How France Built Her Cathedrals Part 48

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--RODIN, _Les cathedrales de France_.

[134] "There is a charming detail in this section. Beside the angel, on the left, where the wicked are the prey of demons, stands a little female figure, that of a child, who, with hands meekly folded and head gently raised, waits for the stern angel to decide upon her fate. In this fate, however, a dreadful big devil also takes a keen interest; he seems on the point of appropriating the tender creature; he has a face like a goat and an enormous hooked nose. But the angel gently lays a hand upon the shoulder of the little girl--the movement is full of dignity--as if to say, 'No; she belongs to the other side.' The frieze below represents the general Resurrection, with the good and the wicked emerging from their sepulchers. Nothing can be more quaint and charming than the difference shown in their way of responding to the final trump.

The good get out of their tombs with a certain modest gayety, an alacrity tempered by respect; one of them kneels to pray as soon as he has disinterred himself. You may know the wicked, on the other hand, by their extreme shyness; they crawl out slowly and fearfully; they hang back."--HENRY JAMES, _A Little Tour in France_ (Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1900), p. 105.

[135] The chief piers of Orleans Cathedral were mined by Theodore de Beze and blown up on the night of March 23, 1567. The portal, part of the choir, and the apse chapel escaped. The XII-century nave had double aisles with tribunes; the frontispiece also was XII century. The choir, begun in 1287, was finished by 1297, and a new Gothic nave was in progress at the time of the civil wars of religion. Henry IV undertook to rebuild Orleans Cathedral, and with his bride, Marie de Medici, laid the first stone in 1601. But a b.a.s.t.a.r.d-Gothic edifice is not compensation for earlier work. H. Havard, ed., _La France artistique et monumentale_, vol. 6, p. 122, "Orleans," G. Lefenestre; _Congres Archeologique_, 1854 and 1892; G. Rigault, _Orleans et le val de Loire_ (Collection, Villes d'art celebres), (Paris, H. Laurens); E.

Lefevre-Pontalis et Eugene Garry, on Orleans Cathedral, in _Bulletin Monumental_, 1904, vol. 68, p. 309.



[136] _Nouvelle Alliance_ windows are to be found at Chartres (sixth window in the nave's north aisle), at Le Mans (the east window of the long Lady chapel), at Tours (in the axis chapel), in the transept of Sens Cathedral (in five lights below the north rose), and in the apse curve of Lyons Cathedral.

[137] The happy chance of travel led the writer, in May of 1914, to the ceremony of the unveiling of a statue of Jeanne d'Arc in the cathedral of this city, that has not known invasion--the military a.r.s.enal of France. As the preaching bishop exhorted modern France to remake her soul else she would perish, over that spellbound congregation seemed to pa.s.s a premonition of portentous events looming ahead. Within three months the World War opened, _forte et aspre guerre_, as they said in Jeanne's day, war the chastiser, war the purifier: "_Il y a des guerres qui avilissent les nations, et les avilissent pour des siecles; d'autres les exaltent, les perfectionnent de toutes manieres_," wrote Joseph de Maistre.

[138] Carved on Jacques Coeur's house in Bourges are mottoes such as, "_A vaillans coeurs rien impossible_," or "_Dire, faire, taire, de ma joie_," or "_En bouche close, n'entre mousche_." Vallet de Viriville, _Jacques Coeur_; Pierre Clement, _Jacques Coeur et Charles VII_.

[139] _Congres Archeologique_, 1905, "Beauvais," Chanoine Barsaux; P.

Dubois, _La cathedrale de Beauvais_ (Collection, Pet.i.tes Monographies), (Paris, H. Laurens, 1911); Abbe P. C. Barraud, "Beauvais et ses monuments," in _Bulletin Monumental_, vol. 27, _pa.s.sim_. He gives studies on the Le Prince and other windows in the cathedral and St.

etienne, in _Memoires de la Soc. Academique de l'Oise_, 1851-53, vol. 1, p. 225; vol. 2, p. 537; vol. 3, pp. 150, 277; Louise Pillion, on St.

etienne's gla.s.s, in _Revue de l'art chretien_, 1910, p. 367; Eug. J.

Woillez, _Archeologie des monuments religieux de l'ancien Beauvoisis pendant la metamorphose romane_ (Paris, 1839-49), folio; Graves, _Notice archeologique sur le departement de l'Oise_ (Beauvais, 1856); Gustave Desgardins, _Histoire de la cathedrale de Beauvais_ (1875); Abbe L.

Pihan, _Beauvais, sa cathedrale, ses monuments_ (1905); _ibid., Esquisse descriptive des monuments historiques dans l'Oise_; see Gonse and Pal.u.s.tre on the portals of the cathedral; Monseigneur Barbier de Montault, "Iconographie des Sibylles," in _Rev. de l'art chretiens_, 1874.

[140] Carolingian work aboveground is rare; besides this _Ba.s.se-OEuvre_ at Beauvais, there is St. Philibert de Grandlieu (Loire-Inferieure), part of the small church under the flank of Jumieges' ruined abbatial, portions of St. Jouin-de-Marnes (Deux-Sevres), and vestiges in the walls of La Couture at Le Mans. There are Carolingian crypts at St. Quentin, Amiens, Chartres, Orleans, Auxerre, Flavigny. More exceptional still are Merovingian remains, such as the crypt of Jouarre, the small tri-lobed church of St. Laurent at Gren.o.ble, the crypt of St. Leger at St. Maixent (Deux-Sevres), a crypt at Lyons, in St. Martin d'Ainay, and apsidal chapels in St. Jean's baptistry at Poitiers. A list of the Romanesque monuments of the Ile-de-France and bordering districts is to be found in Arthur Kingsley Porter's _Medieval Architecture_, 1909, vol. 2, pp. 13-49.

[141] Among the Flamboyant monuments of France are St. Wulfran's frontispiece at Abbeville, begun in 1481, overcharged with ornament but with portals of great beauty; St. Riquier near by, also overcharged; the churches of Rue and Mezieres; facades of cathedrals at Sens, Senlis, Auxerre, Troyes, Tours, and Limoges; Vendome's frontispiece, and Albi's porch; towers at Bordeaux, Rodez, Saintes, Chartres, Auxerre, Bourges, Rouen, and many other cities in Normandy; the cathedrals of Toul and Metz; St. Maurice at Lille, a well-restrained Flamboyant monument; the magnificent church of St. Nicholas-du-Port near Nancy; the choir of Moulins; St. Antoine at Compiegne and a number of civic halls such as Compiegne's and St. Quentin's. The beautiful Flamboyant Gothic church at Peronne (1509-25) has been wiped out in the World War. Artois and Flanders were especially rich in late-Gothic edifices. Normandy was a Mecca of Flamboyant work--from Rouen, to that gem of the final phase, the choir of Mont Saint-Michel. Monseigneur Dehaisnes, _Histoire de l'art dans la Flandre, l'Artois et le Hainaut_ (Lille, 1886), 3 vols.

[142] Andre Michel, ed., _Histoire de l'Art_, vol. 3, 1^{ere} partie, "Le style flamboyant," Camille Enlart (Paris, A. Colin), 1914, 10 vols.; Camille Enlart, "Origine anglaise du style flamboyant," in _Bulletin Monumental_, 1886, 1906, p. 38; A. Saint-Paul, "L'architecture religieuse en France pendant la Guerre de Cent Ans," in _Bulletin Monumental_, 1908, p. 5; _ibid., Les origines du gothique flamboyant en France_ (Caen, 1907); Arthur Kingsley Porter, _Medieval Architecture_, vol. 2 (New York and London, 1907), 2 vols.

[143] _Congres Archeologique_, 1902; V. C. de Courcel, _La cathedrale de Troyes_, (1910); L. Morel-Payen, _Troyes et Provins_ (Collection, Villes d'art celebres), (Paris, H. Laurens, 1910); F. Arnaud, _Description historique de l'eglise cathedrale de Troyes_; J. B. Coffinet, "Les peintres-verriers de Troyes," in _Annales Archeologiques_, vol. 18, pp.

125, 212; A. J. de H. Bushnell, _Storied Windows_, chapters 32 and 33, on Troyes (New York, Macmillan Company, 1914); Ch. Fichot, _Statistique monumentale du departement de l'Aube_, vol. 1, _Arrondiss.e.m.e.nt de Troyes_ (Troyes, 1884), 4to; R. Koechlin and J.M. de Va.s.selot, _La sculpture a Troyes et dans la Champagne meridionale au XVIe siecle_ (Paris, A. Colin, 1900); Raymond Koechlin, "La sculpture du XIVe et du XVe siecle dans la region de Troyes," in _Congres Archeologique_, 1908; Paul Vitry, _Michel Colombe et la sculpture francaise de son temps_ (Paris, 1901); Louis Gonse, _La sculpture francaise depuis le XIVe siecle_ (Paris, Quantin, 1895), folio; D'Arbois de Jubainville, _Histoire des ducs et des comtes de Champagne_, 1859, 7 vols.; Bontier, _Histoire de Troyes et de la Champagne meridionale_ (Troyes, 1880), 4 vols.; Amedee Aufauvre, _Troyes et ses environs_.

[144] Translation from XIII-century French by Henry Adams.

[145] Generation after generation, the Lyenin, Macadre, Verrat, and Gontier families produced noted artists. a.s.sier, _Les arts dans l'ancienne capitale de la Champagne_.

[146] The same feat can be seen in St. Nizier at Troyes, rebuilt in 1528 and literally filled with XVI-century gla.s.s. Its best window is in the transept (1552), and shows the beasts of heresy trampled upon, for that day was nothing if not controversial. In a central window of the choir, the Descent of the Holy Ghost, the artist made the hands of a figure in one panel appear in the neighboring panel, regardless of the stone mullions. In 1901 an anarchist bomb exploded in St. Nizier, and in 1910 a terrible storm wrecked more of its windows. The church possesses a _Saint Sepulcre_ and a _Christ de Pite_ in which the Gothic spirit lingers. Its reredos, now in the Museum, was from the Juliot _atelier_.

Her international fairs early accustomed Troyes to foreign influences.

Flemish realism had fortified her sculptors and vitrine artists, and during the first third of the XVI century (when the trade of the city tripled itself) the new Italian ideas found favor. For a generation the just and loyal measure of Champagne's own Gothic tradition held the leaders.h.i.+p, but finally the Italian Renaissance conquered. When abstract types were subst.i.tuted for types precisely observed, imagery became cold, declamatory, and pretentious. In several of the churches of Troyes will be found the Education of the Virgin by her mother, St. Anne, a theme for which this city had a partiality.

[147] Abbe O. F. Jossier, _Monographie des vitraux de St. Urbain de Troyes_ (Troyes, 1912); E. Lefevre-Pontalis, "Jean Langlois, architecte de St. Urbain de Troyes," in _Bulletin Monumental_, 1904, vol. 64, p.

93; Albert Barbeau, _St. Urbain de Troyes_ (Troyes, Dufour-Bonquot, 1891), 8vo; Viollet-le-Duc, _Dictionnaire de l'architecture_, vol. 4, pp. 182-192; Abbe Lah.o.r.e, _L'eglise Saint-Urbain_ (1891).

[148] Within walking distance of Troyes are Ste. Maure, with a Jesse tree by Linard Gontier; Les Noes, with good sculpture and a Jesse-tree window of 1521; St. Andre-les-Troyes, with a lovely St. Catherine statue; St. Parre-les-Tertres, with a Vision of Augustus in _camaeu_ like a magnificent enamel on white gla.s.s, and another grisaille-like Vision of Augustus at St. Leger-les-Troyes (1558); Chapelle St. Luc, with a triptych on wood, sculpture of the Three Maries, and good gla.s.s; Torvilliers, Pont-Ste.-Marie, and Montgueux, with other _objets d'art_.

Eight miles away, at Verrieres, is the best portal of the region and more late-Gothic gla.s.s. There are storied windows at St. Loup, St.

Ponanges, Rosnay, Brienne, Rouilly (with a good Virgin image), Pouvres, Chavanges, Bar-sur-Seine, Bar-sur-Aube (with a statue of St. Barbara), Mussy-sur-Seine, Montier-en-Der, Arcis-sur-Aube, and Ceffonds, whose windows were the gift of etienne Chevalier (1528). Some thirty miles away lies St. Florentin (six miles from Pontigny), where are twenty splendid Renaissance lights, among them a Creation window (1525), with G.o.d the Father wearing the tiara, one of 1528 telling St. Nicolas' life in quatrains describing each scene, and a 1529 window devoted to the Apocalypse. Between Troyes and St. Florentin lies Ervy, where is a Crucifixion window (1570), showing the Saviour nailed to a Tree of Knowledge Cross with apples and leaves on its top, and Adam and Eve standing below. There are also the noted windows of the Sibyls (1515), representing twelve instead of ten prophetesses, each accompanied by the event of the New Law which she is said to have foretold, and the window called the Triumph of Petrarch (1502).

[149] Of the same appealing type as St. Martha at Troyes are the Virgin and Madeleine of the Holy Sepulcher group at Villeneuve l'Archeveque (Yonne), where are also some beautiful portal images of the XIII century. M. Ch. Fichot has brought forward testimony that would indicate the image called St. Martha in the church of the Madeleine is really one of St. Mary Magdelene herself. However, the majority of those who have written on the sculpture of Champagne continue to call it a St. Martha.

[150] _Congres Archeologique_, 1855, 1875, and 1911, p. 447, the cathedral of Chalons; p. 473, Notre-Dame-en-Vaux; p. 496, St. Alpin; p.

512, Notre-Dame-de-l'epine; E. Lefevre-Pontalis, "L'architecture dans la Champagne meridionale au XIIIe et au XVIe siecle," in _Congres Archeologique_, 1902, p. 273; _ibid._, "Les caracteres distinctifs des ecoles gothiques de la Champagne et de la Bourgogne," in _Congres Archeologique_, 1907, p. 546; Louis Demaison, _Les eglises de Chalons-sur-Marne_ (Caen, 1913); E. de Barthelemy, _Diocese ancien de Chalons-sur-Marne_. _Histoire et monuments_ (Paris, 1861), 2 vols.; E.

Hurault, _La cathedrale de Chalons-sur-Marne et sa clerge au XIIIe siecle_; A. J. de H. Bushnell, _Storied Windows_, chapter 34, on the windows of Chalons (New York, Macmillan Company, 1914); Abbe E. Musset, _Notre Dame-de-l'epine pres Chalons-sur-Marne. La legende, l'histoire, le monument et le pelerinage_ (Paris, Champion, 1902); Chanoine Marsaux, "La prediction de la sibylle et la vision d'Auguste," in _Bulletin Monumental_, 1908, p. 235.

[151] _Congres Archeologique_, 1890, Toul. In the series of _Villes d'art celebres_, published by H. Laurens (Paris), are studies on Tournai, Ipres, and Avila: Henri Guerlin, _Segovie, Avila, Salamanque_; Henri Hymans, _Gand et Tournai_ and _Bruges et Ypres_.

[152] L. Pet.i.t de Julleville, _Histoire de la langue et de la litterature francaise_, dirigee par (Paris, Colin et Cie, 1841-1901), 8 vols. In vols. 1 and 2 the Middle Ages are treated by Leon Gautier, Gaston Paris, and Joseph Bedier; Gaston Paris, _La litterature francaise au moyen age_ (Paris, Hachette, 1890); _ibid._, _Les origines de la poesie lyrique, en France au moyen age_ (Paris, 1892); Leon Gautier, _Origines et histoire des epopees francaises_ (Paris, V. Palme, 1878-94), 4 vols.; Joseph Bedier, _Les legends epiques_ (Paris, H.

Champion, 1908-13), 4 vols.; P. Tarbe, _Les chansonniers de Champagne_ (1851); Delaborde, _Notice historique sur le chateau de Joinville_.

_Haute-Marne_ (Joinville, 1891); Natalis de Wailly, ed., _Jean, sire de Joinville, texte original accompagne d'une traduction_. Translated into English, Bohns' Antiquarian Library, VI, London; Bouchet, ed., _Villehardouin_ (Paris, 1891). English translation by Sir F. T. Marzial (London, Everyman's Library, 1908).

[153] Chanoine Boissonnot, _La cathedrale de Tours_ (Tours, 1904); Paul Vitry, _Tours et les chateaux de Touraine_ (Collection, Villes d'art celebres), (Paris, H. Laurens, 1905); _ibid._, _Michel Colombe et la sculpture francaise de son temps_ (Paris, 1901); Marchand et Boura.s.se, _Verrieres du choeur de l'eglise metropolitaine de Tours_ (Paris, 1849), folio; A. J. de H. Bushnell, _Storied Windows_, chapter 22, on Tours (New York and London, 1914); Charles de Grandmaison, _Tours archeologique_ (Paris, 1879); Abbe Bosseboeuf, _Tours et ses monuments_; Monseigneur Chevalier, _Promenades pittoresques en Touraine_ (Tours, 1869); Abbe J. J. Boura.s.se, _Recherches hist. et archeol. sur les eglises romanes en Touraine_ (1869); L. Courajod, _La sculpture francaise avant la Renaissance cla.s.sique_ (Paris, 1891); Louis Gonse, _La sculpture francaise depuis le XIVe siecle_ (Paris, 1895), folio; Giraudet, _Histoire de la ville de Tours_ (Tours, 1873), 2 vols.; Chalmel, _Histoire de Touraine_ (1841), 4 vols.; Henri Guerlin, _La Touraine_ (Collection, Provinces francaises), (Paris, H. Laurens); L.

Barron, _La Loire_ (Fleuves de France), (Paris, H. Laurens); C. H.

Pet.i.t-Dutaillis, _Charles VII, Louis XI et les premieres annees de Charles VIII_ (Paris, Hachette, 1902).

[154] Behind the choir of Tours Cathedral, in the Place Gregoire de Tours, a veritable nook of the Middle Ages, are XII-century vestiges of the Episcopal Palace, a mansion of the XV century, and near by is the rue de la Psalette, in which Balzac set the scene of his _Cure de Tours_. Why has not Tours named her chief square and residential street for Balzac, her own son, instead of for Emile Zola? Balzac's sister has told of the profound impression made on him by the cathedral of Tours, especially by its marvels of stained gla.s.s, so that all through the novelist's life the mere name "St. Gatien" had the power to rouse him to the dreams and aspirations of his youth.

[155] R. de Lasteyrie, _L'eglise St. Martin de Tours_ (Paris, 1891); Monsuyer, _Histoire de l'abbaye de St. Martin_; Henri Martin, _Saint-Martin_ (Collection, _L'art et les saints_), (Paris, H. Laurens); Ed. Chevalier, _Histoire de l'abbaye de Marmoutier_ (Tours, 1871), 2 vols. There are papers on the church of St. Julien de Tours in the _Memoires de la Soc. archeol. de Touraine_, 1909, p. 13, and on St.

Martin de Tours, 1907; also in the _Bulletin Monumental_, 1873, p. 830, on St. Symphorien de Tours. The abbatial of St. Julien, a contemporary of Tours Cathedral, is exceptionally pure Gothic. Its tower is Romanesque and in part dates before 1000.

[156] Many a Council has been held in Tours. In 1055 came Gregory VII, the reformer. In 1095 Urban II preached the First Crusade, and dedicated a Romanesque abbatial at Marmoutier. In 1107 Pope Paschal II came, in 1119 Calixtus II, in 1134 Innocent II, and Alexander III in 1163. At the Council of 1163 the new archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket, pleaded for St. Anselm's canonization, and the builder of Lisieux Cathedral, the politic Arnoul, delivered an address that urged the unity and liberty of the Church; yet later he upheld Henry II in his dispute with St. Thomas Becket. Tours can even boast a pope, for Martin IV (d. 1285) had long been a canon in St. Martin's abbey.

[157] Such is the architectural wealth within reach of Tours that one can draw but a few monuments to the traveler's attention. At Amboise is St. Hubert's marvelously sculptured little chapel (c. 1491) and the church of St. Florentin (c. 1445). At Loches is Anne of Brittany's oratory, a Virgin statue of Michel Colombe's school of Tours, and the tomb of Agnes Sorel, attributed to the master who made Souvigny's ducal tomb, Jacques Morel. The collegiate church of St. Ours is of exceptional interest to archaeologists; its narthex (now the first bay), covered by a tower, was built by Fulk II of Anjou; the porch, also with a tower over it, was added in the XII century. To that date belong the two bays of the church covered by hollow pyramids, said by Mr. A. Kingsley Porter to be an attempt to make a stone roof without wooden centering. At Beaulieu-les-Loches, founded by Fulk Nerra, the choir is late-Gothic (1440-1540). At St. Catherine de Fierbois, where Jeanne d'Arc found her sword, is a charming Flamboyant Gothic church. There are Plantagenet Gothic vaults at Chinon. Nine miles from Chinon, at Champigny-sur-Veude, is a rich ma.s.s of Renaissance gla.s.s attributed to Pinagrier, with Bourbon-Montpensier portraits.

Some twenty miles from Blois is the Romanesque church of Fleury Abbey at St. Benoit-sur-Loire, with a superb XI-century narthex of three bays, surmounted by a tower. In 1562 the Huguenots wrecked the church. Also, between Orleans 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 Charite-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 Charite-sur-Loire," in _Congres Archeologique_, 1913, p. 374; Abbe Bosseboeuf, _Amboise_. For Loches, see _Congres Archeol_., 1869, 1910; G. Rigault, _Orleans et le val de Loire_ (Collection, Villes d'art celebres); F. Bournon, _Blois, Chambord et les chateaux du Blesois_ (Collection, Villes d'art celebres); A. Marignan, "Une visite a l'abbaye de Fleury a St. Benoit-sur-Loire," in _Revue de l'art chretien_, 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 chretien_, 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 Begule et C. Guigue, _Monographic de la cathedrale de Lyon_ (Lyon, 1880); Lucien Begule, _La cathedrale de Lyon_ (Collection, Pet.i.tes Monographies), (Paris, H. Laurens); _ibid._, _Les vitraux du moyen age et de la Renaissance dans la region lyonnaise_ (Lyon, A. Rey et Cie, 1911); _ibid_., _Les incrustations decoratives des cathedrales de Lyon et de Vienne_ (Lyon, 1905); H. Havard, ed., _La France artistique et monumentale_, vol. 3, p. 80, C. Guigue; emile Male, _L'art religieux du XIIIe siecle_, pp. 52-59, on the gla.s.s of Lyons Cathedral; _Congres Archeologique_, 1907, p. 527, on St. Martin d'Ainay; Abbe Martin, _Histoire des eglises et chapelles de Lyon_ (1909); Andre Steyert, _Nouvelle histoire de Lyon_ ... (Lyon, Bernoux et Gamin, 1895), 3 vols.; Meynis, _Grands souvenirs de l'eglise 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 celebres), (Paris, H. Laurens); Leon Maitre, "Les premieres basiliques de Lyon et leurs cryptes," in _Revue de l'art chretien_, 1900, p. 445; Henri Foeillon, _Le Musee de Lyon_ (Paris, H. Laurens); L.

Barron, _Le Rhone_ (Collection, Fleuves de France), (Paris, H. Laurens).

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

[160] The church of St. Nizier also possessed a _manecanterie_ in which Alphonse Daudet, as _Le Pet.i.t Chose_, spent some happy years. Another romance based on reality whose scene is Lyons is Rene Bazin's _l'Isolee_. 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 Perreal 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 Sacre_, and Flandrin (1809-64), who frescoed the walls of St. Martin d'Ainay. Meissonier (d.

1891) was born here; so was Ampere, 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 Frederic 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 facade 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 Claudia.n.u.s 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 inst.i.tution 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.

_Congres Archeologique_, 1879; J. Ch. Roux, _Vienne_ (Paris, Bloud et Cie, 1909); M. Reymond, _Gren.o.ble, Vienne_ (Collection, Villes d'art celebres), (Paris, II. Laurens); Lucien Begule, _L'ancienne cathedrale de Vienne-en-Dauphine_ (Paris, II. Laurens, 1914); Paul Berret, _Le Dauphine_ (Collection, Provinces francaises), (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 Perreal, 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 Perreal was superseded by Loys van Boghem, who erected a b.a.s.t.a.r.d 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 Temeraire 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 gla.s.s, 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:

How France Built Her Cathedrals Part 48

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