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The Churches of Paris, from Clovis to Charles X
The picture of the Martyrdom of S. Eustache, hard by, is by Simon Vouet, and was the gift of Louis XIV. Sold during the Revolution, it was bought by Cardinal Fesch, at whose death it was purchased by M. Moret, for presentation to the church.
It will be seen that the outer wall of the church is oblique, and, consequently, that the first two chapels are not deep enough even to contain an altar. In 1849, when some repairs were going on, it was discovered that the chapels had all been painted and gilt, and duly smeared over, after the fashion of our forefathers, with sundry coats of whitewash. These being removed, enough of the original decoration remained to restore it to its former splendour, which was done under the superintendence of M. Baltard. The chapel of the Virgin was painted by M. Dénuel, the others by M. Séchaut, while the renewing of the sculpture was the work of MM. Gallois and Poignant.
The first chapel, called that of the City of Paris, being too shallow for an altar, has the following inscription engraved in golden letters upon a black marble slab: —
"L'an mil six cent trente sept, le vingt-sixième jour d'avril, deuxième dimanche d'après Pasques, cette église, ayant été rebastie de fonds en comble, a été de nouveau desdiée et consacrée avec le maistre autel d'icelle, à l'honneur de Dieu, soubs l'invocation de la bienheureuse Vierge Marie et des bienheureux martyrs sainct Eustache et saincte Agnès et de sainct Louis, confesseur, jadis roy de France, par révérendissime père en Dieu, messire Jean-François de Gondi, premier archevêque de Paris, conseiller du Roi en ses conseils, commandeur de ses ordres et grand maistre de chapelle de sa Majesté. Ce requérant, vénérable et discrète personne maistre Estienne Tonnelier, presbstre, docteur en théologie et curé de la dicte église, avec haut et puissant seigneur Mons. P. Séguier, chevalier, chancelier de France, M. Maistre Gratien Menardeau, conseiller du roi en la cour du Parlement, honorable Jean Bachelier et Charles Gourlin, marchands bourgeois de Paris, au nom et comme Marguilliers de l'œuvre et fabrique d'icelle église. Et a ledit sieur Archevêque donné indulgence en la forme ordinaire de l'église à tous ceulx et celles qui visiteront annuellement la dicte église, le deuxième dimanche d'après Pasques, jour et feste de la dédicace d'icelle."
This chapel is decorated with the arms of the city of Paris, the ship68; and upon each of the others will be found the arms of the founders.
The chapel of Calvary was founded by the Counts of Castille, and was originally dedicated to S. Peter. It contains a crucifix, souvenir of a mission preached in 1825, and was the burial-place of François and Nicolas de Castille, conseillers du roi, who died in 1630 and 1634 respectively. In the chapel of S. Cecilia may be seen a little fresco in a very good state of preservation, representing the titular Saint holding the sword of her martyrdom, and S. Leonard. Sold in 1604 to Claude de Montescot, treasurer des parties casuelles, it was originally known by the name of S. Claude. Buying a chapel seems to have been the custom; and we find that of the Holy Innocents costing 1,100 livres to the Chantereau-Lestang family. The fresco was painted in 1850 by M. Barre, and relates to S. Joseph, to whom the chapel was dedicated some twenty years ago. The sculptures are of the time of Louis XIII.
In the chapel Des Ames du Purgatoire, founded by the Gentian family in honour of the Holy Sepulchre, reliquaries may be seen containing a portion of the Sepulchre, and of the column upon which Our Lord was bound during the flagellation – so said Cardinal Patrizzi, who has authenticated the relics. More beautiful, and at least as authentic, are the frescoes by M. Margimel, representing the Descent into Hades. Moses and David are seen with other Old Testament worthies, the group of Adam and Eve with their children being particularly happy in its treatment. Below, of course, are purgatorial flames and a bruised serpent, with the inscription Ecce agnus Dei, qui tollit peccatum mundi. The opposite picture is less satisfactory, it is a conventional reading of the Eternal Father pitying the sufferings of the Son, who is attached to the pillar between weeping Angels. The elegant Renaissance re-table, and a statue by Chartrousse of a mother clasping a cross, with the text: Bienheureux ceux qui pleurent, parce qu'ils seront consolés, complete the contents of this chapel. The vaulting is very graceful, and is supported by corbels. The altar is a carved wood representation of Christ upon the Mount of Olives. The founder of this chapel or chantry was a descendant of Jean-Jacques Gentian, who saved the life of Philippe le Bel at the battle of Mons in 1304, for which act Gentian was allowed to incorporate the lilies into his arms. He died in 1305, and was buried on this spot in the old church; his descendant, a master merchant, was buried in the chapel in 1578.
It is curious to see how these chapels have changed names, and the why and wherefore. For instance, the first one in the chevet was consecrated in 1608 to the Three Kings, the original founder being Guillaume Morot, one of the king's councillors and contrôleur des finances. Then it passed into the hands of the Puysieux family. In 1780 it was called the chapel of S. John the Baptist, in memory of Jean-Baptiste Fleuriau, chevalier d'Armenonville, keeper of the seals, who died at Madrid, and was transported to S. Eustache for burial. Charles Fleuriau, count de Morville, a minister, was buried here in 1732. These d'Armenonvilles inhabited an hotel in the Rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau, which has been swallowed up by the post office. The hide merchants held the meetings of their guild in this chapel. In 1843 it was dedicated to the Sacred Heart, and is decorated by M. de Larivière to celebrate that article of faith, the four personages who accompany Our Lord being Pope Clement XIII., the zealous devotee of the Sacré Cœur; the blessed Marie-Marguerite Alacoque, of the order of the Visitation, and the discoverer of the miracle at Paray-le-Monial; the reverend father La Colombière, who defended the apparition against the unbelievers; and Monseigneur de Belzunce, bishop of Marseilles, who, in putting the city under the protection of the new dogma, saved it from the effects of a grievous pestilence, by causing the immediate retreat thereof to less favoured purlieus. In the next chapel we come upon more relics. The Rouillé family, and the Lecouteulx de Canteleu, founded it, and dedicated it to S. Margaret; but after the Revolution, S. Joseph was called in as patron, and as S. Agnes required a special altar, this was once more changed in name, and made over to her good protection in 1850. Or possibly the acquisition of her relics required a resting-place fitted specially for them. They consist of three fingers of the Saint from the abbey of S. Corentin, near Septeuil, and a pretty large portion of one of her ribs from the cemetery of S. Priscilla at Rome, given by Marie-Félix des Ursins, Duchesse de Montmorency, Supérieure de la Visitation de Moulins. The picture over the altar is attributed to Titian or Giordano; the modern frescoes are by M. Vauchelet: the Martyrdom of S. Agnes, in which one executioner is thrown down by the rush of flames, while the other, avenging himself upon the innocent victim, cleaves her head asunder with a sword.
When Archbishop Sibour verified the relics of S. Anne, in 1853, a chapel was dedicated to her, displacing Notre-Dame de Pitié, S. Adrien, S. Hubert, and S. Jacques. One would imagine, that is, the blasphemer might imagine, that saints would not take it well when they are deposed and supplanted, but possibly, being in higher realms than ours, they see the insignificance of such proceedings. The frescoes are by Lazerges.
It was in the west chapel, that of the Holy Angels, that the 17th century mural paintings were discovered. So completely were they enveloped in whitewash, that they escaped the vandalism of the last century. The Duval family founded the chantry. They seem to have had various posts under the government. Nicolas was a councillor in 1542; Jérôme in 1543; Jean was a receiver of taxes and the payer of members of Parliament, besides being a councillor in 1584; another Nicolas was councillor in 1585; Tristan was lord of Fontenay; François, ambassador at Rome; and Catherine's husband, Christophe Harlay, was Seigneur de Beaumont, président of the parliament, and father of the président Harlay. The fresco representing the Triumph of S. Michael over the revolting Angels is by M. Cornu. Above the altar is another fresco of Christ in Glory, with S. Lucretia and S. Radegonde, queen of France, and afterwards a nun at Poitiers, kneeling at His feet. The Saints appear with the donors, aforesaid, clad respectively as chevalier, priest, and bourgeois. Here were buried Marguerite Duval, Jean Lesecq, and a Seigneur de Bridevalles, Nicolas Lesecq, who was the king's chafe-wax, and sealer of the chancellery, and who, worthy man, left twelve sous to the organist, and three to the bellows blower. Françoise-Madeleine Lesecq, who lived in the Hôtel de Gesvres, Rue Coq-Héron, since incorporated into the Caisse d'Epargne, was also buried here.
Formerly, before Louis XIV. admitted them to the Louvre, the Guild of Painters and Sculptors held its meetings in the Rue Trainée, and its fêtes and funeral masses in the chapel of S. André in S. Eustache; in consequence of which the king, to do honour to the Academy, allowed its rector, Antoine Coysevox, to add the royal lily to his arms, and to place them in this chapel, thus honouring Coysevox at the same time as his fellow sculptors and painters. The guild was founded by Lebrun, and held its meetings at the Sieur Martin de Charmois' house. This Seigneur de Lauré was secretary to Marshal Schomberg; and full of zeal for art and artists, was the author of the scheme of a guild. Signed by Lebrun, Sarazin, Perrier, Bourdon, de la Hire Corneille, Juste d'Egmont, Vanolstat, Hause, de Guernier, Errard, Van-Mol, Guillier, and Eustace Lesueur, the petition was presented to the king, and supported by chancellor Séguier and de la Veillière, it obtained the royal assent. Like our later foundation, the Academy made several moves before it was finally settled. First in Charmois' house, it migrated to the Hôtel Clisson, Rue des Deux-Boules, where it held its meetings until the squabbles of the rival artists subsided, and accommodation was found for the members at the Louvre. Most appropriately, the decoration of this chapel was given in 1850 to Isidore Pils, one of the great painters of the latter part of this century, so well known by his Battle of the Alma, the Mort d'une Sœur de Charité, and La Prière à l'Hospice. The subjects are from the life and death of the titular saint, Andrew; on one side, his crucifixion upon the transverse cross which bears his name; upon the other, Angels bearing him to heaven. In the latter, a more delicious little group of children, soi-disant Angels, has rarely been painted, even by that master of chubby and graceful babies, Prud'hon. Pils, says M. l'abbé Koeneg69 loved children, and he certainly painted them as none but a lover of childhood could have done. The chapel Richelieu was founded by the great cardinal, and is the burial place of the Vrillière family, whose hotel is now the Banque de France. The door close by is called the Porte de la Miséricorde by reason of its paintings, which represent the Seven Works of Mercy. They are by M. Biennourry.
The Chapelle des Catéchismes is a very ancient foundation, having been erected in the old church by Louis d'Orléans, the brother of Charles VI., in honour of S. Michael. Two centuries later, the Orléans family sold it to Président Forget, and a chapel was built out of it to serve, first as a sacristy, and then as a room for confraternities to hold their meetings in. The staircase is very elegant, with its handsome wrought-iron grille and balustrade of the time of Louis XVI. The chapel seems to be used now as a boys' vestry, and the effect of the acolytes in their red cassocks and white albs passing up or down this beautiful flight of steps is picturesque in the extreme. S. Eustache is one of the few churches in Paris which has not adopted the Roman use as regards the dress of the acolytes, who still wear the long alb plaited or trimmed with lace, and the sash, red, white, or pale blue, according to the season. Years ago, before the Parisian rite was superseded by the Roman, there were many little differences in the ritual; to wit, the two precentors sitting near the chancel grille, vested in copes, and at certain times during mass marching up and down the choir. Then again, on great festivals, six men holding censers stood in a row, and throwing them up, knelt upon one knee to catch them. The effect of this during Benediction was grand in the extreme; the Roman practice of two boys gently swinging the censers bearing no comparison to the Parisian. The Lady chapel, known as Notre-Dame de Bon-Secours, served in the 17th century as the assembling place of various charitable societies, and notably of the Société de Bons-Secours, which was so much patronised by the noblesse and the rich tradespeople. The chapel is in the same style as the side ones, and is a mass of colour, the decorations being by M. Dénuel. The frescoes were originally undertaken by Ary Scheffer, who, perhaps fortunately for posterity, was so long working out his subject that he gave the matter up, Couture taking his place. But great artist as he was, Couture was hardly the man to decorate a church; his work and his sympathies were so eminently Classic in style, that it is difficult to feel that his paintings illustrate pages of Gospel history and legendary lore. There is no more religious sentiment in Couture's work than in the Eclectic decadence of Italy, or the 18th century French school. Many persons object to our latest group of religious painters; but the feeling expressed in the pictures of M. Lhermitte, of Bastien-Lepage, of Mr. C. Pierce, of M. Dagnan-Bouveret, and even in M. Béraud's Crucifixion, to say nothing of Herr Uhde's work, is far more religious than in many, one might almost say, in most of the frescoes and pictures by modern artists in the various churches. Sentimentality is not religious sentiment, and cast-up eyes do not necessarily express devotion. Again, the light is so bad in this chapel that it is very difficult to judge of Couture's work, even from the æsthetic point of view; and therefore we cannot think this picture equal to the grand Romains de la Décadence in the Louvre. The altar is a handsome specimen of the reign of Louis XIII., but the statue which surmounts it, by Pigalle, has the usual sentimental character of 18th century sculpture. A plaque informs the faithful that it was blessed by Pius VII. in 1804; but, unfortunately, a pope's blessing will not turn a piece of marble into a fine work of art.
The chapel of S. Louis de Gonzague was the property of the Colbert family, and contains the tomb of the great minister. The monument was executed from a design by Lebrun, and, although of the usual type of that period, it is not without a certain grandeur. A black marble sarcophagus supports the kneeling figure of Colbert, arrayed in the robes of the order of the Saint-Esprit. The hands, joined in prayer, are exquisitely modelled. The expression of the face is fine, and the flow of the draperies is well executed. At the foot of the monument are figures of Religion by Tubi and Abundance by Coysevox; the latter a good example of the sculptor's style. This was one of the monuments saved from the Vandal mob in 1792, by Lenoir, who marched it off to the museum of the Petits-Augustins, where it remained until 1801, when it was returned to S. Eustache.
More relics are to be seen in the next chapel, those of S. Pierre l'Exorciste, a saint who suffered in the neighbourhood of Rome, having obligingly dug his own grave previously to being beheaded. The authenticity of the relics are vouched for by the sign manual of Cardinal Caprara. One requires faith to believe in the authenticity of these, or any other relics; not that one doubts their preservation by loving hands after the martyrdoms, but there is a great gulf of time which is not easily bridged over. Take, for instance, the relic of the True Cross kept at Notre-Dame. It is not at all improbable that the cross might have been preserved by the friends of Our Lord; and the same remark applies to many of the other relics with which S. Louis and others adorned the Sainte-Chapelle – the Spear, the Handcuffs, the Crown of Thorns, even the linen stained by the precious blood. That the Apostles, or S. Joseph of Arimathea, or Nicodemus, or S. Mary and her sister Martha, would have done their best to gain possession of these relics of their dear Master, is not only possible, but probable. We are all relic-mongers at heart; our forefathers gathered together the remains of saints and martyrs; we ourselves keep locks and curls of hair, babies' teeth, bits of clothing, rings, and photographs. Where is the difference? If the lost first-born's only tooth is precious to its mother, why should not S. Holocaustus' toe-nail be equally so to those who live in the Saint's parish or commune? We have Charles I.'s hair, and Queen Elizabeth's stockings; and there is no reason why a thousand years hence they should not still be in their cases. But if a great upheavement took place, such as the siege of Jerusalem, or the first French Revolution, the saving of such relics would be difficult, although not by any means impossible. Take the finding of the True Cross by S. Helena early in the 4th century. If this be true, it is by no means impossible that it was preserved up to the time of S. Louis. Nor is it impossible that someone connected with the church of S. Denis should have secreted the relic before the desecration of the tombs in 1793. Rumours precede acts; and having a valuable relic, why not hide it away when dangers lurk in the distance? But if so, why did not this person preserve the vessels in which the relics were kept? Why not have buried all those costly chalices, crosses and reliquaries? Why have left them to be seized upon by profane hands and melted up, if there were time to save their contents? But the chief difficulty is to account reasonably for the gap between the Crucifixion and the finding of the Cross; and it requires such a long bridge of faith to traverse this space of three hundred years that one feels reluctantly obliged to take the "Invention" of the Cross in its most literal sense.
The arms over the chapel of the Sainte-Madeleine are those of France barré, commemorating the foundation (in the old church) by Charles, Comte de Valois, duc d'Angoulême, a natural son of Charles IX., that most excellent Christian king and zealous son of the Church, who persecuted and slaughtered heretics for the good of their souls, thereby converting them (in the next world) from the error of their ways, and so covering his own multitudinous sins and wickednesses. There is a handsome confessional of carved wood, period Louis XV., in this chapel; and in the next, the relics of S. Vincent de Paul are enclosed in a fine Louis XIV. châsse. Lest any reader doubts the correctness of my translation, let me give the list of these relics in the original. "Les reliques de St. Vincent de Paul se composent d'une image teinte du sang du saint prêtre retrouvée légèrement coagulé quand on a ouvert son tombeau, de deux médailles formées de sa chair et de ses os mis en pâte, d'une parcelle de sa chair, de fragments de son suaire, de la soutane qu'il portait de son vivant, de la soutane dont il a été retrouvé vêtu dans sa bière, enfin d'un morceau de cette bière. Le tout est muni du cachet de la Mission et accompagné de quatres authentiques signés par MM. les supérieurs de Saint-Lazare." This and the S. Madeleine are the oldest of the chapels, and are both architecturally fine, with wrought-iron grilles of elegant and cunning workmanship. The paintings (1634), attributed to Simon Vouët or his Italian pupils, represent scenes in the life of S. Anne, to whom the chapel was originally dedicated by Anne de Monsigot, dame de Bourlon, who may be seen humbly sitting upon the stairs of the temple, with her two children standing by her side; while above, the high priest Zachariah is receiving the Blessed Virgin, who is presented by her mother and father. Very beautiful are the Angels bearing the instruments of the Passion, which are painted upon the eight compartments of the ceiling.
The founder of the chapel of S. Geneviève was one Jehan Brice, a merchant, whose desire that it should be richly decorated was carried out by the widow, Guillemette de l'Arche, in 1546, who is said to have been the heroine of a tale, which has been made familiar to us through the Italian opera of La Gazza Ladra. It appears that an old MS. in the possession of M. Boblet gives the list of foundation masses in the parish, and amongst them is one entitled La Pie Voleuse, which was said daily for the poor servant unjustly accused of stealing the spoon, found later on in the roof of the church. But the unwonted hour fixed for the mass, 4 a.m., and the name thereof, seem rather to point to the magpie than to the maid. May not the mass have been for the thief rather than for the innocent damsel? And was it not made thus early to assure the attendance of all the feathered tribes (who are wont to rise betimes), and to be unto them at once a warning and a duty paid to their cousin-german, the mean and wicked magpie? A Tobias and the Angel, by Santi di Tito, belonging originally to Louis XV., and ascribed to Andrea del Sarto, is of a certain interest. The frescoes, taken from the life of S. Louis in the chapel bearing his name, are amongst the best in the church. M. Barrias has thrown much grandeur into his subject, S. Louis carrying the Crown of Thorns to the Sainte-Chapelle; but no one has so thoroughly depicted the ascetic beauty of the King, his true piety and unflinching faith, as M. Olivier-Merson in the wall-paintings of the corridor of the Cour de Cassation, in the Palais de Justice. In all the works of the latter painter the truest religious sentiment is invariably to be found; and if he errs upon the side of ugliness, is it not an infinitely smaller fault than the sentimental upturned eyes and radiant beauty of the German religious painters of the Cornelius and Hesse schools?
The tribune over the sacristy door was put up by the Duchesse d'Orléans, Adélaïde, the mother of Louis Philippe, in 1778, that she might enjoy privacy when she was present at the offices. It is a noble example of the finished style of Louis XVI.
Amongst the treasures of S. Eustache are an ivory crucifix in the sacristy: a bone of the patron Saint, from the cemetery of S. Priscilla, given in 1660 by Pope Alexander VII. to Sieur Chauvin; a tooth, formerly in the church of S. Jacques-l'Hôpital; and some bones of S. Eustache and his wife and children, said to have been formerly amongst the treasures of S. Denis; but I find no record of them in Dom Millet. The frescoes in the chapel of the patron Saint were painted by M. le Hénaff, in imitation of those found in the catacombs of Rome, the painter having copied the incorrect drawing as well as the fervent feeling of the early painters.
One or two more pictures by Vouët may be seen; and in the chapel of the Redemption are the frescoes of M. Glaize, one of the few painters who seems to have understood the spirit in which a church should be decorated.
S. Eustache was a royal parish up to the great crash at the end of the last century; its domain extended from the Chaussée des Gaillons to the Rue S. Denis, and being in the centre of the great world, it was very fashionable. Hard by were the royal palaces, and the new and "magnifique bastiment de l'hostel royal dit des Tuileries lez Paris, pour ce qu'il y avoit anciennement une tuilerie audict lieu," the chef-d'œuvre of Philibert Delorme, built by order of Catherine de' Medici to outrival the Château d'Anet, erected by the same great artist for the irregular queen, the lovely Diane. Not far from the Place Royale, and in the centre of a nest of hotels belonging to great and noble personages, S. Eustache became the praying-place of the living and the burial-place of the defunct notabilities. The great ministers of Henri III., Louis XIII., and Louis XIV. lived in the parish: the Duc d'Epernon, in the Rue Platrière (now Jean-Jacques-Rousseau, by reason of the sage having occupied the 4th étage of No. 49, in the year 1770); Cardinal Richelieu, in the Rue St. – Honoré, au Palais-Cardinal, otherwise the modern tourist's hunting-ground, the Palais-Royal; and Mazarin, the Rue Neuve-des-Petits-Champs. The curés were naturally much in vogue as confessors and directors to these high personages and their swarms of followers and appendages – men and women. One of the rectors, preaching in 1537, before the King (François I.), the Cardinal de Lorraine, brother of the Duc de Guise, the Cardinal de Tournon, and ladies and gentlemen of the court, seems to have been shaky in his theology, according to some of his hearers, but estonnant de vérité, quoth others. Even the royal mind itself was unquiet for several days, but upon persuasion by the Cardinals it became reassured.