and finally containing but one half of the work which is here presen 〈…〉 Faults and infirmities I have too many of mine own Nam vitiis nemo sine nascitur as we know who said and therefore would not charge my self with those imperfections those frequent errors and mistakes which the audaciousnesse of other men may obtrude upon me which having signified to the Reader for the detecting of this imposture and mine own discharge I recommend the following work to his favourable censure and both of us to the mercies of the Supreme Judge Lacies Court in Abingdon April 17. 1656. Books lately printed and reprinted for Henry Seile DOctor Heylyn's Cosmography in fol. Twenty Sermons of Dr. Sanderson's ad Aulam c. never till now published Dr Heylyn's Comment on the Apostles Creed in fol. Bishop Andrewes holy Devotions the 4 Edition in 12. Martiall in 12. for the use of West minster School John Willis his Art of Stenography or Short writing by spelling Characters in 8. the 14 Edition together with the School master to the said Art SYLLABUS CAPITUM OR The Contents of the Chapters NORMANDIE OR THE FIRST BOOK The Entrance THe beginning of our Journey The nature of the Sea A farewell to England CHAP. I. NORMANDY in generall the Name and bounds of it The condition of the Antient Normans and of the present Ortelius character of them examined In what they resemble the Inhabitants of Norfolk The commodities of it and the Government pag. 4. CHAP. II. Dieppe the Town strength and importance of it The policy of Henry IV. not seconded by his Son The custome of the English Kings in placing Governours in their Forts The breaden God there and strength of the Religion Our passage from Dieppe to Roven The Norman Innes Women and Manners The importunity of servants in hosteries The sawcie familiarity of the attendants Ad pileum vocare what it was amongst the Romans Jus pileorum in the Universities of England c. p. 9. CHAP. III. ROVEN a neat City how seated and built the strength of is St. Katharines mount The Church of Nostre dame c. The indecorum of the Papists in the severall and unsutable pictures of the Virgin The little Chappell of the Capuchins in Boulogne The House of Parliament The precedency of the President and the Governor The Legend of St. Romain and the priviledge thence arising The language and religion of the Rhothomagenses or people of Roven p. 19. CHAP. IV. Our journey between Roven and Pontoyse The holy man of St. Clare and the Pilgrims thither My sore eyes Mante Pontoyse Normandy justly taken from King John The end of this Booke p. 26. FRANCE specially so called OR THE SECOND BOOK CHAP. I. France in what sense so called The bouuds of it All old Gallia not possessed by the French Countries follow the name of the most predominant Nation The condition of the present French not different from that of the old Gaules That the heavens have a constant power upon the same Climate though the Inhabitants are changed The quality of the French in private at the Church and at the table Their language complements discourse c. p. 33. CHAP. II. The French Women their persons prating and conditions The immodesty of the French Ladies Kissing not in use among them and the sinister opinion conceived of the free use of it in England The innocence and harmelesnesse of it amongst us The impostures of French Pandars in London with the scandall thence arising The peccancy of an old English Doctor More of the French Women Their Marriages and lives after wedlock c. An Elogie to the English Ladies p. 41. CHAP. III. France described The valley of Montmorancie and the Dukes of it Mont-martre Burials in former times not permitted within the wals The pros cuting of this discourse by manner of a journall intermitted for a time The Iown and Church of St. Denis The Legend of him and his head Of Dagobert and the Leper The reliques to be seen there Martyrs how esteemed in St. Augustine ' s time The Sepulchres of the French Kings and the treasury there The Kings house of Madrit The Qeen Mothers house at Ruall and fine devices in it St. Germains en lay another of the Kings houses The curious painting in it Gorramburie Window the Garden belonging to it and the excellency of the Water-works Boys St. Vincent de Vicennes and the Castle called Bisester p. 50. CHAP. IV. Paris the names and antiquity of it The situation and greatnesse The chief strength and Fortifications about it The streets and buildings King James his laudable care in beautyfying London King Henry the fourths intent to fortifie the Town Why not actuated The Artifices and wealth of the Parisians The bravery of the Citizens described under the person of a Barber p. 64. CHAP. V. Paris divided into four parts Of the Fauxburgs in generall Of the Pest-house The Fauxburg and Abbey of St. Germain The Queen Mothers house there Her purpose never to reside in it The Provost of Merchants and his authority The Armes of the Town The Town-house The Grand Chastellet The Arcenall The place Royall c. The Vicounty of Paris And the Provosts seven daughters p. 73. CHAP. VI. The University of Paris and Founders of it Of the Colledges in general Marriage when permitted to the Rectors of them The small maintenance allowed the Scholars in the Universities of France The great Colledge at Tholoza Of the Colledge of the Sorbonne in particular that and the House of Parliament the chief Bulwarks of the French liberty Of the Polity and Government of the University The Rector and his precedency the disordered life of the Scholars there being An Apologie for Oxford and Cambridge The priviledges of the Scholars their degrees c. p. 80. CHAP. VII The City of Paris seated in the place of old Lutetia The Bridges which joyn it to the Town and University King Henry's Statua Alexander ' s injurious policy The Church and revenues of Nostre Dame The Holy water there The original making and virtue of it The Lamp before the Altar The heathenishnesse of both customes Paris best seen from the top of this Church the great Bell there never rung but in time of Thunder the baptizing of Bels the grand Hospital and decency of it The place Daulphin The holy Chappel and Reliques there What the Antients thought of Reliques The Exchange The little Chastelet A transition to the Parlament p. 90. CHAP. VIII The Parliament of France when begun of whom it consisteth The digniiy and esteem of it abroad made sedentarie at Paris appropriated to the long robe The Palais by whom built and converted to seats of Justice The seven Chambers of Parliament The great Chamber The number and dignity of the Presidents The Duke of Biron afraid of them The Kings seat in it The sitting of the Grand Signeur in the Divano The authority of this Court in causes of all kinds and ever
the affaires of the King This Court the main pillar of the Liberty of France La Tournelle and the Judges of it The five Chambers of Enquestes severally instituted and by whom In what cause it is decisive The forme of admitting Advocates into the Courts of Parliament The Chancellour of France and his Authority The two Courts of Requests and Masters of them The vain envy of the English Clergy against the Lawyers p. 104. CHAP. IX The Kings Palace of the Louure by whom built The unsutablenesse of it The fine Gallery of the Queen Mother The long Gallery of Henry IV. His magnanimous intent to have built it into a quadrangle Henry IV. a great builder His infinite project upon the Mediterranean and the Ocean La Salle des Antiques The French not studious of Antiquities Burbon house The Tuilleries c. p. 113. La BEAUSE OR THE THIRD BOOK CHAP. I. Our Journey towards Orleans the Town Castle and Battail of Mont l'hierrie Many things imputed to the English which they never did Lewis the 11. brought not the French Kings out of wardship The town of Chartroy and the mourning Church there The Countrey of La Beause and people of it Estampes The dancing there The new art of begging in the Innes of this Countrey Angerville Tury The sawciness of the French Fidlers Three kindes of Musick amongst the Antient. The French Musick p. 121. CHAP. II. The Country and site of Orleans like that of Worcester The Wine of Orleans Praesidial Towns in France what they are The sale of Offices in France The fine walk and pastime of the Palle Malle The Church of St. Croix founded by Superstition and a miracle Defaced by the Hugonots Some things hated only for their name The Bishop of Orleans and his priviledge The Chappell and Pilgrims of St. Jacques The form of Masse in St Croix Câ—nâ—ing an Heathenish custome The great siege of Orleans raised by Joan the Virgin The valour of that woman that she was no witch An Elogie on her p. 131. CHAP. III. The study of the Civill Law revived in Europe The dead time of learning The Schools of Law in Orleans The oeconomie of them The Chancellour of Oxford antiently appointed by the Diocesan Their methode here and prodigality in bestowing degrees Orleans a great conflux of strangers The language there The Corporation of Germans there Their house and priviledges Dutch and Latine The difference between an Academie and an University p. 145. CHAP. IV. Orleans not an University till the comming of the Jesuites Their Colledge there by whom built The Jesuites no singers Their laudable and exact method of teaching Their policies in it Received not without great difficulty into Paris Their houses in that university Their strictnesse unto the rules of their order Much maliced by the other Priests and Fryers Why not sent into England with the Queen and of what order they were that came with her Our return to Paris p. 152. PICARDIE OR THE FOURTH BOOK CHAP. I. Our return towards England More of the Hugonots hate unto Crosses The town of Luzarch and St. Loupae The Country of Picardie and people Tho Picts of Britain not of this Countrey Mr. Lee Dignicoes Governour of Picardie The office of Constable what it is in France By whom the place supplyed in England The marble table in France and causes there handled Clermount and the Castle there The war raised up by the Princes against D' Ancre What his designes might tend to c. p. 162. CHAP. II. The fair City of Amiens and greatnesse of it The English feasted within it and the error of that action the Town how built-seated and fortified The Citadell of it thought to be impregnable Not permitted to be viewed The overmuch opennesse of the English in discovering their strength The watch and form of Government in the Town Amiens a Visdamate to whom it pertaineth What that honour is in France And how many there enjoy it c. p. 169. CHAP. III. The Church of Nostre Dame in Amiens The principall Churches in most Cities called by her name More honour performed to her then to her Saviour The surpassing beauty of this Church on the outside The front of it King Henry the sevenths Chappel at Westminster The curiousnesse of this Church within By what means it became to be so The sumptuous masking closets in it The excellency of perspective works Indulgences by whom first founded The estate of the Bishoprick p. 175. CHAP. IV. Our Journey down the Some and Company The Town and Castle of Piquigni for what famous Comines censure of the English in matter of Prophecies A farewell to the Church of Amiens The Town and Castle of Pont D' Armie Abbeville how seated and the Garrison there No Governour in it but the Major or Provost The Authors imprudent curiosity and the curtesie of the Provost to him The French Post-horses how base and tyred My preferment to the Trunk-horse The horse of Philip de Comines The Town and strength of Monstreuille The importance of these three Towns to the French border c. p. 183. CHAP. V. The County of Boulonnois and Town of Boulogne by whom Enfranchized The present of Salt butter Boulogne divided into two Towns Procession in the lower Town to divert the Plague The forme of it Procession and the Letany by whom brought into the Church The high Town Garrisoned The old man of Boulogne and the desperate visit which the Author bestowed upon him The neglect of the English in leaving open the Havens The fraternity De la Charite and inconveniency of it The costly Journey of Henry VIII to Boulogne Sir Walt. Raleghs censure of that Prince condemned The discourtesie of Charles V. towards our Edward VI. The defence of the house of Burgundy how chargeable to the Kings of England Boulogne yeilded back to the French and on what conditions The curtesie and cunning of my Host of Bovillow p. 192. FRANCE GENERAL OR THE FIFTH BOOK Describing the Government of the Kingdom generally in reference to the Court the Church and the Civill State CHAP. I. A transition to the Government of France in generall The person age and marriage of King Lewis XIII Conjecturall reasons of his being issuelesse Iaqueline Countesse of Holland kept from issue by the house of Burgundy The Kings Sisters all marryed and his alliances by them His naturall Brethren and their preferments His lawfull Brother The title of Monsieur in France Monsieur as yet unmarried not like to marry Montpensiers daughter That Lady a fit wife for the Earl of Soissons The difference between him and the Prince of Conde for the Crown in case the line of Navarre fail How the Lords stand affected in the cause Whether a child may be born in the 11 month King Henry IV. a great lover of fair Ladies Monsieur Barradas the Kings favorite his birth and offices The omniregency of the Queen Mother and the Cardinall of Richileiu The Queen Mother a wise
it the ornamentall parts and trappings of it being yet not added When it is absolutely consummate if it hold proportion with the other sides both within and without it will be a Palace for the elegancy and politenesse of the Fabrick not fellowed in Europe A Palace answerable to the greatnesse of her mind that built it yet it is by divers conjectured that her purpose is never to reside there for which cause the building goeth but slowly forward For when upon the death of her great Privado the Marquesse D'Ancre she was removed to Blois those of the opposite taction in the Court got so strongly into the good opinion of the King that not without great struglings by those of her party and the hazard of two civill wars she obtained her former neernesse to his Majesty She may see by this what to trust to should her absence leave the Kings mind any way prepared for new impressions Likely therefore it is that she will rather choose to leave her fine house unhabited further then on occasions for a Banquet then give the least opportunity to stagger her greatnesse This house is called Luxembourg Palace as being built in place of an old house belonging to the Duke of that Province The second house of note in this Suburb is that of the Prince of Conde to whom it was given by the Queen Mother in the first year of her Regency The Town of Paris is that part of it which lyeth on this side of the hithermost branch of the Seine towards Picardie What was spoken before in the generall hath its reference to this particular whether it concern the sweetnesse of the streets the manner of the building the furniture of the artificer or the like It containeth in it 13 Parish Churches viz. St. German de l'Auxerre 2 St. Eustace 3 Les Saints Innocents 4 St. Savueur 4 St. Nicolas des champs 6 Lâ— Sepulore 7 St. Iacques de la bouchierie 8 St. Josse 9 St. Mercy 10 St. Jean 11 St. Gervase and St. Protasse 12 St. Paul and 13 St. Jean le tonde It also hath in it 7 Gates sc 1 St. Anthony upon the side of the river neer unto the Arcenall 2 Porte du Temple 3 St. Martim 4 St. Denis 5 Mont martre 6 St. Honorè and 7 Porte Neufue so called because it was built since the others which joyneth hard upon the Tnilleries the Garden of the Louure The principall Governour of Paris as also of the whole Isle of France is the Duke of Monbazon who hath held this office ever since the year 1619. when it was surrendred by Luines but he little medleth with the City The particular Governours of it are the two Provosts the one called Le Provost du Paris the other Le Provost des Merchands The Provost of Paris determineth of all causes between Citizen and Citizen whether they be criminall or civill The office is for term of life the place of judgement the Grand Chastelet The present Provost is called Mr. Seguier and is by birth of the Nobility as all which are honoured with this office must be He hath as his assistants three Lieutenants the Lieutenant criminall which judgeth in matters of life and death the Lieutenant civill which decideth causes of debt or trespasse between party and party and the Lieutenant particular who supplyeth their severall places in their absence There are also necessarily required to this Court the Procureur and the Advocate or the Kings Sollicitour and Attorney 12 Counsellours and of under-officers more then enough This Office is said to have been erected in the time of Lewis the son of Charles the great In matters criminall there is appeal admitted from hence to the Tournelle In matters civill if the sum exceed the value of 250 Livres to the great Chamber or Le grande Chambre in the Court of Parliament The Provost of the Merchants and his authority was first instituted by Philip Augustus who began his reign anno 1190. His office is to conserve the liberties and indulgences granted to the Merchants and Artificers of the City to have an eye over the sales of Wine Corn Wood Cole c. and to impose taxes on them to keep the keyes of the Gates to give watch word in time of war to grant Past-ports to such as are willing to leave the Town and the like There are also four other Officers joyned unto him Escbevins they call them who also carry a great sway in the City There are moreover Assistants to them in their proceedings the Kings Sollicitour or Procureur and 24 Counsellours To compare this Corporation with that of London the Provost is as the Maior the Eschevins as the Sheriffs the 24 Counsellours as the Aldermen and the Procureur as the Recorder I omit the under-officers whereof there is no scarcity The place of their meetings is called L' hostel de ville or the Guilde-hall The present Provost Mr. de Grieux his habit as also that of the Eschevins and Counsellours half red half skie coloured the City livery with a hood of the same This Provost is as much above the other in power as men which are loved commonly are above those which are feared This Provost the people willingly yea sometimes factiously obey as the conservator of their liberties the other they only dread as the Judge of their lives and the tyrants over their Estates To shew the power of this Provost both for and with the people against their Princes you may please to take notice of two instances For the people against Philip de Valois anno 1349. when the said King desiring an Impost of one Livre in five Crowns upon all wares sold in Paris for the better managing of his Wars against the English could obtain it but for one year only and that not without speciall letters reversall that it should no way incommodate their priviledges With the people anno 1357 when King John was Prisoner in England and Charles the Daulphin afterwards the fift of that name laboured his ransome amongst the Parisians For then Stephen Marcell the Provost attended by the Vulgar Citizens not only brake open the Daulphins Chamber but flew John de Confâ—ans and Robert of Clermount two Marschals of France before his face Nay to add yet further insolencies to this he took his party-coloured hood off his head putting it on the Daulphins and all that day wore the Daulphins hat being a brown black Pour signal de sa dictature as the token of his Dictatorship And which is more then all this he sent the Daulphin cloth to make him a Gowne and an Hoâ—d of the City livery and compelled him to avow the massacre of his servants above named as done by his commandement Horrible insolencies Quam miserum est cum haec impune facere potuisse as Tully of Marcus Antonius The Armes of this Town as also of the Corporation of the Provost and Eschevins are Guleâ— a Ship Argent a Chief powdred with flower de
by their blind and infatuated people what would they have said or rather what would they not have said Questionlesse the least they could do were to take up the complaint of Vigilantins the Papists reckon him for an Heretick saying Quid necesse est tanto honore non solum honorare sed etiam adorare illud nescio quid quod in vasculo transferendo colis Presently without the Chappell is the Burse La Gallerie des Merchands a rank of shops in shew but not in substance like to those in the Exchange in London It reacheth from the Chappell unto the great hall of Parliament and is the common through-fare between them On the bottome of the staires and round about the severall houses consecrated to the execution of Justice are sundry shops of the same nature meanly furnished if compared with ours yet I perswade my self the richest of this kind in Paris I should now go and take a view of the Parliament house but I will step a little out of the way to see the Place Daulphin and the little Chastelet this last serveth now only as the Gaole or Common-prison belonging to the Court of the Provost of Merchants and it deserveth no other imployment It is seated at the end of the Bridge called Petit Pont and was built by Hugh Aubriot once Provost of this Town to represse the fury and insolencies of the Scholars whose rudenesse and misdemeanors can no wayes be better bridled Omnes eos qui nomen ipsum Academiae vel serio vel joco nominossent haeereticos pronunciavit saith Platina of Pope Paul the II. I dare say it of this wildernesse that whosoever will account it as an Academy is an Heretick to Learning and Civility The Place Daulphin is a beautifull heap of building situate nigh unto the new Bridge It was built at the encouragement of Henry IV. and entituled according to the title of his Son The houses are all of brick high built uniforme and indeed such as deserve and would exact a longer description were not the Parliament now ready to sit and my self sommoned to make my appearance CHAP. VIII The Parliament of France when begun of whom it consisted The dignity and esteem of it abroad made sedentarie at Paris appropriated to the long robe The Palais by whom built and converted to seats of Justice The seven Chambers of Parliament The great Chamber The number and dignity of the Presidents The Duke of Biron afraid of them The Kings seat in it The sitting of the Grand Signeur in the Divano The authority of this Court in causes of all kinds and over the affaires of the King This Court the main pillar of the Liberty of France La Tournelle and the Judges of it The five Chambers of Enquestes severally instituted and by whom In what cause it is decisive The forme of admitting Advocates into the Courts of Parliament The Chancellour of France and his Authority The two Courts of Requests and Masters of them The vain envy of the English Clergy against the Lawyers THe Court of Parliament was at the first instituted by Charles Martell Grandfather to Charlemaine at such time as he was Maire of the Palace unto the lasse and rechlesse Kings of France In the beginnings of the French Empire their Kings did justice to their people in person afterwards banishing themselves from all the affaires of State that burden was cast upon the shoulders of their Maiors an office much of a nature with the Pâ—aefecti praetorio in the Roman Empire When this office was bestowed upon the said Charles Martell he partly weary of the trouble partly intent about a businesse of an higher nature which was the estating the Crown in his own posterity but principally to endeer himself to the common people ordained this Court of Parliament anno 720. It consisted in the beginning of 12 Peers the Prelates and noble men of the best fashion together with some of the principallest of the Kings houshold Other Courts have been called the Parliaments with an addition of place as of Paris at Roven c. this only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Parliament It handled as well causes of estate as those of private persons For hither did the Ambassadors of neighbour Princes repaire to have their audience and dispatch and hither were the Articles agreed on in the nationall 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 the Comites at that time the Governours and Judges in their severall Counties Being furnished thus with the prime and choycest Nobles of the Land it grew into great estimation abroad in the world insomuch that the Kings of Sicilie Cyprus Scotland Bohemia Portugall and Navarre have thought it no disparagement unto them to sit in it and which is more when Frederick II. had spent so much time in quarrels with Pope Innocent IV. he submitted himself and the rightnesse of his cause to be examined by this Noble Court of Parliament At the first institution of this Court it had no setled place of residence being sometimes kept at Tholoza sometimes at Aix la Chappelle sometimes in other places according as the Kings pleasure and ease of the people did require During its time of peregrination it was called Ambulatoire following for the most part the Kings Court as the lower sphaeres do the motion of the primum mobile but Philip le bel he began his reign anno 1286 being to take a journey into Flanders and to stay there a long space of time for the setling of his affaires in that Countrey took order that this Court of Parliament should stay behind at Paris where ever since it hath continued Now began it to be called Sedentaire or setled and also peua peu by little and little to lose much of its lustre For the chief Princes and Nobles of the Kings retinue not able to live out of the aire of the Court withdrew themselves from the troubles of it by which means at last it came to be appropriated to them 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 XI an utter enemy to the great ones of his Kingdome only the Bishop of Paris and Abbot of St. Denis being permitted their place in it since which time the Professors of the civill law have had all the sway in it Et cedunt arma togae as Tully The place in which this Sedentarie Court of Parliament is now kept is called the Palace being built by Philip le bel and intended to be his mansion or dwelling house He began it in the first year of his reign 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 Lewis XII In this
the French Subjects are beholding to the English by whose good example they got the ease of a Sedentarie 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 Palace in Westminster allotted for that purpose Within the verge of this Palais are contained the seven Chambers of the Parliament that called La grande Chambre five Chambers of Inquisition Des Enquestes and one other called La Tournelle There are moreover the Chambers des aides des accomptes de l' edict des monnoyes and one called La Chambre Royall of all which we shall have occasion to speak in their proper places these not concerning the common government of the people but only of the Kings revenues Of these seven Chambers of Parliament La grande Chambre is most famous and at the building of this house by Philip le bel was intended for the Kings bed It is no such beautifull piece as the French make it that of Roven being far beyond it although indeed it much excell the fairest room of Justice in all Westminster so that it standeth in a middle rank between them and almost in the same proportions as Virgil betwixt Homer and Ovid. Quantum Virgilius magno concessit Homero Tantum ego Virgilio Naso poeta meo It consisteth of seven Presidents 22 Counsellours the Kings Atturney and as many Advocates and Proctours as the Court will please to give admission to The Advocates have no setled studies within the Palais but at the Barre but the Procureurs or Attorneys have their severall pews in the great Hall which is without this Grande Chambre in such manner as I have before described at Roven a large building it is fair and high roofed not long since ruined by a casualty of fire and not yet fully finished The names of the Presidents are Mr. Verdun the first President or by way of excellencie Le President the second 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 in his Lands 3. Mr. Leiger 4. Mr. Dosambe 5. Mr. Sevin 6. Mr. Baillure And 7. Mr. Meisme None of these neither Presidents nor Counsellors can go out of Paris when the Lawes are open without leave of the Court it was ordained so by Lewis XII anno 1499. and that with good judgement Sentences being given with greater awe and businesses managed with greater majesty when the Bench is full and it seemeth indeed that they carry with them great terror for the Duke of Biron a man of as uncontrouled spirit as any in France being called to answer for himself in this Court protested that those scarlet roabs did more amaze him then all the red cassocks of Spain At the left hand of this Grande Chambre or Golden Chambre as they call it is a Throne or seat 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 femied with flowers de lys on each side of it are two formes or benches where the Peers of both habits both Ecclesiasticall and Secular use to sit and accompany the King But this is little to the ease or benefit of the Subject and as little availeable to try the integrity of the Judges his presence being alwayes foreknown and so accordingly they prepared Far better then is it in the Grande Signeur where the Divano or Councell of the Turkish affairs holden by the Bassas is hard by his bed-chamber which looketh into it the window which giveth him this entervenue is perpetually hidden with a curtain on the side of the partition which is towards the Divano so that the Bassas and other Judges cannot at any time assure themselves that the Emperor is not listning to their sentences an action in which nothing is Turkish or Mahometan The authority of this Court extendeth it self unto all causes within the jurisdiction of it not being meerly ecclesiasticall It is a law unto it self following no rule written in their sentences but judging according to equity and conscience In matters criminall of greater consequence the processe is here immediately examined without any preparation of it by the inferior Courts as at the arraignment of the Duke of Biron and divers times also in matters 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 War nor conclude Peace without the consent a formall one at the least of this Chamber An alienation of the Lands of the Crown is not any whit valid unlesse confirmed by this Court neither are his Edicts in force till they are here verified nor his Letters Patents for the creating of a Peer till they are here allowed of Most of these I confesse are little more then matters of form the Kings power and pleasure being become boundlesse yet sufficient to shew the body of authority which they once had and the shadow 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 three Estates which is the conferring of the regency or protection of their King during his minority That the Assembly of the three Estates formerly had this priviledge is evident by their stories Thus we finde them to have made Queen Blanche Regent of the Realm during the nonage of her son St. Lewis 1227. That they declared Philip de Valois successor to the Crown in case that the widow of Charles le bel was not delivered of a son 1357. As also Philip of Burgogne during the Lunacy of Charles VI. 1394. with divers other 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 IV. was slain by Ravilliao 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 that this Court deserveth not only this but also any other indulgence whereof any one member of the Common-wealth is capable So watchfull are they over the health of the State and so tenderly do they take the least danger threatned to the liberty of that Kingdom that they may not unjustly be called patres patriae In the year 1614. they seized upon a discourse written by Suarez a Jesuite Entituled Adversus Anglicanae sectae errores wherein the Popes temporall power over Kings and Princes is averred which they sentenced to be burnt in the Palace-yard by
do but exasperate that power which they cannot controul and betray themselves to much envie and discontentednesse a disease whose cure is more in my wishes then my hopes CHAP. IX The Kings Palace of the Louure by whom built The unsutablenesse of it The fine Gallery of the Queen Mother The long Gallery of Henry IV. His magnanimous intent to have built it into a quadrangle Henry IV. a great builder His infinite project upon the Mediterranean and the Ocean La Salle des Antiques The French not studious of Antiquities Burbon house The Tuilleries c. WE have discharged the King of one Palace and must follow him to the other where we shall finde his residence It is seated at the West side of the Town or Ville of Paris hard by Portenufue and also by the new bridge A house of great fame and which the Kings of France have long kept their Court in It was first built by Philip Augustus anno 1214. and by him intended for a Castle it first serving to imprison the more potent of the Nobles and to lay up the Kings treasury For that cause it was well moated strengthned with wals and drawbridges very serviceable in those times It had the name of Louure quasi L'oeuure or the work the building by way of excellency An etymologie which draweth nigher to the ear then the understanding or the eye and yet the French writers would make it a miracle Du Chesne calleth it Superbe bastiment qui n'a son esgal en toute la Christientè and you shall hear it called in an other place Bestiment qui passe aujourd hui en excellence et en grandeur tous les autres Brave elogies if all were gold that glistered It hath now given up its charge of money and great prisoners to the Bastile and at this time serveth only to imprison the Court. In my life I never saw any thing more abused by a good report or that more belyeth the rumors that go of it The ordinary talk of vulgar travellers and the big words of the French had made me expect at the least some prodigie of architecture some such Majesticall house as the Sunne Don Phoebus is said to have dwelt in in Ovid. Regia Solis erat sublimibus alta columnis Claramicante auro flamasquè imitante pyropo Cujus ebur nitidum c. Indeed I thought no fiction in Poetry had been able to have paralleld it and made no doubt but it would have put me into such a passion as to have cryed out with the young Gallant in the Comedy when he had seen his sweet-heart Hei mihi qualis erat talis erat qualem nunquam vidi But I was much deceived in that hope and could finde nothing in it to admire much lesse to envie The Fable of the Mountaine which was with childe and brought forth a mouse is questionlesse a fable this house and the large fame it hath in the world is the morall of it Never was there an house more unsutable to it self in the particular examination of parts nor more unsutable to the character and esteem of it in the generall Survey of the whole You enter into it over two draw bridges and through three gates ruinous enough and abundantly unsightly In the Quadrangle you meet with three severall fashions of building of three severall ages and they so unhappily joyned one to the other that one would half believe they had been clapped together by an earthquake The South and West parts of it are new and indeed Princelike being the work of Francis the first and his son Henry Had it been all cast into the same mould I perswade my self that it would be very gracious and lovely The other two are of an ancient work and so contemprible that they disgrace the rest and of these I suppose the one fide to be at the least 100 years older then his partner such is it without As for the inside it is far more gracefull and would be pleasing at the entrance were the Guard-chamber reformed Some Hugonot architect which were not in love with the errours of Antiquity might make a pretty room of it a catholick Carpenter would never get credit by it for whereas the provident thrift of our forefathers intended it for the house would else be too narrow for the Kings retinue both for a room of safety and of pleasure both for bill-men and dancers and for that cause made up some six ranks of seats on each side that sparingnesse in the more curious eyes of this time is little Kinglike Countrey wenches might with indifferent stomach abuse a good Galliard in it or it might perhaps serve with a stage at one end to entertain the Parisians at a play or with a partition in the middle it might be divided into two prety plausible Cockpits but to be employed in the nature it now is either to solace the King and Lords in a dance or to give any forain Ambassador his welcome in a Maske is little sutable with the Majesty of a King of France The Chambers of it are well built but ill furnished the hangings of them being somewhat below a meannesse and yet of these there is no small scarcity For as it is said of the Gymnosophists of India that Una Domus mansioni sufficit sepulturae so may we of this Prince the same Chamber serveth for to lodge him to feed him and also to confer and discourse with his Nobility But like enough it is that this want may proceed from the severall Courts of the King the Monsieur the Queen Mother and the Qeen Regoant being all kept within it Proceed we now to the two Galleries whereof the first is that of the Queen Mother as being beautified and adorned exceedingly by Katbarine de Medices mother to Henry III. and Charles IX It containeth the pictures of all the Kings of France and the most loved of their Queens since the time of St. Lewis They stand each King opposite to his Queen she being that of his wives which either brought him most estate or his fuccessors The tables are all of a just length very fair and according to my little acquaintance with the Painter of a most excellent workmanship and which addeth much grace to it they are in a manner a perfect History of the State and Court of France in their severall times For under each of the Kings pictures they have drawn the portraitures of most of those Lords whom valor and courage in the field enobled beyond their births Under each of the Queens the lively shapes of the most principall Ladies whose beautie and virtue had honored the Court. A dainty invention and happily expressed At the further end of it standeth the last King and the present Queen Mother who fill up the whole room The succeeding Princes if they mean to live in their pictures must either build new places for them or else make use of the long Gallery built by Henry IV.
brain if not well qualified for which cause it is said that King Lewis hath banished it his Cellar no doubt to the great grief of his drinking Courtiers who may therefore say with Martiall Quid tantum fecere boni tibi pessima vina Aut quid fecerunt optima vina mali This Town called Genabum by Caesar was reedified by Aurelian the Emperour anno 276. and called by his name Aurelianum which it still retaineth amongst the Latines It hath been famous heretofore for four Councels here celebrated and for being the siege royal of the Kings of Orleans though as now I could not hear any thing of the ruines of the Palace The fame of it at this time consisteth in the University and its seat of justice this Town being one of them which they call Seiges presidiaux Now these Seiges Presidiaux Seats or Courts of Justice were established in diverse Cities of the Realm for the ease of the people anno 1551 or thereabouts In them all civil causes not exceeding 250 livres in money or 10 livres in rents are heard and determined soveraignly and without appeal If the sum exceed those proportions the appeal holdeth good and shall be examined in that Court of Parliament under whose jurisdiction they are This Court here consisteth of a Bailly whose name is Mr. Digion of 12 Counsellors two Lieutenants one civil and the other criminal and a publick notary When Mr. Le Comte de St. Paul who is Governor or Lieutenant Generall of the Province cometh into their Court he giveth precedency to the Bailly in other places he receiveth it This institution of these Presidentiall Courts was at first a very profitable ordinance and much eased the people but now it is grown burthensome the reason is that the offices are made salable and purchased by them with a great deal of money which afterwards they wrest again out of the purses of the pesants the sale of offices drawing necessarily after it the sale of justice a mischief which is spread so far that there is not the poorest under-officer in all the Realm who may not safely say with the Captain in the 22. of the Acts and the 28. vers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a great sum of money obtained I this freedome Twenty years purchase is said to be no extraordinary rate and I have read that only by the sale of offices one of the Kings had raised in 20 years 139 millions which amounteth to the proportion of seven millions yearly or thereabouts of all waies to thrift and treasure the most unkingly In the year 1614 the King motioned the abolising of the sales of this market but it was upon a condition more prejudicial to the people then the mischief for he desired in lieu of it to have a greater imposition laid upon Salt and on the Aides which those who were Commissioners for the Commonalty would not admit of because then a common misery had been bought out of the State to make their particular misery the greater and so the corruption remaineth unaltered This Town as it is sweetly seated in respect of the air so is it finely convenienced with walks of which the chief are that next unto Paris Gate having the wall on one hand and a rank of palm-trees on the other the second that near unto the Bridge having the water pleasingly running on both sides and a third which is indeed the principal on the east side of the City It is called the Palle Malle from an exercise of that name much used in this Kingdome a very Gentleman-like sport not over violent and such as affordeth good opportunity of discourse as they walk from one mark to the other Into this walk which is of a wonderful length and beauty you shall have a clear evening empty all the Town the aged people borrowing legs to carry them and the younger armes to guide them If any young Dame or Monsieur walk thither single they will quickly finde some or other to link with them though perhaps such with whom they have no familiarity Thus do they measure and re-measure the length of the Palle Malle not minding the shutting in of the day till darkness hath taken away the sense of blushing At all hours of the night be it warm and dry you shall be sure to finde them there thus coupled and if at the years end there be found more children then fathers in the Town this walk and the night are suspected shrewdly to be accessaries A greater inconvenience in my opinion then an English kisse There is yet a fourth walk in this Town called L' Estapp a walk principally frequented by Merchants who here meet to conserre of their occasions It lyeth before the house of Mr. Le Comte de St. Paul the Governour and reacheth up to the Cloyster of St. Croix of the building of which Church I could never yet hear or read of any thing but that which is meerly fabulous for the Citizens report that long since time out of minde there appeared a vision to an holy Monk which lived thereabouts and bad him dig deep in such a place where he should finde a piece of the holy Crosse charging him to preserve that blessed relique in great honour and to cause a Church to be built in that place where it had been buried upon this warning the Church was founded but at whose charges they could not enform me so that all which I could learn concerning the foundation of this Church is that it was erected only by Superstition and a lie The Superstition is apparent in their worshipping of such rotten sticks as they imagine to be remnants of the Crosse their calling of it holy and dedicating of this Church unto it Nay they have consecrated unto it two holy daies one in May and the other in September and are bound to salute it as often as they see it in the streets or the high-waies with these words Ave salus totius saeculi arbor salutifera Horrible blasphemy and never heard but under Antichrist Cruces subeundas esse non adorandas being the lesson of the Ancients As for the miracle I account it as others of the same stamp equally false and ridiculous This Church in the year 1562. was defaced and ruined by the Hugonots who had entred the Town under the conduct of the Prince of Conde An action little savouring of humanity and lesse of Religion the very Heathens themselves never demolishing any of the Churches of those Towns which they had taken But in this action the Hugonots consulted only with rashnesse and a zealous fury thinking no title so glorious as to be called the Scourge of Papists and the overthrowers of Popish Churches Quid facerent hostes capla crudelius urbe The most barbarous enemy in the world could not more have exercised their malice on the vanquished and this I perswade my self had been the fate of most of our Churches if that faction had got the upper hand of us But
we have found an head and a body this body again divided into two parts the Catholick and the Protestant the head is in his own opinion and the minds of many others of a power unlimited yet the Catholick party hath strongly curbed it And of the two parts of the body we see the Papists flourishing and in triumph whilest that of the Protestant is in misery and affliction Thus is it also in the body Politick The King in his own conceit boundlesse and omnipotent is yet affronted by his Nobles which Nobles enjoy all the freedome of riches and happinesse the poor Paisants in the mean time living in drudgery and bondage For the government of the King is meerly indeed regal or to give it the true name despoticall though the Countrey be his wife and all the people are his children yet doth he neither govern as an husband or a father he accounteth of them all as of his servants and therefore commandeth them as a Master In his Edicts which he over frequenly sendeth about he never mentioneth the good will of his Subjects nor the approbation of his Councell but concludeth all of them in this forme Car tell est nostre plaisir Sic volo sic jubeo A forme of government very prone to degenerate into a tyranny if the Princes had not oftentimes strength and will to make resistance But this is not the vice of the entire and Soveraign Monarchy alone which the Greek call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the other two good formes of regiment being subject also to the same frailty Thus in the reading of Histories have we observed an Aristocracie to have been frequently corrupted into an Oligarchie and a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Common-wealth properly so called into a Democratie For as in the body naturall the purest complexions are lesse lasting but easily broken and subject to alteration so is it in the body Civill the pure and unmixt formes of Government though perfect and absolute in their kinds are yet of little continuance and very subject to change into its opposite They therefore which have written of Republicks do most applaud and commend the mixt manner of rule which is equally compounded of the Kingdome and the Politeia because in these the Kings have all the power belonging to their title without prejudice to the populacie In these there is referred to the King absolute Majesty to the Nobles convenient authority to the People an incorrupted liberty all in a just and equall proportion Every one of these is like the Empire of Rome as it was moderated by Nerva Qui res olâ—m dissociabiles miscuerat principatum libertatem wherein the Soveraignty of one endamaged not the freedome of all A rare mixture of Government and such at this time is the Kingdome of England a Kingdome of a perfect and happy composition wherein the King hath his full Prerogative the Nobles all due respects and the People amongst other blessings perfect in this that they are masters of their own purposes and have a strong hand in the making of their own Laws On the otherside in the Regall government of France the Subject frameth his life meerly as the Kings variable Edicts shall please to enjoyn him is ravished of his money as the Kings taske-masters think fit and suffereth many other oppressions which in their proper place shall be specified This Aristole in the third book of his Politicks calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the command of a Master and defineth it to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Such an Empire by which a Prince may command and do whatsoever shall seem good in his own eyes One of the Prerogatives Royall of the French Kings For though the Court of Parliament doth seem to challenge a perusall of his Edicts before they passe for Laws yet is that but a meer formality It is the cartelâ—â—est nostre plaifir which maketh them currant which it seemeth these Princes learned of the Roman Emperors Justinian in the book of Institutions maketh five grounds of the Civill Laws viz. Lex he meaneth the law of the 12 Tables Plebiscita Senatusconsulta Predentum Responsa Principum placita to this last he addeth this generall strength Quod principi plaeuerit legis â—abet valorem the very foundation of the French Kings powerfulnesse True it is that the Courts of Parliament do use to demur sometimes upon his Patents and Decrees and to petition him for a reversall of them but their answer commonly is Stat pro ratione voluntas He knoweth his own power and granteth his Letters patents for new Offices and Monopolies abundantly If a monied man can make a friend in Court he may have an office found for him of six pence upon every Sword made in France a Livre upon the selling of every head of Cattell a brace of Sols for every paire of boots and the like It is the only study of some men to finde out such devices of enriching themselves and undoing the people The Patent for Innes granted to St. Giles Moâ—â—pesson was just one of the French offices As for Monopolies they are here so common that the Subject taketh no notice of it not a scurvey petty book being Printed but it hath its priviledge affixed Ad imprimendum solum These being granted by the King are carryed to the Parliament by them formally perused and finally verified after which they are in force and virtue against all opposition It is said in France that Mr. Luynes had obtained a Patent of the King for a quart d' escu to be paid unto him upon the Christning of every child thoughout all the Kingdome A very unjust and unconscionable extortion Had he lived to have presented it to the Court I much doubt of their deniall though the only cause of bringing before them such Patents is onely intended that they should discusse the justice and convenience of them As the Parliament hath a formality of power left in them of verifying the Kings Edicts his grants of Offices and Monopolics So hath the Chamber of Accounts a superficiall survey also of his gifts and expences For his expences they are thought to be as great now as ever by reason of the severall retinues of himself his Mother his Queen and the Monseiur neither are his gifts lessened The late Wars which he managed against the Protestants cost him deer he being fain to bind unto him most of his Princes by money and pensions As the expenses of the King are brought unto this Court to be examined so are also the Gifts and Pensions by him granted to be ratified The titulary power given unto this Chamber is to cut off all those of the Kings grants which have no good ground and foundation the officers being solemnly at the least formally sworn not to suffer any thing to passe them to the detriment of the Kingdome whatsoever Letters of command thay have to the contrary But this Oath they oftentimes dispense with To this Court also belongeth
more unpardonable then the greatest sin of the Universities But I wrong a good cause with an unnecessary patronage Yet such is the peccant humour of some that they know not how to expiate the follies of one but with the calumnie and dispraise of all An unmanly weaknesse and yet many possessed with it I know it unpossible that in a place of youth and liberty some should not give occasion of offence The Ark wherein there were eight persons only was not without one Cham and of the twelve which Christ had chosen one was a Devill It were then above a miracle if amongst so full a cohort of young souldiers none should forsake the Ensign of his Generall he notwithstanding that should give the imputation of cowardize to the whole army cannot but be accounted malitious or peevish But let all such as have evill will at Sion live unregarded and die unremembred for want of some Scholar to write their Epitaph Certainly a man not wedded to envie and a spitefull vexation of spirit upon a due examination of the civility of our Lycaea and a comparison of them with those abroad cannot but say and that justly Non habent Academiae Anglicanae pares nisi seipsas The principal cause of the rudeness and disorders in Paris have been chiefly occasioned by the great priviledges wherewith the Kings of France intended the furtherance and security of learning Having thus let them get the bridle in their own hands no marvel if they grow sick with an uncontrolled licenciousnesse Of these priviledges some are that no Scholars goods can be seized upon for the payment of his debts that none of them should be liable to any taxes or impositions a royall immunity to such as are acquainted with France that they might carry and recarry their utensils without the least molestation that they should have the Provost of Paris to be the keeper and defender of their liberties who is therefore stiled Le conservateur des privileges royaux de l' Universite de Paris c. One greater priviledge they have yet then all these which is their soon taking of degrees Two years seeth them Novices in the Arts and Masters of them So that enjoying by their degrees an absolute freedome before the follies and violences of youth are broke in them they become so unruly and insolent as I have told you These degrees are conferred on them by the Chancellor who seldome examineth further of them then his sees Those payed he presenteth them to the Rector and giveth them their Letters Patents sealed with the University Seal which is the main part of the creation He also setteth the Seal to the Authenticall Letters for so they term them of such whom the Sorbonnists have passed for Doctors The present Chancellor is named Petrus de Pierre vive Doctor of Divinity and Canon of the Church of Nostre Dame as also are all they which enjoy that office He is chosen by the Bishop of Paris and taketh place of any under that dignity But of this ill-managed University enough if not too much CHAP. VII The City of Paris seated in the place of old Lutetia The Bridges which joyn it to the Town and University King Henry's Statua Alexander's injurious policy The Church and revenues of Nostre dame The Holy-water there The original making and vertue of it The Lamp before the Altar The heathenishnesse of both customes Paris best seen from the top of this Church the great Bell there never rung but in time of Thunder the baptizing of Bels the grand Hospital and decency of it The place Daulphin The holy Chappel and Reliques there What the Ancients thought of Reliques The Exchange The little Chastelet A transition to the Parliament THE Isle of Paris commonly called L'Isle du Palais seated between the University and the Town is that part of the whole which is called La Cite the City the epitome and abstract of all France It is the sweetest and best ordered part of all Paris and certainly if Paris may be thought to be the eye of the Realm this Island may be equally judged to be the apple of that eye It is by much the lesser part and by as much the richer by as much the decenter and affordeth more variety of objects then both the other It containeth an equall number of Parish Churches with the Town and double the number of the University For it hath in it 13 Churches parochial viz. la Magdalene 2 St. Geniveue des ardents 3 St. Christopher 4 St. Pierre aux Boeufs 5 St. Marine 6 St. Lander 7 St. Symphorian 8 St. Denis de la charite 9 St. Bartellemie 10 St. Pierâ—â— des Assis 11 St. Croix 12 St. Marciall 13 St. German de vieux Seated it is in the middle of the Seine and in that place where stood the old Lutetia Labienus cum quatuor legionibus saith Jul. Caesar 70 Comment Lutetiam proficiscitur id est opidum Parisiorum positum in medio fluminis Sequanae It is joyned to the main land and the other parts of this French Metropolis by six Bridges two of wood and four of stone the stone Bridges are 1 Le petit pont a Bridge which certainly deserveth that name 2 Le pont de Nostre dame which is all covered with two goodly ranks of houses and those adorned with portly and antick imagery 3 Le pont St. Michell so called because it leadeth towards the Gate of St. Michell hath also on each side a beautifull row of houses all of the same fashion so exactly that but by their severall doors you would scarce think them to be several houses they are all new as being built in the reign of this present King whose armes is engraven over every door of them The fourth and largest Bridge is that which standeth at the end of the Isle next the Louure and covereth the waters now united again into one stream It was begun to be built by Katharine of Medices the Queen-Mother anno 1578. her Son King Henry the 3. laying the first stone of it The finishing of it was reserved unto Henry 4. who as soon as he had setled his affairs in this Town presently set the workmen about it In the end of it where it joyneth to the Town there is a water-house which by artificiall engines forceth up waters from a fresh spring rising from under the river done at the charge of this King also In the midst of it is the Statua of the said Henry 4. all in brasse mounted on his barbed Steed of the same mettle They are both of them very unproportionable unto those which they represent and would shew them big enough were they placed on the top of Nostre dame Church What minded King Lewis to make his father of so gigantive a stature I cannot tell Alexander at his return from his Indian expedition scattered Armours Swords and Horsebits far bigger then were serviceable to make future ages admire his greatnesse Yet some have hence collected that
the publick hangman The year before they inflicted the same punishment upon a vain and blasphemous discourse penned by Gasper Scioppius 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 temporall power of his Holinesse it had the ill luck to come into Paris where the Parliament finding it to thwart the liberty and royalty of the King and Countrey gave it over to the Hangman and he to the fire Thus it is evident that the titles which the French writers give it as the true Temple of French Justice the buâ—tresse of equity and the gardian 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 criminall It is so called from tourner which signifieth to change or alter because the Judges of the other severall chambers give sentence in this according to their severall turns the reason of which institution is said to be lest a continuall custome of condemning should make the Judges lesse mercifull and more prodigall of bloud an order full of health and providence It was instituted by the above named Philip de bel at the same time when he made the Parliament sedentarie at Paris and besides its peculiar and originall imployments it receiveth appeals from and redresseth the errors of the Provost of Paris The other five Chambers are called Des Enquestes or Camerae inquisitionum the first and antientest of them was erected also by Philip le bel and afterwards divided into two by Charles VII Afterwards the multitude of Processes being greater then 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 Counsellors paying right deerly for his place The fifth and last was founded in the year 1568. In each of these severall Chambers there are two Presidents and 20 Counsellors besides Advocates and Proctours ad placitum In the Tournelle which is an aggregation of all the other Courts there are supposed to be no sewer then 200 officers of all sorts which is no great number considering the many causes there handled In the Tournelle the Judges fit on life and death in the Chamber of Enquests they examine only civill affaires of estate title debts or the like The pleaders in these Courts are called Advocates and must be at the least Licentiates in the study of the Law At the Parliaments of Theloza and Bourdeaux they admit of none but Doctors Now the forme of admitting them is this In an open and frequent Court one of the aged'st of the Long roab presenteth the party which defireth admission to the Kings Attorney generall saying with a loud voice Paise a cour recevoir N. N. licencie or Docteur en droict civil a la office d' Advocate This said the Kings Attorney biddeth him hold up his hand and saith to him in Latine Tu jurabis observare omnes regias consuetudines he answereth Juro and departeth At the Chamber door of the Court whereof he is now sworn an Advocate he payeth two crowns which is forth with put into the common treasury appointed for the relief of the distressed widows of ruined Advocates and Proctoms Hanc veniam perimusque 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 Chancellor an office of great power and profit the present Chancellor 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 visite them He is also President of the Councell of Estate by his place and on him dependeth the making of good and sacred laws the administration of Justice the reformation of superstuous and abrogation of unprofitable Edicts c. He hath the keeping of the Kings great seal and by virtue of that either passeth or putteth back such Letters patents and Writs as are exhibited to him He hath under him immediately for the better dispatch of his affaires four Masters of the Requests and their Courts Their office and manner of proceeding is the same which they also use in England in the persons there is thus much difference for that in France two of them must be perpetually of the Clergy One of their Courts is very antient and hath in it two Presidents which are two of the Masters and 14 Counsellors The other is of a later erection as being founded anno 1580. and in that the two other of the Masters and eight Counsellors give sentence Thus have I taken a view of the severall Chambers of the Parliament of Paris and of their particular jurisdictions as far as my information could conduct me One thing I noted further and in my mind the fairest ornament of the Palace which is the neatnesse and decency of the Lawyers in their apparell for besides the fashion of their habit which is I allure you exceeding pleasing and comely themselves by their own care and love to handsomenesse add great lustre to their garments and more to their persons Richly drest they are and well may be so as being the ablest and most powerfull men under the Princes and la Noblesse in all the Countrey an happinesse as I conjecture rather of the calling then the men It hath been the fate and destinie of the Law to strengthen and inable its professors beyond any other Art or Science the pleaders in all Common-wealths both for sway amongst the people and vogue amongst the military men having alwayes had the preheminence Of this rank were Pericles Phocion Alcibiades and Demosthenes amongst the Athenians Antonius Cato Caesar and Tully at Rome men equally famous for Oratory and the Sword yet this I can confidently say that the severall states above mentioned were more indebted to Tully and Demosthenes being both meer gown-men then to the best of their Captains the one freeing Athens from the armies of Macedon tâ—h other delivering Rome from the conspiracy of Catiline O fortunatam natam te Consule Romam It is not then the fate of France only nor of England to see so much power in the hands of the Lawyers and the case being generall me thinks the envie should be the lesse and lesse it is indeed with them then with us The English Clergy though otherwise the most accomplisht in the world in this folly deserveth no Apologie being so strongly ill affected to the pleaders of their Nation that I fear it may be said of some of them Quod invidiam non ad causam sed personam ad voluntatem dirigunt a weaknesse not more unworthy of them then prejudiciall to them For by fostering between both gowns such an unnecessary emulation they
these actions seem to import some project beyond a private and obedient greatnesse though I can hardly believe that he durst be ambitious of the Crown for being a fellow of a low birth his heart could not but be too narrow for such an hope and having no party amongst the Nobility and being lesse gracious with the people he was altogether destitute of means to compasse it I therefore am of an opinion that the Spanish gold had corrupted him to some project concerning the enlargement of that Empire upon the French dominion which the crosse marriages whereof he was the contriver and which seemed so full of danger to all the best Patriots of France may seem to demonstrate And again at that time when he had put the Realm into his third combustion the King of Spain had an Army on foot against the Duke of Savoy and another in the Countries of Cleve and Juliers which had not the timely fall of this Monster and the peace ensuing prevented it might both perhaps have met together in the midst of France But this only conjecturall CHAP. II. The fair City of Amiens and greatnesse of it The English feasted within it and the error of that action the Town how built seated and fortified The Citadell of it thought to be impregnable Not permitted to be viewed The overmuch opennesse of the English in discovering their strength The watch and form of Government in the Town Amiens a Visdamate to whom it pertaineth What that honour is in France And how many there enjoy it c. THat night we went from Clermont to a Town called Bretâ—aul where we were harboured being from Clermont 6 French leagues and from Paris 20. Our entertainment there such as in other places as sluttish as inconvenient The next day being the 29 about ten of the clock we had a sight of the goodly City of Amiens A City of some four English miles circuit within the wals which is all the greatnesse of it for without the wals it hath houses few or none A City very capacious and for that cause hath been many times honoured with the persons and trains of many great Princes besides that once it entertained almost an whole Army of the English For King Lewis the 11. having made an advantagious peace with our Edward 4. and perceiving how ungratefull it was amongst the military men he intended also to give them some manner of satisfaction He sent therefore unto them 300 carts loaden with the best Wines and seeing how acceptable a present that had proved he intended also to feast them in Amiens within half a league of which their Camp was lodged This entertainment lasted four daies each street having in it two long tables and each table being furnished with very plentiful provision Neither were they denied entrance into any of the Taverns and Victualling houses or therein stinted either in meats or drinks whatsoever was called for being defrayed by King Lewis An action wherein if mine opinion might carry it there was little of the politician For there were permitted to enter into the Town so many at once of the English men that had they been but so minded they might easily have made themselves Masters both of the place and of the Kings person Nine thousand are reckoned by Cumines to have been within it together and most of them armed so that they might very easily have surprised the Gates and let in the rest of the Army Those of the French Kings Counsell much feared it and therefore enformed both Princes of the danger the one of his Town the other of his Honour But this jealousie was but a French distrust and might well have been spared the English being of that Generals minde who scorned to steal a victory and of that generous disposition that they would not betray their credits Nunquam illis adei ulla opportuna visa est victoriae occasio quam damno pensarent fides as the Historian of Tiberius If this City then escaped a sack or a surprisal it cannot be imputed to the wisdome of the French but to the modesty and fair dealing of the English But this was not the only soloecism in point of state committed by that great politick of his time King Lewis there never being man so famed for his brain that more grosly over-reached himself then that Prince though perhaps more frequently The buildings of this Town are of diverse materials some built of stone others of wood and some again of both The streets very sweet and clean and the air not giving place to any for a lively pureness Of their buildings the principal are their Churches whereof there are twelve only in number Churches I mean parochial and besides those belonging to Religious houses Next unto them the work of most especial note is a great and large Hospital in method and the disposing of the beds much like unto the Hostel Dieu in Paris but in number much inferiour Et me tamen rapuerant and yet the decency of them did much delight me The sweetnesse and neatnesse of the Town proceeded partly as I said from the air and partly from the conveniency of the River of Some on which it is seated For the river running in one entire bank at the further end of the Town is there divided into six channels which almost at an equall distance run through the several parts of it Those channels thus divided receive into them all the ordure and filth with which the Town otherwise might be pester'd and affordeth the people a plentifull measure of water wherewith to purge the lanes and bie corners of it as often as them listeth But this is not all the benefit of these Channels they bestow upon the City matter also of commodity which is the infinite number of Grist-mils that are built upon them At the other end of the Town the Channels are again united into one stream both those places as well of the division as of the union of the Channels being exceeding well fortified with chains and piles and also with bulwarks and out-works Neither is the Town well fortified and strengthned at those passages only the other parts of it having enough of strength to inable them to a long resistance The ditch round about it save where it meeteth with the Citadell is exceeding deep and steepie the wals of a good height broad and composed of earth and stone equally the one making up the outside of them and the other the inside The Gates are very large and strong as well in the finewie composition of themselves as in the addition of the Draw-bridge Suburbs this City hath none because a Town of war nor any liberal circuit of territory because a frontier Yet the people are indifferently wealthy and have amongst them good trading besides the benefit of the Garrison and the Cathedral The Garrison consisteth of 250 men 500 in all they should be who are continually in pay to guard the Citadel their pay
to redeem him To which he answered that we had carryed our selves like Gentlemen which gave him no distrust of a reall payment that he would take if we pleased a Bill of our hands for the money to be paid in Dover and desired that we would give him leave to send over a servant in our Boat with a basket of poultery who should receive the money of us and give back our Bond. This being agreed upon the next morning we took boat for England the Mariners knowing nothing else but that the servant went over only to sell his Poultery that being an opportunity frequently indulged by them unto those of the Town though we knew well enough he went on another errand and as we could not but commend my Host for his courtesie and his care taken of our credit so we had reason to esteem our selves in a kinde of custody in that he would not let us stir without a Keeper Nor did my Host lose any thing by his kindnesse to us For we not only paid him honestly all his full demands but bestowed a reward upon his servant and sent a present of Gloves and Knives commodities much prized in France to his Wife and Daughters that he might see we knew as well how to require as receive a curtesie Which said I must step back into France again that having taken a brief view already of the Principall Provinces I may render some accompt of the Government also in reference to the Courts the Church and the Civill State The End of the Fourth Book A SURVEY OF THE STATE of FRANCE FRANCE GENERAL OR THE FIFTH BOOK Describing the Government of the Kingdom generally in reference to the Court the Church and the Civill Sate CHAP. I. A transition to the Government of France in generall The person age and marriage of King Lewis XIII Conjecturall reasons of his being issuelesse â—aqueline Countesse of Holland kept from issue by the house of Burgundy The Kings Sisters all married and his alliances by them His naturall Brethren and their preferments His lawfull brother The title of Monseiur in France Monseiur as yet unmarried not like to marry Montpensiers daughter That Lady a fit wife for the Earl of Soissons The difference between him and the Prince of Conde for the Crown in case the line of Navarre fail How the Lords stand affected in the cause Whether a child may be born in the 11 moneth King Henry IV. a great lover of fair Ladies Monseiur Barradas the Kings favorite his birth and offices The omniregency of the Queen Mother and the Cardinall of Richileiu The Queen mother a wise and prudent woman HAving thus taken a survey of these four Provinces which we may call the Abstract and Epitome of the Realm of France and having seen in them the temper humors and conditions of the people of it We will next take a generall view of the Governors and Government thereof with reference to the Court the Church and the Civill State First for the Court we must in reason in the first place begin with the person of the King without whose influence and presence the Court is but a dead â—arkasse void of life and Majesty For person he is of the middle stature and rather well proportioned then large his face knoweth little yet of a beard but that which is black and swarty his complexion also much of the same hew carrying in it a certain boisterousnesse and that in a farther measure then what a gracefull majesty can admit of so that one can hardly say of him without a spite of Courtship which Paterculus did of Tiberius Quod visus praetulerit principem that his countenance proclaimed him a King But questionlesse his greatest defect is want of utterance which is very unpleasing by reason of a desperate and uncurable stammering which defect is likely more and more to grow upon him At this time he is aged 24 years and as much as since the 27 day of last September which was his birth day an age which he beareth not very plaufible want of beard and the swarthinesse of his complexion making him seem older At the age of 11 years he was affianced to the Lady Anna Infanta of Spain by whom as yec he hath no children It is thought by many and covertly spoken by divers in France that the principall cause of the Queens barrennesse proceedeth from Spain that people being loath to fall under the French obedience which may very well happen she being the eldest Sister of the King For this cause in the seventh Article of the marriage there is a clause that neither the said Infanta nor the children born by her to the King shall be capable to inherit any of the Estates of the King of Spain And in the eight Article she is bound to make an Act of Renunciation under her own hand-writing as soon as she cometh to be 12 years old which was accordingly performed But this being not sufficient to secure their fears it is thought that she was some way or other disabled from conception before ever she came into the Kings imbraces A great crime I confesse if true yet I cannot say with Tully in his defence of Ligarius Novum Crimen Caje Caear ante hoc tempus inauditum Iaqueline Countesse of Holland was Cousen to Philip Duke of Burgundy her fruitfulnesse would have debarred him from those Estates of Holland Zâ—aland and West Friezland therefore though she had three husbands there was order taken she should never have child with her first two husbands the Duke would never suffer her to live and when she had stolen a wedding with Frane of Borselle one of her servants the Dukes Physitians gave him such a potion that she might have as well marryed an Euâ—uch upon this injury the poor Lady dyed and the Duke succeeded in those Countries which by his Grand-childe Mary were conveyed over into the house of Austria together with the rest of his estates I dare not say that that Family hath inherited his practises with his Lands and yet I have heard that the Infanta Isabella had the like or worse measure afforded her before she was bedded by the Arch Duke Albertus A Diabolicall trick which the prostitutes of the Heathen used in the beginning of the Gospell and before of whom Octavius complaineth Quod originem futuri hominis extinguant paricidium faciunt antequam pariunt Better luck then the King hath his Sister beyond the Mountains I mean his eldest Sister Madam Elizabeth marryed to the King of Spain now living as being or having been the mother of two children His second Sister Madam Christian is marryed unto Amadeo Victor principe major or heir apparent to the Duke of Savoy to whom as yet she hath born no issue The youngest Madam Henrietta Maria is newly marryed to his most Excellent Majesty of England to whom may she prove of a most happy and fruitfull womb Et pulcrâ— faciat te prole parentem
The first and greatest controversie between the Pope and Princes of Christendome was about the bestowing the livings of the Church and giving the investure unto Bishops the Popes had long thirsted after that authority as being a great means to advance their followers and establish their own greatnesse for which cause in divers petty Councels the receiving of any Ecclesiasticall preferment of a Lay man was enacted to be Simony But this did little edifie with such patrons as had good livings As soon as ever Hildebrande in the Catalogue of the Popes called Gregory VII came to the Throne of Rome he set himself entirely to effect this businesse as well in Germany now he was Pope as he had done in France whilest he was Legat he commandeth therefore Henry III. Emperour Ne deinceps Episcâ—patus beneficia they are Platinas own words per cupiditatem Simonaâ—cam committat aliter seusurum in-ipsum censuris Ecclesiasticis To this injustice when the Emperour would not yeeld he called a solemn Councell at the Lateran wherein the Emperour was pronounced to be Simoniacall and afterwards Excommunicated neither would this Tyrant ever leave persecuting of him till he had laid him in his grave After this there followed great strugling for this matter between the Popes and the Emperours but in the end the Popes got the victory In England here he that first beckoned about it was William Ruâ—us the controversie being whether he or Pope Urban should invest Anselme Archbishop of Canterbury Anselme would receive his investure from none but the Pope whereupon the King banished him the Realm into which he was not admitted till the Reign of Henry II. He to endeer himself with his Clergy relinquished his right to the Pope but afterwards repenting himselfe of it he revoked his grant neither did the English Kings wholly lose it till the reign 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 palles miters crosiers rings and I know not what bables By these means the Churches were so impoverished that upon complaint made to the Councell of Basil all these cheating tricks these aucupia expilandi rationes were abolished This decree was called Pragmatica functio and was confirmed in France by Charles VII anno 1438. An act of singular improvement to the Church and Kingdome of France which yearly before as the Court of Parliament manifested to Lewis XI had drained the State of a million of Crowns since which time the Kings of France have sometimes omitted the rigor of this sanction and sometimes also exacted it according as their affairs with the Pope stood for which cause it was called Froenum pontificum At last King Francis I. having conquered Millaine fell into this composition with his Holinesse namely that upon the falling of any Abbacy or Bishoprick the King should have 6 months time allowed him to present a fit man unto him whom the Pope should legally 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 Benefices 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 spirituall Supremacy as the Pope in France Nay to proceed further and shew how meerly titular both his supremacies are as well the spirituall as the temporall you may plainly see in the case of the Jesuites which was thus In the year 1609 the Jesuites had obtained of King Henry IV. licence to read again in their Colledges of Paris but when their Letters patents came to be verified in the Court of Parliament the Rector and University opposed them on the 17 of December 1611. both parties came to have an hearing and the University got the day unlesse the Jesuites would subscribe unto these four points viz. 1. That a Councell was above the Pope 2. That the Pope had no temporall power over Kings and could not by Excommunication deprive them of their Realm and Estates 3. That Clergy men having heard of any attempt or conspiracy against the King or his Realm or any matter of treason in confession he was bound to reveal it And 4. That Clergy men were subject to the secular Prince or politick Magistrate It appeared by our former discourse what little or no power they had left the Pope over the Estates and preferments of the French By these Propositions to which the Jesuites in the end subscribed I know not with what mentall reservation it is more then evident that they have left him no command neither over their consciences nor their persons so that all things considered we may justly say of the Papall power in France what the Papists said falsly of Erasmus namely that it is Nomen sine rebus In one thing only his authority here is intire which is his immediate protection of all the orders of Fryers and also a superintendency or supreme eye over the Monks who acknowledge very small obedience if any at all to the French Bishops for though at the beginning every part and member of the Diocesse was directly under the care and command of the Bishop yet it so happened that at the building of Monasteries in the Western Church the Abbots being men of good parts and a sincere life grew much into the envie of their Diocesan For this cause as also to be more at their own command they made suit to the Pope that they might be free from that subjection Utque in tutelam divi Petri admitterentur a proposition very plausible to his Holinesse ambition which by this means might the sooner be raised to its height and therefore without difficulty granted This gap opened first the severall orders of Fryers and after even the Deans and Chapters purchased to themselves the like exemptions In this the Popes power was wonderfully strengthned as having such able and so main props to uphold his authority it being a true Maxime in State Quod qui privilegia obtinent ad eadem conservanda tenentur authoritatem concedentis tueri This continued till the Councell of Trent unquestioned Where the Bishops much complained of their want of authority and imputed all the Schismes and Vices in the Church unto this that their hands were tyed hereupon the Popes Legats thought it fit to restore their jurisdiction their Deans and Chapters At that of the Monks and Monasteries there was more sticking till at the last Sebastian Pigâ—inus one of the Popes officers found out for them this satisfaction that they should have an eye and inspection into the lives of the Monks not by any authority of their
his Crown as ever any was in France gathering but one and a half only But as you reckon the flood so also if you may reckon the ebb ofhis Treasures you will finde much wanting of a full sea in his Coffers it being generally known that the fees of officers pensions garrisons and the men of armes draw from him yearly no fewer then 6 of his 15 millions True it is that his Treasure hath many good helps by way of Escheat and that most frequently when he cometh to take an accompt of his Treasurers and other Officers A Nation so abominably full of base and unmanly villaines in their severall charges that the Publicans of Old-Rome were milke and white-broath to them For so miserably do they abuse the poor Paisant that if he hath in all the world but eight Sols it shall go hard but he will extort from him five of them Non missura cutem nisi plena cruoris hirundo He is just of the nature of the Horse-leech when he hath once gotten hold of you he will never let you go till he be filled And which is most strange he thinks it a greater clemency that he hath lest the poor man some of his money then the injury was in wresting from him the rest Nay they will brag of it when they have taken but five of the eight Sols that they have given him three and expect thanks for it A kindnesse of a very theevish nature it being the condition of Robbers as Tully hath observed Ut commemorent iis se dedisse vitam quibus non ademerint Were the people but so happy as to have a certain rate set upon their miseries it could not but be a greater â—ase to them and would well defend them from the tyrany of these Theeves But which is not the least part of their wretchednesse their Taxings and Assessements are left arbitrary and are exacted accordingly as these Publicans will give out of the Kings necessities so that the Countryman hath no other remedy then to give Cerberus a crust as the saying is to kisse his rod and hug his punishment By this means the Questors thrive abundantly it being commonly said of them Heri bouvier aviourdhui chevalier to day a Swine-heard to morrow a Gentleman and certainly they grow into great riches Mr. Beaumarchais one of the Treasurers Mr. De Vilroy who slew the Marquesse D' Ancre marryed his only Daughter having raked unto himself by the villanous abuse of his place no lesse then 22 millions of Livres as it was commonly reported But he is not like to carry it to his grave the King having seized upon a good part of it and himself being condemned to the gallowes by the grand Chambre of Parliament though as yet he cannot be apprehended and advanced to the Ladder And this hath been the end of many of them since the reign of this present King whom it may be for this cause they call Lewis the just This fashion of affixing Epithites to the names of their Kings was in great use heretofore with this Nation Carolus the son of Pepin was by them surnamed Le Magne Lewis his son Debonaire and so of the rest Since the time of Charles VI. who was by them surnamed the Beloved it was discontinued and now revived again in the persons of King Henry IV. and his son King Lewis But this by the way It may be also he is called the Just by way of negation because he hath yet committed no notable act of injustice for I wink at his cruell and unjust slaughter at Nigrepelisse it may be also to keep him continually in mind of his duty that he may make himself worthy of that attribute Vere imperator sui nominis As one said of Severus Let us add one more misery to the State and commonalty of France and that is the base and corrupt money in it For besides the Sol which is made of Tinne they have the Double made of Brasse whereof six make a Sol and the Denier whereof two make a Double a coyne so vile and small of value that 120 of them go to an English shilling These are the common coynes of the Countrey silver and gold not being to be seen but upon holydayes As for their silver it is most of it of their own coyning but all exceeding clipt and shaven their gold being most of it Spanish In my little being in the Countrey though I casually saw much gold I could only see two pieces of French stampe the rest coming all from Spain as Pistolets Demi pistolets and Double-pistolets Neither is France alone furnished thus with Castilian coyn it is the happinesse also of other Countries as Italy Barbary Brabant and elsewhere and indeed it is kindly done of him that being the sole Monopolist of the mines he will yet let other nations have a share in the mettle Were the King as Catholick as his money I think I should be in some fear of him till then we may lawfully take that ambitious title from the King and bestow it upon his pictures The Soveraignty of the Spanish gold is more universally embraced and more 〈◊〉 acknowledged in most parts of Christendome then that of him which stampt it To this he which entituleth himself Catholick is but a prisoner and never saw half those Provinces in which this more powerfull Monarch hath been heartily welcomed Yet if he will needs be King let him grow somewhat more jealous of his Queen and confesse that his gold doth royally deserve his imbraces whom before the extent of his dominion the Ancient Poets styled Regina pecunia True it is that by the figure and shape of this Emperesse you would little think her to be lovely and lesse worthy of your imbracement The stones which little boyes break into Quoits are a great deal better proportioned if a Geometrician were to take the angles of it I think it would quite put him besides his Euclide neither can I tell to what thing in the world fitter to resemble it then a French Cheese for it is neither long nor square nor round nor thin nor thick nor any one of these but yet all and yet none of them No question but it was the Kings desires by this unsightly dressing of his Lady to make men out of love with her that so he might keep her to himself But in this his hopes have conusâ—â—â—d him for as in other Cuckoldries so in this some men will be bold to keep his wife from him be it only in spight These circumstances thus laid together and considered we may the clearer and the better see our own felicities which to expresse generally and in a word is to say only this That the English Subject is in no circumstance a French-man Here have we our money made of the best and purest that only excepted which a charitable consideration hath coyned into â—arthings Here have we our Kings royally and to the envie of the world magnificently provided
as I conjecture propound it farther to him then by way of due respect as little hoping that he should bend himself for their relief whom they so often had accused to be the cause of all this trouble At last they are resolved to cast themselves upon the grace and savour of the King and for that cause addressed themselves and their desires unto the Earl of Salisbury a man at that time of special credit with the King being also Lord High Treasurer and chief Secretary This their addresse as he took in special good regard so did he also seem to advise them for the best his counsel that they should joyn unto them those of Guernzey in the perusing of their Discipline and the correcting of such things most stomacked by the Civil Magistrates and after both together to refer themselves unto his Majesty A counsel not to be despised in the appearance but yet as certainly he was of a fine and subtil wit of exceeding cunning For by this means the businesse not yet ripe and the King scarce master of his purposes in Scotland he gains time farther to consider of the main and by ingaging those of Guernzey in the cause they also had been subject to the same conclusion But subtil as he was he found no art to protract the fatal and inevitable blow of death for whilest his Clients busily pursued this project in reviewing of their platform he yeelded up himself unto the grave March 24. anno 1612. upon report whereof they layed by the prosecution of that businesse referring of it to the mercy of some better times This comfort yet they found in their addresse unto the Court that things at home were carried on in a more fair and quiet course but long they would not suffer themselves to enjoy that happinesse The Parish of S. Peters being void Messerny was presented to it by the Governour one that had spent his time in Oxenford and had received the Orders of the Priesthood from the Right Reverend Doctor Bridges then Bishop of that Diocesse A matter so infinitely stomacked by the Colloquie that they would by no means yeeld to his admission not so much because of his presentation from the Governor as of his ordination from the Bishop For now they thought Annibalem ad portas that Popery began again to creep upon them and therefore they resolved to fight it out tanquam de summa rerum as if the whole cause of Religion were in danger Messerny howsoever enjoyed the profits of the living and a new complaint was made against them to the Councel In which complaint there also was intelligence given unto their Lordships that the inhabitants generally of the Isle were discontented with the Disciplineâ— and guidance of the Church and that the most of them would easily admit the form of English Government that some of them did desire it The matter thus grown ready for an issue and his Majesty desirous to bring all things to the most peaceable and quiet end both parties were commanded to attend at Court the Governor and secular states to prosecute their suit and make good their intelligence the Ministers to answer the complaints and tender their proposals Hereupon the Governor and those of the laity delegated to the Court Marret the Attorney and Messervy the new Parson of St. Peters by whom the people sent a formal Petition to his Majesty signed by many of their hands and to this purpose viz. that he would be pleased to establish in their Island the book of Common-prayers and to settle there among them some Ecclesiastical Officer with Episcopal jurisdiction On the other side there were deputed for the Ministers Mr. Bandinell the now Dean Oliveis the now Subâ—dean Effart the Curate of St. Saviours and De la place then Curate of St. Maries To whom this also was specially given in charge that with all industry they should oppose whatsoever innovation as they called it might be proposed unto them and resolutely bear up for the present Discipline Immediately upon their appearance at the Court both parties by his Majesty were referred to the Councel and by them again to my Lord Archbishop of Canterbury the Lord Zouche and Sir John Herbert then principal Secretary Before them the cause was privately argued by the Deputies of both parties and the desires of the Governor and of the people constantly impugned by the Ministers But as it alwaies hapneth that there is no confederacy so well joyned but one member of it may be severed from the rest and thereby the whole practise overthrown so was it also in this businesse For those which there sollicited some private businesse of the Governors had finely wrought upon the weaknesse or ambition of De la place bearing him in hand that if the Government of the Church were altered and the office of the Dean restored he was for certain resolved upon to be the man Being fashioned into this hope he speedily betrayed the counsels of his fellowes and furnished their opponents at all their enterviews with such intelligence as might make most for their advantage At last the Ministers not well agreeing in their own demands and having little to say in the defence of their proper cause whereto their answers were not provided beforehand my Lord of Canterbury at the Councel-table thus declared unto them the pleasure of the King and Councell viz. that for the speedy redresse of their disorders it was reputed most convenient to establish among them the authority and office of the Dean that the book of Common-prayer being again printed in the French should be received into their Churches but the Ministers not tyed to the strict observance of it in all particulars that Messerny should be admitted to his benefice and that so they might return unto their charges This said they were commanded to depart and to signifie to those from whom the came they full scope of his Majesties resolution and so they did But being somewhat backward in obeying this decree the Councel intimated to them by Sir Phil. de Carteret their Agent for the Estates of the Island that the Ministers from among themselves should make choice of three learned and grave persons whose names they should return unto the board out of which his Majesty would resolve on one to be their Dean A proposition which found among them little entertainment Not so much out of dislike unto the dignity for they were most of them well contented with the change but because every one of them conceived hopefully of himself to be the man and all of them could not be elected they were not willing to prejudice their own hopes by the naming of another In the mean time Mr. David Bandâ—â—ell then Curate of St. Maries either having or pretending some businesse unto London was recommended by the Governor as a man most fit to sustain that place and dignity And being also approved by my Lord of Canterbury aâ— certainly he is a man of good
a handsome ruffe about her neck a vail of fine lawne hanging down her back and to shew that she was the Queen of heaven a crown upon her head in her left arme she holds her son in his side-coat a black hat and a golden hatband A jolly plump Ladie she seemeth to be of a flaxen hair a ruddy lip and a chearefull complexion T were well the Painters would agree about limming of her otherwise we are likely to have almost as many Ladies as Churches At Nostre dame in Paris she is taught us to be browne and seemeth somewhat inclining to melancholie I speak not of her different habit for I envie not her changes of apparell Only I could not but observe how those of St. Sepulchres Church en la Fue St. Dennis have placed her on the top of their Skreen in a Coape as if she had taken upon her the zeal of Abraham and were going to make a bloudy sacrifice of her Son They of Nostre dame in Amiens have erected her Statua all in gold with her Son also of the same mettle in her armes casting beams of gold round about her as the Sun is painted in its full glory strange Idolatries On the contrary in the Parish Church of Tury in La Beausse she is to be seen in a plain petticoat of red and her other garments correspondent In my minde this holdeth most proportion to her estate and will best serve to free their irreligion from absurdity If they will worship her as a nurse with her childe in her arme or at her brest let them array her in such apparell as might beseem a Carpenters wife such as she may be supposed to have worn before the world had taken notice that she was the mother of her Saviour If they needs must have her in her estate of glory as at Amiens or of honour being now publickly acknowledged to be the blessedest among women as at Paris let them disburden her of her child To clap them thus together is a folly equally worthy of scorne and laughter Certainly had she but so much liberty as to make choice of her own clothes I doubt not but she would observe a greater decorum And therefore I commend the Capuchins of Boulogne who in a little side-chappell consecrated unto her have placed only a handsome fair looking-glasse upon her Altar the best ornament of a female closet why they placed it there I cannot say only I conceive it was that she might there see how to dresse her self This Church is said to have been built I should rather think repaired by Raoul or Rollo the first Duke of Normandy since it hath been much beautifyed by the English when they were Lords of this Province It is the seat of an Archbishop a Dean and fifty Canons The Archbishop was instituted by the authority of Constantine the Great during the sitting of the Councell of Arles Anidian who was there present being consecrated the first Archbishop The Bishops of Sees Aurenches Constance Bayeux Lysieux and Eureux were appointed for his Diocesans The now Archbishop is said to be an able Scholar and a sound Statesman his name I enquired not The revenues of his Chair are said to be 10000 crowns more they would amount to were the Countrey any way fruitfull of Vines out of which the other Prelates of France draw no small part of their intrada The Parliament of this Countrey was established here by Lewis XII who also built that fair Palace wherein Justice is administred anno 1501. At that time he divided Normandy into seven Lathes Rapes or Bailiwicks viz. Roven Caux Constentin Caen Eureux Gisors and Alençon This Court hath Supreme power to enquire into and give sentence of all causes within the limits of Normandy It receiveth appeals from the inferior Courts of the Dutchie unto it but admitteth none from it Here is also Cour des Eslâ—ux a Court of the generall Commissioners also for Taxes and La Chambre des Aides instituted by Charles VII for the receiving of his Subsidies Gabels Imposts c. The house of Parliament is in form quadrangular a very greatefull and delectable building that of Paris is but a Chaos or a Babell to it In the great hall into which you ascend by some 30 steppes or upwards are the seats and desks of the Procurators every ones name written in Capital letters over his head These Procurators are like our Atturnies to prepare causes and make them ready for the Advocates In this Hall do suitors use either to attend on or to walke up and down and confer with their pleaders Within this hall is the great Chamber the tribunall and seat of justice both in causes Criminall and Civill At domus interior regali splendida luxu Instruitur As Virgill of Queen Didoes dining roome A Camber so gallantly and richly built that I must needs confesse it far surpasseth all the rooms that ever I saw in my life The Palace of the Louure hath nothing in it comparable The seeling all inlaid with gold and yet did the workmanship exceed the matter This Court consisteth of two Presidents twenty Counsellors or Assistants and as many Advocates as the Court will admit of The prime President is termed Ner de Riz by birth a Norman upon the Bench and in all places of his Court he taketh the prcedencie of the Duke of Longueville when there is a convention of the three Estates summoned the Duke hath the priority We said even now that from the sentence of this Court there lay no appeal but this must be recanted and it is no shame to do it St. Austin hath written his Retractations so also hath Bellarmine Once in the year there is an appeal admitted but that for one man only and on this occasion There was a poysonous Dragon not far from Roven which had done much harme to the Countrey and City Many wayes had been tryed to destroy him but none prospered at last Romain afterwards made a Saint then Archbishop of the Town accompanied with a theef and a murderer whose lives had been forfeited to a sentence undertaketh the enterprise upon sight of the Dragon the theef stole away the murderer goeth on and seeth that holy man vanquish the Serpent armed only with a Stole it is a neck habit sanctifyed by his Holinesse of Rome and made much after the manner of a tippet with this Stole tied about the neck of the Dragon doth the murderer lead him prisoner to Roven To make short work the name of God is praised the Bishop magnifyed the murderer pardoned and the Dragon burned This accident if the story be not Apocrypha is said to have hapned on holy Thursday Audoin or Owen successor unto St. Romain in memory of this marvellous act obtained of King Dagobert the first he began his reign anno 632 that from that time forwards the Chapitre of the Cathedrall Church should every Ascension day have the faculty of delivering any malefactor whom the
homager being slain and a homager being accused To this summons John refused to yeeld himself a Counsell rather magnanimous then wise and such as had more in it of a English King then a French Subject Edward III a Prince of finer metall then this John obeyed the like warrant and performed a personall homage to Philip of Valoys and it is not reckoned amongst his disparagements He committed yet a further errour or solecisme in State not so much as sending any of his people to supply his place or plead his cause Upon this non-appearance the Peers proceed to sentence Ilfut par Arrestdela dite cour saith Du Chesne condamnè pour atteint convaincu da crime de parricide de felonie Parric de for killing his own Nephew and Felony for committing an act so execrable on the person of a French Vassall and in France John du Serres addeth a third cause which was contempt in disobeying the Kings commandment Upon this â—â—rdict the Court awarded Que toutes les terres qu' il aveit parde la demoureroient aquâ—ses confisquces a la Couronne c. A proceeding so fair and orderly that I should sooner accuse King John of indiscretion then the French of injustice When my life or estate is in danger let me have no more finister a tryall The Erglish thus outed of Normandy by the weaknesse of John recovered it again by the puissance of Henry but being held only by the swoÌ„rd it was after 30 years recovered again as I have told you And now being passed over the Oyse I have at once freed the English and my self of Normandy here ending this Book but not that dayes journey The End of the First Book A SURVEY OF THE STATE of FRANCE FRANCE specially so called OR THE SECOND BOOK CHAP. I. France in what sense so called The bounds of it All old Gallia not possessed by the French Countries follow the name of the most predominant Nation The condition of the present French not different from that of the old Gaules That the heavens have a constant power upon the same Climate though the Inhabitants are changed The quality of the French in private at the Church and at the table Their language complements discourse c. July the third which was the day we set out of St. Claire having passed through Pontoyse and crossed the river we were entred into France France as it is understood in its limited sense and as a part only of the whole for when Meroveus the Grandchild of Pharamond first King of the Franci or Frenchmen had taken an opportunity to passe the Rhine having also during the wars between the Romans and the Gothes taken Paris he resolved there to set up his rest and to make that the head City of his Empire The Country round about it which was of no large extent he commanded to be called Francia or Terra Francorum after the name of his Frankes whom he governed In this bounded and restrained sense we now take it being confined with Normandy on the North Champagne on the East and on the West and South with the Province of La Beausse It is incircled in a manner with the Oyse on the Northwards the Eure on the West the Velle on the East and a veine riveret of the Seine towards the South but the principall environings are made by the Seine and the Marne a river of Campagne which constitute that part hereof which commonly and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is called by the name of the Isle of France and within the main Island makes divers little petty Isles the waters winding up and down as desirous to recreate the earth with the pleasures of its lovely and delicious embraces This Isle this portion of Gaul properly and limitedly sty led France was the seat of the Francs at their first coming hither and hath still continued so The rest of Gallia is in effect rather subdued by the French then inhabited their valour in time having taken in those Countries which they never planted so that if we look apprehensively into Gaule we shall finde the other Nations of it to have just cause to take up that complaint of the King of Portugall against Ferdinand of Castile for assuming to himself the title of Catholick King of Spain Ejus tam non exigua parte penes reges alios as Mariana relateth it Certain it it that the least part of all Gallia is in the hands of the French the Normans Britons Biscaines or Gascons the Gothes of Languedoc and Provence Burgundians and the ancient Gaules of Poictou retaining in it such fair and ample Provinces But it is the custome shall I say or fate of lesser and weaker Nations to lose their names unto the stronger as wives do to their husbands and the smaller rivers to the greater Thus we see the little Province of Poland to have mastered and given name to the Pruteni Mazovii and other Nations of Sarmatia Europaea as that of Mosco hath unto all the Provinces of Asiatica Thus hath Sweden conquered and denominated almost all the great Peninsula of Scandia whereof it is but a little parcell and thus did the English Saxons being the most prevailing of the rest impose the name of English on all the people of the Heptarchie Et dedit imposito nomina prisca jugo And good reason the vanquished should submit themselves as well unto the appellation as the laws of the victor The French then are possessors of some parts of old Gallia and masters of the rest possessors not of their Cities only but their conditions A double victory it seemeth they enjoyed over that people and took from them at once both their qualities and their Countries Certainly whosoever will please to peruse the Commentaries of Julius Caesar de bello Gallico he will equally guesse him an Historian and a Prophet yea he will rather make himself believe that he hath prophecied the character of the present French then delivered one of the antient Gaule And indeed it is a matter worthy both of wonder and observation that the old Gaules being in a manner all worne out should yet have most of their conditions surviving in those men which now inhabit that region being of so many severall Countries and originals If we dive into naturall causes we have a speedy recourse unto the powerfull influence of the heavens for as those celestiall bodies considered in the generall do work upon all sublunary bodies in the generall by light influence and motion so have they a particular operation on particulars An operation there is wrought by them in a man as borne at such and such a minute and again as borne under such and such a Climate The one derived from the setting of the Houses and the Lord of the Horoscope at the time of his Nativity the other from that constellation which governeth as it were the Province of his birth and is the genius or deus tutelaris loci Hinc illa
cannot blame him for it it was worthy but little thanks to give unto him the Idols of the Heathens who for his Holinesse satisfaction had given himself to the Idols of the Romans I believe that upon the same termes the King of England might have all the Reliques and ruines of Antiquity which can be found in Rome Without this room this Salle des Antiques and somewhat on the other side of the Louure is the house of Burbon an old decayed fabrick in which nothing was observable but the Omen for being built by Lewis of Burbon the third Duke of that branch he caused this motto ESPERANCE to be engraven in Capitall Letters over the door signifying his hope that from his loins should proceed a King which should joyn both the Houses and the Families and it is accordingly hapned For the Tuilleries I having nothing to say of them but that they were built by Katharine de Medices in the year 1564. and that they took name from the many Lime-kils and Tile-pits there being before the foundation of the House and the Garden the word Tuilleries importing as much in the French language I was not so happy as to see and will not be indebted to any for the relation The End of the Second Book A SURVEY OF THE STATE of FRANCE La BEAUSE OR THE THIRD BOOK CHAP. I. Our Journy towards Orleans the Town Castle and Battail of Mont l'hierrie Many things imputed to the English which they never did Lewis the 11. brought not the French Kings out of wardship The town of Chartroy and the mourning Church there The Countrey of La Beause and people of it Estampes The dancing there The new art of begging in the Innes of this Countrey Angerville Tury The sawciness of the French Fidlers Three kindes of Musick amongst the Ancients The French Musick HAving abundantly stifled our spirits in the stink of Paris on Tuesday being the 12 of July we took our leave of it and prepared our selves to entertain the sweet Air and Wine of Orleans The day fair and not so much as disposed to a cloud save that they began to gather together about noon in the nature of a curtain to defend us from the injury of the Sun The wind rather sufficient to fan the air then to disturb it by qualifying the heat of the Celestial fire brought the air to an excellent mediocrity of temper you would have thought it a day meerly framed for the great Princesse Nature to take her pleasure in and that the birds which cheerfully gave us their voices from the neighbouring bushes had been the loud musick of her Court. In a word it was a day solely consecrated to a pleasant journey and he that did not put it to that use mis-spent it having therefore put our selves into our wagon we took a short farewell of Paris exceeding joyfull that we yet lived to see the beauty of the fields again and enjoy the happinesse of a free heaven The Countrey such as that part of the Isle of France towards Normandy only that the corn grounds were larger and more even On the left hand of us we had a side-glance of the royall house of Boys St. Vincennes and the Castle of Bisestre and about some two miles beyond them we had a sight also of a new house lately built by Mr. Sillery Chancellor of the Kingdome a pretty house it promised to be having two base Courts on the hither side of it and beyond it a park an ornament whereof many great mansions in France are altogether ignorant Four leagues from Paris is the the Town of Montliberrie now old and ruinous and hath nothing in it to commend it but the carkasse of a Castle without it it hath to brag of a large and spacious plain on which was fought that memorable battail between Lewis the 11. and Charles le hardie Duke of Burgogne a battail memorable only for the running away of each Army the field being in a manner emptied of all the forces and yet neither of the Princes victorious Hic spe celer ille salute some ran out of fear to die and some out of hope to live that it was hard to say which of the Souldiers made most use of their heels in the combat This notwithstanding the King esteemed himself the conquerour not that he overcame but because not vanquisht He was a Prince of no heart to make a warriour and therefore resistance was to him almost hugged as victory It was Antonies case in his war against the Parthians a Captain whose Launce King Lewis was not worthy to bear after him Crassus before him had been taken by that people but Antonius made a retreat though with losse Hanc itaque fugam suam quia vivus exierat victoriam vocabat as Paterculus one that loved him not saith of him Yet was King Lewis is so puffed up with this conceit of victory that he ever after slighted his enemies and at last ruined them and their cause with them The war which they undertook against him they had entituled the war of the Weal publick because the occasion of their taking armes was for the liberty of their Countrey and people both whom the King had beyond measure oppressed True it is they had also their particular purposes but this was the main and failing in the expected event of it all that they did was to confirm the bondage of the Realm by their own overthrow These Princes once disbanded and severally broken none durst ever afterwards enter into the action for which reason King Lewis used to say that he had brought the Kings of France Hors pupillage out of their ward-ship a speech of more brag then truth The people I confesse he brought into such terms of slavery that they no longer merited the name of subjects but yet for all his great boast the Nobles of France are to this day the Kings Guardians I have already shewn you much of their potency By that you may see that the French Kings have not yet sued their livery as our Lawyers call it Had he also in some measure broken the powerableness of the Princes he had then been perfectly his words-master and till that be done I shall still think his successors to be in their pupillage That King is but half himself which hath the absolute command only of half his people The battail foughten by this Town the common people impute to the English and so do they also many others which they had no hand in For hearing their Grandames talk of their wars with our nation and of their many fields which we gained of them they no sooner hear of a pitched field but presently as the nature of men in a fright is they attribute it to the English good simple souls Qui nos non solum laudibus nostris ornare velint sed onerare alienis as Tully in his Philippicks An humour just like unto that of little children who being once frighted with the tales
is layed upon them of obedience be the imployment never so dangerous And certainly this Nation doth most strictly obey the rules of their order of any whatsoever not excepting the Capouchins nor the Carthusians This I am witnesse to that whereas the Divinity Lecture is to end at the tilling of a Bell one of the Society in the Colledge of Clermont reading about the fall of the Angels ended his Lecture with these words Denique in quibuseunque for then was the warning given and he durst not so far trespasse upon his rule as to speak out his sentence But it is not the fate of these Jesuits to have great persons only and Universities only to oppose their fortunes they have also the most accomplisht malice that either the secular Priests or Fryers amongst whom they live can fasten upon them Some envie them for the greatnesse of their possessions some because of the excellency of their learning some hate them for their power some for the shrewdnesse of their brains all together making good that saying of Paterculus that Semper eminentis fortune comes est invidia True indeed it is that the Jesuits have in a manner deserved all this clamor and stomach by their own insolencies for they have not only drawn into their own hands all the principall affairs of Court and state but upon occasions cast all the scorn and contempt they can upon those of the other Orders The Janizaries of the Turke never more neglectfully speak of the Asapi then those doe of the rest of the Clergy A great crime in those men who desire to be accounted such excellent Masters of their own affections Neither is the affection born to them abroad greater then that at home amongst those I mean of the opposite party who being so often troubled and crumped by them have little cause to afford them a liking and much lesse a welcome Upon this reason they were not sent into England with the Queen although at first they were destinate to that service It was well known how odious that name was amongst us and what little countenance the Court or Countrey would have afforded them They therefore who had the Governance of that businesse sent hither in their places the Oratorians or the Fratres congregationis Oratorii a race of men never as yet offensive to the English further then the generall defence of the Romish cause and so lesse subject to envie and exception They were first instituted by Philip Nerius not long after the Jesuits and advanced and dignified by Pope Sixtus V. principally to this end that by their incessant Sermons to the people of the lives of Saints and other Ecclesiasticall Antiquities they might get a new reputation and so divert a little the torrent of the peoples affections from the Jesuites Baronius that great and excellent Historian and Bozius that deadly enemie to the Soveraignity of Princes were of the first foundation of this Order I have now done with Orleans and the Jesuits and must prepare for my return to Paris Which journey I begun the 23 of July and ended the day following We went back the same way that we came though we were not so fortunate as to enjoy the same company we came in for in stead of the good and acceptable society of one of the French Nobles some Gentlemen of Germany and two Fryers of the Order of St. Austin we had the perpetuall vexation of four tradesmen of Paris two filles de joye and an old woman the Artizans so slovenly attired and greasie in their apparell that a most modest apprehension could have conceived no better of them then that they had been newly raked out of the scullery One of them by an Inkehorne that hung at his girdle would have made us believe that he had been a Notarie but by the thread of his discourse we found out that he was a Sumner so full of ribaldrie was it and so rankly did it favour of the French bawdie-courts The rest of them talked according to their skill concerning the price of commodities and who was the most likely man of all the City to be made one of the next years Eschevins Of the two wenches one so extreamly impudent that even any immodest ear would have abhorred her language and of such a shamelesse deportment that her very behaviour would have frighted lust out of the most incontinent man living Since I first knew mankinde and the world I never observed so much impudence in the generall as I did then in her particular and I hope shall never be so miserable as to suffer two dayes more the torment and hell of her conversation In a word she was a wench born to shame all the Fryers with whom she had traficked for she would not be casta and could not be cauta and so I leave her a creature extreamly bold because extreamly faulty And yet having no good property to redeem both these and other unlovely qualities but as Sir Philip Sydney said of the Strumpet Baccha in the Arcadia a little counterfeit beauty disgraced with wandring eyes and unwayed speeches The other of the younger females for as yet I am doubtfull whether I may call any of them women was of the same profession also but not half so rampant as her companion Haec habitu casto cum non sit casta videtur as Ausonius giveth it one of the two wanton sisters By her carriage a charitable stranger would have thought her honest and to that favourable opinion had my self been inclinable if a French Monsieur had not given me her character at Orleans besides there was an odd twinkling of her eye which spoyled the composednesse of her countenance otherwise she might have passed for currant So that I may safely say of her in respect of her fellow Harlot what Tacitus doth of Pompey in reference to Caesar viz. Secretior Pompeius Caesare non melior They were both equally guilty of the sin though this last had the more cunning to dissemble it and avoid the infamie and censure due unto it And so I come to the old woman which was the last of our goodly companions A woman so old that I am not at this day fully resolved whether she were ever young or no. 'T was well I had read the Scriptures otherwise I might have been very prone to have thought her one of the first pieces of the creation and that by some mischance or other she had escaped the flood her face was for all the world like unto that of Sibylla Erythraea in an old print or that of Solomons two harlots in the painted cloth you could not at the least but have imagined her one of the Relicks of the first age after the building of Babel for her very complexion was a confusion more dreadfull then that of languages As yet I am uncertain whether the Poem of our arch-poet Spencer entituled The Ruines of time was not purposely intended on her sure I am it is
my self then to have recourse to the King of heaven and though the Poet meant not Exeat aula qui vult esse pius in that sense yet will it be no treason for me to apply it so And even in this the Church which should be like the Coat of its Redeemer without seam do I finde rents and factions and of the two these in the Church more dangerous then those in the Louure I know the story of Rebecca and of the children strugling in her is generally applyed to the births and contentions of the Law and the Gospel in particular we may make use of it in expressing the State of the Church and Religions of France for certain it is that here were divers pangs in the womb of the French Church before it was delivered And first she was delivered of Esau the Popish faith being first after the strugling countenanced by authority And he came out red all over like an hairy garment saith the text which very appositely expresseth the bloudy and rough condition of the French Papists at the birth of the Reformation before experience and long acquaintance had bred a liking between them And after came his Brother out which laid hold on Esaus heel and his name was called Jacob wherein is described the quality of the Protestant party which though confirmed by publick Edict after the other yet hath it divers times endevoured and will perhaps one day effect the tripping up of the others heels And Esau saith Moses was a cunning hunter a man of the field and Jacob a plain man dwelling in tents in which words the comparison is made exact A cunning hunter in the Scripture signifieth a man of art and power mingled as when Nâ—mrâ—d in Genesis 10. is termed a mighty hunter Such is the Papist a side of greater strength and subtility a side of war and of the field on the other side the Protestants are a plain race of men simple in their actions without craft and fraudulent behaviours and dwelling in tents that is having no certain abiding place no Province which they can call theirs but living dispersed and scattered over the Countrey which in the phrase of the Scripture is dwelling in tents As for the other words differencing the two brethren and the elder shall serve the younger they are rather to be accounted a Prophesie then a Character we must therefore leave the analogie it holds with this Rebecca of France and her two children to the event and to prayer For a more particular insight into the strength and subtilty of this Esau we must consider it in the three main particular strengths of it its Polity Priviledges and Revenue For the first so it is that the Popish Church in France is governed like those of the first and purest times by Archbishops and Bishops Archbishops it comprehendeth 12 and of Bishops 104 of these the Metropolitan is he of Rheimes who useth to anoint the Kings which office and preheminence hath been annexed unto this seat ever since the times of St. Remigius Bishop hereof who converted Clovis King of the Franks unto the Gospell The present Primate is son unto the Duke of Guise by name Henry de Lorrain of the age of 14 years or thereabouts a burden too unweildie for his shoulders Et quae non viribus istis Munera conveniunt nâ—c tam puerilibus annis For the better government therefore of a charge so weighty they have appointed him a Coadjutor to discharge that great function till he come to age to take orders His name is Gifford an English fugitive said to be a man worthy of a great fortune and able to bear it The revenues of this Archbishoprick are somewhat of the meanest not amounting yearly to above 10000 Crowns whereof Dr. Gifford receiveth only 2000 the remainder going to the Caidet of Lorreine This trick the French learn of the Protestants in Germany where the Princes after the Reformation began by Luther took in the power and Lordships of the Bishops which together with their functions they divided into two parts The lands they bestowed upon some of their younger sons or kinsmen with the title of Administrator the office and pains of it they conferred with some annuall pension on one of their Chaplaines whom they styled the Superintendent of the Bishoprick This Archbishop together with the rest of the Bishops have under them their severall Chancellours Commissaries Archdeacons and other officers attending in their Courts in which their power is not so generall as with us in England Matters of testament never trouble them as belonging to the Court of Parliament who also have wrested to their own hands almost all the businesse of importance sure I am all the causes of profit originally belonging to the Church the affairs meerly Episcopall and spirituall are left unto them as granting Licence for Marriages punishing whoredome by way of penance and the like to go beyond this were ultra crepidam and they should be sure to have a prohibition from the Parliaments Of their priviledges the chiefest of the Clergy men is the little or no dependence upon the Pope and the little profits they pay unto their King of the Pope anon to the King they pay only their Dismes or Tithes according to the old rate a small sum if compared unto the payments of their neighbours it being thought that the King of Spain receiveth yearly one half of the living of the Churches but this I mean of their livings only for otherwise they pay the usuall gabels and customes that are paid by the rest of the Kings liege people In the generall assembly of the three Estates the Clergy hath authority to elect a set number of Commissioners to undertake for them and the Church which Commissioners do make up the first of the three Estates and do first exhibit their grievances and Petitions to the King In a word the French Church is the freest of any in Christendome that have not yet quitted their subjection to the Pope as alwayes protesting against the Inquisitions not submitting themselves to the Councell of Trent and paying very little to his Holinesse of the plentifull revenue wherewith God and good men have blessed it The number of those which the Church Land maintaineth in France is tantum non infinite therefore the Intrado and Revenue of it must needs be uncountable There are numbred in it as we said before 12 Archbishops 104 Bishopricks to these add 540 Archpriories 1450 Abbies 12320 Priories 567 Nunneries 700 Convents of Fryers 259 Commendames of the order of Malta and 130000 Parish Priests Yet this is not all this reckoning was made in the year 1598. Since which time the Jesuits have divers Colledges founded for them and they are known to be none of the poorest To maintain this large wildernesse of men the Statistes of France who have proportioned the Countrey do allow unto the Clergy almost a fourth part of the whole For supposing France to contain 200
Esau said in his heart The days of mourning for my father are at band then will I slay my brother Jacob. The event of which his bloudy resolution was that Jacob was â—ain to relinquish all that he had and flie unto his Uncle This last part of the story expresseth very much of the present estate of the French Church The Papists hated the Protestants to see them thrive and increase so much amongst them This hatred moved them to a war by which they hoped to root them out altogether and this war compelled the Protestants to abandon their good Towns their strong holds and all their possessions and to flie to their friends wheresoever they could finde them And indeed the present estate of the Protestants is not much better then that of Jacob in Mesopotâ—â—ia nor much different The blessing which they expect lyeth more in the seed then the harvest For their strength it consisteth principally in their prayers to God and secondly in their obedience to their Kings Within these two fortresses if they can keep themselves they need fear none ill because they shall deserve none The only outward strengths they have left them are the two Towns of Montaban and Rochell the one deemed invincible the other threatned a speedy destruction The Duke of Espernon at my being there lay round about it and it was said that the Town was in very bad terms all the neighbouring Towns to whose opposition they much trusted having yeelded at the first fight of the Canon Rochell it is thought cannot be forced by assault nor compelled by a famine Some Protestants are glad of and hope to see the French Church restored to its former powerfulnesse by the resistance of that Town meerly I rather think that the perverse and stubborn condition of it will at last drive the young King into a fury and incite him to revenge their contradiction on their innocent friends now disarmed and disabled Then will they see at last the issue of their own peremptory resolutions and begin to believe that the Heathen Historian was of the two the better Christian when he gave us this note Non turpe est ab eo vinci quem vincere esset nefas neque 〈…〉 lli â—inhoneste etiam submitti quem fortuna super omnes exâ—ulisset This weaknesse and misery which hath now befallen the Protestants was anâ— effect I confesse of the ill-will which the other party bare them but that they bare them ill will was a fruit of their own graffing In this circumstance they were nothing like Jacob who in the hatred which his brother Esau had to him was simply passive they being active also in the birth of it And indeed that lamentable and bloudy war which sell upon them they not only endevoured not to avoid but invited during the reign of Henry IV. who would not see it and the troublesome minority of Lewis XIII who could not molest them they had made themselves masters of 99. Towns well fortifyed and enabled for a 〈◊〉 a strength too great for any one faction to keep together under a King which desires to be himself and rule his people In the opinion of this their potency they call Assemblies Parliaments as it were when and as often as they pleased There they consulted of the common affairs of Religion made new Laws of government removed and rechanged their generall officers the Kings leave all this while never so much as formally demanded Had they only been guilty of too much power that crime alone had been sufficient to have raised a war against them it not standing with the safety and honour of a King not to be the absolute commander of his own Subjects But in this their licentious calling of Assemblies they abused their power into a neglect and not dissolving them at his Majesties commandment they increased their neglect into into a disobedience The Assembly which principally occasioned the war and their ruine was that of Rochell called by the Protestants presently upon the Kings journey into Bearn This generall meeting the King prohibited by his especiall Edicts declaring all them to be guilty of treason which notwithstanding they would not â—earken to but very undutifully went on in their purposes It was said by a Gentleman of their party and one that had been imployed in many of their affairs That the fiery zeal of some who had the guiding of their consciences had thrust them into those desperate courses and I believe him Tantum relligio potuit suâ—dere malorum Being assembled they sent the King a Remonstrance of their grievances to which the Duke Lesdiguiers in a Letter to them written gave them a very fair and plausible answer wherein also he intreateth them to obey the Kings Edict and break up the Assembly Upon the receipt of this Letter those of the Assembly published a Declaration wherein they verified their meeting to be lawfull and their purpose not to dismisse themselves till their desires were granted This affront done to the King made him gather together his Forces yet at the Duke of Lesdiguiers request he allowed them 24 dayes of respite before his Armies should march towards them he offered them also very fair and reasonable conditions such also as their Deputies had solicited but far better then those which they were glad to accept when all their Towns were taken from them Profecto ineluct abilis fatorum vis cujus fortunam mutare constituit ejus corrumpit consilia It held very rightly in this people who turned a deaf eare to all good advice and were resolved it seemeth Not to hear the voice of the Charmer charmed he never so sweetly In their Assemblie therefore they make Lawes and Orders to regulate their disobedience as That no peace should be made without the consent of the generall Convocation about paying of Souldiers wages for the detaining of the Revenues of the King and Clergy and the like They also there divided France into seven circles or parts assigning over every circle severall Generals and Lieutenants and prescribed Orders how those Generals should proceed in the wars Thus we see the Kings Army leavied upon no slight ground his Regall authority was neglected his especiall Edicts violated his gracious profers slighted and his Revenues forbidden him and his 〈…〉 m divided before his face and allotted unto officers not of his own election Had the prosecution of his action been as fair as the cause was just and legall the Protestants had only deserved the infamy but hinc illae lachrymae The King so behaved himself in it that he suffered the sword to walk at randome as if his main design had been not to correct his people but to ruine them I will instance onely in that tyrannicall slaughter which he permitted at the taking of Nigrepâ—â—isse a Town of Quereu wherein indeed the Souldiers shewed the very rigour of severity which either a barbarous victor could inflict or a vanquished people suffer Nec 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 genus
also those of other places Moreover when â—idings came to Paris of the Duke of Mayens death slain before Montauban the rascall French according to their hot headed dispositions breathed out nothing but ruine to the Hugonots The Duke of Monbazon governour of the City commanded their houses and the streets to be safely guarded After when this rabble had burne down their Temple at Charenton the Court of Parliament on the day following ordained that it should be built up again in a more beautifull manner and that at the Kings charge Add to this that since the ending of the wars and the reduction of almost all their Towns we have not seen the least alteration of Religion Besides that they have been permitted to hold a Nationall Synod at Charenton for establishing the truth of their Doctrine against the errours of Arminius professour of Leidâ—n in Holland All things thus considered in their true being I connot see for what cause our late Soveraign should suffer so much censure as he then did for not giving them assistance I cannot but say that my self have too often condemned his remissenesse in that cause which upon better consideration I cannot tell how he should have dealt in Had he been a medler in it further then he was he had not so much preserved Religion as supported Rebellion besides the consequence of the example He had Subjects of his own more then enough which were subject to discontent and prone to an apostasie from their alleagiance To have assisted the disobedient French under the colour of the liberty of conscience had been only to have taught that King a way into England upon the same pretence and to have trod the path of his own hazard He had not long before denied succour to his own children when he might have given them on a better ground and for a fairer purpose and could not now in honour countenance the like action in another For that other deniall of his helping hand I much doubt how far posterity will acquit him though certainly he was a good Prince and had been an happy instrument of the peace of Christendome had not the latter part of his reign hapned in a time so full of troubles So that betwixt the quietnesse of his nature and the turbulency of his latter dayes he sell into that miserable exigent mentioned in the Historian Miserrimum est eum alicui aut natura sua excedenda est aut minuenda dignitas Add to this that the French had been first abandoned at home by their own friends of seven Generals which they had appointed for the seven circles into which they divided all France four of them never giving them incouragement The three which accepted of those unordinate Governments were the Duke of Rohan his brother M. Soubise and the Marquesse of Lafforce the four others being the Duke of Tremoville the Earl of Chastillon the Duke of Lesdisguier and the Duke of Bovillon who should have commanded in chief So that the French Protestants cannot say that he was first wanting for them but they to themselves If we demand what should move the French Protestants to this Rebellious contradiction of his Majesties commandements We must answer that it was too much happinesse Gausa hujus belli eadem quae omnium nimia foelicitas as Florus of the Civill wars between Caesar and Pompey Before the year 1620 when they fell first into the Kings disfavour they were possessed of almost 100 good Towns well fortified for their safety besides beautifull houses and ample possessions in the Villages they slept every man under his own Vine and his own Fig-tree neither fearing nor needing to fear the least disturbance with those of the Catholick party they were grown so intimate and entire by reason of their inter-marriages that a very few years would have them incorporated if not into one faith yet into one family For their better satisfaction in matters of Justice it pleased King Henry the fourth to erect a Chamber in the Court of the Parliament of Paris purposely for them It consisteth of one President and 16 Counsellours their office to take knowledge of all the Causes and Suits of them of the reformed Religion as well within the jurisdiction of the Parliament of Paris as also in Normandy and Britain till there should be a Chamber erected in either of them There were appointed also two Chambers in the Parliaments of Burdeaux and Grenoble and one at the Chastres for the Parliament of Tholoza These Chambers were called Les Chambre de l' Edict because they were established by especiall Edict at the Towns of Nantes in Britain Aprill the 8. anno 1598. In a word they lived so secure and happy that one would have thought their felicities had been immortall O faciles dare summa deos eademque tueri Difficiles And yet they are not brought so low but that they may live happily if they can be content to live obediently that which is taken from them being matter of strength only and not priviledge Let us now look upon them in their Churches which we shall finde as empty of magnificence as ceremony To talke amongst them of Common-prayers were to fright them with the second coming of the Masse and to mention Prayers at the buriall of the dead were to perswade them of a Purgatory Painted glasse in a Church window is accounted for the flag and ensigne of Antichrist and for Organs no question but they are deemed to be the Devils bagpipes Shew them a Surplice and they cry out a rag of the Whore of Babylon yet a sheet on a woman when she is in child-bed is a greater abomination then the other A strange people that could never think the Masse-book sufficiently reformed till they had taken away Prayers nor that their Churches could ever be handsome untill they were ragged This foolish opposition of their first Reformers hath drawn the Protestants of these parts into a world of dislike and envie and been no small disadvantage to the fide Whereas the Church of England though it dissent as much from the Papists in point of Doctrine is yet not uncharitably thought on by the Modern Catholicks by reason it retained such an excellency of Discipline When the Liâ—urgie of our Church was translated into Latine by Dr. Morket once Warden of All-Souls Colledge in Oxford it was with great approofe and applause received here in France by those whom they call the Catholicks royall as marvelling to see such order and regular devotion in them whom they were taught to condemn for Hereticall An allowance which with some little help might have been raised higher from the practice of our Church to some points of our judgement and it is very worthy of our observation that which the Marquesse of Rhosny spake of Canterbury when he came as extraordinary Ambassadour from King Henry IV. to welcome King James into England For upon the view of our solemn Service and ceremonies he openly said unto
the Enfranchisement or Naturalization of Aliens anciently certain Lords officers of the Crown and of the prime counsell were appointed to look unto the accounts Now it is made an ordinary and soveraigne Court consisting of two Presidents and divers Auditors and other under Officers The Chamber wherein it is kept called La Chambre des comptes is the beautifullest peece of the whole Palais the great Chamber it self not being worthy to be named in the same day with it It was built by Charles VIII anno 1485. afterwards adorned and beautified by Lewis XII whose Statua is there standing in his royall robes and the Scepter in his hand He is accompâ—aned by the four Cardinall vertues expressed by way of Hieroglyphicks very properly and cunningly each of them having its particular Motto to declare its being The Kings portraiture also as if he were the fifth virtue had its word under written and contained in a couple of Verses which let all that love the Muses skip them in the reading and are these Quatuor has comites foveo Coelestia dona Innccuae pacis prospera scepâ—â—a gerenâ— From the King descend we to the Subjects ab equis quod aiunt ad asinos and the phrase is not much improper the French commonalty being called the Kings asses These are divided into three ranks or Classes the Clergy the Nobles the Paisants out of which certain delegates or Committees chosen upon occasion and sent to the King did antiently concur to the making of the Supreme Court for Justice in France It was called the Assembly of the three Estates or the Conventus ordinum and was just like the Parliament of England But these meetings are now forgotten or out of use neither indeed as this time goeth can they any way advantage the State for whereas there are three principall if not sole causes of these conventions which are the desposing of the Regency during the nonage or sicknesse of a King the granting Aides and Subsidies and the redressing of Grievances there is now another course taken in them The Parliament of Paris which speaketh as it is prompted by power and greatnesse appointeth the Regent the Kings themselves with their officers determine of the Taxes and as concerning their Grievances the Kings care is open to private Petitions Thus is that little of a Common-wealth which went to the making up of this Monarchie escheated or rather devoured by the King that name alone containing in it both Clergy Princes and People So that some of the French Counsellors may say with Tully in his Oration for Marcellus unto Caesar Doleoque cum respub immortalis esse debeat eam unius mortalis anima consistere Yet I cannot withall but affirme that the Princes and Nobles of France do for as much as concerneth themselves upon all advantages flie off from the Kings obedience but all this while the poor Paisant is ruined let the poor Tenant starve or eat the bread of carefulnesse it matters not so they may have their pleasure and be counted firme zelots of the common liberty And certainly this is the issue of it the former liveth the life of a slave to maintain his Lord in pride and lazinesse the Lord liveth the life of a King to oppresse his Tenant by fines and exactions An equality little answering to the old plat-formes of Republicks Aristotle Genius ille naturae as a learned man calleth him in his fourth book of Politicks hath an excellent discourse concerning this disproportion In that Chapter his project is to have a correspondency so far between Subjects under the King or people of the same City that neither the one might be over rich nor the other too miserably poor They saith he which are too happy strong or rich or greatly favoured and the like can not nor will not obey with which evill they are infected from their infancy The other through want of these things are too abjectly minded and base so that the one cannot but command nor the other but serve And this he calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a City inhabited onely by Slaves and Tyrants That questionlesse is the most perfect and compleat forme of Government Ubi veneratur protentem humilis non timet antecedit non contemnit humiliorem potens as Velleius But this is an unhappinesse of which France is not capable their Lords being Kings and their Commons Villains And not to say lesse of them then indeed they are the Princes of this Countrey are but little inferiour in matter of Royalty to any King abroad and by consequence little respective in matter of obedience to their own King at home Upon the least discontent they withdraw themselves from the Court or put themselves into armes and of all other comforts are ever sure of this that they shall never want partizans Neither do they use to stand off from him fearfully and at distance but justifie their revolt by publick Declaration and think the King much indebted to them if upon fair terms and an honourable reconcilement they will please to put themselves again into his obedience Henry IV. was a Prince of as undaunted and uncontroulable a spirit as ever any of his predecessors and one that loved to be obeyed yet was he also very frequently baffled by these Roytelets and at the last dyed in an affront The Prince of Conde perceiving the Kings affection to his new Lady began to grow jealous of him for which reason he retired unto Bruxells the King offended at his retreat sent after him and commanded him home The Prince returned answer that he was the Kings most humble Subject and servant but into France he would not come unlesse he might have a Town for his assurance withall he protested in publick writing a nullity of any thing that should be done to his prejudice in his absence A stomachfull resolution and misbecoming a Subject yet in this opposition he persisted his humor of disobedience out-living the King whom he had thus affronted But these tricks are ordinary here otherwise a man might have construed this action by the term of Rebellion The chief means whereby these Princes become so head strong are an immunity given them by their Kings and a liberty which they have taken to themselves By their Kings they have been absolutely exempted from all Tributes Tolles Taxes Customes Impositions and Subsidies By them also they have been estated in whole entire Provinces with a power of haute and main Justice as the Lawyers term it passed over to them the Kings having scarce an homage or acknowledgment of them To this they have added much for their strength and security by the insconcing and fortifying of their houses which both often moveth and afterwards inableth them to contemn his Majesty An example we have of this in the Castle of Rochfort belonging to the Duke of Tremoville which in the long Civill wars endured a siege of 5000 shot and yet was not taken A very impolitick course in my conceit
of the French to bestow honours and immunities upon those Qui as the Historian noteth ea suo arbitrio aut reposituri aut retenturi videantur quique modum habent in sua voluntate For upon a knowledge of this strength in themselves the Princes have been always prone to Civill wars as having sufficient means for safety and resistance On this ground also they slight the Kings authority and disobey his Justice In so much that the greater sort of Nobles in this Kingdome can seldome be arraigned or executed in person and therefore the Lawes condemn them in their images and hang them in their pictures A pretty device to mock Justice If by chance or some handsome sleight any of them are apprehended they are put under a sure guard and not done to death without great fear of tumult and unquietnesse Neither is it unus alter only some two or three that thus stand upon their distance with the King but even all the Nobility of the Realm a rout so disordered unconfined and numberlesse that even Fabius himself would be out of breath in making the reckoning I speak not here of those that are styled La Noblesse but of Titulados men only of titular Nobility of the degree of Baron and above Of these there is in this Countrey a number almost innumerable Quot Coelum Stellas take quantity for quantity and I dare be of the opinion that heaven hath not more Stars then France Nobles You shall meet with them so thick in the Kings Court especially that you would think it almost impossible the Countrey should bear any other fruit This I think I may safely affirme and without Hyperbole that they have there as many Princes as we in England have Dukes as many Dukes as we Earls as many Earls as we Barons and as many Barons as we have Knights a jolly company and such as know their own strength too I cannot therefore but much marvell that these Kings should be so prodigall in conferring honours considering this that every Noble man he createth is so great a weakning to his power On the other side I cannot but as much wonder at some of our Nation who have murmured against our late Soveraign and accused him of an unpardonable unthriftiness in bestowing the dignities of his Realm with so full and liberall a hand Certainly could there any danger have arisen by it unto the State I could have been as impatient of it as another But with us titles and ennoblings in this kind are only either the Kings favour or the parties merit and maketh whomsoever he be that receiveth them rather reverenced then powerfull Raro eorum honoribus invidetur quorum vis non timetur was a good Aphorisme in the dayes of Paterculus and may for ought I know be as good still Why should I envie any man that honour which taketh not from my safety or repine at my Soveraign for raising any of his Servants into an higher degree of eminency when that favour cannot make them exorbitant Besides it concerneth the improvement of the Exchequer at the occasions of Subsidies and the glory of the Kingdome when the Prince is not attended by men meerly of the vulgar Add to this the few Noble men of any title which he found at his happy coming in amongst us and the additions of power which his comming brought unto us and we shall finde it proportionable that he should enlarge our Nobility with our Empire neither yet have we indeed a number to be talked of comparing us with our neighbour Nations We may see all of the three first ranks in the books of Milles Brooke and Vincent and we are promised also a Catalogue of the Creations and successions of all our Barons Then we should see that as yet we have not surfeited Were this care taken by the Heralde in France perhaps the Nobility there would not seem so numberlesse sure I am not so confused But this is the main vice of that profession of â—ix Heralds which they have amongst them viz. Montjoy Normandy Guyenne Valâ—ys Bretagne and Burgogne not one of them is reported to be a Genealogist neither were their Predecessors better affected to this study Paradine the only man that ever was amongst them hath drawn down the Genealogies of 24 of the chief families all ancient and of the bloud in which he hath excellently well discharged himself But what a small pittance is that compared to the present multitude The Nobles being so populous it cannot be but the Noblesse as they call them that is the Gentry must needs be thick set and only not innumerable Of these Nobles there are some which hold their estates immediately of the Crown and they have the like immunities with the Princes Some hold their Feifes or feuda of some other of the Lords and he hath only Basse Justice permitted to him as to mulct and amerce his Tenants to imprison them or give them any other correction under death All of them have power to raise and inhance up their Rents to Tax his Subjects on occasion and to prohibit them such pleasures as they think fit to be reserved for themselves By Brettaul in Picardy I saw a post fastned in the ground like a race post with us and therein an inscription I presently made to it as hoping to have heard of some memorable battell there foughten but when I came at it I found it to be nothing but a Declaration of the Prince of Condes pleasure that no man should hunt in those quarters afterwards I observed them to be very frequent But not to wander through all particulars I will in some few of them only give instance of their power here The first is Proict de bailli age power to keep Assize or to have under him a Bailli and a Superiour seat of Justice for the decision of such causes as fall under the compasse of ordinary jurisdiction In this Court there is notice taken of Treasons Robberies Murders Protections Pardons Faires Markets and other matters of priviledge Next they have a Court of ordinary jurisdiction and therein a Judge whom they call Le guarde de Justice for the decision of smaller businesse as Debts Trespasses breach of the Kings peace and the like In this the purse is only emptied the other extendeth to the taking of life also for which cause every one which hath Haute Justice annexed to his Feise hath also his peculiar Gibbet nay which is wonderfully methodicall by the criticisme of the Gibbet you may judge at the quality of him that owneth it For the Gibbet of one of the Nobles hath but two pillars that of the Chastellan three the Barons four the Earls six the Dukes eight and yet this difference is rather precise then generall The last of their jura regalia which I will here speak of is the command they have upon their people to follow them unto the wars a command not so advantagious to the Lord as dangerous to
neighbours of the Church of Scotland men very indifferent both for the time and for the place For the time Nuâ—â—um tempus tam sacrum quod ejus celebratione polluatur and â—or the place immo in praetorâ—o vel quovis loco publico c. extra sacra publicum conventum totius ecclesiae So they that made the Altare Damascenum p. 872. 865. 866. Chap. 14. 1. The Corps shall not be carried â—r interred within the Church Which prohibition whether it hath more in it of the Jew or of the Gentile is not easie to determine Amongst the Jewes it was not lawful for the Priest to be present at a Funeral or for the dead corps to be interred within the camp and on the other side it was by law in Athens and in Rome forbidden either to burn their dead or to bury them within their Cities In urbe nesipelito neve uâ—ito saith the Law of the 12 Tables nor do I see for what cause this generation should prohibit the dead bodies entrance into the Church and to permit it in the Church-yards If for the avoiding of superstition it is well known that not the Church only but the Church-yards are also consecrated The reason why they will not bury in the Church is only their desire and love of parity the Church will hardly be capacious enough to bury all and since by death and nature all are equall why should that honour be vouchsafed unto the rich and not unto the poor Out of this love of parity it is that in the next article they have forbidden Funeral Sermons wherein the Dutch Synods and those men most perfectly concur as appeareth in that collection cap. 11. 5. For if such Sermons be permitted the common people will be forsooth aggrieved and think themselves neglected Ditiores enim hoc officio cobonestabuntur neglect is pauperibus Chap. 14. 2. Nor any prayers nor sound of bell The last for love of parity but this for fear of superstition For prayers at the burial of the dead may possibly be mistook for prayers for the dead and so the world may dream perhaps of Purgatory Thesilencing of bels is somewhat juster because that musick hath been superstitiously and foolishly imployed in former times and in this very case at Funerals It is well known with what variety of ceremonies they were baptized and consecrated as in the Church of Rome they still are by the Bishops Whereby the people did conceive a power inherent in them not only for the scattering of tempests in which cases they are also rung amongst them but for the repulsing of the Devil and his Ministers Blessings which are intreared of the Lord for them as appeareth by one of those many prayers prescribed in that form of consecration by the Roman Pontifical viz. ut per factum illorum procul pellantur omnes insidiae inimici fragor grandinum procella turbinum c. Whilest therefore the people was superstitious in the use of bels the restraint of them was allowable but being now a matter only of solemnity it argueth no little superstition to restrain them Chap. 16. 6. Without encroaching on the civil jurisdiction And well indeed it were if this clause were intended to be observed for in the 17. chap. and 8. art it is decreed that the correction of crimes and scandals appertaineth unto the Consistory What store of grist the word Crime will bring unto their mils I leave unto your Lordship to interpret sure I am that by this of seandal they draw almost all causes within their cognizance A matter testified by his late most excellent Majesty in a Remonstrance to the Parliament viz. that the Puritan Ministers in Scotland had brought all causes within their jurisdiction saying that it was the Churches office to judge of scandal and there could be no kinde of fault or crime committed but there was a scandal in it either against God the King or their neighbour Two instances of this that counterfeit Eusebius Philadelphus in his late Pamphlet against my Lord of St. Andrewes doth freely give us Earl Huntley upon a private quarrel had inhumanely killed the Earl of Murray For this offence his Majesty upon a great suit was content to grant his-pardon Ecclesiae tamen Huntileum jussit sub dirorum poenis ecclesiae satisfacere but yet the Church in relation to the scandall commanded him under the pain of Excommunication to do penance Not long after the said Earl Huntly and others of the Romish faction had enterprised against the peace and safety of the Kingdome The King resolved to pardon them for this also Ecclesia autem excommunication is censura pronuntiavit but the Church pronounced against them the dreadful sentence of Anathema so little use is there of the civil Magistrate when once the Church pretends a scandal Chap. 17. 9. And shall adjure the parties in the Name of God And shall adjure i. e. They shall provoke them or induce them to confession by using or interposing of the Name of God for thus adjuration is defined to us by Aquinas Secunda secundae qu. 9. in Axiom Adjurare nihil aliud est saith he nisi creaturam aliquam divini nominis out alterius cujuspiam sacrae rei interpositione ad agendum aliquid impellere the parties and those not such as give in the informations for that is done in private by the Elders but such of whose ill same intelligence is given unto the Consistory If so then would I fain demand of the contrivers with what reason they so much exclaim against the oath ex officio judicis used by our Prelates in their Chancellaries since they themselves allow it in their Consistories But thus of old as it is in Horace de Arte. Cacilio Plautoq dedit Romanus ademptum Virgiâ—o Varioque Conclus They are adjudged to be immutable And no marvail if as the brethren and their Beza think it be so essential to the Church that no Church can possibly subsist without it if so essential that we may as warrantably deny the written Word as these inventions But certainly what ever these think of it the founder of this plat-form thought not so when thus he was perswaded that the ordering of the Church of God for as much as concernes the form of it was leâ—t to the discretion of the Ministers For thus himself in his Epistle ad Neocomenâ—es dated 1544. viz. Substantiam disciplinae ecclesiae exprimit disertis verbis Scriptura forma autem ejus exercendae quoniam a Domino praescripta non est a ministris constitui debet pro aedificatione Thus he and how dâ—re they controll him Will they also dare to teach their Master Thus have I brought to end those Annotations which I counted most convenient for to expresse their meaning in some few passages of this new plat-form and to exemplifie their proceedings A larger Commentary on this Text had been unnecessary considering both of what I write and unto whom Only I
abilities as a person answerable to the Governors commendations he was established in that office by Letters Patents from his Majesty dated the 8. of March anno 1619. and was invested with all such rights as formerly had been inherent in that dignity and that both in point of profit and also in point of jurisdiction For whereas formerly the Dean was setled in the best benefice in the Island that viz. of St Martins and had divers portions of tithes out of every of the Parishes the said St. Martins was allotted to him upon the next avoidance and the whole tithes of St. Saviours allowed him in consideration of his several parcels And whereas also at the suppression of the Deanry the Governor had taken into his hands the probate of Testaments and appointed unto civil Courts the cognizance of Matrimoniall causes and of tithes all these again were restored unto him and forever united to this office For the executing of this place there were some certain Articles or rather Canons drawn and ratified to be in force till a perfect draught of Ecclesiastical constitutions could be agreed on which it pleased his Majesty to call the Interim And this he did in imitation of Charles the 5. which Prince desirous to establish peace and quietnesse in the Church of Germany and little hoping that any Councel would be summoned soon enough to determine of the differences then on foot composed a certain mixture of opinions in favour of each party which he endevoured to obtrude upon that people the compilers of it Julius Pflugiâ—â— Michael Sidoâ—â—us and Islebius the time when anno 1594 the name of it the Interim a name given unto it by the Emperor eo quod praescriberet formulam doctrinae ceremoniarum in religione in terra tenendam quoad de universa re religionis concilio publico definitum esset so the historian of the Councell In like manner did it please his Majesty as himself tels us in the next chapter in the interim untill he mought be fully informed what Lawes c. were meet and fit to be established for the good government of the said Island in causes Ecclesiastical c. to grant commission c. to exercise the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction there according to cerâ—aid instructions signed with our royal hand to continue only untill we might establish c. as it followeth in the Original By this Interim there was a clause in force whereby it was permitted to the Ministers not to bid holydaies or use the Crosse in Baptism or wear the Surplice or to exact it of the people that they kneel at the Communion In other matters it little differed from the Canons afterwards established and now in being in that Island Thus fortified with power and furnished with instructions home cometh the new Dean into his Countrey and in a frequent assembly of the three Estates takes full possession of his place and office Nor found he any opposition till he began to exercise his Jurisdiction At what time Sir John Herault then Bayliffe of the Island and to whom his Majesty had given the title of St. Saviour not pleased to see so many causes drawn from his Tribunal made head against him But this disgust was quickly over-blown and the Bailiffe for four years suspended by his Majesty from the executing of his office This done his fellow Ministers were called together and he imparted unto them his instructions All of them seeming well contented with the Jurisdiction De la place excepted who much impatient as commonly the miscarrying of our hopes as much torments us as the losse of a possession to see himself deluded forsook the Countrey But to the Liturgie they thought they had no cause to give admission nay that they had good cause unto the contrary viz. as not being desired by them in their addresse and having been for fifty years at least a stranger in the Islands a thing also much stomacked and opposed by many learned men in England and not imposed as yet upon the Scots which people in so many other particulars had been brought unto conformity with the English In the end having fix moneths allowed them to deliberate frangi pertinaciam suam passi sunt they were content to bend and yeeld unto it upon such qualifications of it as in the instructions were permitted A duty carelesly discharged and as it were by halfs by many of them those viz of the ancient breed which have so been wedded to a voluntary frame and fabrick of devotion but punctually observed by those of the lesser standing as having good acquaintance with it here in England and not possessed with any contrary opinion whereby it might be prejudiced And now there wanted nothing to perfect the intentions of â—his Majesty and to restore unto the Island the ancient face and being of a Church but only that the Policy thereof was something temporary and not yet established in the rule and Canon But long it was not ere this also was effected and a fixt Law prescribed of Government Ecclesiastical Which what it is by what means it was agreed on how crossed and how established his Majesties own Letters Patents can best instruct us and to them wholly I referre the honour of the relation CHAP. VII The Canons and Constitutions Ecclesiasticall for the Church Discipline of Jarsey together with the Kings Letters Patents for the authorising of the same JAMES by the grace of God King of England Scotland France and Ireland defender of the faith c. To our right trusty and well beloved Counseller the reverend father in God Lancelot Bishop of Winton and to our trusty and well beloved Sir John Peyton Knight Governour of the Isle of Jarsey and to the Governour of the said Isle for the time being and to the Bailiffe and Jurates of the said Isle for the time being to whom it shall or may appertain Greeting Whereas we held it fitting heretofore upon the admission of the now Dean of that Island unto his place in the interim untill we might be fully informed what Lawes Canons or Constitutions were meet and fit to be made and established for the good government of the Island in causes Ecclesiasticall appertaining to Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction to command the said Bishop of Winton Ordinary of the said Island to grant his Commission unto David Bandinell now Dean of the same Island to exercise the Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction there according to certain instructions signed with our royall hand to continue only till we might establish such Constitutions Rules Canons and Ordinances as we intended to settle for the regular government of that our Island in all Ecclesiasticall causes conformed to the Ecclesiasticall government established in our Realm of England as near as conveniently might be And whereas also to that our purpose and pleasure was that the said Dean with what convenient speed he might after such authority given unto him as aforesaid and after his arrivall into that Island and the publick notice given of
that his admission unto the said office should together with the Ministers of this our Island consider of such Canons and Constitutions as might be fitly accomodated to the circumstances of time and place and persons whom they concern and that the same should be put in good order and intimated by the Governour Bailiffe and Jurates of that our Island that they might offer to us and our Councell such acceptions and give such reformations touching the same as they should think good And whereas the said Dean and Ministers did conceive certain Canons and presented the same unto us on the one part and on the other part the said Bailiffe and Jurates excepting against the same did send and depute Sir Philip de Carteret Knight Jeshuah de Carteret and Philip de Carteret Esquires three of the Jurates and Justices of our said Isle all which parties appeared before our right trusty and well beloved Counsellers the most reverend father in God the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury the Right reverend father in God the Lord Bishop of Lincolne Lord Keeper of the Geat Seal of England and the Right reverend father in God the said Lord Bishop of Winton to whom we granted commission to examine the same who have have accordingly heard the said parties at large read and examined corrected and amended the said Canons and have now made report unto us under their hands that by a mutuall consent of the said Deputies and Dean of our Island they have reduced the said Canons and Constitutions Ecclesiasticall into such order as in their judgements may well stand with the estate of that Island Know ye therefore that we out of our Princely care of the quiet and peaceable government of all our Dominions especialy affecting the peace of the Church and the establishment of true Religion and Ecclesiasticall discipline in one uniforme order and course throughout all our Realms and Dominions so happily united under us as their Supreme Governor on earth in all causes as well Ecclesiasticall as Civill Having taken consideration of the said Canons and Constitutions thus drawn as aforesaid do by these deputies ratifie confirme and approve thereof And farther we out of our Princely power and regall authority do by these Patents signed and sealed with our royall Signet for us our heirs and successors will with our royall hand and command that these Canons and Constitutions hereafter following shall from henceforth in all points be duly observed in our said Isle for the perpetuall government of the said Isle in causes Ecclesiasticall unlesse the same or some part or parts thereof upon further experience and tryall thereof by the mutuall consent of the Lord Bishop of Winton for the time being the Governour Bailiffs and Jurates of the said Isle and of the Dean and Ministers and other our Officers in the said Isle for the time being representing the body of our said Isle and by the royall authority of us our heirs and successors shall receive any additions or alterations as time and occasion shall justly require And therefore we do farther will and command the said Right reverend father in God Lancelot now Lord Bishop of Winton that he do forthwith by his Commission under his Episcopall seal as Ordinary of the place give authority unto the said now Dean to exercise Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction in our said Isle according to the said Canons and Constitutions thus made and established as followeth Canons and Constitutions Ecclesiasticall treated agreed on and established for the Isle of Jarsey CHAP. I. Of the Kings Supremacy and of the Church Article I. 1. AS our duty to the Kings most excellent Majesty requireth it is first ordained That the Dean and Ministers having care of souls shall to the utmost of their power knowledge and learning purely and sincerely without any backwardnesse or dissimulation teach publish and declare as often as they may and as occasion shall present it self that all strange usurped and forain power for as much as it hath no gound by the law of God is wholly as for just and good causes taken away and abolished and that therefore no manner of obedience or subjection within any of his Majesties Realms and Dominions is due unto any such forain power but that the Kings power within his Realms of England Scotland and Ireland and all other his Dominions and Countries is the highest power under God to whom all men as well inhabitants as born within the same do by Gods Law owe most loyalty and obedience afore and above all other power and Potentates in the earth II. 2. Whosoever shall affirme and maintain that the Kings Majesty hath not the same authority in causes Ecclesiasticall that the godly Princes had amongst the Jews and the Christian Emperours in the Church primitive or shall impeach in any manner the said Supremacy in the said causes III. IV. 3. Also whosoever shall affirme that the Church of England as it is established under the Kings Majesty is not a true and Apostolicall Church purely teaching the Doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles 4. Or shall impugne the Government of the said Church by Archbishops Bishops and Deans affirming it to be Antichristian shall be ipso facto Excommunicated and not restored but by the Dean sitting in his Court after his repentance and publick recantation of his errour CHAP. II. Of Divine Service Article I. 1. IT is injoyned unto all sorts of people that they submit themselves to the Divine service contained in the book of Common prayers of the Church of England And for as much as concerns the Ministers that they observe with uniformity the said Liturgie without addition or alteration and that they fuâ—ler not any Conventicle or Congregation to make a sect apart by themselves or to distract the Government Ecclesiasticall established in the Church II. 2. The Lords day shall be sanctified by the exercises of publick prayer and the hearing of Gods word Every one also shall be bounden to meet together at an hour convenient and to observe the order and decency in that case requisite being attentive to the reading or preaching of the Word kneeling on their knees during the Prayers and standing up at the Belief and shall also 〈◊〉 their consent in saying Amen And further during any part of Divine service the Church-wardens shall not suffer any interruption or impeachment to be made by the insolence and practice of any person either in the Church or Church-yard III. 3. There shall be publick exercise in every Parish on Wednesdays and Fridays in the morning by reading the Common prayers IV. 4. When any urgent occasion shall require an extraordinary Fast the Dean with the advice of his Ministers shall give notice of it to the Governour and Civill Magistrate to the end that by their authority and consent it may be generally observed for the appeasing of the wrath and indignation of the Lord by true and serious repentance CHAP. III. Of Baptism THe Sacrament of Baptism shall be
administred in the Church with fair water according to the institution of Jesus Christ and without the limitation of any dayes No man shall delay the bringing of his child to Baptism longer then the next Sunday or publick Assembly if it may conveniently be done No person shall be admitted to be a Godfather unlesse he hath received the Lords Supper nor shall women alone viz. without the presence of a man among them be admitted to be Godmothers CHAP. IV. Of the Lords Supper Article I. 1. THe Lords Supper shall be administred in every Church four times a year whereof one to be at Easter and the other at Christmas and every Minister in the administration of it shall receive the Sacrament himself and after give the Bread and wine to each of the Communicants using the words of the institution of it II. 2. The Masters and Mistresses of Families shall be admonished and enjoyned to cause their children and Servants to be instructed in the knowledge of their salvation and to this end shall take care to send them to the ordinary Catechizing CHAP. V. Of Marriage Article I. 1. NO man shall marry contrary to the degrees prohibited in the word of God according as they are expressed in a table made for that purpose in the Church of England on pain of nullity and censure II. 2. The Banes of the parties shall be asked three Sundays successively in the Churches of both parties and they of the Parish where the Marriage is not celebrated shall bring an attestation of the bidding of their Banes in their own Parish Neverthelesse in lawfull cases there may be a Licence or dispensation of the said Banes granted by the authority of the Dean and that upon good caution taken that the parties are at liberty III. 3. No separation shall be made a thoro mensa unlesse in case of Adultery cruelty and danger of life duly proved and this at the sole instance of the parties As for the maintenance of the woman during her divorce he shall have recourse to the Secular power CHAP. VI. Of Ministers Article I. 1. NO man that is unfit to teach or not able to preach the word of God shall be admitted to any Benefice within the Isle or which hath not received imposition of hands and been ordained according to the forme used in the Church of England II. 2. None of them either Dean or Minister shall at the same time hold two Benefices unlesse it be in time of vacancy and only the Natives of the Isle shall be advanced to these preferments III. 3. The Ministers every Sunday after morning prayer shall expound some place of holy Scripture and in the afternoon shall handle some of the points of Christian Religion contained in the Catechism in the Book of Common-prayers IV. 4 In their Prayers they shall observe the titles due unto the King acknowledging him the Supreme governour under Christ in all causes and over all persons as well Ecclesiasticall as Civill recommending unto God the prosperity of his person and royall posterity V. 5. Every Minister shall carefully regard that modesty and gravity of apparell which belongs unto his function and may preserve the honour due unto his person and shall be also circumspect in the whole carriage of their lives to keep themselves from such company actions and haunts which may bring unto them any blame or blemish Nor shall they dishonour their calling by Gaming Alehouses Usuries guilds or occupations not convenient for their function but shall endevor to excell all others in purity of life in gravity and virtue VI. 6. They shall keep carefully a Register of Christnings Marriages and Burials and shall duely publish upon the day appointed to them the Ordinances of the Courts such as are sent unto them signed by the Dean and have been delivered to them fifteen dayes before the publication VII 7. The Ministers shall have notice in convenient time of such Funerals as shall be in their Parishes at which they shall assist and shall observe the forme prescribed in the book of Common-prayers No man shall be interred within the Church without the leave of the Minister who shall have regard unto the quality and condition of the persons as also unto those which are benefactours unto the Church CHAP. VII Of the Dean Article I. 1. THe Dean shall be a Minister of the word being a Master of the Arts or Graduate at the least in the Civill Lawes having ability to exercise that office of good life and conversation as also well affected to Religion and the service of God II. 2. The Dean in all causes handled at the Court shall demand the advice and opinion of the Ministers which shall then be present III. 3. There shall appertain unto him the cognisance of all matters which concern the service of God the preaching of the Word the administration of the Sacraments Matrimoniall causes the examination and censure of all Papists Recusants Hereticks Idolaters and Schismaticks persons perjured in causes Ecclesiasticall Blasphemers those which have recourse to Wizards incestuous persons Adulterers Fornicators ordinary drunkards and publick profaners of the Lords day as also the profanation of the Churches and Church-yards misprisions and offences committed in the Court or against any officers thereof in the execution of the mandats of the Court and also of Divorces and separations a thoro mensa together with a power to censure and punish them according unto the Lawes Ecclesiasticall without any hindrance to the power of the Civill Magistrate in regard of temporall correction for the said crimes IV. 4. The Dean accompanied with two or three of the Ministers once in two years shall visite every Parish in his own person and shall take order that there be a Sermon every visitation day either by himself or some other by hi 〈…〉 appointed Which Visitation shall be made for the ordering of all things appertaining to the Churches in the service of God and the administration of the Sacraments as also that they be provided of Church-wardens that the Church and Church-yards and dwellings of the Ministers be kept in reparations And farther he shall then receive information of the said Church-wardens or in their default of the Ministers of all offences and abuses which need to be reformed whether in the Minister the officers of the Church or any other of the Parish And the said Dean in liâ—â— of the said visitation shall receive 4 s. pay out of the Treasures of the Church for every time V. 5. In the vacancy of any Benefice either by death or otherwise the Dean shall give present order that the profits of it be sequestred to the end that out of the revenue of it the Cure may be supplyed as also that the widow and children of the deceased may be satisfied according to the time of his service and the custome of the Isle excepting such necessary deductions as must be made for dilapidations in case any be He shall also give
to the custome of the Country CHAP. IX Of the Collectors and Sides-men THere shall be two Collectors for the poor appointed in every Parish which also shal discharge the place of Sides-men or Assistants who shall be chosen as the Church-wardens are and shall take an oath to carry themselves well in the said office and to give an account of their Stewardship twice a year before the Minister and the Parishioners viz. at Easter and at Michaelmas CHAP. X. Of Clerks and Sextons Article I. 1. THe Clerks and Sextons of Parishes shall be chosen by the Minister and the principall of the Parish men of the age of twenty years at the least of good life and conversation able to read fairly distinctly and understandingly and to write also and fitted somewhat for the singing of the Psalmes if it may be II. 2. Their charge is by the ringing of a Bell to call the people to Divine service and the hearing of the Word at the proper and ordinary hours to keep the Church locked and clean as also the Pulpit and the seats to lay up the Books and other things belonging to the Church committed to their trust to provide water against the Christnings to make such proclamations as are enjoyned them by the Court or by the Minister And shal receive their stipend and wages by the contribution of the Parishioners be it in Corn or money according to the custome of the place CHAP. XI Of School masters Article I. 1. THere shall be a School master in every Parish chosen by the Minister Church wardens and other principall persons therein and afterwards presented unto the Dean to be licenced thereunto Nor shall it be lawfull for any one to take upon him this charge not being in this manner called unto it The Ministers shall have the charge of visiting the Schooles to exhort the Masters to their duty II. 2. They shall accustome themselves with diligence and painfulnesse to teach the children to read and to write to say their prayers and to answer in the Catechismes they shall instruct them in good manners they shall bring them unto Sermons and to Common-prayers and there see them quietly and orderly demean themselves CHAP. XII Of the Court Ecclesiasticall Article I. 1. THe Court shall be holden every Munday in the year observing the same vacations as the Courts Civill II. 2. At every Session in the beginning of it the names of the Assessors shall be inrolled the day the moneth and the year and the decrees perused III. 3. After judgment and sentence given in the main matter the costs of the parties and the wages of the officers shall be awarded by censure Ecclesiastick IV. 4. There shall be two Procters duely sworn unto the Court to the end the people may proceed formally and juridically without any confusion or surprise And the Register being also sworn shall faithfully record the sentences pronounced and give copies of the Acts to such as do require it V. 5. The Kings Atturney or in his absence the Solliciter shall be assistant in the Court from time to time in the awarding of punishment or censure upon all causes of crime and scandall VI. 6. For the serving of citation and summons the Dean shall swear the Sextons of every Parish together with an Apparitour which shall truly discharge themselves in giving copies of the originall proces and citation unto those whom it concerns or in the absence of the party to his servants In which proces and citations the causes of their appearance shall be expressed VII 7. If the party will not be found as either hiding himself or using any other collusion the citation shall be affixed in case that he have never an house on the Church door of the Parish where he dwelleth and that upon a Sunday VIII 8. If it come unto the notice of the Dean by the report of honest men that any one hath doth live notoriously scandalous he shall advertise the Minister and Church-wardens of the Parish to the end that being thus informed they may present such persons as merit to be punished or censured IX 9. Upon good notice of a crime committed by any of the Ministers the Dean after two warnings or admonitions shall proceed to the reforming of him by the advice and consent of two of his brethren even unto suspension and sequestration And in case he continue refractory the Dean by the consent of the major part of Ministers shall proceed to deprivation X. 10. No commutation shall be made in lieu of penance without great circumspection and regard had unto the quality of the persons and circumstances of the crime And the commutation shall be inrolled in the Acts of the Court to be imployed upon the poor and in pious uses whereof an account shall be given according to the Register XI 11. After the first default the non-appearance of the party again cited shall be reputed as a contempt if being after peren ptorily cited he doth not appear then shall they proceed against him by excommunication and if before the next Court day he endevour not to obtain absolution they shall proceed to the publishing of the sentence of the minor excommunication which shal be delivered to the Minister of the Parish to be read upon some solemn day and in the hearing of the greater part of the Parishioners The party still continuing in his contumacy they shall then proceed unto the major excommunication whereby he shall be excluded a sacris societate fidelium If this bring him not unto obedience and acknowledgement within the space of forty dayes then shall the Dean by his certificate authentick give notice unto the Bailiff and Justices of the said contumacy requiring their assistance to seise on him and commit him prisoner to some sure place till he be humbled and shall give surety that he will submit unto the ordinance of the Church and before that he be absolved he shall be bound to defray the costs and charges of the suit XII 12 In cases of incontinency upon presentment of the Church-wardens together with the probabilities of a common fame scandall and presumptions in this case requisite the party shall undergo the purgation upon oath or else shall be reputed as convict XIII 13. In causes of Adultery at the instance of the party the proceedings shall go on advisedly by good proofs and informations even to evidence of the crime objected and if the matter or evidence of fact be clear they may proceed to separation a thoro mensa XIV 14. He that shall offend in point of calumny and diffamation shall make acknowledgment of the injury according to the exigence of the case provided that the business be followed within the compasse of the year and that the matter of it be of Ecclesiasticall cognisance in the crimes above recited CHAP. XIII Of Appeales Article I. 1. APpeales in causes Ecclesiasticall shall be heard and determined by the reverend father in God the Bishop of Winton
in person and if that See be void by the most reverend father in God the Archbishop of Canterbury in person II. 2. All Appeales shall be exhibited within fifteen dayes after notice taken of the sentence and the party shall be constrained to take or write out the whole proces at it is upon the Register or Rols of Court which Acts of the said Court shall be delivered to him in forme and time convenient under the seal of the office and the Appellant shall pursue the action within a year and a day aut sententiae latae stare compellitur III. 3. It shall not be lawfull to appeal untill after the definitive sentence unlesse in these two cases viz. either when the Interlocutory is such as puts an end unto the businesse or else when the said interlocutory being obeyed brings such irreparable damage to the party that he cannot help himself by his Appeal A Table of the Fees appertaining to the Dean and his Officers in all causes Ecclesiasticall FOr the proving of a Will where the goods of the deceased exceed not the value of five pound To the Dean o. To the Register for writing and recording it 6 d. For the approving of a Will above the value of 5 l. To the Dean 2 s. To the Register or Notary 1 s. For a Letter of administration where the goods of the deceased exceed not the value of 5 l. de elaro To the Dean o. To the Register for writing it 6 d. For a Letter of administration above that value To the Dean 1 s. To the Register 1 s. For the registring an Inventory of the goods of minors where the said inventory exceedeth not the value of 5 l. To the Dean o. To the Register 4 d. For the registring of Inventories exceeding the value of 5 l. To the Dean 2 s. To the Register 1 s. For an authentick copy of the said Wils Inventories or Letters of administration To the Dean for his seal 6 d. To the Register 6 d. For processe compulsory to bring in the Wils 1 s. For Licences of marriage To the Dean 3 s. For the sequestration of the profits of a Benefice To the Dean 6 s. For the induction of a Minister To the Dean 3 s. For proces and citations To the Dean 2 d. ob To the Notary 1 d. d. To the Apparitor for serving the Proces and Citations 3 d. To the Sexton for serving a Citation within the Parish 1 d. d. For absolution from the minor excommunication To the Dean 1 s. To the Notary 2 d ob To the Apparitor 2 d. â—b For absolution from the major excommunication To the Dean 2 s. To the Notary 2 d. ob To the Apparitor 6 d. In causes Litigious the party overthrown shall pay the fees and duties of the Officers and for the authentick writing To the party 4 d. as also to every witnesse produced in Court 4 d. To the Proctors of the Court for every cause they plead 6 d. To the Notary for every instrument entred in the Court 1 d qa To him for every first default in Court 1 d. qa To him in case of contumacy 4 d. According whereunto it is ordained that neither the Dean nor his successors nor any of his officers either directly or indirectly shall demand exact or receive of the Inhabitants of the said Isle any other fees or duties then such as are specified in the table above written And it is further ordained that whatsoever hath been done or put in execution in the said Isle on any causes and by virtue of any Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction shall be forthwith abrogated to the end that it may not be drawn into example by the said Dean or any of his successors in the times to come contrary to the tenure of these Canons at this present made and established but that all their proceedings be limited and fitted to the contents of the said Canons and Constitutions Ecclesiasticall Also that there be no hindrance or impeachment made by the Civill Magistrate unto the said Dean and his successors in the peaceable execution of the said jurisdiction contained in the said Canons as being nothing prejudiciall to the priviledges and customes of the said Isle from which it is not our purpose at all to derogate Given as before said under our signet at our Court at Greenwich on the last day of June in the year of our Reign of England France and Ireland the one and twentieth and of Scotland the six and fiftieth CHAP. VIII 1 For what cause it pleased his Majesty to begin with Jarsey 2 A representation of such motives whereon the like may be effected in the Isle of Guernzey 3 The indignity done by a Minister hereof to the Church of England 4 The calling of the Ministers in some reformed Churches how defensible 5 The circumstances both of time and persons how ready for an alteration 6 The grievances of the Ministery against the Magistrates 7 Proposals of such means as may be fittest in the managing of this design 8 The submission of the Author and the work unto his Lordship The conclusion of the whole Our return to England I Now am come unto the fourth and last part of this discourse intended once to have been framed by way of suit unto your Lordship in the behalf of the other Island not yet weaned from the breasts of their late mother of Geneva But finding that course not capable of those particulars which are to follow I chose rather to pursue that purpose by way of declaration My scope and project to lay before your Lordship such reasons which may encite you to make use of that favour which most worthily you have attained to with his Majesty in the reduction of this Isle of Guernzey to that antient order by which it formerly was guided and wherein it held most conformity with the Church of England Before I enter on with argument I shall remove a doubt which might be raised about this businesse as viz. For what cause his late most excellent Majesty proceeded to this alteration in one Island not in both and being resolved to try his forces on the one only why he should rather sort out Jarsey A doubt without great difficulty to be cleared For had his Majesty attempted both at once the Ministers of both Islands had then communicated counsels banded themselves in a league and by a mutuall encouragement continued more peremptory to their old Mumpsimus It is an antient principle in the arts of Empire Divide impera and well noted by the State-historian that nothing more advantaged the affaires of Rome in Britaine then that the natives never met together to reason of the common danger Ita dum singuli pugnabant universi vincebantur And on the other side his Majesty soresaw for certain that if one Island once were taken off the other might with greater ease be perswaded to conforme Being resolved then to attempt them single there was good reason why he should
of the Minister and with an invocation of the name of God which in judgment of the Discipline Chap. 12. 1. are undissoluble That they had intermedled with the administration of holy Baptisme a duty meerly spirituall That they had seised upon the treasures of the Church in some places and disposed of them at their pleasure That they had caused the Ministers to be imprisoned and there detained them for a long time to their great discomfort and the hazard of their flooks And lastly that they had deprived them of the liberty of Natives in denying them their suffrages for the election of the Curates Other grievances there were but these the principall True it is that upon due examination of particulars it did appear that the Magistrates had more reason in their actions then the Ministers in their complaints But not having been accustomed to the like usage they do esteem it a thraldome so incompetent and unsupportable that I perswade my self they sooner would resolve to yeeld to any course then have their doings croft by that tribunall Sure I am when they found so small redresse for these as they conceived great oppressions they made petition to his Lordship to bethink himself on some other way for their relief and laboured to procure me to be their Mediator to his Lordship in it These circumstances also happily concurring portend in my opinion as great an alteration in this state Ecclesiasticall as the conjunction of some powerfull Planets doth sometimes upon the temporall And if your Lordship should be wanting now unto present opportunity it may be such a confluence of preparatives and helps may hardly be met withall hereafter Presuming therefore that your Lordship will not neglect the advantage offered I should next proceed unto those means which might best be used in the effecting of this work but what were this but to read a lecture of the wars to Hannibal to play a part on the Stage in the sight of Roscius For whether your Lordship shall think most fit to treat first of it with my Lord the Governour that he may make plain the way before you and facilitate the businesse or whether it may be thought most proper that some negotiate with the people and the Jurates to commence a suit in this behalf unto the Councell or whether that the Ministers themselves in this conjuncture of time oppressed as they conceive it by the Civill Magistrates encroaching on them may not with great facility be perswaded to sollicite for a change who can so well determine as your Lordship whom long experience and naturall abilities have made perfect in these arts Only let me beseech your Lordships leave to enjoy mine own folly and for a while to act my part to read my lecture though Hannibal and Roscius be in presence At such time as by the Ministers his Lordship was petitioned to resolve upon some course for their relief they made request to me to sollicite for them their desires to be a remembrancer for them to his Lordship To which I answered that I could direct them in a way which should for ever free them from that yoak which so much they feared and if they would vouchsafe to see my Chamber I would there impart it A motion not made unto the wals or lost in the proposall for down unto my Lodging they descended and there we joyned our selves in Councell The Petitioners were five in number viz. De la March Millet Perchard Picote and De la Place my self alone and not provided save in Wine and Sider for their entertainment But as Lactantius in an equall case Necesse est ut me causae bonitas facâ—at eloquentem presuming on the goodnesse of my cause but more upon their ignorance I was resolved to bid them battail Immediately upon the opening of the Counsell I was importuned my opinion whereto I freely made them answer the only course whereby they might subsist entire and free from bondage was to address themselves to his Majesty for the restitution of the Dean But this say they is Physick worse then the disease and thereupon the battails began to joyn with greater violence with violence it was and therefore as we are instructed in Philosophy of no long continuance for presently upon the first encounter their ranks were broken and their forces disunited Picote for his part protested that he had alwayes been an enemy to Lay Elders and that he could not see by what authority of Scripture they were permitted in the Churches Perchard was well enough content that the dispensing of the poor mans box might be committed unto others and that the Deacons as being a degree or step unto the Ministery might be employed about the treasures of salvation Millet stood silent all the while and as I think reserved himself to try the fortune of another day De la March and De la Place this De la Place is he who abandoned Jarsey upon his failing of the Deanship what they could not make good by reason supplied by obstinacy In my life I never knew men more willing to betray a cause or lesse able to maintain it My inference hereupon is this that if his Majesty should signifie unto them that it is his royall pleasure to admit a Dean among them or else repair unto the Court to give a reason of their refusall they sooner would forsake and quit their cause then either be resolved to agree about it or venture to defend it If I were sure to make no use of Logick till these men shal run the hazard of a disputation I would presently go and burn my Aristotle To draw unto an end for I have been too tedious to your Lordship Before I pluck off my disguise and leave the stage whereon I act I could me thinks add somewhat here about the choicing of a man most fit for this authority In which particular as I stand well affected to Perchard for a moderate and quiet man so hath he also a good repute in all the Island both for his vein of Preaching his liberall hospitality and plausible demeanor Or if your Lordship think a forainer more fit there being now the Parish of St. Saviours void and so full room for that induction I durst propose to you Olivier of Jarsey a man which I perswade my self I may say safely not inferiour unto any of both Islands in point of Scholarship and well affected to the English form of Government Add to this that already he is acquainted with the nature of the place as having executed the office of the Commissary or Subdean ever since the introduction of the charge and therefore not to seek in the managing and cariage of his jurisdiction But good God! what follies do we dayly run into when we conceive our selves to be disguised and that our actions are not noted It is therefore high time for me to unmaske my self and humbly crave your Lordships pardon that under any habit I should take upon me to