Architectural Antiquities of Normandy

PLATE XCIX. AND C.

CATHEDRAL CHURCH AT SÉEZ.

The favorers of this opinion have brought Séez within the limits of the Otlingua Saxonia, a district in Normandy, whose situation and extent has been the subject of much literary controversy. The learned Huet, alluding to this very point,[220] observes, with great justice, that “it is more easy to tell what is not, than what is; and that, though the limits of bishoprics serve in general to mark the divisions of the ancient Gallic tribes, yet length of time has introduced many alterations. Able men,” he adds, “have been of opinion, that Hiesmes was originally an episcopal see, and that its diocese was afterwards dismembered into three archdeaconries; one of them fixed at Séez, a second at Lisieux, and a third at Bayeux.” Such, however, he says, is not his own belief; but he thinks that Hiesmes was originally the seat of the bishopric of Séez. A report to the same effect will be found in the Concilia Normannica; and it is adopted by Rouault,[221] who argues in its favor; first, that Séez was too insignificant, at the time of the preaching of the gospel in Neustria, to be dignified with the presence of a bishop; the apostles and earliest popes having directed that bishops should only be appointed to considerable towns: and, secondly, that Hiesmes was really then a place of importance, and probably continued so till the nineteenth year of the reign of King Henry I. of England, when that prince destroyed it, as a punishment upon the inhabitants for their revolt.

Ecclesiastical history refers the establishment of the bishopric of Séez to the fourth or fifth century. The earliest, however, of the prelates, of whom any certain mention is to be found, is Litaredus, whose name appears, under the title of Oximensis Episcopus, subscribed to the council of Orleans in 511. Azo, who succeeded to the mitre in one of the last years of the tenth century, erected the first cathedral that is upon record at Séez. William of Jumieges relates of him, that he destroyed the walls of the city, and with their stones built a church in honor of St. Gervais, the martyr, “ubi sedes episcopalis longo post tempore fuerat.” The same author tells that, in consequence of this church having been turned into a place of refuge by some rebels, about fifty years afterwards, Ivo, the third from Azo upon the episcopal throne, set fire to the adjoining houses for the purpose of dislodging them, and the church fell a victim to the flames. The act, though unintentional, brought upon the prelate a severe reprimand from the pope; and Ivo, to repair his fault, undertook a journey to his relatives and friends in Apulia and Constantinople, whence he returned, loaded with rich presents, by the aid of which he undertook the erection of a new church upon so large a scale, that “his successors, Robert, Gerard, and Serlo, were unable to complete it in fifty years.” The cathedral then raised is said to be the same as is now standing; and, according to what has already been recorded of the cathedrals of Lisieux and Coutances, there is nothing in its architecture to discredit such an opinion. The first stone was laid about the year 1053: the dedication took place in 1126. Godfrey, archbishop of Rouen, performed the ceremony in the presence of Henry, then duke, who, at the same time, endowed the church with an annual income of ten pounds.

The diocese of Séez is surrounded by those of Lisieux, Evreux, Mans, and Bayeux. According to De Masseville,[222] it extended, before the revolution, twenty-five leagues in length, and from eight to ten in width, comprising the districts of le Houme, les Marches, and a part of le Perche. The towns of Séez, Alençon, Argentan, Falaise, Hiesmes, Mortagne, and Bellême, together with several smaller towns, and five hundred villages, were also included in its limits; as were five archdeaconries, six rural deaneries, and many abbeys and other religious houses. The episcopal revenue was estimated at only ten thousand livres. The late concordat, by reducing the number of the Norman dioceses, has of course added to the extent of those that remained.

Seven of the early bishops of Séez are inscribed among the saints of the Roman calendar: in later times, no names appear of greater eminence than those of Frogerius and John de Bertaut. The first of these prelates was much in the confidence of Henry II. to whom he rendered acceptable service in his unfortunate disputes with Thomas-à-Becket. He was not only one of the very few bishops who then preserved their fidelity to their sovereign inviolate, but he undertook a mission to the French king, for the purpose of remonstrating upon the favorable reception given to the primate, on which occasion he received the following memorable answer:—“Tell your master, that if he cannot submit to the abolition of the ordinances, which he designates as the customs of his ancestors, because he thinks it would compromise the dignity of his crown, although, as it is reported, they are but little conformable to the will of God, still less can I consent to sacrifice a right that has always been enjoyed by the kings of France. I mean the right of giving shelter to all persons in affliction, but principally to those who are exiled for justice sake, and of affording them, during their persecution, all manner of protection and assistance.”—John de Bertaut lived in the beginning of the seventeenth century: he was principal almoner to Mary de Medicis, and was afterwards in high favor with Henry IV. to whose conversion he is said to have mainly contributed. He likewise distinguished himself as a poet.—A third bishop of Séez, Serlo, already mentioned, was a man of such commanding eloquence, that, when he had the honor of preaching before Henry I. and his court, at Carentan, in 1106, he declaimed with so much effect against the effeminate custom of wearing long beards and long hair, that the sovereign declared himself a convert, and the bishop, “extractis e manticâ forcipibus, primo regem tum cæteros optimates attondit.”[223]

Severe simplicity characterizes Lisieux: Coutances is distinguished by elegance, abounding in decoration: Séez, at the same time that it unites the excellencies of both, can rival neither in those which are peculiarly its own. On the first view of the church, its mean and insignificant western tower strikes the spectator with an unfavorable impression, which, on a nearer approach, the mutilated and encumbered state of the western front is by no means calculated to remove. And yet this western front, all degraded as it is, cannot fail to derive importance from the great depth of the central door-way, which is no less than forty-seven feet,[224] a projection exceeding that of the galilee of Peterborough cathedral. It is in the interior that the beauty of the church of Séez is conspicuous. The noble lofty arches below; the moresque ornament, like those at Bayeux and at Coutances, in the spandrils; the double lancet arches of the triforium placed in triplets; and the larger pointed arches above, arranged two or three together, and encircled with arches of the Norman form, though not of the Norman style;—all these beauties, added to the enrichments of the sculptured walls and windows of the aisles, render the cathedral, if not the first of Norman religious buildings, at least in the number of those of the first class,

“Extremi primorum, extremis usque priores.”

THE END.

LEICESTER:

PRINTED BY THOMAS COMBE, JUNIOR.

INDEX OF PLATES.

•  NO. OF PLATE.
• Andelys, Great House 15
• Anisy, Church 67
• Arques, Castle 1
• Bieville, Church 58, 59
• Bocherville, St. Georges de, Church 5-11
• Briquebec, Castle 70
• Caen, Abbey Church of the Holy Trinity 24-33
• —— Abbey Church of St. Stephen 21-23
• —— Chapel in the Castle 48
• —— Church of St. Nicholas 55, 56
• —— Church of St. Michel de Vaucelles 18, 19
• —— House in the Rue St. Jean 65
• Cerisy, Abbey Church 97
• Château Gaillard 80, 81
• Cheux, Church 57
• Colomby, Church 47
• Coutances, Cathedral 92-94
• Creully, Church 91
• Dieppe, Castle 34
• —— Church of St. Jacques 35, 36
• Eu, Screen in the Church of St. Lawrence 72
• Falaise, Castle 89, 90
• Fécamp, Church of St. Stephen 71
• Fontaine-le-Henri, Château 62, 63
• —————— Church 60, 61
• Foullebec, Western door-way of Church 84
• Gournay, Church of St. Hildebert 38-41
• Grâville, Church 12
• Haute Allemagne, Tower of Church 37
• Jumieges, Abbey Church 2-4
• Léry, Church 44-46
• Lillebonne, Castle 69
• Lisieux, Church of St. Peter 73-75
• Louviers, South porch of Church 79
• Matilda, Queen, Tombstone of 33*
• Montivilliers, Abbey Church 82
• Mount St. Michael 95, 96
• Oyestraham, Church 98
• Perriers, Church 68
• Rouen, Cathedral 49-52
• —— Chapel in the Hospital of St. Julien 42, 43
• —— Church of St. Ouen 76
• —— Church of St. Paul 54
• —— Crypt in the Church of St. Gervais 53
• —— Fountain of the Stone Cross 77
• —— House in the Place de la Pucelle 64
• —— Palace of Justice 78
• St. Lo, Church of the Holy Cross 87, 88
• St. Sanson sur Rille, Ruins of the Church 83
• St. Sauveur le Vicomte, Abbey Church 14
• ———————— Castle13
• Séez, Cathedral 99, 100
• Tamerville, Church 17
• Tancarville, Castle 85, 86
• Than, Church 16
• Tréport, Church 66
• William the Conqueror, Statue of 20