in use, not only as an occasional variation, but in the entire
construction of churches upon a grand scale, as early as the eleventh
century.--Sammarthanus tells us that Bishop Herbert, who died in 1049,
began to build this church, but did not live to see it completed; and
Ordericus Vitalis expressly adds, that Hugh, the successor to Herbert,
upon his death-bed, in 1077, while retracing his past life, made use of
these words:--"Ecclesiam Sancti Petri, principis apostolorum, quam
venerabilis Herbertus, praedecessor meus, coepit, perfeci, studiosè
adornavi, honorificè dedicavi, et cultoribus necessariisque divino
servitio vasis aliisque apparatibus copiosè ditavi."--Language of this
kind appears too explicit to leave room for ambiguity, but an opinion
has still prevailed, founded probably upon the style of the
architecture, that the cathedral was not finished till near the
expiration of the thirteenth century. Admitting, however, such to be the
fact, I do not see how it will materially help those who favor the
opinion; for the building is far from being, as commonly happens in
great churches, a medley of incongruous parts; but it is upon one fixed
plan; and, as it was begun, so it was ended.--The exterior of the
extremity of the south transept is a still more complete example of the
early pointed style than the west front: this style, which was the most
chaste, and, if I may be allowed to use the expression, the most severe
of all, scarcely any where displays itself to greater advantage. The
central window is composed of five lancet divisions, supported upon
slender pillars: massy buttresses of several splays bound it on either
side.
The same character of uniformity extends over the interior of the
building. On each side of the nave is a side-aisle; and, beyond the
aisles, chapels. The pillars of the nave are cylindrical, solid, and
plain. Their bases end with foliage at each corner, and foliage is also
sculptured upon the capitals. The arches which they support are
acute.--The triforium is similar in plan to the part below; but the
capitals of the columns are considerably more enriched, with an obvious
imitation of the antique model, and every arch encircles two smaller
ones. In the clerestory the windows are modern.--The transepts appear
the oldest parts of the cathedral, as is not unfrequently the case;
whether they were really built before the rest, or that, from being less
used in the services of the church, they were less commonly the objects
of subsequent alterations. They are large; and each of them has an aisle
on the eastern side. The architecture of the choir resembles that of the
nave, except that the five pillars, which form the apsis, are slender
and the intervening arches more narrow and more acute.--The Lady-Chapel,
which is long and narrow, was built towards the middle of the fifteenth
century, by Peter Cauchon, thirty-sixth bishop of Lisieux, who, for his
steady attachment to the Anglo-Norman cause, was translated to this see,
in 1429, when Beauvais, of which he had previously been bishop, fell
into the hands of the French. He was selected, in 1431, for the
invidious office of presiding at the trial of the Maid of Orléans.
Repentance followed; and, as an atonement for his unrighteous conduct,
according to Ducarel, he erected this chapel, and therein founded a high
mass to the Holy Virgin, which was duly sung by the choristers, in
order, as is expressed in his endowment-charter, to expiate the false
judgment which he pronounced[64].--The two windows by the side of the
altar in this chapel have been painted of a crimson color, to add to the
effect produced upon entering the church; and, seen as they are, through
the long perspective of the nave and the distant arches of the choir,
the glowing tint is by no means unpleasing.--The central tower is open
within the church to a considerable height: it is supported by four
arches of unusual boldness, above which runs a row of small arches, of
the same character as the rest of the building; and, still higher, on
each side, are two lancet-windows.--The vaulting of the roof is very
plain, with bosses slightly pendant and carved.
[Illustration: Ancient Tomb in the Cathedral at Lisieux]
At the extremity of the north transept is an ancient stone sarcophagus,
so built into the wall, that it appears to have been incorporated with
the edifice, at the period when it was raised. The style of the
medallions which adorn it will be best understood by consulting the
annexed sketch, which is very faithful, though taken under every
possible disadvantage. The transept is now used as a school; and the
little filthy imps, who are there taught to drawl out their catechisms,
continued swarming round the feverish artist, during the progress of the
drawing. The character of the heads, the crowns, and the disposition of
the foliage, may be considered as indicating that it is a production, at
least of the Carlovingian period, if it be not indeed of earlier date. I
believe it is traditionally supposed to have been the tomb of a saint,
perhaps St. Candidus; but I am not quite certain whether I am accurate
in the recollection of the name.--Above are two armed statues, probably
of the twelfth or thirteenth centuries. These have been engraved by
Willemin, in his useful work, _Les Monumens Français_, under the title
of _Two Armed Warriors, in the Nave of the Cathedral at Lisieux_; and
both are there figured as if in all respects perfect, and with a great
many details which do not exist, and never could have existed, though at
the same time the draftsman has omitted the animals at the feet of the
statues, one of which is yet nearly entire.--This may be reckoned among
the innumerable proofs of the disregard of accuracy which pervades the
works of French antiquaries. A French designer never scruples to
sacrifice accuracy to what he considers effect.--Willemin describes the
monuments as being in the nave of the church. I suspect that he has
availed himself of the unpublished collection of Gaignat, in this and
many other instances. It is evident that originally the statues were
recumbent; but I cannot ascertain when they changed their position.--No
other tombs now exist in the cathedral: the brazen monument raised to
Hannuier, an Englishman, the marble that commemorated the bishop,
William d'Estouteville, founder of the _Collège de Lisieux_ at Paris,
that of Peter Cauchon in the Lady-Chapel, and all the rest, were
destroyed during the revolution.
The diocese of Lisieux was a more modern establishment than any other in
Normandy. Even those who are most desirous to honor it by antiquity, do
not venture to date its foundation higher than the middle of the sixth
century. Ordericus Vitalis, a monk of the province, suggests with some
reason that we ought not to be hasty in forming our judgment upon these
subjects; for that, owing to the destruction caused by the Norman
pirates and the abominable negligence (_damnabilis negligentia_) of
those to whom the care of the records of religious houses had
subsequently been intrusted, many documents had been irretrievably
lost.--The see of Lisieux was also peculiarly unfortunate, in having
twice been in a state of anarchy, and on each occasion for a period of
more than a century. The series of its prelates is interrupted from the
year 670 to 853, and again from 876 to 990.
It is rather extraordinary, that no one of the Lexovian bishops was ever
admitted by the church into the catalogue of her saints. Many of them
were prelates of unquestionable merit. Freculfus, in the ninth century,
was a patron of literature, and himself an author; Hugh of Eu, grandson
of Richard, Duke of Normandy, was one of the most illustrious
ecclesiastics of his day; Gilbert is described by Ordericus Vitalis as
having been a man of exemplary charity, and deeply versed in all
sciences, though it is admitted that he was somewhat too much addicted
to worldly pleasures, and not averse from gambling; and Arnulf, whose
letters and epigrams are preserved among the manuscripts of the Vatican,
was a prelate who would have done honor to St. Peter's chair.--All these
were bishops of Lisieux, during the ages when canonization was not
altogether so unfrequent as in our days. Arnulf particularly
distinguished himself by taking a leading part in the principal
transactions of the times. He accompanied the crusaders to the holy land
in 1147; five years subsequently he officiated at the marriage of Henry
Plantagenet with Eleanor of Guyenne, the repudiated wife of Louis le
Jeune, which was performed in his cathedral; he assisted at the
coronation of the same king, by whom he was shortly afterwards employed
in a mission of great importance at Rome; and he interposed to settle
the differences between that sovereign and Thomas à Becket; and though
he espoused the part of the prelate, he had the good fortune to retain
the favor of the monarch. A life thus eventful ended with the conviction
that all was vanity!--Arnulf, disgusted with sublunary honors, abdicated
his see and retired to a monastery at Paris, where he died.--One of the
immediate successors of this prelate, William of Rupierre, was the
ambassador of Richard Coeur-de-Lion to the Pope; and he pleaded the
cause of his sovereign against Walter, Archbishop of Rouen, on the
occasion of the differences that originated from the building of Château
Gaillard. He also resisted the power usurped by King John within the
city and liberties of Lisieux, and finally obtained a sentence from the
Norman court of exchequer, whereby the privileges of the dukes of the
province were restricted to what was called the _Placitum Spathæ_,
consisting of the right of billetting soldiers, of coining money, and of
hearing and determining in cases of appeal. The decision is honorable
both to the independence of the court, and the vigor of the prelate.--In
times nearer to our own, a bishop of Lisieux, Jean Hennuyer, obtained a
very different distinction. Authors are strangely at variance whether
this prelate is to be regarded as the protector or the persecutor of the
protestants. All agree that his church suffered materially from the
excesses of the Huguenots, in 1562, and that, on the following year, he
received public thanks from the Cardinal of Bourbon, for the firmness
with which he had opposed them; but the point at issue is, whether,
after the massacre of St. Bartholomew, ten years subsequently, he
withstood the sanguinary orders from the court to put the Huguenots to
the sword, or whether he endeavored, as far as lay in his power, to
forward the pious labor of extirpating the heretics, but was himself
effectually resisted by the king's own lieutenant.--Sammarthanus tells
us that the first of these traditions rests solely upon the authority
of Anthony Mallet[65] but it obtained general credence till within the
last three years, when a very well-informed writer, in the _Mercure de
France_, and subsequently in the article _Hennuyer_ in the
_Bibliographie Universelle_, espoused, and has apparently established,
the opposite opinion.
We visited only one other of the churches in Lisieux, that of St.
Jacques, a large edifice, in a bad style of pointed architecture, and
full of gaudy altars and ordinary pictures. On the outside of the stalls
of the choir towards the north is some curious carving; but I should
scarcely have been induced to have spoken of the building, were it not
for one of the paintings, which, however uninteresting as a piece of
art, appears to possess some historical value. It represents how the
bones of St. Ursinus were miraculously translated to Lisieux, under the
auspices of Hugh the Bishop, in 1055; and it professes, and apparently
with truth, to be a copy, made in the seventeenth century, from an
original of great antiquity. The legend relating to the relics of this
saint, is noticed by no author with whom I am acquainted, nor do I find
him mentioned any where in conjunction with the church of Lisieux, or
with any other Norman diocese.--But the extraordinary privilege granted
to the canons of the cathedral, of being Earls of Lisieux, and of
exercising all civil and criminal jurisdiction within the earldom, upon
the vigil and feast-day of St. Ursinus, in every year, is most probably
connected with the tradition commemorated by the picture. The actual
existence of the privilege, in modern times, we learn from Ducarel; who
also details at length the curious ceremonies with which the claim of it
was accompanied. The exercise of these rights was confirmed by a compact
between the canons and the bishop, who, prior to the revolution, united
the secular coronet of an earl with the episcopal mitre, and bore
supreme sway in all civil and ecclesiastical polity, during the
remaining three hundred and sixty-three days in the year.
* * * * *
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 61: This ordinance is preserved by Du Monstier in the
_Neustria Pia_, p. 400.]
[Footnote 62: The preamble of the charter is as follows:--"Nulli dubium
videri debet futuros esse haeredes Regni coelestis, et cohaeredes Dei,
qui Christum haeredem sui facientes, eorum, quæ in hujus vitae
peregrinatione, quasi a quadam paterna haereditate possident, locis ea
Divino cultui deditis mancipare non dubitant. Ad quam rem, nostram
firmat fidem calix aquæ frigidae, qui, juxta Evangelicum verbum, suo
pollet munere. Non ergò divini muneris gratia privari credendi sunt, qui
Ecclesiasticis obsequiis, etsi officio non intersunt, rerum tamen suarum
admistratione, Divini officii sustentant ministros: ea spe temporalem
subministrantes alimoniam, ut sic solummodò coelestibus reddant
intentos, qui coelestis Regis assiduo constituuntur invigilare obsequio,
participes fiant ejusmodi beneficii omnimodò."--_Neustria Pia_, p. 398.]
[Footnote 63: The following are the dimensions of the building, in
English feet:--
LENGTH. WIDTH.
Nave 54 15
Choir 45 15
North aisle 7
South ditto 15
]
[Footnote 64: _Anglo-Norman Antiquities_, p. 47.]
[Footnote 65: "Sed ne quid omittam eorum etiam quæ unum Antonium
_Mallet_ habent auctorem, anno 1572, cum prorex urbis Lexoviensis
Livarotus a Carolo rege literas accepisset, quibus qui Lexovii infecti
erant hæresi occidi omnes jubebantur per eos dies quibus princeps
civitas cruore ejus insaniæ hominum commaduerat, easque communicasset
episcopo: Neque sum passurus, inquit præsul, oves meas, et quamquam
evagatas Christi caula, meas tamen adhuc, necdum desperatas, gladio
trucidari. Referente contra prorege imperio se mandatoque urgeri
principis; quod si posthabeatur, omnem esse periculi aleam in caput suum
moriendique necessitatem redituram: Et polliceor, inquit episcopus, illa
te eximendum, postulantique cautionem, præsul consignatum manu sua
scriptum tradidit, fidem datam confirmans. Qua illico publicata
clementia, et ad errantes oves perlata, sollicitudine præsulis
vigilantis circa gregis commissi sibi salutem et conservationem, rediere
sensim in ecclesiæ sinum omnes quotquot Lexovii per ea tempora novum
istud fataleque delirium dementarat, nec ultra ibidem diu visi qui a
recta fide aberrarent."--_Gallia Christiana_, p. 802.]
LETTER XXII.
SITE AND RUINS OF THE CAPITAL OF THE LEXOVII--HISTORY OF
LISIEUX--MONASTERIES OF THE DIOCESE--ORDERICUS VITALIS--M.
DUBOIS--LETTER FROM THE PRINCESS BORGHESE.
(_Lisieux, July_, 1818.)
Lisieux represents one of the most ancient capitals of the primitive
tribes of Gaul. The Lexovii, noticed by Julius Cæsar, in his
_Commentaries_, and by other authors, who were almost contemporary with
the Roman conqueror, are supposed by modern geographers to have occupied
a territory nearly co-extensive with the bishopric of Lisieux; and it
may be remarked, that the bounds of the ancient bishoprics of France
were usually conterminal with the Roman provinces and prefectures.
The capital of the Lexovii was called the _Neomagus_ or _Noviomagus
Lexoviorum_; and no doubt ever was entertained but that the present city
occupied the same site, till an accidental discovery, in the year 1770,
proved the contrary to be the fact.--About that time a _chaussée_ was
formed between Lisieux and Caen; and, in the course of some excavations,
which were made under the direction of M. Hubert, the superintending
engineer, for the purpose of procuring stone, the laborers opened the
foundations of some ruined buildings scattered over a field, called _les
Tourettes_, about three-quarters of a mile from the former town. The
character of these foundations was of a nature to excite curiosity: they
were clearly the work of a remote age, and various specimens of ancient
art were dug up amongst the ruins. The extent of the foundations, which
spread over a space four times as large as the plot occupied by modern
Lisieux left no doubt but that Danville, and all other geographers, must
have been mistaken with respect to the position assigned by them to the
ancient Neomagus. M. Hubert drew a plan of the ruins, and accompanied it
with an historical memoir; but unfortunately he was a man little capable
of prosecuting such researches; and though M. Mongez, in his report to
the National Institute[66], eulogized the map as exact, and the memoir
as excellent, they were both of them extremely faulty. It was reserved
for M. Louis Dubois, of whom I shall have occasion to speak again before
I close this letter, to repair the omissions and rectify the mistakes of
M. Hubert, and he has done it with unremitting zeal and extraordinary
success. The researches of this gentleman, among the remains of Neomagus
Lexoviorum, have already brought to light a large number of valuable
medals, both in silver and bronze, as well as a considerable quantity of
fragments of foreign marble, granite, and porphyry, some of them
curiously wrought. The most important of his discoveries has been
recently made: it is that of a Roman amphitheatre, in a state of great
perfection, the grades being covered only by a thin layer of soil, which
a trifling expence of time and labor will effectually remove.
Such vestiges prove that Neomagus must have been a place of importance;
and, like the other Gallo-Roman cities, it would probably have
maintained its honors under the Franks; but about the middle of the
fourth century, the Saxons, swarming from the mouths of the Elbe and
Weser, laid waste the coasts of Belgium and of Neustria, and finally
established themselves in that portion of northern Gaul called the
_Secunda Lugdunensis_, which thence obtained, in the _Notitia Imperii_,
the title of the _Littus Saxonicum_.--In the course of these incursions,
it is supposed that Neomagus was utterly destroyed by the invaders. None
of the medals dug up within the precincts of the town, or in its
neighborhood, bear a later date than the reign of Constantine; and,
though the city is recorded in the _Itinerary of Antoninus_, no mention
of it is to be found in the curious chart, known by the name of the
_Tabula Peutingeriana_, formed under the reign of Theodosius the Great;
so that it then appears to have been completely swept away and
forgotten.
The new town of Lisieux and the bishopric most probably arose together,
towards the close of the sixth century; and the city, like other
provincial capitals in Gaul, took the name of the tribe by whom the
district had been peopled. It first appears in history under the
appellation of _Lexovium_ or _Lexobium_: in the eleventh century, when
Ordericus Vitalis composed his history, it was called _Luxovium_; and
soon after it became _Lixovium_, and _Lizovium_, which, gallicised,
naturally passed into _Lyzieulx_, or, as it is now written, _Lisieux_.
The city was ravaged by the Normans about the year 877, in the course of
one of their predatory excursions from Bayeux: it again felt their
vengeance early in the following century, when Rollo, after taking
Bayeux by storm, sacked Lisieux at the head of his army on his way to
Rouen. The conqueror was not put in possession of the Lexovian territory
by Charles the Simple till 923, eleven years after the rest of Neustria
had been ceded to him.
United to the duchy, Lisieux enjoyed a short respite from the calamities
of war; nor does it appear to have borne any prominent part in the
transactions of the times. The name, indeed, of the city occurs as the
seat of the council held for the purpose of degrading Malgerius from the
primacy of Normandy; but, except on this occasion, Lisieux is scarcely
mentioned till the first year of the twelfth century, when it was the
seat of rebellion. Ralph Flambart, bishop of Durham, a prelate of
unbounded arrogance, had fled from England, and joined Duke Robert, then
in arms against his brother. Raising the standard of insurrection, he
fixed himself at Lisieux, took forcible possession of the town, and
invested his son, only twelve years old, with the mitre[67], while he
himself exercised despotic authority over the inhabitants. At length, he
purchased peace and forgiveness, by opening the gates to his lawful
sovereign, after the battle of Tinchbray.--In the middle of October, in
the same year, Henry returned to Lisieux, and there held an assembly of
the Norman nobility and prelates, who proclaimed peace throughout the
duchy, enacted sundry strict regulations to prevent any infringement of
the laws, and decreed that Robert, the captive duke, should be consigned
to an English prison.--Two years subsequently, another council was also
assembled at Lisieux, by the same sovereign, and for nearly the same
objects; and again, in 1119, Henry convened his nobles a third time at
Lisieux, when this parliament ratified the peace concluded at Gisors,
six years previously, and witnessed the marriage[68] of the king's son,
William Adelin, with Matilda, daughter of Fulk, earl of Anjou.
Historical distinction is seldom enviable:--in the wars occasioned by
the usurpation of Stephen, Lisieux once more obtained an unfortunate
celebrity. The town was attacked in 1136, by the forces of Anjou, under
the command of Geoffrey Plantagenet, husband of the Empress Maud, joined
by those of William, Duke of Poitiers; and the garrison, consisting of
Bretons, seeing no hope of effectual resistance or of rescue, set fire
to the place to the extreme mortification of the invaders, who, in the
language of the chronicles of the times, "when they beheld the city and
all its wealth a prey to the flames, waxed exceedingly wroth, at being
deprived of the spoil; and grieved sorely for the loss of the booty
which perished in the conflagration."--The town, however, was not so
effectually ruined, but that, during the following year, it served King
Stephen as a rallying point, at which to collect his army to march
against his antagonist.--In 1169, it was distinguished by being selected
by Thomas à Becket, as the place of his retirement during his temporary
disgrace.
History from this time forward relates but little concerning Lisieux.
Though surrounded with walls during the bishopric of John, who was
promoted to the see early in the twelfth century, the situation of the
town, far from the coast or from the frontiers of the province, rendered
the inhabitants naturally unwarlike, and caused them in general to
submit quietly to the stronger party.--Brito, in his _Philippiad_, says
that, when Philip Augustus took Lisieux, in 1213, the Lexovians,
destitute of fountains, disputed with the toads for the water of the
muddy ditches. His mentioning such a fact is curious, as shewing that
public fountains were at that early period of frequent occurrence in
Normandy.--Our countrymen, in the fifteenth century, acted with great
rigor, to use the mildest terms, towards Lisieux. Henry, after landing
at Touques, in 1417, entered the town, in the character of an enraged
enemy, not as the sovereign of his people: he gave it up to plunder; and
even the public archives were not spared. The cruelty of our English
king is strongly contrasted by the conduct of the Count de Danois,
general of the army of Charles VIIth, to whom the town capitulated in
1449. Thomas Basin, then bishop, negociated with such ability, that,
according to Monstrelet, "not the slightest damage was done to any
individual, but each peaceably enjoyed his property as before the
surrender."