architecture, in its general plan and outline, is not of the amazing
beauty of the French, and is in a way lacking in mass effect. With
respect to details and accessories, however, the German churches are
graced with much that one would gladly find everywhere as an expression
of the artistic embellishment of a great religious edifice.
In spite of the austerity of many of these German churches in the fabric
itself, there is frequently an abounding wealth of accessory detail in
fitments and furnishings.
In France the Revolution made away with much decorative embellishment
and furniture of all sorts. The Reformation in Germany played no such
part, and so there is left much really artistic detail which contributes
a luxuriance that is wanting in constructive details.
The universally elaborate carven pulpits and choir-stalls are wonders of
their kind. It is true they are usually of wood instead of stone, but it
must be remembered that the Germans were ever great wood-workers.
The pulpits of Freiburg and Strasburg are thoroughly representative of
the best work of this kind. They may be said, moreover, to be of the
Gothic species only, whereas similar works elsewhere are most frequently
of the Renaissance period.
In no other European country are the altars so rich in detail, the
sacristies so full to overflowing with jewelled and precious metal cups,
vases, and chalices, or the crucifixes, triptychs, and candlesticks so
sumptuous.
In the cathedral at Aix-la-Chapelle the congregation seats itself upon
chairs; but most frequently in Germany one finds sturdy, though movable,
oaken benches.
Of the carved choir-stalls, those at St. Gérêon's at Cologne are the
most nearly perfect of their kind on the Rhine; those at Mayence, while
elaborately produced, being of a classic order which is manifestly pagan
and out of keeping in a Christian church.
German churches in general made much of the cloister, though not all of
the examples that formerly existed have come down to us undisturbed or
even in fragmentary condition. But, in spite of the Protestant
succession to many of the noble minsters, many of these cloisters have
endured in a fair state of preservation. Attached to the western end of
St. Maria in Capitola at Cologne is an admirable example, while the
Romanesque types at Bonn, at the abbey of Laach, and at Essen are truly
beautiful. Examples of the later pure Gothic construction are those at
Aix-la-Chapelle and Trèves.
[Illustration: _Chandelier, Aix-la-Chapelle_]
But little exterior sculpture has been preserved in all its originality
in the Rhenish provinces, revolutionary fury and its aftermath having
accounted for its disappearance or mutilation. In the Cistercian church
at the abbey of Altenburg, there is a plentiful display of foliaged
ornament, and there are the noble statues in the choir of the cathedral
at Cologne. Mayence has a series of monuments to the bishop-nobles
attached to the piers of the nave, and in the Liebfrau Kirche at Trèves
and the cathedral at Strasburg are seen the best and most numerous
features of this nature.
One of the most unusual of mediæval church furnishings, a sort of
chandelier, is seen both at Aix-la-Chapelle and Hildesheim. In each
instance it is a vast hoop-like pendant which bears the definition of
_coronæ lucis_. Others are found elsewhere in Germany, but not of the
great size of these two.
Organ-cases here as elsewhere are mostly abominations. The makers of
sweet music evidently thought that any heavy baroque combination of
wood-carving and leaden pipes was good enough so long as the flow of
melody was uninterrupted.
The stained glass throughout the Rhine valley is mostly good and
unusually abundant, and the freedom of this accessory from fanatical
desecration is most apparent. The same is true of such paintings as are
found hung in the churches, though seldom have they great names attached
to them; at least, not so great as would mark them for distinction were
they hung in any of the leading picture galleries of Europe.
At Essen the baptistery is separated from the main church, like that at
Ravenna, or at Aix-en-Provence, the two foremost examples of their kind.
A little to the westward of this minster, and joined to it by a
Romanesque ligature, is a three-bayed Gothic church which occupies the
site, or was built up from a former chapel dedicated to St. John the
Baptist.
[Illustration: FONT LIMBURG]
Sooner or later the custom became prevalent of erecting a baptismal font
within the precincts of the main church itself, thus doing away with a
structure especially devoted to the purpose. This change came in the
ninth century, hence no separate baptisteries are found dating from a
later epoch only, except as an avowed copy of the earlier custom.
At this time, too, immersion had given way to sprinkling merely, though
in many cases the German name still applied is that of _taufstein_,
meaning dipping-stone.
Late examples of fonts were frequently in metal, the most remarkable in
the Rhine valley being in St. Reinhold's at Dortmund, in St. Maria in
Capitola, and St. Peter's at Cologne, and in St. Mary's and St. James's
at Mayence.
One of the most elaborate, and certainly the most beautiful and
remarkable of all, is the stone font of the cathedral at Limburg.
VI
CONSTANCE AND SCHAFFHAUSEN
_Constance_
There is a sentimental interest attached to Constance and the lake which
lies at its door, which has come down to us through the pictures of the
painters and the verses of the poets. Aside from this, history has
played its great part so vividly that one could not forget it if he
would.
The city was founded about 297 A.D. In after years it fell before the
warlike Huns, and all but disappeared, until it became the seat of a
bishop in the sixth century, the jurisdiction of the bishopric extending
for a dozen leagues in all directions.
In the tenth century it became a _ville impériale_, and by the fifteenth
it had a population of more than forty thousand souls, and the bishopric
counted eight hundred thousand adherents. To-day the city proper has
decreased in numbers to a population which hovers closely about the
five thousand mark.
[Illustration: _Constance Cathedral_]
The emperors convoked many Diets at Constance, and in 1183 the peace was
signed here between the Emperor Barbarossa and the Lombard towns.
The cathedral, or münster, of Constance is dedicated to "Our Lady", and
is for the most part a highly satisfying example of a Renaissance
church, though here and there may be noticed the Gothic, which was
erected on the eleventh-century foundations.
The façade has been restored in recent years, and is flanked by two
pseudo-Romanesque towers or campaniles in the worst of taste.
The interior is divided into three naves by columns bearing rounded
arches. Above, in the grand nave, are a series of round-headed windows,
while those in the aisles are ogival.
The choir contains a series of Gothic stalls in stone, which, unless it
has very recently been scraped off, are covered with the ordinary cheap
whitewash.
The painted vaulting is atrocious, and, while its hideous colouring
lasts, it matters little whether it is of the Romanesque barrel style
or ogival. The nervures are there, so it must belong to the latter
variety, but it is all so thickly covered with what looks like enamel
paint and gaudy red and blue "lining" that it is painful to contemplate.
There is a fine statue of John Huss supporting the pulpit. It is an
adequate monument to one who made history so vivid that it reads almost
like legend. In the pavement is a _plaque_ of copper which indicates the
spot where Huss stood when his sentence was read out to him. According
to tradition--some have said that it was the ecclesiastical law--Huss
was hurled from the church by a _coup de pied_.
The organ-case, of the fifteenth century, which backs up the inside wall
of the façade, is one of the most gorgeous of its kind extant, although
there is no very high art expression to be discovered in the
overpowering mass of mahogany and lead pipes which, with inadequate
supports, hangs perilously upon a wall.
This particular organ-case is richly sculptured with foliage and figures
of men, demons, and what not. If it is symbolic, it is hard to trace the
connection between any religious motive and the actual appearance of
this ungainly mass of carved wood.
There is in the cathedral an elaborate allegorical painting by
Christopher Storer, a native of Constance, and executed in 1659 by the
order of Canon Sigismund Müller, who died in 1686, and whose tomb is
placed near by.
An immense retable is placed at the head of the nave. It is of fine
marble, and, though a seventeenth-century copy of Renaissance, is far
more beautiful than such ornaments usually are outside of Italy.
At the head of the left aisle is a chapel which also has an elaborate
marble retable of the same period. At the summit is a crucifix, and
below in niches are statues of St. Thomas, of Constantine, and of his
mother, Ste. Hélène. In the same chapel is a "Christ in the tomb", in
marble, surrounded by the twelve apostles.
From the same aisle ascends a charming ogival staircase ornamented with
statues and bas-reliefs. Separating the chapels from the aisles are two
magnificent iron grilles. In a Gothic chapel near the entrance is a fine
_cul de lampe_ sculptured to represent the history of Adam and Eve.
A cloister exists, in part to-day as it did of yore, to the northeast of
the cathedral. It is a highly beautiful example of fifteenth-century
work, with its arcades varying from the firm and dignified early Gothic
to the more flamboyant style of later years.
The church of St. Stephen is another ecclesiastical treasure of
Constance with a rank high among religious shrines.
St. Stephen's occupies the site formerly given to a chapel dedicated to
St. Nicholas, while not far away there was, in other times, another
known under the name of Maria Unter der Linden. The Bishop Salomon III.,
who occupied the see from 891 to 919, enlarged the first chapel, which
was further embellished in 935 by the Bishop Conrad of Altdorf, who
added a choir thereto.
This in time came to be known as St. Stephen's. It was entirely
renovated in 1047-51 by the Bishop Theodoric, who was interred therein
upon his death. The church served as the meeting-place of the famous
Roman tribunal known as the _Sacra Rota Romana_. Under the Bishop Otto
III., who was Margrave of Hochberg, it was entirely reconstructed in
1428, and to-day it is this fifteenth-century building that one sees.
Previously, if the records tell truly, the great windows of the
clerestory contained coloured glass of much beauty, but the remains of
to-day are so fragmentary as to only suggest this.
From 1522 to 1548 St. Stephen's was consecrated to the followers of
Luther, the first incumbent under this belief being the famous Jacob
Windner of Reutlingen.
The exterior of St. Stephen's is not in any way remarkable. The
bell-tower, which is very high, is a great square tower to the left of
the choir, surmounted by a steeple formerly covered with wooden
shingles, but in recent times coppered. The clock in this tower was the
gift of Bishop Otto III. There is also a fine chime of bells, which will
remind one of the churches of the Low Countries when he hears its limpid
notes ring out upon the still air.
The interior has been newly whitened with that peculiar local brand of
whitewash, and while bright and cheerful to contemplate, is also very
bare, caused perhaps by the vast size of the nave and choir.
The aisles are separated from the nave by ogival arches, rising from a
series of octagonal pillars, upon which are hung statues of the twelve
apostles. The wooden roof of the nave and its aisles is curious and
dates from 1600, but it is mostly hidden by a plaster covering which
was added in the early nineteenth century.
The gilded and highly decorated organ and its case dates from 1583. In
1819 and 1839 it was "restored," whatever that may mean with regard to
an organ, and at some time between the two dates were added two colossal
figures of David and St. Cecilia. There are numerous and elaborate
paintings in St. Stephen's which would make many more popular shrines
famous. The most notable are "St. John before King Wenceslas," "The
Stoning of St. Stephen," "The Glory of the Lamb," and an "Adoration,"
the work of Philip Memberger, who painted this last at the time of the
reëstablishment of the Catholic faith at Constance in 1550. A portrait
of the artist is preserved in the sacristy.
Many other works of art were demolished or carried away in the years of
the Reformation.
In 1414 three Popes disputed the honour of occupying the Holy See, John
XXIII., Gregory XII., and Benoit XIII. The Emperor Sigismund, after
having met the deputies of each of the aspirants at Como and Lodi,
assembled a council to put an end, if possible, to the anarchy which had
arisen within the Church. Its place of meeting was Constance, and the
emperors, kings, princes, cities, churches, and universities of Germany,
Sweden, Denmark, Hungary, Bohemia, and Italy all sent their deputations.
France was represented by Pierre d'Ailly, Archbishop of Cambrai, and
Jean Gerson, the chancellor of the University of Paris.
The Council of Constance was the most numerous body which had ever been
called together on behalf of the Church. It opened its sessions on the
5th of November, 1414, and continued until the 12th of April, 1418.
John XXIII. declared that he would abdicate if his two competitors would
agree to follow his example. Gregory XII. agreed to this and sent his
abdication to the council by an ambassador, Carlo Malatesta; but Benoit
XIII. fled to Spain and still clung tenaciously to the title of Pope.
Finally, at a conclave composed of thirty-two cardinals, Othon Colonna
was, in 1417, elected Pope under the name of Martin V.
The council held at Constance which condemned John Huss, who was a
Wyclif disciple before he was one of Luther's, took place in 1414. Huss
was condemned to be burned alive in 1415, and "he mounted the pile,"
says history, "with the courage of a martyr."
One may see in the Place Brühl, a kilometre from the centre of
Constance, the very spot where the "pile" was erected.
The present customs warehouse (Kaufhaus) formed Constance's famous
council-chamber, and to-day it is one of the most interesting
curiosities of the city.
The grand council-chamber is situated on the first floor of the
building, and was erected in 1388. Its length approximates two hundred
feet, and it is perhaps one hundred in width with a height of twenty
feet.
The ceiling is held aloft by fourteen wooden pillars, and there are
twenty-three windows.
There are no traces of wall decorations, and the opinion is hazarded
that the walls and pillars were, at the time of the council, hung with
draperies.
From the windows there is a fine view of the Lake of Constance, and but
a little distance away is the Franciscan convent, now transformed into a
factory, where was incarcerated John Huss previous to his martyrdom.
_Schaffhausen_
Of the falls of Schaffhausen, Victor Hugo wrote: "_Effroyable tumulte_."
This is the first impression. The four grand, overflowing channels of
the cataract tumble, rise and redescend in an eternal tempest of rage.
A musical German once said that the only way to express the tumult of
Schaffhausen's fall was to "put it to music." He probably had Wagner in
mind, and perhaps there are persons who could conjure up a picture of
its foam-decked course by means of the master's harmonies.
Montaigne was of a more practical turn of mind. He said: "_Cela arrête
le cours des bateaux et interrompt la navigation de ladite rivière_."
Compared with Niagara, Victoria Nyanza, or the great cataract at
Yosemite, the falls of Schaffhausen depict no great splendour of aspect,
though they are tumultuous and unqualifiedly picturesque. Furthermore,
they form a pretty setting for the little city of some five thousand
souls which bears the same name.
With Basel, Schaffhausen has preserved its mediæval character far more
than the other cities of Switzerland. Its streets are narrow and
irregular, and most of its houses are of the deep-gabled variety, many
of them having their fronts frescoed in truly theatrical fashion, the
effect, as might be supposed, being highly pleasing.
Schaffhausen owes its prominence in the commercial world to its falls,
which make it necessary for merchandise making its way between Constance
and the Lower Rhine to be transshipped at this point. The traffic is by
no means so large as that which goes on in the Lower Rhine, but it does
exist in proportions so considerable as to justify a certain activity in
this old-world town which is noticeable to-day, and which has existed
for many centuries. The name Schaffhausen (Schiffhausen) comes, it is
claimed, from the houses of the boatmen, and this seems sufficiently
plausible to be accepted without question.
The Fortress of Munoth dominates the city, crowning the height of Mont
Emmers. It occupies the site of an ancient Roman stronghold, and, like
its fellows which crown the heights bordering upon the German Rhine, is
formidable in its grimness if not for its actual value in modern
warfare.
In 1052, Count Eberhardt of Nellenburg founded an abbey here, and
accorded to the abbot rights and powers without limitation, so far as
the count's seigneurial lands were concerned. To-day, however,
Schaffhausen is not rich in ecclesiastical monuments. Its cathedral is a
Byzantine edifice of the twelfth century, and is a development from the
church of the ancient abbey founded by Count Eberhardt.
There are no constructive or decorative details which call for remark,
save twelve columns, each cut from a solid block of sandstone. They
measure perhaps twenty feet in height, and are three feet or more in
circumference.
There is no resemblance between the architecture of this church and
others in the Rhine valley; therefore it cannot be considered as typical
of any Rhenish manner of building.
St. John's is an ogival edifice also without any great merit, unless it
be that of a grandeur which is contrastingly out of place in its cramped
surroundings.
Below Schaffhausen is Sackingen, the third forest city of the Rhine. It
owes its origin to a convent of St. Hilaire, founded in the sixth
century by St. Fridolin.
The "Lives of the Saints" recounts how St. Columba and his disciples
left Ireland and came to Constance, where they separated and went their
various ways to evangelize the Rhine valley. To St. Fridolin fell that
part lying between Basel and Laufenburg. His bones are yet venerated in
the church of St. Hilaire.
[Illustration]
VII
BASEL AND COLMAR
_Basel_
After traversing several of the Swiss cantons, the Rhine leaves
Switzerland at Basel. After the breaking up of the vast empire of
Charlemagne, Basel came first under the authority of the Emperors of
Germany, and then under that of the kings of the second house of
Burgundy, until 1032, at which time the city became definitely
incorporated into the German Empire.
Rudolph of Hapsburg besieged the city in 1274, and through the
fourteenth and well into the fifteenth century it was the theatre of
many struggles between the bishops and the emperors.
In 1061 and 1431 important councils of the Church were held here.
In 1489, at the village of Dornach, scarce half a dozen miles from
Basel, took place that battle between six thousand Swiss and fifteen
thousand Austrians which made possible the future independence of
Switzerland.
During the sixteenth century Basel enjoyed a glorious era with respect
to science and art.
Its university, the oldest in Switzerland, founded by Pius II., shone
brilliantly with the reflected light of the philosopher Erasmus, the
alchemist Paracelsus, and many theologians and geographers. Hans Holbein
was born here in the seventeenth century.
The Rhine divides the city into two unequal parts, which are connected
by a bridge which was originally constructed in 1220.
Although Basel bears even yet, in its architecture, the stamp of an
imperial city of the middle ages, it must be counted as somewhat modern.
Nevertheless, of all the cities of the first rank in Switzerland it
resisted the march of innovation the longest. For instance, there was a
time when all the clocks of the city were an hour behind those of their
neighbours. In 1778, however, the Swiss government decreed that on the
first of the following January all the clocks of the city must be
regulated by solar time. The innovation excited the indignation of the
people exceedingly; but, fifteen days after the date originally set, the
city fell in with the new regulation, and took up anew the routine of
its life.
[Illustration: CATHEDRAL CLOCK BÂLE]
"The most magnificent of the Swiss women," says a gallant French writer,
"are those of Basel, but they know too much (at all times and all
places)," he continued, somewhat dulling the effect of his praises.
"They have an elegance of carriage and dress, which, added to their
naturally agreeable qualities, gives them a preëminence over all other
women of Switzerland."
All this is as flowery a compliment as the fair sex of any country could
receive, and, judging from appearances, as one lingers a few hours or a
few days in Basel, it is all true.
The most remarkable of all the edifices of Basel is its cathedral, or
münster, dedicated to the Virgin.
In certain of its features one finds a distinct Lombard influence,--in
its sculptures and carvings, notably the two carved lions in the crypt,
which are the counterparts of others at Modena and Verona in
Italy,--though in general it is a Gothic structure.
The cathedral was founded by the Emperor Henry II. of Bavaria in 1010,
and was dedicated in 1019.
It is constructed of red sandstone, as are the chief of the
architectural monuments along the Rhine, and is an imposing example of
the Gothic of that time.
The great portal on the west is richly decorated in the archivolt. It is
flanked on either side by an arcade whose buttress pillars are each
surmounted by a statue in a canopied niche or _baldaquin_.
[Illustration]
At the foot of the north tower is an equestrian statue of St. George and
the Dragon, and at the angle of the southern tower is another of St.
Martin.
Two small doorways, each entering the side aisles, flank the arcade of
the portal. Above the principal doorway of this façade is a _balcon à
jour_ before the great window which lights the main nave.
The towers rise beside this great window, and are of themselves perhaps
the most remarkable features of the church.
They are not exactly alike, but they reflect more than any other part of
the edifice the characteristics of the Gothic of these parts. The
northern tower was completed in 1500, and is sixty-six metres in height.
The southern tower is perhaps more ornate, and resembles, if somewhat
faintly, Texier's beautiful spire at Chartres.
The ogival windows of the side walls are strong and of ample
proportions.
At the extremity of the north transept is a doorway known as the Porte
de St. Gall, decorated with statues of the four evangelists. Above is a
great round window of the variety so commonly seen in France. It is
here known as the "Wheel of Fortune." It is not a particularly graceful
design, the rays or spokes being formed of tiny _colonnettes_, but is
interesting nevertheless and quite unusual along the Rhine.
The coping of the roof of the nave is formed of party-coloured tiles,
which give it a singular bizarre effect when viewed from near by.
The interior divides itself in the conventional manner into three naves,
which are bare and with no ornamentation whatever.
The pulpit is a real work of art, and there are some sculptured capitals
in the choir which are quite excellent.