Soissons. He was of a noble family, and was educated in the abbey of St.
Médar, at Soissons, whence he was removed, at an early age, to the court
of Clothair II. At the court, he contracted an intimate friendship with
St. Eloi; and, under Dagobert, became the favorite of the monarch, as
well as his chancellor and minister of state. During the whole of his
life, his strong turn to religion rendered him a warm patron of monastic
establishments; and, among others, he founded the celebrated abbey of
Rebais en Brie. He was still young when he renounced the world, embraced
the ecclesiastical state, and devoted himself to the preaching of the
gospel; shortly after which, at the request of the inhabitants of Rouen,
he was appointed to succeed St. Romain, as their pastor. His
consecration took place in 646, and was performed in the church of the
monastery of St. Peter, since-called St. Ouen. It was also at his own
particular desire, that he was there interred. His name occurs among
those of the prelates who were present at the council of Châlons, in
650; he was likewise entrusted by the king with various important
negociations; and, after an earthly career, passed, according to his
historians, in the practice of every civil and apostolic virtue, he died
at Clichy, near Paris, in the year 689.
[175] The following extract from the _Neustria Pia_, p. 35, bears
witness at once to the merits of the abbot, and the light in which the
building was regarded throughout France.--"Hic Abbatiam reperit bonis
omnibus sufficienter munitam, pecunia et commeatu haud indigentem: quam
et ipse sapienter ac religiosè gubernavit, locupletavit, et vehementer
adauxit; tum possessionibus et redditibus, tum ædificiis ac
reparationibus: Basilicam iliam admirabili structura compositam,
totiusque Galliæ speciosissimam, construere coepit, anno 1318, die festo
S. _Urbani_; quam continuavit ad ann. usque 1339, in festo Apostolorum
SS. _Petri_ et _Pauli_: quo in opere expendit 63036 libras argenti, et
quinque solidos Turonensis: (quæ nunc haud posset compleri ædificio pro
663036 libris, etiam aureis) quorum omnium tesserem vetera hujusce domus
inclytæ monimenta nunc usque accuratè continent. De hujusmodi
celeberrima æde, sic quidam neotericus verè locutus est. _Nunc est S._
Audoeni: _cujus mirabilis structura, hodieque dubium relinquit, si alia
per Galliam splendidior et elegantior: Monasterium est tota quidem
Europa, celeberrimum, sed Patroni sui sanctitate magis æstimandum._ cui
alii adstipulantur. Et hoc, consilio et auxilio D. Caroli, Comitis
_Valesii_: cui operi Carolus Valesius VI. Rex ann. 1380, dono dedit tria
millia librarum ad instantiam Burgundiæ Ducis, sui patruelis."
PLATE LXXVII.
FOUNTAIN OF THE STONE CROSS, AT ROUEN.[176]
[Illustration: Plate 77. FOUNTAIN OF THE STONE CROSS AT ROUEN.]
Rouen has long boasted a pre-eminence over the greater part of the
cities of France, with respect to its public fountains. The chalk hills,
with which it is surrounded, furnish an abundant supply of excellent
springs; and the waters of these, led into different parts of the town,
contribute in no less a degree to the embellishment of the city, than to
the comfort of the inhabitants. The form of some, and the ornaments of
others, are well deserving of attention, notwithstanding the injuries
that have inevitably occurred from time, or the more cruel ones that
have been caused by wanton mutilation. It is upon historical record,
that there were several fountains at Rouen, as early as the twelfth
century, but their number, which now exceeds thirty, received its
principal increase towards the beginning of the sixteenth century; and
it was then also that the idea seems first to have been conceived of
making, what was originally designed only for convenience, subservient
to beauty. For this new supply of ornamental fountains, Rouen is
indebted to its great benefactor, the Cardinal Georges d'Amboise, who,
uniting the Norman archiepiscopal mitre to the office of prime minister,
under Louis XII. was no less able than he was willing, to render the
most essential services to the seat of his spiritual jurisdiction. It
was under the auspices of this archbishop, that the fountain here
figured, one of the earliest of that period, was erected. He caused it
to be built in the year 1500. The spot which it occupies, is the
cross-way formed by the union of the streets, called St. Vivien, St.
Hilaire, and Coqueraumont, a spot which, previously to the reign of St.
Louis, was not included within the walls of the town, and which, even at
the distance of one hundred years after that time, had not begun to be
inhabited.
So ancient is the practice of placing stone crosses at the junction of
roads in the vicinity of cities, that it would be difficult to assign
any probable time for the erection of that which was replaced by the
fountain that still bears its name. The waters of this fountain have
their origin in a spring, which flows at the foot of a hill near the
village of St. Léger, at some distance from Rouen. The execution of the
structure unites a happy mixture of boldness in outline, and delicacy in
details: its pyramidal form is graceful. It consists of three stories,
gradually diminishing in height and diameter as they rise, and
terminating in a cross, whose clumsy shape only renders the destruction
of that which it replaces the more to be regretted. The form is octagon
throughout; and upon every compartment in each of the stories, is
carved, at a short distance from its base, a narrow cinquefoil-headed
arch, surmounted by a triangular crocketed canopy. But the crockets and
finials have been in most instances destroyed. The water issues from
four pipes in the basement. Each of the arches of the lower tier serves
as a tabernacle for a wooden statue of a Madonna, or saint, of wretched
execution, a poor substitute for those that occupied the same niches
previously to the troubles of 1792, at which time the religious
character of the fountain marked it out as an object of popular
vengeance. It was suffered to continue in its mutilated and degraded
state, from that period till the year 1816, when the inhabitants of this
part of the town undertook to restore it at their own expense. Their
labors have hitherto proceeded no farther than filling the niches afresh
with images, and doing such repairs as were absolutely necessary to keep
the whole structure from falling into ruin. Even by this, however, they
have secured themselves the good will of the archbishop, who consecrated
the fountain with great pomp anew, on the 24th of August, 1816.
The resemblance between the _Fountain of the Stone Cross_, at Rouen, and
the monumental crosses erected in England by King Edward I. to
perpetuate the memory of his consort, Eleanor of Castillo, will not fail
to strike the British antiquary. It is more than probable, that the idea
of the former was borrowed from the latter, to which, however, it is
very inferior in point of richness of ornaments, or beauty of
execution.
NOTES:
[176] It is right to observe, that the accounts here given of this and
the following article, are little more than a translation, in the second
instance materially abridged, of what is published upon the same
subjects, in _Jolimont, Monumens de la Normandie_.
PLATE LXXVIII.
PALACE OF JUSTICE, AT ROUEN.
[Illustration: Plate 78. PALACE OF JUSTICE, AT ROUEN.]
The building here figured was, from its foundation, devoted to the
purpose of the administration of justice; and, notwithstanding the many
mutilations to which it has at different times been exposed, it still
remains an interesting, and, in the city of Rouen, almost a unique
specimen of the sumptuous architectural taste of the age in which it was
erected.
Down to as late a period as the year 1499, there existed in Normandy no
stationary court of judicature; but the execution of the laws was
confided to an ambulatory tribunal, established, according to the
chroniclers, by Rollo himself, and known by the name of the _Exchequer_.
The sittings of this Norman exchequer were commonly held twice a year,
in spring and autumn, after the manner of the ancient parliaments of the
French kings; the places of session depending upon the pleasure of the
sovereign, or being determined in general, like the English _Aula
Regia_, by his presence. The inconveniences attendant upon such a mode
of administering justice, became of course the more heavily felt, in
proportion as the country increased in population and civilization.
Accordingly, the states-general of the province, assembled in the last
year of the fifteenth century, under the presidency of the Cardinal
d'Amboise, petitioned Louis XII. who was then upon the throne, to
appoint in the metropolis of the duchy a permanent judicature, in the
same manner as had been previously done in others of the principal
cities of the realm. The king was graciously pleased to accede to their
request; and, by the words of the royal edict, not only was the
exchequer rendered permanent in the good city of Rouen, but permission
was also granted to the members to hold their sittings in the great hall
of the castle, till such time as a suitable place should be prepared for
their reception.
It was on this occasion that the _Palace of Justice_ was built; a piece
of ground was selected for the purpose, that had been known by the name
of the Jews' Close, from the time when Philip-Augustus expelled the
children of Israel from France; and the foundations of the new structure
were laid within a few months after the obtaining of the royal sanction.
The progress, however, of the work, was not commensurate, in point of
rapidity, with the haste with which it was undertaken; even in 1506 the
labors were not brought to a conclusion, though, in that year, the
exchequer was installed by the king in person, with great pomp, in the
new palace. The sitting will long be memorable in the Norman annals, not
only as being the first, but as having been selected by the sovereign,
as an opportunity for bestowing various important favors upon the city
and duchy.
The palace, in its present state, is composed of three distinct
buildings, erected at different times, and forming collectively three
sides of a parallelogram, whose fourth side is merely a wall. The court
thus enclosed is spacious. One of these buildings, the front in the
plate, goes by the name of the _Salle des Procureurs_. Its erection was
six years anterior to that of the right-hand building, more properly
called the _Palace of Justice_; and the object in raising it was,
according to the edict of the bailiff upon the occasion, to serve as an
exchange to the merchants, and put a stop to the impious practice of
assembling, even upon feast-days, in the cathedral, for purposes of
business. At a subsequent time, this hall was added to the Palace of
Justice, and there was then built to it a chapel, now destroyed, in
which mass was regularly celebrated twice a year,--upon the anniversary
of the feast of St. Martin, the day of the meeting of parliament, and
upon Ascension-Day. The service on the first of these days, went by the
name of _la messe rouge_, because the members always attended in their
scarlet robes: on the second, and more important occasion, it was called
_la messe de la fierte_, being performed in commemoration of the
deliverance of the prisoner, by virtue of the privilege of St.
Romain.[177]--The exterior of the _Salle des Procureurs_ is
comparatively simple: the most highly decorated part of it is the
gable, which is flanked by two octangular turrets, ornamented with
crocketed pinnacles and flying buttresses. Within, it consists of a
noble hall, one hundred and sixty French feet in length, and fifty in
width, with a coved roof of timber, plain and bold, and destitute either
of the open tie-beams and arches, or the knot-work and cross-timber that
usually adorn the old English roofs. Below the hall is a prison.
The southern building, erected exclusively for the sittings of the
exchequer, is far more sumptuous in its decorations, both without and
within. The lucarne windows may even vie with those in the house in the
Place de la Pucelle.[178] Those below them find almost exact
counterparts in the _château_ at Fontaine-le-Henri, also figured in this
work.[179] To use the language of the French critics, this front, which
is more than two hundred feet in width, "est decorée de tout ce que
l'architecture de ce temps-là présente de plus délicat et de plus
riche." The oriel or tower of enriched workmanship, which, by projecting
into the court, breaks the uniformity of the elevation, is perhaps the
part that more than any other merits such encomium. But it is only half
the front that has been allowed to continue in its original state: the
other half has been degraded by alterations, or stripped of its
ornaments.--The room in which the parliament formerly met, and which is
now employed for the trial of criminal causes, still remains
comparatively uninjured. Its ceiling of oak, nearly as black as ebony,
divided into numerous compartments, and covered with a profusion of
carving and of gilt ornaments, not only affords a gorgeous example of
the taste of the time, but immediately strikes the stranger as well
suited to the dignity of the purpose to which the apartment was
appropriated. But the open-work bosses of this ceiling are gone, as are
the doors enriched with sculpture, and the ancient chimney, and the
escutcheons charged with sacred devices, and the great painting, by
which, before the revolution, witnesses were made to swear.[180]
The building that fronts the _Salle des Procureurs_, and forms the third
side of the court, was not erected till after the year 1700. Its front
is an imitation of the Ionic order, a style which harmonizes so ill with
the rest of the quadrangle, as to produce an unfavorable effect An
accident which happened to the wood-work of the upper part of this
front, on the 1st of April, 1812, unfortunately involved the destruction
of a painting held in the highest estimation; the representation of
Jupiter hurling his thunderbolts at Vice, executed by Jouvenet, upon the
ceiling of an apartment called _la seconde Chambre des Enquêtes_.
Jouvenet, who commonly passes under the name of the Michelagnolo of
France, was born at Rouen, in 1664; and, in conjunction with Fontenelle
and the great Corneille, forms the triumvirate, of which the city has
most reason to feel proud. The painting in the Palace of Justice was
regarded as one of the happiest efforts of his pencil, and was not the
less remarkable for having been executed with his left hand, after a
paralytic stroke had deprived him of the use of the other.
NOTES:
[177] See p. 51.
[178] See plate 64.
[179] Plate 63.
[180] Upon this subject Mr. Turner is in error: it appears, from his
_Tour in Normandy_, I. p. 193, that he was informed that the painting,
now actually over the judges' bench, is the same by which it was
originally customary to take the oath; but M. Jolimont, who is,
unquestionably, better authority, states the contrary in the following
note:--"Le tableau, sur lequel on faisait jurer les témoins, et qui
avait près de douze pieds d'élévation, consistait en trois portions ou
bandes horizontales réunies dans un grand cadre sculpté à la manière du
temps. La première, et la plus élevée, présentait quatre écussons aux
armes de France, parsemés de fleurs de lis d'or; celle du milieu
offrait, sous cinq arcades en ogives avec fleurons, un Christ entre la
Vierge et saint Jean, et les quatre Evangelistes; au-dessous, un Moyse,
et les tables de la loi: il existait encore au moment de la révolution;
on l'a remplacé, au mois de janvier 1816, par un autre, d'environ quatre
pieds de hauteur, donné (dit l'inscription moderne mise au bas) par
Louis XII à l'Echiquier, lorsqu'il l'établit au palais. Ce second
tableau, recueilli pendant la révolution par les soins de M. Gouel,
graveur, et dont il a bien voulu faire hommage à la Cour royale (voir, à
ce sujet, le Journal de Rouen, du 30 janvier 1816), est composé de deux
parties: l'une renferme un Christ entre saint Jean et la Vierge;
l'autre, en forme de couronnement, présente deux figures à mi-corps,
avec des légendes; mais ces deux parties hétérogènes ne sont que deux
fragmens ajustés ensemble. Le premier, qui représente le Christ, est
évidemment la portion qui remplissait une des cinq arcades du grand
tableau dont nous venons de parler, et l'autre est une partie seulement
du tableau donné par Louis XII, et qui orna, pendant plus de deux
siècles, le manteau de la belle cheminée de la chambre du Conseil que
nous citons ci-après. Les deux figures, aujourd'hui mutilées, étaient en
pied, et représentaient le Roi Louis XII et le Cardinal d'Amboise, avec
ces mots écrits sur des bandelettes, que les deux personnages semblent
s'adresser: _Pontifices, agite: Magistrats, agissez;--et vos Reges,
dicite justa: et vous Rois, soyez justes_. Ces fragmens de deux tableaux
différens, réunis, avec assez d'art, et qui paraissent être seuls
échappés à la destruction, sont encore fort curieux, et l'on doit savoir
gré à M. Gouel de leur conservation, et de la générosité avec laquelle
il les a rendus à leur destination primitive."
PLATE LXXIX.
SOUTH PORCH OF THE CHURCH, AT LOUVIERS.
[Illustration: Plate 79. CHURCH OF LOUVIERS.
_South Porch._]
Louviers is one of the most considerable of the numerous manufacturing
towns which surround Rouen in every direction, depending altogether for
their prosperity upon the state of commerce in the provincial capital.
Its population consists of about seven thousand inhabitants. Its
position is beautiful, in a small island formed by the Eure, which
divides, in the immediate vicinity of the town, into two streams,
flowing through a valley of the most luxuriant fertility, enclosed by
hills covered for the greater part with extensive forests.
The name of Louviers, in Latin _Locoveris_, occurs upon more than one
occasion, in the early Norman chronicles; and the town, though never
fortified, has obtained a considerable degree of historical celebrity.
When Richard Coeur-de-Lion, escaped from his captivity in the east,
hastened to punish the perfidy with which he had been on all sides
assailed during his absence, and Normandy became the theatre of a most
bloody warfare, Louviers had the honor of being selected as the place in
which these differences were composed. The treaty signed upon this
occasion, in 1195, prescribed new bounds to the duchy; and the old
historians, who always delight in consecrating the recital of any
memorable event by a mixture of the marvellous, tell how, at the moment
when the kings were engaged in the conference which led to this treaty,
a serpent of enormous size darted from the foot of the tree beneath
which they were standing, and approached them with marks of great fury,
hissing violently at both, as if in the act to attack them. The
monarchs, who were alone, instantly laid their hands upon their swords;
and the armies, who stood at a short distance on either side arranged in
battle array, alarmed at such hostile demonstrations, had well nigh
joined in a fresh combat.--Only the following year, Louviers was one of
the towns ceded by Richard to Walter, archbishop of Rouen, by way of
compensation for the infringement of the rights of the see, of which he
had been guilty in the erection of Château Gaillard. The possession of
Louviers was peculiarly acceptable to the prelate, as being in the
immediate vicinity of the village of Pinterville, where the archbishops
of Rouen then had their country seat: they continued to occupy the same
till the reign of St. Louis, when that monarch conferred upon them the
castle of Gaillon, which they held till the revolution.
Louviers was taken in 1345, by the English army under King Edward III.
then on his march for Paris, after the battle of Caen; and Froissart, in
relating the circumstance, takes occasion to mention the importance of
the place, stating that the town was then a great one, and "the chief
town of all Normandy for drapery and riches, and full of merchandize.
But, not being closed, the hostile army soon entered it." He goes on to
add, not much to the credit of the invading host, that "they overran,
and spoiled and robbed without mercy; and that they won there great
riches."--In 1360, Louviers was once more chosen as the spot where peace
was signed: the treaty that had been concluded at Bretigny, was
confirmed at Paris by the Regent, and was finally ratified by the Black
Prince in this town.--During the subsequent wars, under Henry V. and VI.
Louviers is repeatedly mentioned; but principally for opposing a
resistance of twenty-six days to the English in 1418.--In the time of
the league, it distinguished itself most unfortunately by its devoted
attachment to the Catholic cause; in consequence of which, it was
pillaged by the royalists shortly after the battle of Ivry.[181]
The church of Louviers is an imposing structure: though materially
injured, and reduced to no more than a nave with its four aisles, it is
still a spacious and handsome building. The great western door is
closed, and the front defaced: the eastern end is likewise altogether
modern. The central tower is handsome, though square and short. Two
windows, very similar to those of the tower of St. Romain, in Rouen
cathedral, light it on either side; and saints, placed under canopies,
ornament the angles behind the buttresses. A second tower, to the west,
is surmounted with a truncated cone. The south porch,[182] here figured,
is the great feature of the exterior; and, for beauty and elegance in
the formation or disposition of its parts, it may safely be put in
competition with any similar portion of an ecclesiastical building,
either in Normandy or in England. Yet, even here, the saints have been
torn from their pedestals by the wanton violence of Calvinists or of
democrats.
Internally, the church is a fine specimen of the pointed architecture of
the thirteenth century;[183] but, to use the words of Mr. Turner, from
whose Tour[184] a great part of the preceding description has been
borrowed, "the whole is so concealed and degraded by ornaments in the
worst of taste, and by painted saints in the most tawdry dresses, that
the effect is disgusting." In the windows of the church there still
remains a considerable quantity of painted glass; and a bas-relief on
the right of the choir is well deserving of attention. It is placed
under a niche, which in all probability was originally filled with a
statue of St. Hubert; as the sculpture pourtrays a well-known legend,
recorded in his history--the miraculous stag with a cross between his
antlers, seen by the hunter-knight.--The foliage at the base of the niche
is executed with particular elegance and skill.
In the town of Louviers is an old house, said to have belonged to the
Knights Templars. Its gable, pierced with numerous windows, generally in
the form of flatly pointed arches, each of them containing a couple of
arches with trefoil-heads, has given currency to the tale of its
original destination. It was figured some time since by M. Langlois, in
a work commenced to illustrate the Antiquities of Normandy, but of which
the first number only appeared; and it has recently been lithographized
by M. Nodier. But, from the style of its architecture, it does not
appear to have been erected anterior to the fourteenth century, however
confidently it is referred by M. Langlois to the twelfth or
thirteenth.
NOTES: