The Churches of Paris Part 19

The patron saint of children, of schoolboys, of poor maidens and travellers, of merchants, and, above all, of p.a.w.nbrokers, was popular in Paris as elsewhere, and thus we find three churches dedicated to him. S.

Nicolas was a performer of stupendous miracles. Thus it happened that during a time of famine, while he was visiting his flock, he discovered that a certain disciple of the Evil One murdered little children, and, cannibal-like, feasted on them. And so audacious was this fiend in human shape, that he impudently served up the dismembered limbs of a young babe for the good bishop; who, seeing this wickedness, went to the tub where the children's remains were being salted down, and making the sign of the cross over them, the babes all stood up. This is a favourite subject in art; and not the least beautiful of all the saints and martyrs in the processional frieze in S. Vincent de Paul is Flandrin's conception of S. Nicholas.[105] Why the Saint's three b.a.l.l.s, which seem to have been purses given to three poor maidens, should have become the sign of p.a.w.nbrokers, seems doubtful. Perhaps simply as being emblems of gold lent by merchants to impecunious customers. The story of the children is probably an allegory of the conversion of sinners, the tub being the baptismal font and the wicked host, the evil state in which all men are born. S. Nicholas is also the guardian of property, and in that form figures upon the windows of the cathedral of Chartres. The Saint's image was stolen by a Jew, and placed in guardians.h.i.+p over his treasures. Then came robbers, who carried off the property, which, the Jew discovering, led to the chastis.e.m.e.nt of the bishop's effigy. But S.

Nicholas was equal to the occasion, and reproving the Jew, ordered the robbers to restore what they had stolen; and when the Hebrew saw the miracle, he became converted, he and his whole house. This, too, may be the reason for S. Nicholas' patronage of p.a.w.nbrokers, who are many of them, indeed most of them, Jews.

In the 12th century S. Nicolas des Champs was but a chapel built upon the domain of the priory of S. Martin. Two centuries later it was rebuilt; but in the 16th century, being too small for its paris.h.i.+oners, it was widened by turning the chapels of the nave into an aisle, and erecting fresh chapels outside it. Later on it was again enlarged, until it has become one of the longest of the Paris churches.

The _facade_ in the Rue S. Martin is in the Flamboyant style, and not without some beauty, with its pinnacles and turrets, its niches and statuettes; but the most striking part of the church is the richly-sculptured doorway in the Rue Aumaire, a ma.s.s of niches, figures of Angels, and Flamboyant ornament of the most elaborate kind--birds, baskets of flowers, borne by pious little personages, and every kind of foliage, reminding us of the works of Germain Pilon.

The interior shows the change of style from shafts without capitals to the latest development in the way of Doric columns. The High Altar is ornamented with Corinthian columns, some stucco Angels by Jacques Sarazin, and a picture of _the a.s.sumption_ by Simon Vouet. The best picture in the church is M. Bonnat's early work of _S. Vincent de Paul_.

An old panel of a _Calvary_ is a very good specimen of one of the unknown artists of the 16th century.

A few celebrities were buried in S. Nicolas; the _savant_ Guillaume Bude, who died in 1540; the philosopher Pierre Ga.s.sendi; the historians Henri and Adrien de Valois; and Mdlle. de Scudery; but their monuments have vanished. On the pavement are some stones bearing the names of Rochechouart, Crillon, Labriffe, Potier de Novion, Mesmes, and several others.

Here is one of the many curious epitaphs:

LE CIEL L'ESTIMENT TROP POUR LA LAISSER PLUS LONTEMPS MORTELE, LAISSANT A SON ePOUX UNE FILLE POUR GAGE DE LEUR eTROITE ET INMORTELE AMITIe, DANS LAQU'ELLE IL SURVIT POUR PLEURER LE RESTE DE SES JOURS SA DURE SEPARATION D'AVEC CETTE CHERE ePOUSE, QUI eTOIT RECOMANDABLE, PAR SA TRES GRANDE DOUCEUR, SA VIE PURE ET INOCENTE, ET SA PRUDENCE AU DESUS DE SON AAGE, QUI LUY ONT OUVERT LE CHEMIN DE L'IMORTALITe.

REQUIESCAT IN PACE.

In the 16th century the acolytes of Notre-Dame celebrated their well-known _fetes_ at S. Nicolas, performing various antics _en route_; but as their disorderly conduct was great, and the "_faceties_"

practised led to divers troubles and various abominations, the ceremony resolved itself latterly into a simple Benediction which the _enfants de chur_ chanted in honour of their patron.

SAINT-NICOLAS DU CHARDONNET.

This is an ugly church, with traditions going back to the 13th century, but with nothing thereof now to be seen, in the Rue S. Victor. The present building dates from 1656 to 1709. A picture by Lebrun, of _The Miracle of Moses_, adorns one of the chapels; and the tomb erected by him to his mother's memory, by Tuby and Callignon, is to be found in another. Lebrun's own tomb is by Coyzevox; Jerome Bignon's, by Girardon.

There are also pictures by Le Sueur, Coypel, Corot, Desgoffes, and Mignard.

Suzanne Butay, widow of Lebrun, was a generous body, and left a number of legacies to the poor of the parish, and divers other church inst.i.tutions, which are recorded thus:

LADITE DAME SUZANNE BUTAY VEUVE DUDIT FEU S^R LEBRUN PAR SON TETA^{MT.} OLOGRAPHE DE XIII SEPTEMBRE MDCXCVI RECONNU DEVANT VATRY, ET TORINON NOT^{RES}.... A LEGUe AUX PAUVRES HONTEUX, ET AUX PAUVRES MALADES DI CETTE PARROISSE LA SOME DE DEUX MIL LIVRES UNE FOIS PAYe, PLUS A LEGUe MIL LIVRES DE RENTE a AYDIR a MARIER DE PAUVRES FILLES, ET a METTRE EN APPREN- TISSAGE DE PAUVRES GARcONS NeS DANS LA PARROISSE....

NOTRE-DAME.

Sauval likens the island upon which the cathedral stands to a s.h.i.+p: "L'ile de la cite est faite comme un grand navire enfonce dans la vase et echoue au fil de l'eau vers le milieu de la Seine;" and perhaps the s.h.i.+p of Paris upon the Gallic sea may have owed its origin as the city arms to some idea of this sort.

[Ill.u.s.tration: VIEW FROM THE SOUTH TOWER.]

The origin of Notre-Dame is enveloped in mystery. Whether its first bishop, S. Denis, or Dyonesius, was the Areopagite converted by S.

Paul's preaching at Athens, and sent by S. Clement to preach the Gospel to the Parisians, or whether he was another personage of the same name who was sent into Gaul in the 3rd century and martyred during the persecutions under Decius, it is impossible to say, as there is no evidence of any value. Certain it is, however, that the first bishop of Paris bore the name of Denis, and that he suffered martyrdom with his two companions Rusticus and Eleutherius, on the summit of the hill now called Montmartre. Tradition went so far as to point out the spot where they first gathered their followers together--the crypt of Notre-Dame des Champs; also the prison where Our Lord appeared to them and strengthened them with His Holy Body and Blood, at S. Denis de la Chartre; the place, at S. Denis du Pas, where they suffered their first tortures; and, lastly, Montmartre, where they were beheaded. But, with the exception of the latter, all these holy spots have disappeared. So, too, have the crosses which marked the route taken by the Saint, when he carried his head to the place chosen for his burial, at S. Denis. An ancient church covered the remains of the three Saints until the present splendid building was erected in the reign of Dagobert I.

[Ill.u.s.tration: NOTRE-DAME FROM THE PLACE DU PARVIS.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: ARCHBISHOP DARBOY.]

Under the Roman dominion, Paris was comprised in the fourth Lyonnaise division, of which Sens was the metropolis. Hence the bishops of Paris acknowledged the archbishop of Sens as their primate, until 1622, when, at the request of Louis XIII., Pope Gregory XV. raised the see to an archbishopric. The succession has consisted of one hundred and nine bishops and fifteen archbishops, eight of whom have been raised to the dignity of Cardinal. Besides S. Denis, six have been venerated as Saints: Marcel, in the 5th century; Germain, in the 6th century; Ceran, Landry, and Agilbert in the 7th, and Hugues in the 8th century. No less Saints, although uncanonized, are the three martyrs of our own time--Sibour, who was stabbed by a discontented priest in the church of S. etienne-du-Mont; Affre, who was shot upon a barricade in 1848, while negotiating with the insurgents, and whose last words p.r.o.nounced him a true follower of his Master: "Puisse mon sang etre le dernier verse!"

and Darboy, the liberal-minded and large-hearted, who was shot as a hostage by the fanatics of his own party. In former times the entry of the new bishop into his episcopal city was accompanied by much gorgeous ceremonial. All the munic.i.p.al officers, mounted on horses, went to meet him at the Abbey of S. Victor. Thence they processioned, accompanied by the bishop, seated on a white palfrey, to the church of S. Genevieve, from which he was chaired by his va.s.sals to the Rue Neuve-Notre-Dame, where he was met by the dean and canons of the cathedral, and after taking an oath upon the Gospels to uphold the privileges of the church, and to observe the engagements entered into by his predecessors, he was installed, and received the homage of the chapter. Ma.s.s was then said, and at the conclusion, the prelate was conducted to his palace, where he gave a sumptuous entertainment to all who had a.s.sisted at the ceremonies.

In 1674 Louis XIV. conferred the lands of S. Cloud, Creteil, d'Ozouer-la-Ferriere, and d'Armentieres upon the archbishopric, a donation which was valued in the last century at a revenue of 140,000 _livres_. The old episcopal palace was situated between the cathedral and the river, and the whole must have been an imposing ma.s.s of buildings; but what remained of it twenty years ago was mostly 18th-century work, with the exception of a fragment of the chapel which was consecrated by bishop Maurice de Sully at the end of the 12th century.

The chapter of Notre-Dame was one of the most important in the Kingdom.

Its revenue amounted to 180,000 _livres_, and its jurisdiction extended beyond its own clergy and officers, to the Hotel-Dieu, and the churches which were called _les filles de Notre-Dame_. These were the collegiate bodies of S. Merry, the Holy Sepulchre, S. Benoit, and S.

etienne-des-Gres. Four other colleges, S. Marcel, S. Honore, and S.

Opportune, bore the t.i.tle of _filles de l'Archeveque_.

Of the cloisters not the slightest vestige remains to determine their position or size. What was latterly termed the _cloitre_ was only a collection of narrow tortuous streets, with two or three houses and doorways which may have dated from the 15th century. One of these houses bore the reputation of having been the abode of Canon Fulbert, the uncle of Helose; but it could only have been built upon the site of the original one, which may possibly have existed in the 12th century, as some Roman foundations were discovered when it was demolished a few years ago. The _enceinte_ of the cathedral enclosed two churches, S.

Aignan and S. Jean-le-Rond, and a garden at the eastern end of the church, which the chapter called _Le terrain_, but to which the people, in their original lingo, gave the name of _Motte aux Papelards_.

The cathedral is now open on all sides, and the _coup-d'il_ is fine when seen from the Place du Parvis-[106] Notre-Dame, or from the garden at the east end; but to obtain these fine views many buildings of interest have been sacrificed,--the cloisters, the churches of S.

Jean-le-Rond and S. Christophe, the episcopal palace, the oldest parts of the hospitals of the Hotel-Dieu and Les Enfants-Trouves, and the chapel constructed in the 14th century by Oudart de Mocreux.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE EAST END, FROM THE GARDEN.]

It may not be uninteresting to give the number of religious inst.i.tutions in the city of Paris before the end of the last century: 12 chapters; 59 parishes; 4 abbeys for men, and 6 for women; 11 priories; 124 monasteries and communities; 90 chapels (exclusive of those in Notre-Dame); and 5 hospitals; in all, 311 ecclesiastical establishments.

When it is considered that all these corporate bodies possessed lands, were all exempt from direct taxation, and enjoyed other privileges, the storm that brought about their suppression is not to be wondered at, however much we may regret the results from an artistic point of view.

Even at the commencement of the 18th century the suppression of a certain number of convents and the demolition of several churches was determined upon; but it was not until the Revolution burst that the main destruction took place. Had there been more men of the type of the _citoyen_ Chaumette, who saved the sculptures on one of the doors of Notre-Dame by affirming that the astronomer Dupuis had discovered his planetary system therein, there would have been less loss to art to lament. As it is, the only remnant of all this ecclesiastical wealth besides Notre-Dame is a portion of the priory of S. Martin des Champs (occupied at present by the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers), 12 parish churches, the Sainte-Chapelle, and the little church of S. Julien le Pauvre, which belonged to the old Hotel-Dieu. These are the only buildings which have come down to us from the Middle-Age or Renaissance periods.

Some remains of altars dedicated to Jupiter, of the time of Tiberius, which were found under the choir of the cathedral, and are now in the Palais des Thermes, seem to suggest that the Christian church was built upon the site of the Roman temple, or that the latter was converted into a church by the early Christians, as at Rome, Ravenna, and other places.

The earliest authentic record of a Christian church in Paris is in the life of S. Marcel, where it is related that at the end of the 4th century one stood at the Eastern extremity of the island of the Cite.

This is supposed to have been rebuilt by Childebert I. at the instance of S. Germain, for it is not probable that the building described by Fortunat, bishop of Poitiers, as rich in marble columns, gla.s.s windows, and magnificent ornaments, could have been the original edifice. Indeed, a discovery, made in 1847, seems to prove this. During some excavations which were made in the Place du Parvis it was found that some Roman houses had been demolished to make way for the foundations of Childebert's church; and, together with the Roman remains, were marble cubes which formed the pavement, three columns in Aquitaine marble, and a Corinthian capital in white marble. The Christians of the 5th century adhered in their church architecture to the style of building adopted by the Romans for their basilicas; in fact, in many cases the secular basilica was adapted to the purpose of Christian wors.h.i.+p. Hence it is but probable that Childebert looked to Rome for the design of his church. These remains are in the museum and gardens of the Hotel-Cluny.

From the 6th to the 12th centuries there is no record of Notre-Dame, but Gregoire de Tours and d'Aymoin, towards the end of the 6th century, speak of two churches close together, but distinct from one another--the one, S. etienne, to the south of the present church; the other, S.

Marie, towards the north-east. A rather doubtful tradition attributes certain works of construction in the church to bishop Erchenrad I.

during the reign of Charlemagne. But it is known that in 829 the celebrated Council of Paris was held in the nave of S. etienne; and in 857 the other church, S. Marie, was burned by the Normans, the bishop, enee, only being able to save the former church. In the 12th century, archdeacon etienne de Garlande, who died in 1142, made some important restorations to Notre-Dame, and Suger, the great abbot of S. Denis, gave it a stained gla.s.s window of great beauty--probably similar to those in his own church. So, too, the early Capetien monarchs frequently visited this _nova ecclesia_ (as it was called to distinguish it from S.

etienne), and presented it with valuable ornaments.

We now come to the building of the present church. Maurice de Sully, the seventy-second bishop (1160-96), had scarcely mounted his episcopal throne when he determined to rebuild his cathedral by joining the two existing churches, and upon his epitaph in the abbey church of S. Victor he was accredited as the builder of Notre-Dame.

Bishop Maurice was the son of a poor woman named Humberge, who lived in a humble cottage on the banks of the Loire, under the shadow of the feudal castle of the Sullys; and, like many of the Churchmen of those times, he seems to have had only one parent; at all events his father was unknown, and consequently Maurice was obliged to go from _chateau_ to _chateau_, and from convent to convent, to beg for bread and alms, for himself and his mother.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ONE OF THE MONSTERS OF THE TOWERS.]

On April 21st, 1163, at the instance of Abbot Hugues de Monecaux, Pope Alexander III. consecrated the recently-constructed apse of S. Germain des Pres; and it is also affirmed that he laid the first stone of the new cathedral in the same year. In 1182, the High Altar was consecrated by Henri, the pope's legate, and three years later, Heraclius, patriarch of Jerusalem, who had come to Paris to preach the third crusade, officiated in the choir. Geoffrey, son of Henry II. of England, and Count of Bretagne, who died in 1186, was buried before the altar of the new cathedral, and towards the end of the century the wife of Philippe-Auguste, Isabelle de Hainault, was laid near the same place.

When Maurice de Sully died, the church could not have been completed, as he left 5,000 _livres_ towards the leaden roofing of the choir. Indeed, the western _facade_ was only commenced towards the end of the episcopate of Pierre de Nemours, 1208-19, although the work had been continued during the time of his predecessor, Eude de Sully, 1197-1208.

According to l'abbe Lebeuf, the remains of the old church of S. etienne were demolished towards the end of the year 1218 to make room for the southern part of the _facade_, and, amongst other finds, were some fragments of the Saint's tomb.

It is probable that the West front, as high as the gallery which connects the two towers, was terminated about the time of the death of Philippe-Auguste, 1223; and that the rich appearance of this _facade_ decided the reconstruction of the portals of the transepts.

An inscription at the base of the southern porch attests that on the second day of the Ides of February, 1257, Master Jean de Ch.e.l.les commenced this work in honour of the mother of Christ, S. Louis being then king of France, and Renaud de Corbeil, bishop of Paris; and, in spite of certain doc.u.ments amongst the archives, there is no doubt that the little _Porte Rouge_ and the first chapels on both sides of the choir belong to the same period and were the work of the same architect, for they are quite similar in style and are built of the same stone.

[ILl.u.s.tRATION: PeRE LACORDAIRE]