appear to have taken any prominent part in political transactions. Its
central situation, by securing it against the attacks of the French in
former times, and more recently of the English, also prevented it from
obtaining that historical celebrity, which, from its size and opulence,
it could scarcely have failed to have otherwise gained. The principal
events connected with it, upon record, are the following:--It was the
focus of the civil war in 1101, when Ralph Flambart, bishop of Durham,
escaping from the prison to which he had been committed by his
sovereign, fled hither, and raised the standard of rebellion against
Henry, in favor of his brother.--In 1136, Lisieux was attacked by the
forces of Anjou, under the command of Geoffrey Plantagenet, husband of
the Empress Maude, joined by those of William, Duke of Poitiers; and the
garrison, composed of Bretons, seeing no hope of resistance or of
rescue, burned the town.--Thirty-three years subsequently, the city was
honored by being selected by Thomas-à-Becket, as the place of his
retirement during his temporary disgrace. Arnulf, then bishop of
Lisieux, had labored diligently, though ineffectually, to restore amity
between the sovereign and the prelate, espousing, indeed, decidedly the
cause of the latter, but at the same time never forfeiting the
friendship of the former, for whom, after the murder of Becket, he wrote
a letter of excuse to the supreme pontiff, in the joint names of all the
bishops of England.--Lisieux, in 1213, passed from under the dominion of
the Norman dukes, to the sway of the French monarch. It opened its gates
to Philip-Augustus, immediately after the fall of Caen and Bayeux; and
its surrender was accompanied with that of Coutances and Séez, all of
them without a blow, as the king's poetical chronicler, Brito, relates
in the following lines:--
"Cumque diocesibus tribus illi tres sine bello
Sese sponte suâ præclari nominis urbes
Subjiciunt, Sagium, Constantia, Lexoviumque."
In subsequent times, Lisieux suffered severely, when taken by the
English army under Henry V. in 1417. Its recapture by Charles VII.
thirty-two years afterwards, was unstained by bloodshed.
A great part of the preceding account of Lisieux has been borrowed from
Mr. Turner's Tour in Normandy: what follows, relative to the church here
figured, will be entirely so:--"The cathedral, now the parish church of
St. Peter, derived one advantage from the revolution. Another church,
dedicated to St. Germain, which had previously stood immediately before
it, so as almost to block up the approach, was taken down, and the west
front of the cathedral was made to open upon a spacious square.--Solid,
simple grandeur are the characters of this front, which, notwithstanding
some slight anomalies, is, upon the whole, a noble specimen of early
pointed architecture.--It consists of three equal compartments, the
lateral ones rising into short square towers of similar height. The
southern tower is surmounted by a lofty stone spire, probably of a date
posterior to the part below. The spire of the opposite tower fell in
1553, at which time much injury was done to the building, and
particularly to the central door-way, which, even to the present day,
has never been repaired.--Contrary to the usual elevation of French
cathedrals, the great window over the principal entrance is not
circular, but pointed: it is divided into three compartments by broad
mullions, enriched with many mouldings. The compartments end in acute
pointed arches. In the north tower, the whole of the space from the
basement story is occupied by only two tiers of windows. Each tier
contains two windows, extremely narrow, considering their height; and
yet, narrow as they are, each of them is parted by a circular mullion or
central pillar. You will better understand how high they must be, when
told that, in the southern tower, the space of the upper row is divided
into three distinct tiers; and still the windows do not appear
disproportionately short. They also are double, and the interior arches
are pointed; but the arches, within which they are placed, are circular.
In this circumstance lies the principal anomaly in the front of the
cathedral; but there is no appearance of any disparity in point of
dates; for the circular arches are supported on the same slender
mullions, with rude foliaged capitals, of great projection, which are
the most distinguishing characteristics of this style of architecture.
"The date of the building establishes the fact of the pointed arch being
in use, not only as an occasional variation, but in the entire
construction of churches upon a grand scale, as early as the eleventh
century.--Sammarthanus tells us that Bishop Herbert, who died in 1049,
began to build this church, but did not live to see it completed; and
Ordericus Vitalis expressly adds, that Hugh, the successor to Herbert,
upon his death-bed, in 1077, while retracing his past life, made use of
these words:--'Ecclesiam Sancti Petri, principis apostolorum, quam
venerabilis Herbertus, prædecessor meus, coepit, perfeci, studiosè
adornavi, honorificè dedicavi, et cultoribus necessariisque divino
servitio vasis aliisque apparatibus copiosè ditavi.'--Language of this
kind appears too explicit to leave room for ambiguity, but an opinion
has still prevailed, founded probably upon the style of the
architecture, that the cathedral was not finished till near the
expiration of the thirteenth century. Admitting, however, such to be the
fact, I do not see how it will materially help those who favor the
opinion; for the building is far from being, as commonly happens in
great churches, a medley of incongruous parts; but it is upon one fixed
plan; and, as it was begun, so it was ended.--The exterior of the
extremity of the south transept (see _plate seventy-five_,) is a still
more complete example of the early pointed style than the west front;
this style, which was the most chaste, and, if I may be allowed to use
the expression, the most severe of all, scarcely any where displays
itself to greater advantage. The central window is composed of five
lancet divisions, supported upon slender pillars: massy buttresses of
several splays bound it on either side.
[Illustration: Plate 75. CHURCH OF ST. PETER AT LISIEUX.
_South Transept._]
"The same character of uniformity extends over the interior of the
building. On each side of the nave is a side-aisle; and, beyond the
aisles, chapels. The pillars of the nave are cylindrical, solid, and
plain. Their bases end with foliage at each corner, and foliage is also
sculptured upon the capitals. The arches which they support are
acute.--The triforium is similar in plan to the part below; but the
capitals of the columns are considerably more enriched, with an obvious
imitation of the antique model, and every arch encircles two smaller
ones. In the clerestory the windows are modern.--The transepts appear
the oldest parts of the cathedral, as is not unfrequently the case;
whether they were really built before the rest, or that, from being less
used in the services of the church, they were less commonly the objects
of subsequent alterations. They are large; and each of them has an aisle
on the eastern side. The architecture of the choir resembles that of the
nave, except that the five pillars, which form the apsis, are slender,
and the intervening arches more narrow and more acute.--The Lady-Chapel,
which is long and narrow, was built towards the middle of the fifteenth
century, by Peter Cauchon, thirty-sixth bishop of Lisieux, who, for his
steady attachment to the Anglo-Norman cause, was translated to this see,
in 1429, when Beauvais, of which he had previously been bishop, fell
into the hands of the French. He was selected, in 1431, for the
invidious office of presiding at the trial of the Maid of Orleans.
Repentance followed; and, as an atonement for his unrighteous conduct,
according to Ducarel, he erected this chapel, and therein founded a high
mass to the Holy Virgin, which was duly sung by the choristers; in
order, as is expressed in his endowment-charter, to expiate the false
judgment which he pronounced.[171]--The two windows by the side of the
altar in this chapel have been painted of a crimson color, to add to the
effect produced upon entering the church; and, seen as they are, through
the long perspective of the nave and the distant arches of the choir,
the glowing tint is by no means unpleasing.--The central tower is open
within the church to a considerable height: it is supported by four
arches of unusual boldness, above which runs a row of small arches, of
the same character as the rest of the building; and still higher, on
each side, are two lancet-windows.--The vaulting of the roof is very
plain, with bosses slightly pendant and carved.
"At the extremity of the north transept is an ancient stone sarcophagus,
so built into the wall, that it appears to have been incorporated with
the edifice, at the period when it was raised. The character of the
heads, the crowns, and the disposition of the foliage, may be considered
as indicating that it is a production, at least of the Carlovingian
period, if it be not indeed of earlier date. I believe it is
traditionally supposed to have been the tomb of a saint, perhaps St.
Candidus; but I am not quite certain whether I am accurate in the
recollection of the name.--Above are two armed statues, probably of the
twelfth or thirteenth centuries. These have been engraved by Willemin,
in his useful work, _Les Monumens Français_, under the title of _Two
Armed Warriors, in the Nave of the Cathedral, at Lisieux_; and both are
there figured as if in all respects perfect, and with a great many
details which do not exist, and never could have existed; though at the
same time the draftsman has omitted the animals at the feet of the
statues, one of which is yet nearly entire.--This may be reckoned among
the innumerable proofs of the total disregard of accuracy which pervades
the work of French antiquaries. A French designer never scruples to
sacrifice correctness to what he considers effect.--Willemin describes
the monuments as being in the nave of the church. I suspect that he has
availed himself of the unpublished collection of Gaignat, in this and
many other instances. It is evident that, originally, the statues were
recumbent; but I cannot ascertain when their position was changed.--No
other tombs now exist in the cathedral: the brazen monument raised to
Hannuier, an Englishman, the marble that commemorated the bishop,
William d'Estouteville; founder of the _Collège de Lisieux_ at Paris,
that of Peter Cauchon in the Lady-Chapel, and all the rest, were
destroyed during the revolution."
NOTES:
[169] The following account of the bishopric of Lisieux, is extracted
from the _Gallia Christiana_, XI. p. 762, to enable the reader to form
an opinion of its extent and importance.--"Ecclesia hæc cæteris Neustriæ
episcopatibus facultatibus haud impar, patronum agnoscit S. Petrum
Apostolorum principem. Episcopus, qui et episcopus est capituli, comes
est et civitatis. Hunc comitatum septem componunt baroniæ, de Nonanto in
Bajocassino, de Thibervilla, de _Glos_ et Courthona, de Gaceio, de
Touqua, de Canapvilla et de Bonnavilla _la Louvet_, omnes in dioecesi.
Episcopus præterea conservator est privilegiorum academiæ Cadomensis.
Dignitates omnes et præbendas ecclesiæ Lexoviensis confert, excepto
decano qui eligitur a capitulo, nec a quoquam confirmatur. Præter
decanum, capitulum octo constat dignitatibus, cantore, qui residere
tenetur, thesaurario, capicerio, magistro scholarum et quatuor
archidiaconis; 1. de Lievino cui subsunt quatuor decanatus rurales,
_Moyaux, Cormeilles, Bernai, et Orbec_, in quibus 139 parochiæ, rectoriæ
vero seu curæ 148; 2. de Algia, cui subsunt tres decanatus,
_Mesnil-Mauger, Beuvron et Beaumont_, in quibus 128 parochiæ, rectoriæ
vero 137; 3. de Ponte Audomaro, cui subsunt tres decanatus, _Touques,
Honfleur, et Pontaudemer_, in quibus 89 parochiæ, rectoriæ 93; 4.
denique de Gaceio, cui subsunt quatuor decanatus, _Gacey, Livarot,
Montreul, et Vimontier_, in quibus 111 parochiæ, et 117 rectoriæ. Post
dignitates sunt 31 præbendæ integræ cum duabus semipræbendis, e quibus
undecim antiquæ fundationis, quas qui tenent barones vocantur. Sunt et
aliæ sex præbendæ _Volantes_ dictæ, quæ quotidianis non gaudent
distributionibus. Sunt adhuc in eadem ecclesia 4 vicarii, quorum tres
revocabiles, et 30 capellani, quorum septem episcopus, et 23 instituit
capitulum. Præter parochias supra memoratas, sunt et aliæ undecim in
urbe et baleuca Lexoviensi, rectoriæ duodecim: quatuor in exemtione de
Nonanto prope Bajocas, quarum sex rectores, et quinque in exemtione S.
Candidi senioris in urbe et dioecesi Rotomagensi, quarum unam, scilicet
S. Candidi senioris collegiatam simul et parochialem administrant
quatuor canonici, qui alternis vicibus parochialia obeunt munia;
decanatus enim annexus est episcopo Lexoviensi qui jurisdictionem
exercet in quinque illas ecclesias. Tota denique dioecesis Lexoviensis
487 parochias continet, rectorias 520."
[170] _Turner's Tour in Normandy_, II. p. 139.
[171] _Anglo-Norman Antiquities_, p. 47.
PLATE LXXVI.
ABBEY CHURCH OF ST. OUEN, AT ROUEN.
[Illustration: Plate 76. ABBEY CHURCH OF ST. OUEN, AT ROUEN.
_North East View._]
The beauty of the church of St. Ouen has been a frequent theme of
admiration among the lovers of ancient ecclesiastical architecture. The
excellencies of the building have been denied by none, while some have
gone so far as to consider it as the very perfection of that style,
which has generally, however improperly, obtained the name of _Gothic_.
A recent English traveller, whose attention was expressly directed to
the different departments of the arts, bears the following testimony in
its favor: "Beyond all comparison, the finest specimen of Gothic
architecture which we have met with in France, is _Saint Ouen_, the
secondary church at Rouen. Contrasted with Salisbury cathedral, it is
small; but it does not, I think, yield to that or any other structure I
have ever seen, in elegance, lightness, or graceful uniformity."[172]
Previously to the suppression of monasteries in France, the church of
St. Ouen made part of the abbey of the same name, one of the most
celebrated and most ancient in Normandy. It is now a parochial church,
and is happily in nearly a perfect state, having suffered comparatively
but little from the mad folly of the Calvinists of the sixteenth
century, or the democrats of the eighteenth; though every studied insult
was offered to it by the former, and in the fury of the revolution it
was despoiled and desecrated--degraded at one time to a manufactory for
the forging of arms, and at another to a magazine for forage.--Different
accounts are given of the foundation of the convent: some writers
contend for its having taken place as early as the last year of the
fourth century, and having been the work of the piety of Saint Victrice,
then bishop of Rouen; others, and these the greater number, are content
with tracing it from the reign of Clothair. Those who adopt the latter
opinion are again divided, as to whether that prince himself was the
actual founder, or only ratified by his royal sanction what was really
the establishment of Archbishop Flavius. In either case, however, they
agree in dating the origin of the abbey from the year 535.
An historian, who lived as early as the middle of the tenth century,
speaks of the original church of St. Ouen, as an edifice deserving of
admiration:--"..... miro opere, quadris lapidibus, manu Gothicâ,.... olim
nobilitèr constructa."[173]--The abbey was at first placed under the
invocation of the Holy Apostles generally: it was afterwards dedicated
to St. Peter alone; but, from the year 692, it has owned no other patron
than St. Ouen,[174] whose body was three years before interred in the
church, which he had protected with his especial favor while living, and
which derived still greater benefits from him after his death, owing to
the concourse of pilgrims attracted by the miracles that were wrought at
his tomb.
Upon the irruption of the Normans in the ninth century, this abbey
shared the common fate of the Neustrian convents; and, like the rest, it
rose from its ashes with greater magnificence, after the conversion of
these barbarians to Christianity. Nicholas, the fourth abbot of the
convent, son of Duke Richard II. and of Judith of Brittany, is said by
Ordericus Vitalis to have commenced "a new church of wonderful size and
elegance." But though he presided over the fraternity nearly sixty
years, he did not live to see the building finished: the bringing of the
task to perfection was reserved for William Balot, the next but one to
him in the succession; and even he died in the very year of the
dedication, which did not take place till 1126.
This church, which it had cost eighty years to build, was suffered to
exist but a short time after its completion: only ten years had elapsed
from its dedication, when it fell a prey to a conflagration, which was
at the same time destructive to the greater part of the city: another
church, built shortly after, and chiefly by the munificence of Richard
Coeur-de-Lion, shared the same fate in 1248. But even these repeated
disasters in no wise abated the spirit of the monks: they had retired
with the wreck of their property to one of their estates near Rouen, and
there, by economy on their own part, and liberality on that of others,
they soon found themselves in a state to undertake the erection of a
fourth convent, of greater extent than any of the former, and to inclose
it with high walls.
The honor of laying the first stone of the new church, the same that is
now standing, is attributed to one of the most celebrated of the abbots,
John Roussel, more commonly known by the name of _Marcdargent_.[175] He
had been elected to the prelacy in 1303; and, fifteen years afterwards,
he commenced the structure. He presided over the monastery thirty-seven
years, and was buried in the Lady-Chapel of the church, which he had
completed as far westward as the transepts. The pomp with which his
funeral was conducted, is recorded at length in the _Neustria Pia_; and
the same work has also preserved the following inscription, engraved
upon his coffin, which describes, with great precision, the progress
made by him in the building:--
"HIC JACET FRATER JOANNES MARCDARGENT
ALIAS ROUSSEL, QUONDAM ABBAS ISTIUS MONASTERII,
QUI COEPIT ÆDIFICARE ISTAM ECCLESIAM
DE NOVO; ET FECIT CHORUM ET CAPELLAS,
ET PILLIARIA TURRIS, ET MAGNAM PARTEM
TURRIS S. AUDOENI, MONASTERII DICTI."
The remaining parts of the church were not finished till the beginning
of the sixteenth century, when it was brought to its present state by
the thirty-fourth abbot, Anthony Bohier, who, in the annals of the
convent, bears the character of having been "a magnificent restorer and
repairer of ancient monasteries." Admirable as is the structure, the
original design of the architect was never completed. The western front
remains imperfect; and this is the more to be regretted, as that part is
naturally the first that meets the eye of the stranger, who thus
receives an unfavorable impression, which it is afterwards difficult
wholly to banish. The intention was, that the portal should have been
flanked by magnificent towers, ending in a combination of open arches
and tracery, corresponding with the outline and fashion of the central
tower. An engraving, though a wretched one, of this intended front, is
given in Pommeraye's History of the Abbey, from a sketch preserved among
the records of the convent.
The view of this church, etched by Mr. Cotman, is copied from a drawing
made by Miss Elizabeth Turner. It represents the building, as seen from
a seat in the gardens formerly belonging to the monastery, but now open
to the public; and it is well calculated to convey a general idea of the
character of the exterior of the building, including the central tower,
which is wholly composed of open arches and tracery, and terminates,
like the south tower of the cathedral, with an octangular crown of
fleurs-de-lys. The plate also exhibits a portion of a circular chapel,
now commonly known by the name of _la Chambre des Clercs_, the only
remaining part of the church built by William Balot, in the beginning of
the twelfth century. This chapel, the south porch, the central tower,
and a specimen of ancient sculpture in the church, have been engraved by
Mr. Turner, in his _Tour in Normandy_. The two first, of the same
subjects, together with the western front, a general view of the church
from the south, the curious bas-relief over the southern entrance, and a
representation of the interior, have since been lithographized in M.
Jolimont's _Monumens de la Normandie_. Considerable pains have been
devoted in both these works, to the description and the history of the
building; and to them the reader must be referred, who is unwilling to
engage with the ponderous folio of Pommeraye.
NOTES:
[172] _Milton's Letters on the Fine Arts, written from Paris in the year
1815._ p. 183.
[173] Jolimont, from whom this quotation is borrowed, states, that it is
to be found in the chronicle of an author of the name of Fridegode; and
he proceeds with the following observations:--"The expression appears
remarkable, as warranting the inference, that the style of architecture,
which Fridegode calls _Gothic_, was in use in France as early as the
commencement of the sixth century, the time assigned by him for the
building of the first church of St. Ouen. But it is equally to be
inferred, from the manner in which he notices it, that this style was
not then common; and his subjoining, that it was made of square stones,
(in opposition, most probably, to rubble) serves to point out that such
an edifice was an extraordinary building for Rouen at that period. This
idea receives confirmation, from the reflection, that the materials for
forming the city were originally supplied out of the forests that
inclosed it; so that, not only the houses of individuals, but the public
edifices, were merely of wood. St. Gregory of Tours, speaking, in his
fifth book, of a church at Rouen, dedicated to St. Martin, uses the
following expression:--'_Quæ super muros civitatis ligneis tabulis
fabricata est._'--Indeed, the few stone-buildings then at Rouen, were
almost exclusively devoted to the purposes of fortification, and were of
flint or sand-stone, rather than of free-stone. Every thing too tends to
prove that architecture was then in its infancy in the capital of
Neustria; or, if it ever had been more advanced there, which could have
been only under the Roman sway, that it had retrograded into a barbarous
state.--Moreover, the _Gothic style_, mentioned by Fridegode, was no
other than a degeneration of the Roman, or, more properly, of the
Lombardic architecture, distinguished by the circular arch, by insulated
columns, by a paucity of ornaments, and by a general massiveness. It is
by no means to be confounded with the style which has since passed under
the same name, a style introduced about the beginning of the twelfth
century, immediately after the crusades, with its ogee forms, slender
clustered columns, and every portion of the building characterized by
extreme lightness, yet still loaded with a profusion of crowded
ornaments. If, however, this Lombardic style was practised as early as
the fifth or sixth century, in a town so backward in the science of
architecture as Rouen, what date is to be assigned for its introduction
into other parts of France, where the knowledge of the fine arts
disappeared for a much shorter period?--It must be left to the decision
of antiquaries, whom this passage in Fridegode seems to have escaped, to
determine how far the foregoing observations are just, and may serve to
throw light upon the history of the style of architecture called
_Gothic_, the origin of which in France has always been attended with
great obscurity."