mixture of colours that no art could have expressed it self more delectable If you have ever seen an exquisite Mosaical work you may best judge of the beauty of this Valley Add to this that the River Seine being now past Paris either to embrace that flourishing soyl or out of a wanton desire to play with it self hath divided it self into sundry lesser channels besides its several windings and turnings So that one may very justly and not irreligiously conceive it to be an Idaea or representation of the Garden of Eden the River so happily separating it self to water the ground This Valley is a very large circuit And as the Welch-men call Anglesea Mon Mam Gymry that is the Mother of Wales so may we call this the Mother of Paris for so abundantly doth it furnish that great and populous City that when the Dukes of Bary and Burgundie besieged it with 100000. men there being at that time three or 400000. Citizens and Souldiers within the wals neither the people within nor the enemy without found any want of provision It is called the Valley of Montmorencie from the Town and Castle of Montmorencie seated in it But this Town nameth not the Valley onely it giveth name also to the ancient family of the Dukes of Montmorencie the ancientest house of Christendom He stiled himself Lepremier Christien plus vicil Baron du' France and it is said that his Ancestors received the faith of Christ by the preaching of St. Denis the first Bishop of Paris Their principal houses are that of Chantilly and Ecqucan both seated in the Isle This last being given to this present Dukes Father by King Henry the fourth to whom it was confiscated by the condemnation of one of his Treasurers This house also and so I beleive it hath been observed to have yeilded to France more Constables Marshals Admirals and the like Officers of power and command than any three other in the whole Kingdom insomuch that I may say of it what Irenicus doth of the Count Palatines the names of the Countries onely changed Non alia Galliae est familia cui plus debent nobilitus The now Duke named Henry is at this present Admiral of France The most eminent place in all the Isle is Mont-Martyr eminent I mean by reason of its height though it hath also enough of antiquity to make it remarkable It is seated within a mile of Paris high upon a Mountain on which many of the faithful during the time that Gaule was heathenish were made Martyrs Hence the name though Paris was the place of apprehension and sentence yet was this Mountain commonly the Scaffold of execution It being the custom of the Ancients neither to put to death nor bury within the wals of their Cities Thus the Jews when they crucified our Saviour led him out of the City of Hierusalem unto Mount Calvary unto which St. Paul is thought to allude Hebr. 13. saying Let us therefore go forth to him c. Thus also doth St. Luke to omit other instances report of St. Stephen Acts 7. And they cast him out of the City and stoned him So in the State of Rome the Vestal Virgin having committed fornication was stifled in the Campus Sceleritatus and other Malefactors thrown down the Tarpeian rock both scituate without the Town So also had the Thessalians a place of execution from the praecipice of an hill which they called the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Corvi whence arose the Proverb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be hanged As they permitted not execution of Malefactors within their wals so neither would they suffer the best of their Citizens to be buried within them This was it which made Abraham to buy him a field wherein to bury his dead and thus we read in the seventh of Luke that the Widow of Naims Son was carried out to be buried This custom also we find among the Athenians Corinthians and other of the Graecians qui inagris suis saith Alexander ab Alexandro aut in fundo suburbano ceuinavito aut patrio solo corpora humari consuevere Amongst the Romans it was once the fashion to burn the bodies of their dead within their City This continued till the bringing in of the Laws of Athens commonly called the Laws of the twelve Tables one of which Laws runneth in these words In urbe ne sepelito neve drito After this prohibition their dead corps were first burned in Campus Martius and their Urnes covered in sundry places of the field The frequent Urnes or sepulchral stones digged up amongst us here in England are sufficient testimonies of this assertion Besides we may find in Appian that the chief reason why the rich men in Rome would not yeild to the Law called Lex Agrariae for that Law divided the Roman possessions equally among the people was because they thought it an irreligious thing that the Monuments of their fore-fathers should be sold to others The first that is registred to have been buried in the City was Trajane the Emperor Afterward it was granted as an honorary to such as had deserved well of the Republique And when the Christian Religion prevailed and Church-yards those dormitories of the Saints were consecrated the liberty of burying within the wals was to all equally granted On this ground it not being lawful to put to death or bury within the Town of Paris this Mountain was destinate to these purposes then was it onely a Mountain now it is enlarged unto a Town It hath a poor wall an Abbey of Benedictine Monks and a Chappel called La Chapelle des Martyrs both founded by Lewis the sixth called The Gross Amongst others which received here the Crown of Martyrdom none more famous than St. Denis said to be Dionisius Areopagita the first Bishop of Paris Rusticus his Arch-preist and Eleutherius his Deacon The time when under the raign of Domitian the person by whose command Hesubinus Governour of Paris the crime for not bowing before the Altar of Mercury and offering sacrifice unto him Of St. Denis being the Patron or Tutelary St. of France the Legend reports strange wonders as namely when the Executioner had smitten off his head he caught it between his arms and ran with it down the hill as fast as his legs could bear him Half a mile from the place of his execution he sate down rested and so he did nine times in all even till he came to the place where his Church is now built There he fell down and died being three milee English from Mount Martyr and there he was buried together with Rusticus and Eleutherius who not being able to go as fast as he did were brought after by the people O impudentiam admirabilem verè Romanam and yet so far was the succeeding age possessed with a beleif of this miracle that in the nine several places where he is said to have rested so many handsom crosses of stones there are erected all of a making To the
Letters what signe it is neither is it more than needs The old shift off This is a Cock and This is a Bull was never more requisite in the infancy of Painting than in this City for so hideously and so without resemblance to the thing signified are most of these Pencill Works that I may without danger say of them as Psuedalus implautus doeh of the Letter which was written from Phaenicium to his young Mr. Callidorus An absecro herclé habent quoque gallinae manus nam has quidem gallina scripsit If a Hen would not scrape better Portraictures in a Dunghil than they have hanged up before their doors I would send her to my Hostesse of Tostes to be executed And indeed generally the Artificers of Paris are as slovenly in their Trades as in their houses yet you may find nimble dancers pretty Fidlers for a toy and a Taylor that can trick you up after the best and newest fashion Their Cutlers make such abominable and fearfull knives as would grieve a mans heart to see them and the Glovers are worse than they you would imagine by their Gloves that the hand for which they were made were cut off by the wrest yet on the other side they are very perfect at Tooth-picks Beard-brushes and which I hold the most commendable Art of them the cutting of a Seal Their Mercers are but one degree removed from a Pedler such as in England we call Chapmen that is a Pedler with a shop and for Goldsmiths there is little use for them Glasses there being most in request both because neat and because cheap I perswade my self that the two several ranks of shops in Cheapside can show more Plate and more variety of Mercery warres good and rich than three parts of Paris Merchants they have but not many and those which they have not very wealthy The River ebbs not and floweth not nigher them than fifteen miles or thereabouts and the Boats which thence serve the City be no bigger than our Westren Barges The principal means by which the people do subsist are the Court of the King most time held amongst them and the great resort of Advodates and Clients to the Chambers of Parliament without these two crutches the Town would get a vile halting and perhaps be scarce able to stand What the estates of some of the wealthiest Citizens may amount to I cannot say yet I dare conjecture it not to be superfluous The Author of the Book entitled Les estats du monde reckoneth it for a great mervail that some of our London Merchants should be worth 100000. Crownes we account that estate amongst us not to be so wonderful and may hence safely conclude that they which made a Prodegy of so little are not much worth themselves If you beleeve their apparrel you may perhaps be perswaded otherwise that questionless speaketh no less than Millions though like it is that when they are in their best clothes they are in the middle of their estate But concernig the ridiculous bravery of the poor Parisian take along with you this story Upon our first coming into Paris there came to visit a German Lord whom we met a Ship-board a couple of French Gallants his acquaintance the one of them for I did not much observe the other had a suit of Turkey Grogram dublet with Taffaty cut with long slashes and carbonadoes after the French fashion and belayed with bugle lace through the opening of his dublet appeared his shirt of the Purest Holland and wrought with curious needle-work the points of his wast and knees all edged with a silver edging his Garters Roses and Hatband sutable to his points a Beaver hat and a pare of silk Stokings his Cloak also of Turkey Grogram cut upon black Taffaty This Lord for who would have dared to guesse him other applied himself to me and perceiving my ignorance in the French accosted me in Latine which he spake indifferently well After some discourse he took notice of mine eyes which were then sore and Sea sick and promised me if I would call on him at his lodging the next morning to give me a water which suddenly would restore them to their strength and vigor I humbled thanked his Lordship for such an ineffable and immerited favour in the best complement and greatest abaisance I could devise It was not for nought thought I that our English extoll so much the humanity of this people Nay I began to accuse report of envy as not having published the one half of their graces and affabilities Quantillum enim virtutum istarum famâ acceperam And thus taking my leave of his Honour I greedily expected the next morning the morning come and the hour of visitting his Lordship almost at hand I sent a Servant to fetch a Barbar to combe me and make me neat as not knowing what occasion I might have of seeing his Lady or his Daughters upon the return of the messenger presently followed His Altitude and bidding me sit down in the chair he disburdened one of his pockets quis hoc credat nisi sit proteste vetustas of a case of instruments and the other of a bundle of linnen Thus accomodated he falleth to work about me to the earning of a quart descu in my life I had never more ado to hold in my laughter and certainly had not an anger or vexation at mine own folly in casting away so much humble rhetorick the night before upon him somewhat troubled me I should either have laught him out of his fine suit or have broke my heart in the restraint Quid Domini facient audent cum talia fures If a Barber may thus be taken in suspicion for a Lord no doubt but a Mercer may be accused for a Marquesse CHAP. II. Paris divided into four parts The Faulx Bourgs in general Of the Pest house The Faulx Bourg and Abbey of St. Germain The Queene Mothers house there her purpose never to reside in it Of the Town and Government of Paris The Provost of Merchands and his Authority The Armes of the Towne The Grand Castellet The Arcenal The place Royall c. The Vicounty of Paris and the Provosts seven Daughters THey which write of Lusitania divide it into three parts viz. Vlteriorum lying beyond Duerus North. Citerioram lying from Tagus south and Interamnem scituate betwixt both the Rivers Paris is seated just as that Province and may in a manner admit the same division for the River of Seine doth there disperse it self that it hath divided the French Metropolis into three parts also viz. Citeriorem lying on this side the River which they call la Ville the Towne Vlteriorem lying beyond the further branch of it which they call l' université and Interamnem scituate between both the streames in a little Island which they call la Ceté To these adde the Suburbs or as they call them the Faulx Bourgs and you have in all four parts of Paris These Faulx bourgs
are not incorporated into the Town or joyned together with it as the Suburbs of London are unto that Citie they stand severed from it a pretty distance and appear what indeed they are a distinct body from it For the most part the houses in them are old and ruinous yet the Faulx bourg of St. Jacques is in pretty good fashion and the least unsightly of them all except St. Germain The Faulx bourg of St. Martin also hath somewhat to commend it which is that the great Pest house built by Henry the fourth is within the precincts of it A House built quadrangular-wise very large and capacious and seemeth to such as stand afarre off it for it is not safe venturing nigh it or within it to be more like the Pallace of a King then the Kings Pallace it self But the principallest of all the Suburbs is that of St. Germain a place lately repared full of divers stately houses and in bigness little inferiour to Oxford It took name from the Abbey of St. Germain seated in it built by Childebert the son of Clovis Anno 542. in the honour of St. Vincint Afterward it got the name of St. Germain a Bishop of Paris whose body was there buried and at whose instigation it had formerly been founded The number of the Monkes was enlarged to the number of 120. by Charles the bald he began his raigne Anno 841. and so they continue till this day The present Abbot is Henry of Burbon Bishop of Metz base son unto Henry the fourth He is by his place Lord of all the goodly Suburbs hath the power of levying taxes upon his Tennants and to him accrew all the profits of the great fayre holden here every February The principall house in it is that of the Queen Mother not yet fully built the Gallery of it which possesseth all the right side of the square is perfectly finished and said to be a most royall and majestical piece the further part also opposite to the gate is finished so farre forth as concerning the outside and strength of it the ornamentall part and trapping of it being not yet added when it is absolutely consummate if it hold proportion with the two other sides both within and without it will be a Pallace for the elegancy and politeness of the fabrick not fellowed in Europe A Pallace answerable to the greatness of her mind that built it yet it is by divers conjectured that her purpose is never to reside there for which cause the building goeth slowly forward for when upon the death of her great Privado the Marquiss d' Ancre on whom she bestowed much of her grace and favour she was removed to Blois those of the opposite faction in the Court get so strongly into the favour of the King that not without great struggling of those of her party and the hazard of two Civil Warres she obtained her former neerness to his Majesty She can see by this what to trust to should her absence leave the Kings mind any way prepared for new impressions Likely therefore it is that she will rather choose to leave her fine house unhabited further than on occasions for a Banquet then give the least opportunity to stagger her greatness This house is called Luxembourg Pallace as being built in a place of an old house belonging to the Dukes of that Province The second house of note in this Suburb is that of the Prince of Condé to whom it was given by the Queene Mother in the first year of her Regency The Town of Paris is that part of it which lyeth on this side of the hithermost branch of the Seine towards Picardie what was spoken before in the general hath its reference to this particular whether it concernes the sweetness of the streets the manner of the building the furniture of the Artificer or the like It conteineth in it thirteen Parish Churches viz. 1. St. Germainde l' Auxerre 2. St. Eustace 3. les St. Innocents 4. St. Sauveur 5. St. Nicholas des Champs 6. le Sepulchre 7. St. Jacques de la boucherie 8. St. Josse 9. St. Mercy 10· St. Jean 11. St. Gervase et St. Protasse 12. St. Paul 13. St. Jean de ronde It hath also in it seven Gates sc 1. St. Anthony upon the side of the River near unto the Arcenal 2. Porte du Temple 3. St. Martin 4. St. Denis 5. Porte Montmartre 6. St. Honore 7. Porte neufue so called because it was built since the others which joyneth hard by the Tuilleries the Garden of the Louure The principall Governour of Paris as also of the whole Isle of France is the Duke of Mont-bazon who hath held the office ever since the year 1619. when it was surrendred by Luines but he little medleth with the City The particular Governours of it are the two Provosts the one called le Provost de Paris the other le Provost des Merchands The Provost of Paris determineth all causes between Citizen and Citizen whether they be crimical or civil the office is for term of life the place of judgement the Grand Castellet The present Provost is called Mr. Sequse and is by birth of the Nobilitie as all which are honoured with this office must be He hath as his Assistants three Leiutenants the Leiutenant Criminal which judgeth in matters of life and death the Leiutenant Civil which desideth causes of debt or trespasse between party and party and the Leiutenant perticulier who supplyeth their several places in their absence There are also necessarily required to this Court the Procareur and the Advocate or the Kings Solicitor and Atturney twelve Counsellers and of under Officers more than enough This Office is said to have been erected in the time of Lewis the Son of Charles the great In matters criminal there is an Appeale admitted from hence to the Attornelle In matters Civil if the summe exceed the value of 250. Liures to the great Chamber or le grand Chambre in the Court of Parliament The Provost of the Merchands and his authority was first instituted by Philip Augustus who began his raigne Anno 1290. His office is to conserve the liberties and indulgences granted to the Merchants and Artificers of the Citie to have an eye over the sales of Wine Corn Wood Coal c. and to impose Taxes on them to keep the keyes of the Gates to give the watch word in time of warre to grant Passports to such as are willing to leave the Town and the like There are also four other Officers joyned unto him Eschevins they call them who also carry a great sway in the Citie There are moreover Assistants to them in their proceedings yea the Kings Solicitor or Procureur and twenty four Counsellers To compare this Corporation with that of London the Provost is as the Mayor the Eschevins as the Sheriffs the twenty four Counsellers as the Aldermen and the Procureur as the Recorder I omit the under Officers whereof here there is no
so I leave the Constable to take a veiw of his Province A man at this time beloved of neither parties hated by the Protestants as an Apostata and suspected by the Papists not to be entire To proceed July the twenty eighth we came unto Clermont the first Town of any note that we met with in Picardy A pretty nea Town and finely seated on the rising of an hill For the defence of it it hath on the upper side of it an indifferent large Castle and such as were the scituations of it somewhat helped by the strengths of Art might be brought to good service Towards the Town it is of an easie access to the fieldward more difficult as being built on the pendicular fall of a Rock In the year 1615. it was made good by Mr. Haroncourt with the Regiment of eight Companies who kept it in the name of the Prince of Conde and the rest of that Confederacy but it held not long For at the Marshal d' Ancres coming before it with his Army and artillery it was presently yeilded This warr which was the second Civil warr that had happened in the reign of King Lewis was undertaken by the Princes chiefly to thwart the designes of the Queen Mother and to crush the powerableness of her grand favourite the Marshall The pretence as in such cases commonly is was the good of the Common-wealth the occasion the cross Marriages then consummated by the Marshal between the Kings of France and Spain For by those marriages they seemed to fear the augmentation of the Spaniards greatness the alienation of the affections of their ancient Allies and by consequence the ruine of the French Empire But it was not the fate of D' Ancre to perish two years more of Command and insolencies his destinies allowed and then he tumbled This opportunity of his death ending the third Civil war each of which his faulty greatness had occasioned What the ambition of his designs did tend to I dare not absolutely determine though like enough it is that they aimed further than at a private or personal potency for having under the favour and countenance of the Queen Mother made himself Master of the Kings ear and of his counsels he made a shift to get into his own hands an authority almost as unlimitted as that of the old Mayre of the Palace for he had suppressed the liberty of the general Estates and of the Soveraign Court removed all the Officers and Counsellors of the last King ravished one of the Presidents of the great Chamber by name Mr. Le Jay out of the Parliament into the Prison and planted Garrisons of his own in most of the good Towns of Normandy of which Province he was Governour Add to this that he had caused the Prince of Conde being acknowledged the first Prince of the bloud to be imprisoned in the Bastile and had searched into the continuance of the lives of the King and his Brother by the help of sorcery and witchcraft Besides he was suspected to have had secret intelligence with some forrain Princes ill-willers to the State and had disgraced some and neglected others of the Kings Confederates And certainly those actions seem to import some project beyond a private and obedient greatness though I can hardly beleive that he durst be ambitious of the Crown for being a fellow of a low birth his heart could not but be too narrow for such an hope and having no party amongst the Nobility and being less gratious among the people he was altogether destitute of means to compass it I therefore am of opinion that the Spanish gold had corrupted him to some project concerning the enlargement of that Empire upon the French dominions which the cross Marriages whereof he was the contriver and which seemed so full of danger to all the best Patriots of France may seem to demonstrate And again at that time when he had put the Realm into this third combustion the King of Spain had an Army on foot against the Duke of Savoy and another in the Countries of Cleive and Juliers which had not the timely fall of this Monsieur and the peace ensuing prevented it might both perhaps have met together in the midst of France but this is onely conjectural CHAP. II. The fair City of Amiens and greatness of it The English feasted within it and the error of that action The Town how built seated and fortified The Cittadel of it thought to be impregnable not permitted to be veiwed The over-much openness of the English in discovering their strengths The watch and form of government in the Town Amiens a Visedamate and to whom it pertaineth What that honour is in France and how many there enjoy it c. THat night we went from Clermont to a Town called Bâ—etaul where we were harboured being from Clermont six French Leagues and from Paris twenty Our entertainment there such as in other places as sluttish and as inconvenient The next day being the twenty ninth about ten of the clock we had a sight of the goodly and fair City of Amiens A City of some English miles circuit within the wals which is all the greatness of it for without the wals it hath houses few or none A City very capacious and for that cause hath been many times honoured with the persons and trains of many great Princes Besides that once it entertained almost a whole Army of the English For King Lewis the eleventh having made an advantagious peace with our Edward and perceiving how ingrateful it was amongst the military men he intended also to give them some manner of satisfaction he sent therefore unto them three hundred Carts laden with the best Wines and seeing how acceptable a present that had proved he intended also to feast them in Amiens within half a league of which their Camp was lodged This entertainment lasted four dayes each street having in it two long tables and each table being furnished with very plentiful provision Neither were they denied entrance into any of the Taverns or Victualling-houses or therein stinted either in meats or drinks whatsoever was called for was defraied by King Lewis An action wherein if my opinion might carry it there was little of the Politician for there were permitted to enter into the Town so many of the English-men at once that had they been but so minded they might easily have made themselves as well Masters of the place as of the Kings person nine thousand are reckoned by Comminees to have been within together and most of them armed so that they might very easily have surprised the Gates and let in the rest of the Army Those of the French Kings Council feared it much and therefore informed both Princes the one of his Town the other of his honour But this jealousie was but a French distrust and might well have been spared the English being of that Generals mind that scorned to steal a Victory and of that generous
Henry the fourth his intent to fortifie the Town Why not actuated The Artifices and wealth of the Citizens The bravery of the Citizens described under the person of a Barber WE are now come to Paris whether indeed I should have brought you the same day we came from Pontoise It hath had in several ages two several names the one taken from the people the other from the scituation The name taken from the people is that of Paris Julius Caesar in his Commentaries making mention of the Nation of the Parisii and at that time calling the City Vrbem pacisiorum Amianus Marcellinus calleth it by the same name appellative for as yet the name of Paris was not appropriated to it As for these Parisii it is well known that they were a people of Gallia Celtica but why the people were so called hath been questioned and that deservedly Some derive them from a Son of Paris the Son of Priam but the humor of deriving all national originations from Troy hath long since been hissed out of the School of Antiquity The Berosus of John Annins bringeth them from one Paris King of the Celtae and this authority is alike authentical The bastards which this Annius imposed upon the ancient Writers are now taught to know their own Fathers Others deduce it from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Greek word importing boldness in speech which is approved by William Breton in the first book of his Philippiades Finibus egressi patriis per Gallica rura Sedem quaerebant ponendis maembus aptum Et se Parisios dixerant nomine Graeco Quod sonat expositum nostris audacia verbis Leaving their native Soil they sought through Gaule A place to build a City and a Wall And call'd themselves Parisians which in Greek Doth note a prompt audacity to speak It is spoken of the Gaules who coming out of the more Southern parts here planted themselves Neither is it improbable that a Gallick Nation should assume unto it self a Greek name that language having taken good footing in these parts long before and sans time as himself testifieth in his Commentaries How well this name agreeth with the French nature I have already manifested in the character of this people both Men and Women But I will not stand to this Etymology The names of great Cities are obscure as those of their Founders and the conjecturall derivations of them are oftentimes rather plausible than probable and sometimes neither As for the antiquity of it it is said to have been built in the time of Amaziah King of Judah but this also is uncertain the beginnings of ancient Cities being as dark and hidden as their names Certain it is that it is no puisne in the world it being a strong and opulent Town in the dayes of Julius Caesar The other name of the City which indeed is the ancient and was taken from the scituation of it is Luâ—etia from Lutum Durt as being seated in an exceeding clammy and durty soyl To this also consenteth the above named William of Breton in his said first book of his Philippiades saying Quoniam tunc temporis illam Reddebat palus terrae pinguaedo lutosam Aptam Parisii posuere Lutetia nomen And since the Fens and clammy soyl did make Their City dirty for that reasons sake The Town the name Lutetia did take As for the Etymology of Munster who derived the name from Paris one of the Kings of Celtae it may for ought that I know deservedly keep company with that of Berosus already recited This name of Lutetia continued till the coming of the Franks into these parts who to endear the Nation of the Parisii and oblige them more faithfully to do them service commanded it for ever after to be called Paris But the scituation of the Town gave it not onely the name it gave it also as the custom of Godfathers is in England a Christening gift which is the riches of it and by consequence the preeminence In how delicate and flourishing a soyl it is scituate I have already told you in my description of the valley of Montmorencie wherein it standeth If you will beleive Comines in the first book of his History he will tell you that ' est la cite que iamais ie veisse environnâ—e de meilleux pais plantureux of all the Cities which ever he saw it is environned with the best and fruitfullest Country The River of Seine is also no question a great help to the enriching of it though it be not navigable to the Town yet it giveth free passage unto Boats of an indifferent bigg burden into which the Ships are unladen and so their commodities carryed up the water A profitable entercourse between the Sea and the City for the Merchants Of these Boats there are an infinite company which ply up and down the water and more indeed as the said Cominces is of opinion than any man can beleeve that hath not seen them It is in circuit as Boterus is of opinion twelve miles others judge it at ten for my part I dare not guesse it to be above eight and yet I am told by a French man that it was in compasse no less than fourteen Leagues within the Walls an untruth bigger than the Towne For figure it is circular that being according to the Geometricians of all figures the most capacious And questionless if it be true that Vrbs non in maenibus sed in civibus posita est Paris may chalenge as great a circuit as the most of Europe it being little inferiour to the biggest for the multitude of her inhabitants Joyn the compass and the populousness together and you shall hear the wisest of the French men say Que ce qu'est l' ame a la raisen et la prunet a locit cela mesme est Paris a la France Adde to this the virdict of Charles the fifth who being demanded which he thought to be the biggest City of France answered Roven and being then asked what he though of Paris made answer Vn Pà is that it was a whole Country the Emperour did well to flatter Francis the first who asked him these questions and in whose power he then was otherwise he might have given men good cause to suspect his judgement The truth is that Paris is a fayr and goodly Town yet withal it is no thing like the miracle that some make it Were the figure of London altered and all the houses of it cast into a ring I dare able it a larger and more goodly Town than Paris and that in the comparison it may give it at the least half a mile oddes For matter of strength and resistance certain it is that this City is exceeding well seated were it as well fortified It lyeth in a plain flat and levell and hath no hills nigh unto it from which it can any way be annoyed and for the casting and making of rowling Trenches I think the soyle is hardly serviceable If Art
disposition that they would not betray their credits Nunquam illis adeo ulla opportuna visa est victoriae occasio quam damno pensaâ—ent fidei as the Historian of Tiberius If then this City escaped a sack or a surprisal it cannot be imputed to the wisdom of the French but to the modesty and fair dealing of the English but this was not the onely Solaecisme in point of State committed by that great Politick of his time King Lewis there never being a man so famed for brain that more grosly over-reached himself than that Prince though perhaps more frequently The buildings of this Town are of divers materials some built of stone others of wood and some again of both the streets very sweet and clean and the air not giving place to any for a lively pureness Of their buildings the principal are their Churches whereof there are twelve onely in number Churches I mean parochial besides those belonging unto Religious Houses Next unto them the work of most especial note is a great large Hospital in method and disposing of the beds much like unto the Hostel Dieu in Paris but in number much inferior Et me tamen capuerant and yet the decency of them did much delight me The sweetness and neatness of the Town proceedeth partly as I say from the air and partly from the conveniencie of the River of Some on which it is seated for the River running in one entire bank at the further end of the Town is there divided into six Channels which almost at an equal distance run through the several parts of it These Channels thus divided receive into them all the ordure and filth wherewith the Town were otherwise likely to be pestered and affordeth the people a plentiful measure of water wherewith to purge the lanes and by-corners of it as often as them listeth But this is not all the benefit of these Channels they bestow upon the City matter also of commodity which is the infinite number of Griest-Mils that are built upon them At the other end of the Town the Channels are again united into one stream both those places as well at the division as the union of the Channels being exceedingly fortified with chains and piles and also with bulwarks and out-works Neither is the Town well fortified and strengthened at those passages onely in the upper parts of it having enough of strength to enable them to a long resistance The Ditch round about it save where it meeteth with the Cittadel is exceeding deep and steepy the wals of a good height broad and composed of earth and stone equally the one making up the outside of them and the other the inside The Gates are very large and strong as well in the sinewie composition of themselves as in addition of the Draw-bridge Subburbs this City hath none because a Town of Warr nor any liberal circuit of territoty because a Frontier yet the people are indifferent wealthy and have amongst them good trading besides the benefit of the Garrison and the Cathedral The Garrison consisteth of two hundred and fity men five hundred in all they should be who are continually in pay to guard the Cittadel their pay eight Sols daily The Governour of them is the Duke of Chawne who is also the Lieutenant or Deputy Governour of the whole Province under the Constable Their Captain Mr Le Noyr said to be a man of good experience and worthy his place This Cittadel was built by Henry the fourth as soon as he had recovered the Town from the Spaniards Anno 1591. It is seated on the lower part of the City though somewhat on the advantage of an hill and seemeth in my opinion better scituate to command the Town than to defend it or rather to recover the Town being taken than to save it from taking They who have seen it and know the arts of Fortification report it to be impregnable Quod nec Jovis ira nec ignes Nec poterit ferrum nec edax abolere vetustas Nor am I able to contradict it for besides that it is a skill beyond my profession we were not permitted to come within it to take a survey of it at a distance As soon as we approached nigh unto it one of the Garrison offered us the musket a sufficient warning not to be too venterous So that all I could observe was this that they had within themselves good plenty of earth to make their gabions and repair their breaches With the same jealousie also are the rest of the Forts and Towns of importance guarded in this and other Countries no people that ever I heard of being so open in shewing their places of strength and safety unto strangers as the English For a dozen of Ale a Forreiner may pace over the Curtain of Portsmouth and measure every sconce and bulwark of it for a shilling more he shall see their provision of powder and other munition and when that is done if he will he shall walk the round too A French crown fathometh the wals of Dover Castle and for a pint of Wine one may see the nakedness of the block-houses at Gravesend A negligence which may one day cost us dearly though now we think it not For what else do we in it but commit that prodigal folly for which Plutarch condemneth Pericles Viz. _____ c. that is to break open all the pales and inclosures of our Land to the end that every man might come in freely and take away our fruits at his pleasure Jealousie though a vice in a man toward his Wife is yet one of the safest Vertues in a Governour towards his Fortress and therefore I could wish that an English man would borrow a little of this Italian humor Besides these Souldiers which are continually in garrison for the defence of the Cittadel there are also three hundred which keep watch every night for the defence of the City These watchmen receive no pay from the King but discharge that duty amongst themselves and in turns every house finding one for that service twelve nights in the year The Weapons which they use are Pikes onely and Musquets there being not one peice of Ordinance all about the Town or on the wals of it The Governour of this Town as it hath reference to the King is a Bailly who hath belonging unto him all the authority which belongeth to a Siege Presidial Under him he hath a Lieutenant Generall and particular seven Counsellors a publick Notary and other inferior Officers and Magistrates As it is a Corporation the Cheif Governour of it is a Mayor and next to him the Eschevins or Sheriffs as Protectors of the Inhabitants and their Liberties besides those of the Common-Council Another Circumstance there is which ennobleth this Town of Amiens which is that it is a Visedamate or that it giveth honour to one of the Nobility who is called the Visedame of Amiens This title at this time belongeth to the Duke of Chauny Governour
of London As for the Town of Boulogne it is divided into two parts la haute Ville and la Bass Ville or the High Town and the Low Town distant one from the other about an hundred paces and upwards The high Town is seated upon the top of an hill the low Town upon the the declivity of it and towards the Haven Or else we may divide it into two other parts Viz. the Town and the City the Town that towards the water and the City that which lieth above it It was made a City in the reign of Henry the second Anno 1553. at which time the City of Terorenne was totally ruined by the Imperials and the Bishop was removed â—â—ther The Church of Nostre Dame being made the Cathedral there came along hither upon the remove of the Bishop 20. Chanoins which number is here still retained their revenues being about a 1000. Liures yearly as for the present Bishop his name is Pierre de Arme his intrado twenty thousand Liures His Metropolitan he of Rhemes The Town or as they call it the low Town is bigger than the City and better built the streets larger and the people richer most of the Merchants living in it because it lieth above the Haven but that which made this low town most pleasing was a solemn procession that passed through the streets of it intended to pacifie Gods anger and divert the plague which at that time was in the City In the first front there was carried the Cross and after that the holy and sanctified Banner next unto it followed all the Priests of the Town bare-headed and in their Surplices singing as they went the services destinate to that occasion after them followed the Men and after them the Women of the Town by two and two it being so ordered by the Roman Ritual Vt Laicia Clâ—ricis faeminae a viris separatae prosequantur On the other side of the street went the Brethren dela Charite every one of them holding in his hand a little triangular Banner or a Pennon after them the Boys and Wenches in this method did the solemnity measure every lane and angle of the Town the Priests singing and all the people answering them in the same note At the Church they began it in prayer and having visited all the Town they returned again thither to end it with the same devotion An action vety grave and solemn and such as I could very well allow of were it not onely for one prayer which is alwayes said at the time of this performance and addition of the Banners The prayer is this Exaudi nos Deus salutaris noster intercedente beatâ gloriosa Dei genetrice Mariâ semper Virgine Sebastiano beato Martyre tuo this Sebastian is their Aesculapius or Tutelary Saint against the sickness omnibus Sanctis populum tuum ab iracundiae tuae terroribus libera misericordiae tuae fac largitate securum Amen This onely excepted there is nothing in the whole Liturgy of it which can be offensive to any conscience not idle scrupulous These Processions were first instituted by Pope Stephanus the second who began his Popedom Anno 752. the intent of them is as Platina reporteth Ad placandam Dei iram The first place that they ever went to in Procession was the Church of our Lady in the Shambles or ad Sanctam Dei genitricem ad praesepe as the Historia calleth them As for the Letany which is a principal part of it it was first compiled by Mamercus Bishop of Vienna in Daulphine in the time of Pope Leo the first which was 308. years after the time of Stephanus The motive of it was the often danger to which France was subject by reason of the frequency of Earthquakes Since those beginnings which were fair and commendable the Romish Church hath added much to them of magnificence and somewhat of impiety and prophaneness As for the Brethren de la Charite I could not learn any thing of their original but much of their office for they are bound to visit all such as are infected with the Plague to minister unto them all things necessary and if they die to shrowd them and carry them to their graves These duties they perform very willingly being possessed with this fancy that they are priviledged from contagion by vertue of their Order and to say the truth they are most of them old and so less subject to it and indeed such sapless thin and unbodied fellows that one would think almost no disease could catch them yet hath their prerogative not alwayes held to them Of thirty three of them in Callice three onely surviving the disease about four years since But were the danger to which themselves are liable all the inconvenience of it I should not much disallow it There is a greater mischeif waiting upon it and that is the infecting of others they immediately after their return from the Pest-house mixing themselves with any of their neighbours A most speedy meanes to spread the pestilence where it is once begun though neither they nor the people will be perswaded unto it The City or the high Town standeth as we have said on the top of the hill environed with deep ditches a strong wall and closed with a treble gate and two draw-bridges a little small Town it is not much above a slights shoot thwart where it is widest and hath in it but one Church besides that of Nostre Dame which is the Cathedral the streets not many and those narrow unless it be in the market place where the Corpus du Guard is â—ept What the outworks are or whether it hath any or no I cannot say Even in this time of League and peace their jealousie will not permit an English man to walk their wall either within the Town or without A Castle they said that it hath bur such a one as seemeth more for a dwelling than a fort The Garrison of this Town consisteth of five Companies sixty in a Company which amount in all to 300. their Governour being Mr. de Anmont sonne to the Marshal de Anmont who so faithfully adhered to Henry the fourth in the beginning of his troubles the cause why this Town being so small is so strongly Garrison'd is the safe keeping of the Haven which is under it and the command of the passage from the Haven up into the Country The first of these services it can hardly perform without much injury to the low Town which standeth between them but for the ready discharge of the last it is daintily seated for though to spare the low Town they should permit an enemie to land yet as soon as he is in his march up into the higher Country their Ordinance will tear him to pieces But for the immediate security of the Haven their Ancestors did use to fortifie the old Town standing on the top of the hill called La Tower de Ordre it is said to have been built by
were no more wanting to the strengh of it than Nature in mine opinion it might be made almost impregnable Henry the fourth seeing the present weakness of it had once a purpose as it is said to have strenthened it according to the moderne Art of fortifications but it went no further than the purpose He was a great builder and had may projects of Masonry in his head which were little for his profit and this would have proved less than any for besides the infinite sums of money which would have been employed in so immense a work what had this been in effect but to put a sword into a mad mans hand The oft mutinies and seditions of this people hath made it little inferiour to Laigh or Gaunt the two most revolting Townes in Europe And again the Baracadoes against the person of King Henry the third and the long resistance it made to himself being weak were sufficient to instruct him what might be expected from it by his Successors when it should be strengthened and enabled to rebellion The present strength of the Town then is not great the walles being very weak and ruinous and those other few helps which it hath being little available for defence The beautifullest part of the whole resistance is the Ditch deep praecipitate and broad and to say no more of it an excellent ward were there any thing else correspondent to it As for the Fort next to St. Antonies gate called the Bastille it is in my conceit too little to protect the Town and too low to command it When Swords onely and Pick-axes were in use and afterwards in the infancy of Gunnes it did some service in the Nature of of a Fortresse now it onely serveth as a Prison principally for those of the greater sort who will permit themselves to be taken It is said to be built by the English when they were Lords of Paris and the Vulgar are all of this opinion Others of the more learned sort make it to be the work of one of the Provosts of the City Du Chesne calleth him Hugues Ambriott in the time of Charles the fifth when as yet the English had nothing to do here The word Bastille in general is a Fortresse the article la prefixed before it maketh it a name and appropriateth it to this building There are also two little turrets just against the Gallery of the Louure on both sides of the Seine intended for the defence of the River though now they are little able to answer that intention They also are fathered on the English but how true I know not Another place I marked designed perhaps for a Rampart but employed only at this time by Wind-mills it is a goodly mount of earth high and capacious scituate close unto the gate called St. Martin the most defensible part if well manned of all Paris Thus is the strength of this Town as you see but small and if Henry the fourth lay so long before it with his Army it was not because he could not take it but because he would not He was loath as Byron advised him to receive the bird naked which he expected with all his feathers and this answer he gave to my Lord Willoughby who undertook to force an entry into it For the Streets they are made of a lawfull and competent bredth well pitched under the foot with fair and large Pebble This paving of it was the work of Philip Augustus Anno 1223. or therebouts before which time it could not but be miserably dirty if not unpassable As it now is the least rain maketh it very slippery and troublesome and as little a continuance of warm weather stinking and poisononus But whether this noysomness proceed from the nature of the ground or the sluttishness of the people in their houses or the neglect of the Magistrates in not providing a sufficiency of Scavingers or all I am not to determine This I am confident of that the nastiest Lane in London is Frankincense and Juniter to the sweetest Street in this City The ancient by-word was and there is good reason for it I l destaint come la fange de Paris Had I the power of making Proverbs I would only change I l destaint into Il puit and make the by-word ten times more Orthodoxe I have spoken somewhat of the Fortifications of this Town but they are but triflles the only venome of the Streets is a strength unto it more powerful than the ditches or the Bullwark of St. Martin Morison in his Itinerary relateth how the Citizens of Prague in Bohemia were reparing the walls of the Town for fear of the Turks but withal he addeth that if the stink of the Streets kept him not thence there was assurance to be looked for of the walls I know not now how true it is of that City I am sure it may be justly verified upon this It was therefore not injudiciously said of an English Gentleman that he thought Paris was the strongest Town in Christendome for he took strong in that sense as we do in England when we say such a man hath a strong breath These things considered it could not but be an infinite happinesse granted by Nature to our Henry the fifth that he never stopped his nose at any stink as our Chronicles report of him otherwise in my conscience he had never been able to have kept his Court here But that which most amazeth me is that in such a perpetuated constancy of stinks there should yet be found so large and admirable a variety a variety so specifical and distinct that any Chymicall nose I dare lay my life on it after two or three perambulations would hunt out blindfold each several street by the smell as perfectly as another by his eye A Town of a strange composition one can hardly live in it in the Summer without poisoning in the Winter without myring For the Buildings they are I confess very handsomly and uniformly set out to the street ward not unseemly in themselves and very suitable one with another high and perpendicular with windowes reaching almost from the top to the bottome The houses of the new mould in London are just after their fashion wherein the care and designe of our late Soveraigne King James is highly to be magnified Time and his good beginnings well seconded will make that City nothing inferiour for the beauty and excellency of her structures to the gallantest of Europe Insomuch that he might truly have said of his London what Augustus did of his Rome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Dyon hath it Vrbem quam lateritiam inveni marmoreum relenquo But as London now is the houses of it in the inside are both better contrived and more richly furnished by farre than those of Paris the inward beautie and ornaments most commonly following the estate of the builders or owners Their houses are distinguished by Signes as with us and under every signe there is printed in Capital
scarcity The place of their meeting is called l' hostelle de ville or the Guild Hall The present Provost Mr de Griâ—ux his habit as also that of the Eschevins and Counsellers half red half sky coloured the Citie Leveries with an Hood of the same This Provost is as much above the other in power as men which are loved commonly are above those which are feared This Provost the people willingly yea sometimes factiously obey as the Conservator of their Liberties the other they only dread as the Judges of their lives and the Tyrants of their estates To shew the power of this Provost both for and with the people against their Princes you may please to take notice of two instances for the people against Philip devalois Anno 1349. when the said King desiring an impost of one liure in five Crownes upon all wares sold in Paris for his better managing his warres against the English could obtain it but for one year onely and that not without especial Letters reservall that it should no way incommodate their priviledges which the people Anno 1357. when King John was prisoner in England and Charles the Daulphine afterwards the fifth of that name laboured his ransome among the Parisiens for then Steven Marcell attended by the vulgar Citizens not onely brake open the Daulphinâ—s Chamber but slew John de Confluns and Robert of Chermont two Marshalls of France before his face Nay to adde yet further insolencies to this he took his parti-coloured hood off his head putting it on the Daulphins and all that day wore the Daulphines hat being a brown black pour signal de sa Dictateur as the token of his Dictatorship And which is more than all this he sent the Daulphin cloath to make him a Cloak and Hood of the Cities Liverie and compelled him to avow the Massacre of his Servants above named as done by his command Horrible insolencies Quam miserum est eum haec impunè pacere potuisse as Tullie of Marc. Antonius The Arms of the Town as also of the Corporation of the Provost and Eschevins are Gules a Ship Argent a Cheife poudred with Flower de Luces Or. The seat or place of their Assemblies is called as we said Hostel de Ville or the Guild-hall It was built or rather finisht by Francis the first Anno 1533. and since beautified and repaired by Francis Miron once Provost des Merchands and afterwards privy Counsellor to the King It standeth on one side of the Greue which is the publike place of the Execution and is built quadrangular-wise all of free and polished stone evenly and orderly laid-together You ascend by thirty or forty steps fair and large before you come to the quadrate and thence by several stairs into the several rooms and chambers of it which are very neatly contrived and richly furnished The grand Chastelet is said to have been built by Julian the Apostata at such time as he was Governour of Gaul It was afterwards new built by Philip Augustus and since repaired by Lewis the twelfth In which time of repaitation the Provost of Paris kept his Court in the Palace of the Louure To sight it is not very graceful what it may be within I know not Certain it is that it looketh far more like a Prison for which use it also serveth than a Town Hall or seat of judgement In this part of Paris called la Ville or the Town is the Kings Arcenal or Magazin of War It carrieth not any great face of majesty on the outside neither indeed is it necessary Such places are most beautiful without when they are most terrible within It was begun by Henry the second finished by Charles the ninth and since augmented by Mr. Rhosme great Master of the Artillery It is said to contain an hundred field peices and their Carriage and also armour sufficient for ten thousand Horses and fifty thousand Foot In this part also of Paris is that excellent pile of building called the Place Royal built partly at the charges and partly at the encouragement of Henry the fourth It is built after the form of a Quadrangle every side of the square being in length seventy two fathoms the materials brick of divers colours which make it very pleasant though less durable It is cloystered round just after the fashion of the Royall Exchange in London the walks being paved under foot The houses of it are very fair and large every one having its garden and other out-lets In all they are thirty six nine on a side and seemed to be sufficiently capable of a great retinue The Ambassadour for the State of Venice lying in one of them It is scituate in that place whereas formerly the solemn tiltings were performed A place famous and fatal for the death of Henry the second who was here slain with the splinter of a Launce as he was running with the Earl of Mountgomery a Scottish man A sad and heavy accident To conclude this discourse of the Ville or Town of Paris I must wander a little out of it because the power and command of the provost saith that it must be so For his authority is not confined within the Town he hath seven Daughters on which he may exercise it Les sept filles de la Propaste de Paris as the French call them These seven Daughters are seven Bayliwicks comprehended within the Vicointe of Paris Viz. 1. Poissy 2. St. Germanenlay 3. Tornon 4. Teroiene Brie 5. Corbeil 6. Moutherrie and the 7. Gennesseen France Over these his jurisdiction is extended though not as Provost of Paris Here he commandeth and giveth judgement as Leiutenant Civil to the Duke of Mont-bâzon or the supreme Governour of Paris and the Isle of France for the time being yet this Leiutenancy being an Office perpetually annexed to the Provostship is the occasion that the Bayliwicks above named are called Les sept filles de la Provaste CHAP. VI. The Universitie of Paris and Founders of it Of the Colledges in general Marriage when permitted to the Rectors of them The small maintenance allowed to Schollars in the Universities of France The great Colledge at Tholoza Of the Colledge of the Sorbone in particular That and the House of Parliament the cheif bulwarks of the French liberty Of the policy nnd government of the Universtty The Rector and his precedency The disordered life of the Schollars there being An Apology for Oxford and Cambridge The priviledges of the Scholars Theer Degrees c. THis part of Paris which lieth beyond the furthermost branch of the Seine is called the University It is little inferior to the Town for bigness and less superior to it in sweetness or opulency whatsoever was said of the whole in general was intended to this part also as well as the others All the learning in it being not able to free it from those inconveniencies wherewith it is distressed It containeth in it onely six parish Churches the paucity whereof is
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
granted to Sir Giles Mompesson was just one of the French Offices As for Monopolies they are here so common that the Subject taketh no notice of it not a scurvy petty book being printed but it hath its priviledge affixed ad imprimendum solum These being granted by the King are carried to the Parliament by them formally perused and finally verified after which they are in force and vertue against all opposition It is said in France that Mr. Luines had obtained a Patent of the King for a quart d' Escu to be paid unto him for the Christning of every Child throughout the Kingdom A very unjust and unconscionable extortion Had he lived to have presented it to the Court I much doubt of their denial though the onely cause of bringing before them such Patents is onely intended that they should discuss the justice and convenience of them As the Parliament hath a formality of power left in them of verifying the Kings Edicts his grants of Offices and Monopolies so hath the Chamber of Accompts a superficial survey of his gifts and expences For his expences they are thought to be as great now as ever by reason of the several retinues of Himself his Mother his Queen and the Monsieur Neither are his gifts lessened The late warrs which he mannaged against the Protestants cost him dear he being fain to bind unto him most of his Princes by money and Pensions As the expences of the King are brought unto this Court to be examined so are also the gifts and pensions by him granted to be ratified The titulary power given to this Chamber is to cut off all those of the Kings grants which have no good ground and foundation the Officers being solemnly at the least formally sworn not to suffer any thing to pass them to the detriment of the Kingdom whatsoever Letters of Command they have to the contrary But with this Oath they do oftentimes dispense To this Court also belongeth the Enfranchisement or Naturalization of Aliens Anciently certain Lords Officers of the Crown and of the Privie Council were appointed to look into the Accompts now it is made an ordinary and soveraign Court consisting of two Presidents and divers Auditors and after under Officers The Chamber wherein it is kept is called La Chambre des Comptes it is the beautifullest piece of the whole Palace the great Chamber it self not being worthy to be named in the same day with it It was built by Charles the eighth Anno 1485. afterwards adorned and beautified by Lewis the twelfth whose Statua is there standing in his Royal Robes and the Scepter in his hand he is accompanied by the four Cardinal-Virtues expressed by way of Hieroglychick very properly and cunning each of them have in them its particular Motto to declare its being The Kings Portraicture also as if he were the fifth Virtue had its word under-written and contained in a couple of verses which let all that love the Muses skip them in the reading are these Quatuor has comites fowro caelestia dona Innocuae pacis prospera sceptra gerens From the King descend we to the Subjects ab equis quod aiunt ad asinos and the phrase is not much improper the French Commonalty being called the Kings Asses These are divided into three ranks or Classes the Clergy the Nobless the Paisants out of which certain Delegates or Committees chosen upon an occasion and sent to the King did anciently concurre to the making of the supreme Court for justice in France it was called the Assembly of the three Estates or Conventus Ordinum and was just like the Parliament of England but these meetings are now forgotten or out of use neither indeed as this time goeth can they any way advantage the State For whereas there are three principal if not sole causes of these Conventions which are the disposing of the Regency during the non-age or sickness of a King the granting aids or subsidies and the redressing of grievances there is now another course taken in them The Parliament of Paris which speaketh as it is prompted by power and greatness appointeth the Regent the Kings themselves with their Officers determine of the taxes and as concerning their grievances the Kings ear is open to private Petitions Thus is that title of a Common-wealth which went to the making up of this Monarchy escheated or rather devoured by the King that name alone containing in it both Clergy Princes and People so that some of the French Counsellors may say with Tully in his Oration for Marcellus unto Caesar Doleoque cum Respublica immortalis esse debeat eam unius mortalis anima consistere yet I cannot but withal affirm that the Princes and Nobles of France do for as much as concerneth themselves upon all advantages fly off from the Kings obedience but all this while the poor Paisant is ruined Let the poor Tennant starve or eat the bread of carefulness it matters not so they may have their pleasure and be accompted firm Zealots of the Common liberty and certainly this is the issue of it the Farmer liveth the life of a slave to maintain his Lord in pride and laziness the Lord leadeth the life of a King to oppress his Tennant by fines and exactions An equality little answerable to the old platforms of Republicks Aristotle genius ille naturae as a learned man calleth him in his fourth book of Politicks hath an excellent discourse concerning this disproportion In that chapter his project is to have a correspondency so far between Subjects under the King or people of the same City that neither the one might be over rich nor the other too miserably poor They saith he which are too happy strong or rich or greatly favoured and the like cannot nor will not obey with which evil they are infected from their infancy The other through want of these things are too abjectly minded and base for that the one cannot but command and the other but serve and this he calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a City inhabited onely by slaves and tyrants That questionless is the most perfect and compleat form of Government Vbi veneratur potentem humilis non timet antecedit non contemnit humiliorem potens as Velleius But this is an happiness whereof France is not capable their Lords being Kings and their Commons Villains And to say no less of them than in truth they are the Princes of this Country are little inferior in matters of Royalty to any King abroad and by consequence little respective in matter of obedience to their own King at home Upon the least discontent they will draw themselves from the Court or put themselves into Arms and of all other comforts are ever sure of this that they shall never want partizans neither do they use to stand off from him fearfully and at distance but justifie their revolt by publike declaration and think the King much indebted to them if upon fair terms and an
stubborn and churlish people very impatient of a rigorous yoak and such as inherit a full measure of the Beiseains liberty and spirit from whom they are descended Le Droit de fonage the priviledge of levying of a certain peice of money upon every Chimney in an house that smoaked was in times not long since one of the Jura Regalia of the French Lords and the people paid it without grumbling yet when Edward the black Prince returned from his unhappy journey into Spain and for the paying of his Souldiers to whoÌ„ he was indebted laid this fonage upon the people being then English they all presently revolted to the French and brought great prejudice to our affairs in those quarters Next unto the Gabel of Salt we may place the Taille and the Taillon which are much of a nature with the Subsidies in England being granted by the people and the sum of that certain shall please to impose them Anciently the Tailles were onely levied by way of extraordinary subsidie and that upon four occasions which were the Knighting of the Kings Son the Marriage of his Daughters a Voyage of the Kings beyond Sea and his Ransome in case he were taken Prisoner Les Tailles ne sont point deves de devoyer ordicmer saith Rayneau ains ont este accorded durant la necessite des Affaires Semblement Afterward they were continually levied in times of warr and at length Charles the first made them ordinary neither is it extended equally all of it would amount to a very fair revenue For supposing this that the Kingdom of France contained two hundred millions of acres as it doth and that from every one there were raised to the King two Sols yeerly which is little in respect of the taxes imposed on them that income alone besides that which levied on goods personal would amount to two millions of pounds in a year But this payment also lyeth all on the Paisant The greater Towns the Officers of the Kings House the Officers of Warrs the Presidents Counsellors and Officers of the Court of Parliament the Nobility the Clergy and the Schollars of the Vniversity being freed from it That which they call the Taillon was intended for the ease of the Country though now it prove one of the greatest burdens unto it In former times the Kings Souldiers lay all upon the charge of the Villages the poor people being fain to find them diet lodging and all necessaries for themselves their horses and their harlots which they brought with them If they were not well pleased with their entertainment they used commonly to beat their Host abuse his family and rob him of that small provision which he had laid up for his Children and all this Cum privilegio Thus did they move from one Village to another and at the last returned unto them from whence they came Ita ut non sit ibi villula una expers calamitatis istius quae non semel aut bis in anno hac nefandâ pressurâ depiletur as Sir John Fâ—rtescue observed in his time To redress this mischeif King Henry the second Anno 1549. raised his Imposition called the Taillon issuing out of the lands and goods of the poor Country man whereby he was at the first somewhat eased but now all is again out of order the miserable Paisant being oppressed by the Souldier as much as ever and yet he still payeth both taxes the Taille and the Taillon The Pancarte comprehendeth in it divers particular imposts but especially the Sol upon the Liure that is the twentieth penny of all things bought or sold corn sallets and the like onely excepted Upon wine besides the Sol upon the Liure he hath his several customs at the entrance of it into any of his Cities passages by Land Sea or River To these Charles the ninth Anno 1561. added a tax of five Sols upon every Maid which is the third part of a Tun and yet when all this is done the poor Vintner payeth unto the King the eighth penny he takes for that wine which he selleth In this Pancart is also contained the bant passage which are the tols paid unto the King for passage of men and cattel over his bridges and his City gates as also for all such Commodities which they bring with them A good and round sum considering the largeness of the Kingdom the thorough-fare of Lyons being farmed yearly of the King for 100000. Crowns Hereunto belong also the Aides which are a taxe also of the Sol on the Liure upon all sorts of fruits provision wares and Merchandize granted first unto Charles Duke of Normandy when John his Father was prisoner in England and since made perpetual For such is the lamentable fate of that Country that their kindnesses are made duties and those moneys which they once grant out of love are alwayes after exacted of them and paid out of necessity The bedrolle of all these impositions and taxes is called the Paneart because it was hanged up in a frame like as the Officers Fees are in our Bishops Diocesan Courts the word Pan signifying a frame or pane of wainscot These impositions time and custom hath now made tolerable though at first day they seemed very burdensome and moved many Cities to murmuring some to rebellion Amongst others the City of Paris proud of her ancient liberties and immunities refused to admit of it This indignity so incensed Charles the sixth their King then young and in hot bloud that he seized into his hands all their priviledges took from their Provost des Merchants and the Eschevins as also the key of their gates and the chains of their streets and making through the whole Town such a face of mourning that one might justly have said Haec facies Troiae cum caperetur erat This happened in the year 1383. and was for five years together continued which time being expired and other Cities warned by that example the imposition was established and the priviledges restored For the better regulating of the profits arising from these imposts the French King erected a Court Le Cour des Aides It consisted at the first of the general of the Aides and of any four of the Lords of the Councel whom they would call to their assistance Afterwards Charles the fifth Anno 1380. or thereabouts settled it in Paris and caused it to be numbred as one of the Soveraign Courts Lewis the eleventh dissolved it and committed the managing of his Aids to his Household servants as loath to have any publike Officers take notice how he fleeced his people Anno 1464. it was restored again And finally Henry the second Anno 1551. added to it a second Chamber composed of two Presidens and eight Counsellors One of which Presidents Mr. Cavilayer is said to be the best moneyed man of all France There are also others of these Courts in the Country as one at Roven one at Montferrant in Averyne one at Bourdeaux and another at Montpellier
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
Law to be profest therein Wernir being the first Professor upon whose advice the said Emperour ordained that Bononia should be Legum Juris Schola una sola and here was the first time and place of that study in the Westerne Empire But it was not the fate onely of the Civill Lawes to be thus neglected all other parts of Learning both Arts and Languages were in the same desperate Estates The Poets exclamation O coelum insipiens infacetum never being so appliable as in those times for it is with the knowledge of good Letters as it is in the effects of Nature they have their times of growth alike of perfection and of death like the Sea it hath its ebbs as well as its flouds and like the Earth it hath its Winter wherein the seeds of it are deaded and bound up as well as a Spring wherein it re-flourisheth Thus the learning of the Greeks lay forgotten and lost in Europe for 700 yeares even unto Emanuel Chrysolarus taught it at Venice being driven out of his owne Countrey by the Turks Thus the Philosophy of Aristotle lay hidden in the moath of dust and Libraries Et nominabatur potiùs quam legebatur as Ludovicus Vives observeth in his notes S. Austin untill the time of Alexander Aphrodiseus Thus also lay the elegancies of the Roman tongue obscure till that Erasmus Moor and Reuclyn in the several kingdomes of Germany England and France endeavoured the restauration of it But to return to the Civill Law after the foundation of the Vniversity of Bologne it pleased Philip le Belle King of France to found another here at Orleans for the same purpose Anno 1â—12 which was the first school of that profession on this side the mountaines this is evident by the Bull of Clement the fifth dated at Lyons in the yeare 1367. where he giveth this title Fructiferum Vniversitatis Aurelianum sis inter caetera Citramontana studia prius solennius antiquius tam Civilis quam Canonicae facultatis studium At the first there were instituted eight Professors now they are reduced unto four onely the reason of this decrease being the increase of Vniversities the place in which they read their Lectures is called Les grands Escoles and that part of the City La Vniversitie neither of which attributes it can any way merit Colledges they have none either to lodge the Students or to entertaine the Professors the former sojourning in divers places of the Town these last in their severall houses As for their places of reading which they call Les grands Escoles it is onely an old Barne converted into a School by the addition of five rankes of Formes and a Pew in the middle you never saw any thing so mock its own name Lucus not being of more people called so à non lucendo then this ruinous house is the great School because it is little The present Professors are Mr. Fowrner the Rector at my being there Mr. Tullerie and Mr. Grand the fourth of them named Mr. Angram was newly dead and his place like a dead pay among Soldiers not supplied In which estate was the function also of Mr. Podes whose office it was to read the book of Institutions unto such as come newly to the town They read each of them an houre in their turnes every morning in the week unlesse Holy-dayes and Thursdayes their hearers taking their Lectures of them in their tables Their principall office is that of the Rector which every three moneths descendeth down unto the next so that once in a yeare every one of those Professors hath his turne of being Rector The next in dignity unto him is the Chancellor whose office is during life and in whose names all degrees are given and of the Letters Authenticall as they terme them granted The present Chancellor is named Mr. Bouchier Doctor of Divinity and of both the Lawes and Prebend also of the Church of S. Croix his place is in the gift of the Bishop of Orleans and so are the Chancellors places in all France at the bestowing of the Diocesan anciently it was thus also with us of Oxford the Bishop of Lincolne nominating unto us our Chancellors till the yeare 1370. William of Renmington being the first Chancellor elected by the Vniversity In the bestowing of their degrees here they are very liberall and deny no man that is able to pay his fees Legem ponere is with them more powerfull than Legem dicere and he that hath but his gold ready shall have a sooner dispatch than the best Scholar upon the ticket Ipsè licet venias Musis comitatus Homere Si nihil attuleris ibis Homere for as It is the Money that disputeth best with them Money makes the man saith the Greek and English proverb That of one of the Popes I remember not suddenly his name who openly protested that he would give the orders of Priesthood to an Asse should the King of England commend an Asse unto him may be most appositely spoken of them The exercise which is to be performed before the degree taken is very little and as trivially performed When you have chosen the Law which you mean to defend they will conduct you into an old ruinous chamber they call it their Library for my part I should have thought it to have been the Ware-house of some second hand Bookseller those few books which were there were as old as Printing and could hardly make amongst them one cover to resist the violence of a Rat. They stood not up endlong but lay one upon the other and were joyned together with Cobwebs instead of strings he that would ever gesse them to have been looked into since the long reigne of Ignorance might justly have condemned his own charity For my part I was prone to believe that the three last centuries of yeeres had never seen the inside of them or that the poor pâ—per had been troubled with the disease called Noli me tangere In this unlucky room doe they hold their disputations unlesse they be solemn and full of expectation and after two or three arguments urged commend the sufficiency of the Respondent and pronounce him worthy of his degrees That done they cause his Authenticall Letters to be sealed and in them they tell the Reader with what diligence and paines they sifted the Candidate that it is necessary to the Common-wealth of Learning that Industry should be honoured and that on that ground they have thought it fitting Post angustias solamen post vigilias requietem post dolores gaudia for so as I remember goeth the forme to recompence the labours of N. N. with the degree of Doctor or Licentiate with a great deale more of the like formall foolery Et ad hunc modum fiunt Doctores From the Study of the Law proceed we unto that of the Language which is said to be better spoken here then in any part of France and certainly the people hereof spake it more
more graceful and would be pleasing at the entrance were the Gaurd Chamber reformed Some Hugonot Architect which were not in love with the errours of Antiquity might make a pretty room of it a Catholick Carpenter would never get credit by it for whereas the provident thrift of our fore fathers intended it for the House would else be too narrow for the Kings retinue both for a room of safety and of pleasure both for Bellmen and Dancers and for that cause made up some six ranks of seats on each side That sparingness in the more curious eyes of this time is little King like Country wenches might with an indifferent stomack abuse a Galliard in it or it might perhaps serve with a Stage at one end to entertain the Parisiens at a Play or with a partition in the middle it might be divided into pretty plausible Cockpits But to be employed in the nature it is now either to solace the King and Lords in a dance or to give any forraign Ambassadour his welcome in a Masque is little sutable with the majesty of a King of France The Chambers of it are well built but ill furnished the hangings of them being somewhat below a meanness and yet of these here is no small scarcity for as it is said of the Gymnosophists of India that Vnadomus et mansioni sufficit et sepulturae so may we of this Prince The same Chamber serveth for to Iodge him feed him also to confer discourse with his Nobility But like enough it is that this want may proceed from the several Courts of the King the Monsieur the Queene Mother and the Queene Regnant being all kept within it Proceed we now to the two Galleries whereof the first is that of the Queene Mother as being beautified and adorned exceedingly by Catherine de Medices Mother to Henry the third and Charles the ninth It containeth the Pictures of all the Kings of France and the most loved of their Queens since the time of St. Lewis They stand each King opposite to his Queen she being that of his Wives which either brought him most estate or his Successor The tables are all of a just length very fair and according to my little acquaintance with the Painter of a most excellent workmanship And which addeth more grace to it they are in a manner a perfect history of the State and Court of France in their several times For under each of the Kings pictures they have drawn the potraitures of most of their Lords whom valour and true courage in the field ennobled beyond their births Under each of the Queens the lively shapes of the most principal Ladies whose beauty and vertue had honoured the Court. A dainty invention and happily expressed At the further end of it stand the last King and the present Queen Mother who fill up the whole room The succeeding Princes if they mean to live in their pictures must either build new places for them or else make use of the Long Gallery built by Henry the fourth and which openeth in to that of the Queen Mother A Gallery it is of an incredible length as being above 500. yards long and of a breadth and height not unproportionable A room built rather for oftentation than use and such as hath more in it of the Majesty of ist Founder than the Grace It is said to have been erected purposely to joyn the Louure unto the house and garden of the Tuilleries an unlikely matter that such a stupendious building should be designed onely for a cleanly conveyance into a Summer-house Others are of opinion that he had a resolution to have the House quadrangular every side being correspondent to this which should have been the common Gallery to the rest which design had it taken effect this Palace would at once have been the wonder of the world and the envy of it For my part I dare be of the last mind as well because the second is in part begun as also considering how infinitely this King was affected to building The place Daulphin and the place Royal two of the finest piles of Paris were erected partly by his purse but principally by his encouragement The new Bridge in Paris was meerly his work so was also the new Palace and the most admirable Water-Works of St. Germanenlay this long Gallery and the Pesthouse owe themselves wholly unto him and the house of Fountain bleau which is the fairest in France is beholding to him for most of its beauty Adde to this his fortifications bestowed on the Bastile and his purpose to have strengthened Paris according to the modern art of Towns and you will find the attribute of Parietaria or Wall-floure which Constantine scoffingly gave unto Trajane for his great humour of building to be due unto this King but seriously and with reverence Besides the general love he had to building hâ— had also an ambition to go beyond ensample which also induceth me further to beleive his intent of making that large and admirable quadrangle above spoken of to have been serious and real For to omit others certain it is that he had a project of great spirit and difficulty which was to joyn the Mediterranean Sea and the Ocean together and to make the navigation from the one to the other through France and not to pass by the straight of Gibraltare It came into counsel Anno 1604. and was resolved to be done by this meanes The River of Garond is navigable from the Ocean almost to Tholoza and the Mediterranean openeth it self into the land by a little River whose name I know not as high as Narbonne Betwixt these two places was there a navigable channel to have been digged and it proceeded so far towards being actuated that a workman had undertaken it and the price was agreed upon But there arising some discontents between the Kings of France and Spain about the building of the Fort Fuentis in the Countrey of the Grisons the King not knowing what use he might have of treasure in that quarrel commanded the work not to go forward However it is to be commended in the attempt which was indeed Kingly and worthy his spirit and praise him in his heroick purpose and design Quem si non tenuit magnis tamen excidit ausis But the principal beauty if I may judge of this so much admired Palace of the Louure is a low plain room paved under foot with brick and without any hangings or tapestry on the sides yet being the best set out and furnished to my content of any in France It is called La salle des Antiques and hath in it five of the ancientest and venerablest pieces of all the Kingdom For the Nation generally is regardless of antiquity both in the monuments and in the study of it so that you shall hardly find any ancient inscription or any famous ruine snatched from the hand of time in the best of their Cities and Churches In the Church
onely of Amiens could I meet with any antient Character which also was but a Gothish Dutch Letter and expressed nothing but the name and vertue of a Bishop of the Church in whose time it was So little also did I perceive them to be inclining to be Antiquaries that both neglects considered si Verbis audaciadetur I dare confidently averre that one Cotton for the Treasury and one Selden now Mr. Camden is dead for the study of Antiquities are worth all the French As for these five peices in La salle des Antiques they are I confess worthy our observation and respect also if they be such as our trudgeman informed us At the further end of it the Statua of Diana the same as it is said which was worshipped in the renowned Temple of Ephesus and of which Demetrius the Silver-smith and his fellow Artists cried out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Great is Diana of the Ephesians Of a large and manly proportion she seemeth to be Quantum quale latus quam juvenile femur As Ovid of his Mistriss She is all naked save her feet which are buskin'd and yet she hath a scarfe or linnen roul which coming over her left shoulder and meeting about her middle hung down with both ends of it a little lower In the first place towards the right hand as we descended towards the door was the Statua of one of the Gods of Aethiopia as black as any of his people and one that had nothing about him to express his particular being Next unto him the Effigies of Mercury naked all except his feet and with a pipe in his mouth as when he inchanted Argos Nam que reperta Fistula nuper erat Saith the Metamorphosis Next unto him the portraiture of Venus quite naked and most immodestly apparreld in her hand her little Son Cupid as well arrayed as his Mother sitting on a Dolphin Last of all Apollo also in the same naked truth but that he had shooes on He was portrayed as lately returned from a Combat perhaps that against the Serpent Python Quem Deus arcitenens nunquam talibus armis Ante nisi in damis caprisque fugacibus usus Mille gravem telis exhausta pane pharetra Perdidit effuso per vulnera nigra veneno The Archer-God who e're that present tide Ne're us'e those arms but ' gainst the Roes and Deer With thousand shafts the earth made to be dy'de With Serpents bloud his quiver emptied cleer That I was in the right conjecture I had these reasons to perswade me the Quiver on the Gods right shoulder almost emptied his warlike belt hanging about his neck his garments loosly tumbling upon his left arm and the slain Monster being a water-serpent as Pithon is fained to be by the Poets All of these were in the same side of the wall the other being altogether destitute of ornament and are confidently said to be the statues of those Gods in the same forms that they were worshipped in and taken from their several Temples They were bestowed on the King by his Holiness of Rome and I cannot blame him for it It was worthy but little thanks to give unto him the Idols of the Heathen who for his Holiness satisfaction had given himself to the Idols of the Romans I beleive that upon the same terms the King of Enggland should have all the Reliques and ruines of Antiquity which can be found in Rome Without this room the Salle des Antiques and somewhat on the other side of the Louure is the House of Burbon and old decayed fabrick in which was nothing observable but the Omen For being built by Lewis of Burbon the third Duke of that branch he caused this Motto ESPERANCE to be engraven in Capital Letters over the door signifying his hopes that from his loyns should proceed a King which should joyn both the Houses and the Families and it is accordingly happened For the Tuilleries I have nothing to say of them but that they were built by Catherine de Medices in the year 1564 and that they took name from the lime-kils and tile-pits there being before the foundation of the house and the garden the word Tuillerie importing as much in the French language I was not so happy as to see them and will not be indebted to any for the relation CHAP. X. The person age and marraige of King Lewis Conjectural reasons of his being issueless Jaqueline Countess of Holland kept from issue by the house of Burgundy The Kings Sisters all married and his alliances by them His natural Brethren and their preferment His lawful Brother the title of Monsieur in France Monsieur as yet unmarried not like to marry Mont-Peusiers Daughter That Lady a fit Wife for the Earl of Soisons The difference between him and the Prince of Conde for the Crown in case the Line of Navarre fail How the Lords stand affected in the cause Whether a Child may be born in the eleventh moneth King Henry the fourth a great Lover of fair Ladies Monsieur Barrados the Kings Favorite his birth and offices The omniregency of the Queen Mother and the Cardinal of Richilieu The Queen Mother a wise and prudent Woman THe King is the soul of the Court without his presence it is but a Carcass a thing without life and honour I dare not so farre wrong the Louure as to make it but a common house and rob it of the fruition of its Prince and therefore will treat of him here though during my aboad in France he lay all the while in Fountain Bleau For person he is of the middle stature and rather well proportioned than large His face knoweth little yet of a beard but that which is is black and swarthy his complexion also much of the same heiw carrying in it a certain boysterousness and that in a further measure than what a graceful Majesty can admit of So that one can hardly say of him without a spice of Courtship what Paterculus did of Tiberius Quod visus praetulerit principem that his countenance proclaimed him a King But questionless his greatest defect is want of utterance which is very unpleasing by reason of a desperate and uncurable stammering which defect is likely more and more to grow upon him At this time he is aged twenty four years and as much as since the 27 day of September last which was his birth day an age which he beareth not very plausibly want of beard and the swarthiness of his complexion making him seem elder At the age of eleven years he was affianced to the Lady Anna Infanta of Spain by whom as yet he hath no children It is thought by many and covertly spoken by divers in France that the principal cause of the Queens bartenness proceedeth from Spain that people being loath to fall under the French obedience which may very well happen she being the elder Sister of the King For this cause in the seventh article of marriage there is a clause that