live happily if they can be content to live obediently that which is taken from them being matter of strength onely not priviledge Let us now look upon them in their Churches which we shall find as empty of magnificence as ceremony to talk amongst them of Common prayers were to fright them with a second coming of the Mass and to mention Prayers at the burial of the dead were to perswade them of a Purgatory Painted glass in a Church window is accounted for the flag and ensign of Antichrist and for Organs no question but they are deemed the Devils Bap pipes Shew them a Surplice and they cry out a rag of the Whore of Babylon yet a Sheet upon a Woman when she is in childâ—bed is a greater abomination than the other A strange people that could never think the Mass-book sufficiently reformed till they had taken away Prayers nor that their Churches could ever be handsome until they were ragged This foolish opposition of their first Reformers hath drawn the Protestants of these parts into a world of dislike and envy and been no small disadvantage to their side whereas the Church of England though it dissent as much from the Papists in point of doctrine is yet not uncharitably thought on by the moderatest Catholikes by reason it retained such an excellency of discipline When the Liturgie of our Church was translated into Latine by Doctor Mocket once Warden of All-Souls Colledge in Oxford it was with great approof and applause received here in France by those whom they call Catholikes Royal as marvelling to see such order and regular devotion in them whom they were taught to condemn for heretical An allowance which with some little help might have been raised higher from the practise of our Church to some points of our judgement And it is very worthy of our observation that which the Marquess of Rhosney spake of Canterbury when he came as extraordinary Embassadour from King Henry the fourth to welcome King James into England for upon the view of our solemn Service and Ceremonies he openly said unto his fellows that if the reformed Churches in France had kept the same orders amongst them which we have he was assured that there would have been many thousands more of Protestants than now there are But the Marquess of Rhosney was not the last that said so I have heard divers French Papists who were here at the Queens coming over and ventured so far upon an excommunication as to be present at our Church solemn Services extolling them and us for their sakes even almost unto Hyperboles So graciously is our temper entertained amongst them As are their Churches such is their discipline naked of all antiquity and almost as modern as the men which embraced it The power and calling of Bishops they abrogated with the Mass upon no other cause then that Geneva had done it As if that excellent man Mr. Calvin had been the Pythagoras of our age and his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Ipse dixit had stood for Oracle The Hierarchi of Bishops thus cast out they have brought in their places Lay-Elders a kind of Monsters never heard of in the Scriptures or first times of the Gospel These men leap from the stall to the Bench and partly sleeping and partly stroaking their beard they enact Laws of government for the Church So that we may justly take up the complaint of the Satyrist saying Surgunt nobis e Sterquitineo magistratus nec dum tot is manibus publica tractant negotia yet to these very men composed equally of ignorance and a Trade are the most weighty matters of the Church committed In them is the power of ordaining Priests of conferring places of Charge and even of the severest censure of the Church Excommunication When any business which concerneth the good of the Congregation is befallen they must be called to counsel and you shall find them there as soon as ever they can put off their aprons Having blotted out there a little classical non-sense and passed their consents rather by nodding of their heads than any other sensible articulation they hasten to their Shops as Quinctius the Dictator in Florus did to his Plow Vt adopus relictum festinasse videatur Such a platform though it be as needeth no further confutation then to know it yet had it been the more tolerable if the Contrivers of it had not endeavoured to impose it on all the reformation by which meanes what troubles have been raised by the great Zealots here in England there is none so young but hath heard some tragical relations God be magnified and our late King praised by whom this weed hath been snatched up out of the garden of this our Israel As for their Ministery it is indeed very learned in their study and exceeding painful in their calling by the first they confute the ignorant of the Romish Clergy by the second their laziness And questionless it behoveth them so to be for living in a Country full of opposition they are forced to a necessity of book-learning to maintain the Cause and being continually as it were beset with spies did therefore frequent the Pulpits to hold up their credits The maintenance which is alotted them scarce amounteth to a competency though by that name they please to call it With receiving of tythes they never meddle and therefore in their Systematical Tractats of Divinity they do hardly allow of paying of them Some of them hold that they are Jewish and abrogated with the Law Others think them meerly to be Jure Humano and yet that they may be lawfully accepted where they are tendered It is well yet that there are some amongst theÌ„ which will commend grapes though they cannot reach them This Competency may come to forty or fifty pound yearly or a little more Beza that great and famous Preacher of Geneva had but eighty pound a year and about that rate was Peter du Moulins pension when he preached at Clarenton These stipends are partly paid by the King and partly raised by way of Collection So the Ministers of those Churches are much of the nature of the English Lecturers As for the Tythes they belong to the several Parish Priests in whose precincts they are due and those I warrant you according to the little learning which they have will hold them to be Jure Divino The Sermons of the French are very plain home-spun little in them of the Fathers and less of humane learning it being concluded in the Synode of Sappe that onely the Scriptures should be used in their Pulpits they consist much of exhortation and use and of nothing in a manner which concerneth knowledge A ready way to raise up and edifie the will and affections but withall to starve the understanding For the education of them being Children they have private Schools when they are better grown they may have free recourse unto any of the French Academies besides the new Vniversity of Saumus which
the earth its Mother or that it purposed by making it self away into the ground to save the Plow-man his next years labour Thick it groweth and so perfectly void of weeds that no garden can be imagined to be kept cleaner by art than these fields are by nature Pasture ground it hath little and less meadow yet sufficient to nourish those few Cattel they have in it In all the way between Diepe and Pontois I saw but two flocks of Sheep and then not above forty in a flock Kine they have in some measure but not fat nor large without these there were no living for them The Noblest eat the flesh whiles the Farmer feeds on Butter and Cheese and that but sparingly But the miserable states of the Norman paissant we wiil deferre till another opportunity Swine also they have in pretty number and some Pullen in their backsides but of neither an excess The principal Rivers of it is Seine of which more hereafter and besides this I saw two rivulets Robee and Renelâ—e In matter of civil Government this Country is directed by the Court of Parliament established at Roven for matters Military it hath an Officer like the Lieutenants of our Shires in England the Governour they call him The present Governour Mounsieur Duc de Longueville to whom the charge of this province was committed by the present King Lewis the thirteenth Anno 1629. The Laws by which they are governed are the Civil or Imperial augmented by some customes of the French and others more particular which are the Norman One of the principallest is in matters of inheritance the French custom giving to all the Sons an equality in their estate which we in England call Gavel-kind The Norman dividing the estate into three parts and thereof allotting two unto the eldest brother and a third to be divided among the others A Law which the French account not just the younger brothers of England would think the contrary To conclude this general discourse of the Normans I dare say it is as happy a Country as most in Europe were it subject to the same Kings and governed by the same Laws which it gave unto England CHAP. II. Diepeâ— the Town strength and importance of it The policy of Henry the fourth not seconded by his Son The custom of the English Kings in placing Governours in their Forts The breaden God there and strength of their Religion Our passage from Diepe to Roven The Norman Inns Women and Manners The importunity of Servants in hosteries The saucy familiarity of the attendants Ad pileum vocare What it was amongst the Romans and jus pilearum in the Universities of England IVne the 30th at six of the clock in the morning we landed at Diepe one of the Haven Towns of Normandy seated on an arm of the Sea between two hils which imbrace it in the nature of a bag this secureth the Haven from the violence of the weather and is a great strength to the Town against the attempts of any forces which should assault it by Sea the Town lying within these Mountains a quarter of a mile up the channel The Town it self is not uncomely the streets large and well paved the houses of an indifferent height and built upright without any juttings out of one part over the other The Fortifications as they say for we were not permitted to see them are very good and modern without stones within earth On the top of the hill a Castle finely seated both to defend the Town and on occasions to command it The Garrison consisteth of sixty men in pay no more but when need requireth the Captain hath authority to arm the Inhabitants The present Governour is the Duke of Longueville who also is the Governour of the Province intrusted with both those charges by Lewis the thirteenth 1619. An action wherein he swarved somewhat from the ensample of his Father who never committed the military command of a Country which is the Office of a Governour and the custody of a Town of war or a Fortress unto one man The Duke of Biron might have as great a courtesie from that King as the most deserving of his subjects he had stuck close to him in all his adversities received many an honourable fear in his service and indeed was Fabius and Scipio both the sword and buckler of the French Empire In a word he might have said to this Henry what Silius in Tacitus did to Tiberius Suum militem in obsequio mansâ—sse cum alii ad sedetiones prolaberentur neque daraturum Tiberii imperium si iis quoque Legionibus cupido novandi fuisset yet when he became petitioner to the King for the Cittadel of Bourg seated on the confines of his Government of Burgogne the King denied it The reason was because Governours of Provinces which commanded in chief ought not to have the command of places and fortresses within their Government there was also another reason and more enforcing which was that the petitioner was suspected to hold intelligence with the Duke of Savoy whose Town it was The same Henry though he loved the Duke Espernon even to the envy of the Court yet even to him also used he the same caution Therefore when he had made him Governour of Xanictoigne and Angoulmois he put also into his hands the Towns of Mets and Boullogne places so remote from his seat of Government and so distant one from the other that they did rather distract his power than encrease it The Kings of England have been well and for a long time versed in this Maxime of State Let Kent be one of our ensamples and Hampshire the other In Kent at this time the Lieutenant or as the French would call him the Governour is the Earl of Montgomery yet is Dover Castle in the hands of the Duke of Buckingham and yet Quinborough in the custody of Sir Edward Hobby Of which the one commandeth the Sea and the other the Thames and the Medway In Hampshire the Lieutenant is the Earl of Southampton but the Government of the Town and Garrison of Portsmouth is intrusted to the Earl of Pembroke Neither is there any of the best Sconces or Block-houses on the shore side of the Country which is commanded by the Lieutenant But King Lewis now raigning in France minded not his Fathers actions when at the same time also he made his Confident M. Luines Governour of Picardy and of the Town and Cittadel of Amiens The time ensuing gave him an insight of that state-breach for when the Dukes of Espernon Vendosme Longueville Magenne and Nemours the Count of Soisons and others sided with the Queen Mother against the King the Duke of Longueville strengthened this Dieppe and had not peace suddenly followed would have made good maugre the Kings forces A town it is of great importance King Henry the fourth using it as his Asylum or City of Refuge when that League was hottest against him For had he been further distressed
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
Mundi tam in temporalibus quam in spiritualibus the King returned him an answer with an Epithite sutable to his arrogancy Sciat maxima tua fatuitas nos intemporalibus alicui non subesse c. The like answer though in modester termes was sent to another of the Popes by St. Lewis a man of a most mild and sweet disposition yet unwilling to forgoe his Royalties His spiritual power is almost as little in substance though more in shew for whereas the Councill of Trent hath been an especiall authorizer of the Popes spiritual supremacy the French Church never would receive it by this means the Bishops keep in their hands their own full authority whereof an obedience to the decrees of that Councill would deprive them It was truly said by St. Gregory and they well knew it Lib. 7. Epist 70. Si unus universalis est restat ut vos Episcopinon Sitis Further the Vniversity of Paris in their Declaration Anno 1610. above mentioned plainly affirme that it is directly opposite to the doctrine of the Church which the Vniversity of Paris hath alwaies maintained that the Pope hath power of a Monarch in the spiritual Government of the Church To look upon higher times when the Councill of Constance had submitted the authority of the Pope unto that of a Councill John Gerson Theologus Parisiensis magni nominis defended that deeree and entitleth them Perniciosos esse ad modum adulatores qui tyranidem istam in Ecclesia invexere quasi nullis Regum teneatur vinculis quasi neque parere debeat Concilio Pontifex nec ab eo judicare queat The Kings themselves also befreind their Clergy in this Cause and therefore not onely protested against the Council of Trent wherein the spiritual tyranny was generally consented to by the Catholike faction but Henry the second also would not acknowledge them to be a Council calling them in his Letters by no other name than Conventus Tridentinus An indignity which the Fathers took very offensively Put the principal thing in which it behooveth them not to acknowledge his spiritual supremacy is the Collation of Benefices and Bishopricks and the Annates and first fruits thence arising The first and greatest controversie between the Pope and Princes of Christendom was about the bestowing the Livings of the Church and giving the investiture unto Bishops The Popes had long thirsted after that authority as being a great meanes to advance their followers and establish their own greatness for which cause in divers petty Councels the receiving of any Ecclesiastical preferment of a Lay-man was decreed to be Simony But this did little edifie with such patrons as had good Livings As soon as ever Hiâ—el brand in the Catalogue of the Popes called Gregory the seventh came to the throne of Rome he set himself entirely to effect the business as well in Germany now he was Pope as he had done in France whilst he was Legate He commandeth therefore Henry the third Emperour Ne deinceps Episcopatus Beneficia they are Platina's own words per cupiditatem Simoniacam committat aliter se usurum in ipsum censuris Ecclesiasticis To this injustice when the Emperour would not yeild he called a solemn Council at the Lateran where the Emperour was pronounced to be Simoniacal and afterwards excommunicated Neither would this Tyrant ever leave persecuting of him till he had laid him in his grave After this followed great strugling between the Popes and the Emperours for this very matter but in the end the Popes got the victory In England here he that first bickered about it was William Rufus the controversie being whether he or Pope Vrban should invest Anselme Archbishop of Canterbury Anselme would receive his investiture of none but the Pope whereupon the King banished him the Realm into which he was not admitted till the raign of Henry the second He to endear himself with his Clergy relinquished his right to the Pope but afterwards repenting himself of it he revoked his grant Neither did the English Kings wholly loose it till the raign of that unfortunate Prince King John Edward the first again recovered it and his Successors kept it The Popes having with much violence and opposition wrested into their hands this Priviledge of nominating Priests and investing Bishops they spared not to lay on what taxes they pleased as on the Benefices First fruits Pensions Subsidies Fifteenths Tenths and on the Bishopricks for Palls Mitres Crosiers Rings and I know not what bables By these means the Churches were so impoverished that upon complaint made unto the Council of Basel all these cheating tricks these aucupia eapilandi rationes were abolished This Decree was called Pragmatica sanctio and was confirmed in France by Charles the seventh Anno 1438. An act of singular improvement to the Church and Kingdom of France which yearly before as the Court of Parliament manifested to Lewis the eleventh had drained the State of a million of Crowns Since which time the Kings of France have sometimes omitted the vigour of the Sanction and sometimes also exacted it according as their affairs with the Pope stood for which cause it was called fraenum pontificum At the last King Francis the first having conquered Millain fell unto this composition with his Holiness namely that upon the falling of any Abbacie or Bishoprick the King should have six moneths time to present a fit man unto him whom the Pope legally might invest If the King neglected his time limited the Pope might take the benefit of the relapse and institute whom he pleased So is it also with the inferior benifices between the Pope and the Patrons insomuch that any or every Lay-patron and Bishop together in England hath for ought I see at the least in this particular as great a spiritual supremacy as the Pope in France Nay to proceed further and to shew how meerly titular both his supremacies are as well the spiritual as the temporal you may plainly see in the case of the Jesuites which was thus In the year 1609. the Jesuites had obtained of King Henry the fourth license to read again in their Colledge of Paris but when their Letters Patents came to be verified in the Court of Parliament the Rector and Vniversity opposed them On the seventeenth of December Anno 1611. both parties came to have an hearing and the Vniversity got the day unless the Jesuits would subscribe unto these four points Viz. First that the Council was above the Pope Secondly that the Pope had not temporal power over Kings and could not by Excommunication deprive them of their Realms and Estates Thirdly that Clergy men having heard of any attempt or conspiracy against the King or his Realm or any matter of treason in Confession they were bound to reveal it And fourthly that Clergy men were subject to the Secular Prince or Politick Magistrate It appeared by our former discourse what title or no power they had left the Pope over the estates
consisteth meerly of Doctors of Divinity neither can any of another profession nor any of the same profession not so graduated be admitted unto it At this time their number is about seventy their allowance a pint of Wine their pint being but a thought less than our quart and a certain quantity of bread daily Meat they have none allowed them unless they pay for it but they pay not so much for five Sols which amounteth to six pence English a day they challenge a competency of flesh or fish to be served to them at their Chambers These Doctors have the sole power authority in conferring degrees in Divinity The Rector and other Officers in the University having nothing to do in it To them alone belongeth the examination of the Students in that faculty the approbation and bestowing of the honours and to their Lectures do all such assiduously repair as are that way minded All of them in their turns discharge this office of reading and that by six in a day three of them making good the Pulpit in the forenoon and as many in the afternoon These Doctors also are accounted together with the Parliament of Paris the principal pillars of the French liberty whereof indeed they are exceeding jealous as well in matters Ecclesiastical as Civil When Gerson Chancellor of Paris he died Anno 1429. had published a book in approbation of the Council of Constance where it was enacted that the authority of the Council was greater than that of the Pope the Sorbonne Doctors declared that also to be their doctrine Afterwards when Lewis the eleventh to gratifie Pope Pius the second purposed to abolish the force of the Pragmatick Sanction the Sorbonnists in the behalf of the Church Gallican and the Vniversity of Paris magnis obsistebant animis saith Sleidan in his Commentary a papâ provacabant ad Concilium The Council unto which they appealed was that of Basil where that Sanction was made So that by this appeal they verified their former Thesis that the Council was above the Pope And not long since Anno viz. 1613. casually meeting with a Book written by Becanus entituled Controversia Anglicana de potestate Regis Papae they called an Assembly and condemned it For though the Main of it were against the power and supremacy of the King of England yet did it reflect also on the authority of the Pope over the Christian Kings by the by which occasioned the sentence So jealous are they of the least circumstances in which the immunity of their Nation may be endangered As for the government of the Vniversity it hath for its cheif Director a Rector with a Chancellor four Procurators or Proctors and as many others whom they call his Intrantes to assist him besides the Regents Of these the Regents are such Masters of the Arts who are by the consent of the rest selected to read the publike Lectures of Logick and Philosophy Their name they derive a regendo eo quod in artibus rexerint These are divided into four Nations Viz. 1. The Norman 2. The Picard 3. The Germain 4. The French Under the two first are comprehended the Students of those several Provinces under the third the Students of all Forrain Nations which repair hither for the attainment of knowledge It was heretofore called Natio Anglica but the English being thought unworthy of the honour because of their separation from the Church of Rome the name and credit of it was given to the Germains That of the French is again subdivided into two parts that which is immediately within the Diocess of Paris and the rest of Gallia these four Nations for notwithstanding the subdivision above mentioned the French Nation is reckoned but as one choose yearly four Proctors or Procurators so called Quia negotia nationis suae procurant They choose also four other Officers whom they call les Intrants in whose power there remaineth the delegated authority of their several Nations And here it is to be observed that in the French Nation the Procurator and Intrant is one year of the Diocess of Paris and the following year of the rest of France the reason why that Nation is subdivided These four Intrants thus named have amongst them the election of their Rector who is their supreme Magistrate The present Rector is Mr. Tarrisnus of the Colledge of Harcourte a Master of the Arts for a Doctor is not capable of the office The honour lasteth onely three moneths which time expired the Intrants proceed to a new election though oftentimes it happeneth that the same hath the lease of his authority renewed Within the confines of the University he taketh place next after the Princes of the Bloud and at the publike exercises of Learning before the Cardinals otherwise he giveth them the precedency But to Bishops and Arch-bishops he will not grant it upon any occasion It was not two moneths before my being there that there happened a shrewd controversie about it The King had then summoned an assembly of twenty five Bishops of the Provinces adjoyning to consult about some Church affairs and they had chosen the Colledge of Sorbonne to be their Senate-House When the first day of their sitting came a Doctor of the House being appointed to preach before them began his Oration with Reverendissime Rector vos Amplissimi Praesulei Here the Arch-bishop of Roven a man of an high spirit interrupted him and commanded him to invert his stile He obeyed and presently the Rector riseth up with Impono tibi silentium which is an Injunction within the compass of his power Upon this the Preacher being tongue-tied the controversie grew hot between the Bishops and the Rector both parties very eagerly pleading their own priority All the morning being almost spent in this altercation a Cardinal wiser than the rest desired that their question for that time might be laid aside and that the Rector would be pleased to permit the Doctor to deliver his Sermon beginning it without any Praeludium at all To which request the Rector yeilded and so the contention at that time was ended But Salus Academiae non vertitur in istis It were more for honour and profit of the Vniversity if the Rector would leave of to be so mindful of his place and look a little to his office for certainly the eye and utmost diligence of a Magistrate was never wanting more and yet more necessary in this place Penelopes suiters never behaved themselves so insolently in the house of Vlisses as the Academicks here do in the houses and streets of Paris Nos numerus sumus fruges consumere nati Sponsi Penelopes nebulones Alcinoque c. Was never the mouth of any of these when you hear of their behaviour you would think you were in Turkey and that these men were the Janizaries For an Angel given among them to drink they will arrest whom you shall appoint them double the money and they will break open his house and ravish
neither the said Infanta nor the Children born by her to the King shall be capable to inherit any of the estates of the King of Spain and in the eighth article she is bound to make an act of renunciation under her own hand-writing as soon as she cometh to be twelve years old which was accordingly performed But this being not sufficient to secure their fears it is thought that she was some way or other disabled from conception before ever she came into the Kings embraces A great crime I confess if true yet I cannot say with Tully in his defence of Ligarius Novum crimen Caie Caesar hec tempus mauditum Jaqueline Countess of Holland was Cozen to Philip Duke of Burgundie Her being fruitful would have debarred him from those estates of Holland Zealand and West-Freezland therefore though she had three Husbands there was order taken she should never have Child with her two first Husbands the Duke would never suffer her to live and when she had stollen a wedding with Frane of Borselle one of her servants the Dukes Physitians gave him such a potion that she might as well have married an Eunuch upon this injury the poor Lady died and the Duke succeeded in those Countries which by his Grand-child Marie were conveyed over into the House of Austria together with the rest of his estate I dare not say that that Family hath inherited his practises with his lands and yet I have heard that the Infanta Isabella had the like or worse measure afforded her before she was bedded to the Arch-duke Albertus A diabolical trick which the prostitutes of the heathen used in the beginnings of the Gospel and before of whom Octavius complaineth quod originem futuri hominis extinguant paricidium faciunt antequam pariunt Better luck than the King hath his Sister beyond the mountains I mean his eldest Sister Madame Elizabeth married to the King of Spain now living as being or having been the Mother of two Children His second Sister Madame Christian is married to Amadeo Victor Principe Maior or heir apparent of the Duke of Savoy to whom as yet she hath born no issue The youngest Henrietta Mariae is newly married to his most Excellent Majesty of England to whom may she prove of a most happy and fruitful womb Et pulchra faciat te prole parentem Of these alliances the first were very profitable to both Princes could there be made a marriage between the Kingdoms as well as the Kings But it is well known that the affections of each people are divided more unconquerable mountains than their dominions The French extreamly hating the proud humour and ambition of the Spaniard We may therefore account each of them in these marriages to have rather intended the perpetuity of their particular houses than the strength of their Empires and that they more desired a noble stock whereon to graft posterity than power The alliance with Savoy is more advantagious though less powerful than that of Spain For if the King of France can keep this Prince on his party he need not fear the greatness of the other or any of his faction The continuall siding of this House with that of Austria having given many and great impediments to the fortune of the French It standeth so fitly to countenance the affairs of either King in Italy or Germany to which it shall incline that it is just of the same nature with the estate of Florence between Millain and Venice of which Guicciaraine saith that Mantennero le coseâ—d Italia bilanâ—iate On this reason King Henry the fourth earnestly desired to match one of his Children into this Countrey and left this desire as a Legacie with his Council But the alliance of most use to the State of France is that of England as being the nighest and most able of all his neighbours An alliance which will make his Estate invincible and incompassed about as it were with a wall of brass As for the Kings bastard Brethren they are four in number and born of three several beds The eldest is Mr. Alexander made Knight of the Order of St. John or of Malta in the life time of his Father He is now Grand Prior of France and it is much laboured and hoped by the French that he shall be the next Master of the Order a place of great command and credit The second and most loved of his Father whose lively image and character he is said to be is Mr Caesar made Duke of Vendosme by his Father and is at this time Governor of Brittain a man of a brave spirit and one who swayeth much in the affairs of State His Father took great care for his advancement before his death and therefore married him to the Daughter and Heir of the Duke of Mercuer a man of great possessions in Brittain It is thought that the inheritance of this Lady both by her Fathers side and also by her Mothers who was of the Family of Marsegues being a stock of the old Ducal tree is no less than 200000. Crowns yearly Both these were born unto the King by Madame Gabriele for her excellent beauty surnamed labelle Dutchess of Beauforte a Lady whom the King most entirely affected even to the last gasp and one who never abused her power with him so that we may truly say of her what Velleius flatteringly said of Livia the Wife of Augustus Ejus potentiam nemo senset nisi levatione periculi aut accessione dignitatis The third of the Kings natural Brethren is Mr. Henry now Bishop of Metz in Lorraine and Abbot of St. Germans in Paris As Abbot he is Lord of the goodly Fairbourg of St. Germans and hath the profits of the great Fair there holden which make a large revenue His Bishoprick yeildeth him the profits of 20000. Crowns and upwards which is the remainder of 60000. the rest being pawned to the Duke of Lorraine by the last Bishop who was of that family The Mother of this Mr. Henry is the Marchioness of Verneville who before the death of the King fell out of his favour into the prison and was not restored to her liberty till the beginning of the Queen Mothers Regency The fourth and youngest is Mr. Antonie born unto the King by the Countess of Morret who is Abbot of the Churches of Marseilles and Cave hath as yet not fully six thousand pound a year when his Mother dieth he Will be richer The Kings lawful Brother is named John Baptist Gaston born the 25th of April Anno 1608. A Prince of a brave and manlike aspect likely to inherit as large a part of his Fathers spirit as the King doth of his Crown He is entituled Duke of Aniou as being the third Son of France but his next elder Brother the Duke of Orleance being dead in his childhood he is vulgarly and properly called Monsieur This title is different from that of Daulphin in that that title is onely appropriated to the Heir
in these later they onely consummate strength so say the Physitians generally Non enim in duobus sequentibus mensibus they speak it of the intermedii additur aliquid ad perfectionem partium sed ad perfectionem roboris The last time terminus ultimus in the common account of this Profession is the eleventh moneth which some of them hold neither unlikely nor rare Massurius recordeth of Papyrius a Roman Praetor to have recovered his inheritance in open Court though his Mother confest him to be born in the thirteenth month And Avicen a Moor of Corduba relateth as he is cited in Laurentius that he had seen a Child born after the fourteenth But these are but the impostures of Women and yet indeed the modern Doctors are more charitable and refer it to supernatural causes Vt extra ordinariam artis considerationem On the other side Hippocrates giveth it out definitively 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that in ten moneths at the furthest understand ten moneths compleat the Child is born And Vlpian the great Civilian of his times in the title of Digests de Testamentis is of opinion that a Child born after the tenth moneth compleat is not to be admitted to the inheritance of its pretended Father As for the Common Law of England as I remember I have read it in a book written of Wils and Testaments it taketh a middle course between the charity of nature and the severity of Law leaving it meerly to the conscience and circumstance of the Judge But all this must be conceived taking it in the most favourable construction after the conception of the Mother and by no meanes after the death of the Father and so can it no way if I were first President advantage the Prince of Conde His Father had been extreamly sick no small time before his death for the particular and supposed since his poison taken Anno 1552. to be little prone to Women in the general They therefore that would seem to know more than the vulgar reckon him as one of the by-blows of Henry the fourth but this under the Rose yet by way of conjecture we may argue thus First from the Kings care of his education assigning him for his Tutor Nicholas de Februe whom he also designed for his Son King Lewis Secondly from his care to work the Prince then young Mollis aptus agi to become a Catholike Thirdly the age of the old Henry of Conde and the privacy of this King with his Lady being then King of Navarre in the prime of his strength and in discontent with the Lady Margaret of Valoys his first Wife Adde to this that Kings love to fair Ladies in the general and we may see this probability to be no miracle For besides the Dutchess of Beaufort the Marchioness of Verneville and the Countess of Morret already mentioned he is beleived to have been the Father of Mr. Luines the great Favorite of King Lewis And certain it is that the very year before his death when he was even in the winter of his dayes he took such an amorous liking to the Prince of Conde s Wife a very beautiful Lady and Daughter to the Constable Duke of Montmorencie that the Prince to save his honour was compelled to flie together with his Princess into the Arch-Dukes Country whence he returned not till long after the death of King Henry If Marie de Medices in her Husbands life time paid his debts for him which I cannot say she onely made good that of vindicate· And yet perhaps a consciousness of some injuries not onely moved her to back the Count of Soison's and his faction against the Prince and his but also to resolve upon him for the Husband of her Daughter From the Princes of the bloud descend we to the Princes of the Court and therein the first place we meet with Mr. Barradas the Kings present Favourite a young Gentleman of a fresh and lively hew little bearded and one whom the people as yet cannot accuse for any oppression or misgovernment Honours the King hath conferred none upon him but onely Pensions and Offices He is the Governour of the Kings Children of Honour Pages we call them in England a place of more trouble than wealth or credit He is also the Master of the Horse or le grand Escuire the esteem of which place recompenceth the emptiness of the other for by vertue of this Office he carryeth the Kings Sword sheathed before him at his entrance into Paris the Cloth of Estate carryed over the King by the Provosts and Eschevins is his Fee No man can be the Kings Spur maker his Smith or have any place in the Kings Stables but from him and the like This place to note so much by the way was taken out of the Constables Office Comes stabuli is the true name to whom it properly belonged in the time of Charles the seventh Besides this he hath a pension of 500000. Crowns yearly and had an Office given him which he sold for 100000. Crownes in ready money A good fortune for one who the other day was but the Kings Page And to say truth he is as yet but a little better being onely removed from his Servant to his play-fellow with the affairs of State he intermeddleth not if he should he might expect the Queene Mother should say to him what Apollo in Ovid did to Cupid Tibi quia cum fortibus armis Mi puer ista decent humeros gestamina nostros For indeed first during her Sons minority and after since her redentigration with him she hath made her self so absolute a Mistress of her mind that he hath entrusted to her the entire conduct of all his most weighty affairs for her Assistant in the managing of her greatest business she hath pieced her self to the strongest side of the State the Church having principally since the death of the Marshall D' Anere Joneane assumed to her Counsails the Cardinal of Richileiu a man of no great birth were Nobility the greatest Parentage but otherwise to be ranked among the Noblest Of a sound reach he is and of a close brain one exceedingly well mixt of a Lay Vnderstanding and a Church Habit one that is compleatly skilled in the art of men and a perfect Master of his own mind and affections Him the Queene useth as her Counseller to keep out frailty and the Kings name as her countenance to keep off envy She is of a Florentine wit and hath in her all the vertues of Katherine de Medices her Ancestor in the Regencie and some also of her vices only her designes tend not to the ruine of her Kingdome and her Children John de Seirres telleth us in his Inventaire of France how the Queene Katherine suffered her Son Henry the third a devout and simple Prince to spend his most dangerous times even uncontrolled upon his Beades whiles in the meantime she usurped the Government of the Realm Like it is that Queene Mary hath
is wholly theirs and is the cheif place of their study CHAP. XIII The connexion between the Church and Common-wealth in general A transition to the particulars of France The Government there meerly Regal A mixt form of Government most commendable The Kings Patents for Offices Monopolies above the censure of the Parliament The strange Office intended by Mr. Luines The Kings gifts and expences The Chamber of Accompts France divided into three sorts of people The Conventus Ordinum nothing but a Title The inequality between the NoNobles and Commons in France The Kings power how much respected by the Princes The powerableness of that rank The form of Execution done on them The muititude and confusion of Nobility King James defended A Censure of the French Heralds The power and command of the French Nobles and their Tennants their baillages giblets and other Regalia Why they conspire with the King to undo the Commons HAving thus spoken of the Church I must now treat a little of the Common-wealth Religion is as the soul of a State policy as the body we can hardly discourse of the one without a relation to the other if we do We commit a wilful murder in the destroying a Republick The Common-wealth without the Church is but a Carcass or thing inanimate The Church without the Common-wealth is as it were anima separata The joyning of them together maketh of both one flourishing and permanent body and therefore as they are in nature so in my relations Connubio jungam stabili Moreover such a secret simpathy there is between them such a necessary dependency of one upon the other that we may say of them what Tullie doth of two Twinns in his book de Fato Eorum morbus eodem tempore gravescit eodem levatur They grow sick and well at the same time and commonly run out of their race at the same instant There is besides the general respects each to other a more particular bond betwixt them here in France which is a likeness and resemblance in the Church of France We have found a Head and a Body This Body again divided into two parts the Catholike and Protestant The Head is in his own opinion and the minds of many others of a power unlimited yet the Catholike party hath strongly curbed it And of the two parts of the body we see the Papists flourishing and in triumph whilst that of the Protestants is in misery and affliction Thus it is also in the Body Politick the King in his own Conceit boundless and omnipotent is yet affronted by his Nobles which Nobles enjoy all freedom of riches and happiness the poor Pesants in the mean time living in drudgery and bondage For the government of the King is meerly Regall or to give it the right name Despotical Though the Country be his Wife and all the people are his Children yet doth he neither govern as a Husband or a Father He accounteth of them all as of his servants and therefore commandeth them as a Master In his Edicts which he over-frequently sendeth about he never mentioned the good will of his Subjects nor the approbation of his Council but concludeth all of them in this form Cartel est nostre plaisir sic volo sic jubeo A form of government very prone to degenerate into Tyranny if the Princes had not oftentimes strength and will to make resistance But this not the vice of the entire and Soveraign Monarchy alone which the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the other two good forms of regiment being subject also to the same frailty Thus in the reading of Histories have we observed an Aristocracie to have been frequently corrupted into an Oligarchie and Politeia or Common-wealth properly so called into a Democracie For as in the body natural the purest Complexions are less lasting and easily broken and subject to alteration So it is in the body Civil The pure and unmixt forms of government though perfect absolute in their kinds are of little continuance and very subject to change into its opposite They therefore which have written of Republicks do most applaud and commend the mixt manner of Rule which is equally compounded of the Kingdom and Politeia because in them Kings have all the power belonging to their title without prejudice to the property In these there is reserved to the King absolute Majesty to the Nobles convenient authority to the people an incorrupted liberty all in a just and equal proportion Every one of these is like the Empire of Rome as it was moderated by Nerva Qui res olim dissociabiles miscuerat principatum libertatem wherein the soveraignty of one endamaged not the freedom of all A rare mixture of government And such is the Kingdom of England A Kingdom of a perfect and happy composition wherein the King hath his full prerogative the Nobles all due respects and the People amongst other blessings perfect in this that they are masters of their own purses and have a strong hand in the making of their own Lawes On the other side in the Regal government of France the Subject frameth his life meerly as the Kings variable Edicts shall please to enjoyn him is banisht of his money as the Kings task-masters think fit and suffereth many other oppressions which in their proper place shall be specified This Aristotle in the third book of his Politicks calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the command of a Master and defineth it to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Such an Empire by which a Prince may command and do whatsoever shall seem good in his own eyes one of the Prerogatives Royall of the French Kings For though the Court of Parliament doth seem to challenge a perusal of his Edicts before they pass for Laws yet is this but a meer formality It is the Cartell est nostre plaisir which maketh them currant which it seemeth these Princes learned of the Roman Emperours Justinian in the book of Institutions maketh five parts of the Civil Lawes Viz. He meaneth the Law of the twelve Tables Plebiscita Senatus consulta Prudentum responsa and Principum placita To this last he addeth this general strength Quod principi placuerit legis habet valorem The very foundation of the Kings powerfulness True it is yet that the Courts of Parliament do use to demurre sometimes upon his Patents and Decrees and to petition him for a Reversal of them but his answer commonly is Stat pro ratione Voluntas He knoweth his own power and granteth Letters Patents for new Offices and Monopolies abundantly If a moneyed man can make a friend in Court he may have an Office found for him of six pence upon every Sword made in France a liure upon the selling of every head of Cattel a brace of soles for every pair of boots and the like It is the onely study of some men to find out such devices of enriching themselves and undoing the people The Patent for Mines
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
honourable reconcilement they will please to put themselves again into his obedience Henry the fourth was a Prince of as undanted and uncontroulable a spirit as ever any of his Predecessors and one that loved to be obeyed yet was he also very frequently baffled by these Roytelets and at the last died in an affront The Prince of Conde perceiving the Kings affection to his new Lady began to grow jealous of him for which reason he retired unto Bruxels The King offended at this retreat sent after him and commanded him home The Prince returned answer that he was the Kings most humble Subject and Servant but into France he would not come unless he might have a Town for his assurance withal he protected in publike writing a Nullity of any thing that should be done to his prejudice in his absence A stomackful resolution and somewhat misbecoming a Subject yet in this opposition he persisted his humour of disobedience out-living the King whom he had thus affronted But these tricks are ordinary here otherwise a man might have construed this action by the term of rebellion The chief meanes whereby these Princes become so head-strong is an immunity given them by their Kings and a liberty which they have taken to themselves By their Kings they have been absolutely exempted from all tributes tolles taxes customs impositions and subsidies by them they have been alwayes estated in whole entire Provinces with a power of Hante and many justice as the Lawyers term it passed over unto them the Kings having scarce an homage or acknowledgement of them To this they have added much to their strength and security by the insconcing and fortifying their houses which both often moveth afterwards enableth thē to contemn his Majesty An example we have of this in the Castle of Rochforte belonging to the Duke of Tremoville which in the long Civil Wars endured a shelf of five thousand shot and yet was not taken A very impolitick course in my conceit in the French to bestow honours and immunities upon those Qui as the Historian saith ea suo arbitrio aut reposcituri aut retenturem videantur quique modum habent in sua voluntate For upon a knowledge of this strength in themselves the Princes have been alwayes prone to civil Warrs as having sufficient means for safety and resistance On this ground all they write the Kings authority and disobey his justice Insomuch that the greatest sort of Nobles in this Kingdom can seldom be arraigned or executed in person and therefore the Laws condemn them in their images and hang them in their pictures A pretty device to work justice If by chance or some handsome sleight any of them be apprehended they are put under a sure guard and not doomed to death without great fear of tumult and unquietness Neither is it Vnus alter onely some two or three that thus stand upon their distance with the King but even all the Nobility of the Realm A rout so disordered unconfined and numberless that even Fabius himself would be out of breath in making the reckoning I speak not here of those that are stiled La Noblesse but of Titulados men onely of titular Nobility of the degree of Baron and above of these there is in this Country a number almost innumerable quot Coelum stellas take quantity for quantity and I dare be of the opinion that Heaven hath not more Stars than France Nobles you shall meet with them so thick in the Kings Court especially that you would think it almost impossible the Country should bear any other fruit This I think I may safely affirm and without Hyperbole that they have there as many Princes as we in England have Dukes as many Dukes as we Earls as many Earls as we Barons as many Barons as we Knights A jolly company and such as know their own strength too I cannot but as much marvel that those Kings should be so prodigal in conferring honours considering this that every Nobleman he createth is so great a weakening to his power On the other side I cannot but as much wonder at some of our Nation who have murmured against our late Soveraign and accused him of an unpardonable unthriftiness in bestowing the dignities of his Realm with so full and liberal an hand Certainly could there any danger have risen by it unto the State I could have been as impatient of it as another But with us titles and ennobling in this kind are onely either the Kings favour or the parties merit maketh whomsoever he be that receiveth them rather reverenced than powerful Raro eorum honoribus invidetur quorum vis non timetur was a good Aphorism in the dayes of Paterculus and may for ought I know be as good still Why should I envy any man that honour which taketh not from my safety or repine at my Soveraign for raising any of his Servants into an higher degree of eminency when that favour cannot make them exorbitant Besides it concerneth the improvement of the Exchequer at the occasions of Subsidies and the glory of the Kingdom when the Prince is not attended by men meerly of the Vulgar Add to this the few Noble men of any title which he found at his happy coming in amongst us and the additions of power which his coming brought unto us and we shall find it proportionable that he should enlarge our Nobility with our Country Neither yet have we indeed a number to be talked of comparing us with our neighbour Nations We may see all of the three first rank in the books of Miles Brook and Vincent and we are promised also a Catalogue of the creations and successions of all our Barons then we should see that as yet we have not surfeited Were this care taken by the Heralds in France perhaps the Nobility there would not seem so numberless sure I am not so confused but this is the main vice of that Profession of six Heralds which they have amongst them Viz Mountjoy Normandy Guyenns Valoys Britain and Burgoyne not one of them is reported to be a Genealogist Neither were their Predecessors better affected to this study Peradine the onely man that ever was amongst them hath drawn down the Genealogies of twenty four of the cheif Families all eminent and of the bloud in which he hath excellently well discharged himself but what a small pittance is that compared to the present multitude The Nobles being so populous it cannot be but the Nobless as they call them that is the Gentry must needs be thick set and onely not innumerable Of these Nobless there be some that hold their estates immediately of the Crown and they have the like immunity with the Princes Some hold their feifes or seuda of some other of the Lords and he hath onely Basse justice permitted to him as to mulct and amerce his Tennants to imprison them or to give them any other correction under death All of them have power to
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
Endive root Raddish Cheese and to the board there came A dish of Eggs ne're roasted by the flame Next they had Nuts course Dates lenten Figs And Apples from a basket made with twigs And Plums and Grapes cut newly from the tree All serv'd in earthen dishes huswifelie But you must not look for this ohear often At Wakes or feast days you may perchance be so happy as to see this plenty but at other times onus omne patilla the best provision they can shew you is a piece of Bacon where with to fatten their pottage and now and then the inwards of Beasts killed for the Gentleman But of their miseries this me thinketh is the greatest that sowing so many acres of excellent Wheat in a year and gathering in such a plentiful vintage as they do they should not yet be so fortunate as to eat white bread or drink Wine for such infinite rents do they pay to their Lords and such innumerable taxes to the King that the profits arising out of these commodities are onely sufficient to pay their duties and keep them from the extremities of cold and famine The bread which they eat is of the coursest flower and so black that it cannot admit the name of brown and as for their drink they have recourse unto the next fountain A people of any the most infortunate not permitted to enjoy the fruit of their labours and such as above all others are subject to that Sarcasme in the Gospel This man planted a Vineyard and doth not drink of the fruit thereof Neo prosunt Domino quae prosunt omnibus artes Yet were their cases not altogether so deplorable if there were but hopes left to them of a better if they could but compass this certainty that a painful drudging and thrifty saving would one day bring them out of this hell of bondage In this questionless they are entirely miserable in that they are sensible of their present fortunes and dare not labour nor expect an alteration If industry and a sparing hand hath raised any of these afflicted people so high that he is but four or five shillings richer than his neighbour his Lord immediately enhanceth his rent and enformeth the Kings task-masters of his riches by which meanes he is within two or three years brought into equal poverty with the rest A strange course and much different from that of England where the Gentry take a delight in having their Tennants thrive under them and account it no crime in any that hold of them to be wealthy On the other side those of France can abide no body to gain or grow rich upon their Farms and therefore thus upon occasions rack their poor Tennants In which they are like the Tyrant Procrustes who laying hands upon all he met cast them upon his bed if they were shorter than it he racked their joynts till he had made them even to it if they were longer he cut as much of their bodies from them as did hang over so keeping all that fell into his power in an equality of stature I need not make further application of the story but this that the French Lords are like that Tyrant How much this course doth depress the military power of the Kingdom is apparent by the true principles of warr and the examples of other Countries For it hath been held the general opinion of the best judgements in matters of war that the main buttress and pillar of an Army is the foot or as the Martialists term it the infantry Now to make a good infantry it requireth that men be brought up not in a slavish or needy fashion of life but in some free and liberal manner Therefore it is well observed by the Viscount St. Albons in his history of Henry the seventh that if a State run most to Nobles and Gentry and that the Husbandmen be but as their meer drudges or else simple Cottagers that that State may have a good Cavilleria but never good stable bands of Foot like to Coppines wood in which if you let them grow too thick in the standerds they will run to bushes or briers and have little clean under wood Neither is it thus in Franne onely but in Italy also and some other parts abroad insomuch that they are enforced to employ mercenary Souldiers for their battalions of Foot whereby it cometh to pass in those Countries that they have much people but few men On this consideration King Henry the seventh one of the wisest of our Princes took a course so cunning and wholesome for the encrease of the military power of this Realm that though it be much less in territories yet it should have infinitely more Souldiers of its native forces than its neighbour Nations For in the fourth year of his raign there passed an Act of Parliament pretensively against the depopulation of Villages and decay of tillage but purposely to make his Subjects for the warrs The Act was that all houses of Husbandry which had been used with twenty acres of ground and upwards should be maintained and kept up so together with a competent proportion of Land to be used and occupied with them c. By this meanes the houses being kept up did of necessity enfarce a dweller and that dweller because of the proportion of Land not to be a beggar but a man of some substance able to keep hinds and servants and to set the Plow going An Order which did wonderfully concern the might and manhood of the Kingdom these Farmers being sufficient to maintain an able body out of penury and by consequence to prepare them for service and encourage them to high honours for Haud facile emergunt quorum virtutibus obstat Res angusta domi As the Poet hath it But this Ordinance is not thought of such use in France where all the hopes of their Armies consist in the Cavallery or the Horse which perhaps is the cause why our Ancestors have won so many battels upon them As for the French Foot they are quite out of all reputation and are accounted to be the basest and unworthiest company in the world Besides should the French people be enfranchized as it were from the tyranny of their Lords and estated in free hold and other tenures after the manner of England it would much trouble the Councill of France to find out a new way of raising the Kings Revenues which are now meerly sucked out of the bloud and sweat of the Subject Anciently the Kings of France had rich and plentiful demeasnes such as was sufficient to maintain their Majesty and greatness without being burdensome unto the Country Pride in matters of sumptuousness and the tedious Civil warrs which have lasted in this Country almost ever since the death of Henry the second have been the occasion that most of the Crown Lands have been sold and morgaged insomuch that the people are now become the Demain and the Subject onely is the revenue of the Crown
by the sweat of their brows is the Court fed and the Souldier paid and by their labours are the Princes maintained in idleness What impositions soever it pleaseth the King to put upon them it is almost a point of treason not onely to deny but to question Apud illos vere regnatur nefasque quantum regi liceat dubitare as one of them The Kings hand lieth hard upon them and hath almost thrust them into an Egyptian bondage the poor Paisant being constrained to make up daily his full tale of brick and yet have no straw allowed him Upon the sight of these miseries and poverties of this people Sir John Fortescue Chancellor of England in his book intituled De laudibus Regum Angliae concludeth them to be unfit men for Jurers or Judges should the custom of the Country admit of such a trial for having proved there unto the Prince he was Son unto Henry the sixth that the manner of trial according to the Common Law by twelve Jurats was more commendable than the practise of the Civil or Imperial Laws by the deposition onely of two Witnesses or the forced confession of the person arraigned the Prince seemed to marvel Cur ea lex Angliae quae tam frugi optabilis est non sit toti mundo communis to this he maketh answer by shewing the free condition of the English Subjects who alone are used at these Inditements men of a fair and large estate such as dwell nigh the place of the deed committed men that are of ingenuous education such as scorn to be suborned or corrupted and afraid of infamy Then he sheweth how in other places all things are contrary the Husbandman an absolute beggar easie to be bribed by reason of his poverty The Gentlemen living far asunder and so taking no notice of the fact The Paisant also neither fearing infamy nor loss of goods if he be found faulty because he hath them not In the end he concludeth thus Nec mireris igitur princeps si lex quae Anglia veritas inquiritur ab ea non pervagetur in alias nationes Ipsae namque ut Anglia nequeunt facere sufficientes consimilesque juratas The last part of the Latine savoureth somewhat of the Lawyer the word Jurata being there put to signifie a Jury To go over all those impositions which this miserable people are afflicted withal were almost as wretched as the payment of them I will therefore speak onely of the principal and here I meet in the first place with the gabel or imposition on Salt This gabelle de Sel this Impost on Salt was first begun by Philip the Long who took for it a Double which is half a Sol upon the pound After whom Philip de Valoys Anno 1328. doubled it Charles the seventh raised it unto three Doubles and Lewis the eleventh unto six since that time it hath been altered from so much upon the pound to a certain rate on the Maid which containeth some thirty bushels English the rates rising and falling at the Kings pleasure This one Commodity were very advantagious to the Exchequer were it all in the Kings hands but at this time a great part of it is morgaged It is thought to be worth unto the King three millions of Crowns yearly that onely of Paris and the Provosts seven Daughters being farmed at 1700000. Crowns the year The late Kings since Anno 1581. being intangled in warrs have been constrained to let it to others insomuch that about Anno 1599. the King lost above 800000. Crowns yearly and no longer then Anno 1621. the King taking up 600000. pounds of the Provost of the Merchants and the Eschevins gave unto them a Rent charge of 40000. pound yearly to be issuing out of the customs of Salt till their money were repaid them This gabel is indeed a Monopolie and that one of the unjustest and unmeasurablest in the world for no man in the Kingdom those Countries hereafter mentioned excepted can eat any Salt but he must buy it of the King and at his price which is most unconscionable that being sold at Paris and elsewhere for five liures which in the exempted places is sold for one Therefore that the Kings profits might not be diminished there is diligent watch and ward that no forrain Salt be brought into the Land upon pain of forfeiture and imprisonment A search that is made so strictly that we had much ado at Diepe to be pardoned the searching of our Trunks and Port-mantues and that not but upon our solemn protestations that we had none of that Commodity This Salt is of a brown colour being onely such as we in England call Bay Salt is imposed on the Subjects by the Kings Officers with great rigor For though they have some of their last provision in the house or perchance would be content through poverty to eat their meat without it yet will these cruel villains enforce them to take such a quantity of them howsoever they will have of them so much money But this tyranny is not general the Normans and Picards enduring most of it and the other Paisants the rest Much like unto this was the licence which the Popes and Bishops of old granted in matter of keeping Concubines for when such as had the charge of gathering the Popes rents happened upon a Priest which had no Concubine and for that cause made denial of the tribute the Collectors would return them this answer that notwithstanding this they should pay down the money because they might have had the keeping of a Wench if they would This gabel as it sitteth hard upon some so are there some also who are never troubled with it of this sort are the Princes in the general release and many of the Nobless in particular insomuch that it was proved unto King Lewis Anno 1614. that for every Gentleman which took of his Majesties Salt there were two thousand of the Commons There are also some entire Provinces which refuse to eat of this Salt as Britain Gascoine Poictou Queren Naintogne and the County of Boulonnois Of these the County of Boulonnois pretendeth a peculiar exemption as belonging immediately to the patrimony of our Lady Nostre-Dame of which we shall learn more when we are in Bovillon The Britains came united to the Crown by a fair marriage and had strength enough to make their own Capitulations when they first entered into the French subjection besides here are yet divers of the Ducal Family living in the Country who would much trouble the quiet of the Kingdom should the people be oppressed with this bondage and they take the protection of them Poictou and Queren have compounded for it with the former Kings and pay a certain rent yearly which is called the Equivalent Xaintogne is under the command of Rochell of whom it receiveth sufficient at a better rate And as for the Gascoynes the King dareth not impose it upon them for fear of rebellion They are a
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
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
of the Cittadel together with the Lordship of Pigingin both which he obtained by marrying the Daughter and Heir of the last Visedame of Amiens and Lord of Pigingin Anno 1619. A marriage which much advanced his fortunes which was compassed for him by the Constable Luynes his brother who also obtained for him of the King the title of Duke His highest attribute before being that of Mr. de Cadinet by which name he was known here in England at such time as he was sent extraordinary Ambassadour to King James This honour of Visedame is for ought that ever I could see used onely in France True it is that in some English Charters we meet with Vice-Dominus as in the Charter of King Edred to the Abbey of Crowland in Lincoln-shire dated in the year 948. there is subscribed Ego Bingulph Vice-dominus c. but with us and at those times this title was onely used to denotate a subordination to some superior Lord and not as an honorary attribute in which sense it is now used in France besides that with us it is frequently though falsly used for Vicecomes between which two Offices of Vicount and Vidame there are found no small resemblances For as they which did agere Vicem Comitis were called Vicecomites or Vicomits so were they also called Vidames or Vice-Domini qui Domini Episcopi vicem gerebant in temporalibus And as Vicountes from Offices of the Earles became honorary so did the Vidames disclaim the relation to the Bishop and became Seigneural or honorary also The Vidames then according to the first institution were the substitutes of the greater Bishops in matters of secular administration for which cause though they have altered their tenure they take all of them their denomination from the cheif Town of some Bishoprick neither is there any of them who holdeth not of some Bishoprick or other Concerning the number of them that are thus dignified I cannot determine Mr. Glover otherwise called Sommerset Herald in his discourse of Nobility published by Mr. Miles of Canterbury putteth it down for absolute that here are four onely Viz. of Amiens of Chartres of Chalons and of Gerbery in Bauvice but in this he hath deceived both himself and his Readers there being besides these divers others as of Rhemes Mans and the like but the particular and exact number of them together with the place denominating I leave to the French Heralds unto whose profession it belongeth CHAP. III. The Church of Nostre-Dame in Amiens The Principal Churches in most Cities called by her name More honour performed to her than to her Saviour The surpassing beauty of this Church on the outside The front of it King Henry the seventh's Chappel at Westminster The curiousness of this Church within By what means it became to be so The three sumptuous Massing-Closets in it The excellency of Perspective works Indulgencies by whom first founded The estate of the Bishoprick THere is yet one thing which addeth more lustre to the Citie of Amiens than either the Visdamate or the Cittadel which is the Church of Nostre Dame a name by which most of the principal Churches are known in France there have we the Nostre Dame in Roven a second in Paris a third in this City a fourth in Boulogne all Cathedrall so also a Nostre Dame in Abbeville and another in Estampes the principal Churches in those Towns also Had I seen more of their Towns I had met with more of her Temples for so of many â— have heard that if there be more than two Churches in a Town one shall be sure to be dedicated to her and that one of the fairest Of any Temples consecrated to the Name and memory of our Saviour Ne gry quidem there was not so much as a word stirring neither could I marvel at it considering the honours done to her and those to her Son betwixt which there is so great a disproportion that you would have imagined that Mary and not Jesus had been our Saviour for one Pater Noster the people are enjoyned ten Ave Maries and to recompence one pilgrimage to Christs Sepulchre at Hierusalem you shall hear of two hundred undertaken to our Lady of Loretto And whereas in their Kalendar they have dedicated onely four Festivals to our Saviour which are those of his birth circumcision resurrection and ascension all which the English Church also observeth for the Virgins sake they have more than doubled the number Thus do they solemnize the feast of her Purification and Annunciation at the times which we also do of her Visitation of Elizabeth in July of her Dedication and Assumption in August of her Nativity in September of her Presentation in November and of her Conception in the womb of her Mother in December To her have they appropriated set forms of prayers prescribed in the two books called one Officium and the other Rosarium beatae Mariae Virginis whereas her Son must be contented with those Orisons which are in the Common Mass Book her Shrines and Images are more glorious and magnificent then those of her Son and in her Chappel are more Vows paid than before the Crucifix But I cannot blame the Vulgar when the great Masters of their souls are thus also besotted The Officium before mentioned published by the Command of Pius the fifth saith thus of her Gaude Maria Virgo tu sola omnes haereses intermistâ— in universo mundo Catherinus in the Council of Trent calleth Fidelissimam Dei sociam and he was modest if compared with others In one of their Councils Christs name is quite forgotten and the name of our Lady put in the place of it for thus it beginneth Authoritate Dei Patris beatae Virginis omnium Sanctorum c. but most horrible is that of one of their Writers I am loath to say it was Bernard Beata Virgo monstra te esse Matrem jube filium which Harding in his confutation of the Apologie endeavouring to make good would needs have it to be onely an excess of mind or a spiritual sport and dalliance but from all such sports and dalliances good Lord deliver us Leaving our Lady let us go see her Church which questionless is one of the most glorious piles of building under the Heavens what Velleius saith of Augustus that he was homo qui omnibus omnium gentium viris inducturus erat caliginem or what Suetonius spake of Titus when he called him Delias humani generis both these attributes and more too may I most fitly fasten on this magnificent structure The whole body of it is of most curious and polished stones every where born up by buttresses of excellent composure that they seem to add more of beauty to it than of strength the Quire of it is as in great Churches commonly it is of a fairer fabrick than the body thick set with dainty pillars and most of them reaching unto the top of it in the fashion of an Arch.
which this Town is famous in the writers of both Nations is an enterviewe there given between our Edward the fourth and their Lewis the eleventh upon the concluding of their nine years truce a circumstance of no great moment in it self had not Phillip de Comminees made it such by one of his own observations Upon this meeting the Chancellor of England being Bishop of Ely made an oration to both Kings beginning with a prophesie which said that in this place of Pignigni an honourable peace should be concluded between both the Kingdomes On this ground which himself also is the onely man that related he hath built two observations the one I have not the original by me that the English men are never unfurnished with Prophesies the other that they ground every thing which they speak upon Prophesies How far those times were guilty of that humor I cannot say though sure I am we are not the onely men that were so affected Paulus Jovius in some place of his Histories I remember not the particular hath vindicated that quarrel for us and fastned the same imitation upon the French So true is that of the Fragaedian Quod quisque fecit patitur authorem scelus Reperit And now being past Pignigni I have lost the sight of the Church of Amiens The fairest fabrick and most rich to see That ere was guilty of mortalitie No present structure like it nor can Fame In all its bead rolles boast an equal name Let then the barbarous Egyptians cease So to extol their huge Pyramides Let them grow silent of their Pharus and Conceale the other triumphs of their Land And let the Charians henceforth leave to raise Their Mausolaea with such endless praise This Church alone doth them as much excell As they the lowest Cottages where dwell The least of men as they those urnes which keep The smallest ashes which are laid to sleep Nor be thou vext thou glorious Queen of night Nor let a cloud of darkness mask thy light That renown'd Temple which the Greeks did call The Worlds seventh wonder and the fair'st of all That Pile so famous that the World did see Two onely great and high thy Fame and Thee Is neither burnt nor perisht Ephesus Survives the follies of Herostratus Onely thy name in Europe to advance It was transported to the Realm of France And here it stands not robb'd of any grace Which there it had not altered save in place Cast thy Beams on it and t' will soon be proud Thy Temple was not ruin'd but remov'd Nor are thy Rights so chang'd but thou 'lt averre Ibis Christian is thy old Idolater But oh great God how long shall thy Decree permit this Temple to Idolatrie How long shall they profane this Church and make Those sacred Walls and Pavements to partake Of their loud sins and here that doctrine teach ' Gainst which the very stones do seem to preach Reduce them Lord unto thee make them see How ill this building and their Rites agree Or make them know though they be still the same This House was purpos'd onely to thy Name The next place of note which the water conveyed us to was the Town and Castle of Pont d' Armie a place now scarce vissible in the auines and belonging to one Mr. Queran it took name as they said from a Bridge here built for the transpoâ—tation of an Armie but this I cannot justifie Three Leagues down the River is the Town of Abbeville a Town conveniently seated on the Some which runneth through it It is of greater circuit within the walls than the Citie of Amiens and hath four parish Churches more in it but is not so beautifull nor so populous for the houses here are of an older stamp and there is within the Town no scarcity of wast ground I went round about the walls and observed the thinness of the houses and the largeness of the fields which are of that capacity and extent that for ought I could apprehend the Town needs never to be compelled by famine if those fields were husbanded to the best advantages the walls are of earth within and stone without of an unequal bredth and in some places ruiâ—ous A Castle it once had of which there is now scarce any thing remaining instead of which and in places more convenient they have built out three bastions very large and capacious and such which well manned needs not yeeld up on a summons There are also a couple of Mounts raised nigh unto the Wall at that place where the Country is most plain upon which good Ordinance would have good command but at this time there were none upon it without the walâ—s it is diversly strengthened having in some places a deep ditch without water in some a shallower ditch but well filled with the benefit of the benefit of the River the others only a marish and fennie levell more dangerous to the enemie and service to the Town than either of the rest and therefore never guarded by the Souldiers of the Garrison but the chief strength of it is five Companies of Swisses 100. men in a Company proper tall felâ—owes in appearance and such as one would imagine fit for the service It was my chance to see them begin their watch to which employment they advanced with so good order and such shew or stomack as if they had not gone to guard a sown but possess one Their watch was at Port de Boys and Port St. Valery the first thing â—ear unto Hesden a frontier Town of Artoys the other five Leagues only from the See and Haven of St. Valery from these places most danger was feared and therefore there kept most of their Souldiers and all their Ordinance The Captain is named Mr. Aille a Grison by birth and reported for a good Souldier besides him they have no Military Commander the Mayor of the Town contrary to the common nature of Towns of warre being there in highest authority A priviledge granted unto the Mayors hereof not long since as a reward due to one of their Integrities who understanding that the Governour of the Town held intelligence with the Arch Duke apprehended him and sent him to the Court where he receceived his punishment This Abbeville and so I leave it and in it the berry of French Lasses is so called quasi Abbatis Villa as formerly belonging to some Abbot July the last we took post-horse for Boulogne if at least we may call those Post-horses which we rode on As lean they were as Envis is in the Poet Macies in corporatota being most true of them Neither were they onely lean enough to have their ribs numbred but the very spur-gals had made such casements through their skins that it had been no greater difficulty to have surveyed their entrails A strange kind of Cattel in mine opinion and such as had neither flesh on their bones nor skin on their flesh nor hair on their skin Sure I am they were not so
a Country which I know not whether it be more happy in it self or more unhappy in its Inhabitants This I am almost confident of that the worst of its commodities are the people who by no vertue of theirs which my understanding is yet guilty of deserve to grow there France then being in their possession is like a delicate choice dish of meat disgraced in the cooking Or to give you my verdict of them both both Men and Country modestly and in a word I think you never saw a fair Lady worse marred and indeed to speak the truth But soft What white is that which I espie Which with its lustre doth eclipse mine eye That which doth Neptunes fury so disdain And beats the billow back into the main It is some dreadful Scylla fast'ned there To shake the Sayler into prayer and fear Or it s some I stand floating on the Wave Of which in Writers we the stories have 'T is England hah 't is so clap clap your hands That the full noise may strike the nighb'ring lands Into a Palsey Doth not that lov'd name Move you to extasie Oh were the same As dear to you as me that very word Would make you dance and caper over board Dull Shipemen how they move not how their hoof Grows to the planks yet stay here 's sport enough For see the Sea Nimphs foot it and the fish Leap their high measures equal to my wish Triton doth sound his shell and to delight me Old Nereus hobbleth with his Amphitrite Excellent triumphs but curs'd Fates the Main Quickly divides and takes them in again And left me dying till I came to land And kist my dearest Mother in her sand Hail happy England hail thou sweetest Ile Within whose bounds no Pagan rites defile The purer Faith Christ is by Saints not mated And he alone is worshipp'd that created In thee the lab'ring man enjoys his wealth Not subject to the Lords rape or the stealth Of hungry Publicans In thee thy King Fears not the power of any underling Or petty Prince but by his awful word Commands not more the Beggar than the Lord. In thee those heav'nly beauties lie would make Most of the Gods turn Mortals for their sake Such as out-go report and make Fame see They stand above her bigg'st Hyperbole And yet to strangers will not grude the bliss Of salutation and an harmless kiss Hail then sweet England May I breath my last In thy lov'd arms and when my dayes are past And to the silence of the grave I must All I desire is Thou would'st keep my Dust And now I am safely come into my Country where according to the custom of the Ancients I offer up my thanksgiving to the God of the Waters and testifie before his Altars the grateful acknowledgement of a safe voyage and a prosperous return Blessings which I never merited Me tabula sacer Votiva paries indicat uvida Suspendisse potenti Vestimenta inariis Deo FINIS March 11. 1655. This Book is Entred J. BURROUGHS Printed or sold by William Leake at the sign of the Crown in Fleetstreet between the two Temple Gates These Books following YOrk's Heraldry Folio A Bible of a very fair large Roman letter 40. Orlando Furioso Folio Callis learned Readings on the Sâ—at 21. Hen. 8. Chap. 5 of Sewers Perkins on the Law of Engl. Wikinsons Office of Sheriffs Persons Law Mirrour of Justice Topicks in the Laws of Engl. Sken de significatione Verborum Delamon's use of the Horizontal Quadrant Wilby's 2d set of Musique 3 4 5 and 6 parts Corderius in English Doctor Fulk's Meteors with Observations Malthus Fire-works Nyes Gunnery and Fire-works Cator Major with Annotations by Will. Austin Esquier Mel Helliconium by Alexander Rosse Nosce teipsum by Sr. John Davis Animadversions on Lillies Grammer The History of Vienna and Paris Lazarillo de Tormes Hero and Leander by G. Chapman and Christoph Marlow Posing of the Accidence Guilliam's Heraldry Herberts Travels Man become guilty by Iohn Francis Senalt and Englished by Henry Earl of Monmouth Excersitatio Scolastica The Ideot in 4. books the first and second of Wisdom the third of the Mind the fourth of Statick Experiments of the Ballance The life and Reign of Henry the eighth written by the Lord Herbert Aulalucis or the house of light The Fort Royal of Holy Scriptures by I. H. the third Edition A Tragedy of Christs Passion written by the most learned Hugo Grotius and Englished by George Sands Mathematical Recreations with the general Horological Ring and the double Horizontal Dial by William Oughtred The Garden of Eden or an Acurate description of all Flowers and Fruits now growing in England with particular rules how to advance their Nature Growth as well in Seeds and Hearbs as the secret ordering of Trees and Plants by that learned and great Observer Sir Hugh Plat Knight the fourth Edition Solitary devotions with man in glory by the most Reverend and holy Father Ansolem Arch-Bishop of Canterbury PLAYES Henry the Fourth Philaster The Wedding The Hollander Maids Tragidy King and no King The grateful Servant The strange discovery The Merchant of Venice