The Story of Chartres

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n, near épernon, to Notre-Dame de Chartres. The deed

e de Chartres my Castle of Malmaison, which I have won with my sword, and

was a fitting symbol for the siècle de fer, that century of moral and

with his lords and the lord with the King. The result was similar in all cases. Usurpation of servile tenures accompanied that of liberal tenures, and, territorial appropriation having taken place in every rank of society, it was as difficult to dispossess a serf of his manse as a seigneur of his benefice. The serf, therefore, emerged from the condition of almost absolute slavery in which he was at the tim

in the course of the tenth and eleventh centuries. It was preserved only by the Church, the dioceses of which, up to the time of the Revolution, represented very nearly the ancient divisions of Gaul under the Romans. Before the days of C?sar it was into pagi that Gaul had be

harlemagne had been shared by seven counts-Chartres, Dreux, Chateaudun, Blois, Vend?me, Poissy and Mantes. But by Hugh Capet's time these had been reduced to three-Chartres, Blois and Dreux-and in the person of Thibault-le-Vieux or le Tricheu

, and gave it to his brother, Charles de Valois, whose

history of Chartres is connected with the dread name of Thibault-le-Tricheur, Theobald th

frau to Bury with a crowd of his reckless men of arms, bent, you may suppose, on some murderous foray. This turbulent spirit threw himself eagerly into the quarrel between Lothaire and Richard, Duke of Normandy, and took an active part in the cruel war that ensued. He invaded the Duke's territory, and, availing himself of

he proved victorious. He ravaged the country of his enemy, and sacked and burnt the town and church of Chartres. It is said that when Thibault, the hardened old Chasseur, came to the town-sa bonne ville de Chartres-he began to count one by on

e on which-coolly appropriating some territory which belonged to the Monastery of S. Père-Thibault built the castle and donjon of the Counts of Chartres. It was outside the then walls

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of the ancient palace most of the general assemblies of Chartres were held. It was here that for five centuries justice was administered, and it was in the chapel of the castle that th

the Counts, rising behind armed walls and portcullis; the stronghold of the bishops, secure within the buildings of the cloister, to which there was access only through guarded gates-such, for instance, as that facing the castle, of which you may

sing levies, waging wars and exacting tolls on merchandise. Sometimes they are in accord with the clergy; sometimes in opposition; and at one moment make large donations to the Church, at another rob it. To-day they fight for their King abroad and on their Crusades, while Viscounts represent them at home. To-morrow they are home again, fighting among themselves, or trying to throw off their allegiance to t

and they held their own successfully, not only, if need be, against the interference of thei

above all was an er

had been utterly demolished by the Normans. His nephew, Ragenfroi, succeeded him, and continued in the paths of his uncle. He was one of the greatest benefactors of S. Père, to which he added many buildings, and whither he brought twelve monks

tivated or not, vineyards, pasturage and prairies, with its forests and serfs of either sex, and the church which is dedicated to Saint Leu.' So runs the charter, and the object is 'that the brethren

g always from the point of view of S. Père) that several later bishops followed his example, and trod in the same path of sacrilege, wasting their own property and coveting that of others, plotting against the monks and harassing them, and even robbing them of much that the charity of the faithful had be

ssed Sigismund knew how to make good wine. And one day when Count Eudes of Chartres was about to dine, and his men were looking about for the best wine to be obtained, they heard that there was wine to be got for nothing in the cellar of the priest. Overjoyed at the news, they hastened there, and boldly entering the cellar filled their skins and carried them off to the hall. The good Sigismund retu

moned Sigismund to his presence and ordered the eyes of those who had stolen the wine to be gouged out and the wine to be restored to its owner. Sigismund, however, when he saw him so roused, would not leave his presen

in 995. He was succeeded by his son, Thibault II., and with him the struggle between the s

has left us an account of the matter, preserved and complet

ared as horrible as it was unprecedented. We answered, therefore, that we could not consent to their requests, for the appointment was not legal; and an ambitious schemer who had tried to secure the post of abbot before the abbot himself was dead could not be accepted. Magenard rode back in high dudgeon to the Count, and fanned the flames of the young man's wrath against us. Five days later Gislebert, the abbot, died. The members of the monastery met, and the question was put whether anyone supported the claim of Magenard. One by one the brethren answered no. A deputation

t approve of him, we do not want him, we do not consent; but we disapprove, ref

ive him provided that he did not bring the false abbot with him. The Count was enraged, but held his hand for one day. On the following day, however, with a noisy crowd of followers, he forced Magenard upon the Monastery of S. Père. At this violence the holy brethren, fearing to be contaminated

oreign bishop, in the absence of the clergy, amidst the indignation of the people, and in sp

the Chapel of S. Père. His gravestone, restored in the seventeenth century, at the time of the reconstruction of the abbey, is now to be found in the H?tel de Ville. Now, on the death of the Count, Raoul, the Dean of Notre-Dame, who had welcomed the monks of S. Père in their flight, was appointed bishop in his stead. The bitter feeling against Magenard, which had long been smouldering, now burst into flame. He was deprived of his pastoral

build their town, and they seized the opportunity of making their houses more substantial, and of enlarging their churches. Look at the tenth-century remains of Notre-Dame and S. Père, and judge how massive was

und it, enclosed with a strong circular wall, which was broken by three advanced chapels. This was intended to make the martyrium, as the depository of the treasure and the Veil, safe from all accidents. We shall see presently

see, an almost complete history of Christian architecture, it is necessary to form some idea

, and in breadth at least thirty, including the Chapel of Notre-Dame-de-Sous-Terre on the one side, and the sacristy on the south. But the nave

ounded by an ambulatory. There was a double transept: and it may be that we can trace it in the recesses which now form

been a belfry, and, seeing that the great square tower of the Abbey Church of S. Père was at that time being built, there probably was. Perhaps two such towers flanked the two extremities of the fa?ade. They would have had no spires, but a four-sided, pyramidal roof. Squat co

nning to speak. The walls may have been enriched with mosaics and paintings in accordance with the precepts of Charlemagne. Above the aisles may have run a triforium or gallery, set apart for the prayers of virgins and widows. If you look at the entrance of Vulphard's crypt you will see that the doorways were simple, and they offer a striking contrast to the porches of the twelfth and thirteenth

engaged for that purpose disappeared. The artists had retired to their cloister to await their last hour in prayer and fasting. For the en

d with an erroneous interpretation of the Apocalypse, led men to think that the reign of Antichrist and the end of the world

athing his property to the Abbey of S. Père, 'bears witness to the ap

reaking up of the Roman Empire, and Charlemagne's after it, the plague of S. Anthony's fire and the scourge of famine, these and a thousand others not less

AND HI

ation against the g

render thanks at the holy shrines. Pilgrims crowded to the sanctuary of Chartres to make their offerings to the Holy Veil and to acknowledge

afflicted with this painful plague. William of Mal

y was most extreme, he beheld a beautiful lady approach with an air of majesty, attended by a numerous suite. She bade him open his mouth, and the sick man obeyed. Thereupon the mysteriou

rops thereof with costly linen, left them to the Church of Chartres as relics, and as a token of the m

tity. An event was to happen shortly which brought out all the energ

his disaster occurred; but there was nothing in this holy temple that the fire did not consume.' Rouillard (1608) piously supposes that lightning was sent from heaven to destroy the ch

utiful than ever. So Angers, Poitiers, Beauvais, Cambrai, Rouen were rebuilt almost as soon as burnt, in the enthusiastic rivalry of the Christian builders of the day. 'Humanity,'

l parts of France to listen to the teachings of the French Socrates, and to receive from his eloquent lips the precepts of wisdom and the counsel of friendship. For his knowledge was immense and his learning encyclop?dic, ranging from the minutest details of the exact sciences to the most daring speculations of metaphysics. Fulbert, we are told, like a modern Plato, would often withdraw to a garden near the bishop's palace, watered by the clear stream (it was clear in those days), and there, surrounded by his chosen pupils, expound with mingled sweetness and force the tenets of philosophy and the doctrines of faith. 'The teacher of philosophers, the marvel of his age, the sun whose rays gav

new Cathedral, adopting, however, the general plan of the church left by his predecessor in order to make use of the enormous existing foundations.[38] The subterranean aspect of the old church, built about t

clergy and people of the diocese by holding special assemblies on the site of the proposed church, and by sermons which promised heavenly rewards

' the 'good King Robert,' in whom the histo

ty is upon us. Come then to our aid, O holy father; strengthen our weakness and

rchitecture' responded generously to thi

of the disaster,' he writes, 'which has befallen my church, I wish to make known my profound grief to all. In consequence I have co

Cathedral was a-building. 'Your marvellous and inexhaustible charity,' writes the bishop, 'is pleased to overwhelm me with many gift

storation of the principal church of his own county and town, but deeply was Fulbert touched by the receipt of a contribution from Cnut, King of Denmark and England, who, as Willia

Danish King, the bishop speaks of him in term

he grace of God, Bishop of Chartres, with his clerks an

ly with the things around you, but also with the things that touch us; at your religious spirit, in that you, of whom we had heard speak as a Pagan King, show yourself a very Christian and generous benefactor of the churche

onations from the great, and such the spiritual consolation

ishop's possessions, to aggrandise himself at the expense of the King and the Church. Fulbert could not prevail upon the monkish Robert to repress Godfrey by force. The spiritual arms which he himself used only roused the Count to take reprisals by plundering the episcopal farms. Eudes himself, who had assumed the title of Count Palatine, was too much occupied with his own ambitious schemes, and his opposition to King Robert and King Robert's successor, to have either

r as Chartres was concerned he had made many rich presents to the Cathedral and to the Monastery of S. Père. He

appointment of Theodoric, a creature of Queen Constance. Eudes, seizing the opportunity of opposing the royal will, declared that he would not admit the new bishop into his

six years. étienne, the younger, died; but Thibault, at the price of the county of Tours, was set free by Geoffrey of Anjou. Thibault was now Count of Chartres, Blois, Brie and Champagne, but as to the delimitations of their

that by September in the following year Fulbert could write 'we have finished our crypts, and' (this is the reason why he cannot accept the invitation of William of Aquitaine to be present at the solemn dedication of the Cathedral of Poitiers) 'we must devote all our energies to covering them before the inclemency of the winter damages them.' But in

ce a large round column on the Gallo-Roman wall, in order to strengthen the vaulted roof. On this c

vaulting, is to-day just as it was left then.' But the floor was pr

e by a double thickness, for it had to support not only the thr

enth century in the piers and the abaci. To S. Fulbert we may also attribute the construction of two sacristies for Notre-Dame-de-Sous-Terre,

of the former one, but the ground level of the whole was ra

ts were discovered which are supposed to have been the débris of the western fa?ade. There was a double ambulatory round the choir a

xisted in the same place, but o

edral was left in great pa

, Robert the Good, as he was copying a manuscript in the Church of M

le Sourd, the Chartrain pupil of Fulbert and leader of the sect of Nominalists in the battle of the schools, was responsible for the construction of the south gate and many other deta

g other proofs of his efficient labours, very magnificently completed the Church of Our Lady S. Mary, of which he himself had laid the foundations, and which, moreover,' he adds, 'doing everything he could

t Fulbert himself excelled them all in his compositions.[42] For amongst other beautiful canticles he composed, in collaboration, it is said, with King Robert, the famous responses of the Nativity of the Virgin, a feast which he, in

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se human flesh, it is said, was exposed for sale, and the bodies of the dead were dug up and eaten. The abundant harvest of 1034 put an end to this infliction, and men turned again to finish the decoration of God's house. It would seem, indeed, as if Theodoric turned this task to the purpos

dedication of the Cathedral by Theodoric took plac

. Père was written, 'Holy Virgin, he wished to raise to thee a te