is wholly theirs and is the cheif place of their study CHAP. XIII The connexion between the Church and Common-wealth in general A transition to the particulars of France The Government there meerly Regal A mixt form of Government most commendable The Kings Patents for Offices Monopolies above the censure of the Parliament The strange Office intended by Mr. Luines The Kings gifts and expences The Chamber of Accompts France divided into three sorts of people The Conventus Ordinum nothing but a Title The inequality between the NoNobles and Commons in France The Kings power how much respected by the Princes The powerableness of that rank The form of Execution done on them The muititude and confusion of Nobility King James defended A Censure of the French Heralds The power and command of the French Nobles and their Tennants their baillages giblets and other Regalia Why they conspire with the King to undo the Commons HAving thus spoken of the Church I must now treat a little of the Common-wealth Religion is as the soul of a State policy as the body we can hardly discourse of the one without a relation to the other if we do We commit a wilful murder in the destroying a Republick The Common-wealth without the Church is but a Carcass or thing inanimate The Church without the Common-wealth is as it were anima separata The joyning of them together maketh of both one flourishing and permanent body and therefore as they are in nature so in my relations Connubio jungam stabili Moreover such a secret simpathy there is between them such a necessary dependency of one upon the other that we may say of them what Tullie doth of two Twinns in his book de Fato Eorum morbus eodem tempore gravescit eodem levatur They grow sick and well at the same time and commonly run out of their race at the same instant There is besides the general respects each to other a more particular bond betwixt them here in France which is a likeness and resemblance in the Church of France We have found a Head and a Body This Body again divided into two parts the Catholike and Protestant The Head is in his own opinion and the minds of many others of a power unlimited yet the Catholike party hath strongly curbed it And of the two parts of the body we see the Papists flourishing and in triumph whilst that of the Protestants is in misery and affliction Thus it is also in the Body Politick the King in his own Conceit boundless and omnipotent is yet affronted by his Nobles which Nobles enjoy all freedom of riches and happiness the poor Pesants in the mean time living in drudgery and bondage For the government of the King is meerly Regall or to give it the right name Despotical Though the Country be his Wife and all the people are his Children yet doth he neither govern as a Husband or a Father He accounteth of them all as of his servants and therefore commandeth them as a Master In his Edicts which he over-frequently sendeth about he never mentioned the good will of his Subjects nor the approbation of his Council but concludeth all of them in this form Cartel est nostre plaisir sic volo sic jubeo A form of government very prone to degenerate into Tyranny if the Princes had not oftentimes strength and will to make resistance But this not the vice of the entire and Soveraign Monarchy alone which the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the other two good forms of regiment being subject also to the same frailty Thus in the reading of Histories have we observed an Aristocracie to have been frequently corrupted into an Oligarchie and Politeia or Common-wealth properly so called into a Democracie For as in the body natural the purest Complexions are less lasting and easily broken and subject to alteration So it is in the body Civil The pure and unmixt forms of government though perfect absolute in their kinds are of little continuance and very subject to change into its opposite They therefore which have written of Republicks do most applaud and commend the mixt manner of Rule which is equally compounded of the Kingdom and Politeia because in them Kings have all the power belonging to their title without prejudice to the property In these there is reserved to the King absolute Majesty to the Nobles convenient authority to the people an incorrupted liberty all in a just and equal proportion Every one of these is like the Empire of Rome as it was moderated by Nerva Qui res olim dissociabiles miscuerat principatum libertatem wherein the soveraignty of one endamaged not the freedom of all A rare mixture of government And such is the Kingdom of England A Kingdom of a perfect and happy composition wherein the King hath his full prerogative the Nobles all due respects and the People amongst other blessings perfect in this that they are masters of their own purses and have a strong hand in the making of their own Lawes On the other side in the Regal government of France the Subject frameth his life meerly as the Kings variable Edicts shall please to enjoyn him is banisht of his money as the Kings task-masters think fit and suffereth many other oppressions which in their proper place shall be specified This Aristotle in the third book of his Politicks calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the command of a Master and defineth it to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Such an Empire by which a Prince may command and do whatsoever shall seem good in his own eyes one of the Prerogatives Royall of the French Kings For though the Court of Parliament doth seem to challenge a perusal of his Edicts before they pass for Laws yet is this but a meer formality It is the Cartell est nostre plaisir which maketh them currant which it seemeth these Princes learned of the Roman Emperours Justinian in the book of Institutions maketh five parts of the Civil Lawes Viz. He meaneth the Law of the twelve Tables Plebiscita Senatus consulta Prudentum responsa and Principum placita To this last he addeth this general strength Quod principi placuerit legis habet valorem The very foundation of the Kings powerfulness True it is yet that the Courts of Parliament do use to demurre sometimes upon his Patents and Decrees and to petition him for a Reversal of them but his answer commonly is Stat pro ratione Voluntas He knoweth his own power and granteth Letters Patents for new Offices and Monopolies abundantly If a moneyed man can make a friend in Court he may have an Office found for him of six pence upon every Sword made in France a liure upon the selling of every head of Cattel a brace of soles for every pair of boots and the like It is the onely study of some men to find out such devices of enriching themselves and undoing the people The Patent for Mines
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
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
granted to Sir Giles Mompesson was just one of the French Offices As for Monopolies they are here so common that the Subject taketh no notice of it not a scurvy petty book being printed but it hath its priviledge affixed ad imprimendum solum These being granted by the King are carried to the Parliament by them formally perused and finally verified after which they are in force and vertue against all opposition It is said in France that Mr. Luines had obtained a Patent of the King for a quart d' Escu to be paid unto him for the Christning of every Child throughout the Kingdom A very unjust and unconscionable extortion Had he lived to have presented it to the Court I much doubt of their denial though the onely cause of bringing before them such Patents is onely intended that they should discuss the justice and convenience of them As the Parliament hath a formality of power left in them of verifying the Kings Edicts his grants of Offices and Monopolies so hath the Chamber of Accompts a superficial survey of his gifts and expences For his expences they are thought to be as great now as ever by reason of the several retinues of Himself his Mother his Queen and the Monsieur Neither are his gifts lessened The late warrs which he mannaged against the Protestants cost him dear he being fain to bind unto him most of his Princes by money and Pensions As the expences of the King are brought unto this Court to be examined so are also the gifts and pensions by him granted to be ratified The titulary power given to this Chamber is to cut off all those of the Kings grants which have no good ground and foundation the Officers being solemnly at the least formally sworn not to suffer any thing to pass them to the detriment of the Kingdom whatsoever Letters of Command they have to the contrary But with this Oath they do oftentimes dispense To this Court also belongeth the Enfranchisement or Naturalization of Aliens Anciently certain Lords Officers of the Crown and of the Privie Council were appointed to look into the Accompts now it is made an ordinary and soveraign Court consisting of two Presidents and divers Auditors and after under Officers The Chamber wherein it is kept is called La Chambre des Comptes it is the beautifullest piece of the whole Palace the great Chamber it self not being worthy to be named in the same day with it It was built by Charles the eighth Anno 1485. afterwards adorned and beautified by Lewis the twelfth whose Statua is there standing in his Royal Robes and the Scepter in his hand he is accompanied by the four Cardinal-Virtues expressed by way of Hieroglychick very properly and cunning each of them have in them its particular Motto to declare its being The Kings Portraicture also as if he were the fifth Virtue had its word under-written and contained in a couple of verses which let all that love the Muses skip them in the reading are these Quatuor has comites fowro caelestia dona Innocuae pacis prospera sceptra gerens From the King descend we to the Subjects ab equis quod aiunt ad asinos and the phrase is not much improper the French Commonalty being called the Kings Asses These are divided into three ranks or Classes the Clergy the Nobless the Paisants out of which certain Delegates or Committees chosen upon an occasion and sent to the King did anciently concurre to the making of the supreme Court for justice in France it was called the Assembly of the three Estates or Conventus Ordinum and was just like the Parliament of England but these meetings are now forgotten or out of use neither indeed as this time goeth can they any way advantage the State For whereas there are three principal if not sole causes of these Conventions which are the disposing of the Regency during the non-age or sickness of a King the granting aids or subsidies and the redressing of grievances there is now another course taken in them The Parliament of Paris which speaketh as it is prompted by power and greatness appointeth the Regent the Kings themselves with their Officers determine of the taxes and as concerning their grievances the Kings ear is open to private Petitions Thus is that title of a Common-wealth which went to the making up of this Monarchy escheated or rather devoured by the King that name alone containing in it both Clergy Princes and People so that some of the French Counsellors may say with Tully in his Oration for Marcellus unto Caesar Doleoque cum Respublica immortalis esse debeat eam unius mortalis anima consistere yet I cannot but withal affirm that the Princes and Nobles of France do for as much as concerneth themselves upon all advantages fly off from the Kings obedience but all this while the poor Paisant is ruined Let the poor Tennant starve or eat the bread of carefulness it matters not so they may have their pleasure and be accompted firm Zealots of the Common liberty and certainly this is the issue of it the Farmer liveth the life of a slave to maintain his Lord in pride and laziness the Lord leadeth the life of a King to oppress his Tennant by fines and exactions An equality little answerable to the old platforms of Republicks Aristotle genius ille naturae as a learned man calleth him in his fourth book of Politicks hath an excellent discourse concerning this disproportion In that chapter his project is to have a correspondency so far between Subjects under the King or people of the same City that neither the one might be over rich nor the other too miserably poor They saith he which are too happy strong or rich or greatly favoured and the like cannot nor will not obey with which evil they are infected from their infancy The other through want of these things are too abjectly minded and base for that the one cannot but command and the other but serve and this he calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a City inhabited onely by slaves and tyrants That questionless is the most perfect and compleat form of Government Vbi veneratur potentem humilis non timet antecedit non contemnit humiliorem potens as Velleius But this is an happiness whereof France is not capable their Lords being Kings and their Commons Villains And to say no less of them than in truth they are the Princes of this Country are little inferior in matters of Royalty to any King abroad and by consequence little respective in matter of obedience to their own King at home Upon the least discontent they will draw themselves from the Court or put themselves into Arms and of all other comforts are ever sure of this that they shall never want partizans neither do they use to stand off from him fearfully and at distance but justifie their revolt by publike declaration and think the King much indebted to them if upon fair terms and an
honourable reconcilement they will please to put themselves again into his obedience Henry the fourth was a Prince of as undanted and uncontroulable a spirit as ever any of his Predecessors and one that loved to be obeyed yet was he also very frequently baffled by these Roytelets and at the last died in an affront The Prince of Conde perceiving the Kings affection to his new Lady began to grow jealous of him for which reason he retired unto Bruxels The King offended at this retreat sent after him and commanded him home The Prince returned answer that he was the Kings most humble Subject and Servant but into France he would not come unless he might have a Town for his assurance withal he protected in publike writing a Nullity of any thing that should be done to his prejudice in his absence A stomackful resolution and somewhat misbecoming a Subject yet in this opposition he persisted his humour of disobedience out-living the King whom he had thus affronted But these tricks are ordinary here otherwise a man might have construed this action by the term of rebellion The chief meanes whereby these Princes become so head-strong is an immunity given them by their Kings and a liberty which they have taken to themselves By their Kings they have been absolutely exempted from all tributes tolles taxes customs impositions and subsidies by them they have been alwayes estated in whole entire Provinces with a power of Hante and many justice as the Lawyers term it passed over unto them the Kings having scarce an homage or acknowledgement of them To this they have added much to their strength and security by the insconcing and fortifying their houses which both often moveth afterwards enableth thē to contemn his Majesty An example we have of this in the Castle of Rochforte belonging to the Duke of Tremoville which in the long Civil Wars endured a shelf of five thousand shot and yet was not taken A very impolitick course in my conceit in the French to bestow honours and immunities upon those Qui as the Historian saith ea suo arbitrio aut reposcituri aut retenturem videantur quique modum habent in sua voluntate For upon a knowledge of this strength in themselves the Princes have been alwayes prone to civil Warrs as having sufficient means for safety and resistance On this ground all they write the Kings authority and disobey his justice Insomuch that the greatest sort of Nobles in this Kingdom can seldom be arraigned or executed in person and therefore the Laws condemn them in their images and hang them in their pictures A pretty device to work justice If by chance or some handsome sleight any of them be apprehended they are put under a sure guard and not doomed to death without great fear of tumult and unquietness Neither is it Vnus alter onely some two or three that thus stand upon their distance with the King but even all the Nobility of the Realm A rout so disordered unconfined and numberless that even Fabius himself would be out of breath in making the reckoning I speak not here of those that are stiled La Noblesse but of Titulados men onely of titular Nobility of the degree of Baron and above of these there is in this Country a number almost innumerable quot Coelum stellas take quantity for quantity and I dare be of the opinion that Heaven hath not more Stars than France Nobles you shall meet with them so thick in the Kings Court especially that you would think it almost impossible the Country should bear any other fruit This I think I may safely affirm and without Hyperbole that they have there as many Princes as we in England have Dukes as many Dukes as we Earls as many Earls as we Barons as many Barons as we Knights A jolly company and such as know their own strength too I cannot but as much marvel that those Kings should be so prodigal in conferring honours considering this that every Nobleman he createth is so great a weakening to his power On the other side I cannot but as much wonder at some of our Nation who have murmured against our late Soveraign and accused him of an unpardonable unthriftiness in bestowing the dignities of his Realm with so full and liberal an hand Certainly could there any danger have risen by it unto the State I could have been as impatient of it as another But with us titles and ennobling in this kind are onely either the Kings favour or the parties merit maketh whomsoever he be that receiveth them rather reverenced than powerful Raro eorum honoribus invidetur quorum vis non timetur was a good Aphorism in the dayes of Paterculus and may for ought I know be as good still Why should I envy any man that honour which taketh not from my safety or repine at my Soveraign for raising any of his Servants into an higher degree of eminency when that favour cannot make them exorbitant Besides it concerneth the improvement of the Exchequer at the occasions of Subsidies and the glory of the Kingdom when the Prince is not attended by men meerly of the Vulgar Add to this the few Noble men of any title which he found at his happy coming in amongst us and the additions of power which his coming brought unto us and we shall find it proportionable that he should enlarge our Nobility with our Country Neither yet have we indeed a number to be talked of comparing us with our neighbour Nations We may see all of the three first rank in the books of Miles Brook and Vincent and we are promised also a Catalogue of the creations and successions of all our Barons then we should see that as yet we have not surfeited Were this care taken by the Heralds in France perhaps the Nobility there would not seem so numberless sure I am not so confused but this is the main vice of that Profession of six Heralds which they have amongst them Viz Mountjoy Normandy Guyenns Valoys Britain and Burgoyne not one of them is reported to be a Genealogist Neither were their Predecessors better affected to this study Peradine the onely man that ever was amongst them hath drawn down the Genealogies of twenty four of the cheif Families all eminent and of the bloud in which he hath excellently well discharged himself but what a small pittance is that compared to the present multitude The Nobles being so populous it cannot be but the Nobless as they call them that is the Gentry must needs be thick set and onely not innumerable Of these Nobless there be some that hold their estates immediately of the Crown and they have the like immunity with the Princes Some hold their feifes or seuda of some other of the Lords and he hath onely Basse justice permitted to him as to mulct and amerce his Tennants to imprison them or to give them any other correction under death All of them have power to
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
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
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