Account of a Tour in Normandy Volume Ii Part 4

[Footnote 30: _Cotman's Architectural Antiquities of Normandy_, plate 15.--In a future portion of his work, Mr. Cotman designs devoting a second plate exclusively to the oriel in the east front of this building.]

[Footnote 31: _Monstrelet, Johnes' Translation_, II. p. 242.]

[Footnote 32: The letter of this stipulation appears to have been attended to much more than its spirit for at the top of the monument were five figures:--Our Savior seated in the centre, as if in the act of p.r.o.nouncing sentence; on either side of him, an angel; and below, Charles de Valois and Enguerrand de Marigni; the former on the right of Christ, crowned with the ducal coronet; the other, on the opposite side, in the guise and posture of a suppliant, imploring the divine vengeance for his unjust fate.--_Histoire de la Haute Normandie_, II. p. 338.]

[Footnote 33: _Montfaucon, Monumens de la Monarchie Franaise_, II. p.

220.]

[Footnote 34: In a collection of epitaphs printed at Cologne, 1623, under the t.i.tle of _Epitaphia Joco-seria_, I find the same monumental inscription, with the observation, that it is at Tournay, and with the following explanation.--"De pari conjugum, poste ad religionem transeuntium et in e prfectorum. Alter fuit Francisca.n.u.s; altera ver Clarissa."]

[Footnote 35: _Histoire du Duch de Normandie_, III. p. 15.]

LETTER XVIII.

EVREUX--CATHEDRAL--ABBEY OF ST. TAURINUS--ANCIENT HISTORY.

(_Evreux, July_, 1818.)

Our journey to this city has not afforded the gratification which we antic.i.p.ated.--You may recollect Ducarel's eulogium upon the cathedral, that it is one of the finest structures of the kind in France.--It is our fate to be continually at variance with the doctor, till I am half inclined to fear you may be led to suspect that jealousy has something to do with the matter, and that I fall under the ban of the old Greek proverb,--

[English. Not in Original: The potter is jealous of the potter, as the builder is jealous of the builder.]

As for myself, however, I do hope and trust that I am marvellously free from antiquarian spite.--And in this instance, our expectations were also raised by the antiquity and sanct.i.ty of the cathedral, which was entirely rebuilt by Henry Ist, who made a considerate bargain with Bishop Audinus[36], by which he was allowed to burn the city and its rebellious inhabitants, upon condition of bestowing his treasures for the re-construction of the monasteries, after the impending conflagration. The church, thus raised, is said by William of Jumieges[37], to have surpa.s.sed every other in Neustria; but it is certain that only a very small portion of the original building now remains. A second destruction awaited it. Philip Augustus, who desolated the county of Evreux with fire and sword, stormed the capital, sparing neither age nor s.e.x; and all its buildings, whether sacred or profane, were burnt to the ground. Hoveden, his friend, and Brito, his enemy, both bear witness to this fact--the latter in the following lines:--

"... irarum stimulis agitatus, ad omne Excidium partis advers totus inardens, Ebroicas prim sic incineravit, ut omnes c.u.m domibus simul ecclesias consumpserit ignis."--

The church, in its present state, is a medley of many different styles and ages: the nave alone retains vestiges of early architecture, in its ma.s.sy piers and semi-circular arches: these are evidently of Norman workmanship, and are probably part of the church erected by Henry.--All the rest is comparatively modern.--The western front is of a debased Palladian style, singularly ill adapted to a Gothic cathedral. It is flanked with two towers, one of which ends in a cupola, the other in a short cone.--The central tower, which is comparatively plain and surmounted by a high spire, was built about the middle of the fifteenth century, during the bishopric of the celebrated John de Balue, who was in high favor with Louis XIth, and obtained from that monarch great a.s.sistance towards repairing, enlarging, and beautifying his church. The roof, the transept towards the palace, the sacristy, the library, and a portion of the cloisters, are all said to have been erected by him[38].--The northern transept is the only part that can now lay claim to beauty or uniformity in its architecture: it is of late and b.a.s.t.a.r.d Gothic; yet the portal is not dest.i.tute of merit: it is evidently copied from the western portal of the cathedral at Rouen, though far inferior in every respect, and with a decided tendency towards the Italian style.

Almost every part of it still appears full of elaborate ornaments, though all the saints and bishops have fled from the arched door-way, and the bas-relief which was over the entrance has equally disappeared.

Ducarel[39] notices four statues of canons, attached to a couple of pillars at the back of the chancel.--We were desirous of seeing authentic specimens of sculpture of a period at least as remote as the conquest; and, as the garden belonging to the prefect, the Comte de Goyon, incloses this portion of the church, we requested to be allowed to enter his grounds. Leave was most obligingly granted, and we received every attention from the prefect and his lady; but we could find no traces of the objects of our search. They were probably destroyed during the revolution; at which time, the count told us that the statues at the north portal were also broken to pieces. At Evreux, the democrats had full scope for the exercise of their iconoclastic fury. Little or no previous injury had been done by the Calvinists, who appear to have been unable to gain any ascendency in this town or diocese, at the same time that they lorded it over the rest of Normandy. Evreux had been fortified against heresy, by the piety and good sense of two of her bishops: they foresaw the coming storm, and they took steps to redress the grievances which were objects of complaint, as well as to reform the church-establishment, and to revise the breviary and the ma.s.s-book.--Conduct like this seldom fails in its effect; and the tranquil by-stander may regret that it is not more frequently adopted by contending parties.

The interior of the cathedral is handsome, though not peculiar. Some good specimens of painted gla.s.s remain in the windows; and, in various parts of the church, there are elegant tabernacles and detached pieces of sculpture, as well in stone as in wood. The pulpit, in particular, is deserving of this praise: it is supported on cherubs' heads, and is well designed and executed.

The building is dedicated to the Virgin: it claims for its first bishop, Taurinus, a saint of the third century, memorable in legendary tale for a desperate battle which he fought against the devil. Satan was sadly drubbed and the bishop wrenched off one of his horns[40]. The trophy was deposited in the crypt of his church, where it long remained, to amuse the curious, and stand the nurses of Evreux in good stead, as the means of quieting noisy children.--The learned Cardinal Du Perron succeeded to St. Taurinus, though at an immense distance of time. He was appointed by Henry IVth, towards whose conversion he appears to have been greatly instrumental, as he was afterwards the princ.i.p.al mediator, by whose intercession the Pope was induced to grant absolution to the monarch.

The task was one of some difficulty: for the court of Spain, then powerful at the Vatican, used all their efforts to prevent a reconciliation, with a view of fomenting the troubles in France.--Most of the bishops of this see appear to have possessed great piety and talent.

I have already mentioned to you, that the fraternity of the Conards was established at Evreux, as well as at Rouen. Another inst.i.tution, of equal absurdity, was peculiar, I believe, to this cathedral[41]. It bore the name of the Feast of St. Vital, as it united with the anniversary of that saint, which is celebrated on the first of May: the origin of the custom may be derived from the heathen Floralia, a ceremony begun in innocence, continued to abomination. At its first inst.i.tution, the feast of St. Vital was a simple and a natural rite: the statues of the saints were crowned with garlands of foliage, perhaps as an offering of the first-fruits of the opening year. In process of time, branches were subst.i.tuted for leaves, and they were cut from the growing trees, by a lengthened train of rabble pilgrims.--The clergy themselves headed the mob, who committed such devastation in the neighboring woods, that the owners of them were glad to compromise for the safety of their timber, by stationing persons to supply the physical, as well as the religious, wants of the populace. The excesses consequent upon such a practice may easily be imagined: the duration of the feast was gradually extended to ten days; and, during this time, licentiousness of all kinds prevailed under the plea of religion. To use the words of a ma.n.u.script, preserved in the archives of the cathedral, they played at skittles on the roof of the church, and the bells were kept continually ringing. These orgies, at length, were quelled; but not till two prebendaries belonging to the chapter, had nearly lost their lives in the attempt.--Hitherto, indeed, the clergy had enjoyed the merriment full as well as the laity. One jolly canon, appropriately named Jean Bouteille, made a will, in which he declared himself the protector of the feast; and he directed that, on its anniversary, a pall should be spread in the midst of the church, with a gigantic _bottle_ in its centre, and four smaller ones at the corners; and he took care to provide funds for the perpetuation of this _rebus_.

The cathedral offers few subjects for the pencil.--As a species of monument, of which we have no specimens in England, I add a sketch of a Gothic _puteal_, which stands near the north portal. It is apparently of the same ra as that part of the church.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Gothic Puteal, at Evreux]

From the cathedral we went to the church of St. Taurinus. The proud abbey of the apostle and first bishop of the diocese retains few or no traces of its former dignity. So long as monachism flourished, a contest existed between the chapter of the cathedral and the brethren of this monastery, each advocating the precedency of their respective establishment.--The monks of St. Taurinus contended, that their abbey was expressly mentioned by William of Jumieges[42] among the most ancient in Neustria, as well as among those which were destroyed by the Normans, and rebuilt by the zeal of good princes. They also alleged the dispute that prevailed under the Norman dukes for more than two hundred years, between this convent and that of Fcamp, respecting the right of nominating one of their own brethren to the head of their community, a right which was claimed by Fcamp; and they displayed the series of their prelates, continued in an uninterrupted line from the time of their founder. Whatever may have been the justice of these claims, the antiquity of the monastery is admitted by all parties.--Its monks, like those of the abbey of St. Ouen, had the privilege of receiving every new bishop of the see, on the first day of his arrival at Evreux; and his corpse was deposited in their church, where the funeral obsequies were performed. This privilege, originally intended only as a mark of distinction to the abbey, was on two occasions perverted to a purpose that might scarcely have been expected. Upon the death of Bishop John d'Aubergenville in 1256, the monks resented the reformation which he had endeavoured to introduce into their order, by refusing to admit his body within their precinct; and though fined for their obstinacy, they did not learn wisdom by experience, but forty-three years afterwards shewed their hostility decidedly towards the remains of Geoffrey of Bar, a still more determined reformer of monastic abuses. Extreme was the licentiousness which prevailed in those days among the monks of St.

Taurinus, and unceasing were the endeavors of the bishop to correct them. The contest continued during his life, at the close of which they not only shut their doors against his corpse, but dragged it from the coffin and gave it a public flagellation. So gross an act of indecency would in all probability be cla.s.sed among the many scandalous tales invented of ecclesiastics, but that the judicial proceedings which ensued leave no doubt of its truth; and it was even recorded in the burial register of the cathedral.

The church of St. Taurinus offers some valuable specimens of ancient architecture.--The southern transept still preserves a row of Norman arches, running along the lower part of its west side, as well as along its front; but those above them are pointed. To the south are six circular arches, divided into two compartments, in each of which the central arch has formerly served for a window. Both the lateral ones are filled with coeval stone-work, whose face is carved into lozenges, which were alternately coated with blue and red mortar or stucco: distinct traces of the coloring are still left in the cavities[43]. To the eastern side of this transept is attached, as at St. Georges, a small chapel, of semi-circular architecture, now greatly in ruins. The interior of the church is all comparatively modern, with the exception of some of the lower arches on the north side.--A strange and whimsical vessel for holy water attracted our attention. I cannot venture to guess at its date, but I do not think it is more recent than the fourteenth century.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Vessel for holy water]

The princ.i.p.al curiosity of the church, and indeed of the town, is the shrine, which contained, or perhaps, contains, a portion of the bones of the patron saint, whose body, after having continued for more than three hundred years a hidden treasure, was at last revealed in a miraculous manner to the prayers of Landulphus, one of his successors in the episcopacy.--The cathedral of Chartres, in early ages, set up a rival claim for the possession of this precious relic; but its existence here was formally verified at the end of the seventeenth century, by the opening of the _chsse_, in which a small quant.i.ty of bones was found tied up in a leather bag, with a certificate of their authenticity, signed by an early bishop.--The shrine is of silver-gilt, about one and a half foot in height and two feet in length: it is a fine specimen of ancient art. In shape it resembles the nave of a church, with the sides richly enchased with figures of saints and bishops. Our curious eyes would fain have pried within; but it was closed with the impression of the archbishop's signet.--A crypt, the original burial place of St.

Taurinus, is still shewn in the church, and it continues to be the object of great veneration. It is immediately in front of the high altar, and is entered by two staircases, one at the head, the other at the foot of the coffin. The vault is very small, only admitting of the coffin and of a narrow pa.s.sage by its side. The sarcophagus, which is extremely shallow, and neither wide nor long, is partly imbedded in the wall, so that the head and foot and one side alone are visible.--A portion of the monastic buildings of St. Taurinus now serves as a seminary for the catholic priesthood.

The west front of the church of St. Giles is not devoid of interest.

Many other churches here have been desecrated; and this ancient building has been converted into a stable. The door-way is formed by a fine semi-circular arch, ornamented with the chevron-moulding, disposed in a triple row, and with a line of quatrefoils along the archivolt. Both these decorations are singular: I recollect no other instance of the quatrefoil being employed in an early Norman building, though immediately upon the adoption of the pointed style it became exceedingly common; nor can I point out another example of the chevron-moulding thus disposed. It produces a better effect than when arranged in detached bands. The capitals to the pillars of the arch are sculptured with winged dragons and other animals, in bold relief.

These are the only worthy objects of architectural inquiry now existing in the city. Many must have been destroyed by the ravages of war, and by the excesses of the revolution.--Evreux therefore does not abound with memorials of its antiquity. But its existence as a town, during the period of the domination of the Romans, rests upon authority that is scarcely questionable. It has been doubted whether the present city, or a village about three miles distant, known by the name of _Old Evreux_, is the _Mediolanum Aulercorum_ of Ptolemy. His description is given with sufficient accuracy to exclude the pretensions of any other town, though not with such a degree of precision as will enable us, after a lapse of sixteen centuries, to decide between the claims of the two sites. Csar, in his _Commentaries_, speaks in general terms of the _Aulerci Eburovices_, who are admitted to have been the ancient inhabitants of this district, and whose name, especially as modified to _Ebroici_ and _Ebroi_, is clearly to be recognized in that of the county. The foundations of ancient buildings are still to be seen at Old Evreux; and various coins and medals of the upper empire, have at different times been dug up within its precincts. Hence it has been concluded, that the _Mediolanum Aulercorum_ was situated there. The supporters of the contrary opinion admit that Old Evreux was a Roman station; but they say that, considering its size, it can have been no more than an encampment: they also maintain, that a castle was subsequently built upon the site of this encampment, by Richard, Count of Evreux, and that the destruction of this castle, during the Norman wars, gave rise to the ruins now visible, which in their turn were the cause of the name of the village[44].

It is certain that, in the reign of William the Conqueror, the town stood in its present situation: Ordericus Vitalis speaks in terms that admit of no hesitation, when he states that, in the year 1080, "fides Christi Evanticorum, id est Evroas, urbem, _super Ittonum fluvium sitam_ possidebat et salubritr illuminabat[45]."

In the times of Norman sovereignty, Evreux attained an unfortunate independence: Duke Richard Ist severed it from the duchy, and erected it into a distinct earldom in favor of Robert, his second son. From him the inheritance descended to Richard and William, his son and grandson; after whose death, it fell into the female line, and pa.s.sed into the house of Montfort d'Amaury, by the marriage of Agnes, sister of Richard of Evreux.--Nominally independent, but really held only at the pleasure of the Dukes of Normandy, the rank of the earldom occasioned the misery of the inhabitants, who were continually involved in warfare, and plundered by conflicting parties. The annals of Evreux contain the relation of a series of events, full of interest and amus.e.m.e.nt to us who peruse them; but those, who lived at the time when these events were really acted, might exclaim, like the frogs in the fable, "that what is entertainment to us, was death to them."--At length, the treaty of Louviers, in 1195, altered the aspect of affairs. The King of France gained the right of placing a garrison in Evreux; and, five years afterwards, he obtained a formal cession of the earldom. Philip Augustus took possession of the city, to the great joy of the inhabitants, who, six years before, had seen their town pillaged, and their houses destroyed, by the orders of this monarch. The severity exercised upon that occasion had been excessive; but Philip's indignation had been roused by one of the basest acts of treachery recorded in history.--John, faithless at every period of his life, had entered into a treaty with the French monarch, during the captivity of his brother, Coeur-de-Lion, to deliver up Normandy; and Philip, conformably with this plan, was engaged in reducing the strong holds upon the frontiers, whilst his colleague resided at Evreux. The unexpected release of the English king disconcerted these intrigues; and John, alarmed at the course which he had been pursuing, thought only how to avert the anger of his offended sovereign. Under pretence, therefore, of shewing hospitality to the French, he invited the princ.i.p.al officers to a feast, where he caused them all to be murdered; and he afterwards put the rest of the garrison to the sword.--Brito records the transaction in the following lines, which I quote, not only as an historical doc.u.ment, ill.u.s.trative of the moral character of one of the worst sovereigns that ever swayed the British sceptre, but as an honorable testimony to the memory of his unfortunate brother:--

"Attamen Ebrocam studio majore reformans Armis et rebus et bellatoribus urbem, Pluribus instructam donavit amore Johanni, Ut sibi servet eam: tamen arcem non dedit illi.

Ille dolo plenus, qui patrem, qui modo fratrem Prodiderat, ne non et Regis proditor esset, Excedens siculos animi impietate Tyrannos, Francigenas omnes vocat ad convivia quotquot Ebrocis reperit, equites simul atque clientes, Paucis exceptis quos sors servavit in arce.

Quos c.u.m dispositis armis fecisset ut una Discubuisse domo, tanquam prandere putantes, Evocat e latebris armatos protinus Anglos, Interimitque viros sub eadem clade trecentos, Et palis capita ambustis affixit, et urbem Circuit affixis, visu mirabile, tali Regem portento qurens magis angere luctu: Talibus obsequiis, tali mercede rependens Millia marcharum, quas Rex donaverat illi.

Tam detestanda pollutus cde Johannes Ad fratrem properat; sed Rex tam flagitiosus Non placuit fratri: quis enim, nisi dmone plenus, Omninoque Deo vacuus, virtute redemptus A vitiis nulla, tam dira fraude placere Appetat, aut tanto venetur crimine pacem?

Sed quia frater erat, licet illius oderit actus Omnibus odibiles, fratern foedera pacis Non negat indigno, nec eum privavit amore, Ipsum qui nuper Regno privare volebat."

The vicissitudes to which the county of Evreux was doomed to be subject, did not wholly cease upon its annexation to the crown of France. It pa.s.sed, in the fourteenth century, into the hands of the Kings of Navarre, so as to form a portion of their foreign territory; and early in the fifteenth, it fell by right of conquest under English sovereignty.--Philip the Bold conferred it, in 1276, upon Louis, his youngest son; and from him descended the line of Counts of Evreux, who, originating in the royal family of France, became Kings of Navarre. The kingdom was brought into the family by the marriage of Philip Count of Evreux with Jane daughter of Louis Hutin, King of France and Navarre, to whom she succeeded as heir general. Charles IIIrd, of Navarre, ceded Evreux by treaty to his namesake, Charles VIth of France, in 1404; and he shortly after bestowed it upon John Stuart, Lord of Aubigni, and Constable of Scotland.--Under Henry Vth, our countrymen took the city in 1417, but we were not long allowed to hold undisturbed possession of it; for, in 1424, it was recaptured by the French. Their success, however, was only ephemeral: the battle of Verneuil replaced Evreux in the power of the English before the expiration of the same year; and we kept it till 1441, when the garrison was surprised, and the town lost, though not without a vigorous resistance.--Towards the close of the following century, the earldom was raised into a _Duch pairie_, by Charles IXth, who, having taken the lordship of Gisors from his brother, the Duc d'Alenon, better known by his subsequent t.i.tle of Duc d'Anjou, recompenced him by a grant of Evreux. Upon the death of this prince without issue, in 1584, Evreux reverted to the crown, and the t.i.tle lay dormant till 1652, when Louis XIVth exchanged the earldom with the Duc de Bouillon, in return for the princ.i.p.ality of Sedan. In his family it remained till the revolution, which, amalgamating the whole of France into one common ma.s.s of equal rights and laws, put an end to all local privileges and other feudal tenures.

Evreux, at present, is a town containing about eight thousand inhabitants, a great proportion of whom are persons of independent property, or _rentiers_, as the French call them. Hence it has an air of elegance, seldom to be found in a commercial, and never in a manufacturing town; and to us this appearance was the more striking, as being the first instance of the kind we had seen in Normandy. The streets are broad and beautifully neat. The city stands in the midst of gardens and orchards, in a fertile valley, watered by the Iton, and inclosed towards the north and south by ranges of hills. The river divides into two branches before it reaches the town, both which flow on the outside of the walls. But, besides these, a portion of its waters has been conducted through the centre of the city, by means of a ca.n.a.l dug by the order of Jane of Navarre. This Iton, like the Mole, in Kent, suddenly loses itself in the ground, near the little town of Damville, about twenty miles south of Evreux, and holds its subterranean course for nearly two miles. A similar phenomenon is observable with a neighboring stream, the Risle, between Ferrire and Grammont[46]: in both cases it is attributed, I know not with what justice, to an abrupt change in the stratification of the soil.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 36: This curious transaction, which took place in the year 1119, is related with considerable _nivet_ by Ordericus Vitalis, p.

852, as follows:--"Henricus Rex rebellibus ultr parcere nolens, pagum Ebroicensem adiit, et Ebroas c.u.m valida manu impugnare coepit. Sed oppidanis, qui intrinsecus erant, c.u.m civibus viriliter repugnantibus, introire nequivit. Erant c.u.m illo Ricardus filius ejus, et Stepha.n.u.s Comes nepos ejus, Radulfus de Guader, et maxima vis Normannorum. Quibus ante Regem convocatis in unnm, Rex dixit ad Audinum Episcopum. "Videsne, domine Prsul, qud repellimur ab hostibus, nec eos nisi per ignem subjugare poterimus? Verm, si ignis immitt.i.tur, Ecclesi comburentur, et insontibus ingens d.a.m.num inferetur. Nunc ergo, Pastor Ecclesi, diligentr considera, et quod utilius prospexeris provid n.o.bis insinua.

Si victoria n.o.bis per incendium divinits conceditur, opitulante Deo, Ecclesi detrimenta restaurabuntur: quia de thesauris nostris commodos sumptus gratantr largiemur. Unde domus Dei, ut reor, in melius redificabuntur." Hsitat in tanto discrimine Prsul auxius, ignorat quid jubeat divin dispositioni competentius: nescit quid debeat magis velle vel eligere salubrius. Tandem prudentum consultu prcepit ignem immitti, et civitatem concremari, ut ab anathematizatis proditoribus liberaretur, et legitimis habitatoribus rest.i.tueretur. Radulfus igitur de Guader a parte Aquilonali primus ignem injecit, et effrenis flamma per urbem statim volavit, et omnia (tempos enim autumni sicc.u.m erat) corripuit. Tunc combusta est basilica sancti Salvatoris, quam Sanctimoniales incolebant, et celebris aula glorios virginis et matris Mari, cui Prsul et Clerus serviebant, ubi Pontificalem Curiam parochiani frequentabant. Rex, et cuncti Optimales sui Episcopo pro Ecclesiarum combustione vadimonium supplicitr dederunt, et uberes impensas de opibus suis ad restaurationem earum palam spoponderunt."]

[Footnote 37: _d.u.c.h.esne, Scriptores Normanni_, p. 309.]

[Footnote 38: _Gallia Christiana_, XI. p. 606.]

[Footnote 39: From the manner in, which Ducarel speaks of these statues, (_Anglo-Norman Antiquities_, p. 85.) he leaves it to be understood, that they were in existence in his time; but it is far from certain that this was the case; for the whole of his account of them is no more than a translation from the following pa.s.sage in Le Bra.s.seur's _Histoire du Comt d'Evreux_, p. 11.--"Le Diocse d'Evreux a t si favoris des grces de Dieu, qu'on ne voit presqu'aucun temps o l'Hrsie y ait pntr, mme lorsque les Protestans inondoient et corrompoient toute la France, et particulierement la Normandie. On ne peut pas cependant desavoer qu'il y a eu de temps en temps, quelques personnes qui se sont livres l'erreur; et l'on peut remarquer quatre Status attaches deux piliers au dehors du chancel de l'Eglise Cathdrale du ct du Cimetiere, dont trois reprsentent trois Chanoines, la tte couverte de leurs Aumuces selon la cotume de ce temps-l, et une quatrime qui reprsente un Chanoine un pilier plus loign, la tte nu, tenant sa main sur le coeur comme un signe de son repentir; parce que la tradition dit, qu'aant t atteint et convaincu du crime d'hrsie, le Chapitre l'avoit interdit des fonctions de son Bnfice; mais qu'aant ensuite abjur son erreur, le mme Chapitre le rtablit dans tous ses droits, honneurs, et privileges: cependant il fut ordonn qu'en mmoire de l'garement et de la pnitence de ce Chanoine, ces Status demeureroient attaches aux piliers de leur Eglise, lorsqu'elle ft rbtie des deniers de Henry I. Roy d'Angleterre, par les soins d'Audoenus Evque d'Evreux."]

[Footnote 40: This was not the first, nor the only, contest, which was fought by Taurinus with Satan. Their struggles began at the moment of the saint's coming to Evreux, and did not even terminate when his life was ended. But the devil was, by the power of his adversary, brought to such a helpless state, that, though he continued to haunt the city, where the people knew him by the name of _Gobelinus_, he was unable to injure any one.--All this is seriously related by Ordericus Vitalis, (p.

555.) from whom I extract the following pa.s.sage, in ill.u.s.tration of what Evreux was supposed to owe to its first bishop.--"Gra.s.sante secund persecutione, qu sub Domitiano in Christianos furuit, Dionysius Parisiensis Episcopus Taurinum filiolum suum jam quadragenarium, Prsulem ordinavit; et (vaticinatis pluribus qu pa.s.surus erat) Ebroicensibus in nomine Domini direxit. Viro Dei ad portas civitatis appropinquanti, dmon in tribus figmentis se opposuit: scilicet in specie ursi, et leonis, et bubali terrere athletam Christi voluit. Sed ille fort.i.ter, ut inexpugnabilis murus, in fide perst.i.tit, et coeptum iter peregit, hospitiumque in domo Lucii suscepit. Tertia die, dum Taurinus ibidem populo prdicaret, et dulcedo fidei novis auditoribus multm placeret, dolens diabolus Eufrasiam Lucii filiam vexare coepit, et in ignem jecit. Qu statim mortua est; sed paul pst, orante Taurino ac jubente ut resurgeret, in nomine Domini resuscitata est. Nullum in ea adustionis signum apparuit. Omnes igitur hoc miraculum videntes subit territi sunt, et obstupescentes in Dominum Jesum Christum crediderunt.