no other ministry then that of the Bishop the true Sacrament being permitted to every hedge Priest Not farre from the West gate of this Church of Nostre dame is the Hostel dieu or Le grand Hospital de Paris first founded by St. Lewis anno 1258. it hath been since beautifyed and enlarged anno 1535. by Mr. Anthony Pratt Chancellour of France who augmented the number of Hospitalers and gave fair revenues for the maintaining of Chirurgeons Apothecaries and Religious men among them Since that time the Provosts and Eschevins of Paris have been especiall Benefactors unto it At the first entrance into it you come into their Chappell small but handsome and well furnished after you passe into a long gallery having four ranks of beds two close to the two wals and two in the middle The beds are all sutable one to the other their Valence Curtains and Rugs being all yellow At the right hand of it was a gallery more then double the length of this first so also furnished At the further end of this a door opened into another Chamber dedicated only to sick women and within them another room wherein women with childe are lightned of their burden and their children kept till seven years of age at the charge of the Hospitall At the middle of the first gallery towards the left hand were four other ranks of beds little differing from the rest but that their furniture was blew and in them there was no place for any but such as were somewhat wounded and belonged properly to the Chirurgeon There are numbred in the whole Hospitall no fewer then 700 beds besides those of the attendants Priests Apothecaries c and in every bed two persons One would imagine that in such a variety of wounds and diseases a walke into it and a view of it might savour more of curiosity then discretion but indeed it is nothing lesse for besides that no person of an infectious disease is admitted into it which maketh much for the safety of such as view it all things are there kept so cleanly neatly and orderly that it is sweeter walking there then in the best street of Paris none excepted Next unto these succeedeth La Sancte Chappelle situate in the middle of the Palais a Chappell famous for its forme but more for its Reliques It was founded by Lewis IX vulgarly called St. Lewis 1248. and is divided into two parts the upper and the lower the lower serving for the keeping of the Reliques and the upper for celebrating the Masse It is a comely spruce Edifice without but far more curious within the glasse of it for the excellency of painting and the Organs for the richnesse and elaborate workmanship of the case not giving way to any in Europe I could not learn the number of Chanoins which are maintained in it though I heard they were places of 300 Crowns revenue As for their Treasurer Le Threasururier so they call their Governour He hath granted him by especall priviledge licence to wear all the Episcopall habits except the Crosier-staffe and to bear himselfe as a Bishop within the liberties of his Chappell In the top of the upper Chappell it is built almost in forme of a Synagogue there hangeth the true proportion as they say of the Crown of thornes but of this more when we have gone over the Reliques I was there divers times to have seen them but it seemeth they were not vible to an Huganots eyes though me thinketh they might have considered that my money was Catholique They are kept as I said in the lower Chappell and are thus marshalled in a Table hanging in the upper know then that you may believe that they can shew you the crown of thornes the bloud which ran from our Saviours brest his swadling cloutes a great part of the Crosse they also of Nostre dame have some of it the chaine by which the Jewes bound him no small peece of the stone of the Sepulchre Sauctam toelam tabulae insertam which I know not how to English Some of the Virgins milke for I would not have those of St. Denis think that the Virgin gave no other milk but to them the head of the Lance which pierced our Saviour the purple Robe the Sponge a piece of his Shroud the napkin wherewith he was girted when he washed his Disciples feet the rod of Moses the heads of St. Blase St. Clement and St. Simeon and part of the head of John Baptist Immediately under this recitall of these Reliques and venerable ones I durst say they were could I be perswaded there were no imposture in them there are set down a Prayer and an Anthem both in the same Table as followeth Oratio Quaesumus Omnipotens Deus ut qui sacra sanctissimae redemptionis nostrae insignia temporaliter veneramur per haec indesinenter muniti aeternitatis gloriam consequamur per dominum nostrum c. De sacrosanctis reliquiis Antiphona Christo plebs dedita Tot Christi donis praedita Jocunder is hodie Tota sis devota Erumpens in jubilum Depone mentis nubilum Tempus est laetitiae Cura sit summota Ecce crux et Lancea ferrum corona spinea Arma regis gloriae Tibi offerantur Omnes terrae populi laudent actorem seculi Per quem tantis gratiae signis gloriantur Amen Pretty Divinity if one had time to examine it These Reliques as the Table informeth us were given unto St. Lewis â—nâ— 1247. by Baldwin the II. the last King of the Latâ—nes in Constantinople to which place the Christians of Palestâ—ne had brought them during the times that those parts were harryed by the Turks and Saraâ—â—ns Certainly were they the same which they are given out to be I see no harme in it if we should honour them The very reverence due unto antiquity and a silver head could not but extract some acknowledgment of respect even from an Heathen It was therefore commendably done by Pope Leo having received a parcell of the Crosse from the Bishop of Jerusalem that he entertained it with respect Particulam dominicae crucis saith he in his 72. Epistle cum Eulogiis dilectionis tuae veneraâ—tur accepi To adore and worship that or any other Relick whatsoever with Prayers and Anthems as the Papists you see do never came within the minds of the Antients and therefore St. Ambrose calleth it Gentilis error vanitas impiorum This also was St. Hieroms Religion as himself testifieth in his Epistle to Riparius Nos saith he non dico Martyrum reliquias sed ne Solem quidem Lunam non Angelos c. colimus odoramus Thus were those two fathers minded towards such Reliques as were known to be no others then what they seemed Before too many centuries of years had consumed the true ones and the impostures of the Priests had brought in false had they lived in our times and seen the supposed remnants of the Saints not honoured only but adored and worshipped
devotions to Mahomet The carrying of it about the streets hath no question in it a touch of the Jew this ceremony being borrowed from that of carrying about the Arke on the shoulders of the Levites The other main part of it which is the Adoration is derived from the Heathens there never being a people but they which afforded divine honors to things in animate But the people indeed I cannot blame for this Idolatrous devotion their consciences being perswaded that what they see passe by them is the very body of their Saviour For my part could the like belief possesse my understanding I could meet it with greater reverence then their Church can enjoyn me The Priests and Doctors of the people are to be condemned only who impose and inforce this sin upon their hearers And doubtlesse there is a reward which attendeth them for it Of standing it is so young that I never met with it before the year 1215. Then did Pope Innocent ordain in a Councell holden at Rome that there should be a Pix made to cover the Bread and a Bell bought to be rung before it The Adoration of it was enjoyned by Pope Honorius anno 1226. both afterward encreased by the new solemn feast of Corpus Christi day by Pope Urban the IV. anno 1264. and confirmed for ever with multitudes of pardons in the Councell of Vienna by Clement the V. anno 1310. Such a punie is this great God of the Romans Lactantius in his first Book of Institutions against the Gentiles taxeth the wise men of those times of infinite ridiculousnesse who worshipped Jupiter as a God Cùm eundem tamen Saturno Rhea genitum confiterentur Since themselves so perfectly knew his originall As much I marvell at the impudencie of the Romish Clergie who will needs impose a new God upon their people being so well acquainted with his cradle It is now time to go on in our journey to Roven The Carâ— stayeth and it is fit we were in it Hoâ—ses we could get none for money and for love we did not expect them We are now mounted in our Chariot for so we must call it An English man would have thought it a plain Cart and if it needs will have the honour of being a Chariot let it sure I am it was never ordained for triumph At one end was fastned three carcasses of horses or three bodies which had once been horses and now were worne to dead images had the Statua of a mâ—n been placed on any one of them it might have been hanged up at an Iâ—ne door to represent St. George on horseback so livelesse they were and as little moving yet at last they began to crawle for go they could not This converted me from my former Heresie and made me apprehend life in them but it was so little that it seemed only enough to carry them to the next pack of hounder Thus accommodated we bid farewell to Dieppe and proceeded with a space so slow that me thought our journey unto Roven would prove a most perfect embleme of the motion of the ninth sphere which is 49000 years in finishing But this was not our greatest misery The rain fell in us through our tilt which for the many holes in it one would have thought to have been a net The durt brake plentifully in upon us through the rails of our Chariot and the unequall and ill proportioned pase of it startled almost every bone of us I protest I marvell how a French man durst adventure in it Thus endured we all the diseases of a journey and the danger of three severall deaths drowning choaking with the mire and breaking on the wheel besides a fear of being famished before we came to our Inne which was six French miles from us The mad Duke in the Play which undertook to drive two snailes from Millaine to Musco without staffe whip or goade and in a braverie dared all the world to match him for an experiment would here have had matter to have tryed his patience On the left hand we saw Arques once famous for a siege laid about it by our Richard the first but raised speedily by the French It is now as before I told you the Parish Church of the Dieppe Protestants Their Preachers Mr. Corteau and Mr. Mondenis who have each of them an yearly stipend of 40 l. or thereabouts a poor pay if the faithfull discharge of that duty were not a reward unto it self above the value of gold and silver To instance in none of those beggerly Villages we past through we came at last unto Tostes the place destinated to be our lodging a Town somewhat like the worser sort of Market-towns in England There our Chareter brought uâ— to the ruines of an house an Ale house I should scarce have thought it and yet in spight of my teeth it must be an Inne yea and that an honorable one as Don Quixotes hoste told him Despair of finding there either Bedding or Victuals made me just like the fellow at the gallowes who when he might have been reprieved on condition he would marry a wench which there sued for him having viewed her well cryed to the hangman to drive on his Cart. The truth is I' eschappay la tonnnere et rencheus en l' eschair according to the French proverb I fell out of the frying-pan into the fire One of the house a ragged fellow I am sure he was and so most likely to live there brought us to a room somewhat of kindred to a Charnel-house as dark and as dampish I confesse it was paved with brick at the bottom and had towards the Orchards a prety hole which in former times had been a window but now the glasse was all vanished By the little light which came in at that hole I first perceived that I was not in England There stood in this Chamber three beds if at the least it be lawfull so to call them the foundation of them was of straw so infinitely thronged together that the wool-packs which our Judges sit on in the Parliament were melted butter to them upon this lay a medley of flocks and feathers sowed up together in a large bag for I am confident it was not a tick but so ill ordered that the knobs stuck out on each side like a crab-tree cudgell He had need to have flesh enough that lyeth on one of them otherwise the second night would wear out his bones The sheets which they brought us were so course that in my conscience no Mariner would vouchsafe to use them for a sail and the coverlet so bare that if a man would undertake to reckon the threads he need not misse one of the number The napperie of the Table was sutable to the bedding so foul and dirty that I durst not conceive it had been washed above once and yet the poor clothes looked as briskly as if it had been promised for the whole year ensuing to scape many a scouring The
Palace of the Loure so much famed is not to be named in the same day with it The rooms are well ordered and high roofed gorgeously set out with the curiosities of the Painter In some of the Chambers they shewed us some Poeticall fictions expressed by the pencill in the windowes and on the wainscot and seemed to glory much in them I confesse they might have plentifully possessed my fancy had I not seen the window of Gorrambury gallery belonging to the Right Honorable Francis Viscount St. Albans a window in which all the Fables of Ovids Metamorphosis are so naturally and lively dissembled that if ever art went beyond it self it was in that admirable expression Let us now take a view of the water-works and here we shall see in the first water-house which is a stately large walk vaulted over head the effigies of a Dragon just against the entrance an unquiet beast that vomiteth on all that come nigh it At the end toward the right hand is the Statua of a Nymph sitting before a paire of Organs Upon the loosing of one of the pipes the Nymphs fingers began to manage the keyes and brought the instrument to yield such a musick that if it were not that of an Organ it was as like it as could be and not be the same Unto the division of her fingers her head kept a porportionable time jolting from one shoulder to the other as I have have seen an old fidler at a Wake In the same proportion were the counterfeits of all sorts of mils which before very eagerly discharged their functions but upon the beginning of this harmony they suddenly stood still as if they had had ears to have heard it At the other end towards the left hand we saw a shop of Smiths another of Joiners and a backside full of Sawyers and Masons all idle Upon the first command of the water they all fell to their Occupations and plyed them lustily the birds every where singing and so saving the Artificers the labour of a whistling Besides upon the drawing of a woodden courtain there appeared unto us two Tritons riding on their Dolphins and each of them with a shell in his hand which interchangeably and in turns served them in stead of trumpets A very happy decorum and truly Poeticall Caeruleum Tritona vocat conchaque sonanti Inspirare jubet As Ovid of him Afterward followes Neptune himself fitting in his Chariot drawn with four Tortoyses and grasping his tricuspis or three forked Scepter in his hand the water under them representing all this while a sea somewhat troubled 36 steps from the front of the house we descended into this water-house and by 60 more we descended into a second of the same fashion but not of an equall length with the other At the right hand of this is the whole story of Perseus Andromeda and the Whale lively acted the Whale being killed and the Lady unloosed from the rock very perfectly But withall it was so cunningly managed and that with such a mutuall change of fortune on the parties of both the combatants that one who had not known the fable would have been sore affraid that the Knight would have lost the victory and the Lady her life At the other end there was shown unto us Orpheus in sylvis positus sylvaeqne sequentes There appeared unto us the resemblance of Orpheus playing on a treble Viall the trees moving with the force of the musick and the wilde beasts dancing in two rings about him An invention which could not but cost K. Henry a great sum of money one only string of the fidle being by mischance broken having cost King Lewis his son 1500 Livres Upon the opening of a double-leaved door there were exhibited to us divers representations and conceits which certainly might have been more gracefull if they had not so much in them of the puppet play By some steps more we descended into the Garden and by as many more into a Green which opened into the water side in which the goodliest flower and most pleasing to my eyes was the statua of an horse in brasse of that bignesse that I and one of my companions could stand in the neck of him But dismounting from this horse we mounted our own and so took our leaves of St. Germain On the other side of Paris and up the river we saw an other of the Kings houses called St. Vincent or Vincennes It was beautified with a large part by Philip Augustus anno 1185. who also walled the Park and replenished it with Deer In this house have dyed many famous personages as Philip the fair Lewis Hutin and Charles the fair but none so much to be lamented as that of our Henry V. cut down in the flower of his age and middest of his victories a man most truly valiant and the Alexander of his times Not far from thence is an old Castle once strong but time hath made it now unserviceable The people call it Chasteau Bisestre corruptly for Vincestre which maketh me believe it was built by the English when they were masters of this Isle CHAP. IV. Paris the names and antiquity of it The situation and greatnesse The chief strength and Fortifications about it The streets and buildings King James his laudable care in beautifying London King Henry the fourths intent to fortifie the Town Why not actuated The Artifices and wealth of the Parisians The bravery of the Citizens described under the person of a Barber NOw we are come unto Paris whither indeed I should have brought you the same day we came from Pontoyse It hath had in diversages two severall names the one taken from the people the other from the situation the name taken from the people is that of Paris J. Caesar in his Commentaries making mention of the Nation of the Parisii and at that time calling this City Urbem Parisiorum Ammianus Marcellinus calleth it by the same appellative for as yet the name of Paris was not appropriated unto it As for these Parisii it is well known that they were a people of Gallia Celtica but why the people were so called hath been questioned and that deservedly Some derive them from a son of Paris the son of Priam but the humour of deriving all nationall originations from Troy hath long since been hissed out of the Schoole of Antiquity The Berosus of John Annius bringeth them from one Paris King of the Celtae and his authority is alike authenticall The bastards which this Annius imposed upon the Antient writers are now taught to know their own father Others deduce it from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Greek word importing boldnesse of speech which is approved by William of Breton in the first book of his Phillipiades Finibus egressi patriis per Gallicarura Sedem quaerebant ponendis maenibus aptam Et se Parisios dixerunt nomine Graeco Quod sonat expositum nostris audacia verbis It is spoken of those Gaules who coming out
the French Subjects are beholding to the English by whose good example they got the ease of a Sedentarie Court our Law courts also removing with the King till the year 1224. when by a Statute in the Magna Charta it was appointed to be fixt and a part of the Kings Palace in Westminster allotted for that purpose Within the verge of this Palais are contained the seven Chambers of the Parliament that called La grande Chambre five Chambers of Inquisition Des Enquestes and one other called La Tournelle There are moreover the Chambers des aides des accomptes de l' edict des monnoyes and one called La Chambre Royall of all which we shall have occasion to speak in their proper places these not concerning the common government of the people but only of the Kings revenues Of these seven Chambers of Parliament La grande Chambre is most famous and at the building of this house by Philip le bel was intended for the Kings bed It is no such beautifull piece as the French make it that of Roven being far beyond it although indeed it much excell the fairest room of Justice in all Westminster so that it standeth in a middle rank between them and almost in the same proportions as Virgil betwixt Homer and Ovid. Quantum Virgilius magno concessit Homero Tantum ego Virgilio Naso poeta meo It consisteth of seven Presidents 22 Counsellours the Kings Atturney and as many Advocates and Proctours as the Court will please to give admission to The Advocates have no setled studies within the Palais but at the Barre but the Procureurs or Attorneys have their severall pews in the great Hall which is without this Grande Chambre in such manner as I have before described at Roven a large building it is fair and high roofed not long since ruined by a casualty of fire and not yet fully finished The names of the Presidents are Mr. Verdun the first President or by way of excellencie Le President the second man of the Long robe in France 2. Mr. Sequer lately dead and likely to have his son succeed him as well in his Office as in his Lands 3. Mr. Leiger 4. Mr. Dosambe 5. Mr. Sevin 6. Mr. Baillure And 7. Mr. Meisme None of these neither Presidents nor Counsellors can go out of Paris when the Lawes are open without leave of the Court it was ordained so by Lewis XII anno 1499. and that with good judgement Sentences being given with greater awe and businesses managed with greater majesty when the Bench is full and it seemeth indeed that they carry with them great terror for the Duke of Biron a man of as uncontrouled spirit as any in France being called to answer for himself in this Court protested that those scarlet roabs did more amaze him then all the red cassocks of Spain At the left hand of this Grande Chambre or Golden Chambre as they call it is a Throne or seat Royall reserved for the King when he shall please to come and see the administration of Justice amongst his people at common times it is naked and plain but when the King is expected it is clothed with blew-purple Velvet femied with flowers de lys on each side of it are two formes or benches where the Peers of both habits both Ecclesiasticall and Secular use to sit and accompany the King But this is little to the ease or benefit of the Subject and as little availeable to try the integrity of the Judges his presence being alwayes foreknown and so accordingly they prepared Far better then is it in the Grande Signeur where the Divano or Councell of the Turkish affairs holden by the Bassas is hard by his bed-chamber which looketh into it the window which giveth him this entervenue is perpetually hidden with a curtain on the side of the partition which is towards the Divano so that the Bassas and other Judges cannot at any time assure themselves that the Emperor is not listning to their sentences an action in which nothing is Turkish or Mahometan The authority of this Court extendeth it self unto all causes within the jurisdiction of it not being meerly ecclesiasticall It is a law unto it self following no rule written in their sentences but judging according to equity and conscience In matters criminall of greater consequence the processe is here immediately examined without any preparation of it by the inferior Courts as at the arraignment of the Duke of Biron and divers times also in matters personall But their power is most eminent in disposing the affaires of State and of the Kingdome For such prerogatives have the French Kings given hereunto that they can neither denounce War nor conclude Peace without the consent a formall one at the least of this Chamber An alienation of the Lands of the Crown is not any whit valid unlesse confirmed by this Court neither are his Edicts in force till they are here verified nor his Letters Patents for the creating of a Peer till they are here allowed of Most of these I confesse are little more then matters of form the Kings power and pleasure being become boundlesse yet sufficient to shew the body of authority which they once had and the shadow of it which they still keep yet of late they have got into their disposing one priviledge belonging formerly to the Conventus ordinum or the Assembly of three Estates which is the conferring of the regency or protection of their King during his minority That the Assembly of the three Estates formerly had this priviledge is evident by their stories Thus we finde them to have made Queen Blanche Regent of the Realm during the nonage of her son St. Lewis 1227. That they declared Philip de Valois successor to the Crown in case that the widow of Charles le bel was not delivered of a son 1357. As also Philip of Burgogne during the Lunacy of Charles VI. 1394. with divers other On the other side we have a late example of the power of the Parliament of Paris in this very case For the same day that Henry IV. was slain by Ravilliao the Parliament met and after a short consultation declared Mary de Medices Mother to the King Regent in France for the government of the State during the minority of her son with all power and authority Such are the words of the Instrument Dated the 14 of May 1610. It cannot be said but that this Court deserveth not only this but also any other indulgence whereof any one member of the Common-wealth is capable So watchfull are they over the health of the State and so tenderly do they take the least danger threatned to the liberty of that Kingdom that they may not unjustly be called patres patriae In the year 1614. they seized upon a discourse written by Suarez a Jesuite Entituled Adversus Anglicanae sectae errores wherein the Popes temporall power over Kings and Princes is averred which they sentenced to be burnt in the Palace-yard by
and which openeth into that of the Queen Mother A Gallery it is of an incredible length as being above 500 yards long and of a breadth and height not unporportionable a room built rather for ostentation then use and such as hath more in it of the majesty of its founder then the grace It was said to have been erected purposely to joyn the Louure unto the House and Garden of the Tuilleries an unlikely matter that such a stupendious building should be designed only for a cleanly conveyance into a Summer house others are of an opinion that he had a resolution to have made the house quadrangular every side being correspondent to this which should have been the common Gallery to the rest Which design had it taken effect this Palace would at once have been the wonder of the world and the envy of it For my part I dare be of this last minde as well because the second side is in part begun as also considering how infinitely this King was inclined to building The Place Daulphin and the Place Royall two of the finest piles in Paris were erected partly by his purse but principally by his encouragement The new Bridge in Paris was meerly his work so was also the new Palace and most admirable waterworks of St. Germans en lay This long Gallery and the new Pest house oweth it self wholly to him and the house of Fountainebleau which is the fairest in France is beholding to him for most of its beauty add to this his Fortifications bestowed on the Bastile his walling of Arles and his purpose to have strengthned Paris according to the modern art of Towns and you will finde the attribute of Parietaria or wall flower which Constantine scoffingly gave unto Trajan for his great humour of building to be due unto this King but seriously and with reverence Besides the generall love he had to building he had also an ambition to go beyond example which also induceth me further to believe his intent of making that large and admirable quadrangle above spoken of to have been serious and reall For to omit others certain it is that he had a project of great spirit and difficulty which was to joyn the Mediterranean sea and the Ocean together and to make the Navigation from the one to the other through France and not to passe by the straight of Gibraltare It came into Councell anno 1604 and was resolved to be done by this means The river Garond is Navigable from the Ocean almost to Tholoza and the Mediterranean openeth it self into the Land by a little River whose name I know not as high as Narbonne Betwixt these two places was there a Navigable channell to have been digged and it proceeded so far towards being actuated that a workman had undertaken it and the price was agreed upon But there arising some discontents between the Kings of France and Spain about the building of the Fort Fluentes in the Countrey of the Grisons the King not knowing what use he might have of Treasure in that quarrell commanded the work not to go forward However he is to be commended in the attempt which was indeed Kinglike and worthy his spirit praise him in his heroick purpose and designe Quem si non tenuit magnis tamen excidit ausis But the principal beauty if I may judge of this so much admired Palace of the Louure is a low plain room paved under foot with bricks and without any hangings or tapestrie on the sides yet being the best set out and furnished to my content of any in France It is called La Salle des Antiques and hath in it five of the antientest and venerablest pieces of all the Kingdome For this Nation generally is regardlesse of Antiquity both in the monuments and studie of it so that you shall hardly find any ancient inscription or any famous ruine snatched from the hand of time in the best of their Cities or Churches In the Church only of Amiens could I meet with an ancient character which also was but a Gothish Dutch letter and expressed nothing but the name and virtue of a Bishop of the Church on whose tomb it was So little also did I perceive them to be inclined to be Antiquaries that both neglects considered Si verbis audacia detur I dare confidently aver not only that the Earl of Arundels Gardens have more antiquities of this kind then all France can boast of but that one Cotton for the Treasury and one Selden now Mr. Camden is dead for the study of the like antiquities are worth all the French As for these five pieces in La Salle des Antiques they are I confesse worthy observation and respect also if they be such as our Trudgemen enforme us At the farther end of it is the Statua of Diana the same as is said which was worshipped in the renowned Temple of Ephesus and of which Demetrius the Silversmith and his fellow artists cryed out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Great is Diana of the Ephesians Of a large and manly proportion she seemeth to be Quantum quale latus quam invenile femur As Ovid of his Mistresse She is all naked save her feet which are buskin'd and that she hath a skarfe or linnen rowl which coming over her left shoulder and meeting about her middle hung down with both ends of it a little lower In the first place on the right hand as we descended towards the door was the Statua of one of the Gods of Ethiopia as black as any of his people and one that had nothing about him to expresse his particular being Next to him the Effigies of Mercury naked all except his feet and with a pipe in his mouth as when he inchanted Argus Namque reperta fistula nuper erat saith the Metamorphosis Next unto him the portraiture of Venus quight and most immodestly unapparelled in her hand her little son Cupid as well arraied as his mother sitting on a Dolphin Last of all Apollo also in the same naked truth but that he had shooes on he was portraied as lately returned from a combate perhaps that against the Serpent Python Quem Deus arcitenens nunquam talibus armis Ante ni si damis capreisque fugacibus usus Mille gravem telis exhausta paene pharetra Perdidit effuso per vulnera nigra veneâ—o That I was in the right conjecture I had these reasons to perswade me the quiver on the Gods right shoulder almost emptied his warlike belt hanging about his neck his garments loosely tumbling upon his left armes and the slain Monster being a water Serpent as Python is fained to be by the Poets all of these were on the same side of the wall the other being altogether destitute of ornaments and are confidently said to be the Statuas of those Gods in the same formes as they were worshipped in and taken from their severall Temples They were bestowed on the King by his Holinesse of Rome and I
cannot blame him for it it was worthy but little thanks to give unto him the Idols of the Heathens who for his Holinesse satisfaction had given himself to the Idols of the Romans I believe that upon the same termes the King of England might have all the Reliques and ruines of Antiquity which can be found in Rome Without this room this Salle des Antiques and somewhat on the other side of the Louure is the house of Burbon an old decayed fabrick in which nothing was observable but the Omen for being built by Lewis of Burbon the third Duke of that branch he caused this motto ESPERANCE to be engraven in Capitall Letters over the door signifying his hope that from his loins should proceed a King which should joyn both the Houses and the Families and it is accordingly hapned For the Tuilleries I having nothing to say of them but that they were built by Katharine de Medices in the year 1564. and that they took name from the many Lime-kils and Tile-pits there being before the foundation of the House and the Garden the word Tuilleries importing as much in the French language I was not so happy as to see and will not be indebted to any for the relation The End of the Second Book A SURVEY OF THE STATE of FRANCE La BEAUSE OR THE THIRD BOOK CHAP. I. Our Journy towards Orleans the Town Castle and Battail of Mont l'hierrie Many things imputed to the English which they never did Lewis the 11. brought not the French Kings out of wardship The town of Chartroy and the mourning Church there The Countrey of La Beause and people of it Estampes The dancing there The new art of begging in the Innes of this Countrey Angerville Tury The sawciness of the French Fidlers Three kindes of Musick amongst the Ancients The French Musick HAving abundantly stifled our spirits in the stink of Paris on Tuesday being the 12 of July we took our leave of it and prepared our selves to entertain the sweet Air and Wine of Orleans The day fair and not so much as disposed to a cloud save that they began to gather together about noon in the nature of a curtain to defend us from the injury of the Sun The wind rather sufficient to fan the air then to disturb it by qualifying the heat of the Celestial fire brought the air to an excellent mediocrity of temper you would have thought it a day meerly framed for the great Princesse Nature to take her pleasure in and that the birds which cheerfully gave us their voices from the neighbouring bushes had been the loud musick of her Court. In a word it was a day solely consecrated to a pleasant journey and he that did not put it to that use mis-spent it having therefore put our selves into our wagon we took a short farewell of Paris exceeding joyfull that we yet lived to see the beauty of the fields again and enjoy the happinesse of a free heaven The Countrey such as that part of the Isle of France towards Normandy only that the corn grounds were larger and more even On the left hand of us we had a side-glance of the royall house of Boys St. Vincennes and the Castle of Bisestre and about some two miles beyond them we had a sight also of a new house lately built by Mr. Sillery Chancellor of the Kingdome a pretty house it promised to be having two base Courts on the hither side of it and beyond it a park an ornament whereof many great mansions in France are altogether ignorant Four leagues from Paris is the the Town of Montliberrie now old and ruinous and hath nothing in it to commend it but the carkasse of a Castle without it it hath to brag of a large and spacious plain on which was fought that memorable battail between Lewis the 11. and Charles le hardie Duke of Burgogne a battail memorable only for the running away of each Army the field being in a manner emptied of all the forces and yet neither of the Princes victorious Hic spe celer ille salute some ran out of fear to die and some out of hope to live that it was hard to say which of the Souldiers made most use of their heels in the combat This notwithstanding the King esteemed himself the conquerour not that he overcame but because not vanquisht He was a Prince of no heart to make a warriour and therefore resistance was to him almost hugged as victory It was Antonies case in his war against the Parthians a Captain whose Launce King Lewis was not worthy to bear after him Crassus before him had been taken by that people but Antonius made a retreat though with losse Hanc itaque fugam suam quia vivus exierat victoriam vocabat as Paterculus one that loved him not saith of him Yet was King Lewis is so puffed up with this conceit of victory that he ever after slighted his enemies and at last ruined them and their cause with them The war which they undertook against him they had entituled the war of the Weal publick because the occasion of their taking armes was for the liberty of their Countrey and people both whom the King had beyond measure oppressed True it is they had also their particular purposes but this was the main and failing in the expected event of it all that they did was to confirm the bondage of the Realm by their own overthrow These Princes once disbanded and severally broken none durst ever afterwards enter into the action for which reason King Lewis used to say that he had brought the Kings of France Hors pupillage out of their ward-ship a speech of more brag then truth The people I confesse he brought into such terms of slavery that they no longer merited the name of subjects but yet for all his great boast the Nobles of France are to this day the Kings Guardians I have already shewn you much of their potency By that you may see that the French Kings have not yet sued their livery as our Lawyers call it Had he also in some measure broken the powerableness of the Princes he had then been perfectly his words-master and till that be done I shall still think his successors to be in their pupillage That King is but half himself which hath the absolute command only of half his people The battail foughten by this Town the common people impute to the English and so do they also many others which they had no hand in For hearing their Grandames talk of their wars with our nation and of their many fields which we gained of them they no sooner hear of a pitched field but presently as the nature of men in a fright is they attribute it to the English good simple souls Qui nos non solum laudibus nostris ornare velint sed onerare alienis as Tully in his Philippicks An humour just like unto that of little children who being once frighted with the tales
brain if not well qualified for which cause it is said that King Lewis hath banished it his Cellar no doubt to the great grief of his drinking Courtiers who may therefore say with Martiall Quid tantum fecere boni tibi pessima vina Aut quid fecerunt optima vina mali This Town called Genabum by Caesar was reedified by Aurelian the Emperour anno 276. and called by his name Aurelianum which it still retaineth amongst the Latines It hath been famous heretofore for four Councels here celebrated and for being the siege royal of the Kings of Orleans though as now I could not hear any thing of the ruines of the Palace The fame of it at this time consisteth in the University and its seat of justice this Town being one of them which they call Seiges presidiaux Now these Seiges Presidiaux Seats or Courts of Justice were established in diverse Cities of the Realm for the ease of the people anno 1551 or thereabouts In them all civil causes not exceeding 250 livres in money or 10 livres in rents are heard and determined soveraignly and without appeal If the sum exceed those proportions the appeal holdeth good and shall be examined in that Court of Parliament under whose jurisdiction they are This Court here consisteth of a Bailly whose name is Mr. Digion of 12 Counsellors two Lieutenants one civil and the other criminal and a publick notary When Mr. Le Comte de St. Paul who is Governor or Lieutenant Generall of the Province cometh into their Court he giveth precedency to the Bailly in other places he receiveth it This institution of these Presidentiall Courts was at first a very profitable ordinance and much eased the people but now it is grown burthensome the reason is that the offices are made salable and purchased by them with a great deal of money which afterwards they wrest again out of the purses of the pesants the sale of offices drawing necessarily after it the sale of justice a mischief which is spread so far that there is not the poorest under-officer in all the Realm who may not safely say with the Captain in the 22. of the Acts and the 28. vers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a great sum of money obtained I this freedome Twenty years purchase is said to be no extraordinary rate and I have read that only by the sale of offices one of the Kings had raised in 20 years 139 millions which amounteth to the proportion of seven millions yearly or thereabouts of all waies to thrift and treasure the most unkingly In the year 1614 the King motioned the abolising of the sales of this market but it was upon a condition more prejudicial to the people then the mischief for he desired in lieu of it to have a greater imposition laid upon Salt and on the Aides which those who were Commissioners for the Commonalty would not admit of because then a common misery had been bought out of the State to make their particular misery the greater and so the corruption remaineth unaltered This Town as it is sweetly seated in respect of the air so is it finely convenienced with walks of which the chief are that next unto Paris Gate having the wall on one hand and a rank of palm-trees on the other the second that near unto the Bridge having the water pleasingly running on both sides and a third which is indeed the principal on the east side of the City It is called the Palle Malle from an exercise of that name much used in this Kingdome a very Gentleman-like sport not over violent and such as affordeth good opportunity of discourse as they walk from one mark to the other Into this walk which is of a wonderful length and beauty you shall have a clear evening empty all the Town the aged people borrowing legs to carry them and the younger armes to guide them If any young Dame or Monsieur walk thither single they will quickly finde some or other to link with them though perhaps such with whom they have no familiarity Thus do they measure and re-measure the length of the Palle Malle not minding the shutting in of the day till darkness hath taken away the sense of blushing At all hours of the night be it warm and dry you shall be sure to finde them there thus coupled and if at the years end there be found more children then fathers in the Town this walk and the night are suspected shrewdly to be accessaries A greater inconvenience in my opinion then an English kisse There is yet a fourth walk in this Town called L' Estapp a walk principally frequented by Merchants who here meet to conserre of their occasions It lyeth before the house of Mr. Le Comte de St. Paul the Governour and reacheth up to the Cloyster of St. Croix of the building of which Church I could never yet hear or read of any thing but that which is meerly fabulous for the Citizens report that long since time out of minde there appeared a vision to an holy Monk which lived thereabouts and bad him dig deep in such a place where he should finde a piece of the holy Crosse charging him to preserve that blessed relique in great honour and to cause a Church to be built in that place where it had been buried upon this warning the Church was founded but at whose charges they could not enform me so that all which I could learn concerning the foundation of this Church is that it was erected only by Superstition and a lie The Superstition is apparent in their worshipping of such rotten sticks as they imagine to be remnants of the Crosse their calling of it holy and dedicating of this Church unto it Nay they have consecrated unto it two holy daies one in May and the other in September and are bound to salute it as often as they see it in the streets or the high-waies with these words Ave salus totius saeculi arbor salutifera Horrible blasphemy and never heard but under Antichrist Cruces subeundas esse non adorandas being the lesson of the Ancients As for the miracle I account it as others of the same stamp equally false and ridiculous This Church in the year 1562. was defaced and ruined by the Hugonots who had entred the Town under the conduct of the Prince of Conde An action little savouring of humanity and lesse of Religion the very Heathens themselves never demolishing any of the Churches of those Towns which they had taken But in this action the Hugonots consulted only with rashnesse and a zealous fury thinking no title so glorious as to be called the Scourge of Papists and the overthrowers of Popish Churches Quid facerent hostes capla crudelius urbe The most barbarous enemy in the world could not more have exercised their malice on the vanquished and this I perswade my self had been the fate of most of our Churches if that faction had got the upper hand of us But
number of the Bishops to have suffrage in the Parliament and to represent in that Assembly the body of the Clergy and that their place should be perpetual Thus far with some trouble but much art he had prevailed on that unquiet and unruly company and therefore had he denied the Islanders an allowance of their Discipline he had only taught the Scottish Ministery what to trust to An allowance whereof he after made especial use in his proceedings with that people For thus his Majesty in a Declaration concerning such of the Scottish Ministers as lay attainted of High Treason Anno 1606. viz. And as we have ever regarded carefully how convenient it is to maintain every Countrey in that form of Government which is fittest and can best agree with the constitution thereof and how dangerous alterations are without good advice and mature deliberation and that even in matters of order of the Church in some small Island under our Dominions we have â—abstained from suffering any alteration So we doubt not c as it there followeth in the words of the Declaration On these reasons or on some other not within the power of my conjecture this Discipline was permitted in these Islands though long it did not continue with them For presently upon his Majesties comming to the Crown Sir Walter Raleigh then Governor of Jarzey was attaint of Treason on which attaindure this with others of his places fell actually into the Kings disposing upon this variancy it pleased his Majesty to depute the present Governor Sir John Peiton to that office A Gentleman not over forward in himself to pursue the projects of the Powlets his predecessors for Sir W. Raleigh had but a little while possessed the place and it may well be furnished also with some secret instructions from the King not to be too indulgent to that party Whether that so it was or not I cannot say Sure I am that he omitted no opportunity of abating in the Consistorians the pride and stomach of their jurisdiction But long it was not before he found a fit occasion to place his battery against those works which in the Island there they thought impregnable For as in the ancient proverb Facile est invenire baculum ut caedas canem it is an easie thing to quarrell one whom before hand we are resolved to baffle The occasion this The Curate of S. Johns being lately dead it pleased the Colloquie of that Island according to their former method to appoint one Brevin to succeed him against which course the Governor the Kings Attorney and other the officers of the Crown protested as prejudicial to the rights and profits of the King Howbeit the case was over-ruled and the Colloquie for that time carried it hereupon a bill of Articles was exhibited unto the Councel against the Ministers by Peiton the Governor Marret the Attorney now one of the Jurates and the rest as viz. that they had usurped the Patronage of all benefices in the Island that thereby they admitted men to livings without any form of pretentation that thereby they deprived his Majesty of Vacancies and first-fruits that by connivence to say no worse of it of the former Governors they exercised a kinde of arbitrary jurisdiction making and disannulling lawes at their own uncertain liberty whereupon they most humbly besought his Majesty to grant them such a discipline as might be fittest to the nature of the place and lesse derogatory to the Royal Prerogative This Bill exhibited unto the Councell found there such approbation that presently Sir Robert Gardiner once chief Justice as I take it in the Realm of Ireland and James Hussey Doctor of the Lawes though not without some former businesse were sent into the Islands Against their coming into Jarzey the Ministers of that Island had prepared their Answer which in the general may be reduced to these two heads viz. That their appointment of men into the Ministery and the exercise of Jurisdiction being principal parts of the Church Discipline had been confirmed unto them by his Majesty And for the matter of First-fruits it was a payment which had never been exacted from them since their discharge from him at Constance unto whom in former times they had been due Upon this answer the businesse was again remitted unto the King and to his Councell by them to be determined upon the comming of their Deputies the Committees not having as they said a power to determine it but only to instruct themselves in the whole cause and accordingly to make report Other matters within the compasse of their Commission and about which they were said principally to be sent over were then concluded all which hapned in the year 1608. Immediately upon the departure of these Commissioners and long before their Deputies had any faculty to repair unto the Court a foul deformity of confusion and distraction had overgrown the Church and Discipline In former times all such as took upon them any publick charge either in Church or Common-wealth had bound themselves by oath to cherish and maintain the Discipline that oath is now disclaimed as dangerous and unwarrantable Before it was their custome to exact subscription to their platform of all such as purposed to receive the Sacrament but now the Kings Attorney and others of that party chose rather to abstain from the Communion nay even the very Elders silly souls that thought themselves as Sacrosancti as a Roman Tribune were drown with proces into the civil courts and there reputed with the vulgar Nor was the case much better with the Consistory the Jurates in their Cohu or Town-hall relieving such by their authority whom that Tribunal had condemned or censured A pravis ad praecipitia Such is the inhumanity of the world that when once a man is cast upon his knees every one-lends a hand to lay him prostrate No sooner had those of the lower rank observed the Ministers to stagger in their chairs but they instantly begin to wrangle for the Tithes and if the Curate will exact his due the Law is open let them try the Title Their Benefices where before accounted as excempt and priviledged are brought to reckon for first-fruits and tenths and those not rated by the book of Constance but by the will and pleasure of the Governor Adde unto this that one of the Constables preferred a Bill against them in the Cohu wherein the Ministers themselves were indicted of hypocrisie and their government of tyranny And which of all the rest was the greatest of their miseries it was objected that they held secret meetings and private practises against the Governor yea such as reflected also on the King In thi confusion and distresse they were almost uncapable of counsel They applyed themselves in the next Colloquie unto the Governor that he would please to intercede for them to his Majesty but him they had so far exasperated by their clamours that he utterly refused to meddle for them Nor did the Ministers