the Purple Robe the Sponge a peice of his Shrowd the Napkin wherewith he was girt when he washed his Disciples feet the Rod of Moses the head of St. Blase St. Clement and St. Simeon and part of the head of John Baptist Immediately under this recital of these Reliques and venerable ones I durst say they were could I be perswaded there were no imposture in them there are set down a Prayer and an Antheme both in the same Table as followeth ORATIO Quaesumus Omnipotens Deus ut qui sacra sanctissimae redemptionis nostrae insignia temporaliter veneramur per haec indesinenter munite aeternitatis gloriam consequamur dominum nostrum c. De sacrosanctis Reliquiis Antiphonae Christo plebs debita tot Christi donis praedita Jucunderis hodie Tota sis devota Erumpens in Jubilum depone mentes nubilum Tempus est Laetitiae Cura sit summota Ecce Crux Lancea Ferrum Corona spine◠Arma Regis gloriae tibi offerantur Omnes terrae populi laudent actorem seculi Per quem tantis gratiae signis offererantur Amen Pretty divinity if one had time to examine it These Reliques as the Table enformeth us were given unto St. Lewis Anno 1247. By Baldwin the second the last King of the Latines in Constantinople to which place the Christians of Palaestine had brought them during the time that those parts were harrowed by the Turks and Saracens Certainly were they the same which they are said to be I see no harm in it if we should honour them The very reverence due to antiquity and a silver head could not but extort some acknowledgement of respect even from a heathen It was therefore commendably done by Pope Leo having received a parcel of the Cross from the Bishop of Hierusalem that he entertained it with respect Particulam Dominicae Crucis saith he in his 72. Epislte cum eulogiis dilectionis tuae Veneranter accepi To adore and worship that or any other Relique whatsoever with prayers and Anthems as the Papists you see do never came within the minds of the Ancients and therefore St. Ambrose calleth it Gentilis error vanitas impiorum This was also Hierom's religion as himself testifieth in his Epistle to Ruparius Nos faith he non dico martyrum reliquias sed ne Solem quidem Lunam non Angelos c. colimus adoramus Thus were those two Fathers minded towards such Reliques as were known to be no others than what they seemed Before too many Centuries of years had consumed the true ones and the imposture of the Priests had brought in the false Had they lived in our times and seen the supposed Reliques of the Saints not honoured onely but adored and worshipped by the blind and infatuated people what would they have said or rather what would they not have said Questionless the least they could do were to take up the complaint of Vigilantius the Papists reckon him for an Heretick saying Quid necesse est tanto honore non solum honorare sed etiam ador are illud nescio quid quod in vasculo transferendo colis Presently without the Chappel is the Burse la Gallerie des Merchands a rank of shops in shew but not in substance like to those in the Exchange at London It reacheth from the Chappel unto the great Hall of Parliament and is the common through-fare between them On the bottom of the stairs and round about the several houses consecrated to the execution of justice are sundry shops of the same nature meanly furnished if compared with ours yet I perswade my self the richest of this kind in Paris I should now go and take a view of the Parliament House but I will step a little out of the way to see the place Daulphin and the little Chastelet This last serveth now onely as the Gaole or common prison belonging to the Court of the Provost of the Merchants and it deserveth no other employment It is seated at the end of the bridge called Petit pont and was built by Hugh Aubriot once Provost of the Town to repress the fury and insolencies of the Scholars whose rudeness and misdemeanours can no way be better bridled Omnes eos qui nomen ipsum Academiae vel serio vel ioco nominassent haereticos pronunciavit saith Platina of Pope Paul the second I will say it of this wilderness that whosoever will account it as an Academy is an Heretick to Learning and Civility The place Daulphin is a beautiful heap of building scituate nigh unto the new bridge It was built at the encouragement of Henry the fourth and entituled according to the title of his Son The houses are all of brick high built uniform and indeed such as deserve and would exact a longer description were not the Parliament now ready to sit and my self summoned to make my appearance CHAP. VIII The Parliament of France when began Of whom it consisted The Dignity and esteem of it abroad made sedentary at Paris appropriated to the long Robe The Palais by whom built and converted to seats of Justice The seven Chambers of Parliament the great Chamber the number and dignity of the Presidents The Duke of Biron afraid of them The Kings seat in it The sitting of the Grandsigneur in the Divano The authority of the Court in causes of all kinds and over the affairs of the King This Court the main pillar of the liberty of France La Tournelle and the Judges of it The five Chambers of Enquests severally instituted and by whom In what causes it is decisive The form of admitting Advocates into the Court of Parliament The Chancellor of France and his authority The two Courts of Requests and Masters of them The vain envy of the English Clergy against the Lawyers THe Court of Parliament was at the first instituted by Charles Marcell Grandfather to Charlemaine at such time as he was Maior of the Palace unto the lazy and retchless Kings of France In the beginning of the French Empire their King did justice to the people in person Afterwards banishing themselves from all the affairs of State that burden was cast upon the shoulders of their Maires An Office much of the nature with the Praefesti Praetorio in the Roman Empire When this Office was bestowed upon the said Charles Marcell he partly weary of the trouble partly intent about a business of a higher nature which was the estating of the Crown in his own Posterity but principally to indear himself to the Common people ordained the Court of Parliament Anno 720. It consisted in the beginning of twelve Peers the Prelates and Noblemen of the best fashion together with some of the principallest of the Kings Houshold Other Courts are called the Parliament with the addition of place as of Paris at Roven c. This onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Parliament It handled as well causes of State as those of private persons For hither did the Embassadours of mighty Princes
repair to have their audience and dispatch and hither were the Articles agreed upon in the National Synods of France sent to be confirmed and verified Here did the Subjects tender in their homages and oaths of fidelity to the King And here were the Appeals heard of all such as had complained against Comtes at that time the Governors and Judges in their several Counties Being furnished thus with the prime and choisest Nobles of the Land it grew into great estimation abroad in the world insomuch that the Kings of Sicily Cyprus Scotland Bohemia Portugal and Navarre have thought it no disparagement unto them to sit in it And which is more when Frederick the second had spent so much time in quarrels with Pope Innocent the fourth he submitted himself and the rightness of his cause to be examined by this Noble Court of Parliament At the first institution of this Court it had no settled place of residence being sometimes kept at Tholoza sometimes at Aix la Chapelle sometimes in other places according as the Kings pleasure and the case of the people did require During the time of its peregrination it was called Ambulatorie following for the most part the Kings Court as the lower Sphears do the motin of the Primum Mobile But Philip le Belle he began his raign An. 1280. being to take a journey into Flanders and to stay there a long space of time for the settling of his affairs in that Countrey took order that his Court of Parliament should stay behind him at Paris where ever since it hath continued Now began it to be called Sedentary or settled and also peu a pen by little and little to loose much of its lustre For the Cheif Princes and Nobles of the Kings retinue not able to live out of the air of the Court withdrew themselves from the troubles of it by which means it came at last to be appropriated to those of the long Robe as they term them both Bishops and Lawyers In the year 1463. the Prelates also were removed by the Command of Lewis the eleventh an utter enemy to the great ones of his Kingdom onely the Bishop of Paris and the Abbot of St. Denis being permitted their place in it Since which time the Professors of the Civil Law have had all the swaying in it cedeunt arma togae as Tully The place in which this Sedentary Court of Parliament is now kept is called the Palaâ—e being built by Philip le Belle and intended to be his Mansion or dwelling house He began it in the first year of his reign Viz. Anno 1286. and afterwards assigned a part of it to his Judges of the Parliament it being not totally and absolutely quitted unto them till the dayes of King Luwis the tenth In this the French Subjects are beholding to the English by whose good example they got the ease of a Sedentary Court Our Law Courts also removing with the King till the year 1224. when by a Statute in the Magna Charta it was appointed to be fixt and a part of the Kings Pallace in Westminster allotted for that purpose Within the Virge of this Pallace are contained the seven Chambers the Parliament That called le grand Chambre five Chambers of Inquisition or des Enquests and one other called la Tournelle There are moreover the Chambers des aides des accompts de l'ediect des Monnoyes and one called la Chambre Royal of all which we shall have occasion to speak in their proper places these not concerning the common Government of the People but onely the Kings Revenues Of these seven Chambers of Parliaments le grand Chambre is most famous and at the building of this House by Philip le belle was intended for the Kings bed It is no such beautiful place as the French make it that at Roven being farre beyond it although indeed it much excells the fairest room of Justice in Westminster So that it standeth in a middle rank between them and almost in the same proportion as Virgil between Homer and Ovid. Quantum Virgilius magno concessit Homero Tantum ego Virgilio Naso Poeta mâ—o It consisteth of seven Presidents Councellers the Kings Atturney and as many Advocates and Proctors as the Court will please to give admission to The Advocates have no settled studies within the Pallace but at the Barre but the Procureurs or Atturneys have their several Pewes in a great Hall which is without this Grand Chambre in such manner as I have before described at Roven A large building it is faire and high roofed not long since ruined by casualty of fire and not yet fully finished The names of the Presidents are 1. Mr. Verdun the first President or by way of excellencie le President being the secâ—nd man of the long Robe in France 2. Mr. Sequer lately dead and likely to have his Son succeed him as well in his Office as his Lands 3. Mr. Leiger 4. Mr. Dosammoi 5. Mr. Sevin 6. Mr. Baillure and 7. Mr. Maisme None of these neither Presidents nor Councellers can goe out of Paris when the Lawes are open without leave of the Court It was ordained so by Lewis the twelfth Anno 1499. and that with good judgement Sentences being given with greater awe and business managed with greater Majesty when the Bench is full and it seemeth indeed that they carry with them a great terrour For the Duke of Biron a man of as uncontrolled a spirit as any in France being called to answer for himself in this Court protested that those scarlet Robes did more amaze him than all the red Cassocks of Spain At the left hand of this Grand Chambre or golden Chamber as they call it is a Throne or Seate Royall reserved for the King when he shall please to come and see the administration of Justice amongst his people At common times it is naked and plain but when the King is expected it is clothed with blew purple Velvet semied with Flowers de lys On each side of it are two forms or benches where the Peers of both habits both Ecclesiastcal and Secular use to fit and accompany the King but this is little to the ease or benefit of the Subject and as little available to try the integrity of the Judges his presence being alwayes fore-known and so they accordingly prâ—pared Farre better then is it in the Court of the Grand Signeur where the Divano or Counsell of the Turkish Affaires holden by the Bassa's is hard by his bed Chamber which looketh into it The window which giveth him this enterveiwe is perpetually hidden with a curtaine on that side of the partition which is towards the Divano so that the Bassa's and other Judges cannot at any time tell that the Emperour is not listening to their Sentences An action in which nothing is Turkish or Mahometan The authority of this Court extendeth it self to all Causes within the Jurisdiction of it not being meerly Ecclesiastical It is a Law
superfluous and abrogation of unprofitable Edicts c. He hath the keeping of the Kings geeat Seal and by vertue of that either passeth or putteth back such Letters Pattents and Writs as are exhibited to him He hath under him immediately for the better dispatch of his Affairs four Masters of the Requests and their Courts Their Office and manner of proceeding is the same which they also use in England in the persons there is thus much difference that in Franee two of them must be perpetually of the Clergy One of their Courts is very ancient and hath in it two Presidents which are two of the Masters and fourteen Counsellers The other is of a later erection as being founded Anno 1580. and in that the two other of the Masters and eight Councellers give sentence Thus have I taken a veiw of the several Chambers of the Parliament of Paris and of their particular Jurisdictions as far as my information could conduct me One thing I noted further and in my mind the fairest ornament of the Pallace which is the neatness and decency of the Lawyers in their apparrel for besides the fashion of their habit which is I assure you exceeding pleasant and comely themselves by their own care and love to handsomeness adde great lustre to their garments and more to their persons Richly drest they are and well may be so as being the ablest most powerfull men under the Princes la Noblesse in all the Country An happiness as I conjecture rather of the calling than of the men It hath been the fate and destiny of the Law to strengthen enable its professors beyond any other any Art or Science the Pleaders in all Common-wealths both for sway amongst the people and vague amongst the Military men having alwaies had the preheminence Of this rank were Pericles Phochion Alcibiades and Demosthenes amongst the Athenians Antonius Mar. Cato Caesar and Tullie amongst the Romans men equally famous for Oratory and the Sword yet this I can confidently say that the several States above mentioned were more indebted unto Tullie and Demosthenes being both meer Gown men than to the best of their Captaines the one freeing Athens from the Armies of Macedon the other delivering Rome from the conspiracy of Catiline O fortunatum natam me Consule Romam It is not then the fate of France only nor of England to see so much power in the hand of the Lawyers and the case being general me thinks the envy should be the less and less it is indeed with them than with us The English Clergy though otherwise the most accomplisht in the World in this folly deserveth no Apologie being so strangely ill affected to the Pleaders of this Nation that I fear it may be said of some of them Quod invidiam non ad causam sed personam et ad valantatem dirigant A weakness not more unworthy of them than prejudicial to them for fostering between both Gownes such an unnecessary emulation they do but exasperate that power which they cannot controle and betray themselves to much envy and discontentedness A disease whose care is more in my wishes than in my hopes CHAP. IX The Kings Pallace of the Louure by whom built the unsutableness of it The fine Gallery of the Queene Mother The long Gallery of Henry the fourth his magnanimous intent to have built it into a Quadrangle Henry the fourth a great builder his infinite project upon the Mediterranean and the Ocean Lasalle des Antiques The French not studious of Antiquities Burbon House The Tuilleries c. WE have discharged the King of one Pallace and must follow him to the other where we shall find his residence It is seated in the west side of the Town or Ville of Paris hard by Porte neufue and also by the new Bridge An House of great fame and which the Kings of France have long kept their Courts in It was first built by Phillip Augustus anno 1214. and by him intended for a Castle it then serving to imprison the more potent of the Noblesse and to lay up the Kings Treasury for that cause it was well moated and strengthened with walls and draw Bridges very serviceable in those times It had the name of Louure quasi L'oeuure or the work the Building by way of excellencie An Etymologie which draweth nigher to the ear than the understanding or the eye And yet the French writers would make it a miracle Du Chesne calleth it superbe bastiment qui n' a son esgal en toute la Christiente and you shall hear it called in another place Bastiment qui passe muiourd huy en excellenee et en grandeur tous les autres Brave Eligies if all were Gold that glistered It hath given up now its charge of money and great prisoners to the Bastile and at this time serveth only to imprison the Court. In my life I never saw any thing more abused by a good report or that more belyeth the rumours that go of it The ordinary talk of vulgar travellers and the bigg words of the French had made me expect at the least some prodigie of Architecture some such Majestical house as the Sunne Don Phoebus is said to have dwelt in by Ovid. Regia solis erat sublimibus alta columnis Clara micante auro flammasque imitante pyropo Cuius ebur nitidum c. Indeed I thought no fiction in Poetry had been able to have parralell'd it and made no doubt but it would have put me into such a passion as to have cryed out with the young Gallant in the Comidie when he saw his Sweet heart Hei mihi qualis erat talis erat qualem nunquem ego vidi But I was much deceived in that hope and could find nothing in it to admire much less to envy The Fable of the Mountaine which was with child and brought forth a Mouse is questionless a Fable This House and the large fame it hath in the world is the Morall of it Never was there an House more unsuitable to it self in the particular examination of parts nor more unsutable to the Character and esteem of it in the general survey of the whole You enter into it over two Draw-bridges and thorough three Gates ruinous enough and abundantly unsightly In the Quadrangle you meet with three several fashions of buildings of three several ages and they so unhappily joyned one to the other that one would half beleeve they were clapped together by an Earthquake The South and West parts of it are new and indeed Prince like being the work of Francis the first and his Son Henry had it been all cast into the same mould I perswade my self that it would be very gratious and lovely The other two are of ancient work and so contemptible that they disgrace the rest and of these I suppose the one to be at the least a hundred years older than his partner such is it without As for the inside it is farre
He was a Prince of no heart to make a warriour and therefore Resistance was to him almost as much hugged as Victory It was Anthonies case in his Warre against the Parthians a Captain whose Launce King Lewis was not worthy to beare after him Crassus before him had been taken by that people but Anthonius made a retreat though with losse Hanc itaque fugam suam quia victus non exierat victoriam vocabat as Paterculus one that loved him not saith of him yet was King Lewis so puffed up with this conceit of victory that he ever after slâ—ighted his enemies and at last ruin'd them and their cause with them The Warre which they undertook against him they entituled the Warre of the Weale publick because the occasion of their taking Armes was for the liberty of the Countrey and the People both whom the King had beyond measure oppressed True it is they had also their particular purposes but this was the main and failing in the expected event of it all that they did was to confirme the bondage of the Realm by their owne overthrow These Princes once disbanded and severally broken none durst ever afterwards enter into the action for which reason King Lewis used to say that he had brought the Kings of France Hors Pupillage out of their Wardship a speech of more Brag than Truth The people I confesse he brought into such terms of slavery that they not long merited the name of Subjects but yet for this great boast the Nobles of France are the Kings Guardians I have already shewn you much of their potencie by that you may see that the French Kings have not yet sued their Outre le maine as our Lawyers call it Had he also in some measure broken the powerableness of the Princes he had then been perfectly his word's Master and till that be done I shall think his Successors to be in their Pupillage That King is but half himselfe which hath the absolute command onely of half his people The Battaile by this towne the common people impute to the English and so do many others which they had no hand in for hearing their Grandames talk of their Warres with our Nation and of the many Fields which we gained of them they no sooner heare talk of a pitch'd Field but presently as the nature of men in a fright is they attribute it to the English Good simple soules Qui nos non solum laudibus nostris ornare velint sed alienis onerare as Tullie in his Philippicks An humour just like unto that of little children who being once afrighted with the Tales of Robin Good-fellow do never after heare any noyse in the night but they streight imagine that it is he which maketh it or like the women of the villages neere Oxford who having heard the tragicall story of a Duck or a Hen killed and carried to the Vniversity no sooner misse one of their chickins but instantly they cry out upon the Schollars On the same false ground also hearing that the English whilst they had possessions in this Countrey were great builders they bestow on them without any more adoe the foundation and perfecting of most of the Churches and Castles in the Countrâ—y Thus are our Ancestors said to have built the Churches of Roven Amiens Bayon c. as also the Castles of Boys S. Vincennes the Bastile the two little Forts on the River side by the Louvre at S. Germaines and amongst many others this of Montl'herrie where we now are and all alike As for this Castle it was buâ—lt during the reigne of King Robert Anno 1015. by one of his servants named Thebald long before the English had any possâ—ssions in this Continent It was razed by Lewis the Grosse as being a harbourer of Rebells in former times and by that meanes as a strong bridle in the mouth of Paris nothing now standing of it save an high Tower which is seen a great distance round about and serveth for a Land-mark Two leaguâ—s from Montl'herrie is the twon of Chastres seated in the farthest angle of France where it confineth to la Beauss a town of an ordinary size somewhat bigger than for a market and lesse than would beseem a city A wall it hath and a ditch but neither serviceable further than to resist the enemy at one gate while the people run away by the other Nothing else remarkable in it but the habit of the Church which was mourning for such is the fashion of France that when any of the Noblesse are buried the Church which entombeth them is painted black within and without for the breadth of a yard or thereabouts and their coats of Armes drawn on it To goe to the charges of hanging it round with cloath is not for their profits Besides this countefeit sorrow feareth thieves dareth out-brave a tempest He for whom the Church of Chastres was thus apparelled had been Lord of the Towne by name as I remember Mr. St. Bennoist his Armes were argent three Crescents on a Mullet of the same but whether this Mullet were part of the Coat or a mark onely of difference I could not learn Thelike Funerall churches I saw also at Tostes in Normandie and in a Village of Picardie whose name I minde not nec operae pretium And now we are passed the confines of France a poore River which for the narrownesse of it you would think a ditch parting it from the Province of La Beausse La Beausse hath on the North Normandie on the East the Isle of France on the South the River of Loyer and on the West the Countreys of Tourein and le Main it lieth in 22 23 degree of Longitude and the 48 and 49 of Latitude taking wholly up the breadth of the two former and but part onely of each of the latter If you measure it for the best advantage of length you will finde it to extend from la Forte Bernard in the North west corner of it to Gyan in the South east which according to the proportion of degrees amounteth to 60 miles English and somewhat better for breadth it is much after the same reckoning The ancient inhabitants of this Province and the reason of the name I could not learn amongst the people neither can I find any certainty of it in my books with whom I have consulted If I may be bold to goe by conjecture I should think this countrey to have been the seat of Bellocassi a people of Gaule Celtick mentioned by Caesar in his Commentaries Certaine it is that in this Tract they were seated and in likelihood in this Province the names ancient and moderne being not much different in sense though in sound For the Franks called that which in Latine is pulcher or bellus by the name of Bell in the Masculine Gender Beu the Pronoune it and Beau as it were the Faeminine At this time Beau is Masculine and Belle Faeminine so that the name of Bellocassi
Quilleboeuse and other places of importance but upon his death they were all razed What were his projects in it they know best which were acquainted with his ambition Certainly the jarrs which he had sown among the Princes one with the other and between them and the King shew that they were not intended for nothing There are in Roven thirty two Parish Churches besides those which belong to Abbeys and Religious Houses of which the most beautiful is that of St. Audom or Owen once Arch-bishop of this City The seat and Church of the Arch-bishop is that of Nostre-dame a building far more gorgeous in the outside than within It presents it self to you with a very gracious and majestical front decked with most curious imagery and adorned with three stately Towers The first called La tour St. Romain the second La tour de beaurre because it was built with that money which was raised by Cardinal D' Amboyse for granting a dispensation to eat butter in the Lent and a third built over the Porch or great Door wherein is the great Bell so much talked of Within it is but plain and ordinary such as common Cathedral Churches usually are so big so fashioned Behind the high Altar at a pillar on the left hand is the remainder of the Duke of Bedford's Tomb which for ought I could discern was nothing but an Epitaph some three yeards high in the Pillar I saw nothing in it which might move the envy of any Courtier to have it defaced unless it were the title of Regent du Rojaume de France which is the least he merited Somewhat Eastward beyond this is our Ladies Chappel a pretty neat piece and daintily set out There standeth on the top of the Screen the Image of the Virgin her self between two Angels They have attired her in a red Mantle laced with two gold laces a handsom ruffe about her neck a vail of fine lawn hanging down her back and to shew that she was the Queen of Heaven a Crown upon her head In her left arm she holds her Son in his side coat a black hat and a golden hat-band A jolly plump Lady she seemeth to be of a flaxen hair a ruddy lip and a chearful complexion 'T were well the Painters would agree about the limming of her otherwise we are like to have as many Ladies as Churches At Nostre dame in Paris she is taught us to be brown and seemeth somewhat inclin'd to melancholy I speak not of her different habit for I envy her not her changes of apparel Onely I could not but observe how those of St. Sepulchres Church en la rue St. Denis hath placed her on the top of their Screen in a Coape as if she had taken on her the zeal of Abraham and were going to make a bloudy sacrifice of her Son They of Nostre-dame in Amiens have erected her Statue all in gold with her Son also of the same mettal in her arms casting beams of gold round about her as the Sun is painted in its full glory Strange Idolatries On the contrary in the parish Church of Tury in la Beause she is to be seen in a plain petticoat of red and her other garments correspondent In my mind this holdeth most proportion to her estate and will but serve to free their irreligion from an absurdity If they will worship her as a Nurse with her Child in her arms or at her breast let them array her in such apparel as might beseem a Carpenters Wife such as she might be supposed to have worn before the world had taken notice that she was the Mother of her Saviour If they must needs have her in her estate of glory as at Amiens or of honour being now publikely acknowledged to be the blessedness among Women as at Paris let them disburden her of her Child To clap them thus both together is a folly equally worthy of scorn laughter Certainly had she but so much liberty as to make choice of her own clothes I doubt not but she would observe a greater decorum And therefore I commend the Capouchins of Boulogne who in a little side Chappel consecrated unto her have placed onely an handsom fair looking-glass upon her Altar the best ornament of a Female Closet Why they placed it there I cannot say onely I conceive it was that she might there see how to dress her self This Church is said to have been built I should rather think repaired by Raoul or Rollo the first Duke of Normandy Since it hath been much beautified by the English when they were Lords of this Province It is the seat of an Arch-bishop a Dean and fifty Canons The Arch-bishoprick was instituted by the authority of Constantine the Great during the sitting of the Council of Arles Anidian who was there present being consecrated the first Arch-bishop The Bishops of Seas Aurenches Constances Beaux Lysieaux and Eureux were appointed for his Diocesans The now Arch-bishop is said to be an able Schollar and a sound States-man his name I enquired not The Revenues of his Chair are said to be ten thousand Crowns More they would amount to were the Country any way fruitful of Vines out of which the other Prelates of France draw no small part of their Intrado The Parliament of this Country was established here by Lewis the twelfth who also built that fair Palace wherein Justice is administred Anno 1501. At that time he divided Normandy into seven Cathes Rapes or Baliwicks viz. Roven Caux Constentin Caen Eureux Gisors and Alenzon This Court hath supreme power to enquire into and give sentence of all causes within the limits of Normandy It receiveth appeals from the inferiour Courts of the Dutchy unto it but admitteth none from it Here is also Cour des Esleuz a Court of the general Commissioners for taxes and la Chambre des aides instituted by Charles the seventh for the receiving of his subsidies Gabels Imposts c. The house of Parliament is in form quadrangular a very graceful and delectable building That of Paris is but a Chaos or a Babel to it In the great Hall into which you ascend by some thirty steps or upwards are the seats and desks of the Procurators every ones name being written in Capital letters over his head These Procurators are like our Attourneys to prepare causes and make them ready for the Advocates In this Hall do suitors use either to attend or walk up and down and confer with their pleaders Within this Hall is the great Chamber the Tribunal or Seat of Justice both in Causes Criminal and Civil At domus interior regali splendida luxu Instruitur As Virgil of Queen Dido's dining room A Chamber so gallantly and richly built that I must confess it far supasseth all the rooms that ever I saw in my life The Palace of the Lou're hath nothing in it comparable The seiling all inlaid with gold and yet did the workmanship exceed the matter This Court
him into Gaole I have not heard that they can be hired to a murder though nothing be more common amongst them than killing except it be stealing Witness those many Carcasses which are found dead in a morning whom a desire to secur themselves and make resistance to their pillages hath onely made earth again Nay which is most horrible they have regulated their villanous practises into a Common-wealth and have their Captains and other Officers who command them in their night walks and dispose of their purchases To be a Gypsie and a Scholar of Paris are almost Synonime's One of their Captains had in one week for no longer would the gallows let him enjoy his honour stoln no fewer than eighty Cloaks Nam fuit Autolei tam piceata manus For these thefts being apprehended he was adjudged to the wheel but because the Judges were informed that during the time of his raign he had kept the hands of himself and his company unpolluted with bloud he had the favour to be hanged In a word this ungoverned rabble whom to call Scholars were to prophane the title omit no outrages or turbulent misdemeanours which possibly can be or were ever known to be committed in a place which consisteth meerly of priviledge and nothing of statute I could heartily wish that those who are so ill conceited of their own two Vniversities Oxford and Cambridge and accuse them of dissolutions in their behaviour would either spend some time in the Schools beyond Seas or enquire what news abroad of those which have seen them then would they doubtless see their own errors and correct them then would they admire the regularity and civility of those places which before they condemned of debauchedness then would they esteem those places as the seminaries of modesty and vertue which they now account as the nurseries onely of an impudent rudeness Such an opinion I am sure some of the Aristarchi of these dayes have lodged in their breasts concerning the misgoverning of our Athens Perhaps a Kinsman of theirs hath played the unthrift equally of his time and his money Hence their malice to it and their invectives against it Thus of old Pallas exurere classem Argivum atque ipsos potuit submergere ponto Vnius ob noxam furias Aiacis Oilei An injustice more unpardonable than the greatest sin of the Vniversities But I wrong a good cause with an unnecessary patronage yet such is the peccant humour of some that they know not how to expiate the follies of some one but with the calumny and dispraise of all An unmanly weakness and yet many possessed with it I know it is impossible that in a place of youth and liberty some should not give occasion of offence The Ark wherein there were eight persons onely was not without one Canaan And of the twelve which Christ had chosen one was a Devil It were then above a miracle if amongst so full a Cohort of young Souldiers none should forsake the Ensign of his General He notwithstanding that should give the imputation of cowardise to the whole Army cannot but be accounted malitious or peevish But let all such as have evil will at Sion live unregarded and die unremembred for want of some Sciolar to write their Epitaph Certainly a man not wedded to envy and a spiteful vexation of spirit upon a due examination of our Lycaea and a Comparison of them abroad with those abroad cannot but say and that justly Non habent Academiae Anglicanae pares nisi seipsas The principal cause of the rudeness and disorders in Paris had been cheifly occasioned by the great priviledges where with the Kings of France intended the furtherance and security of Learning Having thus let them get the bridle in their own hands no marvel if they grow sick with an uncontrouled licentiousness Of these priviledges some are that no Scholars goods can be seized upon for the payments of his debts that none of them should be liable to any taxes or impositions a Royal immunity to such as are acquainted with France that they might carry and recarry their utensiles without the least molestation that they should have the Provost of Paris to be the Keeper and Defender of their Liberties who is therefore stiled Le conservateur despriviledges Royaux de le Vniversite de Paris c. One greater priviledge they have yet than all these which is their soon taking of degrees Two years seeth them both novices in the Arts and Master of them so that enjoying by their degrees an absolute freedom before the folâ—ies and violencies of youth are broken in them they become so unruly and insolent as I have told you· These degrees are conferred on them by the Chancellor who seldom examineth further of them than hss Fees Those paid he presenteth them to the Rector and giveth them their Letters Patents sealed with the Vniversities seal which is the main part of the Creation He also setteth the Seal to the Authentical Letters for so they term them of such whom the Sorbonists have passed for Doctors The present Chancellor is named Petrus de Piere Vive Doctor of Divinity and Chanoin of the Church of Nostre-dame as also are all they which enjoy that Office He is chosen by the Bishop of Paris and taketh place of any under that dignity But of this ill managed Vniversity enough if not too much CHAP. VII The City of Paris in the place of old Lutetia The bridges which joyn it to the Town and University King Henries statua Alexanders injurious policy The Church and Revenues of Nostre-Dame The holy Water there the original making and vertue of it The Lamp before the Altar The heathenishness of both customs Paris best seen from the top of the Church The great Bell there never rung but in time of Thunder The baptizing of Bels. The grand Hospital and decency of it The place Daulphin the holy Chappel and Reliques there What the Ancients thought of Reliques The Exchange The little Chastelet A transition to thc Parliament THe Isle of Paris commonly called Isle de palais seated between the Vniversity and the Town is that part of the whole which is called la Cite the City The Epitome and abstract of all France It is the sweetest and best ordered part of Paris and certainly if Paris may be thought the eye of the Realm this Island may equally be judged the apple of the eye It is by much the lesser part and by as much the richer by as much the decenter and affordeth more variety of delightful objects than both the other It containeth an equal number of parish Churches with the Town and double the number with the Vniversity For it hath in it thirteen Churches parochial Viz. 1. La Magdalene 2. St. Geniveue des Ardents 3. St. Christofer 4. St. Pierre aux boeafs 5. St. Marine 6. St. Landry 7. St. Symphoryan 8. St. Denis de la charite 9. St. Bartellemie 10. St. Pierre des Assis 11. St. Croix
unto it self following no Rule written in their Sentences but judging according to equity and conscience In matters criminal of greater consequence the process is here immediately examined without any preparation of it from the inferiour Courts as at the araignment of the Duke of Biron and divers times also in matter personall But their power is most eminent in disposing the affaires of State and of the Kingdome for such prerogatives have the French Kings given hereunto that they can neither denounce Warre nor conclude Peace without the consent a formall one at the least of this Chamber An Alieniation of the least of the Lands of the Crown is not any whit valued unless confirmed by this Court neither are his Edicts in force till they are here verified nor his Letters Pattents for the creating of a Peere till they are here allowed of Most of these I confess are little more than matters of form the Kings power and pleasure being become boundless yet sufficient to shew the body of Authority which they once had and the shaddow of it which they still keep yet of late they have got into their disposing one priviledge belonging formerly to the Conventus Ordinum or the Assembly of the three Estates which is the conferring of the Regency or protection of their Kings during their minority That the Assembly of the three Estates formerly had this priviledge is evident by their stories Thus we find them to have made Queene Blanche Regent of the Realm during the non-age of her Son St. Lewiis Anno 1227. that they declared Phillip le Valois successor to the Crowne in case that the widdow of Charles de belle was not delivered of a Son Anno 1328. That they made Charles the Daulphin Regent of France during the imprisonment of King John his Father Anno 1357. As also Phillip of Burgony during the Lunary Charles the sixth Anno 1394 with divers others On the other side we have a late example of the power of the Parliament of Paris in this very case for the same day that Henry the fourth was slain by Raviliae the Parliament met and after a short consultation declared Mary de Medices Mother to the King Regent in France for the Government of the State during the minority of her Son with all power and authority such are the words of the Instrument dated the 14. of May 1610. It cannot be said but this Court deserveth not onely this but any other indulgence whereof any one member of the Common-wealth is capable So watchful are they over the health of the State and so tenderly do they take the least danger threatned to the liberties of that Kingdome that they may not unjustly be called Patres Patriae In the year 1614. they seazed upon a discourse written by Suarez a Jesuite entitled Adversus Anglicanae sectae errores wherein the Popes temporal power over Kings and Princes is averred which they sentenced to be burnt in the Pallace yard by the publick Hangman The yeare before they inflicted the same punishment upon a vain and blasplemous discourse penned by Gasper Niopins a fellow of a most desperate brain and a very incendiary Neither hath Bellarmine himself that great Atlas of the Roman Church escaped much better for writing a Book concerning the temporal power of his Holiness it had the ill luck to come into Paris where the Parliament finding it to thwart the Liberty and Royalty of the King and Country gave it over to the Hangman and he to the Fire Thus it is evident that the titles which the French writers gave it as the true Temple of the French justice the Buttresse of Equity the Guardian of the Rights of France and the like are abundantly deserved of it The next Chamber in esteem is the Tournelle which handleth all matters Criminal It is so called from Tourner which signifieth to change or alter because the Judges of the other several Chambers give sentence in this according to their several turnes The reason of which Institution is said to be least a continual custome of condemning should make the Judges less merciful and more prodigall of blood An order full of health and providence it was instituted by the above named Phillip le Belle at the same time when he made the Parliament sedentary at Paris and besides its particular and original employment it receiveth Appeals from and redresseth the errours of the Provost of Paris The other five Chambers are called des Enquests or Camerae Inquasitionum the first and ancientest of them was erected also by Phillip le Belle and afterwards divided into two by Charles the seventh Afterwards of Processes being greater than could be dispatched in these Courts there was added a third Francis the first established the fourth for the better raising of a sum of money which then he wanted every one of the new Counsellers paying right dearly for his place The fifth and last was founded in the year 1568. In each of these severall Chambers there be two Presidents and twenty Counsellers beside Advocates and Proctors ad placitum In the Tournelle which is the aggregation of all the other Courts there are supposed to be no fewer than two hundred Officers of all sorts which is no great number considering the many Causes there handled In the Tournelle the Iudges sit on matters of life and death in the Chambers of Enquests they examine onely civil Affairs of estate title debts and the like The Pleaders in these Courts are called Advocates and must be at the least Licentiats in the study of the Law At the Parliaments of Tholoza and Burdeaux they admit of none but Doctors now the form of admitting them is this In an open and frequent Court one of the agedest of the Long Robe presenteth the party which desireth admission to the Kings Atturney General saying with a loud voice Paisse a Cour recevoir N. N. Licencie or Docteur en droict civil a l'office d' Advocate This said the Kings Atturney biddeth him hold up his hand and saith to him in Latine Tu jurabis observare omnes Reges Consuetudines he answereth Iuro and departeth At the Chamber door of the Court whereof he is now sworne an Advocate he payeth two Crownes which is forthwith put into the common Treasury appointed for the relief of the distressed-Widdows of ruined Advocates and Proctors Hanc veniam petimusque damusque It may be their own cases and therefore it is paid willingly The highest preferment of which these Advocates are capable is that of Chauncellor an Office of great power and profit The present Chauncellor is named Mr. d' Allegre by birth of Chartres he hath no settled Court wherein to exercise his authority but hath in all the Courts of France the supream place whensoever he will vouchsafe to visit them He is also President of the Councill of Estate by his place and on him dependeth the making of good and sacred Lawes the administration of Justice the reformation of
Mundi tam in temporalibus quam in spiritualibus the King returned him an answer with an Epithite sutable to his arrogancy Sciat maxima tua fatuitas nos intemporalibus alicui non subesse c. The like answer though in modester termes was sent to another of the Popes by St. Lewis a man of a most mild and sweet disposition yet unwilling to forgoe his Royalties His spiritual power is almost as little in substance though more in shew for whereas the Councill of Trent hath been an especiall authorizer of the Popes spiritual supremacy the French Church never would receive it by this means the Bishops keep in their hands their own full authority whereof an obedience to the decrees of that Councill would deprive them It was truly said by St. Gregory and they well knew it Lib. 7. Epist 70. Si unus universalis est restat ut vos Episcopinon Sitis Further the Vniversity of Paris in their Declaration Anno 1610. above mentioned plainly affirme that it is directly opposite to the doctrine of the Church which the Vniversity of Paris hath alwaies maintained that the Pope hath power of a Monarch in the spiritual Government of the Church To look upon higher times when the Councill of Constance had submitted the authority of the Pope unto that of a Councill John Gerson Theologus Parisiensis magni nominis defended that deeree and entitleth them Perniciosos esse ad modum adulatores qui tyranidem istam in Ecclesia invexere quasi nullis Regum teneatur vinculis quasi neque parere debeat Concilio Pontifex nec ab eo judicare queat The Kings themselves also befreind their Clergy in this Cause and therefore not onely protested against the Council of Trent wherein the spiritual tyranny was generally consented to by the Catholike faction but Henry the second also would not acknowledge them to be a Council calling them in his Letters by no other name than Conventus Tridentinus An indignity which the Fathers took very offensively Put the principal thing in which it behooveth them not to acknowledge his spiritual supremacy is the Collation of Benefices and Bishopricks and the Annates and first fruits thence arising The first and greatest controversie between the Pope and Princes of Christendom was about the bestowing the Livings of the Church and giving the investiture unto Bishops The Popes had long thirsted after that authority as being a great meanes to advance their followers and establish their own greatness for which cause in divers petty Councels the receiving of any Ecclesiastical preferment of a Lay-man was decreed to be Simony But this did little edifie with such patrons as had good Livings As soon as ever Hiâ—el brand in the Catalogue of the Popes called Gregory the seventh came to the throne of Rome he set himself entirely to effect the business as well in Germany now he was Pope as he had done in France whilst he was Legate He commandeth therefore Henry the third Emperour Ne deinceps Episcopatus Beneficia they are Platina's own words per cupiditatem Simoniacam committat aliter se usurum in ipsum censuris Ecclesiasticis To this injustice when the Emperour would not yeild he called a solemn Council at the Lateran where the Emperour was pronounced to be Simoniacal and afterwards excommunicated Neither would this Tyrant ever leave persecuting of him till he had laid him in his grave After this followed great strugling between the Popes and the Emperours for this very matter but in the end the Popes got the victory In England here he that first bickered about it was William Rufus the controversie being whether he or Pope Vrban should invest Anselme Archbishop of Canterbury Anselme would receive his investiture of none but the Pope whereupon the King banished him the Realm into which he was not admitted till the raign of Henry the second He to endear himself with his Clergy relinquished his right to the Pope but afterwards repenting himself of it he revoked his grant Neither did the English Kings wholly loose it till the raign of that unfortunate Prince King John Edward the first again recovered it and his Successors kept it The Popes having with much violence and opposition wrested into their hands this Priviledge of nominating Priests and investing Bishops they spared not to lay on what taxes they pleased as on the Benefices First fruits Pensions Subsidies Fifteenths Tenths and on the Bishopricks for Palls Mitres Crosiers Rings and I know not what bables By these means the Churches were so impoverished that upon complaint made unto the Council of Basel all these cheating tricks these aucupia eapilandi rationes were abolished This Decree was called Pragmatica sanctio and was confirmed in France by Charles the seventh Anno 1438. An act of singular improvement to the Church and Kingdom of France which yearly before as the Court of Parliament manifested to Lewis the eleventh had drained the State of a million of Crowns Since which time the Kings of France have sometimes omitted the vigour of the Sanction and sometimes also exacted it according as their affairs with the Pope stood for which cause it was called fraenum pontificum At the last King Francis the first having conquered Millain fell unto this composition with his Holiness namely that upon the falling of any Abbacie or Bishoprick the King should have six moneths time to present a fit man unto him whom the Pope legally might invest If the King neglected his time limited the Pope might take the benefit of the relapse and institute whom he pleased So is it also with the inferior benifices between the Pope and the Patrons insomuch that any or every Lay-patron and Bishop together in England hath for ought I see at the least in this particular as great a spiritual supremacy as the Pope in France Nay to proceed further and to shew how meerly titular both his supremacies are as well the spiritual as the temporal you may plainly see in the case of the Jesuites which was thus In the year 1609. the Jesuites had obtained of King Henry the fourth license to read again in their Colledge of Paris but when their Letters Patents came to be verified in the Court of Parliament the Rector and Vniversity opposed them On the seventeenth of December Anno 1611. both parties came to have an hearing and the Vniversity got the day unless the Jesuits would subscribe unto these four points Viz. First that the Council was above the Pope Secondly that the Pope had not temporal power over Kings and could not by Excommunication deprive them of their Realms and Estates Thirdly that Clergy men having heard of any attempt or conspiracy against the King or his Realm or any matter of treason in Confession they were bound to reveal it And fourthly that Clergy men were subject to the Secular Prince or Politick Magistrate It appeared by our former discourse what title or no power they had left the Pope over the estates
and humanity certainly they much exceed the Parisians I was about to say all the French-men and indeed I not grudge them this Eulogie which Caesar giveth unto those of Kent and verifie that they are omnium incolarum longe humanissimi my selfe here observing more courtesie and affability in one day than I could meet withall in Paris during all my abode there The buildings of it are very suitable to themselves and the rest of France the streets large and well kept not yeilding the least offence to the most curious nostrill Parish Churches it hath in it 26. of different and unequall beeing as it useth to be in other places besides these it containeth the Episcopall Church of S. Croix and divers other houses of religious persons amongst which is St. Jacques of both which I shall speak in their due order Thus much for the resemblance of the Townes the difference betwixt them is this that Orleans is the bigger and Worcester the richer Orleans consisteth much of the Noblesse and of Sojourners Worcester of Citizens and Home-dwellers and for the manner of life in them so it is that Worcester hath the handsomer woman in it Orleans the finer and in my opinion the loveliest in all France Worcester thriveth the most on Cloathing Orleans on their Vine-presses And questionlesse the Wine of Orleans is the greatest riches not of the Towne onely but of the Countrey also about it For this cause Aâ—dre dis Chesne calleth it the prime Cellar of Paris Est une pars saith he si henreuse si secunde sur tout in vins quon la pent dice l'unde primiers celiers de Paris Those Vines wherein he maketh it to be so happy deserve no lesse a commendation than he hath given them as yeilding the best Wines in all the Kingdome such as it much moved me to mingle with Water they being so delicious to the Palate and the Epicurisme of the taste I have heard of a Dutch Gentleman who being in Italy was brought acquainted with a kinde of Wine which they there call Lachrymae Christi no sooner had he tasted it but he fell into a deep melancholy and after some seaven sighes besides the addition of two groâ—nes he brake out into this patheticall Ejaculation Dii boni quare non Christus lachrymatus esset in nostris regionibus This Dutchman and I were for a time both of one minde insomuch that I could almost have picked a quarrell with Nature for giving us none of this Liquor in England At last we grew friends again when I had perceived how offensive it was to the brain if not well qualified for which cause it is said that K. Lewis hath banished it his Cellar no doubt to the great grief of his drinking Courtiers who may therefore say with Martial Quid tantum fecere boni tibi pessima vina Aut quid fecerunt optima vina mali This towne called Genabum by Caesar was reedified by Aurelian the Emperour Anno 276. and called by his name Aurelianum which it still retaineth amongst the Latines It hath been famous heretofore for four Councels here celebrated and for being the seat royall of the Kings of Orleans though as now I could not heare any thing of the ruines of the Palace The same of it at this time consisteth in the Vniversity and its seat of Justice This town being one of them which they call Sieges Presidiaux Now these Seiges Presidiaux Seats or Courts of Justice were established in divers cities of the Realme for the ease of the people Anno 1551. or thereabouts In them all civill causes not exceeding 250 Liu'res in Money or 10. Liu'res in Rents are heard and determined soveraignly and without appeale If the summe exceed those proportions the appeale holdeth good and shall be examined in that Court of Parliament under whose jurisdiction it is Their Court here consisteth of a Baille whose name is Mr. Digion of twelve Counsellors two Lieutenants one civill the other criminall and a publique Notarie When Mr. Le Compte de St. Paul who is the Governour or Lieutenant Generall of the Province cometh into their Court he giveth precedency to the Baille in other places he receiveth it This institution of these Presidiall Courts was at first a very profitable ordinance and much eased the people but now it is grown burdensome The reason is that the offices are meere saâ—â—able and purchased by them with a great deale of money which afterwards they wrest againe out of the purses of the Paâ—sant The sale of Offices drawing necessarily after it the sale of Justice a mischief which is spread so far that there is not the worst under Officer in all the Realm Who may not say with the Captaine in the 22. of the Acts and the 28. verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 With a great summe of money obtained I this freedome Twenty yeares purchase is said to be no extraordinary rate and I have read that onely by the sale of Offices one of the Kings had raised in twenty yeares 139 millions which amounteth to the proportion of 7 millions yearly or thereabouts of all wayes to thrift and treasure the most unkindly In the yeare 1614. the King motioned the abolishing of the sales of this Market but it was upon a condition more prejudiciall to the people than the mischiefe For he desired in lieu of it to have a greater imposition laid upon Salt and upon the Aides which those that were Commissioners for the Câ—mmonalty would not admit of because then a common misery had been brought out of the State to make their particular miseries the greater and so the corruption remaineth unaltered This Towne as it is sweetly seated in respect of the aire so is it finely convenienced with the walks of which the chief are that next unto Paris gate having the wall on the one hand and a rank of Palm trees on the other the second that neere unto the bridge having the Water pleasingly running on both sides and a third which is indeed the principall on the East-side of the City it is called the Palle Malle of an exercise of that name much used in this Kingdome a very Gentleman-like sport not over violent and such as affordeth good opportunity of discourse as they walk from one mark to the other Into this walk which is of a wonderful length and beauty you shall have a clear evening empty all the towne the aged people borrowing legs to carry them and the younger armes to guide them If any young Dame or Monsieur walk thither single they will quickly finde some or other to link with them though perhaps such with whom they have no familiarity Thus do they measure and re-measure the length of the Palle Malle not minding the shutting in of the day till darkness hath taken away the sense of blushing at all houres of the night be it warm and dry you shall be sure to finde them thus coupled and if at the yeares end there
1594. John Chastell of Novice of this order having wounded King Henry the fourth in the mouth occasioned the banishment of this Society out of all France Into which they were not againe received till the yeare 1604. and then also upon limitations more strict than ever Into Paris they were not re-admitted untill Anno 1606. neither had they the liberty of reading Lectures and instructing the Youth confirmed unto them untill Anno 1621. which also was compassed not without great trouble and vexation Per varios casus tot discrimina rerum as Aeneas and his companions came into Latium In this Vniversity they have at this instant three Houses one of Novices a second of Institutors which they call the Colledge and a third of professed Jesuits which they stile their Monastery or the professed House of St. Lewis In their house of Novices they traine up all those whom they have called out of their Schooles to be of their order and therein imitate them in the art of Jesuitisme and their mysteries of iniquity There they teach them not Grammaticall construction or composition but instruct them in the paths of Vertue Courage and Obedience according to such examples as their Authors afford them But he that made the Funerall Oration for Henry the fourth Anno 1610. reported otherwise Latini Sermonis obtentu saith he impurissime Gallicae juventutis mores ingenuos foedant Bonarum artium praetextu pessimas edocent artes Dum ingenia excolunt animas perdunt c. In their College they have the same method of teaching which the others of their company use in Orleans A Colledge first given unto them by Mr. William Prat Bishop of Clermont whose House it was but much beautified by themselves after his decease for with the money which he gave unto them by his Will which amounteth as it was thought to 60000. Crowns they added to it the Court called de Langres in S. James's street An. 1582. Their Monastery or house of prayer or profession is that unto which they retire themselves after they have discharged their duties in the College by reading and studying publickly in their severall Classes when they are here their study both for time and quality is ad placitum though generally their onely study in it is Policy and the advancing of their cause And indeed out of this Trojan Horse it is that those firebrands and incendiaries are let out to disturb and set in combustion the affaires of Christendome Out of this Forge come all those Stratagems and tricks of Machiavillianisme which tend to the ruine of the Protestants the desolation of their Countries I speak not this of their house of Profession here in Paris either onely or principally wheresoever they settle they have a House of this nature out of which they issue to overthrow the Gospel Being once sent by their superiours a necessity is laid upon them of obedience be the imployment never so dangerous and certainly this nation doth most strictly obey the rules of their order of any whosoever not excepting the Capuchins nor the Carthusians This I am witnesse unto that whereas the Divinity Lecture is to end at the tolling of a Bell one of the Society in the College of Clermont reading about the fall of the Angells ended his Lecture with these words Denique in quibuscunque for then was the warning given and he durst not so farre trespasse upon his rule as to speak out his sentence But it is not the fate of these Jesuites to have great persons onely and Vniversities to oppose their fortunes they have also the most accomplisht malice that either the Secular Priests or their friends amongst whom they live can fasten upon them Some envy them for the greatnesse of their possessions some because of the excellency of their Learning some hate them for their power some for the shrewdnesse of their braines all together making good that saying of Paterculus that Semper eminentis fortunae comes est invidia True indeed it is that the Jesuites have in a manner deserved all this clamor and stomack by their own insolencies for they have not onely drawne into their owne hands all the principall affaires of Court and State but upon occasions cast all the storme and contempt they can upon those of the other Orders The Janizaries of the Turke never more neglectfully speak of the Asapi than these doe of the rest of the Clergie A great crime in those men who desire to be accounted such excellent Masters of their owne affections Neither is the affection borne to them abroad greater then that at home amongst those I mean of the opposite party who being so often troubled and frumped by them have little cause to afford them a liking and much lesse a welcome Upon this reason they were not sent into England with the Queen although at the first they were destinate to that purpose It was well known how odious that name was among us and so little countenance the Court or Countrey would have afforded them They therefore that had the governance of that businesse sent hither in their places the Oratorians or Fratres Congregationis Oratorii were a race of men never as yet offensive to the English further than the generall defence of the Romish cause and so lesse subject to envie and exception They were first entituled by Philip Nerius not long after the Jesuits and advanced and dignified by Pope Sixtus the fifth principally for this end that by their incessant Sermons to the People of the lives of Saints and other Ecclesiasticall antiquitie they might get a new reputation and so divert a little the torrent of the peoples affections from the Jesuits Baronius that great and excellent Historian and Bozius that deadly enemy to the soveraignty of Princes were of the first foundation of this new order I have now done with Orleans and the Jesuits and must prepare for my returne to Paris which journey I began the 13. of July and ended the day following We went back the same way that we came though we were not so fortunate as to enjoy the same company we came in formerly Instead of the good and acceptable society of one of the French Noblesse some Gentlemen of Germany and two Friers of the Order of S. Austin we had the perpetuall vexation of foure Tradesmen of Paris two Fulles de Joy and an old Woman The Artizans so slovenly attired and greazy in their apparell that a most modest apprehension could have conceived no better of them than that they had been newly raked out of the Scullery one of them by an inkhorne that hung by his side wouâ—d have made us believe that he had been â— Notary buâ— by the thread of his discourse we found out that hâ— was a Sumner so full of Ribaldry was it and so rankly did it savour of the French Bawdy court The rest of them talked according to their skill concerning the price of Commodities and whâ— was the most likely man
of all the City to be made one of the next yeares Eschevins Of the two Wenches one so extremely impudent that even an immodest â—are would have abhorred her language and of such a shamelesse deportment that her very behaviour would have frighted Lust out of the most incontinent man living Since I first knew mankinde and the world I never observed so much impudency in the generall as I did then in her particular and I hope shall never be so miserable as to suffer two dayes more the torment of her and of her conversation In a word she was a wench borne to shame all the Friers with whom she had traffiqued for she would not be Casta and could not be Cauta and so I leave her A creature extremely bold because extremely faulty and yet having no good property to redeem both these and other unlovely qualities but as Sir Philip Sidney saith of the strumpet Baccha in the Arcadia a little counterfeit Beauty disgraced with wandring eyes and unweighed speeches The other of the young females for as yet I am doubfull whether I may call any of them women is of the same profession also but not halfe so rampant as her companion Haec habitu casto cum non sit casta videtur as Ausâ—nius giveth it of one of the two wanton Sisters by her carriage a charitable stranger would have thought her honest and to that favourable opinion had my self been inclinable if a French Monsieur had not given me her Character at Orleans besides there was an odde twinkling of her eye which spoyled the composednesse of her countenance otherwise she might have passed for currant so that I may safely say of her in respect of her fellow-harlot what Tacitus doth of Pompey in reference to Caesar viz. Secretior Pompeius Caesare non melior they were both equally guilty of the same sin though this last had the more cunning to dissemble it and avoyd the infamy and censure due unto it And so I am come to the old Woman which was the last of our goodly companions A 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 prone to have thought her one of the first pieces of the Creation and that by some mischance she had escaped the Floud her face was for all the world like unto that of Sybilla Erythraea in some old print or that of one of Solomons two Harlots in the painted cloth you would not but have imagined her one of the Relikes of the first age after the building of Babel for her very complexion was a confusion more dreadfull than that of Languages as yet I am uncertain whether the Poem of our Arch-Poet Spencer entituled was not purposely intended on her sure I am it is very appliable in the Title but I might have saved all this labour Ovid in his description of Fames hath most exactly given us her Portraiture and out of him and the eighth book of the Metamorphosis you may take this view of her Nullus erat crinis cava lumina pallor in ore Labra incana situ scabri rubigine dentes Dura cutis per quaÌ„ spectari viscera possent Ventris erat pro ventre locus peÌ„dere putares Pectus a spinae tantummodo crate teneri Unhair'd pale-fac'd her eyes sunk in her head Lips hoary-white and teeth most rusty red Through her course skin her guts you might espie In what estate and posture they did lie Belly she had none onely there was seen The place where her belly should have been And with her Hips her body did agree As if 't were fastned by Geometry But of this our Companion as also of the rest of the Coach full Sunday-night and our arrival at Paris hath at the last delivered us Ablessing for which â— can never be sufficiently thankfull and thus Dedit Deus his quoque finem The Fourth Book Or PICARDY CHAP. I Our return towards England more of the Hugonots hate unto Crosses The Towns of Luzarch and St. Lowp The Country of Picardy and People The Picts of Brittain not of this Country Mr. Lesdiguier Governour of Picardy The Office of Constable what it is in France By whom the place supplied in England The Marble Table in France and Causes there handled Clermont and the Castle there The Warrs raised by the Princes against D' Ancre What his Designs might tend to c. IVly the twenty seventh having dispatched that business which brought us into France and surveyed as much of the Country as that opportunity would permit us we began our journey towards England in a Coach of Amiens better accompanied we were than when we came from Orleans for here we had Gentlemen of the choisest fashion very ingenuous and in mine opinion finer conditioned than any I had met withal in all my acquaintance with that Nation and which appeared to me somewhat marvellous we had no vexation with us in the shape of a French-woman to torment our ears with her discourse or punish our eyes with her complexion Thus associated we began to wag on towards St. Lowp where that night we were to be lodged The Country such as already I have described it in the Isle of France save that beyond St Denis it began to be somewhat more hilly by the way I observed those little cressets erected in the memory of St. Denis as being vainly supposed to be his resting places when he ran from Mountmartyr with his head in his hand which the zealous madness of the Hugonots had thrown down and were now reedifyed by King Lewis It could not but call to mind the hate of that Nation unto that harmless monument of Christs suffering the Cross which is grown it seemeth so exorbitant that the Papists make use of it to discover an Hugonot I remember that as we passed by water from Amiens to Abbeville we met in the boat with a berry of French Gentlewomen To one of them with that little French which I had I applied my self and she perceiving me to be English questioned my Religion I answered as I safely might that I was a Catholike and she for her better satisfaction proffered me the little cross which was on the toâ— of her beads to kiss I kissed it and ratheâ— should I desire to kiss it than many of their lip thereupon the rest of the company gave â—ome this verdict that I was un urai Christien et 〈◊〉 point un Hugonet But to proceed to our jourâ—ey The same day we parted from Paris we passed through the Town of Luzarch and came to that of St. Lowp The first famous onely in its owner which is the Count of Soisons the second in an Abbey there scituate built in memory of St. Lupus Bishop of Troyes in Campagne These Towns passed we entred into Picardy Picardy is divided into the higher which containeth the territories of Calais and Burlogne
of the Cittadel together with the Lordship of Pigingin both which he obtained by marrying the Daughter and Heir of the last Visedame of Amiens and Lord of Pigingin Anno 1619. A marriage which much advanced his fortunes which was compassed for him by the Constable Luynes his brother who also obtained for him of the King the title of Duke His highest attribute before being that of Mr. de Cadinet by which name he was known here in England at such time as he was sent extraordinary Ambassadour to King James This honour of Visedame is for ought that ever I could see used onely in France True it is that in some English Charters we meet with Vice-Dominus as in the Charter of King Edred to the Abbey of Crowland in Lincoln-shire dated in the year 948. there is subscribed Ego Bingulph Vice-dominus c. but with us and at those times this title was onely used to denotate a subordination to some superior Lord and not as an honorary attribute in which sense it is now used in France besides that with us it is frequently though falsly used for Vicecomes between which two Offices of Vicount and Vidame there are found no small resemblances For as they which did agere Vicem Comitis were called Vicecomites or Vicomits so were they also called Vidames or Vice-Domini qui Domini Episcopi vicem gerebant in temporalibus And as Vicountes from Offices of the Earles became honorary so did the Vidames disclaim the relation to the Bishop and became Seigneural or honorary also The Vidames then according to the first institution were the substitutes of the greater Bishops in matters of secular administration for which cause though they have altered their tenure they take all of them their denomination from the cheif Town of some Bishoprick neither is there any of them who holdeth not of some Bishoprick or other Concerning the number of them that are thus dignified I cannot determine Mr. Glover otherwise called Sommerset Herald in his discourse of Nobility published by Mr. Miles of Canterbury putteth it down for absolute that here are four onely Viz. of Amiens of Chartres of Chalons and of Gerbery in Bauvice but in this he hath deceived both himself and his Readers there being besides these divers others as of Rhemes Mans and the like but the particular and exact number of them together with the place denominating I leave to the French Heralds unto whose profession it belongeth CHAP. III. The Church of Nostre-Dame in Amiens The Principal Churches in most Cities called by her name More honour performed to her than to her Saviour The surpassing beauty of this Church on the outside The front of it King Henry the seventh's Chappel at Westminster The curiousness of this Church within By what means it became to be so The three sumptuous Massing-Closets in it The excellency of Perspective works Indulgencies by whom first founded The estate of the Bishoprick THere is yet one thing which addeth more lustre to the Citie of Amiens than either the Visdamate or the Cittadel which is the Church of Nostre Dame a name by which most of the principal Churches are known in France there have we the Nostre Dame in Roven a second in Paris a third in this City a fourth in Boulogne all Cathedrall so also a Nostre Dame in Abbeville and another in Estampes the principal Churches in those Towns also Had I seen more of their Towns I had met with more of her Temples for so of many â— have heard that if there be more than two Churches in a Town one shall be sure to be dedicated to her and that one of the fairest Of any Temples consecrated to the Name and memory of our Saviour Ne gry quidem there was not so much as a word stirring neither could I marvel at it considering the honours done to her and those to her Son betwixt which there is so great a disproportion that you would have imagined that Mary and not Jesus had been our Saviour for one Pater Noster the people are enjoyned ten Ave Maries and to recompence one pilgrimage to Christs Sepulchre at Hierusalem you shall hear of two hundred undertaken to our Lady of Loretto And whereas in their Kalendar they have dedicated onely four Festivals to our Saviour which are those of his birth circumcision resurrection and ascension all which the English Church also observeth for the Virgins sake they have more than doubled the number Thus do they solemnize the feast of her Purification and Annunciation at the times which we also do of her Visitation of Elizabeth in July of her Dedication and Assumption in August of her Nativity in September of her Presentation in November and of her Conception in the womb of her Mother in December To her have they appropriated set forms of prayers prescribed in the two books called one Officium and the other Rosarium beatae Mariae Virginis whereas her Son must be contented with those Orisons which are in the Common Mass Book her Shrines and Images are more glorious and magnificent then those of her Son and in her Chappel are more Vows paid than before the Crucifix But I cannot blame the Vulgar when the great Masters of their souls are thus also besotted The Officium before mentioned published by the Command of Pius the fifth saith thus of her Gaude Maria Virgo tu sola omnes haereses intermistâ— in universo mundo Catherinus in the Council of Trent calleth Fidelissimam Dei sociam and he was modest if compared with others In one of their Councils Christs name is quite forgotten and the name of our Lady put in the place of it for thus it beginneth Authoritate Dei Patris beatae Virginis omnium Sanctorum c. but most horrible is that of one of their Writers I am loath to say it was Bernard Beata Virgo monstra te esse Matrem jube filium which Harding in his confutation of the Apologie endeavouring to make good would needs have it to be onely an excess of mind or a spiritual sport and dalliance but from all such sports and dalliances good Lord deliver us Leaving our Lady let us go see her Church which questionless is one of the most glorious piles of building under the Heavens what Velleius saith of Augustus that he was homo qui omnibus omnium gentium viris inducturus erat caliginem or what Suetonius spake of Titus when he called him Delias humani generis both these attributes and more too may I most fitly fasten on this magnificent structure The whole body of it is of most curious and polished stones every where born up by buttresses of excellent composure that they seem to add more of beauty to it than of strength the Quire of it is as in great Churches commonly it is of a fairer fabrick than the body thick set with dainty pillars and most of them reaching unto the top of it in the fashion of an Arch.