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. 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 Vt 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 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 Fiorâ—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 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 Cathâ—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 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
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 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 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 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 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 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
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 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 Palaâ—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 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 mâ—o 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 secâ—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 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 prâ—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 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 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 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 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 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
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 Vniversity of Paris in their Declaration Anno 1610. above mentioned plainly affirme that it is directly opposite to the doctrine of the Church which the Vniversity 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 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 Hiâ—el brand in the Catalogue of the Popes called Gregory the seventh came to the throne of Rome he set himself entirely to 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 Vrban 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 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 case of the Jesuites which 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 Vniversity opposed them On the seventeenth of December Anno 1611. both parties came to have an hearing and the Vniversity 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
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 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 crâ—â—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 Vniversity of Paris it is with 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 Audetque 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 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 't was 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 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 Vniversity 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 bâ—bâ—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 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 Vniversity of Bologne or Bononia ordaining the Civill
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 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 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 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 â— 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 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 intermistâ— 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 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.