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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/15067-8.txt b/15067-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3a8c130 --- /dev/null +++ b/15067-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,14124 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Cathedral, by Joris-Karl Huysmans + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Cathedral + +Author: Joris-Karl Huysmans + +Release Date: February 15, 2005 [EBook #15067] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CATHEDRAL *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Cori Samuel and the PG Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + + + + + +J.K. Huysmans + + +THE CATHEDRAL + + +Translated by Clara Bell + + +_Publishing History_ +First published in France in 1898 +First English edition in 1898 + + + + +THE CATHEDRAL. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +At Chartres, as you turn out of the little market-place, which is swept +in all weathers by the surly wind from the flats, a mild air as of a +cellar, made heavy by a soft, almost smothered scent of oil, puffs in +your face on entering the solemn gloom of the sheltering forest. + +Durtal knew it well, and the delightful moment when he could take +breath, still half-stunned by the sudden change from a stinging north +wind to a velvety airy caress. At five every morning he left his rooms, +and to reach the covert of that strange forest he had to cross the +square; the same figures were always to be seen at the turnings from the +same streets; nuns with bowed heads, leaning forward, the borders of +their caps blown back and flapping like wings, the wind whirling in +their skirts, which they could hardly hold down; and shrunken women, in +garments they hugged round them, struggling forward with bent shoulders +lashed by the gusts. + +Never at that hour had he seen anybody walking boldly upright, without +straining her neck and bowing her head; and these scattered women +gathered by degrees into two long lines, one of them turning to the +left, to vanish under a lighted porch opening to a lower level than the +square; the other going straight on, to be swallowed up in the darkness +by an invisible wall. + +Closing the procession came a few belated priests, hurrying on, with one +hand gathering up the gown that ballooned behind them, and with the +other clutching their hats, or snatching at the breviary that was +slipping from under one arm, their faces hidden on their breast, to +plough through the wind with the back of their neck; with red ears, eyes +blinded with tears, clinging desperately, when it rained, to umbrellas +that swayed above them, threatening to lift them from the ground and +dragging them in every direction. + +The passage had been more than usually stormy this morning; the squalls +that tear across the district of La Beauce, where nothing can check +them, had been bellowing for hours; there had been rain, and the puddles +splashed under foot. It was difficult to see, and Durtal had begun to +think that he should never succeed in getting past the dim mass of the +wall that shut in the square, by pushing open the door behind which lay +that weird forest, redolent of the night-lamp and the tomb, and +protected from the gale. + +He sighed with satisfaction, and followed the wide path that led through +the gloom. Though he knew his way, he walked cautiously in this alley, +bordered by enormous trunks, their crowns lost in shadow. He could have +fancied himself in a hothouse roofed with black glass, for there were +flagstones under foot, and no sky could be seen, no breeze could stir +overhead. The few stars whose glimmer twinkled from afar belonged to our +firmament; they quivered almost on the ground, and were, in fact, +earth-born. + +In this obscurity nothing was to be heard but the fall of quiet feet, +nothing to be seen but silent shades visible against the twilight like +shapes of deeper darkness. + +Durtal presently turned into another wide walk crossing that he had +left. There he found a bench backed by the trunk of a tree, and on this +he leaned, waiting till the Mother should awake, and the sweet interview +interrupted yesterday by the close of the day should begin again. + +He thought of the Virgin, whose watchful care had so often preserved him +from unexpected risk, easy slips, or greater falls. Was not She the +bottomless Well of goodness, the Bestower of the gifts of good Patience, +the Opener of dry and obdurate hearts? Was She not, above all, the +living and thrice Blessed Mother? + +Bending for ever over the squalid bed of the soul, she washed the sores, +dressed the wounds, strengthened the fainting weakness of converts. +Through all the ages She was the eternal supplicant, eternally +entreated; at once merciful and thankful; merciful to the woes She +alleviated, and thankful to them too. She was indeed our debtor for our +sins, since, but for the wickedness of man, Jesus would never have been +born under the corrupt semblance of our image, and She would not have +been the immaculate Mother of God. Thus our woe was the first cause of +Her joy; and this supremest good resulting from the very excess of Evil, +this touching though superfluous bond, linking us to Her, was indeed the +most bewildering of mysteries; for Her gratitude would seem unneeded, +since Her inexhaustible mercy was enough to attach Her to us for ever. + +Thenceforth, in Her immense humility, She had at various times +condescended to the masses; She had appeared in the most remote spots, +sometimes seeming to rise from the earth, sometimes floating over the +abyss, descending on solitary mountain peaks, bringing multitudes to Her +feet, and working cures; then, as if weary of wandering to be adored, +She wished--so it had seemed--to fix the worship in one place, and had +deserted Her ancient haunts in favour of Lourdes. + +That town was the second stage of Her progress through France in the +nineteenth century. Her first visit was to La Salette. + +This was years ago. On the 19th of September, 1846, the Virgin had +appeared to two children on a hill; it was a Saturday, the day dedicated +to Her, which, that year, was a fast day by reason of the Ember week. By +another coincidence, this Saturday was the eve of the Festival of Our +Lady of Seven Dolours, and the first vespers were being chanted when +Mary appeared as from a shell of glory just above the ground. + +And she appeared as Our Lady of Tears in that desert landscape of +stubborn rocks and dismal hills. Weeping bitterly, She had uttered +reproofs and threats; and a spring, which never in the memory of man had +flowed excepting at the melting of the snows, had never since been dried +up. + +The fame of this event spread far and wide; frantic thousands scrambled +up fearful paths to a spot so high that trees could not grow there. +Caravans of the sick and dying were conveyed, God knows how, across +ravines to drink the water; and maimed limbs recovered, and tumours +melted away to the chanting of canticles. + +Then, by degrees, after the sordid debates of a contemptible lawsuit, +the reputation of La Salette dwindled to nothing; pilgrims were few, +miracles were less often proclaimed. The Virgin, it would seem, was +gone; She had ceased to care for this spring of piety and these +mountains. + +At the present day few persons climb to La Salette but the natives of +Dauphiné, tourists wandering through the Alps, or invalids following the +cure at the neighbouring mineral springs of La Mothe. Conversions and +spiritual graces still abound there, but bodily healing there is next to +none. + +"In fact," said Durtal to himself, "the vision at La Salette became +famous without its ever being known exactly why. It may be supposed to +have grown up as follows: the report, confined at first to the village +of Corps at the foot of the mountain, spread first throughout the +department, was taken up by the adjacent provinces, filtered over all +France, overflowed the frontier, trickled through Europe, and at last +crossed the seas to land in the New World which, in its turn, felt the +throb, and also came to this wilderness to hail the Virgin. + +"And the circumstances attending these pilgrimages were such as might +have daunted the determination of the most persevering. To reach the +little inn, perched on high near the church, the lazy rumbling of slow +trains must be endured for hours, and constant changes at stations; days +must be spent in the diligence, and nights in breeding-places of fleas +at country inns; and after flaying your back on the carding-combs of +impossible beds, you must rise at daybreak to start on a giddy climb, on +foot or riding a mule, up zig-zag bridle-paths above precipices; and at +last, when you are there, there are no fir trees, no beeches, no +pastures, no torrents; nothing--nothing but total solitude, and silence +unbroken even by the cry of a bird, for at that height no bird is to be +found. + +"What a scene!" thought Durtal, calling up the memories of a journey he +had made with the Abbé Gévresin and his housekeeper, since leaving La +Trappe. He remembered the horrors of a spot he had passed between Saint +Georges de Commiers and La Mure, and his alarm in the carriage as the +train slowly travelled across the abyss. Beneath was darkness increasing +in spirals down to the vasty deeps; above, as far as the eye could +reach, piles of mountains invaded the sky. + +The train toiled up, snorting and turning round and round like a top; +then, going into a tunnel, was swallowed by the earth; it seemed to be +pushing the light of day away in front, till it suddenly came out into a +clearing full of sunshine; presently, as if it were retracing its road, +it rushed into another burrow, and emerged with the strident yell of a +steam whistle and deafening clatter of wheels, to fly up the winding +ribbon of road cut in the living rock. + +Suddenly the peaks parted, a wide opening brought the train out into +broad daylight; the scene lay clear before them, terrible on all sides. + +"Le Drac!" exclaimed the Abbé Gévresin, pointing to a sort of liquid +serpent at the bottom of the precipice, writhing and tossing between +rocks in the very jaws of the pit. + +For now and again the reptile flung itself up on points of stone that +rent it as it passed; the waters changed as though poisoned by these +fangs; they lost their steely hue, and whitened with foam like a bran +bath; then the Drac hurried on faster, faster, flinging itself into the +shadowy gorge; lingered again on gravelly reaches, wallowing in the sun; +presently it gathered up its scattered rivulets and went on its way, +scaly with scum like the iridescent dross on boiling lead, till, far +away, the rippling rings spread and vanished, skinned and leaving behind +them on the banks a white granulated cuticle of pebbles, a hide of dry +sand. + +Durtal, as he leaned out of the carriage window, looked straight down +into the gulf; on this narrow way with only one line of rails, the train +on one side was close to the towering hewn rock, and on the other was +the void. Great God! if it should run off the rails! "What a hash!" +thought he. + +And what was not less overwhelming than the appalling depth of the abyss +was, as he looked up, the sight of the furious, frenzied assault of the +peaks. Thus, in that carriage, he was literally between the earth and +sky, and the ground over which it was moving was invisible, being +covered for its whole width by the body of the train. + +On they went, suspended in mid-air at a giddy height, along interminable +balconies without parapets; and below, the cliffs dropped +avalanche-like, fell straight, bare, without a patch of vegetation or a +tree. In places they looked as if they had been split down by the blows +of an axe--huge growths of petrified wood; in others they seemed sawn +through shaley layers of slate. + +And all round lay a wide amphitheatre of endless mountains, hiding the +heavens, piled one above another, barring the way to the travelling +clouds, stopping the onward march of the sky. + +Some made a good show with their jagged grey crests, huge masses of +oyster shells; others, with scorched summits, like burnt pyramids of +coke, were green half-way up. These bristled with pine woods to the very +edge of the precipices, and they were scarred too with white +crosses--the high roads, dotted in places with Nuremberg dogs, +red-roofed hamlets, sheepfolds that seemed on the verge of tumbling +headlong, clinging on--how, it was impossible to guess, and flung here +and there on patches of green carpet glued on to the steep hill-sides; +while other peaks towered higher still, like vast calcined hay-cocks, +with doubtfully dead craters still brooding internal fires, and trailing +smoky clouds which, as they blew off, really seemed to be coming out of +their summits. + +The landscape was ominous; the sight of it was strangely discomfiting; +perhaps because it impugned the sense of the infinite that lurks within +us. The firmament was no more than a detail, cast aside like needless +rubbish on the desert peaks of the hills. The abyss was the +all-important fact; it made the sky look small and trivial, substituting +the magnificence of its depths for the grandeur of eternal space. + +The eye, in fact, turned away with disappointment from the sky, which +had lost its infinitude of depth, its immeasurable breadth, for the +mountains seemed to touch it, pierce it, and uphold it; they cut it up, +sawing it with the jagged teeth of their pinnacles, showing mere +tattered skirts of blue and rags of cloud. + +The eye was involuntarily attracted to the ravines, and the head swam at +the sight of those, vast pits of blackness. This immensity in the wrong +place, stolen from above and cast into the depths, was horrible. + +The Abbé had said that the Drac was one of the most formidable torrents +in France; at the moment it was dormant, almost dry; but when the +season of snows and storms comes it wakes up and flashes like a tide of +silver, hisses and tosses, foams and leaps, and can in an instant +swallow up villages and dams. + +"It is hideous," thought Durtal. "That bilious flood must carry fevers +with it; it is accursed and rotten with its soapy foam-flakes, its +metallic hues, its scrap of rainbow-colour stranded in the mud." + +Durtal now thought over all these details; as he closed his eyes he +could see the Drac and La Salette. + +"Ah!" thought he, "they may well be proud of the pilgrims who venture to +those desolate regions to pray where the vision actually appeared, for +when once they are there they are packed on a little plot of ground no +bigger than the Place Saint Sulpice, hemmed in on one side by a church +of rough stone daubed with cement of the colour of Valbonnais mustard, +and on the other by a graveyard. The horizon is a circle of cones, of +dry scoriæ, like pumice, or covered with short grass; above them, the +glassy slope of perpetual ice and snow; to walk on, a scanty growth of +grass moth-eaten by sand. In two words, to sum up the scene, it was +nature's scab, the leprosy of the earth. + +"From the artistic point of view, on this microscopic grand parade, +close to the spring whose waters are caught in pipes with taps, three +bronze statues stand in different spots. One, a Virgin, in the most +preposterous garments, her headgear a sort of pastry-mould, a Mohican's +bonnet, is on her knees weeping, with her face hidden in her hands. Then +the same Woman, standing up, her hands ecclesiastically shrouded in her +sleeves, looks at the two children to whom she is speaking; Maximin, +with hair curled like a poodle, twirling a cap like a raised pie, in his +hand; Mélanie buried in a cap with deep frills and accompanied by a dog +like a paper-weight--all in bronze. Finally the same Person, once more +alone, standing on tip-toe, her eyes raised to heaven with a +melodramatic expression. + +"Never has the frightful appetite for the hideous that disgraces the +Church in our day been so resolutely displayed as on this spot; and if +the soul suffered in the presence of the obtrusive outrage of this +degrading work--perpetrated by one Barrême of Angers and cast in the +steam foundries of Le Creusot--the body too had something to endure on +this plateau under the crushing mass of hills that shut in the view. + +"And yet it was hither that thousands of sick creatures had had +themselves hauled up to face the cruel climate, where in summer the sun +burns you to a cinder while, two yards away, in the shade of the church, +you are frozen. + +"The first and greatest miracle accomplished at La Salette was that of +bringing such an invasion to this precipitous spot in the Alps, for +everything combines to forbid it. + +"But crowds came there year after year, till Lourdes took possession of +them; for it is since the apparition of the Virgin there that La Salette +has fallen into disrepute. + +"Twelve years after the vision at La Salette, the Virgin showed herself +again, not in Dauphiné this time, but in the depths of Gascony. After +the Mother of Tears, Our Lady of Seven Dolours, it was Our Lady of +Smiles, of the Immaculate Conception, the Sovereign Lady of Joy in +Glory, who appeared; and here again it was to a shepherdess that she +revealed the existence of a spring that healed diseases. + +"And here it is that consternation begins. Lourdes may be described as +the exact opposite to La Salette; the scenery is magnificent, the hills +in the foreground are covered with verdure, the tamed mountains permit +access to their heights; on all sides there are shady avenues, fine +trees, living waters, gentle slopes, broad roads devoid of danger and +accessible to all; instead of a wilderness, a town, where every +requirement of the sick is provided for. Lourdes may be reached without +adventures in warrens of vermin, without enduring nights in country +inns, or days of jolting in wretched vehicles, without creeping along +the face of a precipice; and the traveller is at his destination when he +gets out of the train. + +"This town then was so admirably chosen for the resort of crowds, that +it did not seem necessary that Providence should intervene with such +strong measures to attract them. + +"But God, who forced La Salette on the world without availing Himself of +the means of fashionable notoriety, now changed His tactics; with +Lourdes, advertisement appeared on the scene. + +"This it is that confounds the mind: Jesus condescending to make use of +the wretched arts of human commerce; adopting the repulsive tricks which +we employ to float a manufacture or a business. + +"And we wonder whether this may not be the sternest lesson in humility +ever given to man, as well as the most vehement reproof hurled at the +American abominations of our day--God reduced to lowering Himself once +more to our level, to speaking our language, to using our own devices +that He may make Himself heard and obeyed; God no longer even trying to +make us understand His purpose through Himself, or to uplift us to that +height. + +"In point of fact, the way in which the Lord set to work to promulgate +the mercies peculiar to Lourdes is astounding. To make them known He is +no longer content to spread the report of its miracles by word of mouth; +no, and it might be supposed that in His eyes Lourdes is harder to +magnify than La Salette--He adopted strong measures from the first. He +raised up a man whose book, translated into every language, carried the +news of the vision to the most distant lands, and certified the truth of +the cures effected at Lourdes. + +"To the end that this work should stir up the masses, it was necessary +that the writer destined to the task should be a clever organizer, and +at the same time a man devoid of individuality of style and of any novel +ideas. In a word, what was needed was a man devoid of talent; and that +is quite intelligible, since from the point of view of appreciating art +the Catholic public is still a hundred feet beneath the profane public. +And our Lord did the thing well; he selected Henri Lasserre. + +"Consequently the mine exploded as required, rending souls and bringing +crowds out on to the road to Lourdes. + +"Years went by. The fame of the sanctuary is an established fact. +Indisputable cures are effected by supernatural means and certified by +clinical authorities, whose good faith and scientific skill are above +suspicion. Lourdes has its fill; and yet, little by little, in the long +run, though pilgrims do not cease to flow thither, the commotion about +the Grotto is diminishing. It is dying out, if not in the religious +world, at any rate in the wider world of the careless or the doubting, +who must be convinced. And our Lord thinks it desirable to revive +attention to the benefits dispensed by His Mother. + +"Lasserre was not such an instrument as could renew the half-exhausted +vogue enjoyed by Lourdes. The public was soaked in his book; it had +swallowed it in every vehicle and in every form; the end was achieved; +this budding-knife of miracles was a tool that might now be laid aside. + +"What was now wanted was a book entirely unlike his; a book that would +influence the vaster public, whom his homely prosiness would never +reach. Lourdes must make its way through denser and less malleable +strata, to a public of higher class, and harder to please. It was +requisite, therefore, that this new book should be written by a man of +talent, whose style nevertheless should not be so transcendental as to +scare folks. And it was an advantage that the writer should be very well +known, so that his enormous editions might counterpoise those of +Lasserre. + +"Now in all the realm of literature there was but one man who could +fulfil these imperative conditions: Émile Zola. In vain should we seek +another. He alone with his battering push, his enormous sale, his +blatant advertisement, could launch Lourdes once more. + +"It mattered little that he would deny supernatural agency and endeavour +to explain inexplicable cures by the meanest hypotheses; it mattered +little that he mixed mortar of the medical muck of a Charcot to make his +wretched theory hold together; the great thing was that noisy debates +should arise about the book of which more than a hundred and fifty +thousand copies proclaimed the name of Lourdes throughout the world. + +"And then the very disorder of his arguments, the poor resort to a +'breath that heals the people,' invented in contradiction to all the +data of positive science on which he prided himself, with the purpose of +making these extraordinary cures intelligible--cures which he had seen, +and of which he dared not deny the reality or the frequency--were +admirable means of persuading unprejudiced and candid inquirers of the +authenticity of the recoveries effected year after year at Lourdes. + +"This avowed testimony to such amazing facts was enough to give a fresh +impetus to the masses. It must be remarked, too, that the book betrays +no hostility to the Virgin, of whom it speaks only in respectful terms +on the whole; so is it not very credible that the scandal to which this +work gave rise was profitable? + +"To sum up: it may be asserted that Lasserre and Zola were both useful +instruments; one devoid of talent, and for that very reason penetrating +to the very lowest strata of the Catholic methodists; the other, on the +contrary, making himself welcome to a more intelligent and cultivated +public, by those splendid passages where the flaming multitude of +processions moves on, and amid a cyclone of anguish, the triumphant +faith of the white ranks is exultant. + +"Oh, yes! She is fond of Her Lourdes, is Our Lady, and pets it. She +seems to have centred all Her powers there, all Her favours; Her other +sanctuaries are perishing that this one may live! + +"Why? + +"Why, above all, have created La Salette and then sacrificed it, as it +were? + +"That She should have appeared there is quite intelligible," thought +Durtal, answering himself. "The Virgin is more highly venerated in +Dauphiné than in any other province; chapels dedicated to Her worship +swarm in those parts, and She meant perhaps to reward their zeal by Her +gracious presence. + +"On the other hand, She appeared there with a special and very definite +end in view: to preach repentance to mankind, and especially to priests. +She ratified by certain miracles the evidence of this mission which She +confided to Mélanie, and then, that being accomplished, She could desert +the spot where She had, no doubt, never intended to remain. + +"And after all," he went on, after a moment's reflection, "may we not +admit an even simpler solution, namely, this:-- + +"Mary vouchsafes to appear under various aspects to satisfy the tastes +and cravings of each soul. At La Salette, where She descended in a +distressful spot, all in tears, She revealed Herself no doubt to certain +persons, more especially to the souls in love with sorrow, the mystical +souls that delight in reviving the anguish of the Passion and following +the Mother in Her heart-breaking way to the Cross. She would thus seem +less attractive to the vulgar who do not love woe or weeping; it may be +added that they still less love reproof and threats. The Virgin of La +Salette could not become popular, by reason of Her aspect and address, +while She of Lourdes, who appeared smiling, and prophesied no +catastrophes, was easy of access to the hopes and gladness of the crowd. + +"She was, in short, in that sanctuary, the Virgin of the world at large, +not the Virgin of mystics and artists, the Virgin of the few, as at La +Salette. + +"What a mystery is this direct intervention of the Christ's Mother on +earth!" thought Durtal. + +And he went on: "It is clear, on reflection, that the churches founded +by Her may be classed in two very distinct groups. + +"One group where She has revealed Herself to certain persons, where +waters spring and bodily ills are healed: La Salette and Lourdes. + +"The other, where She has never been gazed on by human beings, or where +Her appearance occurred in immemorial times, in forgotten centuries, the +dead ages. In those chapels prayer alone is in force, and Mary answers +it without the help of any waters. Indeed, She effects more moral than +physical cures. Notre Dame de Fourvières at Lyon, Notre Dame de +Sous-Terre at Chartres, Notre Dame des Victoires at Paris, to mention +only three. + +"Wherefore this difference? None can understand, and probably none will +ever know. At most may we suppose that in compassion for the everlasting +craving of our hapless souls wearied with prayer without sight, She +would fain confirm our faith and help to gather in the flock by showing +Herself. + +"In all this obscurity," Durtal went on, "is it at least possible to +discern some dim landmarks, some vague law? + +"As we gaze into the darkness, two spots of light appear," he replied to +himself. + +"In the first place, this: She appears to none but the poor and humble; +She addresses the simple souls who have in a way handed down the +primitive occupation, the biblical function of the Patriarchs; She +unveils herself to the children of the soil, to the shepherds, to girls +as they watch the flock. Both at La Salette and at Lourdes She chose +little pastors for Her confidants, and this is intelligible, since, by +acting thus, she confirms the known will of Her Son; the first to behold +the infant Jesus in the manger at Bethlehem were in fact shepherds, and +it was from among men of the lowest class that Christ chose His +apostles. + +"And is not the water that serves as a medium of cure prefigured in the +Sacred Books--in the Old Testament by the River Jordan, which cleansed +Naaman of his leprosy; and in the New by the probationary pool stirred +by an angel? + +"Another law seems no less probable. The Virgin is, as far as possible, +considerate of the temperament and individual character of the persons +She appears to. She places Herself on the level of their intellect, is +incarnate in the only material form that they can conceive of. She +assumes the simple aspect these poor creatures love, accepting the blue +and white robes, the crown and wreaths of roses, the trinkets and +garlands and frippery of a first Communion, the ugliest garb. + +"There is not indeed a single case where the shepherd maids who saw Her +described Her otherwise than as a 'beautiful lady' with the features of +the Virgin of a village altar, a Madonna of the Saint-Sulpice shops, a +street-corner Queen. + +"These two rules are more or less universal," said Durtal to himself. +"As to the Son, it would seem that He never now will reveal Himself in +human form to the masses. Since His appearance to the Blessed Mary +Margaret, whom He employed as a mouthpiece to address the people, He has +been silent. He keeps in the background, giving precedence to His +Mother. + +"He, it is true, reserves for Himself a dwelling in the secret places, +the hidden regions, the strongholds of the soul, as Saint Theresa calls +them; but His presence is unseen and His words spoken within us, and +generally not apprehended by means of the senses." + +Durtal ceased speaking, confessing to himself how inane were these +reflections, how powerless the human reason to investigate the +inconceivable purposes of the Almighty; and again his thoughts turned to +that journey to Dauphiné which haunted his memory. + +"Ah! but the chain of the High Alps and the peaks of La Salette," said +he to himself; "that huge white hotel, that church coloured with dirty +yellow lime-wash, vaguely Byzantine and vaguely Romanesque in its +architecture, and that little cell with the plaster Christ nailed to a +flat black wooden Cross--that tiny Sanctuary plainly white-washed, and +so small that one could step across it in any direction--they were +pregnant with her presence, all the same!" + +"Surely She revisited that spot, in spite of Her apparent desertion, to +comfort all comers; She seemed so close at hand, so attentive and so +grieving, in the evening as one sat alone by the light of a candle, that +the soul seemed to burst open like a pod shedding the fruit of sin, the +seeds of evil deeds; and repentance, that had been so tardily evolved, +and sometimes so indefinite, became so suddenly despotic and +unmistakable that the penitent dropped on his knees by the bed, and +buried his head sobbing in the sheets. Ah, those were evenings of mortal +dulness and yet sweetly sad! The soul was rent, its very fibres laid +bare, but was not the Virgin at hand, so pitiful, so motherly, that +after, the worst was over She took the bleeding soul in her arms and +rocked it to sleep like a sick child. + +"Then, during the day, the church afforded a refuge from the frenzy of +giddiness that came over one; the eye, bewildered by the precipices on +every side, distracted by the sight of the clouds that suddenly gathered +below and steamed off in white fleece from the sides of the rocks, found +rest under the shelter of those walls. + +"And finally, to make up for the horrors of the scene and of the +statues, to mitigate the grotesqueness of the inn-servants, who had +beards like sappers and clothes like little boys--the caps, and holland +blouses with belts, and shiny black breeches, like cast iron, of the +children at the Saint Nicolas school in Paris--extraordinary characters, +souls of divine simplicity expanded there." + +And Durtal recollected the admirable scene he had watched there one +morning. + +He was sitting on the little plateau, in the icy shade of the church, +gazing before him at the graveyard and the motionless swell of mountain +tops. Far away, in the very sky, a string of beads moved on, one by one, +on the ribbon of path that edged the precipice. And by degrees these +specks, at first merely dark, assumed the bright hues of dresses, +assumed the form of coloured bells surmounted by white knobs, and at +last took shape as a line of peasant women wearing white caps. + +And still in single file they came down the square. + +After crossing themselves as they passed the cemetery, they went each to +drink a cup of water at the spring and then turned round; and Durtal, +who was watching them, saw this: + +At their head walked an old woman of at least a hundred, very tall and +still upright, her head covered by a sort of hood from which her stiff, +wavy hair escaped in tangled grey locks like iron wire. Her face was +shrivelled like the peel of an onion, and so thin that, looking at her +in profile, daylight could be seen through her skin. + +She knelt down at the foot of the first statue, and behind her, her +companions, girls of about eighteen for the most part, clasped their +hands and shut their eyes; and slowly a change came over them. + +Under the breath of prayer, the soul, buried under the ashes of worldly +cares, flamed up, and the air that fanned it made it glow like an inward +fire, lighting up the thick cheeks, the stolid, heavy features. It +smoothed out the crackled surface of wrinkles, softened in the younger +women the vulgarity of chapped red lips, gave colour to the dull brown +flesh, overflowed in the smile on lips half parted in silent prayer, in +timid kisses offered with simple good faith, and returned no doubt in an +ineffable thrill by the Holy Child they had cherished from His birth, +who, since the martyrdom of Calvary, had grown to be the Spouse of +Sorrows. + +They felt, perhaps, something of the raptures of the Blessed Virgin who +is Mother and Wife and at the same time the beatified Handmaid of God. + +And in the silence a voice as from the remotest ages arose, and the +ancestress said, "_Pater Noster_," and they all repeated the prayer, and +then dragged themselves on their knees up the steps of the way of +crosses, where the fourteen upright posts, each with its cast metal +bas-relief, bordered a serpentine path, dividing the statues from the +groups. Thus they went forward, stopping long enough to recite an _Ave_ +on each step they climbed, and then, helping themselves with their +hands, they mounted to the next. And when the rosary was ended the old +woman rose, and they solemnly followed her into the church, where they +all prayed a long time, prostrate before the altar; and the grandmother +stood up, gave each holy water at the door, led her flock to the spring +where they all drank again, and then they went away, without speaking a +word, one after another up the narrow path, ending as black specks just +as they had come, and vanishing on the horizon. + +"Those women have been two days and two nights crossing the mountains," +said a priest, coming up to Durtal. "They started from the depths of +Savoy, and have travelled almost without rest to spend a few minutes +here; they will sleep to night in a cow-house or a cave, as chance may +direct, and to-morrow by daybreak they will start again on their +weariful way." + +Durtal was overpowered by the radiant splendour of such faith. + +It was possible, then, to find souls ever young, souls ever new, souls +as of undying children, watching where absolute solitude was not, +outside cloister walls, in the waste places of these peaks and gorges, +and amid this race of stern and rugged peasants. Here were women who, +without knowing it even, lived the contemplative life in union with God, +while they dug the barren slopes of a little plot at some prodigious +elevation. They were Leah and Rachel, Martha and Mary in one; and these +women believed guilelessly, entirely, as man believed in the middle +ages. These beings, with their rough-hewn feelings, their shapeless +ideas, hardly able to express themselves, hardly knowing how to read, +wept with love in the presence of the Inaccessible, whom they compelled +by their humility and single-heartedness to appear, to become actual to +their mind. + +"Yes, it was but just that the Virgin should cherish them and choose +them above all others to be Her vessels of election. + +"Yes. For they are unburdened with the dreadful weight of doubt, they +are endowed with almost total ignorance of evil. + +"And yet are there not some souls too experienced, alas! in the culture +of wrong-doing, who nevertheless find mercy at Her feet? Has not the +Virgin other sanctuaries less frequented, less well known, which yet +have outlived the wear of time, the various caprice of the ages; very +ancient churches where She welcomes you if you love Her in solitude and +silence?" + +And Durtal, coming back to Chartres once more, looked about him at the +persons who were waiting in the warm shade of the indefinite forest till +the Virgin should awake, to worship Her. + +With dawn, now beginning to break, this forest of the church under whose +shade he was sitting became absolutely unintelligible. The shapes, +faintly sketched, were transformed in the gloom which blurred every +outline as it slowly faded. Below, in the vanishing mist, rose the +immemorial trunks of fabulous white trees, planted as it seemed in wells +that held them tightly in the rigid circle of their margin; and the +night, now almost diaphanous on the level of the ground, was thicker as +it rose, cutting them off at the spring of the branches, which were +still invisible. + +Durtal, as he raised his head, gazed into deep obscurity unlighted by +moon or star. + +Looking up still, but straight before him, he saw in the air, through +the hazy twilight, sword-blades already bright, gigantic blades without +hilts or handles, thinner towards the point; and these blades, standing +on end at an immense height, appeared in the gloom they cut, to be +patterned with vague intaglios or in ill-defined relief. + +As he peered into space to the right and left, he was aware of a +gigantic panoply on each side at a vast height, resting on blocks of +darkness, and consisting of a colossal shield riddled with holes, +hanging above five broader swords, without hilts, but damascened on +their flat blades with indefinite designs of bewildering niello. + +Little by little the tentative sun of a doubtful winter's day pierced +the fog, which vanished in blueness; the shield that hung to the left of +Durtal, the north, was the first to come to life; rosy fires and the +lurid flames of punch gleamed in its hollows, while below, in the middle +blade, there started forth in the steel-grey arch, the gigantic image of +a negress robed in green with a brown mantle. Her head, wrapped in a +blue kerchief, was set in a golden glory, and she stared out, hieratic +and wild-looking, with white, wide-open eyes. + +And this engimatical Ethiop had on her knees a black infant whose eyes, +in the same way, stood out like snowballs from the dusky face. + +All about her, very gradually, the other swords, still so dim, began to +glow, blood rippling from their crimsoned points as if from recent +slaughter; and this trickling red formed a setting for the shapes of +beings come, no doubt, from the distant shores of Ganges: on one side a +king playing on a golden harp; on the other a monarch wielding a sceptre +ending in the turquoise-blue petals of a fabulous lily. + +Then, to the left of the royal musician there was another man, bearded, +with a walnut-stained face, the eye-sockets vacant and covered by round +spectacles; on his head were a diadem and a tiara, in his hands a +chalice and a paten, a censer and a loaf; while to the right of the +other sovereign who held the sceptre, a still more harassing shape came +forth against the blue background of the sword--a sort of oriental +brigand, escaped perhaps from the prison cells of Persepolis or Susa, a +bandit as it seemed, wearing a little scarlet cap edged with yellow, in +shape like an inverted jam-pot, and a tan-coloured gown with white +stripes on the skirt; and this clumsy and ferocious personage bore a +green palm and a book. + +Durtal turned away to sound the depths of darkness, and before him, at a +giddy height on the horizon, more sword-blades gleamed. The scrawls +which might have been mistaken in the darkness for patterns embossed or +incised on the surface of the steel, developed into figures draped in +long, straight, pleated robes; and at the highest point of the firmament +there hovered amid a sparkle of rubies and sapphires a woman crowned, +pale of face, dressed like the Moorish mother of the northern side in +Carmelite-brown and green; and she too held an infant, a child, like +herself, of the white race, clasping a globe in one hand, and extending +the other in benediction. + +Last of all, the still dark side, the late side, to Durtal's right hand +and further south, till now wrapped in the half-dispelled morning haze, +was lighted up; the shield opposite to that on the north caught the +blaze, and below it, against the polished metal of the broad blade +facing that which presented the negress queen, appeared a woman of +somewhat olive hue, in raiment like the others, of myrtle-green and +brown, holding a sceptre, and with her, too, there was a child. And +round her again emerged images of men piled up one above the other, +shouldering each other in the narrow field they filled. + +For a quarter of an hour nothing was clearly defined; then the real +things asserted themselves. In the middle of the swords, which were in +fact mosaic of glass, the figures stood out in broad daylight. In the +field of each window with its pointed arch bearded faces took form, +motionless in the midst of fire; and on all sides, in the thicket of +flames, as it were the burning bush of Horeb where God showed His glory +to Moses, the Virgin was seen in an unchangeable attitude of imperious +sweetness and pensive grace, mute and still, and crowned with gold. + +She was, indeed, many; She came down from the empyrean to lower levels, +to be closer to Her flock, and at last found a place where they might +almost kiss Her feet, at the corner of an aisle that was always in +gloom; but there She wore a different aspect. + +She stood forth in the middle of a window, like a tall, blue plant, and +the garnet-red foliage was supported by black iron rods. + +Her colour was slightly coppery, almost Chinese, with a long nose and +rather narrow eyes; on the head there was a black coif, and She looked +steadily before Her, while the lower part of the face with its short +chin, the mouth rather drawn by two grave lines, gave it an expression +of suffering that was even a little morose. And here again, under the +immemorial name of Notre Dame de la belle Verrière, she held an infant +in a dress of raisin-purple, a child barely visible in the mixture of +dark hues all about it. + +In short, She to whom all appealed was there; everywhere under the +forest roof of this cathedral the Virgin was present. She seemed to have +come from all the ends of the earth, under the semblance of every race +known in the Middle Ages: black as an African, tawny as a Mongolian, +pale coffee colour as a half-caste, and white as an European, thus +declaring that, as mediator for the whole human race, She was everything +to each, everything to all; and promising by the presence of Her Son, +whose features bore the character of each race, that the Messiah had +come to redeem all men without distinction. + +And it seemed as though the sun, as it mounted higher, followed the +growth of the Virgin, taking its birth in the window where She was still +a babe in that northern transept where Saint Anne, her mother, of the +black face, sat between David, the king of the golden harp, and Solomon, +the bearer of the blue-lilied sceptre, each against a background of +purple, to prefigure the royal birth of the Son; between Melchizedec, +the mitred patriarch, holding the censer, and Aaron, in the curious red +cap bordered with lemon yellow, representing prophetically the +Priesthood of Christ. + +And at the end of the apse, quite high up, there was another +Mary--triumphant, looking down the sacred grove, supported by figures +from the Old Testament and by Saint Peter. It was She again who in the +south transept faced Saint Anne, She, now a woman and herself a mother, +amid four enormous men bearing pick-a-back on their shoulders four +smaller figures; these were the four Greater Prophets who had foretold +the coming of the Messiah--Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, and Ezekiel, +bearing the four Evangelists, and thus artlessly expressing the +parallelism of the Old and New Testaments, and the support given by the +Old Covenant to the New. + +And then, as though Her presence were not fully ubiquitous, as though +She desired that, turn where they might, Her worshippers should ever see +Her, the Virgin was to be found on a smaller scale in less important +positions; enthroned in the centre of the shields, in the heart of the +great rose-windows, and finally, ceasing to appear as a mere picture, +took shape, materialized as a statue of black wood standing on a +pedestal in a full hooped skirt like a silver bell. + +The sheltering forest had vanished with the darkness; the tree-trunks +remained, but rose with giddy flight from the ground, unbroken pillars +to the sky, meeting at a vast height under the groined vault; the forest +was seen as an immense church blossoming with roses of fire, pierced +with glowing glass, crowded with Virgins and apostles, patriarchs and +saints. + +The genius of the middle ages had devised the skilful and pious lighting +of this edifice, and harmonized the ascending march of day to some +extent with its windows. The walls and the aisles were very dark, the +daylight creeping, mysteriously subdued, along the body of the church. +It was lost in the stained glass, checked by dark bishops, and opaque +saints completely filling the dusky-bordered windows with the dead hues +of a Persian rug; the panes absorbed the sun's rays, refracting none, +arrested the powdered gold of the sunbeams in the dull violet of purple +egg-fruit, the tawny browns of tinder or tan, the too-blue greens, and +the wine-coloured red stained with soot, like the thick juice of +mulberries. + +As it reached the chancel, the light came in through brighter and +clearer colours, through the blue of translucent sapphires, through pale +rubies, brilliant yellow, and crystalline white. The gloom was relieved +beyond the transepts near the altar. Even in the centre of the cross the +sun pierced clearer glass, less storied with figures, and bordered with +almost colourless panes that admitted it freely. + +At last, in the apse, forming the top of the cross, it poured in, +symbolical of the light that flooded the world from the top of the Tree; +and the pictures were diaphanous, just lightly covered with flowing +lines and aerial tints, to frame in a sheaf of coloured sparks the image +of a Madonna, less hieratic and barbaric than the others, and a fairer +Infant, blessing the earth with uplifted hand. + +By this time the Cathedral of Chartres was alive with the clatter of +wooden shoes, the rustle of petticoats, and the tinkle of mass-bells. + +Durtal left the corner of the transept where he had been sitting with +his back to a pillar, and turned to the left, towards a bay where there +was a framework ablaze with lighted tapers before the statue of the +Virgin. + +And schools of little girls under the guidance of Sisters, troops of +peasant women and countrymen, poured out of every aisle, knelt in front +of the image, and then came up to kiss the pedestal. + +The appearance of these folks suggested to Durtal that their prayers +were not like those that are sobbed out at evening twilight, the +supplications of women worn and dismayed by the weary hours of day. +These peasant souls prayed less as complaining than as loving; these +people, kneeling on the flags, had come for Her sake rather than for +their own. There was here and now a pause from grieving, a sort of +reprieve from tears; and this attitude was in harmony with the special +aspect adopted by Mary in this cathedral; She was seen there, in fact, +under the form of a child and of a young mother; She was the Virgin of +the Nativity, rather than our Lady of Dolour. The old artists of the +Middle Ages seemed to have feared to sadden Her by reminding Her of +memories too painful, to have striven to prove by this delicate reserve, +their gratitude to Her who in this sanctuary had ever shown Herself to +be the Dispenser of Mercies, the Lady Bountiful of Grace. + +Durtal felt in himself an answering thrill, the echo of the prayers +chanted all round him by these loving souls; and he let himself melt +away in the soothing sweetness of the hymns, asking for nothing, +silencing his ungratified desires, smothering his secret repining, +thinking only of bidding an affectionate good-morning to the Mother to +whom he had returned after such distant wanderings in the land of sin, +after such a long absence. + +And now that he had seen Her, that he had spoken to Her, he withdrew, +making room for others who came in greater numbers as the day grew. He +went home to get some food; and as he cast a last sweeping glance at the +beautiful church, remembering the warlike imagery of its details, the +buckler-shape of the rose-windows, the sword-blades of the lower lights, +the casque and helmet forms of the ogee, the resemblance of some +grisaille glass with its network of lead to a warrior's shirt of mascled +mail; as, outside, he gazed at one of the two belfries carved into +scales like a pine cone--like scale-armour--he said to himself that the +"Builders for God" must have borrowed their ideas from the military +panoply of the knights; that thus they had endeavoured to perpetuate the +memory of their exploits by representing the magnified image of the +armour with which the Crusaders girt themselves when they sailed to win +back the Holy Sepulchre. + +And the interior of the church seemed, as a whole, to impress the same +idea and complete the symbolical images of the details by its vaulted +nave, of which the groined roof was so like the reversed hull of a +vessel, suggesting the graceful form of the ships that made sail for +Palestine. + +Only, in the present day, such memories of heroic times were vain. In +this city of Chartres, where Saint Bernard preached the second crusade, +the vessel was stranded for ever, her hull overset, her anchor out. + +And looking down on the unthinking city, the Cathedral kept watch alone, +beseeching pardon for the inappetency for suffering, for the inertia of +faith that her sons displayed, uplifting her towers to the sky like two +arms, while the spires mimicked the shape of joined hands, the ten +fingers all meeting and upright one against another, in the position +which the image-makers of old gave to the dead saints and warriors they +carved upon tombs. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +Durtal had already been living at Chartres for three months. + +On his return to Paris from La Trappe he had fallen into a fearful state +of spiritual anemia. His soul kept its room, rarely rose, lounged on a +couch, was torpid with the tepid langour still lulled by the sleepy +mutter of mere lip-service, and prayers reeled off as by a worn-out +machine of which the spring releases itself, so that it works all alone +with no result, and without a touch to start it. + +Sometimes, however, in a rebellious mood he managed to check himself, to +stop the ill-regulated clockwork of his prayers, and then he would try +to examine himself, to get above himself, and to see in a comprehensive +glance the puzzling perspective of his nature. + +And facing these chambers of the soul, dim with mist, he was struck by a +strange association of the Revelations of Saint Theresa and a tale by +Edgar Poe. + +Those chambers of the inner man were empty and cold, and like the halls +of the House of Usher, surrounded by a moat whence the fog rose, forcing +its way in at last and cracking the worn shell of wall. Alone and +uneasy, he prowled about the ruined cells, with closed doors that +refused ever to open again; thus his walks about his own mind were very +limited, and the panorama he could see was strangely narrowed, shrunk +close and near to him, almost nothing. And he knew full well that the +ruins surrounding the central cell, the Master's Room, were bolted and +fastened with rivets that could not be unscrewed, and triple +bars--inaccessible. So he restricted himself to wandering in the halls +and passages. + +At Notre Dame de l'Atre he had ventured further; he had gone into the +enclosure round about the abode of Christ; he had seen in the distance +the frontiers of Mysticism, and, too weak to go on his road, he had +fallen; and now this was to be lamented, for, as Saint Theresa truly +remarks, "in the spiritual life, if we do not go forward, we go back." +He had, in fact, retraced his steps, and lay half paralyzed, no longer +even in the vestibule of his mansion, but in the outer court. + +Till this time the phenomena described by the matchless Abbess had been +exactly repeated. In Durtal, the Chambers of the Soul were deserted as +after a long mourning; but in the rooms that had remained open, phantoms +of sins confessed, of buried evil-doing, wandered like the sister of the +tormented Usher. + +Durtal, like Edgar Poe's unhappy sufferer, listened with horror to the +rustle of steps on the stairs, the piteous weeping behind the doors. + +And yet these ghosts of departed crimes were no more than indefinite +shapes; they never consolidated nor took a definite form. The most +persistent miscreant of them all, which had tormented him so long, the +sin of the flesh, at last was silenced, and left him in peace. La Trappe +had rooted up the stock of those debaucheries. The memory of them, +indeed, haunted him still, on his most distressing, most ignoble side; +but he could see them pass, his heart in his mouth, wondering that he +could so long have been the dupe of such foul delusions, no longer +understanding the power of those mirages, the illusions of those carnal +oases as he met them in the desert of a life shut up in seclusion, in +solitude, and in books. + +His imagination could still put him on the rack; still, without merit, +without a struggle, by the help of divine grace, he had escaped a fall +ever since his return from the monastery. + +On the other hand, though he had, to some extent, emasculated himself, +though he was exempt from his chief torment, he discerned, flourishing +within him, another crop of tares, of which the spread had till now been +hidden behind the sturdier growth of other vices. In the first instance, +he had believed himself to be less enslaved by sin, less utterly vile; +and he was nevertheless as closely bound to evil as ever, only the +nature and character of the bonds were different, and no longer the +same. + +Besides that dryness of the heart which made him feel as soon as he +entered a church or knelt down in his room, that a cold grip froze his +prayers and chilled his soul, he detected the covert attacks, the mute +assaults of ridiculous pride. + +In vain did he keep watch; he was constantly taken by surprise without +having time even to look round him. + +It began under the most temperate guise, the most benign reflections. + +Supposing, for instance, that he had done his neighbour a service at +some inconvenience to himself, or that he had refrained from retaliating +on anybody against whom he believed he had a grievance, or for whom he +had no liking, a certain self-satisfaction stole, sneaked into his mind, +a certain vain-glory, ending in the senseless conclusion that he was +superior to many another man; and then, on this feeling of petty vanity, +pride was engrafted--the pride of a virtue he had not even struggled to +acquire, the arrogance of chastity, so insidious that most of those who +indulge it do not even suspect themselves. + +And he was never aware of the end of these assaults till too late, when +they had become definite, and he had forgotten himself and succumbed; +and he was in despair at finding that he constantly fell into the same +snare, telling himself that the little good he could do must be wiped +out of the balance of his life by the outrageous extravagance of this +vice. + +He was frenzied, he reasoned with the old mad arguments, and cried out +at his wits' end,-- + +"La Trappe crushed me! It cured me of sensuality, but only to load me +with disorders of which I knew nothing before I submitted to that +treatment! It is humble itself, but it puffed up my vanity and increased +my pride tenfold--then it set me free, but so weak, so wearied, that I +have never since been able to conquer that inanition, never have been +fit to enjoy the Mystical Nourishment which I nevertheless must have if +I am not to die to God!" + +And for the hundredth time he asked himself,-- + +"Am I happier than I was before I was converted?" + +And to be truthful to himself he was bound to answer "Yes." He lived on +the whole a Christian life, prayed but badly, but at any rate prayed +without ceasing; only--only--Alas! How worm-eaten, how arid were the +poor recesses of his soul! He wondered, with anguish, whether they would +not end like the Manor in Edgar Poe's tale, by crumbling suddenly, one +fatal day, into the dark waters of the pool of sin which was undermining +the walls. + +Having reached this stage of his round of meditations, he was compelled +to throw himself on the Abbé Gévresin, who required him, in spite of his +coldness, to take the Communion. Since his return from Notre Dame de +l'Atre his friendship with the Abbé had become much closer, altogether +intimate. + +He knew now the inner man of this priest, who, in the midst of modern +surroundings, led a purely mediæval life. Formerly, when he rang at his +bell, he had paid no heed to the housekeeper, an old woman, who curtsied +to him without a word when she opened the door. + +Now he was quite friendly with this singular and loving creature. + +Their first conversation had arisen one day when he called to see the +Abbé, who was ill. Seated by the bedside, with spectacles on the alert +at the tip of her nose, she was kissing, one by one, the pious prints +that illustrated a book wrapped in black cloth. She begged him to be +seated, and then, closing the volume, and replacing her spectacles, she +had joined in the conversation; and he had left the room quite amazed by +this woman, who addressed the Abbé as "Father," and spoke quite simply +of her intercourse with Jesus and the Saints as if it were a natural +thing. She seemed to live in perfect friendship with them, and spoke of +them as of companions with whom she chatted without any embarrassment. + +Then the countenance of this woman, whom the priest introduced to him as +Madame Céleste Bavoil, was, strange to say, the least of it. She was +thin and upright, but short. In profile, with her strong Roman nose and +set lips, she had the fleshless mask of a dead Cæsar; but, seen in +front, the sternness of the features was softened into a familiar +peasant's face, and melted into the kindliness of an old nun, quite out +of keeping with the solemn strength of her features. + +It seemed as though with that clean-cut, imperious nose, small white +teeth, and black eyes sparkling with light, busy and inquisitive as +those of a mouse, under fine long lashes, the woman ought, +notwithstanding her age, to have been handsome; it seemed at least as +though the combination of these details would have given the face a +stamp of distinction. Not so; the conclusion was false to the premises; +the whole betrayed the combined effect of the details. + +"This contradiction," thought he, "evidently is the result of other +peculiarities which nullify the harmony of the more important features; +in the first place the thinness of the cheeks and their hue of old wood +dotted here and there with freckles, calm stains of the colour of stale +bran; then the flat braids of white hair drawn smooth under a frilled +cap, and finally the modest dress, a black dress clumsily made, dragging +across the bosom, and showing the lines of her stays stamped in relief +on the back. + +"And perhaps, in her, it is not so much incongruity of features, as a +crying contrast between the dress and the face, the head and the body," +thought he. + +Altogether, as he summed her up, she was equally suggestive of the +chapel and the fields. Thus she had something of the Sister and +something of the peasant. + +"Yes," he went on to himself, "that is very near the mark; but that is +not all, for she is both less dignified and less common, inferior and +yet more worthy. Seen from behind she is more like a woman who hires out +the chairs in church than like a nun; seen in front she is conspicuously +superior to the natives of the soil. Also it may be noted that when she +speaks of the saints she is loftier, quite different; she soars up in a +flame of the spirit. But all these hypotheses are in vain," he +concluded, "for I cannot judge of her from one brief impression, one +rapid view. What is quite certain is that, though she is not in the +least like the Abbé, she too is in two halves--two persons in one. He, +with the innocent gaze, the pure eyes of a girl at her first Communion, +has the sometimes bitter mouth of an old man; she is proud of feature +and humble of heart; they both, though by different outward signs and +acts, achieve the same result, an identical semblance of paternal +indulgence and mature goodness." + +And Durtal had gone again and again to see them. His reception was +always the same; Madame Bavoil greeted him with the invariable formula: +"Here is our friend," while the priest's eyes smiled as he grasped his +hand. Whenever he saw Madame Bavoil she was praying: over her stove, +when she sat mending, while she was dusting the furniture, as she opened +the door, she was always telling her rosary, without pause. + +The chief delight of this rather silent woman consisted in talking of +the Virgin to whom she had vowed worship; on the other hand she could +quote by memory long passages from a mystic and somewhat eccentric +writer of the end of the sixteenth century: Jeanne Chézard de Matel, the +foundress of the Order of the Incarnate Word, an Institution of which +the Sisters display a conspicuous costume--a white dress held round the +waist by a belt of scarlet leather, a red cloak and a blood-coloured +scapulary on which the name of Jesus is embroidered in blue silk, with a +crown of thorns, a heart pierced with three nails, and the words _Amor +Meus_. + +At first Durtal thought Madame Bavoil slightly crazy, and while she +poured out a passage by Jeanne de Matel on Saint Joseph, he looked at +the priest--who gave no sign. + +"Then Madame Bavoil is a saint?" he asked one morning when they were +alone. + +"My dear Madame Bavoil is a pillar of prayer," replied the Abbé gravely. + +And one afternoon, when Gévresin was away in his turn, Durtal questioned +the woman. + +She gave him an account of her long pilgrimages across Europe, +pilgrimages that she had spent years in making on foot, begging her way +by the roadside. + +Wherever the Virgin had a sanctuary, thither she went, a bundle of +clothing in one hand, an umbrella in the other, an iron Crucifix on her +breast, a rosary at her waist. By a reckoning which she had kept from +day to day she had thus travelled ten thousand five hundred leagues on +foot. + +Then old age had come on, and she had "lost her old powers," as she +said; Heaven had formerly guided her by inward voices, fixing the dates +of these expeditions; but journeying was no longer required of her. She +had been sent to live with the Abbé that she might rest; but her manner +of life had been laid down for her once for all: her bed a straw +mattress on wooden planks; her food such rustic and monastic fare as +beseemed her, milk, honey and bread, and at seasons of penance she was +to substitute water for milk. + +"And you never take any other nourishment?" + +"Never." And then she would add,-- + +"Aha! our friend, you see I am in disgrace up there!" and she would +laugh cheerfully at herself and her appearance "If you had but seen me +when I came back from Spain, where I went to visit Our Lady of the +Pillar at Saragoza! I was a negress. With my large Crucifix on my +breast, my gown looking like a nun's--every one asked: 'What can that +woman be?' I looked like a charcoal-burner out for a holiday; no white +to be seen but my cap, collar and cuffs; all the rest--face, hands and +petticoats--quite black." + +"But you must have been very dull travelling about alone?" + +"Not at all, our friend, the Saints kept me company on the way; they +told me at which house I should find a lodging for the night, and I was +sure of being well received." + +"And you never were refused hospitality?" + +"Never. To be sure I did not ask for much; when I was wandering I only +begged for a piece of bread and a glass of water, and to rest on a truss +of straw in the cow-house." + +"And Father Gévresin--how did you first know him?" + +"That is quite a long story. Fancy! Heaven, as a punishment, deprived me +of the Communion for a year and three months to a day. When I confessed +to a priest, I owned to my intercourse with Our Saviour, and the Virgin +and the Angels; then he at once treated me as a mad woman, unless he +accused me of being possessed by the devil; to conclude, he refused me +absolution, and I thought myself happy if he did not slam the little +wicket of the confessional roughly in my face at my very first words. + +"I believe I should have died of grief if the Lord had not at last had +pity on me. One Saturday, when I was in Paris, He sent me to Notre Dame +des Victoires, where the Father was in the confessional. He listened to +me, he put me through long and severe tests, and then he granted me +Communion. I often went to him again as a penitent, and then the niece +who kept house for him retired into a convent, and I took her place; +and I have been his housekeeper near on ten years now--" + +She told her story with many breaks. Since she had ceased to wander +about the country, she followed the pilgrimages in Paris in honour of +the Blessed Virgin, and she had a list of the most popular sanctuaries: +Notre-Dame des Victoires, Notre-Dame de Paris; Our Lady of Good Hope at +Saint-Séverin, of Ever-present Help at L'Abbaye au Bois, of Peace at the +convent in the Rue Picpus, of the Sick at the church of Saint-Laurent, +of Happy Deliverance--a black Virgin from the church of Saint-Etienne +des Grès--in the care of the Sisters of Saint-Thomas de Villeneuve, Rue +de Sèvres; and outside Paris the shrines in the suburbs: Our Lady of +Miracles at Saint-Maur, of the Angels at Bondy, of the Virtues at +Aubervilliers, of Good Keeping at Long Pont, and those of Notre-Dame at +Spire, at Pontoise, &c. + +On another occasion, as he seemed suspicious of the severity of the rule +imposed on her by Christ, she replied,-- + +"Remember, our friend, what happened to an illustrious handmaid of the +Lord, Maria d'Agreda; being very ill, she yielded to the wishes of her +daughters in the faith and sucked a mouthful of chicken, but she was +forthwith reproved by Jesus, who said to her: 'I will not have my +Spouses dainty.' + +"Well, and I should run the risk of a similar reproof, if I attempted to +touch a morsel of meat or to drink a drop of coffee or wine." + +"And yet," said Durtal to himself as he came away, "it is quite evident +that the woman is not mad. She has nothing the matter with her, either +hysterical or mental: she is fragile and very thin, but she is scarcely +nervous, and in spite of the laconic character of her meals she is in +very good health, indeed is never ailing; nay more, she is a woman of +good sense and an admirable manager. Up by daybreak, after Communion she +soaps and washes all the linen herself, makes the sheets and shirts, +mends the Abbé's gowns, and lives with amazing economy, while taking +care that her master wants for nothing. Such a sagacious apprehension of +the conduct of life has no connection with lunacy or delirium." + +He knew too that she would never take any wages. It is true that in the +sight of a world which gives its whole mind to legalized larceny this +woman's disinterestedness might be enough to prove her insanity; but +Durtal, in contradiction to received ideas, did not think that a +contempt for money was necessarily allied with madness, and the more he +thought of it the more was he convinced that she was a saint, and not a +strait-laced saint, but indulgent and cheerful. + +What he could positively assert was that she was very good to him; ever +since his return from La Trappe she had helped him in every way, +encouraging his spirits when she saw him depressed, and going, in spite +of his protesting, to look over his wardrobe when she suspected that +there might be sutures to operate upon, and buttons to replace. + +This intimacy had become even closer since their life in common, all +three together, on the occasion of Durtal's accompanying them, at their +entreaty, to La Salette. And then suddenly their affectionate +familiarity was endangered, for the Abbé Gévresin left Paris. + +The Bishop of Chartres died, and his successor was one of Gévresin's +oldest friends. On the very day when the Abbé Le Tilloy des Mofflaines +was promoted to the episcopal throne, he begged Gévresin to accompany +him to Chartres. There was an anxious struggle in the old priest's mind. +He was ailing, weary, good for nothing, and at the bottom of his heart +longed only never to move; but on the other hand he had not the courage +to refuse his poor support to Monseigneur des Mofflaines. He tried to +mollify the prelate by his advanced age, but the Bishop would not +listen; all he would concede was that, instead of being appointed +Vicar-general, the Abbé should be no more than a Canon. Still Gévresin +mildly shook his head. Finally the prelate had his way, appealing to his +friend's charity, and declaring that he ought to accept the post, in the +last resort as a mortification and penance. + +And when his departure was decided on, it became the Abbé's turn to +circumvent Durtal and persuade him to leave Paris and come to settle +near him at Chartres. + +Although he was deeply grieved at this move, which he had done his +utmost to hinder, Durtal was refractory, and refused to bury himself in +a country town. + +"But why, our friend," said Madame Bavoil, "I wonder why you are so +obstinately bent on remaining here; you live in perfect solitude at home +with your books. You can do the same if you come with us." + +And when, his arguments exhausted, after a vehement diatribe against +provincial life, Durtal ended by saying,-- + +"Then at Paris there are the quays, Saint Séverin, Notre Dame; there are +delightful convents--" + +"You would find equally good things at Chartres," answered the Abbé. +"You will have one of the finest cathedrals in the world, monasteries +such as you love, and as for books, your library is so well furnished +that I can hardly think that you can add to it by wandering along the +quays. Besides, as you know even better than I, no work of the class you +seek is ever to be disinterred from the boxes of second-hand books. +Their titles figure only in the catalogues of sales, and there is +nothing to hinder their being sent to you at Chartres." + +"I do not deny it--but there are other things on the quays besides old +books; there are curiosities to be seen, and the Seine--a landscape--" + +"Well, if you are homesick for that particular walk, you have only to +take a train, and spend a whole afternoon lounging by the parapet over +the river; it is easy to get from Chartres to Paris; there are express +trains morning and evening which make the journey in less than two +hours." + +"And besides," cried Madame Bavoil, "what does all that matter? The +great thing is that you leave a town just like any other town, to +inhabit the very home of the Virgin. Just think! Notre Dame de +Sous-Terre is the most ancient chapel to Mary in all France; think! you +will live near Her, with Her, and She will load you with mercies!" + +"And after all," the Abbé went on, "this exile cannot interfere with any +of your schemes in art. You talk of writing the Lives of Saints; will +you not work at them far better in the silence of the country than in +the uproar of Paris?" + +"The country--the provinces! The mere idea overpowers me," exclaimed +Durtal. "If you could but imagine the impression it suggests to me, the +sort of atmosphere, the kind of smell it presents to my brain. You know +the huge cupboards you find in old houses, with double doors, and lined +within with blue paper that is always damp. Well, at the mere name of +the provinces I feel as if one of these were opened in my face, and I +got a full blast of the stuffiness that comes out of it!--And to put the +finishing touch to the vision by combining taste and smell, I have only +to bite one of the biscuits they make nowadays of Lord knows what, +reeking the moment you taste them, of fish glue and plaster that has +been rained upon, I have only to eat that cold, insipid paste and sniff +at a musty closet, and at once the lugubrious picture rises before me of +some Godforsaken place!--Your Chartres will no doubt smell like +that--Pah!" + +"Oh, oh!" cried Madame Bavoil. "But you cannot know much about it, since +you have never been to the place." + +"Let him be!" said the Abbé, laughing. "He will get over his +prejudices." And he went on,-- + +"Just explain this inconsistency: here is a Parisian who likes his city +so little that he seeks out the most deserted nook to live in, the +quietest, the least frequented, the spot that is most like a provincial +retreat. He has a horror of the Boulevards, of public promenades, and of +theatres; he buries himself in a hole, and stops his ears that he may +not hear the noises around him; but, when he has a chance of improving +on this scheme of existence, of ripening in real silence far from the +crowd, when he can invert the conditions of life, and, instead of being +a provincial Parisian, can become a Parisian of the provinces, he shies +and kicks!" + +"It is a fact," Durtal admitted when he was alone, "a positive fact +that the capital is unprofitable to me. I never see anybody now, and +shall be reduced to still more utter solitude when these friends are +gone. I shall, for all purposes, be quite as well off at Chartres; +I can study at my ease amid peaceful surroundings, within reach of +a cathedral of far greater interest than Notre Dame de Paris. And +besides--besides--there is another question of which the Abbé Gévresin +says nothing, but which disturbs me greatly. If I remain here, alone, I +shall have to find a new confessor, to wander through the churches, just +as I wander through work-a-day life in search of dining-places and +tables d'hôte. No, no; I have had enough at last of this day-by-day +diet, spiritual and material! I have found a boarding-house for my soul +where it is content, and it may stay there! + +"And there is yet another argument. I can live more inexpensively at +Chartres, and, without spending more than I spend here, I can settle +myself once for all, dine with my feet on my own fender, and be waited +on!" + +So he had ended by deciding to follow his two friends, and had secured +fairly spacious rooms facing the Cathedral; and then he, who had always +lived cramped in tiny apartments, at last understood the provincial +comfort of vast spaces and books ranged against the walls, with ample +elbow-room. + +Madame Bavoil had found him a servant, familiar and voluble indeed, but +a good and pious woman. And he had begun his new existence lost in +constant amazement at that wonderful Cathedral, the only one he had +never before seen, probably because it was so near Paris, and, like all +Parisians, he never took the trouble to set out on any but longer +journeys. The town itself seemed to him devoid of interest, having but +one secluded walk, a little embankment where, below the suburbs and near +the old Guillaume Gate, washerwomen sang while they soaped the linen in +a stream that blossomed, as they rubbed, with flecks of iridescent +bubbles. + +Hence he determined to walk out only very early in the morning or in the +evening; then he could dream alone in the town, which by the afternoon +was already half dead. + +The Abbé and his housekeeper were lodged in the episcopal palace, under +the shadow of the Cathedral apse. They occupied a first floor, with +nothing over it, above some empty stables; a row of cold, tiled rooms +which the Bishop had had redecorated. + +Some time after their arrival at Chartres the Abbé had replied to +Durtal, who had remarked that he was anxious,-- + +"Yes, I am certainly going through a difficult time; I have had to live +down certain prejudices--but indeed I was prepared for them. And that +was another reason why I did not wish to leave Paris. But the Blessed +Virgin is good! Everything is coming right--" + +And when Durtal persisted,-- + +"As you may suppose," said the priest, "the appointment of a Canon from +another diocese was not looked upon with indifferent eyes by the clergy +of Chartres. Such suspicions with regard to an unknown priest brought by +a new Bishop are not after all unnatural; it is inevitably feared that +he may play the part of a ruler without a robe; each one is on his +guard, and they sift his least word and pick over his least action." + +"And then," said Durtal, "is it not another mouth to feed out of the +wretched pittance allowed by the State?" + +"So far as that goes, no. I draw no stipend, and damage no man's +interest; in fact I would not accept it. The only pecuniary advantage I +derive from being about the Bishop's person is that I have no rent to +pay, since I am lodged for nothing in the episcopal building. + +"I could not in any case have drawn a stipend, for the allowance granted +to Canons by the Government has ceased to be given, since a measure was +passed, on March 22nd, 1885, decreeing the suppression of such +emoluments as the incumbents died off. Hence only those who held such +benefices before the passing of the law now draw on the funds devoted to +the maintenance of the Church; and they are dying off one by one, so +that the time is fast approaching when there will not be a single Canon +left who is salaried by the State. In some dioceses these lapsed +benefices are compensated for by the revenues from some religious +foundation, or, as you may call it, a prebend. But there are none at +Chartres. The Chapter has at the utmost the use of a varying income +which it divides among those who have no benefice, giving them, good +years with bad, a sum of about three hundred francs each, and that is +all." + +"And the Canons have no perquisites?" + +"None whatever." + +"Then I wonder how they live." + +"If they have no private fortune they live more penuriously than the +poorest labourers in Chartres. Most of them simply vegetate; some +perform Mass for Sisterhoods, or are convent chaplains, but that brings +in very little, two hundred or two hundred and fifty francs perhaps. +Another holds the post of secretary to the diocese, by which he gets +rooms and as much, perhaps, as six hundred francs. Yet another conducts +the services of the holy week known as the Voice of Our Lady of +Chartres, and acts as precentor; and some find employment as the +Bishop's officials. Each one, in short, has a struggle to earn his food +and lodging." + +"What exactly is a Canon; what are his functions, and the origin of his +office?" + +"The origin? It is lost in the night of ages. It is supposed that +Colleges of Canons existed in the time of Pépin le Bref; it is at any +rate certain that during his reign Saint Chrodegang, Bishop of Metz, +assembled the clerks of his cathedral and obliged them to live together, +in a house in common, as though it were a convent, under a rule of which +Charlemagne makes mention in his Capitularies.--A Canon's functions? +They consist in the solemn celebration of the Canonical services, and +the direction of all processions. As a matter of conscience every Canon +is required in the first place to reside in the town where the church is +situated to whose service he is attached; then to be present at the +Canonical hours when Mass is said; finally to sit on the meetings of the +Chapter on certain fixed days. But to tell the truth, their part has +almost fallen into desuetude. The Council of Trent speaks of them as the +'_Senatus Ecclesiæ_,' the Senate of the Church, and they then formed the +necessary Council of the Bishop. In these days the prelates do not even +consult them. + +"They only exercise a small part of their lost prerogatives when the See +is vacant. At that time the Chapter acts in the place of the Bishop, and +even then its rights are greatly restricted. As it has not Episcopal +Orders, it can exercise none of the powers inherent in them. It cannot +consequently ordain or confirm." + +"And if the See remains long vacant?" + +"Then the Chapter requests the Bishop of a neighbouring diocese to +ordain its seminarists, and confirm the children it presents to him. In +short, as you see, a Canon is not a very important gentleman. + +"I am not speaking, of course, of Honorary Canons, or Titular Canons. +They have no duties to fulfil; they merely enjoy an honorary title which +allows them to wear the Canon's hood, by permission of their own Bishop +when, as frequently happens, they belong to another diocese. + +"The Chapter of this Cathedral of Chartres is said to have been founded +in the sixth century by Saint Lubin. It then consisted of seventy-two +Canons, and the number was added to, for when the Revolution broke out +it amounted to seventy-six, and included seventeen dignitaries: the +Dean, the sub-Dean, the Precentor, the sub-Precentor, the chief +Archdeacon of Chartres, the Archdeacons of Beauce-en-Dunois, of Dreux, +of Le Pincerais, of Vendôme, and of Blois; the gatekeeper, the +Chancellor, the Provosts of Normandy, of Mézangey, of Ingré, and of +Auvers; and the Chancel Warden. These priests, most of them men of +family and wealth, were a nursery ground of Bishops; they owned all the +houses round the Cathedral and lived independently in their cloister, +devoting themselves to history, theology, and the Canon law--they are +now indeed fallen!" + +The Abbé was silent, shaking his head. Then he went on,-- + +"To return to my subject--I was naturally somewhat hurt by the coldness +I met with on my arrival at Chartres. As I told you, I had to allay many +apprehensions. But I think I have succeeded. And I thank God, too, for +having given me a valuable supporter in the person of a subordinate +priest of the Cathedral, who has done me invaluable service with my +colleagues--the Abbé Plomb; do you know him?" + +"No." + +"He is a highly intelligent priest, very learned, a passionate mystic, +thoroughly acquainted with the Cathedral, of which he has examined every +corner." + +"Ah ha! I am interested in that priest! Perhaps he is one of those I +have already noticed. What is he like?" + +"Short, young, pale, slightly marked with the small-pox, with spectacles +that you may recognize by this peculiarity: the arch which rests on the +nose is shaped like a loop, or, if you choose to say so, like a +horseman's legs astride in the saddle." + +"That man!"--and Durtal, left to himself, thought about the priest whom +he had repeatedly seen in the church or the square. + +"Certainly," said he to himself, "there is always the risk of a mistake +when we judge of people by appearances; but how startling is the truth +of that commonplace remark when applied to the clergy! This Abbé Plomb +looks like a scared sacristan; he goes about gaping at invisible crows, +and he seems so ill at ease, so loutish, so awkward--and this is our +learned man and devoted mystic, in love with his Cathedral! Certainly it +is not safe to judge of an Abbé from appearances. Now that it is to be +my fate to live in this clerical world, I must begin by throwing +prejudice overboard, and wait till I know all the priests of the +diocese, before allowing myself to form an opinion of them." + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +"In point of fact," said Durtal to himself as he stood dreaming on the +market-place, "no one exactly knows what was the origin of the Gothic +forms of a cathedral. Archæologists and architects have exhausted +hypotheses and systems in vain; they seem to agree in attributing the +Romanesque to Oriental parentage, and that in fact maybe proven. That +the Romanesque should be an offshoot of the Latin and Byzantine styles, +and be, as Quicherat defines it, 'the style which has ceased to be Roman +and is not yet Gothic, though it already has something of the Gothic,' I +am ready to admit; and indeed, on examining the capitals, and studying +their outline and drawing, we perceive that they are Assyrian or Persian +rather than Roman or Byzantine and Gothic; but as to discovering the +paternity even of the pointed and flamboyant styles, that is quite +another thing. Some writers assert that the pointed arch based on an +equilateral triangle existed in Egypt, Syria, and Persia; others regard +it as descended from Saracen and Arab art; nothing certainly is +provable. + +"Again, it must be clearly stated that the pointed equilateral arch, +which some persons still suppose to be the distinctive characteristic of +an era in architecture, is not so in fact, as Quicherat has very clearly +demonstrated, and, since him, Lecoy de la Marche. The study of archives +has, on this point, completely overset the hobbies of architects, and +demolished the twaddle of the Bonzes. Besides, there is abundant +evidence of the employment of the pointed arch side by side with the +round arch in a perfectly systematic design, in the construction of many +Romanesque churches; in the Cathedrals of Avignon and Fréjus, in Notre +Dame at Aries, in Saint Front at Périgueux, at Saint Martin d'Ainay, at +Lyon, in Saint Martin des Champs in Paris, in Saint Etienne at Beauvais, +in the Cathedral of Le Mans; and in Burgundy, at Vézelay, at Beaune, in +Saint Philibert at Dijon, at La Charité-sur-Loire, in Saint Ladre at +Autun, and in most of the basilicas erected by the monastic school of +Cluny. + +"Still, all this throws no light on the lineage of the Gothic, which +remains obscure--possibly because it is perfectly clear; setting aside +the theory which restricts itself to discerning in this question a +merely material and technical problem of stability and resistance, +solved by monks who discovered one fine day that the strength of their +roofs would be increased by the adoption of the mitre-shaped vaulting of +the pointed arch instead of the semicircular arch, would it not seem +that the romantic hypothesis--Chateaubriand's explanation--which was so +much laughed at, and which is nevertheless the simplest and the most +natural, may really be the most obvious and the true one? + +"To me," thought Durtal, "it is almost certain that it was in the forest +that man found the prototype of the nave and the pointed arch. The most +amazing cathedral constructed by Nature herself, with lavish outlay of +the pointed aisle of branches, is at Jumièges. There, close to the +splendid ruins of the Abbey, where the two towers are still intact, +while the roofless nave, carpeted with flowers, ends in a chancel of +foliage shut in by an apse of trees, three vast aisles of centenary +boles extend in parallel lines; one in the middle, very wide, the two +others, one on each side, somewhat narrower; they exactly represent a +church nave with its two side aisles, upheld by black columns and roofed +with verdure. The ribs of the arches are accurately represented by the +branches which meet above, as the columns which support them are +simulated by the great shafts. It must be seen in winter, with the +groining outlined and powdered with snow, and the pillars as white as +the trunks of birch-trees, to understand the primitive idea, the seed of +art which could give rise in the mind of an architect to the conception +of similar arcades, and lead to the gradual refining of the Romanesque +till the pointed arch had entirely superseded the round. + +"And there is not a park, whether older or more recent than the groves +of Jumièges, which does not exhibit the same forms with equal +exactitude; but what Nature could not give was the prodigious art, the +deep symbolical knowledge, the over-strung but tranquil mysticism of the +believers who erected cathedrals. But for them the church in its +rough-hewn state, as Nature had formed it, was but a soulless thing, a +sketch, rudimentary; the embryo only of a basilica, varying with the +seasons and the days, at once living and inert, awaking only to the +roaring organ of the wind, the swaying roof of boughs wrung with the +slightest breath; it was lax and often sullen; the yielding victim of +the breeze, the resigned slave of the rain; it was lighted only by the +sunshine that filtered between the diamond and heart-shaped leaves, as +if through the meshes of a green network. Man's genius collected the +scattered gleams, condensed them in roses and broad blades, to pour it +into his avenues of white shafts; and even in the darkest weather the +glass was splendid, catching the very last rays of sunset, dressing +Christ and the Virgin in the most fabulous magnificence, and almost +realizing on earth the only attire that beseems the glorified Body, a +robe of mingled flame. + +"Really, when you come to think of it, a cathedral is a superhuman +thing! + +"Starting in our lands from the old Roman crypt, from the vault, crushed +like the soul by humility and fear, and bowed before the infinite +Majesty whose praise they hardly dared to sing, the churches gradually +waxed bolder; they gave an upward spring to the semicircular arch, +lengthening it to an almond shape, leaping from the earth, uplifting +roofs, heightening naves, breaking out into a thousand sculptured forms +all round the choir, and flinging heavenward, like prayers, their +rapturous piles of stones! They symbolized the loving tenderness of +orisons; they became more trusting, more playful, more daring in the +sight of God. + +"Each and all seemed to smile, as soon as they gave up their dismal +skeleton and strove upwards. + +"The Romanesque, I fancy, must have been born old," Durtal went on after +a pause. "At any rate it has always remained gloomy and timid. + +"Although at Jumièges, for instance, it has attained grandiose +dimensions with its enormous span opening like a vast portal to the sky, +it still is depressing. The semicircular arch, in fact, bends to the +earth, for it has not the point, soaring upwards, of the lancet arch. + +"Oh! to think of the tears, the dolorous murmurs of those thick +partitions, those smoky vaults, those arches resting on squat pillars, +those almost speechless blocks of stone, those sober ornaments +expressing their symbolism so curtly! The Romanesque is the La Trappe of +architecture; we find it sheltering the austerest Orders, the sternest +Brotherhoods, kneeling in ashes, and chanting in an undertone with bowed +heads none but penitential Psalms. These massive cellars speak of the +fear of sin, but also of the dread of a God whose wrath could only be +appeased by the Advent of the Son. The Romanesque seems to have +preserved from its Oriental origin an element antedating the Birth of +Christ; prayer seems to rise there to the implacable Adonaï rather than +to the pitying Infant, the gentle Mother. The Gothic, on the contrary, +is less timid, more captivated by the two other Persons and the Virgin; +it is the home of less rigorous and more artistic Orders. Bowed +shoulders are straightened, downcast eyes are raised, sepulchral voices +become seraphic. It is, in fact, the expansion of the spirit, while the +Romanesque symbolizes its repression. At least, to me, that is the +interpretation of these styles," Durtal repeated to himself. + +"Nor is that all," he went on. "Yet another distinction may be deduced +from these observations. + +"The Romanesque is allegorical of the Old Testament, as the Gothic is of +the New. + +"The parallel, when you consider it, is exact. Is not the Bible--the +inflexible Book of Jehovah, the awful Code of the Father, well expressed +by the stern and penitential Romanesque; and the consoling, tender +Gospel by the Gothic, full of effusiveness and invitation, full of +humble hope? + +"If the symbols are these, it would seem that time very often plays the +part of man's purpose in evolving the completed idea and uniting the two +styles, as, in Holy Scripture, the two Books are united; thus certain +cathedrals present a very curious result. Some, austere at their birth, +are cheerful and even smiling as they are completed. All that is left +of the old Abbey church of Cluny is from this point of view a typical +instance. This, next to that of Paray-le-Monial, which remains entire, +is undoubtedly one of the most magnificent examples of the Burgundian +Romanesque, which, with its fluted pilasters, unfortunately betrays the +distressing tradition of Greek art imported into France by the Romans. +Still, allowing that these basilicas--which may have been built between +the eleventh and thirteenth centuries--are purely Romanesque, as +Quicherat opines, mentioning them as examples, their structure is +already of a mingled type, and the joyousness of the vaulted arch is +already to be seen there. + +"Nor have we here, as at Notre Dame la Grande at Poitiers, a Romanesque +façade, minutely elaborate, flanked at each wing by a low tower +supporting a heavy stone spire cut into facets, like a pine-apple. At +Paray there is none of the puerile ornament and heavy richness that we +see at Poitiers. The barbaric dress of the little toy church of Notre +Dame la Grande gives way to the winding-sheet of a flat wall, but the +exterior is none the less remarkably impressive with its solemn +simplicity of outline. And those two square towers, pierced with narrow +windows and overlooked by a round tower resting so calmly, so firmly on +an open arcade of columns joined by round arches, are a belfry at once +dignified and rustic, spirited and strong. + +"And the august simplicity of the exterior is repeated in the interior +of the church. + +"Here, however, the Romanesque has already lost its crushed, crypt-like +character, its obscure aspect as of a Persian cellar. The strong +structural lines are the same; the capitals still display the +inflorescence of Mussulman involutions, the fabulous entanglements of +Assyrian patterns, reminiscences of Asiatic art transplanted to our +soil; but we already see the union of dissimilar bays; columns struggle +upwards, pillars are taller, the wide arches are less rigid, and have a +lighter and longer trajectory; and the plain walls, enormous but already +light, are pierced at prodigious heights with holes admitting the day. + +"At Paray the round arch is to be seen in harmony with the pointed arch +which appears in the higher summits of the structure, announcing the +advent of a less plaintive phase of the soul, a tenderer and less harsh +idea of Christ, who is preparing, and already revealing, the Mother's +indulgent smile. + +"But then," said Durtal, suddenly, to himself, "if my theories are +correct, the architecture which could, by itself alone, symbolize +Catholicism as a whole, and represent the complete Bible in both +Testaments, must be either Romanesque with the pointed arch, or a +transition style, half Romanesque and half Gothic. + +"The deuce!" thought he, thus led to an unforeseen conclusion. "To be +sure, it is not necessary perhaps that the church itself should offer so +complete a parallel, or that the Old and New Testaments should be bound +up in one volume; here, indeed, at Chartres the work, though integral, +is in two separate volumes, since the crypt on which the Gothic church +rests is Romanesque. Nay, it is thus even more symbolical, and it +emphasizes the idea of the windows in which the prophets bear on their +shoulders the four Evangelists; once more the Old Testament appears as +the base, the foundation of the New. + +"What a fulcrum for dreams is this Romanesque!" Durtal went on. "Is it +not also the smoke-stained shrine, the gloomy retreat, constructed for +black Virgins? This seems all the less doubtful because all the +Mauresque Virgins are thick-set and heavy; they are not sylphs, like the +fair Virgins of Gothic art. The Byzantine School conceived of Mary as +swarthy, 'of the hue of polished brown ebony,' as the old historians +say; only, in opposition to the text in Canticles, it painted or carved +Her as black, indeed, but not comely. Thus figured, She is truly a +gloomy Virgin, eternally sorrowing, in harmony with the Romanesque +catacombs. Her presence naturally beseems the crypt of Chartres; but in +the Cathedral itself, on the pillar where She stands to this day, does +She not appear strange? For She is not in Her true home under the +soaring white vault." + +"Well, our friend, you are dreaming!" + +Durtal started like a man roused from sleep. + +"Ah! It is you, Madame Bavoil?" + +"To be sure. I am going home from market, and from your lodgings." + +"From my lodgings?" + +"Yes, to invite you to breakfast. The Abbé Plomb's housekeeper is to be +out this afternoon, so he is coming to take his morning meal with us; +and the Father thought it would be a good opportunity to make you +acquainted." + +"I am much obliged to him; but I must go home and tell Mother Mesurat, +that she may not cook my cutlet." + +"You need not do that, as I have just come from her; not finding you, I +left word and told Madame Mesurat. Are you still satisfied with her?" + +"Once upon a time," said he, laughing, "I had, to manage my house in +Paris, one Sieur Rateau, a drunkard of the first class, who turned +everything upside down, and led the furniture a life! Now I have this +worthy woman, who sets to work on a different system, but the results +are identically the same. She works by persuasion and gentle means; she +does not overthrow the furniture, or bellow as she turns the mattress, +or rush at the wall with a broom as if she were charging with fixed +bayonet; no, she quietly collects the dust and stirs it round and ends +by piling it in little heaps that she hides in the corners of the rooms; +she does not rummage the bed, but restricts herself to patting it with +the tip of her fingers, stroking the creases out of the sheets, puffing +up the pillows and coaxing them out of their hollows. The man turned +everything topsy-turvy; she moves nothing." + +"Well, well; but she is a good woman!" + +"Yes, and in spite of it all, I am glad to have her." + +As they talked they had reached the entrance to the Bishop's residence. +They went through a little gate by the lodge into a large forecourt +strewn with small river pebbles, in front of a vast building of the +seventeenth century. There were no flowers of stone-work, no sculpture, +no decorative doorways--nothing but a frontage of shabby brick and +stone, a bare, uninviting structure evidently neglected, with tall +windows, behind which the shutters could be seen, painted grey. The +entrance was on the level of the first floor; double outside steps led +up to the door, and under the landing, in the arch below, there was a +glass door, through which, framed in the square, could be seen the +trunks of trees beyond. + +This courtyard was bordered with tall poplars, which the late Bishop, +who had frequented the Tuileries, used to speak of with a smile as his +hundred guards. + +Madame Bavoil and Durtal crossed this forecourt, sloping to the left +towards a wing of the building, roofed with slate. + +There, on the first floor, with only a loft above lighted by round +dormers, lived the Abbé Gévresin. + +They went up a narrow staircase with a rusty iron balustrade. The walls +were trickling with damp, they secreted drops, distilled spots like +black coffee; the steps were worn hollow, and thin at the ends like +spoons; they led up to a door smeared yellow, with a cast-iron knob as +black as ink. A copper ring swung in the wind at the end of a bell-rope, +knocking the chipped plaster of the wall. An indescribable smell of +stale apples and stagnant water came up the middle of the staircase from +the little outer hall below, which was paved with rows of bricks set on +edge, eaten into patterns like madrepores, while the ceiling looked like +a map, furrowed with seas that were traced in yellow by the soaking +through of the rain. + +And the Abbé's little apartment, lately "done up" with a vile +red-checked paper, reeked of the tomb. It was evident that under the +shadow of the Cathedral that overhung this wing no sunshine ever dried +the walls, of which the skirting boards were rotting into powder like +brown sugar, crumbling slowly, on the icy cold polish of the floor. + +"How sad to see an old man, a victim to rheumatism, housed here!" +thought Durtal. + +When he went into the Abbé's room, he found the chill somewhat taken off +by a large coke fire; the priest was reading his breviary, wrapped in a +wadded gown, close to the window, of which he had drawn back the blind +to see a little better. + +This room was furnished with a small iron bedstead hung with white +cotton curtains looped back by bands of red cretonne; opposite the bed +were a table covered with a cloth, and on it a desk, and a prie-dieu +below a Crucifix nailed to the wall; the remainder of the room was +fitted with bookshelves up to the ceiling. Three arm-chairs, such as are +nowhere to be seen nowadays but in religious houses or seminaries, made +of walnut wood with straw bottoms like church chairs, were set round the +table, and two more, with round rush mats for the feet, stood one on +each side of the fireplace. On the chimney-shelf was an Empire clock +between two vases, and from these rose the faded stems of some dried +grasses stuck upright into sand. + +"Come to the fire," said the Abbé, "for in spite of the brazier it is +fearfully cold." + +And in answer to Durtal, who spoke of his rheumatism, he resignedly +shrugged his shoulders. + +"All the residence is the same," said he. "Monseigneur, who is almost a +cripple, could not find a single dry room in the whole palace. Heaven +forgive me, but I believe his rooms are even damper than mine. In point +of fact there ought to be hot-air pipes all over the place, and it will +never be done for lack of money." + +"But at any rate Monseigneur might have stoves put into the rooms, here +and there." + +"He!" cried the Abbé, laughing, "but he has no private means whatever. +He draws a stipend of ten thousand francs a year and not another penny; +for there is no endowment at Chartres, and the revenue from the fees on +the ecclesiastical Acts is nothing. In this rich, but irreligious town +he can hope for no assistance; the gardener and porter are paid by him; +he is obliged for economy's sake to employ Sisters from a convent as +cook and linen-keeper. Add to that his inability to keep a carriage, so +that he has to hire a conveyance for his pastoral rounds. And how much +then do you suppose he has left to live on, if you deduct his charities? +Why, he is poorer than you or I!" + +"But then Chartres is the fag end of Church preferment, a mere raft for +the shipwrecked and starving." + +"Thou hast said! Bishop, canons, priests, everybody here is +poverty-stricken." + +The bell rang, and Madame Bavoil showed in the Abbé Plomb. Durtal +recognized him. He looked even more scared than usual; he bowed, backing +away, and did not know what to do with his hands, which he buried in his +sleeves. + +By the end of half an hour, when he was more at his ease, he expanded +into smiles, and at last he talked; Durtal, much surprised, saw that the +Abbé Gévresin was right. This priest was highly intelligent and +well-informed, and what made the man even more attractive was his +perfect freedom from the want of breeding, the narrow ideas, the goody +nonsense which make intercourse so difficult with the ecclesiastics in +literary circles. + +They had settled themselves in the dining-room, as dismal a room as the +rest, but warmer, for an earthenware stove was roaring and puffing hot +gusts from its open ventilators. + +When they had eaten their boiled eggs, the conversation, hitherto +discursive as to subject, turned on the Cathedral. + +"It is the fifth erection over a Druidical cave," said the Abbé Plomb. +"It has a strange history. + +"The first, built at the time of the Apostles by Bishop Aventinus, was +razed to the ground. Rebuilt by another Bishop named Castor, it was +partly burnt down by Hunaldus Duke of Aquitaine, then restored by +Godessaldus; again injured by fire, by Hastings, the Norman chief; +repaired once more by Gislebert, and finally destroyed utterly by +Richard Duke of Normandy when he sacked the city after the siege. + +"We have no very authentic records of these two basilicas; at most are +we certain that the Roman Governor of the land of Chartres completely +destroyed the first and at the same time slaughtered a great number of +Christians, among them his own daughter Modesta, throwing the corpses +into a well dug near the cave, and thence known as _le Puits des Saints +Forts_. + +"A third fabric, built by Bishop Vulphardus, was burnt down in 1020, +when Fulbert was Bishop, and he founded the fourth Cathedral. This was +blasted by lightning in 1194; nothing remained but the two belfries and +the crypt. + +"The fifth structure, finally, built in the reign of Philippe Auguste, +when Régnault de Mouçon was Bishop of Chartres, is that we still see; it +was consecrated on the 17th of October, 1260, in the presence of Saint +Louis. This again has passed through the fire. In 1506 the northern +spire was struck by lightning; the structure was of wood covered with +lead; a terrific storm raged from six in the evening till four in the +morning, fanning the fire to such violence that the six bells were +melted like cakes of wax. The flames were, however kept within limits, +and the church was refitted. But the scourge returned many times; in +1539, in 1573, and in 1589 lightning fell on the new belfry. Then a +century elapsed before the visitation was repeated; in 1701 the same +spire was struck again. + +"It then stood uninjured till 1825, when a thunder-bolt fell and shook +it severely on Whit Monday while the _Magnificat_ was being chanted at +Vespers. + +"Finally, on the 4th of June, 1836, a tremendous fire broke out, caused +by the carelessness of two plumbers working under the roof. It lasted +eleven hours, and destroyed all the timbers, the whole forest that +supported the roof; it was by a miracle that the church was not entirely +consumed in this fury of fire." + +"You must allow, Monsieur, that there is something strange in this +disaster without respite." + +"Yes, and what is still more strange," said the Abbé Gévresin, "Is the +persistency of fire from heaven, bent on destroying it." + +"How do you account for that?" asked Durtal. + +"Sébastien Rouillard, the author of _Parthénie_, believes that these +visitations were permitted as a punishment for certain sins, and he +insinuates that the conflagration of the third Cathedral was justified +by the misconduct of some pilgrims who at that time slept in the nave, +men and women together. Others believe that the Devil, who can command +the lightning, was bent on suppressing this sanctuary at any cost." + +"But why, then, did not the Virgin protect Her particular church more +effectually?" + +"You may observe that She has several times preserved it from being +utterly reduced to cinders; however, it is, all the same, very strange +when we remember that Chartres is the first place where the Virgin was +worshipped in France. It goes back to Messianic times, for, long before +Joachim's daughter was born, the Druids had erected, in the cave which +has become our crypt, an altar to the Virgin who should bear a +child--_Virgini Pariturae_. They, by a sort of grace, had intuitive +foreknowledge of a Saviour whose Mother should be spotless; thus it +would seem that at Chartres, above all places, there are very ancient +bonds of affection with Mary. This makes it very natural that Satan +should be bent on breaking them." + +"Do you know," said Durtal, "that this grotto is prefigured in the Old +Testament by a human structure of almost official character? In her +"Life of Our Lord," that exquisite visionary, Catherine Emmerich, tells +us that there was, hard by Mount Carmel, a grotto with a well, near +which Elias saw a Virgin; and it was to this spot, she says, that the +Jews who expected the Advent of the Redeemer made pilgrimages many times +a year. + +"Is not this the prototype of the cave of Chartres and the well of the +Strong Saints? + +"Observe, too, on the other hand, the tendency of the thunder to fall, +not on the old belfry, but on the new one. No meteorological reason, I +suppose, can account for this preference; but on carefully considering +the two spires, I am struck by the delicate foliage, the slender +lacework of the new spire, the elegant and coquettish grace of the whole +of that side. The other, on the contrary, has no ornament, no carved +tracery; it is simply carved in scallops like scale armour; it is sober, +stern, stalwart and strong. It might really almost be thought that one +is female and the other of the male sex. And then might we not conclude +that the first is symbolical of the Virgin and the second of Her Son? In +that case my inference would be akin to that offered to us by Monsieur +l'Abbé: the fires are to be ascribed to Satan, who would wreak himself +on the image of Her who has the power to crush his head." + +"Pray have a slice of beef, our friend," said Madame Bavoil, coming in +with a bottle in her hands. + +"No, thank you." + +"And you, Monsieur l'Abbé?" + +The Abbé Plomb bowed, but declined. + +"Why, you eat nothing!" + +"What! I? I may even confess that I am rather ashamed of having eaten so +heartily, after reading this morning the life of Saint Laurence of +Dublin, who, by way of food, was content to dip his bread in the water +clothes had been washed in." + +"Why?" + +"Well, in order to be able to say with the Prophet-King that he fed on +ashes--since ashes are used for lye; that is a penitential banquet which +is very unlike that we have just consumed," he added, laughing. + +"Well, my dear Madame Bavoil, that puts even you to shame," said the +Abbé Gévresin. "You are not yet covetous of so meagre a feast; you are +really quite dainty! You must have milk or water to dip your sop in!" + +"Dear me," said Durtal, "by way of high feeding I can improve on that. I +remember reading in an old book the story of the Blessed Catherine of +Cardona, who, without using her hands, cropped the grass, on her knees, +among the asses." + +It had not struck Madame Bavoil that the friends were speaking in fun, +and she replied quite humbly,-- + +"God Almighty has never yet required me to strew my bread with ashes or +to graze the field--if He should give me the order, I should certainly +obey it.--But it does not matter." + +And she was so far from enthusiastic that they all laughed. + +"Then the Cathedral as a whole," said the Abbé Gévresin after a short +silence, "dates from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, excepting, of +course, the new spire and numerous details." + +"Yes." + +"And the names of the architects are unknown?" + +"As are those of almost all the builders of great churches," replied the +Abbé Plomb. "It may, however, be safely assumed that during the twelfth +and thirteenth centuries the Benedictines of the Abbey of Tiron directed +the building of our church, for that monastery had established a House +at Chartres in 1117; we also know that this convent contained more than +five hundred Brothers practising all the arts, and that sculptors, +image-makers, stone-cutters, or workers in pierced stone, were numerous. +It would therefore seem very natural that these monks sent to live at +Chartres were the men who drew the plans of Notre Dame, and employed the +horde of artists whom we see represented in one of the old windows of +the apse--men in furred caps shaped like a jelly bag, who are busily +carving and polishing the statues of kings. + +"Their work was finished at the beginning of the sixteenth century by +Jehan Le Texier, known as Jehan de Beauce, who erected the northern +belfry, called the New Belfry, and the decorative work inside the +church, forming the niches for the groups on the walls of the +choir-aisles or ambulatory." + +"And has no one ever been able to discover the name of any one of the +original architects, sculptors, or glass-makers of this Cathedral?" + +"It has been the subject of much research, and I, personally, may say +that I have grudged neither time nor trouble, but all in vain. + +"This much we know: At the top of the southern belfry, the Old Belfry as +it is called, near the window-bay looking towards the New Belfry, this +name was deciphered: 'Harman, 1164.' Is it that of an architect, of a +workman, or of a night watchman on the look-out at that time in the +tower? We can but wonder. Didron, again, discovered on the pilaster of +the eastern porch, above the head of a butcher slaughtering an ox, the +word 'Rogerus' in twelfth century characters. Was he the architect, the +sculptor, the donor of this porch--or the butcher? Another signature, +'Robir,' is to be seen on the pedestal of a statue in the north porch. +Who was Robir? None can say. + +"Langlois, too, mentions a glass-worker of the thirteenth century, +Clément of Chartres, whose signature he found on a window of the +Cathedral at Rouen--_Clement Vitrearius Carnutensis_; but it is a wide +leap to infer, as some would do, that merely because this Clément was a +native of Chartres, he must have painted one or more of the glass +pictures in Notre Dame here. And at any rate we have no information as +to his life or his works in this city. It may also be remarked that on a +pane in our church we read _Petrus Bal ...;_ is this the name, complete +or defaced, of a donor or of a painter? Once more we must confess +ourselves ignorant. + +"If I add to this that two of Jehan de Beauce's colleagues have been +traced: Thomas Le Vasseur, who assisted him in the building of the new +spire, and one Sieur Bernier, whose name occurs in ancient accounts; +that from some old contracts, discovered by Monsieur Lecoq, we know that +Jehan Soulas, image-maker, of Paris, carved the finest of the groups +that are the glory of the choir-aisles, and can verify the names of +other sculptors who succeeded this admirable artist, but who are less +interesting, since with them pagan art reappears and mediocrity is +evident: François Marchant, image-maker, of Orleans, and Nicolas +Guybert, of Chartres--we have mentioned almost all the records worthy of +preservation as to the great artists who laboured at Chartres from the +twelfth till the close of the first half of the fifteenth century." + +"And after that period the names that have been handed down to us +deserve nothing but execration. Thomas Boudin, Legros, Jean de Dieu, +Berruer, Tuby, Simon Mazières--these were the men that dared to carry on +the work begun by Soulas! Louis, the Duc d'Orléans' architect, who +debased and ravaged the choir, and the infamous Bridan, who, to the +contemptible delight of some of the Canons, erected his blatant and +wretched presentment of the Assumption!" + +"Alas!" said the Abbé Gévresin, "and they were Canons who thought fit to +break two ancient windows in the choir and fill them with white panes, +the better to light that group of Bridan's!" + +"Will you eat nothing more?" asked Madame Bavoil, who, at a negative +from the guests, cleared away the cheese and preserves, and brought in +coffee. + +"Since you are so much charmed by our Cathedral, I shall be most happy +to take you over it and explain its details," said the Abbé Plomb to +Durtal. + +"I shall accept with pleasure, Monsieur l'Abbé, for it fairly haunts me, +it possesses me--your Notre Dame! You know, no doubt, Quicherat's +theories of Gothic art?" + +"Yes, and I believe them to be correct. Like him, I am convinced that if +the essential character of the Romanesque is the substitution of the +vaulted roof for the truss, the distinctive element and principle of the +Gothic is the buttress, and not the pointed arch. + +"I reserve my opinion, indeed, as to the accuracy of Quicherat's +declaration that 'the history of architecture in the middle ages is no +more than the history of the struggle of architects against the thrust +and weight of vaulting,' for there is something in this art beyond +material industry and a problem of practice; at the same time he is +certainly right on almost every point. + +"It may be added as a general principle, that in our use of the terms +Ogee and Gothic, we are misapplying words which have lost their original +meaning; since the Goths have nothing to do with the style of +architecture which has taken their name, and the word ogee or ogyve, +which strictly means the semicircular form, is inaccurate as applied to +the arch with a double curve, which has for so long been regarded as the +basis, nay, as the characteristic stamp of a style."[1] + +"After all," the Abbé went on, after a short silence, "how can we judge +of the works of a past age, but by such help as we may obtain from the +arcades pierced in shoring walls or from vaulting on round or pointed +arches? for they are all debased by centuries of repair, or left +unfinished. Look at Chartres; Notre Dame was to have had nine spires, +and it has but two! The cathedrals of Reims, of Paris, of Laon, and many +more, were to have had spires rising from their towers; and where are +they? We can form no exact idea of the effect their architects intended +to produce. And then, again, these churches were meant to be seen in a +setting which has been destroyed, an environment that has ceased to +exist; they were surrounded by houses of a character resembling their +own; they are now in the midst of barracks five stories high, gloomy, +ignoble penitentiaries!--and we constantly see the ground about them +cleared, when they were never intended to stand isolated on a square. +Look where you will, there is a total misapprehension of the conditions +in which they were placed, of the atmosphere in which they lived. +Certain details, which seem to us inexplicable in some of these +buildings, were, no doubt, imperatively required by the position and +needs of the surroundings. In fact, we stumble, we feel our way--but we +know nothing--nothing!" + +"And at best," said Durtal, "archæology and architecture have only done +a secondary work; they have simply set before us the material organism, +the body of the cathedrals; who shall show us the soul?" + +"What do you mean by the word?" said the Abbé Gévresin. + +"I am not speaking of the soul of the building at the moment when man by +Divine help had created it; we know nothing of that soul--not indeed as +regards Chartres, for some invaluable documents still reveal it; but of +the soul of other churches, the soul they still have, and which we help +to keep alive by our more or less regular presence, our more or less +frequent communion, our more or less fervent prayers. + +"For instance, take Notre Dame at Paris; I know that it has been +restored and patched from end to end, that its sculpture is mended where +it is not quite new; in spite of Hugo's rhetoric it is second-rate, but +it has its nave and its wondrous transept; it is even endowed with an +ancient statue of the Virgin before which Monsieur Olier had knelt, and +very often. Well, an attempt was made to revive there the worship of Our +Lady, to incite a spirit of pilgrimage thither; but all is dead! That +Cathedral no longer has a soul; it is an inert corpse of stone; try +attending Mass there, try to approach the Holy Table--you will feel an +icy cloak fall on you and crush you. Is it the result of its emptiness, +of its torpid services, of the froth of runs and trills they send up +there, of its being closed in a hurry in the evening and never open till +so late in the morning, long after daybreak? Or has it something to do +with the permitted rush of tourists, of London gapers that I have seen +there talking at the top of their voice, sitting staring at the altar +when the Holy Elements were being consecrated just in front of them? I +know not--but of one thing I am certain, the Virgin does not inhabit +there day and night and always, as she does Chartres. + +"Look at Amiens, again, with its colourless windows and crude daylight, +its chapels enclosed behind tall railings, its silence rarely broken by +prayer, its solitude. There too is emptiness; and why I know not, but to +me the place exhales a stale odour of Jansenism. I am not at large +there, and prayer is difficult; and yet the nave is magnificent, and the +sculptures in the ambulatory, finer even than those of Chartres, may be +pronounced unique. + +"But here, too, the soul is absent. + +"It is the same with the Cathedral of Laon--bare, ice-bound, dead past +hope; while some are in an intermediate state, dying, but not yet cold: +Reims, Rouen, Dijon, Tours, and Le Mans for instance; even in these +there is some refreshment; and Bourges, with its five porches opening on +a long perspective of aisles, and its vast deserted spaces; or Beauvais, +a melancholy fragment, having no more than a head and arms flung out in +despair like an appeal for ever ignored by Heaven, have still preserved +some of the aroma of olden days. Meditation is possible there; but +nowhere, nowhere is there such comfort as there is here, nowhere is +prayer so fervent as at Chartres!" + +"Those are heaven-sent words!" cried Madame Bavoil. "And you shall have +a glass of old black currant liqueur for your pains! Yes, indeed, he is +quite right--our friend is right," she went on, addressing the priests, +who laughed. "Everywhere else, excepting at Notre Dame des Victoires in +Paris and, more especially, Notre Dame de Fourvière at Lyon, when you go +to meet Her, you wait and wait; and often enough She does not come. +Whereas in our Cathedral She receives you at once, just as She is. And I +have told him, told our friend, that he should attend the first morning +Mass in the crypt, and he will see what a welcome our Mother gives her +visitors." + +"Chartres is a marvellous place," said the Abbé Gévresin, "with its two +black Madonnas--Notre Dame of the Pillar, above in the body of the +church, and Notre Dame de Sous-Terre below, in the vault over which the +basilica is built. No other sanctuary, I believe, possesses the +miraculous images of Mary, to say nothing of the antique relic known as +the Shift or Tunic of the Virgin." + +"And what in your opinion constitutes the soul of Chartres?" asked the +Abbé Plomb. + +"Certainly not the souls of the citizens' wives and the church servants +that are poured out there," replied Durtal. "No, its vitality comes from +the Sisterhoods, the peasant women, the pious schools, the pupils of the +Seminary, and perhaps more especially from the children of the choir, +who crowd to kiss the Pillar and kneel before the Black Virgin. As for +the devotion of the respectable classes! It would scare away the +angels!" + +"With a few rare exceptions the fine flower of female Pharisaism is no +doubt the outcome of that class," said the Abbé Plomb, and he added in a +half jesting, half sorrowful tone,-- + +"And I, here at Chartres, am the distressful gardener of these souls!" + +"To return to our starting point," said the Abbé Gévresin: "what was the +birthplace of the Gothic?" + +"France: so Lecoy de la Marche emphatically asserts. 'The buttress made +its appearance as the essential basis of a style in the early years of +Louis le Gros, in the district lying between the Seine and the Aisne.' +In his opinion the first practice of this form was in the Cathedral of +Laon; other authorities regard it as merely supplementary to earlier +basilicas, instancing Saint-Front at Périgueux, Vézelay, Saint-Denis, +Noyon, and the ancient college chapel at Poissy; but no two agree. One +thing is certain, Gothic art is the art of the North; it made its way +into Normandy, and from thence into England. Then it spread to the Rhine +in the twelfth century, and to Spain by the beginning of the thirteenth. +Gothic churches in the South are but an importation, evidently +ill-assorted with the men and women who frequent them, and the merciless +blue sky which spoils them." + +"And observe," said Durtal, "that in our country that aspect of +mysticism is discordant with the rest." + +"How is that?" + +"Well, you see, in the distribution of the sacred arts France received +architecture only. Consider the pre-Raphaelite painters. All the early +painters were Italians, Spaniards, Flemings, or Germans. Those whom some +writers try to represent as our fellow-countrymen are Flemings +transplanted to Burgundy, or docile Frenchmen whose imitative work bears +an unmistakable Flemish stamp. Look in the Louvre at our primitive +artists; look at Dijon, especially at what remains from the time when +northern art was introduced by Philippe le Hardi into his own province. +It is impossible to feel a doubt. Everything came from Flanders--Jean +Perréal, Bourdichon, even Fouquet are whatever you please, only not the +inventors of an original Gallic art. + +"It is the same with the mystic writers. Of what use would it be to +mention the nationalities to which they belong? They too are Spanish, +Italian, German, Flemish--not one is French." + +"I beg your pardon, our friend!" cried Madame Bavoil, "there was the +Venerable Jeanne de Matel, who was born at Roanne." + +"Yes, but she was the daughter of an Italian father who was born at +Florence," said the Abbé Gévresin, who, hearing the bell ring for Nones, +now folded up his table napkin. They all stood up and said grace, and +Durtal made an appointment with the Abbé Plomb to visit the Cathedral. +Then he went home, meditating, as he walked, on this strange division of +art in the middle ages, and the supremacy given to France in +architecture, when as yet she was so inferior in every other art. + +"And it must be owned," he concluded, "that she has now lost this +superiority; for it is long indeed since she produced an architect. The +men who assume the name are mere thieving bunglers, builders devoid of +all individuality and learning. They are not even able to pilfer +skilfully from their precursors. What are they nowadays? Patchers up of +chapels, church cobblers, botchers and blunderers!" + + + [1] The English use of the word Ogee is thus defined: "An arch + or moulding which displays sectionally contrasted curves similar + to that of the _cyma reversa_." FAIRHOLT, "Dict. of Terms used in + Art;" and PARKER, "A Concise Glossary of Terms used in + Architecture."--[_Translator_.] + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +Madame Bavoil was right; to understand the welcome the Virgin could +bestow on Her visitors, the early Mass in the crypt must be attended; +above all, the Communion should be received. + +Durtal made the experiment; one day when the Abbé Gévresin enjoined on +him to approach the Table, he followed the housekeeper's advice and went +to the crypt at early dawn. + +The way down was by a cellar-stair lighted by a small lamp with a +sputtering wick darkening the chimney with smoke; having safely reached +the bottom, he turned to the left in the darkness; here and there, at an +angle, a floating wick threw a ruddy light on the circuit which he made +in alternate light and shade, till at last he had some notion of the +general outline of the crypt. Its plan would be fairly represented by +the nave of a wheel whence the spokes radiated in every direction, +joining the outer circle or tyre. From the circular path in which he +found himself passages diverged like the sticks of a fan, and at the end +little fogged glass windows were visible, looking almost bright in the +opaque blackness of the walls. + +And by following the curve of the corridor, Durtal came to a green baize +door which he pushed open. He found himself in the side aisle of a nave +ending in a semicircle, where there was a high altar. To the right and +left two little recesses formed the arms or transept of a small cross. +The centre aisle, forming a low nave, had chairs on either side, leaving +a narrow space to give access to the altar. + +It was scarcely possible to see; the sanctuary was lighted only by tiny +lamps from the roof in little saucers of lurid orange or dull gold. An +extraordinarily mild atmosphere prevailed in this underground structure, +which was also full of a singular perfume in which a musty odour of hot +wax mingled with a suggestion of damp earth. But this was only the +background, the canvas, so to speak, of the perfume, and was lost under +the embroidery of fragrance which covered it, the faded gold, as it +were, of oil in which long kept aromatic herbs had been steeped, and +old, old incense powder dissolved. It was a weird and mysterious vapour, +as strange as the crypt itself, which, with its furtive lights and +breadths of shadow, was at once penitential and soothing. + +Durtal went up the broader aisle to the left arm of the cross and sat +down; the tiny transept had its little altar, with a Greek cross in +relief against a purple disk. Overhead the enormous curve of the +vaulting hung heavy, and so low that a man could touch it by stretching +an arm; it was as black as the mouth of a chimney, and scorched by the +fires that had consumed the cathedrals built above it. + +Presently the clap-clap of sabots became audible, and then the smothered +footfall of nuns; there was silence but for sneezing and nose-blowing +stifled by pocket-handkerchiefs, and then all was still. + +A sacristan came in through a little door opening into the other +transept, and lighted the tapers on the high altar; then strings of +silver-gilt hearts became visible in the semicircle all along the walls, +reflecting the blaze of flames, and forming a glory for a statue of the +Virgin sitting, stiff and dark, with a Child on Her knees. This was the +famous Virgin of the Cavern, or rather a copy of it, for the original +was burnt in 1793 in front of the great porch of the Cathedral, amid the +delirious raving of _sans-culottes_. + +A choir-boy came in, followed by an old priest; and then, for the first +time, Durtal saw the Mass really as a service, and understood the +wonderful beauty that lies inherent in a devout commemoration of the +Sacrifice. + +The boy on his knees, his soul aspiring and his hands clasped, spoke +aloud and slowly, rehearsing the responses of the Psalm with such deep +attention and respect, that the meaning of this noble liturgy, which has +ceased to amaze us, because we are so used to hearing it stammered out +in hot haste, was suddenly revealed to Durtal. + +And the priest himself, unconsciously, whether he would or no, took up +the child's tone, imitating him, speaking slowly, not merely tripping +the verses off the tip of his tongue, but absorbed in the words he had +to repeat; and he seemed overwhelmed, as though it were his first Mass, +by the grandeur of the rite of which he was to be the instrument. + +In fact, Durtal heard the celebrant's voice tremble when standing before +the altar in the presence of the Father, like the Son Himself whom he +represented, and imploring forgiveness for all the sins of the world +which He bore on His shoulders, supported in his grief and hope by the +innocence of the child whose loving care was less mature and less lively +than the man's. + +And as he spoke the despairing words, "My God, my God, wherefore is my +spirit heavy, and why dost Thou afflict me?" the priest was indeed the +image of Jesus suffering on the hill of Calvary, but the man remained in +the celebrant--the man, conscious of himself, and himself experiencing, +in behoof of his personal sins and his own shortcomings, the impressions +of sorrow contained in the inspired text. + +Meanwhile his little acolyte had words of comfort, bid him hope; and +after repeating the _Confiteor_ in the face of the congregation, who on +their part purified their souls by the same ablution of confession, the +priest with revived assurance went up the altar steps and began the +Mass. + +Positively, in this atmosphere of prayers crushed in by the heavy roof, +Durtal, in the midst of kneeling Sisters and women, was struck with a +sense as of some early Christian rite buried in the catacombs. Here were +the same ecstatic tenderness, the same faith; and it was possible even +to imagine some apprehension of surprise, and some eagerness to profess +the faith in the face of danger. And thus, as in a vague image, this +sacred cellar held the dim picture of the neophytes assembled so long +since in the underground caverns of Rome. + +The service proceeded before Durtal's eyes, and he was amazed to watch +the boy, who, with half closed eyes and the reserve of timid emotion, +kissed the flagons of wine and of water before presenting them to the +priest. + +Durtal would look no more; he tried to concentrate his mind while the +priest was wiping his hands, for the only prayers he could honestly +offer up to God were verses and texts repeated in an undertone. + +This only had he in his favour, but this he had: that he passionately +loved mysticism and the liturgy, plain-song and cathedrals. Without +falsehood or self-delusion, he could in all truth exclaim, "Lord, I have +loved the habitation of Thy house, and the place where Thine honour +dwelleth." This was all he had to offer to the Father in expiation of +his contumely and refractoriness, his errors and his falls. + +"Oh!" thought he, "how could I dare to pour out the ready-made collects +of which the prayer-books are full, how say to God, while addressing Him +as 'Lovely Jesus,' that He is the beloved of my heart, that I solemnly +vow never to love anything but Him, that I would die rather than ever +displease Him? + +"Love none but Him!--If I were a monk and alone, possibly; but living in +the world!--And then who but the Saints would prefer death to the +smallest sin? Why then humbug Him with these feints and grimaces? + +"No," said Durtal, "apart from the personal outpourings, the secret +intimacy in which we are bold to tell Him everything that comes into our +head, the prayers of the liturgy alone can be uttered with impunity by +any man, for it is the peculiarity of these inspirations that they adapt +themselves in all ages to every state of the mind and every phase of +life. And with the exception of the time-honoured prayers of certain +Saints, which are as a rule either supplications for pity or for help, +appeals to God's mercy or laments, all other prayers sent forth from the +cold insipid sacristies of the seventeenth century, or, worse still, +composed in our own day by the piety-mongers who insert in our books of +prayer the pious cant of the Rue Bonaparte--all these inflated and +pretentious petitions should be avoided by sinners who, in default of +every other virtue, at least wish to be sincere. + +"Only that wonderful child could thus address the Lord without +hypocrisy," he went on, looking at the little acolyte, and understanding +truly for the first time what innocent childhood meant--the little +sinless soul, purely white. + +"The Church, which tries to find beings absolutely ingenuous and +immaculate to wait upon the altar, had succeeded at Chartres in moulding +souls and transforming ordinary boys on their admission to the sanctuary +into exquisite angels. There must certainly be, above and besides their +special training, some blessing and goodwill from Our Lady, to mould +these little rogues to the service, to make them so unlike others, and +endow them in the middle of the nineteenth century with the fire of +chastity and primitive fervour of the middle age." + +The service proceeded slowly, soaking into the abject silence of the +worshippers, and the child, more reverent and attentive than ever, rang +the bell; it was like a shower of sparks tinkling under the smoky vault, +and the silence seemed deeper than ever behind the kneeling boy, +upholding with one hand the chasuble of the celebrant, who bowed over +the altar. The Host was elevated amid the shower of silver sound; and +then, above the prostrate heads, in the clear sparkle of bells, the +golden tulip of a chalice flashed out till, to a final hurried peal, the +gilded flower was lowered, and the prostrate worshippers looked up. + +And Durtal was thinking,-- + +"If only He to whom we refused shelter when the Mother who bore Him was +in travail, could find a loving refuge in our souls to-day! But alas! +apart from these nuns, these children, these priests, and these peasant +women who cherish Him so truly, how many here present are, like me, +embarrassed by His presence, and at all times incapable of making ready +the chamber He requires, of receiving Him in a room swept and garnished? + +"Alas! to think that things are always the same, always going back to +the beginning! Our souls are still the crafty synagogues who betrayed +Him, and the vile Caiaphas that lurks within us rises up at the very +moment when we fain would be humble and love Him while we pray! My God! +My God! Would it not be better to depart than to drag myself thus, with +such a bad grace, into Thy presence? For, after all, it is all very well +for the Abbé Gévresin to insist that I should communicate, he is not +I--he is not in me; he does not know the wild doings in my hidden lairs, +or the turmoil in my ruins. He believes it to be mere nervelessness, +indolence. Alas! That is not all. There is a dryness, a coldness, which +are not altogether free from a certain amount of irritation and +rebelliousness against the rules he insists on." + +The moment of Communion was at hand. The little boy had gently thrown +the white napkin back on the table; the nuns and poor women and peasants +went forward, all with clasped hands and bowed heads, and the child took +a taper and passed in front of the priest, his eyes almost shut for fear +of seeing the Host. + +There was in this little creature such a glow of love and reverence that +Durtal gazed with admiration and trembled with awe. Without in the least +knowing why, in the midst of the darkness that fell on his soul, of the +impotent and wavering feeling that thrilled it without there being any +word to describe them, he felt a tide bearing him to the Saviour, and +then a recoil. + +The comparison was inevitably forced upon him between that child's soul +and his own. "Why, it is he, not I, who should take the Sacrament!" +cried he to himself; and he crouched there inert, his hands folded, not +knowing how to decide, in a frame at once beseeching and terrified, when +he felt himself gently drawn to the table and received the Sacrament. +And meanwhile he was trying to collect himself, and to pray, and at the +same time, at the same instant, was in the discomfort of the shuddering +fears that surge up within us, and that find expression physically in a +craving for air, and in that peculiar condition when the head feels as +if it were empty, as if the brain had ceased to act, and all vitality +was driven back on the heart, which swells to choking; when it seems, in +the spiritual sense, that as energy returns so far as to allow of +self-command once more, of introspection, we peer down in appalling +silence into a black void. + +He painfully rose and returned to his place, not without stumbling. +Never, not even at Chartres, had he been able to hinder the torpor that +overpowered him at the moment of receiving the Sacrament. His powers +were benumbed, his faculties arrested. + +In Paris, at the core of his soul, which seemed rolled up in itself like +a chrysalis, there had always been a sort of restraint, an awkwardness +in waiting, and in approaching Christ, and then an apathy which nothing +could shake off. And this state was prolonged in a sort of cold, +enveloping mist, or rather in a vacuum all round the soul, deserted and +swooning on its couch. + +At Chartres this state of collapse was still present, but some indulgent +tenderness presently enwrapped and warmed the spirit. The soul as it +recovered was no longer alone; it was encouraged and perceptibly helped +by the Virgin, who revived it. And this impression, peculiar to this +crypt, permeated the body too; it was no longer a feeling of suffocation +for lack of air; on the contrary, it was the oppression of inflation, of +over-fulness, which would be mitigated by degrees, allowing of easy +breathing at last. + +Durtal, comforted and relieved, rose to go. By this time the crypt had +become a little lighter from the growing dawn; the passages, ending in +altars backing against the windows, were still dark, as a result of the +ground plan, but in the perspective of each a moving gold cross was to +be seen almost distinctly, rising and falling with a priest's back, +between two pale stars twinkling one on each side above the tabernacle; +while a third, lower and with redder flame, lighted up the book and the +white napery. + +Durtal wandered away to meditate in the Bishop's garden, where he had +permission to walk whenever he pleased. + +The garden was perfectly still, with tomb-like avenues, pollard poplars, +and trampled lawns--half dead. There was not a flower, for the Cathedral +killed everything under its shadow. Its vast deserted apse, without a +statue, rose amid a flight of buttresses flung out like huge ribs, +inflated as it were by the breath of incessant prayer within; shade and +damp always clung round the spot; in this funereal Close, where the +trees were green only in proportion as they were distant from the +church, lay two microscopic ponds like the mouths of two wells; one +covered to the brim with yellow-green duck-weed, the other full of +brackish water of inky blackness, in which three goldfish lay as in +pickle. + +Durtal was fond of this neglected spot, with its reek of the grave and +the salt marsh, and the mouldy smell, that earthy scent that comes up +from a rotting soil of wet leaves. + +He paced the alleys, where the Bishop never came, and where the children +of the household, rushing about at play, destroyed the fragments of +grass-plots spared by the Cathedral. Slates cracked underfoot, flung +down from the roofs by the wind, and the jackdaws croaked in answer to +each other across the silent park. + +Durtal came out on a terrace overlooking the city, and he rested his +elbows on a parapet of grey time-eaten stone, as dry as pumice and +patterned with orange and sulphur-coloured lichens. + +Beneath him spread a valley crowded with smoking chimneys and roofs, +veiling this upper part of the town in a tangle of blue. Further down +all was still and lifeless; the houses were asleep, not so far awake +even as to show the transient flash of glass when a window is thrown +open, nor was there such a spot of red as is often seen in a country +street when an eider-down quilt hangs out to air across the bar of a +balcony; everything was closed and dull and soundless; there was not +even the hive-like hum that hangs over inhabited places. But for the +distant rumble of a cart, the crack of a whip, the bark of a dog, all +was still: it was a town asleep, a land of the dead. + +And beyond the valley, on the further bank, the scene was still more +sullen and silent; the plains of La Beauce stretched away as far as the +eye could reach, mute and melancholy, without a smile, under a heartless +sky divided by an ignoble barrack facing the Cathedral. + +The dreariness of these plains, an endless level without a mound, +without a tree! And you felt that even beyond the horizon they still +stretched away as flat as ever; only the monotony of the landscape was +emphasized by the raging fury of the tempestuous winds, sweeping the +hillside, levelling the tree-tops, and wreaking themselves on this +basilica, which, perched on high, had for centuries defied their +efforts. To uproot it the lightning had been needed to help, firing its +towers, and even the combined attacks of the hurricane and the flames +had been unable to destroy the original stock, which, replanted after +each disaster, had always sprouted in fresh verdure with reinvigorated +growth. + +That morning, in the dawn of a rainy autumn day, lashed by a bitter +north wind, Durtal, shivering and ill at ease, left the terrace and took +refuge in the more sheltered walks, going down presently into a +garden-slope where the brushwood afforded some little protection from +the wind; these shrubberies wandered at random down the hill, and an +inextricable tangle of blackberries clung with the cat's-claws of their +long shoots to the saplings that were scattered about. + +It was evident that since some immemorial time the Bishops, for lack of +funds, had neglected these grounds. Of all the old kitchen garden, +overgrown by brambles, only one plot was more or less weeded, and rows +of spinach and carrots alternated with the frosted balls of cabbages. + +Durtal sat down on a stump that had once supported a bench, and tried to +look into his own soul; but he found within, look where he might, only a +spiritual Beauce; it seemed to him to mirror the cold and monotonous +landscape; only it was not a mighty wind that blew through his being; +but a sharp, drying little blast. He knew that he was cross-grained and +could not make his observations calmly; his conscience harassed him and +insisted on vexatious argument. + +"Pride! Ah, how is it to be kept under till the day shall come when it +shall be quelled? It insinuates itself so stealthily, so noiselessly, +that it has ensnared and bound me before I can suspect its presence; and +my case too is somewhat peculiar, and hard to cure by the religious +treatment commonly prescribed in such cases. For in fact," said he to +himself, "my pride is not of the artless and overweening kind, elated, +audacious, boldly displaying, and proclaiming itself to the world; no, +mine is in a latent state, what was called vain-glory in the simplicity +of the Middle Ages, an essence of pride diluted with vanity and +evaporating within me in transient thoughts and unexpressed conceit. I +have not even the opportunity afforded by swaggering pride for being on +my guard and compelling myself to keep silence. Yes, that is very true; +talk leads to specious boasting and invites subtle praise; one is +presently aware of it, and then, with patience and determination, it is +in one's power to check and muzzle oneself. But my vice of pride is +wordless and underground; it does not come forth. I neither see nor hear +it. It wriggles and creeps in without a sound, and clutches me without +my having heard its approach! + +"And the good Abbé answers: 'Be watchful and pray;' well, I am more than +willing, but the remedy is ineffectual, for aridity and outside +influences deprive it of its efficacy! + +"As for outside suggestions--they never seem to come to me but in +prayer. It is enough that I kneel down and try to collect my thoughts, +they are at once dissipated. The mere purpose of prayer is like a stone +flung into a pool; everything is stirred up and comes to the top! + +"And people who have not habits of religious practice fancy that there +is nothing easier than prayer. I should like to see them try. They could +then bear witness that profane imaginings, which leave them in peace at +all other times, always surge up unexpectedly, during prayer. + +"Besides, what use is therein disputing the fact? Merely looking at a +sleeping vice is enough to wake it." + +And his thoughts went back to that warm crypt. "Yes, no doubt, like all +the buildings of the Romanesque period, it is symbolical of the Old +Testament; but it is not simply gloomy and sad, for it is enveloping and +comforting, warm and tender! Admitting even that it is the figure in +stone of the older Dispensation, would it not seem that it symbolizes it +less as a whole, than as embodying more especially a select group of the +Holy Women who prefigured the Virgin in the earlier Scriptures? Is it +not the expression in stone of those passages in which the illustrious +women of the Bible are most conspicuous, who were, in a way, prophetic +incarnations of the New Eve? + +"Hence this crypt would reproduce the most consoling and the most heroic +passages of the Sacred Book, for the Virgin is supreme in this +underground sanctuary; it is Hers rather than the terrible Adonaï's, if +one may dare say so. + +"And again, She is a very singular Virgin, who has inevitably remained +in harmony with Her surroundings: a Virgin black and rugged, and +stunted, like the rough-hewn shrine She inhabits. + +"She is therefore, no doubt, the outcome of the same idea that conceived +of Christ as black and ugly because He had assumed the burthen of all +the sins of the world, the Christ of the first ages of the Church, who +in His humility put on the vilest aspect. In that case Mary would have +conceived Her Son in Her own image; She too had chosen to be ugly and +obscure, out of humility and loving-kindness, that She might the better +console the disfigured and despised creatures whose image She had +borrowed." + +And Durtal went on:-- + +"What a crypt is this where, in the course of so many centuries, kings +and queens have come to worship! + +"Philip Augustus and Isabella of Hainault, Blanche of Castille and Saint +Louis, Philippe de Valois, Jean le Bon, Charles V., Charles VI., Charles +VII., Charles VIII. and Anne de Bretagne; then François I., Henri III. +and Louise de Vaudemont, Catherine de' Medici; Henri IV., who was +crowned in this Cathedral, Anne of Austria, Louis XIV., Maria Leczinska, +and so many others--all the nobility of France; and Ferdinand of Spain, +and Léon de Lusignan, the last King of Armenia, and Pierre de Courtenay, +Emperor of Constantinople--all kneeling like the poor folks of to-day, +and like them beseeching Notre Dame de Sous-Terre." + +And what was more interesting still was that the Virgin had wrought many +miracles on this spot. She had saved children who had fallen into the +well of the Strong Saints, had preserved the guardians who had charge of +the relic of Her garment when the edifice was blazing above them, and +had cured crowds, half maddened by the Burning plague in the Middle +Ages, shedding Her benefits with a lavish hand. + +Times were changed indeed, but fervent worshippers had knelt before the +Image, had relinked the bonds broken in the course of years, had, so to +speak, recaptured the Virgin in a net of prayer; and so, instead of +departing, as She had done elsewhere, She had remained at Chartres. + +By some incredible effect of clemency She had endured the insult of the +tenth-day festivals and the outrage of seeing the Goddess of Reason +installed in her place on the altar, had suffered the infamous liturgy +of obscene canticles rising with the thundering incense of gunpowder. +And She had forgiven it all, no doubt for the sake of the love shown Her +by preceding generations, and the awed, but real affection of the humble +believers who had come back to Her when the storm was over. + +This cavern was crowded with memories. The coating of those walls had +been formed of the vapours of the soul, of the exhalations of +accumulated desires and regrets, even more than of the smoke of tapers; +how foolish it was then to have painted this crypt in squalid imitation +of the catacombs, to have defaced the glorious darkness of these stones +with colours which were indeed fast vanishing, leaving only traces as of +palette scrapings in the consecrated soot on the roof! + +Durtal was expatiating on these reflections as he went out of the +garden, when he met the Abbé Gévresin walking along and reading his +breviary. He asked whether Durtal had taken the Sacrament. And +perceiving that his penitent always came back to his shame of the inert +and torpid grief that came over him in contemplation of the Holy +Sacrament, the old priest said to him,-- + +"That is no concern of yours; all you have to do is to pray to the best +of your power. The rest is my concern--if the far from triumphant state +of your soul only makes you a little humble, that is all I ask of you." + +"Humble! I am like a water cooler; my vanity sweats out at every pore as +the water oozes from the clay." + +"It is some consolation to me that you perceive it," said the Abbé, +smiling. "It would be far worse if you did not know yourself, if you +were so proud as to believe that you had no pride." + +"But how then am I to set to work? You advise me to pray; but teach me +at least how not to dissipate myself in every direction, for as soon as +I try to collect myself I go to pieces; I live in a perpetual state of +dissolution. It is like a thing arranged on purpose; as soon as I try to +shut the cage all my thoughts fly off--they deafen me with their +chirping." + +The Abbé was thinking. + +"I know," said he; "nothing is more difficult than to free the spirit +from the images that take possession of it. Still, and in spite of all, +you may achieve concentration of mind if you observe these three rules: + +"In the first place you must humble yourself, by owning the frailty of +your mind, unable to preserve itself from wandering in the presence of +God; next you must not be impatient or restless, for that would only +stir up the dregs and bring other objects of frivolity to the surface; +finally, it is well not to investigate the nature of the distractions +that trouble your prayers till they are over. This only prolongs the +disturbance, and in a way recognizes its existence. You thus run the +risk, in virtue of the law of association of ideas, of inviting new +diversions, and there would be no way of escape. + +"After prayer you may examine yourself with benefit; follow my advice, +and you will find the advantage of it." + +"That is all very fine," thought Durtal, "but when it comes to putting +the advice into practice it is quite another thing. Are not these mere +old women's remedies, precious ointments, quack medicines, for which the +pious and virtuous have a weakness?" + +They walked on in silence across the forecourt of the palace to the +priest's rooms. As they went in, they found Madame Bavoil at the foot of +the stairs, her arms in a tub full of soap-suds. As she rubbed the +clothes, she turned to look at Durtal, and, as if she could read his +thoughts, she mildly asked,-- + +"Why, our friend, wear such a graveyard face when you took the Sacrament +this morning?" + +"So you heard I had been to Communion?" + +"Yes, I went into the crypt while Mass was going forward, and saw you go +up to the Holy Table. Well, shall I tell you the truth? You do not know +how to address our Holy Mother." + +"Indeed!" + +"No. You are shy when She is doing her best to put you at your ease; you +creep close to the wall when you ought to walk boldly up the middle +aisle to face Her. That is not the way to approach Her!" + +"But if I have nothing to say to Her?" + +"Then you simply chatter to Her like a child; some pretty speech, and +She is satisfied. Oh, these men! How little they know how to pay their +court, how greatly they lack little coaxing ways, and even honest +artfulness! If you can invent nothing on your own part, borrow from +another. Repeat after the Venerable Jeanne de Matel: + +"'Holy Virgin, this abyss of iniquity and vileness invokes the abyss of +strength and splendour to praise Thy preeminent Glory.' Well, is that +pretty well expressed, our friend? Try; recite that to Our Lady and She +will unbind you; then prayer will come of itself. Such little ways are +permitted by Her, and we must be humble enough not to presume to do +without them." + +Durtal could not help laughing. + +"You want me to become a trickster, a sneak in spiritual life!" said he. + +"Well, where would be the harm? Does not the Lord know when we mean +well? Does not He take note of our intentions? Would you, yourself, +repulse anyone who paid you a compliment, however clumsily, if you +thought he meant to please you by it? No, of course not." + +"Here is another thing," said the Abbé, laughing. "Madame Bavoil, I saw +Monseigneur this morning; he grants your petition and authorizes you to +dig in as many parts of the garden as you choose." + +"Aha!" and amused by Durtal's surprise she went on: "You must have seen +for yourself that excepting a little plot of ground where the gardener +plants a few carrots and cabbages for the Bishop's table, the whole of +the garden is left to run wild; it is sheer waste and of no use to +anybody. Now instead of buying vegetables, I mean to grow some, since +Monseigneur gives me leave to turn over his ground, and by the same +token I will give some to your housekeeper." + +"Thank you. Then do you understand gardening?" + +"I? Why, am I not a peasant? I have lived in the country all my life, +and a kitchen garden is just my business! Besides, if I were in +difficulties, would not my Friends Above come to advise me?" + +"You are a wonderful woman, Madame Bavoil," said Durtal, somewhat +disconcerted in spite of himself by the answers of a cook who so calmly +asserted that she was on intimate terms with the divine Beyond. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +It rained without ceasing. Durtal breakfasted under the assiduous +watchfulness of his servant, Madame Mesurat. She was one of those women +whose stalwart build and masculine presence would allow of their +dressing in men's clothes without attracting attention. She had a +pear-shaped head, cheeks that hung flabby as if they had been emptied of +air, a pompous nose that drooped till it very nearly touched a +projecting underlip like a bracket, giving her an expression of +determined contempt which she very certainly had never felt. In short, +she suggested the absurd idea of a solemn, gawky Marlborough disguised +as a cook. + +She served unvarying meats with inglorious sauces; and as soon as the +dish was on the table she stood at attention, waiting to know whether it +was good. She was imposing and devoted--quite insufferable. Durtal, on +edge with irritation, found it all he could do not to dismiss her to the +kitchen, and finally buried his nose in a book that he might not have to +answer her, might not see her. + +This day, provoked by his silence, Madame Mesurat lifted the window +curtain, and for the sake of saying something, exclaimed,-- + +"Good heavens! What weather! Impossible!" + +And in fact the sky offered no hope of consolation. It was all in tears. +The rain fell in uninterrupted streams, unwinding endless skeins of +water. The Cathedral was standing in a pool of mud lashed into leaping +drops by the falling torrent, and the two spires looked drawn together, +almost close, linked by loose threads of water. This indeed was the +prevailing impression--a briny atmosphere full of strings holding the +sky and earth together as if tacked with long stitches, but they would +not hold; a gust of wind snapped all these endless threads, which were +whirled in every direction. + +"My arrangement to meet the Abbé Plomb to go over the Cathedral is +evidently at an end," said Durtal to himself. "The Abbé will certainly +not turn out in such weather." + +He went into his study; this was his usual place of refuge. He had his +divan there, his pictures, the old furniture he had brought from Paris; +and against the walls, shelves, painted black, held thousands of books. +There he lived, looking out on the towers, hearing nothing but the +cawing of the rooks and the strokes of the hours as they fell one by one +on the silence of the deserted square. He had placed his table in front +of a window, and there he sat dreaming, praying, meditating, making +notes. + +The balance of his personal account was struck by internal damage and +mental disputations; if the soul was bruised and ice-bound, the mind was +no less afflicted, no less fagged. It seemed to have grown dull since +his residence at Chartres. The biographies of Saints which Durtal had +intended to write, remained in the stage of charcoal sketches; they blew +off before he could fix them. In reality he had ceased to care for +anything but the Cathedral; it had taken possession of him. + +And besides, the lives of the Saints as they were written by the +inferior Bollandists were enough to disgust anybody with saintliness. +Offered to publisher after publisher, carted from the Paris libraries to +the provincial workshops, this barrow of books had at first been hauled +by a single nag, Father Giry; then a second horse had been added, the +Abbé Guérin, and, harnessed to the same shafts, these two men pulled +their heavy truck over the broken road of souls. + +He had only to open a bale of this prosy dulness, taking down a volume +at random, to light on sentences of this quality: + +"Such an one was born of parents not less remarkable for their rank than +for their piety;" or, on the other hand, "His parents were not of +illustrious birth, but in them might be seen the distinction of all the +virtues which are so far above rank." + +And then the dreadful style of the Pont Neuf: "His historian does not +hesitate to say he would have been mistaken for an angel if the maladies +with which God afflicted him had not shown that he was a man."--"The +Devil, not enduring to see him advancing by rapid leaps on the way of +perfection, adopted various means of hindering him in the happy progress +of his career." + +And on turning over to a fresh page he came upon a passage in the life +of one of the Elect who was mourning for his mother, excusing him in +this solemn rigmarole: "After granting to the feelings of nature such +relief as grace cannot forbid on these occasions--" + +Or again, here and there were such pompous and ridiculous definitions as +this, which occurs in the life of César de Bus: "After a visit to Paris, +which is not less the throne of vice than the capital of the kingdom--" +And this went on in meagre language through twelve to fifteen volumes, +ending by the erection of a row of uniform virtue, a barrack of pious +idiotcy. Now and again the two poor nags seemed to wake up and trot for +a little space, though gasping for breath, when they had some detail to +record which no doubt moved them to rapture; they expatiated +complacently on the virtues of Catherine of Sweden or Robert de la +Chaise-Dieu, who as soon as they were born cried for sinless wet-nurses, +and would suck none but pious breasts; or they spoke with ravishment of +the chastity of Jean the Taciturn, who never took a bath, that he might +not shock "his modest eyes," as the text says, by seeing himself; and +the bashful purity of San Luis de Gonzagua, who had such a terror of +women that he dared not look at his mother for fear of evil thoughts! + +In consternation at the poverty of these distressing non-sequiturs, +Durtal turned to the less familiar biographies of the Blessed Women; but +here again, what a farrago of the commonplace, what glutinous unction, +what a hash by way of style! There was certainly some curse from Heaven +on the old women of the Sacristy who dared take up a pen. Their ink at +once turned to stickiness, to bird-lime, to pitch, which smeared all it +touched. Oh, the poor Saints! the hapless Blessed Women! + +His meditations were interrupted by a ring at the bell: + +"Why, has the Abbé Plomb really come out in spite of the gale?" + +It was indeed the priest that Madame Mesurat showed in. + +"Oh," said he to Durtal, who lamented over the rain, "the weather will +clear up all in good time; at any rate, as you had not put me off I was +determined not to keep you waiting." + +They sat chatting by the fire; and the room took the Abbé's fancy, no +doubt, for he settled himself at his ease. He threw himself back in an +arm-chair, tucking his hands into his cincture. And when, in answer to +his question as to whether Durtal were not too dull at Chartres, the +Parisian replied, "It seems to me that I live more slowly, and yet am +not such a burthen to myself," the Abbé went on,-- + +"What you must feel painfully is the lack of intellectual society; you, +who in Paris lived in the world of letters--how can you endure the +atmosphere of this provincial town?" + +Durtal laughed. + +"The world of letters! No, Monsieur l'Abbé, I should not be likely to +regret that, for I had given it up many years before I came to live +here; and besides, I assure you it is impossible to be intimate with +those train-bands of literature and remain decent. A man must +choose--them or honest folks; slander or silence; for their speciality +is to eliminate every charitable idea, and above all to cure a man of +friendship in the winking of an eye." + +"Really?" + +"Yes, by adopting a homoeopathic pharmacopoeia which still makes use +of the foulest matter--the extract of wood-lice, the venom of snakes, +the poison of the cockchafer, the secretions of the skunk and the matter +from pustules, all disguised in sugar of milk to conceal their taste and +appearance; the world of letters, in the same way, triturates the most +disgusting things to get them swallowed without raising your gorge. +There is an incessant manipulation of neighbours' gossip and play-box +tittle-tattle, all wrapped up in perfidious good taste to mask their +flavour and smell. + +"These pills of foulness, exhibited in the required doses, act like +detergents on the soul, which they almost immediately purge of all +trustfulness. I had enough of this regimen, which acted on me only too +successfully, and I thought it well to escape from it." + +"But the pious world, too, is not absolutely free from gossip," said the +Abbé, smiling. + +"No doubt, and I am well aware that devotion does not always sweeten the +mind, but-- + +"The truth is," said he after reflection, "that the assiduous practice +of religion generally results in some intense effects on the soul. Only +they may be of two kinds. Either it develops the soul's taint and +evolves in it the final ferments which putrefy it once for all, or it +purifies the spirit and makes it clean and clear and exquisite. It may +produce hypocrites or good and saintly people; there is really no +medium. + +"But when such divine husbandry has completely cleansed souls, how +guileless and how pure they may be! Nor am I speaking of the Elect, such +as I saw at La Trappe--merely of young novices, little priestlings whom +I have known. They had eyes like clear glass, undimmed by the haze of a +single sin; and, looking into them, behind those eyes you would have +seen their open soul burning like a soaring crown of fire framing the +smiling face in a halo of white name. + +"In fact, Jesus simply fills up all the room in their soul. Do not you +think, Monsieur l'Abbé, that these youths occupy their bodies just +enough for suffering and to expiate the sins of others? Without knowing +it, they have been sent into the world to be safe tenements of the Lord, +the resting-place where Jesus finds a home after wandering over the +frozen steppes of other souls." + +"Yes," said the Abbé, taking off his spectacles to wipe them on his +bandana, "but to acquire so fine a strain of being, how much +mortification, penance, and prayer have been needed in the generations +that have ended by giving them birth! The spirits of whom you speak are +the flower of a stem long nourished in a pious soil. The Spirit, of +course, bloweth where it listeth, and may find a saint in the heart of a +listless family; but this mode of operation must always be an exception. +The novices you have known must certainly have had grandmothers and +mothers who frequently incited them to kneel and pray by their side." + +"I do not know--I knew nothing of the origin of these lads--but I feel +that you are right. It is obvious, indeed, that children, slowly brought +up from their earliest years, and sheltered from the world under the +shadow of such a sanctuary as this at Chartres, must end in the +blossoming of an unique flower." + +And when Durtal told him of the impression made on him by the angelic +service of the Mass, the Abbé smiled. + +"Though our boys are not unique, they are no doubt rare. Here, the +Virgin Herself trains them, and note, the little lad you saw is neither +more diligent nor more conscientious than his fellows; they are all +alike. Dedicated to the priesthood from the time when they can first +understand, they learn quite naturally to lead a spiritual life from +their constant intimacy with the services." + +"What then is the system of this Institution?" + +"The Foundation of the Clerks of Our Lady dates from 1853, or rather it +was reconstituted in that year--for it existed in the Middle Ages--by +the Abbé Ychard. Its purpose is to increase the number of priests by +admitting poor boys to begin their studies. It receives intelligent and +pious children of every nationality, if they are supposed to show any +vocation for Holy Orders. They remain in the choir school till they are +in the third class, and are then transferred to the Seminary. + +"Its funds?--are, humanly speaking, nothing, based on trust in +Providence, for it has altogether, for the maintenance of eighty pupils, +nothing but the pay earned by these children for various duties in the +Cathedral, and the profits from a little monthly magazine called 'The +Voice of the Virgin,' and finally and chiefly the charity of the +faithful. All this does not amount to a very substantial income; and +yet, to this day, money has never been lacking." + +The Abbé rose and went to the window. + +"Oh, the rain will not cease," said Durtal. "I am very much afraid, +Monsieur l'Abbé, that we cannot examine the Cathedral porches to-day." + +"There is no hurry. Before going into the details of Notre Dame, would +it not be well to contemplate it as a whole, and let its general purpose +soak into the mind before studying each page of its parts? + +"Everything lies contained in that building," he went on, waving his +hand to designate the church; "the scriptures, theology, the history of +the human race, set forth in broad outline. Thanks to the science of +symbolism a pile of stones may be a macrocosm. + +"I repeat it, everything exists within this structure, even our material +and moral life, our virtues and our vices. The architect takes us up at +the creation of Adam to carry us on to the end of time. Notre Dame of +Chartres is the most colossal depository existing of heaven and earth, +of God and man. Each of its images is a word; all those groups are +phrases--the difficulty is to read them." + +"But it can be done?" + +"Undoubtedly. That there may be some contradictions in our +interpretations I admit, but still the palimpsest can be deciphered. The +key needed is a knowledge of symbolism." + +And seeing that Durtal was listening to him with interest, the Abbé came +back to his seat, and said,-- + +"What is a symbol? According to Littré it is a 'figure or image used as +a sign of something else;' and we Catholics narrow the definition by +saying with Hugues de Saint Victor that a symbol is an allegorical +representation of a Christian principle under a tangible image. + +"Now symbolism has existed ever since the beginning of the world. Every +religion adopted it, and in ours it came into being with the Tree of the +Knowledge of Good and Evil in the first chapter of Genesis, while it +still is in full splendour in the last chapter of the Apocalypse. + +"The Old Testament is an anticipatory figure of all the New Testament +tells us. The Mosaic dispensation contains, as in an allegory, what the +Christian religion shows us in reality; the history of the People of +God, its principal personages, its sayings and doings, the very +accessories round about it, are a series of images; everything came to +the Hebrews under a figure, Saint Paul tells us. Our Lord took the +trouble to remind His disciples of this on various occasions, and He +Himself, when addressing the multitude, almost always spoke in parables +as a means of conveying one thing by an illustration from another. + +"Symbols, then, have a divine origin; it may be added that from the +human point of view this form of teaching answers to one of the least +disputable cravings of the human mind. Man feels a certain enjoyment in +giving proof of his intelligence, in guessing the riddle thus presented +to him, and likewise in preserving the hidden truth summed up in a +visible formula, a perdurable form. Saint Augustine expressly says: +'Anything that is set forth in an allegory is certainly more emphatic, +more pleasing, more impressive, than when it is formulated in technical +words.'" + +"That is Mallarmé's idea too," thought Durtal, "and this coincidence in +the views of the saint and the poet, on grounds at once analogous and +different, is whimsical, to say the least." + +"Thus in all ages," the Abbé went on, "men have taken inanimate objects, +or animals and plants, to typify the soul and its attributes, its joys +and sorrows, its virtues and its vices; thought has been materialized to +fix it more securely in the memory, to make it less fugitive, more near +to us, more real, almost tangible. + +"Hence the emblems of cruelty and craft, of courtesy and charity, +embodied by certain creatures, personified by certain plants; hence the +spiritual meanings attributed to precious stones, and to colours. And it +may be added that in times of persecution, in the early Christian times, +this hidden language enabled the initiated to hold communication, to +give each other some token of kinship, some password which the enemy +could not interpret. Thus, in the paintings discovered in catacombs, the +Lamb, the Pelican, the Lion, the Shepherd, all meant the Son; the Fish +_Ichthys_, of which the characters express the Greek formula: 'Jesus, +Son of God, Saviour,' figures, in a secondary sense, the believer, the +rescued soul, fished out from the sea of Paganism; the Redeemer having +told two of His Apostles that they should be fishers of men. + +"And of course the period when human beings lived in closest intercourse +with God--the Middle Ages--was certain to follow the revealed tradition +of Christ, and express itself in symbolical language, especially in +speaking of that Spirit, that essence, that incomprehensible and +nameless Being who to us is God. At the same time it had at its command +a practical means of making itself understood. It wrote a book, as it +were, intelligible to the humblest, superseding the text by images, and +so instructing the ignorant. This indeed was the idea put into words by +the Synod of Arras in 1025: 'That which the illiterate cannot apprehend +from writing shall be shown to them in pictures.' + +"The Middle Ages, in short, translated the Bible and Theology, the +lives of the Saints, the apocryphal and legendary Gospels into carved or +painted images, bringing them within reach of all, and epitomizing them +in figures which remained as the permanent marrow, the concentrated +extract of all its teaching." + +"It taught the grown-up children the catechism by means of the stone +sentences of the porches," exclaimed Durtal. + +"Yes, it did that too. But now," the Abbé went on, after a pause, +"before entering on the subject of architectural symbolism, we must +first establish a distinct notion of what Our Lord Himself did in +creating it, when, in the second chapter of the Gospel according to +Saint John, He speaks of the Temple at Jerusalem, and says that if the +Jews destroy it He will rebuild it in three days, expressly prefiguring +by that parable His own Body. This set forth to all generations the form +which the new temples were thenceforth to take after His death on the +Cross. + +"This sufficiently accounts for the cruciform plan of our churches. But +we will study the inside of the church later; for the present we must +consider the meanings of the external parts of a cathedral. + +"The towers and belfries, according to the theory of Durand, Archbishop +of Mende in the thirteenth century, are to be regarded as preachers and +prelates, and the lofty spire is symbolical of the perfection to which +their souls strive to rise. According to other interpreters of the same +period, such as Saint Melito, Bishop of Sardis, and Cardinal Pietro of +Capua, the towers represent the Virgin Mary, or the Church watching over +the salvation of the Flock. + +"It is a certain fact," the Abbé went on, "that the position of the +towers was never rigidly laid down once for all in mediæval times; thus +different interpretations are admissible according to their position in +the structure. Still, perhaps the most ingeniously refined, the most +exquisite idea is that which occurred to the architects of Saint Maclou +at Rouen, of Notre Dame at Dijon, and of the Cathedral at Laon, for +example, who built rising from the centre of the transepts--that is +above the very spot where, on the Cross, the breast of Christ would lie, +a lantern higher than the rest of the roof, often finishing outside in a +tall and slender spire, starting as it were from the Heart of Christ to +leap with one spring to the Father, to soar as if shot up from the bow +of the vaulting in a sharp dart to reach the sky. + +"The towers, like the buildings they overshadow, are almost always +placed on a height that commands the town, and they shed around them +like seed into the soil of the soul, the swarming notes of their bells, +reminding all Christians by this aerial proclamation, this bead-telling +of sound, of the prayers they are commanded to use and the duties they +must fulfil; nay, at need, they may atone before God for man's apathy by +testifying that at least they have not forgotten Him, beseeching Him +with uplifted arms and brazen tongues, taking the place as best they may +of so many human prayers, more vocal perhaps than they." + +"With its ship-like character," said Durtal, who had thoughtfully +approached the window, "this Cathedral strikes me as amazingly like a +motionless vessel with spires for masts and the clouds for sails, spread +or furled by the wind as the weather changes; it remains the eternal +image of Peter's boat which Jesus guided through the storm." + +"And likewise of Noah's Ark--the Ark outside which there is no safety," +added the Abbé. + +"Now consider the church in all its parts. Its roof is the symbol of +Charity, which covereth a multitude of sins; its slates or tiles are the +soldiers and knights who defend the sanctuary against the heathen, +represented by the storm, its stones, all joined, are, according to +Saint Nilus, emblematic of the union of souls, or, as the _Rationale_ of +Durand of Mende has it, of the multitude of the faithful; the stronger +stones figuring the souls that are most advanced in the way of +perfection and hinder the weaker brethren, represented by the smaller +stones, from slipping and falling. However, to Hugues de Saint Victor, a +monk of the abbey of that name in the twelfth century, this collection +of stones is merely the mingled assembly of the clerks and the laity. + +"Again, these blocks of stone of various shapes are bound and held +together by mortar, of which Durand of Mende will tell you the meaning. +'Mortar,' saith he, 'is compounded of lime and sand and water; lime is +the burning quality of charity, and it combines by the aid of water, +which is the Spirit, with the sand, of the earth earthy.' + +"Thus these united stones form the four walls of the church, which +Prudentius of Troyes tells us are the four evangelists; or, according +to other interpreters, they represent in stone the cardinal virtues of +religion: Justice, Fortitude, Prudence, and Temperance, already +prefigured by the walls of the City of God in the Apocalypse. + +"Thus you see each part may be regarded as having more than one meaning, +but all included in one general idea common to all." + +"And the windows?" asked Durtal. + +"I am coming to them; they are emblematic of our senses, which are to be +closed to the vanities of the world and open to the gifts of Heaven; +they are also provided with glass, giving passage to the beams of the +true Sun, which is God. But Dom Villette has most clearly set forth +their symbolical meaning: 'They are,' says he, 'the Scriptures, which +receive the glory of the sun and keep out the wind, the hail and the +snow, the images of false doctrine and heresies.' + +"As to the buttresses, they symbolize the moral force that sustains us +against temptation; they are likewise the hope which upholds the soul +and strengthens it; others see in them the image of the temporal powers +who are called upon to defend the power of the Church; and others again, +regarding more especially the flying buttresses which resist the thrust +of the span, say that they are imploring arms clinging to the +safe-keeping of the Ark in time of danger. + +"The principal entrance, the great portal of so many churches, such as +those of Vézelay, Paray-le-Monial and Saint German l'Auxerrois, in +Paris, was approached through a covered vestibule, often very deep and +intentionally dark, called the Narthex. The baptismal pool was in this +porch. It was a place for probation and forgiveness, emblematical of +Purgatory, an ante-room to Heaven, where, before being permitted access +to the sanctuary, penitents and neophytes had their place. + +"Such, briefly, is the allegorical meaning of the parts. If we now +regard it again as a whole, we may observe that the cathedral, built +over a crypt symbolical of the contemplative life, and also of the tomb +in which Christ was laid, was naturally obliged to have its apse towards +that point of the heavens where the sun rises at the equinox, so as to +convey, says the Bishop of Mende, that it is the Church's mission to +show moderation in its triumphs as in its reverses. All the liturgical +commentators are agreed that the high altar must be placed at the +eastern end, so that the worshippers, as they pray, may turn their eyes +towards the cradle of the Faith; and this rule was held absolute, and so +well approved by God that He confirmed it by a miracle. The Bollandists +in fact have a legend that Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, seeing a +church that had been built on another axis, made it turn to the East by +a push with his shoulder, thus placing it in its right position. + +"The church has generally three doors, in honour of the Holy Trinity; +and the portal in the middle, called the Royal Porch, is divided by a +pier and a pillar surmounted by a statue of Our Lord, who says of +Himself in the Gospel, 'I am the door,' or of the Virgin, if the Church +is consecrated to Her, or even of the patron Saint in whose name it is +dedicated. The door, thus divided, typifies the two roads which man is +free to follow. Indeed, in most cathedrals this symbol is emphasized by +a representation of the Last Judgment placed above the entrance. + +"This is the case in Paris, at Amiens, and at Bourges. At Chartres, on +the contrary, the Judgment of Souls is relegated, as at Reims, to the +tympanum of the northern porch; but here it is to be seen in the +rose-window over the western portal, in contradiction to the system +usual in the Middle Ages of treating in the windows above the doors the +subject carved in the porch; thus presenting on the same side a +repetition of the same symbols, in glass as seen from within, and in +stone without." + +"Good; but how then can you account, by the ternary rule so universally +adopted, for that marvellous cathedral at Bourges, where, instead of +three porches and three aisles, we find five?" + +"Nothing can be simpler--we cannot account for it. At most can we +suppose that the architect of Bourges intended by those five doors to +figure the five wounds of Christ. Even then we should be left to wonder +why he placed all the wounds in a single line; for that church has no +transept, no arms at the end of which the holes in the hands may be +symbolized by doors, which is the usual course." + +"And the cathedral at Antwerp, which has two more aisles?" + +"They no doubt typify the seven avenues, the seven gifts of the +Paraclete. This question of number leads me to speak of theological +enumeration, a peculiar element which plays a part in the varied subject +of symbolism," the Abbé went on. "The allegorical science of numbers is +a very old one. Saint Isidor of Seville, and Saint Augustine studied it. +Michelet, who talks nonsense as soon as he has to do with a cathedral, +is hard on the mediæval architects for their belief in the meaning of +figures. He accuses them of having observed mystic rules in the +arrangement of certain parts of the buildings; of having, for instance, +restricted the number of windows, or arranged pillars and bays in +accordance with some arithmetical combination. Not understanding that +each detail of a church had a meaning and was a symbol, he could not +understand that it was important to calculate each, since its meaning +might be modified or even completely altered. Thus a pillar by itself +may not necessarily typify an Apostle, but if there should be twelve, +they evidently show the meaning attributed to them by the builder, since +they recall the exact number of Christ's disciples. Sometimes, indeed, +to prevent any mistake, the answer is supplied with the problem; as in +an old church at Étampes, where I read, inscribed on the twelve +Romanesque shafts, the names of the Apostles in relief, in the +traditional setting of a Greek cross. + +"At Chartres they had adopted a still better plan: statues of the twelve +Apostles were placed in front of the pillars of the nave: but the +Revolution took offence at these figures, overthrew and destroyed them. + +"In considering the system of symbolism it is necessary to study the +significance of numbers. The secrets of church building can only be +discerned by recognizing the mysterious idea of the unity of the figure +I., which is the image of God Himself. The suggestion of II., which +figures the two natures of the Son, the two dispensations, and, +according to Saint Gregory the Great, the two-fold law of love of God +and man. Three is the number of the Persons of the Trinity, and of the +theological virtues. Four typifies the cardinal virtues, the four +Greater Prophets, the Gospels and the elements. Five is the number of +Christ's wounds, and of our senses, whose sins He expiated by a +corresponding number of wounds. Six records the days devoted by God to +the creation, determines the number of the Commandments promulgated by +the Church, and, according to Saint Melito, symbolizes the perfection of +the active life. Seven is the sacred number of the Mosaic law; it is the +number of the gifts of the Holy Ghost, of the Sacraments, of the words +of Jesus on the Cross, of the canonical hours, and of the successive +orders of priesthood. Eight, says Saint Ambrose, is the symbol of +regeneration, Saint Augustine says of the Resurrection, and it recalls +the idea of the eight Beatitudes. Nine is the number of the angelic +hierarchy, of the special gifts of the Spirit as enumerated by Saint +Paul; and it was at the ninth hour that Christ died. Ten is the number +of laws given by Jehovah, the law of fear; but Saint Augustine explains +it otherwise, saying that it includes the knowledge of God, since it may +be decomposed into three, the symbol of a triune God, and seven, +figuring the day of rest after the Creation. Eleven, the same saint +explains as an image of transgressing the law and an emblem of sin; and +Twelve is the great mystic number, the tale of the patriarchs and the +Apostles, of the tribes, the minor prophets, the virtues, the fruits of +the Holy Ghost, and the articles of faith embodied in the _Credo_. And +this might be repeated to infinity. Hence it is quite evident that the +artists of the Middle Ages added to the meaning they assigned to certain +creatures and certain things, that of quantity, supporting one by the +other, emphasizing or moderating a suggestion by this added-means, +working back sometimes on a former idea, and expressing this duplication +in a different form or concentrating it in the energetic conciseness of +a cipher. They thus produced a whole at once speaking to the eye and, at +the same time, giving synthetical expression to the complete text of a +dogma in a compact allegory." + +"But what hermetic concentration!" exclaimed Durtal. + +"Very true; these various meanings of persons and objects, resulting +from numerical differences, are at first very puzzling." + +"And do you suppose that, on the whole, the height, breadth, and length +of a cathedral reveal a specialized idea, a particular purpose on the +part of the architect?" + +"Yes; but I must at once confess that the key to these religious +calculations is lost. Those archæologists who have racked their brains +to find it have vainly added together the measurements of naves and +clerestories; they have not yet succeeded in formulating the idea they +expected to see emerge from the sums total. + +"In this matter we must confess ourselves ignorant. Besides, have not +the standards of measurement been different at different times? As with +the value of coins in the Middle Ages, we know nothing about them. So, +in spite of some very interesting investigations carried out from this +point of view by the Abbé Crosnier at the Priory of Saint Gilles, and +the Abbé Devoucoux at the Cathedral of Autun, I remain sceptical as to +their conclusions, which I regard as very ingenious, but far from +trustworthy. + +"The method of numbers is to be seen in perfection only in the details, +such as the pillars of which I spoke just now; it is no less evident +when we find the same number prevailing throughout the edifice, as for +instance at Paray-le-Monial, where all things are in threes. There the +designer has not been content to reproduce the sacred number in the +general scheme of the structure; he has applied it in every part. The +church has, in fact, three aisles; each aisle has three compartments; +each compartment is formed by three arches surmounted by three windows. +In short, it is the principle of the Trinity, the primary Three, applied +to every part." + +"Well, but do you not think, Monsieur l'Abbé, that, apart from such +instances of indisputable meaning, there are in such symbolism some very +fine-drawn and obscure similitudes?" + +The Abbé smiled. + +"Do you know," said he, "the theories of Honorius of Autun as to the +symbolism of the censer?" + +"No." + +"Well, then, after having pointed out the natural and very proper +interpretation that may be applied to this vessel, as representing the +Body of Our Lord, while the incense signifies His Divinity, and the fire +is the Holy Spirit within Him; and after having defined the various +interpretations of the metal of which it is made--if of gold, it answers +to the perfection of His Divinity; if of silver, to the matchless +excellence of His Humility; if of copper, to the frailty of the flesh He +assumed for our salvation; if of iron, to the Resurrection of that Body +which conquered death--the scholiast comes to the chains. + +"And then, indeed, his elucidation becomes somewhat thin and fine-drawn. + +"If there are four chains, he says, they represent the four cardinal +virtues of the Lord, and the chain by which the cover is lifted from the +vessel answers to the Soul of Christ quitting His Body. If, on the other +hand, there are but three chains, it is because the Person of the +Saviour includes three elements: a human organism, a soul, and the +Godhead of the Word. And Honorius adds: 'the ring through which the +chains run represents the Infinite in which all these things are +included.'" + +"That is subtle, with a vengeance!" + +"Less so than Durand de Mende when he speaks of the snuffers," replied +the Abbé; "after that, we will kick away that ladder. + +"The snuffers for trimming the lamps are, he asserts, 'the divine words +off which we cut the letter of the law, and by so doing reveal the +Spirit which giveth light.' And he adds, 'the pots in which the snuff is +extinguished are the hearts of the faithful who observe the law +literally.'" + +"It is the very madness of Symbolism!" cried Durtal. + +"At least, it is a too curious excess of it; but if this interpretation +of the snuffers is certainly grotesque, if even the theory of the censer +seems beaten somewhat thin on the whole, you must admit that it is +fascinating and exact so far as it is applied to the chain which lifts +the upper part of the vessel in a cloud of fragrance, and thus +symbolizes the ascent of Our Lord into Heaven. + +"That certain exaggerations should creep in through this use of parables +was difficult to prevent; but, on the other hand, what marvels of +analogy, and what purely mystical notions are revealed through the +meanings given by the liturgy to certain objects used in the services. + +"To the tapers, for instance, when Pierre d'Esquilin explains the +purport of the three component parts: the wax, which is the spotless +Body of the Saviour born of a Virgin; the wick, which, enclosed in the +wax, is His most Holy Soul hidden in the veil of the flesh; and the +light, which is emblematic of His Godhead. + +"Or, again, take the substances used by the Church in certain +ceremonies: water, wine, ashes, salt, oil, balsam, incense. Incense, +besides representing the divinity of the Son, is likewise the symbol of +prayer, '_thus devotio orationis_' as it is described by Raban Maur, +Archbishop of Mayence in the ninth century. I happen to remember also, +_à propos_ of this resin and the censer in which it is burnt, a verse I +read long since in the 'Monastic Distinctions' of the anonymous English +writer of the thirteenth century, which sums up their signification more +neatly than I can: + + '_vas notatur, + Mens pia; thure preces; igne supernus amor._' + +The vase is the spirit of piety; the incense, prayer; the fire, divine +love. + +"As to water, wine, ashes, and salt, they are used in compounding a +precious ointment used by the bishop when consecrating a church. They +are mingled to sign the altar with the cross, and to sprinkle the +aisles: the water and wine symbolize the two natures united in Our Lord; +the salt is divine wisdom; the ashes are in memory of His Passion. + +"Balsam, as you know, is emblematical of virtue and good repute, and is +combined with oil, signifying peace and wisdom, to compose the +sacramental ointment. + +"Think, too," the priest went on, "of the pyx, in which the +transubstantiated elements are preserved, the consecrated oblations, and +note that in the Middle Ages these little cases were formed in the +figure of a dove and contained the Host in the very image of the +Paraclete and the Virgin; this was well done, but here is something +better. The jewellers of the time carved ivory and gave these little +shrines the form of a tower. Is not the sentiment exquisite of our Lord +dwelling in the heart of the Virgin, the Ivory Tower of the Canticles? +Is not ivory indeed the most admirable material to serve as a sanctum +for the most pure white flesh of the Sacrament?" + +"It is certainly mystical, and far more appropriate than the vessels of +every form, the _ciboria_ of silver-gilt, of aluminum, of silver of +these days." + +"And need I remind you that the liturgy assigns a meaning to each +vestment, each ornament of the Church, according to its use and form? + +"Thus, for instance, the surplice and alb signify innocence; the cord +that serves as a girdle is an emblem of chastity and modesty; the amice, +of purity of heart and body--the helmet of salvation mentioned by Saint +Paul. The maniple, of good works, vigilance, and the tears and sweat +poured out by the priest to win and save souls; the stole, of obedience, +the clothing on of immortality given to us in baptism; the dalmatic, of +justice, of which we must give proof in our ministrations; the chasuble, +of the unity of the faith, and also of the yoke of Christ. + +"But the rain has not ceased, and I must nevertheless be gone, for I +have a penitent waiting for me," exclaimed the Abbé, looking at his +watch. "Will you come the day after to-morrow at about two o'clock? We +will hope it may be fine enough to examine the outside of the +Cathedral." + +"And if it still rains?" + +"Come all the same. But I must fly." + +He pressed Durtal's hand and was gone. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +"Yes, I know when I confessed in her presence that I did not yet know of +which Saint I might write the history, Madame Bavoil--dear Madame +Bavoil, as the Abbé Gévresin calls her--exclaimed: 'The life of Jeanne +de Matel! Why not?' + +"But it is a biography that is not easy to deal with or that can be +lightly handled," said Durtal to himself, as he arranged the notes he +had collected by degrees as bearing on this Venerable woman. + +And he sat meditating. + +"What is quite unintelligible," said he to himself, "is the +disproportion between the promises made to her by Jesus and the results +achieved. Never, I really believe, have so many tribulations and +hindrances, or so much ill-fortune attended the founding of a new Order. +Jeanne spent her days on the high roads, running from one monastery to +another, and toil as she would to dig up the conventual soil, nothing +would grow. She could not even assume the habit of her Institution, or +at any rate only a few minutes before her death, for, in order to travel +with greater ease all over France, she wore the livery of a world she +abominated, and to which she appealed in vain in the name of the Lord to +take an interest in the formation of her cloister. Unhappy woman! She +went to Court--as her confessor Father de Gibalin bears witness, while +he testifies that he had never known a humbler soul--as others go to the +stake. + +"And yet the Lord certainly commanded her to found this Order of the +Incarnate Word. He sketched the scheme, laid down the rule, and +prescribed the costume, explaining its symbolism, declaring that the +white robe of its maidens would do honour to that with which He was +mockingly invested in Herod's palace; that their red cloak would keep +in memory that which was cast over Him in the house of Pilate; that +their crimson scapulary and girdle would preserve the remembrance of the +stake and the cords dyed in His blood. And He seems to have mocked her. + +"He solemnly assured her that after sorrowful trials the seed she had +sown should bring forth an abundant harvest of nuns. He expressly told +her that she would rank as the sister of Saint Theresa and Saint Clare; +those holy women appeared to ratify these promises by their presence, +and when nothing would come of it, nothing would work, when, quite worn +out, she burst into tears, the Lord calmly bade her be still and take +patience. + +"Meanwhile, she was living amid a howling storm of recrimination and +threats. The clergy persecute her, the Archbishop of Lyon, the Cardinal +de Richelieu, aims only at hindering the completion of her abbeys on his +lands; she cannot even manage her Sisterhood, since we find her +wandering in search of a protector or an assistant; they are torn by +divisions, and their insubordination is such that at length she is +compelled to return in hot haste, and, with many tears, expel the +contumacious sisters from the cloister. + +"It really seems as though no sooner had she built up a monastic wall +than it split and fell; nothing would hold. In short, the Order of the +Incarnate Word was born rickety and died a dwarf. It lingered in the +midst of universal apathy, and survived till 1790, when it was buried. +In 1811 one Abbé Denis revived it at Azérables in la Creuse, and since +then it has struggled on for better for worse, scattered through about +fifteen houses, one of these at Texas in the New World. + +"There is no doubt of it," Durtal concluded; "we are far enough from the +strong sap which Saint Theresa and Saint Clare could infuse into the +centennial growth of their mighty trees! + +"To say nothing of the fact that Jeanne de Matel, who has never been +canonized like her two sisters, and whose name remains unknown to most +Catholics, intended to found an order of men as well as women; she did +not succeed, and the attempts since made in our day by the Abbé Combalot +to carry her plan into effect have been equally vain! + +"Now, what is the reason? Is it because there are too many and various +communities in the Church? Why, new foundations are set on foot and +flourish every day! Is it by reason of the poverty of the monasteries? +Nay, for indigence is the great test of success, and experience shows +that God only blesses the most destitute convents and abandons the +others! Is it, then, the austerity of the rule? But this was very mild; +it was that of Saint Augustine, which yields to every compromise, and at +need accepts every shade of practice. The sisters rose at five in the +morning; the diet was not restricted to Lenten fare excepting at the +Paschal season, but one fast day was enjoined in the week, and even that +was compulsory only to the Sisters who were strong enough to bear it. +Thus there is nothing to account for such persistent failure. + +"And Jeanne de Matel was a saint endowed with remarkable energy and +really moulded by the Saviour! In her writings she is an eloquent and +subtle theologian, an ardent and rapturous mystic, dealing in metaphors +and hyperbole, in tangible parallels, passionate questionings, and +apostrophes; she resembles both Saint Denys the Areopagite and Saint +Maddalena dei Pazzi; Saint Denys in matter, Saint Maddalena in manner. +As a writer, no doubt she is not supreme, and the poverty of her +borrowed style is sometimes painful; still, considering that she lived +in the seventeenth century, she was at any rate not a mere scribbler of +vapid aspirations, like most of the prosy pietists of the time. + +"And her works have met with the same fate as her foundations. They +remain for the most part unpublished. Hello, who was familiar with them, +only extracted a very mediocre _cento_; some others, as Prince Galitzin +and the Abbé Penaud, have explored her writings with better results and +printed some loftier and more impassioned passages. + +"And this Abbess wrote some of genuine inspiration. + +"Yes, but all this does not alter the fact that I do not see the book I +could write about her," muttered Durtal. "In spite of my wish to be +agreeable to dear Madame Bavoil, no--I have no inclination to undertake +the task. + +"All things considered, if I did not so heartily hate a move, if I had +energy enough to go back to Holland, I would try to do honour in loving +and respectful terms to the worshipful Lidwina, who is of all the +female saints one whose life I should best love to write; but merely to +attempt to reconstruct the surroundings amid which she lived, I should +have to settle in the town where she dwelt, _Schiedam_. + +"If God grants me life, no doubt I shall one day do this; but the plan +is not yet ripe. Put that aside, then, and since on the other hand +Jeanne de Matel does not captivate me, perhaps I had better think of +another abbess even less known, and whose career was one of more +tranquil endurance, less wandering and more concentrated, and at any +rate more attractive. + +"Besides, her life can now only be found in an octavo volume by an +anonymous writer, whose incoherent chapters, in language as clogging as +a linseed poultice, will for ever hinder the world from knowing her. So +it will be interesting to work it up and make it readable." + +As he turned over his papers he was thinking of one Mother Van +Valckenissen, in religion Mary Margaret of the Angels, foundress of the +Priory of Carmelite Sisters at Oirschot in Dutch Brabant. + +This pious lady was the daughter of a noble house, born on the 26th of +May, 1605, at Antwerp, during the wars which devastated Flanders, and at +the very time when Prince Maurice of Nassau was besieging the town. As +soon as she could read, her parents sent her to school in a convent of +Dominican nuns near Brussels. Her father dying, her mother removed her +from that convent and placed her with the White Ursulines of Louvain; +then she too died, and at fifteen the girl was an orphan. + +Her guardian again removed her to the House of the Carmelite Sisters at +Mechlin; but the struggle between the Spaniards and the Flemings came +close to the district watered by the Dyle, and Marie Marguerite was once +more taken from her convent to find refuge with the canonesses of +Nivelles. Thus her whole childhood was spent in rushing from one convent +to another. + +She was happy in these retreats, especially with the Carmelites, +adopting the hair shirt and submitting to the severest discipline; but +now, on coming forth from the most rigid cloistered life, she found +herself in the midst of a gay world. This Chapter of Canonesses, which +ought to have inculcated the mystic life, was one of those hybrid +institutions not altogether white nor quite black, a cross between +profane piety and pious laity. This Chapter, filled up exclusively from +the ranks of rich and high-born women, while the Abbess, nominated by +the Sovereign, assumed the title of Princess of Nivelles, led a devout +and frivolous life, passing strange. Not only might these semi-nuns go +out walking whenever they thought fit, they had a right to live at home +for a certain part of their time, and might even marry after obtaining +the consent of the Abbess. + +In the morning those who chose to reside in the Abbey put on a monastic +habit during the services; then their religious duties ended; they +doffed the convent livery, dressed in splendid attire, the hoops and +bows and farthingales and ruffs that were then the fashion, and sat in +the parlour where visitors poured in. + +The unhappy Marie loathed the dissipation of a life which hindered her +from ever being alone with her God. Bewildered by the gossip and ashamed +of wearing clothes that were offensive to her, compelled to steal away +before daylight, disguised as a waiting-woman, to pray in a deserted +church far from all this turmoil, she at last pined away with sorrow, +and was dying of grief at Nivelles. + +At this juncture a certain Father Bernard de Montgaillard, Abbot of +Orval, of the Cistercian Order, came to the town. She flew to him, and +besought him to rescue her; and this monk, enlightened by a truly divine +spirit, understood that she was born to be a victim of expiation, to +atone for the insults offered to the Holy Eucharist in churches. He gave +her comfort, and announced to her her vocation as a Carmelite. She set +out for Antwerp to visit the Mother Anne de Saint Barthélemy, a saintly +woman, who, warned of her coming by a vision of Saint Theresa, consented +to receive her into the Carmel of which she was the Superior. + +Then obstacles arose, the work of the Devil. Having returned to her +guardian, pending her reception at the convent, she suddenly fell +paralyzed, losing all at once her hearing, speech, and sight. She +nevertheless succeeded in making it understood that they were to carry +her, as she was, to the convent, where she was left half dead. There she +fell at the feet of Mother Anne, who blessed her, and raised her up +cured. + +Then her novitiate began. + +In spite of her delicate frame, she endured the most terrible fasts, the +most violent scourging; she bound her body in chains with points on the +links, fed on the parings thrown out on plates, drank dirty water to +quench her thirst, and was so cold one winter that her legs froze. + +Her body was one wound, but her soul was glorious; she lived in God, who +loaded her with mercies and communed with her sweetly; her probation was +near its end, and again, just when she became a postulant, she fell +dangerously sick. There were doubts as to her being admitted to the +Order, and again Saint Theresa intervened and commanded the Abbess to +receive her. + +She took the habit, and then fell a prey to the temptation of despair, +which has assailed some Saints; after this came a sense of dryness and +desertion, which lasted for three years. She held out; she endured all +the tortures of the Mystical Substitution, bearing the most painful and +repulsive diseases to save souls. The Lord vouchsafed at last to +intermit the penitential task of suffering. He allowed her to breathe, +and the Devil took advantage of this lull to come upon the scene. + +He appeared to her under the most hostile and monstrous form, breaking +everything, and vanishing in a trail of pestilential vapours. Meanwhile +a good man, one Sylvester Lindermans, had determined to found a Carmel +on an estate he possessed at Oirschot, in Holland. As is ever the case +when a convent is to be established, tribulations abounded. It seemed, +in fact, that the time was ill-chosen for transferring the Sisters to a +town in arms against the Catholics, across a country infested by bands +of armed Protestants. When the Mother Superior selected Marie Marguerite +to go forth and found this new House, she entreated to be left to pray +in peace in her little nook; but Jesus interposed; commanding her to +depart. She obeyed; exhausted, sick, and worn out, she dragged herself +along the roads, and at last arrived, with the Sisters accompanying her, +at Oirschot, where she organized the Convent as best she might in a +house which had never been intended to serve as a nunnery. + +She was made Vicar-Prioress, and at once revealed a marvellous power of +influencing souls. Living the austere life of a Carmelite, which she +aggravated for herself by fearful mortifications, she was always +tolerant to others, and although she was known to murmur, so great were +her bodily sufferings, "Till the Day of Judgment, none can ever know +what I endure!" she was always gay, and preached cheerfulness to her +daughters in these words: "It is all very well for those who sin to be +sad; but we ought to have twice as much joy as the angels, since we, +like them, fulfil the will of God, and we, in addition, can suffer for +His glory, which they can never do." + +She was the most indulgent and considerate of Abbesses. For fear of +giving offence to her flock by exerting her authority, she never gave an +order in an imperative form; never said, "Do this or that," but only, +"Let us do it." And if at any time she found herself obliged to punish a +nun in the refectory, she would forthwith kiss the feet of the others, +and entreat them to buffet her to humble her. + +But it would have been too perfect if she and the angelic flock over +which she ruled could have lived the inward life in peace, and sunk +their soul in God. The Curé of Oirschot hated her, and, why no one knew, +he defamed her throughout the town. The Devil too, on his part, returned +to the charge; he appeared, in the midst of an uproar that shook the +walls and made the roof tremble, in the form of an Ethiopian giant, blew +out all the lights, and tried to strangle the nuns. Most of them almost +died of fear; but in compensation for their sufferings Heaven granted +them the comfort of incessant miracles. + +The Mother enabled them to prove in her person the authenticity of the +incredible tales they had read during meals, of the Lives of the Saints. +She had the gift of bilocation, appearing in several places at the same +time, shedding a trail of delicious fragrance wherever she passed, +curing the sick by the Sign of the Cross, scenting out and discerning +hidden sins as a hunting dog puts up game, and reading souls. + +And her daughters adored her, wept to see her lead a life which now was +one long torment. As a result of the intense cold, she became a victim +to acute rheumatism; for the Rule of Saint Theresa, which prohibits the +lighting of a fire anywhere but in the kitchens, if it is endurable in +Spain, is simply murderous in the frozen climate of Flanders. + +"After all," said Durtal to himself, "this life so far is not very +unlike that experienced by many another cloistered nun; but towards the +approach of death the amazing beauty of this spirit was revealed in so +special a manner, and in wishes so remarkable, that it remains unique in +the records of the Monastic Houses." + +Her health grew worse and worse. Added to the rheumatism, which crippled +her, she had pains in the stomach, which nothing could relieve. Sciatica +was presently engrafted on this flourishing stock of torments, and +dropsy, a common disease in cloisters of austere rule, supervened. + +Her legs swelled and refused to carry her; she lay helpless on her bed. +The Sisters who nursed her now discovered a secret which she had always +kept, out of humility; they perceived that her hands were pierced with +red holes surrounded by a blue halo, and that her feet, also pierced, +lay of their own accord, unless they were held down, one above the +other, in the position of Christ's feet on the cross. At last she +confessed that many years before Jesus had marked her with the stigmata +of the Passion, and that the wounds burnt night and day like red hot +iron. + +Her sufferings constantly increased. Feeling that this time she was +dying, she grieved over the pitiless macerations she had used, and with +touching artlessness begged forgiveness of her poor body for having +exhausted its strength, and so having perhaps hindered it from living to +suffer longer. + +And she then put up the most strangely fragrant, the most wildly +extravagant prayer that ever a Saint can have addressed to God. + +She had so loved the Holy Eucharist, she had so longed to kneel at His +feet and atone for the outrages inflicted on Him by the sins of mankind, +that she waxed faint at the thought that after her death what would +remain of her could no longer worship Him. + +The idea that her body would rot in uselessness, that the last handfuls +of her miserable flesh would decay without having served to honour the +Saviour, broke her heart; and then it was that she besought Him to +suffer her to melt away, to liquefy into an oil which might be burnt +before the tabernacle in the lamp of the sanctuary. + +And Jesus vouchsafed to her this excessive privilege, such as the like +is unknown in the history of the Saints; and at the moment when she died +she enjoined her daughters to leave her body exposed in the chapel, and +unburied for some weeks. + +On this point there is abundant authentic evidence. More or less minute +inquiries were made, and the reports of medical experts are so precise +that we can follow from day to day the state of the corpse until it had +turned to oil and could be preserved in phials, from which, by her +desire, a spoonful was poured every morning to feed the wick of a lamp +hanging near the altar. + +When she died--then aged fifty-two, having lived as a nun for +thirty-three years, and fourteen as Superior of Oirschot--her face was +transfigured, and in spite of the cold of a winter when the Scheldt +could be crossed in a carriage, her body remained soft and pliable; but +it swelled. Surgeons examined it and opened it in the presence of +witnesses. They expected to find the stomach filled with water, but +scarcely half a pint was removed, and the body did not collapse. + +This autopsy led to the incomprehensible discovery in the gall-bladder +of three nails with black heads, angular and polished, of an unknown +metal; two weighed as much as half a French gold crown, within seven +grains; the third, which was as large as a nutmeg, weighed five grains +more. + +The operators then filled up the intestines with tow soaked in wormwood, +and sewed the body up again with a needle and thread. And during and +after these proceedings not only did the dead nun give out no smell of +putrefaction, but, as in her lifetime, she diffused an ineffable and +exquisite perfume. + +Nearly three weeks elapsed; boils formed and broke, giving out blood and +water for more than a month; then the skin showed patches of yellow; +exudation ceased and oil came out, at first white, limpid, and fragrant, +afterwards darker and of about the colour of amber. It filled more than +a hundred phials, each containing two ounces, several of them being +still preserved in the Carmels of Belgium; and her remains when buried +were not decomposed, but had assumed the golden brown colour of a date. + +"A book might really be written on the life of this admirable woman," +thought Durtal. "And then what a group of wonderful nuns were those +about her! The convents of Antwerp, Mechlin, and Oirschot swarmed with +saintly nuns. In the time of Charles V. the Order of Carmelites renewed +in Flanders the mystical prodigies which, four centuries before, in the +Middle Ages, the Dominicans had accomplished in the Monastery of +Unterlinden at Colmar. + +"How such women as these carry one away and throw one, as it were! What +strength of soul we see in this Marie Marguerite! What grace must have +sustained her, that she could thus shed all the natural frenzy of the +senses, and endure so cheerfully and bravely the most overwhelming +sufferings! + +"Well, now, shall I harness myself to a history of this venerable +Abbess? But then I must procure the volume by Joseph de Loignac, her +first biographer, the notice by the Recluse of Marlaigne, the pamphlet +by Monseigneur de Ram, the narrative by Papebröch; above all I must have +at hand the translation, made by the Carmelites of Louvain, of the +Flemish manuscript written while the Mother was still alive, by her +daughters. Where can I unearth that? In any case the search must be a +long one. No, I must set aside that scheme, which for the present is +impracticable. + +"What I ought to do I know very well; I ought to put the article into +shape on Angelico's picture in the Louvre. I promised the paper at least +four months ago to the magazine which clamours for it every morning by +letter. It is disgraceful! Since I left Paris I have ceased to work; and +I have no excuse, for the subject interests me, since it affords me an +opportunity for studying the complete system of the symbolism of colour +in the Middle Ages. 'The Early Painters, and Prayer in Colour as seen in +their Works.' What a subject for thought! However, that is not the +immediate matter. I must not sit dreaming, but go to join the Abbé +Plomb; and the weather is clouding over again! I certainly have no +luck." + +As he crossed the square he was lost again in meditations, captivated +once more by the haunting thought of the Cathedral, and saying to +himself as he looked up at the spires,-- + +"How many varieties there are in the immense family of the Gothic; and +what dissimilarities. No two churches are alike." + +The towers and belfries of those he knew rose before him as in those +diagrams on which, irrespective of distance, the buildings are placed +all close together at the same point of view to show their relative +height. + +"It is quite true," thought he, "the towers vary like the basilicas. +Those of Notre Dame de Paris are thick-set and gloomy, almost +elephantine; cleft almost from top to bottom by deep bays, they seem to +mount slowly and with difficulty, and stop short, crushed as it were by +the burden of sins, dragged down to earth by the wickedness of the city; +we feel the effort with which they rise, and we are saddened as we +contemplate those captive masses, all the more depressing by reason of +the dismal hue of the louvre-boards. At Reims, on the contrary, they are +open from top to bottom, pierced as with needles' eyes, long narrow +windows of which the opening seems filled with a herring-bone of +enormous size, or a gigantic comb with teeth on each side. They spring +into the air, as light as filigree; and the sky gets into the mouldings, +plays between the mullions, peeps through the tracery and the +innumerable lancets, in strips of blue, is focussed and reflected in the +little carved trefoils above. These towers are mighty, expansive, +immense, and yet light. They are as speaking, as much alive, as those in +Paris are stern and mute. + +"At Laon they are more especially strange. With their light columns, +here thrust forward and there standing back, they suggest a series of +shelves piled up in a hurry, crowned merely by a platform, over which +lowing oxen look down. + +"The two towers at Amiens, built, like those of the Cathedrals at Rouen +and at Bourges, at different periods, do not match. They are of +different heights, lame against the sky; another that is really +magnificent in its solitude, and putting to shame the mediocrity of the +two belfries lately erected on each side of the west front, is the +Norman tower of Saint Ouen, its summit encircled by a crown. This is the +patrician tower among so many that preserve a peasant air, with bare +heads, or coifs made narrow and square at the top, sloped somewhat like +the mouthpiece of a whistle, such as that of Saint Romain at Rouen, or +rustic, pointed caps like that worn by the church of Saint Bénigne at +Dijon, or the queer sort of awning which shades the Cathedral of Saint +Jean at Lyon. + +"And in any case a tower without a tapering spire never soars to heaven. +It always rises heavily, pants on the way, and falls asleep exhausted. +It is, as it were, an arm without a hand, a wrist without palm and +fingers, a stump; or, again, a pencil uncut, having no point wherewith +to write up beyond the clouds the prayers from below; in short, it is +for ever inert. + +"We must turn to the steeple, to the stone spire, to find the true +symbol of prayers shot up to pierce the sky and reach the Heart of the +Father, which is their target. + +"And in this family of arrows what a variety we see; no two darts are +alike! + +"Some are set in a collar of turrets at their base, held in a circle of +pinnacles, like the points of a Magian king's diadem; this we see in the +bell-tower of Senlis. + +"Others seem to have about them the children born in their image, little +spires, all round them; some are covered with bosses, knobs, and +blisters; others pierced like colanders and strainers, in patterns of +trefoils and quaterfoils that seem to have been punched out; here we +find some that are covered with ornament, with teeth like a rasp, ridges +of notches, or bristling with spines; others are imbricated with scales +like a fish, as we see in the older spire at Chartres; and others again, +like that at Caudebec, display the emblem of the Roman Church, the +triple crown of the Pope. + +"Out of this general outline, which was almost forced upon them, and +which they hardly ever tried to avoid, this pyramid or pepper-caster, +jelly-bag or extinguisher, the architects of the Middle Ages evolved the +most ingenious combinations and varied their designs to infinity. + +"How mysterious for the most part is the origin of our cathedrals! Most +of the artists who built them are unknown; nay, the age of the stones is +rarely a matter of certainty, for the greater part of them have been +wrought upon by the alluvium of ages. + +"They almost all cover intervals of two, three, or four centuries each; +they extend from the beginning, of the thirteenth century till the first +years of the sixteenth. + +"And on reflection that is very intelligible. + +"It has been accurately remarked that the thirteenth century was the +great period of cathedral-building. It gave birth to almost every one of +them; and then, being created, their growth was checked for nearly two +hundred years. + +"The fourteenth century was torn by frightful disasters. It began with +the ignoble quarrels between Philippe le Bel and the Pope; it saw the +stake lighted for the Templars, made bonfires in Languedoc of the +_Bégards_ and the _Fraticelli_, the lepers and the Jews; wallowed in +blood under the defeats of Crécy and Poitiers, the furious excesses of +the Jacquerie and of the Maillotins, and the ravages of the brigands +known as the _Tard-venus_; and finally, having run so wild, its madness +was reflected in the incurable insanity of the king. + +"Thus it ended, as it had begun, writhing in the most horrible religious +convulsions. The Tiaras of Rome and Avignon clashed, and the Church, +standing unsupported on these ruins, tottered on its base, for the Great +Western Schism now shook it. + +"The fifteenth century seemed to be born mad. Charles VI.'s insanity +seemed to be infectious; the English invasion was followed by the +pillage of France, the frenzied contest of the Bourguignons and the +Armagnacs, by plagues and famines, and the overthrow at Agincourt; then +came Charles VII., Joan of Arc, the deliverance and the healing of the +land by the energetic treatment of King Louis XI. + +"All these events hindered the progress of the works in cathedrals. + +"The fourteenth century on the whole restricted itself to carrying on +the structures begun during the previous century. We must wait till the +end of the fifteenth, when France drew breath, to see architecture start +into life once more. + +"It must be added that frequent conflagrations at various times +destroyed a whole church, and that it had to be rebuilt from the +foundations; others, like Beauvais, fell down, and had to be +reconstructed, or, if money was lacking, simply strengthened and the +gaps repaired. + +"With the exception of a very few--Saint Ouen at Rouen for one, a rare +example of a church almost entirely built during the fourteenth century +(excepting the western towers and front, which are quite modern), and +the Cathedral at Reims for another, which appears to have been +constructed without much interruption, on the original plans of Hugues +Libergier or Robert de Coucy--not one of our cathedrals was erected +throughout in accordance with the designs of the architect who began it, +nor has one remained untouched. + +"Most of them, consequently, represent the combined efforts of +successive pious generations; still, this apparently improbable fact is +true: until the dawn of the Renaissance the genius of successive +builders was singularly well matched. If they made any alterations in +their predecessors' plans, they were able to introduce some touch of +individuality, inventions of exquisite beauty that did not clash with +the whole. They engrafted their genius on that of their first masters; +there was the perpetuated tradition of an admirable conception, a +perennial breath of the Holy Spirit. It was the interloper, the period +of false and farcical Pagan art, that extinguished that pure flame, and +annihilated the luminous truthfulness of the Mediæval past, when God had +dwelt intimately, at home, in souls; it substituted a merely earthly +form of art for one that was divine. + +"As soon as the sensuality of the Renaissance revealed itself, the +Paraclete fled; the mortal sin of stone could display itself at will. It +contaminated the buildings that were finished, defiled the churches, +debasing their purity of form; this, with the gross license of sculpture +and painting, was the great stupration of the cathedrals. + +"And this time the Spirit of Prayer was quite dead; everything went to +pieces. The Renaissance, so lauded afterwards by Michelet and the +historians, was the death of the Mystical soul of monumental theology, +of religious art--all the great art of France. + +"Bless me! where am I?" Durtal suddenly asked himself, finding himself +in the ill-paved alleys which lead from the Cathedral square to the +lower town. He saw that, dreaming as he walked, he had passed the Abbé's +lodgings. + +He turned up the street again, stopped in front of an old house and +rang. A brass wicket was opened and closed, and a housekeeper, shuffling +up in old shoes, half opened the door. Durtal was met by the Abbé Plomb, +who was watching for him, and who led him into a room full of statues; +there were carved images in every spot--on the chimney-shelf, on a +chest of drawers, on a side table, and in the middle of the room. + +"Do not look at them," said the Abbé, "do not heed them; I have no part +in the selection of this horrible bazaar. I have to endure it in spite +of myself; these are offerings from my penitents." + +Durtal laughed, though somewhat scared by the extraordinary specimens of +religious art that crowded the room. + +There was every kind of work: black frames with brass flats, and in them +engravings of Virgins by Bouguereau and Signol, Guido's _Ecce Homo_, +Pietàs, Saint Philomenas--and then the assembly of polychrome statues: +Mary painted with the crude green of angelica and the acrid pinks of +English pear-drops; Madonnas gazing in rapture at their own feet, with +extended hands whence proceeded fans of yellow rays; Joan of Arc +squatting like a hen on her eggs, with eyes raised to heaven like white +marbles, and pressing a standard to her bosom in its plaster cuirass; +Saint Anthonys of Padua, clean and snug, as neat as two pins; Saint +Josephs, not enough the carpenter and too little the Saint; Magdalens +weeping silver pills; a whole mob of semi-divinities, best quality, of +the class known as "The Munich Article" in the Rue Madame. + +"Oh, Monsieur l'Abbé, the donors are certainly terrible people--but +could you not, quite by accident, drop one of these objects every day--" + +The priest gave a shrug of despair. + +"They would only bring me more," cried he. "But if you are willing, we +will be off at once, for I am afraid of being caught here if I linger." + +And as they walked, talking of the Cathedral, Durtal exclaimed,-- + +"Is it not a monstrous thing that in the splendour of this Cathedral of +Chartres it is impossible to hear any genuine plain-song? I am reduced +to frequenting the sanctuary only at hours when there is no high service +going on. Above all I avoid being present at High Mass on Sundays; the +music that is tolerated infuriates me! Is there no way of having the +organist dismissed, and a clean sweep made of the precentor and the +teachers in the choir-school, of packing off the basses with their +vinous voices to the taverns? Ugh! And the gassy effervescence that +rises from the thin pipes of the little boys! and the street tunes +eructed in a hiccough, like the run of a lamp-chain when you pull it up, +mingling with the noisy bellow of the basses! What a disgrace, what a +shame! How is it that the Bishop, the priests, the Canons do not +prohibit such treason? + +"Monseigneur, I know, is old and ill; but those Canons!--They look so +weary, to be sure! As I see them droning out the Psalms in their stalls, +I wonder whether they know where they are and what they are doing; they +always seem to me in a half unconscious state--" + +"The high winds of la Beauce induce lethargy," said the Abbé, laughing. +"But allow me to assure you that though the Cathedral scorns Gregorian +chants, here, at Chartres, at the little Seminary, at the church of +Notre Dame de la Brèche, and at the convent of the Sisters of Saint +Paul, they are sung after the Use of Solesmes, so that you can +alternately attend that church and those chapels and the Cathedral, +since perfection is to be found in neither." + +"Of course. Still, is it not horrible to think that the Hottentot taste +of a few bawling old men can pursue the Virgin even in Her sanctuary +with such musical insults? Ah, there is the rain again," said Durtal +with vexation, after a short silence. + +"Well, here we are. We can take shelter in the church, and study the +interior at our leisure." + +They knelt before the Black Virgin of the Pillar; then they sat down in +the deserted nave, and the Abbé said in an undertone,-- + +"I explained to you the other day the symbolism of the outside of the +building. Would you like me now to inform you in a few words as to the +allegories set forth in the aisles?" + +And on seeing Durtal agree by a nod, the priest went on,-- + +"You are, of course, aware that almost all our cathedrals are cruciform. +In the primitive Church, it is true, you will find that some were +constructed of a circular form and surmounted by a dome. But most of +these were not built by our forefathers; they are ancient temples of the +heathen adapted by the Catholics, with more or less alteration, to their +own use, or imitated from such temples before the Romanesque style was +recognized. + +"We need then seek in these no liturgical meaning, since that form was +not a Christian invention. At the same time Durand of Mende, in his +_Rationale_, asserts that a building of rounded form symbolizes the +extension of the Church over the whole circle of the universe. Others +explain the dome as being the crown of the Crucified King, and the +smaller cupolas which occasionally support it as the huge heads of the +Nails. But we may set aside these explanations, which are but based on +existing facts, and study the cruciform plan shown here, as in other +cathedrals, in the arrangement of the nave and transepts. + +"It may be noted that in a few churches, as, for instance, the abbey +church of Cluny, the interior, instead of showing a Latin Cross, was +planned on the lines of the Cross of Lorraine, two _crosslets_ being +added to the arms.--Now, behold the whole scheme!" the priest said, with +a gesture that comprehended the whole of the interior of the basilica of +Chartres. + +"Jesus is dead; His head is at the altar; His outstretched arms are the +two transepts; His pierced hands are the doors; His legs are the nave +where we are standing; His pierced feet are the door by which we have +come in. Now consider the systematic deviation of the axis of the +building; it imitates the attitude of a body bent over from the upright +tree of sacrifice, and in some cathedrals--for instance, at Reims--the +narrowness, the strangulation, so to speak, of the choir in proportion +to the nave represents all the more closely the head and neck of a man, +drooping over his shoulder when he has given up the ghost. + +"This twist in the church is to be seen almost everywhere--in Saint Ouen +and in the Cathedral at Rouen, in Saint Jean at Poitiers, at Tours and +at Reims. Sometimes, indeed--but this statement needs verification--the +architect had substituted for the body of the Saviour that of the Saint +in whose name the church was dedicated, and the curved axis of Saint +Savin, for instance, has been supposed to represent the bend of the +wheel which was the instrument of that Saint's martyrdom. + +"But all this is evidently familiar to you. + +"This is less well known: So far we have studied the image of Christ +motionless, and dead, in our churches. I will now tell you of a singular +instance of a church which, instead of reproducing the attitude of the +Divine Corpse, represents that of His still living Body, a church which +seems to have a suggestion of movement as if bending like Christ on the +Cross. + +"In fact it seems to be certain that some architects strove to represent +in the plan of their building the motion of the human frame, to imitate +the action of a drooping figure; in short, to give life to stones. + +"Such an attempt was made in the abbey church of Preuilly-sur-Claise in +Touraine. The plan and photographs of this basilica are to be found in +an interesting volume that I can lend you; the author, the Abbé +Picardat, is the Curé of the church. You will from them readily perceive +that the curve of the plan is that of a body leaning on one side, drawn +out and bending over. + +"And the movement of the body is represented by the curve of the axis, +beginning at the very first bay and continued along the nave, the choir, +and the apse to the end, which bends aside to imitate the droop of the +head. + +"Thus, even better than at Chartres, at Reims, and at Rouen, this humble +sanctuary, built by Benedictine monks whose names are unknown, +represents in its serpentine line, in the perspective of its aisles and +the obliquity of its vaulting, the allegorical presentment of our Lord +on the Cross. In all other churches the architects have to some extent +imitated the cadaverous rigidity of the head fallen in death; at +Preuilly the monks have perpetuated the never-to-be-forgotten instant +that elapsed between the '_Sitio_' (I thirst) and the '_Consummatum +est_' (It is finished), as recorded in the Gospel of Saint John. Thus +the old Touraine church is in the image of Christ Crucified, but still +living. + +"Now, to look at home once more, we will consider the inward parts of +our sanctuaries. It may be noted incidentally that the length of the +cathedral figures the long-suffering of the Church in adversity; its +breadth symbolizes charity, which expands the souls of men; its height, +the hope of future reward; and we can then proceed to details. + +"The choir and sanctuary symbolize Heaven; the nave is the emblem of the +earth; as the gulf that divides the two worlds can only be passed by the +help of the Cross, it was formerly the custom, now, alas, fallen into +desuetude, to erect an enormous Crucifix over the grand arch between +the nave and the choir. Hence the name of triumphal arch was given to +the vast space in front of the High altar. It may also be remarked that +a railing or screen marks the limits of these two parts of the +cathedral. Saint Gregory Nazianzen regards this as the border line +traced between the two parts--that of God, and that of man. + +"There is, however, a different explanation given by Richard de Saint +Victor, as to the sanctuary, the choir, and the nave. According to him, +the first symbolizes the Virgins, the second the chaste souls, and the +third the married hearts. As to the altar, or, as old liturgical writers +call it, the _Cancel_ (chancel), it is Christ Himself, the spot whereon +His Head rests, the Table of the Last Supper, the Stake whereon He shed +His blood, the Sepulchre that held His body; and again, it is the +Spiritual Church, and its four angles the four corners of the earth over +which it shall reign. + +"Now behind this altar we find the apse, assuming in most cathedrals the +form of a semicircle. There are exceptions; to mention three: at +Poitiers, at Laon, and in Notre Dame du Fort at Étampes the wall is +square, as in the ancient civic basilicas, and does not describe the +sort of half-moon, of which the significance is one of the most +beautiful inventions of symbolism. + +"This semicircular end, this apsidal shell, with the chapels that +surround the choir, simulates the Crown of Thorns on the Head of Christ. +Excepting in Sanctuaries which are wholly dedicated to Our Lady--this +one, Notre Dame de Paris, and some others--one of these chapels, that in +the centre and the largest, is dedicated to the Virgin, to show by the +place that it occupies at the end of the church that Mary is the last +refuge of sinners. + +"She, in person, is again symbolized by the Sacristy, whence the priest +comes forth as Christ's representative after putting on his sacerdotal +vestments, as Jesus came forth from His Mother's womb after clothing +Himself in flesh. + +"It must constantly be repeated; every part of a church and every +material object used in divine worship is representative of some +theological truth. In the script of architecture everything is a +reminiscence, an echo, a reflection, and every part is connected to form +a whole. + +"For instance, the altar, which is the Image of Our Lord, must be +draped with white linen in memory of the winding-sheet in which Joseph +of Arimathea wrapped His body--and that linen must be woven of pure +thread, of hemp or flax. The chalice, which according to the texts +adduced by the _Spicilegium_ of Solesmes, is to be taken now as a symbol +of glory, and now as a sign of opprobrium, may be regarded, by the most +generally received theory, as the figure of the sacred Tomb; then the +paten appears as the stone which served to close it, while the corporal +is the shroud itself. + +"When I tell you further," added the Abbé, "that according to Saint +Nilus, the columns signify the divine dogmas, or, according to Durand of +Mende, the Bishops and the Doctors of the Church, that the capitals are +the words of Scripture, that the pavement of the church is the +foundation of faith and humility, that the ambos and rood-loft, almost +everywhere destroyed, figure the pulpit of the gospel, the mountain on +which Christ preached; again, that the seven lamps burning before the +altar are the seven gifts of the Spirit, that the steps to the altar are +the steps to perfection; that the alternating choirs represent on the +one side the angels, and on the other the righteous, combining to do +homage with their voices to the glory of the Most High, I have pretty +well explained to you the general meaning and detailed symbolism of the +interior of the cathedral, and more particularly that of Chartres. + +"Now you must observe a peculiarity which is also to be seen in the +Cathedral at Le Mans; the side aisles of the nave in which we are +sitting are single, but they are double round the choir--" + +But Durtal was not listening; far away from this architectural exegesis, +he was admiring the amazing structure without even trying to analyze it. + +Wrapped in the mystery of its own shadow thick with the haze of rain, it +soared up lighter and lighter as it rose in the skyey whiteness of its +arcades, aspiring like a soul purifying itself with increasing light as +it toils up the ways of the mystic life. + +The clustered columns sprang in slender sheaves, their groups so light +that they looked as if they might bend at a breath; yet it was not till +they had reached a giddy height that these stems curved over, flying +from one side of the Cathedral to the other to meet above the void, +mingling their sap and blossoming at last, like a basket of flowers, in +the once gilt pendants from the roof. + +This church appeared as a supreme effort of matter striving for +lightness, rejecting, as though it were a burden, the diminished weight +of its walls and substituting a less ponderous and more lucent matter, +replacing the opacity of stone by the diaphanous texture of glass. + +It grew more spiritual--wholly spiritual, purely prayer, as it sprang +towards the Lord to meet Him; light and slender, as it were +imponderable, it remained the most glorious expression of Beauty +escaping from its earthly dross, Beauty become seraphic. + +It was as slender and colourless as Roger Van der Weyden's Virgins, who +are so fragile, so ethereal, that they might blow away were they not +held down to earth by the weight of their brocades and trains. Here was +the same mystical conception of a long-drawn body and an ardent soul, +which, unable to free itself completely from that body, strove to purify +it by reducing it, refining it, almost distilling it to a fluid. + +The building bewildered him with the giddy flight of its vault, the +dazzling splendour of its windows. The weather was gloomy, and yet a +furnace of gems flamed in the lancets of the windows and the blazing +wheels of the roses. + +Up there, high in air, as they might be salamanders, human beings with +faces ablaze and robes on fire dwelt in a firmament of glory; but these +conflagrations were enclosed and limited by an incombustible frame of +darker glass which set off the youthful and radiant joy of the flames by +the contrast of melancholy, the suggestion of the more serious and aged +aspect presented by gloomy colouring. The bugle cry of red, the limpid +confidence of white, the repeated Hallelujahs of yellow, the virginal +glory of blue, all the quivering crucible of glass was dimmed as it got +nearer to this border dyed with rusty red, the tawny hues of sauces, the +harsh purples of sandstone, bottle-green, tinder-brown, fuliginous +blacks, and ashy greys. + +As at Bourges, where the glass is of the same period, Oriental influence +was visible in these windows at Chartres. Not only had the figures the +hieratic appearance, the sumptuous and barbarous dignity of Asiatic +personages, but the borders, in their design and the arrangement of +their colours, were an evident reminiscence of the Persian carpets which +undoubtedly served as models to the painters; since it is known from the +_Livre des Métiers_ that in the thirteenth century hangings copied from +those which the Crusaders brought from the Levant were manufactured in +France, and in Paris itself. + +But, apart from the question of subjects or borders, the various colours +of these pictures were, so to speak, but an accessory crowd, handmaidens +whose part it was to set off another colour, namely blue--a glorious, +indescribable blue, a vivid sapphire hue of excessive transparency, pale +but piercing and sparkling throughout, glittering like the broken glass +of a kaleidoscope--in the top-lights, in the roses of the transepts, and +in the great west window, where it burned like the blue flame of +sulphur, among the lead-lines and black iron bars. + +Taken for all in all, with the tones of its stone-work and its windows, +Notre Dame de Chartres was fair with blue eyes. He personified Her as a +sort of white fairy, a tall and slender virgin, with large blue eyes +under lids of translucent rose. This was the Mother of a Christ of the +North, the Christ of a Pre-Raphaelite Flemish painter. She sat enthroned +in a Heaven of ultramarine, surrounded by these Oriental hangings of +glass--a pathetic reminder of the Crusades. + +And these transparent hangings were like flowers, redolent of sandal and +pepper, fragrant with the subtle spices of the Magian kings; a perfumed +flower-bed of hues culled at the cost of so much blood in the fields of +Palestine; and here offered by the West, under the cold sky of Chartres, +to the Virgin Mother in remembrance of the sunny lands where She dwelt +and where Her Son chose to be born. + +"Where could you find a grander shrine or a more sublime dwelling for +Our Mother?" said the Abbé as he pointed to the nave. + +This exclamation roused Durtal from his reflections, and he listened as +the priest went on,-- + +"Though this cathedral is unique as regards its width, in spite of its +enormous height it cannot compare with the extravagant elevation of +Bourges, Amiens, and more especially of Beauvais, where the vault of the +roof rises to forty-eight metres from the ground. That cathedral, it is +true, was bent on outstripping its sisters. + +"Springing into the air at one flight, when it reached the upper spaces +it tottered and fell. You know the portions which survived the wreck of +that mad attempt?" + +"Yes, Monsieur l'Abbé; and that sanctuary and that apse, so narrow and +restricted, with columns so close together, and the iridescent light, +like filmy soap bubbles, from walls which seem made of glass, disturb +and bewilder you; on first entering it gives the impression of +indescribable uneasiness, a sort of anxious and distressed anticipation. +And in truth it is neither quite healthy nor sound; it seems only to +live by dint of aids and expedients; it struggles to be free and is not; +it is long drawn and not ethereal; it has--how shall I express +it?--large bones. You remember the pillars? They are like the smooth +muscular trunks of beech trees, which have also the angular edges of +reeds. How different from the harp-strings which form the aerial +skeleton of Chartres! No, in spite of all, Beauvais, like Reims, and +like Paris, is a fleshy cathedral; it has not the elegant leanness, the +perennial youthfulness of form, the Patrician stamp of Amiens, and more +especially of Chartres! + +"And have you not been struck, Monsieur l'Abbé, by the way in which the +genius of man has constantly borrowed from Nature in the construction of +his basilicas? It is almost certain that the arcades of the forest were +the starting-point for the mystic avenues of our aisles. And again, look +at the pillars. I was speaking of those at Beauvais as suggesting the +beech and the reed; if you think of the columns at Laon, they have nodes +all up their stems, resembling the regular swelling of bamboos, to the +point of imitation. Note also the stone flora of the capitals and the +pendants of the vault, terminating the long ribs of the arches. Here the +animal kingdom seems to have inspired the architect. Might we not +conceive of a fabulous spider, of which the key-stone is the body and +the ribs stretching under the vaults are the legs? The image is so +accurate as to be irresistible. And then what a marvel is the gigantic +Arachne, wrought like a jewel and heightened with gold, which might have +spun the web of those three flaming rose windows!" + +"By the way," said the Abbé, when they had left the church and were +walking down the street, "I forgot to point out to you the Number which +is everywhere stamped on Chartres; it is identical with Paray-le-Monial. +Here, again, everything is in threes. Thus there are three aisles, and +three entrances each with three doors; if you count the pillars of the +nave, you will count twice three on each side. The transept aisles again +have each three bays and three pillars, the windows are in threes under +the three great roses. So, you see, Notre Dame is full of the Trinity." + +"And it is also the great store-house of Mediæval painting and +sculpture." + +"Yes, and like other Gothic cathedrals, it is the completest and most +trustworthy collection of symbolism; for the allegories we fancy we can +interpret in Romanesque churches are on the whole but artificial and +doubtful--and that is quite conceivable. The Romanesque is a convert, a +pagan turned monk. It was not born Catholic as the pointed arch was; it +only became so by baptism conferred by the Church. Christianity +discovered it in the Roman _basilica_, and utilized while modifying it; +thus its origin is pagan, and it was only as it grew up that it could +learn the language and use the forms of our emblems." + +"And yet, to me, as a whole, it seems to be a symbol, for it is the +image in stone of the Old Testament, a figure of contrition and fear." + +"And yet more of the soul's peace," replied the Abbé. "Believe me, +really to understand that style we must go back to the fountain-head, to +the earliest times of Monasticism, of which it is a perfect expression; +back, in fact, to the Fathers of the Church, the monks of the Desert. + +"Now, what is the very special character of the mysticism of the East? +It is the calmness of faith, love feeding on itself, ecstasy without +display, ardent but reserved, internal. + +"In the books of the Egyptian Recluses you will never find the vehemence +of a Maddalena de' Pazzi or a Catherine of Siena, the passionate +ejaculations of a Saint Angela. Nothing of the kind, no amorous +addresses, no trepidations, no laments. They look upon the Redeemer less +as the Victim to be wept over than as the Mediator, the Friend, the +Elder Brother. To them He was, to quote Origen's words, 'The Bridge +between us and the Father.' + +"These tendencies, transplanted from Africa to Europe, were preserved by +the first monks of the West, who followed the example of their +predecessors, and modified and built their churches on the same pattern. + +"That repentance, contrition, and awe dwell under these dark vaults, +among these heavy pillars, in this fortress, as it were, where the elect +shut themselves in to resist the assaults of the world, is quite +certain--but this mystical Romanseque also suggests the notion of a +sturdy faith, of manly patience, and stalwart piety--like its walls. + +"It has not the flaming raptures of the mystical Gothic, which finds +utterance in all these soaring shafts of stone; the Romanesque lives +self-centred, in reserved fervour, brooding in the depths of the soul. +It may be summed up in this saying of Saint Isaac's: _In mansuetudine et +in tranquillitate, simplifica animam tuam_.'" + +"You will confess, Monsieur l'Abbé, that you have a weakness for the +style." + +"Perhaps I have, in so far as that it is less petted, more humble, less +feminine, and more claustral than the Gothic." + +"On the whole," the priest concluded, as he shook hands with Durtal at +his own door, "it is the symbol of the inner life, the image of the +monastic life; in a word, the true architecture of the cloister." + +"On condition, nevertheless," said Durtal to himself, "that it is not +like that of Notre Dame de Poitiers, where the interior is gaudy with +childish colouring and raw tones; for there, instead of expressing +regret and tranquillity, it rouses a suggestion of the childish glee of +an old savage in his second childhood, who laughs when his tattoo marks +are renewed, and his skin rough-cast with crude ochres." + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +"How many worshippers can the Cathedral contain? Well, nearly 18,000," +said the Abbé Plomb. "But I need hardly tell you, I suppose, that it is +never full; that even during the season for pilgrimages the vast crowds +of Mediæval times never assemble here. Ah, no! Chartres is not exactly +what you would call a pious town!" + +"It strikes me as indifferent to religion, to say the least, if not +actually hostile," said the Abbé Gévresin. + +"The citizen of Chartres is money-getting, apathetic, and salacious," +replied the Abbé Plomb. "Above all, greedy of money, for the passion for +lucre is fierce here, under an inert surface. Really, from my own +experience, I pity the young priest who is sent as a beginner to +evangelize la Beauce. + +"He arrives full of illusions, dreaming of Apostolic triumphs, burning +to devote himself--and he drops into silence and the void. If he were +but persecuted he would feel himself alive; but he is met, not with +abuse, but with a smile, which is far worse; and at once he becomes +aware of the futility of all he can do, of the aimlessness of his +efforts, and he is discouraged. + +"The clergy here are, it may be said, admirable, composed of good and +saintly priests; but they vegetate, torpid with inaction; they neither +read nor work; their joints become ankylose; they die of weariness in +this provincial spot." + +"You do not!" exclaimed Durtal, laughing; "for you make work. Did you +not tell me that you especially devote yourself to ladies who can still +condescend to take an interest in Our Lord in this town?" + +"Your satire is scathing," replied the Abbé. "I can assure you that if I +had serving-women and the peasant girls to deal with, I should not +complain; for in simple souls there are qualities and virtues and a +responsive spring, but not in the commercial or the richer classes! You +cannot imagine what those women are. If only they attend Mass on Sunday +and perform their Easter duties they think they may do anything and +everything; and thenceforth their one idea is not so much to avoid +offending the Saviour as to disarm Him by mean subterfuges. They speak +ill of their neighbour, injuring him cruelly, refusing him all help and +pity, and they make excuses for themselves as though these were mere +venial faults; but as to eating meat on a Friday! That is quite another +thing; they are persuaded that this is the unpardonable sin. To them +their stomach is the Holy Ghost; consequently, the great point is to +tack and veer round that particular sin, never to commit it, while only +just avoiding it, and not depriving themselves in the least. What +eloquence they will pour out on me to convince me of the penitential +quality of water-fowl. + +"During Lent they are possessed with the idea of giving dinners, and +rack their brains to provide a lenten meal in which there is no meat, +though it would be supposed that there was; and then come interminable +discussions as to teal, wild duck, and cold-blooded birds. They should +consult a naturalist and not a priest on such cases of conscience. + +"As to Holy Week, that is another affair; the mania for water-birds +gives way to a hankering for the _Charlotte Russe_. May they, without +offence to God, enjoy a _Charlotte_? There are eggs in it, to be sure, +but so whipped and scourged that the dish is almost ascetic; culinary +explanations are poured into my ear, the confessional becomes a kitchen, +and the priest might be a master-cook. + +"But as to the general sin of greediness, they hardly admit that they +are guilty of it. Is it not so, my dear colleague?" + +The Abbé Gévresin nodded assent. "They are indeed hollow souls," said +he, "and what is more, impenetrable. They are sealed against every +generous idea, regarding the intercourse they hold with the Redeemer as +beseeming their rank and in good style; but they never seek to know Him +more nearly, and restrict themselves, of deliberate purpose, to calls of +politeness." + +"Such visits as we pay to an aged parent on New Year's Day," said +Durtal. + +"No, at Easter," corrected Madame Bavoil. + +"And among these Fair Penitents," the Abbé Plomb went on, "we have that +terrible variety, the wife of the Député who votes on the wrong side, +and to his wife's objurgations retorts: 'Why, I am at heart a better +Christian than you are!' + +"Invariably and every time, she repeats the list of her husband's +private virtues, and deplores his conduct as a public man; and this +history, which is never ending, always leads up to the praises she +awards herself, almost to requiring us to apologize for all the +annoyance the Church occasions her." + +The Abbé Gévresin smiled, and said,-- + +"When I was in Paris, attached to one of the parishes on the left bank +of the Seine, in which there is a huge draper's and fancy shop, I had to +deal with a very curious class of women. Especially on days when there +was a great show of cotton and linen goods, or a sale of bankrupt stock, +there was a perfect rush of well-dressed women to the confessional. +These people lived on the other side of the water; they had come to that +part of the town to buy bargains, and finding the departments of the +shop too full, no doubt, they meant to wait till the crowd should be +thinner, to make their selection in comfort; so then, not knowing what +to be doing, they took refuge in the church, and, tortured by the need +for speech, they asked for the priest whose turn it was to attend, and +to justify themselves, chattered in the confessional as if it had been a +drawing-room, merely to kill time." + +"Not being able to go to a _café_ like a man, they go to church," said +Durtal. + +"Unless it is," said Madame Bavoil, "that they would rather confide to +an unknown priest the sins it would pain them to confess to their own +director." + +"At any rate, this is a new light on things: the influence of big shops +on the tribunal of penance!" exclaimed Durtal. + +"And of railway stations," added the Abbé Gévresin. + +"How of railway stations?" + +"Yes, I assure you that churches situated near railway stations have a +special following of women on their journeys. There it is that our dear +Madame Bavoil's shrewd remark finds justification. Many a country-woman +who has the Curé of her own parish to dinner dares not tell him the tale +of her adultery, because he could too easily guess the name of her +lover, and because the propinquity of a priest living on intimate terms +in her house would be inconvenient; so she takes advantage of an +excursion to Paris to open her heart to another confessor who does not +know her. As a general rule, when a woman speaks ill of her Curé, and +begins the tale of her confession by explaining that he is dull, +uneducated, unsympathetic in understanding and guiding souls, you may be +certain that a confession is coming of sin against the sixth (seventh) +Commandment." + +"Well, well; the people who flutter around the Lord are cool hands!" +exclaimed Madame Bavoil. + +"They are unhappy creatures, who try to strike a balance between their +duties and their vices. + +"But enough of this; let us turn to something more immediate. Have you +brought us the article on the Angelico, as you promised? Read it to us." + +Durtal brought out of his pocket the manuscript he had finished, which +was to be posted that evening to Paris. + +He seated himself in one of the straw-bottomed arm-chairs in the middle +of the room where they were sitting with the Abbé Gévresin, and began:-- + + THE CORONATION OF THE VIRGIN. + By Fra Angelico. In the Louvre. + +The general arrangement of this picture reminds the spectator of the +tree of Jesse, of which the branches, supporting a human figure on every +twig, spread fan-like as they rise on each side of a throne, while at +the top, on a single stem, the radiant beauty of a Virgin is the +crowning blossom. + +In Fra Angelico's 'Coronation of the Virgin,' to the right and left of +the isolated knoll on which Christ sits under a carved stone canopy, +placing the crown He holds with both hands on His Mother's bowed head, +we see a perfect espalier of Apostles, Saints, and Patriarchs, rising in +close and crowded ramification at the lower part of the panel, to burst +into a luxuriant blossoming of angels relieved against the blue sky, +their heads in a sunshine of glories. + +The arrangement of the persons represented is as follows:-- + +At the foot of the throne, under the gothic canopy--to the left, Saint +Nicholas of Myra kneels in prayer, wearing his mitre and clasping his +crozier, from which the maniple hangs like a folded banner; Saint Louis +the King with a crown of fleurs de lys; the monastic saints; St. Antony, +St. Benedict, St. Francis, St. Thomas, who holds an open book in which +we read the first lines of the _Te Deum_, St. Dominic holding a lily, +St. Augustine with a pen. Then, going upwards, St. Mark and St. John +carrying their gospels, St. Bartholomew showing the knife with which he +was flayed; and higher still the lawgiver Moses, ending in the serried +ranks of angels against the azure firmament, each head circled with a +golden nimbus. + +On the right, below, by the side of a monk whose back only is +seen--possibly St. Bernard--Mary Magdalene is on her knees with a vase +of spices by her side, robed in vermilion; behind her come St. Cecilia, +crowned with roses, St. Clara or St. Catherine of Sienna, in a blue +hood, patterned with stars, St. Catherine of Alexandria, leaning on her +wheel of martyrdom, St. Agnes, cherishing a lamb in her arms, St. Ursula +flinging an arrow, and others whose names are unknown; all female +saints, facing the Bishop, the King, the Recluses, and the founders of +Orders. By the steps of the throne are St. Stephen, with the green palm +of martyrdom, St. Lawrence, with his gridiron, St. George, wearing a +breastplate, and on his head a helmet, St. Peter the Dominican +recognizable by his split skull; and yet further up St. Matthew, St. +Philip, St. James the Greater, St. Jude, St. Paul, St. Matthias, and +King David. Finally, opposite the angels on the left a group of angels, +whose faces, set in gold discs, are relieved against the pure +ultramarine background. + +In spite of injury from the restorations it has endured, this panel, +with its stamped and diapered gold, is splendid in the freshness of its +colours, laid on with white of egg. + +As a whole, it represented, so to speak, a stairway for the eye, a +circular stair of two flights, in steps of glorious blue hung with gold. + +The lowest to the left is seen in the blue mantle of Saint Louis, and +others lead up through a glimpse of blue drapery, the robe of St. John, +and then, higher still before reaching the blue expanse of the sky, the +robe of the first angel. + +The first on the right is the mantle of St. Cecilia; others are the +bodice of St. Agnes, St. Stephen's robe, a prophet's tunic; and above +these, before reaching the lapis-lazuli border of sky, the robe of the +first angel. + +Thus blue, which is the predominating colour in the whole, is regularly +piled up in steps and spaced almost identically on the opposite sides of +the throne. This azure hue of the draperies, their folds faintly +indicated with white, is extraordinarily serene, indescribably innocent. +This it is which gives the work its soul of colour--this blue, helped +out by the gold which gleams round the heads, runs or twines on the +black robes of the monks; in Y's on those of St. Thomas; in suns, or +rather in radiating chrysanthemums, on those of St. Antony and St. +Benedict; in stars on St. Clara's hood; in filagree embroidery in the +letters of their names, in brooches and medallions on the bodices of the +other female saints. + +At the very bottom of the picture a splash of gorgeous red--the +Magdalen's robe--that finds an echo in the flame-colour of one of the +steps of the throne, and reappears here and there, but softened in +fragmentary glimpses of drapery, or smothered under a running pattern of +gold (as in St. Augustine's cope) serves as a spring-board, as it were, +to start the whole stupendous harmony. + +The other colours seem to fill no part, but that of necessary stop-gaps, +indispensable supports. They are too, for the most part, common and ugly +to a degree that is most puzzling. Look at the greens: they range from +boiled endive to olive, ending in the absolute hideousness of two steps +of the throne which lie across the picture--two bars, two streaks of +spinach dipped in tawny mud. The only tolerable green of them all is +that of St. Agnes' mantle, a Parmigiano green, rich in yellow, and made +still richer by the lining which affords the pleasing adjunct of orange. + +On the other hand, consider this blue which Angelico uses so sumptuously +in his celestial tones; when he makes it darker it loses its fulness, +and looks almost dull; we see this in St. Clara's hood. + +But what is yet more amazing is that this painter, so eloquent in blue, +is but a stammerer when he makes use of the other angelic +hue--rose-pink. In his hands it is neither subtle nor ingenuous; it is +opaque, of the colour of blood thinned with water, or of pink +sticking-plaister, excepting when it trends on the hue of wine-lees, +like that of the Saviour's sleeves. + +And it is heaviest of all in the saints' cheeks. It looks glazed, like +the surface of pie-crust; it has the quality of raspberry syrup drowned +in white of egg. + +These are in the main the only colours used by Angelico. A magnificent +blue for the sky and another vile blue, white, brilliant red, melancholy +pinks, a light green, dark greens, and gold. No bright yellow like +everlastings, no luminous straw-colour; at most a heavy opaque yellow +for the hair of his female saints; no truly bold orange, no violet, +either tender or strong, unless in the half-hidden lining of a cloak or +in the scarcely visible robe of a saint, cut off by the frame; no brown +that does not lurk in the background. His palette, as may be seen, is +very limited. + +And it is symbolical, if we consider it. He has undoubtedly done in his +hues what he has done in the arrangement of the work. His picture is a +hymn to Chastity, and round the central group of Christ and His Mother +he has placed in ranks the Saints who best concentrated this virtue on +earth. St. John the Baptist, beheaded for the bounding impurity of an +Herodias; St. George, who saved a virgin from the emblematic Dragon; +such saints as St. Agnes, St. Clara, and St. Ursula; the heads of the +Orders--St. Benedict and St. Francis; a king like St. Louis, and a +bishop like St. Nicholas of Myra, who hindered the prostitution of three +young girls whom a starving father was fain to sell. Everything, down to +the smallest details, from the attributes of the persons represented to +the steps of the throne, of which the number is nine--that of the choirs +of angels--everything in this picture is symbolical. + +It is permissible therefore to assume that he selected his colours for +their allegorical signification. + +White: the symbol of the Supreme Being, and of absolute Truth, and +employed by the Church in its adornments for the festival of our Lord +and the Virgin because it signifies Goodness, Virginity, Charity, and is +the splendour, the emblem of Divine Wisdom when it is enhanced to the +pure radiance of silver. + +Blue: because it symbolizes Chastity, Innocence, and Guilelessness. + +Red: which is the colour adopted for the offices of the Holy Ghost and +of the Passion; the garb of Charity, Suffering and Love. + +Rose-pink; the Love of Eternal Wisdom, and, as Saint Mechtildis teaches, +the anguish and torments of Christ. + +Green: used liturgically at Seasons of Pilgrimage, and which seems to be +the colour preferred by the Benedictine Sisterhood, interpreting it as +meaning freshness of soul and perennial sap; the green which, in the +hermeneutics of colour, expresses the hopes of the regenerated creature, +the yearning for final repose, and which is likewise the mark of +humility, according to the Anonymous English writer of the thirteenth +century, and of contemplation, according to Durand of Mende. + +On the other hand, Angelico has intentionally refrained from introducing +the hues which are emblematic of vices, excepting of course those +adopted for the garb of the Monastic Orders, which altogether changes +their meaning. + +Black: the colour of error and the void, the seal of death, and, +according to Sister Emmerich, the image of profaned and wasted gifts. + +Brown: which, as the same Sister tells us, is synonymous with agitation, +barrenness and dryness of the spirit, and neglect of duty; brown; which +being composed of black and red--smoke darkening the sacred fire--is +Satanic. + +Grey: the ashes of penance, the symbol of tribulation, according to the +Bishop of Mende, the sign of half-mourning formerly used in the Paris +ritual instead of violet in Lent. The mingling of white and black, of +virtue and vice, of joy and grief, the mirror of the soul that is +neither good nor evil, the medium being, the lukewarm creature that God +spueth out, grey can only rise by the infusion of a little purity, a +little blue; but can, when thus converted to pearl grey, become a pious +hue, and attempt a step towards Heaven, an advance in the lower paths of +Mysticism. + +Yellow: considered by Sister Emmerich as the colour of idleness, of a +horror of suffering, and often given to Judas in mediæval times, is +significant of treason and envy. Orange: of which Frédéric Portal +speaks as the revelation of Divine Love, the communion of God with man, +mingling the blood of Love to the sinful hue of yellow, may be taken to +bear a worse meaning with the idea of falsehood and torment; and, +especially when it verges on red, expresses the defeat of a soul +over-ridden by its sins, hatred of Love, contempt of Grace, the end of +all things. + +Dead leaf colour: speaking of moral degradation, spiritual death, the +hopefulness of green for ever extinct. + +Finally, violet: adopted by the Church for the Sundays in Advent and in +Lent, and for penitential services. It was the colour of the +mortuary-shroud of the kings of France; during the Middle Ages it was +the attribute of mourning, and it is at all times the melancholy garb of +the exorcist. + +What is certainly far less easy to explain is the limited variety of +countenance the painter has chosen to adopt. Here symbolism is of no +use. Look, for instance, at the men. The Patriarchs with their bearded +faces do not show us the almost translucent texture, as of the +sacramental wafer, in which the bones show through the dry and +diaphanous parchment-like skin, or like the seeds of the cruciferous +flower called _Monnaie du Pape_ (honesty); they have all regular and +pleasant faces, are all healthy, full-blooded personages, attentive and +devout. His monks too have round faces and rosy cheeks; not one of his +Saints looks like a Recluse of the Desert overcome by fasting, or has +the exhausted emaciation of an ascetic; they are all vaguely alike, with +the same solidity and the same complexion. In fact, as we see them in +this picture, they are a contented colony of excellent people. + +At least, so they appear at a first glance. + +The women, too, are all of one family; sisters more or less exactly +alike; all fair and rosy, with light snuff-coloured eyes, heavy eyelids, +and round faces; they form a train of rather an insipid type round the +Virgin with her long nose and bird-like head kneeling at the feet of +Christ. + +Altogether, among all these figures we find scarcely four distinct +types, if we take into consideration their more or less advanced years +and the modifications resulting from the arrangement of their hair, +their being bearded or shaven, and the pose of the head, front face or +profile, which distinguishes them. + +The only groups which are not of an almost uniform stamp are the angels, +sexless youths for ever charming. They are of matchless purity, of a +more than human innocence in their blue and rose-pink and green robes +sprigged with gold, with their yellow or red hair, at once aerial and +heavy, their chastely downcast eyes, and flesh as white as pith. Grave, +but in ecstasy, they play on the harp or the theorbo, on the Viol +d'Amore or the rebeck, singing the eternal glory of the most Holy +Mother. + +Thus, on the whole, the types used by Angelico are not less restricted +than his colours. + +But then, in spite of the exquisite array of angels, is this picture +monotonous and dull? Is this much-talked-of work over-praised? + +No, for this Coronation of the Virgin is a masterpiece, and superior to +all that enthusiasm can say about it; indeed, it outstrips painting and +soars through realms which the mystics of the brush had never +penetrated. + +Here we have not a mere manual effort, however admirable; this is not +merely a spiritual and truly religious picture such as Roger van der +Weyden and Quentin Matsys could create; it is quite another thing. With +Angelico an unknown being appears on the scene, the soul of a mystic +that has entered on the contemplative life, and breathes it on the +canvas as on a perfect mirror. It is the soul of a marvellous monk that +we see, of a saint, embodied on this coloured mirror, exhaled in a +painted creation. And we can measure how far that soul had advanced on +the path of perfection from the work that reflects it. + +He carries his angels and his saints up to the Unifying Life, the +supreme height of Mysticism. There the weariness of their dolorous +ascent is no more; there is the plenitude of tranquil joy, the peace of +man made one with God. Angelico is the painter of the soul immersed in +God, the painter of his own spirit. + +None but a monk could attempt such paintings. Matsys, Memling, Dierck +Bouts, Roger van der Weyden were no doubt sincere and pious worthies. +They gave their work a reflection of Heaven; they too reflected their +own soul in the faces they depicted; but though they gave them a +wonderful stamp of art, they could only infuse into them the semblance +of the soul beginning the practice of Christian asceticism; they could +only represent men still detained, like themselves, in the outer +chambers of those Castles of the Soul of which Saint Theresa speaks, and +not in the Hall where, in the centre, Christ sits and sheds His glory. + +They were, in my opinion, greater and keener observers, more learned and +more skilful, even better painters than Angelico; but their heart was in +their craft, they lived in the world, they often could not resist giving +their Virgins fine-lady airs, they were hampered by earthly +reminiscences, they could not rise in their work above the trammels of +daily life; in short, they were and remained men. They were admirable; +they gave utterance to the promptings of ardent faith; but they had not +had the specific culture which is practised only in the silence and +peace of the cloister. Hence they could not cross the threshold of the +seraphic realm where roamed the guileless being who never opened his +eyes, closed in prayer, excepting to paint--the monk who had never +looked out on the world, who had seen only within himself. + +And what we know of his life is worthy of this work. He was a humble and +tender recluse, who always prayed or ever he took up his brush, and +could not draw the Crucifixion without melting into tears. + +Through the veil of his tears his angelic vision poured itself out in +the light of ecstasy, and he created beings that had but the semblance +of human creatures, the earthly husk of our existence, beings whose +souls soared already far from their prison of flesh. Study his picture +attentively, and see how the incomprehensible miracle works of such a +sublimated state of mind. + +The types chosen for the Apostles and Saints are, as we have said, quite +ordinary. But gaze firmly at the countenances of these men, and you will +see how little they really take in of the scene before them. Whatever +attitude the painter may have given them, they are all absorbed into +themselves; they behold the scene, not with the eyes of the body, but +with the eyes of the soul. Each is looking into himself. Jesus dwells in +them, and they can gaze on Him better in their inmost heart than on His +throne. + +It is the same with his female Saints. I have said that they are +insignificant looking, and it is true; but how their features, too, are +transfigured and effaced under the Divine touch! They are drowned in +adoration, and spring buoyant, though motionless, to meet the Heavenly +Spouse. Only one remains but half escaped from her material shell: Saint +Catherine of Alexandria, who, with upturned eyes of a brackish green, is +neither as simple nor as innocent as her sisters; she still sees the +form of man in Christ; she still is a woman; she is, if one may so, the +sin of the work. + +Still, all these spiritual degrees clothed in human figures are but the +accessories of this picture. They are placed there, in the august +assumption of gold and the chaste ascending scale of blue, to lead by a +stair of pure joy to the sublime platform whereon we see the group of +the Saviour and the Virgin. + +And here, in the presence of the Mother and Son, the ecstatic painter +overflows. One could imagine that the Lord had merged into him, and +transported him beyond the life of sense, love and chastity are so +perfectly personified in the group above all the means of expression at +the command of man. + +No words could express the reverent tenderness, the anxious affection, +the filial and paternal love of the Christ, who smiles as He crowns His +Mother; and She is yet more incomparable. Here the words of adulation +are too weak; the invisible is made visible by the sacramental use of +colour and line. A feeling of infinite deference, of intense but +reserved adoration, flows and spreads about this Virgin, who, with Her +arms crossed over Her bosom, bends Her little dove-like head, with +downcast eyes and a rather long nose, under a veil. She resembles the +Apostle St. John who is just behind her, and might be his daughter; and +she is enigmatic; for that soft, delicate face, which in the hands of +any other painter would be merely charming and trivial, breathes out the +purest innocence. She is not even flesh and blood; the material that +clothes Her swells softly with the breath of the fluid that shapes it. +Mary is a living but a volatilized and glorious body. + +We can understand certain ideas of the Abbess of Agréda who declares +that She was exempt from the defilements inflicted on women; we see what +St. Thomas meant who asserted that Her beauty purified instead of +agitating the senses. + +Her age is indeterminate; She is not a woman, yet She is no longer a +child. It is hard to say even that She is grown up, just marriageable, a +girl-child, so entirely is She refined above all humanity, beyond the +world, so exquisitely pure and for ever chaste. + +She remains incomparable, unapproached in painting. By Her, other +Madonnas are vulgar; they are in every case women; She alone is the +white stem of the divine Ear of corn, the Wheat of the Eucharist. She +alone is indeed the Immaculate, the _Regina Virginum_ of the hymns; and +She is so youthful, so guileless, that the Son seems to be crowning His +Mother before She can have conceived Him. + +It is in this that we see the glory of the gentle Friar's superhuman +genius. He painted as others have spoken, inspired by Grace; he painted +what he saw within him just as St. Angela of Foligno related what she +heard within her. Both one and the other were mystics absorbed into God; +thus this picture by Angelico is at the same time a picture by the Holy +Ghost, bolted through a purified sieve of art. + +If we consider it, this soul is that of a female saint rather than of a +monk. Turn to his other pictures; those, for instance, in which he +strove to depict Christ's Passion; we are not looking at the stormy +scene represented by Matsys or Grünewald; he has none of their harsh +manliness, nor their gloomy energy, nor their tragic turbulence; he only +weeps with the uncomforted grief of a woman. He is a Sister rather than +a Friar-artist; and it is from this loving sensibility, which in the +mystic vocation is more generally peculiar to women, that he has drawn +the pathetic orisons and tender lamentation of his works. + +And was it not also in this spiritual nature, so womanly in its +complexion, that he found, under the impulse of the Spirit, the wholly +angelical gladness, the really glorious apotheosis of Our Lord and His +Mother, as he has painted them in this Coronation of the Virgin, which, +after being revered for centuries in the Dominican Church at Fiesole, +has now found shelter and admiration in the little gallery devoted to +the Italian School at the Louvre. + + * * * * * + +"Your article is very good," said the Abbé Plomb. "But can the +principles of a ritual of colour which you have discerned in Angelico +be verified with equal strictness in other painters?" + +"No, if we look for colour as Angelico received it from his monastic +forefathers, the illuminators of Missals, or as he applied it in its +strictest and most usual acceptation. Yes, if we admit the law of +antagonism, the rules of inversion, and if we know that symbolism +authorizes the system of contraries, allowing the use of the hues which +are appropriated to certain virtues to indicate the vices opposed to +them." + +"In a word, an innocent colour may be interpreted in an evil sense, and +vice versâ," said the Abbé Gévresin. + +"Precisely. In fact, artists who, though pious, were laymen, spoke a +different language from the monks. On emerging from the cloister the +liturgical meaning of colours was weakened; it lost its original +rigidity and became pliant. Angelico followed the traditions of his +Order to the letter, and he was not less scrupulous in his respect for +the observances of religious art which prevailed in his day. Not for +anything on earth would he have infringed them, for he regarded them as +a liturgical duty, a fixed rule of service. But as soon as profane +painters had emancipated the domain of painting, they gave us more +puzzling versions, more complicated meanings; and the symbolism of +colour, which is so simple in Angelico, became singularly +abstruse--supposing that they even were constantly faithful to it in +their works--and almost impossible to interpret. + +"For instance, to select an example: the Antwerp gallery possesses a +tryptich, by Roger van der Werden, known as 'The Sacraments.' In the +centre panel, devoted to the Eucharist, the Sacrifice of the Redeemer is +shown under two aspects, the bleeding form of the Crucifixion and the +mystic form of the pure oblation on the altar; behind the Cross, at the +foot of which we see the weeping Mary, Saint John and the Holy Women, a +priest is celebrating Mass and elevating the Host in the midst of a +cathedral which forms the background of the picture. + +"On the left-hand shutter, the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and +Penance are shown, in small detached scenes; and on the right-hand +shutter those of Ordination, Marriage and Extreme Unction. + +"This picture, a work of marvellous beauty, with the 'Descent from the +Cross' by Quentin Matsys, are the inestimable glory of the Belgium +gallery; but I will not linger over a full description of this work; I +will omit any reflection suggested by the supreme art of the painter, +and restrict myself to recording that part of the work which bears on +the symbolism of colour." + +"But are you sure that Roger van der Weyden intended to ascribe such +meanings to the colours?" + +"It is impossible to doubt it, for he has assigned a different hue to +each Sacrament, by introducing above the scenes he depicts, an angel +whose robe is in each instance different in accordance with the ceremony +set forth. His meaning therefore is beyond question; and these are the +colours he affects to the means of Grace consecrated by the Saviour: + +"To the Eucharist, green; to Baptism, white; to Confirmation, yellow; to +Penance, red; to Ordination, purple; to Marriage blue; to Extreme +Unction, a violet so deep as to be almost black. + +"Well, you will admit that the interpretation of this sacred scheme of +colour is not altogether easy. + +"The pictorial imagery of Baptism, Extreme Unction, and Ordination is +quite clear; Marriage even as symbolized by blue may be intelligible to +simple souls; that Communion should blazon its coat with _vert_, is even +more appropriate, since green represents sap and humility, and is +emblematical of the regenerative power. But ought not Confession to +display violet rather than red; and how, in any case, are we to account +for Confirmation being figured in yellow?" + +"The colour of the Holy Ghost is certainly red," remarked the Abbé +Plomb. + +"Thus there are differences of interpretation between Angelico and Roger +van der Weyden, though they lived at the same time. Still, the monk +seems to me the more trustworthy authority." + +"For my part," said the Abbé Gévresin, "I cannot but think of the right +side of the lining of which you were speaking just now." + +"This rule of contraries is not peculiar to the ritual of colour; it is +to be seen in almost every part of the science of symbolism. Look at +the emblems derived from the animal world; the eagle alternately +figuring Christ and the Devil; the snake which, while it is one of the +most familiar symbols of the Demon, may nevertheless, as in the brazen +serpent of Moses, prefigure the Saviour." + +"The anticipatory symbol of Christian symbolism was the double-faced +Janus of the heathen world," said the Abbé Plomb, laughing. + +"Indeed, these allegories of the palette turn completely to the +right-about," said Durtal. "Take red, for instance: we have seen that in +the general acceptation it is to be interpreted as meaning charity, +endurance, and love. This is the right side out; the wrong side, +according to Sister Emmerich, is dulness, and clinging to this world's +goods. + +"Grey, the emblem of repentance and sorrow, and at the same time the +image of a lukewarm soul, is also, according to another interpretation, +symbolical of the Resurrection--white, piercing through blackness--light +entering into the Tomb and coming out as a new hue--grey, a mixed colour +still heavy with the gloom of death, but reviving as it gets light by +degrees from the whiteness of day. + +"Green, to which the mystics gave favourable meanings, also acquires a +disastrous sense in some cases; it then represents moral degradation and +despair; it borrows melancholy significance from dead leaves, is the +colour given to the bodies of the devils in Stephan Lochner's Last +Judgment, and in the infernal scenes depicted in the glass windows and +pictures of the earliest artists. + +"Black and brown, with their inimical suggestions of death and hell, +change their meaning as soon as the founders of religious Orders adopt +them for the garb of the cloister. Black then symbolizes renunciation, +repentance, the mortification of the flesh, according to Durand de +Mende; and brown and even grey suggest poverty and humility. + +"Yellow again, so misprized in the formulas of symbolism, becomes +significant of charity; and if we accept the teaching of the English +monk who wrote in about 1220, yellow is enhanced when it changes to +gold, rising to be the symbol of divine Love, the radiant allegory of +eternal Wisdom. + +"Violet, finally, when it appears as the distinctive colour of +prelates, divests itself of its usual meaning of self-accusation and +mourning, to assume a certain dignity and simulate a certain pomp. + +"On the whole, I find only white and blue which never change." + +"In the Middle Ages, according to Yves de Chartres," said the Abbé +Plomb, "blue took the place of violet in the vestments of bishops, to +show them that they should give their minds rather to the things of +Heaven than to the things of earth." + +"And how is it," asked Madame Bavoil, "that this colour, which is all +innocence, all purity, the colour of Our Mother Herself, has disappeared +from among the liturgical hues?" + +"Blue was used in the Middle Ages for all the services to the Virgin, +and it has only fallen into desuetude since the eighteenth century," +replied the Abbé Plomb; "and that only in the Latin Church, for the +orthodox Churches of the East still wear it." + +"And why this neglect?" + +"I do not know, any more than I know why so many colours formerly used +in our services have been forgotten. Where are the colours of the +ancient Paris use: saffron yellow, reserved for the festival of All +Angels; salmon pink, sometimes worn instead of red; ashen grey, which +took the place of violet; and bistre instead of black on certain days. + +"Then there was a charming hue which still holds its place in the scale +of colour used in the Roman ritual, though most of the Churches overlook +it--the shade called 'old rose,' a medium between violet and crimson, +between grief and joy, a sort of compromise, a diminished tone, which +the Church adopted for the third Sunday in Advent and the fourth Sunday +in Lent. It thus gave promise, in the penitential season that was +ending, of a beginning of gladness, for the festivals of Christmas and +Easter were at hand. + +"It was the idea of the spiritual dawn rising on the night of the soul, +a special impression which violet, now used on those days, could not +give." + +"Yes, it is to be regretted that blue and rose-colour have disappeared +from the Churches of the West," said the Abbé Gévresin. "But to return +to the monastic dress which delivered brown, grey, and black from their +melancholy significance, does it not strike you that from the point of +view of emblematic language, that of the Order of the Annunciation was +the most eloquent? Those sisters were habited in grey, white, and red, +the colours of the Passion, and they also wore a blue cape and a black +veil in memory of Our Mother's mourning." + +"The image of a perpetual Holy Week!" exclaimed Durtal. + +"Here is another question," the Abbé Plomb went on. "In the earliest +religious pictures the cloaks in which the Virgin, the Apostles, and the +Saints are draped almost always show the hue of their lining in +ingeniously contrived folds. It is of course different from that of the +outer side, as you yourself observed just now with regard to the mantle +of Saint Agnes in Angelico's work. Now, do you suppose that, apart from +contrast of colour selected for technical purposes, the monk meant to +express any particular idea by the juxtaposition of the two colours?" + +"In accordance with the symbolism of the palette the outer colour would +represent the material creature, and the lining colour the spiritual +being." + +"Well, but then what is the significance of Saint Agnes' mantle of green +lined with orange?" + +"Obviously," replied Durtal, "green denoting freshness of feeling, the +essence of good, hope; and orange, in its better meaning, being regarded +as representing the act by which God unites Himself to man, we might +conclude from these data that Saint Agnes had attained the life of +union, the possession of the Saviour, by virtue of her innocence and the +fervour of her aspirations. She would thus be the image of virtue +yearning and fulfilled, of hope rewarded, in short. + +"But now I must confess that there are many gaps, many obscurities in +this allegorical lore of colours. In the picture in the Louvre, for +instance, the steps of the throne, which are intended to play the part +of veined marble, remain unintelligible. Splashed with dull red, acrid +green, and bilious yellow, what do these steps express, suggesting as +they do by their number the nine choirs of angels?" + +"It seems to me difficult to allow that the monk intended to figure the +celestial hierarchies by smears with a dirty brush and these crude +streaks." + +"But has the colour of a step ever represented an idea in the science of +symbolism?" asked the Abbé Gévresin. + +"Saint Mechtildis says so. When speaking of the three steps in front of +the altar, she propounds that the first should be of gold, to show that +it is impossible to go to God save by charity; the second blue, to +signify meditation on things divine; the third green, to show eager hope +and praise of Heavenly things." + +"Bless me!" cried Madame Bavoil, who was getting somewhat scared by this +discussion, "I never saw it in that light. I know that red means fire, +as everybody knows; blue, the air; green, water; and black, the earth. +And this I understand, because each element is shown in its true colour; +but I should never have dreamed that it was so complicated, never have +supposed that there was so much meaning in painters' pictures." + +"In some painters'!" cried Durtal. "For since the Middle Ages the +doctrine of emblematic colouring is extinct. At the present day those +painters who attempt religious subjects are ignorant of the first +elements of the symbolism of colours, just as modern architects are +ignorant of the first principles of mystical theology as embodied in +buildings." + +"Precious gems are lavishly introduced in the works of the primitive +painters," observed the Abbé Plomb. "They are set in the borders of +dresses, in the necklets and rings of the female saints, and are piled +in triangles of flame on the diadems with which painters of yore were +wont to crown the Virgin. Logically, I believe we ought to seek a +meaning in every gem as well as in the hues of the dresses." + +"No doubt," said Durtal, "but the symbolism of gems is much confused. +The reasons which led to the choice of certain stones to be the emblems, +by their colour, water, and brilliancy, of special virtues, are so +far-fetched and so little proven, that one gem might be substituted for +another without greatly modifying the interpretation of the allegory +they present. They form a series of synonyms, each replacing the other +with scarcely a shade of difference. + +"In the treasury of the Apocalypse, however, they seem to have been +selected, if not with stricter meaning, with a more impressive breadth +of application, for expositors regard them as coincident with a virtue, +and likewise with the person endowed with it. Nay, these jewellers of +the Bible have gone further; they have given every gem a double +symbolism, making each embody a figure from the Old Testament and one +from the New. They carry out the parallel of the two Books by selecting +in each case a Patriarch and an Apostle, symbolizing them by the +character more especially marked in both. + +"Thus, the amethyst, the mirror of humility and almost childlike +simplicity, is applied in the Bible to Zebulon, a man obedient and +devoid of pride, and in the Gospel to St. Matthias, who also was gentle +and guileless; the chalcedony, as an emblem of charity, was ascribed to +Joseph, who was so merciful and pitiful to his brethren, and to St. +James the Great, the first of the Apostles to suffer martyrdom for the +love of Christ; the jasper, emblematical of faith and eternity, was the +attribute of Gad and of St. Peter; the sard, meaning faith and +martyrdom, was given to Reuben and St. Bartholomew; the sapphire, for +hope and contemplation, to Naphtali and St. Andrew, and sometimes, +according to Aretas, to St. Paul; the beryl, meaning sound doctrine, +learning, and long-suffering, to Benjamin and to St. Thomas, and so +forth. There is, indeed, a table of the harmony of gems and their +application to patriarchs, apostles, and virtues, drawn up by Madame +Félicie d'Ayzac, who has written an elaborate paper on the figurative +meaning of gems." + +"The avatar of some other Scriptural personages might be equally well +carried out by these emblematical minerals," observed the Abbé Gévresin. + +"Obviously; and as I warned you, the analogies are very far-fetched. The +hermeneutics of gems are uncertain, and founded on mere fanciful +resemblances, on the harmonies of ideas hard to assimilate. In mediæval +times this science was principally cultivated by poets." + +"Against whom we must be on our guard," said the Abbé Plomb, "since +their interpretations are for the most part heathenish. Marbode, for +example, though he was a Bishop, has left us but a very pagan +interpretation of the language of gems." + +"These mystical lapidaries have on the whole chiefly applied, their +ingenuity to explaining the stones of the breastplate of Aaron, and +those that shine in the foundations of the New Jerusalem, as described +by St. John; indeed, the walls of Sion are set with the same jewels as +the High Priest's pectoral, with the exception of the carbuncle, the +ligure, agate, and onyx, which are named in Exodus, and replaced in the +Book of Revelation by chalcedony, sardonyx, chrysoprase, and jacinth." + +"Yes, and the symbolist goldsmiths wrought diadems, setting them with +precious stones, to crown Our Lady's brow; but their poems showed little +variety, for they were all borrowed from the _Libellus Corona Virginis_, +an apocryphal work ascribed to St. Ildefonso, and formerly famous in +convents." + +The Abbé Gévresin rose and took an old book from the shelf. + +"That brings to my mind," said he, "a hymn in honour of the Virgin +composed in rhyme by Conrad of Haimburg, a German monk in the fourteenth +century. Imagine," he continued, as he turned over the pages, "a litany +of gems, each verse symbolizing one of Our Mother's virtues. + +"This prayer in minerals opens with a human greeting. The good monk, +kneeling down, begins:-- + +"'Hail, noble Virgin, meet to become the Bride of the Supreme King! +Accept this ring in pledge of that betrothal, O Mary!' + +"And he shows Her the ring, turning it slowly in his fingers, explaining +to Our Lady the meaning of each stone that shines in the gold setting; +beginning with green jasper, symbolical of the faith which led the +Virgin to receive the message of the angelic visitant; then comes the +chalcedony, signifying the fire of charity that fills Her heart; the +emerald, whose transparency signifies Her purity; the sardonyx, with its +pale flame, like the placidity of Her virginal life; the red sard-stone, +one with the Heart that bled on Calvary; the chrysolite, sparkling with +greenish gold, reminding us of Her numberless miracles and Her Wisdom; +the beryl, figurative of Her humility; the topaz, of Her deep +meditations; the chrysoprase of Her fervency; the jacinth of Her +charity; the amethyst, mingling rose and purple, of the love bestowed on +Her by God and men; the pearl, of which the meaning remains vague, not +representing any special virtue; the agate, signifying Her modesty; the +onyx, showing the many perfections of Her grace; the diamond, for +patience and fortitude in sorrow; while the carbuncle, like an eye that +shines in the night, everywhere proclaims that Her glory is eternal. + +"Finally the donor points out to the Virgin the interpretation of +certain other matters set in the ring, which in the Middle Ages were +regarded as precious: crystal, emblematic of chastity of body and soul; +ligurite, resembling amber, more especially figurative of the quality of +temperance; lodestone, which attracts iron, as She touches the chords of +repentant hearts with the bow of her loving-kindness. + +"And the monk ends his petition by saying: 'This little ring, set with +gems, which we offer Thee as at this time, accept, glorious Bride, in +Thy benevolence. Amen.'" + +"It would no doubt be possible," said the Abbé Plomb, "to reproduce +almost exactly the invocations of these Litanies by each stone thus +interpreted." And he reopened the book his friend the priest had just +closed. + +"See," he went on, "how close is the concordance between the epithets in +the sentences and the quality assigned to the gems. + +"Does not the emerald, which in this sequence is emblematical of +incorruptible purity, reflect in the sparkling mirror of its water the +_Mater Purissima_ of the Litanies to the Virgin? Is not the chrysolite, +the symbol of wisdom, a very exact image of the _Sedes Sapientiae_? The +jacinth, attribute of charity and succour vouchsafed to sinners, is +appropriate to the _Auxilium Christianorum_ and the _refugium +peccatorum_ of the prayers. Is not the diamond, which means strength and +patience, the _Virgo potens_?--the carbuncle, meaning fame, the _Virgo +praedicanda_?--the chrysoprase, for fervour, the _Vas insigne +devotionis_? + +"And it is probable," said the Abbé, in conclusion, as he laid the book +down, "that if we took the trouble we could rediscover one by one, in +this rosary of stones, the whole rosary of praise which we tell in +honour of Our Mother." + +"Above all," remarked Durtal, "if we did not restrict ourselves to the +narrow limits of this poem, for Conrad's manual is brief, and his +dictionary of analogies small; if we accepted the interpretations of +other symbolists, we could produce a ring similar to his and yet quite +different, for the language of the gems would not be the same. Thus to +St. Bruno of Asti, the venerable Abbot of Monte Cassino, the jasper +symbolizes Our Lord, because it is immutably green, eternal without +possibility of change; and for the same reason the emerald is the image +of the life of the righteous; the chrysoprase means good works; the +diamond, infrangible souls; the sardonyx, which resembles the +blood-stained seed of a pomegranate, is charity; the jacinth, with its +varying blue, is the prudence of the saints; the beryl, whose hue is +that of water running in the sunshine, figures the Scriptures elucidated +by Christ; the chrysolite, attention and patience, because it has the +colour of the gold that mingles in it and lends it its meaning; the +amethyst, the choir of children and virgins, because the blue mixed in +it with rose pink suggests the idea of innocence and modesty. + +"Or, again, if we borrow from Pope Innocent III. his ideas as to the +mystical meanings of gems, we find that chalcedony, which is pale in the +light and sparkles in the dark, is synonymous with humility; the topaz +with chastity and the merit of good works, while the chrysoprase, the +queen of minerals, implies wisdom and watchfulness. + +"If we do not go quite so far back into past ages, but stop at the end +of the sixteenth century, we find some new interpretations in a +Commentary on the Book of Exodus by Corneille de la Pierre; for he +ascribes truth to the onyx and carbuncle, heroism to the beryl, and to +the ligure, with its delicate and sparkling violet hue, scorn of the +things of earth, and love of heavenly things." + +"And then St. Ambrose regards this stone as emblematical of Eucharist," +the Abbé Gévresin put in. + +"Yes; but what is the ligure or ligurite?" asked Durtal. "Conrad of +Haimburg speaks of it as resembling amber; Corneille de la Pierre +believes it to be violet-tinted, and St. Jerome gives us to understand +that it is not identifiable; in fact, that it is but another name for +the jacinth, the image of prudence, with its water of blue like the sky +and changing tints. How are we to make sure?" + +"As to blue stones, we must not forget that St. Mechtildis regarded the +sapphire as the very heart of the Virgin," observed the Abbé Plomb. + +"We may also add," Durtal went on, "that a new set of variations on the +subject of gems was executed in the seventeenth century by a celebrated +Spanish Abbess, Maria d'Agreda, who applies to Our Mother the virtues of +the precious stones spoken of by St. John in the twenty-first chapter of +the Apocalypse. According to her, the sapphire figures the serenity of +Mary; the chrysolite shows forth Her love for the Church Militant, and +especially for the Law of Grace; the amethyst, Her power against the +hordes of hell; the jasper, Her invincible fortitude; the pearl, Her +inestimable dignity--" + +"The pearl," interrupted the Abbé Plomb, "is regarded by St. Eucher as +emblematic of perfection, chastity, and the evangelical doctrine." + +"And all this time you are forgetting the meaning of other well-known +gems," cried Madame Bavoil. "The ruby, the garnet, the aqua-marine; are +they speechless?" + +"No," replied Durtal. "The ruby speaks of tranquility and patience; the +garnet, Innocent III. tells us, symbolizes charity. St. Bruno and St. +Rupert say that the aqua-marine concentrates in its pale green fire all +theological science. There yet remain two gems, the turquoise and the +opal. The former, little esteemed by the mystics, is to promote joy. As +to the second, of which the name does not occur in treatises on gems, it +may be identified with chalcedony, which is described as a sort of agate +of an opaque quality, dimmed with clouds and flashing fires in the +shadows. + +"To have done with this emblematical jewelry, we may add that the series +of stones serves to symbolize the hierarchies of the angels. But here, +again, the meanings commonly received are derived from more or less +forced comparisons and a tissue of notions more or less flimsy and +loose. However, it is so far established that the sard-stone suggests +the Seraphim, the topaz the Cherubim, the jasper means the Thrones, the +chrysolite figures the Dominions, the sapphire the Virtues, the onyx the +Powers, the beryl the Principalities, the ruby the Archangels, and the +emerald the Angels." + +"And it is a curious fact," said the Abbé Plomb, "that while beasts, +colours, and flowers are accepted by that symbolists sometimes with a +good meaning and sometimes with an evil one, gems alone never change; +they always express good qualities, and never vices." + +"Why is that?" + +"St. Hildegarde perhaps affords a clue to this stability when, in the +fourth book, of her treatise on Physics, she says that the Devil hates +them, abhors and scorns them, because he remembers that their splendour +shone in him before his fall, and that some of them are the product of +the fire that is his torment. + +"And the saint added, 'God, who deprived him of them, would not that the +stones should lose their virtues; He desired, on the contrary, that they +should ever be held in honour, and used in medicine to the end that +sickness should be cured and ills driven out.' And, in fact, in the +Middle Ages they were highly esteemed and used to effect cures." + +"To return to those early pictures," said the Abbé Gévresin, "in which +the Virgin emerges like a flower from amid the gorgeous assemblage of +gems, it may be said as a general thing, that the glow of jewels +declares by visible signs the merits of Her who wears them; but it would +be difficult to say what the painter's purpose may have been when, in +the decoration of a crown or a dress, he placed any particular stone in +one spot rather than another. It is, as a rule, a question of taste or +harmony, and has nothing, or very little, to do with symbolism." + +"Of that there can be no doubt," said Durtal, who rose and took leave, +as Madame Bavoil, hearing the cathedral clock strike, handed to the two +priests their hats and breviaries. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +The somewhat dolefully calm frame of mind in which Durtal had been +living since settling at Chartres came to a sudden end. One day _ennui_ +made him its prey, the black possession which would allow him neither to +work, nor to read, nor to pray; so overwhelming that he knew not whither +to turn nor what to do. + +After spending dark and futile days in lounging round his library, +taking down a volume and shutting it up again, opening another of which +he failed to master a single page, he tried to escape from the weariness +of the hours by taking walks, and he determined finally to study the +town of Chartres. + +He found a number of blind alleys and break-neck steeps, such as the +road down the knoll of St. Nicolas, which tumbles from the top of the +town to the bottom in a precipitous flight of steps; and then the +Boulevard des Filles-Dieu, so lonely with its walks planted with trees, +was worthy of his notice. Starting from the Place Drouaise, he came to a +little bridge where the waters meet of the two branches of the Eure; to +the right, above the eddying current and the buildings on the shore, he +could see the pile of the old town shouldering up the cathedral; to the +left, all along the quay, and looking out on the tall poplars that +fanned the water-mills, were saw-mills and timber-yards, the washing +places where laundresses knelt on straw in troughs, and the water foamed +before them in widening inky circles splashed into white bubbles by the +dip of a bird's wing. + +This arm of the river diverted into the moat of the old ramparts, +encircled Chartres, bordered on one side by the trees of the alleys, and +on the other by cottages with terraced gardens down to the level of the +stream, the two banks joined by foot-bridges of planks or cast iron +arches. + +Near where the Porte Guillaume uplifted its crenelated towers like +raised pies, there were houses that looked as if they had been gutted, +displaying, as in the vanished _cagnards_ or vaults of the Hotel Dieu at +Paris, cellars open on the level of the water, paved basements in whose +depths of prison twilight stone steps could be seen; and on going out +through the Porte Guillaume across a little humpbacked bridge, under the +archway still showing the groove in which the portcullis had worked +which was let down of yore to defend this side of the town, he came upon +yet another arm of the river washing the feet of more houses, playing at +hide and seek in the courts, musing between walls; and at once he was +haunted by the recollection of another river just like this, with its +decoction of walnut hulls frothed with bubbles; and to contribute to the +suggestion, the more clearly to evoke a vision of the dismal Bièvre, the +rank, acrid, pungent smell of tan, steeped, as it were, in vinegar, came +up in fumes from this broth of medlar juice brought down by the Eure. + +The Bièvre, a prisoner now in the sewers of Paris, seemed to have +escaped from its dungeon and to have taken refuge at Chartres that it +might live in the light of day; winding by the Rues de la Foulerie, de +la Tannerie, du Massacre, the quarters invaded by the leather-dressers, +the skinners and tan-peat makers. + +But the Parisian environment, so pathetic in its aspect of silent +suffering, was absent from this town; these streets suggested merely a +declining hamlet, a poverty-stricken village. He felt something lacking +in this second Bièvre, the fascination of exhaustion, the grace of the +woman of Paris faded and smirched by misery; it lacked the charm +compounded of pity and regret, of a fallen creature. + +Such as they were, however, these streets, traced with a sort of +descending twist round the hill on which the cathedral stood exalted, +were the only curious by-ways of Chartres worth wandering through. + +Here Durtal often succeeded in getting out of himself, in dreaming over +the distressful weariness of these streams, and in ceasing to meditate +on his own qualms, till he presently was tired of constant excursions in +the same quarter of the town, and then he tramped through it in every +direction, trying to find an interest in the sight of time-worn +spots--the grace of Queen Berthe's tower, of Claude Huvé's house and +other buildings that have survived the shock of ages; but the enthusiasm +he threw into the study of these relics, spoilt by the foregone +eulogiums of the guides, could not last, and he then fell back on the +churches. + +Although the cathedral crushed everything near it, Saint-Pierre, the +ancient Abbey church of a Benedictine monastery, now used as barracks, +deserved a lingering visit for the sake of its splendid windows, the +dwelling-place of Abbots and Bishops who look down with stern eyes, +holding up their croziers. And these windows, damaged by time, were very +singular. Upright, in each lancet-shaped setting of white glass, rose a +sword-blade bereft of its point; and in these square-tipped blades Saint +Benedict and Saint Maur stood lost in thought, with Apostles and Popes, +Prelates and Saints, standing out in robes of flame against the luminous +whiteness of the borders. + +Certainly Chartres could show the finest glass windows in the world; and +each century had left its noblest stamp on its sanctuaries: the twelfth, +thirteenth, and even the fifteenth, on the cathedral; the fourteenth on +Saint Pierre; and a few examples--unfortunately broken up and used in a +medley mosaic--of painted glass of the sixteenth century in Saint +Aignan, another church where the vaulted roof had been washed of the +colour of gingerbread speckled with anise-seed, by painters of our own +day. + +Durtal got through a few afternoons in these churches; then the charm of +this prolonged study was at an end, and gloom took possession of him, +even worse than before. + +The Abbé Plomb, to divert his mind, took him for walks in the country, +but La Beauce was so flat, so monotonous, that any variety of landscape +was impossible to find. Then the Abbé took him through other parts of +the town. Some of the buildings claimed their attention, as, for +instance, the House of Detention, in the Rue-Sainte-Thérèse near the +Palais de Justice. The edifices themselves were not, indeed, very +impressive, but the history of their origin made them available as the +fulcrum for old dreams. There was something in the prison walls, in +their height and austerity, in their look of order and precision, which +made the cloister wall of a Carmel look small. They had, in fact, of +old, sheltered a Sisterhood of that Order, and a few steps further on, +in a blind alley, was the entrance to the ancient convent of the +Jacobins, the Mother-House of the great Sisterhood of Chartres: the +Nursing Sisters of Saint Paul. + +The Abbé Plomb took him to visit this house, and he retained a cheerful +impression of the walk in the fresh air on the old ramparts. The Sisters +had kept up the sentry's walk, which followed a long and narrow avenue +with a statue of the Virgin at each end, one representing the Immaculate +Conception, the other the Virgin Mother. And this walk, strewn with +river-pebbles and edged with flowers, shut in on one side by the Abbey +and the novices' schools, on the left overlooked a precipice down to the +Butte des Charbonniers, and below that again, the Rue de la Couronne; +while beyond lay the grass lawns of the Clos Saint Jean, the line of the +railroad, labourers' hovels, and convent buildings. + +"There you see," said the Abbé, "behind the embankment of the Western +Railway stands the Convent of the Sisters of Our Lady and of the +Carmelites; here, nearer to the town on this side of the line, are the +Little Sisters of the Poor." + +And indeed the place swarmed with convents: Sisters of the Visitation, +Sisters of Providence, Sisters of Good Comfort, Ladies of the Sacred +Heart, all lived in hives close round Chartres. Prayer hummed up on +every side, rising as the fragrant breath of souls above a city where, +by way of divine service, nothing was chanted but the price-current of +grain and the higher and lower cost of horses in the fairs which, on +certain days, brought all the copers of La Perche together in the +_cafés_ on the Place. + +Besides this walk on the old ramparts, the Convent of the Sisters of +Saint Paul was attractive by reason of its quiet and cleanliness. Down +silent passages the backs of the good women might be seen crossed by the +triangular fold of linen, and the click could be heard of their heavy +black rosaries on links of copper, as they rattled on their skirts +against the hanging bunch of keys. Their chapel was redolent of Louis +XIV., at once childish and pompous, too much bedizened with gold, and +the floor too shiny with wax; but there was an interesting detail: at +the entrance large panes of glass had been substituted for the walls, so +that in winter the sick, sitting in a warm room, could look through the +glass partition and follow the services and hear the plain song of +Solesmes which the Sisters had the good taste to use. + +This visit revived Durtal's spirit; but he inevitably compared the +peaceful hours told out in that retreat with others, and his disgust was +increased for this town, and its inhabitants, and its avenues, and its +boasted Place des Epars, aping a little Versailles, with its surrounding +blatant mansions, and its ridiculous statue of Marceau in the middle. + +And then the limpness of the place, hardly awake by sunrise and asleep +again by dusk! + +Once only did Durtal see it really awake, and that was on the day when +Monseigneur Le Tilloy des Mofflaines was enthroned as Bishop. + +Then suddenly the city was galvanized; projects were made, the various +bodies corporate sat in committee, and men came forth who had lived +within doors for years. + +Scaffold poles were brought out from the masons' yards; blue and yellow +flags were hoisted on them, and these masts were linked together by +garlands of ivy-leaves sewn one over the other with white cotton. + +Then Chartres was exhausted, and paused for breath. + +Durtal, startled by these unexpected preparations and such an assumption +of life, had gone out to meet the Bishop, as far as to the Rue Saint +Michel. There, on the open square, a gymnastic apparatus had been +erected, the swing bars and rings having been removed, and the poles +garnished with pine branches and gilt paper rosettes, and surmounted by +a trophy of tricolour flags arranged in a fan behind a painted cardboard +shield. This was an arch of triumph, and under this the Brethren of the +Christian Schools were to escort the canopy. + +The procession, which had gone forth to fetch the Bishop from the +Hospice of Saint Brice, where, in obedience to time-honoured custom, he +had slept the night before entering his See, had made its way thither +under a fine rain of chanted canticles, broken by heavier showers of +brass sounding a pious flourish of trumpets. Slowly, with measured +steps, the train wound along between two hedges of people crowded on the +sidewalks, and all the way the windows, hung with drapery, displayed +bunches of faces and leaning bodies, cut across the middle by the +balcony bar. + +At the head of the procession, behind the gaudy uniforms of the +ponderous beadles, came the girls of the Congregational Schools, dressed +in crude blue with white veils, in two ranks, filling up the roadway; +then followed delegates of nuns from every Order that has a House in the +diocese; Sisters of the Visitation from Dreux, Ladies of the Sacred +Heart from Châteaudun, Sisters of the Immaculate Conception from Nogent +le Rotrou, the uncloistered Sisters of the Cloistered Orders of +Chartres, Sisters of St. Vincent de Paul and Poor Clares, whose dresses +of blueish grey and peat-brown contrasted with the black robes of the +others. + +What was most odd was the various shapes of their coifs. Some had soft +flapping blinkers, others wore them goffered and stiffened with starch; +these hid their face at the bottom of a deep white tunnel; others, on +the contrary, showed their countenance set in an oval frame of pleated +cambric, prolonged behind into conical wings of starched linen lustrous +from heavy irons. As he looked over this expanse of caps, Durtal was +reminded of the Paris landscape of roofs, in shapes resembling the +funnels worn by these nuns and the cocked hats of the beadles. + +Then, behind these long files of sober-coloured garments, the scarlet +vestments of the choirs came like the blare of trumpets. The little ones +marched with downcast eyes, their arms crossed under their red capes +edged with ermine, and behind them, a little in advance of the next +group, walked two white cowls, that of a Brother of Picpus, and that of +a Trappist who represented the Trappist Sisterhood of La Cour Peytral, +to which he was chaplain. + +Finally the Seminarists came on in a black crowd; those of the Great +Seminary of Chartres and of the Little Seminary of Saint Chéron +preceding the priests, and behind them, under a purple velvet canopy +embroidered in gold with wheat ears and grapes, and decorated at each +corner with bunches of snow-white feathers, with his mitre on his head +and holding his crozier, came Monseigneur Le Tilloy des Mofflaines. + +As he passed, in the act of blessing the street, many an unknown Lazarus +rose up, the forgotten dead come back to life; His Reverence seemed to +multiply the Miracles of the Lord. Effete old men, huddled in their +chairs in the doorways or at the windows, revived for a second, and +found strength enough to cross themselves. Persons who had been +supposed dead for years managed almost to smile. The vacant eyes of old, +old children gazed at the violet cross outlined in the air by the +Prelate's gloved hand. Chartres, that city of the dead, had changed to a +vast nursery; in the extravagance of its joy the town was in its second +childhood. + +But as soon as the Bishop was past the scene changed. Durtal was +startled, and he tittered. + +A whole "Court of Miracles" seemed to follow in the Prelate's train, +strutting but tottering; a procession of old wrecks, dressed out in such +garments as are sold from the dead-house, staggered along holding each +other's arms, propped one against another. Every reach-me-down that had +been hanging these twenty years flapped about their limbs, hindering +their progress. Trousers with baggy ankles or with gaiter tops, +balloon-shaped or close-fitting, made of loose-woven stuff or so shrunk +that they would not meet the boot, displaying feet where the elastic +sides wriggled like living vermin, and ankles covered with vermicelli +dipped in ink; then the most impossibly threadbare and discoloured +coats, made, as it seemed, of old billiard cloths, of tarpaulin worn to +the canvas, of cast-off awnings; overcoats of cast iron, the surface +worn off the back-seam and sleeves--glaucous waistcoats, sprigged with +flowers and furnished with buttons of dry brawn-parings; and all this +was as nothing; what was prodigious, beyond the bounds of belief, +fabulous, positively insane, was the collection of hats that crowned +these costumes. + +The specimens of extinct headgear, lost in the night of ages, that were +collected here! The veterans wore muff-boxes and gas-pipes; some had +tall white hats, for all the world like toilet-pails turned upside +down, or huge spigots with a hole for the head; others had donned felt +hats like sponges, shaggy, long-haired Bolivars, melons on flat brims +just like a tart on a dish; others, again, had crush-hats, which swayed +and played the accordion on their own account, their ribs showing +through the stuff. + +The craziness of the gibus hats beats description. Some were very tall, +the shaft crowned with a platform larger than the head, like the shako +of an Imperial Lancer; others very low, ending in an inverted cone--the +mouth of a blunderbuss or a Polish schapska. + +And under this Sanhedrim of drunken hats were the mopping, wrinkled +faces of very old men, with whiskers like white rabbits' paws, and +bristles like tooth-brushes in their nostrils. + +Durtal shook with inextinguishable laughter at this carnival of +antiquities; but his mirth was soon over; he saw two Little Sisters of +the Poor who were in charge of this school of fossils, and he +understood. These poor creatures were dressed in clothes that had been +begged, the rummage of wardrobes, for which the owners had no further +use. Then the queerness of their outfit was pathetic; the Little Sisters +must have been at infinite trouble to utilize these leavings of charity; +and the old children, recking little of fashion, plumed themselves with +pride at being so fine. + +Durtal followed to the cathedral. When he reached the little square, the +procession, caught by a gale of wind, was struggling and clinging to the +banners, which bellied like the sails of a ship, carrying on the men who +clutched the poles. At last, more or less easily, all the people were +swallowed up in the basilica. The _Te Deum_ was pouring out in a torrent +from the organ. At this moment it really seemed as though, under the +impulsion of this glorious hymn, the church, springing heavenward in a +rapturous flight, were rising higher and higher; the echo resounded down +the ages, repeating the hymn of triumph which had so often been sung +under that roof; and for once the music was in harmony with the +building, and spoke the language which the cathedral had learnt in its +infancy. + +Durtal was exultant. It seemed to him that Our Lady smiled down from +those glowing windows, that She was touched by these accents, created by +the saints she had loved, to embody for ever, in a definite melody, and +in unique words, the scattered praise of the faithful, the unformulated +rejoicing of the multitude. + +Suddenly his exalted mood was sobered. The _Te Deum_ was ended; a roll +of drums and a clarion flourish rang out from the transept. And while +the brass band of Chartres cannonaded the old walls with the balista of +mere noise, he fled to breathe away from the crowd, which, however, did +not nearly fill the church; and then, after the ceremony, he went to see +the parade of representatives of the various institutions in the town, +who came to pay their respects to the new Bishop in his palace. + +There he could laugh and not be ashamed. The forecourt was packed full +of priests. All the superiors of the different Archdeaconries--Chartres, +Châteaudun, Nogent le Rotrou, and Dreux--had left there, within the +great gate, their following of parish priests and curés, who were pacing +round and round the green circus of a grass plot. + +The big-wigs of the town, not at all less ridiculous than the pensioners +of the Little Sisters of the Poor, crowded in, driving the ecclesiastics +into the garden walks. Teratology seemed to have emptied out its +specimen bottles; it was a seething swarm of human larvæ, of strange +heads--bullet-shaped, egg-shaped, faces as seen through a bottle or in a +distorting mirror, or escaped from one of Redon's grotesque albums; a +perfect museum of monsters on the move. The stagnation of monotonous +toil, handed down for generations from father to son in a city of the +dead, was stamped on every face, and the Sunday-best festivity of the +day added a touch of the absurd to hereditary ugliness. + +Every black coat in Chartres had come out to take the air. Some dated +from the days of the Directory, swallowed up the wearer's neck, climbed +up high behind the nape, muffled the ears and padded the shoulders; +others had shrunk by lying in the drawer, and their sleeves, much too +short, cut the wearer round the armholes so that he dared not move. + +A miasma of benzine and camphor exhaled from these groups. The clothes, +only that morning taken out of pickle to be aired by the good wife, were +pestilential. The stove-pipe hats were to match. Left to themselves on +wardrobe shelves, they had surely grown taller; they towered immense, +displaying on their mill-board column a thin covering of hairs. + +This assembly of worthies admired and congratulated each other; clasped +hands encased in white gloves--gloves scoured with paraffin, cleaned +with indiarubber or breadcrumb. Presently a retiring wave cleared a +space in the crowd of priests and laymen, who shrank back hat in hand to +make way for an old hearse of a landau, drawn by a consumptive horse and +driven by a sort of Moudjik, a coachman with a puffy face behind a +thicket of hair sprouting on his cheeks and his mouth, in his ears and +nose. This vehicle came to an anchor before the front steps, and out of +it stepped a fat man, blown out like a bladder and buttoned up in an +uniform with silver lace; after him came a thinner personage in a coat +with facings of dark and light blue, and everybody bowed to the Préfet +attended by one of his three Councillors. + +They had lifted their plumed cocked hats, distributed a dole of +hand-shaking, and vanished into the vestibule when the army made its +appearance, represented by a Colonel of Cuirassiers, some officers of +the Artillery and the Commissariat, a few subalterns of Infantry, and +one gendarme. + +This was all. + +Within an hour of this reception the exhausted town was asleep again, +not having energy enough even to remove the poles; Lazarus had gone back +to his sepulchre, the resuscitated antiquities had relapsed into death; +the streets were empty; reaction had ensued; Chartres would be exhausted +for months by this outbreak. + +"What a sty it is! What a hole!" cried Durtal to himself. + +On certain days, tired of spending his afternoons shut up with his books +or of attending service in the cathedral, hearing the canons languidly +playing rackets from side to side of the choir with the Psalms, of which +they tossed the verses to and fro in a mumbling tone, he would go down +after dinner and smoke cigarettes in the little Place. At Chartres, +eight o'clock in the evening was as three in the morning in any other +town; every light was out, every house closed. + +The priesthood, eager for bed, had shut up shop. No prayers to the +Virgin, no Benediction, nothing in this cathedral! At such an hour, +kneeling in the dark, you feel as if the Mother were more immediately +present, nearer, more intimately your own; but these moments of +confidence, when it is easier to tell Her all your trivial woes, were +unknown at Notre Dame. No one was worn out by midnight prayer in that +church! + +But though he could not go in, Durtal could prowl round and about it. +And then, scarcely seen by the light of the poverty-stricken lamps +standing here and there on the square, the cathedral assumed strange +aspects. The portals yawned as caverns full of blackness, and the outer +shape of the body of the building, from the towers to the apse, with +its abutments and buttresses merely guessed at in the dark, stood up +like a cliff worn away by invisible waves. It might have been a +mountain, its summit jagged by storms, eaten into deep caverns at the +foot by a vanished ocean; and on going nearer he could in the gloom +imagine ill-defined paths steeply running up the cliff, or winding on +shelves at the edge of a rock; and, occasionally, midway on one of these +dark paths, some white statue of a Bishop would start forth under a +moonbeam, like a ghost haunting the ruins, and blessing all comers with +uplifted fingers of stone. + +These wanderings in the precincts of the cathedral, which by daylight +was so light and slender, and in the dark seemed so ponderous and +threatening, were ill-adapted to cure Durtal of his melancholy. + +This illusion of rocks riven by the lightning, of caverns deserted by +the waves, plunged him into fresh reveries, and at last threw him back +on himself, ending, after many divagations of mind, in the contemplation +of the ruin within him. Then once more he sounded his soul, and tried to +reduce his thoughts to some sort of order. + +"I am simply bored to death," said he to himself, "and why?" And by dint +of analyzing his condition he came to this conclusion: "My state of +boredom is not simple but two-fold; or, if it is indeed all of a piece, +it may be divided into two very distinct phases: I am bored by myself, +independently of place, of home, of books; and I am also bored by +provincial life--the special form of boredom inherent in Chartres. + +"Bored by myself--ah, yes, most heartily! How tired I am of watching +myself, of trying to detect the secret of my disgust and +contentiousness. When I contemplate my life I could sum it up thus: the +past has been horrible; the present seems to me feeble and desolate; the +future--is appalling." + +He paused, and then went on,-- + +"During my first days here I was happy in the dream suggested by this +cathedral. I believed it would re-act on my life, that it would people +the solitude I felt within me, that it would, in a word, be a help to me +in this provincial atmosphere. But I beguiled myself. In fact, it still +weighs on me, it still holds me wrapped in the mild gloom of its crypt; +but I can now reason about it, I can scrutinize its details, I try to +talk to it of art, and in these inquiries I have lost the unreasoning +sense of its environment, the silent fascination of the whole. + +"I am less conscious now of its soul than of its body. I tried to study +archæology, that contemptible anatomy of building, and I have fallen +humanly in love with its beauty; the spiritual aspect has vanished, to +leave nothing behind but the earthly part. Alas! I was determined to +see, and I have wrecked trust; it is the eternal allegory of Psyche over +again! + +"And besides--besides--is not the weariness that is crushing me to some +extent the fault of the Abbé Gévresin? By compelling me to much +repetition he has exhausted in me the soothing and, at the same time, +subversive virtue of the Sacrament; and the most evident result of this +treatment is that my soul has collapsed and has no spirit to +reinvigorate it. + +"No, no," he went on presently. "Here I am working back on my perennial +presumption, my incessant round of cares; and once more I am unjust to +the Abbé. But it is certainly no fault of his if frequent Communion +makes me cold. I look for sensations; but the very first thing should be +to convince myself that such cravings are contemptible, and next, to +understand clearly that it is precisely because Communion is so frigid +that it is the more meritorious and virtuous, yes, that is very easy to +say; but where is the Catholic who prefers such coldness to a glow? The +saints may, no doubt; but even they suffer under it! It is so natural to +entreat God for a little joy, to look forward to an Union consummated by +a loving word, a sign--a mere nothing that may show that He is present. + +"Say what they may, we cannot help being pained by a dead absorption of +that living bread! And it is very hard to admit that Our Lord is wise +when He keeps us in ignorance of the ills from which it preserves us and +the progress it enables us to make, since, but for that, we might be +defenceless against the attacks of self-conceit and the assaults of +vanity--helpless against ourselves. + +"In short, whatever the reason, I am no better off at Chartres than in +Paris," was his conclusion. And when these reflections beset him, +especially on Sundays, he regretted having accompanied the Abbé Gévresin +into the country. + +In Paris, in old days, he at any rate got through the hours at the +services. He could attend Mass in the morning at the Benedictine chapel +or at Saint Séverin, and go to Saint Sulpice for vespers or compline. + +Here there was nothing; and yet where were there more promising +conditions for the performance of Gregorian music than at Chartres? + +Setting aside a few antiquated basses who could only bark, and whom it +would be necessary to dismiss, there was a whole sheaf of rich young +voices, a school of nearly a hundred boys who could have rolled out in +clear, sweet tones the broad melodies of the old plain-song. + +But in this ill-starred cathedral an inept precentor gave out, by way of +liturgical canticles, a perfect menagerie of outlandish tunes, which, +let loose on Sunday, seemed to scamper like marmosets up the pillars and +under the roof. And the artless voices of the choir-boys were drilled to +these musical monkey-tricks. At Chartres it was impossible to attend +High Mass in the cathedral with any decent devotion. + +The other services were not much better; indeed, Durtal was reduced to +attending vespers at Notre Dame de la Brèche, in the lower town, a +chapel where the priest, a friend of the Abbé Plomb, had introduced the +use of Solesmes, and patiently trained a little choir composed of +faithful working-men and pious boys. + +The voices, especially the trebles, were not first-rate; but the priest, +being a skilled musician, had contrived to train and soften them, and +had, in fact, succeeded in getting the Benedictine art accepted in his +church. + +Unfortunately it was so ugly, so painfully adorned with images, that +only by shutting his eyes could Durtal endure to remain in Notre Dame de +la Brèche. + +In the midst of this surge of reflections on his soul, on Paris, on the +Eucharist, on music, on Chartres, Durtal was at last quite bewildered, +not knowing where he was. Now and then, however, he recovered some +tranquillity, and then he was astonished at himself, he could not +understand himself. + +"Why regret Paris--why, indeed?" he would ask himself. "Was the life I +led there unlike that I lead here? Were not the churches there--Notre +Dame de Paris, to name but one--just as much to be execrated for +sacrilegious _bravuras_ as Notre Dame de Chartres? On the other hand, I +never went out there to lounge in the tiresome streets; I saw nobody but +the Abbé Gévresin and Madame Bavoil, and I see them still, and oftener, +in this town. I have even gained a friend by the move, a learned and +agreeable companion, in the Abbé Plomb. So why?" + +And then one morning, unexpectedly, every thing was plain to him. He saw +quite clearly that he was on the wrong track, and without even seeking +for it he found the right one. + +To discover the unknown source of his flaccid longing for he knew not +what, and his inexplicable dissatisfaction, he had only to look back a +little way and pause at La Trappe. He saw now everything had begun +there. Having reached that culminating point of his retrospect, he +could, as it were, stand on a height and command a view of the declining +years since he had left the monastery; and now, gazing at that +descending panorama of his life, he discerned this:-- + +That from the time of his return to Paris a craving for the cloister had +been incessantly permeating his being; he had unremittingly cherished +the dream of retiring from the world, of living peacefully as a recluse +near to God. + +He had, to be sure, only thought of it definitely in the form of +impossible longings and regrets, for he knew full well that neither was +his body strong enough nor his soul staunch enough for him to bury +himself as a Trappist. Still, once started from that spring-board, his +imagination flew off at a tangent, overleaped every obstacle, floated in +discursive reveries where he saw himself as a Friar in some easy-going +convent under the rule of a merciful Order, devoted to liturgies and +adoring art. + +He could but shrug his shoulders, indeed, when he came back to himself, +and smile at these dreams of the future which he indulged in hours of +vacuous idleness; but this self-contempt of a man who catches himself in +the very act of flagrant nonsense was nevertheless succeeded by the hope +of not losing all the advantages of an honest delusion; and he could +remount on a chimera which he thought less wild, as leading to a _via +media_, a compromise, fancying that by moderating his ideal he should +find it more attainable. + +He assured himself that, in default of a really conventual life, he +might perhaps achieve an illusory imitation of it by avoiding the +turmoil of Paris and burying himself in a hole. And he now saw that he +had completely cheated himself when, on discussing the question as to +whether he should leave Paris and go to settle at Chartres, he had +believed that he was yielding to the Abbé Gévresin's arguments and +Madame Bavoil's urgency. + +Certainly, without admitting it, without accounting for it, he had +really acted on the prompting of this cherished dream. Would not +Chartres be a sort of monastic haven, of open cloister, where he could +enjoy his liberty and not have to give up his comforts? Would it not, at +any rate, for lack of an unattainable hermitage, be a sop thrown to his +desires; and supposing he could succeed in reducing his too exorbitant +demands, give him the final repose and peace for which he had yearned +ever since his return from La Trappe? + +And nothing of all this had been realized. The unsettled feeling he had +experienced in Paris had pursued him to Chartres. He was, as it were, on +the march, or perched on a bough; he could not feel at home, but as a +man lingering on in furnished rooms, whence he must presently depart. + +In short, he had deluded himself when he had fancied that a man might +make a cell of a solitary room in silent surroundings; the religious +jog-trot in a provincial atmosphere had no resemblance to the life of a +monastery. There was no illusion or suggestion of the convent. + +This check, when he recognized it, added to the ardour or his regrets; +and the distress which in Paris had lurked latent and ill-defined, +developed at Chartres clear and unmistakable. + +Then began an unremitting struggle with himself. + +The Abbé Gévresin, whom he consulted, would only smile and treat him as +in a novices' school or a seminary a youthful postulant is treated who +confesses to deep melancholy and persistent weariness. His malady is not +taken seriously; he is told that all his companions suffer the same +temptations, the same qualms; he is sent away comforted, while his +superiors seem to be laughing at him. + +But at the end of a little time this method no longer succeeded. Then +the Abbé was firm with Durtal, and one day, when his penitent was +bemoaning himself, he replied,-- + +"It is an attack you must get over," and then he added lightly after a +silence, "And it will not be the last or the worst." + +At this Durtal turned restive; the Abbé, however, drove him to bay, +wanting to make him confess how senseless his struggles were. + +"The idea of the cloister haunts you," said he. "Well, then, what is +there to hinder you? Why do you not retire to a Trappist convent?" + +"You know very well that I am not strong enough to endure the rule." + +"Then become an oblate; go to join Monsieur Bruno at Notre Dame de +l'Atre." + +"No, indeed, not that, at any rate. To be an oblate at La Trappe is the +same thing as remaining at Chartres! It is a mere half-measure. Monsieur +Bruno will always remain a boarder; he will never be a monk. He gets all +the disadvantages of the cloister, and none of the benefits." + +"But there are other monasteries besides those of La Trappe," replied +the Abbé. "Be a Benedictine Father or oblate, a black Friar. Their rule +seems to be mild; you will live in a world of learned men and writers; +what more would you have?" + +"I do not say--but--" + +"But what?" + +"I know nothing of them--" + +"Nothing can be easier than to get to know them. The Abbé Plomb is a +welcome friend at Solesmes. He can give all the introductions you can +wish to that convent." + +"Good; that is worth thinking about. I will consult the Abbé," said +Durtal, rising to take leave of the old priest. + +"The Black Dog is troubling you, our friend," observed Madame Bavoil, +who had overheard the two men's conversation from the next room, the +door between being open; and she came in, her breviary in her hand. + +"Ah, ha!" she went on, looking at him over her spectacles, "do you +suppose that by moving your soul from place to place you can change it? +Your trouble is neither in the air nor outside you, but within you. On +my word, to hear you talk, one might fancy that by travelling from one +spot to another every discord could be avoided, that a man could escape +from himself! Nothing can be more false. Ask the Father--" + +And when Durtal, smiling awkwardly, was gone, Madame Bavoil questioned +her master. + +"What is really the matter with him?" + +"He is being broken by the ordeal of dryness," replied the priest. "He +is enduring a painful but not dangerous operation. So long as he +preserves a love of prayer, and neglects none of his religious +exercises, all will be well. That is the touchstone which enables us to +discern whether such an attack is sent from Heaven." + +"But, Father, he must at any rate be comforted." + +"I can do nothing but pray for him." + +"Another question: our friend is possessed by the notion of a monastic +life; perhaps you ought to send him to a convent." + +The Abbé gave an evasive shrug. + +"Dryness of spirit and the dreams to which it gives rise are not the +sign of a vocation," said he. "I might even say that they have a greater +chance of thriving than of diminishing in the cloister. From that point +of view conventual life might be bad for him. Still, that is not the +only question to be considered--there is something else--and besides, +who knows?" He was silent, and presently added: "Much may be possible. +Give me my hat, Madame Bavoil. I will go and talk over Durtal with the +Abbé Plomb." + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + +This discussion had been of use to Durtal; it took him out of the +generalities over which he had persistently mused since his arrival at +Chartres. The Abbé had, in fact, shown him his bearings, and pointed out +a navigable channel leading to a definite end, a haven familiar to all. +The monastery which had lingered in Durtal's fancy as a mere confused +picture, apart from time, without place or date, deriving nothing from +his memories of La Trappe but the sense of discipline, and on to which +he had at once engrafted the fancy of an abbey of a more literary and +artistic stamp, governed by a conciliatory rule, in a milder +atmosphere--that ideal retreat, half borrowed from reality and half the +fabric of a dream--was taking shape. By speaking of an Order that +existed, mentioning it by name and actually specifying a House under its +rule, the Abbé had given Durtal substantial food instead of the +argumentative wordiness of a mania; he had afforded him something better +to chew than the empty air on which he had fed so long. + +The state of uncertainty and indecision he had been living in was at +end; his choice now lay between remaining at Chartres or retiring to +Solesmes; and at once, without delay, he set to work to read and +reconsider the works of Saint Benedict. + +This rule, summed up more particularly in a series of paternal +injunctions and affectionate advice, was a marvel of gentleness and +tactfulness. Every craving of the soul was described, every misery of +the body foreseen. It knew so precisely how to ask much and yet not to +exact too much, that it had yielded without breaking, satisfied the +movements of different ages, and remained, in the nineteenth century +what it had been in mediæval times. + +Then how merciful, how wise it was when addressing itself to the feeble +and infirm. "The sick shall be served as though they were Christ in +person," says Saint Benedict; and his anxiety for his sons, his urgent +recommendations to the Superiors to love and visit the younger brethren, +to neglect nothing that may assuage their ills, reveals a maternal care +that is truly touching on the patriarch's part. + +"Yes, yes," muttered Durtal, "but there are in this rule other articles +which seem less acceptable to miscreants of my stamp. This, for +instance: 'No man shall dare to give or to receive anything without the +Abbot's permission, or to have or hold anything as his own--absolutely +nothing, neither book, nor tablets, nor pointer--in a word, nothing +whatever, inasmuch as they are not allowed to call even their body or +their will their own.' + +"This is a terrible sentence of abnegation and obedience," he sighed, +"only, is this law, which is binding on the Fathers and the Serving +Brothers, equally strict for the Oblates, the ægrotant members of the +Benedictine army, who are not mentioned in the text? This remains to be +seen. It will be well too to ascertain how far it is applied, for the +rule is on the whole so skilful, so elastic, so broad that it can be +made at option very austere or very mild. + +"With the Trappists the ordinances are so closely drawn that they are +stifling; with the Benedictines, on the contrary, they would be light +and airy enough to allow the soul to breathe easily. One Fraternity +clings scrupulously to the letter; the other, on the contrary, draws +inspiration from the Spirit of the Saint. + +"Before goading myself along this road I must consult the Abbé Plomb," +was Durtal's conclusion. He went to call on the priest; but he was +absent for some days. + +As a precaution against indolence, a measure of spiritual discipline, he +threw himself on the cathedral once more, and tried, now that he was +less overpowered by speculation, to read its meaning. + +The stone text which he was bent on understanding was puzzling, if not +difficult to decipher, in consequence of the interpolated passages, +repetitions, and parts eliminated or abridged; in fact, to say the +truth, as the result of a certain incoherence, accounted for no doubt by +the circumstance that the work had been carried on, altered or extended +by successive artists during a lapse of two hundred years. + +The image-makers of the thirteenth century had not always taken into +account the ideas expressed by their precursors; they had repeated them, +expressing them from their own point of view in their personal tongue; +thus, for instance, they had introduced a second version of the signs of +the seasons and of the zodiac. The sculptors of the twelfth century had +made a calendar in stone on the western front; those of the thirteenth +did the same in the right-hand doorway of the north porch, justifying +this reduplication of the subject on the same church by the fact that +the zodiac and the seasons may in symbolism have several +interpretations. + +According to Tertullian the death and new birth of the circling years +afforded an image of the Resurrection at the end of the world. According +to others the Sun, surrounded by the twelve Signs, was emblematic of the +Sun of Justice surrounded by his twelve Apostles. The Abbé Bulteau sees +in these stony calendars a rendering of the passage in which St. Paul +declares to the Hebrews that "Jesus is the same yesterday, to-day, and +for ever," while the Abbé Clerval gives this simple interpretation: that +all times belong to Christ, and are bound to glorify Him. + +"But this is a mere detail," said Durtal to himself. "In the whole +structure of the cathedral itself we can trace two-fold purposes. + +"The architectural mass of Notre Dame de Chartres as a whole may be +divided, externally, into three great parts, as indicated by the three +grand porches. The western or royal portal, which is the ceremonial +entrance to the sanctuary, between the two towers; the north porch on +the side next the bishop's palace, beyond the new spire; the south +porch, flanked by the old spire. + +"Now, the subjects represented on the royal front and in the south porch +are identical. Each glorifies the Triumph of the Incarnate Word, with +this difference: that on the south porch Our Lord is not exalted alone +as He is on the west front, but in the person also of the Elect and of +His Saints. If to these two subjects, which may be considered as +one--the Saviour glorified in Himself and in His Saints--we add the +praises of the Virgin set forth in the north front we find this result: +a poem in praise of the Mother and the Son as declaring the final cause +of the Church itself. + +"By studying the variations between the south and west fronts we +perceive that, though in both Jesus is shown in the same act of blessing +the earth, and though both are almost exclusively restricted to +illustrating the Gospel, leaving the scenes of the Old Testament to the +arches on the north, they differ greatly from each other, and are no +less unlike the portals of all other cathedrals. + +"In total disagreement with the mystic rituals observed almost +everywhere else--at Notre Dame de Paris, at Bourges, at Amiens, to name +but three churches--the Last Judgment, which is seen on the main +entrance of those basilicas, is at Chartres relegated to the south +porch. + +"And in the same way the Tree of Jesse, which at Amiens and Reims and +the cathedral at Rouen, is displayed on the royal porch, is at Chartres +on the north side of the building; and many more similar changes might +be noted," said Durtal to himself. "But, which is yet more strange, the +parallel so commonly to be observed between the subjects treated on the +inner and outer surface of the same wall, in sculptured stone without +and painted glass within, does not constantly exist at Chartres. This, +for instance, is the case with regard to the genealogical Tree of +Christ, which is seen inside in glass on the upper wall of the west +front, and is carved outside on the north porch. At the same time, when +the subjects do not entirely coincide on the front and back of the page, +they are often complementary, or carry out the same idea. Thus the Last +Judgment, which is not to be found on the outside of the north front, +blazes out, within, from the great rose window above on the same side. +This, then, is not cumulative but appropriate development--history begun +in one dialect and finished in another. + +"In short, it is the ruling idea of the poem which governs all these +differences and harmonies; which comes out like a refrain after each of +these three strophes in stone; the idea that this church belongs to Our +Mother. The cathedral is faithful to its name, loyal to its dedication. +The Virgin is Lady over all. She fills the whole interior, and appears +outside even on the western and southern portals, which are not +especially Hers, above a door, on a capital, high in air on a pediment. +The angelic salutation of art has been repeated without intermission by +the painters and sculptors of every age. The cathedral of Chartres is +truly the Virgin's fief. + +"And on the whole," thought Durtal, "in spite of the discrepancies in +some of its texts, the cathedral is legible. + +"It contains a rendering of the Old and New Testaments; it also engrafts +on the sacred Scriptures the Apocryphal traditions relating to the +Virgin and St. Joseph, the lives of the saints preserved in the Golden +Legend of Jacopo da Voragine and the special biographies of the aspiring +recluses of the diocese of Chartres. It is a vast encyclopædia of +mediæval learning as concerning God, the Virgin, and the Elect. + +"Didron is almost justified in saying that it is a compendium of those +great encyclopædias composed in the thirteenth century; only the theory +that he bases on this truthful observation wanders off and becomes +faulty as soon as he tries to work it out. + +"He concludes, in fact, by conceiving of this cathedral as no more than +a rendering of the _Speculum Universale_, the _Mirror of the World_ of +Vincent of Beauvais; above all, like that work, as an epitome of +practical life and a record of the human race throughout the ages. In +point of fact," said Durtal to himself, as he took the _Christian +Iconography_ of that writer down from the shelf, "in point of fact, +according to him, our stone pages ought to follow in such succession +that, beginning with the opening chapter on the north, they would end +with the paragraphs on the south. Then we should find the narrative in +the following order: First of all the genesis, the Biblical cosmogony, +the creation of man and woman and Eden; and then, after the expulsion of +the first pair, the tale of man's redemption by suffering. + +"'Whereby,' says he, 'the sculptor took occasion to teach the hinds of +La Beauce how to work with their hands and their head. Here, to the +right of Adam's Fall, he carves under the eyes and for the perpetual +edification of all men, a calendar of stone with all the labours of the +field, and then a catechism of industry, showing the works done in the +town; finally, for the labours of the mind, a manual of the liberal +arts." + +"Then, thus instructed, man lives on from generation to generation, +until the end of the world, set forth in the images on the south side. + +"This treasury of sculpture would thus include a compendium of the +history of nature and of science, a glossary of morality and art, a +biography of humanity, a panorama of the whole world. Thus it would very +really represent the _Mirror of the World_, and be an edition in stone +of Vincent of Beauvais' book. + +"There is only one difficulty. The Dominican's _Speculum Universale_ +dates from many years later than the erection of this cathedral; also, +in developing his theory, Didron does not take into account the +perspective and relations of the statuary. He assigns equal importance +to a small figure half hidden in the moulding of an arch and to the +large statues in the foreground supporting the picture in relief of Our +Lord and His Mother. Indeed, it might be said that these are the very +figures he overlooks; and, in the same way, he takes no account of the +western doors, which he could not force into his scheme. + +"This archæologist's ideas, in fact, cannot be maintained. He +subordinates leading features to accessory details, and ends in a kind +of rationalism entirely opposed to the mysticism of the period. He +investigates the Middle Ages by levelling down the divine idea to the +lowest earthly meaning, and referring to man what is intended to apply +to God. The prayer of sculpture, chanted by the ages of faith, becomes, +in the introduction to his work, nothing more than an encyclopædia of +industrial and moral teaching. + +"Let us look closer at all this," Durtal went on, and he went out to +smoke a cigarette on the Place. "That royal doorway," thought he, as he +walked on, "is the entrance to the great front by which kings were +admitted. It is likewise the first chapter of the book, and it sums up +the whole of the building. + +"But certainly these conclusions forestalling the premisses are very +strange; this recapitulation, placed at the very beginning of the work, +when it ought, in fact, to be placed at the end, in the apse! + +"And yet," he reflected, "putting this aside, the _façade_ thus worked +out fills the position in this basilica which the second of the +Sapiential Books holds in the Bible. It answers to the Book of Psalms, +which is in a certain sense an epitome of all the Books of the Old +Testament, and consequently, at the same time, a prophetic memento of +the whole of revealed religion. + +"The western side of the cathedral is similar; only, it is a compendium +not of the older but of the newer Scriptures; an epitome of the Gospels, +an abridgment of the books of St. John and the synoptical Gospels. + +"In building this, the twelfth century did more. It added more details +to this glorification of Christ, following Him from before His birth, +through the Bible story, till after His Death and to His Apotheosis as +described in the Apocalypse; it completed the Scriptures by the +Apocryphal writings, telling the tale of Saint Joachim and Saint Anna, +recording many episodes of the marriage of the Virgin and Joseph derived +from the Gospel of the Nativity of the Virgin and _pseudo_-Gospel of St. +James the Less. + +"But, indeed, in every early sanctuary such use was made of these +legends, and no church is really intelligible when they are ignored. + +"Nor is there anything to surprise us in this mixture of the authentic +Gospels and mere fables. When the Church refused to recognize by +canonical authority the divine origin of the Gospels of the Childhood, +of the Nativity, the writings of St. Thomas the Israelite, of Nicodemus, +of St. James the Less, and the History of Joseph, it had no intention of +rejecting them altogether, and consigning them to the limbo of +inventions and lies. In spite of certain anecdotes which are, to say the +least of it, ridiculous, there may be found in these texts some accurate +details and authentic narratives which the Evangelists, cautiously +reticent, did not think proper to record. The Middle Ages by no means +lent themselves to heresy when they ascribed to these purely human +Scriptures the value of probable legend and the interest of pious +reminiscence. + +"As a whole," thought Durtal, who was now standing in front of the doors +between the two towers, the royal western front, "as a whole, this vast +palimpsest, with its 719 figures, is easy to decipher if we avail +ourselves of the key applied by the Abbé Bulteau in his monograph on +this cathedral. + +"Starting from the new belfry and working across the western front to +the old belfry, we follow the history of Christ embodied in nearly two +hundred statues lost in the capitals. It starts with Christ's ancestors, +beginning with the story of Anna and Joachim, and giving the legend in +minute images. Out of deference perhaps to the Inspired Books, this +history creeps along the wall, making itself small so as to be +inconspicuous, and narrates, as if in secret, by artless mimicry, poor +Joachim's despair when a scribe of the Temple named Reuben reproves him +for being childless, and rejects his offerings in the name of the Lord +who has not blessed him; then Joachim, in sorrow, separates from his +wife and goes away to bewail the curse that has lighted on him, till an +angel appears to him and comforts him, and bids him return to his wife, +who shall bear a daughter of his begetting. + +"Then we see Anna, weeping alone over her barrenness and her widowhood; +and the angel comes to her and bids her go forth to meet her husband, +and she finds him at the golden gate. And they fall on each other's neck +and go home together. And Anna brings forth Mary, whom they dedicate to +the Lord. + +"Years then pass, till the time comes when the Virgin is to be +betrothed. The High Priest bids all of the children of the House of +David who are of age, and not yet married, to come to the altar with a +rod in their hand; and to discern which of these shall be chosen to +marry the Virgin, Abiathar, the High Priest, inquires of the Most High, +who repeats the prophecy of Isaiah which declares that a flower shall +come out of Jesse on which the Holy Spirit shall rest. + +"And immediately the rod blossoms of one of those present, Joseph the +Carpenter, and a dove descends from heaven to settle on it. + +"So Mary is given to Joseph, and the marriage takes place; Messiah is +born, and Herod massacres the Innocents; and there the gospel of the +Nativity ends, and the story is taken up by the Holy Scriptures, which +follow the Life of Jesus to the hour of His last appearance on earth +after His death. + +"These scenes, set forth in small simple imagery, serve as a border at +the bottom of the vast presentment which extends from tower to tower +over all three doors. + +"Here the scenes are placed which are intended to attract the crowd by +plainer and more visible images; here we see the general theme of this +portal in all its splendour, recapitulating the Gospels and achieving +the purpose of the Church itself. + +"On the left we see the Ascension of Our Lord, soaring triumphant on +clouds rendered by a waving scroll held on each side, in the Byzantine +manner, by two angels; while below, the Apostles with uplifted faces, +gaze at this ascension pointed out to them by other angels who have +descended and hover over them, their fingers extended towards the sky. + +"The hollow moulding of the arch is filled up with a calendar and zodiac +of stone. + +"The right-hand side shows the Assumption of Our Lady, seated on a +throne, sceptre in hand, and holding the Infant, who blesses the world. +Beneath are the episodes of Her life: the Annunciation, the Visitation, +the Nativity, the homage of the shepherds, and the presentation of Jesus +to the High Priest; and the bend of the arch, rising to a point like a +mitre above the Mother, has the mouldings enriched with two lines of +figures, one of archangels bearing censers, with wings closely +imbricated as if with tiles, the other of personifications of the seven +liberal arts, each represented by two figures--one allegorical, and the +other the presentment of the inventor, or of the paragon of that art in +antiquity. This is the same scheme of expression as we see in the +cathedral at Laon; the paraphrase in sculpture of scholastic theology, +and a rendering in images of the text of Albertus Magnus, who, after +rehearsing the perfections of the Virgin, declares that She possessed a +perfect knowledge of the seven arts: grammar, rhetoric, dialectic, +arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music--all the lore of the Middle +Ages. + +"Finally, in the middle, the great doorway illustrates the subject round +which the storied carving of the other doors all centres: the +Glorification of Our Lord, as Saint John beheld it at Patmos; the +Apocalypse, the last book of the Bible, spread open on the forefront of +the basilica, above the grand entrance to the church. + +"Jesus is seated, on His head the cruciform nimbus, robed in the linen +talaris and draped in a mantle which hangs in a fall of close pleats; +His bare feet rest on a stool, emblematical of the earth, according to +Isaiah. With one hand He blesses the world; in the other He holds the +Book with the seven Seals. About him, in the oval glory or _Vesica_, we +see the Tetramorph--the four evangelical emblems with closely fretted +wings: the winged cherub, the lion, the eagle, and the ox, figuring St. +Matthew, St. Mark, St. John, and St. Luke. Above are the twelve Apostles +holding scrolls and books. + +"And to complete the Apocalyptic vision, in the hollow mouldings of the +arch are the twelve Angels and four and twenty Elders described by St. +John, in white raiment and crowned with gold, playing on musical +instruments, and singing in the perpetual adoration which some few +souls, dwelling isolated in the midst of the indifference of this age, +still carry on. They magnify the glory of the Most High, throwing +themselves on their faces when the Evangelical Beasts, responding to the +fervent and solemn prayers that go up from the earth, utter, in a voice +that resounds above the roar of thunder, the word which in its four +letters, its two syllables, sums up every duty of man to God--the +humble, loving, obedient _Amen_. + +"The text has been very closely followed by the image-maker, excepting +with regard to the Beasts, for one detail is omitted; they are not +represented with the eyes of which the prophet tells us they were 'full +within.' + +"Thus, regarding this whole front as a triptych, we find that in the +left doorway we have the Ascension framed in the signs of the zodiac; in +the middle, the triumph of Jesus as described by the Seer; on the right, +the triumph of Mary, surrounded by certain of Her attributes. The whole +constitutes the scheme to be carried out by the architect: the +Glorification of the Incarnate Word. + +"In fact, as the Abbé Clerval says in his important work on the +cathedral of Chartres, 'we have the scenes of His life which prepared +the way for His glory; we have this actual entrance into glory; and then +His eternal glorification by the Angels, the Saints, and the Blessed +Virgin.' + +"From the point of view of artistic execution the work in the grand +subject is crisp and splendid; the smaller figures are obscure and +mutilated. The panel representing the Virgin Mary has suffered severely, +and both it and that representing the Ascension are strangely rough and +barbarous, quite inferior to the central tympanum, which contains the +most living, the most haunting, of many figures of Christ. + +"Nowhere, indeed, in mediæval sculpture does the Redeemer appear as more +saddened or more pitiful, or under a more solemn aspect. Seen in +profile, His hair flowing over His shoulders, smooth in front and +divided down the middle, with a nose slightly turned up and a heavy +mouth under a thick moustache, with a short, curling beard and a long +neck, He suggests not so much a Byzantine Christ, such as the artists of +that time were wont to paint and carve, but a pre-Raphaelite Christ +designed by a Fleming, or even derived from the Dutch, showing indeed +that slightly earthy taint which reappeared at a later time with a less +pure type of head, at the end of the fifteenth century, in the picture +by Cornelis Van Oostzaanen, in the gallery at Cassel. + +"He rises enthroned, almost sorrowful in His triumph, unamazed as He +blesses, with pathetic resignation, the generations of sinners who for +seven centuries have gazed up at Him with inquisitive, unloving eyes as +they cross the square; and all turn their back on Him, caring little +enough for this Saviour unlike the head familiar to them, recognizing +Him only with sheep-like features and a pleasing expression; such, in +short, as the foppish image at the cathedral at Amiens before which the +lovers of a softer type go into ecstasies. + +"Above this Christ are the three windows invisible from outside, and +over them again the huge dead rose window, looking like a blind eye, and +lighting up, like the windows, only when seen from within, when they +glow with clear flame and pale sapphires set in stone; then, higher yet, +above the rose, is the gallery of French kings, under the great +triangular gable between the towers. + +"And the two belfries fling up their spires; the old one carved in soft +limestone, imbricated with scales, rising in one bold flight to end in a +point, and send up a vapour of prayer among the clouds; the new one, +pierced like lace, chiselled like a jewel, wreathed with foliage and +crockets of vine, rises with coquettish dalliance, trying to make up for +lack of the inspired flight and humble entreaty of its senior by +babbling prayer and ingratiating smiles; to persuade the Father by +childlike lisping. + +"But to return to the west portal," Durtal went on, "in spite of the +importance of its grand decoration, displaying the Eternal Triumph of +the Word, the interest of artists is irresistibly attracted to the +ground storey of the building, where nineteen colossal stone statues +stand in the space that extends from tower to tower; part against the +wall, and part in the recesses of the door-bays. + +"The finest sculpture in the world is certainly that we find here. There +are seven kings, seven saints or prophets, and five queens. There were +originally twenty-four of these statues, but five have disappeared and +left no trace. + +"They all wear glories excepting the three first, nearest to the new +belfry, and all stand under canopies of pierced work, representing roofs +or tabernacles, palaces, bridges--a whole town in little, Sion for +children, a dwarfed New Jerusalem. + +"They all are standing, each on a column with a guilloche pattern; on +plinths carved over with lozenges, diamond points, fir-cone scales, with +chain patterns, fretwork, billets, chequers like a chess-board of which +the alternate squares are hollowed out; and paved with a sort of mosaic, +inlaid patterns which, like the borders of the church windows, suggest a +reminiscence of Mussulman goldsmith's work, and show the origin of the +style brought from the East by the Crusaders. + +"The three first statues in the recess to the left, nearest the new +spire, do not stand on any pattern borrowed from the heathen; they are +trampling on indescribable monsters. One, a king whose head having been +lost, has been fitted with the head of a queen, treads on a man +entangled by serpents; another king stands on a woman who holds a +reptile by the tail with one hand, and with the other strokes the plait +of her own hair; the third, a queen, her head crowned with a plain gold +fillet and her shape that of a woman with child, while her face is +smiling but commonplace, has at her feet two dragons, a monkey, a toad, +a dog, and a snake with an ape's head. What is the meaning of these +enigmas? No one knows--no more, indeed, than we know the names of the +sixteen other statues placed along the porch. + +"Some believe that they represent the ancestry of the Messiah, but this +assertion has no evidence to support it; others find here a mixed +assemblage of the heroes of the Old Testament and the benefactors to the +Church, but this hypothesis is no less illusory. The truth is that, +though all these personages have had sceptres in their hands, scrolls, +ribands, and breviaries, not one of them displays the attributes which +would serve to identify them in accordance with the religious symbolism +of the Middle Ages. At most might we venture to give the name of Daniel +to a headless figure because a formless dragon writhes under his feet, +emblematical of the Devil conquered by the prophet at Babylon. + +"The most striking and the strangest of these figures are the queens. + +"The first, the royal virago with the prominent stomach, is ordinary +enough; the last, opposite to this princess at the furthest end of the +front near the old tower, has lost half her face, and the remaining +portion is not attractive; but the three others, standing in the +principal doorway, are matchless. + +"The first, tall, slender, and very straight, wears a crown on her brow, +a veil, hair banded on each side of a middle parting, and falling in +plaits on her shoulders; her nose turns up a little, is somewhat common; +her lips firm and judicious; her chin square. The face is not very +young. The body is swathed, and rigid, in a large cloak with wide +sleeves, and the richly-jewelled sheath of a gown that betrays no +feminine outline of figure. She is upright, sexless, shapeless; her +waist slight and bound with a girdle of cord, like a Franciscan Sister. +She stands looking, with her head slightly bent, attentive to one knows +not what, seeing nothing. Has she attained to the perfect negation of +all things? Is she living the life of Union with God beyond the worlds, +where time is no more? It might be thought so, since it is noteworthy +that, in spite of her royal insignia and the magnificence of her +costume, she has the self-centred look, the austere demeanour of a nun. +She seems more of the cloister than of the Court. Then we wonder who can +have placed her on guard by this door, and why, faithful to a charge +known to none but herself, she watches, day and night, with her far-away +gaze across the square, waiting motionless for some one who for seven +hundred years has failed to come. + +"She might be an embodiment of Advent, stooping a little to listen to +the woeful supplications of man as they rise from earth; in that case, +she must be an Old Testament queen, dead long before the birth of the +Messiah she perhaps may have prophesied. + +"As she holds a book, the Abbé Bulteau thinks it may be a full-length +statue of Saint Radegonde. But other princesses have been canonized, +and, like her, hold books. At the same time, the monastic aspect of this +queen, her emaciated figure, her eye vaguely fixed on the region of +internal dreams, would well befit Clotaire's wife, who retired to a +cloister. + +"But for what can she be watching? The dreaded arrival of the king bent +on tearing her from her Abbey at Poitiers to replace her on the throne? +For lack of any information every conjecture must be futile. + +"The second statue again represents a king's wife holding a book. She is +younger; she wears neither cloak nor veil; her bosom is full and closely +fitted in a clinging dress, tightly drawn over the bust like wet linen; +a bodice resembling the Carlovingian _rokette_, fastened on one side. +Her hair lies flat in two bands on her forehead, covering her ears and +falling in long tresses plaited with ribbon, and ending in loose tufts. + +"Her face is wilful and alert, and rather haughty. She is looking out of +herself; her beauty is of a more human type, and she knows it. Saint +Clotilde, is the Abbé Bulteau's guess. + +"It is very certain that this Elect lady was not always a pattern of +amiability--not what could be called easy to get on with. Before being +reproved and chastened we see her in history, as vindictive, unrelenting +to pity, eager for retaliation. She would be Clotilde before her +repentance--the Queen, before she became a saint. + +"But is it really she? The name was given her because a statue of the +same period and very like this, which was formerly at Notre Dame de +Corbeil, was dubbed with this name. It was, however, subsequently +admitted that it represented the Queen of Sheba. Are we then in the +presence of that sovereign? And why, if her name is not in the Book of +Life, has she a glory? + +"It is highly probable that she is neither the wife of Clovis, nor +Solomon's friend--this strange princess who stands before us, at once so +earthly and yet more spectral than her sisters; for time has marred her +features, injured her skin, dotted her chin with hail-specks, vulgarized +her mouth, injured her nose, making it look like the ace of clubs, and +put the stamp of death on that living countenance. + +"As to the third, she is tall and slender, a fragile spindle, a slim, +sylph-like creature, suggesting a taper with the lower portion +patterned, embossed, brocaded in the wax itself; she stands +magnificently arrayed in a stiff-pleated robe channelled lengthwise, +like a stick of celery. The bodice is richly trimmed and stitched; below +her waist hangs a cord with loose jewelled knots; on her head is a +crown. Both arms are broken; one hand rested on her bosom; in the other +she held a sceptre, of which a small portion remains. + +"This queen is smiling, artless, and engaging--quite charming. She looks +down on all comers with wide open eyes under high-arched brows. Never, +at any period, has a more expressive face been formed by the genius of +man; it is a masterpiece of childlike grace and saintly innocence. + +"Here, amid the pensive architecture of the twelfth century, one of a +crowd of devout statues, symbolical to some extent of simple love in an +age when men were in perpetual dread of everlasting hell, she seems to +stand at the Gate of the Lord as the exorable image of forgiveness. To +the terrified souls of habitual sinners who after perseverance in guilt +no longer dare cross the threshold of the Sanctuary, she stands kindly +reproving such reticence, conquering regrets and soothing terrors by her +familiar smile. + +"She is the elder sister of the prodigal son, of whom St. Luke indeed +makes no mention, but who, if she ever existed, would have pleaded for +the absent wanderer, and have insisted with her father on the killing of +the fatted calf when the son returned. + +"Chartres, to be sure, does not see her in this indulgent aspect; local +tradition names her Berthe of the broad foot; but while there is no +argument to support this hypothesis, it is in fact quite absurd, as the +statue is graced with a nimbus. This mark of holiness would not have +been given to Charlemagne's mother, whose name is not on the list of the +saints of the Church Triumphant. + +"According to the notions of those archæologists who believe that the +sculptured dignitaries of this porch represent the ancestry of Christ, +she must be a queen of the Old Testament. But which? As Hello very truly +remarks, tears abound in the Scriptures, but laughter is so rare that +Sarah's, when she could not help mocking at the angel who announced that +she should bear a son in her old age, has remained on record. So it is +in vain that we inquire to what personage of the ancient books this +queen's innocent joy may be ascribed. + +"The truth is that she must remain a perennial mystery; she is an +angelic, limpid creature, who has attained, no doubt, to the purest joy +in the Lord; and withal so attractive, so helpful, that she leaves in us +an impression of a healing gesture, the illusion of a blessing made +visible to all who crave it. Her right arm indeed is broken at the +wrist, and her hand is gone; but we can fancy it there still when we +look for it; as a shade, a reflection; it is very plainly seen in the +slight fulness of the bosom, as though it were the palm; in the folds of +the bodice, which distinctly show the four taper fingers and raised +thumb to make the sign of the cross over us. + +"How exquisite a forerunner of the Blessed Mother is this royal guardian +of the threshold, this sovereign, inviting wanderers to come back to the +Church, to enter the door over which She keeps watch, and which is +itself one of the symbols of Her Son!" exclaimed Durtal, as he glanced +at the opposite figures--such different women! one a nun rather than a +queen, her head a little bowed; another, every inch a queen, holding +hers aloft; the third saucy, though saintly, her neck neither bent nor +assertive, holding herself in a natural attitude, and moderating the +august mien of a sovereign by the humble, smiling expression of a saint. + +"And perhaps," said he to himself, "we may see in the first an image of +the contemplative life, and in the second the embodied idea of the +active life; while the third, like Ruth in the Scriptures, symbolizes +both!" + +As to the other statues--prophets wearing the Jewish cap with ears, and +kings holding missals or sceptres, they too are impossible to identify. +One in the middle arch, divided from the so-called Berthe by a king, was +more especially interesting to Durtal because it was like Verlaine. The +statue had indeed thicker hair, but just as strange a head, a skull with +curious bumps, a flattish face, a curling beard, and the same common but +kindly look. + +Tradition gives this statue the name of St. Jude, and this resemblance +is suggestive between the saint whom Christians most neglected, and who +for several centuries found so few devotees that suddenly, one day, on +the theory that he, less than the others, would have exhausted his +credit with God, people took to imploring him for desperate cases, lost +souls, and the poet so utterly ignored or so stupidly condemned by the +very Catholics to whom he has given the only mystical verses produced +since the Middle Ages. + +"They were ill-starred, one as a saint and the other as a poet," Durtal +concluded, as he drew back to get a better view of the front. + +It was indeed incredible, with the chasing of silvery flowers wrought on +the panes by frost; with its church-drapery, its lace rochets, its fine +pierced work, as light as gossamer, running up to the level of the +second storey, and forming a fretted frame for the great stone-carvings +of the porch. And above that it rose in hermit-like sobriety, unadorned, +Cyclopean, with the colossal eye of its dull rose-window between the two +towers, one full of windows and richly wrought like the doorway, the +other as bare as the façade above the porch. + +But after all, what absorbed and possessed Durtal's mind was still those +statues of queens. + +He finally thought no more of the rest, listened to nothing but the +divine eloquence of their lean slenderness, regarding them only under +the semblance of tall flower-stems deep in carved stone tubes and +expanding into faces of ingenuous fragrance, of innocent perfume, while +Christ, touched and saddened, blessing the world, seemed to bend from +His throne above them to inhale the delicate aroma that rose from these +up-soaring chalices full of soul. Durtal was wondering--what potent +necromancer could evoke the spirits of these royal doorkeepers, compel +them to speak, and enable us to overhear the colloquy they perhaps hold +when in the evening they seem to withdraw behind the curtain of shadow? + +What have they to say to each other--they who have seen Saint Bernard, +Saint Louis, Saint Ferdinand, Saint Fulbert, Saint Yves, Blanche of +Castille--so many of the Elect walking past on their way into the starry +gloom of the nave? Did they cause the death of their companions, the +five other statues that have vanished for ever from the little assembly? +Do they listen, through the closed doors, to the wailing breath of +heart-broken psalms, and the roaring tide of the organ? Can they hear +the inane exclamations of the tourists who laugh to see them so stiff +and so lengthy? Do they, as many saints have done, smell the fetor of +sin, the foul reek of evil in the souls that pass by them? Why, then, +who would dare to look at them? + +And still Durtal looked at them, for he could not tear himself away; +they held him fast by the undying fascination of their mystery; in +short, he concluded, they are supra-terrestrial under the semblance of +humanity. They have no bodies; it is the soul alone that dwells in the +wrought sheath of their raiment; they are in perfect harmony with the +cathedral, which, divesting itself of its stones, soars in ecstatic +flight above the earth. + +The crowning achievement of mystical architecture and statuary are here, +at Chartres; the most rapturous, the most superhuman art which ever +flourished in the flat plains of La Beauce. + +And now, having contemplated the whole effect of this façade, he went +close to it again to examine its minutest accessories and details, to +study more closely the robes of these sovereigns; then he observed that +no two were alike in their drapery. Some flowed without any broken +folds, in ridge and furrow like the fall of rippling water; others hung +closely gathered in parallel flutings like the ribs on stems of +angelica, and the stern material lent itself to the needs of the +dressers, was soft in the figured crape and fustian and fine linen, +heavy in the brocade and gold tissue. Every texture was distinct; the +necklaces were chased bead by bead; the knots of the girdles might be +untied, so naturally were the strands entwined; the bracelets and crowns +were pierced and hammered and adorned with gems, each in its setting, as +if by practised goldsmiths. + +And in many cases the pedestal, the statue, and the canopy were all +carved out of one block, in one piece. What were the men who executed +such work? + +It is probable that they lived in convents, for art was not at that time +cultivated or practised but in the precincts of God. And just then they +were in their glory in the Ile de France, the Orleans country, the +provinces of Maine, Anjou, and Berry, for we find statues of this type +in all; still, it must be said that they are not equal to these at +Chartres. + +At Bourges, for instance, analogous prophets and very similar queens +stand meditative in, one of the extraordinary side bays where the Arab +trefoil is so conspicuous. At Angers the statues are weather-beaten, +almost ruined, but it can be seen that they were less stately, merely +human; they are no longer chastely slender, fit for Heaven, but earthly +queens. At Le Mans, where they are in better preservation, they vainly +strive to soar above their narrow weed; they lack spring, they are +nerveless, feeble, almost common. + +Nowhere do we find a soul clothed in stone as at Chartres; and if at Le +Mans we study the front, of which the scheme is the same as at Chartres, +with Christ enthroned and benedictory between the winged beasts of the +Tetramorph, what a descent we note in the divine ideal! Everything is +pinched and airless. The Christ, too roughly wrought, looks savage. The +pupils only of the supreme masters of Chartres evidently adorned these +portals. + +Was there a guild, a brotherhood of these image-makers, devoted to the +holy work, who went from place to place to be employed by monks as +helpers of the masons and labourers, builders for God? Did they first +come from the Benedictine Abbey of Tiron founded at Chartres near the +market, by that Abbot Saint Bernard whose name figures on the list of +benefactors to the church, in the necrology of the cathedral? None may +know. They worked humbly, anonymously. + +And what souls these artists had! For this we know: they laboured only +in a state of grace. To raise this glorious temple, purity was required +even of the workmen. + +This would seem incredible if it were not proved by authentic documents +and undoubted evidence. + +We possess letters of the period preserved in the Benedictine annals, a +letter from an Abbot of Saint-Pierre-sur-Dive, found by Monsieur Léopold +Delisle, in MS. 929 of the French collection in the Bibliothèque +Nationale, and a Latin volume of the Miracles of Our Lady, discovered in +the Vatican Library, and translated into French by Jehan le Marchant, a +poet of the thirteenth century. And these all relate the way in which +the Sanctuary dedicated to the Virgin was rebuilt after destruction by +fire. + +What then occurred was indeed sublime. This was a crusade, if ever there +was one. It was here no question of snatching the Holy Sepulchre from +the power of the infidels, of meeting armies on the field of battle, and +fighting with men; the Lord Himself was to be attacked in His +entrenchments, Heaven was besieged, and conquered by love and +repentance! And Heaven confessed itself beaten; the angels smiled and +yielded; God capitulated, and in the gladness of defeat He threw open +the treasury of His grace to be plundered of men. + +Then, under the guidance of the Spirit, came a battle in every workshop +with brute matter, the struggle of a nation vowing, cost what it might, +to save a Virgin, homeless now as on the day when Her Son was born. + +The manger of Bethlehem was a mere heap of cinders. Mary would be left +to wander, lashed by bitter winds, across the icy plains of La Beauce. +Should the same tale be repeated, twelve hundred years later, of +pitiless households, inhospitable inns, and crowded rooms? + +Madonna was loved then in France--loved as a natural parent, a real +mother. On hearing that she was turned adrift by fire, seeking woefully +for a home, everyone grieved and wept; and that, not only in the country +about Chartres; in the Orleans country, in Normandy, Brittany, the Ile +de France, in the far north, whole populations stopped their regular +work, left their homes to fly to Her help, the rich giving money and +jewels, and helping the poor to drag their barrows and carry corn and +oil, wine, wood and lime, everything that could serve to feed labouring +men or help in building a church. + +It was a constant stream of immigration, the spontaneous exodus of a +people. Every road was crowded with pilgrims, all, men and women alike, +dragging whole trees, pushing loads of sawn beams, and cartfuls of the +moaning sick and aged forming the sacred phalanx, the veterans of +suffering, the unconquerable legions of sorrow, all to help in the siege +of the heavenly Jerusalem, forming the outer guard to support the attack +by the reinforcement of prayer. + +Nothing--neither sloughs, nor bogs, nor pathless forests, nor fordless +rivers, could check the advancing tide of the marching throng; and one +morning, from every point of the compass, lo! they took possession of +Chartres. + +The investment began; while the sick opened the first parallels of +prayer, the sound pitched the tents; the camp extended for leagues on +all sides; tapers were kept burning on the carts, and at night La Beauce +was a champaign of stars. + +What still seems incredible, and is nevertheless attested by every +chronicle of the time, is that this horde of old folks and children, of +women and men, were at once amenable to discipline; and yet they +belonged to every class of society, for there were among them knights +and ladies of high degree; but divine love was so powerful that it +annihilated distinctions and abolished caste; the nobles harnessed +themselves with the villeins to drag the trucks, piously fulfilling +their task as beasts of burthen; patrician dames helped the peasant +women to stir the mortar, and to cook the food; all lived together in an +undreamed surrender of prejudice; all were alike ready to be mere +labourers, machines, loins and arms, and to toil without a murmur under +the orders of the architects who had come out of the cloister to direct +the work. + +Nothing was ever more simply or more efficiently organized; the convent +cellarers, forming a sort of commissariat for this army, superintended +the distribution of food, and saw to the sanitation of the huts and the +health of the camp. Men and women were no more than docile instruments +in the hands of the chiefs they themselves had chosen, and who in their +turn obeyed gangs of monks. These again were under the orders of the +wonderful man, the nameless genius, who, after conceiving the plan of +this cathedral, directed the whole work. + +To achieve such results the spirit of the multitude must really have +been admirable, for the humble and laborious work of plasterers and +barrow-men was accepted by all, noble or base-born, as an act of +mortification and penance, and at the same time as an honour; and no man +was so audacious as to lay hand on the materials belonging to the Virgin +till he had made peace with his enemies and confessed his sins. Those +who were reluctant to repair the ill they had done, or to frequent the +Sacraments, were dismissed from the traces, rejected as reprobates by +their comrades, and even by their own families. + +At daybreak every morning the work decided on by the foremen was begun. +Some dug the foundations, cleared away the ruins, carried off the +rubbish; others, going in parties to the quarries of Berchère-l'Evêque, +at about five miles from Chartres, cut out enormous blocks of stone, so +heavy that in some cases a thousand workmen were not many enough to +hoist them from their bed to the top of the hill where the church was +presently to rise. + +And when these silent toilers paused, exhausted and broken, the sound +went up of prayers and psalms; some would groan over their sins, +imploring Our Lady's mercy, beating their breast and sobbing in the arms +of priests who bade them be comforted. + +On Sundays long processions formed with banners at their head, and the +shout of canticles filled the streets that blazed from afar with tapers; +the canonical services were attended by a whole people on their knees; +relics were carried with much pomp to visit the sick. + +And all the time the walls of the Celestial City were being shaken by +battering-rams of supplication, catapults of prayer; the living forces +of the whole army combining to make a breach and take the place by +storm. + +Then it was that Jesus surrendered at discretion, conquered by so much +humility and so much love; He placed His powers in His Mother's hands, +and miracles began to abound. + +All the tribe of the sick and crippled are on their feet; the blind see, +the dropsical dry up, the lame walk, the weak-hearted run. + +The tale of these miracles, which were repeated day after day, sometimes +being produced even before the pilgrim had reached Chartres, has been +preserved in the Latin manuscript in the Vatican. + +The natives of Château Landon are dragging a cart-load of wheat. On +reaching Chantereine they discover that the food they had taken for the +journey is all gone, and they beg for bread from some unhappy creatures +who are themselves in the greatest want. The Virgin intercedes for them +and the bread of the poor is multiplied. Again, some men set out from +the Gâtinais with a load of stone. Ready to drop, they pause near Le +Puiset, and some villagers coming out to meet them, invite them to rest +while they themselves take a turn at the load; but this they refuse. +Then the natives of Le Puiset offer them a cask of wine, and pour it +into a barrel hoisted on to the truck. This the pilgrims accept, and, +feeling less weary, they go on their way. But they are called back to +see that the empty vat has refilled itself with excellent wine. Of this +all drink, and it heals the sick. + +Again, a man of Corbeville-sur-Eure employed in loading a cart with +timber has three fingers chopped across by an axe and shrieks in agony. +His comrades advise him to have the fingers completely severed, as they +hold only by a strip of flesh, but the priest who is conducting them to +Chartres disapproves. They all pray to Mary, and the wound vanishes, the +hand is whole as before. + +Some men of Brittany have lost their way at night in the open country, +and are suddenly guided aright by flames of fire; it is the Virgin in +person descending that Saturday after Complines into Her church when it +is almost finished, and filling it with dazzling glory. + +And there are pages and pages of such incidents. + +"Ah, it is easy to understand," thought Durtal, "why this Sanctuary is +so full of Her. Her gratitude for the love of our forefathers is still +felt here--even now She is fain not to seem too much disgusted, not to +look too closely. + +"Well, well! we build sanctuaries in another way nowadays. When I think +of the Sacred Heart in Paris, that gloomy, ponderous erection raised by +men who have written their names in red on every stone! How can God +consent to dwell in a church of which the walls are blocks of vanity +joined by a cement of pride; walls where you may read the names of +well-known tradesmen exhibited in a good place, as if they were an +advertisement? It would have been so easy to build a less magnificent +and less hideous church, and not to lodge the Redeemer in a monument of +sin! Think of the throng of good souls who so long ago dragged their +load of stones, praying as they went! It would never have occurred to +them to turn their love to account and make it serve their craving for +display, their hunger for lucre." + +An arm was laid on his, and Durtal recognized the Abbé Gévresin, who +had come up while he stood dreaming in front of the cathedral. + +"I am going on at once, they are waiting for me," said the priest. "I +only took advantage of our meeting to tell you that I had a letter this +morning from the Abbé Plomb." + +"Indeed! And where is he?" + +"At Solesmes; but he comes home the day after to-morrow. Our friend +seems greatly taken with the Benedictine life." + +And the Abbé smiled, while Durtal, a little startled, watched him turn +the corner by the new belfry. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + +One morning Durtal went out to seek the Abbé Plomb. He could not find +him in his own house, nor in the cathedral; but at last, directed by the +beadle, he made his way to the house at the corner of the Rue de +l'Acacia, where the choir-school was lodged. + +He went in by a gate that stood half open, into a yard littered with +broken pails and other rubbish. The house, beyond this courtyard, was +suffering from the cutaneous disease that affects plaster, eaten with +leprosy and spotted with blisters, with zig-zag rifts from top to +bottom, and a crackled surface like the glaze of an old jar. The dead +stock of a vine stretched its gnarled black arms along the wall. + +Durtal, looking in at a window, saw a dormitory with rows of white beds, +and he was amused, for never had he seen beds so tiny. + +A lad was in the room, whom he called, by tapping on the pane, and asked +whether the Abbé Plomb were still about the place. The boy nodded an +affirmative, and showed Durtal into a waiting-room. + +This room was like the office of an exceedingly inferior and pious +hotel. The furniture consisted of a mahogany table of a sort of salmon +pink colour, on which stood a pot-stand bereft of flowers; arm-chairs +with circular backs fit for a gatekeeper's room, a chimney-piece adorned +with statues of saints much fly-bitten, and a chimney board covered with +paper representing the Vision of Lourdes. On the walls hung a black +board with rows of numbered keys; opposite, a chromo-lithograph of +Christ, displaying, with an amiable smile, an underdone heart bleeding +amid streams of yellow sauce. + +But what was chiefly characteristic of this bedizened porter's lodge +was a horribly sickening smell, the smell of lukewarm castor oil. + +Durtal, nauseated by this odour, was on the point of making his escape, +when the Abbé Plomb came in and took his arm. They went out together. + +"Then you have just come back from Solesmes?" said Durtal. + +"As you see." + +"And were you satisfied with your visit?" + +"Enchanted," and the Abbé smiled at the impatience he could detect in +Durtal's accents. + +"What do you think of the monastery?" + +"I think it most interesting to visit, both from the monastic and from +the artistic point of view. Solesmes is a great convent, the parent +House of the Benedictine Order in France, and it has a flourishing +school of novices. What is it that you want to know, exactly?" + +"Why, everything you can tell me." + +"Well, then, I may tell you that ecclesiastical art, brought to its very +highest expression, is fascinating in that monastery. No one can +conceive of the magnificence of the liturgy and of plain-song who has +not heard them at Solesmes. If Notre Dame des Arts had a special +sanctuary, it undoubtedly would be there." + +"Is the chapel ancient?" + +"A part of the old church remains, and the famous Solesmes sculpture, +dating from the sixteenth century. Unfortunately, there are some quite +disastrous windows in the apse: the Virgin between Saint Peter and Saint +Paul; modern glass in its most piercing atrocity. But, then, where is +decent glass to be had?" + +"Nowhere. We have only to look at the transparent pictures let into the +walls of our new churches to appreciate the incurable idiocy of painters +who insist on treating window panes from cartoons, as they do subject +pictures--and such subjects! and such pictures! All turned out by the +gross from cheap glass melters, whose thin material dots the pavement of +the church with spots like confetti, strewing lollipops of colour +wherever the light falls. + +"Would it not be far better to accept the colourless scheme of +window-glass used at Citeaux, where a decorative effect was produced by +a design in the lead lines; or to imitate the fine grisailles, +iridescent from age, which may still be seen at Bourges, at Reims, and +even here, in our cathedral?" + +"Certainly," said the Abbé. "But to return to our monastery. Nowhere, I +repeat, are the services performed with so much pomp. You should see it +on the occasion of some high festival! Picture to yourself above the +altar, where commonly the tabernacle shines, a Dove suspended from a +golden crozier, its wings outspread amid clouds of incense; then a whole +army of monks deploying in a solemn rhythmic march, and the Abbot +standing, on his brow a mitre thickly set with jewels, his green and +white ivory crozier in his hand, his train carried by a lay-brother when +he moves, while the gold of many copes blazes in the light of the +tapers, and a torrent of sound from the organ bears the voices up, +carrying to the very vault the cry of repentance or the joy of the +Psalms. + +"It is glorious. It is not the penitential austerity of the liturgy as +it is used by the Franciscans or at La Trappe: it is luxury offered to +God, the beauty He created dedicated to His service, and in itself +praise and prayer. But if you wish to hear the music of the Church in +its utmost perfection you must go to the neighbouring Abbey: that of the +Sisters of Saint Cecilia." + +The Abbé paused, whispering to himself, thinking over his reminiscences; +and then he slowly spoke again,-- + +"Wherever you go, the voice of a nun preserves, merely by reason of her +sex, a sort of emotion, a tendency to the cooing tone, and, it must be +owned, a certain satisfaction in hearing herself when she knows that +others can hear her; so that the Gregorian chant is never perfectly +executed by nuns. + +"But with the Benedictine Sisters of Sainte-Cecile all the graces of +earthly sentimentality have vanished. These nuns have ceased to have +women's voices; the quality is at once seraphic and manly. In their +church you are either thrown back I know not how far into the depth of +past ages, or shot forward into time to come, as they sing. They have +outpourings of soul and tragical pauses, pathetic murmurs and ecstasies +of passion, and sometimes they seem to rush to the assault, and storm +certain Psalms at the bayonet's point. And they do assuredly achieve +the most vehement leap that can be imagined from this world into the +infinite." + +"Then it is a very different thing from the Benedictine service of nuns +in the Rue Monsieur in Paris?" + +"No comparison is possible. Without wishing to reflect on the musical +sincerity of those good Sisters, who sing quite suitably but humanly, as +women, it may be asserted that they have neither such knowledge, nor +such soul-felt aspiration, nor such voices. As a monk remarked, 'when +you have heard the Sisters of Solesmes, those of Paris sound +provincial.'" + +"And you saw the Abbess of Saint Cecilia. Why, when I think of it, is +not she the writer of a Treatise on Prayer (_Traité de l'Oraison_) which +I read when I was at La Trappe, and which was not, I believe, regarded +with favour at the Vatican?" + +"Yes, she it is. But you are making the greatest mistake in imagining +that her book was not approved at Rome. It was examined there, like +every book of the kind, through a magnifying glass, strained through a +sieve, picked over line by line, turned inside out and upside down; but +the theologians employed in this pious custom-house service acknowledged +and certified that this work, based on the soundest principles of +mysticism, was learnedly, impeccably, desperately orthodox. + +"I may add that the volume was printed privately by the Abbess herself, +helped by some of the nuns, in a little hand-press belonging to the +convent, and has never been in circulation. It is, in fact, an epitome +of doctrine, the essential extract of her teaching, and was more +especially intended for those of her daughters who are unable to have +the benefit of her instruction and lectures, because they live away from +Solesmes, in other convents that she has founded. + +"Why in these days, when for ten years past the Benedictine Sisters have +made a study of Latin, when many of them translate from Hebrew and Greek +and are skilled in exegesis, when others draw and paint the pages of +missals, reviving the art of the illuminators of the Middle Ages, when +others again--as, for instance, Mother Hildegarde--are organists of the +highest attainment, you may easily understand that the woman who +directs them all, the woman who has created in her Sisterhoods a school +of practical mysticism and of religious art, is a very remarkable +person; nay, in these days of frivolous devotions and ignorant piety, +quite unique." + +"Why, she is one of the great Abbesses of the Middle Ages," cried +Durtal. + +"She is the crowning work of Dom Guéranger, who took her in hand almost +as a child and kneaded and mollified her soul with long patience; then +he transplanted her into a special greenhouse, watching her growth in +the Lord day after day; and you see the result of this forcing and high +culture." + +"Yes, and even this does not hinder some persons from regarding convents +as the homes of idleness and reservoirs of folly. When you think that +obscure idiots write to the papers to say that nuns know nothing of the +Latin they repeat! It would be well for them if they knew as much Latin +as those women!" + +The Abbé smiled. + +"And the secret of the Gregorian chant dwells with them," he went on. +"It is necessary not only to understand the language of the Psalms as +they are sung, but to appreciate meanings which are often doubtful in +the Vulgate, in order to express them properly. Without fervent feeling +and knowledge, the voice is nothing. + +"It may be beautiful in secular music, but it is null and void when it +attempts the venerable sequences of plain-song." + +"And how are the Fathers employed?" + +"They also began by restoring the liturgy and Church singing; then they +discovered certain lost texts of the subtle symbolists and learned +saints, and collected them in a _Spicilegium_ and _Analectae_. Now they +are editing and printing a musical Palæography, one of the most learned +and abstruse of modern publications. + +"Still, I would not have you believe that the whole mission of the +Benedictine Order consists in overhauling ancient manuscripts and +reproducing ancient Antiphonals and curious chronicles. The Brother who +has a talent for any art devotes himself to it, no doubt, if the +Superior permits; on this point the rule knows no exception; but the +real and true aim of the Son of Saint Benedict is to sing Psalms and +praise the Lord, to serve his apprenticeship here for his task in +Heaven: namely, to glorify the Redeemer in words inspired by Himself, +and in the language He spoke by the voice of David and the Prophets. + +"Seven times a day the Benedictines do the homage required of the Elders +in Heaven, as described by Saint John in the Apocalypse, and represented +by sculptors as playing on instruments here at Chartres. + +"In point of fact, their particular function is not at all to bury +themselves under the accumulated dust of ages, nor even to accept in +substitution the sins and woes of others as the Orders of pure +mortification do--the Carmelites and the Poor Clares. Their vocation is +to fill the office of the Angels; it is a task of joy and peace, an +anticipation of their inheritance of gladness beyond the grave; in fact, +the work which is nearest to that of purified spirits, the highest on +earth. + +"To fulfil their duty fittingly, besides ardent piety, a thorough +knowledge of the Scriptures is required, and a refined feeling for art. +Thus a true Benedictine must be at once a saint, a learned man, and an +artist." + +"And what is the daily life of Solesmes?" asked Durtal. + +"Very methodical and very simple: Matins and Lauds at four in the +morning; at nine o'clock tierce, mass for the brethren, and sext; at +noon dinner; at four nones and vespers; at seven supper; at half-past +eight compline and deep silence. As you see, there is time for +meditation and work in the intervals between the canonical hours and +meals." + +"And the oblates?" + +"What oblates? I saw none at Solesmes." + +"Indeed--then if there are any, do they lead the same life as the +Fathers?" + +"Evidently; excepting, perhaps, some dispensations depending on the +Abbot's favour. I can tell you this much: that in some other Benedictine +Houses that I have visited the general system is that the oblate shall +follow as much of the rule as he is able for." + +"Still, he is, I suppose, free to come and go--his actions are free?" + +"When once he has taken the oath of obedience to his Superior, and, +after his term of probation, has adopted the monastic habit, he is as +much a monk as the rest, and consequently can do nothing without the +Father Superior's leave." + +"The deuce!" muttered Durtal. "Of course, if the ridiculous metaphor so +familiar to the world were accurate, if the cloister were rightly +compared to a tomb, the condition of the oblate would also be tomb-like, +only its walls would be less air-tight, and the stone, a little tilted, +would admit a ray of daylight." + +"If you like!" said the Abbé, laughing. + +As they walked, they had reached the Bishop's palace. + +They went into the forecourt, and saw the Abbé Gévresin making his way +to the gardens; they joined him, and the old priest asked them to go +with him to the kitchen garden, where, to oblige his housekeeper, he was +to inspect the seeds she had sown. + +"Aye, and I too promised long ago to look at the vegetables," exclaimed +Durtal. + +They went down the ancient paths and reached the orchard on the slope; +and as soon as Madame Bavoil caught sight of them she grounded arms, so +to speak, setting her foot in gardener fashion on the spade she had +stuck into the soil. + +She proudly pointed to her rows of cabbages and carrots, onions and +peas, announced that she intended to make an attempt on the gourd tribe, +expatiated on cucumbers and pumpkins, and to conclude, declared that at +the bottom of the kitchen garden she meant to have a flower-bed. + +Then they sat down on a mound that formed a sort of seat. + +The Abbé Plomb, in a mood for teasing, gave his spectacles a push, +settling the arch above his nose, and rubbing his hands, remarked, very +seriously,-- + +"Madame Bavoil, flowers and vegetables are but of trivial importance +from the decorative and culinary point of view; the only rule that +should guide you in your selection is the symbolical meaning, the +virtues and vices ascribed to plants. Now, I am sorry to observe that +your favourites are for the most part of evil augury." + +"I do not understand you, Monsieur l'Abbé." + +"Why, you have only to consider that these vegetables which you take +such care of mean many evil things. Lentils, for instance--you grow +lentils?" + +"Yes." + +"Well, the seeds of the lentils are very cunning and mysterious. +Artemidorus, in his 'Interpretation of Dreams,' tells us that if we +dream of them it is a sign of mourning; it is the same with lettuce and +onion: they forecast misfortune. Peas are less ill-famed; but, above +all, beware of coriander, with its leaves smelling like bugs, for it +gives rise to all manner of evils. + +"Thyme, on the contrary, according to Macer Floridus, cures snake-bites, +fennel is a stimulant wholesome for women, and garlic taken fasting is a +preservative against the ills we may contract from drinking strange +waters, or changing from place to place. So plant whole fields of +garlic, Madame Bavoil." + +"The Father does not like it!" + +"And then," the Abbé Plomb added, very seriously, "you must fill your +mind from the books of Albertus Magnus, the Master of Saint Thomas +Aquinas, who in the treatises ascribed to him on the Virtues of Herbs, +the Wonders of the World, and the Secrets of Women, puts forth certain +ideas, which, as I may hope, will not have been written in vain. + +"He tells us that the plantain-root is a cure for headache and for +ulcers; that mistletoe grown on an oak opens all locks; that celandine +laid on a sick man's head sings if he will die; that the juice of the +house-leek will enable you to hold a hot iron without being burnt; that +leaves of myrtle twisted into a ring will reduce an abscess; that lily +powdered and eaten by a young maiden is an effectual test of her +virginity, for if she should not be innocent it takes instantaneous +effect as a diuretic!" + +"I did not know of that property in the lily," said Durtal, laughing, +"but I knew that Albertus Magnus assigned the same peculiarity to the +mallow; only the patient need not swallow the plant; she has only to +stoop over it." + +"What nonsense!" exclaimed the old priest. + +His housekeeper, quite scared, stood looking at the ground. + +"Do not listen to him, Madame Bavoil," cried Durtal. "I have a less +medical, and more religious, idea: cultivate a liturgical garden and +emblematic vegetables; make a kitchen and flower garden that may set +forth the glory of God and carry up our prayers in their language; and, +in short, imitate the purpose of the Song of the Three Holy Children in +the fiery furnace, when they called on all Nature, from the breath of +the storm to the seed buried in the field, to Bless the Lord!" + +"Very good!" exclaimed the Abbé Plomb; "but you must have a wide space +at your disposal, for not less than one hundred and thirty plants are +mentioned in the Scriptures; and the number of those to which mediæval +writers give a meaning is immense." + +"To say nothing of the fact," observed the Abbé Gévresin, "that a garden +dependent on our cathedral ought also to reproduce the botany of its +architecture." + +"Is it known?" + +"A list has not indeed been written for Chartres as it has been for +Reims of its sculptured flora: the botany in stone of the church of +Notre Dame there, has been carefully classified and labelled by Monsieur +Saubinet; still, you will observe that the posies of the capitals are +much the same everywhere. In all the churches of the thirteenth century +you will find the leaves of the vine, the oak, the rose-tree, the ivy, +the willow, the laurel, and the bracken, with strawberry and buttercup +leaves. Indeed, as a rule, the image-makers selected native plants +characteristic of the region where they were employed." + +"Did they intend to express any particular idea by the capitals and +corbels of the columns?--At Amiens, for instance, there is a wreath of +flowers and foliage forming the string-course above the arches of the +nave for its whole length and continued over the cornice of the pillars. +Apart from the probable purpose of dividing the height into two equal +parts in order to rest the eye, has this string-course any other +meaning? Does it embody any particular idea? Is it the expression of +some phrase relating to the Virgin, in whose name the cathedral is +dedicated?" + +"I do not think so," said the Abbé. "I believe that the artist who +carved those wreaths simply aimed at a decorative effect, and made no +attempt to give us in symbolical language a compendium of our Mother's +virtues. + +"Moreover, if we admit that the sculptors of the thirteenth century +introduced the acanthus on account of its emollient qualities, the oak +because it is emblematic of strength, and the water-lily because its +broad leaves are accepted as a figure of charity, we ought no less to +conclude that at the end of the fifteenth century, when the mystery of +symbolism was not as yet altogether lost, the toothed bunches of curled +cabbage, of thistles and other deeply-cut leaves mingling with +true-love-knots, as in the church at Brou, might have had some meaning. +But it is perfectly certain that these vegetable forms were chosen only +for their elaborately elegant growth, and the fragile and mannered grace +of their outline. Otherwise we might assert that this later ornament has +a different tale to tell from that set forth in the flora of Reims and +Amiens, Rouen and Chartres. + +"In point of fact, the natural form which most frequently occurs in the +capitals of our cathedral--by no means a remarkably flowery one--is the +episcopal crozier as seen in the young shoots of the fern." + +"No doubt. But does not the fern bear a symbolical meaning?" + +"In a general sense, it is emblematic of humility, evidently in allusion +to its habit of growing as much as possible far from the high road, in +the depths of woods. But by consulting the Treatise of St. Hildegarde we +learn that the plant she calls _Fern_, or bracken, has magical +properties. + +"Just as sunshine disperses darkness, says the Abbess of Rupertsberg, +the _Fern_ puts nightmares to flight. The devil hates and flees from it, +and thunder and hail rarely fall on spots where it takes shelter; also +the man who wears it about him escapes witchcraft and spells." + +"Then St. Hildegarde made a study of natural history in its relations to +medicine and magic?" + +"Yes; but the book remains unknown because it has never yet been +translated. + +"She sometimes assigns very singular talismanic virtues to certain +flowers. Would you like some instances? + +"According to her, the plantain cures anyone who has eaten or drunk +poison, and the pimpernel has the same virtue when hung round the neck. +Myrrh must be warmed against the body till it is quite soft, and then it +nullifies the wizard's malignant arts, delivers the mind from phantoms, +and is an antidote to philtres. It also puts to flight all lascivious +dreaming, if worn on the breast or the stomach; only, as it eliminates +every carnal suggestion it depresses the spirit and makes it 'arid'; and +for this reason, adds the saint, it should never be eaten but under +great necessity. + +"It is true that as a remedy against the dejection caused by myrrh we +may apply the 'hymelsloszel' (Himmelschlüssel), which is--or appears to +be--_Primula officinalis_, the cowslip, whose bunches of fragrant yellow +blossoms are to be seen in moist woods and meadows. This plant is +'warm,' and imbibes its qualities from the light. Hence it can drive +away melancholy, which, says St. Hildegarde, spoils men's good manners, +making them utter speech contrary to God, on hearing which words the +spirits of the air gather about him who has spoken them, and finally +drive him mad. + +"I may also tell you of the mandragora, a plant 'warm and watery,' that +may symbolize the human being it resembles; and it is more susceptible +than all other plants to the suggestion of the devil; but I would rather +quote a recipe that you might perhaps think useful. + +"Here is our Abbess's prescription _à propos_ to the iris or lily: Take +the tip of the root, bruise it in rancid fat, heat this ointment and rub +it on any who are afflicted with red or white leprosy, and they will +soon be healed. + +"But enough of these old-world recipes and counter-charms; we will study +the symbolism of plants. + +"Flowers in general are emblematic of what is good. According to Durand +of Mende, both flowers and trees represent good works, of which the +virtues are the roots; according to Honorius, the hermit, green herbs +are for wisdom; those in flower are for progress; those in fruit are the +perfect souls; finally, we are told by old treatises on symbolical +theology that all plants embody the allegory of the Resurrection, while +the idea of eternity attaches more particularly to the vine, the cedar +and the palm." + +"And you may add," the Abbé Gévresin put in, "that in the Psalms the +palm figures the righteous man, while according to the interpretation of +Gregory the Great its rugged bark and the golden strings of dates are +emblematical of the wood of the Cross, hard to the touch, but bearing +fruit that is sweet to those who are worthy to taste them." + +"Well," said Durtal, "but supposing that Madame Bavoil should wish to +plant a liturgical garden, what should she select for it? + +"Can we, to begin with, compose a dictionary of plants representing the +capital sins and their antithetical virtues, sketch a basis of +operations, and pick out by certain rules the materials at the command +of the mystic gardener?" + +"I do not know," said the Abbé Plomb. "At the same time, I should think +it might be possible; only we should have to remember the names of the +plants more or less exactly symbolizing those qualities and defects. In +short, what you need is a sort of language of flowers as applied to the +catechism. Let us try. + +"For pride we have the pumpkin, which was worshipped of old as a +divinity in Sicyon. It bears indifferently the character of pride or of +fertility; of fertility by reason of its multitude of seeds and its +rapid growth, of which the monk Walafrid Strabo wrote in noble +hexameters a whole chapter of his poem; and of pride by reason of its +huge hollow head and its bulk; and then we also have the cedar, which +Peter of Capua and Saint Melito agree in accusing of pride. + +"Avarice? I confess I know of no plant which represents it; we will come +back to that." + +"I beg your pardon," said the Abbé Gévresin; "Saint Eucher and Raban +Maur speak of thorns as emblematical of riches which accumulate to the +detriment of the soul; and Saint Melito says that the sycamore means +greed of money." + +"The poor sycamore!" cried the younger priest. "It has been served with +every sauce! Raban Maur and the Anonymous monk of Clairvaux also call it +a misbelieving Jew; Peter of Capua compares it to the Cross; Saint +Eucher calls it wisdom, and there are other meanings. But meanwhile I +forget how far we had gone. Oh! lasciviousness; we here have ample +choice. Besides certain trees there is cyclamen, or sow-bread, which, +according to an ancient dictum of Theophrastus, is symbolical of this +sin because it was used in the preparation of love-philtres; the nettle, +which Peter of Capua says is emblematic of the unruly instincts of the +flesh; and the tuberose, a more modern introduction, but known as far +back as the sixteenth century, when a Minorite Father brought it to +France. Its heady perfume, which disturbs the nerves, also, it is said, +excites the senses. + +"For envy there are the bramble and the aconite, which, to be sure, is +more exactly assigned to calumny and scandal; and, again, the nettle, +which, however, is also interpreted by Albertus Magnus as figuring +courage and expelling fear. + +"Greediness?" The Abbé paused to think. "Carnivorous plants, perhaps, as +the fly-trap and the bog sundew." + +"And why not the humbler _cuscuta_, the dodder, the cuttlefish of the +vegetable kingdom, which shoots out the antennæ of its stems as fine as +thread, attaching itself to other plants by tiny suckers and feeding +greedily on their juices?" asked the Abbé Gévresin. + +"Anger," the Abbé Plomb went on, "is symbolized by a shrub with pinkish +flowers, a kind of bitter-sweet, as it is popularly called, and by Herb +Basil, which ever since the Middle Ages has had the same character +ascribed to it of cruelty and rage as to its namesake, the basilisk, in +the animal world." + +"Oh!" cried Madame Bavoil, "and we use it to season dishes and flavour +certain sauces." + +"That is a serious culinary error and a spiritual danger," said the +priest, smiling. He then went on:-- + +"Anger may also be figured by the balsam, which especially symbolizes +impatience by reason of the irritability of its seed-vessels, which fly +at a touch and explode, sending them to some distance.... + +"Sloth finally has the whole tribe of poppies, which give sleep. + +"As to the opposite virtues, the explanation they need is childish. For +humility you have the bracken, the hyssop, the knotweed, and the violet, +which, says Peter of Capua, is, by that same token, emblematical of +Christ." + +"And likewise, according to Saint Melito, of the Confessors; or, +according to Saint Mechtildis, of widows," added the Abbé Gévresin. + +"For indifference to the things of this world we find the lichen +symbolizing solitude; for chastity, the orange-flower and the lily; for +charity, the water-lily, the rose, and the saffron flower--so say Raban +Maur and the Anonymous monk of Clairvaux; for temperance, the lettuce, +which also stands for fasting; for meekness, mignonette; for +watchfulness, the elder, signifying zeal; and thyme, which, with its +sharp, pungent aroma, symbolizes activity. + +"You may dispense with the sins, which have no place in the precincts of +Our Lady, and lay out your plots with the devout flowers." + +"How is that to be done?" asked the Abbé Gévresin. + +"Why," said Durtal, "there are two plans. One would be to sketch the +plan of a real church and supply the place of its statues with plants, +which would be the better way from the point of view of art; or else to +compose a whole sanctuary with trees and shrubs." + +He rose, and went to pick up a stick that was lying in the field. + +"There," said he, tracing the cruciform outline of a church on the +ground, "there you have the plan of our cathedral. Supposing now we +build it, beginning at the end, the apse; there we naturally place the +Lady chapel, as we find it in most cathedrals. + +"Plants emblematic of Our Lady's attributes are abundant." + +"The mystical rose of the Litanies!" exclaimed Madame Bavoil. + +"H'm!" said Durtal; "the rose has been much bedraggled. Not only was it +the erotic blossom of Paganism, but in the Middle Ages Jews and +prostitutes were compelled in many places to wear a rose as a +distinctive mark of infamy." + +"True," said the Abbé Plomb, "and yet Peter of Capua uses it, with an +interpretation of love and charity, to figure the Virgin; Saint +Mechtildis, again, says that roses are symbolical of martyrs, and in +another passage of her work on 'Specific Grace,' she compares this +flower to the virtue of patience." + +"Walafrid Strabo, in his '_Hortulus_,' also speaks of the rose as the +blood of the martyred saints," the Abbé Gévresin murmured. + +"'_Rosae martyres, rubore sanguinis_,' according to the key of Saint +Melito," the other priest added, in confirmation. + +"We will admit that shrub," cried Durtal. "Now for the lily--" + +"Here I must interrupt you," exclaimed the Abbé Plomb, "for it must be +at once understood that the lily of the Scriptures has nothing to do +with the flower we know by that name. + +"The common white lily which grows in Europe, and which even before the +Middle Ages was regarded by the Church as emblematic of virginity, does +not seem to have existed in Palestine; and when, in the Song of Songs, +the mouth of the Beloved is compared to a lily, it is evidently not in +praise of white, but of red lips. The plant spoken of in the Bible as +the lily of the valleys, or the lily of the fields, is neither more nor +less than the anemone. + +"This is proved by the Abbé Vigouroux. It abounds in Syria, round +Jerusalem, in Galilee, on the Mount of Olives; rising from a tuft of +deeply-cut, alternate leaves of a rich, dull green, the flower cup is +like a delicate and refined poppy; it has the air of a patrician among +flowers, of a little Infanta, fresh and innocent in her gorgeous +attire." + +"It is certainly the fact," observed Durtal, "that the innocence of the +lily is far from obvious, for its scent, when you think of it, is +anything rather than chaste. It is a mingling of honey and pepper, at +once acrid and mawkish, pallid but piercing; it is suggestive rather of +the aphrodisiac conserves of the East and the erotic sweetmeats of the +Indies." + +"But, after all," said the Abbé Gévresin, "granting that there never +were lilies in the Holy Land--but is it so?--it is none the less certain +that a whole series of symbols were derived from this plant both by the +ancients and in mediæval times. + +"Look, for instance, at Origen; to him the lily is Christ, for Our Lord +alluded to Himself when He said, 'I am the flower of the field and the +lily of the valley;' and in these words, the field, meaning tilled land, +represents the Hebrew people, taught by God Himself, while the valleys +or fallow land are the ignorant, or, in other words, the heathen. + +"Again, turn to Peter Cantor. According to him, the lily is the Virgin, +by reason of its whiteness, of its perfume delectable above all others, +of its healing virtues; and finally, because it grows in uncultivated +ground, as the Virgin was born of Jewish parents." + +"As regards the therapeutic virtues mentioned by Petrus Cantor," said +the Abbé Plomb, "I may add that the Anonymous English writer of the +thirteenth century tells us that the lily is a sovereign remedy for +burns, and for this cause is an image of the Virgin, who heals sinners +of their burns--that is to say, of their vices." + +"You may further consult Saint Methodus, Saint Mechtildis, Peter of +Capua, and the English monk of whom you spoke, and you will find that +the lily is the attribute, not only of the Virgin Mary, but of virginity +in general and of all virgins. + +"And here is a posy of meanings culled from Saint Eucher, who compares +the whiteness of the lily to the purity of the angels; from Saint +Gregory the Great, who says its fragrance is like the works of the +saints; and again from Raban Maur, who speaks of the lily as emblematic +of celestial beatitude, of the beauty of holiness, of the Church, of +perfection, of chastity in the flesh." + +"Not to forget that, according to the translation of Origen, the Lily +among Thorns is the Church in the midst of its enemies," the Abbé Plomb +put in. + +"Then it is Jesus, His Mother, the Angels, the Church, the Virgins, +everything at once!" exclaimed Durtal. "We cannot but wonder how these +mystic gardeners could discern so many meanings in one and the same +plant!" + +"Why, you can see: the symbolists not only considered the analogies and +resemblances they discovered between the form, scent, and colour of a +flower and the being with whom they compared it; they also studied the +Bible, especially the passages wherein a tree or flower was named, and +they then ascribed to it such qualities as were mentioned or could be +inferred from the text. They did the same with regard to animals, +colours, gems, everything to which they could attribute a meaning. It is +simple enough." + +"It is complicated enough!" said Durtal. "And now where was I?" + +"In the Lady chapel, planting roses and anemones. Now add to these a +shrub which is the emblem of Mary according to the Anonymous monk of +Clairvaux, or of the Incarnation according to the Anonymous writer of +Troyes, the walnut, of which the fruit is interpreted in the same sense +by the Bishop of Sardis." + +"And also mignonette," cried Durtal, "for Sister Emmerich speaks of it +frequently and with much mystery. She says that this flower is very +dear to Mary, who planted it and made much use of it. + +"Then there is another plant which seems to me no less appropriate: the +bracken--not by reason of the qualities ascribed to it by Saint +Hildegarde, but because it symbolizes the most secret and retiring +humility. Take one of the stoutest stems and cut it aslant, like the +mouthpiece of a whistle, and you will find very distinctly imprinted in +black the form of a heraldic _fleur de lys_, as if stamped with a hot +iron. The scent being absent, we may here accept it as the symbol of +humility--a humility so perfect that it is undiscoverable but in death." + +"Aha! our friend is not so ignorant of country lore as I had fancied," +exclaimed Madame Bavoil. + +"Oh, I wandered in the woods a little, as a child." + +"For the choir no discussion is possible, I believe," said the Abbé +Gévresin. "The eucharistic plants, the vine and corn are self-evidently +appropriate. + +"The vine, of which the Lord said '_Ego vitis sum_,' is also the emblem +of communion and the image of the eighth beatitude; corn, which, as the +Sacramental element, was the object of peculiar care and respect in the +Middle Ages. + +"You have only to recall the solemn ceremonial observed in certain +convents when the wafer was to be prepared. + +"At Saint Etienne, Caen, the monks washed their face and hands, and +kneeling before the altar of Saint Benedict, said Lauds, the seven +penitential Psalms, and the Litanies of the Saints. Then a lay brother +presented the mould in which the wafers were to be baked, two at a time; +and on the day when this unleavened bread was prepared those who had +taken part in the ceremony dined together, and their table was served +exactly like the Abbot's. + +"At Cluny, again, three priests or three deacons, fasting after the +above-mentioned services of prayer, put on albs and invited the aid of +certain lay brethren. They mixed the flour of wheat that had been sifted +by the novices, grain by grain, with a due quantity of water; and a monk +wearing gloves baked the wafers one by one over a large fire of +brushwood, in an iron mould stamped with the proper symbols." + +"That reminds me," said Durtal, as he lighted a cigarette, "of the mill +for grinding the wheat for the offering." + +"I am familiar with the mystical wine-press which was often represented +by the glass-workers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries," said the +Abbé Gévresin. "That was practically a paraphrase of Isaiah's prophetic +verse: 'I have trodden the wine-press alone, and there was no man with +me'; but the mystic mill is, I own, unknown to me." + +"I have seen it once at Berne, in a window of the fifteenth century," +said the Abbé Plomb. + +"I also saw it in the cathedral at Erfurt, painted, not on glass, but on +a panel. The picture is by no known painter, and dated 1534. I can see +it now: Above, God the Father, a good old man with a snowy beard, solemn +and thoughtful; and the mill, like a coffee mill, fixed on the edge of a +table, with the drawer open below. The evangelical beasts are emptying +into the hopper, skins full of scrolls on which are written the +effective Sacramental words. These scrolls are swallowed in the body of +the machine, and come out into the drawer, thence falling into a chalice +held by a Cardinal and Bishop kneeling at the table. + +"And the texts are changed into a little Child in the act of blessing +while the four Evangelists turn a long silver crank in the right-hand +corner of the panel." + +"What seems strange," remarked the Abbé Gévresin, "is that it should be +the formula of Transubstantiation and not the substance that is changed, +and that the Evangelists, twice represented--under their animal and +their human aspect--pour into the mill and grind. And also that the +sacred oblation should be represented by the living flesh. + +"Still, it is correct; since the consecrating words are uttered, the +bread has ceased to be. This scheme of implied meaning, though somewhat +strange, in a literal presentment, a scene of actual grinding--the wheat +in the grain, in flour, and in the Host--this obvious intention of +ignoring the species, the appearances, and substituting the reality +which is invisible to sense, must have been adopted by the painter in +order to appeal to the masses, to bear witness to the certainty of the +Miracle and to make the mystery evident to the people. But let us return +to the construction of our church. Where were we?" + +"Here," said Durtal, pointing with his stick to the side aisles as +traced in the sand. "Now, to represent the side chapels we have a +choice. One we shall dedicate, of course, to Saint John the Baptist. To +distinguish it from the others we have the gilliflower and the +ground-ivy to which he has given his name, and more especially the St. +John's wort, which if gathered on the eve of his festival and placed in +a room, destroys malignant spells and charms, is a protection against +thunder, and hinders the walking of ghosts. + +"It may be added that this plant, famous in the Middle Ages, was used as +a remedy for epilepsy and St. Vitus' dance, two maladies for which the +intercession of the Precursor is most efficacious. + +"We will dedicate another to Saint Peter. On his altar we may lay a posy +of the herbs dedicated to his service by our forefathers: the primrose, +the wild honeysuckle, the gentian and soap-wort, pellitory and bindweed, +with others whose names escape me. + +"But, first, will it not be our bounden duty to erect a tower for Our +Lady of the Seven Dolours, such as we find in many churches? + +"The flower obviously indicated is the passion-flower; that unique +blossom, of a purplish blue, its seed-vessel simulating the Cross, its +styles and stigma the Nails; its stamens mimicking the Hammer, its +thread-like fringe the Crown of thorns--in short, it represents all the +instruments of the Passion. Add to this, if you will, a bunch of hyssop, +plant a cypress, of which Saint Melito speaks as emblematical of the +Saviour, and which Monsieur Olier regards as symbolical of death; a +myrtle, signifying compassion, according to a passage by Saint Gregory +the Great; and, above all, do not omit the buckthorn, or _Rhamnus_--for +of that shrub the Jews twined the stems that formed Christ's crown--and +your chapel is complete." + +"The buckthorn," said the Abbé Gévresin; "yes, Rohant de Fleury says +that its thorny branches were used to crown the Son's head; but this +leaves us wondering, when we remember that in the Old Testament, in the +ninth chapter of the Book of Judges, all the tall trees of Judæa bow +down before the Royalty prophetically prefigured by this humble shrub." + +"Very true," replied the Abbé Plomb. "But what is most curious is the +number of absolutely dissimilar senses which the oldest symbolists +attribute to the buckthorn. Saint Methodus uses it for virginity; +Theodoret for sin; Saint Jerome ascribes it to the devil; and Saint +Bernard takes it as symbolizing humility. Again, in the '_Theologia +Symbolica_' of Maximilian Sandaeus, this shrub is made to signify the +worldly prelacy, while the olive, vine, and fig, with which the author +contrasts it, are the contemplative Orders. In this, no doubt, we may +see an allusion to the thorns which Bishops were not always unready to +thrust on the long-suffering Heads of monasteries. + +"You have forgotten, too, in the blazonry of your chapel, the reed which +formed the sceptre of mockery forced into the Son's hands. But the reed, +like the buckthorn, is a sort of Jack-of-all-trades. Saint Melito +defines it as the Incarnation and the Scriptures; Raban Maur as the +Preacher, the hypocrite, and the Gentiles; Saint Eucher as the sinner; +the Anonymous monk of Clairvaux as Christ; and others which I have +forgotten." + +"These are many meanings for a single plant," observed Durtal. "But now +if we want to specialize some chapels as dedicated to saints, nothing +can be easier; at any rate, for such as have lent their names to plants. + +"For instance, the Valerian, known as Herb Saint George, the white +flower with a hollow stem, which grows in moist, places, and its popular +name is quite intelligible since it was used in treating nervous +diseases, for which the saint's intercession was invoked. + +"Then we have the plant or plants dedicated to Saint Roch: the +pennyroyal, and two species of _Inula_, one with bright yellow flowers, +a purgative that cures the itch. Formerly on Saint Roch's day branches +of this herb were blessed and hung in the cow-houses to preserve the +cattle from epidemics. + +"Saint Anne's wort, a humble creeper, the samphire--an emblem of +poverty. + +"Herb Barbara, the winter-cress, a cruciferous plant, anti-scorbutic--a +poverty-stricken flower, creeping along the wayside like a beggar. + +"To Saint Fiacre is dedicated the mullein, with its emollient leaves; +boiled to make a poultice, it relieves colic, which this saint has a +reputation for curing. + +"Saint Stephen's wort is the enchanter's nightshade, a beneficent plant +with red berries on a hairy stem. And there are many others. + +"For the crypt, supposing we dig one out, it must certainly be filled +with the trees mentioned in the Old Testament, of which this portion of +the building is itself an allegory. In spite of climate we must grow the +vine and the palm, emblems of eternity; the cedar, which by reason of +its incorruptible wood is sometimes thought to symbolize the angels; the +olive and the fig, emblems of the Holy Trinity and of the Word; +frankincense, cassia and _balsamodendron Myrrha_, a symbol of the +perfect humanity of Our Lord; the terebinth--meaning exactly what?" + +"According to Peter of Capua, the Cross and the Church; but Saint Melito +says the saints. According to the monk of Clairvaux, it is the false +doctrine of the Jews and heretics; and as to the drops of resin, they +are Christ's tears, if we may believe Saint Ambrose," replied the Abbé +Plomb. + +"And even so, our cathedral remains incomplete. We are but feeling our +way, without logical sequence. I admit that at the entrance we must +plant the purifying hyssop in the place of the holy-water vessel; but +with what can we build the walls unless we accept the alternative of a +real church having walls but unfinished?" + +"Take the figurative sense of the walls and translate that; the great +walls are representative of the four Evangelists, Can you find plants +for them?" + +Durtal shook his head. "The Evangelists are, of course, symbolized in +the fauna of mysticism by the animals of the Tetramorph; the twelve +apostles have their synonyms in the category of gems, and two of the +Evangelists are naturally to be found there: Saint John is associated +with the emerald, the emblem of purity and faith; Saint Matthew with the +chrysolite, the emblem of wisdom and watchfulness; but none, so far as I +know, has found a representative among either trees or flowers. And yet, +to be sure, Saint John has the sun-flower, signifying divine +inspiration; for he is represented in a window in the church of Saint +Rémy at Reims, his head crowned with a nimbus surmounted by two of these +flowers." + +"Saint Mark, too, has a plant--the tansy, so named in the Middle Ages." + +"The tansy?" + +"Yes; a bitter, aromatic plant with yellow flowers, which grows in stony +ground, and is used in medicine as an anti-spasmodic. Like Saint +George's herb, it is used in nervous maladies, the intercession of +Saint Mark being, it would seem, of sovereign efficacy. + +"As to Saint Luke, he may be represented by clumps of mignonette, for +Sister Emmerich tells us that while he was a physician it was his +favourite remedy. He macerated mignonette in palm oil, and after +blessing it, applied the unction in the form of a cross on the brow and +mouth of his patients; in other cases he used the dried plant in an +infusion. + +"Only Saint Matthew remains; but here I give in, for I know of no +vegetable species that can reasonably be assigned to him." + +"Nay, do not think it hopeless," cried the Abbé Plomb. "A mediæval +legend tells us that balms exuded from his tomb; hence he was +represented as holding a branch of cinnamon, symbolical of the fragrance +of virtue, says Saint Melito." + +"Well, it would be better to accept the real walls of a church, making +use of the structure, and limiting ourselves to completing the idea by +details borrowed from the symbolism of flowers." + +"And the sacristy?" suggested the Abbé Gévresin. + +"Since, according to the _Rationale_ of Durand of Mende, the sacristy is +the very bosom of the Virgin, we will represent it by virginal plants +such as the anemone, and trees such as the cedar, which Saint Ildefonso +compares to Our Mother. And now, if we are to furnish the instruments of +worship, we shall find in the ritual of the liturgy and in the very form +of certain plants almost precise guidance. Thus, flax, of which the +cornice and altar napery is to be woven, is indispensable; the olive and +the _balsamum_, from which oil and balm are extracted, and frankincense, +which sheds the drops of gum for the incense, are no less indicated. For +the chalice we may choose from among the flowers which goldsmiths take +as their models: the white convolvulus, the frail campanula, and even +the tulip, though, having some repute as connected with magic, that +flower is in ill odour. For the shape of the monstrance there is the +sun-flower." + +"Yes," interrupted the Abbé Plomb, wiping his spectacles, "but these are +fancies borrowed simply from superficial resemblance; it is modern +symbolism, which is really not symbolism at all. And is not this the +case to a great extent with the various interpretations that you accept +from Sister Emmerich? She died in 1824." + +"What does that matter?" said Durtal. "Sister Emmerich was a primitive +saint, a seer, whose body indeed lived in our day, but whose soul was +far away; she dwelt more in the Middle Ages than in ours. It might be +said indeed that she was more ancient still, for, in fact, she was +contemporary with Christ, whose life she follows step by step through +her pages. + +"Hence her ideas of symbolism cannot be set aside. To me they are of +equal authority with those of Saint Mechtildis, who was born in the +early part of the thirteenth century. + +"In point of fact, the source whence they both alike derived them is the +same. And what is time, or past or present, when we speak of God? + +"These women were the sieves through which His grace was poured, and +what need I care whether the instruments were of yesterday or to-day? +The word of the Lord is supreme over the ages; His inspiration blows +when and where it lists. Is not that true?" + +"I quite agree." + +"And all this time," said the housekeeper, "you do not think of making +use in your building of the iris, which my good Jeanne de Matel regards +as an emblem of peace." + +"Oh, we will find a place for it, Madame Bavoil, never fear. And there +is yet another plant which we must not omit; the trefoil, for sculptors +have strewn it broadcast in their stony gardens, and the trefoil, like +the fruit of the almond tree, which shows the elongated nimbus, is an +emblem of the Holy Trinity. + +"Suppose we recapitulate: + +"At the end of the nave, in the shell of the apse, in front of a +semicircle of tall bracken turned brown by autumn, we see a flaming +assumption of climbing roses hedging a bed of red and white anemones, +edged with the sober green of mignonette. And to give variety by adding +symbols of humility--the knotweed, the violet, and the hyssop--we may +form a posy of which the meaning will represent the perfect virtues of +Our Mother. + +"Now," said he, pointing with his stick to the plan of the nave he had +traced, "here is the altar, overgrown with red-leaved vines, purple or +pearly grapes, sheaves of golden corn. Ah! but we must have a cross over +the altar." + +"That will not be difficult," replied the Abbé Gévresin. "From the grain +of mustard seed, which all the symbolists accept in a figurative sense +as representing Christ, to the sycamore and the terebinth, you have a +wide range; you can at pleasure have a tiny cross, a mere nothing, or a +gigantic crucifix." + +"Here," Durtal went on, "along the bays where trefoils flourish, +different flowers rise from the ground, corresponding to the saints of +their ascription; here is the chapel of Our Lady of the Seven Dolours, +recognizable by the passion-flower full blown on its creeping stem, with +its many tendrils; and the background is a hedge of reeds and rhamnus, +full of sad meaning, mitigated by the compassionate myrtle. + +"Here, again, is the sacristy, where smiles the soft blue flax on its +light stem, the abundant flowers of the convolvulus and campanula, tall +sun-flowers, and, if you choose, a palm, for I recollect that Sister +Emmerich speaks of this tree as a paragon of chastity, because, she +says, the male and female flowers are separate, and both kept modestly +hidden. Another interpretation to the credit of the palm!" + +"But after all, you are absurd, our friend!" cried Madame Bavoil. "All +this will not hold together. Your plants are the growth of different +climates, and in any case they could not all be in bloom at the same +time; consequently, by the time you have planted this, that will be +dead. You can never grow them side by side." + +"That is symbolical of many unfinished cathedrals, where the building is +carried across from century to century," said Durtal, snapping his +stick. "But listen, fancy apart, there is something which may be done, +and has not been done, for celestial botany and pious posies. + +"That is, to make a liturgical garden, a true Benedictine garden, where +flowers may be grown in succession for the sake of their relations to +the Scriptures and hagiology. Would it not be delightful to follow out +the liturgy of prayer with that of plants, to place them side by side in +the sanctuary, to deck the altars with flowers all having their meanings +according to the days and festivals; in short, to associate nature in +its most exquisite manifestation--that is, its flowers--with the +ceremonies of divine worship?" + +"Yes, indeed!" exclaimed both the priests with one accord. + +"Meanwhile, till these fine things are accomplished, I will be content +to dig in my little kitchen garden with an eye to the savoury stews in +which you shall share," said Madame Bavoil. "There I am in my element; I +do not lose my footing as I do in your imitation churches." + +"And I, on my part, will meditate on the symbolism of eatables," said +Durtal, taking out his watch. "It is near breakfast time." + +As he was going off, the Abbé Plomb called him back and said, +laughing,-- + +"In your future cathedral you have forgotten to reserve a nook for Saint +Columba, if, indeed, we can find some ascetic plant native, or at any +rate common, to Ireland, the land where this Father was born." + +"The thistle, figurative of mortification and penance and a memento of +asceticism, is conspicuous as the badge of Scotland," replied Durtal. +"But why Saint Columba?" + +"Because of all saints he is the most neglected, the least invoked by +those of our contemporaries who ought to be most assiduous; since he is +regarded in the attributions of special virtues as the patron saint of +idiots." + +"Pooh!" cried the Abbé Gévresin. "Why, if ever a man revealed a +magnificent comprehension of things human and divine, it was that great +Abbot and founder of monasteries!" + +"Oh! there is no suggestion implied that Saint Columba was feeble of +brain; and as to why the mission was trusted to him rather than another +of protecting the greater part of the human race, I do not know." + +"Perhaps he may have cured lunatics and healed those possessed?" the +Abbé Gévresin suggested. + +"At any rate," said Durtal, "it would be vain to erect a chapel to him, +since it would always be empty; no one would come to entreat him, poor +saint! for the essential mark of an idiot is not to think himself one!" + +"A saint out of work!" remarked Madame Bavoil. + +"And who is not likely to find any," said Durtal, as he left them. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + +Durtal had begged his housekeeper, Madame Mesurat, to serve his coffee +in his study. He thus hoped to escape having her constantly standing in +front of him, as she did all through his meal, asking him if his +mutton-cutlet were good. + +And though that meat had a taste of flannel, Durtal had nodded a sketchy +affirmative, knowing full well that if he ventured on the least comment +he would have to endure an incoherent harangue on all the butchers in +the town. + +As soon as this woman, at once servile, despotic, and obsequious, had +placed his cup on the table, he buried his nose in a book, and by his +repellent attitude compelled her to fly. + +He knew the book he was turning over almost by heart, for he had often +read it between the hours of service at the cathedral. It was so +entirely sympathetic to him, with its artless faith and ingenuous +enthusiasm, that it was to him like the familiar speech of the Church +itself. + +The little volume contained the prayers composed in the fourteenth +century by Gaston Phoebus, Comte de Foix. Durtal had it in two editions, +one printed in the original form of his authentic words and antiquated +spelling, by the Abbé de Madaune; the other modernized, but with great +skill and taste, by Monsieur de la Brière. + +Durtal, as he turned the pages, came on such lamentable and humble +prayers as these: "Thou who hast shapened me in my mother's womb, let me +not perish.... Lord, I confess my poverty.... My conscience gnaws me and +shows me the secrets of my heart. Avarice constrains me, concupiscence +befouls me, gluttony disgraces me, anger torments me, inconstancy +crushes me, indolence oppresses me, hypocrisy beguiles me.... and these, +Lord, are the companions with whom I have spent my youth, these are the +friends I have known, these are the masters I have served." And further +on he exclaims, "Sin have I heaped upon sin, and the sins which I could +not commit in very deed yet have I committed by evil desire." + +Durtal closed the volume, regretting that it should be so entirely +unknown to Catholics. They were all busy chewing the cud of the old hay +left at the heading or end of the "Christian's Day" or "The Eucologia," +or meditating on the pompous prayers elaborated in the ponderous +phraseology of the seventeenth century, in which there is no accent of +sincerity to be found--nothing, not an appeal that comes from the heart, +not even a pious cry! + +How far were these rhapsodies all cast in the same mould from this +penitent and simple language, from this easy and candid communion of the +soul with God? + +Then Durtal dipped again here and there, and read:-- + +"My God and my Mercy, I am ashamed to pray to Thee for very shame of my +evil conscience; give a fountain of tears to my eyes, and my hands +largess of alms and charity; give me a seemly faith, and hope, and +abiding charity. Lord, Thou holdest no man in horror save the fool that +denies Thee. Oh, my God, the Giver of My Redemption and Receiver of my +soul, I have sinned and Thou hast suffered me!" + +Then, turning over a few more pages, he came at the end of the volume to +a few passages collected by Monsieur de la Brière, among them these +reflections on the Eucharist culled from a manuscript of the fifteenth +century:-- + +"Not every man can assimilate this meat; some there be who eat it not, +but swallow it down in haste. It should be chewed as much as possible +with the teeth of the understanding, to the end that the sweet of its +savour be pressed out of it, and may come forth from it. Ye have heard +it said that in nature, that which is most crushed is most nourishing; +now the crushing of the teeth is our deep and keen meditation on the +Sacrament itself." + +Then, after having elucidated the individual use of each tooth, the +author adds, in speaking of the fifteenth, "the Sacrament on the altar +is not merely as meat to fill and refill us; but, which is more, to make +us divine." + +"Lord!" murmured Durtal, laying down the book. "O Lord! If we allowed +ourselves nowadays to use such materialistic comparisons and make use of +such homely terms in speaking of Thy supremely adorable Body, what a +clamour would arise from the 'respectable' among the worshippers and the +blessed legion of the good women who have comfortable praying-chairs and +reserved places near the altar--like front seats in a theatre--in the +House where all are equal." + +And Durtal pondered over these reflections which assailed him every time +he happened to take up a clerical journal or one of the Manuals +introduced by some prelate's note of approval, like a clean bill of +health. + +He could never get over his amazement at the incredible ignorance, the +instinctive aversion for art, the type of ideas, the terror of words, +peculiar to Catholics. Why was this? For after all there was no reason +why believers should be more ignorant and stupid than any other folks. +Indeed, the contrary ought to be the truth. + +Whence did this inferiority proceed? And Durtal could answer himself. It +was due to the system of education, to the training in intellectual +timidity, to the lessons in fear, given in a cellar, far from a vital +atmosphere and the light of day. It really seemed as if there were some +intention of emasculating souls by nourishing them on dried-up +fragments, literary white-meat; some set purpose of destroying all +independence and initiative in the disciples by levelling them, crushing +them all under the same roller, and restricting the sphere of thought by +maintaining a deliberate ignorance of art and literature. + +And all merely to avert the temptation of forbidden fruit, of which the +idea was suggested under the pretext of inspiring dread of it. By this +method curiosity with regard to the veiled unknown tormented their young +brains and excited their senses, for it was always in the background, +and in a form all the more dangerous because it had the effect of a more +or less transparent gauze. The imagination could not fail to exasperate +itself by cogitating its desire to know and its fear of knowing, and it +was ready to fly off at the least word. + +Under these circumstances the most anodyne book was a source of danger +from the simple fact that love was alluded to, and woman depicted as an +attractive creature; and this was enough to account for all--for the +inherent ignorance of Catholics, since it was proclaimed as the +preventive cure for temptations--for the instinctive horror of art, +since to these craven souls every written and studied work was in its +nature a vehicle of sin and an incitement to fall. + +Would it not really be far more sensible and judicious to open the +windows, to air the rooms, to treat these souls as manly beings, to +teach them not to be so much afraid of their own flesh, to inculcate the +firmness and courage needed for resistance? For really it is rather like +a dog which barks at your heels and snaps at your legs if you are afraid +of him, but who beats a retreat if you turn on him boldly and drive him +off. + +The fact remains that these schemes of education have resulted, on the +one hand, in the triumph of the flesh in the greater number of men who +have been thus brought up and then thrown into a worldly life, and on +the other, in a wide diffusion of folly and fear, an abandonment of the +possessions of the intellect and the capitulation of the Catholic army +surrendering without a blow to the inroads of profane literature, which +takes possession of territory that it has not even had the trouble of +conquering. + +This really was madness! The Church had created art, had cherished it +for centuries; and now by the effeteness of her sons she was cast into a +corner. All the great movements of our day, one after the +other--romanticism, naturalism--had been effected independently of her, +or even against her will. + +If a book were not restricted to the simplest tales, or pleasing fiction +ending in virtue rewarded and vice punished, that was enough; the +propriety of beadledom was at once ready to bray. + +As soon as the most modern form of art, the most malleable and the +broadest--the Novel--touched on scenes of real life, depicted passion, +became a psychological study, an effort of analysis, the army of bigots +fell back all along the line. The Catholic force, which might have been +thought better prepared than any others to contest the ground which +theology had long since explored, retired in good order, satisfied to +cover its retreat by firing from a safe distance, with its old-fashioned +match-lock blunderbusses, on works it had neither inspired nor written. + +The Church party, centuries behind the time, and having made no attempt +to follow the evolution of style in the course of ages, now turned to +the rustic who can scarcely read; it did not understand more than half +of the words used by modern writers, and had become, it must be said, a +camp of the illiterate. Incapable of distinguishing the good from the +bad, it included in one condemnation the filth of pornography and real +works of art; in short, it ended by emitting such folly and talking such +preposterous nonsense, that it fell into utter discredit and ceased to +count at all. + +And it would have been so easy for it to work on a little way, to try to +keep up with the times, and to understand, to convince itself whether in +any given work the author was writing up the Flesh, glorifying it, +praising it, and nothing more, or whether, on the contrary, he depicted +it merely to buffet it--hating it. And, again, it would have done well +to convince itself that there is a chaste as well as a prurient nude, +and that it should not cry shame on every picture in which the nude is +shown. Above all, it ought to have recognized that vices may well be +depicted and studied with a view to exciting disgust of them and showing +their horrors. + +For, after all, this was the great theory of the Middle Ages, the +theological method in sculpture, the literary dogma of the monks of that +time; and this is the meaning and purpose of certain groups which even +now shock the propriety of our methodistical purists. These unseemly +subjects and images of indecency are very numerous at Saint Benoît on +the Loire, in the cathedral of Reims, at le Mans, in the crypt at +Bourges, everywhere in our churches; for in those where they do not +occur, it is because the prudery which was most rife in the most immoral +times, broke them by stoning them in the name of a morality very unlike +that which was inculcated by the mediæval saints. + +These subjects have for many years been the delight of Freethinkers and +the despair of Catholics; those see in them a scathing satire on the +manners of the monks and bishops, these lament that such turpitude +should ever have fouled the walls of the Temple. And yet it would have +been so easy to explain the purpose of these scenes; far from seeking to +apologize for the tolerance of the Church that allowed them, her honesty +and breadth should have been held up to admiration. By acting thus, the +Church manifested her determination to inure her sons by showing them +the ridiculous side of the temptations which assail them. It was, so to +speak, an object lesson or demonstration, and at the same time a bidding +to self-examination before venturing into the sanctuary which was thus +prefaced by a catalogue of sins as a reminder to confession. + +This was part of her plan of education, for she aimed at moulding manly +souls and not crippled creatures such as are turned out by the spiritual +orthopedists of our day; she dragged out vice and lashed it wherever it +lurked, and did not hesitate to preach the equality of men before God, +insisting that bishops and monks should, when guilty, be placed in the +pillory of its doorways; nay, she gibbeted them more willingly than +others, to set an example. + +These scenes were practically a comment of the Sixth (Seventh) +Commandment, a sculptured paraphrase of the Catechism; the Church's +accusation and teaching plainly expressed so as to be understood of all +men. + +And Our Mother did not restrict herself to one mode only of expressing +Her warnings and reproofs; to reiterate them she borrowed the language +of other arts. Literature and the pulpit were inevitably the +interpreters that she employed to vituperate the sins of the people. + +And they were not a whit more prudish or less audacious than sculpture. +We have only to open the books of the Church to convince ourselves of +the violent language in which she was wont to lash the sins of the +flesh. Beginning with the Scriptures, the Bible itself--which no one +dares read now but in mawkish French versions--what priest, for +instance, would venture to recommend to the nerveless spirit of his +flock the study of the sixteenth chapter of Ezekiel or of the Song of +Songs, that Epithalamium of Jesus and the Soul--down to the Fathers and +the Doctors? + +How our modern Pharisees would reprove the uncompromising language of +Saint Gregory the Great when he exclaims, "Speak the truth! A scandal is +better than a lie;" or Saint Epiphanius' plain speaking in discussing +the Gnostics and describing in detail the abominations of that sect, +quietly adding in the face of the congregation, "Why should I shrink +from speaking of the things you do not fear to do? By speaking thus, I +hope to fill you with horror of the turpitude you commit." + +Or what would they think of Saint Bernard expatiating in his third +meditation on horrible physiological details to demonstrate the baseness +of our carnal ambition and the foulness of our pleasures? Or of Saint +Hildegarde, who placidly discusses the various factors of such +pleasures, Saint Vincent Ferrier freely dealing in his sermons with the +sins of Onan and of Sodom, using the simplest language, and comparing +confession to a purgative, and asserting that the priest, like a doctor, +should examine the excreta of the soul and prescribe for it? + +What reprobation would be poured on the splendid passage by Odo of Cluny +quoted by Rémy de Gourmont in his "Latin Mystique," the passage where +that terrible monk analyzes the attractions of woman, turns them over, +eviscerates them, and flings them aside like a drawn rabbit on a +butcher's stall; and again on Clement of Alexandria, who sums the whole +matter up in two sentences:-- + +"I am not ashamed to name the parts of the body wherein the foetus is +formed and nourished; and why indeed should I be, since God was not +ashamed to create them?" + +None of the great writers of the Church were prudish. This mock-modesty +which has so long stultified us dates actually from the ages of impiety, +the period of paganism, the return on threadbare classicism which was +known as the Renaissance; and see how it has developed since! Its +hot-bed and nursery ground lay in the lewd and gorgeous years of the +so-called _Grand-siècle_; the virus of Jansenism, the old Protestant +taint mingled with the blood of Catholics, and pollutes it still. + +"It is very true! And pretty results have come of this infection of +decency!" Durtal burst out laughing as he thought of the cathedral at +Chartres. + +"Here," said he to himself, "we reach the climax; pious imbecility can +go no further. Among the subjects in sculpture in the ambulatory of the +choir there is a group representing the Circumcision, Saint Joseph +holding the Infant while the Virgin has a napkin ready and the High +Priest is preparing to operate. And there has been a priest so modest, a +divine so decorous as to regard this scene as licentious and to paste a +piece of paper over the Child's nakedness! + +"The indecency of God, the obscenity of a new-born Babe is too much! + +"Bah!" said he. "The time has slipped away in all this meditation, and +the Abbé will be waiting." + +He ran quickly downstairs and hurried across to the cathedral, where the +Abbé Plomb was pacing to and fro in front of the northern porch, +reciting his Breviary. + +"The side where sinners and demons are figured is especially that of the +Virgin, who saves those and crushes these," said the Abbé. "The northern +porch of a church is usually the most lively of all; here, however, the +Satanic incidents are on the southern side, because they form part of +the Last Judgment represented over the south door. Otherwise Chartres, +unlike her sister cathedrals, would have no scenes of that kind." + +"Then the rule in the thirteenth century was to place the Virgin in the +northern portion?" + +"Yes. To the men of that time the north meant the gloom of winter, the +dejection of darkness, the misery of cold; the ice-bound chant of the +winds was to them the very blast of evil; to the north was the home of +the devil, the hell of nature, as the south was its Eden." + +"But that is absurd!" cried Durtal, "the greatest blunder ever +introduced into the symbolism of the elements. The medieval sages were +mistaken, for snow is pure and cold is chastity. It is the sun, on the +contrary, that is the active agent in developing the germs of +rottenness, the ferment of vice! + +"They forget that the third Psalm of Compline speaks of the hot hour of +noon as the most harassing and dangerous of all; they must have +overlooked the horrors of sweat and unwholesome heat, the risks of +relaxed nerves, of loosened dresses, all the abominations of leaden +clouds and hard blue skies! + +"There are diabolical effluvia in the storm, and in weather when the air +stirs like the vapours from a furnace, rousing evil instincts and +bringing about us the raging swarm of evil angels." + +"But remember the passages in which Isaiah and Jeremiah speak of Lucifer +as dwelling in the blast of the north wind; and recollect that the great +cathedrals did not originate in the south but in the middle and north of +France; consequently, after having adopted this symbolism of seasons and +weather, the pious architects dreamed of the horror of men buried in +snow, and longing for a gleam of sunshine and a bright day. Naturally +they thought of the east as the region of the original Paradise, and of +those lands as milder and less inclement than their own." + +"That does not hinder the fact that this theory was controverted by Our +Lord Himself." + +"Where do you find that?" asked the Abbé Plomb. + +"On Calvary; Jesus died" turning His back to the south, which had +crucified Him, and extending His arms on the Cross to bless and embrace +the north. He seemed to be withdrawing His favours from the east, 'to +bestow them on the west. Hence, if any region is accurst and inhabited +by Satan, it is the south and not the north." + +"You abominate the south and its races, that is evident," said the Abbé, +laughing. + +"I do not love them. Their scenery, vulgarized by crude daylight, their +dusty trees standing out against a sky of washerwoman's blue, have no +charm for me; as to the natives, hairy and noisy, with a blue bar under +their nostrils if they shave, I flee from them!" + +"Here, in short, we are face to face with a fact which no discussions +can alter. This side of the church is dedicated to the Virgin. Shall we +now examine it, first as a whole, and then in detail? + +"This portal, brought forward like an open porch, a sort of verandah in +front of the doors, is an allegory of the Saviour showing the way into +the heavenly Jerusalem. It was begun in the year 1215 under Philip +Augustus, and finished by about 1275, under Philip the Bold; thus it was +nearly sixty years in building, the greater part of the thirteenth +century. It is divided into three parts, corresponding to the three +doors behind it; there are more than seven hundred statues grouped here, +large and small, representing, for the most part, personages from the +Old Testament. + +"It forms, in fact, three deep bays or gulfs. + +"The central portal, before which we are standing, and which leads to +the middle door, has for its subject the Glorification of the Virgin. + +"The left-hand bay contains the life and virtues of the Virgin. + +"The right-hand bay is devoted to images of Mary Herself. + +"According to another interpretation, put forward by Canon Davin, this +porch, which was built at the time when Saint Dominic instituted the +Rosary, is a reproduction in images of its mysteries." + +"On that theory, the left-hand arch, containing the scenes of the +Annunciation, the Visitation, and the Nativity, answers to the Joyful +Mysteries; the central bay, containing the Assumption and Coronation of +the Virgin, to the Glorious Mysteries; and that to the right, where we +find a presentment of Job, precursor of the Crucifixion under the +ancient law, to the Sorrowful Mysteries." + +"There is a third interpretation," said Durtal, "but it is ridiculous. +That of Didron, who regards this front as the first page of the Book of +Chartres. He opens it at this porch, and asserts that the sculptors +began to render the Encyclopedia of Vincent de Beauvais by representing +the creation of the world. But if so, where are those wonderful +representations of Genesis hidden?" + +"There," said the Abbé, pointing to a row of statuettes lost in a hollow +moulding at the very edge of the porch. + +"But to ascribe so much importance to tiny figures which, after all, are +there merely to fill up, as stop-gaps--it is preposterous!" cried +Durtal. + +"No doubt. But now let us examine the work. + +"You will observe in the first place that, in opposition to the ritual +observed in most of the great churches of the time--those of Amiens, +Reims, and Paris, to name but three--it is not the Virgin who stands on +the pillar between the two halves of the door, but Her Mother, Saint +Anne; and inside, in the windows, we find the same thing: Saint Anne, as +a negress, her head bound in a blue kerchief, holds Mary in her arms, as +brown as a half-caste." + +"Why is this?" + +"No doubt because the Emperor Beaudouin, after the sack of +Constantinople, bestowed that Saint's head on this cathedral. + +"The ten colossal statues placed on each side of Her in the niches of +the porch are familiar to you, for they attend Our Lady in every +sanctuary of the thirteenth century--in Paris, at Amiens, at Rouen, +Reims, Bourges, and Sens. The five to the left are a series figurative +of the Son; the five on the right symbolize Our Lord Himself. They +stand in chronological order: the prototypes of the Messiah, or the +Prophets who foretold His birth, death, resurrection, and everlasting +priesthood. + +"To the left, Melchizedec, Abraham, Moses, Samuel, and David; to the +right, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Simeon, Saint John the Baptist, and Saint +Peter." + +"But why," remarked Durtal, "is the son of Jonas in the midst of the Old +Testament? His place is not there, but in the Gospels." + +"Yes, but you will observe that Saint Peter here stands next to Saint +John the Baptist; the two statues are side by side and touch each other. +Then do you not perceive the meaning of this juxtaposition? One was the +Precursor and the other the Successor of Christ; the first anticipated +Him, the second carried out His mission. It was quite natural to place +them together, and that the Chief of the Apostles should figure as the +conclusion to the premisses set forth by the other statues of this +portal. + +"Finally, in addition to this series of patriarchs and prophets, you may +see there, in the hollow between the pilasters, a pair of statues, one +on each side of the door: Elijah the Tishbite, and Elisha his disciple. + +"The first prefigures the Saviour's Ascension by his being carried up +alive to Heaven in a chariot of fire; the second typifies Jesus saving +and preserving mankind in the person of the Shunammite's son. + +"Argument is vain," murmured Durtal, who was meditative. "The Messianic +prophecies are irresistible. All the logic of the Rabbins, the +Protestants, the Freethinkers, all the ingenuity of the Germans, have +failed to find a crack or to undermine the old rock of the Church. There +is such a body of evidence, such certainty, such demonstration of the +truth, such an indestructible foundation, that a man must be stricken +with spiritual blindness to dare deny it." + +"Yes: and to the end that there should be no mistake, no possibility of +alleging that the inspired Scriptures were written subsequent to the +arrival of the Messiah they prophesy, to prove that they were neither +invented nor added to after the event, it was God's pleasure that they +should be translated into Greek in the Septuagint version and known to +the whole world more than two hundred and fifty years before the birth +of Christ." + +"To imagine the impossible--supposing the Gospels were to be +annihilated, they could, I suppose, be restored, and a brief history +written of the Saviour's life as they relate it merely by studying the +Messianic announcements in the books of the Prophets?" + +"No doubt; for, after all, and it cannot be too often repeated, the Old +Testament is the story before the event of the Son of Man and the +founding of His Church; as Saint Augustine bears witness, 'the whole +history of the Jewish people was a perpetual prophecy of the expected +King.' + +"You will see, apart from personages prefiguring the Redeemer which you +may find in every page of the Bible: Isaac, Joseph, Moses, David, Jonah, +to name five taken at random; apart, too, from the animals and objects +that symbolized Him under the Old Laws, as, for instance, the Paschal +Lamb, the Manna, the Brazen Serpent, and others, we can, if you please, +simply by quoting the Prophets, trace the broad outlines of Emmanuel's +life and epitomize the Gospels in a few words. Listen!" + +The Abbé paused for thought, his hand over his eyes. + +"That he should be born of a Virgin is foretold by Isaiah, Jeremiah, and +Ezekiel--that this Advent should be preceded by a special messenger, +Saint John, is noted by Malachi, whom Isaiah confirms, adding for +greater certainty that he should be as 'the voice of one crying in the +Wilderness.' + +"The place of His birth, Bethlehem, is mentioned by Micah; the adoration +of the Magi, offering gold, myrrh and frankincense, is announced by +Isaiah and the Psalm ascribed to Solomon. + +"His youth and His calling are clearly suggested by Ezekiel, who speaks +of Him as seeking the lost sheep, and by Isaiah, who tells beforehand of +the miracles He would perform on the blind and the deaf and dumb, and +who finally declares that He will be 'a stone of stumbling' to the Jews. + +"But it is when they speak of His Passion and Death that the prophecies +become mathematically exact, incredibly precise. The offering of palm +branches, the betrayal by Judas, and the price of thirty pieces of +silver appear in Zechariah; and Isaiah takes up the parable to describe +the rejection and opprobrium of Calvary: 'He was wounded for our +transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities.... The Lord hath laid +on Him the iniquity of us all.... He was despised and rejected of men; a +man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.... He was brought as a lamb +to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb.' + +"David expatiates on the dreadful scene: 'He was a worm and no man, a +very scorn of men and the outcast of the people.' + +"Details are multiplied. The wounds in His hands are spoken of by +Zechariah; David enumerates the circumstances of the Passion, word for +word: the pierced hands, the division of His raiment, casting lots for +the robe. The hooting of the Jews, bidding Him to save Himself if He be +the Son of God, is mentioned in chapter ii. of the Book of Wisdom, and +again by David; the gall and the vinegar offered Him on the Cross and +the very words of Jesus giving up the ghost are to be found in the +Psalms. + +"Nor is this the last of the prophecies to be found in the Old +Testament. + +"Its prophetic mission is carried out to the end. The establishment of +the Church in the place of the Synagogue is foretold by Ezekiel, Isaiah, +Joel, and Micah; and the Mass, the Eucharistic Sacrament, is plainly +adumbrated by Malachi, who declared that for the offerings of the Old +Law offered only in the Temple at Jerusalem shall be substituted 'a pure +offering to be offered in every place and by all nations'--by priests +chosen from among all people, Isaiah adds, and David says after the +order of Melchizedec. + +"Pascal very truly remarks that 'the fulfilment of the prophecies is a +perpetual miracle, and that no other proof is needed to show the divine +origin of the Christian Religion.'" + +Durtal had gone closer to the statues, standing by Saint Anne, and was +looking at one on the left wearing a pointed cap, a sort of papal tiara +with a crown round the edge, robed in an alb girt round the middle with +knotted cord, and a large cope with a fringe; the features were grave, +almost anxious, and the eye fixed with an absorbed gaze into the +distance. This figure held a censer in one hand, and in the other a +chalice covered with a paten on which there was a loaf; and this image +of Melchizedec, the King of Salem, threw Durtal into a deep reverie. + +He was, in fact, one of the most mysterious types of the Holy +Scriptures--this monarch mentioned in Genesis as the Priest of the Most +High God. He consummates the sacrifice of bread and wine, blesses Abram, +receives tithes from him, and then vanishes into the darkness of +history. And suddenly his name is found in a psalm of David's, who +declares that the Messiah is a priest for ever after the order of +Melchizedec, and again he is lost without leaving a trace. + +Then quite unexpectedly he reappears in the New Testament, and what +Saint Paul says of him in the Epistle to the Hebrews makes him more +enigmatical than ever. The apostle speaks of him as "without father, +without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor +end of life, but made like unto the Son of God, abiding a priest +continually." Saint Paul is explicit to show how great a person he +was--and the dim light he casts on this figure goes out. + +"You must confess that this King of Salem is a puzzle. What do the +commentators think of him?" asked Durtal. + +"They say but little. Only Saint Jerome observes that when Saint Paul +speaks of him as without parents, without descent, without beginning, +and without end, he does not mean to convey that Melchizedec came down +from Heaven or was created _ab initio_ like the first man, by the +Ancient of Days. The phrase simply means that he is introduced into the +history of Abraham without our knowing whence he came, who he was, when +he was born, or at what time he died. + +"In fact, the inscrutable part played by this prototype of Jesus in the +canonical Scriptures has led to the most grotesque legends and heresies. + +"Some have asserted that he was Shem, the son of Noah; others have +thought that he was Ham. Simon Logothetes considers him an Egyptian; +Suidas believes him to have belonged to the accursed race of Canaanites, +and that this is why the Bible says nothing of his ancestry. + +"The gnostics revered him as an Eon superior to Jesus; and in the third +century Theodore le Changeur also asserted that he was not a man, but a +virtue transcending Christ, because Christ's priesthood was but a copy +of Melchizedec's. + +"According to another sect, he was neither more nor less than the +Paraclete. But come, in the absence of early Scriptures what do the +seers say? Does Sister Emmerich speak of him?" + +"She tells us nothing precise," replied Durtal. "To her he was a sort of +priestly angel charged with the preparation for the great Act of +Redemption." + +"That is very much the view held by Origen and Didymus, who also +ascribed to him the angelic nature." + +"Thus she perceives him long before the advent of Abram in various +desert spots of Palestine; he unlocks the springs of Jordan, and in +another passage of the life of Christ she adds that it was he who taught +the Hebrews the culture of wheat and of the vine. In fact, she throws no +light on this insoluble enigma." + +"From the artist's point of view," Durtal went on, "Melchizedec is one +of the best statues in this porch. But what a strange face is that of +his neighbour Abraham, seen only three-quarters full, with hair like +rolled grass, a beard like a river god, and a long nose straight from +the forehead, coming down between the eyes without a bridge, like the +proboscis of a tapir, with cheeks that seem swollen with cold, and a +look--how shall I describe it?--of a conjuror who has made away with his +son's head." + +"In point of fact, he is listening to the commands of the angel, whom he +cannot see; observe, below on the pedestal the ram caught in the +thicket, and the symbolism is evident. + +"This is the Father sacrificing his Son, and Isaac is the very image of +the Son--Isaac bearing the wood to fire the altar, as Jesus bore the +Cross; then the ram becomes figurative of the Saviour, and the bush in +which he is caught by the horns is symbolical of the Crown of Thorns. + +"To do full justice to this subject and to the teaching by figures that +it contains, we ought also to have had the Patriarch's two wives carved +on the supporting pillar or plinth, and his other son Ishmael. For, as +you know, these two women are emblems, Hagar of the Old Dispensation, +and Sarah of the New; the former disappears to make way for the second, +the Old Law being merely the preparation for the New; and the two sons +born of these two mothers are by analogy the children of the Books, and +thus Ishmael represents the Israelites, and Isaac the Christians. + +"Next to Abraham, the father of believers, stands Moses, as a symbol of +Christ; for the deliverance of Israel is an image of the Redemption of +Man snatched by the Saviour from the devil, just as the passage of the +Red Sea is an image of Baptism. He holds the Table of the Law and the +staff round which the Brazen Serpent is twined. Then comes Samuel, in +many ways typical of Christ, the founder of the Royal Priesthood and of +Pontifical Kingship; and last of all, David holding the Lamb and Crown +of Calvary. + +"I need hardly remind you that this Prophet-King, more than any other +personage, prefigured the sorrows of the Messiah, and that he too, to +make the resemblance more perfect, had his Judas in the person of +Achitophel, who, like the later traitor, hanged himself." + +"You must admit," said Durtal, "that these statues, before which the +historians of this cathedral go into ecstasies, declaring in chorus they +are the highest achievement of thirteenth-century sculpture, are far +inferior to those of the twelfth century that adorn the great north +porch. How evident is the lowering of the divine standard! Their action +is freer, no doubt, and the play of drapery is broader. The rhubarb-stem +plaits of the robes are fuller, and have some movement, but where is the +grace as of a sculptured soul that we see in the royal porch? All these +statues, with their massive heads, are thick-set and mute, devoid of +communicative life. This is pious work--fine work, if you will--but +devoid of the 'beyond'; here is art indeed, but it has ceased to be +mysticism. + +"Look at St. Anne with her gloomy expression, either cross or +suffering--how far she is from the so-called Radegonde and Berthe! + +"With the exception of two, St. John and St. Joseph over there in the +innermost part of the arch, these are familiar figures. They also occur +at Reims and at Amiens. And do you remember the Simeon, the Virgin, and +the St. Anne at Reims? The Virgin so guilelessly charming, so +exquisitely chaste, holding out the Infant to Simeon, who stands mild +and devout in his solemn garb as High Priest. St. Anne--a head of the +same type as St. Joseph's, and as those of two angels on the same +frontal, standing by St. Nicasius, with his head cut off at the +brows--St. Anne with a smiling, arch expression and yet elderly--a sharp +little chin, large eyes, a thin, long, pointed nose, the look of a +youthful dueña, kindly but knowing. + +"But, indeed, those image-makers excelled in creating these singular, +indefinable countenances. Do you recall Our Lady of Paris, later, I +believe, by a century? She is scarcely pretty, but so expressive, with +the smile of happiness parting such melancholy lips. Seen from one side +She is smiling at Jesus, watchful, almost sportive; it would seem as +though she were waiting for the Child to say some merry word before +laughing out; She is a girl-mother, not yet accustomed to her Child's +caress. Seen from another angle, this smile, apparently in the bud, has +vanished. The mouth is puckered in sorrow, and promises tears. + +"Perhaps when he succeeded in stamping on the face of Our Lady two such +opposite expressions of peace and of fear, the sculptor intended to +suggest at once the joy of the Nativity and the anticipated anguish of +Calvary. Thus he has portrayed in one and the same image, the Mother of +Sorrows and the Mother of Joy--has, without knowing it, embodied the +prototypes of the Virgin of La Salette and the Virgin of Lourdes. + +"And yet all this is inferior to the living and dignified art, so full +of individuality and mystery, that we see in the royal porch of +Chartres!" + +"I will not contradict you," said the Abbé Plomb. "Now that we have +studied the series of types placed on St. Anne's left hand, let us +consider the prophetic series on her right. + +"First we see Isaiah; the pedestal on which he stands represents Jesse +sleeping. The familiar stem, rooted in him, passes between the prophet's +feet, and the branches of the Virgin's ancestry according to the flesh +and the spirit, as they rise, fill the four courses of moulding in the +central arch. By his side is Jeremiah, who, meditating on the Passion of +Christ, wrote this lamentable passage which is read in the fifth lesson +of the second Nocturn on Easter Eve: 'All ye that pass by, behold and +see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow.' Next Simeon holding the +Infant whose Birth he had foreseen, at the same time with the sorrows of +the Virgin and the anguish of Golgotha; Saint John the Baptist, and +finally Saint Peter, whose dress is an interesting study since it is +copied from that of the thirteenth-century Popes. + +"With what care is every detail wrought! Admire the treatment of the +sandals, the gloves, the broidered amice, the alb, the maniple, the +dalmatic, the pallium marked with six crosses, the triple crown, the +conical tiara of brocaded silk, the pontifical breastplate, everything +is chiselled, pierced, and patterned as if by a goldsmith." + +"Very true. But how superior altogether is the Saint John to his fellows +on this front. What mastery we discern in that hollow, emaciated face, +as expressive as the others are dull. He is apart from the conventional +and hackneyed type. He stands upright, savage but mild, with his beard +in curling prongs, his lean frame, his raiment of camel-skin; we can +hear him speaking as he points to the Lamb carrying the hastate cross +surrounded by a nimbus, pressing it to his bosom with both hands. That +statue is sublime, and it is most certainly not by the same hand that +carved the Abraham, nor even his immediate neighbour, Samuel. This +prophet appears to be offering to David, who cares not, a lamb he is +feeling, head downwards. He is a butcher pricing his goods, weighing the +meat, inviting you to feel it, and hesitating to sell till he gets the +best price. How different from the Saint John!" + +"The tympanum of the door will have no charm for us," the Abbé went on. +"The death of the Virgin, Her assumption and coronation are more curious +to read of in the Golden Legend than to study in those has-reliefs which +are but an epitome. + +"We will proceed to the left-hand doorway. + +"It is much mutilated, in a lamentable state of ruin. Most of the large +statues have disappeared. There were once, it would seem, as on the +royal porch of Notre Dame at Paris and the southern porch at Reims, the +figures of the Synagogue and the Church; also Leah and Rachel, typifying +the active and the contemplative life, of which we shall decipher the +details recorded in the archivolt. + +"Of the large figures that remain, three are regarded as masterpieces: +the Virgin, Saint Elizabeth, and Daniel. + +"That is saying a great deal," cried Durtal. "They are stupid-looking +and the drapery is cold; the arrangement of their robes recalls the +Greek peplum; they have a prophetic savour of the Renaissance." + +"I will not contradict you; but what is really attractive is the scheme +of ideas expressed by the figures in the hollow mouldings of the arch +of this portal, based on an equilateral triangle. As to the tympanum, +which displays the Nativity, the calling of the Shepherds of Bethlehem, +the dream and adoration of the Kings, it is marred and worn by time; nor +is it in a style of art that can move us deeply. + +"Study the mouldings of the arch with the four rows of images that adorn +them. First the inner one, with its ten torch-bearing angels; the +second, illustrating the parable of the wise and foolish virgins; the +third, representing the _Psychomachia_, or struggle between the Virtues +and the Vices; the fourth, a row of twelve queens embodying the twelve +fruits of the Spirit; and linger over the enchanting series of statues +in the moulding at the very edge of the archway of the porch, +representing the occupations of the active and the contemplative life. + +"The active life, on the left, is imagined in accordance with the +picture of the virtuous woman in the last chapter of Proverbs. She is +seen washing wool in a bowl, carding it, stripping the flax, beating it, +spinning it on a distaff, and winding it into hanks. + +"On the right is seen the contemplative life; a woman praying, holding a +closed book, opening it, reading it; she shuts it to meditate on it, +teaches others, and falls into an ecstasy. + +"Finally, in the outermost hollow of the moulding of the arch, the +nearest to us and the most visible, there are fourteen statues of +queens, leaning on shields with coats-of-arms, and formerly holding +banners. The meaning of these statuettes has been much discussed, +especially of the second figure on the left, which is named '_Libertas_' +the word being carved in the stone. Didron believed them to represent +the domestic and social virtues; but the question has been finally and +definitively settled by the most erudite and clearsighted symbolist of +our day, Madame Félicie d'Ayzac, who, in a very edifying pamphlet +published in 1843 on these statues and on the animals of the Tetramorph, +has proved to demonstration that these fourteen queens are none else +than the fourteen heavenly Beatitudes as enumerated by Saint Anselm: +Beauty, Liberty, Honour, Joy, Pleasure, Agility, Strength, Concord, +Friendship, Length of Days, Power, Health, Safety, and Wisdom. + +"Is not this porch, as a whole, so closely set with imagery, one of the +most ingenious and interesting doorways known, from the points of view +of theology and of mysticism alike?" + +"And no less from the point of view of art. You are perfectly right; +these toiling and meditative women are so delicate and so loving, that +we can but regret that they should be hidden in the shadow of a cavern. +What artists must those have been who worked thus for the glory of God +and for their own satisfaction, creating marvels while knowing that no +man would see them!" + +"And they had not even the vanity to sign them; they were always +anonymous." + +"Ah! they were men of a different mould from us. Prouder souls, and +humbler." + +"And holier," added the Abbé. "Shall we now inquire into the iconography +of the right-hand portal? It has suffered less, and may be explained in +a few words. + +"This sculptured vault is, as you know, dedicated to types of Mary; but +we might more accurately say that it is devoted to prototypes of Christ, +for in this doorway, as in the other two, indeed, the image-makers of +the thirteenth century have made it their task to identity the Son with +the Mother." + +"In fact, most of the personages we have already studied relate more +especially to Christ. What, then, are those in the Old Testament, which +are more essentially proper to the daughter of Joachim, and transferred +in images of stone to be deciphered here?" + +"The allegories of the Virgin in the Scriptures are numberless. Whole +books, as the Song of Songs and the Book of Wisdom, allude in every +verse to Her beauty and wisdom. As to the non-human emblems that may be +applied to Her, you know them well: Noah's Ark, in which the Redeemer +dwells; the Dove, the Rainbow, as a sign of alliance between the Lord +and the earth; the burning bush whence came out the name of God; the +cloud of fire guiding Israel in the desert; the Rod of Aaron which alone +blossomed of those of the twelve tribes taken by Moses; the Ark of the +Covenant; Gideon's fleece; and a whole series, if possible, more +obviously representative; David's tower; Solomon's throne; the garden +enclosed and the fountain sealed of the Canticle; the dial of Ahaz; +Elijah's saving cloud; Ezekiel's doorway--and I mention none but those +of which the interpretation has received the seal and sanction of the +Fathers and Doctors of the Church. + +"As to the living beings that prefigured Her on earth, instances abound; +the greater part of the famous women of the Old Testament are but +anticipatory images of Her graces. Sarah, to whom an angel foretells the +birth of a son who is himself a type of the Son; Miriam, the sister of +Moses, who, by saving her brother from the river, freed the Jews; +Jephthah's daughter; Deborah, the prophetess; Jael, who, like the +Virgin, was called Blessed among women; Hannah, the mother of Samuel, +whose song of praise seems like a forecast of the _Magnificat_; +Jehosheba preserving Joash from the fury of Athaliah, as the Virgin +afterwards saved Jesus from the wrath of Herod; Ruth personifying both +the contemplative and the active life; Rebecca, Rachel, Abigail, +Solomon's mother, the mother of the Maccabees, who witnessed the death +of her sons; and again those whose names are inscribed under these +arches; Judith and Esther, the first representative of courageous +chastity, and the second of mercy and justice." + +"However, to avoid confusion, we will follow the statues in order as +they stand in this porch, three on each side. + +"On the left Balaam, the Queen of Sheba and Solomon. + +"On the right, Jesus the son of Sirach, Judith or Esther, and Joseph." + +"Balaam is this statue of a worthy peasant, smug and friendly, smiling +in his beard, a stick in his hand and a hat like a pie-dish; and the +Queen of Sheba, the woman who bends forward a little, looking as if she +were cross-questioning and arguing over some deed she condemned. But +what have these two persons to do with the life of the Virgin?" + +"Balaam is a type of the Messiah. It was he who prophesied that a star +should come out of Jacob and a sceptre rise out of Israel. As to the +Queen of Sheba, according to the teaching of the Fathers, she is an +image of the Church; Solomon's spouse, as the Church is the spouse of +Christ." + +"Well, well," muttered Durtal to himself. "The thirteenth century could +not give a fitting presentment of that queen, whom we picture to +ourselves as dressed with foolish magnificence, rocking on a camel +across the desert at the head of a caravan under the blazing sky across +the furnace of sand. Her charms have appealed to writers, and not the +smallest of them; Flaubert for one--this Queen Balkis, Mékida or +Nicaule. But in the '_Tentation de Saint Antoine_' she has failed to +assume any form but that of a puerile and flimsy creature, a skipping +and lisping puppet. In fact, no one but Gustave Moreau, the painter of +Salome, could represent the woman, a virgin and a courtesan, a casuist +and a coquette. He only could give life, under the flowered panoply of +dress and the blazing gorget of jewels, to the crowned foreign face, +with its smile as of an artless sphinx, come from so far to ask enigmas. +Such a woman is too complicated for the spirit and the ingenuous art of +the Middle Ages. + +"Indeed, the sculptured image is neither mysterious nor suggestive. She +is hardly pretty, and stands in the obsequious attitude of an advocate. +Solomon looks like a jovial good fellow. The two effigies on the other +side of the door might perhaps invite attention if they were not so +completely crushed by the third. Again a question. By what right does +the author of that admirable book 'Ecclesiastes' find a place in these +ranks of honour?" + +"Jesus the son of Sirach prefigures the Messiah as a Prophet and a +Doctor. As to the figure next to him, it may equally well be Judith or +Esther: her identity is doubtful; there is nothing that can help us to +determine it. + +"At any rate, as I told you but now, each is a harbinger of the Virgin. +As to Joseph persecuted and sold, a slave raised almost to the throne, +the merciful protector of his people, he is the prototype of Christ." + +Durtal paused to gaze up at the beardless face, with curling hair cut +close round. The youth wore a tunic under a surcoat embroidered round +the neck, and he stood motionless, a sceptre in his hand. He might be a +very young monk, humble, simple, and so far advanced in the mystic road +that he was unconscious of it. This statue was undoubtedly a portrait, +and it seemed certain that some refined and innocent novice had served +as a model to the artist. It was the work of a chastened and happy soul +superior to the crowd. "This one, even more than the St. John, is a +perfect dream," said Durtal to the Abbé, who assented with a nod, and +went on,-- + +"The sculptures over the arches are practically invisible, for you must +dislocate your neck to see them. Nor is the art they display exciting. +Only the subjects are interesting. Besides a row of angels bearing stars +and torches, they represent the achievements of Gideon; the story of +Samson, who, when a prisoner, rose in the night, and carrying away the +gates of Gaza, escaped from the town, as Christ broke the gates of +death, and escaped alive from His sepulchre; the history of Tobit, as a +divine paragon of mercy and patience; and finally, in the corner we find +a replica of the grand porch, the signs of the zodiac, and a calendar in +sculptured stone. + +"The tympanum, as you see, is divided into two portions. + +"In the upper part we see the Judgment of Solomon, as figuring the Sun +of Justice, Christ Himself. + +"In the lower half Job lies stretched on his dunghill, and the Messiah, +of whom he is a prototype, comes, supported by two angels, to give him a +palm-branch. + +"To complete the elucidation of the symbolism of these doorways, it now +only remains to glance at the three arches of the porch that precedes +them. Here we see chiefly the benefactors of the cathedral and the +saints of the See; also, mingled with these, certain prophets for whom +there was not room in the arches of the doors. This vestibule is, so to +speak, a postscript, a supplement added to the work. + +"Here, where we stand in the right-hand arch are Saint Potentien, the +first apostle of Chartres, and Saint Modesta, the daughter of Quirinus, +the Governor of the city, who killed her because she would not deny +Christ. Here you see Ferdinand of Castille. He presented certain windows +distinguished by his arms, _gules, three castles or_, side by side with +the azure shield and fleur-de-lys of France, in the principal window of +this front. Next to him that shrewd and severe face is probably that of +Baruch, the judge, and here, barefoot and burthened with a penitent's +satchel, you see Saint Louis, who loaded the cathedral with gifts and +inaugurated its use. + +"Under the porch of the middle door are two vacant pedestals, on which +formerly stood the effigies of Philip Augustus and Richard Coeur de +Lion, two of the most liberal donors to the church. On the other plinths +stand the Comte and Comtesse de Boulogne, a buxom dame with masculine +features, wearing a biretta; a prophet who is nameless, but no doubt +Ezekiel, for he is missing from the series in this porch; Louis VIII., +Saint Louis' father; and, finally, that king's sister Isabella, who +founded the Abbey of Longchamps under the rule of Saint Clare. She is +dressed as a nun, and next her in the shadow is a personage of the Old +Dispensation carrying a censer, like Melchizedec. Remark, too, the firm +and solemn mien of that priest, Zacharias, the father of John the +Baptist, whose canticle '_Benedictus_' foretells the blessings of +Christ. + +"Thus ends our review of this wonderful text-book of the Old Testament +types, and the historical memorial of those benefactors whose gifts +endowed the church with this sculptured imagery of the Ancient Word." + +Durtal lighted a cigarette, and they walked up and down in front of the +palace railing. + +"Setting aside the question of art," said Durtal, "in this long array of +Christ's ancestors there is one--David--who really confounds me, for he +is the most complex of all; at once so august and so small! he is quite +puzzling!" + +"Why?" + +"Well, only think of the life of the man who was by turns shepherd, +warrior, and outlaw chief, an omnipotent king and a fugitive without +either hearth or home; who was a wonderful poet and an exact prophet and +seer! And is not the monarch's character even more enigmatical than his +career? + +"He was mild and indulgent, devoid of rancour and hatred, and yet he was +ferocious. Remember the punishments he inflicted on the Ammonites; his +vengeance was appalling. He had them sawn asunder, cut them with harrows +of iron, and made them pass through the brick-kiln. + +"He was loyal, wholly devoted to the Lord, and just; but he committed +the crime of adultery, and ordered the death of the husband he had +betrayed. What contradictions!" + +"To understand David," said the Abbé Plomb, "you must not think of him +apart from his surroundings, nor take him out of the age in which he +lived, otherwise you measure him by the ideas of our own time, and that +is absurd. In the Asiatic conception of royalty, adultery was almost +permitted to a being whom his subjects regarded as superior to the +common run of humanity; besides, women were then as a species of cattle +belonging almost absolutely to him as the despot and supreme master. It +was but the exercise of his regal power, as has been plainly shown by +Monsieur Dieulafoy in his study of that king. And, on the other hand, if +he is accused of tortures and bloodshed, why, the whole of the Old +Testament is full of them! Jehovah Himself pours out blood like water, +and exterminates men as if they were flies. It is well not to forget +that the world then still lived under the Law of Fear. So it is not very +surprising that, with a view to terrifying his enemies, whose manners +and customs were not indeed any milder than his own, he should have +tortured the inhabitants of Rabbah and baked the Ammonites. + +"But in contrast to these acts of violence and the sins which he +expiated, see how generous he was to Saul, and admire the magnanimity +and charity of the man whom the followers of Renan would have us regard +as a bandit chief and outlaw. Remember, too, that he taught the world, +as yet ignorant, the virtues which at a later time Christ was to +preach--humility in its most touching form, and repentance in its +bitterest shape. When the prophet Nathan reproved him for the murder of +Uriah, he confessed his sin with tears, fell on his face before God, +bravely accepted the most terrible punishment: incest and murder in his +family, the rebellion and death of his son, treason, misery, and a +desperate flight in the woods; and with what urgency he implores for +pardon in the '_Miserere_,' with what love and contrition he cries to +the God he had offended! + +"He was a man whose vices were small and few if compared with those of +the kings of his time--of admirable and exceptional virtues if compared +with those of sovereigns of any time of every age. Why, then, fail to +understand that God should have chosen him as a precursor? Besides, +Jesus came to ransom sinners, He took upon Himself the sins of the whole +world. Was it not natural, then, that He should take to prefigure Him, a +man who, like others, had sinned?" + +"Yes; that is true, no doubt." + +And that evening, when he was away from the Abbé Plomb, from whom he +parted on the church steps, as Durtal stretched himself on his bed, he +recapitulated in his memory this theory of the Old Testament personages +and the sculpture in the porch. + +"To epitomize this north front," said he to himself, "it must be +regarded as an abridged history of the Redemption prepared so long +beforehand, a table of sacred history, a compendium of the Mosaic Law, +and at the same time foreshadowing the Christian law. + +"The vocation of the Jewish nation is set forth in these three doorways, +their whole mission from Abraham to Moses; from Moses to the Babylonian +Captivity; from the Captivity till the death of Christ, comprehending +three phases of its history: the making of Israel, its independent +existence, its life among the Gentiles. + +"And how slowly, with what difficulty, was this fusion of tribes +achieved! With what waste and what ejection of dross! What massacres +were needed to discipline those rapacious wanderers, to quell the greed +and licentiousness of the race!" + +And in a succession of bewildering images he beheld the irruption into +Judæa of the headlong and indignant prophets, hurling imprecations +against the crimes of the kings and the atrocities of that unstable race +perpetually tempted by the voluptuous worships of Asia, always rebelling +and complaining, and ready to break the iron bit with which Moses had +subdued them. + +And prominent in this group of declaiming judges, towering above the +masses, he saw Samuel, the man of contradictions, going whither the Lord +drove him, achieving work which he was destined to overthrow, creating +the monarchy which he reprobated, consecrating a fanatic king--a sort of +madman, who passes across behind the transparent sheet of history with +frantic and threatening gestures; and then Samuel has to overwhelm this +extraordinary Saul under the burthen of his curses, to anoint David +king--David, whom another prophet is to accuse of his crimes. And these +inspired men succeed each other, continuing from year to year their task +of guardians of the public soul, watching over the consciences of judges +and kings, expectant of the Divine word, and ready to proclaim it over +the head of the crowd; announcing disasters, ending often as martyrs, +prominent from beginning to end of the sacred annals till they disappear +in John beheaded by an Herodias! + +Then came Elijah, cursing the worship of Baal, contending with the +dreadful Jezebel; Elijah founding the first society of monks, the only +man of the Old Testament history except Enoch who did not die; and +Elisha, his disciple; the greater prophets Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, +and Daniel, and the groups of minor prophets announcing the advent of +the Son, rising up in commination or lamentation, threatening or +comforting the people. + +The whole history of Israel flowed along in a torrent of curses, rivers +of blood, oceans of tears! + +This dismal procession at last oppressed Durtal. With closed eyes he +suddenly beheld a patriarch who stood before him, and he recognized with +awe that this was Moses, an old man with a beard like a cataract, hair +sweeping his shoulders, a master workman whose powerful hands had +kneaded those rough Hebrews and coagulated their medley hordes. He was +indeed father and lawgiver to this people. + +Facing the scene on Calvary there rose before him the scene on Sinai, +the close and the opening of the great chronicle of the nation that was +dispersed by its own crime, enclosing the whole purpose of its existence +in the space between those two hills. + +A terrific spectacle! Moses alone on the smoking height, while +lightnings rend the clouds and the mountain trembles at the sound of the +invisible trumpet. Below, the awe-stricken people fly; and Moses, +unmoved amid the roar of thunder and the repeated fires of lightning, +listens to Him who Is, and who dictates the terms of His protection of +Israel; and then Moses, with shining face, descends from the Mount, +which, according to St. John Damascene, is the type of the Virgin's +Womb, as the smoke that rises from it is that of the desires and flames +of the Holy Spirit. + +Suddenly this picture vanished; the Patriarch remained, and by his side +appeared the first High Priest of the worship of Jehovah, whom the +sculptors had omitted to represent on the exterior of the porch, but +whose image the glass-workers have portrayed in a window of the same +front; Aaron, the great Pontiff, anointed by Moses. + +And this ceremony, during which Moses conferred the order of priesthood +on the person and the descendants of his elder brother, arose before +Durtal's fancy as a terrific scene. The details he had formerly read of +this ordination, the ceremonies lasting seven days, recurred to his +mind. After ablution and the anointing with oil, the holocaust of +victims began. Flesh sputtered on the walls, mingling the black stench +of burnt fat with the blue vapour of incense; the Patriarch anointed the +right ear and thumb and foot of Aaron and his sons with blood; then, +taking up the flesh of the sacrifice, he placed them in the hands of the +new-made priests, who rocked first on one foot and then on the other, +thus waving the offerings above the altar. + +Then all bowed their heads under a shower of oil mingled with blood with +which the Consecrator inundated them. They looked like slaughterers from +the shambles and lamp trimmers, all sprinkled as they were with clots of +red mire, on which glistened yellow eyes. + +And then, as in the swift change of magic-lantern slides, this savage +scene, this worn-out symbol of a splendid and subtle liturgy, stammered +out in a hoarse voice, disappeared, giving way to the solemn array of +Levites and priests marching in procession under the guidance of Aaron, +resplendent in his turban with the crown of gold above it, in his purple +robe, on its hem the open pomegranates of scarlet and blue, with +tinkling bells of gold; and he wore the linen ephod, girt with a girdle, +blue and purple and scarlet, and kept in its place by shoulder-pieces +fastened with onyx stones, his breastplate in a blaze, flashing sparks +that lighted up as he moved in the twelve gems of the breastplate. + +Again the scene changed. He beheld an amazing palace; under the shade of +its domes of giddy height, tropical trees and flowers were planted by +tepid pools; monkeys sported there, hanging in bunches to the boughs, +while long-drawn, insinuating melodies were scraped on stringed +instruments, and the rattle of tambourines made the eyed plumes quiver +in the peacocks' outspread tails. + +In this strange hot-bed, filled with clumps of flowers and of women, +this immense harem where his seven hundred princesses and his three +hundred concubines disported themselves, Solomon watched the whirl of +dances, gazed at the living hedge of women, seen against the background +of gold-plated walls, their bodies clothed only in the transparent veil +of vapour rising from resins burning on tripods. + +He appeared as a typical Eastern monarch, a sort of Khalif or Sultan, or +fairy-tale Rajah--the prodigious king at once polygamous, unbridled, +insatiable by luxury, and learned, artistic, peace-loving, the wisest +among men. In advance of the ideas of his time, he was the great builder +in Israel, and the commerce of the country was of his making. He left +such a reputation for wisdom and justice that he came at last to be +regarded as an enchanter and wizard. Even Josephus tells us that he +wrote a book of Magic, of incantations for laying evil spirits; in the +Middle Ages he was said to have owned a magic ring, charms, forms of +evocation, secrets for exorcism; and in all these legends the image of +the king becomes confused. + +And he would remain to this day a figure out of the Thousand and One +Nights, were it not that in the decline of his glory we see him as a +grandiose image of the mournfulness of life, the vanity of joy, the +nothingness of man. + +His old age was melancholy. Exhausted and governed by women, he denied +God and sacrificed to idols. We discern in him wide gaps, vast clearings +in the soul. Weary of everything, sick of enjoyment, and drunken with +sin, he wrote some admirable reflections and anticipated the blackest +pessimism of our day, summing up the misery of him who endures the +condemnation of living, in phrases that are its final expression. What +distress is that of the Preacher: All the days of man are sorrow, and +his travail grief; better is the day of death than the day of birth; all +is vanity and vexation of spirit. + +After his death, too, the old king remains a mystery. Had he expiated +his apostacy and his fall? Was he, like his fathers, received into +Abraham's bosom? And the greatest writers of the Church have not agreed +about it. + +According to St. Irenæus, St. Hilary, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, St. +Ambrose, and St. Jerome, his penance was accomplished, and he is saved. + +According to Tertullian, St. Cyprian, St. Augustine, and St. Gregory the +Great, he did not repent to amendment, and so he is damned. + +Durtal turned over in his bed and tried to lose consciousness. +Everything was in confusion in his brain, and at last he fell into +disturbed slumbers mingled with hideous nightmares, in which he saw +Madame Mesurat standing in the place of the queen on a pedestal in the +porch; and Durtal fumed at her ugliness, raging against the Canons, to +whom he vainly appealed to remove his housekeeper and replace the queen. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + +This church symbolism, this psychology of the cathedral, this study of +the soul of the sanctuary, so entirely overlooked since mediæval times +by those professors of monumental physiology called archæologists and +architects, so much interested Durtal that he was able by its help to +forget for some hours the turmoil and struggles of his soul; but the +moment he ceased to ponder on the inner sense of things seen, he was as +bad as ever. + +The sort of requisition he had laid before the Abbé Gévresin, to put an +end to his tossing and decide for him one way or the other, was +distracting while it terrified him. + +The cloister! He must reflect a long time before making up his mind to +imprison himself. And the _pros_ and _cons_ tormented him in endless +alternation. + +"Here I am just where I was before I set out for La Trappe!" said he to +himself, "and the decision to be taken is even more serious; for Notre +Dame de l'Atre was but a temporary refuge. I knew when I went there that +I should not stay; it was a painful time to be endured, but it was only +a short time; whereas at this moment I have to come to a determination +from which there is no turning back, to go to a place where, if I once +shut myself in, I must stay till I die. It is imprisonment for life, +with no mitigation of the penalty, no pardon and release; and the Abbé +talks as if it were the simplest thing! + +"What am I to do? Renounce all freedom, be nothing but a machine, a +chattel, in the hands of a man I do not know--God knows I am willing! +But there are other and more pressing questions from my point of view; +in the first place, this matter of literature--to write no more, to give +up what has been the occupation and aim of my life; that would be +painful; still, it is a sacrifice I could make. But to write and then +see my language stripped and washed in pump-water, all the colour taken +out by another man, who may be a learned man or a saint, but have no +more idea of art than St. John of the Cross! That is too hard. That +one's ideas should be picked over and weeded, from the theological point +of view, I quite understand, nothing could be more just; but one's +style! And in a monastery, so far as I can learn, nothing is printed +till the Prior has read it; and he has the right to revise everything, +alter it--suppress it if he chooses. It would evidently be better not to +write at all, but this again is not a matter of choice, since under the +rule of obedience each one must submit to orders, and treat of any +subject in any way the Abbot commands. + +"And unless the master were very exceptional, what a stone of stumbling! + +"And then, besides this, which is to me the most important question of +all, there are others worth considering. From the little I have been +told by my two priests, the blessed silence of the Cistercians is not +the rule with the black-frocked Orders. Now, however perfect these +cenobites may be, they remain none the less men; or, to express it +otherwise, sympathy and antipathy live in constant and compulsory +friction; with very restricted subjects of discussion, living in +complete ignorance of all that is going on outside, conversation must +degenerate into chatter; at last the only interest of life centres in +trivialities, in petty questions which in such an atmosphere assume the +importance of events. + +"A man becomes an old maid, and how infinitely wearisome must this talk +be, unvaried by the unforeseen. + +"Finally, there is the question of health. In the convent nothing but +stews and salads! A disordered stomach before long, broken sleep, +crushing fatigue in an ill-treated frame--ah, all that is neither +attractive nor amusing! Who knows whether, after a few months of this +mental and physical rule, I should not have sunk into bottomless +dejection, whether the sloth of those monastic gaols would not have +crushed me and left me absolutely incapable of thought or action?" + +And he concluded:-- + +"It is madness to think of a cloistered life; I should do better to +remain at Chartres." + +But hardly had he made up his mind not to move, when the reverse of the +medal forced itself upon him. + +A convent! Why, it was the only logical existence, the only right life! +All these fears he suggested to himself were imaginary. In the first +place, as to his health. Had he forgotten La Trappe, where the food was +far more innutritious and the rule far stricter? Why be alarmed +beforehand? + +And, on the other hand, could he fail to perceive the need for +conversation, the wisdom of speech, relieving the solitude of the +cloister just when weariness might supervene? It was a remedy against +constant introspection, and exercise taken with others secured health to +the soul and gave tone to the body; and as for saying that these +monastic dialogues would be trivial, were the conversations he might +hear in any other society more edifying? In short, was not the company +of the Brethren far superior to that of men of any profession, +condition, or sort, whom he would be obliged to meet in the world +outside? + +And what, after all, were these trifles, these minor details in the +splendid completeness of the cloister? What were these petty +matters--mere nothings--in the scale as against peace, the cheerfulness +of the soul in the joy of the services and the fulfilment of the task of +praise? Would not the tide of worship cleanse everything, and wash away +the small defects of men, like straws in a stream? Was it not the case +of the mote and the beam, with the parts reversed--imperfections +discerned in others, when he was so far their inferior? + +"Constantly, at the end of every argument, I find my own lack of +humility," said he to himself. "What efforts are needed to remove the +mire of my sins! In a convent perhaps I might rub the rust off," and he +dreamed of a purer life, a soul soaked in prayer, expanding in communion +with Christ, who might perhaps, without too much soiling Himself, come +down to dwell in him. "It is the only life desirable," cried he. "It is +settled!" + +But then, like a douche of cold water, a reflection overwhelmed him. It +would in any case be the life in common, school-life, which would begin +again for him; it would be the garrison-rule of a convent! + +This floored him. Then he tried to fight against it, and lost patience. + +"Come, come!" he growled, "a man does not shut himself up in an abbey to +take his ease there; a convent is not a pious Sainte-Périne; he retires +there, I suppose, to expiate his sins and prepare for death. What, then, +is the use of expatiating on the kind of punishments to be endured? A +determination to accept them is all, to endure them and be strong!" + +Did he, then, sincerely long for suffering and penance? He dared not +answer himself. In the depth of his soul a hesitating "Yes" rose up, +smothered at once by the clamour of cowardice and fear. Why then go? + +He was only bewildering himself, and when the worst of this turmoil was +over he thought of a respite, or of some half-measure, some mild +mortification quite endurable, some repentance so slight as to be none +at all. + +"I am an idiot," he concluded; "I am fighting with the air; I am +puzzling myself with words, about habits of which I have no knowledge. +The first thing to be done is to visit some Benedictine monastery--nay, +several--to compare them, and to see for myself what the life is that is +led there. Then the matter as to the oblates must be cleared up; if the +Abbé Plomb is well informed, their fate depends on the caprice of the +Abbot, who can tighten or loosen the halter according to his more or +less domineering character. But is that quite certain? There were always +oblates throughout the Middle Ages; consequently they are controlled by +the secular law! + +"And all this is so human, so vile! For it is not a matter of disputing +texts and more or less accommodating clauses. It is a case of subjection +without reserve, of leaping boldly into the water; of giving oneself up +entirely to God. Any other view of the cloister is to regard it as a +citizen's home, and that is absurd. My apprehensions, my antagonism, my +compromises, are disgraceful! + +"Yes; but where can I find the necessary strength to brush myself clean +from this dust of the soul?" + +And at last, when he felt himself bruised by these alternating desires +and fears, he took refuge with Notre Dame de Sous-Terre. + +The crypt was closed in the afternoon, but he found his way in by a +small door in the sacristy inside the cathedral, and descended into +utter darkness. + +Having reached the crypt in front of the altar, he round once more the +doubtful but soothing odour of that vault, smoked by burning tapers, and +went forward in the soft, warm atmosphere of frankincense and a cellar. +It was even darker than in the early morning, for the lamps were out; +floating wicks only, shining through what looked like very thin +orange-peel, threw gleams of tarnished gold on the sooty walls. + +As he turned, with his back to the altar, he could see the low aisle in +retreating perspective, and at the end, as in a tunnel, the light of +day--unluckily, for it allowed him to discern certain hideous paintings +of scenes commemorating the ecclesiastical glories of Chartres: the +visit paid to the cathedral by Mary de' Medici and Henri IV.; Louis +XIII. and his mother; Monsieur Olier offering to the Virgin the keys of +the Seminary of Saint Sulpice with a dress of gold brocade; Louis XIV. +at the feet of Notre Dame de Sous-Terre; by the grace of heaven, the +remaining frescoes seemed extinct; at any rate, they lay in shadow. + +What was really blissful was to be alone with the Virgin, who looked +down, her dark face gleaming dimly in the gloom when a wick happened to +flicker with short flashes of brighter light. + +Durtal, kneeling before Her, determined to address Her, to say to Her,-- + +"I am afraid of the future and of its cloudy sky, and I am afraid of +myself, for I am wasting in depression and bewilderment. Thou hast +hitherto led me by the hand. Do not desert me; finish Thy work. I know +that it is folly thus to take care for the future, for Thy Son has said, +'Sufficient to the day is the evil thereof.' Still, that depends on +temperament. What is easy to some is so hard for others. Mine is a +restless spirit, always astir, always on the alert. Do what I will, it +wanders, feeling its way about the world, and gets lost! Bring it home, +keep it near Thee in a leash, kind Mother, and after so much weariness, +grant me to find rest! + +"Oh! to be no longer thus torn in sunder, to be of one mind! Oh! to have +a soul so quenched that it should know no sorrows, no joys, but those of +the liturgy, that it might only be claimed, day by day, by Jesus or by +Thee, and follow Your lives as they are unfolded in the annual cycle of +the Church services! To rejoice at the Nativity, to laugh on Palm +Sunday, to weep in Holy Week, and be indifferent to all else, to cease +to hold oneself as of any account, to care not at all for one's +individual self! What a dream! How easy it then would be to take refuge +in a cloister! + +"But is this possible to any but a saint? What a stripping of the soul +it presupposes; what an emptying out of every profane idea, of every +earthly image; what a taming of the subjugated imagination, never +venturing forth but on one track, instead of wandering haphazard as mine +does! + +"And yet how foolish is every other care--for all that does not tend to +Heaven is vain on earth. Aye, but as soon as I try to put these thoughts +into, practice, my jade of a soul plunges and rears; do what I will, it +only bucks and makes no advance. + +"Alas! Blessed Virgin, I do not seek to excuse myself and my sins. And +still I dare confess to Thee that it is discouraging, heart-breaking, to +understand nothing and see nothing! Is this Chartres where I am +vegetating a waiting-place, a halting-place between two monasteries, a +bridge leading from Notre Dame de l'Atre to Solesmes or some other +Abbey? Or is it, on the contrary, the final stage where it is Thy will +that I should remain fixed? But then my life has no further meaning! It +is purposeless, built and overthrown with the shifting of sands. To what +end, if this be the case, are these monastic yearnings, these calls to +another life, this all but conviction that I have stopped at a station, +and am not yet at the place whither I am to travel? + +"If only it might be now, as on other occasions when I have felt Thee +near me, when in response to my questions Thou hast answered me, if only +it might be here as at La Trappe, much as I suffered there! But no. I +hear Thee not--Thou dost not heed me." + +Durtal was silent. Then he went on,-- + +"I am wrong to address Thee thus," he said. "Thou dost not carry us in +Thine arms unless we be unable to walk; Thou hast care and caresses for +the poor soul born anew by conversion; but when it can stand it is set +down on the ground, and Thou lookest on while it makes trial of its +strength. + +"This is meet and right; but it does alter the fact that the memory of +those celestial alleviations, those first, lost joys is crushing to the +soul. + +"O Holy Virgin, Holy Virgin, have pity on the rickety souls that +struggle on so painfully when they are no longer upheld by Thee! Have +pity on the bruised souls to whom every effort is painful; on the souls +whom nothing can console, to whom everything is affliction! Take pity on +the homeless, outcast souls, the wandering souls, unable to settle and +dwell with their kind, the tender, budding souls! Take pity on all souls +such as mine! Have pity on me!" + +And before quitting the Mother he would often visit Her in those depths +where, since the Middle Ages, the faithful no longer seek her; he would +light an end of taper, and, turning aside from the nave of the crypt, +follow the curved line of the wall along the entrance passage as far as +the sacristy of this underground church, where in the ponderous +stone-work was a door strengthened with iron-work. + +Through and down a little flight of steps, he reached a cellar which was +the ancient martyrium where, of old, in time of war the ciborium was +concealed. An altar stood in the middle of this well, dedicated in the +name of Saint Lubin. In the crypt the distant hum of the bells, the +sounds of life in the cathedral above, could still be heard; here, +nothing! It was like being in the tomb. Unfortunately, some squalid, +square columns whitened with lime-wash, built on the altar to give +support to Bridan's group in the choir above, spoilt the barbaric +simplicity of this _oubliette_, forgotten, lost in the night of ages, +and underground. + +He went up again comforted nevertheless, accusing himself of +ingratitude, and asking himself how he could dream of leaving Chartres +and going away from the Virgin, with whom he could thus so easily +converse in solitude whenever he would. + +On other days, when it was fine, he would take for the object of his +walk a convent whose existence had been revealed to him by Madame +Bavoil. One afternoon he had met her in the square, and she had said to +him,-- + +"I am going to see the little Jesus of Prague at the Carmelite convent +here. Will you come with me, our friend?" + +Durtal had no liking for these petty pilgrimages made by good women; but +the idea of going to the Carmelite chapel, which was unknown to him, +tempted him to accompany her, and she led the way to the Rue des +Jubelines, behind the railway line and beyond the station. They had to +cross a bridge that groaned under the weight of rolling trains, and +turned to the right down a path winding between the embankment on one +side, and on the other thatched huts, and old sheds, and other houses +less poverty-stricken, indeed, but closed and impenetrable after +daybreak. Madame Bavoil led him to where this alley ended under the arch +of another bridge. Overhead was a siding, with its signals round and +square, red and yellow, and posts with cast-iron ladders; and there +always in the same place an engine was being fired, or, with shrill +whistling, was moving out backwards. + +Madame Bavoil stopped at a door under a round arch in an immense wall, +which not far off ran against the embankment, forming an impassable +angle; it was built of millstone grit of the colour of burnt almonds, +like that used for the Paris reservoirs; here dwelt the nuns of Saint +Theresa. + +Madame Bavoil, as being used to convent ways, pushed open the door which +stood ajar, and Durtal saw before him a paved walk between strips of +river pebbles, dividing a garden stocked with fruit-trees and geraniums. +Two yews, clipped into spheres, with a cross on the top of each, gave +this priestly close a graveyard flavour. + +The path led upwards, cut into steps. When they reached the top Durtal +saw a building of brick and plaster pierced with windows guarded by iron +bars, and a grey door with a wicket bearing these words painted in +white, "O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who put our trust in +Thee." + +He looked about him, surprised at seeing nobody, hearing nothing; but +Madame Bavoil beckoned to him, made her way round the house, and led the +way into a sort of vestibule along which clambered a vine wrapped in +swathing, and she turned into a little chapel, where she knelt down on +the flagstones. + +Durtal, amazed, seemed to breathe the melancholy that weighed on this +naked sanctuary. + +He was in a building of the end of the eighteenth century; in the +middle, raised on eight steps, stood an altar of wax-polished wood in +the shape of a tomb; above it was a shrine covered with a curtain of +white brocade and surmounted by a picture of the Annunciation, a washy +painting mounted in a gilt frame. To the right and left were two +medallions in relief, on one side Saint Joseph and on the other Saint +Theresa, and above the picture, close to the ceiling, were the arms of +the Carmelites, also in relief: a shield with a cross and stars beneath +a marquis's coronet, from which an arm emerges wielding a sword. This +was held up by fat little angels, the swollen infants of the sculptors +of that period, and floating in the air was a scroll bearing the motto +of the order: "_Zelo, zelatus sum, pro Domino Deo Exercituum_." + +Finally, to the right of the altar, the iron grating of the nunnery was +seen in an arch in the wall; and on the steps of the altar, inside the +railing for the communicants, an annoying statue was emerging from under +a gilt canopy--the Infant Christ holding a globe in one hand, and +raising the other as if to command attention; a statue of painted +plaster as of some precocious mountebank, with homage offered in this +deserted chapel, of two pots of hydrangea and a floating wick in a +crimson glass. + +"How cold and dismal is such _rococo_!" thought Durtal. He knelt down on +a chair, and by degrees his impressions underwent a change. This holy +place, saturated with prayer, seemed to let its ice melt and grow balmy. +It was as though visions percolated through the gate of the cloister and +shed warm puffs of air in the place. A sense of warmth of soul stole +over him, of being at home in this solitude. + +The only astonishing thing was to hear, in such remote seclusion, the +whistling of trains and the rumbling of engines. + +Durtal went out before Madame Bavoil had finished the rosary. Standing +in the doorway, he saw, just opposite, the cathedral in profile, but +with only one spire, the old belfry being hidden by the new. Under a +cloudy sky it stood massively solid, green and grey, with its roof of +oxidized copper, and the pumice-stone hue of the tower. + +"It is stupendous!" said Durtal to himself, recalling the various +aspects it could assume according to the season and the hour, as the +colour of its complexion varied. "The whole effect under a clear sky is +silvery grey, and if the sun lights it up it turns pale golden yellow; +seen from near, its skin is like a nibbled biscuit, a siliceous +limestone eaten into holes; at other times, when the sun is setting, it +turns crimson and appears like some vast and exquisite shrine, all rose +colour and green; and in the twilight it is blue, and seems to +evaporate into violet. + +"And those porches!" he went on. "That of the royal front is the least +variable; it remains of a cinnamon-brown half-way up, of a dull +pumice-grey as it rises; that on the south side, more eaten into by +lichens, is wearing green, while the arches on the north, with their +stones like concrete full of shells, suggest to the fancy a sea-grotto +left high and dry." + +"Well, our friend, are you dreaming?" said Madame Bavoil, tapping him on +the shoulder. + +"This Carmelite convent you see is a very austere house," said she, "and +as you may suppose, grace abounds;" and when Durtal murmured,-- + +"What a contrast between this dead spot and the railway that runs past +it, always in a stir!" she exclaimed,-- + +"Do you suppose that anywhere else you will find, side by side, such an +image of the contemplative life and the active life?" + +"And what must the nuns think as they hear these continual departures +for the outer world? Those who have grown old in the convent would, of +course, despise these calls, these invitations to live; the quietude of +their spirits must increase as they find themselves protected for ever +from the perils which the noisy rush of the trains must bring before +them every hour of the day and night; they will feel more drawn to pray, +for those whom the chances of life carry away to Paris, or bring back to +the country, outcasts from the city. But the postulants--the novices? In +the hours of desertion, of doubt as to their vocation, which must come +over them, is it not appalling to think of the constantly revived +memories of home, of friends, of all that they have left to shut +themselves up for ever in a convent? + +"As each asks herself whether she can endure watching and fasting, must +it not be a permanent temptation to rebel against being buried alive in +a tomb? + +"And I cannot help thinking of the appearance as of a reservoir that the +style of building gives to this Carmel. The image is precise, for the +convent is indeed a reservoir into which God dips to draw forth the good +works of love and tears, and restore the balance of the scales in which +the sins of the world are so heavy!" + +Madame Bavoil smiled. + +"A very old Carmelite nun," said she, "who had gone into this House +before railways were invented, died here hardly three months ago. She +had never been outside the walls, and never saw an engine or a railway +carriage. Under what form could she picture to herself the trains she +heard thundering and shrieking?" + +"As some diabolical invention, no doubt, since these conveyances carry +us to the wicked but delightful sins of towns," replied Durtal, smiling. +"But it is a curious case, nevertheless." + +He was silent; then, changing the subject, he said,-- + +"And do you still hold communion with Heaven, Madame Bavoil?" + +"No," she answered, sadly. "I no longer have any converse or any +visions. I am deaf and blind. God is silent to me." + +She shook her head, and, after a pause, she added, speaking to +herself,-- + +"Such a little thing is enough to displease Him. If He detects a trace +of vanity in the soul on which He shines, He departs. And as the Father +tells me, the mere fact of having spoken of the special graces +vouchsafed to me by Jesus, proves that I am not humble. In short, His +will be done!--And you, our friend, do you still think of taking shelter +in a cloister?" + +"I--my spirit still craves a truce; my soul is but shifting ballast." + +"Because, no doubt, you are not honest in your dealings. You behave as +if you meant to strike a bargain with Him; that is not the way to set to +work." + +"What would you do in my place?" + +"I should be generous; I should say to Him, 'Here I am, do with me as +Thou wilt. I give myself unconditionally to Thee. I ask but one thing: +Help me to love Thee.'" + +"And do you suppose that I have not blamed myself for my cowardice of +heart?" + +They walked on in silence. When they reached the cathedral, Madame +Bavoil proposed that they should pay a visit to Notre Dame du Pilier. + +They seated themselves in the gloom of the side aisle of the choir, +where the dark-toned windows were still further obscured by a poorly +executed wooden niche, in which the Virgin, as dark as her namesake in +the crypt, Notre Dame de Sous-Terre, stood on a pillar, hung round with +bunches of metal hearts and little lamps on coronas, from the roof. +Frames of tapers on each side shot up little tongues of flame, and +prostrate women were praying, their faces hidden in their hands or +upturned to the dark countenance, on which the light did not fall. + +It struck Durtal that the woes repressed in the morning hours were +poured out in the twilight; the faithful did not now come for Her alone, +but for themselves; each one brought a load of sorrows and opened it +before Her. What anguish of soul was poured out on the stones by these +women, leaning prostrate against the railing that protected the pillar +which each kissed as she rose. + +And the swarthy image, carved in the early part of the sixteenth +century, had listened, Her face invisible, to the same sighs, the same +complaints, from succeeding generations, had heard the same cries, +echoing down the ages, for ever lamenting the bitterness of life, for +ever expressing the desire, all the same, for length of days! + +Durtal looked at Madame Bavoil. She was praying with closed eyes, +kneeling on the stones and sitting on her heels, her arms hanging, her +hands clasped. How happy was she to be able thus to abstract herself. + +And he tried to force himself to say a prayer, quite a short one, in the +hope that he might succeed in getting to the end without letting his +mind wander. He began "_Sub tuum_"--"Under Thy protection do we take +refuge; Holy Mother of God, despise not us." What it was really +indispensable that he should obtain from the Father Superior was +permission to take his books with him into the monastery, and to have at +least a few pious toys in his cell. Ah--but how could he explain that +any profane literature was necessary in a convent, that, from an +artist's point of view, it was requisite to refresh one's memory of the +prose of Hugo, of Baudelaire, of Flaubert--"I am at sea again!" said +Durtal suddenly to himself. + +He tried to brush away these distractions, and went on: "Despise not the +prayers we put up to Thee in our needs--" And he was off again at a +gallop in his dreams--"Even supposing that no difficulty were made about +this request, the question would still remain as to submitting +manuscripts for revision, obtaining the _imprimatur_; and how would that +be arranged?" + +Madame Bavoil interrupted his wanderings by rising from her knees. +Recalled to himself, he hastily finished his prayer--"but deliver us +from all perils, glorious and blessed Virgin; Amen." And he parted from +the housekeeper on the steps of the church, going home much vexed by his +dissipation of mind. + +He there found a note from the Editor of the _Review_, which had +published his paper on the Fra Angelico in the Louvre, asking him for +another article. + +This diversion made him glad; he thought that this task might perhaps +preserve him from vain thoughts of his discomfiture at Chartres and his +fancy for the cloister. + +"What can I send to the _Review_?" said he to himself. "Since what they +chiefly ask for is criticism of religious art, I might write some short +study of the early German painters. I have ample notes, made on the spot +in the galleries there; let us see!" + +He turned them over, lingering to read a note-book containing his +impressions of travel. A summing up of his remarks on the School of +Cologne arrested his attention. + +At every page he gave vent to his surprise in more and more vehement +exclamations, at the false ideas and absurd theories put forward for so +many years with regard to these pictures. + +Every writer, without exception, had expatiated, each more +enthusiastically than the last, on the pure and religious art of these +early painters, speaking of them as seraphic artists who had depicted +superhuman beauty, white and sylph-like Virgins all soul, standing out +like celestial visions, against backgrounds of gold. + +Durtal, prejudiced by the unanimity of this universal praise, expected +to find almost impalpably fair angels, Flemish Madonnas, etherealized in +some sort, having shed their husk of flesh, rapturous Memlings with eyes +full of heaven, and bodies that had almost ceased to be--and he +remembered his dismay on entering the galleries of the Cologne Museum. + +In point of fact his disenchantment had begun as soon as he stepped out +of the train. Carried in the course of a night from Paris to that city, +he had made his way through narrow streets where every basement window +exhaled the fragrance of _sauerkraut_, and he had reached the cathedral +square, beautified by Farina's shop-signs, where in front of the famous +Dom he had been obliged to confess that this façade, this exterior, was +a huge piece of patchwork--a delusion. Every part of it was furbished +up, and the church sheltered no sculpture under its portals; it was +symmetrical, built by peg and line; its rigid forms, its hard outlines +were an offence. + +The interior was better, in spite of the vulgar blaze, the cheap +fireworks, of ignoble modern glass. And there, in a chapel near the +choir, might be seen, for a consideration, the most famous picture of +the German school, the _Dombild_, by Stephan Lochner, a triptych +representing the Adoration of the Magi on the centre panel, with St. +Ursula on the left hand shutter and St. Gereon on the right. + +Durtal's consternation had risen to the highest pitch. The work was thus +arranged. Against a gold background, a Virgin, crowned, red-haired, +bullet-headed, dressed in blue, held on her knees an Infant blessing the +Kings, two kneeling on each side of the throne. One, an old fellow with +a short beard like a retired officer, and hair curled like shavings over +his ears, was sumptuously arrayed in crimson velvet brocaded with gold, +his hands clasped; the other, a dandy with long hair and a large beard, +dressed in green shot with gold and trimmed with fur, held up a golden +cup. And behind each, other figures were standing, flourishing their +swords and standards, in cavalier attitudes, and posing for the public, +thinking much more of the visitors than of the Virgin. + +This, then, was the type of Madonna, of the supersensual and sublimated +Virgins of Cologne! This one was puffy, redundant, chubby; she had the +neck of a heifer, and flesh like cream, or hasty pudding, that quivers +when it is touched. Jesus, whose expression was the only interesting +feature of the picture, a certain manly gravity that was shown without +any disfigurement of the character of childhood, was also round and +well-fed, and the scene took place on a lawn strewn with +flowers--primroses, violets, and strawberries painted in fine stipple +with the touch of a miniaturist. + +You might call this picture what you pleased, the execution, smooth and +wavy, and cold in spite of the brilliant colours, was a finished piece +of work, brilliant, dexterous--but not religious; it betrayed a +decadence; the work was laboured, complicated, pretty, but it was in no +sense that of an early master. + +This common, squat Virgin, fat and pudgy, was simply a good German girl, +well-dressed and squarely seated, but she could never have been the +ecstatic Mother of God! Then these kneeling and standing men were not in +prayer; there was no devotion in this picture; the personages were all +thinking of something else, folding their hands and looking round at the +painter who was depicting them. As to the wings, it were better to say +nothing about them. What was to be thought of the Saint Ursula with a +prominent forehead like a cupping-glass and a burly stomach, surrounded +by other creatures as shapeless as herself, their squab noses poking out +of the bladders of lard that did duty for their faces? + +And Durtal found the same impression of insensibility to mysticism in +the picture gallery. There he could study Stephan Lochner's precursor, +Master Wilhelm--the first early German painter whose name is known--and +in this again he found the look of elaborate chubbiness as in the +Dombild. Wilhelm's Virgin was indeed less vulgar than the Virgin of the +cathedral; but in feeling she was equally insipid, over-finished, and +even more simperingly pretty. She was the triumph of delicate pertness, +and had the look of a stage chamber-maid with her hair crimped over her +forehead. And the child, twisted into an unnatural attitude, while he +caressed his Mother's chin, turned his face round to be the better seen. + +In short, this Virgin was neither human nor divine; she had not even the +too realistic touch of Lochner, and could, no more than the other, have +been the chosen Mother of God. + +It is indeed strange that these very early painters should have begun +where painting as an art ends, in mere finish and smoothness; men who +from the first put sugar in their new wine and betray their lack of +energy, of enthusiasm, of simplicity, while no faith projects itself +from their work. They are the very converse of every other school; for +everywhere else, in Italy, Flanders, Holland, Burgundy, pictures began +by being clumsy and unfinished, barbarous and hard, but at least ardent +and pious! + +As he studied the other pictures in this collection, the mass of +anonymous work, the paintings ascribed to the Master of the Lyversberg +Passion, and the Master of the Saint Bartholomew, Durtal came to the +conclusion that the School of Cologne had known nothing of mysticism +till it had felt the influence of the Flemish painters. It had needed a +Van Eyck, and the yet more exquisite Roger van der Weyden, to breathe +the air of Heaven into these craftsmen. They thus had changed their +manner, had imitated the ascetic innocence of the Flemings, had +assimilated their tender piety and simplicity, and, in their turn, had +sung the glory of the Mother and mourned over the sufferings of the Son +in ingenuous hymns. + +"This school may be thus summed up," said Durtal. "It is the triumph of +padding and puffing, the apotheosis of fatness and sheen, and this has +nothing to do with Christian art in the true sense of the word. + +"If we want to understand the whole personal character of German +religious painting, we must study other schools than this, the only one +ever spoken of, and always with praise. We must turn to the less +familiar schools of Franconia and Swabia; there we find the very +opposite. As art it is savage and rough, but it lives--it weeps, nay it +cries aloud, but it prays. We must look at the works of these unkempt +geniuses, such as Grünewald, whose Christs, rebellious and wrathful, +grind their teeth; or Zeitblom, whose 'Veronica's veil,' in the Berlin +Museum, is unpleasant, no doubt; the angels have black leather crosses +on their breasts, and the Saviour's head is terrible, horrible; still +there is such energy in the work, such decision, such crudity, that the +very sincerity of its ugliness is impressive. + +"Certainly," Durtal went on, "even setting apart such daring painters as +Grünewald, I prefer many an unknown artist whose work is strange rather +than beautiful, but at any rate mystical, to the honey and lard of +Cologne; for instance, an anonymous painter who is to be found in the +Grand Duke's collection at Gotha, as the author of one of those curious +Mass-scenes which in the Middle Ages were called the 'Mass of Saint +Gregory,' wherefore, we know not." + +Durtal turned over his note-book and read through the description he had +recorded of this work, which he remembered as an instance of a sort of +pious brutality. + +The picture was set out on a gold background. A little above the altar, +but scarcely higher, a wooden sarcophagus, a sort of square bath, was +seen, with a board over it from end to end. On this plank-bridge sat the +Christ, His legs hidden in this tomb, holding a cross. His face was +haggard and hollow, He was crowned with green thorns, and His emaciated +body was spotted all over by the ends of the scourges as if the wounds +were flea-bites. Over Him, in the air, floated the instruments of the +Passion: the nails, the sponge, a hammer and a spear; to the left, on a +very small scale, were the busts of Jesus and of Judas, near a pedestal +on which lay three rows of pieces of silver. + +In front of this altar, adoring this truly hideous Saviour painted in +accordance with the prophetic descriptions of Isaiah and David, were +Pope Gregory on his knees, his hands clasped, a grave Cardinal, whose +hands were hidden under his robe, and a rough-looking Bishop, standing, +in a dark green cloak embroidered with gold; he held a cross. + +It was enigmatical and it was sinister, but those austere and commanding +faces were alive. There was a stamp of faith, indomitable and resolute, +in those countenances. It was harsh to the palate, the roughest wine of +mysticism; but at least it was not the mawkish syrup of the early +Cologne painters. + +"Ah! that mystical breath by which the soul of the artist becomes +incorporate in the colour on a canvas, in the lines of carved stone, in +written words, and speaks to the souls of those who can understand! How +few have had it!" thought Durtal, closing his notes of travel. In +Germany it may be seen in the very bunglers among painters; in Italy, +setting aside Angelico, whose works reveal his saintly spirit and are +the coloured image of his secret soul, and his pupil, Benozzo Gozzoli, +the last of the Mediæval painters; if we also except his precursors: +Cimabue, the survivors of the rigid Byzantines, Giotto--who thawed those +fixed and puzzling figures, Orcagna, Simone di Martino, Taddeo +Gaddi--all the very early painters--how much dexterous trickery do we +find among the great painters, mimicking the religious note, and +producing a deceptive imitation by sheer sham. + +"The Italians of the Renaissance, above all others, excelled in this +spurious piety, and those are comparatively rare who, like Botticelli, +were honest enough to confess that their Virgins were Venuses and their +Venuses Virgins. + +"The Berlin gallery, where he is to be seen in some exquisite and +triumphant examples, shows this very plainly; we see the two versions of +the type side by side. + +"First we have a wonderful Venus, nude, with pure gold hair brought +round her body by one hand, standing out in her white flesh against a +black background, gazing with limpid grey eyes, liquid with the colour +of stagnant water, and edged with lids like a young rabbit's--pink lids; +she must have wept much, and her disconsolate look, her drooping +attitude, suggest some far-away thought of the unsatisfied weariness of +the senses and the intolerable unrest of horrible desires that nothing +can satisfy. + +"And not far away is a Virgin, very like her--indeed her very self, with +her sensitive, slightly upturned nose, her lips like a folded +clover-leaf, her brackish eyes, her pink lids, her golden hair, her +greenish complexion, her strongly-moulded frame and large hands. The +countenance is the same, fretful and weary; it is evident that the same +model sat for both. They are both purely pagan. For the Venus, well and +good! But the Virgin! + +"It may be added that in this picture a row of torch-bearing angels +makes the result, if possible, even less Christian, for these delightful +creatures, with their ambiguous smiles and supple grace, have all the +dangerous attraction of wicked angels. They are Ganymedes, borrowed from +mythology, not from the Bible. + +"How far we are from God with this paganism of Botticelli's!" said +Durtal to himself. "What a difference between this painter and that +Roger van der Weyden whose Nativity is the glory of one of the adjoining +rooms in that magnificent Old Museum of Berlin!" + +Ay, that Nativity!--He had only to turn to his notes to see it plainly +before him. + +Painted as a triptych, on the right wing was an old man in front of some +wondering bystanders, burning incense to the Virgin, who is visible +through an open window above a landscape in distant perspective with +avenues undulating to the horizon; while a woman, her head dressed in a +muffler that is almost a turban, touches the old man's shoulder with one +hand and raises the other with an indescribable gesture of surprise and +joy, her face expressive of ecstasy. On the left wing kneel the three +Kings, their hands uplifted, their eyes raised to Heaven, contemplating +an Infant beaming from the heart of a star; nothing can be more +beautiful than these three transfigured faces; and these are praying +with all their heart, never troubling themselves about us. + +Still, these two divisions are but accessory to the central subject +which they complement, and which is thus arranged: + +In the middle, in front of a sort of ruined palace or columnar cow-shed +without a roof, the Virgin kneels in prayer before the Babe; to the +right the donor, the Chevalier Bladelin, is seen, also kneeling, and on +the left Saint Joseph, holding a lighted taper, gazes down on Jesus. +There are besides six little angels, three below at the door of the +stable and three above in the air. This is the whole scene. + +It is noteworthy that the goldsmith's work, the mingled splendour of +Oriental hangings, the brocades hemmed with fur and strewn with gems of +which Van Eyck and Memling made such free use to array their figures of +the Virgin and the donors, are not to be seen in this panel. The +textures are rich and heavy, but have none of the gorgeous colouring of +the silks of Bruges or the carpets of Persia. Roger van der Weyden seems +intentionally to have reduced the whole setting of the scene to its +simplest expression, and yet, while using an unaffectedly sober key of +colour, he has produced a masterpiece of pure and lucid harmony. + +Mary, with no diadem, no jewelled band, not a bracelet or a gem, her +head simply crowned by a few golden rays, is seen in a white dress, +closed to the throat, and a blue cloak of which the ample folds lie on +the ground; the sleeves of her under dress, fastened at the wrists, are +of a rich blue violet, more nearly black than red. + +Her face is indescribable; of superhuman loveliness, with long red-gold +hair; the brow high, the nose straight, the lips full, the chin small; +but words are of no avail; what cannot be described is the expression of +candour and sadness, the tide of love that rises to those downcast eyes +as she looks down on the tiny, helpless Babe, round whose head there is +a rosy nimbus starred with gold. + +Never was there a more unearthly and yet more living Virgin. Neither Van +Eyck, with his rather vulgar and never beautiful heads, nor +Memling--more tender and refined, no doubt, but limited to his ideal of +a woman with a round forehead and a face shaped like a kite, wide above +and pointed below--ever achieved the elegance of form or the purity of a +woman made divine by love, a being who, even apart from her surroundings +and bereft of the attributes by which she is recognizable, could be none +other than the Mother of God. + +By her side the Chevalier Bladelin, dressed all in black, with his +equine type of face, his shaven cheeks, his dignity, at once priestly +and princely, is lost in contemplation, far away from the world; he is +praying in good earnest. And Saint Joseph, opposite to him, represented +as a bald old man, with a short beard, and wearing a red cloak, comes +forward as if amazed at his happiness, and scarce daring to believe that +the moment has come when he may adore the Messiah born at last; he +smiles, deferentially, mildly stepping with the almost clumsy care of an +old man who would fain be serviceable but fears to intrude. + +To make the whole thing more than perfect, above the figure of Pierre +Bladelin extends a wondrous landscape, cut across by the High Street of +Middelburg, the town founded by this nobleman, a street bordered by +castellated houses with battlements and church towers, and vanishing in +a country scene lighted up by a clear sky, a blue spring day; above +Saint Joseph a meadow and woods, sheep and shepherds, and three +exquisite angels in robes, one of pinkish yellow, one of purple like a +campanula, and one of greenish citron hue; three really ethereal beings, +having no relationship with the pertly innocent pages invented by the +Renaissance. + +If we sum up the whole impression produced by this work, we are led to +the conclusion that mystical art, still dwelling on earth, and not +restricted to scenes in Heaven, as Angelico had chosen to limit it in +his "Coronation of the Virgin," has produced in Roger van der Weyden's +triptych the purest effluence of prayer to be found in painting. Never +has the Nativity been so gloriously set forth, nor, it may be said, more +artlessly and simply expressed. The masterpiece of the Christmas +festival is at Berlin, just as the masterpiece of the Deposition is at +Antwerp, in the agonized and magnificent work of Quentin Matsys. + +"The early Flemish painters were the greatest that ever lived!" said +Durtal to himself, "and this Roger Van der Weyden, or Roger de la +Pasture as he is sometimes called, crushed between the fame of van Eyck +and of Memling--as Gherard David was later, and Hugo van der Goes, +Justus of Ghent, and Dierck Bouts--was in my opinion superior to them +all. + +"And after them what a falling away! Theatrical Crucifixions, the fleshy +coarseness of Rubens which Vandyck tried to mitigate by making it +leaner. We must leap into Holland to find the mystic accent once more, +and it reveals itself in the soul of a Judaizing Protestant, under an +aspect so mysterious and eccentric that at first sight we hesitate, +feeling ourselves, as it were, to make sure that we are not mistaken in +regarding this as religious art. + +"Nor need we go to Amsterdam to verify the truth of this impression. It +is enough to go to see the 'Disciples at Emmaus,' in the Louvre." + +Durtal, started on this theme, fell into a reverie over Rembrandt's +strange conception of Christian æsthetics. It is evident that in his +mode of depicting Gospel scenes this painter still exhales a breath of +the Old Testament; his church, even if he had meant to paint it as it +was in his day, would still be a synagogue, so strong is the odour of +the Jew in all his work; he is possessed by the imagery, the prophecies, +all the solemn and barbarous side of the East. And this we can +understand when we know that he was the companion of Rabbis, whose +portraits he has left us, and the friend of Manasseh ben Israel, one of +the most learned men of his age. On the other hand, we may admit that +this Protestant Dutchman engrafted on this stock of cabalistic learning +and Mosaic ceremonial an attentive and assiduous study of the Old +Testament, for he possessed a Bible, which was sold by auction with his +furniture to pay his debts. + +This would be enough to justify his choice of subjects and the +composition of his pictures; but the riddle remains unsolved of the +results achieved by an artist whom we cannot conceive of, after all, as +praying before he would paint: like Angelico and Roger van der Weyden. + +Be this as it may, he, with the eye of a visionary, with his serious but +fervid art, his genius for concentration, for getting a spot of the +essence of sunlight into the heart of darkness, has accomplished great +results; and in his Biblical scenes has spoken a language which no one +before him had even attempted to lisp. + +Is not this picture of the Pilgrims to Emmaus a typical instance of +this? Pull the work to pieces; it ought to seem dull, monotonous, +voiceless. As a composition it is utterly common: we see a sort of +cellar of stone-work, a table facing us, behind which sits Jesus, His +feet bare, His lips colourless, His complexion muddy, His raiment of a +pinkish grey; He is breaking the bread, while, to His right, an apostle, +clutching his napkin, looks at Him, fancies he recognizes Him, and on +the left another disciple, quite sure that he knows Him, clasps his +hands--and this one utters a cry of joy that we can hear! A fourth +figure, with an intelligent profile, sees nothing, but, attentive to his +duties, waits on the guests. + +It is a meal of humble folk in a prison; the colours are limited to a +key of sad greys and browns, excepting in the case of the man who twists +his napkin, whose sleeves are thick with a vermilion like red +sealing-wax, while the others might be painted with dust and pitch. + +These are the literal facts; but they are not the truth, for everything +is transfigured. The head of Christ is luminous merely by the way He +looks up; a pale radiance fills the room. This Jesus, ugly as He is, +with lips like death, asserts Himself by a gesture, a look of ineffable +beauty, as the murdered Son of a God! + +We stand dumfounded, not even trying to understand; for this work, +stamped with transcendent naturalism, is beyond and apart from painting; +no one can copy or reproduce it. + +"After Rembrandt," Durtal went on, "there is an irremediable decay of +religious feeling in painting. The seventeenth century has not left a +single picture in which there is a genuine stamp of manly devotion; +excepting, indeed, in Spain at the time when Saint Theresa and Saint +John of the Cross flourished there; then the mystical realism of its +painters produced some fiercely fervid works;" and Durtal recalled a +picture by Zurbaran he had seen and admired in the Gallery at Lyons, +Saint Francis of Assisi standing upright in a habit of grey serge, the +cowl over his head, his hands hidden in his sleeves. + +The face looked as if it had been moulded or chiselled out of cinders; +the mouth was open, livid, below ecstatic eyes as white as if they had +been blinded. It was a wonder how this corpse, of which nothing was left +but the bones, could hold itself up; and terror came over the beholder +as he thought of the excessive maceration and overwhelming penances that +must have exhausted that frame and seamed that face. + +This painting was the evident outcome of the relentless and terrible +mysticism of Saint John of the Cross, the art of the rack, the _delirium +tremens_ of divine intoxication here on earth; aye, but what a passion +of adoration, what a voice of love stifled by anguish found utterance in +this canvas. + +As to the eighteenth century, it was not worth a thought; that century +was the age of the belly and the bath-room; as soon as art tried to +touch the Church it only made a washing-basin into a holy-water stoup. + +In our own time, again, there is nothing to note. + +Overbeck, Ingres, Flandrin--all sorry jades harnessed willy-nilly to +religious tasks by commissions from the pious. In the church of Saint +Sulpice Delacroix extinguishes all the feeble art that surrounds him, +but his sense of Catholic art is null. + +In truth, faith is now dormant, and without that no mystical work is +possible! + +At the present moment Signol is dead, but Olivier Merson is left; +vacuity all along the line. We need not take into account the got-up +absurdities and paintings to puzzle Rosicrucian simpletons; nor, again, +the feeble imagery of the wealthy idlers or the worthy youths who fancy +that if they paint a woman larger than life, that makes her mystical. +Silence would befit the subject, only that, unluckily, a well-meaning +publisher was struck by the idea of mobilizing the clerical forces to +hail James Tissot as an evangelical painter. His Life of Christ is one +of the least religious works conceivable, for, in fact, it might be +regarded as a hesitating paraphrase of the Life of Jesus as narrated by +that cheerful apostate and terrible jester, Renan. + +The firm of Mame has completed this artist's treason by the issue of +these melancholy chromo-lithographs. Under the pretext of realism, of +information acquired on the spot, of authenticated costumes--all +extremely doubtful, since we should be forced to conclude that nothing +has changed in Palestine in the course of nineteen centuries--Monsieur +Tissot has given us the basest masquerade that anyone has yet dared +present as an illustration of the Scriptures. Look at that disreputable +trull, a street slut tired of shouting "This way to the boats!" till she +falls fainting. This is the _Magnificat_, the Blessed Virgin. That +epileptic boy with outstretched arms is Jesus in the Temple. Look at the +Baptism, the Pharisee and the Publican, the Massacre of the Innocents, +the Saint Peter walking on the Sea, the Magdalen at the feet of Jesus, +the ridiculous _Consummatum est_--look at them all: these prints are +matchless for platitude, effeteness, poverty of spirit. They might have +been designed by the first-comer, and are painted with muck, wine-sauce, +mud! + +Certainly the hapless Catholics have no luck when once they try to +meddle with what they do not understand; their incurable lack of +artistic sense is once more displayed in this attempt over which the +whole world of art and letters is laughing in their sleeve. + +"Then is there nothing, absolutely nothing, to the credit side for the +Church?" exclaimed Durtal. "And yet some attempts at ascetic art have +been made in this century. A few years since, the Benedictine House at +Beuron, in Bavaria, tried to revive ecclesiastical art"; and Durtal +remembered having looked through some reproductions of mural frescoes +painted by these monks in a tower at Monte Cassino. + +These frescoes had gone back to the types of Assyria and Egypt, with +their crowned gods, their sphynx-headed angels having fan-shaped wings +behind their heads, their old men with plaited beards playing on +stringed instruments; and then the Friars of Beuron had given up this +hieratic style, in which, it must be owned, they succeeded but ill, and +in certain later works--especially in a volume of the Way of the Cross, +published at Freiburg in Breisgau--they had adopted a strange medley of +other styles. + +The Roman soldiers who figured in those pages were huge firemen, a +bequest from the schools of Guérin and David; and then, unexpectedly, in +certain plates where the Magdalen and the Holy women appeared, a younger +spirit seemed to prevail among the commonplace groups--Greek female +types derived from the Renaissance, pretty and elegant, evidently +imported from the works of the pre-Raphaelites, and strongly recalling +Walter Crane's illustrations. + +Thus the ideal at Beuron had developed into an alloy of the French art +of the First Empire and contemporary English work. + +Some of these compositions were all but laughable, that of the Ninth +Station, to mention one: Christ lying at full length on His face, and +being pulled up by a rope tied to His bound hands; it looked as if He +were learning to swim. Still, but for feeble and vulgar incidents, +clumsy and obvious details, what strange scenes suddenly rose before his +mind, distinct from the mass: Veronica on her knees before Jesus, was +really distracted with grief, really fine; the borrowed or copied +figures of the other persons represented disappeared; even in the least +original of these compositions the coarse, unsatisfactory utterances of +these monks spoke an almost eloquent language; and this because intense +faith and fervour lurked in the work. A breath had passed over those +faces, and they were alive; the emotion, the voice of prayer, was felt +in the silence of this conventional crowd. This Way of the Cross was +matchless from this point of view: Monastic piety had introduced an +unexpected element, giving evidence of the mysterious power it has at +its command, infusing a personal emotion, a peculiar aroma, into a work +which, without it, would never indeed have existed. These Benedictines +had suggested the sensation of kneeling worship and the very fragrance +of the Gospel, as artists of wider scope had failed in doing. + +Their attempt, however, had begotten no following, and at this day the +school is almost dead, producing nothing but feeble prints for old women +designed by the lay-brothers. + +How, indeed, could it have been anything but still-born? The idea of +doing for the West what Manuel Pauselinos did for the East, of +eliminating study from nature, imposing an uniform ritual of colour and +line, of compelling every artistic temperament to squeeze itself into +the same mould, shows an absolute misapprehension of art in the mind of +the man who attempted it. The system was bound to end in ankylosis, in +the paralysis of painting, and this, in fact, was the result. + +At about the same time with these Religious an unknown artist, living in +the country, and never exhibiting in Paris, was painting pictures for +churches and convents, working for the glory of God and refusing all +remuneration from priests or monks. Durtal knew his pictures, and they +had suggested much the same reflections as those aroused by the +Benedictine paintings of Beuron. + +At first sight Paul Borel's work is neither cheerful nor attractive; the +phrases he used might often have made a partisan of the modern smile; +and besides, to judge his work fairly it is indispensable to get rid of +part of it, to refuse to see anything but that which has evaded the +too-familiar formulas of commonplace unction; and then what a spirit of +manly fervency, of ardent piety, filled and upheld it. + +His most important paintings are buried in the chapel of the Dominican +school at Oullins, in a remote corner of the suburbs of Lyons. Among the +ten subjects that decorate the nave, we find Moses Striking the Rock, +the Disciples at Emmaus, the Healing of One Possessed, of One Born +Blind, and of Tobit; but in spite of the calm energy shown in these +frescoes, they are disappointing by reason of their general heaviness +and of the sleepy and unwonted effect of colour. Not till we reach the +choir, beyond the communion railing, do we find works of a quite +different kind of art, above some magnificent figures of saints of the +Order of Friars Preacher, amazing in the power of prayer, the essence of +saintliness that they diffuse. + +There, too, Durtal had found two large compositions: one of the Virgin +bestowing the Rosary on Saint Dominic, and the other of Saint Thomas +Aquinas kneeling before an altar on which stands a Crucifix radiating +light. Never since the Middle Ages had monks been so understood and so +painted; never had a more impetuous fount of soul been revealed under so +stern a casing of features. Borel was the painter of the Monastic +Saints; his art, by nature rather torpid, soared up with them as soon as +he tried to paint them. + +At Versailles, again, even better perhaps than in the chapel of the +Oullins seminary, the sincere and deeply religious work of Borel might +be studied. At the entrance to the chapel of the Augustine Sisters in +that town, of which Borel had painted the nave and the choir, there +stood a figure of an Abbess of the fourteenth century, Saint Clare of +Montefalcone, in the black robes of an Augustinian Nun, against the +stone walls of her cell, an open book on one side of the figure and a +brass lamp on the other, somewhat behind her on a table. + +In that face, bent over the Crucifix she was pressing to her lips, in +that countenance, at once sweet and hungering, in the movement of the +arms closely folded over her bosom, raised to her face, and themselves +forming a cross, he had seen the complete absorption of a bride, the +rapt, ecstatic joy of the purest love, and at the same time something of +the anxious affection of a mother cherishing the Christ she kissed, and +seemed to shelter in her bosom like a suffering child. + +And this was all set forth without any theatrical attitude or forced +gestures, with perfect simplicity. This Saint Clare has no ravings, no +outcries, like Saint Magdalen of Pazzi; she does not soar with the +flight of divine intoxication. The mystic possession manifests itself in +a mute rapture; her transports are controlled, and her inebriety is +grave; she does not diffuse herself, but opens her soul, and Jesus, as +He enters in, stamps her with His likeness, impresses her with the image +of the Crucifix she holds, and of which the impress was found graven on +her heart when it was examined after her death. + +This was the most remarkable religious painting of our time, and it was +achieved with no borrowing from the Early painters, no trickery of +awkward attitudes supported by iron bars, no affectations, no artifice. +And what a devout Catholic, what an emotionally pious artist must the +man be who could produce such a work! + +After him the rest was silence. Among the religious youth of to-day no +one is to be found equal to the presentment of Church subjects. "Only +one," said Durtal, thinking it over, "gave any hope of such powers, for +he stands apart from the rest, and, at any rate, has talent." + +He rose and went to turn over his portfolios, picking out the +lithographs by Charles Dulac. + +This artist had begun with a series of landscapes, idealizing nature, at +first with a timid hand--extravagantly large pools, and trees with +leaves that looked like wild wigs tossed by the wind; then he had +produced a rendering in black and white of a Canticle of the Sun, or of +Creation, and had poured out in nine plates, printed in different states +of tone, that effluence of mystical feeling which in his first set was +still latent and undecided. + +The rather hackneyed dictum that "a landscape is a state of mind," was +strictly appropriate to this work; the artist had stamped his faith on +these views, studied, no doubt, from nature, but seen, it was evident, +not by the eyes alone, but by a captivated spirit singing in the open +air Daniel's hymn and David's psalm, as interpreted by Saint Francis, +and repeating after them the thought that all the Elements shall sing to +the glory of Him who created them. + +Among these plates two were genuinely inspiring: that with the title, +_Stella Matutina_, and the other with the words, _Spiritus Sancte Deus_; +but another, the broadest, the most decisive, and the simplest of them +all, bearing the title _Sol Justitiæ_, seemed best of all to set forth +the individual sympathies of the artist. + +It was thus composed: A light, remote, translucent distance was lost in +infinitude--a peninsula, a desert waste of waters with ribs of shore, +tongues of land planted with trees repeated in the mirror of the lake; +on the horizon the sun, half set, cast its beams reflected by the sheet +of waters; that was all, but amazing placidity and calm, a sense of +fulness was shed over all. The idea of justice, to which that of mercy +answers as its inevitable echo, was symbolized in the serene solemnity +of this expanse lighted up by the glow of a kindly season and mild +atmosphere. + +Durtal drew back to get a more complete view of the work as a whole. + +"There is no denying it," said he; "this artist has the instinct, the +subtle sense of aerial space, of expanse; he understands the soul of +calm waters flowing under a vast sky! And then, this print diffuses +emanations as from a Catholic, which steal into us, slowly soak into our +heart. + +"And by this time," said he, closing the portfolio, "I am far enough +away from the original matter, and none the nearer to any article I can +write for the _Review_. A paper on the primitive German painters would, +indeed, be quite in its line; yes, but what an undertaking! I should +have to work up my notes, and after dealing with Meister Wilhelm, +Stephan Lochner, and Zeitblom, to speak of Bernhardt Strigel, an almost +unknown painter, of Albert Dürer, Holbein, Martin Schongauer, Hans +Balding, Burgkmayer, and I know not how many more. I should have to +account for whatever may have survived of orthodoxy in Germany after the +Reformation; to mention, at any rate, from the Lutheran point of view, +that extraordinary painter, Cranach, whose Adams are bearded Apollos of +the complexion of a Red Indian, and his Eves slender, chubby-faced +courtesans, with bullet heads, little shrimps' eyes, lips moulded out of +red pomatum, breasts like apples close under the neck, long, slim legs, +elegantly formed, with the calf high up, and large, flat feet with thick +ankles. + +"Such a treatise would carry me too far. It is amusing to dream over, +but not to write. I should do better to seek a less panoramic, a +compacter subject. But what?--Well, I will see later," he concluded, +getting up, for Madame Mesurat jovially announced that dinner was ready. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + +To change his weariness of the place, Durtal one sunny afternoon went to +the further end of Chartres, to visit the ancient church of Saint Martin +du Val. It dated from the tenth century, and had served as the chapel by +turns of a Benedictine House and of a Capuchin convent. Restored without +any too flagrant heresies, it was now included in the precincts of an +Asylum, and was reached by crossing a yard where blind folk in white +cotton caps sat nodding on benches in the shade of a few trees. + +Its small, squat doorway and three little belfries, as if it had been +built for a village of dwarfs, attested its Romanesque origin; and, as +at Saint Radegonde at Poitiers and Notre Dame de la Couture at le Mans, +the interior opened, under an altar very much raised above the ground, +into a crypt lighted by loopholes borrowing their light from the +ambulatory of the choir. The capitals of the columns, coarsely carved, +resembled the idols of Oceania; under the pavement and in the tombs lay +many of the Bishops of Chartres, and newly-consecrated prelates were +supposed to spend the first night of their arrival at the See in prayer +before these tombs, so as to imbue themselves with the virtues of their +predecessors and enlist their support. + +"The Manes of these Bishops might very well have whispered to their +present successor, Monseigneur des Mofflaines, some plan for purifying +the House of the Virgin by turning out the vile musician who degrades +the Sanctuary on Sundays to the level of a music hall!" sighed Durtal. +'But, alas! nothing disturbs the inertia of that aged, and invalid +shepherd, who is, indeed, never to be seen either in his garden, in the +cathedral, or in the town. + +"Ah! But this is something better than all the vocal flourishes of the +choristers!" said Durtal to himself as he listened to the bells aroused +from silence to shed the blessed drops of sound over the city. + +He called to mind the meanings ascribed to bells by the early +symbolists. Durand of Mende compares the hardness of the metal to the +power of the preacher, and thinks that the blows of the tongue against +the side, aim at showing the orator that he should punish himself and +correct his own vices before he blames those of others. The wooden +crossbeam to which the bell is suspended resembles in form the Cross of +Christ, and the rope pulled by the ringer to set the bell going is +allegorical of the knowledge of the Scripture which depends on the Cross +itself. + +According to Hugh of Saint Victor, the tongue of the bell is the +sacerdotal tongue, which, striking on both sides of the body, declares +the truth of both Testaments. Finally, to others the bell itself is the +mouth of the Liturgy, and the tongue its tongue. + +"In fact, the bell is the Church's herald, its outer voice, as the +priest is its inward voice," Durtal concluded. + +While meditating in this wise, he had reached the cathedral, and for the +hundredth time stood to admire those powerful abutments throwing out, +with the strong curve of a projectile, flying buttresses like spoked +wheels, and, as usual, he was amazed by the flight of the parabola, the +grace of the trajectory, the sober strength of those curved supports. +"Still," said he to himself, as he studied the parapet raised above +them, bordering the roof of the nave, "the architect who was content to +stamp out those trefoil arches, as if they were punched in that stone +parapet, was less happily inspired than certain other master-masons or +stone-workers who enclosed the little gutter-path they made round church +roofs with scriptural or symbolical images. Such an one was he who built +the cathedral at Troyes, where the top parapet is carved alternately +into fleur de lys and Saint Peter's keys; and he who at Caudebec +sculptured the edge into gothic letters of a delightfully decorative +character, spelling a hymn to the Virgin, thus crowning the church with +a garland of prayer, wreathing its head with a white chaplet of +aspiration." + +Durtal left the north side of the cathedral, went past the royal door +and round the corner of the old tower. With one hand he held on his hat, +and with the other grasped the skirts of his coat, which flapped about +his legs. The storm blew permanently on this spot. There might be not a +breath of air anywhere else in the town, but here, at this corner, +winter and summer, there was always a blast that caught cloaks and +skirts and lashed the face with icy thongs. + +"That perhaps is the reason why the statues of the neighbouring north +door, which are so incessantly scourged by the wind, stand in such +shivering attitudes with narrow and tightly-drawn raiment, their arms +and legs held close," thought Durtal, with a smile. "And is it not the +same with that strange figure dwelling in companionship with a sow +spinning--though it is not in fact a sow, but a hog--and an ass playing +on a hurdy-gurdy on the storm-beaten wall of the old tower?" + +These two animals, whose careless herd he seems to be, represent in +their merry guise the old popular sayings: _Ne sus Minerveum_, and +_Asinus ad lyram_, which may be freely rendered by "Every man to his +trade," and "Never force a talent;" for we should but be as inept as a +pig trying to be wise or an ass trying to strike the lyre. + +But this angel with a nimbus, standing barefoot under a canopy, +supporting a sun-dial against his breast, what does he mean, what is he +doing? + +A descendant of the royal women of the north porch, for he is like them +in his slender shape, sheathed in a clinging robe with string-like +pleats, he looks over our heads, and we wonder whether he is very impure +or very chaste. + +The upper part of the face is innocent, the hair cropped round the head; +the face is beardless and the expression monastic, but between the nose +and mouth there is a broad slope, and the lips, parting in a straight +gash, wear a smile, which as we look seems just a little impudent, just +a little vulgar, and we wonder what manner of angel this may be. + +There is in this figure something of the recalcitrant seminarist, and +also something of the virtuous postulant. If the sculptor took a young +Brother for his model, he certainly did not choose a docile novice, such +as he who no doubt served for the study of Joseph standing under the +north door; he must have worked from one of the religious _Gyrovagoi_ +who so tormented St. Benedict. A strange figure is this angel, who has a +father at Laon, behind the cathedral, and who anticipated by many +centuries the puzzling seraphic types of the Renaissance. + +"What a wind!" muttered Durtal, hastening back to the west front, where +he went up the steps and pushed the door open. + +The entrance to this immense and obscure church is always coercive; we +instinctively bend the head and advance cautiously under the oppressive +majesty of its vault. Durtal stopped when he had gone a few steps, +dazzled by the illumination of the choir in contrast with the dark alley +of the nave, which only gained a little light where it joined the +transepts. The Christ had the legs and feet in shadow, the body in +subdued light, and the head bathed in a torrent of glory; Durtal gazed +up in the air at the motionless ranks of Patriarchs, and Apostles, and +Bishops, and Saints in a glow as of dying fires, dimly lighted glass, +guarding the Sacred Body at their feet, below them; they stood in rows +along the upper storey in huge pointed settings, with wheels above them, +showing to Jesus, nailed to earth, His army of faithful soldiers, His +legions as enumerated in the Scriptures, the Legends, the Martyrology; +Durtal could identify in the armed throng of the painted windows St. +Laurence, St. Stephen, St. Giles, St. Nicholas of Myra, St. Martin, St. +George of Cappadocia, St. Symphorian, St. Philip, St. Foix, St. Laumer, +and how many more whose names he could not recollect--and paused in +admiration near the transept, in front of a figure of Abraham fixed for +ever in a threatening gesture, holding a sword over a crouching Isaac, +the blade shining brightly against the infinite blue. + +He stood admiring the conceptions and the craftsmanship of those +thirteenth century glass-workers, their emphatic language, necessary at +such great heights, the way in which they had made the pictures legible +from a distance by introducing a single figure in each, whenever that +was possible, and painting it in massive outline, with contrasting +colours, so as to be easily taken in at a glance when seen from below. + +But the triumph of this art was neither in the choir, nor in the +transepts of the church, nor in the nave; it was at the entrance, on the +inner side of the wall, where on the outside stood the statues of the +nameless queens. Durtal delighted in this glorious show, but he always +postponed it a little to excite himself by expectancy, and revel in the +leap of joy it gave him, repetition of the sensation not having yet +availed to weaken it. + +On this particular day, under a sunny sky, these three windows of the +twelfth century blazed with splendour with their broad short blades, the +blade of a claymore, flat wide panels of glass under the rose that held +the most prominent place over the west door. + +It was a twinkling sheet of cornflowers and sparks, a shifting maze of +blue flames--a paler blue than that in which Abraham, at the end of the +nave, brandished his knife; this pale, limpid blue resembled the flames +of burning punch and of the ignited powder of sulphur, and the lightning +flash of sapphires, but of quite young sapphires, as it were, still +infantine and tremulous. And in the right hand pointed window he could +distinguish in burning red the Stem of Jesse--figures piled up espalier +fashion, in the blue fire of the sky; while to the left and in the +middle, scenes were shown from the Life of Jesus--the Annunciation, Palm +Sunday, the Transfiguration, the Last Supper, and the Supper at Emmaus; +and above these three windows Christ hurled thunder from the heart of +the great rose, the dead emerged from their graves at the trumpet-call, +and St. Michael weighed souls. + +"How did the glass-makers discover and compound that twelfth century +blue?" wondered Durtal. "And why have their successors so long lost it, +as well as their red? + +"In the twelfth century glass-painters made use chiefly of three +colours; first, blue--that ineffable, uncertain sky-blue which is the +glory of the Chartres windows; then red--a purplish red, full and +important; and green--inferior in quality to the two others. For white +they preferred a greenish tinge. + +"In the following century the palette is more extensive, but the stain +is darker; the glass, too, is thicker. And yet, what a glowing blue of +pure, bold sapphire tone the artists of the furnace had at their +command, and what a fine red they used, the colour of fresh blood! +Yellow, of which they were less lavish, was, if I may judge from the +robe of a king near the Abraham, in a window by the transept, a daring +hue of bright lemon. But apart from these three colours, which have a +sort of resonance, and burst forth like songs of joy in these +transparent pictures, others grow more sober; the violets are like +Orleans plums or purple egg-fruit, the browns are of the hue of burnt +sugar, the chive-coloured greens turn dark. + +"But what masterpieces of colour they achieved by the harmony and +contrast of these tones, and with what skill did they handle the +lead-lines, emphasizing certain details, punctuating and dividing these +paragraphs of flame as if with lines of ink. + +"And another thing which is amazing is the perfect agreement of all +these various crafts, practised side by side, treating the same +subjects, or supplementing each other--each, by its own mode of +expression, under one guiding mind, contributing to the whole; with what +a sense of fitness, with what skill were the posts distributed, the +places assigned to each as beseemed the purpose of his craft, the +requirements of his art. + +"Architecture having finished the lower portion of the edifice, retires +into the background to make way for Sculpture, giving it the fine +opportunity of the doorways; and Sculpture, hitherto invisible at +excessive heights, as a mere accessory, suddenly finds itself supreme. +With due sense of justice it now comes forward where it can be seen, and +the sister art retires, leaving it to address the multitude, giving it +the noblest framework in those arched doorways, imitating a deeper +perspective by their concentric arches, diminishing and retreating to +the door-frames. + +"In other instances Architecture does not give everything to one art, +but divides the bounty of her great _façade_ between sculpture and +painting; reserving to the former the hollows and nooks where statues +may find niches, and giving to glass-painters the tympanum of the great +door, where at Chartres the image-maker has displayed the Triumph of +Christ. This we see in the great west doors of Tours and of Reims. + +"This plan of substituting glass for bas-reliefs had its disadvantages; +seen from outside--their wrong side--these diaphanous pictures look like +spiders' nets on an enormous scale and thick with dust. With the light +on them the windows are, in fact, grey or black; it is only by going +inside and looking back that their fire can be seen flashing; the +outside is here sacrificed to the inside. Why? + +"Perhaps," said Durtal, answering himself, "it is symbolical of the soul +having light inwardly, an allegory of the spiritual life--" + +He took in all the windows of the nave with a rapid glance, and it +struck him that their effect was a combination of the prison and the +grave, with their coals of fire burning behind iron bars, some crossed +like the windows of a gaol, and others twisting like black twigs and +branches. Is not glass painting of all arts that in which God does most +to help the artist, the art which man, unaided, can never make perfect, +since the sky alone can give life to the colours by a beam of sunshine, +and lend movement to the lines? In short, man fashions the form, +prepares the body, and must wait till God infuses the soul. + +"It is to-day a high-day of light and the Sun of Justice is visiting His +Mother," he went on, as he walked to where the pillared thicket of the +choir ended at the south transept, to look at the window known as Notre +Dame de la belle Verrière, the figure, in blue, relieved against a +mingled background of dead-leaf olive, brown, iris violet, plum-green; +She gazed out with her sad and pensive pout--a pout very cleverly +restored by a modern glass-painter; and Durtal remembered that people +had come to pray to Her, as he now went to pray to the Virgin of the +Pillar and Notre Dame de Sous Terre. + +Such devotion was a thing of the past; the men of our time need, it +would seem, a more tangible, a more material Virgin than this slender, +fragile image, hardly visible in dark weather; nevertheless, a few +peasants still kept up the habit of kneeling and offering a taper before +Her, and Durtal, who loved these old neglected Madonnas, joined them and +invoked Her too. + +Two other windows also appealed to him by the singularity of the +figures, perched very high up, in the depths of the apse, and serving as +attendant pages, at a distance, to the Virgin holding Her Son in the +centre light commanding the whole perspective of the cathedral; these +each contained in a light-toned lancet, a barbarous and grotesque +seraph, with sharply-marked features, white wings full of eyes, and +robes with jagged, strap-like edges of a pale green colour; their legs +were bare, and they were represented as floating. These two angels had +jujube yellow aureoles tilted to the back like sailors' hats; and this +ragged attire, the feathers folded over the breast, the hat of glory, +with their general expression of refractory wilfulness, suggested the +idea that these beings were at once paupers, Apaches or Mohicans, and +seamen. + +As to the remaining windows, especially those which included several +figures and were divided into several pictures, it would have needed a +telescope and have taken many days of study only to make out the story +they told, and discover the details; and months would not have sufficed +for the task, since the glass had been in many cases repaired and often +replaced without regard to order, so that it was especially difficult to +decipher it. + +An attempt had been made to count the number of figures represented in +the cathedral windows; they were as many as 3889; in the mediæval times +everybody had been eager to present a glass picture to the Virgin. Not +cardinals only, kings, bishops and princes, canons and nobles, but the +corporations of the town also had contributed these panels of fire; the +richest, such as the Guilds of Drapers and Furriers, of Goldsmiths and +Money-changers, had each presented five to Our Lady, while the poorer +companies of the Master Scavengers and Water-carriers, the Porters and +Rag-pickers, each gave one. + +Pondering on these things, Durtal wandered round the ambulatory and +paused in front of a small stone Virgin ensconced at the foot of the +stairs leading up to the chapel of Saint Piat, constructed in the +fourteenth century as a sort of outbuilding behind the apse. This +Virgin, dating from the same period, had shrunk into the shade, effacing +Herself, deferentially leaving the more important places to the senior +Madonnas. + +She carried an Infant playing with a bird, in allusion, no doubt, to the +passage in the apocryphal Gospels of the Infancy, and of Thomas the +Israelite, which shows us the Child Jesus amusing Himself by modelling +birds out of clay, and giving them life by breathing upon them. + +Then Durtal continued his walk through the chapels; stopping only to +look at one which contained relics of opposite utility and double +purpose: the shrines of Saint Piat and Saint Taurinus. The bones of the +former saint were displayed to secure dry weather in times of rain, and +those of the second to invoke rain in times of drought. But what was +far less comforting and more irritating even than this array of +side-chapels, with their wretched adornment--with names that had been +changed since their first dedication so that the tutelary protection +earned by centuries of service had ceased to exist--was the choir, +battered, dirty, degraded as if on purpose. + +In 1763 the old Chapter had thought fit to deface the Gothic columns, +and to have them colour-washed by a Milanese lime-washer, of a yellowish +pink speckled with grey; then they had abandoned to the town-museum some +magnificent pieces of Flemish tapestry that screened the inner circuit +of the choir aisles, and had put in their place bas-reliefs in marble +executed by the dreadful bungler who had crushed the altar under the +gigantic group of the Virgin. And mischance had helped. In 1789 the +Sansculottes were intending to destroy this mountainous Assumption, and +some ill-starred idiot saved it by placing a cap of liberty on the +Virgin's head! + +To think that some beautiful windows were knocked out in order to get a +better light for this mass of lard! If only there were the slightest +hope of ever getting rid of it; but alas! all such hopes are vain. Some +years ago, when Monseigneur Régnault was Bishop, the idea was indeed +suggested--not of making away with this petrified lump of tallow, but at +least of getting rid of the bas-reliefs. + +Then the prelate--who stuffed his ears with cotton for fear of taking +cold--set his face against it; and for reasons of equal importance, no +doubt, the sacrilegious hideousness of this Assumption must be for ever +endured, and the marble screens as well. + +But though the interior of this choir was a disgrace, the groups round +the ambulatory of the apse and the outer wall of the choir were well +worth lingering over. + +These figures under canopies and tabernacles carved by Jehan de Beauce +began on the right by the south transept, went round the horse-shoe +behind the altar, and ended at the north transept where the Black Virgin +of the Pillar stands. + +The subjects were the same as those treated in the small capitals of the +royal doorway, outside the church, above the panegyric of the kings, +saints, and queens. They were taken from the Apocryphal legends, the +Gospel of the Childhood of Mary, and the Protoevangelist James the Less. + +The first of these groups was executed by an artist named Jehan Soulas. +The contract, dated January 2nd, 1518, between this sculptor and the +delegates of the authorities conducting the works of the church, still +existed. It set forth that Jehan Soulas, a master image-maker, dwelling +in Paris at the cemetery of Saint Jehan in the parish of Saint Jehan en +Grève, pledged himself to execute in good stone of the Tonnerre quarry, +and better than the images that are round about the choir of Notre Dame +de Paris, the four first groups, of which the subjects were prescribed +and explained; in consideration of the sum of two hundred and eighty +_livres Tournois_, which the Chapter of Chartres undertook to pay him as +he might require. + +Soulas, who had undoubtedly learned his craft from some Flemish artist, +produced certain little _genre_ pictures well adapted, by their spirit +and liveliness, to cheer the soul that the solemnity of the windows +might have depressed; for in this aisle they really seemed to let the +light filter through Indian shawl-stuff, admitting only a few dull +sparks and smoky gleams. + +The second group, representing Saint Anna receiving from an unseen angel +an order to go to meet Joachim at the Golden Gate, was a marvel of grace +and subtle observation; the saint stood listening attentive in front of +her fald-stool, by which lay a little dog; and a waiting-maid, seen in +profile, carrying an empty pitcher, smiled with a knowing air and a wink +in her eye. And in the next scene, where the husband and wife were +embracing each other with the trepidation of a worthy old couple, +stammering with joy and clasping trembling hands, the same woman, seen +full-face this time, was so delighted at their happiness that she could +not keep still, but, holding up her skirts, was almost in the act of +dancing. + +A little further on, the image-maker had represented the birth of Mary, +a thoroughly Flemish scene: in the background, a bed with curtains, on +which Saint Anna reclined, watched by a maid, while the midwife and her +attendant washed the infant in a basin. + +But another of these bas-reliefs, close to the Renaissance clock, which +interrupts the series of this history told in the choir-aisle, was even +more astonishing. In this Mary was sewing at baby-clothes while reading, +and Saint Joseph, asleep in a chair, his head resting on his hand, was +instructed in a dream of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin. And he +not only had his eyes shut, he was sleeping so soundly, so really, that +one could see him breathe, one felt his body stretching, relaxing, in +the perfect abandonment of his whole being. And how diligently the young +mother stitched while she was absorbed in prayers, her nose in her book! +Never, certainly, was life more closely apprehended, or expressed with +greater certainty and truth to life caught in the act, at the instant, +ere it moved. + +Next to this domestic scene, and the Adoration of the Shepherds and +Angels, came the Circumcision of Jesus, with a white paper apron pasted +on by some low jester; then the Adoration of the Magi; and Jehan de +Soulas and the pupils of his studio had finished the work on their side. +They were succeeded by inferior craftsmen, François Marchant of Orleans, +and Nicolas Guybert of Chartres; and after them art went on sinking +lower and lower, down to one Sieur Boudin, who had dared to sign his +miserable puppets, down to the stupid conventionality of Jean de Dieu, +Legros, Tuby, and Mazières, to the cold and pagan work of the +seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. But there was an improvement in +the eight last groups opposite the Virgin of the Pillar--some simple +figures carved by the pupils of Soulas; these, however, were to some +extent wasted, since they stood in the shadow, and it was almost +impossible to judge of them in that half-dead light. + +In reviewing this ambulatory, in parts so pleasing and in others so +unseemly, Durtal could not help recalling the details of a similar but +more complete work--one that had not been wrought in succeeding ages and +disfigured by discrepancies of talent and date. This work was at Amiens, +and it, likewise, was the decoration of the outer aisle of a cathedral +choir. + +This story of the life of Saint Firmin, the first Bishop and patron +saint of the city, and of the discovery and translation of his relics by +Saint Salvo, was told in a series of groups that had been gilt and +painted; then, to complete the circuit of the sanctuary, the life of the +second patron of Amiens had been added, Saint John the Baptist; and in +the scene of the Baptism of Christ a fair-haired angel was represented +holding a napkin, an ingenuous and arch being, one of the most adorable +seraphic faces ever carved or painted by Flemish art in France. + +This legend of Saint Firmin was set forth, like that of the Birth of the +Virgin at Chartres, in separate chapters of stone, surmounted in the +same way with gothic canopies or tabernacles; and in the compartment +where Saint Salvo, surrounded by the multitude, discerns the beams which +radiate from a cloud to indicate the spot where the lost body of the +Martyr had been buried, a man on his knees with clasped hands, seems to +pant, uplifted in prayer, burning, projected by the leap of his soul, +his face transfigured, turning a mere rustic into a saint in ecstasy, +already dwelling in God far above the earth. + +This worshipper was the masterpiece of the ambulatory at Amiens, as the +sleeping Saint Joseph was of the bas-reliefs at Chartres. + +"Take it for all in all," said Durtal to himself, "that work in the +Picardy Cathedral is more explicit, more complete, more various, more +eloquent even than that of the church in La Beauce. Irrespective of the +fact that the unknown image-maker who created it was as highly gifted as +Soulas with acute observation, and persuasive and decided +simple-mindedness and spirit, he had besides a peculiar and more noble +vein of feeling. And then his subjects were not restricted to the +presentment of two or three personages; he frequently grouped a swarming +crowd, in which each man, woman, or child differed in individual +character and feature from every other, and was conspicuously marked by +that unlikeness, so clear and living was the realism of each small +figure! + +"After all," thought Durtal, looking once more at the choir aisles as he +turned away, "though Soulas maybe inferior to the sculptor of Amiens, he +is none the less a delightful artist and a true master, and his groups +may console us for the ignominious work of Bridan and the atrocious +decoration of the choir." + +He then went to kneel before the Black Virgin, and returning to the +North transept near which She stands, he gazed once more in amazement at +the incandescent flowers of the windows; again he was captivated and +moved by the five pointed windows under the rose, in which, on each side +of the Mauresque Saint Anna, stood David and Solomon, a forbidding pair, +in a furnace of purple, and Melchizedec and Aaron with tawny complexions +and hairy faces, with enormous colourless eyes standing out passionless +in a blaze of daylight. + +The radiating rose-window above them was not of the vast diameter of +those in Notre Dame de Paris, nor of the incomparable elegance of the +star-patterned rose at Amiens. It was smaller and heavier, sparkling +with flowers like saxifrages of flame, opening in the pierced wall. + +Durtal turned on his heel to look at the South transept, where five +great windows faced those on the North. There he saw, blazing like +torches on each side of the Virgin placed exactly opposite Saint Anna, +the four Evangelists borne on the shoulders of the four greater +Prophets--Saint Matthew on Isaiah, Saint Luke on Jeremiah, Saint John on +Ezekiel, Saint Mark on Daniel--each stranger than the other, with their +eyes like the lenses of opera-glasses, their hair in ripples, their +beards like the up-torn roots of trees; excepting Saint John, who was +always represented as a beardless youth in the Latin Mediæval Church, to +symbolize his virginity; but the most grotesque of these giants' was +perhaps Saint Luke, who, perched on Jeremiah's back, gently scratches +the prophet's head, as if he were a parrot, while turning woeful, +meditative eyes up to Heaven. + +Durtal went down the nave, darker than the choir; the pavement sloped +gently to the door, for in the Middle Ages it was washed every morning +after the departure of the crowds who slept on it; and he looked down, +in the middle, on the labyrinth marked out on the ground in lines of +white stone and ribbons of blue stone, twisting in a spiral, like a +watch-spring. This path our fathers devoutly paced, repeating special +prayers during the hour they spent in doing so, and thus performing an +imaginary pilgrimage to the Holy Land to earn indulgences. + +When he was out in the square once more, he turned back to take in the +splendid effect of the whole before going home. + +He felt at once happy and awe-stricken, carried out of himself by the +tremendous and yet beautiful aspect of the church. + +How grandiose and how aerial was this cathedral, sprung like a jet from +the soul of a man who had formed it in his own image, to record his +ascent in mystic paths, up and up by degrees in the light; passing +through the contemplative life in the transept, soaring in the choir +into the full glory of the unitive life, far away now from the +purgatorial life, the dark passage of the nave. + +And this assumption of a soul was attended, supported, by the bands of +angels, the apostles, the prophets, and the righteous, all arrayed in +their glorified bodies of flame, an escort of honour to the Cross lying +low on the stones, and the image of the Mother enthroned in all the high +places of this vast reliquary, opening the walls, as it seemed, to +present to Her, as for a perpetual festival, their posies of gems that +had blossomed in the fiery heat of the glass windows. + +Nowhere else was the Virgin so well cared for, so cherished, so +emphatically proclaimed the absolute mistress of the realm thus offered +to Her; and one detail proved this. In every other cathedral kings, +saints, bishops, and benefactors lay buried in the depths of the soil; +not so at Chartres. Not a body had ever been buried there; this church +had never been made a sarcophagus, because, as one of its +historians--old Rouillard--says, "it has the preeminent distinction of +being the couch or bed of the Virgin." + +Thus it was Her home; here She was supreme amid the court of Her Elect, +watching over the sacramental Body of Her Son in the sanctuary of the +inmost chapel, where lamps were ever burning, guarding Him as She had +done in His infancy; holding Him on Her knee in every carving, every +painted window; seen in every storey of the building, between the ranks +of saints, and sitting at last on a pillar, revealing herself to the +poof and lowly, under the humble aspect of a sunburnt woman, scorched by +the dog-days, tanned by wind and rain. Nay, She went lower still, down +to the cellars of Her palace, waiting in the crypt to give audience to +the waverers, the timid souls who were abashed by the sunlit splendour +of Her Court. + +How completely does this sanctuary--where the sweet and awful presence +is ever felt of the Child who never leaves His Mother--lift the spirit +above all realities, into the secret rapture of pure beauty! + +"And how good must They both be," Durtal said to himself, as he looked +round and found himself alone, "never to abandon this desert, never to +weary of waiting for worshippers! But for the honest country folk who +come at all hours to kiss the pillar, what a solitude it would be, even +on Sunday, for this cathedral is never full. However, to be just, at the +nine o'clock mass on Sundays the lower end of the nave is thronged," and +he smiled, remembering that end of the church packed with little girls +brought in schools by Sisters, and with peasant women who, not being +able to see there to read their prayers, would light ends of taper and +crowd together closely, several looking over one book. + +This familiarity, this childlike simplicity of piety, which the dreadful +sacristans of Paris would never endure in a church, were' so natural at +Chartres, so thoroughly in harmony with the homely and unceremonious +welcome of Our Lady! + +"A thing to be ascertained," said Durtal, starting on a new line of +thought, "is whether this church has preserved its surface uninjured, or +whether it may not have been coloured in the thirteenth century. Some +writers assert that, in Mediæval times, the interiors of cathedrals were +always painted. Is that the fact? Or, admitting that the statement is +correct as to all Romanesque churches, is it equally so with regard to +Gothic churches? + +"For my part, I like to believe that the sanctuary of Chartres was never +befooled with gaudiness, such as we have to endure at Saint Germain des +Près, in Paris, and Notre Dame la Grande at Poitiers. In fact such +colour can only be conceived of--if at all--as used in small chapels; +why stain the walls of a cathedral with motley? For this tattooing, so +to speak, reduces the sense of space, brings down the roof, and makes +the pillars clumsy; in short, it eliminates the mysterious soul of the +nave, and destroys the sober majesty of the aisle with its feebly vulgar +fret or guilloche, lozenges or crosses, scattered over the pillars and +walls, in a paste of treacly yellow, endive-green, vinous purple, lava +drab, brick red--a whole range of dull and dirty colours; to say nothing +of the horror of a vault dotted with stars that look as if they had been +cut out of gilt paper and stuck against a smalt background, a sky of +washing-blue! + +"It is endurable--if it must be--in the Sainte-Chapelle, because it is +very small, an oratory, a shrine; it might even be intelligible in that +wonderful church at Brou, which is a boudoir; its vaulting and pendants +are in polychrome and gold, and the ground has been paved with enamelled +tiles, of which visible traces remain round the tombs. This gaudiness of +the roof and floor was in harmony with the filagree tracery of the +walls, the heraldic glass, and the clear windows, the profusion of +lace-like carving and coats of arms in the stone-work, blossoming with +bunches of daisies mingling with labels, mottoes, monograms, Saint +Francis' girdles and knots. The colouring was in keeping with the +alabaster retables, the black marble tombs, the pinnacled tabernacles +with their crockets of curled and dentate foliage. We can then quite +easily imagine the columns and walls painted, the ribs and bosses washed +with gold, and making a harmonious whole of this _bonbonnière_, which +indeed is a piece of jewelry rather than of architecture. + +"This building at Brou was the last effort of mediæval times, the last +rocket flung up by the flamboyant Gothic style--a Gothic which though +fallen from its glory struggled against death, fought against returning +paganism and the invading Renaissance. The era of the great cathedrals +ended in the production of this exquisite abortion, which was in its way +a masterpiece, a gem of prettiness, of ingenuity, of tormented and +coquettish taste. + +"It was emblematic of the soul of the sixteenth century, already devoid +of reserve; the sanctuary, too brightly lighted, was secularized; we +here see it fully blown, and it never folded up or veiled itself again. +We discern in this a lady's bower, all paint and gold; the little +chapels (or pews) with chimney-places where Margaret of Austria could +warm herself as she heard Mass, furnished with scented cushions, +provided with sweetmeats and toys and dogs. + +"Brou is a fine lady's drawing-room, not the house for all comers. Then, +naturally, with its screen-work, and the carving of the rood-loft +stretching like a lace portal across the entrance to the choir, it +invites, it almost requires some skilful tinting of the details, the +touches of colour that complete it, and harmonize it finally with the +elegance of the founder, the Princess Marguerite, whose presence is far +more conspicuous in this little church than is that of the Virgin. + +"Even then it would be satisfactory to know whether the walls and +pillars at Brou ever were really painted; the contrary seems proven. But +in any case, though a touch of _rouge_ might not ill beseem this curious +sanctum, it would not be so at Chartres, for the only suitable hue is +the shining, greasy patina, grey turning to silver, stone-colour turning +buff--the colouring given by age, by time helped by accumulated vapours +of prayer and the fumes of incense and tapers!" + +And Durtal, arguing over his own reflections, ended by reverting, as he +always did, to his own person, saying to himself,-- + +"Who knows that I may not some day bitterly regret this cathedral and +all the sweet meditations it suggests; for, after all, I shall have no +more opportunities for such long loitering, such relaxation of mind, +since I shall be subject to the discipline of bells ringing for +conventual drill if I suffer myself to be locked up in a cloister! + +"Who knows whether, in the silence of a cell, I should not miss even the +foolish cawing of those black jackdaws that croak without pause," he +went on, looking up with a smile at the cloud of birds that settled on +the towers; and he recalled a legend which tells that since the fire in +1836 these birds quit the cathedral every evening at the very hour when +the conflagration began, and do not return till dawn, after spending the +night in a wood at three leagues from Chartres. + +This tale is as absurd as another, also dear to the old wives of the +city, and which tells that if you spit on a certain square of stone, set +with black cement into the pavement behind the choir, blood will exude. + +"Hah, it is you, Madame Bavoil." + +"Yes, our friend, I myself. I have just been on an errand for the +Father, and am going home again to make the soup. And you, are you +packing your trunks?" + +"My trunks?" + +"Why, are not you going off to a convent?" said she, laughing. + +"Would not you like to see it?" exclaimed Durtal. "Catch me at that! +Enlisting as a private subject to a pious drill, one of a poor squad, +whose every movement must mark time, and who, though he is not expected +to keep his hands over the seam of his trowsers, is required to hide +them under his scapulary--" + +"Ta, ta, ta," interrupted the housekeeper, "I tell you once more, you +are grudging, bargaining with God--" + +"But before coming to so serious a decision it is quite necessary that I +should argue all the pros and cons; in such a case some mental +litigation is clearly permissible." + +She shrugged her shoulders; and there was such peace in her face, such a +glow of flame lurked behind the liquid blackness of her eyes, that +Durtal stood looking at her, admiring the honesty and purity of a soul +which could thus rise to the threshold of her eyes and come forth in her +look. + +"How happy you are!" he exclaimed. + +A cloud dimmed her eyes, and she looked down. + +"Envy no one, our friend," said she, "for each has his own struggles and +griefs." + +And when he had parted from her, Durtal, as he went home, thought of the +disasters she had confessed, the cessation of her intercourse with +Heaven, the fall of a soul that had been wont to soar above the clouds. +How she must suffer! + +"No, no," he said, "the service of the Lord is not all roses. If we +study the lives of the Saints we see these Elect tormented by dreadful +maladies, and the most painful trials. No, holiness on earth is no +child's play, life is not amusement. To Saints, indeed, even on earth +excessive suffering finds compensation in excessive joys; but to other +Christians, such small fry as we are, what distress and trouble! We +question the everlasting silence and none answers; we wait and none +comes. In vain do we proclaim Him as Illimitable, Incomprehensible, +Unthinkable, and confess that every effort of our reason is vain, we +cannot cease to wonder, and still less cease to suffer! And yet--and yet +if we consider, the darkness about us is not absolutely impenetrable, +there is light in places and we can discern some truths, such as this: + +"God treats us as He treats plants. He is, in a certain sense, the +soul's year; but a year in which the order of the seasons is reversed; +for the spiritual seasons begin with spring, followed by winter, and +then autumn comes, followed by summer. + +"The moment of conversion is the spring, the soul is joyful and Christ +sows the good seed; then comes the cold and all is dark, the +terror-stricken soul believes itself forsaken and bewails itself; but +without its feeling it during the trials of the purgatorial life, the +seed germinates in the contemplative peace of autumn and flourishes in +the summer life of Union. + +"Aye; but each one must be the helping gardener of his own soul, +listening to the instructions of the Master who plans the task and +directs the work. Alas, we are no more the humble labourers of the +Middle Ages, who toiled, giving God thanks, who submitted without +discussion to the Master's orders. We, by our little faith, have +exhausted the value of prayer, the panacea of aspirations; consequently +many things seem to us unjust and cruel, and we rebel, we ask for +pledges; we hesitate to begin our task, we want to be paid in advance, +and our distrust makes us vile!--O Lord, give us grace to pray, and +never dream of demanding an earnest of Thy favours! Give us grace to +obey and be silent! + +"And I may add," said Durtal to himself as he smiled on Madame Mesurat, +who opened the door in answer to his ring, "Grant me, Lord, the grace +not to be too much irritated by the buzzing of this great fly, the +inexhaustible flow of this good woman's tongue!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + +"What a fearful muddle, what a sea of ink is this menagerie of good and +evil emblems!" exclaimed Durtal, laying down his pen. + +He had harnessed himself that morning to the task of investigating the +symbolical fauna of the Middle Ages. At first sight the subject had +struck him as newer and less arduous, and certainly as less lengthy, +than the article he had thought of writing on the Primitive German +Painters. But he now sat dismayed before his books and notes, seeking a +clue to guide him through the mass of contradictory evidence that lay +before him. + +"I must take things in their order," said he to himself, "if indeed any +principle of selection is possible in such confusion." + +The Beast-books of Mediæval times knew all the monsters of +paganism--Satyrs, Fauns, Sphinxes, Harpies, Centaurs, Hydras, Pygmies, +and Sirens; these were all regarded as various aspects of the Evil +Spirit, so no research is needed as to their meaning; they are but a +residuum of Antiquity. The true source of mystic zoology is not in +mythology, but in the Bible, which classifies beasts as clean and +unclean, makes them symbolize virtues and vices, some species being +allegorical of heavenly personages, and other embodying the Devil. + +Starting from this base, it may be observed that the liturgical +interpreters of the animal world distinguished beasts from animals, +including under the former head wild and untamable creatures, and under +the second gentle and timid creatures and domestic animals. + +The ornithologists of the Church, furthermore, represent birds as being +the righteous, while Boëtius, on the other hand, often quoted by +Mediæval writers, credited them with inconstancy, and Melito compares +them in turn to Christ, to the Devil, and to the Jewish nation. It may +be added that Richard of Saint Victor, disregarding these views, sees in +winged fowl a symbol of the life of the soul, as in the four-footed +beast he sees the life of the body--"And that gets us no further!" +sighed Durtal. + +"This is beside the mark. We must find some other symbolism, closer and +clearer. + +"Here the classification of naturalists would be useless, for a biped +and a reptile not unfrequently bear the same interpretation as emblems. +The simplest plan will be to divide the Church menagerie into two large +classes, real beasts and monsters; there is no creature that we may not +include in one or the other category." + +Durtal paused to reflect: + +"Nevertheless to arrive at a clearer notion and better appreciate the +importance of certain families in Catholic Mythography, we had better +first take out all those animals which symbolize God, the Virgin, and +the Devil, setting them aside to be referred to when they may elucidate +other figures; and at the same time weed out those which apply to the +Evangelists and are combined in the figures of the Tetramorph. + +"The surface thus being removed, we may investigate the remainder, the +figurative language of ordinary or monstrous beings. + +"The animal emblems of God are numerous; the Scriptures are filled with +creatures emblematic of the Saviour. David compares Him, by comparing +himself, to the pelican in the wilderness, to the owl in its nest, to a +sparrow alone on the house-top, to the dove, to a thirsting hart; the +Psalms are a treasury of analogies with His qualities and His names. + +"Saint Isidor of Seville--Monseigneur Sainct Ysidore, as the naturalists +of old are wont to call him--figures Jesus as a lamb by reason of his +innocence, as a ram because He is the head of the Flock, even as a +he-goat because the Redeemer was subject to the flesh of iniquity. + +"Some took as His image the ox, the sheep, and the calf, as beasts meet +for sacrifice, and others those animals that symbolize the elements: the +lion, the eagle, the dolphin, the salamander--the kings of the earth, +air, water, and fire. Some again, as Saint Melito, saw Him in the kid, +the deer, and even in the camel, which, however, according to another +passage of the same author, personifies a love of flattery and of vain +praise. Others again find Him in the scarabæus, as Saint Euchre does in +the bee; still, the bee is regarded by Raban Maur as the unclean sinner. +Christ's Resurrection is, to yet other writers, symbolized by the +Phoenix and the cock, and His wrath and power by the rhinoceros and the +buffalo. + +"The iconography of the Virgin is less puzzling; She may be symbolized +by any chaste and gentle creature. The Anonymous Englishman in his +_Monastic Distinctions_, compares Her to the bee, which we have seen so +vilified by the Archbishop of Mayence, but the Virgin was most +especially represented by the dove, the bird of all others whose Church +functions are most onerous. + +"All authorities agree in taking the dove as the image at once of the +Virgin and of the Paraclete. According to Saint Mechtildis, it is the +simplicity of the heart of Jesus; with others it signifies the +preachers, the active religious life, as contrasted with the turtle +dove, which personifies the contemplative life, since the ring-dove +flies and coos in company, whereas the turtle dove rejoices apart and +alone. + +"To Bruno of Asti the dove is also an image of patience, a figure of the +prophets. + +"As to the beasts symbolizing Hell and evil, they are almost without +number; the whole creation of monsters is to be found there. Then among +real animals we find: the serpent--the aspic of Scripture, the scorpion, +the wolf as mentioned by Jesus Himself, the leopard noted by Saint +Melito as being allied to Antichrist, the she-tiger representing the +sins of arrogance, the hyena, the jackal, the bear, the wild-boar, +which, in the Psalms, is said to destroy the vineyard of the Lord, the +fox, described as a hypocritical persecutor by Peter of Capua and as a +promoter of heresy by Raban Maur. All beasts of prey; and the hog, the +toad--the instrument of witchcraft, the he-goat--the image of Satan +himself, the dog, the cat, the ass--under whose form the Devil is seen +in trials for witchcraft in the Middle Ages, the leech, on which the +anonymous writer of Clairvaux casts contumely; the raven that went forth +from the ark and did not return--it represents malice, and the dove +which came back is virtue, Saint Ambrose tells us; and the partridge +which, according to the same writer, steals and hatches eggs she did not +lay. + +"If we may believe Saint Theobald, the Devil is also symbolized by the +spider, for it dreads the sun as much as the Evil One dreads the Church, +and is more apt to weave its net by night than by day, thus imitating +Satan, who attacks man when he knows him to be sleeping and powerless to +defend himself. + +"The Prince of Darkness is also to be seen as the lion and the eagle +interpreted in an evil sense. + +"This," reflected Durtal, "is the same fact as we find in the expressive +symbolism of colours and flowers; constantly a double meaning. The two +antagonistic interpretations are almost invariably met with in the lore +of hieroglyphics, excepting only in that of gems. + +"Thus it is that the lion, defined by Saint Hildegarde as the image of +zeal for God, the lion, figuring the Son Himself, becomes to Hugh of +Saint Victor the emblem of cruelty. Basing their argument on a text in +the Psalms, certain writers identify it with Lucifer. He is in fact the +lion who seeks whom he may devour, the lion who rushes on his victim. +David speaks of him with the dragon to be trodden under foot, and Saint +Peter in his first Epistle describes him as roaring in quest of a +Christian to devour. + +"It is the same with the eagle, which Hugh of Saint Victor calls the +standard of Pride. Chosen by Bruno of Asti, Saint Isidor and Saint +Anselm to represent the Saviour, the Fisher of Men, because he pounces +from the highest sky on fish swimming on the surface of the water and +carries them up, the eagle, classed in Leviticus and Deuteronomy with +the unclean beasts, is transformed, as being a bird of prey, into a +personification of the Devil snatching away souls to gnaw and tear them. + +"Thus every ferocious beast or bird and every reptile is a manifestation +of the Evil One," Durtal concluded. + +To pass to the Tetramorph. The evangelistic animals are well known:-- + +Saint Matthew, who expatiates on the subject of the Incarnation and sets +forth the human genealogy of the Messiah, is symbolized by a man. + +Saint Mark, who more especially devotes his book to the miracles of the +Son, saying less about His doctrine than about His acts and His +resurrection, has the Lion for his attribute. + +Saint Luke, who writes more especially of the virtues of Jesus, of His +patience, meekness, and mercy, and who dwells at length on His +sacrifice, is distinguished by the Ox or Calf. + +Saint John, who preaches above all else the Divinity of the Word, is +represented by the Eagle. + +And the meaning assigned to the ox, the lion, and the eagle, is in +perfect accordance with the character and personal aim of each Gospel. + +The lion, emblematical of Omnipotence, is also the apt allegory of the +Resurrection. All the primitive naturalists, Saint Epiphanius, Saint +Anselm, Saint Yves of Chartres, Saint Bruno of Asti, Saint Isidor, +Adamantius, all accept the legend that the lion-cub after its birth +remains lifeless for three days; then on the fourth day it awakes as it +hears its father's roar and springs full of life out of the den. Thus +Christ, rising at the end of three days, escapes from the tomb at the +call of His Father. + +The belief still prevailed that the lion sleeps with its eyes open; +hence it became the emblem of vigilance, and Saint Hilary and Saint +Augustine read in this manner of taking repose an allusion to the Divine +nature, which was not extinguished even in the sepulchre, though the +human nature of the Redeemer was in truth dead. + +Finally, as it was considered certain that this animal effaced the +traces of its steps in the sand of the desert with its tail, Raban Maur, +Saint Epiphanius, and Saint Isidor regarded it as signifying the Saviour +veiling His Godhead under the forms of the flesh. + +"Not an ordinary beast--the lion!" exclaimed Durtal. "Well," he went on, +consulting his notes, "the ox is less pretentious! It is the paragon of +strength with humility; according to Saint Paul it is emblematical of +the priesthood; of the preacher, according to Raban Maur; of the Bishop, +according to Peter Cantor, because, says this writer, the prelate wears +a mitre of which the two horns resemble those of an ox, and he uses +these horns, which are the wisdom of the Two Testaments, to rip up +heretics. Still, in spite of these more or less ingenious +interpretations, the ox is in fact the beast of immolation and +sacrifice. + +"Turning to the eagle, it is, as we have seen, the Messiah pouncing on +souls to catch them; but other meanings are ascribed to it by Saint +Isidor and by Vincent of Beauvais. If we believe them, the eagle that +desires to test the prowess of his eaglets takes them in his talons and +carries them out into the sun, compelling them to look with their eyes +as they begin to open, on the blazing orb. The eagle which is dazzled by +the fire is dropped and cast away by the parent bird. Thus doth God +reject the soul which cannot gaze on him with the contemplative eye of +love! + +"The eagle, again, is typical of the Resurrection; Saint Epiphanius and +Saint Isidor explain it thus: The eagle in old age flies up so near to +the sun that its feathers catch fire; revived by the flames, it drops +into the nearest spring, bathes in it three times and comes out +regenerate: is not this indeed the paraphrase of the Psalmist's verse, +"Thy youth shall be renewed as the eagle's"? Saint Madalene of Pazzi, +however, regards it differently, and takes it to typify faith leaning on +charity. + +"I shall have to find a place for all these documents in my article," +sighed Durtal, placing these notes in a separate wrapper. + +Now for the chimerical fauna introduced from the East, imported into +Europe by the Crusaders, and travestied by the illuminators of missals +and by image-makers. + +Foremost, the dragon, which we already find rampant and busy in +mythology and in the Bible. + +Durtal rose and went into his library to find a book, "Traditions +tératologiques," by Berger de Xivrey. It contained long extracts from +the "Romance of Alexander," which was the delight of the grown-up +children of the Middle Ages. + +"Dragons," says this narrative, "are larger than all other serpents, and +longer.... They fly through the air, which is darkened by the disgorging +of their stench and venom ... This venom is so deadly that if a man +should be touched by it or come nigh it, it would seem to him a burning +fire, and would raise his skin in great blisters, as though he had been +scalded." And the author adds: "The sea is swollen up by their venom." + +Dragons have a crest, sharp talons, and a hissing throat, and are almost +unconquerable. Albertus Magnus tells us, however, that magicians, when +they wish to subdue them, beat as loudly as they can on drums, and that +the dragon, imagining that it is the roll of thunder, which they greatly +dread, let themselves be handled quietly and are taken. + +The enemy of this winged reptile is the elephant, which sometimes +succeeds in crushing it by falling on it with all its weight; but most +times it is killed by the dragon, which feeds on its blood, of which the +freshness allays the intolerable burning caused by its own venom. + +Next to this monster comes the gryphon, a combination of the quadruped +and the bird, for it has the body of the lion and the head and talons of +the eagle. Then the basilisk, regarded as the king of serpents; it is +four feet long, and has a tail as thick as a tree, and spotted with +white. Its head bears a tuft in shape like a crown; it has a strident +voice, and its eye is murderous, "A look," says the "Romance of +Alexander," "so piercing, that it is pestilential and deadly to all +beasts, whether venomous or no." Its breath is no less fetid, nor less +dangerous, for, "by its breath are all things infected, and when it is +dying it is fain to disgorge it; it stinks so that all other beasts flee +from it." + +Its most formidable foe is the weasel, which bites its throat, "though +it be a beast no bigger than a rat," for "God hath made nothing without +reason and remedy," the pious Mediæval writer concludes. + +Why the weasel? There is nothing to show; nor was this little creature, +who did such good service, honoured by our forefathers as having a +favourable meaning. + +It is symbolical of dissimulation and depravity, and taken to typify the +degrading life of the mountebank. It may also be remembered that this +carnivorous beast, which was supposed to carry its young in the mouth +and give birth to them through the ear, is numbered among the unclean +animals in the Bible. + +"This zoological homoeopathy is rather inconsistent," observed Durtal, +"unless the similar interpretation given to these two creatures, hating +each other, may signify that the Devil devours himself." + +Next we have the phoenix, "a bird of very fine plumage resembling the +peacock; it is very solitary, and feeds on the seeds of the ash;" its +colour, moreover, is of purple overshot with gold; and because it is +said to rise again from its ashes, it is always typical of the +Resurrection of Christ. + +The unicorn was one of the most amazing creatures in mystical natural +history. + +"It is a very cruel beast, with a great and thick body after the fashion +of a horse; it hath for a weapon a great horn, half a fathom in length, +so sharp and so hard that there is nothing it cannot pierce.... When men +need to take it they bring a virgin maid to the place where they know +that it has its abode. When the unicorn sees her and knows that she is a +virgin, it lieth down to sleep in her lap, doing her no harm; then come +the hunters and kill it.... Likewise, if she be not a pure maid the +unicorn will not sleep, but killeth the damsel who is not pure." + +Whence we conclude that the unicorn is one of the emblems of chastity, +as also is another very strange beast of which Saint Isidor speaks: the +porphyrion. + +This has one foot like that of the partridge, and the other webbed like +that of a goose, its peculiarity consists in mourning over adultery, and +loving its master so faithfully that it dies of pity in his arms when it +learns that his wife has deceived him. So that this species was soon +extinct! + +"There must be some more fabulous beasts to be included," murmured +Durtal, again turning over his papers. + +He found the wyvern, a sort of Melusina, half woman and half serpent; a +very cruel beast, full of malice and devoid of pity, Saint Ambrose tells +us; the manicoris, with the face of a man, the tawny eyes and crimson +mane of a lion, a scorpion's tail, and the flight of an eagle; this sort +is insatiable by human flesh. The leoncerote, offspring of the male +hyena and the lioness, having the body of an ass, the legs of a deer, +the breast of a wild beast, a camel's head, and armed with terrible +fangs; the tharanda, which, according to Hugh of Saint Victor, has the +shape of the ox, the profile of the stag, the fur of the bear, and which +changes colour like the cameleon; finally, the sea-monk, the most +puzzling of all, since Vincent of Beauvais describes it as having its +body covered with scales, and it is furnished, in lieu of arms, with +fins all over claws, besides having a monk's shaven head ending in the +snout of a carp. + +Others were also invented, as for instance the gargoyles, hybrid +monsters, signifying the vomiting forth of sin ejected from the +sanctuary; reminding the passer-by who sees them pouring forth the water +from the gutter, that when seen outside the church, they are the +voidance of the spirit, the cloaca of the soul! + +"But," said Durtal to himself, "that seems to me enough of the matter. +From the point of view of symbolism this menagerie is not particularly +interesting since these monsters--the wyvern, the manicoris, the +leoncerote, the tharanda and sea-monk--all mean the same thing, and all +embody the Spirit of Evil." + +He took out his watch. + +"Come," said he, "I have still time enough before dinner to go through +the list of real animals." + +And he turned over his notes on birds. + +"The cock," said he, "is prayer, watchfulness, the preacher, the +Resurrection, since it is the first to wake at daybreak; the peacock, +that has, as an old writer says, "the voice of a devil and the feathers +of an angel," is a mass of contradictory symbols: it typifies pride, +and, according to Saint Antony of Padua, immortality, as well as +vigilance by reason of the eyes in its tail. The pelican is the image of +contemplation and of charity; of love, too, according to Saint Madalene +of Pazzi; the sparrow symbolizes penitential solitude; the swallow, sin; +the swan, pride, according to Raban Maur; diligence and solicitude +according to Thomas de Catimpré; the nightingale is mentioned by Saint +Mechtildis as meaning the tender soul; and the same saint compares the +lark to persons who do good works with cheerfulness; it is to be noted +too that in the windows of Bourges the lark means charity to the sick. + +"Here are others specified by Hugh of Saint Victor. To him the vulture +means idleness; the kite, rapacity; the raven, detraction; the white +owl, hypochondria; the common owl, ignorance; the magpie, chattering +talk; and the hoopoe, sluttishness and evil report. + +"This is all a sorry medley!" said Durtal, "and I fear it will be the +same with the mammalia and other beasts!" + +He compared a few passages. The ox, the lamb, the sheep, we have seen. +The sheep is the type of timidity and meekness, and Saint Pacomius +embodies in him the monk who lives punctual and obedient, and loving his +brethren. Saint Melito on his part ascribes hypocrisy to the ostrich, +temporal power to the rhinoceros, human frailty to the spider; we may +also mention among the crustacea, the crab as symbolizing heresy and the +synagogue, because it walks backwards and away from the path of +righteousness. Among fish, the whale is the emblem of the tomb, just as +Jonas, who came out of it after three days, is typical of Jesus risen +from the dead. Among rodents the beaver is the image of Christian +prudence, because, says the legend, when he is pursued by hunters he +tears with his teeth the pouch containing castoreum and flings it at the +foe. For this reason it is likewise the animal representative of the +text in the Gospel which declares that a man must cut off the offending +member which is an occasion of sin. + +Let us pause before the den of wild beasts. + +According to Hugh of Saint Victor the wolf is avarice; the fox is +cunning; Adamantius says that the wild boar represents blind rage; the +leopard wrath, ambush and daring; the tiger, and the hyena, which can +change its sex at will and imitate the voice of man, signifies +hypocrisy; while Saint Hildegarde shows that the panther, by reason of +the beauty of its spots, is typical of vain-glory. + +We need not dwell on the bull, the bison and the buffalo; the symbolists +regard them as emblems of brute force and pride; while the goat and +boar-pig are vessels of lust and filth. + +They divide this honour with the toad, an unclean reptile; the +habitation of the Devil, who assumes its form to show himself to the +female saints--for instance to Saint Theresa. As to the hapless frog it +is equally defamed because of its likeness to the toad. + +The stag is in better odour. Saint Jerome and Cassiodorus say it +exemplifies the Christian who overcomes sin by the sacrament of penance, +or by martyrdom. Representing God in the Psalms, it is also taken as the +heathen desiring baptism; a legend attributes to it so vehement a horror +of the Serpent, in other words of the Devil, that whenever it can it +attacks and devours him, but if it subsequently goes for three hours +without drinking, it dies; hence after that meal it runs to and fro in +the forest seeking a spring of which, if it finds one, it drinks, and is +then many years younger. The she-goat is sometimes held in ill-fame as +being akin to the he-goat, but it more often is regarded as the +Well-Beloved, to which the Bride in Canticles compares it. The hedgehog, +hiding in crannies, is interpreted by Saint Melito as the sinner, by +Peter of Capua as the penitent. As to the horse, as a creature of vanity +and pride, it is opposed by Peter Cantor and Adamantius to the ox, which +is all gravity and simplicity. It is well, however, to observe that to +confuse the matter, by presenting the horse under another aspect, Saint +Eucher compares it to a saint, and the Anonymous Monk of Clairvaux +identifies the Devil with the ox. The poor ass is no better treated by +Hugh of Saint Victor, who accuses it of stupidity, by Saint Gregory the +Great, who taxes it with laziness, and Peter of Capua, who speaks of its +lust. It must, however; be observed that Saint Melito compares it with +Christ for its humility, and that the exegetists explain the ass's foal +ridden by Christ on Palm Sunday as an image of the Gentiles, as they +interpret the she-ass that threw Him to mean the Jews. + +Finally, two domestic animals dear to man, the cat and the dog, are +generally contemned by the mystics. The dog, typical of sin, says Peter +Cantor, and the most quarrelsome of beasts, adds Hugh of Saint Victor, +is the creature that returns to his vomit; it also prefigures the +reprobates of whom the Apocalypse speaks, who are to be driven out of +the heavenly Jerusalem; Saint Melito speaks of it as the apostate, and +Saint Pacomius as the rapacious monk, but Raban Maur redeems it a little +from this condemnation by specifying it as emblematic of confessors. + +The cat, which is but once mentioned in the Bible--in the Book of +Baruch--is invariably abhorred by the primitive naturalists, who accuse +it of embodying treachery and hypocrisy, and of lending its skin to the +Devil, to enable him to appear in its shape to sorcerers. + +Durtal turned over a few more pages, discovering that the hare typified +timidity and cowardice, and the snail laziness; noting the opinion of +Adamantius, who ascribes levity and a mocking spirit to the monkey; that +of Peter of Capua and of the Anonymous writer of Clairvaux, that the +lizard, which crawls and hides in cracks in the walls, is, as well as +the serpent, an emblem of evil; and he recorded the special ascription +of ingratitude by Christ Himself to the viper, for He gives the name to +the Jewish race. Durtal then hastily dressed, fearing to be late, as he +was dining with the Abbé Gévresin and the Abbé Plomb. Pursued by Madame +Mesurat, who insisted on dealing him one more blow with the +clothes-brush, he rushed downstairs, and was soon at his friend's door. + +Madame Bavoil, who opened it, appeared in a cap all askew and hair +loose, up-turned sleeves and scorched arms, with cheeks crimson from the +kitchen fire. She confessed to the concoction of a dish of beef _à la +mode_ softened by calf's foot jelly and strengthened by a dash of +brandy, and fled, alarmed by the impatient call of a saucepan, of which +the contents were boiling over on the hot plates of the stove, with a +noise like cats swearing. + +Durtal found the old Abbé tormented by rheumatism, but as ever, patient +and cheerful. They talked a little while; then, seeing that Durtal was +looking at some little lumps of gum lying on his writing table, the Abbé +said,-- + +"That is incense from the Carmel of Chartres." + +"Indeed!" + +"Yes, the Carmelites are accustomed to burn none but genuine true +incense. So I begged them to trust me with a specimen that I might +procure the same quality for our cathedral." + +"It is everywhere adulterated, I suppose?" + +"Yes. This substance is found in commerce under three forms: male +incense, which is the best if unadulterated; female incense, which is +mixed with reddish fragments and dry grains called _marrons_; finally +incense in powder, which is for the most part a mixture of inferior +resin and benzoin." + +"And what have you there?" + +"This is male incense; do you see those oblong tears, those almost +transparent drops of faded amber? how different from that which they use +at Notre Dame; it is earthy, broken, full of scraps, and it is safe to +wager that those knobs are crystals of carbonate of lime and not beads +of pure resin." + +"Why," said Durtal, "this substance suggests to me the idea of a +symbolism of odours; has it ever been worked out?" + +"I doubt it; but in any case it would be very simple. The aromatic +substances used in the Liturgy are reduced to three, frankincense, +myrrh, and balm. + +"Their meaning is known to you. Incense is the Divinity of the Son, and +our prayers which rise up like vapours in the presence of the Most High, +as the Psalmist says. Myrrh is repentance, the sufferings of Jesus, His +death, the martyrs, and also, according to Monsieur Olier, the type of +the Virgin who heals the souls of sinners as myrrh cauterizes the +festering of wounds; balm is another word for virtue. + +"But though there are few Liturgical savours, it is not so with regard +to mystical effluences which vary infinitely. We have, however, but +little information on the subject. + +"We merely know that the odour of sanctity is antithetical to that of +the Devil; that many of the Elect have diffused, during their lifetime +and after their death, an exquisite fragrance which cannot be analyzed; +such were Madalene of Pazzi, Saint Etienne de Muret, Saint Philip Neri, +Saint Paternianus, Saint Omer, the Venerable Francis Olympus, Jeanne de +Matel and many more. + +"We know too that our sins stink, each according to its nature; and the +proof of this is that the saints could detect the state of men's +consciences merely by the smell of their bodies. Do you remember how +Saint Joseph of Cupertino exclaimed to a sinner whom he met: 'My friend, +you smell very badly; go and wash.' + +"To return to the odour of sanctity: in certain persons it has been +known to assume a natural character almost identical with certain +familiar scents. Saint Treverius exhaled a fragrance compounded of +roses, lilies, balm, and incense; Saint Rose of Viterbo smelt of roses; +Saint Cajetan of orange-blossom; Saint Catherine of Ricci of violets; +Saint Theresa by turns of lily, jasmine and violet; Saint Thomas Aquinas +of incense; Saint Francis of Paul of musk;--I mention these at random as +they occur to me. + +"Yes, and Saint Lydwine, when so ill, diffused a fragrance which also +imparted a flavour. Her wounds exhaled a cheerful savour of spice and +the very essence of Flemish home cooking--a refined extract of +cinnamon." + +"On the other hand," the Abbé went on, "the stench of wizards and +witches was notorious in the Middle Ages. On this point all exorcists +and writers on Demonology are agreed; and it is almost invariably +recorded that after an apparition of the devil a foul odour of sulphur +was left in the cells, even when the Saints had succeeded in dislodging +him. + +"But the essential odour of the devil is amply recorded in the life of +Christina of Stumbela. You are not ignorant, I suppose, of the exploits +in which Satan indulged against that saint?" + +"Indeed, I am, Monsieur l'Abbé." + +"Then I may tell you that the narrative of these assaults has been +preserved by the Bollandists, who have included the life of this pious +woman in their biographies. It was written by Peter of Dacia, a +Dominican, and her confessor. + +"Christina was born early in the thirteenth century--1242, I believe--at +Stumbela, near Cologne. + +"She was persecuted by the devil from her infancy. He exhausted the +armoury of his arts against her, appeared to her under the form of a +cock, a bull, an apostle; covered her with lice, filled her bed with +vermin, poisoned her blood, and as he could not make her deny God, he +invented fresh torments. + +"He turned the food she put into her mouth into a toad, a snake, a +spider, and disgusted her so effectually with all food, that she was +dying for want of it. She spent her days in vomiting, and prayer to God +to rescue her, but He was silent. + +"Still, to sustain her in such trials, the Sacrament was left to her. +Satan, knowing this, determined to deprive her of this sustenance, and +appeared in the form of these creatures even in the host when she +received it. Finally, to conquer her, he took the form of a huge toad, +and established himself in her bosom. At first Christina fainted with +fright, but then God intervened; by His order she wrapped her hand in +her sleeve, slipped it between her body and the belly of the reptile, +tore away the toad, and flung it on the stones. + +"It was dashed to pieces, with a noise, said the saint, like an old +shoe. + +"These persecutions continued till Advent in 1268; and from that time +the plague of filth began. + +"Peter of Dacia relates that one evening Christina's father came to +fetch him from his convent in Cologne, and begged him to go with him to +his daughter, tormented by the devil. He and another Dominican, Brother +Wipert, set out, and on arriving at Stumbela they found in the haunted +hut the Priest of the district, the Reverend Father Godefried, Prior of +the Benedictines of Brunwilre, and Cellarer of that convent. As they +stood warming themselves they discoursed of the pestilential incursions +of the devil, when suddenly the performance was repeated. They were all +bespattered with filth, Christina being caked with it, to use the +Friar's expression; and 'strange to say,' adds Peter of Dacia, 'this +matter, which was but warm, burned Christina, raising blisters on her +skin.' + +"This continued for three days. At length, one evening, Friar Wipert, +quite exasperated, began to recite the prayers for exorcism; but a +terrific uproar shook the room, the candles went out, and he was hit in +the eye by something so hard that he exclaimed, 'Woe is me! I am blind +of an eye!' + +"He was led, feeling his way, into an adjoining room, where the garments +they changed were dried, and where water was constantly heated for their +ablutions; he was cleansed, and his eye washed. It had suffered no +serious injury, and he returned to the other room to say Matins with the +two Benedictines and Peter of Dacia. But before chanting the service he +went up to the patient's bed and clasped his hands in amazement. + +"She was covered with filth indeed, but all was changed. The smell, +which had been supernaturally foul, was changed to angelic fragrance; +Christina's saintly resignation had routed the tempter of souls; and +they all joined in praising God. What do you say to that narrative?" + +"It is astounding, certainly; but is this the only instance of such +infernal filth?" + +"No; in the next century analogous circumstances haunted Elizabeth de +Reute, and likewise the Blessed Bétha. Here again Satan allowed himself +such filthy sport. It may also be noted that in modern times acts of the +same kind were observed in the house of the Curé d'Ars." + +"But in all this I see nothing to illustrate the symbolism of perfumes," +remarked Durtal. "At any rate, the subject would seem to be narrow or +ill-defined, and the number of odours that can be named is small. + +"There are certain essences mentioned in the Old Testament prefiguring +the Virgin. Some of them are interpreted in other senses, as spikenard, +cassia, and cinnamon. The first represents strength of soul; the second, +sound doctrine; and the third, the sweet savour of virtue. Then there +is the essence of cedar, which in the thirteenth century symbolized the +Doctors of the Church; and there are three specifically liturgical +perfumes: incense, balm, and myrrh; besides the odour of sanctity, which +in the case of some saints could be analyzed; and the demoniacal stench, +from a mere animal smell to the horrible nastiness of rotten eggs and +sulphur. + +"We must now inquire whether the personal fragrance of the Elect is in +harmony with the qualities or acts of which each was, on earth, the +example or the doer; and it would seem to have been so, when we remark +that Saint Thomas Aquinas, who composed the admirable sequence on the +Holy Sacrament, exhaled a perfume of incense, and that Saint Catherine +of Ricci, who was a model of humility, smelt of violets, the emblem of +that virtue, but--" + +The Abbé Plomb now came in, and being informed by Durtal of the subject +under discussion, he said,-- + +"But you have omitted from your diabolical flavours the most +conspicuous." + +"How is that, Monsieur l'Abbé?" + +"Certainly, for you have taken no account of the false fragrance which +Satan can diffuse. In fact, his baleful effluvia are of two kinds: one +characterized by the stench of sulphurous waters and drains; the other +by a false odour of sanctity, delicious gusts of sweetness and +temptation. This is how the Evil One tried to seduce Dominico de Gusman; +he bathed him in delicious vapours, hoping thus to inspire him with +notions of vain-glory; thus, too, did he to Jourdain of Saxony, who +exhaled a sweet odour when saying Mass. God showed him that this +phenomenon was of infernal origin, and it then ceased. + +"And I recollect a singular anecdote told by Quercetanus concerning a +mistress of Charlemagne's who died. The king, who worshipped her, could +not bear to have her body interred, though it was decomposing, exhaling, +however, a perfume of violets and roses. The body was examined, and in +its mouth a ring was found, which was removed. The demoniacal +enchantment forthwith ceased, the body became foul, and Charlemagne +allowed it to be buried. + +"We may add to this diabolical odour of seduction another, which is, on +the contrary, fetid, and is used to annoy the believer, to hinder him in +prayer, to estrange him from his fellows, and drive him, if possible, +to despair; still, this smell with which the devil infects a being may +be included in the category of the smells of temptation--not, indeed, to +pride, but to weakness and fear. + +"Meanwhile, I have something else for you," said the Abbé, addressing +Durtal. "Here are the titles I have collected for you of some works on +the symbolical animals of the Middle Ages. You have read '_De Bestiis et +aliis rebus_,' by Hugh of Saint Victor?" + +"Yes." + +"Very good; you may further consult Albertus Magnus, Bartholomew de +Glanville, and Pierre de Bressuire. I have noted on this paper a series +of such beast-books: those of Hildebert, Philippe de Thann, Guillaume de +Normandie, Gautier de Metz, and Richard de Fournival. Only you would +have to go to Paris to procure them in the public libraries." + +"And that would not help me much," replied Durtal. "I have, ere now, +looked through many of these works, and they contain no information that +can be of use from the point of view of symbolism. They are mere +fabulous descriptions of animals, legends as to their origin and habits. +The _Spicilegium Solesmense_ and the _Analectae_ of Dom Pitra are far +more instructive. By his help, with that of Saint Isidor, Saint +Epiphanius, and Hugh of Saint Victor, we can decipher the figurative +meaning of monsters. + +"They are all alike; there has been no complete or serious work produced +on symbolism since the Middle Ages, for the Abbé Auber's work on the +subject is a delusion. In vain will you seek for a treatise on flowers +which even alludes to the Catholic significance of plants. I do not, of +course, mean those silly books compiled for lovers, and called the +Language of Flowers, which you may find on the bookstalls with old +cookery-books and dream-books. It is the same with regard to colours; +nothing proven or authentic has been written concerning infernal or +celestial hues; for in fact the treatise by Frédéric Portal is +worthless. To explain Angelico's work I had to hunt here and there +through the Mystics, to discover where I might the meanings they ascribe +to colours; and I see plainly that I must do the same for my article on +the emblematical fauna. There is, on the whole, nothing to be found in +technical works; it is in the Bible and in the Liturgy, the +fountain-head of symbolical lore, that I must cast my net. By the way, +Monsieur l'Abbé, had you not some remarks to communicate on the zoology +of the Scriptures?" + +"Yes, we will go--" + +"To dinner, if you please," said Madame Bavoil. + +The Abbé Gévresin said grace, and when they had eaten the soup the +housekeeper served the beef. + +It was strengthening, tender, savoury to its inmost fibre, penetrated by +the rich and highly-flavoured sauce. + +"You don't get the like at La Trappe, our friend, eh?" said Madame +Bavoil. + +"Nor will he get anything so good at any other religious retreat," said +the Abbé Plomb. + +"Do not discourage me beforehand," said Durtal, laughing; "let me enjoy +this without a pang--there is a time for all things." + +"Then you are fully determined," said the Abbé Gévresin, "to write a +paper for your _Review_ on allegorical beasts?" + +"Yes, Monsieur l'Abbé." + +"I have made a list for you from the works of Fillion and of Lesêtre of +the blunders made by the translators of the Bible when they disguised +real beasts under chimerical names," said the Abbé Plomb. "This, in a +few words, is the upshot of my researches. + +"There was never any mythological fauna in the Sacred Books. The Hebrew +text was misread by those who translated it into Greek and Latin, and +the strange zoology that we find in certain chapters of Isaiah and Job +is easily reduced to the nomenclature of well-known creatures. + +"Thus the onocentaurs and sirens, spoken of by the Prophet, are neither +more nor less than jackals, if we examine the Hebrew original. The +lamia, a vampire, half woman and half serpent like the wyvern, is a +night bird, the white or the screech owl; the satyrs and fauns, the +hairy beasts spoken of in the Vulgate, are, after all, no more than wild +goats--'schirim,' as they are called in the Mosaic original. + +"The reptile so frequently mentioned in the Bible under the name of +'dragon' is indicated in the original by various words, which sometimes +mean the serpent or the crocodile, sometimes the jackal, and sometimes +the whale; and the famous unicorn of the Scriptures is merely the +primæval bull or auroch, which is to be seen on the Assyrian +bas-reliefs--a race now dying out, lingering only in the remotest parts +of Lithuania and the Caucasus." + +"And Behemoth and Leviathan, spoken of by Job?" + +"The word Behemoth is a plural form in Hebrew meaning Excellence. It +designates a prodigious and enormous beast--the rhinoceros, perhaps, or +the hippopotamus. As to Leviathan, it was a huge reptile, a gigantic +python." + +"That is a pity," said Durtal. "Imaginary zoology was far more +amusing!--Why, what is this vegetable?" he inquired, as he tasted a +curious stew of greens. + +"Dandelions cut up and boiled with shreds of bacon," replied Madame +Bavoil. "Do you like the dish, our friend?" + +"Indeed I do. Your dandelions are to garden spinach and chicory what the +wild duck is to the tame, or the hare to the rabbit. And it is a fact +that garden plants are generally poor and tasteless, while those that +grow wild have a certain astringency and pleasant bitter flavour. It is +the venison of vegetables that you have given us, Madame Bavoil!" + +"I fancy," said the Abbé Plomb, who had been thoughtful, "that just as +we tried to compile a mystic flora the other day, we might make a list +of the deadly sins as represented by animals." + +"Obviously, and with very little trouble. Pride is embodied in the bull, +the peacock, the lion, the eagle, the horse, the swan, and the wild +ass--according to Vincent de Beauvais. Avarice by the wolf, and, says +Saint Theobald, by the spider; for lust, we have the he-goat, the boar, +the toad, the ass, and the fly, which, Saint Gregory the Great tells, +typifies the turbulent cravings of the senses; for envy, the +sparrow-hawk, the owl, and screech-owl; for greediness, the hog and the +dog; for anger, the lion and wild boar, and, according to Adamantius, +the leopard; for sloth, the vulture, the snail, the she-ass, and, Raban +Maur says, the mule. + +"As to the virtues antithetical to these vices, humility may be typified +by the ox and the ass; indifference to worldly possessions by the +pelican, the emblem of the contemplative life; chastity by the dove and +the elephant, though it is true that this interpretation of Peter of +Capua is contradicted by other mystics, who accuse the elephant of +pride, and speak of him as an 'enormous sinner'; charity by the lark and +the pelican; temperance by the camel, which, taken in another sense, +typifies under the name of _gamal_ extravagant fury; vigilance by the +lion, the peacock, the ant--quoted by the Abbess Herrade and the +Anonymous monk of Clairvaux--and especially by the cock, to which Saint +Eucher attributes this virtue in common with all other symbolists. + +"I may add that the dove alone epitomizes all these qualities and is the +synthesis of all virtue." + +"Yes, and she alone is never spoken of as having any evil significance." + +"A distinction she shares with white and blue, the only colours which +are exempt from the law of antithesis and are never ascribed to any +vice," said Durtal. + +"The dove!" cried Madame Bavoil, who was changing the plates; "she plays +a beautiful part in the story of Noah's Ark. Ah! our friend, you should +hear what Mother Jeanne de Matel says of her." + +"What does she say, Madame Bavoil?" + +"The admirable Jeanne begins by saying that original sin produced in +human nature the deluge of sin from which the Virgin alone was exempted +by the Father, who chose Her to be His one Dove. + +"Then she relates how Lucifer, represented by the raven, escaped from +the ark through the window of free will; then God, to whom Mary had +belonged from all eternity, opened the window of the Will of His +Providence, and from His own bosom, from the heavenly Ark, He sent the +original dove on the earth where she gathered a spray of the olive of +His mercy, took her flight back to the Ark of Heaven, and offered this +branch for the whole human race; She then implored Divine grace to abate +the deluge of sin, and besought the Heavenly Noah to descend from that +high Ark; then, without quitting the bosom of the Father from whom He is +inseparable, He came down." + +"_Et Verbum caro factum est et habitavit in nobis_," the Abbé Gévresin +added, in conclusion. + +"This prefiguration of the Word by Noah is certainly curious," remarked +Durtal. + +"Animals are also introduced in the iconography of the saints," the +Abbé Plomb resumed. "So far as I can recollect, the ass is the attribute +of Saint Marcellus, of Saint John Chrysostom, of Saint Germain, of Saint +Aubert, of Saint Frances of Rome, and of some others; the stag of Saint +Hubert and Saint Rieul; the cock of Saint Landry and Saint Vitus; the +raven of Saint Benedict, Saint Apollinarius, Saint Vincent, Saint Ida, +Saint Expeditus; the deer of Saint Henry; the wolf of Saint Waast, Saint +Norbert, Saint Remaclus, and Saint Arnold; the spider betokens Saint +Conrad and Saint Felix of Nola; the dog accompanies Saint Godfrey, Saint +Bernard, Saint Roch, Saint Margaret of Cortona, and Saint Dominic, when +it bears a burning torch in its mouth; the doe is the badge of Saint +Giles, Saint Leu, Saint Geneviève of Brabant, and Saint Maximus; the pig +of Saint Anthony; the dolphin of Saint Adrian, of Saint Lucian, and +Saint Basil; the swan of Saint Cuthbert and Saint Hugh; the rat is seen +with Saint Goutran and Saint Gertrude; the ox with Saint Cornelius, +Saint Eustachius, Saint Honorius, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Saint Lucy, +Saint Blandina, Saint Bridget, Saint Sylvester, Saint Sebaldus, Saint +Saturninus; the dove belongs to Saint Gregory the Great, Saint Remi, +Saint Ambrose, Saint Hilary, Saint Ursula, Saint Aldegonde, and Saint +Scholastica, whose soul flew up to Heaven under that form. + +"And the list might be indefinitely extended. Shall you mention in your +article these accompaniments to the saints?" + +"In point of fact," replied Durtal, "most of these attributes are based +on history or legend, and not on symbolism; so I shall not devote any +particular attention to them." + +There was a silence. + +Then, abruptly, the Abbé Plomb, looking at his brother priest, said to +Durtal,-- + +"I am going to Solesmes again a week hence, and I told the Reverend +Father Abbot that I should take you with me." + +Then, seeing Durtal's amazement, he smiled. "But I will not leave you +there," he went on, "unless you wish not to return to Chartres. I only +propose that you should pay a visit there, just long enough to breathe +the atmosphere of the convent, to make acquaintance with the Benedictine +Fathers, and try their life." + +Durtal was silent, somewhat scared; for this proposal, simple enough as +it was, that he should go to live for some days in a cloister, had +startled him into a strange, a grotesque notion that if he should +accept, it would be playing away his last card, risking a decisive step, +taking a sort of pledge before God to settle there and end his days in +His immediate presence. + +But what was most strange was that this idea, so imperative and +overpowering that it excluded all possible reflection, bereft him of all +his powers of self-protection, left him disarmed at the mercy of he knew +not what--this idea, which nothing justified, was not centred, not fixed +on Solesmes; whither he should retreat was for the moment of small +importance; that was not the question; the only point to settle was +whether he meant to yield at all to a vague impulse, to obey +unformulated orders which were nevertheless positive, and give an +earnest to God, Who seemed to be harassing him without any sufficient +explanation. + +He felt himself inexorably condemned, tacitly compelled to pronounce his +decision then and there. + +He tried to struggle, to reason, to recover his self-possession; but the +very effort was fatal. He felt a sort of inward syncope, as though, +while his body was still upright, his soul was fainting within him with +fatigue and terror. + +"But this is madness!" he cried. "Madness!" + +"Why, what is the matter?" cried the two priests. + +"I beg your pardon. Nothing." + +"Are you in pain?" + +"No, it is nothing." + +There was an awkward pause which he was determined to break. + +"Did you ever take laughing gas?" said he; "the gas which sends you to +sleep and is used in surgery for short operations? No? Well, you feel a +buzzing in your brain, and just as you hear a great noise of falling +waters you lose consciousness. That is what I am feeling; only the +experience is not in my brain, but in my soul, which is giddy and +helpless, on the point of fainting away." + +"I should like to think," said the Abbé Plomb, "that it is not the +thought of a visit to Solesmes that has thus upset you." + +Durtal had not courage enough to own the truth; he was afraid of +seeming ridiculous if he confessed to such a panic; so to avoid a direct +answer he vaguely shook his head. + +"And I cannot help wondering why you should hesitate, for you will be +welcomed with open arms. The Father Abbot is a man of the highest merit, +and, moreover, no enemy to art. Besides--and this I hope will suffice to +reassure you--he is a most simple and kind-hearted monk." + +"But I have to finish my article." + +The two priests laughed. + +"You have a week before you to write your article in." + +"And then, to get any benefit from a monastery, I ought not be in the +state of dryness and diffusion in which I find myself vegetating," +Durtal went on with difficulty. + +"The saints themselves are not free from distractions," replied the Abbé +Gévresin. "For instance, think of the monk of whom Tauler speaks, who, +on quitting his cell in the month of May, would cover his face with his +hood, that he might not see the country, and so be hindered from +contemplating his soul." + +"Oh, our friend, must that gentle Jesus, as the Venerable Jeanne says, +be for ever the poor man pining for admittance at the door of our heart? +Come, just a little goodwill--open yours to Him," cried Madame Bavoil. + +And Durtal, finally driven into his last intrenchments, by a nod +signified acquiescence in the wish of all his friends. But he did it +with deep reluctance, for he could not rid himself of a distracting idea +that this concession implied a vow on his part to God! + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + +This idea, which had taken firm possession of him for a few minutes, +seemed to fade away, and by the morrow there only remained a startled +excitement which nothing could account for; he now shrugged his +shoulders, but still, at the bottom of his soul a vague sense of dread +would surge up. + +Was not the very absurdity of it a proof that this notion was one of the +presentiments that we sometimes feel without understanding it? Was it +not, again, for lack of a command plainly given by some inward voice, a +warning, a direct and secret hint, that he should be on his guard not to +think of this visit to a cloister as a mere pleasure trip? + +"But this is monstrous!" Durtal exclaimed at last. "When I went to La +Trappe for my great purification, I was not harassed by apprehensions of +this kind; when I have gone there again several times since, it never +occurred to me that I should really bury myself in a monastery; and now +that it is a matter merely of a short visit to a Benedictine monastery, +I am trembling and recalcitrant. + +"Such a commotion is quite childish! And yet no, not so very childish," +he suddenly told himself. "When I have been to Notre-Dame de l'Atre I +have been sure that I should not remain, since I knew that I could not +endure more than a month of their austere Rule; so there was nothing to +fear; whereas in a Benedictine Abbey, where the Rule is lighter, I am +not certain that I could not stay. + +"In that case--well, well, so much the better! for after all sooner or +later I must decide, I must make up my mind as to what I really mean; +have some definite notion of the value of my promissory notes, of the +greater or less strength of my energy, my fitness, my limitations. + +"A few months ago I longed for the monastic life, that is beyond +doubt--and now I am wavering. I have abortive gushes of feeling, +ineffectual projects, inclinations which fail, wishes which come +short--I will and I will not. Still it is needful to understand oneself; +but of what use is it for me to try to sound the well of my own soul? If +I go down into it, I find everything dark and cold and empty. + +"I am beginning to think that by dint of staring into that darkness I am +becoming like a child that fixes its eyes on the blackness of night; I +end by creating phantoms and inventing terrors. That is certainly the +case as regards this excursion to Solesmes, for there is nothing, +absolutely nothing to justify my alarms. + +"How silly this all is; how much simpler it would be to allow myself to +live, and, above all, to be led!" + +"I have hit it," he went on after a moment's reflection. "The cause of +this turmoil is evident. It is my lack of self-abandonment, my want of +confidence in God--yes, and my little love, my dryness of spirit, which +have brought me to this state. + +"In the lapse of time this disorder has brought on the malady from which +I am suffering, an utter anæmia of the soul, aggravated by the patient's +terrors, since he, unaware of the nature of the complaint, exaggerates +its importance. + +"Thus stands my balance-sheet since I came to Chartres. + +"The position is very different from what it was in Paris. For the phase +I am going through is the very contrary to that in which I previously +lived; in Paris my soul was not dry and friable, but dank and soft; it +was saponaceous; the foot sank in it. In short, I was melting away, in a +state of langour, more painful perhaps than this state of drought which +is toughening me to horniness. Still on close examination, though the +symptoms have changed, the evil persists; softness or dryness, the +results are identical. + +"At the same time it seems strange that this spiritual anæmia should now +exhibit such opposite symptoms. On one hand I am conscious of weariness, +indifference, and torpor in prayer; it seems to me, bitter, vain, and +hollow, so badly do I pray; I am inclined to let everything go, to cease +the attempt, to wait for a glow of fervour which I cannot hope for; on +the other hand, I am at the same time conscious of a persistent and +obstinate yearning, an invisible touch, a craving for prayer, a +constant invitation from God keeping me alert. And there are times, too, +when, though I can prove to myself that I am not stirring, I fancy I am +trembling and shall be swept away by a tide. + +"That is very much of what I feel. In this frame of mind, half +stay-at-home, half gipsy-like, if I take up a book of the higher +mysticism--Saint Theresa or Saint Angela--that subtle touch gains +definiteness, I am aware of shocks running through me; I fancy that my +soul is convalescent, that it is young again, and breathes once more; +but if I try to take advantage of this lucid moment to collect myself +and to pray, it is all over--I flee from myself--nothing will work. What +misery, and how pitiable! + +"The Abbé Gévresin has guided me so far, but how? + +"He has trusted chiefly to the method of expectancy, restricting himself +to combating my generally flaccid state, and invigorating me rather than +contending with details. He has prescribed the heroic remedies of the +soul, desiring me to communicate when he found me weak. But, if I am not +mistaken, he is now turning his batteries. Either he is giving up a line +of attack which has failed, or else, on the contrary, he is improving +it, his treatment having produced, without my being aware of it, the +effects he was aiming at; in either case, to promote or complete the +cure, he wants to send me to a convent. + +"The plan seems to be, indeed, part of his system, for he did the same +thing when he was helping in my conversion. He sent me off to a health +resort for the soul--and the waters were powerful indeed and terrible; +now he thinks I no longer need have so severe a treatment inflicted on +me, and he is persuading me to stay in a more restful place, a less +bracing air--is that it? + +"Even his way of coming up unexpectedly and hurling his opinion at me is +not quite the same as it was. This time, it was, indeed, not he who +undertook to crystallize my irresolution by announcing my departure for +Solesmes; but it comes to the same thing. For, after all, there is +something not quite above board in this affair. Why did the Abbé Plomb +promise the Benedictines that he would take me with him? + +"He certainly acted on the request of the Abbé Gévresin. There can have +been no other reason for his talking of me to the Fathers. I have, +indeed, spoken to him of my distress of mind, of my vague craving for +retirement, and my love for monasteries. But I certainly did not suggest +that he should thus take the lead, and hurry matters on so! + +"Here I am, as usual, imagining plots and schemes, looking for things +that never existed, and discerning motives where perhaps there are none. +And even if there were! Is it not for my benefit that these good friends +are laying their heads together? + +"I have only to hear and obey. Now to have done with this and return to +the Bestiary; for I want to finish this work before I go." And posting +himself in front of the cathedral, he studied the south porch, which had +most of zoological mysticism and devilries. + +But he did not find the monstrosities of his fancy. At Chartres the +Vices and Virtues were not symbolized by more or less chimerical +creatures, but by human faces. After careful search he discovered on +some of the pillars of the middle doorway the Vices embodied in small +carved groups: Lust, as a woman fondling a young man; Drunkenness as a +boor about to hit a bishop; Discord by a husband quarrelling with his +wife, while an empty bottle and a broken distaff lie near them. + +By way of infernal monsters, the utmost he could discern,--and that by +dislocating his neck--were two dragons in the right-hand bay, one +exorcised by a monk and the other bridled by a Saint with his stole. + +Of divine beasts he could distinguish in the row of Virtues certain +female figures with symbolical creatures by their side: Docility +accompanied by an ox; Chastity by a phoenix; Charity by a sheep; +Meekness by a lamb; Fortitude by a lion; Temperance by a camel. Why +should the phoenix here typify Chastity, for it is not used generally in +that sense in the Bird-books of the Middle Ages? + +Somewhat disconcerted by the poverty of the fauna of Chartres, he +comforted himself by a study of this southern porch; it was a match for +that on the north, and repeated, with a variant, the subject of the west +front--the glorification of Christ, but in His function as the Supreme +Judge, and in the person of His Saints. + +This front, begun in the time of Philip Augustus, and built at the cost +of the Comte de Dreux and his wife Alice of Brittany, was not completed +till the time of Philippe le Bel. It was divided, like the other two, +into three portions: a central door with a tympanum in a pointed arch +bearing the presentment of the Last Judgment; one on the left devoted to +the Martyrs, and one on the right dedicated to the Confessors. + +The central bay suggested the form of a boat set on end, its prow in the +air; its deeply spreading sides contained in their niches six Apostles +on each, and in the middle, between the doors, stood a single statue of +Christ. + +This statue, like that at Amiens, was famous; every guidebook sings the +praises of the regular features, the calm expression of the face; in +reality the countenance is particularly fatuous and cold, beautiful but +lifeless. How inferior to that of the twelfth century, the expressive +and living God seated between the symbols of the Tetramorph in the +tympanum of the royal front. + +The Apostles were perhaps rather more refined, rather less squat than +the patriarchs and prophets supporting Saint Anne under the north porch, +but their quality as works of art was less striking. They resembled the +Christ, Whom they escorted with decent duty: it was honest work, +phlegmatic sculpture, so to speak. + +They held the instruments of their death with placid propriety, like +soldiers presenting arms. + +On the right hand stood Saint Peter, holding the cross on which he was +bound head downwards; Saint Andrew, with a Latin cross, however, and not +the X-shaped cross to which he was nailed; then Saint Philip, Saint +Thomas, Saint Matthew, Saint Simon, all armed with the sword, though +Saint Philip was crucified and stoned, Saint Thomas pierced with a +lance, and Saint Simon sawn asunder. + +To the left were Saint Paul, substituted for Saint Matthias, chosen to +succeed Judas; he carried a sword; Saint John, bearing his Gospel; Saint +James the Great, with a sword; Saint James the Less, with a fuller's +club; Saint Bartholomew, with the knife that served to flay him, and +Saint Jude with a book. + +Perched on twisted columns, they trampled under their feet--bare, in +token of their apostleship--the executioners of their martyrdom. They +had long flowing hair, and forked beards cut into two points, excepting +Saint John, who was beardless, and Saint Paul, who, tradition says, was +bald; and they were all dressed alike in cloaks hanging in formal +curves. Saint James the Great was alone distinguished by a tunic +sprinkled with shells, like that of the pilgrims who were wont to visit +him at Compostella in one of the huge sanctuaries erected in his honour +in Mediæval times. + +He was the patron Saint of Spain; but did he really ever preach in those +lands, as Saint Jerome and Saint Isidor assert, and the Toledo Breviary? +Some doubt it. At any rate his story, as related by Durand of Mende, in +the thirteenth century, was as follows: Being sent into Spain to convert +the idolaters, he failed, and returned to Jerusalem, where he was +beheaded by Herod. His body was subsequently carried to Spain, and his +remains performed such miracles as he had never wrought in his lifetime. + +"Indeed," reflected Durtal, "we have singularly little information with +regard to the Apostles. They appear, for the most part, only +incidentally in the Gospels; and excepting a few--Saint Peter, Saint +John, and Saint Paul--whose figures are more or less definite, they +float past like shades, lost, veiled as it were, in the halo of glory +shed about Him by Jesus Christ. And after His death they vanish into +thin air, and their very existence is only sketched in a few vague +legends. + +"Take Saint Thomas, the Treasure of God, as Saint Bridget calls him: +where was he born? We are not told. What were the circumstances and +reasons of his call? None knows. In what lands did he preach the new +faith? Here disputes begin. Some report him among the Medes, the +Parthians, the Persians, in Ethiopia, in Hindustan. He is commonly +represented with a cubit-measure and a square, for it is said that he +built a church at Meliapore; for which reason he was taken in the Middle +Ages as the patron Saint of architects and masons. + +"According to the Roman Breviary he was killed at Calamine by a +spear-thrust; according to the Golden Legend he was killed with the +sword in an uncertainly described place; the Portuguese assert that they +have his relics at Goa, the chief of their Indian possessions. + +"In the thirteenth century this saint was regarded as the type of +perverse disbelief. Not satisfied with having failed to believe in +Christ until he had seen and put his finger into His wounds, he was +equally incredulous, if our forefathers are to be believed, when he was +told of the Assumption of the Virgin, and Mary was fain to show Herself +to him and throw down Her girdle to convince him. + +"Saint Bartholomew is even more obscure, lost in the thick shade of the +ages. He was the best educated of the Apostles, says Sister Emmerich, +for the others, particularly Peter and Andrew, had preserved rough +manners and a clumsy exterior from their humble origin. + +"It is supposed that his name was Bartholomew. The Synoptical Gospels +number him among the Apostles, but Saint John omits him, and mentions in +his place one Nathanael, of whom the other three Evangelists do not +speak. + +"It seems tolerably certain that these two were identical, and Saint +Bernard supposed that this Bartholomew or Nathanael was the bridegroom +of the marriage at Cana. + +"He is said to have preached in Arabia, in Persia, in Abyssinia, to have +baptized among the Iberi, the races of the Caucasus, and, like Saint +Thomas, in India, but there is no authentic evidence to show this. +According to some writers he was decapitated; others say he was flayed +alive and then crucified, near the frontiers of Armenia. + +"This last view was adopted by the Roman Breviary and prevailed; hence +he was chosen as the patron Saint of fleshers, who skin beasts, of +leather-dressers and skinners, shoemakers and binders, who use leather, +and even of tailors, for the early painters represent him with half his +body flayed and carrying his skin over his arm like a coat. + +"Stranger and still more puzzling is Saint Jude. He was also called +Thaddæus and Lebbæus, and was the son of Cleophas and of Mary the +Virgin's sister; he is said to have married and had children. + +"He is scarcely mentioned in the Gospels, but they point out that he is +not to be confounded with Judas--which, however, was done, actually by +reason of the similarity of name, during the Middle Ages; Christians +rejected him and sorcerers appealed to him. + +"He never speaks in the course of the Sacred Narrative but when he +breaks silence at the scene of the Last Supper to ask the Lord a +question as to predestination; and Christ replies beside the mark, or +rather does not answer him at all. He was also the author of a Canonical +Epistle, in which he seems to have been inspired by the Second Epistle +of Saint Peter; and, according to Saint Augustine, it was he who +introduced the dogma of the Resurrection of the flesh into the _Credo_. + +"In legend he is associated with Saint Simon; according to the Breviary, +he is said to have evangelized Mesopotamia and to have suffered +martyrdom with his companion Saint in Persia. The Bollandists, on the +other hand, assert that he was the Apostle to Arabia and Idumea, while +the Greek Menology relates that he was shot to death with arrows by the +infidels in Armenia. + +"In fact all these accounts differ; and iconography adds to the +confusion by representing Jude with the most various attributes. +Sometimes, as at Amiens, he holds a palm, or, as at Chartres, a book. He +is also seen with a cross, a square, a boat, a wand, an axe, a sword, +and a spear. + +"But in spite of the unfortunate reputation earned for him by his +namesake Judas, the symbolists of the Middle Ages regard him as a man of +charity and zeal, and attribute to him the splendour of the purple and +gold fires of the chrysoprase, regarded as emblematical of good works. + +"All this is but incoherent," thought Durtal, "and what also strikes me +as strange is that this Saint, so rarely invoked by our forefathers--who +for long never dedicated any altar to him, is twice represented in +effigy at Chartres--supposing the Verlaine of the royal porch to +represent Saint Jude; but then that seems improbable." + +"What I should now like to know," he went on, "is why the historians of +this cathedral pronounce the scene of the last Judgment represented on +the tympanum of the door as the most remarkable of its kind in France. +This is utterly false, for it is vulgar, and certainly inferior to many +others. + +"The demoniacal half is far less vigorous, more supine, less crowded +than in other churches of the same period. At Chartres, it is true, the +devils with wolves' muzzles and asses' ears, trampling down bishops and +kings, laymen and monks, and driving them into the maw of a dragon +spouting flames--the demons with goats' beards and crescent-shaped jaws +seizing hapless sinners who have wandered to the mouldings of the arch, +are all very skilfully arranged, in well composed groups round the +principal figure; but the Satanic vineyard lacks breadth and its fruit +is insipid. The preying demons are not ferocious enough, they almost +look as if they were monks and were doing it for fun, while the damned +take it very calmly. + +"How far more desperate is the devil's festival at Dijon!" Durtal +recalled to mind the church of Notre Dame in that city, so strange a +specimen of thirteenth-century gothic of the Burgundian stamp. The +church was of almost elementary simplicity; above its three porches rose +a straight wall with two storeys of columns forming arcades and +surmounted by grotesque figures. To the right of this front was a small +tower with a pointed roof; and on the roof a "Jacquemart" of iron +tracery, with three puppets that strike the hours; behind, rising from +the transept, was a small tower with four little glazed belfries. + +This building, small as compared with great cathedrals, was stamped with +the Flemish hall-mark; it had the homespun peasant expression, the +cheerful faith of the race. It was a domestic sanctuary, very native to +the soil; the folks would hold converse with the Black Virgin standing +there on an altar, tell her all their little concerns, make themselves +at home there in confidential gossiping prayer, quite without ceremony. + +But it was not well to trust too much to the benign and genial aspect of +this building, for the long rows of grotesque figures that were ranged +above the doorways and the arcades belied the jovial security of the +rest. + +There they were, in high relief, in close array, grinning and jibing; a +motley crowd of demented nuns and mad monks, of bewildered rustics and +outlandish women; hobgoblins writhing with laughter, and hilarious +devils; and in the midst of this mob of the reprobate a figure of a real +woman, held by two demons tormenting her, stood out, leaning forward as +if she wanted to throw herself down. With haggard, dilated eye, and +clasped hands, in terror she beseeches the passer-by, shows him the +place of refuge, and cries to him to enter. Involuntarily he pauses in +amazement to look at that face, distorted with fear, pinched with +anguish, struggling amid this pack of monsters, this vision of frenzied +nightmare. At once fierce and pitying, she threatens and entreats; and +this image of one for ever excommunicate, cast out of the temple and +left to all eternity on the threshold, is as haunting as the memory of +suffering, as a nightmare of terror. + +Nowhere, certainly, in the satanic menagerie of La Beauce, is there a +statue of such startling and assertive art. + +From another point of view--that of the picture as a whole, and of the +broad view taken of the subject, the Judgment of Souls at Notre Dame de +Chartres is for beneath that of the cathedral at Bourges. + +"That, indeed, is, I think, the most wonderful of all," said Durtal to +himself. "The similar scenes at Reims and at Paris, with the gangs of +sinners held in chains tugged by demons, and those of the same kind at +Amiens, have none of them such breadth of scope." + +At Bourges, as in all works of this class in the Middle Ages, the dead +are escaping from their sepulchres, and on the uppermost frieze, below a +figure of Christ, with whom the Virgin and Saint John are interceding, +Saint Michael is weighing souls; to the left devils are dragging away +the wicked, and to the right angels are conducting the blessed. + +The resurrection of the dead, as it is represented by the image-maker of +Le Berry, is enough to set the noisy prudery of the Catholics neighing, +for the figures are nude, and certain reticences, usually observed at +any rate in the female form, are here omitted. Men and women push up the +lid of the tomb, stride across the edge, leap up, roll over pell mell, +one above another; some ecstatically clasping their hands in prayer, +their eyes fixed on heaven; others anxiously looking about them on all +sides; others praying with terror, throwing up their arms; others, +again, in dejected attitudes, beating their breasts in lamentable +self-accusation; and yet others who are dazzled by the abrupt change +from darkness to light, shaking their numbed limbs and trying to move. + +The mad confusion of all these human beings, suddenly awakened, and +brought like owls into the light of day, trembling with fear or with joy +as they see and understand that the day of Judgment is come, is all +expressed with a fulness, a spirit, a certainty of observation which +leave the petty accuracy and mild energy of the Chartres sculptor far +behind them. + +In the upper division, again, the weighing of souls goes on in a +magnificent composition; Saint Michael with wide-spread wings holds a +large pair of scales and smiles as he caresses a little child with +folded hands, while a goat-headed devil watches eagerly to seize him if +the Archangel should turn away; and behind this lingering demon begins +the dolorous procession of the outcast. Nor have we here the infernal +courtliness of the scene as represented at Chartres, the doubtful +consideration of an evil spirit gently driving in a nun; it is brutality +in all its horror, the lowest violence; the sometimes comic side of +these struggles is not to be seen here. At Bourges the myrmidons of the +deep work and hit with a will. A devil with a wild beast's muzzle and a +drunkard's face in the middle of his fat stomach, is hammering the skull +of a wretch who struggles, grinding his teeth, while the devil bites his +legs with the end of his tail that bears a serpent's head. Another +monster, with a crushed face and pendant breasts, a man's face in his +stomach and wings springing from his loins, has clasped a priest in his +arms and is pitching him head foremost into a cauldron boiling over the +flames from a dragon's mouth blown up with bellows by two of the devil's +slaves. And in this cauldron sit two figures symbolical of slander and +lust, a monk and a woman writhing and weeping, for enormous toads are +gnawing at the tongue of one and at the heart of the other. + +On the other side of Saint Michael the scene is different; a chubby, +smiling angel is playing with a child whom he has perched on one of his +fellow-angels' shoulders, and the infant delightedly waves a bough; +behind him slowly marches a representative group of saints--a woman, a +king, a cenobite, conducted by Saint Peter towards a doorway leading to +a sanctum where sits Abraham, an old man with a cloth spread over his +knees full of little heads all rejoicing--the souls that are saved. + +And Durtal, as he recalled the features of Saint Michael and his angels, +perceived that they were the brethren in art of the Saint Anne, Saint +Joseph, and the angel of the great portal at Reims. They were all of the +same peculiar type--a young and yet old countenance, a long sharp nose +and pointed chin; only here, perhaps, a little rounder, a little less +angular than at Reims. + +This sort of family likeness gave support to a theory that the same +sculptors or their pupils had worked on the carvings of those two +cathedrals, but not at Chartres, where no similar type is to be seen; +though a certain striking resemblance exists between other statues in +the north porch and some figures, of a different class however, on the +façade at Reims. + +"Anyone of these hypotheses may be correct, though there is no chance of +proving their truth, for we can discover no information with regard to +the schools of art of the period," said Durtal to himself, as he turned +his attention to the left-hand bay of the south porch, dedicated to the +martyrs. + +There, in the archway of the door, dwelt, side by side, Saint Vincent +the deacon, of Spain; Saint Denys the bishop; Saint Piat the priest; and +Saint George the warrior; all four victims of the ingenious cruelty of +the infidels. + +Saint Vincent in his long gown hung a contrite head over his shoulder. + +"He," thought Durtal, "was literally butchered and cooked, for we are +told in the legend according to Voragine that his body was torn with +sharp combs of brass till his bowels fell out, and that after this +foretaste, this _hors d'oeuvre_ of torture, he was broiled on a +gridiron, larded with nails, and basted with the sauce of his own blood. +He lay calm, praying while he was being toasted. He remained unmoved, +grilling and praying. When he was dead, Dacian, his persecutor, ordered +that his body should be cast out on a field to be devoured by beasts; +but a raven came to settle by him, and drove away a wolf by pecking at +it. Then a millstone was tied about his neck and he was thrown into the +sea, but his body came to land near some pious women who buried it. + +"Saint Denys, the first Bishop of Paris, was thrown to the lions, who +retreated before him; he was then beheaded at Montmartre, with Saint +Eleutherius and Saint Rusticus. The image-maker had not here represented +him, as usual, carrying his head, but had shown him standing with his +crozier and mitre. And he was not humble and pitiable, like his +neighbour, the Spanish Deacon, but upright and imperious, with his hand +uplifted, in the attitude rather of admonishing the faithful than of +blessing them, and Durtal stood lost in thought before this writer, +whose brief book holds so important a place in the series of mystical +writings. + +"He, more than any other, and first among the contemplative authors, +had overstepped the threshold of Heaven and brought down to men some +details of what happens there. The knowledge of the angelic ranks dates +from him, for it was he who revealed the organization of the heavenly +host as an order, a hierarchy copied by human beings and parodied in +hell. He was a sort of messenger between Heaven and earth, and was the +explorer of our celestial heritage, as Saint Catherine of Genoa at a +later date was the explorer of purgatory. + +"A less interesting personage was Saint Piat, a priest of Tournai, +beheaded by a Roman proconsul. In this assembly of famous saints he was +rather the poor country-cousin, a mere provincial Saint. He figured here +because his relics repose in the cathedral, for historians record the +translation of his remains to Chartres in the ninth century. By his side +was Saint George, arrayed as a knight of the time of Saint Louis, his +head bare with an iron fillet, armed with a lance and shield; standing +as if on guard on a pedestal, showing the wheel which was the instrument +of his martyrdom. + +"The companion statue, on the opposite side of the door, was that of +Saint Theodore of Heraclea, wearing a coat of mail, and a surcoat, and +also holding a shield and spear. + +"Next to this saint, who was subsequently roasted to death by a slow +fire, in the town of Amasea, were Saint Stephen, Saint Clement, and +Saint Laurence. + +"Above this double rank of martyrs the tympanum represented the story of +Saint Stephen disputing with the Doctors and stoned by the Jews; and on +all sides, on the square pillars that supported the roof of the porch, +was carved stone-work representing the tortured bodies of the righteous: +Saint Leger, Saint Laurence, Saint Thomas of Canterbury, Saint Bacchus, +Saint Quentin, and many more; a whole procession of the Blessed, being +blinded, burnt, cut in pieces, flogged with vigorous energy, and +beheaded. But it was all in melancholy decay. The _sans-culottes_, by +amputating more of their limbs in their tempest of fury, had crowned the +martyrdom of these Saints. + +"The doorway to the right, dedicated to the Confessors, was a vast hull +set on end; on the sloping side to the left of the door stood Saint +Nicholas, Archbishop of Myra, holding up a gloved hand, and trampling +under foot the cruel host killing the children whose death became a +theme for so many laments; Saint Ambrose, Doctor of the Church and +Bishop of Milan, wearing a singular peaked mitre, like an extinguisher; +Saint Leo, the Pope who defied Attila; and finally Saint Laumer, one of +the glories of the Chartres district. + +"He, like Saint Piat in the left-hand bay, is somewhat of a stranger +dragged into this illustrious company. He was of old highly venerated in +La Beauce, having, in his lifetime, had a career which may be briefly +summed up. During his childhood he had kept sheep; he had then been +cellarer to the cathedral; had become first an anchorite, then a monk, +and finally Abbot of the Monastery of Corbion in the forests of the +Orne. + +"The opposite slope of the bay sheltered Saint Martin, Bishop of Tours, +Saint Jerome, as a Doctor of the Church, Saint Gregory, Pope and Doctor, +and Saint Avitus. + +"What is curious in this door," thought Durtal, "is the parallel of +personages. On one side, to the right, Saint Nicholas, the great +miracle-worker of the East; on the other side, to the left, Saint +Martin, the great miracle-worker of the West. Then, as companion +figures, Saint Ambrose and Saint Jerome;--the first often redundant and +pompous in second-rate prose, but ingenious and delightful in his hymns; +the second who, in the Vulgate, really created the language of Church +use, purifying and airing the Latin of Pagan literature, foul with +lascivious meaning, reeking at once of an old goat and of essence of +roses. Again, face to face, two Popes, Saint Leo and Saint Gregory, and +two Abbots of Monasteries, Saint Laumer and Saint Avitus, who was Prior +of a House founded in the forests of Le Perche." + +These two last statues had been added later; their style and costume +betrayed a date subsequent to the thirteenth century; had they, then, +taken the place of others representing the same Monks, or different +Saints? + +The tympanum again expressed the same purpose of parallelism, evidently +intended by the master of the work. This was also devoted to two miracle +workers, to a correspondence in this respect of the north and the south. +It represented episodes in the lives of Saint Nicholas and Saint Martin: +Saint Nicholas furnishing a dowry for the daughters of a gentleman who +was dying of hunger, and about to sell their honour, and the sepulchre +of this archbishop exuding an oil of sovereign efficacy in the cure of +diseases; Saint Martin giving half of his cloak to a beggar, and then +beholding Christ wearing the garment. + +The remainder of this porch was of secondary interest. In the mouldings +of the arches and in the pillars of the bays the ranks of the Confessors +appeared again, the nine choirs of Angels, the parable of the wise and +foolish Virgins, a replica of the four-and-twenty elders on the royal +front, the Prophets of the Old Testament, the Virtues, the Vices, the +Christian Virgins, and small statues of the Apostles, all more or less +injured and more or less invisible. + +This south porch, with its seven hundred and eighty-three statues and +statuettes, spoken of by the guide-books as the most attractive of all, +was to artists, on the contrary, the least absorbing; for, with the +exception of the noble effigies of Saint Theodore and Saint George, the +glorification of the others who dwell there was on the whole, from the +artistic point of view, very inferior in interest to the sculpture on +the twelfth-century west front, or even to that of the north porch--that +complete embodiment of the Two Testaments--where the sculpture, if more +barbarous, was less placid and cold. + +And Durtal came to this conclusion: "The exterior of the cathedral of +Chartres may be summed up in three words: _Latvia_, _hyperdulia_, and +_dulia_. _Latria_, the worship of Our Lord, on the west front; +_Hyperdulia_, the worship of the Blessed Virgin, in the north porch; +_Dulia_, the worship of the Saints, in the south porch. + +"For although the Redeemer is magnified in this south portal in His +character of Supreme Judge, He seems to make way for the Saints. And +this is quite intelligible, since He is enthroned there for two +purposes, and His true palace, His real throne, is in the triumphal +tympanum of the royal doorway in the west front." + +Before quitting this side of the building, as he glanced once more at +the ranks of the Elect, Durtal stopped in front of Saint Clement and +Saint Gregory. + +Saint Clement, whose extraordinary death almost casts his life into +oblivion--a life exclusively occupied in harrowing souls. Durtal +recalled the narrative of Voragine. After being exiled to the +Chersonesus, in the reign of Trajan, Clement was cast into the sea with +an anchor tied to his neck, while the assembled Christians kneeling on +the strand besought Heaven to restore his body. Then the sea withdrew +three miles, and the faithful went dry-shod to a chapel which the angels +had just erected beneath the waters, where the body of the saint was +found reposing, lying on a tomb; and for many centuries the sea retired +every year for a week, to allow pilgrims to visit his remains. + +Saint Gregory, the first Benedictine to be elected Pope, was the creator +of the Liturgy, the master of plain-song. He was alike devoted to +justice and to charity, and a passionate patron of art; and this +admirable Pope, with his broad and comprehensive spirit, regarded it as +a temptation of the Devil that made the bigots, the Pharisees of his +day, proclaim their determination not to read profane literature; for, +said he, it helps us to understand that which is sacred. + +Made Pope against his will, he led a life of anguish, mourning for the +lost peace of his cloister; but he fought none the less with incredible +energy against the inroads of the Barbarians, the heresies of Africa, +the intrigues of Byzantium, and the Simony of his own priests. + +He stands out in a dark age, amid a witches' sabbath of shrieking +schisms; he is seen in the midst of these storms, protecting the poor +from the rapacity of the rich, feeding them with his own hands, kissing +their feet, every day; and in spite of this overworked life without a +moment's respite, or a minute for rest, he succeeded in restoring +monastic discipline, and sowing wherever he might the Benedictine seed, +saving the headlong world by the vigilance of his Order. + +Though he was not a martyr like Saint Clement, he died nevertheless for +Christ, of exhaustion and fatigue, after living in the constant +suffering of a frame undermined by disease, and weakened by voluntary +maceration and fasting. + +"This, no doubt, is the reason why the face of his statue is so sad and +thoughtful," said Durtal to himself. "And yet he is listening to the +dove, the symbol of inspiration which is speaking in his ear, dictating +to him, the legend says, the antiphonal melodies, and undoubtedly +whispering his dialogues, his homilies, his commentaries on the Book of +Job, his pastoral letter--all the works which made him so immensely +famous in the Middle Ages." + +As he made his way home, Durtal, still reflecting on this array of the +Righteous, suddenly was struck by this idea: "There is no portrait in +Chartres of a Saint whose present help was of yore desired above all +others: Saint Christopher, whose effigy was usually to be found at the +entrance to a cathedral, standing alone in a spot apart. + +"It stood thus, formerly, at the door of Notre-Dame de Paris, and is +still to be seen in one corner of the principal front at Amiens; but in +most places the iconoclasts overthrew it, and the churches where the +statue of Christopher is now to be seen may be easily counted. It must +once have existed at Chartres--but where? The monographs on this +cathedral never allude to it." + +Thus, as he walked on, he dreamed of the Saint whose popularity is +easily accounted for, since our forefathers believed that they had only +to look at his image, whether painted or carved, to be protected for a +whole day from disaster, and especially from violent death. + +So he was always placed outside in a prominent spot, and very large, so +that he might easily be seen by the wayfarer, even from afar. In some +cases his effigy was found on a gigantic scale, inside the church. Thus +he is represented in the Dom at Erfurt, in a fresco of the fifteenth +century, too much restored. + +This colossal figure, five storeys high, extends from the pavement of +the church to the roof. Christopher has a beard which flows in a stream, +and legs as thick as the pillars of the nave. Bending and adoring, he +bears on his shoulders a Child with a round face, as white as the chalk +of a clown, blessing all comers with a smile. The Saint is wading +barefoot through a pool full of little reeds, and imps, and horned +fishes and strange flowers--all represented on a minute scale to +emphasize the mighty stature of the Saint. + +"That good friend," thought Durtal, "though venerated by the poor, was +somewhat coldly treated by the Church, for he, with Saint George and +some other martyrs, was among those whose existence remains open to +doubt. + +"In Mediæval times Saint Christopher was invoked for the cure of weakly +children, and also as a protector against blindness and the plague. + +"But indeed the Saints were the chief healers of that time. Every +disease which the leeches and apothecaries could not alleviate was +brought to the Saints. Some indeed were reputed specialists, and the +ills they cured were known by their names. The gout was known as Saint +Maurus' evil, leprosy as Job's evil, cancer was Saint Giles', chorea +Saint Guy's, colds were Saint Aventinus' ill, a bloody flux Saint +Fiacre's--and I forget the rest. + +"Others again remained noted for delivering sufferers from certain +affections they were reputed to heal: Saint Geneviève for the burning +sickness and ophthalmia, Saint Catherine of Alexandria for headache, +Saint Bartholomew for convulsions, Saint Firmin for cramp, Saint +Benedict for erysipelas and the stone, Saint Lupus for pains in the +stomach, Saint Hubert for madness, Saint Appolina, whose statue, +standing in the chapel of the Hospital of Saint John at Bruges, is +graced by way of _ex votos_ with strings of teeth and wax stumps, for +neuralgia and toothache--and how many more. + +"And granting," said Durtal, "that medical science is at this day a +greater delusion than ever, I cannot see why we should not revert to the +specific of prayer and the mystical panaceas of the past. If the +interceding Saints should, in certain cases, refuse to cure us, at any +rate they will make us no worse by a mistaken diagnosis and the +exhibition of dangerous remedies. Though after all, even if our modern +practitioners were not ignoramuses, of what use would that be, since the +medicines they prescribe are adulterated?" + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + +The day had come for Durtal to strap his portmanteau and set out with +the Abbé Plomb. + +He became fidgety with waiting as the hours went by. At last, unable to +sit still, he went out to kill the time, but a drizzling rain drove him +for shelter into the cathedral. + +After offering his devotions to the Virgin of the Pillar, he seated +himself amid a camp of vacant chairs to meditate. + +"Before interrupting the quiet monotony of my life at Chartres by this +journey, shall I not do well to look into myself, if only for a minute, +and take stock of what I have gained before and since settling in this +town? + +"The gain to my soul? Alas! it consists less in acquisitions than in +exchanges; I have merely found aridity in the place of indolence; and +the results of the exchange I know only too well; of what use is it to +go through them once more? The gains to my mind seem to me less +distressing and more genuine, and I can make a brief catalogue of them +under three heads: Past, Present, and Future. + +"In the Past.--When I least expected it, in Paris, God suddenly seized +me and drew me back to the Church, taking advantage of my love of Art, +of mysticism, of the Liturgy, and of plain-song. + +"Still, during the travail of this conversion, I could not study +mysticism anywhere but in books; I knew it only in theory and not in +practice. On the other hand, in Paris, I never heard any but dull, +lifeless music, watered down, as it were, in women's throats, or utterly +disfigured by the choir schools. In most of the churches I found only a +colourless ceremonial, a meagre form of service. + +"This was the situation when I set out for La Trappe: under that strict +rule I found mysticism not only in its simplest expression, written out +and set forth in a body of doctrine, but mysticism as a personal +experience, in action, simply an element of life to those monks. I could +convince myself that the science of the soul's perfection was no +delusion, that the assertions of Saint Teresa and Saint John of the +Cross were strictly true, and in that cloister it was also vouchsafed to +me to be familiar with the enjoyment of an authentic ritual and genuine +plain-song. + +"In the Present.--At Chartres I have entered on new exercises, I have +followed other traces. Haunted by the matchless grandeur of this +cathedral, under the guidance of a very intelligent and cultivated +priest I have studied religious symbolism, worked up that great science +of the Middle Ages which is in fact a language peculiar to the Church, +expressing by images and signs what the Liturgy expresses in words. + +"Or, to be more exact, it would be better to say that part of the +Liturgy which is more particularly concerned with prayer; for that part +of it which relates to forms, and injunctions as to worship, is itself +symbolism, symbolism is the soul of it. In fact, the limit-line of the +two branches is not always easy to trace, so often are they grafted +together; they inspire each other, intertwine, and at last are almost +one. + +"In the Future.--By going to Solesmes I shall complete my education; I +shall see and hear the most perfect expression of that Liturgy and that +Gregorian chant of which the little convent of Notre Dame de l'Atre, by +reason of the limited number of the Brethren, could only afford a +reduced copy--very faithful, it is true, but yet reduced. + +"By adding to this my own studies of the religious paintings removed now +from the sanctuaries and collected in museums, and supplementing them by +my remarks on the various cathedrals I may explore, I shall have +travelled round the whole cycle of mysticism, have extracted the essence +of the Middle Ages, have combined in a sort of sheaf these separate +branches, scattered now for so many centuries, and have investigated +more thoroughly one especially--Symbolism namely, of which certain +elements are almost lost from sheer neglect. + +"Yes. Symbolism has lent the principal charm to my life at Chartres; it +occupied and comforted me when I was suffering from finding my soul so +importunate and yet so low." + +And he tried to recapitulate the science, to view it as a whole. + +He saw it as a thickly branched tree, the root deep set in the very soil +of the Bible; from thence, in fact, it drew its substance and its +nourishment: the trunk was the Symbolism of the Scriptures, the Old +Testament prefiguring the Gospels; the branches were the allegorical +purport of architecture, of colours, gems, flowers, and animals; the +hieroglyphics of numbers; the emblematical meaning of the vessels and +vestments of Church use. A small bough represented Liturgical perfumes, +and a mere twig, dried up from the first and almost dead, represented +dancing. + +"For religious dancing once existed," Durtal went on. "In ancient times +it was a recognized offering of adoration, a tithe of light-heartedness. +David leaping before the Ark shows this. + +"And in the earliest Christian times the faithful and the priesthood +shook themselves in honour of the Redeemer, and fancied that by choric +motion they were imitating the joy of the Blessed, the glee of the +Angels described by Saint Basil as executing figures in the radiant +assemblies of Heaven. + +"One is soon accustomed to endure Masses of the kind called at Toledo +_Mussarabes_, during which the congregation dance and gambol in the +cathedral; but these capers presently lose the pious character that they +are supposed to bear; they become an incentive to the revelry of the +senses, and several Councils have prohibited them. + +"In the seventeenth century sacred dances still survived in some +provinces; we hear of them at Limoges, where the Curé of St. Leonard and +his parishioners pirouetted in the choir of the church. In the +eighteenth century their traces are found in Roussillon, and at the +present day religious dancing still survives; but the tradition of this +saintly frisking is chiefly preserved in Spain. + +"Not long since, on the day of Corpus Christi at Compostella, the +procession was led through the streets by a tall man who danced carrying +another on his shoulders. And to this day, at Seville, on the festival +of the Holy Sacrament, the choir-children turn in a sort of slow waltz +as they sing hymns before the high altar of the cathedral. In other +towns, on the festivals of the Virgin, a saraband is slowly danced round +Her statue, with striking of sticks, and the rattle of castanets; and to +close the ceremony by way of Amen the people fire off squibs. + +"All this, however, is of no great interest, and I cannot help wondering +what meaning can have been attributed to cutting capers and spinning +round. I find it difficult to believe that _farandoles_ and _boleros_ +could ever represent prayer; I can hardly persuade myself that it can be +an act of thanksgiving to trample peppers under foot or appearing to +grind at an imaginary coffee-mill with one's arms. + +"In point of fact no one knows anything about the symbolism of dancing; +no record has come down to us of the meanings ascribed to it of old. +Church dancing is really no more than a gross form of rejoicing among +Southern races. We need mention it merely as noteworthy, and that is +all. + +"Now, from a practical point of view, what has the influence of +symbolism been on souls?" + +Durtal could answer himself. + +"The Middle Ages, knowing that everything on earth is a sign and a +figure, that the only value of things visible is in so far as they +correspond to things invisible--the Middle Ages, when consequently men +were not, as we are, the dupes of appearances--made a profound study of +this science, and made it the nursing mother and the handmaid of +mysticism. + +"Convinced that the only aim that it was incumbent on man to follow, the +only end he could really need, was to place himself in direct +communication with Heaven, and to out-strip death by merging himself, +unifying himself to the utmost, with God, it tempted souls, subjecting +them to a moderate claustral course, purged them of their earthly +interests, their fleshly aims, and led them back again and again to the +same purpose of renunciation and repentance, the same ideas of justice +and love; and then to retain them, to preserve them from themselves, it +enclosed them in a fence, placed God all about them, as it were, under +every form and aspect." + +Jesus was seen in everything--in the fauna, the flora, the structure of +buildings, in every decoration, in the use of colour. Whichever way man +could turn, he still saw Him. + +And at the same time he saw his own soul as in a mirror that reflected +it; in certain animals, certain colours, and certain plants he could +discern the qualities which it was his duty to acquire, the vices +against which he had to defend himself. + +And he had other examples before his eyes, for the symbolists did not +restrict themselves to turning botany, mineralogy, natural history, and +other sciences to the uses of a catechism; some of them, and among +others Saint Melito, ended by applying the process to the interpretation +of every object that came in their way. A cithara was to them the breast +of the devout man; the members of the human frame became emblematical: +the head was Christ, the hairs were the saints, the nose meant +discretion, the nostrils the spirit of faith, the eye contemplation, the +mouth symbolized temptation, the saliva was the sweetness of the inner +life, the ears figured obedience, the arms the love of Jesus, the hands +stood for good works, the knees for the sacrament of penance, the legs +for the Apostles, the shoulders for the yoke of Christ, the breast for +evangelical doctrine, the belly for avarice, the bowels for the +mysterious precepts of the Lord, the body and loins for suggestions of +lust, the bones typified hardness of heart, and the marrow compunction, +the sinews were evil members of Anti-Christ. And these writers extended +this method of interpretation to the commonest objects of daily use, +even to tools and vessels within reach of all. + +Thus there was an uninterrupted course of pious teaching. Yves de +Chartres tells us that priests instructed the people in symbolism, and +from the researches of Dom Pitra we know that in the Middle Ages Saint +Melito's treatise was popular and known to all. Thus the peasant learnt +that his plough was an image of the Cross, that the furrows it made were +like the hearts of saints freshly tilled; he knew that sheaves were the +fruit of repentance, flour the multitude of the faithful, the granary +the Kingdom of Heaven; and it was the same with many pursuits. In short, +this method of analogies was a bidding to everybody to watch and pray +better. + +Thus utilized, symbolism became a break to check the forward march of +sin, and at the same time a sort of lever to uplift souls and help them +to overleap the stages of the mystical life. + +This science, translated into so many languages, was no doubt +intelligible only in broad outline to the masses, and sometimes, when it +percolated through the labyrinthine maze of such minds as that of the +worthy Bishop of Mende, it appeared overwrought, full of contradictions, +and of double meanings. It seems then as if the symbolist were splitting +a hair with embroidery scissors. But, in spite of the extravagance it +tolerated and smiled at, the Church succeeded, nevertheless, by these +tactics of repetition, in saving souls and carrying out on a large scale +the production of saints. + +Then came the Renaissance, and symbolism was wrecked at the same time as +church architecture. + +Mysticism in the stricter sense of the word, more fortunate than its +handmaidens, survived that period of festive dishonour; for it may be +safely asserted that, though it was unproductive while living through +that period, it flourished anew in Spain, producing its noblest blossoms +in Saint John of the Cross and Saint Teresa. + +Since then doctrinal mysticism seems dried up at the source. Not so, +however, as regards personal mysticism, which still dwells acclimatized +and flourishing in convents. + +As to the Liturgy and plain-song, they too have gone through very +various phases. After being dissected and filtered in the numberless +provincial Uses, the Liturgy was brought back to the standard of Rome by +the efforts of Dom Guéranger, and it may be hoped that the Benedictines +at last will also bring all the churches back to the strict use of +plain-song. + +"And this church above all!" sighed Durtal. + +He looked at his cathedral, loving it better than ever now that he was +to part from it for a few days. To impress it the better on his memory +he tried to sum it up, to concentrate it, saying to himself,-- + +"It is the epitome of Heaven and Earth; of Heaven by showing us the +serried phalanx of its inhabitants--Prophets, Patriarchs, Angels and +Saints, lighting up the interior of the church by their transparent +figures; by singing to the glory of the Mother and the Son. Of Earth, +for it connotes the elation of the soul, the ascension of man; it +points out quite clearly to Christian souls the path of the perfect +life. They, to apprehend its symbolism, should enter by the Royal +doorway, and pass up the nave, the transept and the choir--the three +successive phases of Asceticism; reach the top of the Cross where, +surrounded by the chapels of the apse as by a Crown, the head of the +Saviour lies, His neck bent, as we see them symbolized by the altar and +the deflected axis of the church. + +"There the pilgrim has reached the united ways, close to the Virgin, who +mourns no more as she does in the agonizing scene on Calvary, at the +foot of the Tree, but, under the figure of the Sacristy, remains veiled +by the side of Her Son's countenance, getting closer to Him the better +to comfort and to see Him. + +"And this allegory of the mystical life as set forth by the interior of +the cathedral, is carried out by the exterior, in the suppliant effect +of the whole building. + +"The Soul, distraught by the joy of union, heart-broken at having still +to live, only aspires now to escape for ever from the Gehenna of the +flesh; thus it beseeches the Bridegroom with the uplifted arms of its +towers, to take pity on it, to come to fetch it, to take it by the +clasped hands of its spires and snatch it from earth, to carry it up +with Him into Heaven. + +"In short, this church is the finest expression of art bequeathed to us +by the Middle Ages. The great front has neither the awful majesty of +that of Reims, pierced as it is with tracery, nor the dull melancholy of +Notre Dame de Paris, nor the gigantic grace of Amiens, nor the massive +solemnity of Bourges; but it is full of imposing simplicity, a +lightness, a spring, which no other cathedral has attained to. + +"The nave of Amiens alone grows beautifully less as it rises with as +eager a spring from the earth; but the body of the Amiens church is +light and uncomforting, and that of Chartres is mysterious and hushed; +of all cathedrals it is that which best suggests the idea of a delicate, +saintly woman, emaciated by prayer, and almost transparent by fasting. + +"And then its windows are matchless, superior even to those of Bourges, +where, again, the sanctuary blossoms with glorious clumps of holy +persons. And finally, the sculpture of the west front, the Royal Portal, +is the most beautiful, the most superterrestrial statuary ever wrought +by the hand of man. + +"And it is almost unique in having none of the woeful and threatening +solemnity of its noble sisters. Scarce a demon is to be seen watching +and grinning on its walls to torture souls; in a few small figures it +shows indeed the variety of penance, but that is all; and within, the +Virgin is above all else the Mother of Bethlehem. Jesus, too, is more or +less Her Child; He yields to Her when she entreats Him. + +"It proclaims the plenitude of Her patience and charity by the length of +the crypt and the breadth of the nave, which are greater than those of +other churches. + +"In fact, it is the mystical cathedral--that where the Madonna is most +graciously ready to receive the sinner. + +"Now," said Durtal, looking at his watch, "the Abbé Gévresin must have +finished his breakfast. It is time to take leave of him before joining +the Abbé Plomb at the station." + +He crossed the forecourt of the palace and rang at the priest's door. + +"So you are sure you are going!" said Madame Bavoil, who opened the +door, and admitted him to her master. + +"Well, yes--" + +"I envy you," sighed the Abbé, "for you will be present at wonderful +services and hear admirable music." + +"I hope so. And if only that could relieve the tension, could release me +a little from this incoherent frame of mind in which I wander, and allow +me to feel at home once more in my own soul and not in a strange place +open to all the winds!--" + +"Ah, your soul wants locks and latches," said Madame Bavoil, laughing. + +"It is a public mart where every distraction meets to chatter. I am +constantly driven out, and when I want to go home again they are in +possession." + +"Oh, I quite understand that. You know the proverb, 'Who goes hunting +loses his seat by the hearth.'" + +"That is all very well to say, but--" + +"But, our friend, the Lord foresaw your case, when, with reference to +such distractions which flutter about the soul like this, He replied to +the Venerable Jeanne de Matel, who complained of such annoyances, that +she should imitate the hunter, who, when he misses the big game he is +seeking, seizes the smaller prey he may find." + +"Ay, but even then he must find it!" + +"Go and live in peace, then," said the Abbé. "Do not fret yourself with +wondering whether your soul is enclosed or no; and take this piece of +advice: You are accustomed--are you not?--to repeat prayers that you +know by heart, and it is especially under those circumstances that +wandering supervenes. Well, then, set those prayers aside, and restrict +yourself to following, very regularly, the prayers of the services in +the convent-chapel. You are less familiar with them, and merely to +follow them you will be obliged to read them with care. Thus you will be +less likely to have a divided mind." + +"No doubt," replied Durtal. "But when I have not repeated the prayers I +am wont to say, I feel as though I had not prayed at all. I know that +this is absurd; still, there is no faithful soul who does not know the +feeling when the text of his prayers is altered." + +The Abbé smiled. + +"The best prayers," said he, "are those of the Liturgy, those which God +Himself has taught us, those alone which are expressed in language +worthy of Him--in His own language. They are complete, and supreme; for +all our desires, all our regrets, all our wailing are contained in the +Psalms. The prophet foresaw and said everything; leave him, then, to +speak for you, and thus, as your interpreter before God, give you his +help. + +"As to the prayers you may feel moved to address to God apart from the +hours devoted to the purpose, let them be short. Imitate the Recluses of +Egypt, the Fathers in the Desert, who were masters in the art of +supplication. This is what old Isaac said to Cassian: 'Pray briefly and +often, lest, if your orisons be long, the enemy will come to disturb +them. Follow these two rules, they will save you from secret upheaval. + +"So, go in peace; and if any trouble should overtake you, do not +hesitate to consult the Abbé Plomb." + +"Eh, our friend," cried Madame Bavoil, laughing, "and you might also +cure yourself of wandering thoughts by the method employed by the Abbess +of Sainte-Aure when she chanted the Psalter: she sat in a chair of which +the back was garnished with a hundred long nails, and when she felt +herself wandering she pressed her shoulder firmly against the points; +there is nothing better, I can tell you, for bringing folks back to +reality and recalling their wandering attention." + +"Thank you, indeed!" + +"There is another thing," she went on, not laughing now. "You ought to +postpone your departure for a day or two; for the day after to-morrow is +a festival of the Virgin. They expect pilgrims from Paris, and the +shrine containing our Mother's veil will be carried in procession +through the streets." + +"Oh no!" cried Durtal, "I have no love for worship in common. When our +Lady holds these solemn assizes to gel out of the way. I wait till She +is alone before I visit her. Hosts of people shouting canticles with +eyes straight to Heaven or looking for Jesus on the ground by way of +unction are too much for me. I am all for the forlorn Queens, for the +deserted churches and dark chapels. I am of the opinion of Saint John of +the Cross, who confesses that he does not love the pilgrimage of crowds +because one comes back more distracted than when one started. + +"No. What it is really a grief to me to leave in quitting Chartres is +that very silence, that solitude in the cathedral, those interviews with +the Virgin in the gloom of the crypt and the twilight of the nave. Ah, +here alone can one feel near Her, and see Her! + +"In fact," he went on after a moment's reflection, "one does see Her in +the strictest sense of the word--or at least, can fancy that She is +there. If there is a spot where I can call up Her face, Her attitude--in +short Her portrait--it is at Chartres." + +"And how is that?" + +"Well, Monsieur l'Abbé, we have no trustworthy information as to our +Mother's face or figure. Her features are unknown--intentionally, I feel +sure, in order that each one may contemplate Her under the aspect that +best pleases him, and incarnate Her in the ideal beauty of his dreams. + +"For instance, Saint Epiphanius describes her as tall, with olive eyes +arched and very black eyebrows, an aquiline nose a rosy mouth, and a +golden-toned skin. This is the vision of an oriental. + +"Take Maria d'Agreda, on the other hand. She thinks of the Virgin as +slender, with black hair and eyebrows, eyes dark and greenish, a +straight nose, scarlet lips, and a brown skin. You recognize here the +Spanish ideal of beauty imagined by the Abbess. + +"Again in, turn to Sister Emmerich. According to her, Mary was +fair-haired, with large eyes, a rather long nose, a narrow-pointed chin, +a clear skin, and not very tall. Here we have the description given by a +German who does not admire dark beauty: + +"And yet both of these women were real Seers, to whom the Madonna +appeared, assuming in each case the only aspect that could fascinate +them; just as she was seen to be the model of mere prettiness--the only +type they could understand--by Mélanie at La Salette and Bernadette at +Lourdes". + +"Well, I, who am no visionary, and who must appeal to my imagination to +picture Her at all, I fancy I discern Her under the forms and +expressions of the cathedral itself; the features are a little confused +in the pale splendour of the great rose window that blazes behind Her +head like a nimbus. She smiles, and Her eyes, all light, have the +incomparable effulgence of those pure sapphires which light up the +entrance to the nave. Her slight form is diffused in a clear robe of +flame, striped and ribbed like the drapery of the so-called Berthe. Her +face is white like mother-of-pearl, and her hair, a circular tissue of +sunshine, radiates in threads of gold. She is the Bride of Canticles. +_Pulchra ut Luna, electa ut Sol_. + +"The church which is Her dwelling-place, and one with Her, is luminous +with Her grace; the gems of the windows sing to Her praise; the slender +columns shooting upwards, from the pavement to the roof, symbolize Her +aspirations and desires; the floor tells of Her humility; the vaulting, +meeting to form a canopy over Her, speaks of Her charity; the stones and +glass echo hymns to Her. There is nothing, down to the military aspect +of certain details of the sanctuary, the chivalrous touch which is a +reminiscence of the Crusades--the sword-blades and shields of the lancet +windows and the roses, the helm-shaped arches, the coat of mail that +clothes the older spire, the iron trellis-pattern of some of the +panes--nothing that does not arouse a memory of the passage at Prime and +the hymn at Lauds in the minor office of the Virgin, and typify the +_terribilis ut castrorum acies ordonata_, the privilege She possesses +when She chooses to use it, of being 'terrible as an army arrayed for +battle.' + +"But She does not often choose to exert here, I believe; this cathedral +mirrors rather Her inexhaustible sweetness, Her indivisible glory." + +"Ah! Much shall be forgiven you because you have loved much," cried +Madame Bavoil. + +And Durtal having risen to say good-bye, she kissed him affectionately, +maternally, and said,-- + +"We will pray with all our might, our friend, that God may enlighten you +and show you your path, may lead you Himself into the way you ought to +go." + +"I hope, Monsieur l'Abbé, that during my absence your rheumatism will +grant you a little respite," said Durtal, pressing the old priest's +hand. + +"Oh, I must not wish to have no sufferings at all, for there is no cross +so heavy as having none," replied the Abbé. "So do as I do, or rather, +do better than I, for I still repine; put a cheerful face on your +aridity, and your trials.--Goodbye, God bless you!" + +"And may the great Mother of Madonnas of France, the sweet Lady of +Chartres, protect you!" added Madame Bavoil. + +And when the door was shut, she added with a sigh,-- + +"Certainly, I should be very grieved if he left our town for ever, for +that friend is almost like a child of our own! At the same time I should +be very, very happy to think of him as a true monk!" + +Then she began to laugh. + +"Father," said she, "will they cut his moustache off if he enters the +cloister?" + +"Undoubtedly." + +She tried to imagine Durtal clean-shaven, and she concluded with a +laugh,-- + +"I do not think it will improve his beauty." + +"Oh, these women!" said the Abbé, shrugging his shoulders. + +"And what, in short," asked she, "may we hope for from this journey?" + +"It is not of me that you should ask that, Madame Bavoil." + +"Very true," said she, and clasping her hands she murmured,-- + +"It depends on Thee! Help him in his poverty, remember that he can do +nothing without Thine aid, Holy Temptress of men, Our Lady of the +Pillar, Virgin of the Crypt." + + +THE END. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Cathedral, by Joris-Karl Huysmans + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CATHEDRAL *** + +***** This file should be named 15067-8.txt or 15067-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/0/6/15067/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Cori Samuel and the PG Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Huysmans. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + } + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + .sidenote {width: 20%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em; margin-left: 1em; + float: right; clear: right; margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; background: #eeeeee; border: dashed 1px;} + + .bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + .bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + .bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + .br {border-right: solid 2px;} + .bbox {border: solid 2px;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: + 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .figright {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; left: 12%; text-align: left;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span {display: block; margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Cathedral, by Joris-Karl Huysmans + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Cathedral + +Author: Joris-Karl Huysmans + +Release Date: February 15, 2005 [EBook #15067] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CATHEDRAL *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Cori Samuel and the PG Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<h2><i>J.K. Huysmans</i></h2> + + +<h1>The Cathedral</h1> + + +<h4>translated by Clara Bell</h4> + + +<h5><i>Publishing History</i><br /> +First published in France in 1898<br /> +First English edition in 1898</h5> + +<!-- Not in original - added for ease of navigation. --> +<h6> + <a href="#CHAPTER_I"><b>I</b></a> + <a href="#CHAPTER_II"><b>II</b></a> + <a href="#CHAPTER_III"><b>III</b></a> + <a href="#CHAPTER_IV"><b>IV</b></a> + <a href="#CHAPTER_V"><b>V</b></a> + <a href="#CHAPTER_VI"><b>VI</b></a> + <a href="#CHAPTER_VII"><b>VII</b></a> + <a href="#CHAPTER_VIII"><b>VIII</b></a> + <a href="#CHAPTER_IX"><b>IX</b></a> + <a href="#CHAPTER_X"><b>X</b></a> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XI"><b>XI</b></a> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XII"><b>XII</b></a> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XIII"><b>XIII</b></a> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XIV"><b>XIV</b></a> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XV"><b>XV</b></a> + <a href="#CHAPTER_XVI"><b>XVI</b></a> +</h6> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<!-- Page 1 --> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2> + + +<p>At Chartres, as you turn out of the little market-place, which is swept +in all weathers by the surly wind from the flats, a mild air as of a +cellar, made heavy by a soft, almost smothered scent of oil, puffs in +your face on entering the solemn gloom of the sheltering forest.</p> + +<p>Durtal knew it well, and the delightful moment when he could take +breath, still half-stunned by the sudden change from a stinging north +wind to a velvety airy caress. At five every morning he left his rooms, +and to reach the covert of that strange forest he had to cross the +square; the same figures were always to be seen at the turnings from the +same streets; nuns with bowed heads, leaning forward, the borders of +their caps blown back and flapping like wings, the wind whirling in +their skirts, which they could hardly hold down; and shrunken women, in +garments they hugged round them, struggling forward with bent shoulders +lashed by the gusts.</p> + +<p>Never at that hour had he seen anybody walking boldly upright, without +straining her neck and bowing her head; and these scattered women +gathered by degrees into two long lines, one of them turning to the +left, to vanish under a lighted porch opening to a lower level than the +square; the other going straight on, to be swallowed up in the darkness +by an invisible wall.</p> + +<p>Closing the procession came a few belated priests, hurrying on, with one +hand gathering up the gown that ballooned behind them, and with the +other clutching their <!-- Page 2 -->hats, or snatching at the breviary that was +slipping from under one arm, their faces hidden on their breast, to +plough through the wind with the back of their neck; with red ears, eyes +blinded with tears, clinging desperately, when it rained, to umbrellas +that swayed above them, threatening to lift them from the ground and +dragging them in every direction.</p> + +<p>The passage had been more than usually stormy this morning; the squalls +that tear across the district of La Beauce, where nothing can check +them, had been bellowing for hours; there had been rain, and the puddles +splashed under foot. It was difficult to see, and Durtal had begun to +think that he should never succeed in getting past the dim mass of the +wall that shut in the square, by pushing open the door behind which lay +that weird forest, redolent of the night-lamp and the tomb, and +protected from the gale.</p> + +<p>He sighed with satisfaction, and followed the wide path that led through +the gloom. Though he knew his way, he walked cautiously in this alley, +bordered by enormous trunks, their crowns lost in shadow. He could have +fancied himself in a hothouse roofed with black glass, for there were +flagstones under foot, and no sky could be seen, no breeze could stir +overhead. The few stars whose glimmer twinkled from afar belonged to our +firmament; they quivered almost on the ground, and were, in fact, +earth-born.</p> + +<p>In this obscurity nothing was to be heard but the fall of quiet feet, +nothing to be seen but silent shades visible against the twilight like +shapes of deeper darkness.</p> + +<p>Durtal presently turned into another wide walk crossing that he had +left. There he found a bench backed by the trunk of a tree, and on this +he leaned, waiting till the Mother should awake, and the sweet interview +interrupted yesterday by the close of the day should begin again.</p> + +<p>He thought of the Virgin, whose watchful care had so often preserved him +from unexpected risk, easy slips, or greater falls. Was not She the +bottomless Well of goodness, the Bestower of the gifts of good Patience, +the Opener of dry and obdurate hearts? Was She not, above all, the +living and thrice Blessed Mother?</p> + +<p>Bending for ever over the squalid bed of the soul, she washed the sores, +dressed the wounds, strengthened the fainting weakness of converts. +Through all the ages She <!-- Page 3 -->was the eternal supplicant, eternally +entreated; at once merciful and thankful; merciful to the woes She +alleviated, and thankful to them too. She was indeed our debtor for our +sins, since, but for the wickedness of man, Jesus would never have been +born under the corrupt semblance of our image, and She would not have +been the immaculate Mother of God. Thus our woe was the first cause of +Her joy; and this supremest good resulting from the very excess of Evil, +this touching though superfluous bond, linking us to Her, was indeed the +most bewildering of mysteries; for Her gratitude would seem unneeded, +since Her inexhaustible mercy was enough to attach Her to us for ever.</p> + +<p>Thenceforth, in Her immense humility, She had at various times +condescended to the masses; She had appeared in the most remote spots, +sometimes seeming to rise from the earth, sometimes floating over the +abyss, descending on solitary mountain peaks, bringing multitudes to Her +feet, and working cures; then, as if weary of wandering to be adored, +She wished—so it had seemed—to fix the worship in one place, and had +deserted Her ancient haunts in favour of Lourdes.</p> + +<p>That town was the second stage of Her progress through France in the +nineteenth century. Her first visit was to La Salette.</p> + +<p>This was years ago. On the 19th of September, 1846, the Virgin had +appeared to two children on a hill; it was a Saturday, the day dedicated +to Her, which, that year, was a fast day by reason of the Ember week. By +another coincidence, this Saturday was the eve of the Festival of Our +Lady of Seven Dolours, and the first vespers were being chanted when +Mary appeared as from a shell of glory just above the ground.</p> + +<p>And she appeared as Our Lady of Tears in that desert landscape of +stubborn rocks and dismal hills. Weeping bitterly, She had uttered +reproofs and threats; and a spring, which never in the memory of man had +flowed excepting at the melting of the snows, had never since been dried +up.</p> + +<p>The fame of this event spread far and wide; frantic thousands scrambled +up fearful paths to a spot so high that trees could not grow there. +Caravans of the sick and dying were conveyed, God knows how, across +ravines to drink the water; and maimed limbs recovered, and tumours +melted away to the chanting of canticles.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 4 -->Then, by degrees, after the sordid debates of a contemptible lawsuit, +the reputation of La Salette dwindled to nothing; pilgrims were few, +miracles were less often proclaimed. The Virgin, it would seem, was +gone; She had ceased to care for this spring of piety and these +mountains.</p> + +<p>At the present day few persons climb to La Salette but the natives of +Dauphiné, tourists wandering through the Alps, or invalids following the +cure at the neighbouring mineral springs of La Mothe. Conversions and +spiritual graces still abound there, but bodily healing there is next to +none.</p> + +<p>"In fact," said Durtal to himself, "the vision at La Salette became +famous without its ever being known exactly why. It may be supposed to +have grown up as follows: the report, confined at first to the village +of Corps at the foot of the mountain, spread first throughout the +department, was taken up by the adjacent provinces, filtered over all +France, overflowed the frontier, trickled through Europe, and at last +crossed the seas to land in the New World which, in its turn, felt the +throb, and also came to this wilderness to hail the Virgin.</p> + +<p>"And the circumstances attending these pilgrimages were such as might +have daunted the determination of the most persevering. To reach the +little inn, perched on high near the church, the lazy rumbling of slow +trains must be endured for hours, and constant changes at stations; days +must be spent in the diligence, and nights in breeding-places of fleas +at country inns; and after flaying your back on the carding-combs of +impossible beds, you must rise at daybreak to start on a giddy climb, on +foot or riding a mule, up zig-zag bridle-paths above precipices; and at +last, when you are there, there are no fir trees, no beeches, no +pastures, no torrents; nothing—nothing but total solitude, and silence +unbroken even by the cry of a bird, for at that height no bird is to be +found.</p> + +<p>"What a scene!" thought Durtal, calling up the memories of a journey he +had made with the Abbé Gévresin and his housekeeper, since leaving La +Trappe. He remembered the horrors of a spot he had passed between Saint +Georges de Commiers and La Mure, and his alarm in the carriage as the +train slowly travelled across the abyss. Beneath was darkness increasing +in spirals down to the <!-- Page 5 -->vasty deeps; above, as far as the eye could +reach, piles of mountains invaded the sky.</p> + +<p>The train toiled up, snorting and turning round and round like a top; +then, going into a tunnel, was swallowed by the earth; it seemed to be +pushing the light of day away in front, till it suddenly came out into a +clearing full of sunshine; presently, as if it were retracing its road, +it rushed into another burrow, and emerged with the strident yell of a +steam whistle and deafening clatter of wheels, to fly up the winding +ribbon of road cut in the living rock.</p> + +<p>Suddenly the peaks parted, a wide opening brought the train out into +broad daylight; the scene lay clear before them, terrible on all sides.</p> + +<p>"Le Drac!" exclaimed the Abbé Gévresin, pointing to a sort of liquid +serpent at the bottom of the precipice, writhing and tossing between +rocks in the very jaws of the pit.</p> + +<p>For now and again the reptile flung itself up on points of stone that +rent it as it passed; the waters changed as though poisoned by these +fangs; they lost their steely hue, and whitened with foam like a bran +bath; then the Drac hurried on faster, faster, flinging itself into the +shadowy gorge; lingered again on gravelly reaches, wallowing in the sun; +presently it gathered up its scattered rivulets and went on its way, +scaly with scum like the iridescent dross on boiling lead, till, far +away, the rippling rings spread and vanished, skinned and leaving behind +them on the banks a white granulated cuticle of pebbles, a hide of dry +sand.</p> + +<p>Durtal, as he leaned out of the carriage window, looked straight down +into the gulf; on this narrow way with only one line of rails, the train +on one side was close to the towering hewn rock, and on the other was +the void. Great God! if it should run off the rails! "What a hash!" +thought he.</p> + +<p>And what was not less overwhelming than the appalling depth of the abyss +was, as he looked up, the sight of the furious, frenzied assault of the +peaks. Thus, in that carriage, he was literally between the earth and +sky, and the ground over which it was moving was invisible, being +covered for its whole width by the body of the train.</p> + +<p>On they went, suspended in mid-air at a giddy height, along interminable +balconies without parapets; and below, the cliffs dropped +avalanche-like, fell straight, bare, without <!-- Page 6 -->a patch of vegetation or a +tree. In places they looked as if they had been split down by the blows +of an axe—huge growths of petrified wood; in others they seemed sawn +through shaley layers of slate.</p> + +<p>And all round lay a wide amphitheatre of endless mountains, hiding the +heavens, piled one above another, barring the way to the travelling +clouds, stopping the onward march of the sky.</p> + +<p>Some made a good show with their jagged grey crests, huge masses of +oyster shells; others, with scorched summits, like burnt pyramids of +coke, were green half-way up. These bristled with pine woods to the very +edge of the precipices, and they were scarred too with white +crosses—the high roads, dotted in places with Nuremberg dogs, +red-roofed hamlets, sheepfolds that seemed on the verge of tumbling +headlong, clinging on—how, it was impossible to guess, and flung here +and there on patches of green carpet glued on to the steep hill-sides; +while other peaks towered higher still, like vast calcined hay-cocks, +with doubtfully dead craters still brooding internal fires, and trailing +smoky clouds which, as they blew off, really seemed to be coming out of +their summits.</p> + +<p>The landscape was ominous; the sight of it was strangely discomfiting; +perhaps because it impugned the sense of the infinite that lurks within +us. The firmament was no more than a detail, cast aside like needless +rubbish on the desert peaks of the hills. The abyss was the +all-important fact; it made the sky look small and trivial, substituting +the magnificence of its depths for the grandeur of eternal space.</p> + +<p>The eye, in fact, turned away with disappointment from the sky, which +had lost its infinitude of depth, its immeasurable breadth, for the +mountains seemed to touch it, pierce it, and uphold it; they cut it up, +sawing it with the jagged teeth of their pinnacles, showing mere +tattered skirts of blue and rags of cloud.</p> + +<p>The eye was involuntarily attracted to the ravines, and the head swam at +the sight of those, vast pits of blackness. This immensity in the wrong +place, stolen from above and cast into the depths, was horrible.</p> + +<p>The Abbé had said that the Drac was one of the most formidable torrents +in France; at the moment it was <!-- Page 7 -->dormant, almost dry; but when the +season of snows and storms comes it wakes up and flashes like a tide of +silver, hisses and tosses, foams and leaps, and can in an instant +swallow up villages and dams.</p> + +<p>"It is hideous," thought Durtal. "That bilious flood must carry fevers +with it; it is accursed and rotten with its soapy foam-flakes, its +metallic hues, its scrap of rainbow-colour stranded in the mud."</p> + +<p>Durtal now thought over all these details; as he closed his eyes he +could see the Drac and La Salette.</p> + +<p>"Ah!" thought he, "they may well be proud of the pilgrims who venture to +those desolate regions to pray where the vision actually appeared, for +when once they are there they are packed on a little plot of ground no +bigger than the Place Saint Sulpice, hemmed in on one side by a church +of rough stone daubed with cement of the colour of Valbonnais mustard, +and on the other by a graveyard. The horizon is a circle of cones, of +dry scoriæ, like pumice, or covered with short grass; above them, the +glassy slope of perpetual ice and snow; to walk on, a scanty growth of +grass moth-eaten by sand. In two words, to sum up the scene, it was +nature's scab, the leprosy of the earth.</p> + +<p>"From the artistic point of view, on this microscopic grand parade, +close to the spring whose waters are caught in pipes with taps, three +bronze statues stand in different spots. One, a Virgin, in the most +preposterous garments, her headgear a sort of pastry-mould, a Mohican's +bonnet, is on her knees weeping, with her face hidden in her hands. Then +the same Woman, standing up, her hands ecclesiastically shrouded in her +sleeves, looks at the two children to whom she is speaking; Maximin, +with hair curled like a poodle, twirling a cap like a raised pie, in his +hand; Mélanie buried in a cap with deep frills and accompanied by a dog +like a paper-weight—all in bronze. Finally the same Person, once more +alone, standing on tip-toe, her eyes raised to heaven with a +melodramatic expression.</p> + +<p>"Never has the frightful appetite for the hideous that disgraces the +Church in our day been so resolutely displayed as on this spot; and if +the soul suffered in the presence of the obtrusive outrage of this +degrading work—perpetrated by one Barrême of Angers and cast in the +steam foundries <!-- Page 8 -->of Le Creusot—the body too had something to endure on +this plateau under the crushing mass of hills that shut in the view.</p> + +<p>"And yet it was hither that thousands of sick creatures had had +themselves hauled up to face the cruel climate, where in summer the sun +burns you to a cinder while, two yards away, in the shade of the church, +you are frozen.</p> + +<p>"The first and greatest miracle accomplished at La Salette was that of +bringing such an invasion to this precipitous spot in the Alps, for +everything combines to forbid it.</p> + +<p>"But crowds came there year after year, till Lourdes took possession of +them; for it is since the apparition of the Virgin there that La Salette +has fallen into disrepute.</p> + +<p>"Twelve years after the vision at La Salette, the Virgin showed herself +again, not in Dauphiné this time, but in the depths of Gascony. After +the Mother of Tears, Our Lady of Seven Dolours, it was Our Lady of +Smiles, of the Immaculate Conception, the Sovereign Lady of Joy in +Glory, who appeared; and here again it was to a shepherdess that she +revealed the existence of a spring that healed diseases.</p> + +<p>"And here it is that consternation begins. Lourdes may be described as +the exact opposite to La Salette; the scenery is magnificent, the hills +in the foreground are covered with verdure, the tamed mountains permit +access to their heights; on all sides there are shady avenues, fine +trees, living waters, gentle slopes, broad roads devoid of danger and +accessible to all; instead of a wilderness, a town, where every +requirement of the sick is provided for. Lourdes may be reached without +adventures in warrens of vermin, without enduring nights in country +inns, or days of jolting in wretched vehicles, without creeping along +the face of a precipice; and the traveller is at his destination when he +gets out of the train.</p> + +<p>"This town then was so admirably chosen for the resort of crowds, that +it did not seem necessary that Providence should intervene with such +strong measures to attract them.</p> + +<p>"But God, who forced La Salette on the world without availing Himself of +the means of fashionable notoriety, now changed His tactics; with +Lourdes, advertisement appeared on the scene.</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 9 -->This it is that confounds the mind: Jesus condescending to make use of +the wretched arts of human commerce; adopting the repulsive tricks which +we employ to float a manufacture or a business.</p> + +<p>"And we wonder whether this may not be the sternest lesson in humility +ever given to man, as well as the most vehement reproof hurled at the +American abominations of our day—God reduced to lowering Himself once +more to our level, to speaking our language, to using our own devices +that He may make Himself heard and obeyed; God no longer even trying to +make us understand His purpose through Himself, or to uplift us to that +height.</p> + +<p>"In point of fact, the way in which the Lord set to work to promulgate +the mercies peculiar to Lourdes is astounding. To make them known He is +no longer content to spread the report of its miracles by word of mouth; +no, and it might be supposed that in His eyes Lourdes is harder to +magnify than La Salette—He adopted strong measures from the first. He +raised up a man whose book, translated into every language, carried the +news of the vision to the most distant lands, and certified the truth of +the cures effected at Lourdes.</p> + +<p>"To the end that this work should stir up the masses, it was necessary +that the writer destined to the task should be a clever organizer, and +at the same time a man devoid of individuality of style and of any novel +ideas. In a word, what was needed was a man devoid of talent; and that +is quite intelligible, since from the point of view of appreciating art +the Catholic public is still a hundred feet beneath the profane public. +And our Lord did the thing well; he selected Henri Lasserre.</p> + +<p>"Consequently the mine exploded as required, rending souls and bringing +crowds out on to the road to Lourdes.</p> + +<p>"Years went by. The fame of the sanctuary is an established fact. +Indisputable cures are effected by supernatural means and certified by +clinical authorities, whose good faith and scientific skill are above +suspicion. Lourdes has its fill; and yet, little by little, in the long +run, though pilgrims do not cease to flow thither, the commotion about +the Grotto is diminishing. It is dying out, if not in the religious +world, at any rate in the wider world of the careless or the doubting, +who must be convinced. And our<!-- Page 10 --> Lord thinks it desirable to revive +attention to the benefits dispensed by His Mother.</p> + +<p>"Lasserre was not such an instrument as could renew the half-exhausted +vogue enjoyed by Lourdes. The public was soaked in his book; it had +swallowed it in every vehicle and in every form; the end was achieved; +this budding-knife of miracles was a tool that might now be laid aside.</p> + +<p>"What was now wanted was a book entirely unlike his; a book that would +influence the vaster public, whom his homely prosiness would never +reach. Lourdes must make its way through denser and less malleable +strata, to a public of higher class, and harder to please. It was +requisite, therefore, that this new book should be written by a man of +talent, whose style nevertheless should not be so transcendental as to +scare folks. And it was an advantage that the writer should be very well +known, so that his enormous editions might counterpoise those of +Lasserre.</p> + +<p>"Now in all the realm of literature there was but one man who could +fulfil these imperative conditions: Émile Zola. In vain should we seek +another. He alone with his battering push, his enormous sale, his +blatant advertisement, could launch Lourdes once more.</p> + +<p>"It mattered little that he would deny supernatural agency and endeavour +to explain inexplicable cures by the meanest hypotheses; it mattered +little that he mixed mortar of the medical muck of a Charcot to make his +wretched theory hold together; the great thing was that noisy debates +should arise about the book of which more than a hundred and fifty +thousand copies proclaimed the name of Lourdes throughout the world.</p> + +<p>"And then the very disorder of his arguments, the poor resort to a +'breath that heals the people,' invented in contradiction to all the +data of positive science on which he prided himself, with the purpose of +making these extraordinary cures intelligible—cures which he had seen, +and of which he dared not deny the reality or the frequency—were +admirable means of persuading unprejudiced and candid inquirers of the +authenticity of the recoveries effected year after year at Lourdes.</p> + +<p>"This avowed testimony to such amazing facts was enough to give a fresh +impetus to the masses. It must be remarked, too, that the book betrays +no hostility to the<!-- Page 11 --> Virgin, of whom it speaks only in respectful terms +on the whole; so is it not very credible that the scandal to which this +work gave rise was profitable?</p> + +<p>"To sum up: it may be asserted that Lasserre and Zola were both useful +instruments; one devoid of talent, and for that very reason penetrating +to the very lowest strata of the Catholic methodists; the other, on the +contrary, making himself welcome to a more intelligent and cultivated +public, by those splendid passages where the flaming multitude of +processions moves on, and amid a cyclone of anguish, the triumphant +faith of the white ranks is exultant.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes! She is fond of Her Lourdes, is Our Lady, and pets it. She +seems to have centred all Her powers there, all Her favours; Her other +sanctuaries are perishing that this one may live!</p> + +<p>"Why?</p> + +<p>"Why, above all, have created La Salette and then sacrificed it, as it +were?</p> + +<p>"That She should have appeared there is quite intelligible," thought +Durtal, answering himself. "The Virgin is more highly venerated in +Dauphiné than in any other province; chapels dedicated to Her worship +swarm in those parts, and She meant perhaps to reward their zeal by Her +gracious presence.</p> + +<p>"On the other hand, She appeared there with a special and very definite +end in view: to preach repentance to mankind, and especially to priests. +She ratified by certain miracles the evidence of this mission which She +confided to Mélanie, and then, that being accomplished, She could desert +the spot where She had, no doubt, never intended to remain.</p> + +<p>"And after all," he went on, after a moment's reflection, "may we not +admit an even simpler solution, namely, this:—</p> + +<p>"Mary vouchsafes to appear under various aspects to satisfy the tastes +and cravings of each soul. At La Salette, where She descended in a +distressful spot, all in tears, She revealed Herself no doubt to certain +persons, more especially to the souls in love with sorrow, the mystical +souls that delight in reviving the anguish of the Passion and following +the Mother in Her heart-breaking way to the Cross. She would thus seem +less attractive to the vulgar who do not <!-- Page 12 -->love woe or weeping; it may be +added that they still less love reproof and threats. The Virgin of La +Salette could not become popular, by reason of Her aspect and address, +while She of Lourdes, who appeared smiling, and prophesied no +catastrophes, was easy of access to the hopes and gladness of the crowd.</p> + +<p>"She was, in short, in that sanctuary, the Virgin of the world at large, +not the Virgin of mystics and artists, the Virgin of the few, as at La +Salette.</p> + +<p>"What a mystery is this direct intervention of the Christ's Mother on +earth!" thought Durtal.</p> + +<p>And he went on: "It is clear, on reflection, that the churches founded +by Her may be classed in two very distinct groups.</p> + +<p>"One group where She has revealed Herself to certain persons, where +waters spring and bodily ills are healed: La Salette and Lourdes.</p> + +<p>"The other, where She has never been gazed on by human beings, or where +Her appearance occurred in immemorial times, in forgotten centuries, the +dead ages. In those chapels prayer alone is in force, and Mary answers +it without the help of any waters. Indeed, She effects more moral than +physical cures. Notre Dame de Fourvières at Lyon, Notre Dame de +Sous-Terre at Chartres, Notre Dame des Victoires at Paris, to mention +only three.</p> + +<p>"Wherefore this difference? None can understand, and probably none will +ever know. At most may we suppose that in compassion for the everlasting +craving of our hapless souls wearied with prayer without sight, She +would fain confirm our faith and help to gather in the flock by showing +Herself.</p> + +<p>"In all this obscurity," Durtal went on, "is it at least possible to +discern some dim landmarks, some vague law?</p> + +<p>"As we gaze into the darkness, two spots of light appear," he replied to +himself.</p> + +<p>"In the first place, this: She appears to none but the poor and humble; +She addresses the simple souls who have in a way handed down the +primitive occupation, the biblical function of the Patriarchs; She +unveils herself to the children of the soil, to the shepherds, to girls +as they watch the flock. Both at La Salette and at Lourdes She chose +little pastors for Her confidants, and this is intelligible, <!-- Page 13 -->since, by +acting thus, she confirms the known will of Her Son; the first to behold +the infant Jesus in the manger at Bethlehem were in fact shepherds, and +it was from among men of the lowest class that Christ chose His +apostles.</p> + +<p>"And is not the water that serves as a medium of cure prefigured in the +Sacred Books—in the Old Testament by the River Jordan, which cleansed +Naaman of his leprosy; and in the New by the probationary pool stirred +by an angel?</p> + +<p>"Another law seems no less probable. The Virgin is, as far as possible, +considerate of the temperament and individual character of the persons +She appears to. She places Herself on the level of their intellect, is +incarnate in the only material form that they can conceive of. She +assumes the simple aspect these poor creatures love, accepting the blue +and white robes, the crown and wreaths of roses, the trinkets and +garlands and frippery of a first Communion, the ugliest garb.</p> + +<p>"There is not indeed a single case where the shepherd maids who saw Her +described Her otherwise than as a 'beautiful lady' with the features of +the Virgin of a village altar, a Madonna of the Saint-Sulpice shops, a +street-corner Queen.</p> + +<p>"These two rules are more or less universal," said Durtal to himself. +"As to the Son, it would seem that He never now will reveal Himself in +human form to the masses. Since His appearance to the Blessed Mary +Margaret, whom He employed as a mouthpiece to address the people, He has +been silent. He keeps in the background, giving precedence to His +Mother.</p> + +<p>"He, it is true, reserves for Himself a dwelling in the secret places, +the hidden regions, the strongholds of the soul, as Saint Theresa calls +them; but His presence is unseen and His words spoken within us, and +generally not apprehended by means of the senses."</p> + +<p>Durtal ceased speaking, confessing to himself how inane were these +reflections, how powerless the human reason to investigate the +inconceivable purposes of the Almighty; and again his thoughts turned to +that journey to Dauphiné which haunted his memory.</p> + +<p>"Ah! but the chain of the High Alps and the peaks of La Salette," said +he to himself; "that huge white hotel, that <!-- Page 14 -->church coloured with dirty +yellow lime-wash, vaguely Byzantine and vaguely Romanesque in its +architecture, and that little cell with the plaster Christ nailed to a +flat black wooden Cross—that tiny Sanctuary plainly white-washed, and +so small that one could step across it in any direction—they were +pregnant with her presence, all the same!"</p> + +<p>"Surely She revisited that spot, in spite of Her apparent desertion, to +comfort all comers; She seemed so close at hand, so attentive and so +grieving, in the evening as one sat alone by the light of a candle, that +the soul seemed to burst open like a pod shedding the fruit of sin, the +seeds of evil deeds; and repentance, that had been so tardily evolved, +and sometimes so indefinite, became so suddenly despotic and +unmistakable that the penitent dropped on his knees by the bed, and +buried his head sobbing in the sheets. Ah, those were evenings of mortal +dulness and yet sweetly sad! The soul was rent, its very fibres laid +bare, but was not the Virgin at hand, so pitiful, so motherly, that +after, the worst was over She took the bleeding soul in her arms and +rocked it to sleep like a sick child.</p> + +<p>"Then, during the day, the church afforded a refuge from the frenzy of +giddiness that came over one; the eye, bewildered by the precipices on +every side, distracted by the sight of the clouds that suddenly gathered +below and steamed off in white fleece from the sides of the rocks, found +rest under the shelter of those walls.</p> + +<p>"And finally, to make up for the horrors of the scene and of the +statues, to mitigate the grotesqueness of the inn-servants, who had +beards like sappers and clothes like little boys—the caps, and holland +blouses with belts, and shiny black breeches, like cast iron, of the +children at the Saint Nicolas school in Paris—extraordinary characters, +souls of divine simplicity expanded there."</p> + +<p>And Durtal recollected the admirable scene he had watched there one +morning.</p> + +<p>He was sitting on the little plateau, in the icy shade of the church, +gazing before him at the graveyard and the motionless swell of mountain +tops. Far away, in the very sky, a string of beads moved on, one by one, +on the ribbon of path that edged the precipice. And by degrees these +specks, at first merely dark, assumed the bright hues of dresses, +assumed the form of coloured bells surmounted by <!-- Page 15 -->white knobs, and at +last took shape as a line of peasant women wearing white caps.</p> + +<p>And still in single file they came down the square.</p> + +<p>After crossing themselves as they passed the cemetery, they went each to +drink a cup of water at the spring and then turned round; and Durtal, +who was watching them, saw this:</p> + +<p>At their head walked an old woman of at least a hundred, very tall and +still upright, her head covered by a sort of hood from which her stiff, +wavy hair escaped in tangled grey locks like iron wire. Her face was +shrivelled like the peel of an onion, and so thin that, looking at her +in profile, daylight could be seen through her skin.</p> + +<p>She knelt down at the foot of the first statue, and behind her, her +companions, girls of about eighteen for the most part, clasped their +hands and shut their eyes; and slowly a change came over them.</p> + +<p>Under the breath of prayer, the soul, buried under the ashes of worldly +cares, flamed up, and the air that fanned it made it glow like an inward +fire, lighting up the thick cheeks, the stolid, heavy features. It +smoothed out the crackled surface of wrinkles, softened in the younger +women the vulgarity of chapped red lips, gave colour to the dull brown +flesh, overflowed in the smile on lips half parted in silent prayer, in +timid kisses offered with simple good faith, and returned no doubt in an +ineffable thrill by the Holy Child they had cherished from His birth, +who, since the martyrdom of Calvary, had grown to be the Spouse of +Sorrows.</p> + +<p>They felt, perhaps, something of the raptures of the Blessed Virgin who +is Mother and Wife and at the same time the beatified Handmaid of God.</p> + +<p>And in the silence a voice as from the remotest ages arose, and the +ancestress said, <i>"Pater Noster</i>," and they all repeated the prayer, and +then dragged themselves on their knees up the steps of the way of +crosses, where the fourteen upright posts, each with its cast metal +bas-relief, bordered a serpentine path, dividing the statues from the +groups. Thus they went forward, stopping long enough to recite an <i>Ave</i> +on each step they climbed, and then, helping themselves with their +hands, they mounted to the next. And when the rosary was ended the old +woman rose, and <!-- Page 16 -->they solemnly followed her into the church, where they +all prayed a long time, prostrate before the altar; and the grandmother +stood up, gave each holy water at the door, led her flock to the spring +where they all drank again, and then they went away, without speaking a +word, one after another up the narrow path, ending as black specks just +as they had come, and vanishing on the horizon.</p> + +<p>"Those women have been two days and two nights crossing the mountains," +said a priest, coming up to Durtal. "They started from the depths of +Savoy, and have travelled almost without rest to spend a few minutes +here; they will sleep to night in a cow-house or a cave, as chance may +direct, and to-morrow by daybreak they will start again on their +weariful way."</p> + +<p>Durtal was overpowered by the radiant splendour of such faith.</p> + +<p>It was possible, then, to find souls ever young, souls ever new, souls +as of undying children, watching where absolute solitude was not, +outside cloister walls, in the waste places of these peaks and gorges, +and amid this race of stern and rugged peasants. Here were women who, +without knowing it even, lived the contemplative life in union with God, +while they dug the barren slopes of a little plot at some prodigious +elevation. They were Leah and Rachel, Martha and Mary in one; and these +women believed guilelessly, entirely, as man believed in the middle +ages. These beings, with their rough-hewn feelings, their shapeless +ideas, hardly able to express themselves, hardly knowing how to read, +wept with love in the presence of the Inaccessible, whom they compelled +by their humility and single-heartedness to appear, to become actual to +their mind.</p> + +<p>"Yes, it was but just that the Virgin should cherish them and choose +them above all others to be Her vessels of election.</p> + +<p>"Yes. For they are unburdened with the dreadful weight of doubt, they +are endowed with almost total ignorance of evil.</p> + +<p>"And yet are there not some souls too experienced, alas! in the culture +of wrong-doing, who nevertheless find mercy at Her feet? Has not the +Virgin other sanctuaries less frequented, less well known, which yet +have outlived the wear of time, the various caprice of the ages; very +ancient <!-- Page 17 -->churches where She welcomes you if you love Her in solitude and +silence?"</p> + +<p>And Durtal, coming back to Chartres once more, looked about him at the +persons who were waiting in the warm shade of the indefinite forest till +the Virgin should awake, to worship Her.</p> + +<p>With dawn, now beginning to break, this forest of the church under whose +shade he was sitting became absolutely unintelligible. The shapes, +faintly sketched, were transformed in the gloom which blurred every +outline as it slowly faded. Below, in the vanishing mist, rose the +immemorial trunks of fabulous white trees, planted as it seemed in wells +that held them tightly in the rigid circle of their margin; and the +night, now almost diaphanous on the level of the ground, was thicker as +it rose, cutting them off at the spring of the branches, which were +still invisible.</p> + +<p>Durtal, as he raised his head, gazed into deep obscurity unlighted by +moon or star.</p> + +<p>Looking up still, but straight before him, he saw in the air, through +the hazy twilight, sword-blades already bright, gigantic blades without +hilts or handles, thinner towards the point; and these blades, standing +on end at an immense height, appeared in the gloom they cut, to be +patterned with vague intaglios or in ill-defined relief.</p> + +<p>As he peered into space to the right and left, he was aware of a +gigantic panoply on each side at a vast height, resting on blocks of +darkness, and consisting of a colossal shield riddled with holes, +hanging above five broader swords, without hilts, but damascened on +their flat blades with indefinite designs of bewildering niello.</p> + +<p>Little by little the tentative sun of a doubtful winter's day pierced +the fog, which vanished in blueness; the shield that hung to the left of +Durtal, the north, was the first to come to life; rosy fires and the +lurid flames of punch gleamed in its hollows, while below, in the middle +blade, there started forth in the steel-grey arch, the gigantic image of +a negress robed in green with a brown mantle. Her head, wrapped in a +blue kerchief, was set in a golden glory, and she stared out, hieratic +and wild-looking, with white, wide-open eyes.</p> + +<p>And this engimatical Ethiop had on her knees a black <!-- Page 18 -->infant whose eyes, +in the same way, stood out like snowballs from the dusky face.</p> + +<p>All about her, very gradually, the other swords, still so dim, began to +glow, blood rippling from their crimsoned points as if from recent +slaughter; and this trickling red formed a setting for the shapes of +beings come, no doubt, from the distant shores of Ganges: on one side a +king playing on a golden harp; on the other a monarch wielding a sceptre +ending in the turquoise-blue petals of a fabulous lily.</p> + +<p>Then, to the left of the royal musician there was another man, bearded, +with a walnut-stained face, the eye-sockets vacant and covered by round +spectacles; on his head were a diadem and a tiara, in his hands a +chalice and a paten, a censer and a loaf; while to the right of the +other sovereign who held the sceptre, a still more harassing shape came +forth against the blue background of the sword—a sort of oriental +brigand, escaped perhaps from the prison cells of Persepolis or Susa, a +bandit as it seemed, wearing a little scarlet cap edged with yellow, in +shape like an inverted jam-pot, and a tan-coloured gown with white +stripes on the skirt; and this clumsy and ferocious personage bore a +green palm and a book.</p> + +<p>Durtal turned away to sound the depths of darkness, and before him, at a +giddy height on the horizon, more sword-blades gleamed. The scrawls +which might have been mistaken in the darkness for patterns embossed or +incised on the surface of the steel, developed into figures draped in +long, straight, pleated robes; and at the highest point of the firmament +there hovered amid a sparkle of rubies and sapphires a woman crowned, +pale of face, dressed like the Moorish mother of the northern side in +Carmelite-brown and green; and she too held an infant, a child, like +herself, of the white race, clasping a globe in one hand, and extending +the other in benediction.</p> + +<p>Last of all, the still dark side, the late side, to Durtal's right hand +and further south, till now wrapped in the half-dispelled morning haze, +was lighted up; the shield opposite to that on the north caught the +blaze, and below it, against the polished metal of the broad blade +facing that which presented the negress queen, appeared a woman of +somewhat olive hue, in raiment like the others, of myrtle-green <!-- Page 19 -->and +brown, holding a sceptre, and with her, too, there was a child. And +round her again emerged images of men piled up one above the other, +shouldering each other in the narrow field they filled.</p> + +<p>For a quarter of an hour nothing was clearly defined; then the real +things asserted themselves. In the middle of the swords, which were in +fact mosaic of glass, the figures stood out in broad daylight. In the +field of each window with its pointed arch bearded faces took form, +motionless in the midst of fire; and on all sides, in the thicket of +flames, as it were the burning bush of Horeb where God showed His glory +to Moses, the Virgin was seen in an unchangeable attitude of imperious +sweetness and pensive grace, mute and still, and crowned with gold.</p> + +<p>She was, indeed, many; She came down from the empyrean to lower levels, +to be closer to Her flock, and at last found a place where they might +almost kiss Her feet, at the corner of an aisle that was always in +gloom; but there She wore a different aspect.</p> + +<p>She stood forth in the middle of a window, like a tall, blue plant, and +the garnet-red foliage was supported by black iron rods.</p> + +<p>Her colour was slightly coppery, almost Chinese, with a long nose and +rather narrow eyes; on the head there was a black coif, and She looked +steadily before Her, while the lower part of the face with its short +chin, the mouth rather drawn by two grave lines, gave it an expression +of suffering that was even a little morose. And here again, under the +immemorial name of Notre Dame de la belle Verrière, she held an infant +in a dress of raisin-purple, a child barely visible in the mixture of +dark hues all about it.</p> + +<p>In short, She to whom all appealed was there; everywhere under the +forest roof of this cathedral the Virgin was present. She seemed to have +come from all the ends of the earth, under the semblance of every race +known in the Middle Ages: black as an African, tawny as a Mongolian, +pale coffee colour as a half-caste, and white as an European, thus +declaring that, as mediator for the whole human race, She was everything +to each, everything to all; and promising by the presence of Her Son, +whose features bore the character of each race, that the Messiah had +come to redeem all men without distinction.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 20 -->And it seemed as though the sun, as it mounted higher, followed the +growth of the Virgin, taking its birth in the window where She was still +a babe in that northern transept where Saint Anne, her mother, of the +black face, sat between David, the king of the golden harp, and Solomon, +the bearer of the blue-lilied sceptre, each against a background of +purple, to prefigure the royal birth of the Son; between Melchizedec, +the mitred patriarch, holding the censer, and Aaron, in the curious red +cap bordered with lemon yellow, representing prophetically the +Priesthood of Christ.</p> + +<p>And at the end of the apse, quite high up, there was another +Mary—triumphant, looking down the sacred grove, supported by figures +from the Old Testament and by Saint Peter. It was She again who in the +south transept faced Saint Anne, She, now a woman and herself a mother, +amid four enormous men bearing pick-a-back on their shoulders four +smaller figures; these were the four Greater Prophets who had foretold +the coming of the Messiah—Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, and Ezekiel, +bearing the four Evangelists, and thus artlessly expressing the +parallelism of the Old and New Testaments, and the support given by the +Old Covenant to the New.</p> + +<p>And then, as though Her presence were not fully ubiquitous, as though +She desired that, turn where they might, Her worshippers should ever see +Her, the Virgin was to be found on a smaller scale in less important +positions; enthroned in the centre of the shields, in the heart of the +great rose-windows, and finally, ceasing to appear as a mere picture, +took shape, materialized as a statue of black wood standing on a +pedestal in a full hooped skirt like a silver bell.</p> + +<p>The sheltering forest had vanished with the darkness; the tree-trunks +remained, but rose with giddy flight from the ground, unbroken pillars +to the sky, meeting at a vast height under the groined vault; the forest +was seen as an immense church blossoming with roses of fire, pierced +with glowing glass, crowded with Virgins and apostles, patriarchs and +saints.</p> + +<p>The genius of the middle ages had devised the skilful and pious lighting +of this edifice, and harmonized the ascending march of day to some +extent with its windows. The walls <!-- Page 21 -->and the aisles were very dark, the +daylight creeping, mysteriously subdued, along the body of the church. +It was lost in the stained glass, checked by dark bishops, and opaque +saints completely filling the dusky-bordered windows with the dead hues +of a Persian rug; the panes absorbed the sun's rays, refracting none, +arrested the powdered gold of the sunbeams in the dull violet of purple +egg-fruit, the tawny browns of tinder or tan, the too-blue greens, and +the wine-coloured red stained with soot, like the thick juice of +mulberries.</p> + +<p>As it reached the chancel, the light came in through brighter and +clearer colours, through the blue of translucent sapphires, through pale +rubies, brilliant yellow, and crystalline white. The gloom was relieved +beyond the transepts near the altar. Even in the centre of the cross the +sun pierced clearer glass, less storied with figures, and bordered with +almost colourless panes that admitted it freely.</p> + +<p>At last, in the apse, forming the top of the cross, it poured in, +symbolical of the light that flooded the world from the top of the Tree; +and the pictures were diaphanous, just lightly covered with flowing +lines and aerial tints, to frame in a sheaf of coloured sparks the image +of a Madonna, less hieratic and barbaric than the others, and a fairer +Infant, blessing the earth with uplifted hand.</p> + +<p>By this time the Cathedral of Chartres was alive with the clatter of +wooden shoes, the rustle of petticoats, and the tinkle of mass-bells.</p> + +<p>Durtal left the corner of the transept where he had been sitting with +his back to a pillar, and turned to the left, towards a bay where there +was a framework ablaze with lighted tapers before the statue of the +Virgin.</p> + +<p>And schools of little girls under the guidance of Sisters, troops of +peasant women and countrymen, poured out of every aisle, knelt in front +of the image, and then came up to kiss the pedestal.</p> + +<p>The appearance of these folks suggested to Durtal that their prayers +were not like those that are sobbed out at evening twilight, the +supplications of women worn and dismayed by the weary hours of day. +These peasant souls prayed less as complaining than as loving; these +people, kneeling on the flags, had come for Her sake rather than for +their own. There was here and now a pause from grieving, <!-- Page 22 -->a sort of +reprieve from tears; and this attitude was in harmony with the special +aspect adopted by Mary in this cathedral; She was seen there, in fact, +under the form of a child and of a young mother; She was the Virgin of +the Nativity, rather than our Lady of Dolour. The old artists of the +Middle Ages seemed to have feared to sadden Her by reminding Her of +memories too painful, to have striven to prove by this delicate reserve, +their gratitude to Her who in this sanctuary had ever shown Herself to +be the Dispenser of Mercies, the Lady Bountiful of Grace.</p> + +<p>Durtal felt in himself an answering thrill, the echo of the prayers +chanted all round him by these loving souls; and he let himself melt +away in the soothing sweetness of the hymns, asking for nothing, +silencing his ungratified desires, smothering his secret repining, +thinking only of bidding an affectionate good-morning to the Mother to +whom he had returned after such distant wanderings in the land of sin, +after such a long absence.</p> + +<p>And now that he had seen Her, that he had spoken to Her, he withdrew, +making room for others who came in greater numbers as the day grew. He +went home to get some food; and as he cast a last sweeping glance at the +beautiful church, remembering the warlike imagery of its details, the +buckler-shape of the rose-windows, the sword-blades of the lower lights, +the casque and helmet forms of the ogee, the resemblance of some +grisaille glass with its network of lead to a warrior's shirt of mascled +mail; as, outside, he gazed at one of the two belfries carved into +scales like a pine cone—like scale-armour—he said to himself that the +"Builders for God" must have borrowed their ideas from the military +panoply of the knights; that thus they had endeavoured to perpetuate the +memory of their exploits by representing the magnified image of the +armour with which the Crusaders girt themselves when they sailed to win +back the Holy Sepulchre.</p> + +<p>And the interior of the church seemed, as a whole, to impress the same +idea and complete the symbolical images of the details by its vaulted +nave, of which the groined roof was so like the reversed hull of a +vessel, suggesting the graceful form of the ships that made sail for +Palestine.</p> + +<p>Only, in the present day, such memories of heroic times were vain. In +this city of Chartres, where Saint Bernard <!-- Page 23 -->preached the second crusade, +the vessel was stranded for ever, her hull overset, her anchor out.</p> + +<p>And looking down on the unthinking city, the Cathedral kept watch alone, +beseeching pardon for the inappetency for suffering, for the inertia of +faith that her sons displayed, uplifting her towers to the sky like two +arms, while the spires mimicked the shape of joined hands, the ten +fingers all meeting and upright one against another, in the position +which the image-makers of old gave to the dead saints and warriors they +carved upon tombs.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"><!-- Page 24 --></a>CHAPTER II.</h2> + + +<p>Durtal had already been living at Chartres for three months.</p> + +<p>On his return to Paris from La Trappe he had fallen into a fearful state +of spiritual anemia. His soul kept its room, rarely rose, lounged on a +couch, was torpid with the tepid langour still lulled by the sleepy +mutter of mere lip-service, and prayers reeled off as by a worn-out +machine of which the spring releases itself, so that it works all alone +with no result, and without a touch to start it.</p> + +<p>Sometimes, however, in a rebellious mood he managed to check himself, to +stop the ill-regulated clockwork of his prayers, and then he would try +to examine himself, to get above himself, and to see in a comprehensive +glance the puzzling perspective of his nature.</p> + +<p>And facing these chambers of the soul, dim with mist, he was struck by a +strange association of the Revelations of Saint Theresa and a tale by +Edgar Poe.</p> + +<p>Those chambers of the inner man were empty and cold, and like the halls +of the House of Usher, surrounded by a moat whence the fog rose, forcing +its way in at last and cracking the worn shell of wall. Alone and +uneasy, he prowled about the ruined cells, with closed doors that +refused ever to open again; thus his walks about his own mind were very +limited, and the panorama he could see was strangely narrowed, shrunk +close and near to him, almost nothing. And he knew full well that the +ruins surrounding the central cell, the Master's Room, were bolted and +fastened with rivets that could not be unscrewed, and triple +bars—inaccessible. So he restricted himself to wandering in the halls +and passages.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 25 -->At Notre Dame de l'Atre he had ventured further; he had gone into the +enclosure round about the abode of Christ; he had seen in the distance +the frontiers of Mysticism, and, too weak to go on his road, he had +fallen; and now this was to be lamented, for, as Saint Theresa truly +remarks, "in the spiritual life, if we do not go forward, we go back." +He had, in fact, retraced his steps, and lay half paralyzed, no longer +even in the vestibule of his mansion, but in the outer court.</p> + +<p>Till this time the phenomena described by the matchless Abbess had been +exactly repeated. In Durtal, the Chambers of the Soul were deserted as +after a long mourning; but in the rooms that had remained open, phantoms +of sins confessed, of buried evil-doing, wandered like the sister of the +tormented Usher.</p> + +<p>Durtal, like Edgar Poe's unhappy sufferer, listened with horror to the +rustle of steps on the stairs, the piteous weeping behind the doors.</p> + +<p>And yet these ghosts of departed crimes were no more than indefinite +shapes; they never consolidated nor took a definite form. The most +persistent miscreant of them all, which had tormented him so long, the +sin of the flesh, at last was silenced, and left him in peace. La Trappe +had rooted up the stock of those debaucheries. The memory of them, +indeed, haunted him still, on his most distressing, most ignoble side; +but he could see them pass, his heart in his mouth, wondering that he +could so long have been the dupe of such foul delusions, no longer +understanding the power of those mirages, the illusions of those carnal +oases as he met them in the desert of a life shut up in seclusion, in +solitude, and in books.</p> + +<p>His imagination could still put him on the rack; still, without merit, +without a struggle, by the help of divine grace, he had escaped a fall +ever since his return from the monastery.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, though he had, to some extent, emasculated himself, +though he was exempt from his chief torment, he discerned, flourishing +within him, another crop of tares, of which the spread had till now been +hidden behind the sturdier growth of other vices. In the first instance, +he had believed himself to be less enslaved by sin, less utterly vile; +and he was nevertheless as closely bound <!-- Page 26 -->to evil as ever, only the +nature and character of the bonds were different, and no longer the +same.</p> + +<p>Besides that dryness of the heart which made him feel as soon as he +entered a church or knelt down in his room, that a cold grip froze his +prayers and chilled his soul, he detected the covert attacks, the mute +assaults of ridiculous pride.</p> + +<p>In vain did he keep watch; he was constantly taken by surprise without +having time even to look round him.</p> + +<p>It began under the most temperate guise, the most benign reflections.</p> + +<p>Supposing, for instance, that he had done his neighbour a service at +some inconvenience to himself, or that he had refrained from retaliating +on anybody against whom he believed he had a grievance, or for whom he +had no liking, a certain self-satisfaction stole, sneaked into his mind, +a certain vain-glory, ending in the senseless conclusion that he was +superior to many another man; and then, on this feeling of petty vanity, +pride was engrafted—the pride of a virtue he had not even struggled to +acquire, the arrogance of chastity, so insidious that most of those who +indulge it do not even suspect themselves.</p> + +<p>And he was never aware of the end of these assaults till too late, when +they had become definite, and he had forgotten himself and succumbed; +and he was in despair at finding that he constantly fell into the same +snare, telling himself that the little good he could do must be wiped +out of the balance of his life by the outrageous extravagance of this +vice.</p> + +<p>He was frenzied, he reasoned with the old mad arguments, and cried out +at his wits' end,—</p> + +<p>"La Trappe crushed me! It cured me of sensuality, but only to load me +with disorders of which I knew nothing before I submitted to that +treatment! It is humble itself, but it puffed up my vanity and increased +my pride tenfold—then it set me free, but so weak, so wearied, that I +have never since been able to conquer that inanition, never have been +fit to enjoy the Mystical Nourishment which I nevertheless must have if +I am not to die to God!"</p> + +<p>And for the hundredth time he asked himself,—</p> + +<p>"Am I happier than I was before I was converted?"</p> + +<p>And to be truthful to himself he was bound to answer "Yes." He lived on +the whole a Christian life, prayed but <!-- Page 27 -->badly, but at any rate prayed +without ceasing; only—only—Alas! How worm-eaten, how arid were the +poor recesses of his soul! He wondered, with anguish, whether they would +not end like the Manor in Edgar Poe's tale, by crumbling suddenly, one +fatal day, into the dark waters of the pool of sin which was undermining +the walls.</p> + +<p>Having reached this stage of his round of meditations, he was compelled +to throw himself on the Abbé Gévresin, who required him, in spite of his +coldness, to take the Communion. Since his return from Notre Dame de +l'Atre his friendship with the Abbé had become much closer, altogether +intimate.</p> + +<p>He knew now the inner man of this priest, who, in the midst of modern +surroundings, led a purely mediæval life. Formerly, when he rang at his +bell, he had paid no heed to the housekeeper, an old woman, who curtsied +to him without a word when she opened the door.</p> + +<p>Now he was quite friendly with this singular and loving creature.</p> + +<p>Their first conversation had arisen one day when he called to see the +Abbé, who was ill. Seated by the bedside, with spectacles on the alert +at the tip of her nose, she was kissing, one by one, the pious prints +that illustrated a book wrapped in black cloth. She begged him to be +seated, and then, closing the volume, and replacing her spectacles, she +had joined in the conversation; and he had left the room quite amazed by +this woman, who addressed the Abbé as "Father," and spoke quite simply +of her intercourse with Jesus and the Saints as if it were a natural +thing. She seemed to live in perfect friendship with them, and spoke of +them as of companions with whom she chatted without any embarrassment.</p> + +<p>Then the countenance of this woman, whom the priest introduced to him as +Madame Céleste Bavoil, was, strange to say, the least of it. She was +thin and upright, but short. In profile, with her strong Roman nose and +set lips, she had the fleshless mask of a dead Cæsar; but, seen in +front, the sternness of the features was softened into a familiar +peasant's face, and melted into the kindliness of an old nun, quite out +of keeping with the solemn strength of her features.</p> + +<p>It seemed as though with that clean-cut, imperious nose, small white +teeth, and black eyes sparkling with light, busy <!-- Page 28 -->and inquisitive as +those of a mouse, under fine long lashes, the woman ought, +notwithstanding her age, to have been handsome; it seemed at least as +though the combination of these details would have given the face a +stamp of distinction. Not so; the conclusion was false to the premises; +the whole betrayed the combined effect of the details.</p> + +<p>"This contradiction," thought he, "evidently is the result of other +peculiarities which nullify the harmony of the more important features; +in the first place the thinness of the cheeks and their hue of old wood +dotted here and there with freckles, calm stains of the colour of stale +bran; then the flat braids of white hair drawn smooth under a frilled +cap, and finally the modest dress, a black dress clumsily made, dragging +across the bosom, and showing the lines of her stays stamped in relief +on the back.</p> + +<p>"And perhaps, in her, it is not so much incongruity of features, as a +crying contrast between the dress and the face, the head and the body," +thought he.</p> + +<p>Altogether, as he summed her up, she was equally suggestive of the +chapel and the fields. Thus she had something of the Sister and +something of the peasant.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he went on to himself, "that is very near the mark; but that is +not all, for she is both less dignified and less common, inferior and +yet more worthy. Seen from behind she is more like a woman who hires out +the chairs in church than like a nun; seen in front she is conspicuously +superior to the natives of the soil. Also it may be noted that when she +speaks of the saints she is loftier, quite different; she soars up in a +flame of the spirit. But all these hypotheses are in vain," he +concluded, "for I cannot judge of her from one brief impression, one +rapid view. What is quite certain is that, though she is not in the +least like the Abbé, she too is in two halves—two persons in one. He, +with the innocent gaze, the pure eyes of a girl at her first Communion, +has the sometimes bitter mouth of an old man; she is proud of feature +and humble of heart; they both, though by different outward signs and +acts, achieve the same result, an identical semblance of paternal +indulgence and mature goodness."</p> + +<p>And Durtal had gone again and again to see them. His reception was +always the same; Madame Bavoil greeted him with the invariable formula: +"Here is our friend,"<!-- Page 29 --> while the priest's eyes smiled as he grasped his +hand. Whenever he saw Madame Bavoil she was praying: over her stove, +when she sat mending, while she was dusting the furniture, as she opened +the door, she was always telling her rosary, without pause.</p> + +<p>The chief delight of this rather silent woman consisted in talking of +the Virgin to whom she had vowed worship; on the other hand she could +quote by memory long passages from a mystic and somewhat eccentric +writer of the end of the sixteenth century: Jeanne Chézard de Matel, the +foundress of the Order of the Incarnate Word, an Institution of which +the Sisters display a conspicuous costume—a white dress held round the +waist by a belt of scarlet leather, a red cloak and a blood-coloured +scapulary on which the name of Jesus is embroidered in blue silk, with a +crown of thorns, a heart pierced with three nails, and the words <i>Amor +Meus</i>.</p> + +<p>At first Durtal thought Madame Bavoil slightly crazy, and while she +poured out a passage by Jeanne de Matel on Saint Joseph, he looked at +the priest—who gave no sign.</p> + +<p>"Then Madame Bavoil is a saint?" he asked one morning when they were +alone.</p> + +<p>"My dear Madame Bavoil is a pillar of prayer," replied the Abbé gravely.</p> + +<p>And one afternoon, when Gévresin was away in his turn, Durtal questioned +the woman.</p> + +<p>She gave him an account of her long pilgrimages across Europe, +pilgrimages that she had spent years in making on foot, begging her way +by the roadside.</p> + +<p>Wherever the Virgin had a sanctuary, thither she went, a bundle of +clothing in one hand, an umbrella in the other, an iron Crucifix on her +breast, a rosary at her waist. By a reckoning which she had kept from +day to day she had thus travelled ten thousand five hundred leagues on +foot.</p> + +<p>Then old age had come on, and she had "lost her old powers," as she +said; Heaven had formerly guided her by inward voices, fixing the dates +of these expeditions; but journeying was no longer required of her. She +had been sent to live with the Abbé that she might rest; but her manner +of life had been laid down for her once for all: her bed a straw +mattress on wooden planks; her food such rustic and monastic fare as +beseemed her, milk, honey and <!-- Page 30 -->bread, and at seasons of penance she was +to substitute water for milk.</p> + +<p>"And you never take any other nourishment?"</p> + +<p>"Never." And then she would add,—</p> + +<p>"Aha! our friend, you see I am in disgrace up there!" and she would +laugh cheerfully at herself and her appearance "If you had but seen me +when I came back from Spain, where I went to visit Our Lady of the +Pillar at Saragoza! I was a negress. With my large Crucifix on my +breast, my gown looking like a nun's—every one asked: 'What can that +woman be?' I looked like a charcoal-burner out for a holiday; no white +to be seen but my cap, collar and cuffs; all the rest—face, hands and +petticoats—quite black."</p> + +<p>"But you must have been very dull travelling about alone?"</p> + +<p>"Not at all, our friend, the Saints kept me company on the way; they +told me at which house I should find a lodging for the night, and I was +sure of being well received."</p> + +<p>"And you never were refused hospitality?"</p> + +<p>"Never. To be sure I did not ask for much; when I was wandering I only +begged for a piece of bread and a glass of water, and to rest on a truss +of straw in the cow-house."</p> + +<p>"And Father Gévresin—how did you first know him?"</p> + +<p>"That is quite a long story. Fancy! Heaven, as a punishment, deprived me +of the Communion for a year and three months to a day. When I confessed +to a priest, I owned to my intercourse with Our Saviour, and the Virgin +and the Angels; then he at once treated me as a mad woman, unless he +accused me of being possessed by the devil; to conclude, he refused me +absolution, and I thought myself happy if he did not slam the little +wicket of the confessional roughly in my face at my very first words.</p> + +<p>"I believe I should have died of grief if the Lord had not at last had +pity on me. One Saturday, when I was in Paris, He sent me to Notre Dame +des Victoires, where the Father was in the confessional. He listened to +me, he put me through long and severe tests, and then he granted me +Communion. I often went to him again as a penitent, and then the niece +who kept house for him retired into a <!-- Page 31 -->convent, and I took her place; +and I have been his housekeeper near on ten years now—"</p> + +<p>She told her story with many breaks. Since she had ceased to wander +about the country, she followed the pilgrimages in Paris in honour of +the Blessed Virgin, and she had a list of the most popular sanctuaries: +Notre-Dame des Victoires, Notre-Dame de Paris; Our Lady of Good Hope at +Saint-Séverin, of Ever-present Help at L'Abbaye au Bois, of Peace at the +convent in the Rue Picpus, of the Sick at the church of Saint-Laurent, +of Happy Deliverance—a black Virgin from the church of Saint-Etienne +des Grès—in the care of the Sisters of Saint-Thomas de Villeneuve, Rue +de Sèvres; and outside Paris the shrines in the suburbs: Our Lady of +Miracles at Saint-Maur, of the Angels at Bondy, of the Virtues at +Aubervilliers, of Good Keeping at Long Pont, and those of Notre-Dame at +Spire, at Pontoise, &c.</p> + +<p>On another occasion, as he seemed suspicious of the severity of the rule +imposed on her by Christ, she replied,—</p> + +<p>"Remember, our friend, what happened to an illustrious handmaid of the +Lord, Maria d'Agreda; being very ill, she yielded to the wishes of her +daughters in the faith and sucked a mouthful of chicken, but she was +forthwith reproved by Jesus, who said to her: 'I will not have my +Spouses dainty.'</p> + +<p>"Well, and I should run the risk of a similar reproof, if I attempted to +touch a morsel of meat or to drink a drop of coffee or wine."</p> + +<p>"And yet," said Durtal to himself as he came away, "it is quite evident +that the woman is not mad. She has nothing the matter with her, either +hysterical or mental: she is fragile and very thin, but she is scarcely +nervous, and in spite of the laconic character of her meals she is in +very good health, indeed is never ailing; nay more, she is a woman of +good sense and an admirable manager. Up by daybreak, after Communion she +soaps and washes all the linen herself, makes the sheets and shirts, +mends the Abbé's gowns, and lives with amazing economy, while taking +care that her master wants for nothing. Such a sagacious apprehension of +the conduct of life has no connection with lunacy or delirium."</p> + +<p><!-- Page 32 -->He knew too that she would never take any wages. It is true that in the +sight of a world which gives its whole mind to legalized larceny this +woman's disinterestedness might be enough to prove her insanity; but +Durtal, in contradiction to received ideas, did not think that a +contempt for money was necessarily allied with madness, and the more he +thought of it the more was he convinced that she was a saint, and not a +strait-laced saint, but indulgent and cheerful.</p> + +<p>What he could positively assert was that she was very good to him; ever +since his return from La Trappe she had helped him in every way, +encouraging his spirits when she saw him depressed, and going, in spite +of his protesting, to look over his wardrobe when she suspected that +there might be sutures to operate upon, and buttons to replace.</p> + +<p>This intimacy had become even closer since their life in common, all +three together, on the occasion of Durtal's accompanying them, at their +entreaty, to La Salette. And then suddenly their affectionate +familiarity was endangered, for the Abbé Gévresin left Paris.</p> + +<p>The Bishop of Chartres died, and his successor was one of Gévresin's +oldest friends. On the very day when the Abbé Le Tilloy des Mofflaines +was promoted to the episcopal throne, he begged Gévresin to accompany +him to Chartres. There was an anxious struggle in the old priest's mind. +He was ailing, weary, good for nothing, and at the bottom of his heart +longed only never to move; but on the other hand he had not the courage +to refuse his poor support to Monseigneur des Mofflaines. He tried to +mollify the prelate by his advanced age, but the Bishop would not +listen; all he would concede was that, instead of being appointed +Vicar-general, the Abbé should be no more than a Canon. Still Gévresin +mildly shook his head. Finally the prelate had his way, appealing to his +friend's charity, and declaring that he ought to accept the post, in the +last resort as a mortification and penance.</p> + +<p>And when his departure was decided on, it became the Abbé's turn to +circumvent Durtal and persuade him to leave Paris and come to settle +near him at Chartres.</p> + +<p>Although he was deeply grieved at this move, which he had done his +utmost to hinder, Durtal was refractory, and refused to bury himself in +a country town.</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 33 -->But why, our friend," said Madame Bavoil, "I wonder why you are so +obstinately bent on remaining here; you live in perfect solitude at home +with your books. You can do the same if you come with us."</p> + +<p>And when, his arguments exhausted, after a vehement diatribe against +provincial life, Durtal ended by saying,—</p> + +<p>"Then at Paris there are the quays, Saint Séverin, Notre Dame; there are +delightful convents—"</p> + +<p>"You would find equally good things at Chartres," answered the Abbé. +"You will have one of the finest cathedrals in the world, monasteries +such as you love, and as for books, your library is so well furnished +that I can hardly think that you can add to it by wandering along the +quays. Besides, as you know even better than I, no work of the class you +seek is ever to be disinterred from the boxes of second-hand books. +Their titles figure only in the catalogues of sales, and there is +nothing to hinder their being sent to you at Chartres."</p> + +<p>"I do not deny it—but there are other things on the quays besides old +books; there are curiosities to be seen, and the Seine—a landscape—"</p> + +<p>"Well, if you are homesick for that particular walk, you have only to +take a train, and spend a whole afternoon lounging by the parapet over +the river; it is easy to get from Chartres to Paris; there are express +trains morning and evening which make the journey in less than two +hours."</p> + +<p>"And besides," cried Madame Bavoil, "what does all that matter? The +great thing is that you leave a town just like any other town, to +inhabit the very home of the Virgin. Just think! Notre Dame de +Sous-Terre is the most ancient chapel to Mary in all France; think! you +will live near Her, with Her, and She will load you with mercies!"</p> + +<p>"And after all," the Abbé went on, "this exile cannot interfere with any +of your schemes in art. You talk of writing the Lives of Saints; will +you not work at them far better in the silence of the country than in +the uproar of Paris?"</p> + +<p>"The country—the provinces! The mere idea overpowers me," exclaimed +Durtal. "If you could but imagine the impression it suggests to me, the +sort of atmosphere, the kind of smell it presents to my brain. You know +the <!-- Page 34 -->huge cupboards you find in old houses, with double doors, and lined +within with blue paper that is always damp. Well, at the mere name of +the provinces I feel as if one of these were opened in my face, and I +got a full blast of the stuffiness that comes out of it!—And to put the +finishing touch to the vision by combining taste and smell, I have only +to bite one of the biscuits they make nowadays of Lord knows what, +reeking the moment you taste them, of fish glue and plaster that has +been rained upon, I have only to eat that cold, insipid paste and sniff +at a musty closet, and at once the lugubrious picture rises before me of +some Godforsaken place!—Your Chartres will no doubt smell like +that—Pah!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, oh!" cried Madame Bavoil. "But you cannot know much about it, since +you have never been to the place."</p> + +<p>"Let him be!" said the Abbé, laughing. "He will get over his +prejudices." And he went on,—</p> + +<p>"Just explain this inconsistency: here is a Parisian who likes his city +so little that he seeks out the most deserted nook to live in, the +quietest, the least frequented, the spot that is most like a provincial +retreat. He has a horror of the Boulevards, of public promenades, and of +theatres; he buries himself in a hole, and stops his ears that he may +not hear the noises around him; but, when he has a chance of improving +on this scheme of existence, of ripening in real silence far from the +crowd, when he can invert the conditions of life, and, instead of being +a provincial Parisian, can become a Parisian of the provinces, he shies +and kicks!"</p> + +<p>"It is a fact," Durtal admitted when he was alone, "a positive fact +that the capital is unprofitable to me. I never see anybody now, and +shall be reduced to still more utter solitude when these friends are +gone. I shall, for all purposes, be quite as well off at Chartres; +I can study at my ease amid peaceful surroundings, within reach of +a cathedral of far greater interest than Notre Dame de Paris. And +besides—besides—there is another question of which the Abbé Gévresin +says nothing, but which disturbs me greatly. If I remain here, alone, I +shall have to find a new confessor, to wander through the churches, just +as I wander through work-a-day life in search of dining-places and +tables d'hôte. No, no; I have had enough at last of this day-by-day<!-- Page 35 --> +diet, spiritual and material! I have found a boarding-house for my soul +where it is content, and it may stay there!</p> + +<p>"And there is yet another argument. I can live more inexpensively at +Chartres, and, without spending more than I spend here, I can settle +myself once for all, dine with my feet on my own fender, and be waited +on!"</p> + +<p>So he had ended by deciding to follow his two friends, and had secured +fairly spacious rooms facing the Cathedral; and then he, who had always +lived cramped in tiny apartments, at last understood the provincial +comfort of vast spaces and books ranged against the walls, with ample +elbow-room.</p> + +<p>Madame Bavoil had found him a servant, familiar and voluble indeed, but +a good and pious woman. And he had begun his new existence lost in +constant amazement at that wonderful Cathedral, the only one he had +never before seen, probably because it was so near Paris, and, like all +Parisians, he never took the trouble to set out on any but longer +journeys. The town itself seemed to him devoid of interest, having but +one secluded walk, a little embankment where, below the suburbs and near +the old Guillaume Gate, washerwomen sang while they soaped the linen in +a stream that blossomed, as they rubbed, with flecks of iridescent +bubbles.</p> + +<p>Hence he determined to walk out only very early in the morning or in the +evening; then he could dream alone in the town, which by the afternoon +was already half dead.</p> + +<p>The Abbé and his housekeeper were lodged in the episcopal palace, under +the shadow of the Cathedral apse. They occupied a first floor, with +nothing over it, above some empty stables; a row of cold, tiled rooms +which the Bishop had had redecorated.</p> + +<p>Some time after their arrival at Chartres the Abbé had replied to +Durtal, who had remarked that he was anxious,—</p> + +<p>"Yes, I am certainly going through a difficult time; I have had to live +down certain prejudices—but indeed I was prepared for them. And that +was another reason why I did not wish to leave Paris. But the Blessed +Virgin is good! Everything is coming right—"</p> + +<p>And when Durtal persisted,—</p> + +<p>"As you may suppose," said the priest, "the appointment of a Canon from +another diocese was not looked upon <!-- Page 36 -->with indifferent eyes by the clergy +of Chartres. Such suspicions with regard to an unknown priest brought by +a new Bishop are not after all unnatural; it is inevitably feared that +he may play the part of a ruler without a robe; each one is on his +guard, and they sift his least word and pick over his least action."</p> + +<p>"And then," said Durtal, "is it not another mouth to feed out of the +wretched pittance allowed by the State?"</p> + +<p>"So far as that goes, no. I draw no stipend, and damage no man's +interest; in fact I would not accept it. The only pecuniary advantage I +derive from being about the Bishop's person is that I have no rent to +pay, since I am lodged for nothing in the episcopal building.</p> + +<p>"I could not in any case have drawn a stipend, for the allowance granted +to Canons by the Government has ceased to be given, since a measure was +passed, on March 22nd, 1885, decreeing the suppression of such +emoluments as the incumbents died off. Hence only those who held such +benefices before the passing of the law now draw on the funds devoted to +the maintenance of the Church; and they are dying off one by one, so +that the time is fast approaching when there will not be a single Canon +left who is salaried by the State. In some dioceses these lapsed +benefices are compensated for by the revenues from some religious +foundation, or, as you may call it, a prebend. But there are none at +Chartres. The Chapter has at the utmost the use of a varying income +which it divides among those who have no benefice, giving them, good +years with bad, a sum of about three hundred francs each, and that is +all."</p> + +<p>"And the Canons have no perquisites?"</p> + +<p>"None whatever."</p> + +<p>"Then I wonder how they live."</p> + +<p>"If they have no private fortune they live more penuriously than the +poorest labourers in Chartres. Most of them simply vegetate; some +perform Mass for Sisterhoods, or are convent chaplains, but that brings +in very little, two hundred or two hundred and fifty francs perhaps. +Another holds the post of secretary to the diocese, by which he gets +rooms and as much, perhaps, as six hundred francs. Yet another conducts +the services of the holy week known as the Voice of Our Lady of +Chartres, and acts as precentor; and some find employment as the +Bishop's officials.<!-- Page 37 --> Each one, in short, has a struggle to earn his food +and lodging."</p> + +<p>"What exactly is a Canon; what are his functions, and the origin of his +office?"</p> + +<p>"The origin? It is lost in the night of ages. It is supposed that +Colleges of Canons existed in the time of Pépin le Bref; it is at any +rate certain that during his reign Saint Chrodegang, Bishop of Metz, +assembled the clerks of his cathedral and obliged them to live together, +in a house in common, as though it were a convent, under a rule of which +Charlemagne makes mention in his Capitularies.—A Canon's functions? +They consist in the solemn celebration of the Canonical services, and +the direction of all processions. As a matter of conscience every Canon +is required in the first place to reside in the town where the church is +situated to whose service he is attached; then to be present at the +Canonical hours when Mass is said; finally to sit on the meetings of the +Chapter on certain fixed days. But to tell the truth, their part has +almost fallen into desuetude. The Council of Trent speaks of them as the +'<i>Senatus Ecclesiæ</i>,' the Senate of the Church, and they then formed the +necessary Council of the Bishop. In these days the prelates do not even +consult them.</p> + +<p>"They only exercise a small part of their lost prerogatives when the See +is vacant. At that time the Chapter acts in the place of the Bishop, and +even then its rights are greatly restricted. As it has not Episcopal +Orders, it can exercise none of the powers inherent in them. It cannot +consequently ordain or confirm."</p> + +<p>"And if the See remains long vacant?"</p> + +<p>"Then the Chapter requests the Bishop of a neighbouring diocese to +ordain its seminarists, and confirm the children it presents to him. In +short, as you see, a Canon is not a very important gentleman.</p> + +<p>"I am not speaking, of course, of Honorary Canons, or Titular Canons. +They have no duties to fulfil; they merely enjoy an honorary title which +allows them to wear the Canon's hood, by permission of their own Bishop +when, as frequently happens, they belong to another diocese.</p> + +<p>"The Chapter of this Cathedral of Chartres is said to have been founded +in the sixth century by Saint Lubin. It then consisted of seventy-two +Canons, and the number was <!-- Page 38 -->added to, for when the Revolution broke out +it amounted to seventy-six, and included seventeen dignitaries: the +Dean, the sub-Dean, the Precentor, the sub-Precentor, the chief +Archdeacon of Chartres, the Archdeacons of Beauce-en-Dunois, of Dreux, +of Le Pincerais, of Vendôme, and of Blois; the gatekeeper, the +Chancellor, the Provosts of Normandy, of Mézangey, of Ingré, and of +Auvers; and the Chancel Warden. These priests, most of them men of +family and wealth, were a nursery ground of Bishops; they owned all the +houses round the Cathedral and lived independently in their cloister, +devoting themselves to history, theology, and the Canon law—they are +now indeed fallen!"</p> + +<p>The Abbé was silent, shaking his head. Then he went on,—</p> + +<p>"To return to my subject—I was naturally somewhat hurt by the coldness +I met with on my arrival at Chartres. As I told you, I had to allay many +apprehensions. But I think I have succeeded. And I thank God, too, for +having given me a valuable supporter in the person of a subordinate +priest of the Cathedral, who has done me invaluable service with my +colleagues—the Abbé Plomb; do you know him?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"He is a highly intelligent priest, very learned, a passionate mystic, +thoroughly acquainted with the Cathedral, of which he has examined every +corner."</p> + +<p>"Ah ha! I am interested in that priest! Perhaps he is one of those I +have already noticed. What is he like?"</p> + +<p>"Short, young, pale, slightly marked with the small-pox, with spectacles +that you may recognize by this peculiarity: the arch which rests on the +nose is shaped like a loop, or, if you choose to say so, like a +horseman's legs astride in the saddle."</p> + +<p>"That man!"—and Durtal, left to himself, thought about the priest whom +he had repeatedly seen in the church or the square.</p> + +<p>"Certainly," said he to himself, "there is always the risk of a mistake +when we judge of people by appearances; but how startling is the truth +of that commonplace remark when applied to the clergy! This Abbé Plomb +looks like a scared sacristan; he goes about gaping at invisible crows, +and he seems so ill at ease, so loutish, so awkward—and this is <!-- Page 39 -->our +learned man and devoted mystic, in love with his Cathedral! Certainly it +is not safe to judge of an Abbé from appearances. Now that it is to be +my fate to live in this clerical world, I must begin by throwing +prejudice overboard, and wait till I know all the priests of the +diocese, before allowing myself to form an opinion of them."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"><!-- Page 40 --></a>CHAPTER III.</h2> + + +<p>"In point of fact," said Durtal to himself as he stood dreaming on the +market-place, "no one exactly knows what was the origin of the Gothic +forms of a cathedral. Archæologists and architects have exhausted +hypotheses and systems in vain; they seem to agree in attributing the +Romanesque to Oriental parentage, and that in fact maybe proven. That +the Romanesque should be an offshoot of the Latin and Byzantine styles, +and be, as Quicherat defines it, 'the style which has ceased to be Roman +and is not yet Gothic, though it already has something of the Gothic,' I +am ready to admit; and indeed, on examining the capitals, and studying +their outline and drawing, we perceive that they are Assyrian or Persian +rather than Roman or Byzantine and Gothic; but as to discovering the +paternity even of the pointed and flamboyant styles, that is quite +another thing. Some writers assert that the pointed arch based on an +equilateral triangle existed in Egypt, Syria, and Persia; others regard +it as descended from Saracen and Arab art; nothing certainly is +provable.</p> + +<p>"Again, it must be clearly stated that the pointed equilateral arch, +which some persons still suppose to be the distinctive characteristic of +an era in architecture, is not so in fact, as Quicherat has very clearly +demonstrated, and, since him, Lecoy de la Marche. The study of archives +has, on this point, completely overset the hobbies of architects, and +demolished the twaddle of the Bonzes. Besides, there is abundant +evidence of the employment of the pointed arch side by side with the +round arch in a perfectly systematic design, in the construction of many +Romanesque churches; in the Cathedrals of Avignon and Fréjus, in Notre +Dame at<!-- Page 41 --> Aries, in Saint Front at Périgueux, at Saint Martin d'Ainay, at +Lyon, in Saint Martin des Champs in Paris, in Saint Etienne at Beauvais, +in the Cathedral of Le Mans; and in Burgundy, at Vézelay, at Beaune, in +Saint Philibert at Dijon, at La Charité-sur-Loire, in Saint Ladre at +Autun, and in most of the basilicas erected by the monastic school of +Cluny.</p> + +<p>"Still, all this throws no light on the lineage of the Gothic, which +remains obscure—possibly because it is perfectly clear; setting aside +the theory which restricts itself to discerning in this question a +merely material and technical problem of stability and resistance, +solved by monks who discovered one fine day that the strength of their +roofs would be increased by the adoption of the mitre-shaped vaulting of +the pointed arch instead of the semicircular arch, would it not seem +that the romantic hypothesis—Chateaubriand's explanation—which was so +much laughed at, and which is nevertheless the simplest and the most +natural, may really be the most obvious and the true one?</p> + +<p>"To me," thought Durtal, "it is almost certain that it was in the forest +that man found the prototype of the nave and the pointed arch. The most +amazing cathedral constructed by Nature herself, with lavish outlay of +the pointed aisle of branches, is at Jumièges. There, close to the +splendid ruins of the Abbey, where the two towers are still intact, +while the roofless nave, carpeted with flowers, ends in a chancel of +foliage shut in by an apse of trees, three vast aisles of centenary +boles extend in parallel lines; one in the middle, very wide, the two +others, one on each side, somewhat narrower; they exactly represent a +church nave with its two side aisles, upheld by black columns and roofed +with verdure. The ribs of the arches are accurately represented by the +branches which meet above, as the columns which support them are +simulated by the great shafts. It must be seen in winter, with the +groining outlined and powdered with snow, and the pillars as white as +the trunks of birch-trees, to understand the primitive idea, the seed of +art which could give rise in the mind of an architect to the conception +of similar arcades, and lead to the gradual refining of the Romanesque +till the pointed arch had entirely superseded the round.</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 42 -->And there is not a park, whether older or more recent than the groves +of Jumièges, which does not exhibit the same forms with equal +exactitude; but what Nature could not give was the prodigious art, the +deep symbolical knowledge, the over-strung but tranquil mysticism of the +believers who erected cathedrals. But for them the church in its +rough-hewn state, as Nature had formed it, was but a soulless thing, a +sketch, rudimentary; the embryo only of a basilica, varying with the +seasons and the days, at once living and inert, awaking only to the +roaring organ of the wind, the swaying roof of boughs wrung with the +slightest breath; it was lax and often sullen; the yielding victim of +the breeze, the resigned slave of the rain; it was lighted only by the +sunshine that filtered between the diamond and heart-shaped leaves, as +if through the meshes of a green network. Man's genius collected the +scattered gleams, condensed them in roses and broad blades, to pour it +into his avenues of white shafts; and even in the darkest weather the +glass was splendid, catching the very last rays of sunset, dressing +Christ and the Virgin in the most fabulous magnificence, and almost +realizing on earth the only attire that beseems the glorified Body, a +robe of mingled flame.</p> + +<p>"Really, when you come to think of it, a cathedral is a superhuman +thing!</p> + +<p>"Starting in our lands from the old Roman crypt, from the vault, crushed +like the soul by humility and fear, and bowed before the infinite +Majesty whose praise they hardly dared to sing, the churches gradually +waxed bolder; they gave an upward spring to the semicircular arch, +lengthening it to an almond shape, leaping from the earth, uplifting +roofs, heightening naves, breaking out into a thousand sculptured forms +all round the choir, and flinging heavenward, like prayers, their +rapturous piles of stones! They symbolized the loving tenderness of +orisons; they became more trusting, more playful, more daring in the +sight of God.</p> + +<p>"Each and all seemed to smile, as soon as they gave up their dismal +skeleton and strove upwards.</p> + +<p>"The Romanesque, I fancy, must have been born old," Durtal went on after +a pause. "At any rate it has always remained gloomy and timid.</p> + +<p>"Although at Jumièges, for instance, it has attained <!-- Page 43 -->grandiose +dimensions with its enormous span opening like a vast portal to the sky, +it still is depressing. The semicircular arch, in fact, bends to the +earth, for it has not the point, soaring upwards, of the lancet arch.</p> + +<p>"Oh! to think of the tears, the dolorous murmurs of those thick +partitions, those smoky vaults, those arches resting on squat pillars, +those almost speechless blocks of stone, those sober ornaments +expressing their symbolism so curtly! The Romanesque is the La Trappe of +architecture; we find it sheltering the austerest Orders, the sternest +Brotherhoods, kneeling in ashes, and chanting in an undertone with bowed +heads none but penitential Psalms. These massive cellars speak of the +fear of sin, but also of the dread of a God whose wrath could only be +appeased by the Advent of the Son. The Romanesque seems to have +preserved from its Oriental origin an element antedating the Birth of +Christ; prayer seems to rise there to the implacable Adonaï rather than +to the pitying Infant, the gentle Mother. The Gothic, on the contrary, +is less timid, more captivated by the two other Persons and the Virgin; +it is the home of less rigorous and more artistic Orders. Bowed +shoulders are straightened, downcast eyes are raised, sepulchral voices +become seraphic. It is, in fact, the expansion of the spirit, while the +Romanesque symbolizes its repression. At least, to me, that is the +interpretation of these styles," Durtal repeated to himself.</p> + +<p>"Nor is that all," he went on. "Yet another distinction may be deduced +from these observations.</p> + +<p>"The Romanesque is allegorical of the Old Testament, as the Gothic is of +the New.</p> + +<p>"The parallel, when you consider it, is exact. Is not the Bible—the +inflexible Book of Jehovah, the awful Code of the Father, well expressed +by the stern and penitential Romanesque; and the consoling, tender +Gospel by the Gothic, full of effusiveness and invitation, full of +humble hope?</p> + +<p>"If the symbols are these, it would seem that time very often plays the +part of man's purpose in evolving the completed idea and uniting the two +styles, as, in Holy Scripture, the two Books are united; thus certain +cathedrals present a very curious result. Some, austere at their birth, +are cheerful and even smiling as they are completed. All that is <!-- Page 44 -->left +of the old Abbey church of Cluny is from this point of view a typical +instance. This, next to that of Paray-le-Monial, which remains entire, +is undoubtedly one of the most magnificent examples of the Burgundian +Romanesque, which, with its fluted pilasters, unfortunately betrays the +distressing tradition of Greek art imported into France by the Romans. +Still, allowing that these basilicas—which may have been built between +the eleventh and thirteenth centuries—are purely Romanesque, as +Quicherat opines, mentioning them as examples, their structure is +already of a mingled type, and the joyousness of the vaulted arch is +already to be seen there.</p> + +<p>"Nor have we here, as at Notre Dame la Grande at Poitiers, a Romanesque +façade, minutely elaborate, flanked at each wing by a low tower +supporting a heavy stone spire cut into facets, like a pine-apple. At +Paray there is none of the puerile ornament and heavy richness that we +see at Poitiers. The barbaric dress of the little toy church of Notre +Dame la Grande gives way to the winding-sheet of a flat wall, but the +exterior is none the less remarkably impressive with its solemn +simplicity of outline. And those two square towers, pierced with narrow +windows and overlooked by a round tower resting so calmly, so firmly on +an open arcade of columns joined by round arches, are a belfry at once +dignified and rustic, spirited and strong.</p> + +<p>"And the august simplicity of the exterior is repeated in the interior +of the church.</p> + +<p>"Here, however, the Romanesque has already lost its crushed, crypt-like +character, its obscure aspect as of a Persian cellar. The strong +structural lines are the same; the capitals still display the +inflorescence of Mussulman involutions, the fabulous entanglements of +Assyrian patterns, reminiscences of Asiatic art transplanted to our +soil; but we already see the union of dissimilar bays; columns struggle +upwards, pillars are taller, the wide arches are less rigid, and have a +lighter and longer trajectory; and the plain walls, enormous but already +light, are pierced at prodigious heights with holes admitting the day.</p> + +<p>"At Paray the round arch is to be seen in harmony with the pointed arch +which appears in the higher summits of the structure, announcing the +advent of a less plaintive phase of the soul, a tenderer and less harsh +idea of Christ, <!-- Page 45 -->who is preparing, and already revealing, the Mother's +indulgent smile.</p> + +<p>"But then," said Durtal, suddenly, to himself, "if my theories are +correct, the architecture which could, by itself alone, symbolize +Catholicism as a whole, and represent the complete Bible in both +Testaments, must be either Romanesque with the pointed arch, or a +transition style, half Romanesque and half Gothic.</p> + +<p>"The deuce!" thought he, thus led to an unforeseen conclusion. "To be +sure, it is not necessary perhaps that the church itself should offer so +complete a parallel, or that the Old and New Testaments should be bound +up in one volume; here, indeed, at Chartres the work, though integral, +is in two separate volumes, since the crypt on which the Gothic church +rests is Romanesque. Nay, it is thus even more symbolical, and it +emphasizes the idea of the windows in which the prophets bear on their +shoulders the four Evangelists; once more the Old Testament appears as +the base, the foundation of the New.</p> + +<p>"What a fulcrum for dreams is this Romanesque!" Durtal went on. "Is it +not also the smoke-stained shrine, the gloomy retreat, constructed for +black Virgins? This seems all the less doubtful because all the +Mauresque Virgins are thick-set and heavy; they are not sylphs, like the +fair Virgins of Gothic art. The Byzantine School conceived of Mary as +swarthy, 'of the hue of polished brown ebony,' as the old historians +say; only, in opposition to the text in Canticles, it painted or carved +Her as black, indeed, but not comely. Thus figured, She is truly a +gloomy Virgin, eternally sorrowing, in harmony with the Romanesque +catacombs. Her presence naturally beseems the crypt of Chartres; but in +the Cathedral itself, on the pillar where She stands to this day, does +She not appear strange? For She is not in Her true home under the +soaring white vault."</p> + +<p>"Well, our friend, you are dreaming!"</p> + +<p>Durtal started like a man roused from sleep.</p> + +<p>"Ah! It is you, Madame Bavoil?"</p> + +<p>"To be sure. I am going home from market, and from your lodgings."</p> + +<p>"From my lodgings?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, to invite you to breakfast. The Abbé Plomb's <!-- Page 46 -->housekeeper is to be +out this afternoon, so he is coming to take his morning meal with us; +and the Father thought it would be a good opportunity to make you +acquainted."</p> + +<p>"I am much obliged to him; but I must go home and tell Mother Mesurat, +that she may not cook my cutlet."</p> + +<p>"You need not do that, as I have just come from her; not finding you, I +left word and told Madame Mesurat. Are you still satisfied with her?"</p> + +<p>"Once upon a time," said he, laughing, "I had, to manage my house in +Paris, one Sieur Rateau, a drunkard of the first class, who turned +everything upside down, and led the furniture a life! Now I have this +worthy woman, who sets to work on a different system, but the results +are identically the same. She works by persuasion and gentle means; she +does not overthrow the furniture, or bellow as she turns the mattress, +or rush at the wall with a broom as if she were charging with fixed +bayonet; no, she quietly collects the dust and stirs it round and ends +by piling it in little heaps that she hides in the corners of the rooms; +she does not rummage the bed, but restricts herself to patting it with +the tip of her fingers, stroking the creases out of the sheets, puffing +up the pillows and coaxing them out of their hollows. The man turned +everything topsy-turvy; she moves nothing."</p> + +<p>"Well, well; but she is a good woman!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, and in spite of it all, I am glad to have her."</p> + +<p>As they talked they had reached the entrance to the Bishop's residence. +They went through a little gate by the lodge into a large forecourt +strewn with small river pebbles, in front of a vast building of the +seventeenth century. There were no flowers of stone-work, no sculpture, +no decorative doorways—nothing but a frontage of shabby brick and +stone, a bare, uninviting structure evidently neglected, with tall +windows, behind which the shutters could be seen, painted grey. The +entrance was on the level of the first floor; double outside steps led +up to the door, and under the landing, in the arch below, there was a +glass door, through which, framed in the square, could be seen the +trunks of trees beyond.</p> + +<p>This courtyard was bordered with tall poplars, which the late Bishop, +who had frequented the Tuileries, used to speak of with a smile as his +hundred guards.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 47 -->Madame Bavoil and Durtal crossed this forecourt, sloping to the left +towards a wing of the building, roofed with slate.</p> + +<p>There, on the first floor, with only a loft above lighted by round +dormers, lived the Abbé Gévresin.</p> + +<p>They went up a narrow staircase with a rusty iron balustrade. The walls +were trickling with damp, they secreted drops, distilled spots like +black coffee; the steps were worn hollow, and thin at the ends like +spoons; they led up to a door smeared yellow, with a cast-iron knob as +black as ink. A copper ring swung in the wind at the end of a bell-rope, +knocking the chipped plaster of the wall. An indescribable smell of +stale apples and stagnant water came up the middle of the staircase from +the little outer hall below, which was paved with rows of bricks set on +edge, eaten into patterns like madrepores, while the ceiling looked like +a map, furrowed with seas that were traced in yellow by the soaking +through of the rain.</p> + +<p>And the Abbé's little apartment, lately "done up" with a vile +red-checked paper, reeked of the tomb. It was evident that under the +shadow of the Cathedral that overhung this wing no sunshine ever dried +the walls, of which the skirting boards were rotting into powder like +brown sugar, crumbling slowly, on the icy cold polish of the floor.</p> + +<p>"How sad to see an old man, a victim to rheumatism, housed here!" +thought Durtal.</p> + +<p>When he went into the Abbé's room, he found the chill somewhat taken off +by a large coke fire; the priest was reading his breviary, wrapped in a +wadded gown, close to the window, of which he had drawn back the blind +to see a little better.</p> + +<p>This room was furnished with a small iron bedstead hung with white +cotton curtains looped back by bands of red cretonne; opposite the bed +were a table covered with a cloth, and on it a desk, and a prie-dieu +below a Crucifix nailed to the wall; the remainder of the room was +fitted with bookshelves up to the ceiling. Three arm-chairs, such as are +nowhere to be seen nowadays but in religious houses or seminaries, made +of walnut wood with straw bottoms like church chairs, were set round the +table, and two more, with round rush mats for the feet, stood one on +each side of the <!-- Page 48 -->fireplace. On the chimney-shelf was an Empire clock +between two vases, and from these rose the faded stems of some dried +grasses stuck upright into sand.</p> + +<p>"Come to the fire," said the Abbé, "for in spite of the brazier it is +fearfully cold."</p> + +<p>And in answer to Durtal, who spoke of his rheumatism, he resignedly +shrugged his shoulders.</p> + +<p>"All the residence is the same," said he. "Monseigneur, who is almost a +cripple, could not find a single dry room in the whole palace. Heaven +forgive me, but I believe his rooms are even damper than mine. In point +of fact there ought to be hot-air pipes all over the place, and it will +never be done for lack of money."</p> + +<p>"But at any rate Monseigneur might have stoves put into the rooms, here +and there."</p> + +<p>"He!" cried the Abbé, laughing, "but he has no private means whatever. +He draws a stipend of ten thousand francs a year and not another penny; +for there is no endowment at Chartres, and the revenue from the fees on +the ecclesiastical Acts is nothing. In this rich, but irreligious town +he can hope for no assistance; the gardener and porter are paid by him; +he is obliged for economy's sake to employ Sisters from a convent as +cook and linen-keeper. Add to that his inability to keep a carriage, so +that he has to hire a conveyance for his pastoral rounds. And how much +then do you suppose he has left to live on, if you deduct his charities? +Why, he is poorer than you or I!"</p> + +<p>"But then Chartres is the fag end of Church preferment, a mere raft for +the shipwrecked and starving."</p> + +<p>"Thou hast said! Bishop, canons, priests, everybody here is +poverty-stricken."</p> + +<p>The bell rang, and Madame Bavoil showed in the Abbé Plomb. Durtal +recognized him. He looked even more scared than usual; he bowed, backing +away, and did not know what to do with his hands, which he buried in his +sleeves.</p> + +<p>By the end of half an hour, when he was more at his ease, he expanded +into smiles, and at last he talked; Durtal, much surprised, saw that the +Abbé Gévresin was right. This priest was highly intelligent and +well-informed, and what made the man even more attractive was his +perfect freedom from the want of breeding, the narrow <!-- Page 49 -->ideas, the goody +nonsense which make intercourse so difficult with the ecclesiastics in +literary circles.</p> + +<p>They had settled themselves in the dining-room, as dismal a room as the +rest, but warmer, for an earthenware stove was roaring and puffing hot +gusts from its open ventilators.</p> + +<p>When they had eaten their boiled eggs, the conversation, hitherto +discursive as to subject, turned on the Cathedral.</p> + +<p>"It is the fifth erection over a Druidical cave," said the Abbé Plomb. +"It has a strange history.</p> + +<p>"The first, built at the time of the Apostles by Bishop Aventinus, was +razed to the ground. Rebuilt by another Bishop named Castor, it was +partly burnt down by Hunaldus Duke of Aquitaine, then restored by +Godessaldus; again injured by fire, by Hastings, the Norman chief; +repaired once more by Gislebert, and finally destroyed utterly by +Richard Duke of Normandy when he sacked the city after the siege.</p> + +<p>"We have no very authentic records of these two basilicas; at most are +we certain that the Roman Governor of the land of Chartres completely +destroyed the first and at the same time slaughtered a great number of +Christians, among them his own daughter Modesta, throwing the corpses +into a well dug near the cave, and thence known as <i>le Puits des Saints +Forts</i>.</p> + +<p>"A third fabric, built by Bishop Vulphardus, was burnt down in 1020, +when Fulbert was Bishop, and he founded the fourth Cathedral. This was +blasted by lightning in 1194; nothing remained but the two belfries and +the crypt.</p> + +<p>"The fifth structure, finally, built in the reign of Philippe Auguste, +when Régnault de Mouçon was Bishop of Chartres, is that we still see; it +was consecrated on the 17th of October, 1260, in the presence of Saint +Louis. This again has passed through the fire. In 1506 the northern +spire was struck by lightning; the structure was of wood covered with +lead; a terrific storm raged from six in the evening till four in the +morning, fanning the fire to such violence that the six bells were +melted like cakes of wax. The flames were, however kept within limits, +and the church was refitted. But the scourge returned many times; in +1539, in 1573, and in 1589 lightning fell on the <!-- Page 50 -->new belfry. Then a +century elapsed before the visitation was repeated; in 1701 the same +spire was struck again.</p> + +<p>"It then stood uninjured till 1825, when a thunder-bolt fell and shook +it severely on Whit Monday while the <i>Magnificat</i> was being chanted at +Vespers.</p> + +<p>"Finally, on the 4th of June, 1836, a tremendous fire broke out, caused +by the carelessness of two plumbers working under the roof. It lasted +eleven hours, and destroyed all the timbers, the whole forest that +supported the roof; it was by a miracle that the church was not entirely +consumed in this fury of fire."</p> + +<p>"You must allow, Monsieur, that there is something strange in this +disaster without respite."</p> + +<p>"Yes, and what is still more strange," said the Abbé Gévresin, "Is the +persistency of fire from heaven, bent on destroying it."</p> + +<p>"How do you account for that?" asked Durtal.</p> + +<p>"Sébastien Rouillard, the author of <i>Parthénie</i>, believes that these +visitations were permitted as a punishment for certain sins, and he +insinuates that the conflagration of the third Cathedral was justified +by the misconduct of some pilgrims who at that time slept in the nave, +men and women together. Others believe that the Devil, who can command +the lightning, was bent on suppressing this sanctuary at any cost."</p> + +<p>"But why, then, did not the Virgin protect Her particular church more +effectually?"</p> + +<p>"You may observe that She has several times preserved it from being +utterly reduced to cinders; however, it is, all the same, very strange +when we remember that Chartres is the first place where the Virgin was +worshipped in France. It goes back to Messianic times, for, long before +Joachim's daughter was born, the Druids had erected, in the cave which +has become our crypt, an altar to the Virgin who should bear a +child—<i>Virgini Pariturae</i>. They, by a sort of grace, had intuitive +foreknowledge of a Saviour whose Mother should be spotless; thus it +would seem that at Chartres, above all places, there are very ancient +bonds of affection with Mary. This makes it very natural that Satan +should be bent on breaking them."</p> + +<p>"Do you know," said Durtal, "that this grotto is prefigured in the Old +Testament by a human structure of <!-- Page 51 -->almost official character? In her +"Life of Our Lord," that exquisite visionary, Catherine Emmerich, tells +us that there was, hard by Mount Carmel, a grotto with a well, near +which Elias saw a Virgin; and it was to this spot, she says, that the +Jews who expected the Advent of the Redeemer made pilgrimages many times +a year.</p> + +<p>"Is not this the prototype of the cave of Chartres and the well of the +Strong Saints?</p> + +<p>"Observe, too, on the other hand, the tendency of the thunder to fall, +not on the old belfry, but on the new one. No meteorological reason, I +suppose, can account for this preference; but on carefully considering +the two spires, I am struck by the delicate foliage, the slender +lacework of the new spire, the elegant and coquettish grace of the whole +of that side. The other, on the contrary, has no ornament, no carved +tracery; it is simply carved in scallops like scale armour; it is sober, +stern, stalwart and strong. It might really almost be thought that one +is female and the other of the male sex. And then might we not conclude +that the first is symbolical of the Virgin and the second of Her Son? In +that case my inference would be akin to that offered to us by Monsieur +l'Abbé: the fires are to be ascribed to Satan, who would wreak himself +on the image of Her who has the power to crush his head."</p> + +<p>"Pray have a slice of beef, our friend," said Madame Bavoil, coming in +with a bottle in her hands.</p> + +<p>"No, thank you."</p> + +<p>"And you, Monsieur l'Abbé?"</p> + +<p>The Abbé Plomb bowed, but declined.</p> + +<p>"Why, you eat nothing!"</p> + +<p>"What! I? I may even confess that I am rather ashamed of having eaten so +heartily, after reading this morning the life of Saint Laurence of +Dublin, who, by way of food, was content to dip his bread in the water +clothes had been washed in."</p> + +<p>"Why?"</p> + +<p>"Well, in order to be able to say with the Prophet-King that he fed on +ashes—since ashes are used for lye; that is a penitential banquet which +is very unlike that we have just consumed," he added, laughing.</p> + +<p>"Well, my dear Madame Bavoil, that puts even you to shame," said the +Abbé Gévresin. "You are not yet covetous <!-- Page 52 -->of so meagre a feast; you are +really quite dainty! You must have milk or water to dip your sop in!"</p> + +<p>"Dear me," said Durtal, "by way of high feeding I can improve on that. I +remember reading in an old book the story of the Blessed Catherine of +Cardona, who, without using her hands, cropped the grass, on her knees, +among the asses."</p> + +<p>It had not struck Madame Bavoil that the friends were speaking in fun, +and she replied quite humbly,—</p> + +<p>"God Almighty has never yet required me to strew my bread with ashes or +to graze the field—if He should give me the order, I should certainly +obey it.—But it does not matter."</p> + +<p>And she was so far from enthusiastic that they all laughed.</p> + +<p>"Then the Cathedral as a whole," said the Abbé Gévresin after a short +silence, "dates from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, excepting, of +course, the new spire and numerous details."</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"And the names of the architects are unknown?"</p> + +<p>"As are those of almost all the builders of great churches," replied the +Abbé Plomb. "It may, however, be safely assumed that during the twelfth +and thirteenth centuries the Benedictines of the Abbey of Tiron directed +the building of our church, for that monastery had established a House +at Chartres in 1117; we also know that this convent contained more than +five hundred Brothers practising all the arts, and that sculptors, +image-makers, stone-cutters, or workers in pierced stone, were numerous. +It would therefore seem very natural that these monks sent to live at +Chartres were the men who drew the plans of Notre Dame, and employed the +horde of artists whom we see represented in one of the old windows of +the apse—men in furred caps shaped like a jelly bag, who are busily +carving and polishing the statues of kings.</p> + +<p>"Their work was finished at the beginning of the sixteenth century by +Jehan Le Texier, known as Jehan de Beauce, who erected the northern +belfry, called the New Belfry, and the decorative work inside the +church, forming the niches for the groups on the walls of the +choir-aisles or ambulatory."</p> + +<p>"And has no one ever been able to discover the name of <!-- Page 53 -->any one of the +original architects, sculptors, or glass-makers of this Cathedral?"</p> + +<p>"It has been the subject of much research, and I, personally, may say +that I have grudged neither time nor trouble, but all in vain.</p> + +<p>"This much we know: At the top of the southern belfry, the Old Belfry as +it is called, near the window-bay looking towards the New Belfry, this +name was deciphered: 'Harman, 1164.' Is it that of an architect, of a +workman, or of a night watchman on the look-out at that time in the +tower? We can but wonder. Didron, again, discovered on the pilaster of +the eastern porch, above the head of a butcher slaughtering an ox, the +word 'Rogerus' in twelfth century characters. Was he the architect, the +sculptor, the donor of this porch—or the butcher? Another signature, +'Robir,' is to be seen on the pedestal of a statue in the north porch. +Who was Robir? None can say.</p> + +<p>"Langlois, too, mentions a glass-worker of the thirteenth century, +Clément of Chartres, whose signature he found on a window of the +Cathedral at Rouen—<i>Clement Vitrearius Carnutensis</i>; but it is a wide +leap to infer, as some would do, that merely because this Clément was a +native of Chartres, he must have painted one or more of the glass +pictures in Notre Dame here. And at any rate we have no information as +to his life or his works in this city. It may also be remarked that on a +pane in our church we read <i>Petrus Bal ...;</i> is this the name, complete +or defaced, of a donor or of a painter? Once more we must confess +ourselves ignorant.</p> + +<p>"If I add to this that two of Jehan de Beauce's colleagues have been +traced: Thomas Le Vasseur, who assisted him in the building of the new +spire, and one Sieur Bernier, whose name occurs in ancient accounts; +that from some old contracts, discovered by Monsieur Lecoq, we know that +Jehan Soulas, image-maker, of Paris, carved the finest of the groups +that are the glory of the choir-aisles, and can verify the names of +other sculptors who succeeded this admirable artist, but who are less +interesting, since with them pagan art reappears and mediocrity is +evident: François Marchant, image-maker, of Orleans, and Nicolas +Guybert, of Chartres—we have mentioned almost all the records worthy of +preservation as to the great artists who <!-- Page 54 -->laboured at Chartres from the +twelfth till the close of the first half of the fifteenth century."</p> + +<p>"And after that period the names that have been handed down to us +deserve nothing but execration. Thomas Boudin, Legros, Jean de Dieu, +Berruer, Tuby, Simon Mazières—these were the men that dared to carry on +the work begun by Soulas! Louis, the Duc d'Orléans' architect, who +debased and ravaged the choir, and the infamous Bridan, who, to the +contemptible delight of some of the Canons, erected his blatant and +wretched presentment of the Assumption!"</p> + +<p>"Alas!" said the Abbé Gévresin, "and they were Canons who thought fit to +break two ancient windows in the choir and fill them with white panes, +the better to light that group of Bridan's!"</p> + +<p>"Will you eat nothing more?" asked Madame Bavoil, who, at a negative +from the guests, cleared away the cheese and preserves, and brought in +coffee.</p> + +<p>"Since you are so much charmed by our Cathedral, I shall be most happy +to take you over it and explain its details," said the Abbé Plomb to +Durtal.</p> + +<p>"I shall accept with pleasure, Monsieur l'Abbé, for it fairly haunts me, +it possesses me—your Notre Dame! You know, no doubt, Quicherat's +theories of Gothic art?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, and I believe them to be correct. Like him, I am convinced that if +the essential character of the Romanesque is the substitution of the +vaulted roof for the truss, the distinctive element and principle of the +Gothic is the buttress, and not the pointed arch.</p> + +<p>"I reserve my opinion, indeed, as to the accuracy of Quicherat's +declaration that 'the history of architecture in the middle ages is no +more than the history of the struggle of architects against the thrust +and weight of vaulting,' for there is something in this art beyond +material industry and a problem of practice; at the same time he is +certainly right on almost every point.</p> + +<p>"It may be added as a general principle, that in our use of the terms +Ogee and Gothic, we are misapplying words which have lost their original +meaning; since the Goths have nothing to do with the style of +architecture which has taken their name, and the word ogee or ogyve, +which strictly means the semicircular form, is inaccurate as <!-- Page 55 -->applied to +the arch with a double curve, which has for so long been regarded as the +basis, nay, as the characteristic stamp of a style."<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1" /><a href="#Footnote_1_1"><sup>[1]</sup></a></p> + +<p>"After all," the Abbé went on, after a short silence, "how can we judge +of the works of a past age, but by such help as we may obtain from the +arcades pierced in shoring walls or from vaulting on round or pointed +arches? for they are all debased by centuries of repair, or left +unfinished. Look at Chartres; Notre Dame was to have had nine spires, +and it has but two! The cathedrals of Reims, of Paris, of Laon, and many +more, were to have had spires rising from their towers; and where are +they? We can form no exact idea of the effect their architects intended +to produce. And then, again, these churches were meant to be seen in a +setting which has been destroyed, an environment that has ceased to +exist; they were surrounded by houses of a character resembling their +own; they are now in the midst of barracks five stories high, gloomy, +ignoble penitentiaries!—and we constantly see the ground about them +cleared, when they were never intended to stand isolated on a square. +Look where you will, there is a total misapprehension of the conditions +in which they were placed, of the atmosphere in which they lived. +Certain details, which seem to us inexplicable in some of these +buildings, were, no doubt, imperatively required by the position and +needs of the surroundings. In fact, we stumble, we feel our way—but we +know nothing—nothing!"</p> + +<p>"And at best," said Durtal, "archæology and architecture have only done +a secondary work; they have simply set before us the material organism, +the body of the cathedrals; who shall show us the soul?"</p> + +<p>"What do you mean by the word?" said the Abbé Gévresin.</p> + +<p>"I am not speaking of the soul of the building at the moment when man by +Divine help had created it; we know nothing of that soul—not indeed as +regards Chartres, for some invaluable documents still reveal it; but of +the soul of other churches, the soul they still have, and which <!-- Page 56 -->we help +to keep alive by our more or less regular presence, our more or less +frequent communion, our more or less fervent prayers.</p> + +<p>"For instance, take Notre Dame at Paris; I know that it has been +restored and patched from end to end, that its sculpture is mended where +it is not quite new; in spite of Hugo's rhetoric it is second-rate, but +it has its nave and its wondrous transept; it is even endowed with an +ancient statue of the Virgin before which Monsieur Olier had knelt, and +very often. Well, an attempt was made to revive there the worship of Our +Lady, to incite a spirit of pilgrimage thither; but all is dead! That +Cathedral no longer has a soul; it is an inert corpse of stone; try +attending Mass there, try to approach the Holy Table—you will feel an +icy cloak fall on you and crush you. Is it the result of its emptiness, +of its torpid services, of the froth of runs and trills they send up +there, of its being closed in a hurry in the evening and never open till +so late in the morning, long after daybreak? Or has it something to do +with the permitted rush of tourists, of London gapers that I have seen +there talking at the top of their voice, sitting staring at the altar +when the Holy Elements were being consecrated just in front of them? I +know not—but of one thing I am certain, the Virgin does not inhabit +there day and night and always, as she does Chartres.</p> + +<p>"Look at Amiens, again, with its colourless windows and crude daylight, +its chapels enclosed behind tall railings, its silence rarely broken by +prayer, its solitude. There too is emptiness; and why I know not, but to +me the place exhales a stale odour of Jansenism. I am not at large +there, and prayer is difficult; and yet the nave is magnificent, and the +sculptures in the ambulatory, finer even than those of Chartres, may be +pronounced unique.</p> + +<p>"But here, too, the soul is absent.</p> + +<p>"It is the same with the Cathedral of Laon—bare, ice-bound, dead past +hope; while some are in an intermediate state, dying, but not yet cold: +Reims, Rouen, Dijon, Tours, and Le Mans for instance; even in these +there is some refreshment; and Bourges, with its five porches opening on +a long perspective of aisles, and its vast deserted spaces; or Beauvais, +a melancholy fragment, having no more than a head and arms flung out in +despair like an appeal for ever <!-- Page 57 -->ignored by Heaven, have still preserved +some of the aroma of olden days. Meditation is possible there; but +nowhere, nowhere is there such comfort as there is here, nowhere is +prayer so fervent as at Chartres!"</p> + +<p>"Those are heaven-sent words!" cried Madame Bavoil. "And you shall have +a glass of old black currant liqueur for your pains! Yes, indeed, he is +quite right—our friend is right," she went on, addressing the priests, +who laughed. "Everywhere else, excepting at Notre Dame des Victoires in +Paris and, more especially, Notre Dame de Fourvière at Lyon, when you go +to meet Her, you wait and wait; and often enough She does not come. +Whereas in our Cathedral She receives you at once, just as She is. And I +have told him, told our friend, that he should attend the first morning +Mass in the crypt, and he will see what a welcome our Mother gives her +visitors."</p> + +<p>"Chartres is a marvellous place," said the Abbé Gévresin, "with its two +black Madonnas—Notre Dame of the Pillar, above in the body of the +church, and Notre Dame de Sous-Terre below, in the vault over which the +basilica is built. No other sanctuary, I believe, possesses the +miraculous images of Mary, to say nothing of the antique relic known as +the Shift or Tunic of the Virgin."</p> + +<p>"And what in your opinion constitutes the soul of Chartres?" asked the +Abbé Plomb.</p> + +<p>"Certainly not the souls of the citizens' wives and the church servants +that are poured out there," replied Durtal. "No, its vitality comes from +the Sisterhoods, the peasant women, the pious schools, the pupils of the +Seminary, and perhaps more especially from the children of the choir, +who crowd to kiss the Pillar and kneel before the Black Virgin. As for +the devotion of the respectable classes! It would scare away the +angels!"</p> + +<p>"With a few rare exceptions the fine flower of female Pharisaism is no +doubt the outcome of that class," said the Abbé Plomb, and he added in a +half jesting, half sorrowful tone,—</p> + +<p>"And I, here at Chartres, am the distressful gardener of these souls!"</p> + +<p>"To return to our starting point," said the Abbé Gévresin: "what was the +birthplace of the Gothic?"</p> + +<p>"France: so Lecoy de la Marche emphatically asserts.<!-- Page 58 --> 'The buttress made +its appearance as the essential basis of a style in the early years of +Louis le Gros, in the district lying between the Seine and the Aisne.' +In his opinion the first practice of this form was in the Cathedral of +Laon; other authorities regard it as merely supplementary to earlier +basilicas, instancing Saint-Front at Périgueux, Vézelay, Saint-Denis, +Noyon, and the ancient college chapel at Poissy; but no two agree. One +thing is certain, Gothic art is the art of the North; it made its way +into Normandy, and from thence into England. Then it spread to the Rhine +in the twelfth century, and to Spain by the beginning of the thirteenth. +Gothic churches in the South are but an importation, evidently +ill-assorted with the men and women who frequent them, and the merciless +blue sky which spoils them."</p> + +<p>"And observe," said Durtal, "that in our country that aspect of +mysticism is discordant with the rest."</p> + +<p>"How is that?"</p> + +<p>"Well, you see, in the distribution of the sacred arts France received +architecture only. Consider the pre-Raphaelite painters. All the early +painters were Italians, Spaniards, Flemings, or Germans. Those whom some +writers try to represent as our fellow-countrymen are Flemings +transplanted to Burgundy, or docile Frenchmen whose imitative work bears +an unmistakable Flemish stamp. Look in the Louvre at our primitive +artists; look at Dijon, especially at what remains from the time when +northern art was introduced by Philippe le Hardi into his own province. +It is impossible to feel a doubt. Everything came from Flanders—Jean +Perréal, Bourdichon, even Fouquet are whatever you please, only not the +inventors of an original Gallic art.</p> + +<p>"It is the same with the mystic writers. Of what use would it be to +mention the nationalities to which they belong? They too are Spanish, +Italian, German, Flemish—not one is French."</p> + +<p>"I beg your pardon, our friend!" cried Madame Bavoil, "there was the +Venerable Jeanne de Matel, who was born at Roanne."</p> + +<p>"Yes, but she was the daughter of an Italian father who was born at +Florence," said the Abbé Gévresin, who, hearing the bell ring for Nones, +now folded up his table napkin.<!-- Page 59 --> They all stood up and said grace, and +Durtal made an appointment with the Abbé Plomb to visit the Cathedral. +Then he went home, meditating, as he walked, on this strange division of +art in the middle ages, and the supremacy given to France in +architecture, when as yet she was so inferior in every other art.</p> + +<p>"And it must be owned," he concluded, "that she has now lost this +superiority; for it is long indeed since she produced an architect. The +men who assume the name are mere thieving bunglers, builders devoid of +all individuality and learning. They are not even able to pilfer +skilfully from their precursors. What are they nowadays? Patchers up of +chapels, church cobblers, botchers and blunderers!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"><!-- Page 60 --></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + + +<p>Madame Bavoil was right; to understand the welcome the Virgin could +bestow on Her visitors, the early Mass in the crypt must be attended; +above all, the Communion should be received.</p> + +<p>Durtal made the experiment; one day when the Abbé Gévresin enjoined on +him to approach the Table, he followed the housekeeper's advice and went +to the crypt at early dawn.</p> + +<p>The way down was by a cellar-stair lighted by a small lamp with a +sputtering wick darkening the chimney with smoke; having safely reached +the bottom, he turned to the left in the darkness; here and there, at an +angle, a floating wick threw a ruddy light on the circuit which he made +in alternate light and shade, till at last he had some notion of the +general outline of the crypt. Its plan would be fairly represented by +the nave of a wheel whence the spokes radiated in every direction, +joining the outer circle or tyre. From the circular path in which he +found himself passages diverged like the sticks of a fan, and at the end +little fogged glass windows were visible, looking almost bright in the +opaque blackness of the walls.</p> + +<p>And by following the curve of the corridor, Durtal came to a green baize +door which he pushed open. He found himself in the side aisle of a nave +ending in a semicircle, where there was a high altar. To the right and +left two little recesses formed the arms or transept of a small cross. +The centre aisle, forming a low nave, had chairs on either side, leaving +a narrow space to give access to the altar.</p> + +<p>It was scarcely possible to see; the sanctuary was lighted only by tiny +lamps from the roof in little saucers of lurid <!-- Page 61 -->orange or dull gold. An +extraordinarily mild atmosphere prevailed in this underground structure, +which was also full of a singular perfume in which a musty odour of hot +wax mingled with a suggestion of damp earth. But this was only the +background, the canvas, so to speak, of the perfume, and was lost under +the embroidery of fragrance which covered it, the faded gold, as it +were, of oil in which long kept aromatic herbs had been steeped, and +old, old incense powder dissolved. It was a weird and mysterious vapour, +as strange as the crypt itself, which, with its furtive lights and +breadths of shadow, was at once penitential and soothing.</p> + +<p>Durtal went up the broader aisle to the left arm of the cross and sat +down; the tiny transept had its little altar, with a Greek cross in +relief against a purple disk. Overhead the enormous curve of the +vaulting hung heavy, and so low that a man could touch it by stretching +an arm; it was as black as the mouth of a chimney, and scorched by the +fires that had consumed the cathedrals built above it.</p> + +<p>Presently the clap-clap of sabots became audible, and then the smothered +footfall of nuns; there was silence but for sneezing and nose-blowing +stifled by pocket-handkerchiefs, and then all was still.</p> + +<p>A sacristan came in through a little door opening into the other +transept, and lighted the tapers on the high altar; then strings of +silver-gilt hearts became visible in the semicircle all along the walls, +reflecting the blaze of flames, and forming a glory for a statue of the +Virgin sitting, stiff and dark, with a Child on Her knees. This was the +famous Virgin of the Cavern, or rather a copy of it, for the original +was burnt in 1793 in front of the great porch of the Cathedral, amid the +delirious raving of <i>sans-culottes</i>.</p> + +<p>A choir-boy came in, followed by an old priest; and then, for the first +time, Durtal saw the Mass really as a service, and understood the +wonderful beauty that lies inherent in a devout commemoration of the +Sacrifice.</p> + +<p>The boy on his knees, his soul aspiring and his hands clasped, spoke +aloud and slowly, rehearsing the responses of the Psalm with such deep +attention and respect, that the meaning of this noble liturgy, which has +ceased to amaze us, because we are so used to hearing it stammered out +in hot haste, was suddenly revealed to Durtal.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 62 -->And the priest himself, unconsciously, whether he would or no, took up +the child's tone, imitating him, speaking slowly, not merely tripping +the verses off the tip of his tongue, but absorbed in the words he had +to repeat; and he seemed overwhelmed, as though it were his first Mass, +by the grandeur of the rite of which he was to be the instrument.</p> + +<p>In fact, Durtal heard the celebrant's voice tremble when standing before +the altar in the presence of the Father, like the Son Himself whom he +represented, and imploring forgiveness for all the sins of the world +which He bore on His shoulders, supported in his grief and hope by the +innocence of the child whose loving care was less mature and less lively +than the man's.</p> + +<p>And as he spoke the despairing words, "My God, my God, wherefore is my +spirit heavy, and why dost Thou afflict me?" the priest was indeed the +image of Jesus suffering on the hill of Calvary, but the man remained in +the celebrant—the man, conscious of himself, and himself experiencing, +in behoof of his personal sins and his own shortcomings, the impressions +of sorrow contained in the inspired text.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile his little acolyte had words of comfort, bid him hope; and +after repeating the <i>Confiteor</i> in the face of the congregation, who on +their part purified their souls by the same ablution of confession, the +priest with revived assurance went up the altar steps and began the +Mass.</p> + +<p>Positively, in this atmosphere of prayers crushed in by the heavy roof, +Durtal, in the midst of kneeling Sisters and women, was struck with a +sense as of some early Christian rite buried in the catacombs. Here were +the same ecstatic tenderness, the same faith; and it was possible even +to imagine some apprehension of surprise, and some eagerness to profess +the faith in the face of danger. And thus, as in a vague image, this +sacred cellar held the dim picture of the neophytes assembled so long +since in the underground caverns of Rome.</p> + +<p>The service proceeded before Durtal's eyes, and he was amazed to watch +the boy, who, with half closed eyes and the reserve of timid emotion, +kissed the flagons of wine and of water before presenting them to the +priest.</p> + +<p>Durtal would look no more; he tried to concentrate his mind while the +priest was wiping his hands, for the only <!-- Page 63 -->prayers he could honestly +offer up to God were verses and texts repeated in an undertone.</p> + +<p>This only had he in his favour, but this he had: that he passionately +loved mysticism and the liturgy, plain-song and cathedrals. Without +falsehood or self-delusion, he could in all truth exclaim, "Lord, I have +loved the habitation of Thy house, and the place where Thine honour +dwelleth." This was all he had to offer to the Father in expiation of +his contumely and refractoriness, his errors and his falls.</p> + +<p>"Oh!" thought he, "how could I dare to pour out the ready-made collects +of which the prayer-books are full, how say to God, while addressing Him +as 'Lovely Jesus,' that He is the beloved of my heart, that I solemnly +vow never to love anything but Him, that I would die rather than ever +displease Him?</p> + +<p>"Love none but Him!—If I were a monk and alone, possibly; but living in +the world!—And then who but the Saints would prefer death to the +smallest sin? Why then humbug Him with these feints and grimaces?</p> + +<p>"No," said Durtal, "apart from the personal outpourings, the secret +intimacy in which we are bold to tell Him everything that comes into our +head, the prayers of the liturgy alone can be uttered with impunity by +any man, for it is the peculiarity of these inspirations that they adapt +themselves in all ages to every state of the mind and every phase of +life. And with the exception of the time-honoured prayers of certain +Saints, which are as a rule either supplications for pity or for help, +appeals to God's mercy or laments, all other prayers sent forth from the +cold insipid sacristies of the seventeenth century, or, worse still, +composed in our own day by the piety-mongers who insert in our books of +prayer the pious cant of the Rue Bonaparte—all these inflated and +pretentious petitions should be avoided by sinners who, in default of +every other virtue, at least wish to be sincere.</p> + +<p>"Only that wonderful child could thus address the Lord without +hypocrisy," he went on, looking at the little acolyte, and understanding +truly for the first time what innocent childhood meant—the little +sinless soul, purely white.</p> + +<p>"The Church, which tries to find beings absolutely <!-- Page 64 -->ingenuous and +immaculate to wait upon the altar, had succeeded at Chartres in moulding +souls and transforming ordinary boys on their admission to the sanctuary +into exquisite angels. There must certainly be, above and besides their +special training, some blessing and goodwill from Our Lady, to mould +these little rogues to the service, to make them so unlike others, and +endow them in the middle of the nineteenth century with the fire of +chastity and primitive fervour of the middle age."</p> + +<p>The service proceeded slowly, soaking into the abject silence of the +worshippers, and the child, more reverent and attentive than ever, rang +the bell; it was like a shower of sparks tinkling under the smoky vault, +and the silence seemed deeper than ever behind the kneeling boy, +upholding with one hand the chasuble of the celebrant, who bowed over +the altar. The Host was elevated amid the shower of silver sound; and +then, above the prostrate heads, in the clear sparkle of bells, the +golden tulip of a chalice flashed out till, to a final hurried peal, the +gilded flower was lowered, and the prostrate worshippers looked up.</p> + +<p>And Durtal was thinking,—</p> + +<p>"If only He to whom we refused shelter when the Mother who bore Him was +in travail, could find a loving refuge in our souls to-day! But alas! +apart from these nuns, these children, these priests, and these peasant +women who cherish Him so truly, how many here present are, like me, +embarrassed by His presence, and at all times incapable of making ready +the chamber He requires, of receiving Him in a room swept and garnished?</p> + +<p>"Alas! to think that things are always the same, always going back to +the beginning! Our souls are still the crafty synagogues who betrayed +Him, and the vile Caiaphas that lurks within us rises up at the very +moment when we fain would be humble and love Him while we pray! My God! +My God! Would it not be better to depart than to drag myself thus, with +such a bad grace, into Thy presence? For, after all, it is all very well +for the Abbé Gévresin to insist that I should communicate, he is not +I—he is not in me; he does not know the wild doings in my hidden lairs, +or the turmoil in my ruins. He believes it to be mere nervelessness, +indolence. Alas! That is not all. There is a dryness, a coldness, which +are not altogether <!-- Page 65 -->free from a certain amount of irritation and +rebelliousness against the rules he insists on."</p> + +<p>The moment of Communion was at hand. The little boy had gently thrown +the white napkin back on the table; the nuns and poor women and peasants +went forward, all with clasped hands and bowed heads, and the child took +a taper and passed in front of the priest, his eyes almost shut for fear +of seeing the Host.</p> + +<p>There was in this little creature such a glow of love and reverence that +Durtal gazed with admiration and trembled with awe. Without in the least +knowing why, in the midst of the darkness that fell on his soul, of the +impotent and wavering feeling that thrilled it without there being any +word to describe them, he felt a tide bearing him to the Saviour, and +then a recoil.</p> + +<p>The comparison was inevitably forced upon him between that child's soul +and his own. "Why, it is he, not I, who should take the Sacrament!" +cried he to himself; and he crouched there inert, his hands folded, not +knowing how to decide, in a frame at once beseeching and terrified, when +he felt himself gently drawn to the table and received the Sacrament. +And meanwhile he was trying to collect himself, and to pray, and at the +same time, at the same instant, was in the discomfort of the shuddering +fears that surge up within us, and that find expression physically in a +craving for air, and in that peculiar condition when the head feels as +if it were empty, as if the brain had ceased to act, and all vitality +was driven back on the heart, which swells to choking; when it seems, in +the spiritual sense, that as energy returns so far as to allow of +self-command once more, of introspection, we peer down in appalling +silence into a black void.</p> + +<p>He painfully rose and returned to his place, not without stumbling. +Never, not even at Chartres, had he been able to hinder the torpor that +overpowered him at the moment of receiving the Sacrament. His powers +were benumbed, his faculties arrested.</p> + +<p>In Paris, at the core of his soul, which seemed rolled up in itself like +a chrysalis, there had always been a sort of restraint, an awkwardness +in waiting, and in approaching Christ, and then an apathy which nothing +could shake off. And this state was prolonged in a sort of cold, +enveloping <!-- Page 66 -->mist, or rather in a vacuum all round the soul, deserted and +swooning on its couch.</p> + +<p>At Chartres this state of collapse was still present, but some indulgent +tenderness presently enwrapped and warmed the spirit. The soul as it +recovered was no longer alone; it was encouraged and perceptibly helped +by the Virgin, who revived it. And this impression, peculiar to this +crypt, permeated the body too; it was no longer a feeling of suffocation +for lack of air; on the contrary, it was the oppression of inflation, of +over-fulness, which would be mitigated by degrees, allowing of easy +breathing at last.</p> + +<p>Durtal, comforted and relieved, rose to go. By this time the crypt had +become a little lighter from the growing dawn; the passages, ending in +altars backing against the windows, were still dark, as a result of the +ground plan, but in the perspective of each a moving gold cross was to +be seen almost distinctly, rising and falling with a priest's back, +between two pale stars twinkling one on each side above the tabernacle; +while a third, lower and with redder flame, lighted up the book and the +white napery.</p> + +<p>Durtal wandered away to meditate in the Bishop's garden, where he had +permission to walk whenever he pleased.</p> + +<p>The garden was perfectly still, with tomb-like avenues, pollard poplars, +and trampled lawns—half dead. There was not a flower, for the Cathedral +killed everything under its shadow. Its vast deserted apse, without a +statue, rose amid a flight of buttresses flung out like huge ribs, +inflated as it were by the breath of incessant prayer within; shade and +damp always clung round the spot; in this funereal Close, where the +trees were green only in proportion as they were distant from the +church, lay two microscopic ponds like the mouths of two wells; one +covered to the brim with yellow-green duck-weed, the other full of +brackish water of inky blackness, in which three goldfish lay as in +pickle.</p> + +<p>Durtal was fond of this neglected spot, with its reek of the grave and +the salt marsh, and the mouldy smell, that earthy scent that comes up +from a rotting soil of wet leaves.</p> + +<p>He paced the alleys, where the Bishop never came, and where the children +of the household, rushing about at play, destroyed the fragments of +grass-plots spared by the Cathedral. Slates cracked underfoot, flung +down from the roofs <!-- Page 67 -->by the wind, and the jackdaws croaked in answer to +each other across the silent park.</p> + +<p>Durtal came out on a terrace overlooking the city, and he rested his +elbows on a parapet of grey time-eaten stone, as dry as pumice and +patterned with orange and sulphur-coloured lichens.</p> + +<p>Beneath him spread a valley crowded with smoking chimneys and roofs, +veiling this upper part of the town in a tangle of blue. Further down +all was still and lifeless; the houses were asleep, not so far awake +even as to show the transient flash of glass when a window is thrown +open, nor was there such a spot of red as is often seen in a country +street when an eider-down quilt hangs out to air across the bar of a +balcony; everything was closed and dull and soundless; there was not +even the hive-like hum that hangs over inhabited places. But for the +distant rumble of a cart, the crack of a whip, the bark of a dog, all +was still: it was a town asleep, a land of the dead.</p> + +<p>And beyond the valley, on the further bank, the scene was still more +sullen and silent; the plains of La Beauce stretched away as far as the +eye could reach, mute and melancholy, without a smile, under a heartless +sky divided by an ignoble barrack facing the Cathedral.</p> + +<p>The dreariness of these plains, an endless level without a mound, +without a tree! And you felt that even beyond the horizon they still +stretched away as flat as ever; only the monotony of the landscape was +emphasized by the raging fury of the tempestuous winds, sweeping the +hillside, levelling the tree-tops, and wreaking themselves on this +basilica, which, perched on high, had for centuries defied their +efforts. To uproot it the lightning had been needed to help, firing its +towers, and even the combined attacks of the hurricane and the flames +had been unable to destroy the original stock, which, replanted after +each disaster, had always sprouted in fresh verdure with reinvigorated +growth.</p> + +<p>That morning, in the dawn of a rainy autumn day, lashed by a bitter +north wind, Durtal, shivering and ill at ease, left the terrace and took +refuge in the more sheltered walks, going down presently into a +garden-slope where the brushwood afforded some little protection from +the wind; these shrubberies wandered at random down the hill, and an +inextricable tangle of blackberries clung with the cat's-claws <!-- Page 68 -->of their +long shoots to the saplings that were scattered about.</p> + +<p>It was evident that since some immemorial time the Bishops, for lack of +funds, had neglected these grounds. Of all the old kitchen garden, +overgrown by brambles, only one plot was more or less weeded, and rows +of spinach and carrots alternated with the frosted balls of cabbages.</p> + +<p>Durtal sat down on a stump that had once supported a bench, and tried to +look into his own soul; but he found within, look where he might, only a +spiritual Beauce; it seemed to him to mirror the cold and monotonous +landscape; only it was not a mighty wind that blew through his being; +but a sharp, drying little blast. He knew that he was cross-grained and +could not make his observations calmly; his conscience harassed him and +insisted on vexatious argument.</p> + +<p>"Pride! Ah, how is it to be kept under till the day shall come when it +shall be quelled? It insinuates itself so stealthily, so noiselessly, +that it has ensnared and bound me before I can suspect its presence; and +my case too is somewhat peculiar, and hard to cure by the religious +treatment commonly prescribed in such cases. For in fact," said he to +himself, "my pride is not of the artless and overweening kind, elated, +audacious, boldly displaying, and proclaiming itself to the world; no, +mine is in a latent state, what was called vain-glory in the simplicity +of the Middle Ages, an essence of pride diluted with vanity and +evaporating within me in transient thoughts and unexpressed conceit. I +have not even the opportunity afforded by swaggering pride for being on +my guard and compelling myself to keep silence. Yes, that is very true; +talk leads to specious boasting and invites subtle praise; one is +presently aware of it, and then, with patience and determination, it is +in one's power to check and muzzle oneself. But my vice of pride is +wordless and underground; it does not come forth. I neither see nor hear +it. It wriggles and creeps in without a sound, and clutches me without +my having heard its approach!</p> + +<p>"And the good Abbé answers: 'Be watchful and pray;' well, I am more than +willing, but the remedy is ineffectual, for aridity and outside +influences deprive it of its efficacy!</p> + +<p>"As for outside suggestions—they never seem to come to <!-- Page 69 -->me but in +prayer. It is enough that I kneel down and try to collect my thoughts, +they are at once dissipated. The mere purpose of prayer is like a stone +flung into a pool; everything is stirred up and comes to the top!</p> + +<p>"And people who have not habits of religious practice fancy that there +is nothing easier than prayer. I should like to see them try. They could +then bear witness that profane imaginings, which leave them in peace at +all other times, always surge up unexpectedly, during prayer.</p> + +<p>"Besides, what use is therein disputing the fact? Merely looking at a +sleeping vice is enough to wake it."</p> + +<p>And his thoughts went back to that warm crypt. "Yes, no doubt, like all +the buildings of the Romanesque period, it is symbolical of the Old +Testament; but it is not simply gloomy and sad, for it is enveloping and +comforting, warm and tender! Admitting even that it is the figure in +stone of the older Dispensation, would it not seem that it symbolizes it +less as a whole, than as embodying more especially a select group of the +Holy Women who prefigured the Virgin in the earlier Scriptures? Is it +not the expression in stone of those passages in which the illustrious +women of the Bible are most conspicuous, who were, in a way, prophetic +incarnations of the New Eve?</p> + +<p>"Hence this crypt would reproduce the most consoling and the most heroic +passages of the Sacred Book, for the Virgin is supreme in this +underground sanctuary; it is Hers rather than the terrible Adonaï's, if +one may dare say so.</p> + +<p>"And again, She is a very singular Virgin, who has inevitably remained +in harmony with Her surroundings: a Virgin black and rugged, and +stunted, like the rough-hewn shrine She inhabits.</p> + +<p>"She is therefore, no doubt, the outcome of the same idea that conceived +of Christ as black and ugly because He had assumed the burthen of all +the sins of the world, the Christ of the first ages of the Church, who +in His humility put on the vilest aspect. In that case Mary would have +conceived Her Son in Her own image; She too had chosen to be ugly and +obscure, out of humility and loving-kindness, that She might the better +console the disfigured and despised creatures whose image She had +borrowed."</p> + +<p>And Durtal went on:—</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 70 -->What a crypt is this where, in the course of so many centuries, kings +and queens have come to worship!</p> + +<p>"Philip Augustus and Isabella of Hainault, Blanche of Castille and Saint +Louis, Philippe de Valois, Jean le Bon, Charles V., Charles VI., Charles +VII., Charles VIII. and Anne de Bretagne; then François I., Henri III. +and Louise de Vaudemont, Catherine de' Medici; Henri IV., who was +crowned in this Cathedral, Anne of Austria, Louis XIV., Maria Leczinska, +and so many others—all the nobility of France; and Ferdinand of Spain, +and Léon de Lusignan, the last King of Armenia, and Pierre de Courtenay, +Emperor of Constantinople—all kneeling like the poor folks of to-day, +and like them beseeching Notre Dame de Sous-Terre."</p> + +<p>And what was more interesting still was that the Virgin had wrought many +miracles on this spot. She had saved children who had fallen into the +well of the Strong Saints, had preserved the guardians who had charge of +the relic of Her garment when the edifice was blazing above them, and +had cured crowds, half maddened by the Burning plague in the Middle +Ages, shedding Her benefits with a lavish hand.</p> + +<p>Times were changed indeed, but fervent worshippers had knelt before the +Image, had relinked the bonds broken in the course of years, had, so to +speak, recaptured the Virgin in a net of prayer; and so, instead of +departing, as She had done elsewhere, She had remained at Chartres.</p> + +<p>By some incredible effect of clemency She had endured the insult of the +tenth-day festivals and the outrage of seeing the Goddess of Reason +installed in her place on the altar, had suffered the infamous liturgy +of obscene canticles rising with the thundering incense of gunpowder. +And She had forgiven it all, no doubt for the sake of the love shown Her +by preceding generations, and the awed, but real affection of the humble +believers who had come back to Her when the storm was over.</p> + +<p>This cavern was crowded with memories. The coating of those walls had +been formed of the vapours of the soul, of the exhalations of +accumulated desires and regrets, even more than of the smoke of tapers; +how foolish it was then to have painted this crypt in squalid imitation +of the <!-- Page 71 -->catacombs, to have defaced the glorious darkness of these stones +with colours which were indeed fast vanishing, leaving only traces as of +palette scrapings in the consecrated soot on the roof!</p> + +<p>Durtal was expatiating on these reflections as he went out of the +garden, when he met the Abbé Gévresin walking along and reading his +breviary. He asked whether Durtal had taken the Sacrament. And +perceiving that his penitent always came back to his shame of the inert +and torpid grief that came over him in contemplation of the Holy +Sacrament, the old priest said to him,—</p> + +<p>"That is no concern of yours; all you have to do is to pray to the best +of your power. The rest is my concern—if the far from triumphant state +of your soul only makes you a little humble, that is all I ask of you."</p> + +<p>"Humble! I am like a water cooler; my vanity sweats out at every pore as +the water oozes from the clay."</p> + +<p>"It is some consolation to me that you perceive it," said the Abbé, +smiling. "It would be far worse if you did not know yourself, if you +were so proud as to believe that you had no pride."</p> + +<p>"But how then am I to set to work? You advise me to pray; but teach me +at least how not to dissipate myself in every direction, for as soon as +I try to collect myself I go to pieces; I live in a perpetual state of +dissolution. It is like a thing arranged on purpose; as soon as I try to +shut the cage all my thoughts fly off—they deafen me with their +chirping."</p> + +<p>The Abbé was thinking.</p> + +<p>"I know," said he; "nothing is more difficult than to free the spirit +from the images that take possession of it. Still, and in spite of all, +you may achieve concentration of mind if you observe these three rules:</p> + +<p>"In the first place you must humble yourself, by owning the frailty of +your mind, unable to preserve itself from wandering in the presence of +God; next you must not be impatient or restless, for that would only +stir up the dregs and bring other objects of frivolity to the surface; +finally, it is well not to investigate the nature of the distractions +that trouble your prayers till they are over. This only prolongs the +disturbance, and in a way recognizes <!-- Page 72 -->its existence. You thus run the +risk, in virtue of the law of association of ideas, of inviting new +diversions, and there would be no way of escape.</p> + +<p>"After prayer you may examine yourself with benefit; follow my advice, +and you will find the advantage of it."</p> + +<p>"That is all very fine," thought Durtal, "but when it comes to putting +the advice into practice it is quite another thing. Are not these mere +old women's remedies, precious ointments, quack medicines, for which the +pious and virtuous have a weakness?"</p> + +<p>They walked on in silence across the forecourt of the palace to the +priest's rooms. As they went in, they found Madame Bavoil at the foot of +the stairs, her arms in a tub full of soap-suds. As she rubbed the +clothes, she turned to look at Durtal, and, as if she could read his +thoughts, she mildly asked,—</p> + +<p>"Why, our friend, wear such a graveyard face when you took the Sacrament +this morning?"</p> + +<p>"So you heard I had been to Communion?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I went into the crypt while Mass was going forward, and saw you go +up to the Holy Table. Well, shall I tell you the truth? You do not know +how to address our Holy Mother."</p> + +<p>"Indeed!"</p> + +<p>"No. You are shy when She is doing her best to put you at your ease; you +creep close to the wall when you ought to walk boldly up the middle +aisle to face Her. That is not the way to approach Her!"</p> + +<p>"But if I have nothing to say to Her?"</p> + +<p>"Then you simply chatter to Her like a child; some pretty speech, and +She is satisfied. Oh, these men! How little they know how to pay their +court, how greatly they lack little coaxing ways, and even honest +artfulness! If you can invent nothing on your own part, borrow from +another. Repeat after the Venerable Jeanne de Matel:</p> + +<p>"'Holy Virgin, this abyss of iniquity and vileness invokes the abyss of +strength and splendour to praise Thy preeminent Glory.' Well, is that +pretty well expressed, our friend? Try; recite that to Our Lady and She +will unbind you; then prayer will come of itself. Such little ways are +permitted by Her, and we must be humble enough not to presume to do +without them."</p> + +<p><!-- Page 73 -->Durtal could not help laughing.</p> + +<p>"You want me to become a trickster, a sneak in spiritual life!" said he.</p> + +<p>"Well, where would be the harm? Does not the Lord know when we mean +well? Does not He take note of our intentions? Would you, yourself, +repulse anyone who paid you a compliment, however clumsily, if you +thought he meant to please you by it? No, of course not."</p> + +<p>"Here is another thing," said the Abbé, laughing. "Madame Bavoil, I saw +Monseigneur this morning; he grants your petition and authorizes you to +dig in as many parts of the garden as you choose."</p> + +<p>"Aha!" and amused by Durtal's surprise she went on: "You must have seen +for yourself that excepting a little plot of ground where the gardener +plants a few carrots and cabbages for the Bishop's table, the whole of +the garden is left to run wild; it is sheer waste and of no use to +anybody. Now instead of buying vegetables, I mean to grow some, since +Monseigneur gives me leave to turn over his ground, and by the same +token I will give some to your housekeeper."</p> + +<p>"Thank you. Then do you understand gardening?"</p> + +<p>"I? Why, am I not a peasant? I have lived in the country all my life, +and a kitchen garden is just my business! Besides, if I were in +difficulties, would not my Friends Above come to advise me?"</p> + +<p>"You are a wonderful woman, Madame Bavoil," said Durtal, somewhat +disconcerted in spite of himself by the answers of a cook who so calmly +asserted that she was on intimate terms with the divine Beyond.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"><!-- Page 74 --></a>CHAPTER V.</h2> + + +<p>It rained without ceasing. Durtal breakfasted under the assiduous +watchfulness of his servant, Madame Mesurat. She was one of those women +whose stalwart build and masculine presence would allow of their +dressing in men's clothes without attracting attention. She had a +pear-shaped head, cheeks that hung flabby as if they had been emptied of +air, a pompous nose that drooped till it very nearly touched a +projecting underlip like a bracket, giving her an expression of +determined contempt which she very certainly had never felt. In short, +she suggested the absurd idea of a solemn, gawky Marlborough disguised +as a cook.</p> + +<p>She served unvarying meats with inglorious sauces; and as soon as the +dish was on the table she stood at attention, waiting to know whether it +was good. She was imposing and devoted—quite insufferable. Durtal, on +edge with irritation, found it all he could do not to dismiss her to the +kitchen, and finally buried his nose in a book that he might not have to +answer her, might not see her.</p> + +<p>This day, provoked by his silence, Madame Mesurat lifted the window +curtain, and for the sake of saying something, exclaimed,—</p> + +<p>"Good heavens! What weather! Impossible!"</p> + +<p>And in fact the sky offered no hope of consolation. It was all in tears. +The rain fell in uninterrupted streams, unwinding endless skeins of +water. The Cathedral was standing in a pool of mud lashed into leaping +drops by the falling torrent, and the two spires looked drawn together, +almost close, linked by loose threads of water. This indeed was the +prevailing impression—a briny atmosphere full of strings holding the +sky and earth together as if tacked <!-- Page 75 -->with long stitches, but they would +not hold; a gust of wind snapped all these endless threads, which were +whirled in every direction.</p> + +<p>"My arrangement to meet the Abbé Plomb to go over the Cathedral is +evidently at an end," said Durtal to himself. "The Abbé will certainly +not turn out in such weather."</p> + +<p>He went into his study; this was his usual place of refuge. He had his +divan there, his pictures, the old furniture he had brought from Paris; +and against the walls, shelves, painted black, held thousands of books. +There he lived, looking out on the towers, hearing nothing but the +cawing of the rooks and the strokes of the hours as they fell one by one +on the silence of the deserted square. He had placed his table in front +of a window, and there he sat dreaming, praying, meditating, making +notes.</p> + +<p>The balance of his personal account was struck by internal damage and +mental disputations; if the soul was bruised and ice-bound, the mind was +no less afflicted, no less fagged. It seemed to have grown dull since +his residence at Chartres. The biographies of Saints which Durtal had +intended to write, remained in the stage of charcoal sketches; they blew +off before he could fix them. In reality he had ceased to care for +anything but the Cathedral; it had taken possession of him.</p> + +<p>And besides, the lives of the Saints as they were written by the +inferior Bollandists were enough to disgust anybody with saintliness. +Offered to publisher after publisher, carted from the Paris libraries to +the provincial workshops, this barrow of books had at first been hauled +by a single nag, Father Giry; then a second horse had been added, the +Abbé Guérin, and, harnessed to the same shafts, these two men pulled +their heavy truck over the broken road of souls.</p> + +<p>He had only to open a bale of this prosy dulness, taking down a volume +at random, to light on sentences of this quality:</p> + +<p>"Such an one was born of parents not less remarkable for their rank than +for their piety;" or, on the other hand, "His parents were not of +illustrious birth, but in them might be seen the distinction of all the +virtues which are so far above rank."</p> + +<p><!-- Page 76 -->And then the dreadful style of the Pont Neuf: "His historian does not +hesitate to say he would have been mistaken for an angel if the maladies +with which God afflicted him had not shown that he was a man."—"The +Devil, not enduring to see him advancing by rapid leaps on the way of +perfection, adopted various means of hindering him in the happy progress +of his career."</p> + +<p>And on turning over to a fresh page he came upon a passage in the life +of one of the Elect who was mourning for his mother, excusing him in +this solemn rigmarole: "After granting to the feelings of nature such +relief as grace cannot forbid on these occasions—"</p> + +<p>Or again, here and there were such pompous and ridiculous definitions as +this, which occurs in the life of César de Bus: "After a visit to Paris, +which is not less the throne of vice than the capital of the kingdom—" +And this went on in meagre language through twelve to fifteen volumes, +ending by the erection of a row of uniform virtue, a barrack of pious +idiotcy. Now and again the two poor nags seemed to wake up and trot for +a little space, though gasping for breath, when they had some detail to +record which no doubt moved them to rapture; they expatiated +complacently on the virtues of Catherine of Sweden or Robert de la +Chaise-Dieu, who as soon as they were born cried for sinless wet-nurses, +and would suck none but pious breasts; or they spoke with ravishment of +the chastity of Jean the Taciturn, who never took a bath, that he might +not shock "his modest eyes," as the text says, by seeing himself; and +the bashful purity of San Luis de Gonzagua, who had such a terror of +women that he dared not look at his mother for fear of evil thoughts!</p> + +<p>In consternation at the poverty of these distressing non-sequiturs, +Durtal turned to the less familiar biographies of the Blessed Women; but +here again, what a farrago of the commonplace, what glutinous unction, +what a hash by way of style! There was certainly some curse from Heaven +on the old women of the Sacristy who dared take up a pen. Their ink at +once turned to stickiness, to bird-lime, to pitch, which smeared all it +touched. Oh, the poor Saints! the hapless Blessed Women!</p> + +<p>His meditations were interrupted by a ring at the bell:</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 77 -->Why, has the Abbé Plomb really come out in spite of the gale?"</p> + +<p>It was indeed the priest that Madame Mesurat showed in.</p> + +<p>"Oh," said he to Durtal, who lamented over the rain, "the weather will +clear up all in good time; at any rate, as you had not put me off I was +determined not to keep you waiting."</p> + +<p>They sat chatting by the fire; and the room took the Abbé's fancy, no +doubt, for he settled himself at his ease. He threw himself back in an +arm-chair, tucking his hands into his cincture. And when, in answer to +his question as to whether Durtal were not too dull at Chartres, the +Parisian replied, "It seems to me that I live more slowly, and yet am +not such a burthen to myself," the Abbé went on,—</p> + +<p>"What you must feel painfully is the lack of intellectual society; you, +who in Paris lived in the world of letters—how can you endure the +atmosphere of this provincial town?"</p> + +<p>Durtal laughed.</p> + +<p>"The world of letters! No, Monsieur l'Abbé, I should not be likely to +regret that, for I had given it up many years before I came to live +here; and besides, I assure you it is impossible to be intimate with +those train-bands of literature and remain decent. A man must +choose—them or honest folks; slander or silence; for their speciality +is to eliminate every charitable idea, and above all to cure a man of +friendship in the winking of an eye."</p> + +<p>"Really?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, by adopting a homœopathic pharmacopœia which still makes use +of the foulest matter—the extract of wood-lice, the venom of snakes, +the poison of the cockchafer, the secretions of the skunk and the matter +from pustules, all disguised in sugar of milk to conceal their taste and +appearance; the world of letters, in the same way, triturates the most +disgusting things to get them swallowed without raising your gorge. +There is an incessant manipulation of neighbours' gossip and play-box +tittle-tattle, all wrapped up in perfidious good taste to mask their +flavour and smell.</p> + +<p>"These pills of foulness, exhibited in the required doses, act like +detergents on the soul, which they almost immediately purge of all +trustfulness. I had enough of this <!-- Page 78 -->regimen, which acted on me only too +successfully, and I thought it well to escape from it."</p> + +<p>"But the pious world, too, is not absolutely free from gossip," said the +Abbé, smiling.</p> + +<p>"No doubt, and I am well aware that devotion does not always sweeten the +mind, but—</p> + +<p>"The truth is," said he after reflection, "that the assiduous practice +of religion generally results in some intense effects on the soul. Only +they may be of two kinds. Either it develops the soul's taint and +evolves in it the final ferments which putrefy it once for all, or it +purifies the spirit and makes it clean and clear and exquisite. It may +produce hypocrites or good and saintly people; there is really no +medium.</p> + +<p>"But when such divine husbandry has completely cleansed souls, how +guileless and how pure they may be! Nor am I speaking of the Elect, such +as I saw at La Trappe—merely of young novices, little priestlings whom +I have known. They had eyes like clear glass, undimmed by the haze of a +single sin; and, looking into them, behind those eyes you would have +seen their open soul burning like a soaring crown of fire framing the +smiling face in a halo of white name.</p> + +<p>"In fact, Jesus simply fills up all the room in their soul. Do not you +think, Monsieur l'Abbé, that these youths occupy their bodies just +enough for suffering and to expiate the sins of others? Without knowing +it, they have been sent into the world to be safe tenements of the Lord, +the resting-place where Jesus finds a home after wandering over the +frozen steppes of other souls."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the Abbé, taking off his spectacles to wipe them on his +bandana, "but to acquire so fine a strain of being, how much +mortification, penance, and prayer have been needed in the generations +that have ended by giving them birth! The spirits of whom you speak are +the flower of a stem long nourished in a pious soil. The Spirit, of +course, bloweth where it listeth, and may find a saint in the heart of a +listless family; but this mode of operation must always be an exception. +The novices you have known must certainly have had grandmothers and +mothers who frequently incited them to kneel and pray by their side."</p> + +<p>"I do not know—I knew nothing of the origin of these <!-- Page 79 -->lads—but I feel +that you are right. It is obvious, indeed, that children, slowly brought +up from their earliest years, and sheltered from the world under the +shadow of such a sanctuary as this at Chartres, must end in the +blossoming of an unique flower."</p> + +<p>And when Durtal told him of the impression made on him by the angelic +service of the Mass, the Abbé smiled.</p> + +<p>"Though our boys are not unique, they are no doubt rare. Here, the +Virgin Herself trains them, and note, the little lad you saw is neither +more diligent nor more conscientious than his fellows; they are all +alike. Dedicated to the priesthood from the time when they can first +understand, they learn quite naturally to lead a spiritual life from +their constant intimacy with the services."</p> + +<p>"What then is the system of this Institution?"</p> + +<p>"The Foundation of the Clerks of Our Lady dates from 1853, or rather it +was reconstituted in that year—for it existed in the Middle Ages—by +the Abbé Ychard. Its purpose is to increase the number of priests by +admitting poor boys to begin their studies. It receives intelligent and +pious children of every nationality, if they are supposed to show any +vocation for Holy Orders. They remain in the choir school till they are +in the third class, and are then transferred to the Seminary.</p> + +<p>"Its funds?—are, humanly speaking, nothing, based on trust in +Providence, for it has altogether, for the maintenance of eighty pupils, +nothing but the pay earned by these children for various duties in the +Cathedral, and the profits from a little monthly magazine called 'The +Voice of the Virgin,' and finally and chiefly the charity of the +faithful. All this does not amount to a very substantial income; and +yet, to this day, money has never been lacking."</p> + +<p>The Abbé rose and went to the window.</p> + +<p>"Oh, the rain will not cease," said Durtal. "I am very much afraid, +Monsieur l'Abbé, that we cannot examine the Cathedral porches to-day."</p> + +<p>"There is no hurry. Before going into the details of Notre Dame, would +it not be well to contemplate it as a whole, and let its general purpose +soak into the mind before studying each page of its parts?</p> + +<p>"Everything lies contained in that building," he went on, waving his +hand to designate the church; "the scriptures,<!-- Page 80 --> theology, the history of +the human race, set forth in broad outline. Thanks to the science of +symbolism a pile of stones may be a macrocosm.</p> + +<p>"I repeat it, everything exists within this structure, even our material +and moral life, our virtues and our vices. The architect takes us up at +the creation of Adam to carry us on to the end of time. Notre Dame of +Chartres is the most colossal depository existing of heaven and earth, +of God and man. Each of its images is a word; all those groups are +phrases—the difficulty is to read them."</p> + +<p>"But it can be done?"</p> + +<p>"Undoubtedly. That there may be some contradictions in our +interpretations I admit, but still the palimpsest can be deciphered. The +key needed is a knowledge of symbolism."</p> + +<p>And seeing that Durtal was listening to him with interest, the Abbé came +back to his seat, and said,—</p> + +<p>"What is a symbol? According to Littré it is a 'figure or image used as +a sign of something else;' and we Catholics narrow the definition by +saying with Hugues de Saint Victor that a symbol is an allegorical +representation of a Christian principle under a tangible image.</p> + +<p>"Now symbolism has existed ever since the beginning of the world. Every +religion adopted it, and in ours it came into being with the Tree of the +Knowledge of Good and Evil in the first chapter of Genesis, while it +still is in full splendour in the last chapter of the Apocalypse.</p> + +<p>"The Old Testament is an anticipatory figure of all the New Testament +tells us. The Mosaic dispensation contains, as in an allegory, what the +Christian religion shows us in reality; the history of the People of +God, its principal personages, its sayings and doings, the very +accessories round about it, are a series of images; everything came to +the Hebrews under a figure, Saint Paul tells us. Our Lord took the +trouble to remind His disciples of this on various occasions, and He +Himself, when addressing the multitude, almost always spoke in parables +as a means of conveying one thing by an illustration from another.</p> + +<p>"Symbols, then, have a divine origin; it may be added that from the +human point of view this form of teaching answers to one of the least +disputable cravings of the human mind. Man feels a certain enjoyment in +giving proof of his intelligence, in guessing the riddle thus presented +to him, <!-- Page 81 -->and likewise in preserving the hidden truth summed up in a +visible formula, a perdurable form. Saint Augustine expressly says: +'Anything that is set forth in an allegory is certainly more emphatic, +more pleasing, more impressive, than when it is formulated in technical +words.'"</p> + +<p>"That is Mallarmé's idea too," thought Durtal, "and this coincidence in +the views of the saint and the poet, on grounds at once analogous and +different, is whimsical, to say the least."</p> + +<p>"Thus in all ages," the Abbé went on, "men have taken inanimate objects, +or animals and plants, to typify the soul and its attributes, its joys +and sorrows, its virtues and its vices; thought has been materialized to +fix it more securely in the memory, to make it less fugitive, more near +to us, more real, almost tangible.</p> + +<p>"Hence the emblems of cruelty and craft, of courtesy and charity, +embodied by certain creatures, personified by certain plants; hence the +spiritual meanings attributed to precious stones, and to colours. And it +may be added that in times of persecution, in the early Christian times, +this hidden language enabled the initiated to hold communication, to +give each other some token of kinship, some password which the enemy +could not interpret. Thus, in the paintings discovered in catacombs, the +Lamb, the Pelican, the Lion, the Shepherd, all meant the Son; the Fish +<i>Ichthys</i>, of which the characters express the Greek formula: 'Jesus, +Son of God, Saviour,' figures, in a secondary sense, the believer, the +rescued soul, fished out from the sea of Paganism; the Redeemer having +told two of His Apostles that they should be fishers of men.</p> + +<p>"And of course the period when human beings lived in closest intercourse +with God—the Middle Ages—was certain to follow the revealed tradition +of Christ, and express itself in symbolical language, especially in +speaking of that Spirit, that essence, that incomprehensible and +nameless Being who to us is God. At the same time it had at its command +a practical means of making itself understood. It wrote a book, as it +were, intelligible to the humblest, superseding the text by images, and +so instructing the ignorant. This indeed was the idea put into words by +the Synod of Arras in 1025: 'That which the illiterate cannot apprehend +from writing shall be shown to them in pictures.'</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 82 -->The Middle Ages, in short, translated the Bible and Theology, the +lives of the Saints, the apocryphal and legendary Gospels into carved or +painted images, bringing them within reach of all, and epitomizing them +in figures which remained as the permanent marrow, the concentrated +extract of all its teaching."</p> + +<p>"It taught the grown-up children the catechism by means of the stone +sentences of the porches," exclaimed Durtal.</p> + +<p>"Yes, it did that too. But now," the Abbé went on, after a pause, +"before entering on the subject of architectural symbolism, we must +first establish a distinct notion of what Our Lord Himself did in +creating it, when, in the second chapter of the Gospel according to +Saint John, He speaks of the Temple at Jerusalem, and says that if the +Jews destroy it He will rebuild it in three days, expressly prefiguring +by that parable His own Body. This set forth to all generations the form +which the new temples were thenceforth to take after His death on the +Cross.</p> + +<p>"This sufficiently accounts for the cruciform plan of our churches. But +we will study the inside of the church later; for the present we must +consider the meanings of the external parts of a cathedral.</p> + +<p>"The towers and belfries, according to the theory of Durand, Archbishop +of Mende in the thirteenth century, are to be regarded as preachers and +prelates, and the lofty spire is symbolical of the perfection to which +their souls strive to rise. According to other interpreters of the same +period, such as Saint Melito, Bishop of Sardis, and Cardinal Pietro of +Capua, the towers represent the Virgin Mary, or the Church watching over +the salvation of the Flock.</p> + +<p>"It is a certain fact," the Abbé went on, "that the position of the +towers was never rigidly laid down once for all in mediæval times; thus +different interpretations are admissible according to their position in +the structure. Still, perhaps the most ingeniously refined, the most +exquisite idea is that which occurred to the architects of Saint Maclou +at Rouen, of Notre Dame at Dijon, and of the Cathedral at Laon, for +example, who built rising from the centre of the transepts—that is +above the very spot where, on the Cross, the breast of Christ would lie, +a lantern higher than the rest of the roof, often finishing outside in a +tall and slender spire, starting as it were from the Heart of Christ to +leap with one <!-- Page 83 -->spring to the Father, to soar as if shot up from the bow +of the vaulting in a sharp dart to reach the sky.</p> + +<p>"The towers, like the buildings they overshadow, are almost always +placed on a height that commands the town, and they shed around them +like seed into the soil of the soul, the swarming notes of their bells, +reminding all Christians by this aerial proclamation, this bead-telling +of sound, of the prayers they are commanded to use and the duties they +must fulfil; nay, at need, they may atone before God for man's apathy by +testifying that at least they have not forgotten Him, beseeching Him +with uplifted arms and brazen tongues, taking the place as best they may +of so many human prayers, more vocal perhaps than they."</p> + +<p>"With its ship-like character," said Durtal, who had thoughtfully +approached the window, "this Cathedral strikes me as amazingly like a +motionless vessel with spires for masts and the clouds for sails, spread +or furled by the wind as the weather changes; it remains the eternal +image of Peter's boat which Jesus guided through the storm."</p> + +<p>"And likewise of Noah's Ark—the Ark outside which there is no safety," +added the Abbé.</p> + +<p>"Now consider the church in all its parts. Its roof is the symbol of +Charity, which covereth a multitude of sins; its slates or tiles are the +soldiers and knights who defend the sanctuary against the heathen, +represented by the storm, its stones, all joined, are, according to +Saint Nilus, emblematic of the union of souls, or, as the <i>Rationale</i> of +Durand of Mende has it, of the multitude of the faithful; the stronger +stones figuring the souls that are most advanced in the way of +perfection and hinder the weaker brethren, represented by the smaller +stones, from slipping and falling. However, to Hugues de Saint Victor, a +monk of the abbey of that name in the twelfth century, this collection +of stones is merely the mingled assembly of the clerks and the laity.</p> + +<p>"Again, these blocks of stone of various shapes are bound and held +together by mortar, of which Durand of Mende will tell you the meaning. +'Mortar,' saith he, 'is compounded of lime and sand and water; lime is +the burning quality of charity, and it combines by the aid of water, +which is the Spirit, with the sand, of the earth earthy.'</p> + +<p>"Thus these united stones form the four walls of the church, which +Prudentius of Troyes tells us are the four <!-- Page 84 -->evangelists; or, according +to other interpreters, they represent in stone the cardinal virtues of +religion: Justice, Fortitude, Prudence, and Temperance, already +prefigured by the walls of the City of God in the Apocalypse.</p> + +<p>"Thus you see each part may be regarded as having more than one meaning, +but all included in one general idea common to all."</p> + +<p>"And the windows?" asked Durtal.</p> + +<p>"I am coming to them; they are emblematic of our senses, which are to be +closed to the vanities of the world and open to the gifts of Heaven; +they are also provided with glass, giving passage to the beams of the +true Sun, which is God. But Dom Villette has most clearly set forth +their symbolical meaning: 'They are,' says he, 'the Scriptures, which +receive the glory of the sun and keep out the wind, the hail and the +snow, the images of false doctrine and heresies.'</p> + +<p>"As to the buttresses, they symbolize the moral force that sustains us +against temptation; they are likewise the hope which upholds the soul +and strengthens it; others see in them the image of the temporal powers +who are called upon to defend the power of the Church; and others again, +regarding more especially the flying buttresses which resist the thrust +of the span, say that they are imploring arms clinging to the +safe-keeping of the Ark in time of danger.</p> + +<p>"The principal entrance, the great portal of so many churches, such as +those of Vézelay, Paray-le-Monial and Saint German l'Auxerrois, in +Paris, was approached through a covered vestibule, often very deep and +intentionally dark, called the Narthex. The baptismal pool was in this +porch. It was a place for probation and forgiveness, emblematical of +Purgatory, an ante-room to Heaven, where, before being permitted access +to the sanctuary, penitents and neophytes had their place.</p> + +<p>"Such, briefly, is the allegorical meaning of the parts. If we now +regard it again as a whole, we may observe that the cathedral, built +over a crypt symbolical of the contemplative life, and also of the tomb +in which Christ was laid, was naturally obliged to have its apse towards +that point of the heavens where the sun rises at the equinox, so as to +convey, says the Bishop of Mende, that it is the Church's mission to +show moderation in its triumphs as in its reverses. All the liturgical +commentators are agreed that <!-- Page 85 -->the high altar must be placed at the +eastern end, so that the worshippers, as they pray, may turn their eyes +towards the cradle of the Faith; and this rule was held absolute, and so +well approved by God that He confirmed it by a miracle. The Bollandists +in fact have a legend that Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, seeing a +church that had been built on another axis, made it turn to the East by +a push with his shoulder, thus placing it in its right position.</p> + +<p>"The church has generally three doors, in honour of the Holy Trinity; +and the portal in the middle, called the Royal Porch, is divided by a +pier and a pillar surmounted by a statue of Our Lord, who says of +Himself in the Gospel, 'I am the door,' or of the Virgin, if the Church +is consecrated to Her, or even of the patron Saint in whose name it is +dedicated. The door, thus divided, typifies the two roads which man is +free to follow. Indeed, in most cathedrals this symbol is emphasized by +a representation of the Last Judgment placed above the entrance.</p> + +<p>"This is the case in Paris, at Amiens, and at Bourges. At Chartres, on +the contrary, the Judgment of Souls is relegated, as at Reims, to the +tympanum of the northern porch; but here it is to be seen in the +rose-window over the western portal, in contradiction to the system +usual in the Middle Ages of treating in the windows above the doors the +subject carved in the porch; thus presenting on the same side a +repetition of the same symbols, in glass as seen from within, and in +stone without."</p> + +<p>"Good; but how then can you account, by the ternary rule so universally +adopted, for that marvellous cathedral at Bourges, where, instead of +three porches and three aisles, we find five?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing can be simpler—we cannot account for it. At most can we +suppose that the architect of Bourges intended by those five doors to +figure the five wounds of Christ. Even then we should be left to wonder +why he placed all the wounds in a single line; for that church has no +transept, no arms at the end of which the holes in the hands may be +symbolized by doors, which is the usual course."</p> + +<p>"And the cathedral at Antwerp, which has two more aisles?"</p> + +<p>"They no doubt typify the seven avenues, the seven gifts <!-- Page 86 -->of the +Paraclete. This question of number leads me to speak of theological +enumeration, a peculiar element which plays a part in the varied subject +of symbolism," the Abbé went on. "The allegorical science of numbers is +a very old one. Saint Isidor of Seville, and Saint Augustine studied it. +Michelet, who talks nonsense as soon as he has to do with a cathedral, +is hard on the mediæval architects for their belief in the meaning of +figures. He accuses them of having observed mystic rules in the +arrangement of certain parts of the buildings; of having, for instance, +restricted the number of windows, or arranged pillars and bays in +accordance with some arithmetical combination. Not understanding that +each detail of a church had a meaning and was a symbol, he could not +understand that it was important to calculate each, since its meaning +might be modified or even completely altered. Thus a pillar by itself +may not necessarily typify an Apostle, but if there should be twelve, +they evidently show the meaning attributed to them by the builder, since +they recall the exact number of Christ's disciples. Sometimes, indeed, +to prevent any mistake, the answer is supplied with the problem; as in +an old church at Étampes, where I read, inscribed on the twelve +Romanesque shafts, the names of the Apostles in relief, in the +traditional setting of a Greek cross.</p> + +<p>"At Chartres they had adopted a still better plan: statues of the twelve +Apostles were placed in front of the pillars of the nave: but the +Revolution took offence at these figures, overthrew and destroyed them.</p> + +<p>"In considering the system of symbolism it is necessary to study the +significance of numbers. The secrets of church building can only be +discerned by recognizing the mysterious idea of the unity of the figure +I., which is the image of God Himself. The suggestion of II., which +figures the two natures of the Son, the two dispensations, and, +according to Saint Gregory the Great, the two-fold law of love of God +and man. Three is the number of the Persons of the Trinity, and of the +theological virtues. Four typifies the cardinal virtues, the four +Greater Prophets, the Gospels and the elements. Five is the number of +Christ's wounds, and of our senses, whose sins He expiated by a +corresponding number of wounds. Six records the days devoted by God to +the creation, determines the number of the Commandments <!-- Page 87 -->promulgated by +the Church, and, according to Saint Melito, symbolizes the perfection of +the active life. Seven is the sacred number of the Mosaic law; it is the +number of the gifts of the Holy Ghost, of the Sacraments, of the words +of Jesus on the Cross, of the canonical hours, and of the successive +orders of priesthood. Eight, says Saint Ambrose, is the symbol of +regeneration, Saint Augustine says of the Resurrection, and it recalls +the idea of the eight Beatitudes. Nine is the number of the angelic +hierarchy, of the special gifts of the Spirit as enumerated by Saint +Paul; and it was at the ninth hour that Christ died. Ten is the number +of laws given by Jehovah, the law of fear; but Saint Augustine explains +it otherwise, saying that it includes the knowledge of God, since it may +be decomposed into three, the symbol of a triune God, and seven, +figuring the day of rest after the Creation. Eleven, the same saint +explains as an image of transgressing the law and an emblem of sin; and +Twelve is the great mystic number, the tale of the patriarchs and the +Apostles, of the tribes, the minor prophets, the virtues, the fruits of +the Holy Ghost, and the articles of faith embodied in the <i>Credo</i>. And +this might be repeated to infinity. Hence it is quite evident that the +artists of the Middle Ages added to the meaning they assigned to certain +creatures and certain things, that of quantity, supporting one by the +other, emphasizing or moderating a suggestion by this added-means, +working back sometimes on a former idea, and expressing this duplication +in a different form or concentrating it in the energetic conciseness of +a cipher. They thus produced a whole at once speaking to the eye and, at +the same time, giving synthetical expression to the complete text of a +dogma in a compact allegory."</p> + +<p>"But what hermetic concentration!" exclaimed Durtal.</p> + +<p>"Very true; these various meanings of persons and objects, resulting +from numerical differences, are at first very puzzling."</p> + +<p>"And do you suppose that, on the whole, the height, breadth, and length +of a cathedral reveal a specialized idea, a particular purpose on the +part of the architect?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; but I must at once confess that the key to these religious +calculations is lost. Those archæologists who <!-- Page 88 -->have racked their brains +to find it have vainly added together the measurements of naves and +clerestories; they have not yet succeeded in formulating the idea they +expected to see emerge from the sums total.</p> + +<p>"In this matter we must confess ourselves ignorant. Besides, have not +the standards of measurement been different at different times? As with +the value of coins in the Middle Ages, we know nothing about them. So, +in spite of some very interesting investigations carried out from this +point of view by the Abbé Crosnier at the Priory of Saint Gilles, and +the Abbé Devoucoux at the Cathedral of Autun, I remain sceptical as to +their conclusions, which I regard as very ingenious, but far from +trustworthy.</p> + +<p>"The method of numbers is to be seen in perfection only in the details, +such as the pillars of which I spoke just now; it is no less evident +when we find the same number prevailing throughout the edifice, as for +instance at Paray-le-Monial, where all things are in threes. There the +designer has not been content to reproduce the sacred number in the +general scheme of the structure; he has applied it in every part. The +church has, in fact, three aisles; each aisle has three compartments; +each compartment is formed by three arches surmounted by three windows. +In short, it is the principle of the Trinity, the primary Three, applied +to every part."</p> + +<p>"Well, but do you not think, Monsieur l'Abbé, that, apart from such +instances of indisputable meaning, there are in such symbolism some very +fine-drawn and obscure similitudes?"</p> + +<p>The Abbé smiled.</p> + +<p>"Do you know," said he, "the theories of Honorius of Autun as to the +symbolism of the censer?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"Well, then, after having pointed out the natural and very proper +interpretation that may be applied to this vessel, as representing the +Body of Our Lord, while the incense signifies His Divinity, and the fire +is the Holy Spirit within Him; and after having defined the various +interpretations of the metal of which it is made—if of gold, it answers +to the perfection of His Divinity; if of silver, to the matchless +excellence of His Humility; if of copper, to the frailty of the flesh He +assumed for our salvation; if of iron, to the<!-- Page 89 --> Resurrection of that Body +which conquered death—the scholiast comes to the chains.</p> + +<p>"And then, indeed, his elucidation becomes somewhat thin and fine-drawn.</p> + +<p>"If there are four chains, he says, they represent the four cardinal +virtues of the Lord, and the chain by which the cover is lifted from the +vessel answers to the Soul of Christ quitting His Body. If, on the other +hand, there are but three chains, it is because the Person of the +Saviour includes three elements: a human organism, a soul, and the +Godhead of the Word. And Honorius adds: 'the ring through which the +chains run represents the Infinite in which all these things are +included.'"</p> + +<p>"That is subtle, with a vengeance!"</p> + +<p>"Less so than Durand de Mende when he speaks of the snuffers," replied +the Abbé; "after that, we will kick away that ladder.</p> + +<p>"The snuffers for trimming the lamps are, he asserts, 'the divine words +off which we cut the letter of the law, and by so doing reveal the +Spirit which giveth light.' And he adds, 'the pots in which the snuff is +extinguished are the hearts of the faithful who observe the law +literally.'"</p> + +<p>"It is the very madness of Symbolism!" cried Durtal.</p> + +<p>"At least, it is a too curious excess of it; but if this interpretation +of the snuffers is certainly grotesque, if even the theory of the censer +seems beaten somewhat thin on the whole, you must admit that it is +fascinating and exact so far as it is applied to the chain which lifts +the upper part of the vessel in a cloud of fragrance, and thus +symbolizes the ascent of Our Lord into Heaven.</p> + +<p>"That certain exaggerations should creep in through this use of parables +was difficult to prevent; but, on the other hand, what marvels of +analogy, and what purely mystical notions are revealed through the +meanings given by the liturgy to certain objects used in the services.</p> + +<p>"To the tapers, for instance, when Pierre d'Esquilin explains the +purport of the three component parts: the wax, which is the spotless +Body of the Saviour born of a Virgin; the wick, which, enclosed in the +wax, is His most Holy Soul hidden in the veil of the flesh; and the +light, which is emblematic of His Godhead.</p> + +<p>"Or, again, take the substances used by the Church in <!-- Page 90 -->certain +ceremonies: water, wine, ashes, salt, oil, balsam, incense. Incense, +besides representing the divinity of the Son, is likewise the symbol of +prayer, '<i>thus devotio orationis</i>' as it is described by Raban Maur, +Archbishop of Mayence in the ninth century. I happen to remember also, +<i>à propos</i> of this resin and the censer in which it is burnt, a verse I +read long since in the 'Monastic Distinctions' of the anonymous English +writer of the thirteenth century, which sums up their signification more +neatly than I can:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">'<i>vas notatur,</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>Mens pia; thure preces; igne supernus amor.</i>'</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>The vase is the spirit of piety; the incense, prayer; the fire, divine +love.</p> + +<p>"As to water, wine, ashes, and salt, they are used in compounding a +precious ointment used by the bishop when consecrating a church. They +are mingled to sign the altar with the cross, and to sprinkle the +aisles: the water and wine symbolize the two natures united in Our Lord; +the salt is divine wisdom; the ashes are in memory of His Passion.</p> + +<p>"Balsam, as you know, is emblematical of virtue and good repute, and is +combined with oil, signifying peace and wisdom, to compose the +sacramental ointment.</p> + +<p>"Think, too," the priest went on, "of the pyx, in which the +transubstantiated elements are preserved, the consecrated oblations, and +note that in the Middle Ages these little cases were formed in the +figure of a dove and contained the Host in the very image of the +Paraclete and the Virgin; this was well done, but here is something +better. The jewellers of the time carved ivory and gave these little +shrines the form of a tower. Is not the sentiment exquisite of our Lord +dwelling in the heart of the Virgin, the Ivory Tower of the Canticles? +Is not ivory indeed the most admirable material to serve as a sanctum +for the most pure white flesh of the Sacrament?"</p> + +<p>"It is certainly mystical, and far more appropriate than the vessels of +every form, the <i>ciboria</i> of silver-gilt, of aluminum, of silver of +these days."</p> + +<p>"And need I remind you that the liturgy assigns a meaning to each +vestment, each ornament of the Church, according to its use and form?</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 91 -->Thus, for instance, the surplice and alb signify innocence; the cord +that serves as a girdle is an emblem of chastity and modesty; the amice, +of purity of heart and body—the helmet of salvation mentioned by Saint +Paul. The maniple, of good works, vigilance, and the tears and sweat +poured out by the priest to win and save souls; the stole, of obedience, +the clothing on of immortality given to us in baptism; the dalmatic, of +justice, of which we must give proof in our ministrations; the chasuble, +of the unity of the faith, and also of the yoke of Christ.</p> + +<p>"But the rain has not ceased, and I must nevertheless be gone, for I +have a penitent waiting for me," exclaimed the Abbé, looking at his +watch. "Will you come the day after to-morrow at about two o'clock? We +will hope it may be fine enough to examine the outside of the +Cathedral."</p> + +<p>"And if it still rains?"</p> + +<p>"Come all the same. But I must fly."</p> + +<p>He pressed Durtal's hand and was gone.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"><!-- Page 92 --></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + + +<p>"Yes, I know when I confessed in her presence that I did not yet know of +which Saint I might write the history, Madame Bavoil—dear Madame +Bavoil, as the Abbé Gévresin calls her—exclaimed: 'The life of Jeanne +de Matel! Why not?'</p> + +<p>"But it is a biography that is not easy to deal with or that can be +lightly handled," said Durtal to himself, as he arranged the notes he +had collected by degrees as bearing on this Venerable woman.</p> + +<p>And he sat meditating.</p> + +<p>"What is quite unintelligible," said he to himself, "is the +disproportion between the promises made to her by Jesus and the results +achieved. Never, I really believe, have so many tribulations and +hindrances, or so much ill-fortune attended the founding of a new Order. +Jeanne spent her days on the high roads, running from one monastery to +another, and toil as she would to dig up the conventual soil, nothing +would grow. She could not even assume the habit of her Institution, or +at any rate only a few minutes before her death, for, in order to travel +with greater ease all over France, she wore the livery of a world she +abominated, and to which she appealed in vain in the name of the Lord to +take an interest in the formation of her cloister. Unhappy woman! She +went to Court—as her confessor Father de Gibalin bears witness, while +he testifies that he had never known a humbler soul—as others go to the +stake.</p> + +<p>"And yet the Lord certainly commanded her to found this Order of the +Incarnate Word. He sketched the scheme, laid down the rule, and +prescribed the costume, explaining its symbolism, declaring that the +white robe of its maidens would do honour to that with which He was +<!-- Page 93 -->mockingly invested in Herod's palace; that their red cloak would keep +in memory that which was cast over Him in the house of Pilate; that +their crimson scapulary and girdle would preserve the remembrance of the +stake and the cords dyed in His blood. And He seems to have mocked her.</p> + +<p>"He solemnly assured her that after sorrowful trials the seed she had +sown should bring forth an abundant harvest of nuns. He expressly told +her that she would rank as the sister of Saint Theresa and Saint Clare; +those holy women appeared to ratify these promises by their presence, +and when nothing would come of it, nothing would work, when, quite worn +out, she burst into tears, the Lord calmly bade her be still and take +patience.</p> + +<p>"Meanwhile, she was living amid a howling storm of recrimination and +threats. The clergy persecute her, the Archbishop of Lyon, the Cardinal +de Richelieu, aims only at hindering the completion of her abbeys on his +lands; she cannot even manage her Sisterhood, since we find her +wandering in search of a protector or an assistant; they are torn by +divisions, and their insubordination is such that at length she is +compelled to return in hot haste, and, with many tears, expel the +contumacious sisters from the cloister.</p> + +<p>"It really seems as though no sooner had she built up a monastic wall +than it split and fell; nothing would hold. In short, the Order of the +Incarnate Word was born rickety and died a dwarf. It lingered in the +midst of universal apathy, and survived till 1790, when it was buried. +In 1811 one Abbé Denis revived it at Azérables in la Creuse, and since +then it has struggled on for better for worse, scattered through about +fifteen houses, one of these at Texas in the New World.</p> + +<p>"There is no doubt of it," Durtal concluded; "we are far enough from the +strong sap which Saint Theresa and Saint Clare could infuse into the +centennial growth of their mighty trees!</p> + +<p>"To say nothing of the fact that Jeanne de Matel, who has never been +canonized like her two sisters, and whose name remains unknown to most +Catholics, intended to found an order of men as well as women; she did +not succeed, and the attempts since made in our day by the Abbé Combalot +to carry her plan into effect have been equally vain!</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 94 -->Now, what is the reason? Is it because there are too many and various +communities in the Church? Why, new foundations are set on foot and +flourish every day! Is it by reason of the poverty of the monasteries? +Nay, for indigence is the great test of success, and experience shows +that God only blesses the most destitute convents and abandons the +others! Is it, then, the austerity of the rule? But this was very mild; +it was that of Saint Augustine, which yields to every compromise, and at +need accepts every shade of practice. The sisters rose at five in the +morning; the diet was not restricted to Lenten fare excepting at the +Paschal season, but one fast day was enjoined in the week, and even that +was compulsory only to the Sisters who were strong enough to bear it. +Thus there is nothing to account for such persistent failure.</p> + +<p>"And Jeanne de Matel was a saint endowed with remarkable energy and +really moulded by the Saviour! In her writings she is an eloquent and +subtle theologian, an ardent and rapturous mystic, dealing in metaphors +and hyperbole, in tangible parallels, passionate questionings, and +apostrophes; she resembles both Saint Denys the Areopagite and Saint +Maddalena dei Pazzi; Saint Denys in matter, Saint Maddalena in manner. +As a writer, no doubt she is not supreme, and the poverty of her +borrowed style is sometimes painful; still, considering that she lived +in the seventeenth century, she was at any rate not a mere scribbler of +vapid aspirations, like most of the prosy pietists of the time.</p> + +<p>"And her works have met with the same fate as her foundations. They +remain for the most part unpublished. Hello, who was familiar with them, +only extracted a very mediocre <i>cento</i>; some others, as Prince Galitzin +and the Abbé Penaud, have explored her writings with better results and +printed some loftier and more impassioned passages.</p> + +<p>"And this Abbess wrote some of genuine inspiration.</p> + +<p>"Yes, but all this does not alter the fact that I do not see the book I +could write about her," muttered Durtal. "In spite of my wish to be +agreeable to dear Madame Bavoil, no—I have no inclination to undertake +the task.</p> + +<p>"All things considered, if I did not so heartily hate a move, if I had +energy enough to go back to Holland, I would try to do honour in loving +and respectful terms to the <!-- Page 95 -->worshipful Lidwina, who is of all the +female saints one whose life I should best love to write; but merely to +attempt to reconstruct the surroundings amid which she lived, I should +have to settle in the town where she dwelt, <i>Schiedam</i>.</p> + +<p>"If God grants me life, no doubt I shall one day do this; but the plan +is not yet ripe. Put that aside, then, and since on the other hand +Jeanne de Matel does not captivate me, perhaps I had better think of +another abbess even less known, and whose career was one of more +tranquil endurance, less wandering and more concentrated, and at any +rate more attractive.</p> + +<p>"Besides, her life can now only be found in an octavo volume by an +anonymous writer, whose incoherent chapters, in language as clogging as +a linseed poultice, will for ever hinder the world from knowing her. So +it will be interesting to work it up and make it readable."</p> + +<p>As he turned over his papers he was thinking of one Mother Van +Valckenissen, in religion Mary Margaret of the Angels, foundress of the +Priory of Carmelite Sisters at Oirschot in Dutch Brabant.</p> + +<p>This pious lady was the daughter of a noble house, born on the 26th of +May, 1605, at Antwerp, during the wars which devastated Flanders, and at +the very time when Prince Maurice of Nassau was besieging the town. As +soon as she could read, her parents sent her to school in a convent of +Dominican nuns near Brussels. Her father dying, her mother removed her +from that convent and placed her with the White Ursulines of Louvain; +then she too died, and at fifteen the girl was an orphan.</p> + +<p>Her guardian again removed her to the House of the Carmelite Sisters at +Mechlin; but the struggle between the Spaniards and the Flemings came +close to the district watered by the Dyle, and Marie Marguerite was once +more taken from her convent to find refuge with the canonesses of +Nivelles. Thus her whole childhood was spent in rushing from one convent +to another.</p> + +<p>She was happy in these retreats, especially with the Carmelites, +adopting the hair shirt and submitting to the severest discipline; but +now, on coming forth from the most rigid cloistered life, she found +herself in the midst of a gay world. This Chapter of Canonesses, which +ought to <!-- Page 96 -->have inculcated the mystic life, was one of those hybrid +institutions not altogether white nor quite black, a cross between +profane piety and pious laity. This Chapter, filled up exclusively from +the ranks of rich and high-born women, while the Abbess, nominated by +the Sovereign, assumed the title of Princess of Nivelles, led a devout +and frivolous life, passing strange. Not only might these semi-nuns go +out walking whenever they thought fit, they had a right to live at home +for a certain part of their time, and might even marry after obtaining +the consent of the Abbess.</p> + +<p>In the morning those who chose to reside in the Abbey put on a monastic +habit during the services; then their religious duties ended; they +doffed the convent livery, dressed in splendid attire, the hoops and +bows and farthingales and ruffs that were then the fashion, and sat in +the parlour where visitors poured in.</p> + +<p>The unhappy Marie loathed the dissipation of a life which hindered her +from ever being alone with her God. Bewildered by the gossip and ashamed +of wearing clothes that were offensive to her, compelled to steal away +before daylight, disguised as a waiting-woman, to pray in a deserted +church far from all this turmoil, she at last pined away with sorrow, +and was dying of grief at Nivelles.</p> + +<p>At this juncture a certain Father Bernard de Montgaillard, Abbot of +Orval, of the Cistercian Order, came to the town. She flew to him, and +besought him to rescue her; and this monk, enlightened by a truly divine +spirit, understood that she was born to be a victim of expiation, to +atone for the insults offered to the Holy Eucharist in churches. He gave +her comfort, and announced to her her vocation as a Carmelite. She set +out for Antwerp to visit the Mother Anne de Saint Barthélemy, a saintly +woman, who, warned of her coming by a vision of Saint Theresa, consented +to receive her into the Carmel of which she was the Superior.</p> + +<p>Then obstacles arose, the work of the Devil. Having returned to her +guardian, pending her reception at the convent, she suddenly fell +paralyzed, losing all at once her hearing, speech, and sight. She +nevertheless succeeded in making it understood that they were to carry +her, as she was, to the convent, where she was left half dead. There she +fell at the feet of Mother Anne, who blessed her, and raised her up +cured.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 97 -->Then her novitiate began.</p> + +<p>In spite of her delicate frame, she endured the most terrible fasts, the +most violent scourging; she bound her body in chains with points on the +links, fed on the parings thrown out on plates, drank dirty water to +quench her thirst, and was so cold one winter that her legs froze.</p> + +<p>Her body was one wound, but her soul was glorious; she lived in God, who +loaded her with mercies and communed with her sweetly; her probation was +near its end, and again, just when she became a postulant, she fell +dangerously sick. There were doubts as to her being admitted to the +Order, and again Saint Theresa intervened and commanded the Abbess to +receive her.</p> + +<p>She took the habit, and then fell a prey to the temptation of despair, +which has assailed some Saints; after this came a sense of dryness and +desertion, which lasted for three years. She held out; she endured all +the tortures of the Mystical Substitution, bearing the most painful and +repulsive diseases to save souls. The Lord vouchsafed at last to +intermit the penitential task of suffering. He allowed her to breathe, +and the Devil took advantage of this lull to come upon the scene.</p> + +<p>He appeared to her under the most hostile and monstrous form, breaking +everything, and vanishing in a trail of pestilential vapours. Meanwhile +a good man, one Sylvester Lindermans, had determined to found a Carmel +on an estate he possessed at Oirschot, in Holland. As is ever the case +when a convent is to be established, tribulations abounded. It seemed, +in fact, that the time was ill-chosen for transferring the Sisters to a +town in arms against the Catholics, across a country infested by bands +of armed Protestants. When the Mother Superior selected Marie Marguerite +to go forth and found this new House, she entreated to be left to pray +in peace in her little nook; but Jesus interposed; commanding her to +depart. She obeyed; exhausted, sick, and worn out, she dragged herself +along the roads, and at last arrived, with the Sisters accompanying her, +at Oirschot, where she organized the Convent as best she might in a +house which had never been intended to serve as a nunnery.</p> + +<p>She was made Vicar-Prioress, and at once revealed a marvellous power of +influencing souls. Living the austere <!-- Page 98 -->life of a Carmelite, which she +aggravated for herself by fearful mortifications, she was always +tolerant to others, and although she was known to murmur, so great were +her bodily sufferings, "Till the Day of Judgment, none can ever know +what I endure!" she was always gay, and preached cheerfulness to her +daughters in these words: "It is all very well for those who sin to be +sad; but we ought to have twice as much joy as the angels, since we, +like them, fulfil the will of God, and we, in addition, can suffer for +His glory, which they can never do."</p> + +<p>She was the most indulgent and considerate of Abbesses. For fear of +giving offence to her flock by exerting her authority, she never gave an +order in an imperative form; never said, "Do this or that," but only, +"Let us do it." And if at any time she found herself obliged to punish a +nun in the refectory, she would forthwith kiss the feet of the others, +and entreat them to buffet her to humble her.</p> + +<p>But it would have been too perfect if she and the angelic flock over +which she ruled could have lived the inward life in peace, and sunk +their soul in God. The Curé of Oirschot hated her, and, why no one knew, +he defamed her throughout the town. The Devil too, on his part, returned +to the charge; he appeared, in the midst of an uproar that shook the +walls and made the roof tremble, in the form of an Ethiopian giant, blew +out all the lights, and tried to strangle the nuns. Most of them almost +died of fear; but in compensation for their sufferings Heaven granted +them the comfort of incessant miracles.</p> + +<p>The Mother enabled them to prove in her person the authenticity of the +incredible tales they had read during meals, of the Lives of the Saints. +She had the gift of bilocation, appearing in several places at the same +time, shedding a trail of delicious fragrance wherever she passed, +curing the sick by the Sign of the Cross, scenting out and discerning +hidden sins as a hunting dog puts up game, and reading souls.</p> + +<p>And her daughters adored her, wept to see her lead a life which now was +one long torment. As a result of the intense cold, she became a victim +to acute rheumatism; for the Rule of Saint Theresa, which prohibits the +lighting of a fire anywhere but in the kitchens, if it is endurable in +Spain, is simply murderous in the frozen climate of Flanders.</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 99 -->After all," said Durtal to himself, "this life so far is not very +unlike that experienced by many another cloistered nun; but towards the +approach of death the amazing beauty of this spirit was revealed in so +special a manner, and in wishes so remarkable, that it remains unique in +the records of the Monastic Houses."</p> + +<p>Her health grew worse and worse. Added to the rheumatism, which crippled +her, she had pains in the stomach, which nothing could relieve. Sciatica +was presently engrafted on this flourishing stock of torments, and +dropsy, a common disease in cloisters of austere rule, supervened.</p> + +<p>Her legs swelled and refused to carry her; she lay helpless on her bed. +The Sisters who nursed her now discovered a secret which she had always +kept, out of humility; they perceived that her hands were pierced with +red holes surrounded by a blue halo, and that her feet, also pierced, +lay of their own accord, unless they were held down, one above the +other, in the position of Christ's feet on the cross. At last she +confessed that many years before Jesus had marked her with the stigmata +of the Passion, and that the wounds burnt night and day like red hot +iron.</p> + +<p>Her sufferings constantly increased. Feeling that this time she was +dying, she grieved over the pitiless macerations she had used, and with +touching artlessness begged forgiveness of her poor body for having +exhausted its strength, and so having perhaps hindered it from living to +suffer longer.</p> + +<p>And she then put up the most strangely fragrant, the most wildly +extravagant prayer that ever a Saint can have addressed to God.</p> + +<p>She had so loved the Holy Eucharist, she had so longed to kneel at His +feet and atone for the outrages inflicted on Him by the sins of mankind, +that she waxed faint at the thought that after her death what would +remain of her could no longer worship Him.</p> + +<p>The idea that her body would rot in uselessness, that the last handfuls +of her miserable flesh would decay without having served to honour the +Saviour, broke her heart; and then it was that she besought Him to +suffer her to melt away, to liquefy into an oil which might be burnt +before the tabernacle in the lamp of the sanctuary.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 100 -->And Jesus vouchsafed to her this excessive privilege, such as the like +is unknown in the history of the Saints; and at the moment when she died +she enjoined her daughters to leave her body exposed in the chapel, and +unburied for some weeks.</p> + +<p>On this point there is abundant authentic evidence. More or less minute +inquiries were made, and the reports of medical experts are so precise +that we can follow from day to day the state of the corpse until it had +turned to oil and could be preserved in phials, from which, by her +desire, a spoonful was poured every morning to feed the wick of a lamp +hanging near the altar.</p> + +<p>When she died—then aged fifty-two, having lived as a nun for +thirty-three years, and fourteen as Superior of Oirschot—her face was +transfigured, and in spite of the cold of a winter when the Scheldt +could be crossed in a carriage, her body remained soft and pliable; but +it swelled. Surgeons examined it and opened it in the presence of +witnesses. They expected to find the stomach filled with water, but +scarcely half a pint was removed, and the body did not collapse.</p> + +<p>This autopsy led to the incomprehensible discovery in the gall-bladder +of three nails with black heads, angular and polished, of an unknown +metal; two weighed as much as half a French gold crown, within seven +grains; the third, which was as large as a nutmeg, weighed five grains +more.</p> + +<p>The operators then filled up the intestines with tow soaked in wormwood, +and sewed the body up again with a needle and thread. And during and +after these proceedings not only did the dead nun give out no smell of +putrefaction, but, as in her lifetime, she diffused an ineffable and +exquisite perfume.</p> + +<p>Nearly three weeks elapsed; boils formed and broke, giving out blood and +water for more than a month; then the skin showed patches of yellow; +exudation ceased and oil came out, at first white, limpid, and fragrant, +afterwards darker and of about the colour of amber. It filled more than +a hundred phials, each containing two ounces, several of them being +still preserved in the Carmels of Belgium; and her remains when buried +were not decomposed, but had assumed the golden brown colour of a date.</p> + +<p>"A book might really be written on the life of this <!-- Page 101 -->admirable woman," +thought Durtal. "And then what a group of wonderful nuns were those +about her! The convents of Antwerp, Mechlin, and Oirschot swarmed with +saintly nuns. In the time of Charles V. the Order of Carmelites renewed +in Flanders the mystical prodigies which, four centuries before, in the +Middle Ages, the Dominicans had accomplished in the Monastery of +Unterlinden at Colmar.</p> + +<p>"How such women as these carry one away and throw one, as it were! What +strength of soul we see in this Marie Marguerite! What grace must have +sustained her, that she could thus shed all the natural frenzy of the +senses, and endure so cheerfully and bravely the most overwhelming +sufferings!</p> + +<p>"Well, now, shall I harness myself to a history of this venerable +Abbess? But then I must procure the volume by Joseph de Loignac, her +first biographer, the notice by the Recluse of Marlaigne, the pamphlet +by Monseigneur de Ram, the narrative by Papebröch; above all I must have +at hand the translation, made by the Carmelites of Louvain, of the +Flemish manuscript written while the Mother was still alive, by her +daughters. Where can I unearth that? In any case the search must be a +long one. No, I must set aside that scheme, which for the present is +impracticable.</p> + +<p>"What I ought to do I know very well; I ought to put the article into +shape on Angelico's picture in the Louvre. I promised the paper at least +four months ago to the magazine which clamours for it every morning by +letter. It is disgraceful! Since I left Paris I have ceased to work; and +I have no excuse, for the subject interests me, since it affords me an +opportunity for studying the complete system of the symbolism of colour +in the Middle Ages. 'The Early Painters, and Prayer in Colour as seen in +their Works.' What a subject for thought! However, that is not the +immediate matter. I must not sit dreaming, but go to join the Abbé +Plomb; and the weather is clouding over again! I certainly have no +luck."</p> + +<p>As he crossed the square he was lost again in meditations, captivated +once more by the haunting thought of the Cathedral, and saying to +himself as he looked up at the spires,—</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 102 -->How many varieties there are in the immense family of the Gothic; and +what dissimilarities. No two churches are alike."</p> + +<p>The towers and belfries of those he knew rose before him as in those +diagrams on which, irrespective of distance, the buildings are placed +all close together at the same point of view to show their relative +height.</p> + +<p>"It is quite true," thought he, "the towers vary like the basilicas. +Those of Notre Dame de Paris are thick-set and gloomy, almost +elephantine; cleft almost from top to bottom by deep bays, they seem to +mount slowly and with difficulty, and stop short, crushed as it were by +the burden of sins, dragged down to earth by the wickedness of the city; +we feel the effort with which they rise, and we are saddened as we +contemplate those captive masses, all the more depressing by reason of +the dismal hue of the louvre-boards. At Reims, on the contrary, they are +open from top to bottom, pierced as with needles' eyes, long narrow +windows of which the opening seems filled with a herring-bone of +enormous size, or a gigantic comb with teeth on each side. They spring +into the air, as light as filigree; and the sky gets into the mouldings, +plays between the mullions, peeps through the tracery and the +innumerable lancets, in strips of blue, is focussed and reflected in the +little carved trefoils above. These towers are mighty, expansive, +immense, and yet light. They are as speaking, as much alive, as those in +Paris are stern and mute.</p> + +<p>"At Laon they are more especially strange. With their light columns, +here thrust forward and there standing back, they suggest a series of +shelves piled up in a hurry, crowned merely by a platform, over which +lowing oxen look down.</p> + +<p>"The two towers at Amiens, built, like those of the Cathedrals at Rouen +and at Bourges, at different periods, do not match. They are of +different heights, lame against the sky; another that is really +magnificent in its solitude, and putting to shame the mediocrity of the +two belfries lately erected on each side of the west front, is the +Norman tower of Saint Ouen, its summit encircled by a crown. This is the +patrician tower among so many that preserve a peasant air, with bare +heads, or coifs made narrow and square at the top, sloped somewhat like +the mouthpiece of a whistle, such as that of Saint Romain <!-- Page 103 -->at Rouen, or +rustic, pointed caps like that worn by the church of Saint Bénigne at +Dijon, or the queer sort of awning which shades the Cathedral of Saint +Jean at Lyon.</p> + +<p>"And in any case a tower without a tapering spire never soars to heaven. +It always rises heavily, pants on the way, and falls asleep exhausted. +It is, as it were, an arm without a hand, a wrist without palm and +fingers, a stump; or, again, a pencil uncut, having no point wherewith +to write up beyond the clouds the prayers from below; in short, it is +for ever inert.</p> + +<p>"We must turn to the steeple, to the stone spire, to find the true +symbol of prayers shot up to pierce the sky and reach the Heart of the +Father, which is their target.</p> + +<p>"And in this family of arrows what a variety we see; no two darts are +alike!</p> + +<p>"Some are set in a collar of turrets at their base, held in a circle of +pinnacles, like the points of a Magian king's diadem; this we see in the +bell-tower of Senlis.</p> + +<p>"Others seem to have about them the children born in their image, little +spires, all round them; some are covered with bosses, knobs, and +blisters; others pierced like colanders and strainers, in patterns of +trefoils and quaterfoils that seem to have been punched out; here we +find some that are covered with ornament, with teeth like a rasp, ridges +of notches, or bristling with spines; others are imbricated with scales +like a fish, as we see in the older spire at Chartres; and others again, +like that at Caudebec, display the emblem of the Roman Church, the +triple crown of the Pope.</p> + +<p>"Out of this general outline, which was almost forced upon them, and +which they hardly ever tried to avoid, this pyramid or pepper-caster, +jelly-bag or extinguisher, the architects of the Middle Ages evolved the +most ingenious combinations and varied their designs to infinity.</p> + +<p>"How mysterious for the most part is the origin of our cathedrals! Most +of the artists who built them are unknown; nay, the age of the stones is +rarely a matter of certainty, for the greater part of them have been +wrought upon by the alluvium of ages.</p> + +<p>"They almost all cover intervals of two, three, or four centuries each; +they extend from the beginning, of the thirteenth century till the first +years of the sixteenth.</p> + +<p>"And on reflection that is very intelligible.</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 104 -->It has been accurately remarked that the thirteenth century was the +great period of cathedral-building. It gave birth to almost every one of +them; and then, being created, their growth was checked for nearly two +hundred years.</p> + +<p>"The fourteenth century was torn by frightful disasters. It began with +the ignoble quarrels between Philippe le Bel and the Pope; it saw the +stake lighted for the Templars, made bonfires in Languedoc of the +<i>Bégards</i> and the <i>Fraticelli</i>, the lepers and the Jews; wallowed in +blood under the defeats of Crécy and Poitiers, the furious excesses of +the Jacquerie and of the Maillotins, and the ravages of the brigands +known as the <i>Tard-venus</i>; and finally, having run so wild, its madness +was reflected in the incurable insanity of the king.</p> + +<p>"Thus it ended, as it had begun, writhing in the most horrible religious +convulsions. The Tiaras of Rome and Avignon clashed, and the Church, +standing unsupported on these ruins, tottered on its base, for the Great +Western Schism now shook it.</p> + +<p>"The fifteenth century seemed to be born mad. Charles VI.'s insanity +seemed to be infectious; the English invasion was followed by the +pillage of France, the frenzied contest of the Bourguignons and the +Armagnacs, by plagues and famines, and the overthrow at Agincourt; then +came Charles VII., Joan of Arc, the deliverance and the healing of the +land by the energetic treatment of King Louis XI.</p> + +<p>"All these events hindered the progress of the works in cathedrals.</p> + +<p>"The fourteenth century on the whole restricted itself to carrying on +the structures begun during the previous century. We must wait till the +end of the fifteenth, when France drew breath, to see architecture start +into life once more.</p> + +<p>"It must be added that frequent conflagrations at various times +destroyed a whole church, and that it had to be rebuilt from the +foundations; others, like Beauvais, fell down, and had to be +reconstructed, or, if money was lacking, simply strengthened and the +gaps repaired.</p> + +<p>"With the exception of a very few—Saint Ouen at Rouen for one, a rare +example of a church almost entirely built during the fourteenth century +(excepting the western towers and front, which are quite modern), and +the<!-- Page 105 --> Cathedral at Reims for another, which appears to have been +constructed without much interruption, on the original plans of Hugues +Libergier or Robert de Coucy—not one of our cathedrals was erected +throughout in accordance with the designs of the architect who began it, +nor has one remained untouched.</p> + +<p>"Most of them, consequently, represent the combined efforts of +successive pious generations; still, this apparently improbable fact is +true: until the dawn of the Renaissance the genius of successive +builders was singularly well matched. If they made any alterations in +their predecessors' plans, they were able to introduce some touch of +individuality, inventions of exquisite beauty that did not clash with +the whole. They engrafted their genius on that of their first masters; +there was the perpetuated tradition of an admirable conception, a +perennial breath of the Holy Spirit. It was the interloper, the period +of false and farcical Pagan art, that extinguished that pure flame, and +annihilated the luminous truthfulness of the Mediæval past, when God had +dwelt intimately, at home, in souls; it substituted a merely earthly +form of art for one that was divine.</p> + +<p>"As soon as the sensuality of the Renaissance revealed itself, the +Paraclete fled; the mortal sin of stone could display itself at will. It +contaminated the buildings that were finished, defiled the churches, +debasing their purity of form; this, with the gross license of sculpture +and painting, was the great stupration of the cathedrals.</p> + +<p>"And this time the Spirit of Prayer was quite dead; everything went to +pieces. The Renaissance, so lauded afterwards by Michelet and the +historians, was the death of the Mystical soul of monumental theology, +of religious art—all the great art of France.</p> + +<p>"Bless me! where am I?" Durtal suddenly asked himself, finding himself +in the ill-paved alleys which lead from the Cathedral square to the +lower town. He saw that, dreaming as he walked, he had passed the Abbé's +lodgings.</p> + +<p>He turned up the street again, stopped in front of an old house and +rang. A brass wicket was opened and closed, and a housekeeper, shuffling +up in old shoes, half opened the door. Durtal was met by the Abbé Plomb, +who was watching for him, and who led him into a room full of statues; +there were carved images in every spot—on <!-- Page 106 -->the chimney-shelf, on a +chest of drawers, on a side table, and in the middle of the room.</p> + +<p>"Do not look at them," said the Abbé, "do not heed them; I have no part +in the selection of this horrible bazaar. I have to endure it in spite +of myself; these are offerings from my penitents."</p> + +<p>Durtal laughed, though somewhat scared by the extraordinary specimens of +religious art that crowded the room.</p> + +<p>There was every kind of work: black frames with brass flats, and in them +engravings of Virgins by Bouguereau and Signol, Guido's <i>Ecce Homo</i>, +Pietàs, Saint Philomenas—and then the assembly of polychrome statues: +Mary painted with the crude green of angelica and the acrid pinks of +English pear-drops; Madonnas gazing in rapture at their own feet, with +extended hands whence proceeded fans of yellow rays; Joan of Arc +squatting like a hen on her eggs, with eyes raised to heaven like white +marbles, and pressing a standard to her bosom in its plaster cuirass; +Saint Anthonys of Padua, clean and snug, as neat as two pins; Saint +Josephs, not enough the carpenter and too little the Saint; Magdalens +weeping silver pills; a whole mob of semi-divinities, best quality, of +the class known as "The Munich Article" in the Rue Madame.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Monsieur l'Abbé, the donors are certainly terrible people—but +could you not, quite by accident, drop one of these objects every day—"</p> + +<p>The priest gave a shrug of despair.</p> + +<p>"They would only bring me more," cried he. "But if you are willing, we +will be off at once, for I am afraid of being caught here if I linger."</p> + +<p>And as they walked, talking of the Cathedral, Durtal exclaimed,—</p> + +<p>"Is it not a monstrous thing that in the splendour of this Cathedral of +Chartres it is impossible to hear any genuine plain-song? I am reduced +to frequenting the sanctuary only at hours when there is no high service +going on. Above all I avoid being present at High Mass on Sundays; the +music that is tolerated infuriates me! Is there no way of having the +organist dismissed, and a clean sweep made of the precentor and the +teachers in the choir-school, of packing off the basses with their +vinous voices to the taverns? Ugh! And the gassy effervescence that +rises <!-- Page 107 -->from the thin pipes of the little boys! and the street tunes +eructed in a hiccough, like the run of a lamp-chain when you pull it up, +mingling with the noisy bellow of the basses! What a disgrace, what a +shame! How is it that the Bishop, the priests, the Canons do not +prohibit such treason?</p> + +<p>"Monseigneur, I know, is old and ill; but those Canons!—They look so +weary, to be sure! As I see them droning out the Psalms in their stalls, +I wonder whether they know where they are and what they are doing; they +always seem to me in a half unconscious state—"</p> + +<p>"The high winds of la Beauce induce lethargy," said the Abbé, laughing. +"But allow me to assure you that though the Cathedral scorns Gregorian +chants, here, at Chartres, at the little Seminary, at the church of +Notre Dame de la Brèche, and at the convent of the Sisters of Saint +Paul, they are sung after the Use of Solesmes, so that you can +alternately attend that church and those chapels and the Cathedral, +since perfection is to be found in neither."</p> + +<p>"Of course. Still, is it not horrible to think that the Hottentot taste +of a few bawling old men can pursue the Virgin even in Her sanctuary +with such musical insults? Ah, there is the rain again," said Durtal +with vexation, after a short silence.</p> + +<p>"Well, here we are. We can take shelter in the church, and study the +interior at our leisure."</p> + +<p>They knelt before the Black Virgin of the Pillar; then they sat down in +the deserted nave, and the Abbé said in an undertone,—</p> + +<p>"I explained to you the other day the symbolism of the outside of the +building. Would you like me now to inform you in a few words as to the +allegories set forth in the aisles?"</p> + +<p>And on seeing Durtal agree by a nod, the priest went on,—</p> + +<p>"You are, of course, aware that almost all our cathedrals are cruciform. +In the primitive Church, it is true, you will find that some were +constructed of a circular form and surmounted by a dome. But most of +these were not built by our forefathers; they are ancient temples of the +heathen adapted by the Catholics, with more or less alteration, to their +own use, or imitated from such temples before the Romanesque style was +recognized.</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 108 -->We need then seek in these no liturgical meaning, since that form was +not a Christian invention. At the same time Durand of Mende, in his +<i>Rationale</i>, asserts that a building of rounded form symbolizes the +extension of the Church over the whole circle of the universe. Others +explain the dome as being the crown of the Crucified King, and the +smaller cupolas which occasionally support it as the huge heads of the +Nails. But we may set aside these explanations, which are but based on +existing facts, and study the cruciform plan shown here, as in other +cathedrals, in the arrangement of the nave and transepts.</p> + +<p>"It may be noted that in a few churches, as, for instance, the abbey +church of Cluny, the interior, instead of showing a Latin Cross, was +planned on the lines of the Cross of Lorraine, two <i>crosslets</i> being +added to the arms.—Now, behold the whole scheme!" the priest said, with +a gesture that comprehended the whole of the interior of the basilica of +Chartres.</p> + +<p>"Jesus is dead; His head is at the altar; His outstretched arms are the +two transepts; His pierced hands are the doors; His legs are the nave +where we are standing; His pierced feet are the door by which we have +come in. Now consider the systematic deviation of the axis of the +building; it imitates the attitude of a body bent over from the upright +tree of sacrifice, and in some cathedrals—for instance, at Reims—the +narrowness, the strangulation, so to speak, of the choir in proportion +to the nave represents all the more closely the head and neck of a man, +drooping over his shoulder when he has given up the ghost.</p> + +<p>"This twist in the church is to be seen almost everywhere—in Saint Ouen +and in the Cathedral at Rouen, in Saint Jean at Poitiers, at Tours and +at Reims. Sometimes, indeed—but this statement needs verification—the +architect had substituted for the body of the Saviour that of the Saint +in whose name the church was dedicated, and the curved axis of Saint +Savin, for instance, has been supposed to represent the bend of the +wheel which was the instrument of that Saint's martyrdom.</p> + +<p>"But all this is evidently familiar to you.</p> + +<p>"This is less well known: So far we have studied the image of Christ +motionless, and dead, in our churches. I will now tell you of a singular +instance of a church which, <!-- Page 109 -->instead of reproducing the attitude of the +Divine Corpse, represents that of His still living Body, a church which +seems to have a suggestion of movement as if bending like Christ on the +Cross.</p> + +<p>"In fact it seems to be certain that some architects strove to represent +in the plan of their building the motion of the human frame, to imitate +the action of a drooping figure; in short, to give life to stones.</p> + +<p>"Such an attempt was made in the abbey church of Preuilly-sur-Claise in +Touraine. The plan and photographs of this basilica are to be found in +an interesting volume that I can lend you; the author, the Abbé +Picardat, is the Curé of the church. You will from them readily perceive +that the curve of the plan is that of a body leaning on one side, drawn +out and bending over.</p> + +<p>"And the movement of the body is represented by the curve of the axis, +beginning at the very first bay and continued along the nave, the choir, +and the apse to the end, which bends aside to imitate the droop of the +head.</p> + +<p>"Thus, even better than at Chartres, at Reims, and at Rouen, this humble +sanctuary, built by Benedictine monks whose names are unknown, +represents in its serpentine line, in the perspective of its aisles and +the obliquity of its vaulting, the allegorical presentment of our Lord +on the Cross. In all other churches the architects have to some extent +imitated the cadaverous rigidity of the head fallen in death; at +Preuilly the monks have perpetuated the never-to-be-forgotten instant +that elapsed between the '<i>Sitio</i>' (I thirst) and the '<i>Consummatum +est</i>' (It is finished), as recorded in the Gospel of Saint John. Thus +the old Touraine church is in the image of Christ Crucified, but still +living.</p> + +<p>"Now, to look at home once more, we will consider the inward parts of +our sanctuaries. It may be noted incidentally that the length of the +cathedral figures the long-suffering of the Church in adversity; its +breadth symbolizes charity, which expands the souls of men; its height, +the hope of future reward; and we can then proceed to details.</p> + +<p>"The choir and sanctuary symbolize Heaven; the nave is the emblem of the +earth; as the gulf that divides the two worlds can only be passed by the +help of the Cross, it was formerly the custom, now, alas, fallen into +desuetude, to <!-- Page 110 -->erect an enormous Crucifix over the grand arch between +the nave and the choir. Hence the name of triumphal arch was given to +the vast space in front of the High altar. It may also be remarked that +a railing or screen marks the limits of these two parts of the +cathedral. Saint Gregory Nazianzen regards this as the border line +traced between the two parts—that of God, and that of man.</p> + +<p>"There is, however, a different explanation given by Richard de Saint +Victor, as to the sanctuary, the choir, and the nave. According to him, +the first symbolizes the Virgins, the second the chaste souls, and the +third the married hearts. As to the altar, or, as old liturgical writers +call it, the <i>Cancel</i> (chancel), it is Christ Himself, the spot whereon +His Head rests, the Table of the Last Supper, the Stake whereon He shed +His blood, the Sepulchre that held His body; and again, it is the +Spiritual Church, and its four angles the four corners of the earth over +which it shall reign.</p> + +<p>"Now behind this altar we find the apse, assuming in most cathedrals the +form of a semicircle. There are exceptions; to mention three: at +Poitiers, at Laon, and in Notre Dame du Fort at Étampes the wall is +square, as in the ancient civic basilicas, and does not describe the +sort of half-moon, of which the significance is one of the most +beautiful inventions of symbolism.</p> + +<p>"This semicircular end, this apsidal shell, with the chapels that +surround the choir, simulates the Crown of Thorns on the Head of Christ. +Excepting in Sanctuaries which are wholly dedicated to Our Lady—this +one, Notre Dame de Paris, and some others—one of these chapels, that in +the centre and the largest, is dedicated to the Virgin, to show by the +place that it occupies at the end of the church that Mary is the last +refuge of sinners.</p> + +<p>"She, in person, is again symbolized by the Sacristy, whence the priest +comes forth as Christ's representative after putting on his sacerdotal +vestments, as Jesus came forth from His Mother's womb after clothing +Himself in flesh.</p> + +<p>"It must constantly be repeated; every part of a church and every +material object used in divine worship is representative of some +theological truth. In the script of architecture everything is a +reminiscence, an echo, a reflection, and every part is connected to form +a whole.</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 111 -->For instance, the altar, which is the Image of Our Lord, must be +draped with white linen in memory of the winding-sheet in which Joseph +of Arimathea wrapped His body—and that linen must be woven of pure +thread, of hemp or flax. The chalice, which according to the texts +adduced by the <i>Spicilegium</i> of Solesmes, is to be taken now as a symbol +of glory, and now as a sign of opprobrium, may be regarded, by the most +generally received theory, as the figure of the sacred Tomb; then the +paten appears as the stone which served to close it, while the corporal +is the shroud itself.</p> + +<p>"When I tell you further," added the Abbé, "that according to Saint +Nilus, the columns signify the divine dogmas, or, according to Durand of +Mende, the Bishops and the Doctors of the Church, that the capitals are +the words of Scripture, that the pavement of the church is the +foundation of faith and humility, that the ambos and rood-loft, almost +everywhere destroyed, figure the pulpit of the gospel, the mountain on +which Christ preached; again, that the seven lamps burning before the +altar are the seven gifts of the Spirit, that the steps to the altar are +the steps to perfection; that the alternating choirs represent on the +one side the angels, and on the other the righteous, combining to do +homage with their voices to the glory of the Most High, I have pretty +well explained to you the general meaning and detailed symbolism of the +interior of the cathedral, and more particularly that of Chartres.</p> + +<p>"Now you must observe a peculiarity which is also to be seen in the +Cathedral at Le Mans; the side aisles of the nave in which we are +sitting are single, but they are double round the choir—"</p> + +<p>But Durtal was not listening; far away from this architectural exegesis, +he was admiring the amazing structure without even trying to analyze it.</p> + +<p>Wrapped in the mystery of its own shadow thick with the haze of rain, it +soared up lighter and lighter as it rose in the skyey whiteness of its +arcades, aspiring like a soul purifying itself with increasing light as +it toils up the ways of the mystic life.</p> + +<p>The clustered columns sprang in slender sheaves, their groups so light +that they looked as if they might bend at a breath; yet it was not till +they had reached a giddy height that these stems curved over, flying +from one side of the<!-- Page 112 --> Cathedral to the other to meet above the void, +mingling their sap and blossoming at last, like a basket of flowers, in +the once gilt pendants from the roof.</p> + +<p>This church appeared as a supreme effort of matter striving for +lightness, rejecting, as though it were a burden, the diminished weight +of its walls and substituting a less ponderous and more lucent matter, +replacing the opacity of stone by the diaphanous texture of glass.</p> + +<p>It grew more spiritual—wholly spiritual, purely prayer, as it sprang +towards the Lord to meet Him; light and slender, as it were +imponderable, it remained the most glorious expression of Beauty +escaping from its earthly dross, Beauty become seraphic.</p> + +<p>It was as slender and colourless as Roger Van der Weyden's Virgins, who +are so fragile, so ethereal, that they might blow away were they not +held down to earth by the weight of their brocades and trains. Here was +the same mystical conception of a long-drawn body and an ardent soul, +which, unable to free itself completely from that body, strove to purify +it by reducing it, refining it, almost distilling it to a fluid.</p> + +<p>The building bewildered him with the giddy flight of its vault, the +dazzling splendour of its windows. The weather was gloomy, and yet a +furnace of gems flamed in the lancets of the windows and the blazing +wheels of the roses.</p> + +<p>Up there, high in air, as they might be salamanders, human beings with +faces ablaze and robes on fire dwelt in a firmament of glory; but these +conflagrations were enclosed and limited by an incombustible frame of +darker glass which set off the youthful and radiant joy of the flames by +the contrast of melancholy, the suggestion of the more serious and aged +aspect presented by gloomy colouring. The bugle cry of red, the limpid +confidence of white, the repeated Hallelujahs of yellow, the virginal +glory of blue, all the quivering crucible of glass was dimmed as it got +nearer to this border dyed with rusty red, the tawny hues of sauces, the +harsh purples of sandstone, bottle-green, tinder-brown, fuliginous +blacks, and ashy greys.</p> + +<p>As at Bourges, where the glass is of the same period, Oriental influence +was visible in these windows at Chartres. Not only had the figures the +hieratic appearance, the sumptuous and barbarous dignity of Asiatic +personages, but <!-- Page 113 -->the borders, in their design and the arrangement of +their colours, were an evident reminiscence of the Persian carpets which +undoubtedly served as models to the painters; since it is known from the +<i>Livre des Métiers</i> that in the thirteenth century hangings copied from +those which the Crusaders brought from the Levant were manufactured in +France, and in Paris itself.</p> + +<p>But, apart from the question of subjects or borders, the various colours +of these pictures were, so to speak, but an accessory crowd, handmaidens +whose part it was to set off another colour, namely blue—a glorious, +indescribable blue, a vivid sapphire hue of excessive transparency, pale +but piercing and sparkling throughout, glittering like the broken glass +of a kaleidoscope—in the top-lights, in the roses of the transepts, and +in the great west window, where it burned like the blue flame of +sulphur, among the lead-lines and black iron bars.</p> + +<p>Taken for all in all, with the tones of its stone-work and its windows, +Notre Dame de Chartres was fair with blue eyes. He personified Her as a +sort of white fairy, a tall and slender virgin, with large blue eyes +under lids of translucent rose. This was the Mother of a Christ of the +North, the Christ of a Pre-Raphaelite Flemish painter. She sat enthroned +in a Heaven of ultramarine, surrounded by these Oriental hangings of +glass—a pathetic reminder of the Crusades.</p> + +<p>And these transparent hangings were like flowers, redolent of sandal and +pepper, fragrant with the subtle spices of the Magian kings; a perfumed +flower-bed of hues culled at the cost of so much blood in the fields of +Palestine; and here offered by the West, under the cold sky of Chartres, +to the Virgin Mother in remembrance of the sunny lands where She dwelt +and where Her Son chose to be born.</p> + +<p>"Where could you find a grander shrine or a more sublime dwelling for +Our Mother?" said the Abbé as he pointed to the nave.</p> + +<p>This exclamation roused Durtal from his reflections, and he listened as +the priest went on,—</p> + +<p>"Though this cathedral is unique as regards its width, in spite of its +enormous height it cannot compare with the extravagant elevation of +Bourges, Amiens, and more especially of Beauvais, where the vault of the +roof rises to <!-- Page 114 -->forty-eight metres from the ground. That cathedral, it is +true, was bent on outstripping its sisters.</p> + +<p>"Springing into the air at one flight, when it reached the upper spaces +it tottered and fell. You know the portions which survived the wreck of +that mad attempt?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Monsieur l'Abbé; and that sanctuary and that apse, so narrow and +restricted, with columns so close together, and the iridescent light, +like filmy soap bubbles, from walls which seem made of glass, disturb +and bewilder you; on first entering it gives the impression of +indescribable uneasiness, a sort of anxious and distressed anticipation. +And in truth it is neither quite healthy nor sound; it seems only to +live by dint of aids and expedients; it struggles to be free and is not; +it is long drawn and not ethereal; it has—how shall I express +it?—large bones. You remember the pillars? They are like the smooth +muscular trunks of beech trees, which have also the angular edges of +reeds. How different from the harp-strings which form the aerial +skeleton of Chartres! No, in spite of all, Beauvais, like Reims, and +like Paris, is a fleshy cathedral; it has not the elegant leanness, the +perennial youthfulness of form, the Patrician stamp of Amiens, and more +especially of Chartres!</p> + +<p>"And have you not been struck, Monsieur l'Abbé, by the way in which the +genius of man has constantly borrowed from Nature in the construction of +his basilicas? It is almost certain that the arcades of the forest were +the starting-point for the mystic avenues of our aisles. And again, look +at the pillars. I was speaking of those at Beauvais as suggesting the +beech and the reed; if you think of the columns at Laon, they have nodes +all up their stems, resembling the regular swelling of bamboos, to the +point of imitation. Note also the stone flora of the capitals and the +pendants of the vault, terminating the long ribs of the arches. Here the +animal kingdom seems to have inspired the architect. Might we not +conceive of a fabulous spider, of which the key-stone is the body and +the ribs stretching under the vaults are the legs? The image is so +accurate as to be irresistible. And then what a marvel is the gigantic +Arachne, wrought like a jewel and heightened with gold, which might have +spun the web of those three flaming rose windows!"</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 115 -->By the way," said the Abbé, when they had left the church and were +walking down the street, "I forgot to point out to you the Number which +is everywhere stamped on Chartres; it is identical with Paray-le-Monial. +Here, again, everything is in threes. Thus there are three aisles, and +three entrances each with three doors; if you count the pillars of the +nave, you will count twice three on each side. The transept aisles again +have each three bays and three pillars, the windows are in threes under +the three great roses. So, you see, Notre Dame is full of the Trinity."</p> + +<p>"And it is also the great store-house of Mediæval painting and +sculpture."</p> + +<p>"Yes, and like other Gothic cathedrals, it is the completest and most +trustworthy collection of symbolism; for the allegories we fancy we can +interpret in Romanesque churches are on the whole but artificial and +doubtful—and that is quite conceivable. The Romanesque is a convert, a +pagan turned monk. It was not born Catholic as the pointed arch was; it +only became so by baptism conferred by the Church. Christianity +discovered it in the Roman <i>basilica</i>, and utilized while modifying it; +thus its origin is pagan, and it was only as it grew up that it could +learn the language and use the forms of our emblems."</p> + +<p>"And yet, to me, as a whole, it seems to be a symbol, for it is the +image in stone of the Old Testament, a figure of contrition and fear."</p> + +<p>"And yet more of the soul's peace," replied the Abbé. "Believe me, +really to understand that style we must go back to the fountain-head, to +the earliest times of Monasticism, of which it is a perfect expression; +back, in fact, to the Fathers of the Church, the monks of the Desert.</p> + +<p>"Now, what is the very special character of the mysticism of the East? +It is the calmness of faith, love feeding on itself, ecstasy without +display, ardent but reserved, internal.</p> + +<p>"In the books of the Egyptian Recluses you will never find the vehemence +of a Maddalena de' Pazzi or a Catherine of Siena, the passionate +ejaculations of a Saint Angela. Nothing of the kind, no amorous +addresses, no trepidations, no laments. They look upon the Redeemer less +as <!-- Page 116 -->the Victim to be wept over than as the Mediator, the Friend, the +Elder Brother. To them He was, to quote Origen's words, 'The Bridge +between us and the Father.'</p> + +<p>"These tendencies, transplanted from Africa to Europe, were preserved by +the first monks of the West, who followed the example of their +predecessors, and modified and built their churches on the same pattern.</p> + +<p>"That repentance, contrition, and awe dwell under these dark vaults, +among these heavy pillars, in this fortress, as it were, where the elect +shut themselves in to resist the assaults of the world, is quite +certain—but this mystical Romanseque also suggests the notion of a +sturdy faith, of manly patience, and stalwart piety—like its walls.</p> + +<p>"It has not the flaming raptures of the mystical Gothic, which finds +utterance in all these soaring shafts of stone; the Romanesque lives +self-centred, in reserved fervour, brooding in the depths of the soul. +It may be summed up in this saying of Saint Isaac's: <i>In mansuetudine et +in tranquillitate, simplifica animam tuam</i>.'"</p> + +<p>"You will confess, Monsieur l'Abbé, that you have a weakness for the +style."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps I have, in so far as that it is less petted, more humble, less +feminine, and more claustral than the Gothic."</p> + +<p>"On the whole," the priest concluded, as he shook hands with Durtal at +his own door, "it is the symbol of the inner life, the image of the +monastic life; in a word, the true architecture of the cloister."</p> + +<p>"On condition, nevertheless," said Durtal to himself, "that it is not +like that of Notre Dame de Poitiers, where the interior is gaudy with +childish colouring and raw tones; for there, instead of expressing +regret and tranquillity, it rouses a suggestion of the childish glee of +an old savage in his second childhood, who laughs when his tattoo marks +are renewed, and his skin rough-cast with crude ochres."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"><!-- Page 117 --></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + + +<p>"How many worshippers can the Cathedral contain? Well, nearly 18,000," +said the Abbé Plomb. "But I need hardly tell you, I suppose, that it is +never full; that even during the season for pilgrimages the vast crowds +of Mediæval times never assemble here. Ah, no! Chartres is not exactly +what you would call a pious town!"</p> + +<p>"It strikes me as indifferent to religion, to say the least, if not +actually hostile," said the Abbé Gévresin.</p> + +<p>"The citizen of Chartres is money-getting, apathetic, and salacious," +replied the Abbé Plomb. "Above all, greedy of money, for the passion for +lucre is fierce here, under an inert surface. Really, from my own +experience, I pity the young priest who is sent as a beginner to +evangelize la Beauce.</p> + +<p>"He arrives full of illusions, dreaming of Apostolic triumphs, burning +to devote himself—and he drops into silence and the void. If he were +but persecuted he would feel himself alive; but he is met, not with +abuse, but with a smile, which is far worse; and at once he becomes +aware of the futility of all he can do, of the aimlessness of his +efforts, and he is discouraged.</p> + +<p>"The clergy here are, it may be said, admirable, composed of good and +saintly priests; but they vegetate, torpid with inaction; they neither +read nor work; their joints become ankylose; they die of weariness in +this provincial spot."</p> + +<p>"You do not!" exclaimed Durtal, laughing; "for you make work. Did you +not tell me that you especially devote yourself to ladies who can still +condescend to take an interest in Our Lord in this town?"</p> + +<p>"Your satire is scathing," replied the Abbé. "I can assure you that if I +had serving-women and the peasant <!-- Page 118 -->girls to deal with, I should not +complain; for in simple souls there are qualities and virtues and a +responsive spring, but not in the commercial or the richer classes! You +cannot imagine what those women are. If only they attend Mass on Sunday +and perform their Easter duties they think they may do anything and +everything; and thenceforth their one idea is not so much to avoid +offending the Saviour as to disarm Him by mean subterfuges. They speak +ill of their neighbour, injuring him cruelly, refusing him all help and +pity, and they make excuses for themselves as though these were mere +venial faults; but as to eating meat on a Friday! That is quite another +thing; they are persuaded that this is the unpardonable sin. To them +their stomach is the Holy Ghost; consequently, the great point is to +tack and veer round that particular sin, never to commit it, while only +just avoiding it, and not depriving themselves in the least. What +eloquence they will pour out on me to convince me of the penitential +quality of water-fowl.</p> + +<p>"During Lent they are possessed with the idea of giving dinners, and +rack their brains to provide a lenten meal in which there is no meat, +though it would be supposed that there was; and then come interminable +discussions as to teal, wild duck, and cold-blooded birds. They should +consult a naturalist and not a priest on such cases of conscience.</p> + +<p>"As to Holy Week, that is another affair; the mania for water-birds +gives way to a hankering for the <i>Charlotte Russe</i>. May they, without +offence to God, enjoy a <i>Charlotte</i>? There are eggs in it, to be sure, +but so whipped and scourged that the dish is almost ascetic; culinary +explanations are poured into my ear, the confessional becomes a kitchen, +and the priest might be a master-cook.</p> + +<p>"But as to the general sin of greediness, they hardly admit that they +are guilty of it. Is it not so, my dear colleague?"</p> + +<p>The Abbé Gévresin nodded assent. "They are indeed hollow souls," said +he, "and what is more, impenetrable. They are sealed against every +generous idea, regarding the intercourse they hold with the Redeemer as +beseeming their rank and in good style; but they never seek to know Him +more nearly, and restrict themselves, of deliberate purpose, to calls of +politeness."</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 119 -->Such visits as we pay to an aged parent on New Year's Day," said +Durtal.</p> + +<p>"No, at Easter," corrected Madame Bavoil.</p> + +<p>"And among these Fair Penitents," the Abbé Plomb went on, "we have that +terrible variety, the wife of the Député who votes on the wrong side, +and to his wife's objurgations retorts: 'Why, I am at heart a better +Christian than you are!'</p> + +<p>"Invariably and every time, she repeats the list of her husband's +private virtues, and deplores his conduct as a public man; and this +history, which is never ending, always leads up to the praises she +awards herself, almost to requiring us to apologize for all the +annoyance the Church occasions her."</p> + +<p>The Abbé Gévresin smiled, and said,—</p> + +<p>"When I was in Paris, attached to one of the parishes on the left bank +of the Seine, in which there is a huge draper's and fancy shop, I had to +deal with a very curious class of women. Especially on days when there +was a great show of cotton and linen goods, or a sale of bankrupt stock, +there was a perfect rush of well-dressed women to the confessional. +These people lived on the other side of the water; they had come to that +part of the town to buy bargains, and finding the departments of the +shop too full, no doubt, they meant to wait till the crowd should be +thinner, to make their selection in comfort; so then, not knowing what +to be doing, they took refuge in the church, and, tortured by the need +for speech, they asked for the priest whose turn it was to attend, and +to justify themselves, chattered in the confessional as if it had been a +drawing-room, merely to kill time."</p> + +<p>"Not being able to go to a <i>café</i> like a man, they go to church," said +Durtal.</p> + +<p>"Unless it is," said Madame Bavoil, "that they would rather confide to +an unknown priest the sins it would pain them to confess to their own +director."</p> + +<p>"At any rate, this is a new light on things: the influence of big shops +on the tribunal of penance!" exclaimed Durtal.</p> + +<p>"And of railway stations," added the Abbé Gévresin.</p> + +<p>"How of railway stations?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I assure you that churches situated near railway <!-- Page 120 -->stations have a +special following of women on their journeys. There it is that our dear +Madame Bavoil's shrewd remark finds justification. Many a country-woman +who has the Curé of her own parish to dinner dares not tell him the tale +of her adultery, because he could too easily guess the name of her +lover, and because the propinquity of a priest living on intimate terms +in her house would be inconvenient; so she takes advantage of an +excursion to Paris to open her heart to another confessor who does not +know her. As a general rule, when a woman speaks ill of her Curé, and +begins the tale of her confession by explaining that he is dull, +uneducated, unsympathetic in understanding and guiding souls, you may be +certain that a confession is coming of sin against the sixth (seventh) +Commandment."</p> + +<p>"Well, well; the people who flutter around the Lord are cool hands!" +exclaimed Madame Bavoil.</p> + +<p>"They are unhappy creatures, who try to strike a balance between their +duties and their vices.</p> + +<p>"But enough of this; let us turn to something more immediate. Have you +brought us the article on the Angelico, as you promised? Read it to us."</p> + +<p>Durtal brought out of his pocket the manuscript he had finished, which +was to be posted that evening to Paris.</p> + +<p>He seated himself in one of the straw-bottomed arm-chairs in the middle +of the room where they were sitting with the Abbé Gévresin, and began:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>THE CORONATION OF THE VIRGIN.</p> + +<p> By Fra Angelico. In the Louvre. </p></div> + +<p>The general arrangement of this picture reminds the spectator of the +tree of Jesse, of which the branches, supporting a human figure on every +twig, spread fan-like as they rise on each side of a throne, while at +the top, on a single stem, the radiant beauty of a Virgin is the +crowning blossom.</p> + +<p>In Fra Angelico's 'Coronation of the Virgin,' to the right and left of +the isolated knoll on which Christ sits under a carved stone canopy, +placing the crown He holds with both hands on His Mother's bowed head, +we see a perfect espalier of Apostles, Saints, and Patriarchs, rising in +close and <!-- Page 121 -->crowded ramification at the lower part of the panel, to burst +into a luxuriant blossoming of angels relieved against the blue sky, +their heads in a sunshine of glories.</p> + +<p>The arrangement of the persons represented is as follows:—</p> + +<p>At the foot of the throne, under the gothic canopy—to the left, Saint +Nicholas of Myra kneels in prayer, wearing his mitre and clasping his +crozier, from which the maniple hangs like a folded banner; Saint Louis +the King with a crown of fleurs de lys; the monastic saints; St. Antony, +St. Benedict, St. Francis, St. Thomas, who holds an open book in which +we read the first lines of the <i>Te Deum</i>, St. Dominic holding a lily, +St. Augustine with a pen. Then, going upwards, St. Mark and St. John +carrying their gospels, St. Bartholomew showing the knife with which he +was flayed; and higher still the lawgiver Moses, ending in the serried +ranks of angels against the azure firmament, each head circled with a +golden nimbus.</p> + +<p>On the right, below, by the side of a monk whose back only is +seen—possibly St. Bernard—Mary Magdalene is on her knees with a vase +of spices by her side, robed in vermilion; behind her come St. Cecilia, +crowned with roses, St. Clara or St. Catherine of Sienna, in a blue +hood, patterned with stars, St. Catherine of Alexandria, leaning on her +wheel of martyrdom, St. Agnes, cherishing a lamb in her arms, St. Ursula +flinging an arrow, and others whose names are unknown; all female +saints, facing the Bishop, the King, the Recluses, and the founders of +Orders. By the steps of the throne are St. Stephen, with the green palm +of martyrdom, St. Lawrence, with his gridiron, St. George, wearing a +breastplate, and on his head a helmet, St. Peter the Dominican +recognizable by his split skull; and yet further up St. Matthew, St. +Philip, St. James the Greater, St. Jude, St. Paul, St. Matthias, and +King David. Finally, opposite the angels on the left a group of angels, +whose faces, set in gold discs, are relieved against the pure +ultramarine background.</p> + +<p>In spite of injury from the restorations it has endured, this panel, +with its stamped and diapered gold, is splendid in the freshness of its +colours, laid on with white of egg.</p> + +<p>As a whole, it represented, so to speak, a stairway for the eye, a +circular stair of two flights, in steps of glorious blue hung with gold.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 122 -->The lowest to the left is seen in the blue mantle of Saint Louis, and +others lead up through a glimpse of blue drapery, the robe of St. John, +and then, higher still before reaching the blue expanse of the sky, the +robe of the first angel.</p> + +<p>The first on the right is the mantle of St. Cecilia; others are the +bodice of St. Agnes, St. Stephen's robe, a prophet's tunic; and above +these, before reaching the lapis-lazuli border of sky, the robe of the +first angel.</p> + +<p>Thus blue, which is the predominating colour in the whole, is regularly +piled up in steps and spaced almost identically on the opposite sides of +the throne. This azure hue of the draperies, their folds faintly +indicated with white, is extraordinarily serene, indescribably innocent. +This it is which gives the work its soul of colour—this blue, helped +out by the gold which gleams round the heads, runs or twines on the +black robes of the monks; in Y's on those of St. Thomas; in suns, or +rather in radiating chrysanthemums, on those of St. Antony and St. +Benedict; in stars on St. Clara's hood; in filagree embroidery in the +letters of their names, in brooches and medallions on the bodices of the +other female saints.</p> + +<p>At the very bottom of the picture a splash of gorgeous red—the +Magdalen's robe—that finds an echo in the flame-colour of one of the +steps of the throne, and reappears here and there, but softened in +fragmentary glimpses of drapery, or smothered under a running pattern of +gold (as in St. Augustine's cope) serves as a spring-board, as it were, +to start the whole stupendous harmony.</p> + +<p>The other colours seem to fill no part, but that of necessary stop-gaps, +indispensable supports. They are too, for the most part, common and ugly +to a degree that is most puzzling. Look at the greens: they range from +boiled endive to olive, ending in the absolute hideousness of two steps +of the throne which lie across the picture—two bars, two streaks of +spinach dipped in tawny mud. The only tolerable green of them all is +that of St. Agnes' mantle, a Parmigiano green, rich in yellow, and made +still richer by the lining which affords the pleasing adjunct of orange.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, consider this blue which Angelico uses so sumptuously +in his celestial tones; when he makes it darker it loses its fulness, +and looks almost dull; we see this in St. Clara's hood.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 123 -->But what is yet more amazing is that this painter, so eloquent in blue, +is but a stammerer when he makes use of the other angelic +hue—rose-pink. In his hands it is neither subtle nor ingenuous; it is +opaque, of the colour of blood thinned with water, or of pink +sticking-plaister, excepting when it trends on the hue of wine-lees, +like that of the Saviour's sleeves.</p> + +<p>And it is heaviest of all in the saints' cheeks. It looks glazed, like +the surface of pie-crust; it has the quality of raspberry syrup drowned +in white of egg.</p> + +<p>These are in the main the only colours used by Angelico. A magnificent +blue for the sky and another vile blue, white, brilliant red, melancholy +pinks, a light green, dark greens, and gold. No bright yellow like +everlastings, no luminous straw-colour; at most a heavy opaque yellow +for the hair of his female saints; no truly bold orange, no violet, +either tender or strong, unless in the half-hidden lining of a cloak or +in the scarcely visible robe of a saint, cut off by the frame; no brown +that does not lurk in the background. His palette, as may be seen, is +very limited.</p> + +<p>And it is symbolical, if we consider it. He has undoubtedly done in his +hues what he has done in the arrangement of the work. His picture is a +hymn to Chastity, and round the central group of Christ and His Mother +he has placed in ranks the Saints who best concentrated this virtue on +earth. St. John the Baptist, beheaded for the bounding impurity of an +Herodias; St. George, who saved a virgin from the emblematic Dragon; +such saints as St. Agnes, St. Clara, and St. Ursula; the heads of the +Orders—St. Benedict and St. Francis; a king like St. Louis, and a +bishop like St. Nicholas of Myra, who hindered the prostitution of three +young girls whom a starving father was fain to sell. Everything, down to +the smallest details, from the attributes of the persons represented to +the steps of the throne, of which the number is nine—that of the choirs +of angels—everything in this picture is symbolical.</p> + +<p>It is permissible therefore to assume that he selected his colours for +their allegorical signification.</p> + +<p>White: the symbol of the Supreme Being, and of absolute Truth, and +employed by the Church in its adornments for the festival of our Lord +and the Virgin because it signifies Goodness, Virginity, Charity, and is +the splendour, the <!-- Page 124 -->emblem of Divine Wisdom when it is enhanced to the +pure radiance of silver.</p> + +<p>Blue: because it symbolizes Chastity, Innocence, and Guilelessness.</p> + +<p>Red: which is the colour adopted for the offices of the Holy Ghost and +of the Passion; the garb of Charity, Suffering and Love.</p> + +<p>Rose-pink; the Love of Eternal Wisdom, and, as Saint Mechtildis teaches, +the anguish and torments of Christ.</p> + +<p>Green: used liturgically at Seasons of Pilgrimage, and which seems to be +the colour preferred by the Benedictine Sisterhood, interpreting it as +meaning freshness of soul and perennial sap; the green which, in the +hermeneutics of colour, expresses the hopes of the regenerated creature, +the yearning for final repose, and which is likewise the mark of +humility, according to the Anonymous English writer of the thirteenth +century, and of contemplation, according to Durand of Mende.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, Angelico has intentionally refrained from introducing +the hues which are emblematic of vices, excepting of course those +adopted for the garb of the Monastic Orders, which altogether changes +their meaning.</p> + +<p>Black: the colour of error and the void, the seal of death, and, +according to Sister Emmerich, the image of profaned and wasted gifts.</p> + +<p>Brown: which, as the same Sister tells us, is synonymous with agitation, +barrenness and dryness of the spirit, and neglect of duty; brown; which +being composed of black and red—smoke darkening the sacred fire—is +Satanic.</p> + +<p>Grey: the ashes of penance, the symbol of tribulation, according to the +Bishop of Mende, the sign of half-mourning formerly used in the Paris +ritual instead of violet in Lent. The mingling of white and black, of +virtue and vice, of joy and grief, the mirror of the soul that is +neither good nor evil, the medium being, the lukewarm creature that God +spueth out, grey can only rise by the infusion of a little purity, a +little blue; but can, when thus converted to pearl grey, become a pious +hue, and attempt a step towards Heaven, an advance in the lower paths of +Mysticism.</p> + +<p>Yellow: considered by Sister Emmerich as the colour of idleness, of a +horror of suffering, and often given to Judas in mediæval times, is +significant of treason and envy.<!-- Page 125 --> Orange: of which Frédéric Portal +speaks as the revelation of Divine Love, the communion of God with man, +mingling the blood of Love to the sinful hue of yellow, may be taken to +bear a worse meaning with the idea of falsehood and torment; and, +especially when it verges on red, expresses the defeat of a soul +over-ridden by its sins, hatred of Love, contempt of Grace, the end of +all things.</p> + +<p>Dead leaf colour: speaking of moral degradation, spiritual death, the +hopefulness of green for ever extinct.</p> + +<p>Finally, violet: adopted by the Church for the Sundays in Advent and in +Lent, and for penitential services. It was the colour of the +mortuary-shroud of the kings of France; during the Middle Ages it was +the attribute of mourning, and it is at all times the melancholy garb of +the exorcist.</p> + +<p>What is certainly far less easy to explain is the limited variety of +countenance the painter has chosen to adopt. Here symbolism is of no +use. Look, for instance, at the men. The Patriarchs with their bearded +faces do not show us the almost translucent texture, as of the +sacramental wafer, in which the bones show through the dry and +diaphanous parchment-like skin, or like the seeds of the cruciferous +flower called <i>Monnaie du Pape</i> (honesty); they have all regular and +pleasant faces, are all healthy, full-blooded personages, attentive and +devout. His monks too have round faces and rosy cheeks; not one of his +Saints looks like a Recluse of the Desert overcome by fasting, or has +the exhausted emaciation of an ascetic; they are all vaguely alike, with +the same solidity and the same complexion. In fact, as we see them in +this picture, they are a contented colony of excellent people.</p> + +<p>At least, so they appear at a first glance.</p> + +<p>The women, too, are all of one family; sisters more or less exactly +alike; all fair and rosy, with light snuff-coloured eyes, heavy eyelids, +and round faces; they form a train of rather an insipid type round the +Virgin with her long nose and bird-like head kneeling at the feet of +Christ.</p> + +<p>Altogether, among all these figures we find scarcely four distinct +types, if we take into consideration their more or less advanced years +and the modifications resulting from the arrangement of their hair, +their being bearded or shaven, and the pose of the head, front face or +profile, which distinguishes them.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 126 -->The only groups which are not of an almost uniform stamp are the angels, +sexless youths for ever charming. They are of matchless purity, of a +more than human innocence in their blue and rose-pink and green robes +sprigged with gold, with their yellow or red hair, at once aerial and +heavy, their chastely downcast eyes, and flesh as white as pith. Grave, +but in ecstasy, they play on the harp or the theorbo, on the Viol +d'Amore or the rebeck, singing the eternal glory of the most Holy +Mother.</p> + +<p>Thus, on the whole, the types used by Angelico are not less restricted +than his colours.</p> + +<p>But then, in spite of the exquisite array of angels, is this picture +monotonous and dull? Is this much-talked-of work over-praised?</p> + +<p>No, for this Coronation of the Virgin is a masterpiece, and superior to +all that enthusiasm can say about it; indeed, it outstrips painting and +soars through realms which the mystics of the brush had never +penetrated.</p> + +<p>Here we have not a mere manual effort, however admirable; this is not +merely a spiritual and truly religious picture such as Roger van der +Weyden and Quentin Matsys could create; it is quite another thing. With +Angelico an unknown being appears on the scene, the soul of a mystic +that has entered on the contemplative life, and breathes it on the +canvas as on a perfect mirror. It is the soul of a marvellous monk that +we see, of a saint, embodied on this coloured mirror, exhaled in a +painted creation. And we can measure how far that soul had advanced on +the path of perfection from the work that reflects it.</p> + +<p>He carries his angels and his saints up to the Unifying Life, the +supreme height of Mysticism. There the weariness of their dolorous +ascent is no more; there is the plenitude of tranquil joy, the peace of +man made one with God. Angelico is the painter of the soul immersed in +God, the painter of his own spirit.</p> + +<p>None but a monk could attempt such paintings. Matsys, Memling, Dierck +Bouts, Roger van der Weyden were no doubt sincere and pious worthies. +They gave their work a reflection of Heaven; they too reflected their +own soul in the faces they depicted; but though they gave them a +wonderful stamp of art, they could only infuse into them the semblance +of the soul beginning the practice of Christian <!-- Page 127 -->asceticism; they could +only represent men still detained, like themselves, in the outer +chambers of those Castles of the Soul of which Saint Theresa speaks, and +not in the Hall where, in the centre, Christ sits and sheds His glory.</p> + +<p>They were, in my opinion, greater and keener observers, more learned and +more skilful, even better painters than Angelico; but their heart was in +their craft, they lived in the world, they often could not resist giving +their Virgins fine-lady airs, they were hampered by earthly +reminiscences, they could not rise in their work above the trammels of +daily life; in short, they were and remained men. They were admirable; +they gave utterance to the promptings of ardent faith; but they had not +had the specific culture which is practised only in the silence and +peace of the cloister. Hence they could not cross the threshold of the +seraphic realm where roamed the guileless being who never opened his +eyes, closed in prayer, excepting to paint—the monk who had never +looked out on the world, who had seen only within himself.</p> + +<p>And what we know of his life is worthy of this work. He was a humble and +tender recluse, who always prayed or ever he took up his brush, and +could not draw the Crucifixion without melting into tears.</p> + +<p>Through the veil of his tears his angelic vision poured itself out in +the light of ecstasy, and he created beings that had but the semblance +of human creatures, the earthly husk of our existence, beings whose +souls soared already far from their prison of flesh. Study his picture +attentively, and see how the incomprehensible miracle works of such a +sublimated state of mind.</p> + +<p>The types chosen for the Apostles and Saints are, as we have said, quite +ordinary. But gaze firmly at the countenances of these men, and you will +see how little they really take in of the scene before them. Whatever +attitude the painter may have given them, they are all absorbed into +themselves; they behold the scene, not with the eyes of the body, but +with the eyes of the soul. Each is looking into himself. Jesus dwells in +them, and they can gaze on Him better in their inmost heart than on His +throne.</p> + +<p>It is the same with his female Saints. I have said that they are +insignificant looking, and it is true; but how their features, too, are +transfigured and effaced under the Divine <!-- Page 128 -->touch! They are drowned in +adoration, and spring buoyant, though motionless, to meet the Heavenly +Spouse. Only one remains but half escaped from her material shell: Saint +Catherine of Alexandria, who, with upturned eyes of a brackish green, is +neither as simple nor as innocent as her sisters; she still sees the +form of man in Christ; she still is a woman; she is, if one may so, the +sin of the work.</p> + +<p>Still, all these spiritual degrees clothed in human figures are but the +accessories of this picture. They are placed there, in the august +assumption of gold and the chaste ascending scale of blue, to lead by a +stair of pure joy to the sublime platform whereon we see the group of +the Saviour and the Virgin.</p> + +<p>And here, in the presence of the Mother and Son, the ecstatic painter +overflows. One could imagine that the Lord had merged into him, and +transported him beyond the life of sense, love and chastity are so +perfectly personified in the group above all the means of expression at +the command of man.</p> + +<p>No words could express the reverent tenderness, the anxious affection, +the filial and paternal love of the Christ, who smiles as He crowns His +Mother; and She is yet more incomparable. Here the words of adulation +are too weak; the invisible is made visible by the sacramental use of +colour and line. A feeling of infinite deference, of intense but +reserved adoration, flows and spreads about this Virgin, who, with Her +arms crossed over Her bosom, bends Her little dove-like head, with +downcast eyes and a rather long nose, under a veil. She resembles the +Apostle St. John who is just behind her, and might be his daughter; and +she is enigmatic; for that soft, delicate face, which in the hands of +any other painter would be merely charming and trivial, breathes out the +purest innocence. She is not even flesh and blood; the material that +clothes Her swells softly with the breath of the fluid that shapes it. +Mary is a living but a volatilized and glorious body.</p> + +<p>We can understand certain ideas of the Abbess of Agréda who declares +that She was exempt from the defilements inflicted on women; we see what +St. Thomas meant who asserted that Her beauty purified instead of +agitating the senses.</p> + +<p>Her age is indeterminate; She is not a woman, yet She is <!-- Page 129 -->no longer a +child. It is hard to say even that She is grown up, just marriageable, a +girl-child, so entirely is She refined above all humanity, beyond the +world, so exquisitely pure and for ever chaste.</p> + +<p>She remains incomparable, unapproached in painting. By Her, other +Madonnas are vulgar; they are in every case women; She alone is the +white stem of the divine Ear of corn, the Wheat of the Eucharist. She +alone is indeed the Immaculate, the <i>Regina Virginum</i> of the hymns; and +She is so youthful, so guileless, that the Son seems to be crowning His +Mother before She can have conceived Him.</p> + +<p>It is in this that we see the glory of the gentle Friar's superhuman +genius. He painted as others have spoken, inspired by Grace; he painted +what he saw within him just as St. Angela of Foligno related what she +heard within her. Both one and the other were mystics absorbed into God; +thus this picture by Angelico is at the same time a picture by the Holy +Ghost, bolted through a purified sieve of art.</p> + +<p>If we consider it, this soul is that of a female saint rather than of a +monk. Turn to his other pictures; those, for instance, in which he +strove to depict Christ's Passion; we are not looking at the stormy +scene represented by Matsys or Grünewald; he has none of their harsh +manliness, nor their gloomy energy, nor their tragic turbulence; he only +weeps with the uncomforted grief of a woman. He is a Sister rather than +a Friar-artist; and it is from this loving sensibility, which in the +mystic vocation is more generally peculiar to women, that he has drawn +the pathetic orisons and tender lamentation of his works.</p> + +<p>And was it not also in this spiritual nature, so womanly in its +complexion, that he found, under the impulse of the Spirit, the wholly +angelical gladness, the really glorious apotheosis of Our Lord and His +Mother, as he has painted them in this Coronation of the Virgin, which, +after being revered for centuries in the Dominican Church at Fiesole, +has now found shelter and admiration in the little gallery devoted to +the Italian School at the Louvre.</p> +<hr/> +<p>"Your article is very good," said the Abbé Plomb. "But can the +principles of a ritual of colour which you have dis<!-- Page 130 -->cerned in Angelico +be verified with equal strictness in other painters?"</p> + +<p>"No, if we look for colour as Angelico received it from his monastic +forefathers, the illuminators of Missals, or as he applied it in its +strictest and most usual acceptation. Yes, if we admit the law of +antagonism, the rules of inversion, and if we know that symbolism +authorizes the system of contraries, allowing the use of the hues which +are appropriated to certain virtues to indicate the vices opposed to +them."</p> + +<p>"In a word, an innocent colour may be interpreted in an evil sense, and +vice versâ," said the Abbé Gévresin.</p> + +<p>"Precisely. In fact, artists who, though pious, were laymen, spoke a +different language from the monks. On emerging from the cloister the +liturgical meaning of colours was weakened; it lost its original +rigidity and became pliant. Angelico followed the traditions of his +Order to the letter, and he was not less scrupulous in his respect for +the observances of religious art which prevailed in his day. Not for +anything on earth would he have infringed them, for he regarded them as +a liturgical duty, a fixed rule of service. But as soon as profane +painters had emancipated the domain of painting, they gave us more +puzzling versions, more complicated meanings; and the symbolism of +colour, which is so simple in Angelico, became singularly +abstruse—supposing that they even were constantly faithful to it in +their works—and almost impossible to interpret.</p> + +<p>"For instance, to select an example: the Antwerp gallery possesses a +tryptich, by Roger van der Werden, known as 'The Sacraments.' In the +centre panel, devoted to the Eucharist, the Sacrifice of the Redeemer is +shown under two aspects, the bleeding form of the Crucifixion and the +mystic form of the pure oblation on the altar; behind the Cross, at the +foot of which we see the weeping Mary, Saint John and the Holy Women, a +priest is celebrating Mass and elevating the Host in the midst of a +cathedral which forms the background of the picture.</p> + +<p>"On the left-hand shutter, the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and +Penance are shown, in small detached scenes; and on the right-hand +shutter those of Ordination, Marriage and Extreme Unction.</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 131 -->This picture, a work of marvellous beauty, with the 'Descent from the +Cross' by Quentin Matsys, are the inestimable glory of the Belgium +gallery; but I will not linger over a full description of this work; I +will omit any reflection suggested by the supreme art of the painter, +and restrict myself to recording that part of the work which bears on +the symbolism of colour."</p> + +<p>"But are you sure that Roger van der Weyden intended to ascribe such +meanings to the colours?"</p> + +<p>"It is impossible to doubt it, for he has assigned a different hue to +each Sacrament, by introducing above the scenes he depicts, an angel +whose robe is in each instance different in accordance with the ceremony +set forth. His meaning therefore is beyond question; and these are the +colours he affects to the means of Grace consecrated by the Saviour:</p> + +<p>"To the Eucharist, green; to Baptism, white; to Confirmation, yellow; to +Penance, red; to Ordination, purple; to Marriage blue; to Extreme +Unction, a violet so deep as to be almost black.</p> + +<p>"Well, you will admit that the interpretation of this sacred scheme of +colour is not altogether easy.</p> + +<p>"The pictorial imagery of Baptism, Extreme Unction, and Ordination is +quite clear; Marriage even as symbolized by blue may be intelligible to +simple souls; that Communion should blazon its coat with <i>vert</i>, is even +more appropriate, since green represents sap and humility, and is +emblematical of the regenerative power. But ought not Confession to +display violet rather than red; and how, in any case, are we to account +for Confirmation being figured in yellow?"</p> + +<p>"The colour of the Holy Ghost is certainly red," remarked the Abbé +Plomb.</p> + +<p>"Thus there are differences of interpretation between Angelico and Roger +van der Weyden, though they lived at the same time. Still, the monk +seems to me the more trustworthy authority."</p> + +<p>"For my part," said the Abbé Gévresin, "I cannot but think of the right +side of the lining of which you were speaking just now."</p> + +<p>"This rule of contraries is not peculiar to the ritual of colour; it is +to be seen in almost every part of the science <!-- Page 132 -->of symbolism. Look at +the emblems derived from the animal world; the eagle alternately +figuring Christ and the Devil; the snake which, while it is one of the +most familiar symbols of the Demon, may nevertheless, as in the brazen +serpent of Moses, prefigure the Saviour."</p> + +<p>"The anticipatory symbol of Christian symbolism was the double-faced +Janus of the heathen world," said the Abbé Plomb, laughing.</p> + +<p>"Indeed, these allegories of the palette turn completely to the +right-about," said Durtal. "Take red, for instance: we have seen that in +the general acceptation it is to be interpreted as meaning charity, +endurance, and love. This is the right side out; the wrong side, +according to Sister Emmerich, is dulness, and clinging to this world's +goods.</p> + +<p>"Grey, the emblem of repentance and sorrow, and at the same time the +image of a lukewarm soul, is also, according to another interpretation, +symbolical of the Resurrection—white, piercing through blackness—light +entering into the Tomb and coming out as a new hue—grey, a mixed colour +still heavy with the gloom of death, but reviving as it gets light by +degrees from the whiteness of day.</p> + +<p>"Green, to which the mystics gave favourable meanings, also acquires a +disastrous sense in some cases; it then represents moral degradation and +despair; it borrows melancholy significance from dead leaves, is the +colour given to the bodies of the devils in Stephan Lochner's Last +Judgment, and in the infernal scenes depicted in the glass windows and +pictures of the earliest artists.</p> + +<p>"Black and brown, with their inimical suggestions of death and hell, +change their meaning as soon as the founders of religious Orders adopt +them for the garb of the cloister. Black then symbolizes renunciation, +repentance, the mortification of the flesh, according to Durand de +Mende; and brown and even grey suggest poverty and humility.</p> + +<p>"Yellow again, so misprized in the formulas of symbolism, becomes +significant of charity; and if we accept the teaching of the English +monk who wrote in about 1220, yellow is enhanced when it changes to +gold, rising to be the symbol of divine Love, the radiant allegory of +eternal Wisdom.</p> + +<p>"Violet, finally, when it appears as the distinctive colour <!-- Page 133 -->of +prelates, divests itself of its usual meaning of self-accusation and +mourning, to assume a certain dignity and simulate a certain pomp.</p> + +<p>"On the whole, I find only white and blue which never change."</p> + +<p>"In the Middle Ages, according to Yves de Chartres," said the Abbé +Plomb, "blue took the place of violet in the vestments of bishops, to +show them that they should give their minds rather to the things of +Heaven than to the things of earth."</p> + +<p>"And how is it," asked Madame Bavoil, "that this colour, which is all +innocence, all purity, the colour of Our Mother Herself, has disappeared +from among the liturgical hues?"</p> + +<p>"Blue was used in the Middle Ages for all the services to the Virgin, +and it has only fallen into desuetude since the eighteenth century," +replied the Abbé Plomb; "and that only in the Latin Church, for the +orthodox Churches of the East still wear it."</p> + +<p>"And why this neglect?"</p> + +<p>"I do not know, any more than I know why so many colours formerly used +in our services have been forgotten. Where are the colours of the +ancient Paris use: saffron yellow, reserved for the festival of All +Angels; salmon pink, sometimes worn instead of red; ashen grey, which +took the place of violet; and bistre instead of black on certain days.</p> + +<p>"Then there was a charming hue which still holds its place in the scale +of colour used in the Roman ritual, though most of the Churches overlook +it—the shade called 'old rose,' a medium between violet and crimson, +between grief and joy, a sort of compromise, a diminished tone, which +the Church adopted for the third Sunday in Advent and the fourth Sunday +in Lent. It thus gave promise, in the penitential season that was +ending, of a beginning of gladness, for the festivals of Christmas and +Easter were at hand.</p> + +<p>"It was the idea of the spiritual dawn rising on the night of the soul, +a special impression which violet, now used on those days, could not +give."</p> + +<p>"Yes, it is to be regretted that blue and rose-colour have disappeared +from the Churches of the West," said the Abbé Gévresin. "But to return +to the monastic dress which <!-- Page 134 -->delivered brown, grey, and black from their +melancholy significance, does it not strike you that from the point of +view of emblematic language, that of the Order of the Annunciation was +the most eloquent? Those sisters were habited in grey, white, and red, +the colours of the Passion, and they also wore a blue cape and a black +veil in memory of Our Mother's mourning."</p> + +<p>"The image of a perpetual Holy Week!" exclaimed Durtal.</p> + +<p>"Here is another question," the Abbé Plomb went on. "In the earliest +religious pictures the cloaks in which the Virgin, the Apostles, and the +Saints are draped almost always show the hue of their lining in +ingeniously contrived folds. It is of course different from that of the +outer side, as you yourself observed just now with regard to the mantle +of Saint Agnes in Angelico's work. Now, do you suppose that, apart from +contrast of colour selected for technical purposes, the monk meant to +express any particular idea by the juxtaposition of the two colours?"</p> + +<p>"In accordance with the symbolism of the palette the outer colour would +represent the material creature, and the lining colour the spiritual +being."</p> + +<p>"Well, but then what is the significance of Saint Agnes' mantle of green +lined with orange?"</p> + +<p>"Obviously," replied Durtal, "green denoting freshness of feeling, the +essence of good, hope; and orange, in its better meaning, being regarded +as representing the act by which God unites Himself to man, we might +conclude from these data that Saint Agnes had attained the life of +union, the possession of the Saviour, by virtue of her innocence and the +fervour of her aspirations. She would thus be the image of virtue +yearning and fulfilled, of hope rewarded, in short.</p> + +<p>"But now I must confess that there are many gaps, many obscurities in +this allegorical lore of colours. In the picture in the Louvre, for +instance, the steps of the throne, which are intended to play the part +of veined marble, remain unintelligible. Splashed with dull red, acrid +green, and bilious yellow, what do these steps express, suggesting as +they do by their number the nine choirs of angels?"</p> + +<p>"It seems to me difficult to allow that the monk intended to figure the +celestial hierarchies by smears with a dirty brush and these crude +streaks."</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 135 -->But has the colour of a step ever represented an idea in the science of +symbolism?" asked the Abbé Gévresin.</p> + +<p>"Saint Mechtildis says so. When speaking of the three steps in front of +the altar, she propounds that the first should be of gold, to show that +it is impossible to go to God save by charity; the second blue, to +signify meditation on things divine; the third green, to show eager hope +and praise of Heavenly things."</p> + +<p>"Bless me!" cried Madame Bavoil, who was getting somewhat scared by this +discussion, "I never saw it in that light. I know that red means fire, +as everybody knows; blue, the air; green, water; and black, the earth. +And this I understand, because each element is shown in its true colour; +but I should never have dreamed that it was so complicated, never have +supposed that there was so much meaning in painters' pictures."</p> + +<p>"In some painters'!" cried Durtal. "For since the Middle Ages the +doctrine of emblematic colouring is extinct. At the present day those +painters who attempt religious subjects are ignorant of the first +elements of the symbolism of colours, just as modern architects are +ignorant of the first principles of mystical theology as embodied in +buildings."</p> + +<p>"Precious gems are lavishly introduced in the works of the primitive +painters," observed the Abbé Plomb. "They are set in the borders of +dresses, in the necklets and rings of the female saints, and are piled +in triangles of flame on the diadems with which painters of yore were +wont to crown the Virgin. Logically, I believe we ought to seek a +meaning in every gem as well as in the hues of the dresses."</p> + +<p>"No doubt," said Durtal, "but the symbolism of gems is much confused. +The reasons which led to the choice of certain stones to be the emblems, +by their colour, water, and brilliancy, of special virtues, are so +far-fetched and so little proven, that one gem might be substituted for +another without greatly modifying the interpretation of the allegory +they present. They form a series of synonyms, each replacing the other +with scarcely a shade of difference.</p> + +<p>"In the treasury of the Apocalypse, however, they seem to have been +selected, if not with stricter meaning, with a more impressive breadth +of application, for expositors regard <!-- Page 136 -->them as coincident with a virtue, +and likewise with the person endowed with it. Nay, these jewellers of +the Bible have gone further; they have given every gem a double +symbolism, making each embody a figure from the Old Testament and one +from the New. They carry out the parallel of the two Books by selecting +in each case a Patriarch and an Apostle, symbolizing them by the +character more especially marked in both.</p> + +<p>"Thus, the amethyst, the mirror of humility and almost childlike +simplicity, is applied in the Bible to Zebulon, a man obedient and +devoid of pride, and in the Gospel to St. Matthias, who also was gentle +and guileless; the chalcedony, as an emblem of charity, was ascribed to +Joseph, who was so merciful and pitiful to his brethren, and to St. +James the Great, the first of the Apostles to suffer martyrdom for the +love of Christ; the jasper, emblematical of faith and eternity, was the +attribute of Gad and of St. Peter; the sard, meaning faith and +martyrdom, was given to Reuben and St. Bartholomew; the sapphire, for +hope and contemplation, to Naphtali and St. Andrew, and sometimes, +according to Aretas, to St. Paul; the beryl, meaning sound doctrine, +learning, and long-suffering, to Benjamin and to St. Thomas, and so +forth. There is, indeed, a table of the harmony of gems and their +application to patriarchs, apostles, and virtues, drawn up by Madame +Félicie d'Ayzac, who has written an elaborate paper on the figurative +meaning of gems."</p> + +<p>"The avatar of some other Scriptural personages might be equally well +carried out by these emblematical minerals," observed the Abbé Gévresin.</p> + +<p>"Obviously; and as I warned you, the analogies are very far-fetched. The +hermeneutics of gems are uncertain, and founded on mere fanciful +resemblances, on the harmonies of ideas hard to assimilate. In mediæval +times this science was principally cultivated by poets."</p> + +<p>"Against whom we must be on our guard," said the Abbé Plomb, "since +their interpretations are for the most part heathenish. Marbode, for +example, though he was a Bishop, has left us but a very pagan +interpretation of the language of gems."</p> + +<p>"These mystical lapidaries have on the whole chiefly applied, their +ingenuity to explaining the stones of the <!-- Page 137 -->breastplate of Aaron, and +those that shine in the foundations of the New Jerusalem, as described +by St. John; indeed, the walls of Sion are set with the same jewels as +the High Priest's pectoral, with the exception of the carbuncle, the +ligure, agate, and onyx, which are named in Exodus, and replaced in the +Book of Revelation by chalcedony, sardonyx, chrysoprase, and jacinth."</p> + +<p>"Yes, and the symbolist goldsmiths wrought diadems, setting them with +precious stones, to crown Our Lady's brow; but their poems showed little +variety, for they were all borrowed from the <i>Libellus Corona Virginis</i>, +an apocryphal work ascribed to St. Ildefonso, and formerly famous in +convents."</p> + +<p>The Abbé Gévresin rose and took an old book from the shelf.</p> + +<p>"That brings to my mind," said he, "a hymn in honour of the Virgin +composed in rhyme by Conrad of Haimburg, a German monk in the fourteenth +century. Imagine," he continued, as he turned over the pages, "a litany +of gems, each verse symbolizing one of Our Mother's virtues.</p> + +<p>"This prayer in minerals opens with a human greeting. The good monk, +kneeling down, begins:—</p> + +<p>"'Hail, noble Virgin, meet to become the Bride of the Supreme King! +Accept this ring in pledge of that betrothal, O Mary!'</p> + +<p>"And he shows Her the ring, turning it slowly in his fingers, explaining +to Our Lady the meaning of each stone that shines in the gold setting; +beginning with green jasper, symbolical of the faith which led the +Virgin to receive the message of the angelic visitant; then comes the +chalcedony, signifying the fire of charity that fills Her heart; the +emerald, whose transparency signifies Her purity; the sardonyx, with its +pale flame, like the placidity of Her virginal life; the red sard-stone, +one with the Heart that bled on Calvary; the chrysolite, sparkling with +greenish gold, reminding us of Her numberless miracles and Her Wisdom; +the beryl, figurative of Her humility; the topaz, of Her deep +meditations; the chrysoprase of Her fervency; the jacinth of Her +charity; the amethyst, mingling rose and purple, of the love bestowed on +Her by God and men; the pearl, of which the meaning remains vague, not +representing any special virtue; the agate, signifying Her modesty; <!-- Page 138 -->the +onyx, showing the many perfections of Her grace; the diamond, for +patience and fortitude in sorrow; while the carbuncle, like an eye that +shines in the night, everywhere proclaims that Her glory is eternal.</p> + +<p>"Finally the donor points out to the Virgin the interpretation of +certain other matters set in the ring, which in the Middle Ages were +regarded as precious: crystal, emblematic of chastity of body and soul; +ligurite, resembling amber, more especially figurative of the quality of +temperance; lodestone, which attracts iron, as She touches the chords of +repentant hearts with the bow of her loving-kindness.</p> + +<p>"And the monk ends his petition by saying: 'This little ring, set with +gems, which we offer Thee as at this time, accept, glorious Bride, in +Thy benevolence. Amen.'"</p> + +<p>"It would no doubt be possible," said the Abbé Plomb, "to reproduce +almost exactly the invocations of these Litanies by each stone thus +interpreted." And he reopened the book his friend the priest had just +closed.</p> + +<p>"See," he went on, "how close is the concordance between the epithets in +the sentences and the quality assigned to the gems.</p> + +<p>"Does not the emerald, which in this sequence is emblematical of +incorruptible purity, reflect in the sparkling mirror of its water the +<i>Mater Purissima</i> of the Litanies to the Virgin? Is not the chrysolite, +the symbol of wisdom, a very exact image of the <i>Sedes Sapientiae</i>? The +jacinth, attribute of charity and succour vouchsafed to sinners, is +appropriate to the <i>Auxilium Christianorum</i> and the <i>refugium +peccatorum</i> of the prayers. Is not the diamond, which means strength and +patience, the <i>Virgo potens</i>?—the carbuncle, meaning fame, the <i>Virgo +praedicanda</i>?—the chrysoprase, for fervour, the <i>Vas insigne +devotionis</i>?</p> + +<p>"And it is probable," said the Abbé, in conclusion, as he laid the book +down, "that if we took the trouble we could rediscover one by one, in +this rosary of stones, the whole rosary of praise which we tell in +honour of Our Mother."</p> + +<p>"Above all," remarked Durtal, "if we did not restrict ourselves to the +narrow limits of this poem, for Conrad's manual is brief, and his +dictionary of analogies small; if we accepted the interpretations of +other symbolists, we could produce a ring similar to his and yet quite +different, <!-- Page 139 -->for the language of the gems would not be the same. Thus to +St. Bruno of Asti, the venerable Abbot of Monte Cassino, the jasper +symbolizes Our Lord, because it is immutably green, eternal without +possibility of change; and for the same reason the emerald is the image +of the life of the righteous; the chrysoprase means good works; the +diamond, infrangible souls; the sardonyx, which resembles the +blood-stained seed of a pomegranate, is charity; the jacinth, with its +varying blue, is the prudence of the saints; the beryl, whose hue is +that of water running in the sunshine, figures the Scriptures elucidated +by Christ; the chrysolite, attention and patience, because it has the +colour of the gold that mingles in it and lends it its meaning; the +amethyst, the choir of children and virgins, because the blue mixed in +it with rose pink suggests the idea of innocence and modesty.</p> + +<p>"Or, again, if we borrow from Pope Innocent III. his ideas as to the +mystical meanings of gems, we find that chalcedony, which is pale in the +light and sparkles in the dark, is synonymous with humility; the topaz +with chastity and the merit of good works, while the chrysoprase, the +queen of minerals, implies wisdom and watchfulness.</p> + +<p>"If we do not go quite so far back into past ages, but stop at the end +of the sixteenth century, we find some new interpretations in a +Commentary on the Book of Exodus by Corneille de la Pierre; for he +ascribes truth to the onyx and carbuncle, heroism to the beryl, and to +the ligure, with its delicate and sparkling violet hue, scorn of the +things of earth, and love of heavenly things."</p> + +<p>"And then St. Ambrose regards this stone as emblematical of Eucharist," +the Abbé Gévresin put in.</p> + +<p>"Yes; but what is the ligure or ligurite?" asked Durtal. "Conrad of +Haimburg speaks of it as resembling amber; Corneille de la Pierre +believes it to be violet-tinted, and St. Jerome gives us to understand +that it is not identifiable; in fact, that it is but another name for +the jacinth, the image of prudence, with its water of blue like the sky +and changing tints. How are we to make sure?"</p> + +<p>"As to blue stones, we must not forget that St. Mechtildis regarded the +sapphire as the very heart of the Virgin," observed the Abbé Plomb.</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 140 -->We may also add," Durtal went on, "that a new set of variations on the +subject of gems was executed in the seventeenth century by a celebrated +Spanish Abbess, Maria d'Agreda, who applies to Our Mother the virtues of +the precious stones spoken of by St. John in the twenty-first chapter of +the Apocalypse. According to her, the sapphire figures the serenity of +Mary; the chrysolite shows forth Her love for the Church Militant, and +especially for the Law of Grace; the amethyst, Her power against the +hordes of hell; the jasper, Her invincible fortitude; the pearl, Her +inestimable dignity—"</p> + +<p>"The pearl," interrupted the Abbé Plomb, "is regarded by St. Eucher as +emblematic of perfection, chastity, and the evangelical doctrine."</p> + +<p>"And all this time you are forgetting the meaning of other well-known +gems," cried Madame Bavoil. "The ruby, the garnet, the aqua-marine; are +they speechless?"</p> + +<p>"No," replied Durtal. "The ruby speaks of tranquility and patience; the +garnet, Innocent III. tells us, symbolizes charity. St. Bruno and St. +Rupert say that the aqua-marine concentrates in its pale green fire all +theological science. There yet remain two gems, the turquoise and the +opal. The former, little esteemed by the mystics, is to promote joy. As +to the second, of which the name does not occur in treatises on gems, it +may be identified with chalcedony, which is described as a sort of agate +of an opaque quality, dimmed with clouds and flashing fires in the +shadows.</p> + +<p>"To have done with this emblematical jewelry, we may add that the series +of stones serves to symbolize the hierarchies of the angels. But here, +again, the meanings commonly received are derived from more or less +forced comparisons and a tissue of notions more or less flimsy and +loose. However, it is so far established that the sard-stone suggests +the Seraphim, the topaz the Cherubim, the jasper means the Thrones, the +chrysolite figures the Dominions, the sapphire the Virtues, the onyx the +Powers, the beryl the Principalities, the ruby the Archangels, and the +emerald the Angels."</p> + +<p>"And it is a curious fact," said the Abbé Plomb, "that while beasts, +colours, and flowers are accepted by that symbolists sometimes with a +good meaning and sometimes <!-- Page 141 -->with an evil one, gems alone never change; +they always express good qualities, and never vices."</p> + +<p>"Why is that?"</p> + +<p>"St. Hildegarde perhaps affords a clue to this stability when, in the +fourth book, of her treatise on Physics, she says that the Devil hates +them, abhors and scorns them, because he remembers that their splendour +shone in him before his fall, and that some of them are the product of +the fire that is his torment.</p> + +<p>"And the saint added, 'God, who deprived him of them, would not that the +stones should lose their virtues; He desired, on the contrary, that they +should ever be held in honour, and used in medicine to the end that +sickness should be cured and ills driven out.' And, in fact, in the +Middle Ages they were highly esteemed and used to effect cures."</p> + +<p>"To return to those early pictures," said the Abbé Gévresin, "in which +the Virgin emerges like a flower from amid the gorgeous assemblage of +gems, it may be said as a general thing, that the glow of jewels +declares by visible signs the merits of Her who wears them; but it would +be difficult to say what the painter's purpose may have been when, in +the decoration of a crown or a dress, he placed any particular stone in +one spot rather than another. It is, as a rule, a question of taste or +harmony, and has nothing, or very little, to do with symbolism."</p> + +<p>"Of that there can be no doubt," said Durtal, who rose and took leave, +as Madame Bavoil, hearing the cathedral clock strike, handed to the two +priests their hats and breviaries.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"><!-- Page 142 --></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + + +<p>The somewhat dolefully calm frame of mind in which Durtal had been +living since settling at Chartres came to a sudden end. One day <i>ennui</i> +made him its prey, the black possession which would allow him neither to +work, nor to read, nor to pray; so overwhelming that he knew not whither +to turn nor what to do.</p> + +<p>After spending dark and futile days in lounging round his library, +taking down a volume and shutting it up again, opening another of which +he failed to master a single page, he tried to escape from the weariness +of the hours by taking walks, and he determined finally to study the +town of Chartres.</p> + +<p>He found a number of blind alleys and break-neck steeps, such as the +road down the knoll of St. Nicolas, which tumbles from the top of the +town to the bottom in a precipitous flight of steps; and then the +Boulevard des Filles-Dieu, so lonely with its walks planted with trees, +was worthy of his notice. Starting from the Place Drouaise, he came to a +little bridge where the waters meet of the two branches of the Eure; to +the right, above the eddying current and the buildings on the shore, he +could see the pile of the old town shouldering up the cathedral; to the +left, all along the quay, and looking out on the tall poplars that +fanned the water-mills, were saw-mills and timber-yards, the washing +places where laundresses knelt on straw in troughs, and the water foamed +before them in widening inky circles splashed into white bubbles by the +dip of a bird's wing.</p> + +<p>This arm of the river diverted into the moat of the old ramparts, +encircled Chartres, bordered on one side by the trees of the alleys, and +on the other by cottages with terraced gardens down to the level of the +stream, the two banks joined by foot-bridges of planks or cast iron +arches.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 143 -->Near where the Porte Guillaume uplifted its crenelated towers like +raised pies, there were houses that looked as if they had been gutted, +displaying, as in the vanished <i>cagnards</i> or vaults of the Hotel Dieu at +Paris, cellars open on the level of the water, paved basements in whose +depths of prison twilight stone steps could be seen; and on going out +through the Porte Guillaume across a little humpbacked bridge, under the +archway still showing the groove in which the portcullis had worked +which was let down of yore to defend this side of the town, he came upon +yet another arm of the river washing the feet of more houses, playing at +hide and seek in the courts, musing between walls; and at once he was +haunted by the recollection of another river just like this, with its +decoction of walnut hulls frothed with bubbles; and to contribute to the +suggestion, the more clearly to evoke a vision of the dismal Bièvre, the +rank, acrid, pungent smell of tan, steeped, as it were, in vinegar, came +up in fumes from this broth of medlar juice brought down by the Eure.</p> + +<p>The Bièvre, a prisoner now in the sewers of Paris, seemed to have +escaped from its dungeon and to have taken refuge at Chartres that it +might live in the light of day; winding by the Rues de la Foulerie, de +la Tannerie, du Massacre, the quarters invaded by the leather-dressers, +the skinners and tan-peat makers.</p> + +<p>But the Parisian environment, so pathetic in its aspect of silent +suffering, was absent from this town; these streets suggested merely a +declining hamlet, a poverty-stricken village. He felt something lacking +in this second Bièvre, the fascination of exhaustion, the grace of the +woman of Paris faded and smirched by misery; it lacked the charm +compounded of pity and regret, of a fallen creature.</p> + +<p>Such as they were, however, these streets, traced with a sort of +descending twist round the hill on which the cathedral stood exalted, +were the only curious by-ways of Chartres worth wandering through.</p> + +<p>Here Durtal often succeeded in getting out of himself, in dreaming over +the distressful weariness of these streams, and in ceasing to meditate +on his own qualms, till he presently was tired of constant excursions in +the same quarter of the town, and then he tramped through it in every +direction, trying to find an interest in the sight of time-worn +spots—<!-- Page 144 -->the grace of Queen Berthe's tower, of Claude Huvé's house and +other buildings that have survived the shock of ages; but the enthusiasm +he threw into the study of these relics, spoilt by the foregone +eulogiums of the guides, could not last, and he then fell back on the +churches.</p> + +<p>Although the cathedral crushed everything near it, Saint-Pierre, the +ancient Abbey church of a Benedictine monastery, now used as barracks, +deserved a lingering visit for the sake of its splendid windows, the +dwelling-place of Abbots and Bishops who look down with stern eyes, +holding up their croziers. And these windows, damaged by time, were very +singular. Upright, in each lancet-shaped setting of white glass, rose a +sword-blade bereft of its point; and in these square-tipped blades Saint +Benedict and Saint Maur stood lost in thought, with Apostles and Popes, +Prelates and Saints, standing out in robes of flame against the luminous +whiteness of the borders.</p> + +<p>Certainly Chartres could show the finest glass windows in the world; and +each century had left its noblest stamp on its sanctuaries: the twelfth, +thirteenth, and even the fifteenth, on the cathedral; the fourteenth on +Saint Pierre; and a few examples—unfortunately broken up and used in a +medley mosaic—of painted glass of the sixteenth century in Saint +Aignan, another church where the vaulted roof had been washed of the +colour of gingerbread speckled with anise-seed, by painters of our own +day.</p> + +<p>Durtal got through a few afternoons in these churches; then the charm of +this prolonged study was at an end, and gloom took possession of him, +even worse than before.</p> + +<p>The Abbé Plomb, to divert his mind, took him for walks in the country, +but La Beauce was so flat, so monotonous, that any variety of landscape +was impossible to find. Then the Abbé took him through other parts of +the town. Some of the buildings claimed their attention, as, for +instance, the House of Detention, in the Rue-Sainte-Thérèse near the +Palais de Justice. The edifices themselves were not, indeed, very +impressive, but the history of their origin made them available as the +fulcrum for old dreams. There was something in the prison walls, in +their height and austerity, in their look of order and precision, which +made the cloister wall of a Carmel look small. They had, in fact, of +old, sheltered a Sisterhood of that Order, and a few <!-- Page 145 -->steps further on, +in a blind alley, was the entrance to the ancient convent of the +Jacobins, the Mother-House of the great Sisterhood of Chartres: the +Nursing Sisters of Saint Paul.</p> + +<p>The Abbé Plomb took him to visit this house, and he retained a cheerful +impression of the walk in the fresh air on the old ramparts. The Sisters +had kept up the sentry's walk, which followed a long and narrow avenue +with a statue of the Virgin at each end, one representing the Immaculate +Conception, the other the Virgin Mother. And this walk, strewn with +river-pebbles and edged with flowers, shut in on one side by the Abbey +and the novices' schools, on the left overlooked a precipice down to the +Butte des Charbonniers, and below that again, the Rue de la Couronne; +while beyond lay the grass lawns of the Clos Saint Jean, the line of the +railroad, labourers' hovels, and convent buildings.</p> + +<p>"There you see," said the Abbé, "behind the embankment of the Western +Railway stands the Convent of the Sisters of Our Lady and of the +Carmelites; here, nearer to the town on this side of the line, are the +Little Sisters of the Poor."</p> + +<p>And indeed the place swarmed with convents: Sisters of the Visitation, +Sisters of Providence, Sisters of Good Comfort, Ladies of the Sacred +Heart, all lived in hives close round Chartres. Prayer hummed up on +every side, rising as the fragrant breath of souls above a city where, +by way of divine service, nothing was chanted but the price-current of +grain and the higher and lower cost of horses in the fairs which, on +certain days, brought all the copers of La Perche together in the +<i>cafés</i> on the Place.</p> + +<p>Besides this walk on the old ramparts, the Convent of the Sisters of +Saint Paul was attractive by reason of its quiet and cleanliness. Down +silent passages the backs of the good women might be seen crossed by the +triangular fold of linen, and the click could be heard of their heavy +black rosaries on links of copper, as they rattled on their skirts +against the hanging bunch of keys. Their chapel was redolent of Louis +XIV., at once childish and pompous, too much bedizened with gold, and +the floor too shiny with wax; but there was an interesting detail: at +the entrance large panes of glass had been substituted for the walls, so +that in winter the sick, sitting in a warm room, could look through <!-- Page 146 -->the +glass partition and follow the services and hear the plain song of +Solesmes which the Sisters had the good taste to use.</p> + +<p>This visit revived Durtal's spirit; but he inevitably compared the +peaceful hours told out in that retreat with others, and his disgust was +increased for this town, and its inhabitants, and its avenues, and its +boasted Place des Epars, aping a little Versailles, with its surrounding +blatant mansions, and its ridiculous statue of Marceau in the middle.</p> + +<p>And then the limpness of the place, hardly awake by sunrise and asleep +again by dusk!</p> + +<p>Once only did Durtal see it really awake, and that was on the day when +Monseigneur Le Tilloy des Mofflaines was enthroned as Bishop.</p> + +<p>Then suddenly the city was galvanized; projects were made, the various +bodies corporate sat in committee, and men came forth who had lived +within doors for years.</p> + +<p>Scaffold poles were brought out from the masons' yards; blue and yellow +flags were hoisted on them, and these masts were linked together by +garlands of ivy-leaves sewn one over the other with white cotton.</p> + +<p>Then Chartres was exhausted, and paused for breath.</p> + +<p>Durtal, startled by these unexpected preparations and such an assumption +of life, had gone out to meet the Bishop, as far as to the Rue Saint +Michel. There, on the open square, a gymnastic apparatus had been +erected, the swing bars and rings having been removed, and the poles +garnished with pine branches and gilt paper rosettes, and surmounted by +a trophy of tricolour flags arranged in a fan behind a painted cardboard +shield. This was an arch of triumph, and under this the Brethren of the +Christian Schools were to escort the canopy.</p> + +<p>The procession, which had gone forth to fetch the Bishop from the +Hospice of Saint Brice, where, in obedience to time-honoured custom, he +had slept the night before entering his See, had made its way thither +under a fine rain of chanted canticles, broken by heavier showers of +brass sounding a pious flourish of trumpets. Slowly, with measured +steps, the train wound along between two hedges of people crowded on the +sidewalks, and all the way the windows, hung with drapery, displayed +bunches of faces and leaning bodies, cut across the middle by the +balcony bar.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 147 -->At the head of the procession, behind the gaudy uniforms of the +ponderous beadles, came the girls of the Congregational Schools, dressed +in crude blue with white veils, in two ranks, filling up the roadway; +then followed delegates of nuns from every Order that has a House in the +diocese; Sisters of the Visitation from Dreux, Ladies of the Sacred +Heart from Châteaudun, Sisters of the Immaculate Conception from Nogent +le Rotrou, the uncloistered Sisters of the Cloistered Orders of +Chartres, Sisters of St. Vincent de Paul and Poor Clares, whose dresses +of blueish grey and peat-brown contrasted with the black robes of the +others.</p> + +<p>What was most odd was the various shapes of their coifs. Some had soft +flapping blinkers, others wore them goffered and stiffened with starch; +these hid their face at the bottom of a deep white tunnel; others, on +the contrary, showed their countenance set in an oval frame of pleated +cambric, prolonged behind into conical wings of starched linen lustrous +from heavy irons. As he looked over this expanse of caps, Durtal was +reminded of the Paris landscape of roofs, in shapes resembling the +funnels worn by these nuns and the cocked hats of the beadles.</p> + +<p>Then, behind these long files of sober-coloured garments, the scarlet +vestments of the choirs came like the blare of trumpets. The little ones +marched with downcast eyes, their arms crossed under their red capes +edged with ermine, and behind them, a little in advance of the next +group, walked two white cowls, that of a Brother of Picpus, and that of +a Trappist who represented the Trappist Sisterhood of La Cour Peytral, +to which he was chaplain.</p> + +<p>Finally the Seminarists came on in a black crowd; those of the Great +Seminary of Chartres and of the Little Seminary of Saint Chéron +preceding the priests, and behind them, under a purple velvet canopy +embroidered in gold with wheat ears and grapes, and decorated at each +corner with bunches of snow-white feathers, with his mitre on his head +and holding his crozier, came Monseigneur Le Tilloy des Mofflaines.</p> + +<p>As he passed, in the act of blessing the street, many an unknown Lazarus +rose up, the forgotten dead come back to life; His Reverence seemed to +multiply the Miracles of the Lord. Effete old men, huddled in their +chairs in the doorways or at the windows, revived for a second, and +found <!-- Page 148 -->strength enough to cross themselves. Persons who had been +supposed dead for years managed almost to smile. The vacant eyes of old, +old children gazed at the violet cross outlined in the air by the +Prelate's gloved hand. Chartres, that city of the dead, had changed to a +vast nursery; in the extravagance of its joy the town was in its second +childhood.</p> + +<p>But as soon as the Bishop was past the scene changed. Durtal was +startled, and he tittered.</p> + +<p>A whole "Court of Miracles" seemed to follow in the Prelate's train, +strutting but tottering; a procession of old wrecks, dressed out in such +garments as are sold from the dead-house, staggered along holding each +other's arms, propped one against another. Every reach-me-down that had +been hanging these twenty years flapped about their limbs, hindering +their progress. Trousers with baggy ankles or with gaiter tops, +balloon-shaped or close-fitting, made of loose-woven stuff or so shrunk +that they would not meet the boot, displaying feet where the elastic +sides wriggled like living vermin, and ankles covered with vermicelli +dipped in ink; then the most impossibly threadbare and discoloured +coats, made, as it seemed, of old billiard cloths, of tarpaulin worn to +the canvas, of cast-off awnings; overcoats of cast iron, the surface +worn off the back-seam and sleeves—glaucous waistcoats, sprigged with +flowers and furnished with buttons of dry brawn-parings; and all this +was as nothing; what was prodigious, beyond the bounds of belief, +fabulous, positively insane, was the collection of hats that crowned +these costumes.</p> + +<p>The specimens of extinct headgear, lost in the night of ages, that were +collected here! The veterans wore muff-boxes and gas-pipes; some had +tall white hats, for all the world like toilet-pails turned upside +down, or huge spigots with a hole for the head; others had donned felt +hats like sponges, shaggy, long-haired Bolivars, melons on flat brims +just like a tart on a dish; others, again, had crush-hats, which swayed +and played the accordion on their own account, their ribs showing +through the stuff.</p> + +<p>The craziness of the gibus hats beats description. Some were very tall, +the shaft crowned with a platform larger than the head, like the shako +of an Imperial Lancer; others very low, ending in an inverted cone—the +mouth of a blunderbuss or a Polish schapska.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 149 -->And under this Sanhedrim of drunken hats were the mopping, wrinkled +faces of very old men, with whiskers like white rabbits' paws, and +bristles like tooth-brushes in their nostrils.</p> + +<p>Durtal shook with inextinguishable laughter at this carnival of +antiquities; but his mirth was soon over; he saw two Little Sisters of +the Poor who were in charge of this school of fossils, and he +understood. These poor creatures were dressed in clothes that had been +begged, the rummage of wardrobes, for which the owners had no further +use. Then the queerness of their outfit was pathetic; the Little Sisters +must have been at infinite trouble to utilize these leavings of charity; +and the old children, recking little of fashion, plumed themselves with +pride at being so fine.</p> + +<p>Durtal followed to the cathedral. When he reached the little square, the +procession, caught by a gale of wind, was struggling and clinging to the +banners, which bellied like the sails of a ship, carrying on the men who +clutched the poles. At last, more or less easily, all the people were +swallowed up in the basilica. The <i>Te Deum</i> was pouring out in a torrent +from the organ. At this moment it really seemed as though, under the +impulsion of this glorious hymn, the church, springing heavenward in a +rapturous flight, were rising higher and higher; the echo resounded down +the ages, repeating the hymn of triumph which had so often been sung +under that roof; and for once the music was in harmony with the +building, and spoke the language which the cathedral had learnt in its +infancy.</p> + +<p>Durtal was exultant. It seemed to him that Our Lady smiled down from +those glowing windows, that She was touched by these accents, created by +the saints she had loved, to embody for ever, in a definite melody, and +in unique words, the scattered praise of the faithful, the unformulated +rejoicing of the multitude.</p> + +<p>Suddenly his exalted mood was sobered. The <i>Te Deum</i> was ended; a roll +of drums and a clarion flourish rang out from the transept. And while +the brass band of Chartres cannonaded the old walls with the balista of +mere noise, he fled to breathe away from the crowd, which, however, did +not nearly fill the church; and then, after the ceremony, he went to see +the parade of representatives of the various institutions in the town, +who came to pay their respects to the new Bishop in his palace.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 150 -->There he could laugh and not be ashamed. The forecourt was packed full +of priests. All the superiors of the different Archdeaconries—Chartres, +Châteaudun, Nogent le Rotrou, and Dreux—had left there, within the +great gate, their following of parish priests and curés, who were pacing +round and round the green circus of a grass plot.</p> + +<p>The big-wigs of the town, not at all less ridiculous than the pensioners +of the Little Sisters of the Poor, crowded in, driving the ecclesiastics +into the garden walks. Teratology seemed to have emptied out its +specimen bottles; it was a seething swarm of human larvæ, of strange +heads—bullet-shaped, egg-shaped, faces as seen through a bottle or in a +distorting mirror, or escaped from one of Redon's grotesque albums; a +perfect museum of monsters on the move. The stagnation of monotonous +toil, handed down for generations from father to son in a city of the +dead, was stamped on every face, and the Sunday-best festivity of the +day added a touch of the absurd to hereditary ugliness.</p> + +<p>Every black coat in Chartres had come out to take the air. Some dated +from the days of the Directory, swallowed up the wearer's neck, climbed +up high behind the nape, muffled the ears and padded the shoulders; +others had shrunk by lying in the drawer, and their sleeves, much too +short, cut the wearer round the armholes so that he dared not move.</p> + +<p>A miasma of benzine and camphor exhaled from these groups. The clothes, +only that morning taken out of pickle to be aired by the good wife, were +pestilential. The stove-pipe hats were to match. Left to themselves on +wardrobe shelves, they had surely grown taller; they towered immense, +displaying on their mill-board column a thin covering of hairs.</p> + +<p>This assembly of worthies admired and congratulated each other; clasped +hands encased in white gloves—gloves scoured with paraffin, cleaned +with indiarubber or breadcrumb. Presently a retiring wave cleared a +space in the crowd of priests and laymen, who shrank back hat in hand to +make way for an old hearse of a landau, drawn by a consumptive horse and +driven by a sort of Moudjik, a coachman with a puffy face behind a +thicket of hair sprouting on his cheeks and his mouth, in his ears and +nose. This <!-- Page 151 -->vehicle came to an anchor before the front steps, and out of +it stepped a fat man, blown out like a bladder and buttoned up in an +uniform with silver lace; after him came a thinner personage in a coat +with facings of dark and light blue, and everybody bowed to the Préfet +attended by one of his three Councillors.</p> + +<p>They had lifted their plumed cocked hats, distributed a dole of +hand-shaking, and vanished into the vestibule when the army made its +appearance, represented by a Colonel of Cuirassiers, some officers of +the Artillery and the Commissariat, a few subalterns of Infantry, and +one gendarme.</p> + +<p>This was all.</p> + +<p>Within an hour of this reception the exhausted town was asleep again, +not having energy enough even to remove the poles; Lazarus had gone back +to his sepulchre, the resuscitated antiquities had relapsed into death; +the streets were empty; reaction had ensued; Chartres would be exhausted +for months by this outbreak.</p> + +<p>"What a sty it is! What a hole!" cried Durtal to himself.</p> + +<p>On certain days, tired of spending his afternoons shut up with his books +or of attending service in the cathedral, hearing the canons languidly +playing rackets from side to side of the choir with the Psalms, of which +they tossed the verses to and fro in a mumbling tone, he would go down +after dinner and smoke cigarettes in the little Place. At Chartres, +eight o'clock in the evening was as three in the morning in any other +town; every light was out, every house closed.</p> + +<p>The priesthood, eager for bed, had shut up shop. No prayers to the +Virgin, no Benediction, nothing in this cathedral! At such an hour, +kneeling in the dark, you feel as if the Mother were more immediately +present, nearer, more intimately your own; but these moments of +confidence, when it is easier to tell Her all your trivial woes, were +unknown at Notre Dame. No one was worn out by midnight prayer in that +church!</p> + +<p>But though he could not go in, Durtal could prowl round and about it. +And then, scarcely seen by the light of the poverty-stricken lamps +standing here and there on the square, the cathedral assumed strange +aspects. The portals yawned as caverns full of blackness, and the outer +<!-- Page 152 -->shape of the body of the building, from the towers to the apse, with +its abutments and buttresses merely guessed at in the dark, stood up +like a cliff worn away by invisible waves. It might have been a +mountain, its summit jagged by storms, eaten into deep caverns at the +foot by a vanished ocean; and on going nearer he could in the gloom +imagine ill-defined paths steeply running up the cliff, or winding on +shelves at the edge of a rock; and, occasionally, midway on one of these +dark paths, some white statue of a Bishop would start forth under a +moonbeam, like a ghost haunting the ruins, and blessing all comers with +uplifted fingers of stone.</p> + +<p>These wanderings in the precincts of the cathedral, which by daylight +was so light and slender, and in the dark seemed so ponderous and +threatening, were ill-adapted to cure Durtal of his melancholy.</p> + +<p>This illusion of rocks riven by the lightning, of caverns deserted by +the waves, plunged him into fresh reveries, and at last threw him back +on himself, ending, after many divagations of mind, in the contemplation +of the ruin within him. Then once more he sounded his soul, and tried to +reduce his thoughts to some sort of order.</p> + +<p>"I am simply bored to death," said he to himself, "and why?" And by dint +of analyzing his condition he came to this conclusion: "My state of +boredom is not simple but two-fold; or, if it is indeed all of a piece, +it may be divided into two very distinct phases: I am bored by myself, +independently of place, of home, of books; and I am also bored by +provincial life—the special form of boredom inherent in Chartres.</p> + +<p>"Bored by myself—ah, yes, most heartily! How tired I am of watching +myself, of trying to detect the secret of my disgust and +contentiousness. When I contemplate my life I could sum it up thus: the +past has been horrible; the present seems to me feeble and desolate; the +future—is appalling."</p> + +<p>He paused, and then went on,—</p> + +<p>"During my first days here I was happy in the dream suggested by this +cathedral. I believed it would re-act on my life, that it would people +the solitude I felt within me, that it would, in a word, be a help to me +in this provincial atmosphere. But I beguiled myself. In fact, it still +weighs <!-- Page 153 -->on me, it still holds me wrapped in the mild gloom of its crypt; +but I can now reason about it, I can scrutinize its details, I try to +talk to it of art, and in these inquiries I have lost the unreasoning +sense of its environment, the silent fascination of the whole.</p> + +<p>"I am less conscious now of its soul than of its body. I tried to study +archæology, that contemptible anatomy of building, and I have fallen +humanly in love with its beauty; the spiritual aspect has vanished, to +leave nothing behind but the earthly part. Alas! I was determined to +see, and I have wrecked trust; it is the eternal allegory of Psyche over +again!</p> + +<p>"And besides—besides—is not the weariness that is crushing me to some +extent the fault of the Abbé Gévresin? By compelling me to much +repetition he has exhausted in me the soothing and, at the same time, +subversive virtue of the Sacrament; and the most evident result of this +treatment is that my soul has collapsed and has no spirit to +reinvigorate it.</p> + +<p>"No, no," he went on presently. "Here I am working back on my perennial +presumption, my incessant round of cares; and once more I am unjust to +the Abbé. But it is certainly no fault of his if frequent Communion +makes me cold. I look for sensations; but the very first thing should be +to convince myself that such cravings are contemptible, and next, to +understand clearly that it is precisely because Communion is so frigid +that it is the more meritorious and virtuous, yes, that is very easy to +say; but where is the Catholic who prefers such coldness to a glow? The +saints may, no doubt; but even they suffer under it! It is so natural to +entreat God for a little joy, to look forward to an Union consummated by +a loving word, a sign—a mere nothing that may show that He is present.</p> + +<p>"Say what they may, we cannot help being pained by a dead absorption of +that living bread! And it is very hard to admit that Our Lord is wise +when He keeps us in ignorance of the ills from which it preserves us and +the progress it enables us to make, since, but for that, we might be +defenceless against the attacks of self-conceit and the assaults of +vanity—helpless against ourselves.</p> + +<p>"In short, whatever the reason, I am no better off at Chartres than in +Paris," was his conclusion.<!-- Page 154 --> And when these reflections beset him, +especially on Sundays, he regretted having accompanied the Abbé Gévresin +into the country.</p> + +<p>In Paris, in old days, he at any rate got through the hours at the +services. He could attend Mass in the morning at the Benedictine chapel +or at Saint Séverin, and go to Saint Sulpice for vespers or compline.</p> + +<p>Here there was nothing; and yet where were there more promising +conditions for the performance of Gregorian music than at Chartres?</p> + +<p>Setting aside a few antiquated basses who could only bark, and whom it +would be necessary to dismiss, there was a whole sheaf of rich young +voices, a school of nearly a hundred boys who could have rolled out in +clear, sweet tones the broad melodies of the old plain-song.</p> + +<p>But in this ill-starred cathedral an inept precentor gave out, by way of +liturgical canticles, a perfect menagerie of outlandish tunes, which, +let loose on Sunday, seemed to scamper like marmosets up the pillars and +under the roof. And the artless voices of the choir-boys were drilled to +these musical monkey-tricks. At Chartres it was impossible to attend +High Mass in the cathedral with any decent devotion.</p> + +<p>The other services were not much better; indeed, Durtal was reduced to +attending vespers at Notre Dame de la Brèche, in the lower town, a +chapel where the priest, a friend of the Abbé Plomb, had introduced the +use of Solesmes, and patiently trained a little choir composed of +faithful working-men and pious boys.</p> + +<p>The voices, especially the trebles, were not first-rate; but the priest, +being a skilled musician, had contrived to train and soften them, and +had, in fact, succeeded in getting the Benedictine art accepted in his +church.</p> + +<p>Unfortunately it was so ugly, so painfully adorned with images, that +only by shutting his eyes could Durtal endure to remain in Notre Dame de +la Brèche.</p> + +<p>In the midst of this surge of reflections on his soul, on Paris, on the +Eucharist, on music, on Chartres, Durtal was at last quite bewildered, +not knowing where he was. Now and then, however, he recovered some +tranquillity, and then he was astonished at himself, he could not +understand himself.</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 155 -->Why regret Paris—why, indeed?" he would ask himself. "Was the life I +led there unlike that I lead here? Were not the churches there—Notre +Dame de Paris, to name but one—just as much to be execrated for +sacrilegious <i>bravuras</i> as Notre Dame de Chartres? On the other hand, I +never went out there to lounge in the tiresome streets; I saw nobody but +the Abbé Gévresin and Madame Bavoil, and I see them still, and oftener, +in this town. I have even gained a friend by the move, a learned and +agreeable companion, in the Abbé Plomb. So why?"</p> + +<p>And then one morning, unexpectedly, every thing was plain to him. He saw +quite clearly that he was on the wrong track, and without even seeking +for it he found the right one.</p> + +<p>To discover the unknown source of his flaccid longing for he knew not +what, and his inexplicable dissatisfaction, he had only to look back a +little way and pause at La Trappe. He saw now everything had begun +there. Having reached that culminating point of his retrospect, he +could, as it were, stand on a height and command a view of the declining +years since he had left the monastery; and now, gazing at that +descending panorama of his life, he discerned this:—</p> + +<p>That from the time of his return to Paris a craving for the cloister had +been incessantly permeating his being; he had unremittingly cherished +the dream of retiring from the world, of living peacefully as a recluse +near to God.</p> + +<p>He had, to be sure, only thought of it definitely in the form of +impossible longings and regrets, for he knew full well that neither was +his body strong enough nor his soul staunch enough for him to bury +himself as a Trappist. Still, once started from that spring-board, his +imagination flew off at a tangent, overleaped every obstacle, floated in +discursive reveries where he saw himself as a Friar in some easy-going +convent under the rule of a merciful Order, devoted to liturgies and +adoring art.</p> + +<p>He could but shrug his shoulders, indeed, when he came back to himself, +and smile at these dreams of the future which he indulged in hours of +vacuous idleness; but this self-contempt of a man who catches himself in +the very act of flagrant nonsense was nevertheless succeeded by the hope +of not losing all the advantages of an honest delusion; and he could +remount on a chimera which he thought less wild, <!-- Page 156 -->as leading to a <i>via +media</i>, a compromise, fancying that by moderating his ideal he should +find it more attainable.</p> + +<p>He assured himself that, in default of a really conventual life, he +might perhaps achieve an illusory imitation of it by avoiding the +turmoil of Paris and burying himself in a hole. And he now saw that he +had completely cheated himself when, on discussing the question as to +whether he should leave Paris and go to settle at Chartres, he had +believed that he was yielding to the Abbé Gévresin's arguments and +Madame Bavoil's urgency.</p> + +<p>Certainly, without admitting it, without accounting for it, he had +really acted on the prompting of this cherished dream. Would not +Chartres be a sort of monastic haven, of open cloister, where he could +enjoy his liberty and not have to give up his comforts? Would it not, at +any rate, for lack of an unattainable hermitage, be a sop thrown to his +desires; and supposing he could succeed in reducing his too exorbitant +demands, give him the final repose and peace for which he had yearned +ever since his return from La Trappe?</p> + +<p>And nothing of all this had been realized. The unsettled feeling he had +experienced in Paris had pursued him to Chartres. He was, as it were, on +the march, or perched on a bough; he could not feel at home, but as a +man lingering on in furnished rooms, whence he must presently depart.</p> + +<p>In short, he had deluded himself when he had fancied that a man might +make a cell of a solitary room in silent surroundings; the religious +jog-trot in a provincial atmosphere had no resemblance to the life of a +monastery. There was no illusion or suggestion of the convent.</p> + +<p>This check, when he recognized it, added to the ardour or his regrets; +and the distress which in Paris had lurked latent and ill-defined, +developed at Chartres clear and unmistakable.</p> + +<p>Then began an unremitting struggle with himself.</p> + +<p>The Abbé Gévresin, whom he consulted, would only smile and treat him as +in a novices' school or a seminary a youthful postulant is treated who +confesses to deep melancholy and persistent weariness. His malady is not +taken seriously; he is told that all his companions suffer the same +temptations, the same qualms; he is sent away comforted, while his +superiors seem to be laughing at him.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 157 -->But at the end of a little time this method no longer succeeded. Then +the Abbé was firm with Durtal, and one day, when his penitent was +bemoaning himself, he replied,—</p> + +<p>"It is an attack you must get over," and then he added lightly after a +silence, "And it will not be the last or the worst."</p> + +<p>At this Durtal turned restive; the Abbé, however, drove him to bay, +wanting to make him confess how senseless his struggles were.</p> + +<p>"The idea of the cloister haunts you," said he. "Well, then, what is +there to hinder you? Why do you not retire to a Trappist convent?"</p> + +<p>"You know very well that I am not strong enough to endure the rule."</p> + +<p>"Then become an oblate; go to join Monsieur Bruno at Notre Dame de +l'Atre."</p> + +<p>"No, indeed, not that, at any rate. To be an oblate at La Trappe is the +same thing as remaining at Chartres! It is a mere half-measure. Monsieur +Bruno will always remain a boarder; he will never be a monk. He gets all +the disadvantages of the cloister, and none of the benefits."</p> + +<p>"But there are other monasteries besides those of La Trappe," replied +the Abbé. "Be a Benedictine Father or oblate, a black Friar. Their rule +seems to be mild; you will live in a world of learned men and writers; +what more would you have?"</p> + +<p>"I do not say—but—"</p> + +<p>"But what?"</p> + +<p>"I know nothing of them—"</p> + +<p>"Nothing can be easier than to get to know them. The Abbé Plomb is a +welcome friend at Solesmes. He can give all the introductions you can +wish to that convent."</p> + +<p>"Good; that is worth thinking about. I will consult the Abbé," said +Durtal, rising to take leave of the old priest.</p> + +<p>"The Black Dog is troubling you, our friend," observed Madame Bavoil, +who had overheard the two men's conversation from the next room, the +door between being open; and she came in, her breviary in her hand.</p> + +<p>"Ah, ha!" she went on, looking at him over her spectacles, "do you +suppose that by moving your soul from place to place you can change it? +Your trouble is neither in the air nor <!-- Page 158 -->outside you, but within you. On +my word, to hear you talk, one might fancy that by travelling from one +spot to another every discord could be avoided, that a man could escape +from himself! Nothing can be more false. Ask the Father—"</p> + +<p>And when Durtal, smiling awkwardly, was gone, Madame Bavoil questioned +her master.</p> + +<p>"What is really the matter with him?"</p> + +<p>"He is being broken by the ordeal of dryness," replied the priest. "He +is enduring a painful but not dangerous operation. So long as he +preserves a love of prayer, and neglects none of his religious +exercises, all will be well. That is the touchstone which enables us to +discern whether such an attack is sent from Heaven."</p> + +<p>"But, Father, he must at any rate be comforted."</p> + +<p>"I can do nothing but pray for him."</p> + +<p>"Another question: our friend is possessed by the notion of a monastic +life; perhaps you ought to send him to a convent."</p> + +<p>The Abbé gave an evasive shrug.</p> + +<p>"Dryness of spirit and the dreams to which it gives rise are not the +sign of a vocation," said he. "I might even say that they have a greater +chance of thriving than of diminishing in the cloister. From that point +of view conventual life might be bad for him. Still, that is not the +only question to be considered—there is something else—and besides, +who knows?" He was silent, and presently added: "Much may be possible. +Give me my hat, Madame Bavoil. I will go and talk over Durtal with the +Abbé Plomb."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"><!-- Page 159 --></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + + +<p>This discussion had been of use to Durtal; it took him out of the +generalities over which he had persistently mused since his arrival at +Chartres. The Abbé had, in fact, shown him his bearings, and pointed out +a navigable channel leading to a definite end, a haven familiar to all. +The monastery which had lingered in Durtal's fancy as a mere confused +picture, apart from time, without place or date, deriving nothing from +his memories of La Trappe but the sense of discipline, and on to which +he had at once engrafted the fancy of an abbey of a more literary and +artistic stamp, governed by a conciliatory rule, in a milder +atmosphere—that ideal retreat, half borrowed from reality and half the +fabric of a dream—was taking shape. By speaking of an Order that +existed, mentioning it by name and actually specifying a House under its +rule, the Abbé had given Durtal substantial food instead of the +argumentative wordiness of a mania; he had afforded him something better +to chew than the empty air on which he had fed so long.</p> + +<p>The state of uncertainty and indecision he had been living in was at +end; his choice now lay between remaining at Chartres or retiring to +Solesmes; and at once, without delay, he set to work to read and +reconsider the works of Saint Benedict.</p> + +<p>This rule, summed up more particularly in a series of paternal +injunctions and affectionate advice, was a marvel of gentleness and +tactfulness. Every craving of the soul was described, every misery of +the body foreseen. It knew so precisely how to ask much and yet not to +exact too much, that it had yielded without breaking, satisfied the +movements of different ages, and remained, in the nineteenth century +what it had been in mediæval times.</p> + +<p>Then how merciful, how wise it was when addressing <!-- Page 160 -->itself to the feeble +and infirm. "The sick shall be served as though they were Christ in +person," says Saint Benedict; and his anxiety for his sons, his urgent +recommendations to the Superiors to love and visit the younger brethren, +to neglect nothing that may assuage their ills, reveals a maternal care +that is truly touching on the patriarch's part.</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes," muttered Durtal, "but there are in this rule other articles +which seem less acceptable to miscreants of my stamp. This, for +instance: 'No man shall dare to give or to receive anything without the +Abbot's permission, or to have or hold anything as his own—absolutely +nothing, neither book, nor tablets, nor pointer—in a word, nothing +whatever, inasmuch as they are not allowed to call even their body or +their will their own.'</p> + +<p>"This is a terrible sentence of abnegation and obedience," he sighed, +"only, is this law, which is binding on the Fathers and the Serving +Brothers, equally strict for the Oblates, the ægrotant members of the +Benedictine army, who are not mentioned in the text? This remains to be +seen. It will be well too to ascertain how far it is applied, for the +rule is on the whole so skilful, so elastic, so broad that it can be +made at option very austere or very mild.</p> + +<p>"With the Trappists the ordinances are so closely drawn that they are +stifling; with the Benedictines, on the contrary, they would be light +and airy enough to allow the soul to breathe easily. One Fraternity +clings scrupulously to the letter; the other, on the contrary, draws +inspiration from the Spirit of the Saint.</p> + +<p>"Before goading myself along this road I must consult the Abbé Plomb," +was Durtal's conclusion. He went to call on the priest; but he was +absent for some days.</p> + +<p>As a precaution against indolence, a measure of spiritual discipline, he +threw himself on the cathedral once more, and tried, now that he was +less overpowered by speculation, to read its meaning.</p> + +<p>The stone text which he was bent on understanding was puzzling, if not +difficult to decipher, in consequence of the interpolated passages, +repetitions, and parts eliminated or abridged; in fact, to say the +truth, as the result of a certain incoherence, accounted for no doubt by +the circumstance that the work had been carried on, altered <!-- Page 161 -->or extended +by successive artists during a lapse of two hundred years.</p> + +<p>The image-makers of the thirteenth century had not always taken into +account the ideas expressed by their precursors; they had repeated them, +expressing them from their own point of view in their personal tongue; +thus, for instance, they had introduced a second version of the signs of +the seasons and of the zodiac. The sculptors of the twelfth century had +made a calendar in stone on the western front; those of the thirteenth +did the same in the right-hand doorway of the north porch, justifying +this reduplication of the subject on the same church by the fact that +the zodiac and the seasons may in symbolism have several +interpretations.</p> + +<p>According to Tertullian the death and new birth of the circling years +afforded an image of the Resurrection at the end of the world. According +to others the Sun, surrounded by the twelve Signs, was emblematic of the +Sun of Justice surrounded by his twelve Apostles. The Abbé Bulteau sees +in these stony calendars a rendering of the passage in which St. Paul +declares to the Hebrews that "Jesus is the same yesterday, to-day, and +for ever," while the Abbé Clerval gives this simple interpretation: that +all times belong to Christ, and are bound to glorify Him.</p> + +<p>"But this is a mere detail," said Durtal to himself. "In the whole +structure of the cathedral itself we can trace two-fold purposes.</p> + +<p>"The architectural mass of Notre Dame de Chartres as a whole may be +divided, externally, into three great parts, as indicated by the three +grand porches. The western or royal portal, which is the ceremonial +entrance to the sanctuary, between the two towers; the north porch on +the side next the bishop's palace, beyond the new spire; the south +porch, flanked by the old spire.</p> + +<p>"Now, the subjects represented on the royal front and in the south porch +are identical. Each glorifies the Triumph of the Incarnate Word, with +this difference: that on the south porch Our Lord is not exalted alone +as He is on the west front, but in the person also of the Elect and of +His Saints. If to these two subjects, which may be considered as +one—the Saviour glorified in Himself and in His Saints—we add the +praises of the Virgin set forth in the north front we find this result: +a poem in praise of the<!-- Page 162 --> Mother and the Son as declaring the final cause +of the Church itself.</p> + +<p>"By studying the variations between the south and west fronts we +perceive that, though in both Jesus is shown in the same act of blessing +the earth, and though both are almost exclusively restricted to +illustrating the Gospel, leaving the scenes of the Old Testament to the +arches on the north, they differ greatly from each other, and are no +less unlike the portals of all other cathedrals.</p> + +<p>"In total disagreement with the mystic rituals observed almost +everywhere else—at Notre Dame de Paris, at Bourges, at Amiens, to name +but three churches—the Last Judgment, which is seen on the main +entrance of those basilicas, is at Chartres relegated to the south +porch.</p> + +<p>"And in the same way the Tree of Jesse, which at Amiens and Reims and +the cathedral at Rouen, is displayed on the royal porch, is at Chartres +on the north side of the building; and many more similar changes might +be noted," said Durtal to himself. "But, which is yet more strange, the +parallel so commonly to be observed between the subjects treated on the +inner and outer surface of the same wall, in sculptured stone without +and painted glass within, does not constantly exist at Chartres. This, +for instance, is the case with regard to the genealogical Tree of +Christ, which is seen inside in glass on the upper wall of the west +front, and is carved outside on the north porch. At the same time, when +the subjects do not entirely coincide on the front and back of the page, +they are often complementary, or carry out the same idea. Thus the Last +Judgment, which is not to be found on the outside of the north front, +blazes out, within, from the great rose window above on the same side. +This, then, is not cumulative but appropriate development—history begun +in one dialect and finished in another.</p> + +<p>"In short, it is the ruling idea of the poem which governs all these +differences and harmonies; which comes out like a refrain after each of +these three strophes in stone; the idea that this church belongs to Our +Mother. The cathedral is faithful to its name, loyal to its dedication. +The Virgin is Lady over all. She fills the whole interior, and appears +outside even on the western and southern portals, which are not +especially Hers, above a door, on a capital, high in air on a pediment. +The angelic salutation of art has been repeated <!-- Page 163 -->without intermission by +the painters and sculptors of every age. The cathedral of Chartres is +truly the Virgin's fief.</p> + +<p>"And on the whole," thought Durtal, "in spite of the discrepancies in +some of its texts, the cathedral is legible.</p> + +<p>"It contains a rendering of the Old and New Testaments; it also engrafts +on the sacred Scriptures the Apocryphal traditions relating to the +Virgin and St. Joseph, the lives of the saints preserved in the Golden +Legend of Jacopo da Voragine and the special biographies of the aspiring +recluses of the diocese of Chartres. It is a vast encyclopædia of +mediæval learning as concerning God, the Virgin, and the Elect.</p> + +<p>"Didron is almost justified in saying that it is a compendium of those +great encyclopædias composed in the thirteenth century; only the theory +that he bases on this truthful observation wanders off and becomes +faulty as soon as he tries to work it out.</p> + +<p>"He concludes, in fact, by conceiving of this cathedral as no more than +a rendering of the <i>Speculum Universale</i>, the <i>Mirror of the World</i> of +Vincent of Beauvais; above all, like that work, as an epitome of +practical life and a record of the human race throughout the ages. In +point of fact," said Durtal to himself, as he took the <i>Christian +Iconography</i> of that writer down from the shelf, "in point of fact, +according to him, our stone pages ought to follow in such succession +that, beginning with the opening chapter on the north, they would end +with the paragraphs on the south. Then we should find the narrative in +the following order: First of all the genesis, the Biblical cosmogony, +the creation of man and woman and Eden; and then, after the expulsion of +the first pair, the tale of man's redemption by suffering.</p> + +<p>"'Whereby,' says he, 'the sculptor took occasion to teach the hinds of +La Beauce how to work with their hands and their head. Here, to the +right of Adam's Fall, he carves under the eyes and for the perpetual +edification of all men, a calendar of stone with all the labours of the +field, and then a catechism of industry, showing the works done in the +town; finally, for the labours of the mind, a manual of the liberal +arts."</p> + +<p>"Then, thus instructed, man lives on from generation to <!-- Page 164 -->generation, +until the end of the world, set forth in the images on the south side.</p> + +<p>"This treasury of sculpture would thus include a compendium of the +history of nature and of science, a glossary of morality and art, a +biography of humanity, a panorama of the whole world. Thus it would very +really represent the <i>Mirror of the World</i>, and be an edition in stone +of Vincent of Beauvais' book.</p> + +<p>"There is only one difficulty. The Dominican's <i>Speculum Universale</i> +dates from many years later than the erection of this cathedral; also, +in developing his theory, Didron does not take into account the +perspective and relations of the statuary. He assigns equal importance +to a small figure half hidden in the moulding of an arch and to the +large statues in the foreground supporting the picture in relief of Our +Lord and His Mother. Indeed, it might be said that these are the very +figures he overlooks; and, in the same way, he takes no account of the +western doors, which he could not force into his scheme.</p> + +<p>"This archæologist's ideas, in fact, cannot be maintained. He +subordinates leading features to accessory details, and ends in a kind +of rationalism entirely opposed to the mysticism of the period. He +investigates the Middle Ages by levelling down the divine idea to the +lowest earthly meaning, and referring to man what is intended to apply +to God. The prayer of sculpture, chanted by the ages of faith, becomes, +in the introduction to his work, nothing more than an encyclopædia of +industrial and moral teaching.</p> + +<p>"Let us look closer at all this," Durtal went on, and he went out to +smoke a cigarette on the Place. "That royal doorway," thought he, as he +walked on, "is the entrance to the great front by which kings were +admitted. It is likewise the first chapter of the book, and it sums up +the whole of the building.</p> + +<p>"But certainly these conclusions forestalling the premisses are very +strange; this recapitulation, placed at the very beginning of the work, +when it ought, in fact, to be placed at the end, in the apse!</p> + +<p>"And yet," he reflected, "putting this aside, the <i>façade</i> thus worked +out fills the position in this basilica which the second of the +Sapiential Books holds in the Bible. It answers to the Book of Psalms, +which is in a certain sense an <!-- Page 165 -->epitome of all the Books of the Old +Testament, and consequently, at the same time, a prophetic memento of +the whole of revealed religion.</p> + +<p>"The western side of the cathedral is similar; only, it is a compendium +not of the older but of the newer Scriptures; an epitome of the Gospels, +an abridgment of the books of St. John and the synoptical Gospels.</p> + +<p>"In building this, the twelfth century did more. It added more details +to this glorification of Christ, following Him from before His birth, +through the Bible story, till after His Death and to His Apotheosis as +described in the Apocalypse; it completed the Scriptures by the +Apocryphal writings, telling the tale of Saint Joachim and Saint Anna, +recording many episodes of the marriage of the Virgin and Joseph derived +from the Gospel of the Nativity of the Virgin and <i>pseudo</i>-Gospel of St. +James the Less.</p> + +<p>"But, indeed, in every early sanctuary such use was made of these +legends, and no church is really intelligible when they are ignored.</p> + +<p>"Nor is there anything to surprise us in this mixture of the authentic +Gospels and mere fables. When the Church refused to recognize by +canonical authority the divine origin of the Gospels of the Childhood, +of the Nativity, the writings of St. Thomas the Israelite, of Nicodemus, +of St. James the Less, and the History of Joseph, it had no intention of +rejecting them altogether, and consigning them to the limbo of +inventions and lies. In spite of certain anecdotes which are, to say the +least of it, ridiculous, there may be found in these texts some accurate +details and authentic narratives which the Evangelists, cautiously +reticent, did not think proper to record. The Middle Ages by no means +lent themselves to heresy when they ascribed to these purely human +Scriptures the value of probable legend and the interest of pious +reminiscence.</p> + +<p>"As a whole," thought Durtal, who was now standing in front of the doors +between the two towers, the royal western front, "as a whole, this vast +palimpsest, with its 719 figures, is easy to decipher if we avail +ourselves of the key applied by the Abbé Bulteau in his monograph on +this cathedral.</p> + +<p>"Starting from the new belfry and working across the western front to +the old belfry, we follow the history of Christ <!-- Page 166 -->embodied in nearly two +hundred statues lost in the capitals. It starts with Christ's ancestors, +beginning with the story of Anna and Joachim, and giving the legend in +minute images. Out of deference perhaps to the Inspired Books, this +history creeps along the wall, making itself small so as to be +inconspicuous, and narrates, as if in secret, by artless mimicry, poor +Joachim's despair when a scribe of the Temple named Reuben reproves him +for being childless, and rejects his offerings in the name of the Lord +who has not blessed him; then Joachim, in sorrow, separates from his +wife and goes away to bewail the curse that has lighted on him, till an +angel appears to him and comforts him, and bids him return to his wife, +who shall bear a daughter of his begetting.</p> + +<p>"Then we see Anna, weeping alone over her barrenness and her widowhood; +and the angel comes to her and bids her go forth to meet her husband, +and she finds him at the golden gate. And they fall on each other's neck +and go home together. And Anna brings forth Mary, whom they dedicate to +the Lord.</p> + +<p>"Years then pass, till the time comes when the Virgin is to be +betrothed. The High Priest bids all of the children of the House of +David who are of age, and not yet married, to come to the altar with a +rod in their hand; and to discern which of these shall be chosen to +marry the Virgin, Abiathar, the High Priest, inquires of the Most High, +who repeats the prophecy of Isaiah which declares that a flower shall +come out of Jesse on which the Holy Spirit shall rest.</p> + +<p>"And immediately the rod blossoms of one of those present, Joseph the +Carpenter, and a dove descends from heaven to settle on it.</p> + +<p>"So Mary is given to Joseph, and the marriage takes place; Messiah is +born, and Herod massacres the Innocents; and there the gospel of the +Nativity ends, and the story is taken up by the Holy Scriptures, which +follow the Life of Jesus to the hour of His last appearance on earth +after His death.</p> + +<p>"These scenes, set forth in small simple imagery, serve as a border at +the bottom of the vast presentment which extends from tower to tower +over all three doors.</p> + +<p>"Here the scenes are placed which are intended to attract the crowd by +plainer and more visible images; here we see <!-- Page 167 -->the general theme of this +portal in all its splendour, recapitulating the Gospels and achieving +the purpose of the Church itself.</p> + +<p>"On the left we see the Ascension of Our Lord, soaring triumphant on +clouds rendered by a waving scroll held on each side, in the Byzantine +manner, by two angels; while below, the Apostles with uplifted faces, +gaze at this ascension pointed out to them by other angels who have +descended and hover over them, their fingers extended towards the sky.</p> + +<p>"The hollow moulding of the arch is filled up with a calendar and zodiac +of stone.</p> + +<p>"The right-hand side shows the Assumption of Our Lady, seated on a +throne, sceptre in hand, and holding the Infant, who blesses the world. +Beneath are the episodes of Her life: the Annunciation, the Visitation, +the Nativity, the homage of the shepherds, and the presentation of Jesus +to the High Priest; and the bend of the arch, rising to a point like a +mitre above the Mother, has the mouldings enriched with two lines of +figures, one of archangels bearing censers, with wings closely +imbricated as if with tiles, the other of personifications of the seven +liberal arts, each represented by two figures—one allegorical, and the +other the presentment of the inventor, or of the paragon of that art in +antiquity. This is the same scheme of expression as we see in the +cathedral at Laon; the paraphrase in sculpture of scholastic theology, +and a rendering in images of the text of Albertus Magnus, who, after +rehearsing the perfections of the Virgin, declares that She possessed a +perfect knowledge of the seven arts: grammar, rhetoric, dialectic, +arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music—all the lore of the Middle +Ages.</p> + +<p>"Finally, in the middle, the great doorway illustrates the subject round +which the storied carving of the other doors all centres: the +Glorification of Our Lord, as Saint John beheld it at Patmos; the +Apocalypse, the last book of the Bible, spread open on the forefront of +the basilica, above the grand entrance to the church.</p> + +<p>"Jesus is seated, on His head the cruciform nimbus, robed in the linen +talaris and draped in a mantle which hangs in a fall of close pleats; +His bare feet rest on a stool, emblematical of the earth, according to +Isaiah. With one <!-- Page 168 -->hand He blesses the world; in the other He holds the +Book with the seven Seals. About him, in the oval glory or <i>Vesica</i>, we +see the Tetramorph—the four evangelical emblems with closely fretted +wings: the winged cherub, the lion, the eagle, and the ox, figuring St. +Matthew, St. Mark, St. John, and St. Luke. Above are the twelve Apostles +holding scrolls and books.</p> + +<p>"And to complete the Apocalyptic vision, in the hollow mouldings of the +arch are the twelve Angels and four and twenty Elders described by St. +John, in white raiment and crowned with gold, playing on musical +instruments, and singing in the perpetual adoration which some few +souls, dwelling isolated in the midst of the indifference of this age, +still carry on. They magnify the glory of the Most High, throwing +themselves on their faces when the Evangelical Beasts, responding to the +fervent and solemn prayers that go up from the earth, utter, in a voice +that resounds above the roar of thunder, the word which in its four +letters, its two syllables, sums up every duty of man to God—the +humble, loving, obedient <i>Amen</i>.</p> + +<p>"The text has been very closely followed by the image-maker, excepting +with regard to the Beasts, for one detail is omitted; they are not +represented with the eyes of which the prophet tells us they were 'full +within.'</p> + +<p>"Thus, regarding this whole front as a triptych, we find that in the +left doorway we have the Ascension framed in the signs of the zodiac; in +the middle, the triumph of Jesus as described by the Seer; on the right, +the triumph of Mary, surrounded by certain of Her attributes. The whole +constitutes the scheme to be carried out by the architect: the +Glorification of the Incarnate Word.</p> + +<p>"In fact, as the Abbé Clerval says in his important work on the +cathedral of Chartres, 'we have the scenes of His life which prepared +the way for His glory; we have this actual entrance into glory; and then +His eternal glorification by the Angels, the Saints, and the Blessed +Virgin.'</p> + +<p>"From the point of view of artistic execution the work in the grand +subject is crisp and splendid; the smaller figures are obscure and +mutilated. The panel representing the Virgin Mary has suffered severely, +and both it and that representing the Ascension are strangely rough and +barbarous, quite inferior to the central tympanum, which <!-- Page 169 -->contains the +most living, the most haunting, of many figures of Christ.</p> + +<p>"Nowhere, indeed, in mediæval sculpture does the Redeemer appear as more +saddened or more pitiful, or under a more solemn aspect. Seen in +profile, His hair flowing over His shoulders, smooth in front and +divided down the middle, with a nose slightly turned up and a heavy +mouth under a thick moustache, with a short, curling beard and a long +neck, He suggests not so much a Byzantine Christ, such as the artists of +that time were wont to paint and carve, but a pre-Raphaelite Christ +designed by a Fleming, or even derived from the Dutch, showing indeed +that slightly earthy taint which reappeared at a later time with a less +pure type of head, at the end of the fifteenth century, in the picture +by Cornelis Van Oostzaanen, in the gallery at Cassel.</p> + +<p>"He rises enthroned, almost sorrowful in His triumph, unamazed as He +blesses, with pathetic resignation, the generations of sinners who for +seven centuries have gazed up at Him with inquisitive, unloving eyes as +they cross the square; and all turn their back on Him, caring little +enough for this Saviour unlike the head familiar to them, recognizing +Him only with sheep-like features and a pleasing expression; such, in +short, as the foppish image at the cathedral at Amiens before which the +lovers of a softer type go into ecstasies.</p> + +<p>"Above this Christ are the three windows invisible from outside, and +over them again the huge dead rose window, looking like a blind eye, and +lighting up, like the windows, only when seen from within, when they +glow with clear flame and pale sapphires set in stone; then, higher yet, +above the rose, is the gallery of French kings, under the great +triangular gable between the towers.</p> + +<p>"And the two belfries fling up their spires; the old one carved in soft +limestone, imbricated with scales, rising in one bold flight to end in a +point, and send up a vapour of prayer among the clouds; the new one, +pierced like lace, chiselled like a jewel, wreathed with foliage and +crockets of vine, rises with coquettish dalliance, trying to make up for +lack of the inspired flight and humble entreaty of its senior by +babbling prayer and ingratiating smiles; to persuade the Father by +childlike lisping.</p> + +<p>"But to return to the west portal," Durtal went on, "in <!-- Page 170 -->spite of the +importance of its grand decoration, displaying the Eternal Triumph of +the Word, the interest of artists is irresistibly attracted to the +ground storey of the building, where nineteen colossal stone statues +stand in the space that extends from tower to tower; part against the +wall, and part in the recesses of the door-bays.</p> + +<p>"The finest sculpture in the world is certainly that we find here. There +are seven kings, seven saints or prophets, and five queens. There were +originally twenty-four of these statues, but five have disappeared and +left no trace.</p> + +<p>"They all wear glories excepting the three first, nearest to the new +belfry, and all stand under canopies of pierced work, representing roofs +or tabernacles, palaces, bridges—a whole town in little, Sion for +children, a dwarfed New Jerusalem.</p> + +<p>"They all are standing, each on a column with a guilloche pattern; on +plinths carved over with lozenges, diamond points, fir-cone scales, with +chain patterns, fretwork, billets, chequers like a chess-board of which +the alternate squares are hollowed out; and paved with a sort of mosaic, +inlaid patterns which, like the borders of the church windows, suggest a +reminiscence of Mussulman goldsmith's work, and show the origin of the +style brought from the East by the Crusaders.</p> + +<p>"The three first statues in the recess to the left, nearest the new +spire, do not stand on any pattern borrowed from the heathen; they are +trampling on indescribable monsters. One, a king whose head having been +lost, has been fitted with the head of a queen, treads on a man +entangled by serpents; another king stands on a woman who holds a +reptile by the tail with one hand, and with the other strokes the plait +of her own hair; the third, a queen, her head crowned with a plain gold +fillet and her shape that of a woman with child, while her face is +smiling but commonplace, has at her feet two dragons, a monkey, a toad, +a dog, and a snake with an ape's head. What is the meaning of these +enigmas? No one knows—no more, indeed, than we know the names of the +sixteen other statues placed along the porch.</p> + +<p>"Some believe that they represent the ancestry of the Messiah, but this +assertion has no evidence to support it; others find here a mixed +assemblage of the heroes of the Old Testament and the benefactors to the +Church, but this <!-- Page 171 -->hypothesis is no less illusory. The truth is that, +though all these personages have had sceptres in their hands, scrolls, +ribands, and breviaries, not one of them displays the attributes which +would serve to identify them in accordance with the religious symbolism +of the Middle Ages. At most might we venture to give the name of Daniel +to a headless figure because a formless dragon writhes under his feet, +emblematical of the Devil conquered by the prophet at Babylon.</p> + +<p>"The most striking and the strangest of these figures are the queens.</p> + +<p>"The first, the royal virago with the prominent stomach, is ordinary +enough; the last, opposite to this princess at the furthest end of the +front near the old tower, has lost half her face, and the remaining +portion is not attractive; but the three others, standing in the +principal doorway, are matchless.</p> + +<p>"The first, tall, slender, and very straight, wears a crown on her brow, +a veil, hair banded on each side of a middle parting, and falling in +plaits on her shoulders; her nose turns up a little, is somewhat common; +her lips firm and judicious; her chin square. The face is not very +young. The body is swathed, and rigid, in a large cloak with wide +sleeves, and the richly-jewelled sheath of a gown that betrays no +feminine outline of figure. She is upright, sexless, shapeless; her +waist slight and bound with a girdle of cord, like a Franciscan Sister. +She stands looking, with her head slightly bent, attentive to one knows +not what, seeing nothing. Has she attained to the perfect negation of +all things? Is she living the life of Union with God beyond the worlds, +where time is no more? It might be thought so, since it is noteworthy +that, in spite of her royal insignia and the magnificence of her +costume, she has the self-centred look, the austere demeanour of a nun. +She seems more of the cloister than of the Court. Then we wonder who can +have placed her on guard by this door, and why, faithful to a charge +known to none but herself, she watches, day and night, with her far-away +gaze across the square, waiting motionless for some one who for seven +hundred years has failed to come.</p> + +<p>"She might be an embodiment of Advent, stooping a little to listen to +the woeful supplications of man as they <!-- Page 172 -->rise from earth; in that case, +she must be an Old Testament queen, dead long before the birth of the +Messiah she perhaps may have prophesied.</p> + +<p>"As she holds a book, the Abbé Bulteau thinks it may be a full-length +statue of Saint Radegonde. But other princesses have been canonized, +and, like her, hold books. At the same time, the monastic aspect of this +queen, her emaciated figure, her eye vaguely fixed on the region of +internal dreams, would well befit Clotaire's wife, who retired to a +cloister.</p> + +<p>"But for what can she be watching? The dreaded arrival of the king bent +on tearing her from her Abbey at Poitiers to replace her on the throne? +For lack of any information every conjecture must be futile.</p> + +<p>"The second statue again represents a king's wife holding a book. She is +younger; she wears neither cloak nor veil; her bosom is full and closely +fitted in a clinging dress, tightly drawn over the bust like wet linen; +a bodice resembling the Carlovingian <i>rokette</i>, fastened on one side. +Her hair lies flat in two bands on her forehead, covering her ears and +falling in long tresses plaited with ribbon, and ending in loose tufts.</p> + +<p>"Her face is wilful and alert, and rather haughty. She is looking out of +herself; her beauty is of a more human type, and she knows it. Saint +Clotilde, is the Abbé Bulteau's guess.</p> + +<p>"It is very certain that this Elect lady was not always a pattern of +amiability—not what could be called easy to get on with. Before being +reproved and chastened we see her in history, as vindictive, unrelenting +to pity, eager for retaliation. She would be Clotilde before her +repentance—the Queen, before she became a saint.</p> + +<p>"But is it really she? The name was given her because a statue of the +same period and very like this, which was formerly at Notre Dame de +Corbeil, was dubbed with this name. It was, however, subsequently +admitted that it represented the Queen of Sheba. Are we then in the +presence of that sovereign? And why, if her name is not in the Book of +Life, has she a glory?</p> + +<p>"It is highly probable that she is neither the wife of Clovis, nor +Solomon's friend—this strange princess who stands before us, at once so +earthly and yet more spectral <!-- Page 173 -->than her sisters; for time has marred her +features, injured her skin, dotted her chin with hail-specks, vulgarized +her mouth, injured her nose, making it look like the ace of clubs, and +put the stamp of death on that living countenance.</p> + +<p>"As to the third, she is tall and slender, a fragile spindle, a slim, +sylph-like creature, suggesting a taper with the lower portion +patterned, embossed, brocaded in the wax itself; she stands +magnificently arrayed in a stiff-pleated robe channelled lengthwise, +like a stick of celery. The bodice is richly trimmed and stitched; below +her waist hangs a cord with loose jewelled knots; on her head is a +crown. Both arms are broken; one hand rested on her bosom; in the other +she held a sceptre, of which a small portion remains.</p> + +<p>"This queen is smiling, artless, and engaging—quite charming. She looks +down on all comers with wide open eyes under high-arched brows. Never, +at any period, has a more expressive face been formed by the genius of +man; it is a masterpiece of childlike grace and saintly innocence.</p> + +<p>"Here, amid the pensive architecture of the twelfth century, one of a +crowd of devout statues, symbolical to some extent of simple love in an +age when men were in perpetual dread of everlasting hell, she seems to +stand at the Gate of the Lord as the exorable image of forgiveness. To +the terrified souls of habitual sinners who after perseverance in guilt +no longer dare cross the threshold of the Sanctuary, she stands kindly +reproving such reticence, conquering regrets and soothing terrors by her +familiar smile.</p> + +<p>"She is the elder sister of the prodigal son, of whom St. Luke indeed +makes no mention, but who, if she ever existed, would have pleaded for +the absent wanderer, and have insisted with her father on the killing of +the fatted calf when the son returned.</p> + +<p>"Chartres, to be sure, does not see her in this indulgent aspect; local +tradition names her Berthe of the broad foot; but while there is no +argument to support this hypothesis, it is in fact quite absurd, as the +statue is graced with a nimbus. This mark of holiness would not have +been given to Charlemagne's mother, whose name is not on the list of the +saints of the Church Triumphant.</p> + +<p>"According to the notions of those archæologists who <!-- Page 174 -->believe that the +sculptured dignitaries of this porch represent the ancestry of Christ, +she must be a queen of the Old Testament. But which? As Hello very truly +remarks, tears abound in the Scriptures, but laughter is so rare that +Sarah's, when she could not help mocking at the angel who announced that +she should bear a son in her old age, has remained on record. So it is +in vain that we inquire to what personage of the ancient books this +queen's innocent joy may be ascribed.</p> + +<p>"The truth is that she must remain a perennial mystery; she is an +angelic, limpid creature, who has attained, no doubt, to the purest joy +in the Lord; and withal so attractive, so helpful, that she leaves in us +an impression of a healing gesture, the illusion of a blessing made +visible to all who crave it. Her right arm indeed is broken at the +wrist, and her hand is gone; but we can fancy it there still when we +look for it; as a shade, a reflection; it is very plainly seen in the +slight fulness of the bosom, as though it were the palm; in the folds of +the bodice, which distinctly show the four taper fingers and raised +thumb to make the sign of the cross over us.</p> + +<p>"How exquisite a forerunner of the Blessed Mother is this royal guardian +of the threshold, this sovereign, inviting wanderers to come back to the +Church, to enter the door over which She keeps watch, and which is +itself one of the symbols of Her Son!" exclaimed Durtal, as he glanced +at the opposite figures—such different women! one a nun rather than a +queen, her head a little bowed; another, every inch a queen, holding +hers aloft; the third saucy, though saintly, her neck neither bent nor +assertive, holding herself in a natural attitude, and moderating the +august mien of a sovereign by the humble, smiling expression of a saint.</p> + +<p>"And perhaps," said he to himself, "we may see in the first an image of +the contemplative life, and in the second the embodied idea of the +active life; while the third, like Ruth in the Scriptures, symbolizes +both!"</p> + +<p>As to the other statues—prophets wearing the Jewish cap with ears, and +kings holding missals or sceptres, they too are impossible to identify. +One in the middle arch, divided from the so-called Berthe by a king, was +more especially interesting to Durtal because it was like Verlaine.<!-- Page 175 --> The +statue had indeed thicker hair, but just as strange a head, a skull with +curious bumps, a flattish face, a curling beard, and the same common but +kindly look.</p> + +<p>Tradition gives this statue the name of St. Jude, and this resemblance +is suggestive between the saint whom Christians most neglected, and who +for several centuries found so few devotees that suddenly, one day, on +the theory that he, less than the others, would have exhausted his +credit with God, people took to imploring him for desperate cases, lost +souls, and the poet so utterly ignored or so stupidly condemned by the +very Catholics to whom he has given the only mystical verses produced +since the Middle Ages.</p> + +<p>"They were ill-starred, one as a saint and the other as a poet," Durtal +concluded, as he drew back to get a better view of the front.</p> + +<p>It was indeed incredible, with the chasing of silvery flowers wrought on +the panes by frost; with its church-drapery, its lace rochets, its fine +pierced work, as light as gossamer, running up to the level of the +second storey, and forming a fretted frame for the great stone-carvings +of the porch. And above that it rose in hermit-like sobriety, unadorned, +Cyclopean, with the colossal eye of its dull rose-window between the two +towers, one full of windows and richly wrought like the doorway, the +other as bare as the façade above the porch.</p> + +<p>But after all, what absorbed and possessed Durtal's mind was still those +statues of queens.</p> + +<p>He finally thought no more of the rest, listened to nothing but the +divine eloquence of their lean slenderness, regarding them only under +the semblance of tall flower-stems deep in carved stone tubes and +expanding into faces of ingenuous fragrance, of innocent perfume, while +Christ, touched and saddened, blessing the world, seemed to bend from +His throne above them to inhale the delicate aroma that rose from these +up-soaring chalices full of soul. Durtal was wondering—what potent +necromancer could evoke the spirits of these royal doorkeepers, compel +them to speak, and enable us to overhear the colloquy they perhaps hold +when in the evening they seem to withdraw behind the curtain of shadow?</p> + +<p>What have they to say to each other—they who have <!-- Page 176 -->seen Saint Bernard, +Saint Louis, Saint Ferdinand, Saint Fulbert, Saint Yves, Blanche of +Castille—so many of the Elect walking past on their way into the starry +gloom of the nave? Did they cause the death of their companions, the +five other statues that have vanished for ever from the little assembly? +Do they listen, through the closed doors, to the wailing breath of +heart-broken psalms, and the roaring tide of the organ? Can they hear +the inane exclamations of the tourists who laugh to see them so stiff +and so lengthy? Do they, as many saints have done, smell the fetor of +sin, the foul reek of evil in the souls that pass by them? Why, then, +who would dare to look at them?</p> + +<p>And still Durtal looked at them, for he could not tear himself away; +they held him fast by the undying fascination of their mystery; in +short, he concluded, they are supra-terrestrial under the semblance of +humanity. They have no bodies; it is the soul alone that dwells in the +wrought sheath of their raiment; they are in perfect harmony with the +cathedral, which, divesting itself of its stones, soars in ecstatic +flight above the earth.</p> + +<p>The crowning achievement of mystical architecture and statuary are here, +at Chartres; the most rapturous, the most superhuman art which ever +flourished in the flat plains of La Beauce.</p> + +<p>And now, having contemplated the whole effect of this façade, he went +close to it again to examine its minutest accessories and details, to +study more closely the robes of these sovereigns; then he observed that +no two were alike in their drapery. Some flowed without any broken +folds, in ridge and furrow like the fall of rippling water; others hung +closely gathered in parallel flutings like the ribs on stems of +angelica, and the stern material lent itself to the needs of the +dressers, was soft in the figured crape and fustian and fine linen, +heavy in the brocade and gold tissue. Every texture was distinct; the +necklaces were chased bead by bead; the knots of the girdles might be +untied, so naturally were the strands entwined; the bracelets and crowns +were pierced and hammered and adorned with gems, each in its setting, as +if by practised goldsmiths.</p> + +<p>And in many cases the pedestal, the statue, and the canopy were all +carved out of one block, in one piece. What were the men who executed +such work?</p> + +<p><!-- Page 177 -->It is probable that they lived in convents, for art was not at that time +cultivated or practised but in the precincts of God. And just then they +were in their glory in the Ile de France, the Orleans country, the +provinces of Maine, Anjou, and Berry, for we find statues of this type +in all; still, it must be said that they are not equal to these at +Chartres.</p> + +<p>At Bourges, for instance, analogous prophets and very similar queens +stand meditative in, one of the extraordinary side bays where the Arab +trefoil is so conspicuous. At Angers the statues are weather-beaten, +almost ruined, but it can be seen that they were less stately, merely +human; they are no longer chastely slender, fit for Heaven, but earthly +queens. At Le Mans, where they are in better preservation, they vainly +strive to soar above their narrow weed; they lack spring, they are +nerveless, feeble, almost common.</p> + +<p>Nowhere do we find a soul clothed in stone as at Chartres; and if at Le +Mans we study the front, of which the scheme is the same as at Chartres, +with Christ enthroned and benedictory between the winged beasts of the +Tetramorph, what a descent we note in the divine ideal! Everything is +pinched and airless. The Christ, too roughly wrought, looks savage. The +pupils only of the supreme masters of Chartres evidently adorned these +portals.</p> + +<p>Was there a guild, a brotherhood of these image-makers, devoted to the +holy work, who went from place to place to be employed by monks as +helpers of the masons and labourers, builders for God? Did they first +come from the Benedictine Abbey of Tiron founded at Chartres near the +market, by that Abbot Saint Bernard whose name figures on the list of +benefactors to the church, in the necrology of the cathedral? None may +know. They worked humbly, anonymously.</p> + +<p>And what souls these artists had! For this we know: they laboured only +in a state of grace. To raise this glorious temple, purity was required +even of the workmen.</p> + +<p>This would seem incredible if it were not proved by authentic documents +and undoubted evidence.</p> + +<p>We possess letters of the period preserved in the Benedictine annals, a +letter from an Abbot of Saint-Pierre-sur-Dive, found by Monsieur Léopold +Delisle, in MS. 929 of the French collection in the Bibliothèque +Nationale, and a Latin volume of the Miracles of Our Lady, discovered in +the<!-- Page 178 --> Vatican Library, and translated into French by Jehan le Marchant, a +poet of the thirteenth century. And these all relate the way in which +the Sanctuary dedicated to the Virgin was rebuilt after destruction by +fire.</p> + +<p>What then occurred was indeed sublime. This was a crusade, if ever there +was one. It was here no question of snatching the Holy Sepulchre from +the power of the infidels, of meeting armies on the field of battle, and +fighting with men; the Lord Himself was to be attacked in His +entrenchments, Heaven was besieged, and conquered by love and +repentance! And Heaven confessed itself beaten; the angels smiled and +yielded; God capitulated, and in the gladness of defeat He threw open +the treasury of His grace to be plundered of men.</p> + +<p>Then, under the guidance of the Spirit, came a battle in every workshop +with brute matter, the struggle of a nation vowing, cost what it might, +to save a Virgin, homeless now as on the day when Her Son was born.</p> + +<p>The manger of Bethlehem was a mere heap of cinders. Mary would be left +to wander, lashed by bitter winds, across the icy plains of La Beauce. +Should the same tale be repeated, twelve hundred years later, of +pitiless households, inhospitable inns, and crowded rooms?</p> + +<p>Madonna was loved then in France—loved as a natural parent, a real +mother. On hearing that she was turned adrift by fire, seeking woefully +for a home, everyone grieved and wept; and that, not only in the country +about Chartres; in the Orleans country, in Normandy, Brittany, the Ile +de France, in the far north, whole populations stopped their regular +work, left their homes to fly to Her help, the rich giving money and +jewels, and helping the poor to drag their barrows and carry corn and +oil, wine, wood and lime, everything that could serve to feed labouring +men or help in building a church.</p> + +<p>It was a constant stream of immigration, the spontaneous exodus of a +people. Every road was crowded with pilgrims, all, men and women alike, +dragging whole trees, pushing loads of sawn beams, and cartfuls of the +moaning sick and aged forming the sacred phalanx, the veterans of +suffering, the unconquerable legions of sorrow, all to help in the siege +of the heavenly Jerusalem, forming the outer guard to support the attack +by the reinforcement of prayer.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 179 -->Nothing—neither sloughs, nor bogs, nor pathless forests, nor fordless +rivers, could check the advancing tide of the marching throng; and one +morning, from every point of the compass, lo! they took possession of +Chartres.</p> + +<p>The investment began; while the sick opened the first parallels of +prayer, the sound pitched the tents; the camp extended for leagues on +all sides; tapers were kept burning on the carts, and at night La Beauce +was a champaign of stars.</p> + +<p>What still seems incredible, and is nevertheless attested by every +chronicle of the time, is that this horde of old folks and children, of +women and men, were at once amenable to discipline; and yet they +belonged to every class of society, for there were among them knights +and ladies of high degree; but divine love was so powerful that it +annihilated distinctions and abolished caste; the nobles harnessed +themselves with the villeins to drag the trucks, piously fulfilling +their task as beasts of burthen; patrician dames helped the peasant +women to stir the mortar, and to cook the food; all lived together in an +undreamed surrender of prejudice; all were alike ready to be mere +labourers, machines, loins and arms, and to toil without a murmur under +the orders of the architects who had come out of the cloister to direct +the work.</p> + +<p>Nothing was ever more simply or more efficiently organized; the convent +cellarers, forming a sort of commissariat for this army, superintended +the distribution of food, and saw to the sanitation of the huts and the +health of the camp. Men and women were no more than docile instruments +in the hands of the chiefs they themselves had chosen, and who in their +turn obeyed gangs of monks. These again were under the orders of the +wonderful man, the nameless genius, who, after conceiving the plan of +this cathedral, directed the whole work.</p> + +<p>To achieve such results the spirit of the multitude must really have +been admirable, for the humble and laborious work of plasterers and +barrow-men was accepted by all, noble or base-born, as an act of +mortification and penance, and at the same time as an honour; and no man +was so audacious as to lay hand on the materials belonging to the Virgin +till he had made peace with his enemies and confessed his sins. Those +who were reluctant to repair the ill <!-- Page 180 -->they had done, or to frequent the +Sacraments, were dismissed from the traces, rejected as reprobates by +their comrades, and even by their own families.</p> + +<p>At daybreak every morning the work decided on by the foremen was begun. +Some dug the foundations, cleared away the ruins, carried off the +rubbish; others, going in parties to the quarries of Berchère-l'Evêque, +at about five miles from Chartres, cut out enormous blocks of stone, so +heavy that in some cases a thousand workmen were not many enough to +hoist them from their bed to the top of the hill where the church was +presently to rise.</p> + +<p>And when these silent toilers paused, exhausted and broken, the sound +went up of prayers and psalms; some would groan over their sins, +imploring Our Lady's mercy, beating their breast and sobbing in the arms +of priests who bade them be comforted.</p> + +<p>On Sundays long processions formed with banners at their head, and the +shout of canticles filled the streets that blazed from afar with tapers; +the canonical services were attended by a whole people on their knees; +relics were carried with much pomp to visit the sick.</p> + +<p>And all the time the walls of the Celestial City were being shaken by +battering-rams of supplication, catapults of prayer; the living forces +of the whole army combining to make a breach and take the place by +storm.</p> + +<p>Then it was that Jesus surrendered at discretion, conquered by so much +humility and so much love; He placed His powers in His Mother's hands, +and miracles began to abound.</p> + +<p>All the tribe of the sick and crippled are on their feet; the blind see, +the dropsical dry up, the lame walk, the weak-hearted run.</p> + +<p>The tale of these miracles, which were repeated day after day, sometimes +being produced even before the pilgrim had reached Chartres, has been +preserved in the Latin manuscript in the Vatican.</p> + +<p>The natives of Château Landon are dragging a cart-load of wheat. On +reaching Chantereine they discover that the food they had taken for the +journey is all gone, and they beg for bread from some unhappy creatures +who are themselves in the greatest want. The Virgin intercedes for them +and the bread of the poor is multiplied. Again, some men set <!-- Page 181 -->out from +the Gâtinais with a load of stone. Ready to drop, they pause near Le +Puiset, and some villagers coming out to meet them, invite them to rest +while they themselves take a turn at the load; but this they refuse. +Then the natives of Le Puiset offer them a cask of wine, and pour it +into a barrel hoisted on to the truck. This the pilgrims accept, and, +feeling less weary, they go on their way. But they are called back to +see that the empty vat has refilled itself with excellent wine. Of this +all drink, and it heals the sick.</p> + +<p>Again, a man of Corbeville-sur-Eure employed in loading a cart with +timber has three fingers chopped across by an axe and shrieks in agony. +His comrades advise him to have the fingers completely severed, as they +hold only by a strip of flesh, but the priest who is conducting them to +Chartres disapproves. They all pray to Mary, and the wound vanishes, the +hand is whole as before.</p> + +<p>Some men of Brittany have lost their way at night in the open country, +and are suddenly guided aright by flames of fire; it is the Virgin in +person descending that Saturday after Complines into Her church when it +is almost finished, and filling it with dazzling glory.</p> + +<p>And there are pages and pages of such incidents.</p> + +<p>"Ah, it is easy to understand," thought Durtal, "why this Sanctuary is +so full of Her. Her gratitude for the love of our forefathers is still +felt here—even now She is fain not to seem too much disgusted, not to +look too closely.</p> + +<p>"Well, well! we build sanctuaries in another way nowadays. When I think +of the Sacred Heart in Paris, that gloomy, ponderous erection raised by +men who have written their names in red on every stone! How can God +consent to dwell in a church of which the walls are blocks of vanity +joined by a cement of pride; walls where you may read the names of +well-known tradesmen exhibited in a good place, as if they were an +advertisement? It would have been so easy to build a less magnificent +and less hideous church, and not to lodge the Redeemer in a monument of +sin! Think of the throng of good souls who so long ago dragged their +load of stones, praying as they went! It would never have occurred to +them to turn their love to account and make it serve their craving for +display, their hunger for lucre."</p> + +<p>An arm was laid on his, and Durtal recognized the Abbé<!-- Page 182 --> Gévresin, who +had come up while he stood dreaming in front of the cathedral.</p> + +<p>"I am going on at once, they are waiting for me," said the priest. "I +only took advantage of our meeting to tell you that I had a letter this +morning from the Abbé Plomb."</p> + +<p>"Indeed! And where is he?"</p> + +<p>"At Solesmes; but he comes home the day after to-morrow. Our friend +seems greatly taken with the Benedictine life."</p> + +<p>And the Abbé smiled, while Durtal, a little startled, watched him turn +the corner by the new belfry.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"><!-- Page 183 --></a>CHAPTER X.</h2> + + +<p>One morning Durtal went out to seek the Abbé Plomb. He could not find +him in his own house, nor in the cathedral; but at last, directed by the +beadle, he made his way to the house at the corner of the Rue de +l'Acacia, where the choir-school was lodged.</p> + +<p>He went in by a gate that stood half open, into a yard littered with +broken pails and other rubbish. The house, beyond this courtyard, was +suffering from the cutaneous disease that affects plaster, eaten with +leprosy and spotted with blisters, with zig-zag rifts from top to +bottom, and a crackled surface like the glaze of an old jar. The dead +stock of a vine stretched its gnarled black arms along the wall.</p> + +<p>Durtal, looking in at a window, saw a dormitory with rows of white beds, +and he was amused, for never had he seen beds so tiny.</p> + +<p>A lad was in the room, whom he called, by tapping on the pane, and asked +whether the Abbé Plomb were still about the place. The boy nodded an +affirmative, and showed Durtal into a waiting-room.</p> + +<p>This room was like the office of an exceedingly inferior and pious +hotel. The furniture consisted of a mahogany table of a sort of salmon +pink colour, on which stood a pot-stand bereft of flowers; arm-chairs +with circular backs fit for a gatekeeper's room, a chimney-piece adorned +with statues of saints much fly-bitten, and a chimney board covered with +paper representing the Vision of Lourdes. On the walls hung a black +board with rows of numbered keys; opposite, a chromo-lithograph of +Christ, displaying, with an amiable smile, an underdone heart bleeding +amid streams of yellow sauce.</p> + +<p>But what was chiefly characteristic of this bedizened <!-- Page 184 -->porter's lodge +was a horribly sickening smell, the smell of lukewarm castor oil.</p> + +<p>Durtal, nauseated by this odour, was on the point of making his escape, +when the Abbé Plomb came in and took his arm. They went out together.</p> + +<p>"Then you have just come back from Solesmes?" said Durtal.</p> + +<p>"As you see."</p> + +<p>"And were you satisfied with your visit?"</p> + +<p>"Enchanted," and the Abbé smiled at the impatience he could detect in +Durtal's accents.</p> + +<p>"What do you think of the monastery?"</p> + +<p>"I think it most interesting to visit, both from the monastic and from +the artistic point of view. Solesmes is a great convent, the parent +House of the Benedictine Order in France, and it has a flourishing +school of novices. What is it that you want to know, exactly?"</p> + +<p>"Why, everything you can tell me."</p> + +<p>"Well, then, I may tell you that ecclesiastical art, brought to its very +highest expression, is fascinating in that monastery. No one can +conceive of the magnificence of the liturgy and of plain-song who has +not heard them at Solesmes. If Notre Dame des Arts had a special +sanctuary, it undoubtedly would be there."</p> + +<p>"Is the chapel ancient?"</p> + +<p>"A part of the old church remains, and the famous Solesmes sculpture, +dating from the sixteenth century. Unfortunately, there are some quite +disastrous windows in the apse: the Virgin between Saint Peter and Saint +Paul; modern glass in its most piercing atrocity. But, then, where is +decent glass to be had?"</p> + +<p>"Nowhere. We have only to look at the transparent pictures let into the +walls of our new churches to appreciate the incurable idiocy of painters +who insist on treating window panes from cartoons, as they do subject +pictures—and such subjects! and such pictures! All turned out by the +gross from cheap glass melters, whose thin material dots the pavement of +the church with spots like confetti, strewing lollipops of colour +wherever the light falls.</p> + +<p>"Would it not be far better to accept the colourless scheme of +window-glass used at Citeaux, where a decorative <!-- Page 185 -->effect was produced by +a design in the lead lines; or to imitate the fine grisailles, +iridescent from age, which may still be seen at Bourges, at Reims, and +even here, in our cathedral?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly," said the Abbé. "But to return to our monastery. Nowhere, I +repeat, are the services performed with so much pomp. You should see it +on the occasion of some high festival! Picture to yourself above the +altar, where commonly the tabernacle shines, a Dove suspended from a +golden crozier, its wings outspread amid clouds of incense; then a whole +army of monks deploying in a solemn rhythmic march, and the Abbot +standing, on his brow a mitre thickly set with jewels, his green and +white ivory crozier in his hand, his train carried by a lay-brother when +he moves, while the gold of many copes blazes in the light of the +tapers, and a torrent of sound from the organ bears the voices up, +carrying to the very vault the cry of repentance or the joy of the +Psalms.</p> + +<p>"It is glorious. It is not the penitential austerity of the liturgy as +it is used by the Franciscans or at La Trappe: it is luxury offered to +God, the beauty He created dedicated to His service, and in itself +praise and prayer. But if you wish to hear the music of the Church in +its utmost perfection you must go to the neighbouring Abbey: that of the +Sisters of Saint Cecilia."</p> + +<p>The Abbé paused, whispering to himself, thinking over his reminiscences; +and then he slowly spoke again,—</p> + +<p>"Wherever you go, the voice of a nun preserves, merely by reason of her +sex, a sort of emotion, a tendency to the cooing tone, and, it must be +owned, a certain satisfaction in hearing herself when she knows that +others can hear her; so that the Gregorian chant is never perfectly +executed by nuns.</p> + +<p>"But with the Benedictine Sisters of Sainte-Cecile all the graces of +earthly sentimentality have vanished. These nuns have ceased to have +women's voices; the quality is at once seraphic and manly. In their +church you are either thrown back I know not how far into the depth of +past ages, or shot forward into time to come, as they sing. They have +outpourings of soul and tragical pauses, pathetic murmurs and ecstasies +of passion, and sometimes they seem to rush to the assault, and storm +certain Psalms at the <!-- Page 186 -->bayonet's point. And they do assuredly achieve +the most vehement leap that can be imagined from this world into the +infinite."</p> + +<p>"Then it is a very different thing from the Benedictine service of nuns +in the Rue Monsieur in Paris?"</p> + +<p>"No comparison is possible. Without wishing to reflect on the musical +sincerity of those good Sisters, who sing quite suitably but humanly, as +women, it may be asserted that they have neither such knowledge, nor +such soul-felt aspiration, nor such voices. As a monk remarked, 'when +you have heard the Sisters of Solesmes, those of Paris sound +provincial.'"</p> + +<p>"And you saw the Abbess of Saint Cecilia. Why, when I think of it, is +not she the writer of a Treatise on Prayer (<i>Traité de l'Oraison</i>) which +I read when I was at La Trappe, and which was not, I believe, regarded +with favour at the Vatican?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, she it is. But you are making the greatest mistake in imagining +that her book was not approved at Rome. It was examined there, like +every book of the kind, through a magnifying glass, strained through a +sieve, picked over line by line, turned inside out and upside down; but +the theologians employed in this pious custom-house service acknowledged +and certified that this work, based on the soundest principles of +mysticism, was learnedly, impeccably, desperately orthodox.</p> + +<p>"I may add that the volume was printed privately by the Abbess herself, +helped by some of the nuns, in a little hand-press belonging to the +convent, and has never been in circulation. It is, in fact, an epitome +of doctrine, the essential extract of her teaching, and was more +especially intended for those of her daughters who are unable to have +the benefit of her instruction and lectures, because they live away from +Solesmes, in other convents that she has founded.</p> + +<p>"Why in these days, when for ten years past the Benedictine Sisters have +made a study of Latin, when many of them translate from Hebrew and Greek +and are skilled in exegesis, when others draw and paint the pages of +missals, reviving the art of the illuminators of the Middle Ages, when +others again—as, for instance, Mother Hildegarde—are organists of the +highest attainment, you may easily understand <!-- Page 187 -->that the woman who +directs them all, the woman who has created in her Sisterhoods a school +of practical mysticism and of religious art, is a very remarkable +person; nay, in these days of frivolous devotions and ignorant piety, +quite unique."</p> + +<p>"Why, she is one of the great Abbesses of the Middle Ages," cried +Durtal.</p> + +<p>"She is the crowning work of Dom Guéranger, who took her in hand almost +as a child and kneaded and mollified her soul with long patience; then +he transplanted her into a special greenhouse, watching her growth in +the Lord day after day; and you see the result of this forcing and high +culture."</p> + +<p>"Yes, and even this does not hinder some persons from regarding convents +as the homes of idleness and reservoirs of folly. When you think that +obscure idiots write to the papers to say that nuns know nothing of the +Latin they repeat! It would be well for them if they knew as much Latin +as those women!"</p> + +<p>The Abbé smiled.</p> + +<p>"And the secret of the Gregorian chant dwells with them," he went on. +"It is necessary not only to understand the language of the Psalms as +they are sung, but to appreciate meanings which are often doubtful in +the Vulgate, in order to express them properly. Without fervent feeling +and knowledge, the voice is nothing.</p> + +<p>"It may be beautiful in secular music, but it is null and void when it +attempts the venerable sequences of plain-song."</p> + +<p>"And how are the Fathers employed?"</p> + +<p>"They also began by restoring the liturgy and Church singing; then they +discovered certain lost texts of the subtle symbolists and learned +saints, and collected them in a <i>Spicilegium</i> and <i>Analectae</i>. Now they +are editing and printing a musical Palæography, one of the most learned +and abstruse of modern publications.</p> + +<p>"Still, I would not have you believe that the whole mission of the +Benedictine Order consists in overhauling ancient manuscripts and +reproducing ancient Antiphonals and curious chronicles. The Brother who +has a talent for any art devotes himself to it, no doubt, if the +Superior permits; on this point the rule knows no exception; but <!-- Page 188 -->the +real and true aim of the Son of Saint Benedict is to sing Psalms and +praise the Lord, to serve his apprenticeship here for his task in +Heaven: namely, to glorify the Redeemer in words inspired by Himself, +and in the language He spoke by the voice of David and the Prophets.</p> + +<p>"Seven times a day the Benedictines do the homage required of the Elders +in Heaven, as described by Saint John in the Apocalypse, and represented +by sculptors as playing on instruments here at Chartres.</p> + +<p>"In point of fact, their particular function is not at all to bury +themselves under the accumulated dust of ages, nor even to accept in +substitution the sins and woes of others as the Orders of pure +mortification do—the Carmelites and the Poor Clares. Their vocation is +to fill the office of the Angels; it is a task of joy and peace, an +anticipation of their inheritance of gladness beyond the grave; in fact, +the work which is nearest to that of purified spirits, the highest on +earth.</p> + +<p>"To fulfil their duty fittingly, besides ardent piety, a thorough +knowledge of the Scriptures is required, and a refined feeling for art. +Thus a true Benedictine must be at once a saint, a learned man, and an +artist."</p> + +<p>"And what is the daily life of Solesmes?" asked Durtal.</p> + +<p>"Very methodical and very simple: Matins and Lauds at four in the +morning; at nine o'clock tierce, mass for the brethren, and sext; at +noon dinner; at four nones and vespers; at seven supper; at half-past +eight compline and deep silence. As you see, there is time for +meditation and work in the intervals between the canonical hours and +meals."</p> + +<p>"And the oblates?"</p> + +<p>"What oblates? I saw none at Solesmes."</p> + +<p>"Indeed—then if there are any, do they lead the same life as the +Fathers?"</p> + +<p>"Evidently; excepting, perhaps, some dispensations depending on the +Abbot's favour. I can tell you this much: that in some other Benedictine +Houses that I have visited the general system is that the oblate shall +follow as much of the rule as he is able for."</p> + +<p>"Still, he is, I suppose, free to come and go—his actions are free?"</p> + +<p>"When once he has taken the oath of obedience to his<!-- Page 189 --> Superior, and, +after his term of probation, has adopted the monastic habit, he is as +much a monk as the rest, and consequently can do nothing without the +Father Superior's leave."</p> + +<p>"The deuce!" muttered Durtal. "Of course, if the ridiculous metaphor so +familiar to the world were accurate, if the cloister were rightly +compared to a tomb, the condition of the oblate would also be tomb-like, +only its walls would be less air-tight, and the stone, a little tilted, +would admit a ray of daylight."</p> + +<p>"If you like!" said the Abbé, laughing.</p> + +<p>As they walked, they had reached the Bishop's palace.</p> + +<p>They went into the forecourt, and saw the Abbé Gévresin making his way +to the gardens; they joined him, and the old priest asked them to go +with him to the kitchen garden, where, to oblige his housekeeper, he was +to inspect the seeds she had sown.</p> + +<p>"Aye, and I too promised long ago to look at the vegetables," exclaimed +Durtal.</p> + +<p>They went down the ancient paths and reached the orchard on the slope; +and as soon as Madame Bavoil caught sight of them she grounded arms, so +to speak, setting her foot in gardener fashion on the spade she had +stuck into the soil.</p> + +<p>She proudly pointed to her rows of cabbages and carrots, onions and +peas, announced that she intended to make an attempt on the gourd tribe, +expatiated on cucumbers and pumpkins, and to conclude, declared that at +the bottom of the kitchen garden she meant to have a flower-bed.</p> + +<p>Then they sat down on a mound that formed a sort of seat.</p> + +<p>The Abbé Plomb, in a mood for teasing, gave his spectacles a push, +settling the arch above his nose, and rubbing his hands, remarked, very +seriously,—</p> + +<p>"Madame Bavoil, flowers and vegetables are but of trivial importance +from the decorative and culinary point of view; the only rule that +should guide you in your selection is the symbolical meaning, the +virtues and vices ascribed to plants. Now, I am sorry to observe that +your favourites are for the most part of evil augury."</p> + +<p>"I do not understand you, Monsieur l'Abbé."</p> + +<p>"Why, you have only to consider that these vegetables <!-- Page 190 -->which you take +such care of mean many evil things. Lentils, for instance—you grow +lentils?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Well, the seeds of the lentils are very cunning and mysterious. +Artemidorus, in his 'Interpretation of Dreams,' tells us that if we +dream of them it is a sign of mourning; it is the same with lettuce and +onion: they forecast misfortune. Peas are less ill-famed; but, above +all, beware of coriander, with its leaves smelling like bugs, for it +gives rise to all manner of evils.</p> + +<p>"Thyme, on the contrary, according to Macer Floridus, cures snake-bites, +fennel is a stimulant wholesome for women, and garlic taken fasting is a +preservative against the ills we may contract from drinking strange +waters, or changing from place to place. So plant whole fields of +garlic, Madame Bavoil."</p> + +<p>"The Father does not like it!"</p> + +<p>"And then," the Abbé Plomb added, very seriously, "you must fill your +mind from the books of Albertus Magnus, the Master of Saint Thomas +Aquinas, who in the treatises ascribed to him on the Virtues of Herbs, +the Wonders of the World, and the Secrets of Women, puts forth certain +ideas, which, as I may hope, will not have been written in vain.</p> + +<p>"He tells us that the plantain-root is a cure for headache and for +ulcers; that mistletoe grown on an oak opens all locks; that celandine +laid on a sick man's head sings if he will die; that the juice of the +house-leek will enable you to hold a hot iron without being burnt; that +leaves of myrtle twisted into a ring will reduce an abscess; that lily +powdered and eaten by a young maiden is an effectual test of her +virginity, for if she should not be innocent it takes instantaneous +effect as a diuretic!"</p> + +<p>"I did not know of that property in the lily," said Durtal, laughing, +"but I knew that Albertus Magnus assigned the same peculiarity to the +mallow; only the patient need not swallow the plant; she has only to +stoop over it."</p> + +<p>"What nonsense!" exclaimed the old priest.</p> + +<p>His housekeeper, quite scared, stood looking at the ground.</p> + +<p>"Do not listen to him, Madame Bavoil," cried Durtal. "I have a less +medical, and more religious, idea: cultivate a liturgical garden and +emblematic vegetables; make a kitchen <!-- Page 191 -->and flower garden that may set +forth the glory of God and carry up our prayers in their language; and, +in short, imitate the purpose of the Song of the Three Holy Children in +the fiery furnace, when they called on all Nature, from the breath of +the storm to the seed buried in the field, to Bless the Lord!"</p> + +<p>"Very good!" exclaimed the Abbé Plomb; "but you must have a wide space +at your disposal, for not less than one hundred and thirty plants are +mentioned in the Scriptures; and the number of those to which mediæval +writers give a meaning is immense."</p> + +<p>"To say nothing of the fact," observed the Abbé Gévresin, "that a garden +dependent on our cathedral ought also to reproduce the botany of its +architecture."</p> + +<p>"Is it known?"</p> + +<p>"A list has not indeed been written for Chartres as it has been for +Reims of its sculptured flora: the botany in stone of the church of +Notre Dame there, has been carefully classified and labelled by Monsieur +Saubinet; still, you will observe that the posies of the capitals are +much the same everywhere. In all the churches of the thirteenth century +you will find the leaves of the vine, the oak, the rose-tree, the ivy, +the willow, the laurel, and the bracken, with strawberry and buttercup +leaves. Indeed, as a rule, the image-makers selected native plants +characteristic of the region where they were employed."</p> + +<p>"Did they intend to express any particular idea by the capitals and +corbels of the columns?—At Amiens, for instance, there is a wreath of +flowers and foliage forming the string-course above the arches of the +nave for its whole length and continued over the cornice of the pillars. +Apart from the probable purpose of dividing the height into two equal +parts in order to rest the eye, has this string-course any other +meaning? Does it embody any particular idea? Is it the expression of +some phrase relating to the Virgin, in whose name the cathedral is +dedicated?"</p> + +<p>"I do not think so," said the Abbé. "I believe that the artist who +carved those wreaths simply aimed at a decorative effect, and made no +attempt to give us in symbolical language a compendium of our Mother's +virtues.</p> + +<p>"Moreover, if we admit that the sculptors of the thirteenth century +introduced the acanthus on account of its <!-- Page 192 -->emollient qualities, the oak +because it is emblematic of strength, and the water-lily because its +broad leaves are accepted as a figure of charity, we ought no less to +conclude that at the end of the fifteenth century, when the mystery of +symbolism was not as yet altogether lost, the toothed bunches of curled +cabbage, of thistles and other deeply-cut leaves mingling with +true-love-knots, as in the church at Brou, might have had some meaning. +But it is perfectly certain that these vegetable forms were chosen only +for their elaborately elegant growth, and the fragile and mannered grace +of their outline. Otherwise we might assert that this later ornament has +a different tale to tell from that set forth in the flora of Reims and +Amiens, Rouen and Chartres.</p> + +<p>"In point of fact, the natural form which most frequently occurs in the +capitals of our cathedral—by no means a remarkably flowery one—is the +episcopal crozier as seen in the young shoots of the fern."</p> + +<p>"No doubt. But does not the fern bear a symbolical meaning?"</p> + +<p>"In a general sense, it is emblematic of humility, evidently in allusion +to its habit of growing as much as possible far from the high road, in +the depths of woods. But by consulting the Treatise of St. Hildegarde we +learn that the plant she calls <i>Fern</i>, or bracken, has magical +properties.</p> + +<p>"Just as sunshine disperses darkness, says the Abbess of Rupertsberg, +the <i>Fern</i> puts nightmares to flight. The devil hates and flees from it, +and thunder and hail rarely fall on spots where it takes shelter; also +the man who wears it about him escapes witchcraft and spells."</p> + +<p>"Then St. Hildegarde made a study of natural history in its relations to +medicine and magic?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; but the book remains unknown because it has never yet been +translated.</p> + +<p>"She sometimes assigns very singular talismanic virtues to certain +flowers. Would you like some instances?</p> + +<p>"According to her, the plantain cures anyone who has eaten or drunk +poison, and the pimpernel has the same virtue when hung round the neck. +Myrrh must be warmed against the body till it is quite soft, and then it +nullifies the wizard's malignant arts, delivers the mind from phantoms, +and is an antidote to philtres. It also puts to <!-- Page 193 -->flight all lascivious +dreaming, if worn on the breast or the stomach; only, as it eliminates +every carnal suggestion it depresses the spirit and makes it 'arid'; and +for this reason, adds the saint, it should never be eaten but under +great necessity.</p> + +<p>"It is true that as a remedy against the dejection caused by myrrh we +may apply the 'hymelsloszel' (Himmelschlüssel), which is—or appears to +be—<i>Primula officinalis</i>, the cowslip, whose bunches of fragrant yellow +blossoms are to be seen in moist woods and meadows. This plant is +'warm,' and imbibes its qualities from the light. Hence it can drive +away melancholy, which, says St. Hildegarde, spoils men's good manners, +making them utter speech contrary to God, on hearing which words the +spirits of the air gather about him who has spoken them, and finally +drive him mad.</p> + +<p>"I may also tell you of the mandragora, a plant 'warm and watery,' that +may symbolize the human being it resembles; and it is more susceptible +than all other plants to the suggestion of the devil; but I would rather +quote a recipe that you might perhaps think useful.</p> + +<p>"Here is our Abbess's prescription <i>à propos</i> to the iris or lily: Take +the tip of the root, bruise it in rancid fat, heat this ointment and rub +it on any who are afflicted with red or white leprosy, and they will +soon be healed.</p> + +<p>"But enough of these old-world recipes and counter-charms; we will study +the symbolism of plants.</p> + +<p>"Flowers in general are emblematic of what is good. According to Durand +of Mende, both flowers and trees represent good works, of which the +virtues are the roots; according to Honorius, the hermit, green herbs +are for wisdom; those in flower are for progress; those in fruit are the +perfect souls; finally, we are told by old treatises on symbolical +theology that all plants embody the allegory of the Resurrection, while +the idea of eternity attaches more particularly to the vine, the cedar +and the palm."</p> + +<p>"And you may add," the Abbé Gévresin put in, "that in the Psalms the +palm figures the righteous man, while according to the interpretation of +Gregory the Great its rugged bark and the golden strings of dates are +emblematical of the wood of the Cross, hard to the touch, but bearing +fruit that is sweet to those who are worthy to taste them."</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 194 -->Well," said Durtal, "but supposing that Madame Bavoil should wish to +plant a liturgical garden, what should she select for it?</p> + +<p>"Can we, to begin with, compose a dictionary of plants representing the +capital sins and their antithetical virtues, sketch a basis of +operations, and pick out by certain rules the materials at the command +of the mystic gardener?"</p> + +<p>"I do not know," said the Abbé Plomb. "At the same time, I should think +it might be possible; only we should have to remember the names of the +plants more or less exactly symbolizing those qualities and defects. In +short, what you need is a sort of language of flowers as applied to the +catechism. Let us try.</p> + +<p>"For pride we have the pumpkin, which was worshipped of old as a +divinity in Sicyon. It bears indifferently the character of pride or of +fertility; of fertility by reason of its multitude of seeds and its +rapid growth, of which the monk Walafrid Strabo wrote in noble +hexameters a whole chapter of his poem; and of pride by reason of its +huge hollow head and its bulk; and then we also have the cedar, which +Peter of Capua and Saint Melito agree in accusing of pride.</p> + +<p>"Avarice? I confess I know of no plant which represents it; we will come +back to that."</p> + +<p>"I beg your pardon," said the Abbé Gévresin; "Saint Eucher and Raban +Maur speak of thorns as emblematical of riches which accumulate to the +detriment of the soul; and Saint Melito says that the sycamore means +greed of money."</p> + +<p>"The poor sycamore!" cried the younger priest. "It has been served with +every sauce! Raban Maur and the Anonymous monk of Clairvaux also call it +a misbelieving Jew; Peter of Capua compares it to the Cross; Saint +Eucher calls it wisdom, and there are other meanings. But meanwhile I +forget how far we had gone. Oh! lasciviousness; we here have ample +choice. Besides certain trees there is cyclamen, or sow-bread, which, +according to an ancient dictum of Theophrastus, is symbolical of this +sin because it was used in the preparation of love-philtres; the nettle, +which Peter of Capua says is emblematic of the unruly instincts of the +flesh; and the tuberose, a more modern introduction, but known as far +back as the sixteenth century, when a Minorite Father brought it to +France. Its <!-- Page 195 -->heady perfume, which disturbs the nerves, also, it is said, +excites the senses.</p> + +<p>"For envy there are the bramble and the aconite, which, to be sure, is +more exactly assigned to calumny and scandal; and, again, the nettle, +which, however, is also interpreted by Albertus Magnus as figuring +courage and expelling fear.</p> + +<p>"Greediness?" The Abbé paused to think. "Carnivorous plants, perhaps, as +the fly-trap and the bog sundew."</p> + +<p>"And why not the humbler <i>cuscuta</i>, the dodder, the cuttlefish of the +vegetable kingdom, which shoots out the antennæ of its stems as fine as +thread, attaching itself to other plants by tiny suckers and feeding +greedily on their juices?" asked the Abbé Gévresin.</p> + +<p>"Anger," the Abbé Plomb went on, "is symbolized by a shrub with pinkish +flowers, a kind of bitter-sweet, as it is popularly called, and by Herb +Basil, which ever since the Middle Ages has had the same character +ascribed to it of cruelty and rage as to its namesake, the basilisk, in +the animal world."</p> + +<p>"Oh!" cried Madame Bavoil, "and we use it to season dishes and flavour +certain sauces."</p> + +<p>"That is a serious culinary error and a spiritual danger," said the +priest, smiling. He then went on:—</p> + +<p>"Anger may also be figured by the balsam, which especially symbolizes +impatience by reason of the irritability of its seed-vessels, which fly +at a touch and explode, sending them to some distance....</p> + +<p>"Sloth finally has the whole tribe of poppies, which give sleep.</p> + +<p>"As to the opposite virtues, the explanation they need is childish. For +humility you have the bracken, the hyssop, the knotweed, and the violet, +which, says Peter of Capua, is, by that same token, emblematical of +Christ."</p> + +<p>"And likewise, according to Saint Melito, of the Confessors; or, +according to Saint Mechtildis, of widows," added the Abbé Gévresin.</p> + +<p>"For indifference to the things of this world we find the lichen +symbolizing solitude; for chastity, the orange-flower and the lily; for +charity, the water-lily, the rose, and the saffron flower—so say Raban +Maur and the Anonymous monk of Clairvaux; for temperance, the lettuce, +which also stands for fasting; for meekness, mignonette; for +watchfulness, the <!-- Page 196 -->elder, signifying zeal; and thyme, which, with its +sharp, pungent aroma, symbolizes activity.</p> + +<p>"You may dispense with the sins, which have no place in the precincts of +Our Lady, and lay out your plots with the devout flowers."</p> + +<p>"How is that to be done?" asked the Abbé Gévresin.</p> + +<p>"Why," said Durtal, "there are two plans. One would be to sketch the +plan of a real church and supply the place of its statues with plants, +which would be the better way from the point of view of art; or else to +compose a whole sanctuary with trees and shrubs."</p> + +<p>He rose, and went to pick up a stick that was lying in the field.</p> + +<p>"There," said he, tracing the cruciform outline of a church on the +ground, "there you have the plan of our cathedral. Supposing now we +build it, beginning at the end, the apse; there we naturally place the +Lady chapel, as we find it in most cathedrals.</p> + +<p>"Plants emblematic of Our Lady's attributes are abundant."</p> + +<p>"The mystical rose of the Litanies!" exclaimed Madame Bavoil.</p> + +<p>"H'm!" said Durtal; "the rose has been much bedraggled. Not only was it +the erotic blossom of Paganism, but in the Middle Ages Jews and +prostitutes were compelled in many places to wear a rose as a +distinctive mark of infamy."</p> + +<p>"True," said the Abbé Plomb, "and yet Peter of Capua uses it, with an +interpretation of love and charity, to figure the Virgin; Saint +Mechtildis, again, says that roses are symbolical of martyrs, and in +another passage of her work on 'Specific Grace,' she compares this +flower to the virtue of patience."</p> + +<p>"Walafrid Strabo, in his '<i>Hortulus</i>,' also speaks of the rose as the +blood of the martyred saints," the Abbé Gévresin murmured.</p> + +<p>"'<i>Rosae martyres, rubore sanguinis</i>,' according to the key of Saint +Melito," the other priest added, in confirmation.</p> + +<p>"We will admit that shrub," cried Durtal. "Now for the lily—"</p> + +<p>"Here I must interrupt you," exclaimed the Abbé<!-- Page 197 --> Plomb, "for it must be +at once understood that the lily of the Scriptures has nothing to do +with the flower we know by that name.</p> + +<p>"The common white lily which grows in Europe, and which even before the +Middle Ages was regarded by the Church as emblematic of virginity, does +not seem to have existed in Palestine; and when, in the Song of Songs, +the mouth of the Beloved is compared to a lily, it is evidently not in +praise of white, but of red lips. The plant spoken of in the Bible as +the lily of the valleys, or the lily of the fields, is neither more nor +less than the anemone.</p> + +<p>"This is proved by the Abbé Vigouroux. It abounds in Syria, round +Jerusalem, in Galilee, on the Mount of Olives; rising from a tuft of +deeply-cut, alternate leaves of a rich, dull green, the flower cup is +like a delicate and refined poppy; it has the air of a patrician among +flowers, of a little Infanta, fresh and innocent in her gorgeous +attire."</p> + +<p>"It is certainly the fact," observed Durtal, "that the innocence of the +lily is far from obvious, for its scent, when you think of it, is +anything rather than chaste. It is a mingling of honey and pepper, at +once acrid and mawkish, pallid but piercing; it is suggestive rather of +the aphrodisiac conserves of the East and the erotic sweetmeats of the +Indies."</p> + +<p>"But, after all," said the Abbé Gévresin, "granting that there never +were lilies in the Holy Land—but is it so?—it is none the less certain +that a whole series of symbols were derived from this plant both by the +ancients and in mediæval times.</p> + +<p>"Look, for instance, at Origen; to him the lily is Christ, for Our Lord +alluded to Himself when He said, 'I am the flower of the field and the +lily of the valley;' and in these words, the field, meaning tilled land, +represents the Hebrew people, taught by God Himself, while the valleys +or fallow land are the ignorant, or, in other words, the heathen.</p> + +<p>"Again, turn to Peter Cantor. According to him, the lily is the Virgin, +by reason of its whiteness, of its perfume delectable above all others, +of its healing virtues; and finally, because it grows in uncultivated +ground, as the Virgin was born of Jewish parents."</p> + +<p>"As regards the therapeutic virtues mentioned by<!-- Page 198 --> Petrus Cantor," said +the Abbé Plomb, "I may add that the Anonymous English writer of the +thirteenth century tells us that the lily is a sovereign remedy for +burns, and for this cause is an image of the Virgin, who heals sinners +of their burns—that is to say, of their vices."</p> + +<p>"You may further consult Saint Methodus, Saint Mechtildis, Peter of +Capua, and the English monk of whom you spoke, and you will find that +the lily is the attribute, not only of the Virgin Mary, but of virginity +in general and of all virgins.</p> + +<p>"And here is a posy of meanings culled from Saint Eucher, who compares +the whiteness of the lily to the purity of the angels; from Saint +Gregory the Great, who says its fragrance is like the works of the +saints; and again from Raban Maur, who speaks of the lily as emblematic +of celestial beatitude, of the beauty of holiness, of the Church, of +perfection, of chastity in the flesh."</p> + +<p>"Not to forget that, according to the translation of Origen, the Lily +among Thorns is the Church in the midst of its enemies," the Abbé Plomb +put in.</p> + +<p>"Then it is Jesus, His Mother, the Angels, the Church, the Virgins, +everything at once!" exclaimed Durtal. "We cannot but wonder how these +mystic gardeners could discern so many meanings in one and the same +plant!"</p> + +<p>"Why, you can see: the symbolists not only considered the analogies and +resemblances they discovered between the form, scent, and colour of a +flower and the being with whom they compared it; they also studied the +Bible, especially the passages wherein a tree or flower was named, and +they then ascribed to it such qualities as were mentioned or could be +inferred from the text. They did the same with regard to animals, +colours, gems, everything to which they could attribute a meaning. It is +simple enough."</p> + +<p>"It is complicated enough!" said Durtal. "And now where was I?"</p> + +<p>"In the Lady chapel, planting roses and anemones. Now add to these a +shrub which is the emblem of Mary according to the Anonymous monk of +Clairvaux, or of the Incarnation according to the Anonymous writer of +Troyes, the walnut, of which the fruit is interpreted in the same sense +by the Bishop of Sardis."</p> + +<p>"And also mignonette," cried Durtal, "for Sister Emmerich speaks of it +frequently and with much mystery. She <!-- Page 199 -->says that this flower is very +dear to Mary, who planted it and made much use of it.</p> + +<p>"Then there is another plant which seems to me no less appropriate: the +bracken—not by reason of the qualities ascribed to it by Saint +Hildegarde, but because it symbolizes the most secret and retiring +humility. Take one of the stoutest stems and cut it aslant, like the +mouthpiece of a whistle, and you will find very distinctly imprinted in +black the form of a heraldic <i>fleur de lys</i>, as if stamped with a hot +iron. The scent being absent, we may here accept it as the symbol of +humility—a humility so perfect that it is undiscoverable but in death."</p> + +<p>"Aha! our friend is not so ignorant of country lore as I had fancied," +exclaimed Madame Bavoil.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I wandered in the woods a little, as a child."</p> + +<p>"For the choir no discussion is possible, I believe," said the Abbé +Gévresin. "The eucharistic plants, the vine and corn are self-evidently +appropriate.</p> + +<p>"The vine, of which the Lord said '<i>Ego vitis sum</i>,' is also the emblem +of communion and the image of the eighth beatitude; corn, which, as the +Sacramental element, was the object of peculiar care and respect in the +Middle Ages.</p> + +<p>"You have only to recall the solemn ceremonial observed in certain +convents when the wafer was to be prepared.</p> + +<p>"At Saint Etienne, Caen, the monks washed their face and hands, and +kneeling before the altar of Saint Benedict, said Lauds, the seven +penitential Psalms, and the Litanies of the Saints. Then a lay brother +presented the mould in which the wafers were to be baked, two at a time; +and on the day when this unleavened bread was prepared those who had +taken part in the ceremony dined together, and their table was served +exactly like the Abbot's.</p> + +<p>"At Cluny, again, three priests or three deacons, fasting after the +above-mentioned services of prayer, put on albs and invited the aid of +certain lay brethren. They mixed the flour of wheat that had been sifted +by the novices, grain by grain, with a due quantity of water; and a monk +wearing gloves baked the wafers one by one over a large fire of +brushwood, in an iron mould stamped with the proper symbols."</p> + +<p>"That reminds me," said Durtal, as he lighted a cigarette, "of the mill +for grinding the wheat for the offering."</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 200 -->I am familiar with the mystical wine-press which was often represented +by the glass-workers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries," said the +Abbé Gévresin. "That was practically a paraphrase of Isaiah's prophetic +verse: 'I have trodden the wine-press alone, and there was no man with +me'; but the mystic mill is, I own, unknown to me."</p> + +<p>"I have seen it once at Berne, in a window of the fifteenth century," +said the Abbé Plomb.</p> + +<p>"I also saw it in the cathedral at Erfurt, painted, not on glass, but on +a panel. The picture is by no known painter, and dated 1534. I can see +it now: Above, God the Father, a good old man with a snowy beard, solemn +and thoughtful; and the mill, like a coffee mill, fixed on the edge of a +table, with the drawer open below. The evangelical beasts are emptying +into the hopper, skins full of scrolls on which are written the +effective Sacramental words. These scrolls are swallowed in the body of +the machine, and come out into the drawer, thence falling into a chalice +held by a Cardinal and Bishop kneeling at the table.</p> + +<p>"And the texts are changed into a little Child in the act of blessing +while the four Evangelists turn a long silver crank in the right-hand +corner of the panel."</p> + +<p>"What seems strange," remarked the Abbé Gévresin, "is that it should be +the formula of Transubstantiation and not the substance that is changed, +and that the Evangelists, twice represented—under their animal and +their human aspect—pour into the mill and grind. And also that the +sacred oblation should be represented by the living flesh.</p> + +<p>"Still, it is correct; since the consecrating words are uttered, the +bread has ceased to be. This scheme of implied meaning, though somewhat +strange, in a literal presentment, a scene of actual grinding—the wheat +in the grain, in flour, and in the Host—this obvious intention of +ignoring the species, the appearances, and substituting the reality +which is invisible to sense, must have been adopted by the painter in +order to appeal to the masses, to bear witness to the certainty of the +Miracle and to make the mystery evident to the people. But let us return +to the construction of our church. Where were we?"</p> + +<p>"Here," said Durtal, pointing with his stick to the side aisles as +traced in the sand. "Now, to represent the side chapels we have a +choice. One we shall dedicate, of course, <!-- Page 201 -->to Saint John the Baptist. To +distinguish it from the others we have the gilliflower and the +ground-ivy to which he has given his name, and more especially the St. +John's wort, which if gathered on the eve of his festival and placed in +a room, destroys malignant spells and charms, is a protection against +thunder, and hinders the walking of ghosts.</p> + +<p>"It may be added that this plant, famous in the Middle Ages, was used as +a remedy for epilepsy and St. Vitus' dance, two maladies for which the +intercession of the Precursor is most efficacious.</p> + +<p>"We will dedicate another to Saint Peter. On his altar we may lay a posy +of the herbs dedicated to his service by our forefathers: the primrose, +the wild honeysuckle, the gentian and soap-wort, pellitory and bindweed, +with others whose names escape me.</p> + +<p>"But, first, will it not be our bounden duty to erect a tower for Our +Lady of the Seven Dolours, such as we find in many churches?</p> + +<p>"The flower obviously indicated is the passion-flower; that unique +blossom, of a purplish blue, its seed-vessel simulating the Cross, its +styles and stigma the Nails; its stamens mimicking the Hammer, its +thread-like fringe the Crown of thorns—in short, it represents all the +instruments of the Passion. Add to this, if you will, a bunch of hyssop, +plant a cypress, of which Saint Melito speaks as emblematical of the +Saviour, and which Monsieur Olier regards as symbolical of death; a +myrtle, signifying compassion, according to a passage by Saint Gregory +the Great; and, above all, do not omit the buckthorn, or <i>Rhamnus</i>—for +of that shrub the Jews twined the stems that formed Christ's crown—and +your chapel is complete."</p> + +<p>"The buckthorn," said the Abbé Gévresin; "yes, Rohant de Fleury says +that its thorny branches were used to crown the Son's head; but this +leaves us wondering, when we remember that in the Old Testament, in the +ninth chapter of the Book of Judges, all the tall trees of Judæa bow +down before the Royalty prophetically prefigured by this humble shrub."</p> + +<p>"Very true," replied the Abbé Plomb. "But what is most curious is the +number of absolutely dissimilar senses which the oldest symbolists +attribute to the buckthorn.<!-- Page 202 --> Saint Methodus uses it for virginity; +Theodoret for sin; Saint Jerome ascribes it to the devil; and Saint +Bernard takes it as symbolizing humility. Again, in the '<i>Theologia +Symbolica</i>' of Maximilian Sandaeus, this shrub is made to signify the +worldly prelacy, while the olive, vine, and fig, with which the author +contrasts it, are the contemplative Orders. In this, no doubt, we may +see an allusion to the thorns which Bishops were not always unready to +thrust on the long-suffering Heads of monasteries.</p> + +<p>"You have forgotten, too, in the blazonry of your chapel, the reed which +formed the sceptre of mockery forced into the Son's hands. But the reed, +like the buckthorn, is a sort of Jack-of-all-trades. Saint Melito +defines it as the Incarnation and the Scriptures; Raban Maur as the +Preacher, the hypocrite, and the Gentiles; Saint Eucher as the sinner; +the Anonymous monk of Clairvaux as Christ; and others which I have +forgotten."</p> + +<p>"These are many meanings for a single plant," observed Durtal. "But now +if we want to specialize some chapels as dedicated to saints, nothing +can be easier; at any rate, for such as have lent their names to plants.</p> + +<p>"For instance, the Valerian, known as Herb Saint George, the white +flower with a hollow stem, which grows in moist, places, and its popular +name is quite intelligible since it was used in treating nervous +diseases, for which the saint's intercession was invoked.</p> + +<p>"Then we have the plant or plants dedicated to Saint Roch: the +pennyroyal, and two species of <i>Inula</i>, one with bright yellow flowers, +a purgative that cures the itch. Formerly on Saint Roch's day branches +of this herb were blessed and hung in the cow-houses to preserve the +cattle from epidemics.</p> + +<p>"Saint Anne's wort, a humble creeper, the samphire—an emblem of +poverty.</p> + +<p>"Herb Barbara, the winter-cress, a cruciferous plant, anti-scorbutic—a +poverty-stricken flower, creeping along the wayside like a beggar.</p> + +<p>"To Saint Fiacre is dedicated the mullein, with its emollient leaves; +boiled to make a poultice, it relieves colic, which this saint has a +reputation for curing.</p> + +<p>"Saint Stephen's wort is the enchanter's nightshade, a beneficent plant +with red berries on a hairy stem. And there are many others.</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 203 -->For the crypt, supposing we dig one out, it must certainly be filled +with the trees mentioned in the Old Testament, of which this portion of +the building is itself an allegory. In spite of climate we must grow the +vine and the palm, emblems of eternity; the cedar, which by reason of +its incorruptible wood is sometimes thought to symbolize the angels; the +olive and the fig, emblems of the Holy Trinity and of the Word; +frankincense, cassia and <i>balsamodendron Myrrha</i>, a symbol of the +perfect humanity of Our Lord; the terebinth—meaning exactly what?"</p> + +<p>"According to Peter of Capua, the Cross and the Church; but Saint Melito +says the saints. According to the monk of Clairvaux, it is the false +doctrine of the Jews and heretics; and as to the drops of resin, they +are Christ's tears, if we may believe Saint Ambrose," replied the Abbé +Plomb.</p> + +<p>"And even so, our cathedral remains incomplete. We are but feeling our +way, without logical sequence. I admit that at the entrance we must +plant the purifying hyssop in the place of the holy-water vessel; but +with what can we build the walls unless we accept the alternative of a +real church having walls but unfinished?"</p> + +<p>"Take the figurative sense of the walls and translate that; the great +walls are representative of the four Evangelists, Can you find plants +for them?"</p> + +<p>Durtal shook his head. "The Evangelists are, of course, symbolized in +the fauna of mysticism by the animals of the Tetramorph; the twelve +apostles have their synonyms in the category of gems, and two of the +Evangelists are naturally to be found there: Saint John is associated +with the emerald, the emblem of purity and faith; Saint Matthew with the +chrysolite, the emblem of wisdom and watchfulness; but none, so far as I +know, has found a representative among either trees or flowers. And yet, +to be sure, Saint John has the sun-flower, signifying divine +inspiration; for he is represented in a window in the church of Saint +Rémy at Reims, his head crowned with a nimbus surmounted by two of these +flowers."</p> + +<p>"Saint Mark, too, has a plant—the tansy, so named in the Middle Ages."</p> + +<p>"The tansy?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; a bitter, aromatic plant with yellow flowers, which grows in stony +ground, and is used in medicine as an anti-spasmodic. Like Saint +George's herb, it is used in nervous <!-- Page 204 -->maladies, the intercession of +Saint Mark being, it would seem, of sovereign efficacy.</p> + +<p>"As to Saint Luke, he may be represented by clumps of mignonette, for +Sister Emmerich tells us that while he was a physician it was his +favourite remedy. He macerated mignonette in palm oil, and after +blessing it, applied the unction in the form of a cross on the brow and +mouth of his patients; in other cases he used the dried plant in an +infusion.</p> + +<p>"Only Saint Matthew remains; but here I give in, for I know of no +vegetable species that can reasonably be assigned to him."</p> + +<p>"Nay, do not think it hopeless," cried the Abbé Plomb. "A mediæval +legend tells us that balms exuded from his tomb; hence he was +represented as holding a branch of cinnamon, symbolical of the fragrance +of virtue, says Saint Melito."</p> + +<p>"Well, it would be better to accept the real walls of a church, making +use of the structure, and limiting ourselves to completing the idea by +details borrowed from the symbolism of flowers."</p> + +<p>"And the sacristy?" suggested the Abbé Gévresin.</p> + +<p>"Since, according to the <i>Rationale</i> of Durand of Mende, the sacristy is +the very bosom of the Virgin, we will represent it by virginal plants +such as the anemone, and trees such as the cedar, which Saint Ildefonso +compares to Our Mother. And now, if we are to furnish the instruments of +worship, we shall find in the ritual of the liturgy and in the very form +of certain plants almost precise guidance. Thus, flax, of which the +cornice and altar napery is to be woven, is indispensable; the olive and +the <i>balsamum</i>, from which oil and balm are extracted, and frankincense, +which sheds the drops of gum for the incense, are no less indicated. For +the chalice we may choose from among the flowers which goldsmiths take +as their models: the white convolvulus, the frail campanula, and even +the tulip, though, having some repute as connected with magic, that +flower is in ill odour. For the shape of the monstrance there is the +sun-flower."</p> + +<p>"Yes," interrupted the Abbé Plomb, wiping his spectacles, "but these are +fancies borrowed simply from superficial resemblance; it is modern +symbolism, which is <!-- Page 205 -->really not symbolism at all. And is not this the +case to a great extent with the various interpretations that you accept +from Sister Emmerich? She died in 1824."</p> + +<p>"What does that matter?" said Durtal. "Sister Emmerich was a primitive +saint, a seer, whose body indeed lived in our day, but whose soul was +far away; she dwelt more in the Middle Ages than in ours. It might be +said indeed that she was more ancient still, for, in fact, she was +contemporary with Christ, whose life she follows step by step through +her pages.</p> + +<p>"Hence her ideas of symbolism cannot be set aside. To me they are of +equal authority with those of Saint Mechtildis, who was born in the +early part of the thirteenth century.</p> + +<p>"In point of fact, the source whence they both alike derived them is the +same. And what is time, or past or present, when we speak of God?</p> + +<p>"These women were the sieves through which His grace was poured, and +what need I care whether the instruments were of yesterday or to-day? +The word of the Lord is supreme over the ages; His inspiration blows +when and where it lists. Is not that true?"</p> + +<p>"I quite agree."</p> + +<p>"And all this time," said the housekeeper, "you do not think of making +use in your building of the iris, which my good Jeanne de Matel regards +as an emblem of peace."</p> + +<p>"Oh, we will find a place for it, Madame Bavoil, never fear. And there +is yet another plant which we must not omit; the trefoil, for sculptors +have strewn it broadcast in their stony gardens, and the trefoil, like +the fruit of the almond tree, which shows the elongated nimbus, is an +emblem of the Holy Trinity.</p> + +<p>"Suppose we recapitulate:</p> + +<p>"At the end of the nave, in the shell of the apse, in front of a +semicircle of tall bracken turned brown by autumn, we see a flaming +assumption of climbing roses hedging a bed of red and white anemones, +edged with the sober green of mignonette. And to give variety by adding +symbols of humility—the knotweed, the violet, and the hyssop—we may +form a posy of which the meaning will represent the perfect virtues of +Our Mother.</p> + +<p>"Now," said he, pointing with his stick to the plan of <!-- Page 206 -->the nave he had +traced, "here is the altar, overgrown with red-leaved vines, purple or +pearly grapes, sheaves of golden corn. Ah! but we must have a cross over +the altar."</p> + +<p>"That will not be difficult," replied the Abbé Gévresin. "From the grain +of mustard seed, which all the symbolists accept in a figurative sense +as representing Christ, to the sycamore and the terebinth, you have a +wide range; you can at pleasure have a tiny cross, a mere nothing, or a +gigantic crucifix."</p> + +<p>"Here," Durtal went on, "along the bays where trefoils flourish, +different flowers rise from the ground, corresponding to the saints of +their ascription; here is the chapel of Our Lady of the Seven Dolours, +recognizable by the passion-flower full blown on its creeping stem, with +its many tendrils; and the background is a hedge of reeds and rhamnus, +full of sad meaning, mitigated by the compassionate myrtle.</p> + +<p>"Here, again, is the sacristy, where smiles the soft blue flax on its +light stem, the abundant flowers of the convolvulus and campanula, tall +sun-flowers, and, if you choose, a palm, for I recollect that Sister +Emmerich speaks of this tree as a paragon of chastity, because, she +says, the male and female flowers are separate, and both kept modestly +hidden. Another interpretation to the credit of the palm!"</p> + +<p>"But after all, you are absurd, our friend!" cried Madame Bavoil. "All +this will not hold together. Your plants are the growth of different +climates, and in any case they could not all be in bloom at the same +time; consequently, by the time you have planted this, that will be +dead. You can never grow them side by side."</p> + +<p>"That is symbolical of many unfinished cathedrals, where the building is +carried across from century to century," said Durtal, snapping his +stick. "But listen, fancy apart, there is something which may be done, +and has not been done, for celestial botany and pious posies.</p> + +<p>"That is, to make a liturgical garden, a true Benedictine garden, where +flowers may be grown in succession for the sake of their relations to +the Scriptures and hagiology. Would it not be delightful to follow out +the liturgy of prayer with that of plants, to place them side by side in +the sanctuary, to deck the altars with flowers all having their meanings +according to the days and festivals; in short, to <!-- Page 207 -->associate nature in +its most exquisite manifestation—that is, its flowers—with the +ceremonies of divine worship?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed!" exclaimed both the priests with one accord.</p> + +<p>"Meanwhile, till these fine things are accomplished, I will be content +to dig in my little kitchen garden with an eye to the savoury stews in +which you shall share," said Madame Bavoil. "There I am in my element; I +do not lose my footing as I do in your imitation churches."</p> + +<p>"And I, on my part, will meditate on the symbolism of eatables," said +Durtal, taking out his watch. "It is near breakfast time."</p> + +<p>As he was going off, the Abbé Plomb called him back and said, +laughing,—</p> + +<p>"In your future cathedral you have forgotten to reserve a nook for Saint +Columba, if, indeed, we can find some ascetic plant native, or at any +rate common, to Ireland, the land where this Father was born."</p> + +<p>"The thistle, figurative of mortification and penance and a memento of +asceticism, is conspicuous as the badge of Scotland," replied Durtal. +"But why Saint Columba?"</p> + +<p>"Because of all saints he is the most neglected, the least invoked by +those of our contemporaries who ought to be most assiduous; since he is +regarded in the attributions of special virtues as the patron saint of +idiots."</p> + +<p>"Pooh!" cried the Abbé Gévresin. "Why, if ever a man revealed a +magnificent comprehension of things human and divine, it was that great +Abbot and founder of monasteries!"</p> + +<p>"Oh! there is no suggestion implied that Saint Columba was feeble of +brain; and as to why the mission was trusted to him rather than another +of protecting the greater part of the human race, I do not know."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps he may have cured lunatics and healed those possessed?" the +Abbé Gévresin suggested.</p> + +<p>"At any rate," said Durtal, "it would be vain to erect a chapel to him, +since it would always be empty; no one would come to entreat him, poor +saint! for the essential mark of an idiot is not to think himself one!"</p> + +<p>"A saint out of work!" remarked Madame Bavoil.</p> + +<p>"And who is not likely to find any," said Durtal, as he left them.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"><!-- Page 208 --></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2> + + +<p>Durtal had begged his housekeeper, Madame Mesurat, to serve his coffee +in his study. He thus hoped to escape having her constantly standing in +front of him, as she did all through his meal, asking him if his +mutton-cutlet were good.</p> + +<p>And though that meat had a taste of flannel, Durtal had nodded a sketchy +affirmative, knowing full well that if he ventured on the least comment +he would have to endure an incoherent harangue on all the butchers in +the town.</p> + +<p>As soon as this woman, at once servile, despotic, and obsequious, had +placed his cup on the table, he buried his nose in a book, and by his +repellent attitude compelled her to fly.</p> + +<p>He knew the book he was turning over almost by heart, for he had often +read it between the hours of service at the cathedral. It was so +entirely sympathetic to him, with its artless faith and ingenuous +enthusiasm, that it was to him like the familiar speech of the Church +itself.</p> + +<p>The little volume contained the prayers composed in the fourteenth +century by Gaston œbus, Comte de Foix. Durtal had it in two editions, +one printed in the original form of his authentic words and antiquated +spelling, by the Abbé de Madaune; the other modernized, but with great +skill and taste, by Monsieur de la Brière.</p> + +<p>Durtal, as he turned the pages, came on such lamentable and humble +prayers as these: "Thou who hast shapened me in my mother's womb, let me +not perish.... Lord, I confess my poverty.... My conscience gnaws me and +shows me the secrets of my heart. Avarice constrains me, concupiscence +befouls me, gluttony disgraces me, anger torments me, inconstancy +crushes me, indolence oppresses me, hypocrisy beguiles me.... and these, +Lord, are the companions with whom I have spent my youth, <!-- Page 209 -->these are the +friends I have known, these are the masters I have served." And further +on he exclaims, "Sin have I heaped upon sin, and the sins which I could +not commit in very deed yet have I committed by evil desire."</p> + +<p>Durtal closed the volume, regretting that it should be so entirely +unknown to Catholics. They were all busy chewing the cud of the old hay +left at the heading or end of the "Christian's Day" or "The Eucologia," +or meditating on the pompous prayers elaborated in the ponderous +phraseology of the seventeenth century, in which there is no accent of +sincerity to be found—nothing, not an appeal that comes from the heart, +not even a pious cry!</p> + +<p>How far were these rhapsodies all cast in the same mould from this +penitent and simple language, from this easy and candid communion of the +soul with God?</p> + +<p>Then Durtal dipped again here and there, and read:—</p> + +<p>"My God and my Mercy, I am ashamed to pray to Thee for very shame of my +evil conscience; give a fountain of tears to my eyes, and my hands +largess of alms and charity; give me a seemly faith, and hope, and +abiding charity. Lord, Thou holdest no man in horror save the fool that +denies Thee. Oh, my God, the Giver of My Redemption and Receiver of my +soul, I have sinned and Thou hast suffered me!"</p> + +<p>Then, turning over a few more pages, he came at the end of the volume to +a few passages collected by Monsieur de la Brière, among them these +reflections on the Eucharist culled from a manuscript of the fifteenth +century:—</p> + +<p>"Not every man can assimilate this meat; some there be who eat it not, +but swallow it down in haste. It should be chewed as much as possible +with the teeth of the understanding, to the end that the sweet of its +savour be pressed out of it, and may come forth from it. Ye have heard +it said that in nature, that which is most crushed is most nourishing; +now the crushing of the teeth is our deep and keen meditation on the +Sacrament itself."</p> + +<p>Then, after having elucidated the individual use of each tooth, the +author adds, in speaking of the fifteenth, "the Sacrament on the altar +is not merely as meat to fill and refill us; but, which is more, to make +us divine."</p> + +<p>"Lord!" murmured Durtal, laying down the book. "O Lord! If we allowed +ourselves nowadays to use such materialistic comparisons and make use of +such homely <!-- Page 210 -->terms in speaking of Thy supremely adorable Body, what a +clamour would arise from the 'respectable' among the worshippers and the +blessed legion of the good women who have comfortable praying-chairs and +reserved places near the altar—like front seats in a theatre—in the +House where all are equal."</p> + +<p>And Durtal pondered over these reflections which assailed him every time +he happened to take up a clerical journal or one of the Manuals +introduced by some prelate's note of approval, like a clean bill of +health.</p> + +<p>He could never get over his amazement at the incredible ignorance, the +instinctive aversion for art, the type of ideas, the terror of words, +peculiar to Catholics. Why was this? For after all there was no reason +why believers should be more ignorant and stupid than any other folks. +Indeed, the contrary ought to be the truth.</p> + +<p>Whence did this inferiority proceed? And Durtal could answer himself. It +was due to the system of education, to the training in intellectual +timidity, to the lessons in fear, given in a cellar, far from a vital +atmosphere and the light of day. It really seemed as if there were some +intention of emasculating souls by nourishing them on dried-up +fragments, literary white-meat; some set purpose of destroying all +independence and initiative in the disciples by levelling them, crushing +them all under the same roller, and restricting the sphere of thought by +maintaining a deliberate ignorance of art and literature.</p> + +<p>And all merely to avert the temptation of forbidden fruit, of which the +idea was suggested under the pretext of inspiring dread of it. By this +method curiosity with regard to the veiled unknown tormented their young +brains and excited their senses, for it was always in the background, +and in a form all the more dangerous because it had the effect of a more +or less transparent gauze. The imagination could not fail to exasperate +itself by cogitating its desire to know and its fear of knowing, and it +was ready to fly off at the least word.</p> + +<p>Under these circumstances the most anodyne book was a source of danger +from the simple fact that love was alluded to, and woman depicted as an +attractive creature; and this was enough to account for all—for the +inherent ignorance of Catholics, since it was proclaimed as the +preventive cure <!-- Page 211 -->for temptations—for the instinctive horror of art, +since to these craven souls every written and studied work was in its +nature a vehicle of sin and an incitement to fall.</p> + +<p>Would it not really be far more sensible and judicious to open the +windows, to air the rooms, to treat these souls as manly beings, to +teach them not to be so much afraid of their own flesh, to inculcate the +firmness and courage needed for resistance? For really it is rather like +a dog which barks at your heels and snaps at your legs if you are afraid +of him, but who beats a retreat if you turn on him boldly and drive him +off.</p> + +<p>The fact remains that these schemes of education have resulted, on the +one hand, in the triumph of the flesh in the greater number of men who +have been thus brought up and then thrown into a worldly life, and on +the other, in a wide diffusion of folly and fear, an abandonment of the +possessions of the intellect and the capitulation of the Catholic army +surrendering without a blow to the inroads of profane literature, which +takes possession of territory that it has not even had the trouble of +conquering.</p> + +<p>This really was madness! The Church had created art, had cherished it +for centuries; and now by the effeteness of her sons she was cast into a +corner. All the great movements of our day, one after the +other—romanticism, naturalism—had been effected independently of her, +or even against her will.</p> + +<p>If a book were not restricted to the simplest tales, or pleasing fiction +ending in virtue rewarded and vice punished, that was enough; the +propriety of beadledom was at once ready to bray.</p> + +<p>As soon as the most modern form of art, the most malleable and the +broadest—the Novel—touched on scenes of real life, depicted passion, +became a psychological study, an effort of analysis, the army of bigots +fell back all along the line. The Catholic force, which might have been +thought better prepared than any others to contest the ground which +theology had long since explored, retired in good order, satisfied to +cover its retreat by firing from a safe distance, with its old-fashioned +match-lock blunderbusses, on works it had neither inspired nor written.</p> + +<p>The Church party, centuries behind the time, and having made no attempt +to follow the evolution of style in the <!-- Page 212 -->course of ages, now turned to +the rustic who can scarcely read; it did not understand more than half +of the words used by modern writers, and had become, it must be said, a +camp of the illiterate. Incapable of distinguishing the good from the +bad, it included in one condemnation the filth of pornography and real +works of art; in short, it ended by emitting such folly and talking such +preposterous nonsense, that it fell into utter discredit and ceased to +count at all.</p> + +<p>And it would have been so easy for it to work on a little way, to try to +keep up with the times, and to understand, to convince itself whether in +any given work the author was writing up the Flesh, glorifying it, +praising it, and nothing more, or whether, on the contrary, he depicted +it merely to buffet it—hating it. And, again, it would have done well +to convince itself that there is a chaste as well as a prurient nude, +and that it should not cry shame on every picture in which the nude is +shown. Above all, it ought to have recognized that vices may well be +depicted and studied with a view to exciting disgust of them and showing +their horrors.</p> + +<p>For, after all, this was the great theory of the Middle Ages, the +theological method in sculpture, the literary dogma of the monks of that +time; and this is the meaning and purpose of certain groups which even +now shock the propriety of our methodistical purists. These unseemly +subjects and images of indecency are very numerous at Saint Benoît on +the Loire, in the cathedral of Reims, at le Mans, in the crypt at +Bourges, everywhere in our churches; for in those where they do not +occur, it is because the prudery which was most rife in the most immoral +times, broke them by stoning them in the name of a morality very unlike +that which was inculcated by the mediæval saints.</p> + +<p>These subjects have for many years been the delight of Freethinkers and +the despair of Catholics; those see in them a scathing satire on the +manners of the monks and bishops, these lament that such turpitude +should ever have fouled the walls of the Temple. And yet it would have +been so easy to explain the purpose of these scenes; far from seeking to +apologize for the tolerance of the Church that allowed them, her honesty +and breadth should have been held up to admiration. By acting thus, the +Church manifested her determination to inure her sons by showing <!-- Page 213 -->them +the ridiculous side of the temptations which assail them. It was, so to +speak, an object lesson or demonstration, and at the same time a bidding +to self-examination before venturing into the sanctuary which was thus +prefaced by a catalogue of sins as a reminder to confession.</p> + +<p>This was part of her plan of education, for she aimed at moulding manly +souls and not crippled creatures such as are turned out by the spiritual +orthopedists of our day; she dragged out vice and lashed it wherever it +lurked, and did not hesitate to preach the equality of men before God, +insisting that bishops and monks should, when guilty, be placed in the +pillory of its doorways; nay, she gibbeted them more willingly than +others, to set an example.</p> + +<p>These scenes were practically a comment of the Sixth (Seventh) +Commandment, a sculptured paraphrase of the Catechism; the Church's +accusation and teaching plainly expressed so as to be understood of all +men.</p> + +<p>And Our Mother did not restrict herself to one mode only of expressing +Her warnings and reproofs; to reiterate them she borrowed the language +of other arts. Literature and the pulpit were inevitably the +interpreters that she employed to vituperate the sins of the people.</p> + +<p>And they were not a whit more prudish or less audacious than sculpture. +We have only to open the books of the Church to convince ourselves of +the violent language in which she was wont to lash the sins of the +flesh. Beginning with the Scriptures, the Bible itself—which no one +dares read now but in mawkish French versions—what priest, for +instance, would venture to recommend to the nerveless spirit of his +flock the study of the sixteenth chapter of Ezekiel or of the Song of +Songs, that Epithalamium of Jesus and the Soul—down to the Fathers and +the Doctors?</p> + +<p>How our modern Pharisees would reprove the uncompromising language of +Saint Gregory the Great when he exclaims, "Speak the truth! A scandal is +better than a lie;" or Saint Epiphanius' plain speaking in discussing +the Gnostics and describing in detail the abominations of that sect, +quietly adding in the face of the congregation, "Why should I shrink +from speaking of the things you do not fear to do? By speaking thus, I +hope to fill you with horror of the turpitude you commit."</p> + +<p>Or what would they think of Saint Bernard expatiating <!-- Page 214 -->in his third +meditation on horrible physiological details to demonstrate the baseness +of our carnal ambition and the foulness of our pleasures? Or of Saint +Hildegarde, who placidly discusses the various factors of such +pleasures, Saint Vincent Ferrier freely dealing in his sermons with the +sins of Onan and of Sodom, using the simplest language, and comparing +confession to a purgative, and asserting that the priest, like a doctor, +should examine the excreta of the soul and prescribe for it?</p> + +<p>What reprobation would be poured on the splendid passage by Odo of Cluny +quoted by Rémy de Gourmont in his "Latin Mystique," the passage where +that terrible monk analyzes the attractions of woman, turns them over, +eviscerates them, and flings them aside like a drawn rabbit on a +butcher's stall; and again on Clement of Alexandria, who sums the whole +matter up in two sentences:—</p> + +<p>"I am not ashamed to name the parts of the body wherein the fœtus is +formed and nourished; and why indeed should I be, since God was not +ashamed to create them?"</p> + +<p>None of the great writers of the Church were prudish. This mock-modesty +which has so long stultified us dates actually from the ages of impiety, +the period of paganism, the return on threadbare classicism which was +known as the Renaissance; and see how it has developed since! Its +hot-bed and nursery ground lay in the lewd and gorgeous years of the +so-called <i>Grand-siècle</i>; the virus of Jansenism, the old Protestant +taint mingled with the blood of Catholics, and pollutes it still.</p> + +<p>"It is very true! And pretty results have come of this infection of +decency!" Durtal burst out laughing as he thought of the cathedral at +Chartres.</p> + +<p>"Here," said he to himself, "we reach the climax; pious imbecility can +go no further. Among the subjects in sculpture in the ambulatory of the +choir there is a group representing the Circumcision, Saint Joseph +holding the Infant while the Virgin has a napkin ready and the High +Priest is preparing to operate. And there has been a priest so modest, a +divine so decorous as to regard this scene as licentious and to paste a +piece of paper over the Child's nakedness!</p> + +<p>"The indecency of God, the obscenity of a new-born Babe is too much!</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 215 -->Bah!" said he. "The time has slipped away in all this meditation, and +the Abbé will be waiting."</p> + +<p>He ran quickly downstairs and hurried across to the cathedral, where the +Abbé Plomb was pacing to and fro in front of the northern porch, +reciting his Breviary.</p> + +<p>"The side where sinners and demons are figured is especially that of the +Virgin, who saves those and crushes these," said the Abbé. "The northern +porch of a church is usually the most lively of all; here, however, the +Satanic incidents are on the southern side, because they form part of +the Last Judgment represented over the south door. Otherwise Chartres, +unlike her sister cathedrals, would have no scenes of that kind."</p> + +<p>"Then the rule in the thirteenth century was to place the Virgin in the +northern portion?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. To the men of that time the north meant the gloom of winter, the +dejection of darkness, the misery of cold; the ice-bound chant of the +winds was to them the very blast of evil; to the north was the home of +the devil, the hell of nature, as the south was its Eden."</p> + +<p>"But that is absurd!" cried Durtal, "the greatest blunder ever +introduced into the symbolism of the elements. The medieval sages were +mistaken, for snow is pure and cold is chastity. It is the sun, on the +contrary, that is the active agent in developing the germs of +rottenness, the ferment of vice!</p> + +<p>"They forget that the third Psalm of Compline speaks of the hot hour of +noon as the most harassing and dangerous of all; they must have +overlooked the horrors of sweat and unwholesome heat, the risks of +relaxed nerves, of loosened dresses, all the abominations of leaden +clouds and hard blue skies!</p> + +<p>"There are diabolical effluvia in the storm, and in weather when the air +stirs like the vapours from a furnace, rousing evil instincts and +bringing about us the raging swarm of evil angels."</p> + +<p>"But remember the passages in which Isaiah and Jeremiah speak of Lucifer +as dwelling in the blast of the north wind; and recollect that the great +cathedrals did not originate in the south but in the middle and north of +France; consequently, after having adopted this symbolism of seasons and +weather, the pious architects dreamed of the <!-- Page 216 -->horror of men buried in +snow, and longing for a gleam of sunshine and a bright day. Naturally +they thought of the east as the region of the original Paradise, and of +those lands as milder and less inclement than their own."</p> + +<p>"That does not hinder the fact that this theory was controverted by Our +Lord Himself."</p> + +<p>"Where do you find that?" asked the Abbé Plomb.</p> + +<p>"On Calvary; Jesus died" turning His back to the south, which had +crucified Him, and extending His arms on the Cross to bless and embrace +the north. He seemed to be withdrawing His favours from the east, 'to +bestow them on the west. Hence, if any region is accurst and inhabited +by Satan, it is the south and not the north."</p> + +<p>"You abominate the south and its races, that is evident," said the Abbé, +laughing.</p> + +<p>"I do not love them. Their scenery, vulgarized by crude daylight, their +dusty trees standing out against a sky of washerwoman's blue, have no +charm for me; as to the natives, hairy and noisy, with a blue bar under +their nostrils if they shave, I flee from them!"</p> + +<p>"Here, in short, we are face to face with a fact which no discussions +can alter. This side of the church is dedicated to the Virgin. Shall we +now examine it, first as a whole, and then in detail?</p> + +<p>"This portal, brought forward like an open porch, a sort of verandah in +front of the doors, is an allegory of the Saviour showing the way into +the heavenly Jerusalem. It was begun in the year 1215 under Philip +Augustus, and finished by about 1275, under Philip the Bold; thus it was +nearly sixty years in building, the greater part of the thirteenth +century. It is divided into three parts, corresponding to the three +doors behind it; there are more than seven hundred statues grouped here, +large and small, representing, for the most part, personages from the +Old Testament.</p> + +<p>"It forms, in fact, three deep bays or gulfs.</p> + +<p>"The central portal, before which we are standing, and which leads to +the middle door, has for its subject the Glorification of the Virgin.</p> + +<p>"The left-hand bay contains the life and virtues of the Virgin.</p> + +<p>"The right-hand bay is devoted to images of Mary Herself.</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 217 -->According to another interpretation, put forward by Canon Davin, this +porch, which was built at the time when Saint Dominic instituted the +Rosary, is a reproduction in images of its mysteries."</p> + +<p>"On that theory, the left-hand arch, containing the scenes of the +Annunciation, the Visitation, and the Nativity, answers to the Joyful +Mysteries; the central bay, containing the Assumption and Coronation of +the Virgin, to the Glorious Mysteries; and that to the right, where we +find a presentment of Job, precursor of the Crucifixion under the +ancient law, to the Sorrowful Mysteries."</p> + +<p>"There is a third interpretation," said Durtal, "but it is ridiculous. +That of Didron, who regards this front as the first page of the Book of +Chartres. He opens it at this porch, and asserts that the sculptors +began to render the Encyclopedia of Vincent de Beauvais by representing +the creation of the world. But if so, where are those wonderful +representations of Genesis hidden?"</p> + +<p>"There," said the Abbé, pointing to a row of statuettes lost in a hollow +moulding at the very edge of the porch.</p> + +<p>"But to ascribe so much importance to tiny figures which, after all, are +there merely to fill up, as stop-gaps—it is preposterous!" cried +Durtal.</p> + +<p>"No doubt. But now let us examine the work.</p> + +<p>"You will observe in the first place that, in opposition to the ritual +observed in most of the great churches of the time—those of Amiens, +Reims, and Paris, to name but three—it is not the Virgin who stands on +the pillar between the two halves of the door, but Her Mother, Saint +Anne; and inside, in the windows, we find the same thing: Saint Anne, as +a negress, her head bound in a blue kerchief, holds Mary in her arms, as +brown as a half-caste."</p> + +<p>"Why is this?"</p> + +<p>"No doubt because the Emperor Beaudouin, after the sack of +Constantinople, bestowed that Saint's head on this cathedral.</p> + +<p>"The ten colossal statues placed on each side of Her in the niches of +the porch are familiar to you, for they attend Our Lady in every +sanctuary of the thirteenth century—in Paris, at Amiens, at Rouen, +Reims, Bourges, and Sens. The five to the left are a series figurative +of the Son; the five on the right symbolize Our Lord Himself.<!-- Page 218 --> They +stand in chronological order: the prototypes of the Messiah, or the +Prophets who foretold His birth, death, resurrection, and everlasting +priesthood.</p> + +<p>"To the left, Melchizedec, Abraham, Moses, Samuel, and David; to the +right, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Simeon, Saint John the Baptist, and Saint +Peter."</p> + +<p>"But why," remarked Durtal, "is the son of Jonas in the midst of the Old +Testament? His place is not there, but in the Gospels."</p> + +<p>"Yes, but you will observe that Saint Peter here stands next to Saint +John the Baptist; the two statues are side by side and touch each other. +Then do you not perceive the meaning of this juxtaposition? One was the +Precursor and the other the Successor of Christ; the first anticipated +Him, the second carried out His mission. It was quite natural to place +them together, and that the Chief of the Apostles should figure as the +conclusion to the premisses set forth by the other statues of this +portal.</p> + +<p>"Finally, in addition to this series of patriarchs and prophets, you may +see there, in the hollow between the pilasters, a pair of statues, one +on each side of the door: Elijah the Tishbite, and Elisha his disciple.</p> + +<p>"The first prefigures the Saviour's Ascension by his being carried up +alive to Heaven in a chariot of fire; the second typifies Jesus saving +and preserving mankind in the person of the Shunammite's son.</p> + +<p>"Argument is vain," murmured Durtal, who was meditative. "The Messianic +prophecies are irresistible. All the logic of the Rabbins, the +Protestants, the Freethinkers, all the ingenuity of the Germans, have +failed to find a crack or to undermine the old rock of the Church. There +is such a body of evidence, such certainty, such demonstration of the +truth, such an indestructible foundation, that a man must be stricken +with spiritual blindness to dare deny it."</p> + +<p>"Yes: and to the end that there should be no mistake, no possibility of +alleging that the inspired Scriptures were written subsequent to the +arrival of the Messiah they prophesy, to prove that they were neither +invented nor added to after the event, it was God's pleasure that they +should be translated into Greek in the Septuagint version and known to +the whole world more than two hundred and fifty years before the birth +of Christ."</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 219 -->To imagine the impossible—supposing the Gospels were to be +annihilated, they could, I suppose, be restored, and a brief history +written of the Saviour's life as they relate it merely by studying the +Messianic announcements in the books of the Prophets?"</p> + +<p>"No doubt; for, after all, and it cannot be too often repeated, the Old +Testament is the story before the event of the Son of Man and the +founding of His Church; as Saint Augustine bears witness, 'the whole +history of the Jewish people was a perpetual prophecy of the expected +King.'</p> + +<p>"You will see, apart from personages prefiguring the Redeemer which you +may find in every page of the Bible: Isaac, Joseph, Moses, David, Jonah, +to name five taken at random; apart, too, from the animals and objects +that symbolized Him under the Old Laws, as, for instance, the Paschal +Lamb, the Manna, the Brazen Serpent, and others, we can, if you please, +simply by quoting the Prophets, trace the broad outlines of Emmanuel's +life and epitomize the Gospels in a few words. Listen!"</p> + +<p>The Abbé paused for thought, his hand over his eyes.</p> + +<p>"That he should be born of a Virgin is foretold by Isaiah, Jeremiah, and +Ezekiel—that this Advent should be preceded by a special messenger, +Saint John, is noted by Malachi, whom Isaiah confirms, adding for +greater certainty that he should be as 'the voice of one crying in the +Wilderness.'</p> + +<p>"The place of His birth, Bethlehem, is mentioned by Micah; the adoration +of the Magi, offering gold, myrrh and frankincense, is announced by +Isaiah and the Psalm ascribed to Solomon.</p> + +<p>"His youth and His calling are clearly suggested by Ezekiel, who speaks +of Him as seeking the lost sheep, and by Isaiah, who tells beforehand of +the miracles He would perform on the blind and the deaf and dumb, and +who finally declares that He will be 'a stone of stumbling' to the Jews.</p> + +<p>"But it is when they speak of His Passion and Death that the prophecies +become mathematically exact, incredibly precise. The offering of palm +branches, the betrayal by Judas, and the price of thirty pieces of +silver appear in Zechariah; and Isaiah takes up the parable to describe +the rejection and opprobrium of Calvary: 'He was wounded<!-- Page 220 --> for our +transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities.... The Lord hath laid +on Him the iniquity of us all.... He was despised and rejected of men; a +man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.... He was brought as a lamb +to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb.'</p> + +<p>"David expatiates on the dreadful scene: 'He was a worm and no man, a +very scorn of men and the outcast of the people.'</p> + +<p>"Details are multiplied. The wounds in His hands are spoken of by +Zechariah; David enumerates the circumstances of the Passion, word for +word: the pierced hands, the division of His raiment, casting lots for +the robe. The hooting of the Jews, bidding Him to save Himself if He be +the Son of God, is mentioned in chapter ii. of the Book of Wisdom, and +again by David; the gall and the vinegar offered Him on the Cross and +the very words of Jesus giving up the ghost are to be found in the +Psalms.</p> + +<p>"Nor is this the last of the prophecies to be found in the Old +Testament.</p> + +<p>"Its prophetic mission is carried out to the end. The establishment of +the Church in the place of the Synagogue is foretold by Ezekiel, Isaiah, +Joel, and Micah; and the Mass, the Eucharistic Sacrament, is plainly +adumbrated by Malachi, who declared that for the offerings of the Old +Law offered only in the Temple at Jerusalem shall be substituted 'a pure +offering to be offered in every place and by all nations'—by priests +chosen from among all people, Isaiah adds, and David says after the +order of Melchizedec.</p> + +<p>"Pascal very truly remarks that 'the fulfilment of the prophecies is a +perpetual miracle, and that no other proof is needed to show the divine +origin of the Christian Religion.'"</p> + +<p>Durtal had gone closer to the statues, standing by Saint Anne, and was +looking at one on the left wearing a pointed cap, a sort of papal tiara +with a crown round the edge, robed in an alb girt round the middle with +knotted cord, and a large cope with a fringe; the features were grave, +almost anxious, and the eye fixed with an absorbed gaze into the +distance. This figure held a censer in one hand, and in the other a +chalice covered with a paten on which there was a loaf; and this image +of Melchizedec, the King of Salem, threw Durtal into a deep reverie.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 221 -->He was, in fact, one of the most mysterious types of the Holy +Scriptures—this monarch mentioned in Genesis as the Priest of the Most +High God. He consummates the sacrifice of bread and wine, blesses Abram, +receives tithes from him, and then vanishes into the darkness of +history. And suddenly his name is found in a psalm of David's, who +declares that the Messiah is a priest for ever after the order of +Melchizedec, and again he is lost without leaving a trace.</p> + +<p>Then quite unexpectedly he reappears in the New Testament, and what +Saint Paul says of him in the Epistle to the Hebrews makes him more +enigmatical than ever. The apostle speaks of him as "without father, +without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor +end of life, but made like unto the Son of God, abiding a priest +continually." Saint Paul is explicit to show how great a person he +was—and the dim light he casts on this figure goes out.</p> + +<p>"You must confess that this King of Salem is a puzzle. What do the +commentators think of him?" asked Durtal.</p> + +<p>"They say but little. Only Saint Jerome observes that when Saint Paul +speaks of him as without parents, without descent, without beginning, +and without end, he does not mean to convey that Melchizedec came down +from Heaven or was created <i>ab initio</i> like the first man, by the +Ancient of Days. The phrase simply means that he is introduced into the +history of Abraham without our knowing whence he came, who he was, when +he was born, or at what time he died.</p> + +<p>"In fact, the inscrutable part played by this prototype of Jesus in the +canonical Scriptures has led to the most grotesque legends and heresies.</p> + +<p>"Some have asserted that he was Shem, the son of Noah; others have +thought that he was Ham. Simon Logothetes considers him an Egyptian; +Suidas believes him to have belonged to the accursed race of Canaanites, +and that this is why the Bible says nothing of his ancestry.</p> + +<p>"The gnostics revered him as an Eon superior to Jesus; and in the third +century Theodore le Changeur also asserted that he was not a man, but a +virtue transcending Christ, because Christ's priesthood was but a copy +of Melchizedec's.</p> + +<p>"According to another sect, he was neither more nor less than the +Paraclete. But come, in the absence of early Scrip<!-- Page 222 -->tures what do the +seers say? Does Sister Emmerich speak of him?"</p> + +<p>"She tells us nothing precise," replied Durtal. "To her he was a sort of +priestly angel charged with the preparation for the great Act of +Redemption."</p> + +<p>"That is very much the view held by Origen and Didymus, who also +ascribed to him the angelic nature."</p> + +<p>"Thus she perceives him long before the advent of Abram in various +desert spots of Palestine; he unlocks the springs of Jordan, and in +another passage of the life of Christ she adds that it was he who taught +the Hebrews the culture of wheat and of the vine. In fact, she throws no +light on this insoluble enigma."</p> + +<p>"From the artist's point of view," Durtal went on, "Melchizedec is one +of the best statues in this porch. But what a strange face is that of +his neighbour Abraham, seen only three-quarters full, with hair like +rolled grass, a beard like a river god, and a long nose straight from +the forehead, coming down between the eyes without a bridge, like the +proboscis of a tapir, with cheeks that seem swollen with cold, and a +look—how shall I describe it?—of a conjuror who has made away with his +son's head."</p> + +<p>"In point of fact, he is listening to the commands of the angel, whom he +cannot see; observe, below on the pedestal the ram caught in the +thicket, and the symbolism is evident.</p> + +<p>"This is the Father sacrificing his Son, and Isaac is the very image of +the Son—Isaac bearing the wood to fire the altar, as Jesus bore the +Cross; then the ram becomes figurative of the Saviour, and the bush in +which he is caught by the horns is symbolical of the Crown of Thorns.</p> + +<p>"To do full justice to this subject and to the teaching by figures that +it contains, we ought also to have had the Patriarch's two wives carved +on the supporting pillar or plinth, and his other son Ishmael. For, as +you know, these two women are emblems, Hagar of the Old Dispensation, +and Sarah of the New; the former disappears to make way for the second, +the Old Law being merely the preparation for the New; and the two sons +born of these two mothers are by analogy the children of the Books, and +thus Ishmael represents the Israelites, and Isaac the Christians.</p> + +<p>"Next to Abraham, the father of believers, stands Moses, as a symbol of +Christ; for the deliverance of Israel is an <!-- Page 223 -->image of the Redemption of +Man snatched by the Saviour from the devil, just as the passage of the +Red Sea is an image of Baptism. He holds the Table of the Law and the +staff round which the Brazen Serpent is twined. Then comes Samuel, in +many ways typical of Christ, the founder of the Royal Priesthood and of +Pontifical Kingship; and last of all, David holding the Lamb and Crown +of Calvary.</p> + +<p>"I need hardly remind you that this Prophet-King, more than any other +personage, prefigured the sorrows of the Messiah, and that he too, to +make the resemblance more perfect, had his Judas in the person of +Achitophel, who, like the later traitor, hanged himself."</p> + +<p>"You must admit," said Durtal, "that these statues, before which the +historians of this cathedral go into ecstasies, declaring in chorus they +are the highest achievement of thirteenth-century sculpture, are far +inferior to those of the twelfth century that adorn the great north +porch. How evident is the lowering of the divine standard! Their action +is freer, no doubt, and the play of drapery is broader. The rhubarb-stem +plaits of the robes are fuller, and have some movement, but where is the +grace as of a sculptured soul that we see in the royal porch? All these +statues, with their massive heads, are thick-set and mute, devoid of +communicative life. This is pious work—fine work, if you will—but +devoid of the 'beyond'; here is art indeed, but it has ceased to be +mysticism.</p> + +<p>"Look at St. Anne with her gloomy expression, either cross or +suffering—how far she is from the so-called Radegonde and Berthe!</p> + +<p>"With the exception of two, St. John and St. Joseph over there in the +innermost part of the arch, these are familiar figures. They also occur +at Reims and at Amiens. And do you remember the Simeon, the Virgin, and +the St. Anne at Reims? The Virgin so guilelessly charming, so +exquisitely chaste, holding out the Infant to Simeon, who stands mild +and devout in his solemn garb as High Priest. St. Anne—a head of the +same type as St. Joseph's, and as those of two angels on the same +frontal, standing by St. Nicasius, with his head cut off at the +brows—St. Anne with a smiling, arch expression and yet elderly—a sharp +little chin, large eyes, a thin, long, pointed nose, the look of a +youthful dueña, kindly but knowing.</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 224 -->But, indeed, those image-makers excelled in creating these singular, +indefinable countenances. Do you recall Our Lady of Paris, later, I +believe, by a century? She is scarcely pretty, but so expressive, with +the smile of happiness parting such melancholy lips. Seen from one side +She is smiling at Jesus, watchful, almost sportive; it would seem as +though she were waiting for the Child to say some merry word before +laughing out; She is a girl-mother, not yet accustomed to her Child's +caress. Seen from another angle, this smile, apparently in the bud, has +vanished. The mouth is puckered in sorrow, and promises tears.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps when he succeeded in stamping on the face of Our Lady two such +opposite expressions of peace and of fear, the sculptor intended to +suggest at once the joy of the Nativity and the anticipated anguish of +Calvary. Thus he has portrayed in one and the same image, the Mother of +Sorrows and the Mother of Joy—has, without knowing it, embodied the +prototypes of the Virgin of La Salette and the Virgin of Lourdes.</p> + +<p>"And yet all this is inferior to the living and dignified art, so full +of individuality and mystery, that we see in the royal porch of +Chartres!"</p> + +<p>"I will not contradict you," said the Abbé Plomb. "Now that we have +studied the series of types placed on St. Anne's left hand, let us +consider the prophetic series on her right.</p> + +<p>"First we see Isaiah; the pedestal on which he stands represents Jesse +sleeping. The familiar stem, rooted in him, passes between the prophet's +feet, and the branches of the Virgin's ancestry according to the flesh +and the spirit, as they rise, fill the four courses of moulding in the +central arch. By his side is Jeremiah, who, meditating on the Passion of +Christ, wrote this lamentable passage which is read in the fifth lesson +of the second Nocturn on Easter Eve: 'All ye that pass by, behold and +see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow.' Next Simeon holding the +Infant whose Birth he had foreseen, at the same time with the sorrows of +the Virgin and the anguish of Golgotha; Saint John the Baptist, and +finally Saint Peter, whose dress is an interesting study since it is +copied from that of the thirteenth-century Popes.</p> + +<p>"With what care is every detail wrought! Admire the <!-- Page 225 -->treatment of the +sandals, the gloves, the broidered amice, the alb, the maniple, the +dalmatic, the pallium marked with six crosses, the triple crown, the +conical tiara of brocaded silk, the pontifical breastplate, everything +is chiselled, pierced, and patterned as if by a goldsmith."</p> + +<p>"Very true. But how superior altogether is the Saint John to his fellows +on this front. What mastery we discern in that hollow, emaciated face, +as expressive as the others are dull. He is apart from the conventional +and hackneyed type. He stands upright, savage but mild, with his beard +in curling prongs, his lean frame, his raiment of camel-skin; we can +hear him speaking as he points to the Lamb carrying the hastate cross +surrounded by a nimbus, pressing it to his bosom with both hands. That +statue is sublime, and it is most certainly not by the same hand that +carved the Abraham, nor even his immediate neighbour, Samuel. This +prophet appears to be offering to David, who cares not, a lamb he is +feeling, head downwards. He is a butcher pricing his goods, weighing the +meat, inviting you to feel it, and hesitating to sell till he gets the +best price. How different from the Saint John!"</p> + +<p>"The tympanum of the door will have no charm for us," the Abbé went on. +"The death of the Virgin, Her assumption and coronation are more curious +to read of in the Golden Legend than to study in those has-reliefs which +are but an epitome.</p> + +<p>"We will proceed to the left-hand doorway.</p> + +<p>"It is much mutilated, in a lamentable state of ruin. Most of the large +statues have disappeared. There were once, it would seem, as on the +royal porch of Notre Dame at Paris and the southern porch at Reims, the +figures of the Synagogue and the Church; also Leah and Rachel, typifying +the active and the contemplative life, of which we shall decipher the +details recorded in the archivolt.</p> + +<p>"Of the large figures that remain, three are regarded as masterpieces: +the Virgin, Saint Elizabeth, and Daniel.</p> + +<p>"That is saying a great deal," cried Durtal. "They are stupid-looking +and the drapery is cold; the arrangement of their robes recalls the +Greek peplum; they have a prophetic savour of the Renaissance."</p> + +<p>"I will not contradict you; but what is really attractive is the scheme +of ideas expressed by the figures in the hollow <!-- Page 226 -->mouldings of the arch +of this portal, based on an equilateral triangle. As to the tympanum, +which displays the Nativity, the calling of the Shepherds of Bethlehem, +the dream and adoration of the Kings, it is marred and worn by time; nor +is it in a style of art that can move us deeply.</p> + +<p>"Study the mouldings of the arch with the four rows of images that adorn +them. First the inner one, with its ten torch-bearing angels; the +second, illustrating the parable of the wise and foolish virgins; the +third, representing the <i>Psychomachia</i>, or struggle between the Virtues +and the Vices; the fourth, a row of twelve queens embodying the twelve +fruits of the Spirit; and linger over the enchanting series of statues +in the moulding at the very edge of the archway of the porch, +representing the occupations of the active and the contemplative life.</p> + +<p>"The active life, on the left, is imagined in accordance with the +picture of the virtuous woman in the last chapter of Proverbs. She is +seen washing wool in a bowl, carding it, stripping the flax, beating it, +spinning it on a distaff, and winding it into hanks.</p> + +<p>"On the right is seen the contemplative life; a woman praying, holding a +closed book, opening it, reading it; she shuts it to meditate on it, +teaches others, and falls into an ecstasy.</p> + +<p>"Finally, in the outermost hollow of the moulding of the arch, the +nearest to us and the most visible, there are fourteen statues of +queens, leaning on shields with coats-of-arms, and formerly holding +banners. The meaning of these statuettes has been much discussed, +especially of the second figure on the left, which is named '<i>Libertas</i>' +the word being carved in the stone. Didron believed them to represent +the domestic and social virtues; but the question has been finally and +definitively settled by the most erudite and clearsighted symbolist of +our day, Madame Félicie d'Ayzac, who, in a very edifying pamphlet +published in 1843 on these statues and on the animals of the Tetramorph, +has proved to demonstration that these fourteen queens are none else +than the fourteen heavenly Beatitudes as enumerated by Saint Anselm: +Beauty, Liberty, Honour, Joy, Pleasure, Agility, Strength, Concord, +Friendship, Length of Days, Power, Health, Safety, and Wisdom.</p> + +<p>"Is not this porch, as a whole, so closely set with <!-- Page 227 -->imagery, one of the +most ingenious and interesting doorways known, from the points of view +of theology and of mysticism alike?"</p> + +<p>"And no less from the point of view of art. You are perfectly right; +these toiling and meditative women are so delicate and so loving, that +we can but regret that they should be hidden in the shadow of a cavern. +What artists must those have been who worked thus for the glory of God +and for their own satisfaction, creating marvels while knowing that no +man would see them!"</p> + +<p>"And they had not even the vanity to sign them; they were always +anonymous."</p> + +<p>"Ah! they were men of a different mould from us. Prouder souls, and +humbler."</p> + +<p>"And holier," added the Abbé. "Shall we now inquire into the iconography +of the right-hand portal? It has suffered less, and may be explained in +a few words.</p> + +<p>"This sculptured vault is, as you know, dedicated to types of Mary; but +we might more accurately say that it is devoted to prototypes of Christ, +for in this doorway, as in the other two, indeed, the image-makers of +the thirteenth century have made it their task to identity the Son with +the Mother."</p> + +<p>"In fact, most of the personages we have already studied relate more +especially to Christ. What, then, are those in the Old Testament, which +are more essentially proper to the daughter of Joachim, and transferred +in images of stone to be deciphered here?"</p> + +<p>"The allegories of the Virgin in the Scriptures are numberless. Whole +books, as the Song of Songs and the Book of Wisdom, allude in every +verse to Her beauty and wisdom. As to the non-human emblems that may be +applied to Her, you know them well: Noah's Ark, in which the Redeemer +dwells; the Dove, the Rainbow, as a sign of alliance between the Lord +and the earth; the burning bush whence came out the name of God; the +cloud of fire guiding Israel in the desert; the Rod of Aaron which alone +blossomed of those of the twelve tribes taken by Moses; the Ark of the +Covenant; Gideon's fleece; and a whole series, if possible, more +obviously representative; David's tower; Solomon's throne; the garden +enclosed and the fountain sealed of the Canticle; the dial of Ahaz;<!-- Page 228 --> +Elijah's saving cloud; Ezekiel's doorway—and I mention none but those +of which the interpretation has received the seal and sanction of the +Fathers and Doctors of the Church.</p> + +<p>"As to the living beings that prefigured Her on earth, instances abound; +the greater part of the famous women of the Old Testament are but +anticipatory images of Her graces. Sarah, to whom an angel foretells the +birth of a son who is himself a type of the Son; Miriam, the sister of +Moses, who, by saving her brother from the river, freed the Jews; +Jephthah's daughter; Deborah, the prophetess; Jael, who, like the +Virgin, was called Blessed among women; Hannah, the mother of Samuel, +whose song of praise seems like a forecast of the <i>Magnificat</i>; +Jehosheba preserving Joash from the fury of Athaliah, as the Virgin +afterwards saved Jesus from the wrath of Herod; Ruth personifying both +the contemplative and the active life; Rebecca, Rachel, Abigail, +Solomon's mother, the mother of the Maccabees, who witnessed the death +of her sons; and again those whose names are inscribed under these +arches; Judith and Esther, the first representative of courageous +chastity, and the second of mercy and justice."</p> + +<p>"However, to avoid confusion, we will follow the statues in order as +they stand in this porch, three on each side.</p> + +<p>"On the left Balaam, the Queen of Sheba and Solomon.</p> + +<p>"On the right, Jesus the son of Sirach, Judith or Esther, and Joseph."</p> + +<p>"Balaam is this statue of a worthy peasant, smug and friendly, smiling +in his beard, a stick in his hand and a hat like a pie-dish; and the +Queen of Sheba, the woman who bends forward a little, looking as if she +were cross-questioning and arguing over some deed she condemned. But +what have these two persons to do with the life of the Virgin?"</p> + +<p>"Balaam is a type of the Messiah. It was he who prophesied that a star +should come out of Jacob and a sceptre rise out of Israel. As to the +Queen of Sheba, according to the teaching of the Fathers, she is an +image of the Church; Solomon's spouse, as the Church is the spouse of +Christ."</p> + +<p>"Well, well," muttered Durtal to himself. "The thirteenth century could +not give a fitting presentment of that queen, whom we picture to +ourselves as dressed with foolish magnificence, rocking on a camel +across the desert at <!-- Page 229 -->the head of a caravan under the blazing sky across +the furnace of sand. Her charms have appealed to writers, and not the +smallest of them; Flaubert for one—this Queen Balkis, Mékida or +Nicaule. But in the '<i>Tentation de Saint Antoine</i>' she has failed to +assume any form but that of a puerile and flimsy creature, a skipping +and lisping puppet. In fact, no one but Gustave Moreau, the painter of +Salome, could represent the woman, a virgin and a courtesan, a casuist +and a coquette. He only could give life, under the flowered panoply of +dress and the blazing gorget of jewels, to the crowned foreign face, +with its smile as of an artless sphinx, come from so far to ask enigmas. +Such a woman is too complicated for the spirit and the ingenuous art of +the Middle Ages.</p> + +<p>"Indeed, the sculptured image is neither mysterious nor suggestive. She +is hardly pretty, and stands in the obsequious attitude of an advocate. +Solomon looks like a jovial good fellow. The two effigies on the other +side of the door might perhaps invite attention if they were not so +completely crushed by the third. Again a question. By what right does +the author of that admirable book 'Ecclesiastes' find a place in these +ranks of honour?"</p> + +<p>"Jesus the son of Sirach prefigures the Messiah as a Prophet and a +Doctor. As to the figure next to him, it may equally well be Judith or +Esther: her identity is doubtful; there is nothing that can help us to +determine it.</p> + +<p>"At any rate, as I told you but now, each is a harbinger of the Virgin. +As to Joseph persecuted and sold, a slave raised almost to the throne, +the merciful protector of his people, he is the prototype of Christ."</p> + +<p>Durtal paused to gaze up at the beardless face, with curling hair cut +close round. The youth wore a tunic under a surcoat embroidered round +the neck, and he stood motionless, a sceptre in his hand. He might be a +very young monk, humble, simple, and so far advanced in the mystic road +that he was unconscious of it. This statue was undoubtedly a portrait, +and it seemed certain that some refined and innocent novice had served +as a model to the artist. It was the work of a chastened and happy soul +superior to the crowd. "This one, even more than the St. John, is a +perfect dream," said Durtal to the Abbé, who assented with a nod, and +went on,—</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 230 -->The sculptures over the arches are practically invisible, for you must +dislocate your neck to see them. Nor is the art they display exciting. +Only the subjects are interesting. Besides a row of angels bearing stars +and torches, they represent the achievements of Gideon; the story of +Samson, who, when a prisoner, rose in the night, and carrying away the +gates of Gaza, escaped from the town, as Christ broke the gates of +death, and escaped alive from His sepulchre; the history of Tobit, as a +divine paragon of mercy and patience; and finally, in the corner we find +a replica of the grand porch, the signs of the zodiac, and a calendar in +sculptured stone.</p> + +<p>"The tympanum, as you see, is divided into two portions.</p> + +<p>"In the upper part we see the Judgment of Solomon, as figuring the Sun +of Justice, Christ Himself.</p> + +<p>"In the lower half Job lies stretched on his dunghill, and the Messiah, +of whom he is a prototype, comes, supported by two angels, to give him a +palm-branch.</p> + +<p>"To complete the elucidation of the symbolism of these doorways, it now +only remains to glance at the three arches of the porch that precedes +them. Here we see chiefly the benefactors of the cathedral and the +saints of the See; also, mingled with these, certain prophets for whom +there was not room in the arches of the doors. This vestibule is, so to +speak, a postscript, a supplement added to the work.</p> + +<p>"Here, where we stand in the right-hand arch are Saint Potentien, the +first apostle of Chartres, and Saint Modesta, the daughter of Quirinus, +the Governor of the city, who killed her because she would not deny +Christ. Here you see Ferdinand of Castille. He presented certain windows +distinguished by his arms, <i>gules, three castles or</i>, side by side with +the azure shield and fleur-de-lys of France, in the principal window of +this front. Next to him that shrewd and severe face is probably that of +Baruch, the judge, and here, barefoot and burthened with a penitent's +satchel, you see Saint Louis, who loaded the cathedral with gifts and +inaugurated its use.</p> + +<p>"Under the porch of the middle door are two vacant pedestals, on which +formerly stood the effigies of Philip Augustus and Richard Cœur de +Lion, two of the most liberal donors to the church. On the other plinths +stand the<!-- Page 231 --> Comte and Comtesse de Boulogne, a buxom dame with masculine +features, wearing a biretta; a prophet who is nameless, but no doubt +Ezekiel, for he is missing from the series in this porch; Louis VIII., +Saint Louis' father; and, finally, that king's sister Isabella, who +founded the Abbey of Longchamps under the rule of Saint Clare. She is +dressed as a nun, and next her in the shadow is a personage of the Old +Dispensation carrying a censer, like Melchizedec. Remark, too, the firm +and solemn mien of that priest, Zacharias, the father of John the +Baptist, whose canticle '<i>Benedictus</i>' foretells the blessings of +Christ.</p> + +<p>"Thus ends our review of this wonderful text-book of the Old Testament +types, and the historical memorial of those benefactors whose gifts +endowed the church with this sculptured imagery of the Ancient Word."</p> + +<p>Durtal lighted a cigarette, and they walked up and down in front of the +palace railing.</p> + +<p>"Setting aside the question of art," said Durtal, "in this long array of +Christ's ancestors there is one—David—who really confounds me, for he +is the most complex of all; at once so august and so small! he is quite +puzzling!"</p> + +<p>"Why?"</p> + +<p>"Well, only think of the life of the man who was by turns shepherd, +warrior, and outlaw chief, an omnipotent king and a fugitive without +either hearth or home; who was a wonderful poet and an exact prophet and +seer! And is not the monarch's character even more enigmatical than his +career?</p> + +<p>"He was mild and indulgent, devoid of rancour and hatred, and yet he was +ferocious. Remember the punishments he inflicted on the Ammonites; his +vengeance was appalling. He had them sawn asunder, cut them with harrows +of iron, and made them pass through the brick-kiln.</p> + +<p>"He was loyal, wholly devoted to the Lord, and just; but he committed +the crime of adultery, and ordered the death of the husband he had +betrayed. What contradictions!"</p> + +<p>"To understand David," said the Abbé Plomb, "you must not think of him +apart from his surroundings, nor take him out of the age in which he +lived, otherwise you measure him by the ideas of our own time, and that +is <!-- Page 232 -->absurd. In the Asiatic conception of royalty, adultery was almost +permitted to a being whom his subjects regarded as superior to the +common run of humanity; besides, women were then as a species of cattle +belonging almost absolutely to him as the despot and supreme master. It +was but the exercise of his regal power, as has been plainly shown by +Monsieur Dieulafoy in his study of that king. And, on the other hand, if +he is accused of tortures and bloodshed, why, the whole of the Old +Testament is full of them! Jehovah Himself pours out blood like water, +and exterminates men as if they were flies. It is well not to forget +that the world then still lived under the Law of Fear. So it is not very +surprising that, with a view to terrifying his enemies, whose manners +and customs were not indeed any milder than his own, he should have +tortured the inhabitants of Rabbah and baked the Ammonites.</p> + +<p>"But in contrast to these acts of violence and the sins which he +expiated, see how generous he was to Saul, and admire the magnanimity +and charity of the man whom the followers of Renan would have us regard +as a bandit chief and outlaw. Remember, too, that he taught the world, +as yet ignorant, the virtues which at a later time Christ was to +preach—humility in its most touching form, and repentance in its +bitterest shape. When the prophet Nathan reproved him for the murder of +Uriah, he confessed his sin with tears, fell on his face before God, +bravely accepted the most terrible punishment: incest and murder in his +family, the rebellion and death of his son, treason, misery, and a +desperate flight in the woods; and with what urgency he implores for +pardon in the '<i>Miserere</i>,' with what love and contrition he cries to +the God he had offended!</p> + +<p>"He was a man whose vices were small and few if compared with those of +the kings of his time—of admirable and exceptional virtues if compared +with those of sovereigns of any time of every age. Why, then, fail to +understand that God should have chosen him as a precursor? Besides, +Jesus came to ransom sinners, He took upon Himself the sins of the whole +world. Was it not natural, then, that He should take to prefigure Him, a +man who, like others, had sinned?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; that is true, no doubt."</p> + +<p>And that evening, when he was away from the Abbé<!-- Page 233 --> Plomb, from whom he +parted on the church steps, as Durtal stretched himself on his bed, he +recapitulated in his memory this theory of the Old Testament personages +and the sculpture in the porch.</p> + +<p>"To epitomize this north front," said he to himself, "it must be +regarded as an abridged history of the Redemption prepared so long +beforehand, a table of sacred history, a compendium of the Mosaic Law, +and at the same time foreshadowing the Christian law.</p> + +<p>"The vocation of the Jewish nation is set forth in these three doorways, +their whole mission from Abraham to Moses; from Moses to the Babylonian +Captivity; from the Captivity till the death of Christ, comprehending +three phases of its history: the making of Israel, its independent +existence, its life among the Gentiles.</p> + +<p>"And how slowly, with what difficulty, was this fusion of tribes +achieved! With what waste and what ejection of dross! What massacres +were needed to discipline those rapacious wanderers, to quell the greed +and licentiousness of the race!"</p> + +<p>And in a succession of bewildering images he beheld the irruption into +Judæa of the headlong and indignant prophets, hurling imprecations +against the crimes of the kings and the atrocities of that unstable race +perpetually tempted by the voluptuous worships of Asia, always rebelling +and complaining, and ready to break the iron bit with which Moses had +subdued them.</p> + +<p>And prominent in this group of declaiming judges, towering above the +masses, he saw Samuel, the man of contradictions, going whither the Lord +drove him, achieving work which he was destined to overthrow, creating +the monarchy which he reprobated, consecrating a fanatic king—a sort of +madman, who passes across behind the transparent sheet of history with +frantic and threatening gestures; and then Samuel has to overwhelm this +extraordinary Saul under the burthen of his curses, to anoint David +king—David, whom another prophet is to accuse of his crimes. And these +inspired men succeed each other, continuing from year to year their task +of guardians of the public soul, watching over the consciences of judges +and kings, expectant of the Divine word, and ready to proclaim it over +the head of the crowd; announcing disasters, ending often as <!-- Page 234 -->martyrs, +prominent from beginning to end of the sacred annals till they disappear +in John beheaded by an Herodias!</p> + +<p>Then came Elijah, cursing the worship of Baal, contending with the +dreadful Jezebel; Elijah founding the first society of monks, the only +man of the Old Testament history except Enoch who did not die; and +Elisha, his disciple; the greater prophets Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, +and Daniel, and the groups of minor prophets announcing the advent of +the Son, rising up in commination or lamentation, threatening or +comforting the people.</p> + +<p>The whole history of Israel flowed along in a torrent of curses, rivers +of blood, oceans of tears!</p> + +<p>This dismal procession at last oppressed Durtal. With closed eyes he +suddenly beheld a patriarch who stood before him, and he recognized with +awe that this was Moses, an old man with a beard like a cataract, hair +sweeping his shoulders, a master workman whose powerful hands had +kneaded those rough Hebrews and coagulated their medley hordes. He was +indeed father and lawgiver to this people.</p> + +<p>Facing the scene on Calvary there rose before him the scene on Sinai, +the close and the opening of the great chronicle of the nation that was +dispersed by its own crime, enclosing the whole purpose of its existence +in the space between those two hills.</p> + +<p>A terrific spectacle! Moses alone on the smoking height, while +lightnings rend the clouds and the mountain trembles at the sound of the +invisible trumpet. Below, the awe-stricken people fly; and Moses, +unmoved amid the roar of thunder and the repeated fires of lightning, +listens to Him who Is, and who dictates the terms of His protection of +Israel; and then Moses, with shining face, descends from the Mount, +which, according to St. John Damascene, is the type of the Virgin's +Womb, as the smoke that rises from it is that of the desires and flames +of the Holy Spirit.</p> + +<p>Suddenly this picture vanished; the Patriarch remained, and by his side +appeared the first High Priest of the worship of Jehovah, whom the +sculptors had omitted to represent on the exterior of the porch, but +whose image the glass-workers have portrayed in a window of the same +front; Aaron, the great Pontiff, anointed by Moses.</p> + +<p>And this ceremony, during which Moses conferred the order of priesthood +on the person and the descendants of his elder <!-- Page 235 -->brother, arose before +Durtal's fancy as a terrific scene. The details he had formerly read of +this ordination, the ceremonies lasting seven days, recurred to his +mind. After ablution and the anointing with oil, the holocaust of +victims began. Flesh sputtered on the walls, mingling the black stench +of burnt fat with the blue vapour of incense; the Patriarch anointed the +right ear and thumb and foot of Aaron and his sons with blood; then, +taking up the flesh of the sacrifice, he placed them in the hands of the +new-made priests, who rocked first on one foot and then on the other, +thus waving the offerings above the altar.</p> + +<p>Then all bowed their heads under a shower of oil mingled with blood with +which the Consecrator inundated them. They looked like slaughterers from +the shambles and lamp trimmers, all sprinkled as they were with clots of +red mire, on which glistened yellow eyes.</p> + +<p>And then, as in the swift change of magic-lantern slides, this savage +scene, this worn-out symbol of a splendid and subtle liturgy, stammered +out in a hoarse voice, disappeared, giving way to the solemn array of +Levites and priests marching in procession under the guidance of Aaron, +resplendent in his turban with the crown of gold above it, in his purple +robe, on its hem the open pomegranates of scarlet and blue, with +tinkling bells of gold; and he wore the linen ephod, girt with a girdle, +blue and purple and scarlet, and kept in its place by shoulder-pieces +fastened with onyx stones, his breastplate in a blaze, flashing sparks +that lighted up as he moved in the twelve gems of the breastplate.</p> + +<p>Again the scene changed. He beheld an amazing palace; under the shade of +its domes of giddy height, tropical trees and flowers were planted by +tepid pools; monkeys sported there, hanging in bunches to the boughs, +while long-drawn, insinuating melodies were scraped on stringed +instruments, and the rattle of tambourines made the eyed plumes quiver +in the peacocks' outspread tails.</p> + +<p>In this strange hot-bed, filled with clumps of flowers and of women, +this immense harem where his seven hundred princesses and his three +hundred concubines disported themselves, Solomon watched the whirl of +dances, gazed at the living hedge of women, seen against the background +of gold-plated walls, their bodies clothed only in the transparent veil +of vapour rising from resins burning on tripods.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 236 -->He appeared as a typical Eastern monarch, a sort of Khalif or Sultan, or +fairy-tale Rajah—the prodigious king at once polygamous, unbridled, +insatiable by luxury, and learned, artistic, peace-loving, the wisest +among men. In advance of the ideas of his time, he was the great builder +in Israel, and the commerce of the country was of his making. He left +such a reputation for wisdom and justice that he came at last to be +regarded as an enchanter and wizard. Even Josephus tells us that he +wrote a book of Magic, of incantations for laying evil spirits; in the +Middle Ages he was said to have owned a magic ring, charms, forms of +evocation, secrets for exorcism; and in all these legends the image of +the king becomes confused.</p> + +<p>And he would remain to this day a figure out of the Thousand and One +Nights, were it not that in the decline of his glory we see him as a +grandiose image of the mournfulness of life, the vanity of joy, the +nothingness of man.</p> + +<p>His old age was melancholy. Exhausted and governed by women, he denied +God and sacrificed to idols. We discern in him wide gaps, vast clearings +in the soul. Weary of everything, sick of enjoyment, and drunken with +sin, he wrote some admirable reflections and anticipated the blackest +pessimism of our day, summing up the misery of him who endures the +condemnation of living, in phrases that are its final expression. What +distress is that of the Preacher: All the days of man are sorrow, and +his travail grief; better is the day of death than the day of birth; all +is vanity and vexation of spirit.</p> + +<p>After his death, too, the old king remains a mystery. Had he expiated +his apostacy and his fall? Was he, like his fathers, received into +Abraham's bosom? And the greatest writers of the Church have not agreed +about it.</p> + +<p>According to St. Irenæus, St. Hilary, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, St. +Ambrose, and St. Jerome, his penance was accomplished, and he is saved.</p> + +<p>According to Tertullian, St. Cyprian, St. Augustine, and St. Gregory the +Great, he did not repent to amendment, and so he is damned.</p> + +<p>Durtal turned over in his bed and tried to lose consciousness. +Everything was in confusion in his brain, and at last he fell into +disturbed slumbers mingled with hideous <!-- Page 237 -->nightmares, in which he saw +Madame Mesurat standing in the place of the queen on a pedestal in the +porch; and Durtal fumed at her ugliness, raging against the Canons, to +whom he vainly appealed to remove his housekeeper and replace the queen.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"><!-- Page 238 --></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2> + + +<p>This church symbolism, this psychology of the cathedral, this study of +the soul of the sanctuary, so entirely overlooked since mediæval times +by those professors of monumental physiology called archæologists and +architects, so much interested Durtal that he was able by its help to +forget for some hours the turmoil and struggles of his soul; but the +moment he ceased to ponder on the inner sense of things seen, he was as +bad as ever.</p> + +<p>The sort of requisition he had laid before the Abbé Gévresin, to put an +end to his tossing and decide for him one way or the other, was +distracting while it terrified him.</p> + +<p>The cloister! He must reflect a long time before making up his mind to +imprison himself. And the <i>pros</i> and <i>cons</i> tormented him in endless +alternation.</p> + +<p>"Here I am just where I was before I set out for La Trappe!" said he to +himself, "and the decision to be taken is even more serious; for Notre +Dame de l'Atre was but a temporary refuge. I knew when I went there that +I should not stay; it was a painful time to be endured, but it was only +a short time; whereas at this moment I have to come to a determination +from which there is no turning back, to go to a place where, if I once +shut myself in, I must stay till I die. It is imprisonment for life, +with no mitigation of the penalty, no pardon and release; and the Abbé +talks as if it were the simplest thing!</p> + +<p>"What am I to do? Renounce all freedom, be nothing but a machine, a +chattel, in the hands of a man I do not know—God knows I am willing! +But there are other and more pressing questions from my point of view; +in the first place, this matter of literature—to write no more, to give +up what has been the occupation and aim of my life; that would be +painful; <!-- Page 239 -->still, it is a sacrifice I could make. But to write and then +see my language stripped and washed in pump-water, all the colour taken +out by another man, who may be a learned man or a saint, but have no +more idea of art than St. John of the Cross! That is too hard. That +one's ideas should be picked over and weeded, from the theological point +of view, I quite understand, nothing could be more just; but one's +style! And in a monastery, so far as I can learn, nothing is printed +till the Prior has read it; and he has the right to revise everything, +alter it—suppress it if he chooses. It would evidently be better not to +write at all, but this again is not a matter of choice, since under the +rule of obedience each one must submit to orders, and treat of any +subject in any way the Abbot commands.</p> + +<p>"And unless the master were very exceptional, what a stone of stumbling!</p> + +<p>"And then, besides this, which is to me the most important question of +all, there are others worth considering. From the little I have been +told by my two priests, the blessed silence of the Cistercians is not +the rule with the black-frocked Orders. Now, however perfect these +cenobites may be, they remain none the less men; or, to express it +otherwise, sympathy and antipathy live in constant and compulsory +friction; with very restricted subjects of discussion, living in +complete ignorance of all that is going on outside, conversation must +degenerate into chatter; at last the only interest of life centres in +trivialities, in petty questions which in such an atmosphere assume the +importance of events.</p> + +<p>"A man becomes an old maid, and how infinitely wearisome must this talk +be, unvaried by the unforeseen.</p> + +<p>"Finally, there is the question of health. In the convent nothing but +stews and salads! A disordered stomach before long, broken sleep, +crushing fatigue in an ill-treated frame—ah, all that is neither +attractive nor amusing! Who knows whether, after a few months of this +mental and physical rule, I should not have sunk into bottomless +dejection, whether the sloth of those monastic gaols would not have +crushed me and left me absolutely incapable of thought or action?"</p> + +<p>And he concluded:—</p> + +<p>"It is madness to think of a cloistered life; I should do better to +remain at Chartres."</p> + +<p><!-- Page 240 -->But hardly had he made up his mind not to move, when the reverse of the +medal forced itself upon him.</p> + +<p>A convent! Why, it was the only logical existence, the only right life! +All these fears he suggested to himself were imaginary. In the first +place, as to his health. Had he forgotten La Trappe, where the food was +far more innutritious and the rule far stricter? Why be alarmed +beforehand?</p> + +<p>And, on the other hand, could he fail to perceive the need for +conversation, the wisdom of speech, relieving the solitude of the +cloister just when weariness might supervene? It was a remedy against +constant introspection, and exercise taken with others secured health to +the soul and gave tone to the body; and as for saying that these +monastic dialogues would be trivial, were the conversations he might +hear in any other society more edifying? In short, was not the company +of the Brethren far superior to that of men of any profession, +condition, or sort, whom he would be obliged to meet in the world +outside?</p> + +<p>And what, after all, were these trifles, these minor details in the +splendid completeness of the cloister? What were these petty +matters—mere nothings—in the scale as against peace, the cheerfulness +of the soul in the joy of the services and the fulfilment of the task of +praise? Would not the tide of worship cleanse everything, and wash away +the small defects of men, like straws in a stream? Was it not the case +of the mote and the beam, with the parts reversed—imperfections +discerned in others, when he was so far their inferior?</p> + +<p>"Constantly, at the end of every argument, I find my own lack of +humility," said he to himself. "What efforts are needed to remove the +mire of my sins! In a convent perhaps I might rub the rust off," and he +dreamed of a purer life, a soul soaked in prayer, expanding in communion +with Christ, who might perhaps, without too much soiling Himself, come +down to dwell in him. "It is the only life desirable," cried he. "It is +settled!"</p> + +<p>But then, like a douche of cold water, a reflection overwhelmed him. It +would in any case be the life in common, school-life, which would begin +again for him; it would be the garrison-rule of a convent!</p> + +<p>This floored him. Then he tried to fight against it, and lost patience.</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 241 -->Come, come!" he growled, "a man does not shut himself up in an abbey to +take his ease there; a convent is not a pious Sainte-Périne; he retires +there, I suppose, to expiate his sins and prepare for death. What, then, +is the use of expatiating on the kind of punishments to be endured? A +determination to accept them is all, to endure them and be strong!"</p> + +<p>Did he, then, sincerely long for suffering and penance? He dared not +answer himself. In the depth of his soul a hesitating "Yes" rose up, +smothered at once by the clamour of cowardice and fear. Why then go?</p> + +<p>He was only bewildering himself, and when the worst of this turmoil was +over he thought of a respite, or of some half-measure, some mild +mortification quite endurable, some repentance so slight as to be none +at all.</p> + +<p>"I am an idiot," he concluded; "I am fighting with the air; I am +puzzling myself with words, about habits of which I have no knowledge. +The first thing to be done is to visit some Benedictine monastery—nay, +several—to compare them, and to see for myself what the life is that is +led there. Then the matter as to the oblates must be cleared up; if the +Abbé Plomb is well informed, their fate depends on the caprice of the +Abbot, who can tighten or loosen the halter according to his more or +less domineering character. But is that quite certain? There were always +oblates throughout the Middle Ages; consequently they are controlled by +the secular law!</p> + +<p>"And all this is so human, so vile! For it is not a matter of disputing +texts and more or less accommodating clauses. It is a case of subjection +without reserve, of leaping boldly into the water; of giving oneself up +entirely to God. Any other view of the cloister is to regard it as a +citizen's home, and that is absurd. My apprehensions, my antagonism, my +compromises, are disgraceful!</p> + +<p>"Yes; but where can I find the necessary strength to brush myself clean +from this dust of the soul?"</p> + +<p>And at last, when he felt himself bruised by these alternating desires +and fears, he took refuge with Notre Dame de Sous-Terre.</p> + +<p>The crypt was closed in the afternoon, but he found his way in by a +small door in the sacristy inside the cathedral, and descended into +utter darkness.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 242 -->Having reached the crypt in front of the altar, he round once more the +doubtful but soothing odour of that vault, smoked by burning tapers, and +went forward in the soft, warm atmosphere of frankincense and a cellar. +It was even darker than in the early morning, for the lamps were out; +floating wicks only, shining through what looked like very thin +orange-peel, threw gleams of tarnished gold on the sooty walls.</p> + +<p>As he turned, with his back to the altar, he could see the low aisle in +retreating perspective, and at the end, as in a tunnel, the light of +day—unluckily, for it allowed him to discern certain hideous paintings +of scenes commemorating the ecclesiastical glories of Chartres: the +visit paid to the cathedral by Mary de' Medici and Henri IV.; Louis +XIII. and his mother; Monsieur Olier offering to the Virgin the keys of +the Seminary of Saint Sulpice with a dress of gold brocade; Louis XIV. +at the feet of Notre Dame de Sous-Terre; by the grace of heaven, the +remaining frescoes seemed extinct; at any rate, they lay in shadow.</p> + +<p>What was really blissful was to be alone with the Virgin, who looked +down, her dark face gleaming dimly in the gloom when a wick happened to +flicker with short flashes of brighter light.</p> + +<p>Durtal, kneeling before Her, determined to address Her, to say to Her,—</p> + +<p>"I am afraid of the future and of its cloudy sky, and I am afraid of +myself, for I am wasting in depression and bewilderment. Thou hast +hitherto led me by the hand. Do not desert me; finish Thy work. I know +that it is folly thus to take care for the future, for Thy Son has said, +'Sufficient to the day is the evil thereof.' Still, that depends on +temperament. What is easy to some is so hard for others. Mine is a +restless spirit, always astir, always on the alert. Do what I will, it +wanders, feeling its way about the world, and gets lost! Bring it home, +keep it near Thee in a leash, kind Mother, and after so much weariness, +grant me to find rest!</p> + +<p>"Oh! to be no longer thus torn in sunder, to be of one mind! Oh! to have +a soul so quenched that it should know no sorrows, no joys, but those of +the liturgy, that it might only be claimed, day by day, by Jesus or by +Thee, and follow Your lives as they are unfolded in the annual cycle of +the Church services! To rejoice at the Nativity, to laugh <!-- Page 243 -->on Palm +Sunday, to weep in Holy Week, and be indifferent to all else, to cease +to hold oneself as of any account, to care not at all for one's +individual self! What a dream! How easy it then would be to take refuge +in a cloister!</p> + +<p>"But is this possible to any but a saint? What a stripping of the soul +it presupposes; what an emptying out of every profane idea, of every +earthly image; what a taming of the subjugated imagination, never +venturing forth but on one track, instead of wandering haphazard as mine +does!</p> + +<p>"And yet how foolish is every other care—for all that does not tend to +Heaven is vain on earth. Aye, but as soon as I try to put these thoughts +into, practice, my jade of a soul plunges and rears; do what I will, it +only bucks and makes no advance.</p> + +<p>"Alas! Blessed Virgin, I do not seek to excuse myself and my sins. And +still I dare confess to Thee that it is discouraging, heart-breaking, to +understand nothing and see nothing! Is this Chartres where I am +vegetating a waiting-place, a halting-place between two monasteries, a +bridge leading from Notre Dame de l'Atre to Solesmes or some other +Abbey? Or is it, on the contrary, the final stage where it is Thy will +that I should remain fixed? But then my life has no further meaning! It +is purposeless, built and overthrown with the shifting of sands. To what +end, if this be the case, are these monastic yearnings, these calls to +another life, this all but conviction that I have stopped at a station, +and am not yet at the place whither I am to travel?</p> + +<p>"If only it might be now, as on other occasions when I have felt Thee +near me, when in response to my questions Thou hast answered me, if only +it might be here as at La Trappe, much as I suffered there! But no. I +hear Thee not—Thou dost not heed me."</p> + +<p>Durtal was silent. Then he went on,—</p> + +<p>"I am wrong to address Thee thus," he said. "Thou dost not carry us in +Thine arms unless we be unable to walk; Thou hast care and caresses for +the poor soul born anew by conversion; but when it can stand it is set +down on the ground, and Thou lookest on while it makes trial of its +strength.</p> + +<p>"This is meet and right; but it does alter the fact that <!-- Page 244 -->the memory of +those celestial alleviations, those first, lost joys is crushing to the +soul.</p> + +<p>"O Holy Virgin, Holy Virgin, have pity on the rickety souls that +struggle on so painfully when they are no longer upheld by Thee! Have +pity on the bruised souls to whom every effort is painful; on the souls +whom nothing can console, to whom everything is affliction! Take pity on +the homeless, outcast souls, the wandering souls, unable to settle and +dwell with their kind, the tender, budding souls! Take pity on all souls +such as mine! Have pity on me!"</p> + +<p>And before quitting the Mother he would often visit Her in those depths +where, since the Middle Ages, the faithful no longer seek her; he would +light an end of taper, and, turning aside from the nave of the crypt, +follow the curved line of the wall along the entrance passage as far as +the sacristy of this underground church, where in the ponderous +stone-work was a door strengthened with iron-work.</p> + +<p>Through and down a little flight of steps, he reached a cellar which was +the ancient martyrium where, of old, in time of war the ciborium was +concealed. An altar stood in the middle of this well, dedicated in the +name of Saint Lubin. In the crypt the distant hum of the bells, the +sounds of life in the cathedral above, could still be heard; here, +nothing! It was like being in the tomb. Unfortunately, some squalid, +square columns whitened with lime-wash, built on the altar to give +support to Bridan's group in the choir above, spoilt the barbaric +simplicity of this <i>oubliette</i>, forgotten, lost in the night of ages, +and underground.</p> + +<p>He went up again comforted nevertheless, accusing himself of +ingratitude, and asking himself how he could dream of leaving Chartres +and going away from the Virgin, with whom he could thus so easily +converse in solitude whenever he would.</p> + +<p>On other days, when it was fine, he would take for the object of his +walk a convent whose existence had been revealed to him by Madame +Bavoil. One afternoon he had met her in the square, and she had said to +him,—</p> + +<p>"I am going to see the little Jesus of Prague at the Carmelite convent +here. Will you come with me, our friend?"</p> + +<p>Durtal had no liking for these petty pilgrimages made by good women; but +the idea of going to the Carmelite <!-- Page 245 -->chapel, which was unknown to him, +tempted him to accompany her, and she led the way to the Rue des +Jubelines, behind the railway line and beyond the station. They had to +cross a bridge that groaned under the weight of rolling trains, and +turned to the right down a path winding between the embankment on one +side, and on the other thatched huts, and old sheds, and other houses +less poverty-stricken, indeed, but closed and impenetrable after +daybreak. Madame Bavoil led him to where this alley ended under the arch +of another bridge. Overhead was a siding, with its signals round and +square, red and yellow, and posts with cast-iron ladders; and there +always in the same place an engine was being fired, or, with shrill +whistling, was moving out backwards.</p> + +<p>Madame Bavoil stopped at a door under a round arch in an immense wall, +which not far off ran against the embankment, forming an impassable +angle; it was built of millstone grit of the colour of burnt almonds, +like that used for the Paris reservoirs; here dwelt the nuns of Saint +Theresa.</p> + +<p>Madame Bavoil, as being used to convent ways, pushed open the door which +stood ajar, and Durtal saw before him a paved walk between strips of +river pebbles, dividing a garden stocked with fruit-trees and geraniums. +Two yews, clipped into spheres, with a cross on the top of each, gave +this priestly close a graveyard flavour.</p> + +<p>The path led upwards, cut into steps. When they reached the top Durtal +saw a building of brick and plaster pierced with windows guarded by iron +bars, and a grey door with a wicket bearing these words painted in +white, "O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who put our trust in +Thee."</p> + +<p>He looked about him, surprised at seeing nobody, hearing nothing; but +Madame Bavoil beckoned to him, made her way round the house, and led the +way into a sort of vestibule along which clambered a vine wrapped in +swathing, and she turned into a little chapel, where she knelt down on +the flagstones.</p> + +<p>Durtal, amazed, seemed to breathe the melancholy that weighed on this +naked sanctuary.</p> + +<p>He was in a building of the end of the eighteenth century; in the +middle, raised on eight steps, stood an altar of wax-polished wood in +the shape of a tomb; above it was a shrine covered with a curtain of +white brocade and surmounted by <!-- Page 246 -->a picture of the Annunciation, a washy +painting mounted in a gilt frame. To the right and left were two +medallions in relief, on one side Saint Joseph and on the other Saint +Theresa, and above the picture, close to the ceiling, were the arms of +the Carmelites, also in relief: a shield with a cross and stars beneath +a marquis's coronet, from which an arm emerges wielding a sword. This +was held up by fat little angels, the swollen infants of the sculptors +of that period, and floating in the air was a scroll bearing the motto +of the order: "<i>Zelo, zelatus sum, pro Domino Deo Exercituum</i>."</p> + +<p>Finally, to the right of the altar, the iron grating of the nunnery was +seen in an arch in the wall; and on the steps of the altar, inside the +railing for the communicants, an annoying statue was emerging from under +a gilt canopy—the Infant Christ holding a globe in one hand, and +raising the other as if to command attention; a statue of painted +plaster as of some precocious mountebank, with homage offered in this +deserted chapel, of two pots of hydrangea and a floating wick in a +crimson glass.</p> + +<p>"How cold and dismal is such <i>rococo</i>!" thought Durtal. He knelt down on +a chair, and by degrees his impressions underwent a change. This holy +place, saturated with prayer, seemed to let its ice melt and grow balmy. +It was as though visions percolated through the gate of the cloister and +shed warm puffs of air in the place. A sense of warmth of soul stole +over him, of being at home in this solitude.</p> + +<p>The only astonishing thing was to hear, in such remote seclusion, the +whistling of trains and the rumbling of engines.</p> + +<p>Durtal went out before Madame Bavoil had finished the rosary. Standing +in the doorway, he saw, just opposite, the cathedral in profile, but +with only one spire, the old belfry being hidden by the new. Under a +cloudy sky it stood massively solid, green and grey, with its roof of +oxidized copper, and the pumice-stone hue of the tower.</p> + +<p>"It is stupendous!" said Durtal to himself, recalling the various +aspects it could assume according to the season and the hour, as the +colour of its complexion varied. "The whole effect under a clear sky is +silvery grey, and if the sun lights it up it turns pale golden yellow; +seen from near, its skin is like a nibbled biscuit, a siliceous +limestone eaten into holes; at other times, when the sun is setting, it +turns crimson and appears like some vast and exquisite shrine, all rose +<!-- Page 247 -->colour and green; and in the twilight it is blue, and seems to +evaporate into violet.</p> + +<p>"And those porches!" he went on. "That of the royal front is the least +variable; it remains of a cinnamon-brown half-way up, of a dull +pumice-grey as it rises; that on the south side, more eaten into by +lichens, is wearing green, while the arches on the north, with their +stones like concrete full of shells, suggest to the fancy a sea-grotto +left high and dry."</p> + +<p>"Well, our friend, are you dreaming?" said Madame Bavoil, tapping him on +the shoulder.</p> + +<p>"This Carmelite convent you see is a very austere house," said she, "and +as you may suppose, grace abounds;" and when Durtal murmured,—</p> + +<p>"What a contrast between this dead spot and the railway that runs past +it, always in a stir!" she exclaimed,—</p> + +<p>"Do you suppose that anywhere else you will find, side by side, such an +image of the contemplative life and the active life?"</p> + +<p>"And what must the nuns think as they hear these continual departures +for the outer world? Those who have grown old in the convent would, of +course, despise these calls, these invitations to live; the quietude of +their spirits must increase as they find themselves protected for ever +from the perils which the noisy rush of the trains must bring before +them every hour of the day and night; they will feel more drawn to pray, +for those whom the chances of life carry away to Paris, or bring back to +the country, outcasts from the city. But the postulants—the novices? In +the hours of desertion, of doubt as to their vocation, which must come +over them, is it not appalling to think of the constantly revived +memories of home, of friends, of all that they have left to shut +themselves up for ever in a convent?</p> + +<p>"As each asks herself whether she can endure watching and fasting, must +it not be a permanent temptation to rebel against being buried alive in +a tomb?</p> + +<p>"And I cannot help thinking of the appearance as of a reservoir that the +style of building gives to this Carmel. The image is precise, for the +convent is indeed a reservoir into which God dips to draw forth the good +works of love and tears, and restore the balance of the scales in which +the sins of the world are so heavy!"</p> + +<p><!-- Page 248 -->Madame Bavoil smiled.</p> + +<p>"A very old Carmelite nun," said she, "who had gone into this House +before railways were invented, died here hardly three months ago. She +had never been outside the walls, and never saw an engine or a railway +carriage. Under what form could she picture to herself the trains she +heard thundering and shrieking?"</p> + +<p>"As some diabolical invention, no doubt, since these conveyances carry +us to the wicked but delightful sins of towns," replied Durtal, smiling. +"But it is a curious case, nevertheless."</p> + +<p>He was silent; then, changing the subject, he said,—</p> + +<p>"And do you still hold communion with Heaven, Madame Bavoil?"</p> + +<p>"No," she answered, sadly. "I no longer have any converse or any +visions. I am deaf and blind. God is silent to me."</p> + +<p>She shook her head, and, after a pause, she added, speaking to +herself,—</p> + +<p>"Such a little thing is enough to displease Him. If He detects a trace +of vanity in the soul on which He shines, He departs. And as the Father +tells me, the mere fact of having spoken of the special graces +vouchsafed to me by Jesus, proves that I am not humble. In short, His +will be done!—And you, our friend, do you still think of taking shelter +in a cloister?"</p> + +<p>"I—my spirit still craves a truce; my soul is but shifting ballast."</p> + +<p>"Because, no doubt, you are not honest in your dealings. You behave as +if you meant to strike a bargain with Him; that is not the way to set to +work."</p> + +<p>"What would you do in my place?"</p> + +<p>"I should be generous; I should say to Him, 'Here I am, do with me as +Thou wilt. I give myself unconditionally to Thee. I ask but one thing: +Help me to love Thee.'"</p> + +<p>"And do you suppose that I have not blamed myself for my cowardice of +heart?"</p> + +<p>They walked on in silence. When they reached the cathedral, Madame +Bavoil proposed that they should pay a visit to Notre Dame du Pilier.</p> + +<p>They seated themselves in the gloom of the side aisle of the choir, +where the dark-toned windows were still further <!-- Page 249 -->obscured by a poorly +executed wooden niche, in which the Virgin, as dark as her namesake in +the crypt, Notre Dame de Sous-Terre, stood on a pillar, hung round with +bunches of metal hearts and little lamps on coronas, from the roof. +Frames of tapers on each side shot up little tongues of flame, and +prostrate women were praying, their faces hidden in their hands or +upturned to the dark countenance, on which the light did not fall.</p> + +<p>It struck Durtal that the woes repressed in the morning hours were +poured out in the twilight; the faithful did not now come for Her alone, +but for themselves; each one brought a load of sorrows and opened it +before Her. What anguish of soul was poured out on the stones by these +women, leaning prostrate against the railing that protected the pillar +which each kissed as she rose.</p> + +<p>And the swarthy image, carved in the early part of the sixteenth +century, had listened, Her face invisible, to the same sighs, the same +complaints, from succeeding generations, had heard the same cries, +echoing down the ages, for ever lamenting the bitterness of life, for +ever expressing the desire, all the same, for length of days!</p> + +<p>Durtal looked at Madame Bavoil. She was praying with closed eyes, +kneeling on the stones and sitting on her heels, her arms hanging, her +hands clasped. How happy was she to be able thus to abstract herself.</p> + +<p>And he tried to force himself to say a prayer, quite a short one, in the +hope that he might succeed in getting to the end without letting his +mind wander. He began "<i>Sub tuum</i>"—"Under Thy protection do we take +refuge; Holy Mother of God, despise not us." What it was really +indispensable that he should obtain from the Father Superior was +permission to take his books with him into the monastery, and to have at +least a few pious toys in his cell. Ah—but how could he explain that +any profane literature was necessary in a convent, that, from an +artist's point of view, it was requisite to refresh one's memory of the +prose of Hugo, of Baudelaire, of Flaubert—"I am at sea again!" said +Durtal suddenly to himself.</p> + +<p>He tried to brush away these distractions, and went on: "Despise not the +prayers we put up to Thee in our needs—" And he was off again at a +gallop in his dreams—"Even supposing that no difficulty were made about +this <!-- Page 250 -->request, the question would still remain as to submitting +manuscripts for revision, obtaining the <i>imprimatur</i>; and how would that +be arranged?"</p> + +<p>Madame Bavoil interrupted his wanderings by rising from her knees. +Recalled to himself, he hastily finished his prayer—"but deliver us +from all perils, glorious and blessed Virgin; Amen." And he parted from +the housekeeper on the steps of the church, going home much vexed by his +dissipation of mind.</p> + +<p>He there found a note from the Editor of the <i>Review</i>, which had +published his paper on the Fra Angelico in the Louvre, asking him for +another article.</p> + +<p>This diversion made him glad; he thought that this task might perhaps +preserve him from vain thoughts of his discomfiture at Chartres and his +fancy for the cloister.</p> + +<p>"What can I send to the <i>Review</i>?" said he to himself. "Since what they +chiefly ask for is criticism of religious art, I might write some short +study of the early German painters. I have ample notes, made on the spot +in the galleries there; let us see!"</p> + +<p>He turned them over, lingering to read a note-book containing his +impressions of travel. A summing up of his remarks on the School of +Cologne arrested his attention.</p> + +<p>At every page he gave vent to his surprise in more and more vehement +exclamations, at the false ideas and absurd theories put forward for so +many years with regard to these pictures.</p> + +<p>Every writer, without exception, had expatiated, each more +enthusiastically than the last, on the pure and religious art of these +early painters, speaking of them as seraphic artists who had depicted +superhuman beauty, white and sylph-like Virgins all soul, standing out +like celestial visions, against backgrounds of gold.</p> + +<p>Durtal, prejudiced by the unanimity of this universal praise, expected +to find almost impalpably fair angels, Flemish Madonnas, etherealized in +some sort, having shed their husk of flesh, rapturous Memlings with eyes +full of heaven, and bodies that had almost ceased to be—and he +remembered his dismay on entering the galleries of the Cologne Museum.</p> + +<p>In point of fact his disenchantment had begun as soon as he stepped out +of the train. Carried in the course of a <!-- Page 251 -->night from Paris to that city, +he had made his way through narrow streets where every basement window +exhaled the fragrance of <i>sauerkraut</i>, and he had reached the cathedral +square, beautified by Farina's shop-signs, where in front of the famous +Dom he had been obliged to confess that this façade, this exterior, was +a huge piece of patchwork—a delusion. Every part of it was furbished +up, and the church sheltered no sculpture under its portals; it was +symmetrical, built by peg and line; its rigid forms, its hard outlines +were an offence.</p> + +<p>The interior was better, in spite of the vulgar blaze, the cheap +fireworks, of ignoble modern glass. And there, in a chapel near the +choir, might be seen, for a consideration, the most famous picture of +the German school, the <i>Dombild</i>, by Stephan Lochner, a triptych +representing the Adoration of the Magi on the centre panel, with St. +Ursula on the left hand shutter and St. Gereon on the right.</p> + +<p>Durtal's consternation had risen to the highest pitch. The work was thus +arranged. Against a gold background, a Virgin, crowned, red-haired, +bullet-headed, dressed in blue, held on her knees an Infant blessing the +Kings, two kneeling on each side of the throne. One, an old fellow with +a short beard like a retired officer, and hair curled like shavings over +his ears, was sumptuously arrayed in crimson velvet brocaded with gold, +his hands clasped; the other, a dandy with long hair and a large beard, +dressed in green shot with gold and trimmed with fur, held up a golden +cup. And behind each, other figures were standing, flourishing their +swords and standards, in cavalier attitudes, and posing for the public, +thinking much more of the visitors than of the Virgin.</p> + +<p>This, then, was the type of Madonna, of the supersensual and sublimated +Virgins of Cologne! This one was puffy, redundant, chubby; she had the +neck of a heifer, and flesh like cream, or hasty pudding, that quivers +when it is touched. Jesus, whose expression was the only interesting +feature of the picture, a certain manly gravity that was shown without +any disfigurement of the character of childhood, was also round and +well-fed, and the scene took place on a lawn strewn with +flowers—primroses, violets, and strawberries painted in fine stipple +with the touch of a miniaturist.</p> + +<p>You might call this picture what you pleased, the execu<!-- Page 252 -->tion, smooth and +wavy, and cold in spite of the brilliant colours, was a finished piece +of work, brilliant, dexterous—but not religious; it betrayed a +decadence; the work was laboured, complicated, pretty, but it was in no +sense that of an early master.</p> + +<p>This common, squat Virgin, fat and pudgy, was simply a good German girl, +well-dressed and squarely seated, but she could never have been the +ecstatic Mother of God! Then these kneeling and standing men were not in +prayer; there was no devotion in this picture; the personages were all +thinking of something else, folding their hands and looking round at the +painter who was depicting them. As to the wings, it were better to say +nothing about them. What was to be thought of the Saint Ursula with a +prominent forehead like a cupping-glass and a burly stomach, surrounded +by other creatures as shapeless as herself, their squab noses poking out +of the bladders of lard that did duty for their faces?</p> + +<p>And Durtal found the same impression of insensibility to mysticism in +the picture gallery. There he could study Stephan Lochner's precursor, +Master Wilhelm—the first early German painter whose name is known—and +in this again he found the look of elaborate chubbiness as in the +Dombild. Wilhelm's Virgin was indeed less vulgar than the Virgin of the +cathedral; but in feeling she was equally insipid, over-finished, and +even more simperingly pretty. She was the triumph of delicate pertness, +and had the look of a stage chamber-maid with her hair crimped over her +forehead. And the child, twisted into an unnatural attitude, while he +caressed his Mother's chin, turned his face round to be the better seen.</p> + +<p>In short, this Virgin was neither human nor divine; she had not even the +too realistic touch of Lochner, and could, no more than the other, have +been the chosen Mother of God.</p> + +<p>It is indeed strange that these very early painters should have begun +where painting as an art ends, in mere finish and smoothness; men who +from the first put sugar in their new wine and betray their lack of +energy, of enthusiasm, of simplicity, while no faith projects itself +from their work. They are the very converse of every other school; <!-- Page 253 -->for +everywhere else, in Italy, Flanders, Holland, Burgundy, pictures began +by being clumsy and unfinished, barbarous and hard, but at least ardent +and pious!</p> + +<p>As he studied the other pictures in this collection, the mass of +anonymous work, the paintings ascribed to the Master of the Lyversberg +Passion, and the Master of the Saint Bartholomew, Durtal came to the +conclusion that the School of Cologne had known nothing of mysticism +till it had felt the influence of the Flemish painters. It had needed a +Van Eyck, and the yet more exquisite Roger van der Weyden, to breathe +the air of Heaven into these craftsmen. They thus had changed their +manner, had imitated the ascetic innocence of the Flemings, had +assimilated their tender piety and simplicity, and, in their turn, had +sung the glory of the Mother and mourned over the sufferings of the Son +in ingenuous hymns.</p> + +<p>"This school may be thus summed up," said Durtal. "It is the triumph of +padding and puffing, the apotheosis of fatness and sheen, and this has +nothing to do with Christian art in the true sense of the word.</p> + +<p>"If we want to understand the whole personal character of German +religious painting, we must study other schools than this, the only one +ever spoken of, and always with praise. We must turn to the less +familiar schools of Franconia and Swabia; there we find the very +opposite. As art it is savage and rough, but it lives—it weeps, nay it +cries aloud, but it prays. We must look at the works of these unkempt +geniuses, such as Grünewald, whose Christs, rebellious and wrathful, +grind their teeth; or Zeitblom, whose 'Veronica's veil,' in the Berlin +Museum, is unpleasant, no doubt; the angels have black leather crosses +on their breasts, and the Saviour's head is terrible, horrible; still +there is such energy in the work, such decision, such crudity, that the +very sincerity of its ugliness is impressive.</p> + +<p>"Certainly," Durtal went on, "even setting apart such daring painters as +Grünewald, I prefer many an unknown artist whose work is strange rather +than beautiful, but at any rate mystical, to the honey and lard of +Cologne; for instance, an anonymous painter who is to be found in the +Grand Duke's collection at Gotha, as the author of one of those curious +Mass-scenes which in the Middle Ages <!-- Page 254 -->were called the 'Mass of Saint +Gregory,' wherefore, we know not."</p> + +<p>Durtal turned over his note-book and read through the description he had +recorded of this work, which he remembered as an instance of a sort of +pious brutality.</p> + +<p>The picture was set out on a gold background. A little above the altar, +but scarcely higher, a wooden sarcophagus, a sort of square bath, was +seen, with a board over it from end to end. On this plank-bridge sat the +Christ, His legs hidden in this tomb, holding a cross. His face was +haggard and hollow, He was crowned with green thorns, and His emaciated +body was spotted all over by the ends of the scourges as if the wounds +were flea-bites. Over Him, in the air, floated the instruments of the +Passion: the nails, the sponge, a hammer and a spear; to the left, on a +very small scale, were the busts of Jesus and of Judas, near a pedestal +on which lay three rows of pieces of silver.</p> + +<p>In front of this altar, adoring this truly hideous Saviour painted in +accordance with the prophetic descriptions of Isaiah and David, were +Pope Gregory on his knees, his hands clasped, a grave Cardinal, whose +hands were hidden under his robe, and a rough-looking Bishop, standing, +in a dark green cloak embroidered with gold; he held a cross.</p> + +<p>It was enigmatical and it was sinister, but those austere and commanding +faces were alive. There was a stamp of faith, indomitable and resolute, +in those countenances. It was harsh to the palate, the roughest wine of +mysticism; but at least it was not the mawkish syrup of the early +Cologne painters.</p> + +<p>"Ah! that mystical breath by which the soul of the artist becomes +incorporate in the colour on a canvas, in the lines of carved stone, in +written words, and speaks to the souls of those who can understand! How +few have had it!" thought Durtal, closing his notes of travel. In +Germany it may be seen in the very bunglers among painters; in Italy, +setting aside Angelico, whose works reveal his saintly spirit and are +the coloured image of his secret soul, and his pupil, Benozzo Gozzoli, +the last of the Mediæval painters; if we also except his precursors: +Cimabue, the survivors of the rigid Byzantines, Giotto—who thawed those +fixed and puzzling figures, Orcagna,<!-- Page 255 --> Simone di Martino, Taddeo +Gaddi—all the very early painters—how much dexterous trickery do we +find among the great painters, mimicking the religious note, and +producing a deceptive imitation by sheer sham.</p> + +<p>"The Italians of the Renaissance, above all others, excelled in this +spurious piety, and those are comparatively rare who, like Botticelli, +were honest enough to confess that their Virgins were Venuses and their +Venuses Virgins.</p> + +<p>"The Berlin gallery, where he is to be seen in some exquisite and +triumphant examples, shows this very plainly; we see the two versions of +the type side by side.</p> + +<p>"First we have a wonderful Venus, nude, with pure gold hair brought +round her body by one hand, standing out in her white flesh against a +black background, gazing with limpid grey eyes, liquid with the colour +of stagnant water, and edged with lids like a young rabbit's—pink lids; +she must have wept much, and her disconsolate look, her drooping +attitude, suggest some far-away thought of the unsatisfied weariness of +the senses and the intolerable unrest of horrible desires that nothing +can satisfy.</p> + +<p>"And not far away is a Virgin, very like her—indeed her very self, with +her sensitive, slightly upturned nose, her lips like a folded +clover-leaf, her brackish eyes, her pink lids, her golden hair, her +greenish complexion, her strongly-moulded frame and large hands. The +countenance is the same, fretful and weary; it is evident that the same +model sat for both. They are both purely pagan. For the Venus, well and +good! But the Virgin!</p> + +<p>"It may be added that in this picture a row of torch-bearing angels +makes the result, if possible, even less Christian, for these delightful +creatures, with their ambiguous smiles and supple grace, have all the +dangerous attraction of wicked angels. They are Ganymedes, borrowed from +mythology, not from the Bible.</p> + +<p>"How far we are from God with this paganism of Botticelli's!" said +Durtal to himself. "What a difference between this painter and that +Roger van der Weyden whose Nativity is the glory of one of the adjoining +rooms in that magnificent Old Museum of Berlin!"</p> + +<p>Ay, that Nativity!—He had only to turn to his notes to see it plainly +before him.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 256 -->Painted as a triptych, on the right wing was an old man in front of some +wondering bystanders, burning incense to the Virgin, who is visible +through an open window above a landscape in distant perspective with +avenues undulating to the horizon; while a woman, her head dressed in a +muffler that is almost a turban, touches the old man's shoulder with one +hand and raises the other with an indescribable gesture of surprise and +joy, her face expressive of ecstasy. On the left wing kneel the three +Kings, their hands uplifted, their eyes raised to Heaven, contemplating +an Infant beaming from the heart of a star; nothing can be more +beautiful than these three transfigured faces; and these are praying +with all their heart, never troubling themselves about us.</p> + +<p>Still, these two divisions are but accessory to the central subject +which they complement, and which is thus arranged:</p> + +<p>In the middle, in front of a sort of ruined palace or columnar cow-shed +without a roof, the Virgin kneels in prayer before the Babe; to the +right the donor, the Chevalier Bladelin, is seen, also kneeling, and on +the left Saint Joseph, holding a lighted taper, gazes down on Jesus. +There are besides six little angels, three below at the door of the +stable and three above in the air. This is the whole scene.</p> + +<p>It is noteworthy that the goldsmith's work, the mingled splendour of +Oriental hangings, the brocades hemmed with fur and strewn with gems of +which Van Eyck and Memling made such free use to array their figures of +the Virgin and the donors, are not to be seen in this panel. The +textures are rich and heavy, but have none of the gorgeous colouring of +the silks of Bruges or the carpets of Persia. Roger van der Weyden seems +intentionally to have reduced the whole setting of the scene to its +simplest expression, and yet, while using an unaffectedly sober key of +colour, he has produced a masterpiece of pure and lucid harmony.</p> + +<p>Mary, with no diadem, no jewelled band, not a bracelet or a gem, her +head simply crowned by a few golden rays, is seen in a white dress, +closed to the throat, and a blue cloak of which the ample folds lie on +the ground; the sleeves of her under dress, fastened at the wrists, are +of a rich blue violet, more nearly black than red.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 257 -->Her face is indescribable; of superhuman loveliness, with long red-gold +hair; the brow high, the nose straight, the lips full, the chin small; +but words are of no avail; what cannot be described is the expression of +candour and sadness, the tide of love that rises to those downcast eyes +as she looks down on the tiny, helpless Babe, round whose head there is +a rosy nimbus starred with gold.</p> + +<p>Never was there a more unearthly and yet more living Virgin. Neither Van +Eyck, with his rather vulgar and never beautiful heads, nor +Memling—more tender and refined, no doubt, but limited to his ideal of +a woman with a round forehead and a face shaped like a kite, wide above +and pointed below—ever achieved the elegance of form or the purity of a +woman made divine by love, a being who, even apart from her surroundings +and bereft of the attributes by which she is recognizable, could be none +other than the Mother of God.</p> + +<p>By her side the Chevalier Bladelin, dressed all in black, with his +equine type of face, his shaven cheeks, his dignity, at once priestly +and princely, is lost in contemplation, far away from the world; he is +praying in good earnest. And Saint Joseph, opposite to him, represented +as a bald old man, with a short beard, and wearing a red cloak, comes +forward as if amazed at his happiness, and scarce daring to believe that +the moment has come when he may adore the Messiah born at last; he +smiles, deferentially, mildly stepping with the almost clumsy care of an +old man who would fain be serviceable but fears to intrude.</p> + +<p>To make the whole thing more than perfect, above the figure of Pierre +Bladelin extends a wondrous landscape, cut across by the High Street of +Middelburg, the town founded by this nobleman, a street bordered by +castellated houses with battlements and church towers, and vanishing in +a country scene lighted up by a clear sky, a blue spring day; above +Saint Joseph a meadow and woods, sheep and shepherds, and three +exquisite angels in robes, one of pinkish yellow, one of purple like a +campanula, and one of greenish citron hue; three really ethereal beings, +having no relationship with the pertly innocent pages invented by the +Renaissance.</p> + +<p>If we sum up the whole impression produced by this work, we are led to +the conclusion that mystical art, still <!-- Page 258 -->dwelling on earth, and not +restricted to scenes in Heaven, as Angelico had chosen to limit it in +his "Coronation of the Virgin," has produced in Roger van der Weyden's +triptych the purest effluence of prayer to be found in painting. Never +has the Nativity been so gloriously set forth, nor, it may be said, more +artlessly and simply expressed. The masterpiece of the Christmas +festival is at Berlin, just as the masterpiece of the Deposition is at +Antwerp, in the agonized and magnificent work of Quentin Matsys.</p> + +<p>"The early Flemish painters were the greatest that ever lived!" said +Durtal to himself, "and this Roger Van der Weyden, or Roger de la +Pasture as he is sometimes called, crushed between the fame of van Eyck +and of Memling—as Gherard David was later, and Hugo van der Goes, +Justus of Ghent, and Dierck Bouts—was in my opinion superior to them +all.</p> + +<p>"And after them what a falling away! Theatrical Crucifixions, the fleshy +coarseness of Rubens which Vandyck tried to mitigate by making it +leaner. We must leap into Holland to find the mystic accent once more, +and it reveals itself in the soul of a Judaizing Protestant, under an +aspect so mysterious and eccentric that at first sight we hesitate, +feeling ourselves, as it were, to make sure that we are not mistaken in +regarding this as religious art.</p> + +<p>"Nor need we go to Amsterdam to verify the truth of this impression. It +is enough to go to see the 'Disciples at Emmaus,' in the Louvre."</p> + +<p>Durtal, started on this theme, fell into a reverie over Rembrandt's +strange conception of Christian æsthetics. It is evident that in his +mode of depicting Gospel scenes this painter still exhales a breath of +the Old Testament; his church, even if he had meant to paint it as it +was in his day, would still be a synagogue, so strong is the odour of +the Jew in all his work; he is possessed by the imagery, the prophecies, +all the solemn and barbarous side of the East. And this we can +understand when we know that he was the companion of Rabbis, whose +portraits he has left us, and the friend of Manasseh ben Israel, one of +the most learned men of his age. On the other hand, we may admit that +this Protestant Dutchman engrafted on this stock of cabalistic learning +and Mosaic ceremonial an attentive and assiduous study of the Old +Testament, for he <!-- Page 259 -->possessed a Bible, which was sold by auction with his +furniture to pay his debts.</p> + +<p>This would be enough to justify his choice of subjects and the +composition of his pictures; but the riddle remains unsolved of the +results achieved by an artist whom we cannot conceive of, after all, as +praying before he would paint: like Angelico and Roger van der Weyden.</p> + +<p>Be this as it may, he, with the eye of a visionary, with his serious but +fervid art, his genius for concentration, for getting a spot of the +essence of sunlight into the heart of darkness, has accomplished great +results; and in his Biblical scenes has spoken a language which no one +before him had even attempted to lisp.</p> + +<p>Is not this picture of the Pilgrims to Emmaus a typical instance of +this? Pull the work to pieces; it ought to seem dull, monotonous, +voiceless. As a composition it is utterly common: we see a sort of +cellar of stone-work, a table facing us, behind which sits Jesus, His +feet bare, His lips colourless, His complexion muddy, His raiment of a +pinkish grey; He is breaking the bread, while, to His right, an apostle, +clutching his napkin, looks at Him, fancies he recognizes Him, and on +the left another disciple, quite sure that he knows Him, clasps his +hands—and this one utters a cry of joy that we can hear! A fourth +figure, with an intelligent profile, sees nothing, but, attentive to his +duties, waits on the guests.</p> + +<p>It is a meal of humble folk in a prison; the colours are limited to a +key of sad greys and browns, excepting in the case of the man who twists +his napkin, whose sleeves are thick with a vermilion like red +sealing-wax, while the others might be painted with dust and pitch.</p> + +<p>These are the literal facts; but they are not the truth, for everything +is transfigured. The head of Christ is luminous merely by the way He +looks up; a pale radiance fills the room. This Jesus, ugly as He is, +with lips like death, asserts Himself by a gesture, a look of ineffable +beauty, as the murdered Son of a God!</p> + +<p>We stand dumfounded, not even trying to understand; for this work, +stamped with transcendent naturalism, is beyond and apart from painting; +no one can copy or reproduce it.</p> + +<p>"After Rembrandt," Durtal went on, "there is an <!-- Page 260 -->irremediable decay of +religious feeling in painting. The seventeenth century has not left a +single picture in which there is a genuine stamp of manly devotion; +excepting, indeed, in Spain at the time when Saint Theresa and Saint +John of the Cross flourished there; then the mystical realism of its +painters produced some fiercely fervid works;" and Durtal recalled a +picture by Zurbaran he had seen and admired in the Gallery at Lyons, +Saint Francis of Assisi standing upright in a habit of grey serge, the +cowl over his head, his hands hidden in his sleeves.</p> + +<p>The face looked as if it had been moulded or chiselled out of cinders; +the mouth was open, livid, below ecstatic eyes as white as if they had +been blinded. It was a wonder how this corpse, of which nothing was left +but the bones, could hold itself up; and terror came over the beholder +as he thought of the excessive maceration and overwhelming penances that +must have exhausted that frame and seamed that face.</p> + +<p>This painting was the evident outcome of the relentless and terrible +mysticism of Saint John of the Cross, the art of the rack, the <i>delirium +tremens</i> of divine intoxication here on earth; aye, but what a passion +of adoration, what a voice of love stifled by anguish found utterance in +this canvas.</p> + +<p>As to the eighteenth century, it was not worth a thought; that century +was the age of the belly and the bath-room; as soon as art tried to +touch the Church it only made a washing-basin into a holy-water stoup.</p> + +<p>In our own time, again, there is nothing to note.</p> + +<p>Overbeck, Ingres, Flandrin—all sorry jades harnessed willy-nilly to +religious tasks by commissions from the pious. In the church of Saint +Sulpice Delacroix extinguishes all the feeble art that surrounds him, +but his sense of Catholic art is null.</p> + +<p>In truth, faith is now dormant, and without that no mystical work is +possible!</p> + +<p>At the present moment Signol is dead, but Olivier Merson is left; +vacuity all along the line. We need not take into account the got-up +absurdities and paintings to puzzle Rosicrucian simpletons; nor, again, +the feeble imagery of the wealthy idlers or the worthy youths who fancy +that if they paint a woman larger than life, that makes <!-- Page 261 -->her mystical. +Silence would befit the subject, only that, unluckily, a well-meaning +publisher was struck by the idea of mobilizing the clerical forces to +hail James Tissot as an evangelical painter. His Life of Christ is one +of the least religious works conceivable, for, in fact, it might be +regarded as a hesitating paraphrase of the Life of Jesus as narrated by +that cheerful apostate and terrible jester, Renan.</p> + +<p>The firm of Mame has completed this artist's treason by the issue of +these melancholy chromo-lithographs. Under the pretext of realism, of +information acquired on the spot, of authenticated costumes—all +extremely doubtful, since we should be forced to conclude that nothing +has changed in Palestine in the course of nineteen centuries—Monsieur +Tissot has given us the basest masquerade that anyone has yet dared +present as an illustration of the Scriptures. Look at that disreputable +trull, a street slut tired of shouting "This way to the boats!" till she +falls fainting. This is the <i>Magnificat</i>, the Blessed Virgin. That +epileptic boy with outstretched arms is Jesus in the Temple. Look at the +Baptism, the Pharisee and the Publican, the Massacre of the Innocents, +the Saint Peter walking on the Sea, the Magdalen at the feet of Jesus, +the ridiculous <i>Consummatum est</i>—look at them all: these prints are +matchless for platitude, effeteness, poverty of spirit. They might have +been designed by the first-comer, and are painted with muck, wine-sauce, +mud!</p> + +<p>Certainly the hapless Catholics have no luck when once they try to +meddle with what they do not understand; their incurable lack of +artistic sense is once more displayed in this attempt over which the +whole world of art and letters is laughing in their sleeve.</p> + +<p>"Then is there nothing, absolutely nothing, to the credit side for the +Church?" exclaimed Durtal. "And yet some attempts at ascetic art have +been made in this century. A few years since, the Benedictine House at +Beuron, in Bavaria, tried to revive ecclesiastical art"; and Durtal +remembered having looked through some reproductions of mural frescoes +painted by these monks in a tower at Monte Cassino.</p> + +<p>These frescoes had gone back to the types of Assyria and Egypt, with +their crowned gods, their sphynx-headed angels having fan-shaped wings +behind their heads, their <!-- Page 262 -->old men with plaited beards playing on +stringed instruments; and then the Friars of Beuron had given up this +hieratic style, in which, it must be owned, they succeeded but ill, and +in certain later works—especially in a volume of the Way of the Cross, +published at Freiburg in Breisgau—they had adopted a strange medley of +other styles.</p> + +<p>The Roman soldiers who figured in those pages were huge firemen, a +bequest from the schools of Guérin and David; and then, unexpectedly, in +certain plates where the Magdalen and the Holy women appeared, a younger +spirit seemed to prevail among the commonplace groups—Greek female +types derived from the Renaissance, pretty and elegant, evidently +imported from the works of the pre-Raphaelites, and strongly recalling +Walter Crane's illustrations.</p> + +<p>Thus the ideal at Beuron had developed into an alloy of the French art +of the First Empire and contemporary English work.</p> + +<p>Some of these compositions were all but laughable, that of the Ninth +Station, to mention one: Christ lying at full length on His face, and +being pulled up by a rope tied to His bound hands; it looked as if He +were learning to swim. Still, but for feeble and vulgar incidents, +clumsy and obvious details, what strange scenes suddenly rose before his +mind, distinct from the mass: Veronica on her knees before Jesus, was +really distracted with grief, really fine; the borrowed or copied +figures of the other persons represented disappeared; even in the least +original of these compositions the coarse, unsatisfactory utterances of +these monks spoke an almost eloquent language; and this because intense +faith and fervour lurked in the work. A breath had passed over those +faces, and they were alive; the emotion, the voice of prayer, was felt +in the silence of this conventional crowd. This Way of the Cross was +matchless from this point of view: Monastic piety had introduced an +unexpected element, giving evidence of the mysterious power it has at +its command, infusing a personal emotion, a peculiar aroma, into a work +which, without it, would never indeed have existed. These Benedictines +had suggested the sensation of kneeling worship and the very fragrance +of the Gospel, as artists of wider scope had failed in doing.</p> + +<p>Their attempt, however, had begotten no following, and <!-- Page 263 -->at this day the +school is almost dead, producing nothing but feeble prints for old women +designed by the lay-brothers.</p> + +<p>How, indeed, could it have been anything but still-born? The idea of +doing for the West what Manuel Pauselinos did for the East, of +eliminating study from nature, imposing an uniform ritual of colour and +line, of compelling every artistic temperament to squeeze itself into +the same mould, shows an absolute misapprehension of art in the mind of +the man who attempted it. The system was bound to end in ankylosis, in +the paralysis of painting, and this, in fact, was the result.</p> + +<p>At about the same time with these Religious an unknown artist, living in +the country, and never exhibiting in Paris, was painting pictures for +churches and convents, working for the glory of God and refusing all +remuneration from priests or monks. Durtal knew his pictures, and they +had suggested much the same reflections as those aroused by the +Benedictine paintings of Beuron.</p> + +<p>At first sight Paul Borel's work is neither cheerful nor attractive; the +phrases he used might often have made a partisan of the modern smile; +and besides, to judge his work fairly it is indispensable to get rid of +part of it, to refuse to see anything but that which has evaded the +too-familiar formulas of commonplace unction; and then what a spirit of +manly fervency, of ardent piety, filled and upheld it.</p> + +<p>His most important paintings are buried in the chapel of the Dominican +school at Oullins, in a remote corner of the suburbs of Lyons. Among the +ten subjects that decorate the nave, we find Moses Striking the Rock, +the Disciples at Emmaus, the Healing of One Possessed, of One Born +Blind, and of Tobit; but in spite of the calm energy shown in these +frescoes, they are disappointing by reason of their general heaviness +and of the sleepy and unwonted effect of colour. Not till we reach the +choir, beyond the communion railing, do we find works of a quite +different kind of art, above some magnificent figures of saints of the +Order of Friars Preacher, amazing in the power of prayer, the essence of +saintliness that they diffuse.</p> + +<p>There, too, Durtal had found two large compositions: one of the Virgin +bestowing the Rosary on Saint Dominic, and the other of Saint Thomas +Aquinas kneeling before an altar on which stands a Crucifix radiating +light. Never since the<!-- Page 264 --> Middle Ages had monks been so understood and so +painted; never had a more impetuous fount of soul been revealed under so +stern a casing of features. Borel was the painter of the Monastic +Saints; his art, by nature rather torpid, soared up with them as soon as +he tried to paint them.</p> + +<p>At Versailles, again, even better perhaps than in the chapel of the +Oullins seminary, the sincere and deeply religious work of Borel might +be studied. At the entrance to the chapel of the Augustine Sisters in +that town, of which Borel had painted the nave and the choir, there +stood a figure of an Abbess of the fourteenth century, Saint Clare of +Montefalcone, in the black robes of an Augustinian Nun, against the +stone walls of her cell, an open book on one side of the figure and a +brass lamp on the other, somewhat behind her on a table.</p> + +<p>In that face, bent over the Crucifix she was pressing to her lips, in +that countenance, at once sweet and hungering, in the movement of the +arms closely folded over her bosom, raised to her face, and themselves +forming a cross, he had seen the complete absorption of a bride, the +rapt, ecstatic joy of the purest love, and at the same time something of +the anxious affection of a mother cherishing the Christ she kissed, and +seemed to shelter in her bosom like a suffering child.</p> + +<p>And this was all set forth without any theatrical attitude or forced +gestures, with perfect simplicity. This Saint Clare has no ravings, no +outcries, like Saint Magdalen of Pazzi; she does not soar with the +flight of divine intoxication. The mystic possession manifests itself in +a mute rapture; her transports are controlled, and her inebriety is +grave; she does not diffuse herself, but opens her soul, and Jesus, as +He enters in, stamps her with His likeness, impresses her with the image +of the Crucifix she holds, and of which the impress was found graven on +her heart when it was examined after her death.</p> + +<p>This was the most remarkable religious painting of our time, and it was +achieved with no borrowing from the Early painters, no trickery of +awkward attitudes supported by iron bars, no affectations, no artifice. +And what a devout Catholic, what an emotionally pious artist must the +man be who could produce such a work!</p> + +<p>After him the rest was silence. Among the religious youth of to-day no +one is to be found equal to the present<!-- Page 265 -->ment of Church subjects. "Only +one," said Durtal, thinking it over, "gave any hope of such powers, for +he stands apart from the rest, and, at any rate, has talent."</p> + +<p>He rose and went to turn over his portfolios, picking out the +lithographs by Charles Dulac.</p> + +<p>This artist had begun with a series of landscapes, idealizing nature, at +first with a timid hand—extravagantly large pools, and trees with +leaves that looked like wild wigs tossed by the wind; then he had +produced a rendering in black and white of a Canticle of the Sun, or of +Creation, and had poured out in nine plates, printed in different states +of tone, that effluence of mystical feeling which in his first set was +still latent and undecided.</p> + +<p>The rather hackneyed dictum that "a landscape is a state of mind," was +strictly appropriate to this work; the artist had stamped his faith on +these views, studied, no doubt, from nature, but seen, it was evident, +not by the eyes alone, but by a captivated spirit singing in the open +air Daniel's hymn and David's psalm, as interpreted by Saint Francis, +and repeating after them the thought that all the Elements shall sing to +the glory of Him who created them.</p> + +<p>Among these plates two were genuinely inspiring: that with the title, +<i>Stella Matutina</i>, and the other with the words, <i>Spiritus Sancte Deus</i>; +but another, the broadest, the most decisive, and the simplest of them +all, bearing the title <i>Sol Justitiæ</i>, seemed best of all to set forth +the individual sympathies of the artist.</p> + +<p>It was thus composed: A light, remote, translucent distance was lost in +infinitude—a peninsula, a desert waste of waters with ribs of shore, +tongues of land planted with trees repeated in the mirror of the lake; +on the horizon the sun, half set, cast its beams reflected by the sheet +of waters; that was all, but amazing placidity and calm, a sense of +fulness was shed over all. The idea of justice, to which that of mercy +answers as its inevitable echo, was symbolized in the serene solemnity +of this expanse lighted up by the glow of a kindly season and mild +atmosphere.</p> + +<p>Durtal drew back to get a more complete view of the work as a whole.</p> + +<p>"There is no denying it," said he; "this artist has the instinct, the +subtle sense of aerial space, of expanse; he <!-- Page 266 -->understands the soul of +calm waters flowing under a vast sky! And then, this print diffuses +emanations as from a Catholic, which steal into us, slowly soak into our +heart.</p> + +<p>"And by this time," said he, closing the portfolio, "I am far enough +away from the original matter, and none the nearer to any article I can +write for the <i>Review</i>. A paper on the primitive German painters would, +indeed, be quite in its line; yes, but what an undertaking! I should +have to work up my notes, and after dealing with Meister Wilhelm, +Stephan Lochner, and Zeitblom, to speak of Bernhardt Strigel, an almost +unknown painter, of Albert Dürer, Holbein, Martin Schongauer, Hans +Balding, Burgkmayer, and I know not how many more. I should have to +account for whatever may have survived of orthodoxy in Germany after the +Reformation; to mention, at any rate, from the Lutheran point of view, +that extraordinary painter, Cranach, whose Adams are bearded Apollos of +the complexion of a Red Indian, and his Eves slender, chubby-faced +courtesans, with bullet heads, little shrimps' eyes, lips moulded out of +red pomatum, breasts like apples close under the neck, long, slim legs, +elegantly formed, with the calf high up, and large, flat feet with thick +ankles.</p> + +<p>"Such a treatise would carry me too far. It is amusing to dream over, +but not to write. I should do better to seek a less panoramic, a +compacter subject. But what?—Well, I will see later," he concluded, +getting up, for Madame Mesurat jovially announced that dinner was ready.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"><!-- Page 267 --></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h2> + + +<p>To change his weariness of the place, Durtal one sunny afternoon went to +the further end of Chartres, to visit the ancient church of Saint Martin +du Val. It dated from the tenth century, and had served as the chapel by +turns of a Benedictine House and of a Capuchin convent. Restored without +any too flagrant heresies, it was now included in the precincts of an +Asylum, and was reached by crossing a yard where blind folk in white +cotton caps sat nodding on benches in the shade of a few trees.</p> + +<p>Its small, squat doorway and three little belfries, as if it had been +built for a village of dwarfs, attested its Romanesque origin; and, as +at Saint Radegonde at Poitiers and Notre Dame de la Couture at le Mans, +the interior opened, under an altar very much raised above the ground, +into a crypt lighted by loopholes borrowing their light from the +ambulatory of the choir. The capitals of the columns, coarsely carved, +resembled the idols of Oceania; under the pavement and in the tombs lay +many of the Bishops of Chartres, and newly-consecrated prelates were +supposed to spend the first night of their arrival at the See in prayer +before these tombs, so as to imbue themselves with the virtues of their +predecessors and enlist their support.</p> + +<p>"The Manes of these Bishops might very well have whispered to their +present successor, Monseigneur des Mofflaines, some plan for purifying +the House of the Virgin by turning out the vile musician who degrades +the Sanctuary on Sundays to the level of a music hall!" sighed Durtal. +'But, alas! nothing disturbs the inertia of that aged, and invalid +shepherd, who is, indeed, never to be seen either in his garden, in the +cathedral, or in the town.</p> + +<p>"Ah! But this is something better than all the vocal flourishes of the +choristers!" said Durtal to himself as he <!-- Page 268 -->listened to the bells aroused +from silence to shed the blessed drops of sound over the city.</p> + +<p>He called to mind the meanings ascribed to bells by the early +symbolists. Durand of Mende compares the hardness of the metal to the +power of the preacher, and thinks that the blows of the tongue against +the side, aim at showing the orator that he should punish himself and +correct his own vices before he blames those of others. The wooden +crossbeam to which the bell is suspended resembles in form the Cross of +Christ, and the rope pulled by the ringer to set the bell going is +allegorical of the knowledge of the Scripture which depends on the Cross +itself.</p> + +<p>According to Hugh of Saint Victor, the tongue of the bell is the +sacerdotal tongue, which, striking on both sides of the body, declares +the truth of both Testaments. Finally, to others the bell itself is the +mouth of the Liturgy, and the tongue its tongue.</p> + +<p>"In fact, the bell is the Church's herald, its outer voice, as the +priest is its inward voice," Durtal concluded.</p> + +<p>While meditating in this wise, he had reached the cathedral, and for the +hundredth time stood to admire those powerful abutments throwing out, +with the strong curve of a projectile, flying buttresses like spoked +wheels, and, as usual, he was amazed by the flight of the parabola, the +grace of the trajectory, the sober strength of those curved supports. +"Still," said he to himself, as he studied the parapet raised above +them, bordering the roof of the nave, "the architect who was content to +stamp out those trefoil arches, as if they were punched in that stone +parapet, was less happily inspired than certain other master-masons or +stone-workers who enclosed the little gutter-path they made round church +roofs with scriptural or symbolical images. Such an one was he who built +the cathedral at Troyes, where the top parapet is carved alternately +into fleur de lys and Saint Peter's keys; and he who at Caudebec +sculptured the edge into gothic letters of a delightfully decorative +character, spelling a hymn to the Virgin, thus crowning the church with +a garland of prayer, wreathing its head with a white chaplet of +aspiration."</p> + +<p>Durtal left the north side of the cathedral, went past the royal door +and round the corner of the old tower. With one hand he held on his hat, +and with the other grasped the <!-- Page 269 -->skirts of his coat, which flapped about +his legs. The storm blew permanently on this spot. There might be not a +breath of air anywhere else in the town, but here, at this corner, +winter and summer, there was always a blast that caught cloaks and +skirts and lashed the face with icy thongs.</p> + +<p>"That perhaps is the reason why the statues of the neighbouring north +door, which are so incessantly scourged by the wind, stand in such +shivering attitudes with narrow and tightly-drawn raiment, their arms +and legs held close," thought Durtal, with a smile. "And is it not the +same with that strange figure dwelling in companionship with a sow +spinning—though it is not in fact a sow, but a hog—and an ass playing +on a hurdy-gurdy on the storm-beaten wall of the old tower?"</p> + +<p>These two animals, whose careless herd he seems to be, represent in +their merry guise the old popular sayings: <i>Ne sus Minerveum</i>, and +<i>Asinus ad lyram</i>, which may be freely rendered by "Every man to his +trade," and "Never force a talent;" for we should but be as inept as a +pig trying to be wise or an ass trying to strike the lyre.</p> + +<p>But this angel with a nimbus, standing barefoot under a canopy, +supporting a sun-dial against his breast, what does he mean, what is he +doing?</p> + +<p>A descendant of the royal women of the north porch, for he is like them +in his slender shape, sheathed in a clinging robe with string-like +pleats, he looks over our heads, and we wonder whether he is very impure +or very chaste.</p> + +<p>The upper part of the face is innocent, the hair cropped round the head; +the face is beardless and the expression monastic, but between the nose +and mouth there is a broad slope, and the lips, parting in a straight +gash, wear a smile, which as we look seems just a little impudent, just +a little vulgar, and we wonder what manner of angel this may be.</p> + +<p>There is in this figure something of the recalcitrant seminarist, and +also something of the virtuous postulant. If the sculptor took a young +Brother for his model, he certainly did not choose a docile novice, such +as he who no doubt served for the study of Joseph standing under the +north door; he must have worked from one of the religious <i>Gyrovagoi</i> +who so tormented St. Benedict. A strange figure is this angel, who has a +father at Laon, behind the cathedral, and who <!-- Page 270 -->anticipated by many +centuries the puzzling seraphic types of the Renaissance.</p> + +<p>"What a wind!" muttered Durtal, hastening back to the west front, where +he went up the steps and pushed the door open.</p> + +<p>The entrance to this immense and obscure church is always coercive; we +instinctively bend the head and advance cautiously under the oppressive +majesty of its vault. Durtal stopped when he had gone a few steps, +dazzled by the illumination of the choir in contrast with the dark alley +of the nave, which only gained a little light where it joined the +transepts. The Christ had the legs and feet in shadow, the body in +subdued light, and the head bathed in a torrent of glory; Durtal gazed +up in the air at the motionless ranks of Patriarchs, and Apostles, and +Bishops, and Saints in a glow as of dying fires, dimly lighted glass, +guarding the Sacred Body at their feet, below them; they stood in rows +along the upper storey in huge pointed settings, with wheels above them, +showing to Jesus, nailed to earth, His army of faithful soldiers, His +legions as enumerated in the Scriptures, the Legends, the Martyrology; +Durtal could identify in the armed throng of the painted windows St. +Laurence, St. Stephen, St. Giles, St. Nicholas of Myra, St. Martin, St. +George of Cappadocia, St. Symphorian, St. Philip, St. Foix, St. Laumer, +and how many more whose names he could not recollect—and paused in +admiration near the transept, in front of a figure of Abraham fixed for +ever in a threatening gesture, holding a sword over a crouching Isaac, +the blade shining brightly against the infinite blue.</p> + +<p>He stood admiring the conceptions and the craftsmanship of those +thirteenth century glass-workers, their emphatic language, necessary at +such great heights, the way in which they had made the pictures legible +from a distance by introducing a single figure in each, whenever that +was possible, and painting it in massive outline, with contrasting +colours, so as to be easily taken in at a glance when seen from below.</p> + +<p>But the triumph of this art was neither in the choir, nor in the +transepts of the church, nor in the nave; it was at the entrance, on the +inner side of the wall, where on the outside stood the statues of the +nameless queens. Durtal delighted in this glorious show, but he always +postponed it a little to excite himself by expectancy, and revel in the +leap <!-- Page 271 -->of joy it gave him, repetition of the sensation not having yet +availed to weaken it.</p> + +<p>On this particular day, under a sunny sky, these three windows of the +twelfth century blazed with splendour with their broad short blades, the +blade of a claymore, flat wide panels of glass under the rose that held +the most prominent place over the west door.</p> + +<p>It was a twinkling sheet of cornflowers and sparks, a shifting maze of +blue flames—a paler blue than that in which Abraham, at the end of the +nave, brandished his knife; this pale, limpid blue resembled the flames +of burning punch and of the ignited powder of sulphur, and the lightning +flash of sapphires, but of quite young sapphires, as it were, still +infantine and tremulous. And in the right hand pointed window he could +distinguish in burning red the Stem of Jesse—figures piled up espalier +fashion, in the blue fire of the sky; while to the left and in the +middle, scenes were shown from the Life of Jesus—the Annunciation, Palm +Sunday, the Transfiguration, the Last Supper, and the Supper at Emmaus; +and above these three windows Christ hurled thunder from the heart of +the great rose, the dead emerged from their graves at the trumpet-call, +and St. Michael weighed souls.</p> + +<p>"How did the glass-makers discover and compound that twelfth century +blue?" wondered Durtal. "And why have their successors so long lost it, +as well as their red?</p> + +<p>"In the twelfth century glass-painters made use chiefly of three +colours; first, blue—that ineffable, uncertain sky-blue which is the +glory of the Chartres windows; then red—a purplish red, full and +important; and green—inferior in quality to the two others. For white +they preferred a greenish tinge.</p> + +<p>"In the following century the palette is more extensive, but the stain +is darker; the glass, too, is thicker. And yet, what a glowing blue of +pure, bold sapphire tone the artists of the furnace had at their +command, and what a fine red they used, the colour of fresh blood! +Yellow, of which they were less lavish, was, if I may judge from the +robe of a king near the Abraham, in a window by the transept, a daring +hue of bright lemon. But apart from these three colours, which have a +sort of resonance, and burst forth like songs of joy in <!-- Page 272 -->these +transparent pictures, others grow more sober; the violets are like +Orleans plums or purple egg-fruit, the browns are of the hue of burnt +sugar, the chive-coloured greens turn dark.</p> + +<p>"But what masterpieces of colour they achieved by the harmony and +contrast of these tones, and with what skill did they handle the +lead-lines, emphasizing certain details, punctuating and dividing these +paragraphs of flame as if with lines of ink.</p> + +<p>"And another thing which is amazing is the perfect agreement of all +these various crafts, practised side by side, treating the same +subjects, or supplementing each other—each, by its own mode of +expression, under one guiding mind, contributing to the whole; with what +a sense of fitness, with what skill were the posts distributed, the +places assigned to each as beseemed the purpose of his craft, the +requirements of his art.</p> + +<p>"Architecture having finished the lower portion of the edifice, retires +into the background to make way for Sculpture, giving it the fine +opportunity of the doorways; and Sculpture, hitherto invisible at +excessive heights, as a mere accessory, suddenly finds itself supreme. +With due sense of justice it now comes forward where it can be seen, and +the sister art retires, leaving it to address the multitude, giving it +the noblest framework in those arched doorways, imitating a deeper +perspective by their concentric arches, diminishing and retreating to +the door-frames.</p> + +<p>"In other instances Architecture does not give everything to one art, +but divides the bounty of her great <i>façade</i> between sculpture and +painting; reserving to the former the hollows and nooks where statues +may find niches, and giving to glass-painters the tympanum of the great +door, where at Chartres the image-maker has displayed the Triumph of +Christ. This we see in the great west doors of Tours and of Reims.</p> + +<p>"This plan of substituting glass for bas-reliefs had its disadvantages; +seen from outside—their wrong side—these diaphanous pictures look like +spiders' nets on an enormous scale and thick with dust. With the light +on them the windows are, in fact, grey or black; it is only by going +inside and looking back that their fire can be seen flashing; the +outside is here sacrificed to the inside. Why?</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 273 -->Perhaps," said Durtal, answering himself, "it is symbolical of the soul +having light inwardly, an allegory of the spiritual life—"</p> + +<p>He took in all the windows of the nave with a rapid glance, and it +struck him that their effect was a combination of the prison and the +grave, with their coals of fire burning behind iron bars, some crossed +like the windows of a gaol, and others twisting like black twigs and +branches. Is not glass painting of all arts that in which God does most +to help the artist, the art which man, unaided, can never make perfect, +since the sky alone can give life to the colours by a beam of sunshine, +and lend movement to the lines? In short, man fashions the form, +prepares the body, and must wait till God infuses the soul.</p> + +<p>"It is to-day a high-day of light and the Sun of Justice is visiting His +Mother," he went on, as he walked to where the pillared thicket of the +choir ended at the south transept, to look at the window known as Notre +Dame de la belle Verrière, the figure, in blue, relieved against a +mingled background of dead-leaf olive, brown, iris violet, plum-green; +She gazed out with her sad and pensive pout—a pout very cleverly +restored by a modern glass-painter; and Durtal remembered that people +had come to pray to Her, as he now went to pray to the Virgin of the +Pillar and Notre Dame de Sous Terre.</p> + +<p>Such devotion was a thing of the past; the men of our time need, it +would seem, a more tangible, a more material Virgin than this slender, +fragile image, hardly visible in dark weather; nevertheless, a few +peasants still kept up the habit of kneeling and offering a taper before +Her, and Durtal, who loved these old neglected Madonnas, joined them and +invoked Her too.</p> + +<p>Two other windows also appealed to him by the singularity of the +figures, perched very high up, in the depths of the apse, and serving as +attendant pages, at a distance, to the Virgin holding Her Son in the +centre light commanding the whole perspective of the cathedral; these +each contained in a light-toned lancet, a barbarous and grotesque +seraph, with sharply-marked features, white wings full of eyes, and +robes with jagged, strap-like edges of a pale green colour; their legs +were bare, and they were represented as floating. These two angels had +jujube yellow <!-- Page 274 -->aureoles tilted to the back like sailors' hats; and this +ragged attire, the feathers folded over the breast, the hat of glory, +with their general expression of refractory wilfulness, suggested the +idea that these beings were at once paupers, Apaches or Mohicans, and +seamen.</p> + +<p>As to the remaining windows, especially those which included several +figures and were divided into several pictures, it would have needed a +telescope and have taken many days of study only to make out the story +they told, and discover the details; and months would not have sufficed +for the task, since the glass had been in many cases repaired and often +replaced without regard to order, so that it was especially difficult to +decipher it.</p> + +<p>An attempt had been made to count the number of figures represented in +the cathedral windows; they were as many as 3889; in the mediæval times +everybody had been eager to present a glass picture to the Virgin. Not +cardinals only, kings, bishops and princes, canons and nobles, but the +corporations of the town also had contributed these panels of fire; the +richest, such as the Guilds of Drapers and Furriers, of Goldsmiths and +Money-changers, had each presented five to Our Lady, while the poorer +companies of the Master Scavengers and Water-carriers, the Porters and +Rag-pickers, each gave one.</p> + +<p>Pondering on these things, Durtal wandered round the ambulatory and +paused in front of a small stone Virgin ensconced at the foot of the +stairs leading up to the chapel of Saint Piat, constructed in the +fourteenth century as a sort of outbuilding behind the apse. This +Virgin, dating from the same period, had shrunk into the shade, effacing +Herself, deferentially leaving the more important places to the senior +Madonnas.</p> + +<p>She carried an Infant playing with a bird, in allusion, no doubt, to the +passage in the apocryphal Gospels of the Infancy, and of Thomas the +Israelite, which shows us the Child Jesus amusing Himself by modelling +birds out of clay, and giving them life by breathing upon them.</p> + +<p>Then Durtal continued his walk through the chapels; stopping only to +look at one which contained relics of opposite utility and double +purpose: the shrines of Saint Piat and Saint Taurinus. The bones of the +former saint were displayed to secure dry weather in times of rain, and +<!-- Page 275 -->those of the second to invoke rain in times of drought. But what was +far less comforting and more irritating even than this array of +side-chapels, with their wretched adornment—with names that had been +changed since their first dedication so that the tutelary protection +earned by centuries of service had ceased to exist—was the choir, +battered, dirty, degraded as if on purpose.</p> + +<p>In 1763 the old Chapter had thought fit to deface the Gothic columns, +and to have them colour-washed by a Milanese lime-washer, of a yellowish +pink speckled with grey; then they had abandoned to the town-museum some +magnificent pieces of Flemish tapestry that screened the inner circuit +of the choir aisles, and had put in their place bas-reliefs in marble +executed by the dreadful bungler who had crushed the altar under the +gigantic group of the Virgin. And mischance had helped. In 1789 the +Sansculottes were intending to destroy this mountainous Assumption, and +some ill-starred idiot saved it by placing a cap of liberty on the +Virgin's head!</p> + +<p>To think that some beautiful windows were knocked out in order to get a +better light for this mass of lard! If only there were the slightest +hope of ever getting rid of it; but alas! all such hopes are vain. Some +years ago, when Monseigneur Régnault was Bishop, the idea was indeed +suggested—not of making away with this petrified lump of tallow, but at +least of getting rid of the bas-reliefs.</p> + +<p>Then the prelate—who stuffed his ears with cotton for fear of taking +cold—set his face against it; and for reasons of equal importance, no +doubt, the sacrilegious hideousness of this Assumption must be for ever +endured, and the marble screens as well.</p> + +<p>But though the interior of this choir was a disgrace, the groups round +the ambulatory of the apse and the outer wall of the choir were well +worth lingering over.</p> + +<p>These figures under canopies and tabernacles carved by Jehan de Beauce +began on the right by the south transept, went round the horse-shoe +behind the altar, and ended at the north transept where the Black Virgin +of the Pillar stands.</p> + +<p>The subjects were the same as those treated in the small capitals of the +royal doorway, outside the church, above the panegyric of the kings, +saints, and queens. They were <!-- Page 276 -->taken from the Apocryphal legends, the +Gospel of the Childhood of Mary, and the Protoevangelist James the Less.</p> + +<p>The first of these groups was executed by an artist named Jehan Soulas. +The contract, dated January 2nd, 1518, between this sculptor and the +delegates of the authorities conducting the works of the church, still +existed. It set forth that Jehan Soulas, a master image-maker, dwelling +in Paris at the cemetery of Saint Jehan in the parish of Saint Jehan en +Grève, pledged himself to execute in good stone of the Tonnerre quarry, +and better than the images that are round about the choir of Notre Dame +de Paris, the four first groups, of which the subjects were prescribed +and explained; in consideration of the sum of two hundred and eighty +<i>livres Tournois</i>, which the Chapter of Chartres undertook to pay him as +he might require.</p> + +<p>Soulas, who had undoubtedly learned his craft from some Flemish artist, +produced certain little <i>genre</i> pictures well adapted, by their spirit +and liveliness, to cheer the soul that the solemnity of the windows +might have depressed; for in this aisle they really seemed to let the +light filter through Indian shawl-stuff, admitting only a few dull +sparks and smoky gleams.</p> + +<p>The second group, representing Saint Anna receiving from an unseen angel +an order to go to meet Joachim at the Golden Gate, was a marvel of grace +and subtle observation; the saint stood listening attentive in front of +her fald-stool, by which lay a little dog; and a waiting-maid, seen in +profile, carrying an empty pitcher, smiled with a knowing air and a wink +in her eye. And in the next scene, where the husband and wife were +embracing each other with the trepidation of a worthy old couple, +stammering with joy and clasping trembling hands, the same woman, seen +full-face this time, was so delighted at their happiness that she could +not keep still, but, holding up her skirts, was almost in the act of +dancing.</p> + +<p>A little further on, the image-maker had represented the birth of Mary, +a thoroughly Flemish scene: in the background, a bed with curtains, on +which Saint Anna reclined, watched by a maid, while the midwife and her +attendant washed the infant in a basin.</p> + +<p>But another of these bas-reliefs, close to the Renaissance <!-- Page 277 -->clock, which +interrupts the series of this history told in the choir-aisle, was even +more astonishing. In this Mary was sewing at baby-clothes while reading, +and Saint Joseph, asleep in a chair, his head resting on his hand, was +instructed in a dream of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin. And he +not only had his eyes shut, he was sleeping so soundly, so really, that +one could see him breathe, one felt his body stretching, relaxing, in +the perfect abandonment of his whole being. And how diligently the young +mother stitched while she was absorbed in prayers, her nose in her book! +Never, certainly, was life more closely apprehended, or expressed with +greater certainty and truth to life caught in the act, at the instant, +ere it moved.</p> + +<p>Next to this domestic scene, and the Adoration of the Shepherds and +Angels, came the Circumcision of Jesus, with a white paper apron pasted +on by some low jester; then the Adoration of the Magi; and Jehan de +Soulas and the pupils of his studio had finished the work on their side. +They were succeeded by inferior craftsmen, François Marchant of Orleans, +and Nicolas Guybert of Chartres; and after them art went on sinking +lower and lower, down to one Sieur Boudin, who had dared to sign his +miserable puppets, down to the stupid conventionality of Jean de Dieu, +Legros, Tuby, and Mazières, to the cold and pagan work of the +seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. But there was an improvement in +the eight last groups opposite the Virgin of the Pillar—some simple +figures carved by the pupils of Soulas; these, however, were to some +extent wasted, since they stood in the shadow, and it was almost +impossible to judge of them in that half-dead light.</p> + +<p>In reviewing this ambulatory, in parts so pleasing and in others so +unseemly, Durtal could not help recalling the details of a similar but +more complete work—one that had not been wrought in succeeding ages and +disfigured by discrepancies of talent and date. This work was at Amiens, +and it, likewise, was the decoration of the outer aisle of a cathedral +choir.</p> + +<p>This story of the life of Saint Firmin, the first Bishop and patron +saint of the city, and of the discovery and translation of his relics by +Saint Salvo, was told in a series of groups that had been gilt and +painted; then, to complete the circuit of the sanctuary, the life of the +second patron of<!-- Page 278 --> Amiens had been added, Saint John the Baptist; and in +the scene of the Baptism of Christ a fair-haired angel was represented +holding a napkin, an ingenuous and arch being, one of the most adorable +seraphic faces ever carved or painted by Flemish art in France.</p> + +<p>This legend of Saint Firmin was set forth, like that of the Birth of the +Virgin at Chartres, in separate chapters of stone, surmounted in the +same way with gothic canopies or tabernacles; and in the compartment +where Saint Salvo, surrounded by the multitude, discerns the beams which +radiate from a cloud to indicate the spot where the lost body of the +Martyr had been buried, a man on his knees with clasped hands, seems to +pant, uplifted in prayer, burning, projected by the leap of his soul, +his face transfigured, turning a mere rustic into a saint in ecstasy, +already dwelling in God far above the earth.</p> + +<p>This worshipper was the masterpiece of the ambulatory at Amiens, as the +sleeping Saint Joseph was of the bas-reliefs at Chartres.</p> + +<p>"Take it for all in all," said Durtal to himself, "that work in the +Picardy Cathedral is more explicit, more complete, more various, more +eloquent even than that of the church in La Beauce. Irrespective of the +fact that the unknown image-maker who created it was as highly gifted as +Soulas with acute observation, and persuasive and decided +simple-mindedness and spirit, he had besides a peculiar and more noble +vein of feeling. And then his subjects were not restricted to the +presentment of two or three personages; he frequently grouped a swarming +crowd, in which each man, woman, or child differed in individual +character and feature from every other, and was conspicuously marked by +that unlikeness, so clear and living was the realism of each small +figure!</p> + +<p>"After all," thought Durtal, looking once more at the choir aisles as he +turned away, "though Soulas maybe inferior to the sculptor of Amiens, he +is none the less a delightful artist and a true master, and his groups +may console us for the ignominious work of Bridan and the atrocious +decoration of the choir."</p> + +<p>He then went to kneel before the Black Virgin, and returning to the +North transept near which She stands, he gazed once more in amazement at +the incandescent flowers <!-- Page 279 -->of the windows; again he was captivated and +moved by the five pointed windows under the rose, in which, on each side +of the Mauresque Saint Anna, stood David and Solomon, a forbidding pair, +in a furnace of purple, and Melchizedec and Aaron with tawny complexions +and hairy faces, with enormous colourless eyes standing out passionless +in a blaze of daylight.</p> + +<p>The radiating rose-window above them was not of the vast diameter of +those in Notre Dame de Paris, nor of the incomparable elegance of the +star-patterned rose at Amiens. It was smaller and heavier, sparkling +with flowers like saxifrages of flame, opening in the pierced wall.</p> + +<p>Durtal turned on his heel to look at the South transept, where five +great windows faced those on the North. There he saw, blazing like +torches on each side of the Virgin placed exactly opposite Saint Anna, +the four Evangelists borne on the shoulders of the four greater +Prophets—Saint Matthew on Isaiah, Saint Luke on Jeremiah, Saint John on +Ezekiel, Saint Mark on Daniel—each stranger than the other, with their +eyes like the lenses of opera-glasses, their hair in ripples, their +beards like the up-torn roots of trees; excepting Saint John, who was +always represented as a beardless youth in the Latin Mediæval Church, to +symbolize his virginity; but the most grotesque of these giants' was +perhaps Saint Luke, who, perched on Jeremiah's back, gently scratches +the prophet's head, as if he were a parrot, while turning woeful, +meditative eyes up to Heaven.</p> + +<p>Durtal went down the nave, darker than the choir; the pavement sloped +gently to the door, for in the Middle Ages it was washed every morning +after the departure of the crowds who slept on it; and he looked down, +in the middle, on the labyrinth marked out on the ground in lines of +white stone and ribbons of blue stone, twisting in a spiral, like a +watch-spring. This path our fathers devoutly paced, repeating special +prayers during the hour they spent in doing so, and thus performing an +imaginary pilgrimage to the Holy Land to earn indulgences.</p> + +<p>When he was out in the square once more, he turned back to take in the +splendid effect of the whole before going home.</p> + +<p>He felt at once happy and awe-stricken, carried out of himself by the +tremendous and yet beautiful aspect of the church.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 280 -->How grandiose and how aerial was this cathedral, sprung like a jet from +the soul of a man who had formed it in his own image, to record his +ascent in mystic paths, up and up by degrees in the light; passing +through the contemplative life in the transept, soaring in the choir +into the full glory of the unitive life, far away now from the +purgatorial life, the dark passage of the nave.</p> + +<p>And this assumption of a soul was attended, supported, by the bands of +angels, the apostles, the prophets, and the righteous, all arrayed in +their glorified bodies of flame, an escort of honour to the Cross lying +low on the stones, and the image of the Mother enthroned in all the high +places of this vast reliquary, opening the walls, as it seemed, to +present to Her, as for a perpetual festival, their posies of gems that +had blossomed in the fiery heat of the glass windows.</p> + +<p>Nowhere else was the Virgin so well cared for, so cherished, so +emphatically proclaimed the absolute mistress of the realm thus offered +to Her; and one detail proved this. In every other cathedral kings, +saints, bishops, and benefactors lay buried in the depths of the soil; +not so at Chartres. Not a body had ever been buried there; this church +had never been made a sarcophagus, because, as one of its +historians—old Rouillard—says, "it has the preeminent distinction of +being the couch or bed of the Virgin."</p> + +<p>Thus it was Her home; here She was supreme amid the court of Her Elect, +watching over the sacramental Body of Her Son in the sanctuary of the +inmost chapel, where lamps were ever burning, guarding Him as She had +done in His infancy; holding Him on Her knee in every carving, every +painted window; seen in every storey of the building, between the ranks +of saints, and sitting at last on a pillar, revealing herself to the +poof and lowly, under the humble aspect of a sunburnt woman, scorched by +the dog-days, tanned by wind and rain. Nay, She went lower still, down +to the cellars of Her palace, waiting in the crypt to give audience to +the waverers, the timid souls who were abashed by the sunlit splendour +of Her Court.</p> + +<p>How completely does this sanctuary—where the sweet and awful presence +is ever felt of the Child who never leaves His Mother—lift the spirit +above all realities, into the secret rapture of pure beauty!</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 281 -->And how good must They both be," Durtal said to himself, as he looked +round and found himself alone, "never to abandon this desert, never to +weary of waiting for worshippers! But for the honest country folk who +come at all hours to kiss the pillar, what a solitude it would be, even +on Sunday, for this cathedral is never full. However, to be just, at the +nine o'clock mass on Sundays the lower end of the nave is thronged," and +he smiled, remembering that end of the church packed with little girls +brought in schools by Sisters, and with peasant women who, not being +able to see there to read their prayers, would light ends of taper and +crowd together closely, several looking over one book.</p> + +<p>This familiarity, this childlike simplicity of piety, which the dreadful +sacristans of Paris would never endure in a church, were' so natural at +Chartres, so thoroughly in harmony with the homely and unceremonious +welcome of Our Lady!</p> + +<p>"A thing to be ascertained," said Durtal, starting on a new line of +thought, "is whether this church has preserved its surface uninjured, or +whether it may not have been coloured in the thirteenth century. Some +writers assert that, in Mediæval times, the interiors of cathedrals were +always painted. Is that the fact? Or, admitting that the statement is +correct as to all Romanesque churches, is it equally so with regard to +Gothic churches?</p> + +<p>"For my part, I like to believe that the sanctuary of Chartres was never +befooled with gaudiness, such as we have to endure at Saint Germain des +Près, in Paris, and Notre Dame la Grande at Poitiers. In fact such +colour can only be conceived of—if at all—as used in small chapels; +why stain the walls of a cathedral with motley? For this tattooing, so +to speak, reduces the sense of space, brings down the roof, and makes +the pillars clumsy; in short, it eliminates the mysterious soul of the +nave, and destroys the sober majesty of the aisle with its feebly vulgar +fret or guilloche, lozenges or crosses, scattered over the pillars and +walls, in a paste of treacly yellow, endive-green, vinous purple, lava +drab, brick red—a whole range of dull and dirty colours; to say nothing +of the horror of a vault dotted with stars that look as if they had been +cut out of gilt paper and stuck against a smalt background, a sky of +washing-blue!</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 282 -->It is endurable—if it must be—in the Sainte-Chapelle, because it is +very small, an oratory, a shrine; it might even be intelligible in that +wonderful church at Brou, which is a boudoir; its vaulting and pendants +are in polychrome and gold, and the ground has been paved with enamelled +tiles, of which visible traces remain round the tombs. This gaudiness of +the roof and floor was in harmony with the filagree tracery of the +walls, the heraldic glass, and the clear windows, the profusion of +lace-like carving and coats of arms in the stone-work, blossoming with +bunches of daisies mingling with labels, mottoes, monograms, Saint +Francis' girdles and knots. The colouring was in keeping with the +alabaster retables, the black marble tombs, the pinnacled tabernacles +with their crockets of curled and dentate foliage. We can then quite +easily imagine the columns and walls painted, the ribs and bosses washed +with gold, and making a harmonious whole of this <i>bonbonnière</i>, which +indeed is a piece of jewelry rather than of architecture.</p> + +<p>"This building at Brou was the last effort of mediæval times, the last +rocket flung up by the flamboyant Gothic style—a Gothic which though +fallen from its glory struggled against death, fought against returning +paganism and the invading Renaissance. The era of the great cathedrals +ended in the production of this exquisite abortion, which was in its way +a masterpiece, a gem of prettiness, of ingenuity, of tormented and +coquettish taste.</p> + +<p>"It was emblematic of the soul of the sixteenth century, already devoid +of reserve; the sanctuary, too brightly lighted, was secularized; we +here see it fully blown, and it never folded up or veiled itself again. +We discern in this a lady's bower, all paint and gold; the little +chapels (or pews) with chimney-places where Margaret of Austria could +warm herself as she heard Mass, furnished with scented cushions, +provided with sweetmeats and toys and dogs.</p> + +<p>"Brou is a fine lady's drawing-room, not the house for all comers. Then, +naturally, with its screen-work, and the carving of the rood-loft +stretching like a lace portal across the entrance to the choir, it +invites, it almost requires some skilful tinting of the details, the +touches of colour that complete it, and harmonize it finally with the +elegance of the founder, the Princess Marguerite, whose presence is far +<!-- Page 283 -->more conspicuous in this little church than is that of the Virgin.</p> + +<p>"Even then it would be satisfactory to know whether the walls and +pillars at Brou ever were really painted; the contrary seems proven. But +in any case, though a touch of <i>rouge</i> might not ill beseem this curious +sanctum, it would not be so at Chartres, for the only suitable hue is +the shining, greasy patina, grey turning to silver, stone-colour turning +buff—the colouring given by age, by time helped by accumulated vapours +of prayer and the fumes of incense and tapers!"</p> + +<p>And Durtal, arguing over his own reflections, ended by reverting, as he +always did, to his own person, saying to himself,—</p> + +<p>"Who knows that I may not some day bitterly regret this cathedral and +all the sweet meditations it suggests; for, after all, I shall have no +more opportunities for such long loitering, such relaxation of mind, +since I shall be subject to the discipline of bells ringing for +conventual drill if I suffer myself to be locked up in a cloister!</p> + +<p>"Who knows whether, in the silence of a cell, I should not miss even the +foolish cawing of those black jackdaws that croak without pause," he +went on, looking up with a smile at the cloud of birds that settled on +the towers; and he recalled a legend which tells that since the fire in +1836 these birds quit the cathedral every evening at the very hour when +the conflagration began, and do not return till dawn, after spending the +night in a wood at three leagues from Chartres.</p> + +<p>This tale is as absurd as another, also dear to the old wives of the +city, and which tells that if you spit on a certain square of stone, set +with black cement into the pavement behind the choir, blood will exude.</p> + +<p>"Hah, it is you, Madame Bavoil."</p> + +<p>"Yes, our friend, I myself. I have just been on an errand for the +Father, and am going home again to make the soup. And you, are you +packing your trunks?"</p> + +<p>"My trunks?"</p> + +<p>"Why, are not you going off to a convent?" said she, laughing.</p> + +<p>"Would not you like to see it?" exclaimed Durtal. "Catch me at that! +Enlisting as a private subject to a <!-- Page 284 -->pious drill, one of a poor squad, +whose every movement must mark time, and who, though he is not expected +to keep his hands over the seam of his trowsers, is required to hide +them under his scapulary—"</p> + +<p>"Ta, ta, ta," interrupted the housekeeper, "I tell you once more, you +are grudging, bargaining with God—"</p> + +<p>"But before coming to so serious a decision it is quite necessary that I +should argue all the pros and cons; in such a case some mental +litigation is clearly permissible."</p> + +<p>She shrugged her shoulders; and there was such peace in her face, such a +glow of flame lurked behind the liquid blackness of her eyes, that +Durtal stood looking at her, admiring the honesty and purity of a soul +which could thus rise to the threshold of her eyes and come forth in her +look.</p> + +<p>"How happy you are!" he exclaimed.</p> + +<p>A cloud dimmed her eyes, and she looked down.</p> + +<p>"Envy no one, our friend," said she, "for each has his own struggles and +griefs."</p> + +<p>And when he had parted from her, Durtal, as he went home, thought of the +disasters she had confessed, the cessation of her intercourse with +Heaven, the fall of a soul that had been wont to soar above the clouds. +How she must suffer!</p> + +<p>"No, no," he said, "the service of the Lord is not all roses. If we +study the lives of the Saints we see these Elect tormented by dreadful +maladies, and the most painful trials. No, holiness on earth is no +child's play, life is not amusement. To Saints, indeed, even on earth +excessive suffering finds compensation in excessive joys; but to other +Christians, such small fry as we are, what distress and trouble! We +question the everlasting silence and none answers; we wait and none +comes. In vain do we proclaim Him as Illimitable, Incomprehensible, +Unthinkable, and confess that every effort of our reason is vain, we +cannot cease to wonder, and still less cease to suffer! And yet—and yet +if we consider, the darkness about us is not absolutely impenetrable, +there is light in places and we can discern some truths, such as this:</p> + +<p>"God treats us as He treats plants. He is, in a certain sense, the +soul's year; but a year in which the order of the seasons is reversed; +for the spiritual seasons begin with <!-- Page 285 -->spring, followed by winter, and +then autumn comes, followed by summer.</p> + +<p>"The moment of conversion is the spring, the soul is joyful and Christ +sows the good seed; then comes the cold and all is dark, the +terror-stricken soul believes itself forsaken and bewails itself; but +without its feeling it during the trials of the purgatorial life, the +seed germinates in the contemplative peace of autumn and flourishes in +the summer life of Union.</p> + +<p>"Aye; but each one must be the helping gardener of his own soul, +listening to the instructions of the Master who plans the task and +directs the work. Alas, we are no more the humble labourers of the +Middle Ages, who toiled, giving God thanks, who submitted without +discussion to the Master's orders. We, by our little faith, have +exhausted the value of prayer, the panacea of aspirations; consequently +many things seem to us unjust and cruel, and we rebel, we ask for +pledges; we hesitate to begin our task, we want to be paid in advance, +and our distrust makes us vile!—O Lord, give us grace to pray, and +never dream of demanding an earnest of Thy favours! Give us grace to +obey and be silent!</p> + +<p>"And I may add," said Durtal to himself as he smiled on Madame Mesurat, +who opened the door in answer to his ring, "Grant me, Lord, the grace +not to be too much irritated by the buzzing of this great fly, the +inexhaustible flow of this good woman's tongue!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"><!-- Page 286 --></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h2> + + +<p>"What a fearful muddle, what a sea of ink is this menagerie of good and +evil emblems!" exclaimed Durtal, laying down his pen.</p> + +<p>He had harnessed himself that morning to the task of investigating the +symbolical fauna of the Middle Ages. At first sight the subject had +struck him as newer and less arduous, and certainly as less lengthy, +than the article he had thought of writing on the Primitive German +Painters. But he now sat dismayed before his books and notes, seeking a +clue to guide him through the mass of contradictory evidence that lay +before him.</p> + +<p>"I must take things in their order," said he to himself, "if indeed any +principle of selection is possible in such confusion."</p> + +<p>The Beast-books of Mediæval times knew all the monsters of +paganism—Satyrs, Fauns, Sphinxes, Harpies, Centaurs, Hydras, Pygmies, +and Sirens; these were all regarded as various aspects of the Evil +Spirit, so no research is needed as to their meaning; they are but a +residuum of Antiquity. The true source of mystic zoology is not in +mythology, but in the Bible, which classifies beasts as clean and +unclean, makes them symbolize virtues and vices, some species being +allegorical of heavenly personages, and other embodying the Devil.</p> + +<p>Starting from this base, it may be observed that the liturgical +interpreters of the animal world distinguished beasts from animals, +including under the former head wild and untamable creatures, and under +the second gentle and timid creatures and domestic animals.</p> + +<p>The ornithologists of the Church, furthermore, represent birds as being +the righteous, while Boëtius, on the other hand, often quoted by +Mediæval writers, credited them with incon<!-- Page 287 -->stancy, and Melito compares +them in turn to Christ, to the Devil, and to the Jewish nation. It may +be added that Richard of Saint Victor, disregarding these views, sees in +winged fowl a symbol of the life of the soul, as in the four-footed +beast he sees the life of the body—"And that gets us no further!" +sighed Durtal.</p> + +<p>"This is beside the mark. We must find some other symbolism, closer and +clearer.</p> + +<p>"Here the classification of naturalists would be useless, for a biped +and a reptile not unfrequently bear the same interpretation as emblems. +The simplest plan will be to divide the Church menagerie into two large +classes, real beasts and monsters; there is no creature that we may not +include in one or the other category."</p> + +<p>Durtal paused to reflect:</p> + +<p>"Nevertheless to arrive at a clearer notion and better appreciate the +importance of certain families in Catholic Mythography, we had better +first take out all those animals which symbolize God, the Virgin, and +the Devil, setting them aside to be referred to when they may elucidate +other figures; and at the same time weed out those which apply to the +Evangelists and are combined in the figures of the Tetramorph.</p> + +<p>"The surface thus being removed, we may investigate the remainder, the +figurative language of ordinary or monstrous beings.</p> + +<p>"The animal emblems of God are numerous; the Scriptures are filled with +creatures emblematic of the Saviour. David compares Him, by comparing +himself, to the pelican in the wilderness, to the owl in its nest, to a +sparrow alone on the house-top, to the dove, to a thirsting hart; the +Psalms are a treasury of analogies with His qualities and His names.</p> + +<p>"Saint Isidor of Seville—Monseigneur Sainct Ysidore, as the naturalists +of old are wont to call him—figures Jesus as a lamb by reason of his +innocence, as a ram because He is the head of the Flock, even as a +he-goat because the Redeemer was subject to the flesh of iniquity.</p> + +<p>"Some took as His image the ox, the sheep, and the calf, as beasts meet +for sacrifice, and others those animals that symbolize the elements: the +lion, the eagle, the dolphin, the salamander—the kings of the earth, +air, water, and fire. Some again, as Saint Melito, saw Him in the kid, +<!-- Page 288 -->the deer, and even in the camel, which, however, according to another +passage of the same author, personifies a love of flattery and of vain +praise. Others again find Him in the scarabæus, as Saint Euchre does in +the bee; still, the bee is regarded by Raban Maur as the unclean sinner. +Christ's Resurrection is, to yet other writers, symbolized by the +Phœnix and the cock, and His wrath and power by the rhinoceros and the +buffalo.</p> + +<p>"The iconography of the Virgin is less puzzling; She may be symbolized +by any chaste and gentle creature. The Anonymous Englishman in his +<i>Monastic Distinctions</i>, compares Her to the bee, which we have seen so +vilified by the Archbishop of Mayence, but the Virgin was most +especially represented by the dove, the bird of all others whose Church +functions are most onerous.</p> + +<p>"All authorities agree in taking the dove as the image at once of the +Virgin and of the Paraclete. According to Saint Mechtildis, it is the +simplicity of the heart of Jesus; with others it signifies the +preachers, the active religious life, as contrasted with the turtle +dove, which personifies the contemplative life, since the ring-dove +flies and coos in company, whereas the turtle dove rejoices apart and +alone.</p> + +<p>"To Bruno of Asti the dove is also an image of patience, a figure of the +prophets.</p> + +<p>"As to the beasts symbolizing Hell and evil, they are almost without +number; the whole creation of monsters is to be found there. Then among +real animals we find: the serpent—the aspic of Scripture, the scorpion, +the wolf as mentioned by Jesus Himself, the leopard noted by Saint +Melito as being allied to Antichrist, the she-tiger representing the +sins of arrogance, the hyena, the jackal, the bear, the wild-boar, +which, in the Psalms, is said to destroy the vineyard of the Lord, the +fox, described as a hypocritical persecutor by Peter of Capua and as a +promoter of heresy by Raban Maur. All beasts of prey; and the hog, the +toad—the instrument of witchcraft, the he-goat—the image of Satan +himself, the dog, the cat, the ass—under whose form the Devil is seen +in trials for witchcraft in the Middle Ages, the leech, on which the +anonymous writer of Clairvaux casts contumely; the raven that went forth +from the ark and did not return—it represents malice, and the dove +which came back is virtue, Saint Ambrose <!-- Page 289 -->tells us; and the partridge +which, according to the same writer, steals and hatches eggs she did not +lay.</p> + +<p>"If we may believe Saint Theobald, the Devil is also symbolized by the +spider, for it dreads the sun as much as the Evil One dreads the Church, +and is more apt to weave its net by night than by day, thus imitating +Satan, who attacks man when he knows him to be sleeping and powerless to +defend himself.</p> + +<p>"The Prince of Darkness is also to be seen as the lion and the eagle +interpreted in an evil sense.</p> + +<p>"This," reflected Durtal, "is the same fact as we find in the expressive +symbolism of colours and flowers; constantly a double meaning. The two +antagonistic interpretations are almost invariably met with in the lore +of hieroglyphics, excepting only in that of gems.</p> + +<p>"Thus it is that the lion, defined by Saint Hildegarde as the image of +zeal for God, the lion, figuring the Son Himself, becomes to Hugh of +Saint Victor the emblem of cruelty. Basing their argument on a text in +the Psalms, certain writers identify it with Lucifer. He is in fact the +lion who seeks whom he may devour, the lion who rushes on his victim. +David speaks of him with the dragon to be trodden under foot, and Saint +Peter in his first Epistle describes him as roaring in quest of a +Christian to devour.</p> + +<p>"It is the same with the eagle, which Hugh of Saint Victor calls the +standard of Pride. Chosen by Bruno of Asti, Saint Isidor and Saint +Anselm to represent the Saviour, the Fisher of Men, because he pounces +from the highest sky on fish swimming on the surface of the water and +carries them up, the eagle, classed in Leviticus and Deuteronomy with +the unclean beasts, is transformed, as being a bird of prey, into a +personification of the Devil snatching away souls to gnaw and tear them.</p> + +<p>"Thus every ferocious beast or bird and every reptile is a manifestation +of the Evil One," Durtal concluded.</p> + +<p>To pass to the Tetramorph. The evangelistic animals are well known:—</p> + +<p>Saint Matthew, who expatiates on the subject of the Incarnation and sets +forth the human genealogy of the Messiah, is symbolized by a man.</p> + +<p>Saint Mark, who more especially devotes his book to the miracles of the +Son, saying less about His doctrine than <!-- Page 290 -->about His acts and His +resurrection, has the Lion for his attribute.</p> + +<p>Saint Luke, who writes more especially of the virtues of Jesus, of His +patience, meekness, and mercy, and who dwells at length on His +sacrifice, is distinguished by the Ox or Calf.</p> + +<p>Saint John, who preaches above all else the Divinity of the Word, is +represented by the Eagle.</p> + +<p>And the meaning assigned to the ox, the lion, and the eagle, is in +perfect accordance with the character and personal aim of each Gospel.</p> + +<p>The lion, emblematical of Omnipotence, is also the apt allegory of the +Resurrection. All the primitive naturalists, Saint Epiphanius, Saint +Anselm, Saint Yves of Chartres, Saint Bruno of Asti, Saint Isidor, +Adamantius, all accept the legend that the lion-cub after its birth +remains lifeless for three days; then on the fourth day it awakes as it +hears its father's roar and springs full of life out of the den. Thus +Christ, rising at the end of three days, escapes from the tomb at the +call of His Father.</p> + +<p>The belief still prevailed that the lion sleeps with its eyes open; +hence it became the emblem of vigilance, and Saint Hilary and Saint +Augustine read in this manner of taking repose an allusion to the Divine +nature, which was not extinguished even in the sepulchre, though the +human nature of the Redeemer was in truth dead.</p> + +<p>Finally, as it was considered certain that this animal effaced the +traces of its steps in the sand of the desert with its tail, Raban Maur, +Saint Epiphanius, and Saint Isidor regarded it as signifying the Saviour +veiling His Godhead under the forms of the flesh.</p> + +<p>"Not an ordinary beast—the lion!" exclaimed Durtal. "Well," he went on, +consulting his notes, "the ox is less pretentious! It is the paragon of +strength with humility; according to Saint Paul it is emblematical of +the priesthood; of the preacher, according to Raban Maur; of the Bishop, +according to Peter Cantor, because, says this writer, the prelate wears +a mitre of which the two horns resemble those of an ox, and he uses +these horns, which are the wisdom of the Two Testaments, to rip up +heretics. Still, in spite of these more or less ingenious +interpretations, the ox is in fact the beast of immolation and +sacrifice.</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 291 -->Turning to the eagle, it is, as we have seen, the Messiah pouncing on +souls to catch them; but other meanings are ascribed to it by Saint +Isidor and by Vincent of Beauvais. If we believe them, the eagle that +desires to test the prowess of his eaglets takes them in his talons and +carries them out into the sun, compelling them to look with their eyes +as they begin to open, on the blazing orb. The eagle which is dazzled by +the fire is dropped and cast away by the parent bird. Thus doth God +reject the soul which cannot gaze on him with the contemplative eye of +love!</p> + +<p>"The eagle, again, is typical of the Resurrection; Saint Epiphanius and +Saint Isidor explain it thus: The eagle in old age flies up so near to +the sun that its feathers catch fire; revived by the flames, it drops +into the nearest spring, bathes in it three times and comes out +regenerate: is not this indeed the paraphrase of the Psalmist's verse, +"Thy youth shall be renewed as the eagle's"? Saint Madalene of Pazzi, +however, regards it differently, and takes it to typify faith leaning on +charity.</p> + +<p>"I shall have to find a place for all these documents in my article," +sighed Durtal, placing these notes in a separate wrapper.</p> + +<p>Now for the chimerical fauna introduced from the East, imported into +Europe by the Crusaders, and travestied by the illuminators of missals +and by image-makers.</p> + +<p>Foremost, the dragon, which we already find rampant and busy in +mythology and in the Bible.</p> + +<p>Durtal rose and went into his library to find a book, "Traditions +tératologiques," by Berger de Xivrey. It contained long extracts from +the "Romance of Alexander," which was the delight of the grown-up +children of the Middle Ages.</p> + +<p>"Dragons," says this narrative, "are larger than all other serpents, and +longer.... They fly through the air, which is darkened by the disgorging +of their stench and venom ... This venom is so deadly that if a man +should be touched by it or come nigh it, it would seem to him a burning +fire, and would raise his skin in great blisters, as though he had been +scalded." And the author adds: "The sea is swollen up by their venom."</p> + +<p>Dragons have a crest, sharp talons, and a hissing throat, and are almost +unconquerable. Albertus Magnus tells us, <!-- Page 292 -->however, that magicians, when +they wish to subdue them, beat as loudly as they can on drums, and that +the dragon, imagining that it is the roll of thunder, which they greatly +dread, let themselves be handled quietly and are taken.</p> + +<p>The enemy of this winged reptile is the elephant, which sometimes +succeeds in crushing it by falling on it with all its weight; but most +times it is killed by the dragon, which feeds on its blood, of which the +freshness allays the intolerable burning caused by its own venom.</p> + +<p>Next to this monster comes the gryphon, a combination of the quadruped +and the bird, for it has the body of the lion and the head and talons of +the eagle. Then the basilisk, regarded as the king of serpents; it is +four feet long, and has a tail as thick as a tree, and spotted with +white. Its head bears a tuft in shape like a crown; it has a strident +voice, and its eye is murderous, "A look," says the "Romance of +Alexander," "so piercing, that it is pestilential and deadly to all +beasts, whether venomous or no." Its breath is no less fetid, nor less +dangerous, for, "by its breath are all things infected, and when it is +dying it is fain to disgorge it; it stinks so that all other beasts flee +from it."</p> + +<p>Its most formidable foe is the weasel, which bites its throat, "though +it be a beast no bigger than a rat," for "God hath made nothing without +reason and remedy," the pious Mediæval writer concludes.</p> + +<p>Why the weasel? There is nothing to show; nor was this little creature, +who did such good service, honoured by our forefathers as having a +favourable meaning.</p> + +<p>It is symbolical of dissimulation and depravity, and taken to typify the +degrading life of the mountebank. It may also be remembered that this +carnivorous beast, which was supposed to carry its young in the mouth +and give birth to them through the ear, is numbered among the unclean +animals in the Bible.</p> + +<p>"This zoological homœopathy is rather inconsistent," observed Durtal, +"unless the similar interpretation given to these two creatures, hating +each other, may signify that the Devil devours himself."</p> + +<p>Next we have the phœnix, "a bird of very fine plumage resembling the +peacock; it is very solitary, and feeds on the seeds of the ash;" its +colour, moreover, is of purple overshot <!-- Page 293 -->with gold; and because it is +said to rise again from its ashes, it is always typical of the +Resurrection of Christ.</p> + +<p>The unicorn was one of the most amazing creatures in mystical natural +history.</p> + +<p>"It is a very cruel beast, with a great and thick body after the fashion +of a horse; it hath for a weapon a great horn, half a fathom in length, +so sharp and so hard that there is nothing it cannot pierce.... When men +need to take it they bring a virgin maid to the place where they know +that it has its abode. When the unicorn sees her and knows that she is a +virgin, it lieth down to sleep in her lap, doing her no harm; then come +the hunters and kill it.... Likewise, if she be not a pure maid the +unicorn will not sleep, but killeth the damsel who is not pure."</p> + +<p>Whence we conclude that the unicorn is one of the emblems of chastity, +as also is another very strange beast of which Saint Isidor speaks: the +porphyrion.</p> + +<p>This has one foot like that of the partridge, and the other webbed like +that of a goose, its peculiarity consists in mourning over adultery, and +loving its master so faithfully that it dies of pity in his arms when it +learns that his wife has deceived him. So that this species was soon +extinct!</p> + +<p>"There must be some more fabulous beasts to be included," murmured +Durtal, again turning over his papers.</p> + +<p>He found the wyvern, a sort of Melusina, half woman and half serpent; a +very cruel beast, full of malice and devoid of pity, Saint Ambrose tells +us; the manicoris, with the face of a man, the tawny eyes and crimson +mane of a lion, a scorpion's tail, and the flight of an eagle; this sort +is insatiable by human flesh. The leoncerote, offspring of the male +hyena and the lioness, having the body of an ass, the legs of a deer, +the breast of a wild beast, a camel's head, and armed with terrible +fangs; the tharanda, which, according to Hugh of Saint Victor, has the +shape of the ox, the profile of the stag, the fur of the bear, and which +changes colour like the cameleon; finally, the sea-monk, the most +puzzling of all, since Vincent of Beauvais describes it as having its +body covered with scales, and it is furnished, in lieu of arms, with +fins all over claws, besides having a monk's shaven head ending in the +snout of a carp.</p> + +<p>Others were also invented, as for instance the gargoyles, hybrid +monsters, signifying the vomiting forth of sin ejected <!-- Page 294 -->from the +sanctuary; reminding the passer-by who sees them pouring forth the water +from the gutter, that when seen outside the church, they are the +voidance of the spirit, the cloaca of the soul!</p> + +<p>"But," said Durtal to himself, "that seems to me enough of the matter. +From the point of view of symbolism this menagerie is not particularly +interesting since these monsters—the wyvern, the manicoris, the +leoncerote, the tharanda and sea-monk—all mean the same thing, and all +embody the Spirit of Evil."</p> + +<p>He took out his watch.</p> + +<p>"Come," said he, "I have still time enough before dinner to go through +the list of real animals."</p> + +<p>And he turned over his notes on birds.</p> + +<p>"The cock," said he, "is prayer, watchfulness, the preacher, the +Resurrection, since it is the first to wake at daybreak; the peacock, +that has, as an old writer says, "the voice of a devil and the feathers +of an angel," is a mass of contradictory symbols: it typifies pride, +and, according to Saint Antony of Padua, immortality, as well as +vigilance by reason of the eyes in its tail. The pelican is the image of +contemplation and of charity; of love, too, according to Saint Madalene +of Pazzi; the sparrow symbolizes penitential solitude; the swallow, sin; +the swan, pride, according to Raban Maur; diligence and solicitude +according to Thomas de Catimpré; the nightingale is mentioned by Saint +Mechtildis as meaning the tender soul; and the same saint compares the +lark to persons who do good works with cheerfulness; it is to be noted +too that in the windows of Bourges the lark means charity to the sick.</p> + +<p>"Here are others specified by Hugh of Saint Victor. To him the vulture +means idleness; the kite, rapacity; the raven, detraction; the white +owl, hypochondria; the common owl, ignorance; the magpie, chattering +talk; and the hoopoe, sluttishness and evil report.</p> + +<p>"This is all a sorry medley!" said Durtal, "and I fear it will be the +same with the mammalia and other beasts!"</p> + +<p>He compared a few passages. The ox, the lamb, the sheep, we have seen. +The sheep is the type of timidity and meekness, and Saint Pacomius +embodies in him the monk who lives punctual and obedient, and loving his +brethren. Saint Melito on his part ascribes hypocrisy to the ostrich, +<!-- Page 295 -->temporal power to the rhinoceros, human frailty to the spider; we may +also mention among the crustacea, the crab as symbolizing heresy and the +synagogue, because it walks backwards and away from the path of +righteousness. Among fish, the whale is the emblem of the tomb, just as +Jonas, who came out of it after three days, is typical of Jesus risen +from the dead. Among rodents the beaver is the image of Christian +prudence, because, says the legend, when he is pursued by hunters he +tears with his teeth the pouch containing castoreum and flings it at the +foe. For this reason it is likewise the animal representative of the +text in the Gospel which declares that a man must cut off the offending +member which is an occasion of sin.</p> + +<p>Let us pause before the den of wild beasts.</p> + +<p>According to Hugh of Saint Victor the wolf is avarice; the fox is +cunning; Adamantius says that the wild boar represents blind rage; the +leopard wrath, ambush and daring; the tiger, and the hyena, which can +change its sex at will and imitate the voice of man, signifies +hypocrisy; while Saint Hildegarde shows that the panther, by reason of +the beauty of its spots, is typical of vain-glory.</p> + +<p>We need not dwell on the bull, the bison and the buffalo; the symbolists +regard them as emblems of brute force and pride; while the goat and +boar-pig are vessels of lust and filth.</p> + +<p>They divide this honour with the toad, an unclean reptile; the +habitation of the Devil, who assumes its form to show himself to the +female saints—for instance to Saint Theresa. As to the hapless frog it +is equally defamed because of its likeness to the toad.</p> + +<p>The stag is in better odour. Saint Jerome and Cassiodorus say it +exemplifies the Christian who overcomes sin by the sacrament of penance, +or by martyrdom. Representing God in the Psalms, it is also taken as the +heathen desiring baptism; a legend attributes to it so vehement a horror +of the Serpent, in other words of the Devil, that whenever it can it +attacks and devours him, but if it subsequently goes for three hours +without drinking, it dies; hence after that meal it runs to and fro in +the forest seeking a spring of which, if it finds one, it drinks, and is +then many years younger. The she-goat is sometimes held in ill-fame as +being akin to the he-goat, but it more often is regarded as <!-- Page 296 -->the +Well-Beloved, to which the Bride in Canticles compares it. The hedgehog, +hiding in crannies, is interpreted by Saint Melito as the sinner, by +Peter of Capua as the penitent. As to the horse, as a creature of vanity +and pride, it is opposed by Peter Cantor and Adamantius to the ox, which +is all gravity and simplicity. It is well, however, to observe that to +confuse the matter, by presenting the horse under another aspect, Saint +Eucher compares it to a saint, and the Anonymous Monk of Clairvaux +identifies the Devil with the ox. The poor ass is no better treated by +Hugh of Saint Victor, who accuses it of stupidity, by Saint Gregory the +Great, who taxes it with laziness, and Peter of Capua, who speaks of its +lust. It must, however; be observed that Saint Melito compares it with +Christ for its humility, and that the exegetists explain the ass's foal +ridden by Christ on Palm Sunday as an image of the Gentiles, as they +interpret the she-ass that threw Him to mean the Jews.</p> + +<p>Finally, two domestic animals dear to man, the cat and the dog, are +generally contemned by the mystics. The dog, typical of sin, says Peter +Cantor, and the most quarrelsome of beasts, adds Hugh of Saint Victor, +is the creature that returns to his vomit; it also prefigures the +reprobates of whom the Apocalypse speaks, who are to be driven out of +the heavenly Jerusalem; Saint Melito speaks of it as the apostate, and +Saint Pacomius as the rapacious monk, but Raban Maur redeems it a little +from this condemnation by specifying it as emblematic of confessors.</p> + +<p>The cat, which is but once mentioned in the Bible—in the Book of +Baruch—is invariably abhorred by the primitive naturalists, who accuse +it of embodying treachery and hypocrisy, and of lending its skin to the +Devil, to enable him to appear in its shape to sorcerers.</p> + +<p>Durtal turned over a few more pages, discovering that the hare typified +timidity and cowardice, and the snail laziness; noting the opinion of +Adamantius, who ascribes levity and a mocking spirit to the monkey; that +of Peter of Capua and of the Anonymous writer of Clairvaux, that the +lizard, which crawls and hides in cracks in the walls, is, as well as +the serpent, an emblem of evil; and he recorded the special ascription +of ingratitude by Christ Himself to the viper, for He gives the name to +the Jewish race. Durtal then hastily <!-- Page 297 -->dressed, fearing to be late, as he +was dining with the Abbé Gévresin and the Abbé Plomb. Pursued by Madame +Mesurat, who insisted on dealing him one more blow with the +clothes-brush, he rushed downstairs, and was soon at his friend's door.</p> + +<p>Madame Bavoil, who opened it, appeared in a cap all askew and hair +loose, up-turned sleeves and scorched arms, with cheeks crimson from the +kitchen fire. She confessed to the concoction of a dish of beef <i>à la +mode</i> softened by calf's foot jelly and strengthened by a dash of +brandy, and fled, alarmed by the impatient call of a saucepan, of which +the contents were boiling over on the hot plates of the stove, with a +noise like cats swearing.</p> + +<p>Durtal found the old Abbé tormented by rheumatism, but as ever, patient +and cheerful. They talked a little while; then, seeing that Durtal was +looking at some little lumps of gum lying on his writing table, the Abbé +said,—</p> + +<p>"That is incense from the Carmel of Chartres."</p> + +<p>"Indeed!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, the Carmelites are accustomed to burn none but genuine true +incense. So I begged them to trust me with a specimen that I might +procure the same quality for our cathedral."</p> + +<p>"It is everywhere adulterated, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. This substance is found in commerce under three forms: male +incense, which is the best if unadulterated; female incense, which is +mixed with reddish fragments and dry grains called <i>marrons</i>; finally +incense in powder, which is for the most part a mixture of inferior +resin and benzoin."</p> + +<p>"And what have you there?"</p> + +<p>"This is male incense; do you see those oblong tears, those almost +transparent drops of faded amber? how different from that which they use +at Notre Dame; it is earthy, broken, full of scraps, and it is safe to +wager that those knobs are crystals of carbonate of lime and not beads +of pure resin."</p> + +<p>"Why," said Durtal, "this substance suggests to me the idea of a +symbolism of odours; has it ever been worked out?"</p> + +<p>"I doubt it; but in any case it would be very simple. The aromatic +substances used in the Liturgy are reduced to three, frankincense, +myrrh, and balm.</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 298 -->Their meaning is known to you. Incense is the Divinity of the Son, and +our prayers which rise up like vapours in the presence of the Most High, +as the Psalmist says. Myrrh is repentance, the sufferings of Jesus, His +death, the martyrs, and also, according to Monsieur Olier, the type of +the Virgin who heals the souls of sinners as myrrh cauterizes the +festering of wounds; balm is another word for virtue.</p> + +<p>"But though there are few Liturgical savours, it is not so with regard +to mystical effluences which vary infinitely. We have, however, but +little information on the subject.</p> + +<p>"We merely know that the odour of sanctity is antithetical to that of +the Devil; that many of the Elect have diffused, during their lifetime +and after their death, an exquisite fragrance which cannot be analyzed; +such were Madalene of Pazzi, Saint Etienne de Muret, Saint Philip Neri, +Saint Paternianus, Saint Omer, the Venerable Francis Olympus, Jeanne de +Matel and many more.</p> + +<p>"We know too that our sins stink, each according to its nature; and the +proof of this is that the saints could detect the state of men's +consciences merely by the smell of their bodies. Do you remember how +Saint Joseph of Cupertino exclaimed to a sinner whom he met: 'My friend, +you smell very badly; go and wash.'</p> + +<p>"To return to the odour of sanctity: in certain persons it has been +known to assume a natural character almost identical with certain +familiar scents. Saint Treverius exhaled a fragrance compounded of +roses, lilies, balm, and incense; Saint Rose of Viterbo smelt of roses; +Saint Cajetan of orange-blossom; Saint Catherine of Ricci of violets; +Saint Theresa by turns of lily, jasmine and violet; Saint Thomas Aquinas +of incense; Saint Francis of Paul of musk;—I mention these at random as +they occur to me.</p> + +<p>"Yes, and Saint Lydwine, when so ill, diffused a fragrance which also +imparted a flavour. Her wounds exhaled a cheerful savour of spice and +the very essence of Flemish home cooking—a refined extract of +cinnamon."</p> + +<p>"On the other hand," the Abbé went on, "the stench of wizards and +witches was notorious in the Middle Ages. On this point all exorcists +and writers on Demonology are agreed; and it is almost invariably +recorded that after an apparition of the devil a foul odour of sulphur +was left in the cells, even when the Saints had succeeded in dislodging +him.<!-- Page 299 --></p> + +<p>"But the essential odour of the devil is amply recorded in the life of +Christina of Stumbela. You are not ignorant, I suppose, of the exploits +in which Satan indulged against that saint?"</p> + +<p>"Indeed, I am, Monsieur l'Abbé."</p> + +<p>"Then I may tell you that the narrative of these assaults has been +preserved by the Bollandists, who have included the life of this pious +woman in their biographies. It was written by Peter of Dacia, a +Dominican, and her confessor.</p> + +<p>"Christina was born early in the thirteenth century—1242, I believe—at +Stumbela, near Cologne.</p> + +<p>"She was persecuted by the devil from her infancy. He exhausted the +armoury of his arts against her, appeared to her under the form of a +cock, a bull, an apostle; covered her with lice, filled her bed with +vermin, poisoned her blood, and as he could not make her deny God, he +invented fresh torments.</p> + +<p>"He turned the food she put into her mouth into a toad, a snake, a +spider, and disgusted her so effectually with all food, that she was +dying for want of it. She spent her days in vomiting, and prayer to God +to rescue her, but He was silent.</p> + +<p>"Still, to sustain her in such trials, the Sacrament was left to her. +Satan, knowing this, determined to deprive her of this sustenance, and +appeared in the form of these creatures even in the host when she +received it. Finally, to conquer her, he took the form of a huge toad, +and established himself in her bosom. At first Christina fainted with +fright, but then God intervened; by His order she wrapped her hand in +her sleeve, slipped it between her body and the belly of the reptile, +tore away the toad, and flung it on the stones.</p> + +<p>"It was dashed to pieces, with a noise, said the saint, like an old +shoe.</p> + +<p>"These persecutions continued till Advent in 1268; and from that time +the plague of filth began.</p> + +<p>"Peter of Dacia relates that one evening Christina's father came to +fetch him from his convent in Cologne, and begged him to go with him to +his daughter, tormented by the devil. He and another Dominican, Brother +Wipert, set out, and on arriving at Stumbela they found in the haunted +hut the Priest of the district, the Reverend Father Godefried, Prior of +the Benedictines of Brunwilre, and Cellarer of that <!-- Page 300 -->convent. As they +stood warming themselves they discoursed of the pestilential incursions +of the devil, when suddenly the performance was repeated. They were all +bespattered with filth, Christina being caked with it, to use the +Friar's expression; and 'strange to say,' adds Peter of Dacia, 'this +matter, which was but warm, burned Christina, raising blisters on her +skin.'</p> + +<p>"This continued for three days. At length, one evening, Friar Wipert, +quite exasperated, began to recite the prayers for exorcism; but a +terrific uproar shook the room, the candles went out, and he was hit in +the eye by something so hard that he exclaimed, 'Woe is me! I am blind +of an eye!'</p> + +<p>"He was led, feeling his way, into an adjoining room, where the garments +they changed were dried, and where water was constantly heated for their +ablutions; he was cleansed, and his eye washed. It had suffered no +serious injury, and he returned to the other room to say Matins with the +two Benedictines and Peter of Dacia. But before chanting the service he +went up to the patient's bed and clasped his hands in amazement.</p> + +<p>"She was covered with filth indeed, but all was changed. The smell, +which had been supernaturally foul, was changed to angelic fragrance; +Christina's saintly resignation had routed the tempter of souls; and +they all joined in praising God. What do you say to that narrative?"</p> + +<p>"It is astounding, certainly; but is this the only instance of such +infernal filth?"</p> + +<p>"No; in the next century analogous circumstances haunted Elizabeth de +Reute, and likewise the Blessed Bétha. Here again Satan allowed himself +such filthy sport. It may also be noted that in modern times acts of the +same kind were observed in the house of the Curé d'Ars."</p> + +<p>"But in all this I see nothing to illustrate the symbolism of perfumes," +remarked Durtal. "At any rate, the subject would seem to be narrow or +ill-defined, and the number of odours that can be named is small.</p> + +<p>"There are certain essences mentioned in the Old Testament prefiguring +the Virgin. Some of them are interpreted in other senses, as spikenard, +cassia, and cinnamon. The first represents strength of soul; the second, +sound doctrine; and the third, the sweet savour of virtue. Then <!-- Page 301 -->there +is the essence of cedar, which in the thirteenth century symbolized the +Doctors of the Church; and there are three specifically liturgical +perfumes: incense, balm, and myrrh; besides the odour of sanctity, which +in the case of some saints could be analyzed; and the demoniacal stench, +from a mere animal smell to the horrible nastiness of rotten eggs and +sulphur.</p> + +<p>"We must now inquire whether the personal fragrance of the Elect is in +harmony with the qualities or acts of which each was, on earth, the +example or the doer; and it would seem to have been so, when we remark +that Saint Thomas Aquinas, who composed the admirable sequence on the +Holy Sacrament, exhaled a perfume of incense, and that Saint Catherine +of Ricci, who was a model of humility, smelt of violets, the emblem of +that virtue, but—"</p> + +<p>The Abbé Plomb now came in, and being informed by Durtal of the subject +under discussion, he said,—</p> + +<p>"But you have omitted from your diabolical flavours the most +conspicuous."</p> + +<p>"How is that, Monsieur l'Abbé?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly, for you have taken no account of the false fragrance which +Satan can diffuse. In fact, his baleful effluvia are of two kinds: one +characterized by the stench of sulphurous waters and drains; the other +by a false odour of sanctity, delicious gusts of sweetness and +temptation. This is how the Evil One tried to seduce Dominico de Gusman; +he bathed him in delicious vapours, hoping thus to inspire him with +notions of vain-glory; thus, too, did he to Jourdain of Saxony, who +exhaled a sweet odour when saying Mass. God showed him that this +phenomenon was of infernal origin, and it then ceased.</p> + +<p>"And I recollect a singular anecdote told by Quercetanus concerning a +mistress of Charlemagne's who died. The king, who worshipped her, could +not bear to have her body interred, though it was decomposing, exhaling, +however, a perfume of violets and roses. The body was examined, and in +its mouth a ring was found, which was removed. The demoniacal +enchantment forthwith ceased, the body became foul, and Charlemagne +allowed it to be buried.</p> + +<p>"We may add to this diabolical odour of seduction another, which is, on +the contrary, fetid, and is used to annoy the believer, to hinder him in +prayer, to estrange him from his <!-- Page 302 -->fellows, and drive him, if possible, +to despair; still, this smell with which the devil infects a being may +be included in the category of the smells of temptation—not, indeed, to +pride, but to weakness and fear.</p> + +<p>"Meanwhile, I have something else for you," said the Abbé, addressing +Durtal. "Here are the titles I have collected for you of some works on +the symbolical animals of the Middle Ages. You have read '<i>De Bestiis et +aliis rebus</i>,' by Hugh of Saint Victor?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Very good; you may further consult Albertus Magnus, Bartholomew de +Glanville, and Pierre de Bressuire. I have noted on this paper a series +of such beast-books: those of Hildebert, Philippe de Thann, Guillaume de +Normandie, Gautier de Metz, and Richard de Fournival. Only you would +have to go to Paris to procure them in the public libraries."</p> + +<p>"And that would not help me much," replied Durtal. "I have, ere now, +looked through many of these works, and they contain no information that +can be of use from the point of view of symbolism. They are mere +fabulous descriptions of animals, legends as to their origin and habits. +The <i>Spicilegium Solesmense</i> and the <i>Analectae</i> of Dom Pitra are far +more instructive. By his help, with that of Saint Isidor, Saint +Epiphanius, and Hugh of Saint Victor, we can decipher the figurative +meaning of monsters.</p> + +<p>"They are all alike; there has been no complete or serious work produced +on symbolism since the Middle Ages, for the Abbé Auber's work on the +subject is a delusion. In vain will you seek for a treatise on flowers +which even alludes to the Catholic significance of plants. I do not, of +course, mean those silly books compiled for lovers, and called the +Language of Flowers, which you may find on the bookstalls with old +cookery-books and dream-books. It is the same with regard to colours; +nothing proven or authentic has been written concerning infernal or +celestial hues; for in fact the treatise by Frédéric Portal is +worthless. To explain Angelico's work I had to hunt here and there +through the Mystics, to discover where I might the meanings they ascribe +to colours; and I see plainly that I must do the same for my article on +the emblematical fauna. There is, on the whole, nothing to be found in +<!-- Page 303 -->technical works; it is in the Bible and in the Liturgy, the +fountain-head of symbolical lore, that I must cast my net. By the way, +Monsieur l'Abbé, had you not some remarks to communicate on the zoology +of the Scriptures?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, we will go—"</p> + +<p>"To dinner, if you please," said Madame Bavoil.</p> + +<p>The Abbé Gévresin said grace, and when they had eaten the soup the +housekeeper served the beef.</p> + +<p>It was strengthening, tender, savoury to its inmost fibre, penetrated by +the rich and highly-flavoured sauce.</p> + +<p>"You don't get the like at La Trappe, our friend, eh?" said Madame +Bavoil.</p> + +<p>"Nor will he get anything so good at any other religious retreat," said +the Abbé Plomb.</p> + +<p>"Do not discourage me beforehand," said Durtal, laughing; "let me enjoy +this without a pang—there is a time for all things."</p> + +<p>"Then you are fully determined," said the Abbé Gévresin, "to write a +paper for your <i>Review</i> on allegorical beasts?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Monsieur l'Abbé."</p> + +<p>"I have made a list for you from the works of Fillion and of Lesêtre of +the blunders made by the translators of the Bible when they disguised +real beasts under chimerical names," said the Abbé Plomb. "This, in a +few words, is the upshot of my researches.</p> + +<p>"There was never any mythological fauna in the Sacred Books. The Hebrew +text was misread by those who translated it into Greek and Latin, and +the strange zoology that we find in certain chapters of Isaiah and Job +is easily reduced to the nomenclature of well-known creatures.</p> + +<p>"Thus the onocentaurs and sirens, spoken of by the Prophet, are neither +more nor less than jackals, if we examine the Hebrew original. The +lamia, a vampire, half woman and half serpent like the wyvern, is a +night bird, the white or the screech owl; the satyrs and fauns, the +hairy beasts spoken of in the Vulgate, are, after all, no more than wild +goats—'schirim,' as they are called in the Mosaic original.</p> + +<p>"The reptile so frequently mentioned in the Bible under the name of +'dragon' is indicated in the original by various words, which sometimes +mean the serpent or the crocodile, sometimes the jackal, and sometimes +the whale; and the <!-- Page 304 -->famous unicorn of the Scriptures is merely the +primæval bull or auroch, which is to be seen on the Assyrian +bas-reliefs—a race now dying out, lingering only in the remotest parts +of Lithuania and the Caucasus."</p> + +<p>"And Behemoth and Leviathan, spoken of by Job?"</p> + +<p>"The word Behemoth is a plural form in Hebrew meaning Excellence. It +designates a prodigious and enormous beast—the rhinoceros, perhaps, or +the hippopotamus. As to Leviathan, it was a huge reptile, a gigantic +python."</p> + +<p>"That is a pity," said Durtal. "Imaginary zoology was far more +amusing!—Why, what is this vegetable?" he inquired, as he tasted a +curious stew of greens.</p> + +<p>"Dandelions cut up and boiled with shreds of bacon," replied Madame +Bavoil. "Do you like the dish, our friend?"</p> + +<p>"Indeed I do. Your dandelions are to garden spinach and chicory what the +wild duck is to the tame, or the hare to the rabbit. And it is a fact +that garden plants are generally poor and tasteless, while those that +grow wild have a certain astringency and pleasant bitter flavour. It is +the venison of vegetables that you have given us, Madame Bavoil!"</p> + +<p>"I fancy," said the Abbé Plomb, who had been thoughtful, "that just as +we tried to compile a mystic flora the other day, we might make a list +of the deadly sins as represented by animals."</p> + +<p>"Obviously, and with very little trouble. Pride is embodied in the bull, +the peacock, the lion, the eagle, the horse, the swan, and the wild +ass—according to Vincent de Beauvais. Avarice by the wolf, and, says +Saint Theobald, by the spider; for lust, we have the he-goat, the boar, +the toad, the ass, and the fly, which, Saint Gregory the Great tells, +typifies the turbulent cravings of the senses; for envy, the +sparrow-hawk, the owl, and screech-owl; for greediness, the hog and the +dog; for anger, the lion and wild boar, and, according to Adamantius, +the leopard; for sloth, the vulture, the snail, the she-ass, and, Raban +Maur says, the mule.</p> + +<p>"As to the virtues antithetical to these vices, humility may be typified +by the ox and the ass; indifference to worldly possessions by the +pelican, the emblem of the contemplative life; chastity by the dove and +the elephant, though it is true that this interpretation of Peter of +Capua <!-- Page 305 -->is contradicted by other mystics, who accuse the elephant of +pride, and speak of him as an 'enormous sinner'; charity by the lark and +the pelican; temperance by the camel, which, taken in another sense, +typifies under the name of <i>gamal</i> extravagant fury; vigilance by the +lion, the peacock, the ant—quoted by the Abbess Herrade and the +Anonymous monk of Clairvaux—and especially by the cock, to which Saint +Eucher attributes this virtue in common with all other symbolists.</p> + +<p>"I may add that the dove alone epitomizes all these qualities and is the +synthesis of all virtue."</p> + +<p>"Yes, and she alone is never spoken of as having any evil significance."</p> + +<p>"A distinction she shares with white and blue, the only colours which +are exempt from the law of antithesis and are never ascribed to any +vice," said Durtal.</p> + +<p>"The dove!" cried Madame Bavoil, who was changing the plates; "she plays +a beautiful part in the story of Noah's Ark. Ah! our friend, you should +hear what Mother Jeanne de Matel says of her."</p> + +<p>"What does she say, Madame Bavoil?"</p> + +<p>"The admirable Jeanne begins by saying that original sin produced in +human nature the deluge of sin from which the Virgin alone was exempted +by the Father, who chose Her to be His one Dove.</p> + +<p>"Then she relates how Lucifer, represented by the raven, escaped from +the ark through the window of free will; then God, to whom Mary had +belonged from all eternity, opened the window of the Will of His +Providence, and from His own bosom, from the heavenly Ark, He sent the +original dove on the earth where she gathered a spray of the olive of +His mercy, took her flight back to the Ark of Heaven, and offered this +branch for the whole human race; She then implored Divine grace to abate +the deluge of sin, and besought the Heavenly Noah to descend from that +high Ark; then, without quitting the bosom of the Father from whom He is +inseparable, He came down."</p> + +<p>"<i>Et Verbum caro factum est et habitavit in nobis</i>," the Abbé Gévresin +added, in conclusion.</p> + +<p>"This prefiguration of the Word by Noah is certainly curious," remarked +Durtal.</p> + +<p>"Animals are also introduced in the iconography of the <!-- Page 306 -->saints," the +Abbé Plomb resumed. "So far as I can recollect, the ass is the attribute +of Saint Marcellus, of Saint John Chrysostom, of Saint Germain, of Saint +Aubert, of Saint Frances of Rome, and of some others; the stag of Saint +Hubert and Saint Rieul; the cock of Saint Landry and Saint Vitus; the +raven of Saint Benedict, Saint Apollinarius, Saint Vincent, Saint Ida, +Saint Expeditus; the deer of Saint Henry; the wolf of Saint Waast, Saint +Norbert, Saint Remaclus, and Saint Arnold; the spider betokens Saint +Conrad and Saint Felix of Nola; the dog accompanies Saint Godfrey, Saint +Bernard, Saint Roch, Saint Margaret of Cortona, and Saint Dominic, when +it bears a burning torch in its mouth; the doe is the badge of Saint +Giles, Saint Leu, Saint Geneviève of Brabant, and Saint Maximus; the pig +of Saint Anthony; the dolphin of Saint Adrian, of Saint Lucian, and +Saint Basil; the swan of Saint Cuthbert and Saint Hugh; the rat is seen +with Saint Goutran and Saint Gertrude; the ox with Saint Cornelius, +Saint Eustachius, Saint Honorius, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Saint Lucy, +Saint Blandina, Saint Bridget, Saint Sylvester, Saint Sebaldus, Saint +Saturninus; the dove belongs to Saint Gregory the Great, Saint Remi, +Saint Ambrose, Saint Hilary, Saint Ursula, Saint Aldegonde, and Saint +Scholastica, whose soul flew up to Heaven under that form.</p> + +<p>"And the list might be indefinitely extended. Shall you mention in your +article these accompaniments to the saints?"</p> + +<p>"In point of fact," replied Durtal, "most of these attributes are based +on history or legend, and not on symbolism; so I shall not devote any +particular attention to them."</p> + +<p>There was a silence.</p> + +<p>Then, abruptly, the Abbé Plomb, looking at his brother priest, said to +Durtal,—</p> + +<p>"I am going to Solesmes again a week hence, and I told the Reverend +Father Abbot that I should take you with me."</p> + +<p>Then, seeing Durtal's amazement, he smiled. "But I will not leave you +there," he went on, "unless you wish not to return to Chartres. I only +propose that you should pay a visit there, just long enough to breathe +the atmosphere of the convent, to make acquaintance with the Benedictine +Fathers, and try their life."</p> + +<p><!-- Page 307 -->Durtal was silent, somewhat scared; for this proposal, simple enough as +it was, that he should go to live for some days in a cloister, had +startled him into a strange, a grotesque notion that if he should +accept, it would be playing away his last card, risking a decisive step, +taking a sort of pledge before God to settle there and end his days in +His immediate presence.</p> + +<p>But what was most strange was that this idea, so imperative and +overpowering that it excluded all possible reflection, bereft him of all +his powers of self-protection, left him disarmed at the mercy of he knew +not what—this idea, which nothing justified, was not centred, not fixed +on Solesmes; whither he should retreat was for the moment of small +importance; that was not the question; the only point to settle was +whether he meant to yield at all to a vague impulse, to obey +unformulated orders which were nevertheless positive, and give an +earnest to God, Who seemed to be harassing him without any sufficient +explanation.</p> + +<p>He felt himself inexorably condemned, tacitly compelled to pronounce his +decision then and there.</p> + +<p>He tried to struggle, to reason, to recover his self-possession; but the +very effort was fatal. He felt a sort of inward syncope, as though, +while his body was still upright, his soul was fainting within him with +fatigue and terror.</p> + +<p>"But this is madness!" he cried. "Madness!"</p> + +<p>"Why, what is the matter?" cried the two priests.</p> + +<p>"I beg your pardon. Nothing."</p> + +<p>"Are you in pain?"</p> + +<p>"No, it is nothing."</p> + +<p>There was an awkward pause which he was determined to break.</p> + +<p>"Did you ever take laughing gas?" said he; "the gas which sends you to +sleep and is used in surgery for short operations? No? Well, you feel a +buzzing in your brain, and just as you hear a great noise of falling +waters you lose consciousness. That is what I am feeling; only the +experience is not in my brain, but in my soul, which is giddy and +helpless, on the point of fainting away."</p> + +<p>"I should like to think," said the Abbé Plomb, "that it is not the +thought of a visit to Solesmes that has thus upset you."</p> + +<p>Durtal had not courage enough to own the truth; he <!-- Page 308 -->was afraid of +seeming ridiculous if he confessed to such a panic; so to avoid a direct +answer he vaguely shook his head.</p> + +<p>"And I cannot help wondering why you should hesitate, for you will be +welcomed with open arms. The Father Abbot is a man of the highest merit, +and, moreover, no enemy to art. Besides—and this I hope will suffice to +reassure you—he is a most simple and kind-hearted monk."</p> + +<p>"But I have to finish my article."</p> + +<p>The two priests laughed.</p> + +<p>"You have a week before you to write your article in."</p> + +<p>"And then, to get any benefit from a monastery, I ought not be in the +state of dryness and diffusion in which I find myself vegetating," +Durtal went on with difficulty.</p> + +<p>"The saints themselves are not free from distractions," replied the Abbé +Gévresin. "For instance, think of the monk of whom Tauler speaks, who, +on quitting his cell in the month of May, would cover his face with his +hood, that he might not see the country, and so be hindered from +contemplating his soul."</p> + +<p>"Oh, our friend, must that gentle Jesus, as the Venerable Jeanne says, +be for ever the poor man pining for admittance at the door of our heart? +Come, just a little goodwill—open yours to Him," cried Madame Bavoil.</p> + +<p>And Durtal, finally driven into his last intrenchments, by a nod +signified acquiescence in the wish of all his friends. But he did it +with deep reluctance, for he could not rid himself of a distracting idea +that this concession implied a vow on his part to God!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"><!-- Page 309 --></a>CHAPTER XV.</h2> + + +<p>This idea, which had taken firm possession of him for a few minutes, +seemed to fade away, and by the morrow there only remained a startled +excitement which nothing could account for; he now shrugged his +shoulders, but still, at the bottom of his soul a vague sense of dread +would surge up.</p> + +<p>Was not the very absurdity of it a proof that this notion was one of the +presentiments that we sometimes feel without understanding it? Was it +not, again, for lack of a command plainly given by some inward voice, a +warning, a direct and secret hint, that he should be on his guard not to +think of this visit to a cloister as a mere pleasure trip?</p> + +<p>"But this is monstrous!" Durtal exclaimed at last. "When I went to La +Trappe for my great purification, I was not harassed by apprehensions of +this kind; when I have gone there again several times since, it never +occurred to me that I should really bury myself in a monastery; and now +that it is a matter merely of a short visit to a Benedictine monastery, +I am trembling and recalcitrant.</p> + +<p>"Such a commotion is quite childish! And yet no, not so very childish," +he suddenly told himself. "When I have been to Notre-Dame de l'Atre I +have been sure that I should not remain, since I knew that I could not +endure more than a month of their austere Rule; so there was nothing to +fear; whereas in a Benedictine Abbey, where the Rule is lighter, I am +not certain that I could not stay.</p> + +<p>"In that case—well, well, so much the better! for after all sooner or +later I must decide, I must make up my mind as to what I really mean; +have some definite notion of the value of my promissory notes, of the +greater or less strength of my energy, my fitness, my limitations.</p> + +<p>"A few months ago I longed for the monastic life, that is <!-- Page 310 -->beyond +doubt—and now I am wavering. I have abortive gushes of feeling, +ineffectual projects, inclinations which fail, wishes which come +short—I will and I will not. Still it is needful to understand oneself; +but of what use is it for me to try to sound the well of my own soul? If +I go down into it, I find everything dark and cold and empty.</p> + +<p>"I am beginning to think that by dint of staring into that darkness I am +becoming like a child that fixes its eyes on the blackness of night; I +end by creating phantoms and inventing terrors. That is certainly the +case as regards this excursion to Solesmes, for there is nothing, +absolutely nothing to justify my alarms.</p> + +<p>"How silly this all is; how much simpler it would be to allow myself to +live, and, above all, to be led!"</p> + +<p>"I have hit it," he went on after a moment's reflection. "The cause of +this turmoil is evident. It is my lack of self-abandonment, my want of +confidence in God—yes, and my little love, my dryness of spirit, which +have brought me to this state.</p> + +<p>"In the lapse of time this disorder has brought on the malady from which +I am suffering, an utter anæmia of the soul, aggravated by the patient's +terrors, since he, unaware of the nature of the complaint, exaggerates +its importance.</p> + +<p>"Thus stands my balance-sheet since I came to Chartres.</p> + +<p>"The position is very different from what it was in Paris. For the phase +I am going through is the very contrary to that in which I previously +lived; in Paris my soul was not dry and friable, but dank and soft; it +was saponaceous; the foot sank in it. In short, I was melting away, in a +state of langour, more painful perhaps than this state of drought which +is toughening me to horniness. Still on close examination, though the +symptoms have changed, the evil persists; softness or dryness, the +results are identical.</p> + +<p>"At the same time it seems strange that this spiritual anæmia should now +exhibit such opposite symptoms. On one hand I am conscious of weariness, +indifference, and torpor in prayer; it seems to me, bitter, vain, and +hollow, so badly do I pray; I am inclined to let everything go, to cease +the attempt, to wait for a glow of fervour which I cannot hope for; on +the other hand, I am at the same time conscious of a persistent and +obstinate yearning, an invisible <!-- Page 311 -->touch, a craving for prayer, a +constant invitation from God keeping me alert. And there are times, too, +when, though I can prove to myself that I am not stirring, I fancy I am +trembling and shall be swept away by a tide.</p> + +<p>"That is very much of what I feel. In this frame of mind, half +stay-at-home, half gipsy-like, if I take up a book of the higher +mysticism—Saint Theresa or Saint Angela—that subtle touch gains +definiteness, I am aware of shocks running through me; I fancy that my +soul is convalescent, that it is young again, and breathes once more; +but if I try to take advantage of this lucid moment to collect myself +and to pray, it is all over—I flee from myself—nothing will work. What +misery, and how pitiable!</p> + +<p>"The Abbé Gévresin has guided me so far, but how?</p> + +<p>"He has trusted chiefly to the method of expectancy, restricting himself +to combating my generally flaccid state, and invigorating me rather than +contending with details. He has prescribed the heroic remedies of the +soul, desiring me to communicate when he found me weak. But, if I am not +mistaken, he is now turning his batteries. Either he is giving up a line +of attack which has failed, or else, on the contrary, he is improving +it, his treatment having produced, without my being aware of it, the +effects he was aiming at; in either case, to promote or complete the +cure, he wants to send me to a convent.</p> + +<p>"The plan seems to be, indeed, part of his system, for he did the same +thing when he was helping in my conversion. He sent me off to a health +resort for the soul—and the waters were powerful indeed and terrible; +now he thinks I no longer need have so severe a treatment inflicted on +me, and he is persuading me to stay in a more restful place, a less +bracing air—is that it?</p> + +<p>"Even his way of coming up unexpectedly and hurling his opinion at me is +not quite the same as it was. This time, it was, indeed, not he who +undertook to crystallize my irresolution by announcing my departure for +Solesmes; but it comes to the same thing. For, after all, there is +something not quite above board in this affair. Why did the Abbé Plomb +promise the Benedictines that he would take me with him?</p> + +<p>"He certainly acted on the request of the Abbé Gévresin. There can have +been no other reason for his talking of <!-- Page 312 -->me to the Fathers. I have, +indeed, spoken to him of my distress of mind, of my vague craving for +retirement, and my love for monasteries. But I certainly did not suggest +that he should thus take the lead, and hurry matters on so!</p> + +<p>"Here I am, as usual, imagining plots and schemes, looking for things +that never existed, and discerning motives where perhaps there are none. +And even if there were! Is it not for my benefit that these good friends +are laying their heads together?</p> + +<p>"I have only to hear and obey. Now to have done with this and return to +the Bestiary; for I want to finish this work before I go." And posting +himself in front of the cathedral, he studied the south porch, which had +most of zoological mysticism and devilries.</p> + +<p>But he did not find the monstrosities of his fancy. At Chartres the +Vices and Virtues were not symbolized by more or less chimerical +creatures, but by human faces. After careful search he discovered on +some of the pillars of the middle doorway the Vices embodied in small +carved groups: Lust, as a woman fondling a young man; Drunkenness as a +boor about to hit a bishop; Discord by a husband quarrelling with his +wife, while an empty bottle and a broken distaff lie near them.</p> + +<p>By way of infernal monsters, the utmost he could discern,—and that by +dislocating his neck—were two dragons in the right-hand bay, one +exorcised by a monk and the other bridled by a Saint with his stole.</p> + +<p>Of divine beasts he could distinguish in the row of Virtues certain +female figures with symbolical creatures by their side: Docility +accompanied by an ox; Chastity by a phœnix; Charity by a sheep; +Meekness by a lamb; Fortitude by a lion; Temperance by a camel. Why +should the phœnix here typify Chastity, for it is not used generally in +that sense in the Bird-books of the Middle Ages?</p> + +<p>Somewhat disconcerted by the poverty of the fauna of Chartres, he +comforted himself by a study of this southern porch; it was a match for +that on the north, and repeated, with a variant, the subject of the west +front—the glorification of Christ, but in His function as the Supreme +Judge, and in the person of His Saints.</p> + +<p>This front, begun in the time of Philip Augustus, and <!-- Page 313 -->built at the cost +of the Comte de Dreux and his wife Alice of Brittany, was not completed +till the time of Philippe le Bel. It was divided, like the other two, +into three portions: a central door with a tympanum in a pointed arch +bearing the presentment of the Last Judgment; one on the left devoted to +the Martyrs, and one on the right dedicated to the Confessors.</p> + +<p>The central bay suggested the form of a boat set on end, its prow in the +air; its deeply spreading sides contained in their niches six Apostles +on each, and in the middle, between the doors, stood a single statue of +Christ.</p> + +<p>This statue, like that at Amiens, was famous; every guidebook sings the +praises of the regular features, the calm expression of the face; in +reality the countenance is particularly fatuous and cold, beautiful but +lifeless. How inferior to that of the twelfth century, the expressive +and living God seated between the symbols of the Tetramorph in the +tympanum of the royal front.</p> + +<p>The Apostles were perhaps rather more refined, rather less squat than +the patriarchs and prophets supporting Saint Anne under the north porch, +but their quality as works of art was less striking. They resembled the +Christ, Whom they escorted with decent duty: it was honest work, +phlegmatic sculpture, so to speak.</p> + +<p>They held the instruments of their death with placid propriety, like +soldiers presenting arms.</p> + +<p>On the right hand stood Saint Peter, holding the cross on which he was +bound head downwards; Saint Andrew, with a Latin cross, however, and not +the X-shaped cross to which he was nailed; then Saint Philip, Saint +Thomas, Saint Matthew, Saint Simon, all armed with the sword, though +Saint Philip was crucified and stoned, Saint Thomas pierced with a +lance, and Saint Simon sawn asunder.</p> + +<p>To the left were Saint Paul, substituted for Saint Matthias, chosen to +succeed Judas; he carried a sword; Saint John, bearing his Gospel; Saint +James the Great, with a sword; Saint James the Less, with a fuller's +club; Saint Bartholomew, with the knife that served to flay him, and +Saint Jude with a book.</p> + +<p>Perched on twisted columns, they trampled under their feet—bare, in +token of their apostleship—the executioners of their martyrdom. They +had long flowing hair, and forked <!-- Page 314 -->beards cut into two points, excepting +Saint John, who was beardless, and Saint Paul, who, tradition says, was +bald; and they were all dressed alike in cloaks hanging in formal +curves. Saint James the Great was alone distinguished by a tunic +sprinkled with shells, like that of the pilgrims who were wont to visit +him at Compostella in one of the huge sanctuaries erected in his honour +in Mediæval times.</p> + +<p>He was the patron Saint of Spain; but did he really ever preach in those +lands, as Saint Jerome and Saint Isidor assert, and the Toledo Breviary? +Some doubt it. At any rate his story, as related by Durand of Mende, in +the thirteenth century, was as follows: Being sent into Spain to convert +the idolaters, he failed, and returned to Jerusalem, where he was +beheaded by Herod. His body was subsequently carried to Spain, and his +remains performed such miracles as he had never wrought in his lifetime.</p> + +<p>"Indeed," reflected Durtal, "we have singularly little information with +regard to the Apostles. They appear, for the most part, only +incidentally in the Gospels; and excepting a few—Saint Peter, Saint +John, and Saint Paul—whose figures are more or less definite, they +float past like shades, lost, veiled as it were, in the halo of glory +shed about Him by Jesus Christ. And after His death they vanish into +thin air, and their very existence is only sketched in a few vague +legends.</p> + +<p>"Take Saint Thomas, the Treasure of God, as Saint Bridget calls him: +where was he born? We are not told. What were the circumstances and +reasons of his call? None knows. In what lands did he preach the new +faith? Here disputes begin. Some report him among the Medes, the +Parthians, the Persians, in Ethiopia, in Hindustan. He is commonly +represented with a cubit-measure and a square, for it is said that he +built a church at Meliapore; for which reason he was taken in the Middle +Ages as the patron Saint of architects and masons.</p> + +<p>"According to the Roman Breviary he was killed at Calamine by a +spear-thrust; according to the Golden Legend he was killed with the +sword in an uncertainly described place; the Portuguese assert that they +have his relics at Goa, the chief of their Indian possessions.</p> + +<p>"In the thirteenth century this saint was regarded as the type of +perverse disbelief. Not satisfied with having failed <!-- Page 315 -->to believe in +Christ until he had seen and put his finger into His wounds, he was +equally incredulous, if our forefathers are to be believed, when he was +told of the Assumption of the Virgin, and Mary was fain to show Herself +to him and throw down Her girdle to convince him.</p> + +<p>"Saint Bartholomew is even more obscure, lost in the thick shade of the +ages. He was the best educated of the Apostles, says Sister Emmerich, +for the others, particularly Peter and Andrew, had preserved rough +manners and a clumsy exterior from their humble origin.</p> + +<p>"It is supposed that his name was Bartholomew. The Synoptical Gospels +number him among the Apostles, but Saint John omits him, and mentions in +his place one Nathanael, of whom the other three Evangelists do not +speak.</p> + +<p>"It seems tolerably certain that these two were identical, and Saint +Bernard supposed that this Bartholomew or Nathanael was the bridegroom +of the marriage at Cana.</p> + +<p>"He is said to have preached in Arabia, in Persia, in Abyssinia, to have +baptized among the Iberi, the races of the Caucasus, and, like Saint +Thomas, in India, but there is no authentic evidence to show this. +According to some writers he was decapitated; others say he was flayed +alive and then crucified, near the frontiers of Armenia.</p> + +<p>"This last view was adopted by the Roman Breviary and prevailed; hence +he was chosen as the patron Saint of fleshers, who skin beasts, of +leather-dressers and skinners, shoemakers and binders, who use leather, +and even of tailors, for the early painters represent him with half his +body flayed and carrying his skin over his arm like a coat.</p> + +<p>"Stranger and still more puzzling is Saint Jude. He was also called +Thaddæus and Lebbæus, and was the son of Cleophas and of Mary the +Virgin's sister; he is said to have married and had children.</p> + +<p>"He is scarcely mentioned in the Gospels, but they point out that he is +not to be confounded with Judas—which, however, was done, actually by +reason of the similarity of name, during the Middle Ages; Christians +rejected him and sorcerers appealed to him.</p> + +<p>"He never speaks in the course of the Sacred Narrative but when he +breaks silence at the scene of the Last Supper to ask the Lord a +question as to predestination; and Christ <!-- Page 316 -->replies beside the mark, or +rather does not answer him at all. He was also the author of a Canonical +Epistle, in which he seems to have been inspired by the Second Epistle +of Saint Peter; and, according to Saint Augustine, it was he who +introduced the dogma of the Resurrection of the flesh into the <i>Credo</i>.</p> + +<p>"In legend he is associated with Saint Simon; according to the Breviary, +he is said to have evangelized Mesopotamia and to have suffered +martyrdom with his companion Saint in Persia. The Bollandists, on the +other hand, assert that he was the Apostle to Arabia and Idumea, while +the Greek Menology relates that he was shot to death with arrows by the +infidels in Armenia.</p> + +<p>"In fact all these accounts differ; and iconography adds to the +confusion by representing Jude with the most various attributes. +Sometimes, as at Amiens, he holds a palm, or, as at Chartres, a book. He +is also seen with a cross, a square, a boat, a wand, an axe, a sword, +and a spear.</p> + +<p>"But in spite of the unfortunate reputation earned for him by his +namesake Judas, the symbolists of the Middle Ages regard him as a man of +charity and zeal, and attribute to him the splendour of the purple and +gold fires of the chrysoprase, regarded as emblematical of good works.</p> + +<p>"All this is but incoherent," thought Durtal, "and what also strikes me +as strange is that this Saint, so rarely invoked by our forefathers—who +for long never dedicated any altar to him, is twice represented in +effigy at Chartres—supposing the Verlaine of the royal porch to +represent Saint Jude; but then that seems improbable."</p> + +<p>"What I should now like to know," he went on, "is why the historians of +this cathedral pronounce the scene of the last Judgment represented on +the tympanum of the door as the most remarkable of its kind in France. +This is utterly false, for it is vulgar, and certainly inferior to many +others.</p> + +<p>"The demoniacal half is far less vigorous, more supine, less crowded +than in other churches of the same period. At Chartres, it is true, the +devils with wolves' muzzles and asses' ears, trampling down bishops and +kings, laymen and monks, and driving them into the maw of a dragon +spouting flames—the demons with goats' beards and crescent-shaped jaws +seizing hapless sinners who have wandered to the mouldings of the arch, +are all very skilfully arranged, in <!-- Page 317 -->well composed groups round the +principal figure; but the Satanic vineyard lacks breadth and its fruit +is insipid. The preying demons are not ferocious enough, they almost +look as if they were monks and were doing it for fun, while the damned +take it very calmly.</p> + +<p>"How far more desperate is the devil's festival at Dijon!" Durtal +recalled to mind the church of Notre Dame in that city, so strange a +specimen of thirteenth-century gothic of the Burgundian stamp. The +church was of almost elementary simplicity; above its three porches rose +a straight wall with two storeys of columns forming arcades and +surmounted by grotesque figures. To the right of this front was a small +tower with a pointed roof; and on the roof a "Jacquemart" of iron +tracery, with three puppets that strike the hours; behind, rising from +the transept, was a small tower with four little glazed belfries.</p> + +<p>This building, small as compared with great cathedrals, was stamped with +the Flemish hall-mark; it had the homespun peasant expression, the +cheerful faith of the race. It was a domestic sanctuary, very native to +the soil; the folks would hold converse with the Black Virgin standing +there on an altar, tell her all their little concerns, make themselves +at home there in confidential gossiping prayer, quite without ceremony.</p> + +<p>But it was not well to trust too much to the benign and genial aspect of +this building, for the long rows of grotesque figures that were ranged +above the doorways and the arcades belied the jovial security of the +rest.</p> + +<p>There they were, in high relief, in close array, grinning and jibing; a +motley crowd of demented nuns and mad monks, of bewildered rustics and +outlandish women; hobgoblins writhing with laughter, and hilarious +devils; and in the midst of this mob of the reprobate a figure of a real +woman, held by two demons tormenting her, stood out, leaning forward as +if she wanted to throw herself down. With haggard, dilated eye, and +clasped hands, in terror she beseeches the passer-by, shows him the +place of refuge, and cries to him to enter. Involuntarily he pauses in +amazement to look at that face, distorted with fear, pinched with +anguish, struggling amid this pack of monsters, this vision of frenzied +nightmare. At once fierce and pitying, she threatens and entreats; and +this image of one for ever <!-- Page 318 -->excommunicate, cast out of the temple and +left to all eternity on the threshold, is as haunting as the memory of +suffering, as a nightmare of terror.</p> + +<p>Nowhere, certainly, in the satanic menagerie of La Beauce, is there a +statue of such startling and assertive art.</p> + +<p>From another point of view—that of the picture as a whole, and of the +broad view taken of the subject, the Judgment of Souls at Notre Dame de +Chartres is for beneath that of the cathedral at Bourges.</p> + +<p>"That, indeed, is, I think, the most wonderful of all," said Durtal to +himself. "The similar scenes at Reims and at Paris, with the gangs of +sinners held in chains tugged by demons, and those of the same kind at +Amiens, have none of them such breadth of scope."</p> + +<p>At Bourges, as in all works of this class in the Middle Ages, the dead +are escaping from their sepulchres, and on the uppermost frieze, below a +figure of Christ, with whom the Virgin and Saint John are interceding, +Saint Michael is weighing souls; to the left devils are dragging away +the wicked, and to the right angels are conducting the blessed.</p> + +<p>The resurrection of the dead, as it is represented by the image-maker of +Le Berry, is enough to set the noisy prudery of the Catholics neighing, +for the figures are nude, and certain reticences, usually observed at +any rate in the female form, are here omitted. Men and women push up the +lid of the tomb, stride across the edge, leap up, roll over pell mell, +one above another; some ecstatically clasping their hands in prayer, +their eyes fixed on heaven; others anxiously looking about them on all +sides; others praying with terror, throwing up their arms; others, +again, in dejected attitudes, beating their breasts in lamentable +self-accusation; and yet others who are dazzled by the abrupt change +from darkness to light, shaking their numbed limbs and trying to move.</p> + +<p>The mad confusion of all these human beings, suddenly awakened, and +brought like owls into the light of day, trembling with fear or with joy +as they see and understand that the day of Judgment is come, is all +expressed with a fulness, a spirit, a certainty of observation which +leave the petty accuracy and mild energy of the Chartres sculptor far +behind them.</p> + +<p>In the upper division, again, the weighing of souls goes on in a +magnificent composition; Saint Michael with wide-<!-- Page 319 -->spread wings holds a +large pair of scales and smiles as he caresses a little child with +folded hands, while a goat-headed devil watches eagerly to seize him if +the Archangel should turn away; and behind this lingering demon begins +the dolorous procession of the outcast. Nor have we here the infernal +courtliness of the scene as represented at Chartres, the doubtful +consideration of an evil spirit gently driving in a nun; it is brutality +in all its horror, the lowest violence; the sometimes comic side of +these struggles is not to be seen here. At Bourges the myrmidons of the +deep work and hit with a will. A devil with a wild beast's muzzle and a +drunkard's face in the middle of his fat stomach, is hammering the skull +of a wretch who struggles, grinding his teeth, while the devil bites his +legs with the end of his tail that bears a serpent's head. Another +monster, with a crushed face and pendant breasts, a man's face in his +stomach and wings springing from his loins, has clasped a priest in his +arms and is pitching him head foremost into a cauldron boiling over the +flames from a dragon's mouth blown up with bellows by two of the devil's +slaves. And in this cauldron sit two figures symbolical of slander and +lust, a monk and a woman writhing and weeping, for enormous toads are +gnawing at the tongue of one and at the heart of the other.</p> + +<p>On the other side of Saint Michael the scene is different; a chubby, +smiling angel is playing with a child whom he has perched on one of his +fellow-angels' shoulders, and the infant delightedly waves a bough; +behind him slowly marches a representative group of saints—a woman, a +king, a cenobite, conducted by Saint Peter towards a doorway leading to +a sanctum where sits Abraham, an old man with a cloth spread over his +knees full of little heads all rejoicing—the souls that are saved.</p> + +<p>And Durtal, as he recalled the features of Saint Michael and his angels, +perceived that they were the brethren in art of the Saint Anne, Saint +Joseph, and the angel of the great portal at Reims. They were all of the +same peculiar type—a young and yet old countenance, a long sharp nose +and pointed chin; only here, perhaps, a little rounder, a little less +angular than at Reims.</p> + +<p>This sort of family likeness gave support to a theory that the same +sculptors or their pupils had worked on the carvings of those two +cathedrals, but not at Chartres, where <!-- Page 320 -->no similar type is to be seen; +though a certain striking resemblance exists between other statues in +the north porch and some figures, of a different class however, on the +façade at Reims.</p> + +<p>"Anyone of these hypotheses may be correct, though there is no chance of +proving their truth, for we can discover no information with regard to +the schools of art of the period," said Durtal to himself, as he turned +his attention to the left-hand bay of the south porch, dedicated to the +martyrs.</p> + +<p>There, in the archway of the door, dwelt, side by side, Saint Vincent +the deacon, of Spain; Saint Denys the bishop; Saint Piat the priest; and +Saint George the warrior; all four victims of the ingenious cruelty of +the infidels.</p> + +<p>Saint Vincent in his long gown hung a contrite head over his shoulder.</p> + +<p>"He," thought Durtal, "was literally butchered and cooked, for we are +told in the legend according to Voragine that his body was torn with +sharp combs of brass till his bowels fell out, and that after this +foretaste, this <i>hors d'œuvre</i> of torture, he was broiled on a +gridiron, larded with nails, and basted with the sauce of his own blood. +He lay calm, praying while he was being toasted. He remained unmoved, +grilling and praying. When he was dead, Dacian, his persecutor, ordered +that his body should be cast out on a field to be devoured by beasts; +but a raven came to settle by him, and drove away a wolf by pecking at +it. Then a millstone was tied about his neck and he was thrown into the +sea, but his body came to land near some pious women who buried it.</p> + +<p>"Saint Denys, the first Bishop of Paris, was thrown to the lions, who +retreated before him; he was then beheaded at Montmartre, with Saint +Eleutherius and Saint Rusticus. The image-maker had not here represented +him, as usual, carrying his head, but had shown him standing with his +crozier and mitre. And he was not humble and pitiable, like his +neighbour, the Spanish Deacon, but upright and imperious, with his hand +uplifted, in the attitude rather of admonishing the faithful than of +blessing them, and Durtal stood lost in thought before this writer, +whose brief book holds so important a place in the series of mystical +writings.</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 321 -->He, more than any other, and first among the contemplative authors, +had overstepped the threshold of Heaven and brought down to men some +details of what happens there. The knowledge of the angelic ranks dates +from him, for it was he who revealed the organization of the heavenly +host as an order, a hierarchy copied by human beings and parodied in +hell. He was a sort of messenger between Heaven and earth, and was the +explorer of our celestial heritage, as Saint Catherine of Genoa at a +later date was the explorer of purgatory.</p> + +<p>"A less interesting personage was Saint Piat, a priest of Tournai, +beheaded by a Roman proconsul. In this assembly of famous saints he was +rather the poor country-cousin, a mere provincial Saint. He figured here +because his relics repose in the cathedral, for historians record the +translation of his remains to Chartres in the ninth century. By his side +was Saint George, arrayed as a knight of the time of Saint Louis, his +head bare with an iron fillet, armed with a lance and shield; standing +as if on guard on a pedestal, showing the wheel which was the instrument +of his martyrdom.</p> + +<p>"The companion statue, on the opposite side of the door, was that of +Saint Theodore of Heraclea, wearing a coat of mail, and a surcoat, and +also holding a shield and spear.</p> + +<p>"Next to this saint, who was subsequently roasted to death by a slow +fire, in the town of Amasea, were Saint Stephen, Saint Clement, and +Saint Laurence.</p> + +<p>"Above this double rank of martyrs the tympanum represented the story of +Saint Stephen disputing with the Doctors and stoned by the Jews; and on +all sides, on the square pillars that supported the roof of the porch, +was carved stone-work representing the tortured bodies of the righteous: +Saint Leger, Saint Laurence, Saint Thomas of Canterbury, Saint Bacchus, +Saint Quentin, and many more; a whole procession of the Blessed, being +blinded, burnt, cut in pieces, flogged with vigorous energy, and +beheaded. But it was all in melancholy decay. The <i>sans-culottes</i>, by +amputating more of their limbs in their tempest of fury, had crowned the +martyrdom of these Saints.</p> + +<p>"The doorway to the right, dedicated to the Confessors, was a vast hull +set on end; on the sloping side to the left of the door stood Saint +Nicholas, Archbishop of Myra, holding up a gloved hand, and trampling +under foot the cruel host <!-- Page 322 -->killing the children whose death became a +theme for so many laments; Saint Ambrose, Doctor of the Church and +Bishop of Milan, wearing a singular peaked mitre, like an extinguisher; +Saint Leo, the Pope who defied Attila; and finally Saint Laumer, one of +the glories of the Chartres district.</p> + +<p>"He, like Saint Piat in the left-hand bay, is somewhat of a stranger +dragged into this illustrious company. He was of old highly venerated in +La Beauce, having, in his lifetime, had a career which may be briefly +summed up. During his childhood he had kept sheep; he had then been +cellarer to the cathedral; had become first an anchorite, then a monk, +and finally Abbot of the Monastery of Corbion in the forests of the +Orne.</p> + +<p>"The opposite slope of the bay sheltered Saint Martin, Bishop of Tours, +Saint Jerome, as a Doctor of the Church, Saint Gregory, Pope and Doctor, +and Saint Avitus.</p> + +<p>"What is curious in this door," thought Durtal, "is the parallel of +personages. On one side, to the right, Saint Nicholas, the great +miracle-worker of the East; on the other side, to the left, Saint +Martin, the great miracle-worker of the West. Then, as companion +figures, Saint Ambrose and Saint Jerome;—the first often redundant and +pompous in second-rate prose, but ingenious and delightful in his hymns; +the second who, in the Vulgate, really created the language of Church +use, purifying and airing the Latin of Pagan literature, foul with +lascivious meaning, reeking at once of an old goat and of essence of +roses. Again, face to face, two Popes, Saint Leo and Saint Gregory, and +two Abbots of Monasteries, Saint Laumer and Saint Avitus, who was Prior +of a House founded in the forests of Le Perche."</p> + +<p>These two last statues had been added later; their style and costume +betrayed a date subsequent to the thirteenth century; had they, then, +taken the place of others representing the same Monks, or different +Saints?</p> + +<p>The tympanum again expressed the same purpose of parallelism, evidently +intended by the master of the work. This was also devoted to two miracle +workers, to a correspondence in this respect of the north and the south. +It represented episodes in the lives of Saint Nicholas and Saint Martin: +Saint Nicholas furnishing a dowry for the daughters of a gentleman who +was dying of hunger, and about to sell <!-- Page 323 -->their honour, and the sepulchre +of this archbishop exuding an oil of sovereign efficacy in the cure of +diseases; Saint Martin giving half of his cloak to a beggar, and then +beholding Christ wearing the garment.</p> + +<p>The remainder of this porch was of secondary interest. In the mouldings +of the arches and in the pillars of the bays the ranks of the Confessors +appeared again, the nine choirs of Angels, the parable of the wise and +foolish Virgins, a replica of the four-and-twenty elders on the royal +front, the Prophets of the Old Testament, the Virtues, the Vices, the +Christian Virgins, and small statues of the Apostles, all more or less +injured and more or less invisible.</p> + +<p>This south porch, with its seven hundred and eighty-three statues and +statuettes, spoken of by the guide-books as the most attractive of all, +was to artists, on the contrary, the least absorbing; for, with the +exception of the noble effigies of Saint Theodore and Saint George, the +glorification of the others who dwell there was on the whole, from the +artistic point of view, very inferior in interest to the sculpture on +the twelfth-century west front, or even to that of the north porch—that +complete embodiment of the Two Testaments—where the sculpture, if more +barbarous, was less placid and cold.</p> + +<p>And Durtal came to this conclusion: "The exterior of the cathedral of +Chartres may be summed up in three words: <i>Latvia</i>, <i>hyperdulia</i>, and +<i>dulia</i>. <i>Latria</i>, the worship of Our Lord, on the west front; +<i>Hyperdulia</i>, the worship of the Blessed Virgin, in the north porch; +<i>Dulia</i>, the worship of the Saints, in the south porch.</p> + +<p>"For although the Redeemer is magnified in this south portal in His +character of Supreme Judge, He seems to make way for the Saints. And +this is quite intelligible, since He is enthroned there for two +purposes, and His true palace, His real throne, is in the triumphal +tympanum of the royal doorway in the west front."</p> + +<p>Before quitting this side of the building, as he glanced once more at +the ranks of the Elect, Durtal stopped in front of Saint Clement and +Saint Gregory.</p> + +<p>Saint Clement, whose extraordinary death almost casts his life into +oblivion—a life exclusively occupied in harrowing souls. Durtal +recalled the narrative of Voragine. After being exiled to the +Chersonesus, in the reign of<!-- Page 324 --> Trajan, Clement was cast into the sea with +an anchor tied to his neck, while the assembled Christians kneeling on +the strand besought Heaven to restore his body. Then the sea withdrew +three miles, and the faithful went dry-shod to a chapel which the angels +had just erected beneath the waters, where the body of the saint was +found reposing, lying on a tomb; and for many centuries the sea retired +every year for a week, to allow pilgrims to visit his remains.</p> + +<p>Saint Gregory, the first Benedictine to be elected Pope, was the creator +of the Liturgy, the master of plain-song. He was alike devoted to +justice and to charity, and a passionate patron of art; and this +admirable Pope, with his broad and comprehensive spirit, regarded it as +a temptation of the Devil that made the bigots, the Pharisees of his +day, proclaim their determination not to read profane literature; for, +said he, it helps us to understand that which is sacred.</p> + +<p>Made Pope against his will, he led a life of anguish, mourning for the +lost peace of his cloister; but he fought none the less with incredible +energy against the inroads of the Barbarians, the heresies of Africa, +the intrigues of Byzantium, and the Simony of his own priests.</p> + +<p>He stands out in a dark age, amid a witches' sabbath of shrieking +schisms; he is seen in the midst of these storms, protecting the poor +from the rapacity of the rich, feeding them with his own hands, kissing +their feet, every day; and in spite of this overworked life without a +moment's respite, or a minute for rest, he succeeded in restoring +monastic discipline, and sowing wherever he might the Benedictine seed, +saving the headlong world by the vigilance of his Order.</p> + +<p>Though he was not a martyr like Saint Clement, he died nevertheless for +Christ, of exhaustion and fatigue, after living in the constant +suffering of a frame undermined by disease, and weakened by voluntary +maceration and fasting.</p> + +<p>"This, no doubt, is the reason why the face of his statue is so sad and +thoughtful," said Durtal to himself. "And yet he is listening to the +dove, the symbol of inspiration which is speaking in his ear, dictating +to him, the legend says, the antiphonal melodies, and undoubtedly +whispering his dialogues, his homilies, his commentaries on the Book of +Job, his pastoral letter—all the works which made him so immensely +famous in the Middle Ages."</p> + +<p><!-- Page 325 -->As he made his way home, Durtal, still reflecting on this array of the +Righteous, suddenly was struck by this idea: "There is no portrait in +Chartres of a Saint whose present help was of yore desired above all +others: Saint Christopher, whose effigy was usually to be found at the +entrance to a cathedral, standing alone in a spot apart.</p> + +<p>"It stood thus, formerly, at the door of Notre-Dame de Paris, and is +still to be seen in one corner of the principal front at Amiens; but in +most places the iconoclasts overthrew it, and the churches where the +statue of Christopher is now to be seen may be easily counted. It must +once have existed at Chartres—but where? The monographs on this +cathedral never allude to it."</p> + +<p>Thus, as he walked on, he dreamed of the Saint whose popularity is +easily accounted for, since our forefathers believed that they had only +to look at his image, whether painted or carved, to be protected for a +whole day from disaster, and especially from violent death.</p> + +<p>So he was always placed outside in a prominent spot, and very large, so +that he might easily be seen by the wayfarer, even from afar. In some +cases his effigy was found on a gigantic scale, inside the church. Thus +he is represented in the Dom at Erfurt, in a fresco of the fifteenth +century, too much restored.</p> + +<p>This colossal figure, five storeys high, extends from the pavement of +the church to the roof. Christopher has a beard which flows in a stream, +and legs as thick as the pillars of the nave. Bending and adoring, he +bears on his shoulders a Child with a round face, as white as the chalk +of a clown, blessing all comers with a smile. The Saint is wading +barefoot through a pool full of little reeds, and imps, and horned +fishes and strange flowers—all represented on a minute scale to +emphasize the mighty stature of the Saint.</p> + +<p>"That good friend," thought Durtal, "though venerated by the poor, was +somewhat coldly treated by the Church, for he, with Saint George and +some other martyrs, was among those whose existence remains open to +doubt.</p> + +<p>"In Mediæval times Saint Christopher was invoked for the cure of weakly +children, and also as a protector against blindness and the plague.</p> + +<p>"But indeed the Saints were the chief healers of that time. Every +disease which the leeches and apothecaries could not <!-- Page 326 -->alleviate was +brought to the Saints. Some indeed were reputed specialists, and the +ills they cured were known by their names. The gout was known as Saint +Maurus' evil, leprosy as Job's evil, cancer was Saint Giles', chorea +Saint Guy's, colds were Saint Aventinus' ill, a bloody flux Saint +Fiacre's—and I forget the rest.</p> + +<p>"Others again remained noted for delivering sufferers from certain +affections they were reputed to heal: Saint Geneviève for the burning +sickness and ophthalmia, Saint Catherine of Alexandria for headache, +Saint Bartholomew for convulsions, Saint Firmin for cramp, Saint +Benedict for erysipelas and the stone, Saint Lupus for pains in the +stomach, Saint Hubert for madness, Saint Appolina, whose statue, +standing in the chapel of the Hospital of Saint John at Bruges, is +graced by way of <i>ex votos</i> with strings of teeth and wax stumps, for +neuralgia and toothache—and how many more.</p> + +<p>"And granting," said Durtal, "that medical science is at this day a +greater delusion than ever, I cannot see why we should not revert to the +specific of prayer and the mystical panaceas of the past. If the +interceding Saints should, in certain cases, refuse to cure us, at any +rate they will make us no worse by a mistaken diagnosis and the +exhibition of dangerous remedies. Though after all, even if our modern +practitioners were not ignoramuses, of what use would that be, since the +medicines they prescribe are adulterated?"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"><!-- Page 327 --></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h2> + + +<p>The day had come for Durtal to strap his portmanteau and set out with +the Abbé Plomb.</p> + +<p>He became fidgety with waiting as the hours went by. At last, unable to +sit still, he went out to kill the time, but a drizzling rain drove him +for shelter into the cathedral.</p> + +<p>After offering his devotions to the Virgin of the Pillar, he seated +himself amid a camp of vacant chairs to meditate.</p> + +<p>"Before interrupting the quiet monotony of my life at Chartres by this +journey, shall I not do well to look into myself, if only for a minute, +and take stock of what I have gained before and since settling in this +town?</p> + +<p>"The gain to my soul? Alas! it consists less in acquisitions than in +exchanges; I have merely found aridity in the place of indolence; and +the results of the exchange I know only too well; of what use is it to +go through them once more? The gains to my mind seem to me less +distressing and more genuine, and I can make a brief catalogue of them +under three heads: Past, Present, and Future.</p> + +<p>"In the Past.—When I least expected it, in Paris, God suddenly seized +me and drew me back to the Church, taking advantage of my love of Art, +of mysticism, of the Liturgy, and of plain-song.</p> + +<p>"Still, during the travail of this conversion, I could not study +mysticism anywhere but in books; I knew it only in theory and not in +practice. On the other hand, in Paris, I never heard any but dull, +lifeless music, watered down, as it were, in women's throats, or utterly +disfigured by the choir schools. In most of the churches I found only a +colourless ceremonial, a meagre form of service.</p> + +<p>"This was the situation when I set out for La Trappe: under that strict +rule I found mysticism not only in its <!-- Page 328 -->simplest expression, written out +and set forth in a body of doctrine, but mysticism as a personal +experience, in action, simply an element of life to those monks. I could +convince myself that the science of the soul's perfection was no +delusion, that the assertions of Saint Teresa and Saint John of the +Cross were strictly true, and in that cloister it was also vouchsafed to +me to be familiar with the enjoyment of an authentic ritual and genuine +plain-song.</p> + +<p>"In the Present.—At Chartres I have entered on new exercises, I have +followed other traces. Haunted by the matchless grandeur of this +cathedral, under the guidance of a very intelligent and cultivated +priest I have studied religious symbolism, worked up that great science +of the Middle Ages which is in fact a language peculiar to the Church, +expressing by images and signs what the Liturgy expresses in words.</p> + +<p>"Or, to be more exact, it would be better to say that part of the +Liturgy which is more particularly concerned with prayer; for that part +of it which relates to forms, and injunctions as to worship, is itself +symbolism, symbolism is the soul of it. In fact, the limit-line of the +two branches is not always easy to trace, so often are they grafted +together; they inspire each other, intertwine, and at last are almost +one.</p> + +<p>"In the Future.—By going to Solesmes I shall complete my education; I +shall see and hear the most perfect expression of that Liturgy and that +Gregorian chant of which the little convent of Notre Dame de l'Atre, by +reason of the limited number of the Brethren, could only afford a +reduced copy—very faithful, it is true, but yet reduced.</p> + +<p>"By adding to this my own studies of the religious paintings removed now +from the sanctuaries and collected in museums, and supplementing them by +my remarks on the various cathedrals I may explore, I shall have +travelled round the whole cycle of mysticism, have extracted the essence +of the Middle Ages, have combined in a sort of sheaf these separate +branches, scattered now for so many centuries, and have investigated +more thoroughly one especially—Symbolism namely, of which certain +elements are almost lost from sheer neglect.</p> + +<p>"Yes. Symbolism has lent the principal charm to my life at Chartres; it +occupied and comforted me when I was <!-- Page 329 -->suffering from finding my soul so +importunate and yet so low."</p> + +<p>And he tried to recapitulate the science, to view it as a whole.</p> + +<p>He saw it as a thickly branched tree, the root deep set in the very soil +of the Bible; from thence, in fact, it drew its substance and its +nourishment: the trunk was the Symbolism of the Scriptures, the Old +Testament prefiguring the Gospels; the branches were the allegorical +purport of architecture, of colours, gems, flowers, and animals; the +hieroglyphics of numbers; the emblematical meaning of the vessels and +vestments of Church use. A small bough represented Liturgical perfumes, +and a mere twig, dried up from the first and almost dead, represented +dancing.</p> + +<p>"For religious dancing once existed," Durtal went on. "In ancient times +it was a recognized offering of adoration, a tithe of light-heartedness. +David leaping before the Ark shows this.</p> + +<p>"And in the earliest Christian times the faithful and the priesthood +shook themselves in honour of the Redeemer, and fancied that by choric +motion they were imitating the joy of the Blessed, the glee of the +Angels described by Saint Basil as executing figures in the radiant +assemblies of Heaven.</p> + +<p>"One is soon accustomed to endure Masses of the kind called at Toledo +<i>Mussarabes</i>, during which the congregation dance and gambol in the +cathedral; but these capers presently lose the pious character that they +are supposed to bear; they become an incentive to the revelry of the +senses, and several Councils have prohibited them.</p> + +<p>"In the seventeenth century sacred dances still survived in some +provinces; we hear of them at Limoges, where the Curé of St. Leonard and +his parishioners pirouetted in the choir of the church. In the +eighteenth century their traces are found in Roussillon, and at the +present day religious dancing still survives; but the tradition of this +saintly frisking is chiefly preserved in Spain.</p> + +<p>"Not long since, on the day of Corpus Christi at Compostella, the +procession was led through the streets by a tall man who danced carrying +another on his shoulders. And to this day, at Seville, on the festival +of the Holy Sacrament, the choir-children turn in a sort of slow waltz +as they sing <!-- Page 330 -->hymns before the high altar of the cathedral. In other +towns, on the festivals of the Virgin, a saraband is slowly danced round +Her statue, with striking of sticks, and the rattle of castanets; and to +close the ceremony by way of Amen the people fire off squibs.</p> + +<p>"All this, however, is of no great interest, and I cannot help wondering +what meaning can have been attributed to cutting capers and spinning +round. I find it difficult to believe that <i>farandoles</i> and <i>boleros</i> +could ever represent prayer; I can hardly persuade myself that it can be +an act of thanksgiving to trample peppers under foot or appearing to +grind at an imaginary coffee-mill with one's arms.</p> + +<p>"In point of fact no one knows anything about the symbolism of dancing; +no record has come down to us of the meanings ascribed to it of old. +Church dancing is really no more than a gross form of rejoicing among +Southern races. We need mention it merely as noteworthy, and that is +all.</p> + +<p>"Now, from a practical point of view, what has the influence of +symbolism been on souls?"</p> + +<p>Durtal could answer himself.</p> + +<p>"The Middle Ages, knowing that everything on earth is a sign and a +figure, that the only value of things visible is in so far as they +correspond to things invisible—the Middle Ages, when consequently men +were not, as we are, the dupes of appearances—made a profound study of +this science, and made it the nursing mother and the handmaid of +mysticism.</p> + +<p>"Convinced that the only aim that it was incumbent on man to follow, the +only end he could really need, was to place himself in direct +communication with Heaven, and to out-strip death by merging himself, +unifying himself to the utmost, with God, it tempted souls, subjecting +them to a moderate claustral course, purged them of their earthly +interests, their fleshly aims, and led them back again and again to the +same purpose of renunciation and repentance, the same ideas of justice +and love; and then to retain them, to preserve them from themselves, it +enclosed them in a fence, placed God all about them, as it were, under +every form and aspect."</p> + +<p>Jesus was seen in everything—in the fauna, the flora, the structure of +buildings, in every decoration, in the use of <!-- Page 331 -->colour. Whichever way man +could turn, he still saw Him.</p> + +<p>And at the same time he saw his own soul as in a mirror that reflected +it; in certain animals, certain colours, and certain plants he could +discern the qualities which it was his duty to acquire, the vices +against which he had to defend himself.</p> + +<p>And he had other examples before his eyes, for the symbolists did not +restrict themselves to turning botany, mineralogy, natural history, and +other sciences to the uses of a catechism; some of them, and among +others Saint Melito, ended by applying the process to the interpretation +of every object that came in their way. A cithara was to them the breast +of the devout man; the members of the human frame became emblematical: +the head was Christ, the hairs were the saints, the nose meant +discretion, the nostrils the spirit of faith, the eye contemplation, the +mouth symbolized temptation, the saliva was the sweetness of the inner +life, the ears figured obedience, the arms the love of Jesus, the hands +stood for good works, the knees for the sacrament of penance, the legs +for the Apostles, the shoulders for the yoke of Christ, the breast for +evangelical doctrine, the belly for avarice, the bowels for the +mysterious precepts of the Lord, the body and loins for suggestions of +lust, the bones typified hardness of heart, and the marrow compunction, +the sinews were evil members of Anti-Christ. And these writers extended +this method of interpretation to the commonest objects of daily use, +even to tools and vessels within reach of all.</p> + +<p>Thus there was an uninterrupted course of pious teaching. Yves de +Chartres tells us that priests instructed the people in symbolism, and +from the researches of Dom Pitra we know that in the Middle Ages Saint +Melito's treatise was popular and known to all. Thus the peasant learnt +that his plough was an image of the Cross, that the furrows it made were +like the hearts of saints freshly tilled; he knew that sheaves were the +fruit of repentance, flour the multitude of the faithful, the granary +the Kingdom of Heaven; and it was the same with many pursuits. In short, +this method of analogies was a bidding to everybody to watch and pray +better.</p> + +<p>Thus utilized, symbolism became a break to check the <!-- Page 332 -->forward march of +sin, and at the same time a sort of lever to uplift souls and help them +to overleap the stages of the mystical life.</p> + +<p>This science, translated into so many languages, was no doubt +intelligible only in broad outline to the masses, and sometimes, when it +percolated through the labyrinthine maze of such minds as that of the +worthy Bishop of Mende, it appeared overwrought, full of contradictions, +and of double meanings. It seems then as if the symbolist were splitting +a hair with embroidery scissors. But, in spite of the extravagance it +tolerated and smiled at, the Church succeeded, nevertheless, by these +tactics of repetition, in saving souls and carrying out on a large scale +the production of saints.</p> + +<p>Then came the Renaissance, and symbolism was wrecked at the same time as +church architecture.</p> + +<p>Mysticism in the stricter sense of the word, more fortunate than its +handmaidens, survived that period of festive dishonour; for it may be +safely asserted that, though it was unproductive while living through +that period, it flourished anew in Spain, producing its noblest blossoms +in Saint John of the Cross and Saint Teresa.</p> + +<p>Since then doctrinal mysticism seems dried up at the source. Not so, +however, as regards personal mysticism, which still dwells acclimatized +and flourishing in convents.</p> + +<p>As to the Liturgy and plain-song, they too have gone through very +various phases. After being dissected and filtered in the numberless +provincial Uses, the Liturgy was brought back to the standard of Rome by +the efforts of Dom Guéranger, and it may be hoped that the Benedictines +at last will also bring all the churches back to the strict use of +plain-song.</p> + +<p>"And this church above all!" sighed Durtal.</p> + +<p>He looked at his cathedral, loving it better than ever now that he was +to part from it for a few days. To impress it the better on his memory +he tried to sum it up, to concentrate it, saying to himself,—</p> + +<p>"It is the epitome of Heaven and Earth; of Heaven by showing us the +serried phalanx of its inhabitants—Prophets, Patriarchs, Angels and +Saints, lighting up the interior of the church by their transparent +figures; by singing to the glory of the Mother and the Son. Of Earth, +for it connotes <!-- Page 333 -->the elation of the soul, the ascension of man; it +points out quite clearly to Christian souls the path of the perfect +life. They, to apprehend its symbolism, should enter by the Royal +doorway, and pass up the nave, the transept and the choir—the three +successive phases of Asceticism; reach the top of the Cross where, +surrounded by the chapels of the apse as by a Crown, the head of the +Saviour lies, His neck bent, as we see them symbolized by the altar and +the deflected axis of the church.</p> + +<p>"There the pilgrim has reached the united ways, close to the Virgin, who +mourns no more as she does in the agonizing scene on Calvary, at the +foot of the Tree, but, under the figure of the Sacristy, remains veiled +by the side of Her Son's countenance, getting closer to Him the better +to comfort and to see Him.</p> + +<p>"And this allegory of the mystical life as set forth by the interior of +the cathedral, is carried out by the exterior, in the suppliant effect +of the whole building.</p> + +<p>"The Soul, distraught by the joy of union, heart-broken at having still +to live, only aspires now to escape for ever from the Gehenna of the +flesh; thus it beseeches the Bridegroom with the uplifted arms of its +towers, to take pity on it, to come to fetch it, to take it by the +clasped hands of its spires and snatch it from earth, to carry it up +with Him into Heaven.</p> + +<p>"In short, this church is the finest expression of art bequeathed to us +by the Middle Ages. The great front has neither the awful majesty of +that of Reims, pierced as it is with tracery, nor the dull melancholy of +Notre Dame de Paris, nor the gigantic grace of Amiens, nor the massive +solemnity of Bourges; but it is full of imposing simplicity, a +lightness, a spring, which no other cathedral has attained to.</p> + +<p>"The nave of Amiens alone grows beautifully less as it rises with as +eager a spring from the earth; but the body of the Amiens church is +light and uncomforting, and that of Chartres is mysterious and hushed; +of all cathedrals it is that which best suggests the idea of a delicate, +saintly woman, emaciated by prayer, and almost transparent by fasting.</p> + +<p>"And then its windows are matchless, superior even to those of Bourges, +where, again, the sanctuary blossoms with <!-- Page 334 -->glorious clumps of holy +persons. And finally, the sculpture of the west front, the Royal Portal, +is the most beautiful, the most superterrestrial statuary ever wrought +by the hand of man.</p> + +<p>"And it is almost unique in having none of the woeful and threatening +solemnity of its noble sisters. Scarce a demon is to be seen watching +and grinning on its walls to torture souls; in a few small figures it +shows indeed the variety of penance, but that is all; and within, the +Virgin is above all else the Mother of Bethlehem. Jesus, too, is more or +less Her Child; He yields to Her when she entreats Him.</p> + +<p>"It proclaims the plenitude of Her patience and charity by the length of +the crypt and the breadth of the nave, which are greater than those of +other churches.</p> + +<p>"In fact, it is the mystical cathedral—that where the Madonna is most +graciously ready to receive the sinner.</p> + +<p>"Now," said Durtal, looking at his watch, "the Abbé Gévresin must have +finished his breakfast. It is time to take leave of him before joining +the Abbé Plomb at the station."</p> + +<p>He crossed the forecourt of the palace and rang at the priest's door.</p> + +<p>"So you are sure you are going!" said Madame Bavoil, who opened the +door, and admitted him to her master.</p> + +<p>"Well, yes—"</p> + +<p>"I envy you," sighed the Abbé, "for you will be present at wonderful +services and hear admirable music."</p> + +<p>"I hope so. And if only that could relieve the tension, could release me +a little from this incoherent frame of mind in which I wander, and allow +me to feel at home once more in my own soul and not in a strange place +open to all the winds!—"</p> + +<p>"Ah, your soul wants locks and latches," said Madame Bavoil, laughing.</p> + +<p>"It is a public mart where every distraction meets to chatter. I am +constantly driven out, and when I want to go home again they are in +possession."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I quite understand that. You know the proverb, 'Who goes hunting +loses his seat by the hearth.'"</p> + +<p>"That is all very well to say, but—"</p> + +<p>"But, our friend, the Lord foresaw your case, when, with <!-- Page 335 -->reference to +such distractions which flutter about the soul like this, He replied to +the Venerable Jeanne de Matel, who complained of such annoyances, that +she should imitate the hunter, who, when he misses the big game he is +seeking, seizes the smaller prey he may find."</p> + +<p>"Ay, but even then he must find it!"</p> + +<p>"Go and live in peace, then," said the Abbé. "Do not fret yourself with +wondering whether your soul is enclosed or no; and take this piece of +advice: You are accustomed—are you not?—to repeat prayers that you +know by heart, and it is especially under those circumstances that +wandering supervenes. Well, then, set those prayers aside, and restrict +yourself to following, very regularly, the prayers of the services in +the convent-chapel. You are less familiar with them, and merely to +follow them you will be obliged to read them with care. Thus you will be +less likely to have a divided mind."</p> + +<p>"No doubt," replied Durtal. "But when I have not repeated the prayers I +am wont to say, I feel as though I had not prayed at all. I know that +this is absurd; still, there is no faithful soul who does not know the +feeling when the text of his prayers is altered."</p> + +<p>The Abbé smiled.</p> + +<p>"The best prayers," said he, "are those of the Liturgy, those which God +Himself has taught us, those alone which are expressed in language +worthy of Him—in His own language. They are complete, and supreme; for +all our desires, all our regrets, all our wailing are contained in the +Psalms. The prophet foresaw and said everything; leave him, then, to +speak for you, and thus, as your interpreter before God, give you his +help.</p> + +<p>"As to the prayers you may feel moved to address to God apart from the +hours devoted to the purpose, let them be short. Imitate the Recluses of +Egypt, the Fathers in the Desert, who were masters in the art of +supplication. This is what old Isaac said to Cassian: 'Pray briefly and +often, lest, if your orisons be long, the enemy will come to disturb +them. Follow these two rules, they will save you from secret upheaval.</p> + +<p>"So, go in peace; and if any trouble should overtake you, do not +hesitate to consult the Abbé Plomb."</p> + +<p>"Eh, our friend," cried Madame Bavoil, laughing, "and you <!-- Page 336 -->might also +cure yourself of wandering thoughts by the method employed by the Abbess +of Sainte-Aure when she chanted the Psalter: she sat in a chair of which +the back was garnished with a hundred long nails, and when she felt +herself wandering she pressed her shoulder firmly against the points; +there is nothing better, I can tell you, for bringing folks back to +reality and recalling their wandering attention."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, indeed!"</p> + +<p>"There is another thing," she went on, not laughing now. "You ought to +postpone your departure for a day or two; for the day after to-morrow is +a festival of the Virgin. They expect pilgrims from Paris, and the +shrine containing our Mother's veil will be carried in procession +through the streets."</p> + +<p>"Oh no!" cried Durtal, "I have no love for worship in common. When our +Lady holds these solemn assizes to gel out of the way. I wait till She +is alone before I visit her. Hosts of people shouting canticles with +eyes straight to Heaven or looking for Jesus on the ground by way of +unction are too much for me. I am all for the forlorn Queens, for the +deserted churches and dark chapels. I am of the opinion of Saint John of +the Cross, who confesses that he does not love the pilgrimage of crowds +because one comes back more distracted than when one started.</p> + +<p>"No. What it is really a grief to me to leave in quitting Chartres is +that very silence, that solitude in the cathedral, those interviews with +the Virgin in the gloom of the crypt and the twilight of the nave. Ah, +here alone can one feel near Her, and see Her!</p> + +<p>"In fact," he went on after a moment's reflection, "one does see Her in +the strictest sense of the word—or at least, can fancy that She is +there. If there is a spot where I can call up Her face, Her attitude—in +short Her portrait—it is at Chartres."</p> + +<p>"And how is that?"</p> + +<p>"Well, Monsieur l'Abbé, we have no trustworthy information as to our +Mother's face or figure. Her features are unknown—intentionally, I feel +sure, in order that each one may contemplate Her under the aspect that +best pleases him, and incarnate Her in the ideal beauty of his dreams.</p> + +<p>"For instance, Saint Epiphanius describes her as tall, with <!-- Page 337 -->olive eyes +arched and very black eyebrows, an aquiline nose a rosy mouth, and a +golden-toned skin. This is the vision of an oriental.</p> + +<p>"Take Maria d'Agreda, on the other hand. She thinks of the Virgin as +slender, with black hair and eyebrows, eyes dark and greenish, a +straight nose, scarlet lips, and a brown skin. You recognize here the +Spanish ideal of beauty imagined by the Abbess.</p> + +<p>"Again in, turn to Sister Emmerich. According to her, Mary was +fair-haired, with large eyes, a rather long nose, a narrow-pointed chin, +a clear skin, and not very tall. Here we have the description given by a +German who does not admire dark beauty:</p> + +<p>"And yet both of these women were real Seers, to whom the Madonna +appeared, assuming in each case the only aspect that could fascinate +them; just as she was seen to be the model of mere prettiness—the only +type they could understand—by Mélanie at La Salette and Bernadette at +Lourdes".</p> + +<p>"Well, I, who am no visionary, and who must appeal to my imagination to +picture Her at all, I fancy I discern Her under the forms and +expressions of the cathedral itself; the features are a little confused +in the pale splendour of the great rose window that blazes behind Her +head like a nimbus. She smiles, and Her eyes, all light, have the +incomparable effulgence of those pure sapphires which light up the +entrance to the nave. Her slight form is diffused in a clear robe of +flame, striped and ribbed like the drapery of the so-called Berthe. Her +face is white like mother-of-pearl, and her hair, a circular tissue of +sunshine, radiates in threads of gold. She is the Bride of Canticles. +<i>Pulchra ut Luna, electa ut Sol</i>.</p> + +<p>"The church which is Her dwelling-place, and one with Her, is luminous +with Her grace; the gems of the windows sing to Her praise; the slender +columns shooting upwards, from the pavement to the roof, symbolize Her +aspirations and desires; the floor tells of Her humility; the vaulting, +meeting to form a canopy over Her, speaks of Her charity; the stones and +glass echo hymns to Her. There is nothing, down to the military aspect +of certain details of the sanctuary, the chivalrous touch which is a +reminiscence of the Crusades—the sword-blades and shields of the lancet +windows and the <!-- Page 338 -->roses, the helm-shaped arches, the coat of mail that +clothes the older spire, the iron trellis-pattern of some of the +panes—nothing that does not arouse a memory of the passage at Prime and +the hymn at Lauds in the minor office of the Virgin, and typify the +<i>terribilis ut castrorum acies ordonata</i>, the privilege She possesses +when She chooses to use it, of being 'terrible as an army arrayed for +battle.'</p> + +<p>"But She does not often choose to exert here, I believe; this cathedral +mirrors rather Her inexhaustible sweetness, Her indivisible glory."</p> + +<p>"Ah! Much shall be forgiven you because you have loved much," cried +Madame Bavoil.</p> + +<p>And Durtal having risen to say good-bye, she kissed him affectionately, +maternally, and said,—</p> + +<p>"We will pray with all our might, our friend, that God may enlighten you +and show you your path, may lead you Himself into the way you ought to +go."</p> + +<p>"I hope, Monsieur l'Abbé, that during my absence your rheumatism will +grant you a little respite," said Durtal, pressing the old priest's +hand.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I must not wish to have no sufferings at all, for there is no cross +so heavy as having none," replied the Abbé. "So do as I do, or rather, +do better than I, for I still repine; put a cheerful face on your +aridity, and your trials.—Goodbye, God bless you!"</p> + +<p>"And may the great Mother of Madonnas of France, the sweet Lady of +Chartres, protect you!" added Madame Bavoil.</p> + +<p>And when the door was shut, she added with a sigh,—</p> + +<p>"Certainly, I should be very grieved if he left our town for ever, for +that friend is almost like a child of our own! At the same time I should +be very, very happy to think of him as a true monk!"</p> + +<p>Then she began to laugh.</p> + +<p>"Father," said she, "will they cut his moustache off if he enters the +cloister?"</p> + +<p>"Undoubtedly."</p> + +<p>She tried to imagine Durtal clean-shaven, and she concluded with a +laugh,—</p> + +<p>"I do not think it will improve his beauty."</p> + +<p>"Oh, these women!" said the Abbé, shrugging his shoulders.</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 339 -->And what, in short," asked she, "may we hope for from this journey?"</p> + +<p>"It is not of me that you should ask that, Madame Bavoil."</p> + +<p>"Very true," said she, and clasping her hands she murmured,—</p> + +<p>"It depends on Thee! Help him in his poverty, remember that he can do +nothing without Thine aid, Holy Temptress of men, Our Lady of the +Pillar, Virgin of the Crypt."</p> + +<hr /> +<h2>THE END.</h2> +<hr /> + +<div class="footnote"><p style="font-weight: bold;">Footnote: </p> +<a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1" /><a href="#FNanchor_1_1">[1]</a> The English use of the word Ogee is thus defined: "An arch +or moulding which displays sectionally contrasted curves similar to that +of the <i>cyma reversa</i>." FAIRHOLT, "Dict. of Terms used in Art;" and +PARKER, "A Concise Glossary of Terms used in +Architecture."—[<i>Translator</i>.]</div> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Cathedral, by Joris-Karl Huysmans + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CATHEDRAL *** + +***** This file should be named 15067-h.htm or 15067-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/0/6/15067/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Cori Samuel and the PG Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Cathedral + +Author: Joris-Karl Huysmans + +Release Date: February 15, 2005 [EBook #15067] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CATHEDRAL *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Cori Samuel and the PG Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + + + + + +J.K. Huysmans + + +THE CATHEDRAL + + +Translated by Clara Bell + + +_Publishing History_ +First published in France in 1898 +First English edition in 1898 + + + + +THE CATHEDRAL. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +At Chartres, as you turn out of the little market-place, which is swept +in all weathers by the surly wind from the flats, a mild air as of a +cellar, made heavy by a soft, almost smothered scent of oil, puffs in +your face on entering the solemn gloom of the sheltering forest. + +Durtal knew it well, and the delightful moment when he could take +breath, still half-stunned by the sudden change from a stinging north +wind to a velvety airy caress. At five every morning he left his rooms, +and to reach the covert of that strange forest he had to cross the +square; the same figures were always to be seen at the turnings from the +same streets; nuns with bowed heads, leaning forward, the borders of +their caps blown back and flapping like wings, the wind whirling in +their skirts, which they could hardly hold down; and shrunken women, in +garments they hugged round them, struggling forward with bent shoulders +lashed by the gusts. + +Never at that hour had he seen anybody walking boldly upright, without +straining her neck and bowing her head; and these scattered women +gathered by degrees into two long lines, one of them turning to the +left, to vanish under a lighted porch opening to a lower level than the +square; the other going straight on, to be swallowed up in the darkness +by an invisible wall. + +Closing the procession came a few belated priests, hurrying on, with one +hand gathering up the gown that ballooned behind them, and with the +other clutching their hats, or snatching at the breviary that was +slipping from under one arm, their faces hidden on their breast, to +plough through the wind with the back of their neck; with red ears, eyes +blinded with tears, clinging desperately, when it rained, to umbrellas +that swayed above them, threatening to lift them from the ground and +dragging them in every direction. + +The passage had been more than usually stormy this morning; the squalls +that tear across the district of La Beauce, where nothing can check +them, had been bellowing for hours; there had been rain, and the puddles +splashed under foot. It was difficult to see, and Durtal had begun to +think that he should never succeed in getting past the dim mass of the +wall that shut in the square, by pushing open the door behind which lay +that weird forest, redolent of the night-lamp and the tomb, and +protected from the gale. + +He sighed with satisfaction, and followed the wide path that led through +the gloom. Though he knew his way, he walked cautiously in this alley, +bordered by enormous trunks, their crowns lost in shadow. He could have +fancied himself in a hothouse roofed with black glass, for there were +flagstones under foot, and no sky could be seen, no breeze could stir +overhead. The few stars whose glimmer twinkled from afar belonged to our +firmament; they quivered almost on the ground, and were, in fact, +earth-born. + +In this obscurity nothing was to be heard but the fall of quiet feet, +nothing to be seen but silent shades visible against the twilight like +shapes of deeper darkness. + +Durtal presently turned into another wide walk crossing that he had +left. There he found a bench backed by the trunk of a tree, and on this +he leaned, waiting till the Mother should awake, and the sweet interview +interrupted yesterday by the close of the day should begin again. + +He thought of the Virgin, whose watchful care had so often preserved him +from unexpected risk, easy slips, or greater falls. Was not She the +bottomless Well of goodness, the Bestower of the gifts of good Patience, +the Opener of dry and obdurate hearts? Was She not, above all, the +living and thrice Blessed Mother? + +Bending for ever over the squalid bed of the soul, she washed the sores, +dressed the wounds, strengthened the fainting weakness of converts. +Through all the ages She was the eternal supplicant, eternally +entreated; at once merciful and thankful; merciful to the woes She +alleviated, and thankful to them too. She was indeed our debtor for our +sins, since, but for the wickedness of man, Jesus would never have been +born under the corrupt semblance of our image, and She would not have +been the immaculate Mother of God. Thus our woe was the first cause of +Her joy; and this supremest good resulting from the very excess of Evil, +this touching though superfluous bond, linking us to Her, was indeed the +most bewildering of mysteries; for Her gratitude would seem unneeded, +since Her inexhaustible mercy was enough to attach Her to us for ever. + +Thenceforth, in Her immense humility, She had at various times +condescended to the masses; She had appeared in the most remote spots, +sometimes seeming to rise from the earth, sometimes floating over the +abyss, descending on solitary mountain peaks, bringing multitudes to Her +feet, and working cures; then, as if weary of wandering to be adored, +She wished--so it had seemed--to fix the worship in one place, and had +deserted Her ancient haunts in favour of Lourdes. + +That town was the second stage of Her progress through France in the +nineteenth century. Her first visit was to La Salette. + +This was years ago. On the 19th of September, 1846, the Virgin had +appeared to two children on a hill; it was a Saturday, the day dedicated +to Her, which, that year, was a fast day by reason of the Ember week. By +another coincidence, this Saturday was the eve of the Festival of Our +Lady of Seven Dolours, and the first vespers were being chanted when +Mary appeared as from a shell of glory just above the ground. + +And she appeared as Our Lady of Tears in that desert landscape of +stubborn rocks and dismal hills. Weeping bitterly, She had uttered +reproofs and threats; and a spring, which never in the memory of man had +flowed excepting at the melting of the snows, had never since been dried +up. + +The fame of this event spread far and wide; frantic thousands scrambled +up fearful paths to a spot so high that trees could not grow there. +Caravans of the sick and dying were conveyed, God knows how, across +ravines to drink the water; and maimed limbs recovered, and tumours +melted away to the chanting of canticles. + +Then, by degrees, after the sordid debates of a contemptible lawsuit, +the reputation of La Salette dwindled to nothing; pilgrims were few, +miracles were less often proclaimed. The Virgin, it would seem, was +gone; She had ceased to care for this spring of piety and these +mountains. + +At the present day few persons climb to La Salette but the natives of +Dauphine, tourists wandering through the Alps, or invalids following the +cure at the neighbouring mineral springs of La Mothe. Conversions and +spiritual graces still abound there, but bodily healing there is next to +none. + +"In fact," said Durtal to himself, "the vision at La Salette became +famous without its ever being known exactly why. It may be supposed to +have grown up as follows: the report, confined at first to the village +of Corps at the foot of the mountain, spread first throughout the +department, was taken up by the adjacent provinces, filtered over all +France, overflowed the frontier, trickled through Europe, and at last +crossed the seas to land in the New World which, in its turn, felt the +throb, and also came to this wilderness to hail the Virgin. + +"And the circumstances attending these pilgrimages were such as might +have daunted the determination of the most persevering. To reach the +little inn, perched on high near the church, the lazy rumbling of slow +trains must be endured for hours, and constant changes at stations; days +must be spent in the diligence, and nights in breeding-places of fleas +at country inns; and after flaying your back on the carding-combs of +impossible beds, you must rise at daybreak to start on a giddy climb, on +foot or riding a mule, up zig-zag bridle-paths above precipices; and at +last, when you are there, there are no fir trees, no beeches, no +pastures, no torrents; nothing--nothing but total solitude, and silence +unbroken even by the cry of a bird, for at that height no bird is to be +found. + +"What a scene!" thought Durtal, calling up the memories of a journey he +had made with the Abbe Gevresin and his housekeeper, since leaving La +Trappe. He remembered the horrors of a spot he had passed between Saint +Georges de Commiers and La Mure, and his alarm in the carriage as the +train slowly travelled across the abyss. Beneath was darkness increasing +in spirals down to the vasty deeps; above, as far as the eye could +reach, piles of mountains invaded the sky. + +The train toiled up, snorting and turning round and round like a top; +then, going into a tunnel, was swallowed by the earth; it seemed to be +pushing the light of day away in front, till it suddenly came out into a +clearing full of sunshine; presently, as if it were retracing its road, +it rushed into another burrow, and emerged with the strident yell of a +steam whistle and deafening clatter of wheels, to fly up the winding +ribbon of road cut in the living rock. + +Suddenly the peaks parted, a wide opening brought the train out into +broad daylight; the scene lay clear before them, terrible on all sides. + +"Le Drac!" exclaimed the Abbe Gevresin, pointing to a sort of liquid +serpent at the bottom of the precipice, writhing and tossing between +rocks in the very jaws of the pit. + +For now and again the reptile flung itself up on points of stone that +rent it as it passed; the waters changed as though poisoned by these +fangs; they lost their steely hue, and whitened with foam like a bran +bath; then the Drac hurried on faster, faster, flinging itself into the +shadowy gorge; lingered again on gravelly reaches, wallowing in the sun; +presently it gathered up its scattered rivulets and went on its way, +scaly with scum like the iridescent dross on boiling lead, till, far +away, the rippling rings spread and vanished, skinned and leaving behind +them on the banks a white granulated cuticle of pebbles, a hide of dry +sand. + +Durtal, as he leaned out of the carriage window, looked straight down +into the gulf; on this narrow way with only one line of rails, the train +on one side was close to the towering hewn rock, and on the other was +the void. Great God! if it should run off the rails! "What a hash!" +thought he. + +And what was not less overwhelming than the appalling depth of the abyss +was, as he looked up, the sight of the furious, frenzied assault of the +peaks. Thus, in that carriage, he was literally between the earth and +sky, and the ground over which it was moving was invisible, being +covered for its whole width by the body of the train. + +On they went, suspended in mid-air at a giddy height, along interminable +balconies without parapets; and below, the cliffs dropped +avalanche-like, fell straight, bare, without a patch of vegetation or a +tree. In places they looked as if they had been split down by the blows +of an axe--huge growths of petrified wood; in others they seemed sawn +through shaley layers of slate. + +And all round lay a wide amphitheatre of endless mountains, hiding the +heavens, piled one above another, barring the way to the travelling +clouds, stopping the onward march of the sky. + +Some made a good show with their jagged grey crests, huge masses of +oyster shells; others, with scorched summits, like burnt pyramids of +coke, were green half-way up. These bristled with pine woods to the very +edge of the precipices, and they were scarred too with white +crosses--the high roads, dotted in places with Nuremberg dogs, +red-roofed hamlets, sheepfolds that seemed on the verge of tumbling +headlong, clinging on--how, it was impossible to guess, and flung here +and there on patches of green carpet glued on to the steep hill-sides; +while other peaks towered higher still, like vast calcined hay-cocks, +with doubtfully dead craters still brooding internal fires, and trailing +smoky clouds which, as they blew off, really seemed to be coming out of +their summits. + +The landscape was ominous; the sight of it was strangely discomfiting; +perhaps because it impugned the sense of the infinite that lurks within +us. The firmament was no more than a detail, cast aside like needless +rubbish on the desert peaks of the hills. The abyss was the +all-important fact; it made the sky look small and trivial, substituting +the magnificence of its depths for the grandeur of eternal space. + +The eye, in fact, turned away with disappointment from the sky, which +had lost its infinitude of depth, its immeasurable breadth, for the +mountains seemed to touch it, pierce it, and uphold it; they cut it up, +sawing it with the jagged teeth of their pinnacles, showing mere +tattered skirts of blue and rags of cloud. + +The eye was involuntarily attracted to the ravines, and the head swam at +the sight of those, vast pits of blackness. This immensity in the wrong +place, stolen from above and cast into the depths, was horrible. + +The Abbe had said that the Drac was one of the most formidable torrents +in France; at the moment it was dormant, almost dry; but when the +season of snows and storms comes it wakes up and flashes like a tide of +silver, hisses and tosses, foams and leaps, and can in an instant +swallow up villages and dams. + +"It is hideous," thought Durtal. "That bilious flood must carry fevers +with it; it is accursed and rotten with its soapy foam-flakes, its +metallic hues, its scrap of rainbow-colour stranded in the mud." + +Durtal now thought over all these details; as he closed his eyes he +could see the Drac and La Salette. + +"Ah!" thought he, "they may well be proud of the pilgrims who venture to +those desolate regions to pray where the vision actually appeared, for +when once they are there they are packed on a little plot of ground no +bigger than the Place Saint Sulpice, hemmed in on one side by a church +of rough stone daubed with cement of the colour of Valbonnais mustard, +and on the other by a graveyard. The horizon is a circle of cones, of +dry scoriae, like pumice, or covered with short grass; above them, the +glassy slope of perpetual ice and snow; to walk on, a scanty growth of +grass moth-eaten by sand. In two words, to sum up the scene, it was +nature's scab, the leprosy of the earth. + +"From the artistic point of view, on this microscopic grand parade, +close to the spring whose waters are caught in pipes with taps, three +bronze statues stand in different spots. One, a Virgin, in the most +preposterous garments, her headgear a sort of pastry-mould, a Mohican's +bonnet, is on her knees weeping, with her face hidden in her hands. Then +the same Woman, standing up, her hands ecclesiastically shrouded in her +sleeves, looks at the two children to whom she is speaking; Maximin, +with hair curled like a poodle, twirling a cap like a raised pie, in his +hand; Melanie buried in a cap with deep frills and accompanied by a dog +like a paper-weight--all in bronze. Finally the same Person, once more +alone, standing on tip-toe, her eyes raised to heaven with a +melodramatic expression. + +"Never has the frightful appetite for the hideous that disgraces the +Church in our day been so resolutely displayed as on this spot; and if +the soul suffered in the presence of the obtrusive outrage of this +degrading work--perpetrated by one Barreme of Angers and cast in the +steam foundries of Le Creusot--the body too had something to endure on +this plateau under the crushing mass of hills that shut in the view. + +"And yet it was hither that thousands of sick creatures had had +themselves hauled up to face the cruel climate, where in summer the sun +burns you to a cinder while, two yards away, in the shade of the church, +you are frozen. + +"The first and greatest miracle accomplished at La Salette was that of +bringing such an invasion to this precipitous spot in the Alps, for +everything combines to forbid it. + +"But crowds came there year after year, till Lourdes took possession of +them; for it is since the apparition of the Virgin there that La Salette +has fallen into disrepute. + +"Twelve years after the vision at La Salette, the Virgin showed herself +again, not in Dauphine this time, but in the depths of Gascony. After +the Mother of Tears, Our Lady of Seven Dolours, it was Our Lady of +Smiles, of the Immaculate Conception, the Sovereign Lady of Joy in +Glory, who appeared; and here again it was to a shepherdess that she +revealed the existence of a spring that healed diseases. + +"And here it is that consternation begins. Lourdes may be described as +the exact opposite to La Salette; the scenery is magnificent, the hills +in the foreground are covered with verdure, the tamed mountains permit +access to their heights; on all sides there are shady avenues, fine +trees, living waters, gentle slopes, broad roads devoid of danger and +accessible to all; instead of a wilderness, a town, where every +requirement of the sick is provided for. Lourdes may be reached without +adventures in warrens of vermin, without enduring nights in country +inns, or days of jolting in wretched vehicles, without creeping along +the face of a precipice; and the traveller is at his destination when he +gets out of the train. + +"This town then was so admirably chosen for the resort of crowds, that +it did not seem necessary that Providence should intervene with such +strong measures to attract them. + +"But God, who forced La Salette on the world without availing Himself of +the means of fashionable notoriety, now changed His tactics; with +Lourdes, advertisement appeared on the scene. + +"This it is that confounds the mind: Jesus condescending to make use of +the wretched arts of human commerce; adopting the repulsive tricks which +we employ to float a manufacture or a business. + +"And we wonder whether this may not be the sternest lesson in humility +ever given to man, as well as the most vehement reproof hurled at the +American abominations of our day--God reduced to lowering Himself once +more to our level, to speaking our language, to using our own devices +that He may make Himself heard and obeyed; God no longer even trying to +make us understand His purpose through Himself, or to uplift us to that +height. + +"In point of fact, the way in which the Lord set to work to promulgate +the mercies peculiar to Lourdes is astounding. To make them known He is +no longer content to spread the report of its miracles by word of mouth; +no, and it might be supposed that in His eyes Lourdes is harder to +magnify than La Salette--He adopted strong measures from the first. He +raised up a man whose book, translated into every language, carried the +news of the vision to the most distant lands, and certified the truth of +the cures effected at Lourdes. + +"To the end that this work should stir up the masses, it was necessary +that the writer destined to the task should be a clever organizer, and +at the same time a man devoid of individuality of style and of any novel +ideas. In a word, what was needed was a man devoid of talent; and that +is quite intelligible, since from the point of view of appreciating art +the Catholic public is still a hundred feet beneath the profane public. +And our Lord did the thing well; he selected Henri Lasserre. + +"Consequently the mine exploded as required, rending souls and bringing +crowds out on to the road to Lourdes. + +"Years went by. The fame of the sanctuary is an established fact. +Indisputable cures are effected by supernatural means and certified by +clinical authorities, whose good faith and scientific skill are above +suspicion. Lourdes has its fill; and yet, little by little, in the long +run, though pilgrims do not cease to flow thither, the commotion about +the Grotto is diminishing. It is dying out, if not in the religious +world, at any rate in the wider world of the careless or the doubting, +who must be convinced. And our Lord thinks it desirable to revive +attention to the benefits dispensed by His Mother. + +"Lasserre was not such an instrument as could renew the half-exhausted +vogue enjoyed by Lourdes. The public was soaked in his book; it had +swallowed it in every vehicle and in every form; the end was achieved; +this budding-knife of miracles was a tool that might now be laid aside. + +"What was now wanted was a book entirely unlike his; a book that would +influence the vaster public, whom his homely prosiness would never +reach. Lourdes must make its way through denser and less malleable +strata, to a public of higher class, and harder to please. It was +requisite, therefore, that this new book should be written by a man of +talent, whose style nevertheless should not be so transcendental as to +scare folks. And it was an advantage that the writer should be very well +known, so that his enormous editions might counterpoise those of +Lasserre. + +"Now in all the realm of literature there was but one man who could +fulfil these imperative conditions: Emile Zola. In vain should we seek +another. He alone with his battering push, his enormous sale, his +blatant advertisement, could launch Lourdes once more. + +"It mattered little that he would deny supernatural agency and endeavour +to explain inexplicable cures by the meanest hypotheses; it mattered +little that he mixed mortar of the medical muck of a Charcot to make his +wretched theory hold together; the great thing was that noisy debates +should arise about the book of which more than a hundred and fifty +thousand copies proclaimed the name of Lourdes throughout the world. + +"And then the very disorder of his arguments, the poor resort to a +'breath that heals the people,' invented in contradiction to all the +data of positive science on which he prided himself, with the purpose of +making these extraordinary cures intelligible--cures which he had seen, +and of which he dared not deny the reality or the frequency--were +admirable means of persuading unprejudiced and candid inquirers of the +authenticity of the recoveries effected year after year at Lourdes. + +"This avowed testimony to such amazing facts was enough to give a fresh +impetus to the masses. It must be remarked, too, that the book betrays +no hostility to the Virgin, of whom it speaks only in respectful terms +on the whole; so is it not very credible that the scandal to which this +work gave rise was profitable? + +"To sum up: it may be asserted that Lasserre and Zola were both useful +instruments; one devoid of talent, and for that very reason penetrating +to the very lowest strata of the Catholic methodists; the other, on the +contrary, making himself welcome to a more intelligent and cultivated +public, by those splendid passages where the flaming multitude of +processions moves on, and amid a cyclone of anguish, the triumphant +faith of the white ranks is exultant. + +"Oh, yes! She is fond of Her Lourdes, is Our Lady, and pets it. She +seems to have centred all Her powers there, all Her favours; Her other +sanctuaries are perishing that this one may live! + +"Why? + +"Why, above all, have created La Salette and then sacrificed it, as it +were? + +"That She should have appeared there is quite intelligible," thought +Durtal, answering himself. "The Virgin is more highly venerated in +Dauphine than in any other province; chapels dedicated to Her worship +swarm in those parts, and She meant perhaps to reward their zeal by Her +gracious presence. + +"On the other hand, She appeared there with a special and very definite +end in view: to preach repentance to mankind, and especially to priests. +She ratified by certain miracles the evidence of this mission which She +confided to Melanie, and then, that being accomplished, She could desert +the spot where She had, no doubt, never intended to remain. + +"And after all," he went on, after a moment's reflection, "may we not +admit an even simpler solution, namely, this:-- + +"Mary vouchsafes to appear under various aspects to satisfy the tastes +and cravings of each soul. At La Salette, where She descended in a +distressful spot, all in tears, She revealed Herself no doubt to certain +persons, more especially to the souls in love with sorrow, the mystical +souls that delight in reviving the anguish of the Passion and following +the Mother in Her heart-breaking way to the Cross. She would thus seem +less attractive to the vulgar who do not love woe or weeping; it may be +added that they still less love reproof and threats. The Virgin of La +Salette could not become popular, by reason of Her aspect and address, +while She of Lourdes, who appeared smiling, and prophesied no +catastrophes, was easy of access to the hopes and gladness of the crowd. + +"She was, in short, in that sanctuary, the Virgin of the world at large, +not the Virgin of mystics and artists, the Virgin of the few, as at La +Salette. + +"What a mystery is this direct intervention of the Christ's Mother on +earth!" thought Durtal. + +And he went on: "It is clear, on reflection, that the churches founded +by Her may be classed in two very distinct groups. + +"One group where She has revealed Herself to certain persons, where +waters spring and bodily ills are healed: La Salette and Lourdes. + +"The other, where She has never been gazed on by human beings, or where +Her appearance occurred in immemorial times, in forgotten centuries, the +dead ages. In those chapels prayer alone is in force, and Mary answers +it without the help of any waters. Indeed, She effects more moral than +physical cures. Notre Dame de Fourvieres at Lyon, Notre Dame de +Sous-Terre at Chartres, Notre Dame des Victoires at Paris, to mention +only three. + +"Wherefore this difference? None can understand, and probably none will +ever know. At most may we suppose that in compassion for the everlasting +craving of our hapless souls wearied with prayer without sight, She +would fain confirm our faith and help to gather in the flock by showing +Herself. + +"In all this obscurity," Durtal went on, "is it at least possible to +discern some dim landmarks, some vague law? + +"As we gaze into the darkness, two spots of light appear," he replied to +himself. + +"In the first place, this: She appears to none but the poor and humble; +She addresses the simple souls who have in a way handed down the +primitive occupation, the biblical function of the Patriarchs; She +unveils herself to the children of the soil, to the shepherds, to girls +as they watch the flock. Both at La Salette and at Lourdes She chose +little pastors for Her confidants, and this is intelligible, since, by +acting thus, she confirms the known will of Her Son; the first to behold +the infant Jesus in the manger at Bethlehem were in fact shepherds, and +it was from among men of the lowest class that Christ chose His +apostles. + +"And is not the water that serves as a medium of cure prefigured in the +Sacred Books--in the Old Testament by the River Jordan, which cleansed +Naaman of his leprosy; and in the New by the probationary pool stirred +by an angel? + +"Another law seems no less probable. The Virgin is, as far as possible, +considerate of the temperament and individual character of the persons +She appears to. She places Herself on the level of their intellect, is +incarnate in the only material form that they can conceive of. She +assumes the simple aspect these poor creatures love, accepting the blue +and white robes, the crown and wreaths of roses, the trinkets and +garlands and frippery of a first Communion, the ugliest garb. + +"There is not indeed a single case where the shepherd maids who saw Her +described Her otherwise than as a 'beautiful lady' with the features of +the Virgin of a village altar, a Madonna of the Saint-Sulpice shops, a +street-corner Queen. + +"These two rules are more or less universal," said Durtal to himself. +"As to the Son, it would seem that He never now will reveal Himself in +human form to the masses. Since His appearance to the Blessed Mary +Margaret, whom He employed as a mouthpiece to address the people, He has +been silent. He keeps in the background, giving precedence to His +Mother. + +"He, it is true, reserves for Himself a dwelling in the secret places, +the hidden regions, the strongholds of the soul, as Saint Theresa calls +them; but His presence is unseen and His words spoken within us, and +generally not apprehended by means of the senses." + +Durtal ceased speaking, confessing to himself how inane were these +reflections, how powerless the human reason to investigate the +inconceivable purposes of the Almighty; and again his thoughts turned to +that journey to Dauphine which haunted his memory. + +"Ah! but the chain of the High Alps and the peaks of La Salette," said +he to himself; "that huge white hotel, that church coloured with dirty +yellow lime-wash, vaguely Byzantine and vaguely Romanesque in its +architecture, and that little cell with the plaster Christ nailed to a +flat black wooden Cross--that tiny Sanctuary plainly white-washed, and +so small that one could step across it in any direction--they were +pregnant with her presence, all the same!" + +"Surely She revisited that spot, in spite of Her apparent desertion, to +comfort all comers; She seemed so close at hand, so attentive and so +grieving, in the evening as one sat alone by the light of a candle, that +the soul seemed to burst open like a pod shedding the fruit of sin, the +seeds of evil deeds; and repentance, that had been so tardily evolved, +and sometimes so indefinite, became so suddenly despotic and +unmistakable that the penitent dropped on his knees by the bed, and +buried his head sobbing in the sheets. Ah, those were evenings of mortal +dulness and yet sweetly sad! The soul was rent, its very fibres laid +bare, but was not the Virgin at hand, so pitiful, so motherly, that +after, the worst was over She took the bleeding soul in her arms and +rocked it to sleep like a sick child. + +"Then, during the day, the church afforded a refuge from the frenzy of +giddiness that came over one; the eye, bewildered by the precipices on +every side, distracted by the sight of the clouds that suddenly gathered +below and steamed off in white fleece from the sides of the rocks, found +rest under the shelter of those walls. + +"And finally, to make up for the horrors of the scene and of the +statues, to mitigate the grotesqueness of the inn-servants, who had +beards like sappers and clothes like little boys--the caps, and holland +blouses with belts, and shiny black breeches, like cast iron, of the +children at the Saint Nicolas school in Paris--extraordinary characters, +souls of divine simplicity expanded there." + +And Durtal recollected the admirable scene he had watched there one +morning. + +He was sitting on the little plateau, in the icy shade of the church, +gazing before him at the graveyard and the motionless swell of mountain +tops. Far away, in the very sky, a string of beads moved on, one by one, +on the ribbon of path that edged the precipice. And by degrees these +specks, at first merely dark, assumed the bright hues of dresses, +assumed the form of coloured bells surmounted by white knobs, and at +last took shape as a line of peasant women wearing white caps. + +And still in single file they came down the square. + +After crossing themselves as they passed the cemetery, they went each to +drink a cup of water at the spring and then turned round; and Durtal, +who was watching them, saw this: + +At their head walked an old woman of at least a hundred, very tall and +still upright, her head covered by a sort of hood from which her stiff, +wavy hair escaped in tangled grey locks like iron wire. Her face was +shrivelled like the peel of an onion, and so thin that, looking at her +in profile, daylight could be seen through her skin. + +She knelt down at the foot of the first statue, and behind her, her +companions, girls of about eighteen for the most part, clasped their +hands and shut their eyes; and slowly a change came over them. + +Under the breath of prayer, the soul, buried under the ashes of worldly +cares, flamed up, and the air that fanned it made it glow like an inward +fire, lighting up the thick cheeks, the stolid, heavy features. It +smoothed out the crackled surface of wrinkles, softened in the younger +women the vulgarity of chapped red lips, gave colour to the dull brown +flesh, overflowed in the smile on lips half parted in silent prayer, in +timid kisses offered with simple good faith, and returned no doubt in an +ineffable thrill by the Holy Child they had cherished from His birth, +who, since the martyrdom of Calvary, had grown to be the Spouse of +Sorrows. + +They felt, perhaps, something of the raptures of the Blessed Virgin who +is Mother and Wife and at the same time the beatified Handmaid of God. + +And in the silence a voice as from the remotest ages arose, and the +ancestress said, "_Pater Noster_," and they all repeated the prayer, and +then dragged themselves on their knees up the steps of the way of +crosses, where the fourteen upright posts, each with its cast metal +bas-relief, bordered a serpentine path, dividing the statues from the +groups. Thus they went forward, stopping long enough to recite an _Ave_ +on each step they climbed, and then, helping themselves with their +hands, they mounted to the next. And when the rosary was ended the old +woman rose, and they solemnly followed her into the church, where they +all prayed a long time, prostrate before the altar; and the grandmother +stood up, gave each holy water at the door, led her flock to the spring +where they all drank again, and then they went away, without speaking a +word, one after another up the narrow path, ending as black specks just +as they had come, and vanishing on the horizon. + +"Those women have been two days and two nights crossing the mountains," +said a priest, coming up to Durtal. "They started from the depths of +Savoy, and have travelled almost without rest to spend a few minutes +here; they will sleep to night in a cow-house or a cave, as chance may +direct, and to-morrow by daybreak they will start again on their +weariful way." + +Durtal was overpowered by the radiant splendour of such faith. + +It was possible, then, to find souls ever young, souls ever new, souls +as of undying children, watching where absolute solitude was not, +outside cloister walls, in the waste places of these peaks and gorges, +and amid this race of stern and rugged peasants. Here were women who, +without knowing it even, lived the contemplative life in union with God, +while they dug the barren slopes of a little plot at some prodigious +elevation. They were Leah and Rachel, Martha and Mary in one; and these +women believed guilelessly, entirely, as man believed in the middle +ages. These beings, with their rough-hewn feelings, their shapeless +ideas, hardly able to express themselves, hardly knowing how to read, +wept with love in the presence of the Inaccessible, whom they compelled +by their humility and single-heartedness to appear, to become actual to +their mind. + +"Yes, it was but just that the Virgin should cherish them and choose +them above all others to be Her vessels of election. + +"Yes. For they are unburdened with the dreadful weight of doubt, they +are endowed with almost total ignorance of evil. + +"And yet are there not some souls too experienced, alas! in the culture +of wrong-doing, who nevertheless find mercy at Her feet? Has not the +Virgin other sanctuaries less frequented, less well known, which yet +have outlived the wear of time, the various caprice of the ages; very +ancient churches where She welcomes you if you love Her in solitude and +silence?" + +And Durtal, coming back to Chartres once more, looked about him at the +persons who were waiting in the warm shade of the indefinite forest till +the Virgin should awake, to worship Her. + +With dawn, now beginning to break, this forest of the church under whose +shade he was sitting became absolutely unintelligible. The shapes, +faintly sketched, were transformed in the gloom which blurred every +outline as it slowly faded. Below, in the vanishing mist, rose the +immemorial trunks of fabulous white trees, planted as it seemed in wells +that held them tightly in the rigid circle of their margin; and the +night, now almost diaphanous on the level of the ground, was thicker as +it rose, cutting them off at the spring of the branches, which were +still invisible. + +Durtal, as he raised his head, gazed into deep obscurity unlighted by +moon or star. + +Looking up still, but straight before him, he saw in the air, through +the hazy twilight, sword-blades already bright, gigantic blades without +hilts or handles, thinner towards the point; and these blades, standing +on end at an immense height, appeared in the gloom they cut, to be +patterned with vague intaglios or in ill-defined relief. + +As he peered into space to the right and left, he was aware of a +gigantic panoply on each side at a vast height, resting on blocks of +darkness, and consisting of a colossal shield riddled with holes, +hanging above five broader swords, without hilts, but damascened on +their flat blades with indefinite designs of bewildering niello. + +Little by little the tentative sun of a doubtful winter's day pierced +the fog, which vanished in blueness; the shield that hung to the left of +Durtal, the north, was the first to come to life; rosy fires and the +lurid flames of punch gleamed in its hollows, while below, in the middle +blade, there started forth in the steel-grey arch, the gigantic image of +a negress robed in green with a brown mantle. Her head, wrapped in a +blue kerchief, was set in a golden glory, and she stared out, hieratic +and wild-looking, with white, wide-open eyes. + +And this engimatical Ethiop had on her knees a black infant whose eyes, +in the same way, stood out like snowballs from the dusky face. + +All about her, very gradually, the other swords, still so dim, began to +glow, blood rippling from their crimsoned points as if from recent +slaughter; and this trickling red formed a setting for the shapes of +beings come, no doubt, from the distant shores of Ganges: on one side a +king playing on a golden harp; on the other a monarch wielding a sceptre +ending in the turquoise-blue petals of a fabulous lily. + +Then, to the left of the royal musician there was another man, bearded, +with a walnut-stained face, the eye-sockets vacant and covered by round +spectacles; on his head were a diadem and a tiara, in his hands a +chalice and a paten, a censer and a loaf; while to the right of the +other sovereign who held the sceptre, a still more harassing shape came +forth against the blue background of the sword--a sort of oriental +brigand, escaped perhaps from the prison cells of Persepolis or Susa, a +bandit as it seemed, wearing a little scarlet cap edged with yellow, in +shape like an inverted jam-pot, and a tan-coloured gown with white +stripes on the skirt; and this clumsy and ferocious personage bore a +green palm and a book. + +Durtal turned away to sound the depths of darkness, and before him, at a +giddy height on the horizon, more sword-blades gleamed. The scrawls +which might have been mistaken in the darkness for patterns embossed or +incised on the surface of the steel, developed into figures draped in +long, straight, pleated robes; and at the highest point of the firmament +there hovered amid a sparkle of rubies and sapphires a woman crowned, +pale of face, dressed like the Moorish mother of the northern side in +Carmelite-brown and green; and she too held an infant, a child, like +herself, of the white race, clasping a globe in one hand, and extending +the other in benediction. + +Last of all, the still dark side, the late side, to Durtal's right hand +and further south, till now wrapped in the half-dispelled morning haze, +was lighted up; the shield opposite to that on the north caught the +blaze, and below it, against the polished metal of the broad blade +facing that which presented the negress queen, appeared a woman of +somewhat olive hue, in raiment like the others, of myrtle-green and +brown, holding a sceptre, and with her, too, there was a child. And +round her again emerged images of men piled up one above the other, +shouldering each other in the narrow field they filled. + +For a quarter of an hour nothing was clearly defined; then the real +things asserted themselves. In the middle of the swords, which were in +fact mosaic of glass, the figures stood out in broad daylight. In the +field of each window with its pointed arch bearded faces took form, +motionless in the midst of fire; and on all sides, in the thicket of +flames, as it were the burning bush of Horeb where God showed His glory +to Moses, the Virgin was seen in an unchangeable attitude of imperious +sweetness and pensive grace, mute and still, and crowned with gold. + +She was, indeed, many; She came down from the empyrean to lower levels, +to be closer to Her flock, and at last found a place where they might +almost kiss Her feet, at the corner of an aisle that was always in +gloom; but there She wore a different aspect. + +She stood forth in the middle of a window, like a tall, blue plant, and +the garnet-red foliage was supported by black iron rods. + +Her colour was slightly coppery, almost Chinese, with a long nose and +rather narrow eyes; on the head there was a black coif, and She looked +steadily before Her, while the lower part of the face with its short +chin, the mouth rather drawn by two grave lines, gave it an expression +of suffering that was even a little morose. And here again, under the +immemorial name of Notre Dame de la belle Verriere, she held an infant +in a dress of raisin-purple, a child barely visible in the mixture of +dark hues all about it. + +In short, She to whom all appealed was there; everywhere under the +forest roof of this cathedral the Virgin was present. She seemed to have +come from all the ends of the earth, under the semblance of every race +known in the Middle Ages: black as an African, tawny as a Mongolian, +pale coffee colour as a half-caste, and white as an European, thus +declaring that, as mediator for the whole human race, She was everything +to each, everything to all; and promising by the presence of Her Son, +whose features bore the character of each race, that the Messiah had +come to redeem all men without distinction. + +And it seemed as though the sun, as it mounted higher, followed the +growth of the Virgin, taking its birth in the window where She was still +a babe in that northern transept where Saint Anne, her mother, of the +black face, sat between David, the king of the golden harp, and Solomon, +the bearer of the blue-lilied sceptre, each against a background of +purple, to prefigure the royal birth of the Son; between Melchizedec, +the mitred patriarch, holding the censer, and Aaron, in the curious red +cap bordered with lemon yellow, representing prophetically the +Priesthood of Christ. + +And at the end of the apse, quite high up, there was another +Mary--triumphant, looking down the sacred grove, supported by figures +from the Old Testament and by Saint Peter. It was She again who in the +south transept faced Saint Anne, She, now a woman and herself a mother, +amid four enormous men bearing pick-a-back on their shoulders four +smaller figures; these were the four Greater Prophets who had foretold +the coming of the Messiah--Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, and Ezekiel, +bearing the four Evangelists, and thus artlessly expressing the +parallelism of the Old and New Testaments, and the support given by the +Old Covenant to the New. + +And then, as though Her presence were not fully ubiquitous, as though +She desired that, turn where they might, Her worshippers should ever see +Her, the Virgin was to be found on a smaller scale in less important +positions; enthroned in the centre of the shields, in the heart of the +great rose-windows, and finally, ceasing to appear as a mere picture, +took shape, materialized as a statue of black wood standing on a +pedestal in a full hooped skirt like a silver bell. + +The sheltering forest had vanished with the darkness; the tree-trunks +remained, but rose with giddy flight from the ground, unbroken pillars +to the sky, meeting at a vast height under the groined vault; the forest +was seen as an immense church blossoming with roses of fire, pierced +with glowing glass, crowded with Virgins and apostles, patriarchs and +saints. + +The genius of the middle ages had devised the skilful and pious lighting +of this edifice, and harmonized the ascending march of day to some +extent with its windows. The walls and the aisles were very dark, the +daylight creeping, mysteriously subdued, along the body of the church. +It was lost in the stained glass, checked by dark bishops, and opaque +saints completely filling the dusky-bordered windows with the dead hues +of a Persian rug; the panes absorbed the sun's rays, refracting none, +arrested the powdered gold of the sunbeams in the dull violet of purple +egg-fruit, the tawny browns of tinder or tan, the too-blue greens, and +the wine-coloured red stained with soot, like the thick juice of +mulberries. + +As it reached the chancel, the light came in through brighter and +clearer colours, through the blue of translucent sapphires, through pale +rubies, brilliant yellow, and crystalline white. The gloom was relieved +beyond the transepts near the altar. Even in the centre of the cross the +sun pierced clearer glass, less storied with figures, and bordered with +almost colourless panes that admitted it freely. + +At last, in the apse, forming the top of the cross, it poured in, +symbolical of the light that flooded the world from the top of the Tree; +and the pictures were diaphanous, just lightly covered with flowing +lines and aerial tints, to frame in a sheaf of coloured sparks the image +of a Madonna, less hieratic and barbaric than the others, and a fairer +Infant, blessing the earth with uplifted hand. + +By this time the Cathedral of Chartres was alive with the clatter of +wooden shoes, the rustle of petticoats, and the tinkle of mass-bells. + +Durtal left the corner of the transept where he had been sitting with +his back to a pillar, and turned to the left, towards a bay where there +was a framework ablaze with lighted tapers before the statue of the +Virgin. + +And schools of little girls under the guidance of Sisters, troops of +peasant women and countrymen, poured out of every aisle, knelt in front +of the image, and then came up to kiss the pedestal. + +The appearance of these folks suggested to Durtal that their prayers +were not like those that are sobbed out at evening twilight, the +supplications of women worn and dismayed by the weary hours of day. +These peasant souls prayed less as complaining than as loving; these +people, kneeling on the flags, had come for Her sake rather than for +their own. There was here and now a pause from grieving, a sort of +reprieve from tears; and this attitude was in harmony with the special +aspect adopted by Mary in this cathedral; She was seen there, in fact, +under the form of a child and of a young mother; She was the Virgin of +the Nativity, rather than our Lady of Dolour. The old artists of the +Middle Ages seemed to have feared to sadden Her by reminding Her of +memories too painful, to have striven to prove by this delicate reserve, +their gratitude to Her who in this sanctuary had ever shown Herself to +be the Dispenser of Mercies, the Lady Bountiful of Grace. + +Durtal felt in himself an answering thrill, the echo of the prayers +chanted all round him by these loving souls; and he let himself melt +away in the soothing sweetness of the hymns, asking for nothing, +silencing his ungratified desires, smothering his secret repining, +thinking only of bidding an affectionate good-morning to the Mother to +whom he had returned after such distant wanderings in the land of sin, +after such a long absence. + +And now that he had seen Her, that he had spoken to Her, he withdrew, +making room for others who came in greater numbers as the day grew. He +went home to get some food; and as he cast a last sweeping glance at the +beautiful church, remembering the warlike imagery of its details, the +buckler-shape of the rose-windows, the sword-blades of the lower lights, +the casque and helmet forms of the ogee, the resemblance of some +grisaille glass with its network of lead to a warrior's shirt of mascled +mail; as, outside, he gazed at one of the two belfries carved into +scales like a pine cone--like scale-armour--he said to himself that the +"Builders for God" must have borrowed their ideas from the military +panoply of the knights; that thus they had endeavoured to perpetuate the +memory of their exploits by representing the magnified image of the +armour with which the Crusaders girt themselves when they sailed to win +back the Holy Sepulchre. + +And the interior of the church seemed, as a whole, to impress the same +idea and complete the symbolical images of the details by its vaulted +nave, of which the groined roof was so like the reversed hull of a +vessel, suggesting the graceful form of the ships that made sail for +Palestine. + +Only, in the present day, such memories of heroic times were vain. In +this city of Chartres, where Saint Bernard preached the second crusade, +the vessel was stranded for ever, her hull overset, her anchor out. + +And looking down on the unthinking city, the Cathedral kept watch alone, +beseeching pardon for the inappetency for suffering, for the inertia of +faith that her sons displayed, uplifting her towers to the sky like two +arms, while the spires mimicked the shape of joined hands, the ten +fingers all meeting and upright one against another, in the position +which the image-makers of old gave to the dead saints and warriors they +carved upon tombs. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +Durtal had already been living at Chartres for three months. + +On his return to Paris from La Trappe he had fallen into a fearful state +of spiritual anemia. His soul kept its room, rarely rose, lounged on a +couch, was torpid with the tepid langour still lulled by the sleepy +mutter of mere lip-service, and prayers reeled off as by a worn-out +machine of which the spring releases itself, so that it works all alone +with no result, and without a touch to start it. + +Sometimes, however, in a rebellious mood he managed to check himself, to +stop the ill-regulated clockwork of his prayers, and then he would try +to examine himself, to get above himself, and to see in a comprehensive +glance the puzzling perspective of his nature. + +And facing these chambers of the soul, dim with mist, he was struck by a +strange association of the Revelations of Saint Theresa and a tale by +Edgar Poe. + +Those chambers of the inner man were empty and cold, and like the halls +of the House of Usher, surrounded by a moat whence the fog rose, forcing +its way in at last and cracking the worn shell of wall. Alone and +uneasy, he prowled about the ruined cells, with closed doors that +refused ever to open again; thus his walks about his own mind were very +limited, and the panorama he could see was strangely narrowed, shrunk +close and near to him, almost nothing. And he knew full well that the +ruins surrounding the central cell, the Master's Room, were bolted and +fastened with rivets that could not be unscrewed, and triple +bars--inaccessible. So he restricted himself to wandering in the halls +and passages. + +At Notre Dame de l'Atre he had ventured further; he had gone into the +enclosure round about the abode of Christ; he had seen in the distance +the frontiers of Mysticism, and, too weak to go on his road, he had +fallen; and now this was to be lamented, for, as Saint Theresa truly +remarks, "in the spiritual life, if we do not go forward, we go back." +He had, in fact, retraced his steps, and lay half paralyzed, no longer +even in the vestibule of his mansion, but in the outer court. + +Till this time the phenomena described by the matchless Abbess had been +exactly repeated. In Durtal, the Chambers of the Soul were deserted as +after a long mourning; but in the rooms that had remained open, phantoms +of sins confessed, of buried evil-doing, wandered like the sister of the +tormented Usher. + +Durtal, like Edgar Poe's unhappy sufferer, listened with horror to the +rustle of steps on the stairs, the piteous weeping behind the doors. + +And yet these ghosts of departed crimes were no more than indefinite +shapes; they never consolidated nor took a definite form. The most +persistent miscreant of them all, which had tormented him so long, the +sin of the flesh, at last was silenced, and left him in peace. La Trappe +had rooted up the stock of those debaucheries. The memory of them, +indeed, haunted him still, on his most distressing, most ignoble side; +but he could see them pass, his heart in his mouth, wondering that he +could so long have been the dupe of such foul delusions, no longer +understanding the power of those mirages, the illusions of those carnal +oases as he met them in the desert of a life shut up in seclusion, in +solitude, and in books. + +His imagination could still put him on the rack; still, without merit, +without a struggle, by the help of divine grace, he had escaped a fall +ever since his return from the monastery. + +On the other hand, though he had, to some extent, emasculated himself, +though he was exempt from his chief torment, he discerned, flourishing +within him, another crop of tares, of which the spread had till now been +hidden behind the sturdier growth of other vices. In the first instance, +he had believed himself to be less enslaved by sin, less utterly vile; +and he was nevertheless as closely bound to evil as ever, only the +nature and character of the bonds were different, and no longer the +same. + +Besides that dryness of the heart which made him feel as soon as he +entered a church or knelt down in his room, that a cold grip froze his +prayers and chilled his soul, he detected the covert attacks, the mute +assaults of ridiculous pride. + +In vain did he keep watch; he was constantly taken by surprise without +having time even to look round him. + +It began under the most temperate guise, the most benign reflections. + +Supposing, for instance, that he had done his neighbour a service at +some inconvenience to himself, or that he had refrained from retaliating +on anybody against whom he believed he had a grievance, or for whom he +had no liking, a certain self-satisfaction stole, sneaked into his mind, +a certain vain-glory, ending in the senseless conclusion that he was +superior to many another man; and then, on this feeling of petty vanity, +pride was engrafted--the pride of a virtue he had not even struggled to +acquire, the arrogance of chastity, so insidious that most of those who +indulge it do not even suspect themselves. + +And he was never aware of the end of these assaults till too late, when +they had become definite, and he had forgotten himself and succumbed; +and he was in despair at finding that he constantly fell into the same +snare, telling himself that the little good he could do must be wiped +out of the balance of his life by the outrageous extravagance of this +vice. + +He was frenzied, he reasoned with the old mad arguments, and cried out +at his wits' end,-- + +"La Trappe crushed me! It cured me of sensuality, but only to load me +with disorders of which I knew nothing before I submitted to that +treatment! It is humble itself, but it puffed up my vanity and increased +my pride tenfold--then it set me free, but so weak, so wearied, that I +have never since been able to conquer that inanition, never have been +fit to enjoy the Mystical Nourishment which I nevertheless must have if +I am not to die to God!" + +And for the hundredth time he asked himself,-- + +"Am I happier than I was before I was converted?" + +And to be truthful to himself he was bound to answer "Yes." He lived on +the whole a Christian life, prayed but badly, but at any rate prayed +without ceasing; only--only--Alas! How worm-eaten, how arid were the +poor recesses of his soul! He wondered, with anguish, whether they would +not end like the Manor in Edgar Poe's tale, by crumbling suddenly, one +fatal day, into the dark waters of the pool of sin which was undermining +the walls. + +Having reached this stage of his round of meditations, he was compelled +to throw himself on the Abbe Gevresin, who required him, in spite of his +coldness, to take the Communion. Since his return from Notre Dame de +l'Atre his friendship with the Abbe had become much closer, altogether +intimate. + +He knew now the inner man of this priest, who, in the midst of modern +surroundings, led a purely mediaeval life. Formerly, when he rang at his +bell, he had paid no heed to the housekeeper, an old woman, who curtsied +to him without a word when she opened the door. + +Now he was quite friendly with this singular and loving creature. + +Their first conversation had arisen one day when he called to see the +Abbe, who was ill. Seated by the bedside, with spectacles on the alert +at the tip of her nose, she was kissing, one by one, the pious prints +that illustrated a book wrapped in black cloth. She begged him to be +seated, and then, closing the volume, and replacing her spectacles, she +had joined in the conversation; and he had left the room quite amazed by +this woman, who addressed the Abbe as "Father," and spoke quite simply +of her intercourse with Jesus and the Saints as if it were a natural +thing. She seemed to live in perfect friendship with them, and spoke of +them as of companions with whom she chatted without any embarrassment. + +Then the countenance of this woman, whom the priest introduced to him as +Madame Celeste Bavoil, was, strange to say, the least of it. She was +thin and upright, but short. In profile, with her strong Roman nose and +set lips, she had the fleshless mask of a dead Caesar; but, seen in +front, the sternness of the features was softened into a familiar +peasant's face, and melted into the kindliness of an old nun, quite out +of keeping with the solemn strength of her features. + +It seemed as though with that clean-cut, imperious nose, small white +teeth, and black eyes sparkling with light, busy and inquisitive as +those of a mouse, under fine long lashes, the woman ought, +notwithstanding her age, to have been handsome; it seemed at least as +though the combination of these details would have given the face a +stamp of distinction. Not so; the conclusion was false to the premises; +the whole betrayed the combined effect of the details. + +"This contradiction," thought he, "evidently is the result of other +peculiarities which nullify the harmony of the more important features; +in the first place the thinness of the cheeks and their hue of old wood +dotted here and there with freckles, calm stains of the colour of stale +bran; then the flat braids of white hair drawn smooth under a frilled +cap, and finally the modest dress, a black dress clumsily made, dragging +across the bosom, and showing the lines of her stays stamped in relief +on the back. + +"And perhaps, in her, it is not so much incongruity of features, as a +crying contrast between the dress and the face, the head and the body," +thought he. + +Altogether, as he summed her up, she was equally suggestive of the +chapel and the fields. Thus she had something of the Sister and +something of the peasant. + +"Yes," he went on to himself, "that is very near the mark; but that is +not all, for she is both less dignified and less common, inferior and +yet more worthy. Seen from behind she is more like a woman who hires out +the chairs in church than like a nun; seen in front she is conspicuously +superior to the natives of the soil. Also it may be noted that when she +speaks of the saints she is loftier, quite different; she soars up in a +flame of the spirit. But all these hypotheses are in vain," he +concluded, "for I cannot judge of her from one brief impression, one +rapid view. What is quite certain is that, though she is not in the +least like the Abbe, she too is in two halves--two persons in one. He, +with the innocent gaze, the pure eyes of a girl at her first Communion, +has the sometimes bitter mouth of an old man; she is proud of feature +and humble of heart; they both, though by different outward signs and +acts, achieve the same result, an identical semblance of paternal +indulgence and mature goodness." + +And Durtal had gone again and again to see them. His reception was +always the same; Madame Bavoil greeted him with the invariable formula: +"Here is our friend," while the priest's eyes smiled as he grasped his +hand. Whenever he saw Madame Bavoil she was praying: over her stove, +when she sat mending, while she was dusting the furniture, as she opened +the door, she was always telling her rosary, without pause. + +The chief delight of this rather silent woman consisted in talking of +the Virgin to whom she had vowed worship; on the other hand she could +quote by memory long passages from a mystic and somewhat eccentric +writer of the end of the sixteenth century: Jeanne Chezard de Matel, the +foundress of the Order of the Incarnate Word, an Institution of which +the Sisters display a conspicuous costume--a white dress held round the +waist by a belt of scarlet leather, a red cloak and a blood-coloured +scapulary on which the name of Jesus is embroidered in blue silk, with a +crown of thorns, a heart pierced with three nails, and the words _Amor +Meus_. + +At first Durtal thought Madame Bavoil slightly crazy, and while she +poured out a passage by Jeanne de Matel on Saint Joseph, he looked at +the priest--who gave no sign. + +"Then Madame Bavoil is a saint?" he asked one morning when they were +alone. + +"My dear Madame Bavoil is a pillar of prayer," replied the Abbe gravely. + +And one afternoon, when Gevresin was away in his turn, Durtal questioned +the woman. + +She gave him an account of her long pilgrimages across Europe, +pilgrimages that she had spent years in making on foot, begging her way +by the roadside. + +Wherever the Virgin had a sanctuary, thither she went, a bundle of +clothing in one hand, an umbrella in the other, an iron Crucifix on her +breast, a rosary at her waist. By a reckoning which she had kept from +day to day she had thus travelled ten thousand five hundred leagues on +foot. + +Then old age had come on, and she had "lost her old powers," as she +said; Heaven had formerly guided her by inward voices, fixing the dates +of these expeditions; but journeying was no longer required of her. She +had been sent to live with the Abbe that she might rest; but her manner +of life had been laid down for her once for all: her bed a straw +mattress on wooden planks; her food such rustic and monastic fare as +beseemed her, milk, honey and bread, and at seasons of penance she was +to substitute water for milk. + +"And you never take any other nourishment?" + +"Never." And then she would add,-- + +"Aha! our friend, you see I am in disgrace up there!" and she would +laugh cheerfully at herself and her appearance "If you had but seen me +when I came back from Spain, where I went to visit Our Lady of the +Pillar at Saragoza! I was a negress. With my large Crucifix on my +breast, my gown looking like a nun's--every one asked: 'What can that +woman be?' I looked like a charcoal-burner out for a holiday; no white +to be seen but my cap, collar and cuffs; all the rest--face, hands and +petticoats--quite black." + +"But you must have been very dull travelling about alone?" + +"Not at all, our friend, the Saints kept me company on the way; they +told me at which house I should find a lodging for the night, and I was +sure of being well received." + +"And you never were refused hospitality?" + +"Never. To be sure I did not ask for much; when I was wandering I only +begged for a piece of bread and a glass of water, and to rest on a truss +of straw in the cow-house." + +"And Father Gevresin--how did you first know him?" + +"That is quite a long story. Fancy! Heaven, as a punishment, deprived me +of the Communion for a year and three months to a day. When I confessed +to a priest, I owned to my intercourse with Our Saviour, and the Virgin +and the Angels; then he at once treated me as a mad woman, unless he +accused me of being possessed by the devil; to conclude, he refused me +absolution, and I thought myself happy if he did not slam the little +wicket of the confessional roughly in my face at my very first words. + +"I believe I should have died of grief if the Lord had not at last had +pity on me. One Saturday, when I was in Paris, He sent me to Notre Dame +des Victoires, where the Father was in the confessional. He listened to +me, he put me through long and severe tests, and then he granted me +Communion. I often went to him again as a penitent, and then the niece +who kept house for him retired into a convent, and I took her place; +and I have been his housekeeper near on ten years now--" + +She told her story with many breaks. Since she had ceased to wander +about the country, she followed the pilgrimages in Paris in honour of +the Blessed Virgin, and she had a list of the most popular sanctuaries: +Notre-Dame des Victoires, Notre-Dame de Paris; Our Lady of Good Hope at +Saint-Severin, of Ever-present Help at L'Abbaye au Bois, of Peace at the +convent in the Rue Picpus, of the Sick at the church of Saint-Laurent, +of Happy Deliverance--a black Virgin from the church of Saint-Etienne +des Gres--in the care of the Sisters of Saint-Thomas de Villeneuve, Rue +de Sevres; and outside Paris the shrines in the suburbs: Our Lady of +Miracles at Saint-Maur, of the Angels at Bondy, of the Virtues at +Aubervilliers, of Good Keeping at Long Pont, and those of Notre-Dame at +Spire, at Pontoise, &c. + +On another occasion, as he seemed suspicious of the severity of the rule +imposed on her by Christ, she replied,-- + +"Remember, our friend, what happened to an illustrious handmaid of the +Lord, Maria d'Agreda; being very ill, she yielded to the wishes of her +daughters in the faith and sucked a mouthful of chicken, but she was +forthwith reproved by Jesus, who said to her: 'I will not have my +Spouses dainty.' + +"Well, and I should run the risk of a similar reproof, if I attempted to +touch a morsel of meat or to drink a drop of coffee or wine." + +"And yet," said Durtal to himself as he came away, "it is quite evident +that the woman is not mad. She has nothing the matter with her, either +hysterical or mental: she is fragile and very thin, but she is scarcely +nervous, and in spite of the laconic character of her meals she is in +very good health, indeed is never ailing; nay more, she is a woman of +good sense and an admirable manager. Up by daybreak, after Communion she +soaps and washes all the linen herself, makes the sheets and shirts, +mends the Abbe's gowns, and lives with amazing economy, while taking +care that her master wants for nothing. Such a sagacious apprehension of +the conduct of life has no connection with lunacy or delirium." + +He knew too that she would never take any wages. It is true that in the +sight of a world which gives its whole mind to legalized larceny this +woman's disinterestedness might be enough to prove her insanity; but +Durtal, in contradiction to received ideas, did not think that a +contempt for money was necessarily allied with madness, and the more he +thought of it the more was he convinced that she was a saint, and not a +strait-laced saint, but indulgent and cheerful. + +What he could positively assert was that she was very good to him; ever +since his return from La Trappe she had helped him in every way, +encouraging his spirits when she saw him depressed, and going, in spite +of his protesting, to look over his wardrobe when she suspected that +there might be sutures to operate upon, and buttons to replace. + +This intimacy had become even closer since their life in common, all +three together, on the occasion of Durtal's accompanying them, at their +entreaty, to La Salette. And then suddenly their affectionate +familiarity was endangered, for the Abbe Gevresin left Paris. + +The Bishop of Chartres died, and his successor was one of Gevresin's +oldest friends. On the very day when the Abbe Le Tilloy des Mofflaines +was promoted to the episcopal throne, he begged Gevresin to accompany +him to Chartres. There was an anxious struggle in the old priest's mind. +He was ailing, weary, good for nothing, and at the bottom of his heart +longed only never to move; but on the other hand he had not the courage +to refuse his poor support to Monseigneur des Mofflaines. He tried to +mollify the prelate by his advanced age, but the Bishop would not +listen; all he would concede was that, instead of being appointed +Vicar-general, the Abbe should be no more than a Canon. Still Gevresin +mildly shook his head. Finally the prelate had his way, appealing to his +friend's charity, and declaring that he ought to accept the post, in the +last resort as a mortification and penance. + +And when his departure was decided on, it became the Abbe's turn to +circumvent Durtal and persuade him to leave Paris and come to settle +near him at Chartres. + +Although he was deeply grieved at this move, which he had done his +utmost to hinder, Durtal was refractory, and refused to bury himself in +a country town. + +"But why, our friend," said Madame Bavoil, "I wonder why you are so +obstinately bent on remaining here; you live in perfect solitude at home +with your books. You can do the same if you come with us." + +And when, his arguments exhausted, after a vehement diatribe against +provincial life, Durtal ended by saying,-- + +"Then at Paris there are the quays, Saint Severin, Notre Dame; there are +delightful convents--" + +"You would find equally good things at Chartres," answered the Abbe. +"You will have one of the finest cathedrals in the world, monasteries +such as you love, and as for books, your library is so well furnished +that I can hardly think that you can add to it by wandering along the +quays. Besides, as you know even better than I, no work of the class you +seek is ever to be disinterred from the boxes of second-hand books. +Their titles figure only in the catalogues of sales, and there is +nothing to hinder their being sent to you at Chartres." + +"I do not deny it--but there are other things on the quays besides old +books; there are curiosities to be seen, and the Seine--a landscape--" + +"Well, if you are homesick for that particular walk, you have only to +take a train, and spend a whole afternoon lounging by the parapet over +the river; it is easy to get from Chartres to Paris; there are express +trains morning and evening which make the journey in less than two +hours." + +"And besides," cried Madame Bavoil, "what does all that matter? The +great thing is that you leave a town just like any other town, to +inhabit the very home of the Virgin. Just think! Notre Dame de +Sous-Terre is the most ancient chapel to Mary in all France; think! you +will live near Her, with Her, and She will load you with mercies!" + +"And after all," the Abbe went on, "this exile cannot interfere with any +of your schemes in art. You talk of writing the Lives of Saints; will +you not work at them far better in the silence of the country than in +the uproar of Paris?" + +"The country--the provinces! The mere idea overpowers me," exclaimed +Durtal. "If you could but imagine the impression it suggests to me, the +sort of atmosphere, the kind of smell it presents to my brain. You know +the huge cupboards you find in old houses, with double doors, and lined +within with blue paper that is always damp. Well, at the mere name of +the provinces I feel as if one of these were opened in my face, and I +got a full blast of the stuffiness that comes out of it!--And to put the +finishing touch to the vision by combining taste and smell, I have only +to bite one of the biscuits they make nowadays of Lord knows what, +reeking the moment you taste them, of fish glue and plaster that has +been rained upon, I have only to eat that cold, insipid paste and sniff +at a musty closet, and at once the lugubrious picture rises before me of +some Godforsaken place!--Your Chartres will no doubt smell like +that--Pah!" + +"Oh, oh!" cried Madame Bavoil. "But you cannot know much about it, since +you have never been to the place." + +"Let him be!" said the Abbe, laughing. "He will get over his +prejudices." And he went on,-- + +"Just explain this inconsistency: here is a Parisian who likes his city +so little that he seeks out the most deserted nook to live in, the +quietest, the least frequented, the spot that is most like a provincial +retreat. He has a horror of the Boulevards, of public promenades, and of +theatres; he buries himself in a hole, and stops his ears that he may +not hear the noises around him; but, when he has a chance of improving +on this scheme of existence, of ripening in real silence far from the +crowd, when he can invert the conditions of life, and, instead of being +a provincial Parisian, can become a Parisian of the provinces, he shies +and kicks!" + +"It is a fact," Durtal admitted when he was alone, "a positive fact +that the capital is unprofitable to me. I never see anybody now, and +shall be reduced to still more utter solitude when these friends are +gone. I shall, for all purposes, be quite as well off at Chartres; +I can study at my ease amid peaceful surroundings, within reach of +a cathedral of far greater interest than Notre Dame de Paris. And +besides--besides--there is another question of which the Abbe Gevresin +says nothing, but which disturbs me greatly. If I remain here, alone, I +shall have to find a new confessor, to wander through the churches, just +as I wander through work-a-day life in search of dining-places and +tables d'hote. No, no; I have had enough at last of this day-by-day +diet, spiritual and material! I have found a boarding-house for my soul +where it is content, and it may stay there! + +"And there is yet another argument. I can live more inexpensively at +Chartres, and, without spending more than I spend here, I can settle +myself once for all, dine with my feet on my own fender, and be waited +on!" + +So he had ended by deciding to follow his two friends, and had secured +fairly spacious rooms facing the Cathedral; and then he, who had always +lived cramped in tiny apartments, at last understood the provincial +comfort of vast spaces and books ranged against the walls, with ample +elbow-room. + +Madame Bavoil had found him a servant, familiar and voluble indeed, but +a good and pious woman. And he had begun his new existence lost in +constant amazement at that wonderful Cathedral, the only one he had +never before seen, probably because it was so near Paris, and, like all +Parisians, he never took the trouble to set out on any but longer +journeys. The town itself seemed to him devoid of interest, having but +one secluded walk, a little embankment where, below the suburbs and near +the old Guillaume Gate, washerwomen sang while they soaped the linen in +a stream that blossomed, as they rubbed, with flecks of iridescent +bubbles. + +Hence he determined to walk out only very early in the morning or in the +evening; then he could dream alone in the town, which by the afternoon +was already half dead. + +The Abbe and his housekeeper were lodged in the episcopal palace, under +the shadow of the Cathedral apse. They occupied a first floor, with +nothing over it, above some empty stables; a row of cold, tiled rooms +which the Bishop had had redecorated. + +Some time after their arrival at Chartres the Abbe had replied to +Durtal, who had remarked that he was anxious,-- + +"Yes, I am certainly going through a difficult time; I have had to live +down certain prejudices--but indeed I was prepared for them. And that +was another reason why I did not wish to leave Paris. But the Blessed +Virgin is good! Everything is coming right--" + +And when Durtal persisted,-- + +"As you may suppose," said the priest, "the appointment of a Canon from +another diocese was not looked upon with indifferent eyes by the clergy +of Chartres. Such suspicions with regard to an unknown priest brought by +a new Bishop are not after all unnatural; it is inevitably feared that +he may play the part of a ruler without a robe; each one is on his +guard, and they sift his least word and pick over his least action." + +"And then," said Durtal, "is it not another mouth to feed out of the +wretched pittance allowed by the State?" + +"So far as that goes, no. I draw no stipend, and damage no man's +interest; in fact I would not accept it. The only pecuniary advantage I +derive from being about the Bishop's person is that I have no rent to +pay, since I am lodged for nothing in the episcopal building. + +"I could not in any case have drawn a stipend, for the allowance granted +to Canons by the Government has ceased to be given, since a measure was +passed, on March 22nd, 1885, decreeing the suppression of such +emoluments as the incumbents died off. Hence only those who held such +benefices before the passing of the law now draw on the funds devoted to +the maintenance of the Church; and they are dying off one by one, so +that the time is fast approaching when there will not be a single Canon +left who is salaried by the State. In some dioceses these lapsed +benefices are compensated for by the revenues from some religious +foundation, or, as you may call it, a prebend. But there are none at +Chartres. The Chapter has at the utmost the use of a varying income +which it divides among those who have no benefice, giving them, good +years with bad, a sum of about three hundred francs each, and that is +all." + +"And the Canons have no perquisites?" + +"None whatever." + +"Then I wonder how they live." + +"If they have no private fortune they live more penuriously than the +poorest labourers in Chartres. Most of them simply vegetate; some +perform Mass for Sisterhoods, or are convent chaplains, but that brings +in very little, two hundred or two hundred and fifty francs perhaps. +Another holds the post of secretary to the diocese, by which he gets +rooms and as much, perhaps, as six hundred francs. Yet another conducts +the services of the holy week known as the Voice of Our Lady of +Chartres, and acts as precentor; and some find employment as the +Bishop's officials. Each one, in short, has a struggle to earn his food +and lodging." + +"What exactly is a Canon; what are his functions, and the origin of his +office?" + +"The origin? It is lost in the night of ages. It is supposed that +Colleges of Canons existed in the time of Pepin le Bref; it is at any +rate certain that during his reign Saint Chrodegang, Bishop of Metz, +assembled the clerks of his cathedral and obliged them to live together, +in a house in common, as though it were a convent, under a rule of which +Charlemagne makes mention in his Capitularies.--A Canon's functions? +They consist in the solemn celebration of the Canonical services, and +the direction of all processions. As a matter of conscience every Canon +is required in the first place to reside in the town where the church is +situated to whose service he is attached; then to be present at the +Canonical hours when Mass is said; finally to sit on the meetings of the +Chapter on certain fixed days. But to tell the truth, their part has +almost fallen into desuetude. The Council of Trent speaks of them as the +'_Senatus Ecclesiae_,' the Senate of the Church, and they then formed the +necessary Council of the Bishop. In these days the prelates do not even +consult them. + +"They only exercise a small part of their lost prerogatives when the See +is vacant. At that time the Chapter acts in the place of the Bishop, and +even then its rights are greatly restricted. As it has not Episcopal +Orders, it can exercise none of the powers inherent in them. It cannot +consequently ordain or confirm." + +"And if the See remains long vacant?" + +"Then the Chapter requests the Bishop of a neighbouring diocese to +ordain its seminarists, and confirm the children it presents to him. In +short, as you see, a Canon is not a very important gentleman. + +"I am not speaking, of course, of Honorary Canons, or Titular Canons. +They have no duties to fulfil; they merely enjoy an honorary title which +allows them to wear the Canon's hood, by permission of their own Bishop +when, as frequently happens, they belong to another diocese. + +"The Chapter of this Cathedral of Chartres is said to have been founded +in the sixth century by Saint Lubin. It then consisted of seventy-two +Canons, and the number was added to, for when the Revolution broke out +it amounted to seventy-six, and included seventeen dignitaries: the +Dean, the sub-Dean, the Precentor, the sub-Precentor, the chief +Archdeacon of Chartres, the Archdeacons of Beauce-en-Dunois, of Dreux, +of Le Pincerais, of Vendome, and of Blois; the gatekeeper, the +Chancellor, the Provosts of Normandy, of Mezangey, of Ingre, and of +Auvers; and the Chancel Warden. These priests, most of them men of +family and wealth, were a nursery ground of Bishops; they owned all the +houses round the Cathedral and lived independently in their cloister, +devoting themselves to history, theology, and the Canon law--they are +now indeed fallen!" + +The Abbe was silent, shaking his head. Then he went on,-- + +"To return to my subject--I was naturally somewhat hurt by the coldness +I met with on my arrival at Chartres. As I told you, I had to allay many +apprehensions. But I think I have succeeded. And I thank God, too, for +having given me a valuable supporter in the person of a subordinate +priest of the Cathedral, who has done me invaluable service with my +colleagues--the Abbe Plomb; do you know him?" + +"No." + +"He is a highly intelligent priest, very learned, a passionate mystic, +thoroughly acquainted with the Cathedral, of which he has examined every +corner." + +"Ah ha! I am interested in that priest! Perhaps he is one of those I +have already noticed. What is he like?" + +"Short, young, pale, slightly marked with the small-pox, with spectacles +that you may recognize by this peculiarity: the arch which rests on the +nose is shaped like a loop, or, if you choose to say so, like a +horseman's legs astride in the saddle." + +"That man!"--and Durtal, left to himself, thought about the priest whom +he had repeatedly seen in the church or the square. + +"Certainly," said he to himself, "there is always the risk of a mistake +when we judge of people by appearances; but how startling is the truth +of that commonplace remark when applied to the clergy! This Abbe Plomb +looks like a scared sacristan; he goes about gaping at invisible crows, +and he seems so ill at ease, so loutish, so awkward--and this is our +learned man and devoted mystic, in love with his Cathedral! Certainly it +is not safe to judge of an Abbe from appearances. Now that it is to be +my fate to live in this clerical world, I must begin by throwing +prejudice overboard, and wait till I know all the priests of the +diocese, before allowing myself to form an opinion of them." + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +"In point of fact," said Durtal to himself as he stood dreaming on the +market-place, "no one exactly knows what was the origin of the Gothic +forms of a cathedral. Archaeologists and architects have exhausted +hypotheses and systems in vain; they seem to agree in attributing the +Romanesque to Oriental parentage, and that in fact maybe proven. That +the Romanesque should be an offshoot of the Latin and Byzantine styles, +and be, as Quicherat defines it, 'the style which has ceased to be Roman +and is not yet Gothic, though it already has something of the Gothic,' I +am ready to admit; and indeed, on examining the capitals, and studying +their outline and drawing, we perceive that they are Assyrian or Persian +rather than Roman or Byzantine and Gothic; but as to discovering the +paternity even of the pointed and flamboyant styles, that is quite +another thing. Some writers assert that the pointed arch based on an +equilateral triangle existed in Egypt, Syria, and Persia; others regard +it as descended from Saracen and Arab art; nothing certainly is +provable. + +"Again, it must be clearly stated that the pointed equilateral arch, +which some persons still suppose to be the distinctive characteristic of +an era in architecture, is not so in fact, as Quicherat has very clearly +demonstrated, and, since him, Lecoy de la Marche. The study of archives +has, on this point, completely overset the hobbies of architects, and +demolished the twaddle of the Bonzes. Besides, there is abundant +evidence of the employment of the pointed arch side by side with the +round arch in a perfectly systematic design, in the construction of many +Romanesque churches; in the Cathedrals of Avignon and Frejus, in Notre +Dame at Aries, in Saint Front at Perigueux, at Saint Martin d'Ainay, at +Lyon, in Saint Martin des Champs in Paris, in Saint Etienne at Beauvais, +in the Cathedral of Le Mans; and in Burgundy, at Vezelay, at Beaune, in +Saint Philibert at Dijon, at La Charite-sur-Loire, in Saint Ladre at +Autun, and in most of the basilicas erected by the monastic school of +Cluny. + +"Still, all this throws no light on the lineage of the Gothic, which +remains obscure--possibly because it is perfectly clear; setting aside +the theory which restricts itself to discerning in this question a +merely material and technical problem of stability and resistance, +solved by monks who discovered one fine day that the strength of their +roofs would be increased by the adoption of the mitre-shaped vaulting of +the pointed arch instead of the semicircular arch, would it not seem +that the romantic hypothesis--Chateaubriand's explanation--which was so +much laughed at, and which is nevertheless the simplest and the most +natural, may really be the most obvious and the true one? + +"To me," thought Durtal, "it is almost certain that it was in the forest +that man found the prototype of the nave and the pointed arch. The most +amazing cathedral constructed by Nature herself, with lavish outlay of +the pointed aisle of branches, is at Jumieges. There, close to the +splendid ruins of the Abbey, where the two towers are still intact, +while the roofless nave, carpeted with flowers, ends in a chancel of +foliage shut in by an apse of trees, three vast aisles of centenary +boles extend in parallel lines; one in the middle, very wide, the two +others, one on each side, somewhat narrower; they exactly represent a +church nave with its two side aisles, upheld by black columns and roofed +with verdure. The ribs of the arches are accurately represented by the +branches which meet above, as the columns which support them are +simulated by the great shafts. It must be seen in winter, with the +groining outlined and powdered with snow, and the pillars as white as +the trunks of birch-trees, to understand the primitive idea, the seed of +art which could give rise in the mind of an architect to the conception +of similar arcades, and lead to the gradual refining of the Romanesque +till the pointed arch had entirely superseded the round. + +"And there is not a park, whether older or more recent than the groves +of Jumieges, which does not exhibit the same forms with equal +exactitude; but what Nature could not give was the prodigious art, the +deep symbolical knowledge, the over-strung but tranquil mysticism of the +believers who erected cathedrals. But for them the church in its +rough-hewn state, as Nature had formed it, was but a soulless thing, a +sketch, rudimentary; the embryo only of a basilica, varying with the +seasons and the days, at once living and inert, awaking only to the +roaring organ of the wind, the swaying roof of boughs wrung with the +slightest breath; it was lax and often sullen; the yielding victim of +the breeze, the resigned slave of the rain; it was lighted only by the +sunshine that filtered between the diamond and heart-shaped leaves, as +if through the meshes of a green network. Man's genius collected the +scattered gleams, condensed them in roses and broad blades, to pour it +into his avenues of white shafts; and even in the darkest weather the +glass was splendid, catching the very last rays of sunset, dressing +Christ and the Virgin in the most fabulous magnificence, and almost +realizing on earth the only attire that beseems the glorified Body, a +robe of mingled flame. + +"Really, when you come to think of it, a cathedral is a superhuman +thing! + +"Starting in our lands from the old Roman crypt, from the vault, crushed +like the soul by humility and fear, and bowed before the infinite +Majesty whose praise they hardly dared to sing, the churches gradually +waxed bolder; they gave an upward spring to the semicircular arch, +lengthening it to an almond shape, leaping from the earth, uplifting +roofs, heightening naves, breaking out into a thousand sculptured forms +all round the choir, and flinging heavenward, like prayers, their +rapturous piles of stones! They symbolized the loving tenderness of +orisons; they became more trusting, more playful, more daring in the +sight of God. + +"Each and all seemed to smile, as soon as they gave up their dismal +skeleton and strove upwards. + +"The Romanesque, I fancy, must have been born old," Durtal went on after +a pause. "At any rate it has always remained gloomy and timid. + +"Although at Jumieges, for instance, it has attained grandiose +dimensions with its enormous span opening like a vast portal to the sky, +it still is depressing. The semicircular arch, in fact, bends to the +earth, for it has not the point, soaring upwards, of the lancet arch. + +"Oh! to think of the tears, the dolorous murmurs of those thick +partitions, those smoky vaults, those arches resting on squat pillars, +those almost speechless blocks of stone, those sober ornaments +expressing their symbolism so curtly! The Romanesque is the La Trappe of +architecture; we find it sheltering the austerest Orders, the sternest +Brotherhoods, kneeling in ashes, and chanting in an undertone with bowed +heads none but penitential Psalms. These massive cellars speak of the +fear of sin, but also of the dread of a God whose wrath could only be +appeased by the Advent of the Son. The Romanesque seems to have +preserved from its Oriental origin an element antedating the Birth of +Christ; prayer seems to rise there to the implacable Adonai rather than +to the pitying Infant, the gentle Mother. The Gothic, on the contrary, +is less timid, more captivated by the two other Persons and the Virgin; +it is the home of less rigorous and more artistic Orders. Bowed +shoulders are straightened, downcast eyes are raised, sepulchral voices +become seraphic. It is, in fact, the expansion of the spirit, while the +Romanesque symbolizes its repression. At least, to me, that is the +interpretation of these styles," Durtal repeated to himself. + +"Nor is that all," he went on. "Yet another distinction may be deduced +from these observations. + +"The Romanesque is allegorical of the Old Testament, as the Gothic is of +the New. + +"The parallel, when you consider it, is exact. Is not the Bible--the +inflexible Book of Jehovah, the awful Code of the Father, well expressed +by the stern and penitential Romanesque; and the consoling, tender +Gospel by the Gothic, full of effusiveness and invitation, full of +humble hope? + +"If the symbols are these, it would seem that time very often plays the +part of man's purpose in evolving the completed idea and uniting the two +styles, as, in Holy Scripture, the two Books are united; thus certain +cathedrals present a very curious result. Some, austere at their birth, +are cheerful and even smiling as they are completed. All that is left +of the old Abbey church of Cluny is from this point of view a typical +instance. This, next to that of Paray-le-Monial, which remains entire, +is undoubtedly one of the most magnificent examples of the Burgundian +Romanesque, which, with its fluted pilasters, unfortunately betrays the +distressing tradition of Greek art imported into France by the Romans. +Still, allowing that these basilicas--which may have been built between +the eleventh and thirteenth centuries--are purely Romanesque, as +Quicherat opines, mentioning them as examples, their structure is +already of a mingled type, and the joyousness of the vaulted arch is +already to be seen there. + +"Nor have we here, as at Notre Dame la Grande at Poitiers, a Romanesque +facade, minutely elaborate, flanked at each wing by a low tower +supporting a heavy stone spire cut into facets, like a pine-apple. At +Paray there is none of the puerile ornament and heavy richness that we +see at Poitiers. The barbaric dress of the little toy church of Notre +Dame la Grande gives way to the winding-sheet of a flat wall, but the +exterior is none the less remarkably impressive with its solemn +simplicity of outline. And those two square towers, pierced with narrow +windows and overlooked by a round tower resting so calmly, so firmly on +an open arcade of columns joined by round arches, are a belfry at once +dignified and rustic, spirited and strong. + +"And the august simplicity of the exterior is repeated in the interior +of the church. + +"Here, however, the Romanesque has already lost its crushed, crypt-like +character, its obscure aspect as of a Persian cellar. The strong +structural lines are the same; the capitals still display the +inflorescence of Mussulman involutions, the fabulous entanglements of +Assyrian patterns, reminiscences of Asiatic art transplanted to our +soil; but we already see the union of dissimilar bays; columns struggle +upwards, pillars are taller, the wide arches are less rigid, and have a +lighter and longer trajectory; and the plain walls, enormous but already +light, are pierced at prodigious heights with holes admitting the day. + +"At Paray the round arch is to be seen in harmony with the pointed arch +which appears in the higher summits of the structure, announcing the +advent of a less plaintive phase of the soul, a tenderer and less harsh +idea of Christ, who is preparing, and already revealing, the Mother's +indulgent smile. + +"But then," said Durtal, suddenly, to himself, "if my theories are +correct, the architecture which could, by itself alone, symbolize +Catholicism as a whole, and represent the complete Bible in both +Testaments, must be either Romanesque with the pointed arch, or a +transition style, half Romanesque and half Gothic. + +"The deuce!" thought he, thus led to an unforeseen conclusion. "To be +sure, it is not necessary perhaps that the church itself should offer so +complete a parallel, or that the Old and New Testaments should be bound +up in one volume; here, indeed, at Chartres the work, though integral, +is in two separate volumes, since the crypt on which the Gothic church +rests is Romanesque. Nay, it is thus even more symbolical, and it +emphasizes the idea of the windows in which the prophets bear on their +shoulders the four Evangelists; once more the Old Testament appears as +the base, the foundation of the New. + +"What a fulcrum for dreams is this Romanesque!" Durtal went on. "Is it +not also the smoke-stained shrine, the gloomy retreat, constructed for +black Virgins? This seems all the less doubtful because all the +Mauresque Virgins are thick-set and heavy; they are not sylphs, like the +fair Virgins of Gothic art. The Byzantine School conceived of Mary as +swarthy, 'of the hue of polished brown ebony,' as the old historians +say; only, in opposition to the text in Canticles, it painted or carved +Her as black, indeed, but not comely. Thus figured, She is truly a +gloomy Virgin, eternally sorrowing, in harmony with the Romanesque +catacombs. Her presence naturally beseems the crypt of Chartres; but in +the Cathedral itself, on the pillar where She stands to this day, does +She not appear strange? For She is not in Her true home under the +soaring white vault." + +"Well, our friend, you are dreaming!" + +Durtal started like a man roused from sleep. + +"Ah! It is you, Madame Bavoil?" + +"To be sure. I am going home from market, and from your lodgings." + +"From my lodgings?" + +"Yes, to invite you to breakfast. The Abbe Plomb's housekeeper is to be +out this afternoon, so he is coming to take his morning meal with us; +and the Father thought it would be a good opportunity to make you +acquainted." + +"I am much obliged to him; but I must go home and tell Mother Mesurat, +that she may not cook my cutlet." + +"You need not do that, as I have just come from her; not finding you, I +left word and told Madame Mesurat. Are you still satisfied with her?" + +"Once upon a time," said he, laughing, "I had, to manage my house in +Paris, one Sieur Rateau, a drunkard of the first class, who turned +everything upside down, and led the furniture a life! Now I have this +worthy woman, who sets to work on a different system, but the results +are identically the same. She works by persuasion and gentle means; she +does not overthrow the furniture, or bellow as she turns the mattress, +or rush at the wall with a broom as if she were charging with fixed +bayonet; no, she quietly collects the dust and stirs it round and ends +by piling it in little heaps that she hides in the corners of the rooms; +she does not rummage the bed, but restricts herself to patting it with +the tip of her fingers, stroking the creases out of the sheets, puffing +up the pillows and coaxing them out of their hollows. The man turned +everything topsy-turvy; she moves nothing." + +"Well, well; but she is a good woman!" + +"Yes, and in spite of it all, I am glad to have her." + +As they talked they had reached the entrance to the Bishop's residence. +They went through a little gate by the lodge into a large forecourt +strewn with small river pebbles, in front of a vast building of the +seventeenth century. There were no flowers of stone-work, no sculpture, +no decorative doorways--nothing but a frontage of shabby brick and +stone, a bare, uninviting structure evidently neglected, with tall +windows, behind which the shutters could be seen, painted grey. The +entrance was on the level of the first floor; double outside steps led +up to the door, and under the landing, in the arch below, there was a +glass door, through which, framed in the square, could be seen the +trunks of trees beyond. + +This courtyard was bordered with tall poplars, which the late Bishop, +who had frequented the Tuileries, used to speak of with a smile as his +hundred guards. + +Madame Bavoil and Durtal crossed this forecourt, sloping to the left +towards a wing of the building, roofed with slate. + +There, on the first floor, with only a loft above lighted by round +dormers, lived the Abbe Gevresin. + +They went up a narrow staircase with a rusty iron balustrade. The walls +were trickling with damp, they secreted drops, distilled spots like +black coffee; the steps were worn hollow, and thin at the ends like +spoons; they led up to a door smeared yellow, with a cast-iron knob as +black as ink. A copper ring swung in the wind at the end of a bell-rope, +knocking the chipped plaster of the wall. An indescribable smell of +stale apples and stagnant water came up the middle of the staircase from +the little outer hall below, which was paved with rows of bricks set on +edge, eaten into patterns like madrepores, while the ceiling looked like +a map, furrowed with seas that were traced in yellow by the soaking +through of the rain. + +And the Abbe's little apartment, lately "done up" with a vile +red-checked paper, reeked of the tomb. It was evident that under the +shadow of the Cathedral that overhung this wing no sunshine ever dried +the walls, of which the skirting boards were rotting into powder like +brown sugar, crumbling slowly, on the icy cold polish of the floor. + +"How sad to see an old man, a victim to rheumatism, housed here!" +thought Durtal. + +When he went into the Abbe's room, he found the chill somewhat taken off +by a large coke fire; the priest was reading his breviary, wrapped in a +wadded gown, close to the window, of which he had drawn back the blind +to see a little better. + +This room was furnished with a small iron bedstead hung with white +cotton curtains looped back by bands of red cretonne; opposite the bed +were a table covered with a cloth, and on it a desk, and a prie-dieu +below a Crucifix nailed to the wall; the remainder of the room was +fitted with bookshelves up to the ceiling. Three arm-chairs, such as are +nowhere to be seen nowadays but in religious houses or seminaries, made +of walnut wood with straw bottoms like church chairs, were set round the +table, and two more, with round rush mats for the feet, stood one on +each side of the fireplace. On the chimney-shelf was an Empire clock +between two vases, and from these rose the faded stems of some dried +grasses stuck upright into sand. + +"Come to the fire," said the Abbe, "for in spite of the brazier it is +fearfully cold." + +And in answer to Durtal, who spoke of his rheumatism, he resignedly +shrugged his shoulders. + +"All the residence is the same," said he. "Monseigneur, who is almost a +cripple, could not find a single dry room in the whole palace. Heaven +forgive me, but I believe his rooms are even damper than mine. In point +of fact there ought to be hot-air pipes all over the place, and it will +never be done for lack of money." + +"But at any rate Monseigneur might have stoves put into the rooms, here +and there." + +"He!" cried the Abbe, laughing, "but he has no private means whatever. +He draws a stipend of ten thousand francs a year and not another penny; +for there is no endowment at Chartres, and the revenue from the fees on +the ecclesiastical Acts is nothing. In this rich, but irreligious town +he can hope for no assistance; the gardener and porter are paid by him; +he is obliged for economy's sake to employ Sisters from a convent as +cook and linen-keeper. Add to that his inability to keep a carriage, so +that he has to hire a conveyance for his pastoral rounds. And how much +then do you suppose he has left to live on, if you deduct his charities? +Why, he is poorer than you or I!" + +"But then Chartres is the fag end of Church preferment, a mere raft for +the shipwrecked and starving." + +"Thou hast said! Bishop, canons, priests, everybody here is +poverty-stricken." + +The bell rang, and Madame Bavoil showed in the Abbe Plomb. Durtal +recognized him. He looked even more scared than usual; he bowed, backing +away, and did not know what to do with his hands, which he buried in his +sleeves. + +By the end of half an hour, when he was more at his ease, he expanded +into smiles, and at last he talked; Durtal, much surprised, saw that the +Abbe Gevresin was right. This priest was highly intelligent and +well-informed, and what made the man even more attractive was his +perfect freedom from the want of breeding, the narrow ideas, the goody +nonsense which make intercourse so difficult with the ecclesiastics in +literary circles. + +They had settled themselves in the dining-room, as dismal a room as the +rest, but warmer, for an earthenware stove was roaring and puffing hot +gusts from its open ventilators. + +When they had eaten their boiled eggs, the conversation, hitherto +discursive as to subject, turned on the Cathedral. + +"It is the fifth erection over a Druidical cave," said the Abbe Plomb. +"It has a strange history. + +"The first, built at the time of the Apostles by Bishop Aventinus, was +razed to the ground. Rebuilt by another Bishop named Castor, it was +partly burnt down by Hunaldus Duke of Aquitaine, then restored by +Godessaldus; again injured by fire, by Hastings, the Norman chief; +repaired once more by Gislebert, and finally destroyed utterly by +Richard Duke of Normandy when he sacked the city after the siege. + +"We have no very authentic records of these two basilicas; at most are +we certain that the Roman Governor of the land of Chartres completely +destroyed the first and at the same time slaughtered a great number of +Christians, among them his own daughter Modesta, throwing the corpses +into a well dug near the cave, and thence known as _le Puits des Saints +Forts_. + +"A third fabric, built by Bishop Vulphardus, was burnt down in 1020, +when Fulbert was Bishop, and he founded the fourth Cathedral. This was +blasted by lightning in 1194; nothing remained but the two belfries and +the crypt. + +"The fifth structure, finally, built in the reign of Philippe Auguste, +when Regnault de Moucon was Bishop of Chartres, is that we still see; it +was consecrated on the 17th of October, 1260, in the presence of Saint +Louis. This again has passed through the fire. In 1506 the northern +spire was struck by lightning; the structure was of wood covered with +lead; a terrific storm raged from six in the evening till four in the +morning, fanning the fire to such violence that the six bells were +melted like cakes of wax. The flames were, however kept within limits, +and the church was refitted. But the scourge returned many times; in +1539, in 1573, and in 1589 lightning fell on the new belfry. Then a +century elapsed before the visitation was repeated; in 1701 the same +spire was struck again. + +"It then stood uninjured till 1825, when a thunder-bolt fell and shook +it severely on Whit Monday while the _Magnificat_ was being chanted at +Vespers. + +"Finally, on the 4th of June, 1836, a tremendous fire broke out, caused +by the carelessness of two plumbers working under the roof. It lasted +eleven hours, and destroyed all the timbers, the whole forest that +supported the roof; it was by a miracle that the church was not entirely +consumed in this fury of fire." + +"You must allow, Monsieur, that there is something strange in this +disaster without respite." + +"Yes, and what is still more strange," said the Abbe Gevresin, "Is the +persistency of fire from heaven, bent on destroying it." + +"How do you account for that?" asked Durtal. + +"Sebastien Rouillard, the author of _Parthenie_, believes that these +visitations were permitted as a punishment for certain sins, and he +insinuates that the conflagration of the third Cathedral was justified +by the misconduct of some pilgrims who at that time slept in the nave, +men and women together. Others believe that the Devil, who can command +the lightning, was bent on suppressing this sanctuary at any cost." + +"But why, then, did not the Virgin protect Her particular church more +effectually?" + +"You may observe that She has several times preserved it from being +utterly reduced to cinders; however, it is, all the same, very strange +when we remember that Chartres is the first place where the Virgin was +worshipped in France. It goes back to Messianic times, for, long before +Joachim's daughter was born, the Druids had erected, in the cave which +has become our crypt, an altar to the Virgin who should bear a +child--_Virgini Pariturae_. They, by a sort of grace, had intuitive +foreknowledge of a Saviour whose Mother should be spotless; thus it +would seem that at Chartres, above all places, there are very ancient +bonds of affection with Mary. This makes it very natural that Satan +should be bent on breaking them." + +"Do you know," said Durtal, "that this grotto is prefigured in the Old +Testament by a human structure of almost official character? In her +"Life of Our Lord," that exquisite visionary, Catherine Emmerich, tells +us that there was, hard by Mount Carmel, a grotto with a well, near +which Elias saw a Virgin; and it was to this spot, she says, that the +Jews who expected the Advent of the Redeemer made pilgrimages many times +a year. + +"Is not this the prototype of the cave of Chartres and the well of the +Strong Saints? + +"Observe, too, on the other hand, the tendency of the thunder to fall, +not on the old belfry, but on the new one. No meteorological reason, I +suppose, can account for this preference; but on carefully considering +the two spires, I am struck by the delicate foliage, the slender +lacework of the new spire, the elegant and coquettish grace of the whole +of that side. The other, on the contrary, has no ornament, no carved +tracery; it is simply carved in scallops like scale armour; it is sober, +stern, stalwart and strong. It might really almost be thought that one +is female and the other of the male sex. And then might we not conclude +that the first is symbolical of the Virgin and the second of Her Son? In +that case my inference would be akin to that offered to us by Monsieur +l'Abbe: the fires are to be ascribed to Satan, who would wreak himself +on the image of Her who has the power to crush his head." + +"Pray have a slice of beef, our friend," said Madame Bavoil, coming in +with a bottle in her hands. + +"No, thank you." + +"And you, Monsieur l'Abbe?" + +The Abbe Plomb bowed, but declined. + +"Why, you eat nothing!" + +"What! I? I may even confess that I am rather ashamed of having eaten so +heartily, after reading this morning the life of Saint Laurence of +Dublin, who, by way of food, was content to dip his bread in the water +clothes had been washed in." + +"Why?" + +"Well, in order to be able to say with the Prophet-King that he fed on +ashes--since ashes are used for lye; that is a penitential banquet which +is very unlike that we have just consumed," he added, laughing. + +"Well, my dear Madame Bavoil, that puts even you to shame," said the +Abbe Gevresin. "You are not yet covetous of so meagre a feast; you are +really quite dainty! You must have milk or water to dip your sop in!" + +"Dear me," said Durtal, "by way of high feeding I can improve on that. I +remember reading in an old book the story of the Blessed Catherine of +Cardona, who, without using her hands, cropped the grass, on her knees, +among the asses." + +It had not struck Madame Bavoil that the friends were speaking in fun, +and she replied quite humbly,-- + +"God Almighty has never yet required me to strew my bread with ashes or +to graze the field--if He should give me the order, I should certainly +obey it.--But it does not matter." + +And she was so far from enthusiastic that they all laughed. + +"Then the Cathedral as a whole," said the Abbe Gevresin after a short +silence, "dates from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, excepting, of +course, the new spire and numerous details." + +"Yes." + +"And the names of the architects are unknown?" + +"As are those of almost all the builders of great churches," replied the +Abbe Plomb. "It may, however, be safely assumed that during the twelfth +and thirteenth centuries the Benedictines of the Abbey of Tiron directed +the building of our church, for that monastery had established a House +at Chartres in 1117; we also know that this convent contained more than +five hundred Brothers practising all the arts, and that sculptors, +image-makers, stone-cutters, or workers in pierced stone, were numerous. +It would therefore seem very natural that these monks sent to live at +Chartres were the men who drew the plans of Notre Dame, and employed the +horde of artists whom we see represented in one of the old windows of +the apse--men in furred caps shaped like a jelly bag, who are busily +carving and polishing the statues of kings. + +"Their work was finished at the beginning of the sixteenth century by +Jehan Le Texier, known as Jehan de Beauce, who erected the northern +belfry, called the New Belfry, and the decorative work inside the +church, forming the niches for the groups on the walls of the +choir-aisles or ambulatory." + +"And has no one ever been able to discover the name of any one of the +original architects, sculptors, or glass-makers of this Cathedral?" + +"It has been the subject of much research, and I, personally, may say +that I have grudged neither time nor trouble, but all in vain. + +"This much we know: At the top of the southern belfry, the Old Belfry as +it is called, near the window-bay looking towards the New Belfry, this +name was deciphered: 'Harman, 1164.' Is it that of an architect, of a +workman, or of a night watchman on the look-out at that time in the +tower? We can but wonder. Didron, again, discovered on the pilaster of +the eastern porch, above the head of a butcher slaughtering an ox, the +word 'Rogerus' in twelfth century characters. Was he the architect, the +sculptor, the donor of this porch--or the butcher? Another signature, +'Robir,' is to be seen on the pedestal of a statue in the north porch. +Who was Robir? None can say. + +"Langlois, too, mentions a glass-worker of the thirteenth century, +Clement of Chartres, whose signature he found on a window of the +Cathedral at Rouen--_Clement Vitrearius Carnutensis_; but it is a wide +leap to infer, as some would do, that merely because this Clement was a +native of Chartres, he must have painted one or more of the glass +pictures in Notre Dame here. And at any rate we have no information as +to his life or his works in this city. It may also be remarked that on a +pane in our church we read _Petrus Bal ...;_ is this the name, complete +or defaced, of a donor or of a painter? Once more we must confess +ourselves ignorant. + +"If I add to this that two of Jehan de Beauce's colleagues have been +traced: Thomas Le Vasseur, who assisted him in the building of the new +spire, and one Sieur Bernier, whose name occurs in ancient accounts; +that from some old contracts, discovered by Monsieur Lecoq, we know that +Jehan Soulas, image-maker, of Paris, carved the finest of the groups +that are the glory of the choir-aisles, and can verify the names of +other sculptors who succeeded this admirable artist, but who are less +interesting, since with them pagan art reappears and mediocrity is +evident: Francois Marchant, image-maker, of Orleans, and Nicolas +Guybert, of Chartres--we have mentioned almost all the records worthy of +preservation as to the great artists who laboured at Chartres from the +twelfth till the close of the first half of the fifteenth century." + +"And after that period the names that have been handed down to us +deserve nothing but execration. Thomas Boudin, Legros, Jean de Dieu, +Berruer, Tuby, Simon Mazieres--these were the men that dared to carry on +the work begun by Soulas! Louis, the Duc d'Orleans' architect, who +debased and ravaged the choir, and the infamous Bridan, who, to the +contemptible delight of some of the Canons, erected his blatant and +wretched presentment of the Assumption!" + +"Alas!" said the Abbe Gevresin, "and they were Canons who thought fit to +break two ancient windows in the choir and fill them with white panes, +the better to light that group of Bridan's!" + +"Will you eat nothing more?" asked Madame Bavoil, who, at a negative +from the guests, cleared away the cheese and preserves, and brought in +coffee. + +"Since you are so much charmed by our Cathedral, I shall be most happy +to take you over it and explain its details," said the Abbe Plomb to +Durtal. + +"I shall accept with pleasure, Monsieur l'Abbe, for it fairly haunts me, +it possesses me--your Notre Dame! You know, no doubt, Quicherat's +theories of Gothic art?" + +"Yes, and I believe them to be correct. Like him, I am convinced that if +the essential character of the Romanesque is the substitution of the +vaulted roof for the truss, the distinctive element and principle of the +Gothic is the buttress, and not the pointed arch. + +"I reserve my opinion, indeed, as to the accuracy of Quicherat's +declaration that 'the history of architecture in the middle ages is no +more than the history of the struggle of architects against the thrust +and weight of vaulting,' for there is something in this art beyond +material industry and a problem of practice; at the same time he is +certainly right on almost every point. + +"It may be added as a general principle, that in our use of the terms +Ogee and Gothic, we are misapplying words which have lost their original +meaning; since the Goths have nothing to do with the style of +architecture which has taken their name, and the word ogee or ogyve, +which strictly means the semicircular form, is inaccurate as applied to +the arch with a double curve, which has for so long been regarded as the +basis, nay, as the characteristic stamp of a style."[1] + +"After all," the Abbe went on, after a short silence, "how can we judge +of the works of a past age, but by such help as we may obtain from the +arcades pierced in shoring walls or from vaulting on round or pointed +arches? for they are all debased by centuries of repair, or left +unfinished. Look at Chartres; Notre Dame was to have had nine spires, +and it has but two! The cathedrals of Reims, of Paris, of Laon, and many +more, were to have had spires rising from their towers; and where are +they? We can form no exact idea of the effect their architects intended +to produce. And then, again, these churches were meant to be seen in a +setting which has been destroyed, an environment that has ceased to +exist; they were surrounded by houses of a character resembling their +own; they are now in the midst of barracks five stories high, gloomy, +ignoble penitentiaries!--and we constantly see the ground about them +cleared, when they were never intended to stand isolated on a square. +Look where you will, there is a total misapprehension of the conditions +in which they were placed, of the atmosphere in which they lived. +Certain details, which seem to us inexplicable in some of these +buildings, were, no doubt, imperatively required by the position and +needs of the surroundings. In fact, we stumble, we feel our way--but we +know nothing--nothing!" + +"And at best," said Durtal, "archaeology and architecture have only done +a secondary work; they have simply set before us the material organism, +the body of the cathedrals; who shall show us the soul?" + +"What do you mean by the word?" said the Abbe Gevresin. + +"I am not speaking of the soul of the building at the moment when man by +Divine help had created it; we know nothing of that soul--not indeed as +regards Chartres, for some invaluable documents still reveal it; but of +the soul of other churches, the soul they still have, and which we help +to keep alive by our more or less regular presence, our more or less +frequent communion, our more or less fervent prayers. + +"For instance, take Notre Dame at Paris; I know that it has been +restored and patched from end to end, that its sculpture is mended where +it is not quite new; in spite of Hugo's rhetoric it is second-rate, but +it has its nave and its wondrous transept; it is even endowed with an +ancient statue of the Virgin before which Monsieur Olier had knelt, and +very often. Well, an attempt was made to revive there the worship of Our +Lady, to incite a spirit of pilgrimage thither; but all is dead! That +Cathedral no longer has a soul; it is an inert corpse of stone; try +attending Mass there, try to approach the Holy Table--you will feel an +icy cloak fall on you and crush you. Is it the result of its emptiness, +of its torpid services, of the froth of runs and trills they send up +there, of its being closed in a hurry in the evening and never open till +so late in the morning, long after daybreak? Or has it something to do +with the permitted rush of tourists, of London gapers that I have seen +there talking at the top of their voice, sitting staring at the altar +when the Holy Elements were being consecrated just in front of them? I +know not--but of one thing I am certain, the Virgin does not inhabit +there day and night and always, as she does Chartres. + +"Look at Amiens, again, with its colourless windows and crude daylight, +its chapels enclosed behind tall railings, its silence rarely broken by +prayer, its solitude. There too is emptiness; and why I know not, but to +me the place exhales a stale odour of Jansenism. I am not at large +there, and prayer is difficult; and yet the nave is magnificent, and the +sculptures in the ambulatory, finer even than those of Chartres, may be +pronounced unique. + +"But here, too, the soul is absent. + +"It is the same with the Cathedral of Laon--bare, ice-bound, dead past +hope; while some are in an intermediate state, dying, but not yet cold: +Reims, Rouen, Dijon, Tours, and Le Mans for instance; even in these +there is some refreshment; and Bourges, with its five porches opening on +a long perspective of aisles, and its vast deserted spaces; or Beauvais, +a melancholy fragment, having no more than a head and arms flung out in +despair like an appeal for ever ignored by Heaven, have still preserved +some of the aroma of olden days. Meditation is possible there; but +nowhere, nowhere is there such comfort as there is here, nowhere is +prayer so fervent as at Chartres!" + +"Those are heaven-sent words!" cried Madame Bavoil. "And you shall have +a glass of old black currant liqueur for your pains! Yes, indeed, he is +quite right--our friend is right," she went on, addressing the priests, +who laughed. "Everywhere else, excepting at Notre Dame des Victoires in +Paris and, more especially, Notre Dame de Fourviere at Lyon, when you go +to meet Her, you wait and wait; and often enough She does not come. +Whereas in our Cathedral She receives you at once, just as She is. And I +have told him, told our friend, that he should attend the first morning +Mass in the crypt, and he will see what a welcome our Mother gives her +visitors." + +"Chartres is a marvellous place," said the Abbe Gevresin, "with its two +black Madonnas--Notre Dame of the Pillar, above in the body of the +church, and Notre Dame de Sous-Terre below, in the vault over which the +basilica is built. No other sanctuary, I believe, possesses the +miraculous images of Mary, to say nothing of the antique relic known as +the Shift or Tunic of the Virgin." + +"And what in your opinion constitutes the soul of Chartres?" asked the +Abbe Plomb. + +"Certainly not the souls of the citizens' wives and the church servants +that are poured out there," replied Durtal. "No, its vitality comes from +the Sisterhoods, the peasant women, the pious schools, the pupils of the +Seminary, and perhaps more especially from the children of the choir, +who crowd to kiss the Pillar and kneel before the Black Virgin. As for +the devotion of the respectable classes! It would scare away the +angels!" + +"With a few rare exceptions the fine flower of female Pharisaism is no +doubt the outcome of that class," said the Abbe Plomb, and he added in a +half jesting, half sorrowful tone,-- + +"And I, here at Chartres, am the distressful gardener of these souls!" + +"To return to our starting point," said the Abbe Gevresin: "what was the +birthplace of the Gothic?" + +"France: so Lecoy de la Marche emphatically asserts. 'The buttress made +its appearance as the essential basis of a style in the early years of +Louis le Gros, in the district lying between the Seine and the Aisne.' +In his opinion the first practice of this form was in the Cathedral of +Laon; other authorities regard it as merely supplementary to earlier +basilicas, instancing Saint-Front at Perigueux, Vezelay, Saint-Denis, +Noyon, and the ancient college chapel at Poissy; but no two agree. One +thing is certain, Gothic art is the art of the North; it made its way +into Normandy, and from thence into England. Then it spread to the Rhine +in the twelfth century, and to Spain by the beginning of the thirteenth. +Gothic churches in the South are but an importation, evidently +ill-assorted with the men and women who frequent them, and the merciless +blue sky which spoils them." + +"And observe," said Durtal, "that in our country that aspect of +mysticism is discordant with the rest." + +"How is that?" + +"Well, you see, in the distribution of the sacred arts France received +architecture only. Consider the pre-Raphaelite painters. All the early +painters were Italians, Spaniards, Flemings, or Germans. Those whom some +writers try to represent as our fellow-countrymen are Flemings +transplanted to Burgundy, or docile Frenchmen whose imitative work bears +an unmistakable Flemish stamp. Look in the Louvre at our primitive +artists; look at Dijon, especially at what remains from the time when +northern art was introduced by Philippe le Hardi into his own province. +It is impossible to feel a doubt. Everything came from Flanders--Jean +Perreal, Bourdichon, even Fouquet are whatever you please, only not the +inventors of an original Gallic art. + +"It is the same with the mystic writers. Of what use would it be to +mention the nationalities to which they belong? They too are Spanish, +Italian, German, Flemish--not one is French." + +"I beg your pardon, our friend!" cried Madame Bavoil, "there was the +Venerable Jeanne de Matel, who was born at Roanne." + +"Yes, but she was the daughter of an Italian father who was born at +Florence," said the Abbe Gevresin, who, hearing the bell ring for Nones, +now folded up his table napkin. They all stood up and said grace, and +Durtal made an appointment with the Abbe Plomb to visit the Cathedral. +Then he went home, meditating, as he walked, on this strange division of +art in the middle ages, and the supremacy given to France in +architecture, when as yet she was so inferior in every other art. + +"And it must be owned," he concluded, "that she has now lost this +superiority; for it is long indeed since she produced an architect. The +men who assume the name are mere thieving bunglers, builders devoid of +all individuality and learning. They are not even able to pilfer +skilfully from their precursors. What are they nowadays? Patchers up of +chapels, church cobblers, botchers and blunderers!" + + + [1] The English use of the word Ogee is thus defined: "An arch + or moulding which displays sectionally contrasted curves similar + to that of the _cyma reversa_." FAIRHOLT, "Dict. of Terms used in + Art;" and PARKER, "A Concise Glossary of Terms used in + Architecture."--[_Translator_.] + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +Madame Bavoil was right; to understand the welcome the Virgin could +bestow on Her visitors, the early Mass in the crypt must be attended; +above all, the Communion should be received. + +Durtal made the experiment; one day when the Abbe Gevresin enjoined on +him to approach the Table, he followed the housekeeper's advice and went +to the crypt at early dawn. + +The way down was by a cellar-stair lighted by a small lamp with a +sputtering wick darkening the chimney with smoke; having safely reached +the bottom, he turned to the left in the darkness; here and there, at an +angle, a floating wick threw a ruddy light on the circuit which he made +in alternate light and shade, till at last he had some notion of the +general outline of the crypt. Its plan would be fairly represented by +the nave of a wheel whence the spokes radiated in every direction, +joining the outer circle or tyre. From the circular path in which he +found himself passages diverged like the sticks of a fan, and at the end +little fogged glass windows were visible, looking almost bright in the +opaque blackness of the walls. + +And by following the curve of the corridor, Durtal came to a green baize +door which he pushed open. He found himself in the side aisle of a nave +ending in a semicircle, where there was a high altar. To the right and +left two little recesses formed the arms or transept of a small cross. +The centre aisle, forming a low nave, had chairs on either side, leaving +a narrow space to give access to the altar. + +It was scarcely possible to see; the sanctuary was lighted only by tiny +lamps from the roof in little saucers of lurid orange or dull gold. An +extraordinarily mild atmosphere prevailed in this underground structure, +which was also full of a singular perfume in which a musty odour of hot +wax mingled with a suggestion of damp earth. But this was only the +background, the canvas, so to speak, of the perfume, and was lost under +the embroidery of fragrance which covered it, the faded gold, as it +were, of oil in which long kept aromatic herbs had been steeped, and +old, old incense powder dissolved. It was a weird and mysterious vapour, +as strange as the crypt itself, which, with its furtive lights and +breadths of shadow, was at once penitential and soothing. + +Durtal went up the broader aisle to the left arm of the cross and sat +down; the tiny transept had its little altar, with a Greek cross in +relief against a purple disk. Overhead the enormous curve of the +vaulting hung heavy, and so low that a man could touch it by stretching +an arm; it was as black as the mouth of a chimney, and scorched by the +fires that had consumed the cathedrals built above it. + +Presently the clap-clap of sabots became audible, and then the smothered +footfall of nuns; there was silence but for sneezing and nose-blowing +stifled by pocket-handkerchiefs, and then all was still. + +A sacristan came in through a little door opening into the other +transept, and lighted the tapers on the high altar; then strings of +silver-gilt hearts became visible in the semicircle all along the walls, +reflecting the blaze of flames, and forming a glory for a statue of the +Virgin sitting, stiff and dark, with a Child on Her knees. This was the +famous Virgin of the Cavern, or rather a copy of it, for the original +was burnt in 1793 in front of the great porch of the Cathedral, amid the +delirious raving of _sans-culottes_. + +A choir-boy came in, followed by an old priest; and then, for the first +time, Durtal saw the Mass really as a service, and understood the +wonderful beauty that lies inherent in a devout commemoration of the +Sacrifice. + +The boy on his knees, his soul aspiring and his hands clasped, spoke +aloud and slowly, rehearsing the responses of the Psalm with such deep +attention and respect, that the meaning of this noble liturgy, which has +ceased to amaze us, because we are so used to hearing it stammered out +in hot haste, was suddenly revealed to Durtal. + +And the priest himself, unconsciously, whether he would or no, took up +the child's tone, imitating him, speaking slowly, not merely tripping +the verses off the tip of his tongue, but absorbed in the words he had +to repeat; and he seemed overwhelmed, as though it were his first Mass, +by the grandeur of the rite of which he was to be the instrument. + +In fact, Durtal heard the celebrant's voice tremble when standing before +the altar in the presence of the Father, like the Son Himself whom he +represented, and imploring forgiveness for all the sins of the world +which He bore on His shoulders, supported in his grief and hope by the +innocence of the child whose loving care was less mature and less lively +than the man's. + +And as he spoke the despairing words, "My God, my God, wherefore is my +spirit heavy, and why dost Thou afflict me?" the priest was indeed the +image of Jesus suffering on the hill of Calvary, but the man remained in +the celebrant--the man, conscious of himself, and himself experiencing, +in behoof of his personal sins and his own shortcomings, the impressions +of sorrow contained in the inspired text. + +Meanwhile his little acolyte had words of comfort, bid him hope; and +after repeating the _Confiteor_ in the face of the congregation, who on +their part purified their souls by the same ablution of confession, the +priest with revived assurance went up the altar steps and began the +Mass. + +Positively, in this atmosphere of prayers crushed in by the heavy roof, +Durtal, in the midst of kneeling Sisters and women, was struck with a +sense as of some early Christian rite buried in the catacombs. Here were +the same ecstatic tenderness, the same faith; and it was possible even +to imagine some apprehension of surprise, and some eagerness to profess +the faith in the face of danger. And thus, as in a vague image, this +sacred cellar held the dim picture of the neophytes assembled so long +since in the underground caverns of Rome. + +The service proceeded before Durtal's eyes, and he was amazed to watch +the boy, who, with half closed eyes and the reserve of timid emotion, +kissed the flagons of wine and of water before presenting them to the +priest. + +Durtal would look no more; he tried to concentrate his mind while the +priest was wiping his hands, for the only prayers he could honestly +offer up to God were verses and texts repeated in an undertone. + +This only had he in his favour, but this he had: that he passionately +loved mysticism and the liturgy, plain-song and cathedrals. Without +falsehood or self-delusion, he could in all truth exclaim, "Lord, I have +loved the habitation of Thy house, and the place where Thine honour +dwelleth." This was all he had to offer to the Father in expiation of +his contumely and refractoriness, his errors and his falls. + +"Oh!" thought he, "how could I dare to pour out the ready-made collects +of which the prayer-books are full, how say to God, while addressing Him +as 'Lovely Jesus,' that He is the beloved of my heart, that I solemnly +vow never to love anything but Him, that I would die rather than ever +displease Him? + +"Love none but Him!--If I were a monk and alone, possibly; but living in +the world!--And then who but the Saints would prefer death to the +smallest sin? Why then humbug Him with these feints and grimaces? + +"No," said Durtal, "apart from the personal outpourings, the secret +intimacy in which we are bold to tell Him everything that comes into our +head, the prayers of the liturgy alone can be uttered with impunity by +any man, for it is the peculiarity of these inspirations that they adapt +themselves in all ages to every state of the mind and every phase of +life. And with the exception of the time-honoured prayers of certain +Saints, which are as a rule either supplications for pity or for help, +appeals to God's mercy or laments, all other prayers sent forth from the +cold insipid sacristies of the seventeenth century, or, worse still, +composed in our own day by the piety-mongers who insert in our books of +prayer the pious cant of the Rue Bonaparte--all these inflated and +pretentious petitions should be avoided by sinners who, in default of +every other virtue, at least wish to be sincere. + +"Only that wonderful child could thus address the Lord without +hypocrisy," he went on, looking at the little acolyte, and understanding +truly for the first time what innocent childhood meant--the little +sinless soul, purely white. + +"The Church, which tries to find beings absolutely ingenuous and +immaculate to wait upon the altar, had succeeded at Chartres in moulding +souls and transforming ordinary boys on their admission to the sanctuary +into exquisite angels. There must certainly be, above and besides their +special training, some blessing and goodwill from Our Lady, to mould +these little rogues to the service, to make them so unlike others, and +endow them in the middle of the nineteenth century with the fire of +chastity and primitive fervour of the middle age." + +The service proceeded slowly, soaking into the abject silence of the +worshippers, and the child, more reverent and attentive than ever, rang +the bell; it was like a shower of sparks tinkling under the smoky vault, +and the silence seemed deeper than ever behind the kneeling boy, +upholding with one hand the chasuble of the celebrant, who bowed over +the altar. The Host was elevated amid the shower of silver sound; and +then, above the prostrate heads, in the clear sparkle of bells, the +golden tulip of a chalice flashed out till, to a final hurried peal, the +gilded flower was lowered, and the prostrate worshippers looked up. + +And Durtal was thinking,-- + +"If only He to whom we refused shelter when the Mother who bore Him was +in travail, could find a loving refuge in our souls to-day! But alas! +apart from these nuns, these children, these priests, and these peasant +women who cherish Him so truly, how many here present are, like me, +embarrassed by His presence, and at all times incapable of making ready +the chamber He requires, of receiving Him in a room swept and garnished? + +"Alas! to think that things are always the same, always going back to +the beginning! Our souls are still the crafty synagogues who betrayed +Him, and the vile Caiaphas that lurks within us rises up at the very +moment when we fain would be humble and love Him while we pray! My God! +My God! Would it not be better to depart than to drag myself thus, with +such a bad grace, into Thy presence? For, after all, it is all very well +for the Abbe Gevresin to insist that I should communicate, he is not +I--he is not in me; he does not know the wild doings in my hidden lairs, +or the turmoil in my ruins. He believes it to be mere nervelessness, +indolence. Alas! That is not all. There is a dryness, a coldness, which +are not altogether free from a certain amount of irritation and +rebelliousness against the rules he insists on." + +The moment of Communion was at hand. The little boy had gently thrown +the white napkin back on the table; the nuns and poor women and peasants +went forward, all with clasped hands and bowed heads, and the child took +a taper and passed in front of the priest, his eyes almost shut for fear +of seeing the Host. + +There was in this little creature such a glow of love and reverence that +Durtal gazed with admiration and trembled with awe. Without in the least +knowing why, in the midst of the darkness that fell on his soul, of the +impotent and wavering feeling that thrilled it without there being any +word to describe them, he felt a tide bearing him to the Saviour, and +then a recoil. + +The comparison was inevitably forced upon him between that child's soul +and his own. "Why, it is he, not I, who should take the Sacrament!" +cried he to himself; and he crouched there inert, his hands folded, not +knowing how to decide, in a frame at once beseeching and terrified, when +he felt himself gently drawn to the table and received the Sacrament. +And meanwhile he was trying to collect himself, and to pray, and at the +same time, at the same instant, was in the discomfort of the shuddering +fears that surge up within us, and that find expression physically in a +craving for air, and in that peculiar condition when the head feels as +if it were empty, as if the brain had ceased to act, and all vitality +was driven back on the heart, which swells to choking; when it seems, in +the spiritual sense, that as energy returns so far as to allow of +self-command once more, of introspection, we peer down in appalling +silence into a black void. + +He painfully rose and returned to his place, not without stumbling. +Never, not even at Chartres, had he been able to hinder the torpor that +overpowered him at the moment of receiving the Sacrament. His powers +were benumbed, his faculties arrested. + +In Paris, at the core of his soul, which seemed rolled up in itself like +a chrysalis, there had always been a sort of restraint, an awkwardness +in waiting, and in approaching Christ, and then an apathy which nothing +could shake off. And this state was prolonged in a sort of cold, +enveloping mist, or rather in a vacuum all round the soul, deserted and +swooning on its couch. + +At Chartres this state of collapse was still present, but some indulgent +tenderness presently enwrapped and warmed the spirit. The soul as it +recovered was no longer alone; it was encouraged and perceptibly helped +by the Virgin, who revived it. And this impression, peculiar to this +crypt, permeated the body too; it was no longer a feeling of suffocation +for lack of air; on the contrary, it was the oppression of inflation, of +over-fulness, which would be mitigated by degrees, allowing of easy +breathing at last. + +Durtal, comforted and relieved, rose to go. By this time the crypt had +become a little lighter from the growing dawn; the passages, ending in +altars backing against the windows, were still dark, as a result of the +ground plan, but in the perspective of each a moving gold cross was to +be seen almost distinctly, rising and falling with a priest's back, +between two pale stars twinkling one on each side above the tabernacle; +while a third, lower and with redder flame, lighted up the book and the +white napery. + +Durtal wandered away to meditate in the Bishop's garden, where he had +permission to walk whenever he pleased. + +The garden was perfectly still, with tomb-like avenues, pollard poplars, +and trampled lawns--half dead. There was not a flower, for the Cathedral +killed everything under its shadow. Its vast deserted apse, without a +statue, rose amid a flight of buttresses flung out like huge ribs, +inflated as it were by the breath of incessant prayer within; shade and +damp always clung round the spot; in this funereal Close, where the +trees were green only in proportion as they were distant from the +church, lay two microscopic ponds like the mouths of two wells; one +covered to the brim with yellow-green duck-weed, the other full of +brackish water of inky blackness, in which three goldfish lay as in +pickle. + +Durtal was fond of this neglected spot, with its reek of the grave and +the salt marsh, and the mouldy smell, that earthy scent that comes up +from a rotting soil of wet leaves. + +He paced the alleys, where the Bishop never came, and where the children +of the household, rushing about at play, destroyed the fragments of +grass-plots spared by the Cathedral. Slates cracked underfoot, flung +down from the roofs by the wind, and the jackdaws croaked in answer to +each other across the silent park. + +Durtal came out on a terrace overlooking the city, and he rested his +elbows on a parapet of grey time-eaten stone, as dry as pumice and +patterned with orange and sulphur-coloured lichens. + +Beneath him spread a valley crowded with smoking chimneys and roofs, +veiling this upper part of the town in a tangle of blue. Further down +all was still and lifeless; the houses were asleep, not so far awake +even as to show the transient flash of glass when a window is thrown +open, nor was there such a spot of red as is often seen in a country +street when an eider-down quilt hangs out to air across the bar of a +balcony; everything was closed and dull and soundless; there was not +even the hive-like hum that hangs over inhabited places. But for the +distant rumble of a cart, the crack of a whip, the bark of a dog, all +was still: it was a town asleep, a land of the dead. + +And beyond the valley, on the further bank, the scene was still more +sullen and silent; the plains of La Beauce stretched away as far as the +eye could reach, mute and melancholy, without a smile, under a heartless +sky divided by an ignoble barrack facing the Cathedral. + +The dreariness of these plains, an endless level without a mound, +without a tree! And you felt that even beyond the horizon they still +stretched away as flat as ever; only the monotony of the landscape was +emphasized by the raging fury of the tempestuous winds, sweeping the +hillside, levelling the tree-tops, and wreaking themselves on this +basilica, which, perched on high, had for centuries defied their +efforts. To uproot it the lightning had been needed to help, firing its +towers, and even the combined attacks of the hurricane and the flames +had been unable to destroy the original stock, which, replanted after +each disaster, had always sprouted in fresh verdure with reinvigorated +growth. + +That morning, in the dawn of a rainy autumn day, lashed by a bitter +north wind, Durtal, shivering and ill at ease, left the terrace and took +refuge in the more sheltered walks, going down presently into a +garden-slope where the brushwood afforded some little protection from +the wind; these shrubberies wandered at random down the hill, and an +inextricable tangle of blackberries clung with the cat's-claws of their +long shoots to the saplings that were scattered about. + +It was evident that since some immemorial time the Bishops, for lack of +funds, had neglected these grounds. Of all the old kitchen garden, +overgrown by brambles, only one plot was more or less weeded, and rows +of spinach and carrots alternated with the frosted balls of cabbages. + +Durtal sat down on a stump that had once supported a bench, and tried to +look into his own soul; but he found within, look where he might, only a +spiritual Beauce; it seemed to him to mirror the cold and monotonous +landscape; only it was not a mighty wind that blew through his being; +but a sharp, drying little blast. He knew that he was cross-grained and +could not make his observations calmly; his conscience harassed him and +insisted on vexatious argument. + +"Pride! Ah, how is it to be kept under till the day shall come when it +shall be quelled? It insinuates itself so stealthily, so noiselessly, +that it has ensnared and bound me before I can suspect its presence; and +my case too is somewhat peculiar, and hard to cure by the religious +treatment commonly prescribed in such cases. For in fact," said he to +himself, "my pride is not of the artless and overweening kind, elated, +audacious, boldly displaying, and proclaiming itself to the world; no, +mine is in a latent state, what was called vain-glory in the simplicity +of the Middle Ages, an essence of pride diluted with vanity and +evaporating within me in transient thoughts and unexpressed conceit. I +have not even the opportunity afforded by swaggering pride for being on +my guard and compelling myself to keep silence. Yes, that is very true; +talk leads to specious boasting and invites subtle praise; one is +presently aware of it, and then, with patience and determination, it is +in one's power to check and muzzle oneself. But my vice of pride is +wordless and underground; it does not come forth. I neither see nor hear +it. It wriggles and creeps in without a sound, and clutches me without +my having heard its approach! + +"And the good Abbe answers: 'Be watchful and pray;' well, I am more than +willing, but the remedy is ineffectual, for aridity and outside +influences deprive it of its efficacy! + +"As for outside suggestions--they never seem to come to me but in +prayer. It is enough that I kneel down and try to collect my thoughts, +they are at once dissipated. The mere purpose of prayer is like a stone +flung into a pool; everything is stirred up and comes to the top! + +"And people who have not habits of religious practice fancy that there +is nothing easier than prayer. I should like to see them try. They could +then bear witness that profane imaginings, which leave them in peace at +all other times, always surge up unexpectedly, during prayer. + +"Besides, what use is therein disputing the fact? Merely looking at a +sleeping vice is enough to wake it." + +And his thoughts went back to that warm crypt. "Yes, no doubt, like all +the buildings of the Romanesque period, it is symbolical of the Old +Testament; but it is not simply gloomy and sad, for it is enveloping and +comforting, warm and tender! Admitting even that it is the figure in +stone of the older Dispensation, would it not seem that it symbolizes it +less as a whole, than as embodying more especially a select group of the +Holy Women who prefigured the Virgin in the earlier Scriptures? Is it +not the expression in stone of those passages in which the illustrious +women of the Bible are most conspicuous, who were, in a way, prophetic +incarnations of the New Eve? + +"Hence this crypt would reproduce the most consoling and the most heroic +passages of the Sacred Book, for the Virgin is supreme in this +underground sanctuary; it is Hers rather than the terrible Adonai's, if +one may dare say so. + +"And again, She is a very singular Virgin, who has inevitably remained +in harmony with Her surroundings: a Virgin black and rugged, and +stunted, like the rough-hewn shrine She inhabits. + +"She is therefore, no doubt, the outcome of the same idea that conceived +of Christ as black and ugly because He had assumed the burthen of all +the sins of the world, the Christ of the first ages of the Church, who +in His humility put on the vilest aspect. In that case Mary would have +conceived Her Son in Her own image; She too had chosen to be ugly and +obscure, out of humility and loving-kindness, that She might the better +console the disfigured and despised creatures whose image She had +borrowed." + +And Durtal went on:-- + +"What a crypt is this where, in the course of so many centuries, kings +and queens have come to worship! + +"Philip Augustus and Isabella of Hainault, Blanche of Castille and Saint +Louis, Philippe de Valois, Jean le Bon, Charles V., Charles VI., Charles +VII., Charles VIII. and Anne de Bretagne; then Francois I., Henri III. +and Louise de Vaudemont, Catherine de' Medici; Henri IV., who was +crowned in this Cathedral, Anne of Austria, Louis XIV., Maria Leczinska, +and so many others--all the nobility of France; and Ferdinand of Spain, +and Leon de Lusignan, the last King of Armenia, and Pierre de Courtenay, +Emperor of Constantinople--all kneeling like the poor folks of to-day, +and like them beseeching Notre Dame de Sous-Terre." + +And what was more interesting still was that the Virgin had wrought many +miracles on this spot. She had saved children who had fallen into the +well of the Strong Saints, had preserved the guardians who had charge of +the relic of Her garment when the edifice was blazing above them, and +had cured crowds, half maddened by the Burning plague in the Middle +Ages, shedding Her benefits with a lavish hand. + +Times were changed indeed, but fervent worshippers had knelt before the +Image, had relinked the bonds broken in the course of years, had, so to +speak, recaptured the Virgin in a net of prayer; and so, instead of +departing, as She had done elsewhere, She had remained at Chartres. + +By some incredible effect of clemency She had endured the insult of the +tenth-day festivals and the outrage of seeing the Goddess of Reason +installed in her place on the altar, had suffered the infamous liturgy +of obscene canticles rising with the thundering incense of gunpowder. +And She had forgiven it all, no doubt for the sake of the love shown Her +by preceding generations, and the awed, but real affection of the humble +believers who had come back to Her when the storm was over. + +This cavern was crowded with memories. The coating of those walls had +been formed of the vapours of the soul, of the exhalations of +accumulated desires and regrets, even more than of the smoke of tapers; +how foolish it was then to have painted this crypt in squalid imitation +of the catacombs, to have defaced the glorious darkness of these stones +with colours which were indeed fast vanishing, leaving only traces as of +palette scrapings in the consecrated soot on the roof! + +Durtal was expatiating on these reflections as he went out of the +garden, when he met the Abbe Gevresin walking along and reading his +breviary. He asked whether Durtal had taken the Sacrament. And +perceiving that his penitent always came back to his shame of the inert +and torpid grief that came over him in contemplation of the Holy +Sacrament, the old priest said to him,-- + +"That is no concern of yours; all you have to do is to pray to the best +of your power. The rest is my concern--if the far from triumphant state +of your soul only makes you a little humble, that is all I ask of you." + +"Humble! I am like a water cooler; my vanity sweats out at every pore as +the water oozes from the clay." + +"It is some consolation to me that you perceive it," said the Abbe, +smiling. "It would be far worse if you did not know yourself, if you +were so proud as to believe that you had no pride." + +"But how then am I to set to work? You advise me to pray; but teach me +at least how not to dissipate myself in every direction, for as soon as +I try to collect myself I go to pieces; I live in a perpetual state of +dissolution. It is like a thing arranged on purpose; as soon as I try to +shut the cage all my thoughts fly off--they deafen me with their +chirping." + +The Abbe was thinking. + +"I know," said he; "nothing is more difficult than to free the spirit +from the images that take possession of it. Still, and in spite of all, +you may achieve concentration of mind if you observe these three rules: + +"In the first place you must humble yourself, by owning the frailty of +your mind, unable to preserve itself from wandering in the presence of +God; next you must not be impatient or restless, for that would only +stir up the dregs and bring other objects of frivolity to the surface; +finally, it is well not to investigate the nature of the distractions +that trouble your prayers till they are over. This only prolongs the +disturbance, and in a way recognizes its existence. You thus run the +risk, in virtue of the law of association of ideas, of inviting new +diversions, and there would be no way of escape. + +"After prayer you may examine yourself with benefit; follow my advice, +and you will find the advantage of it." + +"That is all very fine," thought Durtal, "but when it comes to putting +the advice into practice it is quite another thing. Are not these mere +old women's remedies, precious ointments, quack medicines, for which the +pious and virtuous have a weakness?" + +They walked on in silence across the forecourt of the palace to the +priest's rooms. As they went in, they found Madame Bavoil at the foot of +the stairs, her arms in a tub full of soap-suds. As she rubbed the +clothes, she turned to look at Durtal, and, as if she could read his +thoughts, she mildly asked,-- + +"Why, our friend, wear such a graveyard face when you took the Sacrament +this morning?" + +"So you heard I had been to Communion?" + +"Yes, I went into the crypt while Mass was going forward, and saw you go +up to the Holy Table. Well, shall I tell you the truth? You do not know +how to address our Holy Mother." + +"Indeed!" + +"No. You are shy when She is doing her best to put you at your ease; you +creep close to the wall when you ought to walk boldly up the middle +aisle to face Her. That is not the way to approach Her!" + +"But if I have nothing to say to Her?" + +"Then you simply chatter to Her like a child; some pretty speech, and +She is satisfied. Oh, these men! How little they know how to pay their +court, how greatly they lack little coaxing ways, and even honest +artfulness! If you can invent nothing on your own part, borrow from +another. Repeat after the Venerable Jeanne de Matel: + +"'Holy Virgin, this abyss of iniquity and vileness invokes the abyss of +strength and splendour to praise Thy preeminent Glory.' Well, is that +pretty well expressed, our friend? Try; recite that to Our Lady and She +will unbind you; then prayer will come of itself. Such little ways are +permitted by Her, and we must be humble enough not to presume to do +without them." + +Durtal could not help laughing. + +"You want me to become a trickster, a sneak in spiritual life!" said he. + +"Well, where would be the harm? Does not the Lord know when we mean +well? Does not He take note of our intentions? Would you, yourself, +repulse anyone who paid you a compliment, however clumsily, if you +thought he meant to please you by it? No, of course not." + +"Here is another thing," said the Abbe, laughing. "Madame Bavoil, I saw +Monseigneur this morning; he grants your petition and authorizes you to +dig in as many parts of the garden as you choose." + +"Aha!" and amused by Durtal's surprise she went on: "You must have seen +for yourself that excepting a little plot of ground where the gardener +plants a few carrots and cabbages for the Bishop's table, the whole of +the garden is left to run wild; it is sheer waste and of no use to +anybody. Now instead of buying vegetables, I mean to grow some, since +Monseigneur gives me leave to turn over his ground, and by the same +token I will give some to your housekeeper." + +"Thank you. Then do you understand gardening?" + +"I? Why, am I not a peasant? I have lived in the country all my life, +and a kitchen garden is just my business! Besides, if I were in +difficulties, would not my Friends Above come to advise me?" + +"You are a wonderful woman, Madame Bavoil," said Durtal, somewhat +disconcerted in spite of himself by the answers of a cook who so calmly +asserted that she was on intimate terms with the divine Beyond. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +It rained without ceasing. Durtal breakfasted under the assiduous +watchfulness of his servant, Madame Mesurat. She was one of those women +whose stalwart build and masculine presence would allow of their +dressing in men's clothes without attracting attention. She had a +pear-shaped head, cheeks that hung flabby as if they had been emptied of +air, a pompous nose that drooped till it very nearly touched a +projecting underlip like a bracket, giving her an expression of +determined contempt which she very certainly had never felt. In short, +she suggested the absurd idea of a solemn, gawky Marlborough disguised +as a cook. + +She served unvarying meats with inglorious sauces; and as soon as the +dish was on the table she stood at attention, waiting to know whether it +was good. She was imposing and devoted--quite insufferable. Durtal, on +edge with irritation, found it all he could do not to dismiss her to the +kitchen, and finally buried his nose in a book that he might not have to +answer her, might not see her. + +This day, provoked by his silence, Madame Mesurat lifted the window +curtain, and for the sake of saying something, exclaimed,-- + +"Good heavens! What weather! Impossible!" + +And in fact the sky offered no hope of consolation. It was all in tears. +The rain fell in uninterrupted streams, unwinding endless skeins of +water. The Cathedral was standing in a pool of mud lashed into leaping +drops by the falling torrent, and the two spires looked drawn together, +almost close, linked by loose threads of water. This indeed was the +prevailing impression--a briny atmosphere full of strings holding the +sky and earth together as if tacked with long stitches, but they would +not hold; a gust of wind snapped all these endless threads, which were +whirled in every direction. + +"My arrangement to meet the Abbe Plomb to go over the Cathedral is +evidently at an end," said Durtal to himself. "The Abbe will certainly +not turn out in such weather." + +He went into his study; this was his usual place of refuge. He had his +divan there, his pictures, the old furniture he had brought from Paris; +and against the walls, shelves, painted black, held thousands of books. +There he lived, looking out on the towers, hearing nothing but the +cawing of the rooks and the strokes of the hours as they fell one by one +on the silence of the deserted square. He had placed his table in front +of a window, and there he sat dreaming, praying, meditating, making +notes. + +The balance of his personal account was struck by internal damage and +mental disputations; if the soul was bruised and ice-bound, the mind was +no less afflicted, no less fagged. It seemed to have grown dull since +his residence at Chartres. The biographies of Saints which Durtal had +intended to write, remained in the stage of charcoal sketches; they blew +off before he could fix them. In reality he had ceased to care for +anything but the Cathedral; it had taken possession of him. + +And besides, the lives of the Saints as they were written by the +inferior Bollandists were enough to disgust anybody with saintliness. +Offered to publisher after publisher, carted from the Paris libraries to +the provincial workshops, this barrow of books had at first been hauled +by a single nag, Father Giry; then a second horse had been added, the +Abbe Guerin, and, harnessed to the same shafts, these two men pulled +their heavy truck over the broken road of souls. + +He had only to open a bale of this prosy dulness, taking down a volume +at random, to light on sentences of this quality: + +"Such an one was born of parents not less remarkable for their rank than +for their piety;" or, on the other hand, "His parents were not of +illustrious birth, but in them might be seen the distinction of all the +virtues which are so far above rank." + +And then the dreadful style of the Pont Neuf: "His historian does not +hesitate to say he would have been mistaken for an angel if the maladies +with which God afflicted him had not shown that he was a man."--"The +Devil, not enduring to see him advancing by rapid leaps on the way of +perfection, adopted various means of hindering him in the happy progress +of his career." + +And on turning over to a fresh page he came upon a passage in the life +of one of the Elect who was mourning for his mother, excusing him in +this solemn rigmarole: "After granting to the feelings of nature such +relief as grace cannot forbid on these occasions--" + +Or again, here and there were such pompous and ridiculous definitions as +this, which occurs in the life of Cesar de Bus: "After a visit to Paris, +which is not less the throne of vice than the capital of the kingdom--" +And this went on in meagre language through twelve to fifteen volumes, +ending by the erection of a row of uniform virtue, a barrack of pious +idiotcy. Now and again the two poor nags seemed to wake up and trot for +a little space, though gasping for breath, when they had some detail to +record which no doubt moved them to rapture; they expatiated +complacently on the virtues of Catherine of Sweden or Robert de la +Chaise-Dieu, who as soon as they were born cried for sinless wet-nurses, +and would suck none but pious breasts; or they spoke with ravishment of +the chastity of Jean the Taciturn, who never took a bath, that he might +not shock "his modest eyes," as the text says, by seeing himself; and +the bashful purity of San Luis de Gonzagua, who had such a terror of +women that he dared not look at his mother for fear of evil thoughts! + +In consternation at the poverty of these distressing non-sequiturs, +Durtal turned to the less familiar biographies of the Blessed Women; but +here again, what a farrago of the commonplace, what glutinous unction, +what a hash by way of style! There was certainly some curse from Heaven +on the old women of the Sacristy who dared take up a pen. Their ink at +once turned to stickiness, to bird-lime, to pitch, which smeared all it +touched. Oh, the poor Saints! the hapless Blessed Women! + +His meditations were interrupted by a ring at the bell: + +"Why, has the Abbe Plomb really come out in spite of the gale?" + +It was indeed the priest that Madame Mesurat showed in. + +"Oh," said he to Durtal, who lamented over the rain, "the weather will +clear up all in good time; at any rate, as you had not put me off I was +determined not to keep you waiting." + +They sat chatting by the fire; and the room took the Abbe's fancy, no +doubt, for he settled himself at his ease. He threw himself back in an +arm-chair, tucking his hands into his cincture. And when, in answer to +his question as to whether Durtal were not too dull at Chartres, the +Parisian replied, "It seems to me that I live more slowly, and yet am +not such a burthen to myself," the Abbe went on,-- + +"What you must feel painfully is the lack of intellectual society; you, +who in Paris lived in the world of letters--how can you endure the +atmosphere of this provincial town?" + +Durtal laughed. + +"The world of letters! No, Monsieur l'Abbe, I should not be likely to +regret that, for I had given it up many years before I came to live +here; and besides, I assure you it is impossible to be intimate with +those train-bands of literature and remain decent. A man must +choose--them or honest folks; slander or silence; for their speciality +is to eliminate every charitable idea, and above all to cure a man of +friendship in the winking of an eye." + +"Really?" + +"Yes, by adopting a homoeopathic pharmacopoeia which still makes use +of the foulest matter--the extract of wood-lice, the venom of snakes, +the poison of the cockchafer, the secretions of the skunk and the matter +from pustules, all disguised in sugar of milk to conceal their taste and +appearance; the world of letters, in the same way, triturates the most +disgusting things to get them swallowed without raising your gorge. +There is an incessant manipulation of neighbours' gossip and play-box +tittle-tattle, all wrapped up in perfidious good taste to mask their +flavour and smell. + +"These pills of foulness, exhibited in the required doses, act like +detergents on the soul, which they almost immediately purge of all +trustfulness. I had enough of this regimen, which acted on me only too +successfully, and I thought it well to escape from it." + +"But the pious world, too, is not absolutely free from gossip," said the +Abbe, smiling. + +"No doubt, and I am well aware that devotion does not always sweeten the +mind, but-- + +"The truth is," said he after reflection, "that the assiduous practice +of religion generally results in some intense effects on the soul. Only +they may be of two kinds. Either it develops the soul's taint and +evolves in it the final ferments which putrefy it once for all, or it +purifies the spirit and makes it clean and clear and exquisite. It may +produce hypocrites or good and saintly people; there is really no +medium. + +"But when such divine husbandry has completely cleansed souls, how +guileless and how pure they may be! Nor am I speaking of the Elect, such +as I saw at La Trappe--merely of young novices, little priestlings whom +I have known. They had eyes like clear glass, undimmed by the haze of a +single sin; and, looking into them, behind those eyes you would have +seen their open soul burning like a soaring crown of fire framing the +smiling face in a halo of white name. + +"In fact, Jesus simply fills up all the room in their soul. Do not you +think, Monsieur l'Abbe, that these youths occupy their bodies just +enough for suffering and to expiate the sins of others? Without knowing +it, they have been sent into the world to be safe tenements of the Lord, +the resting-place where Jesus finds a home after wandering over the +frozen steppes of other souls." + +"Yes," said the Abbe, taking off his spectacles to wipe them on his +bandana, "but to acquire so fine a strain of being, how much +mortification, penance, and prayer have been needed in the generations +that have ended by giving them birth! The spirits of whom you speak are +the flower of a stem long nourished in a pious soil. The Spirit, of +course, bloweth where it listeth, and may find a saint in the heart of a +listless family; but this mode of operation must always be an exception. +The novices you have known must certainly have had grandmothers and +mothers who frequently incited them to kneel and pray by their side." + +"I do not know--I knew nothing of the origin of these lads--but I feel +that you are right. It is obvious, indeed, that children, slowly brought +up from their earliest years, and sheltered from the world under the +shadow of such a sanctuary as this at Chartres, must end in the +blossoming of an unique flower." + +And when Durtal told him of the impression made on him by the angelic +service of the Mass, the Abbe smiled. + +"Though our boys are not unique, they are no doubt rare. Here, the +Virgin Herself trains them, and note, the little lad you saw is neither +more diligent nor more conscientious than his fellows; they are all +alike. Dedicated to the priesthood from the time when they can first +understand, they learn quite naturally to lead a spiritual life from +their constant intimacy with the services." + +"What then is the system of this Institution?" + +"The Foundation of the Clerks of Our Lady dates from 1853, or rather it +was reconstituted in that year--for it existed in the Middle Ages--by +the Abbe Ychard. Its purpose is to increase the number of priests by +admitting poor boys to begin their studies. It receives intelligent and +pious children of every nationality, if they are supposed to show any +vocation for Holy Orders. They remain in the choir school till they are +in the third class, and are then transferred to the Seminary. + +"Its funds?--are, humanly speaking, nothing, based on trust in +Providence, for it has altogether, for the maintenance of eighty pupils, +nothing but the pay earned by these children for various duties in the +Cathedral, and the profits from a little monthly magazine called 'The +Voice of the Virgin,' and finally and chiefly the charity of the +faithful. All this does not amount to a very substantial income; and +yet, to this day, money has never been lacking." + +The Abbe rose and went to the window. + +"Oh, the rain will not cease," said Durtal. "I am very much afraid, +Monsieur l'Abbe, that we cannot examine the Cathedral porches to-day." + +"There is no hurry. Before going into the details of Notre Dame, would +it not be well to contemplate it as a whole, and let its general purpose +soak into the mind before studying each page of its parts? + +"Everything lies contained in that building," he went on, waving his +hand to designate the church; "the scriptures, theology, the history of +the human race, set forth in broad outline. Thanks to the science of +symbolism a pile of stones may be a macrocosm. + +"I repeat it, everything exists within this structure, even our material +and moral life, our virtues and our vices. The architect takes us up at +the creation of Adam to carry us on to the end of time. Notre Dame of +Chartres is the most colossal depository existing of heaven and earth, +of God and man. Each of its images is a word; all those groups are +phrases--the difficulty is to read them." + +"But it can be done?" + +"Undoubtedly. That there may be some contradictions in our +interpretations I admit, but still the palimpsest can be deciphered. The +key needed is a knowledge of symbolism." + +And seeing that Durtal was listening to him with interest, the Abbe came +back to his seat, and said,-- + +"What is a symbol? According to Littre it is a 'figure or image used as +a sign of something else;' and we Catholics narrow the definition by +saying with Hugues de Saint Victor that a symbol is an allegorical +representation of a Christian principle under a tangible image. + +"Now symbolism has existed ever since the beginning of the world. Every +religion adopted it, and in ours it came into being with the Tree of the +Knowledge of Good and Evil in the first chapter of Genesis, while it +still is in full splendour in the last chapter of the Apocalypse. + +"The Old Testament is an anticipatory figure of all the New Testament +tells us. The Mosaic dispensation contains, as in an allegory, what the +Christian religion shows us in reality; the history of the People of +God, its principal personages, its sayings and doings, the very +accessories round about it, are a series of images; everything came to +the Hebrews under a figure, Saint Paul tells us. Our Lord took the +trouble to remind His disciples of this on various occasions, and He +Himself, when addressing the multitude, almost always spoke in parables +as a means of conveying one thing by an illustration from another. + +"Symbols, then, have a divine origin; it may be added that from the +human point of view this form of teaching answers to one of the least +disputable cravings of the human mind. Man feels a certain enjoyment in +giving proof of his intelligence, in guessing the riddle thus presented +to him, and likewise in preserving the hidden truth summed up in a +visible formula, a perdurable form. Saint Augustine expressly says: +'Anything that is set forth in an allegory is certainly more emphatic, +more pleasing, more impressive, than when it is formulated in technical +words.'" + +"That is Mallarme's idea too," thought Durtal, "and this coincidence in +the views of the saint and the poet, on grounds at once analogous and +different, is whimsical, to say the least." + +"Thus in all ages," the Abbe went on, "men have taken inanimate objects, +or animals and plants, to typify the soul and its attributes, its joys +and sorrows, its virtues and its vices; thought has been materialized to +fix it more securely in the memory, to make it less fugitive, more near +to us, more real, almost tangible. + +"Hence the emblems of cruelty and craft, of courtesy and charity, +embodied by certain creatures, personified by certain plants; hence the +spiritual meanings attributed to precious stones, and to colours. And it +may be added that in times of persecution, in the early Christian times, +this hidden language enabled the initiated to hold communication, to +give each other some token of kinship, some password which the enemy +could not interpret. Thus, in the paintings discovered in catacombs, the +Lamb, the Pelican, the Lion, the Shepherd, all meant the Son; the Fish +_Ichthys_, of which the characters express the Greek formula: 'Jesus, +Son of God, Saviour,' figures, in a secondary sense, the believer, the +rescued soul, fished out from the sea of Paganism; the Redeemer having +told two of His Apostles that they should be fishers of men. + +"And of course the period when human beings lived in closest intercourse +with God--the Middle Ages--was certain to follow the revealed tradition +of Christ, and express itself in symbolical language, especially in +speaking of that Spirit, that essence, that incomprehensible and +nameless Being who to us is God. At the same time it had at its command +a practical means of making itself understood. It wrote a book, as it +were, intelligible to the humblest, superseding the text by images, and +so instructing the ignorant. This indeed was the idea put into words by +the Synod of Arras in 1025: 'That which the illiterate cannot apprehend +from writing shall be shown to them in pictures.' + +"The Middle Ages, in short, translated the Bible and Theology, the +lives of the Saints, the apocryphal and legendary Gospels into carved or +painted images, bringing them within reach of all, and epitomizing them +in figures which remained as the permanent marrow, the concentrated +extract of all its teaching." + +"It taught the grown-up children the catechism by means of the stone +sentences of the porches," exclaimed Durtal. + +"Yes, it did that too. But now," the Abbe went on, after a pause, +"before entering on the subject of architectural symbolism, we must +first establish a distinct notion of what Our Lord Himself did in +creating it, when, in the second chapter of the Gospel according to +Saint John, He speaks of the Temple at Jerusalem, and says that if the +Jews destroy it He will rebuild it in three days, expressly prefiguring +by that parable His own Body. This set forth to all generations the form +which the new temples were thenceforth to take after His death on the +Cross. + +"This sufficiently accounts for the cruciform plan of our churches. But +we will study the inside of the church later; for the present we must +consider the meanings of the external parts of a cathedral. + +"The towers and belfries, according to the theory of Durand, Archbishop +of Mende in the thirteenth century, are to be regarded as preachers and +prelates, and the lofty spire is symbolical of the perfection to which +their souls strive to rise. According to other interpreters of the same +period, such as Saint Melito, Bishop of Sardis, and Cardinal Pietro of +Capua, the towers represent the Virgin Mary, or the Church watching over +the salvation of the Flock. + +"It is a certain fact," the Abbe went on, "that the position of the +towers was never rigidly laid down once for all in mediaeval times; thus +different interpretations are admissible according to their position in +the structure. Still, perhaps the most ingeniously refined, the most +exquisite idea is that which occurred to the architects of Saint Maclou +at Rouen, of Notre Dame at Dijon, and of the Cathedral at Laon, for +example, who built rising from the centre of the transepts--that is +above the very spot where, on the Cross, the breast of Christ would lie, +a lantern higher than the rest of the roof, often finishing outside in a +tall and slender spire, starting as it were from the Heart of Christ to +leap with one spring to the Father, to soar as if shot up from the bow +of the vaulting in a sharp dart to reach the sky. + +"The towers, like the buildings they overshadow, are almost always +placed on a height that commands the town, and they shed around them +like seed into the soil of the soul, the swarming notes of their bells, +reminding all Christians by this aerial proclamation, this bead-telling +of sound, of the prayers they are commanded to use and the duties they +must fulfil; nay, at need, they may atone before God for man's apathy by +testifying that at least they have not forgotten Him, beseeching Him +with uplifted arms and brazen tongues, taking the place as best they may +of so many human prayers, more vocal perhaps than they." + +"With its ship-like character," said Durtal, who had thoughtfully +approached the window, "this Cathedral strikes me as amazingly like a +motionless vessel with spires for masts and the clouds for sails, spread +or furled by the wind as the weather changes; it remains the eternal +image of Peter's boat which Jesus guided through the storm." + +"And likewise of Noah's Ark--the Ark outside which there is no safety," +added the Abbe. + +"Now consider the church in all its parts. Its roof is the symbol of +Charity, which covereth a multitude of sins; its slates or tiles are the +soldiers and knights who defend the sanctuary against the heathen, +represented by the storm, its stones, all joined, are, according to +Saint Nilus, emblematic of the union of souls, or, as the _Rationale_ of +Durand of Mende has it, of the multitude of the faithful; the stronger +stones figuring the souls that are most advanced in the way of +perfection and hinder the weaker brethren, represented by the smaller +stones, from slipping and falling. However, to Hugues de Saint Victor, a +monk of the abbey of that name in the twelfth century, this collection +of stones is merely the mingled assembly of the clerks and the laity. + +"Again, these blocks of stone of various shapes are bound and held +together by mortar, of which Durand of Mende will tell you the meaning. +'Mortar,' saith he, 'is compounded of lime and sand and water; lime is +the burning quality of charity, and it combines by the aid of water, +which is the Spirit, with the sand, of the earth earthy.' + +"Thus these united stones form the four walls of the church, which +Prudentius of Troyes tells us are the four evangelists; or, according +to other interpreters, they represent in stone the cardinal virtues of +religion: Justice, Fortitude, Prudence, and Temperance, already +prefigured by the walls of the City of God in the Apocalypse. + +"Thus you see each part may be regarded as having more than one meaning, +but all included in one general idea common to all." + +"And the windows?" asked Durtal. + +"I am coming to them; they are emblematic of our senses, which are to be +closed to the vanities of the world and open to the gifts of Heaven; +they are also provided with glass, giving passage to the beams of the +true Sun, which is God. But Dom Villette has most clearly set forth +their symbolical meaning: 'They are,' says he, 'the Scriptures, which +receive the glory of the sun and keep out the wind, the hail and the +snow, the images of false doctrine and heresies.' + +"As to the buttresses, they symbolize the moral force that sustains us +against temptation; they are likewise the hope which upholds the soul +and strengthens it; others see in them the image of the temporal powers +who are called upon to defend the power of the Church; and others again, +regarding more especially the flying buttresses which resist the thrust +of the span, say that they are imploring arms clinging to the +safe-keeping of the Ark in time of danger. + +"The principal entrance, the great portal of so many churches, such as +those of Vezelay, Paray-le-Monial and Saint German l'Auxerrois, in +Paris, was approached through a covered vestibule, often very deep and +intentionally dark, called the Narthex. The baptismal pool was in this +porch. It was a place for probation and forgiveness, emblematical of +Purgatory, an ante-room to Heaven, where, before being permitted access +to the sanctuary, penitents and neophytes had their place. + +"Such, briefly, is the allegorical meaning of the parts. If we now +regard it again as a whole, we may observe that the cathedral, built +over a crypt symbolical of the contemplative life, and also of the tomb +in which Christ was laid, was naturally obliged to have its apse towards +that point of the heavens where the sun rises at the equinox, so as to +convey, says the Bishop of Mende, that it is the Church's mission to +show moderation in its triumphs as in its reverses. All the liturgical +commentators are agreed that the high altar must be placed at the +eastern end, so that the worshippers, as they pray, may turn their eyes +towards the cradle of the Faith; and this rule was held absolute, and so +well approved by God that He confirmed it by a miracle. The Bollandists +in fact have a legend that Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, seeing a +church that had been built on another axis, made it turn to the East by +a push with his shoulder, thus placing it in its right position. + +"The church has generally three doors, in honour of the Holy Trinity; +and the portal in the middle, called the Royal Porch, is divided by a +pier and a pillar surmounted by a statue of Our Lord, who says of +Himself in the Gospel, 'I am the door,' or of the Virgin, if the Church +is consecrated to Her, or even of the patron Saint in whose name it is +dedicated. The door, thus divided, typifies the two roads which man is +free to follow. Indeed, in most cathedrals this symbol is emphasized by +a representation of the Last Judgment placed above the entrance. + +"This is the case in Paris, at Amiens, and at Bourges. At Chartres, on +the contrary, the Judgment of Souls is relegated, as at Reims, to the +tympanum of the northern porch; but here it is to be seen in the +rose-window over the western portal, in contradiction to the system +usual in the Middle Ages of treating in the windows above the doors the +subject carved in the porch; thus presenting on the same side a +repetition of the same symbols, in glass as seen from within, and in +stone without." + +"Good; but how then can you account, by the ternary rule so universally +adopted, for that marvellous cathedral at Bourges, where, instead of +three porches and three aisles, we find five?" + +"Nothing can be simpler--we cannot account for it. At most can we +suppose that the architect of Bourges intended by those five doors to +figure the five wounds of Christ. Even then we should be left to wonder +why he placed all the wounds in a single line; for that church has no +transept, no arms at the end of which the holes in the hands may be +symbolized by doors, which is the usual course." + +"And the cathedral at Antwerp, which has two more aisles?" + +"They no doubt typify the seven avenues, the seven gifts of the +Paraclete. This question of number leads me to speak of theological +enumeration, a peculiar element which plays a part in the varied subject +of symbolism," the Abbe went on. "The allegorical science of numbers is +a very old one. Saint Isidor of Seville, and Saint Augustine studied it. +Michelet, who talks nonsense as soon as he has to do with a cathedral, +is hard on the mediaeval architects for their belief in the meaning of +figures. He accuses them of having observed mystic rules in the +arrangement of certain parts of the buildings; of having, for instance, +restricted the number of windows, or arranged pillars and bays in +accordance with some arithmetical combination. Not understanding that +each detail of a church had a meaning and was a symbol, he could not +understand that it was important to calculate each, since its meaning +might be modified or even completely altered. Thus a pillar by itself +may not necessarily typify an Apostle, but if there should be twelve, +they evidently show the meaning attributed to them by the builder, since +they recall the exact number of Christ's disciples. Sometimes, indeed, +to prevent any mistake, the answer is supplied with the problem; as in +an old church at Etampes, where I read, inscribed on the twelve +Romanesque shafts, the names of the Apostles in relief, in the +traditional setting of a Greek cross. + +"At Chartres they had adopted a still better plan: statues of the twelve +Apostles were placed in front of the pillars of the nave: but the +Revolution took offence at these figures, overthrew and destroyed them. + +"In considering the system of symbolism it is necessary to study the +significance of numbers. The secrets of church building can only be +discerned by recognizing the mysterious idea of the unity of the figure +I., which is the image of God Himself. The suggestion of II., which +figures the two natures of the Son, the two dispensations, and, +according to Saint Gregory the Great, the two-fold law of love of God +and man. Three is the number of the Persons of the Trinity, and of the +theological virtues. Four typifies the cardinal virtues, the four +Greater Prophets, the Gospels and the elements. Five is the number of +Christ's wounds, and of our senses, whose sins He expiated by a +corresponding number of wounds. Six records the days devoted by God to +the creation, determines the number of the Commandments promulgated by +the Church, and, according to Saint Melito, symbolizes the perfection of +the active life. Seven is the sacred number of the Mosaic law; it is the +number of the gifts of the Holy Ghost, of the Sacraments, of the words +of Jesus on the Cross, of the canonical hours, and of the successive +orders of priesthood. Eight, says Saint Ambrose, is the symbol of +regeneration, Saint Augustine says of the Resurrection, and it recalls +the idea of the eight Beatitudes. Nine is the number of the angelic +hierarchy, of the special gifts of the Spirit as enumerated by Saint +Paul; and it was at the ninth hour that Christ died. Ten is the number +of laws given by Jehovah, the law of fear; but Saint Augustine explains +it otherwise, saying that it includes the knowledge of God, since it may +be decomposed into three, the symbol of a triune God, and seven, +figuring the day of rest after the Creation. Eleven, the same saint +explains as an image of transgressing the law and an emblem of sin; and +Twelve is the great mystic number, the tale of the patriarchs and the +Apostles, of the tribes, the minor prophets, the virtues, the fruits of +the Holy Ghost, and the articles of faith embodied in the _Credo_. And +this might be repeated to infinity. Hence it is quite evident that the +artists of the Middle Ages added to the meaning they assigned to certain +creatures and certain things, that of quantity, supporting one by the +other, emphasizing or moderating a suggestion by this added-means, +working back sometimes on a former idea, and expressing this duplication +in a different form or concentrating it in the energetic conciseness of +a cipher. They thus produced a whole at once speaking to the eye and, at +the same time, giving synthetical expression to the complete text of a +dogma in a compact allegory." + +"But what hermetic concentration!" exclaimed Durtal. + +"Very true; these various meanings of persons and objects, resulting +from numerical differences, are at first very puzzling." + +"And do you suppose that, on the whole, the height, breadth, and length +of a cathedral reveal a specialized idea, a particular purpose on the +part of the architect?" + +"Yes; but I must at once confess that the key to these religious +calculations is lost. Those archaeologists who have racked their brains +to find it have vainly added together the measurements of naves and +clerestories; they have not yet succeeded in formulating the idea they +expected to see emerge from the sums total. + +"In this matter we must confess ourselves ignorant. Besides, have not +the standards of measurement been different at different times? As with +the value of coins in the Middle Ages, we know nothing about them. So, +in spite of some very interesting investigations carried out from this +point of view by the Abbe Crosnier at the Priory of Saint Gilles, and +the Abbe Devoucoux at the Cathedral of Autun, I remain sceptical as to +their conclusions, which I regard as very ingenious, but far from +trustworthy. + +"The method of numbers is to be seen in perfection only in the details, +such as the pillars of which I spoke just now; it is no less evident +when we find the same number prevailing throughout the edifice, as for +instance at Paray-le-Monial, where all things are in threes. There the +designer has not been content to reproduce the sacred number in the +general scheme of the structure; he has applied it in every part. The +church has, in fact, three aisles; each aisle has three compartments; +each compartment is formed by three arches surmounted by three windows. +In short, it is the principle of the Trinity, the primary Three, applied +to every part." + +"Well, but do you not think, Monsieur l'Abbe, that, apart from such +instances of indisputable meaning, there are in such symbolism some very +fine-drawn and obscure similitudes?" + +The Abbe smiled. + +"Do you know," said he, "the theories of Honorius of Autun as to the +symbolism of the censer?" + +"No." + +"Well, then, after having pointed out the natural and very proper +interpretation that may be applied to this vessel, as representing the +Body of Our Lord, while the incense signifies His Divinity, and the fire +is the Holy Spirit within Him; and after having defined the various +interpretations of the metal of which it is made--if of gold, it answers +to the perfection of His Divinity; if of silver, to the matchless +excellence of His Humility; if of copper, to the frailty of the flesh He +assumed for our salvation; if of iron, to the Resurrection of that Body +which conquered death--the scholiast comes to the chains. + +"And then, indeed, his elucidation becomes somewhat thin and fine-drawn. + +"If there are four chains, he says, they represent the four cardinal +virtues of the Lord, and the chain by which the cover is lifted from the +vessel answers to the Soul of Christ quitting His Body. If, on the other +hand, there are but three chains, it is because the Person of the +Saviour includes three elements: a human organism, a soul, and the +Godhead of the Word. And Honorius adds: 'the ring through which the +chains run represents the Infinite in which all these things are +included.'" + +"That is subtle, with a vengeance!" + +"Less so than Durand de Mende when he speaks of the snuffers," replied +the Abbe; "after that, we will kick away that ladder. + +"The snuffers for trimming the lamps are, he asserts, 'the divine words +off which we cut the letter of the law, and by so doing reveal the +Spirit which giveth light.' And he adds, 'the pots in which the snuff is +extinguished are the hearts of the faithful who observe the law +literally.'" + +"It is the very madness of Symbolism!" cried Durtal. + +"At least, it is a too curious excess of it; but if this interpretation +of the snuffers is certainly grotesque, if even the theory of the censer +seems beaten somewhat thin on the whole, you must admit that it is +fascinating and exact so far as it is applied to the chain which lifts +the upper part of the vessel in a cloud of fragrance, and thus +symbolizes the ascent of Our Lord into Heaven. + +"That certain exaggerations should creep in through this use of parables +was difficult to prevent; but, on the other hand, what marvels of +analogy, and what purely mystical notions are revealed through the +meanings given by the liturgy to certain objects used in the services. + +"To the tapers, for instance, when Pierre d'Esquilin explains the +purport of the three component parts: the wax, which is the spotless +Body of the Saviour born of a Virgin; the wick, which, enclosed in the +wax, is His most Holy Soul hidden in the veil of the flesh; and the +light, which is emblematic of His Godhead. + +"Or, again, take the substances used by the Church in certain +ceremonies: water, wine, ashes, salt, oil, balsam, incense. Incense, +besides representing the divinity of the Son, is likewise the symbol of +prayer, '_thus devotio orationis_' as it is described by Raban Maur, +Archbishop of Mayence in the ninth century. I happen to remember also, +_a propos_ of this resin and the censer in which it is burnt, a verse I +read long since in the 'Monastic Distinctions' of the anonymous English +writer of the thirteenth century, which sums up their signification more +neatly than I can: + + '_vas notatur, + Mens pia; thure preces; igne supernus amor._' + +The vase is the spirit of piety; the incense, prayer; the fire, divine +love. + +"As to water, wine, ashes, and salt, they are used in compounding a +precious ointment used by the bishop when consecrating a church. They +are mingled to sign the altar with the cross, and to sprinkle the +aisles: the water and wine symbolize the two natures united in Our Lord; +the salt is divine wisdom; the ashes are in memory of His Passion. + +"Balsam, as you know, is emblematical of virtue and good repute, and is +combined with oil, signifying peace and wisdom, to compose the +sacramental ointment. + +"Think, too," the priest went on, "of the pyx, in which the +transubstantiated elements are preserved, the consecrated oblations, and +note that in the Middle Ages these little cases were formed in the +figure of a dove and contained the Host in the very image of the +Paraclete and the Virgin; this was well done, but here is something +better. The jewellers of the time carved ivory and gave these little +shrines the form of a tower. Is not the sentiment exquisite of our Lord +dwelling in the heart of the Virgin, the Ivory Tower of the Canticles? +Is not ivory indeed the most admirable material to serve as a sanctum +for the most pure white flesh of the Sacrament?" + +"It is certainly mystical, and far more appropriate than the vessels of +every form, the _ciboria_ of silver-gilt, of aluminum, of silver of +these days." + +"And need I remind you that the liturgy assigns a meaning to each +vestment, each ornament of the Church, according to its use and form? + +"Thus, for instance, the surplice and alb signify innocence; the cord +that serves as a girdle is an emblem of chastity and modesty; the amice, +of purity of heart and body--the helmet of salvation mentioned by Saint +Paul. The maniple, of good works, vigilance, and the tears and sweat +poured out by the priest to win and save souls; the stole, of obedience, +the clothing on of immortality given to us in baptism; the dalmatic, of +justice, of which we must give proof in our ministrations; the chasuble, +of the unity of the faith, and also of the yoke of Christ. + +"But the rain has not ceased, and I must nevertheless be gone, for I +have a penitent waiting for me," exclaimed the Abbe, looking at his +watch. "Will you come the day after to-morrow at about two o'clock? We +will hope it may be fine enough to examine the outside of the +Cathedral." + +"And if it still rains?" + +"Come all the same. But I must fly." + +He pressed Durtal's hand and was gone. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +"Yes, I know when I confessed in her presence that I did not yet know of +which Saint I might write the history, Madame Bavoil--dear Madame +Bavoil, as the Abbe Gevresin calls her--exclaimed: 'The life of Jeanne +de Matel! Why not?' + +"But it is a biography that is not easy to deal with or that can be +lightly handled," said Durtal to himself, as he arranged the notes he +had collected by degrees as bearing on this Venerable woman. + +And he sat meditating. + +"What is quite unintelligible," said he to himself, "is the +disproportion between the promises made to her by Jesus and the results +achieved. Never, I really believe, have so many tribulations and +hindrances, or so much ill-fortune attended the founding of a new Order. +Jeanne spent her days on the high roads, running from one monastery to +another, and toil as she would to dig up the conventual soil, nothing +would grow. She could not even assume the habit of her Institution, or +at any rate only a few minutes before her death, for, in order to travel +with greater ease all over France, she wore the livery of a world she +abominated, and to which she appealed in vain in the name of the Lord to +take an interest in the formation of her cloister. Unhappy woman! She +went to Court--as her confessor Father de Gibalin bears witness, while +he testifies that he had never known a humbler soul--as others go to the +stake. + +"And yet the Lord certainly commanded her to found this Order of the +Incarnate Word. He sketched the scheme, laid down the rule, and +prescribed the costume, explaining its symbolism, declaring that the +white robe of its maidens would do honour to that with which He was +mockingly invested in Herod's palace; that their red cloak would keep +in memory that which was cast over Him in the house of Pilate; that +their crimson scapulary and girdle would preserve the remembrance of the +stake and the cords dyed in His blood. And He seems to have mocked her. + +"He solemnly assured her that after sorrowful trials the seed she had +sown should bring forth an abundant harvest of nuns. He expressly told +her that she would rank as the sister of Saint Theresa and Saint Clare; +those holy women appeared to ratify these promises by their presence, +and when nothing would come of it, nothing would work, when, quite worn +out, she burst into tears, the Lord calmly bade her be still and take +patience. + +"Meanwhile, she was living amid a howling storm of recrimination and +threats. The clergy persecute her, the Archbishop of Lyon, the Cardinal +de Richelieu, aims only at hindering the completion of her abbeys on his +lands; she cannot even manage her Sisterhood, since we find her +wandering in search of a protector or an assistant; they are torn by +divisions, and their insubordination is such that at length she is +compelled to return in hot haste, and, with many tears, expel the +contumacious sisters from the cloister. + +"It really seems as though no sooner had she built up a monastic wall +than it split and fell; nothing would hold. In short, the Order of the +Incarnate Word was born rickety and died a dwarf. It lingered in the +midst of universal apathy, and survived till 1790, when it was buried. +In 1811 one Abbe Denis revived it at Azerables in la Creuse, and since +then it has struggled on for better for worse, scattered through about +fifteen houses, one of these at Texas in the New World. + +"There is no doubt of it," Durtal concluded; "we are far enough from the +strong sap which Saint Theresa and Saint Clare could infuse into the +centennial growth of their mighty trees! + +"To say nothing of the fact that Jeanne de Matel, who has never been +canonized like her two sisters, and whose name remains unknown to most +Catholics, intended to found an order of men as well as women; she did +not succeed, and the attempts since made in our day by the Abbe Combalot +to carry her plan into effect have been equally vain! + +"Now, what is the reason? Is it because there are too many and various +communities in the Church? Why, new foundations are set on foot and +flourish every day! Is it by reason of the poverty of the monasteries? +Nay, for indigence is the great test of success, and experience shows +that God only blesses the most destitute convents and abandons the +others! Is it, then, the austerity of the rule? But this was very mild; +it was that of Saint Augustine, which yields to every compromise, and at +need accepts every shade of practice. The sisters rose at five in the +morning; the diet was not restricted to Lenten fare excepting at the +Paschal season, but one fast day was enjoined in the week, and even that +was compulsory only to the Sisters who were strong enough to bear it. +Thus there is nothing to account for such persistent failure. + +"And Jeanne de Matel was a saint endowed with remarkable energy and +really moulded by the Saviour! In her writings she is an eloquent and +subtle theologian, an ardent and rapturous mystic, dealing in metaphors +and hyperbole, in tangible parallels, passionate questionings, and +apostrophes; she resembles both Saint Denys the Areopagite and Saint +Maddalena dei Pazzi; Saint Denys in matter, Saint Maddalena in manner. +As a writer, no doubt she is not supreme, and the poverty of her +borrowed style is sometimes painful; still, considering that she lived +in the seventeenth century, she was at any rate not a mere scribbler of +vapid aspirations, like most of the prosy pietists of the time. + +"And her works have met with the same fate as her foundations. They +remain for the most part unpublished. Hello, who was familiar with them, +only extracted a very mediocre _cento_; some others, as Prince Galitzin +and the Abbe Penaud, have explored her writings with better results and +printed some loftier and more impassioned passages. + +"And this Abbess wrote some of genuine inspiration. + +"Yes, but all this does not alter the fact that I do not see the book I +could write about her," muttered Durtal. "In spite of my wish to be +agreeable to dear Madame Bavoil, no--I have no inclination to undertake +the task. + +"All things considered, if I did not so heartily hate a move, if I had +energy enough to go back to Holland, I would try to do honour in loving +and respectful terms to the worshipful Lidwina, who is of all the +female saints one whose life I should best love to write; but merely to +attempt to reconstruct the surroundings amid which she lived, I should +have to settle in the town where she dwelt, _Schiedam_. + +"If God grants me life, no doubt I shall one day do this; but the plan +is not yet ripe. Put that aside, then, and since on the other hand +Jeanne de Matel does not captivate me, perhaps I had better think of +another abbess even less known, and whose career was one of more +tranquil endurance, less wandering and more concentrated, and at any +rate more attractive. + +"Besides, her life can now only be found in an octavo volume by an +anonymous writer, whose incoherent chapters, in language as clogging as +a linseed poultice, will for ever hinder the world from knowing her. So +it will be interesting to work it up and make it readable." + +As he turned over his papers he was thinking of one Mother Van +Valckenissen, in religion Mary Margaret of the Angels, foundress of the +Priory of Carmelite Sisters at Oirschot in Dutch Brabant. + +This pious lady was the daughter of a noble house, born on the 26th of +May, 1605, at Antwerp, during the wars which devastated Flanders, and at +the very time when Prince Maurice of Nassau was besieging the town. As +soon as she could read, her parents sent her to school in a convent of +Dominican nuns near Brussels. Her father dying, her mother removed her +from that convent and placed her with the White Ursulines of Louvain; +then she too died, and at fifteen the girl was an orphan. + +Her guardian again removed her to the House of the Carmelite Sisters at +Mechlin; but the struggle between the Spaniards and the Flemings came +close to the district watered by the Dyle, and Marie Marguerite was once +more taken from her convent to find refuge with the canonesses of +Nivelles. Thus her whole childhood was spent in rushing from one convent +to another. + +She was happy in these retreats, especially with the Carmelites, +adopting the hair shirt and submitting to the severest discipline; but +now, on coming forth from the most rigid cloistered life, she found +herself in the midst of a gay world. This Chapter of Canonesses, which +ought to have inculcated the mystic life, was one of those hybrid +institutions not altogether white nor quite black, a cross between +profane piety and pious laity. This Chapter, filled up exclusively from +the ranks of rich and high-born women, while the Abbess, nominated by +the Sovereign, assumed the title of Princess of Nivelles, led a devout +and frivolous life, passing strange. Not only might these semi-nuns go +out walking whenever they thought fit, they had a right to live at home +for a certain part of their time, and might even marry after obtaining +the consent of the Abbess. + +In the morning those who chose to reside in the Abbey put on a monastic +habit during the services; then their religious duties ended; they +doffed the convent livery, dressed in splendid attire, the hoops and +bows and farthingales and ruffs that were then the fashion, and sat in +the parlour where visitors poured in. + +The unhappy Marie loathed the dissipation of a life which hindered her +from ever being alone with her God. Bewildered by the gossip and ashamed +of wearing clothes that were offensive to her, compelled to steal away +before daylight, disguised as a waiting-woman, to pray in a deserted +church far from all this turmoil, she at last pined away with sorrow, +and was dying of grief at Nivelles. + +At this juncture a certain Father Bernard de Montgaillard, Abbot of +Orval, of the Cistercian Order, came to the town. She flew to him, and +besought him to rescue her; and this monk, enlightened by a truly divine +spirit, understood that she was born to be a victim of expiation, to +atone for the insults offered to the Holy Eucharist in churches. He gave +her comfort, and announced to her her vocation as a Carmelite. She set +out for Antwerp to visit the Mother Anne de Saint Barthelemy, a saintly +woman, who, warned of her coming by a vision of Saint Theresa, consented +to receive her into the Carmel of which she was the Superior. + +Then obstacles arose, the work of the Devil. Having returned to her +guardian, pending her reception at the convent, she suddenly fell +paralyzed, losing all at once her hearing, speech, and sight. She +nevertheless succeeded in making it understood that they were to carry +her, as she was, to the convent, where she was left half dead. There she +fell at the feet of Mother Anne, who blessed her, and raised her up +cured. + +Then her novitiate began. + +In spite of her delicate frame, she endured the most terrible fasts, the +most violent scourging; she bound her body in chains with points on the +links, fed on the parings thrown out on plates, drank dirty water to +quench her thirst, and was so cold one winter that her legs froze. + +Her body was one wound, but her soul was glorious; she lived in God, who +loaded her with mercies and communed with her sweetly; her probation was +near its end, and again, just when she became a postulant, she fell +dangerously sick. There were doubts as to her being admitted to the +Order, and again Saint Theresa intervened and commanded the Abbess to +receive her. + +She took the habit, and then fell a prey to the temptation of despair, +which has assailed some Saints; after this came a sense of dryness and +desertion, which lasted for three years. She held out; she endured all +the tortures of the Mystical Substitution, bearing the most painful and +repulsive diseases to save souls. The Lord vouchsafed at last to +intermit the penitential task of suffering. He allowed her to breathe, +and the Devil took advantage of this lull to come upon the scene. + +He appeared to her under the most hostile and monstrous form, breaking +everything, and vanishing in a trail of pestilential vapours. Meanwhile +a good man, one Sylvester Lindermans, had determined to found a Carmel +on an estate he possessed at Oirschot, in Holland. As is ever the case +when a convent is to be established, tribulations abounded. It seemed, +in fact, that the time was ill-chosen for transferring the Sisters to a +town in arms against the Catholics, across a country infested by bands +of armed Protestants. When the Mother Superior selected Marie Marguerite +to go forth and found this new House, she entreated to be left to pray +in peace in her little nook; but Jesus interposed; commanding her to +depart. She obeyed; exhausted, sick, and worn out, she dragged herself +along the roads, and at last arrived, with the Sisters accompanying her, +at Oirschot, where she organized the Convent as best she might in a +house which had never been intended to serve as a nunnery. + +She was made Vicar-Prioress, and at once revealed a marvellous power of +influencing souls. Living the austere life of a Carmelite, which she +aggravated for herself by fearful mortifications, she was always +tolerant to others, and although she was known to murmur, so great were +her bodily sufferings, "Till the Day of Judgment, none can ever know +what I endure!" she was always gay, and preached cheerfulness to her +daughters in these words: "It is all very well for those who sin to be +sad; but we ought to have twice as much joy as the angels, since we, +like them, fulfil the will of God, and we, in addition, can suffer for +His glory, which they can never do." + +She was the most indulgent and considerate of Abbesses. For fear of +giving offence to her flock by exerting her authority, she never gave an +order in an imperative form; never said, "Do this or that," but only, +"Let us do it." And if at any time she found herself obliged to punish a +nun in the refectory, she would forthwith kiss the feet of the others, +and entreat them to buffet her to humble her. + +But it would have been too perfect if she and the angelic flock over +which she ruled could have lived the inward life in peace, and sunk +their soul in God. The Cure of Oirschot hated her, and, why no one knew, +he defamed her throughout the town. The Devil too, on his part, returned +to the charge; he appeared, in the midst of an uproar that shook the +walls and made the roof tremble, in the form of an Ethiopian giant, blew +out all the lights, and tried to strangle the nuns. Most of them almost +died of fear; but in compensation for their sufferings Heaven granted +them the comfort of incessant miracles. + +The Mother enabled them to prove in her person the authenticity of the +incredible tales they had read during meals, of the Lives of the Saints. +She had the gift of bilocation, appearing in several places at the same +time, shedding a trail of delicious fragrance wherever she passed, +curing the sick by the Sign of the Cross, scenting out and discerning +hidden sins as a hunting dog puts up game, and reading souls. + +And her daughters adored her, wept to see her lead a life which now was +one long torment. As a result of the intense cold, she became a victim +to acute rheumatism; for the Rule of Saint Theresa, which prohibits the +lighting of a fire anywhere but in the kitchens, if it is endurable in +Spain, is simply murderous in the frozen climate of Flanders. + +"After all," said Durtal to himself, "this life so far is not very +unlike that experienced by many another cloistered nun; but towards the +approach of death the amazing beauty of this spirit was revealed in so +special a manner, and in wishes so remarkable, that it remains unique in +the records of the Monastic Houses." + +Her health grew worse and worse. Added to the rheumatism, which crippled +her, she had pains in the stomach, which nothing could relieve. Sciatica +was presently engrafted on this flourishing stock of torments, and +dropsy, a common disease in cloisters of austere rule, supervened. + +Her legs swelled and refused to carry her; she lay helpless on her bed. +The Sisters who nursed her now discovered a secret which she had always +kept, out of humility; they perceived that her hands were pierced with +red holes surrounded by a blue halo, and that her feet, also pierced, +lay of their own accord, unless they were held down, one above the +other, in the position of Christ's feet on the cross. At last she +confessed that many years before Jesus had marked her with the stigmata +of the Passion, and that the wounds burnt night and day like red hot +iron. + +Her sufferings constantly increased. Feeling that this time she was +dying, she grieved over the pitiless macerations she had used, and with +touching artlessness begged forgiveness of her poor body for having +exhausted its strength, and so having perhaps hindered it from living to +suffer longer. + +And she then put up the most strangely fragrant, the most wildly +extravagant prayer that ever a Saint can have addressed to God. + +She had so loved the Holy Eucharist, she had so longed to kneel at His +feet and atone for the outrages inflicted on Him by the sins of mankind, +that she waxed faint at the thought that after her death what would +remain of her could no longer worship Him. + +The idea that her body would rot in uselessness, that the last handfuls +of her miserable flesh would decay without having served to honour the +Saviour, broke her heart; and then it was that she besought Him to +suffer her to melt away, to liquefy into an oil which might be burnt +before the tabernacle in the lamp of the sanctuary. + +And Jesus vouchsafed to her this excessive privilege, such as the like +is unknown in the history of the Saints; and at the moment when she died +she enjoined her daughters to leave her body exposed in the chapel, and +unburied for some weeks. + +On this point there is abundant authentic evidence. More or less minute +inquiries were made, and the reports of medical experts are so precise +that we can follow from day to day the state of the corpse until it had +turned to oil and could be preserved in phials, from which, by her +desire, a spoonful was poured every morning to feed the wick of a lamp +hanging near the altar. + +When she died--then aged fifty-two, having lived as a nun for +thirty-three years, and fourteen as Superior of Oirschot--her face was +transfigured, and in spite of the cold of a winter when the Scheldt +could be crossed in a carriage, her body remained soft and pliable; but +it swelled. Surgeons examined it and opened it in the presence of +witnesses. They expected to find the stomach filled with water, but +scarcely half a pint was removed, and the body did not collapse. + +This autopsy led to the incomprehensible discovery in the gall-bladder +of three nails with black heads, angular and polished, of an unknown +metal; two weighed as much as half a French gold crown, within seven +grains; the third, which was as large as a nutmeg, weighed five grains +more. + +The operators then filled up the intestines with tow soaked in wormwood, +and sewed the body up again with a needle and thread. And during and +after these proceedings not only did the dead nun give out no smell of +putrefaction, but, as in her lifetime, she diffused an ineffable and +exquisite perfume. + +Nearly three weeks elapsed; boils formed and broke, giving out blood and +water for more than a month; then the skin showed patches of yellow; +exudation ceased and oil came out, at first white, limpid, and fragrant, +afterwards darker and of about the colour of amber. It filled more than +a hundred phials, each containing two ounces, several of them being +still preserved in the Carmels of Belgium; and her remains when buried +were not decomposed, but had assumed the golden brown colour of a date. + +"A book might really be written on the life of this admirable woman," +thought Durtal. "And then what a group of wonderful nuns were those +about her! The convents of Antwerp, Mechlin, and Oirschot swarmed with +saintly nuns. In the time of Charles V. the Order of Carmelites renewed +in Flanders the mystical prodigies which, four centuries before, in the +Middle Ages, the Dominicans had accomplished in the Monastery of +Unterlinden at Colmar. + +"How such women as these carry one away and throw one, as it were! What +strength of soul we see in this Marie Marguerite! What grace must have +sustained her, that she could thus shed all the natural frenzy of the +senses, and endure so cheerfully and bravely the most overwhelming +sufferings! + +"Well, now, shall I harness myself to a history of this venerable +Abbess? But then I must procure the volume by Joseph de Loignac, her +first biographer, the notice by the Recluse of Marlaigne, the pamphlet +by Monseigneur de Ram, the narrative by Papebroech; above all I must have +at hand the translation, made by the Carmelites of Louvain, of the +Flemish manuscript written while the Mother was still alive, by her +daughters. Where can I unearth that? In any case the search must be a +long one. No, I must set aside that scheme, which for the present is +impracticable. + +"What I ought to do I know very well; I ought to put the article into +shape on Angelico's picture in the Louvre. I promised the paper at least +four months ago to the magazine which clamours for it every morning by +letter. It is disgraceful! Since I left Paris I have ceased to work; and +I have no excuse, for the subject interests me, since it affords me an +opportunity for studying the complete system of the symbolism of colour +in the Middle Ages. 'The Early Painters, and Prayer in Colour as seen in +their Works.' What a subject for thought! However, that is not the +immediate matter. I must not sit dreaming, but go to join the Abbe +Plomb; and the weather is clouding over again! I certainly have no +luck." + +As he crossed the square he was lost again in meditations, captivated +once more by the haunting thought of the Cathedral, and saying to +himself as he looked up at the spires,-- + +"How many varieties there are in the immense family of the Gothic; and +what dissimilarities. No two churches are alike." + +The towers and belfries of those he knew rose before him as in those +diagrams on which, irrespective of distance, the buildings are placed +all close together at the same point of view to show their relative +height. + +"It is quite true," thought he, "the towers vary like the basilicas. +Those of Notre Dame de Paris are thick-set and gloomy, almost +elephantine; cleft almost from top to bottom by deep bays, they seem to +mount slowly and with difficulty, and stop short, crushed as it were by +the burden of sins, dragged down to earth by the wickedness of the city; +we feel the effort with which they rise, and we are saddened as we +contemplate those captive masses, all the more depressing by reason of +the dismal hue of the louvre-boards. At Reims, on the contrary, they are +open from top to bottom, pierced as with needles' eyes, long narrow +windows of which the opening seems filled with a herring-bone of +enormous size, or a gigantic comb with teeth on each side. They spring +into the air, as light as filigree; and the sky gets into the mouldings, +plays between the mullions, peeps through the tracery and the +innumerable lancets, in strips of blue, is focussed and reflected in the +little carved trefoils above. These towers are mighty, expansive, +immense, and yet light. They are as speaking, as much alive, as those in +Paris are stern and mute. + +"At Laon they are more especially strange. With their light columns, +here thrust forward and there standing back, they suggest a series of +shelves piled up in a hurry, crowned merely by a platform, over which +lowing oxen look down. + +"The two towers at Amiens, built, like those of the Cathedrals at Rouen +and at Bourges, at different periods, do not match. They are of +different heights, lame against the sky; another that is really +magnificent in its solitude, and putting to shame the mediocrity of the +two belfries lately erected on each side of the west front, is the +Norman tower of Saint Ouen, its summit encircled by a crown. This is the +patrician tower among so many that preserve a peasant air, with bare +heads, or coifs made narrow and square at the top, sloped somewhat like +the mouthpiece of a whistle, such as that of Saint Romain at Rouen, or +rustic, pointed caps like that worn by the church of Saint Benigne at +Dijon, or the queer sort of awning which shades the Cathedral of Saint +Jean at Lyon. + +"And in any case a tower without a tapering spire never soars to heaven. +It always rises heavily, pants on the way, and falls asleep exhausted. +It is, as it were, an arm without a hand, a wrist without palm and +fingers, a stump; or, again, a pencil uncut, having no point wherewith +to write up beyond the clouds the prayers from below; in short, it is +for ever inert. + +"We must turn to the steeple, to the stone spire, to find the true +symbol of prayers shot up to pierce the sky and reach the Heart of the +Father, which is their target. + +"And in this family of arrows what a variety we see; no two darts are +alike! + +"Some are set in a collar of turrets at their base, held in a circle of +pinnacles, like the points of a Magian king's diadem; this we see in the +bell-tower of Senlis. + +"Others seem to have about them the children born in their image, little +spires, all round them; some are covered with bosses, knobs, and +blisters; others pierced like colanders and strainers, in patterns of +trefoils and quaterfoils that seem to have been punched out; here we +find some that are covered with ornament, with teeth like a rasp, ridges +of notches, or bristling with spines; others are imbricated with scales +like a fish, as we see in the older spire at Chartres; and others again, +like that at Caudebec, display the emblem of the Roman Church, the +triple crown of the Pope. + +"Out of this general outline, which was almost forced upon them, and +which they hardly ever tried to avoid, this pyramid or pepper-caster, +jelly-bag or extinguisher, the architects of the Middle Ages evolved the +most ingenious combinations and varied their designs to infinity. + +"How mysterious for the most part is the origin of our cathedrals! Most +of the artists who built them are unknown; nay, the age of the stones is +rarely a matter of certainty, for the greater part of them have been +wrought upon by the alluvium of ages. + +"They almost all cover intervals of two, three, or four centuries each; +they extend from the beginning, of the thirteenth century till the first +years of the sixteenth. + +"And on reflection that is very intelligible. + +"It has been accurately remarked that the thirteenth century was the +great period of cathedral-building. It gave birth to almost every one of +them; and then, being created, their growth was checked for nearly two +hundred years. + +"The fourteenth century was torn by frightful disasters. It began with +the ignoble quarrels between Philippe le Bel and the Pope; it saw the +stake lighted for the Templars, made bonfires in Languedoc of the +_Begards_ and the _Fraticelli_, the lepers and the Jews; wallowed in +blood under the defeats of Crecy and Poitiers, the furious excesses of +the Jacquerie and of the Maillotins, and the ravages of the brigands +known as the _Tard-venus_; and finally, having run so wild, its madness +was reflected in the incurable insanity of the king. + +"Thus it ended, as it had begun, writhing in the most horrible religious +convulsions. The Tiaras of Rome and Avignon clashed, and the Church, +standing unsupported on these ruins, tottered on its base, for the Great +Western Schism now shook it. + +"The fifteenth century seemed to be born mad. Charles VI.'s insanity +seemed to be infectious; the English invasion was followed by the +pillage of France, the frenzied contest of the Bourguignons and the +Armagnacs, by plagues and famines, and the overthrow at Agincourt; then +came Charles VII., Joan of Arc, the deliverance and the healing of the +land by the energetic treatment of King Louis XI. + +"All these events hindered the progress of the works in cathedrals. + +"The fourteenth century on the whole restricted itself to carrying on +the structures begun during the previous century. We must wait till the +end of the fifteenth, when France drew breath, to see architecture start +into life once more. + +"It must be added that frequent conflagrations at various times +destroyed a whole church, and that it had to be rebuilt from the +foundations; others, like Beauvais, fell down, and had to be +reconstructed, or, if money was lacking, simply strengthened and the +gaps repaired. + +"With the exception of a very few--Saint Ouen at Rouen for one, a rare +example of a church almost entirely built during the fourteenth century +(excepting the western towers and front, which are quite modern), and +the Cathedral at Reims for another, which appears to have been +constructed without much interruption, on the original plans of Hugues +Libergier or Robert de Coucy--not one of our cathedrals was erected +throughout in accordance with the designs of the architect who began it, +nor has one remained untouched. + +"Most of them, consequently, represent the combined efforts of +successive pious generations; still, this apparently improbable fact is +true: until the dawn of the Renaissance the genius of successive +builders was singularly well matched. If they made any alterations in +their predecessors' plans, they were able to introduce some touch of +individuality, inventions of exquisite beauty that did not clash with +the whole. They engrafted their genius on that of their first masters; +there was the perpetuated tradition of an admirable conception, a +perennial breath of the Holy Spirit. It was the interloper, the period +of false and farcical Pagan art, that extinguished that pure flame, and +annihilated the luminous truthfulness of the Mediaeval past, when God had +dwelt intimately, at home, in souls; it substituted a merely earthly +form of art for one that was divine. + +"As soon as the sensuality of the Renaissance revealed itself, the +Paraclete fled; the mortal sin of stone could display itself at will. It +contaminated the buildings that were finished, defiled the churches, +debasing their purity of form; this, with the gross license of sculpture +and painting, was the great stupration of the cathedrals. + +"And this time the Spirit of Prayer was quite dead; everything went to +pieces. The Renaissance, so lauded afterwards by Michelet and the +historians, was the death of the Mystical soul of monumental theology, +of religious art--all the great art of France. + +"Bless me! where am I?" Durtal suddenly asked himself, finding himself +in the ill-paved alleys which lead from the Cathedral square to the +lower town. He saw that, dreaming as he walked, he had passed the Abbe's +lodgings. + +He turned up the street again, stopped in front of an old house and +rang. A brass wicket was opened and closed, and a housekeeper, shuffling +up in old shoes, half opened the door. Durtal was met by the Abbe Plomb, +who was watching for him, and who led him into a room full of statues; +there were carved images in every spot--on the chimney-shelf, on a +chest of drawers, on a side table, and in the middle of the room. + +"Do not look at them," said the Abbe, "do not heed them; I have no part +in the selection of this horrible bazaar. I have to endure it in spite +of myself; these are offerings from my penitents." + +Durtal laughed, though somewhat scared by the extraordinary specimens of +religious art that crowded the room. + +There was every kind of work: black frames with brass flats, and in them +engravings of Virgins by Bouguereau and Signol, Guido's _Ecce Homo_, +Pietas, Saint Philomenas--and then the assembly of polychrome statues: +Mary painted with the crude green of angelica and the acrid pinks of +English pear-drops; Madonnas gazing in rapture at their own feet, with +extended hands whence proceeded fans of yellow rays; Joan of Arc +squatting like a hen on her eggs, with eyes raised to heaven like white +marbles, and pressing a standard to her bosom in its plaster cuirass; +Saint Anthonys of Padua, clean and snug, as neat as two pins; Saint +Josephs, not enough the carpenter and too little the Saint; Magdalens +weeping silver pills; a whole mob of semi-divinities, best quality, of +the class known as "The Munich Article" in the Rue Madame. + +"Oh, Monsieur l'Abbe, the donors are certainly terrible people--but +could you not, quite by accident, drop one of these objects every day--" + +The priest gave a shrug of despair. + +"They would only bring me more," cried he. "But if you are willing, we +will be off at once, for I am afraid of being caught here if I linger." + +And as they walked, talking of the Cathedral, Durtal exclaimed,-- + +"Is it not a monstrous thing that in the splendour of this Cathedral of +Chartres it is impossible to hear any genuine plain-song? I am reduced +to frequenting the sanctuary only at hours when there is no high service +going on. Above all I avoid being present at High Mass on Sundays; the +music that is tolerated infuriates me! Is there no way of having the +organist dismissed, and a clean sweep made of the precentor and the +teachers in the choir-school, of packing off the basses with their +vinous voices to the taverns? Ugh! And the gassy effervescence that +rises from the thin pipes of the little boys! and the street tunes +eructed in a hiccough, like the run of a lamp-chain when you pull it up, +mingling with the noisy bellow of the basses! What a disgrace, what a +shame! How is it that the Bishop, the priests, the Canons do not +prohibit such treason? + +"Monseigneur, I know, is old and ill; but those Canons!--They look so +weary, to be sure! As I see them droning out the Psalms in their stalls, +I wonder whether they know where they are and what they are doing; they +always seem to me in a half unconscious state--" + +"The high winds of la Beauce induce lethargy," said the Abbe, laughing. +"But allow me to assure you that though the Cathedral scorns Gregorian +chants, here, at Chartres, at the little Seminary, at the church of +Notre Dame de la Breche, and at the convent of the Sisters of Saint +Paul, they are sung after the Use of Solesmes, so that you can +alternately attend that church and those chapels and the Cathedral, +since perfection is to be found in neither." + +"Of course. Still, is it not horrible to think that the Hottentot taste +of a few bawling old men can pursue the Virgin even in Her sanctuary +with such musical insults? Ah, there is the rain again," said Durtal +with vexation, after a short silence. + +"Well, here we are. We can take shelter in the church, and study the +interior at our leisure." + +They knelt before the Black Virgin of the Pillar; then they sat down in +the deserted nave, and the Abbe said in an undertone,-- + +"I explained to you the other day the symbolism of the outside of the +building. Would you like me now to inform you in a few words as to the +allegories set forth in the aisles?" + +And on seeing Durtal agree by a nod, the priest went on,-- + +"You are, of course, aware that almost all our cathedrals are cruciform. +In the primitive Church, it is true, you will find that some were +constructed of a circular form and surmounted by a dome. But most of +these were not built by our forefathers; they are ancient temples of the +heathen adapted by the Catholics, with more or less alteration, to their +own use, or imitated from such temples before the Romanesque style was +recognized. + +"We need then seek in these no liturgical meaning, since that form was +not a Christian invention. At the same time Durand of Mende, in his +_Rationale_, asserts that a building of rounded form symbolizes the +extension of the Church over the whole circle of the universe. Others +explain the dome as being the crown of the Crucified King, and the +smaller cupolas which occasionally support it as the huge heads of the +Nails. But we may set aside these explanations, which are but based on +existing facts, and study the cruciform plan shown here, as in other +cathedrals, in the arrangement of the nave and transepts. + +"It may be noted that in a few churches, as, for instance, the abbey +church of Cluny, the interior, instead of showing a Latin Cross, was +planned on the lines of the Cross of Lorraine, two _crosslets_ being +added to the arms.--Now, behold the whole scheme!" the priest said, with +a gesture that comprehended the whole of the interior of the basilica of +Chartres. + +"Jesus is dead; His head is at the altar; His outstretched arms are the +two transepts; His pierced hands are the doors; His legs are the nave +where we are standing; His pierced feet are the door by which we have +come in. Now consider the systematic deviation of the axis of the +building; it imitates the attitude of a body bent over from the upright +tree of sacrifice, and in some cathedrals--for instance, at Reims--the +narrowness, the strangulation, so to speak, of the choir in proportion +to the nave represents all the more closely the head and neck of a man, +drooping over his shoulder when he has given up the ghost. + +"This twist in the church is to be seen almost everywhere--in Saint Ouen +and in the Cathedral at Rouen, in Saint Jean at Poitiers, at Tours and +at Reims. Sometimes, indeed--but this statement needs verification--the +architect had substituted for the body of the Saviour that of the Saint +in whose name the church was dedicated, and the curved axis of Saint +Savin, for instance, has been supposed to represent the bend of the +wheel which was the instrument of that Saint's martyrdom. + +"But all this is evidently familiar to you. + +"This is less well known: So far we have studied the image of Christ +motionless, and dead, in our churches. I will now tell you of a singular +instance of a church which, instead of reproducing the attitude of the +Divine Corpse, represents that of His still living Body, a church which +seems to have a suggestion of movement as if bending like Christ on the +Cross. + +"In fact it seems to be certain that some architects strove to represent +in the plan of their building the motion of the human frame, to imitate +the action of a drooping figure; in short, to give life to stones. + +"Such an attempt was made in the abbey church of Preuilly-sur-Claise in +Touraine. The plan and photographs of this basilica are to be found in +an interesting volume that I can lend you; the author, the Abbe +Picardat, is the Cure of the church. You will from them readily perceive +that the curve of the plan is that of a body leaning on one side, drawn +out and bending over. + +"And the movement of the body is represented by the curve of the axis, +beginning at the very first bay and continued along the nave, the choir, +and the apse to the end, which bends aside to imitate the droop of the +head. + +"Thus, even better than at Chartres, at Reims, and at Rouen, this humble +sanctuary, built by Benedictine monks whose names are unknown, +represents in its serpentine line, in the perspective of its aisles and +the obliquity of its vaulting, the allegorical presentment of our Lord +on the Cross. In all other churches the architects have to some extent +imitated the cadaverous rigidity of the head fallen in death; at +Preuilly the monks have perpetuated the never-to-be-forgotten instant +that elapsed between the '_Sitio_' (I thirst) and the '_Consummatum +est_' (It is finished), as recorded in the Gospel of Saint John. Thus +the old Touraine church is in the image of Christ Crucified, but still +living. + +"Now, to look at home once more, we will consider the inward parts of +our sanctuaries. It may be noted incidentally that the length of the +cathedral figures the long-suffering of the Church in adversity; its +breadth symbolizes charity, which expands the souls of men; its height, +the hope of future reward; and we can then proceed to details. + +"The choir and sanctuary symbolize Heaven; the nave is the emblem of the +earth; as the gulf that divides the two worlds can only be passed by the +help of the Cross, it was formerly the custom, now, alas, fallen into +desuetude, to erect an enormous Crucifix over the grand arch between +the nave and the choir. Hence the name of triumphal arch was given to +the vast space in front of the High altar. It may also be remarked that +a railing or screen marks the limits of these two parts of the +cathedral. Saint Gregory Nazianzen regards this as the border line +traced between the two parts--that of God, and that of man. + +"There is, however, a different explanation given by Richard de Saint +Victor, as to the sanctuary, the choir, and the nave. According to him, +the first symbolizes the Virgins, the second the chaste souls, and the +third the married hearts. As to the altar, or, as old liturgical writers +call it, the _Cancel_ (chancel), it is Christ Himself, the spot whereon +His Head rests, the Table of the Last Supper, the Stake whereon He shed +His blood, the Sepulchre that held His body; and again, it is the +Spiritual Church, and its four angles the four corners of the earth over +which it shall reign. + +"Now behind this altar we find the apse, assuming in most cathedrals the +form of a semicircle. There are exceptions; to mention three: at +Poitiers, at Laon, and in Notre Dame du Fort at Etampes the wall is +square, as in the ancient civic basilicas, and does not describe the +sort of half-moon, of which the significance is one of the most +beautiful inventions of symbolism. + +"This semicircular end, this apsidal shell, with the chapels that +surround the choir, simulates the Crown of Thorns on the Head of Christ. +Excepting in Sanctuaries which are wholly dedicated to Our Lady--this +one, Notre Dame de Paris, and some others--one of these chapels, that in +the centre and the largest, is dedicated to the Virgin, to show by the +place that it occupies at the end of the church that Mary is the last +refuge of sinners. + +"She, in person, is again symbolized by the Sacristy, whence the priest +comes forth as Christ's representative after putting on his sacerdotal +vestments, as Jesus came forth from His Mother's womb after clothing +Himself in flesh. + +"It must constantly be repeated; every part of a church and every +material object used in divine worship is representative of some +theological truth. In the script of architecture everything is a +reminiscence, an echo, a reflection, and every part is connected to form +a whole. + +"For instance, the altar, which is the Image of Our Lord, must be +draped with white linen in memory of the winding-sheet in which Joseph +of Arimathea wrapped His body--and that linen must be woven of pure +thread, of hemp or flax. The chalice, which according to the texts +adduced by the _Spicilegium_ of Solesmes, is to be taken now as a symbol +of glory, and now as a sign of opprobrium, may be regarded, by the most +generally received theory, as the figure of the sacred Tomb; then the +paten appears as the stone which served to close it, while the corporal +is the shroud itself. + +"When I tell you further," added the Abbe, "that according to Saint +Nilus, the columns signify the divine dogmas, or, according to Durand of +Mende, the Bishops and the Doctors of the Church, that the capitals are +the words of Scripture, that the pavement of the church is the +foundation of faith and humility, that the ambos and rood-loft, almost +everywhere destroyed, figure the pulpit of the gospel, the mountain on +which Christ preached; again, that the seven lamps burning before the +altar are the seven gifts of the Spirit, that the steps to the altar are +the steps to perfection; that the alternating choirs represent on the +one side the angels, and on the other the righteous, combining to do +homage with their voices to the glory of the Most High, I have pretty +well explained to you the general meaning and detailed symbolism of the +interior of the cathedral, and more particularly that of Chartres. + +"Now you must observe a peculiarity which is also to be seen in the +Cathedral at Le Mans; the side aisles of the nave in which we are +sitting are single, but they are double round the choir--" + +But Durtal was not listening; far away from this architectural exegesis, +he was admiring the amazing structure without even trying to analyze it. + +Wrapped in the mystery of its own shadow thick with the haze of rain, it +soared up lighter and lighter as it rose in the skyey whiteness of its +arcades, aspiring like a soul purifying itself with increasing light as +it toils up the ways of the mystic life. + +The clustered columns sprang in slender sheaves, their groups so light +that they looked as if they might bend at a breath; yet it was not till +they had reached a giddy height that these stems curved over, flying +from one side of the Cathedral to the other to meet above the void, +mingling their sap and blossoming at last, like a basket of flowers, in +the once gilt pendants from the roof. + +This church appeared as a supreme effort of matter striving for +lightness, rejecting, as though it were a burden, the diminished weight +of its walls and substituting a less ponderous and more lucent matter, +replacing the opacity of stone by the diaphanous texture of glass. + +It grew more spiritual--wholly spiritual, purely prayer, as it sprang +towards the Lord to meet Him; light and slender, as it were +imponderable, it remained the most glorious expression of Beauty +escaping from its earthly dross, Beauty become seraphic. + +It was as slender and colourless as Roger Van der Weyden's Virgins, who +are so fragile, so ethereal, that they might blow away were they not +held down to earth by the weight of their brocades and trains. Here was +the same mystical conception of a long-drawn body and an ardent soul, +which, unable to free itself completely from that body, strove to purify +it by reducing it, refining it, almost distilling it to a fluid. + +The building bewildered him with the giddy flight of its vault, the +dazzling splendour of its windows. The weather was gloomy, and yet a +furnace of gems flamed in the lancets of the windows and the blazing +wheels of the roses. + +Up there, high in air, as they might be salamanders, human beings with +faces ablaze and robes on fire dwelt in a firmament of glory; but these +conflagrations were enclosed and limited by an incombustible frame of +darker glass which set off the youthful and radiant joy of the flames by +the contrast of melancholy, the suggestion of the more serious and aged +aspect presented by gloomy colouring. The bugle cry of red, the limpid +confidence of white, the repeated Hallelujahs of yellow, the virginal +glory of blue, all the quivering crucible of glass was dimmed as it got +nearer to this border dyed with rusty red, the tawny hues of sauces, the +harsh purples of sandstone, bottle-green, tinder-brown, fuliginous +blacks, and ashy greys. + +As at Bourges, where the glass is of the same period, Oriental influence +was visible in these windows at Chartres. Not only had the figures the +hieratic appearance, the sumptuous and barbarous dignity of Asiatic +personages, but the borders, in their design and the arrangement of +their colours, were an evident reminiscence of the Persian carpets which +undoubtedly served as models to the painters; since it is known from the +_Livre des Metiers_ that in the thirteenth century hangings copied from +those which the Crusaders brought from the Levant were manufactured in +France, and in Paris itself. + +But, apart from the question of subjects or borders, the various colours +of these pictures were, so to speak, but an accessory crowd, handmaidens +whose part it was to set off another colour, namely blue--a glorious, +indescribable blue, a vivid sapphire hue of excessive transparency, pale +but piercing and sparkling throughout, glittering like the broken glass +of a kaleidoscope--in the top-lights, in the roses of the transepts, and +in the great west window, where it burned like the blue flame of +sulphur, among the lead-lines and black iron bars. + +Taken for all in all, with the tones of its stone-work and its windows, +Notre Dame de Chartres was fair with blue eyes. He personified Her as a +sort of white fairy, a tall and slender virgin, with large blue eyes +under lids of translucent rose. This was the Mother of a Christ of the +North, the Christ of a Pre-Raphaelite Flemish painter. She sat enthroned +in a Heaven of ultramarine, surrounded by these Oriental hangings of +glass--a pathetic reminder of the Crusades. + +And these transparent hangings were like flowers, redolent of sandal and +pepper, fragrant with the subtle spices of the Magian kings; a perfumed +flower-bed of hues culled at the cost of so much blood in the fields of +Palestine; and here offered by the West, under the cold sky of Chartres, +to the Virgin Mother in remembrance of the sunny lands where She dwelt +and where Her Son chose to be born. + +"Where could you find a grander shrine or a more sublime dwelling for +Our Mother?" said the Abbe as he pointed to the nave. + +This exclamation roused Durtal from his reflections, and he listened as +the priest went on,-- + +"Though this cathedral is unique as regards its width, in spite of its +enormous height it cannot compare with the extravagant elevation of +Bourges, Amiens, and more especially of Beauvais, where the vault of the +roof rises to forty-eight metres from the ground. That cathedral, it is +true, was bent on outstripping its sisters. + +"Springing into the air at one flight, when it reached the upper spaces +it tottered and fell. You know the portions which survived the wreck of +that mad attempt?" + +"Yes, Monsieur l'Abbe; and that sanctuary and that apse, so narrow and +restricted, with columns so close together, and the iridescent light, +like filmy soap bubbles, from walls which seem made of glass, disturb +and bewilder you; on first entering it gives the impression of +indescribable uneasiness, a sort of anxious and distressed anticipation. +And in truth it is neither quite healthy nor sound; it seems only to +live by dint of aids and expedients; it struggles to be free and is not; +it is long drawn and not ethereal; it has--how shall I express +it?--large bones. You remember the pillars? They are like the smooth +muscular trunks of beech trees, which have also the angular edges of +reeds. How different from the harp-strings which form the aerial +skeleton of Chartres! No, in spite of all, Beauvais, like Reims, and +like Paris, is a fleshy cathedral; it has not the elegant leanness, the +perennial youthfulness of form, the Patrician stamp of Amiens, and more +especially of Chartres! + +"And have you not been struck, Monsieur l'Abbe, by the way in which the +genius of man has constantly borrowed from Nature in the construction of +his basilicas? It is almost certain that the arcades of the forest were +the starting-point for the mystic avenues of our aisles. And again, look +at the pillars. I was speaking of those at Beauvais as suggesting the +beech and the reed; if you think of the columns at Laon, they have nodes +all up their stems, resembling the regular swelling of bamboos, to the +point of imitation. Note also the stone flora of the capitals and the +pendants of the vault, terminating the long ribs of the arches. Here the +animal kingdom seems to have inspired the architect. Might we not +conceive of a fabulous spider, of which the key-stone is the body and +the ribs stretching under the vaults are the legs? The image is so +accurate as to be irresistible. And then what a marvel is the gigantic +Arachne, wrought like a jewel and heightened with gold, which might have +spun the web of those three flaming rose windows!" + +"By the way," said the Abbe, when they had left the church and were +walking down the street, "I forgot to point out to you the Number which +is everywhere stamped on Chartres; it is identical with Paray-le-Monial. +Here, again, everything is in threes. Thus there are three aisles, and +three entrances each with three doors; if you count the pillars of the +nave, you will count twice three on each side. The transept aisles again +have each three bays and three pillars, the windows are in threes under +the three great roses. So, you see, Notre Dame is full of the Trinity." + +"And it is also the great store-house of Mediaeval painting and +sculpture." + +"Yes, and like other Gothic cathedrals, it is the completest and most +trustworthy collection of symbolism; for the allegories we fancy we can +interpret in Romanesque churches are on the whole but artificial and +doubtful--and that is quite conceivable. The Romanesque is a convert, a +pagan turned monk. It was not born Catholic as the pointed arch was; it +only became so by baptism conferred by the Church. Christianity +discovered it in the Roman _basilica_, and utilized while modifying it; +thus its origin is pagan, and it was only as it grew up that it could +learn the language and use the forms of our emblems." + +"And yet, to me, as a whole, it seems to be a symbol, for it is the +image in stone of the Old Testament, a figure of contrition and fear." + +"And yet more of the soul's peace," replied the Abbe. "Believe me, +really to understand that style we must go back to the fountain-head, to +the earliest times of Monasticism, of which it is a perfect expression; +back, in fact, to the Fathers of the Church, the monks of the Desert. + +"Now, what is the very special character of the mysticism of the East? +It is the calmness of faith, love feeding on itself, ecstasy without +display, ardent but reserved, internal. + +"In the books of the Egyptian Recluses you will never find the vehemence +of a Maddalena de' Pazzi or a Catherine of Siena, the passionate +ejaculations of a Saint Angela. Nothing of the kind, no amorous +addresses, no trepidations, no laments. They look upon the Redeemer less +as the Victim to be wept over than as the Mediator, the Friend, the +Elder Brother. To them He was, to quote Origen's words, 'The Bridge +between us and the Father.' + +"These tendencies, transplanted from Africa to Europe, were preserved by +the first monks of the West, who followed the example of their +predecessors, and modified and built their churches on the same pattern. + +"That repentance, contrition, and awe dwell under these dark vaults, +among these heavy pillars, in this fortress, as it were, where the elect +shut themselves in to resist the assaults of the world, is quite +certain--but this mystical Romanseque also suggests the notion of a +sturdy faith, of manly patience, and stalwart piety--like its walls. + +"It has not the flaming raptures of the mystical Gothic, which finds +utterance in all these soaring shafts of stone; the Romanesque lives +self-centred, in reserved fervour, brooding in the depths of the soul. +It may be summed up in this saying of Saint Isaac's: _In mansuetudine et +in tranquillitate, simplifica animam tuam_.'" + +"You will confess, Monsieur l'Abbe, that you have a weakness for the +style." + +"Perhaps I have, in so far as that it is less petted, more humble, less +feminine, and more claustral than the Gothic." + +"On the whole," the priest concluded, as he shook hands with Durtal at +his own door, "it is the symbol of the inner life, the image of the +monastic life; in a word, the true architecture of the cloister." + +"On condition, nevertheless," said Durtal to himself, "that it is not +like that of Notre Dame de Poitiers, where the interior is gaudy with +childish colouring and raw tones; for there, instead of expressing +regret and tranquillity, it rouses a suggestion of the childish glee of +an old savage in his second childhood, who laughs when his tattoo marks +are renewed, and his skin rough-cast with crude ochres." + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +"How many worshippers can the Cathedral contain? Well, nearly 18,000," +said the Abbe Plomb. "But I need hardly tell you, I suppose, that it is +never full; that even during the season for pilgrimages the vast crowds +of Mediaeval times never assemble here. Ah, no! Chartres is not exactly +what you would call a pious town!" + +"It strikes me as indifferent to religion, to say the least, if not +actually hostile," said the Abbe Gevresin. + +"The citizen of Chartres is money-getting, apathetic, and salacious," +replied the Abbe Plomb. "Above all, greedy of money, for the passion for +lucre is fierce here, under an inert surface. Really, from my own +experience, I pity the young priest who is sent as a beginner to +evangelize la Beauce. + +"He arrives full of illusions, dreaming of Apostolic triumphs, burning +to devote himself--and he drops into silence and the void. If he were +but persecuted he would feel himself alive; but he is met, not with +abuse, but with a smile, which is far worse; and at once he becomes +aware of the futility of all he can do, of the aimlessness of his +efforts, and he is discouraged. + +"The clergy here are, it may be said, admirable, composed of good and +saintly priests; but they vegetate, torpid with inaction; they neither +read nor work; their joints become ankylose; they die of weariness in +this provincial spot." + +"You do not!" exclaimed Durtal, laughing; "for you make work. Did you +not tell me that you especially devote yourself to ladies who can still +condescend to take an interest in Our Lord in this town?" + +"Your satire is scathing," replied the Abbe. "I can assure you that if I +had serving-women and the peasant girls to deal with, I should not +complain; for in simple souls there are qualities and virtues and a +responsive spring, but not in the commercial or the richer classes! You +cannot imagine what those women are. If only they attend Mass on Sunday +and perform their Easter duties they think they may do anything and +everything; and thenceforth their one idea is not so much to avoid +offending the Saviour as to disarm Him by mean subterfuges. They speak +ill of their neighbour, injuring him cruelly, refusing him all help and +pity, and they make excuses for themselves as though these were mere +venial faults; but as to eating meat on a Friday! That is quite another +thing; they are persuaded that this is the unpardonable sin. To them +their stomach is the Holy Ghost; consequently, the great point is to +tack and veer round that particular sin, never to commit it, while only +just avoiding it, and not depriving themselves in the least. What +eloquence they will pour out on me to convince me of the penitential +quality of water-fowl. + +"During Lent they are possessed with the idea of giving dinners, and +rack their brains to provide a lenten meal in which there is no meat, +though it would be supposed that there was; and then come interminable +discussions as to teal, wild duck, and cold-blooded birds. They should +consult a naturalist and not a priest on such cases of conscience. + +"As to Holy Week, that is another affair; the mania for water-birds +gives way to a hankering for the _Charlotte Russe_. May they, without +offence to God, enjoy a _Charlotte_? There are eggs in it, to be sure, +but so whipped and scourged that the dish is almost ascetic; culinary +explanations are poured into my ear, the confessional becomes a kitchen, +and the priest might be a master-cook. + +"But as to the general sin of greediness, they hardly admit that they +are guilty of it. Is it not so, my dear colleague?" + +The Abbe Gevresin nodded assent. "They are indeed hollow souls," said +he, "and what is more, impenetrable. They are sealed against every +generous idea, regarding the intercourse they hold with the Redeemer as +beseeming their rank and in good style; but they never seek to know Him +more nearly, and restrict themselves, of deliberate purpose, to calls of +politeness." + +"Such visits as we pay to an aged parent on New Year's Day," said +Durtal. + +"No, at Easter," corrected Madame Bavoil. + +"And among these Fair Penitents," the Abbe Plomb went on, "we have that +terrible variety, the wife of the Depute who votes on the wrong side, +and to his wife's objurgations retorts: 'Why, I am at heart a better +Christian than you are!' + +"Invariably and every time, she repeats the list of her husband's +private virtues, and deplores his conduct as a public man; and this +history, which is never ending, always leads up to the praises she +awards herself, almost to requiring us to apologize for all the +annoyance the Church occasions her." + +The Abbe Gevresin smiled, and said,-- + +"When I was in Paris, attached to one of the parishes on the left bank +of the Seine, in which there is a huge draper's and fancy shop, I had to +deal with a very curious class of women. Especially on days when there +was a great show of cotton and linen goods, or a sale of bankrupt stock, +there was a perfect rush of well-dressed women to the confessional. +These people lived on the other side of the water; they had come to that +part of the town to buy bargains, and finding the departments of the +shop too full, no doubt, they meant to wait till the crowd should be +thinner, to make their selection in comfort; so then, not knowing what +to be doing, they took refuge in the church, and, tortured by the need +for speech, they asked for the priest whose turn it was to attend, and +to justify themselves, chattered in the confessional as if it had been a +drawing-room, merely to kill time." + +"Not being able to go to a _cafe_ like a man, they go to church," said +Durtal. + +"Unless it is," said Madame Bavoil, "that they would rather confide to +an unknown priest the sins it would pain them to confess to their own +director." + +"At any rate, this is a new light on things: the influence of big shops +on the tribunal of penance!" exclaimed Durtal. + +"And of railway stations," added the Abbe Gevresin. + +"How of railway stations?" + +"Yes, I assure you that churches situated near railway stations have a +special following of women on their journeys. There it is that our dear +Madame Bavoil's shrewd remark finds justification. Many a country-woman +who has the Cure of her own parish to dinner dares not tell him the tale +of her adultery, because he could too easily guess the name of her +lover, and because the propinquity of a priest living on intimate terms +in her house would be inconvenient; so she takes advantage of an +excursion to Paris to open her heart to another confessor who does not +know her. As a general rule, when a woman speaks ill of her Cure, and +begins the tale of her confession by explaining that he is dull, +uneducated, unsympathetic in understanding and guiding souls, you may be +certain that a confession is coming of sin against the sixth (seventh) +Commandment." + +"Well, well; the people who flutter around the Lord are cool hands!" +exclaimed Madame Bavoil. + +"They are unhappy creatures, who try to strike a balance between their +duties and their vices. + +"But enough of this; let us turn to something more immediate. Have you +brought us the article on the Angelico, as you promised? Read it to us." + +Durtal brought out of his pocket the manuscript he had finished, which +was to be posted that evening to Paris. + +He seated himself in one of the straw-bottomed arm-chairs in the middle +of the room where they were sitting with the Abbe Gevresin, and began:-- + + THE CORONATION OF THE VIRGIN. + By Fra Angelico. In the Louvre. + +The general arrangement of this picture reminds the spectator of the +tree of Jesse, of which the branches, supporting a human figure on every +twig, spread fan-like as they rise on each side of a throne, while at +the top, on a single stem, the radiant beauty of a Virgin is the +crowning blossom. + +In Fra Angelico's 'Coronation of the Virgin,' to the right and left of +the isolated knoll on which Christ sits under a carved stone canopy, +placing the crown He holds with both hands on His Mother's bowed head, +we see a perfect espalier of Apostles, Saints, and Patriarchs, rising in +close and crowded ramification at the lower part of the panel, to burst +into a luxuriant blossoming of angels relieved against the blue sky, +their heads in a sunshine of glories. + +The arrangement of the persons represented is as follows:-- + +At the foot of the throne, under the gothic canopy--to the left, Saint +Nicholas of Myra kneels in prayer, wearing his mitre and clasping his +crozier, from which the maniple hangs like a folded banner; Saint Louis +the King with a crown of fleurs de lys; the monastic saints; St. Antony, +St. Benedict, St. Francis, St. Thomas, who holds an open book in which +we read the first lines of the _Te Deum_, St. Dominic holding a lily, +St. Augustine with a pen. Then, going upwards, St. Mark and St. John +carrying their gospels, St. Bartholomew showing the knife with which he +was flayed; and higher still the lawgiver Moses, ending in the serried +ranks of angels against the azure firmament, each head circled with a +golden nimbus. + +On the right, below, by the side of a monk whose back only is +seen--possibly St. Bernard--Mary Magdalene is on her knees with a vase +of spices by her side, robed in vermilion; behind her come St. Cecilia, +crowned with roses, St. Clara or St. Catherine of Sienna, in a blue +hood, patterned with stars, St. Catherine of Alexandria, leaning on her +wheel of martyrdom, St. Agnes, cherishing a lamb in her arms, St. Ursula +flinging an arrow, and others whose names are unknown; all female +saints, facing the Bishop, the King, the Recluses, and the founders of +Orders. By the steps of the throne are St. Stephen, with the green palm +of martyrdom, St. Lawrence, with his gridiron, St. George, wearing a +breastplate, and on his head a helmet, St. Peter the Dominican +recognizable by his split skull; and yet further up St. Matthew, St. +Philip, St. James the Greater, St. Jude, St. Paul, St. Matthias, and +King David. Finally, opposite the angels on the left a group of angels, +whose faces, set in gold discs, are relieved against the pure +ultramarine background. + +In spite of injury from the restorations it has endured, this panel, +with its stamped and diapered gold, is splendid in the freshness of its +colours, laid on with white of egg. + +As a whole, it represented, so to speak, a stairway for the eye, a +circular stair of two flights, in steps of glorious blue hung with gold. + +The lowest to the left is seen in the blue mantle of Saint Louis, and +others lead up through a glimpse of blue drapery, the robe of St. John, +and then, higher still before reaching the blue expanse of the sky, the +robe of the first angel. + +The first on the right is the mantle of St. Cecilia; others are the +bodice of St. Agnes, St. Stephen's robe, a prophet's tunic; and above +these, before reaching the lapis-lazuli border of sky, the robe of the +first angel. + +Thus blue, which is the predominating colour in the whole, is regularly +piled up in steps and spaced almost identically on the opposite sides of +the throne. This azure hue of the draperies, their folds faintly +indicated with white, is extraordinarily serene, indescribably innocent. +This it is which gives the work its soul of colour--this blue, helped +out by the gold which gleams round the heads, runs or twines on the +black robes of the monks; in Y's on those of St. Thomas; in suns, or +rather in radiating chrysanthemums, on those of St. Antony and St. +Benedict; in stars on St. Clara's hood; in filagree embroidery in the +letters of their names, in brooches and medallions on the bodices of the +other female saints. + +At the very bottom of the picture a splash of gorgeous red--the +Magdalen's robe--that finds an echo in the flame-colour of one of the +steps of the throne, and reappears here and there, but softened in +fragmentary glimpses of drapery, or smothered under a running pattern of +gold (as in St. Augustine's cope) serves as a spring-board, as it were, +to start the whole stupendous harmony. + +The other colours seem to fill no part, but that of necessary stop-gaps, +indispensable supports. They are too, for the most part, common and ugly +to a degree that is most puzzling. Look at the greens: they range from +boiled endive to olive, ending in the absolute hideousness of two steps +of the throne which lie across the picture--two bars, two streaks of +spinach dipped in tawny mud. The only tolerable green of them all is +that of St. Agnes' mantle, a Parmigiano green, rich in yellow, and made +still richer by the lining which affords the pleasing adjunct of orange. + +On the other hand, consider this blue which Angelico uses so sumptuously +in his celestial tones; when he makes it darker it loses its fulness, +and looks almost dull; we see this in St. Clara's hood. + +But what is yet more amazing is that this painter, so eloquent in blue, +is but a stammerer when he makes use of the other angelic +hue--rose-pink. In his hands it is neither subtle nor ingenuous; it is +opaque, of the colour of blood thinned with water, or of pink +sticking-plaister, excepting when it trends on the hue of wine-lees, +like that of the Saviour's sleeves. + +And it is heaviest of all in the saints' cheeks. It looks glazed, like +the surface of pie-crust; it has the quality of raspberry syrup drowned +in white of egg. + +These are in the main the only colours used by Angelico. A magnificent +blue for the sky and another vile blue, white, brilliant red, melancholy +pinks, a light green, dark greens, and gold. No bright yellow like +everlastings, no luminous straw-colour; at most a heavy opaque yellow +for the hair of his female saints; no truly bold orange, no violet, +either tender or strong, unless in the half-hidden lining of a cloak or +in the scarcely visible robe of a saint, cut off by the frame; no brown +that does not lurk in the background. His palette, as may be seen, is +very limited. + +And it is symbolical, if we consider it. He has undoubtedly done in his +hues what he has done in the arrangement of the work. His picture is a +hymn to Chastity, and round the central group of Christ and His Mother +he has placed in ranks the Saints who best concentrated this virtue on +earth. St. John the Baptist, beheaded for the bounding impurity of an +Herodias; St. George, who saved a virgin from the emblematic Dragon; +such saints as St. Agnes, St. Clara, and St. Ursula; the heads of the +Orders--St. Benedict and St. Francis; a king like St. Louis, and a +bishop like St. Nicholas of Myra, who hindered the prostitution of three +young girls whom a starving father was fain to sell. Everything, down to +the smallest details, from the attributes of the persons represented to +the steps of the throne, of which the number is nine--that of the choirs +of angels--everything in this picture is symbolical. + +It is permissible therefore to assume that he selected his colours for +their allegorical signification. + +White: the symbol of the Supreme Being, and of absolute Truth, and +employed by the Church in its adornments for the festival of our Lord +and the Virgin because it signifies Goodness, Virginity, Charity, and is +the splendour, the emblem of Divine Wisdom when it is enhanced to the +pure radiance of silver. + +Blue: because it symbolizes Chastity, Innocence, and Guilelessness. + +Red: which is the colour adopted for the offices of the Holy Ghost and +of the Passion; the garb of Charity, Suffering and Love. + +Rose-pink; the Love of Eternal Wisdom, and, as Saint Mechtildis teaches, +the anguish and torments of Christ. + +Green: used liturgically at Seasons of Pilgrimage, and which seems to be +the colour preferred by the Benedictine Sisterhood, interpreting it as +meaning freshness of soul and perennial sap; the green which, in the +hermeneutics of colour, expresses the hopes of the regenerated creature, +the yearning for final repose, and which is likewise the mark of +humility, according to the Anonymous English writer of the thirteenth +century, and of contemplation, according to Durand of Mende. + +On the other hand, Angelico has intentionally refrained from introducing +the hues which are emblematic of vices, excepting of course those +adopted for the garb of the Monastic Orders, which altogether changes +their meaning. + +Black: the colour of error and the void, the seal of death, and, +according to Sister Emmerich, the image of profaned and wasted gifts. + +Brown: which, as the same Sister tells us, is synonymous with agitation, +barrenness and dryness of the spirit, and neglect of duty; brown; which +being composed of black and red--smoke darkening the sacred fire--is +Satanic. + +Grey: the ashes of penance, the symbol of tribulation, according to the +Bishop of Mende, the sign of half-mourning formerly used in the Paris +ritual instead of violet in Lent. The mingling of white and black, of +virtue and vice, of joy and grief, the mirror of the soul that is +neither good nor evil, the medium being, the lukewarm creature that God +spueth out, grey can only rise by the infusion of a little purity, a +little blue; but can, when thus converted to pearl grey, become a pious +hue, and attempt a step towards Heaven, an advance in the lower paths of +Mysticism. + +Yellow: considered by Sister Emmerich as the colour of idleness, of a +horror of suffering, and often given to Judas in mediaeval times, is +significant of treason and envy. Orange: of which Frederic Portal +speaks as the revelation of Divine Love, the communion of God with man, +mingling the blood of Love to the sinful hue of yellow, may be taken to +bear a worse meaning with the idea of falsehood and torment; and, +especially when it verges on red, expresses the defeat of a soul +over-ridden by its sins, hatred of Love, contempt of Grace, the end of +all things. + +Dead leaf colour: speaking of moral degradation, spiritual death, the +hopefulness of green for ever extinct. + +Finally, violet: adopted by the Church for the Sundays in Advent and in +Lent, and for penitential services. It was the colour of the +mortuary-shroud of the kings of France; during the Middle Ages it was +the attribute of mourning, and it is at all times the melancholy garb of +the exorcist. + +What is certainly far less easy to explain is the limited variety of +countenance the painter has chosen to adopt. Here symbolism is of no +use. Look, for instance, at the men. The Patriarchs with their bearded +faces do not show us the almost translucent texture, as of the +sacramental wafer, in which the bones show through the dry and +diaphanous parchment-like skin, or like the seeds of the cruciferous +flower called _Monnaie du Pape_ (honesty); they have all regular and +pleasant faces, are all healthy, full-blooded personages, attentive and +devout. His monks too have round faces and rosy cheeks; not one of his +Saints looks like a Recluse of the Desert overcome by fasting, or has +the exhausted emaciation of an ascetic; they are all vaguely alike, with +the same solidity and the same complexion. In fact, as we see them in +this picture, they are a contented colony of excellent people. + +At least, so they appear at a first glance. + +The women, too, are all of one family; sisters more or less exactly +alike; all fair and rosy, with light snuff-coloured eyes, heavy eyelids, +and round faces; they form a train of rather an insipid type round the +Virgin with her long nose and bird-like head kneeling at the feet of +Christ. + +Altogether, among all these figures we find scarcely four distinct +types, if we take into consideration their more or less advanced years +and the modifications resulting from the arrangement of their hair, +their being bearded or shaven, and the pose of the head, front face or +profile, which distinguishes them. + +The only groups which are not of an almost uniform stamp are the angels, +sexless youths for ever charming. They are of matchless purity, of a +more than human innocence in their blue and rose-pink and green robes +sprigged with gold, with their yellow or red hair, at once aerial and +heavy, their chastely downcast eyes, and flesh as white as pith. Grave, +but in ecstasy, they play on the harp or the theorbo, on the Viol +d'Amore or the rebeck, singing the eternal glory of the most Holy +Mother. + +Thus, on the whole, the types used by Angelico are not less restricted +than his colours. + +But then, in spite of the exquisite array of angels, is this picture +monotonous and dull? Is this much-talked-of work over-praised? + +No, for this Coronation of the Virgin is a masterpiece, and superior to +all that enthusiasm can say about it; indeed, it outstrips painting and +soars through realms which the mystics of the brush had never +penetrated. + +Here we have not a mere manual effort, however admirable; this is not +merely a spiritual and truly religious picture such as Roger van der +Weyden and Quentin Matsys could create; it is quite another thing. With +Angelico an unknown being appears on the scene, the soul of a mystic +that has entered on the contemplative life, and breathes it on the +canvas as on a perfect mirror. It is the soul of a marvellous monk that +we see, of a saint, embodied on this coloured mirror, exhaled in a +painted creation. And we can measure how far that soul had advanced on +the path of perfection from the work that reflects it. + +He carries his angels and his saints up to the Unifying Life, the +supreme height of Mysticism. There the weariness of their dolorous +ascent is no more; there is the plenitude of tranquil joy, the peace of +man made one with God. Angelico is the painter of the soul immersed in +God, the painter of his own spirit. + +None but a monk could attempt such paintings. Matsys, Memling, Dierck +Bouts, Roger van der Weyden were no doubt sincere and pious worthies. +They gave their work a reflection of Heaven; they too reflected their +own soul in the faces they depicted; but though they gave them a +wonderful stamp of art, they could only infuse into them the semblance +of the soul beginning the practice of Christian asceticism; they could +only represent men still detained, like themselves, in the outer +chambers of those Castles of the Soul of which Saint Theresa speaks, and +not in the Hall where, in the centre, Christ sits and sheds His glory. + +They were, in my opinion, greater and keener observers, more learned and +more skilful, even better painters than Angelico; but their heart was in +their craft, they lived in the world, they often could not resist giving +their Virgins fine-lady airs, they were hampered by earthly +reminiscences, they could not rise in their work above the trammels of +daily life; in short, they were and remained men. They were admirable; +they gave utterance to the promptings of ardent faith; but they had not +had the specific culture which is practised only in the silence and +peace of the cloister. Hence they could not cross the threshold of the +seraphic realm where roamed the guileless being who never opened his +eyes, closed in prayer, excepting to paint--the monk who had never +looked out on the world, who had seen only within himself. + +And what we know of his life is worthy of this work. He was a humble and +tender recluse, who always prayed or ever he took up his brush, and +could not draw the Crucifixion without melting into tears. + +Through the veil of his tears his angelic vision poured itself out in +the light of ecstasy, and he created beings that had but the semblance +of human creatures, the earthly husk of our existence, beings whose +souls soared already far from their prison of flesh. Study his picture +attentively, and see how the incomprehensible miracle works of such a +sublimated state of mind. + +The types chosen for the Apostles and Saints are, as we have said, quite +ordinary. But gaze firmly at the countenances of these men, and you will +see how little they really take in of the scene before them. Whatever +attitude the painter may have given them, they are all absorbed into +themselves; they behold the scene, not with the eyes of the body, but +with the eyes of the soul. Each is looking into himself. Jesus dwells in +them, and they can gaze on Him better in their inmost heart than on His +throne. + +It is the same with his female Saints. I have said that they are +insignificant looking, and it is true; but how their features, too, are +transfigured and effaced under the Divine touch! They are drowned in +adoration, and spring buoyant, though motionless, to meet the Heavenly +Spouse. Only one remains but half escaped from her material shell: Saint +Catherine of Alexandria, who, with upturned eyes of a brackish green, is +neither as simple nor as innocent as her sisters; she still sees the +form of man in Christ; she still is a woman; she is, if one may so, the +sin of the work. + +Still, all these spiritual degrees clothed in human figures are but the +accessories of this picture. They are placed there, in the august +assumption of gold and the chaste ascending scale of blue, to lead by a +stair of pure joy to the sublime platform whereon we see the group of +the Saviour and the Virgin. + +And here, in the presence of the Mother and Son, the ecstatic painter +overflows. One could imagine that the Lord had merged into him, and +transported him beyond the life of sense, love and chastity are so +perfectly personified in the group above all the means of expression at +the command of man. + +No words could express the reverent tenderness, the anxious affection, +the filial and paternal love of the Christ, who smiles as He crowns His +Mother; and She is yet more incomparable. Here the words of adulation +are too weak; the invisible is made visible by the sacramental use of +colour and line. A feeling of infinite deference, of intense but +reserved adoration, flows and spreads about this Virgin, who, with Her +arms crossed over Her bosom, bends Her little dove-like head, with +downcast eyes and a rather long nose, under a veil. She resembles the +Apostle St. John who is just behind her, and might be his daughter; and +she is enigmatic; for that soft, delicate face, which in the hands of +any other painter would be merely charming and trivial, breathes out the +purest innocence. She is not even flesh and blood; the material that +clothes Her swells softly with the breath of the fluid that shapes it. +Mary is a living but a volatilized and glorious body. + +We can understand certain ideas of the Abbess of Agreda who declares +that She was exempt from the defilements inflicted on women; we see what +St. Thomas meant who asserted that Her beauty purified instead of +agitating the senses. + +Her age is indeterminate; She is not a woman, yet She is no longer a +child. It is hard to say even that She is grown up, just marriageable, a +girl-child, so entirely is She refined above all humanity, beyond the +world, so exquisitely pure and for ever chaste. + +She remains incomparable, unapproached in painting. By Her, other +Madonnas are vulgar; they are in every case women; She alone is the +white stem of the divine Ear of corn, the Wheat of the Eucharist. She +alone is indeed the Immaculate, the _Regina Virginum_ of the hymns; and +She is so youthful, so guileless, that the Son seems to be crowning His +Mother before She can have conceived Him. + +It is in this that we see the glory of the gentle Friar's superhuman +genius. He painted as others have spoken, inspired by Grace; he painted +what he saw within him just as St. Angela of Foligno related what she +heard within her. Both one and the other were mystics absorbed into God; +thus this picture by Angelico is at the same time a picture by the Holy +Ghost, bolted through a purified sieve of art. + +If we consider it, this soul is that of a female saint rather than of a +monk. Turn to his other pictures; those, for instance, in which he +strove to depict Christ's Passion; we are not looking at the stormy +scene represented by Matsys or Gruenewald; he has none of their harsh +manliness, nor their gloomy energy, nor their tragic turbulence; he only +weeps with the uncomforted grief of a woman. He is a Sister rather than +a Friar-artist; and it is from this loving sensibility, which in the +mystic vocation is more generally peculiar to women, that he has drawn +the pathetic orisons and tender lamentation of his works. + +And was it not also in this spiritual nature, so womanly in its +complexion, that he found, under the impulse of the Spirit, the wholly +angelical gladness, the really glorious apotheosis of Our Lord and His +Mother, as he has painted them in this Coronation of the Virgin, which, +after being revered for centuries in the Dominican Church at Fiesole, +has now found shelter and admiration in the little gallery devoted to +the Italian School at the Louvre. + + * * * * * + +"Your article is very good," said the Abbe Plomb. "But can the +principles of a ritual of colour which you have discerned in Angelico +be verified with equal strictness in other painters?" + +"No, if we look for colour as Angelico received it from his monastic +forefathers, the illuminators of Missals, or as he applied it in its +strictest and most usual acceptation. Yes, if we admit the law of +antagonism, the rules of inversion, and if we know that symbolism +authorizes the system of contraries, allowing the use of the hues which +are appropriated to certain virtues to indicate the vices opposed to +them." + +"In a word, an innocent colour may be interpreted in an evil sense, and +vice versa," said the Abbe Gevresin. + +"Precisely. In fact, artists who, though pious, were laymen, spoke a +different language from the monks. On emerging from the cloister the +liturgical meaning of colours was weakened; it lost its original +rigidity and became pliant. Angelico followed the traditions of his +Order to the letter, and he was not less scrupulous in his respect for +the observances of religious art which prevailed in his day. Not for +anything on earth would he have infringed them, for he regarded them as +a liturgical duty, a fixed rule of service. But as soon as profane +painters had emancipated the domain of painting, they gave us more +puzzling versions, more complicated meanings; and the symbolism of +colour, which is so simple in Angelico, became singularly +abstruse--supposing that they even were constantly faithful to it in +their works--and almost impossible to interpret. + +"For instance, to select an example: the Antwerp gallery possesses a +tryptich, by Roger van der Werden, known as 'The Sacraments.' In the +centre panel, devoted to the Eucharist, the Sacrifice of the Redeemer is +shown under two aspects, the bleeding form of the Crucifixion and the +mystic form of the pure oblation on the altar; behind the Cross, at the +foot of which we see the weeping Mary, Saint John and the Holy Women, a +priest is celebrating Mass and elevating the Host in the midst of a +cathedral which forms the background of the picture. + +"On the left-hand shutter, the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and +Penance are shown, in small detached scenes; and on the right-hand +shutter those of Ordination, Marriage and Extreme Unction. + +"This picture, a work of marvellous beauty, with the 'Descent from the +Cross' by Quentin Matsys, are the inestimable glory of the Belgium +gallery; but I will not linger over a full description of this work; I +will omit any reflection suggested by the supreme art of the painter, +and restrict myself to recording that part of the work which bears on +the symbolism of colour." + +"But are you sure that Roger van der Weyden intended to ascribe such +meanings to the colours?" + +"It is impossible to doubt it, for he has assigned a different hue to +each Sacrament, by introducing above the scenes he depicts, an angel +whose robe is in each instance different in accordance with the ceremony +set forth. His meaning therefore is beyond question; and these are the +colours he affects to the means of Grace consecrated by the Saviour: + +"To the Eucharist, green; to Baptism, white; to Confirmation, yellow; to +Penance, red; to Ordination, purple; to Marriage blue; to Extreme +Unction, a violet so deep as to be almost black. + +"Well, you will admit that the interpretation of this sacred scheme of +colour is not altogether easy. + +"The pictorial imagery of Baptism, Extreme Unction, and Ordination is +quite clear; Marriage even as symbolized by blue may be intelligible to +simple souls; that Communion should blazon its coat with _vert_, is even +more appropriate, since green represents sap and humility, and is +emblematical of the regenerative power. But ought not Confession to +display violet rather than red; and how, in any case, are we to account +for Confirmation being figured in yellow?" + +"The colour of the Holy Ghost is certainly red," remarked the Abbe +Plomb. + +"Thus there are differences of interpretation between Angelico and Roger +van der Weyden, though they lived at the same time. Still, the monk +seems to me the more trustworthy authority." + +"For my part," said the Abbe Gevresin, "I cannot but think of the right +side of the lining of which you were speaking just now." + +"This rule of contraries is not peculiar to the ritual of colour; it is +to be seen in almost every part of the science of symbolism. Look at +the emblems derived from the animal world; the eagle alternately +figuring Christ and the Devil; the snake which, while it is one of the +most familiar symbols of the Demon, may nevertheless, as in the brazen +serpent of Moses, prefigure the Saviour." + +"The anticipatory symbol of Christian symbolism was the double-faced +Janus of the heathen world," said the Abbe Plomb, laughing. + +"Indeed, these allegories of the palette turn completely to the +right-about," said Durtal. "Take red, for instance: we have seen that in +the general acceptation it is to be interpreted as meaning charity, +endurance, and love. This is the right side out; the wrong side, +according to Sister Emmerich, is dulness, and clinging to this world's +goods. + +"Grey, the emblem of repentance and sorrow, and at the same time the +image of a lukewarm soul, is also, according to another interpretation, +symbolical of the Resurrection--white, piercing through blackness--light +entering into the Tomb and coming out as a new hue--grey, a mixed colour +still heavy with the gloom of death, but reviving as it gets light by +degrees from the whiteness of day. + +"Green, to which the mystics gave favourable meanings, also acquires a +disastrous sense in some cases; it then represents moral degradation and +despair; it borrows melancholy significance from dead leaves, is the +colour given to the bodies of the devils in Stephan Lochner's Last +Judgment, and in the infernal scenes depicted in the glass windows and +pictures of the earliest artists. + +"Black and brown, with their inimical suggestions of death and hell, +change their meaning as soon as the founders of religious Orders adopt +them for the garb of the cloister. Black then symbolizes renunciation, +repentance, the mortification of the flesh, according to Durand de +Mende; and brown and even grey suggest poverty and humility. + +"Yellow again, so misprized in the formulas of symbolism, becomes +significant of charity; and if we accept the teaching of the English +monk who wrote in about 1220, yellow is enhanced when it changes to +gold, rising to be the symbol of divine Love, the radiant allegory of +eternal Wisdom. + +"Violet, finally, when it appears as the distinctive colour of +prelates, divests itself of its usual meaning of self-accusation and +mourning, to assume a certain dignity and simulate a certain pomp. + +"On the whole, I find only white and blue which never change." + +"In the Middle Ages, according to Yves de Chartres," said the Abbe +Plomb, "blue took the place of violet in the vestments of bishops, to +show them that they should give their minds rather to the things of +Heaven than to the things of earth." + +"And how is it," asked Madame Bavoil, "that this colour, which is all +innocence, all purity, the colour of Our Mother Herself, has disappeared +from among the liturgical hues?" + +"Blue was used in the Middle Ages for all the services to the Virgin, +and it has only fallen into desuetude since the eighteenth century," +replied the Abbe Plomb; "and that only in the Latin Church, for the +orthodox Churches of the East still wear it." + +"And why this neglect?" + +"I do not know, any more than I know why so many colours formerly used +in our services have been forgotten. Where are the colours of the +ancient Paris use: saffron yellow, reserved for the festival of All +Angels; salmon pink, sometimes worn instead of red; ashen grey, which +took the place of violet; and bistre instead of black on certain days. + +"Then there was a charming hue which still holds its place in the scale +of colour used in the Roman ritual, though most of the Churches overlook +it--the shade called 'old rose,' a medium between violet and crimson, +between grief and joy, a sort of compromise, a diminished tone, which +the Church adopted for the third Sunday in Advent and the fourth Sunday +in Lent. It thus gave promise, in the penitential season that was +ending, of a beginning of gladness, for the festivals of Christmas and +Easter were at hand. + +"It was the idea of the spiritual dawn rising on the night of the soul, +a special impression which violet, now used on those days, could not +give." + +"Yes, it is to be regretted that blue and rose-colour have disappeared +from the Churches of the West," said the Abbe Gevresin. "But to return +to the monastic dress which delivered brown, grey, and black from their +melancholy significance, does it not strike you that from the point of +view of emblematic language, that of the Order of the Annunciation was +the most eloquent? Those sisters were habited in grey, white, and red, +the colours of the Passion, and they also wore a blue cape and a black +veil in memory of Our Mother's mourning." + +"The image of a perpetual Holy Week!" exclaimed Durtal. + +"Here is another question," the Abbe Plomb went on. "In the earliest +religious pictures the cloaks in which the Virgin, the Apostles, and the +Saints are draped almost always show the hue of their lining in +ingeniously contrived folds. It is of course different from that of the +outer side, as you yourself observed just now with regard to the mantle +of Saint Agnes in Angelico's work. Now, do you suppose that, apart from +contrast of colour selected for technical purposes, the monk meant to +express any particular idea by the juxtaposition of the two colours?" + +"In accordance with the symbolism of the palette the outer colour would +represent the material creature, and the lining colour the spiritual +being." + +"Well, but then what is the significance of Saint Agnes' mantle of green +lined with orange?" + +"Obviously," replied Durtal, "green denoting freshness of feeling, the +essence of good, hope; and orange, in its better meaning, being regarded +as representing the act by which God unites Himself to man, we might +conclude from these data that Saint Agnes had attained the life of +union, the possession of the Saviour, by virtue of her innocence and the +fervour of her aspirations. She would thus be the image of virtue +yearning and fulfilled, of hope rewarded, in short. + +"But now I must confess that there are many gaps, many obscurities in +this allegorical lore of colours. In the picture in the Louvre, for +instance, the steps of the throne, which are intended to play the part +of veined marble, remain unintelligible. Splashed with dull red, acrid +green, and bilious yellow, what do these steps express, suggesting as +they do by their number the nine choirs of angels?" + +"It seems to me difficult to allow that the monk intended to figure the +celestial hierarchies by smears with a dirty brush and these crude +streaks." + +"But has the colour of a step ever represented an idea in the science of +symbolism?" asked the Abbe Gevresin. + +"Saint Mechtildis says so. When speaking of the three steps in front of +the altar, she propounds that the first should be of gold, to show that +it is impossible to go to God save by charity; the second blue, to +signify meditation on things divine; the third green, to show eager hope +and praise of Heavenly things." + +"Bless me!" cried Madame Bavoil, who was getting somewhat scared by this +discussion, "I never saw it in that light. I know that red means fire, +as everybody knows; blue, the air; green, water; and black, the earth. +And this I understand, because each element is shown in its true colour; +but I should never have dreamed that it was so complicated, never have +supposed that there was so much meaning in painters' pictures." + +"In some painters'!" cried Durtal. "For since the Middle Ages the +doctrine of emblematic colouring is extinct. At the present day those +painters who attempt religious subjects are ignorant of the first +elements of the symbolism of colours, just as modern architects are +ignorant of the first principles of mystical theology as embodied in +buildings." + +"Precious gems are lavishly introduced in the works of the primitive +painters," observed the Abbe Plomb. "They are set in the borders of +dresses, in the necklets and rings of the female saints, and are piled +in triangles of flame on the diadems with which painters of yore were +wont to crown the Virgin. Logically, I believe we ought to seek a +meaning in every gem as well as in the hues of the dresses." + +"No doubt," said Durtal, "but the symbolism of gems is much confused. +The reasons which led to the choice of certain stones to be the emblems, +by their colour, water, and brilliancy, of special virtues, are so +far-fetched and so little proven, that one gem might be substituted for +another without greatly modifying the interpretation of the allegory +they present. They form a series of synonyms, each replacing the other +with scarcely a shade of difference. + +"In the treasury of the Apocalypse, however, they seem to have been +selected, if not with stricter meaning, with a more impressive breadth +of application, for expositors regard them as coincident with a virtue, +and likewise with the person endowed with it. Nay, these jewellers of +the Bible have gone further; they have given every gem a double +symbolism, making each embody a figure from the Old Testament and one +from the New. They carry out the parallel of the two Books by selecting +in each case a Patriarch and an Apostle, symbolizing them by the +character more especially marked in both. + +"Thus, the amethyst, the mirror of humility and almost childlike +simplicity, is applied in the Bible to Zebulon, a man obedient and +devoid of pride, and in the Gospel to St. Matthias, who also was gentle +and guileless; the chalcedony, as an emblem of charity, was ascribed to +Joseph, who was so merciful and pitiful to his brethren, and to St. +James the Great, the first of the Apostles to suffer martyrdom for the +love of Christ; the jasper, emblematical of faith and eternity, was the +attribute of Gad and of St. Peter; the sard, meaning faith and +martyrdom, was given to Reuben and St. Bartholomew; the sapphire, for +hope and contemplation, to Naphtali and St. Andrew, and sometimes, +according to Aretas, to St. Paul; the beryl, meaning sound doctrine, +learning, and long-suffering, to Benjamin and to St. Thomas, and so +forth. There is, indeed, a table of the harmony of gems and their +application to patriarchs, apostles, and virtues, drawn up by Madame +Felicie d'Ayzac, who has written an elaborate paper on the figurative +meaning of gems." + +"The avatar of some other Scriptural personages might be equally well +carried out by these emblematical minerals," observed the Abbe Gevresin. + +"Obviously; and as I warned you, the analogies are very far-fetched. The +hermeneutics of gems are uncertain, and founded on mere fanciful +resemblances, on the harmonies of ideas hard to assimilate. In mediaeval +times this science was principally cultivated by poets." + +"Against whom we must be on our guard," said the Abbe Plomb, "since +their interpretations are for the most part heathenish. Marbode, for +example, though he was a Bishop, has left us but a very pagan +interpretation of the language of gems." + +"These mystical lapidaries have on the whole chiefly applied, their +ingenuity to explaining the stones of the breastplate of Aaron, and +those that shine in the foundations of the New Jerusalem, as described +by St. John; indeed, the walls of Sion are set with the same jewels as +the High Priest's pectoral, with the exception of the carbuncle, the +ligure, agate, and onyx, which are named in Exodus, and replaced in the +Book of Revelation by chalcedony, sardonyx, chrysoprase, and jacinth." + +"Yes, and the symbolist goldsmiths wrought diadems, setting them with +precious stones, to crown Our Lady's brow; but their poems showed little +variety, for they were all borrowed from the _Libellus Corona Virginis_, +an apocryphal work ascribed to St. Ildefonso, and formerly famous in +convents." + +The Abbe Gevresin rose and took an old book from the shelf. + +"That brings to my mind," said he, "a hymn in honour of the Virgin +composed in rhyme by Conrad of Haimburg, a German monk in the fourteenth +century. Imagine," he continued, as he turned over the pages, "a litany +of gems, each verse symbolizing one of Our Mother's virtues. + +"This prayer in minerals opens with a human greeting. The good monk, +kneeling down, begins:-- + +"'Hail, noble Virgin, meet to become the Bride of the Supreme King! +Accept this ring in pledge of that betrothal, O Mary!' + +"And he shows Her the ring, turning it slowly in his fingers, explaining +to Our Lady the meaning of each stone that shines in the gold setting; +beginning with green jasper, symbolical of the faith which led the +Virgin to receive the message of the angelic visitant; then comes the +chalcedony, signifying the fire of charity that fills Her heart; the +emerald, whose transparency signifies Her purity; the sardonyx, with its +pale flame, like the placidity of Her virginal life; the red sard-stone, +one with the Heart that bled on Calvary; the chrysolite, sparkling with +greenish gold, reminding us of Her numberless miracles and Her Wisdom; +the beryl, figurative of Her humility; the topaz, of Her deep +meditations; the chrysoprase of Her fervency; the jacinth of Her +charity; the amethyst, mingling rose and purple, of the love bestowed on +Her by God and men; the pearl, of which the meaning remains vague, not +representing any special virtue; the agate, signifying Her modesty; the +onyx, showing the many perfections of Her grace; the diamond, for +patience and fortitude in sorrow; while the carbuncle, like an eye that +shines in the night, everywhere proclaims that Her glory is eternal. + +"Finally the donor points out to the Virgin the interpretation of +certain other matters set in the ring, which in the Middle Ages were +regarded as precious: crystal, emblematic of chastity of body and soul; +ligurite, resembling amber, more especially figurative of the quality of +temperance; lodestone, which attracts iron, as She touches the chords of +repentant hearts with the bow of her loving-kindness. + +"And the monk ends his petition by saying: 'This little ring, set with +gems, which we offer Thee as at this time, accept, glorious Bride, in +Thy benevolence. Amen.'" + +"It would no doubt be possible," said the Abbe Plomb, "to reproduce +almost exactly the invocations of these Litanies by each stone thus +interpreted." And he reopened the book his friend the priest had just +closed. + +"See," he went on, "how close is the concordance between the epithets in +the sentences and the quality assigned to the gems. + +"Does not the emerald, which in this sequence is emblematical of +incorruptible purity, reflect in the sparkling mirror of its water the +_Mater Purissima_ of the Litanies to the Virgin? Is not the chrysolite, +the symbol of wisdom, a very exact image of the _Sedes Sapientiae_? The +jacinth, attribute of charity and succour vouchsafed to sinners, is +appropriate to the _Auxilium Christianorum_ and the _refugium +peccatorum_ of the prayers. Is not the diamond, which means strength and +patience, the _Virgo potens_?--the carbuncle, meaning fame, the _Virgo +praedicanda_?--the chrysoprase, for fervour, the _Vas insigne +devotionis_? + +"And it is probable," said the Abbe, in conclusion, as he laid the book +down, "that if we took the trouble we could rediscover one by one, in +this rosary of stones, the whole rosary of praise which we tell in +honour of Our Mother." + +"Above all," remarked Durtal, "if we did not restrict ourselves to the +narrow limits of this poem, for Conrad's manual is brief, and his +dictionary of analogies small; if we accepted the interpretations of +other symbolists, we could produce a ring similar to his and yet quite +different, for the language of the gems would not be the same. Thus to +St. Bruno of Asti, the venerable Abbot of Monte Cassino, the jasper +symbolizes Our Lord, because it is immutably green, eternal without +possibility of change; and for the same reason the emerald is the image +of the life of the righteous; the chrysoprase means good works; the +diamond, infrangible souls; the sardonyx, which resembles the +blood-stained seed of a pomegranate, is charity; the jacinth, with its +varying blue, is the prudence of the saints; the beryl, whose hue is +that of water running in the sunshine, figures the Scriptures elucidated +by Christ; the chrysolite, attention and patience, because it has the +colour of the gold that mingles in it and lends it its meaning; the +amethyst, the choir of children and virgins, because the blue mixed in +it with rose pink suggests the idea of innocence and modesty. + +"Or, again, if we borrow from Pope Innocent III. his ideas as to the +mystical meanings of gems, we find that chalcedony, which is pale in the +light and sparkles in the dark, is synonymous with humility; the topaz +with chastity and the merit of good works, while the chrysoprase, the +queen of minerals, implies wisdom and watchfulness. + +"If we do not go quite so far back into past ages, but stop at the end +of the sixteenth century, we find some new interpretations in a +Commentary on the Book of Exodus by Corneille de la Pierre; for he +ascribes truth to the onyx and carbuncle, heroism to the beryl, and to +the ligure, with its delicate and sparkling violet hue, scorn of the +things of earth, and love of heavenly things." + +"And then St. Ambrose regards this stone as emblematical of Eucharist," +the Abbe Gevresin put in. + +"Yes; but what is the ligure or ligurite?" asked Durtal. "Conrad of +Haimburg speaks of it as resembling amber; Corneille de la Pierre +believes it to be violet-tinted, and St. Jerome gives us to understand +that it is not identifiable; in fact, that it is but another name for +the jacinth, the image of prudence, with its water of blue like the sky +and changing tints. How are we to make sure?" + +"As to blue stones, we must not forget that St. Mechtildis regarded the +sapphire as the very heart of the Virgin," observed the Abbe Plomb. + +"We may also add," Durtal went on, "that a new set of variations on the +subject of gems was executed in the seventeenth century by a celebrated +Spanish Abbess, Maria d'Agreda, who applies to Our Mother the virtues of +the precious stones spoken of by St. John in the twenty-first chapter of +the Apocalypse. According to her, the sapphire figures the serenity of +Mary; the chrysolite shows forth Her love for the Church Militant, and +especially for the Law of Grace; the amethyst, Her power against the +hordes of hell; the jasper, Her invincible fortitude; the pearl, Her +inestimable dignity--" + +"The pearl," interrupted the Abbe Plomb, "is regarded by St. Eucher as +emblematic of perfection, chastity, and the evangelical doctrine." + +"And all this time you are forgetting the meaning of other well-known +gems," cried Madame Bavoil. "The ruby, the garnet, the aqua-marine; are +they speechless?" + +"No," replied Durtal. "The ruby speaks of tranquility and patience; the +garnet, Innocent III. tells us, symbolizes charity. St. Bruno and St. +Rupert say that the aqua-marine concentrates in its pale green fire all +theological science. There yet remain two gems, the turquoise and the +opal. The former, little esteemed by the mystics, is to promote joy. As +to the second, of which the name does not occur in treatises on gems, it +may be identified with chalcedony, which is described as a sort of agate +of an opaque quality, dimmed with clouds and flashing fires in the +shadows. + +"To have done with this emblematical jewelry, we may add that the series +of stones serves to symbolize the hierarchies of the angels. But here, +again, the meanings commonly received are derived from more or less +forced comparisons and a tissue of notions more or less flimsy and +loose. However, it is so far established that the sard-stone suggests +the Seraphim, the topaz the Cherubim, the jasper means the Thrones, the +chrysolite figures the Dominions, the sapphire the Virtues, the onyx the +Powers, the beryl the Principalities, the ruby the Archangels, and the +emerald the Angels." + +"And it is a curious fact," said the Abbe Plomb, "that while beasts, +colours, and flowers are accepted by that symbolists sometimes with a +good meaning and sometimes with an evil one, gems alone never change; +they always express good qualities, and never vices." + +"Why is that?" + +"St. Hildegarde perhaps affords a clue to this stability when, in the +fourth book, of her treatise on Physics, she says that the Devil hates +them, abhors and scorns them, because he remembers that their splendour +shone in him before his fall, and that some of them are the product of +the fire that is his torment. + +"And the saint added, 'God, who deprived him of them, would not that the +stones should lose their virtues; He desired, on the contrary, that they +should ever be held in honour, and used in medicine to the end that +sickness should be cured and ills driven out.' And, in fact, in the +Middle Ages they were highly esteemed and used to effect cures." + +"To return to those early pictures," said the Abbe Gevresin, "in which +the Virgin emerges like a flower from amid the gorgeous assemblage of +gems, it may be said as a general thing, that the glow of jewels +declares by visible signs the merits of Her who wears them; but it would +be difficult to say what the painter's purpose may have been when, in +the decoration of a crown or a dress, he placed any particular stone in +one spot rather than another. It is, as a rule, a question of taste or +harmony, and has nothing, or very little, to do with symbolism." + +"Of that there can be no doubt," said Durtal, who rose and took leave, +as Madame Bavoil, hearing the cathedral clock strike, handed to the two +priests their hats and breviaries. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +The somewhat dolefully calm frame of mind in which Durtal had been +living since settling at Chartres came to a sudden end. One day _ennui_ +made him its prey, the black possession which would allow him neither to +work, nor to read, nor to pray; so overwhelming that he knew not whither +to turn nor what to do. + +After spending dark and futile days in lounging round his library, +taking down a volume and shutting it up again, opening another of which +he failed to master a single page, he tried to escape from the weariness +of the hours by taking walks, and he determined finally to study the +town of Chartres. + +He found a number of blind alleys and break-neck steeps, such as the +road down the knoll of St. Nicolas, which tumbles from the top of the +town to the bottom in a precipitous flight of steps; and then the +Boulevard des Filles-Dieu, so lonely with its walks planted with trees, +was worthy of his notice. Starting from the Place Drouaise, he came to a +little bridge where the waters meet of the two branches of the Eure; to +the right, above the eddying current and the buildings on the shore, he +could see the pile of the old town shouldering up the cathedral; to the +left, all along the quay, and looking out on the tall poplars that +fanned the water-mills, were saw-mills and timber-yards, the washing +places where laundresses knelt on straw in troughs, and the water foamed +before them in widening inky circles splashed into white bubbles by the +dip of a bird's wing. + +This arm of the river diverted into the moat of the old ramparts, +encircled Chartres, bordered on one side by the trees of the alleys, and +on the other by cottages with terraced gardens down to the level of the +stream, the two banks joined by foot-bridges of planks or cast iron +arches. + +Near where the Porte Guillaume uplifted its crenelated towers like +raised pies, there were houses that looked as if they had been gutted, +displaying, as in the vanished _cagnards_ or vaults of the Hotel Dieu at +Paris, cellars open on the level of the water, paved basements in whose +depths of prison twilight stone steps could be seen; and on going out +through the Porte Guillaume across a little humpbacked bridge, under the +archway still showing the groove in which the portcullis had worked +which was let down of yore to defend this side of the town, he came upon +yet another arm of the river washing the feet of more houses, playing at +hide and seek in the courts, musing between walls; and at once he was +haunted by the recollection of another river just like this, with its +decoction of walnut hulls frothed with bubbles; and to contribute to the +suggestion, the more clearly to evoke a vision of the dismal Bievre, the +rank, acrid, pungent smell of tan, steeped, as it were, in vinegar, came +up in fumes from this broth of medlar juice brought down by the Eure. + +The Bievre, a prisoner now in the sewers of Paris, seemed to have +escaped from its dungeon and to have taken refuge at Chartres that it +might live in the light of day; winding by the Rues de la Foulerie, de +la Tannerie, du Massacre, the quarters invaded by the leather-dressers, +the skinners and tan-peat makers. + +But the Parisian environment, so pathetic in its aspect of silent +suffering, was absent from this town; these streets suggested merely a +declining hamlet, a poverty-stricken village. He felt something lacking +in this second Bievre, the fascination of exhaustion, the grace of the +woman of Paris faded and smirched by misery; it lacked the charm +compounded of pity and regret, of a fallen creature. + +Such as they were, however, these streets, traced with a sort of +descending twist round the hill on which the cathedral stood exalted, +were the only curious by-ways of Chartres worth wandering through. + +Here Durtal often succeeded in getting out of himself, in dreaming over +the distressful weariness of these streams, and in ceasing to meditate +on his own qualms, till he presently was tired of constant excursions in +the same quarter of the town, and then he tramped through it in every +direction, trying to find an interest in the sight of time-worn +spots--the grace of Queen Berthe's tower, of Claude Huve's house and +other buildings that have survived the shock of ages; but the enthusiasm +he threw into the study of these relics, spoilt by the foregone +eulogiums of the guides, could not last, and he then fell back on the +churches. + +Although the cathedral crushed everything near it, Saint-Pierre, the +ancient Abbey church of a Benedictine monastery, now used as barracks, +deserved a lingering visit for the sake of its splendid windows, the +dwelling-place of Abbots and Bishops who look down with stern eyes, +holding up their croziers. And these windows, damaged by time, were very +singular. Upright, in each lancet-shaped setting of white glass, rose a +sword-blade bereft of its point; and in these square-tipped blades Saint +Benedict and Saint Maur stood lost in thought, with Apostles and Popes, +Prelates and Saints, standing out in robes of flame against the luminous +whiteness of the borders. + +Certainly Chartres could show the finest glass windows in the world; and +each century had left its noblest stamp on its sanctuaries: the twelfth, +thirteenth, and even the fifteenth, on the cathedral; the fourteenth on +Saint Pierre; and a few examples--unfortunately broken up and used in a +medley mosaic--of painted glass of the sixteenth century in Saint +Aignan, another church where the vaulted roof had been washed of the +colour of gingerbread speckled with anise-seed, by painters of our own +day. + +Durtal got through a few afternoons in these churches; then the charm of +this prolonged study was at an end, and gloom took possession of him, +even worse than before. + +The Abbe Plomb, to divert his mind, took him for walks in the country, +but La Beauce was so flat, so monotonous, that any variety of landscape +was impossible to find. Then the Abbe took him through other parts of +the town. Some of the buildings claimed their attention, as, for +instance, the House of Detention, in the Rue-Sainte-Therese near the +Palais de Justice. The edifices themselves were not, indeed, very +impressive, but the history of their origin made them available as the +fulcrum for old dreams. There was something in the prison walls, in +their height and austerity, in their look of order and precision, which +made the cloister wall of a Carmel look small. They had, in fact, of +old, sheltered a Sisterhood of that Order, and a few steps further on, +in a blind alley, was the entrance to the ancient convent of the +Jacobins, the Mother-House of the great Sisterhood of Chartres: the +Nursing Sisters of Saint Paul. + +The Abbe Plomb took him to visit this house, and he retained a cheerful +impression of the walk in the fresh air on the old ramparts. The Sisters +had kept up the sentry's walk, which followed a long and narrow avenue +with a statue of the Virgin at each end, one representing the Immaculate +Conception, the other the Virgin Mother. And this walk, strewn with +river-pebbles and edged with flowers, shut in on one side by the Abbey +and the novices' schools, on the left overlooked a precipice down to the +Butte des Charbonniers, and below that again, the Rue de la Couronne; +while beyond lay the grass lawns of the Clos Saint Jean, the line of the +railroad, labourers' hovels, and convent buildings. + +"There you see," said the Abbe, "behind the embankment of the Western +Railway stands the Convent of the Sisters of Our Lady and of the +Carmelites; here, nearer to the town on this side of the line, are the +Little Sisters of the Poor." + +And indeed the place swarmed with convents: Sisters of the Visitation, +Sisters of Providence, Sisters of Good Comfort, Ladies of the Sacred +Heart, all lived in hives close round Chartres. Prayer hummed up on +every side, rising as the fragrant breath of souls above a city where, +by way of divine service, nothing was chanted but the price-current of +grain and the higher and lower cost of horses in the fairs which, on +certain days, brought all the copers of La Perche together in the +_cafes_ on the Place. + +Besides this walk on the old ramparts, the Convent of the Sisters of +Saint Paul was attractive by reason of its quiet and cleanliness. Down +silent passages the backs of the good women might be seen crossed by the +triangular fold of linen, and the click could be heard of their heavy +black rosaries on links of copper, as they rattled on their skirts +against the hanging bunch of keys. Their chapel was redolent of Louis +XIV., at once childish and pompous, too much bedizened with gold, and +the floor too shiny with wax; but there was an interesting detail: at +the entrance large panes of glass had been substituted for the walls, so +that in winter the sick, sitting in a warm room, could look through the +glass partition and follow the services and hear the plain song of +Solesmes which the Sisters had the good taste to use. + +This visit revived Durtal's spirit; but he inevitably compared the +peaceful hours told out in that retreat with others, and his disgust was +increased for this town, and its inhabitants, and its avenues, and its +boasted Place des Epars, aping a little Versailles, with its surrounding +blatant mansions, and its ridiculous statue of Marceau in the middle. + +And then the limpness of the place, hardly awake by sunrise and asleep +again by dusk! + +Once only did Durtal see it really awake, and that was on the day when +Monseigneur Le Tilloy des Mofflaines was enthroned as Bishop. + +Then suddenly the city was galvanized; projects were made, the various +bodies corporate sat in committee, and men came forth who had lived +within doors for years. + +Scaffold poles were brought out from the masons' yards; blue and yellow +flags were hoisted on them, and these masts were linked together by +garlands of ivy-leaves sewn one over the other with white cotton. + +Then Chartres was exhausted, and paused for breath. + +Durtal, startled by these unexpected preparations and such an assumption +of life, had gone out to meet the Bishop, as far as to the Rue Saint +Michel. There, on the open square, a gymnastic apparatus had been +erected, the swing bars and rings having been removed, and the poles +garnished with pine branches and gilt paper rosettes, and surmounted by +a trophy of tricolour flags arranged in a fan behind a painted cardboard +shield. This was an arch of triumph, and under this the Brethren of the +Christian Schools were to escort the canopy. + +The procession, which had gone forth to fetch the Bishop from the +Hospice of Saint Brice, where, in obedience to time-honoured custom, he +had slept the night before entering his See, had made its way thither +under a fine rain of chanted canticles, broken by heavier showers of +brass sounding a pious flourish of trumpets. Slowly, with measured +steps, the train wound along between two hedges of people crowded on the +sidewalks, and all the way the windows, hung with drapery, displayed +bunches of faces and leaning bodies, cut across the middle by the +balcony bar. + +At the head of the procession, behind the gaudy uniforms of the +ponderous beadles, came the girls of the Congregational Schools, dressed +in crude blue with white veils, in two ranks, filling up the roadway; +then followed delegates of nuns from every Order that has a House in the +diocese; Sisters of the Visitation from Dreux, Ladies of the Sacred +Heart from Chateaudun, Sisters of the Immaculate Conception from Nogent +le Rotrou, the uncloistered Sisters of the Cloistered Orders of +Chartres, Sisters of St. Vincent de Paul and Poor Clares, whose dresses +of blueish grey and peat-brown contrasted with the black robes of the +others. + +What was most odd was the various shapes of their coifs. Some had soft +flapping blinkers, others wore them goffered and stiffened with starch; +these hid their face at the bottom of a deep white tunnel; others, on +the contrary, showed their countenance set in an oval frame of pleated +cambric, prolonged behind into conical wings of starched linen lustrous +from heavy irons. As he looked over this expanse of caps, Durtal was +reminded of the Paris landscape of roofs, in shapes resembling the +funnels worn by these nuns and the cocked hats of the beadles. + +Then, behind these long files of sober-coloured garments, the scarlet +vestments of the choirs came like the blare of trumpets. The little ones +marched with downcast eyes, their arms crossed under their red capes +edged with ermine, and behind them, a little in advance of the next +group, walked two white cowls, that of a Brother of Picpus, and that of +a Trappist who represented the Trappist Sisterhood of La Cour Peytral, +to which he was chaplain. + +Finally the Seminarists came on in a black crowd; those of the Great +Seminary of Chartres and of the Little Seminary of Saint Cheron +preceding the priests, and behind them, under a purple velvet canopy +embroidered in gold with wheat ears and grapes, and decorated at each +corner with bunches of snow-white feathers, with his mitre on his head +and holding his crozier, came Monseigneur Le Tilloy des Mofflaines. + +As he passed, in the act of blessing the street, many an unknown Lazarus +rose up, the forgotten dead come back to life; His Reverence seemed to +multiply the Miracles of the Lord. Effete old men, huddled in their +chairs in the doorways or at the windows, revived for a second, and +found strength enough to cross themselves. Persons who had been +supposed dead for years managed almost to smile. The vacant eyes of old, +old children gazed at the violet cross outlined in the air by the +Prelate's gloved hand. Chartres, that city of the dead, had changed to a +vast nursery; in the extravagance of its joy the town was in its second +childhood. + +But as soon as the Bishop was past the scene changed. Durtal was +startled, and he tittered. + +A whole "Court of Miracles" seemed to follow in the Prelate's train, +strutting but tottering; a procession of old wrecks, dressed out in such +garments as are sold from the dead-house, staggered along holding each +other's arms, propped one against another. Every reach-me-down that had +been hanging these twenty years flapped about their limbs, hindering +their progress. Trousers with baggy ankles or with gaiter tops, +balloon-shaped or close-fitting, made of loose-woven stuff or so shrunk +that they would not meet the boot, displaying feet where the elastic +sides wriggled like living vermin, and ankles covered with vermicelli +dipped in ink; then the most impossibly threadbare and discoloured +coats, made, as it seemed, of old billiard cloths, of tarpaulin worn to +the canvas, of cast-off awnings; overcoats of cast iron, the surface +worn off the back-seam and sleeves--glaucous waistcoats, sprigged with +flowers and furnished with buttons of dry brawn-parings; and all this +was as nothing; what was prodigious, beyond the bounds of belief, +fabulous, positively insane, was the collection of hats that crowned +these costumes. + +The specimens of extinct headgear, lost in the night of ages, that were +collected here! The veterans wore muff-boxes and gas-pipes; some had +tall white hats, for all the world like toilet-pails turned upside +down, or huge spigots with a hole for the head; others had donned felt +hats like sponges, shaggy, long-haired Bolivars, melons on flat brims +just like a tart on a dish; others, again, had crush-hats, which swayed +and played the accordion on their own account, their ribs showing +through the stuff. + +The craziness of the gibus hats beats description. Some were very tall, +the shaft crowned with a platform larger than the head, like the shako +of an Imperial Lancer; others very low, ending in an inverted cone--the +mouth of a blunderbuss or a Polish schapska. + +And under this Sanhedrim of drunken hats were the mopping, wrinkled +faces of very old men, with whiskers like white rabbits' paws, and +bristles like tooth-brushes in their nostrils. + +Durtal shook with inextinguishable laughter at this carnival of +antiquities; but his mirth was soon over; he saw two Little Sisters of +the Poor who were in charge of this school of fossils, and he +understood. These poor creatures were dressed in clothes that had been +begged, the rummage of wardrobes, for which the owners had no further +use. Then the queerness of their outfit was pathetic; the Little Sisters +must have been at infinite trouble to utilize these leavings of charity; +and the old children, recking little of fashion, plumed themselves with +pride at being so fine. + +Durtal followed to the cathedral. When he reached the little square, the +procession, caught by a gale of wind, was struggling and clinging to the +banners, which bellied like the sails of a ship, carrying on the men who +clutched the poles. At last, more or less easily, all the people were +swallowed up in the basilica. The _Te Deum_ was pouring out in a torrent +from the organ. At this moment it really seemed as though, under the +impulsion of this glorious hymn, the church, springing heavenward in a +rapturous flight, were rising higher and higher; the echo resounded down +the ages, repeating the hymn of triumph which had so often been sung +under that roof; and for once the music was in harmony with the +building, and spoke the language which the cathedral had learnt in its +infancy. + +Durtal was exultant. It seemed to him that Our Lady smiled down from +those glowing windows, that She was touched by these accents, created by +the saints she had loved, to embody for ever, in a definite melody, and +in unique words, the scattered praise of the faithful, the unformulated +rejoicing of the multitude. + +Suddenly his exalted mood was sobered. The _Te Deum_ was ended; a roll +of drums and a clarion flourish rang out from the transept. And while +the brass band of Chartres cannonaded the old walls with the balista of +mere noise, he fled to breathe away from the crowd, which, however, did +not nearly fill the church; and then, after the ceremony, he went to see +the parade of representatives of the various institutions in the town, +who came to pay their respects to the new Bishop in his palace. + +There he could laugh and not be ashamed. The forecourt was packed full +of priests. All the superiors of the different Archdeaconries--Chartres, +Chateaudun, Nogent le Rotrou, and Dreux--had left there, within the +great gate, their following of parish priests and cures, who were pacing +round and round the green circus of a grass plot. + +The big-wigs of the town, not at all less ridiculous than the pensioners +of the Little Sisters of the Poor, crowded in, driving the ecclesiastics +into the garden walks. Teratology seemed to have emptied out its +specimen bottles; it was a seething swarm of human larvae, of strange +heads--bullet-shaped, egg-shaped, faces as seen through a bottle or in a +distorting mirror, or escaped from one of Redon's grotesque albums; a +perfect museum of monsters on the move. The stagnation of monotonous +toil, handed down for generations from father to son in a city of the +dead, was stamped on every face, and the Sunday-best festivity of the +day added a touch of the absurd to hereditary ugliness. + +Every black coat in Chartres had come out to take the air. Some dated +from the days of the Directory, swallowed up the wearer's neck, climbed +up high behind the nape, muffled the ears and padded the shoulders; +others had shrunk by lying in the drawer, and their sleeves, much too +short, cut the wearer round the armholes so that he dared not move. + +A miasma of benzine and camphor exhaled from these groups. The clothes, +only that morning taken out of pickle to be aired by the good wife, were +pestilential. The stove-pipe hats were to match. Left to themselves on +wardrobe shelves, they had surely grown taller; they towered immense, +displaying on their mill-board column a thin covering of hairs. + +This assembly of worthies admired and congratulated each other; clasped +hands encased in white gloves--gloves scoured with paraffin, cleaned +with indiarubber or breadcrumb. Presently a retiring wave cleared a +space in the crowd of priests and laymen, who shrank back hat in hand to +make way for an old hearse of a landau, drawn by a consumptive horse and +driven by a sort of Moudjik, a coachman with a puffy face behind a +thicket of hair sprouting on his cheeks and his mouth, in his ears and +nose. This vehicle came to an anchor before the front steps, and out of +it stepped a fat man, blown out like a bladder and buttoned up in an +uniform with silver lace; after him came a thinner personage in a coat +with facings of dark and light blue, and everybody bowed to the Prefet +attended by one of his three Councillors. + +They had lifted their plumed cocked hats, distributed a dole of +hand-shaking, and vanished into the vestibule when the army made its +appearance, represented by a Colonel of Cuirassiers, some officers of +the Artillery and the Commissariat, a few subalterns of Infantry, and +one gendarme. + +This was all. + +Within an hour of this reception the exhausted town was asleep again, +not having energy enough even to remove the poles; Lazarus had gone back +to his sepulchre, the resuscitated antiquities had relapsed into death; +the streets were empty; reaction had ensued; Chartres would be exhausted +for months by this outbreak. + +"What a sty it is! What a hole!" cried Durtal to himself. + +On certain days, tired of spending his afternoons shut up with his books +or of attending service in the cathedral, hearing the canons languidly +playing rackets from side to side of the choir with the Psalms, of which +they tossed the verses to and fro in a mumbling tone, he would go down +after dinner and smoke cigarettes in the little Place. At Chartres, +eight o'clock in the evening was as three in the morning in any other +town; every light was out, every house closed. + +The priesthood, eager for bed, had shut up shop. No prayers to the +Virgin, no Benediction, nothing in this cathedral! At such an hour, +kneeling in the dark, you feel as if the Mother were more immediately +present, nearer, more intimately your own; but these moments of +confidence, when it is easier to tell Her all your trivial woes, were +unknown at Notre Dame. No one was worn out by midnight prayer in that +church! + +But though he could not go in, Durtal could prowl round and about it. +And then, scarcely seen by the light of the poverty-stricken lamps +standing here and there on the square, the cathedral assumed strange +aspects. The portals yawned as caverns full of blackness, and the outer +shape of the body of the building, from the towers to the apse, with +its abutments and buttresses merely guessed at in the dark, stood up +like a cliff worn away by invisible waves. It might have been a +mountain, its summit jagged by storms, eaten into deep caverns at the +foot by a vanished ocean; and on going nearer he could in the gloom +imagine ill-defined paths steeply running up the cliff, or winding on +shelves at the edge of a rock; and, occasionally, midway on one of these +dark paths, some white statue of a Bishop would start forth under a +moonbeam, like a ghost haunting the ruins, and blessing all comers with +uplifted fingers of stone. + +These wanderings in the precincts of the cathedral, which by daylight +was so light and slender, and in the dark seemed so ponderous and +threatening, were ill-adapted to cure Durtal of his melancholy. + +This illusion of rocks riven by the lightning, of caverns deserted by +the waves, plunged him into fresh reveries, and at last threw him back +on himself, ending, after many divagations of mind, in the contemplation +of the ruin within him. Then once more he sounded his soul, and tried to +reduce his thoughts to some sort of order. + +"I am simply bored to death," said he to himself, "and why?" And by dint +of analyzing his condition he came to this conclusion: "My state of +boredom is not simple but two-fold; or, if it is indeed all of a piece, +it may be divided into two very distinct phases: I am bored by myself, +independently of place, of home, of books; and I am also bored by +provincial life--the special form of boredom inherent in Chartres. + +"Bored by myself--ah, yes, most heartily! How tired I am of watching +myself, of trying to detect the secret of my disgust and +contentiousness. When I contemplate my life I could sum it up thus: the +past has been horrible; the present seems to me feeble and desolate; the +future--is appalling." + +He paused, and then went on,-- + +"During my first days here I was happy in the dream suggested by this +cathedral. I believed it would re-act on my life, that it would people +the solitude I felt within me, that it would, in a word, be a help to me +in this provincial atmosphere. But I beguiled myself. In fact, it still +weighs on me, it still holds me wrapped in the mild gloom of its crypt; +but I can now reason about it, I can scrutinize its details, I try to +talk to it of art, and in these inquiries I have lost the unreasoning +sense of its environment, the silent fascination of the whole. + +"I am less conscious now of its soul than of its body. I tried to study +archaeology, that contemptible anatomy of building, and I have fallen +humanly in love with its beauty; the spiritual aspect has vanished, to +leave nothing behind but the earthly part. Alas! I was determined to +see, and I have wrecked trust; it is the eternal allegory of Psyche over +again! + +"And besides--besides--is not the weariness that is crushing me to some +extent the fault of the Abbe Gevresin? By compelling me to much +repetition he has exhausted in me the soothing and, at the same time, +subversive virtue of the Sacrament; and the most evident result of this +treatment is that my soul has collapsed and has no spirit to +reinvigorate it. + +"No, no," he went on presently. "Here I am working back on my perennial +presumption, my incessant round of cares; and once more I am unjust to +the Abbe. But it is certainly no fault of his if frequent Communion +makes me cold. I look for sensations; but the very first thing should be +to convince myself that such cravings are contemptible, and next, to +understand clearly that it is precisely because Communion is so frigid +that it is the more meritorious and virtuous, yes, that is very easy to +say; but where is the Catholic who prefers such coldness to a glow? The +saints may, no doubt; but even they suffer under it! It is so natural to +entreat God for a little joy, to look forward to an Union consummated by +a loving word, a sign--a mere nothing that may show that He is present. + +"Say what they may, we cannot help being pained by a dead absorption of +that living bread! And it is very hard to admit that Our Lord is wise +when He keeps us in ignorance of the ills from which it preserves us and +the progress it enables us to make, since, but for that, we might be +defenceless against the attacks of self-conceit and the assaults of +vanity--helpless against ourselves. + +"In short, whatever the reason, I am no better off at Chartres than in +Paris," was his conclusion. And when these reflections beset him, +especially on Sundays, he regretted having accompanied the Abbe Gevresin +into the country. + +In Paris, in old days, he at any rate got through the hours at the +services. He could attend Mass in the morning at the Benedictine chapel +or at Saint Severin, and go to Saint Sulpice for vespers or compline. + +Here there was nothing; and yet where were there more promising +conditions for the performance of Gregorian music than at Chartres? + +Setting aside a few antiquated basses who could only bark, and whom it +would be necessary to dismiss, there was a whole sheaf of rich young +voices, a school of nearly a hundred boys who could have rolled out in +clear, sweet tones the broad melodies of the old plain-song. + +But in this ill-starred cathedral an inept precentor gave out, by way of +liturgical canticles, a perfect menagerie of outlandish tunes, which, +let loose on Sunday, seemed to scamper like marmosets up the pillars and +under the roof. And the artless voices of the choir-boys were drilled to +these musical monkey-tricks. At Chartres it was impossible to attend +High Mass in the cathedral with any decent devotion. + +The other services were not much better; indeed, Durtal was reduced to +attending vespers at Notre Dame de la Breche, in the lower town, a +chapel where the priest, a friend of the Abbe Plomb, had introduced the +use of Solesmes, and patiently trained a little choir composed of +faithful working-men and pious boys. + +The voices, especially the trebles, were not first-rate; but the priest, +being a skilled musician, had contrived to train and soften them, and +had, in fact, succeeded in getting the Benedictine art accepted in his +church. + +Unfortunately it was so ugly, so painfully adorned with images, that +only by shutting his eyes could Durtal endure to remain in Notre Dame de +la Breche. + +In the midst of this surge of reflections on his soul, on Paris, on the +Eucharist, on music, on Chartres, Durtal was at last quite bewildered, +not knowing where he was. Now and then, however, he recovered some +tranquillity, and then he was astonished at himself, he could not +understand himself. + +"Why regret Paris--why, indeed?" he would ask himself. "Was the life I +led there unlike that I lead here? Were not the churches there--Notre +Dame de Paris, to name but one--just as much to be execrated for +sacrilegious _bravuras_ as Notre Dame de Chartres? On the other hand, I +never went out there to lounge in the tiresome streets; I saw nobody but +the Abbe Gevresin and Madame Bavoil, and I see them still, and oftener, +in this town. I have even gained a friend by the move, a learned and +agreeable companion, in the Abbe Plomb. So why?" + +And then one morning, unexpectedly, every thing was plain to him. He saw +quite clearly that he was on the wrong track, and without even seeking +for it he found the right one. + +To discover the unknown source of his flaccid longing for he knew not +what, and his inexplicable dissatisfaction, he had only to look back a +little way and pause at La Trappe. He saw now everything had begun +there. Having reached that culminating point of his retrospect, he +could, as it were, stand on a height and command a view of the declining +years since he had left the monastery; and now, gazing at that +descending panorama of his life, he discerned this:-- + +That from the time of his return to Paris a craving for the cloister had +been incessantly permeating his being; he had unremittingly cherished +the dream of retiring from the world, of living peacefully as a recluse +near to God. + +He had, to be sure, only thought of it definitely in the form of +impossible longings and regrets, for he knew full well that neither was +his body strong enough nor his soul staunch enough for him to bury +himself as a Trappist. Still, once started from that spring-board, his +imagination flew off at a tangent, overleaped every obstacle, floated in +discursive reveries where he saw himself as a Friar in some easy-going +convent under the rule of a merciful Order, devoted to liturgies and +adoring art. + +He could but shrug his shoulders, indeed, when he came back to himself, +and smile at these dreams of the future which he indulged in hours of +vacuous idleness; but this self-contempt of a man who catches himself in +the very act of flagrant nonsense was nevertheless succeeded by the hope +of not losing all the advantages of an honest delusion; and he could +remount on a chimera which he thought less wild, as leading to a _via +media_, a compromise, fancying that by moderating his ideal he should +find it more attainable. + +He assured himself that, in default of a really conventual life, he +might perhaps achieve an illusory imitation of it by avoiding the +turmoil of Paris and burying himself in a hole. And he now saw that he +had completely cheated himself when, on discussing the question as to +whether he should leave Paris and go to settle at Chartres, he had +believed that he was yielding to the Abbe Gevresin's arguments and +Madame Bavoil's urgency. + +Certainly, without admitting it, without accounting for it, he had +really acted on the prompting of this cherished dream. Would not +Chartres be a sort of monastic haven, of open cloister, where he could +enjoy his liberty and not have to give up his comforts? Would it not, at +any rate, for lack of an unattainable hermitage, be a sop thrown to his +desires; and supposing he could succeed in reducing his too exorbitant +demands, give him the final repose and peace for which he had yearned +ever since his return from La Trappe? + +And nothing of all this had been realized. The unsettled feeling he had +experienced in Paris had pursued him to Chartres. He was, as it were, on +the march, or perched on a bough; he could not feel at home, but as a +man lingering on in furnished rooms, whence he must presently depart. + +In short, he had deluded himself when he had fancied that a man might +make a cell of a solitary room in silent surroundings; the religious +jog-trot in a provincial atmosphere had no resemblance to the life of a +monastery. There was no illusion or suggestion of the convent. + +This check, when he recognized it, added to the ardour or his regrets; +and the distress which in Paris had lurked latent and ill-defined, +developed at Chartres clear and unmistakable. + +Then began an unremitting struggle with himself. + +The Abbe Gevresin, whom he consulted, would only smile and treat him as +in a novices' school or a seminary a youthful postulant is treated who +confesses to deep melancholy and persistent weariness. His malady is not +taken seriously; he is told that all his companions suffer the same +temptations, the same qualms; he is sent away comforted, while his +superiors seem to be laughing at him. + +But at the end of a little time this method no longer succeeded. Then +the Abbe was firm with Durtal, and one day, when his penitent was +bemoaning himself, he replied,-- + +"It is an attack you must get over," and then he added lightly after a +silence, "And it will not be the last or the worst." + +At this Durtal turned restive; the Abbe, however, drove him to bay, +wanting to make him confess how senseless his struggles were. + +"The idea of the cloister haunts you," said he. "Well, then, what is +there to hinder you? Why do you not retire to a Trappist convent?" + +"You know very well that I am not strong enough to endure the rule." + +"Then become an oblate; go to join Monsieur Bruno at Notre Dame de +l'Atre." + +"No, indeed, not that, at any rate. To be an oblate at La Trappe is the +same thing as remaining at Chartres! It is a mere half-measure. Monsieur +Bruno will always remain a boarder; he will never be a monk. He gets all +the disadvantages of the cloister, and none of the benefits." + +"But there are other monasteries besides those of La Trappe," replied +the Abbe. "Be a Benedictine Father or oblate, a black Friar. Their rule +seems to be mild; you will live in a world of learned men and writers; +what more would you have?" + +"I do not say--but--" + +"But what?" + +"I know nothing of them--" + +"Nothing can be easier than to get to know them. The Abbe Plomb is a +welcome friend at Solesmes. He can give all the introductions you can +wish to that convent." + +"Good; that is worth thinking about. I will consult the Abbe," said +Durtal, rising to take leave of the old priest. + +"The Black Dog is troubling you, our friend," observed Madame Bavoil, +who had overheard the two men's conversation from the next room, the +door between being open; and she came in, her breviary in her hand. + +"Ah, ha!" she went on, looking at him over her spectacles, "do you +suppose that by moving your soul from place to place you can change it? +Your trouble is neither in the air nor outside you, but within you. On +my word, to hear you talk, one might fancy that by travelling from one +spot to another every discord could be avoided, that a man could escape +from himself! Nothing can be more false. Ask the Father--" + +And when Durtal, smiling awkwardly, was gone, Madame Bavoil questioned +her master. + +"What is really the matter with him?" + +"He is being broken by the ordeal of dryness," replied the priest. "He +is enduring a painful but not dangerous operation. So long as he +preserves a love of prayer, and neglects none of his religious +exercises, all will be well. That is the touchstone which enables us to +discern whether such an attack is sent from Heaven." + +"But, Father, he must at any rate be comforted." + +"I can do nothing but pray for him." + +"Another question: our friend is possessed by the notion of a monastic +life; perhaps you ought to send him to a convent." + +The Abbe gave an evasive shrug. + +"Dryness of spirit and the dreams to which it gives rise are not the +sign of a vocation," said he. "I might even say that they have a greater +chance of thriving than of diminishing in the cloister. From that point +of view conventual life might be bad for him. Still, that is not the +only question to be considered--there is something else--and besides, +who knows?" He was silent, and presently added: "Much may be possible. +Give me my hat, Madame Bavoil. I will go and talk over Durtal with the +Abbe Plomb." + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + +This discussion had been of use to Durtal; it took him out of the +generalities over which he had persistently mused since his arrival at +Chartres. The Abbe had, in fact, shown him his bearings, and pointed out +a navigable channel leading to a definite end, a haven familiar to all. +The monastery which had lingered in Durtal's fancy as a mere confused +picture, apart from time, without place or date, deriving nothing from +his memories of La Trappe but the sense of discipline, and on to which +he had at once engrafted the fancy of an abbey of a more literary and +artistic stamp, governed by a conciliatory rule, in a milder +atmosphere--that ideal retreat, half borrowed from reality and half the +fabric of a dream--was taking shape. By speaking of an Order that +existed, mentioning it by name and actually specifying a House under its +rule, the Abbe had given Durtal substantial food instead of the +argumentative wordiness of a mania; he had afforded him something better +to chew than the empty air on which he had fed so long. + +The state of uncertainty and indecision he had been living in was at +end; his choice now lay between remaining at Chartres or retiring to +Solesmes; and at once, without delay, he set to work to read and +reconsider the works of Saint Benedict. + +This rule, summed up more particularly in a series of paternal +injunctions and affectionate advice, was a marvel of gentleness and +tactfulness. Every craving of the soul was described, every misery of +the body foreseen. It knew so precisely how to ask much and yet not to +exact too much, that it had yielded without breaking, satisfied the +movements of different ages, and remained, in the nineteenth century +what it had been in mediaeval times. + +Then how merciful, how wise it was when addressing itself to the feeble +and infirm. "The sick shall be served as though they were Christ in +person," says Saint Benedict; and his anxiety for his sons, his urgent +recommendations to the Superiors to love and visit the younger brethren, +to neglect nothing that may assuage their ills, reveals a maternal care +that is truly touching on the patriarch's part. + +"Yes, yes," muttered Durtal, "but there are in this rule other articles +which seem less acceptable to miscreants of my stamp. This, for +instance: 'No man shall dare to give or to receive anything without the +Abbot's permission, or to have or hold anything as his own--absolutely +nothing, neither book, nor tablets, nor pointer--in a word, nothing +whatever, inasmuch as they are not allowed to call even their body or +their will their own.' + +"This is a terrible sentence of abnegation and obedience," he sighed, +"only, is this law, which is binding on the Fathers and the Serving +Brothers, equally strict for the Oblates, the aegrotant members of the +Benedictine army, who are not mentioned in the text? This remains to be +seen. It will be well too to ascertain how far it is applied, for the +rule is on the whole so skilful, so elastic, so broad that it can be +made at option very austere or very mild. + +"With the Trappists the ordinances are so closely drawn that they are +stifling; with the Benedictines, on the contrary, they would be light +and airy enough to allow the soul to breathe easily. One Fraternity +clings scrupulously to the letter; the other, on the contrary, draws +inspiration from the Spirit of the Saint. + +"Before goading myself along this road I must consult the Abbe Plomb," +was Durtal's conclusion. He went to call on the priest; but he was +absent for some days. + +As a precaution against indolence, a measure of spiritual discipline, he +threw himself on the cathedral once more, and tried, now that he was +less overpowered by speculation, to read its meaning. + +The stone text which he was bent on understanding was puzzling, if not +difficult to decipher, in consequence of the interpolated passages, +repetitions, and parts eliminated or abridged; in fact, to say the +truth, as the result of a certain incoherence, accounted for no doubt by +the circumstance that the work had been carried on, altered or extended +by successive artists during a lapse of two hundred years. + +The image-makers of the thirteenth century had not always taken into +account the ideas expressed by their precursors; they had repeated them, +expressing them from their own point of view in their personal tongue; +thus, for instance, they had introduced a second version of the signs of +the seasons and of the zodiac. The sculptors of the twelfth century had +made a calendar in stone on the western front; those of the thirteenth +did the same in the right-hand doorway of the north porch, justifying +this reduplication of the subject on the same church by the fact that +the zodiac and the seasons may in symbolism have several +interpretations. + +According to Tertullian the death and new birth of the circling years +afforded an image of the Resurrection at the end of the world. According +to others the Sun, surrounded by the twelve Signs, was emblematic of the +Sun of Justice surrounded by his twelve Apostles. The Abbe Bulteau sees +in these stony calendars a rendering of the passage in which St. Paul +declares to the Hebrews that "Jesus is the same yesterday, to-day, and +for ever," while the Abbe Clerval gives this simple interpretation: that +all times belong to Christ, and are bound to glorify Him. + +"But this is a mere detail," said Durtal to himself. "In the whole +structure of the cathedral itself we can trace two-fold purposes. + +"The architectural mass of Notre Dame de Chartres as a whole may be +divided, externally, into three great parts, as indicated by the three +grand porches. The western or royal portal, which is the ceremonial +entrance to the sanctuary, between the two towers; the north porch on +the side next the bishop's palace, beyond the new spire; the south +porch, flanked by the old spire. + +"Now, the subjects represented on the royal front and in the south porch +are identical. Each glorifies the Triumph of the Incarnate Word, with +this difference: that on the south porch Our Lord is not exalted alone +as He is on the west front, but in the person also of the Elect and of +His Saints. If to these two subjects, which may be considered as +one--the Saviour glorified in Himself and in His Saints--we add the +praises of the Virgin set forth in the north front we find this result: +a poem in praise of the Mother and the Son as declaring the final cause +of the Church itself. + +"By studying the variations between the south and west fronts we +perceive that, though in both Jesus is shown in the same act of blessing +the earth, and though both are almost exclusively restricted to +illustrating the Gospel, leaving the scenes of the Old Testament to the +arches on the north, they differ greatly from each other, and are no +less unlike the portals of all other cathedrals. + +"In total disagreement with the mystic rituals observed almost +everywhere else--at Notre Dame de Paris, at Bourges, at Amiens, to name +but three churches--the Last Judgment, which is seen on the main +entrance of those basilicas, is at Chartres relegated to the south +porch. + +"And in the same way the Tree of Jesse, which at Amiens and Reims and +the cathedral at Rouen, is displayed on the royal porch, is at Chartres +on the north side of the building; and many more similar changes might +be noted," said Durtal to himself. "But, which is yet more strange, the +parallel so commonly to be observed between the subjects treated on the +inner and outer surface of the same wall, in sculptured stone without +and painted glass within, does not constantly exist at Chartres. This, +for instance, is the case with regard to the genealogical Tree of +Christ, which is seen inside in glass on the upper wall of the west +front, and is carved outside on the north porch. At the same time, when +the subjects do not entirely coincide on the front and back of the page, +they are often complementary, or carry out the same idea. Thus the Last +Judgment, which is not to be found on the outside of the north front, +blazes out, within, from the great rose window above on the same side. +This, then, is not cumulative but appropriate development--history begun +in one dialect and finished in another. + +"In short, it is the ruling idea of the poem which governs all these +differences and harmonies; which comes out like a refrain after each of +these three strophes in stone; the idea that this church belongs to Our +Mother. The cathedral is faithful to its name, loyal to its dedication. +The Virgin is Lady over all. She fills the whole interior, and appears +outside even on the western and southern portals, which are not +especially Hers, above a door, on a capital, high in air on a pediment. +The angelic salutation of art has been repeated without intermission by +the painters and sculptors of every age. The cathedral of Chartres is +truly the Virgin's fief. + +"And on the whole," thought Durtal, "in spite of the discrepancies in +some of its texts, the cathedral is legible. + +"It contains a rendering of the Old and New Testaments; it also engrafts +on the sacred Scriptures the Apocryphal traditions relating to the +Virgin and St. Joseph, the lives of the saints preserved in the Golden +Legend of Jacopo da Voragine and the special biographies of the aspiring +recluses of the diocese of Chartres. It is a vast encyclopaedia of +mediaeval learning as concerning God, the Virgin, and the Elect. + +"Didron is almost justified in saying that it is a compendium of those +great encyclopaedias composed in the thirteenth century; only the theory +that he bases on this truthful observation wanders off and becomes +faulty as soon as he tries to work it out. + +"He concludes, in fact, by conceiving of this cathedral as no more than +a rendering of the _Speculum Universale_, the _Mirror of the World_ of +Vincent of Beauvais; above all, like that work, as an epitome of +practical life and a record of the human race throughout the ages. In +point of fact," said Durtal to himself, as he took the _Christian +Iconography_ of that writer down from the shelf, "in point of fact, +according to him, our stone pages ought to follow in such succession +that, beginning with the opening chapter on the north, they would end +with the paragraphs on the south. Then we should find the narrative in +the following order: First of all the genesis, the Biblical cosmogony, +the creation of man and woman and Eden; and then, after the expulsion of +the first pair, the tale of man's redemption by suffering. + +"'Whereby,' says he, 'the sculptor took occasion to teach the hinds of +La Beauce how to work with their hands and their head. Here, to the +right of Adam's Fall, he carves under the eyes and for the perpetual +edification of all men, a calendar of stone with all the labours of the +field, and then a catechism of industry, showing the works done in the +town; finally, for the labours of the mind, a manual of the liberal +arts." + +"Then, thus instructed, man lives on from generation to generation, +until the end of the world, set forth in the images on the south side. + +"This treasury of sculpture would thus include a compendium of the +history of nature and of science, a glossary of morality and art, a +biography of humanity, a panorama of the whole world. Thus it would very +really represent the _Mirror of the World_, and be an edition in stone +of Vincent of Beauvais' book. + +"There is only one difficulty. The Dominican's _Speculum Universale_ +dates from many years later than the erection of this cathedral; also, +in developing his theory, Didron does not take into account the +perspective and relations of the statuary. He assigns equal importance +to a small figure half hidden in the moulding of an arch and to the +large statues in the foreground supporting the picture in relief of Our +Lord and His Mother. Indeed, it might be said that these are the very +figures he overlooks; and, in the same way, he takes no account of the +western doors, which he could not force into his scheme. + +"This archaeologist's ideas, in fact, cannot be maintained. He +subordinates leading features to accessory details, and ends in a kind +of rationalism entirely opposed to the mysticism of the period. He +investigates the Middle Ages by levelling down the divine idea to the +lowest earthly meaning, and referring to man what is intended to apply +to God. The prayer of sculpture, chanted by the ages of faith, becomes, +in the introduction to his work, nothing more than an encyclopaedia of +industrial and moral teaching. + +"Let us look closer at all this," Durtal went on, and he went out to +smoke a cigarette on the Place. "That royal doorway," thought he, as he +walked on, "is the entrance to the great front by which kings were +admitted. It is likewise the first chapter of the book, and it sums up +the whole of the building. + +"But certainly these conclusions forestalling the premisses are very +strange; this recapitulation, placed at the very beginning of the work, +when it ought, in fact, to be placed at the end, in the apse! + +"And yet," he reflected, "putting this aside, the _facade_ thus worked +out fills the position in this basilica which the second of the +Sapiential Books holds in the Bible. It answers to the Book of Psalms, +which is in a certain sense an epitome of all the Books of the Old +Testament, and consequently, at the same time, a prophetic memento of +the whole of revealed religion. + +"The western side of the cathedral is similar; only, it is a compendium +not of the older but of the newer Scriptures; an epitome of the Gospels, +an abridgment of the books of St. John and the synoptical Gospels. + +"In building this, the twelfth century did more. It added more details +to this glorification of Christ, following Him from before His birth, +through the Bible story, till after His Death and to His Apotheosis as +described in the Apocalypse; it completed the Scriptures by the +Apocryphal writings, telling the tale of Saint Joachim and Saint Anna, +recording many episodes of the marriage of the Virgin and Joseph derived +from the Gospel of the Nativity of the Virgin and _pseudo_-Gospel of St. +James the Less. + +"But, indeed, in every early sanctuary such use was made of these +legends, and no church is really intelligible when they are ignored. + +"Nor is there anything to surprise us in this mixture of the authentic +Gospels and mere fables. When the Church refused to recognize by +canonical authority the divine origin of the Gospels of the Childhood, +of the Nativity, the writings of St. Thomas the Israelite, of Nicodemus, +of St. James the Less, and the History of Joseph, it had no intention of +rejecting them altogether, and consigning them to the limbo of +inventions and lies. In spite of certain anecdotes which are, to say the +least of it, ridiculous, there may be found in these texts some accurate +details and authentic narratives which the Evangelists, cautiously +reticent, did not think proper to record. The Middle Ages by no means +lent themselves to heresy when they ascribed to these purely human +Scriptures the value of probable legend and the interest of pious +reminiscence. + +"As a whole," thought Durtal, who was now standing in front of the doors +between the two towers, the royal western front, "as a whole, this vast +palimpsest, with its 719 figures, is easy to decipher if we avail +ourselves of the key applied by the Abbe Bulteau in his monograph on +this cathedral. + +"Starting from the new belfry and working across the western front to +the old belfry, we follow the history of Christ embodied in nearly two +hundred statues lost in the capitals. It starts with Christ's ancestors, +beginning with the story of Anna and Joachim, and giving the legend in +minute images. Out of deference perhaps to the Inspired Books, this +history creeps along the wall, making itself small so as to be +inconspicuous, and narrates, as if in secret, by artless mimicry, poor +Joachim's despair when a scribe of the Temple named Reuben reproves him +for being childless, and rejects his offerings in the name of the Lord +who has not blessed him; then Joachim, in sorrow, separates from his +wife and goes away to bewail the curse that has lighted on him, till an +angel appears to him and comforts him, and bids him return to his wife, +who shall bear a daughter of his begetting. + +"Then we see Anna, weeping alone over her barrenness and her widowhood; +and the angel comes to her and bids her go forth to meet her husband, +and she finds him at the golden gate. And they fall on each other's neck +and go home together. And Anna brings forth Mary, whom they dedicate to +the Lord. + +"Years then pass, till the time comes when the Virgin is to be +betrothed. The High Priest bids all of the children of the House of +David who are of age, and not yet married, to come to the altar with a +rod in their hand; and to discern which of these shall be chosen to +marry the Virgin, Abiathar, the High Priest, inquires of the Most High, +who repeats the prophecy of Isaiah which declares that a flower shall +come out of Jesse on which the Holy Spirit shall rest. + +"And immediately the rod blossoms of one of those present, Joseph the +Carpenter, and a dove descends from heaven to settle on it. + +"So Mary is given to Joseph, and the marriage takes place; Messiah is +born, and Herod massacres the Innocents; and there the gospel of the +Nativity ends, and the story is taken up by the Holy Scriptures, which +follow the Life of Jesus to the hour of His last appearance on earth +after His death. + +"These scenes, set forth in small simple imagery, serve as a border at +the bottom of the vast presentment which extends from tower to tower +over all three doors. + +"Here the scenes are placed which are intended to attract the crowd by +plainer and more visible images; here we see the general theme of this +portal in all its splendour, recapitulating the Gospels and achieving +the purpose of the Church itself. + +"On the left we see the Ascension of Our Lord, soaring triumphant on +clouds rendered by a waving scroll held on each side, in the Byzantine +manner, by two angels; while below, the Apostles with uplifted faces, +gaze at this ascension pointed out to them by other angels who have +descended and hover over them, their fingers extended towards the sky. + +"The hollow moulding of the arch is filled up with a calendar and zodiac +of stone. + +"The right-hand side shows the Assumption of Our Lady, seated on a +throne, sceptre in hand, and holding the Infant, who blesses the world. +Beneath are the episodes of Her life: the Annunciation, the Visitation, +the Nativity, the homage of the shepherds, and the presentation of Jesus +to the High Priest; and the bend of the arch, rising to a point like a +mitre above the Mother, has the mouldings enriched with two lines of +figures, one of archangels bearing censers, with wings closely +imbricated as if with tiles, the other of personifications of the seven +liberal arts, each represented by two figures--one allegorical, and the +other the presentment of the inventor, or of the paragon of that art in +antiquity. This is the same scheme of expression as we see in the +cathedral at Laon; the paraphrase in sculpture of scholastic theology, +and a rendering in images of the text of Albertus Magnus, who, after +rehearsing the perfections of the Virgin, declares that She possessed a +perfect knowledge of the seven arts: grammar, rhetoric, dialectic, +arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music--all the lore of the Middle +Ages. + +"Finally, in the middle, the great doorway illustrates the subject round +which the storied carving of the other doors all centres: the +Glorification of Our Lord, as Saint John beheld it at Patmos; the +Apocalypse, the last book of the Bible, spread open on the forefront of +the basilica, above the grand entrance to the church. + +"Jesus is seated, on His head the cruciform nimbus, robed in the linen +talaris and draped in a mantle which hangs in a fall of close pleats; +His bare feet rest on a stool, emblematical of the earth, according to +Isaiah. With one hand He blesses the world; in the other He holds the +Book with the seven Seals. About him, in the oval glory or _Vesica_, we +see the Tetramorph--the four evangelical emblems with closely fretted +wings: the winged cherub, the lion, the eagle, and the ox, figuring St. +Matthew, St. Mark, St. John, and St. Luke. Above are the twelve Apostles +holding scrolls and books. + +"And to complete the Apocalyptic vision, in the hollow mouldings of the +arch are the twelve Angels and four and twenty Elders described by St. +John, in white raiment and crowned with gold, playing on musical +instruments, and singing in the perpetual adoration which some few +souls, dwelling isolated in the midst of the indifference of this age, +still carry on. They magnify the glory of the Most High, throwing +themselves on their faces when the Evangelical Beasts, responding to the +fervent and solemn prayers that go up from the earth, utter, in a voice +that resounds above the roar of thunder, the word which in its four +letters, its two syllables, sums up every duty of man to God--the +humble, loving, obedient _Amen_. + +"The text has been very closely followed by the image-maker, excepting +with regard to the Beasts, for one detail is omitted; they are not +represented with the eyes of which the prophet tells us they were 'full +within.' + +"Thus, regarding this whole front as a triptych, we find that in the +left doorway we have the Ascension framed in the signs of the zodiac; in +the middle, the triumph of Jesus as described by the Seer; on the right, +the triumph of Mary, surrounded by certain of Her attributes. The whole +constitutes the scheme to be carried out by the architect: the +Glorification of the Incarnate Word. + +"In fact, as the Abbe Clerval says in his important work on the +cathedral of Chartres, 'we have the scenes of His life which prepared +the way for His glory; we have this actual entrance into glory; and then +His eternal glorification by the Angels, the Saints, and the Blessed +Virgin.' + +"From the point of view of artistic execution the work in the grand +subject is crisp and splendid; the smaller figures are obscure and +mutilated. The panel representing the Virgin Mary has suffered severely, +and both it and that representing the Ascension are strangely rough and +barbarous, quite inferior to the central tympanum, which contains the +most living, the most haunting, of many figures of Christ. + +"Nowhere, indeed, in mediaeval sculpture does the Redeemer appear as more +saddened or more pitiful, or under a more solemn aspect. Seen in +profile, His hair flowing over His shoulders, smooth in front and +divided down the middle, with a nose slightly turned up and a heavy +mouth under a thick moustache, with a short, curling beard and a long +neck, He suggests not so much a Byzantine Christ, such as the artists of +that time were wont to paint and carve, but a pre-Raphaelite Christ +designed by a Fleming, or even derived from the Dutch, showing indeed +that slightly earthy taint which reappeared at a later time with a less +pure type of head, at the end of the fifteenth century, in the picture +by Cornelis Van Oostzaanen, in the gallery at Cassel. + +"He rises enthroned, almost sorrowful in His triumph, unamazed as He +blesses, with pathetic resignation, the generations of sinners who for +seven centuries have gazed up at Him with inquisitive, unloving eyes as +they cross the square; and all turn their back on Him, caring little +enough for this Saviour unlike the head familiar to them, recognizing +Him only with sheep-like features and a pleasing expression; such, in +short, as the foppish image at the cathedral at Amiens before which the +lovers of a softer type go into ecstasies. + +"Above this Christ are the three windows invisible from outside, and +over them again the huge dead rose window, looking like a blind eye, and +lighting up, like the windows, only when seen from within, when they +glow with clear flame and pale sapphires set in stone; then, higher yet, +above the rose, is the gallery of French kings, under the great +triangular gable between the towers. + +"And the two belfries fling up their spires; the old one carved in soft +limestone, imbricated with scales, rising in one bold flight to end in a +point, and send up a vapour of prayer among the clouds; the new one, +pierced like lace, chiselled like a jewel, wreathed with foliage and +crockets of vine, rises with coquettish dalliance, trying to make up for +lack of the inspired flight and humble entreaty of its senior by +babbling prayer and ingratiating smiles; to persuade the Father by +childlike lisping. + +"But to return to the west portal," Durtal went on, "in spite of the +importance of its grand decoration, displaying the Eternal Triumph of +the Word, the interest of artists is irresistibly attracted to the +ground storey of the building, where nineteen colossal stone statues +stand in the space that extends from tower to tower; part against the +wall, and part in the recesses of the door-bays. + +"The finest sculpture in the world is certainly that we find here. There +are seven kings, seven saints or prophets, and five queens. There were +originally twenty-four of these statues, but five have disappeared and +left no trace. + +"They all wear glories excepting the three first, nearest to the new +belfry, and all stand under canopies of pierced work, representing roofs +or tabernacles, palaces, bridges--a whole town in little, Sion for +children, a dwarfed New Jerusalem. + +"They all are standing, each on a column with a guilloche pattern; on +plinths carved over with lozenges, diamond points, fir-cone scales, with +chain patterns, fretwork, billets, chequers like a chess-board of which +the alternate squares are hollowed out; and paved with a sort of mosaic, +inlaid patterns which, like the borders of the church windows, suggest a +reminiscence of Mussulman goldsmith's work, and show the origin of the +style brought from the East by the Crusaders. + +"The three first statues in the recess to the left, nearest the new +spire, do not stand on any pattern borrowed from the heathen; they are +trampling on indescribable monsters. One, a king whose head having been +lost, has been fitted with the head of a queen, treads on a man +entangled by serpents; another king stands on a woman who holds a +reptile by the tail with one hand, and with the other strokes the plait +of her own hair; the third, a queen, her head crowned with a plain gold +fillet and her shape that of a woman with child, while her face is +smiling but commonplace, has at her feet two dragons, a monkey, a toad, +a dog, and a snake with an ape's head. What is the meaning of these +enigmas? No one knows--no more, indeed, than we know the names of the +sixteen other statues placed along the porch. + +"Some believe that they represent the ancestry of the Messiah, but this +assertion has no evidence to support it; others find here a mixed +assemblage of the heroes of the Old Testament and the benefactors to the +Church, but this hypothesis is no less illusory. The truth is that, +though all these personages have had sceptres in their hands, scrolls, +ribands, and breviaries, not one of them displays the attributes which +would serve to identify them in accordance with the religious symbolism +of the Middle Ages. At most might we venture to give the name of Daniel +to a headless figure because a formless dragon writhes under his feet, +emblematical of the Devil conquered by the prophet at Babylon. + +"The most striking and the strangest of these figures are the queens. + +"The first, the royal virago with the prominent stomach, is ordinary +enough; the last, opposite to this princess at the furthest end of the +front near the old tower, has lost half her face, and the remaining +portion is not attractive; but the three others, standing in the +principal doorway, are matchless. + +"The first, tall, slender, and very straight, wears a crown on her brow, +a veil, hair banded on each side of a middle parting, and falling in +plaits on her shoulders; her nose turns up a little, is somewhat common; +her lips firm and judicious; her chin square. The face is not very +young. The body is swathed, and rigid, in a large cloak with wide +sleeves, and the richly-jewelled sheath of a gown that betrays no +feminine outline of figure. She is upright, sexless, shapeless; her +waist slight and bound with a girdle of cord, like a Franciscan Sister. +She stands looking, with her head slightly bent, attentive to one knows +not what, seeing nothing. Has she attained to the perfect negation of +all things? Is she living the life of Union with God beyond the worlds, +where time is no more? It might be thought so, since it is noteworthy +that, in spite of her royal insignia and the magnificence of her +costume, she has the self-centred look, the austere demeanour of a nun. +She seems more of the cloister than of the Court. Then we wonder who can +have placed her on guard by this door, and why, faithful to a charge +known to none but herself, she watches, day and night, with her far-away +gaze across the square, waiting motionless for some one who for seven +hundred years has failed to come. + +"She might be an embodiment of Advent, stooping a little to listen to +the woeful supplications of man as they rise from earth; in that case, +she must be an Old Testament queen, dead long before the birth of the +Messiah she perhaps may have prophesied. + +"As she holds a book, the Abbe Bulteau thinks it may be a full-length +statue of Saint Radegonde. But other princesses have been canonized, +and, like her, hold books. At the same time, the monastic aspect of this +queen, her emaciated figure, her eye vaguely fixed on the region of +internal dreams, would well befit Clotaire's wife, who retired to a +cloister. + +"But for what can she be watching? The dreaded arrival of the king bent +on tearing her from her Abbey at Poitiers to replace her on the throne? +For lack of any information every conjecture must be futile. + +"The second statue again represents a king's wife holding a book. She is +younger; she wears neither cloak nor veil; her bosom is full and closely +fitted in a clinging dress, tightly drawn over the bust like wet linen; +a bodice resembling the Carlovingian _rokette_, fastened on one side. +Her hair lies flat in two bands on her forehead, covering her ears and +falling in long tresses plaited with ribbon, and ending in loose tufts. + +"Her face is wilful and alert, and rather haughty. She is looking out of +herself; her beauty is of a more human type, and she knows it. Saint +Clotilde, is the Abbe Bulteau's guess. + +"It is very certain that this Elect lady was not always a pattern of +amiability--not what could be called easy to get on with. Before being +reproved and chastened we see her in history, as vindictive, unrelenting +to pity, eager for retaliation. She would be Clotilde before her +repentance--the Queen, before she became a saint. + +"But is it really she? The name was given her because a statue of the +same period and very like this, which was formerly at Notre Dame de +Corbeil, was dubbed with this name. It was, however, subsequently +admitted that it represented the Queen of Sheba. Are we then in the +presence of that sovereign? And why, if her name is not in the Book of +Life, has she a glory? + +"It is highly probable that she is neither the wife of Clovis, nor +Solomon's friend--this strange princess who stands before us, at once so +earthly and yet more spectral than her sisters; for time has marred her +features, injured her skin, dotted her chin with hail-specks, vulgarized +her mouth, injured her nose, making it look like the ace of clubs, and +put the stamp of death on that living countenance. + +"As to the third, she is tall and slender, a fragile spindle, a slim, +sylph-like creature, suggesting a taper with the lower portion +patterned, embossed, brocaded in the wax itself; she stands +magnificently arrayed in a stiff-pleated robe channelled lengthwise, +like a stick of celery. The bodice is richly trimmed and stitched; below +her waist hangs a cord with loose jewelled knots; on her head is a +crown. Both arms are broken; one hand rested on her bosom; in the other +she held a sceptre, of which a small portion remains. + +"This queen is smiling, artless, and engaging--quite charming. She looks +down on all comers with wide open eyes under high-arched brows. Never, +at any period, has a more expressive face been formed by the genius of +man; it is a masterpiece of childlike grace and saintly innocence. + +"Here, amid the pensive architecture of the twelfth century, one of a +crowd of devout statues, symbolical to some extent of simple love in an +age when men were in perpetual dread of everlasting hell, she seems to +stand at the Gate of the Lord as the exorable image of forgiveness. To +the terrified souls of habitual sinners who after perseverance in guilt +no longer dare cross the threshold of the Sanctuary, she stands kindly +reproving such reticence, conquering regrets and soothing terrors by her +familiar smile. + +"She is the elder sister of the prodigal son, of whom St. Luke indeed +makes no mention, but who, if she ever existed, would have pleaded for +the absent wanderer, and have insisted with her father on the killing of +the fatted calf when the son returned. + +"Chartres, to be sure, does not see her in this indulgent aspect; local +tradition names her Berthe of the broad foot; but while there is no +argument to support this hypothesis, it is in fact quite absurd, as the +statue is graced with a nimbus. This mark of holiness would not have +been given to Charlemagne's mother, whose name is not on the list of the +saints of the Church Triumphant. + +"According to the notions of those archaeologists who believe that the +sculptured dignitaries of this porch represent the ancestry of Christ, +she must be a queen of the Old Testament. But which? As Hello very truly +remarks, tears abound in the Scriptures, but laughter is so rare that +Sarah's, when she could not help mocking at the angel who announced that +she should bear a son in her old age, has remained on record. So it is +in vain that we inquire to what personage of the ancient books this +queen's innocent joy may be ascribed. + +"The truth is that she must remain a perennial mystery; she is an +angelic, limpid creature, who has attained, no doubt, to the purest joy +in the Lord; and withal so attractive, so helpful, that she leaves in us +an impression of a healing gesture, the illusion of a blessing made +visible to all who crave it. Her right arm indeed is broken at the +wrist, and her hand is gone; but we can fancy it there still when we +look for it; as a shade, a reflection; it is very plainly seen in the +slight fulness of the bosom, as though it were the palm; in the folds of +the bodice, which distinctly show the four taper fingers and raised +thumb to make the sign of the cross over us. + +"How exquisite a forerunner of the Blessed Mother is this royal guardian +of the threshold, this sovereign, inviting wanderers to come back to the +Church, to enter the door over which She keeps watch, and which is +itself one of the symbols of Her Son!" exclaimed Durtal, as he glanced +at the opposite figures--such different women! one a nun rather than a +queen, her head a little bowed; another, every inch a queen, holding +hers aloft; the third saucy, though saintly, her neck neither bent nor +assertive, holding herself in a natural attitude, and moderating the +august mien of a sovereign by the humble, smiling expression of a saint. + +"And perhaps," said he to himself, "we may see in the first an image of +the contemplative life, and in the second the embodied idea of the +active life; while the third, like Ruth in the Scriptures, symbolizes +both!" + +As to the other statues--prophets wearing the Jewish cap with ears, and +kings holding missals or sceptres, they too are impossible to identify. +One in the middle arch, divided from the so-called Berthe by a king, was +more especially interesting to Durtal because it was like Verlaine. The +statue had indeed thicker hair, but just as strange a head, a skull with +curious bumps, a flattish face, a curling beard, and the same common but +kindly look. + +Tradition gives this statue the name of St. Jude, and this resemblance +is suggestive between the saint whom Christians most neglected, and who +for several centuries found so few devotees that suddenly, one day, on +the theory that he, less than the others, would have exhausted his +credit with God, people took to imploring him for desperate cases, lost +souls, and the poet so utterly ignored or so stupidly condemned by the +very Catholics to whom he has given the only mystical verses produced +since the Middle Ages. + +"They were ill-starred, one as a saint and the other as a poet," Durtal +concluded, as he drew back to get a better view of the front. + +It was indeed incredible, with the chasing of silvery flowers wrought on +the panes by frost; with its church-drapery, its lace rochets, its fine +pierced work, as light as gossamer, running up to the level of the +second storey, and forming a fretted frame for the great stone-carvings +of the porch. And above that it rose in hermit-like sobriety, unadorned, +Cyclopean, with the colossal eye of its dull rose-window between the two +towers, one full of windows and richly wrought like the doorway, the +other as bare as the facade above the porch. + +But after all, what absorbed and possessed Durtal's mind was still those +statues of queens. + +He finally thought no more of the rest, listened to nothing but the +divine eloquence of their lean slenderness, regarding them only under +the semblance of tall flower-stems deep in carved stone tubes and +expanding into faces of ingenuous fragrance, of innocent perfume, while +Christ, touched and saddened, blessing the world, seemed to bend from +His throne above them to inhale the delicate aroma that rose from these +up-soaring chalices full of soul. Durtal was wondering--what potent +necromancer could evoke the spirits of these royal doorkeepers, compel +them to speak, and enable us to overhear the colloquy they perhaps hold +when in the evening they seem to withdraw behind the curtain of shadow? + +What have they to say to each other--they who have seen Saint Bernard, +Saint Louis, Saint Ferdinand, Saint Fulbert, Saint Yves, Blanche of +Castille--so many of the Elect walking past on their way into the starry +gloom of the nave? Did they cause the death of their companions, the +five other statues that have vanished for ever from the little assembly? +Do they listen, through the closed doors, to the wailing breath of +heart-broken psalms, and the roaring tide of the organ? Can they hear +the inane exclamations of the tourists who laugh to see them so stiff +and so lengthy? Do they, as many saints have done, smell the fetor of +sin, the foul reek of evil in the souls that pass by them? Why, then, +who would dare to look at them? + +And still Durtal looked at them, for he could not tear himself away; +they held him fast by the undying fascination of their mystery; in +short, he concluded, they are supra-terrestrial under the semblance of +humanity. They have no bodies; it is the soul alone that dwells in the +wrought sheath of their raiment; they are in perfect harmony with the +cathedral, which, divesting itself of its stones, soars in ecstatic +flight above the earth. + +The crowning achievement of mystical architecture and statuary are here, +at Chartres; the most rapturous, the most superhuman art which ever +flourished in the flat plains of La Beauce. + +And now, having contemplated the whole effect of this facade, he went +close to it again to examine its minutest accessories and details, to +study more closely the robes of these sovereigns; then he observed that +no two were alike in their drapery. Some flowed without any broken +folds, in ridge and furrow like the fall of rippling water; others hung +closely gathered in parallel flutings like the ribs on stems of +angelica, and the stern material lent itself to the needs of the +dressers, was soft in the figured crape and fustian and fine linen, +heavy in the brocade and gold tissue. Every texture was distinct; the +necklaces were chased bead by bead; the knots of the girdles might be +untied, so naturally were the strands entwined; the bracelets and crowns +were pierced and hammered and adorned with gems, each in its setting, as +if by practised goldsmiths. + +And in many cases the pedestal, the statue, and the canopy were all +carved out of one block, in one piece. What were the men who executed +such work? + +It is probable that they lived in convents, for art was not at that time +cultivated or practised but in the precincts of God. And just then they +were in their glory in the Ile de France, the Orleans country, the +provinces of Maine, Anjou, and Berry, for we find statues of this type +in all; still, it must be said that they are not equal to these at +Chartres. + +At Bourges, for instance, analogous prophets and very similar queens +stand meditative in, one of the extraordinary side bays where the Arab +trefoil is so conspicuous. At Angers the statues are weather-beaten, +almost ruined, but it can be seen that they were less stately, merely +human; they are no longer chastely slender, fit for Heaven, but earthly +queens. At Le Mans, where they are in better preservation, they vainly +strive to soar above their narrow weed; they lack spring, they are +nerveless, feeble, almost common. + +Nowhere do we find a soul clothed in stone as at Chartres; and if at Le +Mans we study the front, of which the scheme is the same as at Chartres, +with Christ enthroned and benedictory between the winged beasts of the +Tetramorph, what a descent we note in the divine ideal! Everything is +pinched and airless. The Christ, too roughly wrought, looks savage. The +pupils only of the supreme masters of Chartres evidently adorned these +portals. + +Was there a guild, a brotherhood of these image-makers, devoted to the +holy work, who went from place to place to be employed by monks as +helpers of the masons and labourers, builders for God? Did they first +come from the Benedictine Abbey of Tiron founded at Chartres near the +market, by that Abbot Saint Bernard whose name figures on the list of +benefactors to the church, in the necrology of the cathedral? None may +know. They worked humbly, anonymously. + +And what souls these artists had! For this we know: they laboured only +in a state of grace. To raise this glorious temple, purity was required +even of the workmen. + +This would seem incredible if it were not proved by authentic documents +and undoubted evidence. + +We possess letters of the period preserved in the Benedictine annals, a +letter from an Abbot of Saint-Pierre-sur-Dive, found by Monsieur Leopold +Delisle, in MS. 929 of the French collection in the Bibliotheque +Nationale, and a Latin volume of the Miracles of Our Lady, discovered in +the Vatican Library, and translated into French by Jehan le Marchant, a +poet of the thirteenth century. And these all relate the way in which +the Sanctuary dedicated to the Virgin was rebuilt after destruction by +fire. + +What then occurred was indeed sublime. This was a crusade, if ever there +was one. It was here no question of snatching the Holy Sepulchre from +the power of the infidels, of meeting armies on the field of battle, and +fighting with men; the Lord Himself was to be attacked in His +entrenchments, Heaven was besieged, and conquered by love and +repentance! And Heaven confessed itself beaten; the angels smiled and +yielded; God capitulated, and in the gladness of defeat He threw open +the treasury of His grace to be plundered of men. + +Then, under the guidance of the Spirit, came a battle in every workshop +with brute matter, the struggle of a nation vowing, cost what it might, +to save a Virgin, homeless now as on the day when Her Son was born. + +The manger of Bethlehem was a mere heap of cinders. Mary would be left +to wander, lashed by bitter winds, across the icy plains of La Beauce. +Should the same tale be repeated, twelve hundred years later, of +pitiless households, inhospitable inns, and crowded rooms? + +Madonna was loved then in France--loved as a natural parent, a real +mother. On hearing that she was turned adrift by fire, seeking woefully +for a home, everyone grieved and wept; and that, not only in the country +about Chartres; in the Orleans country, in Normandy, Brittany, the Ile +de France, in the far north, whole populations stopped their regular +work, left their homes to fly to Her help, the rich giving money and +jewels, and helping the poor to drag their barrows and carry corn and +oil, wine, wood and lime, everything that could serve to feed labouring +men or help in building a church. + +It was a constant stream of immigration, the spontaneous exodus of a +people. Every road was crowded with pilgrims, all, men and women alike, +dragging whole trees, pushing loads of sawn beams, and cartfuls of the +moaning sick and aged forming the sacred phalanx, the veterans of +suffering, the unconquerable legions of sorrow, all to help in the siege +of the heavenly Jerusalem, forming the outer guard to support the attack +by the reinforcement of prayer. + +Nothing--neither sloughs, nor bogs, nor pathless forests, nor fordless +rivers, could check the advancing tide of the marching throng; and one +morning, from every point of the compass, lo! they took possession of +Chartres. + +The investment began; while the sick opened the first parallels of +prayer, the sound pitched the tents; the camp extended for leagues on +all sides; tapers were kept burning on the carts, and at night La Beauce +was a champaign of stars. + +What still seems incredible, and is nevertheless attested by every +chronicle of the time, is that this horde of old folks and children, of +women and men, were at once amenable to discipline; and yet they +belonged to every class of society, for there were among them knights +and ladies of high degree; but divine love was so powerful that it +annihilated distinctions and abolished caste; the nobles harnessed +themselves with the villeins to drag the trucks, piously fulfilling +their task as beasts of burthen; patrician dames helped the peasant +women to stir the mortar, and to cook the food; all lived together in an +undreamed surrender of prejudice; all were alike ready to be mere +labourers, machines, loins and arms, and to toil without a murmur under +the orders of the architects who had come out of the cloister to direct +the work. + +Nothing was ever more simply or more efficiently organized; the convent +cellarers, forming a sort of commissariat for this army, superintended +the distribution of food, and saw to the sanitation of the huts and the +health of the camp. Men and women were no more than docile instruments +in the hands of the chiefs they themselves had chosen, and who in their +turn obeyed gangs of monks. These again were under the orders of the +wonderful man, the nameless genius, who, after conceiving the plan of +this cathedral, directed the whole work. + +To achieve such results the spirit of the multitude must really have +been admirable, for the humble and laborious work of plasterers and +barrow-men was accepted by all, noble or base-born, as an act of +mortification and penance, and at the same time as an honour; and no man +was so audacious as to lay hand on the materials belonging to the Virgin +till he had made peace with his enemies and confessed his sins. Those +who were reluctant to repair the ill they had done, or to frequent the +Sacraments, were dismissed from the traces, rejected as reprobates by +their comrades, and even by their own families. + +At daybreak every morning the work decided on by the foremen was begun. +Some dug the foundations, cleared away the ruins, carried off the +rubbish; others, going in parties to the quarries of Berchere-l'Eveque, +at about five miles from Chartres, cut out enormous blocks of stone, so +heavy that in some cases a thousand workmen were not many enough to +hoist them from their bed to the top of the hill where the church was +presently to rise. + +And when these silent toilers paused, exhausted and broken, the sound +went up of prayers and psalms; some would groan over their sins, +imploring Our Lady's mercy, beating their breast and sobbing in the arms +of priests who bade them be comforted. + +On Sundays long processions formed with banners at their head, and the +shout of canticles filled the streets that blazed from afar with tapers; +the canonical services were attended by a whole people on their knees; +relics were carried with much pomp to visit the sick. + +And all the time the walls of the Celestial City were being shaken by +battering-rams of supplication, catapults of prayer; the living forces +of the whole army combining to make a breach and take the place by +storm. + +Then it was that Jesus surrendered at discretion, conquered by so much +humility and so much love; He placed His powers in His Mother's hands, +and miracles began to abound. + +All the tribe of the sick and crippled are on their feet; the blind see, +the dropsical dry up, the lame walk, the weak-hearted run. + +The tale of these miracles, which were repeated day after day, sometimes +being produced even before the pilgrim had reached Chartres, has been +preserved in the Latin manuscript in the Vatican. + +The natives of Chateau Landon are dragging a cart-load of wheat. On +reaching Chantereine they discover that the food they had taken for the +journey is all gone, and they beg for bread from some unhappy creatures +who are themselves in the greatest want. The Virgin intercedes for them +and the bread of the poor is multiplied. Again, some men set out from +the Gatinais with a load of stone. Ready to drop, they pause near Le +Puiset, and some villagers coming out to meet them, invite them to rest +while they themselves take a turn at the load; but this they refuse. +Then the natives of Le Puiset offer them a cask of wine, and pour it +into a barrel hoisted on to the truck. This the pilgrims accept, and, +feeling less weary, they go on their way. But they are called back to +see that the empty vat has refilled itself with excellent wine. Of this +all drink, and it heals the sick. + +Again, a man of Corbeville-sur-Eure employed in loading a cart with +timber has three fingers chopped across by an axe and shrieks in agony. +His comrades advise him to have the fingers completely severed, as they +hold only by a strip of flesh, but the priest who is conducting them to +Chartres disapproves. They all pray to Mary, and the wound vanishes, the +hand is whole as before. + +Some men of Brittany have lost their way at night in the open country, +and are suddenly guided aright by flames of fire; it is the Virgin in +person descending that Saturday after Complines into Her church when it +is almost finished, and filling it with dazzling glory. + +And there are pages and pages of such incidents. + +"Ah, it is easy to understand," thought Durtal, "why this Sanctuary is +so full of Her. Her gratitude for the love of our forefathers is still +felt here--even now She is fain not to seem too much disgusted, not to +look too closely. + +"Well, well! we build sanctuaries in another way nowadays. When I think +of the Sacred Heart in Paris, that gloomy, ponderous erection raised by +men who have written their names in red on every stone! How can God +consent to dwell in a church of which the walls are blocks of vanity +joined by a cement of pride; walls where you may read the names of +well-known tradesmen exhibited in a good place, as if they were an +advertisement? It would have been so easy to build a less magnificent +and less hideous church, and not to lodge the Redeemer in a monument of +sin! Think of the throng of good souls who so long ago dragged their +load of stones, praying as they went! It would never have occurred to +them to turn their love to account and make it serve their craving for +display, their hunger for lucre." + +An arm was laid on his, and Durtal recognized the Abbe Gevresin, who +had come up while he stood dreaming in front of the cathedral. + +"I am going on at once, they are waiting for me," said the priest. "I +only took advantage of our meeting to tell you that I had a letter this +morning from the Abbe Plomb." + +"Indeed! And where is he?" + +"At Solesmes; but he comes home the day after to-morrow. Our friend +seems greatly taken with the Benedictine life." + +And the Abbe smiled, while Durtal, a little startled, watched him turn +the corner by the new belfry. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + +One morning Durtal went out to seek the Abbe Plomb. He could not find +him in his own house, nor in the cathedral; but at last, directed by the +beadle, he made his way to the house at the corner of the Rue de +l'Acacia, where the choir-school was lodged. + +He went in by a gate that stood half open, into a yard littered with +broken pails and other rubbish. The house, beyond this courtyard, was +suffering from the cutaneous disease that affects plaster, eaten with +leprosy and spotted with blisters, with zig-zag rifts from top to +bottom, and a crackled surface like the glaze of an old jar. The dead +stock of a vine stretched its gnarled black arms along the wall. + +Durtal, looking in at a window, saw a dormitory with rows of white beds, +and he was amused, for never had he seen beds so tiny. + +A lad was in the room, whom he called, by tapping on the pane, and asked +whether the Abbe Plomb were still about the place. The boy nodded an +affirmative, and showed Durtal into a waiting-room. + +This room was like the office of an exceedingly inferior and pious +hotel. The furniture consisted of a mahogany table of a sort of salmon +pink colour, on which stood a pot-stand bereft of flowers; arm-chairs +with circular backs fit for a gatekeeper's room, a chimney-piece adorned +with statues of saints much fly-bitten, and a chimney board covered with +paper representing the Vision of Lourdes. On the walls hung a black +board with rows of numbered keys; opposite, a chromo-lithograph of +Christ, displaying, with an amiable smile, an underdone heart bleeding +amid streams of yellow sauce. + +But what was chiefly characteristic of this bedizened porter's lodge +was a horribly sickening smell, the smell of lukewarm castor oil. + +Durtal, nauseated by this odour, was on the point of making his escape, +when the Abbe Plomb came in and took his arm. They went out together. + +"Then you have just come back from Solesmes?" said Durtal. + +"As you see." + +"And were you satisfied with your visit?" + +"Enchanted," and the Abbe smiled at the impatience he could detect in +Durtal's accents. + +"What do you think of the monastery?" + +"I think it most interesting to visit, both from the monastic and from +the artistic point of view. Solesmes is a great convent, the parent +House of the Benedictine Order in France, and it has a flourishing +school of novices. What is it that you want to know, exactly?" + +"Why, everything you can tell me." + +"Well, then, I may tell you that ecclesiastical art, brought to its very +highest expression, is fascinating in that monastery. No one can +conceive of the magnificence of the liturgy and of plain-song who has +not heard them at Solesmes. If Notre Dame des Arts had a special +sanctuary, it undoubtedly would be there." + +"Is the chapel ancient?" + +"A part of the old church remains, and the famous Solesmes sculpture, +dating from the sixteenth century. Unfortunately, there are some quite +disastrous windows in the apse: the Virgin between Saint Peter and Saint +Paul; modern glass in its most piercing atrocity. But, then, where is +decent glass to be had?" + +"Nowhere. We have only to look at the transparent pictures let into the +walls of our new churches to appreciate the incurable idiocy of painters +who insist on treating window panes from cartoons, as they do subject +pictures--and such subjects! and such pictures! All turned out by the +gross from cheap glass melters, whose thin material dots the pavement of +the church with spots like confetti, strewing lollipops of colour +wherever the light falls. + +"Would it not be far better to accept the colourless scheme of +window-glass used at Citeaux, where a decorative effect was produced by +a design in the lead lines; or to imitate the fine grisailles, +iridescent from age, which may still be seen at Bourges, at Reims, and +even here, in our cathedral?" + +"Certainly," said the Abbe. "But to return to our monastery. Nowhere, I +repeat, are the services performed with so much pomp. You should see it +on the occasion of some high festival! Picture to yourself above the +altar, where commonly the tabernacle shines, a Dove suspended from a +golden crozier, its wings outspread amid clouds of incense; then a whole +army of monks deploying in a solemn rhythmic march, and the Abbot +standing, on his brow a mitre thickly set with jewels, his green and +white ivory crozier in his hand, his train carried by a lay-brother when +he moves, while the gold of many copes blazes in the light of the +tapers, and a torrent of sound from the organ bears the voices up, +carrying to the very vault the cry of repentance or the joy of the +Psalms. + +"It is glorious. It is not the penitential austerity of the liturgy as +it is used by the Franciscans or at La Trappe: it is luxury offered to +God, the beauty He created dedicated to His service, and in itself +praise and prayer. But if you wish to hear the music of the Church in +its utmost perfection you must go to the neighbouring Abbey: that of the +Sisters of Saint Cecilia." + +The Abbe paused, whispering to himself, thinking over his reminiscences; +and then he slowly spoke again,-- + +"Wherever you go, the voice of a nun preserves, merely by reason of her +sex, a sort of emotion, a tendency to the cooing tone, and, it must be +owned, a certain satisfaction in hearing herself when she knows that +others can hear her; so that the Gregorian chant is never perfectly +executed by nuns. + +"But with the Benedictine Sisters of Sainte-Cecile all the graces of +earthly sentimentality have vanished. These nuns have ceased to have +women's voices; the quality is at once seraphic and manly. In their +church you are either thrown back I know not how far into the depth of +past ages, or shot forward into time to come, as they sing. They have +outpourings of soul and tragical pauses, pathetic murmurs and ecstasies +of passion, and sometimes they seem to rush to the assault, and storm +certain Psalms at the bayonet's point. And they do assuredly achieve +the most vehement leap that can be imagined from this world into the +infinite." + +"Then it is a very different thing from the Benedictine service of nuns +in the Rue Monsieur in Paris?" + +"No comparison is possible. Without wishing to reflect on the musical +sincerity of those good Sisters, who sing quite suitably but humanly, as +women, it may be asserted that they have neither such knowledge, nor +such soul-felt aspiration, nor such voices. As a monk remarked, 'when +you have heard the Sisters of Solesmes, those of Paris sound +provincial.'" + +"And you saw the Abbess of Saint Cecilia. Why, when I think of it, is +not she the writer of a Treatise on Prayer (_Traite de l'Oraison_) which +I read when I was at La Trappe, and which was not, I believe, regarded +with favour at the Vatican?" + +"Yes, she it is. But you are making the greatest mistake in imagining +that her book was not approved at Rome. It was examined there, like +every book of the kind, through a magnifying glass, strained through a +sieve, picked over line by line, turned inside out and upside down; but +the theologians employed in this pious custom-house service acknowledged +and certified that this work, based on the soundest principles of +mysticism, was learnedly, impeccably, desperately orthodox. + +"I may add that the volume was printed privately by the Abbess herself, +helped by some of the nuns, in a little hand-press belonging to the +convent, and has never been in circulation. It is, in fact, an epitome +of doctrine, the essential extract of her teaching, and was more +especially intended for those of her daughters who are unable to have +the benefit of her instruction and lectures, because they live away from +Solesmes, in other convents that she has founded. + +"Why in these days, when for ten years past the Benedictine Sisters have +made a study of Latin, when many of them translate from Hebrew and Greek +and are skilled in exegesis, when others draw and paint the pages of +missals, reviving the art of the illuminators of the Middle Ages, when +others again--as, for instance, Mother Hildegarde--are organists of the +highest attainment, you may easily understand that the woman who +directs them all, the woman who has created in her Sisterhoods a school +of practical mysticism and of religious art, is a very remarkable +person; nay, in these days of frivolous devotions and ignorant piety, +quite unique." + +"Why, she is one of the great Abbesses of the Middle Ages," cried +Durtal. + +"She is the crowning work of Dom Gueranger, who took her in hand almost +as a child and kneaded and mollified her soul with long patience; then +he transplanted her into a special greenhouse, watching her growth in +the Lord day after day; and you see the result of this forcing and high +culture." + +"Yes, and even this does not hinder some persons from regarding convents +as the homes of idleness and reservoirs of folly. When you think that +obscure idiots write to the papers to say that nuns know nothing of the +Latin they repeat! It would be well for them if they knew as much Latin +as those women!" + +The Abbe smiled. + +"And the secret of the Gregorian chant dwells with them," he went on. +"It is necessary not only to understand the language of the Psalms as +they are sung, but to appreciate meanings which are often doubtful in +the Vulgate, in order to express them properly. Without fervent feeling +and knowledge, the voice is nothing. + +"It may be beautiful in secular music, but it is null and void when it +attempts the venerable sequences of plain-song." + +"And how are the Fathers employed?" + +"They also began by restoring the liturgy and Church singing; then they +discovered certain lost texts of the subtle symbolists and learned +saints, and collected them in a _Spicilegium_ and _Analectae_. Now they +are editing and printing a musical Palaeography, one of the most learned +and abstruse of modern publications. + +"Still, I would not have you believe that the whole mission of the +Benedictine Order consists in overhauling ancient manuscripts and +reproducing ancient Antiphonals and curious chronicles. The Brother who +has a talent for any art devotes himself to it, no doubt, if the +Superior permits; on this point the rule knows no exception; but the +real and true aim of the Son of Saint Benedict is to sing Psalms and +praise the Lord, to serve his apprenticeship here for his task in +Heaven: namely, to glorify the Redeemer in words inspired by Himself, +and in the language He spoke by the voice of David and the Prophets. + +"Seven times a day the Benedictines do the homage required of the Elders +in Heaven, as described by Saint John in the Apocalypse, and represented +by sculptors as playing on instruments here at Chartres. + +"In point of fact, their particular function is not at all to bury +themselves under the accumulated dust of ages, nor even to accept in +substitution the sins and woes of others as the Orders of pure +mortification do--the Carmelites and the Poor Clares. Their vocation is +to fill the office of the Angels; it is a task of joy and peace, an +anticipation of their inheritance of gladness beyond the grave; in fact, +the work which is nearest to that of purified spirits, the highest on +earth. + +"To fulfil their duty fittingly, besides ardent piety, a thorough +knowledge of the Scriptures is required, and a refined feeling for art. +Thus a true Benedictine must be at once a saint, a learned man, and an +artist." + +"And what is the daily life of Solesmes?" asked Durtal. + +"Very methodical and very simple: Matins and Lauds at four in the +morning; at nine o'clock tierce, mass for the brethren, and sext; at +noon dinner; at four nones and vespers; at seven supper; at half-past +eight compline and deep silence. As you see, there is time for +meditation and work in the intervals between the canonical hours and +meals." + +"And the oblates?" + +"What oblates? I saw none at Solesmes." + +"Indeed--then if there are any, do they lead the same life as the +Fathers?" + +"Evidently; excepting, perhaps, some dispensations depending on the +Abbot's favour. I can tell you this much: that in some other Benedictine +Houses that I have visited the general system is that the oblate shall +follow as much of the rule as he is able for." + +"Still, he is, I suppose, free to come and go--his actions are free?" + +"When once he has taken the oath of obedience to his Superior, and, +after his term of probation, has adopted the monastic habit, he is as +much a monk as the rest, and consequently can do nothing without the +Father Superior's leave." + +"The deuce!" muttered Durtal. "Of course, if the ridiculous metaphor so +familiar to the world were accurate, if the cloister were rightly +compared to a tomb, the condition of the oblate would also be tomb-like, +only its walls would be less air-tight, and the stone, a little tilted, +would admit a ray of daylight." + +"If you like!" said the Abbe, laughing. + +As they walked, they had reached the Bishop's palace. + +They went into the forecourt, and saw the Abbe Gevresin making his way +to the gardens; they joined him, and the old priest asked them to go +with him to the kitchen garden, where, to oblige his housekeeper, he was +to inspect the seeds she had sown. + +"Aye, and I too promised long ago to look at the vegetables," exclaimed +Durtal. + +They went down the ancient paths and reached the orchard on the slope; +and as soon as Madame Bavoil caught sight of them she grounded arms, so +to speak, setting her foot in gardener fashion on the spade she had +stuck into the soil. + +She proudly pointed to her rows of cabbages and carrots, onions and +peas, announced that she intended to make an attempt on the gourd tribe, +expatiated on cucumbers and pumpkins, and to conclude, declared that at +the bottom of the kitchen garden she meant to have a flower-bed. + +Then they sat down on a mound that formed a sort of seat. + +The Abbe Plomb, in a mood for teasing, gave his spectacles a push, +settling the arch above his nose, and rubbing his hands, remarked, very +seriously,-- + +"Madame Bavoil, flowers and vegetables are but of trivial importance +from the decorative and culinary point of view; the only rule that +should guide you in your selection is the symbolical meaning, the +virtues and vices ascribed to plants. Now, I am sorry to observe that +your favourites are for the most part of evil augury." + +"I do not understand you, Monsieur l'Abbe." + +"Why, you have only to consider that these vegetables which you take +such care of mean many evil things. Lentils, for instance--you grow +lentils?" + +"Yes." + +"Well, the seeds of the lentils are very cunning and mysterious. +Artemidorus, in his 'Interpretation of Dreams,' tells us that if we +dream of them it is a sign of mourning; it is the same with lettuce and +onion: they forecast misfortune. Peas are less ill-famed; but, above +all, beware of coriander, with its leaves smelling like bugs, for it +gives rise to all manner of evils. + +"Thyme, on the contrary, according to Macer Floridus, cures snake-bites, +fennel is a stimulant wholesome for women, and garlic taken fasting is a +preservative against the ills we may contract from drinking strange +waters, or changing from place to place. So plant whole fields of +garlic, Madame Bavoil." + +"The Father does not like it!" + +"And then," the Abbe Plomb added, very seriously, "you must fill your +mind from the books of Albertus Magnus, the Master of Saint Thomas +Aquinas, who in the treatises ascribed to him on the Virtues of Herbs, +the Wonders of the World, and the Secrets of Women, puts forth certain +ideas, which, as I may hope, will not have been written in vain. + +"He tells us that the plantain-root is a cure for headache and for +ulcers; that mistletoe grown on an oak opens all locks; that celandine +laid on a sick man's head sings if he will die; that the juice of the +house-leek will enable you to hold a hot iron without being burnt; that +leaves of myrtle twisted into a ring will reduce an abscess; that lily +powdered and eaten by a young maiden is an effectual test of her +virginity, for if she should not be innocent it takes instantaneous +effect as a diuretic!" + +"I did not know of that property in the lily," said Durtal, laughing, +"but I knew that Albertus Magnus assigned the same peculiarity to the +mallow; only the patient need not swallow the plant; she has only to +stoop over it." + +"What nonsense!" exclaimed the old priest. + +His housekeeper, quite scared, stood looking at the ground. + +"Do not listen to him, Madame Bavoil," cried Durtal. "I have a less +medical, and more religious, idea: cultivate a liturgical garden and +emblematic vegetables; make a kitchen and flower garden that may set +forth the glory of God and carry up our prayers in their language; and, +in short, imitate the purpose of the Song of the Three Holy Children in +the fiery furnace, when they called on all Nature, from the breath of +the storm to the seed buried in the field, to Bless the Lord!" + +"Very good!" exclaimed the Abbe Plomb; "but you must have a wide space +at your disposal, for not less than one hundred and thirty plants are +mentioned in the Scriptures; and the number of those to which mediaeval +writers give a meaning is immense." + +"To say nothing of the fact," observed the Abbe Gevresin, "that a garden +dependent on our cathedral ought also to reproduce the botany of its +architecture." + +"Is it known?" + +"A list has not indeed been written for Chartres as it has been for +Reims of its sculptured flora: the botany in stone of the church of +Notre Dame there, has been carefully classified and labelled by Monsieur +Saubinet; still, you will observe that the posies of the capitals are +much the same everywhere. In all the churches of the thirteenth century +you will find the leaves of the vine, the oak, the rose-tree, the ivy, +the willow, the laurel, and the bracken, with strawberry and buttercup +leaves. Indeed, as a rule, the image-makers selected native plants +characteristic of the region where they were employed." + +"Did they intend to express any particular idea by the capitals and +corbels of the columns?--At Amiens, for instance, there is a wreath of +flowers and foliage forming the string-course above the arches of the +nave for its whole length and continued over the cornice of the pillars. +Apart from the probable purpose of dividing the height into two equal +parts in order to rest the eye, has this string-course any other +meaning? Does it embody any particular idea? Is it the expression of +some phrase relating to the Virgin, in whose name the cathedral is +dedicated?" + +"I do not think so," said the Abbe. "I believe that the artist who +carved those wreaths simply aimed at a decorative effect, and made no +attempt to give us in symbolical language a compendium of our Mother's +virtues. + +"Moreover, if we admit that the sculptors of the thirteenth century +introduced the acanthus on account of its emollient qualities, the oak +because it is emblematic of strength, and the water-lily because its +broad leaves are accepted as a figure of charity, we ought no less to +conclude that at the end of the fifteenth century, when the mystery of +symbolism was not as yet altogether lost, the toothed bunches of curled +cabbage, of thistles and other deeply-cut leaves mingling with +true-love-knots, as in the church at Brou, might have had some meaning. +But it is perfectly certain that these vegetable forms were chosen only +for their elaborately elegant growth, and the fragile and mannered grace +of their outline. Otherwise we might assert that this later ornament has +a different tale to tell from that set forth in the flora of Reims and +Amiens, Rouen and Chartres. + +"In point of fact, the natural form which most frequently occurs in the +capitals of our cathedral--by no means a remarkably flowery one--is the +episcopal crozier as seen in the young shoots of the fern." + +"No doubt. But does not the fern bear a symbolical meaning?" + +"In a general sense, it is emblematic of humility, evidently in allusion +to its habit of growing as much as possible far from the high road, in +the depths of woods. But by consulting the Treatise of St. Hildegarde we +learn that the plant she calls _Fern_, or bracken, has magical +properties. + +"Just as sunshine disperses darkness, says the Abbess of Rupertsberg, +the _Fern_ puts nightmares to flight. The devil hates and flees from it, +and thunder and hail rarely fall on spots where it takes shelter; also +the man who wears it about him escapes witchcraft and spells." + +"Then St. Hildegarde made a study of natural history in its relations to +medicine and magic?" + +"Yes; but the book remains unknown because it has never yet been +translated. + +"She sometimes assigns very singular talismanic virtues to certain +flowers. Would you like some instances? + +"According to her, the plantain cures anyone who has eaten or drunk +poison, and the pimpernel has the same virtue when hung round the neck. +Myrrh must be warmed against the body till it is quite soft, and then it +nullifies the wizard's malignant arts, delivers the mind from phantoms, +and is an antidote to philtres. It also puts to flight all lascivious +dreaming, if worn on the breast or the stomach; only, as it eliminates +every carnal suggestion it depresses the spirit and makes it 'arid'; and +for this reason, adds the saint, it should never be eaten but under +great necessity. + +"It is true that as a remedy against the dejection caused by myrrh we +may apply the 'hymelsloszel' (Himmelschluessel), which is--or appears to +be--_Primula officinalis_, the cowslip, whose bunches of fragrant yellow +blossoms are to be seen in moist woods and meadows. This plant is +'warm,' and imbibes its qualities from the light. Hence it can drive +away melancholy, which, says St. Hildegarde, spoils men's good manners, +making them utter speech contrary to God, on hearing which words the +spirits of the air gather about him who has spoken them, and finally +drive him mad. + +"I may also tell you of the mandragora, a plant 'warm and watery,' that +may symbolize the human being it resembles; and it is more susceptible +than all other plants to the suggestion of the devil; but I would rather +quote a recipe that you might perhaps think useful. + +"Here is our Abbess's prescription _a propos_ to the iris or lily: Take +the tip of the root, bruise it in rancid fat, heat this ointment and rub +it on any who are afflicted with red or white leprosy, and they will +soon be healed. + +"But enough of these old-world recipes and counter-charms; we will study +the symbolism of plants. + +"Flowers in general are emblematic of what is good. According to Durand +of Mende, both flowers and trees represent good works, of which the +virtues are the roots; according to Honorius, the hermit, green herbs +are for wisdom; those in flower are for progress; those in fruit are the +perfect souls; finally, we are told by old treatises on symbolical +theology that all plants embody the allegory of the Resurrection, while +the idea of eternity attaches more particularly to the vine, the cedar +and the palm." + +"And you may add," the Abbe Gevresin put in, "that in the Psalms the +palm figures the righteous man, while according to the interpretation of +Gregory the Great its rugged bark and the golden strings of dates are +emblematical of the wood of the Cross, hard to the touch, but bearing +fruit that is sweet to those who are worthy to taste them." + +"Well," said Durtal, "but supposing that Madame Bavoil should wish to +plant a liturgical garden, what should she select for it? + +"Can we, to begin with, compose a dictionary of plants representing the +capital sins and their antithetical virtues, sketch a basis of +operations, and pick out by certain rules the materials at the command +of the mystic gardener?" + +"I do not know," said the Abbe Plomb. "At the same time, I should think +it might be possible; only we should have to remember the names of the +plants more or less exactly symbolizing those qualities and defects. In +short, what you need is a sort of language of flowers as applied to the +catechism. Let us try. + +"For pride we have the pumpkin, which was worshipped of old as a +divinity in Sicyon. It bears indifferently the character of pride or of +fertility; of fertility by reason of its multitude of seeds and its +rapid growth, of which the monk Walafrid Strabo wrote in noble +hexameters a whole chapter of his poem; and of pride by reason of its +huge hollow head and its bulk; and then we also have the cedar, which +Peter of Capua and Saint Melito agree in accusing of pride. + +"Avarice? I confess I know of no plant which represents it; we will come +back to that." + +"I beg your pardon," said the Abbe Gevresin; "Saint Eucher and Raban +Maur speak of thorns as emblematical of riches which accumulate to the +detriment of the soul; and Saint Melito says that the sycamore means +greed of money." + +"The poor sycamore!" cried the younger priest. "It has been served with +every sauce! Raban Maur and the Anonymous monk of Clairvaux also call it +a misbelieving Jew; Peter of Capua compares it to the Cross; Saint +Eucher calls it wisdom, and there are other meanings. But meanwhile I +forget how far we had gone. Oh! lasciviousness; we here have ample +choice. Besides certain trees there is cyclamen, or sow-bread, which, +according to an ancient dictum of Theophrastus, is symbolical of this +sin because it was used in the preparation of love-philtres; the nettle, +which Peter of Capua says is emblematic of the unruly instincts of the +flesh; and the tuberose, a more modern introduction, but known as far +back as the sixteenth century, when a Minorite Father brought it to +France. Its heady perfume, which disturbs the nerves, also, it is said, +excites the senses. + +"For envy there are the bramble and the aconite, which, to be sure, is +more exactly assigned to calumny and scandal; and, again, the nettle, +which, however, is also interpreted by Albertus Magnus as figuring +courage and expelling fear. + +"Greediness?" The Abbe paused to think. "Carnivorous plants, perhaps, as +the fly-trap and the bog sundew." + +"And why not the humbler _cuscuta_, the dodder, the cuttlefish of the +vegetable kingdom, which shoots out the antennae of its stems as fine as +thread, attaching itself to other plants by tiny suckers and feeding +greedily on their juices?" asked the Abbe Gevresin. + +"Anger," the Abbe Plomb went on, "is symbolized by a shrub with pinkish +flowers, a kind of bitter-sweet, as it is popularly called, and by Herb +Basil, which ever since the Middle Ages has had the same character +ascribed to it of cruelty and rage as to its namesake, the basilisk, in +the animal world." + +"Oh!" cried Madame Bavoil, "and we use it to season dishes and flavour +certain sauces." + +"That is a serious culinary error and a spiritual danger," said the +priest, smiling. He then went on:-- + +"Anger may also be figured by the balsam, which especially symbolizes +impatience by reason of the irritability of its seed-vessels, which fly +at a touch and explode, sending them to some distance.... + +"Sloth finally has the whole tribe of poppies, which give sleep. + +"As to the opposite virtues, the explanation they need is childish. For +humility you have the bracken, the hyssop, the knotweed, and the violet, +which, says Peter of Capua, is, by that same token, emblematical of +Christ." + +"And likewise, according to Saint Melito, of the Confessors; or, +according to Saint Mechtildis, of widows," added the Abbe Gevresin. + +"For indifference to the things of this world we find the lichen +symbolizing solitude; for chastity, the orange-flower and the lily; for +charity, the water-lily, the rose, and the saffron flower--so say Raban +Maur and the Anonymous monk of Clairvaux; for temperance, the lettuce, +which also stands for fasting; for meekness, mignonette; for +watchfulness, the elder, signifying zeal; and thyme, which, with its +sharp, pungent aroma, symbolizes activity. + +"You may dispense with the sins, which have no place in the precincts of +Our Lady, and lay out your plots with the devout flowers." + +"How is that to be done?" asked the Abbe Gevresin. + +"Why," said Durtal, "there are two plans. One would be to sketch the +plan of a real church and supply the place of its statues with plants, +which would be the better way from the point of view of art; or else to +compose a whole sanctuary with trees and shrubs." + +He rose, and went to pick up a stick that was lying in the field. + +"There," said he, tracing the cruciform outline of a church on the +ground, "there you have the plan of our cathedral. Supposing now we +build it, beginning at the end, the apse; there we naturally place the +Lady chapel, as we find it in most cathedrals. + +"Plants emblematic of Our Lady's attributes are abundant." + +"The mystical rose of the Litanies!" exclaimed Madame Bavoil. + +"H'm!" said Durtal; "the rose has been much bedraggled. Not only was it +the erotic blossom of Paganism, but in the Middle Ages Jews and +prostitutes were compelled in many places to wear a rose as a +distinctive mark of infamy." + +"True," said the Abbe Plomb, "and yet Peter of Capua uses it, with an +interpretation of love and charity, to figure the Virgin; Saint +Mechtildis, again, says that roses are symbolical of martyrs, and in +another passage of her work on 'Specific Grace,' she compares this +flower to the virtue of patience." + +"Walafrid Strabo, in his '_Hortulus_,' also speaks of the rose as the +blood of the martyred saints," the Abbe Gevresin murmured. + +"'_Rosae martyres, rubore sanguinis_,' according to the key of Saint +Melito," the other priest added, in confirmation. + +"We will admit that shrub," cried Durtal. "Now for the lily--" + +"Here I must interrupt you," exclaimed the Abbe Plomb, "for it must be +at once understood that the lily of the Scriptures has nothing to do +with the flower we know by that name. + +"The common white lily which grows in Europe, and which even before the +Middle Ages was regarded by the Church as emblematic of virginity, does +not seem to have existed in Palestine; and when, in the Song of Songs, +the mouth of the Beloved is compared to a lily, it is evidently not in +praise of white, but of red lips. The plant spoken of in the Bible as +the lily of the valleys, or the lily of the fields, is neither more nor +less than the anemone. + +"This is proved by the Abbe Vigouroux. It abounds in Syria, round +Jerusalem, in Galilee, on the Mount of Olives; rising from a tuft of +deeply-cut, alternate leaves of a rich, dull green, the flower cup is +like a delicate and refined poppy; it has the air of a patrician among +flowers, of a little Infanta, fresh and innocent in her gorgeous +attire." + +"It is certainly the fact," observed Durtal, "that the innocence of the +lily is far from obvious, for its scent, when you think of it, is +anything rather than chaste. It is a mingling of honey and pepper, at +once acrid and mawkish, pallid but piercing; it is suggestive rather of +the aphrodisiac conserves of the East and the erotic sweetmeats of the +Indies." + +"But, after all," said the Abbe Gevresin, "granting that there never +were lilies in the Holy Land--but is it so?--it is none the less certain +that a whole series of symbols were derived from this plant both by the +ancients and in mediaeval times. + +"Look, for instance, at Origen; to him the lily is Christ, for Our Lord +alluded to Himself when He said, 'I am the flower of the field and the +lily of the valley;' and in these words, the field, meaning tilled land, +represents the Hebrew people, taught by God Himself, while the valleys +or fallow land are the ignorant, or, in other words, the heathen. + +"Again, turn to Peter Cantor. According to him, the lily is the Virgin, +by reason of its whiteness, of its perfume delectable above all others, +of its healing virtues; and finally, because it grows in uncultivated +ground, as the Virgin was born of Jewish parents." + +"As regards the therapeutic virtues mentioned by Petrus Cantor," said +the Abbe Plomb, "I may add that the Anonymous English writer of the +thirteenth century tells us that the lily is a sovereign remedy for +burns, and for this cause is an image of the Virgin, who heals sinners +of their burns--that is to say, of their vices." + +"You may further consult Saint Methodus, Saint Mechtildis, Peter of +Capua, and the English monk of whom you spoke, and you will find that +the lily is the attribute, not only of the Virgin Mary, but of virginity +in general and of all virgins. + +"And here is a posy of meanings culled from Saint Eucher, who compares +the whiteness of the lily to the purity of the angels; from Saint +Gregory the Great, who says its fragrance is like the works of the +saints; and again from Raban Maur, who speaks of the lily as emblematic +of celestial beatitude, of the beauty of holiness, of the Church, of +perfection, of chastity in the flesh." + +"Not to forget that, according to the translation of Origen, the Lily +among Thorns is the Church in the midst of its enemies," the Abbe Plomb +put in. + +"Then it is Jesus, His Mother, the Angels, the Church, the Virgins, +everything at once!" exclaimed Durtal. "We cannot but wonder how these +mystic gardeners could discern so many meanings in one and the same +plant!" + +"Why, you can see: the symbolists not only considered the analogies and +resemblances they discovered between the form, scent, and colour of a +flower and the being with whom they compared it; they also studied the +Bible, especially the passages wherein a tree or flower was named, and +they then ascribed to it such qualities as were mentioned or could be +inferred from the text. They did the same with regard to animals, +colours, gems, everything to which they could attribute a meaning. It is +simple enough." + +"It is complicated enough!" said Durtal. "And now where was I?" + +"In the Lady chapel, planting roses and anemones. Now add to these a +shrub which is the emblem of Mary according to the Anonymous monk of +Clairvaux, or of the Incarnation according to the Anonymous writer of +Troyes, the walnut, of which the fruit is interpreted in the same sense +by the Bishop of Sardis." + +"And also mignonette," cried Durtal, "for Sister Emmerich speaks of it +frequently and with much mystery. She says that this flower is very +dear to Mary, who planted it and made much use of it. + +"Then there is another plant which seems to me no less appropriate: the +bracken--not by reason of the qualities ascribed to it by Saint +Hildegarde, but because it symbolizes the most secret and retiring +humility. Take one of the stoutest stems and cut it aslant, like the +mouthpiece of a whistle, and you will find very distinctly imprinted in +black the form of a heraldic _fleur de lys_, as if stamped with a hot +iron. The scent being absent, we may here accept it as the symbol of +humility--a humility so perfect that it is undiscoverable but in death." + +"Aha! our friend is not so ignorant of country lore as I had fancied," +exclaimed Madame Bavoil. + +"Oh, I wandered in the woods a little, as a child." + +"For the choir no discussion is possible, I believe," said the Abbe +Gevresin. "The eucharistic plants, the vine and corn are self-evidently +appropriate. + +"The vine, of which the Lord said '_Ego vitis sum_,' is also the emblem +of communion and the image of the eighth beatitude; corn, which, as the +Sacramental element, was the object of peculiar care and respect in the +Middle Ages. + +"You have only to recall the solemn ceremonial observed in certain +convents when the wafer was to be prepared. + +"At Saint Etienne, Caen, the monks washed their face and hands, and +kneeling before the altar of Saint Benedict, said Lauds, the seven +penitential Psalms, and the Litanies of the Saints. Then a lay brother +presented the mould in which the wafers were to be baked, two at a time; +and on the day when this unleavened bread was prepared those who had +taken part in the ceremony dined together, and their table was served +exactly like the Abbot's. + +"At Cluny, again, three priests or three deacons, fasting after the +above-mentioned services of prayer, put on albs and invited the aid of +certain lay brethren. They mixed the flour of wheat that had been sifted +by the novices, grain by grain, with a due quantity of water; and a monk +wearing gloves baked the wafers one by one over a large fire of +brushwood, in an iron mould stamped with the proper symbols." + +"That reminds me," said Durtal, as he lighted a cigarette, "of the mill +for grinding the wheat for the offering." + +"I am familiar with the mystical wine-press which was often represented +by the glass-workers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries," said the +Abbe Gevresin. "That was practically a paraphrase of Isaiah's prophetic +verse: 'I have trodden the wine-press alone, and there was no man with +me'; but the mystic mill is, I own, unknown to me." + +"I have seen it once at Berne, in a window of the fifteenth century," +said the Abbe Plomb. + +"I also saw it in the cathedral at Erfurt, painted, not on glass, but on +a panel. The picture is by no known painter, and dated 1534. I can see +it now: Above, God the Father, a good old man with a snowy beard, solemn +and thoughtful; and the mill, like a coffee mill, fixed on the edge of a +table, with the drawer open below. The evangelical beasts are emptying +into the hopper, skins full of scrolls on which are written the +effective Sacramental words. These scrolls are swallowed in the body of +the machine, and come out into the drawer, thence falling into a chalice +held by a Cardinal and Bishop kneeling at the table. + +"And the texts are changed into a little Child in the act of blessing +while the four Evangelists turn a long silver crank in the right-hand +corner of the panel." + +"What seems strange," remarked the Abbe Gevresin, "is that it should be +the formula of Transubstantiation and not the substance that is changed, +and that the Evangelists, twice represented--under their animal and +their human aspect--pour into the mill and grind. And also that the +sacred oblation should be represented by the living flesh. + +"Still, it is correct; since the consecrating words are uttered, the +bread has ceased to be. This scheme of implied meaning, though somewhat +strange, in a literal presentment, a scene of actual grinding--the wheat +in the grain, in flour, and in the Host--this obvious intention of +ignoring the species, the appearances, and substituting the reality +which is invisible to sense, must have been adopted by the painter in +order to appeal to the masses, to bear witness to the certainty of the +Miracle and to make the mystery evident to the people. But let us return +to the construction of our church. Where were we?" + +"Here," said Durtal, pointing with his stick to the side aisles as +traced in the sand. "Now, to represent the side chapels we have a +choice. One we shall dedicate, of course, to Saint John the Baptist. To +distinguish it from the others we have the gilliflower and the +ground-ivy to which he has given his name, and more especially the St. +John's wort, which if gathered on the eve of his festival and placed in +a room, destroys malignant spells and charms, is a protection against +thunder, and hinders the walking of ghosts. + +"It may be added that this plant, famous in the Middle Ages, was used as +a remedy for epilepsy and St. Vitus' dance, two maladies for which the +intercession of the Precursor is most efficacious. + +"We will dedicate another to Saint Peter. On his altar we may lay a posy +of the herbs dedicated to his service by our forefathers: the primrose, +the wild honeysuckle, the gentian and soap-wort, pellitory and bindweed, +with others whose names escape me. + +"But, first, will it not be our bounden duty to erect a tower for Our +Lady of the Seven Dolours, such as we find in many churches? + +"The flower obviously indicated is the passion-flower; that unique +blossom, of a purplish blue, its seed-vessel simulating the Cross, its +styles and stigma the Nails; its stamens mimicking the Hammer, its +thread-like fringe the Crown of thorns--in short, it represents all the +instruments of the Passion. Add to this, if you will, a bunch of hyssop, +plant a cypress, of which Saint Melito speaks as emblematical of the +Saviour, and which Monsieur Olier regards as symbolical of death; a +myrtle, signifying compassion, according to a passage by Saint Gregory +the Great; and, above all, do not omit the buckthorn, or _Rhamnus_--for +of that shrub the Jews twined the stems that formed Christ's crown--and +your chapel is complete." + +"The buckthorn," said the Abbe Gevresin; "yes, Rohant de Fleury says +that its thorny branches were used to crown the Son's head; but this +leaves us wondering, when we remember that in the Old Testament, in the +ninth chapter of the Book of Judges, all the tall trees of Judaea bow +down before the Royalty prophetically prefigured by this humble shrub." + +"Very true," replied the Abbe Plomb. "But what is most curious is the +number of absolutely dissimilar senses which the oldest symbolists +attribute to the buckthorn. Saint Methodus uses it for virginity; +Theodoret for sin; Saint Jerome ascribes it to the devil; and Saint +Bernard takes it as symbolizing humility. Again, in the '_Theologia +Symbolica_' of Maximilian Sandaeus, this shrub is made to signify the +worldly prelacy, while the olive, vine, and fig, with which the author +contrasts it, are the contemplative Orders. In this, no doubt, we may +see an allusion to the thorns which Bishops were not always unready to +thrust on the long-suffering Heads of monasteries. + +"You have forgotten, too, in the blazonry of your chapel, the reed which +formed the sceptre of mockery forced into the Son's hands. But the reed, +like the buckthorn, is a sort of Jack-of-all-trades. Saint Melito +defines it as the Incarnation and the Scriptures; Raban Maur as the +Preacher, the hypocrite, and the Gentiles; Saint Eucher as the sinner; +the Anonymous monk of Clairvaux as Christ; and others which I have +forgotten." + +"These are many meanings for a single plant," observed Durtal. "But now +if we want to specialize some chapels as dedicated to saints, nothing +can be easier; at any rate, for such as have lent their names to plants. + +"For instance, the Valerian, known as Herb Saint George, the white +flower with a hollow stem, which grows in moist, places, and its popular +name is quite intelligible since it was used in treating nervous +diseases, for which the saint's intercession was invoked. + +"Then we have the plant or plants dedicated to Saint Roch: the +pennyroyal, and two species of _Inula_, one with bright yellow flowers, +a purgative that cures the itch. Formerly on Saint Roch's day branches +of this herb were blessed and hung in the cow-houses to preserve the +cattle from epidemics. + +"Saint Anne's wort, a humble creeper, the samphire--an emblem of +poverty. + +"Herb Barbara, the winter-cress, a cruciferous plant, anti-scorbutic--a +poverty-stricken flower, creeping along the wayside like a beggar. + +"To Saint Fiacre is dedicated the mullein, with its emollient leaves; +boiled to make a poultice, it relieves colic, which this saint has a +reputation for curing. + +"Saint Stephen's wort is the enchanter's nightshade, a beneficent plant +with red berries on a hairy stem. And there are many others. + +"For the crypt, supposing we dig one out, it must certainly be filled +with the trees mentioned in the Old Testament, of which this portion of +the building is itself an allegory. In spite of climate we must grow the +vine and the palm, emblems of eternity; the cedar, which by reason of +its incorruptible wood is sometimes thought to symbolize the angels; the +olive and the fig, emblems of the Holy Trinity and of the Word; +frankincense, cassia and _balsamodendron Myrrha_, a symbol of the +perfect humanity of Our Lord; the terebinth--meaning exactly what?" + +"According to Peter of Capua, the Cross and the Church; but Saint Melito +says the saints. According to the monk of Clairvaux, it is the false +doctrine of the Jews and heretics; and as to the drops of resin, they +are Christ's tears, if we may believe Saint Ambrose," replied the Abbe +Plomb. + +"And even so, our cathedral remains incomplete. We are but feeling our +way, without logical sequence. I admit that at the entrance we must +plant the purifying hyssop in the place of the holy-water vessel; but +with what can we build the walls unless we accept the alternative of a +real church having walls but unfinished?" + +"Take the figurative sense of the walls and translate that; the great +walls are representative of the four Evangelists, Can you find plants +for them?" + +Durtal shook his head. "The Evangelists are, of course, symbolized in +the fauna of mysticism by the animals of the Tetramorph; the twelve +apostles have their synonyms in the category of gems, and two of the +Evangelists are naturally to be found there: Saint John is associated +with the emerald, the emblem of purity and faith; Saint Matthew with the +chrysolite, the emblem of wisdom and watchfulness; but none, so far as I +know, has found a representative among either trees or flowers. And yet, +to be sure, Saint John has the sun-flower, signifying divine +inspiration; for he is represented in a window in the church of Saint +Remy at Reims, his head crowned with a nimbus surmounted by two of these +flowers." + +"Saint Mark, too, has a plant--the tansy, so named in the Middle Ages." + +"The tansy?" + +"Yes; a bitter, aromatic plant with yellow flowers, which grows in stony +ground, and is used in medicine as an anti-spasmodic. Like Saint +George's herb, it is used in nervous maladies, the intercession of +Saint Mark being, it would seem, of sovereign efficacy. + +"As to Saint Luke, he may be represented by clumps of mignonette, for +Sister Emmerich tells us that while he was a physician it was his +favourite remedy. He macerated mignonette in palm oil, and after +blessing it, applied the unction in the form of a cross on the brow and +mouth of his patients; in other cases he used the dried plant in an +infusion. + +"Only Saint Matthew remains; but here I give in, for I know of no +vegetable species that can reasonably be assigned to him." + +"Nay, do not think it hopeless," cried the Abbe Plomb. "A mediaeval +legend tells us that balms exuded from his tomb; hence he was +represented as holding a branch of cinnamon, symbolical of the fragrance +of virtue, says Saint Melito." + +"Well, it would be better to accept the real walls of a church, making +use of the structure, and limiting ourselves to completing the idea by +details borrowed from the symbolism of flowers." + +"And the sacristy?" suggested the Abbe Gevresin. + +"Since, according to the _Rationale_ of Durand of Mende, the sacristy is +the very bosom of the Virgin, we will represent it by virginal plants +such as the anemone, and trees such as the cedar, which Saint Ildefonso +compares to Our Mother. And now, if we are to furnish the instruments of +worship, we shall find in the ritual of the liturgy and in the very form +of certain plants almost precise guidance. Thus, flax, of which the +cornice and altar napery is to be woven, is indispensable; the olive and +the _balsamum_, from which oil and balm are extracted, and frankincense, +which sheds the drops of gum for the incense, are no less indicated. For +the chalice we may choose from among the flowers which goldsmiths take +as their models: the white convolvulus, the frail campanula, and even +the tulip, though, having some repute as connected with magic, that +flower is in ill odour. For the shape of the monstrance there is the +sun-flower." + +"Yes," interrupted the Abbe Plomb, wiping his spectacles, "but these are +fancies borrowed simply from superficial resemblance; it is modern +symbolism, which is really not symbolism at all. And is not this the +case to a great extent with the various interpretations that you accept +from Sister Emmerich? She died in 1824." + +"What does that matter?" said Durtal. "Sister Emmerich was a primitive +saint, a seer, whose body indeed lived in our day, but whose soul was +far away; she dwelt more in the Middle Ages than in ours. It might be +said indeed that she was more ancient still, for, in fact, she was +contemporary with Christ, whose life she follows step by step through +her pages. + +"Hence her ideas of symbolism cannot be set aside. To me they are of +equal authority with those of Saint Mechtildis, who was born in the +early part of the thirteenth century. + +"In point of fact, the source whence they both alike derived them is the +same. And what is time, or past or present, when we speak of God? + +"These women were the sieves through which His grace was poured, and +what need I care whether the instruments were of yesterday or to-day? +The word of the Lord is supreme over the ages; His inspiration blows +when and where it lists. Is not that true?" + +"I quite agree." + +"And all this time," said the housekeeper, "you do not think of making +use in your building of the iris, which my good Jeanne de Matel regards +as an emblem of peace." + +"Oh, we will find a place for it, Madame Bavoil, never fear. And there +is yet another plant which we must not omit; the trefoil, for sculptors +have strewn it broadcast in their stony gardens, and the trefoil, like +the fruit of the almond tree, which shows the elongated nimbus, is an +emblem of the Holy Trinity. + +"Suppose we recapitulate: + +"At the end of the nave, in the shell of the apse, in front of a +semicircle of tall bracken turned brown by autumn, we see a flaming +assumption of climbing roses hedging a bed of red and white anemones, +edged with the sober green of mignonette. And to give variety by adding +symbols of humility--the knotweed, the violet, and the hyssop--we may +form a posy of which the meaning will represent the perfect virtues of +Our Mother. + +"Now," said he, pointing with his stick to the plan of the nave he had +traced, "here is the altar, overgrown with red-leaved vines, purple or +pearly grapes, sheaves of golden corn. Ah! but we must have a cross over +the altar." + +"That will not be difficult," replied the Abbe Gevresin. "From the grain +of mustard seed, which all the symbolists accept in a figurative sense +as representing Christ, to the sycamore and the terebinth, you have a +wide range; you can at pleasure have a tiny cross, a mere nothing, or a +gigantic crucifix." + +"Here," Durtal went on, "along the bays where trefoils flourish, +different flowers rise from the ground, corresponding to the saints of +their ascription; here is the chapel of Our Lady of the Seven Dolours, +recognizable by the passion-flower full blown on its creeping stem, with +its many tendrils; and the background is a hedge of reeds and rhamnus, +full of sad meaning, mitigated by the compassionate myrtle. + +"Here, again, is the sacristy, where smiles the soft blue flax on its +light stem, the abundant flowers of the convolvulus and campanula, tall +sun-flowers, and, if you choose, a palm, for I recollect that Sister +Emmerich speaks of this tree as a paragon of chastity, because, she +says, the male and female flowers are separate, and both kept modestly +hidden. Another interpretation to the credit of the palm!" + +"But after all, you are absurd, our friend!" cried Madame Bavoil. "All +this will not hold together. Your plants are the growth of different +climates, and in any case they could not all be in bloom at the same +time; consequently, by the time you have planted this, that will be +dead. You can never grow them side by side." + +"That is symbolical of many unfinished cathedrals, where the building is +carried across from century to century," said Durtal, snapping his +stick. "But listen, fancy apart, there is something which may be done, +and has not been done, for celestial botany and pious posies. + +"That is, to make a liturgical garden, a true Benedictine garden, where +flowers may be grown in succession for the sake of their relations to +the Scriptures and hagiology. Would it not be delightful to follow out +the liturgy of prayer with that of plants, to place them side by side in +the sanctuary, to deck the altars with flowers all having their meanings +according to the days and festivals; in short, to associate nature in +its most exquisite manifestation--that is, its flowers--with the +ceremonies of divine worship?" + +"Yes, indeed!" exclaimed both the priests with one accord. + +"Meanwhile, till these fine things are accomplished, I will be content +to dig in my little kitchen garden with an eye to the savoury stews in +which you shall share," said Madame Bavoil. "There I am in my element; I +do not lose my footing as I do in your imitation churches." + +"And I, on my part, will meditate on the symbolism of eatables," said +Durtal, taking out his watch. "It is near breakfast time." + +As he was going off, the Abbe Plomb called him back and said, +laughing,-- + +"In your future cathedral you have forgotten to reserve a nook for Saint +Columba, if, indeed, we can find some ascetic plant native, or at any +rate common, to Ireland, the land where this Father was born." + +"The thistle, figurative of mortification and penance and a memento of +asceticism, is conspicuous as the badge of Scotland," replied Durtal. +"But why Saint Columba?" + +"Because of all saints he is the most neglected, the least invoked by +those of our contemporaries who ought to be most assiduous; since he is +regarded in the attributions of special virtues as the patron saint of +idiots." + +"Pooh!" cried the Abbe Gevresin. "Why, if ever a man revealed a +magnificent comprehension of things human and divine, it was that great +Abbot and founder of monasteries!" + +"Oh! there is no suggestion implied that Saint Columba was feeble of +brain; and as to why the mission was trusted to him rather than another +of protecting the greater part of the human race, I do not know." + +"Perhaps he may have cured lunatics and healed those possessed?" the +Abbe Gevresin suggested. + +"At any rate," said Durtal, "it would be vain to erect a chapel to him, +since it would always be empty; no one would come to entreat him, poor +saint! for the essential mark of an idiot is not to think himself one!" + +"A saint out of work!" remarked Madame Bavoil. + +"And who is not likely to find any," said Durtal, as he left them. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + +Durtal had begged his housekeeper, Madame Mesurat, to serve his coffee +in his study. He thus hoped to escape having her constantly standing in +front of him, as she did all through his meal, asking him if his +mutton-cutlet were good. + +And though that meat had a taste of flannel, Durtal had nodded a sketchy +affirmative, knowing full well that if he ventured on the least comment +he would have to endure an incoherent harangue on all the butchers in +the town. + +As soon as this woman, at once servile, despotic, and obsequious, had +placed his cup on the table, he buried his nose in a book, and by his +repellent attitude compelled her to fly. + +He knew the book he was turning over almost by heart, for he had often +read it between the hours of service at the cathedral. It was so +entirely sympathetic to him, with its artless faith and ingenuous +enthusiasm, that it was to him like the familiar speech of the Church +itself. + +The little volume contained the prayers composed in the fourteenth +century by Gaston Phoebus, Comte de Foix. Durtal had it in two editions, +one printed in the original form of his authentic words and antiquated +spelling, by the Abbe de Madaune; the other modernized, but with great +skill and taste, by Monsieur de la Briere. + +Durtal, as he turned the pages, came on such lamentable and humble +prayers as these: "Thou who hast shapened me in my mother's womb, let me +not perish.... Lord, I confess my poverty.... My conscience gnaws me and +shows me the secrets of my heart. Avarice constrains me, concupiscence +befouls me, gluttony disgraces me, anger torments me, inconstancy +crushes me, indolence oppresses me, hypocrisy beguiles me.... and these, +Lord, are the companions with whom I have spent my youth, these are the +friends I have known, these are the masters I have served." And further +on he exclaims, "Sin have I heaped upon sin, and the sins which I could +not commit in very deed yet have I committed by evil desire." + +Durtal closed the volume, regretting that it should be so entirely +unknown to Catholics. They were all busy chewing the cud of the old hay +left at the heading or end of the "Christian's Day" or "The Eucologia," +or meditating on the pompous prayers elaborated in the ponderous +phraseology of the seventeenth century, in which there is no accent of +sincerity to be found--nothing, not an appeal that comes from the heart, +not even a pious cry! + +How far were these rhapsodies all cast in the same mould from this +penitent and simple language, from this easy and candid communion of the +soul with God? + +Then Durtal dipped again here and there, and read:-- + +"My God and my Mercy, I am ashamed to pray to Thee for very shame of my +evil conscience; give a fountain of tears to my eyes, and my hands +largess of alms and charity; give me a seemly faith, and hope, and +abiding charity. Lord, Thou holdest no man in horror save the fool that +denies Thee. Oh, my God, the Giver of My Redemption and Receiver of my +soul, I have sinned and Thou hast suffered me!" + +Then, turning over a few more pages, he came at the end of the volume to +a few passages collected by Monsieur de la Briere, among them these +reflections on the Eucharist culled from a manuscript of the fifteenth +century:-- + +"Not every man can assimilate this meat; some there be who eat it not, +but swallow it down in haste. It should be chewed as much as possible +with the teeth of the understanding, to the end that the sweet of its +savour be pressed out of it, and may come forth from it. Ye have heard +it said that in nature, that which is most crushed is most nourishing; +now the crushing of the teeth is our deep and keen meditation on the +Sacrament itself." + +Then, after having elucidated the individual use of each tooth, the +author adds, in speaking of the fifteenth, "the Sacrament on the altar +is not merely as meat to fill and refill us; but, which is more, to make +us divine." + +"Lord!" murmured Durtal, laying down the book. "O Lord! If we allowed +ourselves nowadays to use such materialistic comparisons and make use of +such homely terms in speaking of Thy supremely adorable Body, what a +clamour would arise from the 'respectable' among the worshippers and the +blessed legion of the good women who have comfortable praying-chairs and +reserved places near the altar--like front seats in a theatre--in the +House where all are equal." + +And Durtal pondered over these reflections which assailed him every time +he happened to take up a clerical journal or one of the Manuals +introduced by some prelate's note of approval, like a clean bill of +health. + +He could never get over his amazement at the incredible ignorance, the +instinctive aversion for art, the type of ideas, the terror of words, +peculiar to Catholics. Why was this? For after all there was no reason +why believers should be more ignorant and stupid than any other folks. +Indeed, the contrary ought to be the truth. + +Whence did this inferiority proceed? And Durtal could answer himself. It +was due to the system of education, to the training in intellectual +timidity, to the lessons in fear, given in a cellar, far from a vital +atmosphere and the light of day. It really seemed as if there were some +intention of emasculating souls by nourishing them on dried-up +fragments, literary white-meat; some set purpose of destroying all +independence and initiative in the disciples by levelling them, crushing +them all under the same roller, and restricting the sphere of thought by +maintaining a deliberate ignorance of art and literature. + +And all merely to avert the temptation of forbidden fruit, of which the +idea was suggested under the pretext of inspiring dread of it. By this +method curiosity with regard to the veiled unknown tormented their young +brains and excited their senses, for it was always in the background, +and in a form all the more dangerous because it had the effect of a more +or less transparent gauze. The imagination could not fail to exasperate +itself by cogitating its desire to know and its fear of knowing, and it +was ready to fly off at the least word. + +Under these circumstances the most anodyne book was a source of danger +from the simple fact that love was alluded to, and woman depicted as an +attractive creature; and this was enough to account for all--for the +inherent ignorance of Catholics, since it was proclaimed as the +preventive cure for temptations--for the instinctive horror of art, +since to these craven souls every written and studied work was in its +nature a vehicle of sin and an incitement to fall. + +Would it not really be far more sensible and judicious to open the +windows, to air the rooms, to treat these souls as manly beings, to +teach them not to be so much afraid of their own flesh, to inculcate the +firmness and courage needed for resistance? For really it is rather like +a dog which barks at your heels and snaps at your legs if you are afraid +of him, but who beats a retreat if you turn on him boldly and drive him +off. + +The fact remains that these schemes of education have resulted, on the +one hand, in the triumph of the flesh in the greater number of men who +have been thus brought up and then thrown into a worldly life, and on +the other, in a wide diffusion of folly and fear, an abandonment of the +possessions of the intellect and the capitulation of the Catholic army +surrendering without a blow to the inroads of profane literature, which +takes possession of territory that it has not even had the trouble of +conquering. + +This really was madness! The Church had created art, had cherished it +for centuries; and now by the effeteness of her sons she was cast into a +corner. All the great movements of our day, one after the +other--romanticism, naturalism--had been effected independently of her, +or even against her will. + +If a book were not restricted to the simplest tales, or pleasing fiction +ending in virtue rewarded and vice punished, that was enough; the +propriety of beadledom was at once ready to bray. + +As soon as the most modern form of art, the most malleable and the +broadest--the Novel--touched on scenes of real life, depicted passion, +became a psychological study, an effort of analysis, the army of bigots +fell back all along the line. The Catholic force, which might have been +thought better prepared than any others to contest the ground which +theology had long since explored, retired in good order, satisfied to +cover its retreat by firing from a safe distance, with its old-fashioned +match-lock blunderbusses, on works it had neither inspired nor written. + +The Church party, centuries behind the time, and having made no attempt +to follow the evolution of style in the course of ages, now turned to +the rustic who can scarcely read; it did not understand more than half +of the words used by modern writers, and had become, it must be said, a +camp of the illiterate. Incapable of distinguishing the good from the +bad, it included in one condemnation the filth of pornography and real +works of art; in short, it ended by emitting such folly and talking such +preposterous nonsense, that it fell into utter discredit and ceased to +count at all. + +And it would have been so easy for it to work on a little way, to try to +keep up with the times, and to understand, to convince itself whether in +any given work the author was writing up the Flesh, glorifying it, +praising it, and nothing more, or whether, on the contrary, he depicted +it merely to buffet it--hating it. And, again, it would have done well +to convince itself that there is a chaste as well as a prurient nude, +and that it should not cry shame on every picture in which the nude is +shown. Above all, it ought to have recognized that vices may well be +depicted and studied with a view to exciting disgust of them and showing +their horrors. + +For, after all, this was the great theory of the Middle Ages, the +theological method in sculpture, the literary dogma of the monks of that +time; and this is the meaning and purpose of certain groups which even +now shock the propriety of our methodistical purists. These unseemly +subjects and images of indecency are very numerous at Saint Benoit on +the Loire, in the cathedral of Reims, at le Mans, in the crypt at +Bourges, everywhere in our churches; for in those where they do not +occur, it is because the prudery which was most rife in the most immoral +times, broke them by stoning them in the name of a morality very unlike +that which was inculcated by the mediaeval saints. + +These subjects have for many years been the delight of Freethinkers and +the despair of Catholics; those see in them a scathing satire on the +manners of the monks and bishops, these lament that such turpitude +should ever have fouled the walls of the Temple. And yet it would have +been so easy to explain the purpose of these scenes; far from seeking to +apologize for the tolerance of the Church that allowed them, her honesty +and breadth should have been held up to admiration. By acting thus, the +Church manifested her determination to inure her sons by showing them +the ridiculous side of the temptations which assail them. It was, so to +speak, an object lesson or demonstration, and at the same time a bidding +to self-examination before venturing into the sanctuary which was thus +prefaced by a catalogue of sins as a reminder to confession. + +This was part of her plan of education, for she aimed at moulding manly +souls and not crippled creatures such as are turned out by the spiritual +orthopedists of our day; she dragged out vice and lashed it wherever it +lurked, and did not hesitate to preach the equality of men before God, +insisting that bishops and monks should, when guilty, be placed in the +pillory of its doorways; nay, she gibbeted them more willingly than +others, to set an example. + +These scenes were practically a comment of the Sixth (Seventh) +Commandment, a sculptured paraphrase of the Catechism; the Church's +accusation and teaching plainly expressed so as to be understood of all +men. + +And Our Mother did not restrict herself to one mode only of expressing +Her warnings and reproofs; to reiterate them she borrowed the language +of other arts. Literature and the pulpit were inevitably the +interpreters that she employed to vituperate the sins of the people. + +And they were not a whit more prudish or less audacious than sculpture. +We have only to open the books of the Church to convince ourselves of +the violent language in which she was wont to lash the sins of the +flesh. Beginning with the Scriptures, the Bible itself--which no one +dares read now but in mawkish French versions--what priest, for +instance, would venture to recommend to the nerveless spirit of his +flock the study of the sixteenth chapter of Ezekiel or of the Song of +Songs, that Epithalamium of Jesus and the Soul--down to the Fathers and +the Doctors? + +How our modern Pharisees would reprove the uncompromising language of +Saint Gregory the Great when he exclaims, "Speak the truth! A scandal is +better than a lie;" or Saint Epiphanius' plain speaking in discussing +the Gnostics and describing in detail the abominations of that sect, +quietly adding in the face of the congregation, "Why should I shrink +from speaking of the things you do not fear to do? By speaking thus, I +hope to fill you with horror of the turpitude you commit." + +Or what would they think of Saint Bernard expatiating in his third +meditation on horrible physiological details to demonstrate the baseness +of our carnal ambition and the foulness of our pleasures? Or of Saint +Hildegarde, who placidly discusses the various factors of such +pleasures, Saint Vincent Ferrier freely dealing in his sermons with the +sins of Onan and of Sodom, using the simplest language, and comparing +confession to a purgative, and asserting that the priest, like a doctor, +should examine the excreta of the soul and prescribe for it? + +What reprobation would be poured on the splendid passage by Odo of Cluny +quoted by Remy de Gourmont in his "Latin Mystique," the passage where +that terrible monk analyzes the attractions of woman, turns them over, +eviscerates them, and flings them aside like a drawn rabbit on a +butcher's stall; and again on Clement of Alexandria, who sums the whole +matter up in two sentences:-- + +"I am not ashamed to name the parts of the body wherein the foetus is +formed and nourished; and why indeed should I be, since God was not +ashamed to create them?" + +None of the great writers of the Church were prudish. This mock-modesty +which has so long stultified us dates actually from the ages of impiety, +the period of paganism, the return on threadbare classicism which was +known as the Renaissance; and see how it has developed since! Its +hot-bed and nursery ground lay in the lewd and gorgeous years of the +so-called _Grand-siecle_; the virus of Jansenism, the old Protestant +taint mingled with the blood of Catholics, and pollutes it still. + +"It is very true! And pretty results have come of this infection of +decency!" Durtal burst out laughing as he thought of the cathedral at +Chartres. + +"Here," said he to himself, "we reach the climax; pious imbecility can +go no further. Among the subjects in sculpture in the ambulatory of the +choir there is a group representing the Circumcision, Saint Joseph +holding the Infant while the Virgin has a napkin ready and the High +Priest is preparing to operate. And there has been a priest so modest, a +divine so decorous as to regard this scene as licentious and to paste a +piece of paper over the Child's nakedness! + +"The indecency of God, the obscenity of a new-born Babe is too much! + +"Bah!" said he. "The time has slipped away in all this meditation, and +the Abbe will be waiting." + +He ran quickly downstairs and hurried across to the cathedral, where the +Abbe Plomb was pacing to and fro in front of the northern porch, +reciting his Breviary. + +"The side where sinners and demons are figured is especially that of the +Virgin, who saves those and crushes these," said the Abbe. "The northern +porch of a church is usually the most lively of all; here, however, the +Satanic incidents are on the southern side, because they form part of +the Last Judgment represented over the south door. Otherwise Chartres, +unlike her sister cathedrals, would have no scenes of that kind." + +"Then the rule in the thirteenth century was to place the Virgin in the +northern portion?" + +"Yes. To the men of that time the north meant the gloom of winter, the +dejection of darkness, the misery of cold; the ice-bound chant of the +winds was to them the very blast of evil; to the north was the home of +the devil, the hell of nature, as the south was its Eden." + +"But that is absurd!" cried Durtal, "the greatest blunder ever +introduced into the symbolism of the elements. The medieval sages were +mistaken, for snow is pure and cold is chastity. It is the sun, on the +contrary, that is the active agent in developing the germs of +rottenness, the ferment of vice! + +"They forget that the third Psalm of Compline speaks of the hot hour of +noon as the most harassing and dangerous of all; they must have +overlooked the horrors of sweat and unwholesome heat, the risks of +relaxed nerves, of loosened dresses, all the abominations of leaden +clouds and hard blue skies! + +"There are diabolical effluvia in the storm, and in weather when the air +stirs like the vapours from a furnace, rousing evil instincts and +bringing about us the raging swarm of evil angels." + +"But remember the passages in which Isaiah and Jeremiah speak of Lucifer +as dwelling in the blast of the north wind; and recollect that the great +cathedrals did not originate in the south but in the middle and north of +France; consequently, after having adopted this symbolism of seasons and +weather, the pious architects dreamed of the horror of men buried in +snow, and longing for a gleam of sunshine and a bright day. Naturally +they thought of the east as the region of the original Paradise, and of +those lands as milder and less inclement than their own." + +"That does not hinder the fact that this theory was controverted by Our +Lord Himself." + +"Where do you find that?" asked the Abbe Plomb. + +"On Calvary; Jesus died" turning His back to the south, which had +crucified Him, and extending His arms on the Cross to bless and embrace +the north. He seemed to be withdrawing His favours from the east, 'to +bestow them on the west. Hence, if any region is accurst and inhabited +by Satan, it is the south and not the north." + +"You abominate the south and its races, that is evident," said the Abbe, +laughing. + +"I do not love them. Their scenery, vulgarized by crude daylight, their +dusty trees standing out against a sky of washerwoman's blue, have no +charm for me; as to the natives, hairy and noisy, with a blue bar under +their nostrils if they shave, I flee from them!" + +"Here, in short, we are face to face with a fact which no discussions +can alter. This side of the church is dedicated to the Virgin. Shall we +now examine it, first as a whole, and then in detail? + +"This portal, brought forward like an open porch, a sort of verandah in +front of the doors, is an allegory of the Saviour showing the way into +the heavenly Jerusalem. It was begun in the year 1215 under Philip +Augustus, and finished by about 1275, under Philip the Bold; thus it was +nearly sixty years in building, the greater part of the thirteenth +century. It is divided into three parts, corresponding to the three +doors behind it; there are more than seven hundred statues grouped here, +large and small, representing, for the most part, personages from the +Old Testament. + +"It forms, in fact, three deep bays or gulfs. + +"The central portal, before which we are standing, and which leads to +the middle door, has for its subject the Glorification of the Virgin. + +"The left-hand bay contains the life and virtues of the Virgin. + +"The right-hand bay is devoted to images of Mary Herself. + +"According to another interpretation, put forward by Canon Davin, this +porch, which was built at the time when Saint Dominic instituted the +Rosary, is a reproduction in images of its mysteries." + +"On that theory, the left-hand arch, containing the scenes of the +Annunciation, the Visitation, and the Nativity, answers to the Joyful +Mysteries; the central bay, containing the Assumption and Coronation of +the Virgin, to the Glorious Mysteries; and that to the right, where we +find a presentment of Job, precursor of the Crucifixion under the +ancient law, to the Sorrowful Mysteries." + +"There is a third interpretation," said Durtal, "but it is ridiculous. +That of Didron, who regards this front as the first page of the Book of +Chartres. He opens it at this porch, and asserts that the sculptors +began to render the Encyclopedia of Vincent de Beauvais by representing +the creation of the world. But if so, where are those wonderful +representations of Genesis hidden?" + +"There," said the Abbe, pointing to a row of statuettes lost in a hollow +moulding at the very edge of the porch. + +"But to ascribe so much importance to tiny figures which, after all, are +there merely to fill up, as stop-gaps--it is preposterous!" cried +Durtal. + +"No doubt. But now let us examine the work. + +"You will observe in the first place that, in opposition to the ritual +observed in most of the great churches of the time--those of Amiens, +Reims, and Paris, to name but three--it is not the Virgin who stands on +the pillar between the two halves of the door, but Her Mother, Saint +Anne; and inside, in the windows, we find the same thing: Saint Anne, as +a negress, her head bound in a blue kerchief, holds Mary in her arms, as +brown as a half-caste." + +"Why is this?" + +"No doubt because the Emperor Beaudouin, after the sack of +Constantinople, bestowed that Saint's head on this cathedral. + +"The ten colossal statues placed on each side of Her in the niches of +the porch are familiar to you, for they attend Our Lady in every +sanctuary of the thirteenth century--in Paris, at Amiens, at Rouen, +Reims, Bourges, and Sens. The five to the left are a series figurative +of the Son; the five on the right symbolize Our Lord Himself. They +stand in chronological order: the prototypes of the Messiah, or the +Prophets who foretold His birth, death, resurrection, and everlasting +priesthood. + +"To the left, Melchizedec, Abraham, Moses, Samuel, and David; to the +right, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Simeon, Saint John the Baptist, and Saint +Peter." + +"But why," remarked Durtal, "is the son of Jonas in the midst of the Old +Testament? His place is not there, but in the Gospels." + +"Yes, but you will observe that Saint Peter here stands next to Saint +John the Baptist; the two statues are side by side and touch each other. +Then do you not perceive the meaning of this juxtaposition? One was the +Precursor and the other the Successor of Christ; the first anticipated +Him, the second carried out His mission. It was quite natural to place +them together, and that the Chief of the Apostles should figure as the +conclusion to the premisses set forth by the other statues of this +portal. + +"Finally, in addition to this series of patriarchs and prophets, you may +see there, in the hollow between the pilasters, a pair of statues, one +on each side of the door: Elijah the Tishbite, and Elisha his disciple. + +"The first prefigures the Saviour's Ascension by his being carried up +alive to Heaven in a chariot of fire; the second typifies Jesus saving +and preserving mankind in the person of the Shunammite's son. + +"Argument is vain," murmured Durtal, who was meditative. "The Messianic +prophecies are irresistible. All the logic of the Rabbins, the +Protestants, the Freethinkers, all the ingenuity of the Germans, have +failed to find a crack or to undermine the old rock of the Church. There +is such a body of evidence, such certainty, such demonstration of the +truth, such an indestructible foundation, that a man must be stricken +with spiritual blindness to dare deny it." + +"Yes: and to the end that there should be no mistake, no possibility of +alleging that the inspired Scriptures were written subsequent to the +arrival of the Messiah they prophesy, to prove that they were neither +invented nor added to after the event, it was God's pleasure that they +should be translated into Greek in the Septuagint version and known to +the whole world more than two hundred and fifty years before the birth +of Christ." + +"To imagine the impossible--supposing the Gospels were to be +annihilated, they could, I suppose, be restored, and a brief history +written of the Saviour's life as they relate it merely by studying the +Messianic announcements in the books of the Prophets?" + +"No doubt; for, after all, and it cannot be too often repeated, the Old +Testament is the story before the event of the Son of Man and the +founding of His Church; as Saint Augustine bears witness, 'the whole +history of the Jewish people was a perpetual prophecy of the expected +King.' + +"You will see, apart from personages prefiguring the Redeemer which you +may find in every page of the Bible: Isaac, Joseph, Moses, David, Jonah, +to name five taken at random; apart, too, from the animals and objects +that symbolized Him under the Old Laws, as, for instance, the Paschal +Lamb, the Manna, the Brazen Serpent, and others, we can, if you please, +simply by quoting the Prophets, trace the broad outlines of Emmanuel's +life and epitomize the Gospels in a few words. Listen!" + +The Abbe paused for thought, his hand over his eyes. + +"That he should be born of a Virgin is foretold by Isaiah, Jeremiah, and +Ezekiel--that this Advent should be preceded by a special messenger, +Saint John, is noted by Malachi, whom Isaiah confirms, adding for +greater certainty that he should be as 'the voice of one crying in the +Wilderness.' + +"The place of His birth, Bethlehem, is mentioned by Micah; the adoration +of the Magi, offering gold, myrrh and frankincense, is announced by +Isaiah and the Psalm ascribed to Solomon. + +"His youth and His calling are clearly suggested by Ezekiel, who speaks +of Him as seeking the lost sheep, and by Isaiah, who tells beforehand of +the miracles He would perform on the blind and the deaf and dumb, and +who finally declares that He will be 'a stone of stumbling' to the Jews. + +"But it is when they speak of His Passion and Death that the prophecies +become mathematically exact, incredibly precise. The offering of palm +branches, the betrayal by Judas, and the price of thirty pieces of +silver appear in Zechariah; and Isaiah takes up the parable to describe +the rejection and opprobrium of Calvary: 'He was wounded for our +transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities.... The Lord hath laid +on Him the iniquity of us all.... He was despised and rejected of men; a +man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.... He was brought as a lamb +to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb.' + +"David expatiates on the dreadful scene: 'He was a worm and no man, a +very scorn of men and the outcast of the people.' + +"Details are multiplied. The wounds in His hands are spoken of by +Zechariah; David enumerates the circumstances of the Passion, word for +word: the pierced hands, the division of His raiment, casting lots for +the robe. The hooting of the Jews, bidding Him to save Himself if He be +the Son of God, is mentioned in chapter ii. of the Book of Wisdom, and +again by David; the gall and the vinegar offered Him on the Cross and +the very words of Jesus giving up the ghost are to be found in the +Psalms. + +"Nor is this the last of the prophecies to be found in the Old +Testament. + +"Its prophetic mission is carried out to the end. The establishment of +the Church in the place of the Synagogue is foretold by Ezekiel, Isaiah, +Joel, and Micah; and the Mass, the Eucharistic Sacrament, is plainly +adumbrated by Malachi, who declared that for the offerings of the Old +Law offered only in the Temple at Jerusalem shall be substituted 'a pure +offering to be offered in every place and by all nations'--by priests +chosen from among all people, Isaiah adds, and David says after the +order of Melchizedec. + +"Pascal very truly remarks that 'the fulfilment of the prophecies is a +perpetual miracle, and that no other proof is needed to show the divine +origin of the Christian Religion.'" + +Durtal had gone closer to the statues, standing by Saint Anne, and was +looking at one on the left wearing a pointed cap, a sort of papal tiara +with a crown round the edge, robed in an alb girt round the middle with +knotted cord, and a large cope with a fringe; the features were grave, +almost anxious, and the eye fixed with an absorbed gaze into the +distance. This figure held a censer in one hand, and in the other a +chalice covered with a paten on which there was a loaf; and this image +of Melchizedec, the King of Salem, threw Durtal into a deep reverie. + +He was, in fact, one of the most mysterious types of the Holy +Scriptures--this monarch mentioned in Genesis as the Priest of the Most +High God. He consummates the sacrifice of bread and wine, blesses Abram, +receives tithes from him, and then vanishes into the darkness of +history. And suddenly his name is found in a psalm of David's, who +declares that the Messiah is a priest for ever after the order of +Melchizedec, and again he is lost without leaving a trace. + +Then quite unexpectedly he reappears in the New Testament, and what +Saint Paul says of him in the Epistle to the Hebrews makes him more +enigmatical than ever. The apostle speaks of him as "without father, +without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor +end of life, but made like unto the Son of God, abiding a priest +continually." Saint Paul is explicit to show how great a person he +was--and the dim light he casts on this figure goes out. + +"You must confess that this King of Salem is a puzzle. What do the +commentators think of him?" asked Durtal. + +"They say but little. Only Saint Jerome observes that when Saint Paul +speaks of him as without parents, without descent, without beginning, +and without end, he does not mean to convey that Melchizedec came down +from Heaven or was created _ab initio_ like the first man, by the +Ancient of Days. The phrase simply means that he is introduced into the +history of Abraham without our knowing whence he came, who he was, when +he was born, or at what time he died. + +"In fact, the inscrutable part played by this prototype of Jesus in the +canonical Scriptures has led to the most grotesque legends and heresies. + +"Some have asserted that he was Shem, the son of Noah; others have +thought that he was Ham. Simon Logothetes considers him an Egyptian; +Suidas believes him to have belonged to the accursed race of Canaanites, +and that this is why the Bible says nothing of his ancestry. + +"The gnostics revered him as an Eon superior to Jesus; and in the third +century Theodore le Changeur also asserted that he was not a man, but a +virtue transcending Christ, because Christ's priesthood was but a copy +of Melchizedec's. + +"According to another sect, he was neither more nor less than the +Paraclete. But come, in the absence of early Scriptures what do the +seers say? Does Sister Emmerich speak of him?" + +"She tells us nothing precise," replied Durtal. "To her he was a sort of +priestly angel charged with the preparation for the great Act of +Redemption." + +"That is very much the view held by Origen and Didymus, who also +ascribed to him the angelic nature." + +"Thus she perceives him long before the advent of Abram in various +desert spots of Palestine; he unlocks the springs of Jordan, and in +another passage of the life of Christ she adds that it was he who taught +the Hebrews the culture of wheat and of the vine. In fact, she throws no +light on this insoluble enigma." + +"From the artist's point of view," Durtal went on, "Melchizedec is one +of the best statues in this porch. But what a strange face is that of +his neighbour Abraham, seen only three-quarters full, with hair like +rolled grass, a beard like a river god, and a long nose straight from +the forehead, coming down between the eyes without a bridge, like the +proboscis of a tapir, with cheeks that seem swollen with cold, and a +look--how shall I describe it?--of a conjuror who has made away with his +son's head." + +"In point of fact, he is listening to the commands of the angel, whom he +cannot see; observe, below on the pedestal the ram caught in the +thicket, and the symbolism is evident. + +"This is the Father sacrificing his Son, and Isaac is the very image of +the Son--Isaac bearing the wood to fire the altar, as Jesus bore the +Cross; then the ram becomes figurative of the Saviour, and the bush in +which he is caught by the horns is symbolical of the Crown of Thorns. + +"To do full justice to this subject and to the teaching by figures that +it contains, we ought also to have had the Patriarch's two wives carved +on the supporting pillar or plinth, and his other son Ishmael. For, as +you know, these two women are emblems, Hagar of the Old Dispensation, +and Sarah of the New; the former disappears to make way for the second, +the Old Law being merely the preparation for the New; and the two sons +born of these two mothers are by analogy the children of the Books, and +thus Ishmael represents the Israelites, and Isaac the Christians. + +"Next to Abraham, the father of believers, stands Moses, as a symbol of +Christ; for the deliverance of Israel is an image of the Redemption of +Man snatched by the Saviour from the devil, just as the passage of the +Red Sea is an image of Baptism. He holds the Table of the Law and the +staff round which the Brazen Serpent is twined. Then comes Samuel, in +many ways typical of Christ, the founder of the Royal Priesthood and of +Pontifical Kingship; and last of all, David holding the Lamb and Crown +of Calvary. + +"I need hardly remind you that this Prophet-King, more than any other +personage, prefigured the sorrows of the Messiah, and that he too, to +make the resemblance more perfect, had his Judas in the person of +Achitophel, who, like the later traitor, hanged himself." + +"You must admit," said Durtal, "that these statues, before which the +historians of this cathedral go into ecstasies, declaring in chorus they +are the highest achievement of thirteenth-century sculpture, are far +inferior to those of the twelfth century that adorn the great north +porch. How evident is the lowering of the divine standard! Their action +is freer, no doubt, and the play of drapery is broader. The rhubarb-stem +plaits of the robes are fuller, and have some movement, but where is the +grace as of a sculptured soul that we see in the royal porch? All these +statues, with their massive heads, are thick-set and mute, devoid of +communicative life. This is pious work--fine work, if you will--but +devoid of the 'beyond'; here is art indeed, but it has ceased to be +mysticism. + +"Look at St. Anne with her gloomy expression, either cross or +suffering--how far she is from the so-called Radegonde and Berthe! + +"With the exception of two, St. John and St. Joseph over there in the +innermost part of the arch, these are familiar figures. They also occur +at Reims and at Amiens. And do you remember the Simeon, the Virgin, and +the St. Anne at Reims? The Virgin so guilelessly charming, so +exquisitely chaste, holding out the Infant to Simeon, who stands mild +and devout in his solemn garb as High Priest. St. Anne--a head of the +same type as St. Joseph's, and as those of two angels on the same +frontal, standing by St. Nicasius, with his head cut off at the +brows--St. Anne with a smiling, arch expression and yet elderly--a sharp +little chin, large eyes, a thin, long, pointed nose, the look of a +youthful duena, kindly but knowing. + +"But, indeed, those image-makers excelled in creating these singular, +indefinable countenances. Do you recall Our Lady of Paris, later, I +believe, by a century? She is scarcely pretty, but so expressive, with +the smile of happiness parting such melancholy lips. Seen from one side +She is smiling at Jesus, watchful, almost sportive; it would seem as +though she were waiting for the Child to say some merry word before +laughing out; She is a girl-mother, not yet accustomed to her Child's +caress. Seen from another angle, this smile, apparently in the bud, has +vanished. The mouth is puckered in sorrow, and promises tears. + +"Perhaps when he succeeded in stamping on the face of Our Lady two such +opposite expressions of peace and of fear, the sculptor intended to +suggest at once the joy of the Nativity and the anticipated anguish of +Calvary. Thus he has portrayed in one and the same image, the Mother of +Sorrows and the Mother of Joy--has, without knowing it, embodied the +prototypes of the Virgin of La Salette and the Virgin of Lourdes. + +"And yet all this is inferior to the living and dignified art, so full +of individuality and mystery, that we see in the royal porch of +Chartres!" + +"I will not contradict you," said the Abbe Plomb. "Now that we have +studied the series of types placed on St. Anne's left hand, let us +consider the prophetic series on her right. + +"First we see Isaiah; the pedestal on which he stands represents Jesse +sleeping. The familiar stem, rooted in him, passes between the prophet's +feet, and the branches of the Virgin's ancestry according to the flesh +and the spirit, as they rise, fill the four courses of moulding in the +central arch. By his side is Jeremiah, who, meditating on the Passion of +Christ, wrote this lamentable passage which is read in the fifth lesson +of the second Nocturn on Easter Eve: 'All ye that pass by, behold and +see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow.' Next Simeon holding the +Infant whose Birth he had foreseen, at the same time with the sorrows of +the Virgin and the anguish of Golgotha; Saint John the Baptist, and +finally Saint Peter, whose dress is an interesting study since it is +copied from that of the thirteenth-century Popes. + +"With what care is every detail wrought! Admire the treatment of the +sandals, the gloves, the broidered amice, the alb, the maniple, the +dalmatic, the pallium marked with six crosses, the triple crown, the +conical tiara of brocaded silk, the pontifical breastplate, everything +is chiselled, pierced, and patterned as if by a goldsmith." + +"Very true. But how superior altogether is the Saint John to his fellows +on this front. What mastery we discern in that hollow, emaciated face, +as expressive as the others are dull. He is apart from the conventional +and hackneyed type. He stands upright, savage but mild, with his beard +in curling prongs, his lean frame, his raiment of camel-skin; we can +hear him speaking as he points to the Lamb carrying the hastate cross +surrounded by a nimbus, pressing it to his bosom with both hands. That +statue is sublime, and it is most certainly not by the same hand that +carved the Abraham, nor even his immediate neighbour, Samuel. This +prophet appears to be offering to David, who cares not, a lamb he is +feeling, head downwards. He is a butcher pricing his goods, weighing the +meat, inviting you to feel it, and hesitating to sell till he gets the +best price. How different from the Saint John!" + +"The tympanum of the door will have no charm for us," the Abbe went on. +"The death of the Virgin, Her assumption and coronation are more curious +to read of in the Golden Legend than to study in those has-reliefs which +are but an epitome. + +"We will proceed to the left-hand doorway. + +"It is much mutilated, in a lamentable state of ruin. Most of the large +statues have disappeared. There were once, it would seem, as on the +royal porch of Notre Dame at Paris and the southern porch at Reims, the +figures of the Synagogue and the Church; also Leah and Rachel, typifying +the active and the contemplative life, of which we shall decipher the +details recorded in the archivolt. + +"Of the large figures that remain, three are regarded as masterpieces: +the Virgin, Saint Elizabeth, and Daniel. + +"That is saying a great deal," cried Durtal. "They are stupid-looking +and the drapery is cold; the arrangement of their robes recalls the +Greek peplum; they have a prophetic savour of the Renaissance." + +"I will not contradict you; but what is really attractive is the scheme +of ideas expressed by the figures in the hollow mouldings of the arch +of this portal, based on an equilateral triangle. As to the tympanum, +which displays the Nativity, the calling of the Shepherds of Bethlehem, +the dream and adoration of the Kings, it is marred and worn by time; nor +is it in a style of art that can move us deeply. + +"Study the mouldings of the arch with the four rows of images that adorn +them. First the inner one, with its ten torch-bearing angels; the +second, illustrating the parable of the wise and foolish virgins; the +third, representing the _Psychomachia_, or struggle between the Virtues +and the Vices; the fourth, a row of twelve queens embodying the twelve +fruits of the Spirit; and linger over the enchanting series of statues +in the moulding at the very edge of the archway of the porch, +representing the occupations of the active and the contemplative life. + +"The active life, on the left, is imagined in accordance with the +picture of the virtuous woman in the last chapter of Proverbs. She is +seen washing wool in a bowl, carding it, stripping the flax, beating it, +spinning it on a distaff, and winding it into hanks. + +"On the right is seen the contemplative life; a woman praying, holding a +closed book, opening it, reading it; she shuts it to meditate on it, +teaches others, and falls into an ecstasy. + +"Finally, in the outermost hollow of the moulding of the arch, the +nearest to us and the most visible, there are fourteen statues of +queens, leaning on shields with coats-of-arms, and formerly holding +banners. The meaning of these statuettes has been much discussed, +especially of the second figure on the left, which is named '_Libertas_' +the word being carved in the stone. Didron believed them to represent +the domestic and social virtues; but the question has been finally and +definitively settled by the most erudite and clearsighted symbolist of +our day, Madame Felicie d'Ayzac, who, in a very edifying pamphlet +published in 1843 on these statues and on the animals of the Tetramorph, +has proved to demonstration that these fourteen queens are none else +than the fourteen heavenly Beatitudes as enumerated by Saint Anselm: +Beauty, Liberty, Honour, Joy, Pleasure, Agility, Strength, Concord, +Friendship, Length of Days, Power, Health, Safety, and Wisdom. + +"Is not this porch, as a whole, so closely set with imagery, one of the +most ingenious and interesting doorways known, from the points of view +of theology and of mysticism alike?" + +"And no less from the point of view of art. You are perfectly right; +these toiling and meditative women are so delicate and so loving, that +we can but regret that they should be hidden in the shadow of a cavern. +What artists must those have been who worked thus for the glory of God +and for their own satisfaction, creating marvels while knowing that no +man would see them!" + +"And they had not even the vanity to sign them; they were always +anonymous." + +"Ah! they were men of a different mould from us. Prouder souls, and +humbler." + +"And holier," added the Abbe. "Shall we now inquire into the iconography +of the right-hand portal? It has suffered less, and may be explained in +a few words. + +"This sculptured vault is, as you know, dedicated to types of Mary; but +we might more accurately say that it is devoted to prototypes of Christ, +for in this doorway, as in the other two, indeed, the image-makers of +the thirteenth century have made it their task to identity the Son with +the Mother." + +"In fact, most of the personages we have already studied relate more +especially to Christ. What, then, are those in the Old Testament, which +are more essentially proper to the daughter of Joachim, and transferred +in images of stone to be deciphered here?" + +"The allegories of the Virgin in the Scriptures are numberless. Whole +books, as the Song of Songs and the Book of Wisdom, allude in every +verse to Her beauty and wisdom. As to the non-human emblems that may be +applied to Her, you know them well: Noah's Ark, in which the Redeemer +dwells; the Dove, the Rainbow, as a sign of alliance between the Lord +and the earth; the burning bush whence came out the name of God; the +cloud of fire guiding Israel in the desert; the Rod of Aaron which alone +blossomed of those of the twelve tribes taken by Moses; the Ark of the +Covenant; Gideon's fleece; and a whole series, if possible, more +obviously representative; David's tower; Solomon's throne; the garden +enclosed and the fountain sealed of the Canticle; the dial of Ahaz; +Elijah's saving cloud; Ezekiel's doorway--and I mention none but those +of which the interpretation has received the seal and sanction of the +Fathers and Doctors of the Church. + +"As to the living beings that prefigured Her on earth, instances abound; +the greater part of the famous women of the Old Testament are but +anticipatory images of Her graces. Sarah, to whom an angel foretells the +birth of a son who is himself a type of the Son; Miriam, the sister of +Moses, who, by saving her brother from the river, freed the Jews; +Jephthah's daughter; Deborah, the prophetess; Jael, who, like the +Virgin, was called Blessed among women; Hannah, the mother of Samuel, +whose song of praise seems like a forecast of the _Magnificat_; +Jehosheba preserving Joash from the fury of Athaliah, as the Virgin +afterwards saved Jesus from the wrath of Herod; Ruth personifying both +the contemplative and the active life; Rebecca, Rachel, Abigail, +Solomon's mother, the mother of the Maccabees, who witnessed the death +of her sons; and again those whose names are inscribed under these +arches; Judith and Esther, the first representative of courageous +chastity, and the second of mercy and justice." + +"However, to avoid confusion, we will follow the statues in order as +they stand in this porch, three on each side. + +"On the left Balaam, the Queen of Sheba and Solomon. + +"On the right, Jesus the son of Sirach, Judith or Esther, and Joseph." + +"Balaam is this statue of a worthy peasant, smug and friendly, smiling +in his beard, a stick in his hand and a hat like a pie-dish; and the +Queen of Sheba, the woman who bends forward a little, looking as if she +were cross-questioning and arguing over some deed she condemned. But +what have these two persons to do with the life of the Virgin?" + +"Balaam is a type of the Messiah. It was he who prophesied that a star +should come out of Jacob and a sceptre rise out of Israel. As to the +Queen of Sheba, according to the teaching of the Fathers, she is an +image of the Church; Solomon's spouse, as the Church is the spouse of +Christ." + +"Well, well," muttered Durtal to himself. "The thirteenth century could +not give a fitting presentment of that queen, whom we picture to +ourselves as dressed with foolish magnificence, rocking on a camel +across the desert at the head of a caravan under the blazing sky across +the furnace of sand. Her charms have appealed to writers, and not the +smallest of them; Flaubert for one--this Queen Balkis, Mekida or +Nicaule. But in the '_Tentation de Saint Antoine_' she has failed to +assume any form but that of a puerile and flimsy creature, a skipping +and lisping puppet. In fact, no one but Gustave Moreau, the painter of +Salome, could represent the woman, a virgin and a courtesan, a casuist +and a coquette. He only could give life, under the flowered panoply of +dress and the blazing gorget of jewels, to the crowned foreign face, +with its smile as of an artless sphinx, come from so far to ask enigmas. +Such a woman is too complicated for the spirit and the ingenuous art of +the Middle Ages. + +"Indeed, the sculptured image is neither mysterious nor suggestive. She +is hardly pretty, and stands in the obsequious attitude of an advocate. +Solomon looks like a jovial good fellow. The two effigies on the other +side of the door might perhaps invite attention if they were not so +completely crushed by the third. Again a question. By what right does +the author of that admirable book 'Ecclesiastes' find a place in these +ranks of honour?" + +"Jesus the son of Sirach prefigures the Messiah as a Prophet and a +Doctor. As to the figure next to him, it may equally well be Judith or +Esther: her identity is doubtful; there is nothing that can help us to +determine it. + +"At any rate, as I told you but now, each is a harbinger of the Virgin. +As to Joseph persecuted and sold, a slave raised almost to the throne, +the merciful protector of his people, he is the prototype of Christ." + +Durtal paused to gaze up at the beardless face, with curling hair cut +close round. The youth wore a tunic under a surcoat embroidered round +the neck, and he stood motionless, a sceptre in his hand. He might be a +very young monk, humble, simple, and so far advanced in the mystic road +that he was unconscious of it. This statue was undoubtedly a portrait, +and it seemed certain that some refined and innocent novice had served +as a model to the artist. It was the work of a chastened and happy soul +superior to the crowd. "This one, even more than the St. John, is a +perfect dream," said Durtal to the Abbe, who assented with a nod, and +went on,-- + +"The sculptures over the arches are practically invisible, for you must +dislocate your neck to see them. Nor is the art they display exciting. +Only the subjects are interesting. Besides a row of angels bearing stars +and torches, they represent the achievements of Gideon; the story of +Samson, who, when a prisoner, rose in the night, and carrying away the +gates of Gaza, escaped from the town, as Christ broke the gates of +death, and escaped alive from His sepulchre; the history of Tobit, as a +divine paragon of mercy and patience; and finally, in the corner we find +a replica of the grand porch, the signs of the zodiac, and a calendar in +sculptured stone. + +"The tympanum, as you see, is divided into two portions. + +"In the upper part we see the Judgment of Solomon, as figuring the Sun +of Justice, Christ Himself. + +"In the lower half Job lies stretched on his dunghill, and the Messiah, +of whom he is a prototype, comes, supported by two angels, to give him a +palm-branch. + +"To complete the elucidation of the symbolism of these doorways, it now +only remains to glance at the three arches of the porch that precedes +them. Here we see chiefly the benefactors of the cathedral and the +saints of the See; also, mingled with these, certain prophets for whom +there was not room in the arches of the doors. This vestibule is, so to +speak, a postscript, a supplement added to the work. + +"Here, where we stand in the right-hand arch are Saint Potentien, the +first apostle of Chartres, and Saint Modesta, the daughter of Quirinus, +the Governor of the city, who killed her because she would not deny +Christ. Here you see Ferdinand of Castille. He presented certain windows +distinguished by his arms, _gules, three castles or_, side by side with +the azure shield and fleur-de-lys of France, in the principal window of +this front. Next to him that shrewd and severe face is probably that of +Baruch, the judge, and here, barefoot and burthened with a penitent's +satchel, you see Saint Louis, who loaded the cathedral with gifts and +inaugurated its use. + +"Under the porch of the middle door are two vacant pedestals, on which +formerly stood the effigies of Philip Augustus and Richard Coeur de +Lion, two of the most liberal donors to the church. On the other plinths +stand the Comte and Comtesse de Boulogne, a buxom dame with masculine +features, wearing a biretta; a prophet who is nameless, but no doubt +Ezekiel, for he is missing from the series in this porch; Louis VIII., +Saint Louis' father; and, finally, that king's sister Isabella, who +founded the Abbey of Longchamps under the rule of Saint Clare. She is +dressed as a nun, and next her in the shadow is a personage of the Old +Dispensation carrying a censer, like Melchizedec. Remark, too, the firm +and solemn mien of that priest, Zacharias, the father of John the +Baptist, whose canticle '_Benedictus_' foretells the blessings of +Christ. + +"Thus ends our review of this wonderful text-book of the Old Testament +types, and the historical memorial of those benefactors whose gifts +endowed the church with this sculptured imagery of the Ancient Word." + +Durtal lighted a cigarette, and they walked up and down in front of the +palace railing. + +"Setting aside the question of art," said Durtal, "in this long array of +Christ's ancestors there is one--David--who really confounds me, for he +is the most complex of all; at once so august and so small! he is quite +puzzling!" + +"Why?" + +"Well, only think of the life of the man who was by turns shepherd, +warrior, and outlaw chief, an omnipotent king and a fugitive without +either hearth or home; who was a wonderful poet and an exact prophet and +seer! And is not the monarch's character even more enigmatical than his +career? + +"He was mild and indulgent, devoid of rancour and hatred, and yet he was +ferocious. Remember the punishments he inflicted on the Ammonites; his +vengeance was appalling. He had them sawn asunder, cut them with harrows +of iron, and made them pass through the brick-kiln. + +"He was loyal, wholly devoted to the Lord, and just; but he committed +the crime of adultery, and ordered the death of the husband he had +betrayed. What contradictions!" + +"To understand David," said the Abbe Plomb, "you must not think of him +apart from his surroundings, nor take him out of the age in which he +lived, otherwise you measure him by the ideas of our own time, and that +is absurd. In the Asiatic conception of royalty, adultery was almost +permitted to a being whom his subjects regarded as superior to the +common run of humanity; besides, women were then as a species of cattle +belonging almost absolutely to him as the despot and supreme master. It +was but the exercise of his regal power, as has been plainly shown by +Monsieur Dieulafoy in his study of that king. And, on the other hand, if +he is accused of tortures and bloodshed, why, the whole of the Old +Testament is full of them! Jehovah Himself pours out blood like water, +and exterminates men as if they were flies. It is well not to forget +that the world then still lived under the Law of Fear. So it is not very +surprising that, with a view to terrifying his enemies, whose manners +and customs were not indeed any milder than his own, he should have +tortured the inhabitants of Rabbah and baked the Ammonites. + +"But in contrast to these acts of violence and the sins which he +expiated, see how generous he was to Saul, and admire the magnanimity +and charity of the man whom the followers of Renan would have us regard +as a bandit chief and outlaw. Remember, too, that he taught the world, +as yet ignorant, the virtues which at a later time Christ was to +preach--humility in its most touching form, and repentance in its +bitterest shape. When the prophet Nathan reproved him for the murder of +Uriah, he confessed his sin with tears, fell on his face before God, +bravely accepted the most terrible punishment: incest and murder in his +family, the rebellion and death of his son, treason, misery, and a +desperate flight in the woods; and with what urgency he implores for +pardon in the '_Miserere_,' with what love and contrition he cries to +the God he had offended! + +"He was a man whose vices were small and few if compared with those of +the kings of his time--of admirable and exceptional virtues if compared +with those of sovereigns of any time of every age. Why, then, fail to +understand that God should have chosen him as a precursor? Besides, +Jesus came to ransom sinners, He took upon Himself the sins of the whole +world. Was it not natural, then, that He should take to prefigure Him, a +man who, like others, had sinned?" + +"Yes; that is true, no doubt." + +And that evening, when he was away from the Abbe Plomb, from whom he +parted on the church steps, as Durtal stretched himself on his bed, he +recapitulated in his memory this theory of the Old Testament personages +and the sculpture in the porch. + +"To epitomize this north front," said he to himself, "it must be +regarded as an abridged history of the Redemption prepared so long +beforehand, a table of sacred history, a compendium of the Mosaic Law, +and at the same time foreshadowing the Christian law. + +"The vocation of the Jewish nation is set forth in these three doorways, +their whole mission from Abraham to Moses; from Moses to the Babylonian +Captivity; from the Captivity till the death of Christ, comprehending +three phases of its history: the making of Israel, its independent +existence, its life among the Gentiles. + +"And how slowly, with what difficulty, was this fusion of tribes +achieved! With what waste and what ejection of dross! What massacres +were needed to discipline those rapacious wanderers, to quell the greed +and licentiousness of the race!" + +And in a succession of bewildering images he beheld the irruption into +Judaea of the headlong and indignant prophets, hurling imprecations +against the crimes of the kings and the atrocities of that unstable race +perpetually tempted by the voluptuous worships of Asia, always rebelling +and complaining, and ready to break the iron bit with which Moses had +subdued them. + +And prominent in this group of declaiming judges, towering above the +masses, he saw Samuel, the man of contradictions, going whither the Lord +drove him, achieving work which he was destined to overthrow, creating +the monarchy which he reprobated, consecrating a fanatic king--a sort of +madman, who passes across behind the transparent sheet of history with +frantic and threatening gestures; and then Samuel has to overwhelm this +extraordinary Saul under the burthen of his curses, to anoint David +king--David, whom another prophet is to accuse of his crimes. And these +inspired men succeed each other, continuing from year to year their task +of guardians of the public soul, watching over the consciences of judges +and kings, expectant of the Divine word, and ready to proclaim it over +the head of the crowd; announcing disasters, ending often as martyrs, +prominent from beginning to end of the sacred annals till they disappear +in John beheaded by an Herodias! + +Then came Elijah, cursing the worship of Baal, contending with the +dreadful Jezebel; Elijah founding the first society of monks, the only +man of the Old Testament history except Enoch who did not die; and +Elisha, his disciple; the greater prophets Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, +and Daniel, and the groups of minor prophets announcing the advent of +the Son, rising up in commination or lamentation, threatening or +comforting the people. + +The whole history of Israel flowed along in a torrent of curses, rivers +of blood, oceans of tears! + +This dismal procession at last oppressed Durtal. With closed eyes he +suddenly beheld a patriarch who stood before him, and he recognized with +awe that this was Moses, an old man with a beard like a cataract, hair +sweeping his shoulders, a master workman whose powerful hands had +kneaded those rough Hebrews and coagulated their medley hordes. He was +indeed father and lawgiver to this people. + +Facing the scene on Calvary there rose before him the scene on Sinai, +the close and the opening of the great chronicle of the nation that was +dispersed by its own crime, enclosing the whole purpose of its existence +in the space between those two hills. + +A terrific spectacle! Moses alone on the smoking height, while +lightnings rend the clouds and the mountain trembles at the sound of the +invisible trumpet. Below, the awe-stricken people fly; and Moses, +unmoved amid the roar of thunder and the repeated fires of lightning, +listens to Him who Is, and who dictates the terms of His protection of +Israel; and then Moses, with shining face, descends from the Mount, +which, according to St. John Damascene, is the type of the Virgin's +Womb, as the smoke that rises from it is that of the desires and flames +of the Holy Spirit. + +Suddenly this picture vanished; the Patriarch remained, and by his side +appeared the first High Priest of the worship of Jehovah, whom the +sculptors had omitted to represent on the exterior of the porch, but +whose image the glass-workers have portrayed in a window of the same +front; Aaron, the great Pontiff, anointed by Moses. + +And this ceremony, during which Moses conferred the order of priesthood +on the person and the descendants of his elder brother, arose before +Durtal's fancy as a terrific scene. The details he had formerly read of +this ordination, the ceremonies lasting seven days, recurred to his +mind. After ablution and the anointing with oil, the holocaust of +victims began. Flesh sputtered on the walls, mingling the black stench +of burnt fat with the blue vapour of incense; the Patriarch anointed the +right ear and thumb and foot of Aaron and his sons with blood; then, +taking up the flesh of the sacrifice, he placed them in the hands of the +new-made priests, who rocked first on one foot and then on the other, +thus waving the offerings above the altar. + +Then all bowed their heads under a shower of oil mingled with blood with +which the Consecrator inundated them. They looked like slaughterers from +the shambles and lamp trimmers, all sprinkled as they were with clots of +red mire, on which glistened yellow eyes. + +And then, as in the swift change of magic-lantern slides, this savage +scene, this worn-out symbol of a splendid and subtle liturgy, stammered +out in a hoarse voice, disappeared, giving way to the solemn array of +Levites and priests marching in procession under the guidance of Aaron, +resplendent in his turban with the crown of gold above it, in his purple +robe, on its hem the open pomegranates of scarlet and blue, with +tinkling bells of gold; and he wore the linen ephod, girt with a girdle, +blue and purple and scarlet, and kept in its place by shoulder-pieces +fastened with onyx stones, his breastplate in a blaze, flashing sparks +that lighted up as he moved in the twelve gems of the breastplate. + +Again the scene changed. He beheld an amazing palace; under the shade of +its domes of giddy height, tropical trees and flowers were planted by +tepid pools; monkeys sported there, hanging in bunches to the boughs, +while long-drawn, insinuating melodies were scraped on stringed +instruments, and the rattle of tambourines made the eyed plumes quiver +in the peacocks' outspread tails. + +In this strange hot-bed, filled with clumps of flowers and of women, +this immense harem where his seven hundred princesses and his three +hundred concubines disported themselves, Solomon watched the whirl of +dances, gazed at the living hedge of women, seen against the background +of gold-plated walls, their bodies clothed only in the transparent veil +of vapour rising from resins burning on tripods. + +He appeared as a typical Eastern monarch, a sort of Khalif or Sultan, or +fairy-tale Rajah--the prodigious king at once polygamous, unbridled, +insatiable by luxury, and learned, artistic, peace-loving, the wisest +among men. In advance of the ideas of his time, he was the great builder +in Israel, and the commerce of the country was of his making. He left +such a reputation for wisdom and justice that he came at last to be +regarded as an enchanter and wizard. Even Josephus tells us that he +wrote a book of Magic, of incantations for laying evil spirits; in the +Middle Ages he was said to have owned a magic ring, charms, forms of +evocation, secrets for exorcism; and in all these legends the image of +the king becomes confused. + +And he would remain to this day a figure out of the Thousand and One +Nights, were it not that in the decline of his glory we see him as a +grandiose image of the mournfulness of life, the vanity of joy, the +nothingness of man. + +His old age was melancholy. Exhausted and governed by women, he denied +God and sacrificed to idols. We discern in him wide gaps, vast clearings +in the soul. Weary of everything, sick of enjoyment, and drunken with +sin, he wrote some admirable reflections and anticipated the blackest +pessimism of our day, summing up the misery of him who endures the +condemnation of living, in phrases that are its final expression. What +distress is that of the Preacher: All the days of man are sorrow, and +his travail grief; better is the day of death than the day of birth; all +is vanity and vexation of spirit. + +After his death, too, the old king remains a mystery. Had he expiated +his apostacy and his fall? Was he, like his fathers, received into +Abraham's bosom? And the greatest writers of the Church have not agreed +about it. + +According to St. Irenaeus, St. Hilary, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, St. +Ambrose, and St. Jerome, his penance was accomplished, and he is saved. + +According to Tertullian, St. Cyprian, St. Augustine, and St. Gregory the +Great, he did not repent to amendment, and so he is damned. + +Durtal turned over in his bed and tried to lose consciousness. +Everything was in confusion in his brain, and at last he fell into +disturbed slumbers mingled with hideous nightmares, in which he saw +Madame Mesurat standing in the place of the queen on a pedestal in the +porch; and Durtal fumed at her ugliness, raging against the Canons, to +whom he vainly appealed to remove his housekeeper and replace the queen. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + +This church symbolism, this psychology of the cathedral, this study of +the soul of the sanctuary, so entirely overlooked since mediaeval times +by those professors of monumental physiology called archaeologists and +architects, so much interested Durtal that he was able by its help to +forget for some hours the turmoil and struggles of his soul; but the +moment he ceased to ponder on the inner sense of things seen, he was as +bad as ever. + +The sort of requisition he had laid before the Abbe Gevresin, to put an +end to his tossing and decide for him one way or the other, was +distracting while it terrified him. + +The cloister! He must reflect a long time before making up his mind to +imprison himself. And the _pros_ and _cons_ tormented him in endless +alternation. + +"Here I am just where I was before I set out for La Trappe!" said he to +himself, "and the decision to be taken is even more serious; for Notre +Dame de l'Atre was but a temporary refuge. I knew when I went there that +I should not stay; it was a painful time to be endured, but it was only +a short time; whereas at this moment I have to come to a determination +from which there is no turning back, to go to a place where, if I once +shut myself in, I must stay till I die. It is imprisonment for life, +with no mitigation of the penalty, no pardon and release; and the Abbe +talks as if it were the simplest thing! + +"What am I to do? Renounce all freedom, be nothing but a machine, a +chattel, in the hands of a man I do not know--God knows I am willing! +But there are other and more pressing questions from my point of view; +in the first place, this matter of literature--to write no more, to give +up what has been the occupation and aim of my life; that would be +painful; still, it is a sacrifice I could make. But to write and then +see my language stripped and washed in pump-water, all the colour taken +out by another man, who may be a learned man or a saint, but have no +more idea of art than St. John of the Cross! That is too hard. That +one's ideas should be picked over and weeded, from the theological point +of view, I quite understand, nothing could be more just; but one's +style! And in a monastery, so far as I can learn, nothing is printed +till the Prior has read it; and he has the right to revise everything, +alter it--suppress it if he chooses. It would evidently be better not to +write at all, but this again is not a matter of choice, since under the +rule of obedience each one must submit to orders, and treat of any +subject in any way the Abbot commands. + +"And unless the master were very exceptional, what a stone of stumbling! + +"And then, besides this, which is to me the most important question of +all, there are others worth considering. From the little I have been +told by my two priests, the blessed silence of the Cistercians is not +the rule with the black-frocked Orders. Now, however perfect these +cenobites may be, they remain none the less men; or, to express it +otherwise, sympathy and antipathy live in constant and compulsory +friction; with very restricted subjects of discussion, living in +complete ignorance of all that is going on outside, conversation must +degenerate into chatter; at last the only interest of life centres in +trivialities, in petty questions which in such an atmosphere assume the +importance of events. + +"A man becomes an old maid, and how infinitely wearisome must this talk +be, unvaried by the unforeseen. + +"Finally, there is the question of health. In the convent nothing but +stews and salads! A disordered stomach before long, broken sleep, +crushing fatigue in an ill-treated frame--ah, all that is neither +attractive nor amusing! Who knows whether, after a few months of this +mental and physical rule, I should not have sunk into bottomless +dejection, whether the sloth of those monastic gaols would not have +crushed me and left me absolutely incapable of thought or action?" + +And he concluded:-- + +"It is madness to think of a cloistered life; I should do better to +remain at Chartres." + +But hardly had he made up his mind not to move, when the reverse of the +medal forced itself upon him. + +A convent! Why, it was the only logical existence, the only right life! +All these fears he suggested to himself were imaginary. In the first +place, as to his health. Had he forgotten La Trappe, where the food was +far more innutritious and the rule far stricter? Why be alarmed +beforehand? + +And, on the other hand, could he fail to perceive the need for +conversation, the wisdom of speech, relieving the solitude of the +cloister just when weariness might supervene? It was a remedy against +constant introspection, and exercise taken with others secured health to +the soul and gave tone to the body; and as for saying that these +monastic dialogues would be trivial, were the conversations he might +hear in any other society more edifying? In short, was not the company +of the Brethren far superior to that of men of any profession, +condition, or sort, whom he would be obliged to meet in the world +outside? + +And what, after all, were these trifles, these minor details in the +splendid completeness of the cloister? What were these petty +matters--mere nothings--in the scale as against peace, the cheerfulness +of the soul in the joy of the services and the fulfilment of the task of +praise? Would not the tide of worship cleanse everything, and wash away +the small defects of men, like straws in a stream? Was it not the case +of the mote and the beam, with the parts reversed--imperfections +discerned in others, when he was so far their inferior? + +"Constantly, at the end of every argument, I find my own lack of +humility," said he to himself. "What efforts are needed to remove the +mire of my sins! In a convent perhaps I might rub the rust off," and he +dreamed of a purer life, a soul soaked in prayer, expanding in communion +with Christ, who might perhaps, without too much soiling Himself, come +down to dwell in him. "It is the only life desirable," cried he. "It is +settled!" + +But then, like a douche of cold water, a reflection overwhelmed him. It +would in any case be the life in common, school-life, which would begin +again for him; it would be the garrison-rule of a convent! + +This floored him. Then he tried to fight against it, and lost patience. + +"Come, come!" he growled, "a man does not shut himself up in an abbey to +take his ease there; a convent is not a pious Sainte-Perine; he retires +there, I suppose, to expiate his sins and prepare for death. What, then, +is the use of expatiating on the kind of punishments to be endured? A +determination to accept them is all, to endure them and be strong!" + +Did he, then, sincerely long for suffering and penance? He dared not +answer himself. In the depth of his soul a hesitating "Yes" rose up, +smothered at once by the clamour of cowardice and fear. Why then go? + +He was only bewildering himself, and when the worst of this turmoil was +over he thought of a respite, or of some half-measure, some mild +mortification quite endurable, some repentance so slight as to be none +at all. + +"I am an idiot," he concluded; "I am fighting with the air; I am +puzzling myself with words, about habits of which I have no knowledge. +The first thing to be done is to visit some Benedictine monastery--nay, +several--to compare them, and to see for myself what the life is that is +led there. Then the matter as to the oblates must be cleared up; if the +Abbe Plomb is well informed, their fate depends on the caprice of the +Abbot, who can tighten or loosen the halter according to his more or +less domineering character. But is that quite certain? There were always +oblates throughout the Middle Ages; consequently they are controlled by +the secular law! + +"And all this is so human, so vile! For it is not a matter of disputing +texts and more or less accommodating clauses. It is a case of subjection +without reserve, of leaping boldly into the water; of giving oneself up +entirely to God. Any other view of the cloister is to regard it as a +citizen's home, and that is absurd. My apprehensions, my antagonism, my +compromises, are disgraceful! + +"Yes; but where can I find the necessary strength to brush myself clean +from this dust of the soul?" + +And at last, when he felt himself bruised by these alternating desires +and fears, he took refuge with Notre Dame de Sous-Terre. + +The crypt was closed in the afternoon, but he found his way in by a +small door in the sacristy inside the cathedral, and descended into +utter darkness. + +Having reached the crypt in front of the altar, he round once more the +doubtful but soothing odour of that vault, smoked by burning tapers, and +went forward in the soft, warm atmosphere of frankincense and a cellar. +It was even darker than in the early morning, for the lamps were out; +floating wicks only, shining through what looked like very thin +orange-peel, threw gleams of tarnished gold on the sooty walls. + +As he turned, with his back to the altar, he could see the low aisle in +retreating perspective, and at the end, as in a tunnel, the light of +day--unluckily, for it allowed him to discern certain hideous paintings +of scenes commemorating the ecclesiastical glories of Chartres: the +visit paid to the cathedral by Mary de' Medici and Henri IV.; Louis +XIII. and his mother; Monsieur Olier offering to the Virgin the keys of +the Seminary of Saint Sulpice with a dress of gold brocade; Louis XIV. +at the feet of Notre Dame de Sous-Terre; by the grace of heaven, the +remaining frescoes seemed extinct; at any rate, they lay in shadow. + +What was really blissful was to be alone with the Virgin, who looked +down, her dark face gleaming dimly in the gloom when a wick happened to +flicker with short flashes of brighter light. + +Durtal, kneeling before Her, determined to address Her, to say to Her,-- + +"I am afraid of the future and of its cloudy sky, and I am afraid of +myself, for I am wasting in depression and bewilderment. Thou hast +hitherto led me by the hand. Do not desert me; finish Thy work. I know +that it is folly thus to take care for the future, for Thy Son has said, +'Sufficient to the day is the evil thereof.' Still, that depends on +temperament. What is easy to some is so hard for others. Mine is a +restless spirit, always astir, always on the alert. Do what I will, it +wanders, feeling its way about the world, and gets lost! Bring it home, +keep it near Thee in a leash, kind Mother, and after so much weariness, +grant me to find rest! + +"Oh! to be no longer thus torn in sunder, to be of one mind! Oh! to have +a soul so quenched that it should know no sorrows, no joys, but those of +the liturgy, that it might only be claimed, day by day, by Jesus or by +Thee, and follow Your lives as they are unfolded in the annual cycle of +the Church services! To rejoice at the Nativity, to laugh on Palm +Sunday, to weep in Holy Week, and be indifferent to all else, to cease +to hold oneself as of any account, to care not at all for one's +individual self! What a dream! How easy it then would be to take refuge +in a cloister! + +"But is this possible to any but a saint? What a stripping of the soul +it presupposes; what an emptying out of every profane idea, of every +earthly image; what a taming of the subjugated imagination, never +venturing forth but on one track, instead of wandering haphazard as mine +does! + +"And yet how foolish is every other care--for all that does not tend to +Heaven is vain on earth. Aye, but as soon as I try to put these thoughts +into, practice, my jade of a soul plunges and rears; do what I will, it +only bucks and makes no advance. + +"Alas! Blessed Virgin, I do not seek to excuse myself and my sins. And +still I dare confess to Thee that it is discouraging, heart-breaking, to +understand nothing and see nothing! Is this Chartres where I am +vegetating a waiting-place, a halting-place between two monasteries, a +bridge leading from Notre Dame de l'Atre to Solesmes or some other +Abbey? Or is it, on the contrary, the final stage where it is Thy will +that I should remain fixed? But then my life has no further meaning! It +is purposeless, built and overthrown with the shifting of sands. To what +end, if this be the case, are these monastic yearnings, these calls to +another life, this all but conviction that I have stopped at a station, +and am not yet at the place whither I am to travel? + +"If only it might be now, as on other occasions when I have felt Thee +near me, when in response to my questions Thou hast answered me, if only +it might be here as at La Trappe, much as I suffered there! But no. I +hear Thee not--Thou dost not heed me." + +Durtal was silent. Then he went on,-- + +"I am wrong to address Thee thus," he said. "Thou dost not carry us in +Thine arms unless we be unable to walk; Thou hast care and caresses for +the poor soul born anew by conversion; but when it can stand it is set +down on the ground, and Thou lookest on while it makes trial of its +strength. + +"This is meet and right; but it does alter the fact that the memory of +those celestial alleviations, those first, lost joys is crushing to the +soul. + +"O Holy Virgin, Holy Virgin, have pity on the rickety souls that +struggle on so painfully when they are no longer upheld by Thee! Have +pity on the bruised souls to whom every effort is painful; on the souls +whom nothing can console, to whom everything is affliction! Take pity on +the homeless, outcast souls, the wandering souls, unable to settle and +dwell with their kind, the tender, budding souls! Take pity on all souls +such as mine! Have pity on me!" + +And before quitting the Mother he would often visit Her in those depths +where, since the Middle Ages, the faithful no longer seek her; he would +light an end of taper, and, turning aside from the nave of the crypt, +follow the curved line of the wall along the entrance passage as far as +the sacristy of this underground church, where in the ponderous +stone-work was a door strengthened with iron-work. + +Through and down a little flight of steps, he reached a cellar which was +the ancient martyrium where, of old, in time of war the ciborium was +concealed. An altar stood in the middle of this well, dedicated in the +name of Saint Lubin. In the crypt the distant hum of the bells, the +sounds of life in the cathedral above, could still be heard; here, +nothing! It was like being in the tomb. Unfortunately, some squalid, +square columns whitened with lime-wash, built on the altar to give +support to Bridan's group in the choir above, spoilt the barbaric +simplicity of this _oubliette_, forgotten, lost in the night of ages, +and underground. + +He went up again comforted nevertheless, accusing himself of +ingratitude, and asking himself how he could dream of leaving Chartres +and going away from the Virgin, with whom he could thus so easily +converse in solitude whenever he would. + +On other days, when it was fine, he would take for the object of his +walk a convent whose existence had been revealed to him by Madame +Bavoil. One afternoon he had met her in the square, and she had said to +him,-- + +"I am going to see the little Jesus of Prague at the Carmelite convent +here. Will you come with me, our friend?" + +Durtal had no liking for these petty pilgrimages made by good women; but +the idea of going to the Carmelite chapel, which was unknown to him, +tempted him to accompany her, and she led the way to the Rue des +Jubelines, behind the railway line and beyond the station. They had to +cross a bridge that groaned under the weight of rolling trains, and +turned to the right down a path winding between the embankment on one +side, and on the other thatched huts, and old sheds, and other houses +less poverty-stricken, indeed, but closed and impenetrable after +daybreak. Madame Bavoil led him to where this alley ended under the arch +of another bridge. Overhead was a siding, with its signals round and +square, red and yellow, and posts with cast-iron ladders; and there +always in the same place an engine was being fired, or, with shrill +whistling, was moving out backwards. + +Madame Bavoil stopped at a door under a round arch in an immense wall, +which not far off ran against the embankment, forming an impassable +angle; it was built of millstone grit of the colour of burnt almonds, +like that used for the Paris reservoirs; here dwelt the nuns of Saint +Theresa. + +Madame Bavoil, as being used to convent ways, pushed open the door which +stood ajar, and Durtal saw before him a paved walk between strips of +river pebbles, dividing a garden stocked with fruit-trees and geraniums. +Two yews, clipped into spheres, with a cross on the top of each, gave +this priestly close a graveyard flavour. + +The path led upwards, cut into steps. When they reached the top Durtal +saw a building of brick and plaster pierced with windows guarded by iron +bars, and a grey door with a wicket bearing these words painted in +white, "O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who put our trust in +Thee." + +He looked about him, surprised at seeing nobody, hearing nothing; but +Madame Bavoil beckoned to him, made her way round the house, and led the +way into a sort of vestibule along which clambered a vine wrapped in +swathing, and she turned into a little chapel, where she knelt down on +the flagstones. + +Durtal, amazed, seemed to breathe the melancholy that weighed on this +naked sanctuary. + +He was in a building of the end of the eighteenth century; in the +middle, raised on eight steps, stood an altar of wax-polished wood in +the shape of a tomb; above it was a shrine covered with a curtain of +white brocade and surmounted by a picture of the Annunciation, a washy +painting mounted in a gilt frame. To the right and left were two +medallions in relief, on one side Saint Joseph and on the other Saint +Theresa, and above the picture, close to the ceiling, were the arms of +the Carmelites, also in relief: a shield with a cross and stars beneath +a marquis's coronet, from which an arm emerges wielding a sword. This +was held up by fat little angels, the swollen infants of the sculptors +of that period, and floating in the air was a scroll bearing the motto +of the order: "_Zelo, zelatus sum, pro Domino Deo Exercituum_." + +Finally, to the right of the altar, the iron grating of the nunnery was +seen in an arch in the wall; and on the steps of the altar, inside the +railing for the communicants, an annoying statue was emerging from under +a gilt canopy--the Infant Christ holding a globe in one hand, and +raising the other as if to command attention; a statue of painted +plaster as of some precocious mountebank, with homage offered in this +deserted chapel, of two pots of hydrangea and a floating wick in a +crimson glass. + +"How cold and dismal is such _rococo_!" thought Durtal. He knelt down on +a chair, and by degrees his impressions underwent a change. This holy +place, saturated with prayer, seemed to let its ice melt and grow balmy. +It was as though visions percolated through the gate of the cloister and +shed warm puffs of air in the place. A sense of warmth of soul stole +over him, of being at home in this solitude. + +The only astonishing thing was to hear, in such remote seclusion, the +whistling of trains and the rumbling of engines. + +Durtal went out before Madame Bavoil had finished the rosary. Standing +in the doorway, he saw, just opposite, the cathedral in profile, but +with only one spire, the old belfry being hidden by the new. Under a +cloudy sky it stood massively solid, green and grey, with its roof of +oxidized copper, and the pumice-stone hue of the tower. + +"It is stupendous!" said Durtal to himself, recalling the various +aspects it could assume according to the season and the hour, as the +colour of its complexion varied. "The whole effect under a clear sky is +silvery grey, and if the sun lights it up it turns pale golden yellow; +seen from near, its skin is like a nibbled biscuit, a siliceous +limestone eaten into holes; at other times, when the sun is setting, it +turns crimson and appears like some vast and exquisite shrine, all rose +colour and green; and in the twilight it is blue, and seems to +evaporate into violet. + +"And those porches!" he went on. "That of the royal front is the least +variable; it remains of a cinnamon-brown half-way up, of a dull +pumice-grey as it rises; that on the south side, more eaten into by +lichens, is wearing green, while the arches on the north, with their +stones like concrete full of shells, suggest to the fancy a sea-grotto +left high and dry." + +"Well, our friend, are you dreaming?" said Madame Bavoil, tapping him on +the shoulder. + +"This Carmelite convent you see is a very austere house," said she, "and +as you may suppose, grace abounds;" and when Durtal murmured,-- + +"What a contrast between this dead spot and the railway that runs past +it, always in a stir!" she exclaimed,-- + +"Do you suppose that anywhere else you will find, side by side, such an +image of the contemplative life and the active life?" + +"And what must the nuns think as they hear these continual departures +for the outer world? Those who have grown old in the convent would, of +course, despise these calls, these invitations to live; the quietude of +their spirits must increase as they find themselves protected for ever +from the perils which the noisy rush of the trains must bring before +them every hour of the day and night; they will feel more drawn to pray, +for those whom the chances of life carry away to Paris, or bring back to +the country, outcasts from the city. But the postulants--the novices? In +the hours of desertion, of doubt as to their vocation, which must come +over them, is it not appalling to think of the constantly revived +memories of home, of friends, of all that they have left to shut +themselves up for ever in a convent? + +"As each asks herself whether she can endure watching and fasting, must +it not be a permanent temptation to rebel against being buried alive in +a tomb? + +"And I cannot help thinking of the appearance as of a reservoir that the +style of building gives to this Carmel. The image is precise, for the +convent is indeed a reservoir into which God dips to draw forth the good +works of love and tears, and restore the balance of the scales in which +the sins of the world are so heavy!" + +Madame Bavoil smiled. + +"A very old Carmelite nun," said she, "who had gone into this House +before railways were invented, died here hardly three months ago. She +had never been outside the walls, and never saw an engine or a railway +carriage. Under what form could she picture to herself the trains she +heard thundering and shrieking?" + +"As some diabolical invention, no doubt, since these conveyances carry +us to the wicked but delightful sins of towns," replied Durtal, smiling. +"But it is a curious case, nevertheless." + +He was silent; then, changing the subject, he said,-- + +"And do you still hold communion with Heaven, Madame Bavoil?" + +"No," she answered, sadly. "I no longer have any converse or any +visions. I am deaf and blind. God is silent to me." + +She shook her head, and, after a pause, she added, speaking to +herself,-- + +"Such a little thing is enough to displease Him. If He detects a trace +of vanity in the soul on which He shines, He departs. And as the Father +tells me, the mere fact of having spoken of the special graces +vouchsafed to me by Jesus, proves that I am not humble. In short, His +will be done!--And you, our friend, do you still think of taking shelter +in a cloister?" + +"I--my spirit still craves a truce; my soul is but shifting ballast." + +"Because, no doubt, you are not honest in your dealings. You behave as +if you meant to strike a bargain with Him; that is not the way to set to +work." + +"What would you do in my place?" + +"I should be generous; I should say to Him, 'Here I am, do with me as +Thou wilt. I give myself unconditionally to Thee. I ask but one thing: +Help me to love Thee.'" + +"And do you suppose that I have not blamed myself for my cowardice of +heart?" + +They walked on in silence. When they reached the cathedral, Madame +Bavoil proposed that they should pay a visit to Notre Dame du Pilier. + +They seated themselves in the gloom of the side aisle of the choir, +where the dark-toned windows were still further obscured by a poorly +executed wooden niche, in which the Virgin, as dark as her namesake in +the crypt, Notre Dame de Sous-Terre, stood on a pillar, hung round with +bunches of metal hearts and little lamps on coronas, from the roof. +Frames of tapers on each side shot up little tongues of flame, and +prostrate women were praying, their faces hidden in their hands or +upturned to the dark countenance, on which the light did not fall. + +It struck Durtal that the woes repressed in the morning hours were +poured out in the twilight; the faithful did not now come for Her alone, +but for themselves; each one brought a load of sorrows and opened it +before Her. What anguish of soul was poured out on the stones by these +women, leaning prostrate against the railing that protected the pillar +which each kissed as she rose. + +And the swarthy image, carved in the early part of the sixteenth +century, had listened, Her face invisible, to the same sighs, the same +complaints, from succeeding generations, had heard the same cries, +echoing down the ages, for ever lamenting the bitterness of life, for +ever expressing the desire, all the same, for length of days! + +Durtal looked at Madame Bavoil. She was praying with closed eyes, +kneeling on the stones and sitting on her heels, her arms hanging, her +hands clasped. How happy was she to be able thus to abstract herself. + +And he tried to force himself to say a prayer, quite a short one, in the +hope that he might succeed in getting to the end without letting his +mind wander. He began "_Sub tuum_"--"Under Thy protection do we take +refuge; Holy Mother of God, despise not us." What it was really +indispensable that he should obtain from the Father Superior was +permission to take his books with him into the monastery, and to have at +least a few pious toys in his cell. Ah--but how could he explain that +any profane literature was necessary in a convent, that, from an +artist's point of view, it was requisite to refresh one's memory of the +prose of Hugo, of Baudelaire, of Flaubert--"I am at sea again!" said +Durtal suddenly to himself. + +He tried to brush away these distractions, and went on: "Despise not the +prayers we put up to Thee in our needs--" And he was off again at a +gallop in his dreams--"Even supposing that no difficulty were made about +this request, the question would still remain as to submitting +manuscripts for revision, obtaining the _imprimatur_; and how would that +be arranged?" + +Madame Bavoil interrupted his wanderings by rising from her knees. +Recalled to himself, he hastily finished his prayer--"but deliver us +from all perils, glorious and blessed Virgin; Amen." And he parted from +the housekeeper on the steps of the church, going home much vexed by his +dissipation of mind. + +He there found a note from the Editor of the _Review_, which had +published his paper on the Fra Angelico in the Louvre, asking him for +another article. + +This diversion made him glad; he thought that this task might perhaps +preserve him from vain thoughts of his discomfiture at Chartres and his +fancy for the cloister. + +"What can I send to the _Review_?" said he to himself. "Since what they +chiefly ask for is criticism of religious art, I might write some short +study of the early German painters. I have ample notes, made on the spot +in the galleries there; let us see!" + +He turned them over, lingering to read a note-book containing his +impressions of travel. A summing up of his remarks on the School of +Cologne arrested his attention. + +At every page he gave vent to his surprise in more and more vehement +exclamations, at the false ideas and absurd theories put forward for so +many years with regard to these pictures. + +Every writer, without exception, had expatiated, each more +enthusiastically than the last, on the pure and religious art of these +early painters, speaking of them as seraphic artists who had depicted +superhuman beauty, white and sylph-like Virgins all soul, standing out +like celestial visions, against backgrounds of gold. + +Durtal, prejudiced by the unanimity of this universal praise, expected +to find almost impalpably fair angels, Flemish Madonnas, etherealized in +some sort, having shed their husk of flesh, rapturous Memlings with eyes +full of heaven, and bodies that had almost ceased to be--and he +remembered his dismay on entering the galleries of the Cologne Museum. + +In point of fact his disenchantment had begun as soon as he stepped out +of the train. Carried in the course of a night from Paris to that city, +he had made his way through narrow streets where every basement window +exhaled the fragrance of _sauerkraut_, and he had reached the cathedral +square, beautified by Farina's shop-signs, where in front of the famous +Dom he had been obliged to confess that this facade, this exterior, was +a huge piece of patchwork--a delusion. Every part of it was furbished +up, and the church sheltered no sculpture under its portals; it was +symmetrical, built by peg and line; its rigid forms, its hard outlines +were an offence. + +The interior was better, in spite of the vulgar blaze, the cheap +fireworks, of ignoble modern glass. And there, in a chapel near the +choir, might be seen, for a consideration, the most famous picture of +the German school, the _Dombild_, by Stephan Lochner, a triptych +representing the Adoration of the Magi on the centre panel, with St. +Ursula on the left hand shutter and St. Gereon on the right. + +Durtal's consternation had risen to the highest pitch. The work was thus +arranged. Against a gold background, a Virgin, crowned, red-haired, +bullet-headed, dressed in blue, held on her knees an Infant blessing the +Kings, two kneeling on each side of the throne. One, an old fellow with +a short beard like a retired officer, and hair curled like shavings over +his ears, was sumptuously arrayed in crimson velvet brocaded with gold, +his hands clasped; the other, a dandy with long hair and a large beard, +dressed in green shot with gold and trimmed with fur, held up a golden +cup. And behind each, other figures were standing, flourishing their +swords and standards, in cavalier attitudes, and posing for the public, +thinking much more of the visitors than of the Virgin. + +This, then, was the type of Madonna, of the supersensual and sublimated +Virgins of Cologne! This one was puffy, redundant, chubby; she had the +neck of a heifer, and flesh like cream, or hasty pudding, that quivers +when it is touched. Jesus, whose expression was the only interesting +feature of the picture, a certain manly gravity that was shown without +any disfigurement of the character of childhood, was also round and +well-fed, and the scene took place on a lawn strewn with +flowers--primroses, violets, and strawberries painted in fine stipple +with the touch of a miniaturist. + +You might call this picture what you pleased, the execution, smooth and +wavy, and cold in spite of the brilliant colours, was a finished piece +of work, brilliant, dexterous--but not religious; it betrayed a +decadence; the work was laboured, complicated, pretty, but it was in no +sense that of an early master. + +This common, squat Virgin, fat and pudgy, was simply a good German girl, +well-dressed and squarely seated, but she could never have been the +ecstatic Mother of God! Then these kneeling and standing men were not in +prayer; there was no devotion in this picture; the personages were all +thinking of something else, folding their hands and looking round at the +painter who was depicting them. As to the wings, it were better to say +nothing about them. What was to be thought of the Saint Ursula with a +prominent forehead like a cupping-glass and a burly stomach, surrounded +by other creatures as shapeless as herself, their squab noses poking out +of the bladders of lard that did duty for their faces? + +And Durtal found the same impression of insensibility to mysticism in +the picture gallery. There he could study Stephan Lochner's precursor, +Master Wilhelm--the first early German painter whose name is known--and +in this again he found the look of elaborate chubbiness as in the +Dombild. Wilhelm's Virgin was indeed less vulgar than the Virgin of the +cathedral; but in feeling she was equally insipid, over-finished, and +even more simperingly pretty. She was the triumph of delicate pertness, +and had the look of a stage chamber-maid with her hair crimped over her +forehead. And the child, twisted into an unnatural attitude, while he +caressed his Mother's chin, turned his face round to be the better seen. + +In short, this Virgin was neither human nor divine; she had not even the +too realistic touch of Lochner, and could, no more than the other, have +been the chosen Mother of God. + +It is indeed strange that these very early painters should have begun +where painting as an art ends, in mere finish and smoothness; men who +from the first put sugar in their new wine and betray their lack of +energy, of enthusiasm, of simplicity, while no faith projects itself +from their work. They are the very converse of every other school; for +everywhere else, in Italy, Flanders, Holland, Burgundy, pictures began +by being clumsy and unfinished, barbarous and hard, but at least ardent +and pious! + +As he studied the other pictures in this collection, the mass of +anonymous work, the paintings ascribed to the Master of the Lyversberg +Passion, and the Master of the Saint Bartholomew, Durtal came to the +conclusion that the School of Cologne had known nothing of mysticism +till it had felt the influence of the Flemish painters. It had needed a +Van Eyck, and the yet more exquisite Roger van der Weyden, to breathe +the air of Heaven into these craftsmen. They thus had changed their +manner, had imitated the ascetic innocence of the Flemings, had +assimilated their tender piety and simplicity, and, in their turn, had +sung the glory of the Mother and mourned over the sufferings of the Son +in ingenuous hymns. + +"This school may be thus summed up," said Durtal. "It is the triumph of +padding and puffing, the apotheosis of fatness and sheen, and this has +nothing to do with Christian art in the true sense of the word. + +"If we want to understand the whole personal character of German +religious painting, we must study other schools than this, the only one +ever spoken of, and always with praise. We must turn to the less +familiar schools of Franconia and Swabia; there we find the very +opposite. As art it is savage and rough, but it lives--it weeps, nay it +cries aloud, but it prays. We must look at the works of these unkempt +geniuses, such as Gruenewald, whose Christs, rebellious and wrathful, +grind their teeth; or Zeitblom, whose 'Veronica's veil,' in the Berlin +Museum, is unpleasant, no doubt; the angels have black leather crosses +on their breasts, and the Saviour's head is terrible, horrible; still +there is such energy in the work, such decision, such crudity, that the +very sincerity of its ugliness is impressive. + +"Certainly," Durtal went on, "even setting apart such daring painters as +Gruenewald, I prefer many an unknown artist whose work is strange rather +than beautiful, but at any rate mystical, to the honey and lard of +Cologne; for instance, an anonymous painter who is to be found in the +Grand Duke's collection at Gotha, as the author of one of those curious +Mass-scenes which in the Middle Ages were called the 'Mass of Saint +Gregory,' wherefore, we know not." + +Durtal turned over his note-book and read through the description he had +recorded of this work, which he remembered as an instance of a sort of +pious brutality. + +The picture was set out on a gold background. A little above the altar, +but scarcely higher, a wooden sarcophagus, a sort of square bath, was +seen, with a board over it from end to end. On this plank-bridge sat the +Christ, His legs hidden in this tomb, holding a cross. His face was +haggard and hollow, He was crowned with green thorns, and His emaciated +body was spotted all over by the ends of the scourges as if the wounds +were flea-bites. Over Him, in the air, floated the instruments of the +Passion: the nails, the sponge, a hammer and a spear; to the left, on a +very small scale, were the busts of Jesus and of Judas, near a pedestal +on which lay three rows of pieces of silver. + +In front of this altar, adoring this truly hideous Saviour painted in +accordance with the prophetic descriptions of Isaiah and David, were +Pope Gregory on his knees, his hands clasped, a grave Cardinal, whose +hands were hidden under his robe, and a rough-looking Bishop, standing, +in a dark green cloak embroidered with gold; he held a cross. + +It was enigmatical and it was sinister, but those austere and commanding +faces were alive. There was a stamp of faith, indomitable and resolute, +in those countenances. It was harsh to the palate, the roughest wine of +mysticism; but at least it was not the mawkish syrup of the early +Cologne painters. + +"Ah! that mystical breath by which the soul of the artist becomes +incorporate in the colour on a canvas, in the lines of carved stone, in +written words, and speaks to the souls of those who can understand! How +few have had it!" thought Durtal, closing his notes of travel. In +Germany it may be seen in the very bunglers among painters; in Italy, +setting aside Angelico, whose works reveal his saintly spirit and are +the coloured image of his secret soul, and his pupil, Benozzo Gozzoli, +the last of the Mediaeval painters; if we also except his precursors: +Cimabue, the survivors of the rigid Byzantines, Giotto--who thawed those +fixed and puzzling figures, Orcagna, Simone di Martino, Taddeo +Gaddi--all the very early painters--how much dexterous trickery do we +find among the great painters, mimicking the religious note, and +producing a deceptive imitation by sheer sham. + +"The Italians of the Renaissance, above all others, excelled in this +spurious piety, and those are comparatively rare who, like Botticelli, +were honest enough to confess that their Virgins were Venuses and their +Venuses Virgins. + +"The Berlin gallery, where he is to be seen in some exquisite and +triumphant examples, shows this very plainly; we see the two versions of +the type side by side. + +"First we have a wonderful Venus, nude, with pure gold hair brought +round her body by one hand, standing out in her white flesh against a +black background, gazing with limpid grey eyes, liquid with the colour +of stagnant water, and edged with lids like a young rabbit's--pink lids; +she must have wept much, and her disconsolate look, her drooping +attitude, suggest some far-away thought of the unsatisfied weariness of +the senses and the intolerable unrest of horrible desires that nothing +can satisfy. + +"And not far away is a Virgin, very like her--indeed her very self, with +her sensitive, slightly upturned nose, her lips like a folded +clover-leaf, her brackish eyes, her pink lids, her golden hair, her +greenish complexion, her strongly-moulded frame and large hands. The +countenance is the same, fretful and weary; it is evident that the same +model sat for both. They are both purely pagan. For the Venus, well and +good! But the Virgin! + +"It may be added that in this picture a row of torch-bearing angels +makes the result, if possible, even less Christian, for these delightful +creatures, with their ambiguous smiles and supple grace, have all the +dangerous attraction of wicked angels. They are Ganymedes, borrowed from +mythology, not from the Bible. + +"How far we are from God with this paganism of Botticelli's!" said +Durtal to himself. "What a difference between this painter and that +Roger van der Weyden whose Nativity is the glory of one of the adjoining +rooms in that magnificent Old Museum of Berlin!" + +Ay, that Nativity!--He had only to turn to his notes to see it plainly +before him. + +Painted as a triptych, on the right wing was an old man in front of some +wondering bystanders, burning incense to the Virgin, who is visible +through an open window above a landscape in distant perspective with +avenues undulating to the horizon; while a woman, her head dressed in a +muffler that is almost a turban, touches the old man's shoulder with one +hand and raises the other with an indescribable gesture of surprise and +joy, her face expressive of ecstasy. On the left wing kneel the three +Kings, their hands uplifted, their eyes raised to Heaven, contemplating +an Infant beaming from the heart of a star; nothing can be more +beautiful than these three transfigured faces; and these are praying +with all their heart, never troubling themselves about us. + +Still, these two divisions are but accessory to the central subject +which they complement, and which is thus arranged: + +In the middle, in front of a sort of ruined palace or columnar cow-shed +without a roof, the Virgin kneels in prayer before the Babe; to the +right the donor, the Chevalier Bladelin, is seen, also kneeling, and on +the left Saint Joseph, holding a lighted taper, gazes down on Jesus. +There are besides six little angels, three below at the door of the +stable and three above in the air. This is the whole scene. + +It is noteworthy that the goldsmith's work, the mingled splendour of +Oriental hangings, the brocades hemmed with fur and strewn with gems of +which Van Eyck and Memling made such free use to array their figures of +the Virgin and the donors, are not to be seen in this panel. The +textures are rich and heavy, but have none of the gorgeous colouring of +the silks of Bruges or the carpets of Persia. Roger van der Weyden seems +intentionally to have reduced the whole setting of the scene to its +simplest expression, and yet, while using an unaffectedly sober key of +colour, he has produced a masterpiece of pure and lucid harmony. + +Mary, with no diadem, no jewelled band, not a bracelet or a gem, her +head simply crowned by a few golden rays, is seen in a white dress, +closed to the throat, and a blue cloak of which the ample folds lie on +the ground; the sleeves of her under dress, fastened at the wrists, are +of a rich blue violet, more nearly black than red. + +Her face is indescribable; of superhuman loveliness, with long red-gold +hair; the brow high, the nose straight, the lips full, the chin small; +but words are of no avail; what cannot be described is the expression of +candour and sadness, the tide of love that rises to those downcast eyes +as she looks down on the tiny, helpless Babe, round whose head there is +a rosy nimbus starred with gold. + +Never was there a more unearthly and yet more living Virgin. Neither Van +Eyck, with his rather vulgar and never beautiful heads, nor +Memling--more tender and refined, no doubt, but limited to his ideal of +a woman with a round forehead and a face shaped like a kite, wide above +and pointed below--ever achieved the elegance of form or the purity of a +woman made divine by love, a being who, even apart from her surroundings +and bereft of the attributes by which she is recognizable, could be none +other than the Mother of God. + +By her side the Chevalier Bladelin, dressed all in black, with his +equine type of face, his shaven cheeks, his dignity, at once priestly +and princely, is lost in contemplation, far away from the world; he is +praying in good earnest. And Saint Joseph, opposite to him, represented +as a bald old man, with a short beard, and wearing a red cloak, comes +forward as if amazed at his happiness, and scarce daring to believe that +the moment has come when he may adore the Messiah born at last; he +smiles, deferentially, mildly stepping with the almost clumsy care of an +old man who would fain be serviceable but fears to intrude. + +To make the whole thing more than perfect, above the figure of Pierre +Bladelin extends a wondrous landscape, cut across by the High Street of +Middelburg, the town founded by this nobleman, a street bordered by +castellated houses with battlements and church towers, and vanishing in +a country scene lighted up by a clear sky, a blue spring day; above +Saint Joseph a meadow and woods, sheep and shepherds, and three +exquisite angels in robes, one of pinkish yellow, one of purple like a +campanula, and one of greenish citron hue; three really ethereal beings, +having no relationship with the pertly innocent pages invented by the +Renaissance. + +If we sum up the whole impression produced by this work, we are led to +the conclusion that mystical art, still dwelling on earth, and not +restricted to scenes in Heaven, as Angelico had chosen to limit it in +his "Coronation of the Virgin," has produced in Roger van der Weyden's +triptych the purest effluence of prayer to be found in painting. Never +has the Nativity been so gloriously set forth, nor, it may be said, more +artlessly and simply expressed. The masterpiece of the Christmas +festival is at Berlin, just as the masterpiece of the Deposition is at +Antwerp, in the agonized and magnificent work of Quentin Matsys. + +"The early Flemish painters were the greatest that ever lived!" said +Durtal to himself, "and this Roger Van der Weyden, or Roger de la +Pasture as he is sometimes called, crushed between the fame of van Eyck +and of Memling--as Gherard David was later, and Hugo van der Goes, +Justus of Ghent, and Dierck Bouts--was in my opinion superior to them +all. + +"And after them what a falling away! Theatrical Crucifixions, the fleshy +coarseness of Rubens which Vandyck tried to mitigate by making it +leaner. We must leap into Holland to find the mystic accent once more, +and it reveals itself in the soul of a Judaizing Protestant, under an +aspect so mysterious and eccentric that at first sight we hesitate, +feeling ourselves, as it were, to make sure that we are not mistaken in +regarding this as religious art. + +"Nor need we go to Amsterdam to verify the truth of this impression. It +is enough to go to see the 'Disciples at Emmaus,' in the Louvre." + +Durtal, started on this theme, fell into a reverie over Rembrandt's +strange conception of Christian aesthetics. It is evident that in his +mode of depicting Gospel scenes this painter still exhales a breath of +the Old Testament; his church, even if he had meant to paint it as it +was in his day, would still be a synagogue, so strong is the odour of +the Jew in all his work; he is possessed by the imagery, the prophecies, +all the solemn and barbarous side of the East. And this we can +understand when we know that he was the companion of Rabbis, whose +portraits he has left us, and the friend of Manasseh ben Israel, one of +the most learned men of his age. On the other hand, we may admit that +this Protestant Dutchman engrafted on this stock of cabalistic learning +and Mosaic ceremonial an attentive and assiduous study of the Old +Testament, for he possessed a Bible, which was sold by auction with his +furniture to pay his debts. + +This would be enough to justify his choice of subjects and the +composition of his pictures; but the riddle remains unsolved of the +results achieved by an artist whom we cannot conceive of, after all, as +praying before he would paint: like Angelico and Roger van der Weyden. + +Be this as it may, he, with the eye of a visionary, with his serious but +fervid art, his genius for concentration, for getting a spot of the +essence of sunlight into the heart of darkness, has accomplished great +results; and in his Biblical scenes has spoken a language which no one +before him had even attempted to lisp. + +Is not this picture of the Pilgrims to Emmaus a typical instance of +this? Pull the work to pieces; it ought to seem dull, monotonous, +voiceless. As a composition it is utterly common: we see a sort of +cellar of stone-work, a table facing us, behind which sits Jesus, His +feet bare, His lips colourless, His complexion muddy, His raiment of a +pinkish grey; He is breaking the bread, while, to His right, an apostle, +clutching his napkin, looks at Him, fancies he recognizes Him, and on +the left another disciple, quite sure that he knows Him, clasps his +hands--and this one utters a cry of joy that we can hear! A fourth +figure, with an intelligent profile, sees nothing, but, attentive to his +duties, waits on the guests. + +It is a meal of humble folk in a prison; the colours are limited to a +key of sad greys and browns, excepting in the case of the man who twists +his napkin, whose sleeves are thick with a vermilion like red +sealing-wax, while the others might be painted with dust and pitch. + +These are the literal facts; but they are not the truth, for everything +is transfigured. The head of Christ is luminous merely by the way He +looks up; a pale radiance fills the room. This Jesus, ugly as He is, +with lips like death, asserts Himself by a gesture, a look of ineffable +beauty, as the murdered Son of a God! + +We stand dumfounded, not even trying to understand; for this work, +stamped with transcendent naturalism, is beyond and apart from painting; +no one can copy or reproduce it. + +"After Rembrandt," Durtal went on, "there is an irremediable decay of +religious feeling in painting. The seventeenth century has not left a +single picture in which there is a genuine stamp of manly devotion; +excepting, indeed, in Spain at the time when Saint Theresa and Saint +John of the Cross flourished there; then the mystical realism of its +painters produced some fiercely fervid works;" and Durtal recalled a +picture by Zurbaran he had seen and admired in the Gallery at Lyons, +Saint Francis of Assisi standing upright in a habit of grey serge, the +cowl over his head, his hands hidden in his sleeves. + +The face looked as if it had been moulded or chiselled out of cinders; +the mouth was open, livid, below ecstatic eyes as white as if they had +been blinded. It was a wonder how this corpse, of which nothing was left +but the bones, could hold itself up; and terror came over the beholder +as he thought of the excessive maceration and overwhelming penances that +must have exhausted that frame and seamed that face. + +This painting was the evident outcome of the relentless and terrible +mysticism of Saint John of the Cross, the art of the rack, the _delirium +tremens_ of divine intoxication here on earth; aye, but what a passion +of adoration, what a voice of love stifled by anguish found utterance in +this canvas. + +As to the eighteenth century, it was not worth a thought; that century +was the age of the belly and the bath-room; as soon as art tried to +touch the Church it only made a washing-basin into a holy-water stoup. + +In our own time, again, there is nothing to note. + +Overbeck, Ingres, Flandrin--all sorry jades harnessed willy-nilly to +religious tasks by commissions from the pious. In the church of Saint +Sulpice Delacroix extinguishes all the feeble art that surrounds him, +but his sense of Catholic art is null. + +In truth, faith is now dormant, and without that no mystical work is +possible! + +At the present moment Signol is dead, but Olivier Merson is left; +vacuity all along the line. We need not take into account the got-up +absurdities and paintings to puzzle Rosicrucian simpletons; nor, again, +the feeble imagery of the wealthy idlers or the worthy youths who fancy +that if they paint a woman larger than life, that makes her mystical. +Silence would befit the subject, only that, unluckily, a well-meaning +publisher was struck by the idea of mobilizing the clerical forces to +hail James Tissot as an evangelical painter. His Life of Christ is one +of the least religious works conceivable, for, in fact, it might be +regarded as a hesitating paraphrase of the Life of Jesus as narrated by +that cheerful apostate and terrible jester, Renan. + +The firm of Mame has completed this artist's treason by the issue of +these melancholy chromo-lithographs. Under the pretext of realism, of +information acquired on the spot, of authenticated costumes--all +extremely doubtful, since we should be forced to conclude that nothing +has changed in Palestine in the course of nineteen centuries--Monsieur +Tissot has given us the basest masquerade that anyone has yet dared +present as an illustration of the Scriptures. Look at that disreputable +trull, a street slut tired of shouting "This way to the boats!" till she +falls fainting. This is the _Magnificat_, the Blessed Virgin. That +epileptic boy with outstretched arms is Jesus in the Temple. Look at the +Baptism, the Pharisee and the Publican, the Massacre of the Innocents, +the Saint Peter walking on the Sea, the Magdalen at the feet of Jesus, +the ridiculous _Consummatum est_--look at them all: these prints are +matchless for platitude, effeteness, poverty of spirit. They might have +been designed by the first-comer, and are painted with muck, wine-sauce, +mud! + +Certainly the hapless Catholics have no luck when once they try to +meddle with what they do not understand; their incurable lack of +artistic sense is once more displayed in this attempt over which the +whole world of art and letters is laughing in their sleeve. + +"Then is there nothing, absolutely nothing, to the credit side for the +Church?" exclaimed Durtal. "And yet some attempts at ascetic art have +been made in this century. A few years since, the Benedictine House at +Beuron, in Bavaria, tried to revive ecclesiastical art"; and Durtal +remembered having looked through some reproductions of mural frescoes +painted by these monks in a tower at Monte Cassino. + +These frescoes had gone back to the types of Assyria and Egypt, with +their crowned gods, their sphynx-headed angels having fan-shaped wings +behind their heads, their old men with plaited beards playing on +stringed instruments; and then the Friars of Beuron had given up this +hieratic style, in which, it must be owned, they succeeded but ill, and +in certain later works--especially in a volume of the Way of the Cross, +published at Freiburg in Breisgau--they had adopted a strange medley of +other styles. + +The Roman soldiers who figured in those pages were huge firemen, a +bequest from the schools of Guerin and David; and then, unexpectedly, in +certain plates where the Magdalen and the Holy women appeared, a younger +spirit seemed to prevail among the commonplace groups--Greek female +types derived from the Renaissance, pretty and elegant, evidently +imported from the works of the pre-Raphaelites, and strongly recalling +Walter Crane's illustrations. + +Thus the ideal at Beuron had developed into an alloy of the French art +of the First Empire and contemporary English work. + +Some of these compositions were all but laughable, that of the Ninth +Station, to mention one: Christ lying at full length on His face, and +being pulled up by a rope tied to His bound hands; it looked as if He +were learning to swim. Still, but for feeble and vulgar incidents, +clumsy and obvious details, what strange scenes suddenly rose before his +mind, distinct from the mass: Veronica on her knees before Jesus, was +really distracted with grief, really fine; the borrowed or copied +figures of the other persons represented disappeared; even in the least +original of these compositions the coarse, unsatisfactory utterances of +these monks spoke an almost eloquent language; and this because intense +faith and fervour lurked in the work. A breath had passed over those +faces, and they were alive; the emotion, the voice of prayer, was felt +in the silence of this conventional crowd. This Way of the Cross was +matchless from this point of view: Monastic piety had introduced an +unexpected element, giving evidence of the mysterious power it has at +its command, infusing a personal emotion, a peculiar aroma, into a work +which, without it, would never indeed have existed. These Benedictines +had suggested the sensation of kneeling worship and the very fragrance +of the Gospel, as artists of wider scope had failed in doing. + +Their attempt, however, had begotten no following, and at this day the +school is almost dead, producing nothing but feeble prints for old women +designed by the lay-brothers. + +How, indeed, could it have been anything but still-born? The idea of +doing for the West what Manuel Pauselinos did for the East, of +eliminating study from nature, imposing an uniform ritual of colour and +line, of compelling every artistic temperament to squeeze itself into +the same mould, shows an absolute misapprehension of art in the mind of +the man who attempted it. The system was bound to end in ankylosis, in +the paralysis of painting, and this, in fact, was the result. + +At about the same time with these Religious an unknown artist, living in +the country, and never exhibiting in Paris, was painting pictures for +churches and convents, working for the glory of God and refusing all +remuneration from priests or monks. Durtal knew his pictures, and they +had suggested much the same reflections as those aroused by the +Benedictine paintings of Beuron. + +At first sight Paul Borel's work is neither cheerful nor attractive; the +phrases he used might often have made a partisan of the modern smile; +and besides, to judge his work fairly it is indispensable to get rid of +part of it, to refuse to see anything but that which has evaded the +too-familiar formulas of commonplace unction; and then what a spirit of +manly fervency, of ardent piety, filled and upheld it. + +His most important paintings are buried in the chapel of the Dominican +school at Oullins, in a remote corner of the suburbs of Lyons. Among the +ten subjects that decorate the nave, we find Moses Striking the Rock, +the Disciples at Emmaus, the Healing of One Possessed, of One Born +Blind, and of Tobit; but in spite of the calm energy shown in these +frescoes, they are disappointing by reason of their general heaviness +and of the sleepy and unwonted effect of colour. Not till we reach the +choir, beyond the communion railing, do we find works of a quite +different kind of art, above some magnificent figures of saints of the +Order of Friars Preacher, amazing in the power of prayer, the essence of +saintliness that they diffuse. + +There, too, Durtal had found two large compositions: one of the Virgin +bestowing the Rosary on Saint Dominic, and the other of Saint Thomas +Aquinas kneeling before an altar on which stands a Crucifix radiating +light. Never since the Middle Ages had monks been so understood and so +painted; never had a more impetuous fount of soul been revealed under so +stern a casing of features. Borel was the painter of the Monastic +Saints; his art, by nature rather torpid, soared up with them as soon as +he tried to paint them. + +At Versailles, again, even better perhaps than in the chapel of the +Oullins seminary, the sincere and deeply religious work of Borel might +be studied. At the entrance to the chapel of the Augustine Sisters in +that town, of which Borel had painted the nave and the choir, there +stood a figure of an Abbess of the fourteenth century, Saint Clare of +Montefalcone, in the black robes of an Augustinian Nun, against the +stone walls of her cell, an open book on one side of the figure and a +brass lamp on the other, somewhat behind her on a table. + +In that face, bent over the Crucifix she was pressing to her lips, in +that countenance, at once sweet and hungering, in the movement of the +arms closely folded over her bosom, raised to her face, and themselves +forming a cross, he had seen the complete absorption of a bride, the +rapt, ecstatic joy of the purest love, and at the same time something of +the anxious affection of a mother cherishing the Christ she kissed, and +seemed to shelter in her bosom like a suffering child. + +And this was all set forth without any theatrical attitude or forced +gestures, with perfect simplicity. This Saint Clare has no ravings, no +outcries, like Saint Magdalen of Pazzi; she does not soar with the +flight of divine intoxication. The mystic possession manifests itself in +a mute rapture; her transports are controlled, and her inebriety is +grave; she does not diffuse herself, but opens her soul, and Jesus, as +He enters in, stamps her with His likeness, impresses her with the image +of the Crucifix she holds, and of which the impress was found graven on +her heart when it was examined after her death. + +This was the most remarkable religious painting of our time, and it was +achieved with no borrowing from the Early painters, no trickery of +awkward attitudes supported by iron bars, no affectations, no artifice. +And what a devout Catholic, what an emotionally pious artist must the +man be who could produce such a work! + +After him the rest was silence. Among the religious youth of to-day no +one is to be found equal to the presentment of Church subjects. "Only +one," said Durtal, thinking it over, "gave any hope of such powers, for +he stands apart from the rest, and, at any rate, has talent." + +He rose and went to turn over his portfolios, picking out the +lithographs by Charles Dulac. + +This artist had begun with a series of landscapes, idealizing nature, at +first with a timid hand--extravagantly large pools, and trees with +leaves that looked like wild wigs tossed by the wind; then he had +produced a rendering in black and white of a Canticle of the Sun, or of +Creation, and had poured out in nine plates, printed in different states +of tone, that effluence of mystical feeling which in his first set was +still latent and undecided. + +The rather hackneyed dictum that "a landscape is a state of mind," was +strictly appropriate to this work; the artist had stamped his faith on +these views, studied, no doubt, from nature, but seen, it was evident, +not by the eyes alone, but by a captivated spirit singing in the open +air Daniel's hymn and David's psalm, as interpreted by Saint Francis, +and repeating after them the thought that all the Elements shall sing to +the glory of Him who created them. + +Among these plates two were genuinely inspiring: that with the title, +_Stella Matutina_, and the other with the words, _Spiritus Sancte Deus_; +but another, the broadest, the most decisive, and the simplest of them +all, bearing the title _Sol Justitiae_, seemed best of all to set forth +the individual sympathies of the artist. + +It was thus composed: A light, remote, translucent distance was lost in +infinitude--a peninsula, a desert waste of waters with ribs of shore, +tongues of land planted with trees repeated in the mirror of the lake; +on the horizon the sun, half set, cast its beams reflected by the sheet +of waters; that was all, but amazing placidity and calm, a sense of +fulness was shed over all. The idea of justice, to which that of mercy +answers as its inevitable echo, was symbolized in the serene solemnity +of this expanse lighted up by the glow of a kindly season and mild +atmosphere. + +Durtal drew back to get a more complete view of the work as a whole. + +"There is no denying it," said he; "this artist has the instinct, the +subtle sense of aerial space, of expanse; he understands the soul of +calm waters flowing under a vast sky! And then, this print diffuses +emanations as from a Catholic, which steal into us, slowly soak into our +heart. + +"And by this time," said he, closing the portfolio, "I am far enough +away from the original matter, and none the nearer to any article I can +write for the _Review_. A paper on the primitive German painters would, +indeed, be quite in its line; yes, but what an undertaking! I should +have to work up my notes, and after dealing with Meister Wilhelm, +Stephan Lochner, and Zeitblom, to speak of Bernhardt Strigel, an almost +unknown painter, of Albert Duerer, Holbein, Martin Schongauer, Hans +Balding, Burgkmayer, and I know not how many more. I should have to +account for whatever may have survived of orthodoxy in Germany after the +Reformation; to mention, at any rate, from the Lutheran point of view, +that extraordinary painter, Cranach, whose Adams are bearded Apollos of +the complexion of a Red Indian, and his Eves slender, chubby-faced +courtesans, with bullet heads, little shrimps' eyes, lips moulded out of +red pomatum, breasts like apples close under the neck, long, slim legs, +elegantly formed, with the calf high up, and large, flat feet with thick +ankles. + +"Such a treatise would carry me too far. It is amusing to dream over, +but not to write. I should do better to seek a less panoramic, a +compacter subject. But what?--Well, I will see later," he concluded, +getting up, for Madame Mesurat jovially announced that dinner was ready. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + +To change his weariness of the place, Durtal one sunny afternoon went to +the further end of Chartres, to visit the ancient church of Saint Martin +du Val. It dated from the tenth century, and had served as the chapel by +turns of a Benedictine House and of a Capuchin convent. Restored without +any too flagrant heresies, it was now included in the precincts of an +Asylum, and was reached by crossing a yard where blind folk in white +cotton caps sat nodding on benches in the shade of a few trees. + +Its small, squat doorway and three little belfries, as if it had been +built for a village of dwarfs, attested its Romanesque origin; and, as +at Saint Radegonde at Poitiers and Notre Dame de la Couture at le Mans, +the interior opened, under an altar very much raised above the ground, +into a crypt lighted by loopholes borrowing their light from the +ambulatory of the choir. The capitals of the columns, coarsely carved, +resembled the idols of Oceania; under the pavement and in the tombs lay +many of the Bishops of Chartres, and newly-consecrated prelates were +supposed to spend the first night of their arrival at the See in prayer +before these tombs, so as to imbue themselves with the virtues of their +predecessors and enlist their support. + +"The Manes of these Bishops might very well have whispered to their +present successor, Monseigneur des Mofflaines, some plan for purifying +the House of the Virgin by turning out the vile musician who degrades +the Sanctuary on Sundays to the level of a music hall!" sighed Durtal. +'But, alas! nothing disturbs the inertia of that aged, and invalid +shepherd, who is, indeed, never to be seen either in his garden, in the +cathedral, or in the town. + +"Ah! But this is something better than all the vocal flourishes of the +choristers!" said Durtal to himself as he listened to the bells aroused +from silence to shed the blessed drops of sound over the city. + +He called to mind the meanings ascribed to bells by the early +symbolists. Durand of Mende compares the hardness of the metal to the +power of the preacher, and thinks that the blows of the tongue against +the side, aim at showing the orator that he should punish himself and +correct his own vices before he blames those of others. The wooden +crossbeam to which the bell is suspended resembles in form the Cross of +Christ, and the rope pulled by the ringer to set the bell going is +allegorical of the knowledge of the Scripture which depends on the Cross +itself. + +According to Hugh of Saint Victor, the tongue of the bell is the +sacerdotal tongue, which, striking on both sides of the body, declares +the truth of both Testaments. Finally, to others the bell itself is the +mouth of the Liturgy, and the tongue its tongue. + +"In fact, the bell is the Church's herald, its outer voice, as the +priest is its inward voice," Durtal concluded. + +While meditating in this wise, he had reached the cathedral, and for the +hundredth time stood to admire those powerful abutments throwing out, +with the strong curve of a projectile, flying buttresses like spoked +wheels, and, as usual, he was amazed by the flight of the parabola, the +grace of the trajectory, the sober strength of those curved supports. +"Still," said he to himself, as he studied the parapet raised above +them, bordering the roof of the nave, "the architect who was content to +stamp out those trefoil arches, as if they were punched in that stone +parapet, was less happily inspired than certain other master-masons or +stone-workers who enclosed the little gutter-path they made round church +roofs with scriptural or symbolical images. Such an one was he who built +the cathedral at Troyes, where the top parapet is carved alternately +into fleur de lys and Saint Peter's keys; and he who at Caudebec +sculptured the edge into gothic letters of a delightfully decorative +character, spelling a hymn to the Virgin, thus crowning the church with +a garland of prayer, wreathing its head with a white chaplet of +aspiration." + +Durtal left the north side of the cathedral, went past the royal door +and round the corner of the old tower. With one hand he held on his hat, +and with the other grasped the skirts of his coat, which flapped about +his legs. The storm blew permanently on this spot. There might be not a +breath of air anywhere else in the town, but here, at this corner, +winter and summer, there was always a blast that caught cloaks and +skirts and lashed the face with icy thongs. + +"That perhaps is the reason why the statues of the neighbouring north +door, which are so incessantly scourged by the wind, stand in such +shivering attitudes with narrow and tightly-drawn raiment, their arms +and legs held close," thought Durtal, with a smile. "And is it not the +same with that strange figure dwelling in companionship with a sow +spinning--though it is not in fact a sow, but a hog--and an ass playing +on a hurdy-gurdy on the storm-beaten wall of the old tower?" + +These two animals, whose careless herd he seems to be, represent in +their merry guise the old popular sayings: _Ne sus Minerveum_, and +_Asinus ad lyram_, which may be freely rendered by "Every man to his +trade," and "Never force a talent;" for we should but be as inept as a +pig trying to be wise or an ass trying to strike the lyre. + +But this angel with a nimbus, standing barefoot under a canopy, +supporting a sun-dial against his breast, what does he mean, what is he +doing? + +A descendant of the royal women of the north porch, for he is like them +in his slender shape, sheathed in a clinging robe with string-like +pleats, he looks over our heads, and we wonder whether he is very impure +or very chaste. + +The upper part of the face is innocent, the hair cropped round the head; +the face is beardless and the expression monastic, but between the nose +and mouth there is a broad slope, and the lips, parting in a straight +gash, wear a smile, which as we look seems just a little impudent, just +a little vulgar, and we wonder what manner of angel this may be. + +There is in this figure something of the recalcitrant seminarist, and +also something of the virtuous postulant. If the sculptor took a young +Brother for his model, he certainly did not choose a docile novice, such +as he who no doubt served for the study of Joseph standing under the +north door; he must have worked from one of the religious _Gyrovagoi_ +who so tormented St. Benedict. A strange figure is this angel, who has a +father at Laon, behind the cathedral, and who anticipated by many +centuries the puzzling seraphic types of the Renaissance. + +"What a wind!" muttered Durtal, hastening back to the west front, where +he went up the steps and pushed the door open. + +The entrance to this immense and obscure church is always coercive; we +instinctively bend the head and advance cautiously under the oppressive +majesty of its vault. Durtal stopped when he had gone a few steps, +dazzled by the illumination of the choir in contrast with the dark alley +of the nave, which only gained a little light where it joined the +transepts. The Christ had the legs and feet in shadow, the body in +subdued light, and the head bathed in a torrent of glory; Durtal gazed +up in the air at the motionless ranks of Patriarchs, and Apostles, and +Bishops, and Saints in a glow as of dying fires, dimly lighted glass, +guarding the Sacred Body at their feet, below them; they stood in rows +along the upper storey in huge pointed settings, with wheels above them, +showing to Jesus, nailed to earth, His army of faithful soldiers, His +legions as enumerated in the Scriptures, the Legends, the Martyrology; +Durtal could identify in the armed throng of the painted windows St. +Laurence, St. Stephen, St. Giles, St. Nicholas of Myra, St. Martin, St. +George of Cappadocia, St. Symphorian, St. Philip, St. Foix, St. Laumer, +and how many more whose names he could not recollect--and paused in +admiration near the transept, in front of a figure of Abraham fixed for +ever in a threatening gesture, holding a sword over a crouching Isaac, +the blade shining brightly against the infinite blue. + +He stood admiring the conceptions and the craftsmanship of those +thirteenth century glass-workers, their emphatic language, necessary at +such great heights, the way in which they had made the pictures legible +from a distance by introducing a single figure in each, whenever that +was possible, and painting it in massive outline, with contrasting +colours, so as to be easily taken in at a glance when seen from below. + +But the triumph of this art was neither in the choir, nor in the +transepts of the church, nor in the nave; it was at the entrance, on the +inner side of the wall, where on the outside stood the statues of the +nameless queens. Durtal delighted in this glorious show, but he always +postponed it a little to excite himself by expectancy, and revel in the +leap of joy it gave him, repetition of the sensation not having yet +availed to weaken it. + +On this particular day, under a sunny sky, these three windows of the +twelfth century blazed with splendour with their broad short blades, the +blade of a claymore, flat wide panels of glass under the rose that held +the most prominent place over the west door. + +It was a twinkling sheet of cornflowers and sparks, a shifting maze of +blue flames--a paler blue than that in which Abraham, at the end of the +nave, brandished his knife; this pale, limpid blue resembled the flames +of burning punch and of the ignited powder of sulphur, and the lightning +flash of sapphires, but of quite young sapphires, as it were, still +infantine and tremulous. And in the right hand pointed window he could +distinguish in burning red the Stem of Jesse--figures piled up espalier +fashion, in the blue fire of the sky; while to the left and in the +middle, scenes were shown from the Life of Jesus--the Annunciation, Palm +Sunday, the Transfiguration, the Last Supper, and the Supper at Emmaus; +and above these three windows Christ hurled thunder from the heart of +the great rose, the dead emerged from their graves at the trumpet-call, +and St. Michael weighed souls. + +"How did the glass-makers discover and compound that twelfth century +blue?" wondered Durtal. "And why have their successors so long lost it, +as well as their red? + +"In the twelfth century glass-painters made use chiefly of three +colours; first, blue--that ineffable, uncertain sky-blue which is the +glory of the Chartres windows; then red--a purplish red, full and +important; and green--inferior in quality to the two others. For white +they preferred a greenish tinge. + +"In the following century the palette is more extensive, but the stain +is darker; the glass, too, is thicker. And yet, what a glowing blue of +pure, bold sapphire tone the artists of the furnace had at their +command, and what a fine red they used, the colour of fresh blood! +Yellow, of which they were less lavish, was, if I may judge from the +robe of a king near the Abraham, in a window by the transept, a daring +hue of bright lemon. But apart from these three colours, which have a +sort of resonance, and burst forth like songs of joy in these +transparent pictures, others grow more sober; the violets are like +Orleans plums or purple egg-fruit, the browns are of the hue of burnt +sugar, the chive-coloured greens turn dark. + +"But what masterpieces of colour they achieved by the harmony and +contrast of these tones, and with what skill did they handle the +lead-lines, emphasizing certain details, punctuating and dividing these +paragraphs of flame as if with lines of ink. + +"And another thing which is amazing is the perfect agreement of all +these various crafts, practised side by side, treating the same +subjects, or supplementing each other--each, by its own mode of +expression, under one guiding mind, contributing to the whole; with what +a sense of fitness, with what skill were the posts distributed, the +places assigned to each as beseemed the purpose of his craft, the +requirements of his art. + +"Architecture having finished the lower portion of the edifice, retires +into the background to make way for Sculpture, giving it the fine +opportunity of the doorways; and Sculpture, hitherto invisible at +excessive heights, as a mere accessory, suddenly finds itself supreme. +With due sense of justice it now comes forward where it can be seen, and +the sister art retires, leaving it to address the multitude, giving it +the noblest framework in those arched doorways, imitating a deeper +perspective by their concentric arches, diminishing and retreating to +the door-frames. + +"In other instances Architecture does not give everything to one art, +but divides the bounty of her great _facade_ between sculpture and +painting; reserving to the former the hollows and nooks where statues +may find niches, and giving to glass-painters the tympanum of the great +door, where at Chartres the image-maker has displayed the Triumph of +Christ. This we see in the great west doors of Tours and of Reims. + +"This plan of substituting glass for bas-reliefs had its disadvantages; +seen from outside--their wrong side--these diaphanous pictures look like +spiders' nets on an enormous scale and thick with dust. With the light +on them the windows are, in fact, grey or black; it is only by going +inside and looking back that their fire can be seen flashing; the +outside is here sacrificed to the inside. Why? + +"Perhaps," said Durtal, answering himself, "it is symbolical of the soul +having light inwardly, an allegory of the spiritual life--" + +He took in all the windows of the nave with a rapid glance, and it +struck him that their effect was a combination of the prison and the +grave, with their coals of fire burning behind iron bars, some crossed +like the windows of a gaol, and others twisting like black twigs and +branches. Is not glass painting of all arts that in which God does most +to help the artist, the art which man, unaided, can never make perfect, +since the sky alone can give life to the colours by a beam of sunshine, +and lend movement to the lines? In short, man fashions the form, +prepares the body, and must wait till God infuses the soul. + +"It is to-day a high-day of light and the Sun of Justice is visiting His +Mother," he went on, as he walked to where the pillared thicket of the +choir ended at the south transept, to look at the window known as Notre +Dame de la belle Verriere, the figure, in blue, relieved against a +mingled background of dead-leaf olive, brown, iris violet, plum-green; +She gazed out with her sad and pensive pout--a pout very cleverly +restored by a modern glass-painter; and Durtal remembered that people +had come to pray to Her, as he now went to pray to the Virgin of the +Pillar and Notre Dame de Sous Terre. + +Such devotion was a thing of the past; the men of our time need, it +would seem, a more tangible, a more material Virgin than this slender, +fragile image, hardly visible in dark weather; nevertheless, a few +peasants still kept up the habit of kneeling and offering a taper before +Her, and Durtal, who loved these old neglected Madonnas, joined them and +invoked Her too. + +Two other windows also appealed to him by the singularity of the +figures, perched very high up, in the depths of the apse, and serving as +attendant pages, at a distance, to the Virgin holding Her Son in the +centre light commanding the whole perspective of the cathedral; these +each contained in a light-toned lancet, a barbarous and grotesque +seraph, with sharply-marked features, white wings full of eyes, and +robes with jagged, strap-like edges of a pale green colour; their legs +were bare, and they were represented as floating. These two angels had +jujube yellow aureoles tilted to the back like sailors' hats; and this +ragged attire, the feathers folded over the breast, the hat of glory, +with their general expression of refractory wilfulness, suggested the +idea that these beings were at once paupers, Apaches or Mohicans, and +seamen. + +As to the remaining windows, especially those which included several +figures and were divided into several pictures, it would have needed a +telescope and have taken many days of study only to make out the story +they told, and discover the details; and months would not have sufficed +for the task, since the glass had been in many cases repaired and often +replaced without regard to order, so that it was especially difficult to +decipher it. + +An attempt had been made to count the number of figures represented in +the cathedral windows; they were as many as 3889; in the mediaeval times +everybody had been eager to present a glass picture to the Virgin. Not +cardinals only, kings, bishops and princes, canons and nobles, but the +corporations of the town also had contributed these panels of fire; the +richest, such as the Guilds of Drapers and Furriers, of Goldsmiths and +Money-changers, had each presented five to Our Lady, while the poorer +companies of the Master Scavengers and Water-carriers, the Porters and +Rag-pickers, each gave one. + +Pondering on these things, Durtal wandered round the ambulatory and +paused in front of a small stone Virgin ensconced at the foot of the +stairs leading up to the chapel of Saint Piat, constructed in the +fourteenth century as a sort of outbuilding behind the apse. This +Virgin, dating from the same period, had shrunk into the shade, effacing +Herself, deferentially leaving the more important places to the senior +Madonnas. + +She carried an Infant playing with a bird, in allusion, no doubt, to the +passage in the apocryphal Gospels of the Infancy, and of Thomas the +Israelite, which shows us the Child Jesus amusing Himself by modelling +birds out of clay, and giving them life by breathing upon them. + +Then Durtal continued his walk through the chapels; stopping only to +look at one which contained relics of opposite utility and double +purpose: the shrines of Saint Piat and Saint Taurinus. The bones of the +former saint were displayed to secure dry weather in times of rain, and +those of the second to invoke rain in times of drought. But what was +far less comforting and more irritating even than this array of +side-chapels, with their wretched adornment--with names that had been +changed since their first dedication so that the tutelary protection +earned by centuries of service had ceased to exist--was the choir, +battered, dirty, degraded as if on purpose. + +In 1763 the old Chapter had thought fit to deface the Gothic columns, +and to have them colour-washed by a Milanese lime-washer, of a yellowish +pink speckled with grey; then they had abandoned to the town-museum some +magnificent pieces of Flemish tapestry that screened the inner circuit +of the choir aisles, and had put in their place bas-reliefs in marble +executed by the dreadful bungler who had crushed the altar under the +gigantic group of the Virgin. And mischance had helped. In 1789 the +Sansculottes were intending to destroy this mountainous Assumption, and +some ill-starred idiot saved it by placing a cap of liberty on the +Virgin's head! + +To think that some beautiful windows were knocked out in order to get a +better light for this mass of lard! If only there were the slightest +hope of ever getting rid of it; but alas! all such hopes are vain. Some +years ago, when Monseigneur Regnault was Bishop, the idea was indeed +suggested--not of making away with this petrified lump of tallow, but at +least of getting rid of the bas-reliefs. + +Then the prelate--who stuffed his ears with cotton for fear of taking +cold--set his face against it; and for reasons of equal importance, no +doubt, the sacrilegious hideousness of this Assumption must be for ever +endured, and the marble screens as well. + +But though the interior of this choir was a disgrace, the groups round +the ambulatory of the apse and the outer wall of the choir were well +worth lingering over. + +These figures under canopies and tabernacles carved by Jehan de Beauce +began on the right by the south transept, went round the horse-shoe +behind the altar, and ended at the north transept where the Black Virgin +of the Pillar stands. + +The subjects were the same as those treated in the small capitals of the +royal doorway, outside the church, above the panegyric of the kings, +saints, and queens. They were taken from the Apocryphal legends, the +Gospel of the Childhood of Mary, and the Protoevangelist James the Less. + +The first of these groups was executed by an artist named Jehan Soulas. +The contract, dated January 2nd, 1518, between this sculptor and the +delegates of the authorities conducting the works of the church, still +existed. It set forth that Jehan Soulas, a master image-maker, dwelling +in Paris at the cemetery of Saint Jehan in the parish of Saint Jehan en +Greve, pledged himself to execute in good stone of the Tonnerre quarry, +and better than the images that are round about the choir of Notre Dame +de Paris, the four first groups, of which the subjects were prescribed +and explained; in consideration of the sum of two hundred and eighty +_livres Tournois_, which the Chapter of Chartres undertook to pay him as +he might require. + +Soulas, who had undoubtedly learned his craft from some Flemish artist, +produced certain little _genre_ pictures well adapted, by their spirit +and liveliness, to cheer the soul that the solemnity of the windows +might have depressed; for in this aisle they really seemed to let the +light filter through Indian shawl-stuff, admitting only a few dull +sparks and smoky gleams. + +The second group, representing Saint Anna receiving from an unseen angel +an order to go to meet Joachim at the Golden Gate, was a marvel of grace +and subtle observation; the saint stood listening attentive in front of +her fald-stool, by which lay a little dog; and a waiting-maid, seen in +profile, carrying an empty pitcher, smiled with a knowing air and a wink +in her eye. And in the next scene, where the husband and wife were +embracing each other with the trepidation of a worthy old couple, +stammering with joy and clasping trembling hands, the same woman, seen +full-face this time, was so delighted at their happiness that she could +not keep still, but, holding up her skirts, was almost in the act of +dancing. + +A little further on, the image-maker had represented the birth of Mary, +a thoroughly Flemish scene: in the background, a bed with curtains, on +which Saint Anna reclined, watched by a maid, while the midwife and her +attendant washed the infant in a basin. + +But another of these bas-reliefs, close to the Renaissance clock, which +interrupts the series of this history told in the choir-aisle, was even +more astonishing. In this Mary was sewing at baby-clothes while reading, +and Saint Joseph, asleep in a chair, his head resting on his hand, was +instructed in a dream of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin. And he +not only had his eyes shut, he was sleeping so soundly, so really, that +one could see him breathe, one felt his body stretching, relaxing, in +the perfect abandonment of his whole being. And how diligently the young +mother stitched while she was absorbed in prayers, her nose in her book! +Never, certainly, was life more closely apprehended, or expressed with +greater certainty and truth to life caught in the act, at the instant, +ere it moved. + +Next to this domestic scene, and the Adoration of the Shepherds and +Angels, came the Circumcision of Jesus, with a white paper apron pasted +on by some low jester; then the Adoration of the Magi; and Jehan de +Soulas and the pupils of his studio had finished the work on their side. +They were succeeded by inferior craftsmen, Francois Marchant of Orleans, +and Nicolas Guybert of Chartres; and after them art went on sinking +lower and lower, down to one Sieur Boudin, who had dared to sign his +miserable puppets, down to the stupid conventionality of Jean de Dieu, +Legros, Tuby, and Mazieres, to the cold and pagan work of the +seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. But there was an improvement in +the eight last groups opposite the Virgin of the Pillar--some simple +figures carved by the pupils of Soulas; these, however, were to some +extent wasted, since they stood in the shadow, and it was almost +impossible to judge of them in that half-dead light. + +In reviewing this ambulatory, in parts so pleasing and in others so +unseemly, Durtal could not help recalling the details of a similar but +more complete work--one that had not been wrought in succeeding ages and +disfigured by discrepancies of talent and date. This work was at Amiens, +and it, likewise, was the decoration of the outer aisle of a cathedral +choir. + +This story of the life of Saint Firmin, the first Bishop and patron +saint of the city, and of the discovery and translation of his relics by +Saint Salvo, was told in a series of groups that had been gilt and +painted; then, to complete the circuit of the sanctuary, the life of the +second patron of Amiens had been added, Saint John the Baptist; and in +the scene of the Baptism of Christ a fair-haired angel was represented +holding a napkin, an ingenuous and arch being, one of the most adorable +seraphic faces ever carved or painted by Flemish art in France. + +This legend of Saint Firmin was set forth, like that of the Birth of the +Virgin at Chartres, in separate chapters of stone, surmounted in the +same way with gothic canopies or tabernacles; and in the compartment +where Saint Salvo, surrounded by the multitude, discerns the beams which +radiate from a cloud to indicate the spot where the lost body of the +Martyr had been buried, a man on his knees with clasped hands, seems to +pant, uplifted in prayer, burning, projected by the leap of his soul, +his face transfigured, turning a mere rustic into a saint in ecstasy, +already dwelling in God far above the earth. + +This worshipper was the masterpiece of the ambulatory at Amiens, as the +sleeping Saint Joseph was of the bas-reliefs at Chartres. + +"Take it for all in all," said Durtal to himself, "that work in the +Picardy Cathedral is more explicit, more complete, more various, more +eloquent even than that of the church in La Beauce. Irrespective of the +fact that the unknown image-maker who created it was as highly gifted as +Soulas with acute observation, and persuasive and decided +simple-mindedness and spirit, he had besides a peculiar and more noble +vein of feeling. And then his subjects were not restricted to the +presentment of two or three personages; he frequently grouped a swarming +crowd, in which each man, woman, or child differed in individual +character and feature from every other, and was conspicuously marked by +that unlikeness, so clear and living was the realism of each small +figure! + +"After all," thought Durtal, looking once more at the choir aisles as he +turned away, "though Soulas maybe inferior to the sculptor of Amiens, he +is none the less a delightful artist and a true master, and his groups +may console us for the ignominious work of Bridan and the atrocious +decoration of the choir." + +He then went to kneel before the Black Virgin, and returning to the +North transept near which She stands, he gazed once more in amazement at +the incandescent flowers of the windows; again he was captivated and +moved by the five pointed windows under the rose, in which, on each side +of the Mauresque Saint Anna, stood David and Solomon, a forbidding pair, +in a furnace of purple, and Melchizedec and Aaron with tawny complexions +and hairy faces, with enormous colourless eyes standing out passionless +in a blaze of daylight. + +The radiating rose-window above them was not of the vast diameter of +those in Notre Dame de Paris, nor of the incomparable elegance of the +star-patterned rose at Amiens. It was smaller and heavier, sparkling +with flowers like saxifrages of flame, opening in the pierced wall. + +Durtal turned on his heel to look at the South transept, where five +great windows faced those on the North. There he saw, blazing like +torches on each side of the Virgin placed exactly opposite Saint Anna, +the four Evangelists borne on the shoulders of the four greater +Prophets--Saint Matthew on Isaiah, Saint Luke on Jeremiah, Saint John on +Ezekiel, Saint Mark on Daniel--each stranger than the other, with their +eyes like the lenses of opera-glasses, their hair in ripples, their +beards like the up-torn roots of trees; excepting Saint John, who was +always represented as a beardless youth in the Latin Mediaeval Church, to +symbolize his virginity; but the most grotesque of these giants' was +perhaps Saint Luke, who, perched on Jeremiah's back, gently scratches +the prophet's head, as if he were a parrot, while turning woeful, +meditative eyes up to Heaven. + +Durtal went down the nave, darker than the choir; the pavement sloped +gently to the door, for in the Middle Ages it was washed every morning +after the departure of the crowds who slept on it; and he looked down, +in the middle, on the labyrinth marked out on the ground in lines of +white stone and ribbons of blue stone, twisting in a spiral, like a +watch-spring. This path our fathers devoutly paced, repeating special +prayers during the hour they spent in doing so, and thus performing an +imaginary pilgrimage to the Holy Land to earn indulgences. + +When he was out in the square once more, he turned back to take in the +splendid effect of the whole before going home. + +He felt at once happy and awe-stricken, carried out of himself by the +tremendous and yet beautiful aspect of the church. + +How grandiose and how aerial was this cathedral, sprung like a jet from +the soul of a man who had formed it in his own image, to record his +ascent in mystic paths, up and up by degrees in the light; passing +through the contemplative life in the transept, soaring in the choir +into the full glory of the unitive life, far away now from the +purgatorial life, the dark passage of the nave. + +And this assumption of a soul was attended, supported, by the bands of +angels, the apostles, the prophets, and the righteous, all arrayed in +their glorified bodies of flame, an escort of honour to the Cross lying +low on the stones, and the image of the Mother enthroned in all the high +places of this vast reliquary, opening the walls, as it seemed, to +present to Her, as for a perpetual festival, their posies of gems that +had blossomed in the fiery heat of the glass windows. + +Nowhere else was the Virgin so well cared for, so cherished, so +emphatically proclaimed the absolute mistress of the realm thus offered +to Her; and one detail proved this. In every other cathedral kings, +saints, bishops, and benefactors lay buried in the depths of the soil; +not so at Chartres. Not a body had ever been buried there; this church +had never been made a sarcophagus, because, as one of its +historians--old Rouillard--says, "it has the preeminent distinction of +being the couch or bed of the Virgin." + +Thus it was Her home; here She was supreme amid the court of Her Elect, +watching over the sacramental Body of Her Son in the sanctuary of the +inmost chapel, where lamps were ever burning, guarding Him as She had +done in His infancy; holding Him on Her knee in every carving, every +painted window; seen in every storey of the building, between the ranks +of saints, and sitting at last on a pillar, revealing herself to the +poof and lowly, under the humble aspect of a sunburnt woman, scorched by +the dog-days, tanned by wind and rain. Nay, She went lower still, down +to the cellars of Her palace, waiting in the crypt to give audience to +the waverers, the timid souls who were abashed by the sunlit splendour +of Her Court. + +How completely does this sanctuary--where the sweet and awful presence +is ever felt of the Child who never leaves His Mother--lift the spirit +above all realities, into the secret rapture of pure beauty! + +"And how good must They both be," Durtal said to himself, as he looked +round and found himself alone, "never to abandon this desert, never to +weary of waiting for worshippers! But for the honest country folk who +come at all hours to kiss the pillar, what a solitude it would be, even +on Sunday, for this cathedral is never full. However, to be just, at the +nine o'clock mass on Sundays the lower end of the nave is thronged," and +he smiled, remembering that end of the church packed with little girls +brought in schools by Sisters, and with peasant women who, not being +able to see there to read their prayers, would light ends of taper and +crowd together closely, several looking over one book. + +This familiarity, this childlike simplicity of piety, which the dreadful +sacristans of Paris would never endure in a church, were' so natural at +Chartres, so thoroughly in harmony with the homely and unceremonious +welcome of Our Lady! + +"A thing to be ascertained," said Durtal, starting on a new line of +thought, "is whether this church has preserved its surface uninjured, or +whether it may not have been coloured in the thirteenth century. Some +writers assert that, in Mediaeval times, the interiors of cathedrals were +always painted. Is that the fact? Or, admitting that the statement is +correct as to all Romanesque churches, is it equally so with regard to +Gothic churches? + +"For my part, I like to believe that the sanctuary of Chartres was never +befooled with gaudiness, such as we have to endure at Saint Germain des +Pres, in Paris, and Notre Dame la Grande at Poitiers. In fact such +colour can only be conceived of--if at all--as used in small chapels; +why stain the walls of a cathedral with motley? For this tattooing, so +to speak, reduces the sense of space, brings down the roof, and makes +the pillars clumsy; in short, it eliminates the mysterious soul of the +nave, and destroys the sober majesty of the aisle with its feebly vulgar +fret or guilloche, lozenges or crosses, scattered over the pillars and +walls, in a paste of treacly yellow, endive-green, vinous purple, lava +drab, brick red--a whole range of dull and dirty colours; to say nothing +of the horror of a vault dotted with stars that look as if they had been +cut out of gilt paper and stuck against a smalt background, a sky of +washing-blue! + +"It is endurable--if it must be--in the Sainte-Chapelle, because it is +very small, an oratory, a shrine; it might even be intelligible in that +wonderful church at Brou, which is a boudoir; its vaulting and pendants +are in polychrome and gold, and the ground has been paved with enamelled +tiles, of which visible traces remain round the tombs. This gaudiness of +the roof and floor was in harmony with the filagree tracery of the +walls, the heraldic glass, and the clear windows, the profusion of +lace-like carving and coats of arms in the stone-work, blossoming with +bunches of daisies mingling with labels, mottoes, monograms, Saint +Francis' girdles and knots. The colouring was in keeping with the +alabaster retables, the black marble tombs, the pinnacled tabernacles +with their crockets of curled and dentate foliage. We can then quite +easily imagine the columns and walls painted, the ribs and bosses washed +with gold, and making a harmonious whole of this _bonbonniere_, which +indeed is a piece of jewelry rather than of architecture. + +"This building at Brou was the last effort of mediaeval times, the last +rocket flung up by the flamboyant Gothic style--a Gothic which though +fallen from its glory struggled against death, fought against returning +paganism and the invading Renaissance. The era of the great cathedrals +ended in the production of this exquisite abortion, which was in its way +a masterpiece, a gem of prettiness, of ingenuity, of tormented and +coquettish taste. + +"It was emblematic of the soul of the sixteenth century, already devoid +of reserve; the sanctuary, too brightly lighted, was secularized; we +here see it fully blown, and it never folded up or veiled itself again. +We discern in this a lady's bower, all paint and gold; the little +chapels (or pews) with chimney-places where Margaret of Austria could +warm herself as she heard Mass, furnished with scented cushions, +provided with sweetmeats and toys and dogs. + +"Brou is a fine lady's drawing-room, not the house for all comers. Then, +naturally, with its screen-work, and the carving of the rood-loft +stretching like a lace portal across the entrance to the choir, it +invites, it almost requires some skilful tinting of the details, the +touches of colour that complete it, and harmonize it finally with the +elegance of the founder, the Princess Marguerite, whose presence is far +more conspicuous in this little church than is that of the Virgin. + +"Even then it would be satisfactory to know whether the walls and +pillars at Brou ever were really painted; the contrary seems proven. But +in any case, though a touch of _rouge_ might not ill beseem this curious +sanctum, it would not be so at Chartres, for the only suitable hue is +the shining, greasy patina, grey turning to silver, stone-colour turning +buff--the colouring given by age, by time helped by accumulated vapours +of prayer and the fumes of incense and tapers!" + +And Durtal, arguing over his own reflections, ended by reverting, as he +always did, to his own person, saying to himself,-- + +"Who knows that I may not some day bitterly regret this cathedral and +all the sweet meditations it suggests; for, after all, I shall have no +more opportunities for such long loitering, such relaxation of mind, +since I shall be subject to the discipline of bells ringing for +conventual drill if I suffer myself to be locked up in a cloister! + +"Who knows whether, in the silence of a cell, I should not miss even the +foolish cawing of those black jackdaws that croak without pause," he +went on, looking up with a smile at the cloud of birds that settled on +the towers; and he recalled a legend which tells that since the fire in +1836 these birds quit the cathedral every evening at the very hour when +the conflagration began, and do not return till dawn, after spending the +night in a wood at three leagues from Chartres. + +This tale is as absurd as another, also dear to the old wives of the +city, and which tells that if you spit on a certain square of stone, set +with black cement into the pavement behind the choir, blood will exude. + +"Hah, it is you, Madame Bavoil." + +"Yes, our friend, I myself. I have just been on an errand for the +Father, and am going home again to make the soup. And you, are you +packing your trunks?" + +"My trunks?" + +"Why, are not you going off to a convent?" said she, laughing. + +"Would not you like to see it?" exclaimed Durtal. "Catch me at that! +Enlisting as a private subject to a pious drill, one of a poor squad, +whose every movement must mark time, and who, though he is not expected +to keep his hands over the seam of his trowsers, is required to hide +them under his scapulary--" + +"Ta, ta, ta," interrupted the housekeeper, "I tell you once more, you +are grudging, bargaining with God--" + +"But before coming to so serious a decision it is quite necessary that I +should argue all the pros and cons; in such a case some mental +litigation is clearly permissible." + +She shrugged her shoulders; and there was such peace in her face, such a +glow of flame lurked behind the liquid blackness of her eyes, that +Durtal stood looking at her, admiring the honesty and purity of a soul +which could thus rise to the threshold of her eyes and come forth in her +look. + +"How happy you are!" he exclaimed. + +A cloud dimmed her eyes, and she looked down. + +"Envy no one, our friend," said she, "for each has his own struggles and +griefs." + +And when he had parted from her, Durtal, as he went home, thought of the +disasters she had confessed, the cessation of her intercourse with +Heaven, the fall of a soul that had been wont to soar above the clouds. +How she must suffer! + +"No, no," he said, "the service of the Lord is not all roses. If we +study the lives of the Saints we see these Elect tormented by dreadful +maladies, and the most painful trials. No, holiness on earth is no +child's play, life is not amusement. To Saints, indeed, even on earth +excessive suffering finds compensation in excessive joys; but to other +Christians, such small fry as we are, what distress and trouble! We +question the everlasting silence and none answers; we wait and none +comes. In vain do we proclaim Him as Illimitable, Incomprehensible, +Unthinkable, and confess that every effort of our reason is vain, we +cannot cease to wonder, and still less cease to suffer! And yet--and yet +if we consider, the darkness about us is not absolutely impenetrable, +there is light in places and we can discern some truths, such as this: + +"God treats us as He treats plants. He is, in a certain sense, the +soul's year; but a year in which the order of the seasons is reversed; +for the spiritual seasons begin with spring, followed by winter, and +then autumn comes, followed by summer. + +"The moment of conversion is the spring, the soul is joyful and Christ +sows the good seed; then comes the cold and all is dark, the +terror-stricken soul believes itself forsaken and bewails itself; but +without its feeling it during the trials of the purgatorial life, the +seed germinates in the contemplative peace of autumn and flourishes in +the summer life of Union. + +"Aye; but each one must be the helping gardener of his own soul, +listening to the instructions of the Master who plans the task and +directs the work. Alas, we are no more the humble labourers of the +Middle Ages, who toiled, giving God thanks, who submitted without +discussion to the Master's orders. We, by our little faith, have +exhausted the value of prayer, the panacea of aspirations; consequently +many things seem to us unjust and cruel, and we rebel, we ask for +pledges; we hesitate to begin our task, we want to be paid in advance, +and our distrust makes us vile!--O Lord, give us grace to pray, and +never dream of demanding an earnest of Thy favours! Give us grace to +obey and be silent! + +"And I may add," said Durtal to himself as he smiled on Madame Mesurat, +who opened the door in answer to his ring, "Grant me, Lord, the grace +not to be too much irritated by the buzzing of this great fly, the +inexhaustible flow of this good woman's tongue!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + +"What a fearful muddle, what a sea of ink is this menagerie of good and +evil emblems!" exclaimed Durtal, laying down his pen. + +He had harnessed himself that morning to the task of investigating the +symbolical fauna of the Middle Ages. At first sight the subject had +struck him as newer and less arduous, and certainly as less lengthy, +than the article he had thought of writing on the Primitive German +Painters. But he now sat dismayed before his books and notes, seeking a +clue to guide him through the mass of contradictory evidence that lay +before him. + +"I must take things in their order," said he to himself, "if indeed any +principle of selection is possible in such confusion." + +The Beast-books of Mediaeval times knew all the monsters of +paganism--Satyrs, Fauns, Sphinxes, Harpies, Centaurs, Hydras, Pygmies, +and Sirens; these were all regarded as various aspects of the Evil +Spirit, so no research is needed as to their meaning; they are but a +residuum of Antiquity. The true source of mystic zoology is not in +mythology, but in the Bible, which classifies beasts as clean and +unclean, makes them symbolize virtues and vices, some species being +allegorical of heavenly personages, and other embodying the Devil. + +Starting from this base, it may be observed that the liturgical +interpreters of the animal world distinguished beasts from animals, +including under the former head wild and untamable creatures, and under +the second gentle and timid creatures and domestic animals. + +The ornithologists of the Church, furthermore, represent birds as being +the righteous, while Boetius, on the other hand, often quoted by +Mediaeval writers, credited them with inconstancy, and Melito compares +them in turn to Christ, to the Devil, and to the Jewish nation. It may +be added that Richard of Saint Victor, disregarding these views, sees in +winged fowl a symbol of the life of the soul, as in the four-footed +beast he sees the life of the body--"And that gets us no further!" +sighed Durtal. + +"This is beside the mark. We must find some other symbolism, closer and +clearer. + +"Here the classification of naturalists would be useless, for a biped +and a reptile not unfrequently bear the same interpretation as emblems. +The simplest plan will be to divide the Church menagerie into two large +classes, real beasts and monsters; there is no creature that we may not +include in one or the other category." + +Durtal paused to reflect: + +"Nevertheless to arrive at a clearer notion and better appreciate the +importance of certain families in Catholic Mythography, we had better +first take out all those animals which symbolize God, the Virgin, and +the Devil, setting them aside to be referred to when they may elucidate +other figures; and at the same time weed out those which apply to the +Evangelists and are combined in the figures of the Tetramorph. + +"The surface thus being removed, we may investigate the remainder, the +figurative language of ordinary or monstrous beings. + +"The animal emblems of God are numerous; the Scriptures are filled with +creatures emblematic of the Saviour. David compares Him, by comparing +himself, to the pelican in the wilderness, to the owl in its nest, to a +sparrow alone on the house-top, to the dove, to a thirsting hart; the +Psalms are a treasury of analogies with His qualities and His names. + +"Saint Isidor of Seville--Monseigneur Sainct Ysidore, as the naturalists +of old are wont to call him--figures Jesus as a lamb by reason of his +innocence, as a ram because He is the head of the Flock, even as a +he-goat because the Redeemer was subject to the flesh of iniquity. + +"Some took as His image the ox, the sheep, and the calf, as beasts meet +for sacrifice, and others those animals that symbolize the elements: the +lion, the eagle, the dolphin, the salamander--the kings of the earth, +air, water, and fire. Some again, as Saint Melito, saw Him in the kid, +the deer, and even in the camel, which, however, according to another +passage of the same author, personifies a love of flattery and of vain +praise. Others again find Him in the scarabaeus, as Saint Euchre does in +the bee; still, the bee is regarded by Raban Maur as the unclean sinner. +Christ's Resurrection is, to yet other writers, symbolized by the +Phoenix and the cock, and His wrath and power by the rhinoceros and the +buffalo. + +"The iconography of the Virgin is less puzzling; She may be symbolized +by any chaste and gentle creature. The Anonymous Englishman in his +_Monastic Distinctions_, compares Her to the bee, which we have seen so +vilified by the Archbishop of Mayence, but the Virgin was most +especially represented by the dove, the bird of all others whose Church +functions are most onerous. + +"All authorities agree in taking the dove as the image at once of the +Virgin and of the Paraclete. According to Saint Mechtildis, it is the +simplicity of the heart of Jesus; with others it signifies the +preachers, the active religious life, as contrasted with the turtle +dove, which personifies the contemplative life, since the ring-dove +flies and coos in company, whereas the turtle dove rejoices apart and +alone. + +"To Bruno of Asti the dove is also an image of patience, a figure of the +prophets. + +"As to the beasts symbolizing Hell and evil, they are almost without +number; the whole creation of monsters is to be found there. Then among +real animals we find: the serpent--the aspic of Scripture, the scorpion, +the wolf as mentioned by Jesus Himself, the leopard noted by Saint +Melito as being allied to Antichrist, the she-tiger representing the +sins of arrogance, the hyena, the jackal, the bear, the wild-boar, +which, in the Psalms, is said to destroy the vineyard of the Lord, the +fox, described as a hypocritical persecutor by Peter of Capua and as a +promoter of heresy by Raban Maur. All beasts of prey; and the hog, the +toad--the instrument of witchcraft, the he-goat--the image of Satan +himself, the dog, the cat, the ass--under whose form the Devil is seen +in trials for witchcraft in the Middle Ages, the leech, on which the +anonymous writer of Clairvaux casts contumely; the raven that went forth +from the ark and did not return--it represents malice, and the dove +which came back is virtue, Saint Ambrose tells us; and the partridge +which, according to the same writer, steals and hatches eggs she did not +lay. + +"If we may believe Saint Theobald, the Devil is also symbolized by the +spider, for it dreads the sun as much as the Evil One dreads the Church, +and is more apt to weave its net by night than by day, thus imitating +Satan, who attacks man when he knows him to be sleeping and powerless to +defend himself. + +"The Prince of Darkness is also to be seen as the lion and the eagle +interpreted in an evil sense. + +"This," reflected Durtal, "is the same fact as we find in the expressive +symbolism of colours and flowers; constantly a double meaning. The two +antagonistic interpretations are almost invariably met with in the lore +of hieroglyphics, excepting only in that of gems. + +"Thus it is that the lion, defined by Saint Hildegarde as the image of +zeal for God, the lion, figuring the Son Himself, becomes to Hugh of +Saint Victor the emblem of cruelty. Basing their argument on a text in +the Psalms, certain writers identify it with Lucifer. He is in fact the +lion who seeks whom he may devour, the lion who rushes on his victim. +David speaks of him with the dragon to be trodden under foot, and Saint +Peter in his first Epistle describes him as roaring in quest of a +Christian to devour. + +"It is the same with the eagle, which Hugh of Saint Victor calls the +standard of Pride. Chosen by Bruno of Asti, Saint Isidor and Saint +Anselm to represent the Saviour, the Fisher of Men, because he pounces +from the highest sky on fish swimming on the surface of the water and +carries them up, the eagle, classed in Leviticus and Deuteronomy with +the unclean beasts, is transformed, as being a bird of prey, into a +personification of the Devil snatching away souls to gnaw and tear them. + +"Thus every ferocious beast or bird and every reptile is a manifestation +of the Evil One," Durtal concluded. + +To pass to the Tetramorph. The evangelistic animals are well known:-- + +Saint Matthew, who expatiates on the subject of the Incarnation and sets +forth the human genealogy of the Messiah, is symbolized by a man. + +Saint Mark, who more especially devotes his book to the miracles of the +Son, saying less about His doctrine than about His acts and His +resurrection, has the Lion for his attribute. + +Saint Luke, who writes more especially of the virtues of Jesus, of His +patience, meekness, and mercy, and who dwells at length on His +sacrifice, is distinguished by the Ox or Calf. + +Saint John, who preaches above all else the Divinity of the Word, is +represented by the Eagle. + +And the meaning assigned to the ox, the lion, and the eagle, is in +perfect accordance with the character and personal aim of each Gospel. + +The lion, emblematical of Omnipotence, is also the apt allegory of the +Resurrection. All the primitive naturalists, Saint Epiphanius, Saint +Anselm, Saint Yves of Chartres, Saint Bruno of Asti, Saint Isidor, +Adamantius, all accept the legend that the lion-cub after its birth +remains lifeless for three days; then on the fourth day it awakes as it +hears its father's roar and springs full of life out of the den. Thus +Christ, rising at the end of three days, escapes from the tomb at the +call of His Father. + +The belief still prevailed that the lion sleeps with its eyes open; +hence it became the emblem of vigilance, and Saint Hilary and Saint +Augustine read in this manner of taking repose an allusion to the Divine +nature, which was not extinguished even in the sepulchre, though the +human nature of the Redeemer was in truth dead. + +Finally, as it was considered certain that this animal effaced the +traces of its steps in the sand of the desert with its tail, Raban Maur, +Saint Epiphanius, and Saint Isidor regarded it as signifying the Saviour +veiling His Godhead under the forms of the flesh. + +"Not an ordinary beast--the lion!" exclaimed Durtal. "Well," he went on, +consulting his notes, "the ox is less pretentious! It is the paragon of +strength with humility; according to Saint Paul it is emblematical of +the priesthood; of the preacher, according to Raban Maur; of the Bishop, +according to Peter Cantor, because, says this writer, the prelate wears +a mitre of which the two horns resemble those of an ox, and he uses +these horns, which are the wisdom of the Two Testaments, to rip up +heretics. Still, in spite of these more or less ingenious +interpretations, the ox is in fact the beast of immolation and +sacrifice. + +"Turning to the eagle, it is, as we have seen, the Messiah pouncing on +souls to catch them; but other meanings are ascribed to it by Saint +Isidor and by Vincent of Beauvais. If we believe them, the eagle that +desires to test the prowess of his eaglets takes them in his talons and +carries them out into the sun, compelling them to look with their eyes +as they begin to open, on the blazing orb. The eagle which is dazzled by +the fire is dropped and cast away by the parent bird. Thus doth God +reject the soul which cannot gaze on him with the contemplative eye of +love! + +"The eagle, again, is typical of the Resurrection; Saint Epiphanius and +Saint Isidor explain it thus: The eagle in old age flies up so near to +the sun that its feathers catch fire; revived by the flames, it drops +into the nearest spring, bathes in it three times and comes out +regenerate: is not this indeed the paraphrase of the Psalmist's verse, +"Thy youth shall be renewed as the eagle's"? Saint Madalene of Pazzi, +however, regards it differently, and takes it to typify faith leaning on +charity. + +"I shall have to find a place for all these documents in my article," +sighed Durtal, placing these notes in a separate wrapper. + +Now for the chimerical fauna introduced from the East, imported into +Europe by the Crusaders, and travestied by the illuminators of missals +and by image-makers. + +Foremost, the dragon, which we already find rampant and busy in +mythology and in the Bible. + +Durtal rose and went into his library to find a book, "Traditions +teratologiques," by Berger de Xivrey. It contained long extracts from +the "Romance of Alexander," which was the delight of the grown-up +children of the Middle Ages. + +"Dragons," says this narrative, "are larger than all other serpents, and +longer.... They fly through the air, which is darkened by the disgorging +of their stench and venom ... This venom is so deadly that if a man +should be touched by it or come nigh it, it would seem to him a burning +fire, and would raise his skin in great blisters, as though he had been +scalded." And the author adds: "The sea is swollen up by their venom." + +Dragons have a crest, sharp talons, and a hissing throat, and are almost +unconquerable. Albertus Magnus tells us, however, that magicians, when +they wish to subdue them, beat as loudly as they can on drums, and that +the dragon, imagining that it is the roll of thunder, which they greatly +dread, let themselves be handled quietly and are taken. + +The enemy of this winged reptile is the elephant, which sometimes +succeeds in crushing it by falling on it with all its weight; but most +times it is killed by the dragon, which feeds on its blood, of which the +freshness allays the intolerable burning caused by its own venom. + +Next to this monster comes the gryphon, a combination of the quadruped +and the bird, for it has the body of the lion and the head and talons of +the eagle. Then the basilisk, regarded as the king of serpents; it is +four feet long, and has a tail as thick as a tree, and spotted with +white. Its head bears a tuft in shape like a crown; it has a strident +voice, and its eye is murderous, "A look," says the "Romance of +Alexander," "so piercing, that it is pestilential and deadly to all +beasts, whether venomous or no." Its breath is no less fetid, nor less +dangerous, for, "by its breath are all things infected, and when it is +dying it is fain to disgorge it; it stinks so that all other beasts flee +from it." + +Its most formidable foe is the weasel, which bites its throat, "though +it be a beast no bigger than a rat," for "God hath made nothing without +reason and remedy," the pious Mediaeval writer concludes. + +Why the weasel? There is nothing to show; nor was this little creature, +who did such good service, honoured by our forefathers as having a +favourable meaning. + +It is symbolical of dissimulation and depravity, and taken to typify the +degrading life of the mountebank. It may also be remembered that this +carnivorous beast, which was supposed to carry its young in the mouth +and give birth to them through the ear, is numbered among the unclean +animals in the Bible. + +"This zoological homoeopathy is rather inconsistent," observed Durtal, +"unless the similar interpretation given to these two creatures, hating +each other, may signify that the Devil devours himself." + +Next we have the phoenix, "a bird of very fine plumage resembling the +peacock; it is very solitary, and feeds on the seeds of the ash;" its +colour, moreover, is of purple overshot with gold; and because it is +said to rise again from its ashes, it is always typical of the +Resurrection of Christ. + +The unicorn was one of the most amazing creatures in mystical natural +history. + +"It is a very cruel beast, with a great and thick body after the fashion +of a horse; it hath for a weapon a great horn, half a fathom in length, +so sharp and so hard that there is nothing it cannot pierce.... When men +need to take it they bring a virgin maid to the place where they know +that it has its abode. When the unicorn sees her and knows that she is a +virgin, it lieth down to sleep in her lap, doing her no harm; then come +the hunters and kill it.... Likewise, if she be not a pure maid the +unicorn will not sleep, but killeth the damsel who is not pure." + +Whence we conclude that the unicorn is one of the emblems of chastity, +as also is another very strange beast of which Saint Isidor speaks: the +porphyrion. + +This has one foot like that of the partridge, and the other webbed like +that of a goose, its peculiarity consists in mourning over adultery, and +loving its master so faithfully that it dies of pity in his arms when it +learns that his wife has deceived him. So that this species was soon +extinct! + +"There must be some more fabulous beasts to be included," murmured +Durtal, again turning over his papers. + +He found the wyvern, a sort of Melusina, half woman and half serpent; a +very cruel beast, full of malice and devoid of pity, Saint Ambrose tells +us; the manicoris, with the face of a man, the tawny eyes and crimson +mane of a lion, a scorpion's tail, and the flight of an eagle; this sort +is insatiable by human flesh. The leoncerote, offspring of the male +hyena and the lioness, having the body of an ass, the legs of a deer, +the breast of a wild beast, a camel's head, and armed with terrible +fangs; the tharanda, which, according to Hugh of Saint Victor, has the +shape of the ox, the profile of the stag, the fur of the bear, and which +changes colour like the cameleon; finally, the sea-monk, the most +puzzling of all, since Vincent of Beauvais describes it as having its +body covered with scales, and it is furnished, in lieu of arms, with +fins all over claws, besides having a monk's shaven head ending in the +snout of a carp. + +Others were also invented, as for instance the gargoyles, hybrid +monsters, signifying the vomiting forth of sin ejected from the +sanctuary; reminding the passer-by who sees them pouring forth the water +from the gutter, that when seen outside the church, they are the +voidance of the spirit, the cloaca of the soul! + +"But," said Durtal to himself, "that seems to me enough of the matter. +From the point of view of symbolism this menagerie is not particularly +interesting since these monsters--the wyvern, the manicoris, the +leoncerote, the tharanda and sea-monk--all mean the same thing, and all +embody the Spirit of Evil." + +He took out his watch. + +"Come," said he, "I have still time enough before dinner to go through +the list of real animals." + +And he turned over his notes on birds. + +"The cock," said he, "is prayer, watchfulness, the preacher, the +Resurrection, since it is the first to wake at daybreak; the peacock, +that has, as an old writer says, "the voice of a devil and the feathers +of an angel," is a mass of contradictory symbols: it typifies pride, +and, according to Saint Antony of Padua, immortality, as well as +vigilance by reason of the eyes in its tail. The pelican is the image of +contemplation and of charity; of love, too, according to Saint Madalene +of Pazzi; the sparrow symbolizes penitential solitude; the swallow, sin; +the swan, pride, according to Raban Maur; diligence and solicitude +according to Thomas de Catimpre; the nightingale is mentioned by Saint +Mechtildis as meaning the tender soul; and the same saint compares the +lark to persons who do good works with cheerfulness; it is to be noted +too that in the windows of Bourges the lark means charity to the sick. + +"Here are others specified by Hugh of Saint Victor. To him the vulture +means idleness; the kite, rapacity; the raven, detraction; the white +owl, hypochondria; the common owl, ignorance; the magpie, chattering +talk; and the hoopoe, sluttishness and evil report. + +"This is all a sorry medley!" said Durtal, "and I fear it will be the +same with the mammalia and other beasts!" + +He compared a few passages. The ox, the lamb, the sheep, we have seen. +The sheep is the type of timidity and meekness, and Saint Pacomius +embodies in him the monk who lives punctual and obedient, and loving his +brethren. Saint Melito on his part ascribes hypocrisy to the ostrich, +temporal power to the rhinoceros, human frailty to the spider; we may +also mention among the crustacea, the crab as symbolizing heresy and the +synagogue, because it walks backwards and away from the path of +righteousness. Among fish, the whale is the emblem of the tomb, just as +Jonas, who came out of it after three days, is typical of Jesus risen +from the dead. Among rodents the beaver is the image of Christian +prudence, because, says the legend, when he is pursued by hunters he +tears with his teeth the pouch containing castoreum and flings it at the +foe. For this reason it is likewise the animal representative of the +text in the Gospel which declares that a man must cut off the offending +member which is an occasion of sin. + +Let us pause before the den of wild beasts. + +According to Hugh of Saint Victor the wolf is avarice; the fox is +cunning; Adamantius says that the wild boar represents blind rage; the +leopard wrath, ambush and daring; the tiger, and the hyena, which can +change its sex at will and imitate the voice of man, signifies +hypocrisy; while Saint Hildegarde shows that the panther, by reason of +the beauty of its spots, is typical of vain-glory. + +We need not dwell on the bull, the bison and the buffalo; the symbolists +regard them as emblems of brute force and pride; while the goat and +boar-pig are vessels of lust and filth. + +They divide this honour with the toad, an unclean reptile; the +habitation of the Devil, who assumes its form to show himself to the +female saints--for instance to Saint Theresa. As to the hapless frog it +is equally defamed because of its likeness to the toad. + +The stag is in better odour. Saint Jerome and Cassiodorus say it +exemplifies the Christian who overcomes sin by the sacrament of penance, +or by martyrdom. Representing God in the Psalms, it is also taken as the +heathen desiring baptism; a legend attributes to it so vehement a horror +of the Serpent, in other words of the Devil, that whenever it can it +attacks and devours him, but if it subsequently goes for three hours +without drinking, it dies; hence after that meal it runs to and fro in +the forest seeking a spring of which, if it finds one, it drinks, and is +then many years younger. The she-goat is sometimes held in ill-fame as +being akin to the he-goat, but it more often is regarded as the +Well-Beloved, to which the Bride in Canticles compares it. The hedgehog, +hiding in crannies, is interpreted by Saint Melito as the sinner, by +Peter of Capua as the penitent. As to the horse, as a creature of vanity +and pride, it is opposed by Peter Cantor and Adamantius to the ox, which +is all gravity and simplicity. It is well, however, to observe that to +confuse the matter, by presenting the horse under another aspect, Saint +Eucher compares it to a saint, and the Anonymous Monk of Clairvaux +identifies the Devil with the ox. The poor ass is no better treated by +Hugh of Saint Victor, who accuses it of stupidity, by Saint Gregory the +Great, who taxes it with laziness, and Peter of Capua, who speaks of its +lust. It must, however; be observed that Saint Melito compares it with +Christ for its humility, and that the exegetists explain the ass's foal +ridden by Christ on Palm Sunday as an image of the Gentiles, as they +interpret the she-ass that threw Him to mean the Jews. + +Finally, two domestic animals dear to man, the cat and the dog, are +generally contemned by the mystics. The dog, typical of sin, says Peter +Cantor, and the most quarrelsome of beasts, adds Hugh of Saint Victor, +is the creature that returns to his vomit; it also prefigures the +reprobates of whom the Apocalypse speaks, who are to be driven out of +the heavenly Jerusalem; Saint Melito speaks of it as the apostate, and +Saint Pacomius as the rapacious monk, but Raban Maur redeems it a little +from this condemnation by specifying it as emblematic of confessors. + +The cat, which is but once mentioned in the Bible--in the Book of +Baruch--is invariably abhorred by the primitive naturalists, who accuse +it of embodying treachery and hypocrisy, and of lending its skin to the +Devil, to enable him to appear in its shape to sorcerers. + +Durtal turned over a few more pages, discovering that the hare typified +timidity and cowardice, and the snail laziness; noting the opinion of +Adamantius, who ascribes levity and a mocking spirit to the monkey; that +of Peter of Capua and of the Anonymous writer of Clairvaux, that the +lizard, which crawls and hides in cracks in the walls, is, as well as +the serpent, an emblem of evil; and he recorded the special ascription +of ingratitude by Christ Himself to the viper, for He gives the name to +the Jewish race. Durtal then hastily dressed, fearing to be late, as he +was dining with the Abbe Gevresin and the Abbe Plomb. Pursued by Madame +Mesurat, who insisted on dealing him one more blow with the +clothes-brush, he rushed downstairs, and was soon at his friend's door. + +Madame Bavoil, who opened it, appeared in a cap all askew and hair +loose, up-turned sleeves and scorched arms, with cheeks crimson from the +kitchen fire. She confessed to the concoction of a dish of beef _a la +mode_ softened by calf's foot jelly and strengthened by a dash of +brandy, and fled, alarmed by the impatient call of a saucepan, of which +the contents were boiling over on the hot plates of the stove, with a +noise like cats swearing. + +Durtal found the old Abbe tormented by rheumatism, but as ever, patient +and cheerful. They talked a little while; then, seeing that Durtal was +looking at some little lumps of gum lying on his writing table, the Abbe +said,-- + +"That is incense from the Carmel of Chartres." + +"Indeed!" + +"Yes, the Carmelites are accustomed to burn none but genuine true +incense. So I begged them to trust me with a specimen that I might +procure the same quality for our cathedral." + +"It is everywhere adulterated, I suppose?" + +"Yes. This substance is found in commerce under three forms: male +incense, which is the best if unadulterated; female incense, which is +mixed with reddish fragments and dry grains called _marrons_; finally +incense in powder, which is for the most part a mixture of inferior +resin and benzoin." + +"And what have you there?" + +"This is male incense; do you see those oblong tears, those almost +transparent drops of faded amber? how different from that which they use +at Notre Dame; it is earthy, broken, full of scraps, and it is safe to +wager that those knobs are crystals of carbonate of lime and not beads +of pure resin." + +"Why," said Durtal, "this substance suggests to me the idea of a +symbolism of odours; has it ever been worked out?" + +"I doubt it; but in any case it would be very simple. The aromatic +substances used in the Liturgy are reduced to three, frankincense, +myrrh, and balm. + +"Their meaning is known to you. Incense is the Divinity of the Son, and +our prayers which rise up like vapours in the presence of the Most High, +as the Psalmist says. Myrrh is repentance, the sufferings of Jesus, His +death, the martyrs, and also, according to Monsieur Olier, the type of +the Virgin who heals the souls of sinners as myrrh cauterizes the +festering of wounds; balm is another word for virtue. + +"But though there are few Liturgical savours, it is not so with regard +to mystical effluences which vary infinitely. We have, however, but +little information on the subject. + +"We merely know that the odour of sanctity is antithetical to that of +the Devil; that many of the Elect have diffused, during their lifetime +and after their death, an exquisite fragrance which cannot be analyzed; +such were Madalene of Pazzi, Saint Etienne de Muret, Saint Philip Neri, +Saint Paternianus, Saint Omer, the Venerable Francis Olympus, Jeanne de +Matel and many more. + +"We know too that our sins stink, each according to its nature; and the +proof of this is that the saints could detect the state of men's +consciences merely by the smell of their bodies. Do you remember how +Saint Joseph of Cupertino exclaimed to a sinner whom he met: 'My friend, +you smell very badly; go and wash.' + +"To return to the odour of sanctity: in certain persons it has been +known to assume a natural character almost identical with certain +familiar scents. Saint Treverius exhaled a fragrance compounded of +roses, lilies, balm, and incense; Saint Rose of Viterbo smelt of roses; +Saint Cajetan of orange-blossom; Saint Catherine of Ricci of violets; +Saint Theresa by turns of lily, jasmine and violet; Saint Thomas Aquinas +of incense; Saint Francis of Paul of musk;--I mention these at random as +they occur to me. + +"Yes, and Saint Lydwine, when so ill, diffused a fragrance which also +imparted a flavour. Her wounds exhaled a cheerful savour of spice and +the very essence of Flemish home cooking--a refined extract of +cinnamon." + +"On the other hand," the Abbe went on, "the stench of wizards and +witches was notorious in the Middle Ages. On this point all exorcists +and writers on Demonology are agreed; and it is almost invariably +recorded that after an apparition of the devil a foul odour of sulphur +was left in the cells, even when the Saints had succeeded in dislodging +him. + +"But the essential odour of the devil is amply recorded in the life of +Christina of Stumbela. You are not ignorant, I suppose, of the exploits +in which Satan indulged against that saint?" + +"Indeed, I am, Monsieur l'Abbe." + +"Then I may tell you that the narrative of these assaults has been +preserved by the Bollandists, who have included the life of this pious +woman in their biographies. It was written by Peter of Dacia, a +Dominican, and her confessor. + +"Christina was born early in the thirteenth century--1242, I believe--at +Stumbela, near Cologne. + +"She was persecuted by the devil from her infancy. He exhausted the +armoury of his arts against her, appeared to her under the form of a +cock, a bull, an apostle; covered her with lice, filled her bed with +vermin, poisoned her blood, and as he could not make her deny God, he +invented fresh torments. + +"He turned the food she put into her mouth into a toad, a snake, a +spider, and disgusted her so effectually with all food, that she was +dying for want of it. She spent her days in vomiting, and prayer to God +to rescue her, but He was silent. + +"Still, to sustain her in such trials, the Sacrament was left to her. +Satan, knowing this, determined to deprive her of this sustenance, and +appeared in the form of these creatures even in the host when she +received it. Finally, to conquer her, he took the form of a huge toad, +and established himself in her bosom. At first Christina fainted with +fright, but then God intervened; by His order she wrapped her hand in +her sleeve, slipped it between her body and the belly of the reptile, +tore away the toad, and flung it on the stones. + +"It was dashed to pieces, with a noise, said the saint, like an old +shoe. + +"These persecutions continued till Advent in 1268; and from that time +the plague of filth began. + +"Peter of Dacia relates that one evening Christina's father came to +fetch him from his convent in Cologne, and begged him to go with him to +his daughter, tormented by the devil. He and another Dominican, Brother +Wipert, set out, and on arriving at Stumbela they found in the haunted +hut the Priest of the district, the Reverend Father Godefried, Prior of +the Benedictines of Brunwilre, and Cellarer of that convent. As they +stood warming themselves they discoursed of the pestilential incursions +of the devil, when suddenly the performance was repeated. They were all +bespattered with filth, Christina being caked with it, to use the +Friar's expression; and 'strange to say,' adds Peter of Dacia, 'this +matter, which was but warm, burned Christina, raising blisters on her +skin.' + +"This continued for three days. At length, one evening, Friar Wipert, +quite exasperated, began to recite the prayers for exorcism; but a +terrific uproar shook the room, the candles went out, and he was hit in +the eye by something so hard that he exclaimed, 'Woe is me! I am blind +of an eye!' + +"He was led, feeling his way, into an adjoining room, where the garments +they changed were dried, and where water was constantly heated for their +ablutions; he was cleansed, and his eye washed. It had suffered no +serious injury, and he returned to the other room to say Matins with the +two Benedictines and Peter of Dacia. But before chanting the service he +went up to the patient's bed and clasped his hands in amazement. + +"She was covered with filth indeed, but all was changed. The smell, +which had been supernaturally foul, was changed to angelic fragrance; +Christina's saintly resignation had routed the tempter of souls; and +they all joined in praising God. What do you say to that narrative?" + +"It is astounding, certainly; but is this the only instance of such +infernal filth?" + +"No; in the next century analogous circumstances haunted Elizabeth de +Reute, and likewise the Blessed Betha. Here again Satan allowed himself +such filthy sport. It may also be noted that in modern times acts of the +same kind were observed in the house of the Cure d'Ars." + +"But in all this I see nothing to illustrate the symbolism of perfumes," +remarked Durtal. "At any rate, the subject would seem to be narrow or +ill-defined, and the number of odours that can be named is small. + +"There are certain essences mentioned in the Old Testament prefiguring +the Virgin. Some of them are interpreted in other senses, as spikenard, +cassia, and cinnamon. The first represents strength of soul; the second, +sound doctrine; and the third, the sweet savour of virtue. Then there +is the essence of cedar, which in the thirteenth century symbolized the +Doctors of the Church; and there are three specifically liturgical +perfumes: incense, balm, and myrrh; besides the odour of sanctity, which +in the case of some saints could be analyzed; and the demoniacal stench, +from a mere animal smell to the horrible nastiness of rotten eggs and +sulphur. + +"We must now inquire whether the personal fragrance of the Elect is in +harmony with the qualities or acts of which each was, on earth, the +example or the doer; and it would seem to have been so, when we remark +that Saint Thomas Aquinas, who composed the admirable sequence on the +Holy Sacrament, exhaled a perfume of incense, and that Saint Catherine +of Ricci, who was a model of humility, smelt of violets, the emblem of +that virtue, but--" + +The Abbe Plomb now came in, and being informed by Durtal of the subject +under discussion, he said,-- + +"But you have omitted from your diabolical flavours the most +conspicuous." + +"How is that, Monsieur l'Abbe?" + +"Certainly, for you have taken no account of the false fragrance which +Satan can diffuse. In fact, his baleful effluvia are of two kinds: one +characterized by the stench of sulphurous waters and drains; the other +by a false odour of sanctity, delicious gusts of sweetness and +temptation. This is how the Evil One tried to seduce Dominico de Gusman; +he bathed him in delicious vapours, hoping thus to inspire him with +notions of vain-glory; thus, too, did he to Jourdain of Saxony, who +exhaled a sweet odour when saying Mass. God showed him that this +phenomenon was of infernal origin, and it then ceased. + +"And I recollect a singular anecdote told by Quercetanus concerning a +mistress of Charlemagne's who died. The king, who worshipped her, could +not bear to have her body interred, though it was decomposing, exhaling, +however, a perfume of violets and roses. The body was examined, and in +its mouth a ring was found, which was removed. The demoniacal +enchantment forthwith ceased, the body became foul, and Charlemagne +allowed it to be buried. + +"We may add to this diabolical odour of seduction another, which is, on +the contrary, fetid, and is used to annoy the believer, to hinder him in +prayer, to estrange him from his fellows, and drive him, if possible, +to despair; still, this smell with which the devil infects a being may +be included in the category of the smells of temptation--not, indeed, to +pride, but to weakness and fear. + +"Meanwhile, I have something else for you," said the Abbe, addressing +Durtal. "Here are the titles I have collected for you of some works on +the symbolical animals of the Middle Ages. You have read '_De Bestiis et +aliis rebus_,' by Hugh of Saint Victor?" + +"Yes." + +"Very good; you may further consult Albertus Magnus, Bartholomew de +Glanville, and Pierre de Bressuire. I have noted on this paper a series +of such beast-books: those of Hildebert, Philippe de Thann, Guillaume de +Normandie, Gautier de Metz, and Richard de Fournival. Only you would +have to go to Paris to procure them in the public libraries." + +"And that would not help me much," replied Durtal. "I have, ere now, +looked through many of these works, and they contain no information that +can be of use from the point of view of symbolism. They are mere +fabulous descriptions of animals, legends as to their origin and habits. +The _Spicilegium Solesmense_ and the _Analectae_ of Dom Pitra are far +more instructive. By his help, with that of Saint Isidor, Saint +Epiphanius, and Hugh of Saint Victor, we can decipher the figurative +meaning of monsters. + +"They are all alike; there has been no complete or serious work produced +on symbolism since the Middle Ages, for the Abbe Auber's work on the +subject is a delusion. In vain will you seek for a treatise on flowers +which even alludes to the Catholic significance of plants. I do not, of +course, mean those silly books compiled for lovers, and called the +Language of Flowers, which you may find on the bookstalls with old +cookery-books and dream-books. It is the same with regard to colours; +nothing proven or authentic has been written concerning infernal or +celestial hues; for in fact the treatise by Frederic Portal is +worthless. To explain Angelico's work I had to hunt here and there +through the Mystics, to discover where I might the meanings they ascribe +to colours; and I see plainly that I must do the same for my article on +the emblematical fauna. There is, on the whole, nothing to be found in +technical works; it is in the Bible and in the Liturgy, the +fountain-head of symbolical lore, that I must cast my net. By the way, +Monsieur l'Abbe, had you not some remarks to communicate on the zoology +of the Scriptures?" + +"Yes, we will go--" + +"To dinner, if you please," said Madame Bavoil. + +The Abbe Gevresin said grace, and when they had eaten the soup the +housekeeper served the beef. + +It was strengthening, tender, savoury to its inmost fibre, penetrated by +the rich and highly-flavoured sauce. + +"You don't get the like at La Trappe, our friend, eh?" said Madame +Bavoil. + +"Nor will he get anything so good at any other religious retreat," said +the Abbe Plomb. + +"Do not discourage me beforehand," said Durtal, laughing; "let me enjoy +this without a pang--there is a time for all things." + +"Then you are fully determined," said the Abbe Gevresin, "to write a +paper for your _Review_ on allegorical beasts?" + +"Yes, Monsieur l'Abbe." + +"I have made a list for you from the works of Fillion and of Lesetre of +the blunders made by the translators of the Bible when they disguised +real beasts under chimerical names," said the Abbe Plomb. "This, in a +few words, is the upshot of my researches. + +"There was never any mythological fauna in the Sacred Books. The Hebrew +text was misread by those who translated it into Greek and Latin, and +the strange zoology that we find in certain chapters of Isaiah and Job +is easily reduced to the nomenclature of well-known creatures. + +"Thus the onocentaurs and sirens, spoken of by the Prophet, are neither +more nor less than jackals, if we examine the Hebrew original. The +lamia, a vampire, half woman and half serpent like the wyvern, is a +night bird, the white or the screech owl; the satyrs and fauns, the +hairy beasts spoken of in the Vulgate, are, after all, no more than wild +goats--'schirim,' as they are called in the Mosaic original. + +"The reptile so frequently mentioned in the Bible under the name of +'dragon' is indicated in the original by various words, which sometimes +mean the serpent or the crocodile, sometimes the jackal, and sometimes +the whale; and the famous unicorn of the Scriptures is merely the +primaeval bull or auroch, which is to be seen on the Assyrian +bas-reliefs--a race now dying out, lingering only in the remotest parts +of Lithuania and the Caucasus." + +"And Behemoth and Leviathan, spoken of by Job?" + +"The word Behemoth is a plural form in Hebrew meaning Excellence. It +designates a prodigious and enormous beast--the rhinoceros, perhaps, or +the hippopotamus. As to Leviathan, it was a huge reptile, a gigantic +python." + +"That is a pity," said Durtal. "Imaginary zoology was far more +amusing!--Why, what is this vegetable?" he inquired, as he tasted a +curious stew of greens. + +"Dandelions cut up and boiled with shreds of bacon," replied Madame +Bavoil. "Do you like the dish, our friend?" + +"Indeed I do. Your dandelions are to garden spinach and chicory what the +wild duck is to the tame, or the hare to the rabbit. And it is a fact +that garden plants are generally poor and tasteless, while those that +grow wild have a certain astringency and pleasant bitter flavour. It is +the venison of vegetables that you have given us, Madame Bavoil!" + +"I fancy," said the Abbe Plomb, who had been thoughtful, "that just as +we tried to compile a mystic flora the other day, we might make a list +of the deadly sins as represented by animals." + +"Obviously, and with very little trouble. Pride is embodied in the bull, +the peacock, the lion, the eagle, the horse, the swan, and the wild +ass--according to Vincent de Beauvais. Avarice by the wolf, and, says +Saint Theobald, by the spider; for lust, we have the he-goat, the boar, +the toad, the ass, and the fly, which, Saint Gregory the Great tells, +typifies the turbulent cravings of the senses; for envy, the +sparrow-hawk, the owl, and screech-owl; for greediness, the hog and the +dog; for anger, the lion and wild boar, and, according to Adamantius, +the leopard; for sloth, the vulture, the snail, the she-ass, and, Raban +Maur says, the mule. + +"As to the virtues antithetical to these vices, humility may be typified +by the ox and the ass; indifference to worldly possessions by the +pelican, the emblem of the contemplative life; chastity by the dove and +the elephant, though it is true that this interpretation of Peter of +Capua is contradicted by other mystics, who accuse the elephant of +pride, and speak of him as an 'enormous sinner'; charity by the lark and +the pelican; temperance by the camel, which, taken in another sense, +typifies under the name of _gamal_ extravagant fury; vigilance by the +lion, the peacock, the ant--quoted by the Abbess Herrade and the +Anonymous monk of Clairvaux--and especially by the cock, to which Saint +Eucher attributes this virtue in common with all other symbolists. + +"I may add that the dove alone epitomizes all these qualities and is the +synthesis of all virtue." + +"Yes, and she alone is never spoken of as having any evil significance." + +"A distinction she shares with white and blue, the only colours which +are exempt from the law of antithesis and are never ascribed to any +vice," said Durtal. + +"The dove!" cried Madame Bavoil, who was changing the plates; "she plays +a beautiful part in the story of Noah's Ark. Ah! our friend, you should +hear what Mother Jeanne de Matel says of her." + +"What does she say, Madame Bavoil?" + +"The admirable Jeanne begins by saying that original sin produced in +human nature the deluge of sin from which the Virgin alone was exempted +by the Father, who chose Her to be His one Dove. + +"Then she relates how Lucifer, represented by the raven, escaped from +the ark through the window of free will; then God, to whom Mary had +belonged from all eternity, opened the window of the Will of His +Providence, and from His own bosom, from the heavenly Ark, He sent the +original dove on the earth where she gathered a spray of the olive of +His mercy, took her flight back to the Ark of Heaven, and offered this +branch for the whole human race; She then implored Divine grace to abate +the deluge of sin, and besought the Heavenly Noah to descend from that +high Ark; then, without quitting the bosom of the Father from whom He is +inseparable, He came down." + +"_Et Verbum caro factum est et habitavit in nobis_," the Abbe Gevresin +added, in conclusion. + +"This prefiguration of the Word by Noah is certainly curious," remarked +Durtal. + +"Animals are also introduced in the iconography of the saints," the +Abbe Plomb resumed. "So far as I can recollect, the ass is the attribute +of Saint Marcellus, of Saint John Chrysostom, of Saint Germain, of Saint +Aubert, of Saint Frances of Rome, and of some others; the stag of Saint +Hubert and Saint Rieul; the cock of Saint Landry and Saint Vitus; the +raven of Saint Benedict, Saint Apollinarius, Saint Vincent, Saint Ida, +Saint Expeditus; the deer of Saint Henry; the wolf of Saint Waast, Saint +Norbert, Saint Remaclus, and Saint Arnold; the spider betokens Saint +Conrad and Saint Felix of Nola; the dog accompanies Saint Godfrey, Saint +Bernard, Saint Roch, Saint Margaret of Cortona, and Saint Dominic, when +it bears a burning torch in its mouth; the doe is the badge of Saint +Giles, Saint Leu, Saint Genevieve of Brabant, and Saint Maximus; the pig +of Saint Anthony; the dolphin of Saint Adrian, of Saint Lucian, and +Saint Basil; the swan of Saint Cuthbert and Saint Hugh; the rat is seen +with Saint Goutran and Saint Gertrude; the ox with Saint Cornelius, +Saint Eustachius, Saint Honorius, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Saint Lucy, +Saint Blandina, Saint Bridget, Saint Sylvester, Saint Sebaldus, Saint +Saturninus; the dove belongs to Saint Gregory the Great, Saint Remi, +Saint Ambrose, Saint Hilary, Saint Ursula, Saint Aldegonde, and Saint +Scholastica, whose soul flew up to Heaven under that form. + +"And the list might be indefinitely extended. Shall you mention in your +article these accompaniments to the saints?" + +"In point of fact," replied Durtal, "most of these attributes are based +on history or legend, and not on symbolism; so I shall not devote any +particular attention to them." + +There was a silence. + +Then, abruptly, the Abbe Plomb, looking at his brother priest, said to +Durtal,-- + +"I am going to Solesmes again a week hence, and I told the Reverend +Father Abbot that I should take you with me." + +Then, seeing Durtal's amazement, he smiled. "But I will not leave you +there," he went on, "unless you wish not to return to Chartres. I only +propose that you should pay a visit there, just long enough to breathe +the atmosphere of the convent, to make acquaintance with the Benedictine +Fathers, and try their life." + +Durtal was silent, somewhat scared; for this proposal, simple enough as +it was, that he should go to live for some days in a cloister, had +startled him into a strange, a grotesque notion that if he should +accept, it would be playing away his last card, risking a decisive step, +taking a sort of pledge before God to settle there and end his days in +His immediate presence. + +But what was most strange was that this idea, so imperative and +overpowering that it excluded all possible reflection, bereft him of all +his powers of self-protection, left him disarmed at the mercy of he knew +not what--this idea, which nothing justified, was not centred, not fixed +on Solesmes; whither he should retreat was for the moment of small +importance; that was not the question; the only point to settle was +whether he meant to yield at all to a vague impulse, to obey +unformulated orders which were nevertheless positive, and give an +earnest to God, Who seemed to be harassing him without any sufficient +explanation. + +He felt himself inexorably condemned, tacitly compelled to pronounce his +decision then and there. + +He tried to struggle, to reason, to recover his self-possession; but the +very effort was fatal. He felt a sort of inward syncope, as though, +while his body was still upright, his soul was fainting within him with +fatigue and terror. + +"But this is madness!" he cried. "Madness!" + +"Why, what is the matter?" cried the two priests. + +"I beg your pardon. Nothing." + +"Are you in pain?" + +"No, it is nothing." + +There was an awkward pause which he was determined to break. + +"Did you ever take laughing gas?" said he; "the gas which sends you to +sleep and is used in surgery for short operations? No? Well, you feel a +buzzing in your brain, and just as you hear a great noise of falling +waters you lose consciousness. That is what I am feeling; only the +experience is not in my brain, but in my soul, which is giddy and +helpless, on the point of fainting away." + +"I should like to think," said the Abbe Plomb, "that it is not the +thought of a visit to Solesmes that has thus upset you." + +Durtal had not courage enough to own the truth; he was afraid of +seeming ridiculous if he confessed to such a panic; so to avoid a direct +answer he vaguely shook his head. + +"And I cannot help wondering why you should hesitate, for you will be +welcomed with open arms. The Father Abbot is a man of the highest merit, +and, moreover, no enemy to art. Besides--and this I hope will suffice to +reassure you--he is a most simple and kind-hearted monk." + +"But I have to finish my article." + +The two priests laughed. + +"You have a week before you to write your article in." + +"And then, to get any benefit from a monastery, I ought not be in the +state of dryness and diffusion in which I find myself vegetating," +Durtal went on with difficulty. + +"The saints themselves are not free from distractions," replied the Abbe +Gevresin. "For instance, think of the monk of whom Tauler speaks, who, +on quitting his cell in the month of May, would cover his face with his +hood, that he might not see the country, and so be hindered from +contemplating his soul." + +"Oh, our friend, must that gentle Jesus, as the Venerable Jeanne says, +be for ever the poor man pining for admittance at the door of our heart? +Come, just a little goodwill--open yours to Him," cried Madame Bavoil. + +And Durtal, finally driven into his last intrenchments, by a nod +signified acquiescence in the wish of all his friends. But he did it +with deep reluctance, for he could not rid himself of a distracting idea +that this concession implied a vow on his part to God! + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + +This idea, which had taken firm possession of him for a few minutes, +seemed to fade away, and by the morrow there only remained a startled +excitement which nothing could account for; he now shrugged his +shoulders, but still, at the bottom of his soul a vague sense of dread +would surge up. + +Was not the very absurdity of it a proof that this notion was one of the +presentiments that we sometimes feel without understanding it? Was it +not, again, for lack of a command plainly given by some inward voice, a +warning, a direct and secret hint, that he should be on his guard not to +think of this visit to a cloister as a mere pleasure trip? + +"But this is monstrous!" Durtal exclaimed at last. "When I went to La +Trappe for my great purification, I was not harassed by apprehensions of +this kind; when I have gone there again several times since, it never +occurred to me that I should really bury myself in a monastery; and now +that it is a matter merely of a short visit to a Benedictine monastery, +I am trembling and recalcitrant. + +"Such a commotion is quite childish! And yet no, not so very childish," +he suddenly told himself. "When I have been to Notre-Dame de l'Atre I +have been sure that I should not remain, since I knew that I could not +endure more than a month of their austere Rule; so there was nothing to +fear; whereas in a Benedictine Abbey, where the Rule is lighter, I am +not certain that I could not stay. + +"In that case--well, well, so much the better! for after all sooner or +later I must decide, I must make up my mind as to what I really mean; +have some definite notion of the value of my promissory notes, of the +greater or less strength of my energy, my fitness, my limitations. + +"A few months ago I longed for the monastic life, that is beyond +doubt--and now I am wavering. I have abortive gushes of feeling, +ineffectual projects, inclinations which fail, wishes which come +short--I will and I will not. Still it is needful to understand oneself; +but of what use is it for me to try to sound the well of my own soul? If +I go down into it, I find everything dark and cold and empty. + +"I am beginning to think that by dint of staring into that darkness I am +becoming like a child that fixes its eyes on the blackness of night; I +end by creating phantoms and inventing terrors. That is certainly the +case as regards this excursion to Solesmes, for there is nothing, +absolutely nothing to justify my alarms. + +"How silly this all is; how much simpler it would be to allow myself to +live, and, above all, to be led!" + +"I have hit it," he went on after a moment's reflection. "The cause of +this turmoil is evident. It is my lack of self-abandonment, my want of +confidence in God--yes, and my little love, my dryness of spirit, which +have brought me to this state. + +"In the lapse of time this disorder has brought on the malady from which +I am suffering, an utter anaemia of the soul, aggravated by the patient's +terrors, since he, unaware of the nature of the complaint, exaggerates +its importance. + +"Thus stands my balance-sheet since I came to Chartres. + +"The position is very different from what it was in Paris. For the phase +I am going through is the very contrary to that in which I previously +lived; in Paris my soul was not dry and friable, but dank and soft; it +was saponaceous; the foot sank in it. In short, I was melting away, in a +state of langour, more painful perhaps than this state of drought which +is toughening me to horniness. Still on close examination, though the +symptoms have changed, the evil persists; softness or dryness, the +results are identical. + +"At the same time it seems strange that this spiritual anaemia should now +exhibit such opposite symptoms. On one hand I am conscious of weariness, +indifference, and torpor in prayer; it seems to me, bitter, vain, and +hollow, so badly do I pray; I am inclined to let everything go, to cease +the attempt, to wait for a glow of fervour which I cannot hope for; on +the other hand, I am at the same time conscious of a persistent and +obstinate yearning, an invisible touch, a craving for prayer, a +constant invitation from God keeping me alert. And there are times, too, +when, though I can prove to myself that I am not stirring, I fancy I am +trembling and shall be swept away by a tide. + +"That is very much of what I feel. In this frame of mind, half +stay-at-home, half gipsy-like, if I take up a book of the higher +mysticism--Saint Theresa or Saint Angela--that subtle touch gains +definiteness, I am aware of shocks running through me; I fancy that my +soul is convalescent, that it is young again, and breathes once more; +but if I try to take advantage of this lucid moment to collect myself +and to pray, it is all over--I flee from myself--nothing will work. What +misery, and how pitiable! + +"The Abbe Gevresin has guided me so far, but how? + +"He has trusted chiefly to the method of expectancy, restricting himself +to combating my generally flaccid state, and invigorating me rather than +contending with details. He has prescribed the heroic remedies of the +soul, desiring me to communicate when he found me weak. But, if I am not +mistaken, he is now turning his batteries. Either he is giving up a line +of attack which has failed, or else, on the contrary, he is improving +it, his treatment having produced, without my being aware of it, the +effects he was aiming at; in either case, to promote or complete the +cure, he wants to send me to a convent. + +"The plan seems to be, indeed, part of his system, for he did the same +thing when he was helping in my conversion. He sent me off to a health +resort for the soul--and the waters were powerful indeed and terrible; +now he thinks I no longer need have so severe a treatment inflicted on +me, and he is persuading me to stay in a more restful place, a less +bracing air--is that it? + +"Even his way of coming up unexpectedly and hurling his opinion at me is +not quite the same as it was. This time, it was, indeed, not he who +undertook to crystallize my irresolution by announcing my departure for +Solesmes; but it comes to the same thing. For, after all, there is +something not quite above board in this affair. Why did the Abbe Plomb +promise the Benedictines that he would take me with him? + +"He certainly acted on the request of the Abbe Gevresin. There can have +been no other reason for his talking of me to the Fathers. I have, +indeed, spoken to him of my distress of mind, of my vague craving for +retirement, and my love for monasteries. But I certainly did not suggest +that he should thus take the lead, and hurry matters on so! + +"Here I am, as usual, imagining plots and schemes, looking for things +that never existed, and discerning motives where perhaps there are none. +And even if there were! Is it not for my benefit that these good friends +are laying their heads together? + +"I have only to hear and obey. Now to have done with this and return to +the Bestiary; for I want to finish this work before I go." And posting +himself in front of the cathedral, he studied the south porch, which had +most of zoological mysticism and devilries. + +But he did not find the monstrosities of his fancy. At Chartres the +Vices and Virtues were not symbolized by more or less chimerical +creatures, but by human faces. After careful search he discovered on +some of the pillars of the middle doorway the Vices embodied in small +carved groups: Lust, as a woman fondling a young man; Drunkenness as a +boor about to hit a bishop; Discord by a husband quarrelling with his +wife, while an empty bottle and a broken distaff lie near them. + +By way of infernal monsters, the utmost he could discern,--and that by +dislocating his neck--were two dragons in the right-hand bay, one +exorcised by a monk and the other bridled by a Saint with his stole. + +Of divine beasts he could distinguish in the row of Virtues certain +female figures with symbolical creatures by their side: Docility +accompanied by an ox; Chastity by a phoenix; Charity by a sheep; +Meekness by a lamb; Fortitude by a lion; Temperance by a camel. Why +should the phoenix here typify Chastity, for it is not used generally in +that sense in the Bird-books of the Middle Ages? + +Somewhat disconcerted by the poverty of the fauna of Chartres, he +comforted himself by a study of this southern porch; it was a match for +that on the north, and repeated, with a variant, the subject of the west +front--the glorification of Christ, but in His function as the Supreme +Judge, and in the person of His Saints. + +This front, begun in the time of Philip Augustus, and built at the cost +of the Comte de Dreux and his wife Alice of Brittany, was not completed +till the time of Philippe le Bel. It was divided, like the other two, +into three portions: a central door with a tympanum in a pointed arch +bearing the presentment of the Last Judgment; one on the left devoted to +the Martyrs, and one on the right dedicated to the Confessors. + +The central bay suggested the form of a boat set on end, its prow in the +air; its deeply spreading sides contained in their niches six Apostles +on each, and in the middle, between the doors, stood a single statue of +Christ. + +This statue, like that at Amiens, was famous; every guidebook sings the +praises of the regular features, the calm expression of the face; in +reality the countenance is particularly fatuous and cold, beautiful but +lifeless. How inferior to that of the twelfth century, the expressive +and living God seated between the symbols of the Tetramorph in the +tympanum of the royal front. + +The Apostles were perhaps rather more refined, rather less squat than +the patriarchs and prophets supporting Saint Anne under the north porch, +but their quality as works of art was less striking. They resembled the +Christ, Whom they escorted with decent duty: it was honest work, +phlegmatic sculpture, so to speak. + +They held the instruments of their death with placid propriety, like +soldiers presenting arms. + +On the right hand stood Saint Peter, holding the cross on which he was +bound head downwards; Saint Andrew, with a Latin cross, however, and not +the X-shaped cross to which he was nailed; then Saint Philip, Saint +Thomas, Saint Matthew, Saint Simon, all armed with the sword, though +Saint Philip was crucified and stoned, Saint Thomas pierced with a +lance, and Saint Simon sawn asunder. + +To the left were Saint Paul, substituted for Saint Matthias, chosen to +succeed Judas; he carried a sword; Saint John, bearing his Gospel; Saint +James the Great, with a sword; Saint James the Less, with a fuller's +club; Saint Bartholomew, with the knife that served to flay him, and +Saint Jude with a book. + +Perched on twisted columns, they trampled under their feet--bare, in +token of their apostleship--the executioners of their martyrdom. They +had long flowing hair, and forked beards cut into two points, excepting +Saint John, who was beardless, and Saint Paul, who, tradition says, was +bald; and they were all dressed alike in cloaks hanging in formal +curves. Saint James the Great was alone distinguished by a tunic +sprinkled with shells, like that of the pilgrims who were wont to visit +him at Compostella in one of the huge sanctuaries erected in his honour +in Mediaeval times. + +He was the patron Saint of Spain; but did he really ever preach in those +lands, as Saint Jerome and Saint Isidor assert, and the Toledo Breviary? +Some doubt it. At any rate his story, as related by Durand of Mende, in +the thirteenth century, was as follows: Being sent into Spain to convert +the idolaters, he failed, and returned to Jerusalem, where he was +beheaded by Herod. His body was subsequently carried to Spain, and his +remains performed such miracles as he had never wrought in his lifetime. + +"Indeed," reflected Durtal, "we have singularly little information with +regard to the Apostles. They appear, for the most part, only +incidentally in the Gospels; and excepting a few--Saint Peter, Saint +John, and Saint Paul--whose figures are more or less definite, they +float past like shades, lost, veiled as it were, in the halo of glory +shed about Him by Jesus Christ. And after His death they vanish into +thin air, and their very existence is only sketched in a few vague +legends. + +"Take Saint Thomas, the Treasure of God, as Saint Bridget calls him: +where was he born? We are not told. What were the circumstances and +reasons of his call? None knows. In what lands did he preach the new +faith? Here disputes begin. Some report him among the Medes, the +Parthians, the Persians, in Ethiopia, in Hindustan. He is commonly +represented with a cubit-measure and a square, for it is said that he +built a church at Meliapore; for which reason he was taken in the Middle +Ages as the patron Saint of architects and masons. + +"According to the Roman Breviary he was killed at Calamine by a +spear-thrust; according to the Golden Legend he was killed with the +sword in an uncertainly described place; the Portuguese assert that they +have his relics at Goa, the chief of their Indian possessions. + +"In the thirteenth century this saint was regarded as the type of +perverse disbelief. Not satisfied with having failed to believe in +Christ until he had seen and put his finger into His wounds, he was +equally incredulous, if our forefathers are to be believed, when he was +told of the Assumption of the Virgin, and Mary was fain to show Herself +to him and throw down Her girdle to convince him. + +"Saint Bartholomew is even more obscure, lost in the thick shade of the +ages. He was the best educated of the Apostles, says Sister Emmerich, +for the others, particularly Peter and Andrew, had preserved rough +manners and a clumsy exterior from their humble origin. + +"It is supposed that his name was Bartholomew. The Synoptical Gospels +number him among the Apostles, but Saint John omits him, and mentions in +his place one Nathanael, of whom the other three Evangelists do not +speak. + +"It seems tolerably certain that these two were identical, and Saint +Bernard supposed that this Bartholomew or Nathanael was the bridegroom +of the marriage at Cana. + +"He is said to have preached in Arabia, in Persia, in Abyssinia, to have +baptized among the Iberi, the races of the Caucasus, and, like Saint +Thomas, in India, but there is no authentic evidence to show this. +According to some writers he was decapitated; others say he was flayed +alive and then crucified, near the frontiers of Armenia. + +"This last view was adopted by the Roman Breviary and prevailed; hence +he was chosen as the patron Saint of fleshers, who skin beasts, of +leather-dressers and skinners, shoemakers and binders, who use leather, +and even of tailors, for the early painters represent him with half his +body flayed and carrying his skin over his arm like a coat. + +"Stranger and still more puzzling is Saint Jude. He was also called +Thaddaeus and Lebbaeus, and was the son of Cleophas and of Mary the +Virgin's sister; he is said to have married and had children. + +"He is scarcely mentioned in the Gospels, but they point out that he is +not to be confounded with Judas--which, however, was done, actually by +reason of the similarity of name, during the Middle Ages; Christians +rejected him and sorcerers appealed to him. + +"He never speaks in the course of the Sacred Narrative but when he +breaks silence at the scene of the Last Supper to ask the Lord a +question as to predestination; and Christ replies beside the mark, or +rather does not answer him at all. He was also the author of a Canonical +Epistle, in which he seems to have been inspired by the Second Epistle +of Saint Peter; and, according to Saint Augustine, it was he who +introduced the dogma of the Resurrection of the flesh into the _Credo_. + +"In legend he is associated with Saint Simon; according to the Breviary, +he is said to have evangelized Mesopotamia and to have suffered +martyrdom with his companion Saint in Persia. The Bollandists, on the +other hand, assert that he was the Apostle to Arabia and Idumea, while +the Greek Menology relates that he was shot to death with arrows by the +infidels in Armenia. + +"In fact all these accounts differ; and iconography adds to the +confusion by representing Jude with the most various attributes. +Sometimes, as at Amiens, he holds a palm, or, as at Chartres, a book. He +is also seen with a cross, a square, a boat, a wand, an axe, a sword, +and a spear. + +"But in spite of the unfortunate reputation earned for him by his +namesake Judas, the symbolists of the Middle Ages regard him as a man of +charity and zeal, and attribute to him the splendour of the purple and +gold fires of the chrysoprase, regarded as emblematical of good works. + +"All this is but incoherent," thought Durtal, "and what also strikes me +as strange is that this Saint, so rarely invoked by our forefathers--who +for long never dedicated any altar to him, is twice represented in +effigy at Chartres--supposing the Verlaine of the royal porch to +represent Saint Jude; but then that seems improbable." + +"What I should now like to know," he went on, "is why the historians of +this cathedral pronounce the scene of the last Judgment represented on +the tympanum of the door as the most remarkable of its kind in France. +This is utterly false, for it is vulgar, and certainly inferior to many +others. + +"The demoniacal half is far less vigorous, more supine, less crowded +than in other churches of the same period. At Chartres, it is true, the +devils with wolves' muzzles and asses' ears, trampling down bishops and +kings, laymen and monks, and driving them into the maw of a dragon +spouting flames--the demons with goats' beards and crescent-shaped jaws +seizing hapless sinners who have wandered to the mouldings of the arch, +are all very skilfully arranged, in well composed groups round the +principal figure; but the Satanic vineyard lacks breadth and its fruit +is insipid. The preying demons are not ferocious enough, they almost +look as if they were monks and were doing it for fun, while the damned +take it very calmly. + +"How far more desperate is the devil's festival at Dijon!" Durtal +recalled to mind the church of Notre Dame in that city, so strange a +specimen of thirteenth-century gothic of the Burgundian stamp. The +church was of almost elementary simplicity; above its three porches rose +a straight wall with two storeys of columns forming arcades and +surmounted by grotesque figures. To the right of this front was a small +tower with a pointed roof; and on the roof a "Jacquemart" of iron +tracery, with three puppets that strike the hours; behind, rising from +the transept, was a small tower with four little glazed belfries. + +This building, small as compared with great cathedrals, was stamped with +the Flemish hall-mark; it had the homespun peasant expression, the +cheerful faith of the race. It was a domestic sanctuary, very native to +the soil; the folks would hold converse with the Black Virgin standing +there on an altar, tell her all their little concerns, make themselves +at home there in confidential gossiping prayer, quite without ceremony. + +But it was not well to trust too much to the benign and genial aspect of +this building, for the long rows of grotesque figures that were ranged +above the doorways and the arcades belied the jovial security of the +rest. + +There they were, in high relief, in close array, grinning and jibing; a +motley crowd of demented nuns and mad monks, of bewildered rustics and +outlandish women; hobgoblins writhing with laughter, and hilarious +devils; and in the midst of this mob of the reprobate a figure of a real +woman, held by two demons tormenting her, stood out, leaning forward as +if she wanted to throw herself down. With haggard, dilated eye, and +clasped hands, in terror she beseeches the passer-by, shows him the +place of refuge, and cries to him to enter. Involuntarily he pauses in +amazement to look at that face, distorted with fear, pinched with +anguish, struggling amid this pack of monsters, this vision of frenzied +nightmare. At once fierce and pitying, she threatens and entreats; and +this image of one for ever excommunicate, cast out of the temple and +left to all eternity on the threshold, is as haunting as the memory of +suffering, as a nightmare of terror. + +Nowhere, certainly, in the satanic menagerie of La Beauce, is there a +statue of such startling and assertive art. + +From another point of view--that of the picture as a whole, and of the +broad view taken of the subject, the Judgment of Souls at Notre Dame de +Chartres is for beneath that of the cathedral at Bourges. + +"That, indeed, is, I think, the most wonderful of all," said Durtal to +himself. "The similar scenes at Reims and at Paris, with the gangs of +sinners held in chains tugged by demons, and those of the same kind at +Amiens, have none of them such breadth of scope." + +At Bourges, as in all works of this class in the Middle Ages, the dead +are escaping from their sepulchres, and on the uppermost frieze, below a +figure of Christ, with whom the Virgin and Saint John are interceding, +Saint Michael is weighing souls; to the left devils are dragging away +the wicked, and to the right angels are conducting the blessed. + +The resurrection of the dead, as it is represented by the image-maker of +Le Berry, is enough to set the noisy prudery of the Catholics neighing, +for the figures are nude, and certain reticences, usually observed at +any rate in the female form, are here omitted. Men and women push up the +lid of the tomb, stride across the edge, leap up, roll over pell mell, +one above another; some ecstatically clasping their hands in prayer, +their eyes fixed on heaven; others anxiously looking about them on all +sides; others praying with terror, throwing up their arms; others, +again, in dejected attitudes, beating their breasts in lamentable +self-accusation; and yet others who are dazzled by the abrupt change +from darkness to light, shaking their numbed limbs and trying to move. + +The mad confusion of all these human beings, suddenly awakened, and +brought like owls into the light of day, trembling with fear or with joy +as they see and understand that the day of Judgment is come, is all +expressed with a fulness, a spirit, a certainty of observation which +leave the petty accuracy and mild energy of the Chartres sculptor far +behind them. + +In the upper division, again, the weighing of souls goes on in a +magnificent composition; Saint Michael with wide-spread wings holds a +large pair of scales and smiles as he caresses a little child with +folded hands, while a goat-headed devil watches eagerly to seize him if +the Archangel should turn away; and behind this lingering demon begins +the dolorous procession of the outcast. Nor have we here the infernal +courtliness of the scene as represented at Chartres, the doubtful +consideration of an evil spirit gently driving in a nun; it is brutality +in all its horror, the lowest violence; the sometimes comic side of +these struggles is not to be seen here. At Bourges the myrmidons of the +deep work and hit with a will. A devil with a wild beast's muzzle and a +drunkard's face in the middle of his fat stomach, is hammering the skull +of a wretch who struggles, grinding his teeth, while the devil bites his +legs with the end of his tail that bears a serpent's head. Another +monster, with a crushed face and pendant breasts, a man's face in his +stomach and wings springing from his loins, has clasped a priest in his +arms and is pitching him head foremost into a cauldron boiling over the +flames from a dragon's mouth blown up with bellows by two of the devil's +slaves. And in this cauldron sit two figures symbolical of slander and +lust, a monk and a woman writhing and weeping, for enormous toads are +gnawing at the tongue of one and at the heart of the other. + +On the other side of Saint Michael the scene is different; a chubby, +smiling angel is playing with a child whom he has perched on one of his +fellow-angels' shoulders, and the infant delightedly waves a bough; +behind him slowly marches a representative group of saints--a woman, a +king, a cenobite, conducted by Saint Peter towards a doorway leading to +a sanctum where sits Abraham, an old man with a cloth spread over his +knees full of little heads all rejoicing--the souls that are saved. + +And Durtal, as he recalled the features of Saint Michael and his angels, +perceived that they were the brethren in art of the Saint Anne, Saint +Joseph, and the angel of the great portal at Reims. They were all of the +same peculiar type--a young and yet old countenance, a long sharp nose +and pointed chin; only here, perhaps, a little rounder, a little less +angular than at Reims. + +This sort of family likeness gave support to a theory that the same +sculptors or their pupils had worked on the carvings of those two +cathedrals, but not at Chartres, where no similar type is to be seen; +though a certain striking resemblance exists between other statues in +the north porch and some figures, of a different class however, on the +facade at Reims. + +"Anyone of these hypotheses may be correct, though there is no chance of +proving their truth, for we can discover no information with regard to +the schools of art of the period," said Durtal to himself, as he turned +his attention to the left-hand bay of the south porch, dedicated to the +martyrs. + +There, in the archway of the door, dwelt, side by side, Saint Vincent +the deacon, of Spain; Saint Denys the bishop; Saint Piat the priest; and +Saint George the warrior; all four victims of the ingenious cruelty of +the infidels. + +Saint Vincent in his long gown hung a contrite head over his shoulder. + +"He," thought Durtal, "was literally butchered and cooked, for we are +told in the legend according to Voragine that his body was torn with +sharp combs of brass till his bowels fell out, and that after this +foretaste, this _hors d'oeuvre_ of torture, he was broiled on a +gridiron, larded with nails, and basted with the sauce of his own blood. +He lay calm, praying while he was being toasted. He remained unmoved, +grilling and praying. When he was dead, Dacian, his persecutor, ordered +that his body should be cast out on a field to be devoured by beasts; +but a raven came to settle by him, and drove away a wolf by pecking at +it. Then a millstone was tied about his neck and he was thrown into the +sea, but his body came to land near some pious women who buried it. + +"Saint Denys, the first Bishop of Paris, was thrown to the lions, who +retreated before him; he was then beheaded at Montmartre, with Saint +Eleutherius and Saint Rusticus. The image-maker had not here represented +him, as usual, carrying his head, but had shown him standing with his +crozier and mitre. And he was not humble and pitiable, like his +neighbour, the Spanish Deacon, but upright and imperious, with his hand +uplifted, in the attitude rather of admonishing the faithful than of +blessing them, and Durtal stood lost in thought before this writer, +whose brief book holds so important a place in the series of mystical +writings. + +"He, more than any other, and first among the contemplative authors, +had overstepped the threshold of Heaven and brought down to men some +details of what happens there. The knowledge of the angelic ranks dates +from him, for it was he who revealed the organization of the heavenly +host as an order, a hierarchy copied by human beings and parodied in +hell. He was a sort of messenger between Heaven and earth, and was the +explorer of our celestial heritage, as Saint Catherine of Genoa at a +later date was the explorer of purgatory. + +"A less interesting personage was Saint Piat, a priest of Tournai, +beheaded by a Roman proconsul. In this assembly of famous saints he was +rather the poor country-cousin, a mere provincial Saint. He figured here +because his relics repose in the cathedral, for historians record the +translation of his remains to Chartres in the ninth century. By his side +was Saint George, arrayed as a knight of the time of Saint Louis, his +head bare with an iron fillet, armed with a lance and shield; standing +as if on guard on a pedestal, showing the wheel which was the instrument +of his martyrdom. + +"The companion statue, on the opposite side of the door, was that of +Saint Theodore of Heraclea, wearing a coat of mail, and a surcoat, and +also holding a shield and spear. + +"Next to this saint, who was subsequently roasted to death by a slow +fire, in the town of Amasea, were Saint Stephen, Saint Clement, and +Saint Laurence. + +"Above this double rank of martyrs the tympanum represented the story of +Saint Stephen disputing with the Doctors and stoned by the Jews; and on +all sides, on the square pillars that supported the roof of the porch, +was carved stone-work representing the tortured bodies of the righteous: +Saint Leger, Saint Laurence, Saint Thomas of Canterbury, Saint Bacchus, +Saint Quentin, and many more; a whole procession of the Blessed, being +blinded, burnt, cut in pieces, flogged with vigorous energy, and +beheaded. But it was all in melancholy decay. The _sans-culottes_, by +amputating more of their limbs in their tempest of fury, had crowned the +martyrdom of these Saints. + +"The doorway to the right, dedicated to the Confessors, was a vast hull +set on end; on the sloping side to the left of the door stood Saint +Nicholas, Archbishop of Myra, holding up a gloved hand, and trampling +under foot the cruel host killing the children whose death became a +theme for so many laments; Saint Ambrose, Doctor of the Church and +Bishop of Milan, wearing a singular peaked mitre, like an extinguisher; +Saint Leo, the Pope who defied Attila; and finally Saint Laumer, one of +the glories of the Chartres district. + +"He, like Saint Piat in the left-hand bay, is somewhat of a stranger +dragged into this illustrious company. He was of old highly venerated in +La Beauce, having, in his lifetime, had a career which may be briefly +summed up. During his childhood he had kept sheep; he had then been +cellarer to the cathedral; had become first an anchorite, then a monk, +and finally Abbot of the Monastery of Corbion in the forests of the +Orne. + +"The opposite slope of the bay sheltered Saint Martin, Bishop of Tours, +Saint Jerome, as a Doctor of the Church, Saint Gregory, Pope and Doctor, +and Saint Avitus. + +"What is curious in this door," thought Durtal, "is the parallel of +personages. On one side, to the right, Saint Nicholas, the great +miracle-worker of the East; on the other side, to the left, Saint +Martin, the great miracle-worker of the West. Then, as companion +figures, Saint Ambrose and Saint Jerome;--the first often redundant and +pompous in second-rate prose, but ingenious and delightful in his hymns; +the second who, in the Vulgate, really created the language of Church +use, purifying and airing the Latin of Pagan literature, foul with +lascivious meaning, reeking at once of an old goat and of essence of +roses. Again, face to face, two Popes, Saint Leo and Saint Gregory, and +two Abbots of Monasteries, Saint Laumer and Saint Avitus, who was Prior +of a House founded in the forests of Le Perche." + +These two last statues had been added later; their style and costume +betrayed a date subsequent to the thirteenth century; had they, then, +taken the place of others representing the same Monks, or different +Saints? + +The tympanum again expressed the same purpose of parallelism, evidently +intended by the master of the work. This was also devoted to two miracle +workers, to a correspondence in this respect of the north and the south. +It represented episodes in the lives of Saint Nicholas and Saint Martin: +Saint Nicholas furnishing a dowry for the daughters of a gentleman who +was dying of hunger, and about to sell their honour, and the sepulchre +of this archbishop exuding an oil of sovereign efficacy in the cure of +diseases; Saint Martin giving half of his cloak to a beggar, and then +beholding Christ wearing the garment. + +The remainder of this porch was of secondary interest. In the mouldings +of the arches and in the pillars of the bays the ranks of the Confessors +appeared again, the nine choirs of Angels, the parable of the wise and +foolish Virgins, a replica of the four-and-twenty elders on the royal +front, the Prophets of the Old Testament, the Virtues, the Vices, the +Christian Virgins, and small statues of the Apostles, all more or less +injured and more or less invisible. + +This south porch, with its seven hundred and eighty-three statues and +statuettes, spoken of by the guide-books as the most attractive of all, +was to artists, on the contrary, the least absorbing; for, with the +exception of the noble effigies of Saint Theodore and Saint George, the +glorification of the others who dwell there was on the whole, from the +artistic point of view, very inferior in interest to the sculpture on +the twelfth-century west front, or even to that of the north porch--that +complete embodiment of the Two Testaments--where the sculpture, if more +barbarous, was less placid and cold. + +And Durtal came to this conclusion: "The exterior of the cathedral of +Chartres may be summed up in three words: _Latvia_, _hyperdulia_, and +_dulia_. _Latria_, the worship of Our Lord, on the west front; +_Hyperdulia_, the worship of the Blessed Virgin, in the north porch; +_Dulia_, the worship of the Saints, in the south porch. + +"For although the Redeemer is magnified in this south portal in His +character of Supreme Judge, He seems to make way for the Saints. And +this is quite intelligible, since He is enthroned there for two +purposes, and His true palace, His real throne, is in the triumphal +tympanum of the royal doorway in the west front." + +Before quitting this side of the building, as he glanced once more at +the ranks of the Elect, Durtal stopped in front of Saint Clement and +Saint Gregory. + +Saint Clement, whose extraordinary death almost casts his life into +oblivion--a life exclusively occupied in harrowing souls. Durtal +recalled the narrative of Voragine. After being exiled to the +Chersonesus, in the reign of Trajan, Clement was cast into the sea with +an anchor tied to his neck, while the assembled Christians kneeling on +the strand besought Heaven to restore his body. Then the sea withdrew +three miles, and the faithful went dry-shod to a chapel which the angels +had just erected beneath the waters, where the body of the saint was +found reposing, lying on a tomb; and for many centuries the sea retired +every year for a week, to allow pilgrims to visit his remains. + +Saint Gregory, the first Benedictine to be elected Pope, was the creator +of the Liturgy, the master of plain-song. He was alike devoted to +justice and to charity, and a passionate patron of art; and this +admirable Pope, with his broad and comprehensive spirit, regarded it as +a temptation of the Devil that made the bigots, the Pharisees of his +day, proclaim their determination not to read profane literature; for, +said he, it helps us to understand that which is sacred. + +Made Pope against his will, he led a life of anguish, mourning for the +lost peace of his cloister; but he fought none the less with incredible +energy against the inroads of the Barbarians, the heresies of Africa, +the intrigues of Byzantium, and the Simony of his own priests. + +He stands out in a dark age, amid a witches' sabbath of shrieking +schisms; he is seen in the midst of these storms, protecting the poor +from the rapacity of the rich, feeding them with his own hands, kissing +their feet, every day; and in spite of this overworked life without a +moment's respite, or a minute for rest, he succeeded in restoring +monastic discipline, and sowing wherever he might the Benedictine seed, +saving the headlong world by the vigilance of his Order. + +Though he was not a martyr like Saint Clement, he died nevertheless for +Christ, of exhaustion and fatigue, after living in the constant +suffering of a frame undermined by disease, and weakened by voluntary +maceration and fasting. + +"This, no doubt, is the reason why the face of his statue is so sad and +thoughtful," said Durtal to himself. "And yet he is listening to the +dove, the symbol of inspiration which is speaking in his ear, dictating +to him, the legend says, the antiphonal melodies, and undoubtedly +whispering his dialogues, his homilies, his commentaries on the Book of +Job, his pastoral letter--all the works which made him so immensely +famous in the Middle Ages." + +As he made his way home, Durtal, still reflecting on this array of the +Righteous, suddenly was struck by this idea: "There is no portrait in +Chartres of a Saint whose present help was of yore desired above all +others: Saint Christopher, whose effigy was usually to be found at the +entrance to a cathedral, standing alone in a spot apart. + +"It stood thus, formerly, at the door of Notre-Dame de Paris, and is +still to be seen in one corner of the principal front at Amiens; but in +most places the iconoclasts overthrew it, and the churches where the +statue of Christopher is now to be seen may be easily counted. It must +once have existed at Chartres--but where? The monographs on this +cathedral never allude to it." + +Thus, as he walked on, he dreamed of the Saint whose popularity is +easily accounted for, since our forefathers believed that they had only +to look at his image, whether painted or carved, to be protected for a +whole day from disaster, and especially from violent death. + +So he was always placed outside in a prominent spot, and very large, so +that he might easily be seen by the wayfarer, even from afar. In some +cases his effigy was found on a gigantic scale, inside the church. Thus +he is represented in the Dom at Erfurt, in a fresco of the fifteenth +century, too much restored. + +This colossal figure, five storeys high, extends from the pavement of +the church to the roof. Christopher has a beard which flows in a stream, +and legs as thick as the pillars of the nave. Bending and adoring, he +bears on his shoulders a Child with a round face, as white as the chalk +of a clown, blessing all comers with a smile. The Saint is wading +barefoot through a pool full of little reeds, and imps, and horned +fishes and strange flowers--all represented on a minute scale to +emphasize the mighty stature of the Saint. + +"That good friend," thought Durtal, "though venerated by the poor, was +somewhat coldly treated by the Church, for he, with Saint George and +some other martyrs, was among those whose existence remains open to +doubt. + +"In Mediaeval times Saint Christopher was invoked for the cure of weakly +children, and also as a protector against blindness and the plague. + +"But indeed the Saints were the chief healers of that time. Every +disease which the leeches and apothecaries could not alleviate was +brought to the Saints. Some indeed were reputed specialists, and the +ills they cured were known by their names. The gout was known as Saint +Maurus' evil, leprosy as Job's evil, cancer was Saint Giles', chorea +Saint Guy's, colds were Saint Aventinus' ill, a bloody flux Saint +Fiacre's--and I forget the rest. + +"Others again remained noted for delivering sufferers from certain +affections they were reputed to heal: Saint Genevieve for the burning +sickness and ophthalmia, Saint Catherine of Alexandria for headache, +Saint Bartholomew for convulsions, Saint Firmin for cramp, Saint +Benedict for erysipelas and the stone, Saint Lupus for pains in the +stomach, Saint Hubert for madness, Saint Appolina, whose statue, +standing in the chapel of the Hospital of Saint John at Bruges, is +graced by way of _ex votos_ with strings of teeth and wax stumps, for +neuralgia and toothache--and how many more. + +"And granting," said Durtal, "that medical science is at this day a +greater delusion than ever, I cannot see why we should not revert to the +specific of prayer and the mystical panaceas of the past. If the +interceding Saints should, in certain cases, refuse to cure us, at any +rate they will make us no worse by a mistaken diagnosis and the +exhibition of dangerous remedies. Though after all, even if our modern +practitioners were not ignoramuses, of what use would that be, since the +medicines they prescribe are adulterated?" + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + +The day had come for Durtal to strap his portmanteau and set out with +the Abbe Plomb. + +He became fidgety with waiting as the hours went by. At last, unable to +sit still, he went out to kill the time, but a drizzling rain drove him +for shelter into the cathedral. + +After offering his devotions to the Virgin of the Pillar, he seated +himself amid a camp of vacant chairs to meditate. + +"Before interrupting the quiet monotony of my life at Chartres by this +journey, shall I not do well to look into myself, if only for a minute, +and take stock of what I have gained before and since settling in this +town? + +"The gain to my soul? Alas! it consists less in acquisitions than in +exchanges; I have merely found aridity in the place of indolence; and +the results of the exchange I know only too well; of what use is it to +go through them once more? The gains to my mind seem to me less +distressing and more genuine, and I can make a brief catalogue of them +under three heads: Past, Present, and Future. + +"In the Past.--When I least expected it, in Paris, God suddenly seized +me and drew me back to the Church, taking advantage of my love of Art, +of mysticism, of the Liturgy, and of plain-song. + +"Still, during the travail of this conversion, I could not study +mysticism anywhere but in books; I knew it only in theory and not in +practice. On the other hand, in Paris, I never heard any but dull, +lifeless music, watered down, as it were, in women's throats, or utterly +disfigured by the choir schools. In most of the churches I found only a +colourless ceremonial, a meagre form of service. + +"This was the situation when I set out for La Trappe: under that strict +rule I found mysticism not only in its simplest expression, written out +and set forth in a body of doctrine, but mysticism as a personal +experience, in action, simply an element of life to those monks. I could +convince myself that the science of the soul's perfection was no +delusion, that the assertions of Saint Teresa and Saint John of the +Cross were strictly true, and in that cloister it was also vouchsafed to +me to be familiar with the enjoyment of an authentic ritual and genuine +plain-song. + +"In the Present.--At Chartres I have entered on new exercises, I have +followed other traces. Haunted by the matchless grandeur of this +cathedral, under the guidance of a very intelligent and cultivated +priest I have studied religious symbolism, worked up that great science +of the Middle Ages which is in fact a language peculiar to the Church, +expressing by images and signs what the Liturgy expresses in words. + +"Or, to be more exact, it would be better to say that part of the +Liturgy which is more particularly concerned with prayer; for that part +of it which relates to forms, and injunctions as to worship, is itself +symbolism, symbolism is the soul of it. In fact, the limit-line of the +two branches is not always easy to trace, so often are they grafted +together; they inspire each other, intertwine, and at last are almost +one. + +"In the Future.--By going to Solesmes I shall complete my education; I +shall see and hear the most perfect expression of that Liturgy and that +Gregorian chant of which the little convent of Notre Dame de l'Atre, by +reason of the limited number of the Brethren, could only afford a +reduced copy--very faithful, it is true, but yet reduced. + +"By adding to this my own studies of the religious paintings removed now +from the sanctuaries and collected in museums, and supplementing them by +my remarks on the various cathedrals I may explore, I shall have +travelled round the whole cycle of mysticism, have extracted the essence +of the Middle Ages, have combined in a sort of sheaf these separate +branches, scattered now for so many centuries, and have investigated +more thoroughly one especially--Symbolism namely, of which certain +elements are almost lost from sheer neglect. + +"Yes. Symbolism has lent the principal charm to my life at Chartres; it +occupied and comforted me when I was suffering from finding my soul so +importunate and yet so low." + +And he tried to recapitulate the science, to view it as a whole. + +He saw it as a thickly branched tree, the root deep set in the very soil +of the Bible; from thence, in fact, it drew its substance and its +nourishment: the trunk was the Symbolism of the Scriptures, the Old +Testament prefiguring the Gospels; the branches were the allegorical +purport of architecture, of colours, gems, flowers, and animals; the +hieroglyphics of numbers; the emblematical meaning of the vessels and +vestments of Church use. A small bough represented Liturgical perfumes, +and a mere twig, dried up from the first and almost dead, represented +dancing. + +"For religious dancing once existed," Durtal went on. "In ancient times +it was a recognized offering of adoration, a tithe of light-heartedness. +David leaping before the Ark shows this. + +"And in the earliest Christian times the faithful and the priesthood +shook themselves in honour of the Redeemer, and fancied that by choric +motion they were imitating the joy of the Blessed, the glee of the +Angels described by Saint Basil as executing figures in the radiant +assemblies of Heaven. + +"One is soon accustomed to endure Masses of the kind called at Toledo +_Mussarabes_, during which the congregation dance and gambol in the +cathedral; but these capers presently lose the pious character that they +are supposed to bear; they become an incentive to the revelry of the +senses, and several Councils have prohibited them. + +"In the seventeenth century sacred dances still survived in some +provinces; we hear of them at Limoges, where the Cure of St. Leonard and +his parishioners pirouetted in the choir of the church. In the +eighteenth century their traces are found in Roussillon, and at the +present day religious dancing still survives; but the tradition of this +saintly frisking is chiefly preserved in Spain. + +"Not long since, on the day of Corpus Christi at Compostella, the +procession was led through the streets by a tall man who danced carrying +another on his shoulders. And to this day, at Seville, on the festival +of the Holy Sacrament, the choir-children turn in a sort of slow waltz +as they sing hymns before the high altar of the cathedral. In other +towns, on the festivals of the Virgin, a saraband is slowly danced round +Her statue, with striking of sticks, and the rattle of castanets; and to +close the ceremony by way of Amen the people fire off squibs. + +"All this, however, is of no great interest, and I cannot help wondering +what meaning can have been attributed to cutting capers and spinning +round. I find it difficult to believe that _farandoles_ and _boleros_ +could ever represent prayer; I can hardly persuade myself that it can be +an act of thanksgiving to trample peppers under foot or appearing to +grind at an imaginary coffee-mill with one's arms. + +"In point of fact no one knows anything about the symbolism of dancing; +no record has come down to us of the meanings ascribed to it of old. +Church dancing is really no more than a gross form of rejoicing among +Southern races. We need mention it merely as noteworthy, and that is +all. + +"Now, from a practical point of view, what has the influence of +symbolism been on souls?" + +Durtal could answer himself. + +"The Middle Ages, knowing that everything on earth is a sign and a +figure, that the only value of things visible is in so far as they +correspond to things invisible--the Middle Ages, when consequently men +were not, as we are, the dupes of appearances--made a profound study of +this science, and made it the nursing mother and the handmaid of +mysticism. + +"Convinced that the only aim that it was incumbent on man to follow, the +only end he could really need, was to place himself in direct +communication with Heaven, and to out-strip death by merging himself, +unifying himself to the utmost, with God, it tempted souls, subjecting +them to a moderate claustral course, purged them of their earthly +interests, their fleshly aims, and led them back again and again to the +same purpose of renunciation and repentance, the same ideas of justice +and love; and then to retain them, to preserve them from themselves, it +enclosed them in a fence, placed God all about them, as it were, under +every form and aspect." + +Jesus was seen in everything--in the fauna, the flora, the structure of +buildings, in every decoration, in the use of colour. Whichever way man +could turn, he still saw Him. + +And at the same time he saw his own soul as in a mirror that reflected +it; in certain animals, certain colours, and certain plants he could +discern the qualities which it was his duty to acquire, the vices +against which he had to defend himself. + +And he had other examples before his eyes, for the symbolists did not +restrict themselves to turning botany, mineralogy, natural history, and +other sciences to the uses of a catechism; some of them, and among +others Saint Melito, ended by applying the process to the interpretation +of every object that came in their way. A cithara was to them the breast +of the devout man; the members of the human frame became emblematical: +the head was Christ, the hairs were the saints, the nose meant +discretion, the nostrils the spirit of faith, the eye contemplation, the +mouth symbolized temptation, the saliva was the sweetness of the inner +life, the ears figured obedience, the arms the love of Jesus, the hands +stood for good works, the knees for the sacrament of penance, the legs +for the Apostles, the shoulders for the yoke of Christ, the breast for +evangelical doctrine, the belly for avarice, the bowels for the +mysterious precepts of the Lord, the body and loins for suggestions of +lust, the bones typified hardness of heart, and the marrow compunction, +the sinews were evil members of Anti-Christ. And these writers extended +this method of interpretation to the commonest objects of daily use, +even to tools and vessels within reach of all. + +Thus there was an uninterrupted course of pious teaching. Yves de +Chartres tells us that priests instructed the people in symbolism, and +from the researches of Dom Pitra we know that in the Middle Ages Saint +Melito's treatise was popular and known to all. Thus the peasant learnt +that his plough was an image of the Cross, that the furrows it made were +like the hearts of saints freshly tilled; he knew that sheaves were the +fruit of repentance, flour the multitude of the faithful, the granary +the Kingdom of Heaven; and it was the same with many pursuits. In short, +this method of analogies was a bidding to everybody to watch and pray +better. + +Thus utilized, symbolism became a break to check the forward march of +sin, and at the same time a sort of lever to uplift souls and help them +to overleap the stages of the mystical life. + +This science, translated into so many languages, was no doubt +intelligible only in broad outline to the masses, and sometimes, when it +percolated through the labyrinthine maze of such minds as that of the +worthy Bishop of Mende, it appeared overwrought, full of contradictions, +and of double meanings. It seems then as if the symbolist were splitting +a hair with embroidery scissors. But, in spite of the extravagance it +tolerated and smiled at, the Church succeeded, nevertheless, by these +tactics of repetition, in saving souls and carrying out on a large scale +the production of saints. + +Then came the Renaissance, and symbolism was wrecked at the same time as +church architecture. + +Mysticism in the stricter sense of the word, more fortunate than its +handmaidens, survived that period of festive dishonour; for it may be +safely asserted that, though it was unproductive while living through +that period, it flourished anew in Spain, producing its noblest blossoms +in Saint John of the Cross and Saint Teresa. + +Since then doctrinal mysticism seems dried up at the source. Not so, +however, as regards personal mysticism, which still dwells acclimatized +and flourishing in convents. + +As to the Liturgy and plain-song, they too have gone through very +various phases. After being dissected and filtered in the numberless +provincial Uses, the Liturgy was brought back to the standard of Rome by +the efforts of Dom Gueranger, and it may be hoped that the Benedictines +at last will also bring all the churches back to the strict use of +plain-song. + +"And this church above all!" sighed Durtal. + +He looked at his cathedral, loving it better than ever now that he was +to part from it for a few days. To impress it the better on his memory +he tried to sum it up, to concentrate it, saying to himself,-- + +"It is the epitome of Heaven and Earth; of Heaven by showing us the +serried phalanx of its inhabitants--Prophets, Patriarchs, Angels and +Saints, lighting up the interior of the church by their transparent +figures; by singing to the glory of the Mother and the Son. Of Earth, +for it connotes the elation of the soul, the ascension of man; it +points out quite clearly to Christian souls the path of the perfect +life. They, to apprehend its symbolism, should enter by the Royal +doorway, and pass up the nave, the transept and the choir--the three +successive phases of Asceticism; reach the top of the Cross where, +surrounded by the chapels of the apse as by a Crown, the head of the +Saviour lies, His neck bent, as we see them symbolized by the altar and +the deflected axis of the church. + +"There the pilgrim has reached the united ways, close to the Virgin, who +mourns no more as she does in the agonizing scene on Calvary, at the +foot of the Tree, but, under the figure of the Sacristy, remains veiled +by the side of Her Son's countenance, getting closer to Him the better +to comfort and to see Him. + +"And this allegory of the mystical life as set forth by the interior of +the cathedral, is carried out by the exterior, in the suppliant effect +of the whole building. + +"The Soul, distraught by the joy of union, heart-broken at having still +to live, only aspires now to escape for ever from the Gehenna of the +flesh; thus it beseeches the Bridegroom with the uplifted arms of its +towers, to take pity on it, to come to fetch it, to take it by the +clasped hands of its spires and snatch it from earth, to carry it up +with Him into Heaven. + +"In short, this church is the finest expression of art bequeathed to us +by the Middle Ages. The great front has neither the awful majesty of +that of Reims, pierced as it is with tracery, nor the dull melancholy of +Notre Dame de Paris, nor the gigantic grace of Amiens, nor the massive +solemnity of Bourges; but it is full of imposing simplicity, a +lightness, a spring, which no other cathedral has attained to. + +"The nave of Amiens alone grows beautifully less as it rises with as +eager a spring from the earth; but the body of the Amiens church is +light and uncomforting, and that of Chartres is mysterious and hushed; +of all cathedrals it is that which best suggests the idea of a delicate, +saintly woman, emaciated by prayer, and almost transparent by fasting. + +"And then its windows are matchless, superior even to those of Bourges, +where, again, the sanctuary blossoms with glorious clumps of holy +persons. And finally, the sculpture of the west front, the Royal Portal, +is the most beautiful, the most superterrestrial statuary ever wrought +by the hand of man. + +"And it is almost unique in having none of the woeful and threatening +solemnity of its noble sisters. Scarce a demon is to be seen watching +and grinning on its walls to torture souls; in a few small figures it +shows indeed the variety of penance, but that is all; and within, the +Virgin is above all else the Mother of Bethlehem. Jesus, too, is more or +less Her Child; He yields to Her when she entreats Him. + +"It proclaims the plenitude of Her patience and charity by the length of +the crypt and the breadth of the nave, which are greater than those of +other churches. + +"In fact, it is the mystical cathedral--that where the Madonna is most +graciously ready to receive the sinner. + +"Now," said Durtal, looking at his watch, "the Abbe Gevresin must have +finished his breakfast. It is time to take leave of him before joining +the Abbe Plomb at the station." + +He crossed the forecourt of the palace and rang at the priest's door. + +"So you are sure you are going!" said Madame Bavoil, who opened the +door, and admitted him to her master. + +"Well, yes--" + +"I envy you," sighed the Abbe, "for you will be present at wonderful +services and hear admirable music." + +"I hope so. And if only that could relieve the tension, could release me +a little from this incoherent frame of mind in which I wander, and allow +me to feel at home once more in my own soul and not in a strange place +open to all the winds!--" + +"Ah, your soul wants locks and latches," said Madame Bavoil, laughing. + +"It is a public mart where every distraction meets to chatter. I am +constantly driven out, and when I want to go home again they are in +possession." + +"Oh, I quite understand that. You know the proverb, 'Who goes hunting +loses his seat by the hearth.'" + +"That is all very well to say, but--" + +"But, our friend, the Lord foresaw your case, when, with reference to +such distractions which flutter about the soul like this, He replied to +the Venerable Jeanne de Matel, who complained of such annoyances, that +she should imitate the hunter, who, when he misses the big game he is +seeking, seizes the smaller prey he may find." + +"Ay, but even then he must find it!" + +"Go and live in peace, then," said the Abbe. "Do not fret yourself with +wondering whether your soul is enclosed or no; and take this piece of +advice: You are accustomed--are you not?--to repeat prayers that you +know by heart, and it is especially under those circumstances that +wandering supervenes. Well, then, set those prayers aside, and restrict +yourself to following, very regularly, the prayers of the services in +the convent-chapel. You are less familiar with them, and merely to +follow them you will be obliged to read them with care. Thus you will be +less likely to have a divided mind." + +"No doubt," replied Durtal. "But when I have not repeated the prayers I +am wont to say, I feel as though I had not prayed at all. I know that +this is absurd; still, there is no faithful soul who does not know the +feeling when the text of his prayers is altered." + +The Abbe smiled. + +"The best prayers," said he, "are those of the Liturgy, those which God +Himself has taught us, those alone which are expressed in language +worthy of Him--in His own language. They are complete, and supreme; for +all our desires, all our regrets, all our wailing are contained in the +Psalms. The prophet foresaw and said everything; leave him, then, to +speak for you, and thus, as your interpreter before God, give you his +help. + +"As to the prayers you may feel moved to address to God apart from the +hours devoted to the purpose, let them be short. Imitate the Recluses of +Egypt, the Fathers in the Desert, who were masters in the art of +supplication. This is what old Isaac said to Cassian: 'Pray briefly and +often, lest, if your orisons be long, the enemy will come to disturb +them. Follow these two rules, they will save you from secret upheaval. + +"So, go in peace; and if any trouble should overtake you, do not +hesitate to consult the Abbe Plomb." + +"Eh, our friend," cried Madame Bavoil, laughing, "and you might also +cure yourself of wandering thoughts by the method employed by the Abbess +of Sainte-Aure when she chanted the Psalter: she sat in a chair of which +the back was garnished with a hundred long nails, and when she felt +herself wandering she pressed her shoulder firmly against the points; +there is nothing better, I can tell you, for bringing folks back to +reality and recalling their wandering attention." + +"Thank you, indeed!" + +"There is another thing," she went on, not laughing now. "You ought to +postpone your departure for a day or two; for the day after to-morrow is +a festival of the Virgin. They expect pilgrims from Paris, and the +shrine containing our Mother's veil will be carried in procession +through the streets." + +"Oh no!" cried Durtal, "I have no love for worship in common. When our +Lady holds these solemn assizes to gel out of the way. I wait till She +is alone before I visit her. Hosts of people shouting canticles with +eyes straight to Heaven or looking for Jesus on the ground by way of +unction are too much for me. I am all for the forlorn Queens, for the +deserted churches and dark chapels. I am of the opinion of Saint John of +the Cross, who confesses that he does not love the pilgrimage of crowds +because one comes back more distracted than when one started. + +"No. What it is really a grief to me to leave in quitting Chartres is +that very silence, that solitude in the cathedral, those interviews with +the Virgin in the gloom of the crypt and the twilight of the nave. Ah, +here alone can one feel near Her, and see Her! + +"In fact," he went on after a moment's reflection, "one does see Her in +the strictest sense of the word--or at least, can fancy that She is +there. If there is a spot where I can call up Her face, Her attitude--in +short Her portrait--it is at Chartres." + +"And how is that?" + +"Well, Monsieur l'Abbe, we have no trustworthy information as to our +Mother's face or figure. Her features are unknown--intentionally, I feel +sure, in order that each one may contemplate Her under the aspect that +best pleases him, and incarnate Her in the ideal beauty of his dreams. + +"For instance, Saint Epiphanius describes her as tall, with olive eyes +arched and very black eyebrows, an aquiline nose a rosy mouth, and a +golden-toned skin. This is the vision of an oriental. + +"Take Maria d'Agreda, on the other hand. She thinks of the Virgin as +slender, with black hair and eyebrows, eyes dark and greenish, a +straight nose, scarlet lips, and a brown skin. You recognize here the +Spanish ideal of beauty imagined by the Abbess. + +"Again in, turn to Sister Emmerich. According to her, Mary was +fair-haired, with large eyes, a rather long nose, a narrow-pointed chin, +a clear skin, and not very tall. Here we have the description given by a +German who does not admire dark beauty: + +"And yet both of these women were real Seers, to whom the Madonna +appeared, assuming in each case the only aspect that could fascinate +them; just as she was seen to be the model of mere prettiness--the only +type they could understand--by Melanie at La Salette and Bernadette at +Lourdes". + +"Well, I, who am no visionary, and who must appeal to my imagination to +picture Her at all, I fancy I discern Her under the forms and +expressions of the cathedral itself; the features are a little confused +in the pale splendour of the great rose window that blazes behind Her +head like a nimbus. She smiles, and Her eyes, all light, have the +incomparable effulgence of those pure sapphires which light up the +entrance to the nave. Her slight form is diffused in a clear robe of +flame, striped and ribbed like the drapery of the so-called Berthe. Her +face is white like mother-of-pearl, and her hair, a circular tissue of +sunshine, radiates in threads of gold. She is the Bride of Canticles. +_Pulchra ut Luna, electa ut Sol_. + +"The church which is Her dwelling-place, and one with Her, is luminous +with Her grace; the gems of the windows sing to Her praise; the slender +columns shooting upwards, from the pavement to the roof, symbolize Her +aspirations and desires; the floor tells of Her humility; the vaulting, +meeting to form a canopy over Her, speaks of Her charity; the stones and +glass echo hymns to Her. There is nothing, down to the military aspect +of certain details of the sanctuary, the chivalrous touch which is a +reminiscence of the Crusades--the sword-blades and shields of the lancet +windows and the roses, the helm-shaped arches, the coat of mail that +clothes the older spire, the iron trellis-pattern of some of the +panes--nothing that does not arouse a memory of the passage at Prime and +the hymn at Lauds in the minor office of the Virgin, and typify the +_terribilis ut castrorum acies ordonata_, the privilege She possesses +when She chooses to use it, of being 'terrible as an army arrayed for +battle.' + +"But She does not often choose to exert here, I believe; this cathedral +mirrors rather Her inexhaustible sweetness, Her indivisible glory." + +"Ah! Much shall be forgiven you because you have loved much," cried +Madame Bavoil. + +And Durtal having risen to say good-bye, she kissed him affectionately, +maternally, and said,-- + +"We will pray with all our might, our friend, that God may enlighten you +and show you your path, may lead you Himself into the way you ought to +go." + +"I hope, Monsieur l'Abbe, that during my absence your rheumatism will +grant you a little respite," said Durtal, pressing the old priest's +hand. + +"Oh, I must not wish to have no sufferings at all, for there is no cross +so heavy as having none," replied the Abbe. "So do as I do, or rather, +do better than I, for I still repine; put a cheerful face on your +aridity, and your trials.--Goodbye, God bless you!" + +"And may the great Mother of Madonnas of France, the sweet Lady of +Chartres, protect you!" added Madame Bavoil. + +And when the door was shut, she added with a sigh,-- + +"Certainly, I should be very grieved if he left our town for ever, for +that friend is almost like a child of our own! At the same time I should +be very, very happy to think of him as a true monk!" + +Then she began to laugh. + +"Father," said she, "will they cut his moustache off if he enters the +cloister?" + +"Undoubtedly." + +She tried to imagine Durtal clean-shaven, and she concluded with a +laugh,-- + +"I do not think it will improve his beauty." + +"Oh, these women!" said the Abbe, shrugging his shoulders. + +"And what, in short," asked she, "may we hope for from this journey?" + +"It is not of me that you should ask that, Madame Bavoil." + +"Very true," said she, and clasping her hands she murmured,-- + +"It depends on Thee! Help him in his poverty, remember that he can do +nothing without Thine aid, Holy Temptress of men, Our Lady of the +Pillar, Virgin of the Crypt." + + +THE END. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Cathedral, by Joris-Karl Huysmans + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CATHEDRAL *** + +***** This file should be named 15067.txt or 15067.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/0/6/15067/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Cori Samuel and the PG Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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