Account of a Tour in Normandy Volume I Part 8

IN MEDIA NAVI, E REGIONE HUJUS COLUMNae, JACET BEATae MEM. MAURILIUS, ARCHIEP. ROTOM. AN. MLV.

HANC BASILICAM PERFECIT CONSECRAVITQUE ANNO MLXIII.

VIX NATOS BERENGARII ERRORES IN PROX. CONCIL. PRaeFOCAVIT.

PLENUS MERITIS OBIIT ANN. MLXVII.

HOC PONTIF. NORMANNI, GULIELMO DUCE, ANGLIA POt.i.tI SUNT ANNO MLXVI.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Monumental Figure of an Archbishop, in Rouen Cathedral]

In the northern aisle of the choir, there still exists a curious monument, in an injured state indeed, but well deserving of attention, from its antiquity. It has been referred by tradition to Maurice, or William of Durefort, both of them archbishops of Rouen, and buried in the cathedral, the former in 1237, the latter in 1331; but the rec.u.mbent figure upon it seems of a yet more distant date. It differs in several respects from any that I have seen in England[82]. The tomb is in the wall, behind a range of pillars, which form a kind of open screen round the apsis. Below the effigy, it is decorated with a row of whole-length figures of saints, much mutilated: the circular part above is lined with angels, a couple of whom are employed in conveying the soul of the deceased in a winding-sheet to heaven[83].

[Ill.u.s.tration: Monument of an Archbishop]

The Lady-Chapel contains two monuments of great merit, and which, considered as specimens of matured art, have now no rivals in Normandy; for both owe their origin to a period of refinement and splendor. The sepulchre raised over the bodies of the two Cardinals of Amboise, successively Archbishops of Rouen, towers on the southern side of the chapel. The statues of the cardinals are of white marble. The prelates appear kneeling in prayer; and the following inscription, engraved in a single line, and not divided into verses, is placed beneath them:--

PASTOR ERAM CLERI, POPULI PATER, AUREA SESE LILIA SUBDEBANT QUERCUS[84] ET IPSA MIHI.

MORTUUS EN JACEO, MORTE EXTINGUUNTUR HONORES; AT VIRTUS MORTIS NESGIA MORTE VIRET.

Immediately behind the cardinals are figures of patron saints; a centre tablet represents St. George and the Dragon; above are the apostles; below, the seven cardinal virtues. The execution of these is particularly admired, especially that of the figure of Prudence; but a row of still smaller figures, in devotional att.i.tudes, carved upon the pilasters between the virtues, are in higher taste. Various arabesques in ba.s.so-relievo, of great beauty, and completely in the style of the _Loggie_ of Raphael, adorn the other parts of this sumptuous tomb.--As a whole it is unquestionably grand, and it is yet farther valuable as an ill.u.s.tration of the gorgeous taste that prevailed at the end of the fifteenth century; but the mixture of black and white marble and gilding has by no means a good effect, and every part is overloaded with ornaments[85]. These, however, are the faults of the times: its merits are its own.

On the north side of the chapel is entombed the Duke of Breze, once Grand Seneschal of Normandy; his tomb is chaste and simple, forming a pleasing contrast to the elaborate memorial of the cardinals. The statue of the seneschal himself, represented stretched as a corpse, upon a black marble sarcophagus, is admirable for its execution. The rigid expression of death is visible, not only in the countenance, but extends through every limb. Diana of Poitiers, a beauty who enjoys more celebrity than good fame, erected the monument; and she caused her statue to be placed on the tomb, where she is seen kneeling and contemplating. In the following inscription she promises to be as faithful and united to him after his death as she was while they both lived: and she truly kept her word; for, during his life-time, she was grievously suspected of infidelity[86], and she subsequently lived in an open state of concubinage with Henry IInd, and was at last buried at her own celebrated residence at Anet, twenty leagues from her husband.--

HOC, LODOICE, TIBI POSUI, BREZaeE, SEPULCHRUM, PICTONIS AMISSO MOESTA DIANA VIRO; INDIVULSA TIBI QUONDAM ET FIDISSIMA CONJUX, UT FUIT IN THALAMO, SIC ERIT IN TUMULO.

A second female figure on the tomb, with a child in her arms, has been supposed intended to represent the nurse of the duke; as if the design of the sculptor had been to read a lesson to mortality, by exhibiting the warrior in the helplessness of infancy, in the vigor of manhood, and as a breathless corpse. Some persons, however, consider it as a personification of Charity; others suppose that it represents the Virgin Mary. In the midst was originally an erect statue of De Breze, decorated with the various symbols of his dignities; but this sinned beyond the hope of redemption against the doctrines of liberty and equality, and it was accordingly removed at the time of the revolution, together with two inscriptions. One of them, which detailed his honors, with the addition that he died July twenty-third, 1531, has recently been recovered by the care of M. Riaux, and is restored to its place. The other inscription and the effigy, it is feared, are irrevocably lost. An equestrian statue in the upper part of the monument was suffered to remain, and, as a record of the military costume of the sixteenth century, I annex a sketch of it. The armorial hearings upon the horse and armor are nearly obliterated.--The pile is surmounted a figure of Temperance; the bridle in whose mouth shews how absurd is allegory, when "submitted to the faithful eye."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Equestrian Figure of the Seneschal de Breze, in Rouen Cathedral]

Lenoir, who, in his work on the _Musee des Monumens Francais_, has treated much at large of the history of Diana of Poitiers, and has figured her own beautiful mausoleum, which he had the merit of rescuing from destruction, p.r.o.nounces[87] this monument to be from the hand of Jean Cousin, one of the most able sculptors of the French school.

Over the altar in the Lady-Chapel is the only good painting in the cathedral, the _Adoration of the Shepherds_, by Philip de Champagne, a solid, well-colored, and well-grouped picture. Two cherubs in the air are excellently conceived and drawn: the whole is lighted from the infant Christ in the cradle, a _concetto_, which has been almost universally adopted, since the time when Corregio painted his celebrated _Notte_, now at Dresden.

There is no great quant.i.ty of painted gla.s.s in the church, but much of it is of good quality. The windows of the choir, on either side of the Lady-Chapel, are as rich as a profusion of brilliant colors can make them; but the figures are so small, and so crowded, that the subjects cannot be traced. They are said to be the work of the thirteenth century. The painted windows in St. Stephen's chapel, of the sixteenth century, are generally considered the best in the cathedral. I own, however, that I should give the preference to those in the chapel of St. Romain, in the south transept. One of them is filled with allegorical representations of the virtues of the archbishop; another with his miracles: every part is distinct and clear, and executed with great force and great minuteness. The vestments of the saint have all the delicacy of miniature-painting.

The library of the cathedral, formerly one of the richest in France, disappeared during the revolution; but the n.o.ble room which contained it, one hundred feet long, by twenty-five feet wide, still remains uninjured; as does the door which led into it from the northern transept, and which continues to this day to bear the inscription, _Bibliotheca_. The staircase, communicating with this door, is delicate and beautiful. The bal.u.s.trades are of the most elegant filagree; and it has all the boldness and lightness which peculiarly characterise the French Gothic. Its date being well ascertained, we may note it as an architectural standard. It was erected by the archbishop, Cardinal d'Etouteville, about the year 1460, thirty or forty years subsequently to the building of the room.

Respecting the contents of the sacristy, I can say little from my own knowledge; but I find by Pommeraye, that, before the revolution, it boasted of a large silver image of the Virgin, endued with peculiar sanct.i.ty, a few drops of her milk, and a portion of her hair[88]; a splinter of the true cross, set in gold, studded with pearls, sapphires, and turquoises; and reliques of saints without number. Now, however, it appears, that of all its treasures, it has preserved little else except the shrine of St. Romain, and another known by the general name of _Cha.s.se des Saints_. The former is two feet six inches long, and one foot nine inches high, and is of handsome workmanship, with a variety of figures on the sides, and St. Romain himself at the top.

Formerly it was supposed to be made of gold; now I was a.s.sured by one of the canons, that it is of silver gilt; but Gilbert[89], who is a plain layman, maintains that it is only copper. Had it been otherwise, it would have contributed to the ways and means of the unchristian republic; but the democrats spared it, for they had well ascertained that the metal was base, and that the jewels, which adorn it, are but gla.s.s.--This is not the original shrine which held the precious relics: the shrine in which they were deposited by the archbishop, William Bonne Ame, when first brought to the cathedral, in 1090, was sold during a famine, and its proceeds distributed to the starving poor; after which, in 1179, Archbishop Rotrou caused another still more costly to be made; but the latter was broken to pieces by the Calvinists, in 1562, and the saint's body cast into the fire[90].

Thus, then, I have led you, as far as I am able; through the cathedral, adjoining which, at the east end, stands the palace of the archbishop, a large building, but neither handsome nor conspicuous, princ.i.p.ally the work of the Cardinal Georges d'Amboise, though begun by the Cardinal d'Etouteville, in 1461. The rooms in it which are shewn to strangers are the anti-chamber, commonly called _la salle de la Croix_, the library, and the great gallery. This last, which is one hundred and sixty feet long, is also known by the name of _la salle des Etats_. In it are placed four very large paintings by Robert, an eminent French artist of comparatively modern date. They represent the city of Rouen, the town of Dieppe, that of Havre de Grace, and the archiepiscopal palace at Gaillon. The view of Rouen represents in the foreground the _pet.i.t Chateau_, and is on that account peculiarly interesting. All of them are fine paintings, but much injured by the damp. In the anti-chamber are portraits of seven prelates of the see, and among them those of the Cardinal de la Rochefoucault, and M. de Tressan: our guide could name no others.

The present archbishop is the Cardinal Cambaceres, brother to the ex-consul of that name, a man of moral life and regular in his religious duties. He was placed here by Napoleon, all of whose appointments of this nature, with one or two exceptions, have been suffered to remain; but I need scarcely add that, though the t.i.tle of archbishop is left, and its present possessor is decorated with the Roman purple, neither the revenue, nor the dignity, nor the establishment, resemble those of former times. The chapter, which, before the revolution, consisted of an archbishop, a dean, fifty canons, and ten prebendaries, besides numberless attendants, now consists but of his eminence, with the dean, the treasurer, the archdeacon, and twelve canons. The independent annual income of the church, previous to the revolution, exceeded one hundred thousand pounds sterling; but now its ministers are all salaried by government, whose stated allowance, as I am credibly informed, is to every archbishop six hundred and twenty-five pounds per annum; to every bishop four hundred and sixteen pounds thirteen shillings and fourpence; and to every canon forty-one pounds thirteen shillings and four-pence.

But each of these stipends is doubled by an allowance of the same amount from the department; and care is taken to select men of independent property for the highest dignities.--From the foregoing scale, you may judge of the state of the religious establishment in France. It is, indeed, unjustly and unreasonably depressed, and there is much room for amendment; but we must still hope and trust that things will not soon regain their former standard, though attempts are daily making to identify the Catholic clergy with the present dynasty; and the most lively expectations are entertained from the well-known character of some of the royal family.

Footnotes:

[71] _Bentham, History of Ely, 2nd edit_. I. p. 34.

[72] _Liverpool Panorama of Arts and Sciences_, article _Architecture_.

[73] The only views of the cathedral with which I am acquainted, are,

A single plate of the west front, 16 in. by 11-1/2in.--_Anonymous_; . . . . . . . . . . . north side, 16 in. by 11-1/2in.--Marked _S.L.B._; A small north-west view, engraved by Pouncey, in the first volume of _Gough's Alien Priories_; And the west front, on an extremely reduced; scale, in _Seroux d'Agincourt's Histoire de l'Art par les Monumens, Architecture_, t. 64. f. 21. p. 68.

[74] This great benefactor to Rouen died the following year, deeply lamented by the inhabitants, and generally so by France; but, above all, regretted by Louis XIIth, his sovereign, whom, to use the words of Guicciardini, he served as oracle and authority. The author of the History of the Chevalier Bayard, is still louder in his praise.--The western facade of the cathedral was not finished till 1530, twenty years after his death.

[75] A representation of this has recently been published from an engraving on stone by Langlois.

[76] _Histoire de l'Eglise Cathedrale de Rouen_, p. 50.

[77] _Noel, Essais sur le Departement de la Seine Inferieure_, II. p.

239.

[78] _Millin, Histoire Metallique de la Revolution Francaise_, t. 22. f.

84.

[79] _Histoire des Archeveques de Rouen_, folio 1667.

[80] Anglo-Norman Antiquities, p. 12.

[81] _Monumens de la Monarchie Francaise_, II. t. 15. f. 3 and 5.

[82] As these effigies are in general little understood, even by those who look at them with pleasure as specimens of art, or with respect as relics of antiquity, I am happy to be able to give the following detailed ill.u.s.tration of this at Rouen, extracted from a letter which the Right Rev. Dr. Milner had lately the kindness to write me upon the subject.

"The sepulchral monument in the cathedral of Rouen represents a prelate; that is to say, Bishop or Mitred Abbot, as appears by his mitre, gloves, ring, and sandals. But, as he bears the _Pallium_, (to be seen on his neck, just above his breast, and hanging down before him, almost to his feet) it appears that he is a _Metropolitan_, or Archbishop, as, indeed, each of the bishops of Rouen was, from the time of St. Ouen and St. Roma.n.u.s, in the seventh century, if not from that of St. Nicasius, in the third or fourth. The statue has been mutilated in the mitre, the face, and the crosier; probably when the Huguenots were masters of the city. The mitre is low, as they used to be from the tenth century, when they began to rise at all in the Latin Church, down to the fourteenth, since which they have grown to their present disproportioned height. The arms are crossed, as in prayer; and the left arm supported a crosier, the remnant of which is seen under that arm. Both hands are wrapped up in ornamented gloves, which were an essential part of the prelatic dress. The princ.i.p.al vestment is the _Planeta, Casula,_ or _Chausible_; as it was shaped till within these three or four hundred years. Underneath that, and behind the hanging _Pallium_, appears the _Dalmatic_, edged with gold lace; and under that, extending the whole breadth of the figure, and finishing with rich and deep thread lace, is the _Alb_, made of fine linen. The _Tunic_ is quite hidden by the dalmatic. The _Sandals_ appear to be of gold tissue, and to rest on a rich carpet.

"I ought to have mentioned, that the mitre appears, by the jewels with which it is ornamented, to represent that which is called _Mitra pretiosa_, from this circ.u.mstance. An inferior kind of mitre, worn on less solemn occasions, was termed _Mitra Aurifrygiata_; and a common one, made of plain linen or silk, was termed _Simplex Mitra_. The only part of the dress which puzzles me, is the great ornament on the neck and shoulders. The question is, (which those can best determine who have seen the original statue,) whether it adheres to the _Pallium_, or to the _Casula_. In either case, it must be considered as part of the vestment to which it adheres.

"It is quite out of my power to determine, or even to conjecture on any rational grounds, which, of a certain three-score of archbishops of Rouen, the figure represents; but, if I were to choose between Maurice, the fifty-fourth archbishop, who died in 1235, and William, of Durefort, the sixty-first, who died in 1330, from the comparative lowness of the mitre, and some other circ.u.mstances of the dress, I should determine in favor of the former. Perhaps it may represent our Walter, who was first Bishop of Lincoln, and then transferred to Rouen, by Pope Lucius IIIrd. He died in 1208, after having signalized himself as much as any of his predecessors or successors have done.

"P.S. On consulting with an intelligent ecclesiastic of Rouen, I am inclined to think that the above-mentioned ornament upon the shoulders, is the _Mozetta_, being a short round cloak, which all bishops still wear, with the _Rochet, Pectoral Cross_, and _Purple Ca.s.sock_, as their _ordinary dress_; but, in modern times, the _Mozetta_ is laid aside, when the prelate puts on his officiating vestments; though he retains the ca.s.sock, cross, and rochet, underneath them. My informant says, that this mozett is common on the tombs of bishops who died in former ages."

[83] The same idea is to be observed on many ancient monuments: among others, it is engraved on the fine sepulchral bra.s.s to the memory of Sir Hugh Hastings, in Elsing church.--See _Cotman's Norfolk Sepulchral Bra.s.ses._

[84] By the words _Lilia_ and _Quercus_, are designated the armorial bearings of the King of France, and Pope Julius IInd, of the House of Rovere.

[85] The bodies of the Cardinals d'Amboise were dug up in 1793, together with most of the others interred in the cathedral, for the sake of their leaden coffins: at the same time the lead was also stripped from the transepts; and a colossal statue of St. George, which stood on the eastern point of the choir, was likewise consigned to the furnace.

[86] Ducarel says (_Anglo-Norman Antiquities_, p. 20.) that she was the favorite mistress of two successive kings; but I do not find this a.s.sertion borne out by history.

[87] Vol. IV. p. 47.

[88] The doctrine of the a.s.sumption of the Virgin Mary, gave rise to some curious doubts respecting the authenticity of the Virgin's hair.

Ferrand, the Jesuit, states the arguments to the contrary with candor; but replies to them with laudable firmness. The pa.s.sage is a whimsical specimen of the style and reasoning of the schools:--"Restat posteriore loco de capillis Deiparae Virginis paucis dicere, enimver an illi sint jam in terris!--Dubitationem aliquam afferre potest mirabilis ipsius anastasis, et in coelum viventis videntisque a.s.sumptio triumphalis.--Quid ita?--quid si intra triduum ad vitam revocata, si coelis triumphantis in morem invecta, si corpore gloria circ.u.mfuso Christo a.s.sidet? _Quidquid Virgineo capiti crinium inerat hand dubie caelis intulit_, ne quid perfectae ac numeris omnibus absolutae ipsius pulchritudini deesse possit. Nae ille in politiori literatura imo et in rebus humanis omnino peregrinus sit qui ignoret quantum ad muliebrem formam comae conferat pulchritudo ... ne singulas Marianae pulchritudinis dotes persequar, ejus ima craearies de qua, agimus tantae fuit venustatis ut mysticus ipsius Sponsus blande querulus exclamare cogatur, _vulnerasti cor meum in uno crine colli tui_.... Naenias igitur occinere videtur qui Deiparae capillos in terris relatos esse memoret atque adeo servari obfirmate a.s.severet, c.u.m illos tantum ad redivivae Virginis speciem conferre constet.--Non efficiet tamen unquam haec _Antidicomarianitae_ fabula, quin credam bene multos ex aurea Dei Genitricis caesarie crines, diversis in locis ecclesiisque religiose servari.... Meae fidei non unum est argumentum; nam a prima aetate ad confectam usque, e Mariana coma non pancos, ut fit, capillos pecten decussit, nisi si forte caesariem B. Virginis impexam semper perst.i.tisse velis, qud numquam (ut inquit de Christo Diva Brigitta) super eam venit vermis, aut perplexitas, aut immunditium. At sine causa multiplicari miracula quis aequo animo feret?--Ubi vero Genetrix e vita discessit, quam sollicite pollinctrices auream illam Marianae comae segetem demessuerunt, quam in sacris suis tunc hierothecia reconderent ad memoriam tantae Imperatricis, et ad suae consolationis et pietatis argumentum: qud si forte totam funditusque a pollinctricibus, Deiparae reverentissimis, demessam caesariem ferre nec possis nec velis, extremes saltem illius cincinnos attonsos fuisse feres ab piissimis illis faeminis, quibus vel perexiguus Dei Genitricis capillus ingentis thesauri loco futurus etat."--_Disquisitio Reliquiaria_, l. 1. cap. II.

[89] _Description Historique de l'Eglise de Notre Dame de Rouen_, p. 83.

[90] The event is described in the metrical history of Rouen, composed by a minstrel ycleped _Poirier, the limper_. This little tract is a _chap-book_ at Rouen: most towns, in the north of France and Belgium, possess such chronicle ballads in doggerel rhyme, which are much read, and eke chaunted, by the common people.

"... un ma.s.sacre horrible Survint soudainement.