Part 16

The cloister on the north side of the church appears to be in part coeval with the earliest,[39] or, perhaps, the second portion of the fabric, and in part with the later additions to it. It consists of a simple arcade of round arches on rather solid piers, with a detached shaft on each face. The capitals are all richly sculptured, some with figures, some with foliage. The spandrels of the arches are filled in with a reticulation of coloured stones; above the arches runs a band of similar ornament, and above this again a carved cornice, which in the later part of the cloister forms a sort of frieze. In this portion the arches have sculptured key-stones, a peculiarity which I hardly remember to have met with before in work of the same date. On the south side there are two fluted shafts and one spiral; all the rest are circular, but noticeable for their very considerable entasis. The groining is all quadripartite without ribs, and executed with rough stones, set in concrete, on a centring of boards. The cloister was surrounded on all sides with buildings. On the south is the cathedral; on the east, and opening to the cloister by an arcade of open arches, is a large hall covered with a pointed barrel-vault. This was originally called the choir of S. André, and in it masses in commemoration of the dead were said, and services held on the feasts of the Invention and Exaltation of the Cross, and on the feasts of S. Andrew and S. Eustachius. It was also called “cæmeterium,” being used for the burial of the clergy, and is now called the chapel _des Morts_. On the wall are still to be seen remains of a painting of the Crucifixion, with many prophets and angels, S. Mary and S. John, the sun and moon, etc. In the northern gable of this building is a fine cylindrical chimney, built in alternate courses of dark and light stone, and rising from a fireplace in a chamber over the hall, and of the same date as the hall. M. Viollet-le-Duc gives a drawing of the fireplace, which is of a not uncommon early type, the head projecting considerably on a semicircular plan. At the north end of the _Salle des Morts_ is a passage leading to the cloister, and along the whole northern boundary once stood a vast range of building called the Maîtrise.[40] Nothing now remains of this save its undercroft, which was spanned by bold pointed arches of stone, on which the wooden floor rested. The Maîtrise was pulled down a few years since, and, not long before, a tower close by it, called the tower of S. Mayol, was also destroyed. It is described as an erection of the eleventh century, battlemented, but without machicoulis.[41] It seems to have served as part of the fortification of the church, which was also attended to in an alteration of the building on the west side of the cloister, in the fourteenth century. This building contained, below, a hall on a level with the church, which was the chapel of the Holy Relics; above was the _Salle des États_ of Velay, with a stone barrel-roof, now both thrown into one room. Above these again was an open space under the roof, protected on the side towards the town by a magnificent overhanging battlement and machicolation of the fourteenth century, and quite open on the side towards the cloister save for the stone piers supporting the roof. The machicoulis are some of the finest I have ever seen, and project from the buttresses as well as from the walls. The only access to this stage of the building seems to have been from the roof of the cathedral. Le Puy was, in the first instance, selected as a site for the cathedral because it afforded so secure a refuge from attack, and in later days it seems to have been not less necessary to provide against danger: for among other enemies the Lords of Polignac, whose magnificent castle is visible from the steeple of the cathedral, only some four miles distant, were the most conspicuous as they were also the most powerful. M. Viollet-le-Duc supposes, indeed, that the tower of the cathedral was meant in part for defence; but I see no evidence of this, and possibly he had in his mind the destroyed tower of S. Mayol, which, as well as the double wall of enceinte which formerly surrounded the whole cathedral, was no doubt a purely military construction. Fortified churches are by no means uncommon in this part of France. At Brioude is a painting showing the church entirely surrounded by a crenellated and turreted wall in A.D. 1636; and Royat, near Clermont, and the abbey church of Menat, also in Auvergne, still retains provisions for defence. The _Salle des États_ contained formerly the archives of Velay, and in removing them a few years since (about A.D. 1850) portions of a hanging of blue wool, “semée” with fleurs-de-lys, and adorned with the armorial bearings of Jean de Bourbon, Bishop of Le Puy from A.D. 1443 to 1485, were found.[42] At the same time a curious painting on the east wall of the lower chamber was discovered under the whitewash. It represents four liberal sciences--Grammar, Logic, Rhetoric, and Music--as females seated with ancient worthies at their feet. Priscian sits below Grammar, writing; and two boys, with open books, are on her other side. Logic holds a lizard in one hand and a scorpion in the other, and Aristotle is arguing below. The inscription underneath is--“Me sine doctores frustrâ coluere sorores,” and each figure has a corresponding leonine verse inscribed below. Rhetoric holds a file in her left hand, and Cicero sits at her feet. Music plays an organ, whilst Tubal, with two hammers, plays upon an anvil. There used--according to the “_Chronique des Médicis_”--to be a second painting here with figures of young demoiselles gorgeously clothed, and from the same chronicle it appears that Messire Pierre Odin, official of the Bishop Jean de Bourbon, who died in 1502, presented both:--“Il estait si grant orateur que, par son mellifère et suaviloquent langage, fust commis plusieurs fois estre ambassadeur devers le Pape à la requette du très-excellent et redouté Prince Louis XI. roy de France, lequel dudict Pape obtint grande louange et avoir, ce que il employa en divers façons et moyens en aulmosnes et à la décoration de cette saincte église du Puy.” The picture has considerable merit; its detail is a mixture of Renaissance and Gothic, and the Gothic portion--as for instance, the chair on which one of the figures sits--is not Italian, and I should be inclined to suppose that it was the work, therefore, of a French artist. Its date must be between 1475 and 1502. Louis XI. came to Le Puy on a pilgrimage in 1475.

The external side elevation of the church is best seen from the cloister, and, with a few words upon this, I will leave this portion of the building. Here, even more clearly than inside, the division of the building into work of different epochs is seen. The two bays nearest the crossing have large coupled windows in the aisle, with parti-coloured voussoirs and jamb shafts. The clerestory is very peculiar in its treatment, and undoubtedly very effective; the windows are of one light in each bay and round-headed and on each side of them above the springing there is a recess in the wall, in the centre of which a detached shaft is placed to carry the cornice. A similar recess and a smaller shaft occur immediately over the arch of the window, and the window-arch being built of alternately dark and light stone, and all the sunk panels being filled in with geometrical patterns, composed in the same way, an extremely rich effect is obtained. Recesses of the same kind in the upper part of the walls occur all along the eastern face of the transept at Le Puy; and between the clerestory windows of Notre-Dame-du-Port, Clermont; S. Paul, Issoire; and commonly in Auvergne. But so far as I can judge from the portion of the cathedral in which they occur, and from the early and simple character of the work itself, I am inclined to believe that it is earlier here than in any of the other examples. It would be of great interest to have some more positive evidence on this and other similar questions of date. But, so far as I have been able to discover, there is no such evidence, and we are left in doubt, therefore, whether this portion of the architecture of Velay came from Auvergne, or whether the reverse was the case; as also whether this external decoration of the fabric is coeval with its first erection, or is a subsequent addition.

The two central compartments of the nave have circular windows (sixteen feet in diameter) to light the aisle, and round-headed windows in the clerestory; and between the arches of the latter windows are small arched recesses. In the two western bays the clerestory is similar, save that the intermediate recessed arch is omitted. In both the voussoirs are counter-charged, and the wall from the springing up to the eaves is coursed with stone and lava. The transept gables are only noticeable for the courses of inlaid patterns with which they are enriched. All these patterns are formed with white stone and lava. The latter, indeed, forms the whole ground of the walls, and varies in colour from a greenish grey to black; and the patterns are formed with the darkest lava and stone. The cloister is similarly inlaid above the arches, but it has almost all been restored in a most injudicious manner. They have _struck_ and _ruled_ (I believe that is the technical phrase for this most abominable of inventions, is it not?) an enormous red mortar joint between all the stones,[43] and wherever this has been done the diaper appears to be formed with a chequer of black and red; wherever the cloister has not been retouched the diaper is black and white.

I have left, almost until the last, that which is after all the crowning wonder of this singular church--the western porch. I have already referred to its position and plan. The majesty, I may say the awfulness, of this entrance, can hardly be exaggerated. It owes little to delicate detail or enrichment of any kind, for, though these have been, they are no longer; but it is the gloom and darkness, the simple, nervous forms of arch and pier, the long flight of steps lost in obscurity and crowded constantly (when I saw them) with a throng of worshippers, which constitute the strange charm of this strangest of entrances. I told you that in the nave the two western bays of the aisle alone had groining ribs; in the porch below it is only in the western bay that they are used, and this affords interesting evidence of the very gradual yet regular development of our art.

The spaces below the aisles in the third bay from the west form chapels--that on the right dedicated to S. Martin, and that on the left to S. Gilles. Before the last extension of the building these chapels were at the extreme west end. They have western doorways, which still retain the wooden doors. Each of these doors was of four divisions in height, covered with subjects carved in low relief. They are executed either in cedar or oak (I am uncertain which, for they are covered with paint), and the subjects, inscriptions, and borders are all obtained simply by sinking the ground three-sixteenths of an inch. The figures are, of course, only in outline, but it is still evident that they were carefully painted with draperies, etc., so as to be thoroughly distinct. There is some appearance of the ground having been painted with broad horizontal bands of colour, but the traces are so indistinct that it is difficult to speak positively.[44] The doors are hung folding, and those to the chapel of S. Gilles contain subjects from the early life of our Lord, whilst those in the chapel of S. Martin contain subjects from His Passion. The meeting-rail in the former fortunately contains an inscription of extreme value: “Gaulfredus: me: fct: Petrus: epi”; after which some letters are lost. If my reading of the last letter but one as “p” is correct, I think it leads to a most important inference. No one who looks at the design of these gates can doubt that they are thoroughly Eastern in their character; and, upon searching for the lists of bishops of Le Puy since my return, I was delighted to find that the first bishop of the name of Peter[45] was consecrated at Ravenna by Leo IX. in A.D. 1043, and died at Genoa A.D. 1053, as he returned from the Holy Land. Gates of the same description are said to exist in the churches of Chamaillères and of Lavoulte-Chilhac in the same district, whilst other evidence of intercourse with the East is afforded by fragments of _tissus_ preserved at Monestier, at Pébrac, and at Lavoulte-Chilhac. These _tissus_ are all extremely Eastern in their character, and very similar to the famous cope at Chinon described by M. de Caumont in the _Abécédaire_, and to the Le Mans _tissu_ described by M. Hucher in the _Bulletin Monumental_ (1846, p. 24). The date ordinarily attributed to them is the middle of the eleventh century, which exactly tallies with the return of Bishop Peter from the Holy Land. I dwell on this the more because, if the inference I have drawn from the inscription be true, it gives the date also to the second portion of the construction of the cathedral, to which the chapels in the porch undoubtedly belong; and the result would be that whilst I should date the earliest portion of the church at about the end of the tenth century, or quite the commencement of the eleventh, the second portion would be dated at about A.D. 1050; and, finally, there is little doubt as to the whole having been completed in the course of the twelfth century.[46] These dates are, as in all such cases, of course only approximate; and it is pretty clear that there was seldom any long pause in the works, and the development in their architectural features is therefore very gradual.

The external elevation in the west front is similar in style to the clerestory on the north side, and mainly executed in alternate courses of lava and stone. The aisle-roofs are masked by walls with pediments. Throughout this part of the work you will observe that its early date is proved by the fact that the round arch is almost invariably used for ornament, and the pointed arch only where great strength was required. A great buttress, which had been built against this vast front, was removed during the recent restorations.

I observed before that there are doorways on the east side of both transepts--the “ears” referred to in an old saying. The south transept door is in itself remarkable for the peculiar form of the cusping of its arch, and still more for the magnificent porch built over it. The date of this is the latter part of the twelfth century. It is open on the south and east sides, and abuts on the church on the west and north, occupying the re-entering angle between the transept and choir aisle. The arch is remarkable for a rib detached below the arch, and connected at intervals with it by columns, so as to have the appearance of being suspended. My impression is that the architect feared that his arch had not sufficient abutment, and hoped by bringing some of the weight on to the lower rims of the arch to remedy this defect. The whole detail of this porch is a very rich kind of pointed, full of half-Romanesque and half-Byzantine detail. The groining, in alternate coloured courses, is quadripartite, but has the very rare feature (in France) of ridge ribs. Above the porch is a room or chapel, to which I omitted to gain access. Over the door of the other (north) transept a great arch, thrown from the cathedral to the chapel of S. Jean, carries another chapel, lighted with a first-pointed triplet. This door is square-headed, and covered with rich though rude ironwork. The door-handles have a resemblance to one in the cathedral at Trèves made by Jean and Nicholas of Bingen, which struck me, and was remarked on also, I find, by M. Mérimée. The lintel of the door is deeper at the centre than at the sides of the door, pediment-like, and has figures of our Lord and the Twelve Apostles carved on it, whilst above, under a circular arch, is another figure of our Lord, with an angel on either side. The whole has been very much mutilated and all the figures are hacked to pieces. The ground was painted, and no doubt the figures were also, and the woodwork of the door was covered with linen or leather under ironwork.

The very ancient chapel of S. Jean is close to this door, and by its side is a fifteenth century archway. The chapel is arcaded on its south side and pierced with very simple windows. Some antiquaries assert that it is a piece of Roman construction, and it is not impossible, though I should be much more inclined to call it tenth century work. The chapel has a rude quadripartite vault, and its apsidal chancel is roofed with a semi-dome.

I must conclude my long notice of this church by some mention of the extensive remains of painted decorations still visible. During the late restorations of the cathedral, I understand from M. Aymard, the greater portion were destroyed. The vaults of the north transept and the semi-domes of its apsidal recesses are still, however, covered with paintings, though they are scarcely intelligible, owing to darkness and dirt. In one of them occurs a figure of our Lord giving the benediction in the Greek fashion, and it is one of the many evidences which may be adduced of the Eastern influence visible here in so many respects, though I am not disposed to lay so much stress upon it as some of those did who engaged in the controversy it occasioned.[47] In the western porch there are also extensive remains of painting; the soffits of the arches in the third bay from the west are all painted, and so too are the walls over the altars in the chapels of S. Martin and S. Gilles. The painting was executed on a thick coat of plaster, and the nimbi are of gold with lines incised on them. No doubt the whole church once glittered with gold and colour, and, seeing how fine its effect still is, we may, aiding the indications still left with our recollections of Assisi, of Venice, and of Padua, people the bare walls once again, and bring before our eyes an interior of the most gorgeous magnificence.

I may conclude what I have to say about the cathedral with a few words about the sacristy and its contents. The building itself is not more than a hundred and fifty years old, and most of its treasures have been lost. The most precious relic still left is a Bible, which, by a note at its end, is stated to have been written by S. Théodulf, Bishop of Orléans, in the ninth century, and sent by him, in accomplishment of a vow, to the shrine of Notre Dame du Puy. It is a quarto of 347 leaves of very fine vellum, some white with black letters, and others purple or violet with gold or silver letters. It contains the Old and New Testament, commentaries on the text, interpretations of Hebrew, Greek and Latin words, and some poems by Théodulf. The pages are interleaved with excessively delicate tissues of various colours and patterns, which appear to be of the same age as the book, and of Eastern manufacture. They are made of china crêpe, cotton, silk, linen, poil-de-chèvre, and camel’s hair, of extreme fineness, and of various colours and patterns.[48] The binding is, however, later, and of red velvet on chamfered oak boards, with good simple metal knobs. There are also preserved here some wax candles, tapering considerably in their length, and stamped with a pattern made by a pointed instrument; and, finally, there is a tippet embroidered with a tree of Jesse, said to have been of Charlemagne’s time. It is not so old as is said, but may possibly be (though I very much doubt it) of the twelfth or thirteenth century, but it has been much damaged by removal from its original ground and by partial re-working. The sacristy also contains a reliquary of very late sixteenth-century date, of which a photograph has been published by M. Aymard, but which was not shown to me; and an almost endless roll of vellum illuminated with a chronological tree of the history of the world.

How much has been lost may be guessed from some statistics which I have come upon as to the number of silversmiths and specimens of their work in Le Puy in the Middle Ages: in A.D. 1408 there were no less than forty resident in the city, whilst as to their work I find in A.D. 1444 there were in the sacristy 33 _châsses_ and reliquaries, 26 chalices, 11 statues of the Blessed Virgin Mary, angels, and other figures, 10 candelabra, 9 crosses, 9 lamps, 9 mitres, crosses with their stems, episcopal rings, crowns for the Virgin, censers, paxes, basins, plates, books with covers adorned with chasings, pearls and precious stones, and many like things; and in A.D. 1475 I find that Louis XI. gave 30 silver marks for a canopy over the miracle-working figure of Notre Dame du Puy, which was made by François Gimbert, a silversmith of Le Puy. Other churches in the neighbourhood have been more fortunate in retaining some of their old plate, and a fair list might be made out, if I had time, of their possession, many of which have been photographed by M. Aymard.

The building of the greatest interest, after the cathedral, is the little church of S. Michel, which crowns the rock fitly called the Aiguille. It is reached by steps winding irregularly round the rock, to the shape of the summit of which it has been most ingeniously adapted. The oldest portion of the building is the square choir, covered with a dome, under which stands the principal altar. To the (ritual) east and north of this are apsidal projections, and to the south an archway, which as it agrees exactly in dimensions with the others, opened, no doubt, into a third apsidal chapel, like the others, whilst the entrance was at the west. This archway now leads into a chapel of very irregular form, part of which extends over the porch of entrance, in the arrangement of which one may trace a certain kind of analogy to that of the cathedral, though it is perhaps older. West of the choir is a nave, somewhat like a cone in plan, and surrounded by an aisle, from which it is divided by arches supported on slender shafts. The choir has a square domical vault, and the chapel over the porch a true dome, the pendentives under which are just like those of S. Fosca at Torcello. The apsidal chapels have semi-domes and the rest of the church has a waggon-vault of very irregular outline. An arcade against the walls of the side corresponds with that between the aisle and the nave. At the end of the nave is the tower, which was probably built at a slightly later date than the main building. The whole interior appears to have been richly painted, but faint indications only of this portion of the decoration remain. In the central dome there is a sitting figure of our Lord on the east side; emblems of the evangelists are at the angles, and angels and seraphim around our Lord. Below these is a line of single figures, six on each side--the four-and-twenty elders--and below this again are subjects, the whole combining together to make a very interesting example of the treatment of the Last Judgement. The dome of the chapel over the porch is also painted with our Lord, angels, and the evangelists.

The walls generally are built of lava, though a little white stone is used in the steeple and for the sculptured capitals.

The columns are very small, averaging eight inches in diameter, and decrease considerably in diameter from the base to the capital. The dimensions are exceedingly small, the central choir being only thirteen feet six inches in diameter, and the spaces between the principal columns in the nave varying from four feet to four feet nine inches. The effect is rather that of a crypt, but, in spite of its small size, it is solemn and religious.