unto it self following no Rule written in their Sentences but judging according to equity and conscience In matters criminal of greater consequence the process is here immediately examined without any preparation of it from the inferiour Courts as at the araignment of the Duke of Biron and divers times also in matter personall But their power is most eminent in disposing the affaires of State and of the Kingdome for such prerogatives have the French Kings given hereunto that they can neither denounce Warre nor conclude Peace without the consent a formall one at the least of this Chamber An Alieniation of the least of the Lands of the Crown is not any whit valued unless confirmed by this Court neither are his Edicts in force till they are here verified nor his Letters Pattents for the creating of a Peere till they are here allowed of Most of these I confess are little more than matters of form the Kings power and pleasure being become boundless yet sufficient to shew the body of Authority which they once had and the shaddow of it which they still keep yet of late they have got into their disposing one priviledge belonging formerly to the Conventus Ordinum or the Assembly of the three Estates which is the conferring of the Regency or protection of their Kings during their minority That the Assembly of the three Estates formerly had this priviledge is evident by their stories Thus we find them to have made Queene Blanche Regent of the Realm during the non-age of her Son St. Lewiis Anno 1227. that they declared Phillip le Valois successor to the Crowne in case that the widdow of Charles de belle was not delivered of a Son Anno 1328. That they made Charles the Daulphin Regent of France during the imprisonment of King John his Father Anno 1357. As also Phillip of Burgony during the Lunary Charles the sixth Anno 1394 with divers others On the other side we have a late example of the power of the Parliament of Paris in this very case for the same day that Henry the fourth was slain by Raviliae the Parliament met and after a short consultation declared Mary de Medices Mother to the King Regent in France for the Government of the State during the minority of her Son with all power and authority such are the words of the Instrument dated the 14. of May 1610. It cannot be said but this Court deserveth not onely this but any other indulgence whereof any one member of the Common-wealth is capable So watchful are they over the health of the State and so tenderly do they take the least danger threatned to the liberties of that Kingdome that they may not unjustly be called Patres Patriae In the year 1614. they seazed upon a discourse written by Suarez a Jesuite entitled Adversus Anglicanae sectae errores wherein the Popes temporal power over Kings and Princes is averred which they sentenced to be burnt in the Pallace yard by the publick Hangman The yeare before they inflicted the same punishment upon a vain and blasplemous discourse penned by Gasper Niopins a fellow of a most desperate brain and a very incendiary Neither hath Bellarmine himself that great Atlas of the Roman Church escaped much better for writing a Book concerning the temporal power of his Holiness it had the ill luck to come into Paris where the Parliament finding it to thwart the Liberty and Royalty of the King and Country gave it over to the Hangman and he to the Fire Thus it is evident that the titles which the French writers gave it as the true Temple of the French justice the Buttresse of Equity the Guardian of the Rights of France and the like are abundantly deserved of it The next Chamber in esteem is the Tournelle which handleth all matters Criminal It is so called from Tourner which signifieth to change or alter because the Judges of the other several Chambers give sentence in this according to their several turnes The reason of which Institution is said to be least a continual custome of condemning should make the Judges less merciful and more prodigall of blood An order full of health and providence it was instituted by the above named Phillip le Belle at the same time when he made the Parliament sedentary at Paris and besides its particular and original employment it receiveth Appeals from and redresseth the errours of the Provost of Paris The other five Chambers are called des Enquests or Camerae Inquasitionum the first and ancientest of them was erected also by Phillip le Belle and afterwards divided into two by Charles the seventh Afterwards of Processes being greater than could be dispatched in these Courts there was added a third Francis the first established the fourth for the better raising of a sum of money which then he wanted every one of the new Counsellers paying right dearly for his place The fifth and last was founded in the year 1568. In each of these severall Chambers there be two Presidents and twenty Counsellers beside Advocates and Proctors ad placitum In the Tournelle which is the aggregation of all the other Courts there are supposed to be no fewer than two hundred Officers of all sorts which is no great number considering the many Causes there handled In the Tournelle the Iudges sit on matters of life and death in the Chambers of Enquests they examine onely civil Affairs of estate title debts and the like The Pleaders in these Courts are called Advocates and must be at the least Licentiats in the study of the Law At the Parliaments of Tholoza and Burdeaux they admit of none but Doctors now the form of admitting them is this In an open and frequent Court one of the agedest of the Long Robe presenteth the party which desireth admission to the Kings Atturney General saying with a loud voice Paisse a Cour recevoir N. N. Licencie or Docteur en droict civil a l'office d' Advocate This said the Kings Atturney biddeth him hold up his hand and saith to him in Latine Tu jurabis observare omnes Reges Consuetudines he answereth Iuro and departeth At the Chamber door of the Court whereof he is now sworne an Advocate he payeth two Crownes which is forthwith put into the common Treasury appointed for the relief of the distressed-Widdows of ruined Advocates and Proctors Hanc veniam petimusque damusque It may be their own cases and therefore it is paid willingly The highest preferment of which these Advocates are capable is that of Chauncellor an Office of great power and profit The present Chauncellor is named Mr. d' Allegre by birth of Chartres he hath no settled Court wherein to exercise his authority but hath in all the Courts of France the supream place whensoever he will vouchsafe to visit them He is also President of the Councill of Estate by his place and on him dependeth the making of good and sacred Lawes the administration of Justice the reformation of
French by that door making their entry into this Province out of which at last they thrust the English Anno 1450. So desperate a thing is a frighted Coward This Country had once before been in possession of the English and that by a firmer title than the Sword William the Conqueror had conveyed it once over the Seas into England it continued an appendix of that Crown from the year 1067. unto that of 1204. At that time John called Sáns terre third Son unto King Henry the second having usurped the States of England and the English possessions in France upon Arthur heir of Britain and Son unto Geofrey his elder brother was warred on by Phillip Augustus King of France who sided with the said Arthur In the end Arthur was taken and not long after found dead in the ditches of the Castle of Roven Whether this violent death happened unto him by the practises of his Uncle as the French say or that the young Prince came to that unfortunate end in an attempt to escape as the English report is not yet determined For my part considering the other carriages and virulencies of that King I dare be of that opinion that the death of Arthur was not without his contrivement Certainly he that rebelled against his Father and practised the eternal imprisonment and ruine of his Brother would not much stick this being so speedy a way to settle his affairs at the murther of a Nephew Upon the first bruit of this murther Constance Mother to the young Prince complained unto the King and Parliament of France not the Court which now is in force consisting of men only of the long Robe but the Court of Pairrie or twelve Peers whereof himself was one as Duke of Normandy I see not how in justice Philip could do less than summon him an Homager being â—lain and an Homager accused To this summons John refused to yeild himself A counsel rather magnanimous than wise and such as had more in it of an English King than a French Subject Edward the third a prince of a finer mettal than this John obeyed the like warrant and performed a personal homage to Philip of Valoys and it is not reckoned among his disparagements He committed yet a further error or solaecisme in State not so much as sending any of his people to supply his place or plead his cause Upon this none appearance the Peers proceed to sentence Il fur par Arrest la dire Cour saith Du' Chesne condemne pour attaint et convainuc du crime de parricide de felonnie Parricide for the killing of his own Nephew and felony for committing an act so execrable on the person of a French vassal and in France Jhon de Sienes addeth a third cause which was contempt in disobeying the Kings commandement Upon this verdict the Court awarded Que toutes les terres qu' il avoit par deca de mourerient acquises confisques a la corronne c. A proceeding so fair and orderly that I should sooner accuse King John of indiscretion than the French of injustice when my estate or life is in danger I wish it may have no more sinister a trial The English thus outed of Normandy by the weakness of John recovered it again by the puissance of Henry But being held onely by the sword it was after thirty years recovered again as I have told you And now being passed over the Oyse I have at once freed the English and my self of Normandy here ending this Book but not that dayes journey The Second Book or FRANCE CHAP. I. France in what sense so called the bounds of it All old Gallia not possessed by the French Countries follow the name of the most predominant Nation The condition of the present French not different from that of the old Gaules That the Heavens have a constant power upon the same Climate though the Inhabitants be changed The quality of the French in private at the Church and at the Table Their Language Complements Discourse c. IVly the third which was the day we set out of St. Claire having passed through Pontoise and crossed the River we were entred into France France as it is understood in his limitted sense and as a part onely of the whole For when Meroveus the Grandchild of Pharamond first King of the Francones had taken an opportunity to pass the Rhene having also during the warres between the Romans and the Gothes taken Paris he resolved there to set up his rest and to make that the head City of his Empire The Country round about it which was of no large extent he commanded to be called Francia or Terra Francorum after the name of his Francks whom he governed In this bounded and restrained sense we now take it being confined with Normandy on the North Campagne on the East and on the West and South with the little Province of la Beausse It is also called and that more properly to distinguish it from the whole continent the Isle of France and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Isle I know not any thing more like it then the Isle of Elie the Eure on the West the Velle on the East the Oyse on the Northward and a vein riveret of the Seine towards the South are the Rivers which encircle it But the principall environings are made by the Seine and the Marne a river of Champagne which within the main Island make divers Ilets the waters winding up and down as desirous to recreate the earth with the pleasures of its lovely and delicious embraces This Isle this portion of Gaule properly and limitedly stiled France was the seate of the Franks at their first coming hither and hath still continued so The rest of Gallia is in effect rather subdued by the French than inhabited their valour in time having taken in those Countries which they never planted So that if we look apprehensively into Gaule we shall find the other Nations of it to have just cause to take up the complaint of the King of Portugal against Ferdinand of Castile for assuming to himself the title of Catholique King of Spain eius tam non exiguâ parte penes reges alios as Mariana relateth it Certain it is that the least part of old Gallia is in the hands of the French the Normans Britons Biscaines or Gascoynes the Gothes of Languedoc and Provence Burgundians and the ancient Gaules of Poictou retaining in it such fair and ample Provinces But it is the custome shall I say or fate of lesser and weaker Nations to loose their names unto the stronger as Wives do to their Husbands and the smaller Rivers to the greater Thus we see the little Province of Poland to have mastered and given name to the Pruteni Marovy and other Nations of Sarmatia Europaea as that of Moseo hath unto all the Provinces of Asiatica Thus hath Sweden conquered and denominated almost all the great Peninsula of Scandia where it is but
in these later they onely consummate strength so say the Physitians generally Non enim in duobus sequentibus mensibus they speak it of the intermedii additur aliquid ad perfectionem partium sed ad perfectionem roboris The last time terminus ultimus in the common account of this Profession is the eleventh moneth which some of them hold neither unlikely nor rare Massurius recordeth of Papyrius a Roman Praetor to have recovered his inheritance in open Court though his Mother confest him to be born in the thirteenth month And Avicen a Moor of Corduba relateth as he is cited in Laurentius that he had seen a Child born after the fourteenth But these are but the impostures of Women and yet indeed the modern Doctors are more charitable and refer it to supernatural causes Vt extra ordinariam artis considerationem On the other side Hippocrates giveth it out definitively 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that in ten moneths at the furthest understand ten moneths compleat the Child is born And Vlpian the great Civilian of his times in the title of Digests de Testamentis is of opinion that a Child born after the tenth moneth compleat is not to be admitted to the inheritance of its pretended Father As for the Common Law of England as I remember I have read it in a book written of Wils and Testaments it taketh a middle course between the charity of nature and the severity of Law leaving it meerly to the conscience and circumstance of the Judge But all this must be conceived taking it in the most favourable construction after the conception of the Mother and by no meanes after the death of the Father and so can it no way if I were first President advantage the Prince of Conde His Father had been extreamly sick no small time before his death for the particular and supposed since his poison taken Anno 1552. to be little prone to Women in the general They therefore that would seem to know more than the vulgar reckon him as one of the by-blows of Henry the fourth but this under the Rose yet by way of conjecture we may argue thus First from the Kings care of his education assigning him for his Tutor Nicholas de Februe whom he also designed for his Son King Lewis Secondly from his care to work the Prince then young Mollis aptus agi to become a Catholike Thirdly the age of the old Henry of Conde and the privacy of this King with his Lady being then King of Navarre in the prime of his strength and in discontent with the Lady Margaret of Valoys his first Wife Adde to this that Kings love to fair Ladies in the general and we may see this probability to be no miracle For besides the Dutchess of Beaufort the Marchioness of Verneville and the Countess of Morret already mentioned he is beleived to have been the Father of Mr. Luines the great Favorite of King Lewis And certain it is that the very year before his death when he was even in the winter of his dayes he took such an amorous liking to the Prince of Conde s Wife a very beautiful Lady and Daughter to the Constable Duke of Montmorencie that the Prince to save his honour was compelled to flie together with his Princess into the Arch-Dukes Country whence he returned not till long after the death of King Henry If Marie de Medices in her Husbands life time paid his debts for him which I cannot say she onely made good that of vindicate· And yet perhaps a consciousness of some injuries not onely moved her to back the Count of Soison's and his faction against the Prince and his but also to resolve upon him for the Husband of her Daughter From the Princes of the bloud descend we to the Princes of the Court and therein the first place we meet with Mr. Barradas the Kings present Favourite a young Gentleman of a fresh and lively hew little bearded and one whom the people as yet cannot accuse for any oppression or misgovernment Honours the King hath conferred none upon him but onely Pensions and Offices He is the Governour of the Kings Children of Honour Pages we call them in England a place of more trouble than wealth or credit He is also the Master of the Horse or le grand Escuire the esteem of which place recompenceth the emptiness of the other for by vertue of this Office he carryeth the Kings Sword sheathed before him at his entrance into Paris the Cloth of Estate carryed over the King by the Provosts and Eschevins is his Fee No man can be the Kings Spur maker his Smith or have any place in the Kings Stables but from him and the like This place to note so much by the way was taken out of the Constables Office Comes stabuli is the true name to whom it properly belonged in the time of Charles the seventh Besides this he hath a pension of 500000. Crowns yearly and had an Office given him which he sold for 100000. Crownes in ready money A good fortune for one who the other day was but the Kings Page And to say truth he is as yet but a little better being onely removed from his Servant to his play-fellow with the affairs of State he intermeddleth not if he should he might expect the Queene Mother should say to him what Apollo in Ovid did to Cupid Tibi quia cum fortibus armis Mi puer ista decent humeros gestamina nostros For indeed first during her Sons minority and after since her redentigration with him she hath made her self so absolute a Mistress of her mind that he hath entrusted to her the entire conduct of all his most weighty affairs for her Assistant in the managing of her greatest business she hath pieced her self to the strongest side of the State the Church having principally since the death of the Marshall D' Anere Joneane assumed to her Counsails the Cardinal of Richileiu a man of no great birth were Nobility the greatest Parentage but otherwise to be ranked among the Noblest Of a sound reach he is and of a close brain one exceedingly well mixt of a Lay Vnderstanding and a Church Habit one that is compleatly skilled in the art of men and a perfect Master of his own mind and affections Him the Queene useth as her Counseller to keep out frailty and the Kings name as her countenance to keep off envy She is of a Florentine wit and hath in her all the vertues of Katherine de Medices her Ancestor in the Regencie and some also of her vices only her designes tend not to the ruine of her Kingdome and her Children John de Seirres telleth us in his Inventaire of France how the Queene Katherine suffered her Son Henry the third a devout and simple Prince to spend his most dangerous times even uncontrolled upon his Beades whiles in the meantime she usurped the Government of the Realm Like it is that Queene Mary hath
stubborn and churlish people very impatient of a rigorous yoak and such as inherit a full measure of the Beiseains liberty and spirit from whom they are descended Le Droit de fonage the priviledge of levying of a certain peice of money upon every Chimney in an house that smoaked was in times not long since one of the Jura Regalia of the French Lords and the people paid it without grumbling yet when Edward the black Prince returned from his unhappy journey into Spain and for the paying of his Souldiers to whoÌ„ he was indebted laid this fonage upon the people being then English they all presently revolted to the French and brought great prejudice to our affairs in those quarters Next unto the Gabel of Salt we may place the Taille and the Taillon which are much of a nature with the Subsidies in England being granted by the people and the sum of that certain shall please to impose them Anciently the Tailles were onely levied by way of extraordinary subsidie and that upon four occasions which were the Knighting of the Kings Son the Marriage of his Daughters a Voyage of the Kings beyond Sea and his Ransome in case he were taken Prisoner Les Tailles ne sont point deves de devoyer ordicmer saith Rayneau ains ont este accorded durant la necessite des Affaires Semblement Afterward they were continually levied in times of warr and at length Charles the first made them ordinary neither is it extended equally all of it would amount to a very fair revenue For supposing this that the Kingdom of France contained two hundred millions of acres as it doth and that from every one there were raised to the King two Sols yeerly which is little in respect of the taxes imposed on them that income alone besides that which levied on goods personal would amount to two millions of pounds in a year But this payment also lyeth all on the Paisant The greater Towns the Officers of the Kings House the Officers of Warrs the Presidents Counsellors and Officers of the Court of Parliament the Nobility the Clergy and the Schollars of the Vniversity being freed from it That which they call the Taillon was intended for the ease of the Country though now it prove one of the greatest burdens unto it In former times the Kings Souldiers lay all upon the charge of the Villages the poor people being fain to find them diet lodging and all necessaries for themselves their horses and their harlots which they brought with them If they were not well pleased with their entertainment they used commonly to beat their Host abuse his family and rob him of that small provision which he had laid up for his Children and all this Cum privilegio Thus did they move from one Village to another and at the last returned unto them from whence they came Ita ut non sit ibi villula una expers calamitatis istius quae non semel aut bis in anno hac nefandâ pressurâ depiletur as Sir John Fâ—rtescue observed in his time To redress this mischeif King Henry the second Anno 1549. raised his Imposition called the Taillon issuing out of the lands and goods of the poor Country man whereby he was at the first somewhat eased but now all is again out of order the miserable Paisant being oppressed by the Souldier as much as ever and yet he still payeth both taxes the Taille and the Taillon The Pancarte comprehendeth in it divers particular imposts but especially the Sol upon the Liure that is the twentieth penny of all things bought or sold corn sallets and the like onely excepted Upon wine besides the Sol upon the Liure he hath his several customs at the entrance of it into any of his Cities passages by Land Sea or River To these Charles the ninth Anno 1561. added a tax of five Sols upon every Maid which is the third part of a Tun and yet when all this is done the poor Vintner payeth unto the King the eighth penny he takes for that wine which he selleth In this Pancart is also contained the bant passage which are the tols paid unto the King for passage of men and cattel over his bridges and his City gates as also for all such Commodities which they bring with them A good and round sum considering the largeness of the Kingdom the thorough-fare of Lyons being farmed yearly of the King for 100000. Crowns Hereunto belong also the Aides which are a taxe also of the Sol on the Liure upon all sorts of fruits provision wares and Merchandize granted first unto Charles Duke of Normandy when John his Father was prisoner in England and since made perpetual For such is the lamentable fate of that Country that their kindnesses are made duties and those moneys which they once grant out of love are alwayes after exacted of them and paid out of necessity The bedrolle of all these impositions and taxes is called the Paneart because it was hanged up in a frame like as the Officers Fees are in our Bishops Diocesan Courts the word Pan signifying a frame or pane of wainscot These impositions time and custom hath now made tolerable though at first day they seemed very burdensome and moved many Cities to murmuring some to rebellion Amongst others the City of Paris proud of her ancient liberties and immunities refused to admit of it This indignity so incensed Charles the sixth their King then young and in hot bloud that he seized into his hands all their priviledges took from their Provost des Merchants and the Eschevins as also the key of their gates and the chains of their streets and making through the whole Town such a face of mourning that one might justly have said Haec facies Troiae cum caperetur erat This happened in the year 1383. and was for five years together continued which time being expired and other Cities warned by that example the imposition was established and the priviledges restored For the better regulating of the profits arising from these imposts the French King erected a Court Le Cour des Aides It consisted at the first of the general of the Aides and of any four of the Lords of the Councel whom they would call to their assistance Afterwards Charles the fifth Anno 1380. or thereabouts settled it in Paris and caused it to be numbred as one of the Soveraign Courts Lewis the eleventh dissolved it and committed the managing of his Aids to his Household servants as loath to have any publike Officers take notice how he fleeced his people Anno 1464. it was restored again And finally Henry the second Anno 1551. added to it a second Chamber composed of two Presidens and eight Counsellors One of which Presidents Mr. Cavilayer is said to be the best moneyed man of all France There are also others of these Courts in the Country as one at Roven one at Montferrant in Averyne one at Bourdeaux and another at Montpellier
established by Charles the first Anno 1537. For the levying and gathering up of rhese taxes you must know that the whole Country of France is divided into twenty three generalities and Counties as it were and these again into divers Eslections which are much like unto our Hundreds In every of the Generalities there are ten or twelve Treasurers nine Receivers for the Generality and as many Controulers besides all under Officers which are thought to amount in all to thirty thousand men When the King levieth his taxes he sendeth his Letters Patents to the principal Officers of every Generality whom they call Les genereaux des Aides and they dispatch their warrant to the Ezlenzor Commissioners These taxing every one of the Parishes and Villages within their several divisions at a certain rate send their Receivers to collect it who account for it to their Controulers by them it ascendeth Ezleie from him to the Receiver general of that Generality next to the Controuler then to the Treasurer afterwards to the General des Aides and so Per varios cesus per tot discrimina rerum Tendimus in Latium By all these hands it is at last conveyed into the Kings purse in which several passage necesse est ut aliquid haereat it cannot be but it must needs have many a shrewd snatch Insomuch that I was told by a Gentleman of good credence in France that there could not be gathered by the several exactions above specified anâ— other devices of prowling which I have omitted less than eighty five millions a year whereof the King receiveth fifteen onely A report not altogether to be sleâ—ghted considering that a President of the Court of Accompts made it evident to the Assembly at Blois in the time of King Henry the fourth that by the time that every one of the Officers had had his share of it there came not to the Kings Coffers one teston which is one shilling four pence of a Crown So that by reckoning five testons to a Crown or Escue as it is but two pence over these Officers must collect five times the money which they pay to the King which amouteth to seventy five millions and is not much short of that proportion which before I spake of The Kings revenues then notwithstanding this infinite oppression of his people amounteth to fifteen millions some would have it eighteen which is also a good improvement in respect of what they were in times afore Lewis the eleventh as good a Husband of his Crown as ever any was in France gathering but one and an half onely but as you count the flow so also if you reckon the ebb of his treasures you will find much wanting of a full sea in his Coffers it being generally known that the Fees of Officers Pensions Garrisons and the men of Arms draw from him yearly no fewer than six of his fifteen millions True it is that his Treasure hath many good helps by way of Escheat and that most frequently when he cometh to take an account of his Treasurers and other Officers An action so abominable full of base and unmannly villanies in their several charges that the Publicans of old Rome were milk and white broth to them For so miserably do they abuse the poor Paisant that if he hath in all the world but eight Sols it shall go hard but he will extort from him five of them Non missura cutim nisi plena cruoris hirudo He is just of the nature of the Horsleach when he hath once gotten hold of you he will never let you go till he be filled and which is most strange he thinks it a greater clemency that he hath left the poor man some of his money than the cruelty was in wresting from him the rest Nay they will brag of it when they have taken but five of the eight Sols that they have given him three and expect thanks for it A kindness of a very theevish nature it being the condition of Robbers as Tully hath observed Vt commemorent iis se dedisse vitam quibus non ademerint Were the people but so happy as to have a certain rate set upon their miseries it could not but be a great ease to them and would well defend them from the tyranny of these theeves but which is not the least part of their wretchedness their taxings and assemblings are left arbitrary and are exacted according as these Publicans will give out of the Kings necessities So that the Country man hath no other remedy than to give Cerberus a crust as the saying is and to kiss his rod and hug his punishment By this meanes the Quaestors thrive abundantly it being commonly said of them Fari bouvier au jourd huy Cheualier to day a Swineheard to morrow a Gentleman and certainly they grow into great riches Mr. Beaumarchais one of the Treasurers Mr. de Viâ—â—ry who slew the Marquess de Ancri married his onely Daughter having raked unto himself by the vâ—lâ—ainous abuse of his place no less than twenty two millions of Liures as it is commonly reported but he is not like to carry it to his grave the King having seised upon a good part of it and himself being condemned to the Gallows by the grand Chamber of Parliament though as yet he cannot be apprehended advanced to the ladder And this hath been the end of many of them since the raign of this present King whom it may be for this cause they call Lewis the Just This fashion of affixing Epithites to the names of their Kings was in great use heretofore with this Nation Carolus the Son of Pipin was by them surnamed Le magne Lewis his Son Le Debonaire and so of the rest since the time of Charles the sixth who was by them surnamed the Beloved it was discontinued and new revived again in the persons of King Henry the fourth and his Son King Lewis but this by the way It may be also he is called the Just by way of negation because he hath yet committed no notable act of injustice for I wink at his cruel and unjust slaughter at Nigrepelisse It may be also to keep him continually in mind of his duty that he may make himself worthy of that attribute Vere Imperator sui nominis as one said of Severus Let us add one more misery to the State and Commonalty of France and that is the base and corrupt money in it for besides the Sol which is made of Tin they have the Double made of Brass where of six make a Sol and the Deneir whereof two make a Double a Coin so vile base of value that one hundred and twenty of them go to our English Shilling These are the common Coins of the Country Silver and Gold not being to be seen but upon holy-dayes As for their Silver it is most of it of their new coining but all exceedingly clipt and shorn their Gold being most of it Spanish In my little being in
well cried to the Hangman to drive on his Cart. The truth is I' eschappay du tonnere etrencheu en l'es lair according to the French proverb I fell out of the frying-pan into the hot fire One of the house a ragged fellow I am sure he was and so most likely to live there brought us to a room somewhat of kindred to a Charnel-house as dark and as dampish I confess it was paved with brick at the bottom and had towards the Orchard a pretty hole which in former times had been a window but now the glass was all vanished By the light that came in at the hole I first perceived that I was not in England There stood in the chamber three beds if at the least it be lawful so to call them The foundation of them was of straw so infinitely thronged together that the wooll-pack which our Judges fit on in the Parliament were melted butter to them upon this lay a medley of flocks and feathers together sowed up in a large bag for I am confident it was not a Tick but so ill ordered that the knobs stuck out on each side of it like a crabtree-cudgel He must needs have flesh enough that lieth upon one of them otherwise the second night would wear out his bones The sheets which they brought for us were so course that in my consciente no Marriner would vouchsafe to use them for a sail and the Coverlid so bare that if a man would undertake to reckon the threeds he need not miss one of the number The Napery of the Table was sutable to the bedding so foul and durty that I durst not conceive it had ever been washed above once and yet the poor cloth looked as briskly as if it had been promised for the whole year ensuing to scape many a scouring The Napkins were fit companions for the cloath Vnum si noveris omnes nosti By my description of the Inn you may guess at the rest of France Not altogether so wretched yet is the alteration almost insensible Let us now walk into the Kitchen and observe their provision and here we found a most terrible execusion committed on the person of a Pullet My Hostess cruel woman had cut the throat of it and without plucking off the feathers tare it into pieces with her hands and afterwards took away skin and feathers together just as we strip Rabbets in England This done it was clapt into a pan and fried into a supper In other places where we could get meat for the spit it useth to be presently broached and laid perpendicularly over the fire three turns at the most dispatcheth it and bringeth it up to the table rather scorched than roasted I say where we could get it for in these rascally Inns you cannot have what you would but what you may and that also not at the cheapest At Pontoise we met with a Rabbet and we thought we had found a great purchase Larded it was as all meat is in that Country otherwise it is so lean it would never endure the roasting In the eating it proved so tough that I could not be perswaded that it was any more than three removes from that Rabbet which was in the Ark. The price half a Crown English My Companions thought it over dear to me it seem'd very reasonable for certainly the grass that fed it was worth more than thrice the money but I return to Tostes And it is time you might perchance else have lost the sight of mine Hostess and her Daughters you would have sworn at first blush they had been of a bloud and it had been great pitty had it been otherwise The salutation of Horace O mater pulchra filia pulchrior was never so seasonable as here Not to honour them with a further character let this suffice that their persons kept so excellent decorum with the house and furniture that one could not possibly make use of Tullies Quam dispari dominaris domino But this is not their luck onely The Women not of Normandy alone but generally of all France are forced to be contented with a little beauty and she which with us is reckoned among the vulgar would amongst them be taken for a Princess But of the French Women more when we have taken a view of the Dames of Paris now onely somewhat of their habit and condition Their habit in which they differ from the rest of France is the attire of their heads which hangeth down their backs in fashion of a vail In Roven and the greater Cities it is made of linnen pure and decent here and in the villages it cannot possibly be any thing else than an old dish-clout turned out of service or the corner of a table-cloth reserved from washing Their best condition is not alwayes visible they shew it onely in the mornings or when you are ready to depart and that is their begging You shall have about you such a throng of these ill faces and every one whining out this ditty Pour les servantes that one might with greater ease distribute a dole at a rich mans funeral then give them a penny Had you a purpose to give them unasked their importunity will prevent your speediest bounty After all this importunate begging their ambition reacheth no higher than a Sol He that giveth more out-biddeth their expectation and shall be counted a spend-thrift But the principal ornaments of these times are the men-servants the raggedst regiment that ever I yet looked upon Such a thing as a Chamberlain was never heard of among them and good clothes are as little known there as he By the habit of his attendants a man would think himself in Gaole their clothes either full of patches or else open to the skin Bid one of them wipe your boots he presently hath recourse to the curtains with those he will perhaps rub over one side and leave the other to be made clean by the Guest It is enough for him that he hath written the coppy They wait alwayes with their hats on their heads and so also do servants before their Masters Attending-bareheaded is as much out of fashion there as in Turkey Of all French fashions in my opinion the most unfitting and unseeming Time and much use reconciled me to all other things which at the first were offensive to this irreverent custom I returned an enemy Neither can I see how it can choose but stomack the most patient to see the worthiest sign of liberty usurped and profaned by the basest of slaves For seeing that the French paisants are such infamous slaves unto their Lords and Princes it cannot be but that those which are their servants must be one degree at the least below the lowest condition Certainly among the Ancients this promiscuous covering of the head was never heard of it was with them the chief sign of freedom as is well known to those which are conversant with antiquity The Lacones a people of Peloponnesus after they
superfluous and abrogation of unprofitable Edicts c. He hath the keeping of the Kings geeat Seal and by vertue of that either passeth or putteth back such Letters Pattents and Writs as are exhibited to him He hath under him immediately for the better dispatch of his Affairs four Masters of the Requests and their Courts Their Office and manner of proceeding is the same which they also use in England in the persons there is thus much difference that in Franee two of them must be perpetually of the Clergy One of their Courts is very ancient and hath in it two Presidents which are two of the Masters and fourteen Counsellers The other is of a later erection as being founded Anno 1580. and in that the two other of the Masters and eight Councellers give sentence Thus have I taken a veiw of the several Chambers of the Parliament of Paris and of their particular Jurisdictions as far as my information could conduct me One thing I noted further and in my mind the fairest ornament of the Pallace which is the neatness and decency of the Lawyers in their apparrel for besides the fashion of their habit which is I assure you exceeding pleasant and comely themselves by their own care and love to handsomeness adde great lustre to their garments and more to their persons Richly drest they are and well may be so as being the ablest most powerfull men under the Princes la Noblesse in all the Country An happiness as I conjecture rather of the calling than of the men It hath been the fate and destiny of the Law to strengthen enable its professors beyond any other any Art or Science the Pleaders in all Common-wealths both for sway amongst the people and vague amongst the Military men having alwaies had the preheminence Of this rank were Pericles Phochion Alcibiades and Demosthenes amongst the Athenians Antonius Mar. Cato Caesar and Tullie amongst the Romans men equally famous for Oratory and the Sword yet this I can confidently say that the several States above mentioned were more indebted unto Tullie and Demosthenes being both meer Gown men than to the best of their Captaines the one freeing Athens from the Armies of Macedon the other delivering Rome from the conspiracy of Catiline O fortunatum natam me Consule Romam It is not then the fate of France only nor of England to see so much power in the hand of the Lawyers and the case being general me thinks the envy should be the less and less it is indeed with them than with us The English Clergy though otherwise the most accomplisht in the World in this folly deserveth no Apologie being so strangely ill affected to the Pleaders of this Nation that I fear it may be said of some of them Quod invidiam non ad causam sed personam et ad valantatem dirigant A weakness not more unworthy of them than prejudicial to them for fostering between both Gownes such an unnecessary emulation they do but exasperate that power which they cannot controle and betray themselves to much envy and discontentedness A disease whose care is more in my wishes than in my hopes CHAP. IX The Kings Pallace of the Louure by whom built the unsutableness of it The fine Gallery of the Queene Mother The long Gallery of Henry the fourth his magnanimous intent to have built it into a Quadrangle Henry the fourth a great builder his infinite project upon the Mediterranean and the Ocean Lasalle des Antiques The French not studious of Antiquities Burbon House The Tuilleries c. WE have discharged the King of one Pallace and must follow him to the other where we shall find his residence It is seated in the west side of the Town or Ville of Paris hard by Porte neufue and also by the new Bridge An House of great fame and which the Kings of France have long kept their Courts in It was first built by Phillip Augustus anno 1214. and by him intended for a Castle it then serving to imprison the more potent of the Noblesse and to lay up the Kings Treasury for that cause it was well moated and strengthened with walls and draw Bridges very serviceable in those times It had the name of Louure quasi L'oeuure or the work the Building by way of excellencie An Etymologie which draweth nigher to the ear than the understanding or the eye And yet the French writers would make it a miracle Du Chesne calleth it superbe bastiment qui n' a son esgal en toute la Christiente and you shall hear it called in another place Bastiment qui passe muiourd huy en excellenee et en grandeur tous les autres Brave Eligies if all were Gold that glistered It hath given up now its charge of money and great prisoners to the Bastile and at this time serveth only to imprison the Court. In my life I never saw any thing more abused by a good report or that more belyeth the rumours that go of it The ordinary talk of vulgar travellers and the bigg words of the French had made me expect at the least some prodigie of Architecture some such Majestical house as the Sunne Don Phoebus is said to have dwelt in by Ovid. Regia solis erat sublimibus alta columnis Clara micante auro flammasque imitante pyropo Cuius ebur nitidum c. Indeed I thought no fiction in Poetry had been able to have parralell'd it and made no doubt but it would have put me into such a passion as to have cryed out with the young Gallant in the Comidie when he saw his Sweet heart Hei mihi qualis erat talis erat qualem nunquem ego vidi But I was much deceived in that hope and could find nothing in it to admire much less to envy The Fable of the Mountaine which was with child and brought forth a Mouse is questionless a Fable This House and the large fame it hath in the world is the Morall of it Never was there an House more unsuitable to it self in the particular examination of parts nor more unsutable to the Character and esteem of it in the general survey of the whole You enter into it over two Draw-bridges and thorough three Gates ruinous enough and abundantly unsightly In the Quadrangle you meet with three several fashions of buildings of three several ages and they so unhappily joyned one to the other that one would half beleeve they were clapped together by an Earthquake The South and West parts of it are new and indeed Prince like being the work of Francis the first and his Son Henry had it been all cast into the same mould I perswade my self that it would be very gratious and lovely The other two are of ancient work and so contemptible that they disgrace the rest and of these I suppose the one to be at the least a hundred years older than his partner such is it without As for the inside it is farre
chief of the Clergy-men is the little or no dependency they have on the Pope and the little profits they pay unto their King Of the Pope anon To the King they pay onely their dismes or tithes according to the old rates a small sum if compared unto the payments of their neighbours it being thought that the King of Spain receiveth yearly one half of the Living of the Churches But this I mean of their Livings onely for otherwise they pay the usual gabels and customs that are paid by the rest of the Kings Leige-people In the general assembly of the three Estates the Clergy hath authority to elect a set number of Commissioners to undertake for them the Church which Commissioners do make up the the first of the three Estates do first exhibite their greivances and petitions to the King In a word the French Church is the freest of any in Christendom that have not yet quitted their subjection to the Pope as alwayes protesting against the Inquisition not subjecting themselves to the Council of Trent and paying very little to his Holiness of that plentiful revenue wherewith God and good men have blessed it The number of those which the Church-land maintaineth in France is tantum non infinite therefore the intrado and revenues of it must needs be uncountable There are numbred in it as we said before twelve Archbishopricks an hundred and four Bishopricks To these add five hundred and fourty Archpriorities one thousand four hundred and fifty Abbies twelve thousand three hundred and twenty Priorities the sixty seven Nunneries seven hundred Covents of Friers two hundred fifty nine Commendams of the Order of Malta and one hundred and thirty thousand Parish Priests yet this is not all Their reckoning was made in the year 1598. since which time the Jesuits have divers Colledges founded for them and they are known to be none of the poorest To maintain this large wilderness of men the Statists of France who have proportioned the Country do allow unto the Clergy almost a fourth part of the whole For supposing France to contain two hundred millions of Arpens a measure somewhat bigger than one Acre they have allotted to the Church for its temporal revenue forty seven millions of them In particular of the Archbishops Bishops Abbots and Parish Priests they of Aulx Alby Clumai and St. Estiennes in Paris are said to be the wealthiest The Archbishop of Aux in Gascoyne is valued at 400000. liures or 40000 li. English yearly The Bishop of Alby in Languedoc is prized at 100000. Florens which is a fourth part of it a great part of the revenue arising out of Saffron The Abbot of Clumac in the Dutchy of Burgundy is said to be worth 50000 Crowns yearly the present Abbot being Henry of Lorreine Archbishop of Rhemes and Abbot of St. Denis The Parish Priest of St. Estiennes is judged to receive yearly no fewer than eight thousand Crowns a good intrado As for the vulgar Clergy they have little tithe and less glebe most part of that Revenue being appropriated unto Abbies and other religious Houses The greatest part of their meanes is the Baisemen which is the Church offerings of the people at Christnings Marriages Burials Dirges Indulgences and the like which is thought to amount to almost as much as the temporal estate of the Church An Income able to maintain them in good abundance were it not for the greatness of their number For reckoning that there are as we have said in France one hundred and thirty thousand Parish Priests and that there are onely twenty seven thousand four hundred Parishes it must of necessity be that every Prrish one with another hath no fewer than four Priests too many to be rich But this were one of the least injuries offered to the French thrift and would little hinder them from rising if it were not that the goodliest of their preferments are before their faces given unto Boyes and Children An affront which not onely despaireth them of the honours due unto their callings but dishearteneth them in their studies and by consequence draweth them to debauched and slanderous courses Quis emim virtutem exquireret ipsam Praemia si tollas The Clergy therefore Anno 1617. being assembled at the house of Austin Friers in Paris as every two years they use to do being to take their leaves of the King elected the Bishop of Aire to be their Spokesman and to certifie his Majesty of their greivances In performing which business the principal thing of which he spake was to this purpose That whereas his Majesty was bound to give them Fathers he gave them Children that the name of Abbot signifieth a Father and the function of a Bishop was full of fatherly authority yet Erance notwithstanding was now filled with Bishops and Abbots which are yet in their Nurses arms or else under their Regents in Colledges Nay more that the abuse goeth before the being Children being commonly designed to Bishopricks Abbacies before they were born He also made another Complaint that the Sovereign Courts by their decrees had attempted upon the authority which was committed to the Clergy even in that which concerned meerly Ecclesiastical discipline and government of the Church To these Complaints he gave them indeed a very gratious hearing but it never went further than a hearing being never followed by redress The Court of Parliament knew too well the strength of their own authority and the King was loath to take from himself those excellent advantages of binding to himself his Nobility by the speedy preferring of their Children And so the Clergy departed with a great deal of envy and a little of satisfaction Like enough it were that the Pope would in part redress this injury especially in the point of Jurisdiction if he were able but his wings are shrewdly clipped in this Country neither can he flie at all but as farre as they please to suffer him For his temporal power they never could be induced to acknowledge it as we see in their stories Anno 1610. the Divines of Paris in a Declaration of theirs tender'd to the Queen Mother affirm the supremacy of the Pope to be an erroneus doctrine and the ground of that hellish position of deposing and killing of Kings Anno 1517. when the Council of Luteram had determined the Pope to be the Head of the Church in causes also temporal the Vuniversity of Paris testified against it in an Apoligie of theirs dated the twelfth of March the same year Leo decimus saith the Apologie in quidam coetu non tamen in spiritu Domini congregato contra fidem Catholicam c. sacrum Basiliense Concilium damnavit In which Councill of Basill the supremacy of the Pope was condemned Neither did the Kings of France forget to maintain their own authority And therefore whereas Pope Boniface the eighth had in a peremptory Letter Written to Phillip le Belle King of France stiled himself Dominus totius
He was a Prince of no heart to make a warriour and therefore Resistance was to him almost as much hugged as Victory It was Anthonies case in his Warre against the Parthians a Captain whose Launce King Lewis was not worthy to beare after him Crassus before him had been taken by that people but Anthonius made a retreat though with losse Hanc itaque fugam suam quia victus non exierat victoriam vocabat as Paterculus one that loved him not saith of him yet was King Lewis so puffed up with this conceit of victory that he ever after slâ—ighted his enemies and at last ruin'd them and their cause with them The Warre which they undertook against him they entituled the Warre of the Weale publick because the occasion of their taking Armes was for the liberty of the Countrey and the People both whom the King had beyond measure oppressed True it is they had also their particular purposes but this was the main and failing in the expected event of it all that they did was to confirme the bondage of the Realm by their owne overthrow These Princes once disbanded and severally broken none durst ever afterwards enter into the action for which reason King Lewis used to say that he had brought the Kings of France Hors Pupillage out of their Wardship a speech of more Brag than Truth The people I confesse he brought into such terms of slavery that they not long merited the name of Subjects but yet for this great boast the Nobles of France are the Kings Guardians I have already shewn you much of their potencie by that you may see that the French Kings have not yet sued their Outre le maine as our Lawyers call it Had he also in some measure broken the powerableness of the Princes he had then been perfectly his word's Master and till that be done I shall think his Successors to be in their Pupillage That King is but half himselfe which hath the absolute command onely of half his people The Battaile by this towne the common people impute to the English and so do many others which they had no hand in for hearing their Grandames talk of their Warres with our Nation and of the many Fields which we gained of them they no sooner heare talk of a pitch'd Field but presently as the nature of men in a fright is they attribute it to the English Good simple soules Qui nos non solum laudibus nostris ornare velint sed alienis onerare as Tullie in his Philippicks An humour just like unto that of little children who being once afrighted with the Tales of Robin Good-fellow do never after heare any noyse in the night but they streight imagine that it is he which maketh it or like the women of the villages neere Oxford who having heard the tragicall story of a Duck or a Hen killed and carried to the Vniversity no sooner misse one of their chickins but instantly they cry out upon the Schollars On the same false ground also hearing that the English whilst they had possessions in this Countrey were great builders they bestow on them without any more adoe the foundation and perfecting of most of the Churches and Castles in the Countrâ—y Thus are our Ancestors said to have built the Churches of Roven Amiens Bayon c. as also the Castles of Boys S. Vincennes the Bastile the two little Forts on the River side by the Louvre at S. Germaines and amongst many others this of Montl'herrie where we now are and all alike As for this Castle it was buâ—lt during the reigne of King Robert Anno 1015. by one of his servants named Thebald long before the English had any possâ—ssions in this Continent It was razed by Lewis the Grosse as being a harbourer of Rebells in former times and by that meanes as a strong bridle in the mouth of Paris nothing now standing of it save an high Tower which is seen a great distance round about and serveth for a Land-mark Two leaguâ—s from Montl'herrie is the twon of Chastres seated in the farthest angle of France where it confineth to la Beauss a town of an ordinary size somewhat bigger than for a market and lesse than would beseem a city A wall it hath and a ditch but neither serviceable further than to resist the enemy at one gate while the people run away by the other Nothing else remarkable in it but the habit of the Church which was mourning for such is the fashion of France that when any of the Noblesse are buried the Church which entombeth them is painted black within and without for the breadth of a yard or thereabouts and their coats of Armes drawn on it To goe to the charges of hanging it round with cloath is not for their profits Besides this countefeit sorrow feareth thieves dareth out-brave a tempest He for whom the Church of Chastres was thus apparelled had been Lord of the Towne by name as I remember Mr. St. Bennoist his Armes were argent three Crescents on a Mullet of the same but whether this Mullet were part of the Coat or a mark onely of difference I could not learn Thelike Funerall churches I saw also at Tostes in Normandie and in a Village of Picardie whose name I minde not nec operae pretium And now we are passed the confines of France a poore River which for the narrownesse of it you would think a ditch parting it from the Province of La Beausse La Beausse hath on the North Normandie on the East the Isle of France on the South the River of Loyer and on the West the Countreys of Tourein and le Main it lieth in 22 23 degree of Longitude and the 48 and 49 of Latitude taking wholly up the breadth of the two former and but part onely of each of the latter If you measure it for the best advantage of length you will finde it to extend from la Forte Bernard in the North west corner of it to Gyan in the South east which according to the proportion of degrees amounteth to 60 miles English and somewhat better for breadth it is much after the same reckoning The ancient inhabitants of this Province and the reason of the name I could not learn amongst the people neither can I find any certainty of it in my books with whom I have consulted If I may be bold to goe by conjecture I should think this countrey to have been the seat of Bellocassi a people of Gaule Celtick mentioned by Caesar in his Commentaries Certaine it is that in this Tract they were seated and in likelihood in this Province the names ancient and moderne being not much different in sense though in sound For the Franks called that which in Latine is pulcher or bellus by the name of Bell in the Masculine Gender Beu the Pronoune it and Beau as it were the Faeminine At this time Beau is Masculine and Belle Faeminine so that the name of Bellocassi
suffering unlesse it be not to hearken to their ribaldry which is one of their greatest torments To proceed after their song ended one of the company the Master of them it should seem draweth a dish out of his pocket and layeth it before us into which we were to cast our benevolence Custome hath allowed them a Sol for each man at the table they expect no more and will take no lesse no large summe and yet I assure you richly worth the musick which was meerly French that is lascivious in the composure and French also that is unskilfully handled in the playing Amongst the Ancients I have met with three kindes of Musick viz. First that which the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which consisted altogether of long notes or Spondees which was the gravest and saddest of all the rest called by Aristotle in the last Chapter of his Politicks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or morall because it setled the affections Boetius whom we account the classicall Author in this faculty called it Lydian because in much use with those of that Nation at this day We may call it Italian as being generally a peculiar musick to that people This is the Musick which Elisha called for to invite unto him the spirit of Prophesie 1 Kings 3.15 and this is it which is yet sung in our Churches A practice which we derive from the Ancients however some of late have opposed it and which is much commended by Saint Augustine this being the use of it Vt per oblectamenta aurium infirmior animus in pietatis affectum assurgat The second kinde the Artists call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which consisteth of a mixture of long and short notes or of the Dactylus The Philosopher termeth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being it had been in much esteem amongst the Dores a Greek Nation we may now call it English as being that Musick with which our Nation is particularly affected This is that Musick which cheereth the spirits and is so soveraign an Antidote to a minde afflicted and which as the Poet hath it doth Saxa movere sono The third sort is that which the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 consisting altogether of short notes or Tribracches Aristotle calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ravishing because it unhinged the affections and stirred them to lasciviousnesse Boetius termeth this Phrygian as being the strain of that wanton and luxuriant people In these times we may call it French as most delighted in by the stirring spirits and lightness of this Nation a note of Musick forbidden unto youth by Aristotle and Plato and not countenanced by any of them but on the common theatres to satisfie the rude manners and desires of the vulgar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to give them also content in their recreations yet is this Musick altogether in use in this Countrey no lesson amongst their profest Musicians that I could hear which had any gravity or solid Art shewed in the Composition They are pretty fellowes I confesse for the setting out of a Mask or a Coranto but beyond this nothing which maketh the Musick in their Churches so base and unpleasing so that the glory of perfect Musick at this time lyeth between the English and Italian that of France being as triviall as their behaviour of which indeed it is a concomitant Mutata Musica mutantur mores saith Tullie and therefore he giveth us this lesson Curandum itaque est ut musica quam gravissima sedatissima retineatur A good item for the French CHAP. II. The Countrey and Site of Orleans like that of Worcester The Wine of Orleans Praesidiall Townes in France what they are The sale of offices in France The fine walk and pastime of the Palle Malle The Church of St. Croix founded by Superstition of a Miracle defaced by the Hugonets Some things hated onely for their name The Bishop of Orleans and his priviledge The Chappel and Pilgrim of St. Jacques The form of Masse in St. Croix Censing a heathenish Custome The great Siege of Orleans raised by Joane the Virgin The valor of that Woman that she was no Witch An Eulogie on her WE are now come into the countrey of Orleans which though within the limits of La Beausse will yet be accounted an intire County of it selfe it is a dainty and pleasant Region very even and large in the fields of it insomuch that we could not see a hill or swelling of the ground within eye-reach It consisted of an indifferent measure of Corne but most plentiful of Vines and hath of all other Fruits a very liberall portion Neither is it meanly beholding to the Loyre for the benefits is receiveth by that River on which the City of Orleans it selfe is sweetly seated Of all places in England Worcester-shire in my opinion cometh most nigh it as well in respect of the Countrey as the scituation of the Towne for certainly that Countrey may be called the Epitome of England as that of France To the richest of the Corn-fields of Orleans we may compare the Vale of Evesham Neither will it yeild for choyce and variety of Fruits the Vine onely excepted The Hedges in that Countrey are prodigall and lavish of those trees which would become the fairest Orchards of the West and in a manner recompenceth the want of Wine by its plenty of Perry and Syder In a word what a good Writer hath said of one we may say of both Coelum solâ—m ita propitium habent ut salubritate ubertate vicinis non concedunt But the resemblance betweene the townes is more happy both seated on the second River of note in their severall Countreys and which are not much unlike in their severall courses Severn washing the walls of Gloucoster and passing nigh unto Bristoll seated on a little Rivulet and its Homager divideth the ancient Britaines from the rest of the English The Loyre gliding to the city Tours and passing nigh unto Angiers seated also within the land on a little River and one of its Tributaries separateth the modern Britaines from the rest of the French Posita est in loco modice acclivi ad flumen quod turrigero ponti conjungitur muro satis firmo munita saith Mr. Cambden of Worcester Orleans is seated on the like declivitie of an hill hath its bridge well fortified with Turrets and its walls of an equall ability of resistance Sed decus est ab incolis qui sunt numerosi humani ab aedificiorum nitore à templorum numero maxime à Sede Episcopali saith he of ours in genrall we may see it fitly applied to this in each particular The people of this town are not of the fewest no town in France the proportion of it considered being more populous for standing in so delicate an Aire and on so commodious a River it inviteth the Gentry or Noblesse of the countrey about it to inhabite there and they accept it Concerning their behaviour
and humanity certainly they much exceed the Parisians I was about to say all the French-men and indeed I not grudge them this Eulogie which Caesar giveth unto those of Kent and verifie that they are omnium incolarum longe humanissimi my selfe here observing more courtesie and affability in one day than I could meet withall in Paris during all my abode there The buildings of it are very suitable to themselves and the rest of France the streets large and well kept not yeilding the least offence to the most curious nostrill Parish Churches it hath in it 26. of different and unequall beeing as it useth to be in other places besides these it containeth the Episcopall Church of S. Croix and divers other houses of religious persons amongst which is St. Jacques of both which I shall speak in their due order Thus much for the resemblance of the Townes the difference betwixt them is this that Orleans is the bigger and Worcester the richer Orleans consisteth much of the Noblesse and of Sojourners Worcester of Citizens and Home-dwellers and for the manner of life in them so it is that Worcester hath the handsomer woman in it Orleans the finer and in my opinion the loveliest in all France Worcester thriveth the most on Cloathing Orleans on their Vine-presses And questionlesse the Wine of Orleans is the greatest riches not of the Towne onely but of the Countrey also about it For this cause Aâ—dre dis Chesne calleth it the prime Cellar of Paris Est une pars saith he si henreuse si secunde sur tout in vins quon la pent dice l'unde primiers celiers de Paris Those Vines wherein he maketh it to be so happy deserve no lesse a commendation than he hath given them as yeilding the best Wines in all the Kingdome such as it much moved me to mingle with Water they being so delicious to the Palate and the Epicurisme of the taste I have heard of a Dutch Gentleman who being in Italy was brought acquainted with a kinde of Wine which they there call Lachrymae Christi no sooner had he tasted it but he fell into a deep melancholy and after some seaven sighes besides the addition of two groâ—nes he brake out into this patheticall Ejaculation Dii boni quare non Christus lachrymatus esset in nostris regionibus This Dutchman and I were for a time both of one minde insomuch that I could almost have picked a quarrell with Nature for giving us none of this Liquor in England At last we grew friends again when I had perceived how offensive it was to the brain if not well qualified for which cause it is said that K. Lewis hath banished it his Cellar no doubt to the great grief of his drinking Courtiers who may therefore say with Martial Quid tantum fecere boni tibi pessima vina Aut quid fecerunt optima vina mali This towne called Genabum by Caesar was reedified by Aurelian the Emperour Anno 276. and called by his name Aurelianum which it still retaineth amongst the Latines It hath been famous heretofore for four Councels here celebrated and for being the seat royall of the Kings of Orleans though as now I could not heare any thing of the ruines of the Palace The same of it at this time consisteth in the Vniversity and its seat of Justice This town being one of them which they call Sieges Presidiaux Now these Seiges Presidiaux Seats or Courts of Justice were established in divers cities of the Realme for the ease of the people Anno 1551. or thereabouts In them all civill causes not exceeding 250 Liu'res in Money or 10. Liu'res in Rents are heard and determined soveraignly and without appeale If the summe exceed those proportions the appeale holdeth good and shall be examined in that Court of Parliament under whose jurisdiction it is Their Court here consisteth of a Baille whose name is Mr. Digion of twelve Counsellors two Lieutenants one civill the other criminall and a publique Notarie When Mr. Le Compte de St. Paul who is the Governour or Lieutenant Generall of the Province cometh into their Court he giveth precedency to the Baille in other places he receiveth it This institution of these Presidiall Courts was at first a very profitable ordinance and much eased the people but now it is grown burdensome The reason is that the offices are meere saâ—â—able and purchased by them with a great deale of money which afterwards they wrest againe out of the purses of the Paâ—sant The sale of Offices drawing necessarily after it the sale of Justice a mischief which is spread so far that there is not the worst under Officer in all the Realm Who may not say with the Captaine in the 22. of the Acts and the 28. verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 With a great summe of money obtained I this freedome Twenty yeares purchase is said to be no extraordinary rate and I have read that onely by the sale of Offices one of the Kings had raised in twenty yeares 139 millions which amounteth to the proportion of 7 millions yearly or thereabouts of all wayes to thrift and treasure the most unkindly In the yeare 1614. the King motioned the abolishing of the sales of this Market but it was upon a condition more prejudiciall to the people than the mischiefe For he desired in lieu of it to have a greater imposition laid upon Salt and upon the Aides which those that were Commissioners for the Câ—mmonalty would not admit of because then a common misery had been brought out of the State to make their particular miseries the greater and so the corruption remaineth unaltered This Towne as it is sweetly seated in respect of the aire so is it finely convenienced with the walks of which the chief are that next unto Paris gate having the wall on the one hand and a rank of Palm trees on the other the second that neere unto the bridge having the Water pleasingly running on both sides and a third which is indeed the principall on the East-side of the City it is called the Palle Malle of an exercise of that name much used in this Kingdome a very Gentleman-like sport not over violent and such as affordeth good opportunity of discourse as they walk from one mark to the other Into this walk which is of a wonderful length and beauty you shall have a clear evening empty all the towne the aged people borrowing legs to carry them and the younger armes to guide them If any young Dame or Monsieur walk thither single they will quickly finde some or other to link with them though perhaps such with whom they have no familiarity Thus do they measure and re-measure the length of the Palle Malle not minding the shutting in of the day till darkness hath taken away the sense of blushing at all houres of the night be it warm and dry you shall be sure to finde them thus coupled and if at the yeares end there
afforded us to shew us the mysterie of this silent jeâ—iculation The other addition which I observed here at the Masse though I have since been told that it is ordinrary at High Masses in Cathedrall Churches was the censing of the people which was performed in this manner Whiles the Priest was busie at the Altar there entred into the Quire at a side door two Boyes in their Surplices bearing waxe Tapers in their hands and immediately after them the foresaid fellow with the Crosse In the rare there came two of the Priests in their Copes and other stately vestments between both a young lad with the Incense pot made full of holes to let out the fume which he swinged on all sides of him with a chain to which it was fastned Having thus marched through the Church and censed the people he ascended unto the Altar there censed the Cross the Reliques the Bread and Wine the Chalice the Images and I know not what not A custome very much used amongst the Heathen Omnibus vicis factae sunt statuae ad eas thus cerei saith Tully and Jane tibi primùm thura merumque fero saith Ovid in his book de Fastis so have we in Martiall Te primùm pia thura rogent and the like in divers other writers of the Antients At what time it crept into the Churches of the Christians I cannot tell Sure I am it was not used in the Primitive times nor in the third Century after our Saviour save only in their Burialls Sciant sabae saith Tertullian who at that time lived plures chariores merces suas Christianis saepeliendis profligari quaÌ„ Diis fumigantibus Arnobius also in his first book adversus gentes disclaimeth the use of it and yet their Councel of Trent in the 22 Session defineth it to be as boldly an Apostolicall institution and tradition as if the Apostles themselves had told them so I know they had rather seem to derive it from the 10. chapter of Exodus and the 1. verse and so Bishop Durand is of opinion in his Rationale Divinorum but this will not help them Aaron there is commanded to burne Incense onely on the Altar and not to cense Men and Images Crosses and reliques as the Papists doe so that will they â—ill they they must be counted followers of the Heathen though I envy them not the honour of being Jewes From the History and Revenue of the Church proceed we to that of the Town where nothing occurreth more memorable than the great siâ—ge laid before it by the English A siege of great importance to both parties France having been totally won unto King Henry if this Town had yeelded and once so nigh it was to submit it selfe that the people proffered to yeeld themselves to Philip Duke of Burgundie then a great confederate of our Nation who had not been present in the Camp but this the English Generall would not consent unto and it was the resolution of Antigonus a long time before us Negavit Antigonus saith Justine se in ejus belli praedam socios admittere in cujus periculum solus descenderat On this determinate sentence of the Generall he was Montacute Earl of Salisbury the Town purposed to hold out a little longer and was at last relieved by Joane de Arca maid of vancoleure in Loraine whom they called la Puelle how by that excellent Soldier the Generall war slaine and the siege raised I need not relate it is extant in all our Chronicles This onely now that ever since that time the people of Orleans keep a solemn procession on every eighth day of May on which day An. 1427. their City was delivered from its enemies But the atchievements of this brave Virago stayed not here shâ— thinkes it not enough to dâ—pulse her enemies unlesse she also vanquish them armed therefore cap a pea she went to seek an occasion of battaile and was alwayes formost and in the head or her Troops Duxit Amazonidum lunatis agmina bellis Penthesilea furens mediisque in millibus ardeâ— For her first service she taketh Jargean discomfiteth the English which were in it and maketh the Earl of Suffolk Prisoner soon after followed the battaile of Patay in which the English were driven out of the field and the great Talbot taken This done she accompanieth Charles the 1. whose Angell-Guardian she was thought all Champayne unto Rhemes where she solemnly saw him Crowned all the Townes of those Countreyes yeelding upon the approach of her and the Kings Army Finally after many acts performed above the nature of her sexe which I will not stand here to particulate she was taken prisoner at the siege of Campaigne delivered over unto the Earle of Bedford by him sent unto Roven and there burnt for a Witch on the sixth of July Anno 1431. There was also another crime objected against her as namely that she had abused the nature of her sexe marching up and downe in the habit of a man nihil muliebre pâ—aeter corpus gerens of all accusations the most impotent for in what other habit could she dresse her selfe undertaking the actions of a General and besides to have worne her womans weeds in time of battaile had been to have betrayed her safety and to have made her selfe the marke of every Arrow It was therefore requisite that she should array her selfe in compleat harness and in that habit of compleat armour have those of Orleans erected those statua's all in brasse upon the middle of their bridge As for that other imputation of being a Witch saving the credit of those that condemned her and theirs also who in their writings have so reported her I dare be of the contrary opinion for dividing her actions into two parts those that precede her coming unto Orleans and those that followed it I find much in it of valour somewhat perhaps of cunning but nothing that is divelish her relieving of Orleans and courage shewn at the battaile of Patay and Gargean with the conducting of the King unto Rhemes are no such prodigies that they need to be ascribed unto Witchcraft She was not the first woman whom the world knew famed in armes there being no Nation almost of the Earth who have not had a Champion of this sexe to defend their liberties to omit the whole Nation of the Amazon's to the Jewes in the time of their afflictions the Lord raised up a Salvation by meanes of two women Deborah and Judith And God is not the God of the Jewes onely but also of the Gentiles Amongst the Sirvans Zenobia Queen of Palmira is very famous the Romans whom she often foiled never mentioning her without honour The like commendable testimony they give of Velleda a Queen amongst the Germanes and a woman which much hindered their affaires in that Countrey thus had the Gothes their Amalasunta the Assyrians their Semiramis the Scythians their Tomyres the Romans their Flavia and brave Captaines and such as
Julius Caesar at the time of his second expedition into Brittaine this Haven being then Portus Gessorianus This Tower which we now see seemeth to be but the remainder of a greater work and by the height and scituation of it one would guesse it to have been the Key or watch Tower unto the rest it is built of rude and vulgar stone but strongly cemented together the figure of it is six square every square of it being nine paces in length A compass to little for a Fortress and therefore it is long since it was put to that use it now serving onely as a Sea mark by day and a Pharos by night Vbi accensae noctu faces navigantium cursum dirigunt The English men call it the Old man of Boulogue and not improperly for it hath all the signes of age upon it The Sea hath by undermining it taken from it all the earth about two squares of the bottom of it the stones begin to drop out from the top and upon the rising of the wind you would think it were troubled with the Palsie in a word two hard winters seconded with a violent tempest maketh it rubbish what therefore is wanting of present strength to the Haven in this ruine of a Tower the wisdom of this age hath made good in a Garrison And here me thinks I might justly acâ—use the impolitick thrift of our former Kings of England in not laying out some money upon the strength and safety of our Haven Townes not one of them Portsmouth onely excepted being Garrison'd true it is that Henry the eighth did eâ—ect Block-Houses in many of them but what bâ—bles they are and how unable to resist a Flees royally appointed is known to every one I know indeed we were sufficiently Garrison'd by out Naâ—e could it either keep a watch on all particular places or had it noâ— sometimes occasion to be absent I hope our Kings are not of Darius mind in the storie quâ— gloriosius raâ—us est hostem 〈◊〉 quam non admittere neither will I take 〈◊〉 to give counsell onely I could wish that we were not inferiour to our neighbours in the greatness of our care since we are equal to the best of them in the goodness of our Country This Town of Boulogne and the Country about it was taken by Henry the eighth of England Anno 1545. himself being in person at the siege a very costly and chargeable victory The whole list of his Forces did amount to 44000. foot and 3000. horse Field Pieces he drew after him above a hundred besides those of smaller making and for the conveyance of their Ordinance baggage and other provision there were transported into the Continent above 25000. Horses True it is that his designes had a further aim had not Charles the Emperour with whom he was to join left the field and made peace without him So that judging onely by the success of the expedition we cannot but say that the winning of Boulonnois was a dear purchase and indeed in this one particular Sr. Walter Raleigh in the preface to his most excellent History saith not amiss of him namely that in his vain and fruitless expeditions abroad he consumed more treasure than all the rest of our victorious Kings before him did in their several Conquests The other part of his censure of that Prince I know not well what to think of as meerly composed of gall and bitterness Onely I cannot but much marvail that a man of his wisdom being raised from almost nothing by the Daughter could be so severely invective against the Father certainly a most charitable judge cannot but condemn him of want of true affection and duty to his Queen seeing that it is as his late Majesty hath excellently noted in his ΒΑΣΙΛΙΚΟΠΔΩΡΟΠa thing monstrous to see a man love the Child and hate the Parents And therefore he may earnestly enjoyn his Son Henry to repress the insolencie of such as under pretence to tax a vice in the person seek craftily to stain the Race Presently after this taking Boulogne the French again endeavoured the regaining of it even during the life of the Conquerour but he was strong enough to keep his gettings After his death the English being engaged in a warr against the Scots and Kit having raised a rebellion in Norfolk they began again the reconquest of it and that more violently than ever Upon news of their preparations an Ambassage was dispatched to Charles the fifth to desire succours of him and to lay before him the infancy and several necessity of the young King who was then about the age of ten years This desire when the Emperour had refused to hearken to they besought him that he would at the least be pleased to take into his hands and keeping the Town of Boulogne and that for no longer time than until King Edward could make an end of the troubles of his Subjects at home An easie request yet did he not onely deny to satisfie the King in this except he would restore the Catholike Religion but he also expresly commanded that neither any of his men or munition should go to the assistance of the English An ingratitude for which I cannot find a fitting Epithite considering what fast friends the Kings of England have alwayes been to the united Houses of Burgundy and Austria what moneys they have helped them with and what sundry warrs they have made for them both in Belgium to maintain their authority and in France to augment their potency from the marriage of Maximilian of the Family of Austria with the Lady Mary of Burgundie which happened in they ear 1478. unto the death of Henry the eighth which fell in the year 1548. are just seventy years in which time onely it is thought by men of knowledge and experience that it cost the Kings of England at the least six millions of pounds in the meer quarrels and defence of the Princes of those Houses An expense which might seem to have earned a greater requital than that now demanded Upon this denial of the unkindful Emperour a Treaty followed between England and France The effect of it was that Boulogne and all the Country of it should be restored to the French by paying to the English at two dayes of payment 800000. Crowns Other Articles there were but this the principal and so the fortune of young Edward was like that of Julius Caesar towards his end Dum clementiam quam praestiterant expectant incauti ab ingratis occupati sunt The CONCLUSION A Generall censure of France and the French A gratulation to England The end of our journey ON wednesday the third of August having stayed in Boulogne three dayes for wind and company and not daring to venture on Calice by reason of the sickness there raging we took ship for England the day fair and the wind fitly serving us we were quickly got out of the harbour into the main And so I take my leave of France