Architectural Antiquities of Normandy Part 10

The sums arising from these various contributions, were employed for the pay and maintenance of the garrison: in 1369, the salary of the governor of Caen was fixed at one thousand livres annually; half of it arising from the revenues of the Viscounty of Caen, the other moiety from those of the Viscounty of Bayeux. The garrison, during the fourteenth century, was limited in time of peace to six esquires and ten crossbow-men. Even during the short period of English power, the governor was allowed for the defence of the place only thirty heavy-armed soldiers and ninety archers, half of their number being mounted. Upon the capture of Caen by Charles VII. in 1450, that monarch left in the castle a garrison amounting to nearly three hundred soldiers; and this number was not reduced below one hundred and forty, upon the conclusion of the peace.

The above particulars, translated almost verbatim from the Abbe De la Rue's recent publication upon Caen,[85] do not place the castle, as a fortress, in the important light which might reasonably have been expected, considering its reputed strength and its great extent.

Monstrelet,[86] speaking of it in his own time, says, "it is the strongest in all Normandy, fortified with high and great bulwarks of a very hard stone, situated upon a rock, and containing in extent as much as the whole town of Corbeil." De Bourgueville[87] enters, as might be expected, more at large into the subject. His description is full and interesting.[88]

A short time previously to the revolution, when Caen was visited by Ducarel,[89] the greater part of the castle was much out of order, having been altogether neglected; but the dungeon had then lately undergone a thorough repair, and was used as a place of confinement for state prisoners, and for such others, as by _lettres de cachet_, obtained at the joint request of their family, were deprived of their liberty, in order to prevent their incurring the disgrace, after having been exposed to the misfortune, of poverty.

On the subject of its present condition, we learn from Mr. Turner,[90]

that, "degraded as it is in its character by modern innovation, it is more deserving of notice as an historical, than as an architectural, relic; but that it still claims to be reckoned as a place of defence, though it retains but few of its original features. The s.p.a.cious, lofty circular towers, which flanked its ramparts, known by the names of the black, the white, the red, and the grey horse, have been brought down to the level of the platform. The dungeon-tower is destroyed; and all the grandeur of the Norman castle is lost, though the width of its ditches, and the thickness of its walls, still testify its ancient strength."--The same author proceeds to state, that "there are reasons for supposing that Caen, when first founded, only occupied the site of the present castle; and that, when it became advisable to convert the old town into a fortress, the inhabitants migrated into the valley below."--He adds, upon the authority of De Bourgueville, that "six thousand infantry could be drawn up in battle array, within the outer ballium; and that so great was the number of houses and of inhabitants, inclosed within the area, that it was thought expedient to build in it a parochial church, dedicated to St. George, besides two chapels."

One of these chapels has been supposed to be the subject of the present plate; but the high authority of the Abbe De la Rue[91] seems to render such a supposition at least doubtful. Indeed, the reverend author enumerates no fewer than six chapels within the precincts of the castle, without, however, entering upon a description of the remains of any one of them. At the same time, he particularly notices the religious building here figured, evidently regarding it as having served formerly for a parochial church. At present, it is desecrated, and is devoted to the office of a military storehouse. M. De la Rue regards it as being not only the oldest architectural relic in Caen, but as an erection of the tenth century. He founds this opinion upon its construction, dest.i.tute of any tower; upon the circular arches of its door and windows; upon its zig-zag mouldings; upon the monsters of its corbel-table; and, above all, upon the peculiarity of its position; the choir being turned to the west, and the front to the east. It was, according to him, in the eleventh century, that the practice, now uniformly adopted, of placing churches in an opposite direction, was first introduced. The irregularity of the early Norman religious edifices, in this latter respect, has already been noticed under a preceding article.[92]

NOTES:

[85] _Essais Historiques_, II. p. 272.

[86] _Chronicles_, (Johnes' Translation) III. p. 472.

[87] _Recherches et Antiquitez de la Ville de Caen_, p. 19.

[88] Indeed, so detailed and curious is this account, that, though rather long, it appears desirable here to insert it.--"Reste a present a descrire la situation de ce superbe chasteau, lequel est apparent et haut esleve comme une couronne et propugnacle a ceste grande ville, il a este de tout tems l'un des premiers de ce royaume en beaute, grandeur, et forteresse pour estre a.s.sis sur un roc naturel, venteux, non sujet a la mine, ny escalade, accompaigne de son donjon, au mitan duquel est eslevee une tour carree d'une admirable grosseur et hauteur, circuye de fortes murailles, et aux coings quatre grosses et hautes tours rondes a plate forme a plusieurs estages, que l'on a nommees, l'une le cheval blanc, l'autre le cheval noir, la tierce le cheval rouge, et la quatre le cheval grix, lesquelles seruent par aucunes fois pour enfermer les plus insignes voleurs, les fossez de ce donion sont a fonds de cuue comme ceux de ce chasteau d'une epouuantable profondeur, tellement qu'ils ne sont suiets a l'escalade, le belle ou ba.s.se court de ce chasteau est de si ample estendue qu'on y peut mettre en ordre de bataille pour combatre cinq ou six mil hommes de pied, et y peut on loger nombre de caualerie pour faire des saillies sur un camp adversaire, les croniques contiennent qu'il y a plusieurs villes en France moindres que ce chasteau, comme Corbeil et Mont Ferant, i'y aiousterai Quarantan en ba.s.se Normandie, il y a si bon nombre de maisons et habitans, qu'il contient une eglise parrochiale en son circuit fondee de saint George, et deux chapeles, l'une de saint Gabriel, et l'autre de saint Agnen, son contour contient un bon nombre de carneaux de visieres et de tours, et l'enclos du donion contient aussi nombre de carneaux, et quatre grosses tours sans celle du parmy, il y a encores au de la du donjon une grande terra.s.se, qu'on appele la Roqueste d'une admirable forteresse de rampars, puis une grande place que l'on appele la garenne a connins, ou l'on peut mettre en seurete un bon nombre de bestaux pour la fourniture de viures de ce chasteau durant un siege. Et a la verite les grands seigneurs et chefs de guerre qui ont veu cette place, la remarquent, et tiennent comme inexpugnables, d'autant meme qu'elle est fortifiee de rampars de trente ou quarante pieds de largeur, et ne se peut vaincre sans trahison, faute de coeur ou de viures, aussi noz Rois y ont tousiours pourueus de vaillans seigneurs et capitaines."

[89] _Anglo-Norman Antiquities_, p. 49.

[90] _Tour in Normandy_, II. p. 170.

[91] _Essais Historiques sur la Ville de Caen_, I. p. 83.

[92] See the Description of the Abbey Church of the Holy Trinity, at Caen, p. 30.

PLATES XLIX.--LII.

CATHEDRAL AT ROUEN.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plates 49-50. CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF NOTRE DAME, AT ROUEN.

_South transept from the Place de la Calende._]

The merit of first introducing the light of Christianity into that part of France, which has subsequently been known by the different appellations of Westria, Neustria, and Normandy, is commonly attributed to St. Nicaise; whose name is therefore generally permitted to stand at the head of the prelates of the archiepiscopal see of Rouen. St.

Nicaise, according to the traditions of the Norman church, lived about the middle of the third century, and was dispatched from Rome, in company with the more ill.u.s.trious St. Denis, upon an express mission from Pope Clement, to preach the gospel at Rouen, then the capital of the gallic tribe, the Veloca.s.ses. But it is admitted on all hands, that he never reached the place of his destination. The many miracles he wrought by the way, consisting princ.i.p.ally of the destruction of dragons[93] and conversion of pagan priests, had rendered him obnoxious to Fescenninus, the Roman governor of the province; and the saint was consequently doomed to suffer the pains, not without receiving the palm, of martyrdom.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plates 51-52. CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF NOTRE DAME, AT ROUEN.

_West front from the Place Notre Dame._]

To Nicaise, succeeded St. Mello, a native of England, who, in the performance of his duty, to carry the annual tribute from Britain to the Roman emperor, was converted by the pontiff; and, if credit may be given to the legends recounted by Pommeraye,[94] was, in the presence of the Pope, invested by an angel from heaven with the pastoral staff; and, at the same time, enjoined to take upon himself the spiritual jurisdiction over Rouen and its vicinity. A mission thus const.i.tuted, and still farther verified by the gift of miracles, could not fail of the desired end. St. Mello not only succeeded in converting the lower cla.s.s of the pagans, but he likewise reckoned many of the princ.i.p.al citizens among his disciples; and one of these, of the name of Precordius, ceded to him his house, on the site of which was built the first Christian place of worship known in Rouen. Hence, in the following distich, Ordericus Vitalis, entirely pa.s.sing over Nicaise, places St. Mello at the head of the line of the Norman prelates:--

"Antistes sanctus Mellonus, in ordine _primus_, Excoluit plebem doctrina Rothomagensem."--

Of the duration or history of the church thus erected, nothing is known; but it is certain that, from that time forward, Christianity continued to gain ground in Normandy, and the annals of the see have preserved an uninterrupted catalogue of the bishops. Indeed, the conversion of Constantine, which happened only a few years after the death of St.

Mello, necessarily gave a new aspect to the religion of the Roman empire.

Succeeding prelates are stated in general terms to have manifested their zeal, in building new churches, as well as in enlarging and ornamenting that of the capital; and Pommeraye suggests,[95] but only as a matter of great probability, that a second cathedral was raised by Victrice, or some one of his immediate successors, in the fifth century. With an equal, or still stronger degree of probability, it has been inferred that, admitting a new church had been erected, it could not fail to have been destroyed during the incursions of the heathen Normans, whose track throughout Neustria was ever marked by fire and sword, and whose avarice prompted them, no less powerfully than their superst.i.tion, to make the religious edifices the princ.i.p.al objects of their vengeance. Prior to the arrival of these barbarians, the archiepiscopal chair had been filled by four prelates, eminent for their sanct.i.ty, St. G.o.dard, St.

Pretextat, St. Romain, and St. Ouen. The second of these, a.s.sa.s.sinated before the altar, at the instigation of Fredegond, queen of Chilperic, holds nearly the same place in the martyrology of the Gallican church, as Thomas-a-Becket in that of England. St. Ouen was a prelate who had few rivals in munificence and splendor. Numerous monasteries throughout the province, and, above all, the splendid one that bore his name, testify the greatness of his mind, as well as the extent of his power: his sovereign, Dagobert, honored him with his friendship, and conferred upon him the dignity of chancellor of the realm.

But the fame of St. Ouen, and of all the others, was eclipsed by that of St. Romain, by virtue of whose _privilege_, as it was generally called, the chapter of the cathedral continued till the revolution annually to exercise the right of delivering a criminal, whatever his offence, except treason, from the hand of the secular power. This singular privilege, according to general tradition, had been earned by the destruction of a dragon, called the _Gargouille_, which was long the terror of the adjacent country; and in his expedition the saint had been unable to procure himself any other aid than that of a murderer, already under sentence of death. Hence, the prelate has commonly been regarded as little less than the tutelar divinity of the city. Portraits of him, all of them designated by the attendant dragon and criminal, were to be seen on the celebrated windows of stained gla.s.s in the church of St.

G.o.dard, as well as at the entrance of the town by the _porte Bouvreuil_, and probably in many other places: a building at the top of the staircase, leading into the cloth-hall, was called his chapel; another chapel is to the present day consecrated to him in the cathedral itself; the northern tower of the same building bears his name; his shrine is still preserved among the choicest treasures of the sacristy; and even the bases of some of the pillars of the nave are carved into a fanciful resemblance of the fabulous _Gargouille_.

Dom Pommeraye, than whom no author was ever more superst.i.tious and more credulous, at the same time that he terms this privilege one of the most valuable and most n.o.ble rights of the church of Rouen,[96] admits that the origin of it is lost in obscurity. He adduces, however, an historical doc.u.ment, to prove its existence during the reign of the Norman Dukes; and, while he candidly states the difference of opinion among learned men on the subject, some of them treating the story as allegorical, others setting it wholly aside, and regarding the privilege merely as a special act of grace conceded to the church, in honor of the Ascension, on the anniversary of which festival it was exercised, he takes care to record his own firm belief in the miracle, and he calls upon all pious Christians to unite with him in supporting its authenticity.

Upon the conversion of Rollo to Christianity, and the consequent erection of Normandy into a distinct dukedom, Rouen, as the metropolis of the new state, necessarily acquired additional importance, and its church additional l.u.s.tre. Questions have arisen as to the spot where the first church was built, but no doubt is to be entertained of the existence of the cathedral, during the reign of Rollo, on the same site which it occupies at present; for that prince himself was buried in it, as was his son, William Longue-Epee, and their remains continue there till this time[97]. Richard I. the son of William, and his successor on the ducal throne, is expressly stated by Dudo of St. Quintin, to have made great additions, both in length, width, and height, to the "admirable church" (_mirabile monasterium_) at Rouen, dedicated to the Holy Virgin.[98] The same author says, in terms which admit of no misconstruction, that Robert, the son to this Duke, who was archbishop of Rouen, and by the splendor of his works won to himself the epithet of the _magnificent_, "completed the church, by the addition of the whole choir, and by the work on the eastern side."

The church, raised by Robert, was dedicated by Archbishop Maurilius, in 1063; but its term of duration appears to have been unaccountably short; for it is recorded that, after the lapse of less than a century, the clergy of the cathedral directed their attention towards the building of a new one; and that the year 1200 had not arrived before some progress was already made in the execution of their plan. All precise dates, however, connected with this subject, are lost: the various wars that have ravaged this part of France; the numerous sieges to which the city of Rouen itself has been exposed; and the repeated changes of masters it has undergone;--these, with the addition of occasional injuries from fire and pillage, have effectually destroyed the archives of the town and cathedral.

Authors have differed strangely regarding the remains of the church erected by the Norman Dukes. Some of them, and indeed the greater number, a.s.sert that no small part of the structure now in existence belonged to the building consecrated by Maurilius: others maintain, that not one stone of this latter has been left upon another. The truth seems to be, that a small portion of the eastern side of the present northern tower, known by the name of the tower of St. Romain, is really of Norman workmanship, but that nothing else throughout the cathedral is so, excepting, possibly, the lateral doorways in the western front. The whole of the tower just mentioned, up to its highest tier of windows, is evidently the most ancient part of the building, and is apparently of the architecture of the latter part of the twelfth century. The church, considered collectively, is so obviously the work of different aeras, that there can be little risk in hazarding the a.s.sertion, that it has been raised by piece-meal, on various occasions, as may either have been suggested by the piety of potentates and prelates, or may have been required by the state of religion or of the edifice itself.

What is known as to the dates of the building is, that the southern tower was begun in 1485, and completed in 1507; that the first stone of the central portal was laid in 1509; and that the Lady-Chapel, though commenced during some of the earliest years of the fourteenth century, and finished in the middle of the fifteenth, contains work of the year 1538. At this last period, Cardinal Georges d'Amboise restored the roof of the choir, which had been injured in 1514, by the destruction of the spire. The square short central tower was erected A.D. 1200: it replaced one that had been damaged eighty years before, when the original stone spire of the church was struck by lightning. From that time forward, no attempt had been made to rebuild the spire, except with wood, of which material, that now in existence is the second. The first was destroyed by a fire, occasioned by the negligence of plumbers, in the beginning of the sixteenth century; the present suffered material injury from a similar accident, in 1713, and narrowly escaped entire destruction.

The western front of the cathedral, represented in plate _fifty-one_, offers a _tout-ensemble_ of the most imposing character. The very discrepancy in the different parts, by increasing the variety, adds to the effect of the whole. All, with the exception of the northern tower, is rich, even to exuberance; and the simplicity of this, at the same time that it appears to lay claim to a certain dignity for itself, places in a stronger light the gorgeous splendor of the rest. The opposite tower, the work of the celebrated Cardinal Georges d'Amboise, and formerly the receptacle of the great bell that bore his name, commonly pa.s.ses by the appellation of the _Tour de Beurre_. Tradition tells, or, to use the words of Dom Pommeraye, "every body knows" that it obtained this name from its being built with the money raised from the indulgence granted by the Cardinal, William d'Estouteville, to the pious catholics throughout the dioceses of Rouen and Evreux, allowing them to make use of milk and b.u.t.ter during Lent, when oil only could otherwise have been employed by way of sauce to vegetables and fish. The bull issued upon the occasion, by Pope Innocent VIII. is stated to be still in existence.[99] The architecture of this tower may almost be regarded as the perfection of what has been called the decorated English style: it is copiously enriched with pinnacles and statues, and terminates in a beautiful octagonal crown of open stone-work. Its height is two hundred and thirty French feet.[100]

The central portal, for the erection of which the cathedral is likewise indebted to its great benefactor, Georges d'Amboise, projects beautifully and boldly, like a porch, before the rest: every side of it is filled with niches, tier over tier, all crowded with endless figures of saints and martyrs. In the middle of it rises a pyramidal canopy of open stone-work; and upon the wide transom-stone over the door, is sculptured the genealogical tree of Christ, arising from the root of Jesse. The carving over the north entrance is yet more peculiar, and evidently far older. It represents the decapitation of the Baptist, with "Salome dancing in an att.i.tude, which perchance was often a.s.sumed by the _tombesteres_ of the elder day; affording, by her position, a graphical comment upon the Anglo-Saxon version of the text, in which it is said, that she _tumbled_ before King Herod."[101] Four turrets flank the central portal: one of them only is now capped by a spire: the pinnacles of the remaining three were swept away by a storm which traversed Normandy for a considerable extent, on the twenty-fifth of June, 1683, marking its progress with a devastation that is scarcely to be conceived.[102]

The spire of the central tower, however vaunted and admired by the French themselves, looks to an unprejudiced eye mean and shabby; and princ.i.p.ally from its being made of wood, which ill accords with the apparent solidity of the rest of the building.

The entrances to the transepts, however inferior in splendor to the grand western front, are still not such as to disgrace it; and, considered attentively as to their sculptured medallions, they are even more curious. The northern one is approached through a pa.s.sage lined with rows of the meanest houses, formerly the shops of transcribers and calligraphists; and hence the singular gate-way that incloses the court, pa.s.ses commonly under the name of _Le Portail des Libraires_. The opposite transept, (see _plate forty-nine_,) is called _Le Portail de la Calende_, an appellation borrowed from the _Place de la Calende_, upon which it opens; and which, though in reality far from s.p.a.cious, appears altogether so by comparison. On each side of the entrances to both the transepts, is a lofty square tower, "such as are usually seen only in the western front of a cathedral; the upper story perforated by a gigantic window, divided by a single mullion or central pillar, not exceeding one foot in circ.u.mference, and nearly sixty feet in height.

These windows are entirely open; and the architect never intended they should be glazed. An extraordinary play of light and shade results from this construction."[103] The rose windows, which are placed as well over the entrances of the transepts, as over the greater one to the west, are no less magnificent in their dimensions, than beautiful in their patterns, and gorgeous in their colors. Much of the stained gla.s.s of the cathedral is also very rich.

Mr. Dibdin, in his splendidly-ill.u.s.trated Tour,[104] remarks with much justice, that "a person, on entering the church by the western door, cannot fail to be struck with the length and loftiness of the nave, and with the lightness of the gallery which runs along the upper part of it, and which is continued also throughout the choir." He goes on to add, "perhaps the nave is too narrow for its length. The lantern of the central large tower is beautifully light and striking. It is supported by four ma.s.sive cl.u.s.tered pillars, about forty feet in circ.u.mference; but the eye, on looking downwards, is shocked at the tasteless division of the choir from the nave, by what is called a _Grecian screen_; and the interior of the transepts has also undergone a like tasteless restoration."

The cathedral at Rouen was the burial-place of many men of eminence and distinction. Rollo and William Longue Epee have already been mentioned as interred here. The church also contained the lion-heart of the first English Richard, and the remains of his elder brother, Henry; together with those of William, son of Geoffrey Plantagenet; of the Regent Duke of Bedford; and of Charles V. of France. The tombs of these, and of various other individuals of high rank, are described at length by Pommeraye; but the outrages of the Calvinists and the democrats, added to the removals occasioned by the alterations made at various times in the building, have now destroyed nearly the whole of them, excepting those raised to the two Cardinals D'Amboise, both of them archbishops of Rouen, and that which commemorates Louis de Breze, Grand Seneschal of Normandy. These monuments are placed on opposite sides of the Lady-Chapel; the former as conspicuous for its many sumptuous ornaments, as the latter for its chaste simplicity.

The archbishop of Rouen, prior to the revolution, took the t.i.tle of _Primate of Neustria_; and his spiritual jurisdiction then extended over six suffragans, the bishops of Bayeux, Avranches, Evreux, Seez, Lisieux, and Coutances. Not many years previously, it had also embraced the Canadian churches, together with the whole of French North-America; but the appointment of a bishop at Quebec, deprived it of its trans-atlantic sway; and the concordat, in the time of Napoleon, reduced the number of the suffragan prelates to four, taking the mitres from Avranches and Lisieux. A still more important alteration has been occasioned by modern times, in the archiepiscopal revenues. It had been customary throughout France, before the recent changes, in speaking of the see of Rouen, to designate it by the epithet, _rich_; an appellation that would now be wofully misapplied. The archbishop then possessed, in addition to the usual sources of ecclesiastical income, a peculiar privilege, ent.i.tled the right of _Deport_; by virtue of which, he claimed the receipt of the first year's proceeds of every benefice which might become vacant in his diocese, whether by the resignation or death of the inc.u.mbent.[105]

A station so enviable as that of archbishop of Rouen, has been at almost all times in the hands of some individual belonging to one of the princ.i.p.al families of the kingdom. Among others, those of Luxembourg, Bourbon, D'Estouteville, D'Amboise, Joyeuse, Harlay, Colbert, and Tressan, have successively held it. To sum up the catalogue, in the words of Pommeraye, "the cathedral has furnished many saints for heaven, one pope for the apostolic chair, and thirteen cardinals to the church; nine of its prelates have belonged to the royal family of France; and many others, eminent for their birth, have been still more so for their own merit, and for the services they have rendered to the catholic church and the state."

NOTES:

[93] The destroying of dragons, or fiery serpents, or similar monsters, appears to have been the most common of all miracles, in the early ages of Christianity. After the exploits of St. Michael, St. Margaret, and St. George, ecclesiastical history abounds in similar legends. St.

Romain, St. Marcel, St. Julian, St. Martial, St. Bertrand, St. Martha, and St. Clement, make but a small proportion of the saints who distinguished themselves by these acts of pious heroism. The dragons of Rouen and of Metz were of sufficient celebrity to acquire the distinct names of the _Gargouille_, and the _Graouilli_.--It has been commonly supposed, that these various miracles were allegorical, and intended to typify the confining of rivers within their channels, or the limiting of the incursions of the sea. Other authors have been inclined to account for their prevalence, as having reference to the sun, or to astronomical phaenomena; but surely the most simple and satisfactory mode of explaining them, lies in considering the dragon as the emblem of evil, and the various victories gained over dragons, as so many conquests obtained by virtue over vice.--A considerable fund of curious information, on this subject, will be found in the _Magasin Encyclopedique_ for _January, 1812_, p. 1-24, in a paper by M. Eusebe Salverte, ent.i.tled _Legendes du Moyen Age_.

[94] _Histoire des Archeveques de Rouen_, p. 40.

[95] _Histoire de la Cathedrale de Rouen_, p. 19.

[96] _Histoire de la Cathedrale de Rouen_, p. 625.