Abbey that has One hundred thousand Livreâ— of Revenue there is also a very râ—ch Hâ—use of Nuns that wear the Cupuchins Habit that as I was told had Sixty thousand Livres of Revenue and but Sixty Nuns in it who having thus One tâ—ouâ—and Livreâ— a piece may live in all p ssible plenty in a Country where a very little money â—oes a great way But that which surprises one most at Soloturn is the greaâ— Fortification that they are building of a Wall about the â—own the â—oblest and solidest that is any where to be seen The Stone with which it is faced is a â—ort of courâ—e Marâ—le but of that higneâ—s that many Stones are â—en foot long and two foot of breadth and thickness but tho' this will be a Work of vast expence and great Beauty yet it would signifie little against a great Army that would attack it vigorously The Wall is finished on the side of the River on which the Town stand the Ditch is very broad and the Counterscarp and Glasâ—er are also finished and they are working at a Fort on the other side of the River which they intâ—nd to fortifie in the same manner This has cost them near two Millions of Livres and this vast Expence has made them often repent the Undertaking and it is certain that a Fortification that is able to resist the Rage oâ— their Peasants in the case of a Rebellion is all that iâ— needful This Canton has two Advoyers as Bern thâ— little Council consists of Thirty six they have twelvâ— Bailiages belonging to them which are very profitable to those that can carry them they have one Bursarâ— and but one Banneret All the Cantons have theiâ— Bailiages but if there are Disorders at Bern in the Choice of their Bailiffâ— there are far greater among the Popish Cantons where all things are sold as a Foreign Minister that resides there told me who tho' he knew what my Religion was did not stick to own frankly to me That the Catholick Cantons were not near so well governed as the Protestant Cantons Justice is generally sold among them and in their Treaties with Foreign Princes they haâ—e sometimes taken money both from the French and Spanish Ambassadors and have signed contradictory Articles at the same time Baden has nothing in it that is remarkable except its convenient Situation which makes it the Seat of the general Diet of the Canton tho' it is not one of them but is a Bailiage that belongs in common to eight of the ancient Cantons At last I came to this Place which as it is the first and most honourable of all the Cantons so with relation to us it has a precedence of a higher Nature it being the first that received the Reformation This Canton is much less than Bern yet the Publick is much richer They reckon that they can bring fifty thousand Men together upon twenty four hours warning their Subjects live happy for the Bailiffs here have regulated Appointments and have only the hundredth Penny of the Fines so that they are not tempted as those of Bern are to whom the Fine belongs entirely to strain matters against their Subjects and whereas at Bern the constant Intrigue of the whole Town is concerning their Bailiages here on the contrary it is a Service to which the Citizens are bound to submit according to their Constitution but to which they do not aspire The Government is almost the same as at Bern and the Magistrate that is called the Advoyer at Bern is here called the Bourgomaster The Revenue of the State is here justly accounted for so thaâ—â—he publick purse is much richer than at Bâ—rn the Arseâ—al is much better furnished and the Fortifications are more reâ—ular There is a grâ—at Trade stirring here and as their Lake that is Twenty fâ—ur miles long and about two or three broad supâ—lies them well with provisioâ— so their River carrie their Manufacture to the Rhine from whence it is conveyed as they please One of their chief Manuâ—acturies is Crâ—pe which is in all respects the best I ever saw I will not describe the Situation of the Town but shall co tent my self to tell you that it is extream pleasaâ—t the Country about it is Mountanous and the Winters are hard for the Lake freezes quite over only in some places the â—ce never lies which is believed a mark that some Springs rise there which cause that heat so also in the Lake of Geneva tho' it is never quite frozen yet great boards of Ice lie in several parts but these are never seen in some parts of the Lake which is supposed to flow from the same Cause But to return to Zurich one sees here the true ancient simplicity of the Switzens not corrupted with Luxry or Vanity their Women not only do not converse familiarly with Men except thâ—se of their near Kindred but even on the Streets do not make any returns to the Civility of Strangers for it is only Strangers thâ—t put off their Hats to Women but they make no courtesies and here as in all Switzerland Women are not saluted but the Civility is expressed by taking them by the Hand There is one thing singular in the Constitution of Zurich that is their little Council consists of Fifty Persons but there sit in it only Twenty five at a time and so the two halves of this Council as each of them has his proper Bourgomaster have also the Government in their hands by turns and they shift every six Months at Midsummer and at Christ-Mass The whole Canton is divided into nine great Baliages and 21 Castellaneries in the former the Bailiff resides constantly but the Castellan who is also one of the great Council has so little to do that he lives at Zurich and goes only at some set-times of the Year to do Justice The vertue of this Canton has appeared signally in their adhering firmly to the antient Capitulations with the French and not slackening in any Article which has been done by all the other Cantons where Money has a Soveraign inflâ—ence but here it has never prevailed They have converted the ancient Revenues of the Church more generally to pious uses than has been done any where else that I know of They have many Hospitals well entertained in one as I was told there was Six hundred and fifty Poor kept but as they support the real Charities which belongs to such Endowments so they despise that vain magnificence of buildings which is too generally affected elsewhere for theirs are very plain and one of the Government there said to me very sensibly that they thought it enough to maintain their Poor as Poor and did not judge it proper to lodge them as Priâ—ces The Dean and Chapter are likewise still continued as a Corporation and enjoy the Revenues which they had bâ—fore the Reformation but if they subsist plentifully they labour hard for they have generally two or three Sermons a day and at least one
some Secular Men and some Churchmen and as the Princes authority is delegated to them so they have a sort of an Episcopal jurisdiction over all the Clergy This Order was a surprise to them as being a direct breach upon their Laws and the Liberty of their Religion so they sent a Deputation to Court to let the Elector know the reasons that hindred them from obeying his Orders which were heard with so much Justice and Gentleness that their Prince instead of expressing any displeasure against them recalled the Order that he had sent them The way from Heidelberg to Frankfort is for the first twelve or fifteen miles the beautifullest piece of ground that can be imagined for we went under a ridge of little Hills that are all covered with Vines and from them as far as the eye can go there is a beautiful Plain of Corn-fields and Meadows all sweetly divided and inclosed with rows of Trees so that I fancied I was in Lombardy again but with this advantage that here all was not of a piece as it is in Lombardy but the Hills as they made a pleasant inequality in the prospect so they made the Air purer and produced a pleasant Wine The way near Darmstat and all forwards to Frankfort becometh more wild and more sandy There is a good Suburb on the South-side of the Main over against Frankfort which hath a very considerable Fortification there is a double Wall and a double Ditch that goeth round it and the outward Wall as it is regularly fortified so it is faced with Brick to a considerable heighth The Town of Frankfort is of a great extent and seemed to be but about a third part less then Strasburg The three Religions are also tolerated there and though the number of the Papists is very inconsiderable yet they have the great Church which is a huge rude building they have also several other Churches and some Convents there There are several open squares for Market places and the Houses about them look very well without Among their Archives they preserve the Original of the Bulla Aurea which is only a great Parchment writ in High Dutch without any beauty answering to its Title and since I could not have understood it I was not at the pains of desiring to see it for that is not obtained without difficulty The Lutherans have here built a new Church called St. Catherin's in which there is as much painting as ever I saw in any Popish Church and over the high Altar there is an huge carved Crucifix as there are painted ones in other places of their Church The Pulpit is extream fine of Marble of different colours very well polished and joyned I was here at a Sermon where I understood nothing but I liked one thing that I saw both at Strasburg and here that at the end of Prayers there was a considerable interval of silence left before the conclusion for all peoples private devotions In the House of their publick Discipline they retain still the old Roman Pistrina or Hand-mill at which lewd Women are condemned to grind that is to drive about the Wheel that maketh the Milstones go There is a great number of Jews there though their two Synagogues are very little and by consequence the numbers being great they are very nasty I was told they were in all above twelve hundred The Women had the most of a tawdry Imbroidery of Gold and Silver about them that ever I saw for they had all Mantles of Crape and both about the top and the bottom there was a border above a hand breadth of imbroidery The Fortification of Frankfort is considerable their Ditch is very broad and very full of Water all the Bastions have a Counter-mine that runneth along by the brim of the Ditch but the Counterscarp is not faced with Brick as the Walls are and so in many places it is in an ill condition the covered Way and glacy are also in an ill case The Town is rich and driveth a great Trade and is very pleasantly scituated Not far from hence is Hockam that yieldeth the best Wine of those parts Since I took Frankfort in my way from Heidelberg to Mentz I could not pass by Worms for which I was sorry I had a great mind to see that place where Luther made his first appearance before the Emperor and the Diet and in that solemn audience expressed an undaunted zeal for that Glorious Cause in which God made him such a blessed Instrument I had another piece of Curiosity on me which will perhaps appear to you somewhat ridiculous I had a mind to see a Picture that as I was told is over one of the Popish Altars there which one would think was Invented by the Enemies of Transubstantiation to make it appear ridiculous There is a Windmill and the Virgin throws Christ into the Hopper and he comes out at the eye of the Milne all in Waters which some Priests take up to give the People This is so course an Embleme that one would think it too gross even for Laplanders but a Man that can swallow Transubstantiation it self will digest this likewise Mentz is very nobly scituated on a rising ground a little below the conjunction of the two Rivers the Rhine and the Main it is of too great a compass and too ill Peopled to be capable of a great defence There is a Cittadel upon the highest part of the Hill that commandeth the Town it is compassed about with a dry Ditch that is considerably deep The Walls of the Town are faced with Brick and regularly fortified but the Counterscarp is not faced with Brick so all is in a sad condition and the Fortification is weakest on that side where the Elector's Palace is There is one side of a new Palace very nobly built in a regular Architecture only the Germans do still retain somewhat of the Gothick manner It is of a great length and the design is to build quite round the Court and then it will be a very magnificent Palace only the Stone is red for all the Quarries that are upon the Rhine from Bazile down to Coblentz are of red Stone which doth not look beautiful The Elector of Mentz is an absolute Prince his Subjects present Lists of their Magistrates to him but he is not tied to them and may name whom he will The Ancient Demeasne of the Electorate is about Forty thousand Crowns But the Taxes rise to about Three hundred thousand Crowns so that the Subjects here are as heavily taxed as in the Palatinate There is Twelve thousand Crowns a year given the Elector for his privy Purse and the State bears the rest of his whole expence It can Arm Ten thousand Men and there is a Garison of Two thousand Men in Mentz This Elector hath three Councels one as he is Chancellour of the Empire consisting of three Persons the other two are for the Policy and Justice of his Principality He and his Chapter
are charming and the Air is very pure and from thence we came hither in three hours I will not say one word of the Country into which I am now come for as I know that is needless to you on many accounts so a Picture that I see here in the Stadthouse puts me in mind of the perfectest Book of its kind that is perhaps in being For Sir William Temple whose Picture hangeth here at the upper end of the Plenipotentiaries that negotiated the Famous Treaty of Nimmegen hath indeed set a pattern to the World which is done with such life that it may justly make others blush to copy after it since it must be acknowledged that if we had as perfect an account of the other places as he hath given us of one of the least but yet one of the Noblest parcels of the Universe Travelling would become a needless thing unless it were for diversion since one findeth no further occasion for his curiosity in this Country then what is fully satisfied by his rare performance Yet I cannot give overwriting without reflecting on the resistance that this place made when so many other places were so basely delivered up though one doth not see in the ruines of the Fortification here how it could make so long a resistance yet it was that that stem'd the tide of a progress that made all the World stand amazed and it gave a little time to the Dutch to recover themselves out of the consternation into which so many blows that came so thick one after another had struck them But then the World saw a change that though it hath not had so much Incense given to it as the happy conjuncture of another Prince hath drawn after it with so much excess that all the topicks of flattery seem exhausted by it yet will appear to posterity one of the most surprizing Scenes in History and that which may be well matched with the recovery of the Roman State after the Battel of Canne When a young Prince that had never before born Arms or so much as seen a Campagne who had little or no Council about him but that which was suggested from his own thoughts and that had no extraordinary advantage by his Education either for literature or affairs was of a sudden set at the head of a State and Army that was sunk with so many losses and that saw the best half of its Soil torn from it and the powerfullest Enemy in the World surrounded with a Victorious Army that was commanded by the best Generals that the Age hath produced come within sight and settle his Court in one of the best Towns and had at the same time the greatest force both by Sea and Land that hath been known united together for its destruction When the Inhabitants were forced that they might save themselves from so formidable an Enemy to let loose that which on all other occasions is the most dreadful to them and to drown so great a part of their Soil for the preservation of the rest and to complicate together all the miseries that a Nation can dread when to the general consternation with which so dismal a Scene possessed them a distraction within doors seemed to threaten them with the last strokes and while their Army was so ill disciplined that they durst scarce promise themselves any thing from such feeble Troops after a Peace at Land of almost Thirty Years continuance and while their chief Ally that was the most concerned in their preservation was like a great paralitick body liker to fall on those that it pretended to support and to crush them then to give them any considerable assistance When I say a young Prince came at the head of all this the very prospect of which would have quite dampt an ordinary courage he very quickly changed the Scene he animated the Publick Councils with a generous vigour he found them sinking into a feebleness of hearkning to Propositions for a peace that were as little safe as they were honorable but he disposed them to resolve on hazarding all rather than to submit to such Infamous terms His credit also among the populace seemed to Inspire them with a new life they easily persuaded themselves that as one WILLIAM Prince of ORANGE had formed their State so here another of the same name seemed marked out to recover and preserve it It was this Spirit of Courage which he derived from his own breast and infused into the whole People as well as into the Magistracy that preserved this Country Some thing there was in all this that was Divine The Publick Councils were again setled and the People were at quiet when they saw him vested with a full authority for that time with Relation to peace and war and concluded they were safe because they were in his hands It soon appeared how faithfully he pursued the Interest of his Country and how little he regarded his own He rejected all Propositions of Peace that were hurtfull to his Country without so much as considering the advantages that were offered to himself in which you know that I write upon sure grounds He refused the offer of the Soveraignâ—y of its Chief City that was made to him by a solemn Deputation being satisfied with that Authority which had been so long maintained by his Ancestors with so much glory and being justly sensible how much the breaking in upon established laws and liberties is fatal even to those that seem to get by it He thus began his publick appearance on the stage with all the disadvantages that a Spirit aspiring to true Glory could wish for since it was Visible that he had nothing to trust to but a good cause a favorable Providence and his own Integrity and Courage nor was success wanting to such Noble beginnings for he in a short time with a Conduct and Spirit beyond any thing that the World hath yet seen recovered this State out of so desperate a distemper took some places by main force and obliged the Enemy to abandon all that they had acquired in so feeble a manner And if a raw Army had not always success against more numerous and better trained Troops and if the want of Magazins and Stores in their Alliés Country which was the chief Scene of the War made that he could not Post his Army and wait for favourable circumstances so that he was sometimes forced to run to action with a hast that his necessities imposed upon him yet the forcing of the beginnings of a Victory out of the hands of the greatest General of the Age the facing a great Monarch with an Army much inferior to his when the other was too cautious to hazard an ingagement and in short the forming the Dutch Army to such a pitch that it became visibly Superior to the French that seemed to have been fed with Conquests and the continuing the War till the Prince that had sacrificed the quiet of Europe to his GLORY was glad
drawn in some that would have been otherwise more moderate and that it did likewise precipitate that barbarous action yet it was afterwards found out that the Plot had been formed long before so that the industry and rage of the Priests managed by Spanish Emissaries working upon the bigotry of the people was the real cause and this was only made use of as a pretext to give some more plausible colours to the Massacre vvhich was executed some months after this Chamber was dissolved It began while the Protestants were at Church there were some hundreds destroyed the rest got all up to the Mountains and so escaped into the Countrey of the Grisons and those of Chavennes got likewise up to the Hills for they are scituated just at the bottom of them I shall not prosecure the rest of that War the French savv of vvhat advantage it vvas to them not to let this pass from Italy into Germany fall into the hands of the Spaniards so Bassompiere was sent to Madrid and obtained a promise that all things should be put in the same state in vvhich they vvere before the year 1618 but vvhen that order vvas sent to the Governour of Milan it vvas plain he had secret orders to the contrary for he refused to execute it so a War follovved in vvhich the Grisons found it vvas not easie for them to support the charge of it vvithout imploying the assistance of the French But the Spaniards pretended to have no other interest in the affairs of the Valteline then the preservation of the Catholick Religion and to shevv their sincerity they put the Countrey into the Pope's hands knovving that he could not preserve it but by their assistance nor restore it vvithout securing it from all change of Religion The French vvillingly undertook the cause of the Grisons and because the Duke of Rohan vvas like to be the most favourable General as being of the Religion he vvas sent to command some forces that marched thither But he savv that if the French once made themselves Masters of the passes of the Countrey it vvould turn to their ruine and finding the Grisons reposed an intire confidence in him he thought it unbecoming him to be an instrument in that vvhich he savv must be fatal to them The Spaniards seeing the French ingage in the quarrel and fearing lest they should possess themselves of the passes offered to restore all the Territory in Italy for Chavennes and Bormio had likevvise revolted only the Pretestants got avvay so quick upon the disorders in the Valteline that they prevented the rage of the Priests The Spaniards ask'd these conditions that an Amnesty should be granted for vvhat vvas past that there should be no exercise of the Protestant Religion tolerated in the Countrey and that even the Bailiffs and other Magistrates of the Religion that came to be sent into the Valteline should have no exercise of their Religion and as for other persons that none of the Religion might stay above six vveeks at a time in the Countrey The Duke of Rohan seeing that conditions of so much advantage to the Leagues vvere offered to them did underhand advise those of the Religion to accept of them at the same time that he seemed openly to oppose the treaty set on foot on those terms and that he might get out of this imployment vvith the less dishonour he advised their clapping him up in prison till they had finished their treaty vvith the Spaniards So that they very gratefully to this day ovvn that they ovve the preservation of their Countrey to the vvise advices of that great Man Many that vvere of the Religion returned to their Houses and Estates but the greatest part fearing such another Massacre have since changed their Religion others have sold their Estates and left the Country some stay still and go tvvo or three hours journey to some of the Protestant communities vvhere they have the exercise of the Religion And tho they may not stay in the Valteline above six weeks at a time yet they avoid that by going for a day or two out of the Countrey once within that time nor is that matter at present so severely examined so that there is a calm among them as to those matters But when it comes to the turn of the Protestant communities to send one of the Religion to those imployments he is often much embarassed by the Bishop of Como to whose Diocess those Territories belong for if the Bishop fancies that they do any thing contrary to the Ecclesiastical immunities he excommunicates them and tho this may appear a ridiculous thing since they are already in a worse state by being Hereticks yet it produces a very sensible effect for the people that are extreamly superstitious will not after that come near such Magistrates so that about three years ago a Bailiff found himself obliged to desire to be recalled tho his time was not out since being excommunicated he could no longer maintain the Government in his own person Among the Grisons the Roman Lavv prevails modified a little by their Customs One that vvas a little particular vvas executed vvhen I vvas there A Man that hath an Estate by his Wife enjoys it after her Death as long as he continues a Widovver but when he marries again he is bound to divide it among the Children that he had by her The Justice is short and simple but it is oft thought that Bribes go here tho' but meanly in proportion to their Poverty as well as in other Places The married Women here do scarce appear abroad except at Church but the young Women have more Liberty before they are married There is such a plenty of all things by reason of the gentleness of the Government and the industry of the People that in all the ten days in which I stayed at Coire I was but once ask'd an Alms in the Streets There are two Churches in Coire in the one there is an Organ that joyns with their Voices in the singing of the Psalms and there was for the honour of the Diet while we were there an Anthem sung by a set of Musicians very regularly In all the Churches both of Switzerland and the Grisons except in this only the Minister preaches covered but here he is bare-headed And I observed a particular Devotion used here in saying of the Lord's Prayer that the Ministers who wear Caps put them off when it was said The Women here as in Bern turn all to the East in time of Prayer and also in their private Devotions before and after the publick Prayers many also bow at the Name of Jesus They Christen discovering the whole Head and pouring the Water on the hind-head using a trine Aspersion which is also the practice of the Switzers It vvas matter of much Edification to see the great Numbers both here and all Switzerland over that come every day to Prayers morning and evening They give here in the middle of
the Prayer a good interval of Silence for the private Devotions of the Assembly The Schools here go not above Latin Greek and Logick and for the â—est they send their Children to Zurich or Basil The Clergy here are very meanly provided for most part they have nothing but the benevolence of their People they complained much to me of a great coldness in their People in the matters of Religion and of a great Corruption in their morals The Commons are extream insolent and many Crimes go unpunished if the Persons that commit them have either great credit or much money The poor Ministers here are under a terrible slavery for the Grisons pretend that in all times they had not only the Patronage of their Churches but a power to dismiss their Châ—rch-men as they saw cause How it is among the Papists I cannot tell but the Dean of the Synod of the House of God told me they had an ill custom of ordaining their Ministers without a Title upon an Examination of their Qualifications and Abilities which took them up generally six or seven hours and when this Tryal was thus dispatched if the Person was found qualified they ordained him and it was too ordinary for those that were thus ordained to endeavour to undermine the Ministers already in Employment if their people grew disgusted at them or as they became disabled by Age and often the Interest and Kindred of the Intruder carried the matter against the Incumbent without any colour or pretence and in that case the Synod was bound to receive the Intruder In one half of the Country they preach in High Dutch and in the other half in a corrupt Italian which they call Romanish that is a mixture of French and Italian In every League they have a Synod and as the People chuse their Ministers so in imitation of the Switzers every Synâ—d chuses their Antistâ—s or S. perintendant he is called the Dean among the Grisons and hath a sort of an Episcopal Power but he is accountable to the Synod The Office is for life but the Synod upon great cause given may make a change The people of this Country are much more lively than the Switzers and they begin to have some tincture of the Italian Temper They are extream civil to Strangers but it seems in all Commonwealths Inn-keepers think they have a right to exact upon Strangers which one finds here as well as in Holland or in Switzerland I shall conclude what I have to say concerning the Grisons with a very extraordinary Story which I had both from the Ministers of Coire and several other Gentlemen that saw in April 1685. about five hundred persons of different Sexes and Ages that past through the Town who gave this account of themselves They were the Inhabitants of a Valley in Tirol belonging for the greatest part to the Archbishoprick of Saltsburg but some of them were in the Diocesses of Trent Bresse they seemed to be a Remnant of the old Waldenses they worshipped neither Images nor Saints and they believed the Sacrament was only a commemoration of the Death of Christ and in many other Points they had their peculiar Opinions different from those of the Church of Rome they knew nothing neither of Lutherians nor Calvinists and the Grisons tho' their Neighbours had never heard of this nearness of theirs to the Protestant Religion They had Mass said among them but some years since some of the Valley going over Germany to earn somewhat by their labour hapned to go into the Palatinate where they were better instructed in maâ—ters of Religion and these brought back with them into the Valley the Heidelberg Catechism together with â—omâ— other German Books which un over the Vâ—lley and they being before that in a good diâ—position those Books had such an effect upon them that they gave over going to Mass any more and began to worship God in a way more sutable to the Rules set down in Scripture some of their Priests concurred with them in this happy Change but others that adhered still to the Mass went and gave the Archbishop of Saltsburg an account of it upon which he sent some into the Country to examine the truth of the matter to exhort them to return to Maâ—s and tâ— threaten them with all severity if they continued obstinate so they seeing a terrible Storm ready to break upon them resolved to abandon their Houses and all they had rather than sin against their Consciences And the whole Inhabitants of the Valley old and young Men and Women to the number of two thousand divided themselves into several Bodies some intended to go to Brandenburgh others to the Palatinate and about five hundred took the way of Coire intending to disperse theâ—â—elves in Switzerland The Ministers told me they were much edified with their Simplicity and Modesty for a Collection being made for them they desired only a little Bread to carry them on their way From Coire we went to Tossane and from that through the way that is justly called Via Mala. â—t is through a bottom between two Rocks through which the Rhine runs but under ground or a great part of the way The Way is cut out in the middle of the Rock in some places and in several places the steepness of the Rock being such that a Way could not be cut out there are beams driven into it over which Boards and Earth are laid this way holds an hour After that there is for two hours good way and we past through two considerable Villages there is good Lodging in both From thence there is for two hours Journey terâ—ible Way almost as bad as the Via Mala then an hours Journey good way to Splagen which is a large Village of above two hundred Houses that are well built and the Inhabitants seem all to live at their ease tho' they have no sort of Soil but a little Meadow ground about them This is the last Protestant Church that was in our Way it was well endowed for the Provision of the Minister was near two hundred Crowns Those of this Village are the Carriers between Italy and Germany so they drive a great Trade for there is here a perpetual Carriage going and coming and we were told thâ—t there pass genâ—rally a hundred Horses through this Town one day with another and there are above five hundred Carriage-Horse that belong to this Town From this place we went mounting for three hours till we got to the top of the Hills where there is only one great Inn. After that the way was tollerably good for two hours and for two hours there is a constant descent which for the most part is as steep as if we were all the while going down Stairs At the foot of this is a little Village called Campdolcin and here we found we were in Italy both by the vast difference of the Climate for whereas we were freezing on the other side the hear of the
in comparison of the advantages that they found from it And after Eleven Years spent in their service he said he never was so much as once sent for to receive a reprimand from them And if the Nobility that have any Commerce with strangers confess it sincerely to the Inquisitors they are in danger by it by if they conceal it or any main circumstances of it their Process will be soon dispatched These are the most remarkable things that I could pick up during my stay at Venice I have avoided to say any thing relating to their several Councels Officers and Judicatories or to the other parts of their Government which are to be found in all Books and the Forms by which they give Votes by Ballot are so well known that it were an abusing of your time to enlarge my self concerning them nor was I sufficiently informed concerning the particulars of the Sale of Nobility that is now on foot since this last War with the Turks which hath made them willing to take up once again this easie way of raising of Money Nor could I give credit to that of which a Person of great Eminence there assured me that there was a poysoner general in Venice that had a Salary and was employed by the Inquisitors to dispatch those against whom a publick proceeding would make too great a noise this I could not believe though my Author protested that the Brother of one that was solicited to accept of the Employment discovered it to him There is no place in the World where strangers live with more freedom and I was amazed to see so little exactness among the Searchers of the Custom-house for though we had a Mullets load of Trunks and Portmantles yet none offered to ask us either coming or going what we were or what we carried with us But the best and Noblest Entertainment that Venice afforded while I was there was the company of Mr. dela Haye the French Ambassadour who as he hath spent his whole life in publick Embassies so he hath acquired so great a knowledge of the World with so true a Judgment and so obliging a civility that he may well pass for a Pattern and it is no wonder to see him still engaged in a constant succession of publick Employments and his Lady is so wonderful a Person that I pay them both but a very small part of what I owe them in this acknowledgement which I judge my self bound to make of their extraordinary civilities to me and indeed without the advantage of such a rendezvous as I had there a fortnights stay at Venice had been a very tedious matter From Venice we went again to Padua From thence to Rovigo which is but a small Town and so to the Po which divides the Territory of the Republick from the Ferrarese which is now the Popes Country and here one sees what a difference a good and a bad Government makes in a Countrey for though the Soil is the same on both sides of the River and the Ferrarese was once one of the beautifullest spots of all Italy as Ferrara was one of its best Towns while they had Princes of their own who for a course of some Ages were Princes of such Eminent virtue and of so Heroical a Nobleness that they were really the Fathers of their Country nothing can be imagined more changed than all this is now The Soil is abandoned and uncultivated nor were there hands enough so much as to mow their Grass which we saw withering in their Meadows to our no small wonder We were amazed to see so rich a Soil thus forsaken of its Inhabitants and much more when we passed through that vast Town which by its extent shews what it was about an Age ago and is now so much deserted that there are whole sides of Streets without Inhabitants and the poverty of the place appears signally in the Churches which are mean and poorly adorned for the superstition of Italy is so ravenous and makes such progress in this Age that one may justly take the measures of the Wealth of any place from the Churches The Superstition or Vanity of this Age is so much beyond that of the past though the contrary to this is commonly believed that all the vast buildings of great Churches or rich Convents and the surprizing Wealth that appears in them on Festival days are the donatives of the present Age so that it is a vulgar error that some have taken up who fancy that Superstition is at a stand if not in a decay unless it be acknowledged that the craft of the Priests hath opened to them a new method to support their riches when the old ones of Purgatory and Indulgences were become less effectual in an Age of more knowledge and better enlightned and that is to engage Men to an emulation and a vanity in enriching their Churches as much as other Italians have in the inriching ther Palaces so that as they have a pleasure as well as a vanity in seeing so much dead Wealth in their houses they have translated the same humour to their Churches And the vanity of the present Age that believes little or nothing of those contrivances of Purgatory or the like produceth the same if not greater effects in the building and inriching their Churches and so carries it in expence and prodigality from the Superstition of the former Ages that believed every thing But to return to Ferrara I could not but ask all I saw how it came that so rich a Soil was so strangely abandoned some said the Air was become so unhealthy that those who stay in it were very short lived but it is well known that Fourscore Years ago it was well peopled and the ill Air is occasioned by the want of Inhabitants for there not being people to drain the ground and to keep the Ditches clean this makes that there is a great deal of Water that lies on the ground and rots which infects the Air in the same manner as is observed in that vast and rich but uninhabited Champaign of Rome so that the ill Air is the effect rather than the cause of the dispeopling of the Popes Dominions The true cause is the severity of the Government and the heavy Taxes and frequent Confiscations by which the Nephews of several Popes as they have devoured many of the Families of Ferrara so they have driven away many more And this appears more visibly by the different state as well as the Constitution of Bologna which is full of People that abound in Wealth and as the Soil is extream rich so it is cultivated with all due care For Bologna delivered it self to the Popedom upon a capitulation by which there are many Priviledges reserved to it Crimes there are only punished in the Persons of those who commit them but there are no confiscations of Estates and though the Authority in Criminal matters belongs to the Pope and is managed by a Legate and his Officers
design and going back another way could not see the bottom of this It is true the Famous Magliabecchi who is the Great Dukes Library-keeper and is a Person of most wonderful civility and full of candour as well as he is learned beyond imagination assured me that this could be no other than a mistake of the Library-keepers he said such a discovery could not have been made without making so much noise that he must have heard of it He added there was not one Man in Florence that either understood Greek or that examined Manuscripts so that he assured me I could not build on what an Ignorant Library-keeper had told me So I set down this matter as I found it without building much on it Florence is much sunk from what it was for they do not reckon that there are above Fifty thousand Souls in it and the other States that were once great Republicks such as Siena and Pisa while they retained their liberty are now shrunk almost into nothing It is certain that all three together are now not so numerous as any one of them was Two hundred Years ago Legorn is full of People and all round Florence there are a great many Villages but as one goes over Tuscany it appears so dispeopled that one cannot wonder to find a Country that hath been a Scene of so much action and so many Wars now so forsaken and so poor and that in many places the Soil is quite neglected for want of hands to cultivate it and in other places where there are more People they look so poor and their houses are such miserable ruines that it is scarce accountable how there should be so much poverty in so rich a Country which is all over full of beggars and here the style of begging was a little altered from what I found in Lombardy for whereas there they begged for the sake of S. Anthony here all begged for the Souls that were in Purgatory and this was the stile in all the other parts of Italy through which I passed In short the dispeopling of Tuscany and most of the Principalities of Italy but chiefly of the Popes Dominions which are more abandoned than any other part of Italy seemed to flow from nothing but the severity of the Government and the great decay of Trade for the greatest Trade of Italy being in Silk the vast importation of Silks that the East-India Companies bring into Europe hath quite ruined all those that deal in this manufacture Yet this is not the chief cause of the dispeopling of those rich Countries the severity of the Taxes is the true reason notwithstanding all that decay of Trade the Taxes are still kept up Besides this the vast Wealth of the Convents where the only People of Italy are to be sound that live not only at their ease but in great plenty and luxury makes many forsake all sort of Industry and seek for a retreation of those seats of pleasure so that the People do not encrease fast enough to make a new Race to come instead of those whom a hard Government drives away It must needs surprize an unattentive Traveller to see not only the Venetian Territory which is indeed a rich Country but the Baliages of the Switzers and the Coast of Genoa so full of People when Tuscany the Patrimony and the Kingdom of Naples have so few Inhabitants In the Coast of Genoua there is for many miles as it were a constant tract of Towns and Villages and all those are well peopled though they have scarce any Soil at all lying under the Mountains that are very barren and that exposed them to a most uneasie Sun and that they lie upon a boistrous Sea that is almost always in a storm and that affords very few Fish and yet the gentleness of the Government draws such multitudes thither and those are so full of Wealth that Money goes at Two per cent But on the other hand to ballance this a little so strange and wild a thing is the nature of Man at least of Italians that I was told that the worst People of all Italy are the Genoeses and the most generally corrupted in their Morals as to all sorts of Vice so that though a severe Government and Slavery are contrary to the nature of Man and to human Society to Justice and Equity and to that essential equality that Nature hath made among Men yet on the other hand all Men cannot bear that ease and liberty that becometh human Nature The superstition of Italy and the great wast of Wealth that one sees in their Churches particularly those prodigious masses of Plate with which their Altars are covered on Holy-days doth also sink their Trade extreamly for Silver being in Commerce what blood is in the Body when so much of that is dead and circulates no more it is no wonder if such extravasation if I may use so long and hard a word of Silver occasions a great deadness in Trade I had almost forgot one Remark that I made in the Hill of the Appenins just above Florence that I never saw such tall and big Cypresses as grew over all that Hill which seemed a little strange that Tree being apt to be starved by a cold Winter among us and there the Winters are severe All the way in Tuscany is very rugged except on the sides of the Arne But the uneasiness of the Road is much qualified by the great care that is had of the High-ways which are all in very good case The Inns are wretched and ill furnished both for Lodging and Diet. This is the plague of all Italy when once one hath passed the Appennins for except in the great Towns one really suffers so much that way that the pleasure of Travelling is much abated by the inconveniences that one meets in every Stage through which he passes I am SIR Yours BOOK II. The Fourth Letter From Rome the Eight of December 1685. I Am now in my last stage of my Voyage over Italy for since my last from Florence I have not only got hither but have been in Naples and have now satisfied my Curiosity so fully that I intend to leave this Place within a day or two and go to Civita-vecchia and from thence by Sea to Marseilles and to avoid an unpleasant Winters Journey over the Alps. It is true I close the sight of Turin Genoa and some other Courts but tho I am told these deserve well the pains of the Journey yet when one rises from a great Meal no Delicacies how much soever they might tempt him at an other time can provoke his appetite so I confess freely that the sight of Naples and Rome have so fil'd my stomack that way that the Curiosity of seeing new Places is now very low with me and indeed these that I have of last seen are such that Places which at an other time would please me much would now make but a slight and cold Impression All the way