Archbishop of Rouen, who, by virtue of the cession made by Richard Coeur
de Lion, exercised a despotic sway, even until the dissolution of the
_ancien régime_. His privileges were oppressive, and he had and made use
of the right of imposing a variety of taxes, which extended even to the
articles of provision imported either by land or sea. Yet it must be
admitted that the progress of civilization had previously done much
towards the removal of the most obnoxious of the abuses. The times,
happily, no longer existed, when, as in the XIIth century, the prelate,
with a degree of indecency scarcely to be credited, especially under an
ecclesiastical government, did not scruple to convert the wages of sin
into a source of revenue, as scandalous in its nature as it must have
been contemptible in its amount, by exacting from every prostitute a
weekly tax of a farthing, for liberty to exercise her profession[14].

Many uncouth and frivolous ecclesiastical rites and ceremonies of the
middle ages, which good sense had banished from most other parts of
France, where they once were common, still lingered in the archbishop's
seignory. Thus, at no very remote period, it was customary on the Feast
of Pentecost to cast burning flakes of tow from the vaulting of the
church; this stage-trick being considered as a representation of the
descent of the fiery tongues. The Virgin, the great idol of popery, was
honored by a pageant, which was celebrated with extraordinary splendor;
and as I must initiate you in the mysteries of Catholicism, I think you
will be well pleased to receive a detailed account of it. The ceremony I
consider as curiously illustrative of the manners of the rulers, of the
ruled, and of the times; and I will only add, by way of preface, that it
was instituted by the governor, Des Marêts, in 1443, in honor of the
final expulsion of the English, and that he himself consented to be the
first master of the _Guild of the Assumption_, under whose auspices and
direction it was conducted.--About Midsummer the principal inhabitants