for it but being but conjectures only and prosecuted for the carrying on of so great a project they were not thought to be convincing or of any considerable weight or moment amongst sober and impartiall men They therefore argued it First From the Kings care of his education assigning him for his Tutor Nicholas de Febure whom he also designed for his Son King Lewis Secondly From his care to work the Prince then young Mollis et apâ—us agi to become a Catholick Thirdly The infirmity of Henry of Conde and the privacy of this King with his Lady being then King of Navâ—â—e in the prime of his strength and in discontent with the Lady Marguerite of Valoys his first wife add to this that Kings love to fair Ladies in the generall and then conclude this probability to be no miracle For besides the Dutchesse of Beauforte the Marchionesse of Verneville and the Countesse of Morrel already mentioned he is believed to have been the Father of Mr. Luynes the great favourite of King Lewis And certain it is that the very year before his death when he was even in the winter of his days he took such an amorous liking to the Prince of Condes wife a very beautifull Lady and daughter to the Constable Duke of Montmorencie that the Prince to save his honour was compelled to flie together with his Princesse into the Arch-Dukes Countrey whence he returned not till long after the death of King Henry If Mary de Medices in her husbands life time had found her self agrieved it I cannot blame her she only made good that of Quinâ—ilian Et uxor mariti exemplo incitata aut imitari se putat aut vindicore And yet perhaps a consciousnesse of some injuries not only mooved her to back the Count of Soissons 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 there in 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 as yet the people cannot accuse for any oppression or misgovernment Honours the King hath conserred none upon him but only pensions and offices he is the Governour of the Kings children of honour Pages we call them in England a place of more trouble then wealth or credite He is also the Master of the horse or Le grand Escuire the esteem of which place recompenseth the emptinesse of the other for by vertue of this office he carryeth the Kings sword sheathed before him at his entrances into Paris The cloth of estate carryed over the King by the Provost and Eschevins is his â—ee No man can be the Kings spurmaker 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 VII Besides this he hath a Pension of 500000 Crowns yearly and had an office given him which he sold for 100000 Crowns 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 only removed from his servant to be his play-fellow With the affairs of State he intermedleth not if he should he might expect the Queen mother should say to him what Apollo in Ovid did to Cupid Tibi quid cum fortibus armis Mipuer ista decent humeros gestamina nostros For indeed first during her Sons minority and after since her reintegration with him she hath made her self so absolute a mistresse of his mind that he hath intrusted to her the entire conduct of all his most weighty affaires For her assistant in the managing of her greatest business she hath peeced her self to the strongest side of the State the Church having principally since the death of the Marshal D'Ancre I mean assumed to her counsels the Cardinall of Richileiu a man of no great birth were Nobility the greatest parentage but otherwise to be ranked amongst the noblest Of a sound reach he is and a close brain one exceedingly well mixt of a lay understanding 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 Queen useth as her Counsellour to keep out frailty and the Kings name as her countenance to keep off envie She is of a Florentine wit and hath in her all the virtues of Katharine de Medices her Ancestor in her Regency and some also of her vices only her designes tend not to the ruine of the Kingdome and her children Joan de Seirres telleth us in his Inventaire of France how the Queen Katharine suffered her son Henry III. a devout and a supple Prince to spend his most dangerous times even uncontrouled upon his beads whilest in the mean time she usurped the Government of the Realm Like it is that Queen Mary hath learned so much of her Kinswoman as to permit this son of hers to spend his time also amongst his play-fellowes and the birds that she may the more securely manage the State at her discretion And to say nothing of her untrue or misbecoming her vertue she hath notably well discharged her ambition the Realm of France being never more quietly and evenly governed then first during her Regencie and now during the time of her favour with the King For during his minority she carryed her self so fairly between the factions of the Court that she was of all sides honoured the time of this Marquesse D' Ancre only excepted and for the differences in Religion her most earnest desire was not â—o oppresse the Protestants insomuch that the war raised against them during the command of Mr. Luynes was presently after his death and her restoring into grace ended An heroicall Lady and worthy the report of posterity the frailties and weaknesse of her as a woman not being accounted hers but her sexes CHAP. II. Two Religions strugling in France like the two twins in the womb of Rebecca The comparison between them two and those in the generall A more particular survey of the Papists Church in France in Policie Priviledge and Revenue The complaint of the Clergy to the King The acknowledgment of the French Church to the Pope meerly titular The pragmatick sanction Maxima tua fatuitas and Conventui Tridentino severally written to the Pope and Trent Councell The tedious quarrell about Investitures Four things propounded by the Parliament to the Jesuites The French Bishops not to medle with Fryers their lives and land The ignorance of the French Priests The Chanoins Latine in Orleans The French not hard to be converted if plausibly bumoured c. FRom the Court of the King of France I cannot better provide 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 wiâ—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
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 Fareâ—â—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 hâ—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
the execution of it in their first Synod No sooner had they this incouragement but they presently mustered up their forces betook themselves unto the quarrell and the whole Realme was on the suddain in an uproar The Parliaaments continually troubled with their Supplications Admonitions and the like and when they found not there that favour which they looked for they denounce this dreadfull curse against them That there shall not be a man of their seed that shall prosper to be a Parliament man or bear rule in England any more The Queen exclaimed upon in many of their Pamphlets her honourable Counsell scandalously censured as opposers of the Gospell The Prelates every were cryed down as Antichristian Petty-popes Bishops of the Devill cogging and cousening knaves dumb dogs enemies of God c. and their Courts and Chanceries the Synagogues of Satan After this they erected privately their Presbyteries in divers places of the Land and contoned the whole Kingdome into their severall Classes and divisions and in a time when the Spaniards were expected they threaten to petition the Queens Majesty with 100000 hands In conclusion what dangerous counsels were concluded on by Hacket and his Apostles with the assent and approbation of the Brethren is extant in the Chronicles A strange and peevish generation of men that having publick enemies unto the faith abroad would rather turn the edge of their Swords upon their Mother and her children But such it seemeth was the holy pleasure of Geneva and such their stomach not to brook a private opposition Cumque superba foret Babylon spolianda trophaeis Bella geri placuit nullos habitura triumphos Yet was it questionlesse some comfort to their souls that their devices however it succeeded ill in England had spred it self abroad in Guernzey and in Jarsey where it had now possession of the whole Islands For not content with that allowance her Majesty had given unto it in the Towns of St. Peters and St. Hillaries the Governours having first got these Isles to be dissevered from the Diocese of Constance permit it unto all the other Parishes The better to establish it the great supporters of the cause in England Snape and Cartwright are sent for to the Islands the one of them being made the tributary Pastor of the Castle of Cornet the other of that of Mont-orguel Thus qualified forsooth they conveene the Churches of each Island and in a Synod held in Guernzey anno 1576. the whole body of the Discipline is drawn into a forme Which forme of Discipline I here present unto your Lordship faithfully translated according to an authentick copy given unto me by Mr. Painsee Curate of our Ladies Church of Chastell in the Isle of Guernzey CHAP. IV. The Discipline Ecclesiasticall according as it hath been in practise of the Church after the Reformation of the same by the Ministers Elders and Deacons of the Isles of Guernzey Jarsey Serke and Alderney confirmed by the authority and in the presence of the Governours of the same Isles in a Synod holden in Guernzey the 28 of June 1576. And afterwards revived by the said Ministers and Elders and confirmed by the said Governors in a Syâ—od holden also in Guernzey the 11 12 13 14 15 and 17 dayes of October 1597. CHAP. I. Of the Church in Generall Article I. 1. THe Church is the whole company of the faithfull comprehending as well those that bear publick office in the same as the rest of the people II. 2. No one Church shall pretend any superiority or dominion over another all of them being equall in power and having one only head CHRIST JESUS III. 3. The Governours of the Christian Church where the Magistrates professe the Gospell are the Magistrates which professe it as bearing chief stroke in the Civill Government and the Pastors and Overseers or Superintendents as principall in the Government Ecclesiasticall IV. 4. Both these jurisdictions are established by the law of God as necessary to the Government and welfare of his Church the one having principally the care and charge of mens bodies and of their goods to govern them according to the Laws and with the temporall Sword the other having cure of souls and consciences to discharge their duties according to the Canons of the Church and with the sword of Gods word Which jurisdiction ought so to be united that there be no confusion and so to be divided that there be no contrariety but joyntly to sustain and defend each other as the armes of the same body CHAP. II. Of the Magistrate THe Magistrate ought so to watch over mens persons and their goods as above all things to provide that the honour and true worship of God may be preserved And as it is his duty to punish such as offend in Murder Theft and other sins against the second Table so ought he also to correct Blasphemers Atheists and Idolaters which offend against the first as also all those which contrary to good order and the common peace addict themselves to riot and unlawfull games and on the other side he ought to cherish those which are well affected and to advance them both to wealth and honours CHAP. III. Of Ecclesiasticall functions in generall Article I. 1. OF Officers Ecclesiasticall some have the charge to teach or instruct which are the Pastors and Doctors others are as it were the eye to oversee the life and manners of Christs flock which are the Elders and to others there is committed the disposing of the treasures of the Church and of the poor mans Box which are the Deacons II. 2. The Church officers shall be elected by the Ministers and Elders without depriving the people of their right and by the same authority shall be discharged suspended and deposed according as it is set down in the Chapter of Censures III. 3. None ought to take upon him any function in the Church without being lawfully called unto it IV. 4. No Church-officer shall or ought to pretend any superiority or dominion over his companions viz. neither a Minister over a Minister nor an Elder over an Elder nor a Deacon over a Deacon yet so that they give reverence and respect unto each other either according to their age or according to those gifts and graces which God hath vouchsafed to one more then another V. 5. No man shall be admitted to any office in the Church unlesse he be endowed with gifts fit for the discharge of that office unto which he is called nor unlesse there be good testimony of his life and conversation of which diligent enquiry shall be made before his being called VI. 6. All these which shall enter upon any publick charge in the Church shall first subscribe to the confession of the faith used in the reformed Churches and to the Discipline Ecclesiasticall VII 7. All those which are designed for the administration of any publick office in the Church shall be first nominated by the Governours or their Lieutenants after whose approbation they
the affaires of the King This Court the main pillar of the Liberty of France La Tournelle and the Judges of it The five Chambers of Enquestes severally instituted and by whom In what cause it is decisive The forme of admitting Advocates into the Courts of Parliament The Chancellour of France and his Authority The two Courts of Requests and Masters of them The vain envy of the English Clergy against the Lawyers p. 104. CHAP. IX The Kings Palace of the Louure by whom built The unsutablenesse of it The fine Gallery of the Queen Mother The long Gallery of Henry IV. His magnanimous intent to have built it into a quadrangle Henry IV. a great builder His infinite project upon the Mediterranean and the Ocean La Salle des Antiques The French not studious of Antiquities Burbon house The Tuilleries c. p. 113. La BEAUSE OR THE THIRD BOOK CHAP. I. Our Journey towards Orleans the Town Castle and Battail of Mont l'hierrie Many things imputed to the English which they never did Lewis the 11. brought not the French Kings out of wardship The town of Chartroy and the mourning Church there The Countrey of La Beause and people of it Estampes The dancing there The new art of begging in the Innes of this Countrey Angerville Tury The sawciness of the French Fidlers Three kindes of Musick amongst the Antient. The French Musick p. 121. CHAP. II. The Country and site of Orleans like that of Worcester The Wine of Orleans Praesidial Towns 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 and a miracle Defaced by the Hugonots Some things hated only for their name The Bishop of Orleans and his priviledge The Chappell and Pilgrims of St. Jacques The form of Masse in St Croix Câ—nâ—ing an Heathenish custome The great siege of Orleans raised by Joan the Virgin The valour of that woman that she was no witch An Elogie on her p. 131. CHAP. III. The study of the Civill Law revived in Europe The dead time of learning The Schools of Law in Orleans The oeconomie of them The Chancellour of Oxford antiently appointed by the Diocesan Their methode here and prodigality in bestowing degrees Orleans a great conflux of strangers The language there The Corporation of Germans there Their house and priviledges Dutch and Latine The difference between an Academie and an University p. 145. CHAP. IV. Orleans not an University till the comming of the Jesuites Their Colledge there by whom built The Jesuites no singers Their laudable and exact method of teaching Their policies in it Received not without great difficulty into Paris Their houses in that university Their strictnesse unto the rules of their order Much maliced by the other Priests and Fryers Why not sent into England with the Queen and of what order they were that came with her Our return to Paris p. 152. PICARDIE OR THE FOURTH BOOK CHAP. I. Our return towards England More of the Hugonots hate unto Crosses The town of Luzarch and St. Loupae The Country of Picardie and people Tho Picts of Britain not of this Countrey Mr. Lee Dignicoes Governour of Picardie The office of Constable what it is in France By whom the place supplyed in England The marble table in France and causes there handled Clermount and the Castle there The war raised up by the Princes against D' Ancre What his designes might tend to c. p. 162. CHAP. II. The fair City of Amiens and greatnesse of it The English feasted within it and the error of that action the Town how built-seated and fortified The Citadell of it thought to be impregnable Not permitted to be viewed The overmuch opennesse of the English in discovering their strength The watch and form of Government in the Town Amiens a Visdamate to whom it pertaineth What that honour is in France And how many there enjoy it c. p. 169. CHAP. III. The Church of Nostre Dame in Amiens The principall Churches in most Cities called by her name More honour performed to her then to her Saviour The surpassing beauty of this Church on the outside The front of it King Henry the sevenths Chappel at Westminster The curiousnesse of this Church within By what means it became to be so The sumptuous masking closets in it The excellency of perspective works Indulgences by whom first founded The estate of the Bishoprick p. 175. 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 Major or Provost The Authors imprudent curiosity and the curtesie of the Provost to him The French Post-horses how base and tyred My preferment to the Trunk-horse The horse of Philip de Comines The Town and strength of Monstreuille The importance of these three Towns to the French border c. p. 183. CHAP. V. The County of Boulonnois and Town of Boulogne by whom Enfranchized The present of Salt butter Boulogne divided into two Towns Procession in the lower Town to divert the Plague The forme of it Procession and the Letany by whom brought into the Church The high Town Garrisoned The old man of Boulogne and the desperate visit which the Author bestowed upon him The neglect of the English in leaving open the Havens The fraternity De la Charite and inconveniency of it The costly Journey of Henry VIII to Boulogne Sir Walt. Raleghs censure of that Prince condemned The discourtesie of Charles V. towards our Edward VI. The defence of the house of Burgundy how chargeable to the Kings of England Boulogne yeilded back to the French and on what conditions The curtesie and cunning of my Host of Bovillow p. 192. FRANCE GENERAL OR THE FIFTH BOOK Describing the Government of the Kingdom generally in reference to the Court the Church and the Civill State CHAP. I. A transition to the Government of France in generall The person age and marriage of King Lewis XIII Conjecturall reasons of his being issuelesse Iaqueline Countesse of Holland kept from issue by the house of Burgundy The Kings Sisters all marryed and his alliances by them His naturall Brethren and their preferments His lawfull Brother The title of Monsieur in France Monsieur as yet unmarried not like to marry Montpensiers daughter That Lady a fit wife for the Earl of Soissons The difference between him and the Prince of Conde for the Crown in case the line of Navarre fail How the Lords stand affected in the cause Whether a child may be born in the 11 month King Henry IV. a great lover of fair Ladies Monsieur Barradas the Kings favorite his birth and offices The omniregency of the Queen Mother and the Cardinall of Richileiu The Queen Mother a wise
by their blind and infatuated people what would they have said or rather what would they not have said Questionlesse the least they could do were to take up the complaint of Vigilantins the Papists reckon him for an Heretick saying Quid necesse est tanto honore non solum honorare sed etiam adorare illud nescio quid quod in vasculo transferendo colis Presently without the Chappell is the Burse La Gallerie des Merchands a rank of shops in shew but not in substance like to those in the Exchange in London It reacheth from the Chappell unto the great hall of Parliament and is the common through-fare between them On the bottome of the staires and round about the severall houses consecrated to the execution of Justice are sundry shops of the same nature meanly furnished if compared with ours yet I perswade my self the richest of this kind in Paris I should now go and take a view of the Parliament house but I will step a little out of the way to see the Place Daulphin and the little Chastelet this last serveth now only as the Gaole or Common-prison belonging to the Court of the Provost of Merchants and it deserveth no other imployment It is seated at the end of the Bridge called Petit Pont and was built by Hugh Aubriot once Provost of this Town to represse the fury and insolencies of the Scholars whose rudenesse and misdemeanors can no wayes be better bridled Omnes eos qui nomen ipsum Academiae vel serio vel joco nominossent haeereticos pronunciavit saith Platina of Pope Paul the II. I dare say it of this wildernesse that whosoever will account it as an Academy is an Heretick to Learning and Civility The Place Daulphin is a beautifull heap of building situate nigh unto the new Bridge It was built at the encouragement of Henry IV. and entituled according to the title of his Son The houses are all of brick high built uniforme and indeed such as deserve and would exact a longer description were not the Parliament now ready to sit and my self sommoned to make my appearance CHAP. VIII The Parliament of France when begun of whom it consisted The dignity and esteem of it abroad made sedentarie at Paris appropriated to the long robe The Palais by whom built and converted to seats of Justice The seven Chambers of Parliament The great Chamber The number and dignity of the Presidents The Duke of Biron afraid of them The Kings seat in it The sitting of the Grand Signeur in the Divano The authority of this Court in causes of all kinds and over the affaires of the King This Court the main pillar of the Liberty of France La Tournelle and the Judges of it The five Chambers of Enquestes severally instituted and by whom In what cause it is decisive The forme of admitting Advocates into the Courts of Parliament The Chancellour of France and his Authority The two Courts of Requests and Masters of them The vain envy of the English Clergy against the Lawyers THe Court of Parliament was at the first instituted by Charles Martell Grandfather to Charlemaine at such time as he was Maire of the Palace unto the lasse and rechlesse Kings of France In the beginnings of the French Empire their Kings did justice to their people in person afterwards banishing themselves from all the affaires of State that burden was cast upon the shoulders of their Maiors an office much of a nature with the Pâ—aefecti praetorio in the Roman Empire When this office was bestowed upon the said Charles Martell he partly weary of the trouble partly intent about a businesse of an higher nature which was the estating the Crown in his own posterity but principally to endeer himself to the common people ordained this Court of Parliament anno 720. It consisted in the beginning of 12 Peers the Prelates and noble men of the best fashion together with some of the principallest of the Kings houshold Other Courts have been called the Parliaments with an addition of place as of Paris at Roven c. this only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Parliament It handled as well causes of estate as those of private persons For hither did the Ambassadors of neighbour Princes repaire to have their audience and dispatch and hither were the Articles agreed on in the nationall Synods of France sent to be confirmed and verified here did the subjects tender in their homages and Oaths of fidelity to the King and here were the appeals heard of all such as had complained against the Comites at that time the Governours and Judges in their severall Counties Being furnished thus with the prime and choycest Nobles of the Land it grew into great estimation abroad in the world insomuch that the Kings of Sicilie Cyprus Scotland Bohemia Portugall and Navarre have thought it no disparagement unto them to sit in it and which is more when Frederick II. had spent so much time in quarrels with Pope Innocent IV. he submitted himself and the rightnesse of his cause to be examined by this Noble Court of Parliament At the first institution of this Court it had no setled place of residence being sometimes kept at Tholoza sometimes at Aix la Chappelle sometimes in other places according as the Kings pleasure and ease of the people did require During its time of peregrination it was called Ambulatoire following for the most part the Kings Court as the lower sphaeres do the motion of the primum mobile but Philip le bel he began his reign anno 1286 being to take a journey into Flanders and to stay there a long space of time for the setling of his affaires in that Countrey took order that this Court of Parliament should stay behind at Paris where ever since it hath continued Now began it to be called Sedentaire or setled and also peua peu by little and little to lose much of its lustre For the chief Princes and Nobles of the Kings retinue not able to live out of the aire of the Court withdrew themselves from the troubles of it by which means at last it came to be appropriated to them of the Long robe as they term them both Bishops and Lawyers In the year 1463. the Prelates also were removed by the command of Lewis XI an utter enemy to the great ones of his Kingdome only the Bishop of Paris and Abbot of St. Denis being permitted their place in it since which time the Professors of the civill law have had all the sway in it Et cedunt arma togae as Tully The place in which this Sedentarie Court of Parliament is now kept is called the Palace being built by Philip le bel and intended to be his mansion or dwelling house He began it in the first year of his reign anno 1286. and afterwards assigned a part of it to his Judges of the Parliament it being not totally and absolutely quitted unto them till the dayes of King Lewis XII In this
and which openeth into that of the Queen Mother A Gallery it is of an incredible length as being above 500 yards long and of a breadth and height not unporportionable a room built rather for ostentation then use and such as hath more in it of the majesty of its founder then the grace It was said to have been erected purposely to joyn the Louure unto the House and Garden of the Tuilleries an unlikely matter that such a stupendious building should be designed only for a cleanly conveyance into a Summer house others are of an opinion that he had a resolution to have made the house quadrangular every side being correspondent to this which should have been the common Gallery to the rest Which design had it taken effect this Palace would at once have been the wonder of the world and the envy of it For my part I dare be of this last minde as well because the second side is in part begun as also considering how infinitely this King was inclined to building The Place Daulphin and the Place Royall two of the finest piles in Paris were erected partly by his purse but principally by his encouragement The new Bridge in Paris was meerly his work so was also the new Palace and most admirable waterworks of St. Germans en lay This long Gallery and the new Pest house oweth it self wholly to him and the house of Fountainebleau which is the fairest in France is beholding to him for most of its beauty add to this his Fortifications bestowed on the Bastile his walling of Arles and his purpose to have strengthned Paris according to the modern art of Towns and you will finde the attribute of Parietaria or wall flower which Constantine scoffingly gave unto Trajan for his great humour of building to be due unto this King but seriously and with reverence Besides the generall love he had to building he had also an ambition to go beyond example which also induceth me further to believe his intent of making that large and admirable quadrangle above spoken of to have been serious and reall For to omit others certain it is that he had a project of great spirit and difficulty which was to joyn the Mediterranean sea and the Ocean together and to make the Navigation from the one to the other through France and not to passe by the straight of Gibraltare It came into Councell anno 1604 and was resolved to be done by this means The river Garond is Navigable from the Ocean almost to Tholoza and the Mediterranean openeth it self into the Land by a little River whose name I know not as high as Narbonne Betwixt these two places was there a Navigable channell to have been digged and it proceeded so far towards being actuated that a workman had undertaken it and the price was agreed upon But there arising some discontents between the Kings of France and Spain about the building of the Fort Fluentes in the Countrey of the Grisons the King not knowing what use he might have of Treasure in that quarrell commanded the work not to go forward However he is to be commended in the attempt which was indeed Kinglike and worthy his spirit praise him in his heroick purpose and designe Quem si non tenuit magnis tamen excidit ausis But the principal beauty if I may judge of this so much admired Palace of the Louure is a low plain room paved under foot with bricks and without any hangings or tapestrie on the sides yet being the best set out and furnished to my content of any in France It is called La Salle des Antiques and hath in it five of the antientest and venerablest pieces of all the Kingdome For this Nation generally is regardlesse of Antiquity both in the monuments and studie of it so that you shall hardly find any ancient inscription or any famous ruine snatched from the hand of time in the best of their Cities or Churches In the Church only of Amiens could I meet with an ancient character which also was but a Gothish Dutch letter and expressed nothing but the name and virtue of a Bishop of the Church on whose tomb it was So little also did I perceive them to be inclined to be Antiquaries that both neglects considered Si verbis audacia detur I dare confidently aver not only that the Earl of Arundels Gardens have more antiquities of this kind then all France can boast of but that one Cotton for the Treasury and one Selden now Mr. Camden is dead for the study of the like antiquities are worth all the French As for these five pieces in La Salle des Antiques they are I confesse worthy observation and respect also if they be such as our Trudgemen enforme us At the farther end of it is the Statua of Diana the same as is said which was worshipped in the renowned Temple of Ephesus and of which Demetrius the Silversmith and his fellow artists cryed out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Great is Diana of the Ephesians Of a large and manly proportion she seemeth to be Quantum quale latus quam invenile femur As Ovid of his Mistresse She is all naked save her feet which are buskin'd and that she hath a skarfe or linnen rowl which coming over her left shoulder and meeting about her middle hung down with both ends of it a little lower In the first place on the right hand as we descended towards the door was the Statua of one of the Gods of Ethiopia as black as any of his people and one that had nothing about him to expresse his particular being Next to him the Effigies of Mercury naked all except his feet and with a pipe in his mouth as when he inchanted Argus Namque reperta fistula nuper erat saith the Metamorphosis Next unto him the portraiture of Venus quight and most immodestly unapparelled in her hand her little son Cupid as well arraied as his mother sitting on a Dolphin Last of all Apollo also in the same naked truth but that he had shooes on he was portraied as lately returned from a combate perhaps that against the Serpent Python Quem Deus arcitenens nunquam talibus armis Ante ni si damis capreisque fugacibus usus Mille gravem telis exhausta paene pharetra Perdidit effuso per vulnera nigra veneâ—o That I was in the right conjecture I had these reasons to perswade me the quiver on the Gods right shoulder almost emptied his warlike belt hanging about his neck his garments loosely tumbling upon his left armes and the slain Monster being a water Serpent as Python is fained to be by the Poets all of these were on the same side of the wall the other being altogether destitute of ornaments and are confidently said to be the Statuas of those Gods in the same formes as they were worshipped in and taken from their severall Temples They were bestowed on the King by his Holinesse of Rome and I
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 self that the people proffer'd to yeeld themselves to Philip Duke of Burgundie then a great consederate of our Nation who had not been present in the Camp But this the English Generall would not consent to and it was the resolution of Antigonus iâ— 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 General he was Montacute Earl of Salisbury the Town purposed to hold out a little longer and was at the last relieved by Joane D' Arc a maid of Vaucoleur in Lorrein whom they called La Pusille how that excellent souldier the Generall was slain and the siege raised I need not relate It is extant in all our Chronicles This only now that ever since that time the people of Orleans keep a solemn procession on every eighth day of May on which day anno 1427. their City was delivered from its enemies But the atchievements of this brave Virago stayed not here she thinks it not enough to repulse her enemies unlesse she also vanquish them arm'd therefore Cap a pe she went to seek occasion of battail and was alwaies formost and in the head of her troops Ducit Amazonidum lunatis agmina bellis Penthiselea furens mediisque in millibus ardet For her first service she taketh Jargeau discomfiteth the English which were within it and maketh the Earl of Suffolk prisoner Soon after followed the battail of Patay in which the English were driven out of the field and the great Talbot taken This done she accompanieth Charles the 7. whose Angel Guardian she was through all Campague unto Rhemes where she saw him solemnly crowned all the Towns of those Countreys 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 Campoigne delivered over unto the Duke of Bedford by him sent unto Roven and there burnt for a Witch on the 6. 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 down in the habit of a man Et nihil muliebre praeter corpus gerens Of all accusations the most impotent for in what other habit could she dresse her self undertaking the actions of a Generall and besides to have worn her womans weeds in time of battail had been to have betrayed her safety and to have made her self the mark of every arrow It was therefore requisite that she should array her self in compleat harnesse and in that habit of complete armour have those of Orleans erected her Statua all in brasse upon the middle of their bridge As for that other imputation of being a Witch saving the credit of those which condemn'd 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 which preceded her coming unto Orleans and those which followed it I finde much in it of cunning somewhat perhaps of valour but nothing that is devillish Her relieving of Orleans and courage shewn at the battails of Patay and Gergeau with her conducting of the King unto Rhemes are not 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 Amazons To the Jewes in the time of their afflictions the Lord raised up salvation by means of two women Deborah and Judith and God is not the God of the Jewes only but also of the Gentiles amongst the Syrians Zenobia Queen of Pabnira is very famous the Romans whom she often foyled never mentioning her without honour The like commendable testimony they give of Velleda a Queen amongst the Germans a woman that much hindred their affairs in that Countrey Thus had the Gothes their Amalasunta the Assyrians their Semiramis the Scythians their Tomyris the Romans their Fulvia all brave Captains and such as posterity hath admired without envie To come home unto our selves the writers of the Romans mention the revolt of Britain and the slaughter of 70000 Raman Confederates under the conduct of Voaditia and she in the beginning of her incouragements to the action telleth the people this Solitum quidem Britannis foeminarum ductu bellare Of all these heroical Ladies I read no accusation of witchcraft invasive courage and a sense of injury being the armes they fought withall neither can I see why the Romans should exceed us in modesty or that we need envie unto the French this one female warriour when it is a fortune which hath befaln most Nations As for her atchievements they are not so much beyond a common being but that they may be imputed to natural means for had she been a Witch it is likely she would have prevented the disgrace which her valour suffered in the ditches of Paris though she could not avoid those of Compeigne who took her prisoner the Devill at such an exigent only being accustomed to forsake those which he hath entangled So that she enjoyed not such a perpetuity of felicity as to entitle her to the Devils assistance she being sometimes conqueror sometimes overthrown and at last imprisoned Communia fortunae ludibria the ordinary sports of fortune Her actions before her march to Orleans have somewhat in them of cunning and perhaps of imposture as the vision which she reported to have incited her to these attempts her finding out of the King disguised in the habit of a countrey man and her appointing to her self an old Sword hanging in St. Katharines Church in Tours The French were at this time meerly crest faln not to be raised but by miracle This therefore is invented and so that which of all the rest must prove her a sorceresse will only prove her an impostor Gerrard Seigneur du Hailan one of the best writers of France is of opinion that all that plot of her coming to the King was contriv'd by three Lords of the Court to hearten the people as if God now miraculously intended the restauration of the Kingdome Add to this that she never commanded in any battail without the assistance of the best Captains of the French Nation and amongst whom was the Bastard of Orleans who is thought to have put this device into her head The Lord of Bellay in his discourse of arte militarie proceedeth further and maketh her a man only thus habited pour faire revenir le courage aux Francois which had it been so would have been discovered at the time of her burning Others of
The first and greatest controversie between the Pope and Princes of Christendome was about the bestowing the livings of the Church and giving the investure unto Bishops the Popes had long thirsted after that authority as being a great means to advance their followers and establish their own greatnesse for which cause in divers petty Councels the receiving of any Ecclesiasticall preferment of a Lay man was enacted to be Simony But this did little edifie with such patrons as had good livings As soon as ever Hildebrande in the Catalogue of the Popes called Gregory VII came to the Throne of Rome he set himself entirely to effect this businesse as well in Germany now he was Pope as he had done in France whilest he was Legat he commandeth therefore Henry III. Emperour Ne deinceps Episcâ—patus beneficia they are Platinas own words per cupiditatem Simonaâ—cam committat aliter seusurum in-ipsum censuris Ecclesiasticis To this injustice when the Emperour would not yeeld he called a solemn Councell at the Lateran wherein the Emperour was pronounced to be Simoniacall and afterwards Excommunicated neither would this Tyrant ever leave persecuting of him till he had laid him in his grave After this there followed great strugling for this matter between the Popes and the Emperours but in the end the Popes got the victory In England here he that first beckoned about it was William Ruâ—us the controversie being whether he or Pope Urban should invest Anselme Archbishop of Canterbury Anselme would receive his investure from none but the Pope whereupon the King banished him the Realm into which he was not admitted till the Reign of Henry II. He to endeer himself with his Clergy relinquished his right to the Pope but afterwards repenting himselfe of it he revoked his grant neither did the English Kings wholly lose it till the reign of that unfortunate prince King John Edward the first again recovered it and his successors kept it The Popes having with much violence and opposition wrested into their hands this priviledge of nominating Priests and investing Bishops they spared not to lay on what taxes they pleased as on the Benefices first fruits pensions subsidies fifteenths tenths and on the Bishopricks for palles miters crosiers rings and I know not what bables By these means the Churches were so impoverished that upon complaint made to the Councell of Basil all these cheating tricks these aucupia expilandi rationes were abolished This decree was called Pragmatica functio and was confirmed in France by Charles VII anno 1438. An act of singular improvement to the Church and Kingdome of France which yearly before as the Court of Parliament manifested to Lewis XI had drained the State of a million of Crowns since which time the Kings of France have sometimes omitted the rigor of this sanction and sometimes also exacted it according as their affairs with the Pope stood for which cause it was called Froenum pontificum At last King Francis I. having conquered Millaine fell into this composition with his Holinesse namely that upon the falling of any Abbacy or Bishoprick the King should have 6 months time allowed him to present a fit man unto him whom the Pope should legally invest If the King neglected his time limited the Pope might take the benefit of the relapse and institute whom he pleased So is it also with the inferior Benefices between the Pope and the Patrons insomuch that any or every Lay-patron and Bishop together in England hath for ought I see at the least in this particular as great a spirituall Supremacy as the Pope in France Nay to proceed further and shew how meerly titular both his supremacies are as well the spirituall as the temporall you may plainly see in the case of the Jesuites which was thus In the year 1609 the Jesuites had obtained of King Henry IV. licence to read again in their Colledges of Paris but when their Letters patents came to be verified in the Court of Parliament the Rector and University opposed them on the 17 of December 1611. both parties came to have an hearing and the University got the day unlesse the Jesuites would subscribe unto these four points viz. 1. That a Councell was above the Pope 2. That the Pope had no temporall power over Kings and could not by Excommunication deprive them of their Realm and Estates 3. That Clergy men having heard of any attempt or conspiracy against the King or his Realm or any matter of treason in confession he was bound to reveal it And 4. That Clergy men were subject to the secular Prince or politick Magistrate It appeared by our former discourse what little or no power they had left the Pope over the Estates and preferments of the French By these Propositions to which the Jesuites in the end subscribed I know not with what mentall reservation it is more then evident that they have left him no command neither over their consciences nor their persons so that all things considered we may justly say of the Papall power in France what the Papists said falsly of Erasmus namely that it is Nomen sine rebus In one thing only his authority here is intire which is his immediate protection of all the orders of Fryers and also a superintendency or supreme eye over the Monks who acknowledge very small obedience if any at all to the French Bishops for though at the beginning every part and member of the Diocesse was directly under the care and command of the Bishop yet it so happened that at the building of Monasteries in the Western Church the Abbots being men of good parts and a sincere life grew much into the envie of their Diocesan For this cause as also to be more at their own command they made suit to the Pope that they might be free from that subjection Utque in tutelam divi Petri admitterentur a proposition very plausible to his Holinesse ambition which by this means might the sooner be raised to its height and therefore without difficulty granted This gap opened first the severall orders of Fryers and after even the Deans and Chapters purchased to themselves the like exemptions In this the Popes power was wonderfully strengthned as having such able and so main props to uphold his authority it being a true Maxime in State Quod qui privilegia obtinent ad eadem conservanda tenentur authoritatem concedentis tueri This continued till the Councell of Trent unquestioned Where the Bishops much complained of their want of authority and imputed all the Schismes and Vices in the Church unto this that their hands were tyed hereupon the Popes Legats thought it fit to restore their jurisdiction their Deans and Chapters At that of the Monks and Monasteries there was more sticking till at the last Sebastian Pigâ—inus one of the Popes officers found out for them this satisfaction that they should have an eye and inspection into the lives of the Monks not by any authority of their
we have found an head and a body this body again divided into two parts the Catholick and the Protestant the head is in his own opinion and the minds of many others of a power unlimited yet the Catholick party hath strongly curbed it And of the two parts of the body we see the Papists flourishing and in triumph whilest that of the Protestant is in misery and affliction Thus is it also in the body Politick The King in his own conceit boundlesse and omnipotent is yet affronted by his Nobles which Nobles enjoy all the freedome of riches and happinesse the poor Paisants in the mean time living in drudgery and bondage For the government of the King is meerly indeed regal or to give it the true name despoticall though the Countrey be his wife and all the people are his children yet doth he neither govern as an husband or a father he accounteth of them all as of his servants and therefore commandeth them as a Master In his Edicts which he over frequenly sendeth about he never mentioneth the good will of his Subjects nor the approbation of his Councell but concludeth all of them in this forme Car tell est nostre plaisir Sic volo sic jubeo A forme of government very prone to degenerate into a tyranny if the Princes had not oftentimes strength and will to make resistance But this is not the vice of the entire and Soveraign Monarchy alone which the Greek call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the other two good formes of regiment being subject also to the same frailty Thus in the reading of Histories have we observed an Aristocracie to have been frequently corrupted into an Oligarchie and a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Common-wealth properly so called into a Democratie For as in the body naturall the purest complexions are lesse lasting but easily broken and subject to alteration so is it in the body Civill the pure and unmixt formes of Government though perfect and absolute in their kinds are yet of little continuance and very subject to change into its opposite They therefore which have written of Republicks do most applaud and commend the mixt manner of rule which is equally compounded of the Kingdome and the Politeia because in these the Kings have all the power belonging to their title without prejudice to the populacie In these there is referred to the King absolute Majesty to the Nobles convenient authority to the People an incorrupted liberty all in a just and equall proportion Every one of these is like the Empire of Rome as it was moderated by Nerva Qui res olâ—m dissociabiles miscuerat principatum libertatem wherein the Soveraignty of one endamaged not the freedome of all A rare mixture of Government and such at this time is the Kingdome of England a Kingdome of a perfect and happy composition wherein the King hath his full Prerogative the Nobles all due respects and the People amongst other blessings perfect in this that they are masters of their own purposes and have a strong hand in the making of their own Laws On the otherside in the Regall government of France the Subject frameth his life meerly as the Kings variable Edicts shall please to enjoyn him is ravished of his money as the Kings taske-masters think fit and suffereth many other oppressions which in their proper place shall be specified This Aristole in the third book of his Politicks calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the command of a Master and defineth it to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Such an Empire by which a Prince may command and do whatsoever shall seem good in his own eyes One of the Prerogatives Royall of the French Kings For though the Court of Parliament doth seem to challenge a perusall of his Edicts before they passe for Laws yet is that but a meer formality It is the cartelâ—â—est nostre plaifir which maketh them currant which it seemeth these Princes learned of the Roman Emperors Justinian in the book of Institutions maketh five grounds of the Civill Laws viz. Lex he meaneth the law of the 12 Tables Plebiscita Senatusconsulta Predentum Responsa Principum placita to this last he addeth this generall strength Quod principi plaeuerit legis â—abet valorem the very foundation of the French Kings powerfulnesse True it is that the Courts of Parliament do use to demur sometimes upon his Patents and Decrees and to petition him for a reversall of them but their answer commonly is Stat pro ratione voluntas He knoweth his own power and granteth his Letters patents for new Offices and Monopolies abundantly If a monied man can make a friend in Court he may have an office found for him of six pence upon every Sword made in France a Livre upon the selling of every head of Cattell a brace of Sols for every paire of boots and the like It is the only study of some men to finde out such devices of enriching themselves and undoing the people The Patent for Innes granted to St. Giles Moâ—â—pesson was just one of the French offices As for Monopolies they are here so common that the Subject taketh no notice of it not a scurvey petty book being Printed but it hath its priviledge affixed Ad imprimendum solum These being granted by the King are carryed to the Parliament by them formally perused and finally verified after which they are in force and virtue against all opposition It is said in France that Mr. Luynes had obtained a Patent of the King for a quart d' escu to be paid unto him upon the Christning of every child thoughout all the Kingdome A very unjust and unconscionable extortion Had he lived to have presented it to the Court I much doubt of their deniall though the only cause of bringing before them such Patents is onely intended that they should discusse the justice and convenience of them As the Parliament hath a formality of power left in them of verifying the Kings Edicts his grants of Offices and Monopolics So hath the Chamber of Accounts a superficiall survey also of his gifts and expences For his expences they are thought to be as great now as ever by reason of the severall retinues of himself his Mother his Queen and the Monseiur neither are his gifts lessened The late Wars which he managed against the Protestants cost him deer he being fain to bind unto him most of his Princes by money and pensions As the expenses of the King are brought unto this Court to be examined so are also the Gifts and Pensions by him granted to be ratified The titulary power given unto this Chamber is to cut off all those of the Kings grants which have no good ground and foundation the officers being solemnly at the least formally sworn not to suffer any thing to passe them to the detriment of the Kingdome whatsoever Letters of command thay have to the contrary But this Oath they oftentimes dispense with To this Court also belongeth
of the French to bestow honours and immunities upon those Qui as the Historian noteth ea suo arbitrio aut reposituri aut retenturi videantur quique modum habent in sua voluntate For upon a knowledge of this strength in themselves the Princes have been always prone to Civill wars as having sufficient means for safety and resistance On this ground also they slight the Kings authority and disobey his Justice In so much that the greater sort of Nobles in this Kingdome can seldome be arraigned or executed in person and therefore the Lawes condemn them in their images and hang them in their pictures A pretty device to mock Justice If by chance or some handsome sleight any of them are apprehended they are put under a sure guard and not done to death without great fear of tumult and unquietnesse Neither is it unus alter only some two or three that thus stand upon their distance with the King but even all the Nobility of the Realm a rout so disordered unconfined and numberlesse that even Fabius himself would be out of breath in making the reckoning I speak not here of those that are styled La Noblesse but of Titulados men only of titular Nobility of the degree of Baron and above Of these there is in this Countrey a number almost innumerable Quot Coelum Stellas take quantity for quantity and I dare be of the opinion that heaven hath not more Stars then France Nobles You shall meet with them so thick in the Kings Court especially that you would think it almost impossible the Countrey should bear any other fruit This I think I may safely affirme and without Hyperbole that they have there as many Princes as we in England have Dukes as many Dukes as we Earls as many Earls as we Barons and as many Barons as we have Knights a jolly company and such as know their own strength too I cannot therefore but much marvell that these Kings should be so prodigall in conferring honours considering this that every Noble man he createth is so great a weakning to his power On the other side I cannot but as much wonder at some of our Nation who have murmured against our late Soveraign and accused him of an unpardonable unthriftiness in bestowing the dignities of his Realm with so full and liberall a hand Certainly could there any danger have arisen by it unto the State I could have been as impatient of it as another But with us titles and ennoblings in this kind are only either the Kings favour or the parties merit and maketh whomsoever he be that receiveth them rather reverenced then powerfull Raro eorum honoribus invidetur quorum vis non timetur was a good Aphorisme in the dayes of Paterculus and may for ought I know be as good still Why should I envie any man that honour which taketh not from my safety or repine at my Soveraign for raising any of his Servants into an higher degree of eminency when that favour cannot make them exorbitant Besides it concerneth the improvement of the Exchequer at the occasions of Subsidies and the glory of the Kingdome when the Prince is not attended by men meerly of the vulgar Add to this the few Noble men of any title which he found at his happy coming in amongst us and the additions of power which his comming brought unto us and we shall finde it proportionable that he should enlarge our Nobility with our Empire neither yet have we indeed a number to be talked of comparing us with our neighbour Nations We may see all of the three first ranks in the books of Milles Brooke and Vincent and we are promised also a Catalogue of the Creations and successions of all our Barons Then we should see that as yet we have not surfeited Were this care taken by the Heralde in France perhaps the Nobility there would not seem so numberlesse sure I am not so confused But this is the main vice of that profession of â—ix Heralds which they have amongst them viz. Montjoy Normandy Guyenne Valâ—ys Bretagne and Burgogne not one of them is reported to be a Genealogist neither were their Predecessors better affected to this study Paradine the only man that ever was amongst them hath drawn down the Genealogies of 24 of the chief families all ancient and of the bloud in which he hath excellently well discharged himself But what a small pittance is that compared to the present multitude The Nobles being so populous it cannot be but the Noblesse as they call them that is the Gentry must needs be thick set and only not innumerable Of these Nobles there are some which hold their estates immediately of the Crown and they have the like immunities with the Princes Some hold their Feifes or feuda of some other of the Lords and he hath only Basse Justice permitted to him as to mulct and amerce his Tenants to imprison them or give them any other correction under death All of them have power to raise and inhance up their Rents to Tax his Subjects on occasion and to prohibit them such pleasures as they think fit to be reserved for themselves By Brettaul in Picardy I saw a post fastned in the ground like a race post with us and therein an inscription I presently made to it as hoping to have heard of some memorable battell there foughten but when I came at it I found it to be nothing but a Declaration of the Prince of Condes pleasure that no man should hunt in those quarters afterwards I observed them to be very frequent But not to wander through all particulars I will in some few of them only give instance of their power here The first is Proict de bailli age power to keep Assize or to have under him a Bailli and a Superiour seat of Justice for the decision of such causes as fall under the compasse of ordinary jurisdiction In this Court there is notice taken of Treasons Robberies Murders Protections Pardons Faires Markets and other matters of priviledge Next they have a Court of ordinary jurisdiction and therein a Judge whom they call Le guarde de Justice for the decision of smaller businesse as Debts Trespasses breach of the Kings peace and the like In this the purse is only emptied the other extendeth to the taking of life also for which cause every one which hath Haute Justice annexed to his Feise hath also his peculiar Gibbet nay which is wonderfully methodicall by the criticisme of the Gibbet you may judge at the quality of him that owneth it For the Gibbet of one of the Nobles hath but two pillars that of the Chastellan three the Barons four the Earls six the Dukes eight and yet this difference is rather precise then generall The last of their jura regalia which I will here speak of is the command they have upon their people to follow them unto the wars a command not so advantagious to the Lord as dangerous to
ease of the Countrey 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 â—ain to finde them diet lodging and all necessaries for themselves their horses and the 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 again returned to them from whence they came Ita ut non sit ibi villula una expers calamitatis istius quae non semel aut bis in anno hac nefanda pressura depiletur as Sir John â—ortescue observed in his time To redresse this mischief King Henry II. anno 1549. raised this imposition called the Taillon The Pancarte comprehendeth in it divers particular Imposts but especially the Sol upon the Livre that is the twentieth penny of all things bought or sold Corne Sallets and the like only excepted Upon wine besides the Sol upon the Livre he hath his severall Customes of the entrance of it into any of his Cities passages by Land Sea or Rivers To these Charles the IX anno 1461. added a Tax of five Sols upon every Muye which is the third part of a Tun and yet when all this is done the poor Vintner payeth unto the King the eight penny he takes for that Wine which he selleth In this Pancarâ—e is also contained the Haut passage which are the Tolles paid unto the King for passage of Men and Cattell over his bridges and his City gates as also for all such commodities as they bring with them a good round sum considering the largenesse of the Kingdome the through-fare of Lyons being farmed yearly of the King for 100000 Crowns Hereunto belong also the Aides which are a Tax of the Sol also in the Livre upon all sorts of Fruits Provision Wares and Merchandise granted first unto Charles Duke of Normandy when John his father was Prisoner in England and since made perpetuall For such is the lamentable fate of this Countrey that their kindnesses are made duty and those moneys which they once grant out of love are always after exacted of them and payed out of necessity The Bedroll of all these impositions and Taxes is called the Pancarte because it was hanged in a frame like as the Officers fees are in our Diocesan Courts the word Pan signifying a frame or a pane of Wainscot These Impositions time and custome hath now made tolerable though at first they seemed very burdensome and moved many Cities to murmuring some to rebellion amongst others the City of Paris proud of her antient liberties and immunities refused to admit of it This indignity so incensed Charles the VI. their King then young and in hot bloud that he seized into his hands all their priviledges took from them their Provost des Merchands and the Esâ—bâ—vins as also the Keyes of their gates and the Chaines of their streets and making through the whole Town such a face of mourning that one might justly have said Haec facies Trojae cum caperetur erat This hapned 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 called Le Cour des Aides it consisted at the first of the Generals of the Aides and of any four of the Lords of the Councell whom they would call to their assistance Afterwards Charles the V. anno 1380 or thereabouts setled it in Paris and caused it to be numbred as one of the Soveraign Courts Lewis the XI dissolved it and committed the managing of his Aids to his houshold servants as loath to have any publick officers take notice how he fleeced his people Anno 1464. it was restored again And finally Henry II. anno 1551. added to it a second Chamber composed of two Presidents and eight Counsellours one of which Presidents named Mr. Chevalier is said to be the best monied man of all France There are also others of these Courts in the Countrey as one at Roven one at Montferrant in Avergne one at Burdeaux and another at Montpelier established by Charles VII anno 1437 For the levying and gathering up of these Taxes you must know that the whole Countrey of France is divided into 21 Generalities or Counties as it were and those again into divers Eslectiones which are much like our Hundreds In every of the Generalities there are 10 or 12 Treasurers 9 Receivers for the generalty and as many Comptollers and in the particular Eslectiones eight Receivers and as many Comptrollers besides all under-officers which are thought to amount in all to 30000 men When then the King levyeth his Taxes he sendeth his Letters Patents to the principall Officers of every Generalty whom they call Les Genereaux des Aides and they dispatch their Warrant to the Esleus or Commissioners These taxing every one of the Parishes and Villages within their severall divisions at a certain rate send their receivers to collect it who give account for it to their Comptrollers By them it ascendeth to the Esleus from him to the Receiver generall of that Generalty next to the Comptroller then to the Treasurer afterwards to the Generall des Aides and so Per varios casus tot discrimina rerum Tendimus ad Latium By all these hands it is at last conveyed into the Kings purse in which severall passages Necesse est ut aliquid haereat it cannot be but that it must have many a shrewd snatch In so much that I was told by a Gentleman of good credence in France that there could not be gathered by the severall exactions above specified and other devises of prowling which I have omitted lesse then 85 millions a year whereof the King receiveth 15 only A report not altogether to be slighted considering the President of the Court of Accomptes made it evident to the Assembly at Bloys in the time of King Henry IV. that by the time that every one of the Officers had his share of it there came not to the Kings Coffers one teston which is 1 s. 2 d. of a Crown so that by reckoning 5 testons to a Crown or Escu as it is but 2 d. over these Officers must collect five times the money which they pay the King which amounteth to 75 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 15 millions some would have it 18. which is a good improvement in respect of what they were in times asore Lewis the XI as good a husband of
owner which they called Les Deserts But the Countreys after growing populous and many mouths requiring much provision these Deserts were broke up and turned into tillage Hereupon the Curates made challenge to the tithes as not at all either intended or contained in the former composition The Governours on the other side alleadging custome that those grounds had never paid the Tithe and therefore should not Nor could the Clergy there obtain their rights untill the happy entrance of King James upon these Kingdoms A Prince of all others a most indulgent father to the Church By him and by a letter Decretory from the Counsell it was adjudged in favour of the Ministery the Letter bearing date at Greenwich June the last anno 1608. subscribed T. Ellesmere Canc. R. Salisbury H. Northampton E. Worcester T. Suffolke Exeter Zeuch Wotton Cesar Herbert A matter certainly of much importance in the consequence as making known unto your Lordship how easie a thing it is in the authority royall to free the Church from that tyranny of custome and prescription under which it groneth The next of these three words to be explained is in the note French Querrui which in the note is told us to be the 8 and 9 sheaf by which account or way of tithing the Minister in 50 sheafs receiveth 6 which is one sheaf more then the ordinary tithe The word corrupted as I conceive from the French word Charrue which signifieth a Plough and then French querrui is as much as Plough-right alluding to the custome of some Lords in France who used to give their husbandmen or villains as a guerdon for their toyle the 8 and 9 of their increase As for the last that viz. which the Diagram calleth Champart it intimates in the origination of the word a part or portion of the field that which the Lord in chief reserved unto himself In Guernzey it is constantly the 12 sheaf of the whole crop the Farmer in the counting of his sheafes casting aside the 10 for the King and the 12 which is the Champart for the Lord. Now here in Guernzey for those of the other Isle have no such custome there is a double Champart that namely Du Roy belonging to the King whereof the Clergy have the tithe and that of St. Michael en leval not titheable The reason is because at the suppression of the Priorie of St. Michael which was the only Religious house in these Islands which subsisted of it self the Tenants made no tendry of this Champart and so it lay amongst concealments At the last Sir Thomas Leighton the Governour here recovered it unto the Crown by course of Law and at his own charges whereupon the Queen licenced him to make sale of it to his best advantage which accordingly he did For the Religion in these Islands it hath been generally such as that professed with us in England and as much varied When the Priors Aliens were banished England by King Henry V. they also were exiled from hence Upon the demolition of our Abbeys the Priory of St. Michael and that little Oratory of our Lady of Lehu became a ruine The Masse was here also trodden down whilest King Edward stood and raised again at the exaltation of Queen Mary Nay even that fiery tryall which so many of Gods servants underwent in the short Reign of that misguided Lady extended even unto these poor Islanders and that as I conceive in a more fearfull tragedy then any all that time presented on the Stage of England The story in the brief is this Katharine Gowches a poor widow of St. Peters-parte in Guernzey was noted to be much absent from the Church and her two daughters guilty of the same neglect Upon this they were presented before Jaques Amy then Dean of the Island who finding in them that they held opinions contrary unto those then allowed about the Sacrament of the Altar pronounced them Hereticks and condemned them to the fire The poor women on the other side pleaded for themselves that that Doctrine had been taught them in the time of King Edward but if the Queen was otherwise disposed they were content to be of her Religion This was fair but this would not serve for by the Dean they were delivered unto Elier Gosselin the then Bailiffe and by him unto the fire July 18. Anno Dom. 1556. One of these daughters Perotine Massey she was called was at that time great with childe her husband which was a Minister being in those dangerous times fled the Island in the middle of the flames and anguish of her torments her belly brake in sunder and her child a goodly boy fell down into the fire but was presently snatched up by one W. House one of the by-standers Upon the noise of this strange accident the cruell Bailiffe returned command that the poor Infant must be cast again into the flames which was accordingly performed and so that pretty babe was borne a Martyr and added to the number of the Holy Innocents A cruelty not paralleld in any story not heard of amongst the Nations But such was the pleasure of the Magistate as one in the Massacre of the younger Maximinus viz. Canis pessimi ne catulum esse relinquendum that not any issue should be left alive of an Heretick Parent The horrror of which fact stirred in me some Poeticall Fancies or Furies rather which having long lien dormant did break out at last indignation thus supplying those suppressed conceptions Si natura negaâ— dabit indignatio versum Holla ye pampred Sires of Rome forbear To act such murders as a Christian ear Hears with more horrour then the Jews relate The dire effects of Herods fear and hate When that vilde Butcher caus'd to cut in sunder Every Male childe of two years old and under These Martyrs in their cradles from the womb This pass'd directly to the fiery tomb Baptiz'd in Flames and Bloud a Martyr born A setting sun in the first dawn of morn Yet shining with more heat and brighter glory Then all Burnt-offerings in the Churches story Holla ye pampred Rabines of the West Where learnt you thus to furnish out a Feast With Lambs of the first minute What disguise Finde you to mask this horrid Sacrifice When the old Law so meekly did forbid In the Dams milk to boil the tender Kid. What Riddles have we here an unborn birth Hurried to Heaven when not made ripe for Earth Condemned to die before it liv'd a twin To its own mother not impeached of sin Yet doom'd to death that breath'd but to expire That scap'd the flames to perish in the fire Rejoyce ye Tyrants of old times your name Is made lesse odious on the breath of fame By our most monstrous cruelties the Males Slaughtered in Egypt waigh not down these scales A Fod to equall this no former age Hath given in Books or fancie on the Stage This fit of indignation being thus passed over I can proceed
she hath freedome enough and certainly much more then a moderate wisdome would permit her It is one of her jura conjugalia to admit of Courtship even in the fight of her husband to walk arm in arm about the streets or into the fields with her Privado to proffer occasions of familiarity and acquaintance at the first sight of one whose person she relisheth and all this sans soupsen without any the least imputation a liberty somewhat of the largest and we may justly fear that having thus wholly in her own power the keyes of the Cabinet that she sheweth her jewels to more then her husband Such are the French women and such lives do they lead both maids and married Thou happy England thy four seas contain The pride of beauties such as may disdain Rivals on earth Such at once may move By a strange power the envie and the love Of all the sex besides Admit a dame Of France or Spain passe in the breath of fame And her thoughts for fair yet let her view The commonst beauty of the English crew And in despair she 'l execrate the day Which bare her black and sigh her self away So pin'd the Phrygian dames and hang'd the head When into Troy Paris did Helen lead But boast not Paris England now enjoyes Helens enough to sack a world of Troyes So doth the vulgar tapers of the â—kie Lose all their lustre when the Moon is nigh Yet English Ladies glorious lights as far Exceed the Moon as doth the Moon a star So do the common people of the groves Grow husht when Philomel recounts her loves But when our Ladies sing even she forbears To use her tongue and turns her tongue to ears Nay more Their beauties should proud Venus see Shee 'd blush her self out of her Deity Drop into Vuleans forge her raign now done And yeeld to them her Empire and her son Yet this were needless I can hardly finde Any of this land stars but straight my minde Speaks her a Venus and me thinks I spic A little Cupid sporting in her eye Who thence his shafts more powerfully delivers Then ere did t'other Cupid from his quivers Such in a word they are you would them guesse An harmony of all the goddesses Or swear that partial Nature at their birth Had rob'd the heavens to glorifie the earth Such though they are yet mean these graces bin Compar'd unto the vertues lodg'd within For needs the Jewels must be rich and precious When as the Cabinet is so delicious CHAP. III. France described The valley of Montmorancie and the Dukes of it Mont-martre Burials in former times not permitted within the wals The prosecuting of this disccurse by manner of a journal intermitted for a time The Town and Church of St. Denis The Legend of him and his head Of Dagobert and the Leper The reliques to be seen there Martyrs how esteemed in St. Augustine's time The Sepulchres of the French Kings and the treasury there The Kings house of Madrit The Queen Mothers house at Ruall and fine devices in it St. Germains en lay another of the Kings houses The curious painting in it Gorramburie Window the Garden belonging to it and the excellency of the Water-works Boys St. Vincent de Vincennes and the Castle called Bisester I Have now done with the French both men and women a people much extolled by many of our English Travellers for all those graces which may enoble adorn both sexes For my part having observed them as well as I could and traced them in all their several humors I set up my rest with this proposition that there is nothing in them to be envied but their Countrey To that indeed I am earnestly and I think not unworthily affected here being nothing wanting which may be required to raise and reward ones liking If nature was ever prodigal of her blessings or scattered them with an over-plentiful hand it was in this Island into which we were entred as soon as we passed over the bridge of Pontoyse The first part of it which lasted for three leagues was upon the plain of a mountain but such a mountain as will hardly yeeld to the best valley in Europe out of France On both sides of us the Vines grew up in a just length and promised to the husbandman a thriving vintage The Wines they yeeld are far better then those of Normandy or Gascoyne and indeed the best in the whole Continent those of Orleans excepted yet what we saw here was but as a bit to prepare our stomachs lest we should surfeit in the valley Here we beheld nature in her richest vestiments The fields so interchangeably planted with Wheat and Vines that had L. Florus once beheld it he would never have given unto Campania the title of Cereris Bacchi certamen These fields were dispersedly here and there beset with Cherry trees which considered with the rest gave unto the eye an excellent object For the Vines yet green the Wheat ready for the sithe and the cherries now fully ripened and shewing forth their beauties through the vails of the leaves made such a various and delightsome mixture of colours that no art could have expressed it self more delectably If you have ever seen an exquisite Mosaical work you may the best judge of the beauty of this valley Add to this that the River Seine being now past Paris either to embrace that flourishing soyle or out of a wanton desire to play with it self hath divided it self into sundry lesser channels besides its several windings and turnings so that one may very justly and not irreligiously conceive it to be an Idea or representation of the Garden of Eden the river so happily separating it self to water the ground This valley is of a very large circuit and as the Welch men say of Anglesey Mon mam Gymâ—ye id est Anglesey is the mother of Wales so may we call this the mother of Paris For so abundantly doth it furnish that great and populous City that when the Dukes of Berry and Burgundy besieged it with 100000 men there being at that time 3 or 400000 Citizens and Souldiers within the wals neither the people within nor the enemies without found any want of provision It is called the Valley of Montmorency from the Town or Castle of Montmorency seated in it but this town nameth not the Valley only It giveth name also to the ancient family of Dukes of Montmorency the antientest house of Christendome He stileth himself Le primier Christian plus viel Baron de France and it is said that his ancestors received the Faith of Christ by the preaching of St. Denis the first Bishop of Paris Their principal houses are that of Chantilly and Ecquoan both seated in the Isle this last being given unto the present Dukes Father by King Henry 4. to whom it was confiscated by the condemnation of one of his Treasurers This house also and so I leave it hath been observed to have
yeelded to France more Constables Marshals Admirals and the like officers of power and command then any three other in the whole Kingdome Insomuch that I may say of it what Irenicus doth of the Count Palatines the name of the Countrey only changed Non alta Galliae est familia cui plus debeat nobilitas The now Duke named Henry is at this present Admiral of France The mosteminent place in all this Isle is Mont-martre eminent I mean by reason of its height though it hath also enough of antiquity to make it remarkable It is seated within a mile of Paris high upon a mountain on which many of the faithfull during the time that Gaule was heathenish were made Martyrs Hence the name Though Paris was the place of apprehension and sentence yet was this Mountain commonly the scaffold of execution it being the custome of the ancients neither to put to death nor to bury within the wals of their Cities Thus the Jewes when they crucisied our Saviour led him out of the City of Hierusalem unto Mount Calvarie unto which St. Paul is thought to allude Heb. 13. saying Let us therefore go forth to him c. Thus also doth St. Luke to omit other instances report of St. Stephen Act. 7. And they cast him out of the city and stoned him So in the state of Rome the Vestall Virgin having committed sornication was stifled in the Campus sceleratus and other malefactors thrown down the Tarpeian rock both situate without the Town So also had the Thessalians a place of execution from the praecipice of an hill which theycalled the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Corvi whence arose the proverb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be hanged As they permitted not executions of malefactors within their wals so neither would they suffer the best of their Citizens to be buried within them This was it which made Abraham to buy him a field wherein to bury his dead and thus we read in the 7. of Luke that the widow of Naims son was carried out to be buried This custome also we find amongst the Athenians Corinthians and other of the Grecians Qui in agris suis as saith Alexander ab Alexandro aut in fundo suburbano seu in avito patrio solo corpora humari consuevere Amongst the Romans it was the fashion to burn the bodies of the dead within their City This continued till the bringing in of the Lawes of Athens commonly called the Lawes of the 12. Tables one of which Lawes runneth in these words In urbe ne sepelito neve urito After this prohibition their dead corps were first burned in Campus Martius and their urnes covered in sundry places in the fields The frequent urnes or sepulchral stones digged up amongst us here in England are sufficient testimonies of this assertion Besides we may finde in Appian that the chief reason why the rich men in Rome would not yeeld to that Law called Lex Agraria or the Law of dividing the Roman possessions equally among the people was because they thought it an irreligious thing that the Monuments of their forefathers should be sold unto others The first that is registred to have been buried in the City was Trajan the Emperour Afterwards it was granted as an honourary to such as had deserved well of the republick and when the Christian Religion prevailed and Church-yards those dormitories of Saints were consecrated the liberty of burying within the wals was to all equally granted On this ground it not being lawful to put to death or bury within the Town of Paris this Mountain was destinate to those purposes Then was it only a Mountain now it is enlarged unto a Town it hath a poor wall an Abbey of Benedictine Monks and a Chappel called La Chapelle des Martyrs both founded by Lewis the 6. called the Grosse Amongst others which received here the Crown of Martyrdome none more famous then St. Denis said to be Dionysius Areopagita the first Bishop of Paris Rusticus his Archpriest and Eleutherius his Deacon The time when under the reign of Domition the person by whose command Fesceninus Governor of Paris the crime for not bowing before the Altar of Mercury and offering sacrifice unto him Of St. Denis being the patron or tutelary Saint of France the Legend reports strange wonders As namely when the Executioner had smitten off his head that he caught it between his armes and ran with it down the hill as fast as his legs could carry him half a mile from the place of his execution he sate down and rested and so he did nine times in all even till he came to the place where his Church is now built There he fell down and died being three English miles from Mont-martre and there he was buried together with Rustious and Eleutherius who not being able to go as fast as he did were brought after him by the people O impudentiam admirabilem vere Romanam and yet so far was the succeeding age possessed with a belief of this miracle that in the nine several places where he is said to have rested there are erected so many hansome Crosses of stone all of a making To the memory of this Saint did Dagobert the first build a Temple and the times ensuing improved it to a Town Afterwards in honour of St. Denis and because it lay neer Paris some of the following Kings bestowed a wall upon it A wall it is of a large circuit and very much unproportionable to the Town which standeth in it for all the world like a Spaniards little face in his great ruffe or like a small chop of Mutton in a large dish of pottage at the three penny Ordinary Thus was the Town built as you see by natural means but it was not so with the Temple Unlesse that be worth a miracle both in the building and in the consecrating of it I will not give a straw for it Thus then saith the story Diagobert afterwards King of France during the life of Clotoyre the second his Father had cruelly slain Sadrasegille his governour To avoid the fury of his Father much incensed with that unprincely action he was compelled to wander up and down France hungry and thirsty And so he went and he went for this tale should be told in the same stile that wenches tell theirs by the fire side till he came to the Sepulchre of St. Denis where he laid down and slept and then there appeared unto him a fine old man with a staffe in his hand and he told him that his father was dead and that he should be King and he prayed him of all loves that when he came to be King he would build a Church there in the honour of St. Denis He had an hard heart that could deny so sweet an old man so little a courtesie for so much good newes and I trow the King was more kinde then so And so when the Church was built the Bishop was sent for