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
lusty as the Horses of the Sun in Ovid neither could we say of them flammiferis implent hinnitibus aur as All the neighng we could hear from the proudest of them was onely an old dry cough which I le assure you did much comfort me for by that noise I first learned there was life in them Upon such Anatomies of Horses or to speak more properly upon such several heaps of bones were I and my company mounted and when we expected however they seemed outwardly to see somewhat of the post in them my beast began to move after an Aldermans pace or like Envie in Ovid Surgit humi pigre passuque incedet inerti Out of this gravity no perswasion could work them the dull jades being grown insensible of the spur and to hearten them with wands would in short time have distressed the Country Now was the Cart of Diepe thought a speedy conveyance and those that had the happiness of a Waggon were esteemed too blessed yea though it came with the hazard of the old woman and the wenches If good nature or a sight of their journeys ever did chance to put any of them into a pace like a gallop we were sure to have them tire in the middle way and so the remainder of the Stage was to be measured with our own feet being weary of this trade I made bold to dismount the Postilion and ascended the Trunk Horse where I sate in such magnificent posture that the best Carrier in Paris might have envied my felicity behind me I had a good large Trunk and a Portmantue before me a bundle of Cloaks and a parcel of Books Sure I was that if my stirrups could poize me equally on both sides that I could not likely fall backwards nor forwards Thus preferred I encouraged my Companions who cast many an envious eye upon my prosperity and certainly there was not any of them who might not more justly have said of me Tu as un meilleur temps que le pape then poor Lauarillo's Master dâ—d when he allowed him an Onion for four dayes This circumstance I confess might have well been omitted had I not great example for it Philip de Comminees in the midst of his grave and serious relation of the battel of Mont l' hierrie hath a note much about this nature which gave me encouragement which is that himself had an old Horse half tired and this was just my case who by chance thrust his head into a pail of Wine and drunk it off which made him lustier and friskier that day than ever before but in that his Horse had better luck than I had On the right hand of us and almost in the middle way betwixt Abbeville and Boulogne we left the Town of Monstreville which we had not leasure to see It seemed daintily seated for command and resistance as being built upon the top and declivity of an hill it is well strengthened with Bastions ramparts on the outside hath within a Garrison of five Companies of Souldiers their Governour as I learned of one of the Paisants being called Lenroy And indeed it concerneth the King of France to lâ—ck well to his Town of Monstreville as being a border Town within two miles of Artoys and especially coâ—siâ—ering that the taking of it would â—ut off all entercourse between the Countreys of Boulogne and Calais with the rest of France Of the like importance also are the Towns of Abbeville and Amiens and that the French Kings are not ignorant of Insomuch that those two onely together with that of St. Quintin being put into the hands of Philip Duke of Burgundy to draw him from the party of the English were redeemed again by Lewis the eleventh for 450000. Crowns an infinite sum of money according to the standard of those times and yet it seemeth the King of France had no bad bargain of it for upon an hope onely of regaining those Towns Charls Earl of Charoloys Son to Duke Philip undertook that warr against King Lewis by which at the last he lost his life and hazarded his estate CHAP. V. The Country of Boulonnois and Town of Boulogne by whom enfranchised The present of salt butter Boulogne divided into two Towns Procession in the low Town to divert the Plague The forms of it Processions of the Letany by whom brought into the Church The high Town garrisoned The old man of Boulogne The neglect of the English in leaving open the Havens The fraternity de la charite and inconvenience of it The costly journey of Henry the eigth to Boulogne Sir Waâ—ter Raleighs censure of that Prince condemned the discourtesie of Charls the fifth towards our Edward the sixth The defence of the House of Burgundy how chnrgeable to the Kings of England Boulogne re-yeilded WE are now come to the Country of Boulonnois which though a part of Picardy disdaineth yet to be so counted but will be reckoned a County of it self It comprehendeth in it the Towns of Boulogne Escapes and Neus-Chastel beside-divers Villages and consisteth much of hils and valleys much after the nature of England the soyl being indifferent fruitful of corn and yeilding more glass than any other part of France which we saw for the quantity Neither is it onely a County of it self but it is in a manner also a free County it being holden immediately of the Virgin Mary who is no question a very gracious Land Lady For when King Lewis the eleventh after the decease of Charles of Burgundy had taken in Boulogne Anno 1477. As new Lord of the Town thus John de Sierries relateth it he did homage without sword or spurs bare-headed and on his knee before the Virgin Mary offering unto her image an heart of Massie gold weighing two thousand Crowns he added also this that he and his successors after him being Kings should hold the County of Boulogne of the same Virgin and do homage unto her image in the great Church of the higher Town dedicated to her naâ—e giving 〈◊〉 every change of a Vassal an heart of pure gold of the same weight Since that time the Boulonnois being the Tennants of our Lady have enjoyed a perpetual exemption from many of those tributes and taxes under which the rest of France are miserably afflicted Amongst others they have been alwayes freed from the gabel of Salt by reason whereof and by the goodness of their pastures they have there the best Butter in all the Kingdom I say partly by reason of their Salt because having it at a low rate they do liberally season all their Butter with it whereas they which do buy their Salt at the Kings price cannot afford it any of that dear commodity Upon this ground it is the custom of these of Boulonnois to send unto their Freinds of France and Paris a barrel of Butter seasoned according to their fashion a present no less ordinary and acceptable than Turkeys Capons and the like are from our Country Gentlemen to those
suffering unlesse it be not to hearken to their ribaldry which is one of their greatest torments To proceed after their song ended one of the company the Master of them it should seem draweth a dish out of his pocket and layeth it before us into which we were to cast our benevolence Custome hath allowed them a Sol for each man at the table they expect no more and will take no lesse no large summe and yet I assure you richly worth the musick which was meerly French that is lascivious in the composure and French also that is unskilfully handled in the playing Amongst the Ancients I have met with three kindes of Musick viz. First that which the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which consisted altogether of long notes or Spondees which was the gravest and saddest of all the rest called by Aristotle in the last Chapter of his Politicks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or morall because it setled the affections Boetius whom we account the classicall Author in this faculty called it Lydian because in much use with those of that Nation at this day We may call it Italian as being generally a peculiar musick to that people This is the Musick which Elisha called for to invite unto him the spirit of Prophesie 1 Kings 3.15 and this is it which is yet sung in our Churches A practice which we derive from the Ancients however some of late have opposed it and which is much commended by Saint Augustine this being the use of it Vt per oblectamenta aurium infirmior animus in pietatis affectum assurgat The second kinde the Artists call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which consisteth of a mixture of long and short notes or of the Dactylus The Philosopher termeth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being it had been in much esteem amongst the Dores a Greek Nation we may now call it English as being that Musick with which our Nation is particularly affected This is that Musick which cheereth the spirits and is so soveraign an Antidote to a minde afflicted and which as the Poet hath it doth Saxa movere sono The third sort is that which the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 consisting altogether of short notes or Tribracches Aristotle calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ravishing because it unhinged the affections and stirred them to lasciviousnesse Boetius termeth this Phrygian as being the strain of that wanton and luxuriant people In these times we may call it French as most delighted in by the stirring spirits and lightness of this Nation a note of Musick forbidden unto youth by Aristotle and Plato and not countenanced by any of them but on the common theatres to satisfie the rude manners and desires of the vulgar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to give them also content in their recreations yet is this Musick altogether in use in this Countrey no lesson amongst their profest Musicians that I could hear which had any gravity or solid Art shewed in the Composition They are pretty fellowes I confesse for the setting out of a Mask or a Coranto but beyond this nothing which maketh the Musick in their Churches so base and unpleasing so that the glory of perfect Musick at this time lyeth between the English and Italian that of France being as triviall as their behaviour of which indeed it is a concomitant Mutata Musica mutantur mores saith Tullie and therefore he giveth us this lesson Curandum itaque est ut musica quam gravissima sedatissima retineatur A good item for the French CHAP. II. The Countrey and Site of Orleans like that of Worcester The Wine of Orleans Praesidiall Townes in France what they are The sale of offices in France The fine walk and pastime of the Palle Malle The Church of St. Croix founded by Superstition of a Miracle defaced by the Hugonets Some things hated onely for their name The Bishop of Orleans and his priviledge The Chappel and Pilgrim of St. Jacques The form of Masse in St. Croix Censing a heathenish Custome The great Siege of Orleans raised by Joane the Virgin The valor of that Woman that she was no Witch An Eulogie on her WE are now come into the countrey of Orleans which though within the limits of La Beausse will yet be accounted an intire County of it selfe it is a dainty and pleasant Region very even and large in the fields of it insomuch that we could not see a hill or swelling of the ground within eye-reach It consisted of an indifferent measure of Corne but most plentiful of Vines and hath of all other Fruits a very liberall portion Neither is it meanly beholding to the Loyre for the benefits is receiveth by that River on which the City of Orleans it selfe is sweetly seated Of all places in England Worcester-shire in my opinion cometh most nigh it as well in respect of the Countrey as the scituation of the Towne for certainly that Countrey may be called the Epitome of England as that of France To the richest of the Corn-fields of Orleans we may compare the Vale of Evesham Neither will it yeild for choyce and variety of Fruits the Vine onely excepted The Hedges in that Countrey are prodigall and lavish of those trees which would become the fairest Orchards of the West and in a manner recompenceth the want of Wine by its plenty of Perry and Syder In a word what a good Writer hath said of one we may say of both Coelum solâ—m ita propitium habent ut salubritate ubertate vicinis non concedunt But the resemblance betweene the townes is more happy both seated on the second River of note in their severall Countreys and which are not much unlike in their severall courses Severn washing the walls of Gloucoster and passing nigh unto Bristoll seated on a little Rivulet and its Homager divideth the ancient Britaines from the rest of the English The Loyre gliding to the city Tours and passing nigh unto Angiers seated also within the land on a little River and one of its Tributaries separateth the modern Britaines from the rest of the French Posita est in loco modice acclivi ad flumen quod turrigero ponti conjungitur muro satis firmo munita saith Mr. Cambden of Worcester Orleans is seated on the like declivitie of an hill hath its bridge well fortified with Turrets and its walls of an equall ability of resistance Sed decus est ab incolis qui sunt numerosi humani ab aedificiorum nitore à templorum numero maxime à Sede Episcopali saith he of ours in genrall we may see it fitly applied to this in each particular The people of this town are not of the fewest no town in France the proportion of it considered being more populous for standing in so delicate an Aire and on so commodious a River it inviteth the Gentry or Noblesse of the countrey about it to inhabite there and they accept it Concerning their behaviour
consisteth of two Presidents twenty Counsellors or Assistants and as many Advocates as the Court will admit of The prime President is termed Mr. De Riz by birth a Norman upon the Bench and in all the places of his Court he taketh precedency of the Duke of Longueville When there is a Convention of the three estates summoned the Duke hath the priority We said even now that from the sentence of this Court there lay no appeal but this must be recanted and it is no shame to do it St. Austin hath writ his Retractions so also hath Bellarmine Once in the year there is an appeal admitted but for one man onely and that on this occasion There was a poysonous Dragon not far from Roven which had done much harm to the Country and City Many wayes had been tried to destroy him but none prospered At last Roman afterwards made a St. then Arch-bishop of the Town accompanied with a theif and a murderer whose lives had been forfeited to a sentence undertaketh the enter prise Upon sight of the Dragon the theif stole away the murderer goeth in and seeth that holy man vanquish the Serpent armed onely with a Stoale it is a neck habit sanctified by his holiness of Rome and made much after the fashion of a tippet with this Stoale tyed about the neck of the Dragon doth the murderer lead him prisoner to Roven To make short work the Name of God is praised the Bishop magnified the murderer pardoned and the Dragon burned This accident if the story be not Apocrypha is said to have hapned on Holy Thursday Audom or Owen successor unto St. Roman in memory of this marvellous act obtained of King Dagobert the first he began his raign Anno 632. that from that time forwards the Chapter of the Cathedral Church should on every Ascension day have the faculty of delivering any Malefactor whom the Laws had condemned This that King then granted and all the following Kings to this time have successively confirmed it I omit the ceremonies and solemnities wherewith this Prisoner is taken out of his Irons and restored to liberty It is not above nine years agone since a Baron of Gascoyne took occasion to kill his Wife which done he fled hither into Normandy and having first acquainted the Canons of Nostredame with his desire put himself to the sentence of the Court and was adjudged to the Wheele Ascension day immediately comming on the Canons challenged him and the Judge according to the custom caused him to be delivered But the Normans pleaded that the benefit of that priviledge belonged onely to the Natives of that Country and they pleaded with such fury that the Baron was again committed to prison till the Queen Mother had wooed the people pro eâ saltem vice to admit of his repreival I deferred to speak of the language of Normandy till I came hither because here it is best spoken It differeth from the Parisian and more elegant French almost as much as the English spoken in the North doth from that of London or Oxford Some of the old Norman words it still retaineth but not many It is much altered from what it was in the time of the Conqueror few of the words in which our Laws were written being known by them One of our company gave a Littletons tenures written in that language to a French Doctor in the Laws who protested that in three lines he could not understand three words of it The religion in this Town is indifferently poysed as it is also in most places of this Province The Protestants are thought to be as great a party as the other but far weaker the Duke of Longueville having disarmed them in the beginning of the last troubles CHAP. IV. Our journey between Roven and Pontoise the holy man of St. Claire and the Pilgrims thither My sore eyes Mante Pontoise Normandy justly taken from K. John The end of this Book IVly the second we took our farewell of Roven better accommodated than when we came thither yet not so well as I desired We are now preferred ab asinis ad equos from the Cart to the Waggon The French call it a Coach but that matters not so would they needs have the Cart to be Chariot These Waggons are ordinary instruments of travel in those Countries much of kin to a Graves-end Barge you shall hardly find them without a knave or a Giglot A man may be sure to be merry in them were he as certain of being wholesome This in which we travelled contained ten persons as all of them commonly do and amongst these ten one might have found English Scots French Normans Dutch and Italians a jolly medley had our religions been as different as our Nations I should have thought my self in Amsterdam or Poland If a man had desired to have seen a brief or an Epitome of the world he could no where have received such satisfaction as by looking on us I have already reckoned up the several nations I will now lay open the several conditions There were then to be found among these passengers Men and Women Lords and Serving-men Schollars and Clowns Ladies and Chamber-maids Priests and Lay-men Gentlemen and Artificers people of all sexes and almost of all ages If all the learning in the world were lost it might be found in Plutarch so said Budaeus If all the Nations in the world had been lost they might have been found again in our Waggon so I Seriously I think our Coach to have been no unfit representation of the Ark a whole world of men and languages might have grown out of it But all this while our Waggon joggeth on but so leasuresy that it gave me leave to take a more patient view of the Country then we could in the Cart. And here indeed I saw sufficient to affect the Country yea to dote on it had I not come out of England The fields such as already I have described every where beset with Apple-trees and fruits of the like nature you could scarce see any thing which was barren in the whole Country These Apples are both meat and drink to the poor Pesant for the Country is ill provided with vines the onely want I could observe in it and Beer is a good beverage at a Gentlemans table Sider then or Perry are the poor mans Clarret and happy man is he which can once or twice in a week aspire so high above water To proceed Through many a miserable Village Duburgs they call them and one Town somewhat bigger then the rest called Ecquille we came that night to St. Claire ten French miles from Roven A poor Town God wot and had nothing in it remarkable but an accident There dwelt a Monk grown into great opinion for his sanctity and one who had an especial hand on sore eyes yet his ability herein was not general none being capable of cure from him but pure Virgins I perswade my self France could not yeild him many
French by that door making their entry into this Province out of which at last they thrust the English Anno 1450. So desperate a thing is a frighted Coward This Country had once before been in possession of the English and that by a firmer title than the Sword William the Conqueror had conveyed it once over the Seas into England it continued an appendix of that Crown from the year 1067. unto that of 1204. At that time John called Sáns terre third Son unto King Henry the second having usurped the States of England and the English possessions in France upon Arthur heir of Britain and Son unto Geofrey his elder brother was warred on by Phillip Augustus King of France who sided with the said Arthur In the end Arthur was taken and not long after found dead in the ditches of the Castle of Roven Whether this violent death happened unto him by the practises of his Uncle as the French say or that the young Prince came to that unfortunate end in an attempt to escape as the English report is not yet determined For my part considering the other carriages and virulencies of that King I dare be of that opinion that the death of Arthur was not without his contrivement Certainly he that rebelled against his Father and practised the eternal imprisonment and ruine of his Brother would not much stick this being so speedy a way to settle his affairs at the murther of a Nephew Upon the first bruit of this murther Constance Mother to the young Prince complained unto the King and Parliament of France not the Court which now is in force consisting of men only of the long Robe but the Court of Pairrie or twelve Peers whereof himself was one as Duke of Normandy I see not how in justice Philip could do less than summon him an Homager being â—lain and an Homager accused To this summons John refused to yeild himself A counsel rather magnanimous than wise and such as had more in it of an English King than a French Subject Edward the third a prince of a finer mettal than this John obeyed the like warrant and performed a personal homage to Philip of Valoys and it is not reckoned among his disparagements He committed yet a further error or solaecisme in State not so much as sending any of his people to supply his place or plead his cause Upon this none appearance the Peers proceed to sentence Il fur par Arrest la dire Cour saith Du' Chesne condemne pour attaint et convainuc du crime de parricide de felonnie Parricide for the killing of his own Nephew and felony for committing an act so execrable on the person of a French vassal and in France Jhon de Sienes addeth a third cause which was contempt in disobeying the Kings commandement Upon this verdict the Court awarded Que toutes les terres qu' il avoit par deca de mourerient acquises confisques a la corronne c. A proceeding so fair and orderly that I should sooner accuse King John of indiscretion than the French of injustice when my estate or life is in danger I wish it may have no more sinister a trial The English thus outed of Normandy by the weakness of John recovered it again by the puissance of Henry But being held onely by the sword it was after thirty years recovered again as I have told you And now being passed over the Oyse I have at once freed the English and my self of Normandy here ending this Book but not that dayes journey The Second Book or FRANCE CHAP. I. France in what sense so called the bounds of it All old Gallia not possessed by the French Countries follow the name of the most predominant Nation The condition of the present French not different from that of the old Gaules That the Heavens have a constant power upon the same Climate though the Inhabitants be changed The quality of the French in private at the Church and at the Table Their Language Complements Discourse c. IVly the third which was the day we set out of St. Claire having passed through Pontoise and crossed the River we were entred into France France as it is understood in his limitted sense and as a part onely of the whole For when Meroveus the Grandchild of Pharamond first King of the Francones had taken an opportunity to pass the Rhene having also during the warres between the Romans and the Gothes taken Paris he resolved there to set up his rest and to make that the head City of his Empire The Country round about it which was of no large extent he commanded to be called Francia or Terra Francorum after the name of his Francks whom he governed In this bounded and restrained sense we now take it being confined with Normandy on the North Campagne on the East and on the West and South with the little Province of la Beausse It is also called and that more properly to distinguish it from the whole continent the Isle of France and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Isle I know not any thing more like it then the Isle of Elie the Eure on the West the Velle on the East the Oyse on the Northward and a vein riveret of the Seine towards the South are the Rivers which encircle it But the principall environings are made by the Seine and the Marne a river of Champagne which within the main Island make divers Ilets the waters winding up and down as desirous to recreate the earth with the pleasures of its lovely and delicious embraces This Isle this portion of Gaule properly and limitedly stiled France was the seate of the Franks at their first coming hither and hath still continued so The rest of Gallia is in effect rather subdued by the French than inhabited their valour in time having taken in those Countries which they never planted So that if we look apprehensively into Gaule we shall find the other Nations of it to have just cause to take up the complaint of the King of Portugal against Ferdinand of Castile for assuming to himself the title of Catholique King of Spain eius tam non exiguâ parte penes reges alios as Mariana relateth it Certain it is that the least part of old Gallia is in the hands of the French the Normans Britons Biscaines or Gascoynes the Gothes of Languedoc and Provence Burgundians and the ancient Gaules of Poictou retaining in it such fair and ample Provinces But it is the custome shall I say or fate of lesser and weaker Nations to loose their names unto the stronger as Wives do to their Husbands and the smaller Rivers to the greater Thus we see the little Province of Poland to have mastered and given name to the Pruteni Marovy and other Nations of Sarmatia Europaea as that of Moseo hath unto all the Provinces of Asiatica Thus hath Sweden conquered and denominated almost all the great Peninsula of Scandia where it is but
learned so much of her kinswoman as to permit this Son of hers also to spend his time in his Garden amongst his play fellows and his Birds that she may the more securely mannage the State at her discretion And to say nothing of her untrue or misbecoming her vertue she harh notably well discharged her ambition the Realm of France being never more quietly and evenly Governed theâ—n first during her Regencie and now during the time of her favour with the King For during his minority she carryed her self so fairly between the Factions of the Court that she was of all sides honoured the time of Marquessd ' Ancre onely excepted And for the differences in Religion her most earnest desire was not to oppress the Protestants insomuch that the warre raised against them during the Command of Mr. Luines was presently after his death and her restoring to grace ended An heroical Lady and worthy of the best report of posterity the frailty and weekness of her as being a woman not being to be accounted hers but her Sexes CHAP. II. The Religions struggling in France like the two Twins in the womb of Rebecca The comparison between them two and those in general A more peculiar Survey of the Papists Church in France In Policie Priviledge and Revenue The Complaint of the Clergie to the King The acknowledgement of the French Church to the Pope meerly titular The pragmatick Sanction Maxima tua fatuitas et Conventui Tridentino severally written to the Pope and the Trent Councill The tedious quarrels about Investitures Four things propounded by the Parliament to the Jesuit's The French Bishops not to meddle with Friers Their lives and Land The ignorance of the French Priests The Chanoins Latine in Orleans The French not hard to be converted if plausibly humoured c. FRom the Court of the King of France I cannot better provide for my self than to have recourse unto the Court of the King of Heaven and though the Poet meant not Exeat aulâ qui vult esse pius in that sense yet will it be no treason for me to apply it so And even in this Court the Church which should be like the Coat of its Redeemer without seam do I find rents and sactions and of the two these in the Church more dangerous than those in the Louure I know the story of Rebecca and the Children struggling in her is generally applyed to the births and contentions of the Law and the Gospell In particular we may make use of it in the present estate of the Church and Religions in France for certain it is that there were divers pangs in the womb of the French Church before it was delivered and first she was delivered of Esau the Popish faith being first after the struggling countenaaced by authority and he came out red all over like a hairy Garment saith the text which very oppositely expresseth the bloody and rough condition of the French Papist at the birth of the Reformation before experience and long acquaintance had bred a liking between them And after came his Brother out which laid hold on Esaus heel and his name was called Jacob wherein is described the quality of the Protestant party which though confirmed by publick Edict after the other yet hath it divers times endeavoured and will perchance one day effect the tripping up of the others heeles And Esau saith Moses was a cunning hunter a man of the field but Jacob was a plain man dwelling in Tents In which words the comparison is most exact A cunning Archer in the Scriptures signifieth a man of Art and Power mingled as when Nimrod in the 10th of Geneses is termed A mighty Hunter Such is the Papist a side of greater strength and subtilty a side of warre and of the field On the other side the Protestants are a plain race of men simple in their actions without craft and fraudulent behahaviour and dwelling in Tents that is having no certain abiding place no one Province which they can call theirs but living dispersed and scatterred over the Country which in the phrase of Scripture is dwelling in Tents As for the other words differencing the two Brethren and the elder shall serve the younger they are rather to be accounted a Prophesie than a Character we must therefore leave the Analogie it holds with the Rebecca of France and her two Sons to the event and prayer For a more particular insight into the strength and subtilty of this Esau we must consider it in the three main particular strengths of it Its policy priviledge revenue For the first so it is that the Popish Church in France is governed like those of the first and purer times by Arch-bishops and Bishops Archibishops it comprehendeth twelve and of Bishops an hundred and four Of these the Metropolitan is he of Rhemes who useth to annoint the Kings which office and preheminence hath been annexed to this seat ever since the time of St. Remegius Bishop hereof who converted Clovis King of the Franks unto the Gospel The present Primate is Son to the Duke of Guise by name Henry de Lorrein of the age of fourteen yeares or thereabouts a burden too unweildy for his shoulders Et quae non viribus istis Munera conveniunt nec tam puerilibus annis For the better government therefore of a charge so weighty they have appointed him a Coadjutor to discharge that great function till he come to age to take Orders His name is Gifford an English fugitive said to be a man worthy of a great fortune and able to bear it The revenues of this Arch-bishoprick are somewhat of the meanest not amouting yearly to above 10000. Crowns whereof Doctor Gifford receiveth onely two thousand the remainder going to the Cadet of Lorreine This trick the French learnt of the Protestants in Germany where the Princes after the reformation began by Luther took in the power and Lordships of the Bishops which together with their functions they divided into two parts The Lands they bestowed upon some of their younger Sons or Kinsmen with the title of Administrator the office and power of it they conferred with some annual pension on one of their Chaplains whom they stiled the Superintendent of the Bishoprick This Archbishop together with the rest of the Bishops have under them their several Chancellors Commissaries Archdeacons and other Officers attending in their Courts in which their power is not so general as with us in England Matters of Testament never trouble them as belonging to the Court of Parliament who also have wrested into their own hands almost all the business of importance sure I am all the causes of profit originally belonging to the Church The affairs meerly Episcopal and Spiritual are left unto them as granting licence for marriages punishing whoredom by way of pennance and the like To go beyond this were Vltra crepidam and they should be sure to have a prohibition from the Parliament Of their Priviledges the
raise and enhaunce up their rents to tax his Subjects on occasion and to prohibite them such pleasures as they think fit to be reserved for themselves In Grettanl in Picardie I saw a post fastened in the ground like a race-post with us and thereon an inscription I made presently to it as hoping to have heard news of sōe memorable battel there fought but when I came at it I found it to be nothing but a declaration of the Prince of Condes pleasure that no man should hunt in those quarters Afterward I observed them to be very frequent But not to wander through all particulars I will in some few of them onely give instance of their power here The first is Droict de Balliage power to keep Assizes or to have under them a Baillie and an Imperial seat of justice for the definition of such causes as fall under the compass of ordinary jurisdiction In this Court there is notice taken of treason robberies murthers protections pardons fairs markets and other matters of priviledge Next they have a Court of ordinary jurisdiction and therein a Judge whom they call Le Guarde de Justice for the decision of smaller business as debts trespass breach of the Kings peace and the like In this the purse is onely emptied the other extendeth to the taking away of the life for which every one that hath Hante Justice annexed to his feife hath also his particular Gibbet Nay which is wonderful methodical by the Criticisme of the Gibbet you may judge at the quality of him that owneth it for the Gibbet of one of the Noblesse hath but two pillars that of the Chastellan three the Barons four the Earls six the Dukes eight and yet this difference is rather precise than general The last of their jura Regalia which I will here speak of is the Command they have upon the people to follow them unto the warrs a Command not so advantagious to the Lord as dangerous to the Kingdom Thus live the French Princes thus the Noblesse thus those Sheep which God and the Laws hath brought under them they do not shear but fleece them and which is worse than this having themselves taken away the wooll they give up the naked carcass to the King Tonderi oves meas volo non deglubi was accounted one of the golden sayings of Tiberius but it is not currant here in France Here the Lord and the King though otherwise at odds amongst themselves be sure to agree in this the undoing and oppressing of the Paisant Ephraim against Manasseh and Masnasseh against Ephraim but both against Juda saith the Scripture The reason why they thus desire the poverty of the Commons is as they pretend the safety of the State and their own particulars Were the people once warmed with the feeling of ease and their own riches they would be presently hearkening after the Warrs And if no employment were offered abroad they would make some at home Histories and experience hath taught us enough of this humour in this kind it being impossible for this hot-headed and hare-brain'd people not to be doing Si extraneus deest domi hostem quaerunt as Justin hath observed of the ancient Spaniards A pretty quality and for which they have often smarted CHAP. XIV The base and low estate of the French Paisant The misery of them under their Lords The bed of Procrustes The suppressing of the Subject prejudicial to a State The Wisdom of King Henry the seventh The French forces all in the Cavillery The cruel Impositions laid upon the people by the King No Demain in France Why the trial by twelve men can be used onely in England The gabel of Salt The Popes licence for wenching The gabel by whom refused and why the Gascoines impatient of taxes The Taille and Taylon The Pancarte or aids the vain resistance of those of Paris The Court of aids The manner of gathering the Kings moneys The Kings Revenue The corruption of the French Publicans King Lewis why called the Just The moneys currant in France The gold of Spain more Catholike than the King The happiness of English Subjects BY that which hath been spoken already of the Nobless we may partly guess at the low estate of the Paisant or Country man of whom we will not now speak as Subjects to their Lords and how farre they are under their commandment but how miserable and wretched they are in their apparel and their houses For their apparel it is well if they can allow themselves Canvas or an outside of that nature As for Cloath it is above their purse equally and their ambition if they can aspire unto Fustian they are as happy as their wishes and he that is so arrayed will not spare to aim at the best place in the Parish even unto that of Church-Warden When they go to Plow or to the Church they have shooes and stockings at other times they make bold with Nature and wear their skins Hats they will not want though their bellies pinch for it and that you may be sure they have them they will alwayes keep them on their heads The most impudent custom of a beggarly fortune that ever I met with and which already hath had my blessing As for the Women they know in what degree Nature hath created them and therefore dare not be so fine as their Husbands some of them never had above one pair of stockings in all their lives which they wear every day for indeed they are very durable the goodness of their faces tels us that they have no need of a band therefore they use none And as concerning petticoats so it is that all have such a garment but most of them so short that you would imagine them to be cut off at the placket When the parents have sufficiently worn these vestures and that commonly is till the rottenness of them will save the labour of undressing they are a new cut out and fittted to the Children Search into their houses and you shall find them very wretched and destitute as well of furniture as provision No butter salted up against Winter no poudering tub no pullein in the rick barten no flesh in the pot or at the spit and which is worse no money to buy them The description of the poor aged couple Philemon and Baucis in the eigth book of the Metamorphosis is a perfect character of the French Paisant in his house-keeping though I cannot affirm that if Jupiter and Mercury did come amongst them they should have so hearty an entertainment for thus Ovid marshelleth the dishes Ponitur hic bicolor sincerae bacca Minervae Intubaque radix lactis Massa coacti Ovaque non acri leviter versata favellâ Prunaque in patulis redolentia mala canistris Hic nux hic mixta est rugosis carica palmis Et de purpurers collectae vitibus uvae Omnia fictilibus nitede They on the Table set Minerva's fruit The double coulour'd Olive
is but varied into that of Beausse Besides that Province which the Roman writers stile Bellovaci the French now call Beauvais where Belle is also turned into Beau. Adde to this that the Latine writers doe terme this contrey Bello Bessia where the ancient Bello is still preserved and my conjecture may be pardoned if not approved As for those which have removed this people into Normandie and found them in the city of Baieux I appeale to any understanding man whether their peremptory sentence or my submisse opinion be the more allowable Haec si tibi vera videtur Dede manus aut si falsa est accingere contra The same night we came to Estampes a towne scituate in a very plentifull and fruitfull Soile and watered with a River of the same name stored with the best Crevices it seemeth to have been a town of principall importance there bâ—ing five walls and gates in a length one before another So that it appeareth to be rather a continuation of many townes together than simply one The Streets are of a large breadth the Buildings for substance are stone and for fashion as the rest of France It containeth in it five Churches whereof the principall is a Colledge of Chanons as that of Nostredame built by King Robert who is said also to have founded the Castle which now can scarcely be visited in its ruines without the towne they have a fine green Meadow daintily seated within the circlings of the Water into which they use to follow their recreations At my being there the sport was dancing an exercise much used by the French who doe naturally affect it And it seems this natural inclination is so strong and deep rooted that neither age nor the absence of a smiling fortune can prevaile against it For on this Dancing-green there assembleth not onely Youth and Gentry but also Age and Beggery old wives which could not set foot to ground without a Crutch in the streets had here taught their feet to amble you would have thought by the cleanly conveyance and carriage of their bodies that they had beene troubled with the Sciatica and yet so eager in the sport as if their dancing-dayes should never be done Some there were so ragged that a swift Galliard would almost have shaked them into nakednesse and they also most violent to have their carcasses directed in a measure To have attempted the staying of them at home or the perswading of them to work when they heard the Fiddle had been a task too unweildy for Hercules In this mâ—xture of age and condition did we observe them at their pastime the raggs being so interwoven with the silks and wrinkled browes so interchangably mingled with fresh beauties that you would have thought it to have been a mummery of fortunes as for those of both sexes which were altogether past action they had caused themselves to be carried thither in their chaires and trod the measures with their eyes The Inne which we lay in was just like those of Normandie or at the least so like as was fit for Sisters for such Guests take them Facies non omnibus una Nec diversa tamen qualem de cet esse sororum All the difference in them lay in the morning and amongst the maid-servants for there we were not troubled with such an importunate begging as in that other countrey These here had learned a more neat and compendious art of getting money and petitioned not our eares but our noses by the Rhetorick of a Poësie they prevailed upon the purse by giving each of us a bundle of dead flowers tacked together seemed rather to buy our bounties than to beg them A sweeter and more generous kinde of craving than the other of Normandie and such as may seem to imply in it some happy contradiction for what else is it that a maid should proffer her self to be deflowred without prejudice to her modesty and raise to her future husband an honest stock by the usury of a kindenesse Refreshed with these favours we took our leave of Estampes and the dancing Miscelanie jogging on through many a beautifull field of corne till we came unto Angerville which is six leagues distant a Town of which I could not observe or heare any thing memorable but that it was taken by Montacute Earle of Salisbury as hee went this way to the siege of Orleans and indeed the taking of it was no great miracle the walls being so thin that an arrow could almost as soon make a breach in them as a canon The same fortune befell also unto Toury a place not much beyond it in strength or bignesse onely that it had more confidence as Savage an English Gentleman once said in the walls of bones which were within it than in the walls of stones which were without it This Town standeth in the middle way betwixt Estampes and Orleans and therefore a fit stage to act a dinner on and to it we went by that time we had cleared our selves of our pottage there entred upon us three uncouth fellowes with hats on their heads like cover'd dishes as soon as ever I saw them I cast one eye upon my cloak and the other on my sword as not knowing what use I might have of my steele to maintain my cloath There was great talk at that time of Mr. Sonbise's being in armes and I much feared that these might be some straglers of his army and this I suspected by their countenances which were very thievish and full of insolence But when I had made a survey of their apparell I quickly altered that opinion and accounted them as the excrement of the next prison deceived alike in both my jealousies for these pretty parcels of mans flesh were neither better nor worse but even arrant fidlers and such which in England we should not hold worthy of the whipping post Our leave not asked and no reverence on their parts performed they abused our eares with a harsh lesson and as if that had not been punishment enough unto us they must needs adde unto it one of their songs by that little French which I had gathered and the simpering of a Fille de joy of Paris who came along with us I perceived it was bawdy and to say truth more than patiently could be endured by any but a French-man but quid facerem what should I doe but endure the misery for I had not laguâ—ge enough to call them rogues handsomely and the villaines were inferiour to a beating and indeed not worthy of mine or any honest mans anger Praeda canum lepus est vastos non implet hiatus Nec gaudet tenui sanguine tanta sâ—is They were a knot of Rascalls so infinitely below the severity of a Statute that they would have discredited the State and to have hanged them had been to hazard the reputation of the Gallows In a yeare you would hardly finde out some vengeance for them which they would not injure in the
break off the Assembly Upon the receit of this Letter those of the Assembly published a Declaration wherein they verified the meeting to be lawful and their purpose not to dismiss themselves till their desires were granted This affront done to the King made him gather together his forces yet at the Duke of Lesdiguiers request he allowed them twenty four dayes respite before his Armies should march towards them He offered them also very fair and reasonable conditions such almost as their Deputies had sollicited but far better than those which they were glad to accept when all their Towns were taken from them Profectâ— meluctabilis fatorum vis cujus fortunam mutare constituit ejus corrumpit consilia It holds very rightly in this people who turned a deaf ear to all good advise and were resolved it seemeth not to hear the voice of the charmer charmed he never so sweetly In their Assembly therefore they make Laws and Orders to regulate their disobedience as that no peace should be made without the consent of the general Convocation about paying of the Souldiers wages for the detaining of the Revenues of the King and the Clergy and the like They also have divided France into seven circles or parts assigning over every circle several Generals and Lieutenants and prescribed Orders how those Generals should proceed in the warr Thus we see the Kings Army levied upon no sleight grounds His regal authority was neglected his especial Edicts violated his gratious proffers slighted his revenues forbidden him and his Realm divided before his face and alotted unto Officers not of his own election Had the prosecution of his action been as fair as the cause was just and legal the Protestants onely had deserved the infamy But hinc illae lachrymae the King so behaved himself in it that he suffered the sword to walk at randome as if his main design had been not to correct his people but to ruine them I will instance onely in the tyrannical slaughter which he permitted at the taking of Nigrepelisse a Town of Queren where indeed the Souldiers shewed the very rigor of severity which either a barbarous Victor could inflict or a vanquished people suffer Nec ullum saevitiae genus omisit ira Victoria as Tacitus of the angred Romans For they spared neither man nor woman nor child all equally subject to the cruelty of the Sword and the Conqueror the streets paved with dead carcasses the channels running with the bloud of Christians no noise in the streets but of such as were welcoming death or suing for life The Churches which the Gothes spared in the sack of Rome were at this place made the Theaters of lust and bloud neither priviledge of Sanctuary nor fear of God in whose House they were qualifying their outrage Thus in the Common places At domus interior gemitu miseroque tumultu Miscetur Penitusque eavae clangoribus aedes Faeminiis ululant As Virgill in the ruine of Troy But the calamities which befel the men were merciful and sparing if compared with those which the women suffered when the Souldiers had made them the Subjects of their lust they made them after the subjects of their fury in that onely pittiful to that poor and distressed Sex that they did not let them survive their honours Such of them who out of fear and faintness had made but little resistance had the favour to be stabbed but those whose virtue and courage maintained their bodies valiantly from the rape of those villains had the secrets of Nature Procul hinc este cast ae misericordes aures filled with Gun-powder and so blown into ashes Whether O Ye Divine Powers is humanity fled when it is not to be found in Christians or where shall we find the effects of a pittiful nature when men are become so unnatural It is said that the King was ignorant of this barbarousness and offended at it Offended I perswade my self he could not but be unless he had totally put off himself and degenerated into a Tyger but for his ignorance I dare not conceive it to be any other than that of Nero an ignorance rather in his eye than in his understanding Subduxit oculos Nero saith Tacitus jussitque scelera non spectavit Though the Protestants deserved affliction for their disobedience yet this was an execution above the nature of a punishment a misery beyond the condition of the crime True it is and I shall never acquit them of it that in the time of their prosperity they had done the King many affronts and committed many acts of disobedience and insolency which justly occasioned the warr against them For besides those already recited they themselves first brake those Edicts the due execution whereof seemed to have been their onely petition The King by his Edict of Pacification had licensed the free exercise of both Religions and thereupon permitted the Priests and Jesuites to preach in the Towns of Caution being then in the hands of the Protestants On the other side the Protestants assembled at Loudan straitly commanded all their Governours Mayors and Sheriffs not to suffer any Jesuits or any of any other Order to preach in their Towns although licensed by the Bishop of the Diocess When upon dislike of their proceedings in that Assembly the King had declared their meetings to be unlawful and contrary to his peace and this Declaration was verified against them by the Parliament they notwithstanding would not separate themselves but stood still upon terms of capitulation and the justifiableness of their action Again whereas it happened that the Lord of Privas Town full of those of the Religion dyed in the year 1620. and left his Daughter and Heir in the bed and marriage of the Viscount of Cheylane a Catholike this new Lord according to law and right in his own Town changed the former Garrison putting his own servants and dependants in their places Upon this the Protestants of the Town and Country about it draw themselves in Troops surprize many of the Towns about it and at the last compelled the young Gentleman to fly from his inheritance an action which jumping even with the time of the Assembly at Rochell made the King more doubtful of their sincerity I could add to these divers others of their undutiful practises being the effects of too much felicity and of a fortune which they could not govern Atqui animus meminisse horret luctuque refuget These their insolencies and unruly acts of disobedience made the King and his Council suspect that their designs tended further than Religion and that their purpose might be to make themselves a free Estate after the example of Geneva and the Low Country-men The late power which they had taken of calling their own Synods and Convocations was a strong argument of their purpose so also was the intelligence which they held with those of their faith at the Synod at Sappe called by the permission of Henry the fourth on the first of
October Anno 1603. They not onely gave audience to Ambassadours and received Letters from forrain Princes but also importuned his Majesty to have a general liberty of going into any other Countreys and assigning at their Counsel a matter of especial importance And therefore the King upon a foresight of the dangers wisely prohibited them to go to any Assemblies without a particular licence upon pain to be declared Traytors Since that time growing into greater strength whensoever they had occasion of business with King Lewis they would never treat with him but by their Embassadors and upon especial Articles An ambition above the quality of those that profess themselves Sorbonets and the onely way as Du Seirres noteth to make an estate in the State but the answers made unto the King by those of Alerack and Montanbon are pregnant proofs of their intent and meaning in this kind The first being summoned by the King and his Army the 22. of July Anno 1621. returned thus that the King should suffer them to enjoy their liberties and leave their fortifications as they were for them of their lives and so they would declare themselves to be his subjects They of Montanbon made a fuller expression of the general design Disobedience which was that they were resolved to live and die in the Vnion of the Churches had they said for the Service of the King it had been spoken bravely but now rebelliously This union and confederacy of theirs King Lewis used to call the Common-wealth of Rochell for the overthrow of which he alwayes protested that he had onely taken Arms and if we compare circumstances we shall find it to be no other In the second of April before he had as yet advanced into the Feild he published a Declaration in favour of all those of the Religion which would contain themselves within duty and obedience And whereas some of Tours at the beginning of the warrs had tumultuously molested the Protestants at the burial of one of their dead five of them by the Kings especial commandement were openly executed When the warr was hottest abroad those of the Gospel at Paris lived as securely as ever and had their accustomed meetings at Charentan So had those also of other places Moreover when tidings came to Paris of the Duke of Mayens death slain before Montanbon the Rascal French according to their hot headed dispositions breathed out nothing but ruine to the Hugonots the Duke of Montbazon Governour of the City commanded their houses and the streets to be safely guarded After when this Rabble had burnt down their Temple at Charentan the Court of Parliament on the day following ordained that it should be built up again in a more beautiful manner and that at the Kings charge Add to this that since the ending of the warrs and the reduction of almost all their Towns we have not seen the least alteration of Religion Besides that they have been permitted to hold a National Synod at Clarenton for establishing the truth of their doctrine against the errors of Arminius Professor of Leiden in Holland All things thus considered in their true being I cannot see for what cause our late Soveraign should suffer so much envy as he did for not giving them assistance I cannot but say that my self hath too often condemned his remissness in that cause which upon better consideration I cannot tell how he should have dealt in Had he been a meddler in it further than he was he had not so much preserved Religion as supported rebellion besides the consequence of the example To have assisted the disobedient French under the colour of the liberty of Conscience had been onely to have taught that King a way into England upon the same pretence and to have troad the path of his own hazard Further he had not long before denyed succor to his own children when he might have given upon a better ground and for a fairer purpose and could not now in honour countenance the like action in another For that other denial of his helping hand I much doubt how farre posterity will acquit him though certainly he was a good Prince and had been an happy instrument of the peace of Christendom had not the later part of his raign happened in a time so full of troubles So that betwixt the quietness of his nature and the turbulencies of his later dayes he fell into that miserable exigent mentioned in the Historian Miserrimum est cum alicui aut natura sua excedenda est aut minuenda dignitas Add to this that the French had first been abandoned at home by their own friends of seven Generals whom they had appointed for the seven circles into which they divided all France four of them never giving them incouragement The three which accepted of those inordinate Governments were the Duke of Rohan his Brother Mr. Sonbise and the Marquess la Force the four others being the Duke of Tremoville the Earl of Chastillon the Duke of Lesdiguier and the Duke of Bovillon who should have commanded in cheif So that the French Protestants cannot say that he was first wanting unto them but they to themselves If we demand what should move the French Protestants to this rebellious contradiction of his Majesties commandements we must answer that it was too much happiness Causa hujus belli eadem quae omnium nimid faelicitas as Florus of the Civil warrs between Caesar and Pompey Before the year 1620. when they fell first into the Kings dis-favour they were possessed of almost an hundred good Towns well fortified for their safety besides beautiful houses and ample possessions in the Villages They slept every man under his own Vine and his own Fig-tree neither fearing nor needing to fear the least disturbance with those of the Catholike party they were grown so intimate and entire by reason of their inter-marriages that a very few years would have made them incorporated if not into one faith yet into one family For their better satisfaction in matters of Justice it pleased King Henry the fourth to erect a chamber in the Court of Parliament of Paris purposely for them It consisted of one President and sixteen Counsellors their office to take knowledge of all the Causes and Suits of them of the Reformed Religion as well within the jurisdiction of the Parliament of Paris as also in Normandy and Brittain till there should be a Chamber erected in either of them There were appointed also two Chambers in the Parliament of Bourdeaux and Grenoble and one at Chasters for the Parliament at Tholoza These Chambers were called Les Chambres de l' Edict because they were established by a special Edict at the Town of Nantes in Brittain April the eighth Anno 1598. In a word they lived so secure and happy that one would have thought their felicities had been immortal O faciles dare summa Deos eademque tuerâ— Difficiles And yet they are not brought so low but that they may