France painted to the life by a learned and impartial hand.

France painted to the life by a learned and impartial hand.

Table of contents

Title page

TO THE READER.

FRANCE Painted to the Life. The First Book. The beginning of our Journey, the nature of the Sea, a Farewell to England.

CHAP. I.

CHAP. II.

CHAP. III.

CHAP. IV.

The Second Book, or FRANCE.

CHAP. I.

CHAP. II.

CHAP. III.

CHAP. IV.

CHAP. II.

CHAP. VI.

CHAP. VII.

CHAP. VIII.

CHAP. IX.

CHAP. X.

CHAP. II.

CHAP. XII.

CHAP. XIII.

CHAP. XIV.

THE THIRD BOOK: OR, LA BEAƲSSE.

CHAP. I.

CHAP. II.

CHAP. III.

CHAP. IV.

The Fourth Book: Or PICARDY.

CHAP. I

CHAP. II.

CHAP. III.

CHAP. IV.

CHAP. V.

The CONCLUSION. A Generall censure of France, and the French. A gratulation to England. The end of our journey.

§

§

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FRANCE PAINTED to the LIFE▪

By a Learned and Impartial Hand.

—Quid non Gallia parturit ingens.

LONDON.

Printed for William Leake, at the Crown in Fleet-street, betwixt the two Temple Gates. 1656.

TO THE READER.

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HIstories are like Iewels, not valued by their bulk, but their beauty and lustre: Real worth exceeds words; yet this History is furnished with both; tis rare for the matter, method, truth and use.

It needs no Apologie, its own furniture will sufficiently praise it, especially amongst the Ingenuous and Learned; here is a solid and pleasant relishment for any that desire forrain rarities.

The Pen-man managed his time with advantage: And it may be said, that a Judicious Reader may see [Page] France in this Book as well as by travel. Nothing worthy observation hath escap'd the Author; what hath, was not worth his Pen. Thou hast (as it came to hand) without any adulteration, a true Copy of his conceptions and labours without addition or diminution. Take hereof a serious view, thereby thou shalt inform thy judgement, please thy fancy, and be rendred able to discourse of the several places and passages therein mentioned, equally with those who have in person surveyed them.

FRANCE Painted to the Life. The First Book. The beginning of our Journey, the nature of the Sea, a Farewell to England.

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ON Thursday the 28th of June, at the time when England had received the cheif beauty of France, and the French had seen the cheif beauties of England, we went to Sea in a Bark of Dover; The Port we arrived at Diepe in Normandy, the hour three in the afternoon: the wind fair and high▪ able, had [Page] it continued in that point, to have given us a waftage as speedy as our longing. Two hours before night it came about to the Westward, and the tide also not befriending us, our passage became tedious and troublesome. The next day being dedicate to the glory of God, in memory of St. Peter, we took the benifit of the ebb to assist us against the wind. This brought us out of the sight of England, and the floud ensuing compelled us to our anchor.

I had now leisure to see Gods wonders in the deep, wonders indeed to us, which had never before seen them: but too much familiarity had made them none other than the Saylers play-fellows. The waves striving by an inbred ambition which should be the highest, which foremost: precedency and super-eminency was equally desired, and each enjoyed it in succession. The wind more covetous in appearance to play with the water than disturbe it, did onely rock the billow, and seemed indeed to dandle the Ocean. You would at another time have thought, that the Seas had onely danced at the Winds whistle, or that the Wind straining it self to a treble, and the Seas by a disdiapason supplying the base, had tuned a Coranto to our Ship. For so orderly we rose and fell, according to the time and note of the billow, that her violent agitation might be thought to be nothing but a nimble Galliard filled with Capers. The nimbleness of the waves, and correspondency of our Bark unto them, was not to all our company alike pleasing: what in me moved onely a reverend and awful pleasure, was to others an occasion of sickness: [Page] their heads giddy, their joynts enfeebled, their stomacks loathing sustenance, and with great pangs avoiding what they had taken▪ In their mouthes nothing so frequent, as that of Horace,

— Illi robur & aes triplex

Circa pectus erat, qui fragilem truci

Commisit pelago ratem.

Hard was his heart as brass, which first did venture

In a weak Ship on the rough Seas to enter.

Whether it be that the noisom smels which arise from the saltness and tartness of that Region of waters, poisoneth the brain? or that the ungoverned and unequal motion of the Ship stirreth and unsettleth the stomack, or both? we may conjecture with the Philosphers rather than determine. This I am sure of, that the Cabbins and Deck were but as so many Hospitals or Pest-houses filled with diseased persons: whilst I and the Marriners onely made good the hatches: here did I see the scaly Nation of that Kingdom solace themselves in the brim of the waves, rejoycing in the light and warmness of the day, and yet spouting from their mouthes such quantity of waters, as if they had purposed to quench that fire which gave it. They danced about our vessel, as if she had been a moving May-pole; and that with such a delightful decorum, that you never saw a Measure better troaden with less art: And now I know not what wave bigger than the rest▪ tossed up our Ship so high, that I once more ken'd the coast of England; an object [Page] which took such hold on my senses, that I forgot the harmless company which sported below me, to bestow on my dearest Mother this (and for ought I could assure my self, my last) Farewell.

England adiew: thy most unworthy Son

Leaves thee, and grieves to see what he hath done;

What he hath done in leaving thee, the best

Of Mothers, and more glorious than the rest,

Thy sister Nations. Had'st thou been unkind:

Yet might he trust thee safer than the Wind.

Had'st thou been weak: yet far more strength in thee,

Than in two inches of a sinking Tree.

Say thou wert cruel? yet thy angry face

Hath more love in it, then the Seas embrace.

Suppose thee poor! his zeal and love the less,

Thus to forsake his Mother in distress.

But thou art none of those: No want in thee,

Onely a needless Curiositie,

Hath made him leap thy Ditch. O let him have

Thy blessing in his Voyage, and hee'l crave

The Gods to thunder wrath on his neglect,

When he performs not thee all due respect:

That Nemesis on him her scourge would pluck,

When he forgets those breasts wich gave him suck:

That Nature would dissolve and turn him earth,

If thou bee'st not remembred in his Mirth.

May he be cast from Mankind, if he shame

To make profession of his Mothers name.

Rest then assur'd in this: though some times he,

Conceal'd perhaps his Faith, he will not thee.

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CHAP. I.

Normandy in general, the Name and bounds of it, The condition of the ancient Normans, and of the present. Ortelius Character of them examined. In what they resemble the Inhabitants of Norfolk. The Commodities of it, and the Government.

THe next ebb brought us in sight of the sea-coast of Normandy, a shoar so evenly composed and levelled, that it seemeth the work of Art not Nature, The Rock all the way of an equal height, rising from the bottom to the top in a perpendicular, and withal so smooth and polished, that if you dare beleive it the work of Nature, you must also think that Nature wrought it by the line, and shewed an art in it, above the imitation of an Artist; This wall is the Northern bound of this Province; the South part of it being confined with Le-Maine la Beausse & l' Isle du France. On the East it is divided from Picardy by the River of Some, and on the West it is bounded with the Ocean, and the little River Crenon which severeth it from a corner of Britain. It extendeth in length from the beginning of the 9th degree of longitude to the middle of the 23. viz. from the Cape of St. Saviour West, to the Port town of St. Valeria East. For breadth it lieth partly in the 49th partly in the 50th degree of latitude. So that reckoning 60. miles to a degree, we shall find it to contain 270. [Page] English miles in length, and 60 English miles in breadth where it is narrowest.

Amongst the Nations it was accounted a part of Gallia Celtica, the name Neustria. This new title it got by receiving into it a new Nation. A people that had so terribly spoiled the Maritine Coasts of England, France and Belgia, that a furore Normannorum was inserted into the Letany. Originally they were of Norway, their name importeth it: Anno 800. or thereabouts they began first to be accounted one of the plagues of Europe: 900. they seated themselves in France by permission of Charles the Balde, and the valour of Rollo their Captain. Before this they had made themselves Masters of Ireland, though they long held it not, and Anno 1067. they added to the glory of their name by the Conquest of England. You would think them a people not onely born to the warrs, but to victory. But Ʋt frugum semina mutato solo degenerant, sic illa genuina feritas eorum amaenitate mollita est. Florus spake it of the Gaules removed into Asia, it is appliable to the Norwegians transplanted into Gallia; yet fell they not suddenly and at once into the want of courage, which now possesseth them. During the time they continued English, they attempt the Kingdom of Naples and Antioch with a fortune answerable to their valour. Being once oppressed by the French, and inslaved under that Monarchy, they grew presently Crest fall'n, and at once lost both their spirits and their liberty.

The present Norman then is but the corruption of the ancient: the heir of his name, and perhaps [Page] his possessions; but neither of his strength nor his manhood: Bondage and a fruitful soil hath so emasculated them, that it is lost labour to look for Normans in Normandy. There remaineth almost nothing in them of their Progenitors but the remainders of two qualities, and those also degenerated, if not bastards; a penurious pride, and an ungoverned doggedness: Neither of them become their fortune or their habit, yet to those they are constant. Finally, view him in his rags and dejected countenance, and you would swear it impossible, that those snakes should be the descendents of those brave Heroes which so often triumphed over both Religions, foyling the Saracens, and vanquishing the Christians.

But perchance their courage is evaporated into wit, and then the change made the better. Ortelius would seem to perswade us to this conceit of them, and well might do it, if his words were Oracle. Le Gens (saith he, speaking of this Nation) sont de plus accorls, & subtills d' esprit de la Gaule. A Character for which the French will little thank him, who (if he speak truth) must in matter of descretion give precedency to their vassals. But as Imbat a French Leader said of the Florentines in the fifth book of Guicciardine, Non supena done consistesse lingeque tanto celebrare de Fior [...]ntini, so may I say of the Normans: for my part I could never yet find, where that great wit of theirs lay. Certain it is, that as the French in general are termed the King's asses: so may these men peculiarly be called the Asses of the French, or the veriest Asses of the rest. For what with the unproportionable [Page] rents which they pay to their Lords on the one side, and the immeasurable taxes laid upon them by the King on the other; they are kept in such a perpetuated course of drudgery, that there is no place for wit or wisdom left amongst them. Liberty is the Mother and Nurse of those two qualities; and therefore the Romans (not unhappily) expressed both the condition of a Free-man and a discreet and modest personage by this one word Ingenuous. Why the French King should lay a greater burden upon the backs of this Nation, than their fellows, I cannot determine. Perchance it is because they have been twice conquered by them (once from King John, and again from Henry the sixth) and therefore undergo a double servitude. It may be to abate their natural pride and stubbornness. Likely also it is, that being a revolting people, and apt to an apostasie from their Allegiance, they may by this meanes be kept impoverished, and by consequence disabled from such practises. This a French Gentleman of good understanding told me, that it was generally conceited in France, that the Normans would suddenly and unanimously betray their Country to the English, were their King a Cath [...]like.

But there is a further cause yet of their beggarliness and poverty, which is, the litigiousness and frequent going to law (as we call it:) Ortelius, however he failed in the first part of the Character, in the conclusion of it hath done them justice. Mais en generall (saith he) its sont scavans an passible en prosses & pluideries. They are pretty well versed in the querks of the Law, and have wit more than enough to wrangle.

[Page]In this they agree exactly well with the Inhabitants of our Country of Norfolke. Ex infima plebe non pauci reperiuntur (saith Mr. Cambden) qui, si nihil sit litium, lites tamen ex ipsis jaris apicibus serere callent. They are pretty fellows to find out quirks in Law, and to it they will, whatsoever it cost them. Mr. Cambden spake not at random, or by the guess: for besides what my self observed in them at my being once among them in a Colledge-progress; I have heard, that there have been no less than 340. Nisi prius's tried there at one Assises. The reason of this likeness between the two Nations, I conjecture to be, the resemblance of the site and the soyl: both lie upon the Sea, with a long and spacious coast, both enjoy a Country champain, little swell'd with hils, and for the most part, of a light and sandy mould. To proceed to more particulars, if there be any difference between the two Provinces, it is onely this, that the Country of Normandy is much better, and the people of Norfolk are somewhat the richer.

For indeed the Country of Normandy is enriched with a fat and liking soil, such a one, quae demum votis respondet avari Agricolae, which may satisfie the expectation of the Husbandman, were it never so exorbitant. In my life I never saw Corn-fields more large and lovely extended in an equal level, almost as far as eye-reach. The wheat (for I saw little Barley) of a fair length in the stalk, and so heavy in the ear, that it even bended double, you would think the grain had a desire to kiss the earth its Mother; or that it purposed by making it self away into the ground, to save the Plow-man his [Page] next years labour. Thick it groweth, and so perfectly void of weeds, that no garden can be imagined to be kept cleaner by art, than these fields are by nature. Pasture ground it hath little, and less meadow: yet sufficient to nourish those few Cattel they have in it. In all the way between Diepe and Pontois, I saw but two flocks of Sheep, and then not above forty in a flock. Kine they have in some measure, but not fat, nor large: without these, there were no living for them. The Noblest eat the flesh, whiles the Farmer feeds on Butter and Cheese, and that but sparingly. But the miserable states of the Norman paissant, we wiil deferre till another opportunity. Swine also they have in pretty number, and some Pullen in their backsides, but of neither an excess. The principal Rivers of it is Seine, of which more hereafter, and besides this I saw two rivulets, Robee and Renel [...]e.

In matter of civil Government this Country is directed by the Court of Parliament established at Roven: for matters Military it hath an Officer like the Lieutenants of our Shires in England, the Governour they call him. The present Governour Mounsieur Duc de Longueville, to whom the charge of this province was committed by the present King Lewis the thirteenth Anno 1629. The Laws by which they are governed, are the Civil or Imperial, augmented by some customes of the French, and others more particular, which are the Norman. One of the principallest is in matters of inheritance: the French custom giving to all the Sons an equality in their estate, which we in England [Page] call Gavel-kind. The Norman dividing the estate into three parts, and thereof allotting two unto the eldest brother, and a third to be divided among the others. A Law which the French account not just, the younger brothers of England would think the contrary. To conclude this general discourse of the Normans: I dare say it is as happy a Country as most in Europe, were it subject to the same Kings, and governed by the same Laws which it gave unto England.

CHAP. II.

Diepe [...] the Town, strength and importance of it: The policy of Henry the fourth not seconded by his Son: The custom of the English Kings in placing Governours in their Forts: The breaden God there, and strength of their Religion: Our passage from Diepe to Roven: The Norman Inns, Women and Manners: The importunity of Servants in hosteries: The saucy familiarity of the attendants: Ad pileum vocare, What it was amongst the Romans, and jus pilearum in the Universities of England.

IƲne the 30th at six of the clock in the morning we landed at Diepe, one of the Haven Towns of Normandy, seated on an arm of the Sea, between two hils which imbrace it in the nature of a bag: [Page] this secureth the Haven from the violence of the weather, and is a great strength to the Town against the attempts of any forces, which should assault it by Sea, the Town lying within these Mountains a quarter of a mile up the channel. The Town it self is not uncomely, the streets large and well paved, the houses of an indifferent height, and built upright without any juttings out of one part over the other. The Fortifications (as they say, for we were not permitted to see them) are very good and modern, without, stones, within, earth. On the top of the hill a Castle finely seated, both to defend the Town, and on occasions to command it. The Garrison consisteth of sixty men, in pay no more, but when need requireth the Captain hath authority to arm the Inhabitants: The present Governour is the Duke of Longueville, who also is the Governour of the Province, intrusted with both those charges by Lewis the thirteenth, 1619. An action wherein he swarved somewhat from the ensample of his Father, who never committed the military command of a Country (which is the Office of a Governour) and the custody of a Town of war or a Fortress unto one man. The Duke of Biron might have as great a courtesie from that King, as the most deserving of his subjects: he had stuck close to him in all his adversities, received many an honourable fear in his service, and indeed was Fabius and Scipio, both the sword and buckler of the French Empire. In a word, he might have said to this Henry, what Silius in Tacitus did to Tiberius. Suum militem in obsequio mans [...]sse, cum alii ad sedetiones prolaberentur, neque[Page]daraturum Tiberii imperium, si iis quoque Legionibus cupido novandi fuisset; yet when he became petitioner to the King for the Cittadel of Bourg, seated on the confines of his Government of Burgogne, the King denied it. The reason was, because Governours of Provinces which commanded in chief ought not to have the command of places and fortresses within their Government: there was also another reason, and more enforcing, which was, that the petitioner was suspected to hold intelligence with the Duke of Savoy whose Town it was. The same Henry though he loved the Duke Espernon even to the envy of the Court, yet even to him also used he the same caution. Therefore when he had made him Governour of Xanictoigne and Angoulmois, he put also into his hands the Towns of Mets and Boullogne, places so remote from his seat of Government, and so distant one from the other, that they did rather distract his power than encrease it.

The Kings of England have been well, and for a long time, versed in this Maxime of State. Let Kent be one of our ensamples and Hampshire the other. In Kent at this time the Lieutenant (or as the French would call him) the Governour is the Earl of Montgomery; yet is Dover Castle in the hands of the Duke of Buckingham, and yet Quinborough in the custody of Sir Edward Hobby. Of which the one commandeth the Sea, and the other the Thames and the Medway. In Hampshire the Lieutenant is the Earl of Southampton, but the Government of the Town and Garrison of Portsmouth is intrusted to the Earl of Pembroke. Neither [Page] is there any of the best Sconces or Block-houses on the shore side of the Country which is commanded by the Lieutenant.

But King Lewis now raigning in France, minded not his Fathers actions, when at the same time also he made his Confident M. Luines Governour of Picardy, and of the Town and Cittadel of Amiens. The time ensuing gave him an insight of that state-breach; for when the Dukes of Espernon, Vendosme, Longueville, Magenne and Nemours, the Count of Soisons and others sided with the Queen Mother against the King; the Duke of Longueville strengthened this Dieppe, and had not peace suddenly followed, would have made good, maugre the Kings forces. A town it is of great importance, King Henry the fourth using it as his Asylum, or City of Refuge, when that League was hottest against him. For had he been further distressed, from hence might he have made an escape into England, and at this door was the entrance made for the English forces, which gave him the first step to his Throne. The Town hath been pillaged and taken by our Richard the first, in his warrs against Philip Augustus, and in the declining of our affairs in France, it was a moneth together besieged by the Duke of York, but with that success which commonly attendeth a falling Empire.

The number of the Inhabitants is about 30000. whereof 9000. and upwards are of the Religion, and have allowed them for the exercise of their Religion the Church of Argues, a Village some two miles distant. The Remainder are Papists. In this Town I met with the first Idolatry which ever [Page] I yet saw, more than in my books. Quas antea audiebam hodi [...], video Deos, as a barbarous German in Velleius said to Tiberius. The Gods of Rome which before I onely heard of I now see, and might have worshipped, it was the Hoast, as they call it, or the Sacrament reserved, carried by a couple of Priests under a Canopy; ushered by two or three torches, and attended by a company of boyes & old people which had no other imployment. Before it, went a bell continually tinckling, at the sound whereof all such as are in their houses, being warned that then their God goeth by them, make some shew of reverence; those which meet it in the street, with bended knees and elevated heads doing it honour. The Protestants of this bell make an use more religious, and use it as a warning or a watch-peal, to avoid that street through which they hear it coming. This invention of the Bell hath somewhat of Turcisme, it being the custom there, at their Canonical hours, when they hear the cryers bawling in the steeples; to fall prostrate on the ground wheresoever they are, and to kiss it thrice, so doing their devotions to Mahomet. The carrying it about the streets hath no question in it a touch of the Jew: this Ceremony being borrowed from that of the carrying about the Ark upon the shoulders of the Priests. The other main part of it, which is the adoration, is derived from the Heathen; there never being a people but they which afforded divine honour to things inanimate. But the people indeed I cannot blame for this idolatrous devotion, their consciences being perswaded, that what they see pass by them is the very body of [Page] their Saviour. For my part could the like beleif possess my understanding▪ I could meet it with a greater reverence, then their charge can enjoyn me. The Priests and Doctors of the people are to be condemned onely, who impose and inforce this sin upon their bearers, and doubtless there is a reward which attendeth them for it. Of standing it is so yoūg, that I never met with it before the year 1215. Then did Pope Innocent ordain in a Council holden at Rome, that there should be a Pixe made to cover the Bread, and a Bell bought to be rung before it. The adoration of it was enjoyned by Pope Honorius Anno Dom. 1226. Both afterwards encreast by the new solemn Feast of Corpus Christi day by Pope Ʋrban the fourth, Anno 1264. and confirmed for ever with multitudes of pardons in the Council of Vienna by Clement the third, Anno 1310. Such a punie is this great God of the Romans Lactantius in his first book of Institutions against the Gentiles taxeth the wise men of those times of infinite ridiculousness, who worshipped Jupiter as a God, Cum eundem tamen Saturno & Rhea genitum confiterentur, since themselves so perfectly knew his original. As much I marvail at the impudency of the Romish Clergy, who will needs impose a new God upon their people, being so well acquainted with his cradle.

It is now time to go on in our journey to Roven. The Cart stayeth, and it is fit we were in it; Horses we could get none for money, and for love we did not expect them: we are now mounted in our Chariot, for so we must call it. An English man thought it a plain Cart, and if it needs will [Page] have the honour of being a Chariot, let it, sure I am it was never ordained for a triumph. At one end were fastened three carkasses of Horses, and three bodies which had been once Horses and now were worn to dead Images. Had the statue of a man been placed on any one of them, it might have been hang'd up at an Inn door to represent Saint George on horse-back: so liveless they were and so little moving; yet at last they began to crawl, for go they could not. This converted me from my former heresie, and made me apprehend life in them, but it was so little, that it seemed onely enough to carry them to the next pack af Hounds. Thus accomodated we bad Farewell to Diepe, and proceeded with a pace so slow, that we thought our journey to Roven would prove a most perfect Emblem of the motion of the ninth Sphere, which was 49000. years in finishing. But this was not our greatest misery: The rain fell on us through our Tilt, which for the many holes in it we would have thought a net. The durt brake plentifully in upon us through the rails of our Chariot, & the unequal and unproportionable pace of it startled almost every bone of us. I protest I marvel how a French-man durst adventure in it. Thus endured we all the diseases of a journey, and the danger of three several deaths, drowning, choaking with the mire, and breaking of the wheel, besides a fear of being famished before we came to our Inn, which was six French miles from us. The mad Duke that in the Play undertook to drive two Snails from Millaine to Musco, without staffe, whip, or goad; and in a bravery to match him, for an experiment would [Page] here have had matter to have tired his patience.

On the left hand we saw Argues, once famous for a siege laid about it by our Richard the first, but wasted speedily by the French. It is now (as before I told you) the Parish Church of Diepe Protestants, their Preachers were Mr. Courteau and Mr. Mondeme, who had each of them an yearly stipend, fifty pound or thereabouts. A poor pay, if the faithful discharge of that duty were not a reward unto it self above the value of gold and siver. To instance in none of these beggerly Villages we past through: we came at last unto Tostes, the place destinate to our Lodging, a Town like the worser sort of Market Towns in England. There our Charioter brought us to the ruines of an house, an Alehouse I would scarce have thought it, and yet in spite of my teeth it must be an Inn, yea, and that an honourable one too, as Don Quixot's Host told him. Despair of finding there either bedding or victuals, made me just like the fellow at the Gallows, who when he might have been repreived, on condition he would marry a Wench, which there sued for him, having veiwed well, cried to the Hangman to drive on his Cart. The truth is, I' eschappay du tonnere etrencheu en l'es lair, according to the French proverb; I fell out of the frying-pan into the hot fire. One of the house (a ragged fellow I am sure he was, and so most likely to live there) brought us to a room somewhat of kindred to a Charnel-house; as dark and as dampish: I confess it was paved with brick at the bottom, and had towards the Orchard a pretty hole, which in [Page] former times had been a window, but now the glass was all vanished. By the light that came in at the hole, I first perceived that I was not in England. There stood in the chamber three beds, if at the least it be lawful so to call them. The foundation of them was of straw, so infinitely thronged together, that the wooll-pack which our Judges fit on in the Parliament were melted butter to them; upon this lay a medley of flocks and feathers together, sowed up in a large bag (for I am confident it was not a Tick) but so ill ordered, that the knobs stuck out on each side of it, like a crabtree-cudgel. He must needs have flesh enough that lieth upon one of them; otherwise the second night would wear out his bones. The sheets which they brought for us were so course, that in my consciente no Marriner would vouchsafe to use them for a sail: and the Coverlid so bare, that if a man would undertake to reckon the threeds, he need not miss one of the number. The Napery of the Table was sutable to the bedding, so foul and durty, that I durst not conceive it had ever been washed above once, and yet the poor cloth looked as briskly, as if it had been promised for the whole year ensuing to scape many a scouring. The Napkins were fit companions for the cloath; Ʋnum si noveris, omnes nosti. By my description of the Inn, you may guess at the rest of France. Not altogether so wretched, yet is the alteration almost insensible.

Let us now walk into the Kitchen, and observe their provision, and here we found a most terrible execusion committed on the person of a Pullet. [Page] My Hostess, cruel woman, had cut the throat of it, and without plucking off the feathers, tare it into pieces with her hands, and afterwards took away skin and feathers together, just as we strip Rabbets in England. This done, it was clapt into a pan, and fried into a supper. In other places where we could get meat for the spit, it useth to be presently broached, and laid perpendicularly over the fire: three turns at the most dispatcheth it, and bringeth it up to the table, rather scorched than roasted; I say, where we could get it, for in these rascally Inns you cannot have what you would, but what you may, and that also not at the cheapest. At Pontoise we met with a Rabbet, and we thought we had found a great purchase. Larded it was, as all meat is in that Country, otherwise it is so lean, it would never endure the roasting. In the eating it proved so tough, that I could not be perswaded that it was any more than three removes from that Rabbet which was in the Ark. The price half a Crown English: My Companions thought it over dear, to me it seem'd very reasonable, for certainly the grass that fed it was worth more than thrice the money: but I return to Tostes.

And it is time, you might perchance else have lost the sight of mine Hostess and her Daughters, you would have sworn at first blush they had been of a bloud, and it had been great pitty, had it been otherwise. The salutation of Horace, O mater pulchra, filia pulchrior, was never so seasonable as here. Not to honour them with a further character let this suffice that their persons kept so excellent decorum with the house and furniture, that one [Page] could not possibly make use of Tullies, Quam dispari dominaris domino! But this is not their luck onely. The Women not of Normandy alone, but generally of all France are forced to be contented with a little beauty; and she which with us is reckoned among the vulgar; would amongst them be taken for a Princess. But of the French Women more, when we have taken a view of the Dames of Paris, now onely somewhat of their habit and condition. Their habit in which they differ from the rest of France, is the attire of their heads, which hangeth down their backs in fashion of a vail. In Roven and the greater Cities, it is made of linnen pure and decent, here and in the villages it cannot possibly be any thing else than an old dish-clout turned out of service, or the corner of a table-cloth reserved from washing. Their best condition is not alwayes visible, they shew it onely in the mornings, or when you are ready to depart, and that is their begging. You shall have about you such a throng of these ill faces, and every one whining out this ditty, Pour les servantes; that one might with greater ease distribute a dole at a rich mans funeral, then give them a penny: Had you a purpose to give them unasked, their importunity will prevent your speediest bounty. After all this importunate begging, their ambition reacheth no higher than a Sol: He that giveth more out-biddeth their expectation, and shall be counted a spend-thrift.

But the principal ornaments of these times are the men-servants, the raggedst regiment that ever I yet looked upon. Such a thing as a Chamberlain [Page] was never heard of among them, and good clothes are as little known there as he. By the habit of his attendants a man would think himself in Gaole, their clothes either full of patches, or else open to the skin. Bid one of them wipe your boots, he presently hath recourse to the curtains; with those he will perhaps rub over one side, and leave the other to be made clean by the Guest. It is enough for him that he hath written the coppy. They wait alwayes with their hats on their heads, and so also do servants before their Masters: Attending-bareheaded is as much out of fashion there as in Turkey. Of all French fashions in my opinion the most unfitting and unseeming. Time and much use reconciled me to all other things, which at the first were offensive, to this irreverent custom I returned an enemy. Neither can I see how it can choose but stomack the most patient, to see the worthiest sign of liberty usurped and profaned by the basest of slaves. For seeing that the French paisants are such infamous slaves unto their Lords and Princes; it cannot be, but that those which are their servants must be one degree at the least below the lowest condition.

Certainly among the Ancients this promiscuous covering of the head was never heard of, it was with them the chief sign of freedom, as is well known to those which are conversant with antiquity. The Lacones a people of Peloponnesus, after they had obtained to be made free Denizens of Lacedaemon, in sign of their now gotten liberty would never go into the battel, nisi pileati, but with their hats on. Amongst the Africans, as it is written [Page] of Alexander, ab Alexandro, the placing of an hat on the top of a spear, was used as a token to incite the people to their liberty which had been oppressed by Tyrants: Per pileum in bast â propositum ad libertatem proclamari. But among the Romans we have more variety. The taking off the hat of Targuinius Priscus by an Eagle, and the putting of it on again, occasioned the Augures to prophesie unto him the Kingdom; which fell out accordingly. In their Sword-playes when one of their Gladiators had with credit slain his adversary, they would sometimes honour him with a Palm, sometimes with a Hat, of these the last was the worthier; the Palm onely honouring the Victor; this also enfranchising the receiver; therefore conferred commonly on him which killed most men in the Theaters: Hence the complaint of Tertuslian lib. de Spectaculis cap. 21. Qui insigniore cuiquam homicide leonem poscit, idem gladiatori atroci Rudem petat (Redis was another token of enfranchizement) & pileum proemium conferat. In their common Forum or Guild-Hall, when they purposed to manumit any of their servants, their custom also was, after the Lictor or Sergeant had registred the name of the party manumitted, to shave his head, and give him a cap, whence according to Rosinus, ad pileum Vocare, is to set one at liberty.

Erasmus in his Chiliades maketh the hat to be the sign of some eminent worth iu him that weareth it. Pileus (saith he) insigne spectatae, virtutis. On this he conjectureth, that the putting on of caps on the heads of such as are created Doctors [Page] or Masters had its original. In the Universities of England this custom is still in force, the putting on of the Cap being never performed but on the solemn Comitia, and in the presence of all such as are either auditors or spectators of that dayes exercise: When I was Regent, the whole house of Congregation joyned together in a petition to the Earl of Pembroke, to restore unto us the jus pileorum, the licence of putting on our caps at our publike meetings, which priviledge time and the tyranny of our Vice-Chancellors had taken from us. Amongst other motives we used the solemn form of creating a Mr. in the Arts by putting on his cap, and that that sign of liberty might distinguish us that were the Regents from those boyes which we were to govern: which request he graciously granted. But this French sauciness had drawn me out of my way. An impudent familiarity, which I must confess did much offend me, and to which I will still profess my self an open enemy. Though Jack speach French, I cannot endure that Jack should be a Gentleman.

CHAP. III.

Roven a neat City: how seated and built. The strength of it. St. Kathe [...]ines Mount. The Church of Nostre-dame, &c. The Indecorum of the Papists in the several and unsutable pictures of the Virgin. The little Chappel of the Capuchins in Boulogne ▪ [Page] The House of Parliament. The precedency of the President and Governour. The Legend of St. Romain, and the priviledge thence arising. The Language and Religion of the Rhothomagenses.

IƲly the first we set out for Roven; in ten hours our Cart dragged us thither, the whole journey being in all six miles French; admirable speed. About three of the clock in the afternoon we had a sight of the Town, daintily seated in a valley on the River Seine: I know not any Town better scituated (Oxford excepted) which indeed it much resembleth, I mean not in bigness but in scituation. It standeth on all sides environed with Mountains, the North excepted, and hath a large and pleasant walk of meadow by the river side, to the South-Eastward, as Oxford hath towards Iffley. It is seated on the principal River of France, distant from the Metropolis of that Countrey fifty miles English or thereabouts; as Oxford on the Thames and from London: watered also it is with two small Rillets, Rosee and Renelle, as the other with Charwell and Evenlode. The difference is, that Oxford is seated somewhat higher on the swelling of an hill, and a little more removed from those mountains which environ it, and that the Rivers which run through some part of Roven, do onely wash the precincts of the other. The buildings are in some places wood, in some stone, in others both. The houses without juttings or overlets four stories high, and in the front not very beautiful. The [Page] most promising house which mine eyes met with was that of Mr. Boniface, who being of obscure parents; and having raised himself a fortune in the wars against the League, here built a receptacle for his age. It is fashioned after the manner of new buildings in London, composed all of dainty white stone, square and polished. On the partition betwixt the first story and the second it hath these words engraven, Ʋt & Virtute Martisopus; Tentanda via amore & armis. A Motto sutable to his rising.

The other buildings of note are the Bridge (for I as yet omit the House of Parliament and the Churches) and the Town wall by it. The Bridge whilst it was all standing, was thought to have been the fairest and strongest piece of that kind in all France, it consisted of twelve arches large and high, there now remain but seven of them, the rest being broken down by the English, in the falling of their affairs in France, the better to make good the Town against the French. The River is here about the breadth of the Thames at Fullham. Between the River and the Town wall is the Exchange or meeting place of the Merchants, paved with broad and even pebble-stones; in breadth up to the wallwards thirty yeards, in length a hundred. A fine walk in fair weather. All along the bankside lay the Ships, which by reason of the broken bridge come up hither, and on occasion higher; a good turn for Paris. The wall for the length of an hundred yeards is as streight as one may lay a line; of a just height, and composed of square and excellent stone so cunningly laid, that I never [Page] saw the side of a Noble mans house built more handsomly. But it is not onely the beauty of the wall which Roven delighteth in, there must somewhat also be expected of it for strength. To which purpose it might seem indifferently well, were there some addition of earth within it. It is well helped on the outside by the breadth and depth of the ditches, but more by St. Katharines Fort seated on an hill at the East side of it. A Fort which, were it strengthned according to the modern art of fortifying, would much assure the Town, and make it at once both a slave and a Commander. The Marshal D'c Anere, when he was Lieutenant here for the Queen-Mother, began to fortifie this Mountain, Quilleboeuse and other places of importance; but upon his death they were all razed. What were his projects in it, they know best which were acquainted with his ambition. Certainly the jarrs which he had sown among the Princes, one with the other, and between them and the King, shew that they were not intended for nothing.

There are in Roven thirty two Parish Churches, besides those which belong to Abbeys and Religious Houses; of which the most beautiful is that of St. Audom or Owen, once Arch-bishop of this City. The seat and Church of the Arch-bishop is that of Nostre-dame, a building far more gorgeous in the outside than within. It presents it self to you with a very gracious and majestical front, decked with most curious imagery, and adorned with three stately Towers. The first called La tour St. Romain; the second La tour de beaurre (because it [Page] was built with that money which was raised by Cardinal D' Amboyse, for granting a dispensation to eat butter in the Lent) and a third built over the Porch, or great Door, wherein is the great Bell so much talked of: Within it is but plain and ordinary, such as common Cathedral Churches usually are, so big, so fashioned. Behind the high Altar at a pillar on the left hand is the remainder of the Duke of Bedford's Tomb, which for ought I could discern was nothing but an Epitaph, some three yeards high in the Pillar. I saw nothing in it, which might move the envy of any Courtier to have it defaced, unless it were the title of Regent du Rojaume de France, which is the least he merited.

Somewhat Eastward beyond this is our Ladies Chappel, a pretty neat piece, and daintily set out. There standeth on the top of the Screen the Image of the Virgin her self between two Angels. They have attired her in a red Mantle laced with two gold laces, a handsom ruffe about her neck, a vail of fine lawn hanging down her back, and (to shew that she was the Queen of Heaven) a Crown upon her head. In her left arm she holds her Son in his side coat, a black hat and a golden hat-band. A jolly plump Lady she seemeth to be, of a flaxen hair, a ruddy lip, and a chearful complexion. 'Twere well the Painters would agree about the limming of her; otherwise we are like to have as many Ladies as Churches. At Nostre dame in Paris she is taught us to be brown, and seemeth somewhat inclin'd to melancholy, I speak not of her different habit, for I envy her not her changes [Page] of apparel. Onely I could not but observe how those of St. Sepulchres Church en la rue St. Denis, hath placed her on the top of their Screen in a Coape, as if she had taken on her the zeal of Abraham, and were going to make a bloudy sacrifice of her Son. They of Nostre-dame in Amiens have erected her Statue all in gold, with her Son also of the same mettal in her arms, casting beams of gold round about her, as the Sun is painted in its full glory. Strange Idolatries! On the contrary, in the parish Church of Tury in la Beause she is to be seen in a plain petticoat of red, and her other garments correspondent. In my mind this holdeth most proportion to her estate, and will but serve to free their irreligion from an absurdity. If they will worship her as a Nurse with her Child in her arms, or at her breast, let them array her in such apparel as might beseem a Carpenters Wife, such as she might be supposed to have worn before the world had taken notice that she was the Mother of her Saviour. If they must needs have her in her estate of glory, as at Amiens; or of honour (being now publikely acknowledged to be the blessedness among Women) as at Paris: let them disburden her of her Child. To clap them thus both together, is a folly equally worthy of scorn & laughter. Certainly had she but so much liberty as to make choice of her own clothes, I doubt not but she would observe a greater decorum. And therefore I commend the Capouchins of Boulogne, who in a little side Chappel consecrated unto her, have placed onely an handsom fair looking-glass upon her Altar, the best ornament of a Female Closet. [Page] Why they placed it there I cannot say: onely I conceive it was, that she might there see how to dress her self.

This Church is said to have been built (I should rather think repaired) by Raoul or Rollo the first Duke of Normandy: Since it hath been much beautified by the English, when they were Lords of this Province. It is the seat of an Arch-bishop, a Dean and fifty Canons. The Arch-bishoprick was instituted by the authority of Constantine the Great, during the sitting of the Council of Arles; Anidian who was there present being consecrated the first Arch-bishop. The Bishops of Seas, Aurenches, Constances, Beaux, Lysieaux and Eureux, were appointed for his Diocesans. The now Arch-bishop is said to be an able Schollar and a sound States-man: his name I enquired not. The Revenues of his Chair are said to be ten thousand Crowns. More they would amount to, were the Country any way fruitful of Vines: out of which the other Prelates of France draw no small part of their Intrado.

The Parliament of this Country was established here by Lewis the twelfth, who also built that fair Palace, wherein Justice is administred, Anno 1501. At that time he divided Normandy into seven Cathes, Rapes, or Baliwicks, viz. Roven, Caux, Constentin, Caen, Eureux, Gisors, and Alenzon, This Court hath supreme power to enquire into, and give sentence of all causes within the limits of Normandy. It receiveth appeals from the inferiour Courts of the Dutchy unto it, but admitteth none from it. Here is also Cour des Esleuz, a Court [Page] of the general Commissioners for taxes: and la Chambre des aides, instituted by Charles the seventh for the receiving of his subsidies, Gabels, Imposts, &c. The house of Parliament is in form quadrangular, a very graceful and delectable building. That of Paris is but a Chaos or a Babel to it. In the great Hall (into which you ascend by some thirty steps or upwards) are the seats and desks of the Procurators, every ones name being written in Capital letters over his head. These Procurators are like our Attourneys, to prepare causes, and make them ready for the Advocates. In this Hall do suitors use, either to attend, or walk up and down and confer with their pleaders. Within this Hall is the great Chamber, the Tribunal or Seat of Justice, both in Causes Criminal and Civil.

At domus interior regali splendida luxu

Instruitur.

As Virgil of Queen Dido's dining room.

A Chamber so gallantly and richly built, that I must confess it far supasseth all the rooms that ever I saw in my life. The Palace of the Lou're hath nothing in it comparable. The seiling all inlaid with gold, and yet did the workmanship exceed the matter. This Court consisteth of two Presidents, twenty Counsellors or Assistants, and as many Advocates as the Court will admit of, The prime President is termed Mr. De Riz. by birth a Norman: upon the Bench and in all the places of his Court he taketh precedency of the Duke of Longueville. When there is a Convention of the [Page] three estates summoned the Duke hath the priority.

We said even now, that from the sentence of this Court there lay no appeal: but this must be recanted, and it is no shame to do it. St. Austin hath writ his Retractions; so also hath Bellarmine, Once in the year there is an appeal admitted; but for one man onely, and that on this occasion. There was a poysonous Dragon not far from Roven, which had done much harm to the Country and City. Many wayes had been tried to destroy him, but none prospered. At last Roman, afterwards made a St. then Arch-bishop of the Town, accompanied with a theif and a murderer, whose lives had been forfeited to a sentence, undertaketh the enter prise. Upon sight of the Dragon the theif stole away, the murderer goeth in and seeth that holy man vanquish the Serpent, armed onely with a Stoale (it is a neck habit sanctified by his holiness of Rome, and made much after the fashion of a tippet) with this Stoale tyed about the neck of the Dragon doth the murderer lead him prisoner to Roven. To make short work; the Name of God is praised, the Bishop magnified, the murderer pardoned, and the Dragon burned. This accident (if the story be not Apocrypha) is said to have hapned on Holy Thursday. Audom or Owen successor unto St. Roman, in memory of this marvellous act, obtained of King Dagobert the first (he began his raign Anno 632.) that from that time forwards the Chapter of the Cathedral Church should on every Ascension day have the faculty of delivering any Malefactor whom the Laws had condemned. [Page] This that King then granted, and all the following Kings to this time have successively confirmed it. I omit the ceremonies and solemnities wherewith this Prisoner is taken out of his Irons and restored to liberty. It is not above nine years agone, since a Baron of Gascoyne took occasion to kill his Wife; which done, he fled hither into Normandy; and having first acquainted the Canons of Nostredame with his desire, put himself to the sentence of the Court, and was adjudged to the Wheele. Ascension day immediately comming on, the Canons challenged him, and the Judge, according to the custom, caused him to be delivered. But the Normans pleaded, that the benefit of that priviledge belonged onely to the Natives of that Country, and they pleaded with such fury, that the Baron was again committed to prison, till the Queen Mother had wooed the people, pro eâ saltem vice, to admit of his repreival.

I deferred to speak of the language of Normandy, till I came hither, because here it is best spoken. It differeth from the Parisian, and more elegant French, almost as much as the English spoken in the North doth from that of London or Oxford. Some of the old Norman words it still retaineth, but not many. It is much altered from what it was in the time of the Conqueror: few of the words in which our Laws were written being known by them. One of our company gave a Littletons tenures written in that language to a French Doctor in the Laws, who protested that in three lines he could not understand three words of it. The religion in this Town is indifferently poysed▪ [Page] as it is also in most places of this Province. The Protestants are thought to be as great a party as the other, but far weaker: the Duke of Longueville having disarmed them in the beginning of the last troubles.

CHAP. IV.

Our journey between Roven and Pontoise; the holy man of St. Claire, and the Pilgrims thither. My sore eyes. Mante, Pontoise, Normandy justly taken from K. John. The end of this Book.

IƲly the second we took our farewell of Roven; better accommodated than when we came thither; yet not so well as I desired. We are now preferred, ab asinis ad equos, from the Cart to the Waggon. The French call it a Coach, but that matters not; so would they needs have the Cart to be Chariot▪ These Waggons are ordinary instruments of travel in those Countries, much of kin to a Graves-end Barge: you shall hardly find them without a knave or a Giglot. A man may be sure to be merry in them, were he as certain of being wholesome. This in which we travelled contained ten persons, as all of them commonly do: and amongst these ten, one might have found English, Scots, French, Normans, Dutch, and Italians; a jolly medley; had our religions been as different as our Nations, I should have thought my self in [Page] Amsterdam, or Poland. If a man had desired to have seen a brief or an Epitome of the world, he could no where have received such satisfaction, as by looking on us. I have already reckoned up the several nations, I will now lay open the several conditions. There were then to be found among these passengers Men and Women, Lords and Serving-men, Schollars and Clowns, Ladies and Chambermaids, Priests and Lay-men, Gentlemen and Artificers, people of all sexes, and almost of all ages▪ If all the learning in the world were lost, it might be found in Plutarch, so said Budaeus. If all the Nations in the world had been lost, they might have been found again in our Waggon, so I: Seriously I think our Coach to have been no unfit representation of the Ark, a whole world of men and languages might have grown out of it.

But all this while our Waggon joggeth on, but so leasuresy, that it gave me leave to take a more patient view of the Country then we could in the Cart. And here indeed I saw sufficient to affect the Country, yea to dote on it; had I not come out of England. The fields such as already I have described: every where beset with Apple-trees, and fruits of the like nature: you could scarce see any thing which was barren in the whole Country. These Apples are both meat and drink to the poor Pesant, for the Country is ill provided with vines (the onely want I could observe in it) and Beer is a good beverage at a Gentlemans table. Sider then or Perry are the poor mans Clarret; and happy man is he, which can once or twice in a week aspire so high above water. To proceed▪ [Page] Through many a miserable Village (Duburgs they call them) and one Town somewhat bigger then the rest, called Ecquille, we came that night to St. Claire, ten French miles from Roven. A poor Town, God wot, and had nothing in it remarkable, but an accident. There dwelt a Monk grown into great opinion for his sanctity; and one who had an especial hand on sore eyes: yet his ability herein was not general, none being capable of cure from him, but pure Virgins. I perswade my self France could not yeild him many Patients: and yet from all parts he was much sought unto. Hope of cure, and a charitable opinion which they had of themselves, had brought unto him divers distressed Damsels, which I am confident had no interest in his miracle. In the same Inn (Alehouse I should say) where we were to be harboured, there had put in a whole covey of these Ladies Errant. Pilgrims they called themselves, and had come on foot two dayes journey to clear their eye-sight. They had white vails hanging down their backs, which in part covered their faces, yet I perceived by a glimpse, that some of them were past cure: though my charity durst allow them Maids▪ it was afraid to suppose them Virgins: yet so far I dare assure them they should recover their sight, that when they came home they should see their folly. At that time, what with too much watching on ship-board, what with the tartness of the water, and the violence of the wind working upon me almost forty hours together whilst I lay on the hatches mine eyes had gotten a rheum and redness. My Hostess (good woman) perswaded [Page] me to this holy and blessed Wight; but I durst not venture; not that I had not as good a claim to my virginity as the best there; but because I had learned what a greivous sentence was denounced on Ahaziah King of Israel for seeking help of Beelzebub the God of Ekron: When I hap to be ill, let mine amendment come in God's Name. Mallem semper profanus esse, quám sic religiosus, as Minutius Felix of the Roman Sacrifices: let my body still be troubled with a sore eye, then have such a recovery be a perpetual eye-sore to my conscience. Rather than go on pilgrimage to such a Saint, let the Papists count me for an Heretick. Besides, how durst I imagine in him an ability of curing my bodily eyes, who above seventy years had been troubled with a blindness in the eyes of his soul. Thou Fool (said our Saviour almost in the like case) first cast out the beam of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to cast the mote out of thy brothers eye.

The next morning, August the third, I left my Pilgrims to try their fortunes, and went on in our journey to Paris, which that day we were to visit. My eyes not permitting me to read, and mine ears altogether strangers to the French chat, drave my thoughts back to Roven; and there nothing so much possessed me, as the small honour done to Bedford in his Monument. I had leisure enough to provide him a longer Epitaph; and a short apology against the envy of that Courtier which perswaded Charles the eighth to deface the ruines of his Sepulcher, Thus:

[Page]

So did the Fox, the coward'st of the Heard▪

Ki [...]k the dead Lion and profane his Beard.

So did the Greeks about their vanquisht Hoast

Drag Hector's Reliques, and torment his Ghost.

So did the Parthian slaves deride the head

Of the great Crassus, now betray'd and dead:

To whose victorious Sword, not long before,

They would have sacrific'd their lives, or more.

So do the French assault dead Bedford's spright,

And trample on his ashes in despite.

But foolish Curio cease, and do not blame

So small an honour done unto his Name,

Why griev'st thou him a Sepulcher to have,

Who when he liv'd had made all France a Grave!

His Sword triump'd through all those Towns which lie

In the Isle, Main, Aniou, Guyen Normandy.

Thy Fathers felt it. Oh thou worst of men

(If Man thou art) do not endeavour then

This Conqueror from his last Hold to thrust;

Whom all brave minds shall honour in the dust.

But be not troubled Bedford! Thou shalt stand

above the reach of malice: Though the hand

Of a French baseness may deface thy name▪

And tear it from thy Marble: Yet shall Fame

Speak lowdly of thee and thy acts. Thy praise

A Pyramis unto it self shall raise.

Thy brave Atchievements in the time to come

Shall be a Monument above a Tombe

Thy name shall be thy Epitaph: and he

Which once reads Bedford shall imagine thee

Beyond the power of Verses; and shall say,

None could express thy Worth's a fuller way,

[Page]Rest thou then quiet in the shades of Night,

Nor vex thy self with Curio's weaker spright:

Whilst France remains, and Histories are writ,

Bedford shall live, and France shall Chronicle it.

Having offered this unworthy, yet grateful sacrifice to the Manes of that brave Heroe, I had the more leisure to behold Mante, and the Vines about it, being the first that ever I saw. They are planted like our Hop-gardens, and grow up by the help of Poles, but not so high. They are kept with little cost: and yeild profit to an Husbandman sufficient to make him rich, had he neither King nor Landlord. The Wine which is pressed out of them is harsh and not pleasing; as much differing in sweetness from the Wines of Paris or Orleans, as their language doth in elegancy. The rest of the Norman Wines which are not very frequent, as growing onely on the frontiers towards France, are of the same quality. As for the Town of Mante it seemeth to have been of good strength before the use of great Ordinance; having a wall, a competent ditch, and at every gate a Drawbridge. They are still sufficient to guard their pullen from the Fox; and in the night time to secure their houses from forrain burglaries: Once indeed they were able to make resistance to a King of France, but the English were then within it: At last on honourable terms it yeilded, and was entred by Charles the seventh the second of August, Anno 1449. The Town is for building and bigness somewhat above the better sort of Market Towns here in England.

[Page]The last Town of Normandy towards Paris is Pontoise: a Town well fortified, as being a borderer, and one of the strongest bulwarks against France. It hath in it two fair Abbeys of Maubuisson and St. Martin: six Churches parochial, whereof that of Nostre-dame in the suburbs is most beautiful. The name it derives from a bridge built over the River of Oyse, on which it is scituated, and by which on that side it is well defended: the bridge being strengthened with a strong gate, and two draw-bridges. It is commodiously scituate on the rising of an hill; and is famous for the siege laid before it by Charles the seventh, Anno 1442. but more fortunate unto him in the taking of it. For having raised his armes upon the Duke of Yorkes coming to give him battel with 6000. men onely, the French Army consisting of double the number, he retired, or fled rather, unto St. Deuis. But there hearing how scandalous his retreat was to the Parisians, even ready to mutiny; and that the Duke of Orleance, and others of the Princes, stirred with the ignominiousness of his flight, began to practise against him; he speedily returneth to pontoise and maketh himself Master of it by assault. Certainly to that fright he owed the getting of the Town, and all Normandy; the French by that door making their entry into this Province; out of which at last they thrust the English, Anno 1450. So desperate a thing is a frighted Coward.

This Country had once before been in possession of the English: and that by a firmer title than the Sword. William the Conqueror had conveyed [Page] it once over the Seas into England, & it continued an appendix of that Crown from the year 1067. unto that of 1204. At that time John called Sáns terre, third Son unto King Henry the second, having usurped the States of England, and the English possessions in France upon Arthur heir of Britain, and Son unto Geofrey his elder brother; was warred on by Phillip Augustus King of France, who sided with the said Arthur, In the end Arthur was taken, and not long after found dead in the ditches of the Castle of Roven. Whether this violent death happened unto him by the practises of his Uncle, as the French say, or that the young Prince came to that unfortunate end in an attempt to escape, as the English report, is not yet determined. For my part considering the other carriages and virulencies of that King; I dare be of that opinion, that the death of Arthur was not without his contrivement. Certainly he that rebelled against his Father, and practised the eternal imprisonment and ruine of his Brother, would not much stick (this being so speedy a way to settle his affairs) at the murther of a Nephew. Upon the first bruit of this murther, Constance Mother to the young Prince, complained unto the King and Parliament of France; not the Court which now is in force, consisting of men only of the long Robe: but the Court of Pairrie, or twelve Peers, whereof himself was one as Duke of Normandy. I see not how in justice Philip could do less than summon him: an Homager being [...]lain, and an Homager accused. To this summons John refused to yeild himself. A counsel rather magnanimous than wise, [Page] and such as had more in it of an English King than a French Subject. Edward the third a prince of a finer mettal than this John obeyed the like warrant and performed a personal homage to Philip of Valoys: and it is not reckoned among his disparagements. He committed yet a further error or solaecisme in State, not so much as sending any of his people to supply his place, or plead his cause. Upon this none appearance the Peers proceed to sentence. Il fur par Arrest la dire Cour (saith Du' Chesne) condemne pour attaint, et convainuc du crime de parricide, & de felonnie: Parricide for the killing of his own Nephew, and felony for committing an act so execrable on the person of a French vassal and in France. Jhon de Sienes addeth a third cause, which was contempt in disobeying the Kings commandement. Upon this verdict the Court awarded; Que toutes les terres qu' il avoit par deca de mourerient acquises & confisques a la corronne, &c. A proceeding so fair and orderly, that I should sooner accuse King John of indiscretion, than the French of injustice: when my estate or life is in danger, I wish it may have no more sinister a trial. The English thus outed of Normandy by the weakness of John, recovered it again by the puissance of Henry. But being held onely by the sword; it was after thirty years recovered again as I have told you. And now being passed over the Oyse, I have at once freed the English and my self of Normandy, here ending this Book, but not that dayes journey.

The Second Book, or FRANCE.

[Page]

CHAP. I.

France in what sense so called; the bounds of it: All old Gallia not possessed by the French. Countries follow the name of the most predominant Nation. The condition of the present French not different from that of the old Gaules. That the Heavens have a constant power upon the same Climate, though the Inhabitants be changed. The quality of the French in private, at the Church, and at the Table. Their Language, Complements, Discourse, &c.

I Ʋly the third, which was the day we set out of St. Claire, having passed through Pontoise, and crossed the River, we were entred into France: France as it is understood in his limitted sense, and as a part onely of the whole. For when Meroveus the Grandchild of Pharamond, first King of the Francones, had taken an opportunity to pass the Rhene, having also during the warres between the Romans and the Gothes taken Paris; he resolved [Page] there to set up his rest: and to make that the head City of his Empire. The Country round about it, which was of no large extent, he commanded to be called Francia, or Terra Francorum, after the name of his Francks whom he governed. In this bounded and restrained sense, we now take it, being confined with Normandy on the North, Campagne on the East, and on the West and South with the little Province of la Beausse. It is also called, and that more properly, to distinguish it from the whole continent, the Isle of France, and [...] the Isle; I know not any thing more like it, then the Isle of Elie: the Eure on the West, the Velle on the East, the Oyse on the Northward, and a vein riveret of the Seine towards the South, are the Rivers which encircle it. But the principall environings are made by the Seine, and the Marne, a river of Champagne, which within the main Island, make divers Ilets: the waters winding up and down, as desirous to recreate the earth, with the pleasures of its lovely and delicious embraces.

This Isle, this portion of Gaule properly and limitedly stiled France, was the seate of the Franks, at their first coming hither; and hath still continued so. The rest of Gallia is in effect rather subdued by the French than inhabited; their valour in time having taken in those Countries which they never planted. So that if we look apprehensively into Gaule, we shall find the other Nations of it, to have just cause to take up the complaint of the King of Portugal, against Ferdinand of Castile, for assuming to himself the title of Catholique[Page]King of Spain, eius tam non exiguâ parte penes reges alios, as Mariana relateth it. Certain it is, that the least part of old Gallia, is in the hands of the French; the Normans, Britons, Biscaines, or Gascoynes, the Gothes (of Languedoc and Provence) Burgundians, and the ancient Gaules of Poictou, retaining in it such fair and ample Provinces. But it is the custome (shall I say) or fate of lesser and weaker Nations, to loose their names unto the stronger; as Wives do to their Husbands: and the smaller Rivers to the greater. Thus we see the little Province of Poland to have mastered, and given name to the Pruteni, Marovy, and other Nations of Sarmatia, Europaea: as that of Moseo hath unto all the Provinces of Asiatica. Thus hath Sweden conquered and denominated almost all the great Peninsula of Scandia, where it is but a little parcell: and thus did the English Saxon, being the most prevailing of the rest, impose the name of English on all the people of the Heptarchy.

Et dedit imposito nomina prisca jugo.

And good reason the vanquished should submit themselves as well unto the appellation, as the Lawes of the Victor.

The French then are possessors of some part of old Gallia, and masters of the rest; possessors not of their Cities onely, but their conditions; a double victory it seemeth they enjoyed over that people: and took from them at once, both their Qualities and their Countries. Certainly whosoever will please to peruse the Commentaries of Caesar de Bello Gallice, he will easily guess him an [Page] Historian, and a Prophet. He will rather make himself beleeve that he hath Prophicied the character of the present French, then delivered one of the ancient Gaules. And indeed it is a matter worthy both of wonder and observation, that the old Gaules, being in a manner all worn out, should yet have most of their condition surviving in those men which now inhabit that Region, being of so many several Countries and originals. If we dive into Natural causes, we have a speedy recourse unto the powerfull influence of the Heavens; for as those celestial bodies considered in the general, do work upon all sublunary bodies in the general, by light, influence, and motion: so have they a particular operation on particulars: an operation there is wrought by them in a man, as born at such and such a minute; and again, as born under such and such a climate: the one derived from the setting of the houses, and the Lord of the Horoscope at the time of his nativity: the other from that Constellation which governeth as it were the Province of his birth; and is the Genius or Deus tutelaris loci. Hinc illa ab antiquo vitia, (saith an Author, moderne rather in time than judgement) et patriae sorte dur antia, quae totas in historiis gentes aut commendant aut notant. Two or three Authors by name of paralel, will make it clear in the example, though it appear not obscure in the search of causes. Primus Gallorum impe [...]us major quàm virorum; Secundus minor quam foeminarum, saith Florus of the Gaules. What else is that which Mr. Dallington saith of the French, when he reporteth that they begin an [Page] action like thunder, and end it in a smoak. Their attempts on Naples and Millaine, (to omit their present enterprize on Genoa) are manifest proofs of it. Neither will I now speak of the battaile of Po [...]cctiers, when they were so forward in the on-set, and furious in the flight, ut sunt Gallorum subita ingenia, saith Caesar; and I think these people are well known to be as hair-brain'd, as the other ever were. Juvenal calleth Galliam foecundum Causidicorum, and amongst the modern French, it is related that there are tryed more Law cases in one year, than have been in England since the Conquest. Of the ancient Germaines, the next neighbours and confederates of the Gaules. Tacitus hath given us this note, Diem noctemque continaure potando nulli probrum: and presently after, de jungendis affinitatibus, de bello denique et pace inconviviis consuttant. Since the times of Tacitus hath Germany almost shifted all her old inhabitants, and received new [...]lonie [...] of Lombards, Sueves, Gothes, Sclavonians, Hunn's, Saxons, Vandals, and divers other Nations unknown to that writer; yet still is that exhorbitancie of drinking in fashion: and to this day do the present Germaines consult of most of their affairs in their cups: if the English have borrowed any thing of this humor, it is not to be thought the vice of the Country, but the times. To go yet higher and further, the Philosopher Anacharsis (and he lived six hundred and odd years before Christ) noted it in the Greeks, that at the beginning of their feasts they used little goblets, and greater towards the end, when [Page] they were almost drunken: [...]: as Laertius reporteth it. Sr. George Sandis in that excellent discourse of his own travells, reporteth the same custome to continue still amongst them, notwithstanding the length of time, and all those changes of State and People which have since happened. Their Empire indeed they have lost, their Valour, and all other Graces which set them out in the eye of the World; and no marvail, these were not National conditions, but personall endowments. I conclude this digression with the words of Barklay, Haeret itaque in omnì gente vis quaedam inconcussa, quae hominibus pro conditione terrarum in quibus nasc [...] contigerit, sua fata dimiserit.

The present French, then is nothing but an old Gaule, moulded into a new name: as rash he is, as head strong, and as hair-brain'd. A Nation whom you shall winne with a feather, and loose with a straw; upon the first sight of him, you shall have him as familiar as your sleep, or the necessity of breathing, In one hours conference, you may indear him to you, in the second unbutton him, the third pumps him dry of all his secrets, and he gives them you as faithfully, as if you were his Ghostly Father, and bound to conceale them sub sigillo confessionis; when you have learned this, you may lay him aside, for he is no longer serviceable. If you have any humor in holding him in a further acquaintance (a favour which he confesseth, and I beleeve him, he is unworthy of,) himself will make the first separation: he hath [Page] said over his lesson now unto you, and now must find out some body else, to whom to repeate it. Fare him well; he i [...] a garment whom I would be loath to wear above two dayes together, for in that time he will be thred bare. Familiare est hominis omnia sibi remittere, saith Velleius of all▪ it holdeth most properly in this people. He is very kind hearted to himself, and thinketh himself as free from wants, as he is full: so much he hath in him the nature of a Chynois; that he thinketh all men blind but himself. In this private self conceitedness he hateth the Spaniard, loveth not the English, and contemneth the German: himself is the onely Courtier and compleat Gentleman; but it is his own glass which he seeth in. Out of this conceit of his own excellencie, and partly out of a shallowness of brain, he is very lyable to exceptions; the least distaste that can be, draweth his sword, and a minutes pause sheatheth it to your hand: afterwards if you beat him into better manners, he shall take it kindly, and cry Serviteur. In this one thing they are wonderfully like the Devil; meekness or submission makes them insolent, a little resistance putteth them to their heeles, or makes them your Spaniels. In a word (for I have held him too long) he is a waling vanitie in a new fashion.

I will give you now a taste of his Table, which you shall find in a measure furnished, (I speak not of the Paisant) but not with so full a manner as with us. Their Beef they cut out into such chops, that that which goeth there for a laudable dish, would be thought here a Ʋniversity Commons; [Page] new served from the Hatch. A Loyne of Mutton serves amongst them for three rostings, besides the hazard of making pottage with the rump. Fowl also they have in good plenty; especially such as the King found in Scotland: to say truth, that which they have, is sufficient for nature and a friend, were it not for the Mistriss, or the Kitchin wench. I have heard much fame of the french Cookes, but their skill lyeth not in the neat handling of Beef or Mutton. They (have as generally have all this Nation) good fancies, and are speciall fellowes for the making of puff pastes, and the ordering of banquets. Their trade is not to feed the belly, but the pallat. It is now time you were set down, where the first thing you must do, is to say your own Grace; private Graces are as ordinary there, as private Masses, and from thence I think they learned them. That done, fall to where you like best; they observe no method in their eating, and if you look for a carver, you may rise fasting. When you are risen, if you can digest the sluttishness of the Cookery, (which is most abominable at first sight) I dare trust you in a Garrison; follow him to Church and there he will shew himself most irrereligious and irreverent: I speak not of all but the general. At a Masse in Cordeliers Church in Paris, I saw two French Papists, even when the most sacred Mistery of their faith was celebrating, break out into such a blasphemous and athiestical laughter, that even an Ethnick would have hated it: it was well they were known to be Catholiques, otherwise some French hot head or other, would have sent them laughing to Pluto.

[Page]The French Language is indeed very sweet and delectable, it is cleared of all harshness, by the cutting and leaving out the consonants, which makerh it fall off the tongue very volubly; yet in mine opinion, it is rather elegant than copious; and therefore is much troubled for want of words to find out Periphrases. It expresseth very much of it self in the action: the head, body and shoulders concurre all in the pronouncing of it; and he that hopeth to speak it with a good grace, must have something in him of the Mimick. It is enriched with a full number of significant Proverbs, which is a great help to the French humor in scoffing, and very full of Courtship, which maketh all the people complemental; the poorest Cobler in the village hath his Court cringes, and his eau bemste de Cour, his Court holy water as perfectly as the Prince of Conde.

In the Passadoes of their Courtship, they expresse themselves with much variety of gesture, and indeed it doth not misbecome them: were it as gracious in the Gentlemen of other Nations as in them, it were worth your patience; but the affectation of it is scurvy and ridiculous. Quocunque salutationis artificio corpus inflestant, putes nihil ist â institutione mages convenice. Vicinae autem gentes ridiculo errore deceptae, eiusdem Venustatis imitationem ludieram faciunt et ingratam: as one happily observed at his being amongst them. I have heard of a young Gallant Sonne to a great Lord of one of the three Brittish Kingdomes, that spent some years in France to learn fashions; at his return he desired to see the King, and his Father [Page] procured him an enterveiwe; when he came within the presence Chamber, he began to compose his head, and carryed it, as though he had been ridden with a Martingale; next he fell to draw back his leggs, and thrust out his shoulders, and that with such a graceless apishness, that the King asked him, if he meant to shoulder him out of his Chair, and so left him to act out his complement to the hangings. In their Courtship they bestow even the highest titles upon those of the lowest condition. This is the vice also of their common talk, the begger begitteth Monsieurs and Madames to his Sonnes and Daughters, as familiarly as the King: were there no other reason to perswade me, that the Welch or Brittaynes were the defendants of the Gaules, this onely were sufficient, that they would all be Gentlemen.

His discourse runneth commonly on two wheeles, Treason and Ribaldry; I never heard people talk less reverently of their Prince, nor more sawcily of his actions; scarce a day passeth away, without some seditious pamphlet printed and published in the disgrace of the King, or of some of his Courtires. These are every mans money, and he that buyeth them is not coye of the Contents, be they never so scandalous: of all humors the most harsh and odious. Take him from this (which you can hardly do till he hath told all) and then he falleth upon his ribaldry; without these crutches, his discourse would never be able to keep pace with his company. Thus shall you have them relate the stories of their own uncleanness, with a face as confident, as if they [Page] had no accident to please their hearers more commendible. Thus will they reckon up the several profanations of pleasure, by which they have dismanned themselves; sometimes not sparing to descend unto particulars. A valiant Captaine never gloried more, in the number of the Cities he had taken, then they do of the several women they have prostituted.

Egregiam verò Laudem, et spolia ampla!

Foolish and most perishing wretches, by whom each several incontinency is twice committed, first in the act, and secondly in the boast. By themselves they measure others; and think them Naturals or Simplicians which are not so conditioned I protest I was fain sometimes to put on a little impudencie, that I might avoid the suspition of a gelding or a sheep-biter. It was St. Austins case as himself testifyeth in the second Book of his Confessions: Fingebam me (saith the good Father) fecisse quod non feceram, ne caeteris viderer abiectior. But he afterwards was sorry for it, and so am I, and yet indeed there was no other way to keep in a good opinion of that unmanly and ungoverned people.

CHAP. II.

The French Women, their persons, prating and conditions; the immodesty of the French Ladies. Kissing not in use amongst them, and the sinister opinion conceived of the free [Page] use of it in England: The innocency and harmlesness of it amongst us: The impostures of French Pandors in London, with the scandall thence arising: The peccancy of our old English Doctor. More of the French Women: Their Marriages and lives after Wedlock: An Elegie to the English Ladies.

I Am now come to the French Women; and it were great pitty they should not immediately follow the discourse of the Men; so like they are one to the other, that one would think them to be the same, and that all the difference lay in the apparel: for person they are generally of an indifferent stature, their bodies straight, and their wastes commonly small; but whether it be so by, nature, or by much restraining of those parts, I cannot say. It is said that an absolute Woman should have (amongst other qualities requisite) the parts of a French Woman from the neck to the girdle; but I beleeve it holdeth not good; their shoulders and backs being so broad, that they hold no proportion with their middles: yet this may be the vice of their apparrel. Their hands are in my opinion the comelyest and best ordered parts of them, long, white, and slender; were their faces answerable, even an English eye would apprehend them lovely: but here I find a pretty contradictory, the hand, as it is the best ornament of the whole structure, so doth it most disgrace it: whether it be that ill dyet be the cause [Page] of it, or that hot blood wrought upon by a hot and scalding ayr, must of necessity by such means vent itself, I am not certain: this I am sure of that scarce the tythe of all the maids we saw, had their hands, armes, and wrests free from scabs; which had overrunne them like a Leprosie. Their hair is generally black, and indeed somewhat blacker, then a gratious loveliness would admit. The Poets commend Leda for her black hair, and not unworthily.

Leda fuit nigris conspicienda comis.

As Ovid hath it; yet was that blackness but a darker brown, and not so fearful as this of the French women. Again the blackness of the hair is there accounted an ornament; when the face about which it hangeth, is of so perfect a complection and symmetrie, that it giveth a lustre; then doth the hair set forth the face, as a shaddow doth a picture, and the face becometh the hair, as a field argent doth a sable bearing: which kind of armoury the Heralds call the most fairest, But in this the French Women are most unlucky, Don Quixote did not so deservedly assume to himself the name of the Knight of the ill favoured face; as may they that of the Damosells of it. It was therefore a happy speech of a young French gallant, that came in our company out of England, and had it been spoken amongst the Ancients, it might have been registred for an Apothegme: That the English of all the people in the World were only Nati ad voluptates: you have, saith he, the fairest[Page]Women, the goodliest Horses, and the best breed of Doggs under Heaven: for my part (as farre as I could in so short a time observe) I dare in his first beleeve him. Enland not onely being (as it is stiled) a Paradise for Women, by reason of their priviledges; but a Paradise also of Women, by reason of their unmatchable perfections: Their dispositions hold good intelligence with their faces; you cannot say of them as Sueton doth of Galba, Ingenium Galbae male habitat: they suit so well the one with the other, that in my life I never met with a better decorum. But you must first here them speak, Loquere ut te videam, was the method in old times, and it holdeth now. You cannot gather a better Character of a French Woman than from her prating, which is tedious and infinite; that you shall sooner want ear [...]s, than she tongue. The fastedious pratler which Horace mentioneth in his ninth Satyre, was but a Puesne to her. The writers of these times call the Sicilians gerrae Siculae, and not undeservedly; yet were they but the Scholers of the French; and learned this faculty of them before the Vespers. It is manners to give precedency to the Maistresse, and she will have it, if words may carry it for two things, I would have had Aristotle acquainted with these Chartings; first it would have saved him a labour in taking such paines about finding out the prepetual motion: secondly it would have freed him from an Heresie with which his doctrine is now inserted, and that is, Quicquid movetur, ab alio movetur; their tongues I am certain move themselves, and make their own [Page] occasions of discoursing: when they are a going they are like a Watch, you need not wind them above once in twelve hours, for so long the thred of their tongues will be in spinning. A Dame of Paris came in a Coach with us from Roven, fourteen hours we were together, of which time (Ile take my oath upon it) her tongue fretted away a eleven hours and fifty seven minutes; such everlasting talkers are they all, that they will sooner want breath than words, and they are never silent but in the grave, which may also be doubted.

As they are endless in their talk, so are they also regardless of the comyany they speak in; be he stranger or of their acquaintance it much matters not; though indeed no man is to them a stranger, within an hour of the first sight you shall have them familiar more than enough; and as merry with you, as if they had known your bearing cloth. It may be they are chast, and I perswade my self many of them are; but you will hardly gather it out of there behaviour. Te tamen et cultus damnat, as Ausonius of an honest Woman, that carryed her self lesse modestly. They are abundantly full of laughter and toying, and are never without variety of lascivious songs, which they spare not to sing in whose company soever: you would think modesty were quite banished the Kingdom, or rather that it had never been there. Neither is this the weakness of some few, it is an Epidemicall disease: Maids and Wives are alike sick of it, though not both so desperately. The Galliards of the Mayds being of the two a little more tollerable; that of the Women coming hard [Page] upon the confines of shamelesness. As for the Ladies of the Court (I can speak this but upon hear-say) they are as much above them in their lightness, as they are in their place: and so much the worse, in that they have made their lightness impudent: for whereas the daughter of Pythagoras, being demanded what shamed her most to discourse of? made answer, [...] ▪ those parts which made her a Women: these French Dames will speak of them even in the hearing of men, as freely, and almost as broadly as a Midwife, or a Barbar Surgeon. Nay I have heard a Gentleman of good credence relate, that being at a Tilting, he saw a Courtier going to remove a boy, who very roguishly looked under a Ladies Cloathes; but when her Ladyship perceived his intention, she hindered him with this Complement, Laisse Monsieur Laisse les yeux ne pas Larrons, the boyes would steal nothing. A very merciful and gentle Lady: if that of Justin be still true, Vera mulierum ornament a pudicitiam esse non vestes: that modesty were the best apparrel of a Woman; I am affraid many of the female sexe in France would be thinly clad, or else go naked.

Being a people thus prone to a sudden familiarity, and so prodigal of their tongues and company; you would scarce imagine them to be coy of their lips; yet this is their humour. It seemed to me at first strange and uncivil, that a woman should turn away from the proffer of a salutation. Afterwards I liked the custom very well, and I had good cause for it; for it saved me from many an unsavoury peice of mannerliness, This notwithstanding [Page] could not but amaze me, that they who in their actions were so light and wanton, should yet think themselves modest; and confine all lasciviousness unto a kiss. A woman that is kissed, they account more than half whored, be her deportment never so becoming; which maketh them very sparing of receiving such kindnesses. But this is but a dissembled unwillingness, and hath somewhat in it of the Italian; As they had rather murther a man in private, than openly speak ill of him: so it may be thought, that these Damsels would hardly refuse a mans bed, though education hath taught them to fly from his lips. Night and the Curtains may conceal the one, the other can obtain no pardon in the eye of such as may happen to observe it.

Upon this ground your French Traveller, that perhaps may see his Hostess kissed at Dover; and see a Gentleman salute a Lady in the streets of London, relateth at his coming home strange Chymera's of the English modesty: to further this sinister opinion, he will not spare to tell his Comerades (for this I have noted to you to be a part of his humour) what Merchants Wives he enjoyed at London, and in what familiarity such a Lady entertained him at Westminster. Terrible untruths, and yet my poor Gallant thinketh he lieth not. I remember I met in Paris with an English Docter, and the Master of a Colledge there, who complained much of the lasciviousness of the English Women; and how infamously every French Taylor that came from us reported of them, withall he protested it did not much greive him; because he thought [Page] it a just judgement of God upon our Nation, that all the married men should thus suffer. A strange peice of Divinity to me, that never before heard such preaching. This was the occasion of the doctrine. In the old English Mass-book, called Secundum usum Sarum, the Woman at the time of marriage promiseth her future Husband to be bonny and buxome at bed and at board till death us depart, &c. This being too light for the gravity of the action then in hand; and in mine opinion somewhat less reverent than a Church duty would require; the Reformers of that Book thought good to alter, and thought fitter to put in, to love, cherish and obey. That this was a sufficient assurance of Conjugal faith he would not grant, because the promise of being buxome in bed was excluded. Besides, he accounted the supposed dishonesty of the English Wives as a vengeance plucked down on the heads of the people, for chopping and changing the words of the holy Sacrament (for such they esteem the form of Matrimony.) Though his argument needed no answer; yet his accusation might expect one. And an English Gentleman (though not of the English faith) laid open the abuse, and seemed to speak it out of knowledge. When the Monsieurs came over full pursed to London, the French Pandars, which lay in wait for such booties, grow into their acquaintance, and promise them the imbraces of such a Dame of the City, or of such a Lady of the Court; Women perhaps famed for admirable beauties. But as Ixion amongst the Poets expected Juno▪ and enjoyed a Cloud: So those beguiled wretches, instead of those [Page] eminent persons mentioned to them, take into their bosomes some of the common prostitutes of the Town. Thus are they cozened in their desires: thus do they lie in their reports: whilst, poor fools, they think themselves guilty of neither imposture.

For the other accusation, which would seem to fasten a note of immodesty upon our English Gentlewomens lips; I should be like enough to confess the crime, were the English kisses like unto those of the French. As therefore Doctor Bale Master of the Requests said unto Mendoza the Spanish Embassador, upon his dislike of the promiscuous sitting of men and women within our Churches, Turpe quidem id esse apud Hispanos, qui etiam in locis sacris cogitarent de explendâ libidine, a quâ procul aberant Anglorum mentes: So do I answer to the bill of the Complaint. An Oxford Doctor upon this Text, Betrayest thou the Son of man with a Kiss? made mention of four sorts of kisses, viz. Osculum charitatis, Osculum gratioris familiaritatis, Osculum calliditatis, and Osculum carnalitatis: Of these I will bestow the last on the French; and the third on the Spaniards, retaining the two first unto our selves: whereof the one is enjoyned by the precept, and the other warranted by the examples of holy Scriptures: For my part I see nothing in the innocent and harmless salutations of the English, which the Doctor calleth Oscula gratioris familiaritatis, that may move a French mans suspition; much, I confess, which may stir his envy▪ Perhaps a want of that happiness in himself maketh him to dislike it in us: as the Fox that had lost his [Page] tayl perswaded all others to cut off theirs. But I have already toucht the reason, why that Nation is unworthy of such a favour; their kisses being heat and sulphury; and indeed nothing but the Prologue of their lust: whereas on the contrary, and I dare be confident in it, the chast and innocent kiss of the English Gentlewoman is more in Heaven, than many of their best devotions. It were not amiss to explain in this place a verse of Ovids, common in the mouthes of many, but in the understanding of few.

Oscula qui sumpsit, & non & caetera sumpsit

Hoec quoque quae sumpsit perdere dignus erat.

He that doth onely kiss, and doth no more,

Deserves to loose the kisses given before.

Which must be understood according to the fashion of Rome and Italy (and since of France and Spain) where they were given as pawns of a dishonest contract, and not according to the customs of England, where they are onely proffered in the way of a gratious and innocent familiarity, and so accepted,

I return again to the French women, and though I may not kiss them (which he that seeth them will have good cause to thank God for) yet they are at liberty to be courted: An office which they admit freely, and return as liberally: an office to which they are so used, that they can hardly distinguish complement from wooing, till the Priest expecteth them at the Church door: That day they set themselves forth with all the variety of riches their credit [Page] can extend to: A Schollar of the University never disfurnished so many of his Freinds to provide for a journey, as they do neighbours to adorn that wedding. At my being at Pontoise I saw Mrs. Bride return from the Church; the day before she had been somewhat of the condition of a Kitchen wench, but now so tricked up with scarfes, rings and cross-garters, that you never saw a Whitson Lady better rigged: I should much have applauded the fellows fortunes, if he could have married the Clothes: but (God be merciful to him) he is chained to the Wench: Much joy may they have together most peerless couple. ‘Hymen O Hymenaee, Hymen Hymen O Hymenaee.’ The match was well knit up among them. I would have a French man marry none but a French woman.

Being now made Mistress of an house, she can give her self a dispensation to drink Wine. Before she had a fling at the bottle by stealth, and could make a shift to play off her whole one in a corner; as St. Austin in the ninth book of his Confessions reporteth of his Mother Monica: Now she hath her draughts like the second Edition of a book augmented and revised; and which is more, published cum Privilegio. Her house she keeps as she doth her self. It would puzzle a strong judgement to resolve which of the two was the most nasty: yet after ten of the clock you may come nigh her; for by that time she hath not onely eaten, but it may be her hall hath had a brushing. If you be not careful of your time, you [Page] shall commonly find her speechless, her mouth being stopped with some of the reliques of last nights supper. To five meals a day she is very constant, and for variety sake she will make some of them at the street door. She is an exceeding good soul (as Sancho Pancha said of his Wife) and one that will not pine her self, though her heirs smart for it. To her Husband she is very servile, seldom sitteth with him at the table, readily executing all his commands, and is indeed rather a married servant than a Wife, or a houshold drudge under the title of a Mistress. Yet on the other side she hath freedome enough, and certainly much more than a moderate wisedome would permit her. It is one of her iura conjugalia to admit of Courtship even in the sight of her Husband, to walk arm in arm about the streets, or in the fields, with her Privado, to proffer occasions of familiarity and acquaintance at the first sight of one whose person she relisheth, and all this sans suspecion without the least imputation. A liberty somewhat of the largest, and we may justly fear, that having thus wholly in her own power the keys of the Cabinet, she sheweth her Jewels to more than her husband. Such are the French women, and such lives do they lead both Maids and Married.

Then happy England! Thy four Seas contain

The pride of Beauties; Such as may disdain

Rivals on earth; Such as at once may move,

By a strange power, the envy and the love

Of all their Sex besides. Admit a Dame

Of France or Spain pass in the breath of Fame

[Page]And her own thoughts for Fair: Yet let her view

The common'st Beauties of the English crew;

And in despair shee'l execrate the day

Which bare her black, and sigh her self away.

So pin'd the Phrygian Dames and hang'd the head,

When into Troy Paris his Helen lead:

But boast not Paris; England now enjoyes

Helens enough to sack a World of Troys:

So do the vulgar Tapers of the Skie

Loose all their lustre when the Moon is nigh.

Yet English Ladies (glorious Lights) as far

Exceed the Moon, as doth the Moon a Star:

So do the common people of the Groves

Grow hush't, when Philomel recounts her Loves:

But when our Ladies sing, even she forbears

To use her tongue; and turns her tongue to ears:

Nay more; their beauties should proud Venus see,

Shee'd blush her self out of her Deitie;

Drop into Vulcan's forge, her raign now done,

And yeild to them her Empire and her Son.

Yet this were needless; I can hardly find

Any of these Land-stars, but straight my mind

Speaks her a Venus; and me thinks I spye

A little Cupid sporting in her eye:

Who thence his shaft more powerfully delivers

Than e're did th' other Cupid from his quivers:

Such in a word they are: you would them guess

An harmony of all the Goddesses:

Or swear, that partial Nature at their birth

Had robb'd the Heavens to glorifie the earth.

Such though they are; yet mean these graces bi [...]

Compar'd unto the vertues lodg'd within:

[Page]For needs the Jewels must be rich and pretious,

The Cask that keeps them being so delicious.

CHAP. III.

France described: The Valley of Montmorancie and the Dukes of it. Mont-Martyr. Burials in former times not permitted within the Wals. The prosecuting of this discourse by manner of a Journal intermitted. The Town and Church of St. Denis. The Legend of him and his head. Of Dagobert and the Leper. The reliques to be seen there: Martyrs how esteem'd in St. Austin's time: The Sepulchers of the French Kings and the Treasury there. The Kings House of Madrit. The Queen Mothers House at Ruall, and fine devices in it▪ St. Germanenly another of the Kings Houses: the curious painting in it. (Gorrambery Window.) The Garden belonging to it, and the excellency of the Water-works. Boys, St. Vincent and the Castle called Bisestre.

I Have now done with the French both Men and Womē: a people much extolled by many of the English Travellers for all those graces which may enoble and adorn both Sexes: For my part, having observed them as well as I could, and traced them [Page] in all their several humours, I set up my rest with this proposition, that there is nothing to be envied in them but their Country; To that indeed I am earnestly, and I think not unworthily affected: here being nothing wanting which may be required to raise and reward ones liking. If Nature were ever prodigal of her blessings, or scattered them with an over-plentiful hand, it was in this Island into which we were entred as soon as we were passed over the bridge of Pontoise. The first part of it, lasting for three leagues, was upon the plain of a Mountain, but such a Mountain as will hardly yeild to the best Valley in Europe out of France. On both sides of us the Vines grew up in a just length, and promised to the Husband-man a thriving vintage. The Wines they yeild are far better than those of Normandy or Gascoyne, and indeed the best in the whole Continent, those of Orleans excepted; yet what we saw here was but as a bit to prepare our stomacks, least we should surfeit in the Valley.

Here we beheld Nature in her richest vestments. The fields enterchangeably planted with Wheat and Vines: That had L. Florus once beheld it, he would never have given unto Campania the title of Cereris & Bacchi certamen. These fields were dispersedly here and there beset with Cherry-trees: which considered with the rest gave unto the eye an excellent object. For the Vines yet green, the Wheat ready for the sithe, and the Cherries now full ripened, and shewing forth their beauty through the vail of the leaves, made such a various and delightsome mixture of colours, that no art [Page] could have expressed it self more delectable. If you have ever seen an exquisite Mosaical work you may best judge of the beauty of this Valley. Add to this that the River Seine being now past Paris, either to embrace that flourishing soyl, or out of a wanton desire to play with it self, hath divided it self into sundry lesser channels, besides its several windings and turnings: So that one may very justly, and not irreligiously conceive it to be an Idaea or representation of the Garden of Eden; the River so happily separating it self to water the ground. This Valley is a very large circuit. And as the Welch-men call Anglesea Mon Mam Gymry, that is, the Mother of Wales: so may we call this the Mother of Paris: for so abundantly doth it furnish that great and populous City, that when the Dukes of Bary and Burgundie besieged it with 100000. men, there being at that time three or 400000. Citizens and Souldiers within the wals, neither the people within, nor the enemy without, found any want of provision.

It is called the Valley of Montmorencie, from the Town and Castle of Montmorencie seated in it. But this Town nameth not the Valley onely; it giveth name also to the ancient family of the Dukes of Montmorencie, the ancientest house of Christendom. He stiled himself Lepremier Christien, & plus vicil Baron du' France, and it is said, that his Ancestors received the faith of Christ by the preaching of St. Denis the first Bishop of Paris. Their principal houses are that of Chantilly and Ecqucan, both seated in the Isle: This last being given to this present Dukes Father by King Henry the fourth, to [Page] whom it was confiscated by the condemnation of one of his Treasurers. This house also (and so I beleive it) hath been observed to have yeilded to France more Constables, Marshals, Admirals, and the like Officers of power and command than any three other in the whole Kingdom, insomuch that I may say of it, what Irenicus doth of the Count Palatines, the names of the Countries onely changed: Non alia Galliae est familia cui plus debent nobilitus. The now Duke named Henry, is at this present Admiral of France.

The most eminent place in all the Isle is Mont-Martyr, eminent I mean by reason of its height; though it hath also enough of antiquity to make it remarkable. It is seated within a mile of Paris, high upon a Mountain, on which many of the faithful, during the time that Gaule was heathenish, were made Martyrs: Hence the name; though Paris was the place of apprehension and sentence, yet was this Mountain commonly the Scaffold of execution: It being the custom of the Ancients, neither to put to death, nor bury within the wals of their Cities. Thus the Jews when they crucified our Saviour, led him out of the City of Hierusalem unto Mount Calvary: unto which St. Paul is thought to allude, Hebr. 13. saying, Let us therefore go forth to him, &c. Thus also doth St. Luke (to omit other instances) report of St. Stephen, Acts 7. And they cast him out of the City and stoned him. So in the State of Rome; the Vestal Virgin having committed fornication was stifled in the Campus Sceleritatus; and other Malefactors thrown down the Tarpeian rock; both scituate without the Town. [Page] So also had the Thessalians a place of execution from the praecipice of an hill, which they called the [...] or Corvi: whence arose the Proverb [...], be hanged. As they permitted not execution of Malefactors within their wals: so neither would they suffer the best of their Citizens to be buried within them. This was it which made Abraham to buy him a field wherein to bury his dead: and thus we read in the seventh of Luke, that the Widow of Naims Son was carried out to be buried. This custom also we find among the Athenians, Corinthians and other of the Graecians; qui inagris suis (saith Alexander ab Alexandro) aut in fundo suburbano, ceuinavito aut patrio solo corpora humari consuevere. Amongst the Romans it was once the fashion to burn the bodies of their dead within their City. This continued till the bringing in of the Laws of Athens, commonly called the Laws of the twelve Tables: one of which Laws runneth in these words. In urbe ne sepelito, neve drito. After this prohibition their dead corps were first burned in Campus Martius; and their Urnes covered in sundry places of the field. The frequent Urnes or sepulchral stones digged up amongst us here in England are sufficient testimonies of this assertion. Besides we may find in Appian, that the chief reason why the rich men in Rome would not yeild to the Law called Lex Agrariae (for that Law divided the Roman possessions equally among the people) was, because they thought it an irreligious thing, that the Monuments of their fore-fathers should be sold to others. The first that is registred to have been buried in the [Page] City was Trajane the Emperor. Afterward it was granted as an honorary to such as had deserved well of the Republique. And when the Christian Religion prevailed; and Church-yards, those dormitories of the Saints were consecrated, the liberty of burying within the wals was to all equally granted.

On this ground it not being lawful to put to death or bury within the Town of Paris; this Mountain was destinate to these purposes: then was it onely a Mountain, now it is enlarged unto a Town. It hath a poor wall, an Abbey of Benedictine Monks, and a Chappel called La Chapelle des Martyrs: both founded by Lewis the sixth, called The Gross. Amongst others which received here the Crown of Martyrdom, none more famous than St. Denis (said to be Dionisius Areopagita) the first Bishop of Paris: Rusticus his Arch-preist, and Eleutherius his Deacon. The time when, under the raign of Domitian: the person by whose command Hesubinus Governour of Paris; the crime; for not bowing before the Altar of Mercury, and offering sacrifice unto him. Of St. Denis, being the Patron or Tutelary St. of France, the Legend reports strange wonders, as namely, when the Executioner had smitten off his head, he caught it between his arms, and ran with it down the hill, as fast as his legs could bear him. Half a mile from the place of his execution he sate down, rested, and so he did nine times in all, even till he came to the place where his Church is now built. There he fell down and died, being three milee English from Mount Martyr; and there he was buried together [Page] with Rusticus and Eleutherius: who not being able to go as fast as he did, were brought after by the people. O impudentiam admirabilem & verè Romanam! and yet so far was the succeeding age possessed with a beleif of this miracle, that in the nine several places, where he is said to have rested, so many handsom crosses of stones there are erected: all of a making.

To the memory of this St. did Dagobert the first build a Temple, and the times ensuing improved it to a Town. Afterwards in honour of St. Denis, and because it lay near Paris, some of the following Kings bestowed a wall upon it. A wall it is of a large circuit, and very much unproportionable to the Town which standeth in it; for all the world like a Spaniards little face in his great ruffe: or like a small chop of Mutton in a large dish of Pottage (at the three-penny ordinary.) Thus was the Town (as you see) built by means, but it was not so with the Temple: unless that be worth a Miracle in the building and in the consecrating of it, I will not give a straw for it. Thus then saith the story: Dagobert afterwards King of France, during the life of Clotarre the second his Father, had cruelly slain Sadrasagille his Governor. To avoid the fury of his Father, much incensed with that unprincely action, he was compelled to wander up and down France, hungry and thirsty: And as he went, and he went (for this tale should be told in the same stile that Wenches tell theirs by the fires side) till he came to the Sepulcher of St. Denis; where he laid himself down and slept: and then there appeared unto him a fine old man, with a [Page] staffe in his hand, and he told him, that his Father was dead; and that he should be King: and he prayed him of all loves, that when he came to be King, he would build a Church there, to the honour of St. Denis. He had an hard heart, that could deny so sweet an old man so little a curtesie for so much good news: and I trow he was more kind than so. And so when the Church was built, the Bishop was sent for in all hast to bless it. But it chanced the night before the day wherein the Bishop was to bless it, there came to the Town an ugly Leper, and the foulest that ever was seen. And this Leper would needs lie in the Church: and when he was there, about twelve a clock in the night our Saviour came to the Church in garments as white as the driven snow. There came with him the Apostles, the Angels, and the Martyrs, and the sweetest musick that ever was heard in the world. Then Christ blessed the Church; and said unto the Leper, that he should tell the Bishop that the Church was already blessed: and for a token of it, he gave the Leper his health: who presently became as fine a sweet youth as one should see in a summers day. Auditam admisse risu [...]teneatis? you may laugh if you please, but I will assure you this is the story: Neither is it a jot the less authentical because of the stile. Such ridiculous stuffe did the Monks and Friers of those times invent to please and blind the people. So prone were our Ancestors to beleive as Oracles whatever was delivered unto them by these Impostors. Majoribus nostris tam facilis in mendaciis fides fuit, ut temere credid [...] r [...]nt illa monstrosa mira [...]ula: & quicquid famae licet[Page]fingere, illis erat libenter audire. Minutius Felix spake it of his fore-fathers being Heathens, we may affirm it of ours also being Christians.

But (to omit the additions of the Legend) true it is, that Dagobert was the first Founder of the Church: which was afterward rebuilt and beautified by the twenty fifth Abbot of it, called Sugger, in the raign of King Lewis the sixth. A reverent and comely Fabrick certainly it is: Dark, as the Churches of those times commonly were, and none of the poorest. It maintaineth sixty two Monks and an Abbot, whose single revenue is thought to be worth ten thousand Crowns and upward. The present Abbot is Henry of Lorrain, Son to the Duke of Guise, a young Gentleman of some fourteen years of age, or thereabouts: but of him more hereafter. The Abbot of it, among many other priviledges, hath a full power upon the lives, goods, and honours of his vassals; and hath a voice in the Parliament of Paris as full and binding as any of the Counsellors there sitting. As for the Church it self, it is in height eighty foot, an hundred in breadth, and in length three hundred. The high Altar, under which the bodies of Saint Denis and his two fellow Martyrs are said to be buried, is a very rich and excellent work: the Crucifix standing over it being all of pure gold, embos'd with divers pearls and pretious stones of great value. Before it hangeth a silver Lamp continually burning; and if you look about it, you shall see the richest and the fairest glass for painting in all France, that of Amiens onely excepted; one thing I will further note in this Church, before I come to [Page] the Tombs and Reliques; which is, how Henry the fourth in this Church said his first Mass after his last reconcilement to the Church of Rome: and good reason I have to say his last: For having first been brought up in the Romish faith; he was by his Mother made a Protestant. At the Massacre of Paris, fear of death or imprisonment turned him Papist. Liberty made him again an Hugonot. In this he continued till the year 1595. And then once more re-embosom'd himself in the Roman Synagogue, which was the time we now speak of. Quo teneam nodo mutantem protea vultum? the onely Proteus in matters of faith of our times, Doctor Perne, was a diamond to him.

It is now time I should shew you the Reliques: but you must first stay till the Clerk hath put on his Surplice. I have heard of a blind Priest, that could never mumble over his Mass without his spectacles: this fellow and his Surplice is just like him. I perswade my self, that the Surplice without the Clark could marshal the Reliques, as well as the Clark without the Surplice. As soon as he was sadled for his journey, he put himself into his way, and followed it with a pace so nimbly, that there was no keeping of him company. His tongue ran so fast, that the quickest eye there was fain to give him over in plain ground: the fellow that sheweth the Tombs at Westminster, being no more to be compared to him for the volubility of his chops, than a Capouchin to a Jesuite: yet as we learned afterwards of him, when he was out of his road, they were thus disposed. On the right hand of the Altar (not that high Altar above mentioned) there are [Page] said to be kept one of the nails which fastened our Saviour to the Cross. Secondly, a peice of the Cross it self. Thirdly, some of the Virgin Maries Milk. Fourthly, the arm of St. Simeon set in a case of gold. And fiftly, the Reliques of St. Lewis reserved in a little Chappel, all of gold also, and built after the fashion of Nostre-dame in Paris. On the left there was shewed us the head of St. Denis, and a part of his body: But I mistake my self, it was not the head, but the Portraiture in gold; the head being said to be within it. By this representation he seemeth to have had a very reverend and awful countenance; though I perswade my self, that the rich Crown Miter which he there weareth (and certainly they are of an high value) never belonged to him in his life. On each side of the head are two Angels supporting it, reported to be the work of one Ely Le plus artiste orfeure de son temps: the cunningst Gold-smith of his time, who afterwards was made Bishop of Noyon and Sainted.

Concerning Reliques I shall have occasion to speak further, when I come to the holy Chappel in Paris: somewhat now of the honour due unto the memory of Martyrs. I am none of those that think the memories of those Heroes of the Primitive times not to be honoured in the dust. Neither would I assault their shrines with an irreverent finger. On the other side, they shall never have my prayers directed to them, nor my devotions: nor can I think it lawful to give the remnants of them any bodily observance: though I do and will honour, yet I dare not worship them. St. Austin hath cut out the mid-way between the Papists and [Page] the Zelots, in the eighth book of his most excellent work de Civitate Dei, and his path it is best to follow: Honoramus sane memorias eorum, tanquam Sanctorum hominum Dei, qui usque ad mortem suorum corporum pro veritate certarunt. And a little after, he sheweth the end of these memorials: viz. Ʋt ea celebritate Deo vero gratias de eorum victoriis agamus, & nos ad imitationem talium coronarum eorum memoriae revocatione adhortemur. One Relique there is, of which this use cannot possibly be made, and what do you think that should be, but the Lanthorn which Judas used when he went to apprehend his Master. A pretty one I confess, it is richly beset with studs of Christal, through which all the light cometh, the main of it being of a substance not transparent. Had it been shewed me within the first Century of years after the Passion, I might have perhaps been fooled into a beleif, for I am confident it can be no elder. Being as it is, I will acknowledge it to be a Lanthorn, though it belonged not to Judas.

From the Reliques of Martyrs, proceed we to those of Kings, and amongst those there is nothing which will long detain an English man. He that hath seen the Tombs at Westminster, will think those to be but trifles: if he consider the workmanship, or the riches and the magnificence. The cheif of those mean ones which are there, are those of Henry the second, and Katherine de Medices his Wife, in a little Chappel of her own building, both in their full proportion, and in their royal habiliments exceeding stately. Here is also a neat Tomb of the same Henry built all of brass, and supported by four [Page] brass pillars. His statue of the same mettal placed on the top of it, and composed as if at his prayers. The rest are more in tale than weight: but the chiefest beauties of the Church are in the Treasury, which was not mine happiness to see. As I am imformed, the most remarkable things in it are these. The Swords of Joan the Virgin, Charles the great, Rowland his Cozen, and that of Henry the fourth when he was crowned. His Boots, Crowns and Scepters, as those of his Son now raigning. A Cross of three foot high made of pure gold: A Crown, Scepter and golden Ball given by Pope Adrian to Carolus Magnus: A golden Crown of a larger size be decked with adamants and other pretious stones, given by Charles Martell after his victory over the Saracens: A very fair Chalice all of gold, in which St. Denis is said to have consecrated the Sacramental Wine. The others of lesser note I purposely omit: for having not seen them, I am loath to go any further upon trust. And so I leave St. Denis, a Church so richly furnished, that had I seen all the rarities and glory of it, that onely dayes content had deserved our journey; Sed haec infaelici nimia,

Not to continue this discourse any further by way of journal, or gesta dierum; some few dayes after we had wearied our selves with the sight of Paris, we went to see some of their Majesties houses in the Country; and here we passed by Madrit, so called of the King of Spains house at Madrit ▪ after the form of which it is built. The Founder of it was Francis the first, who being taken prisoner at the ba [...]tel of Pavi [...], Anno 15 [...]5. and thence [Page] carried into Spain, had no less than a twelve-moneths leisure to draw that platform. A fine contrived house it seemed to be; but our journey lay beyond it: One league beyond it lay Ruall, a small Town belonging to the Abbey of St. Denis. In the corner of this Town, the Queen Mother hath a fine summer house, abundantly adorned with retired walks, and a most curious variety of Water-works: For besides the forms of divers glasses, pillars and geometrical figures, all framed by the water, there were birds of sundry forts so artificially made, that they both deceived the eye by their motion, and the ear by their melody: Somewhat higher, in the midst of a most delicious garden, are two Fountains of admirable workmanship. In the first the Portraitures of Cerberus, the Bore of Calidon, the Naemean Lyon, and in the navel of it Hercules killing Hydra. In the other onely a Crocodile full of wild and unruly tricks, and sending from his throat a musick not far different from Organs. Had your eyes been shut, you would have thought your self in some Cathedral Church: this melody of the Crocodile, and that other of the Birds, so exactly counterfeiting the harmony of a well ordered Quire. And now we are come into the Grove, a place so full of retired walks, so sweetly and delectably contrived, that they would even entice a man to melancholy; because in them even melancholy would seem delightful. The trees so interchangeably folded the one within the other, that they were at once a shelter against wind and sun, yet not not so sullenly close, but that they afforded the eye an excellent Lordship over the [Page] vines, and verdures of the earth imprisoned within them. It seemed a Grove, an Orchard, and a Vineyard, so variously enterwoven and mixed together, as if it had been the purpose of the Artist to make a man fall in love with confusion. In the middle of the wilderness was seated the house, environed round about with a moat of running water; the house pretty and therefore little, built rather for a banquet than a feast. It was built and thus enriched with variety of pleasures by Mr. de Ponte Taylor to King Henry the fourth, and was, no question, the best garment he ever cut out in his life. Dying he gave it to Mr. Landerbone, once his servant, and now his Son by adoption, of whom the Queen Mother, taking a liking to it, bought it, giving in exchange an Office in the Treasury worth 400000 Crowns to be sold.

Two leagues from Ruall is the Kings house of St. Germanenly, an house seated on the top of an hill, just like Windsore. The Town of St. Germain lyeth all round about it: the River Reine (of the same breadth as the Thames is at the place mentioned) runneth below it; and the house, by reason of the scite, having a large command of the Country round about it. The Town is poor, and hath nothing in it remarkable but the name, which it took from St. Germain Bishop of Auxerre, who together with St. Lupus Bishop of Troyes sailed into Britain to root out Pelagianisme. The Castle or Seat royal is divided into two parts, the old & the new. The old, which is next unto the Town, is built of brick and for form it is triangular. Founded it was at the first by Charles the first, since strengthened [Page] and beautified by the English, when it was in their possession. Francis the first added to it the upper story, and the battlements, and in memoriam facti hath left a Capital F. upon every of the chimneys. The new house distant from the old about a furlong, and to Which you descend by a handsome green Court. It was built by Henry the fourth. It consists of three several parts all joyned together, the two outermost quadrangular; that in the middle almost round, and in the fashion of a Jewish Synagogue. Here we saw the Volatory full of sundry forrein Birds, and in one of the lowest rooms great store of out-landish Coins, but these were but accessories. The principal was the majesty of the house, which is indeed worth the observation. The Palace of the Lou're so much famed, is not to be named the same day with that. The rooms are well ordered and well roofed: gorgeously set out with the curiosity of the Painter. In some of the Chambers they shewed us some poetical fictions, expressed by the pencil in the windows, and on the wainscot, and seemed to glory much in them. I confess they might plentifully have possessed my fancy, had I not seen the Window in Gorrambury gallery, belonging to the right Honorable Francis Viscount St. Albons, a Window, in which all the Fables of Ovid's Metamorphosis are so naturally and lively resembled, that if ever Art went beyond it self, it was in that admirable expression.

Let us now take a veiw of the Water-works, and here we shall see in the first Water-house (which is a stately large walk, vaulted over head) the effigies of a Dragon just against the entrance. An [Page] unquiet Beast, that vomiteth on all that come nigh it. At the end toward the right hand is the statue of a Nymph sitting before a pair of Organs. Upon the loosing of one of the pipes the Nymphs fingers began to manage the keys, and brought the instrument to yeild such a musick, that if it were not that of an Organ, it was like it as could be, and not be the same: Unto the division of her fingers her head kept a proportionable time, jolting from one shoulder to the other: as I have seen an old Fidler at a Wake. In the same partition were the counterfeits of all sorts of mils, wch before very eagerly discharged their functions, but upon the beginning of the harmony they suddenly stood still, as if they had ears to have heard it. At the other end toward the left hand we saw a shop of Smiths, another of Joyners, and backsides full of Sawyers and Masons, all idle: upon the first command of the water they all fell to their occupations, and plied them lustily: the Birds every where by their singing saving the Artificers the labour of whistling. Besides upon the drawing of a wooden curtain, there appeared unto us two Tritons riding on their Dolphins, and each of them with a shell in his hand, which interchangeably and in turns served them instead of Trumpets. A very happy decorum, and truly poetical.

Caeruleum Tritona vocat, conchâque sonanti

Inspirare jubet.—

Afterwards follows Neptune himself sitting in his Chariot drawn with four Tortises, and grasping his [Page] Tricuspis or threefold Scepter in his hand; the water under them representing all the while a Sea somewhat troubled. Thirty six steps from the front of the house we descended into this Water-house, and by sixty more descended into a second of the same fashion, but not of an equal length with the other. At the right hand of this, is the whole story of Perseus and Andromeda, and the whole lively acted: the Whale being killed and the Lady loosed from the rock very perfectly. But withall it was so cunningly mannaged, and that with such mutual change of fortune on the parts of both the Combatants, that one who had not known the Fable, would have been sore afraid, that the Knight would have lost the victory, and the Lady her life. At the other end there was shewed unto us, ‘Orpheus in silvis positus, silvaeque sequentes.’ I say, there appeared unto us the resemblance of Orpheus playing on a treble Violl; the trees moving with the force of the musick, and the wild Beasts dancing in two rings about him. An invention which could not but cost King Henry a great sum of money; one string of the Fiddle being by mischance broken, having cost King Lewis his Son 1500. Livers. Upon the opening of a double leafed door, there were exhibited unto us divers representations and conceits: which certainly might have been more graceful, if they had not had so much in them of a Pudpet-play. By some thirty steps more we descended into the Garden; and by as many more into a Green, which opened into [Page] the water sides: In which the goodliest Flower and most pleasing to mine eye, was the statue of an Horse in brass, of that bigness, that I and one of my companions could stand on the neck of him; but dismounting from this Horse we mounted our own, and so took our leaves of Saint Germain.

Upon the other side of Paris and up the River, we saw another of the Kings Houses called Saint Vincent, or Vincennes. It was beautified with a large Park by Philip Augustus, An. 1185. who also walled the Park and replenished it with Deer. In this House have died many famous personages, as Philip the fair, Lewis Hutin, and Charles the fair, but none so much to be lamented as that of our Henry the fifth, cut down in the flower of his age, and the middest of his victories. A man most truly valiant, and the Alexander of his times. Not far from thence is an old Castle, once strong, but time hath made it now unserviceable. The people call it Chasteau bisestre corruptly for Vincester, which maketh me beleive it was built by the English when they were Masters of this Isle.

CHAP. IV.

Paris, the names and antiquity of it. The scituation and greatness; the cheif strength and fortifications about it. The streets and buildings. King James his laudable care in beautifying [Page] London: King Henry the fourth his intent to fortifie the Town: Why not actuated. The Artifices and wealth of the Citizens: The bravery of the Citizens described under the person of a Barber.

WE are now come to Paris, whether indeed I should have brought you the same day we came from Pontoise. It hath had in several ages two several names; the one taken from the people, the other from the scituation. The name taken from the people is that of Paris: Julius Caesar in his Commentaries making mention of the Nation of the Parisii: and at that time calling the City Ʋrbem pacisiorum: Amianus Marcellinus calleth it by the same name appellative: for as yet the name of Paris was not appropriated to it. As for these Parisii, it is well known that they were a people of Gallia Celtica: but why the people were so called hath been questioned, and that deservedly. Some derive them from a Son of Paris the Son of Priam: but the humor of deriving all national originations from Troy, hath long since been hissed out of the School of Antiquity: The Berosus of John Annins bringeth them from one Paris King of the Celtae: and this authority is alike authentical: The bastards which this Annius imposed upon the ancient Writers, are now taught to know their own Fathers. Others deduce it from [...] a Greek word, importing boldness in speech, which is approved by William Breton in the first book of his Philippiades.

[Page]

Finibus egressi patriis per Gallica rura

Sedem quaerebant ponendis maembus aptum:

Et se Parisios dixerant, nomine Graeco:

Quod sonat expositum nostris audacia, verbis.

Leaving their native Soil, they sought through Gaule

A place to build a City and a Wall:

And call'd themselves Parisians: which in Greek

Doth note a prompt audacity to speak.

It is spoken of the Gaules, who coming out of the more Southern parts here planted themselves Neither is it improbable, that a Gallick Nation should assume unto it self a Greek name; that language having taken good footing in these parts long before and sans time; as himself testifieth in his Commentaries. How well this name agreeth with the French nature, I have already manifested, in the character of this people both Men and Women: But I will not stand to this Etymology. The names of great Cities are obscure, as those of their Founders: and the conjecturall derivations of them are oftentimes rather plausible than probable, and sometimes neither. As for the antiquity of it, it is said to have been built in the time of Amaziah King of Judah; but this also is uncertain, the beginnings of ancient Cities being as dark and hidden as their names. Certain it is, that it is no puisne in the world, it being a strong and opulent Town in the dayes of Julius Caesar.

The other name of the City, which indeed is the ancient, and was taken from the scituation of it, is Lu [...]etia from Lutum, Durt; as being seated in an [Page] exceeding clammy and durty soyl. To this also consenteth the above named William of Breton in his said first book of his Philippiades, saying.

— Quoniam tunc temporis illam

Reddebat palus, & terrae pinguaedo lutosam

Aptam Parisii posuere Lutetia nomen.

And since the Fens and clammy soyl did make

Their City dirty: for that reasons sake

The Town the name Lutetia did take.

As for the Etymology of Munster, who derived the name from Paris one of the Kings of Celtae, it may (for ought that I know) deservedly keep company with that of Berosus already recited. This name of Lutetia continued till the coming of the Franks into these parts, who to endear the Nation of the Parisii, and oblige them more faithfully to do them service, commanded it for ever after to be called Paris. But the scituation of the Town gave it not onely the name, it gave it also (as the custom of Godfathers is in England) a Christening gift, which is the riches of it, and by consequence the preeminence. In how delicate and flourishing a soyl it is scituate, I have already told you in my description of the valley of Montmorencie wherein it standeth. If you will beleive Comines in the first book of his History, he will tell you, that ('est la cite que iamais ie veisse environn [...]e de meilleux pais & plantureux: of all the Cities which ever he saw, it is environned with the best [Page] and fruitfullest Country. The River of Seine is also no question a great help to the enriching of it: though it be not navigable to the Town; yet it giveth free passage unto Boats of an indifferent bigg burden; into which the Ships are unladen, and so their commodities carryed up the water: A profitable entercourse between the Sea and the City for the Merchants. Of these Boats there are an infinite company, which ply up and down the water, and more indeed (as the said Cominces is of opinion) than any man can beleeve, that hath not seen them.

It is in circuit (as Boterus is of opinion) twelve miles; others judge it at ten: for my part I dare not guesse it to be above eight, and yet I am told by a French man that it was in compasse no less than fourteen Leagues within the Walls: an untruth bigger than the Towne. For figure it is circular; that being (according to the Geometricians) of all figures the most capacious. And questionless if it be true that Ʋrbs non in maenibus sed in civibus posita est, Paris may chalenge as great a circuit, as the most of Europe; it being little inferiour to the biggest for the multitude of her inhabitants. Joyn the compass and the populousness together, and you shall hear the wisest of the French men say, Que ce qu'est l' ame a la raisen, et la prunet a locit, cela mesme est Paris a la France. Adde to this the virdict of Charles the fifth, who being demanded which he thought to be the biggest City of France, answered Roven: and being then asked what he though of Paris, made answer, Ʋn Pàis, that it was a whole Country; [Page] the Emperour did well to flatter Francis the first, who asked him these questions, and in whose power he then was: otherwise he might have given men good cause to suspect his judgement. The truth is that Paris is a fayr and goodly Town, yet withal it is no thing like the miracle that some make it. Were the figure of London altered, and all the houses of it cast into a ring, I dare able it a larger and more goodly Town than Paris, and that in the comparison, it may give it at the least half a mile oddes.

For matter of strength and resistance certain it is, that this City is exceeding well seated, were it as well fortified. It lyeth in a plain flat and levell, and hath no hills nigh unto it, from which it can any way be annoyed: and for the casting and making of rowling Trenches, I think the soyle is hardly serviceable. If Art were no more wanting to the strengh of it than Nature, in mine opinion it might be made almost impregnable. Henry the fourth, seeing the present weakness of it, had once a purpose (as it is said) to have strenthened it according to the moderne Art of fortifications: but it went no further than the purpose. He was a great builder, and had may projects of Masonry in his head, which were little for his profit; and this would have proved less than any: for besides the infinite sums of money, which would have been employed in so immense a work; what had this been in effect, but to put a sword into a mad mans hand. The oft mutinies and seditions of this people hath made it little inferiour to Laigh, or Gaunt, the two most revolting Townes in Europe. [Page] And again, the Baracadoes against the person of King Henry the third, and the long resistance it made to himself being weak, were sufficient to instruct him, what might be expected from it by his Successors, when it should be strengthened and enabled to rebellion.

The present strength of the Town then is not great, the walles being very weak and ruinous; and those other few helps which it hath being little available for defence. The beautifullest part of the whole resistance is the Ditch, deep, praecipitate, and broad; and to say no more of it, an excellent ward were there any thing else correspondent to it. As for the Fort next to St. Antonies gate called the Bastille, it is in my conceit too little to protect the Town, and too low to command it. When Swords onely and Pick-axes were in use, and afterwards in the infancy of Gunnes, it did some service in the Nature of of a Fortresse; now it onely serveth as a Prison, principally for those of the greater sort, who will permit themselves to be taken. It is said to be built by the English, when they were Lords of Paris: and the Vulgar are all of this opinion. Others of the more learned sort, make it to be the work of one of the Provosts of the City Du Chesne calleth him Hugues Ambriott, in the time of Charles the fifth, when as yet the English had nothing to do here. The word Bastille in general is a Fortresse; the article la prefixed before it maketh it a name, and appropriateth it to this building. There are also two little turrets just against the Gallery of the Louure on both sides of the Seine, [Page] intended for the defence of the River; though now they are little able to answer that intention. They also are fathered on the English; but how true I know not. Another place I marked, designed perhaps for a Rampart, but employed only at this time by Wind-mills: it is a goodly mount of earth, high and capacious, scituate close unto the gate called St. Martin, the most defensible part (if well manned) of all Paris. Thus is the strength of this Town (as you see) but small, and if Henry the fourth, lay so long before it with his Army, it was not because he could not take it, but because he would not: He was loath (as Byron advised him,) to receive the bird naked, which he expected with all his feathers: and this answer he gave to my Lord Willoughby, who undertook to force an entry into it.

For the Streets they are made of a lawfull and competent bredth, well pitched under the foot with fair and large Pebble: This paving of it was the work of Philip Augustus, Anno 1223. or therebouts: before which time it could not but be miserably dirty, if not unpassable. As it now is, the least rain maketh it very slippery and troublesome, and as little a continuance of warm weather, stinking and poisononus: But whether this noysomness proceed from the nature of the ground, or the sluttishness of the people in their houses, or the neglect of the Magistrates in not providing a sufficiency of Scavingers, or all, I am not to determine. This I am confident of, that the nastiest Lane in London, is Frankincense and Juniter to the sweetest Street in this City. The ancient [Page] by-word was (and there is good reason for it) Il destaint come la fange de Paris. Had I the power of making Proverbs, I would only change Il destaint, into Il puit, and make the by-word ten times more Orthodoxe. I have spoken somewhat of the Fortifications of this Town, but they are but triflles: the only venome of the Streets is a strength unto it more powerful, than the ditches or the Bullwark of St. Martin, Morison in his Itinerary relateth how the Citizens of Prague in Bohemia were reparing the walls of the Town for fear of the Turks: but withal he addeth, that if the stink of the Streets kept him not thence, there was assurance to be looked for of the walls: I know not now how true it is of that City; I am sure it may be justly verified upon this. It was therefore not injudiciously said of an English Gentleman, that he thought Paris was the strongest Town in Christendome: for he took strong in that sense, as we do in England, when we say, such a man hath a strong breath. These things considered, it could not but be an infinite happinesse granted by Nature to our Henry the fifth, that he never stopped his nose at any stink, as our Chronicles report of him; otherwise in my conscience he had never been able to have kept his Court here. But that which most amazeth me is, that in such a perpetuated constancy of stinks, there should yet be found, so large and admirable a variety; a variety so specifical and distinct, that any Chymicall nose (I dare lay my life on it) after two or three perambulations, would hunt out blindfold each several street by the smell; as perfectly [Page] as another by his eye. A Town of a strange composition: one can hardly live in it in the Summer without poisoning, in the Winter without myring.

For the Buildings, they are I confess very handsomly and uniformly set out to the street ward; not unseemly in themselves and very suitable one with another: high and perpendicular, with windowes reaching almost from the top to the bottome. The houses of the new mould in London are just after their fashion, wherein the care and designe of our late Soveraigne King James, is highly to be magnified. Time and his good beginnings well seconded will make that City nothing inferiour for the beauty and excellency of her structures, to the gallantest of Europe. Insomuch that he might truly have said of his London what Augustus did of his Rome. [...]: as Dyon hath it, Ʋrbem quam lateritiam inveni marmoreum relenquo. But as London now is, the houses of it in the inside are both better contrived, and more richly furnished by farre, than those of Paris: the inward beautie and ornaments most commonly following the estate of the builders or owners. Their houses are distinguished by Signes, as with us, and under every signe there is printed in Capital Letters what signe it is: neither is it more than needs. The old shift off, This is a Cock, and This is a Bull, was never more requisite in the infancy of Painting, than in this City, for so hideously, and so without resemblance to the thing signified, are most of these Pencill Works, that I may without [Page] danger say of them as Psuedalus implautus doeh of the Letter which was written from Phaenicium to his young Mr. Callidorus: An absecro herclé habent quoque gallinae manus: nam has quidem gallina scripsit. If a Hen would not scrape better Portraictures in a Dunghil, than they have hanged up before their doors, I would send her to my Hostesse of Tostes, to be executed.

And indeed generally the Artificers of Paris are as slovenly in their Trades, as in their houses; yet you may find nimble dancers, pretty Fidlers for a toy, and a Taylor that can trick you up after the best and newest fashion. Their Cutlers make such abominable and fearfull knives as would grieve a mans heart to see them; and the Glovers are worse than they: you would imagine by their Gloves, that the hand for which they were made were cut off by the wrest; yet on the other side, they are very perfect at Tooth-picks, Beard-brushes, and (which I hold the most commendable Art of them) the cutting of a Seal. Their Mercers are but one degree removed from a Pedler; such as in England we call Chapmen; that is, a Pedler with a shop: and for Goldsmiths there is little use for them, Glasses there being most in request; both because neat and because cheap: I perswade my self that the two several ranks of shops in Cheapside, can show more Plate, and more variety of Mercery warres, good and rich, than three parts of Paris. Merchants they have but not many; and those which they have not very wealthy. The River ebbs not and floweth, not nigher them than fifteen miles or thereabouts; [Page] and the Boats which thence serve the City, be no bigger than our Westren Barges. The principal means by which the people do subsist, are the Court of the King, most time held amongst them, and the great resort of Advodates and Clients, to the Chambers of Parliament: without these two crutches the Town would get a vile halting, and perhaps be scarce able to stand. What the estates of some of the wealthiest Citizens may amount to, I cannot say: yet I dare conjecture it not to be superfluous. The Author of the Book entitled Les estats du monde reckoneth it for a great mervail, that some of our London Merchants should be worth 100000. Crownes: we account that estate amongst us not to be so wonderful; and may hence safely conclude, that they which made a Prodegy of so little, are not much worth themselves.

If you beleeve their apparrel, you may perhaps be perswaded otherwise, that questionless speaketh no less than Millions; though like it is, that when they are in their best clothes, they are in the middle of their estate. But concernig the ridiculous bravery of the poor Parisian, take along with you this story. Upon our first coming into Paris, there came to visit a German Lord, whom we met a Ship-board, a couple of French Gallants, his acquaintance: the one of them (for I did not much observe the other) had a suit of Turkey Grogram dublet with Taffaty, cut with long slashes and carbonadoes after the French fashion, and belayed with bugle lace; through the opening of his dublet appeared his shirt, of the [Page] Purest Holland, and wrought with curious needle-work; the points of his wast and knees all edged with a silver edging, his Garters Roses and Hatband sutable to his points; a Beaver hat, and a pare of silk Stokings: his Cloak also of Turkey Grogram cut upon black Taffaty: This Lord (for who would have dared to guesse him other) applied himself to me, and perceiving my ignorance in the French, accosted me in Latine, which he spake indifferently well. After some discourse he took notice of mine eyes which were then sore, and Sea sick; and promised me, if I would call on him at his lodging the next morning, to give me a water which suddenly would restore them to their strength and vigor; I humbled thanked his Lordship, for such an ineffable and immerited favour, in the best complement and greatest abaisance I could devise. It was not for nought thought I, that our English extoll so much, the humanity of this people: Nay I began to accuse report of envy, as not having published the one half of their graces and affabilities. Quantillum enim virtutum istarum famâ acceperam. And thus taking my leave of his Honour, I greedily expected the next morning: the morning come, and the hour of visitting his Lordship almost at hand, I sent a Servant to fetch a Barbar to combe me, and make me neat, as not knowing what occasion I might have of seeing his Lady, or his Daughters: upon the return of the messenger, presently followed His Altitude, and bidding me sit down in the chair, he disburdened one of his pockets, (quis hoc credat nisi sit proteste vetustas) of [Page] a case of instruments, and the other of a bundle of linnen. Thus accomodated he falleth to work about me, to the earning of a quart descu: in my life I had never more ado to hold in my laughter: and certainly had not an anger or vexation at mine own folly, in casting away so much humble rhetorick the night before upon him, somewhat troubled me, I should either have laught him out of his fine suit, or have broke my heart in the restraint, Quid Domini facient, audent cum talia fures. If a Barber may thus be taken in suspicion for a Lord: no doubt but a Mercer may be accused for a Marquesse.

CHAP. II.

Paris divided into four parts. The Faulx Bourgs in general. Of the Pest house. The Faulx Bourg, and Abbey of St. Germain. The Queene Mothers house there: her purpose never to reside in it. Of the Town and Government of Paris. The Provost of Merchands, and his Authority. The Armes of the Towne. The Grand Castellet. The Arcenal. The place Royall, &c. The Vicounty of Paris, and the Provosts seven Daughters.

THey which write of Lusitania, divide it into three parts; viz. Ʋlteriorum, lying beyond [Page] Duerus North. Citerioram, lying from Tagus, south; and Interamnem, scituate betwixt both the Rivers. Paris is seated just as that Province, and may in a manner admit the same division; for the River of Seine, doth there disperse it self, that it hath divided the French Metropolis into three parts also, viz. Citeriorem lying on this side the River which they call la Ville, the Towne; Ʋlteriorem, lying beyond the further branch of it, which they call l' université; and Interamnem scituate between both the streames, in a little Island which they call la Ceté. To these adde the Suburbs, or (as they call them) the Faulx Bourgs: and you have in all four parts of Paris.

These Faulx bourgs are not incorporated into the Town, or joyned together with it, as the Suburbs of London are unto that Citie: they stand severed from it a pretty distance, and appear what indeed they are, a distinct body from it. For the most part the houses in them are old and ruinous; yet the Faulx bourg of St. Jacques is in pretty good fashion, and the least unsightly of them all except St. Germain: The Faulx bourg of St. Martin also hath somewhat to commend it, which is, that the great Pest house built by Henry the fourth, is within the precincts of it. A House built quadrangular-wise, very large and capacious; and seemeth to such as stand afarre off it (for it is not safe venturing nigh it or within it) to be more like the Pallace of a King, then the Kings Pallace it self. But the principallest of all the Suburbs is that of St. Germain, a place lately repared, full of divers stately houses, and in bigness little inferiour [Page] to Oxford. It took name from the Abbey of St. Germain, seated in it, built by Childebert the son of Clovis, Anno 542. in the honour of St. Vincint. Afterward it got the name of St. Germain, a Bishop of Paris, whose body was there buried, and at whose instigation it had formerly been founded. The number of the Monkes was enlarged to the number of 120. by Charles the bald, (he began his raigne Anno 841.) and so they continue till this day. The present Abbot is Henry of Burbon, Bishop of Metz, base son unto Henry the fourth: He is by his place Lord of all the goodly Suburbs, hath the power of levying taxes upon his Tennants, and to him accrew all the profits of the great fayre holden here every February.

The principall house in it, is that of the Queen Mother, not yet fully built; the Gallery of it, which possesseth all the right side of the square, is perfectly finished, and said to be a most royall and majestical piece: the further part also opposite to the gate is finished, so farre forth as concerning the outside and strength of it: the ornamentall part and trapping of it, being not yet added: when it is absolutely consummate, if it hold proportion with the two other sides both within and without, it will be a Pallace for the elegancy and politeness of the fabrick, not fellowed in Europe. A Pallace answerable to the greatness of her mind that built it; yet it is by divers conjectured, that her purpose is never to reside there; for which cause the building goeth slowly forward: for when upon the death of her great Privado, the [Page] Marquiss d' Ancre (on whom she bestowed much of her grace and favour) she was removed to Blois, those of the opposite faction in the Court, get so strongly into the favour of the King, that not without great struggling of those of her party, and the hazard of two Civil Warres, she obtained her former neerness to his Majesty. She can see by this what to trust to, should her absence leave the Kings mind any way prepared for new impressions. Likely therefore it is, that she will rather choose to leave her fine house unhabited (further than on occasions for a Banquet) then give the least opportunity to stagger her greatness. This house is called Luxembourg Pallace, as being built in a place of an old house, belonging to the Dukes of that Province. The second house of note in this Suburb, is that of the Prince of Condé, to whom it was given by the Queene Mother, in the first year of her Regency.

The Town of Paris is that part of it which lyeth on this side of the hithermost branch of the Seine towards Picardie: what was spoken before in the general, hath its reference to this particular, whether it concernes the sweetness of the streets, the manner of the building, the furniture of the Artificer, or the like. It conteineth in it thirteen Parish Churches, viz. 1. St. Germainde l' Auxerre 2. St. Eustace. 3. les St. Innocents. 4. St. Sauveur. 5. St. Nicholas des Champs. 6. le Sepulchre. 7. St. Jacques de la boucherie. 8. St. Josse. 9. St. Mercy. 10· St. Jean, 11. St. Gervase et St. Protasse. 12. St. Paul. 13. St. Jean de ronde. It hath also in it seven Gates, sc. 1. St. Anthony upon [Page] the side of the River near unto the Arcenal. 2. Porte du Temple. 3. St. Martin. 4. St. Denis. 5. Porte Montmartre. 6. St. Honore. 7. Porte neufue; so called because it was built since the others, which joyneth hard by the Tuilleries the Garden of the Louure.

The principall Governour of Paris, as also of the whole Isle of France, is the Duke of Mont-bazon, who hath held the office ever since the year, 1619. when it was surrendred by Luines, but he little medleth with the City. The particular Governours of it are the two Provosts, the one called le Provost de Paris, the other le Provost des Merchands: The Provost of Paris, determineth all causes between Citizen and Citizen, whether they be crimical or civil: the office is for term of life: the place of judgement the Grand Castellet. The present Provost is called Mr. Sequse, and is by birth of the Nobilitie; as all which are honoured with this office must be: He hath as his Assistants three Leiutenants: the Leiutenant Criminal, which judgeth in matters of life and death: the Leiutenant Civil, which desideth causes of debt or trespasse between party and party: and the Leiutenant perticulier, who supplyeth their several places in their absence. There are also necessarily required to this Court, the Procareur and the Advocate, or the Kings Solicitor and Atturney: twelve Counsellers, and of under Officers more than enough. This Office is said to have been erected in the time of Lewis the Son of Charles the great. In matters criminal there is an Appeale admitted from hence to the Attornelle. In matters Civil, if [Page] the summe exceed the value of 250. Liures to the great Chamber, or le grand Chambre in the Court of Parliament.

The Provost of the Merchands and his authority was first instituted by Philip Augustus, who began his raigne Anno 1290. His office is to conserve the liberties and indulgences granted to the Merchants, and Artificers of the Citie, to have an eye over the sales of Wine, Corn, Wood, Coal, &c. and to impose Taxes on them: to keep the keyes of the Gates, to give the watch word in time of warre: to grant Passports to such as are willing to leave the Town▪ and the like. There are also four other Officers joyned unto him; Eschevins they call them, who also carry a great sway in the Citie. There are moreover Assistants to them in their proceedings; yea the Kings Solicitor, (or Procureur) and twenty four Counsellers. To compare this Corporation with that of London: the Provost is as the Mayor: the Eschevins as the Sheriffs: the twenty four Counsellers, as the Aldermen: and the Procureur as the Recorder. I omit the under Officers whereof here there is no scarcity. The place of their meeting is called l' hostelle de ville, or the Guild Hall. The present Provost, Mr de Gri [...]ux; his habit as also that of the Eschevins and Counsellers, half red, half sky coloured, the Citie Leveries with an Hood of the same.

This Provost is as much above the other in power, as men which are loved commonly are above those which are feared. This Provost the people willingly, yea sometimes factiously obey; as the [Page] Conservator of their Liberties: the other they only dread as the Judges of their lives; and the Tyrants of their estates. To shew the power of this Provost both for and with the people against their Princes, you may please to take notice of two instances, for the people, against Philip devalois Anno 1349. when the said King desiring an impost of one liure in five Crownes, upon all wares sold in Paris, (for his better managing his warres against the English) could obtain it but for one year onely; and that not without especial Letters reservall, that it should no way incommodate their priviledges: which the people Anno 1357. when King John was prisoner in England, and Charles the Daulphine, afterwards the fifth of that name, laboured his ransome among the Parisiens, for then Steven Marcell attended by the vulgar Citizens, not onely brake open the Daulphin [...]s Chamber, but slew John de Confluns, and Robert of Chermont, two Marshalls of France before his face. Nay to adde yet further insolencies to this, he took his parti-coloured hood off his head, putting it on the Daulphins, and all that day wore the Daulphines hat being a brown black, pour signal de sa Dictateur, as the token of his Dictatorship. And which is more than all this, he sent the Daulphin cloath to make him a Cloak and Hood of the Cities Liverie; and compelled him to avow the Massacre of his Servants above named, as done by his command: Horrible insolencies! Quam miserum est eum haec impunè pacere potuisse, as Tullie of Marc. Antonius.

[Page]The Arms of the Town, as also of the Corporation of the Provost and Eschevins are Gules, a Ship Argent, a Cheife poudred with Flower de Luces Or. The seat or place of their Assemblies is called (as we said▪) Hostel de Ville or the Guild-hall. It was built or rather finisht by Francis the first, Anno 1533. and since beautified and repaired by Francis Miron once Provost des Merchands, and afterwards privy Counsellor to the King. It standeth on one side of the Greue, which is the publike place of the Execution, and is built quadrangular-wise, all of free and polished stone, evenly and orderly laid-together. You ascend by thirty or forty steps fair and large, before you come to the quadrate, and thence by several stairs into the several rooms and chambers of it, which are very neatly contrived and richly furnished. The grand Chastelet is said to have been built by Julian the Apostata, at such time as he was Governour of Gaul. It was afterwards new built by Philip Augustus, and since repaired by Lewis the twelfth. In which time of repaitation the Provost of Paris kept his Court in the Palace of the Louure. To sight it is not very graceful, what it may be within I know not. Certain it is, that it looketh far more like a Prison (for which use it also serveth) than a Town Hall or seat of judgement.

In this part of Paris, called la Ville or the Town, is the Kings Arcenal or Magazin of War. It carrieth not any great face of majesty on the outside; neither indeed is it necessary: Such places are most beautiful without when they are most terrible within. It was begun by Henry the second, [Page] finished by Charles the ninth, and since augmented by Mr. Rhosme great Master of the Artillery. It is said to contain an hundred field peices and their Carriage; and also armour sufficient for ten thousand Horses, and fifty thousand Foot. In this part also of Paris is that excellent pile of building, called the Place Royal, built partly at the charges, and partly at the encouragement of Henry the fourth. It is built after the form of a Quadrangle, every side of the square being in length seventy two fathoms; the materials brick of divers colours, which make it very pleasant, though less durable. It is cloystered round just after the fashion of the Royall Exchange in London; the walks being paved under foot. The houses of it are very fair and large, every one having its garden and other outlets. In all they are thirty six, nine on a side, and seemed to be sufficiently capable of a great retinue. The Ambassadour for the State of Venice lying in one of them. It is scituate in that place, whereas formerly the solemn tiltings were performed. A place famous and fatal for the death of Henry the second, who was here slain with the splinter of a Launce, as he was running with the Earl of Mountgomery, a Scottish man. A sad and heavy accident.

To conclude this discourse of the Ville or Town of Paris, I must wander a little out of it; because the power and command of the provost saith that it must be so: For his authority is not confined within the Town, he hath seven Daughters on which he may exercise it, Les sept filles de la Propaste de Paris, as the French call them. These [Page] seven Daughters are seven Bayliwicks comprehended within the Vicointe of Paris: Viz. 1. Poissy. 2. St. Germanenlay. 3. Tornon. 4. Teroiene Brie. 5. Corbeil. 6. Moutherrie: and the 7. Gennesseen France. Over these his jurisdiction is extended, though not as Provost of Paris. Here he commandeth and giveth judgement as Leiutenant Civil to the Duke of Mont-bâzon, or the supreme Governour of Paris and the Isle of France for the time being; yet this Leiutenancy being an Office perpetually annexed to the Provostship, is the occasion that the Bayliwicks above named are called, Les sept filles de la Provaste.

CHAP. VI.

The Universitie of Paris, and Founders of it. Of the Colledges in general: Marriage when permitted to the Rectors of them: The small maintenance allowed to Schollars in the Universities of France. The great Colledge at Tholoza. Of the Colledge of the Sorbone in particular, That and the House of Parliament the cheif bulwarks of the French liberty. Of the policy nnd government of the Universtty. The Rector and his precedency. The disordered life of the Schollars there being. An Apology for Oxford and Cambridge. The priviledges of the Scholars: Theer Degrees, &c.

[Page]THis part of Paris which lieth beyond the furthermost branch of the Seine is called the University. It is little inferior to the Town for bigness, and less superior to it in sweetness or opulency; whatsoever was said of the whole in general, was intended to this part also as well as the others. All the learning in it being not able to free it from those inconveniencies wherewith it is distressed: It containeth in it onely six parish Churches, the paucity whereof is supplied by the multitude of religious houses which are in it. These six Churches, are called by the names, St. Nicholas du' Chardomere. 2. St. Estienne at this time in repairing. 3. St. Severin. 4. St. Bennoist. 5. St. Andre: and the 6. St. Cosme. It hath also eight Gates; 1. Porte de Nesse, by the water side, over against the Louure. 2. Porte de Bucy. 3. St. Germain. 4. St. Michell. 5. St. Jacques. 6. St. Marcell. 7. St. Victor: and the 8. Porte de la Tornelle. It was not accounted as a distinct member of Paris, or as the third part of it, until the year 1304. at which time the Scholars having lived formerly dispersed about the City, began to settle themselves together in this place, and so to become a peculiar Corporation.

The Ʋniversity was founded by Charles the great, Anno 791. at the perswosion of Al'uine an Oxford man, and the Scholar Venerable Bede, who brought with him three of his condisciples to be the first Readers there. Their names were Rabbanus Maurus, John Duns surnamed Scotus, Claudus, who was also called Clement. To these four doth the Ʋniversity of Paris owe its original and [Page] first rudiments. Neither was this the first time that England had been the School-master unto France: we lent them not onely their first Doctors in Divinity and Philosophy; but from us also did they receive the mysteries of their Religion when they were Heathens. Disciplina in Britannia reperta (saith Julius Caesar Com. 6.) atque inde in Galliam translata esse existimatur: an authority not to be questioned by any but by a Caesar. Learning thus new born at Paris continued not long in any full vigor; for almost three hundred years it was fallen into a deadly trance, and not here onely, but almost through the greatest part of Europe. Anno 1160▪ or thereabouts, Peter Lambard Bishop of Paris, the first Author of Scholastical Divinity; and by his followers called the Master of the Sentences, received it here in this, by the favour and incouragement of Lewis the seventh. In his own house were the Lectures first read: and after as the number of Students did encrease, in sundry other parts of the Town. Colledges they had none till the year 1304. the Schollars sojourning in the houses of the Citizens, accordingly as they could bargain for their entertainment.

But Anno 1304. Joan Queen of Navarre Wife to Philip the fair, built that Colledge, which then and ever since hath been called the Colledge of Navarre; and it is at this day the fairest and largest of all the rest: Non ibi consistunt exempla ubi caeperunt, sed intenuem accepta tramitem la [...]issima evaganoi viam sibi faciunt, as Velleius: This good example ended not in twenty it self: but invited diverse others of the French Kings and people to [Page] the erecting of convenient places of study: so that in process of time Paris became enriched with fifty two Colledges: so many it still hath, though the odd fourty are little serviceable to Learning: For in twelve onely of them is there any publike reading, either in Divinity or Philosophy. These twelve are the Colledges of 1. Harcourte. 2. Caillve, or the petit Sorbonne. 3. Liseuer, or Cerovium. 4. Boncorrte. 5. Montague. 6. Les Marche. 7. Navarre. 8. De le Cardinal de Noyne. 9. Le Plessis. 10. De Beavis. 11. La Sorbonne. 12. De Clermont, or the Colledge of the Jesuits. There are also publike readings in the houses of the four Orders of Mendicant Friers: Viz. the Carmelites, the Augustines, the Franciscans, or Cordeliers, and the Dominicans. The other Colledges are destinate to other uses: That of Arras is converted to an house of English Fugitives: and there is another of them hard by the gate of Jacques employed for the reception of the Irish: in others of them there is Lodging allotted out to Students, who for ther instruction have resort to some of the twelve Colledges above mentioned.

In each of these Colledges there is a Rector, most of whose places yeild them but small profit. The greatest commodity which accreweth to them is raised from Chamber-rents: their Preferments being much of a nature with that of a Principal of an Hall in Oxford: or that of a Treasurer in an Inne of Chancery in London. At the first erection of their Colledges they were all prohibited marriage, though I see little reason for it: There can hardly come [Page] any inconvenience or damage by it unto the Scholars under their charge, by assuming of leases into their own hands, for I think few of them have any to be so embezelled: Anno 1520. or thereabouts, it was permitted to such of them as were Doctors in Physick; that they might marry; the Cardinal of Toute-ville, Legate in France giving to them that indulgence. Afterwards in the year 1534. the Doctors of the Laws petitioned the Ʋniversity for the like priviledge, which in fine was granted to them: and confirmed by the Court of Parliament. The Doctors of Divinity are the onely Academicals now barred from it, and that not as Rectors but as Preists. These Colledges for their building are very inelegant and generally little beholding to the curiosity of the Artificer. So confused and so ill proportioned in respect of our Colledges in England; as Exeter in Oxford was some twelve years since in comparison of the rest; or as the two Temples in London now are in reference to Lincolns Inne. The Revenues of them are sutable to the Fabricks, as mean and curtailed: I could not learn of any Colledge that hath greater allowances than that of the Sorbonne, and how small a trifle that is, we shall tell you presently. But this is not the poverty of the Ʋniversity of Paris onely, all France is troubled with the same want of encouragements in learning: Neither are the Academies of Germany in any happier estate; which occasioned Erasmus that great light of his times, having been here in England, and seen Cambridge, to write thus to one of his Dutch acquaintance: Ʋnum Collegium Cantabrigiense (confidenter dicam) superat[Page]vel decem nostra. It holdeth good in the neatness and graces of the buildings, in which sense he spake it, but it had been more undeniable had he intended it of the Revenues. Yet I was given to understand, that at Tholoza there was amongst twenty Colledges one of an especial quality, and so indeed it is if rightly considered. There are said to be in it twenty Students places (or Fellowships as we call them) The Students at their entrance are to lay down in deposito six thousand Florens or Liures, to stay there onely six years; in the mean time to enjoy the profits of the House, & at the 6, years end to have his 6000. Liures paid unto him by Successor: Vendere jure potest, emerat ille prius. A pretty Market.

The Colledge of Sorbonni (which indeed is the glory of this Ʋniversity) Was built by one Robert de Sorbonne of the Chamber to Lewit the ninth, of whom he was very well beloved. It consisteth meerly of Doctors of Divinity: neither can any of another profession, nor any of the same profession, not so graduated, be admitted unto it. At this time their number is about seventy, their allowance a pint of Wine (their pint being but a thought less than our quart) and a certain quantity of bread daily. Meat they have none allowed them, unless they pay for it; but they pay not so much: for five Sols (which amounteth to six pence English) a day they challenge a competency of flesh or fish to be served to them at their Chambers. These Doctors have the sole power & authority in conferring degrees in Divinity: The Rector and other Officers in the University having nothing to do in it. To them [Page] alone belongeth the examination of the Students in that faculty: the approbation and bestowing of the honours: and to their Lectures do all such assiduously repair as are that way minded. All of them in their turns discharge this office of reading and that by six in a day, three of them making good the Pulpit in the forenoon, and as many in the afternoon. These Doctors also are accounted together with the Parliament of Paris, the principal pillars of the French liberty; whereof indeed they are exceeding jealous, as well in matters Ecclesiastical as Civil. When Gerson Chancellor of Paris (he died Anno 1429.) had published a book in approbation of the Council of Constance, where it was enacted, that the authority of the Council was greater than that of the Pope; the Sorbonne Doctors declared that also to be their doctrine. Afterwards when Lewis the eleventh, to gratifie Pope Pius the second, purposed to abolish the force of the Pragmatick Sanction, the Sorbonnists in the behalf of the Church Gallican and the Ʋniversity of Paris magnis obsistebant animis (saith Sleidan in his Commentary) & a papâ provacabant ad Concilium. The Council unto which they appealed was that of Basil, where that Sanction was made: So that by this appeal they verified their former Thesis, that the Council was above the Pope. And not long since, Anno, viz. 1613. casually meeting with a Book written by Becanus entituled, Controversia Anglicana de potestate Regis & Papae, they called an Assembly and condemned it. For though the Main of it were against the power and supremacy of the King of England, yet did it reflect also on the authority [Page] of the Pope over the Christian Kings by the by; which occasioned the sentence. So jealous are they of the least circumstances, in which the immunity of their Nation may be endangered.

As for the government of the Ʋniversity, it hath for its cheif Director, a Rector, with a Chancellor, four Procurators or Proctors, and as many others whom they call his Intrantes to assist him; besides the Regents. Of these the Regents are such Masters of the Arts, who are by the consent of the rest selected to read the publike Lectures of Logick and Philosophy. Their name they derive a regendo, eo quod in artibus rexerint. These are divided into four Nations: Viz. 1. The Norman. 2. The Picard. 3. The Germain. 4. The French. Under the two first are comprehended the Students of those several Provinces; under the third the Students of all Forrain Nations, which repair hither for the attainment of knowledge. It was heretofore called Natio Anglica: but the English being thought unworthy of the honour, because of their separation from the Church of Rome, the name and credit of it was given to the Germains. That of the French is again subdivided into two parts; that which is immediately within the Diocess of Paris, and the rest of Gallia: these four Nations (for notwithstanding the subdivision above mentioned, the French Nation is reckoned but as one) choose yearly four Proctors or Procurators, so called, Quia negotia nationis suae procurant. They choose also four other Officers, whom they call les Intrants, in whose power there remaineth the delegated authority [Page] of their several Nations. And here it is to be observed, that in the French Nation the Procurator and Intrant is one year of the Diocess of Paris, and the following year of the rest of France, the reason why that Nation is subdivided: These four Intrants thus named have amongst them the election of their Rector, who is their supreme Magistrate.

The present Rector is Mr. Tarrisnus of the Colledge of Harcourte, a Master of the Arts, for a Doctor is not capable of the office. The honour lasteth onely three moneths; which time expired, the Intrants proceed to a new election; though oftentimes it happeneth, that the same hath the lease of his authority renewed. Within the confines of the University he taketh place next after the Princes of the Bloud: and at the publike exercises of Learning before the Cardinals; otherwise he giveth them the precedency. But to Bishops and Arch-bishops he will not grant it upon any occasion. It was not two moneths before my being there, that there happened a shrewd controversie about it. The King had then summoned an assembly of twenty five Bishops of the Provinces adjoyning, to consult about some Church affairs; and they had chosen the Colledge of Sorbonne to be their Senate-House: When the first day of their sitting came, a Doctor of the House being appointed to preach before them, began his Oration with Reverendissime Rector & vos Amplissimi Praesulei. Here the Arch-bishop of Roven, a man of an high spirit interrupted him, and commanded him to invert his stile. He obeyed, and presently the Rector [Page] riseth up with Impono tibi silentium, which is an Injunction within the compass of his power. Upon this, the Preacher being tongue-tied, the controversie grew hot between the Bishops and the Rector, both parties very eagerly pleading their own priority. All the morning being almost spent in this altercation; a Cardinal wiser than the rest, desired that their question for that time might be laid aside, and that the Rector would be pleased to permit the Doctor to deliver his Sermon, beginning it without any Praeludium at all. To which request the Rector yeilded; and so the contention at that time was ended.

But Salus Academiae non vertitur in istis. It were more for honour and profit of the Ʋniversity, if the Rector would leave of to be so mindful of his place, and look a little to his office; for certainly the eye and utmost diligence of a Magistrate was never wanting more; and yet more necessary in this place. Penelopes suiters never behaved themselves so insolently in the house of Ʋlisses, as the Academicks here do in the houses and streets of Paris.

Nos numerus sumus & fruges consumere nati

Sponsi Penelopes, nebulones, Alcinoque, &c.

Was never the mouth of any of these; when you hear of their behaviour you would think you were in Turkey, and that these men were the Janizaries: For an Angel given among them to drink, they will arrest whom you shall appoint them; double the money, and they will break open his house, and [Page] ravish him into Gaole; I have not heard that they can be hired to a murder, though nothing be more common amongst them than killing, except it be stealing. Witness those many Carcasses which are found dead in a morning, whom a desire to secur themselves, and make resistance to their pillages, hath (onely) made earth again. Nay, which is most horrible, they have regulated their villanous practises into a Common-wealth, and have their Captains and other Officers, who command them in their night walks and dispose of their purchases. To be a Gypsie, and a Scholar of Paris are almost Synonime's. One of their Captains had in one week (for no longer would the gallows let him enjoy his honour) stoln no fewer than eighty Cloaks: Nam fuit Autolei tam piceata manus? For these thefts being apprehended, he was adjudged to the wheel; but because the Judges were informed. that during the time of his raign he had kept the hands of himself and his company unpolluted with bloud, he had the favour to be hanged. In a word, this ungoverned rabble (whom to call Scholars were to prophane the title) omit no outrages or turbulent misdemeanours which possibly can be, or were ever known to be committed in a place, which consisteth meerly of priviledge and nothing of statute.

I could heartily wish, that those, who are so ill conceited of their own two Ʋniversities, Oxford and Cambridge, and accuse them of dissolutions in their behaviour, would either spend some time in the Schools beyond Seas, or enquire what news abroad of those which have seen them; then would [Page] they doubtless see their own errors and correct them; then would they admire the regularity and civility of those places, which before they condemned of debauchedness: then would they esteem those places as the seminaries of modesty and vertue, which they now account as the nurseries onely of an impudent rudeness. Such an opinion I am sure, some of the Aristarchi of these dayes have lodged in their breasts concerning the misgoverning of our Athens. Perhaps a Kinsman of theirs hath played the unthrift equally of his time and his money: Hence their malice to it, and their invectives against it. Thus of old.

—Pallas exurere classem

Argivum atque ipsos potuit submergere ponto

Ʋnius ob noxam & furias Aiacis Oilei.

An injustice more unpardonable than the greatest sin of the Ʋniversities. But I wrong a good cause with an unnecessary patronage, yet such is the peccant humour of some, that they know not how to expiate the follies of some one, but with the calumny and dispraise of all. An unmanly weakness, and yet many possessed with it. I know it is impossible, that in a place of youth and liberty, some should not give occasion of offence. The Ark, wherein there were eight persons onely, was not without one Canaan: And of the twelve which Christ had chosen one was a Devil. It were then above a miracle, if amongst so full a Cohort of young Souldiers none should forsake the Ensign of his General: He notwithstanding that should give [Page] the imputation of cowardise to the whole Army, cannot but be accounted malitious or peevish. But let all such as have evil will at Sion live unregarded, and die unremembred for want of some Sciolar to write their Epitaph. Certainly a man not wedded to envy and a spiteful vexation of spirit, upon a due examination of our Lycaea, and a Comparison of them abroad with those abroad, cannot but say, and that justly, Non habent Academiae Anglicanae pares, nisi seipsas.

The principal cause of the rudeness and disorders in Paris had been cheifly occasioned by the great priviledges where with the Kings of France intended the furtherance and security of Learning. Having thus let them get the bridle in their own hands, no marvel if they grow sick with an uncontrouled licentiousness. Of these priviledges some are, that no Scholars goods can be seized upon for the payments of his debts: that none of them should be liable to any taxes or impositions: (a Royal immunity to such as are acquainted with France;) that they might carry and recarry their utensiles without the least molestation: that they should have the Provost of Paris to be the Keeper and Defender of their Liberties, who is therefore stiled, Le conservateur despriviledges Royaux de le Ʋniversite de Paris, &c.

One greater priviledge they have yet than all these; which is their soon taking of degrees. Two years seeth them both novices in the Arts, and Master of them: so that enjoying by their degrees an absolute freedom, before the fol [...]ies and violencies of youth are broken in them, they become [Page] so unruly and insolent as I have told you· These degrees are conferred on them by the Chancellor, who seldom examineth further of them than hss Fees. Those paid, he presenteth them to the Rector, and giveth them their Letters Patents sealed with the Ʋniversities seal, which is the main part of the Creation. He also setteth the Seal to the Authentical Letters (for so they term them) of such whom the Sorbonists have passed for Doctors. The present Chancellor is named Petrus de Piere Vive, Doctor of Divinity, and Chanoin of the Church of Nostre-dame (as also are all they which enjoy that Office.) He is chosen by the Bishop of Paris, and taketh place of any under that dignity. But of this ill managed Ʋniversity enough, if not too much.

CHAP. VII.

The City of Paris in the place of old Lutetia: The bridges which joyn it to the Town, and University: King Henries statua: Alexanders injurious policy. The Church and Revenues of Nostre-Dame. The holy Water there, the original making and vertue of it. The Lamp before the Altar. The heathenishness of both customs. Paris best seen from the top of the Church: The great Bell there never rung but in time of Thunder. The baptizing of Bels. The grand [Page] Hospital and decency of it. The place Daulphin: the holy Chappel and Reliques there. What the Ancients thought of Reliques. The Exchange. The little Chastelet. A transition to thc Parliament.

THe Isle of Paris commonly called Isle de palais seated between the Ʋniversity and the Town, is that part of the whole, which is called la Cite the City: The Epitome and abstract of all France: It is the sweetest and best ordered part of Paris; and certainly if Paris may be thought the eye of the Realm, this Island may equally be judged the apple of the eye. It is by much the lesser part, and by as much the richer, by as much the decenter, and affordeth more variety of delightful objects than both the other. It containeth an equal number of parish Churches with the Town, and double the number with the Ʋniversity. For it hath in it thirteen Churches parochial: Viz. 1. La Magdalene. 2. St. Geniveue des Ardents. 3. St. Christofer. 4. St. Pierre aux boeafs. 5. St. Marine. 6. St. Landry. 7. St. Symphoryan. 8. St. Denis de la charite. 9. St. Bartellemie. 10. St. Pierre des Assis. 11. St. Croix. 12. St. Marcial. 13. St. German le Vieux. Seated it is in the middle of the Seine, and in that place where stood the old Lutetia. Labienus cum quatuor legionibus (saith Julius Caesar 7. Comment.) Lutetiam proficiscitur, id est oppidum Parisioram positum in medio flumin [...]s Sequanae, it is joyned to the Main Land, and the other parts of this French Metropolis by six [Page] bridges, two of wood and four of stone. The stone bridges are, 1. Le petit pont, a bridge which certainly deserveth the name. 2. Le pont de Nostre-Dame, which is all covered with two goodly ranks of houses, and those adorned with portly and antick imagery. 3. Le pont St. Michell, (so called, because it leadeth towards the gate of St. Michell) hath also on each side a beautiful row of houses all of the same fashion so exactly, that but by their several doors you could scarce think them to be several houses. They are all new, as being built in the raign of this present King; whose Armes is engraven over every door of them. The fourth and last bridge is that which standeth at the end of the Isle next the Louure, and covereth the waters now united into one stream. It was begun to be built by Katherine of Medices the Queen Mother, Anno 1578. her Son King Henry the third laying the first stone of it. The finishing of it was reserved to Henry the fourth, who as soon as he had settled his affairs in this Town, presently sent the workmen about it. In the end of it, where it joyneth to the Town, there is a Water house, which by artificial engines forceth up waters from a fresh spring rising from under the River, done at the charges of the King also. In the midst of it is the Statua of the said Henry the fourth all in brass, mounted upon his barbed Steed of the same mertal. They are both of them very unproportionable to those bodies which they represent, and would shew them big enough were they placed upon the top of Nostre-dame Church: What minded King Lewis to make his Father of so Gigantine [Page] a stature I cannot tell. Alexander at his return from his Indian expedition scattered armours, swords, and horse-bits far bigger than were serviceable, to make future ages admire his greatness: Yet some have hence collected, that the acts he performed are not so great as is reported, because he strived to make them seem greater than they were. It may also chance to happen, that men in the times to come, comparing the atchievements of this King with his brasen portraiture, may think that the Historians have as much belyed his valour, as his Statuary hath his person.

A ponte ad pontifices. From the bridge proceed we to the Church: the principal Church of Paris being that of Nostre-dame. A Church very uncertain of its first Founder; though some report him to be St. Savinian, of whom I can meet with no more than his name. But whoever laid the first foundation it much matters not, all the glory of the work being now cast on Philip Augustus, who pittying the ruines of it, began to build it Anno 1196. It is a very fair and awful building, adorned with a very beautiful front, and two towers of especial height. It is in length 174. paces, and sixty in breadth, and is said to be as many paces high, and that the two towers are seventy yards higher than the rest of his Church. At your first entrance on the right hand, is the Effigies of St. Christopher with our Saviour on his shoulders: A man the Legend maketh him, as well as the Mason, of a Gigantine stature, though of the two the Masons workmanship is the more admirable; his being cut out all of one Fair stone, that of the Legendary being [Page] patched up of many fabulous & ridiculous shreeds. It hath in it four ranks of pillars 30 in a rank, and forty five little Chappels, or Mass-closets, built between the outermost range of pillars and the wals. This is the seat of the Arch-bishop of Paris, for such now he is. It was a Bishoprick onely till the year 1622. when Pope Gregory the fifteenth at the request of King Lewis raised it to a Metropolitanship. But beside the addition of Honour, I think the present Incumbent hath got nothing either in precedency or profit. He had before a necessary voyce in the the Courts of Parliament, and took place immediately after the Presidents, he doth no more now. Before he had the priority of all the Bishops, and now he is but the last of all the Arch-bishops. A preferment almost rather intellectual than real, and perhaps his successors may account it a punishment. For besides that, the dignity is too unweildy for the Revenue, which is but 600. liures, or 600 li English yearly; like enough it is, that some may come into that See of Caesars mind, who being in a small Village of the Alpes, thus delivered his ambition to his followers, Mallem esse hic primus, quam Romae secundus. The present possessour of this Chair is one Francis de Gondi, by birth a Florentine, one whom I have heard much famed for a Statesman, but little for a Scholar. But had he nothing in him, this one thing were sufficient to make him famous to posterity; that he was the first Arlh-bishop, and the last Bishop of the City of Paris. There is moreover in this Church a Dean, seven Dignities and fifty Canons. The Deans place is valued at 4000▪ liuree, t [...] [...]he Dignities at 3006. and [Page] the Canons at 2000. no great Intrado's, and yet unproportionable to the Arch-bishoprick.

At Diepe (as I have said) I observed the first Idolatry of the Papists; here I noted their first Superstitions, which were the needless use of holy Water; and the burning of Lamps before the Alter. The first is said to be the invention of Pope Alexander, the seventh Bishop of Rome, in their account after Peter. I dare not give so much credit unto Platina, as to beleeve it of this Antiquity, much less unto Bellarmine, who deriveth it from the Apostles themselves: in this Paradox he hath enemies enough at home; his own Doctors being all for Alexander: yet they also are not in the right. The principall foundation of their opinion is an Epistle Decretory of the said Alexander, which in it self carries its own confutation. The citations of Scriptures, on which this Superstition is thought to be grounded, are all taken out of the Vulgar Translation, Latine, attributed to St. Hierome; whereas neither was there in the time of Alexander any publick Translation of the Bible into Latine; neither was St. Hierome born within 300. years after him. Holy Water then is not of such a standing in the Church, as the Papists would perswade us; and as yet I have not met with any, that can justly inform me at what time the Church received it. Many corruptions they have among them, whereof neither they nor we can tell the beginning.

It consisteth of two Ingredients. Salt and Water; each of them severally consecrated, or rather exorcized; for so the words go, Exorcizo te [Page]creatura salis: and afterwards Exorcizo te creatura aquae &c. This done the Salt is sprinkled into the Water in form of a Crosse, the Priest in the mean time saying Commixtio salis et aquae pariter fiat in nomine Patris, &c. Being made it is put into a Cisterne standing at the entrance of their Churches: the people at their coming in sometimes dipping their fingers into it, and making with it the sign of the Crosse in their foreheads, and sometimes being sprinkled with it by one of the Priests, who in course bestow that blessing upon them. Pope Alexander, who is said to be the Father of it, gave it the gift of purifying and sanctifying all which it washed: Ʋt Cunesti illa aspersi purificentur et sanctificentur, saith his Decretall. The Roman Ritual published and confirmed by Paulus the fifth, maketh it very soveraigne, ad abigendos Daemones, et Spiritus imundos: Bellarmine maintaineth it a principall remedy ad remissionem peccatorum Venialium: and saith, that this was the perpetual doctrine of the Church. August. Steuchus in his Commentary upon Numbers, leaveth out Venialia, and pronounceth it to be necessary; Ʋt ad eius aspersum debita nostra deleantur: So omnipotent is the Holy Water, that the blood of our Saviour Christ may be in a manner judged unnecessary. But it is not onely used in the Churches, the Rituale Romanum, (of which I spake but now) alloweth any of the faithfull to carry it away with them, in their vessels, ad aspergendos aegros, domos, agros, vineas et alia, et ad habendum eam in cubiculis suis. To which purposes it cannot but think this Water very serviceable.

[Page]The second Superstition which this Church shewed me, was the continual burning of a Lamp, before the Alter: A Ceremony brought into the Churches (as it is likely) by Pope Innocent the third, Anno 1215. at which time he ordained there should a Pix be bought to cover the bread, and that it should therein be reserved over the Altar. This honour one of late times hath communicated also unto the Virgin Mary; whose Image in the Church hath a Lanthorne ex diametro before it; and in that a Candle perpetually burning. The name of the Donor I could not learn: onely I met on the Screene close by the Ladies Image this Inscription: Vne Ave Mariae et un Pater nostre pour luy qui ce la donne: which was intended on him that bestowed the Lanthorne. No question but Pope Innocent when he ordained this V [...]stall Fire to be kept amongst the Christians thought he had done God good service, in reviving this old Commandement given to Moses in the twenty seventh of Exodus and the twentieth and twenty one verses. If so the World cannot clear him of Judaisme, therefore the best way were to say, he learned it of the Géntiles; for we read that the Athenians had Lychnum inextineti luminis before the Statua of their Pallas: that the Persians also had ign [...]m pervigilem in their Temples: and so also had the Medians and Asirians: to omit the everlasting Fire of Vesta, and come neer home, we meet with it also here in Britaine. In Britania quoque (saith a good Philosopher) Minervae numen colitur: in cuius Templo perpetui ignes &c. Afterwards the flattery of the Court applying divine [Page] honours unto their Kings, this custom of having fire continually burning before them, began to grow in fashion among the Romans: Herodian amongst other the ensigns of Imperial Majesty is sure not to omit this: and therefore telleth us, that notwithanding Commodus was fallen out with his sister Lucilla, he permitted her her antient seat in the Theater, [...], and that fire should be carried before her. The present Romans succeed the former as in their possessions so in their follies. For calling the Sacrament their Lord God, and the Virgin their Lady; they thought they should rob them of half their honour, should they not have their lamps and fires also burning before them.

As are their Lamps, so is their Holy water, meerly heathenish, Siquidem in omnibus Sacris (as we read in the fourth book Genialium Dierum) Sacerdos cum Diis immolat & rem divinan facit, corporis ablutione purgatur. The Author giveth a reason for it, and I would no Papist, no not Bellarmine himself to give a better. Aquae enim aspersione labemtolli, & castimoniam praestare putant. Neither did the Preist onely use it himself, but he sprinkled the people also with it.

Spargere rore Levi, & ramo faelicis Olivae

Lustravit (que) viros.—

As Virgil in the Aeneads.

In which place two things are to be noted: First, ramus Olivae, now called Aspersorium, or the sprinkling rod, wherewith the water is sprinkled on the [Page] standers by: and secondly, the term Lustrare meerly heathenish, whence the Holy water of the Papists (no question) had the name of Aqua lustralis, by which they call it. That the Laicks also of the Gentiles were cleansed of sin by this water, is evident by that of Homer, where he maketh Orestes, having killed his Mother and threupon grown mad, at once restored to his wits by washing in the water. Perhaps Pilate might allude to this custom, when having condemned our Saviour, he washed his hands in the midst of the Congregation. Hereunto also Ovid.

O faciles nimium, qui tristia crimina caedis

Fluminae â tolli posse putatis aquâ.

Too facil souls, which think such hainous matters

Can be abolish'd by the River-Waters.

Indeed in the word Fluminae â the Poet was somewhat out, the waters onely of the Sea serving for the expiation of any crime; the reason was, cum propter vim igneam magnopere purgationibus consentaneae putaretur. And for this cause questionless do the popish Priest use salt in the consecration of their holy water, that it might as near as was possible resemble the waters of the Sea in saltness, so willing are they in all circumstances to act the Heathens.

But I have kept you too long within the Church, it is now time to go up to the top, and survey the out-works of it. It hath (as we have already said) at the front two Towers of admirable beauty, [Page] they are both of an equal height, and are each of them 377. steps in the ascent. From thence we could clearly see the whole circuit of Paris, and each several street of it, such as we have already described, of an orbicular form, and neatly compacted. From hence we could see the whole valley round about it, such as I have delineated already though not in such lively colours as it meriteth. An object it is so delicious and ravishing, that had the Devil taken King Henry the fourth and placed him on the top of this Temple, as he did our Saviour on that of Hierusalem, and said unto him, all this will I give thee, this alone had been enough to have made him fall down and worship him.

In One of those Towers there is a Ring of Bels, in the other two onely, but those for worth equal to all the rest. The bigger of the two is said to be greater than that of Roven so much talked of, as being eight yards and a span in compass, and two yards and an half in depth; the bowl also of the clapper being one yard and a quarter round. Of a great weight it must needs be; and therefore (Multorum manibus grande levatur onus) there are no less than four main ropes besides their several tayl ropes to ring it. By reason of the trouble it is never rung but in time of thunders, and these no mean ones neither. Lesser Bels will serve the lesser tempests; this is onely used in the horrider claps, and such as threaten a dissolution of Nature. But how well, as well this, as the smallest discharge that office, experience would tell us, were we void of reason; yet so much do the people affiance [Page] themselves to this conceit of the power of them, that they suppose it inherent to them continually, after the Bishop hath baptized them, which is done in this manner. The Bell being so hanged, that it may be washed within and without, in cometh the Bishop in his Episcopal robes, attended by one of his Deacons, and sitting by the Bell in his chair, saith with a loud voice the 50, 53, 56, 66, 69, 85, and 129. Psalmes, or some of them; then doth he exorcize severally the Salt and the Water, and having conjured those ingredients into an holy water, he washeth with it the Bell, both on the inside and the outside; wiping it dry with a linnen cloath, he readeth the 145, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150, Psalms; he draweth a cross on it with his right thumb dipped in hallowed oyl (chrysome they call it) and then prayeth over it. His prayer finished, he wipeth out the cross, and having said over it the 48. Psalm, he draweth on it with the same oyle seven other crosses, saying, Sanctificetur & consecretur Domine Campana ista, in nomine, &c. After another prayer, the Bishop taketh another Censer, and putting into it Myrrh and Frankincense, setteth it on fire, and putteth it under the Bell, that it may all receive sume of it; this done, the 76. Psalm read, & some other prayers repeated, the Bell hath received his whole and intire Baptisme, and these vertues following, viz. Ʋt per illius tactam procul pellantur omnes insidiae mimici, fragor grandinum, procella turbinum, impetus tempestatum, &c. for so one of the Prayers reckoneth them: prescribed in the Roman Pontifical authorized by Clement 8th. A stranqe piece of Religion, that a Bell should be [Page] baptized, and so much the stranger, in that those inanimate bodies can be received into the Church by no other ministery than that of the Bishop, the true Sacrament being permitted to every Hedge-Priest.

Not farre from the West-gate of the Church of Nostre-dame is the Hosteldein, or le grand Hospital de Paris, first founded by King Lewis, Anno 1258. It hath been since beautified and inlarged, Anno 1535. by Mr. Anthony Prat Chancellor of France, who augmented the number of the hospitallers, and gave fair revenues for the maintaining of Surgeons, Apothecaries, and religious men amongst them. Since that time the Provost and Eschevins of Paris have been especial Benefactors unto it. At your first entrance into it you come into their Chappel, small but handsome and well furnished: After you pass into a large gallery having four ranks of beds, two close to the wals, and two in the middle. The beds are all sutable the one to the other; their vallance, curtains and rugs being all yellow. At the further end of this a door opened into another chamber dedicated onely to sick women; and within them another room, wherein women with child are lightned of their burden, and their children kept till seven years of age at the charge of the Hospital. At the middle of the first gallery on the left hand, were other four ranks of beds, little differing from the rest, but that their furniture was blew, and in them there was no place for any, but such as were some way wounded, and belonged properly to the Chirurgion. There are numbred in the whole Hospital no less than seven [Page] hundred beds (besides those of attendants, Priests, Apothecaries, &c.) and in every bed two persons. One would imagine, that in such a variety of wounds and diseases, a walk into it, and a view of it might savour more of curiosity than discretion. But indeed it is nothing less: for besides that, no person of an infectious disease it admitted into it, which maketh much for the safety of such as view it, all things are kept there so cleanly and orderly, that it is sweeter walking there, than in the best street of Paris, none excepted.

Next unto those succeeded la Saincte Chapelle scituate in the middle of the Palais: a Chappel famous for its form, but more for its Reliques. It was founded by Lewis the ninth, vulgarly called St. Lewis, Anno 1248. and is divided into two parts, the Ʋpper and the Lower: the Lower serving for the keeping of the Reliques, and the Ʋpper for celebrating of the Mass. It is a comely spruce Edifice without, but farre more curious within: the glass of it for the excellency of painting, and the Organs for the richness and elaborate workmanship of the Case, not giving way to any in Europe. I could not learn the number of Chanoins which are maintained in it, though I heard they were places of three hundred Crowns revenue. As for their Treasurer, le Threasurier, as they call their Governor, he hath granted him by especial priviledge, the licence to wear all the Episcopal habits, except the Crosier-staffe, and to bear himself as a Bishop within the liberties of his Chappel. In the top of the upper Chappel (it is built almost in the form of a Synagogue) there hangeth the true proportion [Page] (as they say) of the Crown of Thorns: but of this more when we have gone over the Reliques. I was there divers times to have seen them, but it seemeth they were not visible to a Hugonots eyes; though me thinketh they might have considered, that my money was Catholick. They are kept, as I said, in the lower Chappel, and are thus marshalled in a Table hanging in the upper. Know then that you may beleive that they can shew you the Crown of Thornes, the bloud which ran from our Saviours breast, his swadling Clouts, and a great part of the Cross (they also of Nostre-dame have some of it,) the chain by which the Jews bound him, no small peice of the stone of the Sepulchre, Sanctam taelam tabulae insertam, which I know not how to English; some of the Virgins milk, (for I would not have those of St. Denis think the Virgin gave milk to none other but to them) the head of the Launce which peirced our Saviour: the Purple Robe: the Sponge, a peice of his Shrowd: the Napkin wherewith he was girt when he washed his Disciples feet: the Rod of Moses, the head of St. Blase, St. Clement, and St. Simeon, and part of the head of John Baptist. Immediately under this recital of these Reliques (and venerable ones I durst say they were, could I be perswaded there were no imposture in them) there are set down a Prayer and an Antheme, both in the same Table as followeth.

ORATIO. Quaesumus Omnipotens Deus, ut qui sacra sanctissimae redemptionis nostrae insignia temporaliter [Page] veneramur, per haec indesinenter munite aeternitatis gloriam consequamur: dominum nostrum, &c.

De sacrosanctis Reliquiis Antiphonae

Christo plebs debita, tot Christi donis praedita

Jucunderis hodie: Tota sis devota:

Erumpens in Jubilum depone mentes nubilum

Tempus est Laetitiae. Cura sit summota.

Ecce Crux & Lancea, Ferrum, Corona spine [...]

Arma Regis gloriae tibi offerantur,

Omnes terrae populi laudent actorem seculi

Per quem tantis gratiae signis offererantur. Amen.

Pretty divinity if one had time to examine it. These Reliques, as the Table enformeth us, were given unto St. Lewis, Anno 1247. By Baldwin the second, the last King of the Latines in Constantinople, to which place the Christians of Palaestine had brought them, during the time that those parts were harrowed by the Turks and Saracens. Certainly were they the same, which they are said to be, I see no harm in it if we should honour them. The very reverence due to antiquity and a silver head could not but extort some acknowledgement of respect even from a heathen. It was therefore commendably done by Pope Leo, having received a parcel of the Cross from the Bishop of Hierusalem, that he entertained it with respect. Particulam Dominicae Crucis (saith he in his 72. Epislte) cum eulogiis dilectionis tuae Veneranter accepi. To adore and worship that, or any other Relique whatsoever, with prayers and Anthems, as the Papists you see [Page] do, never came within the minds of the Ancients, and therefore St. Ambrose calleth it Gentilis error, & vanitas impiorum. This was also St. Hierom's religion, as himself testifieth in his Epistle to Ruparius. Nos (faith he) non dico martyrum reliquias, sed ne Solem quidem & Lunam, non Angelos, &c. colimus & adoramus. Thus were those two Fathers minded towards such Reliques, as were known to be no others than what they seemed: Before too many Centuries of years had consumed the true ones, and the imposture of the Priests had brought in the false. Had they lived in our times, and seen the supposed Reliques of the Saints not honoured onely, but adored and worshipped by the blind and infatuated people, what would they have said, or rather what would they not have said: Questionless, the least they could do, were to take up the complaint of Vigilantius (the Papists reckon him for an Heretick) saying, Quid necesse est tanto honore, non solum honorare sed etiam ador are, illud nescio quid, quod in vasculo transferendo colis.

Presently without the Chappel is the Burse la Gallerie des Merchands, a rank of shops in shew, but not in substance, like to those in the Exchange at London: It reacheth from the Chappel unto the great Hall of Parliament, and is the common through-fare between them. On the bottom of the stairs, and round about the several houses consecrated to the execution of justice, are sundry shops of the same nature, meanly furnished, if compared with ours, yet I perswade my self the richest of this kind in Paris.

[Page]I should now go and take a view of the Parliament House, but I will step a little out of the way to see the place Daulphin, and the little Chastelet. This last serveth now onely as the Gaole or common prison belonging to the Court of the Provost of the Merchants, and it deserveth no other employment. It is seated at the end of the bridge called Petit pont, and was built by Hugh Aubriot, once Provost of the Town, to repress the fury and insolencies of the Scholars, whose rudeness and misdemeanours can no way be better bridled. Omnes eos qui nomen ipsum Academiae, vel serio, vel ioco nominassent▪ haereticos pronunciavit (saith Platina of Pope Paul the second) I will say it of this wilderness; that whosoever will account it as an Academy is an Heretick to Learning and Civility. The place Daulphin is a beautiful heap of building, scituate nigh unto the new bridge. It was built at the encouragement of Henry the fourth, and entituled according to the title of his Son. The houses are all of brick, high built, uniform, and indeed such as deserve, and would exact a longer description, were not the Parliament now ready to sit, and my self summoned to make my appearance.

CHAP. VIII.

The Parliament of France when began: Of whom it consisted: The Dignity and esteem of it abroad, made sedentary at Paris, appropriated [Page] to the long Robe: The Palais by whom built and converted to seats of Justice: The seven Chambers of Parliament the great Chamber; the number and dignity of the Presidents. The Duke of Biron afraid of them. The Kings seat in it. The sitting of the Grandsigneur in the Divano. The authority of the Court in causes of all kinds, and over the affairs of the King. This Court the main pillar of the liberty of France. La Tournelle and the Judges of it. The five Chambers of Enquests severally instituted, and by whom. In what causes it is decisive. The form of admitting Advocates into the Court of Parliament. The Chancellor of France and his authority. The two Courts of Requests and Masters of them. The vain envy of the English Clergy against the Lawyers.

THe Court of Parliament was at the first instituted by Charles Marcell Grandfather to Charlemaine, at such time as he was Maior of the Palace unto the lazy and retchless Kings of France. In the beginning of the French Empire their King did justice to the people in person. Afterwards banishing themselves from all the affairs of State, that burden was cast upon the shoulders of their Maires. An Office much of the nature with the Praefesti Praetorio in the Roman Empire. When this [Page] Office was bestowed upon the said Charles Marcell, he, partly weary of the trouble, partly intent about a business of a higher nature, which was the estating of the Crown in his own Posterity, but principally to indear himself to the Common people, ordained the Court of Parliament, Anno 720. It consisted in the beginning of twelve Peers, the Prelates and Noblemen of the best fashion, together with some of the principallest of the Kings Houshold. Other Courts are called the Parliament with the addition of place, as of Paris, at Roven, &c. This onely [...], the Parliament. It handled as well causes of State, as those of private persons. For hither did the Embassadours of mighty Princes repair to have their audience and dispatch; and hither were the Articles (agreed upon in the National Synods of France) sent to be confirmed and verified: Here did the Subjects tender in their homages and oaths of fidelity to the King: And here were the Appeals heard of all such as had complained against Comtes, at that time the Governors and Judges in their several Counties. Being furnished thus with the prime and choisest Nobles of the Land, it grew into great estimation abroad in the world, insomuch that the Kings of Sicily, Cyprus, Scotland, Bohemia, Portugal and Navarre, have thought it no disparagement unto them to sit in it. And which is more, when Frederick the second had spent so much time in quarrels with Pope Innocent the fourth, he submitted himself and the rightness of his cause to be examined by this Noble Court of Parliament.

[Page]At the first institution of this Court it had no settled place of residence, being sometimes kept at Tholoza, sometimes at Aix la Chapelle, sometimes in other places, according as the Kings pleasure and the case of the people did require. During the time of its peregrination it was called Ambulatorie, following for the most part the Kings Court, as the lower Sphears do the motin of the Primum Mobile. But Philip le Belle (he began his raign An. 1280.) being to take a journey into Flanders, and to stay there a long space of time, for the settling of his affairs in that Countrey, took order that his Court of Parliament should stay behind him at Paris, where ever since it hath continued. Now began it to be called Sedentary, or settled, and also peu a pen by little and little to loose much of its lustre: For the Cheif Princes and Nobles of the Kings retinue, not able to live out of the air of the Court, withdrew themselves from the troubles of it, by which means it came at last to be appropriated to those of the long Robe, as they term them, both Bishops and Lawyers. In the year 1463. the Prelates also were removed by the Command of Lewis the eleventh, an utter enemy to the great ones of his Kingdom, onely the Bishop of Paris and the Abbot of St. Denis being permitted their place in it. Since which time the Professors of the Civil Law have had all the swaying in it, & cedeunt arma togae, as Tully. The place in which this Sedentary Court of Parliament is now kept is called the Pala [...]e, being built by Philip le Belle, and intended to be his Mansion or dwelling house. He began it in the first year of his reign, Viz. Anno 1286. and afterwards [Page] assigned a part of it to his Judges of the Parliament, it being not totally and absolutely quitted unto them till the dayes of King Luwis the tenth. In this the French Subjects are beholding to the English; by whose good example they got the ease of a Sedentary Court: Our Law Courts also removing with the King, till the year 1224. when by a Statute in the Magna Charta, it was appointed to be fixt, and a part of the Kings Pallace in Westminster allotted for that purpose.

Within the Virge of this Pallace are contained the seven Chambers the Parliament. That called le grand Chambre: five Chambers of Inquisition, or des Enquests, and one other called la Tournelle. There are moreover the Chambers, des aides, des accompts, de l'ediect, des Monnoyes, and one called la Chambre Royal: of all which we shall have occasion to speak in their proper places: these not concerning the common Government of the People, but onely the Kings Revenues. Of these seven Chambers of Parliaments, le grand Chambre is most famous: and at the building of this House by Philip le belle, was intended for the Kings bed. It is no such beautiful place as the French make it; that at Roven being farre beyond it: although indeed it much excells the fairest room of Justice in Westminster. So that it standeth in a middle rank between them; and almost in the same proportion as Virgil, between Homer and Ovid.

Quantum Virgilius magno concessit Homero,

Tantum ego Virgilio Naso Poeta m [...]o.

[Page]It consisteth of seven Presidents, Councellers, the Kings Atturney, and as many Advocates, and Proctors, as the Court will please to give admission to. The Advocates have no settled studies within the Pallace, but at the Barre: but the Procureurs or Atturneys have their several Pewes in a great Hall, which is without this Grand Chambre in such manner as I have before described at Roven. A large building it is faire and high roofed, not long since ruined by casualty of fire, and not yet fully finished. The names of the Presidents are, 1. Mr. Verdun, the first President, or by way of excellencie le President, being the sec [...]nd man of the long Robe in France. 2. Mr. Sequer lately dead, and likely to have his Son succeed him as well in his Office, as his Lands. 3. Mr. Leiger. 4. Mr.Dosammoi. 5. Mr. Sevin. 6. Mr. Baillure. and 7. Mr. Maisme. None of these, neither Presidents nor Councellers can goe out of Paris when the Lawes are open, without leave of the Court. It was ordained so by Lewis the twelfth. Anno 1499. and that with good judgement; Sentences being given with greater awe, and business managed with greater Majesty when the Bench is full: and it seemeth indeed that they carry with them a great terrour. For the Duke of Biron, a man of as uncontrolled a spirit, as any in France, being called to answer for himself in this Court, protested that those scarlet Robes did more amaze him, than all the red Cassocks of Spain.

At the left hand of this Grand Chambre, or golden Chamber as they call it, is a Throne or Seate [Page] Royall, reserved for the King, when he shall please to come, and see the administration of Justice amongst his people. At common times it is naked and plain, but when the King is expected, it is clothed with blew purple Velvet, semied with Flowers de lys. On each side of it are two forms, or benches, where the Peers of both habits both Ecclesiastcal and Secular use to fit, and accompany the King, but this is little to the ease or benefit of the Subject; and as little available to try the integrity of the Judges: his presence being alwayes fore-known, and so they accordingly pr [...]pared. Farre better then is it in the Court of the Grand Signeur, where the Divano or Counsell of the Turkish Affaires holden by the Bassa's is hard by his bed Chamber which looketh into it. The window which giveth him this enterveiwe is perpetually hidden with a curtaine on that side of the partition which is towards the Divano, so that the Bassa's and other Judges cannot at any time tell, that the Emperour is not listening to their Sentences. An action in which nothing is Turkish or Mahometan.

The authority of this Court extendeth it self to all Causes, within the Jurisdiction of it, not being meerly Ecclesiastical. It is a Law unto it self, following no Rule written in their Sentences; but judging according to equity and conscience. In matters criminal of greater consequence, the process is here immediately examined, without any preparation of it from the inferiour Courts, as at the araignment of the Duke of Biron; and divers times also in matter personall. But their power [Page] is most eminent in disposing the affaires of State and of the Kingdome: for such prerogatives have the French Kings given hereunto, that they can neither denounce Warre, nor conclude Peace, without the consent (a formall one at the least) of this Chamber. An Alieniation of the least of the Lands of the Crown, is not any whit valued, unless confirmed by this Court; neither are his Edicts in force till they are here verified: nor his Letters Pattents for the creating of a Peere, till they are here allowed of. Most of these I confess, are little more than matters of form, the Kings power and pleasure being become boundless: yet sufficient to shew the body of Authority which they once had, and the shaddow of it which they still keep: yet of late they have got into their disposing one priviledge belonging formerly to the Conventus Ordinum, or the Assembly of the three Estates; which is the conferring of the Regency, or protection of their Kings during their minority. That the Assembly of the three Estates formerly had this priviledge is evident by their stories. Thus we find them to have made Queene Blanche Regent of the Realm during the non-age of her Son St. Lewiis, Anno 1227. that they declared Phillip le Valois successor to the Crowne, in case that the widdow of Charles de belle, was not delivered of a Son, Anno 1328. That they made Charles the Daulphin Regent of France during the imprisonment of King John his Father, Anno 1357. As also Phillip of Burgony, during the Lunary Charles the sixth, Anno 1394 with divers others. On the other side, we have a [Page] late example of the power of the Parliament of Paris in this very case; for the same day that Henry the fourth was slain by Raviliae, the Parliament met, and after a short consultation, declared Mary de Medices, Mother to the King Regent in France, for the Government of the State, (during the minority of her Son) with all power and authority: such are the words of the Instrument, dated the 14. of May, 1610.

It cannot be said but this Court deserveth not onely this, but any other indulgence whereof any one member of the Common-wealth is capable. So watchful are they over the health of the State, and so tenderly do they take the least danger threatned to the liberties of that Kingdome, that they may not unjustly be called Patres Patriae. In the year 1614. they seazed upon a discourse written by Suarez a Jesuite entitled Adversus Anglicanae sectae errores, wherein the Popes temporal power over Kings and Princes is averred: which they sentenced to be burnt in the Pallace yard by the publick Hangman. The yeare before they inflicted the same punishment upon a vain and blasplemous discourse penned by Gasper Niopins, a fellow of a most desperate brain, and a very incendiary. Neither hath Bellarmine himself that great Atlas of the Roman Church escaped much better; for writing a Book concerning the temporal power of his Holiness, it had the ill luck to come into Paris, where the Parliament finding it to thwart the Liberty and Royalty of the King, and Country, gave it over to the Hangman; and he to the Fire. Thus it is evident, that the titles [Page] which the French writers gave it, as the true Temple of the French justice, the Buttresse of Equity, the Guardian of the Rights of France, and the like, are abundantly deserved of it.

The next Chamber in esteem is the Tournelle, which handleth all matters Criminal. It is so called from Tourner, which signifieth to change or alter; because the Judges of the other several Chambers give sentence in this, according to their several turnes. The reason of which Institution is said to be, least a continual custome of condemning should make the Judges less merciful, and more prodigall of blood. An order full of health and providence; it was instituted by the above named Phillip le Belle, at the same time when he made the Parliament sedentary at Paris; and besides its particular and original employment, it receiveth Appeals from, and redresseth the errours of the Provost of Paris. The other five Chambers are called des Enquests, or Camerae Inquasitionum: the first and ancientest of them, was erected also by Phillip le Belle, and afterwards divided into two by Charles the seventh. Afterwards of Processes being greater than could be dispatched in these Courts, there was added a third. Francis the first established the fourth, for the better raising of a sum of money which then he wanted: every one of the new Counsellers paying right dearly for his place. The fifth and last was founded in the year 1568. In each of these severall Chambers, there be two Presidents, and twenty Counsellers, beside Advocates and Proctors, ad placitum. In the Tournelle which is the aggregation [Page] of all the other Courts, there are supposed to be no fewer than two hundred Officers of all sorts, which is no great number considering the many Causes there handled. In the Tournelle, the Iudges sit on matters of life and death; in the Chambers of Enquests they examine onely civil Affairs, of estate, title, debts, and the like. The Pleaders in these Courts are called Advocates; and must be at the least Licentiats in the study of the Law. At the Parliaments of Tholoza and Burdeaux, they admit of none but Doctors: now the form of admitting them is this. In an open and frequent Court, one of the agedest of the Long Robe, presenteth the party which desireth admission, to the Kings Atturney General, saying with a loud voice, Paisse a Cour recevoir N. N. Licencie (or Docteur) en droict civil, a l'office d' Advocate. This said; the Kings Atturney biddeth him hold up his hand, and saith to him in Latine, Tu jurabis observare omnes Reges Consuetudines, he answereth Iuro, and departeth. At the Chamber door of the Court, whereof he is now sworne an Advocate, he payeth two Crownes, which is forthwith put into the common Treasury, appointed for the relief of the distressed-Widdows, of ruined Advocates and Proctors: Hanc veniam petimusque damusque. It may be their own cases, and therefore it is paid willingly. The highest preferment of which these Advocates are capable, is that of Chauncellor: an Office of great power and profit. The present Chauncellor is named Mr. d' Allegre, by birth of Chartres, he hath no settled Court wherein to exercise his authority; but hath [Page] in all the Courts of France, the supream place whensoever he will vouchsafe to visit them. He is also President of the Councill of Estate by his place, and on him dependeth the making of good and sacred Lawes, the administration of Justice, the reformation of superfluous, and abrogation of unprofitable Edicts, &c. He hath the keeping of the Kings geeat Seal, and by vertue of that, either passeth or putteth back such Letters Pattents, and Writs as are exhibited to him. He hath under him immediately for the better dispatch of his Affairs, four Masters of the Requests, and their Courts. Their Office and manner of proceeding is the same, which they also use in England: in the persons there is thus much difference, that in Franee two of them must be perpetually of the Clergy. One of their Courts is very ancient, and hath in it two Presidents. which are two of the Masters, and fourteen Counsellers. The other is of a later erection; as being founded Anno 1580. and in that the two other of the Masters, and eight Councellers give sentence.

Thus have I taken a veiw of the several Chambers of the Parliament of Paris, and of their particular Jurisdictions, as far as my information could conduct me. One thing I noted further, and in my mind the fairest ornament of the Pallace, which is the neatness and decency of the Lawyers in their apparrel; for besides the fashion of their habit, which is I assure you exceeding pleasant, and comely; themselves by their own care and love to handsomeness, adde great lustre to their garments, and more to their persons. Richly [Page] drest they are and well may be so, as being the ablest & most powerfull men under the Princes & la Noblesse in all the Country. An happiness (as I conjecture) rather of the calling than of the men. It hath been the fate and destiny of the Law, to strengthen & enable its professors beyond any other any Art or Science: the Pleaders in all Commonwealths both for sway amongst the people, and vague amongst the Military men, having alwaies had the preheminence. Of this rank were Pericles, Phochion, Alcibiades, and Demosthenes, amongst the Athenians, Antonius, Mar. Cato, Caesar, and Tullie amongst the Romans: men equally famous for Oratory and the Sword; yet this I can confidently say, that the several States above mentioned, were more indebted unto Tullie and Demosthenes, being both meer Gown men, than to the best of their Captaines: the one freeing Athens from the Armies of Macedon; the other delivering Rome from the conspiracy of Catiline. O fortunatum natam me Consule Romam. It is not then the fate of France only, nor of England, to see so much power in the hand of the Lawyers; and the case being general, me thinks the envy should be the less; and less it is indeed with them than with us. The English Clergy though otherwise the most accomplisht in the World, in this folly deserveth no Apologie, being so strangely ill affected to the Pleaders of this Nation, that I fear it may be said of some of them, Quod invidiam non ad causam sed personam, et ad valantatem dirigant. A weakness not more unworthy of them, than prejudicial to them, for [Page] fostering between both Gownes such an unnecessary emulation, they do but exasperate that power, which they cannot controle, and betray themselves to much envy and discontentedness. A disease whose care is more in my wishes, than in my hopes.

CHAP. IX.

The Kings Pallace of the Louure, by whom built; the unsutableness of it. The fine Gallery of the Queene Mother. The long Gallery of Henry the fourth; his magnanimous intent to have built it into a Quadrangle. Henry the fourth a great builder; his infinite project upon the Mediterranean, and the Ocean. Lasalle des Antiques. The French not studious of Antiquities. Burbon House. The Tuilleries, &c.

WE have discharged the King of one Pallace, and must follow him to the other, where we shall find his residence. It is seated in the west side of the Town or Ville of Paris, hard by Porte neufue, and also by the new Bridge. An House of great fame, and which the Kings of France have long kept their Courts in. It was first built by Phillip Augustus, anno 1214. and by him intended for a Castle, it then serving to imprison the more potent of the Noblesse, and to [Page] lay up the Kings Treasury; for that cause it was well moated and strengthened with walls and draw Bridges, very serviceable in those times. It had the name of Louure quasi L'oeuure, or the work: the Building by way of excellencie. An Etymologie which draweth nigher to the ear than the understanding, or the eye. And yet the French writers would make it a miracle: Du Chesne calleth it superbe bastiment qui n' a son esgal en toute la Christiente: and you shall hear it called in another place, Bastiment qui passe muiourd huy en excellenee et en grandeur, tous les autres. Brave Eligies, if all were Gold that glistered. It hath given up now its charge of money, and great prisoners to the Bastile; and at this time serveth only to imprison the Court. In my life I never saw any thing more abused by a good report, or that more belyeth the rumours that go of it. The ordinary talk of vulgar travellers, and the bigg words of the French had made me expect at the least some prodigie of Architecture, some such Majestical house as the Sunne Don Phoebus is said to have dwelt in by Ovid.

Regia solis erat sublimibus alta columnis,

Clara micante auro, flammasque imitante pyropo:

Cuius ebur nitidum, &c.

Indeed I thought no fiction in Poetry had been able to have parralell'd it; and made no doubt but it would have put me into such a passion▪ as to have cryed out with the young Gallant in the Comidie, when he saw his Sweet heart; Hei mihi[Page]qualis erat? talis erat qualem nunquem ego vidi. But I was much deceived in that hope, and could find nothing in it to admire, much less to envy. The Fable of the Mountaine which was with child, and brought forth a Mouse, is questionless a Fable. This House, and the large fame it hath in the world is the Morall of it. Never was there an House more unsuitable to it self in the particular examination of parts, nor more unsutable to the Character and esteem of it in the general survey of the whole.

You enter into it over two Draw-bridges; and thorough three Gates, ruinous enough and abundantly unsightly. In the Quadrangle you meet with three several fashions of buildings, of three several ages; and they so unhappily joyned one to the other, that one would half beleeve they were clapped together by an Earthquake. The South and West parts of it are new, and indeed Prince like, being the work of Francis the first, and his Son Henry: had it been all cast into the same mould, I perswade my self, that it would be very gratious and lovely. The other two are of ancient work and so contemptible, that they disgrace the rest: and of these I suppose the one to be at the least a hundred years older than his partner: such is it without. As for the inside it is farre more graceful, and would be pleasing at the entrance, were the Gaurd Chamber reformed. Some Hugonot Architect which were not in love with the errours of Antiquity, might make a pretty room of it: a Catholick Carpenter would never get credit by it; for whereas the provident thrift [Page] of our fore fathers intended it (for the House would else be too narrow for the Kings retinue) both for a room of safety and of pleasure, both for Bellmen and Dancers; and for that cause made up some six ranks of seats on each side. That sparingness in the more curious eyes of this time is little King like. Country wenches might with an indifferent stomack abuse a Galliard in it, or it might perhaps serve, with a Stage at one end, to entertain the Parisiens at a Play; or with a partition in the middle, it might be divided into pretty plausible Cockpits. But to be employed in the nature it is now, either to solace the King and Lords in a dance, or to give any forraign Ambassadour his welcome in a Masque, is little sutable with the majesty of a King of France. The Chambers of it are well built, but ill furnished; the hangings of them being somewhat below a meanness: and yet of these here is no small scarcity, for as it is said of the Gymnosophists of India, that Ʋnadomus et mansioni sufficit et sepulturae: so may we of this Prince. The same Chamber serveth for to Iodge him, feed him, & also to confer & discourse with his Nobility. But like enough it is that this want may proceed from the several Courts of the King, the Monsieur, the Queene Mother, and the Queene Regnant, being all kept within it.

Proceed we now to the two Galleries, whereof the first is that of the Queene Mother, as being beautified and adorned exceedingly, by Catherine de Medices, Mother to Henry the third, and Charles the ninth. It containeth the Pictures of all the Kings of France, and the most loved of [Page] their Queens since the time of St. Lewis. They stand each King opposite to his Queen, she being that of his Wives, which either brought him most estate, or his Successor. The tables are all of a just length, very fair, and according to my little acquaintance with the Painter, of a most excellent workmanship. And which addeth more grace to it, they are in a manner a perfect history of the State and Court of France in their several times, For under each of the Kings pictures they have drawn the potraitures of most of their Lords, whom valour and true courage in the field ennobled beyond their births: Under each of the Queens, the lively shapes of the most principal Ladies, whose beauty and vertue had honoured the Court. A dainty invention, and happily expressed. At the further end of it stand the last King, and the present Queen Mother, who fill up the whole room. The succeeding Princes, if they mean to live in their pictures, must either build new places for them, or else make use of the Long Gallery built by Henry the fourth, and which openeth in to that of the Queen Mother. A Gallery it is of an incredible length, as being above 500. yards long, and of a breadth and height not unproportionable. A room built rather for oftentation than use, and such as hath more in it of the Majesty of ist Founder than the Grace: It is said to have been erected purposely to joyn the Louure unto the house and garden of the Tuilleries: an unlikely matter, that such a stupendious building should be designed onely for a cleanly conveyance into a Summer-house. Others are of opinion, [Page] that he had a resolution to have the House quadrangular, every side being correspondent to this, which should have been the common Gallery to the rest, which design had it taken effect, this Palace would at once have been the wonder of the world, and the envy of it. For my part I dare be of the last mind, as well because the second is in part begun, as also considering how infinitely this King was affected to building. The place Daulphin, and the place Royal, two of the finest piles of Paris, were erected partly by his purse, but principally by his encouragement. The new Bridge in Paris was meerly his work; so was also the new Palace, and the most admirable Water-Works of St. Germanenlay; this long Gallery and the Pesthouse owe themselves wholly unto him, and the house of Fountain bleau, which is the fairest in France, is beholding to him for most of its beauty. Adde to this his fortifications bestowed on the Bastile, and his purpose to have strengthened Paris according to the modern art of Towns, and you will find the attribute of Parietaria or Wall-floure, which Constantine scoffingly gave unto Trajane for his great humour of building, to be due unto this King, but seriously and with reverence.

Besides the general love he had to building, h [...] had also an ambition to go beyond ensample, which also induceth me further to beleive his intent of making that large and admirable quadrangle above spoken of, to have been serious and real. For to omit others, certain it is, that he had a project of great spirit and difficulty, which was to joyn the Mediterranean Sea and the Ocean together; [Page] and to make the navigation from the one to the other through France, and not to pass by the straight of Gibraltare. It came into counsel Anno 1604. and was resolved to be done by this meanes. The River of Garond is navigable from the Ocean almost to Tholoza; and the Mediterranean openeth it self into the land by a little River (whose name I know not) as high as Narbonne. Betwixt these two places was there a navigable channel to have been digged, and it proceeded so far towards being actuated, that a workman had undertaken it, and the price was agreed upon. But there arising some discontents between the Kings of France and Spain, about the building of the Fort Fuentis, in the Countrey of the Grisons; the King not knowing what use he might have of treasure in that quarrel, commanded the work not to go forward: However it is to be commended in the attempt, which was indeed Kingly, and worthy his spirit, and praise him in his heroick purpose and design:

Quem si non tenuit, magnis tamen excidit ausis.

But the principal beauty, if I may judge of this so much admired Palace of the Louure, is a low plain room, paved under foot with brick, and without any hangings or tapestry on the sides; yet being the best set out and furnished, to my content, of any in France: It is called La salle des Antiques, and hath in it five of the ancientest and venerablest pieces of all the Kingdom: For the Nation generally is regardless of antiquity, both in the monuments [Page] and in the study of it; so that you shall hardly find any ancient inscription, or any famous ruine snatched from the hand of time, in the best of their Cities and Churches. In the Church onely of Amiens could I meet with any antient Character; which also was but a Gothish Dutch Letter, and expressed nothing but the name and vertue of a Bishop of the Church, in whose time it was. So little also did I perceive them to be inclining to be Antiquaries; that both neglects considered (si Verbis audaciadetur) I dare confidently averre, that one Cotton for the Treasury, and one Selden (now Mr. Camden is dead) for the study of Antiquities, are worth all the French: As for these five peices in La salle des Antiques, they are, I confess, worthy our observation, and respect also, if they be such as our trudgeman informed us. At the further end of it, the Statua of Diana, the same (as it is said) which was worshipped in the renowned Temple of Ephesus, and of which Demetrius the Silversmith and his fellow Artists cried out, [...], Great is Diana of the Ephesians: Of a large and manly proportion she seemeth to be.

Quantum & quale latus, quam juvenile femur.

As Ovid of his Mistriss.

She is all naked save her feet, which are buskin'd, and yet she hath a scarfe or linnen roul, which coming over her left shoulder, and meeting about her middle, hung down with both ends of it a little lower. In the first place towards the right hand, [Page] as we descended towards the door, was the Statua of one of the Gods of Aethiopia, as black as any of his people, and one that had nothing about him to express his particular being. Next unto him the Effigies of Mercury, naked all except his feet, and with a pipe in his mouth, as when he inchanted Argos.

— Nam que reperta Fistula nuper erat.

Saith the Metamorphosis.

Next unto him the portraiture of Venus, quite naked and most immodestly apparreld, in her hand her little Son Cupid, as well arrayed as his Mother, sitting on a Dolphin. Last of all Apollo also in the same naked truth, but that he had shooes on; He was portrayed as lately returned from a Combat, perhaps that against the Serpent Python.

Quem Deus arcitenens, & nunquam talibus armis

Ante, nisi in damis, capris (que) fugacibus, usus

Mille gravem telis (exhausta pane pharetra)

Perdidit, effuso per vulnera nigra, veneno.

The Archer-God, who, e're that present tide,

Ne're us'e those arms, but 'gainst the Roes and Deer,

With thousand shafts the earth made to be dy'de

With Serpents bloud, (his quiver emptied cleer.

That I was in the right conjecture I had these reasons to perswade me; the Quiver on the Gods [Page] right shoulder almost emptied, his warlike belt hanging about his neck, his garments loosly tumbling upon his left arm, and the slain Monster being a water-serpent, as Pithon is fained to be by the Poets. All of these were in the same side of the wall, the other being altogether destitute of ornament, and are confidently said to be the statues of those Gods, in the same forms that they were worshipped in, and taken from their several Temples. They were bestowed on the King by his Holiness of Rome, and I cannot blame him for it. It was worthy but little thanks to give unto him the Idols of the Heathen, who for his Holiness satisfaction had given himself to the Idols of the Romans. I beleive, that upon the same terms the King of Enggland should have all the Reliques and ruines of Antiquity which can be found in Rome.

Without this room, the Salle des Antiques; and somewhat on the other side of the Louure is the House of Burbon, and old decayed fabrick, in which was nothing observable but the Omen. For being built by Lewis of Burbon the third Duke of that branch; he caused this Motto, ESPERANCE, to be engraven in Capital Letters over the door, signifying his hopes, that from his loyns should proceed a King, which should joyn both the Houses and the Families, and it is accordingly happened. For the Tuilleries I have nothing to say of them, but that they were built by Catherine de Medices, in the year 1564, and that they took name from the lime-kils and tile-pits there being before the foundation of the house and the garden; the word Tuillerie importing as much in [Page] the French language: I was not so happy as to see them, and will not be indebted to any for the relation.

CHAP. X.

The person, age and marraige of King Lewis: Conjectural reasons of his being issueless. Jaqueline Countess of Holland kept from issue by the house of Burgundy: The Kings Sisters all married, and his alliances by them. His natural Brethren and their preferment. His lawful Brother the title of Monsieur in France: Monsieur as yet unmarried; not like to marry Mont-Peusiers Daughter: That Lady a fit Wife for the Earl of Soisons: The difference between him and the Prince of Conde for the Crown, in case the Line of Navarre fail: How the Lords stand affected in the cause; Whether a Child may be born in the eleventh moneth. King Henry the fourth a great Lover of fair Ladies: Monsieur Barrados the Kings Favorite, his birth and offices. The omniregency of the Queen Mother and the Cardinal of Richilieu; The Queen Mother a wise and prudent Woman.

[Page]THe King is the soul of the Court, without his presence it is but a Carcass, a thing without life and honour. I dare not so farre wrong the Louure, as to make it but a common house, and rob it of the fruition of its Prince, and therefore will treat of him here; though during my aboad in France he lay all the while in Fountain Bleau: For person he is of the middle stature, and rather well proportioned than large. His face knoweth little yet of a beard, but that which is, is black and swarthy; his complexion also much of the same heiw, carrying in it a certain boysterousness, and that in a further measure than what a graceful Majesty can admit of: So that one can hardly say of him without a spice of Courtship, what Paterculus did of Tiberius, Quod visus praetulerit principem, that his countenance proclaimed him a King. But questionless his greatest defect is want of utterance, which is very unpleasing by reason of a desperate and uncurable stammering, which defect is likely more and more to grow upon him. At this time he is aged twenty four years, and as much as since the 27 day of September last, which was his birth day, an age which he beareth not very plausibly; want of beard and the swarthiness of his complexion making him seem elder. At the age of eleven years he was affianced to the Lady Anna Infanta of Spain, by whom as yet he hath no children. It is thought by many, and covertly spoken by divers in France, that the principal cause of the Queens bartenness proceedeth from Spain, that people being loath to fall under the French obedience, which may very well happen, she being the elder Sister of [Page] the King. For this cause, in the seventh article of marriage there is a clause, that neither the said Infanta, nor the Children born by her (to the King) shall be capable to inherit any of the estates of the King of Spain; and in the eighth article she is bound to make an act of renunciation under her own hand-writing, as soon as she cometh to be twelve years old, which was accordingly performed. But this being not sufficient to secure their fears, it is thought that she was some way or other disabled from conception, before ever she came into the Kings embraces: A great crime I confess if true: yet I cannot say with Tully in his defence of Ligarius: Novum crimen Caie Caesar, & hec tempus mauditum. Jaqueline Countess of Holland was Cozen to Philip Duke of Burgundie: Her being fruitful would have debarred him from those estates of Holland, Zealand and West-Freezland; therefore though she had three Husbands there was order taken she should never have Child: with her two first Husbands the Duke would never suffer her to live: and when she had stollen a wedding with Frane of Borselle one of her servants, the Dukes Physitians gave him such a potion, that she might as well have married an Eunuch: upon this injury the poor Lady died; and the Duke succeeded in those Countries; which by his Grand-child Marie were conveyed over into the House of Austria, together with the rest of his estate. I dare not say, that that Family hath inherited his practises with his lands; and yet I have heard, that the Infanta Isabella had the like or worse measure afforded her, before she was bedded to the Arch-duke Albertus. [Page] A diabolical trick, which the prostitutes of the heathen used in the beginnings of the Gospel, and before, of whom Octavius complaineth, quod originem futuri hominis extinguant, & paricidium faciunt, antequam pariunt.

Better luck than the King hath his Sister beyond the mountains, I mean his eldest Sister Madame Elizabeth, married to the King of Spain now living, as being, or having been the Mother of two Children: His second Sister, Madame Christian, is married to Amadeo Victor Principe Maior, or heir apparent of the Duke of Savoy, to whom as yet she hath born no issue. The youngest, Henrietta Mariae, is newly married to his most Excellent Majesty of England, to whom may she prove of a most happy and fruitful womb. Et pulchra faciat te prole parentem. Of these alliances the first were very profitable to both Princes, could there be made a marriage between the Kingdoms as well as the Kings. But it is well known, that the affections of each people are divided, more unconquerable mountains, than their dominions: The French extreamly hating the proud humour and ambition of the Spaniard. We may therefore account each of them in these marriages to have rather intended the perpetuity of their particular houses, than the strength of their Empires; and that they more desired a noble stock whereon to graft posterity, than power. The alliance with Savoy is more advantagious, though less powerful than that of Spain. For if the King of France can keep this Prince on his party, he need not fear the greatness of the other, or any of his faction. The continuall [Page] siding of this House with that of Austria, having given many and great impediments to the fortune of the French. It standeth so fitly to countenance the affairs of either King in Italy or Germany to which it shall incline, that it is just of the same nature with the estate of Florence between Millain and Venice: of which Guicciaraine saith, that Mantennero le cose [...]d Italia bilan [...]iate On this reason King Henry the fourth earnestly desired to match one of his Children into this Countrey, and left this desire as a Legacie with his Council. But the alliance of most use to the State of France, is that of England, as being the nighest and most able of all his neighbours. An alliance which will make his Estate invincible, and incompassed about as it were with a wall of brass.

As for the Kings bastard Brethren they are four in number, and born of three several beds. The eldest is Mr. Alexander, made Knight of the Order of St. John, or of Malta, in the life time of his Father. He is now Grand Prior of France, and it is much laboured and hoped by the French, that he shall be the next Master of the Order; a place of great command and credit. The second and most loved of his Father, whose lively image and character he is said to be, is Mr Caesar, made Duke of Vendosme by his Father, and is at this time Governor of Brittain, a man of a brave spirit, and one who swayeth much in the affairs of State. His Father took great care for his advancement before his death, and therefore married him to the Daughter and Heir of the Duke of Mercuer, a man of great possessions in Brittain. It is thought [Page] that the inheritance of this Lady,-both by her Fathers side, and also by her Mothers, who was of the Family of Marsegues, being a stock of the old Ducal tree, is no less than 200000. Crowns yearly. Both these were born unto the King by Madame Gabriele, for her excellent beauty surnamed labelle, Dutchess of Beauforte, a Lady whom the King most entirely affected even to the last gasp, and one who never abused her power with him; so that we may truly say of her what Velleius flatteringly said of Livia the Wife of Augustus, Ejus potentiam nemo senset, nisi levatione periculi, aut accessione dignitatis. The third of the Kings natural Brethren is Mr. Henry, now Bishop of Metz in Lorraine, and Abbot of St. Germans in Paris. As Abbot he is Lord of the goodly Fairbourg of St. Germans, and hath the profits of the great Fair there holden, which make a large revenue. His Bishoprick yeildeth him the profits of 20000. Crowns and upwards, which is the remainder of 60000. the rest being pawned to the Duke of Lorraine, by the last Bishop, who was of that family. The Mother of this Mr. Henry is the Marchioness of Verneville, who before the death of the King fell out of his favour into the prison, and was not restored to her liberty till the beginning of the Queen Mothers Regency. The fourth and youngest is Mr. Antonie, born unto the King by the Countess of Morret, who is Abbot of the Churches of Marseilles and Cave ▪ & hath as yet not fully six thousand pound a year, when his Mother dieth he Will be richer.

The Kings lawful Brother is named John Baptist [Page]Gaston, born the 25th of April, Anno 1608. A Prince of a brave and manlike aspect, likely to inherit as large a part of his Fathers spirit, as the King doth of his Crown. He is entituled Duke of Aniou, as being the third Son of France, but his next elder Brother the Duke of Orleance being dead in his childhood, he is vulgarly and properly called, Monsieur. This title is different from that of Daulphin, in that that title is onely appropriated to the Heir apparent, being the Kings eldest Son living. This limited to the Heir apparent, being the Kings eldest Brother surviving; if there be neither Son nor Brother, then the next Heir apparent is stiled onely Le primier Prince du sang, The first Prince of the bloud. This title of Monsieur answereth to that of the Despote in the Greek Empire; and in imitation of that it is thought to have been instituted. Others of the French Princes are called Monsieurs also, but with some addition of place or honour; the Kings eldest Brother onely is called Monsieur sans quene, as the French use to say; that is, simply Monsieur. This young Prince is as yet unmarried, but destinate to the bed of the young Dutchess of Mont-pensier, whose Father died in the time of Henry the fourth. Had the Duke of Orleance lived, he had espoused her long ere this; but it is generally beleived, that this Prince is so affected. He seeth his elder Brother as yet childless, himself the next Heir to the Crown, and it is likely he will look on a while, and expect the issue of his fortune.

Some that speak of the affairs of the Court, hold her to be a fit match for the young Count of [Page]Soisons, a Prince of the bloud, and a Gentleman of a fine temper. The Lady her self is said not to be averse from the Match; neither will the King not be inclinable unto him, as hoping therein to give him some satisfaction, for not performing a Court promise, made unto him about marrying him to the young Madame, now Queen of England. As for the Count it cannot but be advantagious to him divers wayes; partly to joyn together the two Families of Mont pensier and Soisons, both issuing from the house of Burbon; partly to enrich himself by adding unto his inheritance so fair an estate; and partly by gaining all the Freinds and Allies of the Ladies kinred unto him; the better to enable his opposition against the Prince of Conde. The difference between them standeth thus: Lewis the first Prince of Conde had by two Wives, amongst other Children, two Sons; by his first Wife Henry Prince of Conde, by the second Charles Count of Soisons. Henry Prince of Conde had to his first Wife Mary of Cleve, Daughter to the Duke of Nevers, by whom he had no Children: to his second Wife he took the Lady Katherine of Tremoville, Sister to the Duke of Thovars, Anno 1586. two years after his marriage he died of an old greif took from a poysoned cup, which was given him, Anno 1552. and partly from a blow given him with a Lance at the battel of Contras, Anno 1587. In the eleventh moneth after his decease, his young Princess was brought to bed of a young Son, which is now Prince of Conde. Charles Count of Soisons in the raign of Henry the fourth began to question the Princes legitimation; whereupon the King [Page] dealt with the Parliament of Paris, to declare the place of the first Prince of the bloud to belong to the Prince of Conde: And for the clearer and more evident proof of the title, twenty four physitians of good faith and skill made an open protestation of oath in the Coutt, that it was not onely possible but common for Women to be delivered in the eleventh moneth. On this it was awarded to the Prince.

This decree of Parliament notwithstanding, if ever the King and his Brother should die childless, it is said, that the young Count of Soisons (his Father died Anno 1614.) will not so give over his title: He is Steward of the Kings House, as his Father also was before him, a place of good credit, and in which he hath demeaned himself very plausibly. In case it should come to a tryal, [...], which God forbid, he is like to make a great party▪ both within the Realm and without it; without it by means of the House of Savoy, having married his eldest Sister unto Don Thomazo, the second Son of that Dukedom now living: A brave man at armes, and indeed the fairest fruit that ever grew on that tree, next Heir of his Father after the death of Don Amadeo, yet childless: within the Realm the Lords have already declared themselves, which happened on this occasion. In the year 1620. the moneth of March, the King being to wash, the Prince of Conde laid hold on the towel, chalenging that honour as first Prince of the bloud: and on the other side the Count of Soisons seized on it as appertaining to his office of Steward, and Prince of the bloud also. The King to decide the controversie [Page] for the present, commanded it to be given to Monsieur his Brother, yet did not this satisfie. For in the morning the Friends of both Princes came to offer their service in the cause. To the Count came in general all the opposites of the Prince of Conde, and of the Duke of Luines and Guise; in particular the Duke of Maien, the Duke of Vendosme, the Dukes of Longueville, Espernon, Nemours, the Grand Prior, the Dukes of Thovars, Retz and Rohan, the Viscount of Aubetene, &c. who all withdrew themselves from the Court, made themselves Masters of the best places in their Governments, and were united presently into an open faction, of which the Queen Mother declared her self head. As for the Commons, without whom the Nobility may well quarrel, but not fight, they are more zealous in behalf of the Count, as being brought up alwayes a Papist, and born of a Catholike kinred, whereas the Prince, though at this instant he be a Catholike, yet non fuit sic ab initio, he was born, they say, and brought up an Hugonot, and perchance the alteration is but dissembled.

Concerning the Prince of Conde, he hath a sentence of Parliament on his side, and a verdict of Physitians, both weak helps to a soveraignty, unless well backed by the Sword. And for the verdict of the Physitians, thus the case is stated by the Doctors of that faculty. Laurentius a Professor of M [...]nt-pellier in Languedoc, in his excellent Treatise of Anatomy, maketh three terms of a Womans delivery, Primus, intermedius, & ultimus: The first, the seventh and eighth moneth after conception, [Page] in each of which the Child is vital and may live if it be born. To this also consenteth the Dr. of their Chair Hippocrates, saying, [...], that a Child born in the seventh moneth, if it be well looked to, may live. We read also, how in Spain the Women are oftentimes lightned in the end of the seventh moneth, and commonly in the end of the eighth: and further, that Sempronius and Corbula, both Roman Consuls, were born in the seventh moneth: Plinie in his natural History reporteth it as a truth, though perhaps the Women that told him either misreckoned their time, or else dissembled it to conceal their honesties. The middle time (terminus intermedius) is the ninth and tenth moneths, at which time Children do seldom miscarry: In the former two moneths they had gathered life, in these later they onely consummate strength, so say the Physitians generally. Non enim in duobus sequentibus mensibus (they speak it of the intermedii) additur aliquid ad perfectionem partium, sed ad perfectionem roboris. The last time (terminus ultimus) in the common account of this Profession is the eleventh moneth, which some of them hold neither unlikely nor rare. Massurius recordeth of Papyrius, a Roman Praetor, to have recovered his inheritance in open Court, though his Mother confest him to be born in the thirteenth month. And Avicen a Moor of Corduba relateth (as he is cited in Laurentius) that he had seen a Child born after the fourteenth. But these are but the impostures of Women; and yet indeed the modern Doctors are more charitable, and refer it to supernatural causes, [Page] Ʋt extra ordinariam artis considerationem. On the other side Hippocrates giveth it out definitively, [...], that in ten moneths at the furthest (understand ten moneths compleat) the Child is born. And Ʋlpian the great Civilian of his times, in the title of Digests de Testamentis is of opinion, that a Child born after the tenth moneth (compleat) is not to be admitted to the inheritance of its pretended Father. As for the Common Law of England, as I remember, I have read it in a book written of Wils and Testaments, it taketh a middle course between the charity of nature and the severity of Law, leaving it meerly to the conscience and circumstance of the Judge.

But all this must be conceived (taking it in the most favourable construction) after the conception of the Mother, and by no meanes after the death of the Father, and so can it no way (if I were first President) advantage the Prince of Conde: His Father had been extreamly sick no small time before his death for the particular, and supposed since his poison taken, Anno 1552. to be little prone to Women in the general. They therefore that would seem to know more than the vulgar, reckon him as one of the by-blows of Henry the fourth, but this under the Rose: yet by way of conjecture we may argue thus. First, from the Kings care of his education, assigning him for his Tutor Nicholas de Februe, whom he also designed for his Son King Lewis. Secondly, from his care to work the Prince, then young, Mollis & aptus agi, to become a Catholike. Thirdly, the age of the [Page] old Henry of Conde, and the privacy of this King with his Lady, being then King of Navarre, in the prime of his strength, and in discontent with the Lady Margaret of Valoys his first Wife. Adde to this that Kings love to fair Ladies in the general, and we may see this probability to be no miracle: For besides the Dutchess of Beaufort, the Marchioness of Verneville, and the Countess of Morret already mentioned, he is beleived to have been the Father of Mr. Luines the great Favorite of King Lewis. And certain it is, that the very year before his death, when he was even in the winter of his dayes, he took such an amorous liking to the Prince of Conde,s Wife, a very beautiful Lady, and Daughter to the Constable Duke of Montmorencie, that the Prince to save his honour was compelled to flie, together with his Princess, into the Arch-Dukes Country, whence he returned not till long after the death of King Henry. If Marie de Medices in her Husbands life time paid his debts for him (which I cannot say) she onely made good that of Quintilian, Et uxor mariti exemplo incitata, aut imitari se putat, aut vindicate· And yet perhaps a consciousness of some injuries not onely moved her to back the Count of Soison's and his faction against the Prince and his, but also to resolve upon him for the Husband of her Daughter.

From the Princes of the bloud descend we to the Princes of the Court, and therein the first place we meet with Mr. Barradas, the Kings present Favourite, a young Gentleman of a fresh and lively hew, little bearded, and one whom the [Page] people as yet cannot accuse for any oppression or misgovernment. Honours the King hath conferred none upon him, but onely Pensions and Offices. He is the Governour of the Kings Children of Honour, (Pages we call them in England) a place of more trouble, than wealth or credit. He is also the Master of the Horse, or le grand Escuire; the esteem of which place recompenceth the emptiness of the other; for by vertue of this Office he carryeth the Kings Sword sheathed before him at his entrance into Paris: the Cloth of Estate carryed over the King by the Provosts and Eschevins, is his Fee. No man can be the Kings Spur maker, his Smith, or have any place in the Kings Stables but from him, and the like. This place (to note so much by the way) was taken out of the Constables Office (Comes stabuli. is the true name) to whom it properly belonged, in the time of Charles the seventh. Besides this he hath a pension of 500000. Crowns yearly; and had an Office given him, which he sold for 100000. Crownes in ready money. A good fortune for one who the other day was but the Kings Page.

And to say truth, he is as yet but a little better, being onely removed from his Servant to his play-fellow: with the affairs of State he intermeddleth not; if he should, he might expect the Queene Mother should say to him, what Apollo in Ovid did to Cupid.

— Tibi quia cum fortibus armis,

Mi puer: ista decent humeros gestamina nostros.

[Page]For indeed first during her Sons minority, and after since her redentigration with him, she hath made her self so absolute a Mistress of her mind, that he hath entrusted to her, the entire conduct of all his most weighty affairs: for her Assistant in the managing of her greatest business, she hath pieced her self to the strongest side of the State, the Church, having principally (since the death of the Marshall D' Anere Joneane) assumed to her Counsails the Cardinal of Richileiu: a man of no great birth, were Nobility the greatest Parentage: but otherwise to be ranked among the Noblest. Of a sound reach he is, and of a close brain; one exceedingly well mixt of a Lay Ʋnderstanding, and a Church Habit; one that is compleatly skilled in the art of men, and a perfect Master of his own mind and affections. Him the Queene useth as her Counseller, to keep out frailty and the Kings name as her countenance to keep off envy. She is of a Florentine wit, and hath in her all the vertues of Katherine de Medices her Ancestor in the Regencie: and some also of her vices, only her designes tend not to the ruine of her Kingdome, and her Children. John de Seirres telleth us in his Inventaire of France, how the Queene Katherine suffered her Son Henry the third, a devout and simple Prince, to spend his most dangerous times even uncontrolled upon his Beades, whiles in the meantime, she usurped the Government of the Realm. Like it is that Queene Mary hath learned so much of her kinswoman, as to permit this Son of hers also to spend his time, in his Garden amongst his play fellows and his Birds, that [Page] she may the more securely mannage the State at her discretion. And to say nothing of her untrue or misbecoming her vertue, she harh notably well discharged her ambition; the Realm of France being never more quietly and evenly Governed, the [...]n first during her Regencie; and now during the time of her favour with the King. For during his minority, she carryed her self so fairly between the Factions of the Court, that she was of all sides honoured: the time of Marquessd' Ancre onely excepted. And for the differences in Religion, her most earnest desire was not to oppress the Protestants, insomuch that the warre raised against them during the Command of Mr. Luines, was presently after his death and her restoring to grace ended. An heroical Lady, and worthy of the best report of posterity: the frailty and weekness of her, as being a woman, not being to be accounted hers but her Sexes.

CHAP. II.

The Religions struggling in France, like the two Twins in the womb of Rebecca: The comparison between them two and those in general. A more peculiar Survey of the Papists Church in France; In Policie, Priviledge, and Revenue. The Complaint of the Clergie to the King. The acknowledgement of the French Church to the Pope, meerly [Page] titular. The pragmatick Sanction: Maxima tua fatuitas, et Conventui Tridentino, severally written to the Pope and the Trent Councill. The tedious quarrels about Investitures. Four things propounded by the Parliament to the Jesuit's. The French Bishops not to meddle with Friers: Their lives and Land. The ignorance of the French Priests. The Chanoins Latine in Orleans. The French not hard to be converted if plausibly humoured, &c.

FRom the Court of the King of France, I cannot better provide for my self, than to have recourse unto the Court of the King of Heaven, and though the Poet meant not Exeat aulâ qui vult esse pius in that sense, yet will it be no treason for me to apply it so. And even in this Court the Church, which should be like the Coat of its Redeemer without seam, do I find rents and sactions; and of the two, these in the Church more dangerous, than those in the Louure. I know, the story of Rebecca, and the Children struggling in her, is generally applyed to the births and contentions of the Law and the Gospell. In particular we may make use of it in the present estate of the Church, and Religions in France ▪ for certain it is, that there were divers pangs in the womb of the French Church before it was delivered: and first she was delivered of Esau, the Popish faith being first after the struggling countenaaced [Page] by authority, and he came out red all over like a hairy Garment, saith the text, which very oppositely expresseth the bloody and rough condition of the French Papist at the birth of the Reformation: before experience and long acquaintance had bred a liking between them. And after came his Brother out, which laid hold on Esaus heel, and his name was called Jacob: wherein is described the quality of the Protestant party: which though confirmed by publick Edict after the other, yet hath it divers times endeavoured, and will perchance one day effect the tripping up of the others heeles. And Esau (saith Moses) was a cunning hunter; a man of the field: but Jacob was a plain man dwelling in Tents. In which words the comparison is most exact. A cunning Archer in the Scriptures, signifieth a man of Art and Power mingled: as when Nimrod in the 10th of Geneses is termed, A mighty Hunter. Such is the Papist, a side of greater strength and subtilty, a side of warre, and of the field. On the other side the Protestants are a plain race of men, simple in their actions, without craft and fraudulent behahaviour, and dwelling in Tents, that is, having no certain abiding place, no one Province which they can call theirs, but living dispersed and scatterred over the Country; which in the phrase of Scripture, is dwelling in Tents. As for the other words differencing the two Brethren, and the elder shall serve the younger, they are rather to be accounted a Prophesie, than a Character: we must therefore leave the Analogie it holds with the Rebecca of France, and her two Sons, to the event and prayer.

[Page]For a more particular insight into the strength and subtilty of this Esau; we must consider it in the three main particular strengths of it, Its policy, priviledge, revenue. For the first, so it is, that the Popish Church in France is governed like those of the first and purer times, by Arch-bishops and Bishops: Archibishops it comprehendeth twelve, and of Bishops an hundred and four. Of these the Metropolitan is he of Rhemes, who useth to annoint the Kings, which office and preheminence hath been annexed to this seat, ever since the time of St. Remegius Bishop hereof, who converted Clovis King of the Franks unto the Gospel. The present Primate is Son to the Duke of Guise, by name Henry de Lorrein, of the age of fourteen yeares or thereabouts, a burden too unweildy for his shoulders,

—Et quae non viribus istis

Munera conveniunt, nec tam puerilibus annis.

For the better government therefore of a charge so weighty, they have appointed him a Coadjutor to discharge that great function, till he come to age to take Orders. His name is Gifford, an English fugitive, said to be a man worthy of a great fortune, and able to bear it. The revenues of this Arch-bishoprick are somewhat of the meanest, not amouting yearly to above 10000. Crowns, whereof Doctor Gifford receiveth onely two thousand, the remainder going to the Cadet of Lorreine. This trick the French learnt of the Protestants in Germany, where the Princes, after the reformation began [Page] by Luther, took in the power and Lordships of the Bishops, which, together with their functions, they divided into two parts. The Lands they bestowed upon some of their younger Sons or Kinsmen, with the title of Administrator; the office and power of it they conferred with some annual pension on one of their Chaplains, whom they stiled the Superintendent of the Bishoprick. This Archbishop, together with the rest of the Bishops, have under them their several Chancellors, Commissaries, Archdeacons and other Officers attending in their Courts, in which their power is not so general, as with us in England. Matters of Testament never trouble them, as belonging to the Court of Parliament, who also have wrested into their own hands almost all the business of importance, sure I am, all the causes of profit originally belonging to the Church. The affairs meerly Episcopal and Spiritual are left unto them, as granting licence for marriages, punishing whoredom by way of pennance, and the like: To go beyond this were Ʋltra crepidam, and they should be sure to have a prohibition from the Parliament.

Of their Priviledges, the chief of the Clergymen is, the little or no dependency they have on the Pope, and the little profits they pay unto their King. Of the Pope anon. To the King they pay onely their dismes or tithes according to the old rates, a small sum if compared unto the payments of their neighbours, it being thought, that the King of Spain receiveth yearly one half of the Living of the Churches. But this I mean of their Livings onely, for otherwise they pay the usual gabels [Page] and customs that are paid by the rest of the Kings Leige-people. In the general assembly of the three Estates, the Clergy hath authority to elect a set number of Commissioners to undertake for them & the Church, wch Commissioners do make up the the first of the three Estates, & do first exhibite their greivances and petitions to the King. In a word, the French Church is the freest of any in Christendom, that have not yet quitted their subjection to the Pope, as alwayes protesting against the Inquisition, not subjecting themselves to the Council of Trent, and paying very little to his Holiness of that plentiful revenue wherewith God and good men have blessed it.

The number of those which the Church-land maintaineth in France is tantum non infinite, therefore the intrado and revenues of it must needs be uncountable. There are numbred in it (as we said before) twelve Archbishopricks, an hundred and four Bishopricks: To these add five hundred and fourty Archpriorities, one thousand four hundred and fifty Abbies; twelve thousand three hundred and twenty Priorities, the sixty seven Nunneries, seven hundred Covents of Friers, two hundred fifty nine Commendams of the Order of Malta, and one hundred and thirty thousand Parish Priests, yet this is not all. Their reckoning was made in the year 1598. since which time the Jesuits have divers Colledges founded for them, and they are known to be none of the poorest. To maintain this large wilderness of men, the Statists of France, who have proportioned the Country, do allow unto the Clergy almost a fourth part of the whole. [Page] For supposing France to contain two hundred millions of Arpens (a measure somewhat bigger than one Acre) they have allotted to the Church for its temporal revenue forty seven millions of them. In particular of the Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots, and Parish Priests, they of Aulx, Alby, Clumai, and St. Estiennes in Paris, are said to be the wealthiest. The Archbishop of Aux in Gascoyne is valued at 400000. liures, or 40000 li. English yearly. The Bishop of Alby in Languedoc is prized at 100000. Florens, which is a fourth part of it, a great part of the revenue arising out of Saffron. The Abbot of Clumac in the Dutchy of Burgundy is said to be worth 50000 Crowns yearly, the present Abbot being Henry of Lorreine, Archbishop of Rhemes and Abbot of St. Denis. The Parish Priest of St. Estiennes is judged to receive yearly no fewer than eight thousand Crowns, a good intrado. As for the vulgar Clergy, they have little tithe, and less glebe; most part of that Revenue being appropriated unto Abbies and other religious Houses. The greatest part of their meanes is the Baisemen, which is the Church offerings of the people at Christnings, Marriages, Burials, Dirges, Indulgences and the like, which is thought to amount to almost as much as the temporal estate of the Church: An Income able to maintain them in good abundance, were it not for the greatness of their number. For reckoning that there are (as we have said) in France one hundred and thirty thousand Parish Priests, and that there are onely twenty seven thousand four hundred Parishes, it must of necessity be, that every Prrish, one with [Page] another, hath no fewer than four Priests, too many to be rich.

But this were one of the least injuries offered to the French, thrift, and would little hinder them from rising, if it were not, that the goodliest of their preferments are before their faces given unto Boyes and Children. An affront, which not onely despaireth them of the honours due unto their callings, but dishearteneth them in their studies, and by consequence draweth them to debauched and slanderous courses.

— Quis emim virtutem exquireret ipsam.

Praemia si tollas.

The Clergy therefore, Anno 1617. being assembled at the house of Austin Friers in Paris, (as every two years they use to do) being to take their leaves of the King, elected the Bishop of Aire to be their Spokesman, and to certifie his Majesty of their greivances. In performing which business, the principal thing of which he spake was to this purpose. That whereas his Majesty was bound to give them Fathers, he gave them Children; that the name of Abbot signifieth a Father, and the function of a Bishop was full of fatherly authority, yet Erance notwithstanding was now filled with Bishops and Abbots which are yet in their Nurses arms, or else under their Regents in Colledges. Nay more, that the abuse goeth before the being, Children being commonly designed to Bishopricks & Abbacies before they were born. He also made another Complaint, that the Sovereign Courts by [Page] their decrees had attempted upon the authority which was committed to the Clergy, even in that which concerned meerly Ecclesiastical discipline and government of the Church. To these Complaints he gave them indeed a very gratious hearing, but it never went further than a hearing, being never followed by redress. The Court of Parliament knew too well the strength of their own authority, and the King was loath to take from himself those excellent advantages of binding to himself his Nobility, by the speedy preferring of their Children: And so the Clergy departed with a great deal of envy, and a little of satisfaction.

Like enough it were, that the Pope would in part redress this injury, especially in the point of Jurisdiction, if he were able, but his wings are shrewdly clipped in this Country, neither can he flie at all, but as farre as they please to suffer him. For his temporal power, they never could be induced to acknowledge it, as we see in their stories, Anno 1610. the Divines of Paris, in a Declaration of theirs tender'd to the Queen Mother, affirm the supremacy of the Pope to be an erroneus doctrine, and the ground of that hellish position of deposing and killing of Kings. Anno 1517. when the Council of Luteram had determined the Pope to be the Head of the Church in causes also temporal, the Ʋuniversity of Paris testified against it, in an Apoligie of theirs dated the twelfth of March the same year. Leo decimus (saith the Apologie) in quidam coetu non tamen in spiritu Domini congregato, contra fidem Catholicam &c. sacrum Basiliense[Page]Concilium damnavit; In which Councill of Basill, the supremacy of the Pope was condemned. Neither did the Kings of France forget to maintain their own authority: And therefore whereas Pope Boniface the eighth, had in a peremptory Letter Written to Phillip le Belle King of France stiled himself, Dominus totius Mundi tam in temporalibus quam in spiritualibus: the King returned him an answer with an Epithite sutable to his arrogancy: Sciat maxima tua fatuitas nos intemporalibus alicui non subesse, &c. The like answer though in modester termes, was sent to another of the Popes by St. Lewis; a man of a most mild and sweet disposition, yet unwilling to forgoe his Royalties.

His spiritual power is almost as little in substance, though more in shew; for whereas the Councill of Trent hath been an especiall authorizer of the Popes spiritual supremacy; the French Church never would receive it: by this means the Bishops keep in their hands their own full authority, whereof an obedience to the decrees of that Councill would deprive them. It was truly said by St. Gregory, and they well knew it: Lib. 7. Epist. 70. Si unus universalis est, restat ut vos Episcopinon Sitis. Further the Ʋniversity of Paris in their Declaration Anno 1610. above mentioned, plainly affirme that it is directly opposite to the doctrine of the Church, which the Ʋniversity of Paris hath alwaies maintained; that the Pope hath power of a Monarch in the spiritual Government of the Church. To look upon higher times, when the Councill of Constance had submitted [Page] the authority of the Pope, unto that of a Councill. John Gerson Theologus Parisiensis magni nominis, defended that deeree, and entitleth them Perniciosos esse ad modum adulatores, qui tyranidem istam in Ecclesia invexere, quasi nullis Regum teneatur vinculis; quasi neque parere debeat Concilio Pontifex: nec ab eo judicare queat. The Kings themselves also befreind their Clergy in this Cause, and therefore not onely protested against the Council of Trent, wherein the spiritual tyranny was generally consented to by the Catholike faction, but Henry the second also would not acknowledge them to be a Council, calling them in his Letters by no other name than Conventus Tridentinus: An indignity which the, Fathers took very offensively.

Put the principal thing, in which it behooveth them not to acknowledge his spiritual supremacy is the Collation of Benefices and Bishopricks, and the Annates and first fruits thence arising. The first and greatest controversie between the Pope and Princes of Christendom was about the bestowing the Livings of the Church, and giving the investiture unto Bishops. The Popes had long thirsted after that authority, as being a great meanes to advance their followers, and establish their own greatness; for which cause, in divers petty Councels, the receiving of any Ecclesiastical preferment of a Lay-man was decreed to be Simony. But this did little edifie with such patrons as had good Livings: As soon as ever Hi [...]el brand, in the Catalogue of the Popes called Gregory the seventh, came to the throne of Rome, he set himself entirely to [Page] effect the business as well in Germany now he was Pope, as he had done in France whilst he was Legate. He commandeth therefore Henry the third Emperour: Ne deinceps Episcopatus & Beneficia (they are Platina's own words) per cupiditatem Simoniacam committat, aliter se usurum in ipsum censuris Ecclesiasticis. To this injustice when the Emperour would not yeild, he called a solemn Council at the Lateran, where the Emperour was pronounced to be Simoniacal, and afterwards excommunicated: Neither would this Tyrant ever leave persecuting of him till he had laid him in his grave. After this followed great strugling between the Popes and the Emperours for this very matter; but in the end the Popes got the victory. In England here, he that first bickered about it was William Rufus, the controversie being, whether he or Pope Ʋrban should invest Anselme Archbishop of Canterbury. Anselme would receive his investiture of none but the Pope; whereupon the King banished him the Realm, into which he was not admitted till the raign of Henry the second. He to endear himself with his Clergy relinquished his right to the Pope; but afterwards repenting himself of it, he revoked his grant. Neither did the English Kings wholly loose it, till the raign of that unfortunate Prince King John, Edward the first again recovered it, and his Successors kept it.

The Popes having with much violence and opposition wrested into their hands this Priviledge, of nominating Priests and investing Bishops, they spared not to lay on what taxes they pleased; as on the Benefices, First fruits, Pensions, Subsidies, [Page]Fifteenths, Tenths; and on the Bishopricks, for Palls, Mitres, Crosiers, Rings, and I know not what bables. By these means the Churches were so impoverished; that upon complaint made unto the Council of Basel, all these cheating tricks, these aucupia & eapilandi rationes, were abolished. This Decree was called Pragmatica sanctio, and was confirmed in France by Charles the seventh, Anno 1438. An act of singular improvement to the Church, and Kingdom of France, which yearly before, as the Court of Parliament manifested to Lewis the eleventh had drained the State of a million of Crowns. Since which time the Kings of France have sometimes omitted the vigour of the Sanction, and sometimes also exacted it, according as their affairs with the Pope stood: for which cause it was called, fraenum pontificum: At the last King Francis the first having conquered Millain, fell unto this composition with his Holiness, namely, that upon the falling of any Abbacie or Bishoprick the King should have six moneths time to present a fit man unto him, whom the Pope legally might invest: If the King neglected his time limited, the Pope might take the benefit of the relapse, and institute whom he pleased. So is it also with the inferior benifices between the Pope and the Patrons; insomuch that any or every Lay-patron and Bishop together in England, hath for ought I see (at the least in this particular) as great a spiritual supremacy as the Pope in France,

Nay to proceed further, and to shew how meerly titular both his supremacies are, as well the spiritual as the temporal, you may plainly see in the [Page] case of the Jesuites, wch was thus. In the year 1609. the Jesuites had obtained of King Henry the fourth license to read again in their Colledge of Paris: but when their Letters Patents came to be verified in the Court of Parliament, the Rector and Ʋniversity opposed them. On the seventeenth of December, Anno 1611. both parties came to have an hearing; and the Ʋniversity got the day, unless the Jesuits would subscribe unto these four points: Viz. First, that the Council was above the Pope. Secondly, that the Pope had not temporal power over Kings, and could not by Excommunication deprive them of their Realms and Estates. Thirdly, that Clergy men having heard of any attempt or conspiracy against the King, or his Realm, or any matter of treason in Confession, they were bound to reveal it. And fourthly, that Clergy men were subject to the Secular Prince, or Politick Magistrate. It appeared by our former discourse, what title, or no power, they had left the Pope over the estates and preferments of the French. By these propositions (to which the Jusuits in the end subscribed, I know not with what mental reservation) it is more than evident, that they have left him no command, neither over their consciences nor their persons. So that all things considered, we may justly say of the Papal power in France, what the Papists falsly say of Erasmus, namely, that it is Nomen sine rebus.

In one thing onely his authority here is entire, which is his immediate protection of all the Orders of Friers, and also a superintendency or supreme eye over the Monks, who acknowledge very small [Page] obedience, if any at all, to the French Bishops. For though at the beginning every part and member of the Diocess was directly under the care and command of the Bishop; yet it so happened at the building of Monestaries in the Western Church, the Abbots being men of good parts and sincere life, grew much into the envy of their Diocesan. For which cause, as also to be more at their own command, they made suit to the Pope, that they might be freed from that subjection: Ʋtque intutelam Dive Petri admitterentur. A proposition very plausible to his Holiness ambition, which by this meanes might the sooner be raised to his height, and therefore without difficulty granted: This gap opened, first the several Orders of Friers, and after them the Deans and Chapters purchased to themselves the like exemptions. In this the Popes power was wonderfully strengthened, in having such able and so many props to uphold his authority; it being a true Maxime in State, Quod qui privilegia obtenent, ad eadem conservanda, teneantur authoritatem concedentis tueri. This continued till the Council of Trent unquestioned, where the Bishops much complained of their want of authority, and imputed all the schismes and vices in the Church to this, that their hands were tied. Hereupon the Popes Legates thought it fit to restore to their jurisdiction their Deans and Chapters: At that of the Monks and Monestaries they were more sticking: till at the last Sebastian Pighinus one of the Popes Officers found out for them this satisfaction, that they should have an eye and inspection into the lives of the Monks, not by any authority of their [Page] own, Sed tanquam a sede Apostolica delegati. But as for the Orders of Friers, the Pope would not by any means give way unto it. They are his Janizaries, and the strongest bulwarks of his Empire, and are therefore called in a good Author, Egregia Romanae Curiae instrumenta. So that with them the Diocesan hath nothing to do; each severall religious House being as a Court of Peculiars, subject onely to the great Metropolitan of Rome.

This near dependance on his Holiness maketh this generation a great deal more regardless of their behaviour than otherwise it would be, though since the growth of the reformation, shame and fear hath much reformed them. They have still howsoever a spice of their former wantonness, and on occasions will permit themselves a little good fellowship. And to say truth of them, I think them to be the best Companions in France for a journey, but not for acquaintance. They live very merrily, and keep a competent table, more I suppose than can stand with their vow, and yet far short of that affluency whereof many of our books accuse them. It was my chance to be in an house of the Franciscans in Paris, where one of the Friers, upon the entreaty of our Friend, had us into the Hall, it being then the time of their Refectory, a favour not vulgar. There saw we the Brothers sitting all on a side, and every one a pretty distance from the other; their several commons being a dish of pottage, a chop of mutton, a dish of Cherries, and a large glass of water. This provision, together with a liberal allowance of ease, and a little of study, [Page] keepeth them exceeding plump and in good liking, and maketh them, having little to take thought for, maketh them (as I said before) passing good Company. As I travelled to Orleans we had in coach with us three of these mortified sinners; two of the Order of St. Austin, and one Franciscan, the merriest Crickets that ever chirped. Nothing in them but mad tricks and complements, and for musick they would sing like Hawks; when we came to a vein of good Wine, they would chear up themselves and their neighbour with this comfortable doctrine, Vivamus ut bibamus, et bibamus ut vivamus: and for Courtship, and toying with the Wenches, you would easily beleeve it had been a trade, with which they had not a little been acquainted. Of all men when I am married God keep my wife from them, and till then my neighbours.

On the other side the common Priests of France are so dull and blockish, that you shall hardly meet with a more contemptible people. The meanest of our Curats in England for spirit and discourse are very Popes to them: for learning they may safely say with Socrates, Hoc tantum scimus, quod nescimus: but you must not look that they should say it in Latine. Tongues they have none but those of their Mother and the Masse Book; of which last they can make no use▪ unless the Book be open, and then also the Book is fain to read it self: for in the last Romanum Missale, established by the authority of Pius the fifth, and recognized by Clement the eighth, Anno 1600. [Page] every sillable is diversly marked, whether it must be sounded long or short; just as the varifying examples are in the end of the English Grammer. When I had lost my self in the streets of Paris, and wanted French to enquire homeward, I used to apply my self to some of this reverend habit: But O soeclum insipiens et infacitum; you might as easily have wrought water out of the flint, as a word of Latine out of their mouthes. Nor is this the disease of the vulgar Masse mumbler onely, it hath also infected the right worshipful of the Clergy:

In Orleans I had business with a Chanoin of the Church of St. Croiz, a fellow that wore his surplice (it was made of Lawne and Lace) with as good a credit as ever I saw any; and for the comliness and capacity of his cap, he might have been a Metropolitan: perceiving me to speak to him in a strange Tongue (for it was Latine) he very learnedly asked me this question; Num potestis loqui Gallica? which when I had denied, at last he brake out into another Interrogatory: viz. Quandiu fuistis in Gallice. To conclude having read over my Letter, with two or three deadly pangs, and six times rubbing of his temples, he dismissed me with this cordial; and truly it was very comfortable to my humor. Ego necotias vestras curabo. A strange beast and one of the greatest prodigies of Ignorance, that ever I met with in mans apparrel.

Such being the Romish Priests, it is no marvail if the French be no more setled and resolute in their Religion. If the eye be blind, the body cannot chuse but be darkned: and certainly there [Page] is nothing that hath prepared many of this Realm more to embrace the reformation, than this blockishness of their own Clergy: an excellent advantage to the Protestant Ministers, could they but well humor it; and likely to be a fair inlargement to their party, if well husbanded. Besides this the French Catholicks are not over earnest in their cause, and so do lye open to the assaults of any politick enemy; to deal with them by main force of argument, and in the servent spirit of zeal (as the Protestants too often do) is not the way: Men uncapable of opposition (as this people generally are) and furious, if once thwarted, must be tamed as Alexander did his Horse Bucephalus. Those that came to back him with the tyranny of the spur and a cudgel, he quickly threw down, and mischieved; Alexander came otherwise prepared, for turning his Horse toward the Sun, that he might not see the impatiency of his shadow, he spake kindly to him, and gently clapping him on the back, till he had left his flinging and wildness, he lightly leapeth into the saddle, the Horse never making resistance. Plutarch in his life relateth the storie, and this the Morall of it.

CHAP. XII.

The correspondency between the King and the Pope: This Pope: An Omen of the Marriage of France with England; An English [Page] Catholick's conceit of it: His Holiness Nuntio in Paris: A learned argument to prove the Popes universality. A continuation of the Allegory of Jacob and Esau. The Protestants compelled to leave their Forts and Towns: Their present estate and strength: The last War against them justly undertaken: not fairly mannaged. Their insolence and disobedience to the Kings command. Their purpose to have themselves a free Estate. The War not a War of Religion. King James in justice could not assist them more than he did: First forsaken by their own party. Their happiness before the War. The Court of the Edict. A view of them in their Churches: The commendation which the French Papists give to the Church of England: Their Discipline and Ministery, &c.

WE have seen the strength and subtilty, as also somewhat of his poverties at home, let us now see the alliance which this French Esau hath abroad in the world: in what credit and opinion he standeth in the eye of B [...]e [...]i the Romish Hittite, the daughter of whose abominations he hath married: And here I find him to hold good correspondency, as being the eldest son of the Church: and an equal poize to ballance the affairs of Italy against the potency of Spain. O [...] this ground the present Pope hath alwayes shewed [Page] himself very favorable to the French side, well knowing into what perils a necessary and impolitick dependance on the Spanish party onely, would one day bring the state Ecclesiastick. As in the general, so in many particulars also, hath he expressed much affection unto him: as first by taking into his hand the Valtolin, till his Son of France might settle himself in some course to recover it: secondly, his not stirring in the behalf of the Spaniard during the last warrs in Italy; and thirdly, his speedy and willing grant of the dispensation of Madames marriage, of which his Papacy was so large an Omen, so fair a Prognostick. ‘Est Deus in nobis agitante calescimus illi.’ The Lar, or Angel Guardian of his thoughts hastened him in it, in whose time there was so plausible a presage, that it must be accomplished. For thus it standeth: Malachy now a Saint, then one of the first Apostles of the Irish, one much reverenced in his memory to this day by that Nation, left behind him by way of prophesie a certain number of Motto's in Latine, telling those, that there should follow that certain number of Popes onely, whose conditions successively should be hereby expressed in those Motto's, according to that order he had, placed them in. Messingham an Irish Priest, & Master of the Colledge of Irish fugitives in Paris, hath collected together the lives of all the Irish Saints, which book himself shewed me. In that volume, and the life of that Saint, are the several Motto's, and the several Popes, set down columewise [Page] one against the other. I compared the lives of them with the Motto's, as farre as my memory would carry me, and found many of them very answerable: as I remember there are thirty six Motto's yet to come, and when just as many Popes are joyned to them, they are of opinion (for so Malachy foretold) that either the world should end, or the Popedom be ruined. Amongst others, the Motto of the present Pope is most remarkable, and sutable to the cheif action likely to happen in his time, being this [Lilium & Rosa] which they interpret, and in my mind not unhappily, to be intended to the conjunction of the French Lillie and the English Rose. To take from me any suspition of imposture, he shewed me an old book, printed almost two hundred years ago, written by one Wion a Flemming, and comparing the number of the Motto's with the Catalogue of the Popes, I found the name of Ʋrban (now Pope) directly to answer it: upon this ground an English Catholike, whose acquaintance I gained in France, made a Copy of Verses in French, and presented them to the English Embassadors, the Earles of Carlisle and Holland: because he is my Friend, and the conceit is not to be despised, I begged them of him, and these are they.

Lilia juncta Rosis.

Embleme de bon' presage de l' alliance de la France, avec l' Angleterre.

Ce grand dieu quid' un oecl voit tout ce que les a [...]s

Souos leurs voiles sacrez vont a nous yeax cathans.

[Page]Descouvre quelque fois ainsi qui bon luy semble

Et les moux avenir, et les biene tout ensemble.

Ainsc fit il iadis a ce luy, qui primier,

Dans l' Ireland porta de la foye le laurier,

Malachie son nom, qu' autymon de l' Eglise

On verra soir un jour il qui pour sa devise

Aura les Lys chenus ioints aux plus belles fleures

Qui docent le pin [...]temps de leurs doubles couleurs,

CHARLES est le fleuron de la roso pour pree

HENRITTE est le Lys, que la plus belle pree

De la France n [...]urit, pour estr [...] quelque iour

Et la Reine des fl [...]ures, et des roses l' amour

Adorable banquet bien beu reux cour [...]nne

Que la bonte du ciel, en parrage nous donne

Heu reux ma partie, heu reux mille fois

Cela qui te fera reflorrier en les Roys.

With these verses I take my leave of his Holiness, wishing none of his successors would presage worse luck unto England: I go now to see his Nuntio, to whose house the same English Catholike brought me, but he was not at home, his name is Ferdinando d' Espado; a man (as he informed me) able to discharge the trust reposed in him by his Master, and one that very well affecteth the English Nation He hath the fairest Eglise, and keepeth the largest retinue of any ordinary Embassadour in the Realm, and maketh good his Masters supremacy by his own precedency. To honour him, against he was to take this charge, his Holiness created him Bishop of Damiata in Egypt. A place, which I am certain never any of them saw but in a Map; and for the profits he receiveth thence, they will [Page] never be able to pay for his Crosier. But this is one of his Holiness usual policies, to satisfie his followers with empty titles. So he made Bishop whom he sent to govern for him in England Bishop of Chalcedon in Asia: and Smith also, who is come over about the same business with the Queen, Bishop of Archidala a City of Thrace. An old English Doctor used it as an especial argument, to prove the Universality of power in the Pope, because he could ordain Bishops over all Cities in Christendom. If he could as easily also give them the revenue; this reason I confess would much sway me, till then I am sorry, that men should still be boyes and play with bubbles: By the same authority he might do well, to make all his Courtiers Kings, and he were sure to have a most Royal and beggerly Court of it.

To proceed a little further in the Allegory: so it is, that when Jacob saw Esau to have incurred his Fathers and Mothers anger, for his heathenish marriage; he set himself to bereave his elder brother of his blessing: prayers and the sweet smell of his Venison, the sweet smelling of his sacrifices obtained of his Lord and Father a blessing for him, for indeed the Lord hath given unto this his French Jacob, as it is in the Text: The dew of heaven and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and Wine Gen. 27. 5, 28. It followeth in the 41. ver. of the chapter: And Esau hated Jacob, because of the blessing wherewith his Father had blessed him: and Esau said in his heart, the dayes of mourning for my Father are at hand, then will I slay my brother Jacob: The event of which his bloudy resolution was, that Jacob [Page] was fain to relinquish all that he had and fly unto his Ʋncle. This last story expresseth very much of the estate of the French Church. The Papists hated the Protestants to see them thrive and encrease so much amongst them; this hatred moved them to a war, by which they hoped to root them out all together; and this war compelled the Protestants to abandon their good Towns, and strong Holds, and all their possessions, and to fly unto their friends wheresoever they could find them. And indeed the present estate of the Protestants is not much better than that of Jacob in Mesopotamia, nor much different; the blessing which they expect, lyeth more in the seed than in the harvest, and well may they hope to be restored to the love and bosome of their brethren, of which as yet they have no assurance: For their strength it consisteth principally in their prayers to God; and secondly, in their obedience to their King: Within these two Fortresses, if they can keep themselves, they need fear none ill, because they shall deserve none. The onely outward strengths they have left them, are the two Towns of Moutabon and Rochell; the one deemed invincible, the other threatned a speedy destruction. The Duke of Espernon (at my being there) lay round about it, and it was said, that the Town was in very bad terms; all the neighbouring Townes, to whose opposition they most trusted, having yeilded at the first sight of the Canon. Rochell its thought cannot be forced by assaults, nor compelled by a famine; some Protestants are glad of it, and hope to see the French Church restored to its former powerableness, by the resistance [Page] of that Town meerly: I rather think, that the perverse and stubborn condition of it will at last drive the young King into a fury, and incite him to revenge their contradiction on their innocent Friends, now disarmed and disabled. Then will they see at last the issue of their own peremptory resolutions, and begin to beleive, that the Heathen Historian was of the two the better Christian, when he gave us this note. Non turpe est ab eo vinci, quem vincere esset nefas, neque illi, in honeste etiam summitti, quem fortuna super omnes extulisset.

This weakness and misery which hath now befallen the Protestants, was an effect, I confess, of the ill will which the other party bare them; but that they bare them ill will, was a fruit of their own grafting. In this circumstance they were nothing like Jacob, who in the hatred, which his brother Esau had to him, was meerly passive. They being active also in the birth of it. And indeed the lamentable and bloudy war which fell upon them, they not onely endeavoured not to avoid, but invited. During the raign of Henry the fourth, who would not see it, and the troublesome minority of Lewis the thirteenth. who could not molest them, they had made themselves masters of ninety nine Towns, well fortified and enabled for a siege. A strength too great for any one faction to keep tother under a King which desires to be himself and so rule his people. In the opinion of their potency they call Assemblies, Parliaments, as it were, when and as often as they pleased. There they consulted of the common affairs of Religion, made new Laws of government, removed and exchanged their general [Page] Officers, the Kings leave all this while never so much as formally asked. Had they onely been guilty of too much power, that crime alone had been sufficient to have raised a war against them, it not standing with the safety and honour of a King, not to be the absolute commander of his own subjects. But in this their licentious calling of Assemblies, they abused their power into a neglect, and in not dissolving them at his Majesties commandement, they increased their neglect into a disobedience. The Assembly which principally the war and their ruine, was that of Rochell, called by the Protestants presently upon the Kings journey into Bearne. This general meeting the King prohibited by his especial Edicts: declaring all them to be guilty of treason, which notwithstanding, they would not hearken to, but very undutifully went on in their purposes: It was said by a Gentleman of that party, and one that had been employed in many of their affairs, that the very zeal of some who had the guiding of their consciences, had thrusted them into those desperate courses, and I beleive him.

Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum.

Being assembled, they sent the King a Remonstrance of their greivances, to which the Duke Lesdiguiers, in a letter to them written, gives them a [...]e y fair and plausible answer, wherein also he entreateth them to obey the Kings Edict, and break off the Assembly: Upon the receit of this Letter those of the Assembly published a Declaration, [Page] wherein they verified the meeting to be lawful; and their purpose not to dismiss themselves till their desires were granted. This affront done to the King, made him gather together his forces; yet at the Duke of Lesdiguiers request, he allowed them twenty four dayes respite before his Armies should march towards them. He offered them also very fair and reasonable conditions, such almost as their Deputies had sollicited, but far better than those which they were glad to accept, when all their Towns were taken from them. Profect [...] meluctabilis fatorum vis, cujus fortunam mutare constituit, ejus corrumpit consilia: It holds very rightly in this people, who turned a deaf ear to all good advise, and were resolved, it seemeth, not to hear the voice of the charmer, charmed he never so sweetly. In their Assembly therefore they make Laws and Orders to regulate their disobedience; as that no peace should be made without the consent of the general Convocation, about paying of the Souldiers wages, for the detaining of the Revenues of the King and the Clergy, and the like. They also have divided France into seven circles or parts, assigning over every circle several Generals and Lieutenants, and prescribed Orders how those Generals should proceed in the warr.

Thus we see the Kings Army levied upon no sleight grounds. His regal authority was neglected, his especial Edicts violated, his gratious proffers slighted, his revenues forbidden him, and his Realm divided before his face, and alotted unto Officers not of his own election. Had the prosecution of his [Page] action been as fair as the cause was just and legal, the Protestants onely had deserved the infamy: But hinc illae lachrymae, the King so behaved himself in it, that he suffered the sword to walk at randome, as if his main design had been, not to correct his people, but to ruine them. I will instance onely in the tyrannical slaughter which he permitted at the taking of Nigrepelisse a Town of Queren, where indeed the Souldiers shewed the very rigor of severity, which either a barbarous Victor could inflict, or a vanquished people suffer. Nec ullum saevitiae genus omisit ira & Victoria: as Tacitus of the angred Romans: For they spared neither man, nor woman, nor child, all equally subject to the cruelty of the Sword and the Conqueror: the streets paved with dead carcasses, the channels running with the bloud of Christians: no noise in the streets, but of such as were welcoming death, or suing for life. The Churches, which the Gothes spared in the sack of Rome, were at this place made the Theaters of lust and bloud; neither priviledge of Sanctuary, nor fear of God, in whose House they were, qualifying their outrage. Thus in the Common places.

At domus interior gemitu miseroque tumultu

Miscetur: Penitus (que) eavae clangoribus aedes

Faeminiis ululant —

As Virgill in the ruine of Troy.

But the calamities which befel the men were merciful and sparing, if compared with those which the women suffered: when the Souldiers had made [Page] them the Subjects of their lust, they made them after the subjects of their fury; in that onely pittiful to that poor and distressed Sex, that they did not let them survive their honours. Such of them, who out of fear and faintness had made but little resistance, had the favour to be stabbed; but those, whose virtue and courage maintained their bodies valiantly from the rape of those villains, had the secrets of Nature (Procul hinc este cast ae misericordes aures) filled with Gun-powder, and so blown into ashes. Whether, O Ye Divine Powers, is humanity fled, when it is not to be found in Christians? or where shall we find the effects of a pittiful nature, when men are become so unnatural? It is said, that the King was ignorant of this barbarousness, and offended at it: Offended, I perswade my self, he could not but be, unless he had totally put off himself and degenerated into a Tyger: but for his ignorance, I dare not conceive it to be any other than that of Nero, an ignorance rather in his eye than in his understanding. Subduxit oculos Nero (saith Tacitus) jussitque scelera, non spectavit.

Though the Protestants deserved affliction for their disobedience, yet this was an execution above the nature of a punishment, a misery beyond the condition of the crime. True it is, and I shall never acquit them of it, that in the time of their prosperity they had done the King many affronts, and committed many acts of disobedience and insolency, which justly occasioned the warr against them. For besides those already recited, they themselves first brake those Edicts, the due execution [Page] whereof seemed to have been their onely petition. The King by his Edict of Pacification had licensed the free exercise of both Religions, and thereupon permitted the Priests and Jesuites to preach in the Towns of Caution, being then in the hands of the Protestants. On the other side, the Protestants assembled at Loudan, straitly commanded all their Governours, Mayors, and Sheriffs, not to suffer any Jesuits, or any of any other Order, to preach in their Towns, although licensed by the Bishop of the Diocess: When upon dislike of their proceedings in that Assembly, the King had declared their meetings to be unlawful, and contrary to his peace, and this Declaration was verified against them by the Parliament; they notwithstanding would not separate themselves, but stood still upon terms of capitulation, and the justifiableness of their action. Again, whereas it happened that the Lord of Privas, Town full of those of the Religion, dyed in the year 1620. and left his Daughter and Heir in the bed and marriage of the Viscount of Cheylane a Catholike; this new Lord, according to law and right, in his own Town changed the former Garrison, putting his own servants and dependants in their places. Upon this the Protestants of the Town and Country about it, draw themselves in Troops, surprize many of the Towns about it, and at the last compelled the young Gentleman to fly from his inheritance; an action which jumping even with the time of the Assembly at Rochell, made the King more doubtful of their sincerity. I could add to these divers others of their undutiful practises, being the [Page] effects of too much felicity, and of a fortune which they could not govern. Atqui animus meminisse horret, luctu (que) refuget.

These their insolencies and unruly acts of disobedience made the King and his Council suspect that their designs tended further than Religion; and that their purpose might be to make themselves a free Estate, after the example of Geneva and the Low Country-men. The late power which they had taken of calling their own Synods and Convocations, was a strong argument of their purpose: so also was the intelligence which they held with those of their faith at the Synod at Sappe, called by the permission of Henry the fourth on the first of October, Anno 1603. They not onely gave audience to Ambassadours, and received Letters from forrain Princes, but also importuned his Majesty to have a general liberty of going into any other Countreys, and assigning at their Counsel a matter of especial importance. And therefore the King upon a foresight of the dangers, wisely prohibited them to go to any Assemblies without a particular licence, upon pain to be declared Traytors. Since that time growing into greater strength, whensoever they had occasion of business with King Lewis, they would never treat with him but by their Embassadors, and upon especial Articles. An ambition above the quality of those that profess themselves Sorbonets, and the onely way, as Du Seirres noteth, to make an estate in the State: but the answers made unto the King by those of Alerack and Montanbon are pregnant proofs of their intent and meaning in this kind. [Page] The first, being summoned by the King and his Army the 22. of July, Anno 1621. returned thus, that the King should suffer them to enjoy their liberties, and leave their fortifications as they were for them of their lives, and so they would declare themselves to be his subjects. They of Montanbon made a fuller expression of the general design Disobedience; which was, that they were resolved to live and die in the Ʋnion of the Churches: had they said, for the Service of the King, it had been spoken bravely, but now rebelliously.

This union and confederacy of theirs King Lewis used to call, the Common-wealth of Rochell; for the overthrow of which he alwayes protested that he had onely taken Arms: and if we compare circumstances, we shall find it to be no other. In the second of April, before he had as yet advanced into the Feild, he published a Declaration in favour of all those of the Religion, which would contain themselves within duty and obedience. And whereas some of Tours at the beginning of the warrs had tumultuously molested the Protestants at the burial of one of their dead, five of them by the Kings especial commandement were openly executed: When the warr was hottest abroad, those of the Gospel at Paris lived as securely as ever, and had their accustomed meetings at Charentan. So had those also of other places. Moreover when tidings came to Paris of the Duke of Mayens death slain before Montanbon, the Rascal French, according to their hot headed dispositions, breathed out nothing but ruine to the Hugonots; the Duke of Montbazon, Governour of the City, [Page] commanded their houses and the streets to be safely guarded. After when this Rabble had burnt down their Temple at Charentan, the Court of Parliament on the day following ordained, that it should be built up again in a more beautiful manner, and that at the Kings charge. Add to this, that since the ending of the warrs, and the reduction of almost all their Towns, we have not seen the least alteration of Religion. Besides that, they have been permitted to hold a National Synod at Clarenton for establishing the truth of their doctrine, against the errors of Arminius Professor of Leiden in Holland.

All things thus considered in their true being, I cannot see for what cause our late Soveraign should suffer so much envy as he did, for not giving them assistance. I cannot but say, that my self hath too often condemned his remissness in that cause, which upon better consideration I cannot tell how he should have dealt in. Had he been a meddler in it further than he was, he had not so much preserved Religion as supported rebellion; besides the consequence of the example. To have assisted the disobedient French, under the colour of the liberty of Conscience, had been onely to have taught that King a way into England upon the same pretence, and to have troad the path of his own hazard. Further, he had not long before denyed succor to his own children, when he might have given upon a better ground, and for a fairer purpose; and could not now in honour countenance the like action in another: For that other denial of his helping hand, I much doubt how farre [Page] posterity will acquit him, though certainly he was a good Prince, and had been an happy instrument of the peace of Christendom, had not the later part of his raign happened in a time so full of troubles. So that betwixt the quietness of his nature, and the turbulencies of his later dayes, he fell into that miserable exigent mentioned in the Historian: Miserrimum est cum alicui aut natura sua excedenda est, aut minuenda dignitas. Add to this, that the French had first been abandoned at home by their own friends: of seven Generals, whom they had appointed for the seven circles into which they divided all France, four of them never giving them incouragement. The three which accepted of those inordinate Governments, were the Duke of Rohan his Brother Mr. Sonbise, and the Marquess la Force: the four others being the Duke of Tremoville, the Earl of Chastillon, the Duke of Lesdiguier, and the Duke of Bovillon, who should have commanded in cheif: So that the French Protestants cannot say, that he was first wanting unto them, but they to themselves. If we demand what should move the French Protestants to this rebellious contradiction of his Majesties commandements, we must answer, that it was too much happiness: Causa hujus belli eadem, quae omnium nimid faelicitas: as Florus of the Civil warrs between Caesar and Pompey. Before the year 1620. when they fell first into the Kings dis-favour, they were possessed of almost an hundred good Towns well fortified for their safety, besides beautiful houses and ample possessions in the Villages. They slept every man under his own Vine, and his own Fig-tree, [Page] neither fearing nor needing to fear the least disturbance with those of the Catholike party; they were grown so intimate and entire by reason of their inter-marriages, that a very few years would have made them incorporated, if not into one faith, yet into one family: For their better satisfaction in matters of Justice, it pleased King Henry the fourth to erect a chamber in the Court of Parliament of Paris purposely for them. It consisted of one President and sixteen Counsellors; their office, to take knowledge of all the Causes and Suits of them of the Reformed Religion, as well within the jurisdiction of the Parliament of Paris, as also in Normandy and Brittain, till there should be a Chamber erected in either of them. There were appointed also two Chambers in the Parliament of Bourdeaux and Grenoble, and one at Chasters for the Parliament at Tholoza. These Chambers were called, Les Chambres de l' Edict, because they were established by a special Edict at the Town of Nantes in Brittain, April the eighth; Anno 1598. In a word, they lived so secure and happy, that one would have thought their felicities had been immortal.

O faciles dare summa Deos eadem (que) tuer [...]

Difficiles!

And yet they are not brought so low, but that they may live happily, if they can be content to live obediently, that which is taken from them being matter of strength onely, not priviledge.

[Page]Let us now look upon them in their Churches; which we shall find as empty of magnificence as ceremony: to talk amongst them of Common prayers, were to fright them with a second coming of the Mass: and to mention Prayers at the burial of the dead, were to perswade them of a Purgatory. Painted glass in a Church window is accounted for the flag and ensign of Antichrist, and for Organs, no question, but they are deemed the Devils Bap pipes: Shew them a Surplice, and they cry out, a rag of the Whore of Babylon, yet a Sheet upon a Woman when she is in child [...]bed is a greater abomination than the other: A strange people, that could never think the Mass-book sufficiently reformed, till they had taken away Prayers, nor that their Churches could ever be handsome until they were ragged. This foolish opposition of their first Reformers hath drawn the Protestants of these parts into a world of dislike and envy, and been no small disadvantage to their side, whereas the Church of England, though it dissent as much from the Papists in point of doctrine, is yet not uncharitably thought on by the moderatest Catholikes, by reason it retained such an excellency of discipline. When the Liturgie of our Church was translated into Latine by Doctor Mocket once Warden of All-Souls Colledge in Oxford, it was with great approof and applause received here in France by those whom they call Catholikes Royal, as marvelling to see such order and regular devotion in them, whom they were taught to condemn for heretical An allowance which with some little help might have been raised higher, from the practise [Page] of our Church, to some points of our judgement. And it is very worthy of our observation, that which the Marquess of Rhosney spake of Canterbury, when he came as extraordinary Embassadour from King Henry the fourth to welcome King James into England, for upon the view of our solemn Service and Ceremonies he openly said unto his fellows, that if the reformed Churches in France had kept the same orders amongst them which we have, he was assured, that there would have been many thousands more of Protestants than now there are. But the Marquess of Rhosney was not the last that said so: I have heard divers French Papists, who were here at the Queens coming over, and ventured so far upon an excommunication, as to be present at our Church solemn Services, extolling them, and us for their sakes, even almost unto Hyperboles: So graciously is our temper entertained amongst them. As are their Churches, such is their discipline, naked of all antiquity, and almost as modern as the men which embraced it. The power and calling of Bishops they abrogated with the Mass; upon no other cause, then that Geneva had done it. As if that excellent man, Mr. Calvin, had been the Pythagoras of our age, and his [...], his Ipse dixit had stood for Oracle. The Hierarchi of Bishops thus cast out, they have brought in their places Lay-Elders, a kind of Monsters never heard of in the Scriptures or first times of the Gospel. These men leap from the stall to the Bench, and partly sleeping, and partly stroaking their beard they enact Laws of government for the Church: So that we [Page] may justly take up the complaint of the Satyrist: saying, Surgunt nobis e Sterquitineo magistratus, nec dum tot is manibus publica tractant negotia: yet to these very men, composed equally of ignorance and a Trade, are the most weighty matters of the Church committed. In them is the power of ordaining Priests, of conferring places of Charge, and even of the severest censure of the Church, Excommunication. When any business which concerneth the good of the Congregation is befallen, they must be called to counsel, and you shall find them there as soon as ever they can put off their aprons. Having blotted out there a little classical non-sense, and passed their consents, rather by nodding of their heads, than any other sensible articulation, they hasten to their Shops, as Quinctius the Dictator, in Florus, did to his Plow, Ʋt adopus relictum festinasse videatur. Such a platform though it be, as needeth no further confutation then to know it, yet had it been the more tolerable, if the Contrivers of it had not endeavoured to impose it on all the reformation; by which meanes what troubles have been raised by the great Zealots here in England, there is none so young but hath heard some tragical relations. God be magnified, and our late King praised, by whom this weed hath been snatched up out of the garden of this our Israel. As for their Ministery, it is indeed very learned in their study, and exceeding painful in their calling; by the first they confute the ignorant of the Romish Clergy: by the second their laziness: And questionless it behoveth them so to be; for living in a Country full of opposition, [Page] they are forced to a necessity of book-learning to maintain the Cause: and being continually (as it were) beset with spies, did therefore frequent the Pulpits to hold up their credits: The maintenance which is alotted them scarce amounteth to a competency, though by that name they please to call it. With receiving of tythes they never meddle, and therefore in their Systematical Tractats of Divinity, they do hardly allow of paying of them: Some of them hold, that they are Jewish and abrogated with the Law: Others think them meerly to be Jure Humano: and yet that they may be lawfully accepted where they are tendered. It is well yet, that there are some amongst thē which will commend grapes though they cannot reach them: This Competency may come to forty or fifty pound yearly or a little more. Beza that great and famous Preacher of Geneva had but eighty pound a year, and about that rate was Peter du Moulins pension, when he preached at Clarenton. These stipends are partly paid by the King, and partly raised by way of Collection. So the Ministers of those Churches are much of the nature of the English Lecturers. As for the Tythes, they belong to the several Parish Priests in whose precincts they are due: and those, I warrant you, according to the little learning which they have, will hold them to be Jure Divino. The Sermons of the French are very plain home-spun, little in them of the Fathers, and less of humane learning: it being concluded in the Synode of Sappe, that onely the Scriptures should be used in their Pulpits; they consist much of exhortation and use, and of [Page] nothing in a manner which concerneth knowledge. A ready way to raise up and edifie the will and affections, but withall to starve the understanding. For the education of them being Children they have private Schools, when they are better grown, they may have free recourse unto any of the French Academies, besides the new Ʋ niversity of Saumus which is wholly theirs, and is the cheif place of their study.

CHAP. XIII.

The connexion between the Church and Common-wealth in general. A transition to the particulars of France: The Government there meerly Regal. A mixt form of Government most commendable. The Kings Patents for Offices, Monopolies above the censure of the Parliament. The strange Office intended by Mr. Luines: The Kings gifts and expences. The Chamber of Accompts: France divided into three sorts of people: The Conventus Ordinum nothing but a Title. The inequality between the NoNobles and Commons in France. The Kings power how much respected by the Princes: The powerableness of that rank: The form of Execution done on them: The muititude and confusion of Nobility. King [Page] James defended. A Censure of the French Heralds: The power and command of the French Nobles and their Tennants, their baillages, giblets and other Regalia: Why they conspire with the King to undo the Commons.

HAving thus spoken of the Church, I must now treat a little of the Common-wealth. Religion is as the soul of a State, policy as the body; we can hardly discourse of the one, without a relation to the other; if we do, We commit a wilful murder in the destroying a Republick. The Common-wealth without the Church is but a Carcass or thing inanimate: The Church without the Common-wealth is as it were, anima separata. The joyning of them together maketh of both one flourishing and permanent body: and therefore as they are in nature, so in my relations, Connubio jungam stabili. Moreover such a secret simpathy there is between them; such a necessary dependency of one upon the other, that we may say of them what Tullie doth of two Twinns in his book de Fato Eorum morbus eodem tempore gravescit, & eodem levatur. They grow sick and well at the same time, and commonly run out of their race at the same instant. There is besides the general respects each to other, a more particular bond betwixt them here in France, which is a likeness and resemblance in the Church of France. We have found a Head and a Body. This Body again divided into two parts, the Catholike and Protestant. The Head is [Page] in his own opinion and the minds of many others, of a power unlimited; yet the Catholike party hath strongly curbed it: And of the two parts of the body, we see the Papists flourishing and in triumph, whilst that of the Protestants is in misery and affliction. Thus it is also in the Body Politick, the King in his own Conceit boundless and omnipotent, is yet affronted by his Nobles: which Nobles enjoy all freedom of riches and happiness; the poor Pesants in the mean time living in drudgery and bondage.

For the government of the King is meerly Regall, or to give it the right name, Despotical: Though the Country be his Wife, and all the people are his Children, yet doth he neither govern as a Husband or a Father: He accounteth of them all as of his servants, and therefore commandeth them as a Master. In his Edicts, which he over-frequently sendeth about, he never mentioned the good will of his Subjects, nor the approbation of his Council, but concludeth all of them in this form, Cartel est nostre plaisir: sic volo, sic jubeo. A form of government very prone to degenerate into Tyranny, if the Princes had not oftentimes strength and will to make resistance. But this not the vice of the entire and Soveraign Monarchy alone, which the Greeks call [...]: the other two good forms of regiment being subject also to the same frailty. Thus in the reading of Histories have we observed an Aristocracie to have been frequently corrupted into an Oligarchie: and Politeia (or Common-wealth properly so called) into a Democracie. For as in the body [Page] natural the purest Complexions are less lasting, and easily broken, and subject to alteration. So it is in the body Civil: The pure and unmixt forms of government, though perfect & absolute in their kinds, are of little continuance, and very subject to change into its opposite. They therefore which have written of Republicks do most applaud and commend the mixt manner of Rule, which is equally compounded of the Kingdom and Politeia, because in them Kings have all the power belonging to their title, without prejudice to the property. In these there is reserved to the King absolute Majesty, to the Nobles convenient authority, to the people an incorrupted liberty, all in a just and equal proportion. Every one of these is like the Empire of Rome, as it was moderated by Nerva. Qui res olim dissociabiles miscuerat principatum & libertatem: wherein the soveraignty of one endamaged not the freedom of all. A rare mixture of government. And such is the Kingdom of England. A Kingdom of a perfect and happy composition, wherein the King hath his full prerogative, the Nobles all due respects, and the People amongst other blessings perfect in this, that they are masters of their own purses, and have a strong hand in the making of their own Lawes.

On the other side, in the Regal government of France, the Subject frameth his life meerly as the Kings variable Edicts shall please to enjoyn him, is banisht of his money as the Kings task-masters think fit, and suffereth many other oppressions, which in their proper place shall be specified. This [Page] Aristotle in the third book of his Politicks calleth [...], or the command of a Master and defineth it to be [...]. Such an Empire, by which a Prince may command, and do whatsoever shall seem good in his own eyes, one of the Prerogatives Royall of the French Kings. For though the Court of Parliament doth seem to challenge a perusal of his Edicts before they pass for Laws, yet is this but a meer formality: It is the Cartell est nostre plaisir, which maketh them currant, which it seemeth these Princes learned of the Roman Emperours, Justinian in the book of Institutions maketh five parts of the Civil Lawes: Viz. (He meaneth the Law of the twelve Tables:) Plebiscita, Senatus consulta, Prudentum responsa, and Principum placita: To this last he addeth this general strength, Quod principi placuerit legis habet valorem: The very foundation of the Kings powerfulness. True it is yet, that the Courts of Parliament do use to demurre sometimes upon his Patents and Decrees, and to petition him for a Reversal of them: but his answer commonly is, Stat pro ratione Voluntas. He knoweth his own power, and granteth Letters Patents for new Offices and Monopolies abundantly. If a moneyed man can make a friend in Court, he may have an Office found for him, of six pence upon every Sword made in France: a liure upon the selling of every head of Cattel: a brace of soles for every pair of boots, and the like. It is the onely study of some men, to find out such devices of enriching themselves and undoing the people. The Patent [Page] for Mines granted to Sir Giles Mompesson, was just one of the French Offices. As for Monopolies, they are here so common, that the Subject taketh no notice of it, not a scurvy petty book being printed, but it hath its priviledge affixed, ad imprimendum solum. These being granted by the King, are carried to the Parliament, by them formally perused, and finally verified: after which they are in force and vertue against all opposition.

It is said in France, that Mr. Luines had obtained a Patent of the King for a quart d' Escu to be paid unto him for the Christning of every Child throughout the Kingdom. A very unjust and unconscionable extortion: Had he lived to have presented it to the Court, I much doubt of their denial, though the onely cause of bringing before them such Patents, is onely intended, that they should discuss the justice and convenience of them.

As the Parliament hath a formality of power left in them of verifying the Kings Edicts, his grants of Offices and Monopolies; so hath the Chamber of Accompts, a superficial survey of his gifts and expences: For his expences, they are thought to be as great now as ever, by reason of the several retinues of Himself, his Mother, his Queen, and the Monsieur. Neither are his gifts lessened. The late warrs which he mannaged against the Protestants cost him dear, he being fain to bind unto him most of his Princes by money and Pensions. As the expences of the King are brought unto this Court to be examined, so are [Page] also the gifts and pensions by him granted to be ratified. The titulary power given to this Chamber, is to cut off all those of the Kings grants which have no good ground and foundation; the Officers being solemnly, at the least formally, sworn, not to suffer any thing to pass them to the detriment of the Kingdom, whatsoever Letters of Command they have to the contrary: But with this Oath they do oftentimes dispense. To this Court also belongeth the Enfranchisement or Naturalization of Aliens. Anciently certain Lords, Officers of the Crown, and of the Privie Council, were appointed to look into the Accompts: now it is made an ordinary and soveraign Court, consisting of two Presidents, and divers Auditors, and after, under Officers. The Chamber wherein it is kept is called, La Chambre des Comptes, it is the beautifullest piece of the whole Palace, the great Chamber it self not being worthy to be named in the same day with it. It was built by Charles the eighth, Anno 1485. afterwards adorned and beautified by Lewis the twelfth, whose Statua is there standing in his Royal Robes, and the Scepter in his hand; he is accompanied by the four Cardinal-Virtues, expressed by way of Hieroglychick, very properly and cunning: each of them have in them its particular Motto to declare its being. The Kings Portraicture also as if he were the fifth Virtue, had its word under-written, and contained in a couple of verses, which (let all that love the Muses skip them in the reading) are these:

[Page]

Quatuor has comites fowro, caelestia dona

Innocuae pacis, prospera sceptra gerens.

From the King descend we to the Subjects, ab equis, quod aiunt, ad asinos; and the phrase is not much improper; the French Commonalty being called the Kings Asses. These are divided into three ranks or Classes; the Clergy, the Nobless, the Paisants, out of which certain Delegates or Committees, chosen upon an occasion, and sent to the King, did anciently concurre to the making of the supreme Court for justice in France, it was called the Assembly of the three Estates, or Conventus Ordinum, and was just like the Parliament of England, but these meetings are now forgotten or out of use, neither indeed, as this time goeth, can they any way advantage the State. For whereas there are three principal if not sole causes of these Conventions, which are, the disposing of the Regency during the non-age or sickness of a King; the granting aids or subsidies, and the redressing of grievances, there is now another course taken in them. The Parliament of Paris, which speaketh as it is prompted by power and greatness, appointeth the Regent: the Kings themselves with their Officers determine of the taxes, and as concerning their grievances, the Kings ear is open to private Petitions. Thus is that title of a Common-wealth, which went to the making up of this Monarchy, escheated or rather devoured by the King: that name alone containing in it both Clergy, Princes and People; so that some of the French Counsellors [Page] may say with Tully in his Oration for Marcellus unto Caesar, Doleoque cum Respublica immortalis esse debeat, eam unius mortalis anima consistere: yet I cannot but withal affirm, that the Princes and Nobles of France do, for as much as concerneth themselves, upon all advantages fly off from the Kings obedience; but all this while the poor Paisant is ruined. Let the poor Tennant starve, or eat the bread of carefulness, it matters not, so they may have their pleasure, and be accompted firm Zealots of the Common liberty, and certainly this is the issue of it; the Farmer liveth the life of a slave to maintain his Lord in pride and laziness, the Lord leadeth the life of a King to oppress his Tennant by fines and exactions. An equality little answerable to the old platforms of Republicks. Aristotle, genius ille naturae, as a learned man calleth him, in his fourth book of Politicks hath an excellent discourse concerning this disproportion. In that chapter his project is to have a correspondency so far between Subjects under the King, or people of the same City, that neither the one might be over rich, nor the other too miserably poor. They, saith he, which are too happy, strong, or rich, or greatly favoured, and the like, cannot nor will not obey, with which evil they are infected from their infancy. The other, through want of these things, are too abjectly minded and base, for that the one cannot but command, and the other but serve, and this he calleth, [...], a City inhabited onely by slaves and tyrants. That questionless is the most perfect and compleat form of Government: Ʋbi veneratur[Page]potentem humilis, non timet, antecedit, non contemnit humiliorem potens, as Velleius. But this is an happiness whereof France is not capable, their Lords being Kings, and their Commons Villains. And to say no less of them than in truth they are, the Princes of this Country are little inferior in matters of Royalty to any King abroad, and by consequence little respective in matter of obedience to their own King at home. Upon the least discontent they will draw themselves from the Court, or put themselves into Arms; and of all other comforts are ever sure of this, that they shall never want partizans, neither do they use to stand off from him fearfully and at distance, but justifie their revolt by publike declaration, and think the King much indebted to them, if upon fair terms, and an honourable reconcilement, they will please to put themselves again into his obedience. Henry the fourth was a Prince of as undanted and uncontroulable a spirit, as ever any of his Predecessors, and one that loved to be obeyed, yet was he also very frequently baffled by these Roytelets, and at the last died in an affront.

The Prince of Conde perceiving the Kings affection to his new Lady, began to grow jealous of him, for which reason he retired unto Bruxels. The King offended at this retreat sent after him, and commanded him home: The Prince returned answer, that he was the Kings most humble Subject and Servant, but into France he would not come, unless he might have a Town for his assurance, withal he protected in publike writing a Nullity of any thing that should be done to his [Page] prejudice in his absence. A stomackful resolution, and somewhat misbecoming a Subject: yet in this opposition he persisted, his humour of disobedience out-living the King whom he had thus affronted. But these tricks are ordinary here, otherwise a man might have construed this action by the term of rebellion. The chief meanes whereby these Princes become so head-strong, is an immunity given them by their Kings, and a liberty which they have taken to themselves: By their Kings they have been absolutely exempted from all tributes, tolles, taxes, customs, impositions and subsidies; by them they have been alwayes estated in whole entire Provinces, with a power of Hante and many justice (as the Lawyers term it) passed over unto them: the Kings having scarce an homage or acknowledgement of them. To this they have added much to their strength and security, by the insconcing and fortifying their houses, wch both often moveth & afterwards enableth thē to contemn his Majesty. An example we have of this in the Castle of Rochforte, belonging to the Duke of Tremoville, which in the long Civil Wars, endured a shelf of five thousand shot and yet was not taken. A very impolitick course (in my conceit) in the French, to bestow honours and immunities upon those, Qui (as the Historian saith) ea suo arbitrio aut reposcituri, aut retenturem videantur, quique modum habent in sua voluntate: For upon a knowledge of this strength in themselves, the Princes have been alwayes prone to civil Warrs, as having sufficient means for safety and resistance. On this ground all they write [Page] the Kings authority, and disobey his justice. Insomuch that the greatest sort of Nobles in this Kingdom can seldom be arraigned or executed in person, and therefore the Laws condemn them in their images, and hang them in their pictures. A pretty device to work justice. If by chance or some handsome sleight any of them be apprehended, they are put under a sure guard, and not doomed to death without great fear of tumult and unquietness. Neither is it Ʋnus & alter, onely some two or three that thus stand upon their distance with the King, but even all the Nobility of the Realm- A rout so disordered, unconfined and numberless, that even Fabius himself would be out of breath in making the reckoning. I speak not here of those that are stiled La Noblesse, but of Titulados, men onely of titular Nobility, of the degree of Baron and above: of these there is in this Country a number almost innumerable, quot Coelum stellas, take quantity for quantity, and I dare be of the opinion, that Heaven hath not more Stars than France Nobles; you shall meet with them so thick in the Kings Court especially, that you would think it almost impossible the Country should bear any other fruit. This I think I may safely affirm and without Hyperbole, that they have there as many Princes as we in England have Dukes, as many Dukes as we Earls, as many Earls as we Barons, as many Barons as we Knights. A jolly company, and such as know their own strength too. I cannot but as much marvel, that those Kings should be so prodigal in conferring honours, considering this, that [Page] every Nobleman he createth is so great a weakening to his power. On the other side, I cannot but as much wonder at some of our Nation, who have murmured against our late Soveraign, and accused him of an unpardonable unthriftiness, in bestowing the dignities of his Realm with so full and liberal an hand. Certainly could there any danger have risen by it unto the State, I could have been as impatient of it as another. But with us titles and ennobling in this kind, are onely either the Kings favour, or the parties merit, & maketh, whomsoever he be that receiveth them, rather reverenced than powerful. Raro eorum honoribus invidetur quorum vis non timetur, was a good Aphorism in the dayes of Paterculus, and may, for ought I know, be as good still: Why should I envy any man that honour, which taketh not from my safety, or repine at my Soveraign for raising any of his Servants into an higher degree of eminency, when that favour cannot make them exorbitant. Besides it concerneth the improvement of the Exchequer at the occasions of Subsidies: and the glory of the Kingdom, when the Prince is not attended by men meerly of the Vulgar. Add to this the few Noble men of any title, which he found at his happy coming in amongst us, and the additions of power which his coming brought unto us, and we shall find it proportionable, that he should enlarge our Nobility with our Country. Neither yet have we indeed a number to be talked of, comparing us with our neighbour Nations. We may see all of the three first rank in the books of Miles, Brook, and Vincent, and we are promised [Page] also a Catalogue of the creations and successions of all our Barons; then we should see that as yet we have not surfeited. Were this care taken by the Heralds in France, perhaps the Nobility there would not seem so numberless, sure I am, not so confused: but this is the main vice of that Profession: of six Heralds which they have amongst them, Viz Mountjoy, Normandy, Guyenns, Valoys, Britain, and Burgoyne, not one of them is reported to be a Genealogist: Neither were their Predecessors better affected to this study. Peradine the onely man that ever was amongst them, hath drawn down the Genealogies of twenty four of the cheif Families, all eminent and of the bloud; in which he hath excellently well discharged himself: but what a small pittance is that, compared to the present multitude.

The Nobles being so populous, it cannot be but the Nobless (as they call them) that is, the Gentry, must needs be thick set, and onely not innumerable. Of these Nobless there be some that hold their estates immediately of the Crown, and they have the like immunity with the Princes. Some hold their feifes (or seuda) of some other of the Lords, and he hath onely Basse justice permitted to him, as to mulct and amerce his Tennants, to imprison them, or to give them any other correction under death. All of them have power to raise and enhaunce up their rents, to tax his Subjects on occasion, and to prohibite them such pleasures, as they think fit to be reserved for themselves. In Grettanl in Picardie I saw a post fastened in the ground, like a race-post with us, and thereon an inscription, [Page] I made presently to it, as hoping to have heard news of sōe memorable battel there fought, but when I came at it, I found it to be nothing but a declaration of the Prince of Condes pleasure, that no man should hunt in those quarters. Afterward I observed them to be very frequent. But not to wander through all particulars, I will in some few of them onely give instance of their power here.

The first is Droict de Balliage, power to keep Assizes, or to have under them a Baillie, and an Imperial seat of justice, for the definition of such causes as fall under the compass of ordinary jurisdiction. In this Court there is notice taken of treason, robberies, murthers, protections, pardons, fairs, markets, and other matters of priviledge.

Next they have a Court of ordinary jurisdiction, and therein a Judge whom they call Le Guarde de Justice, for the decision of smaller business, as debts, trespass, breach of the Kings peace, and the like. In this the purse is onely emptied; the other extendeth to the taking away of the life; for which every one that hath Hante Justice annexed to his feife, hath also his particular Gibbet. Nay, which is wonderful methodical, by the Criticisme of the Gibbet you may judge at the quality of him that owneth it, for the Gibbet of one of the Noblesse hath but two pillars, that of the Chastellan three, the Barons four, the Earls six, the Dukes eight, and yet this difference is rather precise than general.

The last of their jura Regalia, which I will here speak of, is the Command they have upon the people [Page] to follow them unto the warrs, a Command not so advantagious to the Lord, as dangerous to the Kingdom.

Thus live the French Princes, thus the Noblesse, thus those Sheep which God and the Laws hath brought under them, they do not shear, but fleece them, and (which is worse than this) having themselves taken away the wooll, they give up the naked carcass to the King. Tonderi oves meas volo, non deglubi; was accounted one of the golden sayings of Tiberius, but it is not currant here in France: Here the Lord and the King, though otherwise at odds amongst themselves, be sure to agree in this, the undoing and oppressing of the Paisant. Ephraim against Manasseh, and Masnasseh against Ephraim, but both against Juda, saith the Scripture. The reason why they thus desire the poverty of the Commons, is, as they pretend, the safety of the State, and their own particulars. Were the people once warmed with the feeling of ease, and their own riches, they would be presently hearkening after the Warrs. And if no employment were offered abroad, they would make some at home. Histories and experience hath taught us enough of this humour in this kind: it being impossible for this hot-headed and hare-brain'd people not to be doing. Si extraneus deest domi hostem quaerunt: as Justin hath observed of the ancient Spaniards. A pretty quality, and for which they have often smarted.

[Page]

CHAP. XIV.

The base and low estate of the French Paisant. The misery of them under their Lords. The bed of Procrustes. The suppressing of the Subject prejudicial to a State. The Wisdom of King Henry the seventh. The French forces all in the Cavillery. The cruel Impositions laid upon the people by the King. No Demain in France. Why the trial by twelve men can be used onely in England. The gabel of Salt. The Popes licence for wenching. The gabel by whom refused, and why the Gascoines impatient of taxes. The Taille and Taylon. The Pancarte or aids, the vain resistance of those of Paris. The Court of aids. The manner of gathering the Kings moneys. The Kings Revenue. The corruption of the French Publicans. King Lewis why called the Just. The moneys currant in France. The gold of Spain more Catholike than the King. The happiness of English Subjects.

BY that which hath been spoken already of the Nobless, we may partly guess at the low estate of the Paisant or Country man: of whom we will not now speak, as Subjects to their Lords, and how [Page] farre they are under their commandment, but how miserable and wretched they are in their apparel and their houses: For their apparel, it is well if they can allow themselves Canvas, or an outside of that nature: As for Cloath, it is above their purse, equally, and their ambition: if they can aspire unto Fustian, they are as happy as their wishes: and he that is so arrayed, will not spare to aim at the best place in the Parish, even unto that of Church-Warden: When they go to Plow or to the Church they have shooes and stockings; at other times they make bold with Nature and wear their skins. Hats they will not want though their bellies pinch for it: and that you may be sure they have them, they will alwayes keep them on their heads. The most impudent custom of a beggarly fortune that ever I met with, and which already hath had my blessing. As for the Women, they know in what degree Nature hath created them, and therefore dare not be so fine as their Husbands: some of them never had above one pair of stockings in all their lives, which they wear every day, for indeed they are very durable: the goodness of their faces tels us that they have no need of a band, therefore they use none. And as concerning petticoats, so it is, that all have such a garment, but most of them so short, that you would imagine them to be cut off at the placket: When the parents have sufficiently worn these vestures, and that commonly is till the rottenness of them will save the labour of undressing; they are a new cut out and fittted to the Children. Search into their houses, and you shall find them very [Page] wretched, and destitute, as well of furniture as provision. No butter salted up against Winter, no poudering tub, no pullein in the rick barten, no flesh in the pot, or at the spit, and which is worse, no money to buy them. The description of the poor aged couple, Philemon and Baucis, in the eigth book of the Metamorphosis, is a perfect character of the French Paisant in his house-keeping, though I cannot affirm, that if Jupiter and Mercury did come amongst them, they should have so hearty an entertainment; for thus Ovid marshelleth the dishes.

Ponitur hic bicolor sincerae bacca Minervae

Intubaque & radix, & lactis Massa coacti

Ovaque non acri leviter versata favellâ,

Prunaque & in patulis redolentia mala canistris

Hic nux, hic mixta est rugosis carica palmis

Et de purpurers collectae vitibus uvae.

Omnia fictilibus nitede.

They on the Table set Minerva's fruit;

The double coulour'd Olive: Endive root,

Raddish & Cheese, and to the board there came

A dish of Eggs ne're roasted by the flame:

Next they had Nuts, course Dates & lenten Figs,

And Apples from a basket made with twigs.

And Plums and Grapes cut newly from the tree,

All serv'd in earthen dishes huswifelie.

But you must not look for this ohear often: At Wakes or feast days, you may perchance be so happy as to see this plenty: but at other times, onus omne [Page]patilla, the best provision they can shew you, is a piece of Bacon where with to fatten their pottage, and now and then the inwards of Beasts killed for the Gentleman. But of their miseries, this me thinketh is the greatest, that sowing so many acres of excellent Wheat in a year, and gathering in such a plentiful vintage as they do, they should not yet be so fortunate as to eat white bread, or drink Wine: for such infinite rents do they pay to their Lords, and such innumerable taxes to the King, that the profits arising out of these commodities are onely sufficient to pay their duties, and keep them from the extremities of cold and famine. The bread which they eat is of the coursest flower, and so black that it cannot admit the name of brown, and as for their drink, they have recourse unto the next fountain: A people of any the most infortunate, not permitted to enjoy the fruit of their labours: and such as above all others are subject to that Sarcasme in the Gospel, This man planted a Vineyard, and doth not drink of the fruit thereof.

Neo prosunt Domino, quae prosunt omnibus artes.

Yet were their cases not altogether so deplorable, if there were but hopes left to them of a better; if they could but compass this certainty, that a painful drudging and thrifty saving would one day bring them out of this hell of bondage. In this questionless they are entirely miserable; in that they are sensible of their present fortunes, and dare not labour nor expect an alteration. [Page] If industry and a sparing hand hath raised any of these afflicted people so high, that he is but four or five shillings richer than his neighbour, his Lord immediately enhanceth his rent, and enformeth the Kings task-masters of his riches; by which meanes he is within two or three years brought into equal poverty with the rest. A strange course and much different from that of England; where the Gentry take a delight in having their Tennants thrive under them, and account it no crime in any that hold of them to be wealthy. On the other side, those of France can abide no body to gain or grow rich upon their Farms, and therefore thus upon occasions rack their poor Tennants. In which they are like the Tyrant Procrustes, who laying hands upon all he met, cast them upon his bed: if they were shorter than it, he racked their joynts till he had made them even to it; if they were longer, he cut as much of their bodies from them as did hang over; so keeping all that fell into his power in an equality of stature. I need not make further application of the story but this, that the French Lords are like that Tyrant.

How much this course doth depress the military power of the Kingdom, is apparent by the true principles of warr, and the examples of other Countries. For it hath been held the general opinion of the best judgements in matters of war, that the main buttress and pillar of an Army is the foot, or (as the Martialists term it) the infantry. Now to make a good infantry, it requireth that men be brought up not in a slavish or needy fashion of life, but in some free and liberal manner. [Page] Therefore it is well observed by the Viscount St. Albons in his history of Henry the seventh, that if a State run most to Nobles and Gentry, and that the Husbandmen be but as their meer drudges, or else simple Cottagers, that that State may have a good Cavilleria, but never good stable bands of Foot: like to Coppines wood, in which, if you let them grow too thick in the standerds, they will run to bushes or briers, and have little clean under wood. Neither is it thus in Franne onely, but in Italy also, and some other parts abroad; insomuch that they are enforced to employ mercenary Souldiers for their battalions of Foot; whereby it cometh to pass in those Countries, that they have much people but few men.

On this consideration King Henry the seventh, one of the wisest of our Princes, took a course so cunning and wholesome for the encrease of the military power of this Realm, that though it be much less in territories, yet it should have infinitely more Souldiers of its native forces than its neighbour Nations. For in the fourth year of his raign there passed an Act of Parliament pretensively against the depopulation of Villages and decay of tillage, but purposely to make his Subjects for the warrs. The Act was, that all houses of Husbandry which had been used with twenty acres of ground and upwards should be maintained and kept up so, together with a competent proportion of Land to be used and occupied with them, &c. By this meanes the houses being kept up, did of necessity enfarce a dweller, and that dweller, because of the proportion of Land, not to [Page] be a beggar, but a man of some substance, able to keep hinds and servants, and to set the Plow going. An Order which did wonderfully concern the might and manhood of the Kingdom, these Farmers being sufficient to maintain an able body out of penury, and by consequence to prepare them for service, and encourage them to high honours: for,

Haud facile emergunt, quorum virtutibus obstat

Res angusta domi —

As the Poet hath it.

But this Ordinance is not thought of such use in France; where all the hopes of their Armies consist in the Cavallery or the Horse; which perhaps is the cause why our Ancestors have won so many battels upon them: As for the French Foot, they are quite out of all reputation, and are accounted to be the basest and unworthiest company in the world.

Besides, should the French people be enfranchized as it were from the tyranny of their Lords, and estated in free hold, and other tenures after the manner of England, it would much trouble the Councill of France to find out a new way of raising the Kings Revenues, which are now meerly sucked out of the bloud and sweat of the Subject. Anciently the Kings of France had rich and plentiful demeasnes, such as was sufficient to maintain their Majesty and greatness, without being burdensome unto the Country. Pride in matters of sumptuousness and the tedious Civil warrs which have [Page] lasted in this Country almost ever since the death of Henry the second, have been the occasion, that most of the Crown Lands have been sold and morgaged: insomuch that the people are now become the Demain, and the Subject onely is the revenue of the Crown; by the sweat of their brows is the Court fed and the Souldier paid, and by their labours are the Princes maintained in idleness. What impositions soever it pleaseth the King to put upon them, it is almost a point of treason, not onely to deny, but to question: Apud illos vere regnatur, nefasque quantum regi liceat dubitare; as one of them: The Kings hand lieth hard upon them, and hath almost thrust them into an Egyptian bondage: the poor Paisant being constrained to make up daily his full tale of brick, and yet have no straw allowed him. Upon the sight of these miseries and poverties of this people, Sir John Fortescue Chancellor of England, in his book intituled, De laudibus Regum Angliae, concludeth them to be unfit men for Jurers or Judges, should the custom of the Country admit of such a trial: for having proved there unto the Prince (he was Son unto Henry the sixth) that the manner of trial, according to the Common Law, by twelve Jurats, was more commendable than the practise of the Civil or Imperial Laws, by the deposition onely of two Witnesses, or the forced confession of the person arraigned: the Prince seemed to marvel, Cur ea lex Angliae quae tam frugi & optabilis est, non sit toti mundo communis: to this he maketh answer, by shewing the free condition of the English Subjects, who alone are used at these [Page] Inditements; men of a fair and large estate, such as dwell nigh the place of the deed committed: men that are of ingenuous education, such as scorn to be suborned or corrupted, and afraid of infamy. Then he sheweth how in other places all things are contrary: the Husbandman an absolute beggar, easie to be bribed by reason of his poverty: The Gentlemen living far asunder, and so taking no notice of the fact. The Paisant also neither fearing infamy nor loss of goods if he be found faulty, because he hath them not. In the end he concludeth thus: Nec mireris igitur princeps, si lex quae Anglia veritas inquiritur, ab ea non pervagetur in alias nationes: Ipsae namque, ut Anglia, nequeunt facere sufficientes, consimilesque juratas. The last part of the Latine savoureth somewhat of the Lawyer; the word Jurata being there put to signifie a Jury.

To go over all those impositions, which this miserable people are afflicted withal, were almost as wretched as the payment of them. I will therefore speak onely of the principal: and here I meet in the first place with the gabel or imposition on Salt. This gabelle de Sel, this Impost on Salt was first begun by Philip the Long, who took for it a Double, which is half a Sol, upon the pound. After whom Philip de Valoys, Anno 1328. doubled it. Charles the seventh raised it unto three Doubles, and Lewis the eleventh unto six; since that time it hath been altered from so much upon the pound to a certain rate on the Maid, which containeth some thirty bushels English, the rates rising and falling at the Kings pleasure. This one Commodity [Page] were very advantagious to the Exchequer, were it all in the Kings hands; but at this time a great part of it is morgaged. It is thought to be worth unto the King three millions of Crowns yearly, that onely of Paris and the Provosts seven Daughters being farmed at 1700000. Crowns the year. The late Kings since Anno 1581. being intangled in warrs, have been constrained to let it to others; insomuch that about Anno 1599. the King lost above 800000. Crowns yearly: and no longer then Anno 1621. the King taking up 600000. pounds of the Provost of the Merchants and the Eschevins, gave unto them a Rent charge of 40000. pound yearly, to be issuing out of the customs of Salt till their money were repaid them. This gabel is indeed a Monopolie, and that one of the unjustest and unmeasurablest in the world: for no man in the Kingdom (those Countries hereafter mentioned excepted) can eat any Salt, but he must buy it of the King, and at his price, which is most unconscionable; that being sold at Paris and elsewhere for five liures, which in the exempted places is sold for one. Therefore that the Kings profits might not be diminished, there is diligent watch and ward, that no forrain Salt be brought into the Land, upon pain of forfeiture and imprisonment. A search that is made so strictly, that we had much ado at Diepe to be pardoned the searching of our Trunks and Port-mantues; and that not but upon our solemn protestations, that we had none of that Commodity. This Salt is of a brown colour, being onely such as we in England call Bay Salt, & is imposed on the Subjects by [Page] the Kings Officers with great rigor. For though they have some of their last provision in the house, or perchance would be content (through poverty) to eat their meat without it; yet will these cruel villains enforce them to take such a quantity of them; howsoever they will have of them so much money. But this tyranny is not general; the Normans and Picards enduring most of it, and the other Paisants the rest. Much like unto this was the licence which the Popes and Bishops of old granted in matter of keeping Concubines: for when such as had the charge of gathering the Popes rents happened upon a Priest which had no Concubine, and for that cause made denial of the tribute, the Collectors would return them this answer, that notwithstanding this they should pay down the money, because they might have had the keeping of a Wench if they would.

This gabel as it sitteth hard upon some, so are there some also, who are never troubled with it: of this sort are the Princes in the general release, and many of the Nobless in particular: insomuch that it was proved unto King Lewis, Anno 1614. that for every Gentleman which took of his Majesties Salt, there were two thousand of the Commons. There are also some entire Provinces which refuse to eat of this Salt, as Britain, Gascoine, Poictou, Queren, Naintogne, and the County of Boulonnois. Of these the County of Boulonnois pretendeth a peculiar exemption, as belonging immediately to the patrimony of our Lady (Nostre-Dame) of which we shall learn more when we are in Bovillon. The Britains came united to the Crown by a [Page] fair marriage, and had strength enough to make their own Capitulations, when they first entered into the French subjection; besides, here are yet divers of the Ducal Family living in the Country, who would much trouble the quiet of the Kingdom, should the people be oppressed with this bondage, and they take the protection of them. Poictou and Queren have compounded for it with the former Kings, and pay a certain rent yearly; which is called the Equivalent. Xaintogne is under the command of Rochell, of whom it receiveth sufficient at a better rate. And as for the Gascoynes the King dareth not impose it upon them for fear of rebellion. They are a stubborn and churlish people, very impatient of a rigorous yoak; and such as inherit a full measure of the Beiseains liberty and spirit, from whom they are descended. Le Droit de fonage, the priviledge of levying of a certain peice of money upon every Chimney in an house that smoaked, was in times not long since one of the Jura Regalia of the French Lords, and the people paid it without grumbling: yet when Edward the black Prince returned from his unhappy journey into Spain, and for the paying of his Souldiers to whō he was indebted, laid this fonage upon the people, being then English, they all presently revolted to the French, and brought great prejudice to our affairs in those quarters.

Next unto the Gabel of Salt we may place the Taille and the Taillon; which are much of a nature with the Subsidies in England, being granted by the people, and the sum of that certain shall please to impose them. Anciently the Tailles [Page] were onely levied by way of extraordinary subsidie, and that upon four occasions, which were, the Knighting of the Kings Son, the Marriage of his Daughters, a Voyage of the Kings beyond Sea, and his Ransome in case he were taken Prisoner. Les Tailles ne sont point deves de devoyer ordicmer (saith Rayneau) ains ont este accorded, durant la necessite des Affaires Semblement. Afterward they were continually levied in times of warr, and at length Charles the first made them ordinary, neither is it extended equally, all of it would amount to a very fair revenue. For supposing this, that the Kingdom of France contained two hundred millions of acres (as it doth) and that from every one there were raised to the King two Sols yeerly; which is little in respect of the taxes imposed on them; that income alone, besides that which levied on goods personal, would amount to two millions of pounds in a year. But this payment also lyeth all on the Paisant. The greater Towns, the Officers of the Kings House, the Officers of Warrs, the Presidents, Counsellors and Officers of the Court of Parliament; the Nobility, the Clergy, and the Schollars of the Ʋniversity being freed from it. That which they call the Taillon, was intended for the ease of the Country, though now it prove one of the greatest burdens unto it. In former times, the Kings Souldiers lay all upon the charge of the Villages, the poor people being fain to find them diet, lodging and all necessaries for themselves, their horses and their harlots, which they brought with them. If they were not well pleased with their entertainment, they used commonly to beat [Page] their Host, abuse his family, and rob him of that small provision which he had laid up for his Children, and all this Cum privilegio. Thus did they move from one Village to another, and at the last returned unto them from whence they came, Ita ut non sit ibi villula una expers calamitatis istius, quae non semel aut bis in anno hac nefandâ pressurâ depiletur, as Sir John F [...]rtescue observed in his time. To redress this mischeif, King Henry the second, Anno 1549. raised his Imposition called the Taillon, issuing out of the lands and goods of the poor Country man; whereby he was at the first somewhat eased: but now all is again out of order, the miserable Paisant being oppressed by the Souldier as much as ever, and yet he still payeth both taxes▪ the Taille and the Taillon.

The Pancarte comprehendeth in it divers particular imposts, but especially the Sol upon the Liure, that is, the twentieth penny of all things bought or sold (corn, sallets, and the like onely excepted.) Upon wine, besides the Sol upon the Liure, he hath his several customs at the entrance of it into any of his Cities, passages by Land, Sea, or River. To these Charles the ninth, Anno 1561. added a tax of five Sols upon every Maid, which is the third part of a Tun, and yet when all this is done, the poor Vintner payeth unto the King the eighth penny he takes for that wine which he selleth.

In this Pancart is also contained the bant passage, which are the tols paid unto the King, for passage of men and cattel over his bridges and his City gates, as also for all such Commodities which they [Page] bring with them. A good and round sum considering the largeness of the Kingdom, the thoroughfare of Lyons being farmed yearly of the King for 100000. Crowns. Hereunto belong also the Aides, which are a taxe also of the Sol on the Liure, upon all sorts of fruits, provision, wares and Merchandize, granted first unto Charles Duke of Normandy, when John his Father was prisoner in England; and since made perpetual. For such is the lamentable fate of that Country, that their kindnesses are made duties; and those moneys which they once grant out of love, are alwayes after exacted of them, and paid out of necessity. The bedrolle of all these impositions and taxes is called the Paneart, because it was hanged up in a frame, like as the Officers Fees are in our Bishops Diocesan Courts; the word Pan signifying a frame or pane of wainscot. These impositions time and custom hath now made tolerable, though at first day they seemed very burdensome, and moved many Cities to murmuring, some to rebellion. Amongst others the City of Paris, proud of her ancient liberties and immunities, refused to admit of it. This indignity so incensed Charles the sixth their King, then young and in hot bloud, that he seized into his hands all their priviledges, took from their Provost des Merchants and the Eschevins, as also the key of their gates, and the chains of their streets, and making through the whole Town such a face of mourning, that one might justly have said: ‘Haec facies Troiae cum caperetur erat.’ [Page] This happened in the year 1383. and was for five years together continued; which time being expired, and other Cities warned by that example, the imposition was established, and the priviledges restored. For the better regulating of the profits arising from these imposts, the French King erected a Court, Le Cour des Aides. It consisted at the first of the general of the Aides, and of any four of the Lords of the Councel, whom they would call to their assistance. Afterwards Charles the fifth, Anno 1380. or thereabouts, settled it in Paris and caused it to be numbred as one of the Soveraign Courts, Lewis the eleventh dissolved it, and committed the managing of his Aids to his Household servants, as loath to have any publike Officers take notice how he fleeced his people, Anno 1464. it was restored again. And finally Henry the second, Anno 1551. added to it a second Chamber, composed of two Presidens and eight Counsellors. One of which Presidents, Mr. Cavilayer, is said to be the best moneyed man of all France. There are also others of these Courts in the Country: as one at Roven, one at Montferrant in Averyne, one at Bourdeaux, and another at Montpellier established by Charles the first, Anno 1537. For the levying and gathering up of rhese taxes, you must know, that the whole Country of France is divided into twenty three generalities and Counties as it were, and these again into divers Eslections, which are much like unto our Hundreds. In every of the Generalities there are ten or twelve Treasurers, nine Receivers for the Generality, and as many Controulers, besides all under Officers, which are [Page] thought to amount in all to thirty thousand men. When the King levieth his taxes, he sendeth his Letters Patents to the principal Officers of every Generality, whom they call Les genereaux des Aides, and they dispatch their warrant to the Ezlenzor Commissioners. These taxing every one of the Parishes and Villages within their several divisions at a certain rate, send their Receivers to collect it, who account for it to their Controulers, by them it ascendeth Ezleie; from him to the Receiver general of that Generality, next to the Controuler, then to the Treasurer, afterwards to the General des Aides; and so

Per varios cesus, per tot discrimina rerum

Tendimus in Latium —

By all these hands it is at last conveyed into the Kings purse: in which several passage, necesse est ut aliquid haereat, it cannot be, but it must needs have many a shrewd snatch: Insomuch that I was told by a Gentleman of good credence in France, that there could not be gathered by the several exactions above specified, an [...] other devices of prowling (which I have omitted) less than eighty five millions a year, whereof the King receiveth fifteen onely. A report not altogether to be sle [...]ghted: considering that a President of the Court of Accompts made it evident to the Assembly at Blois in the time of King Henry the fourth, that by the time that every one of the Officers had had his share of it, there came not to the Kings Coffers one teston (which is one shilling four [Page] pence) of a Crown: So that by reckoning five testons to a Crown or Escue, as it is but two pence over, these Officers must collect five times the money which they pay to the King; which amouteth to seventy five millions, and is not much short of that proportion which before I spake of. The Kings revenues then, notwithstanding this infinite oppression of his people, amounteth to fifteen millions; some would have it eighteen, which is also a good improvement in respect of what they were in times afore. Lewis the eleventh as good a Husband of his Crown, as ever any was in France, gathering but one and an half onely, but as you count the flow, so also if you reckon the ebb of his treasures, you will find much wanting of a full sea in his Coffers, it being generally known, that the Fees of Officers, Pensions, Garrisons and the men of Arms draw from him yearly, no fewer than six of his fifteen millions. True it is, that his Treasure hath many good helps by way of Escheat, and that most frequently when he cometh to take an account of his Treasurers and other Officers. An action so abominable, full of base and unmannly villanies in their several charges, that the Publicans of old Rome were milk and white broth to them: For so miserably do they abuse the poor Paisant, that if he hath in all the world but eight Sols, it shall go hard but he will extort from him five of them. ‘Non missura cutim nisi plena cruoris hirudo.’ He is just of the nature of the Horsleach, when he [Page] hath once gotten hold of you, he will never let you go till he be filled, and which is most strange, he thinks it a greater clemency, that he hath left the poor man some of his money, than the cruelty was in wresting from him the rest. Nay they will brag of it, when they have taken but five of the eight Sols, that they have given him three, and expect thanks for it. A kindness of a very theevish nature, it being the condition of Robbers, as Tully hath observed, Ʋt commemorent iis se dedisse vitam, quibus non ademerint. Were the people but so happy as to have a certain rate set upon their miseries, it could not but be a great ease to them, and would well defend them from the tyranny of these theeves: but, which is not the least part of their wretchedness, their taxings and assemblings are left arbitrary, and are exacted according as these Publicans will give out of the Kings necessities. So that the Country man hath no other remedy, than to give Cerberus a crust, as the saying, is, and to kiss his rod and hug his punishment. By this meanes the Quaestors thrive abundantly, it being commonly said of them, Fari bouvier au jourd huy Cheualier, to day a Swineheard, to morrow a Gentleman; and certainly they grow into great riches. Mr. Beaumarchais one of the Treasurers (Mr. de Vi [...]ry, who slew the Marquess de Ancri, married his onely Daughter) having raked unto himself, by the v [...]l [...]ainous abuse of his place, no less than twenty two millions of Liures, as it is commonly reported: but he is not like to carry it to his grave, the King having seised upon a good part of it, and himself being condemned to the Gallows by the [Page] grand Chamber of Parliament, though as yet he cannot be apprehended & advanced to the ladder, And this hath been the end of many of them since the raign of this present King (whom it may be for this cause they call Lewis the Just:) This fashion of affixing Epithites to the names of their Kings, was in great use heretofore with this Nation. Carolus the Son of Pipin was by them surnamed Le magne: Lewis his Son Le Debonaire; and so of the rest: since the time of Charles the sixth, who was by them surnamed the Beloved, it was discontinued and new revived again in the persons of King Henry the fourth and his Son King Lewis: (but this by the way.) It may be also he is called the Just by way of negation; because he hath yet committed no notable act of injustice (for I wink at his cruel and unjust slaughter at Nigrepelisse.) It may be also to keep him continually in mind of his duty, that he may make himself worthy of that attribute: Vere Imperator sui nominis, as one said of Severus.

Let us add one more misery to the State and Commonalty of France, and that is the base and corrupt money in it: for besides the Sol which is made of Tin, they have the Double made of Brass, where of six make a Sol, and the Deneir, whereof two make a Double: a Coin so vile & base of value, that one hundred and twenty of them go to our English Shilling: These are the common Coins of the Country. Silver and Gold not being to be seen but upon holy-dayes. As for their Silver it is most of it of their new coining, but all exceedingly clipt and shorn, their Gold being most of it [Page] Spanish. In my little being in the Country, though I casually saw much Gold, I could onely see two pieces of French stamp, the rest coming all from Spain, as Pistolets, Demi pistolets, and double Pistolets. Neither is France onely furnisht thus with Chastilian Coin; it is happiness also of other Countries, as Italy, Barbary, Brabant, and elsewhere, and indeed it is kindly done of him, that being the sole Monopolist of the Mines, he will yet let other Nations have a share in the mettal. Were the King as Catholike as his money, I think I should be in some fear of him; till then we may lawfully take that ambitious title from the King, and bestow it on his pictures: the soveraignty of the Spanish gold is more universally embraced, and more seriously acknowledged in most parts of Christendom, than that of him which stampt it. To this he, which entituleth himself Catholike, is but a prisoner, and never saw half those Provinces, in which this more powerful Monarch hath been heartily welcommed: And yet if he will needs be King let him grow somewhat more jealous of his Queen, and confess that his Gold doth royally deserve his embraces, whom before this extent of its dominion, the ancient Poets stiled, Regina Pecunia.

True it is, that by the frame and shape of this Empress you would little think her to be lovely, and less worthy your entertainment, the stones which little boys break into quoyts, are a great deal better proportioned. If a Geometrician were to take the angles of it, I think it would quite put him besides his Euclide: Neither can I tell to [Page] what thing in the world fitter to resemble it, then a French Cheese, for it is neither long, nor square, nor round, nor thin, nor thick, nor any one of these, but yet all, and yet none of them. No question it was the Kings desire, by this unsightly dressing of his Lady, to make men out of love with her, that so he might keep her to himself; but in this his hopes have cozened him: for as in other Cuckoldings, so in this, some men will be bold to keep his Wife from him, be it onely in spite.

These circumstances thus laid together and considered, we may the clearer and the better see our own felicities, which to exprese generally and in a word, is to say onely this, that the English subject is in no circumstance a French-man: here have we our money made of the best and purest matal, that onely excepted which a charitable consideration hath coined into farthings: here have we our King royally, and to the envy of the world, magnificently provided for, without the sweat and bloud of the people: no pillages nor impositions upon any private wares; no Gabels upon our Commodities: Nullum in tam ingenti regno vestigal: non in urbibus pontium vae discriminibus publicanorum stationes; as one truly hath observed of us. The moneys which the King wanteth to supply his necessities are here freely given him, he doth not compel our bounties, but accept them. The Laws by which we are governed, we impart, are makers of: each Peasant of the Countrey hath a free voice in the enacting of them, if not in his person, yet in his Proxie: we are not here subject to the lusts and tyranny of our Lords; and may therefore say [Page] safely, what the Jews spake factiously, that We have no King but Caesar: the greatest Prince here is subject with us to the same law; and we stand before the Tribunal of the Judge: we acknowledge no difference: here do we inhabit our own houses, plow our own lands, enjoy the fruits of our labour▪ comfort our selves with the Wives of our youth; and see our selves grow up in those Children which shall inherit after us the same felicities. But I forget my self; to endeavour the numbring of Gods blessings, may perhaps be as great a punishment as Davids numbring the people. I conclude with the Poet.

O fortunati nimium bona si sua norint Agricolae nostri.

THE THIRD BOOK: OR, LA BEAƲSSE.

[Page]

CHAP. I.

Our Journey towards Orleans, the Towne, Castle, and Battaile of Montliherrie. Many things imputed to the English, which they never did. Lewis the 11th. brought not the French Kings out of Wardship. The Towne of Chastres and mourning Church there▪ The Countrey of La Beausse, an old People of it, Estampes. The dancing there. The new art of begging in the Innes of this Countrey. Angervile, Toury. The sawcinesse of French Fidlers. Three kindes of Musick amongst the Ancients. The French Musick.

HAving abundantly stifled our spirits in the stink of Paris, on Tuesday being the 12. of June, we took our leave of it, and prepared our selves to entertaine the sweet aire and winde of [Page] Orleans. The day faire, and not so much as disposed to a cloud, save that they began to gather about noon, in the nature of a Curtaine, to defend us from the injury of the Sun; the winde rather sufficient to fan the aire, then to disturb it, by qualifying the heat of that celestiall fire, brought the day to an excellent mediocrity of temper. You would have thought it a day meerly framed for that great Princesse Nature to take her pleasure in, and that the Birds which cheerfully gave us their voices from the neighbouring bushes, had been the lowd musick of her Court; in a word, it was a d [...]y solely consecrated to a pleasant journey, and he that did not put it to that use mis-spent it. Having therefore put our selves into our Waggon, we took a short farewell of Paris, exceeding joyfull that we yet lived to see the beauty of the fields againe, and enjoy the happinesse of a free Heaven. The Countrey, such as that part of the Isle of France towards Normandy, onely that the Corne fields were larger and more even: On the left hand of us we had a side-glance of the Royall house of Boys, and Vincennes, and the Castle of Bifectre, and about some two miles beyond them, we had a sight also of a new house lately built by Mr. Sillerie Chancellor of the Kingdome, a pretty house it promised to be, having two base Courts on the hither side of it, and beyond it a Parke, an ornament, whereof many great mansions in France are altogether ignorant.

Foure leagues from Paris is the town of Montl'herrie; now old and ruinous, and hath nothing in it to commend it, but the carkasse of a Castle; without [Page] it, it hath to brag of a large and spacious plaine, on which was fought that memorable battaile between Lewis the 11. and Charles le Hardie Duke of Burgoyne. A battaile memorable onely for the running away of each Army, the Field being in a manner emptyed of all the forces, and yet neither of the Princes victorious. Hic spe celer, ille salute. Some ran out of fear to dye, and some out of hope to live, that it was hard to say which of the Soldiers made most use of their heels in the combat. This notwithstanding, the King esteemed himselfe the Conqueror, not that he overcame, but because not vanquisht. He was a Prince of no heart to make a warriour, and therefore Resistance was to him almost as much hugged as Victory. It was Anthonies case in his Warre against the Parthians, a Captain whose Launce King Lewis was not worthy to beare after him: Crassus before him had been taken by that people, but Anthonius made a retreat though with losse. Hanc itaque fugam suam, quia victus non exierat, victoriam vocabat, as Paterculus one that loved him not saith of him: yet was King Lewis so puffed up with this conceit of victory, that he ever after sl [...]ighted his enemies, and at last ruin'd them, and their cause with them. The Warre which they undertook against him, they entituled, the Warre of the Weale publick, because the occasion of their taking Armes was for the liberty of the Countrey and the People, both whom the King had beyond measure oppressed. True it is, they had also their particular purposes, but this was the main, and failing in the expected event of it, all that they did was to confirme the bondage [Page] of the Realm by their owne overthrow. These Princes once disbanded, and severally broken, none durst ever afterwards enter into the action: for which reason King Lewis used to say that he had brought the Kings of France Hors Pupillage out of their Wardship: a speech of more Brag than Truth. The people I confesse he brought into such terms of slavery, that they not long merited the name of Subjects: but yet for this great boast, the Nobles of France are the Kings Guardians. I have already shewn you much of their potencie, by that you may see, that the French Kings have not yet sued their Outre le maine, as our Lawyers call it. Had he also in some measure broken the powerableness of the Princes, he had then been perfectly his word's Master; and till that be done, I shall think his Successors to be in their Pupillage. That King is but half himselfe, which hath the absolute command onely of half his people.

The Battaile by this towne, the common people impute to the English; and so do many others, which they had no hand in: for hearing their Grandames talk of their Warres with our Nation, and of the many Fields which we gained of them, they no sooner heare talk of a pitch'd Field, but presently (as the nature of men in a fright is) they attribute it to the English. Good simple soules, Qui nos non solum laudibus nostris ornare velint, sed alienis onerare: as Tullie in his Philippicks. An humour just like unto that of little children, who being once afrighted with the Tales of Robin Good-fellow, do never after heare any noyse in the night, but they streight imagine, that it is he which maketh [Page] it, or like the women of the villages neere Oxford; who having heard the tragicall story of a Duck or a Hen killed and carried to the Ʋniversity, no sooner misse one of their chickins, but instantly they cry out upon the Schollars. On the same false ground also, hearing that the English whilst they had possessions in this Countrey were great builders, they bestow on them without any more adoe, the foundation and perfecting of most of the Churches and Castles in the Countr [...]y. Thus are our Ancestors said to have built the Churches of Roven, Amiens, Bayon, &c. as also the Castles of Boys, S. Vincennes, the Bastile, the two little Forts on the River side by the Louvre at S. Germaines ▪ and amongst many others this of Montl'herrie, where we now are, and all alike. As for this Castle, it was bu [...]lt during the reigne of King Robert, Anno 1015. by one of his servants named Thebald, long before the English had any poss [...]ssions in this Continent. It was razed by Lewis the Grosse, as being a harbourer of Rebells in former times, and by that meanes as a strong bridle in the mouth of Paris; nothing now standing of it save an high Tower, which is seen a great distance round about, and serveth for a Landmark.

Two leagu [...]s from Montl'herrie is the twon of Chastres, seated in the farthest angle of France, where it confineth to la Beauss, a town of an ordinary size, somewhat bigger than for a market, and lesse than would beseem a city. A wall it hath and a ditch, but neither serviceable further than to resist the enemy at one gate, while the people run away by the other. Nothing else remarkable in it, [Page] but the habit of the Church which was mourning for such is the fashion of France, that when any of the Noblesse are buried, the Church which entombeth them is painted black within and without for the breadth of a yard, or thereabouts, and their coats of Armes drawn on it. To goe to the charges of hanging it round with cloath is not for their profits. Besides, this countefeit sorrow feareth thieves, & dareth out-brave a tempest. He for whom the Church of Chastres was thus apparelled, had been Lord of the Towne, by name as I remember Mr. St. Bennoist, his Armes were argent, three Crescents on a Mullet of the same, but whether this Mullet were part of the Coat, or a mark onely of difference I could not learn. Thelike Funerall churches I saw also at Tostes in Normandie, and in a Village of Picardie, whose name I minde not; nec operae pretium. And now we are passed the confines of France, a poore River, which for the narrownesse of it, you would think a ditch parting it from the Province of La Beausse.

La Beausse hath on the North, Normandie, on the East, the Isle of France, on the South, the River of Loyer, and on the West, the Countreys of Tourein and le Main; it lieth in 22 & 23 degree of Longitude, and the 48 and 49 of Latitude, taking wholly up the breadth of the two former, and but part onely of each of the latter. If you measure it for the best advantage of length, you will finde it to extend from la Forte Bernard in the North west corner of it, to Gyan in the South east, which according to the proportion of degrees, amounteth to 60 miles English, and somewhat better; for breadth [Page] it is much after the same reckoning. The ancient inhabitants of this Province, and the reason of the name I could not learn amongst the people; neither can I find any certainty of it in my books, with whom I have consulted. If I may be bold to goe by conjecture, I should think this countrey to have been the seat of Bellocassi, a people of Gaule Celtick, mentioned by Caesar in his Commentaries. Certaine it is that in this Tract they were seated, and in likelihood in this Province; the names ancient and moderne being not much different in sense, though in sound. For the Franks called that which in Latine is pulcher or bellus, by the name of Bell in the Masculine Gender; Beu the Pronoune it, and Beau as it were the Faeminine. At this time Beau is Masculine, and Belle Faeminine: so that the name of Bellocassi is but varied into that of Beausse: Besides that Province which the Roman writers stile Bellovaci, the French now call Beauvais, where Belle is also turned into Beau. Adde to this, that the Latine writers doe terme this contrey, Bello Bessia, where the ancient Bello is still preserved; and my conjecture may be pardoned, if not approved. As for those which have removed this people into Normandie, and found them in the city of Baieux, I appeale to any understanding man, whether their peremptory sentence, or my submisse opinion be the more allowable.

— Haec si tibi vera videtur,

Dede manus: aut si falsa est, accingere contra.

The same night we came to Estampes, a towne [Page] scituate in a very plentifull and fruitfull Soile, and watered with a River of the same name, stored with the best Crevices; it seemeth to have been a town of principall importance, there b [...]ing five walls and gates in a length, one before another. So that it appeareth to be rather a continuation of many townes together than simply one. The Streets are of a large breadth, the Buildings for substance are stone, and for fashion as the rest of France. It containeth in it five Churches, whereof the principall is a Colledge of Chanons, as that of Nostredame, built by King Robert, who is said also to have founded the Castle, which now can scarcely be visited in its ruines; without the towne they have a fine green Meadow daintily seated within the circlings of the Water, into which they use to follow their recreations. At my being there, the sport was dancing, an exercise much used by the French, who doe naturally affect it. And it seems this natural inclination is so strong and deep rooted, that neither age, nor the absence of a smiling fortune can prevaile against it. For on this Dancing-green there assembleth not onely Youth and Gentry, but also Age and Beggery, old wives which could not set foot to ground without a Crutch in the streets, had here taught their feet to amble, you would have thought by the cleanly conveyance and carriage of their bodies, that they had beene troubled with the Sciatica, and yet so eager in the sport, as if their dancing-dayes should never be done. Some there were so ragged, that a swift Galliard would almost have shaked them into nakednesse, and they also most violent to have their [Page] carcasses directed in a measure. To have attempted the staying of them at home, or the perswading of them to work when they heard the Fiddle, had been a task too unweildy for Hercules. In this m [...]xture of age and condition did we observe them at their pastime; the raggs being so interwoven with the silks, and wrinkled browes so interchangably mingled with fresh beauties, that you would have thought it to have been a mummery of fortunes; as for those of both sexes which were altogether past action, they had caused themselves to be carried thither in their chaires, and trod the measures with their eyes.

The Inne which we lay in was just like those of Normandie, or at the least so like, as was fit for Sisters, for such Guests take them.

—Facies non omnibus una

Nec diversa tamen, qualem de cet esse sororum.

All the difference in them lay in the morning, and amongst the maid-servants, for there we were not troubled with such an importunate begging, as in that other countrey. These here had learned a more neat and compendious art of getting money, and petitioned not our eares, but our noses, by the Rhetorick of a Poësie; they prevailed upon the purse, by giving each of us a bundle of dead flowers tacked together, seemed rather to buy our bounties than to beg them. A sweeter and more generous kinde of craving, than the other of Normandie, and such as may seem to imply in it some happy contradiction; for what else is it, that a maid should proffer [Page] her self to be deflowred without prejudice to her modesty, and raise to her future husband an honest stock by the usury of a kindenesse. Refreshed with these favours, we took our leave of Estampes and the dancing Miscelanie, jogging on through many a beautifull field of corne, till we came unto Angerville, which is six leagues distant: a Town of which I could not observe or heare any thing memorable, but that it was taken by Montacute, Earle of Salisbury, as hee went this way to the siege of Orleans, and indeed the taking of it was no great miracle, the walls being so thin that an arrow could almost as soon make a breach in them as a canon. The same fortune befell also unto Toury, a place not much beyond it in strength or bignesse, onely that it had more confidence (as Savage an English Gentleman once said) in the walls of bones, which were within it, than in the walls of stones which were without it.

This Town standeth in the middle way betwixt Estampes and Orleans, and therefore a fit stage to act a dinner on, and to it we went: by that time we had cleared our selves of our pottage, there entred upon us three uncouth fellowes with hats on their heads, like cover'd dishes; as soon as ever I saw them, I cast one eye upon my cloak, and the other on my sword, as not knowing what use I might have of my steele to maintain my cloath. There was great talk at that time of Mr. Sonbise's being in armes, and I much feared that these might be some straglers of his army; and this I suspected by their countenances, which were very thievish and full of insolence. But when I had made a survey [Page] of their apparell, I quickly altered that opinion, and accounted them as the excrement of the next prison, deceived alike in both my jealousies, for these pretty parcels of mans flesh were neither better nor worse, but even arrant fidlers, and such which in England we should not hold worthy of the whipping post. Our leave not asked, and no reverence on their parts performed, they abused our eares with a harsh lesson; and as if that had not been punishment enough unto us, they must needs adde unto it one of their songs; by that little French which I had gathered, and the simpering of a Fille de joy of Paris who came along with us, I perceived it was bawdy, and to say truth, more than patiently could be endured by any but a French-man, but quid facerem, what should I doe but endure the misery, for I had not lagu [...]ge enough to call them rogues handsomely, and the villaines were inferiour to a beating, and indeed not worthy of mine or any honest mans anger.

Praeda canum lepus est, vastos non implet hiatus

Nec gaudet tenui sanguine tanta s [...]is▪

They were a knot of Rascalls so infinitely below the severity of a Statute, that they would have discredited the State, and to have hanged them had been to hazard the reputation of the Gallows. In a yeare you would hardly finde out some vengeance for them, which they would not injure in the suffering; unlesse it be not to hearken to their ribaldry, which is one of their greatest torments. To proceed, after their song ended, one of the company (the Master of them it should seem) draweth a dish out of his pocket, and layeth it before us, into which we were [Page] to cast our benevolence. Custome hath allowed them a Sol, for each man at the table, they expect no more, and will take no lesse; no large summe, and yet I assure you, richly worth the musick, which was meerly French, that is, lascivious in the composure: and French also, that is, unskilfully handled in the playing.

Amongst the Ancients I have met with three kindes of Musick, viz. First, that which the Greeks call [...], which consisted altogether of long notes or Spondees, which was the gravest and saddest of all the rest, called by Aristotle, in the last Chapter of his Politicks, [...], or morall, because it setled the affections: Boetius whom we account the classicall Author in this faculty, called it Lydian, because in much use with those of that Nation at this day: We may call it Italian, as being generally a peculiar musick to that people. This is the Musick which Elisha called for, to invite unto him the spirit of Prophesie, 1 Kings 3.15. and this is it which is yet sung in our Churches. A practice which we derive from the Ancients (however some of late have opposed it) and which is much commended by Saint Augustine, this being the use of it, Ʋt per oblectamenta aurium infirmior animus in pietatis affectum assurgat. The second kinde the Artists call [...], which consisteth of a mixture of long and short notes, or of the Dactylus. The Philosopher termeth it [...]. being it had been in much esteem amongst the Dores, a Greek Nation: we may now call it English, as being that Musick with which our Nation is particularly affected. This is that Musick, [Page] which cheereth the spirits, and is so soveraign an Antidote to a minde afflicted, and which, as the Poet hath it, doth Saxa movere sono. The third sort is, that which the Greeks call [...], consisting altogether of short notes, or Tribracches. Aristotle calleth it, [...], ravishing, because it unhinged the affections, and stirred them to lasciviousnesse. Boetius termeth this Phrygian, as being the strain of that wanton and luxuriant people. In these times we may call it French, as most delighted in by the stirring spirits, and lightness of this Nation, a note of Musick forbidden unto youth by Aristotle and Plato, and not countenanced by any of them, but on the common theatres, to satisfie the rude manners and desires of the vulgar, [...], and to give them also content in their recreations, yet is this Musick altogether in use in this Countrey; no lesson amongst their profest Musicians that I could hear which had any gravity, or solid Art shewed in the Composition. They are pretty fellowes, I confesse, for the setting out of a Mask or a Coranto, but beyond this nothing, which maketh the Musick in their Churches so base and unpleasing, so that the glory of perfect Musick at this time, lyeth between the English and Italian; that of France being as triviall as their behaviour, of which indeed it is a concomitant. Mutata Musica mutantur mores, saith Tullie, and therefore he giveth us this lesson, Curandum itaque est, ut musica quam gravissima & sedatissima retineatur. A good item for the French.

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CHAP. II.

The Countrey and Site of Orleans, like that of Worcester. The Wine of Orleans. Praesidiall Townes in France, what they are. The sale of offices in France. The fine walk and pastime of the Palle Malle. The Church of St. Croix founded by Superstition of a Miracle, defaced by the Hugonets. Some things hated onely for their name. The Bishop of Orleans and his priviledge. The Chappel and Pilgrim of St. Jacques. The form of Masse in St. Croix. Censing a heathenish Custome. The great Siege of Orleans, raised by Joane the Virgin. The valor of that Woman, that she was no Witch. An Eulogie on her.

WE are now come into the countrey of Orleans, which though within the limits of La Beausse, will yet be accounted an intire County of it selfe, it is a dainty and pleasant Region, very even and large in the fields of it, insomuch that we could not see a hill or swelling of the ground within eye-reach. It consisted of an indifferent measure of Corne, but most plentiful of Vines, and hath of all other Fruits a very liberall portion. Neither is it meanly beholding to the Loyre for the benefits is receiveth by that River, on which the [Page] City of Orleans it selfe is sweetly seated. Of all places in England, Worcester-shire in my opinion cometh most nigh it, as well in respect of the Countrey, as the scituation of the Towne: for certainly that Countrey may be called the Epitome of England, as that of France. To the richest of the Corn-fields of Orleans we may compare the Vale of Evesham. Neither will it yeild for choyce and variety of Fruits, the Vine onely excepted. The Hedges in that Countrey are prodigall and lavish of those trees, which would become the fairest Orchards of the West, and in a manner recompenceth the want of Wine by its plenty of Perry and Syder. In a word, what a good Writer hath said of one, we may say of both, Coelum & sol [...]m ita propitium habent, ut salubritate & ubertate vicinis non concedunt. But the resemblance betweene the townes is more happy; both seated on the second River of note in their severall Countreys; and which are not much unlike in their severall courses. Severn washing the walls of Gloucoster, and passing nigh unto Bristoll, seated on a little Rivulet, and its Homager divideth the ancient Britaines from the rest of the English. The Loyre gliding to the city Tours, and passing nigh unto Angiers, seated also within the land on a little River, and one of its Tributaries, separateth the modern Britaines from the rest of the French. Posita est in loco modice acclivi, ad flumen, quod turrigero ponti conjungitur, & muro satis firmo munita, saith Mr. Cambden of Worcester. Orleans is seated on the like declivitie of an hill, hath its bridge well fortified with Turrets, and its walls of an equall ability [Page] of resistance; Sed decus est ab incolis qui sunt numerosi & humani, ab aedificiorum nitore, à templorum numero & maxime à Sede Episcopali, saith he of ours in genrall; we may see it fitly applied to this in each particular. The people of this town are not of the fewest, no town in France (the proportion of it considered) being more populous: for standing in so delicate an Aire, and on so commodious a River, it inviteth the Gentry or Noblesse of the countrey about it to inhabite there, and they accept it. Concerning their behaviour and humanity, certainly they much exceed the Parisians, I was about to say all the French-men, and indeed I not grudge them this Eulogie, which Caesar giveth unto those of Kent, and verifie that they are omnium incolarum longe humanissimi, my selfe here observing more courtesie and affability in one day, than I could meet withall in Paris, during all my abode there. The buildings of it are very suitable to themselves, and the rest of France; the streets large and well kept, not yeilding the least offence to the most curious nostrill: Parish Churches it hath in it 26. of different and unequall beeing, as it useth to be in other places; besides these, it containeth the Episcopall Church of S. Croix, and divers other houses of religious persons, amongst which is St. Jacques; of both which I shall speak in their due order. Thus much for the resemblance of the Townes, the difference betwixt them is this, that Orleans is the bigger, and Worcester the richer. Orleans consisteth much of the Noblesse, and of Sojourners; Worcester of Citizens and Home-dwellers; and for the manner of life in them, so it is [Page] that Worcester hath the handsomer woman in it, Orleans the finer, and in my opinion the loveliest in all France. Worcester thriveth the most on Cloathing, Orleans on their Vine-presses.

And questionlesse the Wine of Orleans is the greatest riches, not of the Towne onely, but of the Countrey also about it. For this cause A [...]dre dis Chesne calleth it, the prime Cellar of Paris, Est une pars (saith he) si henreuse & si secunde sur tout in vins quon la pent dice l'unde primiers celiers de Paris. Those Vines wherein he maketh it to be so happy, deserve no lesse a commendation than he hath given them, as yeilding the best Wines in all the Kingdome, such as it much moved me to mingle with Water, they being so delicious to the Palate, and the Epicurisme of the taste. I have heard of a Dutch Gentleman, who being in Italy was brought acquainted with a kinde of Wine which they there call Lachrymae Christi; no sooner had he tasted it, but he fell into a deep melancholy; and after some seaven sighes, besides the addition of two gro [...]nes, he brake out into this patheticall Ejaculation: Dii boni, quare non Christus lachrymatus esset in nostris regionibus? This Dutchman and I were for a time both of one minde, insomuch that I could almost have picked a quarrell with Nature, for giving us none of this Liquor in England At last we grew friends, again, when I had perceived how offensive it was to the brain (if not well qualified) for which cause it is said, that K. Lewis hath banished it his Cellar, no doubt to the great grief of his drinking Courtiers, who may therefore say with Martial,

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Quid tantum fecere boni tibi pessima vina?

Aut quid fecerunt optima vina mali?

This towne called Genabum by Caesar, was reedified by Aurelian the Emperour, Anno 276. and called by his name Aurelianum, which it still retaineth amongst the Latines. It hath been famous heretofore for four Councels here celebrated; and for being the seat royall of the Kings of Orleans: though as now I could not heare any thing of the ruines of the Palace. The same of it at this time consisteth in the Ʋniversity and its seat of Justice: This town being one of them which they call Sieges Presidiaux. Now these Seiges Presidiaux, Seats or Courts of Justice, were established in divers cities of the Realme for the ease of the people, Anno 1551. or thereabouts. In them all civill causes not exceeding 250 Liu'res in Money, or 10. Liu'res in Rents, are heard and determined soveraignly and without appeale. If the summe exceed those proportions the appeale holdeth good, and shall be examined in that Court of Parliament, under whose jurisdiction it is. Their Court here consisteth of a Baille, whose name is Mr. Digion, of twelve Counsellors, two Lieutenants, one civill, the other criminall, and a publique Notarie. When Mr. Le Compte de St. Paul, who is the Governour or Lieutenant Generall of the Province cometh into their Court, he giveth precedency to the Baille, in other places he receiveth it. This institution of these Presidiall Courts, was at first a very profitable ordinance, and much eased the people, but now it is [Page] grown burdensome. The reason is, that the offices are meere sa [...]able, and purchased by them with a great deale of money, which afterwards they wrest againe out of the purses of the Pa [...]sant. The sale of Offices drawing necessarily after it, the sale of Justice, a mischief which is spread so far, that there is not the worst under Officer in all the Realm Who may not say with the Captaine in the 22. of the Acts and the 28. verse, [...]. With a great summe of money obtained I this freedome. Twenty yeares purchase is said to be no extraordinary rate; and I have read, that onely by the sale of Offices one of the Kings had raised in twenty yeares 139 millions, which amounteth to the proportion of 7 millions yearly, or thereabouts, of all wayes to thrift and treasure the most unkindly. In the yeare 1614. the King motioned the abolishing of the sales of this Market, but it was upon a condition more prejudiciall to the people than the mischiefe. For he desired in lieu of it to have a greater imposition laid upon Salt, and upon the Aides, which those that were Commissioners for the C [...]mmonalty would not admit of, because then a common misery had been brought out of the State, to make their particular miseries the greater, and so the corruption remaineth unaltered.

This Towne as it is sweetly seated, in respect of the aire, so is it finely convenienced with the walks, of which the chief are, that next unto Paris gate, having the wall on the one hand, and a rank of Palm trees on the other; the second, that neere unto the bridge, having the Water pleasingly running [Page] on both sides: and a third which is indeed the principall, on the East-side of the City, it is called the Palle Malle, of an exercise of that name much used in this Kingdome, a very Gentleman-like sport, not over violent, and such as affordeth good opportunity of discourse, as they walk from one mark to the other. Into this walk, which is of a wonderful length and beauty▪ you shall have a clear evening empty all the towne, the aged people borrowing legs to carry them, and the younger armes to guide them. If any young Dame or Monsieur walk thither single, they will quickly finde some or other to link with them, though perhaps such with whom they have no familiarity. Thus do they measure and re-measure the length of the Palle Malle, not minding the shutting in of the day, till darkness hath taken away the sense of blushing; at all houres of the night, be it warm and dry, you shall be sure to finde them thus coupled; and if at the yeares end there be found more children in the towne than fathers, this walk and the night are shrewdly suspected to be accessories; a greater incnovenience in mine opinion, than an English Kiss.

There is yet a fourth walk in this towne, called L'estappe, a walk principally frequented by Merchants, who here meet to confer of their occasions. It lieth before the house of Mr. Le Comte de St. Paul, the Governour, and reacheth up to the Cloister of St. Croix: of the buildings of which Church I could never yet hear or read of any thing, but that which is meerly fabulous: for the Citizens report, that long since, time out of minde, there appeared a Vision to a holy Monk, which lived thereabouts, [Page] and bad him dig deep in such a place, where he should finde a piece of the Holy Crosse, charging him to preserve that blessed relique in great honour, and to cause a Church to be built in that place where it had been buried. Upon this warning the Church was founded, but at whose charges they could not inform me: so that all which I cou [...]d learn concerning the foundation of this Church, is, that it was erected by Superstition & a Lie. The Superstition is apparent in the worshipping of such rotten sticks, as they imagine to be the remnants of the Crosse: their calling of it holy, and dedicating of this Church unto it. Nay they have consecrated unto it two Holy-dayes, one in May, and the other in September, and are bound to salute it as often as they see it in the streets, or high wayes, with these words, Ave salus totius Seculi, arbor salutifera. Horrible blasphemy, and never heard of but under Antichrist, Cruces subeundas esse non adorandas, being the lesson of the Ancients. As for the Miracle I account it as others of the same stamp, equally false and ridiculous. This Church in the yeare 1562. was defaced and ruined by the Hugonots, who had entred the town under the conduct of the Prince of Conde. An action little savouring of Humanity, and lesse of Religion; the very Heathens themselves never demolishing any of the Churches of those towns which they had taken: but in this action the Hugonots consulted only with rashnesse and zealous fury, thinking no title so glorious as to be called the Scourge of Papists, and the overthrowers of Popish Churches.

[Page]Quid facerent hostes captâ crudelius urbe?

The most barbarous en [...]mies in the world could not more have exercised their malice on the vanqu [...]shed. And this I pe [...]swade my selfe had been the fate of most of our Churches, if that Fict [...]on had got the upper hand of us; but this Church notwithstanding is likely now to survive their madnesse, being Henry the fourth beg [...]n the repairing of it, and his Son Lewis hath si [...]ce continued it, so that the Quire is not quite finished, and the workmen are in hand with the rest. What should move the Hugonots to this execution I cannot say, except it were a hate which they beare unto the name, and perhaps not that unlikely. We read how the Romans having expelled the Kings banished also Collatinus their Consul, a man in whom they could finde no fault, but this, that his sirname was Tarquinius. Tantum ob nomen & genus regium, saith Florus: Afterwards quam invisum fuerit Regis nomen, is very frequent in the stories of those times. Among those which had been of the Conspiracy against Julius Caesar, there was one named Cinna, a name so odious among the people, that meeting by chance with one of Caesars friends, and hearing that his name was Cinna, they presently murthered him in the place. For which cause one Cassius, which was also the name of one of the Conspirators, published a writing of his name and ped [...]gree, shewing therein that he neither was the Traytor, nor any kin to him. The reason of his action Dion giveth us, [...]. [Page] Ne si nominis causâ occideretur. With a like heat it may be were the French Protestants possessed against the name of the Crosse. For they not onely ruined that Temple, but beat downe also all those little Crosses betwixt Mount Mactre and St. Denis, though now King Lewis hath caused them to be re-edified. And what troubles the French party here in England have raised because of that harmlesse ceremony of the Crosse, Notius est quam ut stylo egeat, and therefore I omit it.

This Church is the Seat of a Bishop, who acknowledgeth the Archbishoprick of Seines for his Metropolitan. The present Bishop is named Franciscus de Anbespins, said to be a worthy Scholar, and a sound Polititian; though he were never graduated farther than the Arts: of his revenue I could learn nothing, but of his privileges this, namely, that at the entrance of every new Bishop into this Church, he hath the liberty of setting free of any of the Prisoners of the Gaole, though their crime be never so mortall. For the originall of this indulgence we are beholding to St. A [...]gnan, once Bishop here, and who defended the city against Atella the Huanne: At his first entrance into the towne (saith the Story) after he was invested Bishop, he besought Agrippinus the Governor that for his sake he would let loose all his Prisoners; Ʋt omnes quos pro variis criminibus poenalis car [...]er detinebat inclusos, sibi in introitus gratiam redderet resolutos: When the Governour had heard this request, he denied it, and presently a stone falleth on his head, no man knew from whence. Wounded and terrified with this, the Governour granteth hi [...] [Page] desire, recovereth his health, and ever since the custome hath continued. For the truth of this story I intend to be no Champion, for I hold it ridiculous, and savouring too much of the Legend; but this I am certain of, that every new Bishop maketh a solemn and majestick entry into the City, and at his entry releaseth a Prisoner.

Let us follow the Bishop into his Church, and we shall finde him entertained with an high Masse, the ceremonies whereof are very pretty and absurd; To goe over them all would require a volume, I will therefore mention those onely, wherein they diff [...]r from other Masses and they are two, the one Fantasticall, the other Heathenish; for as soon as the Priest at the Altar hath read a certain lesson, but what, his voyce was not audible enough to tell me, out marcheth the Dean, or in his absence the senior Chanoin out of the Church; before him two or three Torches, and a long Crosse silvered over; after him all those of the Church, and lastly, the Lay-people both men and women, so that there is none left to keep possession, but the Priest at the Altar, and such strangers as come thither for curiosity; they went out at one door, and just circuited the Quire, and the body of the Church, afterwards they return to their places, and the Priest proceedeth; I have seen many a dumb shew in a Play just like it. This onely is the difference, that here we had no interpreter nor Chorus afforded us to shew us the mysterie of this silent je [...]iculation. The other addition which I observed here at the Masse (though I have since been told, that it is ordinrary at High Masses in Cathedrall[Page]Churches) was the censing of the people, which was performed in this manner: Whiles the Priest was busie at the Altar, there entred into the Quire at a side door, two Boyes in their Surplices bearing waxe Tapers in their hands, and immediately after them the foresaid fellow with the Crosse. In the rare there came two of the Priests in their Copes, and other stately vestments, between both a young lad with the Incense pot, made full of holes to let out the fume, which he swinged on all sides of him, with a chain to which it was fastned: Having thus marched through the Church, and censed the people, he ascended unto the Altar, & there censed the Cross, the Reliques, the Bread and Wine, the Chalice, the Images ▪ and I know not what not. A custome very much used amongst the Heathen: Omnibus vicis factae sunt statuae, & ad eas thus & cerei, saith Tully: and Jane tibi primùm thura merumque fero, saith Ovid in his book de Fastis; so have we in Martiall, Te primùm pia thura rogent, and the like in divers other writers of the Antients. At what time it crept into the Churches of the Christians, I cannot tell. Sure I am, it was not used in the Primitive times, nor in the third Century after our Saviour, save only in their Burialls, Sciant sabae (saith Tertullian, (who at that time lived) plures & chariores merces suas Christianis, saepeliendis profligari, quā Diis fumigantibus. Arnobius also in his first book, adversus gentes, disclaimeth the use of it, and yet their Councel of Trent in the 22 Session defineth it to be as boldly an Apostolicall institution and tradition, as if the Apostles themselves had told them so; I know they had rather seem to derive it from the [Page] 10. chapter of Exodus, and the 1. verse, and so Bishop Durand is of opinion in his Rationale Divinorum, but this will not help them. Aaron there is commanded to burne Incense onely on the Altar, and not to cense Men and Images, Crosses and reliques, as the Papists doe; so that will they, [...]ill they, they must be counted followers of the Heathen, though I envy them not the honour of being Jewes. From the History and Revenue of the Church proceed we to that of the Town, where nothing occurreth more memorable, than the great si [...]ge laid before it by the English. A siege of great importance to both parties, France having been totally won unto King Henry, if this Town had yeelded, and once so nigh it was to submit it selfe, that the people proffered to yeeld themselves to Philip Duke of Burgundie, then a great confederate of our Nation, who had not been present in the Camp, but this the English Generall would not consent unto; and it was the resolution of Antigonus a long time before us, Negavit Antigonus (saith Justine) se in ejus belli praedam socios admittere, in cujus periculum solus descenderat. On this determinate sentence of the Generall, (he was Montacute Earl of Salisbury) the Town purposed to hold out a little longer, and was at last relieved by Joane de Arca maid of vancoleure in Loraine whom they called la Puelle; how by that excellent Soldier the Generall war slaine, and the siege raised, I need not relate, it is extant in all our Chronicles. This onely now, that ever since that time, the people of Orleans keep a solemn procession on every eighth day of May, on which day, An. 1427. [Page] their City was delivered from its enemies.

But the atchievements of this brave Virago, stayed not here, sh [...] thinkes it not enough to d [...]pulse her enemies, unlesse she also vanquish them; armed therefore cap a pea; she went to seek an occasion of battaile▪ and was alwayes formost, and in the head or her Troops.

Duxit Amazonidum lunatis agmina bellis,

Penthesilea furens, mediisque in millibus arde [...].

For her first service she taketh Jargean, discomfiteth the English which were in it, and maketh the Earl of Suffolk Prisoner: soon after followed the battaile of Patay, in which the English were driven out of the field, and the great Talbot taken. This done, she accompanieth Charles the 1. whose Angell-Guardian she was thought, all Champayne unto Rhemes, where she solemnly saw him Crowned, all the Townes of those Countreyes yeelding upon the approach of her, and the Kings Army. Finally, after many acts performed above the nature of her sexe, which I will not stand here to particulate: she was taken prisoner at the siege of Campaigne delivered over unto the Earle of Bedford by him sent unto Roven and there burnt for a Witch on the sixth of July Anno 1431. There was also another crime objected against her, as namely that she had abused the nature of her sexe, marching up and downe in the habit of a man; & nihil muliebre p [...]aeter corpus gerens, of all accusations the most impotent, for in what other habit could she dresse her selfe, undertaking the actions [Page] of a General: and besides, to have worne her womans weeds in time of battaile, had been to have betrayed her safety, and to have made her selfe the marke of every Arrow. It was therefore requisite, that she should array her selfe in compleat harness, and in that habit of compleat armour have those of Orleans, erected those statua's all in brasse, upon the middle of their bridge.

As for that other imputation of being a Witch, saving the credit of those that condemned her, and theirs also, who in their writings have so reported her, I dare be of the contrary opinion, for dividing her actions into two parts, those that precede her coming unto Orleans, and those that followed it, I find much in it of valour, somewhat perhaps of cunning, but nothing that is divelish; her relieving of Orleans, and courage shewn at the battaile of Patay and Gargean, with the conducting of the King unto Rhemes, are no such prodigies, that they need to be ascribed unto Witchcraft: She was not the first woman whom the world knew famed in armes, there being no Nation almost of the Earth, who have not had a Champion of this sexe to defend their liberties: to omit the whole Nation of the Amazon's, to the Jewes in the time of their afflictions, the Lord raised up a Salvation by meanes of two women, Deborah and Judith: And God is not the God of the Jewes onely, but also of the Gentiles. Amongst the Sirvans, Zenobia, Queen of Palmira is very famous: the Romans (whom she often foiled) never mentioning her without honour. The like commendable testimony they give of Velleda, a Queen amongst the [Page] Germanes, and a woman which much hindered their affaires in that Countrey: thus had the Gothes their Amalasunta, the Assyrians their Semiramis the Scythians their Tomyres; the Romans their Flavia, and brave Captaines, and such as posterity hath admired without envie. To come home unto our selves, the writers of the Romans mention the revolt of Britaines and the slaughter of 70000 Confederates to the Romans, under the conduct of Vocudia: and she in the beginning of her encouragements to the action telleth the people thus, Solitum quidem Britannis foeminarum ductu bellare. Of all these Heroicall Ladyes, I read no accusation of witchcraft; innative courage, and a sense of injury, being the armes they fought withall. Neither can I see why the Romans should exceed us in modesty, or that we need envie unto the French this one female Warriour: when it is a fortune which hath befallen most nations. As for her atchievements, they are not so much beyond a common being, but that they may be imputed to naturall meanes. For had she been a Witch, it is likely she would have prevented the disgrace which her valour suffered in the ditches of Paris; though she could not avoid those of Champeigne who took her prisoner. The Divell at such an exigent only being accustomed to forsake those which he hath intangled; so that she enjoyed not such a perpetuity of faelicity, as to entitle her to the Divells assistance, she being sometimes conquerour, sometimes overthrowne, and at last imprisoned. Communia fortune ludibria, the ordinary sports of Fortune; her actions before her March to Orleans having somewhat in them of cunning and perhaps of imposture, [Page] as the Vision which she reported to have incited her to these attempts; her finding out of the King disguised in the habit of a Countrey-man, and her appointing to her selfe an old sword, hanging in Saint Katharines Church in Tours. The French were at this time meerly cr [...]t-fallen, not to be raised but by a miracle. This therefore is invented, and so that which of all the rest must prove her a sorceresse, will onely prove her an impostor. Gerrard seigneur de Haillan, one of the best writers of France is of opinion, that all that plot of her coming to the King, was contrived by three Lords of the Court to hearten the people, as if God now miraculously intended the restauration of the Kingdome. Add to this, that she never commanded in any battaile, without the assistance of the best Captaines of the French Nation, and amongst whom was the Bastard of Orleans, who is thought to have put this device into her head. The Lord Bellay in his discourse of Art Military, proceedeth further, and maketh her a man, onely thus habited: Pour fair revenir le courage aux Francois, which had it been so, would have been discovered at the time of her burning. Other of the later French Writers (for those of the former age savour too much of the Legend) make her to be a lusty lasse of Lorreine, trained up by the Bastard of Orleans and the Seigneur of Brandicourt, only for this service & that she might carry with her the reputation of a Prophetesse, and an Ambassadresse from Heaven, Admit this, and farewell Witchcraft. As for the sentence of her Condemnation, and the confirmation of it by the Divines and Ʋniversity of Paris, it is with [Page] me of no moment, being composed onely to humour the Victor. If this could sway me, I had more reason to encline to the other party; for when Charles had setled his estate, the same man who had condemned her of Sorcery, absolved her; and there was also added in defence of her innocency, a Decree from the Court of Rome. Joane then with me shall inherit the title of La puelle d' Orleans, with me she shall be ranked amongst the famous Captaines of her time, and be placed in the same throne, equall with the valiant'st of all her Sex in times before her. Let those whom partiality hath wrested aside from the path of truth, proclaime her for a Sorceress: for my part I will not flatter the best Fortunes of my Countrey to the prejudice of a truth; neither will I ever be induced to think of this female Warriour otherwise than as of a noble Captaine.

— Audet (que) viris concurrere Virgo.

Penthesilea did it, why not she

Without the stain of Spells and Sorcery?

Why should those Arts in her be counted sin,

Which in the other have commended been?

Nor is it fit that France should be deny'd

This Female Soldier; since all Realms beside

Have had the honour of one, and relate

How much that Sex hath ev'n forc'd the state

Of their decaying strength: let Scytha spare

To speak of Tomyris; the Assyrians care

[Page]Shall be no more to have their deeds recited

Of Ninus's wife, nor are the Dutch delighted

To have the name of their Velleda extoll'd, the name

Of this French Warriour hath eclips'd their fame,

And silenc'd their atchievements; let the praise

That's due to Vertue wait upon her, raise

An Obelisk unto her, you of Gaule,

And let her Acts live in the mouths of all:

Speak boldly of her, and of her alone,

That never Lady was as good as Joane.

She dy'd a Virgin, 'twas because the earth

Held not a man, whose Vertues, or whose Birth

Might merit such a Blessing; but above

The Gods provided her a fitting Love,

And gave her to St. Denis; she with him

Protects the Lillies and their Diadem.

You then about whose Armies she doth watch,

Give her the honour due unto her Match.

And when in Field your Standard you advance,

Cry 'loud, St. Denis and St. Joan for France.

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CHAP. III.

The study of the Civil Law received in Europe. The dead time of Learning. The Schoole of Law in Orleans. The Oeconomie of them. The Chancelour of Oxford anciently appointed by the Diocaesan there. Method here, and Prodigality in bestowing Degrees. Orleans a great Conflux of Strangers. The Language there. The Corporation of Germaines there. Their House and Privilege. Dutch Latine. The difference between an Academy and an University.

I Have now done with the Town and City of Orleans, and am come to the Ʋniversity or Schooles of Law which are in it, this being one of the first places in which the Study of the Civil Law was received in Europe; for immediately after the death of Justinian, who out of no lesse than two thousand volumes of Law-Writers, had collected that body of the Imperiall Laws, which we now call the Digest, or the Pandects, the study of them grew neglected in these Westerne parts: nor did any for a long time professe or read them. The reason was b [...]cause Italy, France, Spaine, England and Germany, having received new Lords over them, as the Franks, Lombards, Saxons, Sarcens, and others, were faine to submit themselves to their Lawes. [Page] It happened afterwards that Lotharius Saxo the Emperour, who began his Raigne Anno 1126, being 560 yeares after the death of Justinian, having taken the City of Melphy in Naples, found there an old Copy of the Pandects. This he gave to the Pisans his Confederates, as a most reverend relique of Learning and Antiquity, whence it is called Litera pisana. Moreover he founded the Ʋniversity of Bologne, or Bononia ordaining the Civill Law, to be profest therein, Wernir being the first Professor; upon whose advice the said Emperour ordained, that Bononia should be Legum & Juris Schola una & sola, and here was the first time and place of that study in the Westerne Empire. But it was not the fate onely of the Civill Lawes to be thus neglected, all other parts of Learning, both Arts and Languages were in the same desperate Estates. The Poets exclamation, O coelum insipiens & infacetum, never being so appliable as in those times, for it is with the knowledge of good Letters as it is in the effects of Nature; they have their times of growth alike, of perfection and of death like the Sea, it hath its ebbs as well as its flouds; and like the Earth, it hath its Winter, wherein the seeds of it are deaded, and bound up, as well as a Spring wherein it re-flourisheth. Thus the learning of the Greeks ▪ lay forgotten, and lost in Europe, for 700 yeares, even unto Emanuel Chrysolarus taught it at Venice, being driven out of his owne Countrey by the Turks. Thus the Philosophy of Aristotle lay hidden in the moath of dust and Libraries; Et nominabatur potiùs quam legebatur, as Ludovicus Vives observeth in his notes. S. Austin, [Page] untill the time of Alexander Aphrodiseus. Thus also lay the elegancies of the Roman tongue obscure, till that Erasmus Moor and Reuclyn in the several kingdomes of Germany, England and France endeavoured the restauration of it.

But to return to the Civill Law, after the foundation of the Ʋniversity of Bologne, it pleased Philip le Belle King of France, to found another here at Orleans for the same purpose, Anno 1 [...]12. which was the first school of that profession, on this side the mountaines; this is evident by the Bull of Clement the fifth, dated at Lyons in the yeare 1367. where he giveth this title; Fructiferum Ʋniversitatis Aurelianum sis inter caetera Citramontana studia prius, solennius, antiquius, tam Civilis, quam Canonicae facultatis studium. At the first there were instituted eight Professors, now they are reduced unto four onely, the reason of this decrease being the increase of Ʋniversities: the place in which they read their Lectures is called, Les grands Escoles, and that part of the City, La Ʋniversitie, neither of which attributes it can any way merit: Colledges they have none, either to lodge the Students, or to entertaine the Professors; the former sojourning in divers places of the Town, these last in their severall houses. As for their places of reading, which they call Les grands Escoles, it is onely an old Barne converted into a School, by the addition of five rankes of Formes, and a Pew in the middle; you never saw any thing so mock its own name: Lucus not being of more people called so, à non lucendo, then this ruinous house is, the great School, because it is little. The present Professors [Page] are Mr. Fowrner, the Rector at my being there, Mr. Tullerie and Mr. Grand: the fourth of them named Mr. Angram, was newly dead, and his place, like a dead pay among Soldiers, not supplied: In which estate was the function also of Mr. Podes, whose office it was to read the book of Institutions, unto such as come newly to the town. They read each of them an houre in their turnes every morning in the week, unlesse Holy-dayes and Thursdayes, their hearers taking their Lectures of them in their tables. Their principall office is that of the Rector, which every three moneths descendeth down unto the next, so that once in a yeare, every one of those Professors hath his turne of being Rector. The next in dignity unto him is the Chancellor, whose office is during life, and in whose names all degrees are given, and of the Letters Authenticall (as they terme them) granted. The present Chancellor is named Mr. Bouchier, Doctor of Divinity, and of both the Lawes; and Prebend also of the Church of S. Croix; his place is in the gift of the Bishop of Orleans, and so are the Chancellors places in all France, at the bestowing of the Diocesan: anciently it was thus also with us of Oxford; the Bishop of Lincolne nominating unto us our Chancellors, till the yeare, 1370. William of Renmington being the first Chancellor elected by the Ʋniversity.

In the bestowing of their degrees here, they are very liberall, and deny no man that is able to pay his fees: Legem ponere, is with them more powerfull than Legem dicere, and he that hath but his gold ready, shall have a sooner dispatch, than the best Scholar upon the ticket.

[Page]

Ipsè licet venias Musis comitatus Homere,

Si nihil attuleris, ibis Homere for as.

It is the Money that disputeth best with them.

Money makes the man, saith the Greek and English proverb. That of one of the Popes (I remember not suddenly his name) who openly protested, that he would give the orders of Priesthood to an Asse, should the King of England commend an Asse unto him, may be most appositely spoken of them. The exercise which is to be performed before the degree taken, is very little, and as trivially performed. When you have chosen the Law, which you mean to defend, they will conduct you into an old ruinous chamber, they call it their Library; for my part I should have thought it to have been the Warehouse of some second hand Bookseller: those few books which were there, were as old as Printing, and could hardly make amongst them one cover to resist the violence of a Rat. They stood not up endlong, but lay one upon the other, and were joyned together with Cobwebs instead of strings; he that would ever gesse them to have been looked into since the long reigne of Ignorance, might justly have condemned his own charity. For my part I was prone to believe, that the three last centuries of yeeres had never seen the inside of them or that the poor p [...]per had been troubled with the disease called Noli me tangere. In this unlucky room doe they hold their disputations, unlesse they be solemn and full of expectation: and after two or three arguments urged, commend the sufficiency of the Respondent, and pronounce him worthy of his degrees. That done, they cause [Page] his Authenticall Letters to be sealed, and in them they tell the Reader, with what diligence and paines they sifted the Candidate: that it is necessary to the Common-wealth of Learning, that Industry should be honoured, and that on that ground they have thought it fitting. Post angustias solamen, post vigilias requietem, post dolores gaudia, for so (as I remember) goeth the forme, to recompence the labours of N. N. with the degree of Doctor or Licentiate, with a great deale more of the like formall foolery; Et ad hunc modum fiunt Doctores.

From the Study of the Law, proceed we unto that of the Language, which is said to be better spoken here, then in any part of France, and certainly the people hereof spake it more distinctly then the rest, I cannot say more elegantly; yet partly for this reason, partly because of the study of the Law, and partly because of the sweetnesse of the aire; the Town is never without abundance of strangers of all Nations, which are in correspondency with the French: but in the greatest measure it is replenished with those of Germany, who have here a Corporation, & indeed do make among themselves a better Ʋniversity then the Ʋniversity. This Corporation consisteth of a Procurator, a Questor, an Assessor, two Bibliothecaries, and twelve Counsellors; they have all of them their distinct jurisdictions, and are solemnly elected by the rest of the company every third moneth. The Consulship of Rome, was never so welcome unto Cicero, as the office of Procurator is to a Dutch Gentleman: he for the time of his command, ordering the affaires of all his Nation, and to say truth, being much respected [Page] by those of the Towne; it is his office to admit of the young comers, to receive the moneyes due at their admission, and to receive an account of the dispending of it, of the Questor, and the expiring of his charge. The office of an Assessor, is like that of a Clerk of the Councell, and the Secretary mixt: fot he registreth the Acts of their Counsells, writeth Letters in the name of the House, to each of the French Kings, at their new coming to the Crown, and if any Prince, or extraordinary Ambassadour cometh to the town, he entertaineth him with a Speech. The Bibliothecaries look to the Library, in which they are bound to remain three houres a day in their severall tu [...]nes; a pretty room it is, very plentifully furnished with choyce books, and that at small charge, for that it is here the custome, that every one of the Nation at his departure, must leave with them one of what kinde or price it best pleaseth him: besides, each of the Officers at the resigning of his charge, giveth unto the new Questor, a piece of gold about the value of a Pistolet, to be expended according as the necessities of their state require, which most an end is bestowed upon the increase of their Library.

Next unto this Cite des Littres (as one of the French writers calleth Paris) is their Counsell-house, an handsome squire Chamber, and well furnished: In this they hold their consultations, and in this preserve their Records and Priviledges, the keeping of the one, and summoning the other, being meerly in the hands of the Procurator. About the Table they have five Chaires, for the five principall Officers, those of the Councell sitting round the Chamber [Page] on Stools: the arms of the Empire being placed directly over every of the Seats: If it happen that any of them dye there, they all accompany him to his Grave, in a manner mixt so orderly of Griefe and State, that you would think the obsequies of some great Potentate were solemnizing; and to say truth of them, they are a hearty and loving Nation, not to one another onely, but to strangers, and especially to us of England. Onely I could wish that in their Speech and Complement they would not use the Latine tongue, or else speak it more congruously: You shall hardly finde a man amongst them, which can make a shift to expresse himselfe in that language, nor one amongst an hundred that can doe it Latinely. Galleriam, Compaginem, Gardinum and the like, are as usuall in their common discourse, as to drinke at three of the clock, and as familiar as their sleep. Had they bent their study that way, I perswade my self they would have been excellent good at the Common Lawes, their tongues so naturally falling on these words which are necessary to a Declaration: but amongst the rest, I took especiall notice of one Mr. Gebour, a man of that various mixture of words, that you would have thought his tongue to have been a very Amsterdam of Languages, Cras mane [...] non irous ad magnam Galleriam, was one of his remarkable speeches when we were at Paris: but here at Orleans, we had them of him thick and threefold. If ever he should chance to dye in a strange place, where his Countrey could not be knowne but by his tongue, it could not possibly be, but that more Nations would strive [Page] for him, than ever did for Homer. I had before read of the confusion of Babel, in him I came acquainted with it: yet this use might be made of him, and his hotch-potch of Languages, that a good Chymicall Physitian would make an excellent medicine of it against the stone. In a word, to goe no more upon the particulars, I never knew a people that spake more words and lesse Latine.

Of these ingredients is the Ʋniversity of Orleans compounded, if at least it be lawfull to call it an Ʋniversity, as I thinke it be not; the name of Academie would beseem it better, and God grant (as Zancho Panca said of his wife) it be able to discharge that calling. I know that these names are indifferently used, but not properly; for an Academie (the name is derived from a place neer Athens, called Academia, where Plato first taught Philosophie) in its strict and proper sense is such a study, wherein one or two Arts are professed, as Law at Orleans and Bononia, and Physick at Montpelleir and Padua. An Ʋniversity is so called, quòd Ʋ niversae ibi traduntur disciplinae, as the name importeth, where Learning is professed in the Generality, and in the whole [...] of it. The first the Germans call Schola illustris; the latter, Generale studium: very opposite titles, and in which there is little of a German.

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CHAP. IV.

Orleans not an University, till the coming of the Jesuits. Their Colledge there, by whom built. The Jesuits not Singers. Their laudable and exact Method of teaching. Their Policy in it. Received not without great difficulty into Paris. Their houses in that University. Their strictnesse unto the Rules of their order. Much maliced by the other Priests and Friers. Why not sent into England with the Queen. And of what order they were that came with her. Our returne to Paris.

THe difference between an Ʋniversity and an Academy standing thus; those which lived in our Fathers dayes, could hardly have called Orleans an Ʋniversity: a Shoole of Law being the name most fit for it. At this time, since the coming of the Jesuits, that appellation may not misbecome it; they having brought with them those parts of Learning, which before were wanting in it▪ but that hath not been of any long standing, their Colledge being yet not fully finished: By an Inscription over the gate, it seemeth to be the work of Mr. Cagliery, one of the Advocates in the Parliament of Paris, a man of large practise, and by the consequence, of great [...] possessions, and who having no child but this Colledge, is [Page] said to intend the fastening of his estate upon it. In this house doe those of this order apply themsevles to the study of good Letters; in the pursuit whereof, as the rest of this Fraternity are, they are good proficients, and much exceed all other sorts of Friers, as having better teachers, and more leisure to learn. That time which the other spend at their High Masses, and at their Canonicall houres, these men bestow upon their books, they being exempted from those duties by their order. Upon this ground they trouble not their heads with the Crotchets of Musick, nor spend their mouthes upon the chanting out of their Services: they have other matters to employ their braines upon, such as are the ruine of Kingdoms & desolation of Countreys. It was the saying of Themistocles, being requested to play a Lesson on the Lute, That he could not fiddle, but he could tell how to make a little Town a great City. The like may we say of the Jesuites, they are no great singers, but are well skilled in making little cities great, and great ones little: and certaine it is, that they are so farre from any ability or desire this way, that upon any of their solemne Festivals, when their Statutes require Musick, they are faine to hire the Singing men of the next Cathedrall, as here upon the feast of their Patron St. Ignatius, being the 22. of July; they were compelled to make use of the voyces of the church of S. Croix.

To this advantage of leisure is added the exact method of their teaching, which is indeed so excellent, that the Protestants themselves in some places send their sons to their Schooles, upon desire to [Page] have them prove exquisite in those arts they teach. To them resort the Children of the rich as well as of the poor, and that in such abundance, that wheresoever they settle; other houses become in a manner desolate, or frequented only by those of the more heavy and phlegmatick constitutions. Into their Schooles when they have received them, they place them in that forme or Classe, into which they are best fitted to enter. Of these Classes the lowest is for Grammar; the second for the composition or making of Themes, as we call it; the third for Poetrie, the fourth for Oratory, the fifth for Greeke Grammar and Compositions; the sixth for Poesie and Rhetorick of that Language; the seventh for Logick; and the eighth and last for Philosophy. In each of these Schools there is a severall Reader, or Institutor, who onely intendeth that art, and the perfection of it, which for that yeare he teacheth. That yeare ended, he removeth both himselfe and Schollars with him into the Classes or Schoole next beyond him, till he hath brought them through the whole study of humanity. In the last Forme, which is that of Philosophy, he continueth two yeares, which once expired, his Scholars are made perfect in the Universality of Learning, and themselves are manumitted from their Tutors, and permitted their private Studies. Nor doe they onely teach their Scholars an exictnesse in those severall parts of Learning which they handle: but they also endeavour to breed in them an obstinacy of minde, and a sturdy eagernesse of spirit, to make them thereby hot prosecutors of their own opinions, and impatient of any contrary consideration: [Page] This it is which maketh all those of their education to affect Victory in all their controversies of Wit and Knowledge, with such a violence, that even in their very Grammaticall disputations, you shall find little boyes maintain arguments with such a fierce impatience, that you would think it above the nature of years; and all this they perform freely, and for nothing: the poore Paisants sonne being by them equally instructed with that of the Noblesse. By this meanes they get into their Society great honour and great strength: Honour in furnishing their Schooles with so many persons of excellent quality, or nobility, of whom afterwards they make their best advantages for their strength also: As for those of the poorer sort, they have also their ends upon them; for by this free and liberall education of their children, the common people doe infinitely affect them; besides that, out of that rank of their Scholars, they assume such into their Fraternity, whom they finde to be of a rare wit, an excellent spirit, or any other way fitted for their profession.

Thus do they make their owne purpose out of all conditions, and refuse no fish which either they can draw into their nets, or which will offer it selfe unto them. Si locuples quis est, avari sunt; si pauper ambitiosi: quos non oriens non occidens satiaverit, soli omnium opes atque in piam opur affectu concupiscunt. Galgacus a British Captaine spake it of the Souldiers of the Roman Empire, we may as justly verifie it of these Souldiers of the Roman Church: they being the men whom neither the East nor West Indies can satisfie, and who with a like fervency [Page] desire the education of the needy and the wealthy. Moreover, by this method of teaching they do not onely strengthen themselves in the affections of men abroad, but also fortifie themselves within their owne walls at home; for by this meanes there is not one of their society who hath perfectly concocted in his head the whole [...] of knowledge, but hath gained unto himself the true art of speaking, and readinesse of expressing what he knoweth, without the least demur or hesitancie; the greatest happinesse of a Scholer. To conclude then, and say no more of them & their abilities (for virtus & in hoste probatur) it is thought by men of wisdome and judgement, that the planting of a Colledge of Jesuits in any place, is the onely sure way to re-establish that Religion which they professe, and in time to eat out the contrary.

This notwithstanding they were at the first institution of them rightly opposed, & no where more v [...] olently than in the University of Paris. An Ʋniversity that standeth much upon its liberties & privileges, to which this order was imagined to be an hindrance, it being lawfull for them to take any degree in their owne houses without reference to any publique exercise or examination. In the year 1554. at which time they first began to set foot in France, the Colledge of the Sorbonists made a long Decree against them: in the end whereof are these words, and they are worth the reading, Videtur haec societas in negotio fidei periculosa, pacis & Ecclesiae perturbativa, Monasticae religionis eversiva, & magis ad destructionem quam ad aedificationem. A censure too [Page] full of vinegar and bitternesse: Afterwards in the yeare 1564. they preferred a Petition to the Ʋniversity, that the Colledge which the Bishop of Clermont had built for them, might be incorporated into the Ʋniversity, and every the immunities of it: Upon the Ʋniversities deniall of their desire, there arose a suit between them and the Ʋniversity in the High court of Parliament, Peter Versories pleading for the Jesuits, and Steven Pasquier for the other party: in the end they were admitted, though upon terms of wonderfull strictnesse. Anno 1594. John Chastell of Novice of this order, having wounded King Henry the fourth in the mouth, occasioned the banishment of this Society out of all France. Into which they were not againe received till the yeare 1604. and then also upon limitations more strict than ever. Into Paris they were not re-admitted untill Anno 1606. neither had they the liberty of reading Lectures, and instructing the Youth, confirmed unto them untill Anno 1621. which also was compassed not without great trouble and vexation.

Per varios casus & tot discrimina rerum,

as Aeneas and his companions came into Latium.

In this Ʋniversity they have at this instant three Houses, one of Novices, a second of Institutors, which they call the Colledge, and a third of professed Jesuits, which they stile their Monastery, or the professed House of St. Lewis. In their house of Novices they traine up all those whom they have [Page] called out of their Schooles, to be of their order, and therein imitate them in the art of Jesuitisme, and their mysteries of iniquity. There they teach them not Grammaticall construction, or composition, but instruct them in the paths of Vertue, Courage, and Obedience, according to such examples as their Authors afford them. But he that made the Funerall Oration for Henry the fourth, Anno 1610. reported otherwise: Latini Sermonis obtentu (saith he) impurissime Gallicae juventutis mores ingenuos foedant: Bonarum artium praetextu, pessimas edocent artes; Dum ingenia excolunt, animas perdunt, &c. In their College they have the same method of teaching, which the others of their company use in Orleans. A Colledge first given unto them by Mr. William Prat, Bishop of Clermont, whose House it was, but much beautified by themselves after his decease; for with the money which he gave unto them by his Will, which amounteth (as it was thought) to 60000. Crowns; they added to it the Court called de Langres, in S. James's street; An. 1582. Their Monastery, or house of prayer or profession, is that unto which they retire themselves, after they have discharged their duties in the College, by reading and studying publickly in their severall Classes; when they are here, their study both for time and quality, is ad placitum, though generally their onely study in it, is Policy, and the advancing of their cause. And indeed out of this Trojan Horse it is that those firebrands and incendiaries, are let out to disturb, and set in combustion the affaires of Christendome. Out of this Forge come all those Stratagems, and tricks of Machiavillianisme which [Page] tend to the ruine of the Protestants & the desolation of their Countries. I speak not this of their house of Profession here in Paris, either onely or principally; wheresoever they settle, they have a House of this nature, out of which they issue to overthrow the Gospel. Being once sent by their superiours, a necessity is laid upon them of obedience, be the imployment never so dangerous; and certainly this nation doth most strictly obey the rules of their order of any whosoever, not excepting the Capuchins, nor the Carthusians. This I am witnesse unto, that whereas the Divinity Lecture is to end at the tolling of a Bell, one of the Society in the College of Clermont, reading about the fall of the Angells, ended his Lecture with these words, Denique in quibuscunque; for then was the warning given, and he durst not so farre trespasse upon his rule, as to speak out his sentence.

But it is not the fate of these Jesuites to have great persons onely, and Ʋniversities to oppose their fortunes, they have also the most accomplisht malice, that either the Secular Priests, or their friends amongst whom they live, can fasten upon them. Some envy them for the greatnesse of their possessions, some because of the excellency of their Learning; some hate them for their power; some for the shrewdnesse of their braines; all together making good that saying of Paterculus, that Semper eminentis fortunae comes est invidia. True indeed it is, that the Jesuites have in a manner deserved all this clamor and stomack by their own insolencies, for they have not onely drawne into their owne hands all the principall affaires of Court [Page] and State, but upon occasions cast all the storme and contempt they can, upon those of the other Orders. The Janizaries of the Turke never more neglectfully speak of the Asapi, than these doe of the rest of the Clergie. A great crime in those men who desire to be accounted such excellent Masters of their owne affections. Neither is the affection borne to them abroad, greater then that at home; amongst those, I mean, of the opposite party, who being so often troubled and frumped by them, have little cause to afford them a liking, and much lesse a welcome. Upon this reason they were not sent into England with the Queen, although at the first they were destinate to that purpose. It was well known how odious that name was among us, and so little countenance the Court or Countrey would have afforded them. They therefore that had the governance of that businesse, sent hither in their places the Oratorians or Fratres Congregationis. Oratorii were a race of men never as yet offensive to the English, further than the generall defence of the Romish cause, and so lesse subject to envie and exception. They were first entituled by Philip Nerius, not long after the Jesuits, and advanced and dignified by Pope Sixtus the fifth, principally for this end, that by their incessant Sermons to the People of the lives of Saints, and other Ecclesiasticall antiquitie, they might get a new reputation, and so divert a little the torrent of the peoples affections from the Jesuits. Baronius, that great and excellent Historian; and Bozius that deadly enemy to the soveraignty of Princes, were of the first foundation of this new order.

[Page]I have now done with Orleans and the Jesuits, and must prepare for my returne to Paris, which journey I began the 13. of July, and ended the day following. We went back the same way that we came, though we were not so fortunate as to enjoy the same company we came in formerly: Instead of the good and acceptable society of one of the French Noblesse, some Gentlemen of Germany, and two Friers of the Order of S. Austin, we had the perpetuall vexation of foure Tradesmen of Paris, two Fulles de Joy, and an old Woman. The Artizans so slovenly attired, and greazy in their apparell, that a most modest apprehension could have conceived no better of them, than that they had been newly raked out of the Scullery: one of them by an inkhorne that hung by his side, wou [...]d have made us believe that he had been [...] Notary ▪ bu [...] by the thread of his discourse, we found out that h [...] was a Sumner; so full of Ribaldry was it, and so rankly did it savour of the French Bawdy court The rest of them talked according to their skill concerning the price of Commodities; and wh [...] was the most likely man of all the City to be made one of the next yeares Eschevins: Of the two Wenches, one so extremely impudent, that even an immodest [...]are would have abhorred her language, and of such a shamelesse deportment, that her very behaviour would have frighted Lust out of the most incontinent man living. Since I first knew mankinde and the world, I never observed so much impudency in the generall, as I did then in her particular, and I hope shall never be so miserable as to suffer two dayes more the torment of her, and of [Page] her conversation. In a word, she was a wench borne to shame all the Friers with whom she had traffiqued; for she would not be Casta, and could not be Cauta; and so I leave her. A creature extremely bold, because extremely faulty, and yet having no good property to redeem both these and other unlovely qualities; but as Sir Philip Sidney saith of the strumpet Baccha, in the Arcadia a little counterfeit Beauty disgraced with wandring eyes, and unweighed speeches. The other of the young females (for as yet I am doubfull whether I may call any of them women) is of the same profession also, but not halfe so rampant as her companion; ‘Haec habitu casto cum non sit casta videtur.’ as Aus [...]nius giveth it of one of the two wanton Sisters: by her carriage a charitable stranger would have thought her honest; and to that favourable opinion had my self been inclinable, if a French Monsieur had not given me her Character at Orleans: besides, there was an odde twinkling of her eye, which spoyled the composednesse of her countenance, otherwise she might have passed for currant, so that I may safely say of her, in respect of her fellow-harlot, what Tacitus doth of Pompey in reference to Caesar, viz. Secretior Pompeius Caesare, non melior; they were both equally guilty of the same sin, though this last had the more cunning to dissemble it, and avoyd the infamy and censure due unto it. And so I am come to the old Woman, which was the last of our goodly companions; A [Page] woman so old, that I am not at this day fully resolved whether she were ever young or no; 'twas well I had read the Scriptures, otherwise I might have been prone to have thought her one of the first pieces of the Creation, and that by some mischance she had escaped the Floud: her face was for all the world like unto that of Sybilla Erythraea in some old print, or that of one of Solomons two Harlots in the painted cloth; you would not but have imagined her one of the Relikes of the first age after the building of Babel, for her very complexion was a confusion more dreadfull than that of Languages; as yet I am uncertain whether the Poem of our Arch-Poet Spencer, entituled was not purposely intended on her: sure I am it is very appliable in the Title; but I might have saved all this labour: Ovid in his description of Fames, hath most exactly given us her Portraiture, and out of him and the eighth book of the Metamorphosis, you may take this view of her;

Nullus erat crinis, cava lumina, pallor in ore,

Labra incana situ, scabri rubigine dentes,

Dura cutis, per quā spectari viscera possent,

Ventris erat pro ventre locus, pēdere putares

Pectus, & a spinae tantummodo crate teneri.

Unhair'd, pale-fac'd, her eyes sunk in her head,

Lips hoary-white, and teeth most rusty red.

Through her course skin her guts you might espie

In what estate and posture they did lie.

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Belly she had none, onely there was seen

The place where her belly should have been:

And with her Hips her body did agree,

As if 'twere fastned by Geometry.

But of this our Companion, as also of the rest of the Coach full, Sunday-night and our arrival at Paris, hath at the last delivered us. Ablessing, for which [...] can never be sufficiently thankfull: and thus, ‘—Dedit Deus his quoque finem.’

The Fourth Book: Or PICARDY.

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CHAP. I

Our return towards England, more of the Hugonots hate unto Crosses. The Towns of Luzarch and St. Lowp: The Country of Picardy and People: The Picts of Brittain not of this Country: Mr. Lesdiguier Governour of Picardy: The Office of Constable what it is in France; By whom the place supplied in England. The Marble Table in France, and Causes there handled. Clermont and the Castle there: The Warrs raised by the Princes against D' Ancre: What his Designs might tend to, &c.

I Ʋly the twenty seventh having dispatched that business which brought us into France, and surveyed as much of the Country as that opportunity would permit us: we began our journey towards England [Page] in a Coach of Amiens; better accompanied we were, than when we came from Orleans; for here we had Gentlemen of the choisest fashion, very ingenuous, and in mine opinion finer conditioned than any I had met withal, in all my acquaintance with that Nation, and which appeared to me somewhat marvellous, we had no vexation with us in the shape of a French-woman, to torment our ears with her discourse, or punish our eyes with her complexion. Thus associated we began to wag on towards St. Lowp, where that night we were to be lodged. The Country such as already I have described it in the Isle of France; save that beyond St Denis it began to be somewhat more hilly: by the way I observed those little cressets erected in the memory of St. Denis (as being vainly supposed to be his resting places, when he ran from Mountmartyr with his head in his hand) which the zealous madness of the Hugonots had thrown down, and were now reedifyed by King Lewis: It could not but call to mind the hate of that Nation unto that harmless monument of Christs suffering, the Cross; which is grown, it seemeth, so exorbitant, that the Papists make use of it to discover an Hugonot.

I remember that as we passed by water from Amiens to Abbeville, we met in the boat with a berry of French Gentlewomen. To one of them, with that little French which I had, I applied my self; and she perceiving me to be English, questioned my Religion: I answered (as I safely might) that I was a Catholike: and she for her better satisfaction proffered me the little cross which was [Page] on the to [...] of her beads to kiss: I kissed it, and rathe [...] should I desire to kiss it than many of their lip: thereupon the rest of the company gave [...]ome this verdict, that I was un urai Christien et [...] point un Hugonet. But to proceed to our jour [...]ey.

The same day we parted from Paris we passed through the Town of Luzarch, and came to that of St. Lowp. The first famous onely in its owner, which is the Count of Soisons: the second in an Abbey there scituate, built in memory of St. Lupus Bishop of Troyes in Campagne. These Towns passed, we entred into Picardy.

Picardy is divided into the higher, which containeth the territories of Calais and Burlogne, with the Town of Monstrevelle and the lower; wherein are the goodly Cities of Amiens, Abeville, and many other places of principal note. The higher, which is the lesser, and more Northern part, is bounded North and West with the English Ocean, and on the East with Flanders and Artoys. The later, which is the larger, the richer and the more Southern, hath on the East the little County of Veromandoys, on the West Normandy, and on the South the County of Campaigne. In length it comprehendeth all the fifty one degree of Latitude, and three parts of the fiftieth, extending from Cales in the North to Clermont in the South. In breadth it is of a great inequality: For the higher Picardy is like Linea amongst the Logicians, which they define to be Longitudo sine Latitudine, it being indeed nothing in a manner but a meer border. The lower is of a larger breadth, and containeth [Page] in it the wole twenty fourth degree of Longitude, and a fourth part of the twenty three. So that by the proportion of degrees this province is an hundred and five miles long, and seventy five broad.

Concerning the name of Picardy, it is a difficulty beyond my reading and my conjecture. All that I can do is, to overthrow the less probable opinions of other Writers; and make my self subject to the scoffe which Lactantius bestoweth on Aristotle. Recte hic sustulit aliorum disciplinas, sed non recte fundavit suam. Some then derive it from Pignan, one sorsooth of Alexander the greats Captains, who they fain to have built Amiens and Pigmingin; an absurdity not to be honoured with a confutation. Some from the Town of Pigmingin it self, of which mind is Mercator; but that Town never was of such note as to name a Province. Others derive it from Picardus, a fanatical heretick of these parts, about the year 1300. and after; but the appellation is farre older than the man. Others fetch it from the Picts of Brittanie, whom they would have to fly hither, after the discomfiture of their Empire and Nation by the Scots. A transmigration of which all Histories are silent: this being the verdict of the best Antiquary ever nursed up in Brittain. Picti itaque praelio funestissimo debellati, aut penitus fuerunt extincti, aut paulatim in Scotorum nomen & nationem concesserint. Lastly, some others derive the name from Pigs, which signifyeth a Lance or Pike: the inventors of which warlike Weapon the fathers of this device would fain make them. In like manner some of Germany [Page] have laboured to prove, that the Saxons had that name given them, from the short Swords which they used to wear, called in their language Seaxen: but neither truly: For my part, I have consulted Ptolomie for all the Nations, and the Itinerarium of Antonius for all the Towns in this Tract, but can find none, of which I may fasten any probable Etymologie. All therefore that I can say, is that which Mr. Robert Bishop of Auranches in Normandy hath said before me, and that onely in the general: Quos itaque aetas nostra Picardos appellat, Vere Belgae dicendi sunt, qui post modum in Picardorum nomen transmigrarunt.

This Country is very plentiful of corn and other grain, with which it abundantly furnisheth Paris; and hath in it more store of pasture and meadow ground, than I else saw in any part of France: In Vines onely it is defective, and that (as it is thought) more by the want of industry in the people, than any inability ih the soyl; for indeed they are a people that will not labour more than they needs must; standing much upon their state and distance, in the carriage of their bodies savouring a little of the Spaniard; when Picardiser, to play the Picard is usually said of those who are lofty in their looks; or gluttonous at their tables: this last being also one of their simptomes of a Picard.

The Governour of this Province is the Duke les Deguiers; into which Office he succeeded Mr. Luynes, as he also did in that of the Constable; two preferments which he purchased at a deer rate, having sold or abandoned that Religion to compass [Page] them, which he had professed for more than sixty years together. An Apostasie most unworthy of the man, who having for so many years supported the cause of Religion, hath now forsaken it, and thereby made himself guilty of the cowardice of M. Antonius, qui cumin desertores saeviri debuer at desertor sui exercitus factus est. But I fear an heavier sentence waiteth upon him; the Crown of immortality not being promised to all those which run, but to those onely which hold out to the end: For the present indeed he hath augmented his honours. By this Office, which is the principal of all France, he hath place and command before and over all the Peers and Princes of the bloud, and at the coronation of the French Kings ministreth the Oath. When the King entereth a City in state, or upon the rendition of that, he goeth before with the Sword naked; and when the King sitteth in an Assembly of the three Estates, he is placed at the Kings right hand: he hath command over all his Majesties Forces, and he that killeth him is guilty of high treason: he sitteth also as cheif Judge at the Table of Marble, upon all suits, actions, persons and complaints whatsoever concerning the warrs.

This Table de Marble was wont to be continually in the great Hall of the Palace of Paris; from whence at the burning of that Hall it was removed to the Louure. At this Table doth the Admiral of France hold his Sessions, to judge of traffiick, prizes, Letters of Marts, piracies and business of the like nature. At this Table judgeth all Le grand Maistre des eaures et Forrests, we may call him the Justice [Page] in Eire all his Majesties Forrests and Waters. The actions there handled are thefts and abuses committed in the Kings Forrests, Rivers, Parks, Fish-ponds and the like. In the absence of the Grand Maistre, the power of sentence resteth in the Les grands Maistres enquesteures, et generaux reformateurs, who have under their command no fewer than 300. subordinate Officers. Here also sit the Marshals of France, who are ten in number, sometimes in their own power, sometimes as Assistants to the Constable, under whose direction they are: with us in England the authority of the Marshalship is more entire, as that which besides its own jurisdiction, hath now incorporated in it self most of the matters anciently belonging to the Constables: which Office ended in the death of Edward Lord Duke of Buckingham, the last hereditary and proprietary Constable of England. This Office of Constable, to note unto you so much by the way, was first instituted by Lewis the Gross, who began his reign Anno 1110. and conferred on Mr. Les Deguiers on the 24th of July Anno 1622. in the Cathedral Church of Grenoble, where he first heard Mass, and where he was installed Knight of both Orders. And so I leave the Constable, to take a veiw of his Province: A man at this time beloved of neither parties; hated by the Protestants as an Apostata, and suspected by the Papists not to be entire.

To proceed: July the twenty eighth we came unto Clermont, the first Town of any note that we met with in Picardy. A pretty nea Town, and finely seated on the rising of an hill: For the defence [Page] of it, it hath on the upper side of it an indifferent large Castle, and such as were the scituations of it, somewhat helped by the strengths of Art, might be brought to good service. Towards the Town it is of an easie access, to the fieldward more difficult, as being built on the pendicular fall of a Rock. In the year 1615. it was made good by Mr. Haroncourt with the Regiment of eight Companies, who kept it in the name of the Prince of Conde, and the rest of that Confederacy; but it held not long: For at the Marshal d' Ancres coming before it with his Army and artillery, it was presently yeilded. This warr, which was the second Civil warr that had happened in the reign of King Lewis, was undertaken by the Princes chiefly to thwart the designes of the Queen Mother, and to crush the powerableness of her grand favourite the Marshall. The pretence (as in such cases commonly is) was the good of the Commonwealth: the occasion, the cross Marriages then consummated by the Marshal between the Kings of France and Spain: For by those marriages they seemed to fear the augmentation of the Spaniards greatness; the alienation of the affections of their ancient Allies, and by consequence the ruine of the French Empire. But it was not the fate of D' Ancre to perish; two years more of Command and insolencies his destinies allowed, and then he tumbled: This opportunity of his death ending the third Civil war, each of which his faulty greatness had occasioned.

What the ambition of his designs did tend to, I dare not absolutely determine, though like enough [Page] it is, that they aimed further than at a private or personal potency: for having under the favour and countenance of the Queen Mother, made himself Master of the Kings ear, and of his counsels, he made a shift to get into his own hands an authority almost as unlimitted, as that of the old Mayre of the Palace; for he had suppressed the liberty of the general Estates, and of the Soveraign Court, removed all the Officers and Counsellors of the last King: ravished one of the Presidents of the great Chamber, by name Mr. Le Jay, out of the Parliament into the Prison; and planted Garrisons of his own in most of the good Towns of Normandy, of which Province he was Governour: Add to this, that he had caused the Prince of Conde, being acknowledged the first Prince of the bloud, to be imprisoned in the Bastile: and had searched into the continuance of the lives of the King and his Brother by the help of sorcery and witchcraft: Besides he was suspected to have had secret intelligence with some forrain Princes, ill-willers to the State, and had disgraced some, and neglected others of the Kings Confederates: And certainly those actions seem to import some project beyond a private and obedient greatness; though I can hardly beleive, that he durst be ambitious of the Crown; for being a fellow of a low birth, his heart could not but be too narrow for such an hope, and having no party amongst the Nobility, and being less gratious among the people, he was altogether destitute of means to compass it. I therefore am of opinion, that the Spanish gold had corrupted him to some project [Page] concerning the enlargement of that Empire upon the French dominions, which the cross Marriages (whereof he was the contriver) and which seemed so full of danger to all the best Patriots of France, may seem to demonstrate. And again, at that time, when he had put the Realm into this third combustion, the King of Spain had an Army on foot against the Duke of Savoy, and another in the Countries of Cleive and Juliers; which had not the timely fall of this Monsieur, and the peace ensuing prevented it, might both perhaps have met together in the midst of France: but this is onely conjectural.

CHAP. II.

The fair City of Amiens, and greatness of it. The English feasted within it, and the error of that action: The Town how built, seated and fortified: The Cittadel of it thought to be impregnable, not permitted to be veiwed. The over-much openness of the English in discovering their strengths: The watch and form of government in the Town. Amiens a Visedamate, and to whom it pertaineth. What that honour is in France, and how many there enjoy it, &c.

THat night we went from Clermont to a Town called B [...]etaul, where we were harboured, being [Page] from Clermont six French Leagues, and from Paris twenty. Our entertainment there such as in other places, as sluttish and as inconvenient. The next day, being the twenty ninth, about ten of the clock we had a sight of the goodly and fair City of Amiens. A City of some English miles circuit within the wals, which is all the greatness of it, for without the wals it hath houses few or none. A City very capacious, and for that cause hath been many times honoured with the persons and trains of many great Princes: Besides that, once it entertained almost a whole Army of the English. For King Lewis the eleventh having made an advantagious peace with our Edward, and perceiving how ingrateful it was amongst the military men, he intended also to give them some manner of satisfaction: he sent therefore unto them three hundred Carts laden with the best Wines, and seeing how acceptable a present that had proved, he intended also to feast them in Amiens; within half a league of which their Camp was lodged. This entertainment lasted four dayes, each street having in it two long tables, and each table being furnished with very plentiful provision Neither were they denied entrance into any of the Taverns or Victualling-houses, or therein stinted either in meats or drinks, whatsoever was called for, was defraied by King Lewis. An action wherein, if my opinion might carry it, there was little of the Politician; for there were permitted to enter into the Town so many of the English-men at once, that had they been but so minded, they might easily have made themselves as well Masters of the place, as of [Page] the Kings person: nine thousand are reckoned by Comminees to have been within together, and most of them armed; so that they might very easily have surprised the Gates and let in the rest of the Army. Those of the French Kings Council feared it much, and therefore informed both Princes, the one of his Town, the other of his honour. But this jealousie was but a French distrust, and might well have been spared: the English being of that Generals mind, that scorned to steal a Victory, and of that generous disposition, that they would not betray their credits. Nunquam illis adeo ulla opportuna visa est victoriae occasio, quam damno pensa [...]ent fidei; as the Historian of Tiberius. If then this City escaped a sack or a surprisal, it cannot be imputed to the wisdom of the French, but to the modesty and fair dealing of the English: but this was not the onely Solaecisme in point of State committed by that great Politick of his time King Lewis, there never being a man so famed for brain, that more grosly over-reached himself, than that Prince, though perhaps more frequently.

The buildings of this Town are of divers materials, some built of stone, others of wood, and some again of both: the streets very sweet and clean, and the air not giving place to any for a lively pureness: Of their buildings the principal are their Churches, whereof there are twelve onely in number. Churches, I mean, parochial, besides those belonging unto Religious Houses. Next unto them, the work of most especial note, is a great large Hospital, in method and disposing of the beds much like unto the Hostel Dieu in Paris, but in [Page] number much inferior: Et me tamen capuerant: and yet the decency of them did much delight me. The sweetness and neatness of the Town proceedeth partly (as I say) from the air, and partly from the conveniencie of the River of Some, on which it is seated: for the River running in one entire bank at the further end of the Town, is there divided into six Channels, which almost at an equal distance run through the several parts of it. These Channels thus divided receive into them all the ordure and filth wherewith the Town were otherwise likely to be pestered, and affordeth the people a plentiful measure of water, wherewith to purge the lanes and by-corners of it, as often as them listeth. But this is not all the benefit of these Channels; they bestow upon the City matter also of commodity, which is the infinite number of Griest-Mils that are built upon them. At the other end of the Town the Channels are again united into one stream, both those places, as well at the division as the union, of the Channels being exceedingly fortified with chains and piles, and also with bulwarks and out-works.

Neither is the Town well fortified and strengthened at those passages onely in the upper parts of it, having enough of strength to enable them to a long resistance. The Ditch round about it, save where it meeteth with the Cittadel, is exceeding deep and steepy, the wals of a good height, broad and composed of earth and stone equally: the one making up the outside of them, and the other the inside. The Gates are very large and strong, as well in the sinewie composition of themselves, as [Page] in addition of the Draw-bridge. Subburbs this City hath none, because a Town of Warr, nor any liberal circuit of territoty, because a Frontier: yet the people are indifferent wealthy, and have amongst them good trading, besides the benefit of the Garrison and the Cathedral. The Garrison consisteth of two hundred and fity men (five hundred in all they should be) who are continually in pay to guard the Cittadel: their pay eight Sols daily. The Governour of them is the Duke of Chawne, who is also the Lieutenant or Deputy Governour of the whole Province under the Constable. Their Captain Mr Le Noyr, said to be a man of good experience, and worthy his place. This Cittadel was built by Henry the fourth as soon as he had recovered the Town from the Spaniards, Anno 1591. It is seated on the lower part of the City, though somewhat on the advantage of an hill; and seemeth in my opinion better scituate to command the Town, than to defend it, or rather to recover the Town, being taken, than to save it from taking. They who have seen it, and know the arts of Fortification, report it to be impregnable.

— Quod nec Jovis ira, nec ignes

Nec poterit ferrum, nec edax abolere vetustas.

Nor am I able to contradict it: for besides that it is a skill beyond my profession, we were not permitted to come within it, to take a survey of it at a distance: As soon as we approached nigh unto it, one of the Garrison offered us the musket, a [Page] sufficient warning not to be too venterous. So that all I could observe was this, that they had within themselves good plenty of earth to make their gabions and repair their breaches. With the same jealousie also, are the rest of the Forts and Towns of importance guarded in this and other Countries: no people that ever I heard of being so open in shewing their places of strength and safety unto strangers as the English: For a dozen of Ale a Forreiner may pace over the Curtain of Portsmouth, and measure every sconce and bulwark of it: for a shilling more he shall see their provision of powder and other munition, and when that is done, if he will, he shall walk the round too. A French crown fathometh the wals of Dover Castle; and for a pint of Wine one may see the nakedness of the block-houses at Gravesend. A negligence which may one day cost us dearly, though now we think it not. For what else do we in it, but commit that prodigal folly, for which Plutarch condemneth Pericles? Viz. [...] &c. that is, to break open all the pales and inclosures of our Land, to the end that every man might come in freely, and take away our fruits at his pleasure. Jealousie, though a vice in a man toward his Wife, is yet one of the safest Vertues in a Governour towards his Fortress, and therefore I could wish, that an English man would borrow a little of this Italian humor. Besides these Souldiers which are continually in garrison for the defence of the Cittadel, there are also three hundred which keep watch every night for the defence of the City. These [Page] watchmen receive no pay from the King, but discharge that duty amongst themselves, and in turns, every house finding one for that service twelve nights in the year: The Weapons which they use are Pikes onely and Musquets, there being not one peice of Ordinance all about the Town, or on the wals of it. The Governour of this Town, as it hath reference to the King, is a Bailly, who hath belonging unto him all the authority which belongeth to a Siege Presidial. Under him he hath a Lieutenant Generall and particular; seven Counsellors, a publick Notary, and other inferior Officers and Magistrates. As it is a Corporation the Cheif Governour of it is a Mayor, and next to him the Eschevins or Sheriffs, as Protectors of the Inhabitants and their Liberties, besides those of the Common-Council.

Another Circumstance there is which ennobleth this Town of Amiens, which is, that it is a Visedamate, or that it giveth honour to one of the Nobility, who is called the Visedame of Amiens. This title at this time belongeth to the Duke of Chauny, Governour of the Cittadel, together with the Lordship of Pigingin; both which he obtained by marrying the Daughter and Heir of the last Visedame of Amiens, and Lord of Pigingin, Anno 1619. A marriage which much advanced his fortunes, & which was compassed for him by the Constable Luynes his brother, who also obtained for him of the King the title of Duke: His highest attribute before, being that of Mr. de Cadinet, by which name he was known here in England, at such time as he was sent extraordinary Ambassadour to King [Page]James. This honour of Visedame is, for ought that ever I could see, used onely in France. True it is, that in some English Charters we meet with Vice-Dominus, as in the Charter of King Edred to the Abbey of Crowland in Lincoln-shire, dated in the year 948. there is subscribed, Ego Bingulph Vice-dominus, &c. but with us, and at those times, this title was onely used to denotate a subordination to some superior Lord, and not as an honorary attribute, in which sense it is now used in France: besides that, with us it is frequently, though falsly, used for Vicecomes: between which two Offices of Vicount and Vidame there are found no small resemblances: For as they which did agere Vicem Comitis, were called Vicecomites or Vicomits, so were they also called Vidames, or Vice-Domini, qui Domini Episcopi vicem gerebant in temporalibus. And as Vicountes from Offices of the Earles became honorary; so did the Vidames disclaim the relation to the Bishop, and became Seigneural or honorary also.

The Vidames then, according to the first institution, were the substitutes of the greater Bishops in matters of secular administration, for which cause, though they have altered their tenure, they take all of them their denomination from the cheif Town of some Bishoprick; neither is there any of them, who holdeth not of some Bishoprick or other: Concerning the number of them that are thus dignified I cannot determine. Mr. Glover, otherwise called Sommerset Herald, in his discourse of Nobility, published by Mr. Miles of Canterbury, putteth it down for absolute, that here are four [Page] onely, Viz. of Amiens, of Chartres, of Chalons, and of Gerbery in Bauvice: but in this he hath deceived both himself and his Readers; there being besides these divers others, as of Rhemes, Mans, and the like: but the particular and exact number of them, together with the place denominating, I leave to the French Heralds, unto whose profession it belongeth.

CHAP. III.

The Church of Nostre-Dame in Amiens. The Principal Churches in most Cities called by her name: More honour performed to her, than to her Saviour: The surpassing beauty of this Church on the outside: The front of it. King Henry the seventh's Chappel at Westminster: The curiousness of this Church within: By what means it became to be so: The three sumptuous Massing-Closets in it: The excellency of Perspective works. Indulgencies by whom first founded: The estate of the Bishoprick.

THere is yet one thing which addeth more lustre to the Citie of Amiens, than either the Visdamate, or the Cittadel, which is the Church of Nostre Dame: a name by which most of the [Page] principal Churches are known in France: there have we the Nostre Dame in Roven, a second in Paris, a third in this City, a fourth in Boulogne, all Cathedrall; so also a Nostre Dame in Abbeville, and another in Estampes, the principal Churches in those Towns also; Had I seen more of their Towns, I had met with more of her Temples; for so of many [...] have heard, that if there be more than two Churches in a Town, one shall be sure to be dedicated to her, and that one of the fairest. Of any Temples consecrated to the Name and memory of our Saviour. Ne gry quidem, there was not so much as a word stirring; neither could I marvel at it, considering the honours done to her, and those to her Son; betwixt which there is so great a disproportion, that you would have imagined that Mary, and not Jesus, had been our Saviour; for one Pater Noster the people are enjoyned ten Ave Maries: and to recompence one pilgrimage to Christs Sepulchre at Hierusalem, you shall hear of two hundred undertaken to our Lady of Loretto: And whereas in their Kalendar they have dedicated onely four Festivals to our Saviour, which are those of his birth, circumcision, resurrection, and ascension, all which the English Church also observeth; for the Virgins sake they have more than doubled the number. Thus do they solemnize the feast of her Purification and Annunciation, at the times which we also do: of her Visitation of Elizabeth in July; of her Dedication and Assumption in August, of her Nativity in September, of her Presentation in November, and of her Conception in the womb of her Mother in December. [Page] To her have they appropriated set forms of prayers prescribed in the two books, called one Officium, and the other Rosarium beatae Mariae Virginis: whereas her Son must be contented with those Orisons which are in the Common Mass Book: her Shrines and Images are more glorious and magnificent, then those of her Son, and in her Chappel are more Vows paid, than before the Crucifix. But I cannot blame the Vulgar, when the great Masters of their souls are thus also besotted. The Officium before mentioned, published by the Command of Pius the fifth, saith thus of her. Gaude Maria Virgo, tu sola omnes haereses intermist [...] in universo mundo. Catherinus in the Council of Trent, calleth Fidelissimam Dei sociam: and he was modest, if compared with others. In one of their Councils Christs name is quite forgotten, and the name of our Lady put in the place of it, for thus it beginneth: Authoritate Dei Patris, & beatae Virginis, & omnium Sanctorum, &c. but most horrible is that of one of their Writers (I am loath to say it was Bernard) Beata Virgo monstra te esse Matrem, jube filium: which Harding in his confutation of the Apologie, endeavouring to make good, would needs have it to be onely an excess of mind, or a spiritual sport and dalliance: but from all such sports and dalliances, good Lord deliver us.

Leaving our Lady, let us go see her Church, which questionless is one of the most glorious piles of building under the Heavens; what Velleius saith of Augustus, that he was homo qui omnibus omnium gentium viris inducturus erat caliginem, or what [Page] Suetonius spake of Titus, when he called him Delias humani generis, both these attributes and more too, may I most fitly fasten on this magnificent structure. The whole body of it is of most curious and polished stones, every where born up by buttresses of excellent composure, that they seem to add more of beauty to it than of strength: the Quire of it is, as in great Churches commonly it is, of a fairer fabrick than the body, thick set with dainty pillars, and most of them reaching unto the top of it, in the fashion of an Arch. I am not well able to judge, whether the Quire of the Chappel of King Henry the seventh at Westminster be the more exquisite piece of Architecture, though I am not ignorant, that Leland calleth that of our King, Miraculum Orbis. I perswade my self, that a most discerning eye could find out but little difference between them, and that difference more subtil than sound: For if such perfections may receive the word of more, it might be said, that there were more majesty in this of Amiens, and more loveliness in that of Westminster; yet so, that the ones majesty did exceed in loveliness, and the others loveliness excelled in majesty.

Tam bene conveniunt & in unâ sede morantur

Majestas & Amor —

But now we are come unto the divinity of workmanship, the Front; which presenteth it self unto us with two Towers, and three Gates, that in the middle being the principal: the Fronts of Wels or Peterborough, which we so much fam [...] in England, [Page] deserve not to be named in the same Myriad of years with this of Amiens: For here have you almost all the sacred Stories engraven so lively, that you would no longer think this story of Pigmalions image to be a fable; and indeed at the first sight you would confidently beleive, that the Histories there represented were not carved but acted: To say no more of it (for all my abilities will but disgrace it) in the description: that of Zeuxis may most fitly be inscribed upon it: Invisur [...]m facilius aliquem, quam imitaturum: so infinitely is it above the ambition of imitation.

The outside of the Church being so admirable you would have thought that Art and treasure had left nothing of themselves to bestow within it, yet herein would such thoughts deceive you: Nostre Dame in Paris and Roven lay most without; yet here it serveth but as a mask to hide and conceal those more admirable graces which are within. As soon as you are entred, you will suppose that the materials of it are all of gold, such a lustre doth it cast upon the eyes of all those that look upon it: the glory of Solomons Temple, next unto the description of it in the Scriptures, is best read in this Church; of which it seemeth to have been the pattern. Jupiters house in Heaven, described by the Poets, was never half so gorgeous as this on the earth, that therefore which Ovid poetically spake concerning that imagery Palace of the false God, we most truly verifie of this real Mansion of the true God.

[Page]

Hic locus est, quem si verbis audacia detur

Haud timeam Magni dixisse Palatia Regis.

To instance in particulars, the partition between the Quire and the body is so overlaid with gold, that the acutest sight could apprehend no other substance of it, and yet had the art of the workman so fully exprest its power on it; that the cost was much inferiour to the workmanship; so curiously was it adorned with excellent imagery, and what else the hand of man could fashion into portraiture. On the top of it was the Statua of our Lady, in the just height and proportion of a woman, all either of gold or gilded, her Child in her arms of the same making.

She was there exprest, as standing in a round circle, unto every part of which she darted ou [...] rayes and beams of gold, just as the Sun doth seem to do, when the Painter hath drawn him in his full lustre. The glass of the Church generally, and particularly that about the Quire, the Virgins Chappel is the most full of life and beauty of any that I ever set eye upon: As much as that of St. Denis exceedeth ours at Canterbury, so much doth this St. Denis. But the largest measure of perfection in it is that of the pillars; which though full of majesty in their height and compass, have yet an ornament added to them more majestical than that majesty, for upon each of them (there are four ranks of them in all) are fastened four tables, which take up their whole circuit, every table being in length two yards or thereabouts: In every of these are the pictures of sundry men and women [Page] of the better quality, so exactly limmed, that neither a curious eye could desire, or a cunning hand discharge it better. These tables are the monuments and tombs of the Burgers of the City, or of the Nobles of the Country nigh unto it, who in them have caused their pictures to be drawn, with as great art and state as cost could procure them, and in a subscription of golden letters have eternized their names, and that art to all succeeding posterity. So that we may justly say of the sumptuousness of this Church, what the Historian doth of the Temple at Delphos. Multa igitur ibi, & opul [...]nta regum populorumque visuntus munera, quaeque magnificen [...]ia sui reddentium vota gratans voluntatem magnifestant. Neither have these sepulchral ornaments been of any great standing; the ancientest of them that I could observe, having been erected since the year 1570. Add to these the curious works which the Engraver hath cut in the main wals, and then perhaps you will fall into the same extasie that I did, and pick a quarrel with Nature and the Heavens, that they had not made you all into an eye.

In this Church, as in others also of this party, besides the high Altar in the midst of the Quire, there are divers others in the private Clossets, which are destinate to the mumbling of their low Masses: of these here are in number twenty four, all of them seated within the two outermost ranks of pillars and the wals pretty neat pla [...]es, and it is pitty they should be abused to such Idolatries. Of three of them I took especial notice, they being indeed the cheifest of the rest, either for furniture or for [Page] use. The first of them is that of the Virgin, which was divided from the West of the Church by a sphere made of wood, which reached unto the top of the partition. On the outside, the Planets, Starrs and Constellations were most artificially set down in their proper Orbes, with the time of absolving their several courses: On the inside those places were filled up with a pack of verses in commendation of our Lady. The Alter there was for matter and making the most glorious that ever I yet looked upon: that on the other side in the Quire, and over which is the image of our Saviour, being more despicable than were fit for the credit of a Village. Over this Altar was the Virgins Statua, all gift, and of a full and womanly proportion: two Angels of the same materials attending on her: Finally, this Chappel, considering the richness and glory of it, may be stiled the Epitome of the Church: that attribute of immensae opulentiae templum, being no more deservedly appliable to Solomons Temple, which Tacitus spake it, than to this.

The second of them stood, as I remember, at the further end of the Church behind the Quire, not directed, for ought I could perceive, to any particular Saint: yet not to be passed over without a due remembrance: It was separated from the rest of the Church by two ranks of brass pillars, one rank above the other. The pillars are curiously cast, and such as would not shame rhe workman. In the massing Closset over the Altar there was hanged a tablet, which by the many lines and shadows drawn in it, seemed to represent some piece [Page] of building. Moving my hand towards my eye, in the nature and kind of a perspective-glass, I perceived to be the representation of that Church wherein I stood to see it, and it was done with that cunning, that it would almost have perswaded a man out of himself, and made him beleive, that he had been in the Church-yard; so perfectly did it shew the majesty of the Front, the beauty of the Iles, the number of the pillars, and the glory of the Quire; a kind of work in my opinion of all others the most excellent, and such as would infinitely delight an Optick: Had not such peices been vulgar to me, it had more affected me: But in the gallery of Mr. Crane of Cambridge, once belonging to that humerous Physitian Mr. Butler, and in that of Sir Noel Caron late Leiger for the States at Lambeth, I had seen divers of them, whereof some perfecter.

The third of these Massing Clossets was that of St. Peter, not so gorgeous as the rest unto the eyes of them that saw it, but more useful to the soules of those who had a mind to take the benefit of it, for therein hung an Indulgence granted by Pope Gregory the fifteenth unto that Church, dated the twenty seventh of July, Anno Dom. 1612. and of his Popedom the twentieth. The contents of it were, an absolute exemption from the pains and place of Purgatory, to those, who upon the Feast of All-Soules (Festum commemorationis Sanctorum the Breif calleth it) and the Octaves of it, would come to pay their devotions and moneys in that Temple. Had the extent of it been general, it would quickly have emptied the Popes treasury, [Page] and in time to have put an end to Purgatory. His Holiness therefore did wisely restrain it in his Bull to the natives of that Diocess. The author and first founder of those Indulgences (if it be lawful to note so much by the way) was Pope Ʋrban the second, who began his Popedom, Anno 1088. who conferred them on all such who would go into the warrs for the recovering of Hierusalem: Next they began to be conferred on those who would side with the Pope in his unlawful warrs against the Emperours. And lastly, about the time of Clem [...]nt the fifth (he began his raign, Anno 1306.) they began to grow merchantable, for to him that gainful invention of the Church treasury, consisting of the merits of our Saviour and the Saints, is imputed: but I return again to the Church of Amiens.

This glorious Church is the seat of a Bishop, who acknowledgeth for his Metropolitan the Archbishop of Rhemes, Primate of all France: the first Bishop of it was one Firnamus a native of Pampelune in the Kingdom of Navarre, who suffered Martyrdom under the Emperor Dioclesian: to him succeeded another Firminus, to whom the first foundation of this Church is attributed: the present Diocesan is named Franciscus Faber, his intrado about six thousand Crowns a year: Chanoins there are in the Church to the number of forty, of whose revenue I could not learn any thing. Neither could I be so happy as to see the Head of St. John Baptist, which is said to be here entire: though it cannot be denied, that a peice of it is in the holy Chappel of Paris; [Page] besides those fractions of it which are in other places.

CHAP. IV.

Our journey down the Some, and Company. The Town and Castle of Pigingi for what famous: Comminees censure of the English on matter of Propheoies. A Farewell to the Church of Amiens: The Town and Castle of Pont d' Armie Abbeville, how seated, and the Garrison there: No Governour in it but the Mayor. The French Post-horses, how base and tired: Mp preferment to the Trunk-horse: the House of Philip de Commi [...]ees: The Town and strength of Monstreville: The importance of these three Towns to the French border, &c.

IƲly the thirtieth we took boat to go down to Abbevi [...]e by the River of Some, a River ōf no g [...]e [...]t breadth, but deep and full: the boat that carried us, was much of the making of those Lighters that live upon the Thames, but that it was more weildy and fit for speed; there were in it of [...] [...]hall to the number of thirty persons or thereabouts; people of all conditions, and such with whom a man of any humour might have [Page] found a companion, under the tilt we espied a bearie of Lasses, mixt with some young Gentlemen. To them we applied our selves, and they taking a delight to hear our broken French, made much of our company, for in that little time of our abode, there we had learned onely so much of the French, as a little Child after a years practise hath of his Mothers tongue: Linguis dimidiata ad huc verba tentantibus & loquelâ ipso affectantis linguae fragmine dulciori. The Gentlewomen, next those of Orleans, were the handsomest that I had seen in France; very pleasant and affable: one of them being she that put my Religion to the touchstone of kissing the cross of her beads: Thus associated we passed merrily down the stream, though slowly; the delight which our language gave the company, and the content which their liberal humanity afforded to us, beguiling the tediousness of the way.

The first thing which we met with observable, was the Town and Castle of Pignigni: The Town poor and beggerly; and so unlikely to have named the Province, as Mercator would have it: besides the disproportion, and dissimilitude of their names. The Castle scituate on the top of the Hill, is now a place of more pleasure, than strength, as having command over an open and good Country, which lyeth below it; it belongeth as we have said, to the Vidimate of Amiens, and so doth the Town also. This Town is famous among the French, for a tradition and a truth. The tradition is of a famous defeate given to the English ▪ neer unto it; but in whose raigne, and under [Page] whose conduct, they could not tell us; being thus routed they fled to this Town, into which their enemies followed with them, intending to put them all to the sword: but at last their furie being allayed, they proposed that mercy unto them, which those of Gilead did unto those of Ephraim in the Scriptures: life and liberty being promised to all them that could pronounce this word Pignigni: it seemeth it was not a word in those daies possible for an English mouth, for the English saying all of them Peguenie, instead of Pignigni, were all of them put to the sword: thus farre the tradition. The truth of story by which this Town is famous in the writers of both Nations, is an enterviewe there given between our Edward the fourth, and their Lewis the eleventh, upon the concluding of their nine years truce; a circumstance of no great moment in it self, had not Phillip de Comminees made it such by one of his own observations. Upon this meeting the Chancellor of England, being Bishop of Ely, made an oration to both Kings; beginning with a prophesie, which said that in this place of Pignigni, an honourable peace should be concluded between both the Kingdomes. On this ground, which himself also is the onely man that related, he hath built two observations: the one (I have not the original by me) that the English men are never unfurnished with Prophesies: the other that they ground every thing which they speak upon Prophesies: How far those times were guilty of that humor I cannot say; though sure I am, we are not the onely men that were so affected: Paulus[Page]Jovius in some place of his Histories (I remember not the particular) hath vindicated that quarrel for us, and fastned the same imitation upon the French. So true is that of the Fragaedian, Quod quisque fecit, patitur; authorem scelus Reperit: And now being past Pignigni, I have lost the sight of the Church of Amiens.

The fairest fabrick, and most rich to see,

That ere was guilty of mortalitie,

No present structure like it: nor can Fame

In all its bead rolles boast an equal name:

Let then the barbarous Egyptians cease

So to extol their huge Pyramides,

Let them grow silent of their Pharus, and

Conceale the other triumphs of their Land.

And let the Charians henceforth leave to raise

Their Mausolaea with such endless praise:

This Church alone doth them as much excell

As they the lowest Cottages; where dwell

The least of men; as they those urnes: which keep

The smallest ashes which are laid to sleep.

Nor be thou vext, thou glorious Queen of night;

Nor let a cloud of darkness mask thy light:

That renown'd Temple, which the Greeks did call,

The Worlds seventh wonder; and the fair'st of all

That Pile; so famous that the World did see

Two onely great and high; thy Fame and Thee;

Is neither burnt nor perisht: Ephesus

Survives the follies of Herostratus,

Onely thy name in Europe to advance,

It was transported to the Realm of France:

And here it stands, not robb'd of any grace

[Page]Which there it had; not altered save in place,

Cast thy Beams on it: and t'will soon be proud,

Thy Temple was not ruin'd, but remov'd:

Nor are thy Rights so chang'd, but thou'lt averre

Ibis Christian is thy old Idolater.

But oh great God, how long shall thy Decree

permit this Temple to Idolatrie:

How long shall they profane this Church and make

Those sacred Walls and Pavements to partake

Of their loud sins: and here that doctrine teach

'Gainst which the very stones do seem to preach;

Reduce them Lord unto thee: make them see

How ill this building and their Rites agree;

Or make them know, though they be still the same,

This House was purpos'd onely to thy Name.

The next place of note which the water conveyed us to, was the Town and Castle of Pont d' Armie, a place now scarce vissible in the auines: and belonging to one Mr. Queran: it took name, (as they said) from a Bridge here built for the transpo [...]tation of an Armie; but this I cannot justifie: Three Leagues down the River is the Town of Abbeville; a Town conveniently seated on the Some, which runneth through it. It is of greater circuit within the walls, than the Citie of Amiens, and hath four parish Churches more in it, but is not so beautifull nor so populous: for the houses here are of an older stamp: and there is within the Town no scarcity of wast ground: I went round about the walls, and observed the thinness of the houses, and the largeness of the fields; which are of that capacity and [Page] extent, that for ought I could apprehend; the Town needs never to be compelled by famine, if those fields were husbanded to the best advantages: the walls are of earth within and stone without: of an unequal bredth and in some places rui [...]ous: A Castle it once had, of which there is now scarce any thing remaining; instead of which and in places more convenient, they have built out three bastions very large and capacious; and such which well manned, needs not yeeld up on a summons. There are also a couple of Mounts raised nigh unto the Wall at that place, where the Country is most plain; upon which good Ordinance would have good command, but at this time there were none upon it: without the wal [...]s it is diversly strengthened, having in some places a deep ditch without water; in some a shallower ditch, but well filled with the benefit of the benefit of the River: the others only a marish, and fennie levell, more dangerous to the enemie and service to the Town, than either of the rest; and therefore never guarded by the Souldiers of the Garrison: but the chief strength of it is five Companies of Swisses, 100. men in a Company, proper tall fel [...]owes in appearance, and such as one would imagine fit for the service: It was my chance to see them begin their watch; to which employment they advanced with so good order and such shew or stomack, as if they had not gone to guard a sown, but possess one. Their watch was at Port de Boys, and Port St. Valery: the first thing [...]ear unto Hesden a frontier Town of Artoys: the other five Leagues only from the See [Page] and Haven of St. Valery: from these places most danger was feared, and therefore there kept most of their Souldiers, and all their Ordinance. The Captain is named Mr. Aille a Grison by birth, and reported for a good Souldier: besides him they have no Military Commander: the Mayor of the Town, contrary to the common nature of Towns of warre, being there in highest authority: A priviledge granted unto the Mayors hereof not long since, as a reward due to one of their Integrities, who understanding that the Governour of the Town held intelligence with the Arch Duke; apprehended him, and sent him to the Court where he receceived his punishment. This Abbeville (and so I leave it, and in it the berry of French Lasses) is so called quasi Abbatis Villa, as formerly belonging to some Abbot.

July the last we took post-horse for Boulogne, if at least we may call those Post-horses which we rode on: As lean they were as Envis is in the Poet: Macies in corporatota, being most true of them. Neither were they onely lean enough to have their ribs numbred, but the very spur-gals had made such casements through their skins, that it had been no greater difficulty to have surveyed their entrails. A strange kind of Cattel in mine opinion, and such as had neither flesh on their bones, nor skin on their flesh, nor hair on their skin. Sure I am, they were not so lusty as the Horses of the Sun in Ovid: neither could we say of them, flammiferis implent hinnitibus aur as: All the neighng we could hear from the proudest of them, was onely an old dry cough, which Ile assure you did [Page] much comfort me, for by that noise I first learned there was life in them. Upon such Anatomies of Horses, or to speak more properly, upon such several heaps of bones were I and my company mounted, and when we expected, however they seemed outwardly, to see somewhat of the post in them, my beast began to move after an Aldermans pace, or like Envie in Ovid: ‘Surgit humi pigre, passu (que) incedet inerti.’ Out of this gravity no perswasion could work them; the dull jades being grown insensible of the spur; and to hearten them with wands would in short time have distressed the Country. Now was the Cart of Diepe thought a speedy conveyance, and those that had the happiness of a Waggon were esteemed too blessed, yea, though it came with the hazard of the old woman and the wenches. If good nature, or a sight of their journeys ever did chance to put any of them into a pace like a gallop, we were sure to have them tire in the middle way, and so the remainder of the Stage was to be measured with our own feet: being weary of this trade, I made bold to dismount the Postilion, and ascended the Trunk Horse, where I sate in such magnificent posture, that the best Carrier in Paris might have envied my felicity: behind me I had a good large Trunk, and a Portmantue, before me a bundle of Cloaks, and a parcel of Books. Sure I was, that if my stirrups could poize me equally on both sides, that I could not likely fall backwards nor forwards. Thus preferred [Page] I encouraged my Companions, who cast many an envious eye upon my prosperity: and certainly there was not any of them, who might not more justly have said of me, Tu as un meilleur temps que le pape, then poor Lauarillo's Master d [...]d, when he allowed him an Onion for four dayes. This circumstance I confess might have well been omitted, had I not great example for it. Philip de Comminees in the midst of his grave and serious relation of the battel of Mont l' hierrie, hath a note much about this nature, which gave me encouragement, which is, that himself had an old Horse half tired (and this was just my case) who by chance thrust his head into a pail of Wine, and drunk it off, which made him lustier and friskier that day than ever before, but in that his Horse had better luck than I had.

On the right hand of us, and almost in the middle way betwixt Abbeville and Boulogne, we left the Town of Monstreville, which we had not leasure to see. It seemed daintily seated for command and resistance; as being built upon the top and declivity of an hill, it is well strengthened with Bastions & ramparts on the outside & hath within a Garrison of five Companies of Souldiers: their Governour (as I learned of one of the Paisants) being called Lenroy: And indeed it concerneth the King of France to l [...]ck well to his Town of Monstreville, as being a border Town within two miles of Artoys; and especially co [...]si [...]ering, that the taking of it would [...]ut off all entercourse between the Countreys of Boulogne and Calais with the rest of France. Of the like importance also [Page] are the Towns of Abbeville and Amiens; and that the French Kings are not ignorant of: Insomuch that those two onely, together with that of St. Quintin, being put into the hands of Philip Duke of Burgundy, to draw him from the party of the English, were redeemed again by Lewis the eleventh for 450000. Crowns, an infinite sum of money, according to the standard of those times, and yet it seemeth the King of France had no bad bargain of it; for upon an hope onely of regaining those Towns, Charls Earl of Charoloys, Son to Duke Philip, undertook that warr against King Lewis, by which at the last he lost his life, and hazarded his estate.

CHAP. V.

The Country of Boulonnois, and Town of Boulogne, by whom enfranchised: The present of salt butter. Boulogne divided into two Towns. Procession in the low Town to divert the Plague. The forms of it. Processions of the Letany, by whom brought into the Church. The high Town garrisoned: The old man of Boulogne: The neglect of the English in leaving open the Havens. The fraternity de la charite, and inconvenience of it. The costly journey of Henry the eigth to Boulogne. Sir Wa [...]ter Raleighs [Page] censure of that Prince condemned: the discourtesie of Charls the fifth towards our Edward the sixth. The defence of the House of Burgundy how chnrgeable to the Kings of England: Boulogne re-yeilded.

WE are now come to the Country of Boulonnois, which though a part of Picardy, disdaineth yet to be so counted; but will be reckoned a County of it self: It comprehendeth in it the Towns of Boulogne, Escapes and Neus-Chastel, beside-divers Villages, and consisteth much of hils and valleys, much after the nature of England; the soyl being indifferent fruitful of corn, and yeilding more glass than any other part of France (which we saw) for the quantity. Neither is it onely a County of it self but it is in a manner also a free County; it being holden immediately of the Virgin Mary; who is, no question, a very gracious Land Lady: For when King Lewis the eleventh, after the decease of Charles of Burgundy, had taken in Boulogne▪ Anno 1477. As new Lord of the Town (thus John de Sierries relateth it) he did homage without sword or spurs, bareheaded, and on his knee before the Virgin Mary, offering unto her image an heart of Massie gold, weighing two thousand Crowns; he added also this, that he and his successors after him being Kings should hold the County of Boulogne of the same Virgin, and do homage unto her image in the great Church of the higher Town dedicated to her na [...]e, giving [...] every change of a Vassal an [Page] heart of pure gold of the same weight. Since that time the Boulonnois being the Tennants of our Lady, have enjoyed a perpetual exemption from many of those tributes and taxes under which the rest of France are miserably afflicted. Amongst others they have been alwayes freed from the gabel of Salt, by reason whereof, and by the goodness of their pastures, they have there the best Butter in all the Kingdom, I say, partly by reason of their Salt, because having it at a low rate they do liberally season all their Butter with it; whereas they which do buy their Salt at the Kings price cannot afford it any of that dear commodity: Upon this ground, it is the custom of these of Boulonnois to send unto their Freinds of France and Paris a barrel of Butter seasoned according to their fashion; a present no less ordinary and acceptable, than Turkeys, Capons, and the like are from our Country Gentlemen to those of London.

As for the Town of Boulogne it is divided into two parts, la haute Ville, and la Bass Ville, or the High Town, and the Low Town, distant one from the other about an hundred paces and upwards. The high Town is seated upon the top of an hill; the low Town upon the the declivity of it and towards the Haven: Or else we may divide it into two other parts, Viz. the Town and the City; the Town that towards the water, and the City; that which lieth above it. It was made a City in the reign of Henry the second, Anno 1553. at which time the City of Terorenne was totally ruined by the Imperials, and the Bishop was removed [...]ther: The [Page] Church of Nostre Dame being made the Cathedral: there came along hither upon the remove of the Bishop 20. Chanoins, which number is here still retained; their revenues being about a 1000. Liures yearly: as for the present Bishop, his name is Pierre de Arme, his intrado twenty thousand Liures: His Metropolitan he of Rhemes: The Town or (as they call it) the low Town is bigger than the City, and better built, the streets larger, and the people richer, most of the Merchants living in it, because it lieth above the Haven: but that which made this low town most pleasing, was a solemn procession that passed through the streets of it, intended to pacifie Gods anger, and divert the plague, which at that time was in the City.

In the first front there was carried the Cross, and after that the holy and sanctified Banner; next unto it followed all the Priests of the Town bareheaded, and in their Surplices, singing as they went the services destinate to that occasion: after them followed the Men, and after them the Women of the Town by two and two, it being so ordered by the Roman Ritual. Ʋt Laicia Cl [...]ricis, faeminae a viris separatae prosequantur. On the other side of the street went the Brethren dela Charite, every one of them holding in his hand a little triangular Banner, or a Pennon: after them the Boys and Wenches: in this method did the solemnity measure every lane and angle of the Town, the Priests singing, and all the people answering them in the same note. At the Church they began it in prayer, and having visited all the Town, they returned [Page] again thither to end it with the same devotion. An action vety grave and solemn, and such as I could very well allow of, were it not onely for one prayer, which is alwayes said at the time of this performance, and addition of the Banners: The prayer is this; Exaudi nos Deus salutaris noster, & intercedente beatâ & gloriosa Dei genetrice Mariâ semper Virgine, & Sebastiano beato Martyre tuo (this Sebastian is their Aesculapius, or Tutelary Saint against the sickness) & omnibus Sanctis populum tuum ab iracundiae tuae terroribus libera, & misericordiae tuae fac largitate securum. Amen. This onely excepted, there is nothing in the whole Liturgy of it, which can be offensive to any conscience not idle scrupulous.

These Processions were first instituted by Pope Stephanus the second, who began his Popedom Anno 752. the intent of them is, as Platina reporteth, Ad placandam Dei iram. The first place that they ever went to in Procession, was the Church of our Lady in the Shambles, or ad Sanctam Dei genitricem ad praesepe, as the Historia calleth them. As for the Letany, which is a principal part of it, it was first compiled by Mamercus Bishop of Vienna in Daulphine, in the time of Pope Leo the first, which was 308. years after the time of Stephanus. The motive of it was the often danger to which France was subject by reason of the frequency of Earthquakes: Since those beginnings, which were fair and commendable, the Romish Church hath added much to them of magnificence, and somewhat of impiety and prophaneness. As for the Brethren de la Charite, I could not learn any thing of their [Page] original, but much of their office: for they are bound to visit all such as are infected with the Plague, to minister unto them all things necessary, and if they die, to shrowd them and carry them to their graves. These duties they perform very willingly, being possessed with this fancy, that they are priviledged from contagion by vertue of their Order; and to say the truth, they are most of them old, and so less subject to it; and indeed such sapless, thin, and unbodied fellows, that one would think almost no disease could catch them: yet hath their prerogative not alwayes held to them: Of thirty three of them in Callice three onely surviving the disease about four years since: But were the danger to which themselves are liable all the inconvenience of it, I should not much disallow it. There is a greater mischeif waiting upon it, and that is the infecting of others; they immediately after their return from the Pest-house mixing themselves with any of their neighbours: A most speedy meanes to spread the pestilence, where it is once begun, though neither they nor the people will be perswaded unto it.

The City or the high Town standeth, as we have said, on the top of the hill, environed with deep ditches, a strong wall, and closed with a treble gate▪ and two draw-bridges: a little small Town it is, not much above a slights shoot thwart where it is widest; and hath in it but one Church besides that of Nostre Dame, which is the Cathedral: the streets not many, and those narrow, unless it be in the market place; where the Corpus du Guard is [...]ept. What the outworks are, or whether it hath [Page] any or no I cannot say; Even in this time of League and peace, their jealousie will not permit an English man to walk their wall, either within the Town or without. A Castle they said, that it hath; bur such a one as seemeth more for a dwelling than a fort. The Garrison of this Town consisteth of five Companies, sixty in a Company, which amount in all to 300. their Governour being Mr. de Anmont sonne to the Marshal de Anmont, who so faithfully adhered to Henry the fourth in the beginning of his troubles: the cause why this Town being so small is so strongly Garrison'd is the safe keeping of the Haven which is under it; and the command of the passage from the Haven up into the Country: The first of these services it can hardly perform without much injury to the low Town which standeth between them; but for the ready discharge of the last it is daintily seated, for though to spare the low Town, they should permit an enemie to land; yet as soon as he is in his march up into the higher Country, their Ordinance will tear him to pieces: But for the immediate security of the Haven, their Ancestors did use to fortifie the old Town standing on the top of the hill, called La Tower de Ordre; it is said to have been built by Julius Caesar, at the time of his second expedition into Brittaine: this Haven being then Portus Gessorianus. This Tower which, we now see, seemeth to be but the remainder of a greater work; and by the height and scituation of it, one would guesse it to have been the Key or watch Tower unto the rest; it is built of rude and vulgar stone, but strongly cemented together; [Page] the figure of it is six square, every square of it being nine paces in length: A compass to little for a Fortress; and therefore it is long since it was put to that use: it now serving onely as a Sea mark by day and a Pharos by night. Ʋbi accensae noctu faces navigantium cursum dirigunt. The English men call it the Old man of Boulogue: and not improperly; for it hath all the signes of age upon it. The Sea hath by undermining it, taken from it all the earth, about two squares of the bottom of it, the stones begin to drop out from the top; and upon the rising of the wind, you would think it were troubled with the Palsie: in a word two hard winters, seconded with a violent tempest, maketh it rubbish: what therefore is wanting of present strength to the Haven in this ruine of a Tower, the wisdom of this age hath made good in a Garrison. And here me thinks I might justly ac [...]use the impolitick thrift of our former Kings of England, in not laying out some money upon the strength and safety of our Haven Townes; not one of them (Portsmouth onely excepted) being Garrison'd: true it is, that Henry the eighth did e [...]ect Block-Houses in many of them▪ but what b [...]bles they are, and how unable to resist a Flees royally appointed is known to every one▪ I know indeed we were sufficiently Garrison'd by out Na [...]e; could it either keep a watch on all particular places, or had it no [...] sometimes occasion to be absent; I hope our Kings are not of Darius mind in the storie, qu [...] gloriosius ra [...]us est hostem [...], quam non admittere: neither will I take [...] to give counsell; onely I could wish that [Page] we were not inferiour to our neighbours in the greatness of our care; since we are equal to the best of them in the goodness of our Country.

This Town of Boulogne and the Country about it was taken by Henry the eighth of England, Anno 1545. himself being in person at the siege; a very costly and chargeable victory. The whole list of his Forces did amount to 44000. foot, and 3000. horse: Field Pieces he drew after him above a hundred, besides those of smaller making, and for the conveyance of their Ordinance, baggage, and other provision, there were transported into the Continent above 25000. Horses. True it is that his designes had a further aim, had not Charles the Emperour, with whom he was to join, left the field, and made peace without him, So that judging onely by the success of the expedition, we cannot but say that the winning of Boulonnois was a dear purchase; and indeed in this one particular Sr. Walter Raleigh in the preface to his most excellent History saith not amiss of him, namely, that in his vain and fruitless expeditions abroad, he consumed more treasure, than all the rest of our victorious Kings before him did in their several Conquests: The other part of his censure of that Prince, I know not well what to think of, as meerly composed of gall and bitterness: Onely I cannot but much marvail that a man of his wisdom, being raised from almost nothing by the Daughter, could be so severely invective against the Father: certainly a most charitable judge cannot but condemn him of want of true affection and duty to his Queen: seeing that [Page] it is (as his late Majesty hath excellently noted in his ΒΑΣΙΛΙΚΟΝ ΔΩΡΟΝ) a thing monstrous to see a man love the Child and hate the Parents: And therefore he may earnestly enjoyn his Son Henry, to repress the insolencie of such as under pretence to tax a vice in the person▪ seek craftily to stain the Race.

Presently after this taking Boulogne, the French again endeavoured the regaining of it, even during the life of the Conquerour; but he was strong enough to keep his gettings: After his death the English being engaged in a warr against the Scots, and Kit having raised a rebellion in Norfolk they began again the reconquest of it, and that more violently than ever. Upon news of their preparations, an Ambassage was dispatched to Charles the fifth to desire succours of him; and to lay before him the infancy and several necessity of the young King, who was then about the age of ten years. This desire when the Emperour had refused to hearken to, they besought him, that he would at the least be pleased to take into his hands and keeping the Town of Boulogne, and that for no longer time, than until King Edward could make an end of the troubles of his Subjects at home. An easie request; yet did he not onely deny to satisfie the King in this, except he would restore the Catholike Religion, but he also expresly commanded, that neither any of his men or munition should go to the assistance of the English. An ingratitude for which I cannot find a fitting Epithite, considering what fast friends the Kings of England have alwayes been to the united Houses of Burgundy [Page] and Austria; what moneys they have helped them with, and what sundry warrs they have made for them, both in Belgium to maintain their authority, and in France to augment their potency: from the marriage of Maximilian of the Family of Austria with the Lady Mary of Burgundie, which happened in they ear 1478. unto the death of Henry the eighth, which fell in the year 1548. are just seventy years, in which time onely it is thought by men of knowledge and experience, that it cost the Kings of England at the least six millions of pounds in the meer quarrels and defence of the Princes of those Houses. An expense which might seem to have earned a greater requital than that now demanded. Upon this denial of the unkindful Emperour, a Treaty followed between England and France: The effect of it was, that Boulogne and all the Country of it should be restored to the French, by paying to the English at two dayes of payment 800000. Crowns. Other Articles there were, but this the principal: and so the fortune of young Edward was like that of Julius Caesar towards his end: Dum clementiam, quam praestiterant, expectant, incauti ab ingratis occupati sunt.

The CONCLUSION. A Generall censure of France, and the French. A gratulation to England. The end of our journey.

[Page]

ON wednesday the third of August, having stayed in Boulogne three dayes for wind and company, and not daring to venture on Calice, by reason of the sickness there raging, we took ship for England: the day fair, and the wind fitly serving us, we were quickly got out of the harbour into the main. And so I take my leave of France, a Country which I know not whether it be more happy in it self, or more unhappy in its Inhabitants. This I am almost confident of, that the worst of its commodities are the people; who by no vertue of theirs, which my understanding is yet guilty of, deserve to grow there: France then being in their possession, is like a delicate choice dish of meat disgraced in the cooking: Or to give you my verdict of them both, both Men and Country; modestly, and in a word, I think you never saw a fair Lady worse marred, and indeed to speak the truth —,

[Page]

But soft; What white is that which I espie,

Which with its lustre doth eclipse mine eye?

That which doth Neptunes fury so disdain,

And beats the billow back into the main?

It is some dreadful Scylla fast'ned there,

To shake the Sayler into prayer and fear:

Or its some I stand floating on the Wave,

Of which in Writers we the stories have:

'Tis England; hah! 'tis so: clap, clap your hands,

That the full noise may strike the nighb'ring lands

Into a Palsey: Doth not that lov'd name

Move you to extasie? Oh were the same

As dear to you as me; that very word

Would make you dance and caper over board.

Dull Shipemen, how they move not, how their hoof

Grows to the planks: yet stay, here's sport enough:

For see the Sea Nimphs foot it, and the fish

Leap their high measures, equal to my wish

Triton doth sound his shell; and to delight me,

Old Nereus hobbleth with his Amphitrite.

Excellent triumphs! but (curs'd Fates) the Main

Quickly divides, and takes them in again:

And left me dying; till I came to land

And kist my dearest Mother in her sand.

Hail happy England! hail thou sweetest Ile,

Within whose bounds no Pagan rites defile

The purer Faith; Christ is by Saints not mated;

And he alone is worshipp'd that created.

In thee the lab'ring man enjoys his wealth;

Not subject to the Lords rape; or the stealth

Of hungry Publicans: In thee thy King

Fears not the power of any underling,

[Page]Or petty Prince; but by his awful word

Commands not more the Beggar than the Lord.

In thee those heav'nly beauties lie, would make

Most of the Gods turn Mortals for their sake:

Such as out-go report, and make Fame see,

They stand above her bigg'st Hyperbole:

And yet to strangers will not grude the bliss

Of salutation and an harmless kiss.

Hail then sweet England! May I breath my last

In thy lov'd arms: and when my dayes are past,

And to the silence of the grave I must,

All I desire is, Thou would'st keep my Dust.

And now I am safely come into my Country, where, according to the custom of the Ancients, I offer up my thanksgiving to the God of the Waters, and testifie before his Altars the grateful acknowledgement of a safe voyage, and a prosperous return: Blessings which I never merited.

—Me tabula sacer

Votiva paries indicat uvida

Suspendisse potenti

Vestimenta inariis Deo.

FINIS.

March 11. 1655. This Book is Entred

J. BURROUGHS

§

§

[Page]

Printed or sold by William Leake, at the sign of the Crown in Fleetstreet between the two Temple Gates:

These Books following.

YOrk's Heraldry, Folio A Bible of a very fair large Roman letter, 40.

Orlando Furioso, Folio

Callis learned Readings on the S [...]at. 21. Hen. 8. Chap. 5 of Sewers

Perkins on the Law of Engl.

Wikinsons Office of Sheriffs

Persons Law.

Mirrour of Justice

Topicks in the Laws of Engl.

Sken de significatione Verborum

Delamon's use of the Horizontal Quadrant.

Wilby's 2d. set of Musique, 3, 4, 5, and 6 parts

Corderius in English

Doctor Fulk's Meteors, with Observations

Malthus Fire-works

Nyes Gunnery and Fire-works

Cator Major with Annotations, by Will. Austin Esquier

Mel Helliconium by Alexander Rosse

Nosce teipsum by Sr. John Davis

Animadversions on Lillies Grammer

The History of Vienna and Paris.

Lazarillo de Tormes

Hero and Leander by G. Chapman and Christoph. Marlow.

Posing of the Accidence

Guilliam's Heraldry

Herberts Travels

Man become guilty, by Iohn Francis Senalt, and Englished by Henry Earl of Monmouth

Excersitatio Scolastica

The Ideot in 4. books; the first and second of Wisdom; the third of the Mind; the fourth of Statick Experiments of the Ballance.

The life and Reign of Henry the eighth, written by the Lord Herbert.

Aulalucis, or the house of light The Fort Royal of Holy Scriptures, by I. H. the third Edition.

A Tragedy of Christs Passion, written by the most learned Hugo Grotius, and Englished by George Sands.

Mathematical Recreations, with the general Horological Ring and the double Horizontal Dial, by William Oughtred

The Garden of Eden, or an Acurate description of all Flowers and Fruits now growing in England, with particular rules how to advance their Nature & Growth as well in Seeds and Hearbs, [Page] as the secret ordering of Trees and Plants, by that learned and great Observer Sir Hugh Plat, Knight, the fourth Edition

Solitary devotions with man in glory, by the most Reverend and holy Father Ansolem, Arch-Bishop of Canterbury.

PLAYES.

Henry the Fourth.

Philaster

The Wedding.

The Hollander.

Maids Tragidy.

King and no King.

The grateful Servant.

The strange discovery

The Merchant of Venice.

[Page]

Information about this book

Title statement

France painted to the life by a learned and impartial hand.

Heylyn, Peter, 1600-1662.

Edition statement

1656

Publication

Publisher

Text Creation Partnership,

Place of publication

Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) :

Date

2008-09 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1).

ID [DLPS]

A43533

ID [STC]

Wing H1710

ID [STC]

ESTC R5545

ID [EEBO-CITATION]

12138982

ID [OCLC]

ocm 12138982

ID [VID]

54835

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Early English books online.

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(EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A43533)

Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 54835)

Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 105:3)

Source

— France painted to the life by a learned and impartial hand., Heylyn, Peter, 1600-1662..

Extent

[4], 362, [2] p.

Printed for William Leake ...,. London :: 1656.. (Attributed to Peter Heylyn. Cf. Halkett & Laing (2nd ed.).) (Unauthorized ed. of the first part of: A full relation of two journeys, the one into the main-land of France, the other into some of the adjacent ilands. London, 1656; and, A survey of the estate of France, and some of the adjoyning ilands. London, 1656.) (Pages 253-256 are wanting.) (Advertisements ([2] p.) at end.) (Reproduction of original in Huntington Library.)

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