The Churches of Paris Part 5

Robert must have profited by the good advice given him by his father, for we find the monk Helgaud giving him a tremendous panegyric in the account of his death. "Peu de temps apres avoir recu le saint et salutaire viatique du corps vivifiant de notre Seigneur Jesus-Christ, Robert alla au Roi des rois, au Seigneur des seigneurs, et entra heureux dans les celestes royaumes. Il mourut le vingtieme jour de juillet (1031) au commencement de la journee du mardi, au chateau de Melun, et il fut porte a Paris, puis enseveli a Saint-Denis, pres de son pere. Il y eut la un grand deuil, une douleur intolerable; car la foule de moines gemissait sur la perte d'un tel pere,[40] et une mult.i.tude innombrable de clercs se plaignait de leur misere que soulageait avec tant de piete ce saint homme. Un nombre infini de veuves et d'orphelins regrettait tant de bienfaits recus de lui. Tous poussaient de grands cris jusqu'au ciel, disant d'une commune voix: 'Grand Roi, Dieu bon, pourquoi nous tuer ainsi en nous otant ce bon pere et l'unissant a toi!' Ils se frappaient avec les poings la poitrine, allaient et venaient au saint tombeau, repetaient encore les paroles marquees plus haut et se joinaient aux prieres des saints afin que Dieu et pitie de lui dans le siecle eternel. Dieu! quelle douleur causa cette mort. Tous s'ecriaient avec des clameurs redoublees: 'Tant que Robert a regne et commande, nous avons vecu tranquilles, nous n'avons rien craint; que l'ame de ce pere pieux, ce pere du senat, ce pere de tout bien, soit heureuse et sauvee!

qu'elle monte et habite pour toujours avec Jesus-Christ, Roi des rois!'.... Dans tout cela, nous avons un grand sujet de douleur, en voyant qu'un tel et si grand homme repose sans une pierre ornee d'inscriptions, sans monument, sans epitaphe, lui dont la gloire et la memoire ont ete en benediction a toute la terre." As late as the 16th century Robert's tomb was enriched with colour, and even now a small amount remains.

Another king's death, that of Louis le Gros, is recorded by Suger: "Apres avoir recu en communion le corps et le sang de Jesus-Christ, le roi rejetant loin de lui toutes les pompes de l'orgueil du siecle, s'etendit sur un lit de simple toile. M'ayant vu pleurer sur lui qui, par le sort commun aux hommes, etait devenu si pet.i.t et si humble de si grand et si eleve qu'il etait, il me dit: 'Ne pleure pas sur moi, tres-cher ami, mais plutot triomphe et rejouis-toi de ce que Dieu, dans sa misericorde, m'a donne, comme tu le vois, les moyens de me preparer a paraitre devant lui.'.... Un peu avant de mourir, il ordonna qu'on etendit un tapis par terre, et que sur ce tapis on jetat des cendres en forme de croix; puis il s'y fit porter et deposer par ses serviteurs, et fortifiant toute sa personne par le signe de la croix, il rendit l'ame le jour les calendes d'aot (I^{er.} aot 1137), dans la trentieme annee de son regne et presque la soixantieme de son age. Son corps fut a l'heure meme enveloppe de riches etoffes pour etre transporte et enterre dans l'eglise des saints martyrs."

Suger mentions the finding of the remains of Carloman when they were about to bury Louis VI., and how the former were removed to a spot between the altar of the Holy Trinity and that of the Martyrs: "On l'y deposa donc avec le ceremonial d'usage pour les rois, au milieu de chants nombreux, d'hymnes et de prieres, apres lui avoir fait de pieuses et solennelles funerailles. C'est la qu'il attend d'etre admis a jouer de sa resurrection future, et qu'il est d'autant plus pres de se reunir en esprit a la troupe des esprits celestes, que son corps est plus voisin des corps des saints martyrs et plus a portee d'en etre protege."

"FELIX QUI POTUIT MUNDI NUTANTE RUINA QUO JACEAT PRaeSCISSE LOCO...."

"Puisse le Redempteur ressusciter l'ame de ce roi a l'intercession des saintes martyrs pour lesquels il avait un si pieux devouement! puisse cette ame etre placee au rang des saints par celui qui a donne la sienne pour le salut du monde, notre seigneur Jesus-Christ qui vit et regne, Roi des rois, et maitre des puissances, aux siecles des siecles.

Amen."[41]

Of the burial of Louis VII. the monk Rigord gives some interesting details: "L'annee 1181, le jeudi dix-huitieme jour de septembre, mourut a Paris Louis, roi des Francais. Son corps fut honorablement enseveli et couvert d'aromates dans l'eglise de Sainte-Marie de Barbeau, qu'il avait fondee. C'est la qu'en l'honneur de notre seigneur Jesus-Christ et de la bienheureuse mere de Dieu, Marie toujours vierge, de saints religieux celebrent jour et nuit les offices divins pour l'ame du defunt roi, pour celles de tous ses predecesseurs et pour le salut du royaume de France.

C'est aussi dans cette eglise, et sur le lieu meme de la sepulture du roi, que l'ill.u.s.tre reine des Francais, Adele[42] son epouse et mere de Phillippe-Auguste, roi des Francais, fit construire un tombeau ou l'art le plus exquis avait fait un heureux melange des matieres les plus brillantes, d'or et d'argent, d'airain et de pierres precieuses. Jamais chef-d'uvre aussi etonnant n'avait paru dans aucun royaume depuis le regne de Salomon." In 1182 Philippe Auguste decreed that a taper should always be kept alight before the tomb of his father. What became of the monument is not known. At the Revolution it consisted of a sarcophagus which had been renovated in 1695 by the Cardinal de Furstemberg, abbot of Barbeau[43] and prince bishop of Strasburg. When Charles IX. was at Fontainebleau he had the curiosity to open this latter tomb of Louis.

The body was nearly entire; but the sceptre, some silver seals and ornaments, were partially destroyed. The king had rings on his fingers and a gold cross on his neck; "le roi et les princes du sang qui se trouverent la presents, les prirent pour les porter en memoire d'un si bon est religieux predecesseur."[44] One would like to know why ignorant, poverty-stricken fisher and peasant folk should be anathematized for robbing the dead after a wreck or a battle, when such a pious prince as the author of the ma.s.sacre of S. Bartholomew pilfered the rings from his ancestor without a word of protest--on the contrary, his relations and friends "du sang" aided and abetted him. But then, of course, a few centuries had elapsed in the latter case, and poor Louis was reduced to a state of dry bones; it was robbing a skeleton, not a body. In the reign of Napoleon the abbey of Barbeau was converted into a school for the daughters of members of the Legion of Honour, and in 1817 the remains of Louis VII. were transported to S. Denis.

Why does it happen that children who die young seem to be so superior to those who survive? Would the Duc de Bourgogne, Philippe, son of Louis VI., Edward V., or Prince Arthur have made better sovereigns than their relations who reigned in their stead? Suger gives a picturesque account of the death of Philippe, "un enfant dans la fleur de l'age." This "malheur etrange" happened on the 13th October, 1131. "Le fils aine du roi Louis Philippe, d'une grande douceur, l'espoir des bons et la terreur des mechants, se promenait un jour a cheval dans un faubourg de la cite de Paris; un detestable porc se jette dans le chemin du cheval; celui-ci tombe rudement, renverse, ecrase contre une pierre le n.o.ble enfant qui le montait, et l'etouffe sous le poids de son corps. Ce jour-la meme on avait convoque l'armee pour une expedition; aussi les habitants de la ville et tout les autres qui apprennent cet evenement, consternes de douleur, crient, pleurent, poussent des sanglots, s'empressent a relever le tendre enfant presque mort, et le portent dans une maison voisine. O douleur! a l'entree de la nuit il rendit l'ame.

Quelle tristesse et quel desespoir accablerent son pere, sa mere et les grands du royaume! Homere lui-meme ne pourrait l'exprimer. On l'enterra dans l'eglise du bienheureux Denis, dans le lieu reserve a la sepulture des rois et a la gauche de l'autel de la Sainte-Trinite, avec tout le ceremonial usite pour les rois, en presence d'une foule d'eveques et de grands de l'Etat."[45] Philippe's was the last statue that S. Louis gave to the church, and the crown and sceptre show that the young prince had been crowned by his father at Reims during the latter's life--probably in order to share the duties of kingship.

Although three abbeys were the happy possessors of the remains of Blanche of Castille (Maubuisson, Lys, and Saint-Corentin-lez-Mantes), no tomb exists of the sweet mother of S. Louis.[46] Upon the monument at Maubuisson the queen was attired in the habit of the Cistercian order, which she a.s.sumed in her last moments; the crown was placed over the veil, the royal robes over the nun's habit, and so she pa.s.sed away, and was thus buried. In 1793 various tombs, armorial bearings, and the like _aliments de l'orgueil_, were transported from Maubuisson to Pontoise; some were broken, some burnt; golden vessels and silver saints were thrust into the melting-pot; and Blanche of Castille, with the help of a prince perhaps, or a warrior, became transformed into an instrument of war. But the museum of the Pet.i.ts-Augustins wanted an effigy of the mother of Monsieur Saint Louis; and so they set up a black marble image of Catherine de Courtenay, empress of Constantinople and wife of Charles of Valois, who had lately, and all alone, journeyed from Maubuisson; and, thinking it a joke to turn a black empress into a white queen, they wrote upon the slab, in 13th century characters, that it was the true monument of _Madame la royne Blanche mere de Monsieur Saint Loys_. After twenty years Madame Catherine-Blanche became divorced from her other half, and the white queen faded away in favour of the black empress.

One of the most beautiful tombs is that of Philippe, the brother of S.

Louis, which was formerly at Royaumont. The prince lies upon a sarcophagus, round which are niches filled with little figures of monks, bishops, and angels, full of character and expression. One of these represents a king: "On y voyait le cercueil de Louis porte par les barons de France et par le roi d'Angleterre.[47] Une figure couronnee porte sur l'epaule un des batons; c'est le roi anglais"[48]--proving the sovereignty of France over England. There is a curious engraving by Boulogne representing this procession. The church is in the distance; a string of monks are zigzagging across the plain, and in the foreground we see this crowned head and others bearing the reliquary; behind are bishops; the whole in the grandiose style of the 17th and 18th centuries--drapery flying in the wind, bishops and monks prancing, and all the faces turned to the spectator. S. Louis had always held the abbey in most respectful esteem. He visited it before he started upon his various expeditions; and in 1267, when he had conferred the order of chivalry upon his son Philippe and sixty other young n.o.blemen, he rode to S. Denis on horseback to implore the blessing of G.o.d, accompanied by a large concourse of courtiers and princes.

The monuments of the battle of Bouvines came from the church of S.

Catherine-du-Val-des-ecoliers. They are incised stones, coloured and gilt, bearing the following inscriptions:--

A LA PRIERE DES SERGENS DARMES MONS^R SAINT LOYS FONDA CESTE EGLISE ET Y MIST LA PREMIERE PIERRE ET FU POUR LA JOIE DE LA VITTOIRE QUE FU AU PONT DE BOUINES LAN MIL. CC. ET.XIIII.

LES SERGENS DARMES POUR LE TEMPS GARDOIENT LEDIT PONT ET VOUERENT QUE SE DIEU LEUR DONNOIT VITTOIRE ILS FONDEROIENT VNE EGLISE EN LONNEUR DE MADAME SAINTE KATHERINE ET AINSI FU IL.

Another epitaph to Blanche de France came from the Cordeliers:

ICY GIST MADAME BLANCHE FILLE DE MONSEIGNEUR SANCT LOYS ET F[EM]E DE MONS. FERDINAND DE LACERDE ROY DE CASTILLE QUI TRESPa.s.sA DU CEST SIECLE LAN DE [=GCE]

MCCCXX LE DIX SEPTIESME JOUR DE JUN PRIES POUR LAME DELLE Q. DEU BONNE MERCI LI FACE, AMEN.

When Isabelle d'Aragon died at Cosenza, in Calabria, her husband, Philippe le Hardi, wrote to the abbot and religious of S. Denis to commend her soul to their prayers, for her life _etait aimable a Dieu et aux hommes_. Her epitaph begins:

DYSABEL. LAME. AIT. PARADYS, _etc._

Louis XI. was not buried at S. Denis; he desired to be laid in the church of Our Lady of Clery, "for which the Heretics (meaning the Huguenots and Calvinists) had not the same respect which they inviolably entertained for the holy and royal tombs of S. Denis.[49] But inspired by the Devil, with an abominable and h.e.l.lish spirit of rage and profanation, they tore the king's remains from the tomb, and, together with the queen's, burnt them and scattered their ashes to the winds.

Thus he who would not let his body rest under the protection of the Holy Martyers found no rest in the grave."[50]

This monument was of bronze, but another was erected in 1622 by an Orleans sculptor, Michel Bourdin. La Fontaine described the latter as follows, in a letter to his wife, dated 1633: "Nous nous arretames a Clery. J'allai aussitot visiter l'eglise; c'est une collegiale a.s.sez bien rentee pour un bourg. Louis XI. y est enterre. On le voit a genoux sur son tombeau, quatre enfants aux coins; ce seraient quatre anges, si on ne leur avait pas arrache les ailes. Le bon apotre du roi fait la le saint homme, et il est bien mieux pris que lorsque le Bourguignon le mena a Liege.

Je lui trouvai la mine d'un matois: Ainsi l'etoit ce prince dont la vie Doit rarement servir d'exemple aux rois, Mais pourroit etre en quelques points suivie.

"a ses genoux sont ses heures et son chapelet, la main de justice, son sceptre, son chapeau et sa Notre-Dame. Je ne sais comment le statuaire n'y a pas mis le prevot Tristan; le tout est en marbre blanc et m'a paru d'a.s.sez bonne main."

This monument suffered some mutilations during the Revolution, the head being chopped into three pieces[51]; but in 1817 it was repaired. It is, in style, very similar to the descriptions of the bronze monument of Charles VIII.

[Ill.u.s.tration: TOMB OF THE HOUSE OF ORLeANS.]

The tomb of the house of Orleans was erected by Louis XII. in the centre of the magnificent chapel of the family, in the church of the Celestins.

It contained besides, the statue of Philippe de Chabot, by Jean Cousin; Germain Pilon's Three Graces; the columns of Anne de Montmorency, of Francois II., and of Timoleon de Brissac; the obelisk of the Longuevilles; the tombs of Renee d'Orleans, and of the duc de Rohan, by Michel Anguier. The destruction of this chapel and the dispersal of its contents was one of the greatest acts of vandalism of modern times; although a good deal has been preserved, the loss of the rest cannot but be bewailed.

Charles, duc d'Orleans, was a lettered man and given to verse writing; he was made prisoner at the battle of Agincourt, and pa.s.sed more than twenty years of his life in England. The little porcupine at the king's feet (upon the tomb) symbolized the order of chivalry which he founded, and which adopted that animal as its emblem.

The beautiful marble monument of Renee d'Orleans recalls those of Santa Croce, and other Italian churches, and it is a magnificent example of French Renaissance sculpture.

The epitaph to Marguerite de Valois, first wife of Henri IV., attributed to the queen's authorship, is taken from a ma.n.u.script in the Bibliotheque:

Ceste brillante fleur de l'arbre des Valoys En qui mourust le nom de tant de puissans Roys, Marguerite, pour qui tant de lauriers fleurirent, Pour qui tant de bouquets chez les Muses se firent.

A vu fleurs et lauriers, sur sa tete secher, Et par un coup fatal, les lys s'en detacher.

Las! le cercle Royal dont l'avoit couronnee En tumulte et sans ordre un trop prompt himenee, Rompu du meme coup devant ses pieds tombant La laissa comme un tronc degrade par les vents.

Epouse sans espoux, et Royne sans royaume, Vaine ombre du pa.s.se, grand et n.o.ble fantosme Elle traisna depuis les restes de son sort, Et vist jusqu'a son nom mourir avant sa mort.

The epitaph upon Henri's second wife, Marie de' Medici, is in a very different style. Marie, after having built the splendid Luxembourg palace, and filled it with Rubens' sparkling magnificences of colour, died in exile at Koln:

Le Louvre de Paris vit eclater ma gloire; Le nom de mon epoux, d'immortelle memoire, Est place dans le ciel comme un astre nouveau.

Pour gendres j'eus deux rois, pour fils ce clair flambeau, Qui par mille rayons brillera dans l'histoire.

Parmi tant de grandeur (le pourra-t-on bien croire?) Je suis morte en exil; Cologne est mon tombeau!

Cologne, il des cites de la terre Allemande, Si jamais un pa.s.sant curieux te demande Le funeste recit des maux que j'ai soufferts, Dis: ce triste cercueil chetivement enserre La reine dont le sang coule en tout l'univers, Qui n'eut pas en mourant un seul pouce de terre.[52]

[Ill.u.s.tration: TOMB OF ReNeE D'ORLeANS-LONGUEVILLE.]

Louis XIII., or rather, part of him, was buried at the Jesuits' church; and Anne d'Autriche erected therein a fine monument sculptured by Jacques Sarrazin. Two colossal angels in bronze and silver supported a silver-gilt heart; but its magnificence only made it of greater use to the mint for coinage.

This good king, the thirteenth of his name, was a great devotee of S.

Denis. He had inst.i.tuted reform in the abbey by introducing the congregation of S. Maur; and we are told that he acquired "strength and spirits in his last illness, as he lay languishing upon his bed, as often as he thought of S. Denis. At such times he would remark to his attendants, with a smile of pious serenity, how much he felt himself reconciled to his near approaching dissolution, and fortified against all the usual desires of life or dread of death; in a sweet antic.i.p.ation of the happiness he should enjoy by reposing near the tombs of the Holy Martyrs, in whom he placed the most sacred and unbounded confidence."

There is one more exquisite work of art which ought to be mentioned, the beautiful urn from the abbey of Haute-Bruyere, which contained the heart of that magnificent profligate, Francois I^er. It is of white marble, of perfect form, with the most delicious little Genii sitting on the top.

The bas reliefs represent the Arts and Sciences, Faith, and the Church.

It is the work of Pierre Bontems.

Some of the kings were crowned at S. Denis after having been anointed and consecrated at Reims; some, like Philippe Auguste, were re-invested at the abbey. Philippe le Hardi, Charles VIII., Louis XII., Francois I^{er.}, and Louis XIII., were all anointed at Reims and crowned at S.

Denis. An account in an old book of the coronation of Louis XIII. is so quaint, and gives so graphic a picture of some of the manners and customs of the period, that it is, I think, worth quoting in full.[53]

The description of the magnificent ceremony was extracted from a chronicle of the reign of Louis XIII., and translated into English a hundred and fifty years ago:--

"The royall ornaments, which are kept in the _Abbey of_ Saint Denis, being caryed to Rheims, on the 14th October, 1610, the King made his entrie into the towne, where his Maiestie was received with greate pompe and magnificence; the particularities whereof I am forced, for brevities sake, to omit. The day before the ceremonie, the King went vnto the Cathedrall, to a.s.sist at Euensong, and to heare a sermon made by Father Coton, vpon the _diuine_ inst.i.tution of the _unction of the Kings of France_, and of confirmation, which he received from the hands of the Cardinall of Joyeuse, to whom he was presented by Queen Marguerite and the Prince of Conde.

"On Sunday, the 17th of October, the King sent foure Barons vnto the Abbey of Saint Remy, to fetch the _holie oyle_. They parted earlie in the morning, with their Esquires and Gentlemen; either of them having a banner, with his armes, caried before him, causing a _white hackney_ to be led, for the Prior of Saint Remy, who was to carry the said _holie oyle_.

"The Cardinal of Joyeuse, who was to represent the Archbishop of Rheims, and to doe the office, at the ceremonie, came soone after into the church, with eight Bishops to a.s.sist him, where, attending the comming of the Peeres, he sat him downe in his pontificall robes. Two of these Bishops were attired like Deacons, with mitres; two like Sub-Deacons, with mitres; and foure with copes and mitres.

Soon after arrived the ecclesiasticall Peeres, in their pontificall robes.... At the same instant there came, from the King's lodging, the Princes of Conde and Conty ... who were deputed by the King to hold the places of ... attyred in their robes and coronets, according to their qualities. Having done their devotions, and saluted one another, they sent the bishops of Laon and Beauuais to fetch the King, in their pontificall habits (_having certaine reliques of the holie Saintes hanging about their neckes_), conducted by the Master of the Ceremonies; all the Prebendes of oure Ladies church marching in goodlie procession before them.

Being come to the King's chamber, and finding it shut, the Bishop of Laon knocked three several times, to either of which the greate Chamberlaine demanded, '_What would ye?_' The Bishop answered, '_Lewis the Thirteenth, son to Henrie the Greate_'; whereunto the Chamberlaine replied, '_He sleepeth_'; then knocking againe, he had the like answere. But at the third time the Bishop answered, '_Lewis the Thirteenth, which G.o.d hath given us for King_'; then the door was opened, and the Bishops entered with the cheife chaunter of Rheims, &c., where they found the King laid on his bed, _having his shirt slit before and behind_, to receive the holie Vnction, and uppon it a waistecoat of crimson sattin, _slitted in like maner_, and thereon a long robe of cloth-of-_siluer_. The Bishop of Laon having finished a prayer, kissing their hands, they lifted the King from his bed, with all _shewes of honour_, and then led him, _singing_, to the church doore. Before him, there marched, first the greate Prouost, with his archeres; then the Clergie which had accompanied the two Prelates; the hundrede tall Swissers of his guard: the drummes, haultbois, and herauldes; the n.o.bilitie; the great Master of the Ceremonies; the Knights of the Holie Ghoste, with their great order hong about their neckes, in the middest of two hundred Gentlemen of the King's house; and _the Scottish Guards, in their own proper_ habiliments. Before his Maiestie went the Mareschall la Chastre, _representinge the Constable_, carying a naked sworde, &c. &c. After some ceremonies at the church doore, the King approacheth neare untoe the high altar, where he was presented, by the Bishops of Laon and Chalons, untoe the Cardinal Joyeuse, who said many prayers, whilest the King was at his deuotions. After this he was led untoe his seate, with his n.o.blemen and officers about him. In the meane tyme, all the religious men of Saint Remy came solemnlie in procession, being accompanied by the cheife of the towne, caryinge torches of virgines waxe in their hands: Their Prior was mounted upon the _white hackney_, having a foote-cloath of cloath-of-silver, carying the _violl of holie oyle, in a pixe_, hanginge about his necke, being under a canopie of cloath-of-silver, borne by foure Monkes. The Cardinall being advertised of the arrivall of _the said oyle_, hee went, in his pontificalibus, to meet it, with the eight Bishops which a.s.sisted him, and all the singinge men and quiristeres. But before they would deliver it unto the Cardinall, they made him (according to the custome) binde himself to restore it untoe them againe. After saying a praier, hee shewed the _holie oyle_ untoe the people; and then set it down vpon the high altar, _with all the G.o.dlie reuerence_. (The coronation oath and some ceremonies are here omitted for brevity). The King having taken the oathes, with inuocation of the name of G.o.d, laying his handes vpon the Gospel, which he kist with greate reuerence. The King's ornaments ... were layd upon the altar; and on the left hande side, neere vnto them, stoode the _Prior of Saint Denis_, who hath the keeping of them; and on the right side stoode the Prior of Saint Remy, _looking sharplie to the holie oyle_.[54] The Bishops of Laon and Beauvais, hauing conducted him vnto the altar, Mons. de Belgarde tooke off his roabe of cloath-of-silver. Being in his waistecoate of sattin, when the Cardinall had made certaine prayers and blessings, the Duke of Esguillon put on his buskins, and the Prince of Conde put on his spurres (in the place of the Duke of Bourgundie) and presentlie took them off againe. After this, the Cardinall blessed the royale sworde, it being in the scabberd, and girt the King therewith, and presentlie ungirted him againe. Then he drew it out of the scabberd, and kissed it, saying manie praiers, whilest that the Quier sang certaine anthems. The King kist the sworde also; and layd it upon the altar, in testimonie of his zeale and affection to the defence of the holie church. The Cardinall delivered it into his hande againe; which his Maiestie tooke reuerentlie vpon his knee, and gave it to the _Mareschall la Chastre_. The Cardinall returning to the altar, to prepare the sacred vnction, after this manner: '_Hee drewe out of the forenamed holie violl, with a needell of gold, a small quant.i.tie of liquor, of the bignesse of a pease, and mingled it, with his finger, with the holie creme prepared in the couer of the chalice_.