Part 23

But if S. Médard was vindictive in his ways, he compensated us for his downpours by inventing that handy instrument without which life would be unbearable. The French say that an Englishman goes to bed in his hat, clutching his umbrella, which is a polite way of reproving him for his peculiar and insular practices; but how could he live without his umbrella? and kind Médard, foreseeing the state of dampness to which our northern atmosphere was leading us, turned to account an accident which befel him. In was in this wise. On a certain hot day in a certain hot summer, Médard and his friends went a picnicing, when suddenly a storm disturbed their innocent junketings. All were thoroughly soaked through from head to foot, with the exception of the host, who suddenly found himself protected from the rain by the outspread wings of an eagle which hovered over his head. This was the birth of the umbrella, which, as everyone knows, is of French, and not of oriental origin. In Belgium the rainy Saint is one Godeliève; in Germany the character is undertaken by the Seven Sleepers, showing the wisdom of the Teuton in slumbering through his miseries. Amongst the flowers, the moneywort is dedicated to S. Médard.

At the commencement of the last century, Jansenist pilgrimages and divers miracles took place at the little church, curing those suffering from convulsions; young girls had fits which gave them "comical twitchings of the nerves. Some would bark all night, and others leaped about like frogs. Sister Rose sipped the air with a spoon, as your babies do pap, and lived on it forty days; another swallowed a New Testament, bound in calf. Some had themselves hung, others crucified, and one, called Sister Rachel, when nailed to a cross, said she was quite happy. In their holy meetings, they beat, trampled, punctured, crucified, and burnt one another without the least sentiment of pain." All this was done under Louis XV., and attested by thousands of witnesses, until at last the archbishop, by means of a strong military guard, put an end to the folly. Thereupon some wag wrote upon a wall:

De par le roi défense à Dieu De faire miracle en ce lieu.

Large packages of the earth were exported to work miracles in the provinces and in foreign countries. One of these marvellous cures is related, scoffingly, in a song of the Duchesse de Maine:

Un décrotteur à la royale, Du talon gauche estropié, Obtint par grace speciale D'etre boiteux de l'autre pied.[103]

The church of S. Médard is in the Rue Mouffetard, and originally the ground belonged to the abbey of S. Geneviève. At first the monks only erected a small chapel, which they placed under the protection of the great Bishop of Noyon, who was the friend and chancellor of the early Mérovingian Kings. In the 12th century the chapel is designated as a church in the bulls of the popes, and up to the Revolution it was served by the regular canons of the abbey.

The church is of no importance, dating only from the 15th century. The pillars are without capitals; but, as in many of the other churches, the keystones and bosses are elaborately carved. Some of them represent the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Descent of the Holy Spirit, and other Scriptural subjects, besides monsters, griffins, and garlands of foliage. In one of the chapels a little glass of the 16th century remains; and a retable, upon which a Notre-Dame de Pitié is painted, is also worthy of note.

In 1784 an architect named Petit-Radel conceived the idea of transforming S. Médard into a modern temple of Jupiter, with not much success. Doric and Corinthian columns, palms and personages, adorn the sanctuary and the _chevet_. Better are the fragments of old glass which are interspersed with the new in some of the windows; a S. Fiacre, patron of cabs and coaches, a Holy Family, S. Michael, a Calvary, and many Angels; but they are the merest scraps of former grandeur. The chapel of the Virgin was built by the "artist" who mutilated and distorted the choir, and is in the same grandiose style. The academician, Olivier Patru, and Pierre Nicole, the theologian, were buried at S. Médard.

SAINT-MERRI.

At the bottom of the Rue S. Martin, close to the Rue de Rivoli, is a spot which, during the ages of faith, was much reverenced for its miracle-working powers. In the 7th century, the whole district was a forest, and doubtless the King and courtiers hunted there; for are we not told that the Louvre, hard by, was in early days but a royal hunting-box. As is well known, Paris, the Lutetia of the Gauls, consisted only of the present Cité, the island upon which stands the cathedral. All around were forests, well stocked with game (animals more or less wild); and here and there, probably, small outlying settlements which we should now call villages and hamlets.

In the midst of the wood stood a little chapel dedicated to S. Peter, which was as much surrounded by trees and shrubs as the present church of S. Merri is by streets and houses. Adjoining this chapel was a cell, or hermitage, and it was there that S. Merri, and his disciple, S. Frodulphe, sojourned when on their way from Autun to the shrines of S. Denis and S. Germain. S. Merri was abbot of Autun, but he seems to have been glad of a change to the great city; for so it befel, that instead of returning to his abbey, he stayed in this little wooded retreat, undisturbed by aught but the singing of the birds and the sighing of the trees, for the space of three years. Then, on the 29th of August, about the year 700, he died, and was buried in the chapel. Many and wondrous were the miracles wrought at his tomb; and so famous did it become that S. Peter's patronage was forgotten, and the church was looked upon by the people as being under the exclusive protection of S. Merri.

About the end of the 9th century, a redoubtable warrior, Eudes de Fauconnier, desiring to celebrate his part in the expulsion of the Normans from the neighbourhood, erected a new church on the site of the little chapel, or in its immediate neighbourhood. This was dedicated to the two saints, S. Merri being placed before S. Peter. When this church, in its turn, was demolished in the time of François Ier, the remains of the founder were found in a stone coffin, the bones of his legs and feet being still shod in his gilt leathern boots. The coffin was re-buried in the choir, and an inscription placed upon a white marble slab: _Hic jacet vir bonae memoriae Odo Falconarius, huius ecclesiae, ora pro eo._ In the opinion of the abbé Lebeuf, this Odo was the famous warrior who with Godefroi defended the city against the Normans in 886. The surname _Falconarius_ may come from Odo having been made the King's falconer, or from the kind of lance which he used, _falco_, because it was bent; just as Charles, the grandfather of Charlemagne, was known by the surname of Martel. The gilt leather boots denote a personage of the 9th century; similar _chaussures_ may be seen in miniatures of the Carlovingian period. One of the monks of S. Germain des Prés, Abbon, has celebrated the heroic deeds of Odo, and testified to the ability of the surgical instrument makers of the 9th century:--

UNA DIES ISTUM VOLUIT SIC LUDERE LUDUM, HIS DUCIBUS, GODOFREDO NEC NON ET ODONE; BELLIGERI FUERANT UDDONIS CONSULIS AMBO. IDEM ODO PRAETEREA OPPOSUIT SE SAEPUIS ILLIS ET VICIT JUGETER VICTOR. HEN! LIQUER UT ILLUM DEXTRA MANUS BELLO QUONDAM, CUJUS LOCA CINXIT FERREA, PENE VIGORE NIHIL INFIRMIOR IPSA.[104]

S. Merri was made into a parish church in the 12th century, and in the early years of the following century it became collegiate. It was called the third daughter of Notre-Dame, a title given to churches which were served by the clergy of the mother church, its chapter consisting of a _chefcier_, who filled the position of the _curé_, six canons, and six chaplains.

The present church was commenced in 1520 or a few years later, and finished in 1642; the architects adhering to the original plan, without any change of style, which is not often the case in churches that were so long in course of construction. The beautiful west front is a mass of rich ornamentation; its three portals, the pinnacles, corbels, niches, etc., being carved with various conceits--animals, human heads, flowers, vine-leaves, and so on, one little head having a cap such as is worn by the peasants of Auvergne. The statues, large and small, are modern, having been put in position in 1842, replacing those destroyed during the Revolution. Those round the _voussure_ are copied from one of the portals of Notre-Dame, and consequently are two centuries too early for the church. Another blunder of the modern architect is the placing of a demon in the centre at the point of the arch, where the Mediæval artists invariably put the figure of Christ or of Our Lady. The lower part of the tower is contemporary with the church, but the upper stories have been rebuilt in the 17th century, and consist of Renaissance arches and shafts. Upon the opposite side is a little turret of open woodwork, and from the roof some old gargoyles stretch themselves out. The church is cruciform; unfortunately it is partly hidden by the Presbytery and other buildings. Indeed, like many Continental churches, it is so built about by surrounding houses that one only gets a view of it here and there. It is extraordinary that in such a city as Paris this is tolerated. At S. Germain l'Auxerrois there is (or was, not long ago) an extraordinary little wooden hut (presumably the dwelling of the sacristan) built in between the buttresses of the east end, and completely filling up two windows of the apse. The whole erection being in wood, it could easily be taken down; for it is only supported on great wooden piles, and approached by a sort of ladder. Such a state of things only exists in Catholic countries, and the more Catholic--as, for example, Belgium--the more complete is this sort of desecration.

The havoc made in the interior of the church by the 18th century architects is deplorable. Windows have been destroyed, piers have been stuccoed over, and pointed arches turned into round ones. The pillars are late Perpendicular, or rather Flamboyant, shafts without capitals; and round the nave, between the arches and the clerestory, runs a little frieze of foliage and quaint birds and beasts, a feature which is not common. All the bosses of the choir and apse are very richly decorated, and the vaulting is good, but both the choir and the _chevet_ have been sadly "improved." About 1753 the brothers Slodtz were commissioned to convert the thirteen pointed arches of the choir into round ones, and to encase the pillars in panellings of stucco, which was marbled and gilt, the last bay being profusely decorated with golden sun-rays. One of these unfortunate brothers, Michel-Angelo by name, designed the pulpit, a mass of palm-tree decoration, surmounted by a female figure of Religion; and to place this wondrous production, a whole bay of the nave had to be demolished. The year following three chapels were destroyed to make room for the new square, barn-like Chapel of the Communion; which, besides being beautified by the Slodtz brothers' sculptures, was further embellished with a picture by Charles Coypel. The modest sum paid to these miserable, so-called artists, for hacking the church to pieces, was 50,000 _écus_.

The crypt is most interesting, and is said to have been a reproduction of the original one which contained the tomb of S. Merri. It was used for some time as a workshop by the cleaners of the church, and was the depository of brooms, brushes and lamps. It has a stumpy central column, from which spring the ribs of the vault, the capital being ornamented with vine-leaves. It is square, and divided into four parts. A few remains of recumbent tombs can be seen in the pavement; but of the monuments of Arnaud de Pomponne, ambassador of Louis XIV., and of Jean Chapelain, the author of _La Pucelle_, nothing remains. The crypt, with its solid central pillar, resembles that in the Louvre of the time of Philippe Auguste, which has lately been brought to light.

Much of the old glass has gone, the central portion of each window having been taken away, to throw more light upon the marbled stucco. What remains is in good 16th century style, the work, probably, of Héron, Jacques de Paroy, Chamu, and Jean Nogare, whom Levieil records to have been the artists employed. The subjects are from the history of SS. Peter, Joseph, John the Baptist, and Francis of Assisi; but it is most difficult to follow the designs, as not only are there the gaps of plain glass, but what was taken out has been used for repairing the other windows. Still a few subjects can be traced; the Raising of Lazarus; an Angel bringing food to the Virgin as she works in the temple; the Magdalen preaching to the people from a pulpit; the Beheading of S. John. In one of the chapels the history of Susannah figures--also Joseph and Jacob, and other Old Testament worthies. Three persons, identical in form and features, represent the Holy Trinity; they hold each other's hands in a circle, upon which is inscribed, _Ego sum alpha et omega, primus et novissimus_. On another window are the Sybils carrying the emblems of the Nativity and the Passion, the Cradle, a lantern, the Scourge, and the Cross.

The church possesses a very curious holy-water stoop of the time of Louis XII. It is about three feet high, more like a baptismal font than a stoop in size; it is octagonal, and stands upon a pedestal with a square base. The upper part is decorated with the arms of France and of Bretagne, and the instruments of the Passion. A small amount of carved woodwork of the Renaissance period remains--fragments of sculptured columns, pilasters, children, birds, and trophies. But a most remarkable picture of the 16th century arrests the visitor's attention as he saunters round the aisles, _S. Geneviève_ sitting in a sort of Druidical circle surrounded by her flock of sheep--a rare combination of mystic Paganism and Christian legend.

A mosaic tablet of the _Virgin and Child_ now in the Hôtel Cluny (No. 1795) was formerly in this church. It was given by Jean de Ganay, first president of the Parliament. Piganiol de la Force gave the continuation of the inscription as "_Opus magistri Davidis_, Florentini, Anno M.CCCC.LXXXXVI." Jean de Ganay went to Italy with Charles VIII., and took part in the campaign of 1494 and 1495, and for some time he was chancellor of the kingdom of Naples; but as he was not first president until 1505, the mosaic must have been sent to Paris subsequently to his sojourn in Italy. His epitaph runs thus:

CY GIST LE CORPS DE NOBLE CHEVALIER JEAN DE GANNY DE FRANCE CHANCELIER ET ZELATEUR DE LA CHOSE PUBLIQUE. TARDIF À NUIRE ET PREST À CONSEILLER DU BIEN DAUTRUY CAR CESTOIT LE PILLIER, PHILOSOPHAL VRAY ARISTOTILIQUE, POURTANT HUMAINS UN CHACUN SE APPLIQUE PRIER JESUS PAR MESSES ET PAR DITS QUIL LUY PARDONNE ET DONNE PARADIS. OBIIT ANNO 1512.

M. de Sommerard attributes this mosaic to David Ghirlandajo.

SAINT-NICOLAS DES CHAMPS.

The patron saint of children, of schoolboys, of poor maidens and travellers, of merchants, and, above all, of pawnbrokers, was popular in Paris as elsewhere, and thus we find three churches dedicated to him. S. Nicolas was a performer of stupendous miracles. Thus it happened that during a time of famine, while he was visiting his flock, he discovered that a certain disciple of the Evil One murdered little children, and, cannibal-like, feasted on them. And so audacious was this fiend in human shape, that he impudently served up the dismembered limbs of a young babe for the good bishop; who, seeing this wickedness, went to the tub where the children's remains were being salted down, and making the sign of the cross over them, the babes all stood up. This is a favourite subject in art; and not the least beautiful of all the saints and martyrs in the processional frieze in S. Vincent de Paul is Flandrin's conception of S. Nicholas.[105] Why the Saint's three balls, which seem to have been purses given to three poor maidens, should have become the sign of pawnbrokers, seems doubtful. Perhaps simply as being emblems of gold lent by merchants to impecunious customers. The story of the children is probably an allegory of the conversion of sinners, the tub being the baptismal font and the wicked host, the evil state in which all men are born. S. Nicholas is also the guardian of property, and in that form figures upon the windows of the cathedral of Chartres. The Saint's image was stolen by a Jew, and placed in guardianship over his treasures. Then came robbers, who carried off the property, which, the Jew discovering, led to the chastisement of the bishop's effigy. But S. Nicholas was equal to the occasion, and reproving the Jew, ordered the robbers to restore what they had stolen; and when the Hebrew saw the miracle, he became converted, he and his whole house. This, too, may be the reason for S. Nicholas' patronage of pawnbrokers, who are many of them, indeed most of them, Jews.

In the 12th century S. Nicolas des Champs was but a chapel built upon the domain of the priory of S. Martin. Two centuries later it was rebuilt; but in the 16th century, being too small for its parishioners, it was widened by turning the chapels of the nave into an aisle, and erecting fresh chapels outside it. Later on it was again enlarged, until it has become one of the longest of the Paris churches.

The _façade_ in the Rue S. Martin is in the Flamboyant style, and not without some beauty, with its pinnacles and turrets, its niches and statuettes; but the most striking part of the church is the richly-sculptured doorway in the Rue Aumaire, a mass of niches, figures of Angels, and Flamboyant ornament of the most elaborate kind--birds, baskets of flowers, borne by pious little personages, and every kind of foliage, reminding us of the works of Germain Pilon.

The interior shows the change of style from shafts without capitals to the latest development in the way of Doric columns. The High Altar is ornamented with Corinthian columns, some stucco Angels by Jacques Sarazin, and a picture of _the Assumption_ by Simon Vouet. The best picture in the church is M. Bonnat's early work of _S. Vincent de Paul_. An old panel of a _Calvary_ is a very good specimen of one of the unknown artists of the 16th century.

A few celebrities were buried in S. Nicolas; the _savant_ Guillaume Budé, who died in 1540; the philosopher Pierre Gassendi; the historians Henri and Adrien de Valois; and Mdlle. de Scudéry; but their monuments have vanished. On the pavement are some stones bearing the names of Rochechouart, Crillon, Labriffe, Potier de Novion, Mesmes, and several others.

Here is one of the many curious epitaphs:

LE CIEL L'ESTIMENT TROP POUR LA LAISSER PLUS LONTEMPS MORTELE, LAISSANT A SON ÉPOUX UNE FILLE POUR GAGE DE LEUR ÉTROITE ET INMORTELE AMITIÉ, DANS LAQU'ELLE IL SURVIT POUR PLEURER LE RESTE DE SES JOURS SA DURE SEPARATION D'AVEC CETTE CHERE ÉPOUSE, QUI ÉTOIT RECOMANDABLE, PAR SA TRES GRANDE DOUCEUR, SA VIE PURE ET INOCENTE, ET SA PRUDENCE AU DESUS DE SON AAGE, QUI LUY ONT OUVERT LE CHEMIN DE L'IMORTALITÉ. REQUIESCAT IN PACE.

In the 16th century the acolytes of Notre-Dame celebrated their well-known _fêtes_ at S. Nicolas, performing various antics _en route_; but as their disorderly conduct was great, and the "_facéties_" practised led to divers troubles and various abominations, the ceremony resolved itself latterly into a simple Benediction which the _enfants de choeur_ chanted in honour of their patron.

SAINT-NICOLAS DU CHARDONNET.

This is an ugly church, with traditions going back to the 13th century, but with nothing thereof now to be seen, in the Rue S. Victor. The present building dates from 1656 to 1709. A picture by Lebrun, of _The Miracle of Moses_, adorns one of the chapels; and the tomb erected by him to his mother's memory, by Tuby and Callignon, is to be found in another. Lebrun's own tomb is by Coyzevox; Jérôme Bignon's, by Girardon. There are also pictures by Le Sueur, Coypel, Corot, Desgoffes, and Mignard.

Suzanne Butay, widow of Lebrun, was a generous body, and left a number of legacies to the poor of the parish, and divers other church institutions, which are recorded thus:

LADITE DAME SUZANNE BUTAY VEUVE DUDIT FEU S^R LEBRUN PAR SON TETA^{MT.} OLOGRAPHE DE XIII SEPTEMBRE MDCXCVI RECONNU DEVANT VATRY, ET TORINON NOT^{RES}.... A LEGUÉ AUX PAUVRES HONTEUX, ET AUX PAUVRES MALADES DI CETTE PARROISSE LA SOME DE DEUX MIL LIVRES UNE FOIS PAYÉ, PLUS A LEGUÉ MIL LIVRES DE RENTE À AYDIR À MARIER DE PAUVRES FILLES, ET À METTRE EN APPREN- TISSAGE DE PAUVRES GARÇONS NÉS DANS LA PARROISSE....

NOTRE-DAME.

Sauval likens the island upon which the cathedral stands to a ship: "L'ile de la cité est faite comme un grand navire enfoncé dans la vase et échoué au fil de l'eau vers le milieu de la Seine;" and perhaps the Ship of Paris upon the Gallic sea may have owed its origin as the city arms to some idea of this sort.

The origin of Notre-Dame is enveloped in mystery. Whether its first bishop, S. Denis, or Dyonesius, was the Areopagite converted by S. Paul's preaching at Athens, and sent by S. Clement to preach the Gospel to the Parisians, or whether he was another personage of the same name who was sent into Gaul in the 3rd century and martyred during the persecutions under Decius, it is impossible to say, as there is no evidence of any value. Certain it is, however, that the first bishop of Paris bore the name of Denis, and that he suffered martyrdom with his two companions Rusticus and Eleutherius, on the summit of the hill now called Montmartre. Tradition went so far as to point out the spot where they first gathered their followers together--the crypt of Notre-Dame des Champs; also the prison where Our Lord appeared to them and strengthened them with His Holy Body and Blood, at S. Denis de la Chartre; the place, at S. Denis du Pas, where they suffered their first tortures; and, lastly, Montmartre, where they were beheaded. But, with the exception of the latter, all these holy spots have disappeared. So, too, have the crosses which marked the route taken by the Saint, when he carried his head to the place chosen for his burial, at S. Denis. An ancient church covered the remains of the three Saints until the present splendid building was erected in the reign of Dagobert I.