The Cathedrals Of Southern France Part 23

Among the other attributes of the interior are a tomb of the Ducs de Sabron, a marble altar of the twelfth century, a precious enamel of the same era, and a Gallo-Romain sarcophagus of the fifth century.

As to the exterior effect and ensemble, the cathedral is hardly to be remarked, either in size or splendour, from the usual parish church of the average small town of France. It does not rise to a very ambitious height, neither does its ground-plan suggest magnificent proportions.

Altogether it proves to be a cathedral which is neither very interesting nor even picturesque.

The little city itself is charmingly situated on the banks of the Coulon, a small stream which runs gaily on its way to the Durance, at times torrential, which in turn goes to swell the flood of the Rhone below Avignon.

The former bishop's palace is now the prefecture and Mairie.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

XXVIII

NOTRE DAME D'EMBRUN

Embrun, not unlike its neighbouring towns in the valley of the Durance, is possessed of the same picturesque environment as Sisteron and Digne.

It is perched high on that species of eminence known in France as a _colline_, though in this case it does not rise to a very magnificent height; what there is of it, however, serves to accentuate the picturesque element as nothing else would.

The episcopal dignity of the town is only partial; it shares the distinction with Aix and Arles.

The eglise Notre Dame, though it is still locally known as "_la cathedrale_," is of the twelfth century, and has a wonderful old Romanesque north porch and peristyle set about with gracefully proportioned columns, the two foremost of which are supported upon the backs of a pair of weird-looking animals, which are supposed to represent the twelfth-century stone-cutter's conception of the king of beasts. In the tympanum of this portal are sculptured figures of Christ and the Evangelists, in no wise of remarkable quality, but indicating, with the other decorative features, a certain luxuriance which is not otherwise suggested in the edifice.

The Romanesque tower which belongs to the church proper is, as to its foundations, of very early date, though, as a finished detail, it is merely a rebuilt fourteenth-century structure carried out on the old lines. There is another tower, commonly called "_la tour brune_," which adjoins the ancient bishop's palace, and dates from at least a century before the main body of the church.

The entire edifice presents an architectural _melange_ that makes it impossible to cla.s.sify it as of any one specific style, but the opinion is hazarded that it is all the more interesting a shrine because of this incongruity.

The choir, too, indicates that it has been built up from fragments of a former fabric, while the west front is equally unconvincing, and has the added curious effect of presenting a variegated facade, which is, to say the least and the most, very unusual. A similar suggestion is found occasionally in the Auvergne, but the interweaving of party-coloured stone, in an attempt to produce variety, has too often not been taken advantage of. In this case it is not so very pleasing, but one has a sort of sympathetic regard for it nevertheless.

In the interior there are no constructive features of remark; indeed there is little embellishment of any sort. There is an eighteenth-century altar, in precious marbles, worked after the old manner, and in the sacristy some altar-fittings of elaborately worked Cordovan leather, a triptych which is dated 1518, some brilliant gla.s.s of the fifteenth century, and in the nave a Renaissance organ-case which encloses an organ of the early sixteenth century.

Near by is Mont St. Guillaume (2,686 metres), on whose heights is a _sanctuaire_ frequented by pilgrims from round about the whole valley of the Durance.

From "Quentin Durward," one recalls the great devotion of the Dauphin of France--Louis XI.--for the statue of Notre Dame d'Embrun.

XXIX

NOTRE DAME DE L'a.s.sOMPTION DE GAP

Gap is an ancient and most attractive little city of the Maritime Alps, of something less than ten thousand inhabitants.

Its cathedral is also the parish church, which suggests that the city is not especially devout.

The chapter of the cathedral consists of eight canons, who, considering that the spiritual life of the entire Department of the Hautes-Alpes--some hundred and fifty thousand souls--is in their care, must have a very busy time of it.

St. Demetrius, the friend of St. John the Evangelist, has always been regarded as the first apostle and bishop of the diocese. He came from Rome to Gaul in the reign of Claudian, and began his work of evangelization in the environs of Vienne under St. Crescent, the disciple of St. Paul. From Vienne Demetrius came immediately to Gap and established the diocese here.

Numerous conversions were made and the Church quickly gained adherents, but persecution was yet rife, as likewise was superst.i.tion, and the priests were denounced to the governors of the province, who forthwith put them to death in true barbaric fashion.

Amid these inflictions, however, and the later Protestant persecutions in Dauphine, the diocese grew to great importance, and endures to-day as a suffragan of Aix, Arles, and Embrun.

The eglise de Gap has even yet the good fortune to possess personal _reliques_ of her first bishop, and accordingly displays them with due pride and ceremony on his _jour de fete_, the 26th October of each year.

Says a willing but unknowing French writer: "Had Demetrius--who came to Gap in the first century--any immediate successors? That we cannot say.

It is a period of three hundred years which separates his tenure from that of St. Constantine, the next prelate of whom the records tell."

Three other dioceses of the former ecclesiastical province have been suppressed, and Gap alone has lived to exert its tiny sphere of influence upon the religious life of the present day.

The history of Gap has been largely identified with the Protestant cause in Dauphine. There is, in the Prefecture, a monument to the Due de Lesdiguieres--Francoise de Bonne--who, from the leadership of the Protestants went over to the Roman faith, in consideration of his being given the rank of _Connetable de France_. Why the mere fact of his apostasy should have been a sufficient and good reason for this aggrandizement, it is difficult to realize in this late day; though we know of a former telegraph messenger who became a count.

Another reformer, Guillaume Farel, was born and lived at Gap. "He preached his first sermon," says History, "at the mill of Buree, and his followers soon drove the Catholics from the place; when he himself took possession of the pulpits of the town."

From all this dissension from the Roman faith--though it came comparatively late in point of time--rose the apparent apathy for church-building which resulted in the rather inferior cathedral at Gap.

No account of this unimportant church edifice could possibly be justly coloured with enthusiasm. It is not wholly a mean structure, but it is unworthy of the great activities of the religious devotion of the past, and has no pretence to architectural worth, nor has it any of the splendid appointments which are usually a.s.sociated with the seat of a bishop's throne.

Notre Dame de l'a.s.somption is a modern edifice in the style _Romano-Gothique_, and its construction, though elaborate both inside and out, is quite unappealing.

This is the more to be marvelled at, in that the history of the diocese is so full of incident; so far, in fact, in advance of what the tangible evidences would indicate.

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NOTRE DAME DE VENCE

Vence,--the ancient Roman city of Ventium,--with five other dioceses of the ecclesiastical province of Embrun, was suppressed--as the seat of a bishop--in 1790. It had been a suffragan bishopric of Embrun since its foundation by Eusebe in the fourth century.

The ancient cathedral of Notre Dame is supposed to show traces of workmanship of the sixth, tenth, twelfth, and fifteenth centuries, but, excepting that of the latter era, it will be difficult for the casual observer to place the distinctions of style.

The whole ensemble is of grim appearance; so much so that one need not hesitate to place it well down in the ranks of the church-builder's art, and, either from poverty of purse or purpose, it is quite undistinguished.

In its interior there are a few features of unusual remark: an ancient sarcophagus, called that of St. Veran; a _retable_ of the sixteenth century; some rather good paintings, by artists apparently unknown; and a series of fifty-one fifteenth-century choir-stalls of quite notable excellence, and worth more as an expression of artistic feeling than all the other features combined.

The only distinction as to constructive features is the fact that there are no transepts, and that the aisles which surround the nave are doubled.

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