so unfortunate as to act a prominent part. Early in the troubles, it
distinguished itself by a decided devotion to the cause of
Protestantism; and, though often obliged, by the current of affairs, to
yield a reluctant submission to the opposite party, it continued
throughout the whole of the struggle, unshaken in its attachment to the
Huguenots. Hence, when finally summoned to surrender to the Catholics,
in 1574, it rather chose to expose itself to all the miseries of a
siege, as well as to the still greater one of being taken by assault;
and the severity of its sufferings is recorded by the historians of the
conquering party, who themselves admit, that "it was sacked with a
horrible carnage."[195] Its Protestant places of worship were not,
however, finally rased, till 1685, the period of the revocation of the
edict of Nantes.
St. Lo was the seat of an abbey of Augustine friars, said to have been
founded in the middle of the twelfth century, and to have been of such
celebrity, that, according to Quercetanus, the bishops of Coutances were
contented for a time to be styled bishops of St. Lo.[196]The principal
church in the place, that of Notre Dame, greatly resembles the cathedral
of Coutances, of which it is even said to be a copy. It was not begun to
be built till the period of English rule in Normandy, during the
fifteenth century. The older, or clock-tower, was erected in 1430: the
opposite tower and western entrance, in 1464. Other parts of it were not
completed till the following century; and the northern spire is a work
of as late a period as 1685.
The very ancient church of Ste Croix, (the subject of these plates,) was
connected with the abbey, of which little now remains. There is a
tradition in the town, that it was once a temple of Ceres; and such
traditions, however uncritical or even absurd, deserve to be noticed, as
generally originating in a confused knowledge of the remote date of the
building to which they are attached. In the opinion of M. de Gerville, a
portion, at least, of the church, belongs to the edifice raised by
Charlemagne, in 805. The actual erection of such an edifice, and its
dedication to the holy cross, are facts distinctly stated in the
_Neustria Pia_: its identity with the present church does not appear to
be doubted, either by Du Monstier, or the Abbé de Billy, the historian
of St. Lo. At the same time, neither the one nor the other of these
writers was ignorant of the positive assertion in the _Gesta
Normannorum_, that, under those successful invaders--"Sancti Laudi
castrum, interfectis habitatoribus, terræ æquatum est." But, in
opposition to this, M. de Gerville contends that, either this strong
assertion is to be received with a certain degree of latitude, or that,
by the word _castrum_, is to be understood only the citadel; so that,
while that was destroyed, the domestic and religious edifices were
suffered to escape. He even thinks that the parts of the building
ascribable to the period of the Carlovingian dynasty, may be
distinguished by a practised eye, from the reparations of the eleventh
century. He traces them especially in the western front, in its
door-way, (_plate eighty-seven_) and in some herring-bone masonry,
observable over a narrow circular-headed window towards the south. But
he founds his opinion still more upon the bas-relief, representing the
Deity attended by angels, (_plate eighty-eight, fig. B._) now built into
the wall at the end of the nave, on the south side. The character of the
sculpture and the form of the letters appear to him to be almost
decisive. With regard to the latter, he observes;--"it is well known
that the Roman characters were restored by Charlemagne, especially after
he had been proclaimed emperor. This fact is sufficiently attested by
the various monuments still left us of his time, as well as by the
coins which were struck in the latter part of his reign, and during that
of Louis le Débonnaire. Elegance and simplicity in the shape of the
letters, characterized the writing of this epoch; and the latter, at
least, of these qualities, is eminently to be found in the inscription
at St. Lo. On the other hand, correct orthography was not equally one of
the excellencies of the age."
[Illustration: Plate 88. CHURCH OF THE HOLY CROSS AT ST. LO.
_Sculpture._]
Pursuing the subject yet farther, M. de Gerville gives it as his
opinion, that the different epochs in the architecture, commonly
designated as Norman, may be determined with some degree of precision;
and he thinks he can trace, in several churches of the vicinity, an
evident imitation of this at St. Lo; while he regards the superior
antiquity of the latter decisively established by the sculpture over the
western entrance; by the medallion of the Deity, already noticed; and by
several of the capitals of the interior; particularly those that have
reference to the legends of St. Eloy, (_plate eighty-eight, fig. F._)
and St. Hubert, (_fig. D._), both at that period quite recent; and two
of the others, (_fig C. and E._) in the latter of which, the devil is
roasting unfortunate sinners, while the former, exhibiting the
_psychostasia_, affords a graphic illustration of two lines of the
well-known hymn of the Roman Catholic church:--
"Statera facta corporis,
Prædamque tulit Tartari."
In the western front of the church of Ste Croix have been inserted,
above the door-way, three windows of the earliest pointed style. The
whole of the sculpture over the architraves of the arch, is, both in its
design and execution, curious. The knotted serpents, terminating at
either end in heads of devils; the two men tugging at rings, attached to
a chain twisted round the neck of a decapitated demon, whom, two dogs
are baying; and the structure of the chain itself, are all peculiar; and
scarcely less so is the medallion below.[197]--The church ends at the
east with a large circular arch, which is now closed, and has always
been so since the memory of man; but probably, at some former time, it
led into a chancel or sanctuary. There is a south transept, which
terminates in a similar arch: the arches of the nave, which are likewise
circular, are each of them surrounded with a double architrave of the
zig-zag moulding: the capitals to the pillars supporting these arches,
Mr. Cotman considers as being for the greater part of the best class of
Norman sculpture. He has selected for engraving those that are most
rude: the others commonly exhibit broad interlaced bands, foliage, and
fruits. The abaci, too, though they are in general plain, are in some
instances enriched with similar sculpture, as in the churches of
Grâville, of Cerisy, and of the Holy Trinity at Caen. In the clerestory,
over every arch below, were originally two smaller semi-circular-headed
arches; but these are now closed, and their place is occupied by a
single, narrow, pointed window, that opens into a large recess. The
corbels without, (_plate eighty-eight, fig. A._) may bear a comparison,
in point of singularity, with those of any other Norman church. The
sacred emblem of the Christian faith, the wimpled nun, the whiskered
Saxon, and the wolf, the scourge of Neustria, are found among them, side
by side with the Atlas and Cyclops of heathen mythology; and, as if the
legends of Rome and Greece could not furnish sufficient subjects for the
sculptor's chisel, he appears to have extended his researches into the
more remote regions, bordering upon the Nile, and thence to have
imported a rude imitation of the Egyptian head, and one still more rude,
of the mystic Scarabæus.
NOTES:
[195] St. Lo was then commanded by M. Colombieres, who was so resolute
in the cause, that, rather than surrender, he placed himself in the
middle of the breach, with his two young sons, on either side of him,
each holding a javelin in his hand, and then awaited the attack,
exhorting his children to perish bravely, rather than be left to
infidels and apostates. The Catholic army was headed by M. de Matignon,
who had, on a former occasion, distinguished himself by his lenity
towards the inhabitants of the place. The lordship of St. Lo, with the
title of a barony, continued in his family as late as the year 1722,
when Masseville published his History of Normandy.
[196] For the following details, and indeed the greater part of the
remainder of this article, the author has to express his obligations to
M. de Gerville, whose kind assistance, throughout the whole of the work,
cannot be too often, or too distinctly, acknowledged.
[197] The bas-relief upon this medallion represents the most impressive
of the miracles connected with the history of St. Lo, and one that was
performed at the very moment when he was about to enter upon the duties
of his episcopacy, to which, by a manifest interposition of the Deity,
he had been elected at the early age of twelve years. _Rouault_, in his
_Abrégé de la Vie des Evêques de Coutances_, p. 81, gives the following
details respecting it; and his account, which is curious, is here
inserted, as adding probability to the opinion of M. de Gerville, that
this medallion at least belonged to the original structure, whatever may
be thought of the rest of the church.--"Comme l'élection et la
consécration de S. Lo avoient été miraculeuses, Dieu fit voir par des
signes qui n'étoient pas moins surprenants que tout s'étoit fait selon
sa volonté: car à la première entrée que le jeune Prélat fit dans son
Eglise, la divine Puissance voulut prouver à St. Gildard, aux autres
Prélats qui étoient encore presents, et à toute l'Eglise de Coûtances,
que tout ce qu'ils avoient fait lui étoit très-agréable. Ce qui fut
confirmé par un Miracle des plus éclatans dans la personne d'une Femme
aveugle née, qui s'étant faite conduire à la porte de la Cathédrale, y
attendoit le nouvel Evêque, dans l'esperance de recevoir la vüe par son
intercession. En effet, lorsqu'elle apprit qu'il approchoit, elle le
conjura à haute voix de lui faire voir la lumiere. Le Saint frappé d'une
telle demande en rougit, et crut que c'étoit tenter Dieu que d'attendre
de lui des Miracles. Mais cette pauvre femme ne cessant de crier comme
l'Aveugle de l'Evangile, le Saint poussa un profond soupir, et ayant
plus d'égard à la foi de la suppliante qu'à son propre mérite, il
invoqua le secours du saint Esprit, fit avec confiance le signe de la
croix sur les yeux de l'Aveugle, et au même instant la vüe lui fut
renduë à la grande admiration de tous les assistans, qui bénirent et
remerciérent Dieu de leur avoir donné un Pasteur qui prouvoit sa
vocation par un si grand Miracle, en reconnoissance duquel on éleva au
même lieu deux Statuës, l'une de Saint Lo, et l'autre de la femme
guérie, telles qu'on les voit encore aujourd'hui au Portail de l'Eglise,
où on a aussi conservé fort soigneusement la Pierre sur laquelle étoit
Saint Lo lorsqu'il opera ce Miracle. C'est encore sur elle que les
Seigneurs Evêques de Coûtances s'arrêtent à leur premiere entrée, pour
faire les sermens et promesses accoutumées en pareille Céremonie, et
qu'ils y reçoivent les complimens et applaudissemens de la Ville, pour
conserver la mémoire d'un si grand Miracle."
PLATE LXXXIX. AND XC.
CASTLE OF FALAISE.
[Illustration: Plate 89. CASTLE OF FALAISE.
_North West View._]
Whoever can take pleasure in the wildest extravagancies of absurd
fiction, displayed in theories destitute of even the slender basis of
tradition, yet raised with plausibility, connected with ingenuity, and
supported by learning, may find abundant gratification in the early
history of Falaise. The town, as stated in a manuscript gazetteer of
Normandy, written in the seventeenth century, was not only among the
most ancient in Gaul, but was founded by one of the grandsons of Noah.
According to another yet more grave authority, its antiquity soars still
higher, and mounts to the period of the deluge itself. It so far exceeds
that of the Roman empire, that, long before the building of the immortal
city, colonies were sent from Falaise into Italy, where they were known
by the Aborigines, under the names of _Falisci_, or _Falerii_. A third
writer, M. Langevin, author of the _Recherches Historiques sur Falaise_,
assures his readers that Falaise was, from time immemorial, a station
consecrated to religion; and, in a dissertation full of the most
recondite information relative to the worship of Belenus and Abrasax,
Isis and Felé, he so connects and intermingles the rites of those
deities with the place and its vicinity, that he can scarcely be said to
do it less honor than his predecessors.
To turn from historians of this sanguine complexion to those of a more
sober temperament, there will appear no reason for believing that the
town of Falaise had existence prior to the incursions of the Saxons, or
the establishment of the Normans, in Neustria. No mention of it whatever
is to be found previous to the latter of these times; and its very name,
obviously derived from the German word for a rock, _fels_, whence the
French subsequently borrowed their appellation for cliffs, _falaise_,
seems decisive as to the foundation of the town by some people of
Teutonic origin. It is at the same time altogether characteristic of its
situation.
That Falaise was built by the Saxons, may probably, with justice, be
inferred from the fact of its being casually mentioned during the reign
of Rollo, as one of the places through which he passed in the year 912,
while visiting the different parts of his duchy. The town cannot but
have been of importance in the time of his son, William Longue-Epée; as
that prince is stated to have received great assistance from the
inhabitants of Falaise, and the district of the Hiémois, when engaged in
a war with the people of Brittany. It is more than possible that the
fortifications were added, and the castle erected, by one or the other
of these sovereigns.[198] Their immediate successor, Richard Sans-Peur,
is stated to have made considerable additions to the works of the place,
which, in the early part of the following century, under Richard III.
the fifth of the Norman dukes, was unquestionably one of the strongest
holds of the province. Not long afterwards, Falaise rose into new
importance, as the residence of Robert, father to the Conqueror, and the
birth-place of that sovereign himself, to whom it rendered acceptable
service during his youth, upon the occasion of the formidable conspiracy
of the Norman barons, headed by Guy de Bourgogne, in 1046. The prince,
then at Valognes, escaped with difficulty from the poniards of the
assassins to Falaise, where he was received with open arms. Falaise was
at that time the capital of the Hiémois. In the reign of Henry II. of
England, the castle was used as a state prison, and was selected as the
place of confinement of Robert, Earl of Leicester, when taken prisoner
in 1173, commanding the French forces in England. At a subsequent, but
not far distant period, Brito, the poetical chronicler of the deeds of
Philip-Augustus, in speaking of the final subjection of Normandy to that
king, mentions the town of Falaise and its capture, in the following
verses:--
"Vicus erat scabrâ circumdatus undique rupe,
Ipsius asperitate loci Falæsa vocatus,
Normannæ in medio regionis, cujus in altâ
Turres rupe sedent et moenia, sic ut ad illam
Jactus nemo putet aliquos contingere posse.
Hunc rex innumeris circumdedit undique signis,
Perque dies septem varia instrumenta parabat,
Moenibus ut fractis villâ potiatur et arcâ:
Verùm burgenses et præcipue Lupicarus,
Cui patriæ curam dederat rex Anglicus omnem,
Elegere magis illæsum reddere castrum,
Omni re salvâ cum libertatis honore,
Quàm belli tentare vices et denique vinci."
The foregoing was the fourth of the nine sieges that have rendered the
name of Falaise memorable in Norman history. The first of them had taken
place in 1027, when Falaise presumed to shelter Robert, the father of
the Conqueror, during his rebellion against his brother, Duke Richard
III. In point of importance, none of the sieges were equal to those of
1417 and 1589. Upon the former of those occasions, Henry V. flushed by
the success that had unremittingly attended his arms, since his glorious
victory at Agincourt, led his troops in person against the town, which
he expected would fall an easy prey. But it resisted an incessant
bombardment for three months, and did not finally surrender, till the
fortifications had sustained such essential injuries, that the repairing
of them by the besieged, at their own charge, was made one of the
leading articles of the capitulation. It was upon this occasion, that
the lofty circular tower, one of the principal objects in both these
plates, was added to the castle. Tradition ascribes its erection to the
celebrated English general, Talbot, then governor of the town; and, even
to the present day, it bears his name.[199]
The last siege of Falaise, that of December, 1589, was occasioned by the
devoted adherence of the inhabitants to the League, and their consequent
refusal to recognize Henry IV. as their sovereign, on account of his
attachment to the Protestant faith. In defence of their creed, they had
already sustained one siege in the month of July of the same year; and,
headed by the Count de Brissac, governor of the castle, had repulsed the
royal troops under the command of the Duke de Montpensier. But the new
sovereign was not a man to be trifled with; and when Brissac, upon being
summoned to surrender, replied, according to the words of De Thou,
"religione se prohiberi; sumpto quippe Dominici corporis sacramento,
fidem suis obligâsse de deditione se prorsùs non acturum;" the king is
reported, by the same noble historian, to have returned in answer, "se
menses ad totidem dies contracturum, intra quos illum, sed magno suo cum
damno, religione soluturus esset." The garrison, notwithstanding these
threats, did not relax in their opposition, and the town was finally
taken by assault, the frost enabling the assailants to cross the moat.
On this, the Count de Brissac retired to the castle, which he
surrendered about a month afterwards.
Falaise appears in the religious annals of Normandy, as the seat of an
abbey, founded in 1127, and first occupied by regular canons of the
order of St. Augustine, and placed under the invocation of St. Michael,
the Archangel; but shortly afterwards transferred to the
Præmonstratensian friars, and dedicated to St. John the Baptist. The
monastery is said to have taken its rise from an hospital, established
by a wealthy inhabitant, in consequence of a beggar having died of cold
and hunger in his barn. A bull from Pope Sextus IV. dated in 1475,
conferred upon the abbots the privilege of wearing the mitre, ring, and
pontifical insignia, together with various other honorary distinctions.
The revolution deprived Falaise of its abbey and eight churches. It now
retains only four; two within the walls, and two in the suburbs. Its
population is estimated at about ten thousand inhabitants.
[Illustration: Plate 90. CASTLE OF FALAISE.
_North View._]