below, all is simple, almost to meanness: the upper part abounds in
ornament; and here the good sense of the architect, who added the
pinnacles and spires, merits commendation, in having made them
correspond so well in their decorations with the towers. The plate
sufficiently explains all that is to be said of this part of the
building, excepting as to the more minute ornaments of the door-ways,
which deserve to be exhibited in detail. The architrave is composed of
several bands of the simplest moulding, inclosed within three of a
different style; the two outermost being formed of the chevron ornament,
with its angles unusually acute; the inner, of the billet moulding. The
capitals of the pillars are studded with small heads, placed under the
Ionic volute, exhibiting a mixture of classical and barbarous taste,
which is likewise to be found at Cérisy, and upon one of the capitals in
the abbey church of the Trinity.
Along the exterior of the upper part of the nave, runs a row of
twenty-four semi-circular arches, with imposts and bases, and all
uniform, except that eight of them are pierced for windows. This portion
of the building is entirely without buttresses. Upon the extremity of
the north transept are three very shallow buttresses, which rise from
the ground to the bottom of the clerestory windows, unbroken by any
interruption whatever, but here meet with a string-course, beyond which
the two outer ones are continued, unchanged in form and appearance, to
the summit of the ends of the gable, while the centre one, though it is
raised to an equal height, loses more than half its width, and is also
much reduced in depth. Over this latter buttress is a window; and
between the buttresses are six others, arranged in a double row. Each
pair differs in size from the rest: those nearest the ground are the
largest, and those immediately above them the least. The lowest pair on
each side is inclosed within a spacious arch, which occupies nearly
two-thirds of the gable. Eastward of the transepts is a series of blank
intersecting arches, remarkable for their mouldings, which consist of a
flat, wide, and very shallow band;[45] and here the mixture of the
pointed with the semi-circular architecture commences. This portion of
the building altogether resembles the cathedral of Coutances in the
disposition of its parts.
[Illustration: Plate 23. ABBEY CHURCH OF ST. ETIENNE, CAEN.
_Elevation of compartment of the Nave._]
It would be difficult to describe the interior of the church in clearer
or more comprehensive terms, than has been done by Mr. Cohen in Mr.
Turner's Tour,[46] from which work the following account is, therefore,
extracted.--"Without doubt, the architect was conversant with Roman
buildings, though he has Normanized their features, and adapted the
lines of the basilica to a _barbaric_ temple. The Coliseum furnished the
elevation of the nave;--semi-circular arches surmounted by another tier
of equal span, and springing at nearly an equal height from the basis of
the supporting pillars. The architraves connecting the lower rows of
pillars are distinctly enounced. The arches which rise from them have
plain bold mouldings. The piers between each arch are of considerable
width. In the centre of each pier is a column, which ascends as usual to
the vault. These columns are alternately simple and compound. The latter
are square pilasters, each fronted by a cylindrical column, which of
course projects farther into the nave than the simple columns; and thus
the nave is divided into bays. This system is imitated in the gothic
cathedral at Sens. The square pilaster ceases at about four-fifths of
its height: then two cylindrical pillars rise from it, so that, from
that point, the column becomes clustered. Angular brackets, sculptured
with knots, grotesque heads, and foliage, are affixed to the base of
these derivative pillars. A bold double-billeted moulding is continued
below the clerestory, whose windows adapt themselves to the binary
arrangement of the bays. A taller arch is flanked by a smaller one on
the right or the left side, as its situation requires. These are
supported by short massy pillars: an embattled moulding runs round the
windows.--In the choir the arches become pointed, but with Norman
mouldings: the apsis is a reconstruction. In that portion of the choir
which seems original, there are pointed windows formed by the
interlacing of circular arches: these light the gallery.--The effect
produced by the perspective of the interior is lofty and palatial. The
ancient masonry of the exterior is worthy of notice. The stones are all
small, perhaps not exceeding nine or twelve inches: the joints are about
three-quarters of an inch."
To this description, it may be well to add the following particulars
concerning the dimensions of the church, taken from the exterior:--
FEET.
Length from east to west 871
Height of western towers 145
----------------------- with their spires 262
-------- nave on the western front, to the point of the gable 98
-------- northern transepts 84
Width of ditto 42
It may also not be amiss to observe, that the nave is on either side
divided into nine compartments, the second and third of which, reckoning
from the west, on the south side, form the subject of the _twenty-third
plate_. The rest, though diversified in their ornaments, are uniform in
their plan, except only the one on either side, immediately adjoining
the entrance: each of these contains a slender shallow arch, not pierced
to the transepts, and rising from the pavement nearly to the top of the
upper windows. In that part of the church, two peculiarities will not
fail to be remarked: the greater width of the arches of the triforium,
than that of those below; and the balustrade of quatrefoils, which is
continued throughout this portion of the building. Immediately upon
entering the church, a doubt involuntarily suggests itself, how far this
balustrade may not be an addition of comparatively modern date. But,
upon the whole, there seems no reason to consider it so. Precisely the
same ornament is found upon the tomb of Berengaria, wife to Richard
Coeur-de-Lion, which Mr. Stothard has lately figured, and believes to be
coeval with the queen whom it commemorates.
The monument raised to William the Conqueror, in the middle of the choir
of this church, was violated and broken to pieces by the Calvinists, and
its contents wantonly destroyed, towards the close of the sixteenth
century. The account of the outrages then committed are given at length,
and with great naïveté, as well as feeling, by De Bourgueville,[47] who
was present on the occasion; and they have lately been translated into
English,[48] with the addition of some interesting details that
accompanied the death and funeral of the monarch. Nearly a hundred years
before that time, a cardinal, upon a visit to Caen, had opened the tomb
through curiosity. After the tumults caused by the Huguenots had
subsided, the monks of the convent, who had gotten possession of one of
the thigh-bones that had been preserved by the Viscount of Falaise,
re-interred it, and, out of gratitude to their founder, raised, in 1642,
a new monument of black marble, at great expense. One side of it bore
the original metrical epitaph, composed by Thomas, Archbishop of York,
beginning with the following line:--
"Qui rexit rigidos Normannos atque Britannos;"
on the other side, was an inscription[49] commemorative of the
circumstances attendant on the tomb; but this second tomb was also taken
away in 1742, by virtue of an order from Louis XV. empowering the
governor of Caen to remove the monarch's remains into the sanctuary, as
interfering, in their original position, with the ceremonies of the
church. A flat stone, in front of the high altar, succeeded to the
monument; and even this, the democrats of 1793 tore up. It was, however,
replaced by General Dugua, while Prefect of Caen, and it still holds its
situation.[50] There are no other monuments of any kind in the church.
Extensive buildings were attached to the abbey of St. Stephen; and,
among the rest, what was generally supposed to have been a royal palace,
and passed commonly under the name of the Palace of the Conqueror. As
every thing connected with the abbey was naturally referred by the
public to that sovereign, it will not appear surprising that this
edifice was so likewise, however little ground there may have been for
the appellation. Its having been called a palace, arose probably from
the circumstance of the French monarchs always residing in this
monastery, during their visits to Caen. The names of St. Louis, of John,
of Henry V. and of Francis I. are to be found in the list of those who
honored it with their presence. The greater part of the palatial
buildings were destroyed by the Huguenots; but portions of them were
standing in 1752, when Ducarel made his tour in Normandy; and he has
figured them. Among these was the most interesting part of the whole,
the great hall, the place in which the States of Normandy used to
assemble, as often as they were convened at Caen; and where the
Exchequer repeatedly held its sittings, after the recapture of Normandy,
by the kings of France, from its ancient dukes. This hall even escaped
the fury of revolutionists as well as Calvinists; but it was in the year
1802 altered by General Caffarelli, the then prefect, into rooms for the
college; and its superb painted windows were destroyed, together with
its pavement of glazed tiles, charged with heraldic bearings. The tiles
have long afforded scope for the learning and ingenuity of antiquaries,
some of whom have believed them coeval with the Conqueror; while others,
who hesitate about going quite so far, have regarded them as bearing the
arms of his companions. In the _Gallia Christiana_, the placing of them
is attributed to Robert de Chambray, who is there stated to have been
abbot from 1385 to 1393, a fact which the Abbé De la Rue utterly
disbelieves. He, however, is of opinion, that the tiles are of nearly
the same date, or a little earlier; and he considers them as belonging
to the families who had supplied abbots and monks to the convent.
NOTES:
[31] _Duchesne, Scriptores Normanni_, pp. 277 and 282.
[32] So says Huet, in his _Origines de Caen_, p. 175, upon the authority
of the Chronicle of the _Abbey of Bec_; and no attempt was made to
controvert this fact, till the recent publication of the Abbé De la
Rue's _Essais Historiques_, in which it is attempted to be proved, from
various indirect testimonies, that the building could not have been
finished till after the year 1070; indeed, that it could not even have
been begun at the time fixed by Huet for its completion, inasmuch as the
foundation charter, which must be of a date posterior to 1066, uses the
following expression.--"Ego Guillelmus, Anglorum Rex, Normannorum et
Coenomanorum princeps, Coenobium in honorem Dei ac Beatissimi
prothomartyris Stephani, intra Burgum, quem vulgari nomine vocant,
Cadomum, pro salute animæ meæ, uxoris, filiorum ac parentum meorum,
_disposui construendum_."
[33] See _Neustria Pia_, p. 639.
[34] Dom Blanchard, a Benedictine Monk, who left an unpublished history
of this monastery, says, "that the Conqueror obtained about the same
time from Constantinople, St. Stephen's skull; and that the translation
of it into the abbatial church was celebrated by an annual festival on
the eighth of October." The Cathedral of Soissons boasted of the
possession of the same relic; and of having also procured it from
Constantinople.--"Too much confidence," it is prudently observed by a
catholic writer on this subject, "must not be placed in the authenticity
of those relics, which cannot be traced to the date of St. Gregory of
Tours, the sixth century!"
[35] Lanfranc, after having for some time directed at Bec the first
school ever established in Normandy, upon his translation to Caen,
opened another in that town. In the _Lives of the Abbots of Bec_,
written in latin verse, in the twelfth century, by Peter, a monk of the
convent of Saint-Pierre-sur-Dives, particular honor is given to Lanfranc
on the subject of his school at Caen, which had produced many men
eminent for their proficiency in sacred and secular literature, and was
at that time flourishing. The Abbé De la Rue gives a long list of them.
_Essais Historiques_, II. p. 70.
[36] _Ordericus Vitalis_, in _Duchesne's Scriptores Normanni_, p. 549.
[37] _Essais Historiques_, II. p. 64.
[38] _Duchesne, Scriptores Normanni_, p. 663.
[39] _Neustria Pia_, p. 640.
[40] _Gallia Christiana_, II. p. 425.
[41] His name is not to be found in the list of abbots given in the
_Neustria Pia_; but the authors of the _Gallia Christiana_ say, (XI. p.
480,) "that he was nominated to the prelacy upon the resignation of the
thirty-fourth abbot, Charles d'O, and was confirmed in it by the States
of Blois. It is admitted, however, that, notwithstanding his appointment
in 1596, his predecessor continued to receive the emoluments of the
office, till 1624, and enjoyed a large pension arising from them, till
his death, in 1627."
[42] In speaking of these, the Abbé De la Rue takes occasion to lay down
a general rule, (_Essais Historiques_, II. p. 61) that "on ne trouve
ordinairement en Normandie, que des arcades semi-circulaires dans les
Xe. XIe. et XIIe. siècles; au contraire, les arcades en pointes des
nefs, des fenêtres et des portes des églises, autrement les arcades en
ogive, n'ont eu lieu chez nous que dans le XIIIe. siècle et les suivans.
On trouve également ces deux styles en Angleterre et aux mêmes époques,
et leur différence est une des principales règles qui servent aux
antiquaires Anglois, pour discerner les constructions Normandes et
Anglo-Normandes, des constructions d'un autre genre."--But Mr. Turner,
in his inquiries respecting the former cathedral of Lisieux, (_Tour in
Normandy_, II. p. 131) appears to have proved that the pointed arch must
have had existence at a considerably earlier period in France; and it is
expected, that some instances which will be adduced in the sequel of the
work, will have the effect of confirming his opinion.
[43] _Anglo-Norman Antiquities_, p. 57.
[44] _Sepulchral Monuments_, I. p. 247, t. 30.--The epitaph, which, in
the original, is full of contractions, it is supposed by the Abbé De la
Rue, should be read as follows:--
"Guillelmus jacet hic, petrarum summus in arte:
Iste novum perfecit opus; det premia Christus.
Amen."
[45] A similar row of arches is found on the north transept of Norwich
Cathedral, between the first and second tier of windows.--See _Britton's
Norwich Cathedral_, plate 10.
[46] II. p. 195.
[47] _Antiquités de Caen_, p. 171.
[48] _Turner's Tour in Normandy_, II. p. 203.
[49] See _Neustria Pia_, p. 656.
[50] The inscription upon it, which details the various events that had
befallen the tomb, is given in _Turner's Tour in Normandy_, II. p. 197.
PLATES XXIV.--XXXIII.
ABBEY OF THE HOLY TRINITY, AT CAEN.
[Illustration: Plate 24. ABBEY CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY, CAEN.
_West front._]
Mention has already been made, under the preceding subject, of the
origin of the convent of the Holy Trinity, whose church, though not an
equally extensive building as that of the monastery of St. Stephen, is
infinitely more rich in its decorations, and has been left almost
entirely in its original form. A more perfect example of a Norman
abbatial church, is perhaps no where to be found; and, as this edifice
had the farther advantage of having been raised at the period when the
province was at the acme of its power, of having been erected by an
individual of the highest rank, and of having owed its existence to an
occasion peculiarly calculated to call forth the exercise of the utmost
liberality and splendor, it has been conceived that the object of a work
like the present, could not be better answered, than by exhibiting such
a building in its fullest details.
With the churches of the Trinity and of St. Georges before him, the
reader will best be enabled to judge what Norman architecture really
was: no difficulty or doubt can arise as to the history or the date of
either; and he may rest satisfied, that whatever has been selected from
them, is, as far as human observation can decide, exactly in the state
in which it was left by the original builder.
The abbey of the Holy Trinity was founded in 1066, by Matilda of
Flanders, wife to William II. Duke of Normandy; and its church was
dedicated on the eighteenth of June of the same year, by Maurilius,
Archbishop of Rouen, assisted by the bishops and abbots of the province,
and in the presence of the duke and duchess, together with their
principal barons. The sovereign, upon the same day, presented at the
altar his infant daughter, Cecilia, devoting her to the service of God
in this monastery, in which she was accordingly educated, and was its
first nun and second abbess. History has recorded the name of the first
abbess, Matilda, and relates that she was of one of the most noble
families of the duchy; but no farther particulars are known respecting
her. The foundation-charters of this convent, which bear date in the
years 1066 and 1082, are full of donations in every respect princely;
and these, not only on the part of the sovereign, but also of his
nobles, whose signatures are likewise attached to the instruments. The
queen, also, at her decease, left the monastery her crown, sceptre, and
ornaments of state;[51] thus setting the example, which was shortly
afterwards followed by her royal consort, with regard to the abbey of
St. Stephen. Robert, the Conqueror's successor in the dukedom, was not
behind-hand with his father in his liberality to the convent of the
Trinity. The latter, in his charter, dated 1083, had reserved to himself
the right of the fishery of the Orne, together with sundry possessions
outside the walls of the town, in the direction of the suburb of
Vaugeux. All these were ceded by the new duke to his sister; and out of
the various grants, on the part of the father and son, was formed what
was denominated the _Bourg l'Abbesse_, or _Barony of St. Giles_. Duke
Robert did yet more; for, after having distinguished himself at the
capture of Jerusalem, and refused the crown of the Holy Land, he
brought home with him, on his return to France, and deposited in the
abbatial church founded by his mother, the great standard of the
Saracens, wrested from them by his valor in the field of Ascalon.
Among the privileges conferred upon the abbey of the Trinity, by the
Norman princes, was the right of holding a fair upon Trinity-Sunday and
the days that immediately preceded and followed it. The abbess, during
these days, was entitled to all the town dues; and, to leave no doubt of
her right, she was in the habit of sending some of her officers at
vespers time on the Friday, to affix her armorial bearings to every
entrance of the town. The same officers also attached their own boxes
for the receipt of customs to the gates, in lieu of those of the
farmer-general. Water alone could be brought in without payment of toll.
As long as the fair lasted, the abbess was likewise treated with
military honors; the commandant of the garrison, whatever his rank, was
bound to apply to her, in person, for the parole of the day. The Abbé De
la Rue, from whose work most of the historical facts concerning this
convent are extracted, states, that he has himself seen the Maréchal de
Harcourt, while governor of Normandy, wait upon the abbess for the
purpose; and he is of opinion, that the custom existed from the very
foundation of the monastery.
It will not be matter of surprise, that an establishment, thus gifted
and distinguished, should have been tenanted by the children of those
who had contributed to the endowment. The names of the daughters and
nieces of the chief Norman barons, will be found in the catalogue of the
first nuns. Such, however, was at that period the state of society, that
even an abbey, so founded, endowed, and occupied, was doomed to afford a
remarkable instance of the capricious barbarity of the times. No sooner
was the death of the Conqueror known, than the very nobles, who, but a
few years previously, had been foremost as benefactors to the convent,
assumed the opposite character, and did every thing in their power to
despoil, and to destroy it. They had themselves subscribed the following
denunciation:--"Si quis verò horum omnium, quæ prædictæ S. Trinitatis
ecclesiæ data ostensa sunt, temerariâ præsumptione aliquando, (quod
absit) violator effectus, in suâ impudenti obstinatione perstiterit:
Noverit ille se anathema factum a Domino, sanctâ ac beatâ fidelium
omnium communione privatum Divino judicio, perpetualitèr esse
plectendum."--But no consideration, human or divine, could restrain
their rapacity: they pillaged the lands; seized the corn and cattle
belonging to the monastery; imprisoned some of the tenants and vassals,
and put others to the sword. These, and many other facts, most curiously
illustrative of the manners of the age, are to be found in the
collection of the charters of the abbey. They prove indisputably, (if
such a fact needs proof) that the days of chivalry were far from being
days of honesty. But they also shew, what the reader may not be equally
prepared to see, that among these plunderers was Henry himself, the
Conqueror's youngest son, who did not scruple to lay waste the lands
given to the abbey by his mother; and who, as the Abbé de la Rue
remarks, had probably, even at that early period, conceived the
intention of seizing upon his paternal territory, and might be engaged
in the amassing of those pecuniary resources, by the aid of which he
ultimately succeeded in his usurpation of the throne.
Among the possessions of the abbey of the Holy Trinity, were several
estates[52] and advowsons in England; for the better administration of
which, the presence of the abbess was occasionally required on this side
of the water. The names of more than one of the holy ladies are on
record, who honored our island with their presence. The journal of the
tour of the abbess, Georgette du Molley Bacon, states her to have
embarked at Caen, on the sixteenth of August, 1570, with fifteen persons
in her suite, and to have landed in London, and proceeded to her
manor-house at Felsted, in Essex, from which she did not return to
Normandy till Trinity-Sunday in the following year.
Hence it may be easily inferred, that the rules of the convent were not
of the strictest description. The establishment indeed was, from its
origin, under the regulation of the order of St. Benedict, but the nuns,
though they lived under the same roof, were not bound by vows: they were
accustomed to receive their friends in their own apartments; and many of
them had nieces or other relations with them, whom they brought up. The
refectory was common; and they ate meat several days in the week. There
were also stated times, on which it was allowable for them to take the
air in a garden at a short distance from the convent. The abbess herself
had her Country-house at Oistreham, where she frequently resided; and
upon the occasion of those festivals which are distinguished by public
processions, the whole body of the community used to go in procession to
each of the different churches of Caen. Sometimes too the abbess
attended with a party of her nuns at the performance of any mystery or
similar scenical representation. The account of the revenues of the
monastery in 1423, shews how Nicole de Rupalley, then abbess, was
present at the acting of the _Miracle of St. Vincent_, and rewarded the
performers with a gratuity of ten sols, a sum equivalent, at that time,
to ten bushels of wheat.