or Sylva Belini-i.e. the Wood of Belinus-where the Druids had worshipped that deity and practised their mysteries long before the coming of our Saviour.

Towards the close of the sixth century, Christian Lausanne had already attained importance and renown from a chapel dedicated to the Holy Virgin, which, it is believed, stood on the height now occupied by the splendid cathedral of Notre Dame. Thither flocked pilgrims from far and near, and to the Virgin's influence old chroniclers trace the commencement and confirmation of the city's prosperity. The popularity of her shrine gave the impetus to Lausanne's fortunes, and was the ultimate cause of the transfer thither from Avenches of the episcopal seat.

Avenches, the ancient capital of Helvetia, was once a Roman colony, endowed with a constitution like the Italian towns accorded by the Emperor Vespasian1-son of the banker of the

'Gibbon says Vespasian was of mean birth: 'His grandfather had been a private soldier, his father a petty officer of the revenue. His own merit had raised him, in an advanced age, to the Empire.'-Milman, Gibbon's Roman Empire, i. 212. Martignier and De Crousaz, in their Dictionnaire Historique du Canton de Vaud, under the article 'Avenches,' pp. 42 and 43, declare that Vespasian was born at Avenches, where his father carried on the bank, and found the assertion upon the declaration of Suetonius, liber viii. 1. It will be seen that Suetonius does not sustain the first, though he affirms the second, fact. He says: Sabinus fœnus exercuit apud Helvetios, ibique diem obiit, superstitibus uxore Vespasia Polla, et duobus ex ea liberis: quorum major Sabinus ad præfecturam urbis, minor ad principatum usque processit.'-Suet. lib. viii. 1.

Monsieur Daguet, in his Histoire de la Confédération Suisse, i. 32, says: 'Vespasien n'était pas né à Aventicum, mais son père Sabinus avait vécu bien des années dans cette ville, où il faisait la banque et où il finit ses jours. Reconnaissant des bons procédés dont son père avait été l'objet chez les Helvètes, et peut-être aussi de leur fidélité pour Galba, Vespasien commença par éloigner la Légion Rapace, et la remplaça par la légion xime, appelée Fidèle (Claudia pia fidelis). Ce prince s'empressa ensuite de rebâtir Aventicum, qui avait souffert dans la guerre de Cécina, et la peupla d'une colonie flavienne. Une population nombreuse se presse dans son enceinte agrandie, embellie de somptueux édifices et flanquée de 80 à 90 tours. Des colonnes milliaires reliaient tout le territoire des Helvètes à la métropole.'

In a note to this passage M. Daguet says: 'D'après Suétone, dont le texte dit positivement exercuit fœnus, M. Vulliemin (Histoire de la Confédération Suisse, p. 33) se trompe en attribuant à Sabinus les fonctions de percepteur général qu'il avait exercées en Asie, où on lui érigea des statues avec cette inscription en Grec: “Au receveur intègre: (KAANE TEAMNHMANTI.”—Suétone, i.).'

In his History of the Roman Empire (i. 212 n.), Gibbon says: The Emperor Vespasian, with his usual good sense, laughed at the genealogists, who deduced his family from Flavius, the founder of Reate (his native country), and one of the companions of Hercules' (Suet. in Vesp. c. 12).

In its issue of Saturday, April 17, 1880, the Feuille d'Avis of Lausanne says: 'The municipality, who had thanked by letter Prince Torlonia at Rome

town, says Suetonius-who, moreover, surrounded the city by massive walls, defended it by semicircular towers, adorned it with a capitol, a theatre, a forum, and granted it jurisdiction over the outlying dependencies of Lausanne, Moudon, Yverdon, and Soleure.

To-day, plantations of tobacco cover the forgotten streets of Avenches, and a single Corinthian column, with its crumbling arcade, remains to tell of former grandeur. But during many centuries it was the flourishing centre of the most populous part of the Roman country' (still so called) of Helvetia. Christianity early placed its seal upon this magnificent city, and spiritual rule succeeded to the government that ancient Rome had established. Bishops guided its affairs, but could not control its destinies; accumulated misfortunes finally drove them forth to seek another centre.

In the year 610, the Allemanni, who had sacked the place in the third century, utterly destroyed Avenches, and reduced the surrounding district to a wilderness, long known under the name of Uechtland-desert-country. Avenches fell, but

Lausanne inherited her ecclesiastical power and her spiritual dignities, and became the active centre of a great diocese. Her bishop was one of the richest and most powerful princes of Helvetia. Under the Transjuran kings, he was nominated by the clergy and by the people, in accordance with the ancient Gaulish custom. Later, his election was confined to the chapter of Notre Dame, whose choice was ratified by Papal sanction.

The long line of illustrious bishops were taken from the greatest families of the land, such as the de Grandsons, de Champvents, de Cossonays, d'Estavayers, and de Prangins. Even members of the sovereign houses of Kibourg, Neuchâtel, Faucigny, and Savoy pressed eagerly forward to obtain the coveted mitre.

The bishops professed to be the delegates of the Virgin herself, and the city and its environs are recognised in the most ancient acts as her peculiar province.

for the gift of the busts of Vespasian and Titus to the Museum of Avenches, has received from the Prince a very friendly letter congratulating the authorities of that town on the care which they display in keeping alive in the hearts of the inhabitants the memory of those of her children who have done honour to this ancient city.'

CHAPTER IV

TOWARDS the end of the eighth century Lausanne enjoyed high renown and many privileges, her bishop, Udalrich, being closely allied to the Emperor of the West. He was the son of Hildebrand, Duke of Swabia, and twin brother of the beautiful Hildegarde, second wife of Charlemagne.

As long as his sister lived, Udalrich enjoyed the greatest authority at Court. But after her death in 783, he fell into disgrace, and was deprived of the greater portion of his dignities. He sought in vain to justify himself against a host of false accusations, and all seemed lost, when the Emperor's jester took upon himself one day to cry throughout the palace: 'Poor Udalrich! Poor bishop of Lausanne! Now that thy sister is dead, thou hast lost all thy dignities from the east to the west!' Charlemagne heard this indirect reproach, and could not refrain from tears. He at once restored his brother-in-law to his confidence and friendship, and re-established him in his former honours.

In 1011, the last King of Transjuran Burgundy, Rudolph the Lazy, gave to the spiritual head of the diocese the whole county of Vaud.1

Sixty-five or sixty-six years later, Henry IV., Emperor of Germany, made his famous pilgrimage to Italy, and submitted to the greatest indignity from Pope Gregory VII., in order to rid himself from the excommunication of the Holy See. The memory of this historical journey has been revived in the recent discussions of the German Parliament, and has given rise to the now well-known phrase, 'To go to Canossa.'

In 1079, by a charter dated at Spire, Henry confirmed the preceding gift, and added many other important domains to the

1 Martignier and de Crousaz, 482; Verdeil, i. 54. It is often difficult to ascertain the exact dates of events in the history of the Canton of Vaud. Thus, in this instance, Martignier gives the date as 1011; and so does Verdeil, who, after setting out in extenso the deed of gift by Rudolph III. to the Bishop of Lausanne, at p. 54, dated VIII. of the Calends of September 1011, gives the date, at p. 77 of the same volume, as 1015. Daguet, in his History (i. 93), assigns this donation to the year 1001, but does not cite the original act. (See also Mém. et Doc. VII. x.)

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diocese of Lausanne; and, five years after, he made his famous visit to Vevey, where he granted various other privileges.1

It must be confessed that Burchard, the then Bishop of Lausanne, richly merited these generous favours; for his knightly form was to be seen upon every battlefield, bearing aloft before the Emperor the sacred lance of Constantine, until that fatal Christmas Eve at Gleichen, when, falling by his sovereign's side, he literally sealed his devotion with his life's blood.

As early as 1036, Bishop Hugues published the 'Trêve de Dieu,' and proposed that all wars should cease during certain periods of the year. The council which he summoned to take this question into consideration assembled at Montrion, near Lausanne, which became the home of Voltaire seven hundred years afterwards.2 In the preceding century Queen Bertha

1 Verdeil, i. 67, and Vulliemin, i. 78, affirm that Henry went to Vevey on his way to Italy in 1076; but Baron de Gingins in The Avouerie of Vevey' (Mém. et Doc. XVIII., 15 of the Mémoire), says in a note: On the occasion of his first expedition in the winter of 1077 the Emperor passed by the Tarentaise and the Little St. Bernard, and not through the Valais and the Great St. Bernard, as is commonly stated, taking Civis, Cevins, for Vivis, Vevey.' In the text he says: It was on his return from his second expedition beyond the Alps, and after having received at Rome the imperial crown (1084), that Henry IV. passed the Great St. Bernard, and arrived, in the first days of September of 1088, at Vevey, where he sojourned. He was accompanied by the Bishop of Sion, Ermenfroy, his chancellor, and Burchard, Bishop of Lausanne. It was in this little town, and in presence of these two prelates, that the Emperor caused to be despatched a charter by which he restored the Priory of Lutry to the Abbot of Savigny in Lyonnais, from whom it had been taken by the antiCæsar Rodolph.' Verdeil's authority is Baron de Gingins himself, in his Mémoire sur le Rectorat de Bourgogne, published as early as 1838 in the first volume of the Mémoires of the Society of History of Roman Switzerland, which fact renders the subsequent correction by Baron de Gingins himself all the more trustworthy.

2 Daguet,i. 102; Vulliemin, Histoire de la Confédération Suisse, i. 75. Verdeil, i. 63, gives 1038 as the date, and Vulliemin in Le Canton de Vaud gives 1033. The date of the Trêve de Dieu ' does not appear anywhere exactly. Daguet says 1036. De Gingins, in his work on the Rectorate of Burgundy, published in 1838 (Mém. et Doc., tome i. p. 20), says 1037 to 1038, at Romont; though in the notes which he made with M. Forel, President of the Society for the publication of the Cartulary of Lausanne, he corrects the name of the place to Montrion. Bridel, Conservateur Suisse, v. 268, in mentioning the subject, gives no date, and in vol. xii. p. 96 places it in the Chronicle of the Cartulary of Lausanne just after 1032, and immediately before 1033. In the Cartulary (Mém. et Doc. vi. 38) the date does not appear; the fact being mentioned with several others in the summary of Bishop Hugues's episcopate; but it appears at p. 10 that the Bishop died in 1036 (August 31), though at p. 38 it would seem to have been 1038, since he is said to have become bishop in 1019, and to have governed nineteen years. Martignier is the most precise. He says in the autumn of 1036 or the spring of 1037.