Resgate and de la Merced The military orders of the Crosse. The maner of their civill government The King His stile of Catholique His dominions and revenues A short censure of the present Spanish greatnes The parts or countries of Spaine THE bounds hereof are vpon the North-east the Pyrenaean Mountaines deviding it from France and from the rest of the Continent of Europe surrounded vpon the other sides with the deepe and spacious Ocean vpon the North with the sea Cantabrique with the Atlantique vpon the West and vpon the South with the Straights of Gibraltar the sea Mediterranean Mariana accompteth the circumference of the whole to bee 2816 Italian miles measuring along the course of the Pyrenaean Mountaines from Cabo de Creux vpon the Mediterranean vnto the towne of Fuentarabia 320 miles to Cabo Finisterre along the shore of the sea Cantabrique 536 miles from that Promontorie vnto the towne of Gibraltar 895 miles and from thence returning againe to Cabo de Creux bending still with the creekes and windings of the sea 1065 miles The greatest length hereof he reckneth at 800 miles and the breadth at 560 of the same miles It is seated in the Southerne halfe part of the Temperate Zone lying betwxt the. 4. 24 60 and 19½ degrees of Longitude for such are the distances of the Promontories Finisterre and de Creux from the first Meridian drawne by the Azores Ilands whose two Meridians make about a full houres difference of the Suns first rising betwixt about the 36 and 44½ degrees of Northerne latitude or from the 30 minute South of the 11 or middle paralel of the 4 clime vnto about the 30 mi warie and descreet withall not carried with that rash and headlong fury esteemed by others valour ouercomming rather with temporizing deepe reach and policy then by maine force and violence If we would haue him in a word described he almost is whatsoeuer almost is not the Frenchman The Languages spoken hereby are 1. the Castillian or vulgar Spanish common to the whole Nation 2. that of Portugals as are the people mixed of the Castillian and French 3. that of the Catalonians and inhabitants of the kingdome of Valentia which is not much vnlike vnto the French spoken in Languedoc 4. the Basquish proper to the Biscians and people of Guipuscoa a language purely barbarous not refined with the mixture of more elegant tongues and thought to be the auncient Spanish spoken here before the Conquest of the Romans Heere likewise was in vse the auncient Moorish retayned by the Moriscos but of late yeares banished from hence with the people The auncient religion hereof was that common to all the Gentiles worshipping many false and absurd gods The first that preached here the holy Gospell was the Apostle S. Paul according to S. Chrysostome Theodoret sundry other of the auncient fathers That he had an intent to make a journey into Spaine we plainely gather from the the 15 chap. to the Romans That hee went or was hindred in his purpose detayned prisoner at Rome by Nero nothing is certaine After Isidore and the generall voyce of the Spaniards but without more auncient authority S. Iames the son of Zebedee otherwise is said to haue beene the first the supposed founder of Nuestra Senora del Pilar a Church yet extant at Saragoça accompanied with Saint Peter the Apostle of Ebora S. Cecilius of Eliberis S. Euphrasius of Illiturgis S. Secundus of Abula with others whose names I omit for that they agree not about their number Concerning S t Iames the tradition goeth that after his Martyrdome at Hierusalem slaine by Herod his dead body should from thence bee convayed hither to Iria Flavia in Galitia thence to Compostella where it should be enterred but in what place that it was not knowne vntill the yeare 796 when it should be first found out by Theodomyrus bishop of Iria although saith my Authour the reasons are not set downe why a graue then discouered should containe the corps of that blessed Apostle Such notwithstanding was the credulous devotion of those times that presently a Church was erected herevnto by Alfonsus surnamed the Chast then king of Leon famous afterwards through the Christian world for the continuall pilgrimages thither made from all parts and enriched with liberall endowments and priviledges It was some 50 yeares afterwards and since the yeare 846 and their great victorie at Clavigio vnder king Ramir the first obtained against the Moores and as then firmely was beleeued by the visible presence and aide hereof that the Castillians for the Portugalls and Aragonians with the English and Genowayes acknowledge S t George for their Patron haue beene still accustomed in their fights and encounters to call vpon S. Iago as their guardian and protectour their signe word of Battaill To returne to our purpose from these and such like beginnings Christianity here dayly grew and more and more prospered in the first age of the Primitiue Church encreasing through affliction by the holy bloud of slaine Martyrs In the happy raigne of Constantine the Great Gentilisme put downe Religion was first authorized here as in the other Provinces of the Roman Empire by publique commaund a small truce was granted to the Church Heresie Gentilisme and Persecution freshly reviuing againe in the raignes of the next Emperours Constantius and Iulianus These tempestuous times ouerpast by the fauour of God the Sun of the Gospel againe gloriously breaks out in a calme and cleare sky here freely shineth during the raignes of the after succeeding most Christian Catholique Emperours of the West In the raigne of the Emperour Honorius swarme in hither the barbarous Nations by whom Religion suffers a second Eclipse Of these the Alans were Gentiles but whose out-rage lasted not long shortly after their first comming ouer-throwne and rooted out by the Gothes The Vandals also Gentiles at the time of their first entrance by their after commerce and acquaintance with the Gothes vnder their king Gensericus turned Arrian Christians departing not long after into Afrique The Suevians at the first likewise were Gentiles Vnder their third king Receiarius about the yeare 448 they receiued the Christian Catholique faith which shortly after being subdued restored again by the Gothes sweyed with the greatnes of that Nation vnder their king Remismundus they changed for their Arrian heresie In the raigne of Theodomyrus after an apostacy of aboue one hundred yeares they returned againe vnto the Catholique beliefe wherein they continued vntill the extirpation of their kingdome name by the Gothes in Andeca their last king The Gothes were Arrians from their first entrance into the Roman Provinces corrupted by Valens Emperour of the East In continuance of time becomming Lord of the whole Spaine the rest of the barbarous nations the Romans subdued they subiected all this continent vnder that foule heresy Vnder their King Ricaredus about the yeare 588 reiecting the Arrian they
Iland of Helena a Brittish woman religion here is first generally authorized as in all other places subiect to the Roman Empire clouded soone after with a blacke darkenesse of Arian infection begun in the raigne hereof and condemned by the first Nicene councell but resuming greater strength vnder his son Constantius who next succeded and with a generall plague spreading over this Province together with the whole Christian world This tempest blowne ouer the Orthodox faith is againe endangered in the raigne of Arcadius Honorius by the heresie of Pelagius a natiue of this Country vndertaking a proud warre to vse the words of my Author against the sauing grace of God in whose refutation S Austine much laboured who then liued here routed out by the authority and religious and learned endeavours of S. German and S. Lupus Bishops of Auxerre and Trois in France at the request of the Britons sent hither by the French Churcb and lastly after sundry relapses by S. David Bishop of Meneva or Menew since from hence called S. Davids in the raigne of Arthur king of the Britons About those tymes flourished amongst others of that nature here and amongst the Scots in Ireland the famous Monastery of Banchor erected long before the time of S. Benedict or of anyknowne order and rule of Monkes consisting after my author of seauen parts or devisions vnder their seuerall heads each whereof conteined at the least 300 persons maintained by the labour of their hands without salary or revenue The ruines hereof are yet seene vpon both sides of the Dee in Flintshire in Wales the course of the riuer hauing since beene altered In the yeare of Christ 449 Valentinian the third then succeeding in the Westerne Roman Empire the Saxons or Dutch at that time Pagans vnder their Prince Hengist arriue in Kent followed by fresh Colonies of the same Religion Nation seazing vpon other parts of the Ilands by which meanes Christianity is here againe almost totally obscured if not fully extinguished driuen out with the natiue Britons and confined onely with in Wales Cornwall and the Westerne Mountaines Their prophane gods if it be worth the noting were Tuisto mentioned by Tacitus and vvoden and Frea by Malmesburiensis in whose honour the second third and fift dayes of the weeke were named Tuesday VVednesday and Friday continued since in the flourishing time of the Gospell and vnto this present The neighbouring vncharitable Welsh or Britons not vouchsafing their aide and disdaining all commerce herewith offended with their iniurie and intrusion S. Austine a Monke of Rome is sent hither from Gregorie the Great then Bishop of that sea at whose hands Ethelbert chiefe King of the English his Kentish Saxons receiue baptisme the first Archbishop of Durovernia or Canterburie arriving here in the raigne of Mauritius Emperour of the East and some 150 yeares after the first comming of Hengist Kent by diuine grace being thus illuminated the other kingdomes of the English Heptarchy follow not long after The East-Saxons vnder their King Sebert through the authority of King Ethelbert and by the preaching of Mellitus first Bishop of London vnder the Saxons relapsing soone after vnder Selred Seward and the first and second Sigeberts idolatrous princes and recouered to the faith vnder Sigebert the third through the perswasions of Oswy king of Northumberland and the pious labours of S. Cedde the second Apostle and Bishop hereof after S. Mellitus the Northumbrians vnder their kings Edwin and Oswald and by the preachings of Paulinus and Aidan the first bishops of Yorke and Lindisfarne the East-Angles vnder their King Erpenwald by the instigation of Edwin King of Northumberland after three yeares apostacy Erpenwald deceased confirmed in the Orthodoxe religion through the industry and holy raigne of King Sigebert the West-Saxons vnder their King Kingils by the preaching of S. Birinus the first bishoppe of Dorchester in Oxford-shire and through the godly zeale of Oswald king of Northumberland The Mercians vnder their king Penda and Peada and Wulsfhere sonnes to Penda by the preachings amongst others of S. Ceadda an Apostle of the Mercians and the first bishop of Lichfield brother to Cedde the second bishop of the East-Saxons and by the meanes of Oswy King of Northumberland and the South-Saxons vnder their King Edilwalch by the preaching of S. Wilfrid Arch-bishoppe of Yorke liuing then here exiled thrust out of his bishoppricke by Egfrid King of the Northumbrians sonne and successour to Oswy The last Countrey converted vnder the English was the I le of Wight subdued and forced to the Christian beleife by Ceadwalla King of the West-Saxons Great was the heate and devotion of that first more good plaine and simple age Churches and Oratories builded Bishopprickes erected Monasteries founded then the onely nurseries of learning and reliligion and painefull ministers euery-where planted sincere iust exemplary without hypocrisie faction pride ambition and desire of worldly gaine couetous only of the glory of God and the promotion of his Church by whose holy endeavours England then being too strait to containe so earnest and immense a Zeale the neighbouring Germans not long after tooke flame and were wonne vnto the faith in regard thereof and of their common language which then was the same with the Dutch chiefely aboue others imployed in this sacred worke by the Bishops of Rome and the French Kings to whom the Countrey was then subiect Amongst these of more honourable memory were S. Willebrord the first bishop of Vtreicht S. Weiro bishop of Deira S. Plechelmus bishop of Wit-herne or Candida Casa S. Swibert bishop of Werden S. Acca bishop of Hagustald S. Marcelline and others the Apostles of the Thuringians Frisons and the Lower Germans in the Regency of Pepin the Fat Maiour of the Palace of the French kings S. Willebald the Apostle of East-france and first bishop of Eystet at the same time and S. Willehade the Apostle of the Saxons and first bishop of Bremen but more especially Saint Boniface or Winifride the first Arch-bishoppe of Mentz and the generall Apostle of the Nation acknowledged thus by the vnpartiall Dutch and Popish Relaters about the yeare 710 and Papacie of Gregorie the second after many relapses the establisher here of religion and meanes of their more perfect and full conuersion The English we finde not as yet enthralled to the Church of Rome although not without their errours and much reverencing the authority of that sea from whence had proceeded their conuersion following their doctrine honouring the same with their frequent pilgrimages their pension of Peter pence and with the coule and religious habits of sundry of their Kings The Welch then or Britons were altogether averse from all acknowledgment hereof neither obeying the Legates of the Popes neither yeelding to their decisions or conforming to their rule differing from them in sundry
Durham and VVinchester The others are ranked according to the time of their consecration What were the seats of the bishops before S. Austine and the conversion of the English we cannot certainely determine Geffrey of Monmouth mentioneth three Archbishops of London Yorke and Isca Silurum or Caer Leon and 28 bishops founded in the place of so many Arch-Flamins and Flamins gentilisme abolished in the raigne of King Lucius by Faganus and Duvanus Legates of Pope Eleutherius and the Apostles of the Britons The authority and truth of the author hath alwayes bin suspected More certainly Beda in a conference of the VVelsh with S. Austine the first Arch-bishop of Canterbury maketh mention of 7 bishops of the Britons but without naming them or their seates The first Councell of Arles held in the yeare 326 and the raigne of the Emperour Constantine the Great nameth one Restitutus a Brittish bishop of London amongst the Fathers assisting in that Synod Other names during these more primatiue times wee haue not yet found in the subscriptions of Councels or any ancient and good authority Vnder Honorius the 4 Arch-bishop of Canterbury the English are divided into Parishes encreased through continuall subdivisions and additions of new Churches The number hereof are at this day 9284 in both Prouinces Hereof 3845. are Churches impropriate by Papall authority annexed aunciently vnto Monasteries and places of Religion and at the fall of Monasteries for the greatest part of their revenues escheated to the Crowne and made Lay possessions These againe are of two forts 1 with Vicarages 2 without all whose rights as well tithes as offerings are detained by their Lay purchasers without any allotment to the Priest by the Parliament or the King in their sale and conveyances which hapned to such whose immediate Pastours had beene the Monkes maintained now by miserable yet arbitrary pensions My selfe haue heard foure pound by the yeare offered to a Minister for seruing together two pastorall cures of this nature The number of the Episcopall and Collegiate Churches including VVestminster and VVinsore are 26 besides some others restored of late yeares through the favour and bounty of King Iames of happy memory They containe together almost so many Deanes 60 Arch-Deacons and 544 Dignities or Prebendaries The suppressed Monasteries let it be lawfull to remember those dead ruines sad spectacles of humane mutability amounted to 645 besides 96 Colledges 110 Hospitals and 2374 Chanteries and Free Chappels Such hath been the affaires of the Church and Religion The State is Monarchicall commaunded by a King The Law whereby it is governed is the Municipall or Common a Law proper to the Nation The Prince is Haereditary and independent not euer invested by or acknowledging the Roman Emperours or any superiour earthly power holding immediatly of God absolute and supreame ouer all persons in all causes both Civill and Ecclesiasticall King Iohn distressed by a threefold warre against the Pope the French and his rebellious subjects to appease the first enthralled the kingdome to the tribute and vassalage hereof but which art being forced neither euer approued by the Parliament or people was euer held as voide He is stiled the Defendour of the faith which title was first giuen to king Henry the eight by Pope Leo the tenth zealous in his cause against the pretended haeresie of Luther opposed by the authority of his kingly Pen maintained since vpon better right by his noble successours the chiefe patrons and defendours of the Orthodoxe and truely Catholique Religion The body or Common-wealth subject to this Head may be distinguished into a twofold order 1 Artificers tradesmen daylabourers and poore husbandmen without land who haue no rule and whose part is onely to obey 2. and those who in the right and vnder the authority of the Prince haue their parts in the gouernment judging and determining causes punishing faults electing officers granting subsidies and making Lawes of whom and their delegates assembled together with the King and Bishops representing the Cleargie the Parliament or grand Councell of the Realme consisteth These likewise are of two different rankes 1 The Nobility 2 and those vnder the degree hereof The Nobility are divided into the greater Nobility containing the Barony or estate of Lords and the Lesser Nobility consisting of Knights Esquires and Gentlemen the first whereof are not borne thus but made by the especiall grace of the Prince for their good demerits or hopes whose Deputies and of the Burgesses and Yeomen the rankes vnder the Nobility compose the house of Commons These last the Yeomen or Free-holders the auncient wealth and support of the kingdome the strength and substance of our warres our sometimes victorious infantery the Conquerours of the French are now much decayed since the fal of Monasteries whose tenants they were vpon easie rents but more especially through the present depopulations rackings and injuries of the Gentry pulling downe Townes and farme-houses and converting all to pasturage or their proper demaine to the much impairing of the Princes subsidies and revenues the wonted store of people and riches of the Land the most important grievance of the times The Nation hath alwayes beene much dreaded and powerfull in Armes whilest vnited and in peace at home King Henry the second by marriage and warre enlarged the English dominions ouer Ireland and Aquitaine and Guienne in France Richard the first advanced their glorious ensignes in Syria Palestine and the East and conquered Cyprus exchaunged for the title of Hierusalem By Edward the first all Wales and Scotland for the time are subdued By Edward the third the Scots and French in sundry memorable battailes holding captiue at the same time the persons of both their kings Under the same Prince the hautie Spaniards through the high courage and adventures of his son Prince Edward forced to the obedience of Don Peter their naturall Lord. By Henry the fift all France on this side the Loire left to his successour Henry the sixt crowned French king at Paris Queene Elizabeth of famous memory relieued all her distressed neighbours the Scots France and the Netherlands oppressed by forraine power or through domestique broyles got the dominion of the sea and by continuall victories gaue first check to the greatnes and aspiring ambition of the house of Austria and Spaine But as their happy atchieuements and victories haue beene many so their errours and misfortunes no lesse most commonly loosing that through ciuill broyles and contentions a mischiefe incident to all flourishing estates but most fatall to ours what by true valour and honour they haue gotten King Iohn lost Normandy and other English conquests and possessions in France through the onely malice and treason of his disloyall Barons vnseasonably quarrelling about their liberties forsaking him in his warres and siding with his enemies Edward the second Scotland wonne by his victorious father through a like despight and wilfulnes of his seditious Nobles opposing against his
West-Freislandt The wet and moorish ground about it affordeth rich pasturages but is altogither vnfit for corne Franicker a schoole or petty Vniversity Bolswaerdt OOSTER-GOE COntaining the Sea-coast betwixt Wester-goe and the country of Groningen Townes here are Lieward or Leewarden the court presidial chancerie and chiefe towne of the proper West-Freislant rich faire and strongly fortified Doccum neere vnto Groninger-landt ZEVEN-WOLDEN COntaining the woodland part towards the South-East and Ouer-ysel It hath not any towne of note THE TERRITORY OF GRONINGEN THis is the most Easterne part of West-Freislandt contained betwixt Ooster-goe and the river Eems or Oost-Freislandt Townes here are Dam neere vnto the Eems and Oost-Frislandt Groeningen the chiefe towne giving the name to the province The towne is of great state large rich and strongly fortified There are contained in the whole West-Freislandt 12. walled townes and some 490 Villages The more auncient inhabitants were the Frisij Maiores of Ptolemy Of these 8 provinces South-Holland Vtrecht on the hither side of the Rhijn with Bommeler-Weert Maes-Wael and Betuwe in Gelderlandt appertaine vnto Gaule Belgick North-Hollandt Veluwe of Gelderlandt Zutphen Over-ysel West-Freislandt and Groningerlandt belong vnto Germany the midle chanell of the Rhijn aunciently parting those two mighty prouinces In bignes pleasure and goodnes of soile they are inferiour to those of the Princes but in trade populousnes wealth strength and number of shipping they much surpasse the other In a manner all their townes stand vpon the Ocean vpon great nauigable riuers creeks or inlets of the sea or amongst deepe vnpassable marishes waters wherby through their strength of shipping never being able sully to be besieged and victualls munition and men being hereby easily conueyed vnto them they are become invincible against the most potent enimies not easily to be mastered vnlesse by their disvnion and the dominion of the sea taken from them Their gouerment since that they shoake of the Spanish yoake hath beene vnder the particular states of each prouince a third part of Gelderlandt and Zutphen excepted where stand the townes of Ruremond Guelders Venlo Watchtendonc Strale and Grol remaining yet subiect to the Arch-dutchesse not vnited into any one entire body of common-wealth and but onely for their better defence confederate together in a more strict league whose delegates resident for the most part at the Hage in Hollandt are called the States Generall Their lawes are their severall municipall lawes customes and priuiledges together with the ciuill or Roman law Their religion which onely publikely is allowed is the reformed following or allowing the doctrine of Caluin Their language is the Dutch DENMARCK THE bounds hereof are vpon the South the river Eydore parting it from Holstein the kingdome of the Germans vpon the West the German Ocean vpon the East the Sea Balticke or the Ooster-sche and vpon the North the kingdomes of Norwey and Swethen It lyeth betwixt the 55 45 60 and 59 5 60 degrees of Northerne Latitude The length betwixt North and South is 265 Italian miles the breadth some 200 of the same miles The more ancient inhabitants were the Sigulones Subalingij Cobandi Chali Phundusij Charudes and Cimbri of Ptolemie and Tacitus inhabiting the necke of land named by Ptolemy from that more famous nation the Cimbrian Chersonese now the 2 Iutlandts the Teutoni of Mela inhabiting the Iland Codanonia now Zeland and the Sitones or Sueones of Tacitus for we cannot out of his description certainely distinguish whether inhabiting the parts hereof lying in the Continent of Scandia now Hallandt Schonen and Bleking These ancient names towards the waine of the Roman Empire worne out and extinguished we read in Beda of the Angli and Vitae inhabiting the Cimbrian Chersonese whereof these later possessed the more Northern parts the former after the same author were seated betwixt the Vitae and the Saxons From the Vitae the Cimbrian Chersonese now beareth the name of Iutlandt The name of the Angli is yet preserved here in the Dukedome of Scleswijck in the towne or name of Angelen In the raigne of the Emperour Valentinian the third these two nations remouing with the Saxons into the Iland of Great Brittaine not long after in the raignes of Theodoric French King of Austrasia and of Anastasius Emperour of the East we lastly finde here the Danes more certainely named thus as hath beene related from the bay Codanus whose Ilands and neighbouring Continent they inhabited Iornandes who liued in the raigne of the Emperour Iustinian the first placeth these in the Continent of Scanzia or Scandia Vnder their Prince Godfrey in the raigne of the Emperour Charles the Great we finde them enlarged Southwards vnto the river Eydore dividing from them the Saxons or Dutch as they remaine at this present From this nation the country hath since beene called Denmarck famous a long time for armes and their great and many victories atchieved abroad themselues never conquered by foraine power Lords sometimes of England and Swethen and at this day of the large kingdome of Norwey and of all the navigations and Ilands situated towards the Pole Arcticke and the North. The religion hereof which is publikely allowed is only the Protestant or Confession of Augspurg first converted to Christianity by S. Ansgarius Bishop of Bremen the generall Apostle of these Northerne parts in the raignes of king Eric the second and of Lewis the Godly Emperour of the West and reformed to the Orthodox tenent by the authority of king Fredericke the first The Ecclesiasticall affaires are directed by the Arch-bishop of Lunden and six other Bishops of Rotschilt Odensee Ripen Wiborch Arhusen and Sleswijck The state is monarchicall the eldest sonne most commonly succeeding vnto the father yet where the states doe chalenge a right of chusing None of the nobility exceede the dignitie of Knights conferred by the free grace of the Prince The titles of Dukes Marqueses Earles Vicounts and Barons are not heard of vnlesse amongst the issue royall The kingdome for the better distribution of iustice containeth 184 Prefectures or juridicall resorts which they call Herets It lyeth partly in the continent of Germany and partly in the maine land of Scandia and in the Ilands of the Sundt betwixt these containing fiue more generall parts or names of Iutlandt the Ilands of the Sundt Halland Schonen and Bleking IVTLANDT COntaining the neck of land in the continent of Germany called by Ptolemie the Cimbrian Chersonese It hath vpon the West and North the German Ocean vpon the East the Sundt and vpon the South the riuer Eydore parting it from Holstein and the German Empire It is diuided into the North and the South Iutlands South Iutland hath beene otherwise named the Dukedome of Iutlandt likewise the Dukedome of Sleswijck from the towne of Sleswijck about the yeare 1280 in the person of Waldemar severed from the kingdome by Eric to be