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THE CHURCHES OF PARIS
[Illustration: NOTRE-DAME FROM THE QUAI DE BERCY.]
THE
CHURCHES OF PARIS
FROM CLOVIS TO CHARLES X
BY
S. SOPHIA BEALE
_Author of "A complete and Concise Handbook to the Museum of the
Louvre" etc_
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE AUTHOR FROM ORIGINAL SKETCHES
PHOTOGRAPHS AND ENGRAVINGS
LONDON
W. H. ALLEN & CO LIMITED
13 WATERLOO PLACE SW
1893
_All rights reserved_
WYMAN AND SONS, LTD., PRINTERS, LONDON AND REDHILL.
DEDICATED
TO ONE
WHOSE HELP WAS INVALUABLE
BUT WHO IS NOW
TO US
ONLY A MEMORY
[Illustration]
"La nef vagant dessus la mer galicque
Porte dedens soy richesse inestimable
Justice y est pour patron magnificque
Raison y sert de Lieutenant notable,
Gens de scauoir par oeuure treslouable
Sont galliotz qui lamenent a port,
Marchans y ont tresasseure support.
Prebstres, Bourgeois, nobles, Clercz et gen-darmes.
Icelle nef de se'fertile apport,
Cest de Paris le beau blazon des armes."
PREFACE.
In a book of this kind, it is difficult to prevent oneself becoming a
guide, more or less complete. Dates and facts, architectural details and
descriptions, all savour of the handbook; but having determined to keep
to the historical and archaeological, rather than the architectural side
of the churches, I have tried to rake up quaint and legendary lore, and
so add to the interest of an ordinary guide book. I would also pray my
readers to bear in mind that, as the work is not intended to be an
architectural treatise, I have simply walked in the paths of
Viollet-le-Duc and Guilhermy, whenever I have been compelled to describe
the technical details of the churches.
My thanks are due to the Editor of the _American Architect_, for his
courtesy in allowing me to build these ecclesiastical monographs upon
the foundation of some articles which have appeared from time to time in
a condensed form in the Boston (U. S. A.) paper; and also to the Editor
of the _Magazine of Art_, for a similar kindness.
I should also like to acknowledge my indebtedness to the following
authors and their works:
"Histoire de la Sainte-Chapelle." Morand.
"Histoire de Saint-Denis." Dom Millet.
"Histoire de Saint-Eustache." L'abbé Koenig.
"Inscriptions du Diocèse de Paris." F. de Guilhermy.
"Itinéraire Archéologique de Paris." F. de Guilhermy.
"l'Église Saint Julien-le-Pauvre." A. Le Brun.
"Monographie de l'Église Royale de Saint-Denis." F. de Guilhermy.
"Sacred and Legendary Art." Anna Jameson.
"The Early British Church." J. Yeowell.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
SAINT-ANTOINE DES QUINZE-VINGTS 1
LES CARMES DÉCHAUSSÉES 1
LA SAINTE-CHAPELLE 2
SAINT-DENIS 30
SAINTE-ELIZABETH 100
SAINT-ÉTIENNE DU MONT 100
SAINT-EUSTACHE 116
SAINT-FRANÇOIS XAVIER 158
SAINTE-GENEVIÈVE 158
SAINT-GERMAIN L'AUXERROIS 177
CHAPELLE DU CHÂTEAU DE SAINT-GERMAIN-EN-LAYE 189
SAINT-GERMAIN DES PRÉS 190
SAINT-GERVAIS 209
LA TOUR SAINT-JACQUES 213
SAINT-JACQUES DU HAUT-PAS 215
SAINT-JEAN-SAINT-FRANÇOIS 215
SAINT-JULIEN-LE-PAUVRE 215
SAINT-LAURENT 232
SAINT-LEU-SAINT-GILLES 235
SAINT-LOUIS D'ANTIN 237
SAINT-LOUIS EN L'ILE 237
SAINT-LOUIS DES INVALIDES 237
SAINTE-MADELEINE 239
SAINTE-MARGUERITE 243
SAINT-MARTIN DES CHAMPS 244
SAINT-MÉDARD 248
SAINT-MERRI 251
SAINT-NICOLAS DES CHAMPS 256
SAINT-NICOLAS DU CHARDONNET 259
NOTRE-DAME (CATHÉDRALE) 260
NOTRE-DAME DE L'ASSOMPTION 299
NOTRE-DAME DE L'ABBAYE AUX BOIS 300
NOTRE-DAME DES BLANCS-MANTEAUX 300
NOTRE-DAME DES CHAMPS 301
NOTRE-DAME DE LORETTE 302
NOTRE-DAME DES VICTOIRES 303
L'ORATOIRE 303
SAINT-PAUL-SAINT-LOUIS 304
SAINT-PHILIPPE DU ROULE 305
SAINT-PIERRE DE CHAILLOT 306
SAINT-PIERRE DE MONTMARTRE 306
SAINT-ROCH 307
SAINT-SÉVERIN 310
LA SORBONNE 319
SAINT-SULPICE 321
SAINT-THOMAS D'AQUIN 326
L'ANCIEN ABBAYE DU VAL-DE-GRÂCE 326
LA CHAPELLE DU CHÂTEAU DE VERSAILLES 328
LA CHAPELLE DU CHÂTEAU DE VINCENNES 329
SAINT-VINCENT DE PAUL 331
THE CHURCHES OF PARIS.
SAINT-ANTOINE DES QUINZE-VINGTS.
Saint Louis, always careful in helping his suffering subjects, founded
this hospital for the blind in 1260, upon a piece of ground abutting on
the Louvre, now traversed by the Rue de Rivoli. In 1780 the hospital was
transferred to the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, and took up its abode in the
old dwelling place of the Black Musketeers, whose chapel also served as
a parish church. It is a little building of no beauty nor interest,
although a few inscriptions relating to pious foundations still remain
in the chapel, the oldest being dated 1481. One of these tells us of the
institution, in 1667, of a somewhat early Mass by one Marie Lambert,
maid to the queen mother. It was to be said at 4 a.m. in order that the
poor blind people should be able to sally forth a-begging (_d'aller à la
quête_) fortified with the Bread of Life.
LES CARMES DÉCHAUSSÉES
The old church of the barefooted Carmelites in the Rue de Vaugirard was
commenced in 1613, and dedicated to S. Joseph in 1625. It is now served
by the Dominicans. The crypt is the only interesting part of the church,
and is a curiosity, as it contains innumerable bones piled up on every
side, the remains of the ghastly September massacres of 1792. The
frescoes painted by a Liège artist, Bartholet Flamaël, are very much
esteemed. Some of the chapels are richly decorated in the gaudy style of
the 17th century. The altar is embellished by a 14th century bas-relief
in marble representing the Last Supper. A few epitaphs still remain:
that of Cardinal de Beausset, the historian of Fénelon and Bossuet; one
of Cardinal de la Luzerne; and a marble, covering the heart of
Archbishop Affre, who was shot on a barricade in 1848, while
endeavouring to make peace with the insurgents.
LA SAINTE-CHAPELLE.
The origin and foundation of this most lovely example of mediæval art is
so much a part of S. Louis' life that it may not be out of place to give
some account of the Saint's character and habits before proceeding to
describe the history of the chapel.
[Illustration: THE SAINTE-CHAPELLE FROM THE PONT SAINT-MICHEL.]
Louis IX. was pious and practical, and inconvenienced his courtiers as
much by his punctuality and the assiduity with which he conducted his
business, as by his religious duties. These he considered a part of his
daily work, hearing all the canonical offices with the same regularity
as he attended to the grievances of his subjects. Often, like our own
George Herbert, was he found prostrate before the altar wrapped in
prayer. Even Gibbon allowed that he united the virtues of a king, a
hero, and a man--he might have added those of a just judge and a
lawgiver; and Voltaire sums up his character as follows: "Il n'est guère
donné à l'homme de pousser la vertu plus loin." When his more worldly
friends cavilled at his austerities, he made his case good by retorting:
"Si je passais deux fois autant de temps à jouer, ou à courir les bois,
pour m'occuper de la chasse, personne n'en parleroit." As in the case of
nearly all exceptionally good men, he probably owed everything to the
extreme care that his mother had bestowed upon his education--a care
which he repaid by a life-long devotion to her memory. Of good Queen
Blanche's character we get a glimpse in the following touching anecdote.
It is related that one day at Court, the Queen noticed a beautiful youth
with long, fair hair, and asking his name, was answered, "Prince Herman,
the son of the sainted Elizabeth of Hungary." On hearing this, Queen
Blanche rose from her seat, and, gazing at the boy, said to him, "Fair
youth, thou hadst a blessed mother; where did she kiss thee?" Whereat
Herman, blushing, placed his finger on his forehead between his eyes,
and the Queen, reverently pressing her lips upon the spot, looked up to
Heaven and breathed the invocation: _Sancta Elisabetha, Patrona nostra
dulcissima, ora pro nobis._ That a mother so imbued with admiration for
the sainted Elizabeth should have a son who walked in the Hungarian
queen's steps, is not very remarkable in those ages of faith. S. Louis'
faith was simple, loving, and inextinguishable; and so it came about
that when he heard of the Emperor Baldwin II.'s financial difficulties,
he decided to purchase the relics which had been given more than once,
it is said, as pledges for temporary loans. The Emperor's letter upon
the subject would lead one to suppose that it was an act of generosity
to _faire passer_ the relics to S. Louis; but we know that the King paid
very handsomely for them. "Je désire," said the emperor, "ardemment de
vous faire passer cette précieuse relique à vous, mon cousin, mon
seigneur, et mon bienfaiteur, et au royaume de France ma patrie." Other
purchasers seem to have been in the field; for S. Louis only obtained,
at that time, the Crown of Thorns and some portion of the True Cross.
One of his rivals was our Henry III., who in 1247 summoned all his
nobles to London to witness the reception of some of the Holy Blood
which had been brought from the East in a crystal vase, by one of the
Knights Templars. It was sent by the Master of the Templars and
Hospitallers, its genuineness being attested by the Patriarch of
Jerusalem and the abbots of the Holy Land. On the 13th October, being
the feast of S. Edward the Confessor, the King, after prayer and
fasting, carried the reliquary from S. Paul's to Westminster, where it
was deposited in the Abbey church. The Bishop of Norwich preached, and
celebrated mass; and in his sermon took pains to impress upon his
hearers that the Holy Blood was more precious even than the True Cross
possessed by the King of France--an argument which points to one of the
causes of rivalry between the nations during the Middle Ages. Naturally
the assembled prelates accorded indulgences to the faithful who should
visit the shrine; but this much coveted privilege seems to have caused
certain murmurings among some of the assistants; they objected that,
whereas our Lord had ascended into Heaven in the body, He could not have
left His blood upon the earth. But Robert Grossetête, Bishop of Lincoln,
was equal to the occasion, and replied, that Joseph of Arimathea, having
saved it from the precious wounds, more especially from the one in His
side, had given some of it to Nicodemus, and thus it had been treasured
up, and had passed from father to son, until it came into the possession
of the Patriarch Robert of Jerusalem. These disputes seem to have been
pretty common in those days, in spite of the unquestioning faith of the
multitude. In 1357 we read of a squabble which took place between the
Dominicans and the Franciscans, one François Baïle of Barcelona
affirming that the blood being separated from the Divinity of our Lord
was therefore not adorable. Often, indeed, these wranglings became so
violent that the Popes were obliged to interfere in order to settle the
matter.
The bringing home of the relics reads like a royal pageant. They were
carried to Venice by the "Députés de Saint Louis et les ambassadeurs de
l'Empire, accompagnés des plus nobles d'entre les Vénitiens. Le convoi
mit à la voile dans le tems de Noël, saison où la mer est le plus
orageuse. La confidence des Députés éleva leur ame au dessus de la
crainte des périls, et elle fut justifiée; ils arrivèrent à Venise sans
avoir essuyé de tempêtes. Vatace, Empereur Grec, avait détaché plusieurs
galères qui croisoient aux différens détroits où les François devoient
passer, pour leur enlever ce précieux butin. Sa vigilance fut trompée;
Dieu veilloit sur eux."[1]
"Arrivée à Venise la Relique fut mise en dépôt dans le Trésor de la
Chapelle de Saint-Marc. Le roi instruit du succès de la négociation de
ses députés, envoya, ainsi que Baudouin, des Ambassadeurs avec l'argent
nécessaire pour se l'approprier. De leur côté les Marchands François
établis à Venise, plus riches encore des dons de la foi qu'avantagés de
la fortune, ouvrirent leur bourse pour payer la somme stipulée. Les
Vénitiens auroient bien desiré garder cette Relique, mais retenus par la
foi du traité ils la restituèrent quoique à regret."
"Les Ambassadeurs après avoir reconnu les sceaux se mirent en route, et
quoique la saison fût pluvieuse ils n'essuyèrent pas une goutte d'eau.
Arrivés en Champagne, le Roi partit aussi-tôt pour les joindre. Il étoit
accompagné de la Reine, de ses Frères, de l'Archevêque de Sens, de
l'Evêque du Puy, et des Seigneurs les plus distingués de sa cour. II
rencontra la Relique près de Sens; elle étoit enfermée dans une triple
cassette. La première étoit de bois. On l'ouvrit, et on vérifia les
sceaux des seigneurs François et du Duc de Venise apposés sur la
cassette d'argent dans laquelle se trouva un vase d'or, contenant la
Ste.-Couronne. L'ayant découverte on la fit voir à tous les Assistans,
qui fondirent en larmes s'imaginant voir réellement Jésus Christ
couronné d'épines. Puis le Roi mit son scelle sur la cassette. Tant de
précautions écartent assurément tout soupçon d'infidélité."
"Le lendemain la Relique fut portée à Sens dont on avoit tendu toutes
les rues. A l'entrée de la Ville, le Roi et le Comte d'Artois, l'aîné de
ses Frères, la portèrent sur leurs epaules, les pieds nuds. Le Clergé
alla au-devant, et les principaux Seigneurs chargés à leur tour de ce
fardeau honorable la placèrent dans l'Eglise Métropolitaine de
Saint-Etienne. On se mit ensuite en route pour Paris, où la réception de
la Relique se fit avec la plus grande solennité. Tout le Clergé régulier
et séculier fut convoqué à cette cérémonie. Les Religieux de Saint-Denis
dès la pointe du jour se rendirent à l'endroit qui avoit été indiqué
hors de Paris du côté de Vincennes; tous ceux qui assistèrent à cette
Procession marchèrent nuds pieds. On avoit dressé un magnifique reposoir
près de l'Abbaye Saint-Antoine, où la Châsse fut exposée aux yeux du
peuple. Guillaume, Chantre de Saint-Denis, entonna tout ce qui fut
chanté pendant la marche et l'Abbé eut place à la droite de l'Autel,
avec les Archevêques, Evêques et les autres Abbés, tous en habits
pontificaux. Enfin le 18e jour d'Août la Relique arriva, et fut
placée au Palais dans la Chapelle de Saint-Nicolas."[2]
[Illustration]
A medal was struck to commemorate this event, with the legend: HÆC REGIS
REGUM TOTO PRETIOSIOR AURO, and S. Louis kneeling before an altar upon
which is the crown of thorns. As to the particular tree of which the
crown was composed, there was much difference of opinion. Clement of
Alexandria calls it _ex rubo_, a sort of thicket; other writers a
different sort of shrub or bush, called _nerprun_, or wild plum; and
others, the white thorn.
The antiphon used every day in the offices of the Sainte-Chapelle began:
_Ecce Crux et Corona Spinea Arnia Regis Gloriae tibi commendantur_; and
the seal consisted of a cross with the crown of thorns intersecting it,
and on each side a _fleur-de-lys_, with the King's crown at the top.
Having acquired the holy relics, it was most seemly that a shrine should
be constructed wherein they should rest--a shrine worthy the sanctity of
such treasures. And so S. Louis commissioned his architect, Pierre de
Montereau, to build him a chapel which should be a marvel of lightness
and colour, embellished with windows which should glitter like precious
stones, and containing a _châsse_, resplendent with enamels, and gold
and silver--a shrine, as it were, within a shrine. That the architect
was worthy the confidence of his royal master, the chapel testifies to
this day, and Maître Pierre's immortal work remains the most perfect
example of 13th century architecture in France; one might say, the most
exquisite architectural gem which the world has yet seen, or is ever
likely to see.
Pierre de Montereau, or Montreau, as it is sometimes written, lived
eighteen years after the completion of his _chef-d'oeuvre_, and
doubtless assisted at some of the splendid ceremonies held in it. He
died March 17th, 1266, and was buried in the chapel of the Virgin
belonging to the religious of S. Germain des Près, where a splendid
monument was erected to his memory. Some of the finest of the buildings
attached to the monastery were his work, and up to the last century a
stone was to be seen over his burial-place, upon which he was
represented with a rule and compass in his hands. His epitaph gives him
the titles of _fleur pleine de bonnes moeurs_, and of _docteur des
architectes_:
FLOS PLENUS MORUM, VIVENS DOCTOR LATO MORUM,
MUSTEROLO NATUS JACET HIC PETRUS TUMULATUS
QUEM REX COELORUM PERDUCAT IN ALTA POLORUM
CHRISTE MILLENO, BIS CENTENO DUODENO
CUM QUINQUAGENO QUARTO DECESSIT IN ANNO.
Another stone recorded the name of his wife Agnes, and on that he is
termed, in old French, mestre Pierre de Montereul. The chapel has
disappeared, and with it all trace of the tombs; but one at Reims,
erected in honour of Hugues Libergier, architect of the celebrated abbey
church of S. Nicaise, who died in 1263, gives some idea of what those of
Pierre de Montereau and his wife must have been.
The first stone of the church was laid by S. Louis in 1245, and three
years later, on the Sunday after Easter, _Quasimodo_, 25th April, 1248,
it was consecrated by the Pope's legate, Eudes de Châteauroux, Bishop of
Tusculum, as the Chapel of the Holy Cross and the Holy Crown. On the
same day, Philippe Berruyer, Archbishop of Bourges, celebrated the like
ceremony in the lower church, putting it under the patronage of the
Blessed Virgin. It seems strange that Joinville should not speak of this
event, and yet it must have been an imposing sight; but he does not once
mention the Sainte-Chapelle in his life of S. Louis. Perhaps this may be
accounted for by what he thus relates: "At Easter-tide, in the year of
grace 1248, I summoned my vassals and retainers to Joinville, and on the
Easter-eve ... was born John, my son, Sire d'Ancarville.... We had
feasting and dancing all that week, in the course of which my brother,
the Sire de Vancouleurs and other rich persons who were there, gave
banquets one after the other on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and
Thursday." And then he goes on to say that he went to Metz on business
before he started for the Holy Land; therefore we may suppose that
private affairs kept him away from Paris, and that not being present
himself at the consecration, he did not consider it necessary to give an
account of the ceremony.
Two charters dated Paris, 1245, and Aigues-Mortes, 1248, respectively
give the terms of the endowment by the king. The number of ecclesiastics
who first formed the college was fixed at twenty-one; five principal
priests or _maîtres chapelains_, each having an assistant chaplain (a
priest), and a deacon, and three beadles who had as many clerks under
them. The number was modified from time to time, during five centuries,
and latterly it consisted of a treasurer, twelve canons, and nineteen
chaplains. The office of treasurer was generally filled by some
important personage, and he had the privilege of wearing the mitre and
other insignia of the episcopate, and of giving the Benediction upon
great festivals; but he was not allowed to bear the crozier.
[Illustration]
The most important event of the 13th century connected with the
Sainte-Chapelle was the translation of some of S. Louis' bones from S.
Denis, in which church they had been laid twenty-seven years previously
upon their arrival from Tunis, where the king had died of fever on the
25th August, 1270. Feeling his last moments to have arrived, he caused
his body to be placed upon a bed of ashes, and wearing the habit of the
third order of S. Francis, his noble spirit passed away. He was
embalmed, according to the fashion of the day; or rather, his bones were
relieved of their outer casements, by boiling in wine and water; other
parts of his body, which it is unnecessary to specify, being given by
his son to the King of Sicily, who placed them in the church of
Monreale, Palermo. The young Comte de Nevers had died just before S.
Louis; and Alfonso de Brienne, Comte d'Eu, son of John de Brienne, King
of Jerusalem, and the Chevalier Pierre, the King's chamberlain, had also
succumbed to the unhealthy climate. The funeral procession set out, and
wended its way towards France under the care of S. Louis' son, Philippe
le Hardi. Arriving at Paris, the bodies were placed temporarily in
Notre-Dame on the 21st of May; and the next day, amidst a large
concourse of people, the procession, consisting of clergy, and
religious, started early for S. Denis, Philippe, reverently bearing his
father's bones, walking like the rest. Up through the city they went,
singing and chanting, and taking much the same route as had been
traversed by S. Denis and his companions, after their martyrdom, as
recorded by the old chroniclers. In an engraving by Boulogne a long
procession of monks and knights is seen issuing from the abbey to meet
another coming from Paris, the king and bishops being dressed in that
peculiar high wind-blown drapery common to pictorial art in the 17th and
18th centuries. S. Louis' bones were placed in a stone coffin and
buried in front of the altar of the Holy Trinity, near the resting place
of the bodies of Louis VIII. and Philippe Auguste. Philippe le Hardi's
wife, Isabelle, and Tristan, Comte de Nevers, were placed on the right;
the chevalier Pierre, who, as chamberlain, had the privilege of sleeping
in the King's chamber, was laid at his feet. In 1292, Henri de
Luxembourg caused the relics to be placed in a silver shrine and
conveyed to the Sainte-Chapelle by the Archbishops of Reims and Lyon;
but after some days they were returned to S. Denis, and it was not until
1306 that Philippe le Bel succeeded in his desire of placing the remains
of his grandfather in the chapel which was so dear to him, that he felt
a _malaise_ each time he heard the divine offices elsewhere. The Bull of
canonization was promulgated by Pope Boniface VIII. in 1297, and the
translation of the king's skull followed nine years later, accompanied
by all the picturesque pomp of the 14th century. The reliquary was in
the form of a gold bust of natural size, enriched with precious stones,
and supported by Angels upon a pedestal which rested upon four
silver-gilt lions. The crown and the collar of the vestment were
decorated with rubies, pearls, emeralds, and sapphires; and around the
socle were representations of the twenty-nine kings of France, and a
Latin inscription giving the date of the work, and the name of the
smith, Master Guillaume Juliani. Such was the _châsse_ which enclosed
the principal relic of S. Louis: "Afin que la présence du Chef de ce
grand roi, qui pendant sa vie avait eu la justice en singulière
recommandation, animat les Juges de ce Parlement à maintenir les loix,
protéger les gens du bien, rendre la justice à ses sujets sans exception
de personne."[3]
L'an mil et trois cens et six ans,
Ot à Paris joie nouvele,
Car li rois mit en sa chapele,
Que S. Loys fist tele faire
Qu'a tout le monde devroit plaire,
Le chief de lui si richement
Et si très-honorablement,
Que par raison de la bel euvre
Que li dons saintuaire queuvre
Le vessel où l'en la mis prisent
Toutes personnes qui l'avisent. (GUIL. GUIART.)
On the 15th May, 1843, an interesting discovery was made in the chapel.
Some workmen, in removing a stone of the pavement of the apse,
discovered a tin box containing the remains of a heart, and a
_procès-verbal_, stating that it had been previously found on the 21st
January, 1803. Although the position of the box (the centre of the apse)
indicated that it had belonged to some distinguished person, yet there
was no clue to its owner, neither inscription, nor name, nor date. The
box, it is true, was in the style of the 13th century; but it seemed
doubtful, that, had the heart been S. Louis', such an important relic
should have been lost sight of, and no record of it given by the
Benedictines at S. Denis in their inventory of the treasures which they
had received from the Sainte-Chapelle. The matter was referred to the
Academie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, and fully discussed; but
the members could arrive at no decision, and consequently the box was
replaced where it had been found.
While the kings resided in the old Cité, the most brilliant ceremonies
succeeded one another at the Sainte-Chapelle; it was, in fact, the
chapel belonging to the adjoining palace, now the Palais de Justice. The
Queens, Marie de Brabant, second wife of Philippe le Hardi; Marie de
Luxembourg, second wife of Charles le Bel; Jeanne d'Evreux, third wife
of the same Prince; and Isabelle de Bavière, wife of Charles VI., were
all crowned there. The marriage of the Emperor, Henri VII. and
Marguerite de Brabant, and the betrothal of Isabeau, eldest daughter of
Charles VI. with Richard II. of England, were also solemnised in the
chapel. There, in 1332, Philippe de Valois held a great assembly of
prelates and barons, to announce his project of another crusade against
the Infidels--a project which was never carried out. On the feast of the
Epiphany, 1378, King Charles V., the Emperor Charles IV., and his son
Wenceslas, King of the Romans, offered gold, frankincense and myrrh,
after the manner of the three holy Magi. Every time that the sovereigns
convoked an assemblage of the clergy in the palace, the prelates first
went to the chapel and asked the blessing of the Holy Spirit, while
prostrated before the relics. In 1483, when Louis XI. was lying ill at
Tours, he hoped to prolong his life by surrounding himself with the most
sacred relics of his kingdom--so reluctant was this _devôt_ to depart
from our wicked world. The Sainte Ampoule was brought by the religious
of S. Remi from Reims; the canons of the Sainte-Chapelle took the Cross
of Victory and the Rod of Moses out of their treasury, and a grand
procession of clergy and laity was formed on the 1st of August to carry
them from Paris to Plessis-les-Tours. But, alas! to no end; for on the
30th of the same month the poor creature finished his earthly career of
hypocrisy.
Boileau, in his _Lutrin_, gives an amusing account of an unseemly
squabble which took place between the canons of the chapel, and which
was in this wise. On a certain Sunday in 1667, one of the precentors
named Barrin found a huge lectern placed in front of his stall. He
protested against the intruder, and the other canons taking his part, it
was ordered to be removed. But here the treasurer stepped in with
objections, and a whole month was passed in discussions, orders, and
counter-orders; the dispute only being ended through the mediation of
the first president, Guillaume de Lamoignon, who decreed that the
precentor should remain imprisoned behind the lectern an entire morning,
until the end of the High Mass, the treasurer undertaking to remove the
offending piece of furniture before the hour of vespers.
It was the president who suggested this subject to the poet. Boileau had
remarked to M. de Lamoignon that an epic poem could be written upon the
most trivial incident, if only a poet had sufficient imagination to work
it out. "_Faites donc un poème sur le débat de la Sainte-Chapelle. Vous
pourrez l'intituler 'Le Lutrin enlevé,' ou 'La Conquête du Lutrin._"
"_Pourquoi non_," replied Boileau. "_Il ne faut jamais défier un fou; et
je le suis assez, non seulement pour entreprendre ce poème, mais encore
pour le dédier à Monsieur le premier president._"
The result of defying the "fool," who was withal a wit, is a series of
portraits in verse, of the canons, the singers, the precentor, and the
treasurer. The latter was not spared, as may be seen by the following
lines:--
"Dans le réduit obscur d'une alcove enfoncée,
S'élève un lit de plume à grands frais amassée.
Quatre rideaux pompeux, par un double contour,
En défendent l'entrée à la clarté du jour.
Là, parmi les douceurs d'un tranquille silence,
Règne sur le duvet une heureuse indolence.
C'est là que le prélat, muni d'un déjeuner,
Dormant d'un léger sommeil, attendait le dîner.
La jeunesse en sa fleur brille sur son visage;
Son menton sur son sein descend à double étage,
Et son corps, ramassé dans sa courte grosseur,
Fait gémir les coussins sous sa molle épaisseur."
The canons are touched off with an equal vivacity; all their failings
and follies, their idleness and their gluttony, brought into the pure
light of day:
"Parmi les doux plaisirs d'une paix fraternelle,
Paris voyait fleurir son antique chapelle;
Ses chanoines vermeils et brillants de santé
S'engraissaient d'une longue et sainte oisiveté;
Sans sortir de leurs lits, plus doux que leurs hermines,
Ces pieux fainéants faisaient chanter matines,
Veillaient à bien diner, et laissaient en leur lieu
A des chantres gagés le soin de leur Dieu."
And then the "machine" itself, the offending _lutrin_, is described:
"Aussitôt dans le choeur la machine emportée,
Est sur le banc du chantre à grand bruit remontée,
Ses ais demi-pourris, que l'âge a relâchés,
Sont à coups de maillet unis et rapprochés;
Sous les coups redoublés tous les bancs retentissent
Les murs en sont émus, les voûtes en mugissent,
Et l'orgue même en pousse un long gemissement."
The dream of the _Chantre_, perhaps the indirect cause of all the
trouble, in making the man cantankerous, and extra liable to be rubbed
up the wrong way, is no less worth quoting:
"Les cloches dans les airs, de leurs voix argentines,
Appelaient à grand bruit les chantres à matines,
Quand leur chef, agité d'un sommeil effrayant,
Encor tout en sueur, se réveille en criant:
'Pour la seconde fois (dit-il) un sommeil gracieux
Avait sous ses pavots appesenti mes yeux;
Quand, l'esprit agité d'une douce fumée,
J'ai cru remplir au choeur ma place accoutumée.
Là, triomphant aux yeux des chantres impuissants,
Je bénissais le peuple, et j'avalais l'encens:
Lorsque, du fond caché de notre sacristie,
Une épaisse nuée à grands flots est sortie,
Que s'ouvrant à mes yeux, dans son bleuâtre éclat
M'a fait voir un serpent conduit par le prélat.
Du corps de ce dragon plein de soufre et de nitre,
Une tête sortait en forme de pupitre,
Dont le triangle affreux, tout hérissé de crins,
Surpassait en grosseur nos plus épais lutrins:
Animé par son guide, en sifflant il s'élance.
J'ai crié, mais en vain; et, fuyant sa fureur
Je me suis réveillé plein de trouble et d'horreur."
An order of the Conseil d'Etat, dated March 11, 1787, sequestered all
the goods of the chapel, suppressed the chaplaincies and canonries, and
ordained that the services should be continued by the king's ordinary
chaplains. Three years later, the chapel shared the fate of all the
abbeys, chapters, and religious foundations; and soon after, S. Louis'
beautiful oratory was closed. The relics were sent to S. Denis, and the
other objects were dispersed to the National museums. _Propriété
Nationale à Vendre_ was written upon the building, a piece of
information which has only disappeared in our own time. Under the
Directoire a club held its meetings there; and later, it was converted
into a warehouse for corn and flour. Towards 1800, certain ecclesiastics
hired the lower chapel and celebrated mass there, but in 1803 it was
further profaned; the upper chapel was turned into a depository for
judicial documents, and the lower one was given for the same purpose to
the Cour des Comptes. In vain Louis XVIII. and Charles X. endeavoured to
restore the building to its proper use; and it was only in 1837, in the
reign of Louis Philippe, that its restoration was decided upon. MM.
Duban, Lassus, Viollet-le-Duc, and Boeswillwald were commissioned to
undertake the work at a cost of 2,000,000 francs, a sum nearly equal to
the original value of the relics and reliquaries (2,800,000 francs),
while it exceeded by nearly two millions the original cost of the
building, 800,000 francs. The 3rd November, 1849, the work was
sufficiently advanced for the ceremony of the Institution of the
Judicature, when the ancient chants were sung as in former times. Since
then, until quite recently, a mass has always been celebrated in the
chapel, upon the opening of the Law Courts, in the presence of the
judges, barristers, and others who could gain admission. But this
function has lately been abolished, and the keeper now impresses upon
visitors (rather eagerly and unnecessarily), the permission to keep on
their hats. "_Mais couvrez vous, messieurs, ce n'est plus une chapelle,
ce n'est qu'un monument_"!
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF THE CHAPEL.]
The celebration of the _Fête des Fous_ was one of the customs of the
Middle Ages which was very tenacious of life. Although forbidden by the
legate in 1198, it flourished for another 250 years. The Council of
Paris, held in 1212, endeavoured to put it down; but it was only in 1435
that the Council of Basle succeeded in suppressing it, together with
stage plays and other profanities. It was the custom at the
Sainte-Chapelle, upon the Holy Innocents' day, for the boy acolytes[4]
to deck themselves in the canons' copes and vestments, and to sit in
their stalls, one boy bearing the mace carried by the precentor as an
attribute of his dignity. They were also exempted, during a certain
time, from doing homage to anyone. A curious custom prevailed at Easter.
At three o'clock in the morning, the clergy, carrying the Host, went in
procession round the interior of the palace; and by reason of a
foundation of one of the canons, Eustache Picot, under-master of music
during the reigns of Louis XIII. and XIV., only his own compositions
could be sung on the occasion. On Easter day a chronological table of
the principal events and festivals connected with the chapel, with the
date and the age of the King, was attached to the Paschal candle. Other
customs were peculiar to the chapel, as, for instance, on Whit Sunday,
when, during mass, while the Gospel was chanted, an Angel descended from
the vault, holding a silver cruet, from which he poured water upon the
hands of the celebrant. Flowers, roses, wafers, a white pigeon, a
quantity of small birds, and flax for burning, had to be provided by the
Chevecier[5] in memory of the tongues of fire which descended upon the
apostles at Pentecost.
On the Good Fridays of each year the chapel scarcely sufficed to contain
the crowds of sick persons who flocked to it from all parts of the city.
All maladies were supposed to be curable through the virtues of the holy
relics, but specially that known formerly as _le mal caduc_. At midnight
the relic of the True Cross was exposed, and at the same moment the
chapel was filled by the most fearful shrieks of these poor epileptics.
The afflicted threw themselves about, foamed at the mouth, and fell into
convulsions, invoking the aid especially of S. John the Baptist and S.
Spire. The people were convinced every year that some wondrous miracle
had been wrought; but the abuses connected with this nocturnal
exposition were so great that, in 1781, Louis XVI. ordered it to be
discontinued. The relics now shown in the Treasury of Notre-Dame, and
exposed there during Holy Week, are said to be the veritable ones
belonging to the Sainte-Chapelle; but the account of their preservation
after the desecration of S. Denis is so miraculous (almost as much so as
the original finding of the True Cross by S. Helena) that it requires a
large amount of faith to believe in them. The reliquaries were of course
all melted up, even Alexandre Lenoir could not save them. Those at
Notre-Dame are quite modern, although somewhat of the same form.
Another custom peculiar to the chapel was the singing upon Christmas-day
of the hymn "_Noël_," in place of "_O Salutaris Hostia_." The former had
been originally a joy-song, welcoming the kings upon their entry into
Paris; and thus, when our Henry V. entered the capital in 1420, and
likewise Henry VI. in 1431, they were greeted with this exclamation.
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF THE RELIQUARY.]
The kings were not the only persons who profited by the virtues of the
relics; the first president of the _parlement_ was so far privileged
that he could have them brought to him on his death-bed; and on
Quinquagesima Sunday they were exposed at the central window of the
_chevet_ for the good of the public in the street. The _châsse_
containing the relics had no less than ten locks, the keys thereof being
in the custody of the kings until the reign of Louis XIII.; but while
that monarch was at Lyons, a fire broke out in the chapel (26th July,
1630), and the doors of the _châsse_ had to be broken open, a disaster
which led to a change in the custodian, the president of the Chambre des
Comptes being substituted for the sovereign. This worthy lived opposite;
and it was also his duty to keep the relics clean, assisted of course by
a vast number of other presidents and officials. It was the duty, or the
privilege, of the kings to mount the little winding staircase at the
side of the altar, and to exhibit the relics to the people gathered in
the chapel below. S. Louis probably ofttimes walked up the steps on the
left for this purpose (the right-hand staircase is modern); and on Good
Friday, 1423, the Duke of Bedford, as regent of France for Henry VI.,
gave the blessing with the relics. In 1575, on the 10th July, a great
theft took place of a portion of the cross which was frequently shown to
the people (not the piece in the principal _châsse_), and this in spite
of six guards who "_allans et venans toute nuict par icelle, tant pour
la garde des sainctes reliques comme du lieu_." This was looked upon as
a great calamity by many people; but by some of the incredulous was
thought to be a feint of Henri III., who had permitted the relic to be
sent to Italy as security for some money borrowed by that good daughter
of the Church, the Queen-mother, Catherine de'Medici. In 1793 the
destruction of the _châsses_ and the dispersion of the relics was
ordered by the Convention, and carried out by the notorious
constitutional bishop Gobel. We cannot but lament the loss to art of
these reliquaries; whether, reading over the list in full of the relics
given by Canon Morand, we need sigh over their destruction, is another
matter. They had swollen in number since S. Louis' time, and besides a
portion of the true cross, the crown of thorns, and the lance, there was
the rod of Moses, the cross of victory borne by the Emperors of the
East, part of the purple mantle, the reed, and other instruments of the
Passion, the linen with which Our Lord wiped the Apostles' feet, the
sponge, the handcuffs, the holy blood, the Virgin's veil and a piece of
her hair, an imprint of the face of Our Lord, a piece of the Holy
Sepulchre, and the upper part of the head of S. John Baptist. All these
objects, and one or two others which it is needless to mention, were
enclosed in the reliquaries which either stood or hung in the great
_châsse_. But other valuables were kept elsewhere. There existed up to
the reign of Louis XVI. an elegant little sacristy upon the north-east
side, having two storeys, in which were deposited deeds, charters, and
gold and silver vessels for the use of the altar. In it was kept the
splendid agate, now in the Bibliothèque Nationale, representing the
Apotheosis of Augustus, which was absolutely presented to the people as
a _pax_ upon great festivals, until de Peiresc, Councillor of the
Parlement of Provence, about 1619, discovered the mistake, and the
so-called "Triumph of Joseph" became acknowledged to be the "Apotheosis
of Augustus." A careful drawing of the cameo was made by de Peiresc's
friend Rubens, which was engraved by Luc Vosterman of Antwerpen. It was
called in the inventory of the chapel _le Grand Camahieu_ and the _Agate
de Tibère_; it is, indeed, the largest known, and is of most exquisite
workmanship. The whole family of the Cæsars is represented; some on
earth, some in Heaven. The cracks in it are mentioned in the inventory
of 1480, and it is described as: _Item unum pulcherrimum camaut in cujus
circuitu sunt plures reliquiæ._ The cameo is supposed to have been one
of the treasures brought by S. Louis from Constantinople. In 1343,
Philippe VI. sent it to the Pope who had desired to see it, but Charles
V. restored it to the chapel in 1379, and then the chapter made their
possession certain, by engraving upon the socle: _ce camaieu bailla à la
Sainte-Chapelle du Palais, Charles cinquième de ce nom, roi de France,
qui fut fils du roi Jean, l'an MCCCLXXIX_. The Byzantine mounting,
described by Tristan de Saint-Amant, was melted up when the cameo was
stolen, in 1804: _Car les quatres évangélistes sont représentés de part
et d'autre du châssis ou tableau d'or, dans lequel cette pierre est
enchâssée._
[Illustration]
Another antique, an agate bust of Valentinian III.,[6] was metamorphosed
into a S. Louis, and formed the crowning point of the precentor's mace.
The clothing of this bust in silver-gilt drapery, the placing of a crown
of thorns in the right-hand and a cross in the left, show the manner in
which objects of Pagan art were adapted to Christian uses. That S. Louis
should appear as a fat middle-aged man with a clean shaven face and
cropped hair, was an anomaly of no consequence to the Mediæval artists.
Another instance of the same _naïveté_ is the bust of Caracalla which
formerly figured as a S. Peter upon the cover of a book of the Gospels,
now in the department of manuscripts. The cover is of silver-gilt,
Christ crucified with the Virgin and S. John upon either side, the
amethyst bust being placed at the foot of the cross. Upon the other
side is Christ enthroned, and an imitation emerald which no doubt
represents some precious gem that has since disappeared.
[Illustration: THE CHAPEL IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.]
Some idea of the richness of the contents of the treasury may be formed
by stating that the list of the images, vessels, reliquaries, crosses,
&c., in the last inventory, taken in 1784, occupies twenty pages of
Morand's book. Besides the objects already mentioned we read of a
silver-gilt statue of S. Louis d'Anjou; a fragment of the cup of S.
Martin; a portion of the tunic of S. Louis; an ivory Virgin, and thirty
reliquaries of the 13th and 14th centuries. These were all conveyed to
S. Denis on the 12th March, 1791, in a coach drawn by eight horses, and
guarded by a chaplain and an officer of the king's household, who gave
them over to the Benedictines, then still at the Abbey. In 1793 the
relics trundled back to Paris in a procession which mimicked the former
one, and after being taken to the Convention, they were melted up at the
mint.
The Royal archives were stowed away in two great rooms above the
sacristy of the upper church. When they were first installed there, is
not known; but in 1615, when an inventory was drawn up by Pierre Dupuy
and Theodore Godefroy, there were three hundred and fifty drawers, two
hundred and sixty registers, fifty-two sacks, forty-two shelves, and
fifteen coffers. This inventory consists of eight volumes of manuscripts
in folio. In 1783 the sacristry was sacrificed to the love of symmetry
in the new Cour d'honneur, and the archives were removed to the
Chancellerie du Palais. At the present time some of them are in the
Bibliothèque, but the greater part are at the Archives Nationale in the
Rue Rambuteau.
The state of dilapidation into which the chapel had fallen when the
restoration was commenced, was terrible. The tracery of the windows was
destroyed, the glass was broken and filled up with plaster, the _flèche_
and gargoyles had disappeared, and the interior was filled with shelves
and woodwork for the storage of the archives. But the beautiful
Renaissance staircase of forty-four steps (the scene of Boileau's poem,
the _Lutrin_) had disappeared long before.
The dimensions of the building are as follow:--
Length of exterior 36 mètres.
Length of interior 33 "
Width of exterior 17 "
Width of interior 10.70 "
Height of exterior from the ground of the lower chapel
to the point of the gable of the _façade_ 42.50 "
Height of the _flèche_ to the summit 33.25 "
Height of the vault of the lower chapel under the
key-stone 6.50 "
Height of the vault of the upper-chapel 20.50 "
M. Viollet-le-Duc, in his "Dictionnaire Raisonné de l'Architecture,"
thus describes the building: "De la base au faîte, l'edifice est
entièrement construit en pierre dure de choix, connue sous le nom de
liais cliquart (Portland stone) chaque assise est cramponnée par des
agrafes de fer coulées en plomb, les tailles et la pose sont exécutées
avec une précision rare; la sculpture en est composée et ciselée avec un
soin particulier. Sur aucun point on ne peut constater ces négligences
qui ne sont que trop souvent le résultat de la précipitation." At page
401 of the above work is an explanation of the system of courses
employed by Pierre de Montereau--a manner of strengthening masonry which
was in use before this period (13th century), but which was improved
upon by the great architect of the Sainte-Chapelle. It is very similar
to the system now in use.
The only communication between the lower and upper chapels at the
present time is by means of the small turret staircase, but formerly the
upper church was approached by a wide exterior flight of forty-four
steps. It was reconstructed many times, and the last one, in the
Egyptian style, was dated 1811. The demolition of this is no loss; but
it seems a pity it should not have been replaced by one in better taste,
as the only approach to the upper chapel (except the turret stairs) is
through the corridors of the Palais de Justice.
The first thing that strikes the visitor upon entering is the enormous
size of the windows, which occupy the entire space between the
buttresses, and rise to the base of the roof. All the weight of the
vaulting rests, therefore, upon the exterior buttresses, but not the
slightest inflection has ever taken place. The church is built truly
east and west, the entrance to each chapel being by separate portals.
The only modification the exterior of the building has sustained since
S. Louis' time is the addition of a little oratory attributed to Louis
XI., and the rebuilding of a part of the _façade_ in the 15th century.
The porch of the lower chapel is divided into two bays by a pier, on
which is a statue of the Blessed Virgin, while above in the tympanum, is
a representation of the _Coronation of the Virgin_. The restoration of
this and the entire ornament of the doorway is the work of M.
Geoffroy-Dechaume. The original statue had the reputation of working
miracles; and it is related that when, towards 1304, Jean Duns Scotus, a
celebrated theologian of the University of Paris, was praying at its
feet, it bent its head in approval of the doctrine of the Immaculate
Conception, which that learned doctor was teaching. It has since always
remained in the same position. The portal of the upper chapel is of the
same character as the lower one, but richer in its decoration. It is
nearly all new, for the old ornament had not only been mutilated, but
had been completely chiselled off. The _voussure_ is a mass of
sculptures--single figures, groups, and ornament. The figures are
forty-four in number: Angels carrying the elect to heaven, Angels
censing and bearing crowns, martyrs with the instruments of their
sufferings, and the lost souls surrounded by the flames of hell, the
whole forming a framework to the central subject in the tympanum, the
_Last Judgement_; the work is a marvel of patient study, modelled upon
the portals of Notre-Dame and S. Germain l'Auxerrois, each figure having
been fitted into its place upon the lines of the original wherever any
traces of the old sculptures had been preserved.
[Illustration]