Rheims and the Battles for its Possession Part 15

Although the transept dates from the 11th century, its southern facade was built in 1480 by Robert de Lenoncourt.

The doorway, which bears the Lenoncourt arms, comprises only one door, divided by a pillar with statues of St. Remi and the Virgin.

The deep vaulting of the door is ornamented with vine-foliage. At the base, in the supporting walls, are statues of St. Sixtus and St.

Sinicius (the first missionaries to Rheims) bare-footed, clothed in long embroidered mantles and holding books. In the vaulting above the head-covering of the missionaries are eight groups of statuettes representing episodes in the Life and Pa.s.sion of Jesus.

Tourists who follow the Itinerary on page 95, come out by the Rue St.

Julien, in front of the doorway of the south transept. The latter is between the ruined apse (_on the right_) and the south lateral facade (_on the left_).

[Ill.u.s.tration: SOUTHERN TRANSEPT OF ST. REMI CHURCH]

[Ill.u.s.tration: DOORWAY OF THE SOUTHERN TRANSEPT (_see photo, p. 104_)]

The 15th century leaves of the door are composed of wood panels in blind arcading, ornamented with flowering clover.

On the b.u.t.tresses which frame the doorway are five statues of saints, including St. Remi, St. Benedict, and St. Christopher carrying a kneeling Jesus on his shoulder.

The tympanum of the gable above the great flamboyant window is arranged on a Gothic pediment. Its decoration represents the _a.s.sumption of the Virgin and her crowning in Heaven_.

On the top of the pediment, and crowning the whole, is St. Michael trampling Satan underfoot.

The whole of the doorway is a beautiful example of Flamboyant Gothic.

Its rich carvings and delicate ornamentation are in striking contrast with the severity of the rest of the building.

At the intersection of the transept, there was formerly a wooden spire, built in 1394, which was pulled down as unsafe in 1825, by order of those who had charge of the arrangements connected with the consecration of Charles X.

On the right-hand side of the transept, and also in the north transept, are small semi-circular chapels.

=South Lateral Facade=

This front has the bare, ma.s.sive appearance of the 11th century buildings. The remarkable Roman arches, ma.s.sive b.u.t.tresses and blind doorway, framed by two primitive capitals with a wreath-shaped astragal, are apparently vestiges of constructions of an earlier date than those of Abbot Thierry.

The semi-cylindrical abutments are among the oldest of mediaeval b.u.t.tresses. They are crowned with cones or capitals, the greater part of which are devoid of decoration.

=The West Front of St. Remi Church=

[Ill.u.s.tration (St. Remi Church)]

Between its two towers, this gabled facade, the recesses and blind arcading of which form almost its sole decoration, is in strong contrast with the princ.i.p.al facade of the Cathedral. At once elegant and severe, like most of the monastic buildings of the 12th century, it lacks unity.

All that part situated above the five windows of the first storey, including the rose-window, has been rebuilt in modern times. The very simple rose-window, between two lines of superimposed arcading, is protected, in the Champagne style, by a relieving-arch. The northern tower (_on the left_) was almost entirely rebuilt in the 19th century, on the lines of the old one. The simpler southern tower (_on the right_), with its arched windows and loopholes, is Roman of the 11th or 12th century. The pointed part of the facade is late 12th century, and dates from the time of the restorations by Pierre de Celle.

Three doors open on the nave. The central one is flanked by two columns with statues of St. Peter and St. Remi. The marble and granite columns came, no doubt, from some neighbouring Gallo-Roman building. These statues, with arms pressed close to their sides in the ancient stiff manner, are probably from the original basilicas.

=The Inner Side of the Western Doorway=

Here, the architecture is peculiar. Pierced columns form a gallery connecting the upper courses. The galleries of the first storey are supported by two great columnar shafts, each formed of two portions joined by a stone ring and surmounted by bell-shaped marble capitals.

The columns and capitals are Gallo-Roman.

=The Nave=

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE NAVE (_seen from the Choir_) (_Cliche LL._)]

Alterations were made at different times to the nave which, in the 11th century, had a timber-work roof. Pierre de Celle lengthened it by two bays, the pointed arches of which contrast with the circular ones of the lower bays, and also increased its height. _Note the ogives above the round arches._ The visible timber-work was replaced with vaulting on diagonal ribs sustained by cl.u.s.ters of small Gothic columns backing up against the Roman piers, the latter being still visible. These heavy piers (composed of fourteen small columns) which surround the central nave, and whose capitals (_photo, p. 108_), with Barbaric wreathed astragals and foliage, recall the Carolingian period, contrast strikingly with the lightness of the apse. They are undoubtedly 11th century. All the stone vaulting of the nave, as far as the transept, was replaced after 1839 with wood and plaster, which collapsed under the bombardments of 1918, when the roof was burnt.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ROMAN CAPITAL IN THE NAVE]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE NAVE AND CHOIR IN 1914 (_Cliche LL._)]

The pulpit, with its Benedictine monogram, is late 17th century. It is ornamented with three bas-reliefs: _St. Remi receiving the Sacred Ampulla_, _St. Benedict imploring the Holy Spirit_, and _St. Benedict giving the Injunction to his monks_. As far as the pulpit, on both sides of the nave, the granite columns resting on the piers date from the Gallo-Roman period.

[Ill.u.s.tration: TRIFORIUM OF ST. REMI CHURCH (_seen from entrance_)]

The side-aisles of the nave are surmounted with a triforium (_photo above_) with semi-circular vaulting at right-angles to the nave. The south aisle is almost entirely in ruins (_photo, p. 107_).

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE NAVE AND CHOIR IN 1919]

=The Tapestries=

The priceless tapestries which, before the war, decorated the tribunals of the side-aisles, were saved.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE TENTH TAPESTRY OF ST. REMI, DAMAGED BY Sh.e.l.l-SPLINTERS ON SEPT. 4, 1914 (_See description, pp. 110, 111._)]

Those given by Robert de Lenoncourt and restored by _Les Gobelins_, are rich in composition and decorative effect. In an architectural frame of the Renaissance period, they represent the following legendary scenes from the life of St. Remi, the costumes belonging to the period of Francois I.:--

1. The blind hermit Monta.n.u.s visits the new-born Remi, who, touching him with his fingers wet with milk, restores his sight.

2. The hermit St. Remi, called by the people to the bishopric, receives the mitre.

3. Four miracles are performed by the saint: he extinguishes a fire lighted by demons in the city; he restores life to a girl; he is served at table by angels; when wine ran short at the table of his cousin Celsa, he blessed an empty cask, which was immediately filled.

4. The Battle of Tolbiac; Clovis instructed and baptized by Remi; the miraculous dove and an angel bring from heaven the Sacred Ampulla and the fleur-de-lys scutcheon.

5. Remi gives Clovis a cask of wine, telling him that he will always be victorious so long as the cask remains full; a miller who refused to give his mill to the Church, sees his wheel turn the wrong way and his mill fall down; St. Genebaud, Bishop of Soissons, punished by Remi for his sins, is afterwards delivered from his fetters by the saint.

6. The miracle of Hydrissen: Remi raises a man from the dead, who confirms his wish to leave a portion of his wealth to the Church, to the confusion of his son-in-law who contested the will.

7. Remi contemplating a heap of corn which he had collected to provide against famine, and which some drunkards had burnt. At a Council, Remi paralyses the tongue of a heretic priest, and then restores speech to him after repentance.

8. Remi, singing Matins in the chapel of the Virgin, is a.s.sisted by St.

Peter and St. Paul and blessed by Mary. Remi, blind, dictates his will in the presence of St. Genebaud and St. Medard. Remi recovers his sight, celebrates ma.s.s and gives the Communion to his clergy. Remi dies and four angels carry away his soul.

9. Remi's funeral; the procession goes towards the church of St.

Timothy, where it is proposed to bury the saint, but in front of St.