Chapter X: Gothic Art in Normandy314 (8)

Some twenty miles from Blois is the Romanesque church of Fleury Abbey at St. Benoît-sur-Loire, with a superb XI-century narthex of three bays, surmounted by a tower. In 1562 the Huguenots wrecked the church. Also, between Orléans and Nevers, beside Sancerre, is the abbey church of St. Satur, a forerunner of Flamboyant Gothic, as early as 1361. The Benedictine church of La Charité-sur-Loire derives chiefly from the Burgundian Romanesque school, influenced by Berry and Auvergne. Its central and west towers, its nave, and chevet belong to the second half of the XII century, the transept is earlier; there was a reconstruction of the nave after 1559.

Louis Serbat, "La Charité-sur-Loire," in _Congrès Archéologique_, 1913, p. 374; Abbe Bosseboeuf, _Amboise_. For Loches, see _Congrès Archéol_., 1869, 1910; G. Rigault, _Orléans et le val de Loire_ (Collection, Villes d'art célèbres); F. Bournon, _Blois, Chambord et les châteaux du Blésois_ (Collection, Villes d'art célèbres); A. Marignan, "Une visite à l'abbaye de Fleury à St. Benoît-sur-Loire," in _Revue de l'art chrétien_, 1901-02, p. 291; L. Cloquet et J. Casier, "Excursion de la Gilde de St. Thomas et de St. Luc dans la Maine, la Touraine, et l'Anjou," in _Revue de l'art chrétien_, 1889-90, vols. 42, 43; _La Touraine artistique et monumental; Amboise_ (Tours, Pericet, 1899); Sir Theodore Andreas Cook, _Twenty-five Great Houses of France_ (New York and London, 1916).

[158] Lucien Bégule et C. Guigue, _Monographic de la cathédrale de Lyon_ (Lyon, 1880); Lucien Bégule, _La cathédrale de Lyon_ (Collection, Petites Monographies), (Paris, H. Laurens); _ibid._, _Les vitraux du moyen âge et de la Renaissance dans la région lyonnaise_ (Lyon, A. Rey et Cie, 1911); _ibid_., _Les incrustations décoratives des cathédrales de Lyon et de Vienne_ (Lyon, 1905); H. Havard, éd., _La France artistique et monumentale_, vol. 3, p. 80, C. Guigue; Émile Màle, _L'art religieux du XIIIe siècle_, pp. 52-59, on the glass of Lyons Cathedral; _Congrès Archéologique_, 1907, p. 527, on St. Martin d'Ainay; Abbé Martin, _Histoire des églises et chapelles de Lyon_ (1909); André Steyert, _Nouvelle histoire de Lyon_ ... (Lyon, Bernoux et Gamin, 1895), 3 vols.; Meynis, _Grands souvenirs de l'église de Lyon_ (Lyon, 1886); Charletz, _Histoire de Lyon_ (Lyon, 1902); Hefele, _History of the Christian Councils_, 12 vols.; H. d'Hennezel, _Lyon_ (Collection, Villes d'art célèbres), (Paris, H. Laurens); Léon Maitre, "Les premières basiliques de Lyon et leurs cryptes," in _Revue de l'art chrétien_, 1900, p. 445; Henri Foeillon, _Le Musée de Lyon_ (Paris, H. Laurens); L. Barron, _Le Rhone_ (Collection, Fleuves de France), (Paris, H. Laurens).

[159] Paul Allard, _Histoire des persécutions_ (Paris, 1892), 5 vols.; _Histoire littéraire de la France_, vol. 1, pp. 290, 324, on St. Irenæus and the churches of Lyons and Vienne (Paris, 1733).

[160] The church of St. Nizier also possessed a _manécanterie_ in which Alphonse Daudet, as _Le Petit Chose_, spent some happy years. Another romance based on reality whose scene is Lyons is René Bazin's _l'Isolée_. An ancient crypt under St. Nizier, shaped like a Greek cross, dedicated to St. Pothin since the IV century, has been ruined by restorations; the actual church is Rayonnant and Flamboyant Gothic, with a portal of the Renaissance by a son of Lyons, Philibert Delorme (d. 1570). Jean Perréal was also born here, as was Coysevox, who made the Virgin of St. Nizier (1676). Eminence in religious or idealistic mural painting has been attained by two sons of Lyons, Puvis de Chavannes (1824-98), who decorated the Museum with _Le Bois Sacré_, and Flandrin (1809-64), who frescoed the walls of St. Martin d'Ainay. Meissonier (d. 1891) was born here; so was Ampère, scientist and Christian believer (d. 1836). In the hospital of fifteen thousand free beds which opened its doors in the VI century and has never since closed them, worked a loved physician who was father of Frédéric Ozanam, the founder of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. St. Vincent's heart is treasured in a chapel of the cathedral. Another of the leaders of the Catholic reform, St. Francis de Sales, died in Lyons in 1622.

[161] The see of Vienne was founded A.D. 160. The cathedral of St. Maurice, well set on the Rhone, contains vestiges of the church consecrated in 1106 by Paschal II, and which had been aided by that archbishop of Vienne, of the first line of Burgundy's Capetian dukes, who became Pope Calixtus II in 1119. The present edifice is due to Bishop Jean de Bernin (1218-66), and was consecrated by Innocent IV in 1251. Only in 1533 were its façade and the four bays behind it finished. There is no transept. The XV century made the northern entrance, and the XVI century that to the south. The red incrustations form friezes, in the choir, below both triforium and clearstory.

A V-century bishop of Vienne was Claudianus Mamertus, who upheld Latin culture against the Barbarians, like his friend and fellow poet, Bishop Apollinaris Sidonius at Clermont. To Vienne's bishop is attributed the noted hymn _Pange lingua gloriosi proclium certamini_, and the institution of the Rogation days of penance and procession before the Ascension, in that hour when earthquakes and volcanic eruptions had terrorized central France. In 1312 Vienne was the scene of a general Council of the Church at which the Templars were suppressed by a pope cowed into obedience by the king of France, who arrived at the Council with an escort of the size of an army. The majority of the bishops present held that to abolish the Order was not a legal act, since the charges against them were unproven. Therefore, Clement V was forced to fall back on the expedient plea of solicitude for the public good.

_Congrès Archéologique_, 1879; J. Ch. Roux, _Vienne_ (Paris, Bloud et Cie, 1909); M. Reymond, _Grenoble, Vienne_ (Collection, Villes d'art célèbres), (Paris, II. Laurens); Lucien Bégule, _L'ancienne cathédrale de Vienne-en-Dauphiné_ (Paris, II. Laurens, 1914); Paul Berret, _Le Dauphiné_ (Collection, Provinces françaises), (Paris, II. Laurens).

[162] About thirty miles to the north of Lyons lies Bourg-en-Bresse, in whose suburbs is the church of Brou. The eighteen windows of the school of Lyons were installed when the church was finished in 1536. Marguerite of Austria built it in fulfillment of a vow of her mother-in-law, a Bourbon princess, Marguerite herself being daughter of Mary of Burgundy, a line, like the Bourbous, that gloried in sumptuous mausoleums. She intrusted the work to the Lyons master, Jean Perréal, who called on his aged friend, Michel Colombe, for the imagery of the tombs. Colombe designed Duke Philibert's _gisant_ and the six winged genii, executed later, with liberties, by Conrad Meyt, and his brother (artists trained at Lyons), and some Italians. Disagreements rose, and Perréal was superseded by Loys van Boghem, who erected a bastard Gothic church of the same heavy Flemish type popular then at Toledo and Burgos. The three rich overcharged tombs are in the choir. Marguerite almost became the wife of Charles VIII, late-Gothic builder, and for a short time was married to the only son of Isabelle and Ferdinand, whose tomb is a boast of Avila. When the early death of the Duke of Savoy left her a widow she governed the Netherlands for her nephew, the Emperor Charles V. Her father's tomb at Innsbruck is one of the noted ones of the world, and the heraldic tombs of her mother and her grandfather (Charles le Téméraire of Burgundy) are in Bruges.

If the traveler hopes to find flat, suburban Brou as described by Matthew Arnold, "mid the Savoy mountain valleys, far from town or haunt of man," he will be disappointed. Moreover, no reflections fall from ancient glass, owing to the patina or coating added by time to its exterior surface. Poetic license is allowed, and "The Church of Brou" adds to this heavy votive monument the charm it needs:

"... So sleep, forever sleep, O marble Pair!
Or, if ye wake, let it be then, when fair
On the carved western front a flood of light
Streams from the setting sun, and colors bright,
Prophets, transfigured saints, and martyrs brave,
In the vast western windows of the nave;
And on the pavement round the Tomb there glints
A checkerwork of glowing sapphire tints,
And amethyst, and ruby--then unclose
Your eyelids on the stone where ye repose,
... And looking down on the warm rosy tints
Which checker, at your feet, the illumined flints,
Say: 'What is this? We are in bliss--forgiven.
Behold the pavement of the courts of Heaven.'"

V. Nodet, _L'église de Brou_ (Collection, Petites Monographics), (Paris, H. Laurens); C.J. Dufay, _L'église de Brou et ses tombeaux_ (Lyon, 1879); Paul Vitry, _Michel Colombe et la sculpteur française de son temps_ (Paris, 1901), p. 365; Dupasquier et Didron, _Monographie de Notre Dame de Brou_ (Paris, 1842), in 4º et atlas in fol.

[163] In the XV century the dukes of Bourbon filled their capital of Moulins with art treasures, and Souvigny's abbatial, close by, was their necropolis. The present choir of Moulins Cathedral, originally the chapel of their palace, was begun by Agnes of Burgundy, daughter of Jean sans Peur, and finished by her sons, Jean II de Bourbon and Pierre II sire de Beaujeu, who in 1475 wedded the daughter of Louis XI and governed France with his wife during the minority of Charles VIII. Jeanne of France and her husband are portrayed on the folding doors of the splendid triptych (1488-1503), by some unknown French _primitif_ now in the sacristy of Moulins Cathedral, and again in one of the three windows--warm in color and with fine, clear portrait work--in the square east wall of the chevet, glass that belongs to the transition from Gothic to Renaissance as the XV century merged in the XVI. Fifteenth-century windows are comparatively rare, so the twelve possessed by Moulins' chief church are precious. Cardinal Charles de Bourbon, who beautified Lyons Cathedral, also appears in the Bourbon dukes' window with his two brothers. The nave of Moulins Cathedral, in black-and-white Volvic stone, is a modern rendering by Lassus and Millet of the Primary Gothic of the region.

Souvigny was a Cluniac priory, in which died the two great Cluny abbots, St. Majolus (d. 994), who brought to France the noted William of Volpiano, the organizer of the Romanesque renaissance of architecture, and St. Odilo (d. 1049). In 1095 Urban II stayed in Souvigny, and so did Paschal II in 1106. The XII-century church was largely reconstructed in the late-Gothic day when the prior Dom Geoffrey Chollet wished to house fittingly the splendid new Bourbon tombs. That of Louis II (comrade in arms of Dugueselin) has been attributed without proof to Jean de Cambrai, who made the Berry tomb at Bourges. M. Guigue has ably assigned to Jacques Morel the tomb of Charles I and Agnes of Burgundy. The Bourbon line, direct in descent from St. Louis, mounted the French throne with Henry IV.

_Congrès Archéologique_, 1913, p. 1, Chanoine Joseph Clémat; p. 182, Doshoulières; J. Locquin, _Nevers et Moulins_ (Collection, Villes d'art célèbres), (Paris, II. Laurens); H. Aucouturier, _Moulins_ (1914); R. de Quirielle, _Guide archéologique dans Moulins_ (1893); Abbé Requin, "Jacques Morel et son neveu Antoine le Moiturier," in _Revue des Soc. des Beaux-Arts des Départements_ (Paris, 1890); L. Courajod, "Jacques Morel, sculpteur bourguignon," in _Gazelle archéol_, 1885, p. 236; A. J. de H. Bushnell, _Storied Windows_ (New York, 1914); L. du Broe de Segange, _Hist. et description de la cathédrale de Moulins_ (Paris, 1885), vol. 2, Inventaire des richesses d'art de la France; L. Desrosiers, _La cathédrale de Moulins, ancienne collégiale_ (Moulins, 1871); H. Faure, _Histoire de Moulins_ (Moulins, 1900), 2 vols.; G. Depeyre, _Les ducs de Bourbon_ (Toulouse, Privat, 1897).

[164] _Congrès Archéologique_, 1860, 1863, 1871, 1878, and 1910, p. 267, on the cathedral; p. 280, on Le Mans' two Benedictine churches; Abbé A. Ledru et G. Fleury, _La cathédrale St. Julien du Mans_ (Mamers, Fleury et Dangin, 1900), folio; Gabriel Fleury, _La cathédrale du Mans_ (Collection, Petites Monographies), (Paris, H. Laurens); E. Lefèvre-Pontalis, _Étude historique et archéol. sur la nef de la cathédrale du Mans_ (1889); Abbé A. Ledru, _Histoire des églises du Mans_ (Paris, Plon-Nourrit, 1905-07); R. Triger, _Le Mans à travers les âges_ (Le Mans, 1898); E. Hucher, _Vitraux peints de la cathédrale du Mans_ (Paris, Didron, 1865), folio and supplement claques; A. Echivard, _Les vitraux de la cathédrale du Mans_ (Mamers, 1913): _Bulletin Monumental_, studies on Le Mans, in vol. 7, p. 359; vol. 14, p. 348 (Hueher); vol. 26, on the Geoffrey Plantagenet enamel; also vol. 31, p. 789; vol. 37, p. 704; vol. 39, p. 483 (Dion); vol. 44, p. 373; vol. 45, p. 63 (Esnault); and vol. 72, 1908, p. 155 (Pascal V. Lefèvre-Pontalis); De Wismes, _Le Maine et l'Anjou, historique, archéologique et pittoresque_ (Paris, A. Bry), 2 vols., folio; Guénet, _Le Maine illustré_ (Le Mans, 1902); Abbé R. Charles, _Guide illustré du Mans et dans la Sarthe_ (Le Mans, 1886); Kate Norgate, _England Under the Angevin Kings_ (London, 1887), 2 vols.; Mrs. J. R. Green, _Henry II_ (London, 1888); see also Davis (London, 1905); Robert Latouche, _Histoire du comté du Maine pendant le Xe et XIe siècle_ (Paris, H. Champion, 1910); H. Prentout, _Le Maine_ (Collection, Les régions de la France), (Paris, L. Cerf); _Histoire littéraire de la France_, vol. 11, p. 250, "Hildebert de Lavardin"; p. 177, "Geoffrey, abbé de Vendôme" (Paris, 1759); on Hildebert, see A. Dieudonne (1898) and P. Déservellers.

[165] The abbey church of the Trinité has in its transept walls parts of the edifice dedicated in 1040. At the beginning of the XIII century that transept was vaulted in the eight-rib Plantagenet way, the keystones being well carved. The ambulatory and radiating chapels are early-Gothic; the choir is late XIII century; the easternmost bays of the nave are of the XIV, and its westernmost bays of the XV century. The façade is a gem of Flamboyant Gothic. There are also windows of the XIII and XV centuries, and some well-known carved choir stalls. The Merveille of Vendôme, its tower of 1140, prototype for the Primary Gothic ones at Chartres and Rouen, stands free of the church. From the earlier abbatial was saved a famous XII-century window of the St. Denis school, a Byzantinesque Madonna.

_Congrès Archéologique_, 1872; Abbé Plat, _Notes pour servir à l'histoire monumental de la Trinité_ (Vendôme, 1907); La Martellière, _Guide dans le Vendômois_ (Vendôme, 1883).

[166] W. H. Goodyear, "Architectural Refinements in French Cathedrals," in _Architectural Record_, 1904-05, vols. 16, 17; _ibid._, "Architectural Refinements, a reply to Mr. Bilson," in _Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects_, 3d series, 1907, vol. 15, p. 17; Anthyme Saint-Paul, "Les irrégularités de plan dans les églises," in _Bulletin Monumental_, 1906, p. 135.

Professor Goodyear's theory of intentional asymmetry in mediæval buildings--such irregularities as curves of alignment, vertical curves, want of parallelism in walls and piers, deflection of axis--has not found favor with various French and English archæologists, but much of what he has noted may some day be accepted as self-evident.

[167] In Le Mans are two Benedictine churches of archæological interest. _De Cultura Dei_ is now Notre-Dame-de-la-Couture. When the church was rebuilt after a fire in 1180, big Plantagenet Gothic vaults, each section with eight ribs, were flung over the wide nave, which originally had possessed side aisles. Vestiges of a Carolingian church, built a decade before 1000, are in the crypt and the lower walls of choir and transept, where alternance of stone and brick work appears. The chevet is the oldest example now extant of an ambulatory and radiating chapel. In the XII century the upper choir was rebuilt, and again it was retouched during the XIII and XV centuries. The façade and the well-sculptured portal are late XIII century. A charming XVI-century Virgin, by Germain Pilon, on a pier opposite the pulpit, is to be classed with the prolongation of the Region-of-the-Loire school of sculpture whose center was Tours. Across the Sarthe lies the other Benedictine church, the former St. Julien-du-Pré, a Romanesque edifice of the XI and XII centuries, revaulted in the Flamboyant Gothic day.

[168] "O noble peuple d'artisans! Si grands, que les artistes d'aujourd'hui n'existent pas auprès de vous!"--RODIN, _Les cathédrales de France_.

[169] De la Tremblay, Dom Coutil, _L'église abbatiale de Solesmes_ (Solesmes, Imprimerie St. Pierre, 1892), folio; Paul Vitry, _Michel Colombe et la sculpture française de son temps_ (Paris, 1901); Dom Guépin, _Description des deux églises abbatiales de Solesmes_, and also his _Solesmes et Dom Guéranger_ (Le Mans, 1876); Dom Guéranger, _l'Année Liturgique_ (Paris, 1888), 12 vols., tr. Worcester, England, _The Liturgical Year_, and also his _Études historiques de l'abbaye de Solesmes_; Cagni et Mocquereau, _Plain chant and Solesmes_ (tr. London, 1902).

Among those who have taken part in the discussion as to who made the sculptural groups at Solesmes are L. Palustre, Girardet, Charles and Louis de Grandmaison, Benj. Fillon, Célestin Port, Lambin de Lignin, E. Cartier, A. Salmon, and Abbé Bosseboeuf.

[170] The church of St. Elizabeth, in Marburg, is one of the earliest Gothic monuments in Germany, 1235-83. The saint was linked with the new system of building. For the king of Hungary, Villard de Honnecourt built Kassovic church. Her aunt was the gentle Agnes of Méran, married to Philippe-Auguste. Her half sister, Yolande, wedded that other builder of churches, Jaime el Conquistador, from whom sprang Yolande of Aragon, King René's mother, also a builder. St. Elizabeth's niece, daughter of the king of Hungary, married Charles II d'Anjou, who began the best Gothic church in Provence, at St. Maximin.

[171] Amédée Boinet, _Verdun et St. Mihiel_ (Collection, Petites Monographies), (Paris, H. Laurens).

[172] Amédée Boinet, _St. Quentin_ (Paris, H. Laurens); Ch. Gomart, "Notice sur l'église de St. Quentin," in _Bulletin Monumental_, 1856, p. 226; and 1870, p. 201; Pierre Bénard, _Monographie de l'église de St. Quentin_ (Paris, 1867), 8vo; also his studies in the publication of the _Société Académique ... de Soissons_, 1864, p. 260; and 1874, p. 300; Lecocq, _Histoire de la ville de St. Quentin_ (St. Quentin, 1875); J. B. A. Lassus, éd., _L'album de Villard de Honacort_ (Paris, 1858; and London, tr. by Willis, 1859); Jules Quicheral, _Mélanges d'archéologie et d'histoire_ (1886), vol. 2, on Villard de Honnecourt's album; Camille Enlart, _Hôtels de ville et beffrois du nord de la France_ (Paris, H. Laurens, 1919); _ibid_. on Villard de Honnecourt, in _Bibli. de l'École des chartes_, 1895.

[173] Alfred Noyes, _Collected Poems_ (London, Methuen; New York, Fred. A. Stokes Co.).

[174] J. Berthelé, "L'architecture plantagenet," in _Congrès Archéologique_, 1903, p. 234; E. Lefèvre-Pontalis, "L'architecture plantagenet," in _Congrès Archéologique_, 1910; Prosper Merimée, _Notes d'un voyage dans l'Ouest de la France_ (1836); Choyer, "L'architecture des Plantagenets," in _Congrès Archéologique_, 1871, p. 257; Célestin Port, _Dictionnaire de Maine-et-Loire_, 3 vols.; Abbé Bosseboeuf, _L'architecture plantagenet_(Angers, Lachène, 1897).

[175] Saintes lies on the Charente, some fifty miles from Angoulême. In the venerable XII-century church of St. Eutrope cropped out one of the early sporadic uses of diagonals. Its crypt, which is one of the largest in France, is braced on heavy, semicircular arches. The exterior of the apse is decorated. Nothing is left of the original nave; the present one is transitional work. The choir and part of the transept are of the XV century. The superb tower, with corner-turret effects that rise from base to summit, was finished with a spire by 1480. It is said that John XXII, who promulgated the Angelus by his bull of 1318, had learned its usage from a custom of St. Eutrope. The church of St. Pierre, at Saintes, rebuilt in 1117, and again in 1450, has another Flamboyant Gothic tower of good design, which is now much wasted by decay. See _Congrès Archéologique_, 1894; 1912, pp. 195, 309; also _Bulletin Monumental_, 1907, vol. 71; J. Laferrière et G. Musset, _L'art en Saintonge et en Aunis_; Ch. Dangibeaud, _L'école de sculpture romane saintongeaise_ (Paris, 1910).

[176] _Congrès Archéologique_, 1858, 1901, and 1910; Chanoine Roux, _Monographie de St. Front de Périgueux_ (Périgueux, 1920); J. A. Brutails, "La question de St. Front," in _Bulletin Monumental_, 1895, p. 125; 1906, p. 87; 1907, p. 517; Anthyme Saint-Paul, on St. Front, in _Bulletin Monumental_, 1888, p. 163; 1891, p. 321; 1906, p. 5; Félix de Verneilh, _L'architecture byzantine en France_, 1851; R. Michel-Dansac, _De l'emploi des coupoles sur la nef dans le sud-ouest Aquitain_; Corroyer, _L'architecture romane_, 1888; _ibid._, _L'architecture gothique_, 1899; Ch. H. Besnard, "Étude sur les coupoles et voûtes domicales du sud-ouest de la France," in _Congrès Archéologique_, 1912, vol. 2, p. 118; Abbé Pécout, _Périgueux_; R. Phené Spiers, "St. Front de Périgueux et les assises à coupoles," in _Bulletin Monumental_, 1897; 1907, p. 175.

[177] The cathedral of Cahors was damaged by earthquake in 1303, after which its apse was rebuilt as Gothic, but not too much out of harmony with the rest of the church. The ancient frescoes are full of interest. At the north end of the transept is a now unused portal, whose sculpture belongs to the same Midi school as Moissac, but later and calmer work. The Christ of its tympanum is classed with Vézelay, Chartres, and Beaulieu--the supreme Christ images of Romanesque art. M. Forel praises the angels' magnificent gesture of adoration. The XIV-century west front resembles those of the Brunswick churches whose façade and towers comprise one massive up to the roof. John XXII (1316-33), the second Avignon pope, was born in Cahors, where he founded the university, contributed toward the cathedral, and built a bridge over the Lot which is considered the handsomest of the Middle Ages. In the diocese of Cahors is Rocamadour, the most picturesque pilgrim shrine of Our Lady in France, visited by St. Louis. E. Rey, _La cathédrale St. Étienne de Cahors_ (Cahors, J. Girma, 1911); _Congrès Archéologique_, 1907, p. 413; Alexis Forel, _l'Voyage au pays des sculpteurs romans_, vol. 2, p. 52; "Le cloître de la cathédrale de Cahors," in _Bulletin Monumental_, 1883, p. 110; E. Rupin, _Roc-amadour_ (Paris, Baranger, 1904).

[178] _Congrès Archéologique_, 1847, 1903, and 1912; Biais, _La cathédrale d'Angoulême_ (Paris, H. Laurens); H. de la Mauvinière, _Poitiers et Angoulême_ (Collection, Villes d'art célèbres), (Paris, H. Laurens, 1908); J. George, _La cathédrale d'Angoulême_ (Angoulême, Cha 1901-04); Michon, _Histoire de l'Angoumois_, 1846; _ibid._, _Statistique monumentale de la Charente_, 1844; Viollet-le-Duc, _Dictionnaire de l'architecture_ (see article _coupole_); Sharpe, _A Visit to the Domed Churches of Charente_ (London, 1876); J. A. Brutails and Spiers, "Les coupoles du Périgord et de l'Angoumois," in _Bulletin Monumental_, 1895, 1897, 1906, and 1907.

[179] Four miles from Angoulême is the curious octagonal church of St. Michel d'Entraignes (1137), built up to its big dome, as it were. Close to it is Fléae, whose three cupolas have no separate bases, but are pierced directly by the big arcades, which is more the Byzantine way of making a cupola than the French. Six miles from Angoulême are the ruins of La Couronne abbatial, where once was a Plantagenet Gothic choir; and ten miles away, at Roullet, is a remarkable sculptured façade. Aulnay's fine church has a decorated front, well-cut capitals, and a ribbed cupola, without distinct pedestal. Pont l'Abbé possesses one of the best Romanesque façades in France. At Ruffec and at Civray are others. There is a church at Charroux with the curious plan of three aisles round a central octagon. Cupola churches are to be found at Plazzac, Bassac, Gensae, Cognac, Souillae, and Solignac, six miles from Limoges. Studies of these churches by E. Lefèvre-Pontalis, L. Serbat, and André Rhein are to be found in the _Congrès Archéologique_, 1912.

[181] _Congrès Archéologique_, 1862 and 1910; L. Magne, "L'ancienne abbaye de Fontevrault," in _L'architecte_, 1910, p. 60; A. de Caumont, "Fontevrault," in _Bulletin Monumental_, 1867, p. 73; Bernard Palustre, "Les coupoles de Fontevrault," in _Bulletin Monumental_, 1898, vol. 63, p. 500; Honorat Nicquet, _Histoire de l'ordre de Fontevraud_, 1642; G. Malifaud, _L'abbaye de Fontevrault, notices historiques et archéologiques_ (Angers, 1866); Abbé Bosseboeuf, _Fontevrault, son histoire et ses monuments_ (Tours, 1867); Édouard, _Fontevrault et ses monuments_ (Paris, 1874), 2 vols.; Joseph Joubert, "Les mausolées des Plantagenets à Fontevrault," in _Mém. de la Soc. d'arts d'Angers_, 1903; and 1906, p. 61, Chanoine Urseau; Vietor Pavie, "Westminster et Fontevrault," in _Mém. de la Soc. d'arts d'Angers_, 1866, p. 229; _Histoire littéraire de la France_ (Paris, 1756), vol. 10, p. 153, "Robert d'Arbrissel."

[182] Louis Corroyer, _L'architecture gothique_ (Paris, 1899), p. 1. "La coupole, sous sa forme symbolique, est l'oeuf d'où est sorti un système architectonique qui a causé une révolution des plus fécondes dans le domaine de l'art."

[183] "_Dans ces choses-là on eu dit plus qu'il n'y en a, mais aussi il y a souvent plus qu'on eu dit_," says the discreet historian Mézerai.

[184] _Congrès Archéologique_, 1910, the cathedral of Angers; p. 161, Chanoine Urseau; p. 182, St. Serge; p. 228, the château; p. 232, l'évêché; Louis de Farcy, _Monographie de la cathédrale d'Angers_ (1910), 3 vols. and album; _ibid._, _Les vitraux de la nef de la cathédrale d'Angers_ (1912); J. Denais, _Monographie de la cathédrale d'Angers_ (Paris, 1899); John Bilson, "Angers Cathedral, the Vaults of the Nave," in _Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects_, 1911-12, p. 727; also in the _Congrès Archéologique_, 1910, vol. 2, p. 203; V. Godard-Faultrier, _Répertoire archéologique de l'Anjou_ (1865); L. Halphen, _Le comté d'Anjou au XIe siècle_ (Paris, Picard, 1906); Léon Palustre, _La Renaissance en France_ (3 vols.), vol. 3, Anjou et Poitou (Paris, Quantin); H. Jouin, _Les musées d'Angers_ (Paris, Plon, 1885), 4to; Péan de la Tuilerie, _Le Maine et l'Anjou_; Wismes, _Le Maine et l'Anjou, historiques, archéol. e pittoresque_ (Paris), 2 vols., folio; E. Lelong, "Histoire et mon. d'Angers," in _Angers et l'Anjou_ (1903); Lecoy de la Marche, _Le roy René, sa vie, son administration_ (Paris, 1875), 2 vols.; Kate Norgate, _England Under the Angevin Kings_ (London, 1887), 2 vols.; De Solies, _Foulques Nerra_; Célestin Port, _Dictionnaire historique, géographique, et biographique de Maine-et-Loire_ (Paris and Angers, 1874-78), 3 vols. also his _Notes et notices angevins_ (Angers, 1879); A. J. de H. Bushnell, _Storied Windows_ (New York, Macmillan Company, 1914); Sir J. H. Ramsay, _The Angevin Empire_, (London, 1903).

[185] Ch. H. Besnard, "La coupole nervée de la Tour St. Aubin d'Angers," in _Congrès Archéologique_, 1910, vol. 2, p. 196; L. de Farcy, "Tour St. Aubin," in _Bulletin Monumental_, 1906, p. 558.

[186] Beginning with a Breton woodsman, five counts of Anjou ruled before Fulk III the Black (989-1040). He held Vendôme, Amboise, and Loches, where he founded Beaulieu Abbey, and he won Chinon, and Saumur, where he established St. Florent-les-Saumur. His grandfather, Fulk II the Good, a canon in St. Martin's at Tours, and a poet, had said, "_Rex illiteratus est asinus coronatus_," which Henry I of England was fond of repeating. The son of Fulk Nerra was Geoffrey Martel (d. 1060), who won Tours and Le Mans, but later lost the overlordship of the latter to William the Conqueror. He founded the Trinité at Vendôme. Geoffrey and Fulk, his two nephews, succeeded in turn, but Geoffrey was kept imprisoned in Chinon for almost thirty years by his unnatural brother Fulk Rechin, or the Quarreler, who had all the greed, subtlety, and turbulance of his line, without its genius for statesmanship. He is counted as the first historian of the Middle Ages. (See _Hist. littér. de la France_ (Paris, 1750), vol. 9, p. 391.) Fulk Rechin's son by the beautiful Bertrada de Montfort (who deserted him for the king of France) was Fulk V, who wedded the heiress of Maine. When later Fulk V won a second heiress in the East, he left Anjou and Maine to his son Geoffrey the Handsome, and reigned as king of Jerusalem (d. 1143). Geoffrey (d. 1151), nicknamed Plantagenet, married to the heiress of Normandy and England, always preferred Le Mans to Angers. His son became Henry II of England and a leader in Europe because of his territorial possessions on the Continent and his ability as a statesman.

[187] The abbatial of St. Nicolas-du-Ronceray is in a lamentable state; its nave serves as a hall for the Arts and Crafts school, the transept's north arm is a laundry, and its south arm a roofless ruin. The dome at its crossing is without distinct pedestal. The nuns of this house erected at the side of their own sanctuary, the Trinité church for parish use. The present admirable Trinité was built after a fire in 1062. Its chevet and transept are the oldest parts, and then rose the nave, covered with First-Period Angevin vaults (c. 1170). Chapel-like niches are lost in the thickness of the walls.

Angers' abbatial of St. Martin contains Gallo-Roman, Merovingian, and Carolingian vestiges, and parts of the XI, XII, and XV centuries. Fulk Nerra rebuilt it on returning from one of his pilgrimages. Over its transept-crossing is a dome modeled on the one at Fontevrault, without separate pedestal. The church possesses one of the earliest eight-branch Gothic vaults extant; King René added the Flamboyant parts. Chanoine Pinier at his own expense is restoring the choir and transept.

_Congrès Archéologique_, 1910, vol. 1, p. 211, "St. Martin," Chanoine Pinier; and vol. 2, p. 12, "St. Nicolas-du-Ronceray," E. Lefèvre-Pontalis.

[188] Bishop Ulger carried forward, too, the episcopal palace which stood on V-century walls over the Roman citadel and is connected with the cathedral's transept. Its ancient façade is the finest civic monument in Angers (1101-49). The ground floor was used as a stable; over it rose Bishop Ulger's synodal hall, and under the rafters was made a library in the XV century. Angers is exceptionally rich in late-Gothic and Renaissance mansions. G. d'Espinay, _Angers et l'Anjou_ (Angers, 1903); _ibid._, _Notices archéol., Les monuments d'Angers, Saumur et ses environs_ (Angers, 1875), 2 vols.

[189] The first line of Anjou's counts came to an end when John Lackland did away with his nephew, Arthur of Brittany. The region of the Loire became then most willingly a part of Phillipe-Auguste's royal domain. Anjou was given as an appanage to St. Louis' brother Charles d'Anjou, whose first wife brought him Provence, and who by invitation and conquest became king of the Two Sicilies. His son, Charles II, built the church of St. Maximin in Provence. He left only one daughter, who married the Count of Valois, like herself of St. Louis' direct line. The son of that union mounted the French throne as Philip VI. It was his son, Jean le Bon, who again detached Anjou from the French crown for his son Louis, who began the short-lived third line of Angevin princes.

[190] That a portion of Angers' palace walls dates from Gallo-Roman times is indicated by the courses of brick in the small stones. When such brick courses alternate with big material, the work was done after 1000. Of the red flint-stone castle built by Fulk Nerra only fragments remain. A fire in 1132 and later disasters wiped out the counts' residence, to which Henry Plantagenet had added. L. de Farcy, "La chapelle du château d'Angers," in _Revue de l'art chrétien_, 1902; Henri René, _Le château d'Angers_ (Angers, 1908); H. Havard, éd., _La France artistique et monumental_, vol. 2, "Angers," H. Jouin.

[191] The nave of St. Serge is a mediocre XV-century structure. In its transept walls are vestiges of earlier churches; the cordons of brick in the stonework date from Carolingian times. _Congrès Archéologique_, 1871 and 1910; V. Godard-Faultier, "Le coeur de St. Serge à Angers," in _Bulletin Monumental_, 1866, vol. 32; J. Denais, "Histoire et description de l'église St. Serge à Angers," in _L'inventaire des richesses d'art de la France_, vol. 4, p. 20, Province, monuments religieux (Paris, Plon).

[192] _Congrès Archéologique_, 1862 and 1910; Prosper Merimée, _Notes d'un voyage dans l'Ouest de la France_ (Paris, 1836), pp. 345-358; G. d'Espinay, _Notices archéologiques. Les monuments d'Angers, Saumur et ses environs_ (Angers, 1875), 2 vols.; Célestin Port, "Les stalles et les tapisseries de St. Pierre de Saumur," in _Revue des Sociétés savantes_, 1868, p. 278; _ibid._, _Dictionnaire historique, géographique, et biographique de Maine-et-Loire_ (Paris and Angers, 1874-78), 3 vols.; V. Godard-Faultrier, _Monuments antiques de l'Anjou, arrondissement de Saumur_ (Angers, 1863); Jules Juiffrey, "Tapisserie du XVe siécle à l'église Notre Dame-de-Nantilly à Saumur," in _Revue de l'art ancien et moderne_, 1897, vol. 4, p. 75; Eugène Müntz, Jules Juiffrey, Alex. Pinchart, _Histoire générale de la tapisserie_ (Paris, 1879-84), 3 vols.

[193] From Saumur, eight miles down the Loire, can be visited the magnificent Romanesque church at Cunault, XI and XII centuries. It has noticeable capitals, mural paintings, and Plantagenet vaults with sculptured keystones and figurines. Two miles below it lies Gennes, whose church has Angevin vaults of the First Period. To be reached, _via_ Doué-la-Fontaine, are both Puy-Notre-Dame and Asnières, the latter called "the most beautiful ruin in Anjou." Its square-ended XIII-century choir resembles St. Serge's. Slender pillars divide that wide chevet into three aisles of equal height, composing one of the most graceful specimens of the school's Third Period. One arm of the transept has heavy diagonals of the first phase, and over the other are the eight-branch type. The Huguenots wrecked Asnières in 1569. The present nave is a restitution. A society of artists saved the choir and transept from demolition.

The abbatial of Puy-Notre-Dame is very beautiful. Heavy diagonals of the First Period cover the transept's south arm; eight-branch vaults cover the nave and the transept's north limb; over the choir, which resembles St. Jean's chevet at Saumur, is a much-ramified Plantagenet vault. The lofty side aisles and clustered piers make this interior one of the best of XIII-century Angevin works extant. At St. Germain-sur-Vienne (Indre-et-Loire), two miles from Candes, the choir has the complicated multiple-ribbed vault of the Third Period, with three lines of keystones.

_Congrès Archéologique_, 1910, p. 128, Cunault and Gennes; p. 65, Puy-Notre-Dame and Asnières; E. de Lorière, "Asnières-sur-Vègre," in _Revue hist. et archéol. du Maine_, 1904, p. 95.

[194] At the battle of Jargeau, Jeanne reminded the duke of her promise. D'Alençon himself has related the episode: "_Je lui fis observer que c'était aller bien vite en besogne que d'attaquer si promptement: 'Soyez sans crainte,' me dit-elle, 'l'heure est bonne quand il plaît à Dieu, il faut besoigner quand s'est sa volonté: agissez, Dieu agira! Ah, gentil duc,' me dit-elle quelques instants après, 'aurais-tu peur? Ne sait-tu pas que j'ai promis à ta femme de te ramener sain et sauf?'_" Alas, for the deterioration of character brought about in those troubled years of foreign invasion and misrule; Jeanne's _gentil duc_ was later to plot with the English and to be impeached.

At Chinon are specimens of Plantagenet Gothic (_Bulletin Monumental_, 1869). In the Loire-et-Cher department are some fourteen churches of the school. The other Plantagenet monuments usually seen by the traveler before his arrival in Angou are the eight-branch vaults at Vendôme, in the transept of the Trinité; the vault under the northwest tower of Tours Cathedral; and in Le Mans, the cathedral nave and the church of the Couture. At Mouliherne (Seine-et-Loire) every type of the Plantagenet development is present.

_Congrès Archéologique_, 1910, vol. 1, p. 130, "St. Florent-les-Saumur," André Rhein; vol. 2, "Les voûtes de l'église de Mouliherne," André Rhein; p. 247, "Les influences angevines sur les églises gothiques du Blésois et du Vendômois," F. Leseur.

[195] _Congres Archéologique_, 1910, p. 33, André Rhein, on Candes; Abbé Bourassé, "Notice historique et archéologique sur l'église de Candes," in _Mémoires de la Soc. archéol. de Touraine_, 1845, p. 141; Suppligeon, _Notices sur la ville et la collégiale de Candes_ (Tours, 1885).

[196] _Congrès Archéologique_, 1843, 1884, and 1903, "Poitiers," André Rhein; H. L. de la Mauvinière, _Poitiers et Angoulême_ (Collection, Villes d'art célèbres), (Paris, H. Laurens, 1908); Abbé Auber, _Histoire de la cathédrale de Poitiers_ (Poitiers, 1849), 2 vols.; _ibid._, _Histoire civile, relig. et littéraire du Poitou_ (Poitiers, 1856), 8 vols.; J. Berthelé, _Recherches pour servir à l'histoire des arts en Poitou_; Alfred Richard, _Histoire des comtes du Poitou_, 788-1204 (Paris, Picard et fils, 1903), 2 vols.; Dreux-Duradier, _Histoire littéraire du Poitou_; Alexis Forel, _Voyage au pays des sculpteurs romans_ (Paris and Geneva, 1913), 2 vols.; Raynouard, _Choix des poésies originales des troubadours_ (Paris, Didot, 1816), vol. 5, "Richard Coeur-de-Lion"; R. P. Largent, _St. Hilaire de Poitiers_ (Collection, Les Saints), (Paris, Lecoffre); J. Robuchon, _Paysages et monuments du Poitou_ (Paris, 1890-1903), folio; (on Poitiers, Mgr. Barbier de Montault); Benj. Fillon, _Poitou et Vendée_; A. J. de H. Bushnell, _Storied Windows_ (New York, Macmillan Company, 1914); Boissonnade, _Le Poitou_ (Collection, Les régions de la France), (Paris, Cerf, 1920).

[197] The _Vexilla regis prodeunt_ hymn is sung on Good Friday when the Blessed Sacrament is carried from the Repository to the main altar, and as a vesper hymn from the Saturday before Passion Sunday to Maundy Thursday. It has also been incorporated in the Roman Breviary for feasts of the Holy Cross. There have been a host of translations. In his _Medieval Hymns and Sequences_, London, 1813, Dr. J. M. Neale thus rendered the first quatrain:

"The royal banners forward go.
The cross shines forth with mystic glow,
Where He in flesh, our flesh Who made,
Our sentence bore, our ransom paid."

[198] Montierneuf was founded in 1078 by Guillaume VIII (d. 1086). Only eight of the nave's eleven bays remain. The chevet was rebuilt in the XIV century. The abbey was sacked in 1562. St. Porchaire's tower is all that remains of an XI-century church, a contemporary of Notre Dame-la-Grande and Montierneuf. It was to be destroyed in 1843, but luckily some visiting archæologists saved it. From St. Porchaire's belfry rang the summonses of Poitiers University. De Cherge, "Mémoire historique sur l'abbaye de Montierneuf de Poitiers," in _Mém. de la Soc. des antiquaires de l'Ouest_, 1844; _Deux étudiants de l'Université de Poitiers, Francis Bacon et René Descartes_, 1867, p. 65.

[199] St. Savin lies thirty miles from Poitiers. Its choir and transept belong to the early part of the XII century, and its nave was erected about thirty years after. Its donjonlike tower was crowned later by a spire, the highest in southwest France with St. Michel's at Bordeaux. Like Etruscan vase ornamentation are its unique frescoes giving Genesis, Exodus, and the Apocalypse. On the route from Poitiers to St. Savin lies Chauvigny, "the pearl of Poitou," with the ruins of several castles. Its church of St. Pierre has a decorated apse and some eight-branch Plantagenet vaults; its church of Notre Dame possesses some XV-century frescoes.

Another of the chief Poitou-Romanesque churches is at St. Maixent, thirty miles from Poitiers, _via_ Niort. The nave is XII century, the choir, Angevin Gothic, and the tower, Flamboyant; its crypt capitals are noticeable.

The abbey church at St. Jouin-de-Marnes, near Montcontour, has a good façade, a fine Romanesque tower, a transept of the end of the XI century, and a XII-century choir and nave, only three of whose vault sections, however, are the primitive ones. In the XIII century the present elaborate masonry roof was substituted. It belongs to the Third Period of the Plantagenet school, with three lines of keystones. Airvault abbey church, not far away, built a similar much-ramified vault, the prototype for that of Toussaint, at Angers.

Parthenay can be included in the trip from Poitiers to St. Jouin-de-Marnes. In its venerable church took place the scene when St. Bernard rose in majesty at the altar and compelled the giant sinner Guillaume X of Aquitaine to repent.

Three miles from Poitiers lies St. Benoit's Romanesque church, with a XIII-century spire, and five miles away is Ligugé, where St. Martin, under St. Hilary's guidance, founded the first monastery in Gaul. Dom Prosper Guéranger restored Ligugé in 1864, and here J. K. Huysmans lived, as he has described in _l'Oblat_. The XV-century church was rebuilt by that prelate of the Renaissance, Geoffrey d'Estissac, whom Rabelais came to visit.

_Congrès Archéologique_, 1910, St. Savin; p. 119, Airvault; p. 108, St. Jouin-de-Marnes, and the latter also in the _Congrès_ of 1903; Prosper Merimée, _Les peintures de St. Savin_ (Paris, 1845), folio; Ch. Tranchant, _Guide pour la visite des monuments de Chauvigny en Poitou_ (Paris, 1901).

[200] Probably because of the magistral window at Poitiers, the Byzantine tradition of the crucified Christ lingered long in the art of midland France. Over an altar of the chapel of Bourgonnière, in the parish of Bouzillé, in Angers diocese, is a remarkable XVI-century polychrome image of the Saviour, unwounded, robed, and awake, with arms wide outstretched against the Cross.

[201] In 1106 gathered another council at Poitiers, a holy-war rally, but the war was to be waged on Christian Constantinople. The superb Bohemund, the new prince of Antioch, came to organize the expedition; he had gone on the First Crusade for booty, fierce as a Norman, astute as an Italian, in person like a Greek god, tall beyond man's normal height, broad-shouldered, and lithe--so the Greek princess at Constantinople saw him. Philip I gave him his daughter, and on Tancred, his cousin, a true hero of the holy wars, not a buccaneer, the king of France bestowed his daughter by the fair Bertrada de Montfort.

[202] E. Lefèvre-Pontalis, _Étude archéologique de St. Hilaire de Poitiers_ (Caen, 1904); also in the _Congrès Archéologique_ of 1903; De Longuemar, "Essai historique sur l'église Saint Hilaire-le-grand de Poitiers," in _Mémoires des antiquaires de l'Ouest_, 1856.

[203] De la Croix, _Étude du baptistère de St. Jean de Poitiers_ (Poitiers, 1903); E. Lefèvre-Pontalis, "Les fouilles du R. P. de la Croix au baptistère de St. Jean à Poitiers," in _Bulletin Monumental_, 1902, vol. 66, p. 529; Mgr. X. Barbier de Montault, _OEuvres complètes_ (various studies on the monuments of Poitiers and its region), (Poitiers, Blais et Roy, 1899).

[204] Like other Greek works of the period the Minerva at Poitiers shows the influence of Egyptian art in its stiff, regal attitude. The proud, full chin is uplifted. The shapely back is molded by a leopard's skin. The right arm is missing, but the left arm is honey-hued and as delicate as flesh in appearance. She bears the olive branch of peace, this wise Minerva.

[205] Lucien Magne, _Le Palais de Justice de Poitiers_.

[206] _Congrès Archéologique_, 1850 and 1895; Abbé Ph. Gobillot, _La cathédrale de Clermont_ (Clermont-Ferrand, F. L. Bellet, 1912); H. du Ranquet, _La cathédrale de Clermont-Ferrand_ (Collection, Petites Monographies), (Paris, H. Laurens); _ibid._, "Les architectes de la cathédrale de Clermont-Ferrand," in _Bulletin Monumental_, 1912, vol. 76, p. 7; G. Desdevises du Dézert et L. Bréhier, _Clermont-Ferrand, Royat et le Puy-de-Dôme_ (Collection, Villes d'art célèbres), (Paris, H. Laurens, 1910); Louis Bréhier, _L'Auvergne_ (Collection, Les provinces françaises), (Paris, H. Laurens, 1910); _ibid._, in _Revue de l'art chrétien_, 1912, on the capitals of Notre Dame-du-Port; G. Fraipont, _L'Auvergne_ (Collection, Montagnes de France), (Paris, H. Laurens); E. Vimont, _Les deux principales églises de Clermont_; R. de Lasteyrie, _L'architecture religieuse en France à l'époque romane_ (Paris, 1912); H. Stein, _Les architectes des cathédrales gothiques_ (Paris, 1912); Prosper Mérimée, _Notes d'un voyage en Auvergne_ (Paris, 1838); Alexis Forel, _Voyage au pays des sculpteurs romans_ (Paris and Geneva, 1913), 2 vols.; Saveron, _Les origines de la ville de Clermont_; Ambrose Tardieu, _Histoire de la ville de Clermont_; G. Desdevises du Dézert, _Bibliographie du centenaire des croisades à Clermont-Ferrand_ (Clermont-Ferrand, 1895); D. Branche, _Auvergne au moyen âge_ (Clermont-Ferrand, 1842); Paul Allard, _St. Sidoine Apolinaire_ (Collection, Les Saints), (Paris, Lecoffre); Taylor et Nodier, _Voyage pittoresque dans l'ancienne France_. _Auvergne_ (Paris, Didot, 1829-33), 3 vols.

[207] "Il est peu de constructions ogivales qui se présentent d'un façon plus dégagée et plus pittoresque. La sombre masse se détache de la ville aux rues tortueuses comme une haute statue de son piédestal. Les deux flèches hardies s'encadrent dans la cirque majestueux de montagnes volcaniques. Il semble que la cathédrale soit le Mont-Saint-Michel de cette baie aux lumières mouvantes. Tantôt silhouettée par de vigoureux éclairages, tantôt estompée par les vapeurs qui planent dans la vallée, et quelquefois, aux heures matinales émergeant de leur nappe grise, comme une haute mâture au-dessus de la mer tranquille, elle reste toujours fière, imposante, poétique."--LOUIS GONSE, _L'art gothique_ (Paris, 1891).

[208] The Chaise Dieu monastery, founded by St. Robert in 1043, was later affiliated with Cluny. The present church was begun in 1344 by Clement VI, who built the choir and four bays of the nave. The abbatial was completed, after 1370, by his nephew, Gregory XI. Clement had Avignon artists prepare his funeral monument, which originally possessed over forty statuettes representing his relatives, for he came of the great lines of Beaufort and Turenne. The Casa Dei abbatial, though possessed of grandeur, is dull and heavy. The aisles are as high as the principal span. The octagonal piers with uncut capitals lack elegance and lightness, the windows are the narrowest lancets, and there are no flying buttresses. Molds die away in the piers above the capitals--an early appearance of Flamboyant Gothic. The cloister (1378-1417) is frankly late-Gothic. The denuded church once was filled with the tombs of local magnates, among them those of the Lafayette family, precious pages of French history obliterated in 1562 and 1793. As if to shut out the funereal, humid aisles, the choir has been lined with tapestries (begun in 1492) unsurpassed in France. They reproduce the _Mirror of Perfection_ and the _Bible of the Poor_, two books popular in the XIII and XIV centuries. Each episode of the Saviour's life is accompanied by scenes of the Old Testament, prefiguring it. On the outer wall of the choir screen is a sketch, a Dance of Death, with the grim skeleton stalking in and out, touching with his chill finger pope, baron, burgher, page, field laborer, and little child. No XIII-century church had allowed so gruesome a theme on its walls. This lugubrious allegory came into vogue after the Black Death of 1348, when a third of Europe's population perished. _Congrès Archéologique_, 1904, pp. 54, 402; E. Durand, _La Chaise Dieu_ (1903); Maurice Fançon, _L'église abbatiale de la Chaise Dieu en Auvergne_; Émile Mâle, _L'art religieux de la fin du moyen âge_ (Paris, Colin, 1910).

[209] "Quiconque en a senti une fois la beauté forte et simple de ce vigoureux style roman-auvergnat, dont l'origine demeure mystérieuse, n'oublie plus ces églises, solides, trapues, ramassées, dont l'ordonnance extérieure, au lieu d'être un décor plaqué, reproduit en relief l'ordonnance intérieure. Vue du chevet surtout, avec l'hémicycle de leurs chapelles serrées, accolées contre la masse de l'édifice, elles donnent une saisissante impression d'aplomb et d'unité."--PAUL BOURGET, _Le demon du midi_ (Paris, Plon-Nourrit et Cie, 1913).

The feast of Notre Dame-du-Port falls on May 15th, and the city is illuminated with myriads of little lamps.

[210] Polychrome decoration is to be found everywhere in Auvergne: Royat, Riom, Mozac, Saint-Saturnin, Orcival, Saint-Nectaire (where are some of the best carved capitals in the region), Issoire (observe _La cène_ sculptured on one of its capitals), Le Puy, and Brioude. This latter is one of the most beautiful of XII-century churches, showing Burgundian traits as well as those of Auvergne and the Velay. The influence of the Romanesque school of Auvergne spread to Parthenay, Saintes, Nevers, Toulouse, Santiago, and Avila. _Congrès Archéologique_, 1904, p. 542, E. Lefèvre-Pontalis, on Brioude; _Congrès Archéologique_, 1895, pp. 96, 238, 292, on Saint-Nectaire; and p. 177, "École romane d'Auvergne," H. du Ranquet; _Bulletin Monumental_, 1909, vol. 73, p. 213, "Saint-Nectaire," Abbé G. Rochias.

[211] Those who visit Riom (which lies close to Clermont) should go to Aigueperse, eight miles away, to see Mantegna's St. Sebastian and a Nativity by a brother of Ghirlandajo. As the lord of the region, a Bourbon-Montpensier--who died in 1496, had married the sister of the Gonzaga ruler of Mantua, these treasures probably came through that source. _Congrès Archéologique_, 1895; and 1913, p. 124, Mozac, Abbé Luzuy; p. 144, Riom, P. Gauchery; Paul Mantz, "Une tournée en Auvergne," in _Gazette des Beaux-Arts_, 1886; Abbé R. Crégut, _La vierge du Mathuret_ (_Clermont-Ferrand_, 1902); _ibid._, _Les vitraux de la Sainte-Chapelle de Riom_ (1906); E. Clouard, _Les gens d'autrefois aux XVe et XVIe siècles_. (The controversy on the Madonna of the Bird is here summed up); Gondalon, _Riom et ses environs_ (Riom, Jouvet, 1904); A. de Champeaux et P. Gauchery, _Les travaux d'art exécutés pour Jean, duc de Berry_ (Paris, II. Champion, 1891); Camille Eulart, _Le musée de sculpture comparée du palais du Trocadéro_ (on the _vierge à l'oiseau_), (Paris, H. Laurens, 1913).

[212] _Congrès Archéologique_, 1904, pp. 1, 403; Noël Thiollier et Félix Thiollier, _L'architecture romane du diocèse du Puy_ (Le Puy, 1900); Félix Thiollier, _Le Forez pittoresque et monumental_; Mallay et Noël Thiollier, _Monographie de la cathédrale du Puy_ (Le Puy, 1904); Prosper Merimée, _Notes d'un voyage en Auvergne_ (Paris, 1838), p. 242; Alexis Forel, _Voyage au pays des sculpteurs romans_ (Paris and Geneva, 1913), 2 vols.; Paul Mantz, "Une tournée en Auvergne," in _Gazette des Beaux-Arts_, 1887, vols. 35, 36; Louis Villat, _Le Velay_ (Collection, Les régions de la France), (Paris, L. Cerf); Mandet, _Histoire de Velay_ (Le Puy, 1860), 6 vols.; De la Mure, _Histoire des ducs de Bourbon et des comtes de Forez_; Michel, _Auvergne et le Velay_ (Moulins), 3 vols. and atlas; _Histoire littéraire de la France_, vol. 8, p. 467, "Adhémar de Monteil"; p. 514, "Urbain II" (Paris, 1747).

[213] Marcel Reymound et Ch. Girard, "La chapelle de St. Laurent à Grenoble," in _Bulletin Archéologique_, 1914-16, vol. 56, p. 176.

[214] Emile Mâle, "L'art du moyen âge et les pèlerinages" in _Revue de Paris_, Oct. 1919, Feb. 1920.

[215] René Fage, _La cathédrale de Limoges_ (Collection, Petites Monographies), (Paris, H. Laurens, 1913); Abbé Arbellot, _Monographie de la cathédrale de Limoges_ (Limoges, 1853); A. Petit, "Les six statues du jubé de la cathédrale de Limoges," in _Bulletin Monumental_, 1912, vol. 62, p. 144. MM. Émile Mâle, André Michel, and Louis Gonse have written on the _jubé_; René Fage, "Le clocher limousin à l'époque romane," in _Bulletin Monumental_, 1907, vol. 71, p. 262; Anthyme Saint-Paul, "Archéologie limousin," in _L'Almanac limousin_, 1885; Charles de Lasteyrie, _L'abbaye de St. Martial de Limoges_ (Paris, Picard, 1901); A. Leroux, _L'abbaye de St. Martial de Limoges_ (Toulouse, 1901); _ibid._, _Géographie et histoire du Limousin_ (Limoges, 1892); Ernest Rupin, _L'oeuvre de Limoges_ (Paris, 1890); A. Meyer, _L'art de l'émail de Limoges_ (Paris, 1896); P. Lavedan, _Léonard Limosin et les émailleurs français_ (Collection, Les Grands Artistes), (Paris, H. Laurens). (The meeting for the _Congrès Archéologique_, 1921, is to be held at Limoges.)

[216] Rendered in modern French by J. Demogeot.

[217] _Inferno_, xxviii:112-142.

[218] _Congrès Archéologique_, 1861; Charles Saunier, _Bordeaux_ (Collection, Villes d'art célèbres), (Paris, H. Laurens); J. A. Brutails, _Les vieilles églises de la Gironde_ (Bordeaux, Feret et fils, 1912); _ibid._, "La cathédrale de Bordeaux," in _Le moyen âge_, 1899-1901, vols. 12-14; H. Havard, éd., _La France artistique et monumentale_ "Bordeaux," L. de Foucaud, vol. 5, p. 105; Cirot de la Ville, _Origines chrétiennes de Bordeaux, ou hist. et descript. de l'église de St. Seurin_ (Bordeaux, 1867); P. J. O'Reilly, _Histoire de Bordeaux_ (Paris and Bordeaux, 1857), 6 vols.; C. Jullian, _Histoire de Bordeaux_ (Bordeaux, 1895); L. Barron, _La Gascogne_ (Collection, Régions de la France), (Paris, L. Cerf); _ibid._, _La Garonne_ (Collection, Fleuves de France), (Paris, H. Laurens); P. Courteault, _Histoire de Gascogne_ (Collection, Les vieilles provinces de France), (Paris, Boivin et Cie).

[219] In the nave of the cathedral is the neo-classic tomb of Cardinal de Cheverus, who died, archbishop of Bordeaux, in 1836. Driven out of France at the time of the Revolution, he founded the see of Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States of America.

[220] The beautiful cloister of St. Bertrand-de-Comminges belongs to the XII century. In 1536 the Renaissance art prelate, Jean de Mauléon, presented the carved choir stalls. _Congrès Archéologique_, 1874, p. 249, J. de Laurière; and 1906, p. 79, Louis Serbat; Morel, _Essai hist. sur St. Bertrand-de-Comminges_; d'Agos, _Description de l'église cathédrale de Comminges_.

[221] The cathedral of Bayonne was begun about 1135 under Aliénor of Aquitaine's father. The choir is of that century; the nave was finished about 1335, and some of its sculptures, showing the national crest with the arms of both England and France, recall the short sovereignty in France of Henry V and Henry VI. The cloister of Bayonne ranks with those of Elne and Arles. A transept is indicated merely by the spacing of bays. The XII-century tower was rebuilt from 1501 to 1544. The interior of the cathedral is more firm than it is graceful, owing to the piers being six feet square and to an excessive sobriety in ornamentation. _Congrès Archéologique_, 1888.

[222] Léon Gautier, éd., _Chanson de Roland_ (Tours, Mâme, 1895), section 297, l. 3684.

[223] _Congrès Archéologique_, 1874 and 1906; H. Graillot, _Toulouse et Carcassonne_ (Collection, Villes d'art célèbres), (Paris, H. Laurens); Jules de Lahondès, _Toulouse chrétienne; l'église de St. Étienne, cathédrale de Toulouse_; _ibid._, "Les chapiteaux de St. Sernin de Toulouse," in _Mém. de la Soc. archéol. du Midi de la France_, 1897; Anthyme Saint-Paul, "St. Sernin," in _Album des monuments du Midi de la France_, 1897; in _Bulletin Monumental_, 1899; and in _Revue de l'art chrétien_, 1905, vol. 48, p. 145; Abbé Lestrade, _Histoire de l'art à Toulouse_ (Toulouse, 1907); H. L. Gillet, _Histoire artistique des ordres mendiants_ (Paris, 1912); A. Marignan, _Histoire de la sculpture en Languedoc des XIe et XIIIe siècles_ (Paris, Bouillon, 1902); Alexis Forel, _Voyage au pays des sculpteurs romans_ (Paris and Geneva, 1913), 2 vols.; Roschach, _Le musée de Toulouse_, "Inventoire des richesses d'art de la France: ministère de l'instruction publique" (vol. 8), (Paris, 1908), 4to; Martin, _L'art roman en France_ (Paris, 1910); H. Revoil, _L'architecture romane du Midi de la France_ (Paris, 1873-90), 3 vols.; R. de Lasteyrie, _L'architecture religieuse en France à l'époque romane_ (Paris, 1912); Vie et Vaissette, supplemented by Du Mège, Molinier, and Roschach, _Nouvelle histoire de Languedoc_ (Toulouse, Privat, 1872-92), 15 vols.

[224] Frédéric Mistral, _Poèmes_ (Paris, Charpentier-Fasquelle, 1912).

[225] "Wisdom hath built herself a house, she hath hewn her out seven pillars."--Prov. ix:1.