Architectural Antiquities of Normandy Part 23

[209] "Hujus tamen temporibus incoepta et ex parte constructa est Constantiensis ecclesia, fundante et coadjuvante Gonorra comitissa, auxiliantibus etiam canonicis, reditibus medietatis altaris ad tempus operi concessis, cooperantibus quoque baronibus et parochianis fidelibus, quod usque hodie contestantur aliquot ipsorum nomina insculpta lapidibus in ecclesiae arcubus."--_Gallia Christiana, Inst._ p.

218.

[210] "Anno igitur Dominicae Incarnationis, MXLVIII. duodecim tantum diebus ipsius anni restantibus, id est IV idus Aprilis, indictione II, venerandus Gaufridus post Robertum Constantiensis episcopus Rotomagi consecratur, n.o.bilium baronum prosapia ortus, statura procerus, vultu decorus, prudentia consilioque providus, quanquam saep.i.s.sime curialibus negotiis regiisque obsecundationibus irret.i.tus, tamen ad aedificationem et incrementum ecclesiae suae omni nisu et voluntate per noctem erat et per diem, qui ut eandem ecclesiam celebrem gloriosamque rest.i.tueret, in Apuliam et Calabriam adire Robertum cognomine Guischardum parochianum suum, aliosque barones consanguineos suos, et alumnos, et notos peregre profectus, multum in auro, et argento, et gemmis, et palliis variisque divitiarum donariis acquisivit, tresque asportavit phialas plenas puro opobalsamo, aliaque pretiosissima quibus postea praefatam ecclesiam intus et extus locupletavit, majoremque crucifixum largis sumtibus et tempore longo construxit. c.u.m autem non haberet in civitate, sive in suburbio tantum possessionis ecclesia, ubi maneret episcopus, vel proprius equus ejus posset stabulari, sed neque propriam domum, nisi quoddam appendicium humile, quod pendebat de parietibus ecclesiae, ipse prudentia sua et probitate valentiorem medietatem civitatis, suburbii, et telonei, et vectigalis, c.u.m molendinis et multa Grimoldi viaca a Guillelmo invictissimo duce Normannorum, postea quoque glorioso rege Anglorum trecentis libris comparavit et acquietavit. Postea vero episcopalem aulam et reliquas officinas construxit, virgultum et vineam non modicam plantavit, capitium navis ecclesiae c.u.m area, et hinc inde duo majora capitia n.o.biliora et ampliora construxit. Duas turres posteriores a fundamentis, tertiamque supra chorum opere spectabili sublimavit, in quibus cla.s.sic.u.m consonans et pretiosum imposuit, et haec omnia plumbo cooperuit."--_Gallia Christiana, Inst._ p. 218.

[211] The instrument, above quoted, abounds in examples of this spirit.

Among the rest, after detailing at length various estates which he had purchased or obtained as presents for the enriching of his church, it proceeds to say,--"Caeterum ornamenta ecclesiastica et ustencilia, calices, cruces, capsas, phylacteria, candelabra, thuribula, bacinos, siculam et ampullas aurea contulit et argentea, casulas quoque, dalmaticas, tunicas, planetas, albas, cappas mirifici operis, necnon dorsalia serica et lanea, cortinas et tapeta, sed et bibliothecas, pa.s.sionales, omeliares, missales aureis litteris duos sufficientesque et competentes libros subrogavit: super haec omnia pretiosum famosumque clerum, quo nihil pretiosius in ecclesia et utilius in officium et servitium divini cultus delegavit, septemque canonicos quos episcopus Hugo Rotomagi in ecclesia S. Laudi irregulariter const.i.tuerat, apostolica auctoritate ecclesiae matri revocavit, itemque duos alios adjecit. Cantorem quoque, et succentorem, et rectorem scholarum, et custodes ecclesiae, clericos quoque praebendarios, aurifabros, fabrumque ferrarium, carpentarios et magistrum coementarium in opus ecclesiae const.i.tuit. O virum prudentem et domui suae bene praesidentem, qui de vivis et electis lapidibus domum suam composuit, et mirabilibus columnis eam sustentavit!"--_Gallia Christiana, Inst._ p. 219.

[212] The following remarks upon the architecture of the cathedral of Coutances, transcribed from the journal of a most able friend of the author's, cannot fail to be acceptable to the reader:--"The cathedral is most singular in its aspect. It is pointed throughout, except the circular arches in the vaulting over the side-chapels, and one or two segments of circles which form the door-ways, within the porches on the north and south sides. It is really a difficult task to come at any conclusion respecting the aera of the building, from an inspection of it.

If it is of the Norman age, then the pointed style arose at once from a transfusion of Arabian or Tartarian architecture. The whole is of a piece, complete in conception and execution; and there are no intersecting arches from which a pointed arch may have arisen. The circles in the spandrils are in the same oriental style as at Bayeux.

The peculiarities of the cathedral are--the side-porches close behind the towers; the screens of mullioned tracery, which divide the side-chapels; and the excessive height of the choir, which, having no triforium, has only a bal.u.s.trade just before the clerestory windows. The centre tower is wonderfully fine in the exterior: it is apparently an expansion of the plain Norman lantern, as at Caen; but most airy and graceful. There is a double aisle round the ambit and altars are placed in the bays, as if they were distinct chapels, for which purpose they were originally intended; but the line continues unbroken. The perspective of these aisles, and also of the choir, seen from the Lady-Chapel, is very fine. The round pillars of the choir are double, as at Canterbury and Senlis. The apsis is half a duodecagon. The pointed windows above are in two lancet divisions, surmounted by a trefoil; but the dividing masonry is not a mullion: it is the unperforated part of the wall. This perhaps is arabesque. There is a second arch within, which is really divided by a mullion or small pillar. A curious leaf projects above. Some of the painted gla.s.s is in the oldest style: dispersed patterns in a black outline, on a grey ground. In a side-chapel are painted tiles, brown and yellow as usual, displaying knots and armorial bearings. In the same chapel are fresco paintings: many more are on the east side of the wall that divides the last choir-aisle from the south transept. They represent St. Michael and the Devil, the Deity between angels, &c. In all of them, the outline is formed by a thick black line."

PLATE XCV. AND XCVI.

MOUNT ST. MICHAEL.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate 95. MOUNT ST. MICHAEL.

_On the approach from Pontorson._]

Religion, history, poetry, and painting, have all united in giving celebrity to St. Michael's Mount. The extraordinary sanct.i.ty of its monastery, the striking peculiarities of its form and situation, and the importance acquired by the many sieges it supported, or the almost endless pilgrimages it received, have so endeared it to the man of taste and the philosopher, that scarcely a spot is to be found in Europe, more generally known, or more universally interesting.

The legendary mist with which St. Michael's Mount is now densely involved, has continued, from a period of remote antiquity, to float around its summit. Tradition delights in relating how, in times prior to the Christian aera, it was devoted to the wors.h.i.+p of the great luminary of heaven, under his Gallic name of Belenus,[213] a t.i.tle probably derived from the Hebrew Baal, and the a.s.syrian Belus. The same tradition recounts how, at a more recent epoch, it reared its majestic head, embosomed in a s.p.a.cious tract of woods and thickets, while the hermits who had fixed themselves upon its summits, received their daily bread from the charity of the priest of the neighboring parish of Beauvoir; an a.s.s spontaneously undertaking the office of conveying it to them, till on the road he fell a prey to a wolf, who was then constrained by Providence to devote himself to the same pious labor.

At length, about the year 709, it was decreed that the rock should at once change its designation and its patron. To the clouds of Paganism, succeeded the sun of Christianity; and the original heathen appellation, _Tumba_, was replaced by one of the most elevated names of holy writ.

St. Michael, "the chief of the angels and of the host of heaven, the protector of the Hebrew synagogue of yore, as now of the Catholic church, the conqueror of the old serpent, and the leader of souls to heaven," condescended to be wors.h.i.+pped here upon the western coast, as on Mount Garga.n.u.s in the east, and with this view appeared to St.

Aubert, then bishop of Avranches, commanding him to erect a church to his honor upon the mount. Another legend relates, how there had previously existed upon the same spot, a religious edifice, which had pa.s.sed under the name of the _Monasterium ad duas Tumbas_, being equally appropriated to the adjoining rock of Tombeleine. However this may have been, it is admitted on all sides that a church was built, and that the hill knew thenceforth no other name than that of St. Michael's Mount; though Aubert, tardy in his belief, had refused to obey the injunction, till it had been repeated three several times, upon the last of which, the archangel touched the head of the saint, and left imprinted in his skull the marks of his fingers, which the author, here quoted, relates that he himself saw, to his great delight, in the years 1612 and 1641.

To the miraculous vision, succeeded other occurrences of similar import.

A tethered bull pointed out the spot where the holy edifice should be erected, and at the same time circ.u.mscribed its limits; a rock, that opposed the progress of the workmen, and was immoveable by human art, spontaneously withdrew at the touch of an infant's foot; and the earth opening, on being struck with St. Aubert's staff, gave birth to a spring of water, at once of the utmost use to the inhabitants, and gifted with the most sanative powers. At about the same period also, the sea ingulphed the neighboring forests,[214] insulating the rock; so that three messengers, who had been dispatched to Mount Garga.n.u.s, thence to bring a portion of red cloth, the gift of St. Michael, together with a fragment of the stone on which he himself had sate, found on their return the aspect of things so changed, that "they thought they must have entered into a new world."

History, from this period, a.s.sumes a character of comparative authenticity. The Norman conquest threatened for awhile the extinction of Christianity: the baptism of Rollo, rekindling its dying embers, made them blaze forth with a light and warmth unknown before. The duke himself, on the fourth day after he had presented himself at the holy font, endowed the monastery of St. Michael, then styled "_ecclesiam in periculo maris supra montem positam_."--No further mention occurs of the convent, during the reign of this monarch, or of his son, William Longue-Epee; but their immediate successor, Richard I. amply atoned for any neglect on their part. He built, according to Dudo of St. Quentin, a church of wondrous size, together with s.p.a.cious buildings, for a body of monks of the Benedictine order, whom he established there in 988, displacing the regular canons, whose irregular lives had been the subject of much scandal. This munificence on the part of Richard, has even caused him to be regarded by some writers as the founder of the convent.--His son and successor, of the same name, selected St.

Michael's Mount, as the favored spot, where, in the beginning of his reign, he received the hand of the fair Judith, sister to Geoffrey, one of the princ.i.p.al counts of Brittany. An opportunity was almost immediately afterwards afforded him of testifying at once his liberality and his devotion, as well as his love; for, on the first year of the eleventh century, the church, which had then been completed only five years, was burned to the ground. The prince, however, appears to have been somewhat tardy on the occasion; no attempt was made towards replacing the loss, till Hildebert II. succeeded as abbot. During his prelacy, in 1022, the foundations of a new church were laid, upon a still more extensive scale.--Twenty-six years more were suffered to elapse, and the abbatial mitre had adorned the brows of four successive abbots, when Ralph de Beaumont witnessed the completion of the work.

The church then built is expressly stated by the authors of the _Gallia Christiana_, to be the same as was in existence at the time of the publication of that work;[215] and M. de Gerville confirms their remark by his own personal observation, at least as far as relates to the nave.

This indeed has been shortened of late; but he is persuaded, that whatever still remains is really of the architecture of the days of Duke Richard.--Robert, the following duke, repaired to St. Michael's Mount, to superintend his forces, upon the occasion of the revolt of Alain, Count of Dol; and it was. .h.i.ther, also, that the archbishop of Rouen brought the humbled count, to make his peace with his offended sovereign.--At the period of the conquest, the monks of St. Michael furnished six transports towards that eventful expedition; and when, after the death of William, the dominion over the mount pa.s.sed by purchase from Robert to Henry, they distinguished themselves by their attachment to their new sovereign, who here supported a siege on the part of his two elder brothers, and was finally driven to surrender only by famine. The elder of these brothers, at an advanced period of his life, re-visited the church in a far different guise; and, to discharge his vows to the archangel for his safe return from the crusade, prostrated himself before the shrine which he had erst a.s.saulted with the fury of his arms.--The year 1158 was, almost above every other, memorable in the history of St. Michael's Mount. Henry Plantagenet, who, two years before, had there received the homage of his subjects of Brittany, then returned in pilgrim weeds, accompanied by Louis VII.

whose repudiated wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, he had married; and the two monarchs, attended by a numerous throng of secular n.o.bility, as well as by several cardinals, archbishops, and bishops, kneeled in amity at the holy altar.

During the reign of the ill-starred John, St. Michael's Mount pa.s.sed, in common with the rest of Normandy, under the sceptre of France, and suffered severely upon the occasion. Guy of Thouars, then in alliance with Philip-Augustus, advanced against it at the head of an army of Britons; and, experiencing on the part of the inhabitants but a feeble resistance, set fire to the palisades, the princ.i.p.al defence of the place. The flames communicated to the houses; and the church also fell a prey to them. To use the words of Brito,

"vis ignea sursum Scandit, et ecclesiae decus omne, loc.u.mque sacratum, Resque monasterii cremat insatiabilis omnes."

Philip lamented the injury, and did all in his power to repair it; but, considering that one great source of the misfortunes of the holy place had sprung from the impiety of the Anglo-Norman monarchs, in placing their trust in ramparts made by human hands, rather than in the protection of the archangel, he levelled with the ground the few works of defence that remained.[216] His pious successor, the sainted Louis, was far from entertaining a similar feeling. On the other hand, when his devotion led him to the shrine of St. Michael, after returning from his unfortunate expedition to Damietta, the chronicles expressly state, that he placed, with his own hand, a considerable sum of money upon the altar, for the purpose of repairing the fortifications. And it appears probable that, at a period not very distant, the money thus expended stood the crown of France in good stead; for, during the war at the beginning of the fifteenth century, St. Michael's Mount was the only place that successfully resisted the English arms. The siege it supported upon that occasion, is one of the few brilliant events that give l.u.s.tre to a period of French history, generally dark and gloomy.

Two cannon, of prodigious size, constructed for the discharge of stone b.a.l.l.s, above a foot in diameter, testify to the present moment the heroic defence of the garrison, and the defeat of the a.s.sailants.

At a subsequent period of French history, during the times when party, under the mask of pious zeal, deluged the kingdom with blood, and virtuous men of every creed joined in the lamentation, that "tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum," the Huguenots made many and most brave and memorable, though vain, attempts to render themselves masters of St.

Michael's Mount. From that time forward, the rock has been suffered to continue in tranquillity, though still retaining its character as a fortification. Its designation of late has been a departmental prison: during the reign of terror, it was applied to the disgraceful purpose of serving as a receptacle for three hundred ecclesiastics, whose age or infirmities would not allow of their being transported; and who, with cruel mockery, were incarcerated within the walls, long gladdened with the comforts, dignified with the pomp, and sanctified with the holiness of religion. Prisoners of importance, especially those charged with crimes against the state, were chiefly confined here before the revolution, when the iron cage, and the vaults, known by the ominous names of the _Oubliettes_, or the _In Pace_, gave the mount a melancholy notoriety.

In this short outline of the history of St. Michael's Mount, mention has been repeatedly made of French sovereigns who have proceeded thither in pilgrimage. The task were long to enumerate all those princes and monarchs who distinguished it with this mark of their veneration. But there is one other instance too important in its consequences to be pa.s.sed over in silence. Louis XI. after having expelled the rebellious Britons from Normandy in 1463, not content with paying his devotions to the archangel at his shrine, and bestowing upon the monks a donation of six hundred crowns of gold, sent them the image of St. Michael, together with the golden chain that he had himself worn upon his neck; and directed that the three escalop sh.e.l.ls, formerly borne upon the abbatial s.h.i.+eld, should be enriched by the addition of four others, and three lilies. Nor satisfied with this, he, six years afterwards, still further testified his devotion, by various privileges granted to the community, and by the inst.i.tution of the n.o.ble military order of St. Michael,[217]

whose collar was composed of silver escalop sh.e.l.ls, while the medal bore a representation of the archangel trampling upon the dragon, with the legend, "Immensi tremor oceani."--Even in this enlightened age, the concourse of pilgrims to the mount is by no means at an end: they are still to be seen repairing to the church; and, if the female Druids have ceased for many a century to sell to the sailors their enchanted arrows, of power to still the angry ocean, when hurled into its waves by a maiden hand, the Pythonesses of the present day find a no less plentiful source of emolument in their chaplets, and rosaries, and crosses, and medals, of St. Michael. The annals of the world abound in details of the changes of form and feature which superst.i.tion has a.s.sumed in different ages; but it is humiliating to human nature to reflect, that the conquests obtained by philosophy over her great adversary, are in reality very small. Superst.i.tion, like the fabled Proteus, appears under an endless variety of forms; but she is also, like the G.o.d, still one and the same.

The list of abbots of St. Michael's Mount, contains names of the highest consequence in France: the Cardinal d'Estouteville, and the still more ill.u.s.trious Cardinal de Joyeuse, Henry of Lorraine, son of the Duke de Guise, and Charles Maurice, of the n.o.ble family of Broglio, have, in times comparatively modern, presided over the community. The privileges and honorary distinctions attached to the office, were also considerable. The names of the superiors of the monastery stand recorded on various occasions, as men selected for important trusts; and they were formally empowered, by a bull of Pope Clement VII. dated from Avignon, to bestow the benediction, even in the church of Avranches, and in the presence of the bishop or the metropolitan himself, and to wear the mitre, and all other episcopal insignia. The powers and immunities of the convent were likewise extensive and important. Its annual income was estimated by the author of the _Alien Priories_, in the middle of the last century, at forty thousand livres; but it is at the same time stated in that work, that, at an earlier period, it was far more considerable. Among the transmarine possessions of the abbey, was its namesake in Cornwall, which was annexed to it by Robert, Earl of Moreton and Cornwall, before the year 1085, and was also renowned for its sanct.i.ty at a very remote epoch. The coincidence in form and situation between the two is most remarkable.

St. Michael's Mount, in Normandy, is situated near the extremity of the province, towards Brittany; to the south of Granville, the south-west of Avranches, and the north of Pontorson and Dol. It is a conical ma.s.s of granite, which, from a base of about one-fourth of a league in circ.u.mference, towers to the height of above four hundred feet, including the buildings that crown its summit. It stands insulated and alone, except the neighboring rock of Tombeleine, in the midst of a dreary level of white sand, that presents a surface of more than twelve square leagues, extending on all sides, almost as far as the eye can reach, and unvaried, unless where it is intersected with branches of different rivers. The whole of this s.p.a.ce is at high water entirely covered with the sea, while the receding tide leaves it bare; yet still so, that it is difficult and dangerous to traverse it without a guide.

The base of the mount is surrounded with high thick walls, flanked with semi-circular towers all machicolated, and bastions. Towards the west and north, its sides present only steep, black, bare, pointed rocks: the portions that lie in an opposite direction, incline in a comparatively easy slope, and are covered with houses that follow in successive lines, leaving but a scanty s.p.a.ce for some small gardens, in which the vine, the fig-tree, and the almond, flourish in great luxuriance. The walls of the castellated abbey impend, and jut out in bold decided ma.s.ses; and the whole is crowned by the florid choir of the abbey church. The architects of the latter time seemed to have wished to adapt this glorious building to its site. All its divisions of parts, windows, and pinnacles, are narrower and more lofty than usual; and the projections are bolder, so as to be distinctly visible from below. The stranger is admitted to the mount by a gate, of the time of Louis XII. or Francis I.

He proceeds along the walls, which continue leading upwards; and, traversing desolate towers, and staircases above staircases, hanging on the sides of the rock, all forlorn, gra.s.sy, and mouldering, he is conducted to the gate of the abbey. The outside of the first gate-way has round towers: the second has a pointed arch. One pile of buildings has a row of small arches round the top. The present population of the town amounts to about two hundred and fifty inhabitants, who derive their chief support from the fishery.

Of the church itself, a view is given in the Bayeux tapestry; rude indeed, but curious, as coeval.--The following is a short chronological summary of the princ.i.p.al events connected with the building:--

In 1103, the roof fell in, and involved in its ruins a portion of the dormitory.

Ten years afterwards, on the twenty-third of April, 1113, the lightning set fire to the abbey, which was wholly consumed, except the crypt and the great columns of the nave, and some other parts of the church.

Roger, then abbot, repaired the injury, rebuilding the refectory and the dormitory, and the splendid apartment, called the Knights' Hall.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plate 96. MOUNT ST. MICHAEL.

_Interior of the Knights' Hall._]

Bernard, who was abbot from 1135 to 1140, rebuilt the north part of the church, and erected the tower between the nave and the choir.

Of the works done at the beginning of the thirteenth century, in consequence of the injuries received by the church during the wars of Philip-Augustus, no particulars are preserved. It is only said in general terms, that they were considerable.

Richard Turstin, abbot in 1275, began buildings upon an extensive scale, between the extremity of the cloisters and the barracks.

On the thirteenth of July, 1300, the lightning again struck the church, and great part of it was burned, and the bells melted, and many houses in the town reduced to ashes.

The chapel of St. John the Evangelist was added by John De la Porte, the twenty-seventh abbot, who died in 1334.

In 1350, a fresh injury was sustained from a tempest; but so great was the zeal employed in repairing it, that the monastery is said to have been, a very short time subsequently, in a better state than it had almost ever been before: it raised its head, however, above these misfortunes, only to experience new ones, and from the same source, in 1370. The damage was then greater, but was soon repaired; and the chapel of St. Catherine was erected. This happened during the prelacy of Geoffrey de Servin. Peter le Roy, the following abbot, is ranked among the greatest benefactors to the convent: no one contributed more to the diffusion of its fame, or the increase of learning within its precincts; but he does not appear to have done any thing to its buildings. His successor, Robert Jolivet, surrounded the mount with the walls and towers that now remain, with the view of defending it against the English, whom he afterwards joined.

In 1421, the whole roof of the choir fell in. The foundations of the new choir, the remains of which are now standing, were laid by the Cardinal d'Estouteville, in 1452; and he continued the work till his death, which happened thirty years afterwards. During his prelacy, the chapels of the choir were completed, and roofed with lead; and the choir and the columns that surround the high altar, were raised to the height of the chapels.

In 1509, another accident arose from lightning: the steeple, and the bells, and the wood-work of the nave, were destroyed; but the damage was soon repaired by William de Lamps, then abbot, who also built the abbatial palace and alms-house, and raised the part of the church that was unfinished, as high as the second tier of windows.--The choir was completed under the prelacy of his brother, John de Lamps, who was next but one to him in the succession, and wore the mitre from 1513 to 1523.

From that time forward, till the period of the revolution, the abbacy of St. Michael's Mount was held in commendam; and the abbots, regardless of a charge in which they did not feel themselves personally concerned, ceased to bestow care or expense upon the buildings. Some of them even refused to do the necessary repairs; and more than one instance is on record, where they resisted the decrees of the Norman parliament to that effect.

From the preceding details, it will easily be imagined, that the church upon St. Michael's Mount can scarcely fail to present a medley of different kinds of architecture. Two, however, predominate: in the choir, which was finished at the beginning of the sixteenth century, all is pointed and lofty: the naves and transepts are Norman. Beneath are crypts, which extend under every part of the church, supported upon short columns with capitals of foliage, &c. the arches mostly ribbed, and circular.

The shortening of the nave has destroyed the western front. The cloister, according to the observations of a friend of the author, is strangely moresque in its appearance. The position of the pillars in it he regards as quite unique.

The Knights' Hall, (see _plate ninety-six_,) is an arched chamber, ninety-eight feet in length, by sixty-eight in width, n.o.ble and church-like in its aspect. Its groined stone roof rests upon eighteen cylindrical columns, with bases and capitals; the latter, in very high relief, of beautiful design and delicate execution.

NOTES:

[213] It may be allowed, that this idea receives a certain degree of confirmation from the present name of the neighboring rock, _Tombeleine_, the natural derivation of which appears to be _Tumba Beleni_.

[214] The tradition of the mount speaks of the monster that haunted the drowned forest; and when the author's friend, Mr. Cohen, visited St.