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CATHEDRALS AND CLOISTERS OF THE SOUTH OF FRANCE
[Illustration: _Rodez._
"Sheer and straight the pillars rise, ... and arch after arch is lost on
the shadows of the narrow vaulting of the side-aisle."]
CATHEDRALS
_and_ CLOISTERS
OF THE
SOUTH OF FRANCE
BY
ELISE WHITLOCK ROSE
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS
BY
VIDA HUNT FRANCIS
_IN TWO VOLUMES_
_VOLUME I._
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
NEW YORK AND LONDON
The Knickerbocker Press
1906
Copyright, 1906
by
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
PREFACE.
For years the makers of this book have spent the summer time in
wandering about the French country; led here by the fame of some old
monument, or there by an incident of history. They have found the real,
unspoiled France, often unexplored by any except the French themselves,
and practically unknown to foreigners, even to the ubiquitous maker of
guide-books. For weeks together they have travelled without meeting an
English-speaking person. It is, therefore, not surprising that they were
unable to find, in any convenient form in English, a book telling of the
Cathedrals of the South which was at once accurate and complete. For the
Cathedrals of that country are monuments not only of architecture and
its history, but of the history of peoples, the psychology of the
christianising and unifying of the barbarian and the Gallo-Roman, and
many things besides, epitomised perhaps in the old words, "the struggle
between the world, the flesh, and the devil." In French, works on
Cathedrals are numerous and exhaustive; but either so voluminous as to
be unpractical except for the specialist--as the volumes of
Viollet-le-Duc,--or so technical as to make each Cathedral seem one in
an endless, monotonous procession, differing from the others only in
size, style, and age. This is distinctly unfair to these old churches
which have personalities and idiosyncrasies as real as those of
individuals. It has been the aim of the makers of this book to
introduce, in photograph and in story,--not critically or exhaustively,
but suggestively and accurately,--the Cathedral of the Mediterranean
provinces as it exists to-day with its peculiar characteristics of
architecture and history. They have described only churches which they
have seen, they have verified every fact and date where such
verification was possible, and have depended on local tradition only
where that was all which remained to tell of the past; and they will
feel abundantly repaid for travel, research, and patient exploration of
towers, crypts, and archives if the leisurely traveller on pleasure bent
shall find in these volumes but a hint of the interest and fascination
which the glorious architecture, the history, and the unmatched climate
of the Southland can awaken.
For unfailing courtesy and untiring interest, for free access to private
as well as to ecclesiastical libraries, for permission to photograph and
copy, for unbounding hospitality and the retelling of many an old
legend, their most grateful thanks are due to the Catholic clergy, from
Archbishop to Cure and Vicar. For rare old bits of information, for
historical verification, and for infinite pains in accuracy of printed
matter, they owe warm thanks to Mrs. Wilbur Rose, to Miss Frances Kyle,
and to Mrs. William H. Shelmire, Jr. For criticism and training in the
art of photographing they owe no less grateful acknowledgment to Mr.
John G. Bullock and Mr. Charles R. Pancoast.
E. W. R.
V. H. F.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
THE SOUTH OF FRANCE
I. THE SOUTH OF FRANCE 3
II. ARCHITECTURE IN PROVENCE, LANGUEDOC, AND GASCONY 29
PROVENCE
I. THE CATHEDRALS OF THE SEA 55
Marseilles--Toulon--Frejus--Antibes--Nice
II. CATHEDRALS OF THE HILL-TOWNS 72
Carpentras--Digne--Forcalquier--Vence--Grasse
III. RIVER-SIDE CATHEDRALS 101
Avignon--Vaison--Arles--Entrevaux--Sisteron
IV. CATHEDRALS OF THE VALLEYS 178
Orange--Cavaillon--Apt--Riez--Senez--Aix
LANGUEDOC
I. CATHEDRALS OF THE CITIES 237
Nimes--Montpellier--Beziers--Narbonne--Perpignan--
Carcassonne--Castres--Toulouse--Montauban
Illustrations
Page
RODEZ _Frontispiece_
"Sheer and straight the pillars rise, ... and arch
after arch is lost on the shadows of the narrow vaulting
of the side-aisle."
"CARCASSONNE, THE INVULNERABLE" 5
"THE TOWER OF AN EARLY MARITIME CATHEDRAL"--_Agde_ 10
"A NAVE OF THE EARLIER STYLE"--_Arles_ 15
"A NAVE OF THE LATER STYLE"--_Rodez_ 19
"THE DELICATE CHOIR OF SAINT-NAZAIRE"--_Carcassonne_ 23
"A CLOISTER OF THE SOUTH"--_Elne_ 27
"A ROMANESQUE AISLE"--_Arles_ 31
"THE SCULPTURED PORTALS OF SAINT-TROPHIME"--_Arles_ 33
"A GOTHIC AISLE"--_Mende_ 35
"CORRESPONDING DIFFERENCES IN STYLE"--_Carcassonne_ 39
"FORTIFIED GOTHIC BUILT IN BRICK"--_Albi_ 43
"A CHURCH FORTRESS"--_Maguelonne_ 45
"STATELY GOTHIC SPLENDOUR"--_Condom_ 47
ENTREVAUX 52
"People gather around the mail-coach as it makes its
daily halt before the drawbridge."
"THE NEW CATHEDRAL"--_Marseilles_ 57
"THE DESECRATION OF THE LITTLE CLOISTER"--_Frejus_ 65
"THE MILITARY OMEN--THE TOWER"--_Antibes_ 70
"THE INTERIOR OF NOTRE-DAME-DU-BOURG"--_Digne_ 77
"THE INTERIOR HAS NEITHER CLERESTORY NOR TRIFORIUM"--_Digne_ 81
"A LARGE SQUARE TOWER SERVED AS A LOOKOUT"--_Forcalquier_ 86
"A SUGGESTIVE VIEW FROM THE SIDE-AISLE"--_Forcalquier_ 87
"THE OLD ROUND ARCH OF THE BISHOP'S PALACE"--_Vence_ 92
"THE LOW, BROAD ARCHES, AND THE GREAT SUPPORTING PILLARS"--_Vence_ 93
"HIGHER THAN THEM ALL STANDS THE CATHEDRAL"--_Grasse_ 97
"THE PONT D'AVIGNON" 99
"THE INTERIOR HAS A SHALLOW, GRACEFULLY BALUSTRADED
BALCONY"--_Avignon_ 103
"THE PORCH, SO CLASSIC IN DETAIL"--AVIGNON 107
From an old print
"NOTRE-DAME-DES-DOMS"--_Avignon_ 111
"THE TOWER OF PHILIP THE FAIR"--_Villeneuve-les-Avignon_ 114
"THE GREAT PALACE"--_Avignon_ 119
"ON THE BANKS OF A PLEASANT LITTLE RIVER IS VAISON" 123
"THE RUINED CASTLE OF THE COUNTS OF TOULOUSE"--_Vaison_ 125
"THE WHOLE APSE-END"--_Vaison_ 127
"THE SOUTH WALL, WHICH IS CLEARLY SEEN FROM THE ROAD"--_Vaison_ 129
"TWO BAYS OPEN TO THE GROUND"--_Vaison_ 131
"THE GREAT PIERS AND SMALL FIRM COLUMNS"--_Vaison_ 133
"IN THE MIDST OF THE WEALTH OF ANTIQUE RUINS"--_Arles_ 135
"THE FACADE OF SAINT-TROPHIME"--_Arles_ 137
"RIGHT DETAIL--THE PORTAL"--_Arles_ 141
"LEFT DETAIL--THE PORTAL"--_Arles_ 145
"THROUGH THE CLOISTER ARCHES"--_Arles_ 147
"A NAVE OF GREAT AND SLENDER HEIGHT"--_Arles_ 149
"THE BEAUTY OF THE WHOLE"--_Arles_ 151
"THE GOTHIC WALK"--Cloister--_Arles_ 153
"THIS INTERIOR"--_Entrevaux_ 156
"THE ROMANESQUE WALK"--Cloister--_Arles_ 157
"ONE OF THE THREE SMALL DRAWBRIDGES"--_Entrevaux_ 159
"THE PORTCULLIS"--_Entrevaux_ 160
"A FORT THAT PERCHES ON A SHARP PEAK"--_Entrevaux_ 161
"A TRUE 'PLACE D'ARMES'"--_Entrevaux_ 163
"THE LONG LINE OF WALLS THAT ZIGZAG DOWN THE HILLSIDE"--_Entrevaux_ 165
"THE CHURCH TOWER STOOD OUT AGAINST THE ROCKY PEAK"--_Entrevaux_ 169
"THE CATHEDRAL IS NEAR THE HEAVY ROUND TOWERS OF
THE OUTER RAMPARTS"--_Sisteron_ 172
"THE BRIDGE ACROSS THE DURANCE"--_Sisteron_ 173
"ENTRANCES TO TWO NARROW STREETS"--_Sisteron_ 176
"IT WAS A LOW-VAULTED, SOMBRE LITTLE CLOISTER"--_Cavaillon_ 182
"THE CATHEDRAL'S TOWER AND TURRET"--_Cavaillon_ 187
"THE MAIN BODY OF THE CHURCH"--_Apt_ 191
"THE VIRGIN AND SAINT ANNE--BY BENZONI"--_Apt_ 194
"SAINT-MARTIN-DE-BROMES WITH ITS HIGH SLIM TOWER" 197
"THE FORTIFIED MONASTERY OF THE TEMPLARS"--_near Greoux_ 199
"THE TOWER OF NOTRE-DAME-DU-SIEGE"--_Riez_ 201
"NOTHING COULD BE MORE QUAINTLY OLD AND MODEST THAN
THE BAPTISTERY"--_Riez_ 202
"BETWEEN THE COLUMNS AN ALTAR HAS BEEN PLACED"--Baptistery, _Riez_ 203
"THE BEAUTIFUL GRANITE COLUMNS"--_Riez_ 207
"THE MAIL-COACH OF SENEZ" 211
"THE OPEN SQUARE"--_Senez_ 213
"THE PALACE OF ITS PRELATES"--_Senez_ 214
"THE CATHEDRAL"--_Senez_ 215
"THE CATHEDRAL"--_Senez_ 218
"TAPESTRIES BEAUTIFY THE CHOIR-WALLS"--_Senez_ 219
"BETWEEN BRANCHES FULL OF APPLE-BLOSSOMS--THE
CHURCH AS THE CURE SAW IT"--_Senez_ 221
"THE SOUTH AISLE"--_Aix_ 224
"THE ROMANESQUE PORTAL"--_Aix_ 225
"THE CLOISTER"--_Aix_ 227
"THE CATHEDRAL"--_Aix_ 231
"AN AMPHITHEATRE WHICH RIVALS THE ART OF THE COLISEUM"--_Nimes_ 238
"THE GENERAL EFFECT IS SOMEWHAT THAT OF A
PORT-COCHERE"--_Montpellier_ 244
"THE FINEST VIEW IS THAT OF THE APSE"--_Montpellier_ 245
"THE CLOCK TOWER IS VERY SQUARE AND THICK"--_Beziers_ 248
"THE QUAINT AND PRETTY FOUNTAIN"--_Beziers_ 250
"THE DOOR OF THE CLOISTER"--_Narbonne_ 255
"THIS IS A PLACE OF DESERTED SOLITUDE"--_Narbonne_ 257
"THESE FLYING-BUTTRESSES GIVE TO THE EXTERIOR ITS
MOST CURIOUS AND BEAUTIFUL EFFECT"--_Narbonne_ 261
"ALL THE OLD BUILDINGS OF THE CITY ARE OF SPANISH
ORIGIN"--_Perpignan_ 265
"THE UNFINISHED FACADE"--_Perpignan_ 267
"THE STONY STREET OF THE HILLSIDE"--_Carcassonne_ 269
"THE ANCIENT CROSS"--_Carcassonne_ 272
"OFTEN TOO LITTLE TIME IS SPENT UPON THE NAVE"--_Carcassonne_ 275
"THE CHOIR IS OF THE XIV CENTURY"--_Carcassonne_ 279
"THE FACADE, STRAIGHT AND MASSIVE"--_Carcassonne_ 281
"PERSPECTIVE OF THE ROMANESQUE"--_Carcassonne_ 283
"THE NAVE OF THE XIII CENTURY IS AN AISLE-LESS CHAMBER,
LOW AND BROADLY ARCHED"--_Toulouse_ 291
"THE PRESENT CATHEDRAL IS A COMBINATION OF STYLES"--_Toulouse_ 294
LIST OF WORKS CONSULTED.
BAYET. _Precis de l'Histoire de l'Art._
BODLEY. _France._
BOURG. _Viviers, ses Monuments et son Histoire._
CHOISY. _Histoire de l'Architecture._
COUGNY. _L'Art au Moyen Age._
COOK. _Old Provence._
CORROYER. _L'Architecture romane._
" _L'Architecture gothique._
COX. _The Crusades._
DARCEL. _Le Mouvement archeologique relatif au Moyen Age._
DE LAHONDES. _L'Eglise Saint-Etienne, Cathedrale de Toulouse._
DEMPSTER. _Maritime Alps._
DUCERE. _Bayonne historique et pittoresque._
DURUY. _Histoire de France._
FERREE. _Articles on French Cathedrals appearing in the "Architectural
Record._"
GARDERE. _Saint-Pierre de Condom et ses Constructeurs._
GOULD. _In Troubadour Land._
GUIZOT. _Histoire de France._
" _Histoire de la Civilisation en France._
HALLAM. _The Middle Ages._
HARE. _South-eastern France._
" _South-western France._
_History of Joanna of Naples, Queen of Sicily_ (_published_ 1824).
HUNNEWELL. _Historical Monuments of France._
JAMES. _A Little Tour through France._
_Le Moyen Age_ (_avec notice par Roger-Miles_).
LARNED. _Churches and Castles of Mediaeval France._
LASSERRE, L'ABBE. _Recherches historiques sur la Ville d'Alet et son
ancien Diocese._
LECHEVALLIER CHEVIGNARD. _Les Styles francais._
MACGIBBON. _The Architecture of Provence and the Riviera._
MARLAVAGNE. _Histoire de la Cathedrale de Rodez._
MARTIN. _Histoire de France._
MASSON. _Louis IX and the XIII Century._
" _Francis I and the XVI Century._
MERIMEE. _Etudes sur les Arts au Moyen Age._
MICHELET. _Histoire de France._
MICHELET AND MASSON. _Mediaevalism in France._
_Monographie de la Cathedrale d'Albi._
MONTALEMBERT. _Les Moines d'Occident._
MILMAN. _History of Latin Christianity._
PALUSTRE. _L'Architecture de la Renaissance._
PASTOR. _Lives of the Popes._
PENNELL. _Play in Provence._
QUICHERAT. _Melanges d'Archeologie au Moyen Age._
RENAN. _Etudes sur la Politique religieuse du Regne de Philippe le Bel._
REVOIL. _Architecture romane du Midi de la France._
ROSIERES. _Histoire de l'Architecture._
SCHNASSE. _Geschichte der bildenden Kuenste._ (_Volume III, etc._)
SENTETZ. _Sainte-Marie d'Auch._
SORBETS. _Histoire d'Aire-sur-l'Adour._
SOULIE. _Interesting old novels whose scenes are laid in the South of
France_:--
" "_Le Comte de Toulouse._"
" "_Le Vicomte de Beziers._"
" "_Le Chateau des Pyrenees_," _etc._
STEVENSON. _Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes._
TAINE. _The Ancient Regime._
" _Journeys through France._
" _Origins of Contemporary France._
" _Tour through the Pyrenees._
_'Twixt France and Spain._
VIOLLET-LE-DUC. _Histoire d'une Cathedrale et d'un Hotel-de-Ville._
_Entretiens sur l'Architecture._
_Dictionnaire raisonne de l'Architecture francaise du XI^e au XVI^e
siecle._
The South of France.
I.
THE SOUTH OF FRANCE.
If it is only by an effort that we appreciate the valour of Columbus in
the XV century, his secret doubts, his temerity, how much fainter is our
conception of the heroism of the early Mediterranean navigators. Steam
has destroyed for us the awful majesty of distance, and we can never
realise the immensity of this "great Sea" to the ancients. To Virgil the
adventures of the "pious AEneas" were truly heroic. The western shores of
the Mediterranean were then the "end of the earth," and even during the
first centuries of our own era, he who ventured outside the Straits of
Gibraltar tempted either Providence or the Devil and was very properly
punished by falling over the edge of the earth into everlasting
destruction. "Why," asks a mediaeval text-book of science, "is the sun so
red in the evening?" And this convincing answer follows, "Because he
looks down upon Hell."
For centuries before the Christian era the South of France, with Spain,
lay in the unknown west end of the Sea. Along its eastern shores lay
civilisations hoary with age; Carthage, to the South, was moribund;
Greece was living on the prestige of her glorious past; while Rome was
becoming all-powerful. Legend tells that adventurous Phoenicians and
Greeks discovered the French coasts, that Nimes was founded by a Tyrian
Hercules, and Marseilles, about 600 B.C., by a Phoenician trader who
married a chief's daughter and settled at the mouth of the Rhone. But
these early settlements were merely isolated towns, which were not
interdependent;--scarcely more than trading posts. It was Rome who took
southern Gaul unto herself, and after Roman fashion, built cities and
towns and co-ordinated them into well-regulated provinces; and it is
with Roman rule that the connected history of Gaul begins.
From the outset we meet one basic fact, so difficult to realise when
France is considered as one country, the essential difference between
the North and the South. Caesar found in the South a partial Roman
civilisation ready for his organisation; and old, flourishing cities,
like Narbonne, Aix, and Marseilles. In the North he found the people
advanced no further than the tribal stage, and Paris--not even Paris in
name--was a collection of mud huts, which, from its strategic position,
he elevated into a camp. The two following centuries, the height of
Roman dominion in France, accentuated these differences. The North was
governed by the Romans, never assimilated nor civilised by them. The
South eagerly absorbed all the culture of the Imperial City; her
religions and her pleasures, her beautiful Temples and great
Amphitheatres, finally her morals and effeminacy, till in the II century
of our era, anyone living a life of luxurious gaiety was popularly said
to have "set sail for Marseilles." To this day the South boasts that it
was a very part of Rome, and Rome was not slow to recognise the claim.
Gallic poets celebrated the glory of Augustus, a Gaul was the master
of Quintilian, and Antoninus Pius, although born in the Imperial City,
was by parentage a native of Nimes.
[Illustration: "CARCASSONNE, THE INVULNERABLE."]
Not to the rude North, but to this society, so pagan, so
pleasure-loving, came the first missionaries of the new Christian faith,
to meet in the arenas of Gaul the fate of their fellow-believers in
Rome, to hide in subterranean caves and crypts, to endure, to persist,
and finally to conquer. In the III and IV centuries many of the great
Bishoprics were founded, Avignon, Narbonne, Lyons, Arles, and
Saint-Paul-trois Chateaux among others; but these same years brought
political changes which seemed to threaten both Church and State.
Roman power was waning. Tribes from across the Rhine were gathering,
massing in northern Gaul, and its spirit was antagonistic to the
contentment of the rich Mediterranean provinces. The tribes were
brave, ruthless, and barbarous. Peace was galling to their
uncontrollable restlessness. The Gallo-Romans were artistic, literary,
idle, and luxurious. They fell, first to milder but heretical foes;
then to the fierce but orthodox Frank; and the story of succeeding
years was a chronicle of wars. Like a great swarm of locusts, the
Saracens--conquerors from India to Spain--came upon the South. They
took Narbonne, Nimes, and even Carcassonne, the Invulnerable. They
besieged Toulouse, and almost destroyed Bordeaux. Other cities,
perhaps as great as these, were razed to the very earth and even their
names are now forgotten. Europe was menaced; the South of France was
all but destroyed.
Again the Frank descended; and like a great wind blowing clouds from a
stormy sky, Charles Martel swept back the Arabs and saved Christianity.
Before 740, he had returned a third time to the South, not as a
deliverer, but for pure love of conquest; and by dismantling Nimes,
destroying the maritime cities of Maguelonne and Agde, and taking the
powerful strongholds of Arles and Marseilles, he paved the way for his
great descendant who nominally united "all France."
But Charlemagne's empire fell in pieces; and as Carlovingian had
succeeded Merovingian, so in 987 Capetian displaced the weak descendants
of the mighty head of the "Holy Roman Empire." The map changed with
bewildering frequency; and in these changes, the nobles--more stable
than their kings--grew to be the real lords of their several domains.
History speaks of France from Clovis to the Revolution as a kingdom; but
even later than the First Crusade the kingdom lay somewhere between
Paris and Lyons; the Royal Domain, not France as we know it now. The
Duchy of Aquitaine, the Duchy of Brittany, Burgundy, the Counties of
Toulouse, Provence, Champagne, Normandy, and many smaller possessions,
were as proudly separate in spirit as Norway and Sweden, and often as
politically distinct as they from Denmark.
In the midst of these times of turmoil the Church had steadily grown.
Every change, however fatal to North or South, brought to her new
strength. Confronted with cultured paganism in the first centuries, the
blood of her martyrs made truly fruitful seed for her victories; and
later, facing paganism of another, wilder race, she triumphed more
peacefully in the one supreme conversion of Clovis; and the devotion and
interest which from that day grew between Church and King, gradually
made her the greatest power of the country. After the decline of Roman
culture the Church was the one intellectual, almost peaceful, and
totally irresistible force. The great lords scorned learning. An Abbot,
quaintly voicing the Church's belief, said that "every letter writ on
paper is a sword thrust in the devil's side." When there was cessation
of war, the occupation of men, from Clovis' time throughout Mediaevalism,
was gone. They could not read; they could not write; the joy of hunting
was, in time, exhausted. They were restless, lost. The justice meted out
by the great lords was, too often, the right of might. But at the
Council of Orleans, in 511, a church was declared an inviolable refuge,
where the weak should be safe until their case could be calmly and
righteously judged. The beneficent care of the Church cannot be
overestimated. Between 500 and 700 she had eighty-three councils in
Gaul, and scarcely one but brought a reform,--a real amelioration of
hardships.
Something of the general organisation of her great power in those rude
times deserves more than the usual investigation. Even in its small
place in the "Cathedrals and Cloisters of the South of France," it is an
interesting bit of Church politics and psychology.
The ecclesiastical tradition of France goes back to the very first years
of the Christian era. Lazarus, Mary Magdalene, Martha, and Mary the
Mother of James, are only a few of those intimately connected with
Christ Himself, who are believed to have come into Gaul; and in their
efforts to systematically and surely establish Christianity, to have
founded the first French Bishoprics. This is tradition. But even the
history of the II century tells of a venerable, martyred Bishop of
Lyons, a disciple of that Polycarp who knew Saint John; and in the III
century Gaul added no less than fourteen to the Sees she already had.
Enthusiastic tradition aside, it is evident that the missionary ardour
of the Gallic priests was intense; and the glory of their early
victories belongs entirely to a branch of the Church known as "the
Secular Clergy."
[Illustration: THE TOWER OF AN EARLY MARITIME CATHEDRAL.--AGDE.]
The other great branch, "the Religious Orders," were of later
institution. From the oriental deserts of the Thebaid, where Saint
Anthony had early practised the austerities of monkish life, Saint
Martin drew his inspiration for the monasticism of the West. But it was
not until the last of the IV century that he founded, near Poitiers, the
first great monastery in France. The success of this form of pious life,
if not altogether edifying, was immediate. Devotional excesses were less
common in the temperate climate of France than under the exciting
oriental sun, yet that most bizarre of Eastern fanatics, the "Pillar
Saint," had at least one disciple in Gaul. He--the good Brother
Wulfailich--began the life of sanctity by climbing a column near Treves,
and prepared himself to stand on it, barefooted, through winter and
summer, till, presumably, angels should bear him triumphantly to heaven.
But the West is not the East. And the good Bishops of the neighbourhood
drew off, instead of waiting at the pillar, as an exalted emperor had
humbly stood beneath that of Saint Simeon Stylites. Far from being
awe-struck, they were scandalised; and they forced Wulfailich to descend
from his eminence, and destroyed it. This is one of the first Gallic
instances of the antagonisms between the "secular" and the "regular"
branches of the reverend clergy.
Within the French Church from early times, these two great forces were
arrayed, marching toward the same great end,--but never marching
together. It is claimed they were, and are, inimical. In theory, in
ideal, nothing could be further from truth. They were in fact sometimes
unfriendly; and more often than not mutually suspicious. For the great
Abbot inevitably lived in a Bishop's See; and with human tempers beneath
their churchly garb, Abbot and Bishop could not always agree. Now the
Bishop was lord of the clergy, supreme in his diocese; but should he
call to account the lowest friar of any monastery, my Lord Abbot replied
that he was "answerable only to the Pope," and retired to his vexatious
"imperium in imperio."
The beginning of the VI century saw much that was irregular in monastic
life. The whole country was either in a state of war or of unrestful
expectation of war. Many Abbeys were yet to be established; many merely
in process of foundation. Wandering brothers were naturally beset by the
dangers and temptations of an unsettled life; and if history may be
believed, fell into many irregularities and even shamed their cloth by
licentiousness. Into this disorder came the great and holy Benedict, the
"learnedly ignorant, the wisely unlearned," the true organiser of
Western Monachism. Under his wise "Rules" the Abbey of the VI century
was transformed. It became "not only a place of prayer and meditation,
but a refuge against barbarism in all its forms. And this home of books
and knowledge had departments of all kinds, and its dependencies formed
what we would call to-day a 'model farm.' There were to be found
examples of activity and industry for the workman, the common tiller of
the soil, or the land-owner himself. It was a school," continues
Thierry, "not of religion, but of practical knowledge; and when it is
considered that there were two hundred and thirty-eight of such schools
in Clovis' day, the power of the Orders, though late in coming, will be
seen to have grown as great as that of the Bishops."
From these two branches sprang all that is greatest in the
ecclesiastical architecture of France. As their strength grew, their
respective churches were built, and to-day, as a sign of their dual
power, we have the Abbey and the Cathedral.
The Bishop's church had its prototype in the first Christian meeting
places in Rome and was planned from two basic ideas,--the part of the
Roman house which was devoted to early Christian service, and the
growing exigencies of the ritual itself. At the very first of the
Christian era, converts met in any room, but these little groups so soon
grew to communities that a larger place was needed and the "basilica" of
the house became the general and accepted place of worship. The
"basilica" was composed of a long hall, sometimes galleried, and a
hemicycle; and its general outline was that of a letter T. Into this
purely secular building, Christian ceremonials were introduced. The
hemicycle became the apse; the gallery, a clerestory; the hall, a
central nave. Here the paraphernalia of the new Church were installed.
The altar stood in the apse; and between it and the nave, on either
side, a pulpit or reading-desk was placed. Bishop and priests sat around
the altar, the people in the nave. This disposition of clergy, people,
and the furniture of the sacred office is essentially that of the
Cathedral of to-day. There were however many amplifications of the first
type. The basilica form, T, was enlarged to that of a cross; and
increasingly beautiful architectural forms were evolved. Among the first
was the tower of the early Italian churches. This single tower was
doubled in the French Romanesque, often multiplied again by Gothic
builders, and in Byzantine churches, increased to seven and even nine
domes. Transepts were added, and as, one by one, the arts came to the
knowledge of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, each was pressed into
the service of the Cathedral builders. The interior became so beautiful
with carvings, windows of marvellously painted glass, rich tapestries
and frescoes, that the ritual seemed yearly more impressive and
awe-inspiring. The old, squat exterior of early days was forgotten in
new height and majesty, and the Cathedral became the dominant building
of the city.
Although the country was early christianised, and on the map of
Merovingian France nearly all the present Cathedral cities of the
Mediterranean were seats of Bishoprics, we cannot now see all the
successive steps of the church architecture of the South. The main era
of the buildings which have come down to us, is the XI-XIV centuries. Of
earlier types and stages little is known, little remains.
[Illustration: A NAVE OF THE EARLIER STYLE.--ARLES.]
In general, Gallic churches are supposed to have been basilican, with
all the poverty of the older style. Charlemagne's architects, with San
Vitale in mind, gave a slight impetus in the far-away chapel at
Aix-la-Chapelle, and Gregory of Tours tells us that Bishop Perpetuus
built a "glorious" church at Tours. But his description is meagre. After
a few mathematical details, he returns to things closer to his
heart,--the Church's atmosphere of holiness, the emblematic radiance of
the candle's light, the ecstasy of worshippers who seemed "to breathe
the air of Paradise." And Saint Gregory's is the religious, uncritical
spirit of his day, whose interest was in ecclesiastical establishment
rather than ecclesiastical architecture. Churches there were in numbers;
but they were not architectural achievements. Their building was like
the planting of the flag; they were new outposts, signs of an advance of
the Faith. With this missionary spirit in the Church, with priests still
engaged in christianising and monks in establishing themselves on their
domains, with a very general ignorance of art, with the absorbing
interest of the powerful and great in warfare, and the very great
struggle among the poor for existence, architecture before the X century
had few students or protectors. France had neither sufficient political
peace nor ecclesiastical wealth for elaborate church structures. No
head, either of Church or State, had taste and time enough to inaugurate
such works.
Many causes have combined to destroy such churches as then existed. If
they escaped the rasings and fires of a siege, they were often destroyed
by lightning, or decayed by years; and some of the fragments which
endured to the XIII century were torn down to make room for more
beautiful buildings.
It was the XI and XII centuries which saw the important beginnings of
the great Cathedrals of both North and South. These were the years when
religion was the dominant idea of the western world,--when everything,
even warfare, was pressed into its service. Instead of devastating their
own and their neighbour's country, Christian armies were devastating the
Holy Land; doing to the Infidel in the name of their religion what he,
in the name of his, had formerly done to them. The capture of Jerusalem
had triumphantly ended the First Crusade; the Church was everywhere
victorious, and the Pope in actual fact the mightiest monarch of the
earth. These were the days when Peter the Hermit's cry, "God wills it,"
aroused the world, and aroused it to the most diverse accomplishments.
One form of this activity was church building; but there were other
causes than religion for the general magnificence of the effort. Among
these was communal pride, the interesting, half-forgotten motive of much
that is great in mediaeval building.
The Mediaevalism of the old writers seems an endless pageant, in which
indefinitely gorgeous armies "march up the hill and then march down
again;" in newer histories this has disappeared in the long struggle of
one class with another; and in neither do we reach the individual, nor
see the daily life of the people who are the backbone of a nation. Yet
these are the people we must know if we are to have a right conception
of the Cathedral's place in the living interest of the Middle Ages. For
the Bishop's church was in every sense a popular church. The Abbey was
built primarily for its monks, and the Abbey-church for their meditation
and worship. The French Cathedral was the people's, it was built by
their money, not money from an Abbey-coffer. It did not stand, as the
Cathedral of England, majestic and apart, in a scholarly close; it was
in the open square of the city; markets and fairs were held about it;
the doors to its calm and rest opened directly on the busiest, every-day
bustle. It is not a mere architectural relic, as its building was never
a mere architectural feat. It is the symbol of a past stage of life, a
majestic part of the picture we conjure before our mind's eye, when we
consider Mediaevalism.
[Illustration: A NAVE OF THE LATER STYLE.--RODEZ.]
Such a picture of a city of another country and of the late Middle Ages
exists in the drama of Richard Wagner's Meistersinger; and his Nuremberg
of the XVI century, with changes of local colour, is the type of all
mediaeval towns. General travel was unknown. The activity of the great
roads was the march of armies, the roving of marauders, the journeys of
venturesome merchants or well-armed knights. Not only roads, but even
streets were unsafe at night; and after the sun had set he who had gone
about freely and carelessly during the day, remained at home or ventured
out with much caution. When armies camped about her walls, the city was
doubtless much occupied with outside happenings. But when the camp broke
up and war was far away, her shoemaker made his shoes, her goldsmith,
fine chains and trinkets, her merchants traded in the market-place.
Their interests were in street brawls, romancings, new "privileges," the
work or the feast of the day--in a word town-topics. Yet being as other
men, the burghers also were awakened by the energy of the age, and
instead of wasting it in adventures and wars, their interest took the
form of an intense local pride, narrow, but with elements of grandeur,
seldom selfish, but civic.
This absence of the personal element is nowhere better illustrated than
in Cathedral building. Of all the really great men who planned the
Cathedrals of France, almost nothing is known; and by searching, little
can be found out. Who can give a dead date, much less a living fact,
concerning the life of that Gervais who conceived the great Gothic
height of Narbonne? Who can tell even the name of him who planned the
sombre, battlemented walls of Agde, or of that great man who first saw
in poetic vision the delicate choir of Saint-Nazaire in Carcassonne?
Artists have a well-preserved personality,--cathedral-builders, none.
Robert of Luzarches who conceived the "Parthenon of all Gothic
architecture," and the man who planned stately Sens and the richness of
Canterbury, are as unknown to us as the quarries from which the stones
of their Cathedrals were cut. It is not the Cathedral built by Robert of
Luzarches belonging to Amiens, as it is the Assumption by Rubens
belonging to Antwerp. It is scarcely the Cathedral of its patron, Saint
Firmin. It is the Cathedral of Amiens.
[Illustration: "THE DELICATE CHOIR OF SAINT-NAZAIRE."--CARCASSONNE.]
We hear many learned disquisitions on the decay of the art of church
building. Lack of time in our rushing age, lack of patience, decline of
religious zeal, or change in belief, these are some of the popular
reasons for this architectural degeneracy. Strange as it may seem none
of these have had so powerful an influence as the invention of printing.
The first printing-press was made in the middle of the XV
century,--after the conception of the great Cathedrals. In an earlier
age, when the greatest could neither read nor write and manuscripts even
in monasteries were rare, sculpture and carving were the layman's books,
and Cathedrals were not only places of worship, they were the
people's religious libraries where literature was cut in stone.
In the North, the most unique form of this literature was the drama of
the Breton Calvaries, which portrayed one subject and one only,--the
"Life and Passion of Christ," taken from Prophecy, Tradition, and the
Gospels. Cathedrals, both North and South, used the narrative form. They
told story after story; and their makers showed an intimate knowledge of
Biblical lore that would do credit to the most ardent theological
student. At Nimes, by no means the richest church in carvings, there are
besides the Last Judgment and the reward of the Evil and the
Righteous,--which even a superficial Christian should know,--many of the
stories of the Book of Genesis. At Arles, there is the Dream of Jacob,
the Dream of Joseph, the Annunciation, the Nativity, Purification,
Massacre of the Innocents, the Flight into Egypt; almost a Bible in
stone. In these days of books and haste few would take the trouble to
study such sculptured tales. But their importance to the unlettered
people of the Middle Ages cannot be overestimated; and the incentive to
magnificence of artistic conception was correspondingly great.
The main era of Cathedral building is the same all over France. But with
the general date, all arbitrary parallel between North and South
abruptly ends. The North began the evolution of the Gothic, a new form
indigenous to its soil; the South continued the Romanesque, her
evolution of a transplanted style, and long knew no other. She had grown
accustomed to give northward,--not to receive; and it was the reign of
Saint Louis before she began to assimilate the architectural ideas of
the Isle de France and to build in the Gothic style, it was admiration
for the newer ideals which led the builders of the South to change such
of their plans as were not already carried out, and to try with these
foreign and beautiful additions, to give to their churches the most
perfect form they could conceive.
And thus, from a web of Fate, in which, as in all destinies, is the
spinning of many threads, came the Cathedrals and Cloisters of the
South. Are they greater than those of the North? Are they inferior to
them? It is best said, "Comparison is idle." Who shall decide between
the fir-trees and the olives--between the beautiful order of a northern
forest and the strange, astounding luxuriance of the southern tangle?
Which is the better choice--the well-told tale of the Cathedrals of the
North, with their procession of kingly visitors, or the almost untold
story of the Cathedrals of the South, where history is still legend,
tradition, romance--the story of fanatic fervour and still more fanatic
hate?
[Illustration: A CLOISTER OF THE SOUTH.--ELNE.]
II.
ARCHITECTURE IN PROVENCE, LANGUEDOC, AND GASCONY.
No better place can be found than the Mediterranean provinces to
consider the origins of the earliest southern style. Here Romanesque
Cathedrals arose in the midst of the vast ruins of Imperial antiquity,
here they developed strange similarities to foreign styles, domes
suggesting the East, Greek motives recalling Byzantium, and details
reminiscent of Syria. And here is the battle-field for that great army
who decry or who defend Roman influences. Some would have us believe
that the Romanesque dome is expatriated from the East; others, that it
is naturalised; others, that it is native. The plan of the Romanesque
dome differs very much from that of the Byzantine, yet the general
conception seems Eastern. If conceivable in the Oriental mind, why not
in that of the West? And yet, in spite of some native peculiarities of
structure, why should not the general idea have been imported? Who shall
decide? In a book such as this, mooted questions which involve such
multitudinous detail and such unprovable argument cannot be discussed.
It is unreasonable to doubt, however, that Roman influences dominated
the South, herself a product of Roman civilisation; and as in the
curious ineradicable tendency of the South toward heresy we more than
suspect a subtle infiltration of Greek and Oriental perversions, so in
architecture it is logical to infer that Mediterranean traders,
Crusaders, and perhaps adventurous architects who may have travelled in
their wake, brought rumours of the buildings of the East, which were
adopted with original or necessary modifications. Viollet-le-Duc, in
summing up this much discussed question, has written that "in the
Romanesque art of the West, side by side with persistent Latin
traditions, a Byzantine influence is almost always found, evidenced by
the introduction of the cupola." In the lamentable absence of records of
the majority of Cathedrals, reasonings of origin must be inductive, and
more or less imaginative, and have no legitimate place in the scope of a
book which aims to describe the existing conditions and proven history
of southern Cathedrals.
[Illustration: A ROMANESQUE AISLE.--ARLES.]
Quicherat, who has had much to say upon architectural subjects, defines
the Romanesque as an art "which has ceased to be Roman, although it has
much that is Roman, and that is not yet Gothic, although it already
presages the Gothic." This is not a very helpful interpretation.
Romanesque, as it exists in France to-day, is generally of earlier
building than the Gothic; it is an older and far simpler style. It was
not a quick, brilliant outburst, like the Gothic, but a long and slow
evolution; and it has therefore deliberation and dignity, not the
spontaneity of northern creations; strength, and at times great vigour,
but not munificence, not the lavishness of art and wealth and adornment,
of which the younger style was prodigal. Few generalisations are
flawless, but it may be truly said that Romanesque Cathedrals are
lacking in splendour; and it will be found in a large majority of cases
that they are also without the impressiveness of great size; that they
are almost devoid of shapely windows or stained glass, of notable
carvings or richness of decorative detail. Their art is a simple art, a
sober art, and in its nearest approach to opulence--the sculptured
portals of Saint-Trophime of Arles or Saint-Gilles-de-Languedoc--there
is still a reserved rather than an exuberant and uncontrolled display of
wealth.
[Illustration: "THE SCULPTURED PORTALS OF SAINT-TROPHIME."--ARLES.]
By what simple, superficial sign can this architecture be recognised by
those who are to see it for the first time? It exists "everywhere and
always" in southern France; but, side by side with the encroachments
and additions of other styles, how can it be easily distinguished?
Quicherat writes that the principal characteristic of the Romanesque is
"la voute," and the great, rounded tunnel of the roofing is a
distinction which will be found in no other form. But the easiest of
superficial distinctions is the arch-shape, which in portal, window,
vaulting or tympanum is round; wherever the arcaded form is
used,--always round. With this suggestion of outline, and the universal
principles of the style, simplicity and dignity and absence of great
ornamentation, the untechnical traveller may distinguish the Romanesque
of the South, and if he be akin to the traveller who tells these
Cathedral tales, the interest and fascination which the old architecture
awakes, will lead him to discover for himself the many differences which
are evident between the ascetic strength of the one, and the splendour
and brilliance of the other.
[Sidenote: Provence.]
[Illustration: A GOTHIC AISLE.--MENDE.]
The three provinces which compose the South of France are Provence,
Languedoc, and Gascony, and of these Provence is, architecturally and
historically, the first to claim our interest. During the era of
colonisation it was the most thoroughly romanised, and in the early
centuries of Christianity the first to fall completely under the
systematic organisation of the Church. It has a large group of very old
Cathedrals, and is the best study-ground for a general scrutiny and
appreciation of that style which the builders of the South assimilated
and developed until, as it were, they naturalised it and made it one
of the two greatest forms of architectural expression. Provence does not
contain the most impressive examples of Romanesque. Two Abbeys of the
far Norman North are more finished and harmonious representations of the
art, and Languedoc, in the basilica of Saint-Sernin of Toulouse, has a
nobler interior than any in the Midi, and many other churches of
Languedoc and Gascony are most interesting examples of a style which
belonged to them as truly as to Provence.
Yet it is in this province that the Romanesque is best studied. For here
the great internecine struggles--both political and religious--of the
Middle Ages were not as devastating as in Languedoc and Gascony;
Provence was a sunny land, where Sonnets flourished more luxuriantly
than did Holy Inquisition. Her churches have therefore been preserved in
their original form in greater numbers than those of the two other
provinces. They are of all types of Romanesque, all stages of its
growth, from the small and simple Cathedrals which were built when
ecclesiastical exchequers were not overflowing, to the greater ones
which illustrate very advanced and dignified phases of architectural
development; and as a whole they exhibit the normal proportion of
failure and success in an effort toward an ideal.
[Sidenote: Languedoc.]
Leon Renier, the learned lecturer of the College de France, says: "It is
remarkable that the changes, the elaborations, the modifications of the
architecture given by Rome to all countries under her domination were
conceived in the provinces long before they were reproduced in Italy.
Rome gave no longer; she received ... a transfusion of a new blood, more
vital and more rich." In Languedoc, the greater number of monuments of
this ancient architecture have been destroyed; and those of their
outgrowth, the later Romanesque, were so repeatedly mutilated that the
Cathedrals of this province present even a greater confusion of
originalities, restorations, and additions than those of Provence. To a
multitude of dates must be added corresponding differences in style.
Each school of architecture naturally considered that it had somewhat of
a monopoly of good taste and beauty, or at least that it was an
improvement on the manner which preceded it; and it would have been too
much to expect, in ages when anachronisms were unrecognised, that
churches should have been restored in their consonant, original style.
Architects of the Gothic period were unable to resist the temptation of
continuing a Romanesque nave with a choir of their own school, and
builders of the XVIII century went still further and added a showy Louis
XV facade to a modest Romanesque Cathedral. Some churches, built in
times of religious storm and stress, show the preoccupation of their
patrons or the lack of talent of their constructors; others belong to
Bishoprics that were much more lately constituted than the Sees of
Provence, and in these cases the new prelate chose a church already
begun or completed, and compromised with the demands of episcopal pomp
by an addition, usually of different style. The numerous changes,
political and religious, of the Mediaevalism of Languedoc, had such
considerable and diverse influence on the architecture of the
province that it is not possible, as in Provence, to trace an
uninterrupted evolution of one style. The Languedocian is generally a
later builder than the Provencal; he is bolder. Having the Romanesque
and the Gothic as choice, he chose at will and seemingly at random. He
had spontaneity, enthusiasm, verve; and when no accepted model pleased
his taste, he re-created after his own liking. Languedoc has therefore a
delightful quality that is wanting in Provence; and in her greater
Cathedrals there is often an originality that is due to genius rather
than to eccentricity. There is delicate Gothic at Carcassonne, lofty
Gothic at Narbonne, Sainte-Cecile of Albi is fortified Gothic built in
brick. The interior of Saint-Sernin of Toulouse is an apotheosis of the
austere Romanesque, and Saint-Etienne of Agde is a gratifying type of
the Maritime Church of the Midi.
[Illustration: "CORRESPONDING DIFFERENCES IN STYLE."--CARCASSONNE.]
This Cathedral of the Sea is a fitting example of a peculiar type of
architecture which exists also in Provence,--a succession of
fortress-churches that extend along the Mediterranean from Spain to
Italy like the peaks of a mountain chain. Nothing can better illustrate
the continuous warrings and raidings in the South of France than these
strange churches, and their many fortified counterparts inland, in both
Languedoc and Gascony. Castles and walled towns were not sufficient to
protect the Southerner from invasions and incursions; his churches and
Cathedrals, even to the XIV century, were strongholds, more suitable for
men-at-arms than for priests, and seemingly dedicated to some war-god
rather than to the gentle Virgin Mother and the Martyr-Saints under
whose protection they nominally dwelt.