there were particular Magistrates appointed unto whom every private Man was obliged to give an account every year of all that he had done throughout the year which was executed with so much exactness and rigor that if any one had taken an ill course to live or not preserv'd his Estate he was severely punish'd for it The same thing was done at Athens and the Romans had Censors who took the like care they had it in charge to make a review of all the People every fisth year and inform the Senate of all that was amiss in the Commonwealth I have often wondred that there is no such Officer in France and that each ones Estate is not precisely known which 'tis hugely important it should be because in difficult times when the Kingdom perceives it self involv'd in urgent necessities succor must be drawn from every one in proportion to his Interest in the Publick Fortune that is in proportion to what he possesseth in the Kingdom Expence must be made with good Husbandry and a judicious parcimony observed in it that it run not out to a profusion on one hand nor sink into a sordid avarice on the other If Measure and Rule be not kept in the issuing out of Money all the Gold of Asia will be but a small matter Caligula found the way to consume in his debauches in one year the immense Treasures which his Predecessor had been heaping up all along the whole course of his Empire Thus it is expedient that a King do cause the sums to be paid which are charged upon the Receipt of his Finances and also that He give liberally but always so order the matter by his Prudence that nothing go out of or be kept in his hand but for the preservation and prosperity of His Subjects I said in a former Chapter that there were too many Officers in France that the wages they draw from the King were unprofitable nay prejudicial to the State Since the Sale of Offices was introduced divers new Creations have been made All these Edicts were meerly to get Money in some pressing Occurrences and nothing but the conjunctures of the time rendred them tolerable Now that those occurrences are over and the conjunctures pass'd things must be reduc'd to due order by suppressing all those new Officers I noted that wherever Magistracy brought gain disorders would creep in the reason of which is very clear and very natural For it is infallibly certain that Judges will augment the number of Suits while those Suits will bring them in profit Consequently useless Officers being suppress'd and provision made in the case by a due reduction sufficient Salaries must be allowed them and they forbidden to take any thing of the Plaintiff or Defendant upon the Penalties express'd in the ancient Statutes And that the King might make a stock to raise those Salaries without charging His Finances it should be ordained that such as go to Law shall when they commence their Suit deposite a certain sum into the hands of the Clerks this to be done in all the Royal Jurisdictions As for other Judges they ought to take nothing at all the proprietary Lords must defray the charge of their Courts if they will keep up the Power to hold them they having it of the King upon this condition from the first Grant of the Fiefs In matter of the Finances it is not sufficient to have the Secret of getting Money and the skill of duly expending it but there must be also a right course taken to make reserves of it The Romans had a publick Treasury where every year they laid up certain sums for the necessities of the Commonwealth Other Nations were no less provident History tells us of the Stores of David of Croesus of Midas and many others The King having setled an Order in His Finances both as to Expences and Receipt it will be very prudently done of Him to limit what he shall think fit to reserve and this reservation should make the first Article in his Finances and be continued until he hath in his Coffers in some secret place the fourth part at least of all the Coin in the Kingdom the rest if well us'd may be sufficent for all the People to maintain Commerce and pay the King's Revenues I say this reserve should be in a secret place and known only to persons of approved Fidelity For if many had notice of it such a store might occasion Seditions and Civil Wars Now a fourth part of the Money being once laid up apart in the King's Coffers some addition to it shall be made continually from year to year in proportion to what comes in anew Yet liberty must be left to Persons for some time to have Gold and Silver Plate yea it would do well to augment the use and mode of having it if it may be and that for three reasons First because the Goldsmiths perceiving hope of gain will not want inventions and industries to get into France as much Mettal as possibly they may either in ingots or barrs or coyned pieces Secondly because by this means Riches will be kept in the Kingdom and when a season for it comes all they that are owners of such Plate may be commanded to carry it to the Mint and there receive the price of it The third reason is because the Goldsmiths having wrought up and made Plate contrary to the direction of the Statute which undoubtedly they will do a search may be made in the case if affairs require a search highly just and no less advantageous Two regulations must be made for the Goldsmiths and they enjoyned to observe them upon pain of forfeiting Life and Goods and so strict an hand held over them that of all who trangress not a Man be pardoned The first is to prohibit their working upon any piece of Gold or Silver Coyn. The second that they do not change the form of any prohibited Plate rectifie and mend it they may At the same time all Persons that have any such and would put it off must be commanded upon great penalties to carry it to the Mint where ready Money shall be paid them for it at the currant price they making proof that they are the true owners and this to avoid Thieveries which may have been committed These two regulations will oblige the Goldsmiths to make use of new Silver or Foreign Coyns and thus they would cause a very considerable quantity of either to enter into France The State would receive no small profit by taking a due order in matter of Coyn. It should be ordained therefore in the first place that no more be made any where but at Paris and all other Mints and their Officers suppress'd as Useless The Romans who had so much Money had but one place to make it in which was a Temple of Juno's at Rome Charlemain forbad any Money to be made otherwhere than in His Palace And the truth is should all the Money of France
confers them as a distribution made to His Creatures and that He may cause them by sensible means to experiment His Goodness The Magnificence of a Man renders him considerable if his Spirit in it be Great and Heroick But it is not enough to have spoken of that which constitutes Felicity we must take some account of the means which conduce unto it Nature Constancy and Reason do contribute to endue us with Virtue The two former do enrich the Mind and dispose it to receive Virtue then Reason being cleared by the light of Precepts makes it spring up and cultivates it Of all Precepts those of greatest efficacy are the Political which being indeed Laws do command and oblige Men to obey in a manner blindly necessitating and constraining us to live well whether we will or no. 'T is upon this ground it hath been said That there lies no servitude at all in submitting to the power of the Law and that it 's the proper act of Men truly free to reduce their inclinations and subject their practice to the same Forasmuch as the conforming of Life and Manners to the impulses of Virtue which is always right always uncorrupt is in truth a setting our our selves at full liberty and an enfranchisement from the Empire of importunate and irregular Passions But of these general Theses enough It is time at length to enter upon the subject which occasion'd my taking up the design of this present Treatise CHAP. III. 1. Of the French Monarchy 2. Of the Situation and Quality of France 3. Of the Nature of the French THE Monarchick Government doth not more excell other Governments than the French Monarchy doth all other Monarchies on Earth It is hereditary and for Twelve whole Ages there hath been seen Reigning from Male to Male upon the Throne of France the August Posterity of Meroue of Charlemagne and of Hugh Capet For it is exactly proved that these three Races of our Kings are Branches issued out of the same Stock This very Succession so Legitimate as it hath been and so long continued makes at present the surest foundation of the welfare of the State and carries in it Splendor Reputation and Majesty Indeed to how many Ills are Elective Kingdoms exposed How many Cabals How many Complottings and in truth Wars are kept on foot by so many different agitations The one and the other Roman Empire and the Kingdom of the Poles do administer sensible proofs of this Opinion If the Spartans heretofore did draw so great an advantage from the Honour they had to be commanded by Princes of the Blood of Hercules The French have far greater cause to glory since in the Catalogue of His Majesties triumphant Ancestors there may be counted an hundred Heroes greater than Hercules himself Is there a Monarch in the World whose just power is more absolute than that of our King and by consequent is there a Monarchy comparable to the French Monarchy It is necessary that the power of a good King be not confin'd within other bounds than Reason and Equity do prescribe otherwise there will ever be division between Princes and People to the ruin of them both What a disorder would it be in Man if the Eye or Hand should fail of following the impulses of the Soul this disobeying and rebellious Member would prove dead or seized with a Palsie If then the whole Body should fall into an universal revolt against the Spirit of Man all the Symmetry the Order and oeconomy would be utterly defaced Thus the Subjects in a Monarchy once ceasing to yield their King a full Obedience and the King ceasing to exercise His Soveraign Authority over them the Political Ligatures are broken the Government is dissolved by little and little all is reduced to extream calamities and oft-times to Anarchy and an annihilation Such are the inconveniencies that occur in Royalties of the Lacedemonian kind where the Prince hath but a limited Authority and if all that England suffer'd in the late times were pourtray'd here it would be easie to observe of what importance it is unto the felicity of a Monarchy that the Prince do in it command without restriction In fine the obedience of instrumental parts as those of Organical Bodies and the Subjects of a State is of so indispensible a necessity that the common good and conservation of that Whole which they compose depends upon it In Democracies even the most tumultuous and disorderly all must bow under the Will of the multitude though blind ignorant and seduced in like manner the parts of the Bodies of Brutes must act by their motions though they be in rage and madness And the reason of this necessity is that the Body and the Soul which is the form thereof are but one indivisible Whole so a King and Subjects are together but one whole that is one State In fine the French Monarchy is accompanied with all the mixture that can be desired for a compleat and perfect Government The Counsellors of State do compose an excellent Oligarchy in it The Parliaments and other Officers of Judicature do form an Aristocracy The Provosts of Merchants the Mayors the Consuls and the General Estates do represent rarely well limited Democracy so that all the different modes of governing by Laws being united in the Monarchy do render it as excellent and consummate as Reason can propose The Regality of France is therefore of the Oeconomick kind in which the King hath an absolute power in his State as the Father of a Family in his House and though he govern at His pleasure and without contradiction it is always for the good of His Kingdom even as the Master of an House does Rule it with an entire Authority and incessantly provides for the accommodating of this Family There is nothing Despotical nor Barbarous in France as in the States of the Moscovites and Turks In short our Laws are Holy and Equitable to a greater degree than in any Common-wealth that ever was and they are conceived with so much prudence and judgement that they are apt to make the People happy in the gentle times of Peace and enable them to triumph in the occasions of War The Situation and Compactness of France are known to all the World so that it would be a needless labour should I here expatiate to shew the Beauty and Richness of our Grounds and of our Rivers or declare how we abound in Wine in Corn in Silk in Wools in Cloth in Wood in Cattle in Salt in Mines and in Money how necessary we are to our neighbours and to what degree we may forego their Succors and their Merchandise I might justly be accus'd of a fondness for superfluous Discourse if I should particularly consider all these great advantages and as much if I should speak of the pureness of the Air and the incredible number of Inhabitants the most ignorant having a full and an assured knowledge of ' em I shall only say that it need not
bearing both the Shield and Thunder-bolt of Jupiter her Father do therein let us know that the Wisdom of a good King ought to serve Him both for Peace and War And such was the manner of teaching in deepest and most remote Antiquity Philosophy then but growing up and bashful durst not shew her full lustre unto deprav'd and ignorant men to whom She was yet very much a Stranger She accosted them veiled with the shadows of Fable and went softly and secretly about the preparing of their reason to receive her illuminations and instructions But to return to our similitude A Storm doth not reach to the whole extent of the Ocean and whatever Tumults be in some part of a Kingdom yet the whole doth not so feel the shock of War but that in others Peace subsists so as the Glory of Arms and the Contentments of a full Tranquility may be had together Nevertheless since these two different times do require like different cares each of which were enough to take up the whole application of an excellent King it is expedient to consider them severally Peace is undoubtedly proper for the Cultivation of Arts and Sciences Knowing Men there must be in a Common-wealth it being necessary that there should be good Men. For knowledge 't is that enlightens our Soul shews us Virtue and inflames us with desire to possess it I joyn Sciences here and Arts it being impossible that Men should have the one without the other For as they are Images of GOD they are mov'd by a natural propension to produce one thing or other so that having acquired general Speculative Principles they necessarily descend to Practical operations which are perform'd by particular Rules from whence Arts take their rise This is done during a Calm then the Soul not interrupted by any violent agitation enjoys and by reflections which by its leisure and repose permit it to make views its self 'T is in these precious hours that it may come to know the Dignity of its Original and be assured of its Immortality At such a time having and keeping its faculties united it gathers the fruit of a solid Wisdom which is unto the Soul as the Sun is to the Eyes of the body and being of all goods the greatest communicates its self in precepts whereof Law is the abstract and consummation giving the same spirit to all the People To proceed it is important that Cities be enrich'd with publick Buildings as Temples Palaces and other sumptuous Edifices because People have by that means the more affection for their Country The Trojans regretting their defeat were griev'd more for the ruine of Troy than the subversion of its Empire And the Jews in Babylon lamented the demolishing of the Temple where they had offered their sacrifices more than they did the loss of their Liberty This affection of People for their Country is likewise augmented by the contentment they receive in it and this Maxim was a principal reason why the Greeks and Romans exhibited to their Subjects publick shews 'T is in a time of Peace that a Prince should prepare His Forces for War yea He ought to be always in Arms they being the Ornament of His Royal Majesty and support of the Laws A People not armed does degenerate and we see that Nations heretofore eminently redoubtable are now bankrupt as to Valour and Reputation Croesus after his defeat counselled Cyrus His Conqueror in recompence for the Favour which had been shewed him to disarm the Lydians and promote among them Musick good Cheer and Pleasures so they would never revolt nor fail of obeying His Command This Counsel of Croesus was really good For by that means the Inhabitants of Lydia lost their former love for War and forgat their ancient virtue Yet it is not expedient that Arms which are the Kings for He hath the power of the Sword should be in the hands of all private Persons alike and the difference between a Citizen and a Gentleman a Soldier and a Country-Labourer not be discern'd Arms therefore must be in their hands whom the King intends for that employment and He being every ones Protector securing all by His Authority all others must be expresly forbidden to bear any without His permission upon pretence of Hunting or Journey or Enemies and this upon pain of being Fined and in case of reiterated Offence sent to the Gallies These Penalties too must not be meerly comminatory but as they term it Legal and of indispensible necessity Not that Gentlemen should all be depriv'd of the liberty to wear a Sword on the contrary 't is fit to be injoyn'd them that they never neglect to do it because it is the mark of their Quality and continually minds them of the Virtue of their Ancestors It may be prohibited them to carry Fire-arms yet 't is convenient to permit them to keep in their Houses Musquers Fire-locks Pistols and other Arms for that they naturally are Defenders of the State and by consequence ought to be furnish'd for any occasion that may be offered For the same reason 't is meet that Gentlemen be enjoyn'd to keep their Stables stor'd with good Horses to breed up and manage a number of them for their Service in War But to this end the use of German Horses for the Coach must be forbidden and none of them suffered to come into France but Mares only for breed Lawyers Ecclesiasticks Citizens Merchants Artificers Husbandmen should never wear a Sword because 't is not their Profession and I would as much approve a Gentleman's fancying to wear a Lawyers Gown or a Priests Cassock But that no such person do abuse this Honourable mark it must be ordained as a fundamental Law of Honour that whoever strikes with a Sword a Man who not being of such profession has none shall be declared actually fallen from all Honour and as a very Plebeian yea Villain to use the old word deprav'd from all Gentility and reduc'd to the rank of a Labourer Since Arms are the Kings as I said it is expedient that there be Magazines in divers parts of the Kingdom they committed to the custody of safe Hands and persons of unquestionable Fidelity in them a store of all sorts of Arms Offensive and Defensive ready fix'd to Arm 40000 Men. There should be Equipage for Horses Boots Spurrs One of these Magazines should be plac'd at Paris to cover Picardy Champagne and Normandy One at Lion for any occasion that might happen on the side of the Mediterranean of Italy of Swisserland or the Franche Comte One at Tholouse or some other City of Languedoc for all that might be apprehended from Spain or the Sea of Guyenne And one at Anger 's to secure the Coasts of Bretagne and Poictou There need be beside these two Arsenals for the Sea which I shall speak of in their place It will be necessary to have in the Magazines a good number of Cannon for Battery and of Field-pieces ready mounted with Powder Ball
who is so clear-sighted see what an impoverishment it is to his Kingdom that France be tributary to a Stranger under the Title of Annates Offerings Dispensations Absolutions and Causes Matrimonial Against these Depredations our ancient Kings had provided some remedy by the pragmatick Sanctions vext to see the fairest Revenue of the Kingdom pass over the Alps by a Religious spoil and go into the Purses of those who laugh at our simplicity But what reason is there that they who pay so willingly Tribute to the Pope should make so great difficulty in paying to the King Is it not because they believe they owe all to the Pope and nought to the King St. Paul teaches them to pay Tribute to the Higher Powers inasmuch as they are Ministess of God And St. Chrysostom commenting upon this Text tells them who are these higher Powers If says he the Apostle has establisht this Law whilst the Princes were Pagans how much more ought this to be done under Princes that are Believers And he had said before The Apostle commands this to all even to the Priests Which is more he adds though thou art an Apostle though thou art an Evangelist or a Prophet or what ever else thou art From St. Ambrose we have the same Lesson in his Oration of delivering the Temples If Tribute be demanded refuse it not the Lands of the Church pay Tribute Even Pope Vrban and the Roman Decretal say That the Church pays Tribute of its exterior Goods Also That Tribute must be paid to the Emperors in acknowledgment of the Peace and Repose in which they ought to maintain and defend us The right of Kings and Truth must needs be very strong that could draw from the Pope and his Canonistical Doctors this acknowledgment For the Canon Law was not founded for any other end but to supplant the Civil Laws and establish the Popes Jurisdiction throughout This is a Body of Foreign Laws that have their Tribunal apart and that depends on a Foreign Prince and where the King has nothing to do but look on I mean till such time as he shall please to take cognizance of so unreasonable an Usurpation And forbid that any Cause be judged in France by other Authority than His and much less any Cause commenc'd in France be appeal'd to Rome And in truth he is but a King by halfs till he alone possess all the Jurisdiction exercis'd within his Kingdom This is what Charles du Moulin said in an Epistle to Henry II. where he writes freely against the Empire that the Pope has set up within our France where the Pope has Subjects that submit not to the Laws of the King but to those of the Pope which are the Canon-Law and the Constitutions that come from Rome But some may object Would you have the King judge in Spirituals I Answer That if the King ought not to be Judge it does not follow that the Pope must The King has his Bishops that may and ought to judge of matters purely Spiritual but of nought without being authoriz'd by the King and there is no need of an Authority out of the Kingdom for this I will say more That the Ecclesiastical Government is a part of the Office of a King For so it was in the Kingdom of Israel And who would believe that in this Age and in Spain where the Inquisition Reigns King Philip IV. assum'd to himself the Soveraign Power of Churches within his Dominions For this purpose he apply'd that excellent passage of Isodore which is attributed also to the Council of Paris That the Secular Princes should know that they ought to give an account of the charge of the Church committed to them by Jesus Christ for whether that the Peace or the Discipline receive improvement by believing Princes or that they are impair'd He who committed the Church to their Power will demand an account O the excellent passage O the Holy Lesson God give all Christian Kings the Grace so well to learn it that they may never leave this Charge of the Church which Jesus Christ has committed to them upon the hands of Strangers and when they have taken it into their own hands to acquit themselves worthily and render a good account Alas Alas Have Kings Eyes to see their Rights and have they no hands to maintain them Are they quick-sighted enough to perceive that the Government of the Church is committed to them and that they are to render an account to God and have they not the courage to rescue them from unjust and strange Hands that snatch them away Think they to acquit themselves of this great Account of the Government of the Church of their Kingdoms by saying That the Holy Father has discharg'd them of it when they have in their hands the power to discharge Him from his Usurpations In Truth they will never be in condition to Govern the Church committed to them they will never be but Kings by halfs till they have banisht from their Territories this pretended Spiritual Jurisdiction which destroys the Civil and which will draw under its Cognizance all sorts of Causes there being none wherein there is not some matter of Conscience or some kind of Transgression of Gods Commandments and that by consequence belongs not to the Jurisdiction of the Pope if He must be own'd the Soveraign Spiritual Judge in France The Popes themselves inform our Kings of their Right to Govern the Church Leo IV. writing to Lewis and to Lotharius did not he own that the Investiture of the Bishop comes from the Emperor and the Pope has only the Consecration Did not He beseech the Emperor to invest a person he had recommended and does he not acknowledge that the Metropolitan dares not Consecrate him without the Emperors consent And Pope John X. in his Epistle to Hereiman of Cologue about the business of Heldwin of Tongres does he not observe That the old Custom has this force that none ought to confer a Bishoprick upon any Clerk save the King to whom the Scepter has been given of God The Council held at Thionvil under Lewis the Debonnair An. 835. gives us this good Maxim That the Pope ought to be call'd Pope and Brother not Father and Pontifex and that Lewis had more Power in the Government of the Gallicane-Church than the Bishop of Rome as Agobard Bishop of Lions has it in his Treatise of the Coâ—â—â—â—…ison of the Two Governments related by Bossellus in his Decretals Gregory Turonensis does furnish us with more than Ten Examples of the right of Investiture belonging to our Kings before the Empire fell into their hands In the times of Clovis they held the Royal Right of the Investiture of Bishops They had also a Right which they call'd Regal which was the Power of enjoying vacant Bishopricks and Prebends and the moveables of Bishops dying without a Will And it is very easie to prove that under the first Line of our Kings and a long while under