The Cathedrals of Northern France

VI
ST. ETIENNE DE TOUL

Annexed to France, in company with Metz and Verdun, in 1556, Toul, situated on the left bank of the Moselle, is to-day ranked as a fortress of the first order. "Can be seen in two hours" – such is the description usually given by the guide-books to the city which contains, in its one-time Cathedral St. Etienne, an example which, with respect to the decorative tracery of its façade savants have declared the equal even of Reims.

One of the three former bishoprics of Lorraine, Toul is none too ample to merit the cognomen of a large town. It once held within its walls, beside the Cathedral, the Church of St. Gengoult, and several parish churches and monasteries. Shorn to-day of some of these dignities, with its bishopric removed to Nancy, it ranks as a military and strategic stronghold rather than a centre of churchly domination. Since Metz and Strasbourg were given over to the Germans, Toul's former fortress has been greatly strengthened.

The cathedral itself may truly be said to bear the characteristics of both the German and French manner of building, the western or later end being a superb front, after the French manner, and the easterly or earlier end having a simple apse and long narrow windows, in the German fashion. A comparison has been made by Professor Freeman between the western façade of this church and Notre Dame de Reims. He says, "We are daring enough to think that, simply as a design, the west front of Toul outdoes that of Reims; though it will be hardly needful to prove that, as a whole, Reims far outdoes that of Toul." Quite non-committal, to be sure, as was this charming writer's way; but, of itself, a sort of preparation to the observer for the beauties which he is to behold. Here is the case of a superb richness having been added to a plainer body, and by no means inharmoniously done. The gable is nearly perfect as to its juxtaposition. The towers are higher in proportion than at Reims, giving the effect of being the finished thing as they stand, though lacking spires or pinnacles. The walls are of those just proportions in relation to the window piercings which is again French, as contrasted with a neighbouring example at Metz, where the reverse is the case.

The city was the seat of a bishop as early as the sixth century, and its government was under his control until 1261, when it became a free commune. Finally it was conquered by Henry II., and its future assured to France by the Treaty of Westphalia.

The cathedral dates in part from Romanesque remains of the tenth century, but its entire interior arrangements were much battered during the Revolution.

The choir and transept are of the best of thirteenth-century building, while the nave and side aisles are of the century following. Two towers, which flank the magnificent façade, rise for nearly two hundred and fifty feet, and are the work of Jacquemin de Commercy in the fifteenth century. Adjoining the right aisles are the very beautiful Gothic cloisters of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. They form a rectangular enclosure, 225 feet by 165 feet, and are made up of twenty-four sections of four arches, each with clustered columns.

A fine sculptured altarpiece, "The Adoration of the Shepherds," is in the Chapelle de la Creche, entered from the cloister.

The present Hôtel-de-Ville was formerly the bishop's palace.

VII
ST. ETIENNE, CHÂLONS-SUR-MARNE

Chalons is perhaps first of all famed as the scene of Attila's great defeat in the fifth century, one of the world's fifteen decisive battles.

The Cathedral of St. Etienne is not usually considered to be a remarkable structure; but it is thoroughly typical and characteristic of a locale, which stamps it at once with a mark of genuineness and sincerity. Of early primitive Gothic in the main, it shares interest to-day with the four other churches of the city, not overlooking Notre Dame de l'Epine, some five miles distant to the northward, one of the most perfectly designed and appointed late Gothic churches which the world has ever known. It has been called a "miniature cathedral," using the term, it may be supposed, in the sense of referring only to a magnificently ornate church. It is indeed worth a pilgrimage thither to see this true gem of architecture in a wholly undefiled countrified setting.

The Cathedral at Châlons-sur-Marne follows somewhat the traditions of the German manner of building, at least so far as a certain plainness and lack of ornate decoration in the main body of the church is concerned; likewise in the arrangement of its towers, which lie to the eastward of the transepts; and further with respect to its decidedly Teutonic arrangement of the rounded columns, or, more properly, pillars, of its nave.

In general this thirteenth-century church is in the best style of its era; but the west front presents an incongruous seventeenth-century addition in the whilom classical style of that day, bad as to its art, and apparently badly welded into conjunction with the older portion. The aisles and clerestory windows are of the later decorated period of Gothic, and present, whether viewed from without or from within, an exceedingly fine appearance.

Probably the finest and most pleasing impression of the whole structure is that obtained of the interior, with its pillars of nave and choir, of the massive order made familiar in the Rhine churches. A reasonable share of twelfth to sixteenth century glass is still left as its portion, and the general arrangement of the choir, prolonged, as it is, well into the nave, gives a certain majesty to this portion of the church which is perhaps not warranted when we take into consideration that it must perforce dwarf the nave itself. The arrangement, though not common, is by no means an unusual one, and it is recalled also, that it is so employed at Reims.

Situated near the frontier, Châlons-sur-Marne has ever been subject to that inquietude which usually befalls a border city. German influences have ever been noticeable, and, even to-day, the significant fact is to be noted that a curé will hear confessions in German, and that services are held in that tongue on "Saturdays in St. Joseph's Chapel."

The Episcopal Palace, behind the cathedral, contains a collection of some sixty paintings, the gift, in 1864, of the Abbé Joannes.

VIII
ST. DIÉ

St. Dié gets its name, by the corruption of Dieudonné, from St. Deodatus, who founded a monastery here in the seventh century. It was built, as was many another great cathedral, in accordance with the custom of erecting a church over the body or relic of a saint whom it was especially desired to honour; usually one of local importance, a patron or a devotee.

The town is perhaps the most inaccessible and "out-of-the-way" place which harbours a cathedral in all northern France. We might perhaps except St. Pol-de-Leon and Tréguier in Brittany, neither of which is on a railway, whereas St. Dié is, but at the very end. When you get there and want to go on, not back, you simply journey on foot, or awheel if you can find a conveyance, and take up with another "loose end" of railway some fifteen miles away, which will take you southward, should you be going that way. If not, there appears to be nothing for it, but to retrace your steps whence you came.

The cathedral (locally "La Grande Eglise," it only having been made a cathedral so recently as 1777) has a fine Romanesque nave of the eleventh century, with choir and aisles of good Gothic, after the accepted Rhine manner of building.

The portal, of red sandstone, is of inferior thirteenth-century workmanship, with statues of Faith and Charity on either side. The façade is flanked by two square towers.

The interior is curiously arranged with a cordon of sculpture, high in the vaulting. The capitals of the pillars are likewise ornamented with highly interesting and ornately sculptured capitals. The choir, as is most usual, is the masterpiece of the collection, the windows, in particular, being of the purest ogival style.

In the first chapel, on the right, is a painting, "The Martyrdom of St. Sebastian," and behind the choir is an ancient work commemorative of "Le Peste de St. Dié."

IX
ST. LAZARE D'AUTUN

This ancient episcopal city has ever been devoted to the cause of Christianity. "Nowhere," says a French historian, "has the Church enjoyed more repute than here." The Dukes of Burgundy, its bishops and people alike, joined in a fervour of labour and zeal to assure its permanence and progress. In addition, the Gallo-Roman remains point to a former city of proud attainments. The fine Roman walls, beautifully jointed, sans cement, are distinctly traceable for a circuit of perhaps three miles around the city. Other interesting remains are two fine gateways, commonly referred to as triumphal arches, which they probably were not, the Porte d'Arroux and the Porte St. Andre; the ruins of an amphitheatre; and a tower assigned to a former temple of Minerva. All these, and more, are found inside the old walls; while, without, are remains of an aqueduct, of a tower dedicated to Janus, and a Roman bridge crossing the river Torenai. It may be interesting for an Englishman to recall that the Bishop of Autun, who often presided over the National Assembly, pleaded in vain with George III. for the adoption, in England, of the French metric system.

During the destruction of a former building, St. Nazaire, which at one time performed the functions of a cathedral, the bishops held their offices in the chapel of the chateau of the Dukes of Burgundy; but, upon the removal of the residence of the house of Burgundy to Dijon, transferred their services to the present edifice, which had by that time been completed.

The Cathedral of St. Lazare is a charmingly graceful, though not great, structure, mainly of the style "ogivale premier," its early Lombard work of the nave and west front being of the foundation of Robert I., Duke of Burgundy. This vast western portal is encased in a great projective porch, a feature indigenous apparently to Burgundy, and commonly referred to as the "Burgundian narthex." Following come the chapels and spires, of exceeding grace and beauty, of the third ogivale style.

The interior enrichments, like the western doorway, with its Romanesque sculptures, take rank with the best in Burgundy. The delicately carved rood-loft, or jube, the small sculptures of the choir and nave, and the flamboyant chapels of the fifteenth to seventeenth century, challenge minute attention from those who would study decorative detail in extenso. The capitals of certain columns in the nave have fluted pilasters in imitation of the antique, but are most curiously ornamented with grotesque and fantastic human figures on a background of foliage.

The choir, of early pointed style, in its actual disposition and arrangement, may be included in that classification which comprehends some of its more important northern compeers, though, as a matter of fact, it lacks their magnitude. Indeed, the building is one of the smallest cathedrals in all France. The exterior offers an imposing and picturesque ensemble, with its crocketed spire rising some two hundred and fifty or more feet above the roof-tops of the ancient city.

Nearer inspection shows a certain incoherence of construction, particularly in reference to the evidences of garish crudities in the work done under Robert I. in 1031-76, in contrast to the later pointed work.

The doorway of the lateral southern wing is ornamented with a series of grossly exaggerated columns, in imitation of the antique, with the addition of an apse, which contrastingly shows work of a late flamboyant order.

The spire itself is the masterwork of the entire structure, and, unlike those which surmount many another church, appears not to have suffered the dangers of fire. As a fifteenth-century work, it merits special mention. Rising abruptly from a heavy square base, the pyramid is very acute, and is ornamented at the angles with foliaged crockets, basely called stone cauliflowers by unimaginative persons. One might say, with the gentle Abbé Bourassé, that the "ornamentation breaks into sky and cloud with an exceedingly agreeable effect, far beyond that of a straight line." The inconsistency lies only in the juxtaposition of the two western transition towers, which have hardly enough of the Gothic in them to merit the name.

The lower windows of the nave are of good flamboyant style, with a sort of Romanesque triforium, and a simple round-headed window in each bay of the clerestory, which is the more poor in treatment and effect in that it holds no notable glass. There are none of those distinctly northern accessories, the great rose windows, and the whole reeks of distinctly a milder atmosphere. There is a luxuriance of decoration in the many chapels of different epochs.

The exterior, in general, is of excessive simplicity; but, if it is not to be placed among those cathedrals and churches accredited the most notable and most beautiful, it will, at least, take rank as one of the most ancient to be seen to-day, and has the further benefit of a glorious environment and association with the past.

X
ST. BÉNIGNE DE DIJON

The power and wealth of the Dukes of Burgundy, whose influence extended northward to the Netherlands, where they often held court at Ghent and Bruges, were, in a way, responsible for the opulence and splendour of the life of the day. So, too, Burgundian architecture became a term synonymous for the amplitude and grandeur with which many of its institutions were endowed.

The reign of Philippe le Bon, with that of Charles the Bold, the most ambitious prince who ever graced his line, was the Augustan age of Burgundian art. It was the dream of the latter to reincarnate the old Burgundian kingdom by annexing Lorraine and subduing the advancing Swiss Confederacy, an ambition which failed, like many others as, or more, worthy. The conquered duke was killed at Nancy, and was finally buried in Notre Dame at Bruges.

The Cathedral of St. Bénigne is an outgrowth from the old abbey church, from which the Italian monk, Guillaume, set forth to found that remarkable series of monasteries in Normandy and Brittany. It is said, too, that he crossed the Channel, and had a large share in the works which were erected at that period in the south of England. The bishop's throne has been established in this church only since the Revolution, caused by the destruction of his former cathedral. The early foundations of the old abbey date far back into antiquity, but the present cathedral dates only from the thirteenth century. Commonly considered as of Gothic style, it is in every way more suggestive of the late Romano-Byzantine type, or at least of the early transition. There is, to be sure, no poverty of style; but there is an air of stability and firmness of purpose on the part of its builders, rather than any attempt to either launch off into something new or untried, or even to consistently remain in an old groove.

As a fact, it is not a very grand building. Its choir is small, and its transepts short. In its plan, at least, it resembles the Byzantine form much more than the elongated Gothic, where every proportion seems to reach out to its utmost extent.

The west façade is truly fine in the disposition of its parts and arrangements. It suggests, more than anything, a traditional local style, favouring nothing else to any remarkable degree except the German solidity so often to be noted in eastern France. The towers are firmly set with unfrequent pointed openings. The central portal and vestibule are deep, and rich with a sculptured "Martyrdom of St. Peter" and a delightfully graceful arcade just above the portal arch, and another crossing the gable and joining the towers in a singularly effective manner. A somewhat heavy but rich pointed window of three lights, surmounted by a quatrefoil rose, with a slight needle-like spire which rises just above the gable, completes the ensemble.

The earlier work, seen at its best in the interior, is that of the choir and transepts, where again the distinguishing features are local. In the transepts the arches open directly on the side chapels, the southern arm being gorgeous with brilliant glass. The windows of choir and transepts throughout are richly traceried and set. The choir itself is destitute of either ambulatory or chapels.

A lantern is placed at the crossing, supported by gracefully foliaged shafts.

The nave is of a much later period, and is not of the richness of the portion lying to the eastward. The windows of the clerestory, in particular, will not be considered of the excellence of those of either transept or choir.

The south tower encloses the tombs of Jean sans Peur and Philippe le Hardi. The crypt contains the tomb of St. Bénignus.

XI
NOTRE DAME DE SENLIS

"Truly rural" is a term which may well be applied to the situation of Senlis, the ancient Civitas Sylvanectensium of the Romans. Quaint and attractive to the eye is the entrance to the town from the railway, with its low-lying roofs, over which tower the spires of the ancient Cathedral of Notre Dame and the Church of St. Pierre. It forms a heterogeneous mass of stone, to be sure, and one which looks little enough, at first glance, like the delicate and graceful cathedral which makes up the mass in part. It is, in reality, a confused jumble of towers and turrets which meets the eye, and it takes some little acquaintance with the details thereof to separate the cathedral from the adjacent church.

The proximity of the sees of Beauvais, Amiens, and Paris perhaps accounts for the lack of importance attached to this cathedral. As for the structure itself, among the minor cathedrals of France, Senlis, with Séez and Coutances, must ever rank as the peers of that order, with respect to the grace and beauty of their spires. It may be doubted if even the spires of Chartres are to be considered as more beautiful than the diminutive single example to be seen here, particularly when grouped with its surrounding environment. Individually, as well, its grace and beauty might even take that rank. The demarcation between the base of the tower and the gently dwindling spire is almost entirely eliminated, without the slightest tendency toward debasement in the steeple, which too often is merely a series of superimposed, meaningless, and unbeautiful details. Latter-day builders, who want a model for the spire of a moderate-sized Gothic church, could, it would seem, hardly do better than to make a replica of this graceful example.

In its façade, the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Senlis partakes largely of the characteristics of the primitive lowland types, reminiscent, at least, of Noyon or Soissons, and, as such, it may properly be considered and compared with them.

The transepts of the north and south are not grand members, but they are compact and graceful, and the façade of the southern arm is of a highly ornate character, bespeaking a wealth of ambition, if not of ability, on the part of the architect.

The interior, in spite of the lack of sculptured ornament, shows no paucity of style, and, except that it is of the bijou variety, might take rank at once as representative of Gothic style at its best. Under these conditions, the nave is naturally confined, and lacks a certain grandeur both as to width and height.

The choir is of true, though not lofty, proportions, the aisles appearing perhaps too low, if anything, for the height of the nave, which otherwise appears exceedingly generous with respect to the extent of its triforium and clerestory.

The transepts, though shallow, are possessed of unusually amplified aisles, there being, as a matter of fact, two in that portion which adjoins the nave on the west, a sufficiently unusual arrangement to warrant comment. The rose windows of the transepts have graceful design and good framing, though the glass is not of the splendour which we associate with the most pleasing examples seen elsewhere.