Columbine call'd by the French Ancolie and by the Languedocians Eglantine the second iâ— a Mary-gold and the third a Violet The institution of those Games is variously reported â— some ascribe it to a great Lady call'd Clemence Isaure who bequeathed the greatest paâ—t of her Estate to the Town-house upon that account and whose Statue of white Marble is yet to be seen in the great Hall but the Registers of Toulouse attribute it to seven Noble-men in 1324. Howsoever it be this Solemnity is not only laudable but even worthy to be imitated by Princes Commonwealths and great Cities for besides that it would give an honest diversion and emulation to the ingenious it would be as a Touch-stone to know the several degrees and abilities of understanding Men for extraordinary Poets are for the most part uncommon Genius's and might successfully be employ'd in weightier undertakings Toulouse is divided into two parts by the River Garonne and into 8 Wards in reference to its 8 Capitouls The first is the Daurade so call'd from a very ancient Church under the name of our Lady that was formerly a Temple of the Sun This Precinct comprehends several Churches Monasteries and Colleges the Pest-house and the Suburb of S. Cyprian with the great Hospital of S. James The second Ward bears the name of S. Stephen the Metropolitan Church built in a great Market adorn'd with a fountain upon which is rais'd a fine Obelisque In 1609. this Church was all burn'd except that part which is call'd the Cloyster and has 'till some Gothick Statues of half emboss'd work It has since been rebuilt statelier than before with a great and high Tower wherein hangs the Bell Ardaillac which is so very big that they dare not ring it lest the Belfrey should fall besides 14 vaulted Chappels round about the Quire There are also the Archbishop's Palace the Town-house or Capitole adorn'd with the Pictures of the Entries of the French Kings within Toulouse and of the Capitouls in their Robes the Arsenal the Chappels of the white and blew Penitents with several Churches Convents and Colleges The Old-Bridge gives its name to the third Ward and is but a course piece of Building worthier of the Goths than of the Romans The New-bridge which is far finer doth hardly yield to that of Paris and no wonder since it was begun in 1544 and but ended about the middle of this Age. In this Precinct are the Exchange the Court of the Provost and Consuls of Merchants and the Cage wherein Blasphemers are included to be drown'd into the Garonne The fourth Ward call'd La Pierre or the Stone has nothing considerable The fifth takes its name from the Church Dalbade enjoy'd by the Fathers of the Oratory since the year 1620. There are besides the Inquisition a place well known by the cruelties against the Albigeois near which is a round Castle esteem'd by Du Chesne to be a remainder of the ancient Capitole the Island S. Antony form'd by the Garonne and inhabited by Handicraft-men The sixth Ward call'd S. Pierre des Cuisines has among other Churches and Monasteries that of the Franciscans sirnamed Observantins which exceeds all the rest in bigness and sumptuosity but is especially renowned for a Cave which consumes Dead-bodies without anointing the Skin and displacing the Joynts Here is the University with the College of Foix founded by Peter Cardinal of Foix and endow'd with two Libraries one of Mss and the other of Printed Books that of Narbonne founded by Gambert Archbishop of Arles and Narbonne in 1342 that of L'Equille begun in 1561 and ended 1608 at the expences of the Town for teaching the Hebrew Greek and Latin Tongues Here are also the Mills of the Basacle whose Workmanship is esteem'd one of the greatest curiosities of Toulouse This place in Latin Vadaculum that is small foord gives likewise its name to a Bridge and a gate hard by the Castle The seventh Ward call'd S. Bartholomew has the Castle Narbonnoise which was the ordinary Residence of the Counts of Toulouse and a very strong place before K. Charles VII Now it is the Palace of the Parliament with the Hall of the Pleas the Marble-Table the Prisons call'd Hauts-murats the Court of the Exchemier and the Mint where Money is coyn'd and mark'd at the Letter M. The eighth Ward under the name of S. Sernin or Saturnin an ancient Collegiate Church defended by Guns at the top of it so plac'd that none of the many Pillars which underprop the Building can cover a Man from their Shot This they do because of the great Treasure that is included in this Church for there are above 50 Silver-skreens wash'd over with Gold besides the Jewels and Church-ornaments Here are the Tombs of the ancient Counts of Toulouse of its Prelates and Nobility Five Miles North-West of this City lies the Village or Lordship of Pibrac which I mention here for having giv'n its name to a Toulousan Gentleman Gui du Faur Lord of Pibrac President of the Parliament of Paris and Ambassador of France to the Council of Trent and then to Poland under Charles IX and Hen. III. He has left several loose Discourses and pieces of Poetry but the most renown'd are his Moral Quatrains which for their brevity majesty and if I may so speak sententiousness may still challenge the first place among all which has been written in this kind by uninspired Men. It appears by several passages of this golden Book that the Author was not at all addicted to the Superstitions of Rome though he never publickly embraced the Reformation no more than divers other Great and Learned Men of his time who seem'd to approve of the Doctrine but did not like the manner of propogating it Seven Miles South-west of Toulouse lies the Village of Plaisance so call'd from the goodness of its Air Soyl and Situation Adrian de Valois supposes it to be the Vernus Sol of Aethicus but I rather take it for a place call'd Vernouse which lies just 15 Italian Miles South-west of Toulouse as the Vernus Sol of that Geographer I find nothing considerable of the other places of this Diocese as Montoriol Vieille Toulouse S. Jori Columiers Castel-moron Ville-Longue Ville-neuve Montagut Montgaillard Verseuil Lenta Carmain with the title of a County Of the Diocese of Montauban MOntauban Mons Albanus is one of the 6 Bishopricks of Pope John XXII's erection It was formerly a Monastery founded by Theodard Archbishop of Narbonne and when it was made a Cathedral the Abbot Bertrand du Puy was the first Bishop of it As to the Town it was but at the beginning a very strong Castle which in process of time increas'd into a considerable City by the fertility of its Soyl and the conveniency of its Situation upon a Hill and the Rivers Tescounot and Tarn on the high way from Toulouse to Limoges and thence to Paris It was built or repair'd in 1144 and united to the French King's Domesne in 1171
Matter before the King's Council so that our Reformed seeing that no Justice was to be hoped from the Parliament made an Interest to remove the Cause before the King's Council that they might avoid expences which many other imitated not without the secret Support of the Court. CHAP. VI. Of the Religion of the French THE Reader must not here expect an Account of the Bardes and Druides or of the Idolatrous Worship of the ancient Gauls neither am I minded to assert or confute what has been said concerning St. Denis the Areopagite being Bishop of Paris or St. Martial Bishop of Limoges and both Apostles of the Gauls about the Year 70. By whomsoever the Christian Religion has been first preached in France sure it is that it was early enough since in the middle of the second Century there were two conspicuous Churches at Lyons and Vienne who endured a long and bloody Persecution under the Empire of Marc. Aurele An. 176. By what Means and Degrees Popery corrupted Christianity is not a Mystery in this Protestant Kingdom but I have some Observations to make upon the Progress and present State of that Superstitious Worship in France It 's well known that Superstition began to creep into the Church by the over-great Honour the Faithful rendered to those Christian Heroes the Martyrs who contrary to the Heathen that got a Name by their being troublesome to others signalized themselves by their own Sufferings And with great reason were they so much reverenced since the Pagan Antiquity which mentions so many Hercules can hardly supply us with an Anaxarchus While these couragious Athletes lay in Prison Sinners were released of their Penances upon their Intercession after their Death their Tombs were the Gathering-place of the Faithful and when God had given Peace to his Church Temples were built upon or near their Graves and called after their Names And as the Vulgar doth not know how to keep the golden middle Path hates or loves despises or praises to excess So this due and lawful Remembrance soon degenerated into an Idolatrous Worship Perhaps at the beginning it had been easie to Clergy-Men to put a Stop to that Superstition but the Generality found it seems their Reckoning by it and pious Men durst not oppose the Current However the Gauls had the Honour to produce one Jovinian a Monk of Milan who endured a long Persecution for openly disproving the creeping Practices of Coelibacy Vows and the Veneration of Reliques in the time of St. Ambrose But a greater Man than Jovinian whom neither Italians nor Spaniards can challenge is Vigilantius for he was born at Calaguri a small Borough near Cominges in Gascony True it is that St. Jerom disputed against him with much Violence but the Learned know that the Conduct of this Father is not so much commended as his Science and notwithstanding his Out-crys Vigilantius quietly died in the Communion of the Church and left a great many Disciples who seem to have been the Fore-fathers of the Albigenses as those of Jovinian maintained the Truth in the Churches of Italy till Claudius Archbishop of Turin arose and was succeeded by the Vaudois The second Step of Superstition was the Worship of Images which when the Emperors of the East could no longer oppose God raised Charlemaign in the West who caus'd it to be condemned together with the second Council of Nice in another held at Francfort Ann. 794. At the same time Agobard Archbishop of Lyons and Claudius of Turin preach'd and wrote againâ—â— these Idolatrous Practices which prevail'â— at last during the Weakness and Division of Charlemaign's House and Successors Transubstantiation was a casual Off-spring of Image-Worship for when thâ— Orthodox told the Iconolatre's that God'â— Son had left us but an Image of himself namely the Holy Sacrament which notwithstanding he never commanded to adore the last after many Subterfuges finally bethought themselves of this Answer 〈◊〉 That the consecrated Bread and Wine were not a simple Image of our Lord but his true Body and Blood Against this strange Doctrine Bertram or Ratramn Priest and Monk of Corby in Picardy composed a Book about the Year 850. and a little after John Scot Erigeene Professor of Divinity in the University of Paris wrote of the same Matter both by Order of Charles the Bald Emperor By the Opposition of these great Men this monstrous Tenet was somewhat suppressed but as it lifted up its Head again after their Death Berengarius Arch-Deacon of Anger 's arose for the Truth in 1035 was a long time maintained by several French Bishops against the Power and Persecution of the Popes and dy'd in the Communion of the Church Ann. 1088 not without solemnly recalling the nonsensical Confession which the Popes Nicolas II. and Gregory VII had forced upon him After Berengarius the Assertors of the Truth had more dreadful Storms to go through however France was never wanting such Christian Heroes Some rejected all the Popish Errors as Peter de Bruys and Henry of Tolose the Waldenses and Albigenses Some confuted Transubstantiation as John Dr. of Paris known under the Name of Joannes de Parisiis others bewailed the Corruption of the Church as Nicolas of Clemangis others inveighed against the Monks their Luxury and Covetousness especially William of St. Amour As to those that opposed the Tyranny and Usurpations of the Popes it would be too tedious to enumerate them and I refer my Reader to the Learned Richer and Du Pin. De potest Eccles L. 1. c. 3. De Antiq. Eccles Discipl Diss 7. The French Soyl being so well prepared to receive the Seed of the Gospel 't is not to be wondered at if the Disciples of Luther and the Writings of Calvin caused such a Harvest in that Kingdom one ought rather to be surpriz'd that it was not fruitful every where and that against all Appearance in less than 200 Years the Roman Tare has outwardly covered the whole Realm again I say against all appearance for it seems somewhat strange that some Northern Countries have generally iâ—brac'd and hitherto preserved the Refoâ—mation and that the quick-sighted Frenâ—â— have suffered themselves to be imposed uâ—on so far as to let Popery and Tyranâ— prevail after they had spilt so much Blooâ— to obtain at least a Liberty of Consciencâ— I will not presume to enter the Secrets 〈◊〉 God but as the ways of his Providenâ—â— may sometimes be discovered after the â—vent and the Faults of our Fore-fathers 〈◊〉 the Frauds of our Enemies may make 〈◊〉 wiser for the future so it will not mâ—thinks be amiss to observe the Causes thaâ— have put a stop to the Reformation iâ— France 1. In most of the Countries that reformeâ— themselves the Church-Revenues were noâ— all disposed of according to the pious Intent of the Givers but a good part waâ— appropriated to Secular Uses which alienated the Hearts of the Clergy in otheâ— Countries and gave them occasion to insinuate to the People that Covetousness anâ— not
of Francis I. Henry II. and his three Sons and was one of the most Learned Men of his time He favoured the Protestant Doctrine openly enough and often Preached it at Court But whether he could not as easily resolve to for sake his Kitchin as Transubstantiation as he himself used to say or that he thought that his stay at Court would be more serviceable to the good side than a publick abjuration or that he did not like a Presbyterian Reformation as 't is reported that when the Ministers of Geneve wrote to him he should come over to them to make a publick Profession of the Truth he answer'd they ought rather to come to and take orders from him they having no lawful Mission whatsoever it may be he dyed in the Communion of the Roman Church at Toulouse in 1579. Among the Monasteries of Valence is most eminent the Abby of St. Ruff chief of the Order of St. Augustin esteemed one of the most sumptuous Buildings of all Dauphine The Foundation of this Town is uncertain but it appears by several Inscriptions and Roman Monuments that it is very antient It is divided into Town and Burrough and is defended by a Cittadel for the other Fortifications which Francis the I. designed to make at Grenoble and Valence were never finished In the Town are two Fountains whose Conduits said to have been built by Julius Caesar are indeed a Work of the Roman Magnificence for they are vaulted and so big that a Man may walk upright in them the source and the end of one cannot be discovered and along the other which waters the Neighbouring Meadows are the ruins of several antient Buildings The Country People do not want fabulous Traditions no more than their Neighbours at Vienne for they will tell you strange Stories of a Giant called Briard who was 15 Cubits high and shew you some monstrous remains of his Bones nay the Dominican Fryers assure that they have still his true Picture which they do not fail to shew to Strangers Duchesne relates that in the Neighbouring Vineyards was discovered a Grave at the opening of which was seen a Woman having a golden Ring at each of her ears with a Turky-stone and Emerald inchased in them at her Feet was a Cup of Cristal and at her Head a Lamp of Glass but assoon as this dead Body was exposed to the piercing Air it turned into dust Between Valence and the fall of the Isere into the Rhone at a Leagues distance from both is the Village of Confolen where Fabius Maximus gave a total overthrow to the Gaulish Forces in the Year 633 of Rome Thirteen Miles South-East of Valence upon the River Drome lies the Town of Crest formerly a dependance of the Segalauni and a Castle of the Counts of VALENTINOIS This French name is derived from the Latin Crista because this Castle being seated between the River and a Neighbouring Mountain appear'd as the Cap or the Comb of a Cock and therefore it was the place of Arms of the Counts of VALENTINOIS and the Count of Montfort besieged it in vain in the 13th Age. As this Town is conveniently seated between the Diocesses of Valence and Die so it was the Seat of Justice for the upper part of both Counties 'T is observed that in 1469 one John Rabot made a new statute-Statute-Book divided in a hundred Articles which were afterwards confirmed by the Parliament of Dauphiné Crest had declared it self for the League in the last Century but its Governor Montoison surrender'd it to the French King Henry the Great in 1589 and since that time its Tower has been demolished Six Leagues South of Valence near the Mouth of the Drome is the Burrough of Lauriol or l'Auriol Laureolum or Aureolum with a Priorate of S. John's Order Mâ—utelimar almost nine Leagues South West of Crest and 13 South of Valence is a considerable Town seated upon a Mountain washed by the River Rubion whence and from its Founders the Lords of Grignan call'd Adhemar of Monteil it has taken the name of Montilium Adhemari and in Frencâ— Montilly Monteil-Aymar and Montelimar 〈◊〉 it was that one Milon the Pope's Legate assembled the Bishops of the Neighbouring Provincâ— against Raymond the VI. Count of Touloâ—â— â—nd the Albigeois in 1208. One Girard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r made Homage of this Town to Pope Graâ—â—â—â— the XI and exchanged it with Clement the â—II for the Lordship of Grillon but the Dauphin Lewis the XI not liking this barter goâ— the Town of Montelimar again restored Grillon to the Pope and gave the Lordship of Marsanne to Adhemar in 1446. In the last age the Inhabitants of this Town were among the first who declared for the Reformation which drew several troubles upon them and was the cause that it was taken and retaken several times Montelimar has a very fine prospect and is but a League East of the Rhone It produces excellent Wines which are almost the sole in that Country that will bear Carriage and therefore are transported by Land as far as Grenoble and Chambery That famous Contoversist Chamier so much known among the Protestants of France by his Panstratia was Minister of Montelimar In this Dutchy are farther remarkable the Burroughs of Chabeuil Estoille Livron L' Auriol and Diou le Fit renowned for its Ear then-ware the County of Monteillez c. Of Tricastinois THis Country which makes a kind of Triangle between the County Venaissin on the East South and South West the River Rhâ—ne on the West and the Vice-seneschalship of Montelimar on the North is hardly extended 6 Leagues where it is broadest The Capital St. Paul Tricastin or as the vulgar calls it St. Paul Trois Chateaux bears the name of one of its Bishops and of its antient Inhabitants the Tricastini Pliny calls it Augusta Tricastinorum but Ptolomy Noviomagus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which makes Jos Scaliger and the Learned Jesuit Sirmond take it for 2 different Towns whereof the last Noviomagus should denote Nions upon the River Aygues almost 9 Leagues East of St. Paul but Adrian de Valois does not think it reasonable to ascribe two Capital Cities to such an inconsiderable People as the Tricastins ever were for all what we find remembred of them is that Hannibal went through their Country in his Journey to the Alpes The first Bishop of St. Paul mention'd in History is one Florentius who assisted to the Council of Epaone or Ponay in 517. In the last Age the Protestants were Masters of that Town during near 50 years but in 1590. Antony Du Cros who had been named to that Bishoprick sang Mass again in the Cathedral after the Popish Worship had been expelled from it 44 years Grignan is a small Burrough seated upon a Mountain 4 Leagues North East of St. Paul It has the Title of a Barony but is much more considerable by the lustre of its Lords who are known since the 10th or 12th Century and have been intrusted with several important