bury their dead, ev'n when burning was the more common custome, so, perhaps, others continued af­ter this to burn their dead, the thing being Indiffe­rent, and no Law being made about it, and there­fore it was particularly objected to the Christians af­ter this time, that they abhorred the custome of burning the Bodies of the Dead, which is mentio­ned by Minutius Felix, but this, or any other evi­dences, that may be brought from Meddals of Conse­crations after this time, will only prove that some were still burnt, and that the Christians practised burying Universally, as expressing their belief of the Resurrection; whereas the Heathens held the thing indifferent. It is also clear from the many genuine Inscriptions that have been found in the Catacombs, which bear the dates of the Consuls, that these were the common Burial places of all the Christians of the fourth and fifth Century; for I do not remember that there is any one date that is Antienter, and yet not one of the Writers of those Ages speak of them as the work of the Primitive Christians. They speak indeed of the Burial places of the Martyrs, but that will prove no more but that the Christians might have had their Quarters, and their Walks in those common Burial places where they laid their Dead, and which might have been known among them, tho it is not likely that they would in times of persecuti­ons make such Inscriptions as might have exposed the Bodies of their dead Friends to the rage of their Ene­mies. And the Spurious acts of some Saints and Martyrs are of too little credit to give any support to the common Opinion. Damasus's Poetry is of no better authority. And th [...] those Ages were inclined enough to give credit to Fables, yet it seems this of those Catacombs having been the work of the Pri­mitive Christians, was too gross a thing to have been so early imposed on the World. And this silence in an Age, in which Superstition was going on at so great a [Page 26] rate, has much force in it, for so vast a Work, a [...] those Catacombs are, must have been well known to all the Romans. It were easie to carry this much further, and to shew that the bas reliefs that have been found in some of those Catacombs, have no­thing of the beauty of the Ancient and Roman time. This is also more discernable in many Inscriptions that are more Gothick then Roman, and there are so many Inscriptions relating to Fables, that it is plain these were of later times, and we see by St Jerom, that the Monks began, even in his time, to drive a Trade of Reliques; so it is no wonder, that to raise the credit o [...] such a heap as was never to be ex­hausted, they made some miserable Sculptures, and some Inscriptions; and perhaps, shut up the entries into them with much care and secresy, intending to open them upon some dream or other Artifice, to give them the more reputation, which was often practised in order to the drawing much Wealth and great Devotion, even to some single Relique; and a few being upon this Secret, either those might have died, or by the many revolutions that hapned in Rome, they might have been dispersed before they made the discovery: And thus the knowledge of those places was lost, and came to be discovered by accident in the last Age, and hath ever since supplied them with an inexhaustible Magazine of Bones, wh [...]ch by all appearance are no other then the Bones of the Pagan Romans; which are now sent over the World to feed a Superstition that is as blind as it proves expensive. And thus the Bones of the Roman Slaves, or at least those of the meaner sort, are now set in Silver and Gold with a great deal of other cost­ly garniture, and entertain the superstition of those who are willing to be deceived, as well as they serve the ends of those that seek to deceive the World. But because it cannot be pretended that there was such a number of Christians at Naples as could have wrought [Page 27] such Catacombs, and if it had been once thought that those were the common Burial places of the ancient Heathens, that might have induced the World to think that the Roman Catacombs were no other; therefore, there hath been no care taken to examine these. I thought this deserved a large Discourse, and therefore I have dwelt perhaps a little too long on this Subject. I will not enter upon a long Descrip­tion of that which is so well known as Mount Vesu­vio, it had roared so loud about a month before I came to Naples, that at Naples they could hardly sleep in the Nights, and some old Houses were so shaken by the Earthquake that was occasioned by this convulsion of the Hill, that they fell to the ground: And the last eruption, above fifty years ago, was so terrible, that there was no small fear in Naples, tho it lies at the distance of seven miles from the Hill, yet the Storm was choaked under ground; for tho it smoakt much more than ordinary, yet there was no eruption: It was, indeed, smoaking not only in the mouth of the little Mount that is formed within the great wast that the Fire hath made, but also all a­long the bottom, that is between the outward mouth of this Mountain, which is four miles in com­pass; and that inward Hill. When one sees the mouth of this Fire, and so great a part of the Hill, which is covered some foot deep with Ashes and Stones of a metallick composition, that the Fire throws out, he cannot but stand amazed, and won­der what can be the fuel of so lasting a burning, that hath calcined so much matter, and sp [...]wed out such prodigious quantities. It is plain there are vast Veins of Sulphur all along in his Soil, and it seems in this Mountain they run along through some Mines and Rocks, and as their sl [...]w consumption, produ­ceth a perpetual smoke, so when the Air within is so much ratified, that it must o [...]en it self, it throws up those masses of Mettle and Rock that shut it in; [Page 28] but how this Fire draws in Air to nourish its Flame, is not so easily apprehended, unless there is either a conveyance of Air under ground, by some undisco­vered vacuity, or a more insensible transmission of Air, through the pores of the Earth. The heat of this Hill operates so much upon the Soil that lies up­on it toward the foot of it, that it produceth the richest Wine about Naples, and it also purifieth the Air so much, that the Village at bottom is thought the best Air of the Countrey, so that many come from Naples thither for their health. Ischia, that is an Island not far from Naples, doth also sometimes spew out fire.

On the other side of Naples to the West, one passeth through the Cave that pierceth the Pausalippe, and is four hundred and forty paces long, for I walk­ed it on foot to take its true measure, it is twenty foot broad, and at first forty foot high; but after­wards it is but twenty foot high; the Stone cut out here is good for building, so that as this opened the way from Puzzoli to Naples, it was also a Quarry for the building of the Town: All along the way here one discovers a strange boiling within the ground, for a little beyond this grot of Pausalippe, as we come near the lake of Aniano, there is of the one hand, a bath occasioned by a steam that riseth so hot out of the ground, that as soon as one goeth a little into it, he finds himself all over in a sweat, which is very proper for some Diseases, especi­ally that which carries its name from Naples: And about twenty paces from thence, there is another little grot, that sends out a poisonous steam, that as it puts out a Candle, as soon as it cometh near it, so it infallibly killeth any living Creature within a minute of time; for in half that time a Dog, up­on which the experiment is commonly tryed, the grot being from thence called Grotto di Cane, fell in a convulsion. From that one goeth to see the poor rests of Puzzoli, and of all that Bay that was o [...]ce [Page 29] all about a tract of Towns, it having been the retreat of the Romans, during the heats of the Summer. All the rarities here, have been so often, and so co­piously described, that I am sensible I can add no­thing to what is so well known. I will say nothing of the Amphitheather, or of Cicero and Virgils Hou­ses, for which there is nothing but a dubious Tradi­tion; they are ancient Brick buildings of the Roman way, and the Vaults of Virgil's House are still intire; The Sulfatara is a surprizing thing; here is a bot­tom out of which the force of the Fire, that breaks out still in many places, in a thick steaming smoke, that is full of Brimstone, did throw up about a hun­dred and fifty years ago, a vast quantity of Earth which was carried above three miles thence, and formed the Hill, called Monte Novo upon the ruines of a Town, that was overwhelmed with this eruption, which is of a very considerable heigth; they told me that there was before that time a Channel that went from the Bay into the Lake of Averno, of which one sees the beginnings in the Bay at some distance from the Shore; it carrieth still the name of Julio's Mole, and is believed to have been made by Julius Caesar. But by the swelling of the ground upon the eruption of the Sulfatara, this passage is stopt, and the A­verno is now fresh water, it is eighteen fathom deep. On the side of it is that amazing Cave, where the Sibil is said to have given out her inspirations: the hewing it out of the Rock, hath been a prodigious work, for the Rock is one of the hardest Stones in the World, and the Cave goeth in seven hundred foot long, twenty foot broad, and as I could guess eigh­teen foot high; And from the end of this great Gal­lery, there is a narrow passage of three foot broad, two hundred foot long, and seven high, to a little apartment, to which we go in a constant sloping descent from the great Cave; Here are three little Rooms, in one of them there are some rests of an old [Page 30] Mosaick, with which the Walls and Roof were laid over; there is also a spring of Water, and a Bath in which it is supposed the Sibil bathed her self; and from this Cave it is said that there runs a Cave all along to Cuma, which is three long miles, but the passages is now choakt by the falling in of the Rock in several places: This piece of work amazed me. I did not much mind the popular opinion that is easi­ly received there, that all this was done by the De­vil; the marks of the chizzel in all the parts of the Rock sheweth that this is not a work of Nature. Certainly they had both much leisure, and many hands at their command who set about it, and it seems to have been wrought out with no other de­sign but to subdue the people more intirely to the conduct of the Priests that managed this Imposture, so busie and industrious hath the ambition and fraud of the Priests been in all Ages and in all corrupt Re­ligions. But of all the Se [...]nes of Noble objects that present it self in the Bay of Puzzoli, the rests of Ca­ligula's Bridge are the most amazing, for there are yet standing eight or ten of the Pillars that supported the Arches, and of some of the Arches the half is yet intire. I had not a line with me to examine the depth of the Water where the furthest of those Pillars is built, but my Water-man assured me it was fifty cubits. This I cannot believe, but it is certainly so deep that one can scarce imagine how it was possible to build in such a depth, and for the carrying off the Sea, that seems yet more impossible. It is a Noble Monument of the profuse and extravagant expence of a Brutal Tyrant, who made one of the vastest Brid­ges that ever was attempted over three or four miles of Sea, meerly to Sacrifice so great a Treasure to his vanity: As for Agripina's Tomb, it is no great matter, only the bas reliefs are yet en [...]ire. The marvellous Fish-Pond is a great Basin of Water wrought like a huge Temple, standing upon eight [Page 31] and forty great Pillars, all hewed out of the Rock; and they are laid over with four crusts of the old Plaister, which is now as hard as Stone; this is be­lieved to be a work of Nero's: and about a quarter of a mile from thence there is another vast work which goeth into a Rock; but at the entrance there is a noble Portico built of Pillars of Brick, and as one enters into the Rock he finds a great many Rooms regularly shaped, hewed out of the Rock, and all covered over with Plaister, which is still intire, and so white that one can hardly think that it hath not been washed over since it was first made: there are a vast number of those Rooms, they are said to be a hundred; from whence this Cave carrieth the name of the Centum Camerae: This hath been as expensive a work as it is useless, it is intituled to Nero, and here they say he kept his Prisoners. But there is no­thing in all this bay that is both so curious and so useful as the Baths, which seems to flow from the same reason, that is the cause of those cruptions in the Vesuvio and Sulfatara, and the Grottos formerly mentioned; that as this heat makes some Fountains there to be boiling hot, so it sends up a steam through the Rock that doth not break through the pores of the Stone where it is hard, but where the Rock is soft and spungy, there the steams come through with so melting a heat that a man is soon, at it were, dissolved in sweat; but if he stoops low in the pas­sages that are cut in the Rock he finds no heat, be­cause there the Rock is hard. Those steams, as they are all hot, so they are impregnated with such Mine­rals, as th [...]y find in their way through the Rock; and near this Bath there are Galleries hewed out of the Rock and faced with a building: in which there are, as it were, Bedsteads made in the Walls, upon which, those that come thither, to sweat for their health, lay their Quiles and Bed-cloaths, and so come regularly out of their sweats.

It is certain that a man can no where pass a day of his life both with so much pleasure, and with such advantage, as he finds in this journey to Puzzoli and all along the Bay: but tho anciently this was all so well built, so peopled, and so beautifully laid out, yet no where doth one see more visibly what a change time brings upon all places: for Naples hath so in­tirely eat out this place, and drawn its Inhabitants to it, that as Puzzoli it self is but a small Village, so th [...]re is now no other in all this Bay, which was anciently built almost all round, for there were seven big Towns upon it. Having thus told you what I found most considerable in Naples, I cannot pass by that Noble remnant of the Via Appia that runs along thirty miles of the way between it and Rome, with­out making some mention of it: this high-way is twelve foot broad, all made of huge stones, most of them blew, and they are generally a foot and half large on all sides: the strength of this cause-way appears in its long duration, for it hath lasted above eighteen hundred Years: and is in most places for several miles together, as intire as when it was first made: and the botches that have been made for mending such places, that have been worn out by time, shews a very visible difference between the Ancient and the Modern way of Paving. One thing seems strange, that the way is level with the Earth on both sides: whereas so much w [...]ight as those Stones carry should have sunk the ground under them by its pressure: Besides that the Earth, especially in low grounds, receives a constant increase chiefly by the dust which the Winds or Brooks carry down from the Hills, both which reasons should make a more sensible difference between those wayes and the soil on both sides: and this makes me apt to believe, that ancient­ly those wayes were a little raised above the level of the ground, and that a course of so many Ages hath now brought them to an equality: Those wayes were [Page 33] chiefly made for such as go on foot: for as nothing is more pleasant then to walk along them, so nothing is more inconvenient for Horses and all sorts of car­riage, and indeed Mulets are the only beasts of bur­then that can hold out long in this Road, which beats all Horses after they have gone it a little while. There are several rests of Roman Antiquities at the Mole of Cajeta; but the Isle of Caprea, now called Crapa, which is a little way into the Sea off from Naples, gave me a strange Idea of Tiberius's Reign, since it is hard to tell whether it was more extraor­dinary to see a Prince abandon the best Seats and Palaces of Italy, and shut himself up in a little Island, in which I was told there was a Tradition of seven little Palaces that he built in it; or to see so vast a body as the Roman Empire so governed by such a Tyrannical Prince, at such a distance from the chief Scene, so that all might have been reversed long be­fore that the news of it could have been brought to him. And as there is nothing more wonderfull in Story then to see so vast a State that had so great a sense of liberty, subdued by so brutal and so volup­tuous a man as Anthony, and so raw a youth as Augustus; so the wonder is much improved when we see a Prince at a hundred and fifty miles distance, shut up in an Island, carry the Reins of so great a body in his hand, and turn it which way he pleas­ed.

But now I come to Rome, which as it was once the Empress of the World in a succession of many Ages, so hath in it at present more curious things to entertain the attention of a Traveller, then any other place in Europe. On the side of Tuscany, the entry in to Rome is very surprizing to strangers, for one cometh along for a great many miles, upon the re­mains of the Via Flamminia, which is not indeed so entire as the Via Appia: yet there is enough left to raise a just Idea of the Roman greatness, who laid [Page 34] such cause-ways all Italy over. And within the Gate of the Porta di Populo, there is a Noble Obelisk, a vast Fountain, two fine little Churches, like two Twins resembling one another, as well as placed near one another, and on several hands one sees a long Vista of streets. There is not a Town in these parts of the World, where the Churches, Convents, and Palaces are so Noble, and where the other Buildings are so mean, which indeed, discovers very visibly the misery under which the Romans groan. The Churches of Rome are so well known, that I will not adven­ture on any description of them, and indeed, I had too Transi [...]nt a view of them to make it with that degree of exactness which the subject requires. St. Peters alone would make a big Book, not to say a long Letter. Its length, heighth and breadth are all so exactly proportioned, and the eye is so equally possessed with all these, that the whole, upon the first view, doth not appear so vast as it is found to be upon a more particular attention: and as the four Pillars upon which the Cupulo rises, are of such a prodigious bigness, that one would think they were strong enough to bear any superstructure whatsoever; so when one climbs up to the top of that vast heighth, he wonders what Foundation can bear so huge a weight; for as the Chu [...]ch is of a vast heighth, so the Cupulo rises four hundred and fifteen big steps above the Roof of the Church. In the heighth of the Concave of this Cupulo, there is a representation, that tho it can hardly be seen from the floor below, unless one hath a good sight, and so it doth not, perhaps, give much scandal, yet it is a gross indication of the Idolatry of that Church, for the Divinity is there pictured as an ancient man compassed about with Angels. I will say nothing of th [...] great Altar, of the Chair of S. P [...]ter, of the great Tombs; of which the three chief are Paul the III. Ʋrban the VIII. and Alexander the VII. nor of the [Page 35] vast Vaults under this Church, and the remains of Antiquity that are reserved in them: nor will I un­dertake a description of the adjoining Palace, where the Painting of the Corridori, and of many of the Rooms by Raphael and Michael Angelo are so rich, that one is sorry to see work of that value laid on Fresco, and which must by consequence ware out too soon, as in several places it is almost quite lost al­ready. I could not but observe in the Sala Regin that is before the famous Chappel of Sisto V. and that is all Painted in Fresco, one corner that repre­sents the murther of the renowned Admiral Chasti­lion, and that hath written under it these words, Rex Colinii necem probat: The vast length of the Gallery on one side, and of the Library in another do surprize one; the Gardens have many Statues of a most excessive value, and some good Fountains; but the Gardens are ill entertained both here and in the Palace on the Quirinal. And, indeed, in most of the Palaces of Rome, if there were but a small cost laid out to keep all in good case that is brought together, at so vast a charge, they would make ano­ther sort of shew, and be looked at with much more pleasure: In the apartments of Rome there are a great many things that offend the sight: The Doors are generally mean, and the Locks meaner, except in the Palace of Prince Borghese, where, as there is the vastest Collection of the best pieces, and of the hands of the greatest Masters that is in all Europe, so the Doors and Locks give not that distast to the eye, that one finds elsewhere. The Flooring of the Palaces is all of Brick; which is so very-mean, that one sees the disproportion that is between the Floors and the rest of the Room, not without a sensible preception and dislike. It is true, they say, their Air is so cold and moist in Winter that they cannot pave with Marble; and the heat is sometimes so great in Summer, that Flooring of Wood would crack [Page 36] with heat, as well as be eat up by the vermin that would nestle in it. But if they kept in their great Palaces servants to wash their Floors, with that care that is used in Holland, where the Air is moister, and the climate is more productive of Vermine, they would not find such effects from wooden Floors, as they pretend. In a word, there are none that lay out so much wealth all at once, as the Italians do upon the Building and Finishing of their Palaces and Gardens, and that afterwards, bestow so little on the preserving of them: another thing I observed in their Palaces, there is, indeed, a great series of Noble rooms one within another, of which their apart­ments are composed, but I did not find, at the end of the apartments, where the Bed Chamber is, such a disposition of rooms for back-stairs, dressing-rooms, closets, servants rooms, and other conveniences as are necessary for accommodating the Apartment. It is true, this is not so necessary for an apartment of State, in which Magnificence is more considered then con­venience; but I found the same want in those apart­ments in which they lodged; so that notwithstanding all the riches of their Palaces, it can not be said that they are well lodged in them, and their Gardens are yet less understood, and worse kept then their Pa­laces. It is true, the Villa Borghese ought to be ex­cepted, where as there is a prodigious collection of bas reliefs, with which the Walls are, as it were, covered all over, that are of a vast value; so the statues within, of which some are of Porphiry, and others of Touchstone, are amazing things: The whole grounds of this Park, which is about three miles in compass, and in which there are six or seven lodges, are laid out so sweetly, that I thought I was in an English Park when I walked over it. The Villa Pamphilia is better scituated upon a higher ground, and hath more Water-works, and twice the extent of the other in Soil, but neither doth the [Page 37] House nor Statues approach to the riches of the other, nor are the grounds so well laid out and so well kept. But for the Furniture of the Palaces of Rome, the publick apartments are all covered over with Pictures and for those apartments in which they lodge they are generally furnished either with red Velvet, or red Damask, with a broad gold Galloon at every breadth of the stuff, and a gold Fringe at top and bottom, but there is very little Tapistry in Italy.

I have been carried into all this disgression, from the general view, that I was giving you of the Popes Palace. I named one part of it which well ingage me into new digression, as it well deserves one, and that is the Library of the Vatican: The Case is great, but that which is lodged in it is much greater; for here is a collection of Books that filleth a mans eye: There is first a great Hall, and at the end of it there runs out on both sides, two Galleries of so vast a length, that tho the half of them is already fur­nished with Books, yet one would, hope that there is room left for more new Books then the World will ever produce. The Heidelberg Library stands by it self, and filleth the one side of the Gallery, as the Duke of Ʋrbins Library of Manuscripts filleth the other. But tho these last are very fair and beautiful, yet they are not of [...]ch Antiquity as those of Hei­delberg: When it appe [...]red that I was come from England, King Henry the VIIIs. Book of the seven Sacraments, with an inscription writ upon it with his own hand to Pope Leo the X. was shewed me; together with a collection of some Letters that he writ to Ann Bolen of which some are in English, and some in French. I that knew his hand well saw clearly that they were no forgeries. There are not many Latin Manuscrip [...]s of great Antiquity in this Library; some few of Virgils I saw writ in Capitals. But that which took up alm [...]st half of one day that I spent at one time in this place, related to the present [Page 38] dispute that is on foot between Mr. Schelstrate the Library-keeper, and Mr. Maimbourg, concerning the Council of Constance. The two points in debate are the words of the decree made in the fourth Session and the Popes confirmation. In the fourth Session, according to the French Manuscripts, a Decree was made, subjecting the Pope, and all other persons whatsoever, to the Authority of the Council, and to the Decrees it was to make, and to the Reforma­tion it intended to establish both in the Head and the Members: which as it implies that the Head was corrupted and needed to be reformed, so it sets the Council so directly above the Pope, that this Session being confirmed by the Pope, putteth those who assert the Popes infallibility to no small straits: For if Pope Martin, that approved this Decree was infallible, then this Decree is good still, and if he was not infallible, no other Pope was infallible: To all thi [...] Schelstrate answers from his Manuscripts, that the words of a Reformation, in Head and Members, are not in the Decree of that Session; and he did shew me several Manuscripts, of which two were evidently writ during the sitting of the Council, and were not at all dashed, in which these words were not. I know the hand and way of writing of that Age too well to be easily mistaken in my judgement concerning those Manuscripts but if those words are wanting, there are other words in them that seem to be much stronger for the superiority of the Council above that Pope. For it is Decreed, that Popes, and all other persons, were bound to submit to the decisions of the Council, as to Faith: which words are not in the French Manuscripts: Upon this I told M. Schelstrate that I thought the words in these Manuscripts were stronger then the other: si [...]ce the word Reformation, as it was used in the tim [...] of that Council, belonged chiefly to the cor­recting [Page 39] of abuses, it being often applied to the regu­lations that were made in the Monastick-Orders, when they were brought to a more exact observation of the rule of their Order: So tho the Council had decreed a Reformation both of Head and Members, I do not see that this would import more than that the Papacy had fallen into some disorders that needed a Reformation: and this is not denied even by those who assert the Pope's infallibility: but a submission to points of Faith, that is expresly asserted in the Roman Manuscripts, is a much more positive evidence against the Pope's Infallibility: and the word Faith is not capable of so large a sense as may be justly ascribed to Reformation. But this difference, in so main a point b [...]tween Manuscripts concerning so late a Transaction, g [...]ve me an occasion to reflect on the vast uncertainty of Tradition, especially of matters that are at a great distance from us; when those that were so lately Transacted, are so differently represented in Manuscripts, and in which, both those of Paris and Rome seem to carry all possible evid [...]nces of sinc rity. As for the Popes confirmation of that Decree, it is true by a General Bull, Pope Martin confirmed the Council of Constance to such a period; but besides that, he made a particular Bull, as Schelstrat assured me, in which he enumerated all the Decrees that he confirmed, and among those, this Decree concerning the Superiority of the Council is not named; this seemed to be of much more impor­tance, and therefore I desired to see the Original of the Bull: for their seem to be just reasons to appre­hend a forgery here: He promised to do his endea­vours, tho he told me that would not be easie, for the Bulls were strictly kept; and the next day when I came, hoping to see it, I could not be admitted: but he assured me that if that had not been the last day of my stay at Rome, he would have procured a [Page 40] Warrant for my seeing the Original: so this is all I can say as to the Authenticalness of that Bull: But supposing it to be genuine, I could not agree to M. Schelstrate that the General Bull of Confirmation, ought to be limited to the other that enumerates the particular D [...]crees: but since that particular Bull was never di [...]covered till he hath found it out, it seems it was s [...]cretly made, and did not pass accord­ing to the forms of the Consistory: and was a frau­dulent thing of which no noise was to be made in that Age, and therefore in all the dispute that fol­lowed in the Concel of Basil between the Pope and the Council, upon this very point, no mention was ever made of it by either side: and thus it can have no force, unless it be to discover the Artifices and fraud of that Court: that at the same time in which the necessity of their affairs obliged the Pope to con­firm the Decrees of the Council, he contrived a secret Bull, which in another Age might be made use of, to weaken the Authority of the General Confirmation that he gave: and therefore a Bull that doth not pass in due form and is not p o [...]ulgated, is of no Authority: and so this Pretended Bull cannot limit the other Bull. There were some other things, relating to this debate, that were shewed me by M. Schelstrate, but th [...]se being the most important, I mention them only. I will not give you here a large account of the learned men at Rome, Bellori is d [...]servedly Famous for his knowledge of the Greek and Aegyptian Antiquities, and for all that belongs to the Mythologies and superstitions of the Heathens, and hath a Closet richly furnished with things relating to those matters. Fabrelti is justly celebrated for his Understanding of the Old Roman Architecture and Fabricks. Padre Fabri is the chief Honour of the Jesuit's Colledge, and is much above the com­mon rate, both for Philosophy, Mathematicks, and [Page 41] Church History. And he to whom I was the most obliged, Abbot Nazari hath so general a view of the several parts of learning, tho he hath chiefly ap­plied himself to Philosophy and Math [...]maticks, and is a man of so ingaging a civility, and used my self in so particular a manner, that I owe him, as well as those others, whom I have mentioned, and whom I had the Honour to see, all the acknow­ledgments of esteem and gratitude that I can possibly make them.

One sees in Cardinal d'Estrees all the advantages of a high birth great parts, a generous civility, and a measure of knowledge faire above what can be expected from a person of his rank; but as he gave a noble protection to one of the leardnest men that this Age hath produced, Mr. Launnoy, who lived many years with him, so it is visible, that he made a great progress by the conversation of so extraordinary a pe son; and as for Theological learning, there is now none of the Colledge equal to him. Cardi­nal Howard is too well known in England to need any character from me. The Elevation of his pre­sent condition hath not in the least changed him; he hath all the sweetness and Gentleness of temper that we saw in him in England, and he retains the unaffected simplicity and humility of a Frier amidst all the dignity of the Purple, and as he sheweth all the generous care and concern for his Countrey­men that they can expect from him; so I met with so much of it, in so many obliging marks of his good­ness for my self, that wen [...] far beyond a common ci­vility, that I can [...]o [...] enough acknowledge it. I was told the Popes Confessor was a very extraordinary man for the Oriental Learning, which is but little known in Rome: He is a Master of the Arabick Tongue, and hath writ, as Abbot Nazari told me, the learned'st Book against the Mahometan Religion; [Page 42] that the World hath yet seen, but it is not yet Print­ed: He is not so much esteemed in Rome as he would be elsewhere, for his Learning is not in vogue, and the School Divinity and Casuistical Learning, being that for which Divines are most esteemed there; He whose Studies lead him another way, is not so much valued as he ought to be, and perhaps, the small ac­count that the Pope makes of learned men, turns somewhat upon the Confessor, for it is certain, that this is a Reign in which Learning is very little encou­raged.

Upon the general contempt that all the Romans have, for the present Pontificate, one made a pleasant reflection to me, he said those Popes that intended to raise their Families, as th [...]y saw the censure that this brought upon them, so they studied to lessen it by other things that might soften the Spirits of the peo­ple. No man did more for beautifying Rome, for finishing St. Peters, and the Library, and for furnish­ing Rome with water, then Pope Paul the V. tho at the same time he did not forget his Family; and tho the other Popes that have raised great Families, have not done this to so eminent a degree as he did, yet there are many remains of their Magnifice [...]ce, whereas those Popes that have not raised Families, have it seems thought that alone was enough to maintain their reputation, and so they have not done much either to recommend their Government to their Subject [...], or their Reign to posterity; and it is very plain, that the present Pope taketh no great care of this. His life hath been certainly very in­nocent, and free of all those publick scandals that make a noise in the World, and there is at present a regularity in Rome, that deserveth great com­mendation, for publick Vices are not to be seen there: His personal sobriety is a so singular. One assured me that the expence of his Table did not [Page 43] amount to a Crown a day, tho this is, indeed, short of Sisto V. who gave order to his Steward never to exceed five and twenty Bajokes, that is eighteen pence a day for his Diet. The Pope is very care­full of his health, and doth never expose it, for upon the least disorder he shuts himself up in his Chamber, and often keepeth his Bed for the least in­disposition many dayes; but his Government is se­vere, and his Subjects are ruined.

And here one thing cometh into my mind, which perhaps is not ill grounded, that the poverty of a Nation, not only dispeoples it, by driving the peo­ple out of it, but by weakning the natural fertility of the Subjects; for as men and women well cloath­ed, and well fed, that are not exhausted with per­petual labour, and with the tearing anxieties that want brings with it, must be much more lively then those that are pressed with want; so it is very likely that the one must be much more disposed to pr [...]pagate then the other: and this appeared more evident to me, when I compared the fruitfulness of Geneva and Switzerland, with the barrenness that reigns over all Italy. I saw two extraordinary in­stances of the copious production of Geneva: Mr. Tronchin that was Professor of Divinity, and Fa­ther to the judicious and worthy Professor of the same name, that is now there, died at the age of seven [...]y six years, and had a hundred and fifteen pers [...]ns all alive, that had either descended from him, called him Father. And Mr. Calendrin a pious and laborious Preacher of that Town, that is de­scended from the Family of the Calendrini; who r [...]ceiving the Reformation about a hundred and fifty years ago, left Lucca their Native City with the Tur [...]e ini, the Di [...]dati, and the Bourlamacchi, and some others that came and settled at Geneva: He is now but seven and forty years old, and yet [Page 44] he hath a hundred and five persons that are de­scended of his Brothers and Sisters, or married to them; so that if he liveth but to eighty, and the Family multiplieth as it hath done; he may see some hundreds that will be in the same relation to him; but such things as these are not to be found in Italy.

There is nothing that de [...]ights a Stranger more in Rome, then to see the great Fountains of Water that are almost in all the c [...]rners of it: That o [...]d A [...]uaduct which Paul the V. restored cometh from a collection of Sources, five and thirty miles di­stant from Rome, that runs all the way upon an Aquaduct in a Channel that is vaulted and is liker a River then a Fountain: It breaketh out in five several Fountains, of which some give water aboue a foot square. That of Sixtus the V. the great Fountain of Aqua Travi, hath yet no decoration, but dischargeth a prodigious quantity of Water. The glorious Fountain in the Piazza Nav [...]na, that hath an air of greatness in it that surprizeth one, the Fountain in the Piazza de Spagna, those be­fore St. Peters: and the Palazzo Farnese, with ma­ny others, furnish Rome so plentifully, that almost every private House hath a Fountain that runs con­tinually: All the [...]e I say are noble decorations, that carry an usefulness with them th [...]t cannot be enough commended: and gives a much greater Idea of those who have taken care to supply this City, with one of the chief pleasures and conveniences of life, then of oth is who have laid out millions, meerly to bring quantities of Water to give the eye a little diversion, which would have been laid out much more nobly and usefully, and would have more effectually eternized their Fame, if they had been imployed as the Romans did their Trea­sure [...] in furnishing great Towns with Water.

There is an universal Civility that reigns among all sorts of people at Rome, which in a great mea­sure flows from their Government, for every man, being capable of all the advancements of that State, since a simple Ecclesiastick may be­come one of the Monsignori: and of these may be a C [...]rdinal, and one of these may be chosen Pope, this makes every man behave himself towards all other persons with an exactness of respect: for no man knows what any other may grow to. But this makes professions of esteem and kindness go so promiscuously to all sorts of persons, that one ought not to build too much on them. The conversation of Rome is generally upon news, for tho there is no news Printed there, yet in the several Anti­cham [...]ers of the Cardinals (where if they make any c [...]nsiderable figure, there are Assemblies of those that make their Court to them) one is sure to hear all the news of Europe together with many speculations upon what passeth. At the Queen of Swedens all that relateth to Germany or the North is ever to be found, and that Princess that must ever reign among all that have a true tast, either of wit or learning, hath still in her drawing Rooms the best Court of the Strangers, and her civility together, with the vast variety with which she fur­risheth her conversation, maketh her to be the Chi [...]f of all the living rarities that one sees in R [...]me: I will not u [...]e her own word to my self, which was, that she now grew to be one of the Antiquities of Rome. The Ambassadors of Crowns, who live here in another form than in any other Court, and the Cardinals and Prelates of the several Nations, that do all meet and center here, maketh that there is more news in Rome th [...]n any where: For Priests and the men of Religious Orders, write larger and more particular Letters, than any other sort of men. But such as apply themselves to make [Page 46] their Court h [...]re, are condemned to a loss of time that had need be well recompenc [...]d, for it is very great. As for one that Studies Antiquities, Pictures, Statues, or Musick, there is more entertainment for him at Rome, than in all the rest of Europe, but if he hath not a tast of these things, he will soon be weary of a place where the Conversation is al­wayes g [...]neral, and where there is little sincerity or openness practised, and by consequence, where friendship is little understood. The Women here b [...]gin to be a little more conversable, tho a Nati­on naturally jealous, will hardly allow a great li­berty in a City that is composed of Ecclesiasticks; who bei [...]g denied the priviledge of Wives of their own, are suspected of being sometimes too bold with the Wives of others: The liberties that w [...]re tak [...]n in the Constable of Naples's Palace, had ind [...]ed disgusted the Romans much at that freedom, which had no bounds. But the Dutchess of Bracciano, that is a French Woman, hath by the exactness of her deportment, amidst all the innocents Freedoms of a Noble conversation, recovered in a great mea­sure, the credit of those liberties, that Ladies beyond the Mountains, practise with all the strictness of Virtue; For she receiv [...]th visits at publick hours, and in Publick Rooms, and by the liveliness of her conversation, maketh that her Court is the plea­santest Assembly of Strangers, th [...] is to be found in any of the Palaces of the Italians at Rome.

I will not engage in a d [...]scription of Rome, either ancient or modern, this hath been done so oft, and with such exactness, that nothing can be add [...]d to what hath been already published. It is certain that when one is in the Capitol, and sees those poor rests of what once it was, he is surprized to see a building of so great a fame sunk so low, that one can scarce imagine that it was once a Castle, scitu­ated [Page 47] upon a Hill able to hold out against a Siege of the Gauls: The Tarpeian Rock is now of so small a fall, that a man would think it no great matter, for his diversion, to leap over it: and the shape of the ground hath not been so much altered on one side, as to make us think it is very much changed on the other. For Severus's Triumphal Arch, which is at the foot of the Hill on the other side, is not now buried above two foot within the ground, as the vast Amphitheater of Titus is not a­bove three foot sunk under the level of the ground. Within the Capitol one sees many Noble remnants of Antiquity, but none is more glorious, as well as more useful, then the Tables of their Consuls which are upon the Walls: and the Inscription on the Co­lumna Rostrola, in the time of the first Punick War, is without doubt the most valuable Antiquity in Rome. From this all along the sacred way, one findeth such remnants of Old Rome in the ruines of the Temples, in the Triumphal Arches, in the Portico's, and other remains of that Glorious Body, that as one cannot see these too often, so every time one sees them, they kindle in him vast Idea's of that Republick, and make him reflect on that which he learned in his youth with great pleasure. From the heigth of the Convent of Araceli, a man hath a full view of all the extent of Rome, but lite­rally, it is now, seges ubi Roma fuit; for the parts of the City, that were most inhabited anciently, are those that are now laid in great Gardens, or, as they call them, Vineyards, of which some are half a mile in compass: The vastness of the Roman magnificence and luxury, is that which passeth ima­gination; the prodigious Amphitheater of Titus, that could conveniently receive eighty five thousand spectators; the great extent of the Circus maximus; the Vaults where the Waters were received that fur­nished [Page 48] Titus's baths, and above all Diocletian's baths, tho built when the Empire was in it's decay, are so far above all modern buildings, that there is not so much as room for a comparison. The extent of those baths is above half a mile in compass: the vastness of the rooms in which the Bathers might swim, of which the Carthusian's Church, that yet remains entire, is one, and the many great Pillars all of one stone of Marble, beautifu [...]ly spotted, are things of which these latter Ages are not capable. The beauty of their Temples, and of the Portico's before them is amazing, chiefly that of the Rotunda, where the Fabrick without looketh as mean, being only Brick, as the Architecture is bold: for it riseth up in a Vault, and yet at the Top there is an open left of thirty foot in Diameter, which, as it is the only Window of the Church, so it filleth it with light, and is the hardiest piece of Architecture that ever was made.

The Pillars of the Portico are also the noblest in Rome, they are the highest and biggest that one can see any where all of one Stone: and the numbers of those Ancient Pillars with which, not only many of the Churches are beautified, chiefly St. Mary Maggiore, and St. John in the Lateran, but with which even private Houses are adorned, and of the fragments of which there are such multitudes in all the streets of Rome, giveth a great Idea of the ex­pence-fulness of the Old Romans in their buildings: for the hewing and fetching a few of those Pillars, must have Cost more than whole Palaces do now: since most of them were brought from Greece: Many of these Pillars are of Porphiry, others of Jasp, others of Granated Marble, but the greatest number is of white Marble: The two Columns Trajans and Antonins: the two Horses that are in the Mount Cavallo, and the other two Horses in the Capitol, which have not indeed the postures and [Page 49] motion of the other, The brass Horse that as is believed, carrieth Marcus Aurelius; the remains of Nero's Colossus, the Temple of Bacchus near the Catacomb of S. Agnus, which is the entirest and the least altered of all the Ancient Temples: The great Temple of Peace; those of the Sun and Moon: that of Romulus and Romus, (which I considered as the ancientest Fabrick that is now left, for it is little and simple, and standeth in such a place, that when Rome grew so costly, it could not have been let alone unchanged, if it had not been that it was reverenced for its Antiquity) the many other Portico's, the Arches of Severus, of Titus, and Constantine, in the last of which, one sees that the Sculpture of his age, was much sunck from what it had been, only in the Top there are some bas reliefs that are clearly of a much ancienter time, and of a better manner. And that which exceedeth all the rest, the many great Aqueducts that come from all hands and run over a vast distance, are things which a man cannot see oft enough, if he would form in himself a just Idea of the vastness of that Republick, or rather Empire: There are many Statues and Pillars, and other Anti­quities of great value dug up in all the quarters of Rome these last hundred and fourscore years, since Pope Leo the Xs. time; who as he was the greatest Patron of Learning and Arts, that perhaps, ever was, so was the generousest Prince that ever Reigned; and it was he that first set on foot the inquiring into the Riches of Old Rome, that lay till his time, for the most part, hid under ground; and indeed if he had been less scandalous in his Impiety and Atheism, of which neither he nor his Court were so much as ashamed, he had been one of the most celebrated persons of any Age. Soon after him Pope Paul the III. gave the ground of the Monte Palatino to his Family: But I was told that this large piece [Page 50] of ground, in which one should look for the greatest Collection of the Antiquities of the highest value, since this is the ruin of the Palace of the Roman Emperors, hath never been yet searched into with any exactness: So that when a curious Prince cometh that is willing to employ many hands in digging up and down this Hill, we may expect new Scenes of Roman Antiquities. But all this matter would re­quire Volumes, and therefore I have only named these things, because I can add nothing to those copious descriptions that have been so oft made of them. Nor will I say any thing of the modern Palaces or the Ornaments of them, either in Pictures or Statues, which are things that carry one so far, that it is not easie to give bounds to the discriptions into which one findeth himself carried, when he once enters upon so fruitful a subject. The number of the Palaces is great, and every one of them hath enough to fix the attention of a Traveller, till a new one drives the former out of his thoughts: It is true, the Palestrina, the Borghese, and the Farnese, have some­what in them that leave an impression which no new objects can wear out: and as the last hath a Noble square before it with two great Fountains in it, so the Statue of Hercules and the Bull that are below, and the Gallery above Stairs are unvaluable, the Roof of the Gallery is one of the best Pieces of Painting that is extant, being all of Carrachio's hand, and there are in that Gallery the greatest number of Heads of the Greek Philosophers and Po­ets that I ever saw together: That of Homer, and that of Socrates, were the two that struck me most, chiefly the latter, which as it is, without dispute, a true Antick, so it carrieth in it all the characters that Plato and Xenophon give us of Socrates; the flat Nose, the broad Face, the simplicity of Look, and the mean appearance which that great Philoso­pher [Page 51] made, so that I could not return oft enough to look upon it, and was delighted with this more then with all the wonders of the Bull, which is indeed a Rock of Marble cut out into a whole Scene of Sta­tues; but as the History of it is not well known, so there are such Faults in the Sculpture, that tho it is all extream fine, yet one seeth it hath not the exactness of the best times. As for the Churches and Convents of Rome, as the number, the vastness, the riches, both of Fabrick, Furniture, Painting and other Ornaments amaze one, so here again a Stran­ger is lost, and the Convent that one seeth last, is alwayes the most admired: I confess the Minerva, which is the Dominicans, where the Inquisition sif­ieth, is that which maketh the most sensible Im­pression upon one that passeth at Rome for an Here­tick, tho except one committeth great follies, he is in no danger there, and the poverty that reigns in that City maketh them find their interest so much in using Strangers well, whatsoever their Religion may be, that no man needs be affraid there: And I have more then ordinary reason to ackowledge this who having ventured to go thither, after all the liberty that I had taken to write my thoughts free­ly both of the Church and See of Rome, and was known by all with whom I conversed there, yet met with the highest civilities possible among all sorts of people, and in particular, both among the English and Scottish Jesuites, tho they knew well enough that I was no friend to their Order.

In the Gallery of the English Jesuites, among the Pictures of their Martyrs, I did not meet with Gar­net; for perhaps that name is so well known, that they would not expose a Picture, with such a name on it, to all Strangers, yet Oldcorn, being a name less known, is hung there among their Martyrs, tho he was as clearly convicted of the Gun-pouder [Page 52] Treason, as the other was: and it seemed a little strange to me, to see that at a time in which, for other reasons, the Writers of that Communion have not thought fit, to deny the truth of that Conspi­racy, a Jesuit convicted of the blackest crime that ever was projected, should be reckoned among their Martyrs. I saw likewise there the Original of these Emblematical Prophecies, relating to England, that the Jesuits have had at Rome near sixty years, and of which I had some time ago procured a Copy, so I found my Copy was true. I hapned to be at Rome, during St. Gregory's Fair and Feast, which lasted several dayes. In his Church the Hosty was exposed: and from that, all that came thither, went to the Chappel that was once his House, in which his Statue and the Table where he served the poor, are preserved: I saw such vast numbers of people there, that one would have thought all Rome was got to­gether. They all kneeled down to his Statue, and after a prayer said to it, they kissed his foot, and every one touched the Table with his Beads, as hoping to draw some vertue from it. I will add nothing of the several Obelisks and Pillars that are in Rome, of the celebrated Chappels that are in some of the great Churches, in particular those of Sixtus the V. and Paul the V. in Santa Maria Maggiore, of the Water works in the Quirinal, the Vatican, and in many of the Vineyards: Nor will I go out of Rome to describe Frescati, (for Tivoly I did not see) The young Prince Borgese, who is in­deed one of the glories of Rome, as well for his Learning as for his Virtue, did me the Honour to carry me thither with those two learned Abbots Fa­bretri and Nazari, and entertained me with a mag­nificence that became him better to give, than me to receive. The Water-works in the Aldobrandin Palace have a magnificence in them beyond all that [Page 53] I ever saw in France, the mixture of Wind with the Water, and the Thunders and Storms that this ma­keth is noble: The Water-works of the Ludovisio, and the Monte Dragone, have likewise a greatness in them that is natural, and indeed the riches that one meets with in all places within Doors in Italy, and the poverty that one seeth every where abroad, are the most unsuitable things imaginable: but it is very likely that a great part of their moveable Wealth will be ere long carried into France; for as soon as any Picture or Statue of great value is of­fered to be sold, those that are imployed by the King of France, do presently buy it up, so that as that King hath already, the greatest collection of Pictures that is in Europe, he will very probably in a few years more, bring together the chief Treasures of Italy.

I have now given you an account of all that ap­peared most remarkable to me in Rome. I shall to this add a very extraordinary piece of Natural History, that fell out there within these two years, which I had first from those two learned Abbots Fa­bretti and Nazari, and that was afterwards more authentically confirmed to me by Cardinal Howard, who was one of the Congregation of Cardinals that examined and judged the matter. There were two Nuns near Rome, one as I remember was in the Ci­ty, and the other not far from it, who, after they had been for some years in a Nunnery, perceived a very strange change in Nature, and that their Sex was altered, which grew by some degrees a total alteration in one: and tho the other was not so entire a change, yet it was visible she was more Man than Woman; upon this the matter was look­ed into: That which naturally offereth it self here, is that these two had been alwayes what they then appeared to be; but that they had gone into a Nun­nery [Page 54] in a disguise to gratifie a brutal appetite. But to this, when I proposed it, answer was made, that as the breasts of a Woman that remained still, did in a great measure shake off that objection, so the proofs were given so fully of their having been real females, that there was no doubt left of that, nor had they given any sort of scandal in the change of their Sex; And if there had been any room left to suspect a cheat or disguise, the proceedings would have been both more severe and more secret: and these persons would have been burnt, or at least put to death in some terrible manner. Some Physi­tians and Chyrurgions were appointed to examine the matter, and at last, after a long and exact enquiry, they were judged to be absolved from their vows, and were dismissed from the obligation of a Reli­gious life, and required to go in mens habit. One of them was a Valet de Chambre to a Roman Mar­quess, when I was there: I heard of this matter only two dayes before I left Rome, so that I had not time to enquire after it more particularly; but I judged it so extraordinary, that I thought it was worth communicating it to so curious an Inquirer into nature.

And since I am upon the subject of the changes that have been made in nature, I shall add one of another sort that I examined while I was at Geneva. There is a Minister of S. Gervais, Mr. Gody, who hath a Daughter, that is now Sixteen years old: Her Nurse had an extraordinary thickness of hearing, at a year old, the Child spoke all those little words that Children begin usually to learn at that age, but she made no progress; yet this was not observed, till it was too late, and as she grew to be two years old, they perceived there that she had lost her hearing, and was so deaf that ever since tho she hears great noises, yet she hears nothing that one can [Page 55] speak to her. It seems while the milk of her Nurse, was more abundant, and that the Child suckt more moderately the first year, those humors in the blood and milk had not that effect on her, that appeared after she came to suck more violently: and that her Nurses milk being in less quantity, was thicker, and more charged with that vapour that occasioned the deafness. But this Child hath by observing the motions of the mouths and lips of others, acquired so many words, that out of these she hath formed a sort of jargon, in which she can hold conversation whole days with those that can speak her own Lan­guage. I could understand some of her words, but could not comprehend a period, for it seemed to be a confused noise: She knows nothing that is said to her, unless she seeth the motion of their mouths that speak to her; so that in the night, when it is neces­sary to speak to her, they must light a Candle: Only one thing appeared the strangest part of the whole narration: She hath a Sister with whom she has practised her Language more than with any other: and in the night by laying her hand on her Sisters mouth, she can perceive by that, what she sayes, and so can discourse with her in the Night. It is true, her Mother told me that this did not go far, and that she found out only some short period in this manner, but it did not hold out very long: Thus this young Woman without any pains taken on her, hath meerly by a natural sagacity found out a method of holding discourse, that doth in a great measure lessen the misery of her deafness. I examined this matter critically, but only the Sister was not present, so that I could not see how the con­versation past between them in the dark.

But before I give over writting concerning this place, I cannot hinder my self, from giving you an account of a conversation that I had with one of the [Page 56] most Celebrated persons that lives in it. I was talk­ing concerning the credit that the Order of the Je­suites had every where; It was said that all the World mistrusted them, and yet by a strange sort of contradiction all the World trusted them, and tho it was well known that every Jesuite was truer to the Interests of his Order, than he could be to the Interests of any Prince whatsoever, yet those Princes that would be very careful not to suffer spies to come into their Courts or into their Councils suffered those spies to come into their breasts and Consciences: and tho Princes were not generally very tender in those parts, yet as they had oft as much guilt, so they had sometimes as much fear as other People, which a Dextrous spy knew well how to mannage: Upon which that person that pretended to be a zealous Catholick, added, that for their part they considered only the Character that the Church gave to a Priest; and if the Church qualified him to do the functions of a Priest, they thought it very need­less to inquire after other personal Qualities, which were but common things, whereas the other was all Divine. On the Contrary, they thought it was so much the better to have to do with a poor Igno­rant Priest: for then they had to do only with the Church, and not with the man. Pursuant to this, that persons Confessor was the greatest and the most notorious block head that could be found, and when they were asked why they made use of so weak a Man, they answered, because they could not find a weaker: and when ever they found one better qualified that way, if it were a groom or a foot-man that got into Priest's Orders, they would cer­tainly make use of him. For they would ask Council of a friend; but they knew no other use of a Confessor, but to Confess to him, and to re­ceive Absolution from him: and in so doing, they [Page 57] pretended they acted as became a true Catholick, that considered only the power of the Church in the Priest, without regarding any thing else.

So far have I entertained you with the short ramble that I made, which was too short to de­serve the name of Travelling, and therefore the en­quiries or Observations that I could make, must be received with the abatement that ought to be made for so short a stay: and all will be of a piece, when the remarks are as slight, as the abode I made in the places through which I past was short. I have avoided the troubling you with things that are commonly known, so if I have not entertained you with a long recital of ordinary matters, yet I have told you nothing but what I saw and knew to be true, or that I had from such hands, that I have very good reason to believe it: and I fancy that the things which made the greatest impression on my self, will be acceptably received by you, to whom, as upon many accounts, I owe all the ex­pressions of esteem and gratitude that I can ever pay; so I had a more particular reason that deter­mined me to give you, so full an account of all I saw and observed: for as you were pleased at par­ting to do me the Honour to desire me to commu­nicate to you such things as appeared most remark­able to me, so I found such a vast advantage in many places, but more particularly at Venice, Rome and Naples, by the happiness I have of being known to you, and of being so far considered by you, that I could give a Copious Account both of your person and Studies, to those in whom your curious disco­veries had kindled that esteem for you, which all the World payeth both to you and to your immortal enquiries into nature, which are among the pecu­liar blessings of this Age: and that are read with no less care and pleasure in Italy then in England. [Page 58] This was so well received, that I found the great advantage of this Honour I did my self, in assum­ing the glorious Title of one of your friends, and I owe a great part of that distinction which I met with, to this favourable character that I gave my self; so that if I made any progress in the enqui­ries, that so short a stay could enable one to make, I owe it in so a peculiar a manner to you, that this return that I make is but a very small part of that I owe you, and which I will be endeavouring to pay you to the last moment of my life.

THE FIFTH LETTER.

I Thought I had made so full a point at the con­clusion of my last Letter, that I should not have given you the trouble of reading any more Letters of the Volume of the former: But new Scenes and new Matter offering themselves to me, I fancy you will be very gentle to me, if I Engage you again to two or three Hours reading. From Civita Vec­chia I came to Marseilles, where if there were a Road as Safe as the Harbour is covered; and if the Harbour were as large as it is convenient, it were certainly one of the most important places in the World; all is so well defended, that it is with respect either to Storms or Enemies the securest Port that can be seen any where. The Freedoms of this place, though it is now at the mercy of the Cit­tadel, [Page 2] are such, and its scituation draweth so much Trade to it, that there one seeth another appear­ance of wealth then I found in any Town of France, and there is a new street lately built there, that for the beauty of the buildings, and the largeness of the street, is the Noblest I ever saw. There is in that Port a perpetual heat, and the Sun was so strong in the Christians week, that I was often dri­ven off the Key. I made a Tour from thence through Provence, Languedoc, and Dauphinè. I will offer you no account of Nismes, nor of the Amphi­theatre in it, or the Pont du Gar near it; which as they are stupendious things, so they are so copi­ously described by many, and are so generally known to the English Nation, that if you have never gone that way your self, yet you must needs have re­ceived so particular a relation of them from those that have seen them on their way to Montpelier, that I judge it needless to enlarge upon them: Nor will I say any thing of the Soil, the Towns, or any other remarkable things that I found there.

I have a much stronger inclination to say some­what, concerning the persecution which I saw in its rage and utmost fury; and of which I could give you many instances that are so much beyond all the common measures of barbarity and cruelty, that I confess they ought not to be believed, unless I could give more positive proofs of them, than are fitting now to be brought forth: and the particu­lars that I could tell you are such, that if I should relate them with the necessary circumstances of time, place, and persons, these might be so fatal to many that are yet in the power of their Enemies, that my regard to them restrains me. In short I do not think that in any Age there ever was such a violation of all that is sacred, either with relation to God or Man: And what I saw and knew there [Page 3] from the first hand, hath so confirmed all the I­dea's that I had taken from Books of the cruelty of that Religion, that I hope the impression that this hath made upon me shall never end but with my life: The applauses that the whole Clergy give to this way of proceeding, the many Panegyricks that are already writ upon it, of which, besides the more pompous ones that appear at Paris, there are numbers writ by smaller Authors in every Town of any note there; and the Sermons that are all flights of flattery upon this subject, are such evi­dent demonstrations of their sense of this matter; that what is now on foot may be well term [...]d the Act of the whole Clergy of that Kingdom, which yet hath been hitherto esteemed the most moderate part of the Roman Communion. If any are more moderate than others; and have not so far laid off human nature as not to go in entirely into those bloody practises, yet they dare not own it, but whisper it in secret as if it were half Treason: but for the greater part, they do not only magnifie all that is done, but they animate even the Dragoons to higher degrees of rage: and there was such a heat spread over all the Country, on this occasion, that one could not go into any Ordinary, or mix in any promiscuous conversation, without finding such ef­fects of it, that it was not easie for such as were toucht with the least degree of compassion for the miseries that the poor Protestants suffered, to be a witness to the Insultings that they must meet with in all places. Some perhaps imagine that this hath not been approved in Italy, and it is true there were not any publick rejoycings upon it at Rome; no Indulgences nor Te Deums were heard of: And the Spanish faction being so prevalent there, it is not strange if a course of proceedings, that is with­out an example, was set forth, by all that were of that interest, in its proper colours; of which I [Page 4] met with some instances my self, and could not but smile to see some of the Spanish Faction so far to forget their Courts of Inquisition as to argue a­gainst the Conversions by the Dragoons, as a re­proach to the Catholick Religion. Yet the Pope was of another mind, for the Duke d'Estrées gave him an account of the Kings proceedings in this matter very copiously, as he himself related it. Upon which the Pope approved all, and expressed a great satisfaction in every thing that the King had done in that matter; and the Pope added, that he found some Cardinals [as I remember the Duke d'Estrées said two] were not pleased with it, and had taken the liberty to censure it, but the Pope said, they were to blame: The Duke d'Estrees did not name the two Cardinals, though he said he be­lieved he knew who they were: and it is very likely that Cardinal Pio was one, for I was told that he spoke freely enough of this matter. I must take the liberty to add one thing to you, that I do not see that Great Monarch is to be so much blamed in this matter as his Religion is, which, without question, obligeth him to extirpate Hereticks, and not to keep his faith to them: so that instead of censuring him, I must only lament his being bred up in a Religion that doth certainly oblige him to devest himself of humanity, and to violate his faith, whensoever the cause of his Church and Religion re­quireth it: Or if there is any thing in this conduct that cannot be entirely justified from the principles of that Religion, it is this, that he doth not put the Hereticks to death out of hand, but that he forceth them, by all the extremities possible, to sign an ab­juration, that all the World must needs see is done against their Consciences: and this being the only end of their miseries, those that would think any sort of death a happy conclusion of their sufferings, seeing no prospect of such a glorious issue out of [Page 5] their troubles, are prevailed on by the many lingring deaths of which they see no end, to make Ship­wrack of their faith: This appearance of mercy in not putting men to death, doth truly verifie the cha­racter that Solomon giveth of the tender mercies of the wicked, that they are cruel.

But I will stop here, though it is not easie to re­tire from so copious a subject, that as it affordeth so much matter, so upon many accounts raiseth a heat of thought that is not easily governed. I will now lead you to a Scene that giveth less pas­sion.

I past the Winter at Geneva, with more satisfa­ction that I had thought it was possible for me to have found any where out of England: though that received great allaies from the most lamentable Stories that we had every day from France: but there is a sorrow by which the heart is made bet­ter. I ought to make the most publick acknow­ledgments possible for the Extraordinary Civilities that I met with in any one particular: but that is too low a Subject to entertain you with it. That which pleased me most, was of a more publick na­ture, before I left Geneva, the numbers of the En­glish there was such, that I found we could make a small Congregation. For we were Twelve or Four­teen, so I addressed my self to the Councel of Twenty five for liberty, to have our own worship in our own Language, according to the English Li­turgy. This was immediately granted in so obli­ging a manner, that as there was not one person that made any exception to it, so they sent one of their body to me, to let me know that in case our number should grow to be so great, that it were fit for us to assemble in a Church, they would grant us one, which had been done in Queen Maries reign: but till then we might hold our assemblies as we thought fit. So after that time, during the [Page 6] rest of my stay there, we had every Sunday our de­votions according to the Common Prayer, Morn­ing and Evening: and at the Evening Prayer, I preacht in a Room that was indeed too large for our small Company, but there being a considerable number in Geneva that Understand English and in particular some of the Professors and Ministers, we had a great many strangers that met with us: and the last Sunday I gave the Sacrament according to the way of the Church of England, and upon this occasion I found a general joy in the Town, for this that I had given them an opportunity of ex­pressing the respect they had for our Church, and as in their publick Prayers they always prayed for the Churches of Great Brittain, as well as for the King, so in private discourse they shewed all possi­ble esteem for our Constitutions, and they spoke of the unhappy divisions among us, and of the Sepa­ration that was made from us, upon the account of our Government and Ceremonies with great re­gret and dislike. I shall name to you only two of their Professours, that as they are Men of great di­stinction, so they were the Persons with whom I conversed the most. The one is Mr. Turretin, a Man of great Learning, that by his Indefatigable Study and Labour has much worn out and wasted his strength; amidst all the affluence of a great plenty of Fortune to which he was born, one dis­cerns in him all the modesty of a humble and mor­tified temper, and of an active and fervent charity, proportioned to his abundance or rather beyond it; and there is in him such a melting zeal for Reli­gion, as the present conjuncture calls for, with all the seriousness of piety and devotion, which shews it self both in private conversation and in his most edifying Sermons by which he enters deep into the consciences of his Hearers. The other is Mr. Tron­chin, a Man of a strong head, and of a clear and [Page 7] correct Judgment; who has all his thoughts well digested; his conversation has an engaging charm in it that cannot be resisted. He is a Man of Ex­traordinary virtue and of a readiness to oblige and serve all Persons, that has scarce any measures. His Sermons have a sublimity in them that strikes the hearer as well as it edifies him. His thoughts are noble, and his Eloquence is Masculine and exact, and has all the Majesty of the Chair in it, temper­ed with all the softness of persuasion, so that he not only convinces his Hearers, but subdues them and triumphs over them. In such Company it was no wonder if time seemed to go off too fast, so that I left Geneva with a concern, that I should not have felt in leaving any place out of the Isle of Brittain.

From Geneva, I went a second time through Swit­zerland to Basile: At Avanche I saw the Noble frag­ments of a great Roman Work, which seems to have been the Portico to some Temple: the heads of the Pillars are about four foot square of the Jonick Order: The Temple hath been dedicated to Neptune or some Sea god; for on the fragments of the Architrave, which are very beautiful, there are Dolphins and Sea-horses in bas-reliefs; and the neighbourhood of the place to the Lakes of Iverdun and Morat maketh this more evident: there is also a Pillar standing up in its full height, or rather the corner of a building, in which one seeth the rests of a regular Architecture in two ranks of Pillars: If the ground near this were carefully search'd, no doubt it would discover more rests of that Fabrick. Not far from this is Morat; and a little on this side of it is a Chappel, full of the bones of the Burgundians that were killed by the Switzers, when this place was besieged by the famous Charles Duke of Burgundy, who lost a great Army be­fore it, that was entirely cut off by the besieged; the inscription is very extraordinary, especially for that [Page 8] Age: for the bones being so piled up that the Chap­pel is quite filled with them: the inscription bears, that Charles Duke of Burgundy's Army having besieg­ed Morat, Hoc sui Monumentum reliquit, had left that Monument behind it. It cannot but seem strange to one that views Morat, to imagine how it was possible for a Town so situated, and so slightly fortified, to hold out against so powerful a Prince and so great an Army that brought Cannon before it. I met with nothing remarkable between this and Basile, except that I staid sometime at Bern, and knew it better; and at this second time it was, that my Lord Advoyer d'Er­lach gave order to shew me the Original Records of the famous Process of the four Dominicans; upon which I have retoucht the Letter that I writ to you last year, so that I now send it to you with the cor­rections and enlargements, that this second stay at Bern gave me occasion to make.

Basile is the Town of the greatest extent of all Switzerland, but it is not inhabited in proportion to its extent. The Rhine maketh a crook before it: and the Town is situated on a rising ground, which hath a noble effect on the eye, when one is on the Bridge, for it looketh like a Theater. Little Basile on the other side of the Rhine, is almost a fourth part of the whole: The Town is surrounded with a Wall and Ditch, but it is so exposed on so many sides, and hath now so dreadful a Neighbour within a quarter of a League of it, the Fort of Huningh, that it hath nothing to trust to, humanly speaking, but its Union with the other Cantons. The maxims of this Canton have hindred its being better peopled than it is, the ad­vantages of the Burgership are such, that the Citi­zens will not share them with strangers; and by this means they do not admit them. For I was told, that during the last War, that Alsatia was so often the seat of both Armies, Basile having then a neutrality, it might have been well filled, if it had not been for [Page 9] this maxim. And it were a great happiness to all the Cantons, if they could have different degrees of Burgership, so that the lower degrees might be given to strangers for their encouragement to come and live among them: and the higher degrees which qualifie men for the advantagious Employments of the State, might be reserved for the ancient Families of the Na­tives. Basile is divided into sixteen Companies, and every one of these hath four Members in the little Council, so that it consisteth of sixty four: But of those four, two are chosen by the Company it self, who are called the Masters, and the other two are chosen by the Councel out of the Company; and thus as there are two sorts of Councellers, chosen in those different manners, there are also two chief Ma­gistrates. There are two Burghermasters that Reign by turns, and two Zunst-Masters that have also their turns, and all is for life: And the last are the heads of the Companies, like the Roman Tribunes of the peo­ple. The Fabrick of the Stadt-House is ancient; there is very good Painting in fresco upon the Walls; one Piece hath given much offence to the Papists, though they have no reason to blame the Reforma­tion for it; since it was done several years before it, in the year 1510. It is a representation of the Day of Judgement, and after Sentence given, the Devil is represented driving many before him to Hell, and among these there is several Ecclesiasticks. But it is believed that the Councel which sate so long in this place, acting so vigorously against the Pope, ingaged the Town into such a hatred of the Papacy, that this might give the rise to this representation. The more learned in the Town ascribe the beginning of the Cu­stom in Basile of the Clocks anticipating the time a full Hour, to the sitting of the Councel, and they say that in order to the advancing of business, and the shortning their Sessions, they ordered their Clocks to be set forward an Hour, which continueth to this [Page 10] day. The Cathedral is a great old Gothick building; the Chamber where the Councel sate, is of no great reception, and is a very ordinary Room: Erasmus's Tomb is only a plain Inscription upon a great brass plate: There are many of Holbens's Pictures, who was a Native of Basile, and was recommended by Erasmus to King Henry the VIII. the two best are a Corpo or Christ dead, which is certainly one of the best in the World: There is another Piece of his in the Stadt-House, for this is in the publick Library, of about three or four foot square; in which, in six several Cantons, the several parts of our Saviours Passion are represented with a life and beauty that can­not be enough admired; it is valued at ten thousand Crowns; it is in Wood, but hath that freshness of Colour on it, that seems peculiar to Holbens's Pencil. There is also a Dance that he painted on the Walls of an House where he used to drink, that is so worn out that very little is now to be seen, except shapes and postures: but these shew the exquisiteness of the hand. There is another longer Dance that runneth all along the side of the Convent of the Augustinians. which is now the French Church, which is Deaths Dance; there are above threescore figures in it at full length of Persons of all ranks, from Popes, Empe­rors and Kings, down to the meanest sorts of People, and of all Ages and Professions, to whom Death ap­peareth in an insolent and surprizing posture, and the several passions that they express are so well set out, that this was certainly a great design. But the fresco being exposed to the Air, this was so worn out some time ago, that they ordered the best Painter they had to lay new Colour on it, but this is so ill done that one had rather see the dead shadows of Holbens's Pencil, than this course work. There is in Basile a Gun-Smith that maketh Wind-Guns, and he shewed me one that as it received at once Air for ten shot, so it had this particular to it, which he pretends is his [Page 11] own Invention, that he can discharge all the Air that can be parcelled out in ten shot at once, to give a home blow. I confess those are terrible instruments, and it seems the interest of Mankind to forbid them quite, since they can be imployed to assassinate per­sons so dextrously, that neither noise nor sire will discover from what hand the shot cometh. The Library of Basile is, by much the best in all Switzer­land, there is a fine collection of Medals in it, and a very handsome Library of Manuscripts; the Room is Noble, and disposed in a very good method. Their Manuscripts are chiefly the Latine Fathers, or Latine Translations of the Greek Fathers, some good Bibles, they have the Gospels in Greek Capitals, but they are vitiously writ in many places: There is an infinite number of the Writers of the darker Ages, and there are Legends and Sermons without number. All the Books that were in the seueral Monasteries at the time of the Reformation were carefully preserved; and they believe that the Bishops who sate here in the Council, brought with them a great many Manu­scripts which they never carried away. Among their Manuscripts I saw four of Huss's Letters that he writ to the Bohemians the day before his death, which are very devout, but excessively simple. The Manuscripts of this Library are far more numerous than those of Bern, which were gathered by Bongarsius, and left by him to the publick Library there: They are indeed very little considered there, and are the worst kept that ever I saw: But it is a Noble collection of all the ancient Latine Authors, they have some few of the best of the Roman times, writ in great Characters, and there are many that are seven or eight hundred years old.

There is in Basile one of the best collections of Medals that ever I saw in private hands; together with a Noble Library, in which there are Manu­scripts of good antiquity that belong to the Family [Page 12] of Fesch, and that goeth from one Learned Man of the Family to another: For this Inheritance can on­ly pass to a Man of Learning, and when the Fa­mily produceth none, then it is to go to the pub­lick. In Basile as the several Companies have been more or less strict in admitting some to a Freedom in the Company, that have not been of the Trade, so they retain their priviledges to this day. For in such Companies that have once received such a number that have not been of the Trade as grew to be the majority, the Trade hath never been a­ble to recover their interest. But some Companies have been more cautious, and have never admitted any but those that were of the Trade, so that they retain their interest still in Government. Of these the Butchers were named for one, so that there are always four Butchers in the Council: The great Council consisteth of Two Hundred and Forty, but they have no power left them, and they are only assembled upon some extraordinary occasions, when the little Council thinketh fit to communicate any important matter to them. There are but six Ba­liages that belong to Bazile, which are not Employ­ments of great advantage; for the best of them doth afford to the Bailif only a Thousand livres a year: They reckon that there are in Basile Three Thousand Men that can bear Arms, and that they could raise Four Thousand more out of the Canton, so that the Town is almost the half of this State, and the whole maketh Thirty Parishes. There are Eighteen Professors in this University; and there is a Spirit of a more free and generous Learning stirring there, then I saw in all those parts. There is a great decency of habit in Bazile and the garb both of the Counsellers, Ministers, and Professors, their stiff Ruffs, and their long Beards, have an Air that is August: The appointments are but small, for Counsellers, Ministers and Professors have but [Page 13] a Hundred Crowns a piece: It is true many Mini­sters are Professors so this mendeth the matter a little: But perhaps it would go better with the State of Learning there, if they had but half the number of Professors, and if those were a little bet­ter incouraged. No, where is the rule of St. Paul [of Women having on their heads the badge of the authority under which they are brought, which by a phrase that is not extraordinary, he calleth power] better observed than at Bazile; for all the Married Women go to Church with a coif on their heads, that is so folded, that as it cometh down so far as to cover their eyes, so another fold­ing covereth also their Mouth and Chin, so that nothing but the nose appears, and then all turns backward in a folding that hangeth down to their midleg. This is always white, so that there is there such a sight of white heads in their Churches as cannot be found any where else: The unmarried Women wear hats turned up in the brims before and behind; and the brims of the sides being about a foot broad, stand out far on both hands: This fashion is also at Strasburg, and is worn there also by the Married Women.

I mentioned formerly the constant danger to which this place is exposed from the neighbour­hood of Huninghen; I was told that, at first, it was pretended that the French King intended to build only a small Fort there, and it was believed that one of the Burgo-masters of Bazile, who was thought not only the wisest man of that Canton, but of all Switzerland, was gained to lay all Men asleep, and to assure them that the suffering this Fort to be built so near them, was of no impor­tance to them, but now they see too late their fatal error: For the place is great, and will hold a Gar­rison of Three or Four Thousand Men; it is a Pentagone, only the side to the Rhine is so large, [Page 14] that if it went round on that side, I believe it must have been a Hexagone; the Bastions have all Oril­lons, and in the middle of them there is a void space, not filled up with earth, where there is a Magazine built so thick in the Vault that it is proof against Bombs; The Remparts are strongly faced, there is a large Ditch, and before the Cortine, in the middle of the Ditch, there runs all along a Horn-work which is but Ten or Twelve foot high; and from the bottom of the Rampart, there goeth a Vault to this Horn-work, that is for conveying of Men for its defence; before this Horn-work there is a half Moon, with this that is peculiar to those new Fortifications, that there is a Ditch that cuts the half Moon in an Angle, and maketh one half Moon within another: beyond that there is a Counter-Scarp about Twelve foot high above the Water, with a covered way, and a glacy designed, though not executed. There is also a great Horn-work besides all this, which [...]uns out a huge way with its out-works towards Bazile; there is also a Bridge laid over the Rhine, and there being an I­sland in the River, where the Bridge is laid, there is a Horn-work that filleth and fortifieth it. The Buildings in this Fort are beautiful, and the Square can hold above Four Thousand Men; the Works are not yet quite finished, but when all is com­pleated, this will be one of the strongest places in Europe: There is a Cavalier on one or two of the Bassions, and there are half Moons before the Ba­stions, so that the Switzers see their danger now, when it is not easie to redress it. This place is sci­tuated in a great Plain, so that it is commanded by no rising ground on any side of it. I made a little Tower into Alsace, as far as Mountbelliard; the Soil is extream rich, but it hath been so long a Frontier Country; and is, by consequence, so ill peopled, that it is in many places over-grown with Woods: [Page 15] In one respect it is fit to be the seat of War, for it is full of Iron-works, which bring a great deal of Money into the Country. I saw nothing pecu­liar in the Iron-works there (except that the sides of the great Bellows were not of Leather but of Wood, which saves much Money) so I will not stand to describe them. The River of the Rhine, all from Bazile to Spire, is so low, and is on both sides so covered with woods, that one that cometh down in a Boat hath no sight of the Country: The River runneth sometimes with such a force, that nothing but such Woods could preserve its Banks, and even these are not able to save them quite, for the Trees are often washed away by the very Roots, so that in many places those Trees lye along in the Channel of the River: It hath been also thought a sort of a Fortification to both sides of the River, to have it thus faced with Woods, which maketh the passing of Men dangerous, when they must march for sometime after their passage through a defilé. The first night from Bazile we came to Brisac, which is a poor and miserable Town, but it is a noble Fortification, and hath on the West-side of the River, over which a Bridge is laid, a regular Fort of Four or Five Bastions. The Town of Brisac riseth all on a Hill which is a considera­ble heigth; there were near it two Hills, the one is taken within the Fortification, and the other is so well levelled with the ground, that one cannot so much as find out where it was; All the ground about for many miles is plain, so that from the Hill, as from a Cavalier, one can see exactly well, especially with the help of a Prospect, all the mo­tions of an Enemy in case of a Siege: The Fortifi­cation is of a huge compass, above a French league, indeed almost a German league; the Bastions are quite filled with Earth, they are faced with brick, and have a huge broad Ditch full of Water around [Page 16] them, the Counterscarp, the covered way, which hath a palisade within the Parapet, and the Glacy, are all well exec [...]ted; there is a half Moon before every Cortine: the Bastions have no Orillons except one or two, and the Cortines are so disposed that a good part of them defendeth the Bastion. The Garrison of this place in time of War must needs be Eight or Ten Thousand Men; there hath not been much done of late to this place only the Ditch is so adjusted that it is all defended by the flanks of the Bastions. But the noblest place on the Rhine is Strasburg: It is a Town of a huge extent, and hath a double Wall and Ditch all round it; the inner Wall is old and of no strength, nor is the outward Wall very good, it hath a Faussebraye, and is faced with Brick Twelve or Fifteen Foot a­bove the Ditch: the Counterscarp is in an ill con­dition, so that the Town was not in case to make any long resistance; but it is now strongly fortified. There is a Cittadel built on that side that goeth towards the Rhine, that is much such a Fort as that of Huningh, and on the side of the Cittadel towards the Bridge, there is a great Horn-work that runs out a great way with out-works belonging to it; there are also small Forts at the two chief Gates that lead to Alsace; by which the City is so bri­dled that these can cut off all its communication with the Country about, in case of a revolt; the Bridge is also well Fortified; there are also Forts in some Islands in the Rhine, and some Redoubts: so that all round this place, there is one of the great­est Fortifications that is in Europe.

Hitherto the Capitulation with relation to Reli­gion hath been well kept, and there is so small a number of new Converts, and these are for the greatest part so inconsiderable, they not being in all above Two Hundred as I was told: The Lutherans for the greatest part retain their animosities almost [Page 17] to an equal degree both against Papists and Calvi­nists. I was in their Church, where if the Musick of their Psalms pleased me much, the irreverence in singing, it being free to keep on or put off the Hat, did appear very strange to me: The Churches are full of Pictures, in which the chief passages of our Saviours life are represented; but there is no sort of religious respect payed them, they bow when they name the Holy Ghost, as well as at the name of Jesus; but they have not the Ceremonies that the Lutherans of Saxony use, which Mr. Bebel, their Professor of Divinity, said was a great happiness, for a similitude in outward rites might dispose the ignorant People to change too easily. I found se­veral good People both of the Lutheran Ministers and others, acknowledge that there was such a cor­ruption of morals spread over the whole City, that as they had justly drawn down on their heads the plague of the loss of their liberty, so this ha­ving toucht them so little they had reason to look for severer strokes: One seeth, in the ruine of this City, what a mischievous thing the popular pride of a free City is: they fancied they were able to defend themselves, and so they refused to let an Im­perial Garrison come within their Town; for if they had received only Five Hundred Men, as that small number would not have been able to have opprest their Liberties, so it would have so secured the Town that the French could not have besieged it, without making War on the Empire: but the Town thought this was a diminution of their Free­dom, and so chose rather to pay a Garrison of Three Thousand Souldiers, which as it exhausted their Revenue, and brought them under great Taxes, so it proved too weak for their defence when the French Army came before them. The Town be­gins to sink in its Trade, notwithstanding the great circulation of Money that the expence of the Forti­fications [Page 18] hath brought to it; but when that is at an end, it will sink more sensibly, for it is impos­sible for a place of trade, that is to have always Light or Ten Thousand Souldiers in it, to continue long in a Flourishing State. There was a great [...]nimosity between two of the chief Families of the Town, Dietrick and Obrecht, the former was the Burgomaster, and was once almost run down by a Faction that the other had raised against him; but he turned the tide, and got such an advantage a­gainst Obrecht, who had writ somewhat against the conduct of their affairs, that he was condemned and Beheaded for writing Libels against the Govern­ment. His Son is a Learned Man, and was Profes­sor of the Civil Law; and he to have his turn of revenge against Dietrick, went to Paris last Summer, and that he might make his Court the better, changed his Religion. Dietrick had been always looked on as one of the chief of the French Faction, though he had been at first an Imperialist, so it was thought that he should have been well rewarded; yet it was expected that to make himself capable of that, he should have changed his Religion, but he was an antient Man, and would not purchase his Court at that rate: so without any reason given, and against the express words of the Capitulation, he was confined to one of the midland Provinces of France, as I remember it was Limosin; and thus he that hath been thought the chief cause of this Towns failing under the power of the French, is the first Man that hath felt the effects of it. The Library here is considerable, the Case is a great Room ve­ry well contrived, for it is divided into Closets all over the body of the Room, which runs about these as a Gallery, and in these Closets all round there are the Books of the several Professions lodged apart; there is one for Manuscripts in which there are some of considerable Antiquity, I need say nothing [Page 19] to you of the vast heighth, and the Gothick Archi­tecture of the Steeple and of the great Church, nor of the curious Clock where there is so vast a variety of motions, for these are well known. The bas reliefs upon the tops of the great Pillars of the Church are not so visible, but they are surprizing; for this being a Fabrick of Three or Four Hundred Years old, it is very strange to see such representa­tions as are there. There is a Procession represent­ed, in which a Hog carrieth the Pot with the Ho­ly Water, and Asses and Hogs in Priestly Vestments follow to make up the Procession; there is also an Ass standing before an Altar, as if he were going to Consecrate, and one carrieth a Case with Reliques, within which one feeth a Fox, and the trains of all that go in this Procession, are carried up by Mon­kies. This seems to have been made in hatred of the Monks whom the Secular Clergy abhorred at that time, because they had drawn the Wealth, and the following of the World after them, and they had exposed the Secular Clergy so much for their ignorance, that it is probable after some Ages, the Monks falling under the same contempt, the Secular Clergy took their turn in exposing them in so last­ing a representation to the scorn of the World. There is also in the Pulpit a Nun cut in Wood, lying along, and a Frier lying near her with his Breviary open before him, and his hand under the Nuns habit, and the Nuns feet are shod with Iron Shoes. I confess I did not look for these things, for I had not heard of them; but my Noble Friend Mr. Ablancourt viewed them with great exactness, while he was the French Kings Resident at Strasburg, in the company of one of the Magistrates that wait­ed on him; and it is upon his credit, to which all that know his eminent sincerity, know how much is due, that I give you this particular.

From Strasburg we went down the Rhine to Phi­lipsburg, [Page 20] which lieth at a quarter of a miles distance from the River, it is but a small place, the Bastions are but little; there is a Ravelline before almost all the Cortines, and there lye such Marishes all round it, that in these lieth the chief strength of the place. The French had begun a great Crown-work on the side that lieth to the Rhine, and had cast out a Horn-work beyond that; but by all that appears it seems they intended to continue that Crown work quite round the Town, and to make a second Wall and Ditch all round it; which would have Enlarged the place vastly, and made a compass capable e­nough to lodge above Ten Thousand Men; and this would have been so terrible a Neighbour to the Pa­latinate and all Franconia that it was a Master-piece in Charles Lewis, the late Elector Palatine, to En­gage the Empire into this Siege. He saw well how much it concerned him to have it out of the hands of the French, so that he took great care to have the Duke of Lorrain's Camp so well supplied with all things necessary during the Siege, that the Army lay not under the least uneasiness all the while. From thence in three Hours time we came to Spire, which is so naked a Town that if it were attacked, it could not make the least resistance. The Town is neither great nor rich, and subsisteth chiefly by the Imperial Chamber that sitteth here, though there is a constant dispute between the Town and the Chamber concerning Priviledges; for the Govern­ment of the Town, pretends that the Judges of the Chamber, as they are private Men, and out of the Court of Judicature, are subject to them; and so about a year ago they put one of the Judges in Pri­son; on the other hand the Judges pretend that their Persons are sacred. It was the consideration of the Chamber that procured to the Town the neutrality that they injoyed all the last War. I thought to have seen the forms of this Court, and the way of [Page 21] laying up, and preserving their Records, but the Court was not then sitting. The Building, the Halls and Chambers of this Famous Court are mean beyond imagination, and look liker the Halls of some small Company, then of so great a body; and I could not see the places where they lay up their Archives: The Government of the City is all Lu­theran, but not only the Cathedral is in the hands of the Bishop and Chapter, but there are likewise several Convents of both Sexes, and the Jesuites have also a Colledge there. There is little remarka­ble in the Cathedral, which is a huge building in the Gothick manner of the worst sort. The Tombs of many Emperours that lie buried there, are re­markable for their meanness; they being only great Flag-stones layed on some small Stone ballisters of a foot and a half high: There are also the marks of a ridiculous Fable concerning St. Bernard, which is too foolish to be related, yet since they have taken such pains to preserve the remembrance of it, I shall venture to write it. There are from the Gate all along the Nef of the Church up to the Steps that go up to the Quire, Four round Plates of Brass, a­bove a foot Diameter, and at the distance of Thir­ty foot one from another; laid in the pavement, on the first of these is ingraven: O Clemens; on the second, O Pia; on the third, O Felix; and on the fourth, Maria: The last is about Thirty Foot distant from a Statue of the Virgins; so they say that St. Bernard came up the whole length of the Church at four steps, and that those four plates were laid where he stept: and that at every step he pro­nounced the word that is engraven on the Plate, and when he came to the last, the Image of the Virgin answered him. Salve Bernarde: upon which he an­swered, let a Woman keep silence in the Church, and that the Virgins Statue has kept silence ever since, this last part of the Story is certainly very credible. [Page 22] He was a man of Learning that shewed me this; and he repeated it so gravely to me, that I saw he either believed it, or at least that he had a mind to make me believe it: and I asked him as gravely if that was firmly believed there, he told me that one had lately writ a Book to prove the truth of it, as I re­member, it was a Jesuit: he acknowledged it was not an Article of Faith, so I was satisfied.

There is in the Cloister an old Gothick representa­tion of our Saviours Agony in Stone, with a great many Figures of his Apostles, and the Company that came to seize him, that is not ill Sculpture, for the Age in which it was made, it being some Ages old. The Calvinists have a Church in this Town, but their numbers are not considerable: I was told there were some ancient Manuscripts in the Library, that belongeth to the Cathedral; but one of the Preben­daries to whom I addressed my self, being, accord­ing to the German custom, a man of greater quality than learning, told me he heard they had some anci­ent Manuscripts, but he knew nothing of it, and the Dean was absent, so I could not see them, for he kept one of the keys. The lower Palatinate is certainly one of the sweetest Countries of all Germany: It is a great Plain till one cometh to the Hills of Heidelberg: the Town is ill scituated, just in a bottom between two ranges of Hills, yet the Air is much commended: I need say nothing of the Castle, nor the prodigious Wine Cellar, in which, though there is but one cele­brated Tun that is seventeen foot high, and twenty six foot long, and is built with a strength liker that of the ribs of a ship, than the Staves of a Tun; yet there are many other Tuns of such a prodigious big­ness, that they would seem very extraordinary if this vast one did, not Eclipse them. The late Prince Charles Lewis shewed his capacity in the peopling and and settling this State, that had been so entirely ruin­ed, being for many years the Seat of War, for in four [Page 23] years time he brought it to a Flourishing condition: He raised the Taxes as high as was possible without dispeopling his Country, and all mens Estates were valued, and they were taxed at five per cent of the va­lue of their Estates; but their Estates were not va­lued to the rigour, but with such abatements as have been ordinary in England in the times of Subsidies; so that when the Son offered to bring the Taxes down to two per cent of the real value; the Subjects all desired him rather to continue them as they were. There is no Prince in Germany that is more absolute than the Elector Palatine, for he layeth on his Subjects what Taxes he pleaseth, without being limited to any forms of Government. And here I saw that which I had always believed to be true, that the Subjects of Ger­many are only bound to their particular Prince, for they swear Allegiance simply to the Elector, without any reserve for the Emperor, and in their Prayers for him they name him their Soveraign. It is true the Prince is under some ties to the Emperor, but the Subjects are under none. And by this D. Fabritius, a learned and judicious Professor there, explained those words of Pareus's Commentary on the Romans, which had respect only to the Princes of the Empire: and were quite misunderstood by those who fancied that they favoured Rebellion; for there is no place in Europe where all rebellious Doctrine is more born down than there. I found a great spirit of modera­tion with relation to those small controversies that have occasioned such heat in the Protestant Churches reigning in the University there, which is in a great measure owing to the prudence, learning, and the happy temper of mind of D. Fabritius, and D. Miek; who as they were long in England, so they have that gene­rous largeness of Soul, which is the Noble Ornament of many of the English Divines. Prince Charles Lewis saw that Manheim was marked out by Nature to be the most important place of all his Territory, it be­ing [Page 24] scituated in the point where the Neckar falleth in­to the Rhine: So that those two Rivers defending it on two sides, it was capable of a good Fortification: It is true the Air is not thought wholsome; and the Water is not good, yet he made a fine Town there, and a Noble Cittadel with a regular Fortification a­bout it, and he designed a great Palace there, but he did not live to build it. He saw of what advantage Liberty of Conscience was to the peopling of his Country, so as he suffered the Jews to come and set­tle there, he resolved also not only to suffer the three Religions tolerated by the Laws of the Empire to be professed there, but he built a Church for them all three, which he called the Church of the Concord, in which both Calvinists, Lutherans and Papists had, in the order in which I have set down, the exercise of their Religion, and he maintained the peace of his Principality so entirely, that there was not the least disorder occasioned by this tolleration: This, indeed, made him to be lookt on as a Prince that did not much consider Religion himself: He had a wonder­ful application to all affairs, and was not only his own chief Minister, but he alone did the work of many.

But I were Injust, if I should not say somewhat to you of the Princely vertues and the Celebrated probity of the present Prince Elector upon whom that Dignity is devolved by the extinction of so many Princes that in this Age composed the most numerous Family of any of that rank in Europe. This Prince as he is in many respects an honour to the Religion that he professes, so is in nothing more to be com­mended by those who differ from him, than for his exact adhering to the promises he made his Subjects with relation to their Religion, in which he has not even in the smallest matters, broke in upon their esta­blisht Laws, and though an Order of Men, that have turned the World upside down, have great Credit [Page 25] with him, yet it is hitherto visible that they cannot carry it so far, as to make him do any thing contrary to the established Religion; and to those sacred pro­mises that he made his Subjects. For he makes it appear to all the World that he does not con­sider those as so many words spoken at first to lay his people asleep, which he may now explain and observe as he thinks fit; but as so many ties upon his Conscience and Honour, which he will Religiously observe. And as in the other parts of his life he has set a Noble Pattern to all the Princes of Europe, so his exactness to his pro­mises, is that which cannot be too much com­mended: of which this extraordinary Instance has been communicated to me since I am come into this Countrey. The Elector had a Procession in his Court last Corpus Christi day, upon which one of the Ministers of Heidelberg preacht a very se­vere Sermon against Popery, and in particular, taxed that Procession, perhaps, with greater plain­ness than discretion: This being brought to the Elector's ears, he sent presently an Order to the Ecclesiastical Senate to suspend him. That Court is composed of some Secular Men, and some Churchmen, and as the Princes authority is dele­gated to them, so they have a sort of an Epis­copal jurisdiction over all the Clergy. This Or­der was a surprise to them as being a direct breach upon their Laws and the Liberty of their Reli­gion? so they sent a Deputation to Court, to let the Elector know the reasons that hindred them from obeying his Orders, which were heard with so much Justice and Gentleness, that their Prince instead of expressing any displeasure against them, recalled the Order that he had sent them. The way from Heidelberg to Frankfort, is, for the first twelve or fifteen miles, the beautifullest piece of ground that can be imagined; for we went [Page 26] under a ridge of little Hills that are all covered with Vines, and from them, as far as the eye can go, there is a beautiful Plain of Corn-fields and Meadows, all sweetly divided and inclosed with rows of Trees, so that I fancied I was in Lom­bardy again, but with this advantage, that here all was not of a piece, as it is in Lombardy: but the Hills as they made a pleasant inequality in the prospect, so they made the Air purer, and pro­duced a pleasant Wine: The way near Darmstat, and all forwards to Frankfort, becometh more wild and more sandy: There is a good Suburb on the South-side of the Main over against Frankfort, which hath a very considerable Fortification; there is a double Wall, and a double Ditch that goeth round it, and the outward Wall, as it is regularly fortified, so it is faced with Brick to a considera­ble heighth. The Town of Frankfort is of a great extent, and seemed to be but about a third part less then Strasburg: The three Religions are also to­lerated there; and though the number of the Papists is very inconsiderable, yet they have the great Church, which is a huge rude building; they have also seve­ral other Churches, and some Convents there. There are several open squares for Market places, and the Houses about them look very well without. A­mong their Archives they preserve the Original of the Bulla Aurea, which is only a great Parchment writ in High Dutch, without any beauty answering to its Title: and since I could not have understood it, I was not at the pains of desiring to see it, for that is not obtained without difficulty. The Luthe­rans have here built a new Church, called St. Cathe­rin's, in which there is as much painting as ever I saw in any Popish Church, and over the high Altar there is an huge carved Crucifix, as there are painted ones in other places of their Church. The Pulpit is extream fine of Marble of different colours very [Page 27] well polished and joyned. I was here at a Sermon where I understood nothing, but I liked one thing that I saw both at Strasburg and here, that at the end of Prayers, there was a considerable interval of silence left, before the conclusion, for all peo­ples private devotions. In the House of their pub­lick Discipline, they retain still the old Roman Pistri­na or Hand-mill, at which lewd Women are con­demned to grind, that is, to drive about the Wheel that maketh the Milstones go. There is a great num­ber of Jews there, though their two Synagogues are very little, and by consequence the numbers be­ing great, they are very nasty. I was told they were in all above twelve hundred. The Women had the most of a tawdry Imbroidery of Gold and Sil­ver about them that ever I saw, for they had all Mantles of Crape, and both about the top and the bottom, there was a border above a hand breadth of imbroidery. The Fortification of Frank­fort is considerable, their Ditch is very broad, and very full of Water; all the Bastions have a Coun­ter-mine that runneth along by the brim of the Ditch; but the Counterscarp is not faced with Brick as the Walls are, and so in many places it is in an ill condition; the covered Way and glacy are also in an ill case: The Town is rich, and dri­veth a great Trade, and is very pleasantly scituated. Not far from hence is Hockam that yieldeth the best Wine of those parts. Since I took Frankfort in my way from Heidelberg to Mentz, I could not pass by Worms, for which I was sorry. I had a great mind to see that place where Luther made his first appearance before the Emperor, and the Diet, and in that solemn audience expressed an undaunt­ed zeal for that Glorious Cause in which God made him such a blessed Instrument. I had another piece of Curiosity on me which will, perhaps, appear to you somewhat ridiculous. I had a mind to see a [Page 28] Picture that, as I was told, is over one of the Po­pish Altars there, which one would think was In­vented by the Enemies of Transubstantiation to make it appear ridiculous. There is a Windmill, and the Virgin throws Christ into the Hopper, and he comes out at the eye of the Milne all in Wa­ters, which some Priests take up to give the Peo­ple. This is so course an Embleme, that one would think it too gross even for Laplanders; but a Man that can swallow Transubstantiation it self, will digest this likewise. Mentz is very nobly scituated, on a rising ground a little below the conjunction of the two Rivers, the Rhine, and the Main; it is of too great a compass, and too ill Peopled to be capable of a great defence: There is a Cittadel up­on the highest part of the Hill that commandeth the Town; it is compassed about with a dry Ditch that is considerably deep. The Walls of the Town are faced with Brick and regularly forti­fied, but the Counterscarp is not faced with Brick, so all is in a sad condition; and the Fortification is weakest on that side where the Elector's Palace is. There is one side of a new Palace very nobly built in a regular Architecture, only the Germans do still retain somewhat of the Gothick manner. It is of a great length, and the design is to build quite round the Court, and then it will be a ve­ry magnificent Palace, only the Stone is red; for all the Quarries that are upon the Rhine, from Bazile down to Coblentz, are of red Stone, which doth not look beautiful. The Elector of Mentz is an absolute Prince; his Subjects present Lists of their Magi­strates to him, but he is not tied to them, and may name whom he will: The Ancient Demeasne of the Electorate is about Forty thousand Crowns: But the Taxes rise to about Three hundred thou­sand Crowns; so that the Subjects here are as heavily taxed as in the Palatinate: There is [Page 29] Twelve thousand Crowns a year given the Ele­ctor for his privy Purse, and the State bears the rest of his whole expence: It can Arm Ten thou­sand Men, and there is a Garison of Two thou­sand Men in Mentz: This Elector hath three Councels, one as he is Chancellour of the Em­pire, consisting of three Persons; the other two are for the Policy and Justice of his Principali­ty. He and his Chapter have Months by turns for the Nomination of the Prebends. In the Month of January he names, if any dies, and they chuse in the Room of such as die in February, and so all the Year round. The Prebendaries or Dome­heer's have about Three thousand Crowns a year a piece. When the Elector dieth, the Emperor sendeth one to see the Election made, and he re­commendeth one, but the Canons may chuse whom they please; and the present Elector was not of the Emperors recommendation. Besides the Palace at Mentz, the Elector hath another near Frankfort, which is thought the best that is in those parts of Germany: The Cathedral is a huge Gothick Building; there is a great Cupulo in the West-end, and there the Quire singeth Mass: I could not learn whether this was done only be­cause the place here was of greater reception than at the East-end or if any burying place and en­dowment obliged them to the West-end. Near the Cathedral there is a huge Chapel of great Antiqui­ty, and on the North Door there are two great Brass Gates with a long Inscription, which I had not time to write out, but I found it was in the Emperor Lotharius's time. There are a vast num­ber of Churches in this Town, but it is poor and ill inhabited. The Rhine here is almost half an English mile broad, and there is a Bridge of Boats laid over it. From Mentz all along to Bac­charach (which seems to carry its name (Bacchi [Page 30] Ara) from some famous Altar that the Romans probably erected by reason of the good Wine that grows in the neighbourhood.) There is a great number of very considerable Villages on both sides of the River: Here the Rats Tower is shewed, and the People of the Country do all firmly be­lieve the story of the Rats eating up an Elector, and that though he Fled to this Island where he built a small high Tower, they pursued him still, and swimmed after him, and eat him up: And they told us that there were some of his Bones to be seen still in the Tower. This extraordinary Death makes me call to mind a peculiar and un­looked for sort of Death, that carried off a poor Labourer off the ground a few days before I left Geneva. The foot of one of his Cattel, as he was ploughing, went into a nest of Wasps, upon which the whole swarm came out, and set upon him that held the Plough, and killed him in a ve­ry little time; and his body was prodigiously swel­led with the poyson of so many Stings.

But to return to the Rhine, all the way from Baccharach down to Coblents, there is on both sides of the River hanging grounds, or little Hills, so laid as if many of them had been laid by Art, which produce the rich Rhenish Wine: They are indeed as well exposed to the Sun, and covered from Storms, as can be imagined; and the ground on those Hills, which are in some places of a consider­able heighth, is so cultivated that there is not an inch lost that is capable of improvement, and this bringeth so much wealth into the Country, that all along there is a great number of considerable Villa­ges. Coblentz is the strongest place that I saw of all that belong to the Empire; the scituation is Noble, the Rhine running before it, and the Moselle passing along the side of the Town; it is well fortified, the Ditch is large, the Counterscarp is high, and the [Page 31] covered way is in a good condition; both Walls and Counterscarp are faced with Brick, and there are Ravelines before the Cortines; but on the side of the Moselle it is very slightly fortified, and there is no Fort at the end of the stone Bridge that is laid over the Moselle, so that it lieth quite open on that side, which seemeth a strange defect in a place of that consequence: But though the Fortifications of this place are very considerable, yet its chief defence li­eth in the Fort of Hermanstan, which is built on the top of a very high Hill, that lieth on the other side of the Rhine; and which commandeth this place so absolutely, that he who is Master of Hermanstan, is always Master of Coblentz. This belongeth to the Elector of Triers, whose Palace lieth on the East-side of the Rhine, just at the foot of the Hill of Her­manstan, and over against the point where the Mo­selle falleth into the Rhine, so that nothing can be more pleasantly scituated; only the ground begins to rise just at the back of the House with so much steepness that there is not Room for Gardens or Walks. The House maketh a great shew upon the River, but we were told that the Apartments with­in were not answerable to the outside. I say we were told for the German Princes keep such forms, that, without a great deal of ado, one cannot come within their Courts, unless it be when they are a­broad themselves; so that we neither got within the Palace at Mentz, nor this of Hermanstan. It is but a few Hours from this to Bonne, where the Elector of Collen keepeth his Court; the place hath a regu­lar Fortification, the Walls are faced with Brick; but though the Ditch, which is dry, is pretty broad, the Counterscarp is in so ill a condition, that it is not able to make a great defence. This Elector is the Noblest born, and the best provided of all the German Clergy, for he is Brother to the great Maxi­milian Duke of Bavaria; and besides Collen, he hath [Page 32] Liege, Munster, and Hidelsheim, which are all great Bishopricks: He hath been also Six and Thirty years in the Electorate: His Palace is very mean, consist­ing but of one Court, the half of which is cast into a little Garden, and the Wood-yard is in the very Court; the lower part of the Court was a stable; but he hath made an apartment here that is all fur­nished with Pictures: where, as there are some of the hands of the greatest Masters, so there are a great many foils to set these off, that are scarce good e­nough for Signposts.

The Elector has a great many gold meddals, which will give me occasion to tell you one of the Extrava­gantest pieces of forgery that perhaps ever was; which happened to be found out at the last siege of Bonne: for while they were clearing the ground for planting a battery, they discovered a Vault in which there was an Iron Chest that was full of meddals of gold to the value of 100000 Crowns; and of which I was told the Elector bought to the value of 30000 Crowns. They are huge big, one weighed 800. Ducats, and the gold was of the fineness of Ducat gold; but though they bore the Impressions of Ro­man Meddals, or rather Medallions they were all Counterfeit; and the imitation was so coursely done that one must be extream Ignorant in Meddals to be deceived by them. Some few that seemed true were of the late Greek Emperours. Now it is very unac­countable what could induce a Man to make a forge­ry upon such mettle, and in so vast a quantity, and then to bury all this under ground, especially in an Age in which so much gold was ten times the value of what is at present for it is judged to have been done about Four or Five Hundred Years ago.

The Prince went out a hunting while we were there, with a very handsome Guard of about Four­score Horse, well mounted; so we saw the Palace, but where not suffered to see the Apartment where [Page 33] he lodged: There is a great Silver Casolette gilt, all set with Emeralds and Rubies, that though they made a fine appearance, yet were a Composition of the Princes own making: His Officers also shewed us a Bason and Ewer, which they said were of Mercury fixed by the Prince himself; but they added that now for many Years he wrought no more in his Laboura­tory. I did not easily believe this, and as the weight of the Plate did not approach to that of Quick-Sil­ver, so the Medicinal Virtues of fixed Mercury, if there is any such thing, are so extraordinary, that it seemed very strange to see Twenty or Thirty Pound of it made up in two pieces of Plate. A quarter of a mile without the Town, the best Garden of those parts of Germany is to be seen, in which there is a great variety of Water-works, and very many Noble Allies in the French manner, and the whole is of a very considerable extent; but as it hath no Statues of any value to adorn it, so the House about which it lieth in, is in ruines: and it is strange to see that so rich and so great a Prince, during so long a Regence, hath done so little to Enlarge or beautifie his Buil­dings. Bonne and Coblentz are both poor and small Towns. Collen is three Hours distant from Bonne, it is of a prodigious extent, but ill built and worse Peopled in the remote parts of it; and as the Walls are all in an ill case, so it is not possible to fortifie so vast a compass as this Town maketh, as it ought to be, without a charge that would eat out the whole Wealth of this little State. The Jews live in a little Suburb on the other side of the River, and may not come over without leave obtained, for which they pay considerably. There is no exercise of the Pro­testant Religion suffered within the Town, but those of the Religion are suffered to live there, and they have a Church at two miles distance. The Arsenal here, is suitable to the Fortifications, very mean, and ill furnished. The Quire of the great Church is as [Page 34] high in the roof, as any Church I ever saw; but it seemeth the Wealth of this place could not finish the whole Fabrick, so as to answer the heighth of the Quire, for the Body of the Church is very low: Those that are disposed to believe Legends, have enough here to overset even a good degree of credu­lity, both in the story of the three Kings, whose Chap­pel is visited with great devotion, and standeth at the East end of the great Quire; and in that more copious Fable of the Eleven Thousand Ʋrsulins, whose Church is all over full of rough Tombs, and of a vast number of Bones that are piled up in rows about the Walls of the Church: These Fables are so firmly believed by the Papists there, that the least sign which one giveth of doubting of their truth, passeth for an infallible mark of an Heretick. The Jesuites have a great and noble Colledge and Church here. And for Thauler's sake I went to the Dominicans House and Church; which is also very great. One grows extreamly weary of walking over this great Town, and doth not find enough of entertainment in it: The present subject of their discourse is also very melancholy: The late Rebellion that was there, is so generally known, that I need not say much concerning it. A report was set about the Town, by some Incendia­ries, that the Magistrates did eat up the publick Re­venue, and were like to ruine the City; I could not learn what ground there was for these reports, for it is not ordinary to see reports of that kind fly, through a body of Men, without some foundation: It is certain this came to be so generally believed, that there was a horrible disorder occasioned by it: The Magistrates were glad to save themselves from the storm, and abandoned the Town to the popular fury, some of them having been made sacrifices to it; and this rage held long: But within this last year, after near two years disorder, those that were sent by the Emperor and Diet to Judge the matter, [Page 35] having threatned to put the Town under the Imperial Bann, if it had stood longer out, were received; and have put the Magistrates again in the possession of their Authority, and all the chief Incendiaries were clapt in Prison: many have already suffered, and a great many more are still in Prison; they told us that some executions were to be made within a week when we were there. Dusseldorp is the first conside­rable Town below Collen, it is the Seat of the Duke of Juliers, who is Duke of Newburgh, eldest Son to the present Elector Palatine. The Palace is old and Gothick enough; but the Jesuits have their a fine Colledge, and a noble Chappel, though there are manifest faults in the Architecture; the Protestant Re­ligion is tolerated and they have a Church lately built here within these few years, that was procu­red by the intercession of the Elector of Branden­burgh. who observing exactly the liberty of Religion that was agreed to in Cleve, had reason to see the same as duly observed in his Neighborhood, in fa­vour of his own Religion. The Fortification here is very ordinary, the Ramparts being faced but a few foot high with Brick. But Keiserswart, some hours lower on the same side, which belongeth to the Ele­ctor of Collen, though it is a much worse Town then Dusseldorp, yet is much better fortified; it hath a ve­ry broad Ditch, and a very regular Fortification; the Walls are considerably high, faced with Brick, and so is the Counterscarp, which is also in a very good condition. The Fortification of Orsoy is now quite demolished. Rhineberg continueth as it was, but the Fortification is very mean, only of Earth, so that it is not capable of making a great resistance. And Wesel, though it is a very fine Town, yet is a very poor Fortification, nor can it ever be made good, except at a vast expence; for the ground all about it being sandy, nothing can be made there that will be durable, unless the foundation go very deep, or that [Page 36] it be laid upon Piloty. In all these Towns one sees another air of Wealth and Abundance than in much richer Countries that are exhausted with taxes. Rees and Emmerick are good Towns, but the Fortifications are quite ruined. So that here is a rich and populous Country, that hath at present very little defence, ex­cept what it hath from its scituation. Cleve is a de­licious place, the scituation and prospect are charm­ing, and the Air is very pure, and from thence we came hither in three hours.

I will not say one word of the Country into which I am now come, for as I know that is needless to you on many accounts, so a Picture that I see here in the Stadthouse, puts me in mind of the perfectest Book of its kind that is perhaps in being, For Sir William Temple, whose Picture hangeth here at the upper end of the Plenipotentiaries that negotiated the Famous Treaty of Nimmegen, hath indeed set a pattern to the World, which is done with such life, that it may justly make others blush to copy after it, since it must be acknowledged, that if we had as perfect an ac­count of the other places, as he hath given us of one of the least, but yet one of the Noblest parcels of the Universe, Travelling would become a needless thing, unless it were for diversion; since one findeth no fur­ther occasion for his curiosity in this Country, then what is fully satisfied by his rare performance. Yet I cannot give overwriting, without reflecting on the resistance that this place made, when so many other places were so basely delivered up, though one doth not see in the ruines of the Fortification here, how it could make so long a resistance: yet it was that that stem'd the tide of a progress that made all the World stand amazed; and it gave a little time to the Dutch to recover themselves out of the consterna­tion, into which so many blows, that came so thick one after another, had struck them.

But then the World saw a change, that though it [Page 37] hath not had so much Incense given to it, as the hap­py conjuncture of another Prince hath drawn after it, with so much excess, that all the topicks of flat­tery seem exhausted by it, yet will appear to poste­rity one of the most surprizing Scenes in History, and that which may be well matched with the recovery of the Roman State after the Battel of Canne. When a young Prince, that had never before born Arms, or so much as seen a Campagne, who had little or no Council about him but that which was suggested from his own thoughts, and that had no extraordi­nary advantage, by his Education either for litera­ture or affairs, was of a sudden set at the head of a State and Army, that was sunk with so many losses; and that saw the best half of its Soil torn from it; and the powerfullest Enemy in the World, surround­ed with a Victorious Army that was commanded by the best Generals that the Age hath produced, come within sight, and settle his Court in one of the best Towns, and had at the same time the greatest force both by Sea and Land, that hath been known, united together for its destruction. When the Inhabitants were forced, that they might save themselves from so formidable an Enemy, to let loose that which on all other occasions, is the most dreadful to them; and to drown so great a part of their Soil for the preser­vation of the rest; and to complicate together all the miseries that a Nation can dread, when to the general consternation with which so dismal a Scene possessed them, a distraction within doors seemed to threaten them with the last strokes; and while their Army was so ill disciplined, that they durst scarce promise themselves any thing from such feeble Troops, after a Peace at Land of almost Thirty Years continu­ance; and while their chief Ally, that was the most concerned in their preservation, was, like a great paralitick body, liker to fall on those that it pretend­ed to support, and to crush them, then to give them [Page 38] any considerable assistance: When I say a young Prince came at the head of all this, the very prospect of which would have quite dampt an ordinary courage, he very quickly changed the Scene, he animated the Publick Councils with a generous vigour; he found them sinking into a feebleness of hearkning to Propo­sitions for a peace, that were as little safe as they were honorable, but he disposed them to resolve on ha­zarding all, rather than to submit to such Infamous terms. His credit also among the populace seemed to Inspire them with a new life; they easily persuaded themselves that as one WILLIAM Prince of ORANGE had formed their State, so here another of the same name seemed marked out to recover and preserve it. It was this Spirit of Courage which he derived from his own breast, and infused into the whole People, as well as into the Magistracy that preserved this Coun­try. Some thing there was in all this that was Divine. The Publick Councils were again setled, and the Peo­ple were at quiet when they saw him vested with a full authority for that time with Relation to peace and war, and concluded they were safe, because they were in his hands. It soon appeared how faith­fully he pursued the Interest of his Country, and how little he regarded his own. He rejected all Proposi­tions of Peace that were hurtfull to his Country, without so much as considering the advantages that were offered to himself, (in which you know that I write upon sure grounds.) He refused the offer of the Soveraign [...]y of its Chief City, that was made to him by a solemn Deputation, being satisfied with that Authority which had been so long maintained by his Ancestors with so much glory, and being justly sensi­ble, how much the breaking in upon established laws and liberties, is fatal even to those that seem to get by it. He thus began his publick appearance on the stage, with all the disadvantages that a Spirit aspiring to true Glory could wish for; since it was Visible that [Page 39] he had nothing to trust to, but a good cause, a favo­rable Providence, and his own Integrity and Courage; nor was success wanting to such Noble beginnings; for he in a short time, with a Conduct and Spirit be­yond any thing that the World hath yet seen, reco­vered this State, out of so desperate a distemper, took some places by main force, and obliged the Enemy to abandon all that they had acquired in so feeble a man­ner. And if a raw Army had not always success a­gainst more numerous and better trained Troops, and if the want of Magazins and Stores in their Alliés Country, which was the chief Scene of the War, made that he could not Post his Army, and wait for favourable circumstances, so that he was sometimes forced to run to action, with a hast that his necessities imposed upon him; yet the forcing of the beginnings of a Victory out of the hands of the greatest General of the Age, the facing a great Monarch with an Army much inferior to his, when the other was too cautious to hazard an ingagement, and in short the forming the Dutch Army to such a pitch that it became visibly Su­perior to the French, that seemed to have been fed with Conquests; and the continuing the War, till the Prince that had sacrificed the quiet of Europe to his GLORY, was glad to come and treat for a Peace in the Enemies Country, and in this very place, and to set all Engines on work to obtain that, by the media­tion of some, and the jealousies of other Princes; all these are such performances that posterity will be dis­posed to rank them rather among the Idea's of what an imaginary Hero could do, then with what could be really transacted in so short a time, and in such a manner. And in conclusion every place that belong­ed to these States, and to their Neighbours along the Rhine, together with a great many in Flanders, being restored; these Provinces do now see themselves under his happy Conduct, re-established in their former peace and security. And though some scars of such [Page 40] deep wounds do still remain, yet they find themselves considered on all hands, as the Bulwark of Christen­dom, against the fears of a new Monarchy, and as the preservers of the peace and liberty of Europe.

Here is a Harvest, not for forced Rhetorick, or false Eloquence, but for a severe and sincere Historian, capable of affording a work that will far exceed all those luscious Panegyricks of mercenary pens; but a small or a Counterfeit Jewel must be set with all pos­sible advantages, when a true one of great value needs only to be shewed. I cannot end with a greater sub­ject, and I must acknowledge my self to be so inflam­ed with this hint, that as I cannot after this bring my pen down to lower matters, so I dare not trust my self too long, to the heat that so Noble an Object inspires, therefore I break off abruptly.