The Cathedrals and Churches of the Rhine Part 23

Napoleon himself was deeply moved by the state of the "_ruine pittoresque_," and, upon the advice of an agent of his government, made a somewhat fitful attempt toward putting it in order. Thus the impetus for the work of restoration and completion was given.

After Napoleon had restored the churches of Cologne to their rightful guardians, he transferred the archbishopric to Aix-la-Chapelle, and Bertholet, the new bishop, contemptuously told the people of Cologne to beautify their ruin by planting trees on its site.

The neglect to which the choir had fallen was shocking, and it took an immediate expenditure on the part of the citizens of over thirty thousand marks to merely repair the leaks in its roof. Tom Hood, a supposed humourist, but in reality a sad soul, wailed over Cologne's cathedral when he saw it in the early years of the nineteenth century, and called it "a broken promise to G.o.d"; and Wordsworth wrote of it thus:

"Oh! for the help of angels to complete This temple--Angels governed by a plan Thus far pursued (how gloriously!) by man."

A rearrangement of the Catholic sees of Germany took place in 1821, and the archbishopric of Cologne was refounded and Count Charles Spiegel zum Desenburg was appointed archbishop.

At this time, also, was undertaken the repair and completion of the cathedral, and thus what had long been a ruin and an unfinished thing was in a fair way to be speedily completed.

The rebuilding of the choir stimulated the desire to carry the entire work to a finish, and a sort of second foundation-stone was laid by Frederick William IV. of Prussia on September 4, 1842, when the newly restored choir was also reopened.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Cologne Cathedral in 1820 From and old Print]

In 1848 the nave had sufficiently progressed to allow of its being consecrated; which ceremony took place at seven o'clock in the morning of August 14th, six hundred years after the commencement of the choir.

High ma.s.s was celebrated by the archbishop, in the presence of Archduke John, King Frederick William of Prussia, and a host of other notables.

Within the next twenty years much progress was made in the work of completing the southern nave, the west front--with those enormous pretentious towers--the transepts, and the triforium and clerestory of the nave and transepts.

In 1863 the wall between the fragmentary nave and the choir was removed and the structure opened from end to end.

Before 1870 the western towers were spired, though the final touches were not given to them until quite 1880. Now that they are finished, there is an undeniable elegance and symmetry which cannot be gainsaid, though they were certainly heavily ma.s.sed in the early views one sees of the cathedral in its unfinished state. One still remarks the apparent--and real--stubbiness of the edifice which, as Fergusson said, would have been alleviated if the overhanging transepts had been omitted. Why they should have been omitted it is hard to conceive, and the criticism does not seem a reasonable one, in spite of the fact that a certain sense of length is wanting.

The nave is undoubtedly very broad, but it has double aisles which satisfactorily accounts for this.

Professor Freeman draws a significant contrast between the outline of the cathedrals at Cologne and Amiens.

"Amiens has no outline," says he; meaning that there is a paucity of the picturesqueness of irregularity in its sky-line. "Only at Cologne," he continues, "is this outline seen in its perfect state, and Cologne is a French church on German soil, just as Westminster is a French church on English soil."

Indeed, among all the great cathedrals it is only at Cologne that we find a pair of western towers with any kind of dignity and proportion.

The west front of Cologne is pretty much all tower, with the nave rather rudely crowded between the two. These towers are in reality of such vast bulk that they outflank the nave considerably, as do their smaller counterparts at Wells, though here at Cologne the great transepts overflow the width even of these great towers of the facade.

There is a n.o.ble simplicity and yet a wealth of warmth and feeling in this church, which runs the whole gamut of Gothic, from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries. From this latter date, however, the style did not change, but was carried out with that devotion to the original plan which should have inspired the imitators of Gothic in our own time to have done better than they have.

The clerestoried choir of Cologne more nearly follows the French variety than does any other in Germany; indeed no other in Germany in any way approaches the dignity and harmony of those magnificent _chevets_ which the French builders, for a hundred years before Cologne, had so proudly reared.

Metz in a way also reflects the same motive, though that cathedral in many other respects is French.

The apside is supported by twenty-eight flying b.u.t.tresses, which again are an echo from France; this time of Beauvais; and certainly, if they do not excel the French type, they at least quite rival it in beauty and grace.

One enters through a magnificently planned vestibule and comes at once, not into darkness, but into a subdued and religious atmosphere which is quite in keeping with the spirit of devotion.

There are numerous monuments scattered about, and there are eight fifteenth-century tapestries from the Gobelins' factory.

The organ-case is unusually ornate and dates from 1572.

The pulpit is not perhaps so elaborate as one might expect from the general splendour surrounding it, but its sculpture is distinctly good.

In the choir, on the screens above the stalls, is a series of restored frescoes which came to light after a coating of whitewash had been removed. They were admirably restored by Steinle in the mid-nineteenth century and are very beautiful. The decorations depict scenes from the life of the Virgin and are also reproduced in part in the gla.s.s of the lady-chapel.

A modern altar, in the mediaeval style, has replaced the seventeenth-century Renaissance work, which is manifestly for the better, judging from the old engravings that one sees of the former unlovely altar.

The gla.s.s throughout is hardly of the excellence that one might expect, but the effect is undeniably good. A portion of that in the Chapel of the Three Kings is a relic of the old Romanesque cathedral, while that of the north aisle of the nave dates from the time of Durer.

That of the windows of the Chapel of the Three Kings has been called one of the most beautiful pages out of the book of the fifteenth-century gla.s.s-worker. The subject referred to is, of course, "The Adoration of the Magi."

The capitals of the columns of the nave and choir are superbly foliaged, and add much to the general sumptuous appearance of the interior.

Before the Chapel of the Three Kings are many tombs; the most remarkable being that which covered the remains of Marie de Medici, who died in exile at Cologne in 1642. One knows that after the death of the crafty Richelieu the body of the queen was transported to St. Denis, there to rest with others of the long line of kings and queens there buried, but the heart remained at Cologne, and, next to the relics of the Three Kings, it is the chief "sight" of interest to inquisitive tourists.

The casket in which repose the relics of the Three Magi is a masterwork of the goldsmith's art of the twelfth century. Incrusted on its surface were more than fifteen hundred precious jewels, although some have disappeared in the course of the ages. Among them is a topaz of monstrous size, which excites the admiration of all who set eyes upon it.

In 1794 the canons transported the casket to Arnsberg, to Prague, and to Frankfort, their financial difficulties of the time forcing them to sell the crowns with which the skulls were adorned. Since then other coronets have replaced the first, set with gems and stones brought from Bohemia.

On the 23d July, 1164, these relics were first deposited in the ancient cathedral, from which they were subsequently transferred to the new edifice amid much ceremony.

In their first resting-place they were guarded only by a simple iron grille up to the time when the archbishop Maximilian Henry constructed the _aedicule_ which encloses them to-day.

On the pediment of this screen is sculptured an "Adoration of the Magi,"

by Michel Van der Voorst of Antwerp. There are also figures of St. Felix and St. Nabor, and two female figures bearing the arms of the Metropolitan Chapter.

On the frieze is the following inscription:

TRIBUS AB ORIENTE REGIBUS DEVICTO IN AGNITIONE VERI NUMINIS MUNDO CAPITULUM METROPOL EREXIT.

And above the great window, whose grille is opened on ceremonial occasions to allow the public a better view of the relics, is graven the following:

CORPORA SANCTORUM RECUBANT HIC TERNA MAGORUM EX HIS SUBLATUM NIHIL EST ALIBIVE LOCATUM.

Finally one reads the following single line placed between the columns at the right and left of the relics:

"_Et apertis thesauris suis, obtulerunt munera._"

Behind the reliquary which encloses the skulls is a bas-relief in marble representing the solemn journey by which the relics were first brought from Milan. A bas-relief in bronze, richly gilded, represents an "Adoration." It was the gift of Jacques de Croy, Duc de Cambrai, in 1516. The window above contains some fine gla.s.s of the thirteenth century.

Before the high altar are four great candelabra of reddish copper, cast at Liege in 1770.

The sculptured stalls of wood, which range themselves in a double row in the choir, are notable for the profusion of figures of men and animals which they show in their carving. They are perhaps not comparable with the stalls at Amiens and at Antwerp, nor with those in Ste. Cecile at Albi in France; but they merit, nevertheless, a very high rank for excellence, and are very extensive as to size and number.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Stone-masons' marks, Cologne Cathedral_]

To sum up, the cathedral at Cologne has had the good fortune to have been carried out in a pure and distinct German form of Gothic without the interpolation of any _outre_ disfigurements. It is a sumptuous edifice, perhaps the grandest, in general effect, of any church in Europe, not even forgetting the splendid cathedrals at Reims, Amiens, or Chartres, all of which stand out from among their surroundings in much the same imposing manner as does Cologne.

One recognizes even to-day on the stones of Cologne's cathedral certain cryptogramic marks which are supposed to be merely the identifying marks of some particular stonemason's labour, and are not, as has been doubtfully advanced from time to time, of any other significance whatever.

[Ill.u.s.tration]