CHAPTER X

TOWERS AND STEEPLES--CHOIRS--CHAPELS

The first steeples were round, on the model of the Greek and Byzantine cupolas, and modest in diameter, so that the bells they contained can only have been small ones. These bells were suspended from the summit of the tower, the portion of wall surrounding them being pierced by arcaded openings, and crowned by a long pyramidal roof.[28]

[28] _Encyclopédie de l'Architecture et de la Construction_, article "Clocher," by Ed. Corroyer.

Such towers were very frequently isolated from the body of the church. A large number of Italian churches, dating from all periods of the Middle Ages, have steeples at a considerable distance from the main building.

Force of habit determined the application of the round form to towers of the twelfth century; but it is evident that a square plan was preferred, even so early as the tenth century, and such a form was in course of time rendered necessary by the development of the founder's art, and the increase in the dimensions of bells at the beginning of the twelfth century. Besides the great bells which proclaimed the hour of prayer to a distant flock, small bells were in use to regulate the religious exercises of the clergy. They are called in the Latin texts _signum_, _schilla_, _nola_; in French _sin_, _esquielle_, _eschelitte_; from the beginning of the tenth century they were placed in the campaniles which crowned the domes.

The Italian word _campanile_ has the force of the French terms _tour_, _clocher_, _beffroi_ (or the English tower, steeple, belfry). But the denomination _clocher_ has a general application to all pyramidal structures rising above the roof of a church.

The belfry was a tower, in most cases isolated, which contained the bell destined to sound the curfew and tocsin, and to call the burghers to civic assemblies.

Like the belfry, the Italian campanile is generally an isolated building, but it is usually placed in the near neighbourhood of a church. Among the most famous _campanili_ are those of Florence--begun in the fourteenth century, on the plans of Giotto,--of Padua, of Ravenna, and the famous leaning tower of Pisa.

In France the term campanile has a more general application, and is given to the little pierced arcaded turrets which, in many churches, crown the walls of the façade and shelter small bells.

The most ancient belfries of the original provinces of France have great analogies with Byzantine monuments as to form, even when differing in detail. One of the most remarkable of these is the tower of St. Front at Périgueux, which seems to date from the first years of the eleventh century. It marked the sepulchre of the Saint, and apparently embraced two bays of the original three-aisled Latin church of the sixth century, evident traces of which have been discovered to the west of the great domed building of later times.

The tower of St. Front is composed of three square stories, diminishing on plan as they rise, and crowned by a conical dome, resting upon a circular colonnade, the columns of which vary in height and diameter, and owe their origin to Roman examples in the neighbourhood.[29]

[29] _L'Architecture Romane_, by Ed. Corroyer; Paris, Maison Quantin, 1887.

The influence of this remarkable building was very considerable. It served as a model to architects of the neighbouring provinces. The type was improved upon in the tower of the Abbey Church of Brantôme by the avoidance of the false bearings which mar the structure of St. Front, while at St. Léonard, near Limoges, a very original feature was superadded in the octagonal form of the crown or roof. The Auvergnat architects further perfected the construction by introducing internal piers for the support of the recessed walls of the upper stories, as at Puy.[30]

[30] _Ibid._ 1888.

It is worthy of note that, in spite of the importance given to these buildings, the space allotted to the bells themselves was comparatively limited, which seems to indicate that the towers were destined for other purposes than the reception of bells. In the eleventh century the tower bore the same relation to the cathedral or abbey as did the donjon to the feudal castle. It was, in fact, the symbol of power. As abbots and bishops enjoyed the same rights as the nobles, it will be readily understood that the costliness of such emblems would be governed solely by the resources of their authors. The number of towers built at about the same period in connection with cathedrals and abbeys, and the importance of such as were attached even to simple parish churches may be explained if we consider them mainly as denoting the status of an enfranchised commune. The rivalries in connection with neighbouring towers undoubtedly had their origin in conditions such as these.

Towards the close of the eleventh century and throughout the twelfth many towers were built at an angle with the door, or in front of it, so as to form a porch, as at St. Benoît-sur-Loire and Poissy; or above it, as in the Churches of Ainay and of Moissac.

Later on immense towers with spires were built at each angle of the western façade, the gable of the nave rising between them.

At the Abbey Church of Jumiéges a large projecting porch filled the central bay of the ground story between the bases of the towers, but more frequently the towers were in one plane with the chief porch, and were themselves pierced with lateral porches, the three doors, with their richly sculptured voussoirs, forming one vast decorative whole.

The architects of the so-called Romanesque period built their towers at the intersection of the transepts; but avoiding the constructive audacities of the tower of St. Front, which was one of the most generally accepted models of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, they ensured the solidity of their central tower by placing the more or less conical cupola which crowned the structure upon a square base, carefully loaded and abutted at each angle.

At the close of the twelfth century the architects of the Ile-de-France adopted a square form for the body of the tower, and in imitation of Oriental and Rhenish builders, reserved the octagonal plan for the spire, ensuring the solidity of the angles by a variety of ingenious combinations.

The great central towers of the Norman churches built in England and Normandy from the thirteenth to the fourteenth century were not always merely belfries, as at Salisbury or Langrune, for instance; in many cases they were lanterns, their functions being to light the centre of the church and to form a magnificent decorative feature at the intersection of transepts, nave, and choir in cruciform structures, such as St. Georges, Bocherville, Coutances, etc. Of all the French provinces Normandy clung most persistently to the lantern tower, and that of St. Ouen at Rouen is one of the most interesting examples.

In other provinces, notably Picardy, Champagne, Burgundy, and the Ile-de-France, lantern towers were superseded by timber _flèches_ cased in lead, which rose at the intersection of the roofs of nave and transepts.

Among the most remarkable towers of the twelfth century in the Northern provinces we may mention those of Tracy-le-Val (Oise), of the Abbey Church of the Ste. Trinité at Vendôme, and of Bayeux; those of the Abbaye-aux-Hommes at Caen; the old tower of the Cathedral of Chartres, and that of St. Eusèbe at Auxerre.

In the thirteenth century the height and decorative richness of these structures had increased to an extraordinary degree. The tower of Senlis (Fig. 86) is a most elegant example of the first years of a century which witnessed the birth of so many marvels of architecture.

In Burgundy several remarkable towers were built by the monks of Cluny, who were free from the asceticism introduced by St. Bernard among their brethren of Citeaux. The most notable of their structures are perhaps the towers of the Church of St. Père, near Vézelay, built about 1240.

In the South various original developments in Gothic architecture were logically brought about by a judicious use of the materials of the country, such as brick. Most interesting examples of such development are to be found in the tower of the Jacobin Church at Toulouse, which dates from the close of the thirteenth century, and the donjon tower of Albi, the characteristics of which we have already discussed.

Examples of isolated towers are hardly to be found of later date than the thirteenth century. Bordeaux perhaps offers an exception. But the general usage after this period was to include the towers in the composition of the façade; their actual functions as belfries became apparent only above the level of the vaults. A beautiful example of this treatment may be studied in the noble composition of Notre Dame de Paris.

Its contemporary, the Cathedral of Laon, has four towers, terminating in octagonal belfries, the angles of which are flanked by two-storied openwork pinnacles; on the second of these stories are placed colossal bulls, the effect of which is very striking.

The towers of Rheims, which date from the second half of the thirteenth century, are of secondary importance in the splendid façade; but they are marked by a feature which was a novelty at the time. The interior of the belfry is built with a cage to allow free play to the bells, and space for the timbers by which they are supported, while the exterior forms an octagonal tower flanked by important pinnacles.

Rheims may be said to mark in Gothic architecture the boundary which separated its period of perfection from that of exaggeration and mannerism. The mania for lightness and the desire to dazzle and astound soon seduced its artists into a dangerous path which led inevitably to decadence. Such effects first manifested themselves more especially in the provinces of the German frontier, and the spire of Strasburg, built in the fourteenth century, is a famous example of these mistaken tendencies.

Throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries towers adhered to the plan and general arrangement adopted by the later architects of the thirteenth century, diverging chiefly in the marvellous profusion of detail and of sculpture, and in the excessive lightness of design. The points of support were attenuated, and the mass of ornament seemed designed to conceal them as far as possible. In France the misfortunes of the times tended largely to perpetuate these dangerous foibles; for a number of churches which were founded at the close of the thirteenth century remained unfinished till the fifteenth and sixteenth, when Gothic art was in full decadence.

But we must not pass over unmentioned certain buildings famous for boldness of construction and magnificence of decoration, if not for purity of style. The following are perhaps the most important:--In France the tower of St. Pierre at Caen, which shows strong traces of that analogy, or family likeness, so to speak, uniting Norman edifices; and the tower of St. Michel at Bordeaux, the spire of which was destroyed by a hurricane in 1768, and has lately been restored to its primitive height of 365 feet; in Austria the tower of St. Stephen, one of the most important of such buildings in that country, finished in 1433; the tower of the Cathedral of Freiburg-im-Breisgau (grand-duchy of Baden), one of the most beautiful and important examples. It was mainly constructed towards the close of the fourteenth century, but the openwork spire was added about the middle of the following century.

The Cathedral of Antwerp in Belgium was begun in the middle of the fourteenth century; the nave and the four side aisles were not completed till a century later. The façade is said to have been begun in 1406 by a Boulognese master-mason, one Pierre Amel; but of the two belfry towers only that on the north was completed in 1518. Its principal merit lies in its boldness of construction and its unusual height of 410 feet, rather than in purity of style or beauty of detail, the latter being a conglomerate made up from every period of Gothic.

_Choirs._--In Christian churches the choir[31] proper was an institution long before the chapels.[32]

[31] _L'Architecture Romane_, by Ed. Corroyer; Paris, Maison Quantin, 1888.

[32] _Encyclopédie de l'Architecture et de la Construction_, article "Chœur-Chapelle," by Ed. Corroyer.

At the extremity of the basilica, in the centre of the chalcidium or transept which gave to the basilican plan the form of a T or Tau--a figure venerated by the Christians as symbolising the Cross--were placed the altar, the sanctuary, and the precincts occupied by the deacons and sub-deacons. The altar stood in the midst, between the hemicycle or apse and the nave arch. The hemicycle or apse which formed the Pagan tribunal was by the Christians reserved for ordained priests, hence its name, _presbyterium_. A semi-circular bench (_consistorium_), interrupted in the middle by a seat higher than the rest, on either side of which sat the inferior clergy, surrounded the apse, the raised seat (_suggestus_) being the throne of the bishop or his representative.

This portion of the basilica underwent a later modification; from the _presbyterium_ it became the _martyrium_, or shrine in which was placed the body of the patron saint of the basilica or the relic to which the devotion of the faithful was specially addressed. This usage had been established even before the year 500 in the first basilica of St. Martin at Tours.

The primitive apse was lighted only from the nave or transept. After its transformation into the _martyrium_ it was not only pierced with windows, but, according to some authors, was provided with openings along its base, or even arcaded, so as to give access to a low gallery running round it. If this be so, the characteristic arrangement of mediæval churches dates from the fifth century.

In later times when it became customary to place the altar at the back, against the wall of the apse, seats for the bishops, priests, and choristers--_the choir_--were arranged between the altar and the nave. In monastic churches, built after the Latin tradition, the choir was generally in the crossing, or where there were no transepts, in the nave itself. It was separated from the congregation by a low enclosure of stone or marble. There are a few examples of churches with _two_ choirs, one at the east, the other at the west.

In the first churches of the Romanesque epoch the choir was confined to the space between the piers of the crossing; it soon, however, made considerable advances. In monastic churches the choir or sanctuary was cut off from the surrounding spaces by barriers of stone or wood, and towards the nave was closed by a _jubé_, or rood screen and loft, the upper part of which was accessible to the monks for the reading of the epistle and gospel. Bishops, on the other hand, being free from the necessity of closing the choirs of their cathedrals, made a point of providing their flocks with wide spaces, in which ceremonies could be afforded a liberal development.

At the end of the twelfth century and beginning of the thirteenth these ideas governed the construction of important churches. Changes continued to be made, however, and from the reign of St. Louis we find the choirs of great cathedrals arranged on the exclusive principles of the monastic churches. The arcades surrounding them were filled with high stone walls, against the inner sides of which the stalls of the clergy, with their lofty and richly carved wooden canopies, were securely fixed.

Among the more famous choirs we may quote those of Notre Dame de Paris, of Amiens, of Beauvais, of Auch, of Lincoln, of Canterbury, of Spires, of Worms, of Burgos, etc. In order to satisfy the laymen whose view of the ceremonies performed in the choir was intercepted by these enclosures, the sanctuary was surrounded by chapels contrived in the wall of the apse, and in the side aisles of the nave.

_Chapels._--From the end of the tenth century, according to M. de Caumont, we shall sometimes find aisles running entirely round the choir or sanctuary and communicating with it by an arcade. Even at this early period there must have been chapels in such aisles. In the twelfth century the disposition to elongate the choirs of important churches became general, and brought with it certain modifications of the plan. The Church of Vignori, which dates from the tenth century, has an apse divided into three chapels, recalling in its arrangement that of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem.

The Church of St. Servan, built in the eleventh century, has five chapels round the choir, and the Auvergnat churches--Notre Dame du Port at Clermont, and St. Paul at Issoire among others,--which date from the beginning of the twelfth century, also show in this respect some interesting peculiarities. The importance given to the apse by these rings of chapels can scarcely be too much insisted on.

On plan these apsidal chapels are, for the most part, round-ended. They are pierced with one or more round-headed windows, and have segmental vaults. On the outside they are often ornamented by mouldings, modillions, and even by variations in the colour of their stones. Chapels between the buttresses of the nave are rare in several aisled churches of the Romanesque period, but in many such buildings they were added at a later time.

The great revolution which took place in the art of building towards the end of the twelfth century had, for one of its results, the multiplication of chapels in the numerous great churches dating from that epoch. The principle of that revolution being to replace the inert masses which had previously resisted the various thrusts by comparatively slender points of support upon which those thrusts could be collected, stability being secured by a scientific calculation of forces, it led, as a natural consequence, to a considerable augmentation of disposable surfaces in the interior. These surfaces, mere curtains between the points of support, were ornamented with vast networks of stone, embracing panels of painted glass, on which the principal events of the Old and New Testaments, and the scenes so vividly outlined in the traditions of the time, were traced with admirable art. Room was found for chapels of considerable size, not only in the walls, or rather between the piers of the apse, but also in those of the side aisles, the bounding walls of which were carried out to the external faces of the buttresses receiving the thrust of the main vault, which buttresses now formed the lateral walls of a continuous line of chapels.

The veneration paid to the relics of saints increased greatly after the year 1000, in consequence of the pilgrimages to the Holy Land which preceded the Crusades. Each religious community established a patron, and demanded a special oratory dedicated to him, and it was a point of honour to make such a shrine excel that of the neighbouring, and, in most cases, rival corporation. The demand for these shrines increased to such an extent at the close of the fourteenth and throughout the fifteenth century that, though chapels were constructed in all the available spaces of the vast cathedrals, they were found insufficient, and sanctuaries, which in earlier times had been the special property of particular bodies, were shared by several confraternities.

The Lady Chapel, or chapel dedicated to the Virgin, was generally in the apse, and in the thirteenth century, especially at its close, had been so considerably developed as to give great importance to the portion of the apse allotted to it. Very curious examples of this development are to be studied in the Cathedrals of Bourges, Amiens, Meaux, and Rouen, among others.

In many cathedrals and churches of the Middle Ages lateral chapels or annexes were built to serve some subsidiary purpose; such were chapter-houses, muniment rooms, treasuries, or even mortuaries, as the presbytery of Lincoln, the circular chapel at Canterbury, known as Becket's Crown, containing the tomb of Thomas à Becket, and Henry VII.'s chapel at Westminster.

A most interesting example of this species of structure dating from the end of the twelfth century is to be seen at Soissons Cathedral; a two-storied vaulted building is connected by openings with the upper galleries of the round-ended south transept, and contains a funeral chapel, with a vaulted chamber above for a treasury.

In many countries small ancient buildings are to be found, known as baptisteries or chapels; these latter are doubtless the little rural churches which were built in great numbers in the first centuries of the Christian era, and are designated _capella_ in texts of the time of Charlemagne, or perhaps oratories, such as it was customary to attach to the charnel-houses of towns or great religious establishments.[33]

[33] _L'Architecture Romane_, by Ed. Corroyer; Paris, Maison Quantin, 1888.

The use of private chapels dates from the earliest days of Christianity; great personages who had embraced the new faith followed the example of the Romans who constructed private basilicas in their palaces. The custom was perpetuated, and the splendid Palatine Chapel of Aix is one of the most magnificent of its results. In later times kings and great nobles built themselves sanctuaries within their castles. In the time of Charles V. the Louvre owned an important chapel; the feudal castles of Coucy and Pierrefonds, among others, contained large chapels, the arrangement of which is very curious. Archæologists cite as of special beauty among seignorial chapels the ancient oratory of the Dukes of Bourbon at Moulins, the Chapels of Chenonceaux, Chambord, and Chaumont, and the Chapel of Jacques Cœur's _hôtel_ at Bourges. Many episcopal palaces have very remarkable chapels, such as that of the archbishop's palace at Rheims.

Refuges, hospitals, madhouses, and prisons also had chapels more or less important.

The term _Sainte Chapelle_[34] was applied in the Middle Ages to buildings raised over spots sanctified by the martyrdom of a saint, or destined to enshrine relics of peculiar holiness. The most famous was the royal oratory, built by Pierre de Montereau between 1242 and 1248 on the south side of the royal palace, now the _Palais de Justice_, Paris, to receive the Crown of Thorns, the pieces of the true Cross, and other relics brought by the royal founder, St. Louis, from the Holy Land.

[34] The plans and elevations of these chapels are so well known, and have been so frequently published, that we abstain from reproducing them in the present work.

The distinguishing feature of the _Ste. Chapelle_ of Paris is its division into two stories--the upper chapel, which communicated with the royal apartments, and the lower chapel on the ground floor, which may have been open to the public. Its construction is remarkable no less for the happy boldness with which the whole of the spaces between the buttresses were utilised for the introduction of immense painted windows, than for the perfection of execution and the beauty of the sculptures, and this in spite of the rapidity with which the work was carried out. An annexe, which has now disappeared, adjoined the apse on the north, and consisted of three stories serving as sacristies and muniment rooms. The spire, a wooden structure cased in lead, dating from the time of Charles VII., was destroyed by fire in 1630; it was shortly restored, only to be again demolished at the close of the eighteenth century, and was finally replaced by the architect Lassus, who restored the building.

The _Ste. Chapelle_ of St. Germain-en-Laye must have been built some years before that of the royal palace of Paris. It is remarkable for certain peculiarities of structure which show a greater architectural skill; the piers which sustain the vault have a greater interior projection; the formerets are disengaged from the wall, and the square windows occupy the whole space between the buttresses, and rise to close beneath the cornice. This most original and learned arrangement gives the building a very graceful aspect, and brings out its elegant proportions.

The _Ste. Chapelle_ of Vincennes, begun by Charles VI., was not completed until the reign of Henry II. In construction it is akin to that of Paris. The two-storied annexes which formed the sacristies and treasury were finished towards the close of the fifteenth century.

After the example of kings and princes the great abbeys began to raise important oratories independent of their conventual churches. The Abbey of St. Martin des Champs at Paris founded two large chapels about the middle of the thirteenth century,--one dedicated to the Virgin, and the other to St. Michael.

Pierre de Montereau was commissioned to build, in addition to the _Ste. Chapelle_ of the palace, a chapel dedicated to the Virgin, within the precincts of the Abbey of St. Germain des Prés; the plan of the vaults differs here from that of the Ste. Chapelle of the palace. According to a drawing by Alexander Lenoir, made before the destruction of this chapel of the Virgin, the pointed arches comprised two bays, in imitation of the vaults on intersecting arches in Notre Dame of Paris, the origin of which we discussed in chapter vi.

The Abbey of Châalis, near Senlis, founded by Louis the Fat in 1136, which was one of the most important abbeys of the Cistercian order in the thirteenth century, possessed an abbey church of five aisles, over 330 feet long. Towards the middle of the thirteenth century it nevertheless founded a _Ste. Chapelle_, known as the Chapelle de l'Abbé. The building has undergone various vicissitudes, and the ribbed vaults which date from the reign of St. Louis were once decorated with frescoes, attributed to Primaticcio. The building still exists, however, almost in its entirety. It illustrates the considerable influence exercised by the Ste. Chapelle of Paris from its very foundation on the great nobles, more especially the heads of rich abbeys eager to parade their immense power and wealth.