Part 19

"The same character of uniformity extends over the interior of the building. On each side of the nave is a side-aisle; and, beyond the aisles, chapels. The pillars of the nave are cylindrical, solid, and plain. Their bases end with foliage at each corner, and foliage is also sculptured upon the capitals. The arches which they support are acute.--The triforium is similar in plan to the part below; but the capitals of the columns are considerably more enriched, with an obvious imitation of the antique model, and every arch encircles two smaller ones. In the clerestory the windows are modern.--The transepts appear the oldest parts of the cathedral, as is not unfrequently the case; whether they were really built before the rest, or that, from being less used in the services of the church, they were less commonly the objects of subsequent alterations. They are large; and each of them has an aisle on the eastern side. The architecture of the choir resembles that of the nave, except that the five pillars, which form the apsis, are slender, and the intervening arches more narrow and more acute.--The Lady-Chapel, which is long and narrow, was built towards the middle of the fifteenth century, by Peter Cauchon, thirty-sixth bishop of Lisieux, who, for his steady attachment to the Anglo-Norman cause, was translated to this see, in 1429, when Beauvais, of which he had previously been bishop, fell into the hands of the French. He was selected, in 1431, for the invidious office of presiding at the trial of the Maid of Orleans. Repentance followed; and, as an atonement for his unrighteous conduct, according to Ducarel, he erected this chapel, and therein founded a high mass to the Holy Virgin, which was duly sung by the choristers; in order, as is expressed in his endowment-charter, to expiate the false judgment which he pronounced.[171]--The two windows by the side of the altar in this chapel have been painted of a crimson color, to add to the effect produced upon entering the church; and, seen as they are, through the long perspective of the nave and the distant arches of the choir, the glowing tint is by no means unpleasing.--The central tower is open within the church to a considerable height: it is supported by four arches of unusual boldness, above which runs a row of small arches, of the same character as the rest of the building; and still higher, on each side, are two lancet-windows.--The vaulting of the roof is very plain, with bosses slightly pendant and carved.

"At the extremity of the north transept is an ancient stone sarcophagus, so built into the wall, that it appears to have been incorporated with the edifice, at the period when it was raised. The character of the heads, the crowns, and the disposition of the foliage, may be considered as indicating that it is a production, at least of the Carlovingian period, if it be not indeed of earlier date. I believe it is traditionally supposed to have been the tomb of a saint, perhaps St. Candidus; but I am not quite certain whether I am accurate in the recollection of the name.--Above are two armed statues, probably of the twelfth or thirteenth centuries. These have been engraved by Willemin, in his useful work, _Les Monumens Français_, under the title of _Two Armed Warriors, in the Nave of the Cathedral, at Lisieux_; and both are there figured as if in all respects perfect, and with a great many details which do not exist, and never could have existed; though at the same time the draftsman has omitted the animals at the feet of the statues, one of which is yet nearly entire.--This may be reckoned among the innumerable proofs of the total disregard of accuracy which pervades the work of French antiquaries. A French designer never scruples to sacrifice correctness to what he considers effect.--Willemin describes the monuments as being in the nave of the church. I suspect that he has availed himself of the unpublished collection of Gaignat, in this and many other instances. It is evident that, originally, the statues were recumbent; but I cannot ascertain when their position was changed.--No other tombs now exist in the cathedral: the brazen monument raised to Hannuier, an Englishman, the marble that commemorated the bishop, William d'Estouteville; founder of the _Collège de Lisieux_ at Paris, that of Peter Cauchon in the Lady-Chapel, and all the rest, were destroyed during the revolution."

NOTES:

[169] The following account of the bishopric of Lisieux, is extracted from the _Gallia Christiana_, XI. p. 762, to enable the reader to form an opinion of its extent and importance.--"Ecclesia hæc cæteris Neustriæ episcopatibus facultatibus haud impar, patronum agnoscit S. Petrum Apostolorum principem. Episcopus, qui et episcopus est capituli, comes est et civitatis. Hunc comitatum septem componunt baroniæ, de Nonanto in Bajocassino, de Thibervilla, de _Glos_ et Courthona, de Gaceio, de Touqua, de Canapvilla et de Bonnavilla _la Louvet_, omnes in dioecesi. Episcopus præterea conservator est privilegiorum academiæ Cadomensis. Dignitates omnes et præbendas ecclesiæ Lexoviensis confert, excepto decano qui eligitur a capitulo, nec a quoquam confirmatur. Præter decanum, capitulum octo constat dignitatibus, cantore, qui residere tenetur, thesaurario, capicerio, magistro scholarum et quatuor archidiaconis; 1. de Lievino cui subsunt quatuor decanatus rurales, _Moyaux, Cormeilles, Bernai, et Orbec_, in quibus 139 parochiæ, rectoriæ vero seu curæ 148; 2. de Algia, cui subsunt tres decanatus, _Mesnil-Mauger, Beuvron et Beaumont_, in quibus 128 parochiæ, rectoriæ vero 137; 3. de Ponte Audomaro, cui subsunt tres decanatus, _Touques, Honfleur, et Pontaudemer_, in quibus 89 parochiæ, rectoriæ 93; 4. denique de Gaceio, cui subsunt quatuor decanatus, _Gacey, Livarot, Montreul, et Vimontier_, in quibus 111 parochiæ, et 117 rectoriæ. Post dignitates sunt 31 præbendæ integræ cum duabus semipræbendis, e quibus undecim antiquæ fundationis, quas qui tenent barones vocantur. Sunt et aliæ sex præbendæ _Volantes_ dictæ, quæ quotidianis non gaudent distributionibus. Sunt adhuc in eadem ecclesia 4 vicarii, quorum tres revocabiles, et 30 capellani, quorum septem episcopus, et 23 instituit capitulum. Præter parochias supra memoratas, sunt et aliæ undecim in urbe et baleuca Lexoviensi, rectoriæ duodecim: quatuor in exemtione de Nonanto prope Bajocas, quarum sex rectores, et quinque in exemtione S. Candidi senioris in urbe et dioecesi Rotomagensi, quarum unam, scilicet S. Candidi senioris collegiatam simul et parochialem administrant quatuor canonici, qui alternis vicibus parochialia obeunt munia; decanatus enim annexus est episcopo Lexoviensi qui jurisdictionem exercet in quinque illas ecclesias. Tota denique dioecesis Lexoviensis 487 parochias continet, rectorias 520."

[170] _Turner's Tour in Normandy_, II. p. 139.

[171] _Anglo-Norman Antiquities_, p. 47.

PLATE LXXVI.

ABBEY CHURCH OF ST. OUEN, AT ROUEN.

[Illustration: Plate 76. ABBEY CHURCH OF ST. OUEN, AT ROUEN. _North East View._]

The beauty of the church of St. Ouen has been a frequent theme of admiration among the lovers of ancient ecclesiastical architecture. The excellencies of the building have been denied by none, while some have gone so far as to consider it as the very perfection of that style, which has generally, however improperly, obtained the name of _Gothic_. A recent English traveller, whose attention was expressly directed to the different departments of the arts, bears the following testimony in its favor: "Beyond all comparison, the finest specimen of Gothic architecture which we have met with in France, is _Saint Ouen_, the secondary church at Rouen. Contrasted with Salisbury cathedral, it is small; but it does not, I think, yield to that or any other structure I have ever seen, in elegance, lightness, or graceful uniformity."[172]

Previously to the suppression of monasteries in France, the church of St. Ouen made part of the abbey of the same name, one of the most celebrated and most ancient in Normandy. It is now a parochial church, and is happily in nearly a perfect state, having suffered comparatively but little from the mad folly of the Calvinists of the sixteenth century, or the democrats of the eighteenth; though every studied insult was offered to it by the former, and in the fury of the revolution it was despoiled and desecrated--degraded at one time to a manufactory for the forging of arms, and at another to a magazine for forage.--Different accounts are given of the foundation of the convent: some writers contend for its having taken place as early as the last year of the fourth century, and having been the work of the piety of Saint Victrice, then bishop of Rouen; others, and these the greater number, are content with tracing it from the reign of Clothair. Those who adopt the latter opinion are again divided, as to whether that prince himself was the actual founder, or only ratified by his royal sanction what was really the establishment of Archbishop Flavius. In either case, however, they agree in dating the origin of the abbey from the year 535.

An historian, who lived as early as the middle of the tenth century, speaks of the original church of St. Ouen, as an edifice deserving of admiration:--"..... miro opere, quadris lapidibus, manu Gothicâ,.... olim nobilitèr constructa."[173]--The abbey was at first placed under the invocation of the Holy Apostles generally: it was afterwards dedicated to St. Peter alone; but, from the year 692, it has owned no other patron than St. Ouen,[174] whose body was three years before interred in the church, which he had protected with his especial favor while living, and which derived still greater benefits from him after his death, owing to the concourse of pilgrims attracted by the miracles that were wrought at his tomb.

Upon the irruption of the Normans in the ninth century, this abbey shared the common fate of the Neustrian convents; and, like the rest, it rose from its ashes with greater magnificence, after the conversion of these barbarians to Christianity. Nicholas, the fourth abbot of the convent, son of Duke Richard II. and of Judith of Brittany, is said by Ordericus Vitalis to have commenced "a new church of wonderful size and elegance." But though he presided over the fraternity nearly sixty years, he did not live to see the building finished: the bringing of the task to perfection was reserved for William Balot, the next but one to him in the succession; and even he died in the very year of the dedication, which did not take place till 1126.

This church, which it had cost eighty years to build, was suffered to exist but a short time after its completion: only ten years had elapsed from its dedication, when it fell a prey to a conflagration, which was at the same time destructive to the greater part of the city: another church, built shortly after, and chiefly by the munificence of Richard Coeur-de-Lion, shared the same fate in 1248. But even these repeated disasters in no wise abated the spirit of the monks: they had retired with the wreck of their property to one of their estates near Rouen, and there, by economy on their own part, and liberality on that of others, they soon found themselves in a state to undertake the erection of a fourth convent, of greater extent than any of the former, and to inclose it with high walls.

The honor of laying the first stone of the new church, the same that is now standing, is attributed to one of the most celebrated of the abbots, John Roussel, more commonly known by the name of _Marcdargent_.[175] He had been elected to the prelacy in 1303; and, fifteen years afterwards, he commenced the structure. He presided over the monastery thirty-seven years, and was buried in the Lady-Chapel of the church, which he had completed as far westward as the transepts. The pomp with which his funeral was conducted, is recorded at length in the _Neustria Pia_; and the same work has also preserved the following inscription, engraved upon his coffin, which describes, with great precision, the progress made by him in the building:--

"HIC JACET FRATER JOANNES MARCDARGENT ALIAS ROUSSEL, QUONDAM ABBAS ISTIUS MONASTERII, QUI COEPIT ÆDIFICARE ISTAM ECCLESIAM DE NOVO; ET FECIT CHORUM ET CAPELLAS, ET PILLIARIA TURRIS, ET MAGNAM PARTEM TURRIS S. AUDOENI, MONASTERII DICTI."

The remaining parts of the church were not finished till the beginning of the sixteenth century, when it was brought to its present state by the thirty-fourth abbot, Anthony Bohier, who, in the annals of the convent, bears the character of having been "a magnificent restorer and repairer of ancient monasteries." Admirable as is the structure, the original design of the architect was never completed. The western front remains imperfect; and this is the more to be regretted, as that part is naturally the first that meets the eye of the stranger, who thus receives an unfavorable impression, which it is afterwards difficult wholly to banish. The intention was, that the portal should have been flanked by magnificent towers, ending in a combination of open arches and tracery, corresponding with the outline and fashion of the central tower. An engraving, though a wretched one, of this intended front, is given in Pommeraye's History of the Abbey, from a sketch preserved among the records of the convent.

The view of this church, etched by Mr. Cotman, is copied from a drawing made by Miss Elizabeth Turner. It represents the building, as seen from a seat in the gardens formerly belonging to the monastery, but now open to the public; and it is well calculated to convey a general idea of the character of the exterior of the building, including the central tower, which is wholly composed of open arches and tracery, and terminates, like the south tower of the cathedral, with an octangular crown of fleurs-de-lys. The plate also exhibits a portion of a circular chapel, now commonly known by the name of _la Chambre des Clercs_, the only remaining part of the church built by William Balot, in the beginning of the twelfth century. This chapel, the south porch, the central tower, and a specimen of ancient sculpture in the church, have been engraved by Mr. Turner, in his _Tour in Normandy_. The two first, of the same subjects, together with the western front, a general view of the church from the south, the curious bas-relief over the southern entrance, and a representation of the interior, have since been lithographized in M. Jolimont's _Monumens de la Normandie_. Considerable pains have been devoted in both these works, to the description and the history of the building; and to them the reader must be referred, who is unwilling to engage with the ponderous folio of Pommeraye.

NOTES:

[172] _Milton's Letters on the Fine Arts, written from Paris in the year 1815._ p. 183.

[173] Jolimont, from whom this quotation is borrowed, states, that it is to be found in the chronicle of an author of the name of Fridegode; and he proceeds with the following observations:--"The expression appears remarkable, as warranting the inference, that the style of architecture, which Fridegode calls _Gothic_, was in use in France as early as the commencement of the sixth century, the time assigned by him for the building of the first church of St. Ouen. But it is equally to be inferred, from the manner in which he notices it, that this style was not then common; and his subjoining, that it was made of square stones, (in opposition, most probably, to rubble) serves to point out that such an edifice was an extraordinary building for Rouen at that period. This idea receives confirmation, from the reflection, that the materials for forming the city were originally supplied out of the forests that inclosed it; so that, not only the houses of individuals, but the public edifices, were merely of wood. St. Gregory of Tours, speaking, in his fifth book, of a church at Rouen, dedicated to St. Martin, uses the following expression:--'_Quæ super muros civitatis ligneis tabulis fabricata est._'--Indeed, the few stone-buildings then at Rouen, were almost exclusively devoted to the purposes of fortification, and were of flint or sand-stone, rather than of free-stone. Every thing too tends to prove that architecture was then in its infancy in the capital of Neustria; or, if it ever had been more advanced there, which could have been only under the Roman sway, that it had retrograded into a barbarous state.--Moreover, the _Gothic style_, mentioned by Fridegode, was no other than a degeneration of the Roman, or, more properly, of the Lombardic architecture, distinguished by the circular arch, by insulated columns, by a paucity of ornaments, and by a general massiveness. It is by no means to be confounded with the style which has since passed under the same name, a style introduced about the beginning of the twelfth century, immediately after the crusades, with its ogee forms, slender clustered columns, and every portion of the building characterized by extreme lightness, yet still loaded with a profusion of crowded ornaments. If, however, this Lombardic style was practised as early as the fifth or sixth century, in a town so backward in the science of architecture as Rouen, what date is to be assigned for its introduction into other parts of France, where the knowledge of the fine arts disappeared for a much shorter period?--It must be left to the decision of antiquaries, whom this passage in Fridegode seems to have escaped, to determine how far the foregoing observations are just, and may serve to throw light upon the history of the style of architecture called _Gothic_, the origin of which in France has always been attended with great obscurity."

[174] St. Ouen was born A.D. 600, at the village of Sanci, near Soissons. He was of a noble family, and was educated in the abbey of St. Médar, at Soissons, whence he was removed, at an early age, to the court of Clothair II. At the court, he contracted an intimate friendship with St. Eloi; and, under Dagobert, became the favorite of the monarch, as well as his chancellor and minister of state. During the whole of his life, his strong turn to religion rendered him a warm patron of monastic establishments; and, among others, he founded the celebrated abbey of Rebais en Brie. He was still young when he renounced the world, embraced the ecclesiastical state, and devoted himself to the preaching of the gospel; shortly after which, at the request of the inhabitants of Rouen, he was appointed to succeed St. Romain, as their pastor. His consecration took place in 646, and was performed in the church of the monastery of St. Peter, since-called St. Ouen. It was also at his own particular desire, that he was there interred. His name occurs among those of the prelates who were present at the council of Châlons, in 650; he was likewise entrusted by the king with various important negociations; and, after an earthly career, passed, according to his historians, in the practice of every civil and apostolic virtue, he died at Clichy, near Paris, in the year 689.

[175] The following extract from the _Neustria Pia_, p. 35, bears witness at once to the merits of the abbot, and the light in which the building was regarded throughout France.--"Hic Abbatiam reperit bonis omnibus sufficienter munitam, pecunia et commeatu haud indigentem: quam et ipse sapienter ac religiosè gubernavit, locupletavit, et vehementer adauxit; tum possessionibus et redditibus, tum ædificiis ac reparationibus: Basilicam iliam admirabili structura compositam, totiusque Galliæ speciosissimam, construere coepit, anno 1318, die festo S. _Urbani_; quam continuavit ad ann. usque 1339, in festo Apostolorum SS. _Petri_ et _Pauli_: quo in opere expendit 63036 libras argenti, et quinque solidos Turonensis: (quæ nunc haud posset compleri ædificio pro 663036 libris, etiam aureis) quorum omnium tesserem vetera hujusce domus inclytæ monimenta nunc usque accuratè continent. De hujusmodi celeberrima æde, sic quidam neotericus verè locutus est. _Nunc est S._ Audoeni: _cujus mirabilis structura, hodieque dubium relinquit, si alia per Galliam splendidior et elegantior: Monasterium est tota quidem Europa, celeberrimum, sed Patroni sui sanctitate magis æstimandum._ cui alii adstipulantur. Et hoc, consilio et auxilio D. Caroli, Comitis _Valesii_: cui operi Carolus Valesius VI. Rex ann. 1380, dono dedit tria millia librarum ad instantiam Burgundiæ Ducis, sui patruelis."

PLATE LXXVII.

FOUNTAIN OF THE STONE CROSS, AT ROUEN.[176]

[Illustration: Plate 77. FOUNTAIN OF THE STONE CROSS AT ROUEN.]

Rouen has long boasted a pre-eminence over the greater part of the cities of France, with respect to its public fountains. The chalk hills, with which it is surrounded, furnish an abundant supply of excellent springs; and the waters of these, led into different parts of the town, contribute in no less a degree to the embellishment of the city, than to the comfort of the inhabitants. The form of some, and the ornaments of others, are well deserving of attention, notwithstanding the injuries that have inevitably occurred from time, or the more cruel ones that have been caused by wanton mutilation. It is upon historical record, that there were several fountains at Rouen, as early as the twelfth century, but their number, which now exceeds thirty, received its principal increase towards the beginning of the sixteenth century; and it was then also that the idea seems first to have been conceived of making, what was originally designed only for convenience, subservient to beauty. For this new supply of ornamental fountains, Rouen is indebted to its great benefactor, the Cardinal Georges d'Amboise, who, uniting the Norman archiepiscopal mitre to the office of prime minister, under Louis XII. was no less able than he was willing, to render the most essential services to the seat of his spiritual jurisdiction. It was under the auspices of this archbishop, that the fountain here figured, one of the earliest of that period, was erected. He caused it to be built in the year 1500. The spot which it occupies, is the cross-way formed by the union of the streets, called St. Vivien, St. Hilaire, and Coqueraumont, a spot which, previously to the reign of St. Louis, was not included within the walls of the town, and which, even at the distance of one hundred years after that time, had not begun to be inhabited.