INTERPRETATIONS.
1. It is the admitted privilege of a custode who loves his cathedral
to depreciate, in its comparison, all the other cathedrals of his
country that resemble, and all the edifices on the globe that differ
from it. But I love too many cathedrals--though I have never had the
happiness of becoming the custode of even one--to permit myself the
easy and faithful exercise of the privilege in question; and I must
vindicate my candour, and my judgment, in the outset, by confessing
that the cathedral of AMIENS has nothing to boast of in the way of
towers,--that its central flèche is merely the pretty caprice of a
village carpenter,--that the total structure is in dignity inferior to
Chartres, in sublimity to Beauvais, in decorative splendour to Rheims,
and in loveliness of figure-sculpture to Bourges. It has nothing like
the artful pointing and moulding of the arcades of Salisbury--nothing
of the might of Durham;--no Dædalian inlaying like Florence, no glow
of mythic fantasy like Verona. And yet, in all, and more than these,
ways, outshone or overpowered, the cathedral of Amiens deserves the
name given it by M. Viollet le Duc--
"The Parthenon of Gothic Architecture."[40]
2. Of Gothic, mind you; Gothic clear of Roman tradition, and of
Arabian taint; Gothic pure, authoritative, unsurpassable, and
unaccusable;--its proper principles of structure being once understood
and admitted.
[Footnote 40: Of French Architecture, accurately, in the place quoted,
"Dictionary of Architecture," vol. i. p. 71; but in the article
"Cathédrale," it is called (vol. ii. p. 330) "l'église _ogivale_ par
excellence."]
No well-educated traveller is now without some consciousness of the
meaning of what is commonly and rightly called "purity of style," in
the modes of art which have been practised by civilized nations; and
few are unaware of the distinctive aims and character of Gothic. The
purpose of a good Gothic builder was to raise, with the native stone
of the place he had to build in, an edifice as high and as spacious as
he could, with calculable and visible security, in no protracted and
wearisome time, and with no monstrous or oppressive compulsion of
human labour.
He did not wish to exhaust in the pride of a single city the energies of
a generation, or the resources of a kingdom; he built for Amiens with
the strength and the exchequer of Amiens; with chalk from the cliffs of
the Somme,[41] and under the orders of two successive bishops, one of
whom directed the foundations of the edifice, and the other gave thanks
in it for its completion. His object, as a designer, in common with all
the sacred builders of his time in the North, was to admit as much light
into the building as was consistent with the comfort of it; to make its
structure intelligibly admirable, but not curious or confusing; and to
enrich and enforce the understood structure with ornament sufficient for
its beauty, yet yielding to no wanton enthusiasm in expenditure, nor
insolent in giddy or selfish ostentation of skill; and finally, to make
the external sculpture of its walls and gates at once an alphabet and
epitome of the religion, by the knowledge and inspiration of which an
acceptable worship might be rendered, within those gates, to the Lord
whose Fear was in His Holy Temple, and whose seat was in Heaven.
[Footnote 41: It was a universal principle with the French builders of
the great ages to use the stones of their quarries as they lay in the
bed; if the beds were thick, the stones were used of their full
thickness--if thin, of their necessary thinness, adjusting them with
beautiful care to directions of thrust and weight. The natural blocks
were never sawn, only squared into fitting, the whole native strength
and crystallization of the stone being thus kept unflawed--"_ne
dédoublant jamais_ une pierre. Cette méthode est excellente, elle
conserve à la pierre toute sa force naturelle,--tous ses moyens de
résistance." See M. Viollet le Duc, Article "Construction"
(Matériaux), vol. iv. p. 129. He adds the very notable fact that, _to
this day, in seventy departments of France, the use of the stone-saw
is unknown_.]
3. It is not easy for the citizen of the modern aggregate of bad
building, and ill-living held in check by constables, which we call a
town,--of which the widest streets are devoted by consent to the
encouragement of vice, and the narrow ones to the concealment of
misery,--not easy, I say, for the citizen of any such mean city to
understand the feeling of a burgher of the Christian ages to his
cathedral. For him, the quite simply and frankly-believed text, "Where
two or three are gathered in My name, there am I in the midst of
them," was expanded into the wider promise to many honest and
industrious persons gathered in His name--"They shall be my people and
I will be their God";--deepened in his reading of it, by some lovely
local and simply affectionate faith that Christ, as he was a Jew among
Jews, and a Galilean among Galileans, was also, in His nearness to
any--even the poorest--group of disciples, as one of their nation; and
that their own "Beau Christ d'Amiens" was as true a compatriot to them
as if He had been born of a Picard maiden.
4. It is to be remembered, however--and this is a theological point on
which depended much of the structural development of the northern
basilicas--that the part of the building in which the Divine presence
was believed to be constant, as in the Jewish Holy of Holies, was only
the enclosed choir; in front of which the aisles and transepts might
become the King's Hall of Justice, as in the presence-chamber of Christ;
and whose high altar was guarded always from the surrounding eastern
aisles by a screen of the most finished workmanship; while from those
surrounding aisles branched off a series of radiating chapels or cells,
each dedicated to some separate saint. This conception of the company of
Christ with His saints, (the eastern chapel of all being the Virgin's,)
was at the root of the entire disposition of the apse with its
supporting and dividing buttresses and piers; and the architectural form
can never be well delighted in, unless in some sympathy with the
spiritual imagination out of which it rose. We talk foolishly and
feebly of symbols and types: in old Christian architecture, every part
is _literal_: the cathedral _is_ for its builders the House of God;--it
is surrounded, like an earthly king's, with minor lodgings for the
servants; and the glorious carvings of the exterior walls and interior
wood of the choir, which an English rector would almost instinctively
think of as done for the glorification of the canons, was indeed the
Amienois carpenter's way of making his Master-carpenter
comfortable,[42]--nor less of showing his own native and insuperable
virtue of carpenter, before God and man.
[Footnote 42: The philosophic reader is quite welcome to 'detect' and
'expose' as many carnal motives as he pleases, besides the good
ones,--competition with neighbour Beauvais--comfort to sleepy
heads--solace to fat sides, and the like. He will find at last that no
quantity of competition or comfort-seeking will do anything the like
of this carving now;--still less his own philosophy, whatever its
species: and that it was indeed the little mustard seed of faith in
the heart, with a very notable quantity of honesty besides in the
habit and disposition, that made all the rest grow together for good.]
5. Whatever you wish to see, or are forced to leave unseen, at Amiens,
if the overwhelming responsibilities of your existence, and the
inevitable necessities of precipitate locomotion in their fulfilment,
have left you so much as one quarter of an hour, not out of
breath--for the contemplation of the capital of Picardy, give it
wholly to the cathedral choir. Aisles and porches, lancet windows and
roses, you can see elsewhere as well as here--but such carpenter's
work, you cannot. It is late,--fully developed flamboyant just past
the fifteenth century--and has some Flemish stolidity mixed with the
playing French fire of it; but wood-carving was the Picard's joy from
his youth up, and, so far as I know, there is nothing else so
beautiful cut out of the goodly trees of the world.
Sweet and young-grained wood it is: oak, _trained_ and chosen for such
work, sound now as four hundred years since. Under the carver's hand it
seems to cut like clay, to fold like silk, to grow like living branches,
to leap like living flame. Canopy crowning canopy, pinnacle piercing
pinnacle--it shoots and wreathes itself into an enchanted glade,
inextricable, imperishable, fuller of leafage than any forest, and
fuller of story than any book.[43]
[Footnote 43: Arnold Boulin, master-joiner (menuisier) at Amiens,
solicited the enterprise, and obtained it in the first months of the
year 1508. A contract was drawn and an agreement made with him for the
construction of one hundred and twenty stalls with historical
subjects, high backings, crownings, and pyramidal canopies. It was
agreed that the principal executor should have seven sous of Tournay
(a little less than the sou of France) a day, for himself and his
apprentice, (threepence a day the two--say a shilling a week the
master, and sixpence a week the man,) and for the superintendence of
the whole work, twelve crowns a year, at the rate of twenty-four sous
the crown; (_i.e._, twelve shillings a year). The salary of the simple
workman was only to be three sous a day. For the sculptures and
histories of the seats, the bargain was made separately with Antoine
Avernier, image-cutter, residing at Amiens, at the rate of thirty-two
sous (sixteen pence) the piece. Most of the wood came from Clermont en
Beauvoisis, near Amiens; the finest, for the bas-reliefs, from
Holland, by St. Valery and Abbeville. The Chapter appointed four of
its own members to superintend the work: Jean Dumas, Jean Fabres,
Pierre Vuaille, and Jean Lenglaché, to whom my authors (canons both)
attribute the choice of subjects, the placing of them, and the
initiation of the workmen 'au sens véritable et plus élevé de la Bible
ou des legendes, et portant quelque fois le simple savoir-faire de
l'ouvrier jusqu'à la hauteur du génie du théologien.'
Without pretending to apportion the credit of savoir-faire and
theology in the business, we have only to observe that the whole
company, master, apprentices, workmen, image-cutter, and four canons,
got well into traces, and set to work on the 3rd of July, 1508, in the
great hall of the évêché, which was to be the workshop and studio
during the whole time of the business. In the following year, another
menuisier, Alexander Huet, was associated with the body, to carry on
the stalls on the right hand of the choir, while Arnold Boulin went on
with those on the left. Arnold, leaving his new associate in command
for a time, went to Beauvais and St. Riquier, to see the woodwork
there; and in July of 1511 both the masters went to Rouen together,
'pour étudier les chaires de la cathédrale.' The year before, also,
two Franciscans, monks of Abbeville, 'expert and renowned in working
in wood,' had been called by the Amiens chapter to give their opinion
on things in progress, and had each twenty sous for his opinion, and
travelling expenses.
In 1516, another and an important name appears on the accounts,--that
of Jean Trupin, 'a simple workman at the wages of three sous a day,'
but doubtless a good and spirited carver, whose true portrait it is
without doubt, and by his own hand, that forms the elbow-rest, of the
85th stall (right hand, nearest apse), beneath which is cut his name
JHAN TRUPIN, and again under the 92nd stall, with the added wish, 'Jan
Trupin, God take care of thee' (_Dieu te pourvoie_).
The entire work was ended on St. John's Day, 1522, without (so far as
we hear) any manner of interruption by dissension, death, dishonesty,
or incapacity, among its fellow-workmen, master or servant. And the
accounts being audited by four members of the Chapter, it was found
that the total expense was 9488 livres, 11 sous, and 3 obols
(décimes), or 474 napoleons, 11 sous, 3 décimes of modern French
money, or roughly four hundred sterling English pounds.
For which sum, you perceive, a company of probably six or eight good
workmen, old and young, had been kept merry and busy for fourteen
years; and this that you see--left for substantial result and gift to
you.
I have not examined the carvings so as to assign, with any decision, the
several masters' work; but in general the flower and leaf design in the
traceries will be by the two head menuisiers, and their apprentices; the
elaborate Scripture histories by Avernier, with variously completing
incidental grotesque by Trupin; and the joining and fitting by the
common workmen. No nails are used,--all is morticed, and so beautifully
that the joints have not moved to this day, and are still almost
imperceptible. The four terminal pyramids 'you might take for giant
pines forgotten for six centuries on the soil where the church was
built; they might be looked on at first as a wild luxury of sculpture
and hollow traceries--but examined in analysis they are marvels of order
and system in construction, uniting all the lightness, strength, and
grace of the most renowned spires in the last epoch of the Middle ages.'
The above particulars are all extracted--or simply translated, out of
the excellent description of the "Stalles et les Clôtures du Choeur"
of the Cathedral of Amiens, by MM. les Chanoines Jourdain et Duval
(Amiens, Vv. Alfred Caron, 1867). The accompanying lithographic
outlines are exceedingly good, and the reader will find the entire
series of subjects indicated with precision and brevity, both for the
woodwork and the external veil of the choir, of which I have no room
to speak in this traveller's summary.]
6. I have never been able to make up my mind which was really the best
way of approaching the cathedral for the first time. If you have plenty
of leisure, and the day is fine, and you are not afraid of an hour's
walk, the really right thing to do is to walk down the main street of
the old town, and across the river, and quite out to the chalk hill[44]
out of which the citadel is half quarried--half walled;--and walk to the
top of that, and look down into the citadel's dry 'ditch,'--or, more
truly, dry valley of death, which is about as deep as a glen in
Derbyshire, (or, more precisely, the upper part of the 'Happy Valley'
at Oxford, above Lower Hincksey,) and thence across to the cathedral and
ascending slopes of the city; so, you will understand the real height
and relation of tower and town:--then, returning, find your way to the
Mount Zion of it by any narrow cross streets and chance bridges you
can--the more winding and dirty the streets, the better; and whether you
come first on west front or apse, you will think them worth all the
trouble you have had to reach them.
[Footnote 44: The strongest and finally to be defended part of the
earliest city was on this height.]
7. But if the day be dismal, as it may sometimes be, even in France,
of late years,--or if you cannot or will not walk, which may also
chance, for all our athletics and lawn-tennis,--or if you must really
go to Paris this afternoon, and only mean to see all you can in an
hour or two,--then, supposing that, notwithstanding these weaknesses,
you are still a nice sort of person, for whom it is of some
consequence which way you come at a pretty thing, or begin to look at
it--I _think_ the best way is to walk from the Hotel de France or the
Place de Perigord, up the Street of Three Pebbles, towards the railway
station--stopping a little as you go, so as to get into a cheerful
temper, and buying some bonbons or tarts for the children in one of
the charming patissiers' shops on the left. Just past them, ask for
the theatre; and just past that, you will find, also on the left,
three open arches, through which you can turn, passing the Palais de
Justice, and go straight up to the south transept, which has really
something about it to please everybody. It is simple and severe at the
bottom, and daintily traceried and pinnacled at the top, and yet seems
all of a piece--though it isn't--and everybody _must_ like the taper
and transparent fretwork of the flèche above, which seems to bend to
the west wind,--though it doesn't--at least, the bending is a long
habit, gradually yielded into, with gaining grace and submissiveness,
during the last three hundred years. And, coming quite up to the
porch, everybody must like the pretty French Madonna in the middle of
it, with her head a little aside, and her nimbus switched a little
aside too, like a becoming bonnet. A Madonna in decadence she is,
though, for all, or rather by reason of all, her prettiness, and
her gay soubrette's smile; and she has no business there, neither, for
this is St. Honoré's porch, not hers; and grim and grey St. Honoré
used to stand there to receive you,--he is banished now to the north
porch, where nobody ever goes in. This was done long ago, in the
fourteenth-century days, when the people first began to find
Christianity too serious, and devised a merrier faith for France, and
would have bright-glancing, soubrette Madonnas everywhere--letting
their own dark-eyed Joan of Arc be burned for a witch. And
thenceforward, things went their merry way, straight on, 'ça allait,
ça ira,' to the merriest days of the guillotine.
But they could still carve, in the fourteenth century, and the Madonna
and her hawthorn-blossom lintel are worth your looking at,--much more
the field above, of sculpture as delicate and more calm, which tells
St. Honoré's own story, little talked of now in his Parisian faubourg.
8. I will not keep you just now to tell St. Honoré's story--(only too
glad to leave you a little curious about it, if it were
possible)[45]--for certainly you will be impatient to go into the
church; and cannot enter it to better advantage than by this door. For
all cathedrals of any mark have nearly the same effect when you enter at
the west door; but I know no other which shows so much of its nobleness
from the south interior transept; the opposite rose being of exquisite
fineness in tracery, and lovely in lustre; and the shafts of the
transept aisles forming wonderful groups with those of the choir and
nave; also, the apse shows its height better, as it opens to you when
you advance from the transept into the mid-nave, than when it is seen at
once from the west end of the nave; where it is just possible for an
irreverent person rather to think the nave narrow, than the apse high.
Therefore, if you let me guide you, go in at this south transept door,
(and put a sou into every beggar's box who asks it there,--it is none of
your business whether they should be there or not, nor whether they
deserve to have the sou,--be sure only that you yourself deserve to have
it to give; and give it prettily, and not as if it burnt your fingers).
Then, being once inside, take what first sensation and general glimpse
of it pleases you--promising the custode to come back to _see_ it
properly; (only then mind you keep the promise;) and in this first
quarter of an hour, seeing only what fancy bid you--but at least, as I
said, the apse from mid-nave, and all the traverses of the building,
from its centre. Then you will know, when you go outside again, what the
architect was working for, and what his buttresses and traceries mean.
For the outside of a French cathedral, except for its sculpture, is
always to be thought of as the wrong side of the stuff, in which you
find how the threads go that produce the inside or right-side pattern.
And if you have no wonder in you for that choir and its encompassing
circlet of light, when you look up into it from the cross-centre, you
need not travel farther in search of cathedrals, for the waiting-room of
any station is a better place for you;--but, if it amaze you and delight
you at first, then, the more you know of it, the more it will amaze. For
it is not possible for imagination and mathematics together, to do
anything nobler or stronger than that procession of window, with
material of glass and stone--nor anything which shall look loftier, with
so temperate and prudent measure of actual loftiness.
[Footnote 45: See, however, pages 32 and 130 (§§ 36, 112-114) of the
octavo edition of 'The Two Paths.']
9. From the pavement to the keystone of its vault is but 132 French
feet--about 150 English. Think only--you who have been in
Switzerland,--the Staubbach falls _nine_ hundred! Nay, Dover cliff
under the castle, just at the end of the Marine Parade, is twice as
high; and the little cockneys parading to military polka on the
asphalt below, think themselves about as tall as it, I suppose,--nay,
what with their little lodgings and stodgings and podgings about it,
they have managed to make it look no bigger than a moderate-sized
limekiln. Yet it is twice the height of Amiens' apse!--and it takes
good building, with only such bits of chalk as one can quarry beside
Somme, to make your work stand half that height, for six hundred
years.
10. It takes good building, I say, and you may even aver the
best--that ever was, or is again likely for many a day to be, on the
unquaking and fruitful earth, where one could calculate on a pillar's
standing fast, once well set up; and where aisles of aspen, and
orchards of apple, and clusters of vine, gave type of what might be
most beautifully made sacred in the constancy of sculptured stone.
From the unhewn block set on end in the Druid's Bethel, to _this_
Lord's House and blue-vitrailed gate of Heaven, you have the entire
course and consummation of the Northern Religious Builder's passion
and art.
11. But, note further--and earnestly,--this apse of Amiens is not only
the best, but the very _first_ thing done _perfectly_ in its manner,
by Northern Christendom. In pages 323 and 327 of the sixth volume of
M. Viollet le Duc, you will find the exact history of the development
of these traceries through which the eastern light shines on you as
you stand, from the less perfect and tentative forms of Rheims: and so
momentary was the culmination of the exact rightness, that here, from
nave to transept--built only ten years later,--there is a little
change, not towards decline, but to a not quite necessary precision.
Where decline begins, one cannot, among the lovely fantasies that
succeeded, exactly say--but exactly, and indisputably, we know that
this apse of Amiens is the first virgin perfect work,--Parthenon also
in that sense,--of Gothic Architecture.
12. Who built it, shall we ask? God, and Man,--is the first and most
true answer. The stars in their courses built it, and the Nations.
Greek Athena labours here--and Roman Father Jove, and Guardian Mars.
The Gaul labours here, and the Frank: knightly Norman,--mighty
Ostrogoth,--and wasted anchorite of Idumea.
The actual Man who built it scarcely cared to tell you he did so; nor do
the historians brag of him. Any quantity of heraldries of knaves and
fainéants you may find in what they call their 'history': but this is
probably the first time you ever read the name of Robert of Luzarches. I
say he 'scarcely cared'--we are not sure that he cared at all. He
signed his name nowhere, that I can hear of. You may perhaps find some
recent initials cut by English remarkable visitors desirous of
immortality, here and there about the edifice, but Robert the
builder--or at least the Master of building, cut _his_ on no stone of
it. Only when, after his death, the headstone had been brought forth
with shouting, Grace unto it, this following legend was written,
recording all who had part or lot in the labour, within the middle of
the labyrinth then inlaid in the pavement of the nave. You must read it
trippingly on the tongue: it was rhymed gaily for you by pure French
gaiety, not the least like that of the Théâtre de Folies.
"En l'an de Grace mil deux cent
Et vingt, fu l'oeuvre de cheens
Premièrement encomenchie.
A donc y ert de cheste evesquie
Evrart, évêque bénis;
Et, Roy de France, Loys
Qui fut fils Phelippe le Sage.
Qui maistre y ert de l'oeuvre
Maistre Robert estoit només
Et de Luzarches surnomés.
Maistre Thomas fu après lui
De Cormont. Et après, son filz
Maistre Regnault, qui mestre
Fist a chest point chi cheste lectre
Que l'incarnation valoit
Treize cent, moins douze, en faloit."
13. I have written the numerals in letters, else the metre would not
have come clear: they were really in figures thus, "II C. et XX,"
"XIII C. moins XII". I quote the inscription from M. l'Abbé Rozé's
admirable little book, "Visite à la Cathédrale d'Amiens,"--Sup. Lib.
de Mgr l'Evêque d'Amiens, 1877,--which every grateful traveller should
buy, for I am only going to steal a little bit of it here and there. I
only wish there had been a translation of the legend to steal, too;
for there are one or two points, both of idea and chronology, in it,
that I should have liked the Abbé's opinion of.
The main purport of the rhyme, however, we perceive to be, line for
line, as follows:--
"In the year of Grace, Twelve Hundred
And twenty, the work, then falling to ruin,
Was first begun again.
Then was, of this Bishopric
Everard the blessed Bishop.
And, King of France, Louis,
Who was son to Philip the Wise.
He who was Master of the Work
Was called Master Robert,
And called, beyond that, of Luzarches.
Master Thomas was after him,
Of Cormont. And after him, his son,
Master Reginald, who to be put
Made--at this point--this reading.
When the Incarnation was of account
Thirteen hundred, less twelve, which it failed of."
In which legend, while you stand where once it was written (it was
removed--to make the old pavement more polite--in the year, I
sorrowfully observe, of my own earliest tour on the Continent, 1825,
when I had not yet turned my attention to Ecclesiastical
Architecture), these points are noticeable--if you have still a little
patience.
14. 'The work'--_i.e._, the Work of Amiens in especial, her cathedral,
was 'déchéant,' falling to ruin, for the--I cannot at once say--fourth,
fifth, or what time,--in the year 1220. For it was a wonderfully
difficult matter for little Amiens to get this piece of business fairly
done, so hard did the Devil pull against her. She built her first
Bishop's church (scarcely more than St. Firmin's tomb-chapel) about the
year 350, just outside the railway station on the road to Paris;[46]
then, after being nearly herself destroyed, chapel and all, by the Frank
invasion, having recovered, and converted her Franks, she built another
and a properly called cathedral, where this one stands now, under
Bishop St. Save (St. Sauve, or Salve). But even this proper cathedral
was only of wood, and the Normans burnt it in 881. Rebuilt, it stood for
200 years; but was in great part destroyed by lightning in 1019. Rebuilt
again, it and the town were more or less burnt together by lightning, in
1107,--my authority says calmly, "un incendie provoqué par la même cause
détruisit _la ville_, et une partie de la cathédrale." The 'partie'
being rebuilt once more, the whole was again reduced to ashes, "réduite
en cendre par le feu de ciel en 1218, ainsi que tous les titres, les
martyrologies, les calendriers, et les Archives de l'Evêché et du
Chapitre."
[Footnote 46: At St. Acheul. See the first chapter of this book, and
the "Description Historique de la Cathédrale d'Amiens," by A. P. M.
Gilbert. 8vo, Amiens, 1833, pp. 5-7.]
15. It was the fifth cathedral, I count, then, that lay in 'ashes,'
according to Mons. Gilbert--in ruin certainly--déchéant;--and ruin of
a very discouraging completeness it would have been, to less lively
townspeople--in 1218. But it was rather of a stimulating completeness
to Bishop Everard and his people--the ground well cleared for them, as
it were: and lightning (feu de l'enfer, not du ciel, recognized for a
diabolic plague, as in Egypt), was to be defied to the pit. They only
took two years, you see, to pull themselves together; and to work they
went, in 1220, they, and their bishop, and their king, and their
Robert of Luzarches. And this, that roofs you, was what their hands
found to do with their might.
16. Their king was 'à-donc,' 'at that time,' Louis VIII., who is
especially further called the son of Philip of August, or Philip the
Wise, because his father was not dead in 1220; but must have resigned
the practical kingdom to his son, as his own father had done to him;
the old and wise king retiring to his chamber, and thence silently
guiding his son's hands, very gloriously, yet for three years.
But, farther--and this is the point on which chiefly I would have
desired the Abbé's judgment--Louis VIII. died of fever at Montpensier in
1226. And the entire conduct of the main labour of the cathedral, and
the chief glory of its service, as we shall hear presently, was _Saint_
Louis's; for a time of forty-four years. And the inscription was put "à
ce point ci" by the last architect, six years after St. Louis's death.
How is it that the great and holy king is not named?
17. I must not, in this traveller's brief, lose time in conjectural
answers to the questions which every step here will raise from the
ravaged shrine. But this is a very solemn one; and must be kept in our
hearts, till we may perhaps get clue to it. One thing only we are sure
of,--that at least the _due_ honour--alike by the sons of Kings and
sons of Craftsmen--is given always to their fathers; and that
apparently the chief honour of all is given here to Philip the Wise.
From whose house, not of parliament but of peace, came, in the years
when this temple was first in building, an edict indeed of
peace-making: "That it should be criminal for any man to take
vengeance for an insult or injury till forty days after the commission
of the offence--and then only with the approbation of the Bishop of
the Diocese." Which was perhaps a wiser effort to end the Feudal
system in its Saxon sense,[47] than any of our recent projects for
ending it in the Norman one.
[Footnote 47: Feud, Saxon faedh, low Latin Faida (Scottish 'fae,'
English 'foe,' derivative), Johnson. Remember also that the root of
Feud, in its Norman sense of land-allotment, is _foi_, not _fee_,
which Johnson, old Tory as he was, did not observe--neither in general
does the modern Antifeudalist.]
18. "A ce point ci." The point, namely, of the labyrinth inlaid in the
cathedral floor; a recognized emblem of many things to the people, who
knew that the ground they stood on was holy, as the roof over their
head. Chiefly, to them, it was an emblem of noble human
life--strait-gated, narrow-walled, with infinite darknesses and the
"inextricabilis error" on either hand--and in the depth of it, the
brutal nature to be conquered.
19. This meaning, from the proudest heroic, and purest legislative, days
of Greece, the symbol had borne for all men skilled in her traditions:
to the schools of craftsmen the sign meant further their craft's
noblesse, and pure descent from the divinely-terrestrial skill of
Dædalus, the labyrinth-builder, and the first sculptor of imagery
_pathetic_[48] with human life and death.
[Footnote 48:
"Tu quoque, magnam
Partem opere in tanto, sineret dolor, Icare, haberes,
Bis conatus erat casus effingere in auro,--
Bis patriæ cecidere manus."
There is, advisedly, no pathos allowed in primary sculpture. Its heroes
conquer without exultation, and die without sorrow.]
20. Quite the most beautiful sign of the power of true
Christian-Catholic faith is this continual acknowledgment by it of the
brotherhood--nay, more, the fatherhood, of the elder nations who had
not seen Christ; but had been filled with the Spirit of God; and
obeyed, according to their knowledge, His unwritten law. The pure
charity and humility of this temper are seen in all Christian art,
according to its strength and purity of race; but best, to the full,
seen and interpreted by the three great Christian-Heathen poets,
Dante, Douglas of Dunkeld,[49] and George Chapman. The prayer with
which the last ends his life's work is, so far as I know, the
perfectest and deepest expression of Natural Religion given us in
literature; and if you can, pray it here--standing on the spot where
the builder once wrote the history of the Parthenon of Christianity.
[Footnote 49: See 'Fors Clavigera,' Letter LXI., p. 22.]
21. "I pray thee, Lord, the Father, and the Guide of our reason, that
we may remember the nobleness with which Thou hast adorned us; and
that Thou wouldst be always on our right hand and on our left,[50] in
the motion of our own Wills: that so we may be purged from the
contagion of the Body and the Affections of the Brute, and overcome
them and rule; and use, as it becomes men to use them, for
instruments. And then, that Thou wouldst be in Fellowship with us for
the careful correction of our reason, and for its conjunction by the
light of truth with the things that truly are.
[Footnote 50: Thus, the command to the children of Israel "that they go
forward" is to their own wills. They obeying, the sea retreats, _but not
before_ they dare to advance into it. _Then_, the waters are a wall unto
them, on their right hand and their left.]
"And in the third place, I pray to Thee the Saviour, that
Thou wouldst utterly cleanse away the closing gloom from
the eyes of our souls, that we may know well who is to be held
for God, and who for mortal. Amen."[51]
[Footnote 51: The original is written in Latin only. "Supplico tibi,
Domine, Pater et Dux rationis nostræ, ut nostræ Nobilitatis
recordemur, quâ tu nos ornasti: et ut tu nobis presto sis, ut iis qui
per sese moventur; ut et a Corporis contagio, Brutorumque affectuum
repurgemur, eosque superemus, atque regamus; et, sicut decet, pro
instruments iis utamur. Deinde, ut nobis adjuncto sis; ad accuratam
rationis nostræ correctionem, et conjunctionem cum iis qui verè sunt,
per lucem veritatis. Et tertium, Salvatori supplex oro, ut ab oculis
animorum nostrorum caliginem prorsus abstergas; ut norimus bene, qui
Deus, aut Mortalis habendus. Amen."]
22. And having prayed this prayer, or at least, read it with honest
wishing, (which if you cannot, there is no hope of your at present
taking pleasure in any human work of large faculty, whether poetry,
painting, or sculpture,) we may walk a little farther westwards down
the nave, where, in the middle of it, but only a few yards from its
end, two flat stones (the custode will show you them), one a little
farther back than the other, are laid over the graves of the two great
bishops, all whose strength of life was given, with the builder's, to
raise this temple. Their actual graves have not been disturbed; but
the tombs raised over them, once and again removed, are now set on
your right and left hand as you look back to the apse, under the third
arch between the nave and aisles.
23. Both are of bronze, cast at one flow--and with insuperable, in
some respects inimitable, skill in the caster's art.
"Chefs-d'oeuvre de fonte,--le tout fondu d'un seul jet, et
admirablement."[52] There are only two other such tombs left in
France, those of the children of St. Louis. All others of their
kind--and they were many in every great cathedral of France--were
first torn from the graves they covered, to destroy the memory of
France's dead; and then melted down into sous and centimes, to buy
gunpowder and absinthe with for her living,--by the Progressive Mind
of Civilization in her first blaze of enthusiasm and new light, from
1789 to 1800.
[Footnote 52: Viollet le Duc, vol. viii., p. 256. He adds: "L'une
d'elles est comme art" (meaning general art of sculpture), "un
monument du premier ordre;" but this is only partially true--also I
find a note in M. Gilbert's account of them, p. 126: "Les deux doigts
qui manquent, à la main droite de l'évêque Gaudefroi paraissent être
un défaut survenu à la fonte." See further, on these monuments, and
those of St. Louis' children, Viollet le Duc, vol, ix., pp. 61, 62.]
The children's tombs, one on each side of the altar of St. Denis, are
much smaller than these, though wrought more beautifully. These beside
you are the _only two Bronze tombs of her Men of the great ages_, left
in France!
24. And they are the tombs of the pastors of her people, who built for
her the first perfect temple to her God. The Bishop Everard's is on
your right, and has engraved round the border of it this
inscription:[53]--
"Who fed the people, who laid the foundations of this
Structure, to whose care the City was given,
Here, in ever-breathing balm of fame, rests Everard.
A man compassionate to the afflicted, the widow's protector, the orphan's
Guardian. Whom he could, he recreated with gifts.
To words of men,
If gentle, a lamb; if violent, a lion; if proud, biting steel."
[Footnote 53: I steal again from the Abbé Rozé the two
inscriptions,--with his introductory notice of the evilly-inspired
interference with them.
"La tombe d'Evrard de Fouilloy, (died 1222,) coulée en bronze en
plein-relief, était supportée dès le principe, par des monstres
engagés dans une maçonnerie remplissant le dessous du monument, pour
indiquer que cet évêque avait posé les fondements de la Cathédrale. Un
_architecte malheureusement inspiré_ a osé arracher la maçonnerie,
pour qu'on ne vit plus la main du prélat fondateur, à la base de
l'édifice.
"On lit, sur la bordure, l'inscription suivante en beaux caractères du
XIII^e siècle:
"'Qui populum pavit, qui fundam[=e]ta locavit
Hui[=u]s structure, cuius fuit urbs data cure
Hic redolens nardus, famâ requiescit Ewardus,
Vir pius ahflictis, vidvis tutela, relictis
Custos, quos poterat recreabat munere; vbis,
Mitib agnus erat, tumidis leo, lima supbis.'
"Geoffrey d'Eu (died 1237) est représenté comme son prédécesseur en
habits épiscopaux, mais le dessous du bronze supporté par des chimères
est évidé, ce prélat ayant élevé l'édifice jusqu'aux voûtes. Voici la
légende gravée sur la bordure:
"'Ecce premunt humile Gaufridi membra cubile.
Seu minus aut simile nobis parat omnibus ille;
Quem laurus gemina decoraverat, in medicinâ
Lege q[=u] divina, decuerunt cornua bina;
Clare vir Augensis, quo sedes Ambianensis
Crevit in imensis; in coelis auctus, Amen, sis.'
Tout est à étudier dans ces deux monuments; tout y est d'un haut
intérêt, quant au dessin, à la sculpture, à l'agencement des ornements
et des draperies."
In saying above that Geoffroy of Eu returned thanks in the Cathedral
for its completion, I meant only that he had brought at least the
choir into condition for service: "Jusqu'aux voûtes" may or may not
mean that the vaulting was closed.]
English, at its best, in Elizabethan days, is a nobler language than
ever Latin was; but its virtue is in colour and tone, not in what may
be called metallic or crystalline condensation. And it is impossible
to translate the last line of this inscription in as few English
words. Note in it first that the Bishop's friends and enemies are
spoken of as in word, not act; because the swelling, or mocking, or
flattering, words of men are indeed what the meek of the earth must
know how to bear and to welcome;--their deeds, it is for kings and
knights to deal with: not but that the Bishops often took deeds in
hand also; and in actual battle they were permitted to strike with the
mace, but not with sword or lance--_i.e._, not to "shed blood"! For it
was supposed that a man might always recover from a mace-blow; (which,
however, would much depend on the bishop's mind who gave it). The
battle of Bouvines, quite one of the most important in mediæval
history, was won against the English, and against odds besides of
Germans, under their Emperor Otho, by two French bishops (Senlis and
Bayeux)--who both generalled the French King's line, and led its
charges. Our Earl of Salisbury surrendered to the Bishop of Bayeux in
person.
25. Note farther, that quite one of the deadliest and most diabolic
powers of evil words, or, rightly so called, blasphemy, has been
developed in modern days in the effect of sometimes quite innocently
meant and enjoyed 'slang.' There are two kinds of slang, in the essence
of it: one 'Thieves' Latin'--the special language of rascals, used for
concealment; the other, one might perhaps best call Louts' Latin!--the
lowering or insulting words invented by vile persons to bring good
things, in their own estimates, to their own level, or beneath it. The
really worst power of this kind of blasphemy is in its often making it
impossible to use plain words without a degrading or ludicrous attached
sense:--thus I could not end my translation of this epitaph, as the old
Latinist could, with the exactly accurate image "to the proud, a
file"--because of the abuse of the word in lower English, retaining,
however, quite shrewdly, the thirteenth-century idea. But the _exact_
force of the symbol here is in its allusion to jewellers' work, filing
down facets. A proud man is often also a precious one: and may be made
brighter in surface, and the purity of his inner self shown, by good
_filing_.
26. Take it all in all, the perfect duty of a Bishop is expressed in
these six Latin lines,--au mieux mieux--beginning with his pastoral
office--_Feed_ my sheep--qui _pavit_ populum. And be assured, good
reader, these ages never could have told you what a Bishop's, or any
other man's, duty was, unless they had each man in his place both done
it well--and seen it well done. The Bishop Geoffroy's tomb is on your
left, and its inscription is:
"Behold, the limbs of Godfrey press their lowly bed,
Whether He is preparing for us all one less than, or like it.
Whom the twin laurels adorned, in medicine
And in divine law, the dual crests became him.
Bright-shining man of Eu, by whom the throne of Amiens
Rose into immensity, be _thou_ increased in Heaven."
Amen.
And now at last--this reverence done and thanks paid--we will turn
from these tombs, and go out at one of the western doors--and so see
gradually rising above us the immensity of the three porches, and of
the thoughts engraved in them.
27. What disgrace or change has come upon them, I will not tell you
to-day--except only the 'immeasurable' loss of the great old
foundation-steps, open, sweeping broad from side to side for all who
came; unwalled, undivided, sunned all along by the westering day,
lighted only by the moon and the stars at night; falling steep and many
down the hillside--ceasing one by one, at last wide and few towards the
level--and worn by pilgrim feet, for six hundred years. So I once saw
them, and twice,--such things can now be never seen more.
Nor even of the west front itself, above, is much of the old masonry
left: but in the porches nearly all,--except the actual outside
facing, with its rose moulding, of which only a few flowers have been
spared here and there.[54] But the sculpture has been carefully and
honourably kept and restored to its place--pedestals or niches
restored here and there with clay; or some which you see white and
crude, re-carved entirely; nevertheless the impression you may receive
from the whole is still what the builder meant; and I will tell you
the order of its theology without further notices of its decay.
[Footnote 54: The horizontal lowest part of the moulding between the
northern and central porch is old. Compare its roses with the new ones
running round the arches above--and you will know what 'Restoration'
means.]
28. You will find it always well, in looking at any cathedral, to make
your quarters of the compass sure, in the beginning; and to remember
that, as you enter it, you are looking and advancing eastward; and
that if it has three entrance porches, that on your left in entering
is the northern, that on your right the southern. I shall endeavour in
all my future writing of architecture, to observe the simple law of
always calling the door of the north transept the north door; and that
on the same side of the west front, the northern door, and so of their
opposites. This will save, in the end, much printing and much
confusion, for a Gothic cathedral has, almost always, these five great
entrances; which may be easily, if at first attentively, recognized
under the titles of the Central door (or porch), the Northern door,
the Southern door, the North door, and the South door.
But when we use the terms right and left, we ought always
to use them as in going _out_ of the cathedral, or walking down the
nave,--the entire north side and aisles of the building being its
right side, and the south, its left,--these terms being only used well
and authoritatively, when they have reference either to the image of
Christ in the apse or on the rood, or else to the central statue,
whether of Christ, the Virgin, or a saint, in the west front. At
Amiens, this central statue, on the 'trumeau' or supporting and
dividing pillar of the central porch, is of Christ Immanuel,--God
_with_ us. On His right hand and His left, occupying the entire walls
of the central porch, are the apostles and the four greater prophets.
The twelve minor prophets stand side by side on the front, three on
each of its great piers.[55]
[Footnote 55: See now the plan at the end of this chapter.]
The northern porch is dedicated to St. Firmin, the first Christian
missionary to Amiens.
The southern porch, to the Virgin.
But these are both treated as withdrawn behind the great foundation of
Christ and the Prophets; and their narrow recesses partly conceal
their sculpture, until you enter them. What you have first to think
of, and read, is the scripture of the great central porch, and the
façade itself.
29. You have then in the centre of the front, the image of Christ
Himself, receiving you: "I am the Way, the truth and the life." And the
order of the attendant powers may be best understood by thinking of them
as placed on Christ's right and left hand: this being also the order
which the builder adopts in his Scripture history on the façade--so that
it is to be read from left to right--_i.e._ from Christ's left to
Christ's right, as _He_ sees it. Thus, therefore, following the order of
the great statues: first in the central porch, there are six apostles on
Christ's right hand, and six on His left. On His left hand, next to Him,
Peter; then in receding order, Andrew, James, John, Matthew, Simon; on
His right hand, next Him, Paul; and in receding order, James the Bishop,
Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas and Jude. These opposite ranks of the
Apostles occupy what may be called the apse or curved bay of the porch,
and form a nearly semicircular group, clearly visible as we approach.
But on the sides of the porch, outside the lines of apostles, and not
seen clearly till we enter the porch, are the four greater prophets. On
Christ's left, Isaiah and Jeremiah, on His right, Ezekiel and Daniel.
30. Then in front, along the whole façade--read in order from Christ's
left to His right--come the series of the twelve minor prophets, three
to each of the four piers of the temple, beginning at the south angle
with Hosea, and ending with Malachi.
As you look full at the façade in front, the statues which fill the
minor porches are either obscured in their narrower recesses or
withdrawn behind each other so as to be unseen. And the entire mass of
the front is seen, literally, as built on the foundation of the
Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief
corner-stone. Literally _that_; for the receding Porch is a deep
'angulus,' and its mid-pillar is the 'Head of the Corner.'
Built on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, that is to say
of the Prophets who foretold _Christ_, and the Apostles who declared
Him. Though Moses was an Apostle, of _God_, he is not here--though
Elijah was a Prophet, of _God_, he is not here. The voice of the
entire building is that of the Heaven at the Transfiguration, "This is
my beloved Son, hear ye Him."
31. There is yet another and a greater prophet still, who, as it seems
at first, is not here. Shall the people enter the gates of the temple,
singing "Hosanna to the Son of _David_"; and see no image of His
father, then?--Christ Himself declare, "I am the root and the
offspring of David"; and yet the Root have no sign near it of its
Earth?
Not so. David and his Son are together. David is the pedestal of the
Christ.
32. We will begin our examination of the Temple front, therefore, with
this its goodly pedestal stone. The statue of David is only two-thirds
life-size, occupying the niche in front of the pedestal. He holds his
sceptre in his right hand, the scroll in his left. King and Prophet,
type of all Divinely right doing, and right claiming, and right
proclaiming, kinghood, for ever.
The pedestal of which this statue forms the fronting or Western
sculpture, is square, and on the two sides of it are two flowers in
vases, on its north side the lily, and on its south the rose. And the
entire monolith is one of the noblest pieces of Christian sculpture in
the world.
Above this pedestal comes a minor one, bearing in front of it a
tendril of vine which completes the floral symbolism of the whole. The
plant which I have called a lily is not the Fleur de Lys, nor the
Madonna's, but an ideal one with bells like the crown Imperial
(Shakespeare's type of 'lilies of all kinds'), representing the _mode
of growth_ of the lily of the valley, which could not be sculptured so
large in its literal form without appearing monstrous, and is exactly
expressed in this tablet--as it fulfils, together with the rose and
vine, its companions, the triple saying of Christ, "I am the Rose of
Sharon, and the Lily of the Valley." "I am the true Vine."
* * * * *
33. On the side of the upper stone are supporters of a different
character. Supporters,--not captives nor victims; the Cockatrice and
Adder. Representing the most active evil principles of the earth, as
in their utmost malignity; still, Pedestals of Christ, and even in
their deadly life, accomplishing His final will.
Both creatures are represented accurately in the mediæval traditional
form, the cockatrice half dragon, half cock; the deaf adder laying one
ear against the ground and stopping the other with her tail.
The first represents the infidelity of Pride. The cockatrice--king
serpent or highest serpent--saying that he _is_ God, and _will be_
God.
The second, the infidelity of Death. The adder (nieder or nether
snake) saying that he _is_ mud, and _will be_ mud.
34. Lastly, and above all, set under the feet of the statue
of Christ Himself, are the lion and dragon; the images of Carnal sin,
or _Human sin_, as distinguished from the Spiritual and Intellectual
sin of Pride, by which the angels also fell.
To desire kingship rather than servantship--the Cockatrice's sin, or
deaf Death rather than hearkening Life--the Adder's sin,--these are
both possible to all the intelligences of the universe. But the
distinctively Human sins, anger and lust, seeds in our race of their
perpetual sorrow--Christ in His own humanity, conquered; and conquers
in His disciples. Therefore His foot is on the heads of these; and the
prophecy, "Inculcabis super Leonem et Aspidem," is recognized always
as fulfilled in Him, and in all His true servants, according to the
height of their authority, and the truth of their power.
35. In this mystic sense, Alexander III. used the words, in restoring
peace to Italy, and giving forgiveness to her deadliest enemy, under
the porch of St. Mark's.[56] But the meaning of every act, as of every
art, of the Christian ages, lost now for three hundred years, cannot
but be in our own times read reversed, if at all, through the
counter-spirit which we now have reached; glorifying Pride and Avarice
as the virtues by which all things move and have their being--walking
after our own lusts as our sole guides to salvation, and foaming out
our own shame for the sole earthly product of our hands and lips.
[Footnote 56: See my abstract of the history of Barbarossa and
Alexander, in 'Fiction, Fair and Foul,' '_Nineteenth Century_,'
November, 1880, pp. 752 _seq._]
36. Of the statue of Christ, itself, I will not speak here at any
length, as no sculpture would satisfy, or ought to satisfy, the hope of
any loving soul that has learned to trust in Him; but at the time, it
was beyond what till then had been reached in sculptured tenderness; and
was known far and near as the "Beau Dieu d'Amiens."[57] Yet understood,
observe, just as clearly to be no more than a symbol of the Heavenly
Presence, as the poor coiling worms below were no more than symbols of
the demoniac ones. No _idol_, in our sense of the word--only a letter,
or sign of the Living Spirit,--which, however, was indeed conceived by
every worshipper as here meeting him at the temple gate: the Word of
Life, the King of Glory, and the Lord of Hosts.
[Footnote 57: See account, and careful drawing of it, in Viollet le
Duc--article "Christ," Dict. of Architecture, iii. 245.]
"Dominus Virtutum," "Lord of Virtues,"[58] is the best single rendering
of the idea conveyed to a well-taught disciple in the thirteenth
century by the words of the twenty-fourth Psalm.
[Footnote 58: See the circle of the Powers of the Heavens in the
Byzantine rendering. I. Wisdom; II. Thrones; III. Dominations; IV.
Angels; V. Archangels; VI. Virtues; VII. Potentates; VIII. Princes;
IX. Seraphim. In the Gregorian order, (Dante, Par. xxviii., Cary's
note,) the Angels and Archangels are separated, giving altogether nine
orders, but not ranks. Note that in the Byzantine circle the cherubim
are first, and that it is the strength of the Virtues which calls on
the dead to rise ('St. Mark's Rest,' p. 97, and pp. 158-159).]
37. Under the feet of His apostles, therefore, in the quatrefoil
medallions of the foundation, are represented the virtues which each
Apostle taught, or in his life manifested;--it may have been, sore
tried, and failing in the very strength of the character which he
afterwards perfected. Thus St. Peter, denying in fear, is afterwards
the Apostle of courage; and St. John, who, with his brother, would
have burnt the inhospitable village, is afterwards the Apostle of
love. Understanding this, you see that in the sides of the porch, the
apostles with their special virtues stand thus in opposite ranks.
Now you see how these virtues answer to each other in their opposite
ranks. Remember the left-hand side is always the first, and see how
the left-hand virtues lead to the right hand:--
Courage to Faith.
Patience to Hope.
Gentillesse to Charity.
Love to Chastity.
Obedience to Wisdom.
Perseverance to Humility.
38. Note farther that the Apostles are all tranquil, nearly all with
books, some with crosses, but all with the same message,--"Peace be to
this house. And if the Son of Peace be there," etc.[59]
[Footnote 59: The modern slang name for a priest, among the mob of
France, is a 'Pax Vobiscum,' or shortly, a Vobiscum.]
ST. PAUL, Faith. Courage, ST. PETER.
ST. JAMES THE BISHOP, Hope. Patience, ST. ANDREW.
ST. PHILIP, Charity. Gentillesse, ST. JAMES.
ST. BARTHOLOMEW, Chastity. Love, ST. JOHN.
ST. THOMAS, Wisdom. Obedience, ST. MATTHEW.
ST. JUDE, Humility. Perseverance, ST. SIMON.
But the Prophets--all seeking, or wistful, or tormented, or wondering,
or praying, except only Daniel. The _most_ tormented is Isaiah;
spiritually sawn asunder. No scene of his martyrdom below, but his
seeing the Lord in His temple, and yet feeling he had unclean lips.
Jeremiah also carries his cross--but more serenely.
39. And now, I give in clear succession, the order of the statues of
the whole front, with the subjects of the quatrefoils beneath each of
them, marking the upper quatrefoil A, the lower B. The six prophets
who stand at the angles of the porches, Amos, Obadiah, Micah, Nahum,
Zephaniah, and Haggai, have each of them four quatrefoils, marked, A
and C the upper ones, B and D the lower.
Beginning, then, on the left-hand side of the central porch, and
reading outwards, you have--
1. ST. PETER.
A. Courage.
B. Cowardice.
2. ST. ANDREW.
A. Patience.
B. Anger.
3. ST. JAMES.
A. Gentillesse.
B. Churlishness.
4. ST. JOHN.
A. Love.
B. Discord.
5. ST. MATTHEW.
A. Obedience.
B. Rebellion.
6. ST. SIMON.
A. Perseverance.
B. Atheism.
Now, right-hand side of porch, reading outwards:
7. ST. PAUL.
A. Faith.
B. Idolatry.
8. ST. JAMES, BISHOP.
A. Hope.
B. Despair.
9. ST. PHILIP.
A. Charity.
B. Avarice.
10. ST. BARTHOLOMEW.
A. Chastity.
B. Lust.
11. ST. THOMAS.
A. Wisdom.
B. Folly.
12. ST. JUDE.
A. Humility.
B. Pride.
Now, left-hand side again--the two outermost statues:
13. ISAIAH.
A. "I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne." vi. 1.
B. "Lo, this hath touched thy lips." vi. 7.
14. JEREMIAH.
A. The Burial of the Girdle. xiii. 4, 5.
B. The Breaking of the Yoke. xxviii. 10.
Right-hand side:
15. EZEKIEL.
A. Wheel within wheel. i. 16.
B. "Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem." xxi. 2.
16. DANIEL.
A. "He hath shut the lions' mouths." vi. 22.
B. "In the same hour came forth fingers
of a man's hand." v. 5.
40. Now, beginning on the left-hand side (southern side)
of the entire façade, and reading it straight across, not turning into
the porches at all except for the paired quatrefoils:
17. HOSEA.
A. "So I bought her to me with fifteen
pieces of silver." iii. 2.
B. "So will I also be for thee." iii. 3.
18. JOEL.
A. The Sun and Moon lightless. ii. 10.
B. The Fig-tree and Vine leafless. i. 7.
19. AMOS.
To The {A. "The Lord will cry from Zion." i. 2.
front {B. "The habitations of the shepherds
shall mourn." i. 2.
Inside {C. The Lord with the mason's line. vii. 8.
porch {D. The place where it rained not. iv. 7.
20. OBADIAH.
Inside {A. "I hid them in a cave." 2 Kings xviii. 13.
porch {B. He fell on his face. xviii. 7.
To the {C. The captain of fifty.
front {D. The messenger.
21. JONAH.
A. Escaped from the sea.
B. Under the gourd.
22. MICAH.
To the {A. The Tower of the Flock. iv. 8.
front {B. Each shall rest, and "none shall make
them afraid." iv. 4.
Inside {C. Swords into ploughshares. iv. 3.
porch {D. Spears into pruning-hooks. iv. 3.
23. NAHUM.
Inside {A. None shall look back. ii. 8.
porch {B. The burden of Nineveh. i. 1.
To the {C. Thy princes and thy great ones. iii. 17.
front {D. Untimely figs. iii. 12.
24. HABAKKUK.
A. "I will watch to see what he will say," ii. 1.
B. The ministry to Daniel.
25. ZEPHANIAH.
To the {A. The Lord strikes Ethiopia. ii. 12.
front {B. The Beasts in Nineveh. ii. 15.
Inside {C. The Lord visits Jerusalem. i. 12.
porch {D. The Hedgehog and Bittern.[60] ii. 14.
26. HAGGAI.
Inside {A. The houses of the princes, _ornées de
porch lambris_. i. 4.
{B. The heaven is stayed from dew. i. 10.
To the {C. The Lord's temple desolate. i. 4.
front {D. "Thus saith the Lord of Hosts." i. 7.
27. ZECHARIAH.
A. The lifting up of iniquity. v. 6-9.
B. The angel that spake to me. iv. 1.
28. MALACHI.
A. "Ye have wounded the Lord." ii. 17.
B. This commandment is to _you_. ii. 1.
[Footnote 60: See the Septuagint version.]
41. Having thus put the sequence of the statues and their quatrefoils
briefly before the spectator--(in case the railway time presses, it
may be a kindness to him to note that if he walks from the east end of
the cathedral down the street to the south, Rue St. Denis, it takes
him by the shortest line to the station)--I will begin again with St.
Peter, and interpret the sculptures in the quatrefoils a little more
fully. Keeping the fixed numerals for indication of the statues, St.
Peter's quatrefoils will be 1 A and 1 B, and Malachi's 28 A and 28 B.
1, A. COURAGE, with a leopard on his shield; the French and
English agreeing in the reading of that symbol, down
to the time of the Black Prince's leopard coinage in
Aquitaine.[61]
[Footnote 61: For a list of the photographs of the quatrefoils
described in this chapter, see the appendices at the end of this
volume.]
2, B. COWARDICE, a man frightened at an animal darting out
of a thicket, while a bird sings on. The coward has
not the heart of a thrush.
2, A. PATIENCE, holding a shield with a bull on it (never giving
back).[62]
[Footnote 62: In the cathedral of Laon there is a pretty compliment
paid to the oxen who carried the stones of its tower to the hill-top
it stands on. The tradition is that they harnessed themselves,--but
tradition does not say how an ox can harness himself even if he had a
mind. Probably the first form of the story was only that they went
joyfully, "lowing as they went." But at all events their statues are
carved on the height of the tower, eight, colossal, looking from its
galleries across the plains of France. See drawing in Viollet le Duc,
under article "Clocher."]
2, B. ANGER, a woman stabbing a man with a sword. Anger
is essentially a feminine vice--a man, worth calling so,
may be driven to fury or insanity by _indignation_,
(compare the Black Prince at Limoges,) but not by
anger. Fiendish enough, often so--"Incensed with
indignation, Satan stood, _unterrified_--" but in that last
word is the difference, there is as much fear in Anger,
as there is in Hatred.
3, A. GENTILLESSE, bearing shield with a lamb.
3, B. CHURLISHNESS, again a woman, kicking over her cup-bearer.
The final forms of ultimate French churlishness
being in the feminine gestures of the Cancan.
See the favourite prints in shops of Paris.
4, A. LOVE; the Divine, not human love: "I in them, and
Thou in me." Her shield bears a tree with many
branches grafted into its cut-off stem: "In those days
shall Messiah be cut off, but not for Himself."
4, B. DISCORD, a wife and husband quarrelling. She has
dropped her distaff (Amiens wool manufacture, see farther
on--9, A.)
5, A. OBEDIENCE, bears shield with camel. Actually the most
disobedient and ill-tempered of all serviceable beasts,--yet
passing his life in the most painful service. I do
not know how far his character was understood by the
northern sculptor; but I believe he is taken as a type
of burden-bearing, without joy or sympathy, such as
the horse has, and without power of offence, such as the
ox has. His bite is bad enough, (see Mr. Palgrave's
account of him,) but presumably little known of at
Amiens, even by Crusaders, who would always ride
their own war-horses, or nothing.
5, B. REBELLION, a man snapping his fingers at his Bishop.
(As Henry the Eighth at the Pope,--and the modern
French and English cockney at all priests whatever.)
6, A. PERSEVERENCE, the grandest spiritual form of the virtue
commonly called 'Fortitude.' Usually, overcoming
or tearing a lion; here, _caressing_ one, and _holding_ her
crown. "Hold fast that which thou hast, that no man
take thy crown."
6, B. ATHEISM, leaving his shoes at the church door. The infidel
fool is always represented in twelfth and thirteenth
century MS. as barefoot--the Christian having "his
feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace."
Compare "How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, O
Prince's Daughter!"
7, A. FAITH, holding cup with cross above it, her accepted
symbol throughout ancient Europe. It is also an enduring
one, for, all differences of Church put aside, the
words, "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and
Drink His blood, ye have no life in you," remain in
their mystery, to be understood only by those who have
learned the sacredness of food, in all times and places,
and the laws of life and spirit, dependent on its acceptance,
refusal, and distribution.
7, B. IDOLATRY, kneeling to a monster. The _contrary_ of
Faith--not _want_ of Faith. Idolatry is faith in the
wrong thing, and quite distinct from Faith in _No_ thing
(6, B), the "Dixit Insipiens." Very wise men may be
idolaters, but they cannot be atheists.
8, A. HOPE, with Gonfalon Standard and _distant_ crown; as
opposed to the constant crown of Fortitude (6, A).
The Gonfalon (Gund, war, fahr, standard, according
to Poitevin's dictionary), is the pointed ensign of forward
battle; essentially sacred; hence the constant
name "Gonfaloniere" of the battle standard-bearers of
the Italian republics.
Hope has it, because she fights forward always to her
aim, or at least has the joy of seeing it draw nearer.
Faith and Fortitude wait, as St. John in prison, but unoffended.
Hope is, however, put under St. James, because
of the 7th and 8th verses of his last chapter, ending
"Stablish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord
draweth nigh." It is he who examines Dante on the
nature of Hope. 'Par.,' c. xxv., and compare Cary's
notes.
8, B. DESPAIR, stabbing himself. Suicide not thought heroic
or sentimental in the 13th century; and no Gothic
Morgue built beside Somme.
9, A. CHARITY, bearing shield with woolly ram, and giving a
mantle to a naked beggar. The old wool manufacture
of Amiens having this notion of its purpose--namely,
to clothe the poor first, the rich afterwards. No nonsense
talked in those days about the evil consequences
of indiscriminate charity.
9, B. AVARICE, with coffer and money. The modern, alike
English and Amienois, notion of the Divine consummation
of the wool manufacture.
10, A. CHASTITY, shield with the Phoenix.[63]
[Footnote 63: For the sake of comparing the pollution, and reversal of
its once glorious religion, in the modern French mind, it is worth the
reader's while to ask at M. Goyer's (Place St. Denis) for the 'Journal
de St. Nicholas' for 1880, and look at the 'Phénix,' as drawn on p.
610. The story is meant to be moral, and the Phoenix there
represents Avarice, but the entire destruction of all sacred and
poetical tradition in a child's mind by such a picture is an
immorality which would neutralize a year's preaching. To make it worth
M. Goyer's while to show you the number, buy the one with 'les
conclusions de Jeanie' in it, p. 337: the church scene (with dialogue)
in the text is lovely.]
10, B. LUST, a too violent kiss.
11, A. WISDOM, shield with, I think, an eatable root; meaning
temperance, as the beginning of wisdom.
11, B. FOLLY, the ordinary type used in all early Psalters, of
a glutton, armed with a club. Both this vice and
virtue are the earthly wisdom and folly, completing
the spiritual wisdom and folly opposite under St.
Matthew. Temperance, the complement of Obedience,
and Covetousness, with violence, that of Atheism.
12, A. HUMILITY, shield with dove.
12, B. PRIDE, falling from his horse.
42. All these quatrefoils are rather symbolic than representative;
and, since their purpose was answered enough if their sign was
understood, they have been entrusted to a more inferior workman than
the one who carved the now sequent series under the Prophets. Most of
these subjects represent an historical fact, or a scene spoken of by
the prophet as a real vision; and they have in general been executed
by the ablest hands at the architect's command.
With the interpretation of these, I have given again the name of the
prophet whose life or prophecy they illustrate.
13. ISAIAH.
13, A. "I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne" (vi. I).
The vision of the throne "high and lifted up"
between seraphim.
13, B. "Lo, this hath touched thy lips" (vi. 7).
The Angel stands before the prophet, and holds,
or rather held, the coal with tongs, which have been
finely undercut, but are now broken away, only a
fragment remaining in his hand.
14. JEREMIAH.
14, A. The burial of the girdle (xiii. 4, 5).
The prophet is digging by the shore of Euphrates,
represented by vertically winding furrows down the
middle of the tablet. Note, the translation should be
"hole in the ground," not "rock."
14, B. The breaking of the yoke (xxviii. 10).
From the prophet Jeremiah's neck; it is here
represented as a doubled and redoubled chain.
15. EZEKIEL.
15, A. Wheel within wheel (i. 16).
The prophet sitting; before him two wheels of
equal size, one involved in the ring of the other.
15, B. "Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem" (xxi. 2).
The prophet before the gate of Jerusalem.
16. DANIEL.
16, A. "He hath shut the lions' mouths" (vi. 22).
Daniel holding a book, the lions treated as heraldic
supporters. The subject is given with more
animation farther on in the series (24, B).
16, B. "In the same hour came forth fingers of a Man's hand" (v. 5).
Belshazzar's feast represented by the king alone,
seated at a small oblong table. Beside him the youth
Daniel, looking only fifteen or sixteen, graceful and
gentle, interprets. At the side of the quatrefoil,
out of a small wreath of cloud, comes a small bent
hand, writing, as if with a pen upside down on a piece
of Gothic wall.[64]
For modern bombast as opposed to old simplicity,
compare the Belshazzar's feast of John Martin!
[Footnote 64: I fear this hand has been broken since I described it; at
all events, it is indistinguishably shapeless in the photograph (No. 9
of the series).]
43. The next subject begins the series of the minor prophets.
17. HOSEA.
17, A. "So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver and
an homer of barley" (iii. 2).
The prophet pouring the grain and the silver into
the lap of the woman, "beloved of her friend." The
carved coins are each wrought with the cross, and, I
believe, legend of the French contemporary coin.
17, B. "So will I also be for thee" (iii. 3).
He puts a ring on her finger.
18. JOEL.
18, A. The sun and moon lightless (ii. 10).
The sun and moon as two small flat pellets, up in
the external moulding.
18, B. The barked fig-tree and waste vine (i. 7).
Note the continual insistance on the blight of vegetation
as a Divine punishment, 19 D.
19. AMOS.
_To the front._
19, A. "The Lord will cry from Zion" (i. 2).
Christ appears with crossletted nimbus.
19, B. "The habitations of the shepherds shall mourn" (i. 2).
Amos with the shepherd's hooked or knotted staff,
and wicker-worked bottle, before his tent. (Architecture
in right-hand foil restored.)
_Inside Porch._
19, C. The Lord with the mason's line (vii. 8).
Christ, again here, and henceforward always, with
crosslet nimbus, has a large trowel in His hand, which
He lays on the top of a half-built wall. There seems
a line twisted round the handle.
19, D. The place where it rained not (iv. 7).
Amos is gathering the leaves of the fruitless vine,
to feed the sheep, who find no grass. One of the
finest of the reliefs.
20. OBADIAH.
_Inside Porch._
20, A. "I hid them in a cave" (1 Kings xviii. 13).
Three prophets at the mouth of a well, to whom
Obadiah brings loaves.
20, B. "He fell on his face" (xviii. 7).
He kneels before Elijah, who wears his rough
mantle.
_To the front._
20, C. The captain of fifty.
Elijah (?) speaking to an armed man under a tree.
20, D. The Messenger.
A messenger on his knees before a king. I cannot
interpret these two scenes (20, C and 20, D).
The uppermost _may_ mean the dialogue of Elijah
with the captains (2 Kings i. 2), and the lower one,
the return of the messengers (2 Kings i. 5).
21. JONAH.
21, A. Escaped from the sea.
21, B. Under the gourd. A small grasshopper-like beast
gnawing the gourd stem. I should like to know
what insects _do_ attack the Amiens gourds. This may
be an entomological study, for aught we know.
22. MICAH.
_To the front._
22, A. The Tower of the Flock (iv. 8).
The tower is wrapped in clouds, God appearing
above it.
22, B. Each shall rest and "none shall make them afraid" (iv. 4).
A man and his wife "under his vine and fig-tree."
_Inside Porch._
22, C. "Swords into ploughshares" (iv. 3).
Nevertheless, two hundred years after these medallions
were cut, the sword manufacture had become a
staple in Amiens! Not to her advantage.
22, D. "Spears into pruning-hooks" (iv. 3).
23. NAHUM.
_Inside Porch._
23, A. "None shall look back" (ii. 8).
23, B. The Burden of Nineveh (i. I).[65]
[Footnote 65: The statue of the prophet, above, is the grandest of the
entire series; and note especially the "diadema" of his own luxuriant
hair plaited like a maiden's, indicating the Achillean force of this
most terrible of the prophets. (Compare 'Fors Clavigera,' Letter LXV.,
page 157.) For the rest, this long flowing hair was always one of the
insignia of the Frankish kings, and their way of dressing both hair
and beard may be seen more nearly and definitely in the
angle-sculptures of the long font in the north transept, the most
interesting piece of work in the whole cathedral, in an antiquarian
sense, and of much artistic value also. (See ante chap. ii. p. 45.)]
_To the front._
23, C. "Thy Princes and thy great ones" (iii. 17).
23, A, B, and C, are all incapable of sure interpretation. The
prophet in A is pointing down to a little hill, said by
the Père Rozé to be covered with grasshoppers. I
can only copy what he says of them.
23, D. "Untimely figs" (iii. 12).
Three people beneath a fig-tree catch its falling
fruit in their mouths.
24. HABAKKUK.
24, A. "I will watch to see what he will say unto me" (ii. 1).
The prophet is writing on his tablet to Christ's
dictation.
24, B. The ministry to Daniel.
The traditional visit to Daniel. An angel carries
Habakkuk by the hair of his head; the prophet
has a loaf of bread in each hand. They break
through the roof of the cave. Daniel is stroking one
young lion on the back; the head of another is thrust
carelessly under his arm. Another is gnawing
bones in the bottom of the cave.
25. ZEPHANIAH.
_To the front._
25, A. The Lord strikes Ethiopia (ii. 12).
Christ striking a city with a sword. Note that all
violent actions are in these bas-reliefs feebly or ludicrously
expressed; quiet ones always right.
25, B. The beasts in Nineveh (ii. 15).
Very fine. All kinds of crawling things among
the tottering walls, and peeping out of their rents
and crannies. A monkey sitting squat, developing
into a demon, reverses the Darwinian theory.
_Inside porch._
25, C. The Lord visits Jerusalem (i. 12).
Christ passing through the streets of Jerusalem,
with a lantern in each hand.
25, D. The Hedgehog and Bittern[66] (ii. 14).
With a singing bird in a cage in the window.
[Footnote 66: See ante p. 117, note.]
26. HAGGAI.
_Inside Porch._
26, A. The houses of the princes, _ornées de lambris_ (i. 4).
A perfectly built house of square stones gloomily
strong, the grating (of a prison?) in front of foundation.
26, B. The Heaven is stayed from dew (i. 10).
The heavens as a projecting mass, with stars, sun,
and moon on surface. Underneath, two withered
trees.
_To the front._
26, C. The Lord's temple desolate (i. 4).
The falling of the temple, "not one stone left on
another," grandly loose. Square stones again. Examine
the text (i. 6).
26, D. "Thus saith the Lord of Hosts" (i. 7).
Christ pointing up to His ruined temple.
27. ZECHARIAH.
27, A. The lifting up of Iniquity (v. 6 to 9).
Wickedness in the Ephah.
27, B. "The angel that spake to me" (iv. 1).
The prophet almost reclining, a glorious winged
angel hovering out of cloud.
28. MALACHI.
28, A. "Ye have wounded the Lord" (ii. 17).
The priests are thrusting Christ through with a
barbed lance, whose point comes out at His back.
28, B. "This commandment is to _you_" (ii. 1).
In these panels, the undermost is often introductory
to the one above, an illustration of it. It is perhaps
chapter i. verse 6, that is meant to be spoken here by
the sitting figure of Christ, to the indignant priests.
44. With this bas-relief terminates the series of sculpture in
illustration of Apostolic and Prophetic teaching, which constitutes
what I mean by the "Bible" of Amiens. But the two lateral porches
contain supplementary subjects necessary for completion of the
pastoral and traditional teaching addressed to her people in that day.
The Northern Porch, dedicated to her first missionary St. Firmin, has
on its central pier his statue; above, on the flat field of the back
of the arch, the story of the finding of his body; on the sides of the
porch, companion saints and angels in the following order:--
CENTRAL STATUE.
ST. FIRMIN.
_Southern (left) side._
41. St. Firmin the Confessor.
42. St. Domice.
43. St. Honoré.
44. St. Salve.
45. St. Quentin.
46. St. Gentian.
_Northern (right) side._
47. St. Geoffroy.
48. An angel.
49. St. Fuscien, martyr.
50. St. Victoric, martyr.
51. An angel.
52. St. Ulpha.
45. Of these saints, excepting St. Firmin and St. Honoré, of whom I have
already spoken,[67] St. Geoffroy is more real for us than the rest; he
was born in the year of the battle of Hastings, at Molincourt in the
Soissonais, and was Bishop of Amiens from 1104 to 1150. A man of
entirely simple, pure, and right life: one of the severest of ascetics,
but without gloom--always gentle and merciful. Many miracles are
recorded of him, but all indicating a tenour of life which was chiefly
miraculous by its justice and peace. Consecrated at Rheims, and attended
by a train of other bishops and nobles to his diocese, he dismounts from
his horse at St. Acheul, the place of St. Firmin's first tomb, and walks
barefoot to his cathedral, along the causeway now so defaced: at another
time he walks barefoot from Amiens to Picquigny to ask from the Vidame
of Amiens the freedom of the Chatelain Adam. He maintained the
privileges of the citizens, with the help of Louis le Gros, against the
Count of Amiens, defeated him, and razed his castle; nevertheless, the
people not enough obeying him in the order of their life, he blames his
own weakness, rather than theirs, and retires to the Grande Chartreuse,
holding himself unfit to be their bishop. The Carthusian superior
questioning him on his reasons for retirement, and asking if he had ever
sold the offices of the Church, the Bishop answered, "My father, my
hands are pure of simony, but I have a thousand times allowed myself to
be seduced by praise."
[Footnote 67: See ante Chap. I., pp. 5-6, for the history of St.
Firmin, and for St. Honoré p. 95, § 8 of this chapter, with the
reference there given.]
46. St. Firmin the Confessor was the son of the Roman senator who
received St. Firmin himself. He preserved the tomb of the martyr in
his father's garden, and at last built a church over it, dedicated to
our Lady of martyrs, which was the first episcopal seat of Amiens, at
St. Acheul, spoken of above. St. Ulpha was an Amienoise girl, who
lived in a chalk cave above the marshes of the Somme;--if ever Mr.
Murray provides you with a comic guide to Amiens, no doubt the
enlightened composer of it will count much on your enjoyment of the
story of her being greatly disturbed at her devotions by the frogs,
and praying them silent. You are now, of course, wholly superior to
such follies, and are sure that God cannot, or will not, so much as
shut a frog's mouth for you. Remember, therefore, that as He also now
leaves open the mouth of the liar, blasphemer, and betrayer, you must
shut your own ears against _their_ voices as you can.
Of her name, St. Wolf--or Guelph--see again Miss Yonge's Christian
names. Our tower of Wolf's stone, Ulverstone, and Kirk of Ulpha, are,
I believe, unconscious of Picard relatives.
47. The other saints in this porch are all in like manner provincial,
and, as it were, personal friends of the Amienois; and under them, the
quatrefoils represent the pleasant order of the guarded and hallowed
year--the zodiacal signs above, and labours of the months below; little
differing from the constant representations of them--except in the May:
see below. The Libra also is a little unusual in the female figure
holding the scales; the lion especially good-tempered--and the 'reaping'
one of the most beautiful figures in the whole series of sculptures;
several of the others peculiarly refined and far-wrought. In Mr.
Kaltenbacher's photographs, as I have arranged them, the bas-reliefs may
be studied nearly as well as in the porch itself. Their order is as
follows, beginning with December, in the left-hand inner corner of the
porch:--
41. DECEMBER.--Killing and scalding swine. Above, Capricorn
with quickly diminishing tail; I cannot make out
the accessories.
42. JANUARY.--Twin-headed, obsequiously served. Aquarius
feebler than most of the series.
43. FEBRUARY.--Very fine; warming his feet and putting coals
on fire. Fish above, elaborate but uninteresting.
44. MARCH.--At work in vine-furrows. Aries careful, but
rather stupid.
45. APRIL.--Feeding his hawk--very pretty. Taurus above
with charming leaves to eat.
46. MAY.--Very singularly, a middle-aged man sitting under
the trees to hear the birds sing; and Gemini above, a
bridegroom and bride. This quatrefoil joins the interior
angle ones of Zephaniah.
52. JUNE.--Opposite, joining the interior angle ones of Haggai.
Mowing. Note the lovely flowers sculptured all
through the grass. Cancer above, with his shell superbly
modelled.
51. JULY.--Reaping. Extremely beautiful. The smiling lion
completes the evidence that all the seasons and signs
are regarded as alike blessing and providentially kind.
50. AUGUST.--Threshing. Virgo above, holding a flower, her
drapery very modern and confused for thirteenth-century
work.
49. SEPTEMBER.--I am not sure of his action, whether pruning,
or in some way gathering fruit from the full-leaved
tree. Libra above; charming.
[Illustration: ST. MARY.]
48. OCTOBER.--Treading grapes. Scorpio, a very traditional
and gentle form--forked in the tail indeed, but stingless.
47. NOVEMBER.--Sowing, with Sagittarius, half concealed
when this photograph was taken by the beautiful
arrangements always now going on for some job or
other in French cathedrals:--they never can let them
alone for ten minutes.
48. And now, last of all, if you care to see it, we will go into the
Madonna's porch--only, if you come at all, good Protestant feminine
reader--come civilly: and be pleased to recollect, if you have, in
known history, material for recollection, this (or if you cannot
recollect--be you very solemnly assured of this): that neither
Madonna-worship, nor Lady-worship of any sort, whether of dead ladies
or living ones, ever did any human creature any harm,--but that Money
worship, Wig worship, Cocked-Hat-and-Feather worship, Plate worship,
Pot worship and Pipe worship, have done, and are doing, a great
deal,--and that any of these, and all, are quite million-fold more
offensive to the God of Heaven and Earth and the Stars, than all the
absurdest and lovingest mistakes made by any generations of His simple
children, about what the Virgin-mother could, or would, or might do,
or feel for them.
49. And next, please observe this broad historical fact about the
three sorts of Madonnas.
There is first the Madonna Dolorosa; the Byzantine type, and
Cimabue's. It is the noblest of all; and the earliest, in distinct
popular influence.[68]
[Footnote 68: See the description of the Madonna of Murano, in second
volume of 'Stones of Venice.']
Secondly. The Madone Reine, who is essentially the Frank and Norman
one; crowned, calm, and full of power and gentleness. She is the one
represented in this porch.
Thirdly. The Madone Nourrice, who is the Raphaelesque and generally
late and decadence one. She is seen here in a good French type in the
south transept porch, as before noticed.
An admirable comparison will be found instituted by M. Viollet le Duc
(the article 'Vierge,' in his dictionary, is altogether deserving of
the most attentive study) between this statue of the Queen-Madonna of
the southern porch and the Nurse-Madonna of the transept. I may
perhaps be able to get a photograph made of his two drawings, side by
side: but, if I can, the reader will please observe that he has a
little flattered the Queen, and a little vulgarized the Nurse, which
is not fair. The statue in this porch is in thirteenth-century style,
extremely good: but there is no reason for making any fuss about
it--the earlier Byzantine types being far grander.
50. The Madonna's story, in its main incidents, is told in the series
of statues round the porch, and in the quatrefoils below--several of
which refer, however, to a legend about the Magi to which I have not
had access, and I am not sure of their interpretation.
The large statues are on the left hand, reading outwards as usual.
29. The Angel Gabriel.
30. Virgin Annunciate.
31. Virgin Visitant.
32. St. Elizabeth.
33. Virgin in Presentation.
34. St. Simeon.
On the right hand, reading outward,
35, 36, 37, The three Kings.
38. Herod.
39. Solomon.
40. The Queen of Sheba.
51. I am not sure of rightly interpreting the introduction of these two
last statues: but I believe the idea of the designer was that virtually
the Queen Mary visited Herod when she sent, or had sent for her, the
Magi to tell him of her presence at Bethlehem: and the contrast between
Solomon's reception of the Queen of Sheba, and Herod's driving out the
Madonna into Egypt, is dwelt on throughout this side of the porch, with
their several consequences to the two Kings and to the world.
The quatrefoils underneath the great statues run as follows:
29. Under Gabriel--
A. Daniel seeing the stone cut out without hands.
B. Moses and the burning bush.
30. Under Virgin Annunciate--
A. Gideon and the dew on the fleece.
B. Moses with written law, retiring; Aaron, dominant, points to
his budding rod.
31. Under Virgin Visitant--
A. The message to Zacharias: "Fear not, for thy prayer is heard."
B. The dream of Joseph: "Fear not to take unto thee Mary thy
wife." (?)
32. Under St. Elizabeth--
A. The silence of Zacharias: "They perceived that he had seen a
vision in the temple."
B. "There is none of thy kindred that is called by this name."
"He wrote saying, His name is John."
33. Under Virgin in Presentation--
A. Flight into Egypt.
B. Christ with the Doctors.
34. Under St. Simeon--
A. Fall of the idols in Egypt.
B. The return to Nazareth.
These two last quatrefoils join the beautiful C and D of Amos.
Then on the opposite side, under the Queen of Sheba, and
joining the A and B of Obadiah--
40. A. Solomon entertains the Queen of Sheba. The Grace cup.
B. Solomon teaches the Queen of Sheba, "God is above."
39. Under Solomon--
A. Solomon on his throne of judgment.
B. Solomon praying before his temple-gate.
38. Under Herod--
A. Massacre of Innocents.
B. Herod orders the ship of the Kings to be burned.
37. Under the third King--
A. Herod inquires of the Kings.
B. Burning of the ship.
36. Under the second King--
A. Adoration in Bethlehem?--not certain.
B. The voyage of the Kings.
35. Under the first King--
A. The Star in the East.
B. "Being warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod."
I have no doubt of finding out in time the real sequence of these
subjects: but it is of little import,--this group of quatrefoils being
of less interest than the rest, and that of the Massacre of the
Innocents curiously illustrative of the incapability of the sculptor
to give strong action or passion.
But into questions respecting the art of these bas-reliefs I do not
here attempt to enter. They were never intended to serve as more than
signs, or guides to thought. And if the reader follows this guidance
quietly, he may create for himself better pictures in his heart; and
at all events may recognize these following general truths, as their
united message.
52. First, that throughout the Sermon on this Amiens Mount, Christ
never appears, or is for a moment thought of, as the Crucified, nor as
the Dead: but as the Incarnate Word--as the present Friend--as the
Prince of Peace on Earth,--and as the Everlasting King in Heaven. What
His life _is_, what His commands _are_, and what His judgment _will
be_, are the things here taught: not what He once did, nor what He
once suffered, but what He is now doing--and what He requires us to
do. That is the pure, joyful, beautiful lesson of Christianity; and
the fall from that faith, and all the corruptions of its abortive
practice, may be summed briefly as the habitual contemplation of
Christ's death instead of His Life, and the substitution of His past
suffering for our present duty.
53. Then, secondly, though Christ bears not _His_ cross, the mourning
prophets,--the persecuted apostles--and the martyred disciples _do_
bear theirs. For just as it is well for you to remember what your
undying Creator is _doing_ for you--it is well for you to remember
what your dying fellow-creatures _have done_: the Creator you may at
your pleasure deny or defy--the Martyr you can only forget; deny, you
cannot. Every stone of this building is cemented with his blood, and
there is no furrow of its pillars that was not ploughed by his pain.
54. Keeping, then, these things in your heart, look back now to the
central statue of Christ, and hear His message with understanding. He
holds the Book of the Eternal Law in His left hand; with His right He
blesses,--but blesses on condition. "This do, and thou shalt live";
nay, in stricter and more piercing sense, This _be_ and thou shalt
live: to show Mercy is nothing--thy soul must be full of mercy; to be
pure in act is nothing--thou shalt be pure in heart also.
And with this further word of the unabolished law--"This if thou do
_not_, this if thou art not, thou shalt die."
55. Die (whatever Death means)--totally and irrevocably. There is no
word in thirteenth-century Theology of the pardon (in our modern
sense) of sins; and there is none of the Purgatory of them. Above that
image of Christ with us, our Friend, is set the image of Christ over
us, our Judge. For this present life--here is His helpful Presence.
After this life--there is His coming to take account of our deeds, and
of our desires in them; and the parting asunder of the Obedient from
the Disobedient, of the Loving from the Unkind, with no hope given to
the last of recall or reconciliation. I do not know what commenting or
softening doctrines were written in frightened minuscule by the
Fathers, or hinted in hesitating whispers by the prelates of the early
Church. But I know that the language of every graven stone and every
glowing window,--of things daily seen and universally understood by
the people, was absolutely and alone, this teaching of Moses from
Sinai in the beginning, and of St. John from Patmos in the end, of the
Revelation of God to Israel.
This it was, simply--sternly--and continually, for the great three
hundred years of Christianity in her strength (eleventh, twelfth, and
thirteenth centuries), and over the whole breadth and depth of her
dominion, from Iona to Cyrene,--and from Calpe to Jerusalem. At what
time the doctrine of Purgatory was openly accepted by Catholic
Doctors, I neither know nor care to know. It was first formalized by
Dante, but never accepted for an instant by the sacred artist teachers
of his time--or by those of any great school or time whatsoever.[69]
[Footnote 69: The most authentic foundations of the Purgatorial scheme
in art-teaching are in the renderings, subsequent to the thirteenth
century, of the verse "by which also He went and preached unto the
spirits in prison," forming gradually into the idea of the deliverance
of the waiting saints from the power of the grave.
In literature and tradition, the idea is originally, I believe,
Platonic; certainly not Homeric. Egyptian possibly--but I have read
nothing yet of the recent discoveries in Egypt. Not, however, quite
liking to leave the matter in the complete emptiness of my own
resources, I have appealed to my general investigator, Mr. Anderson
(James R.), who writes as follows:--
"There is no possible question about the doctrine and universal
inculcation of it, ages before Dante. Curiously enough, though, the
statement of it in the Summa Theologiæ as we have it is a later
insertion; but I find by references that St. Thomas teaches it
elsewhere. Albertus Magnus developes it at length. If you refer to the
'Golden Legend' under All Souls' Day, you will see how the idea is
assumed as a commonplace in a work meant for popular use in the
thirteenth century. St. Gregory (the Pope) argues for it (Dial. iv.
38) on two scriptural quotations: (1), the sin that is forgiven
neither in hôc sæculo _nor in that which is to come_, and (2), the
fire which shall try every man's work. I think Platonic philosophy and
the Greek mysteries must have had a good deal to do with introducing
the idea originally; but with them--as to Virgil--it was part of the
Eastern vision of a circling stream of life from which only a few
drops were at intervals tossed to a definitely permanent Elysium or a
definitely permanent Hell. It suits that scheme better than it does
the Christian one, which attaches ultimately in all cases infinite
importance to the results of life in hôc sæculo.
"Do you know any representation of Heaven or Hell unconnected with the
Last Judgment? I don't remember any, and as Purgatory is by that time
past, this would account for the absence of pictures of it.
"Besides, Purgatory precedes the Resurrection--there is continual
question among divines what manner of purgatorial fire it may be that
affects spirits separate from the body--perhaps Heaven and Hell, as
opposed to Purgatory, were felt to be picturable because not only
spirits, but the risen bodies too are conceived in them.
"Bede's account of the Ayrshire seer's vision gives Purgatory in words
very like Dante's description of the second stormy circle in Hell; and
the angel which ultimately saves the Scotchman from the fiends comes
through hell, 'quasi fulgor stellæ micantis inter tenebras'--'qual sul
presso del mattino Per gli grossi vapor Marte rosseggia.' Bede's name
was great in the middle ages. Dante meets him in Heaven, and, I like
to hope, may have been helped by the vision of my fellow-countryman
more than six hundred years before."]
56. Neither do I know nor care to know--at what time the notion of
Justification by Faith, in the modern sense, first got itself
distinctively fixed in the minds of the heretical sects and schools of
the North. Practically its strength was founded by its first authors
on an asceticism which differed from monastic rule in being only able
to destroy, never to build; and in endeavouring to force what severity
it thought proper for itself on everybody else also; and so striving
to make one artless, letterless, and merciless monastery of all the
world. Its virulent effort broke down amidst furies of reactionary
dissoluteness and disbelief, and remains now the basest of popular
solders and plasters for every condition of broken law and bruised
conscience which interest can provoke, or hypocrisy disguise.
57. With the subsequent quarrels between the two great sects of the
corrupted church, about prayers for the Dead, Indulgences to the
Living, Papal supremacies, or Popular liberties, no man, woman, or
child need trouble themselves in studying the history of Christianity:
they are nothing but the squabbles of men, and laughter of fiends
among its ruins. The Life, and Gospel, and Power of it, are all
written in the mighty works of its true believers: in Normandy and
Sicily, on river islets of France and in the river glens of England,
on the rocks of Orvieto, and by the sands of Arno. But of all, the
simplest, completest, and most authoritative in its lessons to the
active mind of North Europe, is this on the foundation stones of
Amiens.
58. Believe it or not, reader, as you will: understand only how
thoroughly it _was_ once believed; and that all beautiful things were
made, and all brave deeds done in the strength of it--until what we may
call 'this present time,' in which it is gravely asked whether Religion
has any effect on morals, by persons who have essentially no idea
whatever of the meaning of either Religion or Morality.
Concerning which dispute, this much perhaps you may have the patience
finally to read, as the Flèche of Amiens fades in the distance, and
your carriage rushes towards the Isle of France, which now exhibits
the most admired patterns of European Art, intelligence, and
behaviour.
59. All human creatures, in all ages and places of the world, who have
had warm affections, common sense, and self-command, have been, and
are, Naturally Moral. Human nature in its fulness is necessarily
Moral,--without Love, it is inhuman, without sense,[70]
inhuman,--without discipline, inhuman.
[Footnote 70: I don't mean æsthesis,--but [Greek: nous], if you _must_
talk in Greek slang.]
In the exact proportion in which men are bred capable of these things,
and are educated to love, to think, and to endure, they become
noble,--live happily--die calmly: are remembered with perpetual honour
by their race, and for the perpetual good of it. All wise men know and
have known these things, since the form of man was separated from the
dust. The knowledge and enforcement of them have nothing to do with
religion: a good and wise man differs from a bad and idiotic one,
simply as a good dog from a cur, and as any manner of dog from a wolf
or a weasel. And if you are to believe in, or preach without half
believing in, a spiritual world or law--only in the hope that whatever
you do, or anybody else does, that is foolish or beastly, may be in
them and by them mended and patched and pardoned and worked up again
as good as new--the less you believe in--and most solemnly, the less
you talk about--a spiritual world, the better.
60. But if, loving well the creatures that are like yourself, you feel
that you would love still more dearly, creatures better than
yourself--were they revealed to you;--if striving with all your might
to mend what is evil, near you and around, you would fain look for a day
when some Judge of all the Earth shall wholly do right, and the little
hills rejoice on every side; if, parting with the companions that have
given you all the best joy you had on Earth, you desire ever to meet
their eyes again and clasp their hands,--where eyes shall no more be
dim, nor hands fail;--if, preparing yourselves to lie down beneath the
grass in silence and loneliness, seeing no more beauty, and feeling no
more gladness--you would care for the promise to you of a time when you
should see God's light again, and know the things you have longed to
know, and walk in the peace of everlasting Love--_then_, the Hope of
these things to you is religion, the Substance of them in your life is
Faith. And in the power of them, it is promised us, that the kingdoms of
this world shall yet become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ.
[Illustration: Plan of West porches of Amiens Cathedral]
APPENDICES.
I. CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL EVENTS REFERRED TO IN
THE 'BIBLE OF AMIENS.'
II. REFERENCES EXPLANATORY OF THE PHOTOGRAPHS ILLUSTRATING
CHAPTER IV.
III. GENERAL PLAN OF 'OUR FATHERS HAVE TOLD US.'
APPENDIX I.
_CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL EVENTS
REFERRED TO IN THE 'BIBLE OF AMIENS.'_
A.D. PAGE
250. Rise of the Franks 33
301. St. Firmin comes to Amiens 5
332. St. Martin 15
345. St. Jerome born 75
350. First church at Amiens, over St. Firmin's grave 99
358. Franks defeated by Julian near Strasburg 44
405. St. Jerome's Bible 50
420. St. Jerome dies 78 _seq._
421. St. Genevieve born. Venice founded 27
445. Franks cross the Rhine and take Amiens 7
447. Merovée king at Amiens 7, 8
451. Battle of Chalons. Attila defeated by Aëtius 7
457. Merovée dies. Childeric king at Amiens 8
466. Clovis born 7
476. Roman Empire in Italy ended by Odoacer 8
481. Roman Empire ended in France 9
Clovis crowned at Amiens 8, 27
St. Benedict born 27
485. Battle of Soissons. Clovis defeats Syagrius 8, 52
486. Syagrius dies at the court of Alaric 52
489. Battle of Verona. Theodoric defeats Odoacer 54
493. Clovis marries Clotilde 8
496. Battle of Tolbiac. Clovis defeats the Alemanni 53
Clovis crowned at Rheims by St. Rémy 9
Clovis baptized by St. Rémy 13
508. Battle of Poitiers. Clovis defeats the Visigoths
under Alaric. Death of Alaric 9
APPENDIX II.
_REFERENCES EXPLANATORY OF THE PHOTOGRAPHS
ILLUSTRATING CHAPTER IV._
The quatrefoils on the foundation of the west front of Amiens
Cathedral, described in the course of the fourth chapter, had never
been engraved or photographed in any form accessible to the public
until last year, when I commissioned M. Kaltenbacher (6, Passage du
Commerce), who had photographed them for M. Viollet le Duc, to obtain
negatives of the entire series, with the central pedestal of the
Christ.
The proofs are entirely satisfactory to me, and extremely honourable
to M. Kaltenbacher's skill: and it is impossible to obtain any more
instructive and interesting, in exposition of the manner of central
thirteenth-century sculpture.
I directed their setting so that the entire succession of the
quatrefoils might be included in eighteen plates; the front and two
sides of the pedestal raise their number to twenty-one: the whole,
unmounted, sold by my agent Mr. Ward (the negatives being my own
property) for four guineas; or separately, each five shillings.
Besides these of my own, I have chosen four general views of the
cathedral from M. Kaltenbacher's formerly-taken negatives, which,
together with the first-named series, (twenty-five altogether,) will
form a complete body of illustrations for the fourth chapter of the
'BIBLE OF AMIENS'; costing in all five guineas, forwarded free by post
from Mr. Ward's (2, Church Terrace, Richmond, Surrey). In addition to
these, Mr. Ward will supply the photograph of the four scenes from the
life of St. Firmin, mentioned on page 5 of Chapter I.; price five
shillings.
For those who do not care to purchase the whole series, I have marked
with an asterisk the plates which are especially desirable.
* * * * *
The two following lists will enable readers who possess the plates to
refer without difficulty both from the photographs to the text, and
from the text to the photographs, which will be found to fall into the
following groups:--