from the water-courses for each bath. The lodgment is magnificent. In the house where we stayed three hundred mouths had to be fed every day; and, while we were there, beds were made for a hundred-and-seventy sojourners. It possessed seventeen stoves and eleven kitchens, and in the house adjoining were fifty furnished chambers, the walls of all the rooms being hung with the coats-of-arms of the gentry who had lodged therein. The town, perched high on the crest of a hill, is small and very fair, like almost all the towns of this country.
Moreover, they build their streets wider and more open than ours, and their market-places more ample, and there is a wealth of richly-glazed windows everywhere. They paint almost all the houses outside with various devices, and the towns consequently are very pleasant to look upon. Again, there is scarcely a town without running water in the streets, and at every cross-street will be found a handsome fountain, built either in stone or in wood, and on this account their towns are much fairer to view than those of France. The water of the baths gives out an odour of sulphur like those of Aigues-Caudes[40] and certain others. The heat is tempered as at Barbotan[41] or Aigues-Caudes, and for this reason the baths are very soft and pleasant.
Ladies who are fain to take their bath with daintiness and decency can repair to Baden with confidence, for they will be alone in the bath, which is like an elegant cabinet, light, with glazed windows, painted panelling, and clean flooring. Everywhere are chairs and small tables for reading or gaming while in the bath. The bather may empty and fill the bath as often as he likes, and will find a chamber adjoining.
There are fine walks along the river, besides artificial ones under galleries. These baths are placed in a valley commanded by the slopes of high mountains, which nevertheless are fertile and well cultivated.
The water when drunk tastes rather flat and soft, like water heated up, and there is a smell of sulphur about it, and a certain prickling flavour of salt. Amongst the people of the place it is chiefly used in the bath, in which they subject themselves also to cupping and bleeding, so that I have at times seen the water in the two public baths the colour of blood. Those who drink it by habit take a glass or two at the most. The guests as a rule stay six or seven weeks, and some or other frequent the baths all through the summer. No country sends so many visitors as Germany, from whence come great crowds.
The practice of bathing here is of high antiquity and is remarked by Tacitus,[42] who searched to the utmost to find the chief spring, but could get no knowledge thereof; but apparently the springs rise from a great depth below the level even of the river. The water is less clear than that of the other springs we have seen, and when drawn from the spring it shows certain minute fibres. Moreover, it contains no sparkling bubbles like other sulphurous waters when the glass is filled; like those of Spa, for instance, of which M. de Maldonat told us. M. de Montaigne took some of it on the Monday morning after we arrived, seven small glasses, and on the next day five large glasses, amounting to ten of the aforesaid. On this same day, Tuesday, at nine in the morning, while the others were at table, he took a bath and fell into a heavy sweat in bed afterwards, having stayed in the bath only half-an-hour. The people of the country, who stay all day in the bath playing and drinking, stand only up to the middle in water, but M. de Montaigne lay full length and was covered to the neck.[43] On this day departed from the baths a certain Swiss gentleman, an excellent servant of our State, who all the day before had held converse with M. de Montaigne concerning Swiss affairs, and had shown him a letter which the French ambassador, son of our President du Harlay, had written from Souleure, where he was staying, committing to him the king’s interests while he himself should be absent. The ambassador had been summoned by the queen to meet her at Lyons, in order to devise some plan of checkmating the schemes of Spain and the late Duke of Savoy. The duke shortly before his death had allied himself with certain of the cantons, an alliance which our king had resisted, alleging that the cantons, being already pledged to him, could incur no fresh obligations without his leave. Some of the cantons, when this was pointed out to them by the Swiss gentleman aforesaid, drew back from the alliance. Indeed, all through this country they showed great respect and friendship to our king’s name and the utmost civility to ourselves. The Swiss gentleman had a train of four horses. His son, who is also in the king’s service, on one, a valet on another, his daughter, a tall, handsome girl, on another, with a horsecloth and footboard in French fashion, a trunk on the crupper, and a bonnet box on the saddle-bow, without any waiting-maid, though they were two long days’ journey from their abode, which is in a town where the gentleman aforesaid was the governor. He himself rode the remaining horse.
The common dress of the women does not seem to me so becoming as that usually worn in France, nor the headgear either. This is a bonnet, _à la cognard_, turned up before and behind, and having in front a slight peak enriched with stripes of silk and fur trimmings. The hair hangs down behind in a braid. If you should jestingly take off this bonnet--for it is lightly attached as with us--they will show no offence, and you will see the head quite uncovered. The younger women wear simple garlands in lieu of a bonnet. There is little difference of attire to make the distinction of classes, and the habit is to salute by kissing the hand, and by offering to touch the lady’s. Otherwise, if in passing you give a greeting and bow they will generally make no sign of acknowledgment, according to ancient usage, but some will bow the head slightly by way of returning the salutation. They are for the most part well-favoured women, tall, and fair.
As a nation they have an excellent disposition, even towards those who [do not][44] agree with them. M. de Montaigne, in order to make full trial of diverse manners and customs of the countries he visited, always conformed to local usage, however greatly such a usage may have irked him. Nevertheless, in Switzerland he said that he suffered no inconvenience except that he had at table, by way of napkin, only a piece of linen half a foot long: moreover, the Swiss themselves only unfold this napkin at dinner when many sauces and divers sorts of soup are served; but, on the other hand, they always provide as many wooden spoons with silver handles as there are guests. And a Swiss will always be provided with a knife with which he will eat everything, and never put his fingers in his plate.
In almost all the towns the proper arms of the place are displayed, and above them those of the Emperor and of the house of Austria, but the greater part of the towns have been detached from the archduke aforesaid by ill policy. They say that all members of the Austrian house, except the Catholic king, have been brought to great poverty, even the Emperor,[45] who is held very lightly in Germany. On the Wednesday the host bought a large quantity of fish, and being asked by M. de Montaigne the reason why, he replied that the greater part of the people of Baden ate fish on Wednesdays on religious grounds, a remark which confirmed what he had before heard on this subject: to wit, that those who have remained Catholics are confirmed in their faith by the fact that they have to reckon on an opposition. The host added, when division and religious strife shows itself in a particular town, and infects the governing body, the bond of good feeling is loosened, and the effect of this admixture is felt in individual families, as has been manifested in Augsburg and in the imperial cities. But when a town has one central government--and every Swiss town has its separate laws and administration, is dependent on its neighbours for the preservation of order, and keeps up alliance and union only for purposes affecting the whole community--those towns which possess special civic rights, with a separate civil government complete in all parts, find therein a support for their strengthening and upholding. Towns in this case undoubtedly become stronger, closing their ranks and recruiting their forces through the contagious shock of conflicts near at hand.
Their custom of warming the houses by stoves pleased us greatly, and none of our company complained thereof; for, after you have taken in a breath or two of the air which indeed may seem strange on entering a room, you are sensible only of a soft and regular heat. M. de Montaigne, who slept in a room with a stove, was loud in its praises, saying that all night he felt a pleasant moderate warmth. In warming yourself you burn neither your face nor your boots, and are free from the smoke of a French fireplace. At home we put on our warm furred dressing-gowns when we enter our apartments, but here people appear in doublet and bareheaded in the warm rooms, and put on thick garments before going into the air. On the Thursday M. de Montaigne drank the same quantity of water, which acted well and rid him of a small amount of gravel. Still, he found these waters more powerful than any others which he had ever tried--whether from the strength of the water itself or from the present habit of his body--and accordingly he drank them more sparingly.
On this same Thursday he held discourse with a minister from Zürich, a native of that city, and heard from him that the religion there was formerly Zwinglian, but that now it had come nearer to Calvinism, a somewhat milder creed. Being questioned as to predestination, he replied that they kept the mean between Geneva and Augsburg, but that their people were free to debate this question. For his own part he inclined rather to the side of Zwingli, praising him highly as one who came the nearest to primitive Christianity.
On Friday, October 7th, at seven in the morning, after breakfast, we quitted Baden; and, before we set out, M. de Montaigne drank the same quantity of the water as he had taken on five previous occasions. With regard to the operation of the same, concerning which he was more sanguine than he was in the case of any other bath he had visited (both as to the bathing and the drinking), he was free in his praise of these baths beyond all the rest, not only because the place itself, and the baths and the private apartments, are comfortably and conveniently managed, but also because, in all apartments, visitors are always able to go to their own rooms without passing through the rooms of other people. Moreover, persons of small means may find quarters to suit them quite as easily as those who are rich. Bathrooms, kitchens, cabinets, and chapels may be hired for a large retinue, and at the house adjacent to our own, the Cour de la Ville--ours being the Cour de derrière--there are public apartments belonging to the cantonal authorities, and occupied by lodgers. This same house has several chimneys built in French fashion, and there are stoves in all the chief apartments. The demand for payment from strangers is a little arbitrary, as in all countries and notably in our own. Four furnished chambers, with nine beds in all, two of which had stoves and one bath besides, cost us a crown a day for the masters, and for the servants four batzen:[46] that is to say, a little more than nine sous apiece; the horses cost six batzen, about four sous, but in addition to this they added certain nonsensical charges which were not customary. A guard is kept in the town and even in the bath quarter, which is nothing but a village, and every night two sentinels make the round of the houses, not so much to keep off the foe, as for fear of fire or other disturbance. When the hour strikes one of them is bound to cry out at the top of his voice to the other, and ask what is the hour, whereupon the other in like manner tells him the hour, and adds that he is keeping good watch. The women do their washing in the open in the public place, bringing out their little wooden tubs to the river side where they heat water and do their work excellently; they also clean the earthenware far better than do our French women in the inns. Here each chambermaid and each valet has a special charge.
One disadvantage of travel is that with ever so great diligence it is impossible for a stranger to ascertain from the people of the country whom he may meet--I speak of the cultivated folk as well as the vulgar--what objects of interest may be worthy of a visit, and to make them understand what he may ask. I write thus because, after we had spent five days at Baden, and had inquired curiously concerning everything there which might be worth seeing, we were told naught about a certain object of interest which we saw by chance afterwards as we were leaving the town. This was a stone, about the height of a man, apparently a portion of some column, without adornment or workmanship, placed at the angle of a house, and easily visible to any passer-by on the high-road. There was a Latin inscription, which I was not able to decipher fully, but it seemed to be a simple dedication to the Emperors Nerva and Trajan. We crossed the Rhine at Kaiserstuhl, a Catholic town and allied to the Swiss, and onward thence we traversed a fine flat country until we came to some rapids where the river is broken up by rocks, which they call cataracts, like those of the Nile. And below Schaffhausen there is in the Rhine a gulf full of vast rocks where it becomes rapid, and farther down, amongst the same rocks, it comes to a fall of two pikes’ length, where it makes a mighty leap, foaming and roaring marvellously. This fall stops the boats, and interrupts the navigation of the river. We travelled four leagues at a stretch, and came in time for supper to Schaffhausen.
This town, the capital of a Swiss canton, has the same form of religion as Zürich. On our departure from Baden we left on our right hand Zürich, whither M. de Montaigne had determined to journey, the town being not more than two leagues distant. But word was brought to him of an outbreak of plague there. At Schaffhausen he saw naught which interested him. The citizens were erecting a citadel which promised to be a good work; and they have, moreover, a butt for crossbow practice, and a place for this exercise, as fine and large and shady and well provided with seats and galleries and rooms as man could desire.
There is also a similar place for shooting with the arquebus, and water-mills for the sawing of wood, like those we have seen elsewhere, and others for the scutching of flax and the shelling of millet.
Likewise a tree of the sort we saw at Baden and elsewhere, but not so large. Out of the lowest branches they contrive to make the floor of a sort of circular gallery, twenty paces or so in diameter. They next braid these branches together in an upward direction so as to form the side of the gallery aforesaid, and likewise let them grow upwards as high as possible. They afterwards clip the tree, and prevent the growth of any branch from the trunk, so far as it passes through the gallery, which is for the space of ten feet. They take the upper branches of the tree, and these they lay down upon supports of willow in order to form a roof to the little chamber. Then branches are plaited from below, and at last joined to those which grow upward from the contrary direction: thus the whole space is filled with green growth. Then they clip the tree as high as the top branches, which they allow to grow naturally.
The tree brought into this form is a very beautiful object. In addition they have made spring up at its feet a fountain of water which mounts up as high as the floor of the gallery already mentioned.
M. de Montaigne paid a visit to the burgomasters of the town, who afterwards, to show him courtesy, came with certain other public officers to sup at our apartments, when they brought a present of wine for him and M. d’Estissac, and certain speeches were made on both sides. The chief burgomaster was a man of good family who had been brought up as a page in the house of M. d’Orléans,[47] and had now quite forgotten French. This canton professed to be well affected towards our interests, and had given proof of this disposition by a refusal to join the league of the other cantons, which the late Duke of Savoy had tried to bring about, and of which mention has been made already. On Saturday, October 8th, we set forth at eight in the morning, after breakfast, from Schaffhausen, where we had found excellent lodgment at the “Crown.” One of the most learned men of the place had a conversation with M. de Montaigne, and told him, amongst other matters, that in truth the people of the town were not over well disposed to our Court, forasmuch as whenever he had listened to discourse concerning an alliance with our king, the majority of the people were always disposed to break it, but that by the intervention of certain rich citizens the opposite policy had hitherto been adopted.
As we left the town we saw an engine made of iron, like certain others we had seen elsewhere, by the help of which carts could be loaded with heavy stones without the aid of human muscles. We passed along beside the Rhine, leaving it on our right hand, as far as Stein, a small town, the ally of the cantons, and of the same religion as Schaffhausen. Also on the road we observed many stone crosses. Here we again crossed the Rhine by a wooden bridge and, still keeping beside the river on the left, we passed by another small town allied to the Catholic cantons. Here the Rhine spreads out to a vast width, equal to that of the Garonne at Blaye, and then narrows itself till the approach to Constance, a distance of four leagues.
III THE EMPIRE We arrived at Constance at four o’clock. This town, which is about the size of Châlons, belongs to the Archduke of Austria, and holds to the Catholic religion, though up to thirty years ago it was in the hands of the Lutherans, whom the Emperor Charles V. drove out by force. The churches still show signs of images, and the bishop is a gentleman of the country, who lives at Rome, and as a cardinal draws from this benefice an income of forty thousand crowns. There are canonries, too, of the church of Notre Dame, which are worth fifteen hundred crowns, and are held by men of gentle family. We saw one of these on horseback coming in from the country, attired gallantly like a gentleman-of-arms; and report says that in the town are many Lutherans. We ascended the clock tower, which is very high, and there found a man as fixed sentinel, who is shut therein and not suffered to quit his post, whatever may call him thence. They were constructing beside the Rhine a large covered building, fifty feet long and forty wide, or thereabouts, and fixing therein twelve or fifteen great wheels, by means of which they propose to raise continuously a large quantity of water up to a wooden tower, one storey higher, where will be an equal number of iron wheels (the lower ones are of wood), which will raise the water from the first floor to the one above. The water, having been lifted to the height of some fifty feet, will discharge itself by a large artificial channel and flow down into the town, and set several mills to work. The artisan who has the direction of this building had for his labour alone five thousand seven hundred florins, and wine to boot. In the deep water they were fixing a strong wooden erection all around to break the current; so that, when the force of the water should be moderated, they might be able to draw it upwards more easily. There was also an arrangement of machinery by which the whole system of wheelwork can be raised or lowered according to the level of the water.
At this point the stream is not called the Rhine, for by the upper part of the city it spreads out into a lake full four German leagues in width and five or six in length. There is a fine terrace overlooking this lake where merchandise is stored, and about fifty paces from the shore stands a finely-built lodge, where a sentinel is always on duty.
A chain is here prepared, by which the way of access to the bridge may be closed, and high palisades are set, which enclose on both sides that part of the lake in which boats lie and take in cargo. Near the church of Notre Dame there is a conduit by which water from the Rhine higher up finds its way to the suburbs of the town.
We perceived that we were leaving behind us the country of the Swiss, for the reason that, shortly before we came to the entrance to the town, we saw several noblemen’s dwellings, such as are seldom or never seen in Switzerland; and as to the private houses, both in town and country, we found them beyond all comparison better than in France, and they seem to lack nothing except slate roofs. To speak more particularly of the hostelries, they might perhaps provide a somewhat better style of entertainment; moreover, with regard to certain deficiencies which we found in the service, these could not have been the result of poverty. What we had seen of their way of life in other respects forbade us to believe this, seeing that it is hard to name a place where they do not drink from fine silver cups, gilded and chased; wherefore, what seemed to us strange, was simply local custom. The country is very rich, especially in wine. To return to the town of Constance, we were badly lodged at the “Eagle,” and we got from our host a sample of the barbaric German arrogance and independence over the quarrel of one of our serving-men with our guide from Basle. And when the question came before the judges to whom the guide made an appeal, it chanced that M. de Montaigne asked the provost of the place, an Italian gentleman, married and settled there for a long time with full right of citizenship, whether the servants he had with him could give evidence on our behalf. The provost answered that they could, provided M. de Montaigne should have discharged them from his service.
He might, of course, re-engage them immediately afterwards; a reply which seemed full of subtlety.
On the following day, Sunday, on account of this tumult, we only tarried until after dinner, and then changed our quarters to the “Pike,” where we fared excellently. The son of the captain of the town, who was brought up as a page in the household of M. de Meru,[48] was always in attendance upon Messieurs at table and elsewhere. He did not know a word of French. The service at table is very often varied.
They gave us here, and subsequently in other places, after the cloth was removed, other courses with our wine. The first what the Gascons call _canaules_, then spiced bread, and lastly white bread cut into slices, but still holding together. In the cuttings they put plenty of spices and salt, as also in the crust of the bread. There are many lepers in this country, the highways being full of them. The villagers give their workmen for mid-day meal large flat loaves,[49] made with fennel, and spread upon these a mess of bacon, cut very small and mixed with cloves of garlic. The Germans, when they would do honour to a man, always place themselves on his left side, whatever seat he may occupy, and maintain that to sit on his right hand is to put an insult on him, saying that to show true deference to a man it is necessary to leave his right side free, so that he may easily put his hand to his arms.
After dinner on the Sunday we quitted Constance, and after crossing the lake at a point about a league from the town, we reached Smardorff in time for bed, after travelling two leagues.
Smardorff[50] is a small Catholic town. We had lodging at the “Standard of Cologne,” a post-house which is kept here for the Emperor’s route into Italy. There, as in other places, they fill the mattresses with the leaves of a certain tree, which serves the purpose better than straw and lasts longer. The town is surrounded by a wide plain of vineyard which produces excellent wine. On Monday, the 10th October, we started after breakfast; for M. de Montaigne was persuaded by the beauty of the day to change the plan he had made of going to Ravensburg, and make a day’s journey to Lindau instead. M. de Montaigne never took breakfast, but caused to be brought to him a piece of dry bread which he would eat during the journey, adding thereto occasionally such grapes as he could get on the road, the vintage being still in course of gathering in this region even up to the outskirts of Lindau. Their practice is to train the vines up on trellises, and they leave therein divers verdurous alleys which are delightful to the view.
We passed through Sonchem,[51] an imperial Catholic town on the bank of the Lake of Constance, to which all the wares of Ulm and Nuremburg and divers other places are brought in waggons, thence to be conveyed through the lake to the Rhine route. After travelling three leagues we arrived about three in the afternoon at Linde.[52] The little town is situated some hundred paces out into the lake, which distance is traversed over a stone bridge. There is no other entrance, all the rest of the town being surrounded by the lake, which is at least a league in width, and on the other side rise the mountains of the Grisons. The lake and all the streams are low in winter and full in summer on account of the melting of the snow. All through these parts the women cover their heads with bonnets of fur like our skull-caps, each costing about three testoons;[53] the outside being trimmed with some seemly grey fur, and the inside with lambs’-wool. The opening which in our caps is in front is in theirs behind, and through it may be seen their hair tucked up. Their favourite foot-gear is boots, and these are either red or white, each sort suiting the wearer not amiss.
Both religions are followed. We went to see the Catholic cathedral, built in 866, where all things are as they have always been, and we saw also the church served by the Lutheran ministers. All the imperial towns have liberty in the matter of the two religions, Catholic and Lutheran, according to the leanings of the people, and they devote themselves more or less to that form which they prefer. At Lindau, from what the priest told M. de Montaigne, there are not more than two or three Catholics. The priests do not fail to draw their incomes and to perform the service, and the nuns who are there do the same. M. de Montaigne had some talk also with the minister, from whom he got but little information, except to learn that the common hatred against Zwingle and Calvin was prevalent here likewise. It seems clear that almost every separate place holds for its belief some particular view; and, under the authority of Martin, whom they hail as their head, they set up divers disputes on the interpretation of the meaning of Martin’s works.
We lodged at the “Crown,” a good house. Near the stone on the panelled wall there was a sort of wooden cage for the keeping of a vast number of birds. It was fitted with hanging perches made of copper wire, which gave room for the birds to shift from one end to the other. The furniture and woodwork of their houses is generally made of pine, the most common forest tree, but they paint and varnish and polish it carefully, and even use hair brushes for the furbishing of their chairs and tables. They have great abundance of cabbages, which they shred with a tool made for the purpose, and then salt the same in vessels for making soup in the winter. At this place M. de Montaigne made trial of the feather coverlets, such as they use in bed, and was full of praise thereof, finding them light and warm at the same time. It was a saying of his that people of fastidious taste had more occasion to complain when travelling of their bed furniture than of aught else, and he commended those who carried a mattress or curtains amongst the baggage when visiting strange countries.
As to fare at table, they have such vast abundance of provisions, and vary the service so widely in the matter of soups, sauces, and salads, that nothing in our own way of living can be found to equal it. They gave us soups made of quince, of apples cooked and cut into strips, and cabbage salad. They make pottage of all sorts, one of rice which they eat in common, having no separate service of this dish, an excellently flavoured one. The kitchens are incomparably superior to those of our great houses, and the sitting-rooms are better furnished than with us.
They have abundance of excellent fish, which is served at the table with the meat. Of trout they only eat the liver, and they have also great plenty of game, hares, and woodcocks, which they dress in a fashion differing from our own, but a good one all the same; indeed I have never met with meat so tender as that which was commonly set before us. They serve with the meat cooked plums and slices of apples and pears, sometimes putting the roast first and the soup last, and sometimes reversing this order. As to their fruits, they have only pears and apples, which are both good, and nuts and cheese. During the meat course they hand round a utensil, made either of silver or tin, having four compartments filled with divers sorts of spices. They also use cummin, or some similar grain with a hot stinging savour, as an admixture to their bread; this bread being made for the most part with fennel added thereto. After the meal they replace the glasses filled full on the table, and offer two or three sorts of eatables which serve to provoke thirst.
While he was travelling M. de Montaigne noted with regret three steps which he had neglected to take with regard to his journey. One was that he had not taken with him a cook, who might have learnt the particular methods of foreign lands, and some day at home have shown proof of his skill. The next was that he had not engaged a German valet, or joined himself to some gentleman of the country, for he felt it very irksome to be always at the mercy of a blockhead of a guide; and the last was that, before setting out, he had neither consulted those books which might have pointed out to him what rare and remarkable sights were to be seen in every place, nor included in his baggage a copy of Münster[54] or some similar book. In sooth there was mixed up with his judgments a certain asperity and want of regard for his own country, against which for other reasons he harboured dislike and discontent:[55] certain it is that he preferred the accommodation of these lands, without comparison, to those of France, and conformed to them so far as to drink his wine without water. In drinking he never took wine for its own sake, but simply out of courtesy. Travel is more costly in High Germany than in France: for at our reckoning a man with a horse will lay out at least one crown of the sun[56] per diem. In the first place the innkeepers here charge for food at table d’hôte four, five, or six batzen. They make a separate item of everything, even the smallest refreshment that is taken before or after the two regular meals, wherefore the Germans as a rule quit their lodgings in the morning without drinking aught. Any additional service after the principal meals, and the wine consumed therewith--which is for them the chief expense--they reckon together. In sooth, when we consider the plentiful fare put on the table, and this especially applies to wine, even where it is exceedingly dear and brought from afar, I find the prices charged to be quite justified. They themselves have a way of urging the servants of their guests to drink, and make them keep at table two or three hours. The wine is served from large jugs, and it is reckoned a breach of good manners to let a cup be empty and not replenish it forthwith. They will never give water even to those who ask for it, except these should be persons of great worship. They add to the bill the oats eaten by the horses, and lastly the charge for the stable, which includes also the hay. A good point about them is that they ask at once what they mean to accept, and one gains naught by bargaining. They are boastful, quick-tempered, and drunken, but they are neither deceitful nor robbers, according to M. de Montaigne’s opinion. We departed after breakfast and made a journey of two leagues, and arrived at Vanguen[57] at two in the afternoon.
Here a mishap befell our baggage mule, which injured itself, and compelled us in consequence to halt and to hire a cart for the next day at three crowns per diem, the driver, who had four horses, keeping himself in victual for this sum. Vanguen is a small imperial town which has always refused to harbour a congregation of any form of religion other than the Catholic. They make here scythes so famous that they are sent for sale as far as Lorrenne. M. de Montaigne left it on the morrow, to wit, on the morning of Wednesday, October 12th, and set out for Trent by the shortest route. We halted to dine at Isne,[58] two leagues on our road, a small imperial town very pleasantly situated; and M. de Montaigne, according to his wont, went straightway to call upon a doctor of theology for the sake of discourse, and this doctor he brought in to dine with us. He found that all the people were Lutherans, and he went to visit the Lutheran church which, as with all the churches they occupy in the imperial cities, had been taken from the Catholic. While they were holding divers arguments concerning the Sacrament, M. de Montaigne bethought him how, during the journey, certain Calvinists had informed him that the Lutherans now intermix with the original tenets of Martin divers new errors, such as the “Ubi-quis me,” and maintain that the body of Christ is everywhere as well as in the Host; wherefore they fall into the same difficulty as do the Zwinglians, though by a different road, the one by limiting too much the bodily presence, and the other by a too lavish application of the words (for by their reasoning the Sacrament would be no privilege to the body of the Church or to those two or three just men gathered together). Moreover, the principal Lutheran arguments were that the divinity was inseparable from the body, wherefore the divinity being omnipresent the body must be omnipresent also. They declare, in the second place, that Jesus Christ, being bound to be always at the right hand of His Father, is omnipresent, seeing that the right hand of God, to wit, His power, is in all places. The doctor aforesaid gave strong denial to this imputation, and set up a defence against the same as against a calumny; but, indeed, M. de Montaigne gathered the impression that his defence was somewhat weak.