distinction. Rollo and William Longue Epée have already been mentioned
as interred here. The church also contained the lion-heart of the first
English Richard, and the remains of his elder brother, Henry; together
with those of William, son of Geoffrey Plantagenet; of the Regent Duke
of Bedford; and of Charles V. of France. The tombs of these, and of
various other individuals of high rank, are described at length by
Pommeraye; but the outrages of the Calvinists and the democrats, added
to the removals occasioned by the alterations made at various times in
the building, have now destroyed nearly the whole of them, excepting
those raised to the two Cardinals D'Amboise, both of them archbishops of
Rouen, and that which commemorates Louis de Brezé, Grand Seneschal of
Normandy. These monuments are placed on opposite sides of the
Lady-Chapel; the former as conspicuous for its many sumptuous ornaments,
as the latter for its chaste simplicity.
The archbishop of Rouen, prior to the revolution, took the title of
_Primate of Neustria_; and his spiritual jurisdiction then extended over
six suffragans, the bishops of Bayeux, Avranches, Evreux, Séez, Lisieux,
and Coutances. Not many years previously, it had also embraced the
Canadian churches, together with the whole of French North-America; but
the appointment of a bishop at Quebec, deprived it of its trans-atlantic
sway; and the concordat, in the time of Napoléon, reduced the number of
the suffragan prelates to four, taking the mitres from Avranches and
Lisieux. A still more important alteration has been occasioned by modern
times, in the archiepiscopal revenues. It had been customary throughout
France, before the recent changes, in speaking of the see of Rouen, to
designate it by the epithet, _rich_; an appellation that would now be
wofully misapplied. The archbishop then possessed, in addition to the
usual sources of ecclesiastical income, a peculiar privilege, entitled
the right of _Déport_; by virtue of which, he claimed the receipt of the
first year's proceeds of every benefice which might become vacant in his
diocese, whether by the resignation or death of the incumbent.[105]
A station so enviable as that of archbishop of Rouen, has been at almost
all times in the hands of some individual belonging to one of the
principal families of the kingdom. Among others, those of Luxembourg,
Bourbon, D'Estouteville, D'Amboise, Joyeuse, Harlay, Colbert, and
Tressan, have successively held it. To sum up the catalogue, in the
words of Pommeraye, "the cathedral has furnished many saints for heaven,
one pope for the apostolic chair, and thirteen cardinals to the church;
nine of its prelates have belonged to the royal family of France; and
many others, eminent for their birth, have been still more so for their
own merit, and for the services they have rendered to the catholic
church and the state."
NOTES:
[93] The destroying of dragons, or fiery serpents, or similar monsters,
appears to have been the most common of all miracles, in the early ages
of Christianity. After the exploits of St. Michael, St. Margaret, and
St. George, ecclesiastical history abounds in similar legends. St.
Romain, St. Marcel, St. Julian, St. Martial, St. Bertrand, St. Martha,
and St. Clement, make but a small proportion of the saints who
distinguished themselves by these acts of pious heroism. The dragons of
Rouen and of Metz were of sufficient celebrity to acquire the distinct
names of the _Gargouille_, and the _Graouilli_.--It has been commonly
supposed, that these various miracles were allegorical, and intended to
typify the confining of rivers within their channels, or the limiting of
the incursions of the sea. Other authors have been inclined to account
for their prevalence, as having reference to the sun, or to astronomical
phænomena; but surely the most simple and satisfactory mode of
explaining them, lies in considering the dragon as the emblem of evil,
and the various victories gained over dragons, as so many conquests
obtained by virtue over vice.--A considerable fund of curious
information, on this subject, will be found in the _Magasin
Encyclopédique_ for _January, 1812_, p. 1-24, in a paper by M. Eusèbe
Salverte, entitled _Légendes du Moyen Age_.
[94] _Histoire des Archevêques de Rouen_, p. 40.
[95] _Histoire de la Cathédrale de Rouen_, p. 19.
[96] _Histoire de la Cathédrale de Rouen_, p. 625.
[97] Not, however, in the identical spot in which they were originally
deposited: they were at first laid in the immediate vicinity of the high
altar, but were, before the close of the eleventh century, removed to
the situations they now occupy, in chapels on opposite sides of the
upper end of the nave. The following account of their tombs, with the
statues and inscriptions, is transcribed from _Gilbert's Description
Historique de l'Eglise de Notre Dame de Rouen_, p. 57:--"Le tombeau de
Rollon est placé dans un enfoncement cintré, pratiqué dans le mur de la
chapelle; il consiste en un sarcophage de stuc, marbre de Portor, sur
lequel se voit la statue couchée de ce prince, dont la tête est appuyée
sur un coussin. Rollon est vêtu d'une longue tunique, par-dessus
laquelle est un manteau couleur de pourpre, ou espèce de chlamyde
attachée à l'épaule droite; il porte sur sa tête une couronne. Cette
statue a été un peu mutilée. Au-dessus de l'arcade dans laquelle est le
tombeau, on lit l'inscription suivante, gravée en lettres d'or sur un
marbre noir:
HIC POSITUS EST
ROLLO
NORMANNIÆ A SE TERRITAE VASTATÆ
RESTITUTÆ
PRIMUS DUX CONDITOR PATER
A FRANCONE ARCHIEP. ROTOM.
BAPTIZATUS ANNO DCCCCXIII
OBIIT ANNO DCCCCXVII
OSSA IPSIUS IN VETERI SANCTUARIO
NUNC CAPITE NAVIS PRIMUM
CONDITA,
TRANSLATO ALTARI, COLLOCATA
SUNT A B. MAURILIO ARCHIEP. ROTOM.
AN. MLXIII.
Au-dessus de cette inscription est une urne en stuc, marbre de Portor.
L'archivolte de l'arcade est en stuc blanc veiné de gris, ainsi que le
lambris qui décore le pourtour de la chapelle. Tous ces ouvrages sont
modernes, à l'exception de la statue du duc Rollon, qui paroit avoir été
exécutée dans le treizième siècle.
Dans la chapelle de Saint-Anne, située de l'autre côté de la nef, se
voit le tombeau de Guillaume _Longue-Epée_, fils de Rollon, et second duc
de Normandie, mort victime de la plus infâme trahison, dans l'entrevue
qu'il eut à Pecquigny, le 18 Décembre, 944, avec Arnoul, comte de
Flandres. Le corps du duc Guillaume fut apporté à Rouen et inhumé dans
la cathédrale. [Voyez Servin, _Hist. de Rouen_, tom. I. p. 118 et 119.]
Sur le sarcophage en stuc, marbre de Portor, est placée la statue du
duc, vêtu d'une longue tunique, et tenant à la main un sceptre qui a été
mutilé. Au-dessus de l'arcade enfoncée, dans laquelle est la sépulture
du prince, on lit l'inscription suivante, gravée en lettres d'or sur un
marbre noir:
HIC POSITUS EST
GUILLELMUS DICTUS LONGA SPATA
ROLLONIS FILIUS
DUX NORMANNIÆ
PRODITORIE OCCISUS DCCCCXXXXIV
OSSA IPSIUS IN VETERI SANCTUARIO,
UBI NUNC EST CAPUT NAVIS PRIMUM
CONDITA, TRANSLATO ALTARI, HIC
COLLOCATA SUNT A B. MAURILIO
ARCHIEPISC. ROTOM.
ANNO MLXIII."
[98] "Rotomagensi namque urbe in honore genetricis Dei ampliavit
mirabile monasterium, longitudinis, latitudinisque, atque altitudinis
honorificæ exspatiatum incremento."--_Duchesne, Scriptores Normanni_, p.
153.
[99] _Pommeraye, Histoire de l'Eglise Cathédrale de Rouen_, p. 36.
[100] The following are the dimensions of the principal parts of the
cathedral, in French measure, copied from Mr. Turner's _Tour in
Normandy_, I. p. 147:--
FEET.
Length of the interior 408
Width of ditto 88
Length of nave 210
Width of ditto 27
Ditto of aisles 15
Length of choir 110
Width of ditto 35-1/2
Ditto of transept 25-1/2
Length of ditto 164
Ditto of Lady-Chapel 88
Width of ditto 28
Height of spire 380
Ditto of towers at the west end 230
Ditto of nave 84
Ditto of aisles and chapels 42
Ditto of interior of central tower 152
Depth of chapels 10
[101] _Turner's Tour in Normandy_, I. p. 139.--The mention of this
sculpture affords an opportunity of pointing out what appears a singular
error on the part of the late M. Millin, in his _Voyage dans les
Départemens du Midi de la France_. He has figured, in the atlas to that
work, _plate twelve_, a bas-relief of the eleventh century, representing
the assassination of Count Dalmace, by the hands of his son-in-law,
Robert I. Duke of Burgundy; and, in the lower compartment, containing a
banquet, he explains one of the figures (I. p. 190) to be the Earl
falling from the table; whereas, a comparison with the sculpture at
Rouen will scarcely leave a doubt, that it was designed for a
dancing-girl, introduced for the amusement of the company.
[102] _Pommeraye, Histoire de l'Eglise Cathédrale de Rouen_, p. 33.
[103] _Turner's Tour in Normandy_, I. p. 144.
[104] _Bibliographical, Antiquarian, and Picturesque Tour in France and
Germany_, I. p. 50.
[105] _Pommeraye, Histoire des Archevêques de Rouen_, p. 22.
PLATE LIII.
CRYPT IN THE CHURCH OF ST. GERVAIS, AT ROUEN.
It has been inferred, and with much apparent probability, from the
silence of Julius Cæsar, that the proud capital of Normandy had either
no existence in the time of that general, or was at most only a place of
small importance. There have not, however, been wanting, among the
historians of Rouen, some, who, jealous, as usual, for the honor of
their city, ascribe to it an antiquity beyond the deluge, and trust to
the latter half of its classical name, for bearing them out in the
assertion, that its foundations were laid by Magus, the son and
successor of Samothes, first king of Gaul. Others, more moderate, have
contented themselves with the belief, that, although Cæsar does not make
mention of Rothomagus, there is still no reason to question its
existence before the Christian æra, or to doubt that it was then the
chief town of the Velocasses, as Lillebonne was of the neighboring tribe
of the Caletes, the inhabitants of the present _Pays de Caux_. It is at
least known with certainty, that, in the division of Gaul, which took
place not very long afterwards, into seventeen provinces, Rouen became
the metropolis of the _Lugdunensis Secunda_; and that, from that time
forwards, it continued gradually to rise in consequence, till the
establishment of Neustria into an independent sovereignty stamped it
with the title of the capital of a nation.
At the present time, Rouen can shew scarcely any remains of Roman
antiquity: "the wide waste of all-devouring years," has effaced those
vestiges which that powerful people seldom failed to have impressed,
wherever their dominion had once been firmly established. The small
church of St. Gervais, derives therefore a peculiar interest, as
exhibiting proofs, sufficiently decided, though far from important, of a
connection with Italy. These proofs rest principally upon the Roman
bricks and other _débris_, some of them rudely sculptured, which have
been employed in the construction of the piers of the crypt, and upon
the sculpture of the capitals of some columns on the exterior of the
apsis.
The church of St. Gervais is situated at a short distance without the
walls of Rouen, upon a slight eminence, adjoining the Roman road to
Lillebonne, and near a rising ground, commonly called the _Mont aux
Malades_, as having been, in the eleventh century, the site of a
monastery, destined for the reception of lepers. According to
Farin,[106] the church was originally an abbey, and is expressly
recognized as such in a charter of Duke Richard II. dated A.D. 1020; in
which, among other donations to his favorite monastery at Fécamp, he
enumerates, "item _Abbatiam_ Sancti Gervasii, quæ est juxta civitatem
Rothomagum, et quicquid ad ipsam pertinet." The authors of the _Gallia
Christiana_[107] add that, "at the time when this abbey was conferred
upon Fécamp, it was taken from the monks of St. Peter at Chartres." Two
centuries subsequently, St. Gervais appears to have sunk into the rank
of a simple priory, under the immediate control of the monks of Fécamp,
who assumed the title of its priors. In process of time, the still
humbler name and dignity of a parochial church were alone left; but the
period at which this last change took place, is not recorded. The abbot
of Fécamp continued, however, till the period of the revolution, to
exercise spiritual jurisdiction over what was termed the barony of St.
Gervais; including not only this single parish; but some others
dependent upon it. He nominated to the livings, directed the religious
establishments, had entire control over the prisons, and was entitled to
all privileges arising from the fair of St. Gervais, which was annually
held at Rouen, in the Fauxbourg Cauchoise, on the twentieth of June. It
is even on record, that in the year 1400, the abbot ventured upon the
bold experiment of forbidding William de Vienne, then archbishop of
Rouen, either to carry his cross, or to give his benediction within the
precincts of his jurisdiction; but so daring an assumption of power was
not to be tolerated, and the matter was accordingly referred to the
parliament of Paris, who decided in this instance against the abbot.
[Illustration: Plate 53. CRYPT IN THE CHURCH OF ST. GERVAIS AT ROUEN.]
Adjoining to the church of St. Gervais, stood originally one of the
palaces of the Norman Dukes and it was to this[108] that William the
Conqueror caused himself to be conveyed, when attacked with his mortal
illness, after having wantonly reduced the town of Mantes to ashes.
Here, too, that mighty monarch breathed his last, and left a sad warning
to future conquerors; deserted by his friends and physicians, the moment
he was no more; while his menials plundered his property, and his body
lay naked and deserted in the hall.
The ducal palace, and the monastic buildings, are now wholly destroyed.
Fortunately, however, the church still remains, and preserves some
portions of the original structure, more interesting from their features
than their extent. The exterior of the apsis is very curious: it is
obtusely angular, and faced at the corners with large rude columns, of
whose capitals, some are Doric and Corinthian, others as wild as the
fancies of the Norman lords of the country. None reach so high as the
cornice of the roof; it having been the design of the original
architect, that a portion of work should intervene between the summits
of the capitals and this member. A capital to the north is remarkable
for the eagles carved upon it, as if with some allusion to Roman power.
But the most singular part of this church is the crypt under the apsis,
represented in the plate; a room about thirty feet long, by fourteen
wide, and sixteen high, of extreme simplicity, and remote antiquity.
Round it runs a plain stone bench; and it is divided into two unequal
parts by a circular arch, devoid of columns or of any ornament whatever.
Here, according to Ordericus Vitalis,[109] was interred the body of St.
Mello, the first archbishop of Rouen, and one of the apostles of
Neustria; and here his tomb, and that of his successor, Avitien, are
shewn to this day, in plain niches, on opposite sides of the wall. St.
Mello's remains, however, were not suffered to rest in peace; for, about
five hundred and seventy years after his death, which happened in the
year 314, they were removed to the castle of Pontoise, lest the
canonized corpse should be violated by the heathen Normans. The
existence of these tombs, and the antiquity of the crypt, recorded as it
is by history, and confirmed by the style of its architecture, have
given currency to the tradition, which points it out as the only temple
where the primitive Christians of Neustria dared to assemble for the
performance of divine service. Many stone coffins have also been
discovered in the vicinity of the church. These sarcophagi serve to
confirm the general tradition; they are of the simplest form, and
apparently as ancient as the crypt; and they were so placed in the
ground, that the heads of the corpses were turned to the east, a
position denoting that the dead received Christian burial.
NOTES:
[106] _Histoire de la Ville de Rouen_, v. p. 1.
[107] XI. p. 124. A.
[108] The whole of the remainder of this article is transcribed from
_Turner's Tour in Normandy_, I. p. 125.
[109] _Duchesne, Scriptores Normanni_, p. 558.
PLATE LIV.
CHURCH OF ST. PAUL, AT ROUEN.
[Illustration: Plate 54. CHURCH OF ST. PAUL, AT ROUEN.
_East End._]
Next to the church of St. Gervais, that of St. Paul is the most
interesting relic of ancient architecture among the ecclesiastical
buildings at Rouen. Indeed, it may be considered as the only other of an
early date; the round tower attached to the abbatial church of St.
Ouen[110] being altogether inconsiderable, and indebted for its
principal interest to its connection with an abbey endowed with such
extensive possessions, and gifted with so much reported sanctity.
The foundation of the church of St. Paul is of very remote antiquity: it
is said to have been laid by St. Romain, in memory of his great victory
over heathenism, when, triumphant, he erected the banner of the cross
upon the ashes of the temple of Venus. Impure was the goddess, and most
impure were her rites; so that, to use the words of Taillepied, in
speaking of this same temple, "là dedans la jeunesse, à bride avallée,
souloit se souiller et polluer par ordre luxure et paillardise
abominable, ne ayant égard qu'auprès de ce lieu y avoit un repaire de
malins esprits qui faisoyent sortir une fumée tant puante et infecte que
la mortalité s'en ensuyvoit par après."
This very remark concerning the infectious vapor, seems decisive as to
the feet of the church of St. Paul occupying the site of the pagan fane.
It stands without the walls of the town, upon elevated ground, at a very
short distance to the right of the barrier below Mont St. Catherine, on
the road to Paris, in the immediate vicinity of some mineral springs,
strongly impregnated with iron. Prior to the revolution, the church was
under the jurisdiction of the monastery of Montivilliers. The abbess had
the right of nomination to the vacant benefice; and, till the middle of
the seventeenth century, she was in the habit of regarding St. Paul's as
a priory, and fixing there a colony of her nuns. But they were all
recalled in 1650, and were never afterwards succeeded by a fresh
establishment.
Respecting the various changes of the edifice, Farin contents himself
with the brief remark, "that it was repeatedly destroyed during the
wars, and rebuilt by the liberality of the Norman Dukes."[111] The
eastern part of what is now standing is evidently of Norman time; and,
architecturally considered, it is a most curious specimen, being
probably the only church in existence which terminates to the east in
three semi-circular compartments. Of these, the central division is
considerably the most lofty, as well as the most prominent; and the
arrangement of the corbel-table, which is carried equally round them
all, proves that it must always have been so. The sculpture of this
corbel-table is viewed by the Norman antiquaries with peculiar interest:
some of the heads, with widely distended jaws, beset with teeth of
enormous size, represent wolves; others, with human features and
whiskered upper lips, are supposed to be intended for the Saxon foe,
who, at the time of the Norman invasion, were induced, we are told, by
the smooth faces of their opponents, to entertain the erroneous belief,
that the approaching host was but an army of priests. Mr. Cotman, who
has observed in similar situations, in many other parts of Normandy,
faces equally shadowed with whiskers, has been led to the suspicion,
that they were intended in derision of the Saxons.
Internally, the triple circular ending of the church is no longer
observable. Both of the lateral divisions are parted off at the
extremity, and formed into distinct apartments: the southern is applied
to the purpose of a sacristy, while the northern serves merely as a
lumber-room. The nave, which is thrice the width of the chancel, and is
clearly of a date comparatively modern, is separated from the more
eastern portion of the building by a semi-circular arch. The sculpture
upon the capitals appears of Roman design: that on one of them, exhibits
a row of graceful figures in a pure classical taste, intent upon some
action, but so much mutilated, that it would be now no easy task to
conjecture the object of the artist. The aisles of the chancel are
divided from the central compartment by double arches, a larger and a
smaller being united together, all of them semi-circular, and all of the
Norman style of architecture. Attached to the eastern end of the church,
within the lumber-room just mentioned, stands a piece of Roman
sculpture, supposed by M. Le Prevost to have served originally for an
altar. Mr. Turner has given a figure of it in his Tour; and he
conjectures, that it was of the workmanship of the fourth century; a
supposition founded upon the resemblance borne by its ornaments, to
those upon the pedestal of the obelisk raised by Theodosius, in the
Hippodrome at Constantinople, as represented in the elaborate
publication of the late M. Seroux d'Agincourt.[112]
NOTES:
[110] Figured in _Turner's Tour in Normandy_, I. p. 127.
[111] _Histoire de la Ville de Rouen_, v. p. 8.
[112] _Histoire de la décadence de l'Art_, pl. 10, _Sculpture_, fig.
4-7.
ARCHITECTURAL
ANTIQUITIES
OF
NORMANDY,
BY
JOHN SELL COTMAN;
ACCOMPANIED BY
HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE NOTICES
BY
DAWSON TURNER, ESQ. F.R. AND A.S.
VOLUME THE SECOND.
[Illustration: Coat of arms of the Duchy of Normandy.
Emblems of the towns of Rouen and Caen.]
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR JOHN AND ARTHUR ARCH, CORNHILL;
AND J. S. COTMAN, YARMOUTH.
MDCCCXXII.
PLATES IN THE SECOND VOLUME.
PLATE.
55. Church of St. Nicholas, at Caen, West End to face page 59
56. -- -- -- -- East End 60
57. Church at Cheux, near Caen, from the North-East 62
58. Church at Bieville, from the North-West 63
59. -- -- Elevations and Details 64
60. Church at Fontaine-le-Henri, near Caen, North Side of Chancel 65
61. -- -- -- -- -- Elevations 66
62. Château at Fontaine-le-Henri, near Caen 67
63. -- -- -- -- -- Elevation of
central Compartment 68
64. House in the Place de la Pucelle, at Rouen 69
65. House in the Rue St. Jean, at Caen 70
66. Tower of the Church at Tréport, near Caen 71
67. Church of Anisy, near Caen 73
68. Church of Perriers, near Caen 74
69. Castle of Lillebonne 75
70. Castle of Briquebec 77
71. Church of St. Stephen's, at Fécamp 79
72. Screen in the Church of St. Lawrence, at Eu 81
73. \ Church of St. Peter, at Lisieux, West Front 83
74. /
75. -- -- -- -- South Transept 86
76. Abbey Church of St. Ouen, at Rouen 87
77. Fountain of the Stone Cross, at Rouen 90
78. Palace of Justice, at Rouen 91
79. Church of Louviers, South Porch 93
80. Château Gaillard, North-East View 95
81. -- -- South-West View 96
82. Abbey Church of Montivilliers, West End 97
83. Church of St. Sanson sur Rille 99
84. Church of Foullebec, West Door-way 100
85. Castle at Tancarville 101
86. Entrance to the Castle at Tancarville 103
87. Church of the Holy Cross, at St. Lo, West Door-way 104
88. -- -- -- -- -- Sculpture 106
89. Castle of Falaise, North-West View 107
90. -- -- North View 109
91. Interior of the Church of Creully 110
92. \ Cathedral Church of Notre Dame, at Coutances, West Front 111
93. /
94. -- -- -- -- -- -- Elevation of
the Nave 115
95. Mount St. Michael, on the Approach from Pontorson 116
96. -- -- Interior of the Knights' Hall 120
97. Abbey Church of Cerisy, Interior of the Choir 121
98. Church at Oyestraham, West Front 122
99. Cathedral Church of Notre Dame, at Séez, West Front 123
100. -- -- -- -- -- Elevation of the
Nave 125