|NOYON is really a most beautiful little town asleep amid surrounding
heavy verdure and, with its dominating cathedral towers of Notre Dame,
half Romanesque, half Gothic, which architects pronounce one of the best
specimens of the transition period in France, is a veritable storehouse
of interest." (I find this in my notebook, dated July, 1910.)
It was named by the Romans "Noviodunam Veroman-duorum" and was notable
as the residence of the great Bishops SS. Medard and Eloi.
Here Charlemagne was crowned King of the Franks in 768. Jacques Sarrazin
was born here in 1592, and a monument to him by the sculptor Mohlknecht
was placed on the promenade in 1851.
Just what the invaders have done to this sleepy, peaceful, little town,
can not at this writing be ascertained, but it is reported that the
great towers of the cathedral have been shot away, and that most of the
town is a mass of shapeless debris. Mr. Ralph Adams Cram, the eminent
architect who has made a study of the cathedral, says in his scholarly
and informing book ("The Heart of Europe," p. 99), "The ancient
cathedral was burned in 1131, and the present work begun shortly
after, though it is hard to believe that much of the existing structure
antedates the year 1150. The crossing and transepts date from about
1170, and the nave ten years later, while the west front and towers are
of the early part of the next century. The certainty and calm assurance
of the work is remarkable. Paris, which is later, is full of tentative
experiments, but there is no halting here, rather a severe certainty
of touch that is perfectly convincing.... In 1293 the whole town was
destroyed by fire, and the cathedral wrecked; but it was immediately
reconstructed, however; and at this time the sexpartite gave place to
the quadripartite vaulting, while the west front with its great towers,
very noble in their proportions and their powerful buttressing, was
completed."
From the earliest days Noyon in common with its neighboring towns seems
to have had a hard time of it, whether in war or peace. The communes
constantly fought with each other, the ancient burghers of Noyon being
at daily loggerheads with the established metropolitan clergy. A
certain Baudri de Larchainville, a native of Artois who had the title of
chaplain of the bishopric, "a man of wise and reflecting mind" who
did not share the violent aversion felt by most of his order for the
existing institutions of communes, realized that sooner or later all
would have to bow to authority, and that it was better to surrender to
the wishes of the citizens than to shed blood in order to postpone an
unavoidable revolution.
Elected Bishop of Noyon in 1098, he found this town in the same state
of unrest and insurrection as Cambrai. The registers of the church
contained a host of documents entitled "Peace Made between Us and the
Burghers of Noyon."
But no reconciliation was lasting. "The truce was soon broken either by
the clergy or by the citizens, who were the more touchy in that they had
less security for their persons and their property."
The new bishop believed that the establishment of a commune sworn to
by both the rival parties might become a sort of compact of alliance
between them, and he set about realizing this noble idea before the word
commune had served at Noyon as the rallying cry of popular insurrection.
"Of his own mere motion he convoked in assembly all the inhabitants of
the town, clergy, knights, traders, and craftsmen. He presented them
with a charter which constituted the body of burghers, an association
forever under magistrates called _Jurymen_, like those of Cambrai.
'Whosoever,' said the charter, 'shall desire to enter this commune shall
not be able to be received as a member of it by a single individual, but
only in the presence of the Jurymen. The sum of money he shall then give
shall be employed for the benefit of the town, and not for the private
advantage of any one whatsoever. If the commune be outraged, all those
who have sworn to it shall be bound to march to its defense, and none
shall be empowered to remain at home unless he be infirm or sick, or
so poor that he must needs be himself the watcher of his own wife and
children lying sick. If any one have wounded or slain any one on the
territory of the commune, the Jurymen shall take vengeance therefor.'"
The other articles guarantee to the members of the commune of Noyon the
complete ownership of their property, and the right of not being handed
over to justice save before their own municipal magistrates. The bishop
first swore to this charter, and the inhabitants of every condition
took the same oath after him. In virtue of his pontifical authority
he pronounced the anathema, and all the curses of the Old and New
Testament, against whoever should in time to come try to dissolve the
commune or infringe its regulations. Furthermore, in order to give this
new pact a stronger warranty, Baudri requested the King of France, Louis
the Fat, to corroborate it, as they used to say at the time, by his
approbation and by the great seal of the Crown. The King consented to
this request of the bishop, and that was all the part taken by Louis the
Fat in the establishment of the Commune of Noyon.