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A70427
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An historical and geographical description of France extracted from the best authors, both ancient and modern. By J. De Lacrose, Eccl. Angl. Presb.
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Lacroze, Jean Cornand de, d. ca. 1705.
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1694
(1694)
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Wing L136A; ESTC R223644
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308,707
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674
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AN HISTORICAL AND Geographical DESCRIPTION OF FRANCE Extracted from the best Authors both Ancient and Modern By J. De LACROSE Eccl. Angl. Presb. LONDON Printed for T. Salusbury at the King's-Arms near St. Dunstans Church in Fleet-street 1694. To His Most Excellent MAJESTY WILLIAM III. By the Grace of God King of Great Britain France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. May it please Your Majesty THE Kingdom of France tho' never so large and powâ—rful has formerly belong'd either â—n part or in whole to Your glorious Ancestors The vast Dutchies of Normandy and Guyenn Maine Touraine Perche and Poictou the Counties of Ponthieu and Guisnes Calais Boulogne Ardres 〈◊〉 and their dependencies were thâ— Patrimonial Estates of the Kingâ— of England besides many Countieâ— and Lordships that Your Predecessors the Princes of Orange havâ— enjoy'd in Dauphine Provence Languedoc and Burgundy 〈◊〉 that tho the pretended Salick Law by which the Houses of Valois anâ— Bourbon endeavoured to maintain their usurpation should takâ— place Your Majesty has still thâ— lawful claim of inheritance to thâ— best part of the French Territories All the World knows that nâ— such motives have ingaged Youâ— Majestâ— in this present War Youâ— generous Mind aims at nothing else than to get restor'd to your Allieâ— what an ambitious Prince has usurped from them But as when Solomon prefer'd Wisdom to Riches God gave him the latter too as an Overplus So it may be that the just Distributer of Kingdoms being pleased with that act of Justice of Your Majesty will add to Your Dominions the vast Estates of Your Fore-Fathers and lâ—t us sâ—e another Henry of England Crown'd in Paris A great nâ—mber of those who appear Your inveterate Enemies are most concern'd for Your Majesty and truâ—st to Your Interest The Secular Clergy of France depriv'd of their Authority the Nobility of their Power the Gentry of their Estates the Parliaments reduc'd to be only the unworthy Ministers of the Passions and Pleasures of a few arbitrary Courtiers the Learned overloaden with Superstitions the persecuted Protestants forc'd to a Worship which they detest in their Heart most or all the French Cities or Countries robb'd of their Liberties and Privileges and even the whole Kingdom beggar'd and famish'd sigh and long for such a Deliverer as Your Majesty who is not afraid of the tempests of the Sea and bids defiance to the Fire of Canon's who has â—eceiv'd so many Wounds and looâ—'d so many Dangers in the Face for our Security May Almighty God animate Your Subjects with so â—uch Zeal and bless Your Arms with so great a Success that Your Majesty may afford an occasion to Your secret Friends to declare themselves and procure them such a settled Welfare and constant Liberty as may have no other end but the Consummation of the World Which is the earnest Desire Of Your Majesty's Most humble most obedient And most faithful Servant J. De LACROSE THE PREFACE SOme Readers may imagine that it is no hard matter to describe a Country so near so full of Learned men and so stor'd with excellent Books as France is especially for a Native of it because of the many helps an Author may meet with I have made use of all those I could come at Books Maps Memoirs Inquiries of living persons besides what I knew of my own But I was soon aware that the Description of those who have Written before me even in the middle of that Kingdom are very imperfect All the Journeys into France I have read as du Verdier Sinceri Accii Itinerarium Galliae Le Grand Tour de France les Delices de la France and the late Voyages Historiques de l'Europe observe neither order nor method confounding not only the several Counties into which each great Government is subdivided but even the great Governments themselves As to Geographers Comminges and Darity are too old and confus'd The Maps of Sanson the Father and the Son are excellent those of Du Val next to them and by comparâ—ng them together as I have done one may be pretty sure of the Longitude and Latitude situation and distance of places But neither of the Sansons has made a modern and particular Description of France and that of Du Val is too short and not methodical enough As to Antiquities Andre du Chesne in his curious Inquiries concerning the Towns of France is full of Fables and ought not to be follow'd but very cautiously tho he is a Man of a vast reading and much to be commended for having published several Historians of the middle Age that have Written of the French affairs and made use of them in his Antiquities of that Country and Monarchy Joseph Scaliger how Learned soever he may be in other things does not come near Du Chesne in this and proposes many bold conjectures concerning the ancient names of the French Cities and Countries for which he often gives no other authority but his bare saying Baudrand is but a pitiful compiler of modern Books who never look'd into ancient Authors Sanson in his Pharus Galliae Antiquae is more accurate than the fore mentioned Writers and has made many curious and useful discoveries But the most exact of all in my Judgment is Adrian de Valois in his Notitia Galliarum as to the Latin names of Places for there is hardly any thing else in that huge Folio besides some few hints of History to be gâ—ther'd here and there with great trouble I have perus'd three other modern Geographers which I must not forget viz. Robbe's Memoires Geographiques Morery's Grand Dictionnaire Historique and Geographique with the supplement of Perayre and De la Croix's Geographie Vniverselle As to the first he cannot commit many faults for he has almost nothing besides French names but as soon as he presumes to say something more for instance to determine the extent of a Government or its Latitude and Longitude one may very near be sure to find him in an error As to Morery it is pity he did not live long enough or had not the conveniency to read ancient Authors His want of Learning in Ecclesiastical History and Mysteries of State makes him too passionate when he speaks of the Protestants and leads him into many mistakes as to Latin names and other Antiquities As to De la Croix all his performance consists in having put an abâ—idgment of Morery into Robâ—e's method and a very unjudicious one too for he leaves out what is most curious and essential in the Great Dictionary and the rest he takes it word for word unless it be to corrupt and abridg it again but for the most part he is so faithful as to transcribe the very faults of the press as p. 200. l. 29. Anvers for Anâ—t Whatever he adds of his own here and there as the Latitude and Longitude and the distance of places is always falâ—e for he never took the 〈◊〉 of looking into one of Sanson's or du Val's Maâ—s For instance
speaking of Priviledges I must not forget four very rare and considerable Prerogatives granted by the French King to the Inhabitants of Bourges perhaps in reward of their Fidelity to Charles the VII * Du Chesne 1. Their Goods cannot be confiscated 2. They are free from Garisons and Winter Quarters 3. Those that posses Lordships or noble Manors are not subject to the Duty of Ban and Areerban 4. Those that buy or inherit them pay nothing to the King The City is govern'd by a Mayor and Sheriffs who take care of it in time of Peace and War and judge in first instance of the differences between the Citizens which may be brought by Appeal only before the Parliament of Paris but the Suits of the Country People resort to the Presidial as well as the Appeals from the Royal Seats of Issoudun Dun-le-Roy Meun sur Yeure Concressaut Sancerre c. Amongst the Buildings of Bourges the Town-House and the House of Jaques Coeur are worthy to be seen This Man was Treasurer to Charles the VII and one of the first that ventured to send Merchant Ships into the East By that unknown Trade he gather'd in a short time such vast Sums of Mony that he bought the Lordships of St. Fergeau Menetou Boisi S. Geran de Vaux la aliPsse c. and built a most sumptuous Palace that is yet partly subsisting iâ— which are said to be as many Windows as there are Days in the Yoar besides other publick Buildings and whole Streets wherewith he adorn'd this City But his great Riches prov'd his Ruin for the envious Courtiers took thence occasion to accuse him of keeping unlawful Correspondences with the Turks of sending them Arms Weapons and Amunitions and even Smiths and Gunners to smeed melt and point them after the Christian manner Of discovering the Secrets of the State makeing away the King's Mony and drawing unlawful Taxes from Languedoc for which true or pretended Crimes he was put close Prisoner condemned to excessive Fines and then banish'd for ever from France As to the Ecclesiastical State Christianity together with Episcopacy was as it 's said planted here by one Vrsinus Disciple to the Apostles who was the first Prelate of it in the second Century And as by the Division of the Emperours August and Constantine Aquitain became the fourth Part of the Gauls and was subdivided into three other Provinces the First the Second and the Third Aquitain Bourges being the Capital of all its Bishop took the Title of Patriarch or Primate of Aquitain and had the Precedency of the Metropolitans of Bourdeaux Narbonne and Aâ—ch This Honour having been conferr'd or confirmed to him by Charlemaign who rested Aquitain into a particular Kingdom he enjoy'd it undisturbed till the Dutchy of Guyenn and the Estates of the Counts of Toulouse were torn off from the Kingdom of France for then the Arch-Bishops of Bourdeaux Narbonne and Auch endeavoured to free themselves from their subordination to the Primate of Bourges as their Masters had done from their Subjection to the French Kings Divers National Councils were kept upon this account but the Arch-Bishops of Bourdeaux maintained by the Kings of England would never yield The most famous Assembly of Prelates that was ever call'd to Bourges was in 1438 where the French Clergy acknowledged the Council ot Basil and approved of the Pragmatique Sanction as did also the Parliament of Paris in 1459. This Constitution first drawn up by Lewis the IX corrected and enlarged by the Council of Basil consisted of 23 Statutes of which 21 had been ratified by Pope Eugenius IV Their Principal aim was 1. To cause the Elected Bishops to be acknowledged for such before or without their going to Rome 2. To make the Elections of Bishops Abbots c. free and independant from either King or Pope 3. To prefer the Authority of a General Council before that of the Pope 4. To abolish expectative Graces so that the Pope might not give the Survivance of a Living to any of his Favourites Eugenius repented soon after to have yielded so s nuch broke with the Council of Basil and sent Ambassadours to the French King Charles the VII to hinder the Reception of the Pragmatique but all in vain for it subsisted till 1516. that it was suppressed by an Agreement between Francis I. and Leo X. call'd the Concordat the French King allowing the Pope to inslave his Clergy again that he might abolish the free Elections and Name to the great Livings The Diocess of Bourges contains 900 Parishes under 12 Arch-Deacons and 20 Arch-Priests besides 34 Collegiate Churches and 35 Abbies Before the Year 1676. it had Eleven Suffragans but Albi that was then Erected into a Metropolitan took away five with it self so that Bourges had but five left viz. Clermons Let St. Flour Tulles and Limoges Just now I hear that the H. Chappel and many Houses was burnt down July 1693. Sancerre lies 8 Leagues North-East of Bourges upon a Mountain wash'd by the River Loire The Latin Name of this Town is a proof of its Antiquity for Authors call it either Sacrum Cereris because in the Time of Heathenism Ceres the Goddess of Corn was ador'd there Or Sacrum Caesaris because Cesar sacrific'd in this Place after his Victory over the Berruyers Others pretend that this great General built here a Fort to keep in the Statues or Images of his Lares or Hous-Gods but this has little probability since the Romans did not use to carry their domestick Gods with them in their Armies besides that considering the swiftness of Cesar's Conquest 't is most likely he did not lose Time in building Fortresses Another mark of the Antiquity of Sancerre is its Title of County which it got by being given in Portion to a youngest Son of the House of Champaign Stephen Brother to Thibauld or Theobald the Groat under the Reign of Lewis the IX Stephen's Posterity enjoy'd it to the Year 1451. that it passed to the House of Du Bucil During that time the Counts of Sancerre were famous and their Family produc'd many brave Men as amongst others Lewis of Sancerre High-Constable of France in 1397. The Neighbourhood of Orleans made this Town take part with the Dukes of that Name during their Quarrels against the Burgundians who for this reason besieg'd it In the last Century Sancerre held for the Protestants and was twice attempted in vain by the Roman Catholick Commanders viz. in 1568 and 1572 at which time he serv'd as a place of Refuge to those Inhabitants of Orleans and Bourges that could escape the barbarous Murther of St. Bartholomew but the following Year it was taken by Famine after a Siege of 8 Months This County has 31 Chastelnies and 500 Parishes depending on it Issoudun Vsellodunum or Exoldunum lies on the small River Thiol seven Leagues West of Bourges It s Gaulish termination intimates that it is an antient Town and Du Chesne confidently relates it was one of the 20