ornements d'une grave et solide éloquence, que la vie et la mort de
très-haut et très-puissant Prince Henri de la Tour d'Auvergne,
vicomte de Turenne, maréchal général des camps et armées du roi et
colonel général de la cavalerie légère? Où brillent avec plus
d'éclat les effets glorieux de la vertu militaire: conduite
d'armées, sièges de places, prises de villes, passages de rivières,
attaques hardies, retraites honorables, campements bien ordonnés,
combats soutenus, batailles gagnées, ennemis vaincus par la force,
dissipés par l'adresse, lassés et consumés par une sage patience;
où peut-on trouver tant et de si puissants exemples que dans les
actions d'un homme sage, modeste, libéral, désintéressé, dévoué au
service du prince et de la patrie, grand dans l'adversité par son
courage, dans la prospérité par sa modestie, dans les difficultés
par sa prudence, dans les périls par sa valeur, dans la religion
par sa piété.
Yet another celebrated orator, Massillon, was often heard at S.
Eustache, and in 1704, preaching upon the small number of the elect, so
terrified were his hearers that they all rose as one man, when he
pronounced the words of the Supreme Judge. A lesser man, who rose to be
a Cardinal, perhaps more by intrigues than anything else, was Guillaume
Dubois. He was born at Brives-la-Gaillarde in 1657, and coming to Paris,
he entered, while still quite young, the service of the _curé_ of S.
Eustache. Thence he obtained engagements as tutor to the great
personages of the neighbourhood; entering the house of the Duc de
Chartres, he managed to obtain the abbey of Saint-Just, in the diocese
of Beauvais. A grand monument by Coustou was erected to his memory in
the church of S. Honoré, with an epitaph composed by Couture, which
seems to be a slight satire upon the worldly-minded who love the rich
things of this nether world. After giving the titles of the defunct, the
lines go on: "_Quid autem hi titulis nisi arcus coloratus et fumus ad
modicum parens Viator, stabiliora, solidioraque bona mortuo apprecare,
etc., etc. Mais que sont ces dignités? nuages brillants, fumée qui
s'évapore. Passant, demande à Dieu pour ce mort des biens plus stables
et plus solides._"
S. Eustache is still famous for its processions, and few churches are so
fitted for grand ceremonial; but what are the functions of to-day
compared with those of the 18th century? Here is an extract from the
archives giving an outline of the procession upon the Fête Dieu, 20th
June, 1716, during the minority of Louis XV.:--
Several lacqueys bearing torches.
Footmen of M. le duc de Charot with lights at the top of their
weapons.
Sixteen footmen of M. le Comte de Toulouse.
Six pages of my lord count.
The preceptor of the pages of M. the duc d'Orléans, the Regent, in
long cassock and surplice; their tutor bearing a taper; twelve
pages of His Royal Highness, and two sub-tutors.
The banner of the confraternity of the Holy Sacrament.
The cross of the clergy of S. Eustache.
An officer bearing a cushion for His Royal Highness.
The _Suisses_ armed, carrying halbards upon their shoulders and
torches in their hands, the officers at their head accompanied by
drums and fifes.
The dais of the Holy Sacrament, borne by high personages.
The _curé_ under the dais.
Monseigneur le duc d'Orléans carrying a taper, preceded by several
officers of his house, and two chaplains in surplices.
An officer bearing a bouquet of His Royal Highness.
Forty of the body-guard, the councillor of Parliament, and the
churchwardens.
A coach belonging to His Royal Highness, followed by eight guards
on horseback.
The archers of the town bringing up the rear.
The watchmen of Paris arranged in a line from the church door to
the Hôtel de Soissons, on both sides of the Rue Coquillière, with
flags and officers at their head; drums to be beaten when His Royal
Highness arrives at the church in his coach, and on his return.
In 1736 the _reposoir_[70] in the Palais-Royal was constructed from the
design of Servandoni, the architect of S. Sulpice; and its importance
attracted multitudes of curiosity-hunters from all parts of the town.
In 1729 Jean-François-Robert Secousse succeeded his uncle, and was the
author of a pamphlet which he gave away to his parishioners entitled:
_Lettre d'un Curé à N---- au sujet des Spectacles._ His successor,
Jean-Jacques Poupart, was for some time confessor to Louis XVI. and
Marie Antoinette. When the storm arose, he took the oath to the
Constitution; but, finding the lengths to which it carried him, he
retracted, went into hiding, and administered to his flock in secret.
During the early years of the Revolution, no church suffered more than
S. Eustache. Situated in the midst of a populous district, it became the
scene of untold horrors. But it was also the resting place for
Mirabeau's body on its way to the Panthéon, on the 4th April, 1791; and
had nothing worse than the funeral oration by Cerutti, pronounced from
the _banc-d'oeuvre_,[71] taken place, the sacrilege would have been
but small. Trouble was looked for in the following May, when the
hairdressers' assistants caused a service to be said for the great
orator; but instead of the church being invaded by 10,000 persons, as
was expected, a poor 600 were all that put in an appearance, and these
were well conducted. Not so the Women's Club which was held in the
building, if Lamartine's _Histoire des Girondins_[72] is to be trusted:
La société révolutionnaire siégeait á Saint-Eustache; elle était
composée de femmes perdues, aventurières de leur sexe, recrutées
dans le vice, où dans les réduits de la misère, ou dans les
cabanons de la démence. Le scandale de leurs séances, le tumulte de
leurs motions, la bizarrerie de leur éloquence, l'audace de leurs
pétitions importuna le Comité de Salut Public, qui ferma le club.
On peut juger par là ce qu'il devait en être de la pauvre église.
Près de là siégeait aussi le fameux club de la rue Mauconseil.
Another club for women, founded by an actress named Lacombe, was
dissolved after a speech of Robespierre's, in which we find that "Cette
réunion de vraies sans-culottes ne saurait durer plus long-temps, parce
qu'elle prête au ridicule et aux propos malins."
In 1793 the Feast of Reason was celebrated with as much profanity and
indecency here as at Notre-Dame, as witness Mercier's account, told in
the forcible language of Carlyle:
The corresponding festival in the church of S. Eustache offered the
spectacle of a great tavern. The interior of the choir represented
a landscape decorated with cottages and boskets of trees. Round the
choir stood tables overloaded with bottles, with sausages,
pork-puddings, pasties, and other meats. The guests flowed in and
out through all doors; whosoever presented himself took part of the
good things; children of eight, girls as well as boys, put hand to
plate, in sign of Liberty; they drank also of the bottles, and
their prompt intoxication created laughter. Reason sat in azure
mantle aloft, in a serene manner; cannoneers, pipe in mouth,
serving her as acolytes. And out of doors (continues the
exaggerative man) were mad multitudes dancing round the bonfire of
chapel-balustrades, of priests' and canons' stalls; and the
dancers--I exaggerate nothing--the dancers nigh bare of breeches,
neck and breast naked, stockings down, went whirling and spinning,
like those Dust-vortexes, forerunners of Tempest and
Destruction.[73]
S. Eustache was re-opened for divine service sooner than many of the
other churches, M. Poupart coming out of his hiding in June, 1795; but
he had to share his church for some time with the philanthropists and
the municipal councillors, who held their meetings there upon certain
days. And the church was, moreover, but four walls and a roof; nearly
all the contents had vanished. The altars, the bronze statues, the
pulpit, the pictures, the tombs, the slabs and epitaphs, all but the
_banc-d'oeuvre_, had gone to the museum of the Petits-Augustins;
happily, for otherwise they would have gone into the fire.
In 1804, Pius VII., dragged to Paris by Napoleon to perform the
coronation ceremony, was invited to visit S. Eustache and bless a statue
of the Blessed Virgin; which he did with "_une bonté paternelle_." The
occasion naturally called forth all the ceremonial of which the church
was capable: _Suisses_ (beadles), vergers, _MM. les maires_, and _MM.
les marguilliers_, magistrates, _juges de paix_, clergy, M. le curé
Bossic, and his eminence the cardinal archbishop. His Holiness was
received at the church door by the archbishop, M. de Belloy, and divers
other bishops and dignitaries of church and state; who had to submit to
hearing a Latin oration by the _curé_. The music was brilliantly
executed by a large choir, and the ceremonial of an imposing character;
peculiarly touching was the moment when the archbishop, an old man of
ninety-six, who had to be supported by two prelates, mounted the steps
of the altar, and presented the linen cloth to his Holiness for wiping
his hands. After mass a reception took place in one of the chapels, and
a number of the faithful had the honour of "kissing the papal slipper,"
says the account of the ceremony signed by a number of the dignitaries
present.
Among the celebrities buried in the church or the burial-ground hard by
are the following: Bernard de Girard, Seigneur du Haillan, historian,
who died in 1610; Marie Jars de Gournay, the adopted daughter of
Montaigne, and the editress of his essays; Vincent Voiture, poet and
wit, who died in 1650; the Academician François de la Motte-le-Vayer;
the poet Isaac Benserade; another Academician Furetière; the graceful
music-maker, Rameau; the painter, Lafosse; a superintendent of finance,
Claude de Bullion (a curiously appropriate name); Phélippeau, duke of la
Vrillière; the chancellor d'Amenonville; a peer and marshal, François
d'Aubusson de la Feuillade, who worshipped his king, the fourteenth
Louis, and elevated a wondrous monument to his glory, the prancing steed
and man in the Place des Victoires; and a medicine man of the same king
a member, too, of the Academy, Martin Cureau de la Chambre, aged
seventy-five when he died in 1669. The physician is said to have been
the consulter-general of the king, and they carried on a secret
correspondence, in which the former thought that the sovereign would
"_court grand risque de faire à l'avenir de mauvais choix de
ministres_," if he survived Cureau. The last curate buried in the church
was Poupart, in 1796.
What is now the market of S. Joseph was formerly the burial-ground
dedicated to that Saint. It belonged to the parish of S. Eustache, and
in 1630 Chancellor Séguier built a chapel therein at his own expense.
Here Molière and La Fontaine were buried, but the monuments were carried
off to the museum of the Petits-Augustins, where they remained until
1818, when they were re-erected at Père-la-Chaise. Molière was also born
in the parish, at a house, since pulled down, which occupied the site of
the corner of the rue St. Honoré and the rue du Pont Neuf, formerly de
la Tonnellerie.
The following epitaphs used to be in the church, and are interesting;
the two first for their quaintness; the last as a record of an architect
of S. Eustache, if not the original builder:
BARTHÉLÉMI TREMBLET, SCULPTEUR DU ROY, DÉCÉDÉ A L'AGE
DE 61 ANS, EN 1629.
Louvre me donna l'être et Paris la fortune.
J'eus l'honneur d'être au roy, St. Eustache a mes os;
Passant, au nom de Dieu, si je ne t'importune,
Durant ce mien sommeil, pries pour mon repos.
* * * * *
Le monde n'a ésté à _Françoise
Gallois_ que passage à l'éternité;
Elle y a demeuré comme toujours
Preste d'en sortir, Les XXIII années
De son âge, n'ont estées qu'innocence,
Les quarte de son mariage, que paix
Et concorde, les vertus furent ses
Exercices, la piété son contentement,
La crainte de Dieu la conduite de
Sa vie qu'elle finit le XXVIIe Aoust
MDCXVI. Si chrestiennement,
Que _Richard Petit_, son mary,
Conser secrét, du roy, M. et C. de
Fr. ne console l'affliction de son
Absence que par la souvenance
De sa mort.
* * * * *
Cy-devant git le corps
D'honorable homme _Charles David_, vivant sujet du Roy
Es-oeuvres de maçonnerie, doyen des jurés et bourgeois
De Paris, architecte et conducteur du bâtiment de l'Eglise
De céans, lequel après avoir vescu avec _Anne Lemercier_
Sa femme l'espace de 53 ans, il décéda le quatrième jour
De décembre 1650 âgé de 98 ans.
S. Eustache has suffered much of late years by fire and the doings of
wicked men. In 1844 fire attacked the organ, and smoke and water
destroyed a great portion of the church. L'abbé Duguerry, who was shot
in 1871 by the Communists, was _curé_ at the time of the conflagration;
and in order to rebuild the organ, he instituted a lottery, and appealed
for aid to the whole country. Ten years later the new organ was built,
and inaugurated under a new _curé_, Gaudereau, Duguerry having been
appointed to the Madeleine. It was an exquisite instrument, of delicious
tone and with a large number of stops. But alas! during the Commune it
suffered again, several bombs having exploded in the church. Glass was
smashed, organ pipes pierced, and a great deal of damage done to the
roof; and it was several years before the church was restored to its
pristine beauty. In 1879 the organ was finished, having been
reconstructed and very much enlarged by J. Merklin, under a committee of
organists and musicians; other instruments may be larger, but few are so
beautiful in tone. Several of the Paris organs are fine, and the French
school of organists is of all the least conventional. One is not bored
by Rinck and his fellows; one does not hear choruses by Handel intended
to be sung, or solos by the same master upon flute and clarionet stops
with a poor tum-tum accompaniment, or sonatas written for the pianoforte
or violin. That, to some of us, peculiarly irritating form of
composition, the fugue, is rarely heard (except at the Madeleine), and
Batiste, I think, must have held them in holy horror as did Berlioz,
and, was it Chopin? Many a time for years I heard Batiste "touch" the S.
Eustache organ, and surely no more divine sounds (if organ notes can be
divine?) have ever been drawn from an instrument than when he played
some soft, tender, pathetic melody upon the _voix céleste_ or _vox
humana_ with accompaniment upon the far-off stops and tremolo; it was,
in effect, what one might conceive a chorus of Angels accompanying some
beautiful human voice. I know all the principal Paris organs, and most
of them have been played upon by distinguished musicians; I also heard
Lefebure-Wély frequently in former days; but no one seemed to equal or
to excel Batiste in taste. His soft passages were perfection; and when
he made the instrument thunder forth in all its _fortissimo_, it was
grand in the extreme. Such an admiration had I for the musician, that I
looked upon him as an invisible master, and my enthusiasm led me one day
to waylay him as he came down the stairs. Query, if one admires an
artist or an author, a poet or a musician, is it wise to see him in the
flesh? Some painters and pianists, some violinists or singers, have been
appropriately built, so to speak. Nature, sometimes unassisted, more
often aided and pruned, has turned out bodies which are fitted to become
the cases of distinguished minds. But everyone knows instances of actors
and actresses who are nought minus their war-paint; of painters who
might be grocers, and of poets as un-ideal in appearance as any publican
or butterman. On the other hand, there are exquisites behind the
counters, ethereal-looking butchers, and poetic vendors of cooked ham
and beef. It is as if nature had made a number of bodies and minds, and
shuffling them like a pack of cards, had tossed them together without
any thought or heeding. Such seemed to have been the case with Batiste,
for he was the exact model of the French Mossoo so dear to _Punch_--the
Mossoo one so rarely sees out of that sportive periodical. Nevertheless,
the soul within that commonplace body was able to peal forth in most
sublime sounds which touched the hearts of all who heard them. Batiste's
was essentially emotional playing of the highest order. Never shall I
forget the thrill which went through the crowd when he played Chopin's
"Funeral March" at the funeral of the dear old _curé_, l'abbé Simon--the
very type of the courteous, fine-gentleman priests of other days,
without their vices. When, years ago, the abbé Simon and Duguerry his
friend, sat side by side, their finely chiselled features and longish
hair, their elegant manner, and courteous bearing, reminded one of the
portraits of Fléchier, Massillon and Bossuet.
It may interest musicians to know the composition of the S. Eustache
organ, and as many of the stops are French, I may as well give them in
their original names. It has four manuals, and 72 stops; 4356 pipes and
20 pedals.
Grand Orgue 54 notes, 16 stops.
Positif 54 " 14 "
Récit expressif 54 " 16 "
Clavier Bombarde 54 " 11 "
Pédales 30 " 15 "
----
TOTAL 72
1ST MANUAL.--GREAT ORGAN.
ft. ft.
1 Montre 16 10 Nasard 2
2 Montre 8 11 Doublette 2
3 Flûte à pavilion 8 COMBINATION STOPS.
4 Bourdon 8 12 Furniture et Cymbale 3
5 Flûte harmonique 8 13 Cornet 8
6 Viole de Gambe 8 14 Trompette 8
7 Gemshorn 8 15 Clarinette 8
8 Rohrflûte 4 16 Clairon 4
9 Prestant 4
2ND MANUAL.--CHOIR ORGAN.
ft. ft.
1 Montre 8 9 Clochette 1
2 Bourdon 8 COMBINATION STOPS.
3 Keraulophone 8 10 Plein jeu 2
4 Flûte harmonique 8 11 Clarinette 16
5 Bourdon 16 12 Cromhorn 8
6 Flûte harmonique 4 13 Trompette 8
7 Fugara 4 14 Clairon 4
8 Doublette 2
3RD MANUAL.--SWELL ORGAN.
SOLO STOPS.
ft. ft.
1 Viole de Gambe 8 9 Trompette harmonique. 8
2 Voix céleste 8 10 Clairon 4
3 Bourdon 8 JEUX DE FOND.
4 Piccolo 1 11 Bourdon 16
5 Basson-Hautbois 8 12 Principal 8
6 Voix humaine 8 13 Flûte harmonique 8
COMBINATION STOPS. 14 Flûte octaviante 4
7 Cornet 8 15 Prestant 4
8 Trombone 16 16 Flageolet 2
4TH MANUAL.--SOLO ORGAN.
ft. COMBINATION STOPS.
1 Bourdon 16 ft.
2 Gambe 16 7 Cornet 16
3 Gambe 8 8 Bombarde 16
4 Salicional 8 9 Trompette 8
5º Quintaton 8 10 Cor anglais 8
6º Dulciana 4 11 Clairon 4
PEDALS.
ft. ft.
1 Principal 32 9 Flûte 4
2 Flûte 16 COMBINATION STOPS.
3 Sous-Basse 16 10 Bombarde 32
4 Contrebasse 16 11 Bombarde 16
5 Grosse Flûte 8 12 Basson 16
6 Quinte 12 13 Basson 8
7º Violoncelle 8 14 Trompette 8
8º Bourdon 8 15 Clairon 4
COMBINATION STOPS FOR THE SWELL.
SOLO | ANCHES | FONDS
TREMOLO | TREMOLO | TREMOLO
COMBINATION PEDALS.
1 Tonnerre.
2 Tirasse du 1er clavier sur le
pédalier.
3 Tirasse du 2me clavier sur le
pédalier.
4 Tirasse du 3me clavier sur le
pédalier.
5 Tirasse du 4me clavier sur le
pédalier.
6 Réunion du mécanisme des
jeux du 1er clavier sur le
levier pneumatique.
7 Accouplement du 2me clavier
sur le 1er.
8 Accouplement du 3me clavier
sur le 1er, à l'unisson.
9 Accouplement du 4me clavier
sur le 1er.
10 Accouplement du 4me clavier
sur le 3me.
11 Accouplement du 3me clavier
à l'octave grave sur le
1er clavier.
12 Forte général.
13 Introduction des jeux de
combinaisons du pédalier.
14 Introduction des jeux de
combinaisons du 1er clavier.
15 Introduction des jeux de
combinaisons du 2me clavier.
16 Introduction des jeux de
combinaisons du 4me clavier.
17 Expression sur le 3me clavier
récit.
No one should omit visiting S. Eustache on S. Cecilia's day (November
22), when a grand mass is always performed, with full orchestra, in aid
of the Society of Musicians; and indeed, any Sunday the music is quite
well worth hearing, and the ceremonial is the finest in Paris. At the
same time much has been lost by the substitution of the Roman for the
Parisian rite, which took place in 1876. In the former, two acolytes
swing the censers; in the latter, four or six acolytes standing in a row
threw them up on high six times, the last time catching them while
kneeling on one knee. As has been said, the grand effect of this use can
never be forgotten by those who saw it.
The church owes the new marble pavement to its good _curé_ l'abbé Simon,
one of the heroes of the Commune, and, almost, one of its victims. So
much has been related (and with justice) against the _Communards_, that
an incident connected with S. Eustache ought not to be forgotten. The
day the abbé Simon was arrested he had three thousand _francs_ in his
pocket, which were destined to pay for the pavement of the choir. Of
course upon his arrival at the prison they were given up to the police,
and were not restored when the _curé_ was released through the
intervention of his _chères paroissiennes, les Dames de la Halle_, who
went _en masse_ to demand his freedom. On Easter Monday, however, Raoul
Rigault's secretary went to the sacristry, asked M. Simon if the money
had been returned, and finding that it had not, he left the church, to
return in an hour's time, with the three thousand _francs_ intact.
In the south transept is a little Gothic statue of S. John, and on the
wall is a sad memorial of the names of all the hostages who suffered
death under the Commune, headed by the archbishop (Darboy) and the
_curé_ of the Madeleine, Duguerry, who was formerly _curé_ of S.
Eustache.
S. Eustache, like most large churches, looks grandest in the evening,
when the altar is ablaze with lights, and long vistas fade away into the
darkness; but under all conditions it is a splendid church, a mass of
harmonious colouring from floor to ceiling. At the evening services
during Lent, it is seen to advantage; or again on Christmas Day at
vespers, when it is resplendent with lights; those curious and
unchurchlike glass chandeliers filled with candles, and clusters of gas
jets round the walls.
Another great day is Good Friday, when Rossini's "Stabat Mater" is
performed. It is always beautifully rendered, but for three-fourths of
the crowd which assembles--and the church is always crammed--for most of
the people it is a mere performance. So is the midnight mass on
Christmas Day. Religious enthusiasm carries one away upon one or two
occasions; the sentiment is exquisite; the emotions which are aroused
are of the purest, and we feel almost that we are by the veritable
manger listening to the heavenly Host: "Glory to God in the Highest."
But alas! human beings are but mortal; and so upon experience we find
that the crowds who attend the mass do so mainly as a pastime before the
_réveillon_; that is the function of the night; eating and drinking,
junkettings and merrymakings; and just a little church-going to fill up
the time until the hour of feasting commences. Cardinal Manning in his
wisdom saw this many years ago, and stopped the practice of saying
midnight mass, a measure he probably regretted as much as any of us; for
apart from its being a very ancient custom, it is a most poetic idea,
appealing strongly to our best emotions and our most vivid imagination.
SAINT-FRANÇOIS XAVIER.
Until quite lately, the only church in Paris dedicated to the memory of
the great Jesuit was the little chapel belonging to the Missions
Étrangères in the Rue de Bac. The first stone was laid in 1683 by the
archbishop of Paris, in the name of the king. It is a double chapel with
a flight of steps leading from the lower to the upper church.
SAINTE-GENEVIÈVE (LE PANTHÉON).
As we walk up the Rue Soufflot and see the great domed Panthéon facing
us in its Classic glory, it is difficult to realise that the space
occupied by the modern building is but a small portion of what was
formerly the domain of the important abbey of S. Geneviève belonging to
the Augustinian canons. When the religious orders were suppressed in
France, Paris contained nine abbeys: S. Geneviève, S. Victor, belonging
to the Augustins; S. Germain des Prés to the Benedictines; Val des Grâce
to the nuns of S. Benedict; Port-Royal, Pantemont, l'Abbaye aux Bois,
and S. Antoine to the Cistercian nuns; and the Cordelières to the order
of the Poor Clares. An inspection of a pre-Revolution map of the city
shows us that a large part of it was swallowed up by these abbeys and
other monastic lands and properties.
[Illustration: SAINTE-GENEVIÈVE FROM THE RUE SOUFFLOT.]