starved if they were not continually at the Holy Table So have they often this word in their mouth O Lord withdraw your self from me for I am a sinner rather than this Come to me and I 'le comfort you Notwithstanding not long since in some places they affect frequent Communion and combate their own maximes to stop the mouths of such as might say Truly these people are not wise who believe that Grace is more aboundantly given when one forbears coming to the source of it that the heavenly Bread does profit those most who eat it not than those who use it very often In fine that sick people find themselves better if they bar themselves of a remedy ordain'd for their recovery But their Books which they cannot suppresse now have declared so much as a man may say without judging rashly that in those places where they receive the Blessed Sacrament most that practise what they have condemned they subvert what they have endeavoured to build with all the artifices and cavils of their dangerous eloquence But perhaps that since they have set forth those Books humane nature hath been altered in them and falls no more into such faults as are common to the just which said howsoever shall be an impediment of Communion when that with the difficulties which they did find in it they perswaded the people to forbear it altogether Their Calender is very different from ours they have blotted out of it twelve or fifteen Popes whereof the most part have pronounced against the errours which they professe and 't is doubted whither it be through vengeance or to make place for other Saints whose names agree with those of their men and who please them most They admit of no Moncks but like well of Nuns without letting a man know wherefore for the Institution is one and the same and it seems that the consequences be alike to such as inquire not after reasons in the difference of Sexes There 's great striving who shall be Directour of these Nuns and those who are chosen for that purpose find therein so many allurements so much gentlenesse so much fruit to be done that they have much ado to depart from their grates They forbid them expresly all Books which they have not composed as being not worth redding or pernicious sometimes they go further and make them vow never to see any of them least the answers made to their own may change the minds of these Beata's whom they keep under Tyranny and to mitigate this tedious servitude by curiosity which is natural to the Sex they teach their Philosophy in their Vulgar tongue or teach them Latine In some places the Directours leave off their long Coats every morning and transform themselves into Handicrafts-men to get leave to go into the inward Gardens which they could not do otherways in good conscience and after they have worked the hour with the Spade or Mattock by a second Metamorphose they change their condition they wash their hands and face to take off the dust and sweat they put on again the long Coat which they had left off they become graver they speak of spiritual things and then they are called Priests as I have been informed by a Nun of the Country whom I had permission to speak with but after many Ceremonies yet although this is pass'd over without scandal yea with modesty as she assured me nevertheless a thing so extraordinary doth for all that much amaze me They are so zealous in their way for the propagation of their Faith that they do not onely depute men to establish it where it hath not yet been received but female Missionaries who explicate their Divinity very bravely which occasion'd the saying That in Jansenia there are Professors of all Sexes and that Doctrine was fallen into the Distaffe Nay they have Agents of Religion disguised who go into other Countries to gain people These same are long before they discover themselves after they have gotten the repute of being peaceable and quiet men that mind nothing but the pure glory of God and only when they foresee that that may serve for the advancement of the Sect. That they may be esteemed more Religious they have some Demy-Anachorets who are neither Monoks nor Seculars these live very retiredly and a man can hear nothing of their solitude but that some of them make Baskets others pattins or Card-matches which are afterwards sold at the Market and which the more devout amongst them esteem as relicks The Dutch-men that have gone into the Country have there cryed down the Jesuits wherefore they have made a Statute never to admit them and 't is believed they 'l be more constant in this resolutior than hath been the Republick of Venice These people live in a wonderful Vnion what one does the rest allow of it without any farther examination they praise one another very friendly and this mutual and perpetual Panegyrick is an intimation of a great deal of charity To give renown to their Preachers they draw to their Sermons certain folks instructed in all such gestures as may testifie a rapture in them that 't is impossible to Preach better yea they take care that many Coaches may be seen at the Gates of the Churches where the Sermon is and that the Coachmen make a great railing If they give Almes 't is ever very exemplarily for they take order that all the World may know it For a Shirt that one shall have bestowed upon a Beggar it shall be presently noised abroad that he hath laid out in Charitable deeds above eight hundred ells of linnen For a Messe of Broth he shall have sent to a Sick Body they 'l speak of no lesse than of a Tun of Gelly what they say they desire should be kept private is always thundered abroad and a Shilling that falls from their hand makes a greater noise than all the Bells in our Ladies Church at Paris In this they seem to imitate very much our Lotteries where for a three-penny Looking-glasse a man shall have drawn for a Pair of Gloves the Trumpet declares it to all standers by This 't is that gives credit to their Almes be they never so small They make a Common Purse of all that each particular person hath a devotion to give as their number is very great ye must not wonder that so many drops of water do fill up the Bason This heap being made the care of it is committed to certain quaint well agreeing neat well spoken persons and that have a devout sweet and winning countenance Being in possession of this money which is not uselesse to them they spread it in several places and look into the neceffities of the people that they might have an opportunity of employing those collected sums not as Deputies but as Religious and zealous persons that value not the riches of this world that give them by hand-fulls and that believe that their patrimony doth belong to such as stand
most in need of it Yet very often those persons thus sent about give not any thing of their own and the people believe that they are the spring when they are but the Pipes Upon this opinion 't is said that the Spirit of Jansenia is a Spirit of Charity and that there are Divine Men in it who distribute what ever they have amongst the poor who had rather suffer their own selves than see their Neighbour suffer although to say the truth they well know that these praises are not due to them Yet they do willingly accept them and with a smiling countenance they tell the company that they are very sorry they are not able to do any more This makes them admired followed and makes every thing allowed of that comes from their mouth for the People cannot believe that such charitable people can or will lye It is reported that savage people for a Bottle of Strong-water which they love very well are easily perswaded to be Christians but that the Water of Baptisme alone doth not move them to any devotion The same is seen in such as yield to the Jansenians for the doctrine proposed unto them is received but for the liberalities sake which attend it To make this Drugg be swallowed down the Doctours have taken care that interest should be an assured vehicule of it This same zeal which they affect to shew towards they poor makes them disapprove of what they are told that in other Countries the Churches are enriched with Marble and precious Pictures They think that justice is done to the poor to deprive God of these great Ornaments which do him no good to convert them to their own use and that Solomon will have been well scourged in the other world for having built so magnificent a Temple which was guilded to the very walls That at that very time he began to fall from his Wisdome and that there 's no doubt to be made but that all the good people of Jerusalem were much scandaliz'd at it The have Colledges to instruct their youth and some Silly rich one gottin by flatteries and praises he takes upon him the payment of the Professours wages or the Schollars Pension if they are poor but upon condition they shall with speed teach them that Jesus Christ did not suffer for Still-born Children and that all Infidels actions nay to save a Man's Father from Ship-wrack or to hinder homicide are so many mortal sins that deserve everlasting damnation and that God ought to punish as violators Parricides and Sacriledges for they esteem it a point of Salvation to know and believe all this as well as the Mysterie of the Trinity and the Incarnation of the World which is known by the great care they take to inculcate this Doctrine into the minds of Serving-men Chamber-maids Artisans and by the stir they keep when the contrary is avouched Upon which account they give a Book to the young Schollars the leaves whereof are divided in two Columnes The one contains the Rules of Grammar the other the Doctrine of still-born Children and the Sins of Infidels If they do not learn both Lessons together their hinder-part answers for their Head Lo here one of their questions Come hither Child if you were an Infidel and that your Father were fallen into a Well would you take him out of it If he says no Ah you ingrateful wicked says the Master he hath nothing of good nature If he says yes he replies to him Child you would do very ill God would take it ill from you you would damne your self what to save a Father would you commit a mortal sin it would be much more enormous than in letting him perish For sins of omission are more pardonable than the others When you shall be further advanced in learning you will hear of a certain person called the pious Aeneas because he carried his Father upon his Back to save him from fire He was a wicked man and he could not carry away the good old man without mortal sin They 'l tell you farther that Biton and Cleobis were good felldws because their sick Mother having a mind to go to the Temple upon a Festival-day and having no Coacih-horses they fastened themselves to the Coach and drew her thither This good office which gained them an immortal fame was a great sin and if ever any one tells you the contrary stand in it stifly You may in time come to read the Bible for you may become Priests when you read in it that the Mid-wives of Aegypt would not suffocate the Hebrew Children as they had order beware you value not that impious mercy for you would value a very wicked action In a word the justice which a Pagan Judge doth to the people of it self deserves burning because that without grace all that he doth is vitiated and becomes a crime out of a corrupted end As to Still-bom children here is what they say Children ye must observe that there are exceptions of redemption as there are of Grammar and that those must needs perish whom Christ would not have to be comprehended in the number of the redeemed Among these excluded wretches are comprised still-born Children Alas say they God would not have suffered for you young people if your Mothers had hurt themselves before their Lying-in if â—hey had flung themselves out of a Window or into â—he River if a Tile had fallen on their Head but because you were not smohered in their Wombs it may very well be that Jesus Christ may have shed his blood for your salvation for to assure you of it I neither can nor ought not May be he hath not suffered for this fine Child nor for that neither may be he hath and 't is the opinion of our Doctours that ther 's no certainty in that point As the Masters are onely waged to teach them those things and others as â—t falls out they are mighty careful that their Schollars be not ignorant therein should they die for fear or go out of their wits as 't often comes to pass The Women that are ordained to teach little Girls to read are not in appearance lesse zealous in inspiring their belief into those young ones Do not think Girls say they that God's grace is always with us alas no. There are some miserable times when there is a necessity of perishing What should we do if God withdraw himself from us This happens very often though are not we very unhappy Chastity is injoyned us and sometimes we are destitute of necessary power to continue it Be mindful of this Girls it concerns your Salvation not to be ignorant of it and you may upon occasion stand in need of it There are Husbands that would not be so cruel to their Wives had they studied Divinity for they would know that grace is often times denied us and that in this case they must rather pitty â—out infirmities than be angry at faults we fall into by the absence
A RELATION OF THE COUNTRY OF JANSENIA WHEREIN Is treated of the Singularities founded therein the Customes Manners and Religion of it's Inhabitants With a Map of the Countrey Composed in French by Lewis Fountaine Esq And newly Translated into English by P. B. London Printed for the Author are sold by A. Banks and C. Harper over against St. Dunstans-Church in Fleetstreet 1668 TO MONSIEUR DE*** SIR I Have heard you often complain that we see Relations enough of China and Canada but that none had yet appeared which truly declared what Country Jansenia is Be content Sir here is what you have longed for another would have made a great volume hereof but I know how tedious prolixity is to you I have considered your inclination and to tell you all my own which does not carry me to that enlargement of speeches which you tearm the profit of the Stationer and the torment of the Reader If I had further amplified my discourse you would perhaps have laid it aside either through contempt or irksomness as we do great talkers and many persons who abridge themselves of their dearest satisfaction would have easily bereaved themselves of a Book that had cost more We may tell many things in seven or eight leafs of paper and I am mistaken if you find nothing in these that approach Colledge amplifications or the style of Commentaries I had believed that the discourse I address unto you should have been sufficient to satisfie your curiosity and that of the publick also but some body advised me to joyn to it the Map which you see here where in a moment the site of the Country is expose to the worlds view the Rivers that water it and that bind it to the neighbouring kingdomes the several things that it produceth and the Sea where all the waters of so famous a Country fall Some one will perhaps have a desire to make a more exact and regulate description of it when he hath seen this I shall be very glad of it and I 'm sure 't will have a greater sale in France than the Almanack that made so much noise after the Declaration of Pope Innocent the tenth and since Jansenisme was beaten down I would not dare to tell you that you will do that better than any other for it would be to excite you to follow my lights and I acknowledge that I have none which equal yours Do then Sir what you please and believe me ever Your most humble and obedient Servant FONTAINE A RELATION OF THE COUNTRY OF JANSENIA In which 't is discoursed of the Singularities that are there of the Customes Manners and Religion of its Inhabitants I Will make the description of a Country which to this day the Geographers have never spoken of and they must believe what I 'l tell of it because I have been there I dwelt in it almost five years and I will say nothing but upon the faith of my own eyes Jansenia is a very pleasant and fertile Province plac'd betwixt Libertinia that limits it on the Oriental part by it's vast and champion grounds Desesperia almost filled with sands and stony ways that bounds it on the Occidental part and Calvinia that borders it on the Septentrional part On the Meridional coast it hath that tempestuous Sea the depth whereof could never yet be found and which is no less renound for the Monsters it bears than for the Ships that perish therein The chief Town where there is a Soveraign Court and an University is situated exactly in the middle of the Country over which it rules and it is believed that the principal Founders thereof judged it most expedient to place it there for the greater conveniency of going into the three neighbouring Provinces for thus the ways are equal in length to whatsoever part a man will go the way is so little wearisome that a Jansenian if he be a good foot-man on condition that he puts forth betimes may go thither with ease in four days There are always some Posts ordained for those that are in more hast and some Coaches which never fail to go on their appointed days That Land was first inhabited by a Colony of Flemings who named it and who soon after made it famous through the novelty of their Laws Curiosity and Interest have since that drawn into it many people of divers Nations who have made it populous as we see at this time The Men of this Country are commonly very little and the tallest do not pass our moderate stature although the Pictures which they make of them do represent them all of an extraordinary magnitude They have a small head but very hard in respect of the spissitude of their brain-pans and their minds follow the constitution of their bodies By the dissection that was made of them at several times it hath been found that many of them have a double heart and 't is believed that this is the cause they are not sincere in their proceedings they have always divers ends and at the same time they can intend contraries Their most ordinary sickness is a dangerous swelling whereof they almost all dye and for which yet they could never yet find any remedy but by going forth of their Country whereunto very few can be perswaded for the climate seems to them very sweet and when they perceive that any one of their Country will part from them they use so many artifices and oblige them in so many fashions that they force them to stay there They Rule themselves by the Moon and not by the Sun as do other Nations and half their time they know not how they live because their clocks never go well being so little industrious to direct them as the inward part of the Machine is never correspondent to the outward that is to say to the Hand of the Clock Their Houses are almost like ours and every one hath its back-door for the greater commodity of going whither they please without being peceived by any They visit one another rather by night than day to the end say they they may gain that time upon sleep and all their chief businesses are treated but by the Candle To make a distinction between themselves and other people which they much covet they affect a particular character which is observ'd in their manner of living in their apparel and in their Language They march even on a certain pace which they have learn'd they use Tones which are not usual with us and at every moment they turn up their eyes with measure which they tearm the Apostrophes of the sight and that in such a fashion that you would say they are even ready to die They esteem themselves the most learnd men in the world and there is no so petty a School-master or Cook among them wearing along Coat who hath not that judgment of himself They believe also that they alone possess the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil and the fruit that
be a superfluous thing and they would expose themselves to a manifest refusal by drawing to their party men that have resolved the contrary and who for to gain the world would not expose themselves to so great an infamy This diversity of Opinions was the cause at that time they did determine nothing as to that Article and thus they broke off having admonished their Deputies that the Air of Rome was no ways wholesome for them that they should not forget their Caps to the end they might be always covered even before the Pope and that when they should be returned back into Jansenia their native Country it would be time enough to uncover themselves Not long after there was a rumour spread up and down that the Plague had spoiled all Jansenia and that there was not a soul left in it for albeit that this Province be subject to great winds which made a doubt that it was not EAolia yet the Plague makes there often great ravages which much amazeth the Physitians and there was ground to believe that the distemp had been great Then it was that one might easily perceive that the Jansenians were abominable to the whole world For upon the news that their generation was extinguished many people did strive who should make the greatest Bone-fires and knocked out the Heads of Wine-vessels in the streets believing that they could not be too profuse in expressing their joy but this satisfaction did last no longer than till the beginning of the following Winter For even then those Jansenians whom the Plague had dispersed and who had retired themselves into their Caverns began to come out of their Holes with countenances that had not yet lost all the marks of fear They came to Town again by little and little sometimes single sometimes two by two after having an hundred times drawn back their feet upon suspicion whither they should be safe in their first Lodgings In fine all fear was laid aside experience having shewn that the ill air was dissipated and because the mortality had not been great whatever fears or noise it had raised in less then six months the Town was near as ful as ever The other people that had rejoyced for their death did express so much trouble for the return of the Jansenians that they were even going into mourning Since that there hath been nothing but insultings on all sides the one taxing their enemies with cowardise for having been so passionate against such as they believed were dead They on the contrary upholding that they had not done enough and that the world could not shew joy enough in being rid of such a wretched Sect. END IANSENIA AN EXPLICATION OF THE MAP JAnsenisme is in an equal disposition to Liberty Despair and Calvinisme The opinion that Grace doth necessitate the will to good when 't is granted us happen what will and do what one can makes the Libertine The Doctrine that teacheth that Jesus Christ did not dye for all and that he will refuse his Grace to many that cannot be saved but by it maketh the Desperate The Sect that debars the Liberty of Man of the source thereof that maintains that God's Commandements are impossible that moveth one to the contempt of the Supream Bishop of his Decrees of his Censures makes the Calvinist and Presbyterian Those that seem not to reach so far loose themselves in Jansenisme it self as you may perceive by these Monsters and by those Shipwracks in the Sea that bears it's name These Rivers these Coaches these Post-horses these Boats laden with Books and other Marchandise do make appear whither Jansenisme doth tend and the reaches thereof Her communications with the Errants whom she will not own and in fine how dangerous it is to professe a Doctrine the principles whereof does invite and draw people to Charenton to Debauchery or to the Halter These Cypress-trees which grow amongst the Rocks these doleful trees where ye see Men hanged up make it appear that the Country bordering upon Jansenia on the Western part is a Land of Despair That which ye see over against it hath not any thing but what 's pleasing so is it more inhabited than the other because that Liberty allures more people than the diffidence of God's goodness doth ruin Those Statues of Bacchus and of Venus do evidence the exercises of such as went from Jansenisme into this Land of Pleasure and the Gods that are adored there Calvinia that takes the upper hand of the Map and whither ye see so many people go notifies what ye know of these wretches who after having for a time tossed themselves to and fro under an ambiguous name did at length declare themselves true Disciples of Calvin These others that dig the ground in Jansenia would not be so earnest at their work if they were not in hopes to reap some benefit thereby The Sepulcher strucken with a Thunder-bolt is that of the Flemish Professor's whose Epitaph was condemned and caused to be razed out by the Pope The Book says enough of the Lake This same Forrest where you see a place of Habitation is the Retiring-house of the Demy-Moncks who are what they are not and are not what they are 'T is left to you to guess the Creatures for your service These half Muzled Asses these Flocks of Geese these huge Calves that a man would take for Oxen these Sheep-wolves these pleasant Owles these great horned Stags these Foxes that befriend Hens so much for all these well deferve your pains in looking into the meaning of them There are yet other creatures spoken of in the Relation of the Country weigh all the words of it there are none but may be made use of if ye read it as ye should do from one end to the other ye will with delight discover what the Jansenists do teach what they hatch what they have done and what they can do Just as I was making an end of this Relation these two Letters which treat of the fame thing were put into my Hand by a friend that had taken a Copy of them I thought it would oblige you Reader to let you have a sight of them SIR I Am told that Jansenisme lyes desperateâ—y sick if it dies as it is very likely it will not have lived long We ought to believe that God is absolutely willing it should be destroyed since that all manner of remedies prove ineffectual and that although it be in the height of youth yet it cannot escape 'T is affirmed that it hath made a Will and that it Bequeaths its Books to a Minister whose name I could not learn He that will be chosen to make the Funeral Sermon will have matter inough if he will forget nothing and follow his instructions I saw a Paper by chance wherein he is highly praised for having been so generous as to fly out against two Popes and for having withstood four Anathemes without stirring I do not think there is any praying for it now 't is dead nor that it will receive the usual Ceremonies to the deceased because it 's near Relations will believe it to be glorious in heaven at the very moment of it's expiration and that they are not people that wilt apply to him the Indulgencies of Rome or sprinkle it with holy Water for as you well know 't is not their devotion If they follow the custom of their good friends they may well say thus Sleep Corps until the Lord doth awake thee My Letter mentioneth that many of the sick persons Domesticks will not need to trouble themselves to look a Master after its death because many worthy persons of several qualities and some Church-men have engaged to take them giving them another kind of Livery We shall know for certain by that those that were the deceased's true friends and there will be no farther need of guessing at inclinations that will be better known by their Signs than any Scrivener If there be an Inventary made of all moveables with the forms received in France those that take delight to disguise themselves at Shrovetide will be fitted at a cheap rate for 't is said there are above fifty as well Perriwigs as Beards and as many several habits as it usually wore sutable to the part it would act when it had no mind to be known But there is no likelyhood that the heirs will produce all this They may keep them for their own use and prudence will undoubtedlyoblige them to divide among themselves in a friendly manner all things of this nature I fancy they 'l be careful in burning several Letters and other Papers which might reveal Mysteries if seen for to this day all things are written in Cyphers and since what was discovered in the Flemish Doctors Letters which were more obscure than any Aenigma 't is not credible that a secret communicated to a friend in unknown tearms or barbarous figures can be long without being known if it falls into anunderstanding mans hands When I know more I will acquaint you with it in the mean time I will remain as ever SIR Your most humble c. Answer SIR I cannot conceive where you have disposed of your charity truly 't is not well done to jeer sick persons thus You make that the subject of your recreation which to many others is a great affliction Will you believe that I have seen some so overcome with pain that they even almost lost their sences If death follows the disease it will be far worse and I am much affraid they may chance to exclaim against persons in power whichwould deserve an examplary punishment for I question not but the Magistrates would take notice of it and there would be an end of them if they were called to the Bar. But I pray think me not a worse Catholick for being of this judgment for although those people be not of our Religion yet their tears move me because I am a man and because compassion is a due from us not onely to the just that are afflicted but also to wretched criminals I am SIR Your c.