she hath freedome enough and certainly much more then a moderate wisdome would permit her It is one of her jura conjugalia to admit of Courtship even in the fight of her husband to walk arm in arm about the streets or into the fields with her Privado to proffer occasions of familiarity and acquaintance at the first sight of one whose person she relisheth and all this sans soupsen without any the least imputation a liberty somewhat of the largest and we may justly fear that having thus wholly in her own power the keyes of the Cabinet that she sheweth her jewels to more then her husband Such are the French women and such lives do they lead both maids and married Thou happy England thy four seas contain The pride of beauties such as may disdain Rivals on earth Such at once may move By a strange power the envie and the love Of all the sex besides Admit a dame Of France or Spain passe in the breath of fame And her thoughts for fair yet let her view The commonst beauty of the English crew And in despair she 'l execrate the day Which bare her black and sigh her self away So pin'd the Phrygian dames and hang'd the head When into Troy Paris did Helen lead But boast not Paris England now enjoyes Helens enough to sack a world of Troyes So doth the vulgar tapers of the â—kie Lose all their lustre when the Moon is nigh Yet English Ladies glorious lights as far Exceed the Moon as doth the Moon a star So do the common people of the groves Grow husht when Philomel recounts her loves But when our Ladies sing even she forbears To use her tongue and turns her tongue to ears Nay more Their beauties should proud Venus see Shee 'd blush her self out of her Deity Drop into Vuleans forge her raign now done And yeeld to them her Empire and her son Yet this were needless I can hardly finde Any of this land stars but straight my minde Speaks her a Venus and me thinks I spic A little Cupid sporting in her eye Who thence his shafts more powerfully delivers Then ere did t'other Cupid from his quivers Such in a word they are you would them guesse An harmony of all the goddesses Or swear that partial Nature at their birth Had rob'd the heavens to glorifie the earth Such though they are yet mean these graces bin Compar'd unto the vertues lodg'd within For needs the Jewels must be rich and precious When as the Cabinet is so delicious CHAP. III. France described The valley of Montmorancie and the Dukes of it Mont-martre Burials in former times not permitted within the wals The prosecuting of this disccurse by manner of a journal intermitted for a time The Town and Church of St. Denis The Legend of him and his head Of Dagobert and the Leper The reliques to be seen there Martyrs how esteemed in St. Augustine's time The Sepulchres of the French Kings and the treasury there The Kings house of Madrit The Queen Mothers house at Ruall and fine devices in it St. Germains en lay another of the Kings houses The curious painting in it Gorramburie Window the Garden belonging to it and the excellency of the Water-works Boys St. Vincent de Vincennes and the Castle called Bisester I Have now done with the French both men and women a people much extolled by many of our English Travellers for all those graces which may enoble adorn both sexes For my part having observed them as well as I could and traced them in all their several humors I set up my rest with this proposition that there is nothing in them to be envied but their Countrey To that indeed I am earnestly and I think not unworthily affected here being nothing wanting which may be required to raise and reward ones liking If nature was ever prodigal of her blessings or scattered them with an over-plentiful hand it was in this Island into which we were entred as soon as we passed over the bridge of Pontoyse The first part of it which lasted for three leagues was upon the plain of a mountain but such a mountain as will hardly yeeld to the best valley in Europe out of France On both sides of us the Vines grew up in a just length and promised to the husbandman a thriving vintage The Wines they yeeld are far better then those of Normandy or Gascoyne and indeed the best in the whole Continent those of Orleans excepted yet what we saw here was but as a bit to prepare our stomachs lest we should surfeit in the valley Here we beheld nature in her richest vestiments The fields so interchangeably planted with Wheat and Vines that had L. Florus once beheld it he would never have given unto Campania the title of Cereris Bacchi certamen These fields were dispersedly here and there beset with Cherry trees which considered with the rest gave unto the eye an excellent object For the Vines yet green the Wheat ready for the sithe and the cherries now fully ripened and shewing forth their beauties through the vails of the leaves made such a various and delightsome mixture of colours that no art could have expressed it self more delectably If you have ever seen an exquisite Mosaical work you may the best judge of the beauty of this valley Add to this that the River Seine being now past Paris either to embrace that flourishing soyle or out of a wanton desire to play with it self hath divided it self into sundry lesser channels besides its several windings and turnings so that one may very justly and not irreligiously conceive it to be an Idea or representation of the Garden of Eden the river so happily separating it self to water the ground This valley is of a very large circuit and as the Welch men say of Anglesey Mon mam Gymâ—ye id est Anglesey is the mother of Wales so may we call this the mother of Paris For so abundantly doth it furnish that great and populous City that when the Dukes of Berry and Burgundy besieged it with 100000 men there being at that time 3 or 400000 Citizens and Souldiers within the wals neither the people within nor the enemies without found any want of provision It is called the Valley of Montmorency from the Town or Castle of Montmorency seated in it but this town nameth not the Valley only It giveth name also to the ancient family of Dukes of Montmorency the antientest house of Christendome He stileth himself Le primier Christian plus viel Baron de France and it is said that his ancestors received the Faith of Christ by the preaching of St. Denis the first Bishop of Paris Their principal houses are that of Chantilly and Ecquoan both seated in the Isle this last being given unto the present Dukes Father by King Henry 4. to whom it was confiscated by the condemnation of one of his Treasurers This house also and so I leave it hath been observed to have
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 with more unconquerable mountains then their Dominions The French extreamly hating the proud humor and ambition of the Spaniard and the Spaniard as much loathing the vain and unconstant lightnesse of the French we may therefore account each of them in these inter-marriages to have rather intended the perpetuity of their particular houses then the strength of their Empires and that they more desired a noble stock wherein to graft posterity then power The Alliance with Savoy is more advantagious though lesse powerfull then that of Spain for if the King of France can keep this Prince on his party he need not fear the greatnesse of the other or of any of his faction The continuall siding of this house with that of Austria having given great and many impediments to the fortune of the French It standeth so fitly to countenance the affaires of either King in Italy or Germany to which it shall encline that it is just of the same nature with the state of Florence between Millaine and Venice of which Guicciardine saith that Mantennero le cose d' Italia bilanciate On this reason Henry IV. earnestly desired to match one of his children into this Countrey and left this desire as a Legacy with his Councell 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 encompassed about as it were with a wall of brasse As for the Kings bastard Brethren they are four in number and born of three severall beds The elder is 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 credit and command The second and most loved of his father whose lively image and character he is said to be is Mr. Cesar made Duke of Vendosme by his father and at this time Governour of Britain a man of a brave spirit and one who swayeth much in the affairs of state his father took a great care for his advancement before his death and therefore marryed him to the daughter and heir of the Duke of Mercuer a man of great possessions in Britain It is thought that the inheritance of this Lady both by her Fathers side and also by the Mothers who was of the family of Martiques being a stock of the old Ducall tree is no lesse then 200000 crownes yearly both these were borne unto the King by Madam Gabriele for her excellent beauty surnamed La belle Dutchesse of Beauforte a Lady whom the King entirely affected even to her last gaspe and one who never abused her power with him So that one may truly say of her what Velleius flatteringly spake of Liviae the wife of Augustus Ejus potentiam nemo sensit nisi aut levatione periculi aut accessione dignitatis The third of the Kings naturall brethren is Mr. Henry now Bishop of Metz in Lorreine and Abbot of St. Germans in Paris as Abbot he is Lord of the goodly Fauxbourg of St. Germans and hath the profit of the great Fair there holden which make a large revenue His Bishoprick yeeldeth him the profits of 20000 Crowns and upwards which is the remainder of 6000 the rest being paâ—ned unto the Duke of Lorreine by the last Bishop hereof who was of that Family The mother of this Mr. Henry is the Marchionesse 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 this Queen mothers Regency The fourth and youngest is Mr. Antonie born unto the King by the Countesse of Marret who is Abbot of the Churches of Marseilles and Cane and hath as yet not fully out 6000 l. a year when his mother dyeth he will be richer The Kings lawfull Brother is named John Baptist Gaston born the 25 of Aprill 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 intituled Duke of Anjou as being the third Son of France but his next elder Brother the Duke of Orleans being dead in his childhood he is vulgarly and properly called Monseiur This title is different from that of Daulphin in that that title only is appropriated to the Heir Apparent being the Kings eldest Son living this limited to the Heir Apparent being the Kings eldest Brother surviving if there be neither Son nor Brother then the next Heir Apparent is styled only Le primier Prince du sang the first Prince of the bloud This title of Monseiur answereth unto that of Despote in the Greek Empire and in imitation of that is thought to have been instituted Others of the French Princes are called Monseiurs also but with some addition of place or honour The Kings eldest Brother only is called Monseiur sans qâ—â—ne as the French use to say that is simply Monseiur This young Prince is as yet unmarryed but destinate to the bed of the young Dutchesse of Montpensier whose Father dyed in the time of Henry IV. Had the Duke of Orleans lived he had espoused her long ere this but it is generally believed that this Prince is not so affected he seeth his elder Brother as yet childlesse himself the next heir to the Crown and it is likely he will look on a while and expect the issue of his fortune Some that speak of the affairs of the Court holdeth her a fitter match for the young Count of Soissons a Prince of the bloud and a Gentleman of a fine temper the Lady her self is said not to be averse from the match neither will the King not be inclinable unto him as hoping therein to give him some satisfaction for not performing a Court promise made unto him as some say about marrying the young Madam now Queen of England As for the Count it cannot but be advantagious to him divers wayes partly to joyne together the two families of Montpensier and Soissons both issuing from the house of Burbon partly to enrich himself by adding to his inheritance so fair an Estate and partly by gaining all the friends and allies of that Ladies kindred to his the better to enable his opposition against the Prince of Conde the difference between them standeth thus Lewis the first Prince of Conde had by two wives amongst other children two Sons by his first wife Henry Prince of Conde by the second Charles Count of Soissons Henry Prince of Conde had to his first wife Mary of Cleve daughter to the Duke
for it but being but conjectures only and prosecuted for the carrying on of so great a project they were not thought to be convincing or of any considerable weight or moment amongst sober and impartiall men They therefore argued it First From the Kings care of his education assigning him for his Tutor Nicholas de Febure whom he also designed for his Son King Lewis Secondly From his care to work the Prince then young Mollis et apâ—us agi to become a Catholick Thirdly The infirmity of Henry of Conde and the privacy of this King with his Lady being then King of Navâ—â—e in the prime of his strength and in discontent with the Lady Marguerite of Valoys his first wife add to this that Kings love to fair Ladies in the generall and then conclude this probability to be no miracle For besides the Dutchesse of Beauforte the Marchionesse of Verneville and the Countesse of Morrel already mentioned he is believed to have been the Father of Mr. Luynes the great favourite of King Lewis And certain it is that the very year before his death when he was even in the winter of his days he took such an amorous liking to the Prince of Condes wife a very beautifull Lady and daughter to the Constable Duke of Montmorencie that the Prince to save his honour was compelled to flie together with his Princesse into the Arch-Dukes Countrey whence he returned not till long after the death of King Henry If Mary de Medices in her husbands life time had found her self agrieved it I cannot blame her she only made good that of Quinâ—ilian Et uxor mariti exemplo incitata aut imitari se putat aut vindicore And yet perhaps a consciousnesse of some injuries not only mooved her to back the Count of Soissons 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 there in 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 as yet the people cannot accuse for any oppression or misgovernment Honours the King hath conserred none upon him but only pensions and offices he is the Governour of the Kings children of honour Pages we call them in England a place of more trouble then wealth or credite He is also the Master of the horse or Le grand Escuire the esteem of which place recompenseth the emptinesse of the other for by vertue of this office he carryeth the Kings sword sheathed before him at his entrances into Paris The cloth of estate carryed over the King by the Provost and Eschevins is his â—ee No man can be the Kings spurmaker 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 VII Besides this he hath a Pension of 500000 Crowns yearly and had an office given him which he sold for 100000 Crowns 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 only removed from his servant to be his play-fellow With the affairs of State he intermedleth not if he should he might expect the Queen mother should say to him what Apollo in Ovid did to Cupid Tibi quid cum fortibus armis Mipuer ista decent humeros gestamina nostros For indeed first during her Sons minority and after since her reintegration with him she hath made her self so absolute a mistresse of his mind that he hath intrusted to her the entire conduct of all his most weighty affaires For her assistant in the managing of her greatest business she hath peeced her self to the strongest side of the State the Church having principally since the death of the Marshal D'Ancre I mean assumed to her counsels the Cardinall of Richileiu a man of no great birth were Nobility the greatest parentage but otherwise to be ranked amongst the noblest Of a sound reach he is and a close brain one exceedingly well mixt of a lay understanding 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 Queen useth as her Counsellour to keep out frailty and the Kings name as her countenance to keep off envie She is of a Florentine wit and hath in her all the virtues of Katharine de Medices her Ancestor in her Regency and some also of her vices only her designes tend not to the ruine of the Kingdome and her children Joan de Seirres telleth us in his Inventaire of France how the Queen Katharine suffered her son Henry III. a devout and a supple Prince to spend his most dangerous times even uncontrouled upon his beads whilest in the mean time she usurped the Government of the Realm Like it is that Queen Mary hath learned so much of her Kinswoman as to permit this son of hers to spend his time also amongst his play-fellowes and the birds that she may the more securely manage the State at her discretion And to say nothing of her untrue or misbecoming her vertue she hath notably well discharged her ambition the Realm of France being never more quietly and evenly governed then first during her Regencie and now during the time of her favour with the King For during his minority she carryed her self so fairly between the factions of the Court that she was of all sides honoured the time of this Marquesse D' Ancre only excepted and for the differences in Religion her most earnest desire was not â—o oppresse the Protestants insomuch that the war raised against them during the command of Mr. Luynes was presently after his death and her restoring into grace ended An heroicall Lady and worthy the report of posterity the frailties and weaknesse of her as a woman not being accounted hers but her sexes CHAP. II. Two Religions strugling in France like the two twins in the womb of Rebecca The comparison between them two and those in the generall A more particular survey of the Papists Church in France in Policie Priviledge and Revenue The complaint of the Clergy to the King The acknowledgment of the French Church to the Pope meerly titular The pragmatick sanction Maxima tua fatuitas and Conventui Tridentino severally written to the Pope and Trent Councell The tedious quarrell about Investitures Four things propounded by the Parliament to the Jesuites The French Bishops not to medle with Fryers their lives and land The ignorance of the French Priests The Chanoins Latine in Orleans The French not hard to be converted if plausibly bumoured c. FRom the Court of the King of France I cannot better provide for
needs must note that as the erecting of these fabricks in these Islands was founded on the ruine of the Deanries so had the birth of this device in England been death unto the Bishopricks No wonder then if those which principally manage the affairs of holy Church so busily bestir themselves in the destroying of this viper which by no other means can come into the world then by the death and ruine of his mother Yet so it is I know not whether by destiny or some other means I would not think but so it is that much of this new plat-form hath of late found favour with us and may in time make entrance to the rest Their Lecturers permitted in so many places what are they but the Doctors of Geneva save only that they are more factious and sustain a party And what the purpose and design of this but so by degrees to lessen the repute of such daies as are appointed holy by the Church and fasten all opinion to their daies of preaching By whose authority stand the Church-wardens at the Temple doors as I have seen it oft in London to collect the bounty of the hearers but only by some of their appointments who finde that duty or the like prescribed here unto the Deacons cap. 1. 2. I could say somewhat also of our ordinary Fasts how much they are neglected every where and no Fast now approved of but the solemn Nay we have suffered it of late to get that ground upon us in the practise at the least that now no common businesse must begin without it Too many such as these I fear I could point out unto your Lordship did I not think that these already noted were too many A matter certainly worthy of your Lordships care and of the care of those your Lordships partners in the Hierarchie that as you suffer not these new inventions to usurp upon our Churches by violence so that they neither grow upon us by cunning or connivence CHAP. VI. 1 King James how affected to this Platform 2 He confirmes the Discipline in both Islands 3 And for what reasons 4 Sir John Peyton sent Governour into Jarzey 5 His Articles against the Ministers there 6 And the proceedings thereupon 7 The distracted estate of the Church and Ministery in that Island 8 They referre themselves unto the King 9 The Inhabitants of Jarzey petition for the English Discipline 10 A reference of both parties to the Councell 11 The restitution of the Dean 12 The Interim of Germanie what it was 13 The Interim of Jarzey 14 The exceptions of the Ministery against the Book of Common-prayer 15 The establishment of the new Canons IN this state and under this Government continued those Islands till the happy entrance of King James upon the Monarchy of England A Prince of whom the brethren conceived no small hopes as one that had continually been brought up by and amongst those of that faction and had so oft confirmed their much desired Presbyteries But when once he had set foot in England where he was sure to meet with quiet men and more obedience he quickly made them see that of his favour to that party they had made themselves too large a promise For in the conference at Hampton Court he publickly professed that howsoever he lived among Puritans and was kept for the most part as a ward under them yet ever since he was of the age of ten years old he ever disliked their opinions and as the Saviour of the world had said though he lived among them he was not of them In this conference also that so memorized Apophthegm of his Majesty No Bishop no King and anon after My Lords the Bishops faith he I may thank ye that these men the Puritans plead thus for my Supremacy Add to this that his Majesty had alwaies fostred in himself a pious purpose not only of reducing all his Realms and Dominions into one uniform order and course of discipline which thing himself avoweth in his Letters Patents unto those of Jarzey but also to establish in all the reformed Churches if possibly it might be done together with unity of Religion and uniformity of devotion For which cause he had commanded the English Liturgie to be translated into the Latine and also into most of the national Languages round about us by that and other more private means to bring them into a love and good opinion of our Government which he oftentimes acknowledged to have been approved by manifold blessings from God himself A heroick purpose and worthy of the Prince from whom it came This notwithstanding that he was enclined the other way yet upon suit made by those of these Islands he confirmed unto them their present orders by a Letter under his private Seal dated the 8. of August in the first year of his reign in England which Letters were communicated in the Synod at St. Hilaries the 18. of September 1605. the Letter written in the French Tongue but the tenor of them was as followeth James by the Grace of God King of England Scotland France and Ireland c. unto all those whom these presents shall concern greeting Whereas we our selves and the Lords of our Councell have been given to understand that it pleased God to put it into the heart of the late Queen our most dear sister to permit and allow unto the Isles of Jarzey and Guernsey parcel of our Dutchy of Normandy the use of the Government of the reformed Churches in the said Dutchy whereof they have stood possessed until our coming to this Crown for this couse we desiring to follow the pious example of our said Sister in this behalf as well for the advancement of the glory of Almighty God as for the edification of his Church do will and ordain that cur said Isles shall quietly enjoy their said liberty in the use of the Ecclesiastical Discipline there now established forbidding any one to give them any trouble or impeachment as long as they contain themselves in our obedience and attempt not any thing against the pure and sacred Word of God Given at our Palace at Hampton Court the 8. day of August Anno Dom. 1603. and of our reign in England the first Signed above James R. The reasons which moved this Prince to assent unto a form of Government which he liked not was partly an ancient rule and precept of his own viz. That Princes at their first entrance to a Grown ought not to innovate the government presently established But the principal cause indeed was desire not to discourage the Scots in their beginnings or to lay open too much of his intents at once unto them For since the year 1595. his Majesty wearied with the confusions of the Discipline in that Church established had much busied himself in restoring their antient place and power unto the Bishops He had already brought that work so forwards that the Scottish Ministers had admitted of 13 Commissioners which was the antient
the affaires of the King This Court the main pillar of the Liberty of France La Tournelle and the Judges of it The five Chambers of Enquestes severally instituted and by whom In what cause it is decisive The forme of admitting Advocates into the Courts of Parliament The Chancellour of France and his Authority The two Courts of Requests and Masters of them The vain envy of the English Clergy against the Lawyers p. 104. CHAP. IX The Kings Palace of the Louure by whom built The unsutablenesse of it The fine Gallery of the Queen Mother The long Gallery of Henry IV. His magnanimous intent to have built it into a quadrangle Henry IV. a great builder His infinite project upon the Mediterranean and the Ocean La Salle des Antiques The French not studious of Antiquities Burbon house The Tuilleries c. p. 113. La BEAUSE OR THE THIRD BOOK CHAP. I. Our Journey 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 Antient. The French Musick p. 121. CHAP. II. The Country and site of Orleans like that of Worcester The Wine of Orleans Praesidial Towns in France what they are The sale of Offices in France The fine walk and pastime of the Palle Malle The Church of St. Croix founded by Superstition and a miracle Defaced by the Hugonots Some things hated only for their name The Bishop of Orleans and his priviledge The Chappell and Pilgrims of St. Jacques The form of Masse in St Croix Câ—nâ—ing an Heathenish custome The great siege of Orleans raised by Joan the Virgin The valour of that woman that she was no witch An Elogie on her p. 131. CHAP. III. The study of the Civill Law revived in Europe The dead time of learning The Schools of Law in Orleans The oeconomie of them The Chancellour of Oxford antiently appointed by the Diocesan Their methode here and prodigality in bestowing degrees Orleans a great conflux of strangers The language there The Corporation of Germans there Their house and priviledges Dutch and Latine The difference between an Academie and an University p. 145. CHAP. IV. Orleans not an University till the comming of the Jesuites Their Colledge there by whom built The Jesuites no singers Their laudable and exact method of teaching Their policies in it Received not without great difficulty into Paris Their houses in that university Their strictnesse unto the rules of their order Much maliced by the other Priests and Fryers Why not sent into England with the Queen and of what order they were that came with her Our return to Paris p. 152. PICARDIE OR THE FOURTH BOOK CHAP. I. Our return towards England More of the Hugonots hate unto Crosses The town of Luzarch and St. Loupae The Country of Picardie and people Tho Picts of Britain not of this Countrey Mr. Lee Dignicoes Governour of Picardie The office of Constable what it is in France By whom the place supplyed in England The marble table in France and causes there handled Clermount and the Castle there The war raised up by the Princes against D' Ancre What his designes might tend to c. p. 162. CHAP. II. The fair City of Amiens and greatnesse of it The English feasted within it and the error of that action the Town how built-seated and fortified The Citadell of it thought to be impregnable Not permitted to be viewed The overmuch opennesse of the English in discovering their strength The watch and form of Government in the Town Amiens a Visdamate to whom it pertaineth What that honour is in France And how many there enjoy it c. p. 169. CHAP. III. The Church of Nostre Dame in Amiens The principall Churches in most Cities called by her name More honour performed to her then to her Saviour The surpassing beauty of this Church on the outside The front of it King Henry the sevenths Chappel at Westminster The curiousnesse of this Church within By what means it became to be so The sumptuous masking closets in it The excellency of perspective works Indulgences by whom first founded The estate of the Bishoprick p. 175. CHAP. IV. Our Journey down the Some and Company The Town and Castle of Piquigni for what famous Comines censure of the English in matter of Prophecies A farewell to the Church of Amiens The Town and Castle of Pont D' Armie Abbeville how seated and the Garrison there No Governour in it but the Major or Provost The Authors imprudent curiosity and the curtesie of the Provost to him The French Post-horses how base and tyred My preferment to the Trunk-horse The horse of Philip de Comines The Town and strength of Monstreuille The importance of these three Towns to the French border c. p. 183. CHAP. V. The County of Boulonnois and Town of Boulogne by whom Enfranchized The present of Salt butter Boulogne divided into two Towns Procession in the lower Town to divert the Plague The forme of it Procession and the Letany by whom brought into the Church The high Town Garrisoned The old man of Boulogne and the desperate visit which the Author bestowed upon him The neglect of the English in leaving open the Havens The fraternity De la Charite and inconveniency of it The costly Journey of Henry VIII to Boulogne Sir Walt. Raleghs censure of that Prince condemned The discourtesie of Charles V. towards our Edward VI. The defence of the house of Burgundy how chargeable to the Kings of England Boulogne yeilded back to the French and on what conditions The curtesie and cunning of my Host of Bovillow p. 192. FRANCE GENERAL OR THE FIFTH BOOK Describing the Government of the Kingdom generally in reference to the Court the Church and the Civill State CHAP. I. A transition to the Government of France in generall The person age and marriage of King Lewis XIII Conjecturall reasons of his being issuelesse Iaqueline Countesse of Holland kept from issue by the house of Burgundy The Kings Sisters all marryed and his alliances by them His naturall Brethren and their preferments His lawfull Brother The title of Monsieur in France Monsieur as yet unmarried not like to marry Montpensiers daughter That Lady a fit wife for the Earl of Soissons The difference between him and the Prince of Conde for the Crown in case the line of Navarre fail How the Lords stand affected in the cause Whether a child may be born in the 11 month King Henry IV. a great lover of fair Ladies Monsieur Barradas the Kings favorite his birth and offices The omniregency of the Queen Mother and the Cardinall of Richileiu The Queen Mother a wise
a handsome ruffe about her neck a vail of fine lawne hanging down her back and to shew that she was the Queen of heaven a crown upon her head in her left arme she holds her son in his side-coat a black hat and a golden hatband A jolly plump Ladie she seemeth to be of a flaxen hair a ruddy lip and a chearefull complexion T were well the Painters would agree about limming of her otherwise we are likely to have almost as many Ladies as Churches At Nostre dame in Paris she is taught us to be browne and seemeth somewhat inclining to melancholie I speak not of her different habit for I envie not her changes of apparell Only I could not but observe how those of St. Sepulchres Church en la Fue St. Dennis have placed her on the top of their Skreen in a Coape as if she had taken upon her the zeal of Abraham and were going to make a bloudy sacrifice of her Son They of Nostre dame in Amiens have erected her Statua all in gold with her Son also of the same mettle in her armes casting beams of gold round about her as the Sun is painted in its full glory strange Idolatries On the contrary in the Parish Church of Tury in La Beausse she is to be seen in a plain petticoat of red and her other garments correspondent In my minde this holdeth most proportion to her estate and will best serve to free their irreligion from absurdity If they will worship her as a nurse with her childe in her arme or at her brest let them array her in such apparell as might beseem a Carpenters wife such as she may be supposed to have worn before the world had taken notice that she was the mother of her Saviour If they needs must have her in her estate of glory as at Amiens or of honour being now publickly acknowledged to be the blessedest among women as at Paris let them disburden her of her child To clap them thus together is a folly equally worthy of scorne and laughter Certainly had she but so much liberty as to make choice of her own clothes I doubt not but she would observe a greater decorum And therefore I commend the Capuchins of Boulogne who in a little side-chappell consecrated unto her have placed only a handsome fair looking-glasse upon her Altar the best ornament of a female closet why they placed it there I cannot say only I conceive it was that she might there see how to dresse her self This Church is said to have been built I should rather think repaired by Raoul or Rollo the first Duke of Normandy since it hath been much beautifyed by the English when they were Lords of this Province It is the seat of an Archbishop a Dean and fifty Canons The Archbishop was instituted by the authority of Constantine the Great during the sitting of the Councell of Arles Anidian who was there present being consecrated the first Archbishop The Bishops of Sees Aurenches Constance Bayeux Lysieux and Eureux were appointed for his Diocesans The now Archbishop is said to be an able Scholar and a sound Statesman his name I enquired not The revenues of his Chair are said to be 10000 crowns more they would amount to were the Countrey any way fruitfull of Vines out of which the other Prelates of France draw no small part of their intrada The Parliament of this Countrey was established here by Lewis XII who also built that fair Palace wherein Justice is administred anno 1501. At that time he divided Normandy into seven Lathes Rapes or Bailiwicks viz. Roven Caux Constentin Caen Eureux Gisors and Alençon This Court hath Supreme power to enquire into and give sentence of all causes within the limits of Normandy It receiveth appeals from the inferior Courts of the Dutchie unto it but admitteth none from it Here is also Cour des Eslâ—ux a Court of the generall Commissioners also for Taxes and La Chambre des Aides instituted by Charles VII for the receiving of his Subsidies Gabels Imposts c. The house of Parliament is in form quadrangular a very greatefull and delectable building that of Paris is but a Chaos or a Babell to it In the great hall into which you ascend by some 30 steppes or upwards are the seats and desks of the Procurators every ones name written in Capital letters over his head These Procurators are like our Atturnies to prepare causes and make them ready for the Advocates In this Hall do suitors use either to attend on or to walke up and down and confer with their pleaders Within this hall is the great Chamber the tribunall and seat of justice both in causes Criminall and Civill At domus interior regali splendida luxu Instruitur As Virgill of Queen Didoes dining roome A Camber so gallantly and richly built that I must needs confesse it far surpasseth all the rooms that ever I saw in my life The Palace of the Louure hath nothing in it comparable The seeling all inlaid with gold and yet did the workmanship exceed the matter This Court consisteth of two Presidents twenty Counsellors or Assistants and as many Advocates as the Court will admit of The prime President is termed Ner de Riz by birth a Norman upon the Bench and in all places of his Court he taketh the prcedencie of the Duke of Longueville when there is a convention of the three Estates summoned the Duke hath the priority We said even now that from the sentence of this Court there lay no appeal but this must be recanted and it is no shame to do it St. Austin hath written his Retractations so also hath Bellarmine Once in the year there is an appeal admitted but that for one man only and on this occasion There was a poysonous Dragon not far from Roven which had done much harme to the Countrey and City Many wayes had been tryed to destroy him but none prospered at last Romain afterwards made a Saint then Archbishop of the Town accompanied with a theef and a murderer whose lives had been forfeited to a sentence undertaketh the enterprise upon sight of the Dragon the theef stole away the murderer goeth on and seeth that holy man vanquish the Serpent armed only with a Stole it is a neck habit sanctifyed by his Holinesse of Rome and made much after the manner of a tippet with this Stole tied about the neck of the Dragon doth the murderer lead him prisoner to Roven To make short work the name of God is praised the Bishop magnifyed the murderer pardoned and the Dragon burned This accident if the story be not Apocrypha is said to have hapned on holy Thursday Audoin or Owen successor unto St. Romain in memory of this marvellous act obtained of King Dagobert the first he began his reign anno 632 that from that time forwards the Chapitre of the Cathedrall Church should every Ascension day have the faculty of delivering any malefactor whom the
One relique there is of which this use cannot possibly be made and what do you think that should be but the Lanthorn which Judas used when he went to apprehend his Master a prety one it is I confesse richly beset with studdes of Crystall through which all the light cometh the main of it being of a substance not transparent Had it been shewed me within the first century of years after the passion I might perhaps have been fooled into a belief for I am confident it can be no older Being as it is I will acknowledge it to be a Lanthorn though it belonged not to Judas From the reliques of Martyrs proceed we to those of Kings and amongest those there is nothing which will long detain an English man He that hath seen the tombs at Westminster will think these to be but trifles if he consider the workmanship or the riches and the magnificence The chief of those many mean ones which are there are those of Henry II. and Katharine de Medices his wife in a little Chappell of their own building both in their full proportion and in their royall habiliments exceeding stately There is also a neat tomb of the same Henry built all of brasse and supported by four brasse pillars his Statua of the same mettle placed on the top of it and composed as if at his prayers The rest are more in tale then weight But the chief beauties of this Church are in the treasurie which it was not my happinesse to see As I am informed the most remarkable things in it are these The Swords of Joan the Virgin Charles the great Rowland his cousen and that of Henry IV. when he was Crowned His Boots Crown and Scepter as those also of his son Lewis now reigning A crosse three foot high made of pure gold A Crown Scepter and golden ball given by Pope Adrian to Carolus magnus A golden Crown of larger sise bedecked with Adamants and other pretious stones given by Charles Martell after his victories over the Saracens A very fair Chalice all of gold in which St. Denis is reported to have consecrated the Sacramentall wine The others of lesser note I purposely omit for having not seen them I am loath to go any further upon trust And so I leave St. Denis a Church so richly furnished that had I seen all the rarities and glories of it that only days content had deserved our journey sed haec infelici nimia Not to continue this discourse any longer by way of journall or gesta dierum Few dayes after we had wearied our selves with the sight of Paris we went to see some of their Majesties houses in the Countrey And here we passed by Madrit so called of the King of Spains house at Madrit after the forme of which it is built The founder of it was Francis the first who being taken Prisoner at the battail of Pavie ann dom 1525. and thence carryed into Spain had no lesse then a twelve months time to draw the platforme A fine Countrey house it seemed to be but our journey lay beyond it One league beyond it lay Ruall a small Town belonging to the Abbey of St. Denis In a corner of this Town the Queen Mother hath a fine summer house abundantly adorned with retired walks and a most curious variety of water-works for besides the formes of divers glasses pillars and Geometricall figures all framed by the water there were birds of sundry sorts so artificially made that they both deceived the eye by their motion and the ear by their melodie Somewhat higher in the middest of a most delicious Garden are two Fountains of admirable workmanship In the first the portraitures of Cerberus the Boar of Calydon the Nemean Lyon and in the navell of it Hercules killing Hydra In the other only a Crocodile full of wild and unruly tricks and sending from his throat musick not much different from Organs Had your eyes been shut you would have thought your self in some Cathedrall Church this melody of the Crocodile and that other of the birds so exactly counterfeiting the harmonie of a well ordered Quire And now we are come into the Grove a place so full of retired walks so sweetly and delectâ—bly contrived that they would even entice a man to melancholy because in them even melancholy would prove delightfull The trees so interchangeably folded one within the other that they were at once a shelter against winde and sun yet not so sullenly close but that they afforded the eye an excellent Lordship over the Vines and verdure of the earth imprisoned within them it seemed a Grove an Orchard and a Vineyard so variously interwoven and mixt together as if it had been the purpose of the Artist to make a man fall in love with confusion In the middle of this Wildernesse was feated the house environed round about with a Moat of running water The house pretty and therefore little built rather for a banquet then a feast It was built and enriched with this variety of pleasures by Mr. de Ponte Taylor to King Henry IV. and was no question the best garment that ever he cut out in his life Dying he gave it to Mr. Landerboyne once his servant and now his son by adoption of whom the Queen Mother taking a liking to it bought it giving him in exchange an office in the Treasury worth 400000 crowns to be sold Two leagues from Ruall is the Kings house of St. Germain â—n Olay a house seated on the top of a hill just like Windsore The Town of St. Germain lyeth all about it the river Seine of the same breadth as the Thames is at the place mentioned runneth below it and the house by reason of the site having a large command upon the Country round about it The Town is poor and hath nothing in it remarkable but the name which it took from St. Germain Bishop of Auxerre who together with St. Lupus Bishop of Tropes sailed into Britain to root out Pelagianism The Castle or seat Royall is divided into two parts the old and the new the old which is next unto the Town is built of Bricks and for forme it is triangular founded it was at the first by Charles V. since strengthned and beautified by the English when it was in their possession Francis I. added to it the upper story and the battlements and in memoriam facti hath left a Capitall F upon every of the Chimnies The new house distant from the old about a furlong and to which you descend by a handsome green Court was built by Henry IV. It consisteth of three severall parts all joyned together the two outermost quadrangular that in the middle almost round and in the fashion of a Jewish Synagogue Here we saw the Volatory full of sundry forain birds and in one of the lower rooms great store of outlandish conies but these were accessories The principall was the majesty of the house which is indeed worth the observation The
did it reflect also on the authority of the Pope over other Christian Kings by the bie 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 University it hath for its chief directour a Rector with a Chancellor four Procurators or Proctors and as many others whom they call Les 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 publick 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 Picarde 3. The German And 4 The French Under the two first are comprehended the students of those several Provinces under the third the Students of all forein 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 Germans That of the French is again subdivided into two parts that which is immediately within the Diocese of Paris and that which containeth the rest of Gallia These four Nations for notwithstanding the subdivision above mentioned the French is reckoned but as one choose yearly four Proctors or Procurators so called quia negotia nationis suae procurant They choose four other officers whom they call les Intrantes 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 Diocese of Paris and the following year of the rest of France the reason why that Nation is subdivided These four Intrantes thus named have amongst them the election of the Rector who is their supreme Magistrate The present Rector is named Mr. Tarrienus of the Colledge of Harcourte a Master of the Arts for a Doctor is not capable of the Office The honour lasteth only three moneths which time expired the Intrantes proceed to a new election though oftentimes it hapneth that the same man hath the lease renued Within the confines of the University he taketh place next after the Princes of the bloud and at the publique exercises of learning before the Cardinals otherwise he giveth them the precedency But to Bishops or Archbishops he will not grant it upon any occasion It was not two moneths before my being there that there hapned a shrewd controversie about it For their King had then summoned an assembly of 25. 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 praesules Here the Archbishop 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 compasse 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 then the rest desired that the question might for that time be layed 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 yeelded and so the contention at that time was ended But salus academiae non vertitur in istis It were more for the honour and profit of the University if the Rector would leave off to be so mindefull of his place and look a little to his office For certainly never the eye and utmost diligence of a Magistrate was wanting more and yet more necessary then in this place Penelopes suitors never behaved themselves so insolently in the house of Ulysses as the Academicks here do in the houses and streets of Paris Nos numeri sumus fruges consumere nati Sponsi Penelopes nebolones Alcinoique not so becoming the mouth of any as of those When you hear of their behaviour you would think you were in Turkie and that these men were the Janizaries For an Angel given amongst them to drink they will arrest whom you shall appoint them double the money and they shall break open his house and ravish him into the Gaole I have not heard that they can be hired to a murder though nothing be more common amongst them then killing except it be stealing Witness those many carkasses which are found dead in the morning whom a desire to secure themselves and make resistance to their pillages hath only made earth again Nay which is most horrible they have regulated their villanous practises into a Common-wealth and have their captains and other officers who command them in their night-walks and dispose of their purchases To be a Gipsie and a Scholar of Paris are almost Synonyma One of their Captains had in one week for no lonâ—er would the gallowes let him enjoy his honour stolne no fewer then 80 cloaks Num fuit Autolyci tam piceata manus For these thefts being apprehended he was adjudged to the wheel but because the Judges were informed that during the time of his reign he had kept the hands of himself and his company unpolluted with bloud he had the favour to be hanged In a word this ungoverned rable whom to call scholars were to profane that title omit no outrages or turbulent misdemeanors which possibly can be or were ever known to be committed in place which consisteth meerly of priviledge and nothing of statute I would heartily wish that those who are so ill conceited of their own two Universities of Oxford and Cambridge and accuse them of dissoluteness in their behaviour would either spend some time in the Schools beyond seas or enquire what newes abroad of those which have seen them Then would they doubtless see their own errors and correct them Then would they admire the regularity and civility of those places which before they condemned of debauchednesse Then would they esteem those places as the seminary of modesty and vertue which they now account as the nurseries only of an impudent rudeness Such an opinion I am sure some of the Aristarchi of these daies have lodged in their breasts concerning the misgovernment of our Athens Perhaps a kinsman of theirs hath played the unthrist equally of his time and money hence their malice to it and their invectives against it Thus of old Pallas exurere classem Argivam atque ipsos potuit submergere ponto Unius ob culpam furias Aiacis Oïlei An injustice
more unpardonable then the greatest sin of the Universities But I wrong a good cause with an unnecessary patronage Yet such is the peccant humour of some that they know not how to expiate the follies of one but with the calumnie and dispraise of all An unmanly weaknesse and yet many possessed with it I know it unpossible that in a place of youth and liberty some should not give occasion of offence The Ark wherein there were eight persons only was not without one Cham and of the twelve which Christ had chosen one was a Devill It were then above a miracle if amongst so full a cohort of young souldiers none should forsake the Ensign of his Generall he notwithstanding that should give the imputation of cowardize to the whole army cannot but be accounted malitious or peevish But let all such as have evill will at Sion live unregarded and die unremembred for want of some Scholar to write their Epitaph Certainly a man not wedded to envie and a spitefull vexation of spirit upon a due examination of the civility of our Lycaea and a comparison of them with those abroad cannot but say and that justly Non habent Academiae Anglicanae pares nisi seipsas The principal cause of the rudeness and disorders in Paris have been chiefly occasioned by the great priviledges wherewith the Kings of France intended the furtherance and security of learning Having thus let them get the bridle in their own hands no marvel if they grow sick with an uncontrolled licenciousnesse Of these priviledges some are that no Scholars goods can be seized upon for the payment of his debts that none of them should be liable to any taxes or impositions a royall immunity to such as are acquainted with France that they might carry and recarry their utensils without the least molestation that they should have the Provost of Paris to be the keeper and defender of their liberties who is therefore stiled Le conservateur des privileges royaux de l' Universite de Paris c. One greater priviledge they have yet then all these which is their soon taking of degrees Two years seeth them Novices in the Arts and Masters of them So that enjoying by their degrees an absolute freedome before the follies and violences of youth are broke in them they become so unruly and insolent as I have told you These degrees are conferred on them by the Chancellor who seldome examineth further of them then his sees Those payed he presenteth them to the Rector and giveth them their Letters Patents sealed with the University Seal which is the main part of the creation He also setteth the Seal to the Authenticall Letters for so they term them of such whom the Sorbonnists have passed for Doctors The present Chancellor is named Petrus de Pierre vive Doctor of Divinity and Canon of the Church of Nostre Dame as also are all they which enjoy that office He is chosen by the Bishop of Paris and taketh place of any under that dignity But of this ill-managed University enough if not too much CHAP. VII The City of Paris seated in the place of old Lutetia The Bridges which joyn it to the Town and University King Henry's Statua Alexander's injurious policy The Church and revenues of Nostre dame The Holy-water there The original making and vertue of it The Lamp before the Altar The heathenishnesse of both customes Paris best seen from the top of this Church the great Bell there never rung but in time of Thunder the baptizing of Bels the grand Hospital and decency of it The place Daulphin The holy Chappel and Reliques there What the Ancients thought of Reliques The Exchange The little Chastelet A transition to the Parliament THE Isle of Paris commonly called L'Isle du Palais seated between the University and the Town is that part of the whole which is called La Cite the City the epitome and abstract of all France It is the sweetest and best ordered part of all Paris and certainly if Paris may be thought to be the eye of the Realm this Island may be equally judged to be the apple of that eye It is by much the lesser part and by as much the richer by as much the decenter and affordeth more variety of objects then both the other It containeth an equall number of Parish Churches with the Town and double the number of the University For it hath in it 13 Churches parochial viz. la Magdalene 2 St. Geniveue des ardents 3 St. Christopher 4 St. Pierre aux Boeufs 5 St. Marine 6 St. Lander 7 St. Symphorian 8 St. Denis de la charite 9 St. Bartellemie 10 St. Pierâ—â— des Assis 11 St. Croix 12 St. Marciall 13 St. German de vieux Seated it is in the middle of the Seine and in that place where stood the old Lutetia Labienus cum quatuor legionibus saith Jul. Caesar 70 Comment Lutetiam proficiscitur id est opidum Parisiorum positum in medio fluminis Sequanae It is joyned to the main land and the other parts of this French Metropolis by six Bridges two of wood and four of stone the stone Bridges are 1 Le petit pont a Bridge which certainly deserveth that name 2 Le pont de Nostre dame which is all covered with two goodly ranks of houses and those adorned with portly and antick imagery 3 Le pont St. Michell so called because it leadeth towards the Gate of St. Michell hath also on each side a beautifull row of houses all of the same fashion so exactly that but by their severall doors you would scarce think them to be several houses they are all new as being built in the reign of this present King whose armes is engraven over every door of them The fourth and largest Bridge is that which standeth at the end of the Isle next the Louure and covereth the waters now united again into one stream It was begun to be built by Katharine of Medices the Queen-Mother anno 1578. her Son King Henry the 3. laying the first stone of it The finishing of it was reserved unto Henry 4. who as soon as he had setled his affairs in this Town presently set the workmen about it In the end of it where it joyneth to the Town there is a water-house which by artificiall engines forceth up waters from a fresh spring rising from under the river done at the charge of this King also In the midst of it is the Statua of the said Henry 4. all in brasse mounted on his barbed Steed of the same mettle They are both of them very unproportionable unto those which they represent and would shew them big enough were they placed on the top of Nostre dame Church What minded King Lewis to make his father of so gigantive a stature I cannot tell Alexander at his return from his Indian expedition scattered Armours Swords and Horsebits far bigger then were serviceable to make future ages admire his greatnesse Yet some have hence collected that
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
do but exasperate that power which they cannot controul and betray themselves to much envie and discontentednesse a disease whose cure is more in my wishes then my hopes CHAP. IX The Kings Palace of the Louure by whom built The unsutablenesse of it The fine Gallery of the Queen Mother The long Gallery of Henry IV. His magnanimous intent to have built it into a quadrangle Henry IV. a great builder His infinite project upon the Mediterranean and the Ocean La Salle des Antiques The French not studious of Antiquities Burbon house The Tuilleries c. WE have discharged the King of one Palace and must follow him to the other where we shall finde his residence It is seated at the West side of the Town or Ville of Paris hard by Portenufue and also by the new bridge A house of great fame and which the Kings of France have long kept their Court in It was first built by Philip Augustus anno 1214. and by him intended for a Castle it first serving to imprison the more potent of the Nobles and to lay up the Kings treasury For that cause it was well moated strengthned with wals and drawbridges very serviceable in those times It had the name of Louure quasi L'oeuure or the work the building by way of excellency An etymologie which draweth nigher to the ear then the understanding or the eye and yet the French writers would make it a miracle Du Chesne calleth it Superbe bastiment qui n'a son esgal en toute la Christientè and you shall hear it called in an other place Bestiment qui passe aujourd hui en excellence et en grandeur tous les autres Brave elogies if all were gold that glistered It hath now given up its charge of money and great prisoners to the Bastile and at this time serveth only to imprison the Court. In my life I never saw any thing more abused by a good report or that more belyeth the rumors that go of it The ordinary talk of vulgar travellers and the big words of the French had made me expect at the least some prodigie of architecture some such Majesticall house as the Sunne Don Phoebus is said to have dwelt in in Ovid. Regia Solis erat sublimibus alta columnis Claramicante auro flamasquè imitante pyropo Cujus ebur nitidum c. Indeed I thought no fiction in Poetry had been able to have paralleld it and made no doubt but it would have put me into such a passion as to have cryed out with the young Gallant in the Comedy when he had seen his sweet-heart Hei mihi qualis erat talis erat qualem nunquam vidi But I was much deceived in that hope and could finde nothing in it to admire much lesse to envie The Fable of the Mountaine which was with childe and brought forth a mouse is questionlesse a fable this house and the large fame it hath in the world is the morall of it Never was there an house more unsutable to it self in the particular examination of parts nor more unsutable to the character and esteem of it in the generall Survey of the whole You enter into it over two draw bridges and through three gates ruinous enough and abundantly unsightly In the Quadrangle you meet with three severall fashions of building of three severall ages and they so unhappily joyned one to the other that one would half believe they had been clapped together by an earthquake The South and West parts of it are new and indeed Princelike being the work of Francis the first and his son Henry Had it been all cast into the same mould I perswade my self that it would be very gracious and lovely The other two are of an ancient work and so contemprible that they disgrace the rest and of these I suppose the one fide to be at the least 100 years older then his partner such is it without As for the inside it is far more gracefull and would be pleasing at the entrance were the Guard-chamber reformed Some Hugonot architect which were not in love with the errours of Antiquity might make a pretty room of it a catholick Carpenter would never get credit by it for whereas the provident thrift of our forefathers intended it for the house would else be too narrow for the Kings retinue both for a room of safety and of pleasure both for bill-men and dancers and for that cause made up some six ranks of seats on each side that sparingnesse in the more curious eyes of this time is little Kinglike Countrey wenches might with indifferent stomach abuse a good Galliard in it or it might perhaps serve with a stage at one end to entertain the Parisians at a play or with a partition in the middle it might be divided into two prety plausible Cockpits but to be employed in the nature it now is either to solace the King and Lords in a dance or to give any forain Ambassador his welcome in a Maske is little sutable with the Majesty of a King of France The Chambers of it are well built but ill furnished the hangings of them being somewhat below a meannesse and yet of these there is no small scarcity For as it is said of the Gymnosophists of India that Una Domus mansioni sufficit sepulturae so may we of this Prince the same Chamber serveth for to lodge him to feed him and also to confer and discourse with his Nobility But like enough it is that this want may proceed from the severall Courts of the King the Monsieur the Queen Mother and the Qeen Regoant being all kept within it Proceed we now to the two Galleries whereof the first is that of the Queen Mother as being beautified and adorned exceedingly by Katbarine de Medices mother to Henry III. and Charles IX It containeth the pictures of all the Kings of France and the most loved of their Queens since the time of St. Lewis They stand each King opposite to his Queen she being that of his wives which either brought him most estate or his fuccessors The tables are all of a just length very fair and according to my little acquaintance with the Painter of a most excellent workmanship and which addeth much grace to it they are in a manner a perfect History of the State and Court of France in their severall times For under each of the Kings pictures they have drawn the portraitures of most of those Lords whom valor and courage in the field enobled beyond their births Under each of the Queens the lively shapes of the most principall Ladies whose beautie and virtue had honored the Court. A dainty invention and happily expressed At the further end of it standeth the last King and the present Queen Mother who fill up the whole room The succeeding Princes if they mean to live in their pictures must either build new places for them or else make use of the long Gallery built by Henry IV.
Corne and other grain with which it abundantly furnisheth Paris and hath in it more store of pasture and medow grounds then I else saw in any part of France In Vines only it is defective and that as it is thought more by the want of industry in the people then any inhability in the soil For indeed they are a people that will not labour more then they needs must standing much upon their state and distance and in the carriage of their bodies favouring a little of the Spaniard whence Picardâ—er to play the Picard is usually said of those who are lofty in their looks or gluttonous at their tables this last being also one of the symptomes of a Picard The Governor of this Province is the Duke of Les Diguieres into which office he succeeded Mr. Luynes as also he did into that of the Constable Two preferments which he purchased at a deer rate having sold or abandoned that religion to-compasse them which he had prosessed more then 60 years together an apostasie most unworthy of the man who having for so many years supported the cause of religion hath now forsaken it and thereby made himself gilty of the cowardise of M. Antonius Qui cum in desertores saevire debuerat desertor sui exertilus factus est But I fear an heavier censure waiteth upon him the crown of immortality not being promised to all those which run but to those only which hold out till the end For the present indeed he hath augmented his honours by this office which is the principall of all France He hath place and command before and over all the Peers and Princes of the bloud and at the Coronation of the French Kings ministreth the oath when he entreth a City in state or upon the â—redition of it he goeth before with the Sword naked and when the King sitteth in an assembly of the three estates he is placed at the Kings right hand He hath command over all his Majesties forces and he that killeth him is guilty of high treason He sitteth also as chief Judge at the Table of marble upon all suits actions persons and complaints whatsoever concerning the wars This Table de Marbre was wont to be continually in the great hall of the Palais at Paris from whence upon the burnning of that hall it was removed to the Louure At this table doth the Admirall of France hold his Sessions to judge of trafick prizes letters of marts piracy and businesse of the like nature At this table judgeth also Le grand Maistre des eaues et forrests we may call him the Justice in Eire of all his Majesties Forrests and waters The actions here handled are Thefts and abuses committed in the Kings Forrests Rivers Parks Fish-ponds and the like In the absence of the grand Maistre the power of sentence resteth in the Les grand Maistres Enquesteurs et generaux reformateurs who have under their command no fewer then 300 subordinate officers Here also sit the Marshals of France which are ten in number sometimes in their own power and sometimes as Assistants to the Constable under whose direction they are With us in England the Marshalship is more entire as that which besides its own jurisdiction hath now incorporated into it self most of the authority antiently belonging to the Constables which office ended in the death of Edward Lord Duke of Buckingham the last hereditary and proprietary Constable of England This office of Constable to note unto you by the way so much was first instituted by Lewis the grosse who began his reign anno 1110. and conferred on Mr. Les Diguieres on the 24 of July 1622. in the Cathedrall Church of Grenoble where he first heard Masse and where he was installed Knight of both Orders And so I leave the Constable to take a view of his Province a man at this time beloved of neither parties hated by the Protestants as an Apostata and suspected by the Papists not to be entire To proceed July the 28. we came unto Clermont the first Town of any note that we met with in Picardie a prety neat Town and finely seated on the rising of an hill For the defence of it it hath on the upper side of it an indifferent large Castle and such which were the situation of it somewhat helped by the strength of Art might be brought to do good service Towards the Town it is of an easie accesse to the fieldwards more difficult as being built on the perpendicular fall of a rock In the year 1615 it was made good by Mr. Harancourt with a Regiment of eight Companies who kept it in the name of the Prince of Conde and the rest of that confederacy but it held not long for at the Marshall D' Ancres coming before it with his Army and Artillery it was presently yeelded This war which was the second civill war which had happened in the reign of King Lewis was undertaken by the Princes chiefly to thwart the designes of the Queen mother and crush the powerfulnesse of her grand favourite the Marshall The pretence as in such cases it commonly is was the good of the Common-wealth the occasion the crosse marriages then consummated by the Marshall between the Kings of France and Spain for by those marriages they seemed to fear the augmentation of the Spaniards greatnesse the alienation of the affections of their antient allies and by consequence the ruine of the French Empire But it was not the fate of D' Anire as yet to persh Two years more of command and insolencies his destinies allow'd him and then he tumbled This opportunity of his death ending the third civill war each of which his faulty greatnesse had occasioned What the ambition of his designes did tend to I dare not absolutely determine though like enough it is that they aimed further then at a private or a personall potencie for having under the favour and countenance of the Queen mother made himself master of the Kings ear and of his Councell he made a shift to get into his own hands an authority almost as unlimited as that of the old Mayre of the Palace For he had suppressed the liberty of the generall estates and of the soveraign Courts removed all the officers and Counsellors of the last King ravished one of the Presidents of the great Chamber by name Mr. le Jay out of the Parliament into the prison and planted Garrisons of his own in most of the good Towns of Normandy of which Province he was Governour Add to this that he had caused the Prince of Conde being acknowledged the first Prince of the bloud to be imprisoned in the Bastile and had searched into the continuance of the lives of the King and his brother by the help of Sorcery and Witchcraft Besides he was suspected to have had secret intelligence with some forain Princes ill willers to the State and had disgraced some and neglected others of the Kings old confederates Certainly
Bishop of it was one Firminus a native of Pampelune in the Kingdom of Navarre who suffered Martyrdome under the Emperour Diocletian To him succeeded another Firminus to whom the first foundation of the Church is attributed The present Diocesan is named Franciscus Faber his intrade about 6000 crownes a year Chanoins there are in the Church to the number of forty of whose revenue I could not learn any thing neither could I be so happy as to see the head of St. John Baptist whis is said to be here entire though it cannot be denied that a piece of it is in the holy Chappell at Paris besides those fractions of it which are in other places CHAP. IV. Our Journey down the Some and Company The Town and Castle of Piquigni for what famous Comines censure of the English in matter of Prophecies A farewell to the Church of Amiens The Town and Castle of Pont D' Armie Abbeville how seated and the Garrison there No Governour in it but the Maior or Provost The Authors imprudent curiosity and the curtesie of the Provost to him The French Post-horses how base and tired My preferment to the Trunke-horse The horse of Philip de Comines The Town and strength of Monstreville The importance of these three Towns to the French border c. JUly the 30. we took boat to go down to Abbeville by the river of Some a river of no great breadth but deep and full the boat which carryed us was much of the making of those Lighters which live upon the Thames but that is was made more wiâ—ldie and fit for speed There were in it of us in all to the number of 30 persons or thereabouts people of all conditions and such with whom a man of any humor might have found a companion Under the tilt we espied a bevie of Lasses mixt with some young Gentlemen To them we applyed our selves and they taking a delight to hear our broken French made much of our company for in that little time of our abode there we had learned only so much of the French as a little child after a years practise hath of his mothers tongue Linguis dimidiata adhuc verba tentantibus loquela ipso offensantis linguae fragmine dulciori The Gentlewomen next those of Orleans were the handsomest that I had seen in France very pleasant and affable one of them being she which put my Religion to the touchstone of kissing the crosse of her beads Thus associated we passed merrily down the streame though slowly the delight which our language gave the companie and the content which their liberal humanity afforded to us beguiling the tediousnesse of the way The first thing we met with observable was the Town and Castle of Piquigni The Town poor and beggerly and so unlikely to have named the Province as Mercator would have it besides the disproportion and dissimilitude of the names The Castle situate on the top of the hill is now a place of more pleasure then strength as having command over an open and goodly Countrey which lyeth below it It belongeth as we have said to the Vid 〈…〉 te of Amiens and so doth the Town also This Town is famous among the French for a Tradition and a truth the Tradition is of a famous defeat given unto the English near unto it but in whose reign and under whose conduct they could not tell us Being thus routed they fled to this Town into which their enemies followed with them intending to put them all to the sword but at last their fury being allaied they proposed that mercy to them which those of G 〈…〉 ad did unto those of Ephraim in the Scriptures life and liberty being promised to all them which could pronounce this word Piquigni It seemeth it was not in those dayes a word possible for an English mouth for the English saying all of them Pequenie in stead of Piquigni were all of them put to the sword thus far the Tradition The Truth of story by which this Town is famous in the writers of both Nations is an enterview here given betwixt our Edward IV. and their Lewis XI upon the concluding of their nine years truce A circumstance of no great moment of it self had not Philip de Comines 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 Piquigni an honourable peace should be concluded between the two Kingdoms on this ground which himself also is the only man that relateth he hath built two observations the one I have not the originall by me That the English men are never unfurnished with Prophesies the other That they ground every thing they speak upon Prophesies How far those times were guilty of that humor I cannot say though sure I am that we are not the only men that were so affected Paulus Jovius in some place of his Histories I remember not the particular hath vindicated that quarrell for us and fastned the same imputation on the French So true is that of the Tragedian Quod quisque fecit patitur authorem scelus repetit And now being past Piquigni 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 bed-rols boast an equall name Let then the barbarous Egyptians cease So to extoll their huge Pyramides Let them grow silent of their Pharus and Conceale the other triumph of their Land And let the Carians henceforth leave to raise Their Mausolaea with such endlesse praise This Church alone doth the 〈…〉 much excell As they the lowest Cottages where do dwell The least of men as they those urnes which keep The s 〈…〉 st ashes which are laid to sleep Nor be thou vext thou glorious Queen of night Nor let a cloud of darknesse mesk thy light That renewnd Temple which the Greeks did call The worlds seventh wonder and the fairest of all That pile so famous that the world did see Two only great and high thy same and thee Is neither burnt and perisht Ephesus Survives the follies of Erostratus Only 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 nor altred save in place Cast thy beams on it and t will soon be prov'd Thy Temple was not ruin'd but remov'd Nor are thy rites so chang'd but thou'lt aver This Christian is thy old Idolater But oh good God! how long shall thy decree Permit this Temple to Idolatrie How long shall they profane this Church and make Those sacred wals 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
to redeem him To which he answered that we had carryed our selves like Gentlemen which gave him no distrust of a reall payment that he would take if we pleased a Bill of our hands for the money to be paid in Dover and desired that we would give him leave to send over a servant in our Boat with a basket of poultery who should receive the money of us and give back our Bond. This being agreed upon the next morning we took boat for England the Mariners knowing nothing else but that the servant went over only to sell his Poultery that being an opportunity frequently indulged by them unto those of the Town though we knew well enough he went on another errand and as we could not but commend my Host for his courtesie and his care taken of our credit so we had reason to esteem our selves in a kinde of custody in that he would not let us stir without a Keeper Nor did my Host lose any thing by his kindnesse to us For we not only paid him honestly all his full demands but bestowed a reward upon his servant and sent a present of Gloves and Knives commodities much prized in France to his Wife and Daughters that he might see we knew as well how to require as receive a curtesie Which said I must step back into France again that having taken a brief view already of the Principall Provinces I may render some accompt of the Government also in reference to the Courts the Church and the Civill State The End of the Fourth Book A SURVEY OF THE STATE of FRANCE FRANCE GENERAL OR THE FIFTH BOOK Describing the Government of the Kingdom generally in reference to the Court the Church and the Civill Sate CHAP. I. A transition to the Government of France in generall The person age and marriage of King Lewis XIII Conjecturall reasons of his being issuelesse â—aqueline Countesse of Holland kept from issue by the house of Burgundy The Kings Sisters all married and his alliances by them His naturall Brethren and their preferments His lawfull brother The title of Monseiur in France Monseiur as yet unmarried not like to marry Montpensiers daughter That Lady a fit wife for the Earl of Soissons The difference between him and the Prince of Conde for the Crown in case the line of Navarre fail How the Lords stand affected in the cause Whether a child may be born in the 11 moneth King Henry IV. a great lover of fair Ladies Monseiur Barradas the Kings favorite his birth and offices The omniregency of the Queen Mother and the Cardinall of Richileiu The Queen mother a wise and prudent woman HAving thus taken a survey of these four Provinces which we may call the Abstract and Epitome of the Realm of France and having seen in them the temper humors and conditions of the people of it We will next take a generall view of the Governors and Government thereof with reference to the Court the Church and the Civill State First for the Court we must in reason in the first place begin with the person of the King without whose influence and presence the Court is but a dead â—arkasse void of life and Majesty For person he is of the middle stature and rather well proportioned then large his face knoweth little yet of a beard but that which is black and swarty his complexion also much of the same hew carrying in it a certain boisterousnesse and that in a farther measure then what a gracefull majesty can admit of so that one can hardly say of him without a spite of Courtship which Paterculus did of Tiberius Quod visus praetulerit principem that his countenance proclaimed him a King But questionlesse his greatest defect is want of utterance which is very unpleasing by reason of a desperate and uncurable stammering which defect is likely more and more to grow upon him At this time he is aged 24 years and as much as since the 27 day of last September which was his birth day an age which he beareth not very plaufible want of beard and the swarthinesse of his complexion making him seem older At the age of 11 years he was affianced to the Lady Anna Infanta of Spain by whom as yec he hath no children It is thought by many and covertly spoken by divers in France that the principall cause of the Queens barrennesse proceedeth from Spain that people being loath to fall under the French obedience which may very well happen she being the eldest Sister of the King For this cause in the seventh Article of the marriage there is a clause that 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 eight Article she is bound to make an Act of Renunciation under her own hand-writing as soon as she cometh to be 12 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 imbraces A great crime I confesse if true yet I cannot say with Tully in his defence of Ligarius Novum Crimen Caje Caear ante hoc tempus inauditum Iaqueline Countesse of Holland was Cousen to Philip Duke of Burgundy her fruitfulnesse would have debarred him from those Estates of Holland Zâ—aland and West Friezland therefore though she had three husbands there was order taken she should never have child with her first two husbands the Duke would never suffer her to live and when she had stolen a wedding with Frane of Borselle one of her servants the Dukes Physitians gave him such a potion that she might have as well marryed an Euâ—uch upon this injury the poor Lady dyed and the Duke succeeded in those Countries which by his Grand-childe Mary were conveyed over into the house of Austria together with the rest of his estates 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 by the Arch Duke Albertus A Diabolicall trick which the prostitutes of the Heathen used in the beginning of the Gospell and before of whom Octavius complaineth Quod originem futuri hominis extinguant paricidium faciunt antequam pariunt Better luck then the King hath his Sister beyond the Mountains I mean his eldest Sister Madam Elizabeth marryed to the King of Spain now living as being or having been the mother of two children His second Sister Madam Christian is marryed unto Amadeo Victor principe major or heir apparent to the Duke of Savoy to whom as yet she hath born no issue The youngest Madam Henrietta Maria is newly marryed to his most Excellent Majesty of England to whom may she prove of a most happy and fruitfull womb Et pulcrâ— faciat te prole parentem
my self then to have recourse to the King of heaven and though the Poet meant not Exeat aula qui vult esse pius in that sense yet will it be no treason for me to apply it so And even in this the Church which should be like the Coat of its Redeemer without seam do I finde rents and factions and of the two these in the Church more dangerous then those in the Louure I know the story of Rebecca and of the children strugling in her is generally applyed to the births and contentions of the Law and the Gospel in particular we may make use of it in expressing the State of the Church and Religions of France for certain it is that here were divers pangs in the womb of the French Church before it was delivered And first she was delivered of Esau the Popish faith being first after the strugling countenanced by authority And he came out red all over like an hairy garment saith the text which very appositely expresseth the bloudy and rough condition of the French Papists at the birth of the Reformation before experience and long acquaintance had bred a liking between them And after came his Brother out which laid hold on Esaus heel and his name was called Jacob wherein is described the quality of the Protestant party which though confirmed by publick Edict after the other yet hath it divers times endevoured and will perhaps one day effect the tripping up of the others heels And Esau saith Moses was a cunning hunter a man of the field and Jacob a plain man dwelling in tents in which words the comparison is made exact A cunning hunter in the Scripture signifieth a man of art and power mingled as when Nâ—mrâ—d in Genesis 10. is termed a mighty hunter Such is the Papist a side of greater strength and subtility a side of war and of the field on the other side the Protestants are a plain race of men simple in their actions without craft and fraudulent behaviours and dwelling in tents that is having no certain abiding place no Province which they can call theirs but living dispersed and scattered over the Countrey which in the phrase of the Scripture is dwelling in tents As for the other words differencing the two brethren and the elder shall serve the younger they are rather to be accounted a Prophesie then a Character we must therefore leave the analogie it holds with this Rebecca of France and her two children to the event and to prayer For a more particular insight into the strength and subtilty of this Esau we must consider it in the three main particular strengths of it its Polity Priviledges and Revenue For the first so it is that the Popish Church in France is governed like those of the first and purest times by Archbishops and Bishops Archbishops it comprehendeth 12 and of Bishops 104 of these the Metropolitan is he of Rheimes who useth to anoint the Kings which office and preheminence hath been annexed unto this seat ever since the times of St. Remigius Bishop hereof who converted Clovis King of the Franks unto the Gospell The present Primate is son unto the Duke of Guise by name Henry de Lorrain of the age of 14 years or thereabouts a burden too unweildie for his shoulders Et quae non viribus istis Munera conveniunt nâ—c tam puerilibus annis For the better government therefore of a charge so weighty they have appointed him a Coadjutor to discharge that great function till he come to age to take orders His name is Gifford an English fugitive said to be a man worthy of a great fortune and able to bear it The revenues of this Archbishoprick are somewhat of the meanest not amounting yearly to above 10000 Crowns whereof Dr. Gifford receiveth only 2000 the remainder going to the Caidet of Lorreine This trick the French learn of the Protestants in Germany where the Princes after the Reformation began by Luther took in the power and Lordships of the Bishops which together with their functions they divided into two parts The lands they bestowed upon some of their younger sons or kinsmen with the title of Administrator the office and pains of it they conferred with some annuall pension on one of their Chaplaines whom they styled the Superintendent of the Bishoprick This Archbishop together with the rest of the Bishops have under them their severall Chancellours Commissaries Archdeacons and other officers attending in their Courts in which their power is not so generall as with us in England Matters of testament never trouble them as belonging to the Court of Parliament who also have wrested to their own hands almost all the businesse of importance sure I am all the causes of profit originally belonging to the Church the affairs meerly Episcopall and spirituall are left unto them as granting Licence for Marriages punishing whoredome by way of penance and the like to go beyond this were ultra crepidam and they should be sure to have a prohibition from the Parliaments Of their priviledges the chiefest of the Clergy men is the little or no dependence upon the Pope and the little profits they pay unto their King of the Pope anon to the King they pay only their Dismes or Tithes according to the old rate a small sum if compared unto the payments of their neighbours it being thought that the King of Spain receiveth yearly one half of the living of the Churches but this I mean of their livings only for otherwise they pay the usuall gabels and customes that are paid by the rest of the Kings liege people In the generall assembly of the three Estates the Clergy hath authority to elect a set number of Commissioners to undertake for them and the Church which Commissioners do make up the first of the three Estates and do first exhibit their grievances and Petitions to the King In a word the French Church is the freest of any in Christendome that have not yet quitted their subjection to the Pope as alwayes protesting against the Inquisitions not submitting themselves to the Councell of Trent and paying very little to his Holinesse of the plentifull revenue wherewith God and good men have blessed it The number of those which the Church Land maintaineth in France is tantum non infinite therefore the Intrado and Revenue of it must needs be uncountable There are numbred in it as we said before 12 Archbishops 104 Bishopricks to these add 540 Archpriories 1450 Abbies 12320 Priories 567 Nunneries 700 Convents of Fryers 259 Commendames of the order of Malta and 130000 Parish Priests Yet this is not all this reckoning was made in the year 1598. Since which time the Jesuits have divers Colledges founded for them and they are known to be none of the poorest To maintain this large wildernesse of men the Statistes of France who have proportioned the Countrey do allow unto the Clergy almost a fourth part of the whole For supposing France to contain 200
see the alliance which this French Esau hath abroad in the world in what credit and opinion he standeth in the eye of Bâ—â—ri the Romish â—ittite the daughter of whose abominations he hath marryed And here I find him to hold good correspondency as being the eldest son of the Church and an equall poise to ballance the affaires of Italy against the Potency of Spain On this ground the present Pope hath alwayes shewn himself very favourable to the French side well knowing into what perils an unnecessary and impolitick dependance on the Spanish party only would one day bring the State Ecclesiastick As in the generall so also in many particulars hath he expressed much affection unto him As 1. By taking into his hands the Valtolin till his Sonne of France might settle himself in some course to recover it 2. His not stirring in the behalf of the Spaniard during the last wars in Italy And 3. His speedy and willing grant of the dispensation for Madams marriage notwithstanding the Spaniard so earnestly laboured the deniall or at least the delay of it To speak by conjectures I am of opinion that his Genius prompted him to see the speedy consummation of this marriage of which his Papacy was so large an Omen so far a prognostick Est Deus in nobis agitaâ—te calescimus illo The Lar or angell guardian of his thoughts hastned him in it in whose time there was so plausible a Presage that it must be accomplished For thus it standeth Malachi now a Saint then one of the first Apostles of the Irish one much reverenced in his memory unto this day by that Nation left behind him by way of Prophesie a certain number of Mottoes in Latine telling those that there should follow that certain number of Popes only whose conditions successively should be lively expressed in those Mottos according to that order which he had placed them M 〈…〉 ngham an Irish Priest and Master of the Colledge of Irish 〈…〉 es in Paris collected together the lives of all the Irish Saints which book himself shewed me In that Volume and the life of this Saint are the severall Mottos and severall Popes set down Column wise one against the other I compared the lives of them with the Mottos as far as my memory would carry me and found many of them very answerable As I remember there are 36 Mottos yet come and when just so many Popes are joyned to them they are of opinion for so 〈◊〉 〈…〉 ld th 〈…〉 either the world should end or the Popedom be 〈…〉 ned Amongst the others the Motto of the present Pope was most remarkable and sutable to the action likely to happen in his time being this Lilium Rosa which they interpret and in my mind not unhappily to be intended to the conjunction of the French Lilly and English Ros 〈…〉 To take from me any suspicion of Imposture he shewed an old book printed almost 200 years agoe written by one Wion a Flemming and comparing the number of the Mottos with the Catalogue of the Popes I found the name of Vrban the now Pope to answer it On this ground an English Catholick whose acquaintance I gained in France made a copy of Verses in French and presented them to the English Ambassadours the Earls of Carlile and Holland Because he is my friend and the conceit is not to be despised I begged them of him and these are they Lilia juncta Rosis Embleme de bon prefage de l' Alliance de la France avec 〈◊〉 Angle terre Ce grand dieu qui d'un ocil voit tout ce que les ans Soâ—bs leurs voiles sacrez vont a nous yeux cachans Decouure quelque fois anisâ— qui bon lui semble Et les maux a venir et les biens tout ensemble Anisi fit-il jades a celui qui primier Dans l' Ireland porta de la froy le laurier Malachie â—on 〈◊〉 qu' au tymon de leglise On verra s 〈…〉 r un jour cil qui pour sa devise Aura les lys chenus ioints aux plus belles fleures Qui dorent le prin-temps de leurs doubles colours CHARLES est le â—â—curon de la Rose pourpree Henritte est le Lys que la plus belle pree De la France nourrtit pour estre quelque jour Et la Reina des fleurs et des roses l' amour Adorable banquet bâ—en heureuse coâ—ronne Que la bonte du ciel e parrage nous donne Heâ—reuse ma partie heureuse mille fois Celle qui te fera reâ—â—orier en les roys With these Verses I take my leave of his Holinesse wishing none of his successors would presage worse luck unto England I go now to see his Nuncio to whose house the same English Catholick brought me but he was not at home his name is Bernardino d'Espada a man as he informed me able to discharge the trust reposed in him by his Master and one that very well affected the English Nation He hath the fairest house and keepeth the largest retinue of any ordinary Ambassador in the Realm and maketh good his Masters Supremacies by his own precedency To honour him against he was to take his charge his Holinesse created him Bishop of Damiataâ—n â—n Egypt a place which I am certain never any of them saw but in a map and for the profits he receiveth thence they will never be able to pay for his Crozier But this is one of his Holinesse usuall policies to satisfie his followers with empty titles So he made Bishop whom he sent to govern for him in England Bishop of Chalâ—â—don in Asia and Smith also who is come over about the same businesse with the Queen Bishop of Archidala a City of Tâ—â—ce An old English Doctor used it as an especiall argument to prove the universality of power in the Pope because he could ordain Bishops over al Cities in Christendom if he could as easily give them also the revenue this reason I confesse would much sway me till then I am sorry that men should still be boyes and play with bubbles By the same authority he might do well to make all his Courtiers Kings and then he were sure to have a most royall and beggerly Court of it To proceed a little further in the Allegory so it is that when Jacob saw Esau to have incurred his fathers and mothers anger for his heathenish marriage he set himself to bereave his elder brother of his blessing Prayers and the sweet smell of his Venison the sweet smelling of his sacrifices obtained of his Lord and Father a blessing for him for indeed the Lord hath given unto this his French Jacob as it is in the text the dew of heaven and the fatnesse of the earth and plenty of corne and wine Gen. 27. 28. It followeth in the 41. vers of the Chapter And Esau hated Jaeob because of the blessing wherewith his father had blessed him and
â—misit iâ—a victoria as Tacitus of the angred Romans For they spared neither man nor woman nor childe all equally subject to the cruelty of the sword and the Conquerour The streets paved with dead carkasses the channels running with the bloud of Christians no noise in the streets but of such as were welcoming death or suing for life Their Churches which the Goths spared at the sack of Rome were at this place made the Theatres of lust and bloud neither priviledge of Sanctuary nor fear of God in whose holy house they were qualifying their outrage this in the common places At domâ—â— interior gemiâ—u miserâ—que 〈◊〉 Misâ—etur pe 〈…〉 tusque cavae plangoribus â—des 〈◊〉 ulu 〈…〉 Aâ— Virgil in the ruine of Trey But the calamities which beseâ—â— the men were mercifull and sparing if computed to those which the women suffered when the Souldiers had made them the objects of their lust they made them also the subjects of their 〈◊〉 in that only pittifull to that poor and distressed sex that they did not â—et them survive their honours Such of them who out of â—ear and â—aintness had made but little resistance had the favour to be stabbed but those whose virtue and courage maintaned their bodies valiantly from the rapes of those villains had the secrets of nature procul hinc este castae misericordes auâ—es filled with gun-powder and so blown into ashes Whither O you divine powers is humanity fled when it is not to be found in Christians or where shall we look for the effects of a pitifull nature when men are become so unnaturall It is said that the King was ignorant of this barbarousnesse and offended at it Offended I perswade my self he could not but be unlesse he had totally put off himself and degenerated into a Tyger But for his ignorance I dare not conceive it to be any other then that of Nerâ— an ignorance rather in his eye then understanding Subduxit oculos Nero saith Tacitus jussitque seâ—lera non spectavil Though the Protestants deserved affliction for their disobedience yet this was an execution above the nature of a punishment a misery beyond the condition of the crime True it is and I shall never acquit them of it that in the time of their prosperity they had done the King many affronts and committed many acts of disobedience and insolency which justly occasioned the war against them for besides those already recited they themselves first broke those Edicts the due execution whereof seemed to have been their only petition The King by his Edict of pacification had licenced the free exercise of both Religions and thereupon permitted the Priests and Jesuits to preach in the Towns of Caution being then in the hands of the Protestants On the other side the Protestants assembled at â—oudun strictly commanded all their Governors Majors and Sheriffs nor to suffer any Jesuits nor any of any other Order to preach in their Towns although licenced by the Bishop of the Diocese When upon dislike of their proceedings in that Assembly the King had declared their meeting to be unlawfull and contrary to his peace and this Declaration was verified against them by the Parliament they notwithstanding would not separate themselves but stood still upon terms of capitulation and the justifiableness of their action again Whereas it hapned that the Lord of Privas a Town full of those of the Religion dyed in the year 1620 and left his daughter and heir in the bed and marriage of the Viscount of Cheylane a Catholick this new Lord according to law and right in his own Town changed the former Garrison putting his own servants and dependants in their places Upon this the Protestants of the Town and Countrey round about it draw themselves in troops surprise many of the Towns about it and at last compelled the young Gentleman to flie from his inheritance an action which jumping even with the time of the Assembly at Rochell made the King more doubtfull of their sincerity I could add to these divers others of their undutifull practises being the effects of too much felicitie and of a fortune which they could not govern Atqui animus meminisse horret luctuque refugit These their insolencies and unruly acts of disobedience made the King and his Counsell suspect that their designes tended further then Religion and that their purpose might be to make themselves a free State after the example of Geneva and the Low-countreymen The late power which they had taken of calling their own Synods and Convocations was a strong argument of their purpose so also was the intelligence which they held with those of their own faith At the Synod of Gappe called by the permission of Henry the fourth on the first of October anno 1603. they not only gave audience to Ambassadours and received Letters from forain Princes but also importuned his Majesty to have a generall liberty of going into any other Countries and assisting at their Councels a matter of especiall importance and therefore the King upon a foresight of the dangers wisely prohibited them to goe to any Assemblies without a particular Licence upon pain to be declared Traytors Since that time growing into greater strength whensoever they had occasion of businesse with King Lewis they would never treat with him but by their Ambassadours and upon especiall Articles An ambition above the quality of those that professe themselves Subjects and the only way as Du Seirres noteth To make an Estate in the State But the answers made unto the King by those of Clerac and Montauban are pregnant proofs of their intent and meaning in this kinde the first being summoned by the King and his Army the 21 of July Anno 1621. returned thus That the King should suffer them to enjoy their Lilerties and leave their Fortifications as they were for the safety of their lives and so they would declare themselves to be his Subjects They of Montauban made a fuller expression of the generall design and disobedience which was That they were resolved to live and die in the union of the Churches had they said for the service of the King it had been spoken bravely but now rebelliously This Union and Confederacy of theirs King Lewis used to call the Common-wealth of Rochell for the overthrow of which he alwayes protested that he had only taken armes and if we compare circumstances we shall finde it to be no other In the second of Aprill before he had as yet advanced into the field he published a Declaration in favour of all those of the Religion which would contain themselves within duty and obedience And whereas some of Tours at the beginning of the wars had tumultuously molested the Protestants at the buriall of one of their dead five of them by the Kings commandement were openly executed When the war was hottest abroad those of the Religion in Paris lived as securely as ever and had their accustomed meetings at Charenton so had
we have found an head and a body this body again divided into two parts the Catholick and the Protestant the head is in his own opinion and the minds of many others of a power unlimited yet the Catholick party hath strongly curbed it And of the two parts of the body we see the Papists flourishing and in triumph whilest that of the Protestant is in misery and affliction Thus is it also in the body Politick The King in his own conceit boundlesse and omnipotent is yet affronted by his Nobles which Nobles enjoy all the freedome of riches and happinesse the poor Paisants in the mean time living in drudgery and bondage For the government of the King is meerly indeed regal or to give it the true name despoticall though the Countrey be his wife and all the people are his children yet doth he neither govern as an 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 frequenly sendeth about he never mentioneth the good will of his Subjects nor the approbation of his Councell but concludeth all of them in this forme Car tell est nostre plaisir Sic volo sic jubeo A forme of government very prone to degenerate into a tyranny if the Princes had not oftentimes strength and will to make resistance But this is not the vice of the entire and Soveraign Monarchy alone which the Greek call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the other two good formes 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 a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Common-wealth properly so called into a Democratie For as in the body naturall the purest complexions are lesse lasting but easily broken and subject to alteration so is it in the body Civill the pure and unmixt formes of Government though perfect and absolute in their kinds are yet 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 Kingdome and the Politeia because in these the Kings have all the power belonging to their title without prejudice to the populacie In these there is referred to the King absolute Majesty to the Nobles convenient authority to the People an incorrupted liberty all in a just and equall proportion Every one of these is like the Empire of Rome as it was moderated by Nerva Qui res olâ—m dissociabiles miscuerat principatum libertatem wherein the Soveraignty of one endamaged not the freedome of all A rare mixture of Government and such at this time is the Kingdome of England a Kingdome 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 purposes and have a strong hand in the making of their own Laws On the otherside in the Regall government of France the Subject frameth his life meerly as the Kings variable Edicts shall please to enjoyn him is ravished of his money as the Kings taske-masters think fit and suffereth many other oppressions which in their proper place shall be specified This Aristole 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 perusall of his Edicts before they passe for Laws yet is that but a meer formality It is the cartelâ—â—est nostre plaifir which maketh them currant which it seemeth these Princes learned of the Roman Emperors Justinian in the book of Institutions maketh five grounds of the Civill Laws viz. Lex he meaneth the law of the 12 Tables Plebiscita Senatusconsulta Predentum Responsa Principum placita to this last he addeth this generall strength Quod principi plaeuerit legis â—abet valorem the very foundation of the French Kings powerfulnesse True it is that the Courts of Parliament do use to demur sometimes upon his Patents and Decrees and to petition him for a reversall of them but their answer commonly is Stat pro ratione voluntas He knoweth his own power and granteth his Letters patents for new Offices and Monopolies abundantly If a monied 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 Livre upon the selling of every head of Cattell a brace of Sols for every paire of boots and the like It is the only study of some men to finde out such devices of enriching themselves and undoing the people The Patent for Innes granted to St. Giles Moâ—â—pesson 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 scurvey petty book being Printed but it hath its priviledge affixed Ad imprimendum solum These being granted by the King are carryed to the Parliament by them formally perused and finally verified after which they are in force and virtue against all opposition It is said in France that Mr. Luynes had obtained a Patent of the King for a quart d' escu to be paid unto him upon the Christning of every child thoughout all the Kingdome A very unjust and unconscionable extortion Had he lived to have presented it to the Court I much doubt of their deniall though the only cause of bringing before them such Patents is onely intended that they should discusse 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 Monopolics So hath the Chamber of Accounts a superficiall survey also of his gifts and expences For his expences they are thought to be as great now as ever by reason of the severall retinues of himself his Mother his Queen and the Monseiur neither are his gifts lessened The late Wars which he managed against the Protestants cost him deer he being fain to bind unto him most of his Princes by money and pensions As the expenses 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 unto 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 passe them to the detriment of the Kingdome whatsoever Letters of command thay have to the contrary But this Oath they oftentimes dispense with To this Court also belongeth
his Crown as ever any was in France gathering but one and a half only But as you reckon the flood so also if you may reckon the ebb ofhis Treasures you will finde much wanting of a full sea in his Coffers it being generally known that the fees of officers pensions garrisons and the men of armes draw from him yearly no fewer then 6 of his 15 millions True it is that his Treasure hath many good helps by way of Escheat and that most frequently when he cometh to take an accompt of his Treasurers and other Officers A Nation so abominably full of base and unmanly villaines in their severall charges that the Publicans of Old-Rome were milke and white-broath to them For so miserably do they abuse the poor Paisant that if he hath in all the world but eight Sols it shall go hard but he will extort from him five of them Non missura cutem nisi plena cruoris hirundo He is just of the nature of the Horse-leech when he hath once gotten hold of you he will never let you go till he be filled And which is most strange he thinks it a greater clemency that he hath lest the poor man some of his money then the injury was in wresting from him the rest Nay they will brag of it when they have taken but five of the eight Sols that they have given him three and expect thanks for it A kindnesse of a very theevish nature it being the condition of Robbers as Tully hath observed Ut commemorent iis se dedisse vitam quibus non ademerint Were the people but so happy as to have a certain rate set upon their miseries it could not but be a greater â—ase to them and would well defend them from the tyrany of these Theeves But which is not the least part of their wretchednesse their Taxings and Assessements are left arbitrary and are exacted accordingly as these Publicans will give out of the Kings necessities so that the Countryman hath no other remedy then to give Cerberus a crust as the saying is to kisse his rod and hug his punishment By this means the Questors thrive abundantly it being commonly said of them Heri bouvier aviourdhui chevalier to day a Swine-heard to morrow a Gentleman and certainly they grow into great riches Mr. Beaumarchais one of the Treasurers Mr. De Vilroy who slew the Marquesse D' Ancre marryed his only Daughter having raked unto himself by the villanous abuse of his place no lesse then 22 millions of Livres as it was commonly reported But he is not like to carry it to his grave the King having seized upon a good part of it and himself being condemned to the gallowes by the grand Chambre of Parliament though as yet he cannot be apprehended and advanced to the Ladder And this hath been the end of many of them since the reign of this present King whom it may be for this cause they call Lewis the just This fashion of affixing Epithites to the names of their Kings was in great use heretofore with this Nation Carolus the son of Pepin was by them surnamed Le Magne Lewis his son Debonaire and so of the rest Since the time of Charles VI. who was by them surnamed the Beloved it was discontinued and now revived again in the persons of King Henry IV. and his son King Lewis But this by the way It may be also he is called the Just by way of negation because he hath yet committed no notable act of injustice for I wink at his cruell and unjust slaughter at Nigrepelisse it may be also to keep him continually in mind of his duty that he may make himself worthy of that attribute Vere imperator sui nominis As one said of Severus Let us add one more misery to the State and commonalty of France and that is the base and corrupt money in it For besides the Sol which is made of Tinne they have the Double made of Brasse whereof six make a Sol and the Denier whereof two make a Double a coyne so vile and small of value that 120 of them go to an English shilling These are the common coynes of the Countrey silver and gold not being to be seen but upon holydayes As for their silver it is most of it of their own coyning but all exceeding clipt and shaven their gold being most of it Spanish In my little being in the Countrey though I casually saw much gold I could only see two pieces of French stampe the rest coming all from Spain as Pistolets Demi pistolets and Double-pistolets Neither is France alone furnished thus with Castilian coyn it is the happinesse also of other Countries as Italy Barbary Brabant and elsewhere and indeed it is kindly done of him that being the sole Monopolist of the mines he will yet let other nations have a share in the mettle Were the King as Catholick as his money I think I should be in some fear of him till then we may lawfully take that ambitious title from the King and bestow it upon his pictures The Soveraignty of the Spanish gold is more universally embraced and more 〈◊〉 acknowledged in most parts of Christendome then that of him which stampt it To this he which entituleth himself Catholick is but a prisoner and never saw half those Provinces in which this more powerfull Monarch hath been heartily welcomed Yet if he will needs be King let him grow somewhat more jealous of his Queen and confesse that his gold doth royally deserve his imbraces whom before the extent of his dominion the Ancient Poets styled Regina pecunia True it is that by the figure and shape of this Emperesse you would little think her to be lovely and lesse worthy of your imbracement The stones which little boyes break into Quoits are a great deal better proportioned if a Geometrician were to take the angles of it I think it would quite put him besides his Euclide neither can I tell to what thing in the world fitter to resemble it then a French Cheese for it is neither long nor square nor round nor thin nor thick nor any one of these but yet all and yet none of them No question but it was the Kings desires by this unsightly dressing of his Lady to make men out of love with her that so he might keep her to himself But in this his hopes have conusâ—â—â—d him for as in other Cuckoldries so in this some men will be bold to keep his wife from him be it only in spight These circumstances thus laid together and considered we may the clearer and the better see our own felicities which to expresse generally and in a word is to say only this That the English Subject is in no circumstance a French-man Here have we our money made of the best and purest that only excepted which a charitable consideration hath coyned into â—arthings Here have we our Kings royally and to the envie of the world magnificently provided
honour and glory of God and of his pure and holy word You shall administer true and equall Justice as well to the poor as to the rich without respect of persons according to our Lawes Usages and Customes confirmed unto us by our priviledges maintaining them together with our Liberties and Franchises and opposing your selfe against such as labour to infringe them You shall also punish and chastise all Traitours Murderers Felons Blasphemers of Gods holy name Drunkards and other scandalous livers every one according to his desert opposing your self against all seditious persons in the defence of the Kings Authority and of his Justice You shall be frequently assistant in the Court and as often as you shall be desired having no lawfull excuse to the contrary in which case you shall give your proxie to some other Justice giving your advise counsell and opinion according to the sincerity of your conscience You shall give reverence and due respect unto the Court. And shall defend or cause to be defended the rights of Widowes Orphans Strangers and all other persons unable to help themselves Finally in your verdict or the giving your opinion you shall regulate and conforme your self to the better and more wholesome counsell of the Bailiffe and Justices All which you promise to make good upon your conscience A way more compendious then ours in England where the Justices are sain to take three Oaths and those founded upon three severall Statutes as viz. that concerning the discharge of their office which seemeth to be founded on the 13. of Richard II. Cap. 7. That of the Kings Supremacy grounded on the first of Queen Elazabeth Cap. 1. And lastly that of AVegiance in force by virtue of the Stature 3 Jac. Cap. 4. Of these Justices there are twelve in all in each Island of whose names and titles in the next Chapter The other members of the Bailiffes Court are the Advocates or Pleaders whereof there be six onely in each Island this people conceiving rightly that multitudes of Lawyers occasion multitudes of businesse or according to that merry saying of old Haywood The more Spaniels in the field the more game Of these advocate two of them which are as we call them here in England the Kings Attorney or Sollicitour are called Advocati stipulantes the others Advocati postulantes Yet have they not by any order confined themselves to this number but may enlarge them according to occasion though it had not been a Solecisme or a novelty were the number limited For it appeareth in the Parliament Records that Edward the first restrained the number both of Counsellers and Atturneys unto 140 for all England though he also left authority in the Lord Chief Justice to enlarge it as appeareth in the said Records Anno 20. Rotul 5. in dorso de apprenticiis attornatis in these words following D. Rex injunxit Joh. de Metingham he was made chief Justice of the Common Pleas in the 18 of this King â—oci is suis quod ipsi per eorum disâ—retionem provideant ordinent certum numerum in quolibet Comitatu de melioribus legalioribus libentius addiscentibus sec quod intellexeâ—int quod curiae suae populo de regno melius valere poterit c. Et videtur regi ejus concilio quod septies viginti sufficere poterint Apponant tamen praefati justiciarii plures si viderint esse faciendum vel numerum anticipent c. Thus he wisely and happily foreseeing those many inconveniences which arise upon the multitudes of such as apply themselves unto the Lawes and carefully providing for the remedy But of this as also of these Islands and of their manner of Govenment I have now said sufficient yet no more then what may fairly bring your Lordship on to the main of my discourse and Argument viz. the Estate and condition of their Churches I shall here only adde a Catalogue of the Governours and Bailiffs of the Isle of Jarsey for of those of Guernzey notwithstanding all my paines and diligence I could finde no such certain constat which is this that followeth A Catalogue of the Governours and Bailiffs of Jarsey  Bailiffs Governours 1301 Pierre Vigâ—ure Edw. II. O 〈…〉 o de Grandison Sr. des Isles 1389 Geofr la Hague Edw. III. Edm. de Cheynie Gard des Isles 1345 Guill Hastings Thom. de Ferrer Capt. des Isles 1352 Rog. Powderham  1363 Raoul L. Empriere  1367 Rich de St. Martyn  1368 Iean de St. Martyn   Rich le Peâ—iâ— Â 1370 Jean de St. Martyn   Jean Cokerill  1382 Tho Brasdefer Hen. IV. Edw. D. of York 1396 Geofr Brasdefer V. Jean D. of Bedford 1414. 1405 Guill de Laick  1408 Tho. Daniel VI. Hum. D. of Glocester 1439. 1414 Jean Poingt dexter  1433 Jean Bernard Kt.  1436 Jean l' Empriere  1444 Jean Payne  1446 Regin de Carteret  1453 Jean Poingt dexter Edw IV. Sir Rich. Harliston 1462 Nicol. Mourin  1485 Guill de Harvy Angl. Hen. VII Mathew Baker Esq 1488 Clem. le Hardy Tho. Overcy Esq 1494 Jean Nicols David Philips Esq 1496 Jean l' Empriere  1515 Hel de Carteret Hen. VIII Sir Hugh Vaughaâ— 1524 Helier de la Recq Sir Antony Urterell 1526 Rich Mabon  1528 Jasper Penn. Angl.  1562 Hostes Nicolle Edw. VI Edw. D of Somers L Protect  Jean du Maresque Cornish  Geo. Pawlet Angl. Ma. R. Sir Hugh Pawlet 1516 Jean Herault Kt. Eliza. R. Sir Aimer Paulet 1622 Guill Parkâ—urst Sir Anthâ— Pawlett 16 Philip de Carteret Kt. Sir Walt. Raleigh  now living ann 1644. Jac. Sir Joh. Peiton S. a Cross ingrailed O.   Car. Sir Tho. Jermin now living Further then this I shall not trouble your Lordship with the Estate of these Islands in reference either unto Naturall or Civill Concernments This being enough to serve for a foundation to that superstructure which I am now to raise upon it CHAP. II. 1 The City and Diocese of Constance 2 The condition of these Islands under that Government 3 Churches appropriated what they were 4 The Black Book of Constance 5 That called Domes day 6 The suppression of Priours Aliens 7 Priours Dative how they differed from the Conventualls 8 The condition of these Churches after the suppression 9 A Diagram of the Revenue then allotted to each severall Parish together with the Ministers and Justices now being 10 What is meant by Champarte desarts and French querrui 11 The alteration of Religion in these Islands 12 Persecution here in the days of Queen Mary The Authors indignation at it expressed in a Poeticall rapture 13 The Islands annexed for ever to the Diocese of Winton and for what reasons BUt before we enter on that Argument The estate and condition of their Churches a little must be said of their Mother-City to whom they once did owe Canonicall obedience A City in the opinion of some
owner which they called Les Deserts But the Countreys after growing populous and many mouths requiring much provision these Deserts were broke up and turned into tillage Hereupon the Curates made challenge to the tithes as not at all either intended or contained in the former composition The Governours on the other side alleadging custome that those grounds had never paid the Tithe and therefore should not Nor could the Clergy there obtain their rights untill the happy entrance of King James upon these Kingdoms A Prince of all others a most indulgent father to the Church By him and by a letter Decretory from the Counsell it was adjudged in favour of the Ministery the Letter bearing date at Greenwich June the last anno 1608. subscribed T. Ellesmere Canc. R. Salisbury H. Northampton E. Worcester T. Suffolke Exeter Zeuch Wotton Cesar Herbert A matter certainly of much importance in the consequence as making known unto your Lordship how easie a thing it is in the authority royall to free the Church from that tyranny of custome and prescription under which it groneth The next of these three words to be explained is in the note French Querrui which in the note is told us to be the 8 and 9 sheaf by which account or way of tithing the Minister in 50 sheafs receiveth 6 which is one sheaf more then the ordinary tithe The word corrupted as I conceive from the French word Charrue which signifieth a Plough and then French querrui is as much as Plough-right alluding to the custome of some Lords in France who used to give their husbandmen or villains as a guerdon for their toyle the 8 and 9 of their increase As for the last that viz. which the Diagram calleth Champart it intimates in the origination of the word a part or portion of the field that which the Lord in chief reserved unto himself In Guernzey it is constantly the 12 sheaf of the whole crop the Farmer in the counting of his sheafes casting aside the 10 for the King and the 12 which is the Champart for the Lord. Now here in Guernzey for those of the other Isle have no such custome there is a double Champart that namely Du Roy belonging to the King whereof the Clergy have the tithe and that of St. Michael en leval not titheable The reason is because at the suppression of the Priorie of St. Michael which was the only Religious house in these Islands which subsisted of it self the Tenants made no tendry of this Champart and so it lay amongst concealments At the last Sir Thomas Leighton the Governour here recovered it unto the Crown by course of Law and at his own charges whereupon the Queen licenced him to make sale of it to his best advantage which accordingly he did For the Religion in these Islands it hath been generally such as that professed with us in England and as much varied When the Priors Aliens were banished England by King Henry V. they also were exiled from hence Upon the demolition of our Abbeys the Priory of St. Michael and that little Oratory of our Lady of Lehu became a ruine The Masse was here also trodden down whilest King Edward stood and raised again at the exaltation of Queen Mary Nay even that fiery tryall which so many of Gods servants underwent in the short Reign of that misguided Lady extended even unto these poor Islanders and that as I conceive in a more fearfull tragedy then any all that time presented on the Stage of England The story in the brief is this Katharine Gowches a poor widow of St. Peters-parte in Guernzey was noted to be much absent from the Church and her two daughters guilty of the same neglect Upon this they were presented before Jaques Amy then Dean of the Island who finding in them that they held opinions contrary unto those then allowed about the Sacrament of the Altar pronounced them Hereticks and condemned them to the fire The poor women on the other side pleaded for themselves that that Doctrine had been taught them in the time of King Edward but if the Queen was otherwise disposed they were content to be of her Religion This was fair but this would not serve for by the Dean they were delivered unto Elier Gosselin the then Bailiffe and by him unto the fire July 18. Anno Dom. 1556. One of these daughters Perotine Massey she was called was at that time great with childe her husband which was a Minister being in those dangerous times fled the Island in the middle of the flames and anguish of her torments her belly brake in sunder and her child a goodly boy fell down into the fire but was presently snatched up by one W. House one of the by-standers Upon the noise of this strange accident the cruell Bailiffe returned command that the poor Infant must be cast again into the flames which was accordingly performed and so that pretty babe was borne a Martyr and added to the number of the Holy Innocents A cruelty not paralleld in any story not heard of amongst the Nations But such was the pleasure of the Magistate as one in the Massacre of the younger Maximinus viz. Canis pessimi ne catulum esse relinquendum that not any issue should be left alive of an Heretick Parent The horrror of which fact stirred in me some Poeticall Fancies or Furies rather which having long lien dormant did break out at last indignation thus supplying those suppressed conceptions Si natura negaâ— dabit indignatio versum Holla ye pampred Sires of Rome forbear To act such murders as a Christian ear Hears with more horrour then the Jews relate The dire effects of Herods fear and hate When that vilde Butcher caus'd to cut in sunder Every Male childe of two years old and under These Martyrs in their cradles from the womb This pass'd directly to the fiery tomb Baptiz'd in Flames and Bloud a Martyr born A setting sun in the first dawn of morn Yet shining with more heat and brighter glory Then all Burnt-offerings in the Churches story Holla ye pampred Rabines of the West Where learnt you thus to furnish out a Feast With Lambs of the first minute What disguise Finde you to mask this horrid Sacrifice When the old Law so meekly did forbid In the Dams milk to boil the tender Kid. What Riddles have we here an unborn birth Hurried to Heaven when not made ripe for Earth Condemned to die before it liv'd a twin To its own mother not impeached of sin Yet doom'd to death that breath'd but to expire That scap'd the flames to perish in the fire Rejoyce ye Tyrants of old times your name Is made lesse odious on the breath of fame By our most monstrous cruelties the Males Slaughtered in Egypt waigh not down these scales A Fod to equall this no former age Hath given in Books or fancie on the Stage This fit of indignation being thus passed over I can proceed
with greater patience to the rest of the story of this Island which in brief is this That after the death of Queen Many Religion was again restored in the reformation of it to these Islands In which state it hath ever since continued in the main and substance of it but not without some alteration in the circumstance and forme of Government For whereas notwithstanding the alteration of Religion in these Islands they still continued under the Diocese of Constance during the whole Empire of King Henry the VIII and Edward the VI. yet it seemed good to Queen Elizabeth upon some reasons of State to annex them unto that of Winton The first motive of it was because that Bishop refused to abjure the pretended power which the Pope challengeth in Kingdomes as other of the English Prelates did but this displeasure held not long For presently upon a consideration of much service and intelligence which might reasonably be expected from that Prelate as having such a necessary dependence on this Crown they were again permitted to his jurisdiction At the last and if I well remember about the 12 year of that excellent Ladies Reign at the perswasion of Sir Amias Paulet and Sir Tho. Leighton then Governours they were for ever united unto Winchester The pretences that so there might a fairer way be opened to the reformation of Religion to which that Bishop was an enemy and that the secrets of the State might not be carryed over into France by reason of that entercourse which needs must be between a Bishop and his Ministers The truth is they were both resolved to settle the Geneva discipline in every Parish in each Island for which cause they had sent for Snape and Cartwright those great incendiaries of the English Church to lay the ground-work of that building Add to this that there was some glimmering also of a Confiscation in the ruine of the Deanries with the spoyles whereof they held it fit to enrich their Governments Matters not possible to be effected had he of Constance continued in his place and power But of this more in the next Chapter CHAP. III. 1 The condition of Geneva under their Bishop 2 The alteration there both in Politie and 3 in Religion 4 The state of that Church before the coming of Calvin thither 5 The conception 6 birth and 7 growth of the New Discipline 8 The quality of Lay-elders 9 The different proceedings of Calvin 10 and Beza in the propagation of that cause 11 Both of them enemies to the Church of England 12 The first entrance of this platforme into the Islands 13 A permission of it by the Queen and the Councell in St. Peters and St. Hilaries 14 The letters of the Councell to that purpose 15 The tumults raised in England by the brethren 16 Snape and Cartwright establish the new Discipline in the rest of the Islands THus having shewed unto your Lordship the affairs and condition of these Churches till the Reformation of Religion I come next in the course of my designe unto that Innovation made amongst them in the point of Discipline For the more happy dispatch of which businesse I must crave leave to ascend a little higher into the story of change then the introduction of it into those little Islands So doing I shall give your Lordship better satisfaction then if I should immediately descend upon that Argument the rather because I shall deliver nothing in this discourse not warranted to be by the chief contrivers of the Discipline To begin then with the first originall and commencement of it so it is that it took the first beginning at a City of the Allobroges or Savoyards called Geneva and by that name mentioned in the first of Cesars Commentaries A Town situate at the end of Lacus Lemannus and divided by Rhodanus or Rhosne into two parts Belonging formerly in the Soveraignty of it to the Duke of Savoy but in the profits and possession to their Bishop and homager of that Dukedome To this Bishop then there appertained not only an Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction as Governour of the Church under the Archbishop of Vienna in Daulphinoys his Metropolitane but a jurisdiction also temporall as Lord and Master of the Town under the protection of the Duke of Savoy This granted by the testimony of Calvin in his Epistle unto Cardinall Sadolet dated the last of August 1539. Habebat sane saith he jus gladii alias civilis jurisdictionis partes but as he conceived I know not on what grounds Magistratui ereptas fraudulently taken from the Civill Magistrate In this condition it continued till the year 1528. when those of Berne after a publick disputation held had made an alteration in Religion At that time Viret and Farellus men studious of the Reformation had gotten footing in Geneva and diligently there sollicited the cause and entertainment of it But this proposall not plausibly accepted by the Bishop they dealt with those of the lower rank amongst whom they had gotten most credit and taking opportunity by the actions and example of those of Berne they compelled the Bishop and his Clergy to abandon the Town and after proceeded to the reforming of his Church This also avowed by Calvin in his Epistle to the said Cardinall viz. That the Church had been reformed and setled before his coming into those quarters by Viret and Farellus and that he only had approved of their proceedings Sed quia quae a Vireto Farello facta essent suffragio meo comprobavi c. as he there hath it Nor did they only in that tumult alter the Doctrine and orders of the Church but changed also the Government of the Town disclaiming all alleagiance either to their Bishop or their Duke and standing on their own liberty as a free City And for this also they are indebted to the active counsels of Fareâ—â—us For thus Calvin in his Epistle to the Ministers of Zurich dated the 26 of November 1553. Cum hic nuper esset frater noster Farellus cui se totos debent c. and anone after Sed deploranda est senatus nostri caecitas quod libertatis suae patrem c. speaking of their ingratitude to this Farellus The power and dominion of that City thus put into the hands of the common people and all things left at liberty and randome it could not be expected that there should any discipline be observed or good order in the Church The Common-councell of the Town disposed of it as they pleased and if any crime which antiently belonged to Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction did hâ—p to be committed it was punished by order from that Councell No censures Ecclesiasticall no sentence of Excommunication thought on at that time either here at Geneva or in any other of the popular Churches Si quidem excommunicationi in aliis Ecclesiis nullus locus as Beza hath it in the life of Calvin And the same Calvin in his Epistle to the Ministers
used in the reformed Churches But the reformed Churches are very many and their confessions in some points very different The Lutheran Confessions are for consubstantiation and ubiquity the English is for Homilies for Bishops for the Kings Supremacy and so not likely to be intended The confession then here intended must be that only of Geneva which Church alone is thought by some of them to have been rightly and perfectly reformed Chap. 4. 1. To propose the Word of God The fashion of it this such as by study have enabled themselves for the holy Ministery upon the vacancy of any Church have by the Collequie some time appointed to make trial as they call it of their gilt The day come and the Colloquie assembled they design him a particular place of Scripture for the ground of his discourse which done and the proponent for so they term him commanded to withdraw they passe their censures on him every one of them in their order if they approve of him they then send him also to propose unto the people as in the second Article Chap. 4. 〈◊〉 And that bareheaded And this it may be because Candidates p 〈…〉 venture because not yet initiated For themselves having once attained the honour to be Masters in Israel they permit their heads to be warmly covered a thing not in use only by the Ministers of the Geneva way but as my self have seen it among the Priests and Jesuites I know the putting on of the hat is a sign of liberty that the Laconians being made free Denizens of Lacedemon would never go into the battail nisi pileati without their hats and that the Gent. of Rome did use to manumit their slaves by giving them a cap whereupon ad pileum vocare is as much as to set one free Yet on the other side I think it little prejudicial to that liberty not to make such full use of it in the performance of those pious duti 〈…〉 True it is that by this book of Discipline the people are commanded to be uncovered during the Prayers the reading of the Text the â—inging of the Psalmes and the administration of the Sacraments Chap. 8. 3. But when I call to minde that S. Paul hath told us this 1 Cor. 11. That every man praying or prophecying with his head covered dishonoureth his head I shall applaud the pious modesty of the English ministery who keep their heads uncovered as well when they prophecy as when they pray To give them institution by imposition of hands A ceremony not used only in the Ordination if I may so call it of their Ministers but in that also of the Elder and of the Deacons persons meerly Laical But this in mine opinion very improperly for when the Minister whose duty it is instals them in their charge with this solemn form of words he doth perform it Je t' impose les mains c. viz. I lay mine hands upon you in the name of the Consistory by which imposition of hands you are advertised that you are set apart from the affairs of the world c. and if so how then can these men receive this imposition who for the whole year of their charge imploy themselves in their former occupations at times and that expired return again unto them altogether A meer mockage of a reverent ceremony Chap. 4. 3. Giving and receiving the hand of Association An ordinance founded on that in the 2. to the Gal. 5. viz. They gave unto me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship An embleme as it is noted by Theod. Beza on the place of a perfect agreement and consent in the holy faith Quod Symbolum esset nostrae in Evangelii doctrina summae cousensionis and much also to this purpose that of learned Chrysostome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This phrase of speech borrowed no question from the customes of those times wherein the giving of the hand was a most certain pledge of faith and amity So Anchises in the third book of Aeneids Dextram dat juveni atque animum praesenti pignore firmat so in another place of the same author Jungimus hospitio dextras Commissaque dextera dextrae in the Epistle of Phillis to Demophoon Whereupon it is the note of the Grammarians that as the front or fore-head is sacred to the Genius and the knees to mercy so is the right hand consecrated unto faith But here in Guernzey there is a further use made of this ceremony which is an abjuration of all other arts of preaching or of government to which the party was before accustomed and an absolute devoting of himself to them their ordinances and constitutions whatsoever So that if a Minister of the Church of England should be perchance received among them by this hand of association he must in a manner condemn that Church of which he was Chap. 5. 5. That they maintain them at the publick charge A bounty very common in both Islands and ordered in this manner the businesse is by one of the Assembly expounded to the three Estates viz. that N. N. may be sent abroad to the Universities of France or England and desrayed upon the common purse If it be granted then must the party bring in sufficient sureties to be bound for him that at the end of the time limited he shall repair into the Islands and make a profer of his service in such places as they think fit for him if they accept it he is provided for at home if not he is at liberty to seek his fortune Chap. 6. 3 How they behave themselves in their several families By which clause the Elders authorised to make enquiry into the lives and conversations of all about them not only aiming at it by the voice of fame but by tampering with their neighbours and examining their servants It is also given them in charge at their admission into office to make diligent enquiry whether those in their division have private prayers both morning and evening in their houses whether they constantly say grace both before meat and after it if not to make report of it to the Consistory A diligence in my minde both dangerous and â—awcy Chap. 8. 1. To be assistant at the publick prayers The publick prayers here intended are those which the Minister conceives according to the present occasion beginning with a short confession and so descending to crave the assistance of Gods Spirit in the exercise or Sermon then in hand For the forme the Geneva Psalter telleth us that it shall be left alla discretion du Ministre to the Ministers discretion the form of Prayers and of Marriage and of administration of the Sacraments there put down being types only and examples whereby the Minister may be directed in the general The learned Architect which took such great pains in making the Altare Damascenum tels us in that piece of his that in the Church of Scotland there is also an Agenda or form of prayer and of ceremony but for