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
mixture of colours that no art could have expressed it self more delectable If you have ever seen an exquisite Mosaical work you may best judge of the beauty of this Valley Add to this that the River Seine being now past Paris either to embrace that flourishing soyl or out of a wanton desire to play with it self hath divided it self into sundry lesser channels besides its several windings and turnings So that one may very justly and not irreligiously conceive it to be an Idaea or representation of the Garden of Eden the River so happily separating it self to water the ground This Valley is a very large circuit And as the Welch-men call Anglesea Mon Mam Gymry that is the Mother of Wales so may we call this the Mother of Paris for so abundantly doth it furnish that great and populous City that when the Dukes of Bary and Burgundie besieged it with 100000. men there being at that time three or 400000. Citizens and Souldiers within the wals neither the people within nor the enemy without found any want of provision It is called the Valley of Montmorencie from the Town and Castle of Montmorencie seated in it But this Town nameth not the Valley onely it giveth name also to the ancient family of the Dukes of Montmorencie the ancientest house of Christendom He stiled himself Lepremier Christien plus vicil Baron du' France and it is said that his Ancestors received the faith of Christ by the preaching of St. Denis the first Bishop of Paris Their principal houses are that of Chantilly and Ecqucan both seated in the Isle This last being given to this present Dukes Father by King Henry the fourth to whom it was confiscated by the condemnation of one of his Treasurers This house also and so I beleive it hath been observed to have yeilded to France more Constables Marshals Admirals and the like Officers of power and command than any three other in the whole Kingdom insomuch that I may say of it what Irenicus doth of the Count Palatines the names of the Countries onely changed Non alia Galliae est familia cui plus debent nobilitus The now Duke named Henry is at this present Admiral of France The most eminent place in all the Isle is Mont-Martyr eminent I mean by reason of its height though it hath also enough of antiquity to make it remarkable It is seated within a mile of Paris high upon a Mountain on which many of the faithful during the time that Gaule was heathenish were made Martyrs Hence the name though Paris was the place of apprehension and sentence yet was this Mountain commonly the Scaffold of execution It being the custom of the Ancients neither to put to death nor bury within the wals of their Cities Thus the Jews when they crucified our Saviour led him out of the City of Hierusalem unto Mount Calvary unto which St. Paul is thought to allude Hebr. 13. saying Let us therefore go forth to him c. Thus also doth St. Luke to omit other instances report of St. Stephen Acts 7. And they cast him out of the City and stoned him So in the State of Rome the Vestal Virgin having committed fornication was stifled in the Campus Sceleritatus and other Malefactors thrown down the Tarpeian rock both scituate without the Town So also had the Thessalians a place of execution from the praecipice of an hill which they called the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Corvi whence arose the Proverb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be hanged As they permitted not execution of Malefactors within their wals so neither would they suffer the best of their Citizens to be buried within them This was it which made Abraham to buy him a field wherein to bury his dead and thus we read in the seventh of Luke that the Widow of Naims Son was carried out to be buried This custom also we find among the Athenians Corinthians and other of the Graecians qui inagris suis saith Alexander ab Alexandro aut in fundo suburbano ceuinavito aut patrio solo corpora humari consuevere Amongst the Romans it was once the fashion to burn the bodies of their dead within their City This continued till the bringing in of the Laws of Athens commonly called the Laws of the twelve Tables one of which Laws runneth in these words In urbe ne sepelito neve drito After this prohibition their dead corps were first burned in Campus Martius and their Urnes covered in sundry places of the field The frequent Urnes or sepulchral stones digged up amongst us here in England are sufficient testimonies of this assertion Besides we may find in Appian that the chief reason why the rich men in Rome would not yeild to the Law called Lex Agrariae for that Law divided the Roman possessions equally among the people was because they thought it an irreligious thing that the Monuments of their fore-fathers should be sold to others The first that is registred to have been buried in the City was Trajane the Emperor Afterward it was granted as an honorary to such as had deserved well of the Republique And when the Christian Religion prevailed and Church-yards those dormitories of the Saints were consecrated the liberty of burying within the wals was to all equally granted On this ground it not being lawful to put to death or bury within the Town of Paris this Mountain was destinate to these purposes then was it onely a Mountain now it is enlarged unto a Town It hath a poor wall an Abbey of Benedictine Monks and a Chappel called La Chapelle des Martyrs both founded by Lewis the sixth called The Gross Amongst others which received here the Crown of Martyrdom none more famous than St. Denis said to be Dionisius Areopagita the first Bishop of Paris Rusticus his Arch-preist and Eleutherius his Deacon The time when under the raign of Domitian the person by whose command Hesubinus Governour of Paris the crime for not bowing before the Altar of Mercury and offering sacrifice unto him Of St. Denis being the Patron or Tutelary St. of France the Legend reports strange wonders as namely when the Executioner had smitten off his head he caught it between his arms and ran with it down the hill as fast as his legs could bear him Half a mile from the place of his execution he sate down rested and so he did nine times in all even till he came to the place where his Church is now built There he fell down and died being three milee English from Mount Martyr and there he was buried together with Rusticus and Eleutherius who not being able to go as fast as he did were brought after by the people O impudentiam admirabilem verè Romanam and yet so far was the succeeding age possessed with a beleif of this miracle that in the nine several places where he is said to have rested so many handsom crosses of stones there are erected all of a making To the
granted to Sir Giles Mompesson was just one of the French Offices As for Monopolies they are here so common that the Subject taketh no notice of it not a scurvy petty book being printed but it hath its priviledge affixed ad imprimendum solum These being granted by the King are carried to the Parliament by them formally perused and finally verified after which they are in force and vertue against all opposition It is said in France that Mr. Luines had obtained a Patent of the King for a quart d' Escu to be paid unto him for the Christning of every Child throughout the Kingdom A very unjust and unconscionable extortion Had he lived to have presented it to the Court I much doubt of their denial though the onely cause of bringing before them such Patents is onely intended that they should discuss the justice and convenience of them As the Parliament hath a formality of power left in them of verifying the Kings Edicts his grants of Offices and Monopolies so hath the Chamber of Accompts a superficial survey of his gifts and expences For his expences they are thought to be as great now as ever by reason of the several retinues of Himself his Mother his Queen and the Monsieur Neither are his gifts lessened The late warrs which he mannaged against the Protestants cost him dear he being fain to bind unto him most of his Princes by money and Pensions As the expences of the King are brought unto this Court to be examined so are also the gifts and pensions by him granted to be ratified The titulary power given to this Chamber is to cut off all those of the Kings grants which have no good ground and foundation the Officers being solemnly at the least formally sworn not to suffer any thing to pass them to the detriment of the Kingdom whatsoever Letters of Command they have to the contrary But with this Oath they do oftentimes dispense To this Court also belongeth the Enfranchisement or Naturalization of Aliens Anciently certain Lords Officers of the Crown and of the Privie Council were appointed to look into the Accompts now it is made an ordinary and soveraign Court consisting of two Presidents and divers Auditors and after under Officers The Chamber wherein it is kept is called La Chambre des Comptes it is the beautifullest piece of the whole Palace the great Chamber it self not being worthy to be named in the same day with it It was built by Charles the eighth Anno 1485. afterwards adorned and beautified by Lewis the twelfth whose Statua is there standing in his Royal Robes and the Scepter in his hand he is accompanied by the four Cardinal-Virtues expressed by way of Hieroglychick very properly and cunning each of them have in them its particular Motto to declare its being The Kings Portraicture also as if he were the fifth Virtue had its word under-written and contained in a couple of verses which let all that love the Muses skip them in the reading are these Quatuor has comites fowro caelestia dona Innocuae pacis prospera sceptra gerens From the King descend we to the Subjects ab equis quod aiunt ad asinos and the phrase is not much improper the French Commonalty being called the Kings Asses These are divided into three ranks or Classes the Clergy the Nobless the Paisants out of which certain Delegates or Committees chosen upon an occasion and sent to the King did anciently concurre to the making of the supreme Court for justice in France it was called the Assembly of the three Estates or Conventus Ordinum and was just like the Parliament of England but these meetings are now forgotten or out of use neither indeed as this time goeth can they any way advantage the State For whereas there are three principal if not sole causes of these Conventions which are the disposing of the Regency during the non-age or sickness of a King the granting aids or subsidies and the redressing of grievances there is now another course taken in them The Parliament of Paris which speaketh as it is prompted by power and greatness appointeth the Regent the Kings themselves with their Officers determine of the taxes and as concerning their grievances the Kings ear is open to private Petitions Thus is that title of a Common-wealth which went to the making up of this Monarchy escheated or rather devoured by the King that name alone containing in it both Clergy Princes and People so that some of the French Counsellors may say with Tully in his Oration for Marcellus unto Caesar Doleoque cum Respublica immortalis esse debeat eam unius mortalis anima consistere yet I cannot but withal affirm that the Princes and Nobles of France do for as much as concerneth themselves upon all advantages fly off from the Kings obedience but all this while the poor Paisant is ruined Let the poor Tennant starve or eat the bread of carefulness it matters not so they may have their pleasure and be accompted firm Zealots of the Common liberty and certainly this is the issue of it the Farmer liveth the life of a slave to maintain his Lord in pride and laziness the Lord leadeth the life of a King to oppress his Tennant by fines and exactions An equality little answerable to the old platforms of Republicks Aristotle genius ille naturae as a learned man calleth him in his fourth book of Politicks hath an excellent discourse concerning this disproportion In that chapter his project is to have a correspondency so far between Subjects under the King or people of the same City that neither the one might be over rich nor the other too miserably poor They saith he which are too happy strong or rich or greatly favoured and the like cannot nor will not obey with which evil they are infected from their infancy The other through want of these things are too abjectly minded and base for that the one cannot but command and the other but serve and this he calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a City inhabited onely by slaves and tyrants That questionless is the most perfect and compleat form of Government Vbi veneratur potentem humilis non timet antecedit non contemnit humiliorem potens as Velleius But this is an happiness whereof France is not capable their Lords being Kings and their Commons Villains And to say no less of them than in truth they are the Princes of this Country are little inferior in matters of Royalty to any King abroad and by consequence little respective in matter of obedience to their own King at home Upon the least discontent they will draw themselves from the Court or put themselves into Arms and of all other comforts are ever sure of this that they shall never want partizans neither do they use to stand off from him fearfully and at distance but justifie their revolt by publike declaration and think the King much indebted to them if upon fair terms and an
posterity hath admired without envie To come home unto our selves the writers of the Romans mention the revolt of Britaines and the slaughter of 70000 Confederates to the Romans under the conduct of Vocudia and she in the beginning of her encouragements to the action telleth the people thus Solitum quidem Britannis foeminarum ductu bellare Of all these Heroicall Ladyes I read no accusation of witchcraft innative courage and a sense of injury being the armes they fought withall Neither can I see why the Romans should exceed us in modesty or that we need envie unto the French this one female Warriour when it is a fortune which hath befallen most nations As for her atchievements they are not so much beyond a common being but that they may be imputed to naturall meanes For had she been a Witch it is likely she would have prevented the disgrace which her valour suffered in the ditches of Paris though she could not avoid those of Champeigne who took her prisoner The Divell at such an exigent only being accustomed to forsake those which he hath intangled so that she enjoyed not such a perpetuity of faelicity as to entitle her to the Divells assistance she being sometimes conquerour sometimes overthrowne and at last imprisoned Communia fortune ludibria the ordinary sports of Fortune her actions before her March to Orleans having somewhat in them of cunning and perhaps of imposture as the Vision which she reported to have incited her to these attempts her finding out of the King disguised in the habit of a Countrey-man and her appointing to her selfe an old sword hanging in Saint Katharines Church in Tours The French were at this time meerly crâ—â—t-fallen not to be raised but by a miracle This therefore is invented and so that which of all the rest must prove her a sorceresse will onely prove her an impostor Gerrard seigneur de Haillan one of the best writers of France is of opinion that all that plot of her coming to the King was contrived by three Lords of the Court to hearten the people as if God now miraculously intended the restauration of the Kingdome Add to this that she never commanded in any battaile without the assistance of the best Captaines of the French Nation and amongst whom was the Bastard of Orleans who is thought to have put this device into her head The Lord Bellay in his discourse of Art Military proceedeth further and maketh her a man onely thus habited Pour fair revenir le courage aux Francois which had it been so would have been discovered at the time of her burning Other of the later French Writers for those of the former age savour too much of the Legend make her to be a lusty lasse of Lorreine trained up by the Bastard of Orleans and the Seigneur of Brandicourt only for this service that she might carry with her the reputation of a Prophetesse and an Ambassadresse from Heaven Admit this and farewell Witchcraft As for the sentence of her Condemnation and the confirmation of it by the Divines and Vniversity of Paris it is with me of no moment being composed onely to humour the Victor If this could sway me I had more reason to encline to the other party for when Charles had setled his estate the same man who had condemned her of Sorcery absolved her and there was also added in defence of her innocency a Decree from the Court of Rome Joane then with me shall inherit the title of La puelle d' Orleans with me she shall be ranked amongst the famous Captaines of her time and be placed in the same throne equall with the valiant'st of all her Sex in times before her Let those whom partiality hath wrested aside from the path of truth proclaime her for a Sorceress for my part I will not flatter the best Fortunes of my Countrey to the prejudice of a truth neither will I ever be induced to think of this female Warriour otherwise than as of a noble Captaine Audetque viris concurrere Virgo Penthesilea did it why not she Without the stain of Spells and Sorcery Why should those Arts in her be counted sin Which in the other have commended been Nor is it fit that France should be deny'd This Female Soldier since all Realms beside Have had the honour of one and relate How much that Sex hath ev'n forc'd the state Of their decaying strength let Scytha spare To speak of Tomyris the Assyrians care Shall be no more to have their deeds recited Of Ninus's wife nor are the Dutch delighted To have the name of their Velleda extoll'd the name Of this French Warriour hath eclips'd their fame And silenc'd their atchievements let the praise That 's due to Vertue wait upon her raise An Obelisk unto her you of Gaule And let her Acts live in the mouths of all Speak boldly of her and of her alone That never Lady was as good as Joane She dy'd a Virgin 't was because the earth Held not a man whose Vertues or whose Birth Might merit such a Blessing but above The Gods provided her a fitting Love And gave her to St. Denis she with him Protects the Lillies and their Diadem You then about whose Armies she doth watch Give her the honour due unto her Match And when in Field your Standard you advance Cry ' loud St. Denis and St. Joan for France CHAP. III. The study of the Civil Law received in Europe The dead time of Learning The Schoole of Law in Orleans The Oeconomie of them The Chancelour of Oxford anciently appointed by the Diocaesan there Method here and Prodigality in bestowing Degrees Orleans a great Conflux of Strangers The Language there The Corporation of Germaines there Their House and Privilege Dutch Latine The difference between an Academy and an University I Have now done with the Town and City of Orleans and am come to the Vniversity or Schooles of Law which are in it this being one of the first places in which the Study of the Civil Law was received in Europe for immediately after the death of Justinian who out of no lesse than two thousand volumes of Law-Writers had collected that body of the Imperiall Laws which we now call the Digest or the Pandects the study of them grew neglected in these Westerne parts nor did any for a long time professe or read them The reason was bâ—cause Italy France Spaine England and Germany having received new Lords over them as the Franks Lombards Saxons Sarcens and others were faine to submit themselves to their Lawes It happened afterwards that Lotharius Saxo the Emperour who began his Raigne Anno 1126 being 560 yeares after the death of Justinian having taken the City of Melphy in Naples found there an old Copy of the Pandects This he gave to the Pisans his Confederates as a most reverend relique of Learning and Antiquity whence it is called Litera pisana Moreover he founded the Vniversity of Bologne or Bononia ordaining the Civill
more graceful and would be pleasing at the entrance were the Gaurd Chamber reformed Some Hugonot Architect which were not in love with the errours of Antiquity might make a pretty room of it a Catholick Carpenter would never get credit by it for whereas the provident thrift of our fore fathers intended it for the House would else be too narrow for the Kings retinue both for a room of safety and of pleasure both for Bellmen and Dancers and for that cause made up some six ranks of seats on each side That sparingness in the more curious eyes of this time is little King like Country wenches might with an indifferent stomack abuse a Galliard in it or it might perhaps serve with a Stage at one end to entertain the Parisiens at a Play or with a partition in the middle it might be divided into pretty plausible Cockpits But to be employed in the nature it is now either to solace the King and Lords in a dance or to give any forraign Ambassadour his welcome in a Masque is little sutable with the majesty of a King of France The Chambers of it are well built but ill furnished the hangings of them being somewhat below a meanness and yet of these here is no small scarcity for as it is said of the Gymnosophists of India that Vnadomus et mansioni sufficit et sepulturae so may we of this Prince The same Chamber serveth for to Iodge him feed him also to confer discourse with his Nobility But like enough it is that this want may proceed from the several Courts of the King the Monsieur the Queene Mother and the Queene Regnant being all kept within it Proceed we now to the two Galleries whereof the first is that of the Queene Mother as being beautified and adorned exceedingly by Catherine de Medices Mother to Henry the third and Charles the ninth It containeth the Pictures of all the Kings of France and the most loved of their Queens since the time of St. Lewis They stand each King opposite to his Queen she being that of his Wives which either brought him most estate or his Successor The tables are all of a just length very fair and according to my little acquaintance with the Painter of a most excellent workmanship And which addeth more grace to it they are in a manner a perfect history of the State and Court of France in their several times For under each of the Kings pictures they have drawn the potraitures of most of their Lords whom valour and true courage in the field ennobled beyond their births Under each of the Queens the lively shapes of the most principal Ladies whose beauty and vertue had honoured the Court. A dainty invention and happily expressed At the further end of it stand the last King and the present Queen Mother who fill up the whole room The succeeding Princes if they mean to live in their pictures must either build new places for them or else make use of the Long Gallery built by Henry the fourth and which openeth in to that of the Queen Mother A Gallery it is of an incredible length as being above 500. yards long and of a breadth and height not unproportionable A room built rather for oftentation than use and such as hath more in it of the Majesty of ist Founder than the Grace It is said to have been erected purposely to joyn the Louure unto the house and garden of the Tuilleries an unlikely matter that such a stupendious building should be designed onely for a cleanly conveyance into a Summer-house Others are of opinion that he had a resolution to have the House quadrangular every side being correspondent to this which should have been the common Gallery to the rest which design had it taken effect this Palace would at once have been the wonder of the world and the envy of it For my part I dare be of the last mind as well because the second is in part begun as also considering how infinitely this King was affected to building The place Daulphin and the place Royal two of the finest piles of Paris were erected partly by his purse but principally by his encouragement The new Bridge in Paris was meerly his work so was also the new Palace and the most admirable Water-Works of St. Germanenlay this long Gallery and the Pesthouse owe themselves wholly unto him and the house of Fountain bleau which is the fairest in France is beholding to him for most of its beauty Adde to this his fortifications bestowed on the Bastile and his purpose to have strengthened Paris according to the modern art of Towns and you will find the attribute of Parietaria or Wall-floure which Constantine scoffingly gave unto Trajane for his great humour of building to be due unto this King but seriously and with reverence Besides the general love he had to building hâ— had also an ambition to go beyond ensample which also induceth me further to beleive his intent of making that large and admirable quadrangle above spoken of to have been serious and real For to omit others certain it is that he had a project of great spirit and difficulty which was to joyn the Mediterranean Sea and the Ocean together and to make the navigation from the one to the other through France and not to pass by the straight of Gibraltare It came into counsel Anno 1604. and was resolved to be done by this meanes The River of Garond is navigable from the Ocean almost to Tholoza and the Mediterranean openeth it self into the land by a little River whose name I know not as high as Narbonne Betwixt these two places was there a navigable channel to have been digged and it proceeded so far towards being actuated that a workman had undertaken it and the price was agreed upon But there arising some discontents between the Kings of France and Spain about the building of the Fort Fuentis in the Countrey of the Grisons the King not knowing what use he might have of treasure in that quarrel commanded the work not to go forward However it is to be commended in the attempt which was indeed Kingly and worthy his spirit and praise him in his heroick purpose and design Quem si non tenuit magnis tamen excidit ausis But the principal beauty if I may judge of this so much admired Palace of the Louure is a low plain room paved under foot with brick and without any hangings or tapestry on the sides yet being the best set out and furnished to my content of any in France It is called La salle des Antiques and hath in it five of the ancientest and venerablest pieces of all the Kingdom For the Nation generally is regardless of antiquity both in the monuments and in the study of it so that you shall hardly find any ancient inscription or any famous ruine snatched from the hand of time in the best of their Cities and Churches In the Church
not directed for ought I could perceive to any particular Saint yet not to be passed over without a due remembrance It was separated from the rest of the Church by two ranks of brass pillars one rank above the other The pillars are curiously cast and such as would not shame rhe workman In the massing Closset over the Altar there was hanged a tablet which by the many lines and shadows drawn in it seemed to represent some piece of building Moving my hand towards my eye in the nature and kind of a perspective-glass I perceived to be the representation of that Church wherein I stood to see it and it was done with that cunning that it would almost have perswaded a man out of himself and made him beleive that he had been in the Church-yard so perfectly did it shew the majesty of the Front the beauty of the Iles the number of the pillars and the glory of the Quire a kind of work in my opinion of all others the most excellent and such as would infinitely delight an Optick Had not such peices been vulgar to me it had more affected me But in the gallery of Mr. Crane of Cambridge once belonging to that humerous Physitian Mr. Butler and in that of Sir Noel Caron late Leiger for the States at Lambeth I had seen divers of them whereof some perfecter The third of these Massing Clossets was that of St. Peter not so gorgeous as the rest unto the eyes of them that saw it but more useful to the soules of those who had a mind to take the benefit of it for therein hung an Indulgence granted by Pope Gregory the fifteenth unto that Church dated the twenty seventh of July Anno Dom. 1612. and of his Popedom the twentieth The contents of it were an absolute exemption from the pains and place of Purgatory to those who upon the Feast of All-Soules Festum commemorationis Sanctorum the Breif calleth it and the Octaves of it would come to pay their devotions and moneys in that Temple Had the extent of it been general it would quickly have emptied the Popes treasury and in time to have put an end to Purgatory His Holiness therefore did wisely restrain it in his Bull to the natives of that Diocess The author and first founder of those Indulgences if it be lawful to note so much by the way was Pope Vrban the second who began his Popedom Anno 1088. who conferred them on all such who would go into the warrs for the recovering of Hierusalem Next they began to be conferred on those who would side with the Pope in his unlawful warrs against the Emperours And lastly about the time of Clemâ—nt the fifth he began his raign Anno 1306. they began to grow merchantable for to him that gainful invention of the Church treasury consisting of the merits of our Saviour and the Saints is imputed but I return again to the Church of Amiens This glorious Church is the seat of a Bishop who acknowledgeth for his Metropolitan the Archbishop of Rhemes Primate of all France the first Bishop of it was one Firnamus a native of Pampelune in the Kingdom of Navarre who suffered Martyrdom under the Emperor Dioclesian to him succeeded another Firminus to whom the first foundation of this Church is attributed the present Diocesan is named Franciscus Faber his intrado about six thousand Crowns a year Chanoins there are in the Church to the number of forty of whose revenue I could not learn any thing Neither could I be so happy as to see the Head of St. John Baptist which is said to be here entire though it cannot be denied that a peice of it is in the holy Chappel of Paris besides those fractions of it which are in other places CHAP. IV. Our journey down the Some and Company The Town and Castle of Pigingi for what famous Comminees censure of the English on matter of Propheoies A Farewell to the Church of Amiens The Town and Castle of Pont d' Armie Abbeville how seated and the Garrison there No Governour in it but the Mayor The French Post-horses how base and tired Mp preferment to the Trunk-horse the House of Philip de Commiâ—ees The Town and strength of Monstreville The importance of these three Towns to the French border c. IVly the thirtieth we took boat to go down to Abbeviâ—e by the River of Some a River oÌ„f no gâ—eâ—t breadth but deep and full the boat that carried us was much of the making of those Lighters that live upon the Thames but that it was more weildy and fit for speed there were in it of â—â—â—hall to the number of thirty persons or thereabouts people of all conditions and such with whom a man of any humour might have found a companion under the tilt we espied a bearie of Lasses mixt with some young Gentlemen To them we applied our selves and they taking a delight to hear our broken French made much of our company for in that little time of our abode there we had learned onely so much of the French as a little Child after a years practise hath of his Mothers tongue Linguis dimidiata ad huc verba tentantibus loquelâ ipso affectantis linguae fragmine dulciori The Gentlewomen next those of Orleans were the handsomest that I had seen in France very pleasant and affable one of them being she that put my Religion to the touchstone of kissing the cross of her beads Thus associated we passed merrily down the stream though slowly the delight which our language gave the company and the content which their liberal humanity afforded to us beguiling the tediousness of the way The first thing which we met with observable was the Town and Castle of Pignigni The Town poor and beggerly and so unlikely to have named the Province as Mercator would have it besides the disproportion and dissimilitude of their names The Castle scituate on the top of the Hill is now a place of more pleasure than strength as having command over an open and good Country which lyeth below it it belongeth as we have said to the Vidimate of Amiens and so doth the Town also This Town is famous among the French for a tradition and a truth The tradition is of a famous defeate given to the English neer unto it but in whose raigne and under whose conduct they could not tell us being thus routed they fled to this Town into which their enemies followed with them intending to put them all to the sword but at last their furie being allayed they proposed that mercy unto them which those of Gilead did unto those of Ephraim in the Scriptures life and liberty being promised to all them that could pronounce this word Pignigni it seemeth it was not a word in those daies possible for an English mouth for the English saying all of them Peguenie instead of Pignigni were all of them put to the sword thus farre the tradition The truth of story by
lusty as the Horses of the Sun in Ovid neither could we say of them flammiferis implent hinnitibus aur as All the neighng we could hear from the proudest of them was onely an old dry cough which I le assure you did much comfort me for by that noise I first learned there was life in them Upon such Anatomies of Horses or to speak more properly upon such several heaps of bones were I and my company mounted and when we expected however they seemed outwardly to see somewhat of the post in them my beast began to move after an Aldermans pace or like Envie in Ovid Surgit humi pigre passuque incedet inerti Out of this gravity no perswasion could work them the dull jades being grown insensible of the spur and to hearten them with wands would in short time have distressed the Country Now was the Cart of Diepe thought a speedy conveyance and those that had the happiness of a Waggon were esteemed too blessed yea though it came with the hazard of the old woman and the wenches If good nature or a sight of their journeys ever did chance to put any of them into a pace like a gallop we were sure to have them tire in the middle way and so the remainder of the Stage was to be measured with our own feet being weary of this trade I made bold to dismount the Postilion and ascended the Trunk Horse where I sate in such magnificent posture that the best Carrier in Paris might have envied my felicity behind me I had a good large Trunk and a Portmantue before me a bundle of Cloaks and a parcel of Books Sure I was that if my stirrups could poize me equally on both sides that I could not likely fall backwards nor forwards Thus preferred I encouraged my Companions who cast many an envious eye upon my prosperity and certainly there was not any of them who might not more justly have said of me Tu as un meilleur temps que le pape then poor Lauarillo's Master dâ—d when he allowed him an Onion for four dayes This circumstance I confess might have well been omitted had I not great example for it Philip de Comminees in the midst of his grave and serious relation of the battel of Mont l' hierrie hath a note much about this nature which gave me encouragement which is that himself had an old Horse half tired and this was just my case who by chance thrust his head into a pail of Wine and drunk it off which made him lustier and friskier that day than ever before but in that his Horse had better luck than I had On the right hand of us and almost in the middle way betwixt Abbeville and Boulogne we left the Town of Monstreville which we had not leasure to see It seemed daintily seated for command and resistance as being built upon the top and declivity of an hill it is well strengthened with Bastions ramparts on the outside hath within a Garrison of five Companies of Souldiers their Governour as I learned of one of the Paisants being called Lenroy And indeed it concerneth the King of France to lâ—ck well to his Town of Monstreville as being a border Town within two miles of Artoys and especially coâ—siâ—ering that the taking of it would â—ut off all entercourse between the Countreys of Boulogne and Calais with the rest of France Of the like importance also are the Towns of Abbeville and Amiens and that the French Kings are not ignorant of Insomuch that those two onely together with that of St. Quintin being put into the hands of Philip Duke of Burgundy to draw him from the party of the English were redeemed again by Lewis the eleventh for 450000. Crowns an infinite sum of money according to the standard of those times and yet it seemeth the King of France had no bad bargain of it for upon an hope onely of regaining those Towns Charls Earl of Charoloys Son to Duke Philip undertook that warr against King Lewis by which at the last he lost his life and hazarded his estate CHAP. V. The Country of Boulonnois and Town of Boulogne by whom enfranchised The present of salt butter Boulogne divided into two Towns Procession in the low Town to divert the Plague The forms of it Processions of the Letany by whom brought into the Church The high Town garrisoned The old man of Boulogne The neglect of the English in leaving open the Havens The fraternity de la charite and inconvenience of it The costly journey of Henry the eigth to Boulogne Sir Waâ—ter Raleighs censure of that Prince condemned the discourtesie of Charls the fifth towards our Edward the sixth The defence of the House of Burgundy how chnrgeable to the Kings of England Boulogne re-yeilded WE are now come to the Country of Boulonnois which though a part of Picardy disdaineth yet to be so counted but will be reckoned a County of it self It comprehendeth in it the Towns of Boulogne Escapes and Neus-Chastel beside-divers Villages and consisteth much of hils and valleys much after the nature of England the soyl being indifferent fruitful of corn and yeilding more glass than any other part of France which we saw for the quantity Neither is it onely a County of it self but it is in a manner also a free County it being holden immediately of the Virgin Mary who is no question a very gracious Land Lady For when King Lewis the eleventh after the decease of Charles of Burgundy had taken in Boulogne Anno 1477. As new Lord of the Town thus John de Sierries relateth it he did homage without sword or spurs bare-headed and on his knee before the Virgin Mary offering unto her image an heart of Massie gold weighing two thousand Crowns he added also this that he and his successors after him being Kings should hold the County of Boulogne of the same Virgin and do homage unto her image in the great Church of the higher Town dedicated to her naâ—e giving 〈◊〉 every change of a Vassal an heart of pure gold of the same weight Since that time the Boulonnois being the Tennants of our Lady have enjoyed a perpetual exemption from many of those tributes and taxes under which the rest of France are miserably afflicted Amongst others they have been alwayes freed from the gabel of Salt by reason whereof and by the goodness of their pastures they have there the best Butter in all the Kingdom I say partly by reason of their Salt because having it at a low rate they do liberally season all their Butter with it whereas they which do buy their Salt at the Kings price cannot afford it any of that dear commodity Upon this ground it is the custom of these of Boulonnois to send unto their Freinds of France and Paris a barrel of Butter seasoned according to their fashion a present no less ordinary and acceptable than Turkeys Capons and the like are from our Country Gentlemen to those