I found a Banquet or Collation provided for me consisting of cold bake-meats choise Marmelets and most excellent Wines and which I looked upon as the greater favour his Wife and Daughters ready for my entertainment We had scarce ended this refreshment when the Bailiff brought word that he had made a boat ready to carry me to the Water-gate whereupon having had the honor to kisse the hands of the women I made accompt to take my leave of the Provost also who on the other side was resolved to accompany me to the water side and not to leave me till he saw me passed thorow the gate whether out of civility to me or compliance with the trust reposed in him I determine not which was done accordingly one of his servants waiting on me till he had brought me to the Inne where I was to lodge July the last we took Post-horse for Bologne if at the least we may call those Post-horses which we rid on As lean they were as Envie is in the Poet Macies in corpore toto being most true of them Neither were they only lean enough to have their ribs numbred but the very spur-gals had made such casements through their skins that it had been no great difficulty to have surveyed their entrails A strange kind of Cattell in my 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 â—lusty as the horses of the Sun in Ovid neither could we say of them Flammiferis implent hinnitibus auras All the â—eighing we could hear from the proudest of them was only 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 severall heaps of bones when I and my Companion 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 incedit inerti Out of this gravity no perswasion could work them the dull Jades being grown unsensible of the spur and to hearten them with wands would in short time have disforested the Country Now was the Cart of Dieppe thought a speedy conveyance and those that had the happinesse 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 journeyes end did chance to put any of them into a pace like unto a gallop we were sure to have them tire in the middle way and so the remainder of the Stage was to be measured by our own feet Being weary of this trade I made bold to dismount the Postilion and ascended the trunk-horse where I sat in such a magnificent posture that the best Carrier in Paris might envie my felicity Behind me I had a good large Trunk and a Port mantle before me a bundle of cloaks a cloak-bag and a parcell of boots sure I was if my stirrups could poise 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 Tuas un meilleur temps que le Pape then poor Lazarello's master did when he allowed him an Onion only for four dayes This circumstance I confesse might have well been omitted had I not great example for it Philip de Comines in the miâ—dest of his grave and serious relation of the Battail of Mont Hierrie hath a note much about this nature which gave me encouragement which is That himself had an old horse halfe tirâ—d and this was just my case who by chance thrust hâ—s head into a pale of wine and dranke it off which made him lustier and fresher that day then ever before but in that his horse had better luck then I had On the right hand of us and almost in the middle way betwixt Abbeville and Bologne we left the Town of Monstrueil which we had not leasure to see It seemeth daintily seated for command and resistance as being built upon the top and declivity of a hill It is well strengthned with Bastions and Ramparts on the outside hath within it a Garrison of five Companies of Souldiers their Governour as I learned of one of the Paisants being called Lannoy And indeed it concerneth the King of France to look wel to the Town of Monstrueil as being a border Town within two miles of Artoys and especially considering that the taking of it would cut off all entercourse between the Countries of Bologne 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 only together with that of St. Quintain being put into the hands of Philip D. of Burgundy to draw him from the party of the English were redeemed again by Lewis XI for 450000 crownes 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 only of regaining these Towns Charles Eal of Charaloys son to D. Philip undertook that war against King Lewis by which at the last he lost his life and hazarded his estate CHAP. V. The County of Boulonnois and Town of Boulogne by whom Enfranchized The present of Salt-butter Boulogne divided inte two Towns Procession in the lower Town to divert the Plague The forme of it Procession and the Letany by whom brought into the Church The high Town Garrisoned The old man of Boulogne and the desperate visit which the Author bestowed upon him The neglect of the English in leaving open the Havens The fraternity De la Charite and inconvenience of it The costly Journey of Henry VIII to Boulogne Sir Walt. Raleghs censure of that Prince condemned The discourtesie of Charles V. towards our Edward VI. The defence of the house of Burgundy how chargeable to the Kings of England Boulogne yeilded back to the French and on what conditions The curtesie and cunning of my Host of Bovillow WE are now come to the County of Boulonnois which though a part of Picardie disdaineth yet to be so accounted but will be reckoned as a County of it self It comprehendeth in it the Town of Boulogne Estaples and Nâ—uf-Chastell besides divers Villages and consisteth much of Hils and Vallies much after the nature of England the soil being indifferent fruitfull of Corne and yielding more Grasse then any other part of France which we saw for the quantity Neither is it only a County of it self but it is in a manner also a free County it being holden immediately of the Virgin Mary who
Esau said in his heart The days of mourning for my father are at band then will I slay my brother Jacob. The event of which his bloudy resolution was that Jacob was â—ain to relinquish all that he had and flie unto his Uncle This last part of the story expresseth very much of the present estate of the French Church The Papists hated the Protestants to see them thrive and increase so much amongst them This hatred moved them to a war by which they hoped to root them out altogether and this war compelled the Protestants to abandon their good Towns their strong holds and all their possessions and to flie to their friends wheresoever they could finde them And indeed the present estate of the Protestants is not much better then that of Jacob in Mesopotâ—â—ia nor much different The blessing which they expect lyeth more in the seed then the harvest For their strength it consisteth principally in their prayers to God and secondly in their obedience to their Kings Within these two fortresses if they can keep themselves they need fear none ill because they shall deserve none The only outward strengths they have left them are the two Towns of Montaban and Rochell the one deemed invincible the other threatned a speedy destruction The Duke of Espernon at my being there lay round about it and it was said that the Town was in very bad terms all the neighbouring Towns to whose opposition they much trusted having yeelded at the first fight of the Canon Rochell it is thought cannot be forced by assault nor compelled by a famine Some Protestants are glad of and hope to see the French Church restored to its former powerfulnesse by the resistance of that Town meerly I rather think that the perverse and stubborn condition of it will at last drive the young King into a fury and incite him to revenge their contradiction on their innocent friends now disarmed and disabled Then will they see at last the issue of their own peremptory resolutions and begin to believe that the Heathen Historian was of the two the better Christian when he gave us this note Non turpe est ab eo vinci quem vincere esset nefas neque 〈…〉 lli â—inhoneste etiam submitti quem fortuna super omnes exâ—ulisset This weaknesse and misery which hath now befallen the Protestants was anâ— effect I confesse of the ill-will which the other party bare them but that they bare them ill will was a fruit of their own graffing In this circumstance they were nothing like Jacob who in the hatred which his brother Esau had to him was simply passive they being active also in the birth of it And indeed that lamentable and bloudy war which sell upon them they not only endevoured not to avoid but invited during the reign of Henry IV. who would not see it and the troublesome minority of Lewis XIII who could not molest them they had made themselves masters of 99. Towns well fortifyed and enabled for a 〈◊〉 a strength too great for any one faction to keep together under a King which desires to be himself and rule his people In the opinion of this their potency they call Assemblies Parliaments as it were when and as often as they pleased There they consulted of the common affairs of Religion made new Laws of government removed and rechanged their generall officers the Kings leave all this while never so much as formally demanded Had they only been guilty of too much power that crime alone had been sufficient to have raised a war against them it not standing with the safety and honour of a King not to be the absolute commander of his own Subjects But in this their licentious calling of Assemblies they abused their power into a neglect and not dissolving them at his Majesties commandment they increased their neglect into into a disobedience The Assembly which principally occasioned the war and their ruine was that of Rochell called by the Protestants presently upon the Kings journey into Bearn This generall meeting the King prohibited by his especiall Edicts declaring all them to be guilty of treason which notwithstanding they would not â—earken to but very undutifully went on in their purposes It was said by a Gentleman of their party and one that had been imployed in many of their affairs That the fiery zeal of some who had the guiding of their consciences had thrust them into those desperate courses and I believe him Tantum relligio potuit suâ—dere malorum Being assembled they sent the King a Remonstrance of their grievances to which the Duke Lesdiguiers in a Letter to them written gave them a very fair and plausible answer wherein also he intreateth them to obey the Kings Edict and break up the Assembly Upon the receipt of this Letter those of the Assembly published a Declaration wherein they verified their meeting to be lawfull and their purpose not to dismisse themselves till their desires were granted This affront done to the King made him gather together his Forces yet at the Duke of Lesdiguiers request he allowed them 24 dayes of respite before his Armies should march towards them he offered them also very fair and reasonable conditions such also as their Deputies had solicited but far better then those which they were glad to accept when all their Towns were taken from them Profecto ineluct abilis fatorum vis cujus fortunam mutare constituit ejus corrumpit consilia It held very rightly in this people who turned a deaf eare to all good advice and were resolved it seemeth Not to hear the voice of the Charmer charmed he never so sweetly In their Assemblie therefore they make Lawes and Orders to regulate their disobedience as That no peace should be made without the consent of the generall Convocation about paying of Souldiers wages for the detaining of the Revenues of the King and Clergy and the like They also there divided France into seven circles or parts assigning over every circle severall Generals and Lieutenants and prescribed Orders how those Generals should proceed in the wars Thus we see the Kings Army leavied upon no slight ground his Regall authority was neglected his especiall Edicts violated his gracious profers slighted and his Revenues forbidden him and his 〈…〉 m divided before his face and allotted unto officers not of his own election Had the prosecution of his action been as fair as the cause was just and legall the Protestants had only deserved the infamy but hinc illae lachrymae The King so behaved himself in it that he suffered the sword to walk at randome as if his main design had been not to correct his people but to ruine them I will instance onely in that tyrannicall slaughter which he permitted at the taking of Nigrepâ—â—isse a Town of Quereu wherein indeed the Souldiers shewed the very rigour of severity which either a barbarous victor could inflict or a vanquished people suffer Nec 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 genus
and prudent woman p. 204. CHAP. II. Two Religions strugling in France like the two twins in the womb of Rebecca The comparison between them two and those in the general A more particular survey of the Papists Church in France in Policie Priviledge and Revenue The complaint of the Clergy to the King The acknowledgment of the French Church to the Pope meerly titular The pragmatick sanction Maxima tua fatuitas and Conventui Tridentino severally written to the Pope and Trent Councell The tedious quarrell about Investitures Four things propounded by the Parliament to the Jesuites The French B shops not to medle with Fryers their lives and land The ignorance of the French Priests The Chanoins Latine in Orleans The French not hard to be converted if plausibly humoured p. 216. CHAP. III. The correspondency between the French King and the Pope This Pope an Omen of the Marriages of France with England An English Catholicks conceit of it His Holinesse Nuncio in Paris A learned Argument to prove the Popes universality A continuation of the allegory between Jacob and Esau The Protestants compelled to leave their Forts and Towns Their present estate and strength The last War against them justly undertaken not fairly managed Their insolencies and disobedience to the Kings command Their purpose to have themselves a free estate The war not a war of Religion King James in justice could not assist them more then he did First for saken by their own party Their happinesse before the war The Court of the edict A view of them in their Churches The commendation which the French Papists give to the Church of England Their Discipline and Ministers c. p. 229 CHAP. IV. The connexion between the Church and Common wealth in generall A transition to the particular of France The Government there meerly regall A mixt forme of Government most commendable The Kings Patents for Offices Monopolies above the censure of Parliament The strange office intended to Mr. Luynes The Kings gifts and expences The Chamber of Accounts France divided into three sorts of people The Conventus Ordinum nothing but a title The inequality of the Nobles and Commons in France The Kings power how much respected by the Princes The powerablenesse of that rank The formall execution done on them The multitude and confusion of Nobility King James defended A censure of the French Heralds The command of the French Nobles over their Tenants Their priviledges gibbets and other Regalia They conspire with the King to undoe the Commons p. 246. CHAP. V. The base and low estate of the French Paisant The misery of them under their Lord. The bed of Procrustes The suppressing of the Subject prejudiciall to a State The wisdome of Henry VII The Forces all in the Cavallerie The cruell impositions laid upon the people by the King No demain in France Why the tryall by twelve men can be used only in England The Gabell of Salt The Popes licence for wenching The Gabell of whom refused and why The Gascoines impatient of Taxes The taille and taillion The Pancarke or Aides The vain resistance of those of Paris The Court of Aides The manner of gathering the Kings moneys The Kings revenue The corruption of the French publicans King Lewis why called the just The monies currant in France The gold of Spain more Catholick then the King The happinesse of the English Subjects A congratulation unto England The conclusion of the first Journey p. 258. GUERNZEY and JARSEY OR THE SIXTH BOOK The Entrance 1 The occasion of c. 2 Introduction to this work 3 The Dedication 4 and Method of the whole The beginning continuance of our voyage with the most remarkable passages which happened in it The mercenary falsnesse of the Dutch exemplified in the dealing of a man of warre p. 179. CHAP. I. 1 Of the convenient situation and 2 condition of these Islands in the generall 3 Alderney and 4 Serke 5 The notable stratagem whereby this latter was recovered from the French 6 Of Guernzey 7 and the smaller Isles neer unto it 8 Our Lady of Lebu 9 The road and 10 the Castle of Cornet 11 The Trade and 12 Priviledges of this people 13 Of Jarsey and 14 the strengths about it 15 The Island why so poor and populous 16 Gavelkind and the nature of it 17 The Governours and other the Kings Officers The 18 Politie and 19 administration of justice in both Islands 20 The Assembly of the Three Estates 21 Courts Presidiall in France what they are 22 The election of the Justices 23 and the Oath taken at their admission 24 Of their Advocates or Pleaders and the number of them 25 The number of Atturneys once limited in England 26 A Catalogue of the Governours and Bailiffs of the Isle of Jarsey p. 292. CHAP. II. 1 The City and Diâ—cesse of Constance 2 The condition of these Islands under that Government 3 Churches appropriated what they were 4 The Black Book of Constance 5 That called Dooms day 6 The suppression of Priors Aliens 7 Priours Dative how they differed from the Conventuals 8 The condition of theâ—e Churches after the suppression 9 A Diagram of the Revenue then allotted to each severall Parish together with the Ministers and Justices now being 10 What is meant by Champarte desarts and French querrui 11 The alteration of Religion in these Islands 12 Persecution here in the days of Queen Mary The Authors indignation at it expressed in a Poeticall rapture 13 The Islands annexed for ever to the Diocese of Wâ—nton and for what reasons p. 313. CHAP. III. 1 The condition of Geneva under their Bishop 2 The alteration there both in Politie and 3 in Religion 4 The state of that Church before the coming of Calvin thither 5 The conception 6 birth and 7 growth of the New Discipline 8 The quality of Lay-elders 9 The different proceedings of Calvin 10 and Beza in the propagation of that cause 11 Both of them enemies to the Church of England 12 The first enrtance of this Platforme into the Islands 13 A permission of it by the Queen and the Councell in St. Peters and St. Hillaries 14 The letters of the Councell to that purpose 15 The tumults raised in England by the brethren 16 Snape and Cartwright establish the new Discipline in the rest of the Islands p. 327. CHAP. IV. The Discipline Ecclesiasticall according as it hath been in practise of the Church after the Reformation of the same by the Ministers Elders and Deacons of the Isles of Guernzey Jarsey Serke and Alderney confirmed by the authority and in the presence of the Governours of the same Isles in a Synod holden in Guernzey the 28 of June 1576. And afterwards revived by the said Ministers and Elders and confirmed by the said Governours in a Synod holden also in Guernzey the 11 12 13 14 15 and 17. days of October 1597. p. 338. CHAP. V. 1 Annotations on the Discipline 2 Nâ—place in it for the Kings Supremacy 3
homager being slain and a homager being accused To this summons John refused to yeeld himself a Counsell rather magnanimous then wise and such as had more in it of a English King then a French Subject Edward III a Prince of finer metall then this John obeyed the like warrant and performed a personall homage to Philip of Valoys and it is not reckoned amongst his disparagements He committed yet a further errour or solecisme in State not so much as sending any of his people to supply his place or plead his cause Upon this non-appearance the Peers proceed to sentence Ilfut par Arrestdela dite cour saith Du Chesne condamnè pour atteint convaincu da crime de parricide de felonie Parric de for killing his own Nephew and Felony for committing an act so execrable on the person of a French Vassall and in France John du Serres addeth a third cause which was contempt in disobeying the Kings commandment Upon this â—â—rdict the Court awarded Que toutes les terres qu' il aveit parde la demoureroient aquâ—ses confisquces a la Couronne c. A proceeding so fair and orderly that I should sooner accuse King John of indiscretion then the French of injustice When my life or estate is in danger let me have no more finister a tryall The Erglish thus outed of Normandy by the weaknesse of John recovered it again by the puissance of Henry but being held only by the swoÌ„rd it was after 30 years recovered again as I have told you And now being passed over the Oyse I have at once freed the English and my self of Normandy here ending this Book but not that dayes journey The End of the First Book A SURVEY OF THE STATE of FRANCE FRANCE specially so called OR THE SECOND BOOK CHAP. I. France in what sense so called The bounds of it All old Gallia not possessed by the French Countries follow the name of the most predominant Nation The condition of the present French not different from that of the old Gaules That the heavens have a constant power upon the same Climate though the Inhabitants are changed The quality of the French in private at the Church and at the table Their language complements discourse c. July the third which was the day we set out of St. Claire having passed through Pontoyse and crossed the river we were entred into France France as it is understood in its limited sense and as a part only of the whole for when Meroveus the Grandchild of Pharamond first King of the Franci or Frenchmen had taken an opportunity to passe the Rhine having also during the wars between the Romans and the Gothes taken Paris he resolved there to set up his rest and to make that the head City of his Empire The Country round about it which was of no large extent he commanded to be called Francia or Terra Francorum after the name of his Frankes whom he governed In this bounded and restrained sense we now take it being confined with Normandy on the North Champagne on the East and on the West and South with the Province of La Beausse It is incircled in a manner with the Oyse on the Northwards the Eure on the West the Velle on the East and a veine riveret of the Seine towards the South but the principall environings are made by the Seine and the Marne a river of Campagne which constitute that part hereof which commonly and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is called by the name of the Isle of France and within the main Island makes divers little petty Isles the waters winding up and down as desirous to recreate the earth with the pleasures of its lovely and delicious embraces This Isle this portion of Gaul properly and limitedly sty led France was the seat of the Francs at their first coming hither and hath still continued so The rest of Gallia is in effect rather subdued by the French then inhabited their valour in time having taken in those Countries which they never planted so that if we look apprehensively into Gaule we shall finde the other Nations of it to have just cause to take up that complaint of the King of Portugall against Ferdinand of Castile for assuming to himself the title of Catholick King of Spain Ejus tam non exigua parte penes reges alios as Mariana relateth it Certain it it that the least part of all Gallia is in the hands of the French the Normans Britons Biscaines or Gascons the Gothes of Languedoc and Provence Burgundians and the ancient Gaules of Poictou retaining in it such fair and ample Provinces But it is the custome shall I say or fate of lesser and weaker Nations to lose their names unto the stronger as wives do to their husbands and the smaller rivers to the greater Thus we see the little Province of Poland to have mastered and given name to the Pruteni Mazovii and other Nations of Sarmatia Europaea as that of Mosco hath unto all the Provinces of Asiatica Thus hath Sweden conquered and denominated almost all the great Peninsula of Scandia whereof it is but a little parcell and thus did the English Saxons being the most prevailing of the rest impose the name of English on all the people of the Heptarchie Et dedit imposito nomina prisca jugo And good reason the vanquished should submit themselves as well unto the appellation as the laws of the victor The French then are possessors of some parts of old Gallia and masters of the rest possessors not of their Cities only but their conditions A double victory it seemeth they enjoyed over that people and took from them at once both their qualities and their Countries Certainly whosoever will please to peruse the Commentaries of Julius Caesar de bello Gallico he will equally guesse him an Historian and a Prophet yea he will rather make himself believe that he hath prophecied the character of the present French then delivered one of the antient Gaule And indeed it is a matter worthy both of wonder and observation that the old Gaules being in a manner all worne out should yet have most of their conditions surviving in those men which now inhabit that region being of so many severall Countries and originals If we dive into naturall causes we have a speedy recourse unto the powerfull influence of the heavens for as those celestiall bodies considered in the generall do work upon all sublunary bodies in the generall by light influence and motion so have they a particular operation on particulars An operation there is wrought by them in a man as borne at such and such a minute and again as borne under such and such a Climate The one derived from the setting of the Houses and the Lord of the Horoscope at the time of his Nativity the other from that constellation which governeth as it were the Province of his birth and is the genius or deus tutelaris loci Hinc illa
cannot blame him for it it was worthy but little thanks to give unto him the Idols of the Heathens who for his Holinesse satisfaction had given himself to the Idols of the Romans I believe that upon the same termes the King of England might have all the Reliques and ruines of Antiquity which can be found in Rome Without this room this Salle des Antiques and somewhat on the other side of the Louure is the house of Burbon an old decayed fabrick in which nothing was observable but the Omen for being built by Lewis of Burbon the third Duke of that branch he caused this motto ESPERANCE to be engraven in Capitall Letters over the door signifying his hope that from his loins should proceed a King which should joyn both the Houses and the Families and it is accordingly hapned For the Tuilleries I having nothing to say of them but that they were built by Katharine de Medices in the year 1564. and that they took name from the many Lime-kils and Tile-pits there being before the foundation of the House and the Garden the word Tuilleries importing as much in the French language I was not so happy as to see and will not be indebted to any for the relation The End of the Second Book A SURVEY OF THE STATE of FRANCE La BEAUSE OR THE THIRD BOOK CHAP. I. Our Journy towards Orleans the Town Castle and Battail of Mont l'hierrie Many things imputed to the English which they never did Lewis the 11. brought not the French Kings out of wardship The town of Chartroy and the mourning Church there The Countrey of La Beause and people of it Estampes The dancing there The new art of begging in the Innes of this Countrey Angerville Tury The sawciness of the French Fidlers Three kindes of Musick amongst the Ancients The French Musick HAving abundantly stifled our spirits in the stink of Paris on Tuesday being the 12 of July we took our leave of it and prepared our selves to entertain the sweet Air and Wine of Orleans The day fair and not so much as disposed to a cloud save that they began to gather together about noon in the nature of a curtain to defend us from the injury of the Sun The wind rather sufficient to fan the air then to disturb it by qualifying the heat of the Celestial fire brought the air to an excellent mediocrity of temper you would have thought it a day meerly framed for the great Princesse Nature to take her pleasure in and that the birds which cheerfully gave us their voices from the neighbouring bushes had been the loud musick of her Court. In a word it was a day solely consecrated to a pleasant journey and he that did not put it to that use mis-spent it having therefore put our selves into our wagon we took a short farewell of Paris exceeding joyfull that we yet lived to see the beauty of the fields again and enjoy the happinesse of a free heaven The Countrey such as that part of the Isle of France towards Normandy only that the corn grounds were larger and more even On the left hand of us we had a side-glance of the royall house of Boys St. Vincennes and the Castle of Bisestre and about some two miles beyond them we had a sight also of a new house lately built by Mr. Sillery Chancellor of the Kingdome a pretty house it promised to be having two base Courts on the hither side of it and beyond it a park an ornament whereof many great mansions in France are altogether ignorant Four leagues from Paris is the the Town of Montliberrie now old and ruinous and hath nothing in it to commend it but the carkasse of a Castle without it it hath to brag of a large and spacious plain on which was fought that memorable battail between Lewis the 11. and Charles le hardie Duke of Burgogne a battail memorable only for the running away of each Army the field being in a manner emptied of all the forces and yet neither of the Princes victorious Hic spe celer ille salute some ran out of fear to die and some out of hope to live that it was hard to say which of the Souldiers made most use of their heels in the combat This notwithstanding the King esteemed himself the conquerour not that he overcame but because not vanquisht He was a Prince of no heart to make a warriour and therefore resistance was to him almost hugged as victory It was Antonies case in his war against the Parthians a Captain whose Launce King Lewis was not worthy to bear after him Crassus before him had been taken by that people but Antonius made a retreat though with losse Hanc itaque fugam suam quia vivus exierat victoriam vocabat as Paterculus one that loved him not saith of him Yet was King Lewis is so puffed up with this conceit of victory that he ever after slighted his enemies and at last ruined them and their cause with them The war which they undertook against him they had entituled the war of the Weal publick because the occasion of their taking armes was for the liberty of their Countrey and people both whom the King had beyond measure oppressed True it is they had also their particular purposes but this was the main and failing in the expected event of it all that they did was to confirm the bondage of the Realm by their own overthrow These Princes once disbanded and severally broken none durst ever afterwards enter into the action for which reason King Lewis used to say that he had brought the Kings of France Hors pupillage out of their ward-ship a speech of more brag then truth The people I confesse he brought into such terms of slavery that they no longer merited the name of subjects but yet for all his great boast the Nobles of France are to this day the Kings Guardians I have already shewn you much of their potency By that you may see that the French Kings have not yet sued their livery as our Lawyers call it Had he also in some measure broken the powerableness of the Princes he had then been perfectly his words-master and till that be done I shall still think his successors to be in their pupillage That King is but half himself which hath the absolute command only of half his people The battail foughten by this Town the common people impute to the English and so do they also many others which they had no hand in For hearing their Grandames talk of their wars with our nation and of their many fields which we gained of them they no sooner hear of a pitched field but presently as the nature of men in a fright is they attribute it to the English good simple souls Qui nos non solum laudibus nostris ornare velint sed onerare alienis as Tully in his Philippicks An humour just like unto that of little children who being once frighted with the tales
Corne and other grain with which it abundantly furnisheth Paris and hath in it more store of pasture and medow grounds then I else saw in any part of France In Vines only it is defective and that as it is thought more by the want of industry in the people then any inhability in the soil For indeed they are a people that will not labour more then they needs must standing much upon their state and distance and in the carriage of their bodies favouring a little of the Spaniard whence Picardâ—er to play the Picard is usually said of those who are lofty in their looks or gluttonous at their tables this last being also one of the symptomes of a Picard The Governor of this Province is the Duke of Les Diguieres into which office he succeeded Mr. Luynes as also he did into that of the Constable Two preferments which he purchased at a deer rate having sold or abandoned that religion to-compasse them which he had prosessed more then 60 years together an apostasie most unworthy of the man who having for so many years supported the cause of religion hath now forsaken it and thereby made himself gilty of the cowardise of M. Antonius Qui cum in desertores saevire debuerat desertor sui exertilus factus est But I fear an heavier censure waiteth upon him the crown of immortality not being promised to all those which run but to those only which hold out till the end For the present indeed he hath augmented his honours by this office which is the principall of all France He hath place and command before and over all the Peers and Princes of the bloud and at the Coronation of the French Kings ministreth the oath when he entreth a City in state or upon the â—redition of it he goeth before with the Sword naked and when the King sitteth in an assembly of the three estates he is placed at the Kings right hand He hath command over all his Majesties forces and he that killeth him is guilty of high treason He sitteth also as chief Judge at the Table of marble upon all suits actions persons and complaints whatsoever concerning the wars This Table de Marbre was wont to be continually in the great hall of the Palais at Paris from whence upon the burnning of that hall it was removed to the Louure At this table doth the Admirall of France hold his Sessions to judge of trafick prizes letters of marts piracy and businesse of the like nature At this table judgeth also Le grand Maistre des eaues et forrests we may call him the Justice in Eire of all his Majesties Forrests and waters The actions here handled are Thefts and abuses committed in the Kings Forrests Rivers Parks Fish-ponds and the like In the absence of the grand Maistre the power of sentence resteth in the Les grand Maistres Enquesteurs et generaux reformateurs who have under their command no fewer then 300 subordinate officers Here also sit the Marshals of France which are ten in number sometimes in their own power and sometimes as Assistants to the Constable under whose direction they are With us in England the Marshalship is more entire as that which besides its own jurisdiction hath now incorporated into it self most of the authority antiently belonging to the Constables which office ended in the death of Edward Lord Duke of Buckingham the last hereditary and proprietary Constable of England This office of Constable to note unto you by the way so much was first instituted by Lewis the grosse who began his reign anno 1110. and conferred on Mr. Les Diguieres on the 24 of July 1622. in the Cathedrall Church of Grenoble where he first heard Masse and where he was installed Knight of both Orders And so I leave the Constable to take a view of his Province a man at this time beloved of neither parties hated by the Protestants as an Apostata and suspected by the Papists not to be entire To proceed July the 28. we came unto Clermont the first Town of any note that we met with in Picardie a prety neat Town and finely seated on the rising of an hill For the defence of it it hath on the upper side of it an indifferent large Castle and such which were the situation of it somewhat helped by the strength of Art might be brought to do good service Towards the Town it is of an easie accesse to the fieldwards more difficult as being built on the perpendicular fall of a rock In the year 1615 it was made good by Mr. Harancourt with a Regiment of eight Companies who kept it in the name of the Prince of Conde and the rest of that confederacy but it held not long for at the Marshall D' Ancres coming before it with his Army and Artillery it was presently yeelded This war which was the second civill war which had happened in the reign of King Lewis was undertaken by the Princes chiefly to thwart the designes of the Queen mother and crush the powerfulnesse of her grand favourite the Marshall The pretence as in such cases it commonly is was the good of the Common-wealth the occasion the crosse marriages then consummated by the Marshall between the Kings of France and Spain for by those marriages they seemed to fear the augmentation of the Spaniards greatnesse the alienation of the affections of their antient allies and by consequence the ruine of the French Empire But it was not the fate of D' Anire as yet to persh Two years more of command and insolencies his destinies allow'd him and then he tumbled This opportunity of his death ending the third civill war each of which his faulty greatnesse had occasioned What the ambition of his designes did tend to I dare not absolutely determine though like enough it is that they aimed further then at a private or a personall potencie for having under the favour and countenance of the Queen mother made himself master of the Kings ear and of his Councell he made a shift to get into his own hands an authority almost as unlimited as that of the old Mayre of the Palace For he had suppressed the liberty of the generall estates and of the soveraign Courts removed all the officers and Counsellors of the last King ravished one of the Presidents of the great Chamber by name Mr. le Jay out of the Parliament into the prison and planted Garrisons of his own in most of the good Towns of Normandy of which Province he was Governour Add to this that he had caused the Prince of Conde being acknowledged the first Prince of the bloud to be imprisoned in the Bastile and had searched into the continuance of the lives of the King and his brother by the help of Sorcery and Witchcraft Besides he was suspected to have had secret intelligence with some forain Princes ill willers to the State and had disgraced some and neglected others of the Kings old confederates Certainly
own Sed tanquam a sede Apostolica delegatâ— But as for the Orders of Fryers the Pope would not by any means give way to it They are his Janizaries and the strongest bulwarke of his Empire and are therefore called in a good Author Egr gia Romunae curiae instrumenta So that with them the Diocesan hath nothing to do each several religious house being as a Court of Peculiars subjects only to the great Metropolitan of Rome This meer dependence on his Holinesse maketh this generation a great deal more regardlesse of their behaviour then otherwise it would be though since the growth of the Reformation shame and fear hath much reformed them they have still howsoever a spice of their former wantonnesse and on occasions will permit themselves a little good fellowship and to say truth of them I think them to be the best companions in France for a journey but not for acquaintance They live very meâ—â—ily and keep a competent table more I suppose then can stand with their vow and yet far short of that affluency whereof many of our books accuse them It was my chance to be in a house of the Franciscans in Paris where one of the Fryers upon the intreaty of our friends had us into the hall it being then the time of their refectory a favour not vulgar there saw we the Brothers sitting all of a side and every one a pretty distance from the other their severall commons being a dish of pottage a chop of Mutton a dish of cherries and a large glasse of water this provision together with a liberall allowance of â—ase and a little of study keepeth them exceeding plump and in a good liking and maketh them having little to take thought for as I said before passing good company As I travailed towards Orleans we had in our Coach with us three of these mortified sinners two of the Order of St. Austin and one Franciscan the merryest crickeâ—â— that ever chirped nothing in them but mad tales and complements and for musick they would sing like hawkes When we came to a vein of good wine they would cheer up themselves and their neighbours with this comfortable Doctrine Vivamus ut 〈◊〉 bibamus ut vivamus And for courtship and toying with the wenches you would easily believe â—â—at it had been a trade with which they had not been a little acquainted of all men when I am marryed God keep my wife from them till then my neighbours On the other side the common Priests of France are so dull and blockish that you shal hardly meet with a more contemptible people The meanest of our Curates in England for spirit and discourse are very Popes to them for learning they may safely say with S 〈…〉 atas Hoc tantum scimus quod ne 〈…〉 us but you must not look they should say it in Latine Tongues they have none but that of their Mother and the Masse book of which last they can make no use except the book be open and then also the book is â—ain to read it self For in the last 〈◊〉 Missâ—le established by Pius V. and recognized by Clement VIII annâ— 1600. every syllable is diversly marked whether it be sounded long or short just 〈◊〉 the versifying examples are in the end of the Grammar When I had lost my self in the streets of Paris and wanted French to 〈…〉 d I used to apply my self to some of these reverend habit But O 〈…〉 lum in s 〈…〉 ns in 〈…〉 tum you might as easily have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of the 〈◊〉 as a word of Latine out of their mouths Nor is this the disease of the vulgar Masse mumbler only it hath also infected the right Worshipfull of the Clergy In Orleans I had businesse with a Chanoin of the Church of St. Croix a fellow that wore his Surplice it was made of Lawn and lace with as good a credit as ever I saw any and for the comlinesse and capacity of his Cap he might have been a Metropolitan perceiving me to speak to him in a strange tongue for it was Latine he very readily asked me this question Num potestis loqui Gallia which when I had denyed at last he broke out into another interrogatory viz. Quam diu fuistis in Gallice To conclude having read over my Letter with two or three deadly pangs and six times rubbing of his temples he dismissed me with this cordiall and truly it was very comfortable to my humour Ego negotias vestras curabo A strange beast and one of the greatest prodigies of ignorance that I ever met with in mans apparrell Such being the Romish Priests it is no marvel that the French Papist be no more setled and resolute in their Religion If the eye be blinde the body cannot choose but be darkned And certainly there is nothing that hath prepared many of this Realm more to imbrace the Reformation then the blockishnesse of their own Clergy An excellent advantage to the Protestant Ministers could they but well humor it and likely to be a fair enlargement to their party if well husbanded Besides this the French Catholicks are not over earnest in the cause and so lie open to the assaults of any politick enemy To deal with them by main force of argument and in the servent spirit of zeal as the Protestants too often do is not the way men uncapable of opposition as this people generally are and furious if once thwarted must be tamed as Alexander did his horse Bucephalus those which came to back him with the tyranny of the spur and cudgell he quickly threw down and mischiefed Alexander came otherwise prepared for turning the horse towards the sun that he might not see the impatience of his own shadow he spake kindly to him and gently clapped him on the back till he had left his â—linging and wildnesse he lightly leapt into the saddle the horse never making resistance Plutarch in his life relateth the story and this is the morall of it CHAP. III. The correspondency between the French King and the Pope This Pope an Omen of the Marriages of France with England An English Catholicks conceit of it His Holinesse Nuncio in Paris A learned Argument to prove the Popes universality A continuation of the allegory between Jacob and Esau The Protestants compelled to leave their Forts and Towns Their present estate and strength The last War against them justly undertaken not fairely managed Their inâ—oleâ—cies and disobedience to the Kings command Their purpose to have themselves a free estate The war not a war of Religion King James in justice could not assist them more then he did First forsaken by their own party Their happinesse before the war The Court of the edict A view of them in their Churches The commendation which the French Papists give to the Church of England Their Discipline and Ministeries c. WE have seen the strength and subtility as also somewhat of his poverties at home Let us now
means he is within two or three years brought again to equall poverty with the rest A strange course and much different from that of England where the Gentry take a delight in having their Tenants thrive under them and hold it no crime in any that hold of them to be wealthy On the other side those of France can abide no body to gain or grow rich upon their farmes and therefore thus upon occasions rack their poor Tenants In which they are like the Tyrant Procrustes who laying hands upon all he met cast them upon his bed if they were shorter then it he racked their joynts till he had made them even to it if they were longer he cut as much of their bodies from them as did hang over so keeping all that fell into his power in an equality All the French Lords are like that Tyrant How much this course doth depresse the military power of this Kingdome is apparent by the true principles of war and the examples of other Countries For it hath been held by the generall opinion of the best judgements in matters of war that the main Buttresse and Pillar of an Army is the foot or as the Martialists term it the Infantery Now to make a good Infantery it requireth that men be brought up not in a slavish and needy fashion of life but in some free and liberall manner Therefore it is well observed by the Vicounâ— St. Albans in his History of Henry VII that if a State run most to Nobles and Gentry and that the Husbandmen be but as their meer drudges or else simply Cottagers that that State may have a good Cavallery but never good stable bands of foot Like to Coppice woods in which if you let them grow too thick in the stadles they run to bushes or bryers and have little clean under-wood Neither is this in France only but in Italy also and some other parts abroad in so much that they are enforced to imploy mercenary Souldiers for their battalions of foot whereby it cometh to passe that in those Countries they have much people and few men On this consideration King Henry VII one of the wisest of our Princes took a course so cunning and wholesome for the increase of the military power of his Realm that though it be much lesse in territory yet it should have infinitely more Souldiers of its native forces then its neighbour Nations For in the fourth year of his Reign there passed an Act of Parliament pretensively against the depopulation of Villages and decay of tillage but purposedly to inable his subjects for the wars The Act was That all houses of husbandry which had been used with twenty acres of ground and upwards should be maintained and kept up for together with a competent proportion of Land to be used and occupied with them c. By this means the houses being kept up did of necessity enforce a dweller and that dweller because of the proportion of Land not to be a begger but a man of some substance able to keep Hinds and Servants and to set the plough a going An order which did wonderfully concerne the might and manhood of the Kingdome these Farmes being sufficient to maintaine an able body out of penury and by consequence to prepare them for service and encourage them to higher honours for Haud facile emergent quorum virtutibus obstat Res angusta domi As the Poet hath it But this Ordinance is not thought of such use in France where all the hopes of their Armies consist in the Cavallery or the horse which perhaps is the cause why our Ancestors have won so many battailes upon them As for the French foot they are quite out of all reputation and are accounted to be the basest and unworthyest company in the world Besides should the French people be enfranchised as it were from the tyranny of their Lords and estated in freeholds and other tenures after the manner of England it would much trouble the Councell of France to find out a new way of raising his revenues which are now meerly sucked out of the bloud and sweat of the Subject Antiently the Kings of France had rich and plentifull demeans such as was sufficient to maintain their greatnesse and Majesty without being burdensome unto the Countrey Pride in matters of sumptuousnesse and the tedious Civill wars which have lasted in this Countrey almost ever since the death of Henry II. have been the occasion that most of the Crown lands have been sold and morgaged in so much that the people are now become the Demaine and the Subject only is the Revenue of the Crown By the sweat of their browes is the Court sed and the Souldier paid and by their labours are the Princes maintained in idlenesse What impositions soever it pleaseth the King to put upon them it is almost a point of treason not only to deny but to question Apud illos vere regnatur nefasque quantum regi liceat dubitare as one of them The Kings hand lyeth hard upon them and hath almost thrust them into an Egyptian bondage the poor Paisant being constrained to make up dayly his full tale of bricks and yet have no straw allowed them Upon a sight of the miseries and poverties of this people Sir John Fortescue Chancellour of England in his book intituled De Laudibus legum Angliae concludeth them to be unfit men for Jurors or Judges should the custome of the Countrey admit of such tryals For having proved there unto the Prince he was son to Henry VI. that the manner of tryall according to the Common Law by 12 Jurates was more commendable then the practise of the Civill or Emperiall Lawes by the deposition only of two witnesses or the forced confession of the persons arrained the Prince seemed to marvell Cur ed lex Angliae quae tam fiugi optabilis est non sit toti mundo communis To this he maketh answer by shewing the â—ree condition of the English Subjects who alone are used at these indictments men of a fair and large estate such as dwell nigh the place of the deed committed men that are of ingenuous education such as scorn to be suborned or corrupted and afraid of infamie Then he sheweth how in other places all things are contrary the Husbandman an absolute begger easie to be bribed by reason of his poverty the Gentlemen living far asunder and so taking no notice of the fact the Paisant also neither fearing infamie nor the losse of goods if he be found faulty because he hath them not In the end he concludeth thus Ne mireris igitur princeps si lex per quam in Anglia veritas inquiritur alias non pervagetur nationes ipsae namque ut Anglia nequerunt facere sufficientes consimilesque Juratas The last part of the latine savoureth somewhat of the Lawyer the word Juratas being put there to signifie a Jury To go over all those impositions which this miserable people
once called Augusta Romanduorum and after took the name of Constance from Constantine the great who repaired and beautified it Others make it to be built in the place of an old standing campe and that this is it which is called Constantia castra in Ammian Marcellinus Meantesque protinus prope â—astra Constantia funduntur in Mare lib. 15. To leave this controversie to the French certain it is that it hath been and yet is a City of good repute the County of Constantine one of the seven Bailiwicks of Normandy being beholding to it for a name As for the Town it self 〈◊〉 at this day accounted for a Vâ—cutè but more famous for the Bishoprick the first Bishop of it as the Roman Martyrologie and on the 23 if my memory fail not of September doth instruct us being one Paternus Du Chesne in his book of French Antiquities attributes this honour to St. Ereptiolus the man as he conjectures that first converted it into the saith his next successors being St. Exuperance St. Leonard and St. Lo which last is said to have lived in the year 473. By this account it is a City of good age yet not so old but that it still continues beautifull The Cathedrall here one of the fairest and well built pieces in all Normandy and yeelding a fair prospect even as far as to â—hese Islands The Church it may be raised to that magnificent height that so the Bishop might with greater ease survey his Diocese A Diocese containing antiently a good part of Countrey Constantine and these Islands where now we are For the better executing of his Episcopall jurisdiction in these places divided by the Sea from the main body of his charge he had a Surrogat or Substitute whom they called a Dean in each Island one His office consisting as I guesse at it by the jurisdiction of that of a Chancellour and an Archdeacon mixt it being in his faculty to give institution and induction to give sentence in cases appertaining to Ecclesiasticall cognisance to approve of Wils and withall to hold his visitations The revenue fit to entertain a man of that condition viz. the best benefice in each Island the profits ariseing from the Court and a proportion of tithes allotted out of many of the Parishes He of the Isle of Guernzey over and above this the little Islet of Leâ—u of which in the last Chapter and when the houses of Religion as they called them were suppressed an allowance of an hundred quarters of Wheat Guernzey measure paid him by the Kings receiver for his Tithes I say Guernzey measure because it is a measure different from ours their quarter being no more then five of our bushels or thereabouts The Ministery at that time not answerable in number to the Parishes and those few very wealthy the Religious houses having all the Prediall tithes appropriated unto them and they serving many of the Cures by some one of their own body licenced for that purpose Now those Churches or Tithes rather were called Appropriated to digâ—esse a little by the way by which the Patrons Papali authoritate intercedente c. the Popes authority intervening and the consent of the King and Diocesan first obtained were for ever annexed and as it were incorporated into such Colledges Monasteries and other foundations as were but sparingly endowed At this day being irremediably and ever aliened from the Church we call them by as fit a name Impropriations For the rating of these Benefices in the payment of their first fruits and tenths or Annâ—ts there was a note or taxe in the Bishops Register which they called the Black book of Constance like as we in England the Black book of the Exchequer A Taxe which continued constantly upon Record till their disjoyning from that Diocese as the rule of their payments and the Bishops dues And as your Lordship well knowee not much unlike that course there is alwayes a Proviso in the grant of Subsidies by the English Clergie That the rate taxation valuation and estimation now remaining on Record in his Majesties Court of Exchequer for the payment of a perpetuall Disine or Tenth granted unto King Henry the VIII of worthy memory in the 26 year of his Reign concerning such promotions as now be in the hands of the Clergie shall onely be followed and observed A course learnt by our great Prelates in the taxing of their Clergie from the example of Augustus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his taxing of the World For it is reported of him by Ca. Tacitus that he had written a book with his owne hand in quo opes publicae continebantur wherein he had a particular estimate of all the Provinces in that large Empire what Tributes and Imposts they brought in what Armies they maintained c. and what went also in Largesse and Pensions out of the publick finances This Providence also exactly imitated by our Norman Conquerour who had taken such a speciall survey of his new purchase that there was not one hide of Land in all the Realme but he knew the yearly Rent and owner of it how many plow-lands what Pastures Fennes and Marishes what Woods Parkes Farmes and Tenements were in every shire and what every one was worth This Censuall Roll the English generally call Doomes-day book and that as some suppose because the judgement and sentence of it was as impossible to be declined as that in the day of doome Sic cum orta fuerit contentio de his rebus quae illic continentur cum ventum fuerit ad librum ejus sententia infatuari non potest vel impune declinari so mine Authour Others conceive it to be corruptly called the Book of Doomes-day for the Book of Domus dei or the Domus-dei book as being by the Conquerour laid up in the Maison dieu or Gods-house in Winchester A book carefully preserved and that under three Keyes in his Majesties Exchequer not to be looked into under the price of a Noble nor any line of it to be transcribed without the payment of a groat Tanta est authorit as vetustatis So great respect do we yeeld unto antiquity But to return again to my Churches whom I left in bondage under their severall Priories and other the Religious houses I will first free them from that yoak which the superstition of their Patrons had put upon them So it was that those Houses of Religion in these Islands were not absolute foundations of themselves but dependent on and as it were the appurtenances of some greater Abby or Monastery in France In this condition they continued till the beginning of the Reign of King Henry the V. who purposing a war against the French thought fit to cut of all helpes and succours as they had from England at that time full of Priors Aliens and strangers possessed of Benefices To this end it was enacted viz. Whereas there were divers French men beneficed and preferred
of a people generally unto the Generasingulorum as Logicians phrase it though possibly as there are few general Rules without some exceptions many particular persons both of rank and merit may challenge an exemption from them Queis meliore luto finxit praecordia Titan. To whom the heavens have made a brest Of choicer metall then the rest And it is possible enough I might have been more sparing of that liberty which I then gave unto my self were there occasion to make a second character of them at this present time or had I not thought fit to have offered this discourse without alteration as it first issued from my pen. Our English women at that time were of a more retired behaviour then they have been since which made the confident carriage of the French Damosels seem more strange unto me whereas of late the garbe of our women is so altered and they have so much in them of the mode of France as easily might take off those misapprehensions with which I was really possessed at my first coming thither So much doth custome alter the true face of things that it makes many things approvable which at the first appeared unsightly VIII In the next place it may be said that this short Journall deserves not to be called A SURVEY OF THE STATE OF FRANCE considering that it only treateth of some particular Provinces and of such Towns and Cities only in those Provinces as came within the compasse of a personal view But then it may be said withall that these four Provinces which I passed thorow and describe may be considered as the Epitome of the whole the abstract or compendium of the Body of France the Isle of France being looked on as the mother of Paris Picardie as the chiefest Granary and La Beause as the nurse thereof as Normandy is esteemed for the Bulwark of all France it self by reason of that large Sea-coast and well fortified Havens wherewith it doth confront the English And if the rule be true in Logick as I think it is that a Denomination may be taken from the nobler parts then certainly a Survey of these four Provinces the noblest and most considerable parts of all that Kingdome may be entituled without any absurdity the Survey of France For besides that which hath been spoken it was in these four Provinces that Henry the 4. did lay the scene of his long war against the Leaguers as if in keeping them assured or subjected to him the safety of the whole Kingdome did consist especially For though the war was carried into most other Provinces as the necessity of affairs required yet it was managed in those Provinces by particular parties Neither the King himself nor the Duke of Mayenne the heads of the contending Armies did act any thing in them except some light velitations in Champagne and one excursion into Burgundie the whole decision of the quarrels depending principally if not wholly in the getting of these The Duke of Parma had not else made so long a march from the Court of Bruxels to raise the Kings Army from the siege of Roven nor had the King mustered up all his wit and power to recover Amiens when dexterously surprized by a Spanish stratagem And if it be true which the French generally affirm of Paris that it is the Eye nay the very Soul of all France it self I may with confidence affirm that I have given more sight to that Eye more life and spirit to that Soul then hath been hitherto communicated in the English Tongue The Realm of France surveyed in the four principal Provinces and the chief Cities of the whole gives a good colour to the title and yet the title hath more colour to insist upon then the description of these Cities and those principal Provinces can contribute towards it For though I have described those four Provinces only in the way of Chorography yet I have took a general and a full Survey of the State of France in reference to the Court the Church and the Civil State which are the three main limbs of all Bodies Politick and took it in so full a manner as I think none and am assured that very few have done before me IX If it be said that my stay was not long enough to render me exact and punctual in my observations I hope it will be said withall that the lesse my stay was my diligence must be the greater and that I husbanded my time to the best advantage For knowing that we could not stay there longer then our money lasted and that we carried not the wealth of the Indies with us I was resolved to give my self as little rest as the necessities of nature could dispense withall and so to work my self into the good opinions of some principal persons of that nation who were best able to inform me as might in short space furnish me with such instructions as others with a greater expence both of time and money could not so readily attain By this accommodating of my self unto the humours of some men and a resolution not to be wanting to that curiosity which I carryed with me there was nothing which I desired to know and there was nothing which I desired not to know but what was readily imparted to me both with love and chearfulnesse Cur nescire pudens prave quam discere mallem I alwaies looked upon it as a greater shame to be ignorant of any thing then to be taught by any body and therefore made such use of men of both Religions as were most likely to acquaint me with the counsels of their severall parties Nor was I purse-bound when I had occasion to see any of those Rarities Reliques and matters of more true antiquity which either their Religious Houses Churches Colledges yea or the Court it Self could present unto me Money is never better spent then wen it is layed out in the buying of knowledge X. In the last place it may be said that many things have hapned both in the Court and State of France many great revolutions and alterations in the face thereof since I digested the Relation of this Journey for my own contentment which makes this publication the more unseasonable and my consent unto it subject to the greater censure which notwithstanding I conceive that the discourse will be as usefull to the ingenuous Reader as if it had gone sheet by sheet from the Pen to the Presse and had been offered to him in that point of time when it took life from me The learned labours of Pausanias in his Chorography of Greece are as delightful now to the studious Reader as formerly to the best wits of Rome or Athens Nor need we doubt but that the description of the Netherlands by Lewis Guicciardine and of the Isles of Britain by our famous Camden will yeeld as great profit and contentment to future Ages as to the men that knew the Authors The Realm of France is still the same the
the affaires of the King This Court the main pillar of the Liberty of France La Tournelle and the Judges of it The five Chambers of Enquestes severally instituted and by whom In what cause it is decisive The forme of admitting Advocates into the Courts of Parliament The Chancellour of France and his Authority The two Courts of Requests and Masters of them The vain envy of the English Clergy against the Lawyers p. 104. CHAP. IX The Kings Palace of the Louure by whom built The unsutablenesse of it The fine Gallery of the Queen Mother The long Gallery of Henry IV. His magnanimous intent to have built it into a quadrangle Henry IV. a great builder His infinite project upon the Mediterranean and the Ocean La Salle des Antiques The French not studious of Antiquities Burbon house The Tuilleries c. p. 113. La BEAUSE OR THE THIRD BOOK CHAP. I. Our Journey towards Orleans the Town Castle and Battail of Mont l'hierrie Many things imputed to the English which they never did Lewis the 11. brought not the French Kings out of wardship The town of Chartroy and the mourning Church there The Countrey of La Beause and people of it Estampes The dancing there The new art of begging in the Innes of this Countrey Angerville Tury The sawciness of the French Fidlers Three kindes of Musick amongst the Antient. The French Musick p. 121. CHAP. II. The Country and site of Orleans like that of Worcester The Wine of Orleans Praesidial Towns in France what they are The sale of Offices in France The fine walk and pastime of the Palle Malle The Church of St. Croix founded by Superstition and a miracle Defaced by the Hugonots Some things hated only for their name The Bishop of Orleans and his priviledge The Chappell and Pilgrims of St. Jacques The form of Masse in St Croix Câ—nâ—ing an Heathenish custome The great siege of Orleans raised by Joan the Virgin The valour of that woman that she was no witch An Elogie on her p. 131. CHAP. III. The study of the Civill Law revived in Europe The dead time of learning The Schools of Law in Orleans The oeconomie of them The Chancellour of Oxford antiently appointed by the Diocesan Their methode here and prodigality in bestowing degrees Orleans a great conflux of strangers The language there The Corporation of Germans there Their house and priviledges Dutch and Latine The difference between an Academie and an University p. 145. CHAP. IV. Orleans not an University till the comming of the Jesuites Their Colledge there by whom built The Jesuites no singers Their laudable and exact method of teaching Their policies in it Received not without great difficulty into Paris Their houses in that university Their strictnesse unto the rules of their order Much maliced by the other Priests and Fryers Why not sent into England with the Queen and of what order they were that came with her Our return to Paris p. 152. PICARDIE OR THE FOURTH BOOK CHAP. I. Our return towards England More of the Hugonots hate unto Crosses The town of Luzarch and St. Loupae The Country of Picardie and people Tho Picts of Britain not of this Countrey Mr. Lee Dignicoes Governour of Picardie The office of Constable what it is in France By whom the place supplyed in England The marble table in France and causes there handled Clermount and the Castle there The war raised up by the Princes against D' Ancre What his designes might tend to c. p. 162. CHAP. II. The fair City of Amiens and greatnesse of it The English feasted within it and the error of that action the Town how built-seated and fortified The Citadell of it thought to be impregnable Not permitted to be viewed The overmuch opennesse of the English in discovering their strength The watch and form of Government in the Town Amiens a Visdamate to whom it pertaineth What that honour is in France And how many there enjoy it c. p. 169. CHAP. III. The Church of Nostre Dame in Amiens The principall Churches in most Cities called by her name More honour performed to her then to her Saviour The surpassing beauty of this Church on the outside The front of it King Henry the sevenths Chappel at Westminster The curiousnesse of this Church within By what means it became to be so The sumptuous masking closets in it The excellency of perspective works Indulgences by whom first founded The estate of the Bishoprick p. 175. CHAP. IV. Our Journey down the Some and Company The Town and Castle of Piquigni for what famous Comines censure of the English in matter of Prophecies A farewell to the Church of Amiens The Town and Castle of Pont D' Armie Abbeville how seated and the Garrison there No Governour in it but the Major or Provost The Authors imprudent curiosity and the curtesie of the Provost to him The French Post-horses how base and tyred My preferment to the Trunk-horse The horse of Philip de Comines The Town and strength of Monstreuille The importance of these three Towns to the French border c. p. 183. CHAP. V. The County of Boulonnois and Town of Boulogne by whom Enfranchized The present of Salt butter Boulogne divided into two Towns Procession in the lower Town to divert the Plague The forme of it Procession and the Letany by whom brought into the Church The high Town Garrisoned The old man of Boulogne and the desperate visit which the Author bestowed upon him The neglect of the English in leaving open the Havens The fraternity De la Charite and inconveniency of it The costly Journey of Henry VIII to Boulogne Sir Walt. Raleghs censure of that Prince condemned The discourtesie of Charles V. towards our Edward VI. The defence of the house of Burgundy how chargeable to the Kings of England Boulogne yeilded back to the French and on what conditions The curtesie and cunning of my Host of Bovillow p. 192. FRANCE GENERAL OR THE FIFTH BOOK Describing the Government of the Kingdom generally in reference to the Court the Church and the Civill State CHAP. I. A transition to the Government of France in generall The person age and marriage of King Lewis XIII Conjecturall reasons of his being issuelesse Iaqueline Countesse of Holland kept from issue by the house of Burgundy The Kings Sisters all marryed and his alliances by them His naturall Brethren and their preferments His lawfull Brother The title of Monsieur in France Monsieur as yet unmarried not like to marry Montpensiers daughter That Lady a fit wife for the Earl of Soissons The difference between him and the Prince of Conde for the Crown in case the line of Navarre fail How the Lords stand affected in the cause Whether a child may be born in the 11 month King Henry IV. a great lover of fair Ladies Monsieur Barradas the Kings favorite his birth and offices The omniregency of the Queen Mother and the Cardinall of Richileiu The Queen Mother a wise
very applyable in the title But I might have saved all this labour Ovid in his description of Fames hath most exactly given us her portraicture and out of him and the eight book of his Metamorphosis you may take this view of her Nullus erat crinis cava lumina pallor in ore Labra incana situ scabri ruâ—igine dentes Dura cutis per quam spectari viscera possent Ventris erat pro ventre locus pendere putares Pectus et a spinae tantummodo crate teneri But of this our companion as also of the rest of the Coachfull Sunday-night and our arrivall at Paris hath at the last delivered us A blessing for which I can never be sufficiently thankfull and thus Dedit Deus his quoque finem The End of the Third Book A SURVEY OF THE STATE of FRANCE PICARDIE OR THE FOURTH BOOK CHAP. I. Our return towards England More of the Hugonots hate unto Crosses The town of Luzarch and St. Loupae The Country of Picardie and people The Picts of Britain not of this Country Mr. Lee Dignicoes Governor of Picardie The office of Constable what it is in France By whom the place supplyed in England The marble table in France and causes there handled Clermount and the Castle there The war raised up by the Princes against D'Ancre What his designes might tend to c. JUly the 27. having dispatched that businesse which brought us into France and surveyed as much of the Countrey as that opportunity would permit we began our journey towards England in a Coach of Amiens Better accompaned we were then when we came from Orleans for here we had Gentlemen of the choicest fashion very ingenious and in my opinion of finer condition then any I had met withall in all my acquaintance with that Nation We had no vexation with us in the shape of a French woman which appeared unto me somewhat miraculous to torment our ears with her discourse or punish our eyes with her complexion Thus associated we began to jog towards St. Loup where that night we were to be lodged The Countrey such as already I have described it in the Isle of France save that beyond St. Denis it began to be somewhat more hilly By the way I observed those little crossets erected in the memorie of St. Denis as being vainly supposed to be his resting places when he ran from Mont-martre with his head in his hand which the zealous madnesse of the Hugonots had thrown down and were now reedified by King Lewis It could not but call to mind the hate of that Nation unto that harmelesse monument of Christs sufferings the Crosse which is grown it seemeth so exorbitant that the Papists make use of it to discover an Hugonot I remember as I passed by water from Amiens to Abbeville we met in the boat with a levie of French Gentlewomen to one of them with that French as I had I applyed my self and she perceiving me to be English questioned my Religion I answered as I safely might that I was a Catholick and she for her better satisfaction proffered me the little crosse which was on the top of her beads to kisse and rather should I desire to kisse it then many of their lips whereupon the rest of the company gave of me this verdit that I was Un urai Christien ne point un Hugonot But to proceed in our journall The same day we parted from Paris we passed through the Town of Luzarch and came to that of St. Loup The first famous only in its owner which is the Count of Soissons The second in an Abbey there situate built in memory of St. Lupus Bishop of Trios in Champagne These Townes passed we were entred into Picardie Picardie is divided into the higher which containeth the Countries of Calice and Boulogne with the Town Monstâ—â—vill and the lower in which are the goodly Cities of Amiens Abbeville and many other places of principall note The higher which is the lesser and more Northern part is bounded North and West with the English Ocean and on the East with Flanders and Artoys The lower which is the larger the richer and the more Southern hath on the East the little Country of Veromandys on the West Normandy and on the South the Countrey of Champagne In length it comprehendeth all the 51 degree of Latitude and three parts of the 50 extending from Calice in the North to Clermont in the South In breadth it is of a great inequality For the higher Picardie is like Linea amongst the Logitians which they desine to be longitudo sine latitudine it being indeed nothing in a manner but a meer border The lower is of a larger breadth and containeth in it the whole 24 degree of longitude and a fourth part of the 23 so that by the proportion of degrees this Province is 105 miles long and 25 broad Concerning the name of Pieardie it is a difficulty beyond my reading and my conjecture All I can do is to overthrow the lesse probable opinions of other writers and make my self subject to that scoffe which Lactantius bestoweth on Aristotle Rectè hic sustulit aliorum disciplinas sed non recte fundavit suam Some then derive it from Piquon one forsooth of Alexander the greats Captains whom they fain to have built Amiens and Piquigni an absurdity not to be honoured with a consutation some from the Town of Piquigni it self of which mind is Mercator but that Town never was of such note as to name a Province others derive it from Picardus a fanaticall Heretick of these parts about the year 1300 and after but the appellation is far older then the man others fetch it from the Picts of Britain whom they would have to flie hither after the discomfiture of their Empire and Nation by the Scots a transmigration of which all Histories are silent this being the verdict of the best Antiquary ever was nursed up in Britain Picti itaque funestissimo praelio debellati aut penit us fuerunt extincti aut paulatim in Scotorum nomen nationem concesserint Lastly some others derive the name from Pique which signifieth a Lance or a Pike the inventors of which warlike weapon the fathers of this device would fain make them In like manner some of Germany have laboured to prove that the Saxons had that name given them from the short swords which they used to wear called in their language Scaxon but neither truely For my part I have consulted Ptolemie for all the Nations and the Itinerarium of Antonius for all the Towns in this tract but can find none on which I may fasten any probable Etymologie All therefore that I can say is that which Robert Bishop of Auranches in Normandy hath said before me and that only in the generall Quos itaque aetas nostra Picardos appellat verae Belgae dicendi sunt qui post modum in Picardorum nomen transmigrarunt This Countrey is very plentifull of
see the alliance which this French Esau hath abroad in the world in what credit and opinion he standeth in the eye of Bâ—â—ri the Romish â—ittite the daughter of whose abominations he hath marryed And here I find him to hold good correspondency as being the eldest son of the Church and an equall poise to ballance the affaires of Italy against the Potency of Spain On this ground the present Pope hath alwayes shewn himself very favourable to the French side well knowing into what perils an unnecessary and impolitick dependance on the Spanish party only would one day bring the State Ecclesiastick As in the generall so also in many particulars hath he expressed much affection unto him As 1. By taking into his hands the Valtolin till his Sonne of France might settle himself in some course to recover it 2. His not stirring in the behalf of the Spaniard during the last wars in Italy And 3. His speedy and willing grant of the dispensation for Madams marriage notwithstanding the Spaniard so earnestly laboured the deniall or at least the delay of it To speak by conjectures I am of opinion that his Genius prompted him to see the speedy consummation of this marriage of which his Papacy was so large an Omen so far a prognostick Est Deus in nobis agitaâ—te calescimus illo The Lar or angell guardian of his thoughts hastned him in it in whose time there was so plausible a Presage that it must be accomplished For thus it standeth Malachi now a Saint then one of the first Apostles of the Irish one much reverenced in his memory unto this day by that Nation left behind him by way of Prophesie a certain number of Mottoes in Latine telling those that there should follow that certain number of Popes only whose conditions successively should be lively expressed in those Mottos according to that order which he had placed them M 〈…〉 ngham an Irish Priest and Master of the Colledge of Irish 〈…〉 es in Paris collected together the lives of all the Irish Saints which book himself shewed me In that Volume and the life of this Saint are the severall Mottos and severall Popes set down Column wise one against the other I compared the lives of them with the Mottos as far as my memory would carry me and found many of them very answerable As I remember there are 36 Mottos yet come and when just so many Popes are joyned to them they are of opinion for so 〈◊〉 〈…〉 ld th 〈…〉 either the world should end or the Popedom be 〈…〉 ned Amongst the others the Motto of the present Pope was most remarkable and sutable to the action likely to happen in his time being this Lilium Rosa which they interpret and in my mind not unhappily to be intended to the conjunction of the French Lilly and English Ros 〈…〉 To take from me any suspicion of Imposture he shewed an old book printed almost 200 years agoe written by one Wion a Flemming and comparing the number of the Mottos with the Catalogue of the Popes I found the name of Vrban the now Pope to answer it On this ground an English Catholick whose acquaintance I gained in France made a copy of Verses in French and presented them to the English Ambassadours the Earls of Carlile and Holland Because he is my friend and the conceit is not to be despised I begged them of him and these are they Lilia juncta Rosis Embleme de bon prefage de l' Alliance de la France avec 〈◊〉 Angle terre Ce grand dieu qui d'un ocil voit tout ce que les ans Soâ—bs leurs voiles sacrez vont a nous yeux cachans Decouure quelque fois anisâ— qui bon lui semble Et les maux a venir et les biens tout ensemble Anisi fit-il jades a celui qui primier Dans l' Ireland porta de la froy le laurier Malachie â—on 〈◊〉 qu' au tymon de leglise On verra s 〈…〉 r un jour cil qui pour sa devise Aura les lys chenus ioints aux plus belles fleures Qui dorent le prin-temps de leurs doubles colours CHARLES est le â—â—curon de la Rose pourpree Henritte est le Lys que la plus belle pree De la France nourrtit pour estre quelque jour Et la Reina des fleurs et des roses l' amour Adorable banquet bâ—en heureuse coâ—ronne Que la bonte du ciel e parrage nous donne Heâ—reuse ma partie heureuse mille fois Celle qui te fera reâ—â—orier en les roys With these Verses I take my leave of his Holinesse wishing none of his successors would presage worse luck unto England I go now to see his Nuncio to whose house the same English Catholick brought me but he was not at home his name is Bernardino d'Espada a man as he informed me able to discharge the trust reposed in him by his Master and one that very well affected the English Nation He hath the fairest house and keepeth the largest retinue of any ordinary Ambassador in the Realm and maketh good his Masters Supremacies by his own precedency To honour him against he was to take his charge his Holinesse created him Bishop of Damiataâ—n â—n Egypt a place which I am certain never any of them saw but in a map and for the profits he receiveth thence they will never be able to pay for his Crozier But this is one of his Holinesse usuall policies to satisfie his followers with empty titles So he made Bishop whom he sent to govern for him in England Bishop of Chalâ—â—don in Asia and Smith also who is come over about the same businesse with the Queen Bishop of Archidala a City of Tâ—â—ce An old English Doctor used it as an especiall argument to prove the universality of power in the Pope because he could ordain Bishops over al Cities in Christendom if he could as easily give them also the revenue this reason I confesse would much sway me till then I am sorry that men should still be boyes and play with bubbles By the same authority he might do well to make all his Courtiers Kings and then he were sure to have a most royall and beggerly Court of it To proceed a little further in the Allegory so it is that when Jacob saw Esau to have incurred his fathers and mothers anger for his heathenish marriage he set himself to bereave his elder brother of his blessing Prayers and the sweet smell of his Venison the sweet smelling of his sacrifices obtained of his Lord and Father a blessing for him for indeed the Lord hath given unto this his French Jacob as it is in the text the dew of heaven and the fatnesse of the earth and plenty of corne and wine Gen. 27. 28. It followeth in the 41. vers of the Chapter And Esau hated Jaeob because of the blessing wherewith his father had blessed him and
to by the name of our Lady of Lehu A place long since demolished in the ruine of it Sed jam periere ruinae but now the ruines of it are scarce visible there being almost nothing left of it but the steeple which serveth only as a sea-marke and to which as any of that party sail along they strike their top sail Tantum religio potuit suadere such a Religious opinion have they harboured of the place that though the Saint be gone the wals yet shall still be honoured But indeed the principall honour and glory of this Island I mean of Guernzey is the large capaciousnesse of the harbour and the flourishing beauty of the Castle I say the Castle as it may so be called by way of eminency that in the vale and those poorer trifles all along the Coasts not any way deserving to be spoken of Situate it is upon a little Islet just opposite unto Pierport or the Town of St. Peter on the Sea to which and to the peere there it is a good assurance and takes up the whole circuit of that Islet whereupon it standeth At the first it was built upon the higher part of the ground only broad at the one end and at the other and bending in the fashion of an horne whence it had the name of Cornet By Sir Leonard Chamberlane Governour here in the time of Queen Mary and by Sir Thomas Leighton his successour in the reign of Queen Elizabeth it was improved to that majesty and beauty that now it hath excellently fortified according to the moderne art of war and furnished with almost an hundred piece of Ordinance whereof about sixty are of Brasse Add to this that it is continually environed with the Sea unlesse sometimes at a dead-low water whereby there is so little possibility of making any approaches neer unto it that one might justly think him mad that would attempt it And certainly it is more then necessary that this place should be thus fortified if not for the safety of the Island yet at the least for the assurance of the Harbour An harbour able to contain the greatest Navy that ever failed upon the Ocean fenced from the fury of the winds by the Isles of Guernzey Jet-how Serke and Arvie by which it is almost encompassed and of so sure an anchorage that though our Ships lay there in the blustering end of March yet it was noted that never any of them slipped an anchour Other Havens they have about the Island viz. Bazon L' Aucresse Fermines and others but these rather landing places to let in the Enemy then any way advantageous to the trade and riches of the people A place not to be neglected in the defence of it and full of danger to the English State and Trafick were it in the hands of any enemy Upon the notable advantage of this harbour and the conveniency of the Peer so neer unto it which is also warranted with six peece of good Canon from the Town it is no marvell if the people betake themselves so much unto the trade of Merchandise Nor do they trafick only in small boats between St Malos and the Islands as those of Jarsey but are Masters of good stout Barks and venture unto all these neerer Ports of Christendom The principall commodity which they use to send abroad are the works and labours of the poorer sort as Wast-cotes Stockins and other manufactures made of wool wherein they are exceeding cunning of which wooll to be transported to their Island in a certain proportion they lately have obtained a licence of our Princes But there accreweth a further benefit unto this people from their harbour then their own trafick which is the continuall concourse and resort of Merchants thither especially upon the noise or being of a War For by an antient priviledge of the Kings of England there is with them in a manner a continuall truce and lawfull it is both for French men and for others how hot soever the war be followed in other parts to repair hither without danger and here to trade in all security A priviledge founded upon a Bull of Pope Sixtus IV. the 10 year as I remember of his Popedom Edward IV. then reigning in England and Lewis XI over the French by virtue of which Bull all those stand ipso facto excommunicate which any way molest the Inhabitants of this Isle of Guerazey or any which resort unto their Island either by Piracy or any other violence whatsoever A Bull first published in the City of Constance unto whose Diocesse these Islands once belonged afterwards verifyed by the Parliament of Paris and confirmed by our Kings of England till this day The copy of this Bull my self have seen and somewhat also in the practise of it on record by which it doth appear that a man of war of France having taken an English ship and therein some passengers and goods of Guernzey made prize and prisoners of the English but restored these of Guernzey to their liberty and to their own And now at last after a long passage and through many difficulties we are Anchored in the Isle of Jarsey known in the former ages and to Antonine the Emperor by the name of Cesarea An Island situate in the 49 degree of Latitude between the 18 and 24 minutes of that degree distant 5 leagues only from the Coast of Normandy 40 or thereabouts from the neerest parts of England and 6 or 7 to the South east from that of Guernzey The figure of it will hold proportion with that long kind of square which the Geometricians call Oblongum the length of it from West to East 11 miles the breadth 6 and upwards the whole circuit about 33. The aire very healthy and little disposed unto diseases unlesse it be unto a kinde of Ague in the end of Harvest which they call Les Settembers The soil sufficiently fertile in it self but most curiously manured and of a plentifull increase unto the Barn not only yeelding Corne enough for the people of the Island but sometimes also an ample surplusage which they barter at St. Malos with the Spanish Merchants The Countrey generally swelling up in pretty hillocks under which lie pleasant Vallies and those plentifully watered with dainty Rilâ— or Riverets in which watery commodity it hath questionlesse the precedency of Guernzey Both Islands consist very much of small Inclosure every man in each of them having somewhat to live on of his own Only the difference is that here the mounds are made with ditches banks of earth cast up well fenced and planted with several sorts of apples out of which they make a pleasing kinde of Sider which is their ordinary drink whereas in Guernzey they are for the most part made of stones about the height and fashion of a Parapet A matter of no small advantage in both places against the fury of an enemy who in his marches cannot but be much annoyed with these incombrances and shall be
Lawes refused to open it himself a private person seised the Keyes Patefacto aerario legem utilitati cedere coegit and over-ruled the Law by the advancement of the Weal publick In like manner which is I think the most and best that can be said in this behalf to promote the reformation of Religion many good men made suit to be supplyed out of the common treasury to be admitted to the preaching of the word according to the ordinary course of ordination which when it was denied them by the Questors or Prelates of those dayes they chose rather to receive it at the hands of private and inferior Priests then that the Church should be unfurnished This may be said for them which in excuse of those of Guernzey can never be alleadged whose continuall recourse unto these private keyes is done upon no other reason then a dislike of that high calling to which your Lordship is advanced which therefore you are bound if not to punish in them yet to rectifie Two other reasons yet there are which may invite your Lordship to this undertaking though not so weighty or of that importance as the former The one that the remainders of that party here at home may not be hardned in their obstinacy the other that those of Jarsey be not discouraged in their submission and conformity I have already shewn unto your Lordship that the brethren here in England never made head against the Church till the permission of plat-forme in these Islands After which with what violence they did assaile the hierarchy what clamorus they continually raised against the Prelates what superstitions and impieties they imputed to our Liturgy notius est quam ut stylo egeat is too wel known to be related If so then questionless it cannot but confirme them in their new devices to see them still permitted to this Isle Nor can they think themselves but wronged that still they are contrould and censured for the maintenance of that discipline which is by Soveraign authority allowed and licensed though in other places yet in the same dominions And on the other side your Lordship may conceive how just a cause of discontent and of repining it may be to those of Jarsey when they shall dayly hear it thundred from the Coasts of France that faintly they have sold themselves to bondage whereas the faithfull zelots in the Isle of Guernzey doe still preserve themselves in liberty Vel neâ—trum flammis ure velure duos as the Lover in Ausonius From my first rank of motives here presented to your Lordship which I may most properly call motives necessary and in respect unto the cause I come next to those of an other quality which I call motives of conveniency and in relation to the time For questionlesse the time is at this present more convenient for the accomplishment of this work then ever we may hope to see hereafter whether we consider it in reference unto our Kingdome or to the Discipline it self or to the Governour or to the people of both sorts the Clergy and the Magistrates For first there is at this instant an established peace between it and France concluded on while we were in these Islands and published immediately on our coming home which Realm only carryeth a covetous and watchfull eye upon those Islands Were it between us as it lately was nothing but wars and depredations â—he alteration then perhaps might be unsafe it being alwayes dangerous to discontent or charge that Nation upon whose loyalty we must rely Nor can I tell unto what desperate and undutifull practises the furious heat of some few Preachers may possibly excite a multitude when come the worst that can there is an enemy at hand that will subscribe to any articles But now t is peace and how long peace will hold is not easie to determine depending as it doth upon the will and pleasure of another If in the second place we look upon the Discipline it self we shall find it well prepared and ready for a change For whereas it is ordered in their Canons if I so may call them that the errours of the Consistory shall be corrected by the Colloquie those of the Colloquie by the Synod by the departure of Jarsey from them they have no way of further Synods and therefore no redresse of grivances So then either the sentence of the Colloquie must be unalterable which is expresly contrary to the platforme or else there must be granted some other jurisdiction to have power above them whereby their censures may be moderated The first of these would estate their Colloquies in a tyranny more prevalent and binding then the chair of Rome so much complained of The other openeth a way for the entrance of Episcopall authority for the admission of Appeals for the directions of their proceedings Add hereunto that at this time they have a noble Governour no friend I am assured to any of that party and such a one which gladly would resign those rights of old belonging to the Deanry when ever it shall please his Majesty to restore that dignity unto the Island A Peer so perfectly known unto your Lordship and to all the Kingdom that I need not say more of him then that which once Velleius did of Junius Blaesus Vir nescias an utilior Castris vel melior toga It were a matter of no ordinary study to determine whether he be more able in the Campe or Senate But in alterations such as these the fancy and affection of the people is principally to be attended as those whom such mutations most properly concern wherein I find all things made ready to your Lordships hand if you vouchsafe to set it forwards The Magistrates and more understanding people of the Isle offended with the severe and unsociable carriage of the Consistories especially of late since the unlimited Empire of the Colloquie hath made that government unsufferable Before they had enough to keep themselves from censure and their houses from the diligence of Consistoriall spies when yet there was an higher Court wherein there was some hope of remedy But there being none to appeal from in the Consistory but those which wil condemn them in the Colloquie they undergo the yoak with much clamour but with more stomach A stomach which estsoones they spare not to disgorge upon them as often viz. as they come within the compasse of their Courts either in way of punishment or censure On the other side the Ministers exclaime against the Magistrates as presuming too far above their latchet pretending that by them their Discipline hath been infringed their priviledges violated and their Ministery interrupted Matters that have not been repined at only in a corner but publickly presented as on the Theater and complained of to their Governours For at my Lord of Danbies being there they articled against the Magistrates for invading the Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction as viz. that they take upon them to dissolve contracts made in the presence
to Priories and Abbies within this Realm whereby the treasures of the Realm were transported and the counsels of the King and the secrets of the Realm disclosed unto the Kings enemies to the great damage of the King and of the Realm that therefore all Priors Aliens and other French men beneficed should avoid the Realm except only Priors Conventuals such as have institution and induction and this also with a Proviso that they be Catholick and give sufficient surety that they shall not disclose the counsels of the King or of the Realm so the Statute 1 Hen 5. cap. 7. This also noted to us by Pol. Virgil ad Reip. commodum sancâ—tum est ut post haec ejusmodi externis hominibus nullius Anglicani sacerdotii possessio traderetur Upon which point of statute the Britons belonging to the Queen Dowager the widow once of John de Montfort Duke of Bretagne were also expelled the Land by Act of Parliament 3 Hen. 5. cap. 3. By this means the Priors Aliens being banished their possessions fell into the Kings hands as in England so also in these Islands and their houses being all suppressed they became an accession to the patrimony Royall the demaine as our Lawyers call it of the Crown These Priors Aliens thus exiled were properly called Priors Dative and removeable but never such Aliens never so removeable as they were now made by this Statute What the condition of these Priors was and wherein they differed from those which are called above by the name of Priors Conventuals I cannot better tell then in the words of an other of our Statutes that namely of the 27 of Hen. 8. cap. The Parliament had given unto the King all Abbies Priories and Religious houses whatsoever not being above the value 200 l. in the old rent Provided alwayes saith the letter of the Law that this Act c. shall not extend nor be prejudiciall to any Abbots or Priors of any Monastery or Priory c. for or concerning such Cels of Religious houses appertaining or belonging to their Monasteries or Priories in which Cels the Priors or other chief Governours thereof be under the obedience of the Abbots or Priors to whom such Cels belong As the Monke or Canons of the Covent of their Monasteries or Priories and cannot be sued by the Lawes of this Realm or by their own proper names for the possessions or other things appertaining to such Cels whereof they be Priors and Governors but must sue and be sued in and by the names of the Abbots and Priors to whom they be now obedient and to whom such Cels belong and be also Priors or Governours dative or removeable from time to time and accomptez of the profits of such Cels at the only will and pleasure of such of the Abbots and Priors to whom such Cels belong c. This once the difference between them but now the criticisme may be thought unnecessary To proceed upon this suppression of the Priors and others the Religious houses in these Islands and their Revenue falling unto the Crown there grew a composition between the Curates and the Governours about their tithes which hath continued hitherto unaltered except in the addition of the Deserts of which more hereafter Which composition in the proportion of tithe unto which it doth amount I here present unto your Lordship in a brief Diagramme together with the the names of their Ministers and Justices now beng JARSEY Parishes Ministers Revenues Justices St. Martins Mr. Bandinell sen the Dean The 3 of the kings tithe Josuah de Carteret Seign de Trinite St. Hilaries Mr. Oliver the Sub-dean or Commissary The 10 of the kings tithe Dan du Maresque seign de Sammarez St. Saviours Mr. Effart The Deserts and 22 acres of Gleb Ph. L' Empriere Sr. de Delament St. Clements Mr. Paris The 8 and 9 of the kings tithe Ph. de Carletet Sr. de Vinchiles de haut St. Grovilles Mr. de la Place The 8 and 9 c. Eli. du Maresque Sr. de Vinchiles abas St. Trinities Mr. Molles The Deserts and the 10 of the kings tithe Eli. de Carteret Sr. de la Hagne St. Johns Mr. Brevin The Deserts c. Joh. L' Empriere Sr. des au grace S. Lawrences Mr. Prinde The Deserts c. Aron Messervie St. Maries Mr. Blandivell jun. The 3 sheaf of the Kings tithe Ben. la cloche Sr. de Longueville St. Owens Mr. La cloche The Deserts c. Jo. Harde St. Burlads  The 8 and 9 c. Abr. Herod St. Peters Mr. Grueby The Deserts c. Ph. Marret Note that the taking of the 8 and 9 sheafe is called French querrui as also that an acre of their measure is 40 Perches long and one in breadth every Perche being 21 foot GUERNZEY Parishes Ministers Revenues Justices St. Peters on the Sea M. de la March The 7 of tithe and champarte Tho. Andrewes Sr. de Sammarez St. Martins Mr. de la Place The like Pet. Carey sen La Forest Mr. Picote The 9 of tithe and champarte John Fautrat Sr. â—de Coq Tortevall Mr. Fautrat The 3 of tithe and champarte Joh. Bonamy S. Andrews The 4 of c. Joh. Ketville St. Peters in the Wood. Mr. Perchard The 3 of the tithe only James Guile Sr. des Rohais St. Saviours  The Desert and the tenths in all 600 sheafes Tho. Blundell Chastell Mr. Panisee The 9 of the tithe only Pet. de Beauvoyre Sr. des Granges St. Mich. St. Michael in the vale Mr. Millet The 4 of the Kings tithe only Pet. Gosselin St. Sampson The like Josias Merchant Serke Mr. Brevin 20 l. stipend and 20 quarters of corn Pet. Carey jun. Alderney Mr. Mason 20 l. stipend  Note that the Parish called in this Diagram La Forest is dedicated as some say to the holy Trinity as other to St. Margaret that which is here called Tortevall as some suppose unto St. Philip others will have it to St. Martha but that of Chastell to the hand of the blessed Virgin which is therefore called in the Records our Ladies Castle Note also that the Justices or Jurates are here placed as near as I could learn according to their Seniority not as particularly appertaining to those Parishes against which they are disposed For the better understanding of this Diagram there are three words which need a commentary as being meerly Aliens to the English tongue and hardly Denizens in French Of these that in the Diagrams called the Deserts is the first A word which properly signifieth a Wildernesse or any wast ground from which ariseth little profit As it is taken at this present and on this occasion it signifieth a field which formerly was laid to waste and is now made arable The case this At the suppression of the Priors Aliens and the composition made betwixt the Curates and the Governours there was in either Island much ground of small advantage to the Church or to the