Chapter 20

The honor of laying the first stone of the new church, the same that is now standing, is attributed to one of the most celebrated of the abbots, John Roussel, more commonly known by the name of _Marcdargent_.[175] He had been elected to the prelacy in 1303; and, fifteen years afterwards, he commenced the structure. He presided over the monastery thirty-seven years, and was buried in the Lady-Chapel of the church, which he had completed as far westward as the transepts. The pomp with which his funeral was conducted, is recorded at length in the _Neustria Pia_; and the same work has also preserved the following inscription, engraved upon his coffin, which describes, with great precision, the progress made by him in the building:--

"HIC JACET FRATER JOANNES MARCDARGENT ALIAS ROUSSEL, QUONDAM ABBAS ISTIUS MONASTERII, QUI COEPIT ÆDIFICARE ISTAM ECCLESIAM DE NOVO; ET FECIT CHORUM ET CAPELLAS, ET PILLIARIA TURRIS, ET MAGNAM PARTEM TURRIS S. AUDOENI, MONASTERII DICTI."

The remaining parts of the church were not finished till the beginning of the sixteenth century, when it was brought to its present state by the thirty-fourth abbot, Anthony Bohier, who, in the annals of the convent, bears the character of having been "a magnificent restorer and repairer of ancient monasteries." Admirable as is the structure, the original design of the architect was never completed. The western front remains imperfect; and this is the more to be regretted, as that part is naturally the first that meets the eye of the stranger, who thus receives an unfavorable impression, which it is afterwards difficult wholly to banish. The intention was, that the portal should have been flanked by magnificent towers, ending in a combination of open arches and tracery, corresponding with the outline and fashion of the central tower. An engraving, though a wretched one, of this intended front, is given in Pommeraye's History of the Abbey, from a sketch preserved among the records of the convent.

The view of this church, etched by Mr. Cotman, is copied from a drawing made by Miss Elizabeth Turner. It represents the building, as seen from a seat in the gardens formerly belonging to the monastery, but now open to the public; and it is well calculated to convey a general idea of the character of the exterior of the building, including the central tower, which is wholly composed of open arches and tracery, and terminates, like the south tower of the cathedral, with an octangular crown of fleurs-de-lys. The plate also exhibits a portion of a circular chapel, now commonly known by the name of _la Chambre des Clercs_, the only remaining part of the church built by William Balot, in the beginning of the twelfth century. This chapel, the south porch, the central tower, and a specimen of ancient sculpture in the church, have been engraved by Mr. Turner, in his _Tour in Normandy_. The two first, of the same subjects, together with the western front, a general view of the church from the south, the curious bas-relief over the southern entrance, and a representation of the interior, have since been lithographized in M. Jolimont's _Monumens de la Normandie_. Considerable pains have been devoted in both these works, to the description and the history of the building; and to them the reader must be referred, who is unwilling to engage with the ponderous folio of Pommeraye.

NOTES:

[172] _Milton's Letters on the Fine Arts, written from Paris in the year 1815._ p. 183.

[173] Jolimont, from whom this quotation is borrowed, states, that it is to be found in the chronicle of an author of the name of Fridegode; and he proceeds with the following observations:--"The expression appears remarkable, as warranting the inference, that the style of architecture, which Fridegode calls _Gothic_, was in use in France as early as the commencement of the sixth century, the time assigned by him for the building of the first church of St. Ouen. But it is equally to be inferred, from the manner in which he notices it, that this style was not then common; and his subjoining, that it was made of square stones, (in opposition, most probably, to rubble) serves to point out that such an edifice was an extraordinary building for Rouen at that period. This idea receives confirmation, from the reflection, that the materials for forming the city were originally supplied out of the forests that inclosed it; so that, not only the houses of individuals, but the public edifices, were merely of wood. St. Gregory of Tours, speaking, in his fifth book, of a church at Rouen, dedicated to St. Martin, uses the following expression:--'_Quæ super muros civitatis ligneis tabulis fabricata est._'--Indeed, the few stone-buildings then at Rouen, were almost exclusively devoted to the purposes of fortification, and were of flint or sand-stone, rather than of free-stone. Every thing too tends to prove that architecture was then in its infancy in the capital of Neustria; or, if it ever had been more advanced there, which could have been only under the Roman sway, that it had retrograded into a barbarous state.--Moreover, the _Gothic style_, mentioned by Fridegode, was no other than a degeneration of the Roman, or, more properly, of the Lombardic architecture, distinguished by the circular arch, by insulated columns, by a paucity of ornaments, and by a general massiveness. It is by no means to be confounded with the style which has since passed under the same name, a style introduced about the beginning of the twelfth century, immediately after the crusades, with its ogee forms, slender clustered columns, and every portion of the building characterized by extreme lightness, yet still loaded with a profusion of crowded ornaments. If, however, this Lombardic style was practised as early as the fifth or sixth century, in a town so backward in the science of architecture as Rouen, what date is to be assigned for its introduction into other parts of France, where the knowledge of the fine arts disappeared for a much shorter period?--It must be left to the decision of antiquaries, whom this passage in Fridegode seems to have escaped, to determine how far the foregoing observations are just, and may serve to throw light upon the history of the style of architecture called _Gothic_, the origin of which in France has always been attended with great obscurity."

[174] St. Ouen was born A.D. 600, at the village of Sanci, near Soissons. He was of a noble family, and was educated in the abbey of St. Médar, at Soissons, whence he was removed, at an early age, to the court of Clothair II. At the court, he contracted an intimate friendship with St. Eloi; and, under Dagobert, became the favorite of the monarch, as well as his chancellor and minister of state. During the whole of his life, his strong turn to religion rendered him a warm patron of monastic establishments; and, among others, he founded the celebrated abbey of Rebais en Brie. He was still young when he renounced the world, embraced the ecclesiastical state, and devoted himself to the preaching of the gospel; shortly after which, at the request of the inhabitants of Rouen, he was appointed to succeed St. Romain, as their pastor. His consecration took place in 646, and was performed in the church of the monastery of St. Peter, since-called St. Ouen. It was also at his own particular desire, that he was there interred. His name occurs among those of the prelates who were present at the council of Châlons, in 650; he was likewise entrusted by the king with various important negociations; and, after an earthly career, passed, according to his historians, in the practice of every civil and apostolic virtue, he died at Clichy, near Paris, in the year 689.

[175] The following extract from the _Neustria Pia_, p. 35, bears witness at once to the merits of the abbot, and the light in which the building was regarded throughout France.--"Hic Abbatiam reperit bonis omnibus sufficienter munitam, pecunia et commeatu haud indigentem: quam et ipse sapienter ac religiosè gubernavit, locupletavit, et vehementer adauxit; tum possessionibus et redditibus, tum ædificiis ac reparationibus: Basilicam iliam admirabili structura compositam, totiusque Galliæ speciosissimam, construere coepit, anno 1318, die festo S. _Urbani_; quam continuavit ad ann. usque 1339, in festo Apostolorum SS. _Petri_ et _Pauli_: quo in opere expendit 63036 libras argenti, et quinque solidos Turonensis: (quæ nunc haud posset compleri ædificio pro 663036 libris, etiam aureis) quorum omnium tesserem vetera hujusce domus inclytæ monimenta nunc usque accuratè continent. De hujusmodi celeberrima æde, sic quidam neotericus verè locutus est. _Nunc est S._ Audoeni: _cujus mirabilis structura, hodieque dubium relinquit, si alia per Galliam splendidior et elegantior: Monasterium est tota quidem Europa, celeberrimum, sed Patroni sui sanctitate magis æstimandum._ cui alii adstipulantur. Et hoc, consilio et auxilio D. Caroli, Comitis _Valesii_: cui operi Carolus Valesius VI. Rex ann. 1380, dono dedit tria millia librarum ad instantiam Burgundiæ Ducis, sui patruelis."

PLATE LXXVII.

FOUNTAIN OF THE STONE CROSS, AT ROUEN.[176]

Rouen has long boasted a pre-eminence over the greater part of the cities of France, with respect to its public fountains. The chalk hills, with which it is surrounded, furnish an abundant supply of excellent springs; and the waters of these, led into different parts of the town, contribute in no less a degree to the embellishment of the city, than to the comfort of the inhabitants. The form of some, and the ornaments of others, are well deserving of attention, notwithstanding the injuries that have inevitably occurred from time, or the more cruel ones that have been caused by wanton mutilation. It is upon historical record, that there were several fountains at Rouen, as early as the twelfth century, but their number, which now exceeds thirty, received its principal increase towards the beginning of the sixteenth century; and it was then also that the idea seems first to have been conceived of making, what was originally designed only for convenience, subservient to beauty. For this new supply of ornamental fountains, Rouen is indebted to its great benefactor, the Cardinal Georges d'Amboise, who, uniting the Norman archiepiscopal mitre to the office of prime minister, under Louis XII. was no less able than he was willing, to render the most essential services to the seat of his spiritual jurisdiction. It was under the auspices of this archbishop, that the fountain here figured, one of the earliest of that period, was erected. He caused it to be built in the year 1500. The spot which it occupies, is the cross-way formed by the union of the streets, called St. Vivien, St. Hilaire, and Coqueraumont, a spot which, previously to the reign of St. Louis, was not included within the walls of the town, and which, even at the distance of one hundred years after that time, had not begun to be inhabited.

So ancient is the practice of placing stone crosses at the junction of roads in the vicinity of cities, that it would be difficult to assign any probable time for the erection of that which was replaced by the fountain that still bears its name. The waters of this fountain have their origin in a spring, which flows at the foot of a hill near the village of St. Léger, at some distance from Rouen. The execution of the structure unites a happy mixture of boldness in outline, and delicacy in details: its pyramidal form is graceful. It consists of three stories, gradually diminishing in height and diameter as they rise, and terminating in a cross, whose clumsy shape only renders the destruction of that which it replaces the more to be regretted. The form is octagon throughout; and upon every compartment in each of the stories, is carved, at a short distance from its base, a narrow cinquefoil-headed arch, surmounted by a triangular crocketed canopy. But the crockets and finials have been in most instances destroyed. The water issues from four pipes in the basement. Each of the arches of the lower tier serves as a tabernacle for a wooden statue of a Madonna, or saint, of wretched execution, a poor substitute for those that occupied the same niches previously to the troubles of 1792, at which time the religious character of the fountain marked it out as an object of popular vengeance. It was suffered to continue in its mutilated and degraded state, from that period till the year 1816, when the inhabitants of this part of the town undertook to restore it at their own expense. Their labors have hitherto proceeded no farther than filling the niches afresh with images, and doing such repairs as were absolutely necessary to keep the whole structure from falling into ruin. Even by this, however, they have secured themselves the good will of the archbishop, who consecrated the fountain with great pomp anew, on the 24th of August, 1816.

The resemblance between the _Fountain of the Stone Cross_, at Rouen, and the monumental crosses erected in England by King Edward I. to perpetuate the memory of his consort, Eleanor of Castillo, will not fail to strike the British antiquary. It is more than probable, that the idea of the former was borrowed from the latter, to which, however, it is very inferior in point of richness of ornaments, or beauty of execution.

NOTES:

[176] It is right to observe, that the accounts here given of this and the following article, are little more than a translation, in the second instance materially abridged, of what is published upon the same subjects, in _Jolimont, Monumens de la Normandie_.

PLATE LXXVIII.

PALACE OF JUSTICE, AT ROUEN.

The building here figured was, from its foundation, devoted to the purpose of the administration of justice; and, notwithstanding the many mutilations to which it has at different times been exposed, it still remains an interesting, and, in the city of Rouen, almost a unique specimen of the sumptuous architectural taste of the age in which it was erected.

Down to as late a period as the year 1499, there existed in Normandy no stationary court of judicature; but the execution of the laws was confided to an ambulatory tribunal, established, according to the chroniclers, by Rollo himself, and known by the name of the _Exchequer_. The sittings of this Norman exchequer were commonly held twice a year, in spring and autumn, after the manner of the ancient parliaments of the French kings; the places of session depending upon the pleasure of the sovereign, or being determined in general, like the English _Aula Regia_, by his presence. The inconveniences attendant upon such a mode of administering justice, became of course the more heavily felt, in proportion as the country increased in population and civilization. Accordingly, the states-general of the province, assembled in the last year of the fifteenth century, under the presidency of the Cardinal d'Amboise, petitioned Louis XII. who was then upon the throne, to appoint in the metropolis of the duchy a permanent judicature, in the same manner as had been previously done in others of the principal cities of the realm. The king was graciously pleased to accede to their request; and, by the words of the royal edict, not only was the exchequer rendered permanent in the good city of Rouen, but permission was also granted to the members to hold their sittings in the great hall of the castle, till such time as a suitable place should be prepared for their reception.

It was on this occasion that the _Palace of Justice_ was built; a piece of ground was selected for the purpose, that had been known by the name of the Jews' Close, from the time when Philip-Augustus expelled the children of Israel from France; and the foundations of the new structure were laid within a few months after the obtaining of the royal sanction. The progress, however, of the work, was not commensurate, in point of rapidity, with the haste with which it was undertaken; even in 1506 the labors were not brought to a conclusion, though, in that year, the exchequer was installed by the king in person, with great pomp, in the new palace. The sitting will long be memorable in the Norman annals, not only as being the first, but as having been selected by the sovereign, as an opportunity for bestowing various important favors upon the city and duchy.

The palace, in its present state, is composed of three distinct buildings, erected at different times, and forming collectively three sides of a parallelogram, whose fourth side is merely a wall. The court thus enclosed is spacious. One of these buildings, the front in the plate, goes by the name of the _Salle des Procureurs_. Its erection was six years anterior to that of the right-hand building, more properly called the _Palace of Justice_; and the object in raising it was, according to the edict of the bailiff upon the occasion, to serve as an exchange to the merchants, and put a stop to the impious practice of assembling, even upon feast-days, in the cathedral, for purposes of business. At a subsequent time, this hall was added to the Palace of Justice, and there was then built to it a chapel, now destroyed, in which mass was regularly celebrated twice a year,--upon the anniversary of the feast of St. Martin, the day of the meeting of parliament, and upon Ascension-Day. The service on the first of these days, went by the name of _la messe rouge_, because the members always attended in their scarlet robes: on the second, and more important occasion, it was called _la messe de la fierte_, being performed in commemoration of the deliverance of the prisoner, by virtue of the privilege of St. Romain.[177]--The exterior of the _Salle des Procureurs_ is comparatively simple: the most highly decorated part of it is the gable, which is flanked by two octangular turrets, ornamented with crocketed pinnacles and flying buttresses. Within, it consists of a noble hall, one hundred and sixty French feet in length, and fifty in width, with a coved roof of timber, plain and bold, and destitute either of the open tie-beams and arches, or the knot-work and cross-timber that usually adorn the old English roofs. Below the hall is a prison.

The southern building, erected exclusively for the sittings of the exchequer, is far more sumptuous in its decorations, both without and within. The lucarne windows may even vie with those in the house in the Place de la Pucelle.[178] Those below them find almost exact counterparts in the _château_ at Fontaine-le-Henri, also figured in this work.[179] To use the language of the French critics, this front, which is more than two hundred feet in width, "est decorée de tout ce que l'architecture de ce temps-là présente de plus délicat et de plus riche." The oriel or tower of enriched workmanship, which, by projecting into the court, breaks the uniformity of the elevation, is perhaps the part that more than any other merits such encomium. But it is only half the front that has been allowed to continue in its original state: the other half has been degraded by alterations, or stripped of its ornaments.--The room in which the parliament formerly met, and which is now employed for the trial of criminal causes, still remains comparatively uninjured. Its ceiling of oak, nearly as black as ebony, divided into numerous compartments, and covered with a profusion of carving and of gilt ornaments, not only affords a gorgeous example of the taste of the time, but immediately strikes the stranger as well suited to the dignity of the purpose to which the apartment was appropriated. But the open-work bosses of this ceiling are gone, as are the doors enriched with sculpture, and the ancient chimney, and the escutcheons charged with sacred devices, and the great painting, by which, before the revolution, witnesses were made to swear.[180]

The building that fronts the _Salle des Procureurs_, and forms the third side of the court, was not erected till after the year 1700. Its front is an imitation of the Ionic order, a style which harmonizes so ill with the rest of the quadrangle, as to produce an unfavorable effect An accident which happened to the wood-work of the upper part of this front, on the 1st of April, 1812, unfortunately involved the destruction of a painting held in the highest estimation; the representation of Jupiter hurling his thunderbolts at Vice, executed by Jouvenet, upon the ceiling of an apartment called _la seconde Chambre des Enquêtes_. Jouvenet, who commonly passes under the name of the Michelagnolo of France, was born at Rouen, in 1664; and, in conjunction with Fontenelle and the great Corneille, forms the triumvirate, of which the city has most reason to feel proud. The painting in the Palace of Justice was regarded as one of the happiest efforts of his pencil, and was not the less remarkable for having been executed with his left hand, after a paralytic stroke had deprived him of the use of the other.

NOTES:

[177] See p. 51.

[178] See plate 64.

[179] Plate 63.

[180] Upon this subject Mr. Turner is in error: it appears, from his _Tour in Normandy_, I. p. 193, that he was informed that the painting, now actually over the judges' bench, is the same by which it was originally customary to take the oath; but M. Jolimont, who is, unquestionably, better authority, states the contrary in the following note:--"Le tableau, sur lequel on faisait jurer les témoins, et qui avait près de douze pieds d'élévation, consistait en trois portions ou bandes horizontales réunies dans un grand cadre sculpté à la manière du temps. La première, et la plus élevée, présentait quatre écussons aux armes de France, parsemés de fleurs de lis d'or; celle du milieu offrait, sous cinq arcades en ogives avec fleurons, un Christ entre la Vierge et saint Jean, et les quatre Evangelistes; au-dessous, un Moyse, et les tables de la loi: il existait encore au moment de la révolution; on l'a remplacé, au mois de janvier 1816, par un autre, d'environ quatre pieds de hauteur, donné (dit l'inscription moderne mise au bas) par Louis XII à l'Echiquier, lorsqu'il l'établit au palais. Ce second tableau, recueilli pendant la révolution par les soins de M. Gouel, graveur, et dont il a bien voulu faire hommage à la Cour royale (voir, à ce sujet, le Journal de Rouen, du 30 janvier 1816), est composé de deux parties: l'une renferme un Christ entre saint Jean et la Vierge; l'autre, en forme de couronnement, présente deux figures à mi-corps, avec des légendes; mais ces deux parties hétérogènes ne sont que deux fragmens ajustés ensemble. Le premier, qui représente le Christ, est évidemment la portion qui remplissait une des cinq arcades du grand tableau dont nous venons de parler, et l'autre est une partie seulement du tableau donné par Louis XII, et qui orna, pendant plus de deux siècles, le manteau de la belle cheminée de la chambre du Conseil que nous citons ci-après. Les deux figures, aujourd'hui mutilées, étaient en pied, et représentaient le Roi Louis XII et le Cardinal d'Amboise, avec ces mots écrits sur des bandelettes, que les deux personnages semblent s'adresser: _Pontifices, agite: Magistrats, agissez;--et vos Reges, dicite justa: et vous Rois, soyez justes_. Ces fragmens de deux tableaux différens, réunis, avec assez d'art, et qui paraissent être seuls échappés à la destruction, sont encore fort curieux, et l'on doit savoir gré à M. Gouel de leur conservation, et de la générosité avec laquelle il les a rendus à leur destination primitive."

PLATE LXXIX.

SOUTH PORCH OF THE CHURCH, AT LOUVIERS.