foundation of the Norman throne, Fécamp was honored as a regal
residence. The palace is said to have been rebuilt by William
Longue-Epée, with extraordinary magnificence. That prince took great
pleasure in the chace; and he and his immediate successors frequently
lived here. He also selected the castle as a place of retirement for his
duchess, during her pregnancy with Richard. His choice, in this respect,
was probably not altogether guided by his partiality for the place; but,
threatened at that time with a dangerous war, he was desirous of fixing
his wife and infant heir in a situation, whence they might, in case of
necessity, be with ease removed to the friendly shores of
England.--Richard, born at Fécamp, preserved through life an attachment
to the town, and omitted no opportunity of benefiting it. He rebuilt,
endowed, and enriched the abbatial church at vast expense; and he
finally ordered it to be the resting-place for his bones, which,
however, he would not permit to be interred in any spot whatever within
the structure, but, with his dying breath, expressly enjoined his son to
deposit them on the outside, immediately beneath the eaves, in order
that, to use the words put by the monastic historians into his mouth
upon the occasion, "stillantium guttarum sacro tecto diffluens infusio
abluat jacentis ossa, quæ omnium peccatorum tabe foedavit et maculavit
negligens et neglecta vita mea."--A curious question might be raised,
whether the monarch, in this injunction, was solely impressed with the
feeling of his own unworthiness, or whether he had also in view, the
mystic doctrine of the efficacy of water towards the ablution of sins.
Richard II. and the succeeding dukes, appear to have regarded Fécamp
with an equally friendly eye; till, in process of time, the increasing
splendor of its monastery altogether eclipsed the waning honors of the
town; and Henry II. of England, finally sealed its downfall, by making a
regular donation of the town to the abbey, from which period till the
revolution, the latter was every thing, the former nothing.
"Fécamp," as it is remarked by Nodier, "was to the Dukes of Normandy,
what the pyramids were to the Egyptian monarchs,--a city of tombs:
Richard II. rested there by the side of Richard I. and, near him, his
brother Robert, his wife Judith, and his son William."[161]--The list
might be lengthened by the addition of many other scarcely less noble
names.
"The abbey of Fécamp is said to have been founded in the year 664 or
666, for a community of nuns, by Waning, the count or governor of the
Pays de Caux, a nobleman who had already contributed to the endowment of
the monastery of St. Wandrille. St. Ouen, Bishop of Rouen, dedicated the
church in the presence of King Clotaire; and so rapidly did the fame of
the sanctity of the abbey extend, that the number of its inmates
amounted, in a very short period, to more than three hundred. The
arrival, however, of the Normans, under Hastings, in 841, caused the
dispersion of the nuns; and the same story is related of the few who
remained at Fécamp, as of many others under similar circumstances, that
they voluntarily cut off their noses and their lips, rather than be an
object of attraction to their conquerors. The abbey, in return for their
heroism, was levelled with the ground; and it did not rise from its
ashes till the year 988, when the piety of Duke Richard I. built the
church anew, under the auspices of his son, Robert, archbishop of Rouen.
Departing, however, from the original foundation, he established therein
a chapter of regular canons, who soon proved so irregular in their
conduct, that within ten years they were doomed to give way to a body of
Benedictine monks, headed by an abbot, named William, from a convent at
Dijon. From his time the monastery continued to increase in splendor.
Three suffragan abbeys, that of Notre Dame at Bernay, of St. Taurin at
Evreux, and of Ste. Berthe de Blangi, in the diocese of Boullogne, owned
the superior power of the abbot of Fécamp, and supplied the three
mitres, which he proudly bore on his abbatial shield. Kings and princes,
in former ages, frequently paid the abbey the homage of their worship
and their gifts; and, in a more recent period, Casimir of Poland, after
his voluntary abdication of the throne, selected it as the spot in which
he sought for repose, when wearied with the cares of royalty. The
English possessions of Fécamp do not appear to have been large; but,
according to the author of the _History of Alien Priories_, the abbot
presented to one hundred and thirty benefices, some in the diocese of
Rouen, others in those of Bayeux, Lisieux, Coutances, Chartres, and
Beauvais; and it enjoyed so many estates, that its income was said to be
forty thousand crowns per annum."[162]
The work, from which this account of the abbey of Fécamp has been
extracted, also contains some details relative to a few of the principal
miracles connected with the convent, and relative to the _precious
blood_, to the possession of which Fécamp was indebted for no small
portion of its celebrity. But the reader must be referred for all these
to the _Neustria Pia_, where he will find them recorded at great length.
The author of that most curious volume, appears to have treated no
subject more entirely _con amore_ than Fécamp; and if the more
enlightened progeny of the present day incline, in the plentitude of
their wisdom, to "think their fathers fools" for listening to such
tales, let it at least be recollected, that even these tales, with all
their absurdity, are most interesting documents of the progress of the
human mind; and, above all, let it never be forgotten, that books of
this description contain a mass of materials for the elucidation of the
manners and customs of the age, which would in vain be sought for in any
other quarter.
The abbatial church of Fécamp is still standing uninjured, and is a work
of various ages. Some circular chapels attached to the sides of the
choir, are probably remains of the building erected by Duke Richard: the
rest is all of the pointed style of architecture; and the earliest part
is scarcely anterior to the end of the twelfth century.--The church of
St. Stephen, selected here for publication, is undeserving of notice,
except for its southern portal, which is an elegant specimen of what is
called by Mr. Rickman, the decorated English architecture.
NOTES:
[160] _Turner's Tour in Normandy_, I. p. 60.
[161] _Voyages Pittoresques et Romantiques dans l'Ancienne France_, I.
p. 110.--Seven plates in this work are devoted to the illustration of
the religious buildings at Fécamp.
[162] _Turner's Tour in Normandy_, I. p. 62.
PLATE LXXII.
SCREEN IN THE CHURCH OF ST. LAWRENCE, AT EU.
[Illustration: Plate 72. SCREEN IN THE CHURCH OF ST. LAWRENCE, AT EU.]
The town of Eu has, by some writers, been supposed to have been the
capital of the Gallic tribe mentioned in Cæsar's Commentaries, under the
name of the Essui; but a conjecture of this description, founded
altogether upon the similarity of the name, and unsupported by any
collateral testimony, must be allowed to be at best only problematical;
and ancient geography presents so wide a field for the display of
ingenuity and learning, that it is in no department of science more
necessary to be upon the guard against plausible theories.--There are
others who contend for the Teutonic origin of the town, and refer to
etymology with equal zeal, and with greater plausibility. The word _Eu_,
otherwise spelt _Ou_ or _Au_ signifies a meadow, in Saxon; and the same
name was likewise originally applied to the river Bresle,[163] which
washes the walls of Eu, within a distance of two miles from its
confluence with the ocean at Tréport.[164]
The first mention that occurs of Eu in history, is in the pages of
Flodoard, according to whom, the town was in existence in the year 925;
but, whether the Roman or the Saxon derivation of its name be preferred,
in either case etymology would fairly allow the inference, that its
foundation was considerably more ancient. During the reign of Louis XI.
Eu obtained a melancholy celebrity: a report was circulated in the
summer of 1475, that it was the intention of the English to make a
descent upon the coast of France, and to establish themselves there for
the winter. At the same time, this town was confidently mentioned as the
place where they proposed to fix their quarters. To deprive them of such
an advantage, the French monarch had recourse to a measure which could
only be justified by the most urgent necessity: he ordered the Maréchal
de Gamaches to enter the place with four hundred soldiers, on the
eighteenth of July, and to set fire to the houses of the citizens,
together with the castle. His commands were executed; and the whole was
reduced to a heap of ashes, with the exception of the churches. The
neighboring towns of Dieppe, St. Valeri, and Abbeville, profited from
the misfortunes of Eu, which has never recovered its prosperity,
notwithstanding the various privileges subsequently granted to it.--The
present population consists of about three thousand four hundred
inhabitants, whose only trade is a trifling manufactory of lace.
From as early a period as the year 1102, the title of Count was bestowed
by Richard I. Duke of Normandy, upon the lords of Eu, who, in 1458,
received the additional dignity of _Comtes et Pairs_; probably as some
recompense for the misery inflicted upon the place three years before.
In the number of these counts, was the celebrated Duc de Guise, commonly
known by the name of _Le Balafré_. His monument of black and white
marble, in the church of the Jesuits at Eu, was executed by Genoese
artists; as was that of his wife, the Duchess of Cleves. Both of them
have long been subjects of admiration.[165] The last of the line of
counts of Eu, was the Duc de Penthièvre, a nobleman of the most
estimable character: the title was his at the breaking out of the
revolution; and it is not a little to his honor, that a writer of the
most decidedly republican principles could be found, in the midst of
that stormy period, to bear the following testimony in his favor:--"Né
au milieu d'une cour, oú la corruption et les vices avoient pris le nom
de la sagesse et des vertus, il dédaigna leurs délices funestes; il
repoussa l'air empesté de Versailles; supérieur à leurs prestiges, il
oublia sa naissance; il prouva enfin, par de longues années consacrées à
faire le bien, qu'il étoit digne d'être né simple citoyen.[166]"--The
castle, the residence of the counts, is now converted into a military
hospital.
The abbey of Eu is said to have been founded in 1002,[167] by William,
first count of the place, natural son of Richard _Sans-peur_, Duke of
Normandy. It was at its origin dedicated to the Virgin; but, after a
lapse of somewhat more than two hundred years, was placed under the
invocation of St. Lawrence, archbishop of Dublin. That prelate had, in
the year 1181, crossed into Normandy, with the view of restoring a
friendly understanding between the King of Ireland, his brother, and the
King of England; and, at the moment of his approaching Eu, and beholding
the lofty towers of the abbey, he is said to have exclaimed in strains
of pious fervor, "Hæc requies mea in seculum seculi: hic habitabo,
quoniam elegi eam." Having accomplished the object of his mission, he
died shortly after at the convent, and was there interred; and the fame
of his sanctity attracting crowds of devotees to his tomb, he was
canonized by a papal bull, dated the 11th of December, 1218, since which
time the monastery has borne his name.
The church of St. Lawrence, though no longer abbatial, has been suffered
to exist; even before the revolution, it served at once as the church to
the convent and to the first parish of Eu. The screen here figured, a
beautiful specimen of the decorated English architecture, is placed at
the entrance of one of the chapels. Another chapel contains a _Holy
Sepulchre_, said to be superior, in point of the execution of the
figures, to any other in France. In the south transept is a
spirally-banded column of extraordinary elegance. The church stands upon
the foundations of an earlier building, erected at the close of the
twelfth century, and destroyed by lightning in 1426. According to the
records of the monastery, it was either wholly, or in great measure,
rebuilt by John de Vallier, the twenty-fourth abbot, in 1464.[168]--The
following description of the building is borrowed from the journal of a
very able friend of the writer of this article, who visited Eu in
September, 1819:--"The abbey church of Eu is plain and massy on the
outside of the nave and transepts. The east end of the choir is highly
enriched with flying buttresses, &c. The windows of the nave are
lancet-headed, and very tall: on the outside is a circular arch, which
may be a restoration. The west window has been in three lancet
divisions, which have been filled up with more modern tracery. The nave
is singularly elegant: the triforium, or rather the upper tier of
arches, is new in design, and most extraordinary. In the choir, the
triforium is composed of tracery. The north transept is something like
Winchester, only the arches are pointed: there are two arches. This
arrangement is probably general; as I saw it at Troyes and other places.
In a side-chapel is an entombment: the figures as large as life, or
nearly so, and richly painted; quite perfect. Inscriptions on the hems
of the garments. The _culs de lampe_ are of the most elegant reticulated
work. In the north transept is a circular window filled with late
tracery. No towers at the west end. East end, a polygon, as usual.--This
church, which is well worthy of an attentive study, is quite distinct in
character from the churches in the east of France: it has no marigold
window; no row of niches over the portal; no massed door-way; so that
the general outline of the front agrees wholly with the earliest pointed
style. But the exterior is more chaste than any thing we have in
England; and its architectural unity is better preserved. On the other
hand, its parts are less elaborate."
NOTES:
[163] _Description de la Haute Normandie_, I. p. 45.
[164] "Le païs d'Auge a tiré son nom de ses prairies. Au, Avv, Avve, et
Ou, en Allemand, signifient un Pré.... Aventin est mon témoin dans son
explication des noms Allemans. La ville d'Eu, située dans des prairies,
a tiré son nom de la même origine. Elle est nommée dans les vieux
Ecrivains, _Auga_, _Augam_, et _Aucum_; et dans les auteurs Anglois
_Ou_, d'où est formé le nom d'Eu. De cette même origine vient le nom
d'_Au_, qu'on a depuis écrit et prononcé _O_, et que portent plusieurs
Seigneuries de Normandie et d'ailleurs, et qui est le même que celui
d'_Ou_. _Ou_ est une Comté qui a appartenue à ce Robert, que Robert du
Mont qualifie Comte d'_Ou_. Ces mots d'_Eu_, d'_Au_, et d'_Ou_, se
trouvent encore dans la composition de plusieurs noms de terres et de
Seigneuries. _Eu_, dans le nom d'_Eucourt_, d'_Eumesnil_, et
d'_Eulande_, terre dans le païs d'Auge, entre le Mare-Aupoix et
Angerville, et ce nom est le même, sans aucune différence, que celui
d'_Oelande_, isle de la mer Baltique, du domaine de la couronne de
Suede. Les Suedois et les Danois prononcent _Oelande_ ce que nous
prononçons _Eulande_. _Au_ dans _Aubeuf_, _Aubose_, _Aumesnil_,
_Aumont_, _Auvillers_. _Ou_ dans _Ouville_. Pour _Auge_ on a dit _Alge_
en quelques lieux; et c'est de là que vient le nom d'une terre au païs
de Bray, qui ne consiste presque qu'en prairies. Le même nom d'_Auge_,
que portent quelques familles, montre assez qu'il a été appellatif. Mais
la chartre de confirmation de la fondation de l'Abbaye de St. Etienne,
donnée par Henry II. Roy d'Angleterre, le montre incontestablement par
ces paroles, "_cum sylvâ et algiâ et cum terris_"."--_Huet, Origines de
Caen_, p. 294.
[165] The church of St. Lawrence likewise contained the monuments of
several distinguished personages, as appears by the following extract
from the _Description de la Haute Normandie_, I. p. 72.--"Là sont
inhumez Jean d'Artois, Comte d'Eu, fils de Robert d'Artois, Comte de
Beaumont le Roger, et de Jean de Valois, mort le 6 Avril, 1386: Isabelle
de Melun, son epouse: Isabelle d'Artois, leur fille, dans la chapelle de
Saint Denys, sous une belle table de marbre noir, qui sert de table
d'autel: Charles d'Artois, Comte d'Eu, sous l'autel de la chapelle de
Saint Laurent: Jeanne de Saveuse, sa premiere femme: Helène de Melun, sa
seconde femme, dans la chapelle de Saint Antoine, dite aujourd'hui de
Saint Crepin: le Coeur de Catherine de Cleves, Comtesse d'Eu, au bas du
Sanctuaire, sous une magnifique colonne de marbre noir: N.... de Bourbon,
dit le Duc d'Aumale, fils de Louis-Auguste de Bourbon, legitimé de
France, Duc de Maine, mort le 8 Septembre, 1708: enfin Philippe
d'Artois, Comte d'Eu, et Connétable de France, mort selon son epitaphe à
_Micalice_ en Turquie, c'est-à-dire Nicopoli, le 16 Juin, 1397. Le
Mausolée de celui-ci, qui est de marbre, est enfermé dans une espece de
Cage de fer, dont les barreaux n'empêchent point qu'on ne puisse en
approcher et y porter la main. Le Prince y est representé armé, mais
sans casque et sans gantelets, pour marquer, dit-on, qu'il est mort à la
guerre, mais non dans le combat: il a deux petits chiens à ses pieds,
pour signifier, ajoute-t-on, qu'il est mort dans son lit: enfin la
grille qui l'environne represente, dit-on encore, qu'il est mort en
prison. Le monument, selon l'Ecrivain de qui j'emprunte ces conjectures,
n'a coûté que 100 livres."
[166] _Noel, Essais sur le Département de la Seine Inférieure_, I. p.
84.
[167] _Neustria Pia_, p. 694.
[168] _Neustria Pia_, p. 700.
PLATE LXXIII.-LXXV.
CHURCH OF ST. PETER, AT LISIEUX.
[Illustration: Plates 73-74. CHURCH OF ST. PETER AT LISIEUX.]
The effects produced by the French revolution upon the religious state
of the country, were scarcely less important than upon the political. In
both cases, the nation hurried, with the blindest fury, from extreme to
extreme; in both, they followed phantoms of ideal perfection through an
unexampled series of excesses and sufferings; in both, they rested at
length from exhaustion much more than from conviction; and, happily for
mankind and for themselves, they finally attained in both nearly the
same end, reverting indeed to their original constitutions, but
tempering them with a most seasonable mixture of civil and
ecclesiastical liberty. The _concordat_ effected for the church, what
the charter did for the state. The former of these was one of the
master-pieces of Napoleon's policy, and was likewise one of the earliest
acts of his power. It was established in the year 1801, while France yet
retained the name of a republic, and the ambition of its ruler had not
ventured to grasp, at more than the consular dignity. By this
instrument, the whole ecclesiastical constitution was changed; and not
only was all the power placed in the hands of the chief of the state,
but the provinces and dioceses were entirely remodelled; and, instead of
twenty-three archbishoprics and one hundred and thirty-four bishoprics,
the number of the former, notwithstanding the vast extension of the
French territory, was reduced to ten, and that of the latter to fifty.
The archbishop of Rouen was one of those who suffered least upon the
occasion. His dignity was curtailed only by the suppression of two of
his suffragans, the bishops of Avranches and of Lisieux.[169] The
church, here figured, then resigned the mitre, which it had conferred
from the middle of the sixth century, upon an illustrious, though not an
uninterrupted, line of prelates. It is admitted, in the annals of the
cathedral, that either the see must have been vacant for the space of
four hundred years, or at least that the names of those who filled it
during that period, are lost. Ordericus Vitalis, who resided fifty-six
years in the diocese, and has collected, in the sixth book of his
_Ecclesiastical History_, whatever was to be found in his time, relative
to its early state, acknowledges the chasm, and accounts for it by the
following general remarks.--"Piratæ de Daniâ egressi sunt, in Neustriam
venerunt, et christianæ fidei divinique cultûs penitùs ignari, super
fidelem populum immanitèr debacchati sunt. Antiquorum scripta cum
basilicis et ædibus incendio deperierunt, quæ fervida juniorum studia,
quamvis insatiabilitèr sitiant, recuperare nequiverunt. Nonnulla verò,
quæ per diligentiam priscorum manibus barbarorum solertèr erepta sunt,
damnabili subsequentium negligentiâ interierunt."
The city of Lisieux represents the capital of the Gallic tribe,
mentioned by Cæsar, and other almost contemporary writers, under the
name of _Lexovii_; and it is supposed by modern geographers, that the
territory occupied by these latter, was nearly co-extensive with the
late bishopric of Lisieux. On this subject it has been observed, that
"it is to be remarked, that the bounds of the ancient bishoprics of
France were usually conterminal with the Roman provinces and
prefectures."[170] _Neomagus_ or _Noviomagus Lexoviorum_, the capital of
the Lexovii, had always been supposed to have occupied the site of the
present town, till some excavations made in the year 1770, for the
purpose of forming a _chaussée_ between Lisieux and Caen, proved the
ancient and the modern city to have been placed at the distance of about
three quarters of a mile from each other. Extensive ruins of buildings,
situated in a field, called _Les Tourettes_, were then brought to light;
and among them were dug up various specimens of ancient art. The
researches of more modern times, principally conducted by M. Louis
Dubois, a very able antiquary of Lisieux, have materially added to the
number as well as the value of these discoveries; and the quantity of
Roman coins and medals that have rewarded his researches, would have
left little doubt as to the real site of Neomagus, even if the
circumstance had not within a very few years been established almost
beyond a question, by the detection of a Roman amphitheatre in a state
of great perfection.
Tradition, which there is in this instance no reason to impugn, relates
that the Gallo-Roman capital disappeared during the incursions of the
Saxons, about the middle of the fourth century. In farther confirmation
of such opinion, it is to be observed, that none of the medals dug up
within the ruins, or in their vicinity, bear a later date than the reign
of Constantine; and that, though the city is recorded in the _Itinerary
of Antoninus_, no mention of it is to be found in the curious chart,
known by the name of the _Tabula Peutingeriana_, formed under the reign
of Theodosius the Great; so that it then appears to have been completely
swept away and forgotten.
Modern Lisieux is supposed to have risen at no distant period of time
after the destruction of Neomagus. In the writings of the monkish
historians, it is indifferently called _Lexovium_, _Lexobium_,
_Luxovium__, Lixovium_, and _Lizovium_, names obviously borrowed from
the classical appellation of the tribe, as the French word _Lisieux_ is
clearly derived from them. In the early portion of Norman history,
Lisieux is mentioned as having felt the vengeance of these invaders,
during one of their predatory excursions from the Bessin, about the year
877. It was shortly afterwards sacked by Rollo himself, when that
conqueror, elated with the capture of Bayeux, was on his march to take
possession of the capital of Neustria. But the territory of Lisieux was
still the last part of the duchy which owned Rollo as its lord: it was
not ceded to him by Charles the Simple, till 923, at which time he had
for eleven years been the undisputed sovereign of the rest of Normandy.