stubborn and churlish people very impatient of a rigorous yoak and such as inherit a full measure of the Beiseains liberty and spirit from whom they are descended Le Droit de fonage the priviledge of levying of a certain peice of money upon every Chimney in an house that smoaked was in times not long since one of the Jura Regalia of the French Lords and the people paid it without grumbling yet when Edward the black Prince returned from his unhappy journey into Spain and for the paying of his Souldiers to whoÌ„ he was indebted laid this fonage upon the people being then English they all presently revolted to the French and brought great prejudice to our affairs in those quarters Next unto the Gabel of Salt we may place the Taille and the Taillon which are much of a nature with the Subsidies in England being granted by the people and the sum of that certain shall please to impose them Anciently the Tailles were onely levied by way of extraordinary subsidie and that upon four occasions which were the Knighting of the Kings Son the Marriage of his Daughters a Voyage of the Kings beyond Sea and his Ransome in case he were taken Prisoner Les Tailles ne sont point deves de devoyer ordicmer saith Rayneau ains ont este accorded durant la necessite des Affaires Semblement Afterward they were continually levied in times of warr and at length Charles the first made them ordinary neither is it extended equally all of it would amount to a very fair revenue For supposing this that the Kingdom of France contained two hundred millions of acres as it doth and that from every one there were raised to the King two Sols yeerly which is little in respect of the taxes imposed on them that income alone besides that which levied on goods personal would amount to two millions of pounds in a year But this payment also lyeth all on the Paisant The greater Towns the Officers of the Kings House the Officers of Warrs the Presidents Counsellors and Officers of the Court of Parliament the Nobility the Clergy and the Schollars of the Vniversity being freed from it That which they call the Taillon was intended for the ease of the Country though now it prove one of the greatest burdens unto it In former times the Kings Souldiers lay all upon the charge of the Villages the poor people being fain to find them diet lodging and all necessaries for themselves their horses and their harlots which they brought with them If they were not well pleased with their entertainment they used commonly to beat their Host abuse his family and rob him of that small provision which he had laid up for his Children and all this Cum privilegio Thus did they move from one Village to another and at the last returned unto them from whence they came Ita ut non sit ibi villula una expers calamitatis istius quae non semel aut bis in anno hac nefandâ pressurâ depiletur as Sir John Fâ—rtescue observed in his time To redress this mischeif King Henry the second Anno 1549. raised his Imposition called the Taillon issuing out of the lands and goods of the poor Country man whereby he was at the first somewhat eased but now all is again out of order the miserable Paisant being oppressed by the Souldier as much as ever and yet he still payeth both taxes the Taille and the Taillon The Pancarte comprehendeth in it divers particular imposts but especially the Sol upon the Liure that is the twentieth penny of all things bought or sold corn sallets and the like onely excepted Upon wine besides the Sol upon the Liure he hath his several customs at the entrance of it into any of his Cities passages by Land Sea or River To these Charles the ninth Anno 1561. added a tax of five Sols upon every Maid which is the third part of a Tun and yet when all this is done the poor Vintner payeth unto the King the eighth penny he takes for that wine which he selleth In this Pancart is also contained the bant passage which are the tols paid unto the King for passage of men and cattel over his bridges and his City gates as also for all such Commodities which they bring with them A good and round sum considering the largeness of the Kingdom the thorough-fare of Lyons being farmed yearly of the King for 100000. Crowns Hereunto belong also the Aides which are a taxe also of the Sol on the Liure upon all sorts of fruits provision wares and Merchandize granted first unto Charles Duke of Normandy when John his Father was prisoner in England and since made perpetual For such is the lamentable fate of that Country that their kindnesses are made duties and those moneys which they once grant out of love are alwayes after exacted of them and paid out of necessity The bedrolle of all these impositions and taxes is called the Paneart because it was hanged up in a frame like as the Officers Fees are in our Bishops Diocesan Courts the word Pan signifying a frame or pane of wainscot These impositions time and custom hath now made tolerable though at first day they seemed very burdensome and moved many Cities to murmuring some to rebellion Amongst others the City of Paris proud of her ancient liberties and immunities refused to admit of it This indignity so incensed Charles the sixth their King then young and in hot bloud that he seized into his hands all their priviledges took from their Provost des Merchants and the Eschevins as also the key of their gates and the chains of their streets and making through the whole Town such a face of mourning that one might justly have said Haec facies Troiae cum caperetur erat This happened in the year 1383. and was for five years together continued which time being expired and other Cities warned by that example the imposition was established and the priviledges restored For the better regulating of the profits arising from these imposts the French King erected a Court Le Cour des Aides It consisted at the first of the general of the Aides and of any four of the Lords of the Councel whom they would call to their assistance Afterwards Charles the fifth Anno 1380. or thereabouts settled it in Paris and caused it to be numbred as one of the Soveraign Courts Lewis the eleventh dissolved it and committed the managing of his Aids to his Household servants as loath to have any publike Officers take notice how he fleeced his people Anno 1464. it was restored again And finally Henry the second Anno 1551. added to it a second Chamber composed of two Presidens and eight Counsellors One of which Presidents Mr. Cavilayer is said to be the best moneyed man of all France There are also others of these Courts in the Country as one at Roven one at Montferrant in Averyne one at Bourdeaux and another at Montpellier
French by that door making their entry into this Province out of which at last they thrust the English Anno 1450. So desperate a thing is a frighted Coward This Country had once before been in possession of the English and that by a firmer title than the Sword William the Conqueror had conveyed it once over the Seas into England it continued an appendix of that Crown from the year 1067. unto that of 1204. At that time John called Sáns terre third Son unto King Henry the second having usurped the States of England and the English possessions in France upon Arthur heir of Britain and Son unto Geofrey his elder brother was warred on by Phillip Augustus King of France who sided with the said Arthur In the end Arthur was taken and not long after found dead in the ditches of the Castle of Roven Whether this violent death happened unto him by the practises of his Uncle as the French say or that the young Prince came to that unfortunate end in an attempt to escape as the English report is not yet determined For my part considering the other carriages and virulencies of that King I dare be of that opinion that the death of Arthur was not without his contrivement Certainly he that rebelled against his Father and practised the eternal imprisonment and ruine of his Brother would not much stick this being so speedy a way to settle his affairs at the murther of a Nephew Upon the first bruit of this murther Constance Mother to the young Prince complained unto the King and Parliament of France not the Court which now is in force consisting of men only of the long Robe but the Court of Pairrie or twelve Peers whereof himself was one as Duke of Normandy I see not how in justice Philip could do less than summon him an Homager being â—lain and an Homager accused To this summons John refused to yeild himself A counsel rather magnanimous than wise and such as had more in it of an English King than a French Subject Edward the third a prince of a finer mettal than this John obeyed the like warrant and performed a personal homage to Philip of Valoys and it is not reckoned among his disparagements He committed yet a further error or solaecisme in State not so much as sending any of his people to supply his place or plead his cause Upon this none appearance the Peers proceed to sentence Il fur par Arrest la dire Cour saith Du' Chesne condemne pour attaint et convainuc du crime de parricide de felonnie Parricide for the killing of his own Nephew and felony for committing an act so execrable on the person of a French vassal and in France Jhon de Sienes addeth a third cause which was contempt in disobeying the Kings commandement Upon this verdict the Court awarded Que toutes les terres qu' il avoit par deca de mourerient acquises confisques a la corronne c. A proceeding so fair and orderly that I should sooner accuse King John of indiscretion than the French of injustice when my estate or life is in danger I wish it may have no more sinister a trial The English thus outed of Normandy by the weakness of John recovered it again by the puissance of Henry But being held onely by the sword it was after thirty years recovered again as I have told you And now being passed over the Oyse I have at once freed the English and my self of Normandy here ending this Book but not that dayes journey The Second Book or FRANCE CHAP. I. France in what sense so called the bounds of it All old Gallia not possessed by the French Countries follow the name of the most predominant Nation The condition of the present French not different from that of the old Gaules That the Heavens have a constant power upon the same Climate though the Inhabitants be changed The quality of the French in private at the Church and at the Table Their Language Complements Discourse c. IVly the third which was the day we set out of St. Claire having passed through Pontoise and crossed the River we were entred into France France as it is understood in his limitted sense and as a part onely of the whole For when Meroveus the Grandchild of Pharamond first King of the Francones had taken an opportunity to pass the Rhene having also during the warres between the Romans and the Gothes taken Paris he resolved there to set up his rest and to make that the head City of his Empire The Country round about it which was of no large extent he commanded to be called Francia or Terra Francorum after the name of his Francks whom he governed In this bounded and restrained sense we now take it being confined with Normandy on the North Campagne on the East and on the West and South with the little Province of la Beausse It is also called and that more properly to distinguish it from the whole continent the Isle of France and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Isle I know not any thing more like it then the Isle of Elie the Eure on the West the Velle on the East the Oyse on the Northward and a vein riveret of the Seine towards the South are the Rivers which encircle it But the principall environings are made by the Seine and the Marne a river of Champagne which within the main Island make divers Ilets the waters winding up and down as desirous to recreate the earth with the pleasures of its lovely and delicious embraces This Isle this portion of Gaule properly and limitedly stiled France was the seate of the Franks at their first coming hither and hath still continued so The rest of Gallia is in effect rather subdued by the French than inhabited their valour in time having taken in those Countries which they never planted So that if we look apprehensively into Gaule we shall find the other Nations of it to have just cause to take up the complaint of the King of Portugal against Ferdinand of Castile for assuming to himself the title of Catholique King of Spain eius tam non exiguâ parte penes reges alios as Mariana relateth it Certain it is that the least part of old Gallia is in the hands of the French the Normans Britons Biscaines or Gascoynes the Gothes of Languedoc and Provence Burgundians and the ancient Gaules of Poictou retaining in it such fair and ample Provinces But it is the custome shall I say or fate of lesser and weaker Nations to loose their names unto the stronger as Wives do to their Husbands and the smaller Rivers to the greater Thus we see the little Province of Poland to have mastered and given name to the Pruteni Marovy and other Nations of Sarmatia Europaea as that of Moseo hath unto all the Provinces of Asiatica Thus hath Sweden conquered and denominated almost all the great Peninsula of Scandia where it is but
neither the said Infanta nor the Children born by her to the King shall be capable to inherit any of the estates of the King of Spain and in the eighth article she is bound to make an act of renunciation under her own hand-writing as soon as she cometh to be twelve years old which was accordingly performed But this being not sufficient to secure their fears it is thought that she was some way or other disabled from conception before ever she came into the Kings embraces A great crime I confess if true yet I cannot say with Tully in his defence of Ligarius Novum crimen Caie Caesar hec tempus mauditum Jaqueline Countess of Holland was Cozen to Philip Duke of Burgundie Her being fruitful would have debarred him from those estates of Holland Zealand and West-Freezland therefore though she had three Husbands there was order taken she should never have Child with her two first Husbands the Duke would never suffer her to live and when she had stollen a wedding with Frane of Borselle one of her servants the Dukes Physitians gave him such a potion that she might as well have married an Eunuch upon this injury the poor Lady died and the Duke succeeded in those Countries which by his Grand-child Marie were conveyed over into the House of Austria together with the rest of his estate I dare not say that that Family hath inherited his practises with his lands and yet I have heard that the Infanta Isabella had the like or worse measure afforded her before she was bedded to the Arch-duke Albertus A diabolical trick which the prostitutes of the heathen used in the beginnings of the Gospel and before of whom Octavius complaineth quod originem futuri hominis extinguant paricidium faciunt antequam pariunt Better luck than the King hath his Sister beyond the mountains I mean his eldest Sister Madame Elizabeth married to the King of Spain now living as being or having been the Mother of two Children His second Sister Madame Christian is married to Amadeo Victor Principe Maior or heir apparent of the Duke of Savoy to whom as yet she hath born no issue The youngest Henrietta Mariae is newly married to his most Excellent Majesty of England to whom may she prove of a most happy and fruitful womb Et pulchra faciat te prole parentem Of these alliances the first were very profitable to both Princes could there be made a marriage between the Kingdoms as well as the Kings But it is well known that the affections of each people are divided more unconquerable mountains than their dominions The French extreamly hating the proud humour and ambition of the Spaniard We may therefore account each of them in these marriages to have rather intended the perpetuity of their particular houses than the strength of their Empires and that they more desired a noble stock whereon to graft posterity than power The alliance with Savoy is more advantagious though less powerful than that of Spain For if the King of France can keep this Prince on his party he need not fear the greatness of the other or any of his faction The continuall siding of this House with that of Austria having given many and great impediments to the fortune of the French It standeth so fitly to countenance the affairs of either King in Italy or Germany to which it shall incline that it is just of the same nature with the estate of Florence between Millain and Venice of which Guicciaraine saith that Mantennero le coseâ—d Italia bilanâ—iate On this reason King Henry the fourth earnestly desired to match one of his Children into this Countrey and left this desire as a Legacie with his Council But the alliance of most use to the State of France is that of England as being the nighest and most able of all his neighbours An alliance which will make his Estate invincible and incompassed about as it were with a wall of brass As for the Kings bastard Brethren they are four in number and born of three several beds The eldest is Mr. Alexander made Knight of the Order of St. John or of Malta in the life time of his Father He is now Grand Prior of France and it is much laboured and hoped by the French that he shall be the next Master of the Order a place of great command and credit The second and most loved of his Father whose lively image and character he is said to be is Mr Caesar made Duke of Vendosme by his Father and is at this time Governor of Brittain a man of a brave spirit and one who swayeth much in the affairs of State His Father took great care for his advancement before his death and therefore married him to the Daughter and Heir of the Duke of Mercuer a man of great possessions in Brittain It is thought that the inheritance of this Lady both by her Fathers side and also by her Mothers who was of the Family of Marsegues being a stock of the old Ducal tree is no less than 200000. Crowns yearly Both these were born unto the King by Madame Gabriele for her excellent beauty surnamed labelle Dutchess of Beauforte a Lady whom the King most entirely affected even to the last gasp and one who never abused her power with him so that we may truly say of her what Velleius flatteringly said of Livia the Wife of Augustus Ejus potentiam nemo senset nisi levatione periculi aut accessione dignitatis The third of the Kings natural Brethren is Mr. Henry now Bishop of Metz in Lorraine and Abbot of St. Germans in Paris As Abbot he is Lord of the goodly Fairbourg of St. Germans and hath the profits of the great Fair there holden which make a large revenue His Bishoprick yeildeth him the profits of 20000. Crowns and upwards which is the remainder of 60000. the rest being pawned to the Duke of Lorraine by the last Bishop who was of that family The Mother of this Mr. Henry is the Marchioness of Verneville who before the death of the King fell out of his favour into the prison and was not restored to her liberty till the beginning of the Queen Mothers Regency The fourth and youngest is Mr. Antonie born unto the King by the Countess of Morret who is Abbot of the Churches of Marseilles and Cave hath as yet not fully six thousand pound a year when his Mother dieth he Will be richer The Kings lawful Brother is named John Baptist Gaston born the 25th of April Anno 1608. A Prince of a brave and manlike aspect likely to inherit as large a part of his Fathers spirit as the King doth of his Crown He is entituled Duke of Aniou as being the third Son of France but his next elder Brother the Duke of Orleance being dead in his childhood he is vulgarly and properly called Monsieur This title is different from that of Daulphin in that that title is onely appropriated to the Heir
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 stiled onely Le primier Prince du sang The first Prince of the bloud This title of Monsieur answereth to that of the Despote in the Greek Empire and in imitation of that it is thought to have been instituted Others of the French Princes are called Monsieurs also but with some addition of place or honour the Kings eldest Brother onely is called Monsieur sans quene as the French use to say that is simply Monsieur This young Prince is as yet unmarried but destinate to the bed of the young Dutchess of Mont-pensier whose Father died in the time of Henry the fourth Had the Duke of Orleance lived he had espoused her long ere this but it is generally beleived that this Prince is so affected He seeth his elder Brother as yet childless 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 hold her to be a fit match for the young Count of Soisons 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 about marrying him to the young Madame now Queen of England As for the Count it cannot but be advantagious to him divers wayes partly to joyn together the two Families of Mont pensier and Soisons both issuing from the house of Burbon partly to enrich himself by adding unto his inheritance so fair an estate and partly by gaining all the Freinds and Allies of the Ladies kinred unto him 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 Soisons Henry Prince of Conde had to his first Wife Mary of Cleve Daughter to the Duke of Nevers by whom he had no Children to his second Wife he took the Lady Katherine of Tremoville Sister to the Duke of Thovars Anno 1586. two years after his marriage he died of an old greif took from a poysoned cup which was given him Anno 1552. and partly from a blow given him with a Lance at the battel of Contras Anno 1587. In the eleventh moneth after his decease his young Princess was brought to bed of a young Son which is now Prince of Conde Charles Count of Soisons in the raign of Henry the fourth began to question the Princes legitimation whereupon the King dealt with the Parliament of Paris to declare the place of the first Prince of the bloud to belong to the Prince of Conde And for the clearer and more evident proof of the title twenty four physitians of good faith and skill made an open protestation of oath in the Coutt that it was not onely possible but common for Women to be delivered in the eleventh moneth On this it was awarded to the Prince This decree of Parliament notwithstanding if ever the King and his Brother should die childless it is said that the young Count of Soisons his Father died Anno 1614. will not so give over his title He is Steward of the Kings House as his Father also was before him a place of good credit and in which he hath demeaned himself very plausibly In case it should come to a tryal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which God forbid he is like to make a great party both within the Realm and without it without it by means of the House of Savoy having married his eldest Sister unto Don Thomazo the second Son of that Dukedom now living A brave man at armes and indeed the fairest fruit that ever grew on that tree next Heir of his Father after the death of Don Amadeo yet childless within the Realm the Lords have already declared themselves which happened on this occasion In the year 1620. the moneth of March the King being to wash the Prince of Conde laid hold on the towel chalenging that honour as first Prince of the bloud and on the other side the Count of Soisons seized on it as appertaining to his office of Steward and Prince of the bloud also The King to decide the controversie for the present commanded it to be given to Monsieur his Brother yet did not this satisfie For in the morning the Friends of both Princes came to offer their service in the cause To the Count came in general all the opposites of the Prince of Conde and of the Duke of Luines and Guise in particular the Duke of Maien the Duke of Vendosme the Dukes of Longueville Espernon Nemours the Grand Prior the Dukes of Thovars Retz and Rohan the Viscount of Aubetene c. who all withdrew themselves from the Court made themselves Masters of the best places in their Governments and were united presently into an open faction of which the Queen Mother declared her self head As for the Commons without whom the Nobility may well quarrel but not fight they are more zealous in behalf of the Count as being brought up alwayes a Papist and born of a Catholike kinred whereas the Prince though at this instant he be a Catholike yet non fuit sic ab initio he was born they say and brought up an Hugonot and perchance the alteration is but dissembled Concerning the Prince of Conde he hath a sentence of Parliament on his side and a verdict of Physitians both weak helps to a soveraignty unless well backed by the Sword And for the verdict of the Physitians thus the case is stated by the Doctors of that faculty Laurentius a Professor of Mâ—nt-pellier in Languedoc in his excellent Treatise of Anatomy maketh three terms of a Womans delivery Primus intermedius ultimus The first the seventh and eighth moneth after conception in each of which the Child is vital and may live if it be born To this also consenteth the Dr. of their Chair Hippocrates saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that a Child born in the seventh moneth if it be well looked to may live We read also how in Spain the Women are oftentimes lightned in the end of the seventh moneth and commonly in the end of the eighth and further that Sempronius and Corbula both Roman Consuls were born in the seventh moneth Plinie in his natural History reporteth it as a truth though perhaps the Women that told him either misreckoned their time or else dissembled it to conceal their honesties The middle time terminus intermedius is the ninth and tenth moneths at which time Children do seldom miscarry In the former two moneths they had gathered life
live happily if they can be content to live obediently that which is taken from them being matter of strength onely not priviledge Let us now look upon them in their Churches which we shall find as empty of magnificence as ceremony to talk amongst them of Common prayers were to fright them with a second coming of the Mass and to mention Prayers at the burial of the dead were to perswade them of a Purgatory Painted glass in a Church window is accounted for the flag and ensign of Antichrist and for Organs no question but they are deemed the Devils Bap pipes Shew them a Surplice and they cry out a rag of the Whore of Babylon yet a Sheet upon a Woman when she is in childâ—bed is a greater abomination than the other A strange people that could never think the Mass-book sufficiently reformed till they had taken away Prayers nor that their Churches could ever be handsome until they were ragged This foolish opposition of their first Reformers hath drawn the Protestants of these parts into a world of dislike and envy and been no small disadvantage to their side whereas the Church of England though it dissent as much from the Papists in point of doctrine is yet not uncharitably thought on by the moderatest Catholikes by reason it retained such an excellency of discipline When the Liturgie of our Church was translated into Latine by Doctor Mocket once Warden of All-Souls Colledge in Oxford it was with great approof and applause received here in France by those whom they call Catholikes Royal as marvelling to see such order and regular devotion in them whom they were taught to condemn for heretical An allowance which with some little help might have been raised higher from the practise of our Church to some points of our judgement And it is very worthy of our observation that which the Marquess of Rhosney spake of Canterbury when he came as extraordinary Embassadour from King Henry the fourth to welcome King James into England for upon the view of our solemn Service and Ceremonies he openly said unto his fellows that if the reformed Churches in France had kept the same orders amongst them which we have he was assured that there would have been many thousands more of Protestants than now there are But the Marquess of Rhosney was not the last that said so I have heard divers French Papists who were here at the Queens coming over and ventured so far upon an excommunication as to be present at our Church solemn Services extolling them and us for their sakes even almost unto Hyperboles So graciously is our temper entertained amongst them As are their Churches such is their discipline naked of all antiquity and almost as modern as the men which embraced it The power and calling of Bishops they abrogated with the Mass upon no other cause then that Geneva had done it As if that excellent man Mr. Calvin had been the Pythagoras of our age and his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Ipse dixit had stood for Oracle The Hierarchi of Bishops thus cast out they have brought in their places Lay-Elders a kind of Monsters never heard of in the Scriptures or first times of the Gospel These men leap from the stall to the Bench and partly sleeping and partly stroaking their beard they enact Laws of government for the Church So that we may justly take up the complaint of the Satyrist saying Surgunt nobis e Sterquitineo magistratus nec dum tot is manibus publica tractant negotia yet to these very men composed equally of ignorance and a Trade are the most weighty matters of the Church committed In them is the power of ordaining Priests of conferring places of Charge and even of the severest censure of the Church Excommunication When any business which concerneth the good of the Congregation is befallen they must be called to counsel and you shall find them there as soon as ever they can put off their aprons Having blotted out there a little classical non-sense and passed their consents rather by nodding of their heads than any other sensible articulation they hasten to their Shops as Quinctius the Dictator in Florus did to his Plow Vt adopus relictum festinasse videatur Such a platform though it be as needeth no further confutation then to know it yet had it been the more tolerable if the Contrivers of it had not endeavoured to impose it on all the reformation by which meanes what troubles have been raised by the great Zealots here in England there is none so young but hath heard some tragical relations God be magnified and our late King praised by whom this weed hath been snatched up out of the garden of this our Israel As for their Ministery it is indeed very learned in their study and exceeding painful in their calling by the first they confute the ignorant of the Romish Clergy by the second their laziness And questionless it behoveth them so to be for living in a Country full of opposition they are forced to a necessity of book-learning to maintain the Cause and being continually as it were beset with spies did therefore frequent the Pulpits to hold up their credits The maintenance which is alotted them scarce amounteth to a competency though by that name they please to call it With receiving of tythes they never meddle and therefore in their Systematical Tractats of Divinity they do hardly allow of paying of them Some of them hold that they are Jewish and abrogated with the Law Others think them meerly to be Jure Humano and yet that they may be lawfully accepted where they are tendered It is well yet that there are some amongst theÌ„ which will commend grapes though they cannot reach them This Competency may come to forty or fifty pound yearly or a little more Beza that great and famous Preacher of Geneva had but eighty pound a year and about that rate was Peter du Moulins pension when he preached at Clarenton These stipends are partly paid by the King and partly raised by way of Collection So the Ministers of those Churches are much of the nature of the English Lecturers As for the Tythes they belong to the several Parish Priests in whose precincts they are due and those I warrant you according to the little learning which they have will hold them to be Jure Divino The Sermons of the French are very plain home-spun little in them of the Fathers and less of humane learning it being concluded in the Synode of Sappe that onely the Scriptures should be used in their Pulpits they consist much of exhortation and use and of nothing in a manner which concerneth knowledge A ready way to raise up and edifie the will and affections but withall to starve the understanding For the education of them being Children they have private Schools when they are better grown they may have free recourse unto any of the French Academies besides the new Vniversity of Saumus which
by the sweat of their brows is the Court fed and the Souldier paid and by their labours are the Princes maintained in idleness What impositions soever it pleaseth the King to put upon them it is almost a point of treason not onely to deny but to question Apud illos vere regnatur nefasque quantum regi liceat dubitare as one of them The Kings hand lieth hard upon them and hath almost thrust them into an Egyptian bondage the poor Paisant being constrained to make up daily his full tale of brick and yet have no straw allowed him Upon the sight of these miseries and poverties of this people Sir John Fortescue Chancellor of England in his book intituled De laudibus Regum Angliae concludeth them to be unfit men for Jurers or Judges should the custom of the Country admit of such a trial for having proved there unto the Prince he was Son unto Henry the sixth that the manner of trial according to the Common Law by twelve Jurats was more commendable than the practise of the Civil or Imperial Laws by the deposition onely of two Witnesses or the forced confession of the person arraigned the Prince seemed to marvel Cur ea lex Angliae quae tam frugi optabilis est non sit toti mundo communis to this he maketh answer by shewing the free condition of the English Subjects who alone are used at these Inditements men of a fair and large estate such as dwell nigh the place of the deed committed men that are of ingenuous education such as scorn to be suborned or corrupted and afraid of infamy Then he sheweth how in other places all things are contrary the Husbandman an absolute beggar easie to be bribed by reason of his poverty The Gentlemen living far asunder and so taking no notice of the fact The Paisant also neither fearing infamy nor loss of goods if he be found faulty because he hath them not In the end he concludeth thus Nec mireris igitur princeps si lex quae Anglia veritas inquiritur ab ea non pervagetur in alias nationes Ipsae namque ut Anglia nequeunt facere sufficientes consimilesque juratas The last part of the Latine savoureth somewhat of the Lawyer the word Jurata being there put to signifie a Jury To go over all those impositions which this miserable people are afflicted withal were almost as wretched as the payment of them I will therefore speak onely of the principal and here I meet in the first place with the gabel or imposition on Salt This gabelle de Sel this Impost on Salt was first begun by Philip the Long who took for it a Double which is half a Sol upon the pound After whom Philip de Valoys Anno 1328. doubled it Charles the seventh raised it unto three Doubles and Lewis the eleventh unto six since that time it hath been altered from so much upon the pound to a certain rate on the Maid which containeth some thirty bushels English the rates rising and falling at the Kings pleasure This one Commodity were very advantagious to the Exchequer were it all in the Kings hands but at this time a great part of it is morgaged It is thought to be worth unto the King three millions of Crowns yearly that onely of Paris and the Provosts seven Daughters being farmed at 1700000. Crowns the year The late Kings since Anno 1581. being intangled in warrs have been constrained to let it to others insomuch that about Anno 1599. the King lost above 800000. Crowns yearly and no longer then Anno 1621. the King taking up 600000. pounds of the Provost of the Merchants and the Eschevins gave unto them a Rent charge of 40000. pound yearly to be issuing out of the customs of Salt till their money were repaid them This gabel is indeed a Monopolie and that one of the unjustest and unmeasurablest in the world for no man in the Kingdom those Countries hereafter mentioned excepted can eat any Salt but he must buy it of the King and at his price which is most unconscionable that being sold at Paris and elsewhere for five liures which in the exempted places is sold for one Therefore that the Kings profits might not be diminished there is diligent watch and ward that no forrain Salt be brought into the Land upon pain of forfeiture and imprisonment A search that is made so strictly that we had much ado at Diepe to be pardoned the searching of our Trunks and Port-mantues and that not but upon our solemn protestations that we had none of that Commodity This Salt is of a brown colour being onely such as we in England call Bay Salt is imposed on the Subjects by the Kings Officers with great rigor For though they have some of their last provision in the house or perchance would be content through poverty to eat their meat without it yet will these cruel villains enforce them to take such a quantity of them howsoever they will have of them so much money But this tyranny is not general the Normans and Picards enduring most of it and the other Paisants the rest Much like unto this was the licence which the Popes and Bishops of old granted in matter of keeping Concubines for when such as had the charge of gathering the Popes rents happened upon a Priest which had no Concubine and for that cause made denial of the tribute the Collectors would return them this answer that notwithstanding this they should pay down the money because they might have had the keeping of a Wench if they would This gabel as it sitteth hard upon some so are there some also who are never troubled with it of this sort are the Princes in the general release and many of the Nobless in particular insomuch that it was proved unto King Lewis Anno 1614. that for every Gentleman which took of his Majesties Salt there were two thousand of the Commons There are also some entire Provinces which refuse to eat of this Salt as Britain Gascoine Poictou Queren Naintogne and the County of Boulonnois Of these the County of Boulonnois pretendeth a peculiar exemption as belonging immediately to the patrimony of our Lady Nostre-Dame of which we shall learn more when we are in Bovillon The Britains came united to the Crown by a fair marriage and had strength enough to make their own Capitulations when they first entered into the French subjection besides here are yet divers of the Ducal Family living in the Country who would much trouble the quiet of the Kingdom should the people be oppressed with this bondage and they take the protection of them Poictou and Queren have compounded for it with the former Kings and pay a certain rent yearly which is called the Equivalent Xaintogne is under the command of Rochell of whom it receiveth sufficient at a better rate And as for the Gascoynes the King dareth not impose it upon them for fear of rebellion They are a
and humanity certainly they much exceed the Parisians I was about to say all the French-men and indeed I not grudge them this Eulogie which Caesar giveth unto those of Kent and verifie that they are omnium incolarum longe humanissimi my selfe here observing more courtesie and affability in one day than I could meet withall in Paris during all my abode there The buildings of it are very suitable to themselves and the rest of France the streets large and well kept not yeilding the least offence to the most curious nostrill Parish Churches it hath in it 26. of different and unequall beeing as it useth to be in other places besides these it containeth the Episcopall Church of S. Croix and divers other houses of religious persons amongst which is St. Jacques of both which I shall speak in their due order Thus much for the resemblance of the Townes the difference betwixt them is this that Orleans is the bigger and Worcester the richer Orleans consisteth much of the Noblesse and of Sojourners Worcester of Citizens and Home-dwellers and for the manner of life in them so it is that Worcester hath the handsomer woman in it Orleans the finer and in my opinion the loveliest in all France Worcester thriveth the most on Cloathing Orleans on their Vine-presses And questionlesse the Wine of Orleans is the greatest riches not of the Towne onely but of the Countrey also about it For this cause Aâ—dre dis Chesne calleth it the prime Cellar of Paris Est une pars saith he si henreuse si secunde sur tout in vins quon la pent dice l'unde primiers celiers de Paris Those Vines wherein he maketh it to be so happy deserve no lesse a commendation than he hath given them as yeilding the best Wines in all the Kingdome such as it much moved me to mingle with Water they being so delicious to the Palate and the Epicurisme of the taste I have heard of a Dutch Gentleman who being in Italy was brought acquainted with a kinde of Wine which they there call Lachrymae Christi no sooner had he tasted it but he fell into a deep melancholy and after some seaven sighes besides the addition of two groâ—nes he brake out into this patheticall Ejaculation Dii boni quare non Christus lachrymatus esset in nostris regionibus This Dutchman and I were for a time both of one minde insomuch that I could almost have picked a quarrell with Nature for giving us none of this Liquor in England At last we grew friends again when I had perceived how offensive it was to the brain if not well qualified for which cause it is said that K. Lewis hath banished it his Cellar no doubt to the great grief of his drinking Courtiers who may therefore say with Martial Quid tantum fecere boni tibi pessima vina Aut quid fecerunt optima vina mali This towne called Genabum by Caesar was reedified by Aurelian the Emperour Anno 276. and called by his name Aurelianum which it still retaineth amongst the Latines It hath been famous heretofore for four Councels here celebrated and for being the seat royall of the Kings of Orleans though as now I could not heare any thing of the ruines of the Palace The same of it at this time consisteth in the Vniversity and its seat of Justice This town being one of them which they call Sieges Presidiaux Now these Seiges Presidiaux Seats or Courts of Justice were established in divers cities of the Realme for the ease of the people Anno 1551. or thereabouts In them all civill causes not exceeding 250 Liu'res in Money or 10. Liu'res in Rents are heard and determined soveraignly and without appeale If the summe exceed those proportions the appeale holdeth good and shall be examined in that Court of Parliament under whose jurisdiction it is Their Court here consisteth of a Baille whose name is Mr. Digion of twelve Counsellors two Lieutenants one civill the other criminall and a publique Notarie When Mr. Le Compte de St. Paul who is the Governour or Lieutenant Generall of the Province cometh into their Court he giveth precedency to the Baille in other places he receiveth it This institution of these Presidiall Courts was at first a very profitable ordinance and much eased the people but now it is grown burdensome The reason is that the offices are meere saâ—â—able and purchased by them with a great deale of money which afterwards they wrest againe out of the purses of the Paâ—sant The sale of Offices drawing necessarily after it the sale of Justice a mischief which is spread so far that there is not the worst under Officer in all the Realm Who may not say with the Captaine in the 22. of the Acts and the 28. verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 With a great summe of money obtained I this freedome Twenty yeares purchase is said to be no extraordinary rate and I have read that onely by the sale of Offices one of the Kings had raised in twenty yeares 139 millions which amounteth to the proportion of 7 millions yearly or thereabouts of all wayes to thrift and treasure the most unkindly In the yeare 1614. the King motioned the abolishing of the sales of this Market but it was upon a condition more prejudiciall to the people than the mischiefe For he desired in lieu of it to have a greater imposition laid upon Salt and upon the Aides which those that were Commissioners for the Câ—mmonalty would not admit of because then a common misery had been brought out of the State to make their particular miseries the greater and so the corruption remaineth unaltered This Towne as it is sweetly seated in respect of the aire so is it finely convenienced with the walks of which the chief are that next unto Paris gate having the wall on the one hand and a rank of Palm trees on the other the second that neere unto the bridge having the Water pleasingly running on both sides and a third which is indeed the principall on the East-side of the City it is called the Palle Malle of an exercise of that name much used in this Kingdome a very Gentleman-like sport not over violent and such as affordeth good opportunity of discourse as they walk from one mark to the other Into this walk which is of a wonderful length and beauty you shall have a clear evening empty all the towne the aged people borrowing legs to carry them and the younger armes to guide them If any young Dame or Monsieur walk thither single they will quickly finde some or other to link with them though perhaps such with whom they have no familiarity Thus do they measure and re-measure the length of the Palle Malle not minding the shutting in of the day till darkness hath taken away the sense of blushing at all houres of the night be it warm and dry you shall be sure to finde them thus coupled and if at the yeares end there
Paisant but not with so full a manner as with us Their Beef they cut out into such chops that that which goeth there for a laudable dish would be thought here a Vniversity Commons new served from the Hatch A Loyne of Mutton serves amongst them for three rostings besides the hazard of making pottage with the rump Fowl also they have in good plenty especially such as the King found in Scotland to say truth that which they have is sufficient for nature and a friend were it not for the Mistriss or the Kitchin wench I have heard much fame of the french Cookes but their skill lyeth not in the neat handling of Beef or Mutton They have as generally have all this Nation good fancies and are speciall fellowes for the making of puff pastes and the ordering of banquets Their trade is not to feed the belly but the pallat It is now time you were set down where the first thing you must do is to say your own Grace private Graces are as ordinary there as private Masses and from thence I think they learned them That done fall to where you like best they observe no method in their eating and if you look for a carver you may rise fasting When you are risen if you can digest the sluttishness of the Cookery which is most abominable at first sight I dare trust you in a Garrison follow him to Church and there he will shew himself most irrereligious and irreverent I speak not of all but the general At a Masse in Cordeliers Church in Paris I saw two French Papists even when the most sacred Mistery of their faith was celebrating break out into such a blasphemous and athiestical laughter that even an Ethnick would have hated it it was well they were known to be Catholiques otherwise some French hot head or other would have sent them laughing to Pluto The French Language is indeed very sweet and delectable it is cleared of all harshness by the cutting and leaving out the consonants which makerh it fall off the tongue very volubly yet in mine opinion it is rather elegant than copious and therefore is much troubled for want of words to find out Periphrases It expresseth very much of it self in the action the head body and shoulders concurre all in the pronouncing of it and he that hopeth to speak it with a good grace must have something in him of the Mimick It is enriched with a full number of significant Proverbs which is a great help to the French humor in scoffing and very full of Courtship which maketh all the people complemental the poorest Cobler in the village hath his Court cringes and his eau bemste de Cour his Court holy water as perfectly as the Prince of Conde In the Passadoes of their Courtship they expresse themselves with much variety of gesture and indeed it doth not misbecome them were it as gracious in the Gentlemen of other Nations as in them it were worth your patience but the affectation of it is scurvy and ridiculous Quocunque salutationis artificio corpus inflestant putes nihil ist â institutione mages convenice Vicinae autem gentes ridiculo errore deceptae eiusdem Venustatis imitationem ludieram faciunt et ingratam as one happily observed at his being amongst them I have heard of a young Gallant Sonne to a great Lord of one of the three Brittish Kingdomes that spent some years in France to learn fashions at his return he desired to see the King and his Father procured him an enterveiwe when he came within the presence Chamber he began to compose his head and carryed it as though he had been ridden with a Martingale next he fell to draw back his leggs and thrust out his shoulders and that with such a graceless apishness that the King asked him if he meant to shoulder him out of his Chair and so left him to act out his complement to the hangings In their Courtship they bestow even the highest titles upon those of the lowest condition This is the vice also of their common talk the begger begitteth Monsieurs and Madames to his Sonnes and Daughters as familiarly as the King were there no other reason to perswade me that the Welch or Brittaynes were the defendants of the Gaules this onely were sufficient that they would all be Gentlemen His discourse runneth commonly on two wheeles Treason and Ribaldry I never heard people talk less reverently of their Prince nor more sawcily of his actions scarce a day passeth away without some seditious pamphlet printed and published in the disgrace of the King or of some of his Courtires These are every mans money and he that buyeth them is not coye of the Contents be they never so scandalous of all humors the most harsh and odious Take him from this which you can hardly do till he hath told all and then he falleth upon his ribaldry without these crutches his discourse would never be able to keep pace with his company Thus shall you have them relate the stories of their own uncleanness with a face as confident as if they had no accident to please their hearers more commendible Thus will they reckon up the several profanations of pleasure by which they have dismanned themselves sometimes not sparing to descend unto particulars A valiant Captaine never gloried more in the number of the Cities he had taken then they do of the several women they have prostituted Egregiam verò Laudem et spolia ampla Foolish and most perishing wretches by whom each several incontinency is twice committed first in the act and secondly in the boast By themselves they measure others and think them Naturals or Simplicians which are not so conditioned I protest I was fain sometimes to put on a little impudencie that I might avoid the suspition of a gelding or a sheep-biter It was St. Austins case as himself testifyeth in the second Book of his Confessions Fingebam me saith the good Father fecisse quod non feceram ne caeteris viderer abiectior But he afterwards was sorry for it and so am I and yet indeed there was no other way to keep in a good opinion of that unmanly and ungoverned people CHAP. II. The French Women their persons prating and conditions the immodesty of the French Ladies Kissing not in use amongst them and the sinister opinion conceived of the free use of it in England The innocency and harmlesness of it amongst us The impostures of French Pandors in London with the scandall thence arising The peccancy of our old English Doctor More of the French Women Their Marriages and lives after Wedlock An Elegie to the English Ladies I Am now come to the French Women and it were great pitty they should not immediately follow the discourse of the Men so like they are one to the other that one would think them to be the same and that all the difference lay in the apparel for person they are generally of an
the head being said to be within it By this representation he seemeth to have had a very reverend and awful countenance though I perswade my self that the rich Crown Miter which he there weareth and certainly they are of an high value never belonged to him in his life On each side of the head are two Angels supporting it reported to be the work of one Ely Le plus artiste orfeure de son temps the cunningst Gold-smith of his time who afterwards was made Bishop of Noyon and Sainted Concerning Reliques I shall have occasion to speak further when I come to the holy Chappel in Paris somewhat now of the honour due unto the memory of Martyrs I am none of those that think the memories of those Heroes of the Primitive times not to be honoured in the dust Neither would I assault their shrines with an irreverent finger On the other side they shall never have my prayers directed to them nor my devotions nor can I think it lawful to give the remnants of them any bodily observance though I do and will honour yet I dare not worship them St. Austin hath cut out the mid-way between the Papists and the Zelots in the eighth book of his most excellent work de Civitate Dei and his path it is best to follow Honoramus sane memorias eorum tanquam Sanctorum hominum Dei qui usque ad mortem suorum corporum pro veritate certarunt And a little after he sheweth the end of these memorials viz. Vt ea celebritate Deo vero gratias de eorum victoriis agamus nos ad imitationem talium coronarum eorum memoriae revocatione adhortemur 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 pretty one I confess it is richly beset with studs of Christal 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 have perhaps been fooled into a beleif for I am confident it can be no elder 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 amongst those there is nothing which will long detain an English man He that hath seen the Tombs at Westminster will think those to be but trifles if he consider the workmanship or the riches and the magnificence The cheif of those mean ones which are there are those of Henry the second and Katherine de Medices his Wife in a little Chappel of her own building both in their full proportion and in their royal habiliments exceeding stately Here is also a neat Tomb of the same Henry built all of brass and supported by four brass pillars His statue of the same mettal placed on the top of it and composed as if at his prayers The rest are more in tale than weight but the chiefest beauties of the Church are in the Treasury which was not mine happiness to see As I am imformed the most remarkable things in it are these The Swords of Joan the Virgin Charles the great Rowland his Cozen and that of Henry the fourth when he was crowned His Boots Crowns and Scepters as those of his Son now raigning A Cross of three foot high made of pure gold A Crown Scepter and golden Ball given by Pope Adrian to Carolus Magnus A golden Crown of a larger size be decked with adamants and other pretious stones given by Charles Martell after his victory over the Saracens A very fair Chalice all of gold in which St. Denis is said to have consecrated the Sacramental 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 glory of it that onely dayes content had deserved our journey Sed haec infaelici nimia Not to continue this discourse any further by way of journal or gesta dierum some few dayes after we had wearied our selves with the sight of Paris we went to see some of their Majesties houses in the Country and here we passed by Madrit so called of the King of Spains house at Madrit after the form of which it is built The Founder of it was Francis the first who being taken prisoner at the baâ—tel of Paviâ— Anno 15â—5 and thence carried into Spain had no less than a twelve-moneths leisure to draw that platform A fine contrived 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 the 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 forms of divers glasses pillars and geometrical figures all framed by the water there were birds of sundry forts so artificially made that they both deceived the eye by their motion and the ear by their melody Somewhat higher in the midst of a most delicious garden are two Fountains of admirable workmanship In the first the Portraitures of Cerberus the Bore of Calidon the Naemean Lyon and in the navel of it Hercules killing Hydra In the other onely a Crocodile full of wild and unruly tricks and sending from his throat a musick not far different from Organs Had your eyes been shut you would have thought your self in some Cathedral Church this melody of the Crocodile and that other of the Birds so exactly counterfeiting the harmony of a well ordered Quire And now we are come into the Grove a place so full of retired walks so sweetly and delectably contrived that they would even entice a man to melancholy because in them even melancholy would seem delightful The trees so interchangeably folded the one within the other that they were at once a shelter against wind and sun yet not not so sullenly close but that they afforded the eye an excellent Lordship over the vines and verdures of the earth imprisoned within them It seemed a Grove an Orchard and a Vineyard so variously enterwoven and mixed together as if it had been the purpose of the Artist to make a man fall in love with confusion In the middle of the wilderness was seated the house environed round about with a moat of running water the house pretty and therefore little built rather for a banquet than a feast It was built and thus enriched with variety of pleasures by Mr. de Ponte Taylor to King Henry the fourth and was no question the best garment he ever cut out in his life Dying he gave it to Mr. Landerbone once his servant and now his Son by adoption of whom the Queen Mother taking a liking to it
scarcity The place of their meeting is called l' hostelle de ville or the Guild Hall The present Provost Mr de Griâ—ux his habit as also that of the Eschevins and Counsellers half red half sky coloured the Citie Leveries with an Hood of the same This Provost is as much above the other in power as men which are loved commonly are above those which are feared This Provost the people willingly yea sometimes factiously obey as the Conservator of their Liberties the other they only dread as the Judges of their lives and the Tyrants of their estates To shew the power of this Provost both for and with the people against their Princes you may please to take notice of two instances for the people against Philip devalois Anno 1349. when the said King desiring an impost of one liure in five Crownes upon all wares sold in Paris for his better managing his warres against the English could obtain it but for one year onely and that not without especial Letters reservall that it should no way incommodate their priviledges which the people Anno 1357. when King John was prisoner in England and Charles the Daulphine afterwards the fifth of that name laboured his ransome among the Parisiens for then Steven Marcell attended by the vulgar Citizens not onely brake open the Daulphinâ—s Chamber but slew John de Confluns and Robert of Chermont two Marshalls of France before his face Nay to adde yet further insolencies to this he took his parti-coloured hood off his head putting it on the Daulphins and all that day wore the Daulphines hat being a brown black pour signal de sa Dictateur as the token of his Dictatorship And which is more than all this he sent the Daulphin cloath to make him a Cloak and Hood of the Cities Liverie and compelled him to avow the Massacre of his Servants above named as done by his command Horrible insolencies Quam miserum est eum haec impunè pacere potuisse as Tullie of Marc. Antonius The Arms of the Town as also of the Corporation of the Provost and Eschevins are Gules a Ship Argent a Cheife poudred with Flower de Luces Or. The seat or place of their Assemblies is called as we said Hostel de Ville or the Guild-hall It was built or rather finisht by Francis the first Anno 1533. and since beautified and repaired by Francis Miron once Provost des Merchands and afterwards privy Counsellor to the King It standeth on one side of the Greue which is the publike place of the Execution and is built quadrangular-wise all of free and polished stone evenly and orderly laid-together You ascend by thirty or forty steps fair and large before you come to the quadrate and thence by several stairs into the several rooms and chambers of it which are very neatly contrived and richly furnished The grand Chastelet is said to have been built by Julian the Apostata at such time as he was Governour of Gaul It was afterwards new built by Philip Augustus and since repaired by Lewis the twelfth In which time of repaitation the Provost of Paris kept his Court in the Palace of the Louure To sight it is not very graceful what it may be within I know not Certain it is that it looketh far more like a Prison for which use it also serveth than a Town Hall or seat of judgement In this part of Paris called la Ville or the Town is the Kings Arcenal or Magazin of War It carrieth not any great face of majesty on the outside neither indeed is it necessary Such places are most beautiful without when they are most terrible within It was begun by Henry the second finished by Charles the ninth and since augmented by Mr. Rhosme great Master of the Artillery It is said to contain an hundred field peices and their Carriage and also armour sufficient for ten thousand Horses and fifty thousand Foot In this part also of Paris is that excellent pile of building called the Place Royal built partly at the charges and partly at the encouragement of Henry the fourth It is built after the form of a Quadrangle every side of the square being in length seventy two fathoms the materials brick of divers colours which make it very pleasant though less durable It is cloystered round just after the fashion of the Royall Exchange in London the walks being paved under foot The houses of it are very fair and large every one having its garden and other out-lets In all they are thirty six nine on a side and seemed to be sufficiently capable of a great retinue The Ambassadour for the State of Venice lying in one of them It is scituate in that place whereas formerly the solemn tiltings were performed A place famous and fatal for the death of Henry the second who was here slain with the splinter of a Launce as he was running with the Earl of Mountgomery a Scottish man A sad and heavy accident To conclude this discourse of the Ville or Town of Paris I must wander a little out of it because the power and command of the provost saith that it must be so For his authority is not confined within the Town he hath seven Daughters on which he may exercise it Les sept filles de la Propaste de Paris as the French call them These seven Daughters are seven Bayliwicks comprehended within the Vicointe of Paris Viz. 1. Poissy 2. St. Germanenlay 3. Tornon 4. Teroiene Brie 5. Corbeil 6. Moutherrie and the 7. Gennesseen France Over these his jurisdiction is extended though not as Provost of Paris Here he commandeth and giveth judgement as Leiutenant Civil to the Duke of Mont-bâzon or the supreme Governour of Paris and the Isle of France for the time being yet this Leiutenancy being an Office perpetually annexed to the Provostship is the occasion that the Bayliwicks above named are called Les sept filles de la Provaste CHAP. VI. The Universitie of Paris and Founders of it Of the Colledges in general Marriage when permitted to the Rectors of them The small maintenance allowed to Schollars in the Universities of France The great Colledge at Tholoza Of the Colledge of the Sorbone in particular That and the House of Parliament the cheif bulwarks of the French liberty Of the policy nnd government of the Universtty The Rector and his precedency The disordered life of the Schollars there being An Apology for Oxford and Cambridge The priviledges of the Scholars Theer Degrees c. THis part of Paris which lieth beyond the furthermost branch of the Seine is called the University It is little inferior to the Town for bigness and less superior to it in sweetness or opulency whatsoever was said of the whole in general was intended to this part also as well as the others All the learning in it being not able to free it from those inconveniencies wherewith it is distressed It containeth in it onely six parish Churches the paucity whereof is
12. St. Marcial 13. St. German le Vieux Seated it is in the middle of the Seine and in that place where stood the old Lutetia Labienus cum quatuor legionibus saith Julius Caesar 7. Comment Lutetiam proficiscitur id est oppidum Parisioram positum in medio fluminâ—s 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 the 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 beautiful row of houses all of the same fashion so exactly that but by their several doors you could scarce think them to be several houses They are all new as being built in the raign of this present King whose Armes is engraven over every door of them The fourth and last bridge is that which standeth at the end of the Isle next the Louure and covereth the waters now united into one stream It was begun to be built by Katherine of Medices the Queen Mother Anno 1578. her Son King Henry the third laying the first stone of it The finishing of it was reserved to Henry the fourth who as soon as he had settled his affairs in this Town presently sent the workmen about it In the end of it where it joyneth to the Town there is a Water house which by artificial engines forceth up waters from a fresh spring rising from under the River done at the charges of the King also In the midst of it is the Statua of the said Henry the fourth all in brass mounted upon his barbed Steed of the same mertal They are both of them very unproportionable to those bodies which they represent and would shew them big enough were they placed upon the top of Nostre-dame Church What minded King Lewis to make his Father of so Gigantine a stature I cannot tell Alexander at his return from his Indian expedition scattered armours swords and horse-bits far bigger than were serviceable to make future ages admire his greatness Yet some have hence collected that the acts he performed are not so great as is reported because he strived to make them seem greater than they were It may also chance to happen that men in the times to come comparing the atchievements of this King with his brasen portraiture may think that the Historians have as much belyed his valour as his Statuary hath his person A ponte ad pontifices From the bridge proceed we to the Church the principal Church of Paris being that of Nostre-dame A Church very uncertain of its first Founder though some report him to be St. Savinian of whom I can meet with no more than his name But whoever laid the first foundation it much matters not all the glory of the work being now cast on Philip Augustus who pittying the ruines of it began to build it Anno 1196. It is a very fair and awful building adorned with a very beautiful front and two towers of especial height It is in length 174. paces and sixty in breadth and is said to be as many paces high and that the two towers are seventy yards higher than the rest of his Church At your first entrance on the right hand is the Effigies of St. Christopher with our Saviour on his shoulders A man the Legend maketh him as well as the Mason of a Gigantine stature though of the two the Masons workmanship is the more admirable his being cut out all of one Fair stone that of the Legendary being patched up of many fabulous ridiculous shreeds It hath in it four ranks of pillars 30 in a rank and forty five little Chappels or Mass-closets built between the outermost range of pillars and the wals This is the seat of the Arch-bishop of Paris for such now he is It was a Bishoprick onely till the year 1622. when Pope Gregory the fifteenth at the request of King Lewis raised it to a Metropolitanship But beside the addition of Honour I think the present Incumbent hath got nothing either in precedency or profit He had before a necessary voyce in the the Courts of Parliament and took place immediately after the Presidents he doth no more now Before he had the priority of all the Bishops and now he is but the last of all the Arch-bishops A preferment almost rather intellectual than real and perhaps his successors may account it a punishment For besides that the dignity is too unweildy for the Revenue which is but 600. liures or 600 li English yearly like enough it is that some may come into that See of Caesars mind who being in a small Village of the Alpes thus delivered his ambition to his followers Mallem esse hic primus quam Romae secundus The present possessour of this Chair is one Francis de Gondi by birth a Florentine one whom I have heard much famed for a Statesman but little for a Scholar But had he nothing in him this one thing were sufficient to make him famous to posterity that he was the first Arlh-bishop and the last Bishop of the City of Paris There is moreover in this Church a Dean seven Dignities and fifty Canons The Deans place is valued at 4000 liuree tâ—â—he Dignities at 3006. and the Canons at 2000. no great Intrado's and yet unproportionable to the Arch-bishoprick At Diepe as I have said I observed the first Idolatry of the Papists here I noted their first Superstitions which were the needless use of holy Water and the burning of Lamps before the Alter The first is said to be the invention of Pope Alexander the seventh Bishop of Rome in their account after Peter I dare not give so much credit unto Platina as to beleeve it of this Antiquity much less unto Bellarmine who deriveth it from the Apostles themselves in this Paradox he hath enemies enough at home his own Doctors being all for Alexander yet they also are not in the right The principall foundation of their opinion is an Epistle Decretory of the said Alexander which in it self carries its own confutation The citations of Scriptures on which this Superstition is thought to be grounded are all taken out of the Vulgar Translation Latine attributed to St. Hierome whereas neither was there in the time of Alexander any publick Translation of the Bible into Latine neither was St. Hierome born within 300. years after him Holy Water then is not of such a standing in the Church as the Papists would perswade us and as yet I have not met with any that can justly inform me at what time the Church received it Many corruptions they have among them whereof neither they nor we can tell the beginning It consisteth of two Ingredients Salt and Water each
repair to have their audience and dispatch and hither were the Articles agreed upon in the National Synods of France sent to be confirmed and verified Here did the Subjects tender in their homages and oaths of fidelity to the King And here were the Appeals heard of all such as had complained against Comtes at that time the Governors and Judges in their several Counties Being furnished thus with the prime and choisest Nobles of the Land it grew into great estimation abroad in the world insomuch that the Kings of Sicily Cyprus Scotland Bohemia Portugal and Navarre have thought it no disparagement unto them to sit in it And which is more when Frederick the second had spent so much time in quarrels with Pope Innocent the fourth he submitted himself and the rightness of his cause to be examined by this Noble Court of Parliament At the first institution of this Court it had no settled place of residence being sometimes kept at Tholoza sometimes at Aix la Chapelle sometimes in other places according as the Kings pleasure and the case of the people did require During the time of its peregrination it was called Ambulatorie following for the most part the Kings Court as the lower Sphears do the motin of the Primum Mobile But Philip le Belle he began his raign An. 1280. being to take a journey into Flanders and to stay there a long space of time for the settling of his affairs in that Countrey took order that his Court of Parliament should stay behind him at Paris where ever since it hath continued Now began it to be called Sedentary or settled and also peu a pen by little and little to loose much of its lustre For the Cheif Princes and Nobles of the Kings retinue not able to live out of the air of the Court withdrew themselves from the troubles of it by which means it came at last to be appropriated to those of the long Robe as they term them both Bishops and Lawyers In the year 1463. the Prelates also were removed by the Command of Lewis the eleventh an utter enemy to the great ones of his Kingdom onely the Bishop of Paris and the Abbot of St. Denis being permitted their place in it Since which time the Professors of the Civil Law have had all the swaying in it cedeunt arma togae as Tully The place in which this Sedentary Court of Parliament is now kept is called the Palaâ—e being built by Philip le Belle and intended to be his Mansion or dwelling house He began it in the first year of his reign Viz. Anno 1286. and afterwards assigned a part of it to his Judges of the Parliament it being not totally and absolutely quitted unto them till the dayes of King Luwis the tenth In this the French Subjects are beholding to the English by whose good example they got the ease of a Sedentary 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 Pallace in Westminster allotted for that purpose Within the Virge of this Pallace are contained the seven Chambers the Parliament That called le grand Chambre five Chambers of Inquisition or des Enquests and one other called la Tournelle There are moreover the Chambers des aides des accompts de l'ediect des Monnoyes and one called la Chambre Royal of all which we shall have occasion to speak in their proper places these not concerning the common Government of the People but onely the Kings Revenues Of these seven Chambers of Parliaments le grand Chambre is most famous and at the building of this House by Philip le belle was intended for the Kings bed It is no such beautiful place as the French make it that at Roven being farre beyond it although indeed it much excells the fairest room of Justice in Westminster So that it standeth in a middle rank between them and almost in the same proportion as Virgil between Homer and Ovid. Quantum Virgilius magno concessit Homero Tantum ego Virgilio Naso Poeta mâ—o It consisteth of seven Presidents Councellers the Kings Atturney and as many Advocates and Proctors as the Court will please to give admission to The Advocates have no settled studies within the Pallace but at the Barre but the Procureurs or Atturneys have their several Pewes in a great Hall which is without this Grand Chambre in such manner as I have before described at Roven A large building it is faire and high roofed not long since ruined by casualty of fire and not yet fully finished The names of the Presidents are 1. Mr. Verdun the first President or by way of excellencie le President being the secâ—nd 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 his Lands 3. Mr. Leiger 4. Mr. Dosammoi 5. Mr. Sevin 6. Mr. Baillure and 7. Mr. Maisme None of these neither Presidents nor Councellers can goe out of Paris when the Lawes are open without leave of the Court It was ordained so by Lewis the twelfth Anno 1499. and that with good judgement Sentences being given with greater awe and business managed with greater Majesty when the Bench is full and it seemeth indeed that they carry with them a great terrour For the Duke of Biron a man of as uncontrolled a spirit as any in France being called to answer for himself in this Court protested that those scarlet Robes did more amaze him than all the red Cassocks of Spain At the left hand of this Grand Chambre or golden Chamber as they call it is a Throne or Seate 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 semied with Flowers de lys On each side of it are two forms or benches where the Peers of both habits both Ecclesiastcal and Secular use to fit and accompany the King but this is little to the ease or benefit of the Subject and as little available to try the integrity of the Judges his presence being alwayes fore-known and so they accordingly prâ—pared Farre better then is it in the Court of the Grand Signeur where the Divano or Counsell of the Turkish Affaires holden by the Bassa's is hard by his bed Chamber which looketh into it The window which giveth him this enterveiwe is perpetually hidden with a curtaine on that side of the partition which is towards the Divano so that the Bassa's and other Judges cannot at any time tell that the Emperour is not listening to their Sentences An action in which nothing is Turkish or Mahometan The authority of this Court extendeth it self to all Causes within the Jurisdiction of it not being meerly Ecclesiastical It is a Law
unto it self following no Rule written in their Sentences but judging according to equity and conscience In matters criminal of greater consequence the process is here immediately examined without any preparation of it from the inferiour Courts as at the araignment of the Duke of Biron and divers times also in matter 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 Warre nor conclude Peace without the consent a formall one at the least of this Chamber An Alieniation of the least of the Lands of the Crown is not any whit valued unless confirmed by this Court neither are his Edicts in force till they are here verified nor his Letters Pattents for the creating of a Peere till they are here allowed of Most of these I confess are little more than matters of form the Kings power and pleasure being become boundless yet sufficient to shew the body of Authority which they once had and the shaddow 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 the three Estates which is the conferring of the Regency or protection of their Kings during their minority That the Assembly of the three Estates formerly had this priviledge is evident by their stories Thus we find them to have made Queene Blanche Regent of the Realm during the non-age of her Son St. Lewiis Anno 1227. that they declared Phillip le Valois successor to the Crowne in case that the widdow of Charles de belle was not delivered of a Son Anno 1328. That they made Charles the Daulphin Regent of France during the imprisonment of King John his Father Anno 1357. As also Phillip of Burgony during the Lunary Charles the sixth Anno 1394 with divers others 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 the fourth was slain by Raviliae 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 this Court deserveth not onely this but any other indulgence whereof any one member of the Common-wealth is capable So watchful are they over the health of the State and so tenderly do they take the least danger threatned to the liberties of that Kingdome that they may not unjustly be called Patres Patriae In the year 1614. they seazed upon a discourse written by Suarez a Jesuite entitled Adversus Anglicanae sectae errores wherein the Popes temporal power over Kings and Princes is averred which they sentenced to be burnt in the Pallace yard by the publick Hangman The yeare before they inflicted the same punishment upon a vain and blasplemous discourse penned by Gasper Niopins a fellow of a most desperate brain and a very incendiary Neither hath Bellarmine himself that great Atlas of the Roman Church escaped much better for writing a Book concerning the temporal power of his Holiness it had the ill luck to come into Paris where the Parliament finding it to thwart the Liberty and Royalty of the King and Country gave it over to the Hangman and he to the Fire Thus it is evident that the titles which the French writers gave it as the true Temple of the French justice the Buttresse of Equity the Guardian of the Rights of France and the like are abundantly deserved of it The next Chamber in esteem is the Tournelle which handleth all matters Criminal It is so called from Tourner which signifieth to change or alter because the Judges of the other several Chambers give sentence in this according to their several turnes The reason of which Institution is said to be least a continual custome of condemning should make the Judges less merciful and more prodigall of blood An order full of health and providence it was instituted by the above named Phillip le Belle at the same time when he made the Parliament sedentary at Paris and besides its particular and original employment it receiveth Appeals from and redresseth the errours of the Provost of Paris The other five Chambers are called des Enquests or Camerae Inquasitionum the first and ancientest of them was erected also by Phillip le Belle and afterwards divided into two by Charles the seventh Afterwards of Processes being greater than could be dispatched in these Courts there was added a third Francis the first established the fourth for the better raising of a sum of money which then he wanted every one of the new Counsellers paying right dearly for his place The fifth and last was founded in the year 1568. In each of these severall Chambers there be two Presidents and twenty Counsellers beside Advocates and Proctors ad placitum In the Tournelle which is the aggregation of all the other Courts there are supposed to be no fewer than two hundred Officers of all sorts which is no great number considering the many Causes there handled In the Tournelle the Iudges sit on matters of life and death in the Chambers of Enquests they examine onely civil Affairs of estate title debts and the like The Pleaders in these Courts are called Advocates and must be at the least Licentiats in the study of the Law At the Parliaments of Tholoza and Burdeaux they admit of none but Doctors now the form of admitting them is this In an open and frequent Court one of the agedest of the Long Robe presenteth the party which desireth admission to the Kings Atturney General saying with a loud voice Paisse a Cour recevoir N. N. Licencie or Docteur en droict civil a l'office d' Advocate This said the Kings Atturney biddeth him hold up his hand and saith to him in Latine Tu jurabis observare omnes Reges Consuetudines he answereth Iuro and departeth At the Chamber door of the Court whereof he is now sworne an Advocate he payeth two Crownes which is forthwith put into the common Treasury appointed for the relief of the distressed-Widdows of ruined Advocates and Proctors Hanc veniam petimusque damusque It may be their own cases and therefore it is paid willingly The highest preferment of which these Advocates are capable is that of Chauncellor an Office of great power and profit The present Chauncellor is named Mr. d' Allegre by birth of Chartres he hath no settled Court wherein to exercise his authority but hath in all the Courts of France the supream place whensoever he will vouchsafe to visit them He is also President of the Councill of Estate by his place and on him dependeth the making of good and sacred Lawes the administration of Justice the reformation of
in these later they onely consummate strength so say the Physitians generally Non enim in duobus sequentibus mensibus they speak it of the intermedii additur aliquid ad perfectionem partium sed ad perfectionem roboris The last time terminus ultimus in the common account of this Profession is the eleventh moneth which some of them hold neither unlikely nor rare Massurius recordeth of Papyrius a Roman Praetor to have recovered his inheritance in open Court though his Mother confest him to be born in the thirteenth month And Avicen a Moor of Corduba relateth as he is cited in Laurentius that he had seen a Child born after the fourteenth But these are but the impostures of Women and yet indeed the modern Doctors are more charitable and refer it to supernatural causes Vt extra ordinariam artis considerationem On the other side Hippocrates giveth it out definitively 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that in ten moneths at the furthest understand ten moneths compleat the Child is born And Vlpian the great Civilian of his times in the title of Digests de Testamentis is of opinion that a Child born after the tenth moneth compleat is not to be admitted to the inheritance of its pretended Father As for the Common Law of England as I remember I have read it in a book written of Wils and Testaments it taketh a middle course between the charity of nature and the severity of Law leaving it meerly to the conscience and circumstance of the Judge But all this must be conceived taking it in the most favourable construction after the conception of the Mother and by no meanes after the death of the Father and so can it no way if I were first President advantage the Prince of Conde His Father had been extreamly sick no small time before his death for the particular and supposed since his poison taken Anno 1552. to be little prone to Women in the general They therefore that would seem to know more than the vulgar reckon him as one of the by-blows of Henry the fourth but this under the Rose yet by way of conjecture we may argue thus First from the Kings care of his education assigning him for his Tutor Nicholas de Februe whom he also designed for his Son King Lewis Secondly from his care to work the Prince then young Mollis aptus agi to become a Catholike Thirdly the age of the old Henry of Conde and the privacy of this King with his Lady being then King of Navarre in the prime of his strength and in discontent with the Lady Margaret of Valoys his first Wife Adde to this that Kings love to fair Ladies in the general and we may see this probability to be no miracle For besides the Dutchess of Beaufort the Marchioness of Verneville and the Countess of Morret already mentioned he is beleived to have been the Father of Mr. Luines the great Favorite of King Lewis And certain it is that the very year before his death when he was even in the winter of his dayes he took such an amorous liking to the Prince of Conde s Wife a very beautiful Lady and Daughter to the Constable Duke of Montmorencie that the Prince to save his honour was compelled to flie together with his Princess into the Arch-Dukes Country whence he returned not till long after the death of King Henry If Marie de Medices in her Husbands life time paid his debts for him which I cannot say she onely made good that of vindicate· And yet perhaps a consciousness of some injuries not onely moved her to back the Count of Soison's and his faction against the Prince and his but also to resolve upon him for the Husband of her Daughter From the Princes of the bloud descend we to the Princes of the Court and therein the first place we meet with Mr. Barradas the Kings present Favourite a young Gentleman of a fresh and lively hew little bearded and one whom the people as yet cannot accuse for any oppression or misgovernment Honours the King hath conferred none upon him but onely Pensions and Offices He is the Governour of the Kings Children of Honour Pages we call them in England a place of more trouble than wealth or credit He is also the Master of the Horse or le grand Escuire the esteem of which place recompenceth the emptiness of the other for by vertue of this Office he carryeth the Kings Sword sheathed before him at his entrance into Paris the Cloth of Estate carryed over the King by the Provosts and Eschevins is his Fee No man can be the Kings Spur maker his Smith or have any place in the Kings Stables but from him and the like This place to note so much by the way was taken out of the Constables Office Comes stabuli is the true name to whom it properly belonged in the time of Charles the seventh Besides this he hath a pension of 500000. Crowns yearly and had an Office given him which he sold for 100000. Crownes in ready money A good fortune for one who the other day was but the Kings Page And to say truth he is as yet but a little better being onely removed from his Servant to his play-fellow with the affairs of State he intermeddleth not if he should he might expect the Queene Mother should say to him what Apollo in Ovid did to Cupid Tibi quia cum fortibus armis Mi puer ista decent humeros gestamina nostros For indeed first during her Sons minority and after since her redentigration with him she hath made her self so absolute a Mistress of her mind that he hath entrusted to her the entire conduct of all his most weighty affairs for her Assistant in the managing of her greatest business she hath pieced her self to the strongest side of the State the Church having principally since the death of the Marshall D' Anere Joneane assumed to her Counsails the Cardinal of Richileiu a man of no great birth were Nobility the greatest Parentage but otherwise to be ranked among the Noblest Of a sound reach he is and of a close brain one exceedingly well mixt of a Lay Vnderstanding and a Church Habit one that is compleatly skilled in the art of men and a perfect Master of his own mind and affections Him the Queene useth as her Counseller to keep out frailty and the Kings name as her countenance to keep off envy She is of a Florentine wit and hath in her all the vertues of Katherine de Medices her Ancestor in the Regencie and some also of her vices only her designes tend not to the ruine of her Kingdome and her Children John de Seirres telleth us in his Inventaire of France how the Queene Katherine suffered her Son Henry the third a devout and simple Prince to spend his most dangerous times even uncontrolled upon his Beades whiles in the meantime she usurped the Government of the Realm Like it is that Queene Mary hath
chief of the Clergy-men is the little or no dependency they have on the Pope and the little profits they pay unto their King Of the Pope anon To the King they pay onely their dismes or tithes according to the old rates 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 onely for otherwise they pay the usual gabels and customs that are paid by the rest of the Kings Leige-people In the general assembly of the three Estates the Clergy hath authority to elect a set number of Commissioners to undertake for them the Church which Commissioners do make up the the first of the three Estates do first exhibite their greivances and petitions to the King In a word the French Church is the freest of any in Christendom that have not yet quitted their subjection to the Pope as alwayes protesting against the Inquisition not subjecting themselves to the Council of Trent and paying very little to his Holiness of that plentiful 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 revenues of it must needs be uncountable There are numbred in it as we said before twelve Archbishopricks an hundred and four Bishopricks To these add five hundred and fourty Archpriorities one thousand four hundred and fifty Abbies twelve thousand three hundred and twenty Priorities the sixty seven Nunneries seven hundred Covents of Friers two hundred fifty nine Commendams of the Order of Malta and one hundred and thirty thousand Parish Priests yet this is not all Their 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 wilderness of men the Statists of France who have proportioned the Country do allow unto the Clergy almost a fourth part of the whole For supposing France to contain two hundred millions of Arpens a measure somewhat bigger than one Acre they have allotted to the Church for its temporal revenue forty seven millions of them In particular of the Archbishops Bishops Abbots and Parish Priests they of Aulx Alby Clumai and St. Estiennes in Paris are said to be the wealthiest The Archbishop of Aux in Gascoyne is valued at 400000. liures or 40000 li. English yearly The Bishop of Alby in Languedoc is prized at 100000. Florens which is a fourth part of it a great part of the revenue arising out of Saffron The Abbot of Clumac in the Dutchy of Burgundy is said to be worth 50000 Crowns yearly the present Abbot being Henry of Lorreine Archbishop of Rhemes and Abbot of St. Denis The Parish Priest of St. Estiennes is judged to receive yearly no fewer than eight thousand Crowns a good intrado As for the vulgar Clergy they have little tithe and less glebe most part of that Revenue being appropriated unto Abbies and other religious Houses The greatest part of their meanes is the Baisemen which is the Church offerings of the people at Christnings Marriages Burials Dirges Indulgences and the like which is thought to amount to almost as much as the temporal estate of the Church An Income able to maintain them in good abundance were it not for the greatness of their number For reckoning that there are as we have said in France one hundred and thirty thousand Parish Priests and that there are onely twenty seven thousand four hundred Parishes it must of necessity be that every Prrish one with another hath no fewer than four Priests too many to be rich But this were one of the least injuries offered to the French thrift and would little hinder them from rising if it were not that the goodliest of their preferments are before their faces given unto Boyes and Children An affront which not onely despaireth them of the honours due unto their callings but dishearteneth them in their studies and by consequence draweth them to debauched and slanderous courses Quis emim virtutem exquireret ipsam Praemia si tollas The Clergy therefore Anno 1617. being assembled at the house of Austin Friers in Paris as every two years they use to do being to take their leaves of the King elected the Bishop of Aire to be their Spokesman and to certifie his Majesty of their greivances In performing which business the principal thing of which he spake was to this purpose That whereas his Majesty was bound to give them Fathers he gave them Children that the name of Abbot signifieth a Father and the function of a Bishop was full of fatherly authority yet Erance notwithstanding was now filled with Bishops and Abbots which are yet in their Nurses arms or else under their Regents in Colledges Nay more that the abuse goeth before the being Children being commonly designed to Bishopricks Abbacies before they were born He also made another Complaint that the Sovereign Courts by their decrees had attempted upon the authority which was committed to the Clergy even in that which concerned meerly Ecclesiastical discipline and government of the Church To these Complaints he gave them indeed a very gratious hearing but it never went further than a hearing being never followed by redress The Court of Parliament knew too well the strength of their own authority and the King was loath to take from himself those excellent advantages of binding to himself his Nobility by the speedy preferring of their Children And so the Clergy departed with a great deal of envy and a little of satisfaction Like enough it were that the Pope would in part redress this injury especially in the point of Jurisdiction if he were able but his wings are shrewdly clipped in this Country neither can he flie at all but as farre as they please to suffer him For his temporal power they never could be induced to acknowledge it as we see in their stories Anno 1610. the Divines of Paris in a Declaration of theirs tender'd to the Queen Mother affirm the supremacy of the Pope to be an erroneus doctrine and the ground of that hellish position of deposing and killing of Kings Anno 1517. when the Council of Luteram had determined the Pope to be the Head of the Church in causes also temporal the Vuniversity of Paris testified against it in an Apoligie of theirs dated the twelfth of March the same year Leo decimus saith the Apologie in quidam coetu non tamen in spiritu Domini congregato contra fidem Catholicam c. sacrum Basiliense Concilium damnavit In which Councill of Basill the supremacy of the Pope was condemned Neither did the Kings of France forget to maintain their own authority And therefore whereas Pope Boniface the eighth had in a peremptory Letter Written to Phillip le Belle King of France stiled himself Dominus totius
Mundi tam in temporalibus quam in spiritualibus the King returned him an answer with an Epithite sutable to his arrogancy Sciat maxima tua fatuitas nos intemporalibus alicui non subesse c. The like answer though in modester termes was sent to another of the Popes by St. Lewis a man of a most mild and sweet disposition yet unwilling to forgoe his Royalties His spiritual power is almost as little in substance though more in shew for whereas the Councill of Trent hath been an especiall authorizer of the Popes spiritual supremacy the French Church never would receive it by this means the Bishops keep in their hands their own full authority whereof an obedience to the decrees of that Councill would deprive them It was truly said by St. Gregory and they well knew it Lib. 7. Epist 70. Si unus universalis est restat ut vos Episcopinon Sitis Further the Vniversity of Paris in their Declaration Anno 1610. above mentioned plainly affirme that it is directly opposite to the doctrine of the Church which the Vniversity of Paris hath alwaies maintained that the Pope hath power of a Monarch in the spiritual Government of the Church To look upon higher times when the Councill of Constance had submitted the authority of the Pope unto that of a Councill John Gerson Theologus Parisiensis magni nominis defended that deeree and entitleth them Perniciosos esse ad modum adulatores qui tyranidem istam in Ecclesia invexere quasi nullis Regum teneatur vinculis quasi neque parere debeat Concilio Pontifex nec ab eo judicare queat The Kings themselves also befreind their Clergy in this Cause and therefore not onely protested against the Council of Trent wherein the spiritual tyranny was generally consented to by the Catholike faction but Henry the second also would not acknowledge them to be a Council calling them in his Letters by no other name than Conventus Tridentinus An indignity which the Fathers took very offensively Put the principal thing in which it behooveth them not to acknowledge his spiritual supremacy is the Collation of Benefices and Bishopricks and the Annates and first fruits thence arising The first and greatest controversie between the Pope and Princes of Christendom was about the bestowing the Livings of the Church and giving the investiture unto Bishops The Popes had long thirsted after that authority as being a great meanes to advance their followers and establish their own greatness for which cause in divers petty Councels the receiving of any Ecclesiastical preferment of a Lay-man was decreed to be Simony But this did little edifie with such patrons as had good Livings As soon as ever Hiâ—el brand in the Catalogue of the Popes called Gregory the seventh came to the throne of Rome he set himself entirely to effect the business as well in Germany now he was Pope as he had done in France whilst he was Legate He commandeth therefore Henry the third Emperour Ne deinceps Episcopatus Beneficia they are Platina's own words per cupiditatem Simoniacam committat aliter se usurum in ipsum censuris Ecclesiasticis To this injustice when the Emperour would not yeild he called a solemn Council at the Lateran where the Emperour was pronounced to be Simoniacal and afterwards excommunicated Neither would this Tyrant ever leave persecuting of him till he had laid him in his grave After this followed great strugling between the Popes and the Emperours for this very matter but in the end the Popes got the victory In England here he that first bickered about it was William Rufus the controversie being whether he or Pope Vrban should invest Anselme Archbishop of Canterbury Anselme would receive his investiture of none but the Pope whereupon the King banished him the Realm into which he was not admitted till the raign of Henry the second He to endear himself with his Clergy relinquished his right to the Pope but afterwards repenting himself of it he revoked his grant Neither did the English Kings wholly loose it till the raign of that unfortunate Prince King John Edward the first again recovered it and his Successors kept it The Popes having with much violence and opposition wrested into their hands this Priviledge of nominating Priests and investing Bishops they spared not to lay on what taxes they pleased as on the Benefices First fruits Pensions Subsidies Fifteenths Tenths and on the Bishopricks for Palls Mitres Crosiers Rings and I know not what bables By these means the Churches were so impoverished that upon complaint made unto the Council of Basel all these cheating tricks these aucupia eapilandi rationes were abolished This Decree was called Pragmatica sanctio and was confirmed in France by Charles the seventh Anno 1438. An act of singular improvement to the Church and Kingdom of France which yearly before as the Court of Parliament manifested to Lewis the eleventh had drained the State of a million of Crowns Since which time the Kings of France have sometimes omitted the vigour of the Sanction and sometimes also exacted it according as their affairs with the Pope stood for which cause it was called fraenum pontificum At the last King Francis the first having conquered Millain fell unto this composition with his Holiness namely that upon the falling of any Abbacie or Bishoprick the King should have six moneths time to present a fit man unto him whom the Pope legally might invest If the King neglected his time limited the Pope might take the benefit of the relapse and institute whom he pleased So is it also with the inferior benifices between the Pope and the Patrons insomuch that any or every Lay-patron and Bishop together in England hath for ought I see at the least in this particular as great a spiritual supremacy as the Pope in France Nay to proceed further and to shew how meerly titular both his supremacies are as well the spiritual as the temporal you may plainly see in the case of the Jesuites which was thus In the year 1609. the Jesuites had obtained of King Henry the fourth license to read again in their Colledge of Paris but when their Letters Patents came to be verified in the Court of Parliament the Rector and Vniversity opposed them On the seventeenth of December Anno 1611. both parties came to have an hearing and the Vniversity got the day unless the Jesuits would subscribe unto these four points Viz. First that the Council was above the Pope Secondly that the Pope had not temporal power over Kings and could not by Excommunication deprive them of their Realms and Estates Thirdly that Clergy men having heard of any attempt or conspiracy against the King or his Realm or any matter of treason in Confession they were bound to reveal it And fourthly that Clergy men were subject to the Secular Prince or Politick Magistrate It appeared by our former discourse what title or no power they had left the Pope over the estates
October Anno 1603. They not onely gave audience to Ambassadours and received Letters from forrain Princes but also importuned his Majesty to have a general liberty of going into any other Countreys and assigning at their Counsel a matter of especial importance And therefore the King upon a foresight of the dangers wisely prohibited them to go to any Assemblies without a particular licence upon pain to be declared Traytors Since that time growing into greater strength whensoever they had occasion of business with King Lewis they would never treat with him but by their Embassadors and upon especial Articles An ambition above the quality of those that profess themselves Sorbonets and the onely way as Du Seirres noteth to make an estate in the State but the answers made unto the King by those of Alerack and Montanbon are pregnant proofs of their intent and meaning in this kind The first being summoned by the King and his Army the 22. of July Anno 1621. returned thus that the King should suffer them to enjoy their liberties and leave their fortifications as they were for them of their lives and so they would declare themselves to be his subjects They of Montanbon made a fuller expression of the general design Disobedience which was that they were resolved to live and die in the Vnion of the Churches had they said for the Service of the King it had been spoken bravely but now rebelliously This union and confederacy of theirs King Lewis used to call the Common-wealth of Rochell for the overthrow of which he alwayes protested that he had onely taken Arms and if we compare circumstances we shall find it to be no other In the second of April before he had as yet advanced into the Feild he published a Declaration in favour of all those of the Religion which would contain themselves within duty and obedience And whereas some of Tours at the beginning of the warrs had tumultuously molested the Protestants at the burial of one of their dead five of them by the Kings especial commandement were openly executed When the warr was hottest abroad those of the Gospel at Paris lived as securely as ever and had their accustomed meetings at Charentan So had those also of other places Moreover when tidings came to Paris of the Duke of Mayens death slain before Montanbon the Rascal French according to their hot headed dispositions breathed out nothing but ruine to the Hugonots the Duke of Montbazon Governour of the City commanded their houses and the streets to be safely guarded After when this Rabble had burnt down their Temple at Charentan the Court of Parliament on the day following ordained that it should be built up again in a more beautiful manner and that at the Kings charge Add to this that since the ending of the warrs and the reduction of almost all their Towns we have not seen the least alteration of Religion Besides that they have been permitted to hold a National Synod at Clarenton for establishing the truth of their doctrine against the errors of Arminius Professor of Leiden in Holland All things thus considered in their true being I cannot see for what cause our late Soveraign should suffer so much envy as he did for not giving them assistance I cannot but say that my self hath too often condemned his remissness in that cause which upon better consideration I cannot tell how he should have dealt in Had he been a meddler in it further than he was he had not so much preserved Religion as supported rebellion besides the consequence of the example To have assisted the disobedient French under the colour of the liberty of Conscience had been onely to have taught that King a way into England upon the same pretence and to have troad the path of his own hazard Further he had not long before denyed succor to his own children when he might have given upon a better ground and for a fairer purpose and could not now in honour countenance the like action in another For that other denial of his helping hand I much doubt how farre posterity will acquit him though certainly he was a good Prince and had been an happy instrument of the peace of Christendom had not the later part of his raign happened in a time so full of troubles So that betwixt the quietness of his nature and the turbulencies of his later dayes he fell into that miserable exigent mentioned in the Historian Miserrimum est cum alicui aut natura sua excedenda est aut minuenda dignitas Add to this that the French had first been abandoned at home by their own friends of seven Generals whom they had appointed for the seven circles into which they divided all France four of them never giving them incouragement The three which accepted of those inordinate Governments were the Duke of Rohan his Brother Mr. Sonbise and the Marquess la Force the four others being the Duke of Tremoville the Earl of Chastillon the Duke of Lesdiguier and the Duke of Bovillon who should have commanded in cheif So that the French Protestants cannot say that he was first wanting unto them but they to themselves If we demand what should move the French Protestants to this rebellious contradiction of his Majesties commandements we must answer that it was too much happiness Causa hujus belli eadem quae omnium nimid faelicitas as Florus of the Civil warrs between Caesar and Pompey Before the year 1620. when they fell first into the Kings dis-favour they were possessed of almost an hundred good Towns well fortified for their safety besides beautiful houses and ample possessions in the Villages They slept every man under his own Vine and his own Fig-tree neither fearing nor needing to fear the least disturbance with those of the Catholike party they were grown so intimate and entire by reason of their inter-marriages that a very few years would have made them incorporated if not into one faith yet into one family For their better satisfaction in matters of Justice it pleased King Henry the fourth to erect a chamber in the Court of Parliament of Paris purposely for them It consisted of one President and sixteen Counsellors their office to take knowledge of all the Causes and Suits of them of the Reformed Religion as well within the jurisdiction of the Parliament of Paris as also in Normandy and Brittain till there should be a Chamber erected in either of them There were appointed also two Chambers in the Parliament of Bourdeaux and Grenoble and one at Chasters for the Parliament at Tholoza These Chambers were called Les Chambres de l' Edict because they were established by a special Edict at the Town of Nantes in Brittain April the eighth Anno 1598. In a word they lived so secure and happy that one would have thought their felicities had been immortal O faciles dare summa Deos eademque tuerâ— Difficiles And yet they are not brought so low but that they may
Endive root Raddish Cheese and to the board there came A dish of Eggs ne're roasted by the flame Next they had Nuts course Dates lenten Figs And Apples from a basket made with twigs And Plums and Grapes cut newly from the tree All serv'd in earthen dishes huswifelie But you must not look for this ohear often At Wakes or feast days you may perchance be so happy as to see this plenty but at other times onus omne patilla the best provision they can shew you is a piece of Bacon where with to fatten their pottage and now and then the inwards of Beasts killed for the Gentleman But of their miseries this me thinketh is the greatest that sowing so many acres of excellent Wheat in a year and gathering in such a plentiful vintage as they do they should not yet be so fortunate as to eat white bread or drink Wine for such infinite rents do they pay to their Lords and such innumerable taxes to the King that the profits arising out of these commodities are onely sufficient to pay their duties and keep them from the extremities of cold and famine The bread which they eat is of the coursest flower and so black that it cannot admit the name of brown and as for their drink they have recourse unto the next fountain A people of any the most infortunate not permitted to enjoy the fruit of their labours and such as above all others are subject to that Sarcasme in the Gospel This man planted a Vineyard and doth not drink of the fruit thereof Neo prosunt Domino quae prosunt omnibus artes Yet were their cases not altogether so deplorable if there were but hopes left to them of a better if they could but compass this certainty that a painful drudging and thrifty saving would one day bring them out of this hell of bondage In this questionless they are entirely miserable in that they are sensible of their present fortunes and dare not labour nor expect an alteration If industry and a sparing hand hath raised any of these afflicted people so high that he is but four or five shillings richer than his neighbour his Lord immediately enhanceth his rent and enformeth the Kings task-masters of his riches by which meanes he is within two or three years brought into equal poverty with the rest A strange course and much different from that of England where the Gentry take a delight in having their Tennants thrive under them and account it no crime in any that hold of them to be wealthy On the other side those of France can abide no body to gain or grow rich upon their Farms and therefore thus upon occasions rack their poor Tennants In which they are like the Tyrant Procrustes who laying hands upon all he met cast them upon his bed if they were shorter than it he racked their joynts till he had made them even to it if they were longer he cut as much of their bodies from them as did hang over so keeping all that fell into his power in an equality of stature I need not make further application of the story but this that the French Lords are like that Tyrant How much this course doth depress the military power of the Kingdom is apparent by the true principles of warr and the examples of other Countries For it hath been held the general opinion of the best judgements in matters of war that the main buttress and pillar of an Army is the foot or as the Martialists term it the infantry Now to make a good infantry it requireth that men be brought up not in a slavish or needy fashion of life but in some free and liberal manner Therefore it is well observed by the Viscount St. Albons in his history of Henry the seventh that if a State run most to Nobles and Gentry and that the Husbandmen be but as their meer drudges or else simple Cottagers that that State may have a good Cavilleria but never good stable bands of Foot like to Coppines wood in which if you let them grow too thick in the standerds they will run to bushes or briers and have little clean under wood Neither is it thus in Franne onely but in Italy also and some other parts abroad insomuch that they are enforced to employ mercenary Souldiers for their battalions of Foot whereby it cometh to pass in those Countries that they have much people but few men On this consideration King Henry the seventh one of the wisest of our Princes took a course so cunning and wholesome for the encrease of the military power of this Realm that though it be much less in territories yet it should have infinitely more Souldiers of its native forces than its neighbour Nations For in the fourth year of his raign there passed an Act of Parliament pretensively against the depopulation of Villages and decay of tillage but purposely to make his Subjects for the warrs The Act was that all houses of Husbandry which had been used with twenty acres of ground and upwards should be maintained and kept up so together with a competent proportion of Land to be used and occupied with them c. By this meanes the houses being kept up did of necessity enfarce a dweller and that dweller because of the proportion of Land not to be a beggar but a man of some substance able to keep hinds and servants and to set the Plow going An Order which did wonderfully concern the might and manhood of the Kingdom these Farmers being sufficient to maintain an able body out of penury and by consequence to prepare them for service and encourage them to high honours for Haud facile emergunt quorum virtutibus obstat Res angusta domi As the Poet hath it But this Ordinance is not thought of such use in France where all the hopes of their Armies consist in the Cavallery or the Horse which perhaps is the cause why our Ancestors have won so many battels upon them As for the French Foot they are quite out of all reputation and are accounted to be the basest and unworthiest company in the world Besides should the French people be enfranchized as it were from the tyranny of their Lords and estated in free hold and other tenures after the manner of England it would much trouble the Councill of France to find out a new way of raising the Kings Revenues which are now meerly sucked out of the bloud and sweat of the Subject Anciently the Kings of France had rich and plentiful demeasnes such as was sufficient to maintain their Majesty and greatness without being burdensome unto the Country Pride in matters of sumptuousness and the tedious Civil warrs which have lasted in this Country almost ever since the death of Henry the second have been the occasion that most of the Crown Lands have been sold and morgaged insomuch that the people are now become the Demain and the Subject onely is the revenue of the Crown
established by Charles the first Anno 1537. For the levying and gathering up of rhese taxes you must know that the whole Country of France is divided into twenty three generalities and Counties as it were and these again into divers Eslections which are much like unto our Hundreds In every of the Generalities there are ten or twelve Treasurers nine Receivers for the Generality and as many Controulers besides all under Officers which are thought to amount in all to thirty thousand men When the King levieth his taxes he sendeth his Letters Patents to the principal Officers of every Generality whom they call Les genereaux des Aides and they dispatch their warrant to the Ezlenzor Commissioners These taxing every one of the Parishes and Villages within their several divisions at a certain rate send their Receivers to collect it who account for it to their Controulers by them it ascendeth Ezleie from him to the Receiver general of that Generality next to the Controuler then to the Treasurer afterwards to the General des Aides and so Per varios cesus per tot discrimina rerum Tendimus in Latium By all these hands it is at last conveyed into the Kings purse in which several passage necesse est ut aliquid haereat it cannot be but it must needs have many a shrewd snatch Insomuch that I was told by a Gentleman of good credence in France that there could not be gathered by the several exactions above specified anâ— other devices of prowling which I have omitted less than eighty five millions a year whereof the King receiveth fifteen onely A report not altogether to be sleâ—ghted considering that a President of the Court of Accompts made it evident to the Assembly at Blois in the time of King Henry the fourth that by the time that every one of the Officers had had his share of it there came not to the Kings Coffers one teston which is one shilling four pence of a Crown So that by reckoning five testons to a Crown or Escue as it is but two pence over these Officers must collect five times the money which they pay to the King which amouteth to seventy five millions and is not much short of that proportion which before I spake of The Kings revenues then notwithstanding this infinite oppression of his people amounteth to fifteen millions some would have it eighteen which is also a good improvement in respect of what they were in times afore Lewis the eleventh as good a Husband of his Crown as ever any was in France gathering but one and an half onely but as you count the flow so also if you reckon the ebb of his treasures you will find much wanting of a full sea in his Coffers it being generally known that the Fees of Officers Pensions Garrisons and the men of Arms draw from him yearly no fewer than six of his fifteen 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 account of his Treasurers and other Officers An action so abominable full of base and unmannly villanies in their several charges that the Publicans of old Rome were milk and white broth 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 cutim nisi plena cruoris hirudo He is just of the nature of the Horsleach 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 left the poor man some of his money than the cruelty 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 kindness of a very theevish nature it being the condition of Robbers as Tully hath observed Vt 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 great ease to them and would well defend them from the tyranny of these theeves but which is not the least part of their wretchedness their taxings and assemblings are left arbitrary and are exacted according as these Publicans will give out of the Kings necessities So that the Country man hath no other remedy than to give Cerberus a crust as the saying is and to kiss his rod and hug his punishment By this meanes the Quaestors thrive abundantly it being commonly said of them Fari bouvier au jourd huy Cheualier to day a Swineheard to morrow a Gentleman and certainly they grow into great riches Mr. Beaumarchais one of the Treasurers Mr. de Viâ—â—ry who slew the Marquess de Ancri married his onely Daughter having raked unto himself by the vâ—lâ—ainous abuse of his place no less than twenty two millions of Liures as it is commonly reported but he is not like to carry it to his grave the King having seised upon a good part of it and himself being condemned to the Gallows by the grand Chamber of Parliament though as yet he cannot be apprehended advanced to the ladder And this hath been the end of many of them since the raign 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 Pipin was by them surnamed Le magne Lewis his Son Le Debonaire and so of the rest since the time of Charles the sixth who was by them surnamed the Beloved it was discontinued and new revived again in the persons of King Henry the fourth 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 cruel 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 Tin they have the Double made of Brass where of six make a Sol and the Deneir whereof two make a Double a Coin so vile base of value that one hundred and twenty of them go to our English Shilling These are the common Coins of the Country Silver and Gold not being to be seen but upon holy-dayes As for their Silver it is most of it of their new coining but all exceedingly clipt and shorn their Gold being most of it Spanish In my little being in
disposition that they would not betray their credits Nunquam illis adeo ulla opportuna visa est victoriae occasio quam damno pensaâ—ent fidei as the Historian of Tiberius If then this City escaped a sack or a surprisal it cannot be imputed to the wisdom of the French but to the modesty and fair dealing of the English but this was not the onely Solaecisme in point of State committed by that great Politick of his time King Lewis there never being a man so famed for brain that more grosly over-reached himself than that Prince though perhaps more frequently The buildings of this Town are of divers materials some built of stone others of wood and some again of both the streets very sweet and clean and the air not giving place to any for a lively pureness Of their buildings the principal are their Churches whereof there are twelve onely in number Churches I mean parochial besides those belonging unto Religious Houses Next unto them the work of most especial note is a great large Hospital in method and disposing of the beds much like unto the Hostel Dieu in Paris but in number much inferior Et me tamen capuerant and yet the decency of them did much delight me The sweetness and neatness of the Town proceedeth partly as I say from the air and partly from the conveniencie of the River of Some on which it is seated for the River running in one entire bank at the further end of the Town is there divided into six Channels which almost at an equal distance run through the several parts of it These Channels thus divided receive into them all the ordure and filth wherewith the Town were otherwise likely to be pestered and affordeth the people a plentiful measure of water wherewith to purge the lanes and by-corners of it as often as them listeth But this is not all the benefit of these Channels they bestow upon the City matter also of commodity which is the infinite number of Griest-Mils that are built upon them At the other end of the Town the Channels are again united into one stream both those places as well at the division as the union of the Channels being exceedingly fortified with chains and piles and also with bulwarks and out-works Neither is the Town well fortified and strengthened at those passages onely in the upper parts of it having enough of strength to enable them to a long resistance The Ditch round about it save where it meeteth with the Cittadel is exceeding deep and steepy the wals of a good height broad and composed of earth and stone equally the one making up the outside of them and the other the inside The Gates are very large and strong as well in the sinewie composition of themselves as in addition of the Draw-bridge Subburbs this City hath none because a Town of Warr nor any liberal circuit of territoty because a Frontier yet the people are indifferent wealthy and have amongst them good trading besides the benefit of the Garrison and the Cathedral The Garrison consisteth of two hundred and fity men five hundred in all they should be who are continually in pay to guard the Cittadel their pay eight Sols daily The Governour of them is the Duke of Chawne who is also the Lieutenant or Deputy Governour of the whole Province under the Constable Their Captain Mr Le Noyr said to be a man of good experience and worthy his place This Cittadel was built by Henry the fourth as soon as he had recovered the Town from the Spaniards Anno 1591. It is seated on the lower part of the City though somewhat on the advantage of an hill and seemeth in my opinion better scituate to command the Town than to defend it or rather to recover the Town being taken than to save it from taking They who have seen it and know the arts of Fortification report it to be impregnable Quod nec Jovis ira nec ignes Nec poterit ferrum nec edax abolere vetustas Nor am I able to contradict it for besides that it is a skill beyond my profession we were not permitted to come within it to take a survey of it at a distance As soon as we approached nigh unto it one of the Garrison offered us the musket a sufficient warning not to be too venterous So that all I could observe was this that they had within themselves good plenty of earth to make their gabions and repair their breaches With the same jealousie also are the rest of the Forts and Towns of importance guarded in this and other Countries no people that ever I heard of being so open in shewing their places of strength and safety unto strangers as the English For a dozen of Ale a Forreiner may pace over the Curtain of Portsmouth and measure every sconce and bulwark of it for a shilling more he shall see their provision of powder and other munition and when that is done if he will he shall walk the round too A French crown fathometh the wals of Dover Castle and for a pint of Wine one may see the nakedness of the block-houses at Gravesend A negligence which may one day cost us dearly though now we think it not For what else do we in it but commit that prodigal folly for which Plutarch condemneth Pericles Viz. _____ c. that is to break open all the pales and inclosures of our Land to the end that every man might come in freely and take away our fruits at his pleasure Jealousie though a vice in a man toward his Wife is yet one of the safest Vertues in a Governour towards his Fortress and therefore I could wish that an English man would borrow a little of this Italian humor Besides these Souldiers which are continually in garrison for the defence of the Cittadel there are also three hundred which keep watch every night for the defence of the City These watchmen receive no pay from the King but discharge that duty amongst themselves and in turns every house finding one for that service twelve nights in the year The Weapons which they use are Pikes onely and Musquets there being not one peice of Ordinance all about the Town or on the wals of it The Governour of this Town as it hath reference to the King is a Bailly who hath belonging unto him all the authority which belongeth to a Siege Presidial Under him he hath a Lieutenant Generall and particular seven Counsellors a publick Notary and other inferior Officers and Magistrates As it is a Corporation the Cheif Governour of it is a Mayor and next to him the Eschevins or Sheriffs as Protectors of the Inhabitants and their Liberties besides those of the Common-Council Another Circumstance there is which ennobleth this Town of Amiens which is that it is a Visedamate or that it giveth honour to one of the Nobility who is called the Visedame of Amiens This title at this time belongeth to the Duke of Chauny Governour
which this Town is famous in the writers of both Nations is an enterviewe there given between our Edward the fourth and their Lewis the eleventh upon the concluding of their nine years truce a circumstance of no great moment in it self had not Phillip de Comminees made it such by one of his own observations Upon this meeting the Chancellor of England being Bishop of Ely made an oration to both Kings beginning with a prophesie which said that in this place of Pignigni an honourable peace should be concluded between both the Kingdomes On this ground which himself also is the onely man that related he hath built two observations the one I have not the original by me that the English men are never unfurnished with Prophesies the other that they ground every thing which they speak upon Prophesies How far those times were guilty of that humor I cannot say though sure I am we are not the onely men that were so affected Paulus Jovius in some place of his Histories I remember not the particular hath vindicated that quarrel for us and fastned the same imitation upon the French So true is that of the Fragaedian Quod quisque fecit patitur authorem scelus Reperit And now being past Pignigni I have lost the sight of the Church of Amiens The fairest fabrick and most rich to see That ere was guilty of mortalitie No present structure like it nor can Fame In all its bead rolles boast an equal name Let then the barbarous Egyptians cease So to extol their huge Pyramides Let them grow silent of their Pharus and Conceale the other triumphs of their Land And let the Charians henceforth leave to raise Their Mausolaea with such endless praise This Church alone doth them as much excell As they the lowest Cottages where dwell The least of men as they those urnes which keep The smallest ashes which are laid to sleep Nor be thou vext thou glorious Queen of night Nor let a cloud of darkness mask thy light That renown'd Temple which the Greeks did call The Worlds seventh wonder and the fair'st of all That Pile so famous that the World did see Two onely great and high thy Fame and Thee Is neither burnt nor perisht Ephesus Survives the follies of Herostratus Onely thy name in Europe to advance It was transported to the Realm of France And here it stands not robb'd of any grace Which there it had not altered save in place Cast thy Beams on it and t' will soon be proud Thy Temple was not ruin'd but remov'd Nor are thy Rights so chang'd but thou 'lt averre Ibis Christian is thy old Idolater But oh great God how long shall thy Decree permit this Temple to Idolatrie How long shall they profane this Church and make Those sacred Walls and Pavements to partake Of their loud sins and here that doctrine teach ' Gainst which the very stones do seem to preach Reduce them Lord unto thee make them see How ill this building and their Rites agree Or make them know though they be still the same This House was purpos'd onely to thy Name The next place of note which the water conveyed us to was the Town and Castle of Pont d' Armie a place now scarce vissible in the auines and belonging to one Mr. Queran it took name as they said from a Bridge here built for the transpoâ—tation of an Armie but this I cannot justifie Three Leagues down the River is the Town of Abbeville a Town conveniently seated on the Some which runneth through it It is of greater circuit within the walls than the Citie of Amiens and hath four parish Churches more in it but is not so beautifull nor so populous for the houses here are of an older stamp and there is within the Town no scarcity of wast ground I went round about the walls and observed the thinness of the houses and the largeness of the fields which are of that capacity and extent that for ought I could apprehend the Town needs never to be compelled by famine if those fields were husbanded to the best advantages the walls are of earth within and stone without of an unequal bredth and in some places ruiâ—ous A Castle it once had of which there is now scarce any thing remaining instead of which and in places more convenient they have built out three bastions very large and capacious and such which well manned needs not yeeld up on a summons There are also a couple of Mounts raised nigh unto the Wall at that place where the Country is most plain upon which good Ordinance would have good command but at this time there were none upon it without the walâ—s it is diversly strengthened having in some places a deep ditch without water in some a shallower ditch but well filled with the benefit of the benefit of the River the others only a marish and fennie levell more dangerous to the enemie and service to the Town than either of the rest and therefore never guarded by the Souldiers of the Garrison but the chief strength of it is five Companies of Swisses 100. men in a Company proper tall felâ—owes in appearance and such as one would imagine fit for the service It was my chance to see them begin their watch to which employment they advanced with so good order and such shew or stomack as if they had not gone to guard a sown but possess one Their watch was at Port de Boys and Port St. Valery the first thing â—ear unto Hesden a frontier Town of Artoys the other five Leagues only from the See and Haven of St. Valery from these places most danger was feared and therefore there kept most of their Souldiers and all their Ordinance The Captain is named Mr. Aille a Grison by birth and reported for a good Souldier besides him they have no Military Commander the Mayor of the Town contrary to the common nature of Towns of warre being there in highest authority A priviledge granted unto the Mayors hereof not long since as a reward due to one of their Integrities who understanding that the Governour of the Town held intelligence with the Arch Duke apprehended him and sent him to the Court where he receceived his punishment This Abbeville and so I leave it and in it the berry of French Lasses is so called quasi Abbatis Villa as formerly belonging to some Abbot July the last we took post-horse for Boulogne if at least we may call those Post-horses which we rode on As lean they were as Envis is in the Poet Macies in corporatota being most true of them Neither were they onely lean enough to have their ribs numbred but the very spur-gals had made such casements through their skins that it had been no greater difficulty to have surveyed their entrails A strange kind of Cattel in mine opinion and such as had neither flesh on their bones nor skin on their flesh nor hair on their skin Sure I am they were not so
Julius Caesar at the time of his second expedition into Brittaine this Haven being then Portus Gessorianus This Tower which we now see seemeth to be but the remainder of a greater work and by the height and scituation of it one would guesse it to have been the Key or watch Tower unto the rest it is built of rude and vulgar stone but strongly cemented together the figure of it is six square every square of it being nine paces in length A compass to little for a Fortress and therefore it is long since it was put to that use it now serving onely as a Sea mark by day and a Pharos by night Vbi accensae noctu faces navigantium cursum dirigunt The English men call it the Old man of Boulogue and not improperly for it hath all the signes of age upon it The Sea hath by undermining it taken from it all the earth about two squares of the bottom of it the stones begin to drop out from the top and upon the rising of the wind you would think it were troubled with the Palsie in a word two hard winters seconded with a violent tempest maketh it rubbish what therefore is wanting of present strength to the Haven in this ruine of a Tower the wisdom of this age hath made good in a Garrison And here me thinks I might justly acâ—use the impolitick thrift of our former Kings of England in not laying out some money upon the strength and safety of our Haven Townes not one of them Portsmouth onely excepted being Garrison'd true it is that Henry the eighth did eâ—ect Block-Houses in many of them but what bâ—bles they are and how unable to resist a Flees royally appointed is known to every one I know indeed we were sufficiently Garrison'd by out Naâ—e could it either keep a watch on all particular places or had it noâ— sometimes occasion to be absent I hope our Kings are not of Darius mind in the storie quâ— gloriosius raâ—us est hostem 〈◊〉 quam non admittere neither will I take 〈◊〉 to give counsell onely I could wish that we were not inferiour to our neighbours in the greatness of our care since we are equal to the best of them in the goodness of our Country This Town of Boulogne and the Country about it was taken by Henry the eighth of England Anno 1545. himself being in person at the siege a very costly and chargeable victory The whole list of his Forces did amount to 44000. foot and 3000. horse Field Pieces he drew after him above a hundred besides those of smaller making and for the conveyance of their Ordinance baggage and other provision there were transported into the Continent above 25000. Horses True it is that his designes had a further aim had not Charles the Emperour with whom he was to join left the field and made peace without him So that judging onely by the success of the expedition we cannot but say that the winning of Boulonnois was a dear purchase and indeed in this one particular Sr. Walter Raleigh in the preface to his most excellent History saith not amiss of him namely that in his vain and fruitless expeditions abroad he consumed more treasure than all the rest of our victorious Kings before him did in their several Conquests The other part of his censure of that Prince I know not well what to think of as meerly composed of gall and bitterness Onely I cannot but much marvail that a man of his wisdom being raised from almost nothing by the Daughter could be so severely invective against the Father certainly a most charitable judge cannot but condemn him of want of true affection and duty to his Queen seeing that it is as his late Majesty hath excellently noted in his ΒΑΣΙΛΙΚΟΠΔΩΡΟΠa thing monstrous to see a man love the Child and hate the Parents And therefore he may earnestly enjoyn his Son Henry to repress the insolencie of such as under pretence to tax a vice in the person seek craftily to stain the Race Presently after this taking Boulogne the French again endeavoured the regaining of it even during the life of the Conquerour but he was strong enough to keep his gettings After his death the English being engaged in a warr against the Scots and Kit having raised a rebellion in Norfolk they began again the reconquest of it and that more violently than ever Upon news of their preparations an Ambassage was dispatched to Charles the fifth to desire succours of him and to lay before him the infancy and several necessity of the young King who was then about the age of ten years This desire when the Emperour had refused to hearken to they besought him that he would at the least be pleased to take into his hands and keeping the Town of Boulogne and that for no longer time than until King Edward could make an end of the troubles of his Subjects at home An easie request yet did he not onely deny to satisfie the King in this except he would restore the Catholike Religion but he also expresly commanded that neither any of his men or munition should go to the assistance of the English An ingratitude for which I cannot find a fitting Epithite considering what fast friends the Kings of England have alwayes been to the united Houses of Burgundy and Austria what moneys they have helped them with and what sundry warrs they have made for them both in Belgium to maintain their authority and in France to augment their potency from the marriage of Maximilian of the Family of Austria with the Lady Mary of Burgundie which happened in they ear 1478. unto the death of Henry the eighth which fell in the year 1548. are just seventy years in which time onely it is thought by men of knowledge and experience that it cost the Kings of England at the least six millions of pounds in the meer quarrels and defence of the Princes of those Houses An expense which might seem to have earned a greater requital than that now demanded Upon this denial of the unkindful Emperour a Treaty followed between England and France The effect of it was that Boulogne and all the Country of it should be restored to the French by paying to the English at two dayes of payment 800000. Crowns Other Articles there were but this the principal and so the fortune of young Edward was like that of Julius Caesar towards his end Dum clementiam quam praestiterant expectant incauti ab ingratis occupati sunt The CONCLUSION A Generall censure of France and the French A gratulation to England The end of our journey ON wednesday the third of August having stayed in Boulogne three dayes for wind and company and not daring to venture on Calice by reason of the sickness there raging we took ship for England the day fair and the wind fitly serving us we were quickly got out of the harbour into the main And so I take my leave of France