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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43553	A survey of the estate of France, and of some of the adjoyning ilands taken in the description of the principal cities, and chief provinces, with the temper, humor, and affections of the people generally, and an exact accompt of the publick government in reference to the court, the church, and the civill state / by Peter Heylyn ; pbulished according to the authors own copy, and with his content for preventing of all faith, imperfect, and surreptitious impressions of it.; Full relation of two journeys	Heylyn, Peter, 1600-1662.	1656 (1656)	Wing H1737; ESTC R9978	307,689	474

used in the reformed Churches But the reformed Churches are very many and their confessions in some points very different The Lutheran Confessions are for consubstantiation and ubiquity the English is for Homilies for Bishops for the Kings Supremacy and so not likely to be intended The confession then here intended must be that only of Geneva which Church alone is thought by some of them to have been rightly and perfectly reformed Chap. 4. 1. To propose the Word of God The fashion of it this such as by study have enabled themselves for the holy Ministery upon the vacancy of any Church have by the Collequie some time appointed to make trial as they call it of their gilt The day come and the Colloquie assembled they design him a particular place of Scripture for the ground of his discourse which done and the proponent for so they term him commanded to withdraw they passe their censures on him every one of them in their order if they approve of him they then send him also to propose unto the people as in the second Article Chap. 4. 〈◊〉 And that bareheaded And this it may be because Candidates p 〈…〉 venture because not yet initiated For themselves having once attained the honour to be Masters in Israel they permit their heads to be warmly covered a thing not in use only by the Ministers of the Geneva way but as my self have seen it among the Priests and Jesuites I know the putting on of the hat is a sign of liberty that the Laconians being made free Denizens of Lacedemon would never go into the battail nisi pileati without their hats and that the Gent. of Rome did use to manumit their slaves by giving them a cap whereupon ad pileum vocare is as much as to set one free Yet on the other side I think it little prejudicial to that liberty not to make such full use of it in the performance of those pious duti 〈…〉 True it is that by this book of Discipline the people are commanded to be uncovered during the Prayers the reading of the Text the ●inging of the Psalmes and the administration of the Sacraments Chap. 8. 3. But when I call to minde that S. Paul hath told us this 1 Cor. 11. That every man praying or prophecying with his head covered dishonoureth his head I shall applaud the pious modesty of the English ministery who keep their heads uncovered as well when they prophecy as when they pray To give them institution by imposition of hands A ceremony not used only in the Ordination if I may so call it of their Ministers but in that also of the Elder and of the Deacons persons meerly Laical But this in mine opinion very improperly for when the Minister whose duty it is instals them in their charge with this solemn form of words he doth perform it Je t' impose les mains c. viz. I lay mine hands upon you in the name of the Consistory by which imposition of hands you are advertised that you are set apart from the affairs of the world c. and if so how then can these men receive this imposition who for the whole year of their charge imploy themselves in their former occupations at times and that expired return again unto them altogether A meer mockage of a reverent ceremony Chap. 4. 3. Giving and receiving the hand of Association An ordinance founded on that in the 2. to the Gal. 5. viz. They gave unto me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship An embleme as it is noted by Theod. Beza on the place of a perfect agreement and consent in the holy faith Quod Symbolum esset nostrae in Evangelii doctrina summae cousensionis and much also to this purpose that of learned Chrysostome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This phrase of speech borrowed no question from the customes of those times wherein the giving of the hand was a most certain pledge of faith and amity So Anchises in the third book of Aeneids Dextram dat juveni atque animum praesenti pignore firmat so in another place of the same author Jungimus hospitio dextras Commissaque dextera dextrae in the Epistle of Phillis to Demophoon Whereupon it is the note of the Grammarians that as the front or fore-head is sacred to the Genius and the knees to mercy so is the right hand consecrated unto faith But here in Guernzey there is a further use made of this ceremony which is an abjuration of all other arts of preaching or of government to which the party was before accustomed and an absolute devoting of himself to them their ordinances and constitutions whatsoever So that if a Minister of the Church of England should be perchance received among them by this hand of association he must in a manner condemn that Church of which he was Chap. 5. 5. That they maintain them at the publick charge A bounty very common in both Islands and ordered in this manner the businesse is by one of the Assembly expounded to the three Estates viz. that N. N. may be sent abroad to the Universities of France or England and desrayed upon the common purse If it be granted then must the party bring in sufficient sureties to be bound for him that at the end of the time limited he shall repair into the Islands and make a profer of his service in such places as they think fit for him if they accept it he is provided for at home if not he is at liberty to seek his fortune Chap. 6. 3 How they behave themselves in their several families By which clause the Elders authorised to make enquiry into the lives and conversations of all about them not only aiming at it by the voice of fame but by tampering with their neighbours and examining their servants It is also given them in charge at their admission into office to make diligent enquiry whether those in their division have private prayers both morning and evening in their houses whether they constantly say grace both before meat and after it if not to make report of it to the Consistory A diligence in my minde both dangerous and ●awcy Chap. 8. 1. To be assistant at the publick prayers The publick prayers here intended are those which the Minister conceives according to the present occasion beginning with a short confession and so descending to crave the assistance of Gods Spirit in the exercise or Sermon then in hand For the forme the Geneva Psalter telleth us that it shall be left alla discretion du Ministre to the Ministers discretion the form of Prayers and of Marriage and of administration of the Sacraments there put down being types only and examples whereby the Minister may be directed in the general The learned Architect which took such great pains in making the Altare Damascenum tels us in that piece of his that in the Church of Scotland there is also an Agenda or form of prayer and of ceremony but for

Bishop of it was one Firminus a native of Pampelune in the Kingdom of Navarre who suffered Martyrdome under the Emperour Diocletian To him succeeded another Firminus to whom the first foundation of the Church is attributed The present Diocesan is named Franciscus Faber his intrade about 6000 crownes a year Chanoins there are in the Church to the number of forty of whose revenue I could not learn any thing neither could I be so happy as to see the head of St. John Baptist whis is said to be here entire though it cannot be denied that a piece of it is in the holy Chappell at Paris besides those fractions of it which are in other places CHAP. IV. Our Journey down the Some and Company The Town and Castle of Piquigni for what famous Comines censure of the English in matter of Prophecies A farewell to the Church of Amiens The Town and Castle of Pont D' Armie Abbeville how seated and the Garrison there No Governour in it but the Maior or Provost The Authors imprudent curiosity and the curtesie of the Provost to him The French Post-horses how base and tired My preferment to the Trunke-horse The horse of Philip de Comines The Town and strength of Monstreville The importance of these three Towns to the French border c. JUly the 30. we took boat to go down to Abbeville by the river of Some a river of no great breadth but deep and full the boat which carryed us was much of the making of those Lighters which live upon the Thames but that is was made more wi●ldie and fit for speed There were in it of us in all to the number of 30 persons or thereabouts people of all conditions and such with whom a man of any humor might have found a companion Under the tilt we espied a bevie of Lasses mixt with some young Gentlemen To them we applyed our selves and they taking a delight to hear our broken French made much of our company for in that little time of our abode there we had learned only so much of the French as a little child after a years practise hath of his mothers tongue Linguis dimidiata adhuc verba tentantibus loquela ipso offensantis linguae fragmine dulciori The Gentlewomen next those of Orleans were the handsomest that I had seen in France very pleasant and affable one of them being she which put my Religion to the touchstone of kissing the crosse of her beads Thus associated we passed merrily down the streame though slowly the delight which our language gave the companie and the content which their liberal humanity afforded to us beguiling the tediousnesse of the way The first thing we met with observable was the Town and Castle of Piquigni The Town poor and beggerly and so unlikely to have named the Province as Mercator would have it besides the disproportion and dissimilitude of the names The Castle situate on the top of the hill is now a place of more pleasure then strength as having command over an open and goodly Countrey which lyeth below it It belongeth as we have said to the Vid 〈…〉 te of Amiens and so doth the Town also This Town is famous among the French for a Tradition and a truth the Tradition is of a famous defeat given unto the English near unto it but in whose reign and under whose conduct they could not tell us Being thus routed they fled to this Town into which their enemies followed with them intending to put them all to the sword but at last their fury being allaied they proposed that mercy to them which those of G 〈…〉 ad did unto those of Ephraim in the Scriptures life and liberty being promised to all them which could pronounce this word Piquigni It seemeth it was not in those dayes a word possible for an English mouth for the English saying all of them Pequenie in stead of Piquigni were all of them put to the sword thus far the Tradition The Truth of story by which this Town is famous in the writers of both Nations is an enterview here given betwixt our Edward IV. and their Lewis XI upon the concluding of their nine years truce A circumstance of no great moment of it self had not Philip de Comines made it such by one of his own observations Upon this meeting the Chancellor of England being Bishop of Ely made an oration to both Kings beginning with a prophesie which said that in this place of Piquigni an honourable peace should be concluded between the two Kingdoms on this ground which himself also is the only man that relateth he hath built two observations the one I have not the originall by me That the English men are never unfurnished with Prophesies the other That they ground every thing they speak upon Prophesies How far those times were guilty of that humor I cannot say though sure I am that we are not the only men that were so affected Paulus Jovius in some place of his Histories I remember not the particular hath vindicated that quarrell for us and fastned the same imputation on the French So true is that of the Tragedian Quod quisque fecit patitur authorem scelus repetit And now being past Piquigni I have lost the sight of the Church of Amiens The fairest Fabrick and most rich to see That ere was guilty of mortalitie No present Structure like it nor can fame In all its bed-rols boast an equall name Let then the barbarous Egyptians cease So to extoll their huge Pyramides Let them grow silent of their Pharus and Conceale the other triumph of their Land And let the Carians henceforth leave to raise Their Mausolaea with such endlesse praise This Church alone doth the 〈…〉 much excell As they the lowest Cottages where do dwell The least of men as they those urnes which keep The s 〈…〉 st ashes which are laid to sleep Nor be thou vext thou glorious Queen of night Nor let a cloud of darknesse mesk thy light That renewnd Temple which the Greeks did call The worlds seventh wonder and the fairest of all That pile so famous that the world did see Two only great and high thy same and thee Is neither burnt and perisht Ephesus Survives the follies of Erostratus Only thy name in Europe to advance It was transported to the Realm of France And here it stands not robb'd of any grace Which there it had nor altred save in place Cast thy beams on it and t will soon be prov'd Thy Temple was not ruin'd but remov'd Nor are thy rites so chang'd but thou'lt aver This Christian is thy old Idolater But oh good God! how long shall thy decree Permit this Temple to Idolatrie How long shall they profane this Church and make Those sacred wals and pavements to partake Of their loud sins and here that Doctrine teach ' Gainst which the very stones do seem to preach Reduce them Lord unto thee make them see How ill this building and their

the French who in Queen Maries dayes had seized upon it Neer unto the Fort or Block-house afore mentioned a great quantity of this little Island is overlaid with sand driven thither by the ●ury of the Northwest-winde If we believe their Legends it proceeded from the just judgement of God upon the owner of those grounds who once but when I know not had made booty and put unto the Sword some certain Spaniards there shipwracked Four leagues from hence and to the Southwest and by west lyeth another of the smaller Islands called Serke six miles in circuit at the least which yet is two miles lesser in the whole compasse then that of Alderney An Isle not known at all by any name amongst the Antients and no marvail for till the 〈…〉 h of Queen Elizabeth or thereabou●s it was not peopled But then it pleased her Majesty to grant it for ever in Fee farme to Helier de Carteret vulgarly called Seigneur de St. Oen a principall Gentleman of the Isle of Jarsey and Grandfather to Sir Philip de Carteret now living By him it was divided into severall estates and leased out unto divers Tenants collected from the neighbour Islands so that at this day it may contain some forty housholds whereas before it contained only a poor hermitage together with a little Chappell appertaining to it the rest of the ground serving as a Common unto those of Guernzey for the breeding of their Cattell For strength it is beholding most to nature who hath walled it in a manner round with mighty rocks there being but one way or ascent unto it and that with small forces easie to be defended against the strongest power in Christendome A passage lately fortified by the Farmers here with a new plat-forme on the top of it and thereupon some four pieces of Ordinance continually mounted In this Island as also in the other there is a Bailiff and a Minister but both of them subordinate in matter of appeal unto the Courts and Colloquies of Guernzey During the reign of the late Queen Mary who for her husband Philips sake had engaged her self in a war against the French this Island then not peopled was suddenly surprized by those of that Nation but by a Gentleman of the Netherlands a subject of King Philips thus regained as the story much to this purpose is related by Sir Wal. Raleigh The Flemish Gentleman with a small Bark came to Anchor in the road and pretending the death of his Merchant besought the French that they might bury him in the Chappell of that Island offering a present to them of such commodity as they had aboard To this request the French were easily entreated but yet upon condition that they should not come on shoar with any weapon no not so much as with a knife This leave obtained the Fleming rowed unto the shoar with a Coffin in their Skiffe for that use purposely provided and manned with Swords and Arcubuishes Upon their landing and a search so strict and narrow that it was impossible to hide a pen-knife they were permitted to draw their Coffin up the Rocks some of the French rowing back unto the Ship to fetch the present where they were soon made fast enough and laid in hold The Flemings in the mean time which were on land had carryed their Coffin into the Chappell and having taken thence their weapons gave an alarme upon the French who taken thus upon the suddain and seeing no hopes of succour from their fellowes yeelded themselves and abandoned the possession of that place A stratagem to be compared if not preferred unto any of the Ancients did not that fatall folly reprehended once by Tacitus still reign amongst us Quod vetera extollimus recentium incuriosi that we extoll the former dayes and are carelesse of the present Two leagues from Serke directly Westward lyeth the chief Island of this Government by Antonine called Sarnia by Us and the French known now by the name of Garnzey or of Guernzey Situate in the 49 degree of Latitude between the 39 and 46 minutes of that degree eight leagues or thereabouts from the coast of Normandy and well-neer in an equall distance from Alderney and Jarsey The forme of it is much after the fashion of the Isle of Sicily every side of the triangle being about nine miles in length and 28 in the whole compasse In this circuit are comprehended ten Parishes whereof the principall is that of St. Peters on the Sea as having a fair and safe peer adjoyning to it for the benefit of their Merchants and being honoured also with a Market and the Plaidery or Court of Justice The number of the Inhabitants is reckoned neer about twenty thousand out of which there may be raised some two thousand able men although their trained Band consists only of twelve hundred and those God knows but poorly weaponed The aire hereof is very healthfull as may be well seen in the long lives both of men and women and the earth said to be of the same nature with Crete and Ireland not apt to foster any venemous creature in it Out of which generall affirmation we may do well to except Witches of whom the people here have strange reports and if an Ox or Horse perhaps miscarry they presently impute it to Witchcraft and the next old woman shall straight be hal'd to Prison The ground it self in the opinion of the Natives more rich and battle then that of Jarsey yet not so fruitfull in the harvest because the people addict themselves to merchandise especially leaving the care of husbandry unto their hindes Yet Bread they have sufficient for their use enough of Cattell both for themselves and for their ships plenty of Fish continually brought in from the neighbour seas and a Lake on the Northwest part of it neer unto the sea of about a mile or more in compasse exceeding well stored with Carpes the best that ever mortall eye beheld for ●ast and bignesse Some other Isles yet there be pertaining unto this Government of Guernzey but not many nor much famous Two of them lie along betwixt it and Serke viz. Arvie and Jet how whereof this last serveth only as a Parke unto the Governour and hath in it a few fallow Deer and good plenty of Conies The other of them is well-neer three miles in circuit a solitary dwelling once of Canons regular and afterwards of some Fryers of the Order of St. Francis but now only inhabited by Pheasants of which amongst the shrubs and bushes there is said to be no scarcity The least of them but yet of most note is the little Islet called Le●u situate on the North side of the Eastern corner and neer unto those scattered rockes which are called Les Hanwaux appertaining once unto the Dean but now unto the Governour Famous for a little Oratory of Cha●tery there once erected and dedicated to the honour of the Virgin Mary who by the people in those times was much sued

to by the name of our Lady of Lehu A place long since demolished in the ruine of it Sed jam periere ruinae but now the ruines of it are scarce visible there being almost nothing left of it but the steeple which serveth only as a sea-marke and to which as any of that party sail along they strike their top sail Tantum religio potuit suadere such a Religious opinion have they harboured of the place that though the Saint be gone the wals yet shall still be honoured But indeed the principall honour and glory of this Island I mean of Guernzey is the large capaciousnesse of the harbour and the flourishing beauty of the Castle I say the Castle as it may so be called by way of eminency that in the vale and those poorer trifles all along the Coasts not any way deserving to be spoken of Situate it is upon a little Islet just opposite unto Pierport or the Town of St. Peter on the Sea to which and to the peere there it is a good assurance and takes up the whole circuit of that Islet whereupon it standeth At the first it was built upon the higher part of the ground only broad at the one end and at the other and bending in the fashion of an horne whence it had the name of Cornet By Sir Leonard Chamberlane Governour here in the time of Queen Mary and by Sir Thomas Leighton his successour in the reign of Queen Elizabeth it was improved to that majesty and beauty that now it hath excellently fortified according to the moderne art of war and furnished with almost an hundred piece of Ordinance whereof about sixty are of Brasse Add to this that it is continually environed with the Sea unlesse sometimes at a dead-low water whereby there is so little possibility of making any approaches neer unto it that one might justly think him mad that would attempt it And certainly it is more then necessary that this place should be thus fortified if not for the safety of the Island yet at the least for the assurance of the Harbour An harbour able to contain the greatest Navy that ever failed upon the Ocean fenced from the fury of the winds by the Isles of Guernzey Jet-how Serke and Arvie by which it is almost encompassed and of so sure an anchorage that though our Ships lay there in the blustering end of March yet it was noted that never any of them slipped an anchour Other Havens they have about the Island viz. Bazon L' Aucresse Fermines and others but these rather landing places to let in the Enemy then any way advantageous to the trade and riches of the people A place not to be neglected in the defence of it and full of danger to the English State and Trafick were it in the hands of any enemy Upon the notable advantage of this harbour and the conveniency of the Peer so neer unto it which is also warranted with six peece of good Canon from the Town it is no marvell if the people betake themselves so much unto the trade of Merchandise Nor do they trafick only in small boats between St Malos and the Islands as those of Jarsey but are Masters of good stout Barks and venture unto all these neerer Ports of Christendom The principall commodity which they use to send abroad are the works and labours of the poorer sort as Wast-cotes Stockins and other manufactures made of wool wherein they are exceeding cunning of which wooll to be transported to their Island in a certain proportion they lately have obtained a licence of our Princes But there accreweth a further benefit unto this people from their harbour then their own trafick which is the continuall concourse and resort of Merchants thither especially upon the noise or being of a War For by an antient priviledge of the Kings of England there is with them in a manner a continuall truce and lawfull it is both for French men and for others how hot soever the war be followed in other parts to repair hither without danger and here to trade in all security A priviledge founded upon a Bull of Pope Sixtus IV. the 10 year as I remember of his Popedom Edward IV. then reigning in England and Lewis XI over the French by virtue of which Bull all those stand ipso facto excommunicate which any way molest the Inhabitants of this Isle of Guerazey or any which resort unto their Island either by Piracy or any other violence whatsoever A Bull first published in the City of Constance unto whose Diocesse these Islands once belonged afterwards verifyed by the Parliament of Paris and confirmed by our Kings of England till this day The copy of this Bull my self have seen and somewhat also in the practise of it on record by which it doth appear that a man of war of France having taken an English ship and therein some passengers and goods of Guernzey made prize and prisoners of the English but restored these of Guernzey to their liberty and to their own And now at last after a long passage and through many difficulties we are Anchored in the Isle of Jarsey known in the former ages and to Antonine the Emperor by the name of Cesarea An Island situate in the 49 degree of Latitude between the 18 and 24 minutes of that degree distant 5 leagues only from the Coast of Normandy 40 or thereabouts from the neerest parts of England and 6 or 7 to the South east from that of Guernzey The figure of it will hold proportion with that long kind of square which the Geometricians call Oblongum the length of it from West to East 11 miles the breadth 6 and upwards the whole circuit about 33. The aire very healthy and little disposed unto diseases unlesse it be unto a kinde of Ague in the end of Harvest which they call Les Settembers The soil sufficiently fertile in it self but most curiously manured and of a plentifull increase unto the Barn not only yeelding Corne enough for the people of the Island but sometimes also an ample surplusage which they barter at St. Malos with the Spanish Merchants The Countrey generally swelling up in pretty hillocks under which lie pleasant Vallies and those plentifully watered with dainty Ril● or Riverets in which watery commodity it hath questionlesse the precedency of Guernzey Both Islands consist very much of small Inclosure every man in each of them having somewhat to live on of his own Only the difference is that here the mounds are made with ditches banks of earth cast up well fenced and planted with several sorts of apples out of which they make a pleasing kinde of Sider which is their ordinary drink whereas in Guernzey they are for the most part made of stones about the height and fashion of a Parapet A matter of no small advantage in both places against the fury of an enemy who in his marches cannot but be much annoyed with these incombrances and shall be

with greater patience to the rest of the story of this Island which in brief is this That after the death of Queen Many Religion was again restored in the reformation of it to these Islands In which state it hath ever since continued in the main and substance of it but not without some alteration in the circumstance and forme of Government For whereas notwithstanding the alteration of Religion in these Islands they still continued under the Diocese of Constance during the whole Empire of King Henry the VIII and Edward the VI. yet it seemed good to Queen Elizabeth upon some reasons of State to annex them unto that of Winton The first motive of it was because that Bishop refused to abjure the pretended power which the Pope challengeth in Kingdomes as other of the English Prelates did but this displeasure held not long For presently upon a consideration of much service and intelligence which might reasonably be expected from that Prelate as having such a necessary dependence on this Crown they were again permitted to his jurisdiction At the last and if I well remember about the 12 year of that excellent Ladies Reign at the perswasion of Sir Amias Paulet and Sir Tho. Leighton then Governours they were for ever united unto Winchester The pretences that so there might a fairer way be opened to the reformation of Religion to which that Bishop was an enemy and that the secrets of the State might not be carryed over into France by reason of that entercourse which needs must be between a Bishop and his Ministers The truth is they were both resolved to settle the Geneva discipline in every Parish in each Island for which cause they had sent for Snape and Cartwright those great incendiaries of the English Church to lay the ground-work of that building Add to this that there was some glimmering also of a Confiscation in the ruine of the Deanries with the spoyles whereof they held it fit to enrich their Governments Matters not possible to be effected had he of Constance continued in his place and power But of this more in the next Chapter CHAP. III. 1 The condition of Geneva under their Bishop 2 The alteration there both in Politie and 3 in Religion 4 The state of that Church before the coming of Calvin thither 5 The conception 6 birth and 7 growth of the New Discipline 8 The quality of Lay-elders 9 The different proceedings of Calvin 10 and Beza in the propagation of that cause 11 Both of them enemies to the Church of England 12 The first entrance of this platforme into the Islands 13 A permission of it by the Queen and the Councell in St. Peters and St. Hilaries 14 The letters of the Councell to that purpose 15 The tumults raised in England by the brethren 16 Snape and Cartwright establish the new Discipline in the rest of the Islands THus having shewed unto your Lordship the affairs and condition of these Churches till the Reformation of Religion I come next in the course of my designe unto that Innovation made amongst them in the point of Discipline For the more happy dispatch of which businesse I must crave leave to ascend a little higher into the story of change then the introduction of it into those little Islands So doing I shall give your Lordship better satisfaction then if I should immediately descend upon that Argument the rather because I shall deliver nothing in this discourse not warranted to be by the chief contrivers of the Discipline To begin then with the first originall and commencement of it so it is that it took the first beginning at a City of the Allobroges or Savoyards called Geneva and by that name mentioned in the first of Cesars Commentaries A Town situate at the end of Lacus Lemannus and divided by Rhodanus or Rhosne into two parts Belonging formerly in the Soveraignty of it to the Duke of Savoy but in the profits and possession to their Bishop and homager of that Dukedome To this Bishop then there appertained not only an Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction as Governour of the Church under the Archbishop of Vienna in Daulphinoys his Metropolitane but a jurisdiction also temporall as Lord and Master of the Town under the protection of the Duke of Savoy This granted by the testimony of Calvin in his Epistle unto Cardinall Sadolet dated the last of August 1539. Habebat sane saith he jus gladii alias civilis jurisdictionis partes but as he conceived I know not on what grounds Magistratui ereptas fraudulently taken from the Civill Magistrate In this condition it continued till the year 1528. when those of Berne after a publick disputation held had made an alteration in Religion At that time Viret and Farellus men studious of the Reformation had gotten footing in Geneva and diligently there sollicited the cause and entertainment of it But this proposall not plausibly accepted by the Bishop they dealt with those of the lower rank amongst whom they had gotten most credit and taking opportunity by the actions and example of those of Berne they compelled the Bishop and his Clergy to abandon the Town and after proceeded to the reforming of his Church This also avowed by Calvin in his Epistle to the said Cardinall viz. That the Church had been reformed and setled before his coming into those quarters by Viret and Farellus and that he only had approved of their proceedings Sed quia quae a Vireto Farello facta essent suffragio meo comprobavi c. as he there hath it Nor did they only in that tumult alter the Doctrine and orders of the Church but changed also the Government of the Town disclaiming all alleagiance either to their Bishop or their Duke and standing on their own liberty as a free City And for this also they are indebted to the active counsels of Fare●●us For thus Calvin in his Epistle to the Ministers of Zurich dated the 26 of November 1553. Cum hic nuper esset frater noster Farellus cui se totos debent c. and anone after Sed deploranda est senatus nostri caecitas quod libertatis suae patrem c. speaking of their ingratitude to this Farellus The power and dominion of that City thus put into the hands of the common people and all things left at liberty and randome it could not be expected that there should any discipline be observed or good order in the Church The Common-councell of the Town disposed of it as they pleased and if any crime which antiently belonged to Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction did h●p to be committed it was punished by order from that Councell No censures Ecclesiasticall no sentence of Excommunication thought on at that time either here at Geneva or in any other of the popular Churches Si quidem excommunicationi in aliis Ecclesiis nullus locus as Beza hath it in the life of Calvin And the same Calvin in his Epistle to the Ministers