as it was among the Florentines who though they value themselves as a size of Men much above the Venetians whom they despise as a phlegmatick and dull race of People yet shewed how little they understood with all their vivacity to conduct their state since by their domestick heats they lost their liberty which the Venetians have had the wisdom still to preserve This Faction of the Case Ducale was perhaps willing to let the matter fall for they lost more than they got by it for the ancient Families in revenge set themselves against them and excluded them from all the other advantagious imployments of the State For the others being only united in that single point relating to the Dukedom the ancient Families let them carry it but in all other Competitions they set up always such Competitors against the pretenders that were of the Ducal Families that were much more esteemed than these were so that they shut them out of all the best Offices of the Republick Such a Faction as this was â—f it had been still kept up might in conclusion have proved fatal to their Liberty It is indeed a wonder to see the Dignity of the Duke so much courted for hâ— is only a prisoner of state tied up to such rules so severely râ—strained and shut up as it were in an apartment of the Palace of St. Mark that it is not strange to see some of the greatest Families in particular the Cornara's decline it All the Family if ever so numerous must retire oâ—t of the Senate when a Duke is chosen out of it only one that is next to him of kin sits still but without a Vote And the only real Priviledge that the Duke hath is that he can of himself without communicating with the Savii propose matters either to the Council of Ten to the Senate or to the Great Council whereas all other propositions must be first offered to the Savii and examined by them who have a soâ—t of Tribunitian power to reject what they dâ—slike and though they cannot hinder the Duke to make a proposition yet they can mortifie him when he hath made it They can hâ—â—der it to be voted and after it is voted they can suspend the execution of it till it is examined over again And a Duke that is of an active Spirit must resolve to endure many of these afflictions and it is certain that the Savii do sometimes affect to shew the greatness of their Authority and exercise a sort of Tyranny in the rejecting of Proâ—ositions when they intend to humble those that make them Yet the greatest part of the best Families court this Honour of Dukedom extreamly when Segrado was upon the point of being chosen Duke there was so violent an outcry against it over all Venice because of the disgrace that they thought would come on the Republick if they had a Prince whose Note had miscarried in some unfortunate disorders the Senate complyed so far with this Aversion that the People testified That though the Inquisitors took care to hang or drown many of the chief of the Mutineers yet they let the design for Sagredo fall Upon which he was so much disgusted that he retired to a house he had in the Terra firma and never appeared more at Venice During which time of his retirement he writ two Books the one Memorie Ottomaniche which is Printed and he is accounted the best of all the Modern Authors The other was Memoirâ—s of the Government and History of Venice which hath never been Printed and some say it is too sincere and too particular so that it is thought it will be reserved among their Archives It hath been a sort of maxim now for some time not to chuse a married Man to be Duke for the Coronation of a Dutchess goes high and hath cost above Hundred thousand Ducats Some of the ancient Families have affected the Title of Prince and have called their branches Princes of the Blood and though the Cornara's have done this more than any other yet others upon the account of some Principalities that their Ancestors had in the Islands of the Archipelago have also affected those vain Titles But the Inquisitors have long ago obliged them to lay aside all those high Titles and such of them that boast too much of their Blood find the dislike which that brings on them very sensibly for whensoever they pretend to any great Employments they find themselves always excluded When an Election of Ambassadors was proposed or of any of the chief Offices it was wont to be made in those terms that the Council must chuse one of its principal Members for such an Employment But because this lookt like a term of distinction among the Nobility they changed it Five and twenty Years ago and instead of Principal they use now the term Honourable which comprehends the whole body of the Nobility without any distinction It is at Venice in the Church as well as in the State that the Head of the Body hath a great Title and particular Honours done him whereas in the mean while this is a meer Pageantry and under these big words there is lodged only a light shadow of Authority for their Bishop has the glorious Title of Patriark as well as the Duke is called their Prince and his serenity and hath his name stampt upon their Coin so the Patriark with all his high Title hath really no Authority For not only St. Mark 's Church is intirely exempted from his jurisdiction and is immediately subject to the Duke but his Authority is in all other things so subject to the Senate and so regulated by them that he hath no more power than they are pleased to allow him So that the Senate is as really the supream Governor over all Persons and in all Causes as the Kings of England have pretended to be in their own Dominions since the Rrformation But besides all this the Clergy of Venice have a very extraordinary sort of exemption and are a sort of a Body like a Presbytery independent of the Bishop The Curats are chosen by the Inhabitants of every Parish and this makes that no Noble Venetian is suffered to pretend to any Curacy for they think it below that Dignity to suffer one of their Body to engage in a Competition with one of a lower Order and to run the hazard of being rejected I was told the manner of those Elections was the most scandalous thing possible for the several Candidates appear on the day of election and set out their own merits and defame the other pretenders in the foulest language and in the most scurrilous manner imaginable the secrets of all their lives are publisht in most reproachful terms and nothing is so abject and ridiculous that is not put in practice on those occasions There is a sort of an Association among the Curats for judging of their common concerns and some of the Laity of the several Parishes assist in those
chain of so many of them together and their extent both in length and breadth if at first he thinks of the old Fables of laying one Hill upon the top of another he will be afterwards apt to imagine according to the ingenious Conjecture of one that travelled over them oftner than once that these cannot be the primary Productions of the Author of Nature but are the vast ruines of the first World which at the Deluge broke here into so many Inequalities One Hill not far from Geneva called Maudit or Cursed of which one Third is always covered with Snow is two miles of perpendicular height according to the Observation of that incomparable Mathematician and Philosopher Nicolas Fatio Duilier who at Twenty two Years of Age is already one of the greatest men of his Age and seems to be born to carry Learning some sizes beyond what it has yet attain'd But now I will entertain you a little with the State of Bern for that Canton alone is above a third part of all Switzerland I will say nothing of its Beginnings nor History nor will I enlarge upon the Constitutions which are all well known It has a Counsel of Two hundred that goes by that Name tho' it consists almost of Three hundred and another of Twenty five as Geneva The chief Magistrates are two Advoyers who are not annual as the Sindicks of Geneva but are for life and have an Authority not unlike that of the Roman Consuls each being his Year by turns the Advoyer in Office After them there are the four Bannerets who answer to the Tribunes of the People in Rome then come the two Bursars or Treasurers one for the ancient German Territory the other for the French Territory or the Country of Vaud and the two last chosen of the Twenty five are called the Secrets for to them all Secrets relating to the State are discovered and they have an Authority of calling the Two hundred together when they think fit and of accusing those of the Magistracy the Advoyers themselves not excepted as they see cause tho' this falls out seldom There are seventy two Bailiages into which the whole Canton of Bern is divided and in every one of those there is a Bailiff named by the Council of Two hundred who must be a Citizen of Bern and one of the Two hundred to which Council no man can be chosen till he is married These Bailiages are Imployments both of Honour and Profit for the Bailiff is the Governour and Judge in that Jurisdiction since tho' he has some Assessors who are chosen out of the Bailiage yet he may by his Authority carry matters which way he will against all their Opinions and the Bailiffs have all the Confiscations and Fines so that Drinking being so common in the Country and that producing many Quarrels the Bailiff makes his advantage of all those disorders and in the six years of his Government according to the quality of his Bailiage he not only lives by it but will carry perhaps twenty thousand Crowns with him back to Bern on which he lives till he can carry another Bailiage for one is capable of being twice Bailiff but tho' some have been thrice Bailiffs this is very extraordinary The Exactions of the Bailiff are the only Impositions or Charges to which the Inhabitants are subjected and these falling only on the Irregularities and Disorders of the more debauched makes that this Grievance tho' in some particulas Cases it presses hard yet is not so universally felt for a sober and regular man is in no danger Many in this Canton are as in England Lords of Castles and Mannors and have a Jurisdiction annexed to their Estates and name their Magistrate who is called the Castellan In matters of small consequence there lies no Appeal from him to the Bailiff but beyond the value of two Pistols an Appeal lies and no Sentence of Death is executed till it is confirmed at Bern. There lies also an Appeal from the Bailiff to the Council at Bern. There are many Complaints of the injustice of the Bailiffs but their Law is short and clear so that a Sute is soon ended two or three Hearings is the most that even an intricate Sute amounts to either in the first Instance before the Bailiff or in the second Judgment at Bern. The Citizens of Bern consider these Bailiages as their Inheritance and they are courted in this State perhaps with as much Intrigue as was ever used among the Romans in the distribution of their Provinces and so little signifie the best Regulations when there are intrinsick Diseases in a State that though there is all possible Precaution used in the Nomination of these Bailiffs yet that has not preserved this State from falling under so great a mischief by those little Provinces that as it has already in a great measure corrupted their Morals so it may likely turn in Conclusion to the Ruine of this Republick All the Electors give their Voices by Ballot so that they are free from all after-Game in the Nomination of the Person All the Kindred of the Pretenders even to the remotest degrees are excluded from Voting as are also all their Creditors so that none can vote but those who seem to have no interest in the Issue of the Competition and yet there is so much Intrigue and so great Corruption in the distribution of these Imployments That the whole Business in which all Bern is ever in motion is the catching of the best Bailiages on which a Family will have its Eye for many Years before they fall For the Counsellors of Bern give a very small share of their Estates to their Children when they marry them all that they purpose is to make a Bailiage sure to them for this they feast and drink and spare nothing by which they may make sure a sufficient number of Votes but it is the Chamber of the Bannerets that admits the Pretenders to the Competition When the Bailiff is chosen he takes all possible methods to make the best of it he can and lets few Crimes pass that carry either Confiscations or Fines after them his Justice also is generally suspected It is true those of the Bailiage may complain to the Council at Bern as the oppressed Provinces did anciently to the Senate of Rome and there have been severe Judgments against some more exorbitant Bailiffs yet as Complaints are not made except upon great Occasions which are not often given by the Bailiffs so it being the general Interest of the Citizens of Bern to make all possible Advantages of those Imployments the Censure will be but gentle except the Complaint is crying In Bern there is very little Trade only what is necessary for the support of the Towns They maintain Professors in the Universities of Bern and Lausanne the one for the German Territory which is the ancient Canton and the other for the new Conquest which is the French In the former there are about
of the Goths and Vandals as some fled to the Venetian Islands out of which arose that famous Common-Wealth so others came and sheltred themselves in those Valleys They told me of an ancient Inscription lately found of a Stone where on the one side is graven Omitto Rhetos Indomitos and ne plus Vltra is on the other which they pretend was made by Julius Caesar the Stone on which this Inscription is is upon one of their Mountains but I did not pass that way so I can make no judgment concerning it After the first forming of this People they were cast into little States according to the different Valleys which they inhabited and in which Justice was administred and so they fell under the power of some little Princes that became severe Masters but when they saw the Example that the Switzers had set them in shaking off the Austrinn Yoke above two hundred years ago they likewise combinâ—d to shake off theirs only some few of those small Princes used their Authority better and concurred with the People in shaking off the yoke and so they are still parts of the body only Haldenstein is an absolute Soveranity it is about two miles from Coire to the West on the other side of the Rhine the whole Territory is about half a mile long at the foot of the Alps where there is scarce any breadth The Authority of these Barons was formerly more absolute than it is now for the Subjects were their Slaves but to keep together the little Village they have granted them a power of naming a list for their Magistrates the person being to be named by the Baron who hath also the Right of Pardoning a Right of Coining and every thing also that belongs to a Soveraign I saw thss little Prince in Coire in an Equipage not suitable to his quality for he was in all points like a very ordinary Gentleman There are Three other Baronies that are members of the Diet and subject to it the chief belonged to the Arch-Dukes of Inspruck the other two belong to Mr. Schovenstein and Mr. de Mâ—nt they are the Heads of those Communities of which their Baronies are composed they name the Magistrates out of the lists that are presented to them by their Subjects and they have the Right of Pardoning and of Confiscations That belonging to the House of Austria is the biggest it hath five voices in the Diet and it can raise Twelve hundred Men. One Travers bought it of the Emperour in the year 1679. he entred upon the Rights of the ancient Barons which are specified in an Agreement that past between him and his Peasants and was confirmed by the Emperour Travers made many incroachments upon the Priviledges of his Subjects who upon that made their complaints to the league but Travers would have the matter judged at Inspruck and the Emperour supported him in this pretension and sent an Agent to the Diet I was present when he had his Audience in whiah there was nothing but general Complemenâ—s But the Diet stood firm to their Constitution and asserted that the Emperour had no Authority to judge in that matter which belonged only to them so Travers was forced to let his Pretensions fall All the other parts of this State are purely Democratical there are Three different Bodies or Leagues and every one of these are an intire Government and the Assembly or Diet of the Three Leagues is only a Confederacy like the United Provinces or the Cantons There are Sixty-seven Voices in the general Diet which are thus divided the league of the Grisons hath twenty-eight Voices that of the House of God hath twenty four and that of the Jurisdictions hath fifteen The Jurisdictions belonged anciently to the House of Austria but they having shaken off that Authority were incorporated into the Diet but in the last Wars of Germany the Austrians thought to have brought them again under their yoke yet they defended their Liberty with so much vigour that the Austrians it seems thought the Conquest not worth the while and that it would not quit the cost They were affrighted by two extraordinary actions in one Village which was quite abandoned by all the Men belonging to it who left the Women in it some hundreds as I was told were quartered and were apprehensive of no danger from their Hostesses but the Women intended to let their Husbands see that they were capable of contriving and executing a bold design tho' it must be confest it was a little too rough and barbarous for the Sex They entred into a Combination to cut the Throats of all the Souldiers at one time the Woman that proposed this had four lodged with her and she with her own hands dispatcht them all and so did all the rest not one Souldier escaping to carry away the News of so unheard of a Rage In another place a Body of the Austrians came into a Valley that was quite abandoned for the Men that had no Arms but their Clubs and Staves got up to the Mountains but they took their measures so well and possessed themselves so of the Passes that they came down upon the Souldiers with so much fury that they defeated them quite so that very few escaped and it is certain that the subduing them would have proved a very hard work It is true they are not in a condition to hold out long the publick is so poor so that tho' particular persons are extream rich yet they have no publick Revenue but every man is concerned to preserve his Liberty which is more intire here than in Switzerland but this often swells too much and throws them into great convulsion The league of the Grisons is the first and most ancient and it is composed of eight and twenty Communities of which there are eighteen Papists and the rest are Protestants the Communities of the two Religions live Neighbourly together yet they do not suffer those of another Religion to live among them so that every Community is intirely of the same Religion and if any one changes he must go into another Community Each Community is an intire State within it self and all Persons must meet once a year to chuse the Judge and his Assistants whom they change or continne from year to year as they see cause There is no difference made between Gentleman and Peasant and the Tenant hath a Vote as well as his Landlord nor dare his Landlord use him ill when he Votes contrary to his Intentions for the Peasants would â—ook upon that as a common Quarrel An Appeal lies from the Judge of the Community to the Assembly of the Leagâ—e where all matters end for there lies no Appeal to the general Diet of the three Leagues except in matters that concern the conquered Countries which belong in common to all the three There is one chosen by the Deputies for the Assembly of the League who is called the head of the League that can call them together
the People so it was proposed to make a difference between the Nobility and the other Subjects and since all Trials before the Forty were publick and the Trials before the Ten were in secret it seemed fit to remit the Nobility to be tried by the Ten Some foresaw that this would tend to a Tyranny and raise the Dignity of the ancient Families of whom the Council of Ten is always composed too high Therefore they opposed it upon this ground That since the Council of Forty sent out many Orders to the Governors it would very much lessen their Authority if they were not to be the Judges of those who obliged to receive their Orders But to qualify this Opposition a Proviso was made that reserved to the Council of Forty a power to Judge of the Obedience that was given to their Orders but all other Accusations of the Nobility were remitted to the Council of Ten and the body of the Nobility were so pleased with this Distinction that was put between them and the other Subjects that they did not see that this did really enslave them so much the more and brought them under more danger since those who judge in secret have a freer scope to their passions than those whose proceedings are publick and so are in effect judged by the Publick which is often a very effectual restraint upon the Judges themselves But the Council of Ten being generally in the hands of the great Families Whereas those of all sorts are of the Council of Forty which was the chief Judicatory of the State and is much Ancienter than that of Ten It had been much more wisely done of them to have been still Judged by the Forty And if they had thought it for their Honour to have a difference made in the way of judging the Nobility and the other Subjects it had been more for their security to have brought their Trials to this That whereas the Forty Judge all other offenders with open doors the Nobility should be judged the doors being shut which is a thing they very much desire now but without any hope of ever obtaining it For this power of Judging the Nobility is now considered as Right of the Ten and if any Man would go about to change it the Inquisitors would be perhaps very quick with him as a mover of Sedition and be in that case both Judge and Party Yet the Inquisitors being apprehensive of the distast that this might breed in the body of the Nobility have made a sort of regulation though it doth not amount to much which is that the Nobility shall be Judged before the Council of Ten for atrocious cases such as matter of State the robbing the Publick and other enormous Crimes but that for all other matters they are to be Judged by the Forty yet the Council of Ten draws all cases before them and none dare dispute with them But this leads me to say a little to you of that part of this Constitution which is so much censured by strangers but is really both the greatest glory and the chief security of this Republick which is the unlimited power of Inquisitors that extends not only to the chief of the Nobility but to the Duke himself who is so subject to them that they may not only give him severe reprimands but search his Papers make his Process and in conclusion put him to death without being bound to give an account of their Proceedings except to the Council of Ten. This is the dread not only of all the Subjects but of the whole Nobility and of all that bear Office in the Republick and makes the greatest among them tremble and so obligeth them to an exact conduct But though it is not to be denied that upon some occasions they may have been a little too sudden particularly in the known story of Foscarini yet such unjustifiable severities have occurred so seldom that as the wisdom of this Body in making and preserving such an Institution cannot be enough admired so the dextrous conduct of those who mannage this vast trust so as not to force the Body to take it out of their hands is likewise highly to be wondered at In short the insolence the factions the revenges the necessities and ambition that must needs possess a great many Members of so vast a Body as is the Nobility of Venice must have thrown them often into many fatal Convulsions if it were not for the dread in which they all stand of this Court which hath so many spies abroad chiefly among the Gondaliers who cannot fail to discover all the secret Commerce of Venice besides the secret advices that are thrown in at so many of those Lyons mouths that are in several places of St. Mark 's Palace within which there are boxes that are under the Keys of the Inquisitors so that it is scarce possible for a Man to be long in any design against the State and not to be discovered by them And when they find any in fault they are so inexorable and so quick as well as severe in their Justice that the very fear of this is so effectual a restraint that perhaps the long preservation of Venice and of its Liberty is owing to this single piece of their constitution and the Inquisitors are Persons generally so distinguished for their merit who must be all of different Families and their Authority lasts so short a while that the advantages of this vast Authority that is lodged with them are constant and visible whereas the unhappy instances of their being imposed on anâ— carrying their suspicions too far are so few that wheâ— ever the Nobility grows weary of his yoke and throw it off one may reckon the Glory and Prosperity of Venice at an end It was terribly attackt not long ago by Cornaro when Jerom Cornaro was put to death for his correspondence with Spain he was not near a kin to the great Family of that name yet the Family thought their Honour was so much toucht when one of its remotest branches was condemned of Treason that they offered a Hundred thousand Crowns to have saved him and by consequence to have preserved the Family from that Infamy but though this was not accepted for he suffered as he well deserved yet it was so visible that none of the Family were concerned in his Crimes that it did not at all turn to their prejudice But upon the first occasion that offered it self after that to quarrel with the proceeding of the Inquisitors they laid hold on it and aggravated the matter extreamly and moved for the limiting of their Authority but the Great Council was wiser than to touch so sacred a part of the Government so they retained their power very entire but they manage it with all possible caution A Forreigner that hath been many years in their Service told me that the Stories with which strangers were frighted at the Arbitrary power that was rested in those Inquisitors were slight things
four of Huss's Letters that he writ to the Bohemians the day before his death which are very devout but excessively simple The Manuscripts of this Library are far more numerous than those of Bern which were gathered by Bongarsius and left by him to the publick Library there They are indeed very little considered there and are the worst kept that ever I saw But it is a Noble collection of all the ancient Latine Authors they have some few of the best of the Roman times writ in great Characters and there are many that are seven or eight hundred years old There is in Basile one of the best collections of Medals that ever I saw in private hands together with a Noble Library in which there are Manuscripts of good antiquity that belong to the Family of Fesch and that goeth from one Learned Man of the Family to another For this Inheritance can only pass to a Man of Learning and when the Family produceth none then it is to go to the publick In Basile as the several Companies have been more or less strict in admitting some to a Freedom in the Company that have not been of the Trade so they retain their priviledges to this day For in such Companies that have once received such a number that have not been of the Trade as grew to be the majority the Trade hath never been able to recover their interest But some Companies have been more cautious and have never admitted any but those that were of the Trade so that they retain their interest still in Government Of these the Butchers were named for one so that there are always four Butchers in the Council The great Council consisteth of Two Hundred and Forty but they have no power left them and they are only assembled upon some extraordinary occasions when the little Council thinketh fit to communicate any important matter to them There are but six Baliages that belong to Bazile which are not Employments of great advantage for the best of them doth afford to the Bailif only a Thousand livres a year They reckon that there are in Basile Three Thousand Men that can bear Arms and that they could raise Four Thousand more out of the Canton so that the Town is almost the half of this State and the whole maketh Thirty Parishes There are Eighteen Professors in this University and there is a Spirit of a more free and generous Learning stirring there then I saw in all those parts There is a great decency of habit in Bazile and the garb both of the Counsellers Ministers and Professors their stiff Ruffs and their long Beards have an Air that is August The appointments are but small for Counsellers Ministers and Professors have but a Hundred Crowns a piece It is true many Ministers are Professors so this mendeth the matter a little But perhaps it would go better with the State of Learning there if they had but half the number of Professors and if those were a little better incouraged No where is the rule of St. Paul of Women having on their heads the badge of the authority under which they are brought which by a phrase that is not extraordinary he calleth power better observed than at Bazile for all the Married Women go to Church with a coif on their heads that is so folded that as it cometh down so far as to cover their eyes so another folding covereth also their Mouth and Chin so that nothing but the nose appears and then all turns backward in a folding that hangeth down to their midleg This is always white so that there is there such a sight of white heads in their Churches as cannot be found any where else The unmarried Women wear hats turned up in the brims before and behind and the brims of the sides being about a foot broad stand out far on both hands This fashion is also at Strasburg and is worn there also by the Married Women I mentioned formerly the constant danger to which this place is exposed from the neighbourhood of Huninghen I was told that at first it was pretended that the French King intended to build only a small Fort there and it was believed that one of the Burgo-masters of Bazile who was thought not only the wisest man of that Canton but of all Switzerland was gained to lay all Men asleep and to assure them that the suffering this Fort to be built so near them was of no importance to them but now they see too late their fatal error For the place is great and will hold a Garrison of Three or Four Thousand Men it is a Pentagone only the side to the Rhine is so large that if it went round on that side I believe it must have been a Hexagone the Bastions have all Orillons and in the middle of them there is a void space not filled up with earth where there is a Magazine built so thick in the Vault that it is proof against Bombs The Remparts are strongly faced there is a large Ditch and before the Cortine in the middle of the Ditch there runs all along a Horn-work which is but Ten or Twelve foot high and from the bottom of the Rampart there goeth a Vault to this Horn-work that is for conveying of Men for its defence before this Horn-work there is a half Moon with this that is peculiar to those new Fortifications that there is a Ditch that cuts the half Moon in an Angle and maketh one half Moon within another beyond that there is a Counter-Scarp about Twelve foot high above the Water with a covered way and a glacy designed though not executed There is also a great Horn-work besides all this which â—uns out a huge way with its out-works towards Bazile there is also a Bridge laid over the Rhine and there being an Island in the River where the Bridge is laid there is a Horn-work that filleth and fortifieth it The Buildings in this Fort are beautiful and the Square can hold above Four Thousand Men the Works are not yet quite finished but when all is compleated this will be one of the strongest places in Europe There is a Cavalier on one or two of the Bassions and there are half Moons before the Bastions so that the Switzers see their danger now when it is not easie to redress it This place is scituated in a great Plain so that it is commanded by no rising ground on any side of it I made a little Tower into Alsace as far as Mountbelliard the Soil is extream rich but it hath been so long a Frontier Country and is by consequence so ill peopled that it is in many places over-grown with Woods In one respect it is fit to be the seat of War for it is full of Iron-works which bring a great deal of Money into the Country I saw nothing peculiar in the Iron-works there except that the sides of the great Bellows were not of Leather but of Wood which saves much Money
in comparison of the advantages that they found from it And after Eleven Years spent in their service he said he never was so much as once sent for to receive a reprimand from them And if the Nobility that have any Commerce with strangers confess it sincerely to the Inquisitors they are in danger by it by if they conceal it or any main circumstances of it their Process will be soon dispatched These are the most remarkable things that I could pick up during my stay at Venice I have avoided to say any thing relating to their several Councels Officers and Judicatories or to the other parts of their Government which are to be found in all Books and the Forms by which they give Votes by Ballot are so well known that it were an abusing of your time to enlarge my self concerning them nor was I sufficiently informed concerning the particulars of the Sale of Nobility that is now on foot since this last War with the Turks which hath made them willing to take up once again this easie way of raising of Money Nor could I give credit to that of which a Person of great Eminence there assured me that there was a poysoner general in Venice that had a Salary and was employed by the Inquisitors to dispatch those against whom a publick proceeding would make too great a noise this I could not believe though my Author protested that the Brother of one that was solicited to accept of the Employment discovered it to him There is no place in the World where strangers live with more freedom and I was amazed to see so little exactness among the Searchers of the Custom-house for though we had a Mullets load of Trunks and Portmantles yet none offered to ask us either coming or going what we were or what we carried with us But the best and Noblest Entertainment that Venice afforded while I was there was the company of Mr. dela Haye the French Ambassadour who as he hath spent his whole life in publick Embassies so he hath acquired so great a knowledge of the World with so true a Judgment and so obliging a civility that he may well pass for a Pattern and it is no wonder to see him still engaged in a constant succession of publick Employments and his Lady is so wonderful a Person that I pay them both but a very small part of what I owe them in this acknowledgement which I judge my self bound to make of their extraordinary civilities to me and indeed without the advantage of such a rendezvous as I had there a fortnights stay at Venice had been a very tedious matter From Venice we went again to Padua From thence to Rovigo which is but a small Town and so to the Po which divides the Territory of the Republick from the Ferrarese which is now the Popes Country and here one sees what a difference a good and a bad Government makes in a Countrey for though the Soil is the same on both sides of the River and the Ferrarese was once one of the beautifullest spots of all Italy as Ferrara was one of its best Towns while they had Princes of their own who for a course of some Ages were Princes of such Eminent virtue and of so Heroical a Nobleness that they were really the Fathers of their Country nothing can be imagined more changed than all this is now The Soil is abandoned and uncultivated nor were there hands enough so much as to mow their Grass which we saw withering in their Meadows to our no small wonder We were amazed to see so rich a Soil thus forsaken of its Inhabitants and much more when we passed through that vast Town which by its extent shews what it was about an Age ago and is now so much deserted that there are whole sides of Streets without Inhabitants and the poverty of the place appears signally in the Churches which are mean and poorly adorned for the superstition of Italy is so ravenous and makes such progress in this Age that one may justly take the measures of the Wealth of any place from the Churches The Superstition or Vanity of this Age is so much beyond that of the past though the contrary to this is commonly believed that all the vast buildings of great Churches or rich Convents and the surprizing Wealth that appears in them on Festival days are the donatives of the present Age so that it is a vulgar error that some have taken up who fancy that Superstition is at a stand if not in a decay unless it be acknowledged that the craft of the Priests hath opened to them a new method to support their riches when the old ones of Purgatory and Indulgences were become less effectual in an Age of more knowledge and better enlightned and that is to engage Men to an emulation and a vanity in enriching their Churches as much as other Italians have in the inriching ther Palaces so that as they have a pleasure as well as a vanity in seeing so much dead Wealth in their houses they have translated the same humour to their Churches And the vanity of the present Age that believes little or nothing of those contrivances of Purgatory or the like produceth the same if not greater effects in the building and inriching their Churches and so carries it in expence and prodigality from the Superstition of the former Ages that believed every thing But to return to Ferrara I could not but ask all I saw how it came that so rich a Soil was so strangely abandoned some said the Air was become so unhealthy that those who stay in it were very short lived but it is well known that Fourscore Years ago it was well peopled and the ill Air is occasioned by the want of Inhabitants for there not being people to drain the ground and to keep the Ditches clean this makes that there is a great deal of Water that lies on the ground and rots which infects the Air in the same manner as is observed in that vast and rich but uninhabited Champaign of Rome so that the ill Air is the effect rather than the cause of the dispeopling of the Popes Dominions The true cause is the severity of the Government and the heavy Taxes and frequent Confiscations by which the Nephews of several Popes as they have devoured many of the Families of Ferrara so they have driven away many more And this appears more visibly by the different state as well as the Constitution of Bologna which is full of People that abound in Wealth and as the Soil is extream rich so it is cultivated with all due care For Bologna delivered it self to the Popedom upon a capitulation by which there are many Priviledges reserved to it Crimes there are only punished in the Persons of those who commit them but there are no confiscations of Estates and though the Authority in Criminal matters belongs to the Pope and is managed by a Legate and his Officers
yet the Civil Government the Magistracy and the power of Judicature in Civil matters is entirely in the hands of the State And by this regulation it is that as the riches of Bologna amaze a stranger it neither being on a Navigable River by which it is not capable of much Trade nor being the Center of a Soveraignty where a Court is kept so the Taxes that the Popes fetch from thence are so considerable that he draws much more from this place of Liberty than from those where his Authority is unlimited and absolute but that are by those means almost quite abandoned for the greatness of a Prince or State rising from the numbers of the Subjects those maxims that retain the Subjects and that draw strangers to come among them are certainly the truest maxims for advancing the greatness of the Master And I could not but with much scorn observe the folly of some Frenchmen who made use of this argument to shew the greatness of their Nation that one found many Frenchmen in all places to which one could come whereas there were no English nor Dutch nor Switzers and very few Germans But is just contrary to the right consequence that ought to be drawn from this observation It is certain that few leave their Country and go to settle elsewhere if they are not pressed with so much uneasiness at home that they cannot well live among their Friends and Kinred so that a mild Government drives out no swarms Whereas it is the sure mark of a severe Government that weakens it self when many of the Subjects find it so hard to subsist at home that they are forced to seek that abroad which they would much rather do in their own Country if Impositions and other severities did not force them to change their habitations But to return to the wealth of Bologna it appears in every corner of the Town and all round it though its scituation is not very favourable for it lies at the foot of the Appenins on the North-side and is extream cold in Winter The houses are built as at Padua and Bern so that one walks all the Town over covered under Piazza's but the walks here are both higher and larger than any where else there are many Noble Palaces all over the Town and the Churches and Convents are incredibly rich within the Town the richest are the Dominicans which is the chief house of the Order where their Founders body is laid in one of the best Chapels of Italy and next to them are the Franciscans the Servites the Jesuites and the Canons Regular of St. Salvator In this last there is a scrowl of the Hebrew Bible which though it is not the tenth part of the Bible they fancy to be the whole Bible and they were made believe by some Jew that hath no doubt sold it at a high rate that it was written by Ezrah's own hand and this hath past long for current but the Manuscript is only a fine Copy like those that the Jews use in their Synagogues that may be perhaps Three or Four Hundred Years old that part of it on which I cast my eye was the book of Esther so by the bulk of the scrowl I judged it to be the collection of those small books of the Old Testament that the Jews set after the Law but those of the house fancy they have a great treasure in it and perhaps such Jews as have seen it are willing to laugh at their ignorance and so suffer them to go on in their error The chief Church in the Town is St. Petrone's and there one sees the curious and exact Meridional-line which that rare Astronomer Cassini laid along a great part of the pavement in a brass Circle it marks the true point of midday from June to January and is one of the best performances that perhaps the World ever saw In the great square before the Church on the one side of which is the Legates Palace among other Statues one surprized me much it was Pope Joans which is so named by the People of the Town it is true the Learned Men say it is the Statue of Pope Nicolas the IV. who had indeed a youthly and womanish face But as I looked at this Statue very attentively through a little prospect that I carried with me it appeared plainly to have the face of a young Woman and was very unlike that of Pope Nicolas the IV. which is in St. Maria Maggiore at Rome For the Statue of that Pope though it hath no beard yet hath an age in it that is very much different from the Statue at Bologna I do not build any thing on this Statue for I do not believe that Story at all and I my self saw in England a Manuscript of Martinus Polonus who is one of the ancient Authors of this matter which did not seem to be written long after the Author's time In it this Story is not in the Text but is added on the margin by another hand On the Hill above Bologna stands the Monastery of St. Michael in Bosco which hath a most charming scituation and prospect and is one of the best Monasteries in Italy it hath many Courts and one that is Cloistered and is Octangular which is so nobly painted in Fresco that it is great pity to see such work exposed to the Air All was retouched by the famous Guido Reni yet it is now again much decayed The Dormitory is very Magnificent the Chappel is little but very fine and the Stalls are richly carved On the other-side of Bologna in the Bottom the Carthusians have also a very rich Monastery Four miles from Bologna there is a Madona of St. Lukes and because many go thither in great devotion there is a portico a building which is already carried on almost half way it is walled towards the North but stands on Pillars to the South and is about Twelve Foot broad and Fifteen Foot high which is carried on very vigorously for in Eight or Ten Years the half is built so that in a little time the whole will be very probably finished and this may prove the bâ—ginning of many such like Portico's in Italy for things of this kind want only a beginning and when they are once set on foot they do quickly spread themselves in a Country that is so intirely subdued by superstition and the artifices of their Priests In Bologna they reckon there are Seventy Thousand Persons I saw not one of the chief glories of this place for the famous Malapighi was out of Town while I was there I saw a Play there but the Poesie was so bad the Farces so rude and all was so ill acted that I was not a little amazed to see the Company express so great a satisfaction in that which would have been hiss'd off the Stage either in England or France From Bologna we go Eight miles in a Plain and then we engage into that range of Hills that carry the