one we past however by many scattering Houses that had been very ill used in the time of the War and were become uninhabitable On the way to Louvain we see on the Left-hand at a distance from us and somewhat below us the City of Mechlin which is too considerable Mechlin a place not to be taken notice of in this Relation since it can be said we saw it as we did for a good part of our way tho' our intended Progress directed us from going to it This is one of the chief Cities of the Low-Countries or the Belgick Provinces and a very ancient one Tho' it is seated almost in the middle of Brabant yet it is reckon'd with a Compass about it subject to its Jurisdiction distinct from Brabant and to be one of these 17 Provinces It is said to be a very neat City it seem'd of a considerable bigness It is strongly fortify'd and surrounded with a very good Ditch It stands upon the River Dyle foremention'd and and Tide runs through the City and rises to a League above it There are reckon'd here 17 Colledges of Tradesmen who have right to sit in the Senate and to vote in matters deliberated The Supreme Power is exercised by 12 Schepins six of which are chosen from the Gentry and six from the Colledges of Tradesmen The Trade of Tanning has been very great in this City their Company was honour'd with Noble Priviledges among others with the Freedom of Hunting and Fowling Here was formerly a great Woollen Manufacture and then there were reckon'd at once 3200 Shops of Weavers in this City The Founders Trade was here considerable also and formerly there was a great Magazine of all things necessary for War At present the trifling Trade of making Lace employs many People here as well as in other Cities hereabout But tho' we in England have given the name of Mechlin-Lace to the best it is not here that better is made than in other places of this Country The City is favour'd with a very good Air and is very healthy In it were educated Philip the first King of Spain and his Son Charles who was afterwards Emperour under the Name of Charles V. Because in those times as it had been for some time before this City was the ordinary Seat of the House of Burgundy The Lady Margaret of Austria Aunt of Charles V. Emperor when he made her Governess of the Low Countries made this the place of her Residence and kept her Court here till she died which was in the Year 1530. The great Council Royal have their Seat here still which was instituted in the Year 1473. by Charles the last Duke of Burgundy who was kill'd before Nancy It consisted at first of 30 persons including the Prince but has been somewhat alter'd since these Countries became subject to the King of Spain This City is the Seat of an Archbishop who has a large Jurisdiction he who fills it at present calls himself Gulielmus Humbertus à Precipiana a Man of more Zeal than Wisdom and who has suffer'd himself to be drawn into ridiculous Extreams in opposition to the Phantom of Jansenism These Provinces formerly in Ecclesiastical Matters were under the Jurisdiction of Bishops who liv'd at a distance from them and who therefore took the less care of them and had the less Influence among them The Archbishop of Cologne had Authority in Nimeguen and the Jurisdiction belonging to it The Bishop of Utrecht had Authority in some other parts and was the only Bishop that had his Residence among them The Bishop of Liege had Authority in Roermonde and the Countrey about that and he with the Bishop of Combray divided the Province of Brabant The Bishop of Munster had some Authority in the Province of Zutphen This State of the Church here was thought an Advantage to the spreading of the Reformation among these People and therefore to prevent this the King of Spain resolved to establish several Bishops among them Accordingly in Conjunction with Pope Paul IV. he erected three Archbishopricks which were Cambray Utrecht and this Mechlin under these he set several Bishops For Brabant there was one at Antwerp and one at Hertogen-bosch For Guelderland there was a Bishop set at Roermonde For Flanders there were Bishops at Ghent and Ipres at which last place the first Bishop was the famous Gornelius Jansenius the Restorer of the Doctrine of St. Augustine in the Church of Rome tho' cruelly persecuted in his Memory since his Death and in his Friendâ— and Followèrs by the new Pelagians the Jesuits upon that Account For Holland there was a Bishop to have been at Haeâ—lem For Zeeland at Middleburg For Over-Yssel at Daventer Then also were Bishops establish'd at Groninguen Namur Tournay and Audomar for the Provinces and Country about them The Cathedral Church at Mechlin is dedicated to St. Rumbold whom the Legend makes to have been the Son of David King of Scots who by Prayers had obtain'd of Heaven this Son but could not keep him when he had him For when he was grown up nothing would serve him but to be a Priest he left his Father despising his Crown and Kingdom and was guided by an Angel into Ireland where he became Bishop of Dublin When his Father was dead it was now known where he was and the People attempted to take him by force and make him their King but he slipt through their Fingers and was again guided by an Angel to Rome From thence he came into Brabant preach'd the Gospel here and was the Apostle or Converter of these Countries He by his Prayers they say obtain'd a Son for Count Ado and when the Child was grown up and drown'd he brought him to Life again He was busie in building a great Church when some wicked Fellows kill'd him thinking he had by him a great Hoard of Money for the Work he was about They took what he had and threw his Body into the River But the Body discover'd it self there and shin'd in the Dark like rotten Pork found by the Glory that it cast it was taken up by Fishermen This tho' but a silly Story and not well agreeing with it self is yet a very modest one in comparison to a multitude of others which the Papists tell of the Lives and Miracles of their Saints who by the lying Wonders they have shamm'd upon the World have imitated and serv'd the Father of Lyes more than the God of Truth and by feign'd Stories of Saints and Miracles evidently false have discredited the true ones which the Church has really been furnish'd with so have they disparag'd and weakned by this means some of the great Confirmations of Christianity and promoted Atheism-and Infidelity in the Christian Church When we came near Louvain we pass'd by a large and magnificent Building which is a Augustine Nuns House of the Augustine Nuns they were now upon the Peace return'd to it again but liv'd in the City during the War because
Gardens can yield for the Service of a Family than this They have in the Seasons excellent good Flesh-Meats of all sorts The People are some of the most generous and sincere in their Dealings that one can easily meet with yet is this place so forsaken There are on the Ramparts several large Bastions planted with rows of tall Lime-trees which give a wholsome and pleasant Shade All the rest of the Ramparts are so planted round the City and in some parts they are so broad that they have two broad Walks run parallel upon them and both of them have on each side a Row of tall Trees which by mingling their Boughs at the top make a very pleasant Arbour which is strait and of a good length These Ramparts are rais'd so high that we have from them a good large Prospect over the adjoyning Countrey where one sees a very pleasant mixture of Corn-fields Villages Rows of Trees Gardens Meadows and Woods which lie in the Countrey about Indeed all the Countrey about looks like a Garden the Roads and waste Places are adorn'd with Rows of Trees and the near Husbandman dresses up his Corn-field just as if it were a Garden They make the Ridges very high and broad and form the Furrows at last when 't is plow'd and sown with a Spade so that the Ridges look like the Beds of a Garden The Compass of this City is reckon'd to be Extent about 4700 Paces and if the Plain which leads to the Cittadel be taken in with that also the whole Compass amounts to about 6000 Paces The Area of the whole City is about half of a Circle the Diameter of which is the River and the Wall the Circumference The largest Reach of it from side to side is along the River which is reckon'd to be beginning at the Slyck-Port on the North-side and ending at the Bridge which goes into the Cittadel on the South 1800 Paces It is reckon'd to have in it 220 Streets great and small some of them are very long and straight and broad the Mere is the broadest and is a very stately Street In the broadest part of it stands upon a large Pedestal a great Crucifix gilded all over to which one shall often see Devotions paid by those who pass by On the left side Burse of this is one of the Passages on to the Burse or Exchange which is near There are Four short Passages into it from other Streets which enter about the middle of the four sides of it the Area is almost square and seems as big as ours at London if not bigger It has a Piazza round it which is on the out-side supported with Marble Pillars these were curiously wrought but the Beauty of them is now much decay'd by Time and Weather The chief Trade of this City now seems to be in Lace the making of which employs some thousands of People In the time of its Prosperity was built at the Charge of the City their Magnificent Stadt-House which has a large and stately Town-house Front adorn'd with several Marble Pillars and Statues among which that of the Virgin Mary is Eminent and Conspicuous This Building shews it self upon a very spacious open place which they call The great Market near the Cathedral-Church There are several Canals which enter the City out of the River and rise and fall with the Tides the largest of these is towards the North-side of the City which is big enough to entertain a Hundred good Merchants Ships Near this stands a great Building call'd The Oosterling or Easterling-House it stands about a large Court round about it on the out-sides are several great Doors for the Entrances of Warehouses within the Court below are some Rooms for Habitation and above at the first Story there is an open Gallery which goes round the Court and lets in to the several large Lodging Rooms This House was built by Merchants of Denmark and the Hanse-Towns of Germany whose Factors dwelt here together and kept here their Stores of Goods and Effects This now begins to decay tho' there is a Family in it to look after it and the same Towns are still at the Charge to support it as if they were in hopes that a time might come to use it again as before The occasion of the great Alteration in this Decay City is said to be this In the beginning of the Reformation when many People were disturb'd for falling in with it in Germany and France and England they fled many of them hither thinking to live unobserv'd in such a great heap and concourse of People or to be quiet and safe by reason of the great Privileges which the City enjoy'd But these People recommended and spread their Opinions here and in the neighbouring places This was observ'd and would not be endur'd by the Government which was then under the Direction of a Prince very zealous for the Church of Rome Among other things done with a Design to prevent the spreading of the Reformation Philip King of Spain their Sovereign as Duke of Brabant publish'd an Edict about the Year 1565. importing That all Hereticks should be put to death without Remission That the Emperor's Edicts and the Council of Trent should be publish'd and observ'd and commanding that the utmost Assistance of the Civil Power should be given to the Inquistion This and other things which disgusted the Nobility of these Provinces were done by the Government and all Orders of this sort were rigorously executed by the Duke D' Alva which things put the whole Seventeen Provinces under the Spanish Dominion into a Commotion it came to a bloody Civil War and ended in the total Defection of the present United Provinces from Subjection to Spain In the times of these Troubles many Merchants went away with their Goods and Effects to places where they could be more safe and quiet many to be undisturb'd in their Religion went to Amsterdam and to London Queen Elizabeth being now come to the Throne and so the Fall of this City was a means of the Grandeur of those two It is said That an Account was taken in those times and it was found that at once within the space of a few days an hundred thousand Men had forsaken this and other Trading Cities of these Provinces with all that they could carry away with them to avoid the Rigours and Severities of the Government and the greater Hazards and Dangers of Losses and Mischief from the Confusion and License of the Civil Wars There is no publick Exercise or Profession of Religion permitted here but what is conform'd and subject to the Practice and Authority of the Church of Rome The Church of this Diocese is govern'd by Johannes Ferdinandus de Berghem who is the present Bishop of Antwerp and has his dwelling there He is a very grave and venerable Person exemplary in his Conversation and in great Reputation for his Charity and Zeal But in Conjunction with the Archbishop
great deal of Controversie which has run among the Divines of France and of the Lower Germany chiefly in which many bold Enquiries have been made into the Extent at least of the Pope's Infallibility and both that and his Supremacy have been very familiarly treated and shaken and have certainly suffer'd more from the Excesses of some who have set themselves extravagantly to advance them than from the others who would bring them nearer to Truth and Justice It would be too long a Digression here to give a particular Account of the state of this Controversie and therefore I shall lay it aside for the present Yet I shall not wholly pass over the People Jansenists call'd Jansenists who are said to be very numerous in all the Lower Germany they commonly go among the People under the name of the good Party and if some things be true of them which the Adverse faction in the Church of Rome lay to their Charge they deserve that name I shall take notice of some things laid to their charge by their Enemies and tho' this may be reckon'd very improper in most cases yet I reckon theirs will bear it because their Enemies say many good things of them and such as if they are not true one would wish they were and indeed they disparage themselves and truly recommend these People while they lay such things to their charge as faults and as matter of Accusation I take care in all the accounts I give of things in this relation to produce nothing but what is Authentick and therefore I shall derive my Account of these People chiefly from the Complaints which the Arch-Bishop of Mechlin has made of them in his Pastoral Letter dated October the 12th 1692. He therein lays to their charge that they opine and speak with too little respect of the Authority of the Pope of Rome that they despise the Church of their own Time and cry up the Ancient and Primitive state of Christianity That they are for correcting and rectifying the Ecclesiastical Discipline of the present Times That they set themselves against the Religious Families that is the several Orders of Monks those useless drones that live in ease and plenty upon specious cheats that they reproach and calumniate these good People and seek to suppress them They are blam'd by him for making it a solemn and serious matter to come to the Sacrament of the Lords Supper and for urgeing that People must come with minds purified from worldly and carnal affections and for insisting upon a true repentance and amendment of Lise as necessary to the obtaining Absolution And it is reckon'd a mighty fault that they obliquely strike at the Worship of the B. Virgin that they beat down the Esteem and Veneratiof Images that they ridicule the Peregrinations and Pilgrimages which are vow'd and made to them They are blam'd for that they condemn the Pioâ—s Assemblies and Fraternities which are erected in Honour of the Virgin Mary either in private Discourses or in books Printed without the Authors names Yea some he says are grown to that degree of Impudence that they despise as of no value the merits of Christ and the Saints as dispensed and communicated by the Pope of Rome who he says is the grand Treasurer of these things meaning hereby the cheat of Indulgences and that they condemn as superstitious and vain all that trust and confidence which the Christian People justly as he says place in them And those have been found he says Oh horrid Crime who have reflected upon the usual Sacrifices or Masses of Catholicks for the relief of the Dead as if the Priests that say them have more comfort and benefit from them than any Souls in Purgatory The consequence of these things he says is that the Common People do many of them forsake the customs of their Fathers grow fond of Novelties and many others hang in doubt and suspence what they should do That is whether they should reform in matters that need to be reform'd or go on still in all their old Superstitions and Idolatries Such divisions too there are among all sorts of People upon these matters that he fears a Schism he says and that at length some will shake off the bridle of Obedience and rend the seamless Coat of Christ in pieces Thus he does as his Fore-fathers were wont to do that is call a necessary Separation from a corrupt and wicked Communion Schism and by him too shall Reformation be adjudg'd Heresie but there is a God that sees and knows all things who will judge the World in righteousness at last and give to every thing its right Name and Character to whose righteous Judgment we appeal against the Haughty and unjust Accusations of Rome I have met with a further account of these Jansenists as spread within the Dominions of the States General of the United Provinces some particulars of which I thâ—â—k it worth while to produce because they do agree with what has been said of them already tho I cannot pretend it to be so Authentick as the former for it evidenâ—ly betrays it self to have been forg'd among the Jesuits whom honest People one never knows when to believe It speaks out fully the old spite of that Order against the University of Louvain and Mr. Anthony Arnauld the famous Doctor of the Sorbonne and their terrible Scourge It imputes Jansenism to the generality of the Secular Priests within the Dominion of the States General of the Vnited Provinces whom the Author represents to be in great numbers spread about and fixed in Parochial Cures in those Provinces These he makes to have been infected with this feign'd Heresie by vertue of their being bred in that wicked place the University of Louvain and partly by the influence which Mr. Arnauld aforesaid had for a long time in these Countries whom he will have to have liv'd at Delft during the time of his retirement which was for several Years to avoid the malice of these Fathers till he died And I may add that his Friends have as yet thought fit to conceal the place of his Burial left the dead body should feel the furious vengeance of the implacable Society of Jesus This Author imputes to these Jansenists in Holland that they hold and teach all the extremity of the Predestinarian Doctrine in all the enormity and absurdity of it but this one cannot justly believe of them as well because they constantly disown and reject all that as because the Calvinists of these Countries fall foul upon them on the other side and have treated them very rudely and ill because they will not explain the Points belonging to that Controversie just as they do That which I design especially to take notice of is the Noveltiesm practice which they are said to introduce among the Papists in these Countries There are 't is said many of these Priests who regard as null and invalid the Confessions made to any of the Religious Orders and
done in Honour of this Saint and to obtain his Intercession and the People are encourag'd by the Pope himself to attend these Devotions by a Plenary Indulgence Is this to be parallel'd then with our desiring our Friends on Earth to pray for us Has the Saint so little Charity and is he so backward to intercede that without all this ado he will not open his Mouth for them This is much that is to be done on this Occasion and yet is little to what is done to the Virgin Mary who has a great many Festivals in a Year and they attended with whole Octaves on which particular and extraordinary Devotions are paid to her The true meaning of all is plainly this Mankind has been always taught and have believ'd the necessity of a Mediator and that a Divine Person must be our Mediator and Divine Honours are due and may be paid to whomsoever is so since this appears in the whole Theology of the Heathens and is so agreeable to the Truths which are taught us in the Gospel we have reason to believe they deriv'd this Knowledge from the Fathers of the World by Tradition to whom it had been reveal'd by God himself But the Heathens having only Tradition to guide them corrupted this Doctrine by bringing in a Multitude of Mediators whereas the Gospel according to the truth of the matter teaches us that there is but one Mediator between God and Man and that is Christ Jesus This Corruption is reviv'd in the Church of Rome who has many Mediators and adores them all and pays them Divine Honours as the Heathens did More of this we shall see in the following Relation Over the high Altar in this Church of St. James in the Quire is a very costly large and beautiful piece of Architecture all of Marble The Pillars on the sides are some of them white Marble some black the white wreath'd theblack smooth and strait and they are intermix'd with curious Art the whole is certainly a Work very admirable Instead of a Picture for an Altar-piece there is an Image of St. James bigger than the common Size of Men which is of white Marble He is represented as looking upwards and pointing downwards to the People below Over his Head in the Arch of the Marble-work about him and towards which he directs his Face there is carv'd the impious and idolatrous Representation of the holy Trinity which is very common in the Churches of the Roman Communion There is Image of the Holy Trinity the Figure of an Old Man sitting in the Clouds with a Triple Crown on his Head and of a Young Man by him holding a Cross with one Hand and between them both is a Pidgeon hovering with his Wings spread and Rays about him I do not doubt but it is lawful to represent the humane Body of Jesus Christ our blessed Saviour in any of the Circumstances of his Life or Death on Earth either by Pictures or by Images But certainly as it is the Glory of the Divine Nature to be invisible in it self so it ought not to be represented by any visible thing God himself adds an express Prohibition of making any visible Representation of himself as an Explication of the second Commandment And the Apostle Paul judges it an impious profanation to do so and calls it a Changing the Glory of the invisible God into the meanness of that thing which the Image made to represent him does more truly represent He says therefore of the Heathens Rom. 1. that while they made the Images of of Men or Birds c. to represent the Deity by they chang'd the Glory of God into an Image made like to corruptible Man and to Birds c. What does the practice of the Church of Rome in this case differ from theirs 'T is true the Gospel tells us when Jesus was baptized and came out of the Water the Spirit of God did with a visible Representation descend upon him whereby the Man Jesus became the Christ of God A visible Glory descended like the hovering of a Dove and lighted upon him to be a sensible Token and Demonstration to the Spectators that he was anointed by the Holy Ghost and was to be reckon'd by them the true Messiah or Christ But this does not at all allow or conclude for the representing the holy infinite Spirit himself by a Pidgeon The Shechinah or Pillar of a Glory in the Wilderness was a Token of God's special presence among the people of Israel there but was not a fit Representation of the infinitely glorious God himself nor was it design'd to be so but only for a sensible Token and Assurance of a peculiar divine presence The Church of Rome when press'd with things of this Nature endeavours to evade the Argument by blaming the Liberty of Carvers and Painters but there is no room at all to do it in this case For this is a thing done by publick Allowance and encourag'd by the Authority of the Church as we shall be convinc'd in the Sequel of this Relation At present I shall add to this purpose what is further to be observ'd in this same Church In the passage round the Quire on the outside where are several very neat Chapels to particular Saints enclos'd with partitions of Marble Pillars or Rails there is set up against the Wall in a Frame a printed Representation of the holy Trinity contriv'd after the same manner with the former and under it there is printed in Dutch this Grant Whosoever shall say here Five Pater Nosters and Five Ave-Marys shall enjoy Forty Days Indulgence this granted by the Bishop of Antwerp The Quire is part of it compass'd with beautiful Marble-pillars there is a great deal of good Painting and abundance of Marble about the whole Church In this Church by the entrance of the North Door on the Left-hand is a large Chappel which they call The Chappel of the Dead The Altar-piece represents our Saviour as dead and taking down from the Cross and lying in the Lap of the Virgin Mary who sits in a very sorrowful posture contemplating upon the matter On the out-side of the partition upon a pillar there hangs in a Frame written in Dutch a new Grant in Favour of this Chapel It signifies That all those of the Brotherhood of the Dead who shall come to hear Mass in this Chapel and any Priest that shall say Mass here on all Mondays of the Year and on every All-Souls Day or any of the Days of the Octave the privilege of Redeeming one Soul out of Purgatory And this is said to be granted by Innocent XII the present Pope out of the Treasury of the Church and is to continue in force for Seven Years They may perhaps by that time get Money enough to renew and continue the Lease The Fraternity or Brotherhood of the Dead are a company of people that write their Names in a Book whereby they are admitted into the Society this is commonly
Man do hereby apply or tie to himself the Merits of St. Francis and his Order And is it not plain they reckon this addition at least very useful and so rely upon the Merits of this pretended Saint as well as upon those of Christ and give him a part in this Honour of a Mediator But to crown all let us observe the Prayer and Protestation which they must use at the entring themselves into this Brotherhood which is as follows I N. N. take for my particular Mediation with Almighty God the most Holy Maid and Mother of God Mary the H. Father Franciscus with all the Saints of his Order the which I shall never forsake and against the Honour of whom I shall never do any thing nor will I suffer that any under my Authority shall by my consent or connivance do any such thing In all things I resign my self to the Obedience of the Holy Roman Church I beseech you then O most H. Maid and Mother Mary and you O Holy Father Francis with your holy Company that you will be pleased to receive me for your Servant and stand by me in all my Works and Necessities that I may follow your good Examples and through a saving Death may be partaker with you of everlasting Glory And will not this solemn Protestation and Prayer allow'd in the Church of Rome and encourag'd by Popes and Indulgencies go for an Address to the Saints for their immediate help when the B. Virgin and Francis are desir'd to stand by them Is it only the Spirit of Charity that makes them devote themselves thus to these persons in postures and forms of Worship and to say to them Receive me for your Servant And when in this Form there is no mention at all of the Mediation of Jesus Christ but a choice is made of others by Name for this purpose and a Protestation solemnly pronounced of relying and trusting to their Mediation may we not suspect that of our Saviour is forgotten for the present However do they not herein advance these Saints to the Honour of Mediators together with him at least when they sometimes betake themselves to their Mediation without Him If one would interpret this practice to the worst Sence it can bear it might be said they herein preferr these Saints before our most Blessed Saviour and chuse these for their peculiar and chief Mediators or instead of Jesus Christ But I would wrong no body and would exercise Charity to all men therefore I would not impute this to them These good Fathers the Brethren and Followerâ— of the pretended St. Francis are as hath been said great sticklers for the immaculate Conception of the B. Virgin They will have it that she was born without Original Sin or Pollution but others of the Church of Rome are positive against this We shall have occasion to speak of this Controversie hereafter At present I shall observe that altho' the Controversie cannot be decided or ended by the Infallible Judge at Rome yet a solemn Festival is appointed to be observ'd in Commemoration of it which is celebrated with many tasks of Devotion through a whole Octave I shall give the Reader an Account of this as it was published by these good Fathers in the Year 1696. Plenary Indulgence With Prayers of 40 Hours at the Minor Brothers upon the Feast-day of the Immaculate Conception of the most pure Maid and Mother of God Mary On Friday upon the Eve of the Feast-day shall the solemn Vespers be perform'd at 3 a Clock after that shall follow the Complin with the Laud Aster that shall be sung the Mattins concluding the same with the Benediction of the Venerable Sacrament of the Altar In the ensuing Night shall begin the Prayer of 40 Hours Saturday following being the Eighth of December shall be solemnly celebrated in the Church of the minor Brothers the Feast-day of the Immaculate Conception of the most pure Virgin and Mother of God Maria chosen Patroness of the Seraphick Order of the Holy Father Francis Upon which Day a Plenary Indulgence shall be obtain'd by all Faithful Christians who having confess'd and receiv'd the Communion shall visit the said Church and there pray for the Advancement of our Mother the Holy Church the Extirpation of Heresies and the Uniting of Christian Princes On the Feast day in the Morning shall be sung the solemn High Mass in Musick by the Reverend Abbot of St. Michael Superiour of the Norbertines After-noon at 3 a Clock shall be solemnly sung the Vespers with the Complin Then the Reverend Ordinary Preacher of the aforesaid Abby shall preach After which will be the Lauds And the Feast-day shall be concluded with the Benediction of the Venerable and most Holy Sacrament of the Altar Upon the Sunday following and during the Prayer of the 40 Hours there is a Plenary Indulgence to be obtain'd On this Day the High Mass shall be sung at Ten a Clock After Noon at two a Clock shall the Vespers be sung which shall be follow'd with a Sermon and this with the Complin and Laud and the Prayer of 40 Hours shall be concluded with the Benediction of the Venerable and Holy Sacrament of the Altar On Monday and the following days of the Octave at 7 a Clock in the Morning the high Mass shall be sung in the middle of the Church with the exposing of the Venerable Afternoon at 4 a Clock shall be Vespers After which on every Day there shall be an Exhortation perform'd by several Preachers of the Order of the minor Brothers After the Exhortation the Hymn of the Immaculate Conception shall be sung and that shall be follow'd with the Benediction of the Venerable and Holy Sacrament of the Altar All this is done in pretence to praise God and honour the B. Virgin for that which is undoubtedly false and which the Church of Rome it self cannot agree to be true The Carmelites call'd Onse lieve Vrouw Broeders Carmes the Brothers of the V. Mary that is the Brothers of our Lady by whom they mean no less person than the Virgin Mary have also a large and lofty Church and a good large House They are a great Company go with bare Legs but with Sandals on their Feet too and look well They are belonging to them among other Wheedles to draw Trade and Custom the Fraternity of the Scapulary or Shoulder-cloathing a part of their Habit which Scapulary they say was given to the blessed Simon Stock a Saint of their Order by the Virgin Mary her self And there are large Indulgences granted to this Fraternity in the Chappels of this Order Something more particularly of this matter will come in when we are at Aix la Chappelle where we shall meet with the Festival that commemorates this great thing But the Jesuites envious at the esteem which they have among the People and at the Trade they draw set themselves to disparage or call in question this and some other pretences upon which they
Archbiship of Colen Elector and Archchancellor of the Empire in Italy to the end that there may be between us and our well-beloved the Burgesses and the City of Colen a friendly Confederacy an entire Confidence and sincere Peace and that it may continue inviolate do make it known by these present Letters that we have promised and assured and do promise and assure in good Faith without any Fraud that we confirm all the Rights and Franchises written and not written old and new within and without the City of Colen which were granted it by the Popes Emperors Kings or Archbiships of Colen without ever endeavouring to contradict them In Testimony whereof we have put the Seal of our Arms to these Presents c. In all this here appears no Engagement of Subjection on one side or Pretence to Authority on the other and the thing looks more like an Agreement between Allies than an Acknowledgment or accepting of Sovereignty It is evident the Archbiship is not to be accounted the Supream Governour or Sovereign of this City but the Sovereign Power is properly lodg'd in the Senate and to them the People make no such conditional Promise of Subjection Indeed it were absurd and unreasonable that any such should be implied or exprest in the Peoples Acknowledgment of the Sovereign For this Fancy in the Heads of the People that they are no longer bound to be subject than while the Power rules them well and preserves all their Rights and Properties gives them the Pride of Censuring the Actions of their Rulers and they will condemn and dislike for the most part and certainly and always whatever they do not understand and there is no wise Government but will do and order many things which the People must not understand till they have their Effects that the Good they design by them may not be prevented This Fancy makes them very apt to be jealous and suspicious of the Designs of their Governours Besides there is no State which is destitute of ill Men some of whom will have Designs of Revenge and Mischief upon others some will have Designs of Covetousness and Ambition and all such for the sake of accomplishing those Designs will be fond of having themselves a share in the Government and to that purpose they will be continually allarming the People with Fears and Jealousies misinterpeting the Actions and Designs of the Governours and representing they do infringe their Rights or tend to get Power to do it and then they form a Faction which by Degrees may grow strong enough for Sedition and Rebellion Thus the Supream Power becomes first too weak to govern and to give the People the Felicity of a good Government and when they design well things shall through the Perversness of the People succeed ill and be imputed to ill Designs and the Good which they do not because they cannot shall be thought neglected because they would not do it Then the People grow mad enough to venture the dangerous Experiment of changing Governours or Forms of Government and then these ill Men gain their own Ends. They are accounted mighty Patriots and Friends of the People for bringing them into Confusion and Disorder and shall be thought the fittest to govern who were the proudest and most unwilling to be govern'd and the just Judgment of God often leaves the infatuated People to be plagued by the Tyranny of their new Governours for their Injustice to their old ones and brings upon them what they unreasonably fear'd by the ill Means which they used to prevent it The City of Colen indeed being upon such Terms as they are with the Archbishops must be justified in their Defences of their ancient Privileges against them Several Archbishops have strugled hard to gain the Sovereignty of this City but the City has hitherto steadily maintain'd their Freedom from that One Archbishop in the Year 1297 thought to make them submit to him by Force and gather'd an Army and was marching towards them for that Purpose The Citizens knowing this put themselves in Arms and met him They laid the Keys of their City in the Field as the Price of the Victory and then bravely fought for the Right to keep them still themselves The Providence of God favour'd their just Endeavour and they utterly defeated the Bishop's Forces and his Design together They return'd with Joy and Triumph to the City and celebrate the Memory of this important Victory still upon the Day on which they gain'd it The Archbishop since he may not reside at Colen has his Residence at Bonne This was formerly call'd Ara Ubiorum and Julia Bonna It is a very ancient City situate upon the Rhine about Four Leagues above Colen 't is encompass'd they say with a good Fortification We were bound now to be returning Homewards so we could not go thither Maternus Bishop of Colen was at the Synod Bishops of Arles held in the Year 314 against the troublesome Schismaticks and Puritans of Africa the Donatists and he is the first that I can find mention'd here This was at first but a Bishoprick and was Suffragan to the Archbishop of Treves In the Eighth Century St. Boniface then Archbishop of Mentz and the first that was so supported by the Authority of Carloman and Pepin the Short obtain'd the transforming Colen into an Archbishoprick in Favour of Agilulf whom he got promoted to it because he had been his Companion and Assistant in preaching the Christian Religion to these Parts of Germany The Prince Joseph Clement younger Brother of the present Electour of Bavaria and Governour of the Spanish Netherlands is the present Archbishop of Colen He was chosen in the Year 1688. The Chapter of Colen is very Noble it Chapter consists in all of Sixty Chanoines It does not admit a meer Gentleman or Baron to be a Member but requires that they be â—rinces or at least Counts The Twenty four of the most ancient Chanoines are those who have the Voices active and passive as they call it in the chusing of a Bishop that is they may chuse or be chosen such The Country call'd the Bishoprick of Colen Bishoprick and Estatâ—s of the A â—bbisâ—op is a Part of Germany included within the Circle of the Four Electours on the Rhine which are Mentz Triers Colen and the Electour Palatine It is bounded on the East with the Dutchy of Westphalia on the North by the Bishoprick of Munster on the West by the Dutchy of Juliers on the South by the Archbishoprick of Treves The River Rhine runs through it but the Estates subject to the Prince and Archbishop of Colen have yet a farther Extent and comprehend besides that which is call'd the Bishoprick the Dutchies of Westphalia and Angria and the County of Arensberg From all together the Prince is said to receive a Revenue of an Hundred and twenty thousand Crowns per Annum and is able to bring into the Field an Army of Twenty five thousand Horse