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diff --git a/35212.txt b/35212.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ae1ccde --- /dev/null +++ b/35212.txt @@ -0,0 +1,12446 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Cathedrals of Southern France, by Francis Miltoun + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Cathedrals of Southern France + +Author: Francis Miltoun + +Illustrator: Blanche McManus + +Release Date: February 8, 2011 [EBook #35212] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CATHEDRALS OF SOUTHERN FRANCE *** + + + + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was +produced from scanned images at the Internet Archive.) + + + + + + + + + + +Transcriber's note: All efforts have been made to reproduce +this book as printed. Besides the obvious typographical +errors, no attempt has been made to correct or equalize +the punctuation or spelling of the English or the French of +the original book. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +THE CATHEDRALS OF SOUTHERN FRANCE + + + _The Cathedral Series_ + + _The following, each 1 vol., library + 12mo, cloth, gilt top, profusely illustrated. + $2.50_ + + _The Cathedrals of Northern + France BY FRANCIS MILTOUN_ + + _The Cathedrals of Southern + France BY FRANCIS MILTOUN_ + + _The Cathedrals of England + BY MARY J. TABER_ + + _The following, each 1 vol., library + 12mo, cloth, gilt top, profusely illustrated. + Net, $2.00_ + + _The Cathedrals and Churches + of the Rhine BY FRANCIS MILTOUN_ + + _The Cathedrals of Northern + Spain BY CHARLES RUDY_ + + _L. C. PAGE & COMPANY + New England Building, Boston, Mass._ + +[Illustration: ST. ANDRE ... _de BORDEAUX_] + + + + +THE CATHEDRALS OF +SOUTHERN FRANCE + +By FRANCIS MILTOUN + +AUTHOR OF "THE CATHEDRALS +OF NORTHERN FRANCE," +"DICKENS' LONDON," ETC., +WITH NINETY ILLUSTRATIONS, +PLANS, AND DIAGRAMS, +By BLANCHE McMANUS + +[Illustration] + +BOSTON + +L. C. Page and Company + +MDCCCCV + +_Copyright, 1904_ +BY L. C. PAGE & COMPANY + +(INCORPORATED) + +_All rights reserved_ + +Published August, 1904 + +_Third Impression_ + +Colonial Press + +Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds & Co. +Boston, Mass., U. S. A. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + +Introduction 11 + +PART I. SOUTHERN FRANCE IN GENERAL + +I. The Charm of Southern France 23 + +II. The Church in Gaul 34 + +III. The Church Architecture of Southern +France 50 + +PART II. SOUTH OF THE LOIRE + +I. Introductory 71 + +II. L'Abbaye de Maillezais 81 + +III. St. Louis de la Rochelle 82 + +IV. Cathedrale de Lucon 85 + +V. St. Front de Perigueux 87 + +VI. St. Pierre de Poitiers 92 + +VII. St. Etienne de Limoges 104 + +VIII. St. Odilon de St. Flour 112 + +IX. St. Pierre de Saintes 115 + +X. Cathedrale de Tulle 118 + +XI. St. Pierre d'Angouleme 120 + +XII. Notre Dame de Moulins 126 + +XIII. Notre Dame de le Puy 134 + +XIV. Notre Dame de Clermont-Ferrand 144 + +XV. St. Fulcran de Lodeve 152 + +PART III. THE RHONE VALLEY + +I. Introductory 159 + +II. St. Etienne de Chalons-sur-Saone 170 + +III. St. Vincent de Macon 174 + +IV. St. Jean de Lyon 177 + +V. St. Maurice de Vienne 186 + +VI. St. Apollinaire de Valence 190 + +VII. Cathedrale de Viviers 195 + +VIII. Notre Dame d'Orange 197 + +IX. St. Veran de Cavaillon 200 + +X. Notre Dame des Doms d'Avignon 204 + +XI. St. Siffrein de Carpentras 221 + +XII. Cathedrale de Vaison 226 + +XIII. St. Trophime d'Arles 228 + +XIV. St. Castor de Nimes 236 + +XV. St. Theodorit d'Uzes 245 + +XVI. St. Jean d'Alais 249 + +XVII. St. Pierre d'Annecy 252 + +XVIII. Cathedrale de Chambery 255 + +XIX. Notre Dame de Grenoble 258 + +XX. Belley and Aoste 267 + +XXI. St. Jean de Maurienne 269 + +XXII. St. Pierre de St. Claude 272 + +XXIII. Notre Dame de Bourg 277 + +XXIV. Glandeve, Senez, Riez, Sisteron 280 + +XXV. St. Jerome de Digne 283 + +XXVI. Notre Dame de Die 287 + +XXVII. Notre Dame et St. Castor d'Apt 289 + +XXVIII. Notre Dame d'Embrun 292 + +XXIX. Notre Dame de l'Assomption de Gap 296 + +XXX. Notre Dame de Vence 300 + +XXXI. Cathedrale de Sion 302 + +XXII. St. Paul Troix Chateau 305 + +PART IV. THE MEDITERRANEAN COAST + +I. Introductory 313 + +II. St. Sauveur d'Aix 323 + +III. St. Reparata de Nice 328 + +IV. Ste. Marie Majeure de Toulon 332 + +V. St. Etienne de Frejus 335 + +VI. Eglise de Grasse 339 + +VII. Antibes 341 + +VIII. Ste. Marie Majeure de Marseilles 342 + +IX. St. Pierre d'Alet 350 + +X. St. Pierre de Montpellier 352 + +XI. Cathedrale d'Agde 358 + +XII. St. Nazaire de Beziers 363 + +XIII. St. Jean de Perpignan 368 + +XIV. Ste. Eulalia d'Elne 372 + +XV. St. Just de Narbonne 375 + +PART V. THE VALLEY OF THE GARONNE + +I. Introductory 383 + +II. St. Andre de Bordeaux 396 + +III. Cathedrale de Lectoure 402 + +IV. Notre Dame de Bayonne 405 + +V. St. Jean de Bazas 411 + +VI. Notre Dame de Lescar 413 + +VII. L'Eglise de la Sede: Tarbes 417 + +VIII. Cathedrale de Condom 420 + +IX. Cathedrale de Montauban 422 + +X. St. Etienne de Cahors 425 + +XI. St. Caprias d'Agen 429 + +XII. Ste. Marie d'Auch 432 + +XIII. St. Etienne de Toulouse 439 + +XIV. St. Nazaire de Carcassone 449 + +XV. Cathedrale de Pamiers 461 + +XVI. St. Bertrand de Comminges 464 + +XVII. St. Jean-Baptiste d'Aire 469 + +XVIII. Sts. Benoit et Vincent de Castres 471 + +XIX. Notre Dame de Rodez 474 + +XX. Ste. Cecile d'Albi 482 + +XXI. St. Pierre de Mende 490 + +XXII. Other Old-Time Cathedrals in and about the +Basin of the Garonne 495 + +APPENDICES + +I. Sketch Map Showing the Usual Geographical +Divisions of France 503 + +II. A Historical Table of the Dioceses of the +South of France up to the beginning of +the nineteenth century 504 + +III. The Classification of Architectural Styles in +France according to De Caumont's "Abecedaire +d'Architecture Religieuse" 510 + +IV. A Chronology of Architectural Styles in +France 511 + +V. Leading Forms of Early Cathedral Constructions 513 + +VI. The Disposition of the Parts of a Tenth-Century +Church as defined by Violet-le-Duc 514 + +VII. A Brief Definitive Gazetteer of the Natural +and Geological Divisions Included in the +Ancient Provinces and Present-Day Departments +of Southern France, together +with the local names by which the _pays et +pagi_ are commonly known 516 + +VIII. Sketch Map of the Bishoprics and Archbishoprics +of the South of France at the +Present Day 519 + +IX. Dimensions and Chronology 520 + +Index 545 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + PAGE + +St. Andre de Bordeaux _Frontispiece_ + +The Concordat (From Napoleon's Tomb) 43 + +St. Louis de La Rochelle 82 + +Cathedrale de Lucon 85 + +St. Front de Perigueux 87 + +Detail of the Interior of St. Front de Perigueux 90 + +Poitiers 93 + +St. Etienne de Limoges 105 + +Reliquary of Thomas a Becket 111 + +Cathedrale de Tulle facing 118 + +St. Pierre d'Angouleme facing 120 + +Notre Dame de Moulins facing 126 + +Notre Dame de Le Puy facing 134 + +Le Puy 138 + +The Black Virgin, Le Puy 143 + +Notre Dame de Clermont-Ferrand facing 144 + +St. Vincent de Macon facing 174 + +St. Jean de Lyon facing 176 + +St. Apollinaire de Valence 190 + +St. Veran de Cavaillon 200 + +Notre Dame des Doms d'Avignon 205 + +Villeneuve-les-Avignon facing 212 + +Notre Dame des Doms d'Avignon facing 218 + +St. Trophime d'Arles 228 + +St. Trophime d'Arles facing 228 + +Cloisters, St. Trophime d'Arles 233 + +St. Castor de Nimes 236 + +St. Castor de Nimes 237 + +St. Theodorit d'Uzes 245 + +Cathedrale de Chambery 255 + +Notre Dame de Grenoble 258 + +St. Bruno 261 + +Belley 265 + +St. Jean de Maurienne 269 + +St. Pierre de St. Claude facing 272 + +Notre Dame de Bourg 275 + +Notre Dame de Sisteron facing 280 + +St. Jerome de Digne 283 + +Notre Dame d'Embrun 292 + +The Ramparts of Aigues-Mortes 320 + +St. Sauveur d'Aix 321 + +Detail of Doorway of the Archbishop's Palace, Frejus 338 + +Eglise de Grasse 339 + +Marseilles 343 + +The Old Cathedral, Marseilles 345 + +St. Pierre de Montpellier facing 352 + +Cathedrale d'Agde 358 + +St. Nazaire de Beziers 361 + +St. Jean de Perpignan 368 + +Ste. Eulalia d'Elne 372 + +St. Just de Narbonne facing 374 + +Cloister of St. Just de Narbonne facing 378 + +Notre Dame de Bayonne facing 404 + +Eglise de la Sede, Tarbes 417 + +St. Etienne de Cahors facing 424 + +Ste. Marie d'Auch facing 432 + +St. Etienne de Toulouse facing 438 + +Nave of St. Etienne de Toulouse 445 + +St. Nazaire de Carcassonne facing 448 + +The Old Cite de Carcassonne before and after the Restoration 451 + +Two Capitals of Pillars in St. Nazaire de Carcassonne; +and the Rude Stone Carving of Carcas 454 + +St. Nazaire de Carcassonne facing 454 + +Cathedrale de Pamiers 461 + +St. Bertrand de Comminges facing 464 + +St. Jean-Baptiste d'Aire 469 + +Sts. Benoit et Vincent de Castres facing 470 + +Notre Dame de Rodez facing 474 + +Choir-Stalls, Rodez 480 + +Ste. Cecile d'Albi facing 482 + +St. Pierre de Mende facing 490 + +Sketch Map of France 503 + +Medallion 510 + +Leading Forms of Early Cathedral Constructions 513 + +Plan of a Tenth Century Church 514 + +Sketch Map of the Bishoprics and Archbishoprics of the +South of France at the Present Day 519 + +St. Caprias d'Agen (diagram) 520 + +Baptistery of St. Sauveur d'Aix (diagram) 521 + +Ste. Cecile d'Albi (diagram) 522 + +St. Pierre d'Angouleme (diagram) 523 + +St. Trophime d'Arles (diagram) 524 + +Notre Dame des Doms d'Avignon (diagram) 525 + +St. Etienne de Cahors (diagram) 527 + +St. Veran de Cavaillon (diagram) 528 + +Cathedrale de Chambery (diagram) 529 + +Notre Dame de Clermont-Ferrand (diagram) 530 + +St. Bertrand de Comminges (diagram) 530 + +Notre Dame de Le Puy (diagram) 532 + +St. Etienne de Limoges (diagram) 532 + +St. Jean de Lyon (diagram) 533 + +St. Just de Narbonne (diagram) 535 + +Notre Dame d'Orange (diagram) 536 + +St. Front de Perigueux (diagram) 537 + +St. Jean de Perpignan (diagram) 537 + +St. Pierre de Poitiers (diagrams) 538 + +Notre Dame de Rodez (diagram) 539 + +St. Etienne de Toulouse (diagram) 541 + +St. Paul Trois Chateaux (diagram) 542 + +Cathedrale de Vaison (diagram) 543 + +[Illustration] + + + + +_The Cathedrals of Southern France_ + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +Too often--it is a half-acknowledged delusion, however--one meets with +what appears to be a theory: that a book of travel must necessarily be a +series of dull, discursive, and entirely uncorroborated opinions of one +who may not be even an intelligent observer. This is mere intellectual +pretence. Even a humble author--so long as he be an honest one--may well +be allowed to claim with Mr. Howells the right to be serious, or the +reverse, "with his material as he finds it;" and that "something +personally experienced can only be realized on the spot where it was +lived." This, says he, is "the prime use of travel, and the attempt to +create the reader a partner in the enterprise" ... must be the excuse, +then, for putting one's observations on paper. + +He rightly says, too, that nothing of perilous adventure is to-day any +more like to happen "in Florence than in Fitchburg." + +A "literary tour," a "cathedral tour," or an "architectural tour," +requires a formula wherein the author must be wary of making +questionable estimates; but he may, with regard to generalities,--or +details, for that matter,--state his opinion plainly; but he should +state also his reasons. With respect to church architecture no average +reader, any more than the average observer, willingly enters the arena +of intellectual combat, but rather is satisfied--as he should be, unless +he is a Freeman, a Gonse, or a Corroyer--with an ampler radius which +shall command even a juster, though no less truthful, view. + +Not from one book or from ten, in one year or a score can this be had. +The field is vast and the immensity of it all only dawns upon one the +deeper he gets into his subject. A dictionary of architecture, a +compendium or gazetteer of geography, or even the unwieldy mass of fact +tightly held in the fastnesses of the Encyclopaedia Britannica will not +tell one--in either a long or a short while--all the facts concerning +the cathedrals of France. + +Some will consider that in this book are made many apparently trifling +assertions; but it is claimed that they are pertinent and again are +expressive of an emotion which mayhap always arises of the same mood. + +Notre Dame at Rodez is a "warm, mouse-coloured cathedral;" St. Cecile +d'Albi is at once "a fortress and a church," and the once royal city of +Aigues-Mortes is to-day but "a shelter for a few hundred pallid, shaking +mortals." + +Such expressions are figurative, but, so far as words can put it, they +are the concentrated result of observation. + +These observations do not aspire to be considered "improving," though it +is asserted that they are informative. + +Description of all kinds is an art which requires considerable +forethought in order to be even readable. And of all subjects, art and +architecture are perhaps the most difficult to treat in a manner which +shall not arouse an intolerant criticism. + +Perhaps some credit will be attained for the attempts herein made to +present in a pleasing manner many of the charms of the ecclesiastical +architecture of southern France, where a more elaborate and erudite work +would fail of its object. As Lady Montagu has said in her +"Letters,"--"We travellers are in very hard circumstances. If we say +nothing new, we are dull, and have observed nothing. If we tell any new +thing, we are laughed at as fabulous and romantic." + +This book is intended as a contribution to travel literature--or, if the +reader like, to that special class of book which appeals largely to the +traveller. + +Most lovers of art and literature are lovers of churches; indeed, the +world is yearly containing more and more of this class. The art +expression of a people, of France in particular, has most often first +found its outlet in church-building and decoration. Some other countries +have degenerated sadly from the idea. + +In recent times the Anglo-Saxon has mostly built his churches,--on what +he is pleased to think are "improved lines,"--that, more than anything +else, resemble, in their interiors, playhouses, and in their exteriors, +cotton factories and breweries. + +This seemingly bitter view is advanced simply because the writer +believes that it is the church-members, using the term in its broad +sense, who are responsible for the many outrageously unseemly +church-buildings which are yearly being erected; not the +architects--who have failings enough of their own to answer for. + +It is said that a certain great architect of recent times was +responsible for more bad architecture than any man who had lived before +or since. Not because he produced such himself, but because his feeble +imitators, without his knowledge, his training, or his ambition, not +only sought to follow in his footsteps, but remained a long way in the +rear, and stumbled by the way. + +This man built churches. He built one, Trinity Church, in Boston, U. S. +A., which will remain, as long as its stones endure, an entirely +successful transplantation of an exotic from another land. In London a +new Roman Catholic cathedral has recently been erected after the +Byzantine manner, and so unexpectedly successful was it in plan and +execution that its author was "medalled" by the Royal Academy; whatever +that dubious honour may be worth. + +Both these great men are dead, and aside from these two great examples, +and possibly the Roman Catholic cathedral, and the yet unachieved +cathedral of St. John the Divine, in New York City, where, in an +English-speaking land, has there been built, in recent times, a +religious edifice of the first rank worthy to be classed with these two +old-world and new-world examples? + +They do these things better in France: Viollet-le-Duc completed St. Ouen +at Rouen and the cathedral at Clermont-Ferrand, in most acceptable +manner. So, too, was the treatment of the cathedral at +Moulins-sur-Allier--although none of these examples are among the +noblest or the most magnificent in France. They have, however, been +completed successfully, and in the true spirit of the original. + +To know the shops and boulevards of Paris does not necessarily presume a +knowledge of France. This point is mentioned here from the fact that +many have claimed a familiarity with the cathedrals of France; when to +all practical purposes, they might as well have begun and ended with the +observation that Notre Dame de Paris stands on an island in the middle +of the Seine. + +The author would not carp at the critics of the first volume of this +series, which appeared last season. Far from it. They were, almost +without exception, most generous. At least they granted, +_unqualifiedly_, the reason for being for the volume which was put +forth bearing the title: "Cathedrals of Northern France." + +The seeming magnitude of the undertaking first came upon the author and +artist while preparing the first volume for the press. This was made the +more apparent when, on a certain occasion, just previous to the +appearance of the book, the author made mention thereof to a friend who +_did_ know Paris--better perhaps than most English or American writers; +at least he ought to have known it better. + +When this friend heard of the inception of this book on French +cathedrals, he marvelled at the fact that there should be a demand for +such; said that the subject had already been overdone; and much more of +the same sort; and that only yesterday a certain Miss---- had sent him +an "author's copy" of a book which recounted the results of a journey +which she and her mother had recently made in what she sentimentally +called "Romantic Touraine." + +Therein were treated at least a good half-dozen cathedrals; which, +supplementing the always useful Baedeker or Joanne, and a handbook of +Notre Dame at Paris and another of Rouen, covered--thought the author's +friend at least--quite a representative share of the cathedrals of +France. + +This only substantiates the contention made in the foreword to the first +volume: that there were doubtless many with a true appreciation and love +for great churches who would be glad to know more of them, and have the +ways--if not the means--smoothed in order to make a visit thereto the +more simplified and agreeable. Too often--the preface continued--the +tourist, alone or personally conducted in droves, was whirled rapidly +onward by express-train to some more popularly or fashionably famous +spot, where, for a previously stipulated sum, he might partake of a more +lurid series of amusements than a mere dull round of churches. + +"Cities, like individuals, have," says Arthur Symons, "a personality and +individuality quite like human beings." + +This is undoubtedly true of churches as well, and the sympathetic +observer--the enthusiastic lover of churches for their peculiarities, +none the less than their general excellencies--is the only person who +will derive the maximum amount of pleasure and profit from an intimacy +therewith. + +Whether a great church is interesting because of its antiquity, its +history, or its artistic beauties matters little to the enthusiast. He +will drink his fill of what offers. Occasionally, he will find a +combination of two--or possibly all--of these ingredients; when his joy +will be great. + +Herein are catalogued as many of the attributes of the cathedrals of the +south of France--and the records of religious or civil life which have +surrounded them in the past--as space and opportunity for observation +have permitted. + +More the most sanguine and capable of authors could not promise, and +while in no sense does the volume presume to supply exhaustive +information, it is claimed that all of the churches included within the +classification of cathedrals--those of the present and those of a past +day--are to be found mentioned herein, the chief facts of their history +recorded, and their notable features catalogued. + + + + +_PART I_ + +_Southern France in General_ + + + + +I + +THE CHARM OF SOUTHERN FRANCE + + +The charm of southern France is such as to compel most writers thereon +to become discursive. It could not well be otherwise. Many things go to +make up pictures of travel, which the most polished writer could not +ignore unless he confined himself to narrative pure and simple; as did +Sterne. + +One who seeks knowledge of the architecture of southern France should +perforce know something of the life of town and country in addition to a +specific knowledge of, or an immeasurable enthusiasm for, the subject. + +Few have given Robert Louis Stevenson any great preeminence as a writer +of topographical description; perhaps not all have admitted his ability +as an unassailable critic; but the fact is, there is no writer to whom +the lover of France can turn with more pleasure and profit than +Stevenson. + +There is a wealth of description of the country-side of France in the +account of his romantic travels on donkey-back, or, as he whimsically +puts it, "beside a donkey," and his venturesome though not dangerous +"Inland Voyage." These early volumes of Stevenson, while doubtless well +known to lovers of his works, are closed books to most casual +travellers. The author and artist of this book here humbly acknowledge +an indebtedness which might not otherwise be possible to repay. + +Stevenson was devout, he wrote sympathetically of churches, of +cathedrals, of monasteries, and of religion. What his predilections were +as to creed is not so certain. Sterne was more worldly, but he wrote +equally attractive prose concerning many things which English-speaking +people have come to know more of since his time. Arthur Young, "an +agriculturist," as he has been rather contemptuously called, a century +or more ago wrote of rural France after a manner, and with a +profuseness, which few have since equalled. His creed, likewise, appears +to be unknown; in that, seldom, if ever, did he mention churches, and +not at any time did he discuss religion. + +In a later day Miss M. E. B. Edwards, an English lady who knows France +as few of her countrywomen do, wrote of many things more or less allied +with religion, which the ordinary "travel books" ignored--much to their +loss--altogether. + +Still more recently another English lady, Madam Marie Duclaux,--though +her name would not appear to indicate her nationality,--has written a +most charming series of observations on her adopted land; wherein the +peasant, his religion, and his aims in life are dealt with more +understandingly than were perhaps possible, had the author not been +possessed of a long residence among them. + +Henry James, of all latter-day writers, has given us perhaps the most +illuminating accounts of the architectural joy of great churches, +chateaux and cathedrals. Certainly his work is marvellously +appreciative, and his "Little Tour in France," with the two books of +Stevenson before mentioned, Sterne's "Sentimental Journey,"--and Mr. +Tristram Shandy, too, if the reader likes,--form a quintette of voices +which will tell more of the glories of France and her peoples than any +other five books in the English language. + +When considering the literature of place, one must not overlook the fair +land of Provence or the "Midi of France"--that little-known land lying +immediately to the westward of Marseilles, which is seldom or never +even tasted by the hungry tourist. + +To know what he would of these two delightful regions one should read +Thomas Janvier, Felix Gras, and Merimee. He will then have far more of +an insight into the places and the peoples than if he perused whole +shelves of histories, geographies, or technical works on archaeology and +fossil remains. + +If he can supplement all this with travel, or, better yet, take them +hand-in-hand, he will be all the more fortunate. + +At all events here is a vast subject for the sated traveller to grasp, +and _en passant_ he will absorb not a little of the spirit of other days +and of past history, and something of the attitude of reverence for +church architecture which is apparently born in every Frenchman,--at +least to a far greater degree than in any other nationality,--whatever +may be his present-day attitude of mind toward the subject of religion +in the abstract. + +France, be it remembered, is not to-day as it was a century and a half +ago, when it was the fashion of English writers to condemn and revile it +as a nation of degraded serfs, a degenerate aristocracy, a corrupt +clergy, or as an enfeebled monarchy. + +Since then there has arisen a Napoleon, who, whatever his faulty morals +may have been, undoubtedly welded into a united whole those widely +divergent tendencies and sentiments of the past, which otherwise would +not have survived. This was prophetic and far-seeing, no matter what the +average historian may say to the contrary; and it has in no small way +worked itself toward an ideal successfully, if not always by the most +practical and direct path. + +One thing is certain, the lover of churches will make the round of the +southern cathedrals under considerably more novel and entrancing +conditions than in those cities of the north or mid-France. Many of the +places which shelter a great cathedral church in the south are of little +rank as centres of population; as, for instance, at Mende in Lozere, +where one suddenly finds oneself set down in the midst of a green basin +surrounded by mountains on all sides, with little to distract his +attention from its remarkably picturesque cathedral; or at Albi, where a +Sunday-like stillness always seems to reign, and its fortress-church, +which seems to regulate the very life of the town, stands, as it has +since its foundation, a majestic guardian of well-being. + +There is but one uncomfortable feature to guard against, and that is the +_mistral_, a wind which blows down the Rhone valley at certain seasons +of the year, and, in the words of the habitant, "blows all before it." +It is not really as bad as this, but its breath is uncomfortably cold, +and it does require a firm purpose to stand against its blast. + +Then, too, from October until March, south of Lyons, the nights, which +draw in so early at this season of the year, are contrastingly and +uncomfortably cold, as compared with the days, which seem always to be +blessed with bright and sunshiny weather. + +It may be argued that this is not the season which appeals to most +people as being suitable for travelling. But why not? Certainly it is +the fashion to travel toward the Mediterranean during the winter months, +and the attractions, not omitting the allurements of dress clothes, +gambling-houses, and _bals masques_ are surely not more appealing than +the chain of cities which extend from Chambery and Grenoble in the Alps, +through Orange, Nimes, Arles, Perpignan, Carcassonne, and the slopes of +the Pyrenees, to Bayonne. + +In the departments of Lozere, Puy de Dome, Gard and Auvergne and +Dordogne, the true, unspoiled Gallic flavour abides in all its +intensity. As Touraine, or at least Tours, claims to speak the purest +French tongue, so this region of streams and mountains, of volcanic +remains, of Protestantism, and of an--as yet--unspoiled old-worldliness, +possesses more than any other somewhat of the old-time social +independence and disregard of latter-day innovations. + +Particularly is this so--though perhaps it has been remarked before--in +that territory which lies between Clermont-Ferrand and Valence in one +direction, and Vienne and Rodez in another, to extend its confines to +extreme limits. + +Here life goes on gaily and in animated fashion, in a hundred dignified +and picturesque old towns, and the wise traveller will go a-hunting +after those which the guide-books complain of--not without a sneer--as +being dull and desultory. French, and for that matter the new regime of +English, historical novelists are too obstinately bent on the study of +Paris, "At all events," says Edmund Gosse, "since the days of Balzac and +George Sand, and have neglected the provincial boroughs." + +They should study mid-France on the spot; and read Stevenson and Merimee +while they are doing it. It will save them a deal of worrying out of +things--with possibly wrong deductions--for themselves. + +The climatic conditions of France vary greatly. From the gray, +wind-blown shores of Brittany, where for quite three months of the +autumn one is in a perpetual drizzle, and the equally chilly and bare +country of the Pas de Calais, and the more or less sodden French +Flanders, to the brisk, sunny climate of the Loire valley, the Cevennes, +Dauphine, and Savoie, is a wide range of contrast. Each is possessed of +its own peculiar characteristics, which the habitant alone seems to +understand in all its vagaries. At all events, there is no part of +France which actually merits the opprobrious deprecations which are +occasionally launched forth by the residents of the "garden spot of +England," who see no topographical beauties save in their own wealds and +downs. + +France is distinctly a self-contained land. Its tillers of the soil, be +they mere agriculturists or workers in the vineyards, are of a race as +devoted and capable at their avocations as any alive. + +They do not, to be sure, eat meat three times a day--and often not once +a week--but they thrive and gain strength on what many an +English-speaking labourer would consider but a mere snack. + +Again, the French peasant is not, like the English labourer, perpetually +reminded, by the independence of the wealth surrounding him, of his own +privations and dependence. On the contrary, he enjoys contentment with a +consciousness that no human intervention embitters his condition, and +that its limits are only fixed by the bounds of nature, and somewhat by +his own industry. + +Thus it is easy to inculcate in such a people somewhat more of that +spirit of "_l'amour de la patrie_," or love of the land, which in +England, at the present time, appears to be growing beautifully less. + +So, too, with love and honour for their famous citizens, the French are +enthusiastic, beyond any other peoples, for their monuments, their +institutions, and above all for their own province and department. + +With regard to their architectural monuments, still more are they proud +and well-informed, even the labouring classes. Seldom, if ever, has the +writer made an inquiry but what it was answered with interest, if not +with a superlative intelligence, and the Frenchman of the lower +classes--be he a labourer of the towns or cities, or a peasant of the +country-side--is a remarkably obliging person. + +In what may strictly be called the south of France, that region +bordering along the Mediterranean, Provence, and the southerly portion +of Languedoc, one is manifestly environed with a mellowness and +brilliance of sky and atmosphere only to be noted in a sub-tropical +land, a feature which finds further expression in most of the attributes +of local life. + +The climate and topographical features take on a contrastingly different +aspect, as does the church architecture and the mode of life of the +inhabitants here in the southland. + +Here is the true romance country of all the world. Here the Provencal +tongue and its literature have preserved that which is fast fleeting +from us in these days when a nation's greatest struggle is for +commercial or political supremacy. It was different in the days of +Petrarch and of Rabelais. + +But there are reminders of this glorious past yet to be seen, more +tangible than a memory alone, and more satisfying than mere written +history. + +At Orange, Nimes, and Arles are Roman remains of theatres, arenas, and +temples, often perfectly preserved, and as magnificent as in Rome +itself. + +At Avignon is a splendid papal palace, to which the Holy See was +transferred by Clement V. at the time of the Italian partition, in the +early fourteenth century, while Laura's tomb, or the site of it, is also +close at hand. + +At Clermont-Ferrand, in Auvergne, Pope Urban, whose monument is on the +spot, urged and instigated the Crusades. + +The Christian activities of this land were as strenuous as any, and +their remains are even more numerous and interesting. Southern Gaul, +however, became modernized but slowly, and the influences of the +Christian spirit were not perhaps as rapid as in the north, where Roman +sway was more speedily annulled. Still, not even in the churches of +Lombardy or Tuscany are there more strong evidences of the inception and +growth of this great power, which sought at one time to rule the world, +and may yet. + + + + +II + +THE CHURCH IN GAUL + + +Guizot's notable dictum, "If you are fond of romance and history," may +well be paraphrased in this wise: "If you are fond of history, read the +life histories of great churches." + +Leaving dogmatic theory aside, much, if not quite all, of the life of +the times in France--up to the end of the sixteenth century--centred +more or less upon the Church, using the word in its fullest sense. Aside +from its religious significance, the influence of the Church, as is well +known and recognized by all, was variously political, social, and +perhaps economic. + +So crowded and varied were the events of Church history in Gaul, it +would be impossible to include even the most important of them in a +brief chronological arrangement which should form a part of a book such +as this. + +It is imperative, however, that such as are mentioned should be brought +together in some consecutive manner in a way that should indicate the +mighty ebb and flow of religious events of Church and State. + +These passed rapidly and consecutively throughout Southern Gaul, which +became a part of the kingdom of the French but slowly. + +Many bishoprics have been suppressed or merged into others, and again +united with these sees from which they had been separated. Whatever may +be the influences of the Church, monastic establishments, or more +particularly, the bishops and their clergy, to-day, there is no question +but that from the evangelization of Gaul to the end of the nineteenth +century, the parts played by them were factors as great as any other in +coagulating and welding together the kingdom of France. + +The very large number of bishops which France has had approximates eight +thousand eminent and virtuous names; and it is to the memory of their +works in a practical way, none the less than their devotion to preaching +the Word itself, that the large number of magnificent ecclesiastical +monuments have been left as their heritage. + +There is a large share of veneration and respect due these pioneers of +Christianity; far more, perhaps, than obtains for those of any other +land. Here their activities were so very great, their woes and troubles +so very oppressive, and their final achievement so splendid, that the +record is one which stands alone. + +It is a glorious fact--in spite of certain lapses and influx of +fanaticism--that France has ever recognized the sterling worth to the +nation of the devotion and wise counsel of her churchmen; from the +indefatigable apostles of Gaul to her cardinals, wise and powerful in +councils of state. + +The evangelization of Gaul was not an easy or a speedy process. On the +authority of Abbe Morin of Moulins, who, in _La France Pontificale_, has +undertaken to "chronologize all the bishops and archbishops of France +from the first century to our day," Christianity came first to Aix and +Marseilles with Lazare de Bethanie in 35 or 36 A. D.; followed shortly +after by Lin de Besancon, Clement de Metz, Demetre de Gap, and Ruf +d'Avignon. + +Toward the end of the reign of Claudian, and the commencement of that of +Nero (54-55 A. D.), there arrived in Gaul the seven Apostle-bishops, +the founders of the Church at Arles (St. Trophime), Narbonne (St. Paul), +Limoges (St. Martial), Clermont (St. Austremoine), Tours (St. Gatien), +Toulouse (St. Saturnin), and Treves (St. Valere). + +It was some years later that Paris received within its walls St. Denis, +its first Apostle of Christianity, its first bishop, and its first +martyr. + +Others as famous were Taurin d'Evreux, Lucien de Beauvais, Eutrope de +Saintes, Aventin de Chartres, Nicaise de Rouen, Sixte de Reims, Savinien +de Sens, and St. Crescent--the disciple of St. Paul--of Vienne. + +From these early labours, through the three centuries following, and +down through fifteen hundred years, have passed many traditions of these +early fathers which are well-nigh legendary and fabulous. + +The Abbe Morin says further: "We have not, it is true, an entirely +complete chronology of the bishops who governed the Church in Gaul, but +the names of the great and noble army of bishops and clergy, who for +eighteen hundred years have succeeded closely one upon another, are +assuredly the most beautiful jewels in the crown of France. Their +virtues were many and great,--eloquence, love of _la patrie_, +indomitable courage in time of trial, mastery of difficult situation, +prudence, energy, patience, and charity." All these grand virtues were +practised incessantly, with some regrettable eclipses, attributable not +only to misfortune, but occasionally to fault. A churchman even is but +human. + +With the accession of the third dynasty of kings,--the Capetians, in +987,--the history of the French really began, and that of the Franks, +with their Germanic tendencies and elements, became absorbed by those of +the Romanic language and character, with the attendant habits and +customs. + +Only the Aquitanians, south of the Loire, and the Burgundians on the +Rhone, still preserved their distinct nationalities. + +The feudal ties which bound Aquitaine to France were indeed so slight +that, when Hugh Capet, in 990, asked of Count Adelbert of Perigueux, +before the walls of the besieged city of Tours: "Who made thee count?" +he was met with the prompt and significant rejoinder, "Who made thee +king?" + +At the close of the tenth century, France was ruled by close upon sixty +princes, virtually independent, and yet a still greater number of +prelates,--as powerful as any feudal lord,--who considered Hugh Capet +of Paris only as one who was first among his peers. Yet he was able to +extend his territory to such a degree that his hereditary dynasty +ultimately assured the unification of the French nation. Less than a +century later Duke William of Normandy conquered England (1066); when +began that protracted struggle between France and England which lasted +for three hundred years. + +Immediately after the return of the pious Louis VII. from his disastrous +crusade, his queen, Eleanor, the heiress of Poitou and Guienne, married +the young count Henry Plantagenet of Maine and Anjou; who, when he came +to the English throne in 1153, "inherited and acquired by marriage"--as +historians subtly put it--" the better half of all France." + +Until 1322 the Church in France was divided into the following dioceses: + + Provincia Remensis (Reims) + Provincia Rotomagensis (All Normandy) + Provincia Turonensis (Touraine, Maine, Anjou, and Brittany) + Provincia Burdegalensis (Poitou, Saintonge, + Angumois, Perigord, and Bordelais) + Provincia Auxitana (In Gascoigne) + Provincia Bituricensis (Berri, Bourbonnais, Limosin, and Auvergne) + Provincia Senonensis (Sens) + Provincia Lugdunensis (Bourgogne and Lyonnais) + Provincia Viennensis (Vienne on the Rhone) + Provincia Narbonensis (Septimania) + Provincia Arelatensis (Arles) + Provincia Aquensis (Aix-en-Provence) + Provincia Ebredunensis (The Alpine Valleys) + +The stormy days of the reign of Charles V. (late fourteenth century) +throughout France were no less stringent in Languedoc than elsewhere. + +Here the people rose against the asserted domination of the Duke of +Anjou, who, "proud and greedy," was for both qualities abhorred by the +Languedocians. + +He sought to restrain civic liberty with a permanent military force, and +at Nimes levied heavy taxes, which were promptly resented by rebellion. +At Montpellier the people no less actively protested, and slew the +chancellor and seneschal. + +By the end of the thirteenth century, social, political, and +ecclesiastical changes had wrought a wonderful magic with the map of +France. John Lackland (_sans terre_) had been compelled by +Philippe-Auguste to relinquish his feudal possessions in France, with +the exception of Guienne. At this time also the internal crusades +against the Waldenses and Albigenses in southern France had powerfully +extended the royal flag. Again, history tells us that it was from the +impulse and after influences of the crusading armies to the East that +France was welded, under Philippe-le-Bel, into a united whole. The +shifting fortunes of France under English rule were, however, such as to +put little stop to the progress of church-building in the provinces; +though it is to be feared that matters in that line, as most others of +the time, went rather by favour than by right of sword. + +Territorial changes brought about, in due course, modified plans of the +ecclesiastical control and government, which in the first years of the +fourteenth century caused certain administrative regulations to be put +into effect by Pope John XXII. (who lies buried beneath a gorgeous +Gothic monument at Avignon) regarding the Church in the southern +provinces. + +So well planned were these details that the Church remained practically +under the same administrative laws until the Revolution. + +Albi was separated from Bourges (1317), and raised to the rank of a +metropolitan see; to which were added as suffragans Cahors, Rodez, and +Mende, with the newly founded bishoprics of Castres and Vabres added. +Toulouse was formed into an archbishopric in 1327; while St. Pons and +Alet, as newly founded bishoprics, were given to the ancient see of +Narbonne in indemnification for its having been robbed of Toulouse. The +ancient diocese of Poitiers was divided into three, and that of Agen +into two by the erection of suffragans at Maillezais, Lucon, Sarlat, and +Condom. By a later papal bull, issued shortly after their establishment, +these bishoprics appear to have been abolished, as no record shows that +they entered into the general scheme of the revolutionary suppression. + +On August 4, 1790, all chapters of cathedral churches, other than those +of the metropoles (the mother sees), their bishops, and in turn their +respective cures, were suppressed. This ruling applied as well to all +collegiate churches, secular bodies, and abbeys and priories generally. + +Many were, of course, reeestablished at a subsequent time, or, at least, +were permitted to resume their beneficent work. But it was this general +suppression, in the latter years of the eighteenth century, which led up +to the general reapportioning of dioceses in that composition of Church +and State thereafter known as the Concordat. + +[Illustration: _The Concordat_ (_From Napoleon's Tomb_)] + +Many causes deflected the growth of the Church from its natural +progressive pathway. The Protestant fury went nearly to fanaticism, as +did the equally fervent attempts to suppress it. The "Temples of Reason" +of the Terrorists were of short endurance, but they indicated an unrest +that has only in a measure moderated, if one is to take later political +events as an indication of anything more than a mere uncontrolled +emotion. + +Whether a great future awaits Protestantism in France, or not, the +power of the Roman Church is undoubtedly waning, in attracting +congregations, at least. + +Should a Wesley or a Whitfield arise, he might gain followers, as strong +men do, and they would draw unto them others, until congregations might +abound. But the faith could hardly become the avowed religion of or for +the French people. It has, however, a great champion in the powerful +newspaper, _Le Temps_, which has done, and will do, much to popularize +the movement. + +The Protestantism of Lot and Lot et Garonne is considerable, and it is +of very long standing. It is recorded, too, that as late as October, +1901, the Commune of Murat went over _en masse_ to Protestantism because +the Catholic bishop at Cahors desired his communicants to rise from +their beds at what they considered an inconveniently early hour, in +order to hear mass. + +This movement in Languedoc was not wholly due to the tyranny of the Duke +of Anjou; it was caused in part by the confiscation or assumption of the +papal authority by France. This caused not only an internal unrest in +Italy, but a turbulence which spread throughout all the western +Mediterranean, and even unto the Rhine and Flanders. The danger which +threatened the establishment of the Church, by making the papacy a +dependence of France, aroused the Italian prelates and people alike, and +gave rise to the simultaneous existence of both a French and an Italian +Pope. + +Charles V. supported the French pontiff, as was but natural, thus +fermenting a great schism; with its attendant controversies and horrors. + +French and Italian politics became for a time inexplicably mingled, and +the kingdom of Naples came to be transferred to the house of Anjou. + +The Revolution, following close upon the Jansenist movement at Port +Royal, and the bull Unigenitus of the Pope, resulted in such riot and +disregard for all established institutions, monarchical, political, and +religious, that the latter--quite as much as the others--suffered undue +severity. + +The Church itself was at this time divided, and rascally intrigue, as +well as betrayal, was the order of the day on all sides. Bishops were +politicians, and priests were but the tools of their masters; this to no +small degree, if we are to accept the written records. + +Talleyrand-Perigord, Bishop of Autun, was a member of the National +Assembly, and often presided over the sittings of that none too +deliberate body. + +In the innovations of the Revolution, the Church and the clergy took, +for what was believed to be the national good, their full and abiding +share in the surrender of past privileges. + +At Paris, at the instance of Mirabeau, they even acknowledged, in some +measure, the principle of religious liberty, in its widest application. + +The appalling massacres of September 2, 1792, fell heavily upon the +clergy throughout France; of whom one hundred and forty were murdered at +the _Carmes_ alone. + +The Archbishop of Arles on that eventful day gave utterance to the +following devoted plea: + +"_Give thanks to God, gentlemen, that He calls us to seal with our blood +the faith we profess. Let us ask of Him the grace of final perseverance, +which by our own merit we could not obtain._" + +The Restoration found the Church in a miserable and impoverished +condition. There was already a long list of dioceses without bishops; +of cardinals, prelates, and priests without charges, many of them in +prison. + +Congregations innumerable had been suppressed and many sees had been +abolished. + +The new dioceses, under the Concordat of 1801, one for each department +only, were of vast size as compared with those which had existed more +numerously before the Revolution. + +In 1822 thirty new sees were added to the prelature. To-day there are +sixty-seven bishoprics and seventeen archbishoprics, not including the +colonial suffragans, but including the diocese of Corsica, whose seat is +at Ajaccio. + +Church and State are thus seen to have been, from the earliest times, +indissolubly linked throughout French dominion. + +The king--while there was a king--was the eldest son of the Church, and, +it is said, the Church in France remains to-day that part of the Roman +communion which possesses the greatest importance for the governing body +of that faith. This, in spite of the tendency toward what might be +called, for the want of a more expressive word, irreligion. This is a +condition, or a state, which is unquestionably making headway in the +France of to-day--as well, presumably, as in other countries--of its own +sheer weight of numbers. + +One by one, since the establishment of the Church in Gaul, all who +placed any limits to their ecclesiastical allegiance have been turned +out, and so turned into enemies,--the Protestants, the Jansenists, +followers of the Bishop of Ypres, and the Constitutionalists. +Reconciliation on either side is, and ever has been, apparently, an +impossibility. + +Freedom of thought and action is undoubtedly increasing its license, and +the clergy in politics, while a thing to be desired by many, is, after +all, a thing to be feared by the greater number,--for whom a popular +government is made. Hence the curtailment of the power of the monks--the +real secular propagandists--was perhaps a wise thing. We are not to-day +living under the conditions which will permit of a new Richelieu to come +upon the scene, and the recent act (1902) which suppressed so many +monastic establishments, convents, and religious houses of all ranks, +including the Alpine retreat of "La Grande Chartreuse," may be taken +rather as a natural process of curtailment than a mere vindictive +desire on the part of the State to concern itself with "things that do +not matter." On the other hand, it is hard to see just what immediate +gain is to result to the nation. + + + + +III + +THE CHURCH ARCHITECTURE OF SOUTHERN FRANCE + + +The best history of the Middle Ages is that suggested by their +architectural remains. That is, if we want tangible or ocular +demonstration, which many of us do. + +Many of these remains are but indications of a grandeur that is past and +a valour and a heroism that are gone; but with the Church alone are +suggested the piety and devotion which still live, at least to a far +greater degree than many other sentiments and emotions; which in their +struggle to keep pace with progress have suffered, or become effete by +the way. + +To the Church, then, or rather religion--if the word be preferred--we +are chiefly indebted for the preservation of these ancient records in +stone. + +Ecclesiastical architecture led the way--there is no disputing that, +whatever opinions may otherwise be held by astute archaeologists, +historians, and the antiquarians, whose food is anything and everything +so long as it reeks of antiquity. + +The planning and building of a great church was no menial work. Chief +dignitaries themselves frequently engaged in it: the Abbot Suger, the +foremost architect of his time--prime minister and regent of the kingdom +as he was--at St. Denis; Archbishop Werner at Strasbourg; and William of +Wykeham in England, to apportion such honours impartially. + +Gothic style appears to have turned its back on Italy, where, in +Lombardy at all events, were made exceedingly early attempts in this +style. This, perhaps, because of satisfying and enduring classical works +which allowed no rivalry; a state of affairs to some extent equally true +of the south of France. The route of expansion, therefore, was +northward, along the Rhine, into the Isle of France, to Belgium, and +finally into England. + +No more true or imaginative description of Gothic forms has been put +into literature than those lines of Sir Walter Scott, which define its +characteristics thus: + + "... Whose pillars with clustered shafts so trim, + With base and capital flourished 'round, + Seemed bundles of lances which garlands had bound." + +In modern times, even in France, church-building neither aspired to, nor +achieved, any great distinction. + +Since the Concordat what have we had? A few restorations, which in so +far as they were carried out in the spirit of the original were +excellent; a few added members, as the west front and spires of St. Ouen +at Rouen; the towers and western portal at Clermont-Ferrand; and a few +other works of like magnitude and worth. For the rest, where anything of +bulk was undertaken, it was almost invariably a copy of a Renaissance +model, and often a bad one at that; or a descent to some hybrid thing +worse even than in their own line were the frank mediocrities of the era +of the "Citizen-King," or the plush and horsehair horrors of the Second +Empire. + +Most characteristic, and truly the most important of all, are the +remains of the Gallo-Roman period. These are the most notable and +forceful reminders of the relative prominence obtained by mediaeval +pontiffs, prelates, and peoples. + +These relations are further borne out by the frequent juxtaposition of +ecclesiastical and civic institutions of the cities +themselves,--fortifications, palaces, chateaux, cathedrals, and +churches, the former indicating no more a predominance of power than the +latter. + +A consideration of one, without something more than mere mention of the +other, is not possible, and incidentally--even for the +church-lover--nothing can be more interesting than the great works of +fortification--strong, frowning, and massive--as are yet to be seen at +Beziers, Carcassonne, or Avignon. It was this latter city which +sheltered within its outer walls that monumental reminder of the papal +power which existed in this French capital of the "Church of Rome"--as +it must still be called--in the fourteenth century. + +To the stranger within the gates the unconscious resemblance between a +castellated and battlemented feudal stronghold and the many +churches,--and even certain cathedrals, as at Albi, Beziers, or +Agde,--which were not unlike in their outline, will present some +confusion of ideas. + +Between a crenelated battlement or the machicolations of a city wall, +as at Avignon; or of a hotel de ville, as at Narbonne; or the same +detail surmounting an episcopal residence, as at Albi, which is a +veritable _donjon_; or the Palais des Papes, is not a difference even of +degree. It is the same thing in each case. In one instance, however, it +may have been purely for defence, and in the other used as a decorative +accessory; in the latter case it was no less useful when occasion +required. This feature throughout the south of France is far more common +than in the north, and is bound to be strongly remarked. + +Two great groups or divisions of architectural style are discernible +throughout the south, even by the most casual of observers. + +One is the Provencal variety, which clings somewhat closely to the lower +valley of the Rhone; and the other, the Aquitanian (with possibly the +more restricted Auvergnian). + +These types possess in common the one distinctive trait, in some form or +other, of the round-arched vaulting of Roman tradition. It is hardly +more than a reminiscence, however, and while not in any way resembling +the northern Gothic, at least in the Aquitanian species, hovers on the +borderland between the sunny south and the more frigid north. + +The Provencal type more nearly approximates the older Roman, and, +significantly, it has--with less interpolation of modern ideas--endured +the longest. + +The Aquitanian style of the cathedrals at Perigueux and Angouleme, to +specialize but two, is supposed to--and it does truly--bridge the gulf +between the round-arched style which is _not_ Roman and the more +brilliant and graceful type of Gothic. + +With this manner of construction goes, of course, a somewhat different +interior arrangement than that seen in the north. + +A profound acquaintance with the subject will show that it bears a +certain resemblance to the disposition of parts in an Eastern mosque, +and to the earlier form of Christian church--the basilica. + +In this regard Fergusson makes the statement without reservation that +the Eglise de Souillac more nearly resembles the Cairene type of +Mohammedan mosque than it does a Christian church--of any era. + +A distinct feature of this type is the massive pointed arch, upon which +so many have built their definition of Gothic. In truth, though, it +differs somewhat from the northern Gothic arch, but is nevertheless very +ancient. It is used in early Christian churches,--at Acre and +Jaffa,--and was adopted, too, by the architects of the Eastern Empire +long before its introduction into Gaul. + +The history of its transportation might be made interesting, and surely +instructive, were one able to follow its orbit with any definite +assurance that one was not wandering from the path. This does not seem +possible; most experts, real or otherwise, who have tried it seem to +flounder and finally fall in the effort to trace its history in +consecutive and logical, or even plausible, fashion. + +In illustration this is well shown by that wonderful and unique church +of St. Front at Perigueux, where, in a design simple to severity, it +shows its great unsimilarity to anything in other parts of France; if we +except La Trinite at Anjou, with respect to its roofing and piers of +nave. + +It has been compared in general plan and outline to St. Marc's at +Venice, "but a St. Marc's stripped of its marbles and mosaics." + +In the Italian building its founders gathered their inspiration for many +of its structural details from the old Byzantine East. At this time the +Venetians were pushing their commercial enterprises to all parts. +North-western France, and ultimately the British Isles, was the end +sought. We know, too, that a colony of Venetians had established itself +as far northward as Limoges, and another at Perigueux, when, in 984, +this edifice, which might justly be called Venetian in its plan, was +begun. + +No such decoration or ornamentation was presumed as in its Adriatic +prototype, but it had much beautiful carving in the capitals of its +pillars and yet other embellishments, such as pavements, monuments, and +precious altars, which once, it is said, existed more numerously than +now. + +Here, then, was the foundation of a new western style, differing in +every respect from the Provencal or the Angevinian. + +Examples of the northern pointed or Gothic are, in a large way, found as +far south as Bayonne in its cathedral; in the spires of the cathedral at +Bordeaux; and less grandly, though elegantly, disposed in St. Nazaire in +the old _Cite de Carcassonne_; and farther north at Clermont-Ferrand, +where its northern-pointed cathedral is in strong contrast to the +neighbouring Notre Dame du Port, a remarkable type distinctly local in +its plan and details. + +From this point onward, it becomes not so much a question of defining +and placing types, as of a chronological arrangement of fact with regard +to the activities of the art of church-building. + +It is doubtless true that many of the works of the ninth and tenth +centuries were but feeble imitations of the buildings of Charlemagne, +but it is also true that the period was that which was bringing about +the development of a more or less distinct style, and if the Romanesque +churches of France were not wholly Roman in spirit they were at least +not a debasement therefrom. + +Sir Walter Scott has also described the Romanesque manner of +church-building most poetically, as witness the following quatrain: + + "Built ere the art was known + By pointed aisle and shafted stalk + The arcades of an alleyed walk + To emulate in stone." + +However, little remains in church architecture of the pre-tenth century +to compare with the grand theatres, arenas, monuments, arches, towers, +and bridges which are still left to us. Hence comparison were futile. +Furthermore, there is this patent fact to be reckoned with, that the +petty followers of the magnificent Charlemagne were not endowed with as +luxurious a taste, as large a share of riches, or so great a power; and +naturally they fell before the idea they would have emulated. + +As a whole France was at this period amid great consternation and +bloodshed, and traces of advancing civilization were fast falling before +wars and cruelties unspeakable. There came a period when the intellect, +instead of pursuing its rise, was, in reality, degenerating into the +darkness of superstition. + +The church architecture of this period--so hostile to the arts and +general enlightenment--was undergoing a process even more fatal to its +development than the terrors of war or devastation. + +It is a commonplace perhaps to repeat that it was the superstition +aroused by the Apocalypse that the end of all things would come with the +commencement of the eleventh century. It was this, however, that +produced the stagnation in church-building which even the ardour of a +few believing churchmen could not allay. The only great religious +foundation of the time was the Abbey of Cluny in the early years of the +tenth century. + +When the eleventh century actually arrived, Christians again bestirred +themselves, and the various cities and provinces vied with each other in +their enthusiastic devotion to church-building, as if to make up for +lost time. + +From this time onward the art of church-building gave rise to that +higher skill and handicraft, the practice of architecture as an art, of +which ecclesiastical art, as was but natural, rose to the greatest +height. + +The next century was productive of but little change in style, and, +though in the north the transition and the most primitive of Gothic were +slowly creeping in, the well-defined transition did not come until well +forward in the twelfth century, when, so soon after, the new style +bloomed forth in all its perfected glory. + +The cathedrals of southern France are manifestly not as lively and +vigorous as those at Reims, Amiens, or Rouen; none have the splendour +and vast extent of old glass as at Chartres, and none of the smaller +examples equal the symmetry and delicacy of those at Noyon or Senlis. + +Some there be, however, which for magnificence and impressiveness take +rank with the most notable of any land. This is true of those of Albi, +Le Puy, Perigueux, and Angouleme. Avignon, too, in the _ensemble_ of its +cathedral and the papal palace, forms an architectural grouping that is +hardly rivalled by St. Peter's and the Vatican itself. + +In many of the cities of the south of France the memory of the past, +with respect to their cathedrals, is overshadowed by that of their +secular and civic monuments, the Roman arenas, theatres, and temples. At +Nimes, Arles, Orange, and Vienne these far exceed in importance and +beauty the religious establishments. + +The monasteries, abbeys, and priories of the south of France are perhaps +not more numerous, nor yet more grand, than elsewhere, but they bring +one to-day into more intimate association with their past. + +The "Gallia-Monasticum" enumerates many score of these establishments as +having been situated in these parts. Many have passed away, but many +still exist. + +Among the first of their kind were those founded by St. Hilaire at +Poitiers and St. Martin at Tours. The great Burgundian pride was the +Abbey of Cluny; much the largest and perhaps as grand as any erected in +any land. Its church covered over seventy thousand square feet of area, +nearly equalling in size the cathedrals at Amiens and at Bourges, and +larger than either those at Chartres, Paris, or Reims. This great church +was begun in 1089, was dedicated in 1131, and endured for more than +seven centuries. To-day but a few small fragments remain, but note +should be made of the influences which spread from this great monastic +establishment throughout all Europe; and were second only to those of +Rome itself. + +The lovely cloistered remains of Provence, Auvergne, and Aquitaine, the +comparatively modern Charterhouse--called reminiscently the Escurial of +Dauphine--near Grenoble, the communistic church of St. Bertrand de +Comminges, La Chaise Dieu, Clairvaux, and innumerable other abbeys and +monasteries will recall to mind more forcibly than aught else what their +power must once have been. + +Between the seventh and tenth centuries these institutions flourished +and developed in all of the provinces which go to make up modern France. +But the eleventh and twelfth centuries were the golden days of these +institutions. They rendered unto the land and the people immense +service, and their monks studied not only the arts and sciences, but +worked with profound intelligence at all manner of utile labour. Their +architecture exerted a considerable influence on this growing art of the +nation, and many of their grand churches were but the forerunners of +cathedrals yet to be. After the twelfth century, when the arts in France +had reached the greatest heights yet attained, these religious +establishments were--to give them historical justice--the greatest +strength in the land. + +In most cases where the great cathedrals were not the works of bishops, +who may at one time have been members of monastic communities +themselves, they were the results of the efforts of laymen who were +direct disciples of the architect monks. + +The most prolific monastic architect was undoubtedly St. Benigne of +Dijon, the Italian monk whose work was spread not only throughout +Brittany and Normandy, but even across the Channel to England. + +One is reminded in France that the nation's first art expression was +made through church-building and decoration. This proves Ruskin's +somewhat involved dicta, that, "architecture is the art which disposes +and adorns the edifices raised by man ... a building raised to the +honour of God has surely a use to which its architectural adornment fits +it." + +From whatever remote period the visible history of France has sprung, it +is surely from its architectural remains--of which religious edifices +have endured the most abundantly--that its chronicles since Gallo-Roman +times are built up. + +In the south of France, from the Gallic and Roman wars and invasions, we +have a basis of tangibility, inasmuch as the remains are more numerous +and definite than the mere pillars of stone and slabs of rock to be +found in Bretagne, which apocryphally are supposed to indicate an +earlier civilization. The _menhirs_ and _dolmens_ may mean much or +little; the subject is too vague to follow here, but they are not found +east of the Rhone, so the religion of fanaticism, of whatever species of +fervour they may have resulted from, has left very little impress on +France as a nation. + +After the rudest early monuments were erected in the south, became +ruined, and fell, there followed gateways, arches, aqueducts, arenas, +theatres, temples, and, finally, churches; and from these, however +minute the stones, the later civilizing and Christianizing history of +this fair land is built up. + +It is not possible to ignore these secular and worldly contemporaries of +the great churches. It would be fatal to simulate blindness, and they +could not otherwise be overlooked. + +After the church-building era was begun, the development of the various +styles was rapid: Gothic came, bloomed, flourished, and withered away. +Then came the Renaissance, not all of it bad, but in the main entirely +unsuitable as a type of Christian architecture. + +Charles VIII. is commonly supposed to have been the introducer of the +Italian Renaissance into France, but it was to Francois I.--that great +artistic monarch and glorifier of the style in its domestic forms at +least--that its popularization was due, who shall not say far beyond its +deserts? Only in the magnificent chateaux, variously classed as Feudal, +Renaissance, and Bourbon, did it partake of details and plans which +proved glorious in their application. All had distinctly inconsistent +details grafted upon them; how could it have been otherwise with the +various fortunes of their houses? + +There is little or nothing of Gothic in the chateau architecture of +France to distinguish it from the more pronounced type which can hardly +be expressed otherwise than as "the architecture of the French +chateaux." No single word will express it, and no one type will cover +them all, so far as defining their architectural style. The castle at +Tarascon has a machicolated battlement; Coucy and Pierrefonds are +towered and turreted as only a French chateau can be; the ruined and +black-belted chateau of Angers is aught but a fortress; and Blois is an +indescribable mixture of style which varies from the magnificent to the +sordid. This last has ever been surrounded by a sentiment which is +perhaps readily enough explained, but its architecture is of that +decidedly mixed type which classes it as a mere hybrid thing, and in +spite of the splendour of the additions by the houses of the Salamander +and the Hedgehog, it is a species which is as indescribable (though more +effective) in domestic architecture as is the Tudor of England. + +With the churches the sentiments aroused are somewhat different. The +Romanesque, Provencal, Auvergnian, or Aquitanian, all bespeak the real +expression of the life of the time, regardless of whether individual +examples fall below or rise above their contemporaries elsewhere. + +The assertion is here confidently made, that a great cathedral church +is, next to being a symbol of the faith, more great as a monument to its +age and environment than as the product of its individual builders; +crystallizing in stone the regard with which the mission of the Church +was held in the community. Church-building was never a fanaticism, +though it was often an enthusiasm. + +There is no question but that church history in general, and church +architecture in particular, are becoming less and less the sole pursuit +of the professional. One does not need to adopt a transcendent doctrine +by merely taking an interest, or an intelligent survey, in the social +and political aspects of the Church as an institution, nor is he +becoming biassed or prejudiced by a true appreciation of the symbolism +and artistic attributes which have ever surrounded the art of +church-building of the Roman Catholic Church. All will admit that the +aesthetic aspect of the church edifice has always been the superlative +art expression of its era, race, and locality. + + + + +_PART II_ + +_South of the Loire_ + + + + +I + +INTRODUCTORY + + +The region immediately to the southward of the Loire valley is generally +accounted the most fertile, abundant, and prosperous section of France. +Certainly the food, drink, and shelter of all classes appear to be +arranged on a more liberal scale than elsewhere; and this, be it +understood, is a very good indication of the prosperity of a country. + +Touraine, with its luxurious sentiment of chateaux, counts, and bishops, +is manifestly of the north, as also is the border province of Maine and +Anjou, which marks the progress and development of church-building from +the manifest Romanesque types of the south to the arched vaults of the +northern variety. + +Immediately to the southward--if one journeys but a few leagues--in +Poitou, Saintonge, and Angoumois, or in the east, in Berri, Marche, and +Limousin, one comes upon a very different sentiment indeed. There is an +abundance for all, but without the opulence of Burgundy or the splendour +of Touraine. + +Of the three regions dealt with in this section, Poitou is the most +prosperous, Auvergne the most picturesque,--though the Cevennes are +stern and sterile,--and Limousin the least appealing. + +Limousin and, in some measure, Berri and Marche are purely pastoral; +and, though greatly diversified as to topography, lack, in abundance, +architectural monuments of the first rank. + +Poitou, in the west, borders upon the ocean and is to a great extent +wild, rugged, and romantic. The forest region of the Bocage has ever +been a theme for poets and painters. In the extreme west of the province +is the Vendee, now the department of the same name. The struggles of its +inhabitants on behalf of the monarchical cause, in the early years of +the Revolution, is a lurid page of blood-red history that recalls one of +the most gallant struggles in the life of the monarchy. + +The people here were hardy and vigorous,--a race of landlords who lived +largely upon their own estates but still retained an attachment for the +feudatories round about, a feeling which was unknown elsewhere in +France. + +Poitiers, on the river Clain, a tributary of the Vienne, is the chief +city of Poitou. Its eight magnificent churches are greater, in the +number and extent of their charms, than any similar octette elsewhere. + +The valley of the Charente waters a considerable region to the southward +of Poitiers. "_Le bon Roi_" Henri IV. called the stream the most +charming in all his kingdom. The chief cities on its banks are La +Rochelle, the Huguenot stronghold; Rochefort, famed in worldly fashion +for its cheeses; and Angouleme, famed for its "_Duchesse_," who was also +worldly, and more particularly for its great domed cathedral of St. +Pierre. + +With Auvergne one comes upon a topographical aspect quite different from +anything seen elsewhere. + +Most things of this world are but comparative, and so with Auvergne. It +is picturesque, certainly. Le Puy has indeed been called "by one who +knows," "the most picturesque place in the world." Clermont-Ferrand is +almost equally attractive as to situation; while Puy de Dome, Riom, and +St. Nectaire form a trio of naturally picturesque topographical +features which it would be hard to equal within so small a radius +elsewhere. + +The country round about is volcanic, and the face of the landscape shows +it plainly. Clermont-Ferrand, the capital, was a populous city in Roman +times, and was the centre from which the spirit of the Church survived +and went forth anew after five consecutive centuries of devastation and +bloodshed of Vandals, Visigoths, Franks, Saracens, Carlovingians and +Capetians. + +Puy de Dome, near Clermont-Ferrand, is a massive rocky mount which rises +nearly five thousand feet above the sea-level, and presents one of those +uncommon and curious sights which one can hardly realize until he comes +immediately beneath their spell. + +Throughout this region are many broken volcanic craters and lava +streams. At Mont Dore-le-Bains are a few remains of a Roman thermal +establishment; an indication that these early settlers found--if they +did not seek--these warm springs of a unique quality, famous yet +throughout the world. + +An alleged "Druid's altar," more probably merely a _dolmen_, is situated +near St. Nectaire, a small watering-place which is also possessed of an +impressively simple, though massive, Romanesque church. + +At Issiore is the _Eglise de St. Pol_, a large and important church, +built in the eleventh century, in the Romanesque manner. Another most +interesting great church is _La Chaise Dieu_ near Le Puy, a remarkable +construction of the fourteenth century. It was originally the monastery +of the _Casa Dei_. It has been popularly supposed heretofore that its +floor was on a level with the summit of Puy de Dome, hence its +appropriate nomenclature; latterly the assertion has been refuted, as it +may be by any one who takes the trouble to compare the respective +elevations in figures. This imposing church ranks, however, unreservedly +among the greatest of the mediaeval monastic establishments of France. + +The powerful feudal system of the Middle Ages, which extended from the +Atlantic and German Oceans nearly to the Neapolitan and Spanish +borders--afterward carried still farther into Naples and Britain--finds +its most important and striking monument of central France in the +Chateau of Polignac, only a few miles from Le Puy. This to-day is but a +ruin, but it rises boldly from a depressed valley, and suggests in every +way--ruin though it be--the mediaeval stronghold that it once was. + +Originally it was the seat of the distinguished family whose name it +bears. The Revolution practically destroyed it, but such as is left +shows completely the great extent of its functions both as a fortress +and a palace. + +These elements were made necessary by long ages of warfare and +discord,--local in many cases, but none the less bloodthirsty for +that,--and while such institutions naturally promulgated the growth of +Feudalism which left these massive and generous memorials, it is hard to +see, even to-day, how else the end might have been obtained. + +Auvergne, according to Fergusson, who in his fact has seldom been found +wanting, "has one of the most beautiful and numerous of the +'round-Gothic' styles in France ... classed among the perfected styles +of Europe." + +Immediately to the southward of Le Puy is that marvellous country known +as the Cevennes. It has been commonly called sterile, bare, +unproductive, and much that is less charitable as criticism. + +It is not very productive, to be sure, but a native of the land once +delivered himself of this remark: "_Le murier a ete pendant longtemps +l'arbre d'or du Cevenol._" This is prima-facie evidence that the first +statement was a libel. + +In the latter years of the eighteenth century the Protestants of the +Cevennes were a large and powerful body of dissenters. + +A curious work _in English_, written by a native of Languedoc in 1703, +states "that they were at least ten to one Papist. And 'twas observed, +in many Places, the Priest said mass only for his Clerk, Himself, and +the Walls." + +These people were not only valiant but industrious, and at that time +held the most considerable trade in wool of all France. + +To quote again this eighteenth-century Languedocian, who aspired to be a +writer of English, we learn: + +"God vouchsafed to Illuminate this People with the Truths of the Gospel, +several Ages before the Reformation.... The _Waldenses_ and _Albigenses_ +fled into the Mountains to escape the violence of the Crusades against +them.... Cruel persecution did not so wholly extinguish the Sacred Light +in the _Cevennes_, but that some parts of it were preserved among its +Ashes." + +As early as 1683 the Protestants in many parts of southern France drew +up a _Project_ of non-compliance with the Edicts and Declarations +against them. + +The inhabitants in general, however, of the wealthy cities of +Montpellier, Nimes and Uzes were divided much as factions are to-day, +and the Papist preference prevailing, the scheme was not put into +execution. Because of this, attempted resistance was made only in some +parts of the Cevennes and Dauphine. Here the dissenters met with comfort +and assurance by the preachings of several ministers, and finally sought +to go out proselytizing among their outside brethren in affliction. This +brought martyrdom, oppression, and bloodshed; and finally culminated in +a long series of massacres. Children in large numbers were taken from +their parents, and put under the Romish faith, as a precaution, +presumably, that future generations should be more tractable and +faithful. + +It is told of the Bishop of Alais that upon visiting the cure at Vigan, +he desired that forty children should be so put away, forthwith. The +cure could find but sixteen who were not dutiful toward the Church, but +the bishop would have none of it. Forty was his quota from that village, +and forty must be found. Forty _were_ found, the rest being made up +from those who presumably stood in no great need of the care of the +Church, beyond such as already came into their daily lives. + +It seems outrageous and unfair at this late day, leaving all question of +Church and creed outside the pale, but most machination of arbitrary law +and ruling works the same way, and pity 'tis that the Church should not +have been the first to recognize this tendency. However, these +predilections on the part of the people are scarcely more than a memory +to-day, in spite of the fact that Protestantism still holds forth in +many parts. Taine was undoubtedly right when he said that it was +improbable that such a religion would ever satisfy the French +temperament. + +Limousin partakes of many of the characteristics of Auvergne and Poitou. +Its architectural types favour the latter, and its topographical +features the former. The resemblance is not so very great in either +case, but it is to be remarked. Its chief city, Limoges, lies to the +northward of the _Montagnes du Limousin_, on the banks of the Vienne, +which, through the Loire, enters the Atlantic at St. Nazaire. + +In a way, its topographical situation, as above noted, accounts far +more for its tendencies of life, the art expression of its churches, and +its ancient enamels and pottery of to-day, than does its climatic +situation. It is climatically of the southland, but its industry and its +influences have been greatly northern. + +With the surrounding country this is not true, but with its one centre +of population--Limoges--it is. + + + + +II + +L'ABBAYE DE MAILLEZAIS + + +Maillezais is but a memory, so far as its people and power are +concerned. It is not even a Vendean town, as many suppose, though it was +the seat of a thirteenth-century bishopric, which in the time of Louis +Quatorze was transferred to La Rochelle. + +Its abbey church, the oldest portion of which dates from the tenth to +the twelfth centuries, is now but a ruin. + +In the fourteenth century the establishment was greatly enlarged and +extensive buildings added. + +To-day it is classed, by the Commission des Monuments Historiques, among +those treasures for which it stands sponsor as to their antiquity, +artistic worth, and future preservation. Aside from this and the record +of the fact that it became, in the fourteenth century, the seat of a +bishop's throne,--with Geoffroy I. as its first occupant,--it must be +dismissed without further comment. + +[Illustration] + + + + +III + +ST. LOUIS DE LA ROCHELLE + + +The city of La Rochelle will have more interest for the lover of history +than for the lover of churches. + +Its past has been lurid, and the momentous question of the future rights +of the Protestants of France made this natural stronghold the +battle-ground where the most stubborn resistance against Church and +State was made. + +The siege of 1573 was unsuccessful. But a little more than half a +century later the city, after a siege of fourteen months, gave way +before the powerful force brought against it by Cardinal Richelieu in +person, supported by Louis XIII. + +For this reason, if for no other, he who would know from personal +acquaintance the ground upon which the mighty battles of the faith were +fought will not pass the Huguenot city quickly by. + +The Huguenot stronghold of La Rochelle naturally might not be supposed +to possess a very magnificent Roman cathedral. As a matter of fact it +does not, and it has only ranked as a cathedral city since 1665, when +the bishopric was transferred from Maillezais. The city was in the hands +of the Huguenots from 1557 until the siege of 1628-1629; and was, during +all this time, the bulwark of the Protestant cause in France. + +The present cathedral of St. Louis dates only from 1735. + +Its pseudo-classic features classify it as one of those structures +designated by the discerning Abbe Bourasse as being "cold-blooded and +lacking in lustre." + +It surely is all of that, and the pity is that it offers no charm +whatever of either shape or feature. + +It is of course more than likely that Huguenot influence was here so +great as to have strangled any ambition on the part of the mediaeval +builders to have erected previously anything more imposing. And when +that time was past came also the demise of Gothic splendour. The +transition from the pointed to the superimposed classical details, which +was the distinctive Renaissance manner of church-building, was not as +sudden as many suppose, though it came into being simultaneously +throughout the land. + +There is no trace, however, in the cathedral of St. Louis, of anything +but a base descent to features only too well recognized as having little +of churchly mien about them; and truly this structure is no better or +worse as an art object than many others of its class. The significant +aspect being that, though it resembles Gothic not at all, neither does +it bear any close relationship to the Romanesque. + +The former parish church of St. Barthelemy, long since destroyed, has +left behind, as a memory of its former greatness, a single lone tower, +the work of a Cluniac monk, Mognon by name. It is worth hours of +contemplation and study as compared with the minutes which could +profitably be devoted to the cathedral of St. Louis. + +[Illustration] + + + + +IV + +CATHEDRALE DE LUCON + + +When the see of Lucon was established in the fourteenth century it +comprehended a territory over which Poitiers had previously had +jurisdiction. A powerful abbey was here in the seventh century, but the +first bishop, Pierre de la Veyrie, did not come to the diocese until +1317. The real fame of the diocese, in modern minds, lies in the fact +that Cardinal Richelieu was made bishop of Lucon in the seventeenth +century (1606 to 1624). + +The cathedral at Lucon is a remarkable structure in appearance. A hybrid +conglomerate thing, picturesque enough to the untrained eye, but +ill-proportioned, weak, effeminate, and base. + +Its graceful Gothic spire, crocketed, and of true dwindling dimensions, +is superimposed on a tower which looks as though it might have been +modelled with a series of children's building-blocks. This in its turn +crowns a classical portal and colonnade in most uncanny fashion. + +In the first stage of this tower, as it rises above the portal, is what, +at a distance, appears to be a diminutive _rosace_. In reality it is an +enormous clock-face, to which one's attention is invariably directed by +the native, a species of local admiration which is universal throughout +the known world wherever an ungainly clock exists. + +The workmanship of the building as a whole is of every century from the +twelfth to the seventeenth, with a complete "restoration" in 1853. In +the episcopal palace is a cloistered arcade, the remains of a +fifteenth-century work. + +A rather pleasing situation sets off this pretentious but unworthy +cathedral in a manner superior to that which it deserves. + +[Illustration] + + + + +V + +ST. FRONT DE PERIGUEUX + + +The grandest and most notable tenth-century church yet remaining in +France is unquestionably that of St. Front at Perigueux. + +From the records of its history and a study of its distinctive +constructive elements has been traced the development of the transition +period which ultimately produced the Gothic splendours of the Isle of +France. + +It is more than reminiscent of St. Marc's at Venice, and is the most +notable exponent of that type of roofing which employed the cupola in +groups, to sustain the thrust and counterthrust, which was afterward +accomplished by the ogival arch in conjunction with the flying +buttress. + +Here are comparatively slight sustaining walls, and accordingly no great +roofed-over chambers such as we get in the later Gothic, but the whole +mass is, in spite of this, suggestive of a massiveness which many more +heavily walled churches do not possess. Paradoxically, too, a view over +its roof-top, with its ranges of egg-like domes, suggests a frailty +which but for its scientifically disposed strains would doubtless have +collapsed ere now. + +This ancient abbatial church succeeded an earlier _basilique_ on the +same site. Viollet-le-Duc says of it: "It is an importation from a +foreign country; the most remarkable example of church-building in Gaul +since the barbaric invasion." + +The plan of the cathedral follows not only the form of St. Marc's, but +also approximates its dimensions. The remains of the ancient basilica +are only to be remarked in the portion which precedes the foremost +cupola. + +St. Front has the unusual attribute of an _avant-porch_,--a sort of +primitive narthen, as was a feature of tenth-century buildings (see plan +and descriptions of a tenth-century church in appendix), behind which is +a second porch,--a vestibule beneath the tower,--and finally the first +of the group, of five central cupolas. + +The _clocher_ or belfry of St. Front is accredited as being one of the +most remarkable eleventh-century erections of its kind in any land. It +is made up of square stages, each smaller than the other, and crowned +finally by a conic cupola. + +Its early inception and erection here are supposed to account for the +similarity of others--not so magnificent, but like to a marked +degree--in the neighbouring provinces. + +Here is no trace of the piled-up tabouret style of later centuries, and +it is far removed from the mosque-like minarets which were the undoubted +prototypes of the mediaeval clochers. So, too, it is different, quite, +from the Italian _campanile_ or the _beffroi_ which crept into civic +architecture in the north; but whose sole example in the south of France +is believed to be that curious structure which still holds forth in the +papal city of Avignon. + +Says Bourasse: "The cathedral of St. Front at Perigueux is unique." Its +foundation dates with certitude from between 1010 and 1047, and is +therefore contemporary with that of St. Marc's at Venice--which it so +greatly resembles--which was rebuilt after a fire between 977 and 1071. + +[Illustration: _Detail of the Interior of St. Front de Perigueux_] + +The general effect of the interior is as impressive as it is unusual, +with its lofty cupolas, its weighty and gross pillars, and its massive +arches between the cupolas; all of which are purely constructive +elements. + +There are few really ornamental details, and such as exist are of a +severe and unprogressive type, being merely reminiscent of the antique. + +In its general plan, St. Front follows that of a Grecian cross, its +twelve wall-faces crowned by continuous pediments. Eight massive +pillars, whose functions are those of the later developed buttress, +flank the extremities of the cross, and are crowned by pyramidal cupolas +which, with the main roofing, combine to give that distinctive character +to this unusual and "foreign" cathedral of mid-France. + +St. Front, from whom the cathedral takes its name, became the first +bishop of Perigueux when the see was founded in the second century. + + + + +VI + +ST. PIERRE DE POITIERS + + +IN 1317 the diocese of Poitiers was divided, and parts apportioned to +the newly founded bishoprics of Maillezais and Lucon. The first bishop +of Poitiers was St. Nectaire, in the third century. By virtue of the +Concordat of 1801 the diocese now comprehends the Departments of Vienne +and Deux-Sevres. + +The cathedral of St. Pierre de Poitiers has been baldly and tersely +described as a "mere Lombard shell with a Gothic porch." This hardly +does it justice, even as to preciseness. The easterly portion is +Lombard, without question, and the nave is of the northern pointed +variety; a not unusual admixture of feature, but one which can but +suggest that still more, much more, is behind it. + +The pointed nave is of great beauty, and, in the westerly end, contains +an elaborate _rosace_--an infrequent attribute in these parts. + +[Illustration: Poitiers] + +The aisles are of great breadth, and are quite as lofty in +proportion. This produces an effect of great amplitude, nearly as much +so as of the great halled churches at Albi or the aisleless St. Andre at +Bordeaux, and contrasts forcibly in majesty with the usual Gothic +conception of great height, as against extreme width. + +Of Poitiers Professor Freeman says: "It is no less a city of counts than +Angers; and if Counts of Anjou grew into Kings of England, one Countess +of Poitiers grew no less into a Queen of England; and when the young +Henry took her to wife, he took all Poitou with her, and Aquitaine and +Gascogne, too, so great was his desire for lands and power." Leaving +that aspect apart--to the historians and apologists--it is the churches +of Poitiers which have for the traveller the greatest and all-pervading +interest. + +Poitiers is justly famed for its noble and numerous mediaeval church +edifices. Five of them rank as a unique series of Romanesque types--the +most precious in all France. In importance they are perhaps best ranked +as follows: St. Hilaire, of the tenth and eleventh centuries; the +Baptistere, or the Temple St. Jean, of the fourth to twelfth centuries; +Notre Dame de la Grande and St. Radegonde, of the eleventh and twelfth +centuries; and La Cathedrale, dating from the end of the Romanesque +period. Together they present a unique series of magnificent churches, +as is truly claimed. + +When one crosses the Loire, he crosses the boundary not only into +southern Gaul but into southern Europe as well; where the very aspects +of life, as well as climatic and topographical conditions and features, +are far different from those of the northern French provinces. + +Looking backward from the Middle Ages--from the fourteenth century to +the fourth--one finds the city less a city of counts than of bishops. + +Another aspect which places Poitiers at the very head of ecclesiastical +foundations is that it sustained, and still sustains, a separate +religious edifice known as the Baptistere. It is here a structure of +Christian-Roman times, and is a feature seldom seen north of the Alps, +or even out of Italy. There is, however, another example at Le Puy and +another at Aix-en-Provence. This Baptistere de St. Jean was founded +during the reign of St. Hilaire as bishop of Poitiers, a prelate whose +name still lives in the Eglise St. Hilaire-le-Grand. + +The cathedral of St. Pierre is commonly classed under the generic style +of Romanesque; more particularly it is of the Lombard variety, if such a +distinction can be made between the two species with surety. At all +events it marks the dividing-line--or period, when the process of +evolution becomes most marked--between the almost pagan plan of many +early Christian churches and the coming of Gothic. + +In spite of its prominence and its beauty with regard to its +accessories, St. Pierre de Poitiers does not immediately take rank as +the most beautiful, nor yet the most interesting, among the churches of +the city: neither has it the commanding situation of certain other +cathedrals of the neighbouring provinces, such as Notre Dame at Le Puy, +St. Maurice at Angers, or St. Front at Perigueux. In short, as to +situation, it just misses what otherwise might have been a commanding +location. + +St. Radegonde overhangs the river Clain, but is yet far below the +cathedral, which stands upon the eastern flank of an eminence, and from +many points is lost entirely to view. From certain distant +vantage-ground, the composition is, however, as complete and imposing an +ensemble as might be desired, but decidedly the nearer view is not so +pleasing, and somewhat mitigates the former estimate. + +There is a certain uncouthness in the outlines of this church that does +not bring it into competition with that class of the great churches of +France known as _les grandes cathedrales_. + +The general outline of the roof--omitting of course the scanty +transepts--is very reminiscent of Bourges; and again of Albi. The +ridge-pole is broken, however, by a slight differentiation of height +between the choir and the nave, and the westerly towers scarcely rise +above the roof itself. + +The easterly termination is decidedly unusual, even unto peculiarity. It +is not, after the English manner, of the squared east-end variety, nor +yet does it possess an apse of conventional form, but rather is a +combination of the two widely differing styles, with considerably more +than a suggested apse when viewed from the interior, and merely a flat +bare wall when seen from the outside. In addition three diminutive +separate apses are attached thereto, and present in the completed +arrangement a variation or species which is distinctly local. + +The present edifice dates from 1162, its construction being largely due +to the Countess Eleanor, queen to the young Earl Henry. + +The high altar was dedicated in 1199, but the choir itself was not +finished until a half-century later. + +There is no triforium or clerestory, and, but for the aisles, the +cathedral would approximate the dimensions and interior outlines of that +great chambered church at Albi; as it is, it comes well within the +classification called by the Germans _hallenkirche_. + +Professor Freeman has said that a church that has aisles can hardly be +called a typical Angevin church; but St. Pierre de Poitiers is +distinctly Angevin in spite of the loftiness of its walls and pillars. + +The west front is the most elaborate constructive element and is an +addition of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, with flanking towers +of the same period which stand well forward and to one side, as at +Rouen, and at Wells, in England. + +The western doorway is decorated with sculptures of the fifteenth +century, in a manner which somewhat suggests the work of the northern +builders; who, says Fergusson, "were aiding the bishops of the southern +dioceses to emulate in some degree the ambitious works of the Isle of +France." + +The ground-plan of this cathedral is curious, and shows, in its interior +arrangements, a narrowing or drawing in of parts toward the east. This +is caused mostly by the decreasing effect of height between the nave and +choir, and the fact that the attenuated transepts are hardly more than +suggestions--occupying but the width of one bay. + +The nave of eight bays and the aisles are of nearly equal height, which +again tends to produce an effect of length. + +There is painted glass of the thirteenth century in small quantity, and +a much larger amount of an eighteenth-century product, which shows--as +always--the decadence of the art. Of this glass, that of the _rosace_ at +the westerly end is perhaps the best, judging from the minute portions +which can be seen peeping out from behind the organ-case. + +The present high altar is a modern work, as also--comparatively--are the +tombs of various churchmen which are scattered throughout the nave and +choir. In the sacristy, access to which is gained by some mystic rite +not always made clear to the visitor, are supposed to be a series of +painted portraits of all the former bishops of Poitiers, from the +fourteenth century onward. It must be an interesting collection if the +outsider could but judge for himself; as things now are, it has to be +taken on faith. + +A detail of distinct value, and a feature which shows a due regard for +the abilities of the master workman who built the cathedral, though his +name is unknown, is to be seen in the tympana of the canopies which +overhang the stalls of the choir. Here is an acknowledgment--in a +tangible if not a specific form--of the architectural genius who was +responsible for the construction of this church. It consists of a +sculptured figure in stone, which bears in its arms a compass and a T +square. This suggests the possible connection between the Masonic craft +and church-building of the Middle Ages; a subject which has ever been a +vexed question among antiquaries, and one which doubtless ever will be. + +The episcopal residence adjoins the cathedral on the right, and the +charming Baptistere St. Jean is also close to the walls of, but quite +separate from, the main building of the cathedral. + +The other architectural attractions of Poitiers are nearly as great as +its array of churches. + +The Musee is exceedingly rich in archaeological treasures. The +present-day Palais de Justice was the former palace of the Counts of +Poitou. It has a grand chamber in its _Salle des Pas-perdus_, which +dates from the twelfth to fourteenth centuries as to its decorations. +The ramparts of the city are exceedingly interesting and extensive. In +the modern hotel de ville are a series of wall decorations by Puvis de +Chavannes. The Hotel d'Aquitaine (sixteenth century), in the Grand Rue, +was the former residence of the Priors of St. John of Jerusalem. + +The _Chronique de Maillezais_ tells of a former bishop of Poitiers who, +about the year 1114, sought to excommunicate that gay prince and poet, +William, the ninth Count of Poitiers, the earliest of that race of poets +known as the troubadours. Coming into the count's presence to repeat the +formula of excommunication, he was threatened with the sword of that gay +prince. Thinking better, however, the count admonished him thus: "No, I +will not. I do not love you well enough to send you to paradise." He +took upon himself, though, to exercise his royal prerogative; and +henceforth, for his rash edict, the bishop of Poitiers was banished for +ever, and the see descended unto other hands. + +The generally recognized reputation of William being that of a "_grand +trompeur des dames_," this action was but a duty which the honest +prelate was bound to perform, disastrous though the consequences might +be. Still he thought not of that, and was not willing to accept +palliation for the count's venial sins in the shape of that nobleman's +capacities as the first chanter of his time,--poetic measures of +doubtful morality. + + + + +VII + +ST. ETIENNE DE LIMOGES + + "_Les Limosinats_ leave their cities poor, and they return + poor, after long years of labour." + + --DE LA BEDOLLIERE. + + +Limoges was the capital around which centred the life and activities of +the _pays du Limousin_ when that land marked the limits of the domain of +the Kings of France. (Guienne then being under other domination.) + +The most ancient inhabitants of the province were known as _Lemovices_, +but the transition and evolution of the vocable are easily followed to +that borne by the present city of Limoges, perhaps best known of art +lovers as the home of that school of fifteenth century artists who +produced the beautiful works called _Emaux de Limoges_. + +[Illustration: _St. Etienne de Limoges_] + +The earliest specimens of what has come to be popularly known as Limoges +enamel date from the twelfth century; and the last of the great +masters in the splendid art died in 1765. + +The real history of this truly great art, which may be said to have +taken its highest forms in ecclesiology,--of which examples are +frequently met with in the sacristies of the cathedral churches of +France and elsewhere--is vague to the point of obscurity. A study of the +subject, deep and profound, is the only process by which one can acquire +even a nodding acquaintance with all its various aspects. + +It reached its greatest heights in the reign of that artistic monarch, +Francois I. To-day the memory and suggestion of the art of the +enamelists of Limoges are perpetuated by, and, through those cursory +mentors, the guide-books and popular histories, often confounded with, +the production of porcelain. This industry not only flourishes here, but +the famous porcelain earth of the country round about is supplied even +to the one-time royal factory of Sevres. + +St. Martial was the first prelate at Limoges, in the third century. The +diocese is to-day a suffragan of Bourges, and its cathedral of St. +Etienne, while not a very ancient structure, is most interesting as to +its storied past and varied and lively composition. + +Beneath the western tower are the remains of a Romanesque portal which +must have belonged to an older church; but to all intents and purposes +St. Etienne is to-day a Gothic church after the true northern manner. + +It was begun in 1273 under the direct influence of the impetus given to +the Gothic development by the erection of Notre Dame d'Amiens, and in +all its parts,--choir, transept, and nave,--its development and growth +have been most pleasing. + +From the point of view of situation this cathedral is more attractively +placed than many another which is located in a city which perforce must +be ranked as a purely commercial and manufacturing town. From the Pont +Neuf, which crosses the Vienne, the view over the gardens of the +bishop's palace and the Quai de l'Eveche is indeed grand and imposing. + +Chronologically the parts of this imposing church run nearly the gamut +of the Gothic note--from the choir of the thirteenth, the transepts of +the fourteenth and fifteenth, to the nave of the early sixteenth +centuries. This nave has only latterly been completed, and is preceded +by the elegant octagonal tower before mentioned. This _clocher_ is a +thirteenth-century work, and rises something over two hundred and four +feet above the pavement. + +In the north transept is a grand rose window after the true French +mediaeval excellence and magnitude, showing once again the northern +spirit under which the cathedral-builders of Limoges worked. + +In reality the facade of this north transept might be called the true +front of the cathedral. The design of its portal is elaborate and +elegant. A series of carved figures in stone are set against the wall of +the choir just beyond the transept. They depict the martyrdom of St. +Etienne. + +The interior will first of all be remarked for its abundant and +splendidly coloured glass. This glass is indeed of the quality which in +a later day has often been lacking. It dates from the fourteenth and +fifteenth centuries, except a part, readily discernible, which is of the +nineteenth. + +The remains of a precious choir-screen are yet very beautiful. It has +been removed from its original position and its stones arranged in much +disorder. Still it is a manifestly satisfying example of the art of the +stone-carver of the Renaissance period. It dates from 1543. Bishop +Langeac (d. 1541), who caused it to be originally erected, is buried +close by, beneath a contemporary monument. Bishops Bernard Brun (d. +1349) and Raynaud de la Porte (d. 1325) have also Renaissance monuments +which will be remarked for their excess of ornament and elaboration. + +In the crypt of the eleventh century, presumably the remains of the +Romanesque church whose portal is beneath the western tower, are some +remarkable wall paintings thought to be of a contemporary era. If so, +they must rank among the very earliest works of their class. + +The chief treasures of the cathedral are a series of enamels which are +set into a reredos (the canon's altar in the sacristy). They are the +work of the master, Noel Loudin, in the seventeenth century. + +In the Place de l'Hotel de Ville is a monumental fountain in bronze and +porcelain, further enriched after the manner of the mediaeval enamel +workers. + +The _collection de ceramique_ in the Musee is unique in France, or for +that matter in all the world. + +The _ateliers de Limoges_ were first established in the thirteenth +century by the monks of the Abbey of Solignac. + +A remarkable example of the work of the _emailleurs limousins_ is the +twelfth-century reliquary of Thomas a Becket, one-time Archbishop of +Canterbury. + +[Illustration: _Reliquary of Thomas a Becket_] + +At the rear of the cathedral the Vienne is crossed by the +thirteenth-century bridge of St. Etienne. Like the cathedrals, chateaux, +and city walls, the old bridges of France, where they still remain, are +masterworks of their kind. To connect them more closely with the cause +of religion, it is significant that they mostly bore the name of, and +were dedicated to, some local saint. + + + + +VIII + +ST. ODILON DE ST. FLOUR + + +Though an ancient Christianizing centre, St. Flour is not possessed of a +cathedral which gives it any great rank as a "cathedral town." + +The bishopric was founded in 1318, by Raimond de Vehens, and the present +cathedral of St. Odilon is on the site of an ancient basilica. It was +begun in 1375, dedicated in 1496, and finished--so far as a great church +ever comes to its completion--in 1556. + +Its exterior is strong and massive, but harmonious throughout. Its +facade has three portals, flanked by two square towers, which are capped +with modern _couronnes_. + +The interior shows five small naves; that is, the nave proper, with two +aisles on either side. + +Beside the western doorway are somewhat scanty traces of mediaeval mural +paintings depicting Purgatory, while above is the conventionally +disposed organ _buffet_. + +A fine painting of the late French school is in one of the side chapels, +and represents an incident from the life of St. Vincent de Paul. In +another chapel is a bas-relief in stone of "The Last Judgment," +reproduced from that which is yet to be seen in the north portal of +Notre Dame de Reims. In the chapel of St. Anthony of Padua is a painting +of the "Holy Family," and in another--that of Ste. Anne--a remarkable +work depicting the "Martyred St. Symphorien at Autun." + +In the lower ranges of the choir is some fine modern glass by Thevenot, +while high above the second range is a venerated statue of _Le Christ +Noir_. + +From this catalogue it will be inferred that the great attractions of +the cathedral at St. Flour are mainly the artistic accessories with +which it has been embellished. + +There are no remarkably beautiful or striking constructive elements, +though the plan is hardy and not unbeautiful. It ranks among cathedrals +well down in the second class, but it is a highly interesting church +nevertheless. + +A chapel in the nave gives entrance to the eighteenth-century episcopal +palace, which is in no way notable except for its beautifully laid-out +gardens and terraces. The sacristy was built in 1382 of the remains of +the ancient Chateau de St. Flour, called De Brezons, which was itself +originally built in the year 1000. + + + + +IX + +ST. PIERRE DE SAINTES + + +The chief architectural feature of this ancient town--the _Mediolanum +Santonum_, chief town of the Santoni--is not its rather uninspiring +cathedral (rebuilt in 1585), nor yet the church of St. Eutrope +(1081--96) with its underground crypt--the largest in France. + +As a historical monument of rank far more interest centres around the +Arc de Triomphe of Germanicus, which originally formed a part of the +bridge which spans the Charente at this point. It was erected in the +reign of Nero by Caius Julius Rufus, a priest of Roma and Augustus, in +memory of Germanicus, Tiberius, his uncle, and his father, Drusus. + +The bridge itself, or what was left of it, was razed in the nineteenth +century, which is of course to be regretted. A monument which could have +endured a matter of eighteen hundred years might well have been left +alone to takes its further chances with Father Time. Since then the +bridge has been rebuilt on its former site, a procedure which makes the +hiatus and the false position of the arch the more apparent. The +cloister of the cathedral, in spite of the anachronism, is in the early +Gothic manner, and the campanile is of the fifteenth century. + +Saintes became a bishopric, in the province of Bordeaux, in the third +century. St. Eutrope--whose name is perpetuated in a fine Romanesque +church of the city--was the first bishop. The year 1793 saw the +suppression of the diocesan seat here, in favour of Angouleme. + +In the main, the edifice is of a late date, in that it was entirely +rebuilt in the latter years of the sixteenth century, after having +suffered practical devastation in the religious wars of that time. + +The first mention of a cathedral church here is of a structure which +took form in 1117--the progenitor of the present edifice. Such +considerable repairs as were necessary were undertaken in the fifteenth +century, but the church seen to-day is almost entirely of the century +following. + +The most remarkable feature of note, in connection with this +_ci-devant_ cathedral, is unquestionably the luxurious flamboyant tower +of the fifteenth century. + +This really fine tower is detached from the main structure and occupies +the site of the church erected by Charlemagne in fulfilment of his vow +to Pepin, his father, after defeating Gaiffre, Duc d'Aquitaine. + +In the interior two of the bays of the transepts--which will be readily +noted--date from the twelfth century, while the nave is of the +fifteenth, and the vaulting of nave and choir--hardy and strong in every +detail--is, in part, as late as the mid-eighteenth century. + +The Eglise de St. Eutrope, before mentioned, is chiefly of the twelfth +century, though its crypt, reputedly the largest in all France, is of a +century earlier. + +Saintes is renowned to lovers of ceramics as being the birthplace of +Bernard Pallisy, the inventor of the pottery glaze; and is the scene of +many of his early experiments. A statue to his memory adorns the Place +Bassompierre near the Arc de Triomphe. + + + + +X + +CATHEDRALE DE TULLE + + +The charm of Tulle's cathedral is in its imposing and dominant +character, rather than in any inherent grace or beauty which it +possesses. + +It is not a beautiful structure; it is not even picturesquely disposed; +it is grim and gaunt, and consists merely of a nave in the severe +Romanesque-Transition manner, surmounted by a later and non-contemporary +tower and spire. + +In spite of this it looms large from every view-point in the town, and +is so lively a component of the busy life which surrounds it that it +is--in spite of its severity of outline--a very appealing church edifice +in more senses than one. + +[Illustration: CATHEDRALE _de TULLE...._] + +Its tall, finely-proportioned tower and spire, which indeed is the chief +attribute of grace and symmetry, is of the fourteenth century, and, +though plain and primitive in its outlines, is far more pleasing than +the crocketed and rococo details which in a later day were composed into +something which was thought to be a spire. + +In the earliest days of its history, this rather bare and cold church +was a Benedictine monastery whose primitive church dated as far back as +the seventh century. There are yet remains of a cloister which may have +belonged to the early church of this monastic house, and as such is +highly interesting, and withal pleasing. + +The bishopric was founded in 1317 by Arnaud de St. Astier. The +Revolution caused much devastation here in the precincts of this +cathedral, which was first stripped of its _tresor_, and finally of its +dignity, when the see was abolished. + + + + +XI + +ST. PIERRE D'ANGOULEME + + +Angouleme is often first called to mind by its famous or notorious +Duchesse, whose fame is locally perpetuated by a not very suitable +column, erected in the Promenade Beaulieu in 1815. There is certainly a +wealth of romance to be conjured up from the recollection of the famous +Counts of Angouleme and their adherents, who made their residence in the +ancient chateau which to-day forms in part the Hotel de Ville, and in +part the prison. Here in this chateau was born Marguerite de Valois, the +Marguerite of Marguerites, as Francois I. called her; here took welcome +shelter, Marie de Medici after her husband's assassination; and here, +too, much more of which history tells. + +[Illustration: ST. PIERRE ... _a' ANGOULEME_] + +What most histories do not tell is that the cathedral of St. Pierre +d'Angouleme, with the cathedral of St. Front at Perigueux and Notre Dame +de Poitiers, ranks at the very head of that magnificent architectural +style known as Aquitanian. + +St. Ansone was the first bishop of the diocese--in the third century. +The see was then, as now, a suffragan of Bordeaux. Religious wars, here +as throughout Aquitaine, were responsible for a great unrest among the +people, as well as the sacrilege and desecration of church property. + +The most marked spoliation was at the hands of the Protestant Coligny, +the effects of whose sixteenth-century ravages are yet visible in the +cathedral. + +A monk--Michel Grillet--was hung to a mulberry-tree,--which stood where +now is the Place du Murier (mulberry),--by Coligny, who was reviled thus +in the angry dying words of the monk: "You shall be thrown out of the +window like Jezebel, and shall be ignominiously dragged through the +streets." This prophecy did not come true, but Coligny died an +inglorious death in 1572, at the instigation of the Duc de Guise. + +This cathedral ranks as one of the most curious in France, and, with its +alien plan and details, has ever been the object of the profound +admiration of all who have studied its varied aspects. + +Mainly it is a twelfth-century edifice throughout, in spite of the +extensive restorations of the nineteenth century, which have eradicated +many crudities that might better have been allowed to remain. It is +ranked by the Ministere des Beaux Arts as a _Monument Historique_. + +The west front, in spite of the depredations before, during, and after +the Revolution, is notable for its rising tiers of round-headed arches +seated firmly on proportionate though not gross columns, its statued +niches, the rich bas-reliefs of the tympanum of its portal, the +exquisite arabesques, of lintel, frieze, and archivolt, and, above all, +its large central arch with _Vesica piscis_, and the added decorations +of emblems of the evangels and angels. In addition to all this, which +forms a gallery of artistic details in itself, the general disposition +of parts is luxurious and remarkable. + +As a whole, St. Pierre is commonly credited as possessing the finest +Lombard detail to be found in the north; some say outside of Italy. +Certainly it is prodigious in its splendour, whatever may be one's +predilections for or against the expression of its art. + +The church follows in general plan the same distinctive style. Its +tower, too, is Lombard, likewise the rounded apside, and--though the +church is of the elongated Latin or cruciform ground-plan--its +possession of a great central dome (with three others above the +nave--and withal aisleless) points certainly to the great domed churches +of the Lombard plain for its ancestry. + +The western dome is of the eleventh century, the others of the twelfth. +Its primitiveness has been more or less distorted by later additions, +made necessary by devastation in the sixteenth century, but it ranks +to-day, with St. Front at Perigueux, as the leading example of the style +known as Aquitanian. + +Above the western portal is a great window, very tall and showing in its +glass a "Last Judgment." + +A superb tower ends off the _croisillon_ on the north and rises to the +height of one hundred and ninety-seven feet. "Next to the west front and +the domed roofing of the interior, this tower ranks as the third most +curious and remarkable feature of this unusual church." This tower, in +spite of its appealing properties, is curiously enough not the original +to which the previous descriptive lines applied; but their echo may be +heard to-day with respect to the present tower, which is a +reconstruction, of the same materials, and after the same manner, so far +as possible, as the original. + +As the most notable and peculiar details of the interior, will be +remarked the cupolas of the roof, and the lantern at the crossing, which +is pierced by twelve windows. + +For sheer beauty, and its utile purpose as well, this great _lanthorn_ +is further noted as being most unusual in either the Romanesque or +Gothic churches of France. + +The choir is apse-ended and is surrounded by four chapels of no great +prominence or beauty. + +The south transept has a _tour_ in embryo, which, had it been completed, +would doubtless have been the twin of that which terminates the transept +on the north. + +The foundations of the episcopal residence, which is immediately beside +the cathedral (restored in the nineteenth century), are very ancient. In +its garden stands a colossal statue to Comte Jean, the father of +Francois I. + +Angouleme was the residence of the Black Prince after the battle of +Poitiers, though no record remains as to where he may have lodged. A +house in the Rue de Geneve has been singled out in the past as being +where John Calvin lived in 1533, but it is not recognizable to-day. + + + + +XII + +NOTRE DAME DE MOULINS + + "_Les Bourbonnais sont aimables, mais vains, legers et facilement + oublieux, avec rien d'excessif, rien d'exuberance dans leur + nature._" + + --ANDRE ROLLAND. + + +Until he had travelled through Bourbonnais, "the sweetest part of +France--in the hey-day of the vintage," said Sterne, "I never felt the +distress of plenty." + +This is an appropriate enough observation to have been promulgated by a +latter-day traveller. Here the abundance which apparently pours forth +for every one's benefit knows no diminution one season from another. One +should not allow his pen to ramble to too great an extent in this vein, +or he will soon say with Sterne: "Just Heaven! it will fill up twenty +volumes,--and alas, there are but a few small pages!" + +[Illustration: NOTRE DAME _de MOULINS_] + +It suffices, then, to reiterate, that in this plenteous land of +mid-France there is, for all classes of man and beast, an abundance and +excellence of the harvest of the soil which makes for a fondness to +linger long within the confines of this region. Thus did the far-seeing +Bourbons, who, throughout the country which yet is called of them, set +up many magnificent establishments and ensconced themselves and their +retainers among the comforts of this world to a far greater degree than +many other ruling houses of mediaeval times. Perhaps none of the great +names, among the long lists of lords, dukes, and kings, whose lands +afterward came to make the solidarity of the all-embracing monarchy, +could be accused of curtailing the wealth of power and goods which +conquest or bloodshed could secure or save for them. + +The power of the Bourbons endured, like the English Tudors, but a +century and a half beyond the period of its supremacy; whence, from its +maturity onward, it rotted and was outrooted bodily. + +The literature of Moulins, for the English reading and speaking world, +appears to be an inconsiderable quantity. Certain romances have been +woven about the ducal chateau, and yet others concerning the +all-powerful Montmorencies, besides much history, which partakes +generously of the components of literary expression. + +In the country round about--if the traveller has come by road, or for +that matter by "_train omnibus_"--if he will but keep his eyes open, he +will have no difficulty in recognizing this picture: "A little +farmhouse, surrounded with about twenty acres of vineyard, and about as +much corn--and close to the house, on one side, a _potagerie_ of an acre +and a half, full of everything which could make plenty in a French +peasant's house--and on the other side a little wood, which furnished +wherewithal to dress it." + +To continue, could one but see into that house, the picture would in no +small degree differ from this: "A family consisting of an old, +gray-headed man and his wife, with five or six sons and sons-in-law, and +their several wives, and a joyous genealogy out of them ... all sitting +down together to their lentil soup; a large wheaten loaf in the middle +of the table; and a flagon of wine at each end of it, and promised joy +throughout the various stages of the repast." + +Where in any other than this land of plenty, for the peasant and +prosperous alike, could such a picture be drawn of the plenitude which +surrounds the home life of a son of the soil and his nearest kin? Such +an equipment of comfort and joy not only makes for a continuous and +placid contentment, but for character and ambition; in spite of all that +harum-scarum Jeremiahs may proclaim out of their little knowledge and +less sympathy with other affairs than their own. No individualism is +proclaimed, but it is intimated, and the reader may apply the +observation wherever he may think it belongs. + +Moulins is the capital of the Bourbonnais--the name given to the +province and the people alike. The derivation of the word Bourbon is +more legendary than historical, if one is to give any weight to the +discovery of a tablet at _Bourbonne-les-Bains,_ in 1830, which bore the +following dedication: + + DEO, APOL + LINI BORVONI + ET DAMONAE + C DAMINIUS + FEROX CIVIS + LINGONUS EX + VOTO + +Its later application to the land which sheltered the race is elucidated +by a French writer, thus: + +"Considering that the names of all the cities and towns known as _des +sources d'eaux thermales_ commence with either the prefix _Bour_ or +_Bor_, indicates a common origin of the word ... from the name of the +divinity which protects the waters." + +This is so plausible and picturesque a conjecture that it would seem to +be true. + +Archaeologists have singled out from among the most beautiful _chapelles +seigneuriales_ the one formerly contained in the ducal palace of the +Bourbons at Moulins. This formed, of course, a part of that gaunt, +time-worn fabric which faces the westerly end of the cathedral. + +Little there is to-day to suggest this splendour, and for such one has +to look to those examples yet to be seen at Chambord or Chenonceaux, or +that of the Maison de Jacques Coeur at Bourges, with which, in its +former state, this private chapel of the Bourbons was a contemporary. + +The other chief attraction of Moulins is the theatrical Mausolee de +Henri de Montmorency, a seventeenth-century work which is certainly +gorgeous and splendid in its magnificence, if not in its aesthetic value +as an art treasure. + +The fresh, modern-looking cathedral of Notre Dame de Moulins is a more +ancient work than it really looks, though in its completed form it dates +only from the late nineteenth century, when the indefatigable +Viollet-le-Duc erected the fine twin towers and completed the western +front. + +The whole effect of this fresh-looking edifice is of a certain elegance, +though in reality of no great luxuriousness. + +The portal is deep but unornamented, and the rose window above is of +generous design, though not actually so great in size as at first +appears. Taken _tout ensemble_ this west front--of modern design and +workmanship--is far more expressive of the excellent and true +proportions of the mediaeval workers than is usually the case. + +The spires are lofty (312 feet) and are decidedly the most beautiful +feature of the entire design. + +The choir, the more ancient portion (1465-1507), expands into a more +ample width than the nave and has a curiously squared-off termination +which would hardly be described as an apside, though the effect is +circular when viewed from within. The choir, too, rises to a greater +height than the nave, and, though there is no very great discrepancy in +style between the easterly and westerly ends, the line of demarcation is +readily placed. The square flanking chapels of the choir serve to give +an ampleness to the ambulatory which is unusual, and in the exterior +present again a most interesting arrangement and effect. + +The cathedral gives on the west on the Place du Chateau, with the bare, +broken wall of the ducal chateau immediately _en face_, and the +Gendarmerie, which occupies a most interestingly picturesque Renaissance +building, is immediately to the right. + +The interior arrangements of this brilliant cathedral church are quite +as pleasing and true as the exterior. There is no poverty in design or +decoration, and no overdeveloped luxuriance, except for the accidence of +the Renaissance tendencies of its time. + +There is no flagrant offence committed, however, and the ambulatory of +the choir and its queer overhanging gallery at the rear of the altar are +the only unusual features from the conventional decorated Gothic plan; +if we except the _baldachino_ which covers the altar-table, and which +is actually hideous in its enormity. + +The bishop's throne, curiously enough,--though the custom is, it +appears, very, very old,--is placed _behind_ the high-altar. + +The triforium and clerestory of the choir have gracefully heightened +arches supported by graceful pillars, which give an effect of exceeding +lightness. + +In the nave the triforium is omitted, and the clerestory only overtops +the pillars of nave and aisles. + +The transepts are not of great proportions, but are not in any way +attenuated. + +Under the high-altar is a "Holy Sepulchre" of the sixteenth century, +which is penetrated by an opening which gives on the ambulatory of the +choir. + +There is a bountiful display of coloured glass of the Renaissance +period, and, in the sacristy, a _triptych_ attributed to Ghirlandajo. + +There are no other artistic accessories of note, and the cathedral +depends, in the main, for its satisfying qualities in its general +completeness and consistency. + + + + +XIII + +NOTRE DAME DE LE PUY + + "Under the sun of the _Midi_ I have seen the Pyrenees and the Alps, + crowned in rose and silver, but I best love Auvergne and its bed of + gorse." + + --PIERRE DE NOLHAC. + + +Le Puy has been called--by a discerning traveller--and rightly enough, +too, in the opinion of most persons--"_the most picturesque spot in the +world_." Whether every visitor thereto will endorse this unqualifiedly +depends somewhat on his view-point, and still more on his ability to +discriminate. + +Le Puy certainly possesses an unparalleled array of what may as well be +called rare attractions. These are primarily the topographical, +architectural, and, first, last, and all times, picturesque elements +which only a blind man could fail to diagnose as something unique and +not to be seen elsewhere. + +[Illustration: NOTRE DAME _de LE PUY_.] + +In the first category are the extraordinary pinnacles of volcanic +rock with which the whole surrounding landscape is peopled; in the +second, the city's grand architectural monuments, cathedrals, churches, +monastery and the chateau of Polignac; while thirdly, the whole aspect +is irritatingly picturesque to the lover of topographical charm and +feature. Here the situation of the city itself, in a basin of +surrounding peaks, its sky-piercing, turreted rocks, and the general +effect produced by its architectural features all combine to present +emotions which a large catalogue were necessary to define. + +Moreover, Le Puy is the gateway to a hitherto almost unknown region to +the English-speaking tourist. At least it would have been unknown but +for the eulogy given it by the wandering Robert Louis Stevenson, who, in +his "Travels with a Donkey," (not "On a Donkey,"--mark the distinction), +has made the Cevennes known, at least as a nodding acquaintance, +to--well, a great many who would never have consciously realized that +there was such a place. + +Le Puy is furthermore as yet unspoiled by the "conducted tourist," and +lives the same life that it has for many generations. Electric trams +have come to be sure, and certain improvements in the way of boulevards +and squares have been laid out, but, in the main, the narrow, tortuous +streets which ascend to its cathedral-crowned height are much as they +always were; and the native pays little heed to the visitor, of which +class not many ever come to the city--perhaps for the reason that Le Puy +is not so very accessible by rail. Both by the line which descends the +Rhone valley and its parallel line from Paris to Nimes, one has to +branch off, and is bound to lose from three to six hours--or more, at +some point or other, making connections. This is as it should be--in +spite of the apparent retrogression. + +When one really does get to Le Puy nothing should satisfy him but to +follow the trail of Stevenson's donkey into the heart of the Cevennes, +that wonderful country which lies to the southward, and see and know for +himself some of the things which that delectable author set forth in the +record of his travels. + +Monastier, Le Cheylard, La Bastide, Notre Dame des Neiges, Mont Mezenac, +and many more delightful places are, so far as personal knowledge goes, +a sealed book to most folk; and after one has visited them for himself, +he may rest assured they will still remain a sealed book to the mass. + +The ecclesiastical treasures of Le Puy are first and foremost centred +around its wonderful, though bizarre, Romanesque cathedral of Notre +Dame. + +Some have said that this cathedral church dates from the fifth century. +Possibly this is so, but assuredly there is no authority which makes a +statement which is at all convincing concerning any work earlier than +the tenth century. + +Le Puy's first bishop was St. Georges,--in the third century,--at which +time, as now, the diocese was a suffragan of Bourges. + +The cathedral itself is perched on a hilltop behind which rises an +astonishing crag or pinnacle,--the _rocher Corneille_, which, in turn, +is surmounted by a modern colossal bronze figure, commonly called _Notre +Dame de France_. The native will tell you that it is called "the Virgin +of Le Puy." Due allowance for local pride doubtless accounts for this. +Its height is fifty feet, and while astonishingly impressive in many +ways, is, as a work of art, without beauty in itself. + +[Illustration: _Le Puy_] + +There is a sort of subterranean or crypt-like structure, beneath the +westerly end of the cathedral, caused by the extreme slope of the rock +upon which the choir end is placed. One enters by a stairway of sixty +steps, which is beneath the parti-coloured facade of the twelfth +century. It is very striking and must be a unique approach to a +cathedral; the entrance here being two stories below that of the +pavement of nave and choir. This porch of three round-arched naves is +wholly unusual. Entrance to the main body of the church is finally +gained through the transept. + +The whole structure is curiously kaleidoscopic, with blackish and dark +brown tints predominating, but alternating--in the west facade, which +has been restored in recent times--with bands of a lighter and again a +darker stone. It has been called by a certain red-robed mentor of +travel-lore an ungainly, venerable, but singular edifice: quite a +non-committal estimate, and one which, like most of its fellows, is +worse than a slander. It is most usually conceded by French +authorities--_who might naturally be supposed to know their +subject_--that it is very nearly the most genuinely interesting +exposition of a local manner of church-building extant; and as such the +cathedral at Le Puy merits great consideration. + +The choir is the oldest portion, and is probably not of later date than +the tenth century. The glass therein is modern. It has a possession, a +"miraculous virgin,"--whose predecessor was destroyed in the fury of the +Revolution,--which is supposed to work wonders upon those who bestow an +appropriate votive offering. To the former shrine came many pilgrims, +numbering among them, it is said rather indefinitely and doubtfully, +"several popes and the following kings: Louis VII., Philippe-Auguste, +Philippe-le-Hardi, Charles VI., Charles VII., Louis XI., and Charles +VIII." + +To-day, as if doubtful of the shrine's efficacy, the pilgrims are few in +number and mostly of the peasant class. + +The bays of the nave are divided by round-headed arches, but connected +with the opposing bay by the ogival variety. + +The transepts have apsidal terminations, as is much more frequent south +of the Loire than in the north of France, but still of sufficient +novelty to be remarked here. The east end is rectangular--which is +really a very unusual attribute in any part of France, only two examples +elsewhere standing out prominently--the cathedrals at Laon and +Dol-de-Bretagne. The cloister of Notre Dame, small and simple though it +be, is of a singular charm and tranquillity. + +With the tower or cupola of this cathedral the architects of Auvergne +achieved a result very near the _perfectionnement_ of its style. Like +all of the old-time _clochers_ erected in this province--anterior to +Gothic--it presents a great analogy to Byzantine origin, though, in a +way, not quite like it either. Still the effect of columns and pillars, +in both the interior construction and exterior decoration of these fine +towers, forms something which suggests, at least, a development of an +ideal which bears little, or no, relation to the many varieties of +_campanile_, _beffroi_, _tour_ or _clocher_ seen elsewhere in France. +The spire, as we know it elsewhere, a dominant pyramidal termination, +the love of which Mistral has said is the foundation of patriotism, is +in this region almost entirely wanting; showing that the influence, from +whatever it may have sprung, was no copy of anything which had gone +before, nor even the suggestion of a tendency or influence toward the +pointed Gothic, or northern style. Therefore the towers, like most other +features of this style, are distinctly of the land of its +environment--Auvergnian. + +This will call to mind, to the American, the fact that Trinity Church in +Boston is manifestly the most distinctive application, in foreign lands, +of the form and features of the manner of church-building of the +Auvergne. + +Particularly is this to be noted by viewing the choir exterior with its +inlaid or geometrically planned stonework: a feature which is Romanesque +if we go back far enough, but which is distinctly Auvergnian in its +mediaeval use. + +For sheer novelty, before even the towering bronze statue of the Virgin, +which overtops the cathedral, must be placed that other needle-like +basaltic eminence which is crowned by a tiny chapel dedicated to St. +Michel. + +This "_aiguille_," as it is locally known, rises something over two +hundred and fifty feet from the river-bed at its base; like a sharp +cone, dwindling from a diameter of perhaps five hundred feet at its base +to a scant fifty at its apex. + +St. Michel has always had a sort of vested proprietorship in such +pinnacles as this, and this tiny chapel in his honour was the erection +of a prelate of the diocese of Le Puy in the tenth century. The chapel +is Romanesque, octagonal, and most curious; with its isolated +situation,--only reached by a flight of many steps cut in the rock,--and +its tesselated stone pavements, its mosaic in basalt of the portal, and +its few curious sculptures in stone. As a place of pilgrimage for a +twentieth-century tourist it is much more appealing than the +Virgin-crowned _rocher Corneille_; each will anticipate no +inconsiderable amount of physical labour, which, however, is the true +pilgrim spirit. + +The chateau of Polignac _compels_ attention, and it is not so very +foreign to church affairs after all; the house of the name gave to the +court of Louis XIV. a cardinal. + +To-day this one-time feudal stronghold is but a mere ruin. The +Revolution finished it, as did that fury many another architectural +glory of France. + +[Illustration: _The Black Virgin, Le Puy_] + + + + +XIV + +NOTRE DAME DE CLERMONT-FERRAND + + +Clermont-Ferrand is the hub from which radiates in the season,--from +April to October,--and in all directions, the genuine French _touriste_. +He is a remarkable species of traveller, and he apportions to himself +the best places in the _char-a bancs_ and the most convenient seats at +_table d'hote_ with a discrimination that is perfection. He is not much +interested in cathedrals, or indeed in the twin city of Clermont-Ferrand +itself, but rather his choice lies in favour of Mont Dore, Puy de Dome, +Royat, St. Nectaire, or a dozen other alluring tourist resorts in which +the neighbouring volcanic region abounds. + +By reason of this--except for its hotels and cafes--Clermont-Ferrand is +justly entitled to rank as one of the most ancient and important centres +of Christianity in France. + +[Illustration: NOTRE DAME _de CLERMONT-FERRAND_] + +Its cathedral is not of the local manner of building: it is of manifest +Norman example. But the Eglise Notre Dame du Port is Auvergnian of +the most profound type, and withal, perhaps more appealing than the +cathedral itself. Furthermore the impulse of the famous crusades first +took form here under the fervent appeal of Urban II., who was in the +city at the Council of the Church held in 1095. Altogether the part +played by this city of mid-France in the affairs of the Christian faith +was not only great, but most important and far-reaching in its effect. + +In its cathedral are found to a very considerable extent those +essentials to the realization of the pure Gothic style, which even Sir +Christopher Wren confessed his inability to fully comprehend. + +It is a pleasant relief, and a likewise pleasant reminder of the +somewhat elaborate glories of the Isle of France, to come upon an +edifice which at least presents a semblance to the symmetrical pointed +Gothic of the north. The more so in that it is surrounded by Romanesque +and local types which are peers among their class. + +Truly enough it is that such churches as Notre Dame du Port, the +cathedral at Le Puy, and the splendid series of Romanesque churches at +Poitiers are as interesting and as worthy of study as the resplendent +modern Gothic. On the other hand, the transition to the baseness of the +Renaissance,--without the intervention of the pointed style,--while not +so marked here as elsewhere, is yet even more painfully impressed upon +one. + +The contrast between the Romanesque style, which was manifestly a good +style, and the Renaissance, which was palpably bad, suggests, as +forcibly as any event of history, the change of temperament which came +upon the people, from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries. + +This cathedral is possessed of two fine western towers (340 feet in +height), graceful in every proportion, hardy without being clumsy, +symmetrical without weakness, and dwindling into crowning spires after a +manner which approaches similar works at Bordeaux and Quimper. These +examples are not of first rank, but, if not of masterful design, are at +least acceptable exponents of the form they represent. + +These towers, as well as the western portal, are, however, of a very +late date. They are the work of Viollet-le-Duc in the latter half of the +nineteenth century, and indicate--if nothing more--that, where a good +model is used, a modern Gothic work may still betray the spirit of +antiquity. This gifted architect was not so successful with the western +towers of the abbey church of St. Ouen at Rouen. Externally the +cathedral at Clermont-Ferrand shows a certain lack of uniformity. + +Its main fabric, of a black volcanic stone, dates from 1248 to 1265. At +this time the work was in charge of one Jean Deschamps. + +The church was not, however, consecrated until nearly a century later, +and until the completion of the west front remained always an unfinished +work which received but scant consideration from lovers of church +architecture. + +The whole structure was sorely treated at the Revolution, was entirely +stripped of its ornaments and what monuments it possessed, and was only +saved from total destruction by a subterfuge advanced by a local +magistrate, who suggested that the edifice might be put to other than +its original use. + +The first two bays of the nave are also of nineteenth-century +construction. This must account for the frequent references of a former +day to the general effect of incompleteness. To-day it is a coherent if +not a perfect whole, though works of considerable magnitude are still +under way. + +The general effect of the interior is harmonious, though gloomy as to +its lighting, and bare as to its walls. + +The vault rises something over a hundred feet above the pavement, and +the choir platform is considerably elevated. The aisles of the nave are +doubled, and very wide. + +The joints of pier and wall have been newly "pointed," giving an +impression of a more modern work than the edifice really is. + +The glass of the nave and choir is of a rare quality and unusually +abundant. How it escaped the fury of the Revolution is a mystery. + +There are two fifteenth-century rose windows in the transepts, and a +more modern example in the west front, the latter being decidedly +inferior to the others. The glass of the choir is the most beautiful of +all, and is of the time of Louis IX., whose arms, quartered with those +of Spain, are shown therein. The general effect of this coloured glass +is not of the supreme excellence of that at Chartres, but the effect of +mellowness, on first entering, is in every way more impressive than that +of any other cathedral south of the Loire. + +The organ _buffet_ has, in this instance, been cut away to allow of the +display of the modern _rosace_. This is a most thoughtful consideration +of the attributes of a grand window; which is obviously that of giving a +pleasing effect to an interior, rather than its inclusion in the +exterior scheme of decoration. + +In the choir is a _retable_ of gilded and painted wood, representing the +life of St. Crepinien, a few tombs, and in the chapels some frescoes of +the thirteenth century. There is the much-appreciated astronomical +clock--a curiosity of doubtful artistic work and symbolism--in one of +the transepts. + +A statue of Pope Urban II. is _en face_ to the right of the cathedral. + +At the Council of 1095 Urban II. preached for the first crusade to +avenge the slaughter "of pilgrims, princes, and bishops," which had +taken place at Romola in Palestine, and to regain possession of +Jerusalem and the Holy Sepulchre from the Turkish Sultan, Ortock. + +The enthusiasm of the pontiff was so great that the masses forthwith +entered fully into the spirit of the act, the nobles tearing their red +robes into shreds to form the badge of the crusader's cross, which was +given to all who took the vow. + +By command of the Pope, every serf who took the cross was to obtain his +liberty from his overlord. This fact, perhaps, more than any other led +to the swelled ranks of the first crusade under Peter the Hermit. + +The rest is history, though really much of its written chronicle is +really romance. + +Clermont was a bishopric in the third century, with St. Austremoine as +its first bishop. The diocese is to-day a suffragan of Bourges. + +At the head of the Cours Sablon is a fifteenth-century fountain, +executed to the order of a former bishop, Jacques d'Amboise. + +The bibliotheque still preserves, among fifty thousand volumes and +eleven hundred MSS., an illuminated folio Bible of the twelfth century, +a missal which formerly belonged to Pope Clement VI., and a +ninth-century manuscript of the monk, Gregory of Tours. + +Near the cathedral in the Rue de Petit Gras is the birthplace of the +precocious Blaise Pascal, who next to Urban II.--if not even before +him--is perhaps Clermont's most famous personage. A bust of the +celebrated writer is let into the wall which faces the Passage Vernines, +and yet another adorns the entrance to the bibliotheque; and again +another--a full-length figure this time--is set about with growing +plants, in the Square Blaise Pascal. Altogether one will judge that +Pascal is indeed the most notable figure in the secular history of the +city. This most original intellect of his time died in 1662, at the +early age of thirty-nine. + + + + +XV + +ST. FULCRAN DE LODEVE + + +Lodeve, seated tightly among the mountains, near the confluence of the +rivers Solondre and Lergue, not far from the Cevennes and the borders of +the Gevaudan, was a bishopric, suffragan of Narbonne, as early as the +beginning of the fourth century. + +It had been the capital of the Gallic tribe of the Volsques, then a +pagan Roman city, and finally was converted to Christianity in the year +323 by the apostle St. Flour, who founded the bishopric, which, with so +many others, was suppressed at the Revolution. + +The city suffered greatly from the wars of the Goths, the Albigenses, +and later the civil wars of the Protestants and Catholics. The bishops +of Lodeve were lords by virtue of the fact that the title was bought +from the viscounts whose honour it had previously held. _St. Guillem Ley +Desert_ (O. F.), a famous abbey of the Benedictines, founded by an +ancestor of the Prince of Orange, is near by. + +The ancient cathedral of St. Fulcran is situated in the _haute-ville_ +and dates, as to its foundation walls, from the middle of the tenth +century. The reconstructed present-day edifice is mainly of the +thirteenth century, and as an extensive work of its time is entitled to +rank with many of the cathedral churches which survived the Revolution. +By the end of the sixteenth century, the last remaining work and +alterations were completed, and one sees therefore a fairly consistent +mediaeval church. The west facade is surmounted by _tourelles_ which are +capped with a defending _machicoulis_, presumably for defence from +attack from the west, as this battlement could hardly have been intended +for mere ornament, decorative though it really is. The interior height +rises to something approximating eighty feet, and is imposing to a far +greater degree than many more magnificent and wealthy churches. + +The choir is truly elegant in its proportions and decorations, its chief +ornament being that of the high-altar, and the white marble lions which +flank the stalls. From the choir one enters the ruined cloister of the +fifteenth century; which, if not remarkable in any way, is at least +distinctive and a sufficiently uncommon appendage of a cathedral church +to be remarked. + +A marble tomb of a former bishop,--Plantavit de la Pause,--a +distinguished prelate and bibliophile, is also in the choir. This +monument is a most worthy artistic effort, and shows two lions lying at +the foot of a full-length figure of the churchman. It dates from 1651, +and, though of Renaissance workmanship, its design and sculpture--like +most monumental work of its era--are far ahead of the quality of +craftsmanship displayed by the builders and architects of the same +period. + +The one-time episcopal residence is now occupied by the _hotel de +ville_, the _tribunal_, and the _caserne de gendarmerie_. As a shelter +for civic dignity this is perhaps not a descent from its former glory, +but as a _caserne_ it is a shameful debasement; not, however, as mean as +the level to which the papal palace at Avignon has fallen. + +The guide-book information--which, be it said, is not disputed or +reviled here--states that the city's manufactories supply _surtout des +draps_ for the army; but the church-lover will get little sustenance for +his refined appetite from this kernel of matter-of-fact information. + +Lodeve is, however, a charming provincial town, with two ancient bridges +crossing its rivers, a ruined chateau, _Montbrun_, and a fine promenade +which overlooks the river valleys round about. + + + + +_PART III + +The Rhone Valley_ + + + + +I + +INTRODUCTORY + + +The knowledge of the geographer Ptolemy, who wrote in the second century +with regard to the Rhone, was not so greatly at fault as with respect to +other topographical features, such as coasts and boundaries. + +Perhaps the fact that Gaul had for so long been under Roman dominion had +somewhat to do with this. + +He gives, therefore, a tolerably correct account as to this mighty +river, placing its sources in the Alps, and tracing its flow through the +lake _Lemannus_ (Leman) to _Lugdunum_ (Lyon); whence, turning sharply to +the southward, it enters the Mediterranean south of Arles. Likewise, he +correctly adds that the upper river is joined with the combined flow of +the Doubs and Saone, but commits the error of describing their source to +be also in the Alps. + +Philip Gilbert Hamerton, who knew these parts well,--his home was near +Autun,--has described the confluence of the Saone and Rhone thus: + +"The width and depth of the two rivers are equal, but the swift-flowing +Rhone discharges twice the volume of water of the slow-running Saone. +They also differ remarkably in colour. The Saone is emerald-green and +the Rhone blue-green. Here the minor river loses its name and character, +and, by an unusual process, the slowest and most navigable stream in +Europe joins the swiftest and least navigable. The _Flumen Araris_ +ceases and becomes the _Rhodanus_." + +The volume of water which yearly courses down the Rhone is perhaps +greater than would first appear, when, at certain seasons of the year, +one sees a somewhat thin film of water gliding over a wide expanse of +yellow sand and shingle. + +Throughout, however, it is of generous width and at times rises in a +true torrential manner: this when the spring freshets and melting Alpine +snows are directed thither toward their natural outlet to the sea. +"Rivers," said Blaise Pascal, "are the roads that move." Along the great +river valleys of the Rhone, the Loire, the Seine, and the Rhine were +made the first Roman roads, the prototypes of the present-day means of +communication. + +The development of civilization and the arts along these great pathways +was rapid and extensive. Two of them, at least, gave birth to +architectural styles quite differing from other neighbouring types: the +_Romain-Germanique_--bordering along the Rhine and extending to Alsace +and the Vosges; and the _Romain-Bourguignon_, which followed the valley +of the Rhone from Bourgogne to the Mediterranean and the Italian +frontier, including all Provence. + +The true source of the Rhone is in the Pennine Alps, where, in consort +with three other streams, the Aar, the Reuss, and the Ticino, it rises +in a cloven valley close to the lake of Brienz, amid that huge jumble of +mountain-tops, which differs so greatly from the popular conception of a +mountain range. + +Dauphine and Savoie are to-day comparatively unknown by parlour-car +travellers. Dauphine, with its great historical associations, the wealth +and beauty of its architecture, the magnificence of its scenery, has +always had great attractions for the historian, the archaeologist, and +the scholar; to the tourist, however, even to the French tourist, it +remained for many years a _terra incognita_. Yet no country could +present the traveller with a more wonderful succession of ever-changing +scenery, such a rich variety of landscape, ranging from verdant plain to +mountain glacier, from the gay and picturesque to the sublime and +terrible. Planted in the very heart of the French Alps, rising terrace +above terrace from the lowlands of the Rhone to the most stupendous +heights, Dauphine may with reason claim to be the worthy rival of +Switzerland. + +The romantic associations of "La Grande Chartreuse"; of the charming +valley towns of Sion and Aoste, famed alike in the history of Church and +State; and of the more splendidly appointed cities of Grenoble and +Chambery, will make a new leaf in the books of most peoples' +experiences. + +The rivers Durance, Isere, and Drome drain the region into the more +ample basin of the Rhone, and the first of the three--for sheer beauty +and romantic picturesqueness--will perhaps rank first in all the world. + +The chief associations of the Rhone valley with the Church are centred +around Lyon, Vienne, Avignon, and Arles. The associations of history--a +splendid and a varied past--stand foremost at Orange, Nimes, Aix, and +Marseilles. It is not possible to deal here with the many _pays et pagi_ +of the basin of the Rhone. + +Of all, Provence--that golden land--stands foremost and compels +attention. One might praise it _ad infinitum_ in all its splendid +attributes and its glorious past, but one could not then do it justice; +better far that one should sum it up in two words--"Mistral's world." + +The popes and the troubadours combined to cast a glamour over the "fair +land of Provence" which is irresistible. Here were architectural +monuments, arches, bridges, aqueducts, and arenas as great and as +splendid as the world has ever known. Aix-en-Provence, in King Rene's +time, was the gayest capital of Europe, and the influence of its arts +and literature spread to all parts. + +To the south came first the Visigoths, then the conflicting and +repelling Ostrogoths; between them soon to supplant the Gallo-Roman +cultivation which had here grown so vigorously. + +It was as late as the sixth century when the Ostrogoths held the +brilliant sunlit city of Arles; when follows a history--applicable as +well to most of all southern France--of many dreary centuries of +discordant races, of varying religious faiths, and adherence now to one +lord and master, and then to another. + +Monuments of various eras remain; so numerously that one can rebuild for +themselves much that has disappeared for ever: palaces as at Avignon, +castles as at Tarascon and Beaucaire, and walled cities as at +Aigues-Morte. What limitless suggestion is in the thought of the +assembled throngs who peopled the tiers of the arenas and theatres of +Arles and Nimes in days gone by. The sensation is mostly to be derived, +however, from thought and conjecture. The painful and nullifying +"_spectacles_" and "_courses des taureaux_," which periodically hold +forth to-day in these noble arenas, are mere travesties on their +splendid functions of the past. Much more satisfying--and withal more +artistic--are the theatrical representations in that magnificent outdoor +theatre at Orange; where so recently as the autumn of 1903 was given a +grand representation of dramatic art, with Madame Bernhardt, Coquelin, +and others of the galaxy which grace the French stage to-day, taking +part therein. + +Provencal literature is a vast and varied subject, and the women of +Arles--the true Arlesians of the poet and romancer--are astonishingly +beautiful. Each of these subjects--to do them justice--would require +much ink and paper. Daudet, in "_Tartarin_," has these opening words, as +if no others were necessary in order to lead the way into a new world: +"IT WAS SEPTEMBER AND IT WAS PROVENCE." Frederic Mistral, in "Mireio," +has written the great modern epic of Provence, which depicts the life as +well as the literature of the ancient troubadours. The "Fountain of +Vaucluse" will carry one back still further in the ancient Provencal +atmosphere; to the days of Petrarch and Laura, and the "little fish of +Sorgues." + +What the Romance language really was, authorities--if they be +authorities--differ. Hence it were perhaps well that no attempt should +be made here to define what others have failed to place, beyond this +observation, which is gathered from a source now lost to recollection, +but dating from a century ago at least: + +"The southern or Romance language, the tongue of all the people who +obeyed Charlemagne in the south of Europe, proceeded from the +parent-vitiated Latin. + +"The Provencaux assert, and the Spaniards deny, that the Spanish tongue +is derived from the original Romance, though neither the Italians nor +the French are willing to owe much to it as a parent, in spite of the +fact that Petrarch eulogized it, and the troubadours as well. + +"The Toulousans roundly assert that the Provencal is the root of all +other dialects whatever (_vide Cazeneuve_). Most Spanish writers on the +other hand insist that the Provencal is derived from the Spanish (_vide +Coleccion de Poesias Castellanas; Madrid, 1779_)." + +At all events the idiom, from whatever it may have sprung, took root, +propagated and flourished in the land of the Provencal troubadours. + +Whatever may have been the real extent of the influences which went out +from Provence, it is certain that the marriage of Robert with +Constance--daughter of the first Count of Provence, about the year +1000--was the period of a great change in manners and customs +throughout the kingdom. Some even have asserted that this princess +brought in her train the troubadours who spread the taste for poetry and +its accompaniments throughout the north of France. + +The "Provence rose," so celebrated in legend and literature, can hardly +be dismissed without a word; though, in truth, the casual traveller will +hardly know of its existence, unless he may have a sweet recollection of +some rural maid, who, with sleeves carefully rolled up, stood before her +favourite rose-tree, tenderly examining it, and driving away a buzzing +fly or a droning wasp. + +These firstlings of the season are tended with great pride. The +distinctive "rose of Provence" is smaller, redder, and more elastic and +concentric than the _centifoliae_ of the north, and for this reason, +likely, it appears the more charming to the eye of the native of the +north, who, if we are to believe the romanticists, is made a child again +by the mere contemplation of this lovely flower. + +The glory of this rich red "Provence rose" is in dispute between +Provence and Provins, the ancient capital of La Brie; but the weight of +the argument appears to favour the former. + +Below Arles and Nimes the Rhone broadens out into a many-fingered +estuary, and mingles its Alpine flood with the blue waters of the +Mediterranean. + +The delta has been formed by the activity and energy of the river +itself, from the fourth century--when it is known that Arles lay sixteen +miles from the sea--till to-day, when it is something like thirty. This +ceaseless carrying and filling has resulted in a new coast-line, which +not only has changed the topography of the region considerably, but may +be supposed to have actually worked to the commercial disadvantage of +the country round about. + +The annual prolongation of the shores--the reclaimed water-front--is +about one hundred and sixty-four feet, hence some considerable gain is +accounted for, but whether to the nation or the "squatter" statistics do +not say. + +The delta of the Rhone has been described by an expansive French writer +as: "Something quite separate from the rest of France. It is a wedge of +Greece and of the East thrust into Gaul. It came north a hundred (or +more) years ago and killed the Monarchy. It caught the value in, and +created the great war-song of the Republic." + +There is a deal of subtlety in these few lines, and they are given here +because of their truth and applicability. + + + + +II + +ST. ETIENNE DE CHALONS-SUR-SAONE + + +"The cathedral at Chalons," says Philip Gilbert Hamerton,--who knew the +entire region of the Saone better perhaps than any other +Anglo-Saxon,--"has twin towers, which, in the evening, at a distance, +recall Notre Dame (at Paris), and there are domes, too, as in the +capital." + +An imaginative description surely, and one that is doubtless not without +truth were one able to first come upon this riverside city of mid-France +in the twilight, and by boat from the upper river. + +Chalons is an ideally situated city, with a placidness which the slow +current of the Saone does not disturb. But its cathedral! It is no more +like its Parisian compeer than it is like the Pyramids of Egypt. + +In the first place, the cathedral towers are a weak, effeminate +imitation of a prototype which itself must have been far removed from +Notre Dame, and they have been bolstered and battened in a shameful +fashion. + +The cathedral at Chalons is about the most ancient-looking possession of +the city, which in other respects is quite modern, and, aside from its +charming situation and general attractiveness, takes no rank whatever as +a centre of ancient or mediaeval art. + +Its examples of Gallic architecture are not traceable to-day, and of +Roman remains it possesses none. As a Gallic stronghold,--it was never +more than that,--it appealed to Caesar merely as a base from which to +advance or retreat, and its history at this time is not great or +abundant. + +A Roman wall is supposed to have existed, but its remains are not +traceable to-day, though tradition has it that a quantity of its stones +were transported by the monk Benigne for the rotunda which he built at +Dijon. + +The city's era of great prosperity was the fifteenth and sixteenth +centuries, when its fortifications were built up anew, its cathedral +finished, and fourteen churches held forth. + +From this high estate it has sadly fallen, and there is only its +decrepit cathedral, rebuilt after a seventeenth-century fire, and two +churches--one of them modern--to uphold its ecclesiastical dignity. + +The towers of the cathedral are of the seventeenth century, but the +so-called "Deanery Tower" is more ancient, and suggestive of much that +is militant and very little that is churchly. + +The interior has been restored, not wholly with success, but yet not +wholly spoiled. + +In plan and arrangement it is a simple and severe church, but acceptable +enough when one contemplates changes made elsewhere. Here are to be seen +no debased copies of Greek or Roman orders; which is something to be +thankful for. + +The arches of the nave and choir are strong and bold, but not of great +spread. The height of the nave, part of which has come down from the +thirteenth century, is ninety feet at least. + +There are well-carved capitals to the pillars of the nave, and the +coloured glass of the windows of triforium and clerestory is rich +without rising to great beauty. + +In general the style is decidedly a _melange_, though the cathedral is +entitled to rank as a Gothic example. Its length is 350 feet. + +The _maitre-autel_ is one of the most elegant in France. + +Modern improvement has cleared away much that was picturesque, but +around the cathedral are still left a few gabled houses, which serve to +preserve something of the mediaeval setting which once held it. + +The courtyard and its dependencies at the base of the "Deanery Tower" +are the chief artistic features. They appeal far more strongly than any +general accessory of the cathedral itself, and suggest that they once +must have been the components of a cloister. + +The see was founded in the fifth century as a suffragan of Lyon. + + + + +III + +ST. VINCENT DE MACON + + +The _Mastieo_ of the Romans was not the Macon of to-day, though, by +evolution, or corruption, or whatever the process may have been, the +name has come down to us as referring to the same place. The former city +did not border the river, but was seated on a height overlooking the +Saone, which flows by the doors of the present city of Macon. + +Its site is endowed with most of the attributes included in the +definition of "commanding," and, though not grandly situated, is, from +any riverside view-point, attractive and pleasing. + +When it comes to the polygonal towers of its olden cathedral, this +charming and pleasing view changes to that of one which is curious and +interesting. The cathedral of St. Vincent is a battered old ruin, and no +amount of restoration and rebuilding will ever endow it with any more +deserving qualities. + +[Illustration: ST. VINCENT _de MACON_.] + +The Revolution was responsible for its having withered away, as it was +also for the abolishment of the see of Macon. + +The towers stand to-day--lowered somewhat from their former +proportions--gaunt and grim, and the rich Burgundian narthen, which lay +between, has been converted--not restored, mark you--into an inferior +sort of chapel. + +The destruction that fell upon various parts of this old church might as +well have been more sweeping and razed it to the ground entirely. The +effect could not have been more disheartening. + +Macon formerly had twelve churches. Now it has three--if we include this +poor fragment of its one-time cathedral. Between the Revolution and the +coronation of Napoleon I. the city was possessed of no place of worship. + +Macon became an episcopal see, with Placide as its first bishop, in the +sixth century. It was suppressed in 1790. + +The bridge which crosses the river to the suburb of St. Laurent is +credited as being the finest work of its kind crossing the Saone. +Hamerton has said that "its massive arches and piers, wedge-shaped to +meet the wind, are pleasant to contemplate after numerous festoons of +wire carrying a roadway of planks." This bridge was formerly surmounted, +at either end, with a castellated gateway, but, like many of these +accessories elsewhere, they have disappeared. + +The famous bridge at Cahors (shown elsewhere in this book) is the best +example of such a bridge still existing in France. + +As a "cathedral city," Macon will not take a high rank. The "great man" +of Macon was Lamartine. His birthplace is shown to visitors, but its +present appearance does not suggest the splendid appointments of its +description in that worthy's memoirs. + +Macon is the _entrepot_ of the abundant and excellent _vin du +Bourgogne_, and the strictly popular repute of the city rests entirely +on this fact. + +[Illustration: ST. JEAN _de LYON_.] + + + + +IV + +ST. JEAN DE LYON + + +The Lyonnais is the name given to that region lying somewhat to the +westward of the city of Lyon. It is divided into three distinct parts, +_le Lyonnais_ proper, _le Forez_, and _le Beaujolais_. Its chief +appellation comes from that of its chief city, which in turn is more +than vague as to its etymology: _Lugdunum_ we know, of course, and we +can trace its evolution even unto the Anglicized Lyons, but when +philologists, antiquarians, and "pedants of mere pretence" ask us to +choose between _le corbeau_--_lougon_, _un eminence_--_dounon_, +_lone_--an arm of a river, and _dun_ the Celtic word for height, we are +amazed, and are willing enough to leave the solving of the problem to +those who will find a greater pleasure therein. + +Lyon is a widely-spread city, of magnificent proportions and pleasing +aspect, situated as it is on the banks of two majestic, though +characteristically different rivers, the Rhone and the Saone. + +In many respects it is an ideally laid-out city, and the scene from the +heights of Fourviere at night, when the city is brilliant with +many-lighted workshops, is a wonderfully near approach to fairy-land. + +Whether the remarkable symmetry of the city's streets and plan is the +result of the genius of a past day, or of the modern progressive spirit, +is in some doubt. Certainly it must originally have been a delightfully +planned city, and the spirit of modernity--though great--has not by any +means wholly eradicated its whilom charm of another day. + +It may be remarked here that about the only navigable portion of the +none too placid Rhone is found from here to Avignon and Arles, to which +points, in summer at least, steam-craft--of sorts--carry passengers with +expedition and economy--down-stream; the journey up-river will amaze one +by the potency of the flood of this torrential stream--so different from +the slow-going Saone. + +The present diocese, of which the see of Lyon is the head, comprehends +the Department of the Rhone et Loire. It is known under the double +vocable of Lyon et Vienne, and is the outgrowth of the more ancient +ecclesiastical province of Vienne, whose archiepiscopal dignity was +domiciled in St. Maurice. + +It was in the second century that St. Pothin, an Asiatic Greek, came to +the ancient province of Lyon as archbishop. The title carried with it +that of primate of all Gaul: hence the importance of the see, from the +earliest times, may be inferred. + +The architectural remains upon which is built the flamboyant Gothic +church of St. Nizier are supposed to be those of the primitive cathedral +in which St. Pothin and St. Irenaeus celebrated the holy rites. The claim +is made, of course, not without a show of justification therefor, but it +is a far cry from the second century of our era to this late day; and +the sacristan's words are not convincing, in view of the doubts which +many non-local experts have cast upon the assertion. The present _Eglise +St. Nizier_ is furthermore dedicated to a churchman who lived as late as +the sixth century. + +The present cathedral of St. Jean dates from the early years of the +twelfth century, but there remains to-day another work closely allied +with episcopal affairs--the stone bridge which spans the Saone, and +which was built some two hundred years before the present cathedral by +Archbishop Humbert. + +Though a bridge across a river is an essentially practical and utile +thing, it is, perhaps, in a way, as worthy a work for a generous and +masterful prelate as church-building itself. Certainly this was the case +with Humbert's bridge, he having designed the structure, superintended +its erection, and assumed the expense thereof. It is recorded that this +worthy churchman gained many adherents for the faith, so it may be +assumed that he builded as well as he knew. + +St. Jean de Lyon dates from 1180, and presents many architectural +anomalies in its constructive elements, though the all-pervading Gothic +is in the ascendant. From this height downward, through various +interpolations, are seen suggestions of many varieties and styles of +church-building. There is, too, an intimation of a motif essentially +pagan if one attempts to explain the vagaries of some of the +ornamentation of the unusual septagonal Lombard choir. This is further +inferred when it is known that a former temple to Augustus stood on the +same site. If this be so, the reasoning is complete, and the classical +ornament here is of a very early date. + +The fabric of the cathedral is, in the main, of a warm-coloured +freestone, not unlike dark marble, but without its brilliancy and +surface. It comes from the heights of Fourviere,--on whose haunches the +cathedral sits,--and by virtue of the act of foundation it may be +quarried at any time, free of all cost, for use by the Church. + +The situation of this cathedral is most attractive; indeed its greatest +charm may be said to be its situation, so very picturesquely disposed is +it, with the Quai de l'Archeveche between it and the river Saone. + +The choir itself--after allowing for the interpolation of the early +non-Christian fragments--is the most consistently pleasing portion. It +presents in general a fairly pure, early Gothic design. Curiously +enough, this choir sits below the level of the nave and presents, in the +interior view, an unusual effect of amplitude. + +With the nave of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the style +becomes more mixed--localized, one may say--if only consistent details +might be traced. At any rate, the style grows perceptibly heavier and +more involved, without the simplicity of pre-Gothic work. Finally, as +one comes to the heavily capped towers, there is little of grace and +beauty left. + +In detail, at least, if not in general, St. Jean runs quite the whole +scale of mediaeval architectural style--from the pure Romanesque to the +definite, if rather mixed, Gothic. + +Of the later elements, the most remarkable is the fifteenth-century +Bourbon chapel, built by Cardinal Charles and his brother Pierre. This +chapel presents the usual richness and luxuriance of its time. If all +things are considered, it is the chief feature of interest within the +walls. + +The west front has triple portals, reminiscent, as to dimensions, of +Amiens, though by no means so grandly peopled with statues; the heavy, +stunted towers, too, are not unlike those of Amiens. These twin towers +are of a decidedly heavy order, and are not beautiful, either as +distinct features or as a component of the ensemble. Quite in keeping +also are the chief decorations of the facade, which are principally a +series of superimposed medallions, depicting, variously, the signs of +the zodiac, scenes from the life of St. Jean, and yet others suggesting +scenes and incidents from Genesis, with an admixture of heraldic +symbolism which is here quite meaningless and singularly inappropriate, +while still other entablatures present scenes illustrating the "Legend +of St. Nicholas" and "The Law of Aristotle." + +The general effect of the exterior, the facade in particular, is very +dark, and except in a bright sunlight--which is usual--is indeed gloomy. +In all probability, this is due to the discolouring of the soft stone of +which the cathedral is built, as the same effect is scarcely to be +remarked in the interior. + +In a tower on the south side--much lower, and not so clumsily built up +as the twin towers--hangs one of the greatest _bourdons_ in France. It +was cast in 1662, and weighs ten thousand kilos. + +Another curiosity of a like nature is to be seen in the interior, an +astronomical clock--known to Mr. Tristram as "that great clock of +Lippius of Basle." Possessed of a crowing cock and the usual toy-book +attributes, this great clock is a source of perennial pride to the +native and the makers of guide-books. Sterne, too, it would appear, +waxed unduly enthusiastic over this really ingenious thing of wheels and +cogs. He said: "I never understood the least of mechanism. I declare I +was never able yet to comprehend the principles of a squirrel-cage or a +knife-grinder's wheel, yet I will go see this wonderful clock the first +thing I do." When he did see it, he quaintly observed that "it was all +out of joint." + +The rather crude coloured glass--though it is precious glass, for it +dates from the thirteenth century, in part--sets off bountifully an +interior which would otherwise appear somewhat austere. + +In the nave is a marble pulpit which has been carved with more than +usual skill. It ranks with that in St. Maurice, at Vienne, as one of the +most beautiful in France. + +The cathedral possesses two _reliques_ of real importance in the crosses +which are placed to the left and right of the high-altar. These are +conserved by a unique custom, in memory of an attempt made by a _concile +general_ of the church, held in Lyon in 1274, to reconcile the Latin and +Greek forms of religion. + +The sacristy, in which the bountiful, though not historic, _tresor_ is +kept, is in the south transept. + +Among the archives of the cathedral there are, says a local antiquary, +documents of a testamentary nature, which provided the means for the +up-keep of the fabric without expense to the church, until well into the +eighteenth century. + +On the apex of the height which rises above the cathedral is the +Basilique de Notre Dame de Fourviere--"one of those places of +pilgrimage, the most venerated in all the world," says a confident +French writer. This may be so; it overlooks ground which has long been +hallowed by the Church, to a far greater degree than many other parts, +but, like so many places of pilgrimage of a modern day, its nondescript +religious edifice is enough to make the church-lover willingly pass it +by. The site is that of the ancient _Forum Vetus_ of the Romans, and as +such is more appealing to most than as a place of pilgrimage. + + + + +V + +ST. MAURICE DE VIENNE + + "At the feet of seven mountains; on the banks of a large river; an + antique city and a _cite neuve_." + + --FRANCOIS PONSARD. + + +Though widowed to-day of its bishop's throne, Vienne enjoys with Lyon +the distinction of having its name attached to an episcopal see. The +ancient archbishopric ruled over what was known as the Province of +Vienne, which, if not more ancient than that of Lyon, dates from the +same century--the second of our Christian era--and probably from a few +years anterior, as it is known that St. Crescent, the first prelate of +the diocese, was firmly established here as early as 118 A. D. In any +event, it was one of the earliest centres of Christianity north of the +Alps. + +To-day, being merged with the diocese of Lyon, Vienne is seldom credited +as being a cathedral city. Locally the claim is very strongly made, but +the Mediterranean tourist never finds this out, unless, perchance, he +"drops off" from the railway in order to make acquaintance with that +remarkable Roman temple to Augustus, of which he may have heard. + +Then he will learn from the _habitants_ that by far their greatest +respect and pride are for their _ancienne Cathedrale de St. Maurice_, +which sits boldly upon a terrace dominating the course of the river +Rhone. + +In many respects St. Maurice de Vienne will strike the student and lover +of architecture as being one of the most lively and appealing edifices +of its kind. The Lombard origin of many of its features is without +question; notably the delightful gallery on the north side, with its +supporting columns of many grotesque shapes. + +Again the parapet and terrace which precede this church, the +ground-plan, and some of the elevations are pure Lombard in motive. + +There are no transepts and no ancient chapels at the eastern +termination; the windows running down to the pavement. This, however, +does not make for an appearance at all _outre_--quite the reverse is the +case. The general effect of the entire internal distribution of parts, +with its fine approach from the nave to the sanctuary and choir, is +exceedingly notable. + +Of the remains of the edifice, which was erected on the foundations of a +still earlier church, in 1052 (reconstructed in 1515), we have those of +the primitive, but rich, ornamentation of the facade as the most +interesting and appealing. + +The north doorway, too, indicates in its curious _bas-reliefs_, of the +twelfth or thirteenth centuries, a luxuriance which in the north--in the +Romanesque churches at least--came only with later centuries. + +There are few accessories of note to be seen in the choir or chapels: a +painting of St. Maurice by Desgoffes, a small quantity of +fourteenth-century glass, the mausoleum of Cardinal de Montmorin, a +sixteenth-century tomb, and, in one of the chapels, some modern glass of +more than usual brilliance. + +The pulpit is notable, and, with that in St. Jean de Lyon, ranks as one +of the most elaborate in France. + +For the rest, one's admiration for St. Maurice de Vienne must rest on +the glorious antiquity of the city, as a centre of civilizing and +Christianizing influence. + +When Pope Paschal II. (1099-1118) confirmed the metropolitan privileges +of Vienne, and sent the _pallium_ to its archbishop, he assigned to him +as suffragans the bishops of Grenoble, Valence, Die, Viviers, Geneva, +and St. Jean de Maurienne, and conferred upon him the honorary office of +primate over Monstiers in Tarentaise. Still later, Calixtus II. +(1119-24) favoured the archbishopric still further by not only +confirming the privileges which had gone before, but investing the +archbishop with the still higher dignity of the office of primate over +the seven ecclesiastical Provinces of Vienne, Bourges, Bordeaux, Auch, +Narbonne, Aix, and Embrun. + +[Illustration] + + + + +VI + +ST. APOLLINAIRE DE VALENCE + + +Valence, the Valentia of the Romans, is variously supposed to be +situated in southeastern France, Provence, and the Cevennes. For this +reason it will be difficult for the traveller to locate his guide-book +reference thereto. + +It is, however, located in the Rhone valley on the very banks of that +turgid river, and it seems inexplicable that the makers of the +red-covered couriers do not place it more definitely; particularly in +that it is historically so important a centre. + +The most that can usually be garnered by the curious is that it is "well +built in parts, and that those parts only are of interest to the +traveller." As a matter of fact, they are nothing of the sort; and the +boulevards, of which so much is made, are really very insignificant; so, +too, are the cafes and restaurants, to which far more space is usually +given than to the claim of Valence as an early centre of Christianity. + +Valence is not a great centre of population, and is appealing by reason +of its charming situation, in a sort of amphitheatre, before which runs +the swift-flowing Rhone. There is no great squalor, but there is a +picturesqueness and charm which is wholly dispelled in the newer +quarters, of which the guide-books speak. + +There is, moreover, in the cathedral of St. Apollinaire, a small but +highly interesting "Romanesque-Auvergnian" cathedral; rebuilt and +reconsecrated by Urban II., in the eleventh century, and again +reconstructed, on an entirely new plan, in 1604. Besides this curious +church there is a "Protestant temple," which occupies the former chapel +of the ancient Abbey of St. Rufus, that should have a singularly +appealing interest for English-speaking folk. + +The prefecture occupies another portion of the abbey, which in its +various disintegrated parts is worthy of more than passing +consideration. + +The bishopric was founded here at Valence in the fourth century--when +Emelien became the first bishop. The see endures to-day as a suffragan +of Avignon; whereas formerly it owed obedience to Vienne (now Lyon et +Vienne). + +The ancient cathedral of St. Apollinaire is almost wholly conceived and +executed in what has come to be known as the Lombard style. + +The main body of the church is preceded on the west by an extravagant +rectangular tower, beneath which is the portal or entrance; if, as in +the present instance, the comprehensive meaning of the word suggests +something more splendid than a mere doorway. + +There has been remarked before now that there is a suggestion of the +Corinthian order in the columns of both the inside and outside of the +church. This is a true enough detail of Lombard forms as it was of the +Roman style, which in turn was borrowed from the Greeks. In later times +the neo-classical details of the late Renaissance period produced quite +a different effect, and were in no way comparable to the use of this +detail in the Lombard and Romanesque churches. + +In St. Apollinaire, too, are to be remarked the unusual arch formed of a +rounded trefoil. This is found in both the towers, and is also seen in +St. Maurice at Vienne, but not again until the country far to the +northward and eastward is reached, where they are more frequent, +therefore their use here may be considered simply as an interpolation +brought from some other soil, rather than an original conception of the +local builder. + +Here also is seen the unusual combination of an angular pointed arch in +conjunction with the round-headed Lombard variety. This, in alternation +for a considerable space, on the south side of the cathedral. It is a +feature perhaps not worth mentioning, except from the fact that both the +trefoil and wedge-pointed arch are singularly unbeautiful and little in +keeping with an otherwise purely southern structure. + +The aisles of St. Apollinaire, like those of Notre Dame de la Grande at +Poitiers, and many other Lombardic churches, are singularly narrow, +which of course appears to lengthen them out interminably. + +If any distinctive style can be given this small but interesting +cathedral, it may well be called the style of Lyonnaise. + +It dates from the twelfth century as to its foundations, but was rebuilt +on practically a new ground-plan in 1604. + +To-day it is cruciform after the late elongated style, with lengthy +transepts and lofty aisles. + +The chief feature to be observed of its exterior is its heavy square +tower (187 feet) of four stories. It is not beautiful, and was rebuilt +in the middle nineteenth century, but it is imposing and groups +satisfactorily enough with the _ensemble_ round about. Beneath this +tower is a fine porch worked in Crussol marble. + +There is no triforium or clerestory. In the choir is a cenotaph in white +marble to Pius VI., who was exiled in Valence, and who died here in +1799. It is surmounted by a bust by Canova, whose work it has become the +fashion to admire sedulously. + + + + +VII + +CATHEDRALE DE VIVIERS + + +The bishopric of Viviers is a suffragan of Avignon, and is possessed of +a tiny cathedral church, which, in spite of its diminutive proportions, +overtops quite all the other buildings of this ancient capital of the +Vivarais. + +The city is a most picturesque setting for any shrine, with the narrow, +tortuous streets--though slummy ones--winding to the cliff-top on which +the city sits high above the waters of the Rhone. + +The choir of this cathedral is the only portion which warrants remark. +It is of the fourteenth century, and has no aisles. It is in the +accepted Gothic style, but this again is coerced by the Romanesque +flanking tower, which, to all intents and purposes, when viewed from +afar, might well be taken for a later Renaissance work. + +A nearer view dissects this tower into really beautiful parts. The base +is square, but above--in an addition of the fifteenth century--it blooms +forth into an octagon of quite original proportions. + +In the choir are some Gobelin tapestries and paintings by Mignard; +otherwise there are no artistic attributes to be remarked. + + + + +VIII + +NOTRE DAME D'ORANGE + + +The independent principality of Orange (which had existed since the +eleventh century), with the papal State of Avignon, the tiny Comte +Venaissin, and a small part of Provence were welded into the Department +of Vaucluse in the redistribution of political divisions under Napoleon +I. The house of Nassau retains to-day the honorary title of Princes of +Orange, borne by the heir apparent to the throne of Holland. More +anciently the city was known as the Roman _Arausio_, and is yet famous +for its remarkable Roman remains, the chief of which are its triumphal +arch and theatre--one of the largest and most magnificent, if not +actually the largest, of its era. + +The history of the church at Orange is far more interesting and notable +than that of its rather lame apology for a cathedral of rank. The see +succumbed in 1790 in favour of Avignon, an archbishopric, and Valence, +one of its suffragans. + +The persecution and oppression of the Protestants of Orange and Dauphine +are well-recorded facts of history. + +A supposedly liberal and tolerant maker of guide-books (in English) has +given inhabitants of Orange a hard reputation by classing them as a +"ferocious people." This rather unfair method of estimating their +latter-day characteristics is based upon the fact that over three +hundred perished here by the guillotine during the first three months of +the Revolution. It were better had he told us something of the +architectural treasures of this _ville de l'art celebre_. He does +mention the chief, also that "the town has many mosquitoes," but, as for +churches, he says not a word. + +The first bishop was St. Luce, who was settled here in the fourth +century, at the same time that St. Ruff came to Avignon. + +As a bishopric, Orange was under the control of St. Trophime's +successors at Arles. + +Notre Dame d'Orange is a work of little architectural pretence, though +its antiquity is great as to certain portions of its walls. The oldest +portion dates from 1085, though there is little to distinguish it from +the more modern additions and reparations, and is in no way suggestive +of the splendour with which the ancient Roman theatre and arch were +endowed. + +The chief attribute to be remarked is the extreme width of nave, which +dates from 1085 to 1126. The cathedral itself, however, is not an +architectural example of any appealing interest whatever, and pales +utterly before the magnificent and splendid preservations of secular +Roman times. + +Since, however, Orange is a city reminiscent of so early a period of +Christianity as the fourth century, it is to be presumed that other +Christian edifices of note may have at one time existed: if so, no very +vivid history of them appears to have been left behind, and certainly no +such tangible expressions of the art of church-building as are seen in +the neighbouring cities of the Rhone valley. + +[Illustration] + + + + +IX + +ST. VERAN DE CAVAILLON + + +"It is the plain of Cavaillon which is the market-garden of Avignon; +from whence come the panniers of vegetables and fruits, the _buissons +d'artichauts_, and the melons of 'high reputation.'" + +Such is the rather free paraphrase of a most charmingly expressed +observation on this Provencal land of plenty, written by an +eighteenth-century Frenchman. + +If it was true in those days, it is no less true to-day, and, though +this book is more concerned with churches than with _potagerie_, the +observation is made that this fact may have had not a little to do with +the early foundation of the church, here in a plenteous region, where it +was more likely to prosper than in an impoverished land. + +The bishopric was founded in the fifth century by St. Genialis, and it +endured constantly until the suppression in 1790. + +All interest in Cavaillon, in spite of its other not inconsiderable +claims, will be centred around its ancient cathedral of St. Veran, +immediately one comes into contact therewith. + +The present structure is built upon a very ancient foundation; some have +said that the primitive church was of the seventh century. This present +cathedral was consecrated by Pope Innocent IV. in person, in 1259, and +for that reason possesses a considerable interest which it would +otherwise lack. + +Externally the most remarkable feature is the arrangement and decoration +of the apside--there is hardly enough of it to come within the +classification of the chevet. Here the quintuple flanks, or sustaining +walls, are framed each with a pair of columns, of graceful enough +proportions in themselves, but possessed of inordinately heavy capitals. + +An octagonal cupola, an unusual, and in this case a not very beautiful +feature, crowns the centre of the nave. In reality it serves the purpose +of a lantern, and allows a dubious light to trickle through into the +interior, which is singularly gloomy. + +To the right of the nave is a curiously attenuated _clocher_, which +bears a clock-face of minute proportions, and holds a clanging +_bourdon_, which, judging from its voice, must be as proportionately +large as the clock-face is small. + +Beneath this tower is a doorway leading from the nave to the cloister, a +beautiful work dating from a much earlier period than the church itself. + +This cloister is not unlike that of St. Trophime at Arles, and, while +plain and simple in its general plan of rounded arches and vaulting, is +beautifully worked in stone, and admirably preserved. In spite of its +severity, there is no suggestion of crudity, and there is an elegance +and richness in its sculptured columns and capitals which is unusual in +ecclesiastical work of the time. + +The interior of this church is quite as interesting as the exterior. +There is an ample, though aisleless, nave, which, though singularly dark +and gloomy, suggests a vastness which is perhaps really not justified +by the actual state of affairs. + +A very curious arrangement is that the supporting wall-pillars--in this +case a sort of buttress, like those of the apside--serve to frame or +enclose a series of deep-vaulted side chapels. The effect of this is +that all of the flow of light, which might enter by the lower range of +windows, is practically cut off from the nave. What refulgence there +is--and it is not by any means of the dazzling variety--comes in through +the before-mentioned octagon and the upper windows of the nave. + +In a chapel--the gift of Philippe de Cabassole, a friend of +Petrarch's--is a funeral monument which will even more forcibly recall +the name and association of the poet. It is a seventeenth-century tomb +of Bishop Jean de Sade, a descendant of the famous Laura, whose ashes +formerly lay in the Eglise des Cordeliers at Avignon, but which were, it +is to be feared, scattered to the winds by the Revolutionary fury. + +At the summit of Mont St. Jacques, which rises high above the town, is +the ancient _Ermitage de St. Veran_; a place of local pilgrimage, but +not otherwise greatly celebrated. + + + + +X + +NOTRE DAME DES DOMS D'AVIGNON + + +It would be difficult to say with precision whether Avignon were more +closely connected in the average mind with the former papal splendour, +with Petrarch and his Laura, or with the famous Felibrage. + +Avignon literally reeks with sentimental associations of a most healthy +kind. No probable line of thought suggested by Avignon's historied and +romantic past will intimate even the mawkish, the sordid, or the banal. +It is, in almost limitless suggestion, the city of France above all +others in which to linger and drink in the life of its past and present +to one's fullest capacities. + +For the "literary pilgrim," first and foremost will be Avignon's +association with Petrarch, or rather he with it. For this reason it +shall be disposed of immediately, though not in one word, or ten; that +would be impossible. + +[Illustration: _Notre Dame des Doms d'Avignon_] + +"'The grave of Laura!' said I. 'Indeed, my dear sir, I am obliged to you +for having mentioned it,'" were the words with which the local +bookseller was addressed by an eighteenth-century traveller. "'Otherwise +one might have gone away, to their everlasting sorrow and shame, without +having seen this curiosity of your city.'" + +The same record of travel describes the guardian of this shrine as "a +converted Jew, who, from one year's end to another, has but two duties +to perform, which he most punctually attends to. The one to take care of +the grave of Laura, and to show it to strangers, the other to give them +information respecting all the curiosities. Before his conversion, he +stood at the corner by the Hotel de Ville offering lottery tickets to +passers-by, and asking, till he was hoarse, if they had anything to +sell. Not a soul took the least notice of him. His beard proved a +detriment in all his speculations. Now that he has become a Christian, +it is wonderful how everything thrives with him." + +At the very end of the Rue des Lices will be found the last remains of +the Eglise des Cordeliers--reduced at the Revolution to a mere tower and +its walls. Here may be seen the spot where was the tomb of Laura de +Sade. Arthur Young, writing just before the Revolution, described it as +below; though since that time still other changes have taken place, with +the result that "Laura's Grave" is little more than a memory to-day, and +a vague one at that. + +"The grave is nothing but a stone in the pavement, with a figure +engraved on it already partly effaced, surrounded by an inscription in +Gothic letters, and another on the wall adjoining, with the armorial +bearings of the De Sade family." + +To-day nothing but the site--the location--of the tomb is still there, +the before-mentioned details having entirely disappeared. The vault was +apparently broken open at the Revolution, and its ashes scattered. It +was here at Avignon, in the Eglise de St. Claire, as Petrarch himself +has recorded, that he first met Laura de Sade. + +The present mood is an appropriate one in which to continue the +Petrarchian pilgrimage countryward--to the famous Vaucluse. Here +Petrarch came as a boy, in 1313, and, if one chooses, he may have his +_dejeuner_ at the _Hotel Petrarque et Laure_; not the same, of course, +of which Petrarch wrote in praise of its fish of Sorgues; but you will +have them as a course at lunch nevertheless. Here, too, the famed +_Fontaine_ first comes to light and air; and above it hangs "Petrarch's +Castle," which is not Petrarch's castle, nor ever was. It belonged +originally to the bishops of Cavaillon, but it is possible that Petrarch +was a guest there at various times, as we know he was at the more +magnificent _Palais des Papes_ at Avignon. + +This chateau of the bishops hangs perilously on a brow which rises high +above the torrential _Fontaine_, and, if sentiment will not allow of its +being otherwise ignored, it is permissible to visit it, if one is so +inclined. No special hardship is involved, and no great adventure is +likely to result from this journey countryward. Tourists have been known +to do the thing before "just to get a few snapshots of the fountain." + +As to why the palace of the popes came into being at Avignon is a +question which suggests the possibilities of the making of a big book. + +The popes came to Avignon at the time of the Italian partition, on the +strength of having acquired a grant of the city from Joanna of Naples, +for which they were supposed to give eighty thousand golden crowns. +They never paid the bill, however; from which fact it would appear that +financial juggling was born at a much earlier period than has hitherto +been supposed. + +Seven popes reigned here, from 1305 to 1370; when, on the termination of +the Schism, it became the residence of a papal legate. Subsequently +Louis XIV. seized the city, in revenge for an alleged affront to his +ambassador, and Louis XV. also held it for ten years. + +The curious fact is here recalled that, by the treaty of Tolentino (12th +February, 1797), the papal power at Rome conceded formally for the first +time--to Napoleon I.--their ancient territory of Avignon. On the terms +of this treaty alone was Pope Pius allowed to remain nominal master of +even shreds of the patrimony of St. Peter. + +The significant events of Avignon's history are too great in purport and +number to be even catalogued here, but the magnificent papal residence, +from its very magnitude and luxuriance, compels attention as one of the +great architectural glories, not only of France, but of all Europe as +well. + +Here sat, for the major portion of the fourteenth century, the papal +court of Avignon; which the uncharitable have called a synonym for +profligacy, veniality, and luxurious degeneracy. Here, of course, were +held the conclaves by which the popes of that century were elected; +significantly they were all Frenchmen, which would seem to point to the +fact of corruption of some sort, if nothing more. + +Rienzi, the last of the tribunes, was a prisoner within the walls of +this great papal stronghold, and Simone Memmi of Sienna was brought +therefrom to decorate the walls of the popes' private chapel; Petrarch +was _persona grata_ here, and many other notables were frequenters of +its hospitality. + +The palace walls rise to a height of nearly ninety feet, and its +battlemented towers add another fifty; from which one may infer that its +stability was great; an effect which is still further sustained when the +great thickness of its sustaining walls is remarked, and the infrequent +piercings of windows and doorways. + +This vast edifice was commenced by Pope Clement V. in the early years of +the thirteenth century, but nothing more than the foundations of his +work were left, when Benedict XII., thirty years later, gave the work +into the hands of Peter Obreri--who must have been the Viollet-le-Duc +of his time. + +Revolution's destroying power played its part here, as generally +throughout France, in defacing shrines, monuments, and edifices, civil +and ecclesiastical, with little regard for sentiment and absolutely none +for reason. + +The mob attacked the papal palace with results more disastrous than the +accumulated debasement of preceding centuries. The later regime, which +turned the magnificent halls of this fortress-like palace into a mere +barracks--as it is to-day--was quite as iconoclastic in its temperament. + +One may realize here, to the full, just how far a great and noble +achievement of the art and devotion of a past age may sink. The ancient +papal palace at Avignon--the former seat of the power of the Roman +Catholic religion--has become a mere barracks! To contemplate it is more +sad even than to see a great church turned into a stable or an +abattoir--as can yet be seen in France. + +In its plan this magnificent building preserves its outlines, but its +splendour of embellishment has very nearly been eradicated, as may be +observed if one will crave entrance of the military incumbent. + +[Illustration: VILLENEUVE-. _les-AVIGNON_] + +In 1376 Pope Gregory XI. left Avignon for Rome,--after him came the two +anti-popes,--and thus ended what Petrarch has called "_L'Empia +Babilonia_." + +The cathedral of Notre Dame des Doms pales perceptibly before the +splendid dimensions of the papal palace, which formerly encompassed a +church of its own of much more artistic worth. + +In one respect only does the cathedral lend a desirable note to the +_ensemble_. This, by reason of its commanding situation--at the apex of +the Rocher des Doms--and by the gilded statue of the Virgin which +surmounts the tower, and supplies just the right quality of colour and +life to a structure which would be otherwise far from brilliant. + +From the opposite bank of the Rhone--from Villeneuve-les-Avignon--the +view of the parent city, the papal residence, the cathedral, and that +unusual southern attribute, the _beffroi_, all combine in a most +glorious picture of a superb beauty; quite rivalling--though in a far +different manner--that "plague spot of immorality,"--Monte Carlo, which +is mostly thought to hold the palm for the sheer beauty of natural +situation. + +The cathedral is chiefly of the twelfth century, though even a near-by +exterior view does not suggest any of the Gothic tendencies of that era. +It is more like the heavy bungling style which came in with the +Renaissance; but it is not that either, hence it must be classed as a +unique variety, though of the period when the transition from the +Romanesque to Gothic was making inroads elsewhere. + +It has been said that the structure dates in part from the time of +Charlemagne, but, if so, the usual splendid appointments of the true +Charlemagnian manner are sadly lacking. There may be constructive +foundations of the eleventh century, but they are in no way distinctive, +and certainly lend no liveliness to a building which must ever be ranked +as unworthy of the splendid environment. + +As a church of cathedral rank, it is a tiny edifice when compared with +the glorious northern ground-plans: it is not much more than two hundred +feet in length, and has a width which must be considerably less than +fifty feet. + +The entrance, at the top of a long, winding stair which rises from the +street-level of the Place du Palais to the platform of the rock, is +essentially pagan in its aspect; indeed it is said to have previously +formed the portal of a pagan temple which at one time stood upon the +site. If this be so, this great doorway--for it is far larger in its +proportions than any other detail--is the most ancient of all the +interior or exterior features. + +The high pediment and roof may be pointed Gothic, or it may not; at any +rate, it is in but the very rudimentary stage. Authorities do not agree; +which carries the suggestion still further that the cathedral at Avignon +is of itself a queer, hybrid thing in its style, and with not a tithe of +the interest possessed by its more magnificent neighbour. + +The western tower, while not of great proportions, is rather more +massive than the proportions of the church body can well carry. What +decoration it possesses carries the pagan suggestion still further, with +its superimposed fluted pillars and Corinthian columns. + +The gloomy interior is depressing in the extreme, and whatever +attributes of interest that it has are largely discounted by their +unattractive setting. + +There are a number of old paintings, which, though they are not the work +of artists of fame, might possibly prove to be of creditable +workmanship, could one but see them through the gloom. In the +before-mentioned porch are some frescoes by Simone Memmi, executed by +him in the fourteenth century, when he came from Sienna to do the +decorations in the palace. + +The side chapels are all of the fourteenth century; that of St. Joseph, +now forming the antechamber of the sacristy, contains a noteworthy +Gothic tomb and monument of Pope John XXII. It is much mutilated to-day, +and is only interesting because of the personality connected therewith. +The custodian or caretaker is in this case a most persistently voluble +person, who will give the visitor little peace unless he stands by and +hears her story through, or flees the place,--which is preferable. + +The niches of this highly florid Gothic tomb were despoiled of their +statues at the Revolution, and the recumbent effigy of the Pope has been +greatly disfigured. A much simpler monument, and one quite as +interesting, to another Pope, Benedict XII.,--he who was responsible for +the magnificence of the papal palace,--is in a chapel in the north aisle +of the nave, but the _cicerone_ has apparently no pride in this +particular shrine. + +An ancient (pagan?) altar is preserved in the nave. It is not +beautiful, but it is undoubtedly very ancient and likewise very curious. + +The chief accessory of interest for all will doubtless prove to be the +twelfth-century papal throne. It is of a pure white marble, rather cold +to contemplate, but livened here and there with superimposed gold +ornament. What decoration there is, chiefly figures representing the +bull of St. Luke and the lion of St. Mark, is simple and severe, as +befitted papal dignity. To-day it serves the archbishop of the diocese +as his throne of dignity, and must inspire that worthy with ambitious +hopes. + +The chapter of the cathedral at Avignon--as we learn from history--wears +purple, in company with cardinals and kings, at all celebrations of the +High Mass of Clara de Falkenstein. From a well-worn vellum quarto in the +library at Avignon one may read the legend which recounts the connection +of Ste. Clara de Mont Falcone with the mystery of the Holy Trinity; from +which circumstance the honour and dignity of the purple has been granted +to the prelates of the cathedral. + +No mention of Avignon, or of Arles, or of Nimes could well be made +without a reference to the revival of Provencal literature brought about +by the famous "Felibrage," that brotherhood founded by seven poets, of +whom Frederic Mistral is the most popularly known. + +The subject is too vast, and too vastly interesting to be slighted here, +so perforce mere mention must suffice. + +The word Felibre was suggested by Mistral, who found it in an old hymn. +Its etymology is uncertain, but possibly it is from the Greek, meaning +"a lover of the beautiful." + +The original number of the Felibres was seven, and they first met on the +fete-day of Ste. Estelle; in whose honour they adopted the seven-pointed +star as their emblem. Significantly, the number seven has much to do +with the Felibres and Avignon alike. The enthusiastic Felibre tells of +Avignon's seven churches, its seven gates, seven colleges, seven +hospitals, and seven popes--who reigned at Avignon for seven decades; +and further that the word Felibre has seven letters, as, also, has the +name of Mistral, one of its seven founders--who took seven years in +writing his epics. + +[Illustration: NOTRE DAME _des DOMS d'AVIGNON_] + +The machicolated walls, towers, and gateways of Avignon, which +protected the city in mediaeval times, and--history tells us--sheltered +twice as many souls as now, are in a remarkable state of preservation +and completeness, and rank foremost among the masterworks of +fortification of their time. This outer wall, or _enceinte_, was built +at the instigation of Clement VI., in 1349, and was the work of but +fourteen years. + +A hideously decorated building opposite the papal palace--now the +_Conservatoire de Musique_--was formerly the papal mint. + +The ruined bridge of St. Benezet, built in the twelfth century, is a +remarkable example of the engineering skill of the time. Surmounting the +four remaining arches--still perfect as to their configuration--is a +tiny chapel dedicated to St. Nicholas, which formerly contained +_reliques_ of St. Benezet. + +The extraordinary circumstance which led up to the building of this +bridge seems legendary, to say the least. + +It is recorded that St. Benezet, its founder, who was a mere shepherd, +became inspired by God to undertake this great work. The inspiration +must likewise have brought with it not a little of the uncommon skill of +the bridge-builder, and, considering the extent and scope of the +projected work, something of the spirit of benefaction as well. + +The foundation was laid in 1171, and it was completed, after seventeen +years of labour, in 1188. + +On this bridge, near the entrance to the city, was erected a hospital of +religious persons, who were denominated _Les Freres du Pont_, their +offices being to preserve the fabric, and to afford succour to all +manner of travellers. + +The boldness and utility of this undertaking,--it being the only means +of communication between Avignon and the French territory beyond the +Rhone,--as well as the permanency assured to it by the annexing of a +religious foundation, cannot fail to grant to the memory of its holy +founder something more than a due share of veneration on behalf of his +genius and perspicacity. + + + + +XI + +ST. SIFFREIN DE CARPENTRAS + + +The tiny city of Carpentras, most picturesquely situated on the equally +diminutive river Auzon which enters the Rhone between Orange and +Avignon, was a Roman colony under Augustus, and a bishopric under St. +Valentin in the third century. + +A suffragan of Avignon, the papal city, the see was suppressed in 1790. + +The Bishops of Carpentras, it would appear, were a romantic and +luxury-loving line of prelates, though this perhaps is aught against +their more devout virtues. + +They had a magnificent palace overhanging the famous "Fountain of +Vaucluse," and repaired thither in mediaeval times for the relaxation +which they evidently much appreciated. They must have been veritable +patrons of literature and the arts, as Petrarch and his fellows-in-art +were frequently of their household. + +The ancient cathedral of St. Siffrein is dedicated to a former bishop of +Carpentras, who died in the sixth century. + +As this church now stands, its stones are mainly of the early sixteenth +century. The west facade is entirely without character, and is pierced +at the pavement with a gross central doorway flanked by two others; poor +copies of the _Greco-Romain_ style, which, in many of its original +forms, was certainly more pleasing than here. Each of these smaller +doorways have for their jambs two beautifully toned columns of red +jasper, from a baptistere of which there are still extensive remains at +Venasque near by. + +This baptistere, by the way, and its neighbouring Romanesque and Gothic +church, is quite worth the energy of making the journey countryward, +eleven kilometres from Carpentras, to see. + +It is nominally of the tenth century, but is built up from fragments of +a former Temple to Venus, and its situation amid the rocks and tree-clad +hilltops of the Nesque valley is most agreeable. + +The portal on the south side--though, for a fact, it hardly merits the +dignity of such a classification--is most ornately sculptured. A figure +of the Virgin, in the doorway, it locally known as Notre Dame des +Neiges. + +Much iconographic symbolism is to be found in this doorway, capable of +various plausible explanations which shall not be attempted here. + +It must suffice to say that nowhere in this neighbourhood, indeed +possibly not south of the Loire, is so varied and elaborate a collection +of symbolical stone-carving to be seen. + +There is no regularly completed tower to St. Siffrein, but a still +unachieved tenth-century _clocher_ in embryo attaches itself on the +south. + +The interior presents the general effect of Gothic, and, though of late +construction, is rather of the primitive order. + +There are no aisles, but one single nave, very wide and very high, while +the apse is very narrow, with lateral chapels. + +Against the western wall are placed four paintings; not worthy of +remark, perhaps, except for their great size. They are of the +seventeenth or eighteenth century. A private corridor, or gallery, leads +from this end of the church to the episcopal palace, presumably for the +sole use of the bishops and their guests. The third chapel on the right +is profusely decorated and contains a valuable painting by Dominique de +Carton. Another contains a statue of the Virgin, of the time of Louis +XIV., and is very beautiful. + +A tomb of Bishop Laurent Buti (d. 1710) is set against the wall, where +the apse adjoins the nave. + +Rearward on the high-altar is a fine painting by an unknown artist of +the Italian school. + +The old-time cathedral of St. Siffrein was plainly not of the +poverty-stricken class, as evinced by the various accessories and +details of ornamentation mentioned above. It had, moreover, in +conjunction with it, a most magnificent and truly palatial episcopal +residence, built by a former cardinal-bishop, Alexandri Bichi, in 1640. +To-day it serves the functions of the _Palais de Justice_ and a prison; +in the latter instance certainly a fall from its hitherto high estate. +Built about by this ancient residence of the prelates of the Church is +also yet to be seen, in much if not quite all of its pristine glory, a +_Gallo-Romain arc de Triomphe_ of considerable proportions and much +beauty of outline and ornament. + +As to period, Prosper Merimee, to whom the preservation of the ancient +monuments of France is largely due, has said that it is contemporary +with its compeer at Orange (first or second century). + +The Porte d'Orange, in the Grande Rue, is the only _relique_ left at +Carpentras of the ancient city ramparts built in the fourteenth century +by Pope Innocent VI. + + + + +XII + +CATHEDRALE DE VAISON + + +The Provencal town of Vaison, like Carpentras and Cavaillon, is really +of the basin of the Rhone, rather than of the region of the snow-crowned +Alps which form its background. It is of little interest to-day as a +cathedral city, though the see dates from a foundation of the fourth +century, by St. Aubin, until the suppression of 1790. + +Its former cathedral is hardly the equal of many others which have +supported episcopal dignity, but it has a few accessories and attributes +which make it notable. + +Its nave is finely vaulted, and there is an eleventh-century cloister, +which flanks the main body of the church on the left, which would be +remarked under any circumstances. + +The cloister, though practically a ruin,--but a well preserved +one,--shows in its construction many beautiful Gallo-Romain and early +Gothic columns which are exceedingly beautiful in their proportions. In +this cloister, also, are some fragments of early Christian tombs, which +will offer unlimited suggestion to the archaeologist, but which to the +lover of art and architecture are quite unappealing. + +The _Eglise St. Quinin_ is a conglomerate edifice which has been built +up, in part, from a former church which stood on the same site in the +seventh century. It is by no means a great architectural achievement as +it stands to-day, but is highly interesting because of its antiquity. In +the cathedral the chief article of real artistic value is a _benitier_, +made from the capital of a luxurious Corinthian column. One has seen +sun-dials and drinking-fountains made from pedestals and sarcophagi +before--and the effect has not been pleasing, and smacks not only of +vandalism, but of a debased ideal of art, but this column-top, which has +been transformed into a _benitier_, cannot be despised. + +The _bete-noir_ of all this region, and of Vaison in particular,--if one +is to believe local sentiment,--is the high sweeping wind, which at +certain seasons blows in a tempestuous manner. The habitant used to say +that "_le mistral, le Parlement, et Durance sont les trois fleaux de +Provence_." + +[Illustration] + + + + +XIII + +ST. TROPHIME D'ARLES + + "In all the world that which interests me most is _La Fleur des + 'Glais'_ ... It is a fine plant.... It is the same as the _Fleurs + des Lis d'Or_ of the arms of France and of Provence." + + --FREDERIC MISTRAL. + + +[Illustration: ST. TROPHIME _d'ARLES_ ...] + +Two French writers of repute have recently expressed their admiration of +the marvellous country, and the contiguous cities, lying about the mouth +of the Rhone; among which are Nimes, Aigues-Mortes, and--of far greater +interest and charm--Arles. Their opinions, perhaps, do not differ very +greatly from those of most travellers, but both Madame Duclaux, in +"The Fields of France," and Rene Bazin, in his _Recits de la Plaine et +de la Montagne_, give no palm, one to the other, with respect to their +feeling for "the mysterious charm of Arles." + +It is significant that in this region, from Vienne on the north to Arles +and Nimes in the south, are found such a remarkable series of Roman +remains as to warrant the statement by a French antiquarian that "in +Rome itself are no such temples as at Vienne and Nimes, no theatres so +splendidly preserved as that at Orange,--nor so large as that of +Arles,--and that the magnificent ruined colosseum on the Tiber in no +wise has the perfections of its compeer at Nimes, nor has any triumphal +arch the splendid decorations of that at Reims in the champagne +country." + +With these facts in view it is well to recall that many non-Christian +influences asserted themselves from time to time, and overshadowed for a +temporary period those which were more closely identified with the +growth of the Church. The Commission des Monuments Historiques catalogue +sixteen notable monuments in Arles which are cared for by them: the +Amphitheatre, the remains of the Forum,--now built into the facade of +the Hotel du Nord,--the remains of the Palais de Constantin, the Abbey +of Montmajour, and the one-time cathedral of St. Trophime, and its +cloister--to particularize but a few. + +To-day, as anciently, the ecclesiastical province is known as that of +Aix, Arles, and Embrun. Arles, however, for a time took its place as an +archbishopric, though to-day it joins hands again with Aix and Embrun; +thus, while enjoying the distinction of being ranked as an +archbishopric, its episcopal residence is at Aix. + +It was at Arles that the first, and only, English pope--Adrian +Breakspeare--first entered a monastic community, after having been +refused admission to the great establishment at St. Albans in +Hertfordshire, his native place. Here, by the utmost diligence, he +acquired the foundation of that great learning which resulted in his +being so suddenly proclaimed the wearer of the tiara, in 1154. + +St. Trophime came to Arles in the first century, and became the first +bishop of the diocese. The first church edifice on this site was +consecrated in 606 by St. Virgil, under the vocable of St. Etienne. In +1152 the present church was built over the remains of St. Trophime, +which were brought thither from St. Honorat des Alyscamps. So far as the +main body of the church is concerned, it was completed by the end of the +twelfth century, and only in its interior is shown the development of +the early ogival style. + +The structure was added to in 1430, when the Gothic choir was extended +eastward. + +The aisles are diminutively narrow, and the window piercings throughout +are exceedingly small; all of which makes for a lack of brilliancy and +gloom, which may be likened to the average crypt. The only radiance +which ever penetrates this gloomy interior comes at high noon, when the +refulgence of a Mediterranean sun glances through a series of long +lancets, and casts those purple shadows which artists love. Then, and +then only, does the cathedral of St. Trophime offer any inducement to +linger within its non-impressive walls. + +The exterior view is, too, dull and gloomy--what there is of it to be +seen from the Place Royale. By far the most lively view is that obtained +from across the ruins of the magnificent Roman theatre just at the rear. +Here the time-resisting qualities of secular Roman buildings combine +with the cathedral to present a bright, sunny, and appealing picture +indeed. + +St. Trophime is in no sense an unworthy architectural expression. As a +Provencal type of the Romanesque,--which it is mostly,--it must be +judged as quite apart from the Gothic which has crept in to but a slight +extent. + +The western portal is very beautiful, and, with cloister, as interesting +and elaborate as one could wish. + +It is the generality of an unimposing plan, a none too graceful tower +and its uninteresting interior, that qualifies the richness of its more +luxurious details. + +The portal of the west facade greatly resembles another at St. Gilles, +near by. It is a profusely ornamented doorway with richly foliaged stone +carving and elaborate _bas-reliefs_. + +The tympanum of the doorway contains the figure of a bishop in +sacerdotal costume, doubtless St. Trophime, flanked by winged angels and +lions. The sculptures here date perhaps from the period contemporary +with the best work at Paris and Chartres,--well on into the Middle +Ages,--when sculpture had not developed or perfected its style, but was +rather a bad copy of the antique. This will be notably apparent when the +stiffness and crudeness of the proportions of the figures are taken into +consideration. + +[Illustration: _Cloisters, St. Trophime d'Arles_] + +The wonderful cloister of St. Trophime is, on the east side, of +Romanesque workmanship, with barrel vaulting, and dates from 1120. On +the west it is of the transition style of a century later, while on the +north the vaulting springs boldly into the Gothic of that period--well +on toward 1400. + +The capitals of the pillars of this cloistered courtyard are most +diverse, and picture in delicately carved stone such scenes of Bible +history and legend as the unbelief of St. Thomas, Ste. Marthe and the +Tarasque, etc. It is a curious _melange_ of the vagaries of the stone +carver of the Middle Ages,--these curiously and elaborately carved +capitals,--but on the whole the _ensemble_ is one of rare beauty, in +spite of non-Christian and pagan accessories. These show at least how +far superior the classical work of that time was to the later +Renaissance. + +The cemetery of Arles, locally known as Les Alyscamps, literally teems +with mediaeval and ancient funeral monuments; though many, of course, +have been removed, and many have suffered the ravages of time, to say +nothing of the Revolutionary period. One portion was the old pagan +burial-ground, and another--marked off with crosses--was reserved for +Christian burial. + +It must have been accounted most holy ground, as the dead were brought +thither for burial from many distant cities. + +Dante mentions it in the "Inferno," Canto IX.: + + "Just as at Arles where the Rhone is stagnant The sepulchres make + all the ground unequal." + +Ariosto, in "Orlando Furioso," remarks it thus: + + "Many sepulchres are in this land." + +St. Remy, a few leagues to the northeast of Arles, is described by all +writers as wonderfully impressive and appealing to all who come within +its spell;--though the guide-books all say that it is a place without +importance. + +Rene Bazin has this to say: "_St. Remy, ce n'est pas beau, ce St. +Remy_." Madame Duclaux apostrophizes thus: "We fall at once in love with +St. Remy." With this preponderance of modern opinion we throw in our lot +as to the charms of St. Remy; and so it will be with most, whether with +regard to its charming environment or its historical monuments, its +arch, or its funeral memorials. One will only come away from this +charming _petite ville_ with the idea that, in spite of its five +thousand present-day inhabitants, it is something more than a modern +shrine which has been erected over a collection of ancient relics. The +little city breathes the very atmosphere of mediaevalism. + +[Illustration] + + + + +XIV + +ST. CASTOR DE NIMES + + +Like its neighbouring Roman cities, Nimes lives mostly in the glorious +past. + +In attempting to realize--if only in imagination--the civilization of a +past age, one is bound to bear always in mind the _motif_ which caused +any great art expression to take place. + +Here at Nimes the church builder had much that was magnificent to +emulate, leaving style apart from the question. + +[Illustration: _St. Castor de Nimes_] + +He might, when he planned the cathedral of St. Castor, have avowed his +intention of reaching, if possible, the grace and symmetry of the +_Maison Caree_; the splendour of the temple of Diana; the majesty of the +_Tour Magna_; the grandeur of the arena; or possibly in some measure a +blend of all these ambitious results. + +Instead, he built meanly and sordidly, though mainly by cause of +poverty. + +The Church of the Middle Ages, though come to great power and influence, +was not possessed of the fabulous wealth of the vainglorious Roman, who +gratified his senses and beautified his surroundings by a lavish +expenditure of means, acquired often in a none too honest fashion. + +The imperative need of the soul was for a house of worship of some sort, +and in some measure relative to the rank of the prelate who was to guard +their religious life. This took shape in the early part of the eleventh +century, when the cathedral of St. Castor was built. + +Of the varied and superlative attractions of the city one is attempted +to enlarge unduly; until the thought comes that there is the making of a +book itself to be fashioned out of a reconsideration of the splendid +monuments which still exist in this city of celebrated art. To +enumerate them all even would be an impossibility here. + +The tiny building known as the _Maison Caree_ is of that greatness which +is not excelled by the "Divine Comedy" in literature, the "Venus of +Milo" in sculpture, or the "Transfiguration" in painting. + +The delicacy and beauty of its Corinthian columns are the more apparent +when viewed in conjunction with the pseudo-classical portico of +mathematical clumsiness of the modern theatre opposite. + +This theatre is a dreadful caricature of the deathless work of the +Greeks, while the perfect example of _Greco-Romain_ architecture--the +_Maison Caree_--will endure as long as its walls stand as the fullest +expression of that sense of divine proportion and _magique harmonie_ +which the Romans inherited from the Greeks. Cardinal Alberoni called it +"a gem which should be set in gold," and both Louis Quatorze and +Napoleon had schemes for lifting it bodily from the ground and +reestablishing it at Paris. + +_Les Arenes_ of Nimes is an unparalleled work of its class, and in far +better preservation than any other extant. It stands, welcoming the +stranger, at the very gateway of the city, its _grand axe_ extending +off, in arcaded perspective, over four hundred and twenty feet, with +room inside for thirty thousand souls. + +These Romans wrought on a magnificent scale, and here, as elsewhere, +they have left evidences of their skill which are manifestly of the +non-decaying order. + + * * * * * + +The Commission des Monuments Historiques lists in all at Nimes nine of +these historical monuments over which the paternal care of the Ministere +de l'Instruction Publique et des Beaux Arts ever hangs. + +As if the only really fine element in the Cathedral of St. Castor were +the facade, with its remarkable frieze of events of Bible history, the +Commission has singled it out for especial care, which in truth it +deserves, far and away above any other specific feature of this church. + +Christianity came early to Nimes; or, at least, the bishopric was +founded here, with St. Felix as its first bishop, in the fourth century. +At this time the diocese was a suffragan of Narbonne, whilst to-day its +allegiance is to the archiepiscopal throne at Avignon. + +The cathedral of St. Castor was erected in 1030, restored in the +thirteenth century, and suffered greatly in the wars of the sixteenth +and seventeenth centuries. + +These depredations have been--in part--made good, but in the main it is +a rather gaunt and painful fabric, and one which is unlooked for amid so +magnificent neighbours. + +It has been said by Roger Peyer--who has written a most enticing +monograph on Nimes--"that without prejudice we can say that the churches +constructed in the city _dans nos jours_ are far in advance of the +cathedral." This is unquestionably true; for, if we except the very +ancient facade, with its interesting sculptured frieze, there is little +to impress the cathedral upon the mind except its contrast with its +surrounding architectural peers. + +The main plan, with its flanking north-westerly square tower, is +reminiscent of hundreds of parish churches yet to be seen in Italy; +while its portal is but a mere classical doorway, too mean even to be +classed as a detail of any rank whatever. + +The facade has undergone some breaking-out and stopping-up of windows +during the past decade; for what purpose it is hard to realize, as the +effect is neither enhanced nor the reverse. + +A gaunt supporting buttress, or what not, flanks the tower on the south +and adds, yet further, to the incongruity of the _ensemble_. + +In fine, its decorations are a curious mixture of a more or less pure +round-headed Roman style of window and doorway, with later Renaissance +and pseudo-classical interpolations. + +With the interior the edifice takes on more of an interesting character, +though even here it is not remarkable as to beauty or grace. + +The nave is broad, aisleless, and bare, but presents an air of grandeur +which is perhaps not otherwise justified; an effect which is doubtless +wholly produced by a certain cheerfulness of aspect, which comes from +the fact that it has been restored--or at least thoroughly furbished +up--in recent times. + +The large Roman nave, erected, it has been said, from the remains of a +former temple of Augustus, has small chapels, without windows, beyond +its pillars in place of the usual side aisles. + +Above is a fine gallery or _tribune_, which also surrounds the choir. + +The modern mural paintings--the product of the Restoration period--give +an air of splendour and elegance, after the manner of the Italian +churches, to an appreciably greater extent than is commonly seen in +France. + +In the third chapel on the left is an altar-table made of an early +Christian sarcophagus; a questionable practice perhaps, but forming an +otherwise beautiful, though crude, accessory. + +[Illustration] + + + + +XV + +ST. THEODORIT D'UZES + + +The ancient diocese of Uzes formerly included that region lying between +the Ardeche, the Rhone, and the Gardon, its length and breadth being +perhaps equal--fourteen ancient leagues. As a bishopric, it endured from +the middle of the fifth century nearly to the beginning of the +nineteenth. + +In ancient Gallic records its cathedral was reckoned as some miles from +the present site of the town, but as no other remains than those of St. +Theodorit are known to-day, it is improbable that any references in +mediaeval history refer to another structure. + +This church is now no longer a cathedral, the see having been suppressed +in 1790. + +The bishop here, as at Lodeve and Mende, was the count of the town, and +the bishop and duke each possessed their castles and had their +respective spheres of jurisdiction, which, says an old-time chronicler, +"often occasioned many disputes." Obviously! + +In the sixteenth century most of the inhabitants embraced the +Reformation after the example of their bishop, who, with all his +chapter, publicly turned Protestant and "sent for a minister to Geneva." + +What remains of the cathedral to-day is reminiscent of a highly +interesting mediaeval foundation, though its general aspect is distinctly +modern. Such rebuilding and restoration as it underwent, in the +seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, made of it practically a new +edifice. + +The one feature of mark, which stands alone as the representative of +mediaeval times, is the charming tower which flanks the main body of the +church on the right. + +It is known as the "Tour Fenestrelle" and is of the thirteenth century. +It would be a notable accessory to any great church, and is of seven +stories in height, each dwindling in size from the one below, forming a +veritable campanile. Its height is 130 feet. + +The interior attractions of this minor church are greater than might be +supposed. There is a low gallery with a superb series of wrought-iron +_grilles_, a fine tomb in marble--to Bishop Boyan--and in the transept +two paintings by Simon de Chalons--a "Resurrection" and a "Raising of +Lazarus." + +The inevitable obtrusive organ-case is of the seventeenth century, and +like all of its kind is a parasitical abomination, clinging precariously +to the western wall. + +The sacristy is an extensive suite of rooms which contain throughout a +deep-toned and mellow oaken wainscot. + +For the rest, the lines of this church follow the conventionality of its +time. Its proportions, while not great, are good, and there is no marked +luxuriance of ornament or any exceeding grace in the entire structure, +if we except the detached tower before mentioned. + +The situation of the town is most picturesque; not daintily pretty, but +of a certain dignified order, which is the more satisfying. + +The ancient chateau, called Le Duche, is the real architectural treat of +the place. + + + + +XVI + +ST. JEAN D'ALAIS + + +Alais is an ancient city, but greatly modernized; moreover it does not +take a supreme rank as a cathedral city, from the fact that it held a +bishop's throne for but a hundred years. Alais was a bishopric only from +1694 to 1790. + +The cathedral of St. Jean is an imposing structure of that obtrusive +variety of architectural art known as "Louis Quinze," and is unworthy of +the distinction once bestowed upon it. + +Perhaps it is due to the fact that the Cevenole country was so largely +and aggressively Protestant that the see of Alais did not endure. Robert +Louis Stevenson tells of a stranger he met in these mountain parts--that +he was a Catholic, "and made no shame of it. No shame of it! The phrase +is a piece of natural statistics; for it is the language of one of a +minority.... Ireland is still Catholic; the Cevennes still Protestant. +Outdoor rustics have not many ideas, but such as they have are hardy +plants and thrive flourishingly in persecution." + +Built about in the facade of this unfeeling structure are some remains +of a twelfth-century church, but they are not of sufficient bulk or +excellence to warrant remark. + +An advancing porch stands before this west facade and is surmounted by a +massive tower in a poor Gothic style. + +The vast interior, like the exterior, is entirely without distinction, +though gaudily decorated. There are some good pictures, which, as works +of art, are a decided advance over any other attributes of this +church--an "Assumption," attributed to Mignard, in the chapel of the +Virgin; in the left transept, a "Virgin" by Deveria; and in the right +transept an "Annunciation" by Jalabert. + +Alais is by no means a dull place. It is busy with industry, is +prosperous, and possesses on a minute scale all the distractions of a +great city. It is modern to the very core, so far as appearances go. It +has its Boulevard Victor Hugo, its Boulevard Gambetta, and its Lycee +Dumas. The Hopital St. Louis--which has a curious doubly twisted +staircase--is of the eighteenth century; a bust of the Marquis de la +Fere-Alais, the Cevenole poet, is of the nineteenth; a monument of +bronze, to the glory of Pasteur, dates from 1896; and various other +bronze and stone memorials about the city all date and perpetuate the +name and fame of eighteenth and nineteenth-century notables. + +The Musee--another recent creation--occupies the former episcopal +residence, of eighteenth-century construction. + +The Hotel de Ville is quite the most charming building of the city. It +has fine halls and corridors, and an ample bibliotheque. Its present-day +Salle du Conseil was the ancient chamber of the _Etats du Languedoc_. + + + + +XVII + +ST. PIERRE D'ANNECY + + +The Savoian city of Annecy was formerly the ancient capital of the +Genevois. + +Its past history is more closely allied with other political events than +those which emanated from within the kingdom of France; and its +ecclesiastical allegiance was intimately related with Geneva, from +whence the episcopal seat was removed in 1535. + +In reality the Christian activities of Annecy had but little to do with +the Church in France, Savoie only having been ceded to France in 1860. +Formerly it belonged to the ducs de Savoie and the kings of Sardinia. + +Annecy is a most interesting city, and possesses many, if not quite all, +of the attractions of Geneva itself, including the Lake of Annecy, which +is quite as romantically picturesque as Lac Leman, though its +proportions are not nearly so great. + +The city's interest for the lover of religious associations is perhaps +greater than for the lover of church architecture alone, but, as the two +must perforce go hand in hand the greater part of the way, Annecy will +be found to rank high in the annals of the history and art of the +religious life of the past. + +In the chapel of the Visitation, belonging to the convent of the same +name, are buried St. Francois de Sales (d. 1622) and Ste. Jeanne de +Chantal (d. 1641). The chapel is architecturally of no importance, but +the marble ornament and sculptures and the rich paintings are +interesting. + +The ancient chapel of the Visitation--the convent of the first monastery +founded by St. Francis and Ste. Jeanne--immediately adjoins the +cathedral. + +Christianity first came to Annecy in the fourth century, with St. +Emilien. For long after its foundation the see was a suffragan of the +ancient ecclesiastical province of Vienne. To-day it is a suffragan of +Chambery. + +The rather ordinary cathedral of St. Pierre has no great interest as an +architectural type, and is possessed of no embellishments of a rank +sufficiently high to warrant remark. It dates only from the sixteenth +century, and is quite unconvincing as to any art expression which its +builders may have possessed. + +The episcopal palace (1784) adjoins the cathedral on the south. + +[Illustration] + + + + +XVIII + +CATHEDRALE DE CHAMBERY + + +The city of Chambery in the eighteenth century must have been a +veritable hotbed of aristocracy. A French writer of that day has indeed +stated that it is "the winter residence of all the aristocracy of +Savoie; ... with twenty thousand francs one could live _en grand +seigneur_; ... a country gentleman, with an income of a hundred and +twenty louis d'or a year, would as a matter of course take up his abode +in the town for the winter." + +To-day such a basis upon which to make an estimate of the value of +Chambery as a place of residence would be, it is to be feared, +misleading. + +Arthur Young closes his observations upon the agricultural prospects of +Savoie with the bold statement that: "On this day, left Chambery much +dissatisfied,--for the want of knowing more of it." + +Rousseau knew it better, much better. "_S'il est une petite ville au +monde ou l'on goute la douceur de la vie dans un commerce agreable et +sur, c'est Chambery._" + +Savoie and the Comte de Nice were annexed to France only as late as +1860, and from them were formed the departments of Savoie, Haute-Savoie, +and the Alpes-Maritimes. + +Chambery is to-day an archbishopric, with suffragans at Annecy, +Tarentaise, and St. Jean de Maurienne. Formerly conditions were +reversed, and Chambery was merely a bishopric in the province de +Tarentaise. Its first bishop, Michel Conseil, came in office, however, +only in 1780. + +The cathedral is of the fourteenth century, in the pointed style, and as +a work of art is distinctly of a minor class. + +The principal detail of note is a western portal which somewhat +approaches good Gothic, but in the main, both inside and out, the +church has no remarkable features, if we except some modern glass, which +is better in colour than most late work of its kind. + +As if to counteract any additional charm which this glass might +otherwise lend to the interior, we find a series of flamboyant traceries +over the major portion of the side walls and vaulting. These are garish +and in every way unpleasing, and the interior effect, like that of the +exterior, places the cathedral at Chambery far down the scale among +great churches. + +Decidedly the architectural embellishments of Chambery lie not in its +cathedral. + +The chapel of the ancient chateau, dating in part from the thirteenth +century, but mainly of the Gothic-Renaissance period, is far and away +the most splendid architectural monument of its class to be seen here. + +_La Grande Chartreuse_ is equally accessible from either Chambery or +Grenoble, and should not be neglected when one is attempting to +familiarize himself with these parts. + +[Illustration] + + + + +XIX + +NOTRE DAME DE GRENOBLE + + +It is an open question as to whether Grenoble is not possessed of the +most admirable and impressive situation of any cathedral city of France. + +At all events it has the attribute of a unique background in the _massif +de la Chartreuse_, and the range of snow-clad Alps, which rise so +abruptly as to directly screen and shelter the city from all other parts +lying north and east. Furthermore this natural windbreak, coupled with +the altitude of the city itself, makes for a bright and sunny, and +withal bracing, atmosphere which many professed tourist and health +resorts lack. + +Grenoble is in all respects "a most pleasant city," and one which +contains much of interest for all sorts and conditions of pilgrims. + +Anciently Grenoble was a bishopric in the diocese of the Province of +Vienne, to whose archbishop the see was at that time subordinate. Its +foundation was during the third century, and its first prelate was one +Domninus. + +In the redistribution of dioceses Grenoble became a suffragan of Lyon et +Vienne, which is its status to-day. + +As might naturally be inferred, in the case of so old a foundation, its +present-day cathedral of Notre Dame partakes also of early origin. + +This it does, to a small degree only, with respect to certain of the +foundations of the choir. These date from the eleventh century, while +succeeding eras, of a mixed and none too pure an architectural style, +culminate in presenting a singularly unconvincing and cold church +edifice. + +The "pointed" tabernacle, which is the chief interior feature, is of the +middle fifteenth century, and indeed the general effect is that of the +late Middle Ages, if not actually suggestive of still later modernity. + +The tomb of Archbishop Chisse, dating from 1407, is the cathedral's +chief monumental shrine. + +To the left of the cathedral is the ancient bishop's palace; still used +as such. It occupies the site of an eleventh-century episcopal +residence, but the structure itself is probably not earlier than the +fifteenth century. + +In the _Eglise de St. Andre_, a thirteenth-century structure, is a tomb +of more than usual sentimental and historical interest: that of Bayard. +It will be found in the transept. + +No mention of Grenoble could well ignore the famous monastery of _La +Grande Chartreuse_. + +Mostly, it is to be feared, the monastery is associated in mundane minds +with that subtle and luxurious _liqueur_ which has been brewed by the +white-robed monks of St. Bruno for ages past; and was until quite +recently, when the establishment was broken up by government decree and +the real formula of this sparkling _liqueur_ departed with the migrating +monks. + +The opinion is ventured, however, that up to the time of their +expulsion (in 1902), the monks of St. Bruno combined solitude, +austerity, devotion, and charity of a most practical kind with a +lucrative commerce in their distilled product after a successful manner +not equalled by any religious community before or since. + +[Illustration: S. Bruno] + +The Order of St. Bruno has weathered many storms, and, during the +Terror, was driven from its home and dispersed by brutal and riotous +soldiery. In 1816 a remnant returned, escorted, it is said, by a throng +of fifty thousand people. + +The cardinal rule of the Carthusians is abstemiousness from all +meat-eating; which, however, in consideration of their calm, regular +life, and a diet in which fish plays an important part, is apparently +conducive to that longevity which most of us desire. + +It is related that a certain Dominican pope wished to diminish the +severity of St. Bruno's regulations, but was met by a delegation of +Carthusians, whose _doyen_ owned to one hundred and twenty years, and +whose youngest member was of the ripe age of ninety. The amiable +pontiff, not having, apparently, an argument left, accordingly withdrew +his edict. + +Of all these great Charterhouses spread throughout France, _La Grande +Chartreuse_ was the most inspiring and interesting; not only from the +structure itself, but by reason of its commanding and romantic situation +amid the forest-clad heights of the Savoyan Alps. + +The first establishment here was the foundation of St. Bruno (in 1084), +which consisted merely of a modest chapel and a number of isolated +cubicles. + +This foundation only gave way--as late as the sixteenth and seventeenth +centuries--to an enlarged structure more in accord with the demands and +usage of this period. + +The most distinctive feature of its architecture is the grand cloister, +with its hundred and fifteen Gothic arches, out of which open the sixty +cells of the sandalled and hooded white-robed monks, who, continuing St. +Bruno's regulation, live still in isolation. In these cells they spent +all of their time outside the hours of work and worship, but were +allowed the privilege of receiving one colleague at a time. Here, too, +they ate their meals, with the exception of the principal meal on +Sundays, when they all met together in the refectory. + +The _Eglise de la Grande Chartreuse_ itself is very simple, about the +only distinctive or notable feature being the sixteenth-century +choir-stalls. At the midnight service, or at _matins_, when the simple +church is lit only by flaming torches, and the stalls filled with +white-robed _Chartreux_, is presented a picture which for solemnity and +impressiveness is as vivid as any which has come down from mediaeval +times. + +The chanting of the chorals, too, is unlike anything heard before; it +has indeed been called, before now, angelic. Petrarch, whose brother was +a member of the order, has put himself on record as having been +enchanted by it. + +As many as ten thousand visitors have passed through the portals of _La +Grande Chartreuse_ during the year, but now in the absence of the +monks--temporary or permanent as is yet to be determined--conditions +obtain which will not allow of entrance to the conventual buildings. + +No one, however, who visits either Grenoble or Chambery should fail to +journey to St. Laurent du Pont--the gateway of the fastness which +enfolds _La Grande Chartreuse_, and thence to beneath the shadow of the +walls which for so long sheltered the parent house of this ancient and +powerful order. + +[Illustration: _Belley_] + + + + +XX + +BELLEY AND AOSTE + + +En route to Chambery, from Lyon, one passes the little town of Belley. +It is an ancient place, most charmingly situated, and is a suffragan +bishopric, strangely enough, of Besancon, which is not only Teutonic in +its tendencies, but is actually of the north. + +At all events, Belley, in spite of its clear and crisp mountain air, is +not of the same climatic zone as the other dioceses in the archbishopric +of Besancon. + +Its cathedral is distinctly minor as to style, and is mainly Gothic of +the fifteenth century; though not unmixed, nor even consistent, in its +various parts. No inconsiderable portion is modern, as will be plainly +seen. + +One distinctly notable feature is a series of Romanesque columns in the +nave, possibly taken from some pagan Roman structure. They are +sufficiently of importance and value to be classed as "_Monuments +Historiques_," and as such are interesting. + +Aoste (Aoste-St.-Genix) is on the site of the Roman colony of Augustum, +of which to-day there are but a few fragmentary remains. It is perhaps a +little more than a mile from the village of St. Genix, with which to-day +its name is invariably coupled. As an ancient bishopric in the province +of Tarentaise, it took form in the fourth century, with St. Eustache as +its first bishop. To-day the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of all this +region--the Val-de-Tarentaise--is held by Tarentaise. + +[Illustration] + + + + +XXI + +ST. JEAN DE MAURIENNE + + +St. Jean de Maurienne is a tiny mountain city well within the +advance-guard of the Alpine range. Of itself it savours no more of the +picturesque than do the immediate surroundings. One can well understand +that vegetation round about has grown scant merely because of the dearth +of fructifying soil. The valleys and the ravines flourish, but the +enfolding walls of rock are bare and sterile. + +This is the somewhat abbreviated description of the _pagi_ garnered from +an ancient source, and is, in the main, true enough to-day. + +Not many casual travellers ever get to this mountain city of the Alps; +they are mostly rushed through to Italy, and do not stop short of the +frontier station of Modane, some thirty odd kilometres onward; from +which point onward only do they know the "lie of the land" between Paris +and Piedmont. + +St. Jean de Maurienne is to-day, though a suffragan of Chambery, a +bishopric in the old ecclesiastical province of Tarentaise. The first +archbishop--as the dignity was then--was St. Jacques, in the fifth +century. + +The cathedral of St. Jean is of a peculiar architectural style, locally +known as "Chartreusian." It is by no means beautiful, but it is not +unpleasing. It dates, as to the epoch of its distinctive style, from the +twelfth to the fifteenth centuries, though it has been so fully restored +in our day that it may as well be considered as a rebuilt structure, in +spite of the consistent devotion to the original plan. + +The chief features of note are to be seen in its interior, and, while +they are perhaps not of extraordinary value or beauty, in any single +instance, they form, as a whole, a highly interesting disposition of +devout symbols. + +Immediately within the portico, by which one enters from the west, is a +plaster model of the tomb of Count Humbert, the head of the house of +Savoie. + +In the nave is an altar and mausoleum in marble, gold, and mosaic, +erected by the Carthusians to St. Ayrald, a former bishop of the diocese +and a member of their order. + +In the left aisle of the nave is a tomb to Oger de Conflans, and another +to two former bishops. + +Through the sacristy, which is behind the chapel of the Sacred Heart, is +the entrance to the cloister. This cloister, while not of ranking +greatness or beauty, is carried out, in the most part, in the true +pointed style of its era (1452), and is, on the whole, the most charming +attribute of the cathedral. + +The choir has a series of carved stalls in wood, which are unusually +acceptable. In the choir, also, is a _ciborium_, in alabaster, with a +_reliquaire_ which is said to contain three fingers of John the Baptist, +brought to Savoie in the sixth century by Ste. Thecle. + +The crypt, beneath the choir, is, as is most frequently the case, the +remains of a still earlier church, which occupied the same site, but of +which there is little record extant. + + + + +XXII + +ST. PIERRE DE ST. CLAUDE + + +St. Claude is charmingly situated in a romantic valley of the Jura. + +The sound of mill-wheels and the sight of factory chimneys mingle +inextricably with the roaring of mountain torrents and the solitude of +the pine forest. + +The majority of the inhabitants of these valleys lead a simple and +pastoral life, with cheese-making apparently the predominant industry. +Manufacturing of all kinds is carried on, in a small way, in nearly +every hamlet--in tiny cottage _ateliers_--wood-carving, gem-polishing, +spectacle and clock-making, besides turnery and wood-working of all +sorts. + +[Illustration: ST. PIERRE _de ST. CLAUDE_] + +St. Claude, with its ancient cathedral of St. Pierre, is the centre of +all these activities; which must suggest to all publicists of time-worn +and _ennuied_ lands a deal of possibilities in the further +application of such industrial energies as lie close at hand. + +In 1789, when Arthur Young, in his third journey through France, passed +through St. Claude, the count-bishop of the diocese, the sole inheritor +of its wealthy abbey foundation and all its seigneurial dependencies, +had only just enfranchised his forty thousand serfs. + +Voltaire, the atheist, pleaded in vain the cause of this Christian +prelate, and for him to be allowed to sustain his right to bond-men; but +opposition was too great, and they became free to enjoy property rights, +could they but once acquire them. Previously, if childless, they had no +power to bequeath their property; it reverted simply to the seigneur by +custom of tradition. + +In the fifth century, St. Claude was the site of a powerful abbey. It +did not become an episcopal see, however, until 1742, when its first +bishop was Joseph de Madet. + +At the Revolution the see was suppressed, but it rose again, +phoenix-like, in 1821, and endures to-day as a suffragan of Lyon et +Vienne. + +The cathedral of St. Pierre is a fourteenth-century edifice, with later +work (seventeenth century) equally to be remarked. As a work of +restoration it appears poorly done, but the entire structure is of more +than ordinary interest; nevertheless it still remains an uncompleted +work. + +The church is of exceedingly moderate dimensions, and is in no sense a +great achievement. Its length cannot be much over two hundred feet, and +its width and height are approximately equal (85 feet), producing a +symmetry which is too conventional to be really lovable. + +Still, considering its environment and the association as the old abbey +church, to which St. Claude, the bishop of Besancon, retired in the +twelfth century, it has far more to offer in the way of a pleasing +prospect than many cathedrals of greater architectural worth. + +There are, in its interior, a series of fine choir-stalls in wood, of +the fifteenth century--comparable only with those at Rodez and Albi for +their excellence and the luxuriance of their carving--a sculptured +_Renaissance retable_ depicting the life of St. Pierre, and a modern +high-altar. This last accessory is not as worthy an art work as the two +others. + +[Illustration: _Notre Dame de Bourg_] + + + + +XXIII + +NOTRE DAME DE BOURG + + +The chief ecclesiastical attraction of Bourg-en-Bresse is not its +one-time cathedral of Notre Dame, which is but a poor Renaissance affair +of the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries. + +The famous Eglise de Brou, which Matthew Arnold described so justly and +fully in his verses, is a florid Gothic monument which ranks among the +most celebrated in France. It is situated something less than a mile +from the town, and is a show-piece which will not be neglected. Its +charms are too many and varied to be even suggested here. + +There are a series of sculptured figures of the prophets and apostles, +from a fifteenth or sixteenth-century _atelier_, that may or may not +have given the latter-day Sargent his suggestion for his celebrated +"frieze of the prophets." They are wonderfully like, at all events, and +the observation is advisedly included here, though it is not intended as +a sneer at Sargent's masterwork. + +This wonderful sixteenth-century Eglise de Brou, in a highly decorated +Gothic style, its monuments, altars, and admirable glass, is not +elsewhere equalled, as to elaborateness, in any church of its size or +rank. + +Notre Dame de Bourg--the cathedral--though manifestly a Renaissance +structure, has not a little of the Gothic spirit in its interior +arrangements and details. It is as if a Renaissance shell--and not a +handsome one--were enclosing a Gothic treasure. + +There is the unusual polygonal apside, which dates from the fifteenth or +sixteenth century, and is the most curious part of the entire edifice. + +The octagonal tower of the west has, in its higher story, been replaced +by an ugly dome-shaped excrescence surmounted by an enormous gilded +cross which is by no means beautiful. + +The west facade in general, in whose portal are shown some evidences of +the Gothic spirit, which at the time of its erection had not wholly +died, is uninteresting and all out of proportion to a church of its +rank. + +The interior effect somewhat redeems the unpromising exterior. + +There is a magnificent marble high-altar, jewel-wrought and of much +splendour. The two chapels have modern glass. A fine head of Christ, +carved in ivory, is to be seen in the sacristy. Previous to 1789 it was +kept in the great council-chamber of the _Etats de la Bresse_. + +In the sacristy also there are two pictures, of the German school of the +sixteenth century. + +There are sixty-eight stalls, of the sixteenth century, carved in wood. +Curiously enough, these stalls--of most excellent workmanship--are not +placed within the regulation confines of the choir, but are ranged in +two rows along the wall of the apside. + + + + +XXIV + +GLANDEVE, SENEZ, RIEZ, SISTERON + + +The diocese of Digne now includes four _ci-devant_ bishoprics, each of +which was suppressed at the Revolution. + +The ruins of the ancient bishopric of Glandeve are to-day replaced by +the small town of D'Entrevaux, whose former cathedral of St. Just has +now disappeared. The see of Glandeve had in all fifty-three bishops, the +first--St. Fraterne--in the year 459. + +Senez was composed of but thirty-two parishes. It was, however, a very +ancient foundation, dating from 445 A. D. Its cathedral was known as +Notre Dame, and its chapter was composed of five canons and three +dignitaries. At various times forty-three bishops occupied the episcopal +throne at Senez. + +[Illustration: NOTRE DAME _de SISTERON_] + +The suppression likewise made way with the bishopric at Riez, a charming +little city of Provence. The see was formerly composed of fifty-four +parishes, and its cathedral of Notre Dame had a chapter of eight +canons and four dignitaries. The first bishop was St. Prosper, in the +early part of the fifth century. Ultimately he was followed by +seventy-four others. Two "councils of the church" were held at Riez, the +first in 439, and the second in 1285. + +The diocese of Sisteron was situated in the charming mountain town of +the Basses-Alps. This brisk little fortress-city still offers to the +traveller many of the attractions of yore, though its former cathedral +of Notre Dame no longer shelters a bishop's throne. + +Four dignitaries and eight canons performed the functions of the +cathedral, and served the fifty parishes allied with it. + +The first bishop was Chrysaphius, in 452, and the last, Francois Bovet, +in 1789. This prelate in 1801 refused the oath of allegiance demanded by +the new regime, and forthwith resigned, when the see was combined with +that of Digne. + +The ancient cathedral of Notre Dame de Sisteron of the eleventh and +twelfth centuries is now ranked as a "_Monument Historique_." It dates, +in the main, from the twelfth century, and is of itself no more +remarkable than many of the other minor cathedrals of this part of +France. + +Its chief distinction lies in its grand _retable_, which is decorated +with a series of superb paintings by Mignard. + +The city lies picturesquely posed at the foot of a commanding height, +which in turn is surmounted by the ancient citadel. Across the defile, +which is deeply cut by the river Durance, rises the precipitous Mont de +la Baume, which, with the not very grand or splendid buildings of the +city itself, composes the ensemble at once into a distinctively +"old-world" spot, which the march of progress has done little to temper. + +It looks not a little like a piece of stage-scenery, to be sure, but it +is a wonderful grouping of the works of nature and of the hand of man, +and one which it will be difficult to duplicate elsewhere in France; in +fact, it will not be possible to do so. + +[Illustration] + + + + +XXV + +ST. JEROME DE DIGNE + + +The diocese of Digne, among all of its neighbours, has survived until +to-day. It is a suffragan of Aix, Arles, and Embrun, and has +jurisdiction over the whole of the Department of the Basses-Alps. St. +Domnin became its first bishop, in the fourth century. + +The ancient Romanesque cathedral of Notre Dame--from which the bishop's +seat has been removed to the more modern St. Jerome--is an unusually +interesting old church, though bare and unpretentious to-day. It dates +from the twelfth century, and has all the distinguishing marks of its +era. Its nave is, moreover, a really fine work, and worthy to rank with +many more important. There are, in this nave, some traces of a series of +curious wall-paintings dating from the fourteenth or fifteenth +centuries. + +St. Jerome de Digne--called _la cathedrale fort magnifiante_--is a +restored Gothic church of the early ages of the style, though it has +been placed--in some doubt--as of the fifteenth century. + +The apse is semicircular, without chapels, and the general effect of the +interior as a whole is curiously marred by reason of the lack of +transepts, clerestory, and triforium. + +This notable poverty of feature is perhaps made up for by the amplified +side aisles, which are doubled throughout. + +The western portal, which is of an acceptable modern Gothic, is of more +than usual interest as to its decorations. In the tympanum of the arch +is a figure of the Saviour giving his blessing, with the emblems of the +Evangelists below, and an angel and the pelican--the emblem of the +sacrament--above. Beneath the figure of the Saviour is another of St. +Jerome, the patron, to whom the cathedral is dedicated. + +A square, ungainly tower holds a noisy peal of bells, which, though a +great source of local pride, can but prove annoying to the stranger, +with their importunate and unseemly clanging. + +The chief accessories, in the interior, are an elaborate organ-case,--of +the usual doubtful taste,--a marble statue of St. Vincent de Paul (by +Daumas, 1869), and a sixteenth or seventeenth-century statue of a former +bishop of the diocese. + +Digne has perhaps a more than ordinary share of picturesque environment, +seated, as it is, luxuriously in the lap of the surrounding mountains. + +St. Domnin, the first bishop, came, it is said, from Africa at a period +variously stated as from 330 to 340 A. D., but, at any rate, well on +into the fourth century. His enthronement appears to have been +undertaken amid much heretical strife, and was only accomplished with +the aid of St. Marcellin, the archbishop of Embrun, of which the diocese +of Digne was formerly a suffragan. + +The good St. Domnin does not appear to have made great headway in +putting out the flame of heresy, though his zeal was great and his +miracles many. He departed this world before the dawn of the fifth +century, and his memory is still brought to the minds of the +communicants of the cathedral each year on the 13th of February--his +fete-day--by the display of a reliquary, which is said to +contain--somewhat unemphatically--the remains of his head and arm. + +Wonderful cures are supposed to result to the infirm who view this +_relique_ in a proper spirit of veneration, and devils are warranted to +be cast out from the true believer under like conditions. + +A council of the Church was held at Digne in 1414. + + + + +XXVI + +NOTRE DAME DE DIE + + +The _Augusta Dia_ of the Romans is to-day a diminutive French town lying +at the foot of the _colline_ whose apex was formerly surmounted by the +more ancient city. + +It takes but little ecclesiastical rank, and is not even a tourist +resort of renown. It is, however, a shrine which encloses and surrounds +many monuments of the days which are gone, and is possessed of an +ancient Arc de Triomphe which would attract many of the genus +"_touriste_", did they but realize its charm. + +The cathedral, dedicated to the Virgin, sheltered a bishop's throne from +the foundation of the bishopric until 1285, when a hiatus +ensued--apparently from some inexplicable reason--until 1672, when its +episcopal dignity again came into being. Finally, in 1801, the diocese +came to an end. St. Mars was the first bishop, the see having been +founded in the third century. + +The porch of this cathedral is truly remarkable, having been taken from +a former temple to Cybele, and dates at least from some years previous +to the eleventh century. Another portal of more than usual remark--known +as the _porte rouge_--is fashioned from contemporary fragments of the +same period. + +While to all intents and purposes the cathedral is an early +architectural work, its rank to-day is that of a restored or rebuilt +church of the seventeenth century. + +The nave is one of the largest in this part of France, being 270 feet in +length and seventy-six feet in width. It has no side aisles and is +entirely without pillars to break its area, which of course appears more +vast than it really is. + +What indications there are which would place the cathedral among any of +the distinct architectural styles are of the pointed variety. + +Aside from its magnificent dimensions, there are no interior features of +remark except a gorgeous Renaissance pulpit and a curious _cene_. + + + + +XXVII + +NOTRE DAME ET ST. CASTOR D'APT + + +Apt is doubtfully claimed to have been a bishopric under St. Auspice in +the first century, but the ancient _Apta Julia_ of Roman times is to-day +little more than an interesting by-point, with but little importance in +either ecclesiological or art matters. + +Its cathedral--as a cathedral--ceased to exist in 1790. It is of the +species which would be generally accepted as Gothic, so far as exterior +appearances go, but it is bare and poor in ornament and design, and as a +type ranks far down the scale. + +In its interior arrangements the style becomes more florid, and takes on +something of the elaborateness which in a more thoroughly worthy +structure would be unremarked. + +The chief decoration lies in the rather elaborate _jube_, or +choir-screen, which stands out far more prominently than any other +interior feature, and is without doubt an admirable example of this not +too frequent attribute of a French church. + +Throughout there are indications of the work of many epochs and eras, +from the crypt of the primitive church to the Chapelle de Ste. Anne, +constructed by Mansard in the seventeenth century. This chapel contains +some creditable paintings by Parrocel, and yet others, in a still better +style, by Mignard. + +The crypt, which formed a part of the earlier church on this site, is +the truly picturesque feature of the cathedral at Apt, and, like many of +its kind, is now given over to a series of subterranean chapels. + +Among the other attributes of the interior are a tomb of the Ducs de +Sabron, a marble altar of the twelfth century, a precious enamel of the +same era, and a Gallo-Romain sarcophagus of the fifth century. + +As to the exterior effect and ensemble, the cathedral is hardly to be +remarked, either in size or splendour, from the usual parish church of +the average small town of France. It does not rise to a very ambitious +height, neither does its ground-plan suggest magnificent proportions. +Altogether it proves to be a cathedral which is neither very interesting +nor even picturesque. + +The little city itself is charmingly situated on the banks of the +Coulon, a small stream which runs gaily on its way to the Durance, at +times torrential, which in turn goes to swell the flood of the Rhone +below Avignon. + +The former bishop's palace is now the prefecture and Mairie. + +[Illustration] + + + + +XXVIII + +NOTRE DAME D'EMBRUN + + +Embrun, not unlike its neighbouring towns in the valley of the Durance, +is possessed of the same picturesque environment as Sisteron and Digne. +It is perched high on that species of eminence known in France as a +_colline_, though in this case it does not rise to a very magnificent +height; what there is of it, however, serves to accentuate the +picturesque element as nothing else would. + +The episcopal dignity of the town is only partial; it shares the +distinction with Aix and Arles. + +The Eglise Notre Dame, though it is still locally known as "_la +cathedrale_," is of the twelfth century, and has a wonderful old +Romanesque north porch and peristyle set about with gracefully +proportioned columns, the two foremost of which are supported upon the +backs of a pair of weird-looking animals, which are supposed to +represent the twelfth-century stone-cutter's conception of the king of +beasts. In the tympanum of this portal are sculptured figures of Christ +and the Evangelists, in no wise of remarkable quality, but indicating, +with the other decorative features, a certain luxuriance which is not +otherwise suggested in the edifice. + +The Romanesque tower which belongs to the church proper is, as to its +foundations, of very early date, though, as a finished detail, it is +merely a rebuilt fourteenth-century structure carried out on the old +lines. There is another tower, commonly called "_la tour brune_," which +adjoins the ancient bishop's palace, and dates from at least a century +before the main body of the church. + +The entire edifice presents an architectural _melange_ that makes it +impossible to classify it as of any one specific style, but the opinion +is hazarded that it is all the more interesting a shrine because of this +incongruity. + +The choir, too, indicates that it has been built up from fragments of a +former fabric, while the west front is equally unconvincing, and has the +added curious effect of presenting a variegated facade, which is, to say +the least and the most, very unusual. A similar suggestion is found +occasionally in the Auvergne, but the interweaving of party-coloured +stone, in an attempt to produce variety, has too often not been taken +advantage of. In this case it is not so very pleasing, but one has a +sort of sympathetic regard for it nevertheless. + +In the interior there are no constructive features of remark; indeed +there is little embellishment of any sort. There is an +eighteenth-century altar, in precious marbles, worked after the old +manner, and in the sacristy some altar-fittings of elaborately worked +Cordovan leather, a triptych which is dated 1518, some brilliant glass +of the fifteenth century, and in the nave a Renaissance organ-case +which encloses an organ of the early sixteenth century. + +Near by is Mont St. Guillaume (2,686 metres), on whose heights is a +_sanctuaire_ frequented by pilgrims from round about the whole valley of +the Durance. + +From "Quentin Durward," one recalls the great devotion of the Dauphin of +France--Louis XI.--for the statue of Notre Dame d'Embrun. + + + + +XXIX + +NOTRE DAME DE L'ASSOMPTION DE GAP + + +Gap is an ancient and most attractive little city of the Maritime Alps, +of something less than ten thousand inhabitants. + +Its cathedral is also the parish church, which suggests that the city is +not especially devout. + +The chapter of the cathedral consists of eight canons, who, considering +that the spiritual life of the entire Department of the +Hautes-Alpes--some hundred and fifty thousand souls--is in their care, +must have a very busy time of it. + +St. Demetrius, the friend of St. John the Evangelist, has always been +regarded as the first apostle and bishop of the diocese. He came from +Rome to Gaul in the reign of Claudian, and began his work of +evangelization in the environs of Vienne under St. Crescent, the +disciple of St. Paul. From Vienne Demetrius came immediately to Gap and +established the diocese here. + +Numerous conversions were made and the Church quickly gained adherents, +but persecution was yet rife, as likewise was superstition, and the +priests were denounced to the governors of the province, who forthwith +put them to death in true barbaric fashion. + +Amid these inflictions, however, and the later Protestant persecutions +in Dauphine, the diocese grew to great importance, and endures to-day as +a suffragan of Aix, Arles, and Embrun. + +The Eglise de Gap has even yet the good fortune to possess personal +_reliques_ of her first bishop, and accordingly displays them with due +pride and ceremony on his _jour de fete_, the 26th October of each year. +Says a willing but unknowing French writer: "Had Demetrius--who came to +Gap in the first century--any immediate successors? That we cannot say. +It is a period of three hundred years which separates his tenure from +that of St. Constantine, the next prelate of whom the records tell." + +Three other dioceses of the former ecclesiastical province have been +suppressed, and Gap alone has lived to exert its tiny sphere of +influence upon the religious life of the present day. + +The history of Gap has been largely identified with the Protestant cause +in Dauphine. There is, in the Prefecture, a monument to the Due de +Lesdiguieres--Francoise de Bonne--who, from the leadership of the +Protestants went over to the Roman faith, in consideration of his being +given the rank of _Connetable de France_. Why the mere fact of his +apostasy should have been a sufficient and good reason for this +aggrandizement, it is difficult to realize in this late day; though we +know of a former telegraph messenger who became a count. + +Another reformer, Guillaume Farel, was born and lived at Gap. "He +preached his first sermon," says History, "at the mill of Buree, and his +followers soon drove the Catholics from the place; when he himself took +possession of the pulpits of the town." + +From all this dissension from the Roman faith--though it came +comparatively late in point of time--rose the apparent apathy for +church-building which resulted in the rather inferior cathedral at Gap. + +No account of this unimportant church edifice could possibly be justly +coloured with enthusiasm. It is not wholly a mean structure, but it is +unworthy of the great activities of the religious devotion of the past, +and has no pretence to architectural worth, nor has it any of the +splendid appointments which are usually associated with the seat of a +bishop's throne. + +Notre Dame de l'Assomption is a modern edifice in the style +_Romano-Gothique_, and its construction, though elaborate both inside +and out, is quite unappealing. + +This is the more to be marvelled at, in that the history of the diocese +is so full of incident; so far, in fact, in advance of what the tangible +evidences would indicate. + + + + +XXX + +NOTRE DAME DE VENCE + + +Vence,--the ancient Roman city of Ventium,--with five other dioceses of +the ecclesiastical province of Embrun, was suppressed--as the seat of a +bishop--in 1790. It had been a suffragan bishopric of Embrun since its +foundation by Eusebe in the fourth century. + +The ancient cathedral of Notre Dame is supposed to show traces of +workmanship of the sixth, tenth, twelfth, and fifteenth centuries, but, +excepting that of the latter era, it will be difficult for the casual +observer to place the distinctions of style. + +The whole ensemble is of grim appearance; so much so that one need not +hesitate to place it well down in the ranks of the church-builder's art, +and, either from poverty of purse or purpose, it is quite +undistinguished. + +In its interior there are a few features of unusual remark: an ancient +sarcophagus, called that of St. Veran; a _retable_ of the sixteenth +century; some rather good paintings, by artists apparently unknown; and +a series of fifty-one fifteenth-century choir-stalls of quite notable +excellence, and worth more as an expression of artistic feeling than all +the other features combined. + +The only distinction as to constructive features is the fact that there +are no transepts, and that the aisles which surround the nave are +doubled. + + + + +XXXI + +CATHEDRALE DE SION + + +The small city of Sion, the capital of the Valais, looks not unlike the +pictures one sees in sixteenth-century historical works. + +It is brief, confined, and unobtrusive. It was so in feudal times, when +most of its architecture partook of the nature of a stronghold. It is so +to-day, because little of modernity has come into its life. + +The city, town, or finally village--for it is hardly more, from its +great lack of activity--lies at the foot of three lofty, isolated +eminences. A great conflagration came to Sion early in the nineteenth +century which resulted in a new lay-out of the town and one really fine +modern thoroughfare, though be it still remarked its life is yet +mediaeval. + +Upon one of these overshadowing heights is the present episcopal +residence, and on another the remains of a fortress--formerly the +stronghold of the bishops of Sion. On this height of La Valere stands +the very ancient church of Ste. Catherine (with a tenth or +eleventh-century choir), occupying, it is said, the site of a Roman +temple. + +In the mid-nineteenth century the Jesuits gained a considerable +influence here and congregated in large numbers. + +The city was the ancient Sedanum, and in olden time the bishop bore also +the title of "Prince of the Holy Empire." The power of this prelate was +practically unlimited, and ordinances of state were, as late as the +beginning of the nineteenth century, made in his name, and his arms +formed the embellishments of the public buildings and boundary posts. + +Rudolf III., king of Burgundy, from the year 1000, made them counts of +Valais. + +St. Theodule was the first bishop of Sion,--in the fourth century,--and +is the patron of the diocese. + +In 1070 the bishop of Sion came to England as papal legate to consecrate +Walkelin to the see of Winchester. + +In 1516 Bishop Schinner came to England to procure financial aid from +Henry VIII. to carry on war against France. + +The cathedral in the lower town is a fifteenth-century work which +ought--had the manner of church-building here in this isolated region +kept pace with the outside world--to be Renaissance in style. In +reality, it suggests nothing but the earliest of Gothic, and, in parts, +even Romanesque; therefore it is to be remarked, if not admired. + +Near by is the modern episcopal residence. + +The records tell of the extraordinary beauty and value of the _tresor_, +which formerly belonged to the cathedral: an ivory pyx, a reliquary, and +a magnificent manuscript of the Gospels--given by Charles the Great to +St. Maurice, and acquired by the town in the fourteenth century. This +must at some former time have been dispersed, as no trace of it is known +to-day. + +Sion was formerly a suffragan bishopric of Tarantaise, which in turn has +become to-day a suffragan of Chambery. + + + + +XXXII + +ST. PAUL TROIS CHATEAUX + + +St. Paul Trois Chateaux is a very old settlement. As a bishopric it was +known anciently as Tricastin, and dates from the second century. St. +Restuit was its first bishop. It was formerly the seat of the ancient +Roman colony of _Augusta Tricastinorum_. Tradition is responsible for +the assertion that St. Paul was the first prelate of the diocese, and +being born blind was cured by Jesus Christ. This holy man, after having +recovered his sight, took the name of Restuit, under which name he is +still locally honoured. One of his successors erected to his honour, in +the fourth century, a chapel and an altar. These, of course have +disappeared--hence we have only tradition, which, to say the least, and +the most, is, in this case, quite legendary. + +The city was devastated in the fifth century by the Vandals; in 1736 by +the Saracens; and taken and retaken by the Protestants and Catholics in +the fourteenth century. + +As a bishopric the "Tricastin city" comprised but thirty-six parishes, +and in the rearrangement attendant upon the Revolution was suppressed +altogether. Ninety-five bishops in all had their seats here up to the +time of suppression. Certainly the religious history of this tiny city +has been most vigorous and active. + +The city conserves to-day somewhat of its ancient birthright, and is a +picturesque and romantic spot, in which all may tarry awhile amid its +tortuous streets and the splendid remains of its old-time builders. Few +do drop off, even, in their annual rush southward, in season or out, and +the result is that St. Paul Trois Chateaux is to-day a delightfully "old +world" spot in the most significant meaning of the phrase. + +Of course the habitant still refers to the seat of the former bishop's +throne as a cathedral, and it is with pardonable pride that he does so. + +This precious old eleventh and twelfth-century church is possessed of as +endearing and interesting an aspect as the city itself. It has been +restored in recent times, but is much hidden by the houses which hover +around its walls. It has a unique portal which opens between two jutting +columns whose shafts uphold nothing--not even capitals. + +In fact, the general plan of the cathedral follows that of the Latin +cross, though in this instance it is of rather robust proportions. The +transepts, which are neither deep nor wide, are terminated with an apse, +as is also the choir, which depends, for its embellishments, upon the +decorative effect produced by eight Corinthian columns. + +The interior, the nave in particular, is of unusual height for a not +very grand structure; perhaps eighty feet. Its length is hardly greater. + +The orders of columns rise vaultwards, surmounted by a simple +entablature. These are perhaps not of the species that has come to be +regarded as good form in Christian architecture, but which, for many +reasons, have found their way into church-building, both before and +since the rise of Gothic. + +Under a triforium, in blind, is a sculptured drapery; again a feature +more pagan than Christian, but which is here more pleasing than when +usually found in such a false relation. + +Both these details are in imitation of the antique, and, since they date +from long before the simulating of pseudo-classical details became a +mere fad, are the more interesting and valuable as an art-expression of +the time. + +For the rest, this one-time cathedral is uncommon and most singular in +all its parts, though nowhere of very great inherent beauty. + +An ancient gateway bears a statue of the Virgin. It was the gift of a +former Archbishop of Paris to the town of his birth. + +An ancient Dominican convent is now the _Ecole Normale des Petits Freres +de Marie_. Within its wall have recently been discovered a valuable +mosaic work, and a table or altar of carved stone. + +In the suburbs of the town have also recently been found much beautiful +Roman work of a decorative nature; a geometric parchment in mosaic; a +superb lamp, in worked bronze; a head of Mercury (now in the Louvre), +and much treasure which would make any antiquarian literally leap for +joy, were he but present when they were unearthed. + +Altogether the brief resume should make for a desire to know more of +this ancient city whose name, even, is scarcely known to those +much-travelled persons who cross and recross France in pursuit of the +pleasures of convention alone. + + + + +_PART IV_ + +_The Mediterranean Coast_ + + + + +I + +INTRODUCTORY + + +The Mediterranean shore of the south of France, that delectable land +which fringes the great tideless sea, bespeaks the very spirit of +history and romance, of Christian fervour, and of profane riot and +bloodshed. + +Its ancient provinces,--Lower Languedoc, the Narbonensis of Gaul; +Provence, the most glorious and golden of all that went to make up +modern France,--the mediaeval capital of King Rene, Aix-en-Provence, and +the commercial capital of the Phoceans (559 B. C.), Massilia, all +combine in a wealth of storied lore which is inexhaustible. + +The tide of latter-day travel descends the Rhone to Marseilles, turns +eastward to the conventional pleasures of the Riviera, and utterly +neglects the charms of La Crau, St. Remy, Martiques, and Aigues-Mortes; +or the more progressive, though still ancient cathedral cities of +Montpellier, Beziers, Narbonne, or Perpignan. + +There is no question but that the French Riviera is, in winter, a land +of sunshiny days, cool nights, and the more or the less rapid life of +fashion. Which of these attractions induces the droves of personally-, +semi-, and non-conducted tourists to journey thither, with the first +advent of northern rigour, is doubtful; it is probably, however, a +combination of all three. + +It is a beautiful strip of coast-line from Marseilles to Mentone, and +its towns and cities are most attractively placed. But a sojourn there +"in the season," amid the luxury of a "palace-hotel," or the bareness of +a mediocre _pension_, is a thing to be dreaded. Seekers after health and +pleasure are supposed to be wonderfully recouped by the process; but +this is more than doubtful. Vice is rarely attractive, but it is always +made attractive, and weak tea and _pain de menage_ in a Riviera +boarding-house are no more stimulating than elsewhere; hence the many +virtues of this sunlit land are greatly nullified. + +"A peculiarity of the Riviera is that each of the prominent +watering-places possesses a tutelary deity of our own. (Modest this!) +Thus, for instance, no visitor to Cannes is allowed to forget the name +of Lord Brougham, while the interest at Beaulieu and Cap Martin centres +around another great English statesman, Lord Salisbury. Cap d'Antibes +has (or had) for its _genius loci_ Grant Allen, and Valescure is chiefly +concerned with Mrs. Humphry Ward and Mrs. Oliphant." + +This quotation is, perhaps, enough to make the writer's point here: Why +go to the Riviera to think of Lord Brougham, long since dead and gone, +any more than to Monte Carlo to be reminded of the unfortunate end which +happened to the great system for "breaking the bank" of Lord----, a +nineteenth-century nobleman of notoriety--if not of fame? + +The charm of situation of the Riviera is great, and the interest +awakened by its many reminders of the historied past is equally so; but, +with regard to its architectural remains, the most ready and willing +temperament will be doomed to disappointment. + +The cathedral cities of the Riviera are not of irresistible attraction +as shrines of the Christian faith; but they have much else, either +within their confines or in the immediate neighbourhood, which will go +far to make up for the deficiency of their religious monuments. + +It is not that the architectural remains of churches of another day, and +secular establishments, are wholly wanting. Far from it; Frejus, Toulon, +Grasse, and Cannes are possessed of delightful old churches, though they +are not of ranking greatness, or splendour. + +Still the fact remains that, of themselves, the natural beauties of the +region and the heritage of a historic past are not enough to attract the +throngs which, for any one of a dozen suspected reasons, annually, from +November to March, flock hither to this range of towns, which extends +from Hyeres and St. Raphael, on the west, to Bordighera and Ospadeletti, +just over the Italian border, on the east. + +It is truly historic ground, this; perhaps more visibly impressed upon +the mind and imagination than any other in the world, if we except the +Holy Land itself. + +Along this boundary were the two main routes, by land and by water, +through which the warlike and civil institutions of Rome first made +their way into Gaul, conquered it, and impressed thereon indelibly for +five hundred years the mighty power which their ambition urged forward. + +At Cimiez, a suburb of Nice, they have left a well-preserved +amphitheatre; at Antibes the remains of Roman towers; Villefranche--the +port of Nice--was formerly a Roman port; Frejus, the former _Forum +Julii_, has remains of its ancient harbour, its city walls, an +amphitheatre, a gateway, and an arch, and, at some distance from the +city, the chief of all neighbouring remains, an aqueduct, the crumbling +stones of which can be traced for many miles. + +Above the promontory of Monaco, where the Alps abruptly meet the sea, +stands the tiny village of _La Turbie_, some nineteen hundred feet above +the waters of the sparklingly brilliant Mediterranean. Here stands that +venerable ruined tower, the great _Trophoea Augusti_ of the Romans, +now stayed and strutted by modern masonry. It commemorates the Alpine +victories of the first of the emperors, and overlooks both Italy and +France. Stripped to-day of the decorations and sculptures which once +graced its walls, it stands as a reminder of the first splendid +introduction of the luxuriant architecture of Rome into the precincts +of the Western Empire. + +Here it may be recalled that sketching, even from the hilltops, is a +somewhat risky proceeding for the artist. The surrounding eminences--as +would be likely so near the Italian border--are frequently capped with a +fortress, and occupied by a small garrison, the sole duty of whose +commandant appears to be "heading off," or worse, those who would make a +picturesque note of the environment of this _ci-devant_ Roman +stronghold. The process of transcribing "literary notes" is looked upon +with equal suspicion, or even greater disapproval, in that--in +English--they are not so readily translated as is even a bad drawing. So +the admonition is here advisedly given for "whom it may concern." + +From the Rhone eastward, Marseilles alone has any church of a class +worthy to rank with those truly great. Its present cathedral of Ste. +Marie-Majeure assuredly takes, both as to its plan and the magnitude on +which it has been carried out, the rank of a masterwork of architecture. +It is a modern cathedral, but it is a grand and imposing basilica, after +the Byzantine manner. + +Westward, if we except Beziers, where there is a commanding cathedral; +Narbonne, where the true sky-pointing Gothic is to be found; and +Perpignan, where there is a very ancient though peculiarly disposed +cathedral, there are no really grand cathedral churches of this or any +other day. On the whole, however, all these cities are possessed of a +subtle charm of manner and environment which tell a story peculiarly +their own. + +Foremost among these cities of Southern Gaul, which have perhaps the +greatest and most appealing interest for the traveller, are Carcassonne +and Aigues-Mortes. + +Each of these remarkable reminders of days that are gone is unlike +anything elsewhere. Their very decay and practical desertion make for an +interest which would otherwise be unattainable. + +Aigues-Mortes has no cathedral, nor ever had; but Carcassonne has a very +beautiful, though small, example in St. Nazaire, treated elsewhere in +this book. + +Both Aigues-Mortes and Carcassonne are the last, and the greatest, +examples of the famous walled and fortified cities of the Middle Ages. + +Aigues-Mortes itself is a mere dead thing of the marshes, which once +held ten thousand souls, and witnessed all the pomp and glitter which +attended upon the embarking of Louis IX. on his chivalrous, but +ill-starred, ventures to the African coasts. + +"Here was a city built by the whim of a king--the last of the Royal +Crusaders." To-day it is a coffin-like city with perhaps a couple of +thousand pallid, shaking mortals, striving against the marsh-fever, +among the ruined houses, and within the mouldering walls of an ancient +Gothic burgh. + +[Illustration: _The Ramparts of Aigues-Mortes_] + +[Illustration: _St. Sauveur d'Aix_] + + + + +II + +ST. SAUVEUR D'AIX + + +Aix, the former capital of Provence, one of the most famous ancient +provinces, the early seat of wealth and civilization, and the native +land of the poetry and romance of mediaevalism, was the still more +ancient _Aquae Sextiae_ of the Romans--so named for the hot springs of the +neighbourhood. It was their oldest colony in Gaul, and was founded by +Sextius Calvinus in B. C. 123. + +In King Rene's time,--"_le bon roi_" died at Aix in +1480,--_Aix-en-Provence_ was more famous than ever as a "gay capital," +where "mirth and song and much good wine" reigned, if not to a +degenerate extent, at least to the full expression of liberty. + +In 1481, just subsequent to Rene's death, the province was annexed to +the Crown, and fifty years later fell into the hands of Charles V., who +was proclaimed King of Arles and Provence. This monarch's reign here was +of short duration, and he evacuated the city after two months' tenure. + +During all this time the church of Aix, from the foundation of the +archbishopric by St. Maxine in the first century (as stated rather +doubtfully in the "_Gallia Christiania_"), ever advanced hand in hand +with the mediaeval gaiety and splendour that is now past. + +Who ever goes to Aix now? Not many Riviera tourists even, and not many, +unless they are on a mission bent, will cross the Rhone and the Durance +when such appealingly attractive cities as Arles, Avignon, and Nimes lie +on the direct pathway from north to south. + +Formerly the see was known as the Province of Aix. To-day it is known as +Aix, Arles, and Embrun, and covers the Department of Bouches-du-Rhone, +with the exception of Marseilles, which is a suffragan bishopric of +itself. + +The chief ecclesiastical monuments of Aix are the cathedral of St. +Sauveur, with its most unusual _baptistere_; the church of St. +Jean-de-Malte of the fourteenth century; and the comparatively modern +early eighteenth-century church of La Madeleine, with a fine +"Annunciation" confidently attributed by local experts to Albrecht +Duerer. + +The cathedral of St. Sauveur is, in part, an eleventh-century church. +The portions remaining of this era are not very extensive, but they do +exist, and the choir, which was added in the thirteenth century, made +the first approach to a completed structure. In the next century the +choir was still more elaborated, and the tower and the southern aisle of +the nave added. This nave is, therefore, the original nave, as the +northern aisle was not added until well into the seventeenth century. + +The west facade contains a wonderful, though non-contemporary, door and +doorway in wood and stone of the early sixteenth century. This doorway +is in two bays, divided by a pier, on which is superimposed a statue of +the Virgin and Child, framed by a light garland of foliage and fruits. +Above are twelve tiny statuettes of _Sibylles_ or the theological +virtues placed in two rows. The lower range of the archivolt is divided +by pilasters bearing the symbols of the Evangelists, deeply cut +arabesques of the Genii, and the four greater prophets--Isaiah, +Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. + +Taken together, these late sculptures of the early sixteenth century +form an unusually mixed lot; but their workmanship and disposition are +pleasing and of an excellence which in many carvings of an earlier date +is often lacking. + +The interior shows early "pointed" and simple round arches, with +pilasters and pediment which bear little relation to Gothic, and are yet +not Romanesque of the conventional variety. These features are mainly +not suggestive of the Renaissance either, though work of this style +crops out, as might be expected, in the added north aisle of the nave. + +The transepts, too, which are hardly to be remarked from the +outside,--being much hemmed about by the surrounding buildings,--also +indicate their Renaissance origin. + +The real embellishments of the interior are: a triptych--"The Burning +Bush," with portraits of King Rene, Queen Jeanne de Laval, and others; +another of "The Annunciation;" a painting of St. Thomas, by a +sixteenth-century Flemish artist; and some sixteenth-century tapestries. +None of these features, while acceptable enough as works of art, compare +in worth or novelty with the tiny _baptistere_, which is claimed as of +the sixth century. + +This is an unusual work in Gaul, the only other examples being at +Poitiers and Le Puy. It resembles in plan and outline its more famous +contemporary at Ravenna, and shows eight antique columns, from a former +temple to Apollo, with dark shafts and lighter capitals. The dome has a +modern stucco finish, little in keeping with the general tone and +purport of this accessory. The cloister of St Sauveur, in the Lombard +style, is very curious, with its assorted twisted and plain columns, +some even knotted. The origin of its style is again bespoke in certain +of the round-headed arches. Altogether, as an accessory to the +cathedral, if to no other extent, this Lombard detail is forceful and +interesting. + + + + +III + +ST. REPARATA DE NICE + + "What would you, then? I say it is most engaging, in winter when + the strangers are here, and all work day and night; but it is a + much better place in summer, when one can take their ease." + + --PAUL ARENE. + + +Whatever may be the attractions of Nice for the travelled person, they +certainly do not lie in or about its cathedral. The guide-books call it +simply "the principal ecclesiastical edifice ... of no great interest," +which is an apt enough qualification. + +In a book which professes to treat of the special subject of cathedral +churches, something more is expected, if only to define the reason of +the lack of appealing interest. + +One might say with the Abbe Bourasse,--who wrote of St. Louis de +Versailles,--"It is cold, unfeeling, and without life;" or he might +dismiss it with a few words of lukewarm praise, which would be even +less satisfying. + +More specifically the observation might be passed that the lover of +churches will hardly find enough to warrant even passing consideration +_on the entire Riviera_. + +This last is in a great measure true, though much of the incident of +history and romance is woven about what--so far as the church-lover is +concerned--may be termed mere "tourist points." + +At all events, he who makes the round, from Marseilles to San Remo in +Italy, must to no small extent subordinate his love of ecclesiastical +art and--as do the majority of visitors--plunge into a whirl of gaiety +(_sic_) as conventional and unsatisfying as are most fulsome, fleeting +pleasures. + +The sensation is agreeable enough to most of us, for a time at least, +but the forced and artificial gaiety soon palls, and he who puts it all +behind him, and strikes inland to Aix and Embrun and the romantically +disposed little cathedral towns of the valley of the Durance, will come +once again into an architectural zone more in comport with the subject +suggested by the title of this book. + +It is curious to note that, with the exception of Marseilles and Aix, +scarce one of the suffragan dioceses of the ancient ecclesiastical +province of Aix, Arles, and Embrun is possessed of a cathedral of the +magnitude which we are wont to associate with the churchly dignity of a +bishop. + +St. Reparata de Nice is dismissed as above; that of Antibes was early +transferred or combined with that of Grasse; Grasse itself endured for a +time--from 1245 onward--but was suppressed in 1790; Glandeve, Senez, and +Riez were combined with Digne; while Frejus has become subordinate to +Toulon, though it shares episcopal dignity with that city. + +In spite of these changes and the apparently inexplicable tangle of the +limits of jurisdiction which has spread over this entire region, +religion has, as might be inferred from a study of the movement of early +Christianity in Gaul, ever been prominent in the life of the people, and +furthermore is of very long standing. + +The first bishop of Nice was Amantius, who came in the fourth century. +With what effect he laboured and with what real effect his labours +resulted, history does not state with minutiae. The name first given to +the diocese was _Cemenelium_. + +In 1802 the diocese of Nice was allied with that of Aix, but in the +final readjustment its individuality became its own possession once +more, and it is now a bishopric, a suffragan of Marseilles. + +As to architectural splendour, or even worth, St. Reparata de Nice has +none. It is a poor, mean fabric in the Italian style; quite unsuitable +in its dimensions to even the proper exploitation of any beauties that +the style of the Renaissance may otherwise possess. + +The general impression that it makes upon one is that it is but a +makeshift or substitute for something more pretentious which is to come. + +The church dates from 1650 only, and is entirely unworthy as an +expression of religious art or architecture. The structure itself is +bare throughout, and what decorative embellishments there are--though +numerous--are gaudy, after the manner of stage tinsel. + + + + +IV + +STE. MARIE MAJEURE DE TOULON + + +The episcopal dignity of Toulon is to-day shared with Frejus, whereas, +at the founding of the diocese, Toulon stood alone as a bishopric in the +ecclesiastical province of Arles. This was in the fifth century. When +the readjustment came, after the Revolution, the honour was divided with +the neighbouring coast town of Frejus. + +In spite of the fact that the cathedral here is of exceeding interest, +Toulon is most often thought of as the chief naval station of France in +the Mediterranean. From this fact signs of the workaday world are for +ever thrusting themselves before one. + +As a seaport, Toulon is admirably situated and planned, but the contrast +between the new and old quarters of the town and the frowning +fortifications, docks, and storehouses is a jumble of utilitarian +accessories which does not make for the slightest artistic or aesthetic +interest. + +Ste. Marie Majeure is a Romanesque edifice of the eleventh and twelfth +centuries. Its facade is an added member of the seventeenth century, and +the belfry of the century following. The church to-day is of some +considerable magnitude, as the work of the seventeenth and eighteenth +centuries comprehended extensive enlargements. + +As to its specific style, it has been called Provencal as well as +Romanesque. It is hardly one or the other, as the pure types known +elsewhere are considered, but rather a blend or transition between the +two. + +The edifice underwent a twelfth-century restoration, which doubtless was +the opportunity for incorporating with the Romanesque fabric certain +details which we have come since to know as Provencal. + +During the Revolution the cathedral suffered much despoliation, as was +usual, and only came through the trial in a somewhat imperfect and +poverty-stricken condition. Still, it presents to-day some considerable +splendour, if not actual magnificence. + +Its nave is for more reasons than one quite remarkable. It has a length +of perhaps a hundred and sixty feet, and a width scarcely thirty-five, +which gives an astonishing effect of narrowness, but one which bespeaks +a certain grace and lightness nevertheless--or would, were its +constructive elements of a little lighter order. + +In a chapel to the right of the choir is a fine modern _reredos_, and +throughout there are many paintings of acceptable, if not great, worth. +The pulpit, by a native of Toulon, is usually admired, but is a modern +work which in no way compares with others of its kind seen along the +Rhine, and indeed throughout Germany. One of the principal features +which decorate the interior is a tabernacle by Puget; while an admirable +sculptured "Jehovah and the Angels" by Veyrier, and a "Virgin" by +Canova--which truly is not a great work--complete the list of artistic +accessories. + +The first bishop of Toulon, in the fifth century, was one Honore. + + + + +V + +ST. ETIENNE DE FREJUS + + +The ancient episcopal city of Frejus has perhaps more than a due share +of the attractions for the student and lover of the historic past. It is +one of the most ancient cities of Provence. Its charm of environment, +people, and much else that it offers, on the surface or below, are as +irresistible a galaxy as one can find in a small town of scarce three +thousand inhabitants. And Frejus is right on the beaten track, too, +though it is not apparent that the usual run of pleasure-loving, +tennis-playing, and dancing-party species of tourist--at a small sum per +head, all included--ever stop here _en route_ to the town's more +fashionable Riviera neighbours--at least they do not _en masse_--as they +wing their way to the more delectable pleasures of naughty Nice or +precise and proper Mentone. + +The establishment of a bishopric here is somewhat doubtfully given by +"_La Gallia Christiania_" as having been in the fourth century. Coupled +with this statement is the assertion that the cathedral at Frejus is +very ancient, and its foundation very obscure; but that it was probably +built up from the remains of a "primitive temple consecrated to an +idol." Such, at least, is the information gleaned from a French source, +which does not in any way suggest room for doubt. + +Formerly the religious administration was divided amongst a provost, an +archdeacon, a sacristan, and twelve canons. The diocese was suppressed +in 1801 and united with that of Aix, but was reestablished in 1823 by +virtue of the Concordat of 1817. To-day the diocese divides the honour +of archiepiscopal dignity with that of Toulon. + +The foundations of St. Etienne are admittedly those of a pagan temple, +but the bulk of the main body of the church is of the eleventh century. +The tower and its spire--not wholly beautiful, nor yet in any way +unbeautiful--are of the period of the _ogivale primaire_. + +As to style, in so far as St. Etienne differs greatly from the early +Gothic of convention, it is generally designated as +Provencal-Romanesque. It is, however, strangely akin to what we know +elsewhere as primitive Gothic, and as such it is worthy of remark, +situated, as it is, here in the land where the pure round-arched style +is indigenous. + +The portal has a doorway ornamented with some indifferent Renaissance +sculptures. To the left of this doorway is a _baptistere_ containing a +number of granite columns, which, judging from their crudeness, must be +of genuine antiquity. + +There is an ancient Gothic cloister, hardly embryotic, but still very +rudimentary, because of the lack of piercings of the arches; possibly, +though, this is the result of an afterthought, as the arched openings +appear likely enough to have been filled up at some time subsequent to +the first erection of this feature. + +The bishop's palace is of extraordinary magnitude and impressiveness, +though of no very great splendour. In its fabric are incorporated a +series of Gallo-Roman pilasters, and it has the further added +embellishment of a pair of graceful twin _tourelles_. + +The Roman remains throughout the city are numerous and splendid, and, as +a former seaport, founded by Caesar and enlarged by Augustus, the city +was at a former time even more splendid than its fragments might +indicate. To-day, owing to the building up of the foreshore, and the +alluvial deposits washed down by the river Argens, the town is perhaps a +mile from the open sea. + +[Illustration: _Detail of Doorway of the Archibishop's Palace, Frejus_] + +[Illustration] + + + + +VI + +EGLISE DE GRASSE + + +Grasse is more famed for its picturesque situation and the manufacture +of perfumery than it is for its one-time cathedral, which is but a +simple and uninteresting twelfth-century church, whose only feature of +note is a graceful doorway in the pointed style. + +The diocese of Grasse formerly had jurisdiction over Antibes, whose +bishop--St. Armentaire--ruled in the fourth century. + +The diocese of Grasse--in the province of Embrun--did not come into +being, however, until 1245, when Raimond de Villeneuve was made its +first bishop. The see was suppressed in 1790. + +There are, as before said, no accessories of great artistic worth in the +Eglise de Grasse, and the lover of art and architecture will perforce +look elsewhere. In the Hopital are three paintings attributed to Rubens, +an "Exaltation," a "Crucifixion," and a "Crowning of Thorns." They may +or may not be genuine works by the master; still, nothing points to +their lack of authenticity, except the omission of all mention thereof +in most accounts which treat of this artist's work. + + + + +VII + +ANTIBES + + +Cap d'Antibes, on the Golfe Jouan, is one of those beauty-spots along +the Mediterranean over which sentimental rhapsody has ever lent, if not +a glamour which is artificial, at least one which is purely aesthetic. + +One must not deny it any reputation of this nature which it may possess, +and indeed, with St. Raphael and Hyeres, it shares with many another +place along the French Riviera a popularity as great, perhaps, as if it +were the possessor of even an extraordinarily beautiful cathedral. + +The churchly dignity of Antibes has departed long since, though its +career as a former bishopric--in the province of Aix--was not brief, as +time goes. It began in the fourth century with St. Armentaire, and +endured intermittently until the twelfth century, when the see was +combined with that of Grasse, and the ruling dignity transferred to that +place. + + + + +VIII + +STE. MARIE MAJEURE DE MARSEILLES + + "These brown men of Marseilles, who sing as they bend at their + oars, are Greeks." + + --CLOVIS HUGHES. + + +Marseilles is modern and commercial; but Marseilles is also ancient, and +a centre from which have radiated, since the days of the Greeks, much +power and influence. + +It is, too, for a modern city,--which it is to the average +tourist,--wonderfully picturesque, and shows some grand architectural +effects, both ancient and modern. + +[Illustration: _Marseilles_] + +The _Palais de Long Champs_ is an architectural grouping which might +have dazzled luxurious Rome itself. The Chamber of Commerce, with its +decorations by Puvis de Chavannes, is a structure of the first rank; the +_Cannebiere_ is one of those few great business thoroughfares which are +truly imposing; while the docks, shipping, and hotels, are all of +that preeminent magnitude which we are wont to associate only with a +great capital. + +As to its churches, its old twelfth-century cathedral remains to-day a +mere relic of its former dignity. + +[Illustration: _The Old Cathedral, Marseilles_] + +It is a reminder of a faith and a power that still live in spite of the +attempts of the world of progress to live it down, and has found its +echo in the present-day cathedral of Ste. Marie Majeure, one of the few +remarkably successful attempts at the designing of a great church in +modern times. The others are the new Westminster Roman Catholic +Cathedral London, the projected cathedral of St. John the Divine in New +York, and Trinity Church in Boston. + +As an exemplification of church-building after an old-time manner +adapted to modern needs, called variously French-Romanesque, Byzantine, +and, by nearly every expert who has passed comment upon it, by some +special _nomenclature of his own_, the cathedral at Marseilles is one of +those great churches which will live in the future as has St. Marc's at +Venice in the past. + +Its material is a soft stone of two contrasting varieties,--the green +being from the neighbourhood of Florence, and the white known as _pierre +de Calissant_,--laid in alternate courses. Its deep sunken portal, with +its twin flanking Byzantine towers, dominates the old part of the city, +lying around about the water-front, as do few other churches, and no +cathedrals, in all the world. + +It stands a far more impressive and inspiring sentinel at the water-gate +of the city than does the ludicrously fashioned modern "sailors' church" +of Notre Dame de la Gard, which is perched in unstable fashion on a +pinnacle of rock on the opposite side of the harbour. + +This "curiosity"--for it is hardly more--is reached by a cable-lift or +funicular railway, which seems principally to be conducted for the +delectation of those winter birds of passage yclept "Riviera tourists." + +The true pilgrim, the sailor who leaves a votive offering, or his wife +or sweetheart, who goes there to pray for his safety, journeys on foot +by an abrupt, stony road,--as one truly devout should. + +This sumptuous cathedral will not please every one, but it cannot be +denied that it is an admirably planned and wonderfully executed +_neo-Byzantine_ work. In size it is really vast, though its chief +remarkable dimension is its breadth. Its length is four hundred and +sixty feet. + +At the crossing is a dome which rises to one hundred and ninety-seven +feet, while two smaller ones are at each end of the transept, and yet +others, smaller still, above the various chapels. + +The general effect of the interior is--as might be +expected--_grandoise_. There is an immensely wide central nave, flanked +by two others of only appreciably reduced proportions. + +Above the side aisles are galleries extending to the transepts. + +The decorations of mosaic, glass, and mural painting have been the work +of the foremost artists of modern times, and have been long in +execution. + +The entire period of construction extended practically over the last +half of the nineteenth century. + +The plans were by Leon Vaudoyer, who was succeeded by one Esperandieu, +and again by Henri Revoil. The entire detail work may not even yet be +presumed to have been completed, but still the cathedral stands to-day +as the one distinct and complete achievement of its class within the +memory of living man. + +The pillars of the nave, so great is their number and so just and true +their disposition, form a really decorative effect in themselves. + +The choir is very long and is terminated with a domed apse, with domed +chapels radiating therefrom in a symmetrical and beautiful manner. + +The episcopal residence is immediately to the right of the cathedral, on +the Place de la Major. + +Marseilles has been the seat of a bishop since the days of St. Lazare in +the first century. It was formerly a suffragan of Arles in the Province +d'Arles, as it is to-day, but its jurisdiction is confined to the +immediate neighbourhood of the city. + + + + +IX + +ST. PIERRE D'ALET + + +In St. Pierre d'Alet was a former cathedral of a very early date; +perhaps as early as the ninth century, though the edifice was entirely +rebuilt in the eleventh. To-day, even this structure--which is not to be +wondered at--is in ruins. + +There was an ancient abbey here in the ninth century, but the bishopric +was not founded until 1318, and was suppressed in 1790. + +The most notable feature of this ancient church is the wall which +surrounds or forms the apside. This quintupled _pan_ is separated by +four great pillars, in imitation of the Corinthian order; though for +that matter they may as well be referred to as genuine antiques--which +they probably are--and be done with it. + +The capitals and the cornice which surmounts them are richly ornamented +with sculptured foliage, and, so far as it goes, the whole effect is +one of liberality and luxury of treatment. + +Immediately beside the ruins of this old-time cathedral is the Eglise +St. Andre of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. + + + + +X + +ST. PIERRE DE MONTPELLIER + + _La Ville de Montpellier_ + + "Elle est charmante et douce ... + Avec son vast ciel, toujours vibrant et pur, + + * * * * * + + Elle est charmante avec ses brunes jeunes filles + ... le noir diamant de leurs yeux!" + + --HENRI DE BORNIER. + + +Montpellier is seated upon a hill, its foot washed by two small and +unimportant rivers. + +A seventeenth-century writer has said: "This city is not very ancient, +though now it be the biggest, fairest, and richest in Languedoc, after +Toulouse." + +[Illustration: ST. PIERRE _de MONTPELLIER_] + +From a passage in the records left by St. Bernard, the Abbot of +Clairvaux, it is learned that there was a school or seminary of +physicians here as early as 1155, and the perfect establishment of a +university was known to have existed just previous to the year 1200. +This institution was held in great esteem, and in importance second +only to Paris. To-day the present establishment merits like approbation, +and, sheltered in part in the ancient episcopal palace, and partly +enclosing the cathedral of St. Pierre, it has become inseparable from +consideration in connection therewith. + +The records above referred to have this to say concerning the +university: "Tho' Physic has the Precendence, yet both Parts of the Law +are taught in one of its Colleges, by Four Royal Professors, with the +Power of making Licentiates and Doctors." Continuing, he says: "The +ceremony of taking the M. D. degree is very imposing; if only the +putting on and off, seven times, the old gown of the famous Rabelais." + +Montpellier was one of "the towns of security" granted by Henry IV. to +the Protestants, but Louis XIII., through the suggestions of his +cardinals, Richelieu and Mazarin, forced them by arms to surrender this +place of protection. The city was taken after a long siege and vigorous +defence in 1622. + +Before the foundation of Montpellier, the episcopal seat was at +Maguelonne, the ancient Magalonum of the Romans. The town does not exist +to-day, and its memory is only perpetuated by the name Villeneuve les +Maguelonne, a small hamlet on the bay of that name, a short distance +from Montpellier. + +The Church had a foothold here in the year 636, but the ferocity of +Saracen hordes utterly destroyed all vestiges of the Christian faith in +their descent upon the city. + +Says the Abbe Bourasse: "In the eleventh century another cathedral was +dedicated by Bishop Arnaud, and the day was made the occasion of a fete, +in consideration of the restoration of the church, which had been for a +long time abandoned." + +It seems futile to attempt to describe a church which does not exist, +and though the records of the later cathedral at Maguelonne are very +complete, it must perforce be passed by in favour of its descendant at +Montpellier. + +Having obtained the consent of Francois I., the bishop of Maguelonne +solicited from the pontiff at Rome the privilege of transferring the +throne. In a bull given in 1536, it was decreed that this should be done +forthwith. Accordingly, the bishop and his chapter transferred their +dignity to a Benedictine monastery at Montpellier, which had been +founded in 1364 by Pope Urban V. + +The wars of the Protestants desecrated this great church, which, like +many others, suffered greatly from their violence, so much so that it +was shorn entirely of its riches, its reliquaries, and much of its +decoration. + +The dimensions of this church are not great, and its beauties are quite +of a comparative quality; but for all that it is a most interesting +cathedral. + +The very grim but majestic severity of its canopied portal--with its +flanking cylindrical pillars, called by the French _tourelles +elances_--gives the key-note of it all, and a note which many a more +perfect church lacks. + +This curious porch well bespeaks the time when the Church was both +spiritual and militant, and ranks as an innovation--though an incomplete +and possibly imperfect one--in the manner of finishing off a west +facade. Its queer, suspended canopy and slight turreted towers are +unique; though, for a fact, they suggest, in embryo, those lavish +Burgundian porches; but it is only a suggestion, because of the +incompleteness and bareness. However, this porch is the distinct +fragment of the cathedral which will appeal to all who come into contact +therewith. + +The general effect of the interior is even more plain than that of the +outer walls, and is only remarkable because of its fine and true +proportions of length, breadth, and height. + +The triforium is but a suggestion of an arcade, supported by black +marble columns. The clerestory above is diminutive, and the window +piercings are infrequent. At the present time the choir is hung with a +series of curtains of _panne_--not tapestries in this case. The effect +is more theatrical than ecclesiastical. + +The architectural embellishments are to-day practically _nil_, but +instead one sees everywhere large, uninterrupted blank walls without +decoration of any sort. + +The principal decorations of the southern portal are the only relaxation +in this otherwise simple and austere fabric. Here is an elaborately +carved tympanum and an ornamented architrave, which suggests that the +added mellowness of a century or two yet to come will grant to it some +approach to distinction. This portal is by no means an insignificant +work, but it lacks that ripeness which is only obtained by the process +of time. + +Three rectangular towers rise to unequal heights above the roof, and, +like the western porch, are bare and primitive, though they would be +effective enough could one but get an _ensemble_ view that would bring +them into range. They are singularly unbeautiful, however, when compared +with their northern brethren. + +[Illustration] + + + + +XI + +CATHEDRALE D'AGDE + + +This tiny Mediterranean city was founded originally by the Phoenicians +as a commercial port, and finally grew, in spite of its diminutive +proportions, to great importance. + +Says an old writer: "Agde is not so very big, but it is Rich and +Trading-Merchantmen can now come pretty near Agde and Boats somewhat +large enter into the Mouth of the River; where they exchange many +Commodities for the Wines of the Country." + +Agde formerly, as if to emphasize its early importance, had its own +viscounts, whose estates fell to the share of those of Nimes; but in +1187, Bernard Atton, son of a Viscount of Nimes, presented to the Bishop +of Agde the viscounty of the city. Thus, it is seen, a certain +good-fellowship must have existed between the Church and state of a +former day. + +Formerly travellers told tales of Agde, whereby one might conclude its +aspect was as dull and gloomy as "Black Angers" of King John's time; and +from the same source we learn of the almost universal use of a dull, +slate-like stone in the construction of its buildings. To-day this +dulness is not to be remarked. What will strike the observer, first and +foremost, as being the chief characteristic, is the castellated +_ci-devant_ cathedral church. Here is in evidence the blackish basalt, +or lava rock, to a far greater extent than elsewhere in the town. It was +a good medium for the architect-builder to work in, and he produced in +this not great or magnificent church a truly impressive structure. + +The bishopric was founded in the fifth century under St. Venuste, and +came to its end at the suppression in 1790. Its former cathedral is +cared for by the _Ministere des Beaux-Arts_ as a _monument historique_. +The structure was consecrated as early as the seventh century, when a +completed edifice was built up from the remains of a pagan temple, +which formerly existed on the site. Mostly, however, the work is of the +eleventh and twelfth centuries, notably the massive square tower which, +one hundred and twenty feet in height, forms a beacon by sea and a +landmark on shore which no wayfarer by ship, road, or rail is likely to +miss. + +A cloister of exceedingly handsome design and arrangement is attached to +the cathedral, where it is said the _machicoulis_ is the most ancient +known. This feature is also notable in the roof-line of the nave, which, +with the extraordinary window piercings and their disposition, heightens +still more the suggestion of the manner of castle-building of the time. +The functions of the two edifices were never combined, though each--in +no small way--frequently partook of many of the characteristics of the +other. + +Aside from this really beautiful cloister, and a rather gorgeous, though +manifestly good, painted altar-piece, there are no other noteworthy +accessories; and the interest and charm of this not really great church +lie in its aspect of strength and utility as well as its environment, +rather than in any real aesthetic beauty. + +[Illustration: _St. Nazaire de Beziers_] + + + + +XII + +ST. NAZAIRE DE BEZIERS + + +St. Nazaire de Beziers is, in its strongly fortified attributes of +frowning ramparts and well-nigh invulnerable situation, a continuation +of the suggestion that the mediaeval church was frequently a stronghold +in more senses than one. + +The church fabric itself has not the grimness of power of the more +magnificent St. Cecile at Albi or Notre Dame at Rodez, but their +functions have been much the same; and here, as at Albi, the ancient +episcopal palace is duly barricaded after a manner that bespeaks, at +least, forethought and strategy. + +These fortress-churches of the South seem to have been a product of +environment as much as anything; though on the other hand it may have +been an all-seeing effort to provide for such contingency or emergency +as might, in those mediaeval times, have sprung up anywhere. + +At all events, these proclaimed shelters, from whatever persecution or +disasters might befall, were not only for the benefit of the clergy, but +for all their constituency; and such stronghold as they offered was for +the shelter, temporary or protracted, of all the population, or such of +them as could be accommodated. Surely this was a doubly devout and +utilitarian object. + +In this section at any rate--the extreme south of France, and more +particularly to the westward of the _Bouches-du-Rhone_--the regional +"wars of religion" made some such protection necessary; and hence the +development of this type of church-building, not only with respect to +the larger cathedral churches, but of a great number of the parish +churches which were erected during the thirteenth and fourteenth +centuries. + +The other side of the picture is shown by the acts of intolerance on the +part of the Church, for those who merely differed from them in their +religious tenets and principles. Fanatics these outsiders may have been, +and perhaps not wholly tractable or harmless, but they were, doubtless, +as deserving of protection as were the faithful themselves. This was not +for them, however, and as for the violence and hatred with which they +were held here, one has only to recall that at Beziers took place the +crowning massacres of the Albigenses--"the most learned, intellectual, +and philosophic revolters from the Church of Rome." + +Beneath the shadow of these grim walls and towers over twenty thousand +men and women and children were slaughtered by the fanatics of orthodox +France and Rome; led on and incited by the Bishop of Beziers, who has +been called--and justly as it would seem--"the blackest-souled bigot who +ever deformed the face of God's earth." + +The cathedral at Beziers is not a great or imposing structure when taken +by itself. It is only in conjunction with its fortified walls and +ramparts and commanding situation that it rises to supreme rank. + +It is commonly classed as a work of the twelfth to fourteenth centuries, +and with the characteristics of its era and local environment, it +presents no very grand or ornate features. + +Its first general plan was due to a layman-architect, Gervais, which +perhaps accounts for a certain lack of what might otherwise be referred +to as ecclesiastical splendour. + +The remains of this early work are presumably slight; perhaps nothing +more than the foundation walls, as a fire in 1209 did a considerable +damage. + +The transepts were added in the thirteenth century, and the two dwarfed +towers in the fourteenth, at which period was built the _clocher_ (151 +feet), the apside, and the nave proper. + +There is not a great brilliancy or refulgent glow from the fabric from +which St. Nazaire de Beziers is built; as is so frequent in secular +works in this region. The stone was dark, apparently, to start with, and +has aged considerably since it was put into place. This, in a great +measure, accounts for the lack of liveliness in the design and +arrangement of this cathedral, and the only note which breaks the +monotony of the exterior are the two statues, symbolical of the ancient +and the modern laws of the universe, which flank the western portal--or +what stands for such, did it but possess the dignity of magnitude. + +So far as the exterior goes, it is one's first acquaintance with St. +Nazaire, when seen across the river Orb, which gives the most lively and +satisfying impression. + +The interior attributes of worth and interest are more numerous and +pleasing. + +The nave is aisleless, but has numerous lateral chapels. The choir has a +remarkable series of windows which preserve, even to-day, their ancient +protecting _grilles_--a series of wonderfully worked iron scrolls. These +serve to preserve much fourteenth-century glass of curious, though +hardly beautiful, design. To a great extent this ancient glass is hidden +from view by a massive eighteenth-century _retable_, which is without +any worth whatever as an artistic accessory. + +A cloister of the fourteenth century flanks the nave on the south, and +is the chief feature of really appealing quality within the confines of +the cathedral precincts. + +The view from the terrace before the cathedral is one which is hardly +approachable elsewhere. For many miles in all directions stretches the +low, flat plain of Languedoc; the Mediterranean lies to the east; the +Cevennes and the valley of the Orb to the north; with the lance-like +Canal du Midi stretching away to the westward. + +As might be expected, the streets of the city are tortuous and narrow, +but there are evidences of the march of improvement which may in time be +expected to eradicate all this--to the detriment of the picturesque +aspect. + +[Illustration] + + + + +XIII + +ST. JEAN DE PERPIGNAN + + +Perpignan is another of those provincial cities of France which in +manners and customs sedulously imitate those of their larger and more +powerful neighbours. + +From the fact that it is the chief town of the Department des +Pyrenees-Orientales, it perhaps justifies the procedure. But it is as +the ancient capital of Rousillon--only united with France in 1659--that +the imaginative person will like to think of it--in spite of its modern +cafes, tram-cars, and _magazins_. + +Like the smaller and less progressive town of Elne, Perpignan retains +much the same Catalonian flavour of "physiognomy, language, and dress;" +and its narrow, tortuous streets and the _jalousies_ and _patios_ of its +houses carry the suggestion still further. + +The Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659 changed the course of the city's +destinies, and to-day it is the fortress-city of France which commands +the easterly route into Spain. + +The city's Christian influences began when the see was removed hither +from Elne, where it had been founded as early as the sixth century. + +The cathedral of St. Jean is a wonderful structure. In the lines of its +apside it suggests those of Albi, while the magnitude of its great +strongly roofed nave is only comparable with that of Bordeaux as to its +general dimensions. The great distinction of this feature comes from the +fact that its Romanesque walls are surmounted by a truly ogival vault. +This great church was originally founded by the king of Majorca, who +held Rousillon in ransom from the king of Aragon in 1324. + +The west front is entirely unworthy of the other proportions of the +structure, and decidedly the most brilliant and lively view is that of +the apside and its chapels. There is an odd fourteenth-century tower, +above which is suspended a clock in a cage of iron. + +The whole design or outline of the exterior of this not very ancient +cathedral is in the main Spanish; it is at least not French. + +This Spanish sentiment is further sustained by many of the interior +accessories and details, of which the chief and most elaborate are an +altar-screen of wood and stone of great magnificence, a marble _retable_ +of the seventeenth century, a baptismal font of the twelfth or +thirteenth century, some indifferent paintings, the usual organ _buffet_ +with fifteenth-century carving, and a tomb of a former bishop (1695) in +the transept. + +The altars, other than the above, are garish and unappealing. + +A further notable effect to be seen in the massive nave is the very +excellent "pointed" vaulting. + +There are, close beside the present church, the remains of an older St. +Jean--now nought but a ruin. + +The Bourse (locally called _La Loge_, from the Spanish _Lonja_) has a +charming cloistered courtyard of a mixed Moorish-Gothic style. It is +well worthy of interest, as is also the citadel and castle of the King +of Majorca. The latter has a unique portal to its chapel. + +It is recorded that Bishop Berengarius II. of Perpignan in the year 1019 +visited the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, and on his return built a +church or chapel on similar lines in memory of his pilgrimage. No +remains of it are visible to-day, nor can it be further traced. Mention +of it is made here from the fact that it seems to have been a worthy +undertaking,--this memorial of a prelate's devotion to his faith. + +[Illustration] + + + + +XIV + +STE. EULALIA D'ELNE + + +Elne is the first in importance of the dead cities which border the Gulf +of Lyons. + +It is the ancient _Illiberis_, frequently mentioned by Pliny, Livy, and, +latterly, Gibbon. + +To-day it is ignored by all save the _commis voyageur_ and a +comparatively small number of the genuine French _touristes_. + +Formerly the ancient province of Rousillon, in which Elne is situated, +and which bordered upon the Spanish frontier, was distinctly Spanish as +to manners and customs. It is, moreover, the reputed spot where +Hannibal first encamped after crossing the Pyrenees on his march to +Rome. + +Like Bayonne, at the other extremity of the Pyrenean mountain chain, it +commanded the gateway to Spain, and even to-day is the real entrance of +the railway route to Barcelona, as is Bayonne to Madrid. + +Between these two cities, for a distance approaching one hundred and +eighty miles, there is scarce a highway over the mountain barrier along +which a wheeled vehicle may travel with comfort, and the tiny Republic +of Andorra, though recently threatened with the advent of the railway, +is still isolated and unspoiled from the tourist influence, as well as +from undue intercourse with either France or Spain, which envelop its +few square miles of area as does the Atlantic Ocean the Azores. + +To-day Elne is no longer the seat of a bishop, the see of Rousillon +having been transferred to Perpignan in the fourteenth century, after +having endured from the time of the first bishop, Domnus, since the +sixth century. + +There has been left as a reminder a very interesting and beautiful +smaller cathedral church of the early eleventh century. + +Alterations and restorations, mostly of the fifteenth century, have +changed its material aspect but little, and it still remains a highly +captivating monumental glory; which opinion is further sustained from +the fact that the _Commission des Monuments Historiques_ has had the +fabric under its own special care for many years. + +It is decidedly a minor edifice, and its parts are as unimpressive as +its lack of magnitude; still, for all that, the church-lovers will find +much crude beauty in this Romanesque basilica-planned church, with its +dependant cloister of a very beautiful flowing Gothic of the fifteenth +century. + +The chief artistic treasures of this ancient cathedral, aside from its +elegant cloister, are a _benitier_ in white marble; a portal of some +pretensions, leading from the cathedral to its cloister; a +fourteen-century tomb, of some considerable artistic worth; and a +_bas-relief_, called the "Tomb of Constans." + +There is little else of note, either in or about the cathedral, and the +town itself has the general air of a glory long past. + +[Illustration: ST. JUST _de NARBONNE_] + + + + +XV + +ST. JUST DE NARBONNE + + +The ancient province of Narbonenses--afterward comprising Languedoc--had +for its capital what is still the city of Narbonne. One may judge of the +former magnificence of Narbonne by the following lines of _Sidonius +Apollinaris_: + + "Salve Narbo potens Salubritate, + Qui Urbe et Rure simul bonus Videris, + Muris, Civibus, ambitu, Tabernis, + Portis, Porticibus, Foro, Theatro, + Delubris, Capitoliis, Monetis, + Thermis, Arcubus, Harreis, Macellis, + Pratis, Fontibus, Insulus, Salinis, + Stagnis, Flumine, Merce, Ponte, Ponto, + Unus qui jure venere divos + Lenoeum, Cererum, Palem, Minervam, + Spicis, Palmite, Poscius, Tapetis." + +Narbonne is still mighty and healthful, if one is to judge from the +activities of the present day; is picturesque and pleasing, and far +more comfortably disposed than many cities with a more magnificently +imposing situation. + +The city remained faithful to the Romans until the utmost decay of the +western empire, at which time (462) it was delivered to the Goths. + +It was first the head of a kingdom, and later, when it came to the +Romans, it was made the capital of a province which comprised the fourth +part of Gaul. + +This in turn was subdivided into the provinces of _Narbonenses_, +_Viennensis_, the _Greek Alps_, and the _Maritime Alps_, that is, all of +the later _Savoie_, _Dauphine_, _Provence_, _Lower Languedoc_, +_Rousillon_, _Toulousan_, and the _Comte de Foix_. + +Under the second race of kings, the Dukes of _Septimannia_ took the +title of _Ducs de Narbonne_, but the lords of the city contented +themselves with the name of viscount, which they bore from 1134 to 1507, +when Gaston de Foix--the last Viscount of Narbonne--exchanged it for +other lands, with his uncle, the French king, Louis XII. The most +credulous affirm that the Proconsul Sergius Paulus--converted by St. +Paul--was the first preacher of Christianity at Narbonne. + +The Church is here, therefore, of great antiquity, and there are +plausible proofs which demonstrate the claim. + +The episcopal palace at Narbonne, closely built up with the Hotel de +Ville (rebuilt by Viollet-le-Duc), is a realization of the progress of +the art of domestic fortified architecture of the time. + +Like its contemporary at Laon in the north, and more particularly after +the manner of the papal palace at Avignon and the archbishop's palace at +Albi, this structure combined the functions of a domestic and official +establishment with those of a stronghold or a fortified place of no mean +pretence. + +Dating from 1272, the cathedral of St. Just de Narbonne suggests +comparison with, or at least the influence of, Amiens. + +It is strong, hardy, and rich, with a directness of purpose with respect +to its various attributes that in a less lofty structure is wanting. + +The height of the choir-vault is perhaps a hundred and twenty odd feet, +as against one hundred and forty-seven at Amiens, and accordingly it +does not suffer in comparison. + +It may be remarked that these northern attributes of lofty vaulting and +the high development of the _arc-boutant_ were not general throughout +the south, or indeed in any other region than the north of France. Only +at Bazas, Bordeaux, Bayonne, Auch, Toulouse, and Narbonne do we find +these features in any acceptable degree of perfection. + +The architects of the Midi had, by resistance and defiance, conserved +antique traditions with much greater vigour than they had endorsed the +new style, with the result that many of their structures, of a period +contemporary with the early development of the Gothic elsewhere, here +favoured it little if at all. + +Only from the thirteenth century onward did they make general use of +ogival vaulting, maintaining with great conservatism the basilica plan +of Roman tradition. + +In many other respects than constructive excellence does St. Just show a +pleasing aspect. It has, between the main body of the church and the +present Hotel de Ville and the remains of the ancient _archeveche_, a +fragmentary cloister which is grand to the point of being scenic. It +dates from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and is decidedly the +most appealing feature of the entire cathedral precincts. + +[Illustration: CLOISTER OF ST. JUST _de NARBONNE_....] + +The cathedral itself still remains unachieved as to completeness, but +its _tourelles_, its vaulting, its buttresses, and its crenelated walls +are most impressive. + +There are some elaborate tombs in the interior, in general of the time +of Henri IV. + +The _tresor_ is rich in missals, manuscripts, ivories, and various altar +ornaments and decorations. + +The choir is enclosed with a series of arena-like _loges_, outside which +runs a double aisle. + +There are fragmentary evidences of the one-time possession of good +glass, but what paintings are shown appear ordinary and are doubtless of +little worth. + +Decidedly the cathedral is an unusually splendid, if not a truly +magnificent, work. + + + + +_PART V_ + +_The Valley of the Garonne_ + + + + +I + +INTRODUCTORY + + +The basin of the Garonne includes all of the lower Aquitanian province, +Lower Languedoc,--still a debatable and undefinable land,--and much of +that region known of lovers of France, none the less than the native +himself, as the _Midi_. + +Literally the term _Midi_ refers to the south of France, but more +particularly that part which lies between the mouth of the Rhone and the +western termination of the Pyrenean mountain boundary between France and +Spain. + +The term is stamped indelibly in the popular mind by the events which +emanated from that wonderful march of the legion, known as "_Les Rouges +du Midi_," in Revolutionary times. We have heard much of the excesses of +the Revolution, but certainly the vivid history of "_Les Rouges_" as +recounted so well in that admirable book of Felix Gras (none the less +truthful because it is a novel), which bears the same name, gives every +justification to those valiant souls who made up that remarkable +phalanx; of whose acts most historians and humanitarians are generally +pleased to revile as cruelty and sacrilege unspeakable. + +Felix Gras himself has told of the ignoble subjection in which his own +great-grandfather, a poor peasant, was held; and Frederic Mistral tells +of a like incident--of lashing and beating--which was thrust upon a +relative of his. If more reason were wanted, a perusal of the written +records of the Marseilles Battalion will point the way. Written history +presents many stubborn facts, difficult to digest and hard to swallow; +but the historical novel in the hands of a master will prove much that +is otherwise unacceptable. A previous acquaintance with this fascinating +and lurid story is absolutely necessary for a proper realization of the +spirit which endowed the inhabitants of this section of the _pays du +Midi_. + +To-day the same spirit lives to a notable degree. The atmosphere and the +native character alike are both full of sunshine and shadow; grown men +and women are yet children, and gaiety, humour, and passion abound +where, in the more austere North, would be seen nought but indifference +and indolence. + +It is the fashion to call the South languid, but nowhere more than at +Bordeaux--where the Garonne joins La Gironde--will you find so great and +ceaseless an activity. + +The people are not, to be sure, of the peasant class, still they are not +such town-dwellers as in many other parts, and seem to combine, as do +most of the people of southern France, a languor and keenness which are +intoxicating if not stimulating. + +Between Bordeaux and Toulouse are not many great towns, but, in the +words of Taine, one well realizes that "it is a fine country." The +Garonne valley, with a fine alluvial soil, grows, productively and +profitably, corn, tobacco, and hemp; and by the utmost industry and +intelligence the workers are able to prosper exceedingly. + +The traveller from the Mediterranean across to the Atlantic--or the +reverse--by rail, will get glimpses now and then of this wonderfully +productive river-bottom, as it flows yellow-brown through its +osier-bedded banks; and again, an intermittent view of the Canal du +Midi, upon whose non-raging bosom is carried a vast water-borne traffic +by barge and canal-boat, which even the development of the railway has +not been able to appreciably curtail. + +Here, too, the peasant proprietor is largely in evidence, which is an +undoubted factor in the general prosperity. His blockings, hedgings, and +fencings have spoiled the expanse of hillside and vale in much the same +manner as in Albion. This may be a pleasing feature to the uninitiated, +but it is not a picturesque one. However, the proprietorship of small +plots of land, worked by their non-luxury demanding owners, is +accountable for a great deal of the peace and plenty with which all +provincial France, if we except certain mountainous regions, seems to +abound. It may not provide a superabundance of this world's wealth and +luxury, but the French farmer--in a small way--has few likes of that +nature, and the existing conditions make for a contentment which the +dull, brutal, and lethargic farm labourer of some parts of England might +well be forced to emulate, if even by ball and chain. + +Flat-roofed houses, reminiscent of Spain or Italy--born of a mild +climate--add a pleasing variety of architectural feature, while the +curiously hung bells--with their flattened belfries, like the headstones +in a cemetery--suggest something quite different from the motives which +inspired the northern builders, who enclosed their chimes in a +roofed-over, open-sided cubicle. The bells here hang merely in apertures +open to the air on each side, and ring out sharp and true to the last +dying note. It is a most picturesque and unusual arrangement, hardly to +be seen elsewhere as a characteristic feature outside Spain itself, and +in some of the old Missions, which the Spanish Fathers built in the +early days of California. + +Between Bayonne and Bordeaux, and bordered by the sea, the Garonne, and +the Adour, is a nondescript land which may be likened to the deserts of +Africa or Asia, except that its barrenness is of the sea salty. It is by +no means unpeopled, though uncultivated and possessed of little +architectural splendour of either a past or the present day. + +Including the half of the department of the Gironde, a corner of Lot et +Garonne, and all of that which bears its name, the Landes forms of +itself a great seaboard plain or morass. It is said by a geographical +authority that the surface so very nearly approaches the rectilinear +that for a distance of twenty-eight miles between the dismal villages of +Lamothe and Labonheyre the railway is "a visible meridian." + +The early eighteenth-century writers--in English--used to revile all +France, so far as its topographical charms were concerned, with +panegyrics upon its unloveliness and lack of variety, and of being +anything more than a flat, arid land, which was not sufficient even unto +itself. + +What induced this extraordinary reasoning it is hard to realize at the +present day. + +Its beauties are by no means as thinly sown as is thought by those who +know them slightly--from a window of a railway carriage, or a sojourn of +a month in Brittany, a week in Provence, or a fortnight in Touraine. + +The _ennui_ of a journey through France is the result of individual +incapacity for observation, not of the country. Above all, it is +certainly not true of Guienne or Gascony, nor of Provence, nor of +Dauphine, nor Auvergne, nor Savoie. + +As great rivers go, the Garonne is not of very great size, nor so very +magnificent in its reaches, nor so very picturesque,--with that minutiae +associated with English rivers of a like rank,--but it is suggestive of +far more than most streams of its size and length, wherever found. + +Its source is well within the Spanish frontier, in the picturesque Val +d'Aran, where the boundary between the two countries makes a curious +detour, and leaves the crest of the Pyrenees, which it follows +throughout--with this exception--from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic. + +The Garonne becomes navigable at Cazeres, some distance above Toulouse, +and continues its course, enhanced by the confluence of the Tarn, the +Lot, the Arriege, and the Dordogne, beyond the junction of which, two +hundred and seventy odd miles from the head of navigation, the estuary +takes on the nomenclature of _La Gironde_. + +Of the ancient provinces of these parts, the most famous is Guienne, +that "fair duchy" once attached--by a subtle process of reasoning--to +the English crown. + +It is distinguished, as to its economic aspect, by its vast vineyards, +which have given the wines, so commonly esteemed, the name of claret. +These and the other products of the country have found their way into +all markets of the world through the Atlantic coast metropolis of +Bordeaux. + +The Gascogne of old was a large province to the southward of Guienne. A +romantic land, say the chroniclers and _mere litterateurs_ alike. +"Peopled by a race fiery, ardent, and impetuous ... with a peculiar +tendency to boasting, hence the term _gasconade_." The peculiar and +characteristic feature of Gascogne, as distinct from that which holds in +the main throughout these parts, is that strange and wild section called +the _Landes_, which is spoken of elsewhere. + +The ancient province of Languedoc, which in its lower portion is +included in this section, is generally reputed to be the pride of France +with regard to climate, soil, and scenery. Again, this has been ruled +otherwise, but a more or less intimate acquaintance with the region does +not fail to endorse the first claim. This wide, strange land has not +vastly changed its aspect since the inhabitants first learned to fly +instead of fight. + +This statement is derived to a great extent from legend, but, in +addition, is supported by much literary and historical opinion, which +has recorded its past. It is not contemptuous criticism any more than +Froissart's own words; therefore let it stand. + +When the French had expelled the Goths beyond the Pyrenees, Charlemagne +established his governors in Languedoc with the title of Counts of +Toulouse. The first was Corson, in 778; the second St. W. du Courtnez or +Aux-Cornets, from whence the princes of Orange derive their pedigree, as +may be inferred from the hunting-horns in their arms. + +Up to the eighteenth century these states retained a certain +independence and exercise of home rule, and had an Assembly made up of +"the three orders of the kingdom," the clergy, the nobility, and the +people. The Archbishop of Narbonne was president of the body, though he +was seldom called upon but to give the king money. This he acquired by +the laying on of an extraordinary imposition under the name of +"_Don-Gratuit_." + +The wide, rolling country of Lower Languedoc has no very grand +topographical features, but it is watered by frequent and ample streams, +and peopled with row upon row of sturdy trees, with occasional groves of +mulberries, olives, and other citrus fruits. Over all glows the +luxuriant southern sun with a tropical brilliance, but without its +fierce burning rays. + +Mention of the olive suggests the regard which most of us have for this +tree of romantic and sentimental association. As a religious emblem, it +is one of the most favoured relics which has descended to us from +Biblical times. + +A writer on southern France has questioned the beauty of the growing +tree. It does, truly, look somewhat mop-headed, and it does spread +somewhat like a mushroom, but, with all that, it is a picturesque and +prolific adjunct to a southern landscape, and has been in times past a +source of inspiration to poets and painters, and of immeasurable profit +to the thrifty grower. + +The worst feature which can possibly be called up with respect to Lower +Languedoc is the "skyey influences" of the Mistral, dry and piercingly +cold wind which blows southward through all the Rhone valley with a +surprising strength. + +Madame de Sevigne paints it thus in words: + +"_Le tourbillon, l'ouragan, tous les diables dechaines qui veulent bien +emporter votre chateau._" + +Foremost among the cities of the region are Toulouse, Carcassonne, +Montpellier, Narbonne, and Beziers, of which Carcassonne is preeminent +as to its picturesque interest, and perhaps, as well, as to its storied +past. + +The Pyrenees have of late attracted more and more attention from the +tourist, who has become sated with the conventionality of the "trippers' +tour" to Switzerland. The many attractive resorts which the Pyrenean +region has will doubtless go the way of others elsewhere--if they are +given time, but for the present this entire mountain region is possessed +of much that will appeal to the less conventional traveller. + +Of all the mountain ranges of Europe, the Pyrenees stand unique as to +their regularity of configuration and strategic importance. They bind +and bound Spain and France with a bony ligature which is indented like +the edge of a saw. + +From the Atlantic at Bayonne to the Mediterranean at Port Bou, the +mountain chain divides its valleys and ridges with the regularity of a +wall-trained shrub or pear-tree, and sinks on both sides to the level +plains of France and Spain. In the midst of this rises the river +Garonne. Its true source is in the Piedrafitta group of peaks, whence +its waters flow on through Toulouse, various tributaries combining to +give finally to Bordeaux its commanding situation and importance. Around +its source, which is the true centre of the Pyrenees, is the parting +line between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. On one side the waters +flow down through the fields of France to the Biscayan Bay, and on the +other southward and westward through the Iberian peninsula. + +Few of the summits exceed the height of the ridge by more than two +thousand feet; whereas in the Alps many rise from six to eight thousand +feet above the _massif_, while scenic Mont Blanc elevates its head over +fifteen thousand feet. + +As a barrier, the Pyrenees chain is unique. For over one hundred and +eighty miles, from the Col de la Perche to Maya--practically a suburb of +Bayonne--not a carriage road nor a railway crosses the range. + +The etymology of the name of this mountain chain is in dispute. Many +suppose it to be from the Greek _pur_ (fire), alluding to the volcanic +origin of the peaks. This is endorsed by many, while others consider +that it comes from the Celtic word _byren_, meaning a mountain. Both +derivations are certainly apropos, but the weight of favour must always +lie with the former rather than the latter. + +The ancient province of Bearn is essentially mediaeval to-day. Its local +tongue is a pure Romance language; something quite distinct from mere +_patois_. It is principally thought to be a compound of Latin and +Teutonic with an admixture of Arabic. + +This seems involved, but, as it is unlike modern French, or Castilian, +and modern everything else, it would seem difficult for any but an +expert student of tongues to place it definitely. To most of us it +appears to be but a jarring jumble of words, which may have been left +behind by the followers of the various conquerors which at one time or +another swept over the land. + + + + +II + +ST. ANDRE DE BORDEAUX + + "One finds here reminders of the Visigoths, the Franks, the + Saracens, and the English; and the temples, theatres, arenas, and + monuments by which each made his mark of possession yet remain." + + --AURELIAN SCHOLL. + + +Taine in his _Carnets de Voyage_ says of Bordeaux: "It is a sort of +second Paris, gay and magnificent ... amusement is the main business." + +Bordeaux does not change. It has ever been advanced, and always a centre +of gaiety. Its fetes and functions quite rival those of the capital +itself,--at times,--and its opera-house is the most famed and +magnificent in France, outside of Paris. + +It is a city of enthusiastic demonstrations. It was so in 1814 for the +Bourbons, and again a year later for the emperor on his return from +Elba. + +In 1857 it again surpassed itself in its enthusiasm for Louis Napoleon, +when he was received in the cathedral, under a lofty dais, and led to +the altar with the cry of "_Vive l'empereur_;" while during the bloody +Franco-Prussian war it was the seat of the provisional government of +Thiers. + +Here the Gothic wave of the North has produced in the cathedral of St. +Andre a remarkably impressive and unexpected example of the style. + +In the general effect of size alone it will rank with many more +important and more beautiful churches elsewhere. Its total length of +over four hundred and fifty feet ranks it among the longest in France, +and its vast nave, with a span of sixty feet, aisleless though it be, +gives a still further expression of grandeur and magnificence. + +It is known that three former cathedrals were successfully destroyed by +invading Goths, Saracens, and warlike Normans. + +Yet another structure was built in the eleventh century, which, with the +advent of the English in Guienne, in the century following, was enlarged +and magnified into somewhat of an approach to the present magnificent +dimensions, though no English influence prevailed toward erecting a +central tower, as might have been anticipated. Instead we have two +exceedingly graceful and lofty spired towers flanking the north +transept, and yet another single tower, lacking its spire, on the south. + +The portal of the north transept--of the fourteenth century--is an +elaborate work of itself. It is divided into two bays that join beneath +a dais, on which is a statue of Bertrand de Goth, who was Pope in 1305, +under the name of Clement V. He is here clothed in sacerdotal habits, +and stands upright in the attitude of benediction. + +At the lower right-hand side are statues of six bishops, but, like that +of Pope Clement, they do not form a part of the constructive elements of +the portal, as did most work of a like nature in the twelfth and +thirteenth centuries, but are made use of singly as a decorative motive. + +The spring of the arch which surrounds the tympanum is composed of a +cordon of foliaged stone separating the six angels of the _premiere +archivolte_ from the twelve apostles of the second, and the fourteen +patriarchs and prophets of the third. + +In the tympanum are three _bas-reliefs_ superimposed one upon the +other, the upper being naturally the smaller. They represent the Christ +triumphant, seated on a dais between two angels, one bearing a staff and +the other a veil, while above hover two other angelic figures holding +respectively the moon and sun. + +The arrangement is not so elaborate or gracefully executed as many, but +in its simple and expressive symbolism, in spite of the fact that the +whole added ornament appears an afterthought, is far more convincing +than many more pretentious works of a similar nature. + +Another exterior feature of note is seen at the third pillar at the +right of the choir. It is a curious double (back-to-back) statue of Ste. +Anne and the Virgin. It is of stone and of the late sixteenth century, +when sculpture--if it had not actually debased itself by superfluity of +detail--was of an excellence of symmetry which was often lacking +entirely from work of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. + +The choir-chevet is a magnificent pyramidal mass of piers, pinnacles, +and buttresses of much elegance. + +The towers which flank the north transept are adorned with an excellent +disposition of ornament. + +The greater part of this cathedral was constructed during the period of +English domination; the choir would doubtless never have been achieved +in its present form had it not been for the liberality of Edward I. and +Pope Clement V., who had been the archbishop of the diocese. + +The cathedral of St. Andre dates practically from 1252, and is, in +inception and execution, a very complete Gothic church. + +Over its aisleless nave is carried one of the boldest and most +magnificent vaults known. The nave is more remarkable, however, for this +gigantic attribute than for any other excellencies which it possesses. + +In the choir, which rises much higher than the nave, there comes into +being a double aisle on either side, as if to make up for the +deficiencies of the nave in this respect. + +The choir arrangement and accessories are remarkably elaborate, though +many of them are not of great artistic worth. Under the organ are two +sculptured Renaissance _bas-reliefs_, taken from the ancient _jube_, and +representing a "Descent from the Cross" and "Christ Bearing the Cross." +There are two religious paintings of some value, one by Jordaens, and +the other by Alex. Veronese. Before the left transept is a monument to +Cardinal de Cheverus, with his statue. Surrounding the stonework of a +monument to d'Ant de Noailles (1662) is a fine work of wood-carving. + +The high-altar is of the period contemporary with the main body of the +cathedral, and was brought thither from the Eglise de la Reole. + +The Province of Bordeaux, as the early ecclesiastical division was +known, had its archiepiscopal seat at Bordeaux in the fourth century, +though it had previously (in the third century) been made a bishopric. + + + + +III + +CATHEDRALE DE LECTOURE + + +Lectoure, though defunct as a bishopric to-day, had endured from the +advent of Heuterius, in the sixth century, until 1790. + +In spite of the lack of ecclesiastical remains of a very great rank, +there is in its one-time cathedral a work which can hardly be +contemplated except with affectionate admiration. + +The affairs of a past day, either with respect to Church or State, +appear not to have been very vivid or highly coloured; in fact, the +reverse appears to be the case. In pre-mediaeval times--when the city was +known as the Roman village of _Lactora_--it was strongly fortified, like +most hilltop towns of Gaul. + +The cathedral dates for the most part from the thirteenth century, and +in the massive tower which enwraps its facade shows strong indications +of the workmanship of an alien hand, which was neither French nor +Italian. This tower is thought to resemble the Norman work of England +and the north of France, and in some measure it does, though it may be +questioned as to whether this is the correct classification. This tower, +whatever may have been its origin, is, however, one of those features +which is to be admired for itself alone; and it amply endorses and +sustains the claim of this church to a consideration more lasting than a +mere passing fancy. + +The entire plan is unusually light and graceful, and though, by no +stretch of opinion could it be thought of as Gothic, it has not a little +of the suggestion of the style, which at a former time must have been +even more pronounced in that its western tower once possessed a spire +which rose to a sky-piercing height. + +The lower tower still remains, but the spire, having suffered from +lightning and the winds at various times, was, a century or more ago, +removed. + +The nave has a series of lateral chapels, each surmounted by a sort of +gallery or tribune, which would be notable in any church edifice, and +there is fine traceried vaulting in the apsidal chapels, which also +contain some effective, though modern coloured glass. + +The former episcopal residence is now the local Mairie. + +On a clear day, it is said, the towers of the cathedral at Auch may be +seen to the northward, while in the opposite direction the serrated +ridge of the Pyrenees is likewise visible. + +[Illustration: NOTRE DAME _de BAYONNE_] + + + + +IV + +NOTRE DAME DE BAYONNE + + "Distant are the violet Pyrenees, wonderful and regal in their + grandeur. The sun is bright, and laughs joyously at the Bearnais + peasant." + + --JEAN RAMEAU. + + +Bayonne is an ancient town, and was known by the Romans as _Lapurdum_. +As a centre of Christianity, it was behind its neighbours, as no +bishopric was founded here until Arsias Rocha held the see in the ninth +century. No church-building of remark followed for at least two +centuries, when the foundations were laid upon which the present +cathedral was built up. + +Like the cities and towns of Rousillon, at the opposite end of the +Pyrenean chain, Bayonne has for ever been of mixed race and +characteristics. Basques, Spaniards, Bearnese, and "alien French"--as +the native calls them--went to make up its conglomerate population in +the past, and does even yet in considerable proportions. + +To the reader of history, the mediaeval Bearn and Navarre, which to-day +forms the Department of the Basses-Pyrenees in the southwest corner of +France, will have the most lively interest, from the fact of its having +been the principality of _Henri Quatre_, the "good king" whose name was +so justly dear. The history of the Bearnese is a wonderful record of a +people of which too little is even yet known. + +Bayonne itself has had many and varied historical associations, though +it is not steeped in that antiquity which is the birthright of many +another favoured spot. + +Guide-books and the "notes-and-queries columns" of antiquarian journals +have unduly enlarged upon the fact that the bayonet--to-day a well-nigh +useless appendage as a weapon of war--was first invented here. It is +interesting as a fact, perhaps, but it is not of aesthetic moment. + +The most gorgeous event of history connected with Bayonne and its +immediate vicinity--among all that catalogue, from the minor Spanish +invasions to Wellington's stupendous activities--was undoubtedly that +which led up to the famous Pyrenean Treaty made on the Isle du Faisan, +close beside the bridge, in the river Bidassoa, on the Spanish frontier. + +The memory of the parts played therein by Mazarin and De Haro, and not +less the gorgeous pavilion in which the function was held, form a +setting which the writers of "poetical plays" and "historical romances" +seem to have neglected. + +This magnificent apartment was decorated by Velasquez, who, it is said, +died of his inglorious transformation into an upholsterer. + +The cathedral at Bayonne is contemporary with those at Troyes, Meaux, +and Auxerre, in the north of France. It resembles greatly the latter as +to general proportions and situation, though it possesses two completed +spires, whereas St. Etienne, at Auxerre, has but one. + +In size and beauty the cathedral at Bayonne is far above the lower rank +of the cathedrals of France, and in spite of extensive restorations, it +yet stands forth as a mediaeval work of great importance. + +From a foundation of the date of 1140, a structure was in part completed +by 1213, at which time the whole existing fabric suffered the ravages of +fire. Work was immediately undertaken again, commencing with the choir; +and, except for the grand portal of the west front, the whole church was +finished by the mid-sixteenth century. + +Restoration of a late date, induced by the generosity of a native of the +city, has resulted in the completion of the cathedral, which, if not a +really grand church to-day, is an exceedingly near approach thereto. + +The fine western towers are modern, but they form the one note which +produces the effect of _ensemble_, which otherwise would be entirely +wanting. + +The view from the Quai Bergemet, just across the Adour, for +picturesqueness of the quality which artists--tyros and masters +alike--love to sketch, is reminiscent only of St. Lo in Normandy. + +Aside from the charm of its general picturesqueness of situation and +grouping, Notre Dame de Bayonne will appeal mostly by its interior +arrangements and embellishments. + +The western portal is still lacking the greatness which future ages may +yet bestow upon it, and that of the north transept, by which one enters, +is, though somewhat more ornate, not otherwise remarkable. + +A florid cloister of considerable size attaches itself on the south, +but access is had only from the sacristy. + +The choir and apse are of the thirteenth century, and immediately +followed the fire of 1213. + +Neither the transepts nor choir are of great length; indeed, they are +attenuated as compared with those of the more magnificent churches of +the Gothic type, of which this is, in a way, an otherwise satisfying +example. + +The patriotic Englishman will take pride in the fact that the English +arms are graven somewhere in the vaulting of the nave. He may not be +able to spy them out,--probably will not be,--but they likely enough +existed, as a mid-Victorian writer describes them minutely, though no +modern guides or works of local repute make mention of the feature in +any way. The triforium is elegantly traceried, and is the most worthy +and artistic detail to be seen in the whole structure. + +The clerestory windows contain glass of the fifteenth century; much +broken to-day, but of the same excellent quality of its century, and +that immediately preceding. The remainder of the glass, in the +clerestory and choir, is modern. + +In the sacristy is a remarkable series of perfectly preserved +thirteenth-century sculptures in stone which truthfully--with the +before-mentioned triforum--are the real "art treasures" of the +cathedral. The three naves; the nave proper and its flanking aisles; the +transepts, attenuated though they be; and the equally shallow choir, all +in some way present a really grand effect, at once harmonious and +pleasing. + +The pavement of the sanctuary is modern, as also the high-altar, but +both are generously good in design. These furnishings are mainly of +Italian marbles, hung about with tapestries, which, if not of +superlative excellence, are at least effective. + +Modern mural paintings with backgrounds in gold decorate the _abside_ +chapels. + +There are many attributes of picturesque quality scattered throughout +the city: its unique trade customs, its shipping, its donkeys, and, +above any of these, its women themselves picturesque and beautiful. All +these will give the artist many lively suggestions. + +Not many of the class, however, frequent this Biscayan city; which is a +loss to art and to themselves. A plea is herein made that its +attractions be better known by those who have become _ennuied_ by the +"resorts." + + + + +V + +ST. JEAN DE BAZAS + + +At the time the grand cathedrals of the north of France were taking on +their completed form, a reflex was making itself felt here in the South. +Both at Bayonne and Bazas were growing into being two beautiful churches +which partook of many of the attributes of Gothic art in its most +approved form. + +St. Jean de Bazas is supposedly of a tenth-century foundation, but its +real beginnings, so far as its later approved form is concerned, came +only in 1233. From which time onward it came quickly to its completion, +or at least to its dedication. + +It was three centuries before its west front was completed, and when so +done--in the sixteenth century--it stood out, as it does to-day, a +splendid example of a facade, completely covered with statues of such +proportions and excellence that it is justly accounted the richest in +the south of France. + +It quite equals, in general effect, such well-peopled fronts as Amiens +or Reims; though here the numbers are not so great, and, manifestly, not +of as great an excellence. + +This small but well-proportioned church has no transepts, but the +columnar supports of its vaulting presume an effect of length which only +Gothic in its purest forms suggests. + +The Huguenot rising somewhat depleted and greatly damaged the sculptured +decorations of its facade, and likewise much of the interior ornament, +but later repairs have done much to preserve the effect of the original +scheme, and the church remains to-day an exceedingly gratifying and +pleasing example of transplanted Gothic forms. + +The diocese dates from the foundation of Sextilius, in the sixth +century. + + + + +VI + +NOTRE DAME DE LESCAR + + +The bishopric here was founded in the fifth century by St. Julian, and +lasted till the suppression of 1790; but of all of its importance of +past ages, which was great, little is left to-day of ecclesiastical +dignity. + +Lescar itself is an attractive enough small town of France,--it contains +but a scant two thousand inhabitants,--but has no great distinction to +important rank in any of the walks of life; indeed, its very aspect is +of a glory that has departed. + +It has, however, like so many of the small towns of the ancient Bearn, a +notably fine situation: on a high _coteau_ which rises loftily above the +_route nationale_ which runs from Toulouse to Bayonne. + +From the terrace of the former cathedral of Notre Dame can be seen the +snow-clad ridge of the Pyrenees and the umbrageous valley and plain +which lie between. In this verdant land there is no suggestion of what +used--in ignorance or prejudice--to be called "an aspect austere and +sterile." + +The cathedral itself is bare, unto poverty, of tombs and monuments, but +a mosaic-worked pavement indicates, by its inscriptions and symbols, +that many faithful and devout souls lie buried within the walls. + +The edifice is of imposing proportions, though it is not to be classed +as truly great. From the indications suggested by the heavy pillars and +grotesquely carved capitals of its nave, it is manifest that it has been +built up, at least in part, from remains of a very early date. It mostly +dates from the twelfth century, but in that it was rebuilt during the +period of the Renaissance, it is to the latter classification that it +really belongs. + +The curiously carved capitals of the columns of the nave share, with the +frescoes of the apse, the chief distinction among the accessory details. +They depict, in their ornate and deeply cut heads, dragons and other +weird beasts of the land and fowls of the air, in conjunction with +unshapely human figures, and while all are intensely grotesque, they are +in no degree offensive. + +There is no exceeding grace or symmetry of outline in any of the parts +of this church, but, nevertheless, it has the inexplicable power to +please, which counts for a great deal among such inanimate things as +architectural forms. It would perhaps be beyond the powers of any one to +explain why this is so frequently true of a really unassuming church +edifice; more so, perhaps, with regard to churches than to most other +things--possibly it is because of the local glamour or sentiment which +so envelops a religious monument, and hovers unconsciously and +ineradicably over some shrines far more than others. At any rate, the +former cathedral of Notre Dame at Lescar has this indefinable quality to +a far greater degree than many a more ambitiously conceived fabric. + +The round-arched window and doorway most prevail, and the portal in +particular is of that deeply recessed variety which allows a mellow +interior to unfold slowly to the gaze, rather than jump at once into +being, immediately one has passed the outer lintel or jamb. + +The entire suggestion of this church, both inside and out, is of a +structure far more massive and weighty than were really needed for a +church of its size, but for all that its very stable dimensions were +well advised in an edifice which was expected to endure for ages. + +The entire apse is covered, inside, with a series of frescoes of a very +acceptable sort, which, though much defaced to-day, are the principal +art attribute of the church. Their author is unknown, but they are +probably the work of some Italian hand, and have even been credited to +Giotto. + +The choir-stalls are quaintly carved, with a luxuriance which, in some +manner, approaches the Spanish style. They are at least representative +of that branch of Renaissance art which was more representative of the +highest expression than any other. + +In form, this old cathedral follows the basilica plan, and is perhaps +two hundred feet in length, and some seventy-five in width. + +The grandfather of Henri IV. and his wife--_la Marguerites des +Marguerites_--were formerly buried in this cathedral, but their remains +were scattered by either the Huguenots or the Revolutionists. + +Curiously enough, too, Lescar was the former habitation of a Jesuit +College, founded by Henri IV. after his conversion to the Roman faith, +but no remains of this institution exist to-day. + +[Illustration] + + + + +VII + +L'EGLISE DE LA SEDE: TARBES + + +Froissart describes Tarbes as "a fine large town, situated in a plain +country; there is a city and a town and a castle ... the beautiful river +Lisse which runs throughout all Tharbes, and divides it, the which river +is as clear as a fountain." + +Froissart himself nods occasionally, and on this particular occasion has +misnamed the river which flows through the city, which is the Adour. The +rest of his description might well apply to-day, and the city is most +charmingly and romantically environed. + +Its cathedral will not receive the same adulation which is bestowed upon +the charms of the city itself. It is a poor thing, not unlike, in +appearance, a market-house or a third-rate town hall of some mean +municipality. + +Once the Black Prince and his "fair maid of Kent" came to this town of +the Bigorre, to see the Count of Armagnac, under rather doleful +circumstances for the count, who was in prison and in debt to Gaston +Phoebus for the amount of his ransom. + +The "fair maid," however, appears to have played the part of a good +fairy, and prevailed upon the magnificent Phoebus to reduce the ransom +to the extent of fifty thousand francs. + +In this incident alone there lies a story, of which all may read in +history, and which is especially recommended to those writers of +swash-buckler romances who may feel in need of a new plot. + +There is little in Tarbes but the memory of a fair past to compel +attention from the lover of antiquity, of churches, or of art; and there +are no remains of any note--even of the time when the Black Prince held +his court here. + +The bishopric is very ancient, and dates from the sixth century, when +St. Justin first filled the office. In spite of this, however, there is +very little inspiration to be derived from a study of this quite +unconvincing cathedral, locally known as the Eglise de la Sede. + +This Romanesque-Transition church, though dating from the twelfth and +thirteenth centuries, has neither the strength and character of the +older style, nor the vigour of the new. + +The nave is wide, but short, and has no aisles. At the transept is a +superimposed octagonal cupola, which is quite unbeautiful and +unnecessary. It is a fourteenth-century addition which finally oppresses +this ungainly heavy edifice beyond the hope of redemption. + +Built upon the facade is a Renaissance portal which of itself would be a +disfigurement anywhere, but which here gives the final blow to a +structure which is unappealing from every point. + +The present-day prefecture was the former episcopal residence. + +The bishopric, which to-day has jurisdiction over the Department of the +Hautes-Pyrenees, is a suffragan of the mother-see of Auch. + + + + +VIII + +CATHEDRALE DE CONDOM + + +The history of Condom as an ecclesiastical see is very brief. + +It was established only in 1317, on an ancient abbey foundation, whose +inception is unknown. + +For three centuries only was it endowed with diocesan dignity. Its last +_titulaire_ was Bishop Bossuet. + +The fine Gothic church, which was so short-lived as a cathedral, is more +worthy of admiration than many grander and more ancient. + +It dates from the early sixteenth century, and shows all the distinct +marks of its era; but it is a most interesting church nevertheless, and +is possessed of a fine unworldly cloister, which as much as many +another--more famous or more magnificent--must have been conducive to +inspired meditation. + +The portal rises to a considerable height of elegance, but the facade +is otherwise austere. + +In the interior, a choir-screen in cut stone is the chief artistic +treasure. The sacristy is a finely decorated and beautifully +proportioned room. + +In the choir is a series of red brick or terra-cotta stalls of poor +design and of no artistic value whatever. + +The ancient residence of the bishops is now the Hotel de Ville, and is a +good example of late Gothic domestic architecture. It is decidedly the +architectural _piece de resistance_ of the town. + + + + +IX + +CATHEDRALE DE MONTAUBAN + + +Montauban, the location of an ancient abbey, was created a bishopric, in +the Province of Toulouse, in 1317, under Bertrand du Puy. It was a +suffragan of the see of Toulouse after that city had been made an +archbishopric in the same year, a rank it virtually holds to-day, though +the mother-see is now known by the double vocable of Toulouse-Narbonne. + +Montauban is in many ways a remarkable little city; remarkable for its +tidy picturesqueness, for its admirable situation, for the added +attraction of the river Tarn, which rushes tumblingly past its _quais_ +on its way from the Gorges to the Garonne; in short, Montauban is a most +fascinating centre of a life and activity, not so modern that it jars, +nor yet so mediaeval that it is uncomfortably squalid. + +The lover of architecture will interest himself far more in the +thirteenth-century bridge of bricks which crosses the Tarn on seven +ogival arches, than he will in the painfully ordinary and unworthy +cathedral, which is a combination of most of the undesirable features of +Renaissance church-building. + +The facade is, moreover, set about with a series of enormous sculptured +effigies perched indiscriminately wherever it would appear that a +foothold presented itself. There are still a few unoccupied niches and +cornices, which some day may yet be peopled with other figures as gaunt. + +Two ungraceful towers flank a classical portico, one of which is +possessed of the usual ludicrous clock-face. + +The interior, with its unusual flood of light from the windows of the +clerestory, is cold and bare. Its imposed pilasters and heavy cornices +are little in keeping with the true conception of Christian +architecture, and its great height of nave--some eighty odd feet--lends +a further chilliness to one's already lukewarm appreciation. + +The one artistic detail of Montauban's cathedral is the fine painting by +Ingres (1781-1867) to be seen in the sacristy, if by any chance you can +find the sacristan--which is doubtful. It is one of this artist's most +celebrated paintings, and is commonly referred to as "The Vow of Louis +XIII." + +[Illustration: ST. ETIENNE _de CAHORS_.] + + + + +X + +ST. ETIENNE DE CAHORS + + +St. Genulphe was the first bishop of Cahors, in the fourth century. The +diocese was then, as now, a suffragan of Albi. The cathedral of St. +Etienne was consecrated in 1119, but has since--and many times--been +rebuilt and restored. + +This church is but one of the many of its class, built in Aquitaine at +this period, which employed the cupola as a distinct feature. It shares +this attribute in common with the cathedrals at Poitiers, Perigueux, and +Angouleme, and the great churches of Solignac, Fontevrault, and +Souillac, and is commonly supposed to be an importation or adaptation of +the domes of St. Marc's at Venice. + +A distinct feature of this development is that, while transepts may or +may not be wanting, the structures are nearly always without side +aisles. + +What manner of architecture this style may presume to be is impossible +to discuss here, but it is manifestly not Byzantine _pur-sang_, as most +guide-books would have the tourist believe. + +Although much mutilated in many of its accessories and details, the +cathedral at Cahors fairly illustrates its original plan. + +There are no transepts, and the nave is wide and short, its area being +entirely roofed by the two circular cupolas, each perhaps fifty feet in +diameter. In height these two details depart from the true hemisphere, +as has always been usual in dome construction. There were discovered, as +late as 1890, in this church, many mural paintings of great interest. Of +the greatest importance was that in the westerly cupola, which presents +an entire composition, drawn in black and colour. + +The cupola is perhaps forty feet in diameter, and is divided by the +decorations into eight sectors. The principal features of this +remarkable decoration are the figures of eight of the prophets, David, +Daniel, Jeremiah, Jonah, Ezra, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Habakkuk, each a +dozen or more feet in height. + +Taken as a whole, in spite of their recent discovery, these elaborate +decorations are supposed to have been undertaken by or under the +direction of the bishops who held the see from 1280 to 1324; most likely +under Hugo Geraldi (1312-16), the friend of Pope Clement V. and of the +King of France. This churchman was burned to death at Avignon, and the +see was afterward administered by procuration by Guillaume de Labroa +(1316-1324), who lived at Avignon. + +It is then permissible to think that these wall-paintings of the +cathedral at Cahors are perhaps unique in France. Including its +sustaining wall, one of the cupolas rises to a height of eighty-two +feet, and the other to one hundred and five feet. + +The north portal is richly sculptured; and the choir, with its +fifteenth-century ogival chapels, has been rebuilt from the original +work of 1285. + +The interior, since the recently discovered frescoes of the cupolas, +presents an exceedingly rich appearance, though there are actually few +decorative constructive elements. + +The apse of the choir is naturally pointed, as its era would indicate, +and its chapels are ornamented with frescoes of the time of Louis XII.; +neither very good nor very bad, but in no way comparable to the +decorations of the cupolas. + +The only monument of note in the interior is the tomb of Bishop Alain de +Solminiac (seventeenth century). + +The paintings of the choir are supposed to date from 1315, which +certainly places them at a very early date. A doorway in the right of +the nave gives on the fifteenth-century cloister, which, though +fragmentary, must at one time have been a very satisfactory example. The +ancient episcopal palace is now the prefecture. The bishop originally +bore the provisional title of Count of Cahors, and was entitled to wear +a sword and gauntlets, and it is recorded that he was received, upon his +accession to the diocese, by the Vicomte de Sessac, who, attired in a +grotesque garb, conducted him to his palace amid a ceremony which to-day +would be accounted as buffoonery pure and simple. From the accounts of +this ceremony, it could not have been very dignified or inspiring. + +The history of Cahors abounds in romantic incident, and its capture by +Henry of Navarre in 1580 was a brilliant exploit. + +Cahors was the birthplace of one of the French Popes of Avignon, John +XXII. (who is buried in Notre Dame des Doms at Avignon). + + + + +XI + +ST. CAPRAIS D'AGEN + + +Agen, with Cahors, Tulle, Limoges, Perigueux, Angouleme, and Poitiers, +are, in a way, in a class of themselves with respect to their +cathedrals. They have not favoured aggrandizement, or even restoration +to the extent of mitigating the sentiment which will always surround a +really ancient fabric. + +The cathedral at Bordeaux came strongly under the Gothic spell; so did +that at Clermont-Ferrand, and St. Nazaire, in the Cite de Carcassonne. +But those before-mentioned did not, to any appreciable extent, come +under the influence of the new style affected by the architects of the +Isle of France during the times of Philippe-Auguste (d. 1223). + +At the death of Philippe le Bel (1314), the royal domain was +considerably extended, and the cathedrals at Montpellier, Carcassonne, +and Narbonne succumbed and took on Gothic features. + +The diocese of Agen was founded in the fourth century as a suffragan of +Bordeaux. Its first bishop was St. Pherade. To-day the diocese is still +under the parent jurisdiction of Bordeaux, and the see comprises the +department of Lot-et-Garonne. + +A former cathedral church--St. Etienne--was destroyed at the Revolution. + +The Romanesque cathedral of St. Caprais dates, as to its apses and +transepts, from the eleventh century. + +Its size is not commonly accredited great, but for a fact its nave is +over fifty-five feet in width; greater than Chartres, and nearly as +great as Amiens in the north. + +This is a comparison which will show how futile it is not to take into +consideration the peers, compeers, or contemporaries of architectural +types when striving to impress its salient features upon one's senses. + +This immense vault is covered with a series of cupolas of a modified +form which finally take the feature of the early development of the +ogival arch. This, then, ranks as one of the early transitions between +barrel-vaulted and domed roofs, and the Gothic arched vaulting which +became so common in the century following. + +As to the general ground-plan, the area is not great. Its Romanesque +nave is stunted in length, if not in width, and the transepts are +equally contracted. The choir is semicircular, and the general effect is +that of a tri-apsed church, seldom seen beyond the immediate +neighbourhood of the Rhine valley. + +The interior effect is considerably marred by the modern mural frescoes +by Bezard, after a supposed old manner. The combination of colour can +only be described as polychromatic, and the effect is not good. + +There are a series of Roman capitals in the nave, which are of more +decided artistic worth and interest than any other distinct feature. + +At the side of the cathedral is the _Chapelle des Innocents_, the +ancient chapter-house of St. Caprais, now used as the chapel of the +college. Its facade has some remarkable sculptures, and its interior +attractions of curiously carved capitals and some tombs--supposed to +date from the first years of the Christian era--are of as great interest +as any of the specific features of the cathedral proper. + + + + +XII + +STE. MARIE D'AUCH + + +The first bishop of Auch was Citerius, in the fourth century. +Subsequently the Province d'Auch became the see of an archbishop, who +was Primate of Aquitaine. This came to pass when the office was +abolished or transferred from Eauze in the eighth century. The diocese +is thus established in antiquity, and endures to-day with suffragans at +Aire, Tarbes, and Bayonne. + +The cathedral of Ste. Marie d'Auch is not of itself an ancient +structure, dating only from the late fifteenth century. Its choir, +however, ranks among the most celebrated in the Gothic style in all +Europe, and the entire edifice is usually accorded as being the most +thoroughly characteristic (though varied as to the excellence of its +details) church of the _Midi_ of France, though built at a time when the +ogival style was projecting its last rays of glory over the land. + +[Illustration: STE. MARIE _d'AUCH_] + +In its general plan it is of generous though not majestic proportions, +and is rich and aspiring in its details throughout. + +An ancient altar in this present church is supposed to have come from +the humble basilica which was erected here by St. Taurin, bishop of +Eauze, soon after the foundation of the see. If this is so, it is +certainly of great antiquity, and is exceedingly valuable as the record +of an art expression of that early day. + +Taurin II., in 845, rebuilt a former church, which stood on the site of +the present cathedral; but, its dimensions not proving great enough for +the needs of the congregation, St. Austinde, in 1048, built a much +larger church, which was consecrated early in the twelfth century. + +Various other structures were undertaken, some completed only in part +and others to the full; but it was not until 1548 that the present Ste. +Marie was actually consecrated by Jean Dumas. + +"This gorgeous ceremony," says the Abbe Bourasse, "was accomplished amid +great pomp on the anniversary day of the dedication of the +eleventh-century basilica on the same site." + +In 1597 further additions were made to the vaulting, and the fine choir +glass added. Soon after this time, the glass of the nave chapels was put +into place, being the gift of Dominique de Vic. The final building +operations--as might be expected--show just the least suspicion of +debasement. This quality is to be remarked in the choir-screen, the +porch and towers, and in the balustrades of the chapels, to say nothing +of the organ supports. + +The west front is, in part, as late as the seventeenth century. + +In this facade there is an elaborately traceried rose window, indicating +in its painted glass a "Glory of Angels." It is not a great work, as +these chief decorative features of French mediaeval architecture go, but +is highly ornate by reason of its florid tracery, and dates, moreover, +from that period when the really great accomplishment of designing in +painted glass was approaching its maturity. + +If any feature of remark exists to excite undue criticism, it is that of +a certain incongruity or mixture of style, which, while not widely +separated in point of time, has great variation as to excellence. + +In spite of this there is, in the general _ensemble_, an imposing +picturesqueness to which distance lends the proverbial degree of +enchantment. + +The warm mouse-coloured cathedral and its archbishop's palace, when seen +in conjunction with the modern ornamental gardens and _escalier_ at the +rear, produces an effect more nearly akin to an Italian composition than +anything of a like nature in France. + +It is an _ensemble_ most interesting and pleasing, but as a worthy +artistic effort it does perhaps fall short of the ideal. + +The westerly towers are curious heavy works after the "French Classical" +manner in vogue during the reign of Louis XIV. They are not beautiful of +themselves, and quite unexpressive of the sanctity which should surround +a great church. + +The portal is richly decorated, and contains statues of St. Roche and +St. Austinde. It has been called an "imitation of the portal of St. +Peter's at Rome," but this is an opinion wholly unwarranted by a +personal acquaintance therewith. The two bear no resemblance except that +they are both very inferior to the magnificent Gothic portals of the +north. + +The interior embellishments are as mixed as to style, and of as varied +worth, as those of the exterior. + +The painted glass (by a Gascon artist, Arnaud de Moles, 1573) is usually +reckoned as of great beauty. This it hardly is, though of great value +and importance as showing the development of the art which produced it. +The colour is rich,--which it seldom is in modern glass,--but the design +is coarse and crude, a distinction that most modern glass has as well. +_Ergo_, we have not advanced greatly in this art. + +The chief feature of artistic merit is the series of one hundred and +thirteen choir-stalls, richly and wonderfully carved in wood. If not the +superior to any others in France, these remarkable examples of +Renaissance woodwork are the equal of any, and demonstrate, once again, +that it was in wood-carving, rather than sculptures in stone, that +Renaissance art achieved its greatest success. + +A distinct feature is the disposition made of the accessories of the +fine choir. It is surrounded by an elaborate screen, surmounted by +sculpture of a richness quite uncommon in any but the grander and more +wealthy churches. + +Under the reign of St. Louis many of the grand cathedrals and the larger +monastic churches were grandly favoured with this accessory, notably at +Amiens and Beauvais, at Burgos in Spain, and at Canterbury. + +Here the elaborate screen was designed to protect the ranges of stalls +and their canopied _dossiers_, and give a certain seclusion to the +chapter and officiants. + +Elsewhere--out of regard for the people it is to be presumed--this +feature was in many known instances done away with, and the material of +which it was constructed--often of great richness--made use of in +chapels subsequently erected in the walls of the apside or in the side +aisles of the nave. This is to be remarked at Rodez particularly, where +the reerected _cloture_ is still the show-piece of the cathedral. + +The organ _buffet_ is, as usual (in the minds of the local resident), a +remarkably fine piece of cabinet-work and nothing more. One always +qualifies this by venturing the opinion that no one ever really does +admire these overpowering and ungainly accessories. + +What triforium there is is squat and ugly, with ungraceful openings, and +the high-altar is a modern work in the pseudo-classic style, quite +unworthy as a work of art. + +The five apsidal chapels are brilliant with coloured glass, but +otherwise are not remarkable. + +In spite of all incongruity, Ste. Marie d'Auch is one of those +fascinating churches in and about which one loves to linger. It is hard +to explain the reason for this, except that its environment provides the +atmosphere which is the one necessary ingredient to a full realization +of the appealing qualities of a stately church. + +The archiepiscopal palace adjoins the cathedral in the rear, and has a +noble _donjon_ of the fourteenth century. Its career of the past must +have been quite uneventful, as history records no very bloody or riotous +events which have taken place within or before its walls. + +Fenelon was a student at the College of Auch, and his statue adorns the +Promenade du Fosse. + +[Illustration: ST. ETIENNE _de TOULOUSE_] + + + + +XIII + +ST. ETIENNE DE TOULOUSE + + +The provincialism of Toulouse has been the theme of many a French writer +of ability,--offensively provincial, it would seem from a consensus of +these written opinions. + +"Life and movement in abundance, but what a life!" ... "The native is +saved from coarseness by his birth, but after a quarter of an hour the +substratum shows itself." ... "The working girl is graceful and has the +vivacity of a bird, but there is nothing in her cackle." ... "How much +more beautiful are the stars that mirror themselves in the gutter of the +Rue du Bac." ... "There is a yelp in the accents of the people of the +town." + +Contrariwise we may learn also that "the water is fine," "the quays are +fine," and "fine large buildings glow in the setting sun in bright and +softened hues," and "in the far distance lies the chain of the Pyrenees, +like a white bed of watery clouds," and "the river, dressed always in +smiling verdure, gracefully skirts the city." + +These pessimistic and optimistic views of others found the contributors +to this book in somewhat of a quandary as to the manner of mood and +spirit in which they should approach this provincial capital. + +They had heard marvels of its Romanesque church of St. Saturnin, perhaps +the most perfect and elaborate of any of its kind in all France; of the +curious amalgamated edifice, now the cathedral of St. Etienne, wherein +two distinct church bodies are joined by an unseemly ligature; of the +church of the Jacobins; and of the "seventy-seven religious +establishments" enumerated by Taine. + +All these, or less, were enough to induce one to cast suspicion aside +and descend upon the city with an open mind. + +Two things one must admit: Toulouse does somewhat approach the gaiety of +a capital, and it _is_ provincial. + +Its list of attractions for the visitor is great, and its churches +numerous and splendid, so why carp at the "ape-like manners" of the +corner loafers, who, when all is said, are vastly less in number here +than in many a northern centre of population. + +The Musee is charming, both as to the disposition of its parts and its +contents. It was once a convent, and has a square courtyard or promenade +surrounded by an arcade. The courtyard is set about with green shrubs, +and a lofty brick tower, pierced with little arched windows and +mullioned with tiny columns, rises skyward in true conventual fashion. + +Altogether the Musee, in the attractiveness of its fabric and the size +and importance of its collections, must rank, for interest to the +tourist, at the very head of those outside Paris itself. + +As for the churches, there are many, the three greatest of which are the +cathedral of St. Etienne, St. Saturnin, and the Eglise des Jacobins; in +all is to be observed the universal application or adoption of _des +materiaux du pays_--bricks. + +In the cathedral tower, and in that of the Eglise des Jacobins, a Gothic +scheme is worked out in these warm-toned bricks, and forms, in contrast +with the usual execution of a Gothic design, a most extraordinary +effect; not wholly to the detriment of the style, but certainly not in +keeping with the original conception and development of "pointed" +architecture. + +In 1863 Viollet-le-Duc thoroughly and creditably restored St. Saturnin +at great expense, and by this treatment it remains to-day as the most +perfectly preserved work extant of its class. + +It is vast, curious, and in a rather mixed style, though thoroughly +Latin in motive. + +It is on the border-line of two styles; of the Italian, with respect to +the full semicircular arches and vaulting of the nave and aisles; the +square pillars destitute of all ornament, except another column standing +out in flat relief--an intimation of the quiet and placid force of their +functions. + +With the transition comes a change in the flowered capitals, from the +acanthus to tracery and grotesque animals. + +There are five domes covering the five aisles, each with a semicircular +vault. The walls, with their infrequent windows, are very thick. + +The delightful belfry--of five octagonal stages--which rises from the +crossing of the transepts, presents, from the outside, a fine and +imposing arrangement. So, too, the chapelled choir, with its apse of +rounded vaults rising in imposing tiers. This fine church is in direct +descent from the Roman manner; built and developed as a simple idea, +and, like all antique and classical work,--approaching purity,--is a +living thing, in spite of the fact that it depicts the sentiment of a +dead and gone past. + +It might not be so successfully duplicated to-day, but, considering that +St. Saturnin dates from the eleventh century, its commencement was +sufficiently in the remote past to allow of its having been promulgated +under a direct and vigorous Roman influence. + +The brick construction of St. Saturnin and of the cathedral is not of +that justly admired quality seen in the ancient Convent of the Jacobins, +which dates from the thirteenth century. Here is made perhaps the most +beautiful use of this style of mediaeval building. It is earlier than the +Pont de Montauban, the churches at Moissac or Lombez, and even the +cathedral at Albi, but much later than the true Romanesque brickwork, +which alternated rows of brick with other materials. + +The builders of Gallo-Romain and Merovingian times favoured this earlier +method, but work in this style is seldom met with of a later date than +the ninth century. + +The Eglise of St. Saturnin shows, in parts, brickwork of a century +earlier than the Eglise des Jacobins, but, as before said, it is not so +beautiful. + +When the Renaissance came to deal with _brique_, it did not do so badly. +Certainly the domestic and civil establishments of Touraine in this +style--to particularize only one section--are very beautiful. Why the +revival was productive of so much thorough badness when it dealt with +stone is one of the things which the expert has not as yet attempted to +explain; at least, not convincingly. + +The contrasting blend of the northern and southern motive in the hybrid +cathedral at Toulouse will not remain unnoticed for long after the first +sensation of surprise at its curious ground-plan passes off. + +Here are seen a flamboyant northern choir and aisles in strange +juxtaposition with a thirteenth-century single vaulted nave, after the +purely indigenous southern manner. + +This nave nearly equals in immensity those in the cathedrals of Albi and +Bordeaux. It has the great span of sixty-two feet, necessitating the +employment of huge buttresses, which would be remarkable anywhere, in +order to take the thrust. The unobstructed flooring of this splendid +nave lends an added dignity of vastness. Near the vaulted roof are the +only apertures in the walls. Windows, as one knows them elsewhere, are +practically absent. + +[Illustration: _Nave of St. Etienne de Toulouse_] + +The congregations which assemble in this great aisleless nave present a +curiously animated effect by reason of the fact that they scatter +themselves about in knots or groups rather than crowding against either +the altar-rail or pulpit, occasionally even overflowing into the +adjoining choir. The nave is entirely unobstructed by decorations, such +as screens, pillars, or tombs. It is a mere shell, _sans_ gallery, +_sans_ aisles, and _sans_ triforium. + +The development of the structure from the individual members of nave and +choir is readily traced, and though these parts show not the slightest +kind of relationship one to the other, it is from these two fragmentary +churches that the completed, if imperfect, whole has been made. + +The west front, to-day more than ever, shows how badly the cathedral has +been put together; the uncovered bricks creep out here and there, and +buildings to the left, which formerly covered the incongruous joint +between the nave and choir, are now razed, making the patchwork even +more apparent. The square tower which flanks the portal to the north is +not unpleasing, and dates from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. +The portal is not particularly beautiful, and is bare of decorations of +note. It appears to have been remodelled at some past time with a view +to conserving the western rose window. + +There are no transepts or collateral chapels, which tends to make the +ground-plan the more unusual and lacking in symmetry. + +The choir (1275-1502) is really very beautiful, taken by itself, far +more so than the nave, from which it is extended on a different axis. + +It was restored after a seventeenth-century fire, and is supposed to be +less beautiful to-day than formerly. + +There are seventeen chapels in this choir, with much coloured glass of +the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries, all with weird polychromatic +decorations in decidedly bad taste. + +Toulouse became a bishopric in the third century, with St. Saturnin as +its first bishop. It was raised to the rank of archiepiscopal dignity in +1327, a distinction which it enjoys to-day in company with Narbonne. Six +former suffragan bishoprics, Pamiers, Rieux, Mirepoix, Saint-Papoul, +Lombez, and Lavaur were suppressed at the Revolution. + +In the magnificent Musee of the city is _un petit monument_, without an +inscription, but bearing a cross _gammee_ or _Swastika_, and a +palm-leaf, symbols of the divine Apollo and Artemis. It seems curious +that this tiny record in stone should have been found, as it was, in the +mountains which separate the sources of the Garonne and the Adour, as +the _Swastika_ is a symbol supposedly indigenous to the fire and +sun-worshippers of the East, where it figures in a great number of their +monuments. + +It is called, by the local antiquary, a Pyrenean altar. If this is so, +it is of course of pagan origin, and is in no way connected with +Christian art. + +[Illustration: St. NAZAIRE _de CARCASSONNE_] + + + + +XIV + +ST. NAZAIRE DE CARCASSONNE + + +With old and new Carcassonne one finds a contrast, if not as great as +between the hyphenated Hungarian cities of Buda and Pest, at least as +marked in detail. + +In most European settlements, where an old municipality adjoins a modern +one, walls have been razed, moats filled, and much general modernization +has been undertaken. + +With Carcassonne this is not so; its winding ways, its _culs-de-sacs_, +narrow alleys, and towering walls remain much as they always were, and +the great stronghold of the Middle Ages, vulnerable--as history +tells--from but one point, remains to-day, after its admirable +restoration of roof and capstone, much as it was in the days when modern +Carcassonne was but a scattering hamlet beneath the walls of the older +fortification. + +One thing will always be recalled, and that is that a part of the +_enceinte_ of the ancient _Cite_ was a construction of the sixth +century--the days of the Visigoths--and that its subsequent development +into an almost invulnerable fortress was but the endorsement which later +centuries gave to the work and forethought of a people who were supposed +to possess no arts, and very little of ingenuity. + +This should suggest a line of investigation to one so minded; while for +us, who regard the ancient walls merely as a boundary which sheltered +and protected a charming Gothic church, it is perhaps sufficient to +recall the inconsistency in many previous estimates as to what great +abilities, if any, the Goths possessed. + +If it is true that the Visigoths merely followed Roman tradition, so +much the more creditable to them that they preserved these ancient walls +to the glory of those who came after, and but added to the general plan. + +Old and new Carcassonne, as one might call them, in the sixteenth and +seventeenth centuries had each their own magistrates and a separate +government. The _Cite_, elevated above the _ville_, held also the +garrison, the _presidial_ seat, and the first seneschalship of the +province. + +The bishopric of the _Cite_ is not so ancient as the _ville_ itself; for +the first prelate there whose name is found upon record was one Sergius, +"who subscribed to a 'Council' held at Narbonne in 590." + +[Illustration: _The Old Cite de Carcassonne before and after the +Restoration_] + +St. Hilaire, who founded the abbey at Poitiers, came perhaps before +Sergius, but his tenure is obscure as to its exact date. + +The cathedral of St. Michel, in the lower town, has been, since 1803, +the seat of the bishop's throne. + +It is a work unique, perhaps, in its design, but entirely unfeeling and +preposterous in its overelaborate decorations. It has a long +parallelogram-like nave, "_entierement peinte_," as the custodian refers +to it. It has, to be sure, a grand vault, strong and broad, but there +are no aisles, and the chapels which flank this gross nave are mere +painted boxes. + +Episcopal dignity demanded that some show of importance should be given +to the cathedral, and it was placed in the hands of Viollet-le-Duc in +1849 for restoration. Whatever his labours may have been, he doubtless +was not much in sympathy with this clumsy fabric, and merely "restored" +it in some measure approaching its twelfth-century form. + +It is with St. Nazaire de Carcassonne, the tiny _eglise_ of the old +_Cite_ and the _ci-devant_ cathedral that we have to do. + +This most fascinating church, fascinating for itself none the less than +its unique environment, is, in spite of the extended centuries of its +growth, almost the equal in the purity of its Gothic to that of St. +Urbain at Troyes. And this, in spite of evidences of rather bad joining +up of certain warring constructive elements. + +The structure readily composes itself into two distinct parts: that of +the Romanesque (round arch and barrel vault) era and that of the Gothic +of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. + +No consideration of St. Nazaire de Carcassonne is possible without first +coming to a realization of the construction and the functions of the +splendidly picturesque and effective ramparts which enclosed the ancient +_Cite_, its cathedral, chateaux, and various civil and domestic +establishments. + +In brief, its history and chronology commences with the Visigoth +foundation, extending from the fifth to the eighth centuries to the time +(1356) when it successfully resisted the Black Prince in his bloody +ravage, by sword and fire, of all of Languedoc. + +Legend has it that in Charlemagne's time, after that monarch had +besieged the town for many years and was about to raise the siege in +despair, a certain tower,--which flanked the chateau,--defended only by +a _Gauloise_ known as _Carcaso_, suddenly gave way and opened a breach +by which the army was at last able to enter. + +A rude figure perpetuating the fame of this _Madame Carcaso_--a +veritable Amazon, it would seem--is still seen, rudely carved, over the +Porte Narbonnaise. + +[Illustration: _Two Capitals of Pillars in St. Nazaire de Carcassonne; +and the Rude Stone Carving of Carcas_] + +It is the inner line of ramparts which dates from the earliest period. +The chateau, the postern-gate, and most of the interior construction are +of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, while the outer fortification is +of the time of St. Louis, the latter part of the thirteenth century. + +[Illustration: ST. NAZAIRE ... _de CARCASSONNE_] + +The Saracens successfully attacked and occupied the city from 713 to +759, but were routed by Pepin-le-Bref. In 1090 was first founded the +strong _vicomtale_ dynasty of the Trencavels. In 1210 the Crusaders, +under Simon de Montfort and the implacable Abbot of Citeaux, laid siege +to the _Cite_, an act which resulted in the final massacre, fifty of the +besieged--who surrendered--being hanged, and four hundred burned alive. + +In addition to the walls and ramparts were fifty circular protecting +towers. The extreme length of the inner enclosure is perhaps +three-quarters of a mile, and of the outer nearly a full mile. + +It is impossible to describe the magnitude and splendour of these city +walls, which, up to the time of their restoration by Viollet-le-Duc, had +scarcely crumbled at all. The upper ranges of the towers, roof-tops, +ramparts, etc., had become broken, of course, and the sky-line had +become serrated, but the walls, their foundations, and their outline +plan had endured as few works of such magnitude have before or since. + +Carcassonne, its history, its romance, and its picturesque qualities, +has ever appealed to the poet, painter, and historian alike. + +Something of the halo of sentiment which surrounds this marvellous +fortified city will be gathered from the following praiseful admiration +by Gustave Nadaud: + +CARCASSONNE + + "'I'm growing old, I've sixty years; + I've laboured all my life in vain; + In all that time of hopes and fears + I've failed my dearest wish to gain; + I see full well that here below + Bliss unalloyed there is for none. + My prayer will ne'er fulfilment know; + I never have seen Carcassonne, + I never have seen Carcassonne! + + "'You see the city from the hill-- + It lies beyond the mountains blue, + And yet to reach it one must still + Five long and weary leagues pursue, + And, to return, as many more! + Ah! had the vintage plenteous grown, + The grape withheld its yellow store! + I shall not look on Carcassonne, + I shall not look on Carcassonne! + + "'They tell me every day is there + Not more nor less than Sunday gay; + In shining robes and garments fair + The people walk upon their way. + One gazes there on castle walls + As grand as those of Babylon, + A bishop and two generals! + I do not know fair Carcassonne, + I do not know fair Carcassonne! + + "'The cure's right; he says that we + Are ever wayward, weak, and blind; + He tells us in his homily + Ambition ruins all mankind; + Yet could I there two days have spent, + While the autumn sweetly shone, + Ah, me! I might have died content + When I had looked on Carcassonne, + When I had looked on Carcassonne! + + "'Thy pardon, Father, I beseech, + In this my prayer if I offend; + One something sees beyond his reach + From childhood to his journey's end. + My wife, our little boy, Aignan, + Have travelled even to Narbonne, + My grandchild has seen Perpignan, + And I have not seen Carcassonne, + And I have not seen Carcassonne!' + + "So crooned one day, close by Limoux, + A peasant double bent with age, + 'Rise up, my friend,' said I, 'with you + I'll go upon this pilgrimage.' + We left next morning his abode, + But (Heaven forgive him) half way on + The old man died upon the road; + He never gazed on Carcassonne, + Each mortal has his Carcassonne!" + +St. Nazaire is possessed of a Romanesque nave which dates from 1096, but +the choir and transepts are of the most acceptable Gothic forms of the +thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. + +This choir is readily accounted as a masterwork of elegance, is purely +northern in style and treatment, and possesses also those other +attributes of the _perfectionnement_ of the style--fine glass, delicate +fenestration, and superlative grace throughout, as contrasted with the +heavier and more cold details of the Romanesque variety. + +The nave was dedicated by Urbain II., and was doubtless intended for +defence, if its square, firmly bedded towers and piers are suggestive of +that quality. The principal _porte_--it does not rise to the grandeur of +a _portail_--is a thorough Roman example. The interior, with its great +piers, its rough barrel-vault, and its general lack of grace and +elegance, bespeaks its functions as a stronghold. A Romanesque tower in +its original form stands on the side which adjoins the ramparts. + +With the choir comes the contrast, both inside and out. + +The apside, the transepts, the eleven gorgeous windows, and the extreme +grace of its piers and vaulting, all combine in the fullest expression +of the architectural art of its time. + +This admirable Gothic addition was the work of Bishop Pierre de +Rochefort in 1321. The transept chapels and the apse are framed with +light soaring arches, and the great easterly windows are set with +brilliant glass. + +In a side chapel is the former tomb of Simon de Montfort, whose remains +were buried here in 1218. At a subsequent time they were removed to +Montfort l'Amaury in the Isle of France. Another remarkable tomb is that +of Bishop Radulph (1266). It shows an unusually elaborate sculptured +treatment for its time, and is most ornate and beautiful. + +In the choir are many fine fourteenth-century statues; a tomb with a +sleeping figure, thought to be that of Bishop du Puy of Carcassonne; +statues of the Virgin, St. Nazaire, and the twelve apostles; an +elaborate high-altar; and a pair of magnificent candlesticks, bearing +the arms of Bishop Martin (1522). + +An eleventh-century crypt lies beneath the choir. The sacristy, as it is +to-day, was formerly a thirteenth-century chapel. + +The organ is commonly supposed to be the most ancient in France. It is +not of ranking greatness as a work of art, but it is interesting to +know that it has some redeeming quality, aside from its conventional +ugliness. + +The _tour carree_, which is set in the inner rampart just in front of +the cathedral, is known as the Bishop's Tower. It is a tower of many +stages, and contains some beautifully vaulted chambers. + +The celebrated _tour des Visigoths_, which is near by, is the most +ancient of all. + +The entrance to the old _Cite_ is _via_ the Pont Vieux, which is itself +a mediaeval twelfth or thirteenth century architectural monument of rare +beauty. In the middle of this old bridge is a very ancient iron cross. + +[Illustration] + + + + +XV + +CATHEDRALE DE PAMIERS + + +"Une _petite ville sur la rive droite de l'Ariege, siege d'un eveche_." +These few words, with perhaps seven accompanying lines, usually dismiss +this charming little Pyrenean city, so far as information for the +traveller is concerned. + +It is, however, one of these neglected tourist points which the +traveller has ever passed by in his wild rush "across country." + +To be sure, it is considerably off the beaten track; so too are its +neighbouring ancient bishoprics of Mirepoix and St. Bertrand de +Comminges, and for that reason they are comparatively unspoiled. + +The great and charming attraction of Pamiers is its view of the serrated +ridge of the Pyrenees from the _promenade de Castellat_, just beyond the +cathedral. + +For the rest, the cathedral, the fortified _Eglise de Notre Dame du +Camp_, the ancient _Eglise de Cordeliers_, the many old houses, and the +general sub-tropical aspect of the country round about, all combine to +present attractions far more edifying and gratifying than the +allurements of certain of the Pyrenean "watering-places." + +The cathedral itself is not a great work; its charm, as before said, +lies in its environments. + +Its chief feature--and one of real distinction--is its octagonal +_clocher_, in brick, dating from the fourteenth century. It is a +singularly graceful tower, built after the local manner of the _Midi_ of +France, of which St. Saturnin and the Eglise des Jacobins at Toulouse +are the most notable. + +Its base is a broad square machicolated foundation with no openings, and +suggests, as truly as does the tower at Albi, a churchly stronghold +unlikely to give way before any ordinary attack. + +In the main, the church is a rebuilt, rather than a restored edifice. +The nave, and indeed nearly all of the structure, except its dominant +octagonal tower, is of the seventeenth century. This work was undertaken +and consummated by Mansart after the manner of that period, and is far +more acceptable than the effect produced by most "restored churches." + +The eleventh-century abbey of St. Antoine formed originally the seat of +the throne of the first bishop of Pamiers, Bernard Saisset, in 1297. + + + + +XVI + +ST. BERTRAND DE COMMINGES + + +To-day St. Bertrand de Comminges, the ancient _Lugdunum Convenarum_ +(through which one traces its communistic foundation), is possessed of +something less than six hundred inhabitants. Remains of the Roman +ramparts are yet to be seen, and its _ci-devant_ cathedral,--of the +twelfth to fourteenth centuries--suppressed in 1790, still dominates the +town from its heights. Arthur Young, writing in the eighteenth century, +describes its situation thus: "The mountains rise proudly around and +give their rough frame to this exquisite little picture." + +The diocese grew out of the monkish community which had settled here in +the sixth century, when the prelate Suavis became its first bishop. +To-day the nearest bishop's seat is at Tarbes, in the archbishopric of +Auch. + +[Illustration: ST. BERTRAND _de COMMINGES_] + +As to architectural style, the cathedral presents what might ordinarily +be called an undesirable mixture, though it is in no way +uninteresting or even unpleasing. + +The west front has a curious Romanesque doorway, and there is a +massiveness of wall and buttress which the rather diminutive proportions +of the general plan of the church make notably apparent. Otherwise the +effect, from a not too near view-point, is one of a solidity and +firmness of building only to be seen in some of the neighbouring +fortress-churches. + +A tower of rather heavy proportions is to-day capped with a pyramidal +slate or timbered apex after the manner of the western towers at Rodez. +From a distance, this feature has the suggestion of the development of +what may perhaps be a local type of _clocher_. Closer inspections, when +its temporary nature is made plain, disabuses this idea entirely. It is +inside the walls that the great charm of this church lies. It is +elaborately planned, profuse in ornament,--without being in any degree +redundant,--and has a warmth and brilliancy which in most Romanesque +interiors is wanting. + +This interior is representative, on a small scale, of that class of +structure whose distinctive feature is what the French architect calls +a _nef unique_, meaning, in this instance, one of those great +single-chambered churches without aisles, such as are found at +Perpignan, new Carcassonne, Lodeve, and in a still more amplified form +at Albi. + +There are of course no aisles; and for a length of something over two +hundred feet, and a breadth of fifty-five, the bold vault--in the early +pointed style--roofs one of the most attractive and pleasing church +interiors it is possible to conceive. + +Of the artistic accessories it is impossible to be too enthusiastic. +There are sixty-six choir-stalls, most elaborately carved in +wood--perhaps mahogany--of a deep rich colouring seldom seen. Numerous +other sculptured details in wood and stone set off with unusual effect +the great and well-nigh windowless side walls. + +The organ _buffet_ of Renaissance workmanship--as will naturally be +inferred--is a remarkably elaborate work, much more to be admired than +many of its contemporaries. + +Among the other decorative features are an elaborately conceived "tree +of Jesse," an unusually massive rood-loft or _jube_, and a high-altar of +much magnificence. + +The choir is surrounded by eleven chapels, showing in some instances +the pure pointed style, and in the latter ones that of the Renaissance. + +A fourteenth-century funeral monument of Bishop Hugh de Castillione is +an elaborate work in white marble; while a series of paintings on the +choir walls,--illustrating the miracles of St. Bertrand,--though of a +certain crudity, tend to heighten the interest without giving that +effect of the over-elaboration of irrelative details not unfrequently +seen in some larger churches. + +At St. Bertrand de Comminges and the cathedrals at Arles, Cavaillon, and +Aix-en-Provence, Elne-en-Roussillon, and Le Puy-en-Velay are +conserved--in a more or less perfect state of preservation--a series of +delightful twelfth-century cloisters. These churches possess this +feature in common with the purely monastic houses, whose builders so +frequently lavished much thought and care on these enclosed and +cloistered courtyards. + +As a mere detail--or accessory, if you will,--an ample cloister is +expressive of much that is wanting in a great church which lacks this +contributory feature. + +Frequently this part was the first to succumb to the destroying +influence of time, and leave a void for which no amount of latter-day +improvement could make up. Even here, while the cloister ranks as one of +the most beautiful yet to be seen, it is part in a ruinous condition. + +[Illustration] + + + + +XVII + +ST. JEAN-BAPTISTE D'AIRE + + +This city of the Landes, that wild, bleak region of sand-dunes and +shepherds, abuts upon the more prosperous and fertile territory of the +valley of the Adour. By reason of this juxtaposition, its daily life +presents a series of contrasting elements as quaint and as interesting +as those of the bordering Franco-Spanish cities of Perpignan and +Bayonne. + +From travellers in general, and lovers of architecture in particular, it +has ever received but scant consideration, though it is by no means the +desert place that early Victorian writers would have us believe. It is +in reality a well-built mediaeval town, with no very lurid events of the +past to its discredit, and, truthfully, with no very marvellous +attributes beyond a certain subtle charm and quaintness which is perhaps +the more interesting because of its unobtrusiveness. + +It has been a centre of Christian activity since the days of the fifth +century, when its first bishop, Marcel, was appointed to the diocese by +the mother-see of Auch. + +The cathedral of St. Jean-Baptiste belongs to the minor class of +present-day cathedrals, and is of a decidedly conglomerate architectural +style, with no imposing dimensions, and no really vivid or lively +details of ornamentation. It was begun in the thirteenth century, and +the work of rebuilding and restoration has been carried on well up to +the present time. + +[Illustration: STS. BENOIT et VINCENT _de CASTRES_] + + + + +XVIII + +STS. BENOIT ET VINCENT DE CASTRES + + +Castres will ever rank in the mind of the wayfarer along the byways of +the south of France as a marvellous bit of stage scenery, rather than as +a collection of profound, or even highly interesting, architectural +types. + +It is one of those spots into which a traveller drops quite +unconsciously _en route_ to somewhere else; and lingers a much longer +time than circumstances would seem to justify. + +This is perhaps inexplicable, but it is a fact, which is only in a +measure accounted for by reason of the "local colour"--whatever that +vague term of the popular novelist may mean--and customs which weave an +entanglement about one which is difficult to resist. + +The river Agout is as weird a stream as its name implies, and divides +this haphazard little city of the Tarn into two distinct, and quite +characteristically different, parts. + +Intercourse between Castres and its faubourg, Villegondom, is carried on +by two stone bridges; and from either bank of the river, or from either +of the bridges, there is always in a view a ravishingly picturesque +_ensemble_ of decrepit walls and billowy roof-tops, that will make the +artist of brush and pencil angry with fleeting time. + +The former cathedral is not an entrancingly beautiful structure; indeed, +it is not after the accepted "good form" of any distinct architectural +style. It is a poor battered thing which has suffered hardly in the +past; notably at the hands of the Huguenots in 1567. As it stands +to-day, it is practically a seventeenth-century construction, though it +is yet unfinished and lacks its western facade. + +The vaulting of the choir, and the chapels are the only constructive +elements which warrant remark. There are a few paintings in the choir, +four rather attractive life-size statues, and a series of severe but +elegant choir-stalls. + +The former _eveche_ is to-day the Hotel de Ville, but was built by +Mansart in 1666, and has a fine _escalier_ in sculptured stone. + +As a centre of Christianity, Castres is very ancient. In 647 there was +a Benedictine abbey here. The bishopric, however, did not come into +being until 1317, and was suppressed in 1790. + + + + +XIX + +NOTRE DAME DE RODEZ + + +The cathedral at Rodez, whose diocese dates from the fifth century and +whose first bishop was St. Amand, is, in a way, reminiscent--in its +majesty of outline and dominant situation--of that at Albi. + +It is not, however, after the same manner, but resembles it more +particularly with respect to its west facade, which is unpierced in its +lower stages by either doorway or window. + +Here, too, the entrance is midway in its length, and its front presents +that sheer flank of walled barrier which is suggestive of nothing but a +fortification. + +[Illustration: NOTRE DAME _de RODEZ_ ...] + +This great church--for it is truly great, pure and simple--makes up in +width what it lacks in length. Its nave and aisles are just covered by a +span of one hundred and twenty feet,--a greater dimension than is +possessed by Chartres or Rouen, and nearly as great as Paris or +Amiens. + +Altogether Notre Dame de Rodez is a most pleasing church, though +conglomerate as to its architecture, and as bad, with respect to the +Renaissance gable of its facade, as any contemporary work in the same +style. + +Rodez lacks, however, the great enfolding tower central of Albi. + +This mellow and warm-toned cathedral, from its beginnings in the latter +years of the thirteenth century to the time when the Renaissance cast +its dastardly spell over the genius who inspired its original plan, was +the result of the persevering though intermittent work of three +centuries, and even then the two western towers were left incomplete. + +This perhaps was fortunate; otherwise they might have been topped with +such an excrescence as looms up over the doorless west facade. + +The Gascon compares the pyramidal roofs which cap either tower--and with +some justness, too--to the pyramids of Egypt, and for that reason the +towers are, to him, the most wonderful in the universe. Subtle humour +this, and the observer will have little difficulty in tracing the +analogy. + +Still, they really are preferable, as a decorative feature, to the +tomb-like headboard which surmounts the central gable which they flank. +The ground-plan is singularly uniform, with transepts scarcely +defined--except in the interior arrangements--and yet not wholly absent. + +The elaborate tower, called often and with some justification the +_beffroi_, which flanks, or rather indicates, the northerly transept, is +hardly pure as to its Gothic details, but it is a magnificent work +nevertheless. + +It dates from 1510, is two hundred and sixty-five feet high, and is +typical of most of the late pointed work of its era. The final stage is +octagonal and is surmounted by a statue of the Virgin surrounded by the +Evangelists. This statue may or may not be a worthy work of art; it is +too elevated, however, for one to decide. + +The decorations of the west front, except for the tombstone-like +Renaissance gable, are mainly of the same period as the north transept +tower, and while perhaps ultra-florid, certainly make a fine appearance +when viewed across the _Place d'Armes_. + +This west front, moreover, possesses that unusual attribute of a +southern church, an elaborate Gothic rose window; and, though it does +not equal in size or design such magnificent examples as are seen in the +north, at Reims, Amiens, or Chartres, is, after all, a notable detail of +its kind. + +The choir, chevet, and apside are of massive building, though not +lacking grace, in spite of the absence of the _arcs-boutants_ of the +best Gothic. + +Numerous grotesque gargoyles dot the eaves and gables, though whether of +the spout variety or mere symbols of superstition one can hardly tell +with accuracy when viewed from the ground level. + +The north and south portals of the transepts are of a florid nature, +after the manner of most of the decorations throughout the structure, +and are acceptable evidence of the ingenious craft of the stone-carver, +if nothing more. + +The workmanship of these details, however, does not rise to the heights +achieved by the architect who outlined the plan and foundation upon +which they were latterly imposed. They are, too, sadly disfigured, the +tympanum in the north portal having been disgracefully ravished. + +The interior arrangements are doubly impressive, not only from the +effect of great size, but from the novel colour effect--a sort of dull, +glowing pink which seems to pervade the very atmosphere, an effect which +contrasts strangely with the colder atmosphere of the Gothic churches of +the north. A curious feature to be noted here is that the sustaining +walls of the vault rest directly on piers _sans_ capitals; as effective, +no doubt, as the conventional manner, but in this case hardly as +pleasing. + +Two altars, one at either end of nave and choir, duplicate the +arrangement seen at Albi. + +The organ _buffet_, too, is of the same massiveness and elaborateness, +and is consequently an object of supreme pride to the local authorities. + +It seems difficult to make these useful and necessary adjuncts to a +church interior of the quality of beauty shared by most other +accessories, such as screens, altars, and choir-stalls, which, though +often of the contemporary Renaissance period, are generally beautiful in +themselves. The organ-case, however, seems to run either to size, +heaviness, or grotesqueness, or a combination of all. This is true in +this case, where its great size, and plentifully besprinkled _rococo_ +ornament, and unpleasantly dull and dingy "pipes" are of no aesthetic +value whatever. The organ, moreover, occupies the unusual position--in a +French church--of being over the western doorway. + +The nave is of extreme height, one hundred and ten feet, and is of +unusual width, as are also the aisles. + +The rose window, before remarked, shows well from the inside, though its +glass is not notable. + +A series of badly arched lancets in the choir are ungraceful and not in +keeping with the other constructive details. The delicately sculptured +and foliaged screen or _jube_ at the crossing is a late +fifteenth-century work. + +In one of the chapels is now to be seen, in mutilated fragments, the +ancient sixteenth-century _cloture du choeur_. It was a remarkable and +elaborate work of _bizarre_ stone-carving, which to-day has been +reconstructed in some measure approaching its former completeness by the +use of still other fragments taken from the episcopal palace. The chief +feature as to completeness and perfection is the doorway, which bears +two lengthy inscriptions in Latin. The facing of the _cloture_ +throughout is covered with a range of pilasters in Arabesque, but the +niches between are to-day bare of their statues, if they ever really +possessed them. + +[Illustration: _Choir-stalls, Rodez_] + +The choir-stalls and bishop's throne in carved wood are excellent, as +also an elaborately carved wooden _grille_ of a mixed Arabesque and +Gothic design. + +There are four other chapel or alcove screens very nearly as elaborate; +all of which features, taken in conjunction one with the other, form an +extensive series of embellishments such as is seldom met with. + +Two fourteenth-century monuments to former prelates are situated in +adjoining chapels, and a still more luxurious work of the same +period--the tomb of Gilbert de Cantobre--is beneath an extensive altar +which has supposedly Byzantine ornament of the tenth century. + +Rodez was the seat of a bishop (St. Amand) as early as the fifth +century. + +Then, as now, the diocese was a suffragan of Albi, whose first bishop, +St. Clair, came to the mother-see in the century previous. + + + + +XX + +STE. CECILE D'ALBI + + +The cathedral of Ste. Cecile d'Albi is one of the most interesting, as +well as one of the most curious, in all France. It possesses a quality, +rare among churches, which gives it at once the aspect of both a church +and a fortress. + +As the representative of a type, it stands at the very head of the +splendid fortress-churches of feudal times. The remarkable disposition +of its plan is somewhat reflected in the neighbouring cathedral at Rodez +and in the church at Esnades, in the Department of the +Charente-Inferieure. + +In the severe and aggressive lines of the easterly, or choir, end, it +also resembles the famous church of St. Francis at Assisi, and the +ruined church of Sainte Sophie at Famagousta in the Island of Cyprus. + +[Illustration: ST. CECILE _d'ALBI_ ...] + +It has been likened by the imaginative French--and it needs not so very +great a stretch of the imagination, either--to an immense vessel. +Certainly its lines and proportions somewhat approach such a form; as +much so as those of Notre Dame de Noyon, which Stevenson likened to an +old-time craft with a high poop. A less aesthetic comparison has been +made with a locomotive of gigantic size, and, truth to tell, it is not +unlike that, either, with its advancing tower. + +The extreme width of the great nave of this church is nearly ninety +feet, and its body is constructed, after an unusual manner, of a warm, +rosy-coloured brick. In fact the only considerable portions of the +structure not so done are the _cloture_ of the choir, the +window-mullions, and the flamboyant Gothic porch of the south side. + +By reason of its uncommon constructive elements,--though by no means is +it the sole representative of its kind in the south of France,--Ste. +Cecile stands forth as the most considerable edifice of its kind among +those which were constructed after this manner of Roman antiquity. + +Brickwork of this nature, as is well known, is very enduring, and it +therefore makes much for the lasting qualities of a structure so built; +much more so, in fact, than the crumbling soft stone which is often +used, and which crumbles before the march of time like lead in a +furnace. + +Ste. Cecile was begun in 1282, on the ruins of the ancient church of St. +Croix. It came to its completion during the latter years of the +fourteenth century, when it stood much as it does to-day, grim and +strong, but very beautiful. + +The only exterior addition of a later time is the before-remarked florid +south porch. This _baldaquin_ is very charmingly worked in a light brown +stone, and, while flamboyant to an ultra degree, is more graceful in +design and execution than most works of a contemporary era which are +welded to a stone fabric whose constructive and decorative details are +of quite a distinctly different species. In other words, it composes and +adds a graceful beauty to the brick fabric of this great church; but +likely enough it would offend exceedingly were it brought into +juxtaposition with the more slim lines of early Gothic. Its detail here +is the very culmination of the height to which Gothic rose before its +final debasement, and, in its spirited non-contemporaneous admixture +with the firmly planted brick walls which form its background, may be +reckoned as a _baroque_ in art rather than as a thing _outre_ or +misplaced. + +In further explanation of the peculiar fortress-like qualities possessed +by Ste. Cecile, it may be mentioned here that it was the outcome of a +desire for the safety of the church and its adherents which caused it to +take this form. It was the direct result of the terrible wars of the +Albigenses, and the political and social conditions of the age in which +it was built,--the days when the Church was truly militant. + +Here, too, to a more impressive extent than elsewhere, if we except the +papal palace at Avignon, the episcopal residence as well takes on an +aspect which is not far different from that possessed by some of the +secular chateaux of feudal times. It closely adjoins the cathedral, +which should perhaps dispute this. In reality, however, it does not, and +its walls and foundations look far more worldly than they do devout. As +to impressiveness, this stronghold of a bishop's palace is thoroughly in +keeping with the cathedral itself, and the frowning battlement of its +veritable _donjon_ and walls and ramparts suggests a deal more than the +mere name by which it is known would justify. Such use as it was +previously put to was well served, and the history of the troublous +times of the mediaeval ages, when the wars of the Protestants, "the +cursed Albigenses," and the natural political and social dissensions, +form a chapter around which one could weave much of the history of this +majestic cathedral and its walled and fortified environment. + +The interior of the cathedral will appeal first of all by its very grand +proportions, and next by the curious ill-mannered decorations with which +the walls are entirely covered. There is a certain gloom in this +interior, induced by the fact that the windows are mere elongated slits +in the walls. There are no aisles, no triforium, and no clerestory; +nothing but a vast expanse of wall with bizarre decorations and these +unusual window piercings. The arrangement of the openings in the tower +are even more remarkable--what there are of them, for in truth it is +here that the greatest likeness to a fortification is seen. In the lower +stages of the tower there are no openings whatever, while above they are +practically nothing but loopholes. + +The fine choir-screen, in stone, is considered one of the most beautiful +and magnificent in France, and to see it is to believe the statement. +The entire _cloture_ of the choir is a wonderful piece of stonework, and +the hundred and twenty stalls, which are within its walls, form of +themselves an excess of elaboration which perhaps in a more garish light +would be oppressive. + +The wall-paintings or frescoes are decidedly not beautiful, being for +the most part crudely coloured geometrical designs scattered about with +no relation one to another. They date from the fifteenth and sixteenth +centuries, and are doubtless Italian as to their workmanship, but they +betray no great skill on the part of those unknowns who are responsible +for them. + +The pulpit is an unusually ornate work for a French church, but is +hardly beautiful as a work of art. No more is the organ-case, which, as +if in keeping with the vast interior, spreads itself over a great extent +of wall space. + +Taken all in all, the accessories of the cathedral at Albi, none the +less than the unique plan and execution thereof, the south porch, the +massive tower, the _jube_ and _cloture_ of the choir, the vast +unobstructed interior, and the _outre_ wall decorations, place it as one +of the most consistently and thoroughly completed edifices of its rank +in France. Nothing apparently is wanting, and though possessed of no +great wealth of accessory--if one excepts the choir enclosure alone--it +is one of those shrines which, by reason of its very individuality, will +live long in the memory. It has been said, moreover, to stand alone as +to the extensive and complete exemplification of "_l'art decoratif_" in +France; that is, as being distinctively French throughout. + +The evolution of these component elements took but the comparatively +small space of time covered by two centuries--from the fourteenth to the +sixteenth. The culmination resulted in what is still to be seen in all +its pristine glory to-day, for Ste. Cecile has not suffered the +depredation of many another shrine. + +The general plan is distinctly and indigenously French; French to the +very core--born of the soil of the _Midi_, and bears no resemblance +whatever to any exotic from another land. + +With the decorative elements the case may be somewhat qualified. The +_baldaquin_--like the choir-screen--more than equals in delicacy and +grace the portals of such masterworks as Notre Dame de Rouen, St. +Maclou, or even the cathedral at Troyes, though of less magnitude than +any of these examples. On the other hand, it was undoubtedly inspired by +northern precept, as also were the ornamental sculptures in wood and +stone which are to be seen in the interior. + +Albi was a bishopric as early as the fourth century, with St. Clair as +its first bishop. At the time the present cathedral was begun it became +an archbishopric, and as such it has endured until to-day, with +suffragans at Rodez, Cahors, Mende, and Perpignan. + + + + +XXI + +ST. PIERRE DE MENDE + + +In the heart of the Gevaudan, Mende is the most picturesque, +mountain-locked little city imaginable, with no very remarkable features +surrounding it, nor any very grand artificial ones contained within it. + +The mountains here, unlike the more fruitful plains of the lower +Gevaudan, are covered with snow all of the winter. It is said that the +inhabitants of the mountainous upper Gevaudan used to "go into Spain +every winter to get a livelihood." Why, it is difficult to understand. +The mountain and valley towns around Mende look no less prosperous than +those of Switzerland, though to be sure the inhabitants have never here +had, and perhaps never will have, the influx of tourists "to live off +of," as in the latter region. + +[Illustration: ST. PIERRE _de MENDE_] + +During an invasion of the _Alemanni_ into Gaul, in the third century, +the principal city of Gevaudan was plundered and ruined. The bishop, +St. Privat, fled into the Cavern of Memate or Mende, whither the Germans +followed and killed him. + +The holy man was interred in the neighbouring village of Mende, and the +veneration which people had for his memory caused them to develop it +into a considerable place. Such is the popular legend, at any rate. + +The city had no bishop of its own, however, until the middle of the +tenth century. Previously the bishops were known as Bishops of Gevaudan. +At last, however, the prelates fixed their seat at Mende, and "great +numbers of people resorted thither by reason of the sepulchre of St. +Privat." + +By virtue of an agreement with Philippe-le-Bel, in 1306, the bishop +became Count of Gevaudan. He claimed also the right of administering the +laws and the coining of specie. + +Mende is worth visiting for itself alone and for its cathedral. It is +difficult to say which will interest the absolute stranger the more. + +The spired St. Pierre de Mende is but a fourteenth-century church, with +restorations of the seventeenth, but there is a certain grimness and +primitiveness about its fabric which would otherwise seem to place it +as of a much earlier date. + +The seventeenth-century restorations amounted practically to a +reconstruction, as the Calvinists had partly destroyed the fabric. The +two fine towers of the century before were left standing, but without +their spires. + +The city itself lies at a height of over seven hundred kilometres, and +the _pic_ rises another three hundred kilometres above. The surrounding +"green basin of hillsides" encloses the city in a circular depression, +which, with its cathedral as the hub, radiates in long, straight +roadways to the bases of these verdure-clad hills. + +It is not possible to have a general view of the cathedral without its +imposing background of mountain or hilltops, and for this reason, while +the entire city may appear dwarfed, and its cathedral likewise +diminished in size, they both show in reality the strong contrasting +effect of nature and art. + +The cathedral towers, built by Bishop de la Rovere, are of sturdy though +not great proportions, and the half-suggested spires rise skyward in as +piercing a manner as if they were continued another hundred feet. + +As a matter of fact one rises to a height of two hundred and three +feet, and the other to two hundred and seventy-six feet, so at least, +they are not diminutive. The taller of these pleasing towers is really a +remarkable work. + +The general plan of the cathedral is the conventional Gothic conception, +which was not changed in the seventeenth-century reconstruction. + +The nave is flanked with the usual aisles, which in turn are abutted +with ten chapels on either side. + +Just within the left portal is preserved the old _bourdon_ called _la +Non-Pareille_, a curiosity which seems in questionable taste for +inclusion within a cathedral. + +The rose window of the portal shows in the interior with considerable +effect, though it is of not great elegance or magnificence of itself. + +In the _Chapelle des Catechismes_, immediately beneath the tower, is an +unusual "Assumption." As a work of art its rank is not high, and its +artist is unknown, but in its conception it is unique and wonderful. + +There are some excellent wood-carvings in the _Chapelle du Baptistere_, +a description which applies as well to the stalls of the choir. + +Around the sanctuary hang seven tapestries, ancient, it is said, but of +no great beauty in themselves. + +In a chapel on the north side of the choir is a "miraculous statue" of +_la Vierge Noir_. + +The organ _buffet_ dates from 1640, and is of the ridiculous +overpowering bulk of most works of its class. + +The bishopric, founded by St. Severein in the third century at Civitas +Gabalorum, was reestablished at Mende in the year 1000. + +The Ermitage de St. Privat, the holy shrine of the former habitation of +the holy man whose name it bears, is situated a few kilometres away on +the side of Mont Mimat. It is a favourite place of pilgrimage, and from +the platform of the chapel is to be had a fine view of the city and its +cathedral. + + + + +XXII + +OTHER OLD-TIME CATHEDRALS IN AND ABOUT THE BASIN OF THE GARONNE + + +_Dax_ + +At Dax, an ancient thermal station of the Romans, is a small cathedral, +mainly modern, with a portal of the thirteenth century. + +It was reconstructed from these thirteenth-century remains in the +seventeenth century, and exhibits no marks of beauty which would have +established its ranking greatness even at that time. + +Dax was a bishopric in the province of Auch in the third century, but +the see was suppressed in 1802. + + +_Eauze_ + +Eauze was an archbishopric in the third century, when St. Paterne was +its first dignitary. Subsequently--in the following century--the +archbishopric was transferred to Auch. + +As _Elusa_ it was an important place in the time of Caesar, but was +completely destroyed in the early part of the tenth century. Eauze, +therefore, has no church edifice which ever ranked as a cathedral, but +there is a fine Gothic church of the late fifteenth century which is, in +every way, an architectural monument worthy of remark. + + +_Lombez_ + +The bishopric of Lombez, in the ancient ecclesiastical province of +Toulouse, endured from 1328 (a tenth-century Benedictine abbey +foundation). + +Its first bishop was one Roger de Comminges, a monk who came from the +monastic community of St. Bertrand de Comminges. + +The see was suppressed in 1790. + + +_St. Papoul_ + +St. Papoul was a bishopric from 1317 until 1790. Its cathedral is in +many respects a really fine work. It was an ancient abbatial church in +the Romanesque style, and has an attractive cloister built after the +same manner. + + +_Rieux_ + +Rieux is perhaps the tiniest _ville_ of France which has ever possessed +episcopal dignity. It is situated on a mere rivulet--a branch of the +Arize, which itself is not much more, but which in turn goes to swell +the flood of La Garonne. Its one-time cathedral is perhaps not +remarkable in any way, though it has a fine fifteenth-century tower in +_brique_. The bishopric was founded in 1370 under Guillaume de Brutia, +and was suppressed in 1790. + + +_Lavaur_ + +Lavaur was a bishopric, in the ecclesiastical province of Toulouse, from +1317 to 1790. + +Its cathedral of brick is of the fourteenth century, with a _clocher_ +dating from 1515, and a smaller tower, embracing a _jacquemart_, of the +sixteenth century. + +In the interior is a fine sixteenth-century painting, but there are no +other artistic treasures or details of note. + + +_Oloron_ + +Oloron was a bishopric under St. Gratus in the sixth century; it ceased +its functions as the head of a diocese at the suppression of 1790. + +The former cathedral of Ste. Marie is a fine Romanic-Ogivale edifice of +the eleventh century, though its constructive era may be said to extend +well toward the fifteenth before it reached completion. There is a +remarkably beautiful Romanesque sculptured portal. The nave is doubled, +as to its aisles, and is one hundred and fifty feet or more in length +and one hundred and six wide, an astonishing breadth when one comes to +think of it, and a dimension which is not equalled by any minor +cathedral. + +There are no other notable features beyond the general attractiveness of +its charming environment. + +The ancient _eveche_ has a fine Romanesque tower, and the cathedral +itself is reckoned, by a paternal government, as a "_monument +historique_," and as such is cared for at public expense. + + +_Vabres_ + +Vabres was a bishopric which came into being as an aftergrowth of a +Benedictine foundation of the ninth century, though its episcopal +functions only began in 1318, and ceased with the Revolutionary +suppression. It was a suffragan in the archiepiscopal diocese of Albi. + +Its former cathedral, while little to be remarked to-day as a really +grand church edifice, was by no means an unworthy fane. It dates from +the fourteenth century, and in part is thoroughly representative of the +Gothic of that era. It was rebuilt in the eighteenth century, and a fine +_clocher_ added. + + +_St. Lizier or Couserans_ + +The present-day St. Lizier--a tiny Pyrenean city--was the former +Gallo-Romain city of Couserans. It retained this name when it was first +made a bishopric by St. Valere in the fifth century. The see was +suppressed in 1790. + +The Eglise de St. Lizier, of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, +consists of a choir and a nave, but no aisles. It shows some traces of +fine Roman sculpture, and a mere suggestion of a cloister. + +The former bishop's palace dates only from the seventeenth century. + + +_Sarlat_ + +A Benedictine abbey was founded here in the eighth century, and from +this grew up the bishopric which took form in 1317 under Raimond de +Roquecarne, which in due course was finally abolished and the town +stripped of its episcopal rank. + +The former cathedral dates from the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and +in part from the fifteenth. Connected therewith is a sepulchral chapel, +called the _tour des Maures_. It is of two _etages_, and dates from the +twelfth century. + + +_St. Pons de Tomiers_ + +St. Pons is the seat of an ancient bishopric now suppressed. It is a +charming village--it can hardly be named more ambitiously--situated at +the source of the river Jaur, which rises in the Montagnes Noir in Lower +Languedoc. + +Its former cathedral is not of great interest as an architectural type, +though it dates from the twelfth century. + +The facade is of the eighteenth century, but one of its side chapels +dates from the fourteenth. + + +_St. Maurice de Mirepoix_ + +Mirepoix is a charming little city of the slopes of the Pyrenees. + +Its ancient cathedral of St. Maurice dates from the fifteenth and +sixteenth centuries, and has no very splendid features or +appointments,--not even of the Renaissance order,--as might be expected +from its magnitude. Its sole possession of note is the _clocher_, which +rises to an approximate height of two hundred feet. + +The bishopric was founded in 1318 by Raimond Athone, but was suppressed +in 1790. + +[Illustration: THE END.] + + + + +_Appendices_ + + +I + +[Illustration: _Sketch map showing the usual geographical divisions of +France. I., north; II., northwest; III., east; IV., southwest; V., +southeast: also the present departments into which the government is +divided, with their names; and the mediaeval provinces which were +gradually absorbed into the kingdom of France._ + +_There is in general one bishopric to a department._ + +_The subject-matter of this book treats of all of southwestern and +southeastern France; with, in addition, the departments of +Saone-et-Loire, Jura, Rhone, Loire, Ain, and Allier._] + + +II + +_A Historical Table of the Dioceses of the South of France up to the +beginning of the nineteenth century._ + +_Province d'Aix_ + + _Name_ _Diocese founded_ _First bishop_ _Date of + suppression_ + + Aix _Nice, Avignon, Ajaccio, and Digne were allied + therewith in 1802, and Marseilles and Alger in + 1822._ + + (Archbishopric) First century (?) St. Maxim (?) + + Antibes Transferred to Grasse + + Apt First century (?) St. Auspice 1790 + + Grasse (Jurisdiction over Antibes.) + + Gap Fifth century St. Demetrius + + Riez Fifth century St. Prosper 1790 + + Frejus Fourth century Acceptus + + Sisteron Fifth century Chrysaphius + +_Province d'Albi_ + + Albi Fourth century St. Clair + Bishopric + (Archbishopric) 1317 (?) Anthime + + Castres 647 as a Benedictine Robert, the first 1790 + Abbey. Abbot + 1317 as a Bishopric + + Mende Third century at St. Severein + Civitas Gabalorum. and Genialis + Reestablished + here in the + year 1000 + + Cahors Fourth century St. Genulphe + + Rodez Fifth century St. Amand + + Arisitum Sixth century detached Deothaire Rejoined + from the diocese of to Rodez + Rodez 670 + + Vabres Benedictine 1790 + Abbey, 862. + Bishopric, 1317 + +_Province d'Arles_ + + Arles First century St. Trophime 1790 + (Archbishopric) + + Marseilles First century St. Lazare + + St. Paul-Trois Second century St. Restuit 1790 + Chateaux, or + Tricastin + + Toulon Fifth century Honore 1790 + + Orange Fifth century St. Luce 1790 + +_Province d'Auch_ + + Eauze Third century St. Paterne 720 + (Archbishopric) + + Auch Fourth century Citerius + (Bishopric then + Archbishopric) + + Dax Third century St. Vincent 1802 + + Lectoure Sixth century Heuterius 1790 + + Comminges Sixth century Suavis 1790 + + Conserans Fifth century St. Valere 1790 + + Aire Fifth century Marcel + + Bazas Sixth century Sextilius (?) + + Tarbes Sixth century St. Justin + + Oloron Sixth century Gratus 1790 + + Lescar Fifth century St. Julien 1790 + + Bayonne Ninth century Arsias Rocha + + _Province d'Avignon_ + + Avignon Fourth century St. Ruf + (Bishopric, + becoming + Archbishopric + in fifteenth + century) + Carpentras Third century St. Valentin 1790 + Vaison Fourth century St. Aubin 1790 + Cavaillon Fifth century St. Genialis 1790 + + _Province de Bordeaux_ + + Bordeaux + (Bishopric) Third century + (Archbishopric) Fourth century Oriental + Agen Fourth century St. Pherade + Condom Raimond de + (Ancient Galard + abbey--foundation + date unknown) + Bishopric) Fourteenth century + Angouleme Third century St. Ansome + Saintes Third century St. Eutrope 1793 + Poitiers Third century St. Nectaire + Maillezais Fourteenth century Geoffrey I. + (afterward at + La Rochelle) + Lucon 1317 Pierre de La + (Seventh-century Veyrie + abbey) + Perigueux Second century St. Front + Sarlat 1317 Raimond de + (Eighth-century Roquecorne + Benedictine + abbey) + + _Province de Bourges_ + + Bourges Third century St. Ursin + (Archbishopric) + Clermont-Ferrand Third century St. Austremoine + St. Flour 1318 Raimond de + (Ancient priory) Vehens + Limoges Third century St. Martial + Tulle 1317 Arnaud de + (Seventh-century Saint-Astier + Benedictine + abbey) + Le Puy Third century St. Georges + + _Province d'Embrun_ + + Embrun + (Archbishopric) Fourth century St. Marcellin 1793 + Digne Fourth century St. Domnin + Antibes Fourth century St. Armentaire + (afterward at + Grasse) + Grasse Raimond de 1790 + Villeneuve + (1245) + Vence Fourth century Eusebe 1790 + Glandeve Fifth century Fraterne 1790 + Senez Fifth century Ursus 1790 + Nice Fourth century Amantius + (formerly at + Cemenelium) + + _Province de Lyon_ + + Lyon _The Archbishop of Lyon was Primate of Gaul._ + (Archbishopric) Second century St. Pothin + Autun Third century St. Amateur + Macon Sixth century Placide 1790 + Chalon-sur-Saone Fifth century Paul 1790 + Langres Third century St. Just + Dijon Bishopric in 1731 Jean Bonhier + (Fourth-century + abbey) + Saint Claude Bishopric in 1742 Joseph de + (Fifth-century Madet + abbey) + + _Province de Narbonne_ + + Narbonne Third century St. Paul 1802 + (Archbishopric) + + Saint-Pons-de- 1318 Pierre Roger 1790 + Tomieres(Tenth- + century abbey) + Alet 1318 Barthelmy 1790 + (Ninth-century + abbey) + Beziers Fourth century St. Aphrodise 1702 + Nimes Fourth century St. Felix + Alais 1694 Chevalier de 1790 + Saulx + Lodeve Fourth century (?) St. Flour 1790 + Uzes Fifth century Constance 1790 + Agde Fifth century St. Venuste 1790 + Maguelonne Sixth century Beotius + (afterward at + Montpellier) + Carcassonne Sixth century St. Hilaire + Elne Sixth century Domnus + (afterward at + Perpignan) + + _Province de Tarentaise_ + + Tarentaise Fifth century St. Jacques + (Archbishopric) + Sion Fourth century St. Theodule + Aoste Fourth century St. Eustache + Chambery 1780 Michel Conseil + + _Province de Toulouse_ + + Toulouse + (Bishopric) Third century St. Saturnin + (Archbishopric) 1327 + Pamiers 1297 Bernard Saisset + (Eleventh-century + abbey) + + Rieux 1317 Guillaume + de Brutia + Montauban 1317 Bertrand du Puy + (Ancient abbey) + Mirepoix 1318 Raimond 1790 + Athone + Saint-Papoul 1317 Bernard de la 1790 + Tour + Lombes 1328 Roger de 1790 + (Tenth-century Commminges + abbey) + Lavaur 1317 Roger d'Armagnac 1790 + + _Province de Vienne_ + + Vienne Second century St. Crescent 1790 + (Archbishopric) + Grenoble Third century Domninus + Geneve (Switz.) Fourth century Diogene 1801 + Annency 1822 Claude de Thiollaz + Valence Fourth century Emelien + Die Third century Saint Mars + Viviers Fifth century Saint Janvier 1790 + St. Jean de Fifth century Lucien + Maurienne + + +III + + + _The Classification of Architectural Styles in France according to + De Caumont's "Abecedaire d'Architecture Religieuse."_ + + Architecture Primordiale From the Vth to the Xth centuries. + Romaine + Secondaire From the end of the Xth + century to the beginning of + the XIIth + Tertiaire or + transition XIIth century + Architecture Primitive XIIIth century + Ogivale Secondaire XIVth century + Tertiaire XVth and the first part of the + XVIth century + +[Illustration] + + +IV + +_A Chronology of Architectural Styles in France_ + + +Following more or less upon the lines of De Caumont's territorial and +chronological divisions of architectural style in France, the various +species and periods are thus further described and defined: + +The Merovingian period, commencing about 480; Carlovingian, 751; +Romanesque or Capetian period, 987; Transitional, 1100 (extending in the +south of France and on the Rhine till 1300); early French Gothic or +Pointed (_Gothique a lancettes_), mid-twelfth to mid-thirteenth +centuries; decorated French Gothic (_Gothique rayonnant_), from the +mid-thirteenth to mid-fifteenth centuries, and even in some districts as +late as the last decade of the fifteenth century; Flamboyant (_Gothique +flamboyant_), early fifteenth to early sixteenth; Renaissance, dating at +least from 1495, which gave rise subsequently to the _style Louis XII. +and style Francois I_. + +With the reign of Henri II., the change to the Italian style was +complete, and its place, such as it was, definitely assured. French +writers, it may be observed, at least those of a former generation and +before, often carry the reference to the _style de la Renaissance_ to a +much later period, even including the neo-classical atrocities of the +seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. + +_Bizarre_ or _baroque_ details, or the _style perruque_, had little +place on French soil, and the later exaggerations of the _rococo_, the +styles _Pompadour_ and _Dubarri_, had little if anything to do with +church-building, and are relevant merely insomuch as they indicate the +mannerisms of a period when great churches, if they were built at all, +were constructed with somewhat of a leaning toward their baseness, if +not actually favouring their eccentricities. + + +V + +[Illustration: _Neo-Basilica-IX Cent._ + +_Lombard Cruciform XI Century_ + +_The Romanesque Of Southern France in the XI Century_ + +_Norman Cruciform Plan XI Century_ + +_Leading forms of early cathedral constructions_] + + +VI + +_The disposition of the parts of a tenth-century church, as defined by +Viollet-le-Duc_ + + +Of this class are many monastic churches, as will be evinced by the +inclusion of a cloister in the diagram plan. Many of these were +subsequently made use of, as the church and the cloisters, where they +had not suffered the stress of time, were of course retained. St. +Bertrand de Comminges is a notable example among the smaller structures. + +In the basilica form of ground-plan, which obtained to a modified +extent, the transepts were often lacking, or at least only suggested. +Subsequently they were added in many cases, but the tenth-century church +_pur sang_ was mainly a parallelogram-like structure, with, of course, +an apsidal termination. + +[Illustration: _Plan X Century Church_] + + A The choir + + B The _exedra_, meaning literally a niche or throne--in this instance + for the occupancy of the bishop, abbot, or prior--apart + from the main edifice + + C The high-altar + + D Secondary or specially dedicated altars + + E The transepts, which in later centuries expanded and lengthened + + G The nave proper, down which was reserved a free passage + separating the men from the women + + H The aisles + + I The portico or porch which precedes the nave (_i. e._, the + narthen of the primitive basilica), where the pilgrims who + were temporarily forbidden to enter were allowed to wait + + K A separate portal or doorway to cloisters + + L The cloister + + M The towers; often placed at the junction of transept and nave, + instead of the later position, flanking the west facade + + N The baptismal font; usually in the central nave, but often in + the aisle + + O Entrance to the crypt or confessional, where were usually preserved + the _reliques_ of the saint to whom the church was erected + + P The tribune, in a later day often surrounded by a screen or _jube_ + + +VII + + _A brief definitive gazetteer of the natural and geological + divisions included in the ancient provinces and present-day + departments of southern France, together with the local names by + which the pays et pagi are commonly known_ + + +Gevaudan In the Cevennes, a region of forests and mountains + +Velay A region of plateaux with visible lava tracks + +Lyonnais-Beaujolais The mountain ranges which rise to the westward of Lyons + +Morvan An isolated group of porphyrous and granite elevations + +Haute-Auvergne The mountain range of Cantal + +Basse-Auvergne The mountain chains of Mont Dore and _des Domes_ + +Limousin A land of plateaux, ravines, and granite + +Agenais Rocky and mountainous, but with its valleys + among the richest in all France + +Haut-Quercy A rolling plain, but with little fertility + +Bas-Quercy The plains of the Garonne, the Tarn, and the Aveyron + +Armagnac An extensive range of _petites montagnes_ + running in various directions + +Landes A desert of sand, forests, and inlets of the sea + +Bearn A country furrowed by the ramifications + of the range of the Pyrenees + +Basse-Navarre A Basque country situated on the northern + slope of the Pyrenees + +Bigorre The plain of Tortes and its neighbouring valleys + +Savoie A region comprising a great number of + valleys made by the ramifying ranges of + the Alps. The principal valleys being + those of Faucigny, the Tarentaise, and the Maurienne + +Bourbonnais A country of hills and valleys which, as to general + limits, corresponds with the Department of the Allier + +Nivernais An undulating region between the Loire and the Morvan + +Berry A fertile plain, slightly elevated, + to the northward of Limousin + +Sologne An arid plain separated by the valleys + of the Cher and the Indre + +Gatinais A barren country northeast of Sologne + +Saintonge Slightly mountainous and covered with vineyards--also + in parts partaking of the + characteristics of the _Landes_ + +Angoumois A hilly country covered with a growth of vines + +Perigord An _ensemble_ of diverse regions, often hilly, + but covered with a luxuriant forest growth + +Bordelais (Comprising Blayais, Fronsadais, Libournais, + Entre-deux-mers, Medoc, and Bazadais.) + The vine-lands of the Garonne, La Gironde, + and La Dordogne + +Dauphine Another land of mountains and valleys. It + is crossed by numbers of ranges and distinct + peaks. The principal subdivisions + are Viennois, Royonnais Vercors, Trieves, + Devoluy, Oisons, Graisivaudan, Chartreuse, + Queyras Valgodemar, Champsaur. + +Provence A region of fertile plains dominated by volcanic + rocks and mountains. It contains + also the great pebbly plain in the extreme + southwest known as the Crau + +Camargue The region of the Rhone delta + +Languedoc Properly the belt of plains situated between + the foot of the Cevennes and the borders + of the Mediterranean + +Rousillon The region between the peaks of the Corbiere + and the Albere mountain chain. The + population was originally pure Catalan + +Lauragais A stony plateau with red earth deposited + in former times by the glaciers of the Pyrenees + +Albigeois A rolling and fertile country + +Toulousain A plain well watered by the Garonne and the Ariege + +Comminges The lofty Pyrenean valleys of the Garonne basin + + +VIII + +[Illustration: _Sketch map of the bishoprics and archbishoprics of the +south of France at the present day_] + + + + +IX + +_Dimensions and Chronology_ + + +CATHEDRALE D'AGDE + + Bishopric founded, Vth century + Bishopric suppressed, 1790 + Primitive church consecrated, VIIth century + Main body of present cathedral, XIth to XIIth centuries + + +ST. CAPRIAS D'AGEN + +[Illustration] + + Former cathedral of St. Etienne, destroyed at the Revolution, 1790 + Apse and transepts of St. Caprias, XIth century + Width of nave, 55 feet + + +ST. JEAN BAPTISTE D'AIRE + +Cathedral begun, XIIIth century + + +ST. SAVEUR D'AIX + +[Illustration] + + Eglise St. Jean de Malte, XIVth century + Remains of a former St. Saveur's, XIth century + Choir, XIIIth century + Choir elaborated, XIVth century + South aisle of nave, XIVth century + Tower, XIVth century + Carved doors, 1503 + Episcopal palace, 1512 + North aisle of nave, XVIIth century + Baptistere, VIth century + + +ST. JEAN D'ALAIS + + A bishopric only from 1694 to 1790 + Remains of a XIIth century church + + +STE. CECILE D'ALBI + +[Illustration] + + Begun, 1277 + Finished, 1512 + South porch, 1380-1400 + Tower completed, 1475 + Choir-screen, 1475-1512 + Wall paintings, XVth to XVIth centuries + Organ, XVIIIth century + Choir stalls, 120 in number + Height of tower, 256 feet + Length, 300 (320?) feet + Width of nave, 88 feet + Height of nave, 98 feet + + +ST. PIERRE D'ALET + + Primitive cathedral, IXth century (?) + Rebuilt, XIth century + Eglise St. Andre, XIVth to XVth centuries + + +ST. PIERRE D'ANGOULEME + +[Illustration] + + City ravaged by Coligny, XVIth century + Cathedral rebuilt from foundations of primitive church, 1120 + Western dome, XIIth century + Central and other domes, latter part of XIIth century + Episcopal palace restored, XIXth century + General restoration of cathedral, after the depredations of Coligny, 1628 + Height of tower, 197 feet + + +ST. PIERRE D'ANNECY + + Christianity first founded here, IVth century + Cathedral dates from XIVth century + Tomb of St. Francois de Sales, 1622 + Tomb of Jeanne de Chantal, 1641 + Episcopal palace, 1784 + + +ST. CASTOR D'APT + + Gallo-Romain sarcophagus, Vth century + Tomb of Ducs de Sabron, XIIth century + Chapelle de Ste. Anne, XVIIth century + + +ST. TROPHIME D'ARLES + +[Illustration] + + Primitive church on same site, 606 + Foundations of present cathedral laid, 1152 + Nave completed, 1200 + Choir and chapels, 1423-1430 + Cloisters, east side, 1221 + Cloisters, west side, 1250 + Cloisters, north side, 1380 + Length, 240 feet + Width, 90 feet + Height, 60 feet + Height of clocher, 137 feet + + +STE. MARIE D'AUCH + + Ancient altar, IVth century + First cathedral built by Taurin II., 845 + Another (larger) by St. Austinde, 1048 + Present cathedral consecrated, 1548 + Additions made and coloured glass added, 1597 + West front, in part, XVIIth century + Towers, 1650-1700 + Episcopal palace, XIVth century + Length, 347 feet + Height to vaulting, 74 feet + + +NOTRE DAME DES DOMS D'AVIGNON + +[Illustration] + + Territory of Avignon acquired by the Popes from Joanna of Naples, 1300 + Popes reigned at Avignon, 1305-1370 + Avignon formally ceded to France by Treaty of Tolentino, 1797 + Palais des Papes begun, XIIIth century + Pope Gregory left Avignon for Rome, 1376 + Cathedral dates chiefly from XIIth century + Nave chapels, XIVth century + Frescoes in portal, XIVth century + Height of walls of papal palace, 90 feet + " " tower " " " 150 feet + Length of cathedral, 200 (?) feet + Width of cathedral, 50 (?) feet + + +NOTRE DAME DE BAYONNE + + Foundations, 1140 + Choir and apse, XIIth century + Destroyed by fire, 1213 + Choir rebuilt, 1215 + Completed and restored, XVIth century + + +ST. JEAN DE BAZAS + + Foundations date from Xth century + Walls, etc., 1233 + West front, XVIth century + + +CATHEDRALE DE BELLEY + +Gothic portion of cathedral, XVth century + + +ST. NAZAIRE DE BEZIERS + + Primitive church damaged by fire, 1209 + Transepts, XIIIth century + Towers, XIVth century + Apside and nave, XIVth century + Glass and grilles, XIVth century + Cloister, XIVth century + Height of clocher, 151 feet + + +ST. ANDRE DE BORDEAUX + + Three cathedral churches here before the XIth century + Romanesque structure, XIth century + Present cathedral dates from 1252 + North transept portal, XIVth century + Noailles monument, 1662 + Length, 450 feet + Width of nave, 65 feet + + +NOTRE DAME DE BOURG + + Main body dates from XVth to XVIIth centuries + Choir and apse, XVth to XVIth centuries + Choir stalls, XVIth century + + +ST. ETIENNE DE CAHORS + +[Illustration] + + Bishopric founded, IVth century + Cathedral consecrated, 1119 + Cupola decorations, 1280-1324 + Choir chapels, XVth century Choir, 1285 + Tomb of Bishop Solminiac, XVIIth century + Choir paintings, 1315 + Cloister, XIIth to XVth century + Cupolas of nave, 50 feet in diameter + Cupolas of choir, 49 feet in height + Height from pavement to cupolas of choir, 82 feet + Height from pavement to cupolas of nave, 195 feet + Portal and western towers, XIVth century + + +ST. NAZAIRE DE CARCASSONNE + + Present-day cathedral, St. Michel, in lower town, 1083 + Restored by Viollet-le-Duc, 1849 + Visigoth foundation walls of old Cite, Vth to VIIIth centuries + Cite besieged by the Black Prince, 1536 + Chateau of Cite and postern gate, XIth and XIIth centuries + Outer fortifications with circular towers of the + time of St. Louis, XIIIth century + Length inside the inner walls, 1/4 mile + Length inside the outer walls, 1 mile + Saracens occupied the Cite, 783 + Routed by Pepin le Bref, 759 + Viscountal dynasty of Trencavels, 1090 + Besieged by Simon de Montfort, 1210 + Romanesque nave of St. Nazaire, 1096 + Choir and transepts, XIIIth and XIVth centuries + Remains of Simon de Montfort buried here (since removed), 1218 + Tomb of Bishop Radulph, 1266 + Statues in choir, XIVth century + High-altar, 1522 + Crypt, XIth century + Sacristy, XIIIth century + The "Pont Vieux," XIIth and XIIIth centuries + + +ST. SIFFREIN DE CARPENTRAS + + A Roman colony under Augustus, Ist century + St. Siffrein, patron of the cathedral, died, XVIth century + Edifice mainly of the XVIth century + Paintings in nave, XVIIIth and XIXth centuries + Tomb of Bishop Buti, 1710 + Episcopal palace built, 1640 + Arc de Triomphe, Ist or IId century + Porte d'Orange, XIVth century + + +ST. BENOIT DE CASTRES + +Cathedral dates mainly from XVIIth century + + +ST. VERAN DE CAVAILLON + +[Illustration] + + Cathedral consecrated by St. Veran, in person, 1259 + Tomb of Bishop Jean de Sade, XVIIth century + + +ST. ETIENNE DE CHALONS-SUR-SAONE + + Cathedral completed, XVIth century + Rebuilt, after a disastrous fire, XVIIth century + Remains of early nave, dating from XIIIth century + Bishopric founded, Vth century + Height of nave, 90 feet + Length of nave, 350 feet + + +CATHEDRALE DE CHAMBERY + +[Illustration] + + First bishop, Michel Conseil, 1780 + Main body of cathedral dates from XIVth century + + +NOTRE DAME DE CLERMONT-FERRAND + +[Illustration] + + Choir and nave, 1248-1265 + Urban II. preached the Crusades here, 1095 + Sanctuary completed, XIIIth century + Nave completed, except facade, XIVth century + Rose windows, XVth century + Western towers and portal, XIXth century + Height of towers, 340 feet + Height of nave, 100 feet + + +ST. BERTRAND DE COMMINGES + +[Illustration] + + First monastery here, VIth century + Present cathedral mainly XIIth to XIVth centuries + First bishop, Suavis, VIth century + Monument to Bishop Hugh de Castellane, XIVth century + Length, 210 feet (?) + Width, 55 feet (?) + + +CATHEDRALE DE DAX + + Main fabric, XIIIth century + Reconstructed, XVIIIth century + + +NOTRE DAME DE DIE + + A bishopric in 1285, and from 1672 until 1801 + Porch, XIth century + Romanesque fragments in "Porte Rouge," XIth century + Restored and rebuilt, XVIIth century + Length of nave, 270 feet + Width of nave, 76 feet + + +CATHEDRALE D'EAUZE + + Town destroyed, Xth century + Gothic church (not, however, the former cathedral), XVth century + + +STE. EULALIE D'ELNE + + Cathedral rebuilt from a former structure, XVth century + Cloister, XVth century + + +NOTRE DAME D'EMBRUN + + North porch and peristyle, XIIth century + Romanesque tower rebuilt, XIVth century + The "Tour Brune" XIth century + High-altar, XVIIIth century + Painted triptych, 1518 + Coloured glass, XVth century + Organ and gallery, XVIth century + + +NOTRE DAME DE GRENOBLE + + Foundations of choir, XIth century + Tabernacle, XVth century + Tomb of Abbe Chisse, 1407 + Former episcopal palace, XIth century + Present episcopal palace, on same site, XVth century + Eglise St Andre, XIIIth century + "La Grande Chartreuse," founded by St. Bruno, 1084 + "La Grande Chartreuse," enlarged, XVIth to XVIIth centuries + Monks expelled, 1816 and 1902 + + +ST. LOUIS DE LA ROCHELLE + + City besieged unsuccessfully, 1573 + City besieged and fell, XVIIth century + Huguenots held the city from 1557 to 1629 + Present cathedral dates from 1735 + + +NOTRE DAME DE LE PUY + +[Illustration] + + First bishop, St. Georges, IIId century + Primitive cathedral, Vth century + West facade of present edifice, XIIth century + Choir, Xth century + Virgin of Le Puy, 50 feet in height + Aguille de St. Michel, 250 feet in height, + 50 feet in circumference at top, 500 feet at base + + +ST. ETIENNE DE LIMOGES + +[Illustration] + + Nave, XVth and XVIth centuries + Romanesque portion of nave, XIth century + Lower portion of tower, XIth century + Clocher, XIIIth century + Choir, XIIIth century + Transepts, XIVth and XVth centuries + Choir-screen, 1543 + Coloured glass, XVth and XIXth centuries + Tomb of Bishop Brun, 1349; de la Porte, 1325; Langeac, 1541 + Crypt, XIth century + Height of clocher, 240 feet + Enamels of reredos, XVIIth century + + +ST. FULCRAN DE LODEVE + + City converted to Christianity, 323 + Earliest portion of cathedral, Xth century + Main portion of fabric, XIIth century + Cathedral completed, XVIth century + Tomb of Bishop de la Panse, 1658 + Height of nave, 80 feet + + +CATHEDRALE DE LUCON + + Ancient abbey, VIIth century + First bishop appointed, 1317 + Richelieu bishop here, 1616-1624 + Main fabric of cathedral dates from XIIth to XVIIth centuries + Fabric restored, 1853 + Cloister of episcopal palace, XVth century + + +ST. JEAN DE LYON + +[Illustration] + + Bridge across Saone, Xth century + Earliest portions of cathedral, 1180 + _Concile generale_ of the Church held at Lyons, 1245 and 1274 + Portail, XVth century + Glass of choir, XIIIth and XIVth centuries + Great bourdon, 1662 + Weight of great bourdon, 10,000 kilos + Chapelle des Bourbons, XVth century + Astronomical clock, XVIth and XVIIth centuries + + +STE. MARIE MAJEURE DE MARSEILLES + + First bishop, St. Lasare, Ist century + Ancient cathedral built upon the ruins of a temple to Diana, XIth century + New cathedral begun, 1852 + Practically completed, 1893 + Length, 460 feet + Height of central dome, 197 feet + + +ST. JEAN DE MAURIENNE + + Relique of St. Jean Baptiste, first brought here in VIth century + Cloister, 1452 + + +ST. PIERRE DE MENDE + + First bishop, Xth century + Main fabric of cathedral, XIVth century + Restoration, XVIIth century + Towers, XVIth century + Organ-case, 1640 + Height of western towers, 203 and 276 feet + + +ST. PIERRE DE MONTPELLIER + + Bishopric removed here from Maguelonne, 1536 + Pope Urban V. consecrated present cathedral + in a former Benedictine abbey, 1364 + Length of nave, 181 feet + Width of nave, 49 feet + Length of choir, 43 feet + Width of choir, 39 feet + + +NOTRE DAME DE MOULINS + + Towers and west front, XIXth century + Choir and nave, 1465-1507 + Coloured glass, XVth and XVIth centuries + Choir restoration completed, 1885 + Sepulchre, XVIth century + Height of western spires, 312 feet + Chateau of Ducs de Bourbon (facing the cathedral) XIVth century + + +ST. JUST DE NARBONNE + +[Illustration] + + Choir begun, 1272-1330 + Choir rebuilt, XVIIIth century + Remains of cloister, XIVth and XVth century + Towers, XVth century + Tombs of bishops, XIVth to XVIth centuries + Organ buffet, 1741 + Height of choir vault, 120 (127?) feet + + +ST. CASTOR DE NIMES + + St. Felix the first bishop, IVth century + St. Castor as bishop, 1030 + Cathedral damaged by wars of XVIth and XVIIth centuries + Length of grande axe of Arena, 420 feet + Capacity of Arena, 80,000 persons + + +STE. MARIE D'OLORON + + Earliest portions, XIth century + Completed, XVth century + Length of nave, 150 feet + Width of nave, 106 feet + + +NOTRE DAME D'ORANGE + +[Illustration] + + Oldest portions, 1085 + Nave, 1085-1126 + + +CATHEDRALE DE PAMIERS + + Clocher, XIVth century + Nave rebuilt, XVIIth century + Ancient Abbey of St. Antoine, XIth century + First bishop, Bernard Saisset, 1297 + + +ST. FRONT DE PERIGUEUX + +[Illustration] + + Primitive monastery founded, VIth century + Cathedral dates from 984-1047 + Cathedral rebuilt, XIIth century + Cathedral restored, XIXth century + Pulpit in carved wood, XVIIth + Confessionals, Xth or XIth century + Paintings in vaulting, XIth century + Length of nave, 197 feet + Height of pillars of nave, 44 feet + Height of cupola of clocher, 217 feet + Height of great arches in interior, 65 feet + + +ST. JEAN DE PERPIGNAN + +[Illustration] + + Tower, XIVth century + Retable, XIV century + Altar-screen, XIVth century + Bishop's tomb, 1695 + + +ST. PIERRE DE POITIERS + +[Illustration] + + Eglise St. Hilaire, Xth and XIth centuries + Baptistere, IVth to XIIth centuries + St. Radegonde, XIth and XIIth centuries + Cathedral begun, 1162 + High-altar dedicated, 1199 + Choir completed, 1250 + Western doorway, XVth century + Coloured glass, XIIIth and XVIIIth centuries + +[Illustration] + + +NOTRE DAME DE RODEZ + +[Illustration] + + Dates chiefly from 1275 + Choir, XIVth century + Nave, XVth century + Cross-vaults, tribune, sacristy door, and facade, from about 1535 + Cloture of choir designed by Cusset + Terrace to episcopal palace designed by Philandrier, 1550 + Episcopal palace itself dates, in the main, from XVIIth century + Rose window of facade is the most notable in + France south of the Loire, excepting Poitiers + + +ST. PIERRE DE SAINTES + + Eglise St. Eutrope, 1081-1096 + Primitive cathedral, 1117 + Cathedral rebuilt, 1585 + First two bays of transept, XIIth century + Nave completed, XVth century + Vaulting of choir and nave, XVth to XVIIth centuries + Height of flamboyant tower (XIVth century), 236 feet + + +CATHEDRALE DE SARLAT + + Benedictine abbey dates from VIIIth century + Cathedral mainly of XIth and XIIth centuries + Sepulchral chapel, XIIth century + + +CATHEDRALE DE SION + + First bishop, St. Theodule, IVth century + Choir of Eglise Ste. Catherine, Xth or XIth century + Bishop of Sion sent as papal legate to Winchester, 1070 + Main body of cathedral, XVth century + + +ST. PIERRE DE ST. CLAUDE + + Abbey founded by St. Claude, Vth century + Bishopric founded by Jos. de Madet, 1742 + Bishopric suppressed, 1790 + Bishopric revived again, 1821 + Main fabric of cathedral, XIVth century + Cathedral restored, XVIIIth century + Length, 200 feet (approx.) + Width, 85 feet " + Height, 85 feet " + + +ST. ODILON DE ST. FLOUR + + Bishopric founded, 1318 + Present cathedral begun, 1375 + " " dedicated, 1496 + " " completed, 1556 + Episcopal palace, 1800 + Chateau de St. Flour, 1000 + + +ST. LISIER OR COUSERANS + + Former cathedral, XIIth and XIIIth centuries + Bishop's palace, XVIIth century + + +STE. MARIE MAJEURE DE TOULON + + Main body of fabric, XIth and XIIth centuries + Facade, XVIIth century + Length of nave, 160 feet + Width of nave, 35 feet + + +ST. ETIENNE DE TOULOUSE + +[Illustration] + + Nave, XIIIth century + Tower, XVth and XVIth century + Choir, 1275-1502 + Bishopric founded, IIId century + Archbishopric founded, 1327 + Width of nave, 62 feet + + +ST PAUL TROIS CHATEAUX + +[Illustration] + + Chapel to St. Restuit first erected here, IVth century + Town devastated by the Vandals, Vth century + " " " " Saracens, 736 + " " " " Protestants, XIVth century + " " " " Catholics, XIVth century + Former cathedral, XIth and XIIth centuries + + +CATHEDRALE DE TULLE + + Benedictine foundation, VIIth century + Cloister, VIIth century (?) + Bishopric founded, 1317 + Romanesque and transition nave, XIIth century + + +ST. THEODORIT D'UZES + + Inhabitants of the town, including the bishop, + mostly became Protestant, XVIth century + Cathedral rebuilt and restored, XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries + Tour Fenestrelle, XIIIth century + Organ-case, XVIIth century + Height of the "Tour Fenestrelle," 130 feet + + +CATHEDRALE DE VAISON + + Cloister, XIth century + Eglise de St. Quinin, VIIth century + +[Illustration] + + +ST. APOLLINAIRE DE VALENCE + + Cathedral rebuilt and reconsecrated by Urban II., XIth century + Reconstructed, 1604 + Bishopric founded, IVth century + Foundations laid, XIIth century + Cenotaph to Pius VI., 1799 + Height of tower, 187 feet + + +CATHEDRALE DE VABRES + + Principally, XIVth century + Rebuilt and reconstructed, and clocher added, XVIIIth century + + +NOTRE DAME DE VENCE + + Fabric of various eras, VIth, Xth, XIIth, and XVth centuries + Retable, XVIth century + Choir-stalls, XVth century + + +ST. MAURICE DE VIENNE + + Bishopric dates from IId century + St. Crescent, first bishop, 118 + Cathedral begun, 1052 + Reconstructed, 1515 + Coloured glass, in part, XIVth century + Tomb of Cardinal de Montmorin, XVIth century + Metropolitan privileges of Vienne confirmed by Pope Paschal II., 1099 + + +CATHEDRALE DE VIVIERS + + Choir, XIVth century + Tower, XIVth and XVth centuries + + + + +INDEX + + + Abbey of Cluny, 59, 61. + Abbey of Montmajour, 230. + Acre, 56. + Adelbert, Count of Perigueux, 38. + Adour, River, 417. + Agde, 53, 358, 359. + Agde, Cathedrale de, 358-360, 520. + Agen, 42, 429. + Agen, St. Caprais de, 429, 431, 520. + Agout, River, 471. + Aigues-Mortes, 228, 319, 320. + Aire, St. Jean Baptiste de, 469, 470, 521. + Aix, 36, 230, 283, 293, 323, 324. + Aix St. Jean de Malte, 324. + Aix, St. Sauveur de, 323-327, 521. + Ajaccio, 47. + Alais, 249-251. + Alais, St. Jean de, 249-251, 521. + Alberoni, Cardinal, 240. + Albi, 27, 41, 53, 54, 61, 95, 98, 274. + Albi, Ste. Cecile de, 363, 482-489, 522. + Albigenses, The, 365, 485, 486. + Alet, 42. + Alet, St. Pierre de, 350, 351, 522. + Amantius, 330. + Amiens, 60, 62. + Andorra, Republic of, 373. + Angers, Chateau at, 66. + Angers, St Maurice d', 97. + Angouleme, 55, 61, 73, 120, 124. + Angouleme, St. Pierre de, 73, 120-125, 523. + Anjou, 45, 71. + Anjou, Duke of, 40, 44. + Anjou, Henry Plantagenet of, 39. + Anjou (La Trinite), 56. + Annecy, 252-254, 256. + Annecy, St. Pierre de, 252-254, 523. + Antibes, 330, 339, 341. + Aosti, 268. + Apt, 289-291. + Apt, St. Castor de, 523. + Aquitaine, 38, 62. + Aquitanians, The, 38. + Aquitanian architecture, 54, 55, 66. + Arc de Triomphe (Saintes), 115. + Architecture, Church, 50-56. + Ariosto, 235. + Arles, 28, 33, 61, 217, 228-235, 283, 293. + Arles, Archbishop of, 46. + Arles, St. Trophime de, 37, 202, 228-235, 524. + Arnaud, Bishop, 354. + Auch, St. Marie de, 432-438, 524. + Auch, College of, 438. + Augustus, 221. + Autun, Bishop of (Talleyrand-Perigord), 46. + Auvergne, 29, 62, 72-74. + Auzon, 221. + Avignon, 33, 41, 53, 54, 241. + Avignon, Papal Palace at, 377, 485. + Avignon, Notre Dame des Doms, 204-220, 525. + Avignon, Ruf d', 36. + + Baptistere of St. Siffrein de Carpentras, 222. + Baptistere, The (Poitiers), 95, 96, 101. + Basilique de Notre Dame de Fourviere, 185. + Bayonne, 28, 57, 373, 387, 405-407, 410, 411. + Bayonne, Notre Dame de, 405-410, 525. + Bazas, St. Jean de, 411, 412, 526. + Bazin, Rene, 229, 235. + Bearn, Province of, 395, 406. + Beauvais, Lucien de, 37. + Becket, Thomas a, 111. + Belley, 267. + Belley, Cathedrale de, 526. + Benedict XII., Pope, 211, 216. + Benigne, 171. + Berengarius II., 371. + Berri, 71, 72. + Besancon, 267, 274. + Besancon, Lin de, 36. + Bethanie, Lazare de, 36. + Bezard, 431. + Beziers, 53, 363-365. + Beziers, Bishop of, 365. + Beziers, St. Nazaire de, 363-367, 526. + Bichi, Alexandri, 224. + Bishops of Carpentras, 221. + Bishop of Ypres, 48. + "Black Prince," The, 418, 453. + Blois, Chateau at, 66. + Breakspeare, 230. + Bretagne, Slabs in, 64. + Bridge of St. Benezet, 219. + Bordeaux, 57, 384, 387, 396, 397, 401. + Bordeaux, St. Andre de, 94, 396-401, 526. + Bossuet, Bishop, 420. + Bourasse, Abbe, 83, 89, 328, 354, 433. + Bourbons, The, 126, 127. 130. + Bourg, 277-279. + Bourg, Notre Dame de, 277-279, 526. + Bourges, 41, 62. + Bovet, Francois, 281. + Boyan, Bishop, 247. + Buti, Bishop Laurent, 224. + + Caesar, 171. + Cahors, 42, 44, 425, 428. + Cahors, St. Etienne de, 425-428, 527. + Cairene type of mosque, 55. + Calixtus II., 189. + Canal du Midi, 367. + Canova, 194, 334. + Capet, Hugh, 38, 39. + Carcassonne, 28, 53, 319, 449-457. + Carcassonne, St. Nazaire de, 57, 319, 449-460, 527. + Carpentras, 221-226. + Carpentras, St. Siffrein de, 221-225, 528. + Carton, Dominique de, 224. + Castres, 42, 471. + Castres, Sts. Benoit et Vincent de, 471-473, 528. + Cathedrale d'Agde, 358-360, 520. + Cathedrale de Belley, 526. + Cathedrale de Chambery, 255-257, 529. + Cathedrale de Condom, 420, 421. + Cathedrale de Dax, 530. + Cathedrale d'Eauze, 531. + Cathedrale de Lectoure, 402-404. + Cathedrale de Lucon, 85, 86, 533. + Cathedrale de Montauban, 422-424. + Cathedrale de Pamiers, 461-463, 536. + Cathedrale de Sarlat, 540. + Cathedrale de Sion, 302-304, 540. + Cathedral of St. Michel, Carcassonne, 451, 452. + Cathedrale de Tulle, 118, 119, 542. + Cathedrale de Vabres, 543. + Cathedrale de Vaison, 226, 227, 543. + Cathedrale de Viviers, 195, 196, 544. + Cavaillon, 226. + Cavaillon, St. Veran de, 200-203, 528. + Cevennes, 30, 72, 76-79, 136. + Chalons, Simon de, 247. + Chalons-sur-Saone, St. Etienne de, 170-173, 529. + Chambery, 28, 253, 255-257, 264, 267, 270. + Chambery, Cathedrale de, 529. + Chapelle des Innocents, Agen, 431. + Charente, River, 115. + Charlemagne, 58, 59, 214. + Charles V., 40, 45, 323. + Charles VIII., 65. + Charles the Great, 304. + Charterhouse, near Grenoble, 62. + Chartres, 60, 62, 232. + Chartres, Aventin de, 37. + Chartreuse, La Grande, 48, 162, 531. + Chavannes, Puvis de, 102, 342. + Chisse, Archbishop, 260. + Chrysaphius, Bishop, 281. + Church of St. Saturnin (Toulouse), 440-444. + Church of the Jacobins (Toulouse), 440, 441, 443, 444. + Clairvaux, 62. + Clement V., Pope, 33, 211, 398, 400. + Clement VI., 219, + Clermont-Ferrand, 29, 33, 52, 57, 73, 74. + Clermont-Ferrand, Notre Dame de, 144-151, 530. + Clermont (St. Austremoine), 37. + Cluny, Abbey of, 51, 59. + Coligny, 121. + Comminges, 464. + Comminges, Roger de, 496. + Comminges, St. Bertrande, 62, 464-468, 530. + Comte de Nice, 256. + Condom, 42. + Condom, Cathedrale de, 420, 421. + Conflans, Oger de, 271. + Conseil, Michel, 256. + Constantin, Palais de, 230. + Corsica, Diocese of, 47. + Coucy, Chateau at, 66. + Coulon, 291. + + Dante, 134. + Daudet, 165. + Dauphine, 30, 161, 162, 297, 298. + Dax, 495. + Dax, Cathedrale de, 530. + Delta of Rhone, 168. + D'Entrevaux, 280. + De Sade, Laura, 204, 207, 208. + Deveria, 250. + Die, Notre Dame de, 287, 288, 531. + Digne, 281, 283-286. + Dijon, 171. + Dijon, St. Benigne of, 63. + Dioceses of Church in France, 39, 40. + Diocese of Corsica, 47. + Domninus, 259. + Dordogne, 29. + Duclaux, Madame, 25, 229, 235. + Ducs de Sabron, Tomb of, 290. + Duke of Anjou, 40, 44. + Dumas, Jean, 433. + Durance, River, 162, 292. + Duerer, Albrecht, 325. + + Eauze, 495, 496. + Eauze, Cathedrale de, 531. + Edward I., 400. + Edwards, Miss M. E. B., 24. + Eglise de Brou, 277. + Eglise des Cordeliers, 207. + Eglise de Grasse, 339, 340. + Eglise de la Grande Chartreuse, 263. + Eglise de St Andre, 260, 351. + Eglise de St. Claire, 208. + Eglise de St. Pol, 75. + Eglise de Souillac, 55. + Eglise Notre Dame du Port, 145. + Eglise St Nizier, 179. + Eglise St. Quinin, 227. + Eleanor of Poitou and Guienne, 39. + Elne, 369, 372, 373. + Elne, Ste. Eulalia de, 372-374, 532. + _Emaux_ de Limoges, 104-107. + Embrun, 230, 283, 285, 292-295, 300. + Embrun, Notre Dame de, 292-295, 531. + Escurial of Dauphine, 62. + Esperandieu, 348. + Etats du Languedoc, 251. + Eusebe, 300. + Evreaux, Taurin d', 37. + + Farel, Guillaume, 298. + "Felibrage," The, 204, 218. + Fenelon, 438. + Fere-Alais, Marquis de la, 251. + Fergusson, 99. + Flanders, 30. + "Fountain of Vauclause," 221. + Francois I., 65, 120, 124, 354. + Freeman, Professor, 95, 99. + Frejus, 330, 335, 336. + Frejus, St. Etienne de, 335-338. + Froissart, 417. + + Gap, 296-299. + Gap, Demetre de, 36. + Gap, Notre Dame de l'Assomption de, 296, 299. + Gard, 29. + Gard, Notre Dame de la, 346, 347. + Garonne, River, 44, 388, 389. + Gascogne, 390. + Geneva, 252. + Geraldi, Hugo, 427. + Gervais, 365. + Ghirlandajo, 133. + Glandeve, 280. + Gosse, Edmund, 29. + Gothic architecture, 60-65. + Grasse, 330, 339. + Grasse, Eglise de, 339, 340. + Grasse, Felix, 24, 384. + Gregory XI., Pope, 213. + Grenoble, 28, 258-264. + Grenoble, Notre Dame de, 258-264, 531. + Guienne, 41, 389, 390. + Guienne, Eleanor of, 39. + + Hamerton, Philip Gilbert, 159, 160, 170. + Henri IV., 353, 406, 416. + Honore, 334. + Hotel d'Aquitaine (Poitiers), 102. + Humbert, Archbishop, 180. + Humbert, Count, 271. + + Ingres, 423, 424. + Innocent IV., 201. + Innocent VI., 225. + Issiore, 75. + + Jaffa, 56. + Jalabert, 250. + James, Henry, 25. + Janvier, Thomas, 26. + Joanna of Naples, 209. + John XXII., Pope, 41, 216, 428. + Jordaens, 401. + + L'Abbaye de Maillezais, 81. + Lackland, John, 40. + La Cathedrale (Poitiers), 96. + La Chaise Dieu, 62, 75. + Lac Leman, 252. + L'Eglise de la Sede Tarbes, 417-419. + "La Grande Chartreuse," 48, 162, 531. + Lake of Annecy, 252. + La Madeleine, Aix, 324. + Lamartine, 176. + Languedoc, 32, 40, 44, 390, 391. + La Rochelle, 73, 82, 83. + La Rochelle, St. Louis de, 82-84, 532. + La Trinite at Anjou, 56. + Laura, Tomb of, 33. + Lavaur, 497, 498. + Lectoure, 402. + Lectoure, Cathedrale de, 402-404. + Les Arenes, 240. + Lescar, 413. + Lescar, Notre Dame de, 413-416. + Lesdiguieres, Duc de, 298. + Les Freres du Pont, 220. + Le Puy, 61, 134-136, 327. + Le Puy, Notre Dame de, 97, 134-143, 532. + Limoges, 57, 79, 80, 104, 105. + Limoges (St. Martial), 37. + Limoges, St. Etienne de, 104-111, 532. + Limousin, 71, 72. + Lodeve, 246. + Lodeve, St. Fulcran de, 152-155, 533. + Loire valley, 30. + Lombardy, 33. + Lombez, 496. + Lot, 44. + Loudin, Noel, 110. + Louis IV., 240. + Louis VII., 39. + Louis XI., 295. + Louis XIII., 353. + Louis XIV., 210, 224. + Louis XV., 210. + Louis Napoleon, 397. + Lozere, 28. + Lucon, 42. + Lucon, Cathedrale de, 85, 86, 533. + Lyon, 28, 177, 178, 259, 267, 273. + Lyon, St. Jean de, 177-185, 533. + + Macon, St. Vincent de, 174-176. + Madet, Joseph de, 273. + Maguelonne, 353, 354. + Maillezais, 42. + Maillezais, L'Abbaye de, 81. + Maine, Henry Plantagenet of, 39. + Maison Caree, The, 240. + Mansard, 290. + Marseilles, 36, 314, 318, 342. + Marseilles, Ste. Marie-Majeure de, 318, 342-349, 534. + Maurienne, 269-271. + Maurienne, St. Jean de, 256, 269-271, 534. + Memmi, Simone (of Sienna), 211, 216. + Mende, 42, 246, 490, 492. + Mende in Lozere, 27. + Mende, St. Pierre de, 490-494, 534. + Merimee, Prosper, 26, 30, 224. + Metz, Clement de, 36. + Midi, The, 383-395. + Midi, Canal du, 386. + Mignard, 250, 282, 290. + Mimat, Mont, 494. + Mirabeau, 46. + Mirepoix, 501. + Mirepoix, St. Maurice de, 501. + Mistral, Frederic, 163, 165, 218, 228. + Modane, 270. + Mognon, 84. + Moles, Arnaud de, 436. + Monastery of La Grande Chartreuse, 260. + Montauban, 422. + Montauban, Cathedrale de, 422-424. + Mont de la Baume, 282. + Mont Dore-le-Bains, 74. + Monte Carlo, 213. + Montfort, Simon de, 455, 459. + Montmajour, Abbey of, 230. + Montpellier, 40, 352-354. + Montpellier, St. Pierre de, 352-357, 534. + Mont St. Guillaume, 295. + Morin, Abbe, 36, 37. + Moulins, Notre Dame de, 126-133, 534. + + Nadaud, Gustave, 455-457. + Naples, Joanna of, 209. + Naples, Kingdom of, 45. + Napoleon, 27, 210, 240. + Narbonne, 42, 53, 54, 241, 375, 376. + Narbonne, St. Just de, 375-379, 535. + Narbonne (St. Paul), 37. + Nero, Reign of, 36. + Neiges, Notre Dame des, 223. + Nice, St. Reparata de, 328-331. + Nimes, 28, 33, 40, 61, 218, 228, 229, 236-242. + Nimes, St. Castor de, 236-244, 535. + Notre Dame de l'Assomption de Gap, 296-299. + Notre Dame de Bayonne, 405-410, 525. + Notre Dame de Bourg, 277-279, 526. + Notre Dame de Clermont-Ferrand, 144-151, 530. + Notre Dame de Die, 287, 288, 531. + Notre Dame de Doms d'Avignon, 204-220, 525. + Notre Dame d'Embrun, 292-295, 531. + Notre Dame de la Gard, 346, 347. + Notre Dame de la Grande (Poitiers), 95. + Notre Dame de Grenoble, 258-264, 531. + Notre Dame de Le Puy, 97, 134-143, 532. + Notre Dame de Lescar, 413-416. + Notre Dame de Moulins, 126-133, 534. + Notre Dame des Neiges, 223. + Notre Dame d'Orange, 197-199, 536. + Notre Dame de Rodez, 363, 474-481, 539. + Notre Dame et St. Castor d'Apt, 289-291. + Notre Dame de Vence, 300, 301, 544. + Notre Dame du Port, 57. + Noyon, 60. + + Obreri, Peter, 212. + Oloron, 498, 536. + Oloron, Ste. Marie d', 498, 536. + Orange, 28, 33, 61, 225, 229. + Orange, Notre Dame d', 197-199, 536. + Orb, River, 366, 367. + Order of St. Bruno, 260, 261, 263. + + Palais de Justice (Poitiers), 102. + Palais des Papes, 54, 209. + Palais du Constantin, 230. + Palissy, Bernard, 117. + Pamiers, 461. + Pamiers, Cathedrale de, 461-463, 536. + Paris, 29, 37, 46, 62, 232, 270. + Parrocel, 290. + Pascal, Blaise, 150, 151, 160. + Paschal II., 189. + Pas de Calais, 30. + Pause, Plantavit de la, 154. + Perigueux, 55-57, 61. + Perigueux, St. Front de, 56, 87-91, 97, 537. + Perpignan, 28, 368, 369, 373. + Perpignan, St. Jean de, 368-371, 537. + Petrarch, 204, 207-209, 211, 213, 221, 264. + Peyer, Roger, 242. + Philippe-Auguste, 40. + Philippe-le-Bel, 41. + Piedmont, 270. + Pierrefonds, Chateau at, 66. + Pius VI., 194. + Pius, Pope, 210. + Plantagenet, Henry (of Maine and Anjou), 39. + Poitiers, 42, 73, 95-97, 327. + Poitiers, Notre Dame de la Grande, 95. + Poitiers (St. Hilaire), 61. + Poitiers, St. Pierre de, 92-101, 538. + Poitou, 71-73. + Poitou, Eleanor of, 39. + Polignac, Chateau de, 75, 76, 135, 143. + Port Royal, 45. + Provence, 32, 62, 163-167, 313. + Provencal architecture, 54, 55, 57, 66. + Ptolemy, 159. + Puy, Bertrand du, 422. + Puy de Dome, 29, 73, 74. + Puy, Notre Dame de la, 97, 134-143, 532. + Pyrenees, The, 393-395. + + Religious movements in France, 23-48. + Rene, King, 323, 326. + Revoil, Henri, 348. + Rheims, 60, 62, 229. + Rheims, Sixte de, 37. + Rhone valley, 28. + Richelieu, Cardinal, 85. + Rienzi, 211. + Rieux, 497. + Riez, 280, 281. + Riom, 73. + Riviera, The, 313-320. + Rochefort, 73. + Rocher des Doms, 213. + Rodez, 29, 42, 274. + Rodez, Notre Dame de, 363, 474-481, 539. + Rouen, 60. + Rouen, Nicaise de, 37. + Rouen (St. Ouen), 52. + Rousillon, 368, 369, 372. + Rousseau, 256. + Rovere, Bishop de la, 492. + Rubens, 340. + Ruskin, 63. + + St. Albans in Hertfordshire, 230. + St. Andre de Bordeaux, 94, 396-401, 526. + St. Ansone, 121. + St. Apollinaire de Valence, 190-194, 543. + St. Armand, 474, 481. + St. Armentaire, 339, 341. + St. Astier, Armand de, 119. + St. Aubin, 226. + St. Auspice, 289. + St. Austinde, 433, 435. + St. Austremoine, 37, 150. + St. Ayrald, 271. + St. Benezet, 219. + St. Benigne of Dijon, 63. + St. Benoit de Castres, 471-473, 528. + St. Bertrand de Comminges, 62, 464-468, 530. + St. Bruno, Monks of, 260-263. + St. Caprais d'Agen, 429, 431, 520. + St. Castor d'Apt, 523. + St. Castor de Nimes, 236-244, 535. + Ste. Catherine, Church of, 303. + St. Cecile d'Albi, 363, 482-489, 522. + St. Clair, 489. + Ste. Clara de Mont Falcone, 217. + St. Claude, 272-274. + St. Claude, St. Pierre de, 272-274, 540. + St. Crescent, 37, 186, 296. + St. Demetrius, 296. + St. Denis, The bishop of, 37. + St. Denis, 51. + St. Domnin, 285. + St. Emilien, 253. + Ste. Estelle, 218. + St. Etienne, 230. + St. Etienne d'Auxerre, 407. + St. Etienne de Cahors, 425-428, 527. + St. Etienne de Chalons-sur-Saone, 170-173, 529. + St. Etienne de Frejus, 335-338. + St. Etienne de Limoges, 104-111, 532. + St. Etienne de Toulouse, 439-448, 541. + St. Eulalie d'Elne, 372-374, 531. + St. Eustache, 268. + St. Eutrope (Saintes), 115-117. + St. Felix, 241. + St. Flour, St. Odilon de, 112-114, 540. + St. Francois de Sales, 253. + St. Fraterne, 280. + + St. Front de Perigueux, 56, 87-91, 97, 537. + St. Fulcran de Lodeve, 152-155, 533. + St. Gatien (Tours), 37. + St. Genialis, 201. + St. Georges, 137. + St. Gilles, 232. + St. Hilaire, 61, 95, 96. + St. Honorat des Alyscamps, 231. + St. Jean d'Alais, 249-251, 521. + St. Jean-Baptiste d'Aire, 469, 470, 521. + St. Jean de Bazas, 411, 412, 526. + St. Jean de Lyon, 177-185, 533. + St. Jean-de-Malte, Aix, 324. + St. Jean de Maurienne, 256, 269-271, 534. + St. Jean de Perpignan, 368-371, 537. + Ste. Jeanne de Chantal, 253. + St. Jerome de Digne, 281, 283-286. + St. Julian, 413. + St. Juste de Narbonne, 375-379, 535. + St. Lizier, 499, 540. + St. Lizier, Eglise de, 499, 500, 540. + St. Louis de La Rochelle, 82-84, 532. + St. Marcellin, 285. + St. Marc's at Venice, 56, 87-89, 346, 425. + Ste. Marie d'Auch, 432-438, 524. + Ste. Marie d'Oloron, 498, 536. + Ste. Marie Majeure de Marseilles, 318, 342-349, 534. + Ste. Marie Majeure de Toulon, 332-334, 541. + St. Mars, 287. + Ste. Marthe, 134. + St. Martial, 37, 107. + St. Martin (Tours), 61. + St. Maurice, 304. + St. Maurice d'Angers, 97. + St. Maurice de Mirepoix, 501. + St. Maurice de Vienne, 179, 184, 186-189, 193, 544. + St. Maxine, 324. + St. Michel, 142. + St. Nazaire de Beziers, 363-367, 526. + St. Nazaire de Carcassonne, 57, 319, 449-460, 527. + St. Nectaire, 73, 74, 92. + St. Odilon de St. Flour, 112-114, 540. + St. Ouen de Rouen, 52. + St. Papoul, 496, 497. + St. Paul (Narbonne), 37. + St. Paul Trois Chateaux, 305-309, 542. + St. Pherade, 430. + St. Pierre d'Alet, 350, 351, 522. + St. Pierre d'Angouleme, 73, 120-125, 523. + St. Pierre d'Annecy, 252-254, 523. + St. Pierre de Mende, 490-494, 534. + St. Pierre de Montpellier, 352-357, 534. + St. Pierre de Poitiers, 92-101, 538. + St. Pierre de Saintes, 115-117, 539. + St. Pierre de St. Claude, 272-274, 540. + St. Pons, 42. + St. Pons de Tomiers, 500, 501. + St. Pothin, 179. + St. Privat, 491, 494. + St. Prosper, 281. + St. Radegonde (Poitiers), 95-98. + St. Remy, 235. + St. Reparata de Nice, 328-331. + St. Restuit, 305. + St. Saturnin (Toulouse), 37. + St. Sauveur d'Aix, 323-327, 521. + St. Siffrein de Carpentras, 221-225, 528. + St. Taurin, 433. + St. Theodorit d'Uzes, 245-248, 542. + St. Theodule, 303. + St. Thomas, 134. + St. Trophime, 230, 232. + St. Trophime d'Arles, 37, 202, 228-235, 524. + St. Valentin, 221. + St. Valere (Treves), 37. + St. Venuste, 359. + St. Veran, 301. + St. Veran de Cavaillon, 200-203, 528. + St. Vincent de Macon, 174-176. + St. Vincent de Paul, Statue of, 285. + St. Virgil, 230. + Saintes, Eutrope de, 37. + Saisset, Bernard, 463. + Saone, River, 170, 174, 181. + Sarlat, 42, 500. + Sarlat, Cathedrale de, 540. + Savoie, 30, 252, 256, 271. + Scott, Sir Walter, 51, 58. + Senez, 280. + Senlis, 60. + Sens, Savinien de, 37. + Sevigne, Madame de, 392. + Sion, Cathedrale de, 302-304, 540. + Sisteron, 281. + Sterne, 126, 184. + Stevenson, R. L., 23, 30, 135, 249. + Strasbourg, 51. + Suavis, 464. + Suger, Abbot, 51. + + Talleyrand-Perigord (Bishop of Autun), 46. + Tarascon, Castle at, 66. + Tarasque, The, 134. + Tarbes, 417. 418. + Tarbes, L'Eglise de la Sede, 417-419. + Tarentaise, 256, 268, 270. + Tarn, River, 422. + Thevenot, 113. + Toulon, 330, 332. + Toulon, St. Marie Majeure de, 332-334, 541. + Toulouse, 42, 439-441. + Toulouse, Musee of, 441, 447. + Toulouse, St. Etienne de, 439-448, 541. + Toulouse, St. Saturnin, 37. + "Tour Fenestrelle," 247. + Touraine, 29, 71, 72. + Tours, 29. + + Tours (St. Gatien), 37. + Tours (St. Martin), 61. + Treaty of Tolentino, 210. + Treves (St. Valere), 37. + Tricastin, 305, 306. + Trinity Church, Boston, 141, 346. + Tulle, Cathedrale de, 118, 119, 542. + Tuscany, 33. + + Unigenitus, Bull, 45. + Urban, Pope, 33. + Urban II., 145, 149, 150, 191, 458. + Urban V., 354. + Uzes, 245-248. + Uzes, St. Theodorit de, 245-248, 542. + + Vabres, 42, 499. + Vabres, Cathedrale de, 543. + Vaison, 226, 227. + Vaison, Cathedrale de, 226, 227, 543. + Valence, 29. + Valence, St. Apollinaire de, 190-194, 543. + Vaucluse, 208. + Vaudoyer, Leon, 348. + Vehens, Raimond de, 112. + Venasque, 222. + Vence, 300, 301. + Vence, Notre Dame de, 300, 301, 544. + Vendee, La, 72. + Veronese, Alex., 401. + Veyrie, Rene de la, 85. + Veyrier, 334. + Vic, Dominique de, 434. + Vienne, 29, 61, 229, 253, 259, 273, 296. + Vienne, St. Maurice, 179, 184, 186-189, 193, 544. + Villeneuve-les-Avignon, 213. + Villeneuve, Raimond de, 339. + Viollet-le-Duc, 88, 131, 146, 377, 442, 452, 455. + Viviers, Cathedrale de, 195, 196, 544. + Voltaire, 273. + + Werner, Archbishop, 51. + Westminster Cathedral, London, 345. + William of Wykeham (England), 51. + William, Duke of Normandy, 39. + Wykeham, William of, 51. + + Young, Arthur, 24, 208, 256, 273, 464. + Ypres, Bishop of, 48. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Cathedrals of Southern France, by +Francis Miltoun + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CATHEDRALS OF SOUTHERN FRANCE *** + +***** This file should be named 35212.txt or 35212.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/2/1/35212/ + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was +produced from scanned images at the Internet Archive.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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