How France Built Her Cathedrals: A Study in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries

Cathedral of Noyon, first built of Gothic cathedrals (c. 1150)--Noyon's communal charter, the first of known date, 1109--Cathedral's nave, a vessel of most perfect proportion--Exceptional among French cathedrals, its transept's rounded ends--Noyon has retained its annexes--Its chapter house, built about 1240--Noyon city destroyed, 1918--Cathedral still stands.

Cathedral of Senlis, second of the Gothic cathedrals, begun about 1153--Sculpture at Senlis' west portal (c. 1180) marks a date in imagery--Cathedral tower, the "pride of the Valois land"--Transept's façades of the best Flamboyant Gothic art--What the World War did to Senlis.

Cathedral of Sens, begun about 1160--Sens' ancient see, governed by notable men in the XII and XIII centuries--How they found out who was the architect of the cathedral--St. Thomas Becket in Sens, 1164, and again from 1166 to 1170--St. Louis married in Sens Cathedral, 1234--Glory of Sens' stained glass.

Cathedral of Laon, begun about 1160--Fallacy of the "town-hall" theory--Cathedral of springtime foliage--Oxen on Laon's towers--Origin of the square east end of Laon Cathedral--Laon's communal struggle--Famous XII-century school of Anselm de Laon--Laon city shelled by the French, but its cathedral unhurt.

Cathedral of Soissons almost a ruin--Desolation of Soissons in World War--Soissons' southern arm of transept ends in a hemicycle (c. 1180)--Is the most exquisite thing in France--The crusading bishop-builder, Nivelon de Chérisy.

Some important Primary Gothic churches: Abbatial of St. Remi at Rheims (c. 1170)--Its superb XII-century glass wrecked in the World War--Abbatial of Notre Dame at Châlons-sur-Marne (c. 1160)--Pioneer in fenestration--First to use pillars between chapels and ambulatory--Church of St. Quiriace at Provins (c. 1160)--Provins, residence of the counts of Champagne--Its international fairs frequented by mediæval Europe--Collegiate of St. Yved, at Braine (c. 1200), between Primary Gothic and the Era of Great Cathedrals--Individual plan of its choir-chapels--St. Leu d'Esserent, on the Oise, the best type of the small churches in the classic Ile-de-France--Its forechurch shows transition work (c. 1150)--Primary Gothic work to be found at Étampes, Vendôme, Fécamp, Rouen, Lisieux, Angers, Mantes, Paris.

IV. NOTRE DAME OF PARIS AND OTHER CHURCHES OF THE CAPITAL 126

Notre Dame, begun in 1163--Its exterior unsurpassed, the west façade a classic--Scholastic training of its bishop-builders--_Summa_ of the supreme scholastic, Aquinas, like a Gothic cathedral--Thirty thousand students then in Paris University--Bishop Maurice de Sully (1160-96) built Notre Dame--Bishop Eudes de Sully made the portals of the west façade--Bishop Pierre de Nemours died a crusader, before Damietta, 1219--Bishop Guillaume d'Auvergne finished the north tower (1228-49)--All the prelates building Paris Cathedral good and able men--Their sincerity lives in its stones--First architect unknown--Jean and Pierre de Chelles made the transept and apse chapels--Sculpture of Notre Dame masterly--Sainte-Chapelle built by St. Louis, 1246 to 1248--St. Julien-le-Pauvre a contemporary of Notre Dame's choir (c. 1180)--Same noble sculptured capitals--Three Benedictine abbey churches of Paris show early trials of Gothic vaulting--St. Germain-des-Prés, St. Martin-des-Champs, St. Pierre-de-Montmartre--St. Louis and his friend, Joinville--Louis IX illuminated his kingdom with fair churches--On his first crusade spent five years in the East, 1248 to 1259--From 1254 to 1270 worked for his people--Death of St. Louis on the crusade of 1270--His characteristics: justice, pity, other-worldliness--Inimitable charm of Joinville's _Histoire de St. Louis_--Describes his friendship with the king in Palestine--Joinville's old age and death in 1319.

Mantes' collegiate of Notre Dame is Primary Gothic--A contemporary of Paris Cathedral--Perhaps by the same architect--Its chapel of Navarre one of the best works of Rayonnant Gothic.

Meaux Cathedral, a difficult architectural page to decipher, owing to reconstruction--Begun in 1170, but rebuilt radically after 1270--Bossuet, its greatest bishop (1681 to 1704)--Meaux, the cathedral for the Te Deum of victory--Battle of the Marne, 1914, waged at the city gates.

V. ERA OF THE GREAT CATHEDRALS: CHARTRES, RHEIMS, AMIENS 169

Cathedral of Chartres--Bishop Fulbert's Romanesque Notre Dame burned in 1194--His vast crypt, of 1020, still exists--Bishop Geoffrey de Lèves built the tower of Chartres, called the most beautiful in the world (1145)--Making of the three western portals (c. 1155)--Gothic cathedral begun after the fire of 1194--Primary Gothic west façade escaped the fire--Jehan de Beauce crowned the northwest tower, 1506 to 1513--Sculpture of the transept portals and porches, 1220 to 1260--Chartres excels all cathedrals in the wealth of its stained glass, chiefly of the XII and XIII centuries.

Cathedral of Rheims, begun by the crusader, Bishop Albéric de Humbert, 1211--Its architects recorded in the pavement labyrinth--Its west façade the culmination of Gothic art--Coronation of Charles VII in 1429, Jeanne d'Arc present--Astounding sculptural wealth of this "Cathedral of the Angels"--Martyrdom of Rheims in the World War.

Cathedral of Amiens, the Parthenon of Gothic art--Bishop Evrard de Fouilloy began it, 1220--Designed by Robert de Lusarches--Its sculpture the peer of Rheims and Chartres--Its portal of the Vierge Dorée (c. 1280).

VI. SIX OF THE LESSER GREAT CATHEDRALS: BOURGES, BEAUVAIS, TROYES, TOURS, LYONS, LE MANS 211

Cathedral of Bourges--Only XIII-century cathedral without a transept--Inner aisle has its own triforium and clearstory--Chevet built by St. Guillaume, 1200 to 1209--Over main portal is best Last Judgment (c. 1275)--Bourges famous for its stained glass--Jean, duc de Berry, and Jacques Coeur, the late-Gothic art patrons of Bourges--Their gifts to the cathedral--Orléans Cathedral destroyed by Calvinists (note).

Cathedral of Beauvais--A mighty fragment: only a choir and transept--Begun in 1247, derived directly from Amiens--Transept façades masterpieces of late-Gothic--Is Flamboyant Gothic of English origin?--Le Prince family of glassmakers.

Cathedral of Troyes--Its choir built by Bishop Hervé, 1206 to 1226--Martin Chambiges designed the Flamboyant west façade--Magnificent XIII- and XIV-century windows of Troyes Cathedral--St. Urbain's church begun by Pope Urban IV in 1262--Carried the Gothic principle of equilibrium to its limit--Churches of Troyes treasure-houses of stained glass and sculpture--Cultivated court of Champagne's rulers--To the Gothic school of Champagne belongs the Cathedral of Châlons-sur-Marne--Châlons another center for stained glass.

Cathedral of Tours--Choir begun about 1210--Has the classic note of the Touraine landscape--Cathedral windows set up between 1260 and 1270--Venerable ecclesiastical souvenirs of Tours--Tours, the center for the Region-of-the-Loire school of sculpture--Michel Colombe, last of the great Gothic artists, worked here--Environs of the city rich in Flamboyant Gothic.

Cathedral of Lyons--Lyons boasts an apostolic succession for its bishops--Early Christian martyrs of Rome's chief city in Gaul--St. Martin d'Ainay's abbatial dedicated in 1107--Cathedral choir late XII century--With Vienne Cathedral (note) it alone in France used incrustations--Nave of Lyons Cathedral building through the XIII century--Stained glass of Lyons of exceptional quality--All Christendom was represented at the Ecumenical Council held in Lyons Cathedral in 1274--Church of Brou built by Marguerite of Austria (note)--Moulins Cathedral and Souvigny's abbatial and tombs (notes).

Cathedral of Le Mans--XII-century nave built by notable prelates--Bishop Hildebert de Lavardin (1097 to 1125) a poet and scholar--Guillaume de Passavent made the Angevin vaults (c. 1150)--Geoffrey the Handsome, nicknamed Plantagenet, and his son, Henry II of England, born in Le Mans--Trinité church at Vendôme (note)--Le Mans' Gothic choir built from 1218 to 1254 by Bishop Geoffrey de Loudon--Le Mans ranks next to Chartres and Bourges for its wealth of stained glass--Rayonnant-Flamboyant transept of the XIV and XV centuries--The groups at Solesmes a final expression of Gothic sculpture (1495 to 1550)--Collegiate church at St. Quentin, in size a cathedral, XIII-century choir--Villard de Honnecourt, probably the architect of St. Quentin.

VII. PLANTAGENET GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE 285

Plantagenet Gothic fused the cupola of Aquitaine and the diagonals of north--Lasted a hundred years, from 1150 to 1250--For clearness divided into three periods: I. Heavy diagonals, II. Eight slight branches, III. Multiple ribs--English fan tracery a derivation of Angevin Gothic.

Cupola churches of Aquitaine: St. Front at Périgieux, begun after a fire, 1120, and finished by 1180--Cahors Cathedral has Romanesque portal of beauty (note)--Cathedral of Angoulême, begun 1109--Its façade a notable page of French decoration--Rich façades distinguish Poitou's Romanesque school--Fontevrault abbey church, built in the first half of the XII century--Plantagenet tombs at Fontevrault--Aliénor of Aquitaine buried there in 1204 beside her husband, Henry II, and her son, Richard Coeur-de-Lion--Aliénor's descendants notable builders of churches.

Cathedral of Angers--Its nave vaulted with First-Period diagonals, about 1150--Anjou rulers a remarkable race--Fulk Nerra, the great builder, died 1040--Choir of Angers Cathedral extended after 1274--In the nave is XII-century glass of St. Denis derivation--Cathedral's Apocalypse tapestries--Fortress of Angers, built by St. Louis, 1228 to 1238--Church of Toussaint had a ramified vault of the Third Period--St. Jean's hospital hall, endowed by Henry II, a gem of Plantagenet art--Choir of St. Serge, 1220 to 1225, a masterpiece of lightness.

Saumur--Another center for the study of Plantagenet Gothic--Historical fête called the Non-Pareille took place in its castle in 1241--St. Pierre's church shows different kinds of Angevin vaults--Church of St. Martin at Candes, a Plantagenet masterpiece--St. Florent-les-Saumur shows one of the first eight-branch vaults--Puy-Notre-Dame and Asnières beautiful examples of Plantagenet art (note)--Plantagenet vaults at Le Mans, Vendôme, Chinon, and Tours.

Cathedral of Poitiers, begun by Henry Plantagenet and Aliénor of Aquitaine, 1160--In adopting the gracious Plantagenet vaulting it remained true to Poitou's Romanesque traditions--XII-century Crucifixion window the most glorious in the world--Spirit of Poitiers' bishops, St. Hilary and Fortunatus, inspired it--Church of Ste. Radégonde is Plantagenet vaulted--St. Hilaire's abbatial has curious octagonal cupolas--St. Jean's baptistry, the oldest building in France, dating from the IV century--Clement V at Poitiers in 1307 carried on the Templars' process--Hall of the count's palace rebuilt by Duke Jean de Berry--Jeanne d'Arc examined there in 1429, found to be sent of God.