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LAUSANNE
* * * * * *
_UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME_
MONTREUX
PAINTED BY J. HARDWICKE LEWIS AND
MAY HARDWICKE LEWIS
DESCRIBED BY FRANCIS GRIBBLE
Containing 20 full-page Illustrations in Colour and a
Sketch-Map.
Square Demy 8vo., cloth, gilt top
Price 7/6 net
(_Post free, price 7/11_)
GENEVA
PAINTED BY J. HARDWICKE LEWIS AND
MAY HARDWICKE LEWIS
DESCRIBED BY FRANCIS GRIBBLE
Containing 20 full-page Illustrations and a
Sketch-Map.
Square Demy 8vo., cloth, gilt top
Price 7/6 net
(_Post free, price 7/11_)
PUBLISHED BY A. AND C. BLACK, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W.
* * * * * *
AGENTS
AMERICA THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
64 & 66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK
AUSTRALASIA OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
205 FLINDERS LANE, MELBOURNE
CANADA THE MACMILLAN COMPANY OF CANADA, LTD.
27 RICHMOND STREET WEST, TORONTO
INDIA MACMILLAN & COMPANY, LTD.
MACMILLAN BUILDING, BOMBAY
309 BOW BAZAAR STREET, CALCUTTA
* * * * * *
[Illustration: LAUSANNE CATHEDRAL FROM MONTBENON]
LAUSANNE
Painted by
J. HARDWICKE LEWIS & MAY HARDWICKE LEWIS
Described by
FRANCIS GRIBBLE
[Logo]
London
Adam and Charles Black
1909
Contents
PAGE
CHAPTER I
THE RULE OF SAVOY AND BERNE 1
CHAPTER II
EMIGRANTS AND IMMIGRANTS 11
CHAPTER III
GIBBON 15
CHAPTER IV
MADAME DE MONTOLIEU--DR. TISSOT 39
CHAPTER V
BENJAMIN CONSTANT AND MADAME DE STAËL 45
CHAPTER VI
THE REVOLUTION 61
CHAPTER VII
THE ENGLISH COLONY--THE EDUCATIONAL ADVANTAGES 65
CHAPTER VIII
VINET AND SAINTE-BEUVE--JUSTE OLIVIER 75
CHAPTER IX
NYON 83
CHAPTER X
THE FRENCH SHORE 89
CHAPTER XI
HISTORY OF THE FRENCH SHORE--FELIX V 95
CHAPTER XII
ST. FRANCIS DE SALES 99
CHAPTER XIII
JOSEPH DE MAISTRE 105
INDEX 109
List of Illustrations
1. Lausanne Cathedral from Montbenon _Frontispiece_
FACING PAGE
2. Mont Blanc from above Morges 4
3. Morges and the Lake from the Road to Vufflens 8
4. Château de Vufflens, above Lausanne 12
5. The Spires of St. François, Lausanne 16
6. Château de Prangins 20
7. Lausanne, looking East 26
8. The Market Place, Lausanne 32
9. La Tour de Haldimand--Ouchy--Lausanne 38
10. Lausanne from the Signal 44
11. In the Forest of Sauvabelin, above Lausanne 50
12. Château de Blonay 56
13. The Rhone Valley from Mont Pelerin 62
14. A Street in St. Saphorin 68
15. The Dents du Midi and La Tour from "Entre deux Villes" 74
16. Lutry 80
17. Cully from Epesse--Autumn 86
18. Grandvaux from Cully 92
19. The Rhone Valley from Chexbres 98
20. The Church of St. Martin, Vevey 104
CHAPTER I
THE RULE OF SAVOY AND BERNE
Though Lausanne is so near Geneva, its history, in historical times,
has been widely different from that of the neighbouring town. Geneva
enjoyed a modified independence from an early date, and became
completely independent early in the sixteenth century. Lausanne,
until nearly 300 years later, endured the domination, first of Savoy,
and subsequently of Berne.
The early history is obscure and full of vexed questions as well
as unfamiliar names; but the central fact is that the Counts of
Savoy--they were not promoted to be Dukes of Savoy until later--took
possession of the Canton of Vaud, as well as of the Chablais and
the lower Valais, after the death of the last of the Zaeringen, at
the beginning of the thirteenth century. For the next 300 years
they exercised overlordship, limited by the charters of the towns,
and, in the case of Lausanne, by the jurisdiction of the Bishop--a
complicated state of things which the Swiss historical societies may
be left to unravel.
It seems clear, however, that the Savoyards were no hard taskmasters.
'The country of Vaud,' says its historian, Louis Vulliemin, 'was
happy and proud to belong to them. They exacted little from it, and
accorded it their powerful protection. The various States used to
assemble at Moudon, the central town, summoned by the Council of
Moudon, or by the Governor of Vaud, acting as the representative of
the Prince. There was no palace. They met in an inn, or in the house
of one of the citizens of the neighbourhood. Often they assembled in
such small numbers that, for lack of a quorum, no decision could be
taken.... No burdensome or unduly progressive measures were adopted.
As a rule, the good old customs were confirmed. When a departure
from them was resolved upon, it became law by receiving the sanction
of the Prince. The business of the herald was to see that it was
proclaimed, in the proper places, in a loud and intelligible voice.
The Prince had sworn an oath to impose no new legislation that was
not in accordance with the will of the nation as expressed by the
estates of the realm.'
The most notable of the Governors was Peter of Savoy--the same Peter
of Savoy whom we meet in English history, fighting in the civil wars
of the days of Simon de Montfort. His headquarters were in the Castle
of Chillon, where he not only dispensed justice, but also amended the
criminal law. It was the barbarous rule of the time that an offender
who had been fined for a misdemeanour should have his nose cut off if
he were unable to pay; Peter compelled even the Bishops to abandon
that cruel custom. For the rest, to quote Vulliemin:
'He received his vassals in the great hall of the Castle, where their
coats of arms hung on the wall around that of the House of Savoy.
The blowing of a horn announced that the meal was served. The ladies
arrived in their emblazoned best. The chaplain read the grace from a
volume bound in violet and gold--the precious depositary of Divine
law and ecclesiastical ritual. After the feast came the hour of merry
recreations. The Court fool and the minstrels took their seats by
the side of the Prince, and the nobility thus passed their lives in
junketing.'
This is the same writer's picture of the lives of the burghers:
'At Lausanne the three estates met in the month of May. In 1398 they
submitted to a fresh drafting of the "Plaid général," which defined
the respective rights of bishop, canons, and burghers. Three days
were devoted to the hearing of suits. On the fourth day the Plaid,
accompanied by elders, went the round of the streets, and ordered the
necessary repairs. All the citizens were required to follow, carrying
axes or stakes, so as to be able to lend a hand when required. The
Bishop regaled the artificers with bread, wine, and eggs. In return,
the blacksmiths had to shoe his horses, the saddlers to provide him
with spurs and bridles, and the coachbuilders to supply him with a
carriage. Three times a year the Seneschal passed in front of the
cobblers' shops, and touched with his rod the pair of boots which
he selected for his lordship. In time of war the prelate's army had
to serve the Prince for a day and a night without pay, and as much
longer as they might be wanted for wages. The Bishop's business was
to ransom prisoners, protect the citizens from all injustice, and go
to war on their behalf if necessary.
[Illustration: MONT BLANC FROM ABOVE MORGES]
'Each district of the town had its special privileges. The fine
for assault and battery was sixty livres in the city where the
Bishop resided, sixty sous in the lower town, and only three sous
outside the walls. The Bishop could not arrest a citizen without
informing the burghers, or hold an inquest on the body of a dead man.
The citizens of the Rue de la Bourg sat in judgment on criminals
without assessors. Whenever they heard the summons, though they might
be at the dinner-table, glass in hand, or in their shops measuring
their cloth, they had to run off and give their opinion on the case.
In return, they were exempt from certain taxes, had the sole right
of placing hucksters' barrows in front of their shops, of using
signboards, and of keeping inns.'
It was the Reformation that terminated this primitive state of
affairs. A succession of weak Governors had allowed the hold of the
Dukes of Savoy over the country to be relaxed. It was impossible for
them to maintain their authority when the people were indoctrinated
with the new ideas. The end came when the Duke of Savoy threatened
Geneva, and the Bernese marched through Vaud to the rescue, captured
Chillon, delivered Bonivard, and kept the Canton for their reward.
From the capture of Chillon onwards, Lausanne, like the rest of
Vaud, was a Bernese dependency. Bernese governors (or baillis) were
established in all the strong places, and Protestantism became the
national religion.
The conversion of the inhabitants was chiefly effected by Viret, a
tailor's son, from Orbe, an excellent man, and a persuasive rather
than an eloquent speaker. In 1536, after the fashion of the times,
he, Calvin, and Farel challenged the Catholic theologians to a great
debate. The monks, recognizing him as a formidable antagonist, had
previously tried to get rid of him by surreptitious means. One of
them had assaulted him at Payerne, and another had attempted to
poison him at Geneva. At Lausanne they were obliged to argue with
him, and failed still more conspicuously. The argument lasted for a
week, and, at the end of the week, the populace, considering that the
Protestant case was proved, proceeded to the cathedral to desecrate
the altars and smash the images, while the governors confiscated
the Church property and offered it for sale. 'It was thus,' writes
Vulliemin, 'that Jost de Diesbach bought the church and vicarage of
St. Christophe in order to turn the one into a baking house and the
other into a country seat, and that Michel Augsburger transformed the
ancient church of Baulmes into a stable for his cattle.'
At the same time a disciplinary tribunal, somewhat on the lines of
Calvin's theocracy at Geneva, was instituted to supervise the morals
of the citizens; and absence from church was made punishable by fine,
imprisonment, or banishment. Viret, it is true, was driven to resign
his pastorate and leave Lausanne, because he was not allowed to
refuse the Holy Communion to notorious evil-livers, and fifty other
pastors followed his example; but the pastors who remained drafted
a new moral code of sufficient severity, consisting, in the main,
of a gloss upon each of the Ten Commandments, giving a list of the
offences which it must be understood, for the future, to prohibit.
Under the heading of Seventh Commandment, for example, it was
written: 'This forbids fornication, drunkenness, baptismal and burial
banquets, pride, dancing, and the use of tobacco and snuff.'
A number of Sumptuary Laws were also adopted, to check the spread of
luxury; and here again we cannot do better than quote Vulliemin:
'The regulations prescribed the dress materials which each class of
society might wear, and permitted none but the nobility to appear
in gold-embroidered stuffs, brocades, collars of Paris point lace,
and lace-embellished shoes. The women of the middle classes were
forbidden to wear caps costing more than ten crowns, or any sort of
false hair, or more than one petticoat at a time. One regulation
settled the size of men's wigs, and another determined how low a
lady's bodice might be cut. There was a continual battle between
authority and fashion, and fashion was always contriving to evade
the law. The purpose of the magistracy was not only to maintain
the privileges of the upper classes, but also to fortify domestic
morality against the imperious demands of vanity. A special
government department was instituted to stop the use of tobacco. The
baillis alone considered that the law did not apply to them; but one
day, when one of these officials opened his snuff-box in church, the
preacher interrupted him. "Here," he said, "one only snuffs the Word
of God." Above all things, however, morality was the object of the
jealous care of the magistrates of Vaud. So it was with an outburst
of holy wrath that they heard that there was at Vevey "a dancing
master, a Catholic, whose presence caused great scandals, at balls,
in the evenings, between the two sexes." The stranger was banished,
and the town was censured for its criminal toleration.'
[Illustration: MORGES AND THE LAKE FROM THE ROAD TO VUFFLENS]
Such was the régime, and though, in externals, it resembled
the régime at Geneva, there was one very significant difference.
The Genevan discipline was self-imposed, and at least expressed the
will of a working majority of the people. The Lausanne discipline
represented the will of a conqueror imposed upon a subject race, and
the conqueror had a rough and heavy hand, and rigorously excluded the
subject people from participation in public affairs. The consequences
can be traced in their history, habits, and manners.
There was one poor feeble attempt at revolt. A certain Major Davel,
after whom one of the steamboats on the lake is called--a Pietist,
and perhaps a religious maniac--a soldier of fortune, whose merits
had attracted the attention of such good judges as the Duke of
Marlborough and Prince Eugène, mustered the militia of Cully and
marched into Lausanne, declaring that he had come to set the Canton
free. Asked for explanations, he replied that he had been guided by
direct inspiration from on high. The defence did not save him, and he
perished on the scaffold in 1723. The revolution at which he aimed
was not to be accomplished for another eighty years, and the event
constitutes almost the whole of the political history of Lausanne
during the period under review.